Orlando Voorn is back with a new album, on Out-Er. Acid European influences combined to Detroit techno with continuous dance melodies. Orlando Voorn experimental and innovative music strikes again.
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Anthony Nicholson – Four LP [DAS006]
Anthony’s fourth album is simply called ‘Four’ and features 12 masterpieces of deephouse music. Every track is a masterful lesson in the art of this genre. They are beautiful and originally composed, including elements of jazz, garage, disco, RnB and classic house. Anthony Nicholson clearly shows that he is gifted with an amazing imagination and also a proper knowledge of musicality.
This Perfect Day – No Frills, Just Noise [SS015]
This Perfect Day was a band formed in Manchester, UK around 1981 by vocalist/blues harp player John Sama Snowden and synthesiser player Mik Hayes. John had the street-cred having previously been vocalist with The Limit and for a short time was the vocalist with The Passage during which time they played gigs alongside Joy Division. Mik, by contrast, had no street-cred, having been bass guitarist with a semi-pro cabaret/covers band, playing 2 hour sets of pop songs every Saturday night. The antagonism between the two, the fight between atmosphere and melody characterizes This Perfect Days sound… in fact the name This Perfect Day is an attempt to convey this. It comes from the novel by Ira Levin in which everything on the surface is perfect, but underneath this surface is an underbelly of pure scum! Their music was never intended to be synth music in the classic Kraftwerk / Human League / OMD / etc sense. It was music that just used synthesizers because they didnt have a drummer or a guitarist. They immediately started writing their own songs, bouncing music from track to track on a Revox B77 tape recorder, using a monophonic ARP Axxe and a Soundmaster SR-88 drum machine. Over the next 2 years, besides playing a number of gigs in the northwest of England, they were able to record a total of 13 songs on 8-track tape at Bootleg Studios, Stockport, UK, culminating in the final session with the recording of The Garden and The Time of Your Life, which utilized the polyphonic capabilities of their new Crumar Stratus synth. The Garden and The Time of Your Life were put together as a double A side single purely for promotional purposes. Copies were sent to record companies, radio stations, DJs, etc. but no-one was interested, so the music finally faded away. No decision was ever made to stop… life just took over… until now…
Julius Steinhoff – Flocking Behaviour [SMALLVILLELP009]
Half of the dynamic duo Smallpeople, founder and one of the steersmen behind Hamburgs Smallville empire as well as a producer and DJ in his own right, Steinhoff’s debut album comes on his own label. A romantic concept of house music that is at times utopian, the album gathers eight tracks that evoke late nights, hazy mornings and walks on thin air.
Synthek & Audiolouis – Unwise [NTCLP001]
The debut album by Synthek & Audiolouis can be seen like a precious gathering of different approaches to Techno, made in order to create a meaningful and elaborate piece of work. The opening tracks Miasma and Intro:spection are just a glimpse into the atmospheres which costantly surround the whole album. Strong rhythmics and overwhelming soundscapes never abandon the ears, modulating intensity and brightness along the journey through a sea full of dark acid waves. Unwise is a bold sequence of powerful tracks devotedly written for the dancefloor, but still keeps a certain emotional aspect made of few melodic Detroit-rooted cuts, standing as a tribute to the author’s primary inspirations.
Kline Coma Xero – Kline Coma Xero [MR036]
Medical Records presents the debut full length release of Kline Coma Xero. Formed in 2012, Kline Coma Xero is a group whose work embraces elements of early minimal synth wave with distinctively thoughtful lyrics and evocative melodies. Kline Coma Xero’s Tony Williams has had his roots planted in various projects in the past, spanning a realm of styles from experimental noise, tape loops and early industrial. Using a writing style that employs the use of hardware sequencers driving analog instruments rather than computers, Kline Coma Xero produces a uniquely oblique interpretation of past-meets-present in modern electronic music.
