New collaborative project from Belgian duo FCL, San Soda and Red D, joining the omnipresent Danilo of Motor City Drum Ensemble for some seriously raw, stripped back and undiluted house music.
001.Features
Christopher Rau & Tilman Tausendfreund – Pea Gravel EP [HYPE021]
Christopher Rau teamings up with Tilman Tausendfreund for the new release on Hypercolour. The pair turns in one effort each, plus two collaborative tracks on their Pea Gravel EP.
Jon McMillion – Saw You Looking (Remixes) [NEK002]
Four tracks from Jon McMillion’s wonderful eponymous LP get the remix treatment here on Seattle imprint Nuearth Kitchen. San Proper drops remixes of “Saw You Looking” and “Solette Simms”, with the fat chords and claps of the latter proving to be the highlight, although both efforts are worthy of many, many repeat listens. Elsewhere Ukrainian producer Vakula pops up to turn “Climbing Out” into a glacially paced jam replete with cosy pads and Motor City atmospherics. Amsterdam based duo Juju & Jordash turn in a moody analogue refix of “Love Of Parking” to round off an essential 12″.
Lady Blacktronika – The Ghost Spell According To [SB003]
The third release on Sound Black Recordings, featuring some deep sounds from Lady Blacktronika. The EP includes also a Fred P remix!
O1O aka Aybee – Futurespective [FUR039]
Aybee shows his other side with the 7 short tracks on this EP. While the aural palette is similar to his 4 to the floor work, the beats here leaning more to the hip hop side. Funky & deep, the way you’d expect, but with a twist.
VA – The SYNTH Remixes [SOL002]
Mike Huckaby lets loose on Vladislav Delay and Pole on this excellent 12″ for Slice Of Life. Huckaby’s S Y N T H remix of “Keno” was a considered highlight of Remasters & Remakes, Halo Cyan’s exhaustive remix project of Delay’s SISTOL recordings from the late 90s. Released only on the Double CD and as download, it was begging for a vinyl release, and thanks to Slice of Life that is now possible. One long, bubbling Motor City groove primed for the early hours of a sweaty basement, it is complemented by Huckaby’s equally fine revision of Pole’s “Silberfisch”, all driving sub bass intricacies and tightly wound metallic percussive grooves.
VA – Orgelvärk 2LP [MW033]
Minimal Wave proudly presents a newly remastered vinyl edition of the cult Swedish cassette compilation Orgelvärk, subtitled “en stadig samling Svensk synthmusik” – “a solid collection of Swedish synth music”. Orgelvärk is a compilation of Swedish synthpop, experimental and industrial music representative of the underground tape scene that thrived there in the 1980s. Orgelvärk was originally compiled and released on cassette in 1986 by Tor Sigvardson, also known for his own musical project 18:e Oktober and cassette label Neuköln. The vinyl edition includes five previously unreleased tracks which were submitted to Tor for the original 1986 cassette release but due to space limitations, never made it on there. All twenty-four songs have been remastered from their original tapes especially for vinyl by Tor himself.
Sympathy Nervous – Automaticism LP [MW032]
Sympathy Nervous is the project of Japanese artist Yosihumi Niinuma. Automaticism features songs Yosihumi Niinuma recorded between 1979-1981. Most were originally slated for a cassette release but never saw the light of day until now.
In Trance 95 – Cities Of Steel & Neon [MW029]
Minimal Wave proudly presents Cities Of Steel And Neon, a compilation of early tape recordings by Greek electronic pioneers In Trance 95. In Trance 95 was formed by Alex Machairas and Nik Veliotis when they were just 18 years old. From its inception, the duo shaped their sound using portable analogue synthesizers and drum machines, becoming one of the first artists in the minimal synth / cold wave / EBM vein to come out of Greece in the 80s.
VA – Combined EP v2.0 [AFS009]
Next up from Abstract Forms is part two of the combined EP series, again the focus being on outer-worldly electro jams. The artists on offer are Versalife and Matti Turunen (Morphology). Together they offer 6 tracks of electro music ranging from fast paced, but deep and spacious compositions, to slow and sleazy bump and grind electronica.
Stingray Enters The Unknown – The Sadist [UTTU002]
Unknown To The Unknown have put together their new release, Stingray Enters The Unknown a collaboration between Detroit’s DJ Stingray & London’s DJ Haus. Entitled The Sadist Pts 1 and 2 – the release is backed with remixes from the legendary Heinrich Mueller (Dopplereffekt) and Cestrian (Ali Renault, Heartbreak).
