For the fourth offering of Still Techno, newcomers Ke Thu drop a massive deep techno EP – ‘Like A Beacon Against The Fog’. Ke Thu is a Detroit-based live act consisting of Tim Barrett and Steven Stavropoulos. The two have been making music together for the last decade, developing the Ke Thu alias in 2018. Their music is an earnest exploration of techno and everything it is capable of: ethereal soundscapes, broken beats and rhythms, deep textures, and more.
Sound Signature welcome the return of Detroit hero Alton Miller for a classy single graced with the vocals of KB, with the thoughtful addition of an instrumental on the flip for those so minded. The result is some extremely classy, luxurious sounding deep house music with a touch of the lounge about it. A track that certainly plays its cards cautiously rather than banging them down on the table all at the same time, but one that will build the atmosphere of your early evening set up subtly but surely.
The next release on Shall Not Fade comes from none other than deep house legend, Fred P. Also renowned for his musical offerings as Black Jazz Consortium, the New York-bred, Berlin-based producer is accredited with over 100 releases, all instantly recognisable given their warmth, depth and modesty. ‘Out All Night’ EP is no exception, containing three instant classics which range from the more playful, skippier side of the house spectrum to a deeper, more contemplative one.
After appearing on Acid Test’s 10 Year Anniversary compilation Patricia, aka Max Ravitz, debuts an EP on the label with “Less Than 7”, a collection of tracks that sits squarely in the club-focused end of the label’s output.
By the late 1980’s Ton Lebbink was a well respected figure in Amsterdam’s alternative scene: he was the drummer for the Amsterdam post punk group Mecano, a true punk poet and worked as a bouncer at Amsterdam’s main music venue Paradiso. He released two solo albums, both in his unique narcotic style: laying absurd Dutch wordplay over stripped down frigid instrumentals. When house music took the world by storm in the early 90s, Lebbink hopped on the bandwagon – trading in his cult status as one of the main faces of the 1980s underground, for a life spent toiling to produce sampledelic house music in comparative anonymity. “Wat Doe Je Met Me?” is one of many fruits of Lebbink’s labour during this renaissance period: only three tracks appear on the EP, but all make up an unusual early house sound tempered by Gregorian chant, cut-up vocal, subdued synth plucks and an overall hazy sound.
This two sided split record between Roberto Auser and Melting Dogmas is a showcase of two sides of contemporary electro. On one side there is the music of electro veteran Roberto Auser who’s two tracks deliver something new to his repertoire. Less beat driven but still very rhythmic. On the flip there’s Melting Dogmas (4Cantons together with Numeric) with IDM driven electro and techno elements, all there in a perfect mix.
Diseñar y destruir [Design and Destroy] is the second album by Varsovia, an electronic punk project created in Lima at the beginning of 2012 by Dante Gonzales (synthesizers), Fernando Pinzás (synthesizers) and Sheri Corleone (guitar, vocals). Unlike their celebrated debut album Recursos inhumanos [Inhuman Resources] (2014), this new production reflects a greater influence of styles such as industrial music and EBM, but maintaining the sound of analog synthesizers as a principle. The lyrics follow a concept based on the period of violence that Peru experienced in the 1980s, with samples of General Juan Velasco Alvarado and songs that refer to situations such as blackouts, bombings of terrorist groups, and the uncertainty of living in the midst of the armed conflict in a city lost in chaos.
Ofelia Ortodoxa is an electronic music project inspired partly in her family history and on the other hand as a criticism of the imaginary of the people of Medellin in the 80s and 90s in which society refused to accept the new trends of art. This is the project’s second release on Soil Records.
Eye For An Eye explores non conformist electronic music that strives to push the boundaries of genres and practices. Here is a split 7″ featuring Privacy and Cardinal & Nun.
The Exaltics need no further introduction, operating since 15 years now and become one of the stalwarts of the international underground electro scene. Robert Witschakowski-Jockel founded the project The Exaltics in 2006 as well as the electro/ techno label SolarOneMusic with his long term friend Nico Jagiella. Since then he published countless 12″s and several LP’s with labels like Clone, Creme Organization, Bunker or his own label SolarOneMusic and worked during that time with outstanding artists like Drexciya’s Gerald Donald, Helena Hauff or the legendary Martin Gore from Depeche Mode. He turned his deep cinematic and most of all charismatic electro into his own trademark. The collection contains 13 Tracks recorded between 2009-2019 including tracks from long out stock titles first time on vinyl. Probably the best overview over the world of The Exaltics.
