Four trax for the heads and for the floor. Screaming acid with deep rhythms full of mesmerizing chords like these old Detroit warehouse vibes meeting ultra dope bouncin beats going into dreamy breaks. All captured in sonic waves from this Melbourne Salt Mine bloke on a heavy mythical mental mission.
Moda is kicking off the new EP on the Deeptrax label (DPTX-006). Big large suburban club tracks in flashing DIY style from this already acclaimed DJ/ Producer from Sweden. Banging the room with filthy lo-fi dance, groomy grimey basslines and stabbing 90’s rave sounds combined with clever aquatic accents for that perfect party mood. Dirty subliminal sounds riding the hard rolling rhythms….. This one goes hard and deep.
A poignant and thoughtful EP from Berlin duo Snuff Crew, dedicated to their friend, collaborator and labelmate Andreas Gehm who passed away in summer 2016, just after his own I Love Acid release. Four analogue acid hardware tracks. Remix duty falls to fellow hardware aficionado Perseus Traxx.
The Exaltics are back with new transmissions from their universe in form of the second part of “Das Heise Experiment”. The first part from 2013 on Abstract Acid will see his follow up end of 2017 on 2xLP inclusive a Comic book about the story of the Heise Experiment. This amazing looking shape picture disc, developed with the dutch artist Godspill aka Mehdi Rouchiche, is “The Prequel” release and sees The Exaltics in assault mode. Side A brings a stomper in typical exaltics style with deep strings and a pumping bassline like an alien invasion which is on course to earth. Side B begins with a cryptic alien speech signal transmitted direct from the universe whilst the second track is a collaboration track with non other than Dopplereffekt’s Rudolf Klorzeiger. Both artists together create a timeless electro voyage with sharp snares and fast running basslines and combine their both styles perfectly together. Every record comes with a download code for the release itself and 3 exclusive bonus tracks. This release is strictly limited to 500 copies. The outer contour of the picture is also the contour of the record and makes this release to something really special and to a high collectable item.
Any new project from Convextion man Gerard Hanson’s ERP project is worth celebrating, particularly when it is stretched over three 10-inch singles. Part one of the Evoked Potentials series offers two typically on-point chunks of intergalactic electro. He begins with “Sensory Progress”, where vintage computer bleeps, throbbing electrofunk bass, spacey chords and yearning melodies wrap themselves around a snappy TR-808 groove. Flipside “Lodestone” is a slightly more atmospheric affair, where cascading synthesizer melodies and grandiose, deep space chords cluster around a shuffling rhythm track. It sounds a little like Drexciya jamming with Brown Album-era Orbital, which is no bad thing in our book.
Sumerian Fleet is a trio formed by Dutch producers Alden Tyrell and Mr Pauli, joined by Zarkoff after their 2010 debut EP. Sumerian Fleet have returned to release their sophomore LP ‘Pendulum’ of all new material as well as a remixed version of “This Game Has No Name” from Zarkoff’s other band, FFFC. ‘Pendulum’ contains 80’s Dark Wave/EBM inspired tracks with an industrial tinge, 8 songs of vintage dark electro with a Gothic tinge and a touch of bass guitar. The album’s been put together in a way that the listener can connect the dots, create a narrative, and become immersed in this attitude that the band’s trying to convey, such as Vigny’s idea of accepting despair: ”A calm despair, without angry convulsions or reproaches directed at heaven, is the essence of wisdom.” All songs were initially recorded at Mr Pauli’s studio in Den Haag, with overdubs and additional recordings at Zarkoff’s Sensorium Studio in Croatia, and then final mix downs at Alden Tyrell’s studio in Rotterdam.
Keine Ahnung was a quartet from Wörth am Rhein, Germany formed in 1980. The original line up was Rolf Schmuck, Franz H. Rodenkirchen, Elke Fuchs and Olaf Schumacher. Hermann Kopp from Stuttgart, a friend of the band, contributed a composition on their first LP and became a full member in 1985. The band members shared a common interest in industrial, pop, avant garde literature and cinema. They recorded three LPs in 6 years, two of which remain unreleased. In March 1983, Keine Ahnung recorded their self-produced and financed debut LP in two days in a small studio in Stuttgart (12 hours total). The mixing was done in one day in a studio in Karlsruhe, April 1983. The self-titled LP was released later that summer on their own PASSIV label in an edition of 1000 copies. This record obtained recognition far beyond the German borders. Keine Ahnung in the studio and live were completely different. Studio time was expensive in these days, so the music was minimal electronic pop, expertly crafted and razor sharp man machine music. The live sound utilized more complex synthesizers, tapes, guitars, metal percussion and custom built electronics. The beats and bass lines came from the Roland 606/303 duo triggering a KORG MS-20 for the bass drum. The track “Funkbild DPA” is a spontaneous “live in the studio” recording, that gives a hint of what the live sound was like. All four members would take turns singing and playing the instruments.
