the 3rd segment from our new series focusing on rare vinyl from the basement/vaults, cd and music material from the headquarters and recording studio of Nation..
chicago
The Nation Presents: A Black United Front (part 2) Inspiration/Dedication
the 2nd segment from our new series focusing on rare vinyl from the basement/vaults, cd and music material from the headquarters and recording studio of Nation focuses on Dj Rush.
Traxx – Bizarre Beat II Multi-Mix [LIES-158]
Chicago deknician Traxx delivers an epic 17:00 minute excursion into the world of “proto rhythm” Here we have a blueprint 80s style mastermix which touches upon tracks that may be considered “proto-house” material from a forgotten time when studio experimentation and creativity with the machines were the norm. When producers made music for the djs and the two were all intertwined in the process working hand in hand (we can think about Larry Levan’s “Night Dubbing” album with Imagination as reference”. This 17 minute trip is Traxx’s take on the early sound of New York, some of the records played then and some of the techniques used to “spice up” the records shall we say.
The Nation Presents: A Black United Front (part 1) Sterilization
this is a new segment series focusing on rare vinyl from the basement/vaults, cd and music material from the headquarters and recording studio of Nation …
Steve Summers – Counter-Factuals [CLEAR006]
It’s been a while since we last heard from Steve Summers, one of the many musical aliases of producer Jason Letkiewicz. When he last landed on proudly Chicagoan imprint CLEAR with the robust and unearthly “Artificial Light” EP, it was on the back of nine years spent building up Steve Summers as a purveyor of forthright club cuts that pushed at the limits of acceptability. Now Letkiewicz’s return with his Steve Summers pseudonym on CLEAR is defiantly intense and otherworldly in tone. “Counter-Factuals” is powered primarily by the kind of psychedelic acid lines and thrusting machine drums that have long been a hallmark of Chicago house. This is no nostalgia-fest though, with Letkiewicz’s take on “acid” being more abstract and unorthodox than the music of his predecessors.
Traxx @ RS94109 (San Francisco) 25.10.2019
DeeCoy – Archive 2 [LIES144]
L.I.E.S. go in on the archive. DeeCoy aka Daryl Cura the man in Chicago you should have heard of part of The Dirty Criminals (with Traxx).
DeeCoy – Archive 1 [LIES143]
L.I.E.S. go in on the archive. DeeCoy a.k.a. Daryl Cura the man in Chicago you should have heard of part of The Dirty Criminals (with Traxx).
D’Marc Cantu – La Frontera [TKG013]
Tuskegee Music is back with more essential music, this time from venerated American producer D’Marc Cantu. He’s serving up raw-edged, uncompromising sounds as usual. Opener ‘Beat The Move’ is an urgent, high tech piece of slick and supple acid house with 303 undulations, dark vocal loops and the sort of hammering drums that get the club locked right in. The sublime ‘In The Forest’ is a tripped out bit of restless electro with skittish hits and rueful pads that gets right to your heart. Last of all is the militant, marching ‘A Narrow Connection’ which closes things out with crisp kicks and scintillating sheet metal drums that straighten your back and get you stomping.
Hieroglyphic Being – A Synthetic Life Vol. 2 [MATHPLUS016]
Mathematics Plus presents the second volume of Hieroglyphic Being’s “A Synthetic Life” featuring uptempo electronics & simmering circuit boards stamped with Chicago rhythm patterns.
Hieroglyphic Being – A Synthetic Love Life Vol. 1 [MATHPLUS015]
Hieroglyphic Being has materialized with the limited & stamped “A Synthetic Love Life Vol. 1” created a decade ago to cassette & sonically presented to higher plane listeners. Volume 1 of 9 for Mathematics Plus.
