The “Funkinevil” project is the collaboration between Detroit’s Kyle Hall and London producer Funkineven. Raw funk recorded to reel to reel, featuring a keyboard solo from Underground Resistance player Jon Dixon.
001.Features
Rio Padice – A Vision Of Dream [HUDD038]
Rio Padice makes a return to Hudd Traxx with a sublime assortment of deep grooved gems in the shape of ‘A Vison Of A Dream’ EP. The first track ‘Guabonito’ sets the tone with a selection of spacey synths and a BPM that teeters just on the right side of chilled with a riff that sounds just like sunshine. Following it ‘Sunset on Bolsena Lake’ maintains the tempo on the lower side of the scale but with a hook-y bassline that will ensure all eyes are down on the dancefloor. ‘The Pains of Sleep’ then changes pace, bringing you back into club-stomp territory yet still maintaining that swirling deepness we all know and love at Hudd Traxx…finally to round things off there are trippy grooves and thumping beats in the form of ‘Xanadu’.
Spike – New Germany [CHANNEL022]
Golf Channel dip into the groundbreaking work of Spike once again. This time the title track from his 1983 New Germany LP takes up the A Side, a filmic, taught drum machine and string piece. On the flip, DJ NATURE steps up again to deliver a great rework, taking a pop at punk-funk.
Tommy Finger Jr. – Deeptroit EP [LP002]
VA – Workshop 15 [WORKSHOP015]
Jefferson Velazquez – Circling The Matter EP [TER005]
Jefferson Velazquez remembering his Chicago days with some straight no chaser tracks. Heavy bass and synth action.
Deep Space Orchestra – Mongolian Nights [QUINTESSE029]
The second Deep Space Orchestra (Si Murray and Chris Barker) EP for Quintessentials is some raw and analogue business topped with the DSO funk. Wolf Music hot shot KRL adds some piano and old school power on his remix and we must admit we’re delighted.
Bicep vs – You / Don’t Ep [AUS1239]
Aus Music presents a new release by London-based, Belfast-born blogger-production duo Matt McBriar and Andy Ferguson aka Bicep. They’ve released one absolutely killer track after another, snaking through everything from deep disco edits to moody two-step to classic New Jersey House vibes with incredible ease, on some of the most exciting labels out there.
Jacob Korn – You & Me [UVLP001]
‘You & Me’ turned out to be an amazingly fresh and versatile album, and in good old Uncanny Valley tradition, a highly collaborative affair that goes far beyond the deep house description, making it very well fit for both home listening and dancefloors worldwide. A track like the dark and dirty ‘Heteronomous’ with Uncanny Valley fellow Sneaker lines up alongside the bright and sunny anthem ‘Punta Del Este’ together with Belgiums San Soda. Artists like Christopher Rau or Mr Raoul K add their trademark sounds but there is always that specific approach of Jacob Korn that connects the tracks.
Norm Talley – The Westside Project [VP003]
Number three on the french label Vibes & Pepper comes from Norm Talley and is called the The Westside Project. Lead track “Do What You Like” deftly weaves in some expert Voodoo Ray sampleage amidst a permanently punchy groove whilst “Greenfield Groove” has Talley in looser rhythmic mood, with busy percussion driving through a thick swamp of vocal pressure and ever twisting piano riffs. B Side hugger “Grove Street Shuffle” was originally featured on the producer’s 1997 release for City Boy.
VA – Raw Mode EP [COLOMBAGE002]
Solid tech tracks by Reno Wurzbacher, Mike Dehnert and Roman Lindau on tyhe second Colombage release, the more house-oriented sub division of Fachwerk records.
Juniper / Arnaldo – We Met In Manchester [SMALLVILLE030]
Smallville reach out to Manchester, welcoming Meandyou residents Juniper and Arnaldo into the fold with the excellent four tracker We Met In Manchester. “Quiet Moon” sets the tone, a blissful arrangement that gently coaxes itself into action and swerves delightfully when in full rhythmic flight. In contrast “Selenic” is a dreamier proposition with swirling melodic textures lying deep in the mix as Mumberson and Holt shift the rhythms in and out of focus. Arnaldo is in similarly reflective fashion with “A Song Name Of One Word” which momentarily pauses on some wonderfully chiming chords before a voice appears from the depths to drive the track on.
