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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
‘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).
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.
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.
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”).
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.
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.
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.
After more than a decade of releasing raw and emotional house music, Dutch producer and architect Aroy Dee is about to drop his debut album on his own M>O>S label. The man has established himself as someone who creates misty analogue music that nods to a Chicago heyday at the same time as coming imbued with plenty of its own deep emotions, mystic melodies and jacking beats. His M>O>S label has become a go-to outlet for fans of no nonsense house and that tradition continues on this full-length album. Incidentally, M>O>S stands for Muziek Over Steden – Dutch for ‘music about cities’ – because Dee has a close tie to buildings: during the day he works as an architect so has an unrivalled grasp of space, structure and urban environments that surely translates into his well built house music, and more specifically into this debut album. Made with the same hardware that defines the rest of his discography, including his first synth, the Poly 800, which he bought from his friend NWAQ, Sketches is a truly idiosyncratic project.
“For me, my musical output and development feels like an on going history of my life. In this perspective I worked steadily over the last two years on my first full-length album, Sketches. It’s a very personal document, not intended to make anybody happy but myself, which is why it has taken so long. It’s like a diary or ghost-script written about a part of my life and my fascinations, honoring my biggest musical inspirations.”
After two succesful EP releases on the label, Psyk aka Manuel Anós is back on Mote-Evolver inaugurating his first full-length album effort. “Time Foundation” proves to be an outstanding collection that shows the full spectrum of Psyk’s sound and the range of skills as he expands and explores different depths and moods. Keeping the energy level constant at the peak, there’s no downtime in “Time Foundation”. And while 10 sharp-cut tracks are all armed with clean, streamlined groove and impressive sound design therefore may soundincredibly slick and effortless, once you listened closely – and they will demand your attention – that kind of breezing through swift force is only the byproduct of Psyk’s high caliber production ability to map out meticulous structures with a great detail.
The Hipodrome Of Music 