Timothy J. Fairplay @ Soup (Manchester) 02.02.2024
acid house
JTC – All Access No Excess EP [BOPD18]
JTC returns with a four-track EP, a mint encapsulation of his signature, decades-established style, machined from original remembrances of the Midwest’s party heydays and future visions of jakbeat tekno and underground acid-house progenies. ‘All Access No Excess’ is the first release in 2024 from Tadd Mullinix (Dabrye, X-Altera, Charles Manier) under his techno guise JTC, following his 2023 Album, Intra.Actae
George Heerd – Acid Quest [SG008]
George from Heerd returns to the Stomping Grounds label, this time marking his debut under his new solo project George Heerd with the Acid Garden EP. Drawing inspiration from the golden era of UK tech house while adding modern touches, George crafts an EP that reminisces about the early 2000s while embracing a contemporary twist.
VA – Tracks From The Alley Vol. IV [ALV011]
The fourth installment of the ‘Tracks From The Alley’ series continues to explore the oblique edges of the jackin zone, dragging recognizable primitive elements of dance music through narcotic madness; a possible soundtrack for sleepless nights at the skate park. Involved in this 4 tracker mini-compilation are the Greek dj/producer DimDj, the Berlin-based Italian producer and part of Sons Of Traders, TANS, the Portugal-based Brazilian Unrealistic Expectations label owner Nothing Was There, and the Alley Version’s brothers FLML.
Timothy J. Fairplay – Convictions That Stick [PNKMN54]
Timothy J. Fairplay finally lands on Pinkman, furthering his sonic excursions into raw, jacking, yet evocative house music. ‘Convictions’ rattles through drum-machine workouts topped with soaring synthlines, inviting you to spiral in the club’s darkest corners. Between the shuffled claps, ominous melodics and delay-laden syncopation, ‘Convictions’ playfully evokes both the mechanical exploration of urban space, and the claustrophobic intimacies encountered within it. There’s even a nod towards 1980s’ cult cinema hit ‘The Bronx Warriors’ at the end. Naturally, these six tracks find a perfect home on Pinkman.
Paranoid London – Arseholes, Liars, and Electronic Pioneers LP [PDONLP003]
Paranoid London, the electronic band of Gerardo Delgado and Quinn Whalley, has become synonymous with stripping acid house back down to its basics, rescuing the sound from smiley faces, rave, and sugary excess while paying respects to its gay, black, American roots. Performing mainly live with hardware only, often with vocal guests, as well as unique hybrid DJ sets, the duo has established a tongue in cheek, grumpy punk sound and attitude without taking it too seriously. Their new long-player “Arseholes, Liars, and Electronic Pioneers” refers to the cavalcade of c***s we find ourselves surrounded by. Our only respite being the joy that musical geniuses bring. As expected, PL has recruited a bunch of special guests on vocals including Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie, US house veteran Monica “DJ Genesis” Lockett, the novo-New Romantic/gothic, Jennifer Touch, and Joe Love, from Fat Dog, Brixton’s current ones-to-watch. As well, previous collaborators Josh Caffe and Mutado Pintado return for new recordings.
Felipe Gordon – Flutes of Gold EP [RNTR064]
Colombian producer Felipe Gordon returns to the Razor-N-Tape catalog for his 3rd EP. It’s a signature FG affair, from start to finish with deep jazz house chuggers like Homage to Bossa and Flutes of Gold, to the wistful and mysterious energy of Beside Me and the arpeggiated synth stomper Acid Party at Santa Barbara.
Anatolian Weapons – PT. 2 [BLESSYOU020]
Anatolian Weapons is back with part two of his remix/studio work for Sound Metaphors, this time a 2 track EP featuring downtempo chuggers high in dubbed out acidity. The A side feels like a perfectly put together composition that grows with a playful industrial beat paving the way for trancey melodies to develop in unison with acid nuances. B-side goes into more percussive directions still with heavy acidity well presented in full Anatolian Weapons effect – a solid investment yielding high returns on any music focused dancefloor.