Larry Heard – Black Oceans / Endless Flight [BM012]
Split release from the Black Market archives with tracks by Larry Heard and The It (with a main role for Larry Heard too). Two amazing tracks which actually 20-25 years later still sounds more futuristic as many releases nowadays. Spaced out jazzy keys on the mind blowing Black Oceans with trademark Larry Heard melodies. Flip side takes things to the darker chicago jack territories with the great Endless flight track by The It. This is one of their overlooked and more obscure tracks.
Jay Bliss – Pluto [VIS226]
Romanian Jay Bliss makes his debut on 20:20 Vision Recordings with ‘Pluto’, in his style sitting somewhere between house and techno, with strong Detroit roots. ‘Pluto’ it’s a smooth and crisp tech house roller that recalls classic 2020 releases gone. On the flip, Skudge gives their own take on ‘Pluto’, a different beast to the original, all stuttering percussion and menacing strings, a perfect counterbalance to the original version.
A Made Up Sound – Archive II [CBS013]
New Clone Basement Series (lucky number 013!) with the long awaited return of A Made Up Sound (aka 2562), following up on his Archive EP/CBS02. Written as a counterbalance to the more experimental releases on his own AMUS label series, Archive II finally unleashes what’s possibly his most banging, straight-forward club material to date, while retaining the trademark A Made Up Sound funk and swing. “Hang-Up” is all about the irresistible Herbie-injected groove, cut-up and layered to great effect, whereas things get darker and bass-heavier with technotrack “Sweetback” on the flip. Keeping the tension high till a drop towards the end, seven minutes never seemed so short.
Developer & Stavislav Tolkachev – Part Two [MODULARZ008.2]
The second installment in Developer’s July emissions. “Dirty Drive” sees Developer stretching to work a melody into his machinery, coming out with a metallic dub chord drowning in its own echo, while “Dirty Drive 2” adds some complexity to the musicality and creates an utterly engrossing hook in the process. Shifted’s remix keeps a careful distance between the clean beat and the murky textures of the dubby elements, but for a real lesson in refined techno composition head straight to Stanislav Tokachev’s “Building Peaks”. Simplicity doesn’t come more captivating than that synth line.
Developer & Truncate – Part One [MODULARZ008.1]
With his Modularz label becoming a firm bastion of unfiltered techno machinations, Developer sets about bombarding our senses with his productions and curations across two vinyl releases this month. For the first part, his own “Heated” rattles through an industrial landscape devoid of colour, instead populated by reverb decays and distant clangs of metal. The rest of the record is handed over to Truncate, whose “Diffraction” flips the script with a central melodic hook and a thoroughly austere beat. Jonas Kopp’s remix beefs up that same theme by doubling up the phrase and edging towards a peak time monster, while Markus Suckut takes things deeper and into a more house compatible realm.
Polar Inertia – The Last Vehicle EP [DM3D003]
Amazing release by Polar Inertia, who already gave a glimpse of their techno brilliance on Dement3d 002, but with ‘The Last Vehicle’ it seems their craftmanship has come to full growth. This third release on Dement3d is once again formed of three different tracks, high in contrasts and emotions. Industrial but groovy, raw yet hypnotising deep techno that will create a stir in basements and warehouses worldwide.
Planetary Assault Systems – Function 4 Remixes Episode 2 [MOTE030]
Mote Evolver return with another salvo of reworks from Planetary Assault Systems’ seminal record ‘Function 4’, originally released on the influential Peacefrog label in 2000. Marcel Dettmann returns with a “Base dub” remix which is a more stripped back affair than his more full bodied first attempt, concentrating instead on subtle rhythmic nuances. Lucy provides two remixes – one utilising a minimal breakbeat over shrill pads, and one that piles on the atmosphere with its swathes of reverb. And Shifted rounds it up with his slickly executed revision, with a rolling rhythm that’s packed densely around abstract tones.
Unknown – Manzel 2 [MANZEL002]
The Manzel series continues with the catalog no. 002 on this unknown imprint running by a mysterious techno artist from so far away.