New release from the French project “Human Rebellion” titled “Inverted Universe” on the Londonize label Warehouse Manifesto, run by Gamadon.
Passarani is a long term friend and klakson family member, a key figure in the European electronic since the early 90ies. His “The Dot And The Circle” Ep gives us a great taste of his unique blend of future funk, electro and deeper shades of techno.
Born in 1981 in Mdantsane in the Eastern Cape, Ayanda Sikade is one of South African jazz’s most in-demand and respected drummers, a familiar face on the scene for years and a driving force behind its growing prominence on the world stage. Dedicated to his grandmother who raised him, Sikade’s long-awaited sophomore album as a bandleader, Umakhulu, follows his 2018 debut Movements. Recorded in Johannesburg in early 2021, it features the talents of frequent collaborator Nduduzo Makhathini on piano, young Simon Manana on alto sax and Nhlanhla Radebe on bass. The album’s nine tracks, composed and produced by Sikade, pay homage to the artist’s heritage — most noticeably on ‘Mdantsane’ and ‘Nxarhuni River’ — while forging onwards to a brave new world on others, like ‘Imithandazo Yeengelosi’ (Prayer of Angels) and ‘Space Ship’.
The word datasal paints inner pictures for most people growing up in Sweden during the 1990’s. The datasal (a classroom for computers) was an ordinary classroom with few changes to fit the school’s 10 newly leased computers. The room represented the change of times in Sweden during this period: the fixed institutions and the awaiting digital flood wave. The music of Datasal sounds captures the feeling of printing a downloaded picture of your favorite hockey player or music artist or the expectations building up as you wait for the modem to log in to interact with the thousands of users of the internet in 1995. The two tracks on this release manifests the excitement but also the bit of fright you felt connecting to the world in the mid 90’s – a time when the internet still was fun. The sound is built around repetitive sequencer loops and programmed beats where electric bass, electric guitar and flute improvise around a theme, creating a sound that is best described as cosmic flute house. Datasal is an harmonic reminder of a time where digital progress seemed less harmful than today.
The self named LP marked the fifth album and end of the first incarnation of Bourbonese Qualk. Julian Gilbert left the group after ‘The Spike'(1986) to concentrate on writing and theatre, leaving Steven Tanza and Simon Crab who parted ways after touring in Europe in early 1986 and recording this album. Steven Tanza went on to found the group ‘The State’ and while Crab continued as Bourbonese Qualk (with the new line-up of Miles Miles,Crab and Owen If), dissolved the Recloose Organisation label and founded ‘New International’ as the outlet for future Bourbonese Qualk and Recloose Org releases.
Bourbonese Qualk’s third album “The Spike” was recorded during the period 1984-1985 and published by the Berlin based Dossier/Atonal label while Bourbonese Qualk were involved in organizing the Berlin Atonal festival. Parts of Side 2 of the album is a recording of pieces made for a dance and film performance at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London in 1985.
1989’s Die Minimalisten single get’s a 10″ re-issue on Heap’s Wiener Brut. The EP is completed with a Heap produced ‘Megamix’.
Based on an original idea by fellow producer Lennart, Ritmo Fatale & Slow Motion are joining forces in creating a new entity in the italodisco multiverse : Universo Parallelo. On this ten tracks various the idea is to showcase artists from both labels, trying to merge their Italian and French music approaches. Known faces, new aliases & fresh newcomers share the bill on this existing adventure.
Royal Athlete Records returns to the great racetrack of the record industry with the latest instalment of their Various Artists series. Four dancefloor winners for any competition and worthy of only true contenders bags. Kicking off with the nine minute epic live-drums-meets-juno-funk of ‘Hustle Never Ends’ by Galaxians followed by UK legend Paul Withey with the oh so smooth 80s-esque groove of ‘Confessions’. Side B opens with the retro Jam & Lewis style slammer ‘I Believe In Boogie’ by Germany’s First Touch and rounding off the release is the amazing new-wave freestyle anthem ‘Tell Me’ by California’s Sky Tony.
The Hipodrome Of Music 