Hashman Deejay – Sandopolis [FT026]
Hashman Deejay’s Future Times debut, Tangerine, was something of an overlooked gem – an exotic, melodious gem that pinned Tangerine Dream style electronics to a restless techno groove. This surprise debut album has a similarly dreamy feel, even if the techno side of his output has been tamed a little. Instead, we get a range of eyes-wide-shut compositions that variously touch on Mood Hut style deep house (“Mercury”), ultra-deep electronica (the odd beats, spacey noises and relentless chords of “Mozaic”), swinging, Max D style drum workouts (the rich bass, dubbed-out synths and loose house grooves of “184”), trip-hop style downtempo beats “Statues PF”), and thrillingly loose, new age house anthems (“Xssential-3”).
Miltiades – Outermost Sensitive Paranoia Ep [SYNAPSIS013]
Greek producer laces up 4 tracks that combine textures, pads, rhythms, & arrangements that to feel deep within your belly button. The term House has undergone many changes, but always music that resonates with a listener’s soul.
VA – Lunes De Fiel [BM001]
The Lunes De Fiel compilation kicks-off with an extended uptempo trapped-in-a-maze hysteria; set in a psychedelic 90’s Norwegian remake of Potemkin in the harbor of Bergen. In the woods of woody Lithuania it continues with a road movie starring a young smugglers couple and arguably the most legendary love scene in film history. The story ends at night with a director’s cut of a downhill Indiana Jones on LSD fighting hungry alligators at the riverside of the Elbe valley. A definite must have on the new Bitter Moon imprint.
Murat Tepeli – Drop It Like It’s Hot EP [POTION001]
Potion is a new Deep House label from Berlin pair Prosumer and Murat Tepeli which naturally promises much on the basis of their collective production experiences and discographies. Presented as a platform for music from both it’s founders as well as some of their closest contemporaries, the debut drop of Potion comes from Tepeli and features a trio of acid-inspired cuts. Opener “P.S.A (Play Stop Acid) is the killer, with loose percussion, Syclops style bass and rough 303 lines riding a rock-solid, jackin’ groove. “Just A Modulation” is decidedly deeper and slower, with dub techno textures joining spacey acid lines. Finally, “A Wave Is A Wave” pits pots-and-pans percussions against rave-inspired electronics in devastation fashion.
VA – The House That Jackmaster Hater Built [STILLMDCD012]
Jerome Derradji is gaining something of a reputation as one of Chicago’s premier house archivists, having previously released compilations celebrating some of the Windy City’s most influential – but previously overlooked – labels. Here he’s teamed up with KStarke Records boss Kevin Starke to deliver a two-track set largely made up of material found on tapes that were once traded between Frankie Knuckles, Ron Hardy and other legendary Chicago DJs. Confusingly much of the material credited to Jackmaster Hater is of unknown origin, while there plenty of other unearthed gems with little or no information. Thankfully, the material – largely mid-to-late ’80s jack and early acid, with a sprinkling of deep house and Italo-influenced fare – is uniformly excellent, making it a “must buy” for anyone with a passion for early house music.
Mark Du Mosch – Amulet [TAPE007]
Three analogue synthesizer tracks by Mark du Mosch. On remix duties, we find French producer Voiski, who brings the title track ‘Amulet’ into overtly darker, techno territories. Comes with silkscreened sleeve by Ruben Verkuylen.
Gerstaffelen – Night Flowing North & South [MOSDEEP021]
Still no one knows who Gerstaffelen is, but with this release the producer becomes a regular on the MOS Deep label and is now back with four more of the rawest cuts you could imagine. Wasting no time in getting gritty, ‘Bombara’ is a frazzled and gauzy deep techno cut with muffled voices, beams of melodic light and lots of percussive hustle. ‘Invisible Ghosts’ is a less urgent but equally monstrous track with dark groaning bass, prickly hi hat patterns and frenzied synth lines. ‘Night Flowing North’ actually offers a slightly lighter sound, with celestial and heartfelt melodies darting about between ping ponging drums and percussive hits before ‘Night Flowing South’ comes over like a classic jack track from Chicago, with a quick baseline riding up and down the scale and propping the whole track up
VA – Parallax 1 [PRLX001]
Debut release showcases 3 of Tel-Aviv’s emerging electronic music producers. A-side is defined by Tv.Out’s hard-driven machines and Pharaoh’s hard jackin’ house miniatures. Stamp-side features two deeper House cuts by Jerusalem’s Yogg followed by a killer Fred P remix.
Tinfoil – Tinfoil 2 [TINFOIL002]
Sunil Sharpe and DefeKt unwrap more electrified madness with a second release as Tinfoil. More Sunil Sharpe techno than DefeKt electro comes through on this EP with “Foil 9” battering down the hatchet for a synth heavy, hi intensity hit of colourful industrial beats. Snares are added to the mix in “Foil 8” create a syncopated concoction of R&S rave mechanics mixed with detuned Drexciyan similarities. “Foil 10” sounds like something you’d image Oscar Mulero playing in Tresor while “Foil 5” is stripped back and sinister.
Florian Pellissier Quintet – Biches Bleues [HS114]
Timeless, Florian Pellissier Quintet journey through jazz from Paris to New York. A rule of the game is to find the flavor of New Yorkers groups from the 60’s to mix with European musicians of the time. Organic, inspired, it would take ten years of concerts and two albums to reach the goal: ”iches Bleue” promises to be a gateway album, a hidden passageway between eras, a scientific miracle. A sax, trumpet, piano, bass and drums, no artifice, a simple sound.
Dollkraut – Schimanski’s Black Lullabies [THEGYMLP002]
Accurately describing the sound of Dollkraut, aka producer Pascal Pinkert, has always been tricky. Over the years, his sporadic 12″ singles have variously touched on analogue disco, krautrock, deep house, Italo, nu-jazz and beatbox electro. This belated debut album – released some five years after his debut 12″ dropped – continues this theme. It flits between styles at will – bold African rhythms, post-punk, soundtrack schtick, Serge Gainsbourg style sleaze, odd guitar-laden lo-fi rock sketches – whilst retaining a unique dustiness and aural sensibility. It’s a fine set, all told, and in the circumstances holds together remarkably well.
Mind Fair – Mind Fair [CHANNEL029]
Having impressed with a variety of weird and wonderful singles on International Feel, Golf Channel and their own Rogue Cat Sounds imprint over the last three years, it’s probably about time Ben Shenton and Dean Meredith dropped their debut album under the Mind Fair alias. Predictably, it’s an impressively wonky, off-kilter and dubbed-out affair, effortlessly joining the dots between dub disco, hazy punk-funk, heavy African rhythms (see stand-out “Voodoo Train”), slo-mo chuggers (“Neon Carnival”) and bluesy Balearica (“Sunny Carter”). Blessed with plenty of live drums, guitars and bass, as well as vintage synthesizers, it’s an attractively loose affair, with great ideas and beautiful mood pieces complimenting the low-slung, out-there experiments.
Tapper Zukie / The Warriors – Visions Of Love / Love Dream [SRE010]
Reissue of this super rare 12inch from the legendary Tapper Zukie. ‘Visions Of Love’ is a vocal lead groove fest, with bumping bass lines and throwback house beats, whilst the B-side lays out a dubbier version of the original. Proper floor filler material here.
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