Rest In Peace Andreas. Your music will live on forever. Andreas Gehm, before his untimely death, announced on his Board he wasn t coming back on stage but he had releases in the pipeline of important labels. Two of these tracks were meant to Involve. Tribute to the master of German acid.
“Chord Memory” the hymn for the widely used feature in 80s hardware synthesizers got some individual rewiring done. If ten fingers ain’t enough Hyboid uses his Galactic Memory for punchy disco purposes while Robyrt Hecht reaches for a swinging Pivot Memory to sweep and swipe your electro habits. On the other hand Milium likes the exposed wires of his Mutiny Memory to revolt whereas CCO simulates his natural Echoic Memory with floating acid sparks. Completing the mechanical rewiring the duo Nachtzug added delicate software to Execute the algorithms and installed a Memory Loss button, if you are in need of a reset.
Points label owner Dona (AKA DJ Plant Texture) returns with three killer Acid tracks for More About Music.
Legowelt, as Nacho Patrol, is back on MinimalRome with the single Panter 777, already included in the limited edition tape of his LP The Maze of Violence, produced in 2008. The track is an explosion of wahwah funk riffs and juicy analog synthesizers and it comes on the B side with a powerful acid remix by Jared Wilson from Motor City. Don’t miss it, it’s on MRX – Patiendum Est limited series.
London label Of Paradise marks its inaugural release with the Incipience EP, the debut 12-inch from Melbourne based producer Shedbug. Four dusty, tough and emotionally driven house jams born out of sun drenched hardware experimentation.
Africans With Mainframes return with ”Faces Of Africa Pt. II” in the series of Deep House and Acid Chicago sounds. Think Guidance or Large records from the mid-90’s.
“For the 11th release 7777 presents the Ghost Miners Remixes. For these remixes I offered each producer samples from different songs from the 2 Ghost Miners records. Instead of doing straight forward remixes of a single song, I put forth the proposal for each artist to make their own version of a Ghost Miners song from scratch or using any samples they feel like. Contributors include 3 of my favorite producers. 2 in demand artists; FIT Siegel and Andreas Gehm and one new comer; Brian Thrash. Andreas Gehm’s version is a standard acid Gehm gem. Calling in the chords from the originals mixed with standard Gehm acid brilliance. In FIT Siegel’s version you’ll find the perfect pure underground dance sound. Featuring Ray-7 on hand drums FIT constructs a remix that combines elements of classic Detroit and Chicago sound while keeping the attitude and acid aesthetic of the original material. On the B side Brian Thrash, controlling his analogue arsenal, takes you on an epic acid journey traversing through the underground and space.” Jared Wilson
Four raw acid cuts created and performed live by Lithuanian producer, Audrius Vaitiekunas also known as IJO. The artwork image was generated by feeding audio signal through a custom built analog video synthesiser by London based artist and designer Tom Jef.
Next up on Titanic City is Stephen Lopkin, serving up five new cuts on The Strategic Reserve EP. Stephen makes his mark with a release firmly influenced by his passion for Detroit and Chicago’s House and Techno scenes. It’s a release layered with strings, soaring pads and an abundance of hats and snares.. everything we love at Titanic City. There’s a rough and raw DIY feel to this music that makes it jump out of the speakers and arrest your attention, as is always the case with Titanic City.
Temple’s third release presents R Wong’s debut EP influenced by acid trance and new age. A record for self reflection.
Matteo Pepe aka Uabos returns to Bitter Moon. Building on his first outing, A Point of View opens with the warming 303 grooves of “A Point of View.” Clean beats and lush notes weave in this playful house encounter. Those same crisp rhythms are present in the funk filled “Groove Is A Mystery” before slow burning beauty of “Piano Fights”, a track that will simply ignite anything it comes in contact with. Bright and energetic, “Semen Without Touch” ends the EP, shimmering bars and playful twists wind together for a colourful close.
Andreas Gehm is known for his fierce, unapologetic acid style. But the Cologne man does have a more mellow side, a smoother side, and that’s what this three tracker is. Of course, smooth Gehm still has some rough edges. “Yellow Flowers” combines thick pads, skittering beats, warming samples and frigid bars in an intoxicating brew. Malice and menace rear their ashen faces for the evil machinations of “Late At Night”, muffled vocals and sharpened snares glinting in the streetlights. Safety arrives in the form of the aptly titled “Less Violence.” Rhythms are still rough edged, melodies still have an underhanded element. Yet there is a subdued humanity in the sweetened strings, emotion coming to a head as the needle runs out.
‘Crystal’ is Justin Cudmore’s debut 12inch single. Raw, rough and ready to rumble, ‘Crystal’ marries snaking acid lines and bouncy grooves to a sample from cult underground film classic ‘The Queen’. On the flip is Detroit-bred and Bunker resident DJ Mike Servito’s “730 Reshape”, that gives the wiggly worm vibe harkening back to the early days of Transmat, Warp and the minimalism of Dan Bell’s DBX project. L.I.E.S. mainstay Gunnar Haslam provides his ‘Dekalb Avenue Remix’ made while living in New York, a modular synth cruise with the top down.
For the latest missive on her ever-impressive Love On The Rocks imprint, Paramida has turned to Detroiter Sharif Laffrey. “Key Jam (A.C.I.D)” is something of a sleazy, late night treat, with Laffrey expertly combining proto-house style drums and bass, with wonky, pitched-down vocal samples, freestyle synth refrains, the alien pulse of electro, and – of course – some ragged acid lines. There’s a lot going on across the nine-minutes, but Laffrey’s focus on the power of the groove remains in tact throughout.
Mike Ash returns to Super Rhythm Trax after providing the very first release and gives us 4 authentic and acidic warehouse smashers. The tracks exude a raw and strangled soul and are a bold and comfortingly honest take on the warehouse and pirate radio sound of the UK.
Cin Cin is back for round two, this time calling up Michigan superstar Todd Osborn who delivers a 1,2 knockout punch with heavyweight acid killers We Gonna Jak’ and On the T’. On the flip Londoner Laurence Guy gives us an anglo saxon take on that heady deepdiscohouse sound thats guaranteed to warm the body and soothe the mind in these last dark days of winter.
The Hipodrome Of Music 