Credit 00 – Midnightlife Crisis LP [PNKMN050]

Following up his anthemic late-summer burner, Hope, Credit 00 returns to Pinkman to deliver the album Midnightlife Crisis. Hopping between genres whilst remaining resolutely coherent, the twelve-track LP is a showcase of the Rat Life boss’ many influences. From the driving, mesmeric techno of Music Is A Spiritual Thing to the sci-fi electro on Bouncing Bell and Love Warrior’s downtempo, half-time shuffle, the collection of tracks is broad and varied yet simultaneously unified by belonging to the club. Whether it’s warm-up material, peaktime rollers or afterhours sludge for tired legs and scrambled heads, there’s something for every scenario on Midnightlife Crisis. And with recurring themes of melancholy and anxiety throughout, the album perhaps reflects that all too familiar period for every club enthusiast when the years are ticking by and the lights are coming on.

listen

Credit 00 – Midnightlife Crisis LP [PNKMN050]

VA – Electro Coalition 1 [ZC​-​ELEC​-​DIG001]

Zodiak Commune Records presents the first digital Electro Acid compilation with tracks from Serge Geyzel, Johnfaustus, G303, Zodiac Childs, Dima Gastrolër.

VA – Electro Coalition 1 [ZC​-​ELEC​-​DIG001]

Mascarpone – Plasmapheresis [MET001]

New label Meteors Recordings presenting their first release. From that indescribable connection between Science and Electronic Music, France’s Mascarpone oriented this EP towards all the imagery that these themes can generate in our minds. Themes that already catched the attention of techno and electro founders many years ago, showing that this link has been present since the beginning. Unklevon remix included.

listen

Mascarpone – Plasmapheresis [MET001]

Timothy J Fairplay – Rule The Streets [DGMD005]

‘Rule The Streets’ is Timothy “J” Fairplay’s latest album on his label Dungeon Module. After 2021’s ‘A Snowstorm In The Tropics’, 2023 has been a busy year for the label. In February Timothy released ‘Dungeon Module Volume 1’ followed by ‘I Lay Awake At Night Scheming’ in August. This album was recorded in Timothy’s current studio, with his Casio RZ-1 central to the set up. 8 raw jack tracks inspired by the early days of house music, and catches Timothy at his most minimal. The early days of the Chicago and Detroit and how they drew influence from Europe in their stripped back sound is an endless influence on Timothy’s work. The bumpy opener ‘Rule The Streets’ has a vocal refrain which sounds like something from a 70’s gang movie. ‘Insufficient Funds’ is a playful jam based around a junk shop delay unit. ‘Pleasure Beach’ an 8 bit house/funk beat track. ‘Back To The Stone Age’ with its flanger heavy percussion and a booming Adonis style vocal. Side B starts with ‘Instant Replay’ with its rolling 808 toms and white noise intro. ‘Safety Patrol’ has a deeper Mr Fingers feel, followed by the stalker-ish ‘Gang Bass’ with its sampled live bass and strings. Last of all is ‘Livin’ It Up’ made entirely with the sampler on the RZ-1 sounding like a Lil Louie demo.

Timothy J Fairplay – Rule The Streets [DGMD005]

VA – Amphibious Carbine [SMI-008]

The Sound Migration label takes another trip back in to the CATT articles to explore the proto-trance and early bleep techno sound they were pushing from 1988-1991. Another five essential gems from the modestly sized catalogue get an airing here, kicking off with Confidential’s haunting ‘Amphibious Carbine’ followed by the boxy pressure of Exocet’s ‘Nitrogen’. This is astounding stuff throughout, not least the freak-zone trip of Holy Ghost’s ‘Walking On Air’, which sounds like the common denominator between Ibiza and Goa in their nascent days as party destinations. Don’t sleep on the clattering funk of Exocet’s ‘Overdose’ either, a seriously snappy groover with all kinds of oddball sampling going on.

listen

VA – Amphibious Carbine [SMI-008]

Gherkin Jerks – Gherkin Jerks EP [MU2413]

Three tracks that were included as bonus tracks on the Gherkin Jerks compilation CD from a few years ago are now up for their release on vinyl. All originate from the same Gherkin sessions as Mr. Heard’s two outstanding late 80’s EP’s but were never released as such. The moniker showed a different side to his sonic pallet, and would innovate the acid sound to great FX, influencing a great many of artists in the decades that followed. Psychotic Fantasy eventually made its way to the Dance 2000 Pt. 2 album, while the original full take of Ecstasy and Reznaytor never saw the light of the day. Now for the first time on wax and still sounding as futuristic as ever!

listen

Gherkin Jerks – Gherkin Jerks EP [MU2413]

Marco Bernardi – Shuiler [HCS991]

Electro heavyweight Marco Bernardi is back on Harbour City Sorrow with his first release in four years. Given his considerable history exploring the outer limits of machine funk, you’ll be pleased to know this new single offers another two excursions into parts unknown that shirk the formulaic tendencies of so much contemporary electro.

listen

Marco Bernardi – Shuiler [HCS991]

New Scene – Waves LP [MEC080]

New Scene was a project created in the late 80’s by Arno Müller and Markus Barth. They were part of the roaster of the German label BOY Records together with acts like Time Modem, Cybex Factor and “O”. New Scene released in 1989/90 two singles/mega-mixes under the title of “Out of Control”, becoming both classics in the German Techno scene. Their third single “Tonight” also turned to a big success in the clubs and pushed New Scene to release their debut and only full-length album “Waves” in 1992.

