VA – Vanguard Sound Vol.05 [SS009]
Here is Volume Five in the Vanguard Sound Crews vinyl series! This time DJ Spider, Dakini9, Amir Alexander and Hakim Murphy step up to deliver pure mental techno and acid laced jack.
VA – VA01 [FARB011]
The Hungarian Farbwechsel’s first vinyl release has arrived, and it’s a real international effort featuring five artists from four countries on four tracks. Gazing through the Venetian blinds, it’s the label’s promising talent, Route 8 kicking it off with a vibing, 90s inspired house cut. Next up, Lumigraph and Patricia reset with a slow-churning, acid-flavoured techno. It’s the sort of track you would expect to be played on an endless loop in all coal mines 500m below ground level. On the back side, Farbwechsel’s founding father, S Olbricht gets in motion with the weirdly melodic. To close it off, it’s another label head, Basic House of Opal Tapes fame testing your stamina with the EP’s most direct, uptempo track.
Tornado Wallace – Kangaroo Ground / Ferntree Gully [BIS018]
Australia’s one-man storm of tropical funk Tornado Wallace returns to Beats In Space Records with the acid-flecked two-tracker, Kangaroo Ground / Ferntree Gully. “Kangaroo Ground” shares the buoyancy of its spirit animal namesake, but grinds in high-gear with a shredded 303 line and monstrous groove more akin to a possessed croc. The record’s flip, “Ferntree Gully,” sheds its scaly acid skin for softer sines and sirens signaling Italo productions past and built to last.
Donato Dozzy @ Goa Club (Rome) 16.01.2015
Ivel Tax – Idel de fel [DB009]
Disco Birds is starting the year 2015 with the label head Levente Imre Takacs aka Ivel Tax. The Romanian born producer brings up his past and current ideas into one full album release, entitled Idel de fel.
Deep88 & Melchior Sultana – Playing Without Moving [12R03LP]
Nautiluss – Aerochrome [DINER003]
Slammin 4-tracker from Canadian producer Nautiluss featuring jackin, club-ready heaters with melodies that hold up outside the party.
The Nuclear Family – Come Dine With Us [TNF002]
The Nuclear Family return with the follow-up to the summer’s After Effects EP – another four tracks of deeper electronics for discerning DJs and dancers.
Johannes Volk – Modular Expansion Podcast 044
Costelloe – Inflex [SIG007]
Signal Code label boss Costelloe digs deep and chows down on techno’s deepest tendrils: electro. Razor-sharp, reflective and icier than a January skinny dip in the North Sea, it pays respect to the roots with true authenticity. Marco Bernardi heartily invests with two disparate twists – one abstract, warehouse-shaking techno version and a gritty, paranoid angular electro reboot. “First Light” closes the show on a deep, house flavoured number that’s not dissimilar to Sabres Of Paradise
Jasper Wolff & Maarten Mittendorff – Cosmic Language EP [AERA010]
The new instalment on Indigo æra features three originals by Indigo’s founders Jasper Wolff and Maarten Mittendorff. This release, a little bit more tough styled compared to their previous releases, still perfectly maintains the detroit-esque melodic elements. Cosmic Language EP is about the visualization of soundwaves into geometric forms….
Jeff Mills – Woman In The Moon [AXCD046]
Woman In The Moon is a science fiction silent film that premiered on 15 October 1929. It is often considered to be one of the first ‘serious’ science fiction films, written and directed by Fritz Lang, who is the one of the biggest names in German expressionist cinema, the creator of Metropolis (1927). Detroit Techno music producer and a futurist Jeff Mills composed the new sound track for this classic film, initially for the Fritz Lang Film Retrospective event for Cinematheque Francaise in Paris in 2011. Since then, Mills has been consistently performing the soundtrack in the form of a cine-mix.