Log_in – New User EP [PARTOUT18.02]
Partout continues its Latin America series with a four-tracker EP by the DJ Lou Flores, who display his creativity and his talent of producer under the concept of Log In.
Perseus Traxx – Mixtape From The Memory Banksby
Most of these jams and edits haven’t seen the light of day, and aren’t available separately (except for the 2nd track which was on a Secret Gang digital release).
Sweater on Polo – Go Wild Harlem Trax LP [LIES191]
NYC’s Sweater on Polo delivers a hammering six track mini LP for L.I.E.S. indebted to the sounds of early-90s psychedelic Chicago house, names like Gherkin and Pierre come to mind over this release but the young producer tastefully and effectively puts his own vision to the forefront with this record. In the misguided world of modern dance music production, Sweater on Polo, throws all trends aside and sticking to the bare essentials…letting the 808s,303s,727s do the job and making this one of the most crucial modern House records to come out of New York City in the last 10 years.
Le Chocolat Noir @ bRave, Surogat (Zagreb) 15.12.2023
Acid Jerks – I Got To Know [RFGV005]
Acid Jerks return to Refuge with another acid weapon. Staying true to their sound, with chunky acid lines and percussive grooves, they link up with hypnotic vocals of Brillstein alongside two remixes by the legend, Alden Tyrell & Dick Johnson.
Dircsen – Helical Structures LP [GTDLP9]
Germany’s Dircsen has a solid track record of 303 infused releases across labels like We’re Going Deep and Soundtravels, but this is his first full-length vinyl outing. Across these two slabs of wax he slips and slides between electro, deep techno, jacking house, and psychedelic live workouts, but throughout the eight tracks the silver boxes work their indefinable magic.
Marcus Paulson – Garden City EP [MOS034]
Gherkin Jerks – Gherkin Jerks EP [MU2413]
Three tracks that were included as bonus tracks on the Gherkin Jerks compilation CD from a few years ago are now up for their release on vinyl. All originate from the same Gherkin sessions as Mr. Heard’s two outstanding late 80’s EP’s but were never released as such. The moniker showed a different side to his sonic pallet, and would innovate the acid sound to great FX, influencing a great many of artists in the decades that followed. Psychotic Fantasy eventually made its way to the Dance 2000 Pt. 2 album, while the original full take of Ecstasy and Reznaytor never saw the light of the day. Now for the first time on wax and still sounding as futuristic as ever!
Zuul – Beam Retreat [XRD015]
Exarde clocks up its 15th outing here with another bit of brilliantly direct to dancefloor techno tackle from Zuul.
Jerome Hill – Crude Appraisal EP [SRTX040]
Jerome Hill returns with his 5th full EP on the label to warm you up for winter and it’s maybe stylistically, his widest offering yet. A joyous mash of influences collide and Hill spits them out of the blender with some typically unexpected curveballs. From the strikingly moody break beat acid of The Warning, to the 8 minute long extended Disco workout of ‘Harlseden Shuffle’. Then on the flip side, a reliably gnarly wedge of Technoey Acid House in ‘Combustion Zone’ and the EP culminates with a tip of the hat to mid nineties House with the rumbling bass and catchy percussion of ‘House Thing’.
Strange Haze – Temple of Truth [OUT002]
Outside In returns with some new-school, acid inspired sounds made for the club by Strange Haze.
VA – The House Of Web reworked Vol. 2 [ACIDO037]
Eight individual projects with various international origins, these two ep’s contain reworked and remixed material of Takuya Sogimoto’s early work that has been released on acido in 2020 and 2022, as well as some unreleased trax from 1994/95. Packaged in two editions of 300 copies, released separately. This is Volume 2 incl music from DJ Sotofett, Dynamo Dreesen & SJ Tequila, DJ Gizzard and DJ Yoav B.
The Hipodrome Of Music 