listen

New Scene – Waves LP [MEC080]

Women’s Hour – Women’s Hour LP [LIES201]

A brittle metronome in a delirious tension landscape, Women’s Hour are a Glasgow based experimental post-punk duo featuring Contort Yourself head honcho Murray CY and artist Jenny Wicks. Creating noise, harmony and disquiet washed in synth and repetitive guitar, rough beats and distorted vocals, Women’s Hour are constantly trying to embrace the shouting in their heads. LIES presents their debut release, a 12 track LP, a true to form jagged 80s post-punk affair, the two piece bring to life the day to day in the grim North through their music.

listen

Women’s Hour – Women’s Hour LP [LIES201]

Teatre – 2 Songs [FLR04]

Ferry Lane Records welcomes Teatre AKA Viktoras Urbaitis for its fourth release. ‘2 Songs’ presents the Lithuanian producer at his most introspective. On the A-side, ‘Alone’ offers a languid, bittersweet melody evoking the golden era of synth-pop. The B-side, ‘Low’ intensifies the mood while still embracing melancholy.

Teatre – 2 Songs [FLR04]

Steve Allman / Alex Jann – For The Floor Vol. 3 [CELTD014]

Cultivated Electronics Ltd returns with Volume 3 of their in demand ‘For the Floor’ series. As the name suggests all the tracks in the series are primed for the dance floor with Volume 3 featuring two more tracks apiece from two artists making waves in the Electro sphere. Electro heads should already be very familiar with Scand resident, Steve Allman who’s also released stellar tracks on Soma’s sister-label, Avoidant and A-Future’s EON label. While Alex Jann is well known for being the man behind the excellent Censor Music as well as appearing on the likes of 20/20 Vision and brokntoys.

listen

Steve Allman / Alex Jann – For The Floor Vol. 3 [CELTD014]

Eoism – Infinite Balance [IBI008]

Eoism are back with their fourth release. The duo produced six deep and classy electro gems for serious underground sentiments. These timeless bangers can be used both at home and at work; the DJ booth.
Let the robots get up and do the electro boogie!

listen

Eoism – Infinite Balance [IBI008]

Silent Servant – In Memoriam [TRESOR362]

Juan Mendez aka Silent Servant is a figure in techno history that needs little introduction. As a member of the Sandwell District collective and the label’s art director he collaborated on works that were responsible for a global focal shift in the genre as their label adapted and challenged the paradigm of minimal techno, taking influence from other sources such as dub, post-punk, and even classical minimalism.  With ‘In Memoriam’, Silent Servant’s latest release on Tresor Records, Mendez writes a deeply personal memoir of a 30-plus year career spent exploring and absorbing the shadowy side of music; a carefully crafted elegy to people, places, and times past and the lasting effect they have on the present.

listen

Silent Servant – In Memoriam [TRESOR362]

Russell E.L. Butler – Call Me G LP [T4T014]

T4T LUV NRG presents “Call Me G”, the new album by Brooklyn’s Russell E.L. Butler. In the intervening years, Russell has experienced an accumulation of personal subjective experiences which are explored through captivating musical modalities and expressions on this sprawling, gorgeous, and deeply emotional album. Russell’s work on “Call Me G” can be described as a unique amalgam of early NY house music, dub techno and poetry. The album’s title track, as well as its instrumentals, are a kind of storytelling for histories that continue to exist without observation as well as for secrets and the power they hold in spite of their truth being obscured and sometimes lost.

listen

Russell E.L. Butler – Call Me G LP [T4T014]

Aleqs Notal – Big Tal’s Elements [LVL002]

One Level presents Aleqs Notal’s upcoming EP ‘Big Tal’s Elements’ – four carefully curated house joints by the Paris-based DJ and producer. The release encapsulates a wealth of influences combined to create a modern and innovative soundtrack. Producer, DJ, and founding member of the innovative ClekClekBoom collective Aleqs Notal has continued to cultivate a sound that’s rooted in the sonics of Detroit and Chicago. Here he gives a taste of his upcoming EP ‘Big Tal’s Elements’ with ‘Untwisted Delight’, a homage to the timeless sound of the Motor City. A bass-driven DJ tool, pulsating with the resonance of the 808, evoking echoes of Pittman, and igniting a powerful dancefloor energy.

listen

Aleqs Notal – Big Tal’s Elements [LVL002]

Miles Spilsbury – Light Manoeuvres [ND012]

Debut album from UK jazz saxophonist and composer Miles Spilsbury, featuring Carlos Niño. ‘Light Manoeuvres’ is about warmth, generosity and openness. The music which would become Light Manoeuvres was sketched in fragments, but began to take shape in earnest during a period of living under the Marseille haze in the South of France. The specific character and opacity of the light in Marseille inspired the album title which imagines the movement of light passing over different subjects and spaces in intricate motion. Sand blows over from the Sahara on the Sirocco wind and is whipped up by the Mistral, the Marseille sky becomes golden and vapoured, then intermittently pastel blue. That image stuck while shaping this body of work, and became integral to the function of the compositions – which act as jumping off points for the players and myself, vehicles for improvisation and gateways to something else entirely. 

listen

Miles Spilsbury – Light Manoeuvres [ND012]