Adapta – Adapta EP 1 [BRUTALSUN001]
Steve Conner unfurls a new project in the shape of Adapta, with this classy quartet of gritty machine funk for the newly minted Brutalist Sunset imprint. The Adapta project is the result of Conner’s live recording in a studio based around a redesigned Memorymoog synth bulked up with Roland and Elektron hardware. “Concrete Sun” in particular is an abrasive delight, with jagged textures scraping across a backdrop of scattergun binary melodies and swampy bass. “Duerden Sound” even sees him indulge in doom laden steppish dub techno, on an extended studio flex with particularly bleak thoughts running through their heads.
Philipp Gorbachev – In The Delta [CÓMEME012]
Comeme imprint return from a short break sporting a new addition to the family. Hailing from Moscow, Phillip Gorbachev’s arrival on the label sees them expand operations continentally and with real style. Proceedings get off to a thrusting start with the epic sounds of “In The Delta” little more than a steadily crescendo building arch of arpeggiated energy over straight-up proto kicks. “Gas Lady” is equally simple in its execution and deadly in its intent, grasping several layers of synthy excellence over searing tones and loose limbed electro rhythms. “Montana Blues” combines a cavernous house rhythm with over the top electric guitar axe riffs; and somehow manages to sound thrillingly sweat inducing as opposed to awful and cheesy. “Postovoi” ends this release in diverse style, throwing a big old gristly punk funk bassline underneath a storm cloud of descendant rhythms.
VA – Nation presents The Modern Electronic Element EP (Serie 2) [NAT011]
Nation returns to the forefront, compiling a serious arsenal of exclusives. Their motto: RWTHO = Rollin’ With True Heads Only. Traxx unleashes an array different styles that make up the elements of the Jakbeat sound, from a line-up that’s Not for the faint of heart! This is the 2nd in the The Modern Electronic Element series.
Seaside Houz Boyz – Deephouze Yall [CR1254]
Creme Organization presents some raw bangin, surf house from the no-cal beaches. Behind the name Seaside Houz Boyz is the genius of Legowelt aka Danny Wolvers.
Kurt Baggaley – Magic Of Human EP [HM003]
HotMix Records for his third release presents “Magic Of Human EP” written and produced by mysterious Kurt Baggaley ! This EP contains five tracks reminiscent of the glorious productions on NuGroove Records , with melodies and shade that bring to mind the Tangerine Dream and Vangelis.
Morphosis – Too Far (Dettmann’s Definitions) [MMD-R2]
After Newworldaquarium and Just For One Day already reworked some choice cuts from Morphosis’ ‘What Have We Learned’ album, there will be a second remix sampler released at the end this year. Ostgut-frontman Marcel Dettmann delivers his Dettmann Definitions from ‘Too Far’ and will join by the original cut from Morphosis himself on release.
Conforce – Escapism [90DSR]
Holland’s deep electronic specialist Conforce release his next full-length work, “Escapism”, on Delsin Records. Boris Bunnik has crafted another album of deep digital and authentic analogue bliss, combining elements of futurism with real hardware, decent software and to simply goes wherever it takes him, be that a landscape doused in dub, formed from a firmer techno template or built on a house groove. As such, the aptly entitled album is a wholly immersive listen from start to finish. Operating in its own deep and subliminal world of rhythm, it goes from lateral and dubby to more upright and kicking, touching on ambient moments and the odd classist moment along the way. From start to finish Escapism grabs your attention without being rushed, hurried or over-complicated. It’s the sort of album which works on both headphones up-close, but also on a dancefloor at distant thanks to its devilish detail but palpable presence.
VA – Inertia #4 [INERTIA004]
The final hurrah for Ann Aimee’s Inertia compilation sees four modern techno heavyweights add their exclusive sounds to the fold. Skudge are as economical yet efficient as you’d expect with their booming ‘Pollution,’ before Conforce designs yet more lush sounds with his deep technoid cut ‘When It Appeared.’ Restless Romanian Cosmin TRG confounds expectationst again with his rusty, rolling cut ‘Plaisir Interdit’ before Sascha Rydell gets a little spaced out on his kinetic and melancholic effort, ‘Rainy Days’.
VA – Inertia #3 [INERTIA003]
This third EP offers up four brand next and exclusive techno cuts, take straight from the Inertia compilation Ann Aimee have proudly compiled. Things open with the dark, skipping beats of Lucy, before Milton Bradley layers plenty of filter and reverb over a kicking beat for his textured effort, ‘Sequence 1’. Mike Dehnert, contributes some ravey techno loops in the form of ‘Pneumatic’ before the EP is brought to a close with some gray-scale bleakness from Ozka.
