Delano Smith was suitably impressive on the recent ‘Dark Shades Of Detroit’ EP. He’s just bettered that with the ‘Light Shades Of Detroit’ EP on Sushitech’s sister Purple offshoot… Three tracks of heads-down, quality deep & dark house music from Delano.
Parade Ground has always been the duo of brothers Jean-Marc and Pierre Pauly from Brussels, Belgium formed in 1981. Taking cues from Post-Punk, Cold Wave, Dada and Surrealism, Parade Ground channeled suffering, tension and rage through pulsing synthesizers, skeletal guitar, severe bass and Jean-Marc’s expressive vocals as the most melodic and emotional instrument. “The Golden Years” is an 11-song, career-spanning collection of Parade Ground’s long out-of-print 7” and 12” singles as well as rare compilation tracks from the pioneers of emotional body music created during 1982-1988.
Domestica produce a selection which gathers up and represents part of the original work during the most experimental era of Gary Ramon’s music career. The songs that Gary Ramon edited during the Modern Art era (from approximately 1982 to 1989) were basically from cassettes; most of his music didn’t take off outside of the English ‘Underground’ scene in the 80’s.
Italians Do It Better release four Fred Ventura classic tracks. Side One The Years (Go By) (1984), The Years (Instrumental) (1984), Side Two You Want Me (1986), Don’t Give Up (1987 ).
Two tracks of urban psychedelia from the heart of L.A. “Beaches Of The Black Sea” is an ambitious chugger filled with flamenco guitars and synths. The B-side “Stealing The Fire From Heaven” is a more experimental cut with neo-industrial rhythms and a rolling bassline.
New Ep from the Voyeurhythm camp. Label founder Tyson Ballard weighs in with melodic, analogue bounce on the original, laced with a husky soul vocal that climaxes in a hip shaking freestyle percussion jam. Sidwho? on remix duty and builds up a dark, steamy synth-driven dub, complete with snarling vocoder on the Late Nite mix. Ben Sun comes with a version that slowly unveils a cracked, shimmering melody over the top of his dusty drums and sub bass, as the vocal gently persists on the Dawn’s Arrival mix.
Pizza is the 6th release on Don’t Be Afraid. The first track on the 12”, “Pizza” combines disco, techno and acid house elements on a broken funky base. “Goons” is a mean little track with caper-like 303s and a bumping trumpet bassline, backed by sweet drum machine beats. DJ 3000 takes the fundamentals of the original and replaces them with some of his own locally sourced Detroit ingredients, including a euphoric rhodes and some rich pads.
Roundabout Sounds presents its 3rd Ep 85@Union named after the south San Jose neighborhood where the resides and put the Ep together. The original tracks by Ebb & Flow (Joe Babylon & Warren Cowley) stay true to the moody/dubby house vibe that the label represents along with remixes from Amsterdam’s Duijn & Douglas (Esther Duijn & Steady Douglas) and Detroit deep house icon Mike Huckaby.
‘One Night Stand’ Is Jam Factory’s third release; a collaboration with New York-based vocalist Mattie Safer (formally of The Rapture) over two 12”s. This first 12” features the original version – a piano-driven Chicago style anthem with heavy drums and a touch of acid. Mattie delivers a classic house performance in his own instantly recognisable style. On the flip are two different dubs, one an incessant barrage of piano’s, the other a thick slice of acid.
Upset The Rhythm released John Maus’ third album ‘We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves’. Questing synthesisers, tensely strung bass lines and chasing drum machines providing the perfect backdrop for John’s deeply resonant reverb-drenched vocal.
First single to be lifted off Xeno & Oaklander’s forthcoming new album ‘Sets and Lights’. Baroque electronic arpeggios and fast celebratory beats drive the surrealist scenario of ‘The Staircase’ in which a staircase continually leads to dead ends. The delicate ghostly female vocals mirror this eternal motion forwards and backwards and up and down. This dark tale takes flight into warm noise ornaments and glistening synth flourishes and comes right back to its core: minimal electronics. ‘Not Afraid’ is a more haunted and dark waltz which takes you to a private enchanted universe of silk, flowers, leather and lace, sheltered away from turbulence and doom.
Tracks from Morphology’s Urania’a Mirror album remixed by Hardfloor, Headnoaks, Legowelt and Arne Weinberg. Stunning remixes from some of Europe’s finest techno warriors of selected tracks from Morphology’s debut album for Zyntax Motorcity. Alongside Hardfloor with their superb reinterpretation of ‘Absence of Matter’ feature Headnoaks, an upcoming artist from Germany, who delivers a gorgeous electro version of ‘Hydrus Constellation’; Legowelt, with a sultry techno rendition and Arne Weinberg, with a somewhat and most welcome, darker take than his usual style of recording for ‘Into the Unknown’.
Sweet athmospherical tracks from Josh Dahlberg on Blank Artists. The EP comes with remixes from Planet E’s Monty Luke and classic electro producers Ectomorph . In addition to the remixers, Josh Dahlberg collaborated with musicians from Detroit’s Rock and Funk communities (Will Sessions) for songs on the A Side.
The fourth remix pack for Skudge. Substance fires off a huge side overturning ‘Overture’ brilliantly. October & Appleblim do it Bristol fashion with a gritty twist up of the album track ‘Real Tim’.
Traut Muzik presents a new release coming from the Dutch techno duo Dimi Angelis & Jeroen Search.
Jeroen Search and the anonymous projects Multicast Dynamics and K2VX make up for an interesting collection of deep space techno on Field Records fifth release.
Two track EP with a clasy chicago house work out by Neville Watson and Apiento delivering a track that sounds like some lost Ancienne Belgique classic it pounds and pumps along.
Photonz presents the second release on One Eyed Jacks with a very diverse three tracker – 100% focused on answering the needs of a new type of discerning, pace-changing and musically rich dancefloors.
Staffan Linzatti presents 4 tight minimal techno tracks, with pitched percussion, contrasting time signatures and heady cold atmospheres. This is the first release on Searchlight Records.
Modularz returns with another split 12″. The Revisited EP opens with the wonderfully unhinged techno of “Revister” by Developer. Also on the A-Side is a boasting remix of Developer’s “Edificio” by the aforementioned Silent Servant, which chugs along with rasping hats and cavernous low frequencies. On the flip side, Fanon Flowers presents the moody late night jack of “Prado Obscuro” and this is accompanied by the thick loopy melodies of Developer’s “More Seduction”.