Savage Grounds released their first three records with Lux Rec, of which one of the members from this Swiss duo is the label boss. This new EP is the first release coming out elsewhere. Savage Grounds have created a sound of their own, a sort of post-techno which combines elements of techno, elektro, EBM, acid and industrial, but these tracks will for sure also appeal to lovers of analogue synth music. The whole EP sounds like it has been recorded in an one take synth jam, raw and fierce synth sounds for the body and soul.
NEP was a loose multimedia collective formed in 1982 Zagreb, ex-Yugoslavia. The founder Dejan Krsic collaborated with various artists in a quest of re-thinking the stale concepts of art history, position of the author and the barriers between pop and elitist high culture. Deeply immersed in pop-culture, politics and art theory Krsic’s search for perfect pop music with cutting critical edge peaked in 1989, the year Decadance track was conceived in studio, but has never been published. Pumping Roland 808 beats, with sampled vocals from Linda Cooper asking herself “How do I dance to this music?” were chosen by Fox & His Friends label owners Leri Ahel and Zeljko Luketic for a 12″ opener of the unknown NEP’s pop history. All material is restored and mastered from original reel-to-reel tapes and presented on wax for the first time and for this occasion, deconstructed and reinvented in a remix B-side by Snuffo. Snuffo splitted the title vocal into a new cut-up, now telling “Dance to this music” to its audiences.
Cosmin TRG is back on Sportiv with two tracks of stark, angular beauty. ‘Afterburn’ harks back to 90s era Techno of the hyperkinetic variety. The obsessive vocal mantra adds to its hypnotic, frantic rhythm. ‘Electra’ on the flip is on a trance-inducing mission, with it’s cavernous 808 kick driving a tribal groove, carried by a pulsating bassline and eerie percussion. Sportiv is a dexterous white label operation that brings you heavy-weight rhythmic performances from the world of techno athletics.
For the thirteenth release, Construct Re-Form invite the Argentinian prodigy Jonas Kopp. The Cosmic Control Center Ep starts with “Cognitive Process” and “Metaprogramming” which are more introspective and abstract whereas “Vortex” is the climax, the release of energy. To conclude “Human Bio Computer” adds something tragic, the final touch to the picture.
Damon Wild’s Synewave label is still going strong, plunging ever further into the hinterland of looped up techno and dragging your consciousness with it. On this new release Wild is pinging bleeps around the sequencer grid through the course of “Timelapse”, and highly immersive it is too. The “Timemachine dub” of the track is even more seductive with its Sleeparchive-style synth oddities and sparse arrangement. Function comes on board for an un-easier remix of “Timelapse” that veers towards the full-blown paranoid, and then Postscriptum drops a killer version to finish the EP off, all jagged off beat kicks and heavy textural swells.
On the fifth release on the Grotto Editions X We Jazz 10” EP series, sax man Pauli Lyytinen steps up with a strong 4-tracker featuring Verneri Pohjola on trumpet, Eero Tikkanen on bass, and Mika Kallio on drums. ”Artist of the Year” at the 2017 Pori Jazz Festival, Finland’s premiere jazz event, Lyytinen displays his ability of writing melodic fire music with ever-evolving momentum. The quartet pools together their creative resources, presenting four original compositions by Lyytinen. They rely on their individial soloistic strengths and get a lot of mileage out of the group’s strong interplay.
Field Records looks to L’estasi Dell’oro (Christopher Ernst, aka Penalune) for a new three-track EP for sound systems that once again takes us down the rabbit hole. Following on from his previous ‘I Look Upon Nature While I Live in a Steel City’ album in 2015, this is another masterfully drawn out and engaging affair. “Either to please or to educate” is the intended purpose of this EP release, utilizing guitar, tabla, and other electronic and acoustic instruments. The incessant movement of the metronomic tremors felt underneath our plains lay the rhythm. The threadbare dialogue we use to communicate frays slightly further. These spirals are given an explicit voice through Leader Annabelle Kuwe’s dispassioned public address to the remaining world at the Great Meeting of 2166, as recounted by Sadie LaPierre on closer ‘Achieve Ignition’.
Dempa is back with a four track EP that remains faithful to his particular brand of deeply twisted beat-smithery. Trusted into the hands of Little Beat Different, there was no way these ruff and ready dance floor ready demos were going to slip away.These four tracks delve deep into techno territory . Built for the dancefloor and dancers who possess a somewhat acquired taste. Both sides of the record are perfectly balanced. The first is quicker in tempo, with the second one focusing on the more psychedelic side of things. Dempa cooks with the finest ingredients and naturally the results are full of the right flavours.
The Hipodrome Of Music 