Severed Heads – City Slab Horror [MR035]
Their most varied, interesting work, City Slab Horror includes stark synthesizer workouts, several tracks of pure rhythm and noise, and, thankfully, little of the unambitious tape music for its own sake of Since the Accident. “Cyflea, Rated R,” “4.W.D.,” and the title track provide several examples of the best experimental synthesizer tracks of the mid-’80s.
Yagya – Sleepygirls [106DSRLP]
Icelandic producer Yagya release his fifth album, Sleepygirls, on Dutch label Delsin. It’s a deep, spacious and dubbed out affair that stays locked at a pleasingly sedentary tempo throughout. The album is a fine fusion of tropes from Yagya’s earlier albums, features jazz instrumentalists that improvise beautiful melodies over monotonic, almost drone-like, techno beats and also uses live recordings of Japanese vocals, saxophone and guitar to counter the repetitiveness of the rhythms. Right from the rolling bliss of the opener, you’re suspended in a womb like pillow of sound that is soft, warm and serenely beautiful. As tracks roll on, the pace stays the same but themes vary from upright and summery to more elongated and insular. This is natural, organic dub that is a delight and a pleasure to listen to.
“I wanted to create an album that’s atmospheric, repetitive, and easy to listen to over and over again. Something that works well in the background (e.g. when concentrating on work), as well as up close in a big sound system. I also wanted to learn how to make my music sound better than before, since I’m a huge sound-nerd, so that was a part of the goal for me personally.”
DJ F – 1974 [AHD007]
Spain’s A Harmless Deed label announce the release of its first artist album. DJ and producer DJ F, who up to now has also produced a sleek brand of airy dub techno and house on labels like Frigio and Semantica, drawing on everything from lo-fi Detroit techno to vintage electro.
Developer – In Pure Form [MOD016]
Modularz Label owner Developer presents his first LP „In Pure Form“. This is a real wealth of work that developer has been creating over the last year. Its a fairly large catalog of tracks focusing on raw rhythms, strong tools and powerful funk fueled techno. This is a massive selection of functional tracks direct from the Developer factory of techno.
Gavin Guthrie aka TX Connect – Gavin Guthrie aka TX Connect [CREME68-69]
Next up on Creme Organization is Gavin Guthrie Aka TX Connect with a searing double album of analogue tracks aimed at the dancefloor. Up first is ‘Soundtrack 909’, a deep and melodically rich house affair that sooths your soul before ‘00707’ gets rough, jagged and angst with its off time cowbells, brooding hi hats and ever more frantic acid. ‘Palm Sunday’ then explores more cosmic beat territory in playful, colourful style and ‘Metroplex Jaxx’ is a rugged, dystopian and foreboding acid jam with plenty of occult melody work buried deep within. ‘Aqua Finess’ is a wholly malfunctioning acid machine very much doing its own weird thing and on the last side of this double vinyl pack, ‘Desmond’s Obsession’ plays with whacked out electro aesthetics and ‘Haddonfield, IL’ leaves you on a dour and downbeat note thanks to its crawling synths and lumpy hooks. Overall, this is an expansive and expressive double pack from TX Connect that has more than been the wait.
Head High – Mega Trap [POWERHOUSE505]
Right on cue, Rene Pawlowitz drops another set of Head High bangers just in time for summer. While previous releases from his Power House imprint have been short but sweet affairs, the brilliantly named Megatrap offers a full nine tracks of what Hard Wax have referred to quite concisely as “uplifting Breakbeat Techno in golden 1990s leaning style”. Those who have heard the previous Head High material will know exactly what to expect, but there’s still much excitement to be had in getting stuck into such a sizeable portion of throwback techno, the likes of which are likely to liven up any party. There was never any doubt, but Pawlowitz has done it again.
Poisson Chat – Wave Memory [PCM006]
Two years after his last EP Terra Incognita, Poisson Chat is back on Poisson Chat Musique for a very special and personal record : Wave Memory, a mini album gathering six waves recorded throughout 2013, after the break-up of an important love story. This record is his diary, recounting his own experience about a meaningless, dark period in life.