The Master Of Illusions – B09 [B09]
Traxx @ The Black Lodge (Los Angeles) 08.02.2019
“Assorted Dance, Groove n more 4 Kaput“, a musical segment by Traxx
Traxx @ Phormix 5 Years Anniversary, Romantso (Athens) 08.12.2018
Hieroglyphic Being & The Truth Theory Trio – Journey Through The Outer Darkness from the Inner Light [HVNX-700]
When asked about the story behind the tracks of ‘Journey Through The Outer Darkness from the Inner Light’, Jamal Moss answered with a laconic “No story. No dogma. No Hype”. After all, his despise of extra-musical paraphernalia is proportional to his productiveness in the studio. But there’s always a story. On April 9, 2016, Hieroglyphic Being played a live show in La Casa Encendida of Madrid within the festival Electronica en Abril. Some days later, the recording of the full set was uploaded to YouTube. When we watched it, we were totally captivated. Those eighty minutes of music had the raw power of all of Jamal’s body of work, but with a heightened sense of transcendence. Cosmic, spiritual and intensely beautiful, it sounded like a lysergic reinterpretation of Detroit techno transmitted from a galaxy yet to be discovered. As most of the material was unreleased, we reached Jamal in order to try to press it into vinyl. The result is ‘Journey Through The Outer Darkness from the Inner Light’, a 12″ that reunites eight of the individual tracks that conformed that Madrid performance. When inquired about AUM, the sacred sound all the tracks are labeled after, Jamal referred us to a book by author and naturalist Joseph Bharat Cornell. A book that the author himself presents with these words: ‘The sound of the Cosmic Vibration is AUM, and listening to it brings the greatest bliss imaginable. AUM is the Omnipotent Force that propels each soul toward Spirit. It’s the sacred, inner fire. As you approach the cosmic blaze, you feel at first its radiant, soothing comfort; then, as you come closer – AUM’s liberating flames consume you – and bring you to God”. There might be “no story and no dogma”, but, suddenly, it all makes sense.
Jamal Moss – R-Spirits Will Not Be Broken EP [TKG012]
Tuskegee Music welcomes a standout dance music innovator with a new EP from Chicago great Jamal Moss.
Knight Action – R-Trax [LDR077]
Two absolutely legendary pieces of early Chicago house music finally reissued for 2018. Mike Macharello and Duane Thamm JR’s Knight Action project was responsible for this colossal 1985 landmark release that saw a heady fusion of Euro influenced and Italo Disco sounds meet in the windy city and in turn create history.
Mutant Beat Dance – Mutant Beat Dance [RHM027]
Mutant Beat Dance has returned to Rush Hour. The debut album from renegade trio Mutant Beat Dance (Traxx, Beau Wanzer and Steve Summers) takes the wild and free sound of Chicago’s Music Box era into the 21st Century. Over 25 tracks the album mines an oft cited but rarely understood ground at the intersection of Post-Punk, Minimal Wave, Industrial, Disco Dub, EBM and proto-House / early-House. “Mutant Beat Dance.” is an epic journey into a classic American ideology that had its apex in Chicago. Traxx has been working on this concept in various forms throughout the last decade on release for Discos Capablanca, Rong Music, Hour House Is Your Rush Records, L.I.E.S. (Long Island Electrical Systems), Light Sounds Dark, Rush Hour and his own Nation label finally refining his concept into its most thoroughly developed explored on this the debut M.B.D album that was started in 2015. Mutant Beat Dance was originally a duo made up of Traxx, and self-described weirdo, Chicagoan Beau Wanzer. Given the scope of the new project it became logical and necessary to expand the unit to include its newest member Brooklyn based Steve Summers. Together this hard-working trio has completed an album with an enormous diversity of song styles unlike anything they have ever done before. Unique in its musical range and content from obscure electronics with subliminal messages to funk laden machine grooves, industrial soundscapes, Detroit dirge, cryptic ankle bitter anthems and beyond this is a genre-bending challenging epic of an album.
Knight Action – Single Girl / D-rail [LDR071]
Ultra-rare proto-house vibes from Chicago courtesy of Still Music. This one’s long been coveted by followers of the jacking beat, the apostles of WBMX. Produced by Mike Macharello & Duane Thamm Jr this is a truly unique record and one that is very hard to obtain. If you dig the earliest grooves from the Windy City, or you have a passing interest in Italo or Freestyle then this is for you. A fully legit 12″ reissue, taken from Still Music’s recent, comprehensive overview of the ‘Let’s Dance’ label this is unmissable.