Planetary Assault Systems – The Eyes Themselves [MOTE041]
Some new Planetary Assault Systems material from Mr Luke Slater is always a welcome sight and The Eyes Themselves finds the techno pioneer on suitably mind bending form. Issued naturally by his own Mote Evolver, this three track 12″ bristles with the sort of intense, physical energy that makes the music feel alive and somewhat alien with the title track a perfect embodiment. Across the six minutes, “The Eyes Themselves” develops from a dark throb into full blown techno psychedelia that possesses the ability to draw the more open minds into another dimension. Similar things could be said about “Strange Attractor” so we will draw your attention to the B side cut “Arc” where intensity is the predominant characteristic across the eight thrilling minutes.
Malin – Deorbital Descent [WNK005]
The Will & Ink label now hits release number 5 with an EP from Amsterdam and Paris based producer Malin Genie, that features two new cuts and a remix from Yaleesa Hall. With a keen sense of heritage but one eye on the future, here he serves up two more intense and floor focussed cuts. The first is ‘Deorbital Descent’, a turbo charged and hard hitting techno track with overdriven kicks, big daubs of synthy hook and a real sense of urgency. The claps are hard as you like, and the drums are no less menacing, so think peak time warehouse tackle and you’ll not be far wrong. Next up, ‘Agaric Fly’ is a much more stripped back and down low techno roller with hubby chords, groaning bass and rubbery kicks that seduce and hypnotise. The remix comes from Yaleesa Hall, who has released a solo EP on the label before now. The resulting track is a fulsome, scurrying techno affair with edgy stabs, hurried drums and a real sense of foreboding.
Regal – Monomyth [FIGURE063]
Regal is fully welcomed to Figure with his first EP. Showing off his ear for a twisted Acid line or two, Regal provides three tracks.The rising tension of ‘Monomyth’ is classic 90s acid, accented by the ear of a young man who is very much living in the present. Refined and tracky, Regal draws out every last drop of energy from a mere handful of well tuned ingredients, peaking his acid line sky high. The snaking, heads-down ‘Symbol’ fits very much with Figure’s 2014 manifesto – driving, precise modern techno, with clever arrangements that simple beg repeat listening and club play. The tweaking, after-hours vibes of ‘Pointillism’ continue this with a totally playable, bubbling minimalist killer.
NGLY live @ Odd Fantastic, Batofar (Paris) 12.02.2015
Gaja – Modern Passivity [OPSM001]
Berlin-based artist Gaja runs Ophism, a label oriented to raw industrial inspired techno. Modern urban and suburban views are composed by monotonous, repetitive sequences and simple elements, focused on the mechanical landscape of factories, warehouses and assembly lines. Concept behind could be the translation of the urban sprawl in music. Gaja provides full improvisation and finally the new protagonists are the machines: their cold steady rhythms, their screeching metallic noises, their symphony of inarticulate patterns.
Drvg Cvltvre – Telepathic Warfare [COSMOS003]
Drvg Cvltvre is now back with a full EP of his own on Dutch label COS_MOS. Since 2009, Vincent Koreman a.k.a. Drvg Cvltvre has been churning out his own acid, no wave and experimental house and now kicks off the new year in style with three more inventive offerings. ‘New Earth Army’ is a slow, heavyweight and coarse track with rattling chords, angry percussion and elastic drums that manages to be physical and tough yet groovy and playful at the same time. ‘We Have Become The Filth of the Universe’ is a big, fat, heavy wedge of slow motion techno with monstrous drums and wild acid lines all spraying about wildly for the duration. It’s a warehouse sized track that will reduce the ‘floor to a writhing mess and finally ‘Possessed’ is a sci-fi riddled track with lots of spacey synths, filtered analogue lines and paranoid sirens all making for a turbulent brew of dark and otherworldly energy.
Secret Studio – Grime Time [SCS002]
Secret Studio releases their second 12″ on SS Records, “Grime Time” with a remix by D-Wynn. SCS02 is a tough, dark, acid bassline track that rolls over slightly distorted 707 drums. A heavy kick fills the room with echo like tones coming from somewhere deep below the surface. D-Wynn’s remix brings the original to a classier place in time. Big throwback strings, original bassline work and classic House drums. For Donna Mash Up is inspired by a Secret Studio Dj set. Recreating a live mash up moment that rode Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” over the dark acid bassline and drums of Grime Time.
