Finland’s Halvtrak joins Don’t Be Afraid’s burgeoning family for his debut EP. Across four tracks, Scandinavia’s latest musical export explores the house sound of Chicago via Tampere, offering four outstanding dancefloor options with a unique and very personal twist, whilst touching on some familiar UK-centric tropes.
The long overdue Bio Rhythm debut of the chief metaphysics himself.. Three westside boogie tracks that will make all you jackers scream.
Copies found of this repress of 1986 Chicago 12 – delightful stringwork on top of a bassline and choise drumprogramming, it can be so simple.
Photic Fields’ next release comes from another (Italy born) Irishman, Lerosa. He’s always exploring the edges of house, techno and electro to create something new. With this record he also explores the emotive side of things, in a rough edged and analogue way. The record starts off with ‘some things endure’, an introspective piece with a deep and dark synth pad. ‘Nebula Raider’ breaks open the record with its euphoric feel and acid hints. On the b-side you’ll find two joyful cuts: the uplifting ‘dream of flight’, and the closing track of the record, ‘postmodern’, with its playful keys and emotive synth tones.
The Truth (feat Marshall Jefferson)’, one of the standout tracks from Matt Tolfrey’s debut LP, ‘Word of Mouth’, sees a full single release with additional remixes from Gerd’s Geeeman project and John Charnis.
Lux Rec presents the second appearance of Echo 106 on the label. The two brothers descended into Infernal Regions to witness torturing flames, black magic woods, seas of damned souls and ice cold bodies. So brave, although not without any fear, they went close enough to sense such pains themselves. Carving five songs that depict their gloomy journey to an extent that, as the last song says, all is heard indeed.
The original 12” vinyl releases of Stomp The Beat and 1990 were two “Holy Grail” releases of Chicago House as they were only available for a short time before Gherkin Records went into inactive status in around 1991. At the time Larry Heard chose to not disclose the fact that he was the producer behind the Gherkin Jerks EPs. The two releases were a concept of experiments where he dove deeper into the equipment and do some creatively different tracks from his Mr. Fingers sound. These two legendary EPs have been heavily influential on other artists to this day. Often sampled or referenced they are true house classics and still amaze 25 years after their creation. Also on this album three bonus tracks, which are from the same Gherkin Jerks sessions but never released as such. Psychotic Fantasy was on the Dance 2000 pt. 2 album and Ecstasy is the full original take which makes its first appearance here. Reznaytor is an exclusive track for this release, never available before.
Crime Scene kicks the geez out of the backyards of Crime City with 3 dirty street trax. CC 004 is a real underground oldschool jam. Tracked and recorded on real analogue hardware – no plugin fake! houze musique – straight to the ghetto of our heart!
Lumigraph is Gareth Smyth, a young Dubliner who spent the summer of 2012 living in New York City. He filled his time recording sounds of the streets, making music in a small apartment and going out to parties, which is how he met the Mister Saturday Night guys. The songs on the Yacht Cruiser EP were all recorded in Brooklyn, and they are his first tracks ever to be pressed on vinyl.
Berlin-based producer Palms Trax offers up the inaugural release for new imprint Lobster Theremin with three slices of Detroit and Chicago-inspired house. Palms Trax and label chief Jimmy Asquith first met at London club night Streets Of Beige, forming a partnership based on a shared affinity for vintage US sounds, analogue workouts, and rough-edged intersections of house and techno. What began as an experiment in pad-driven Detroit workouts soon became Palms Trax’ calling card, the young producer building valve-heated, dust-treated slabs of house in his home studio, shot through with melodic synths and smooth, undulating drum patterns. Cheeky, groove-heavy “Late Jam”, referencing the randier sides of Miami boogie and glitter funk, “Equation”, an original Detroit cut, and “Houses In Motion”, a percussive, balearic-tinged jam, comprise the EP’s three original tracks. Willie Burns turns in a spacey remix of the EP’s opener that hits like an early 80’s drum jam, flipping between off-kilter, warped synths and stripped-down, hammering Chicago house.
Murphy Jax delivers a fresh full length EP entitled “Teleport : Echo City”, via the Frankfurt based Chiwax imprint. The album embraces a variety of styles, ranging from Chicago House, Classic Deep House, Movie Theme style cuts and raw Acid workouts. The mood of the records goes from child like melodies to dark, hypnotic and brooding synth heavy tracks.
Jax tells us the story of the album “Imagine a pre-apocalyptic generation of robots on a planet of machines. This is the last generation before the big war against the darkness, slowly coming from space. Some groups are fighting each other in chaos, others party before everything seems to end and lots of them don’t know – yet, but they all dream of Echo City. The one and only safe point, founded by Dr. Nigel Echo in the deep, cold and blue core of the planet. Dreams, desires, rebellion and chaos. They´re all going to fight the coming darkness, united by the prince of nanomagica. Taking place at several different locations, we are looking into the last hours before it all begins and ends at the same time.”
Chicago native Jordan Fields drops an awesome 4 Track EP for those who love Chicago sound. “A Tape Called 1990” this lost track was created 2 decades ago.. The “Just An Illusion ” re-work feels like the soundtrack to a break dance movie.
Super-loud supreme audiophile 180gm double-vinyl housed in deluxe gatefold sleeves and polyethylene inners, complete with full graphic novel inside, contains complete full-length 12” original fully-remastered heavyweight Chicago acid at its loudest and best.
The Nite Vision project from Craig Stainton and Nigel Rogers (aka Mantra/Myriadd and Perseus Traxx) returns for their third release to help kick off things for the Brand new label, Point of No Return. Rise Above is a 4 track 12 inch release thats takes inspiration from a dive to the depth of the 80s Chicago house. Each track brilliantly explores melancholy, and futurism with a strong sense of rhythm, while classic drum tones embrace the beauty of strings and pads, served with melodies that the heart will not forget. A classic, and definitely a must have record.
The Hipodrome Of Music 