DJ Nature – Groovotica Collection 1 Box Set [CHANNEL041]
‘Groovotica’ is a special one to be sure – a box set featuring two 12’s (one original material, the other a selection of edits from DJ Nature’s private stock).
Wayne Shorter – Speak No Evil [3771258]
Speak No Evil is the sixth album by Wayne Shorter, recorded on 24 December 1964 and released on Blue Note in 1965. The music combines elements of hard bop and modal jazz. This is a Blue Note 75th Anniversary reissue.
Automatic Tasty – Rites of Wrong EP [COMMUNICATION003]
Wrong Island returns with yet another big hitter, welcoming Automatic Tasty to the fold with a 7 track mini-LP. The record starts with a Cassette Boy style attack on the emptiness of daytime TV before firing into a half hour of psychedelic acid house. From the bleepy funk of A Public Service Announcement to the all-out acid assault of Cheers Curtis this record is like what we think Drexciya would have sounded like if theyd written tracks about the hills and fields of Ireland instead of underwater kingdoms, this is perfect summertime music as good for drinking cider in the Sun as it would be for the dancefloor.
Inigo Kennedy – Vaudeville [TOKEN043]
This fourth album from British techno veteran Inigo Kennedy – his first since 2010’s decidedly ambient September Pieces – has something of a “catch-all” feel. You see, Vaudeville refuses to stick to one sound, style or groove, instead referencing the many styles of techno and experimental electronic music that have inspired the popular producer over the course of his 18-year career. So, there are murky, IDM-inspired techno floorfillers (the melodious but faintly foreboding “Requiem”), early British psychedelic techno (“Plaintive”), dense, darkroom grooves (“Vallecula”), classic Yorkshire bleep and bass (“Petrichor”), Kompakt-ish organic techno (“Winter”), and spooky, droning ambience (“Narrative”).
Esteban Adame – Day Labor [EPM007V]
Following the album’s opening single ‘Home Sick’ backed by a remix from MGUN earlier this spring, LA based artist Esteban Adame delivers his first album for EPM in the shape of ‘Day Labor’. Esteban Adame is a part of the new wave of artists emerging from the Los Angeles underground scene. After releasing material on Planet E, Esteban partnered up with long time friend and colleague Santiago Salazar to start ICAN Productions. As a musician, Esteban is also a member of the Underground Resistance live act Galaxy to Galaxy, as well as being part of the new six-piece ensemble, Thee Afterdark. He has also released solo productions on labels like Underground Quality and Modelhart and boasts various remixes to his credit.
VernoN – Watched By The Experts [APT007]
Previously responsible for some of the best work (and track titles) on the Dixon Avenue Basement Jams label, mystery man VernoN brings his distinct styles and capital N to the excellent Apartment label and delivers their first long player in the process. Allegedly based in Marseille and with a background in Belgium, there’s a degree of opacity to VernoN’s story that suggests it’s wiser to focus your attentions on his music, not his story. If he did spend time in Belgium, he clearly used it researching the country’s rich New Beat heritage, as it’s on display across Watched By The Experts. Six tracks deep, this new beat influences is mixed up with dabs of house, electro and techno with the results an album (of sorts) that will remain in the record box of many a DJ.
Jason Grove – Skylax [LAX137]
The producer that keeps diggers guessing is back on Skylax with a double pack of refined house grooves named in honour of the label that has borne his music thus far. Wherever and whenever this music appeared, there’s no arguing with the simple beauty of a cut like “John Blue” with its tripped out organ line and globulous pad, or “Rawkicks 2” in all its lounged-out grooving glory. There’s a lot of space allowed for soul samples and loose-fit beatdown drums, moving this release away from a strictly dancefloor release into a wider headspace. With his delicate touch and unfussy delivery, Jason Grove will undoubtedly be worming his way into even more heads thanks to this LP.
The Hipodrome Of Music 