R-Zone – R-Zone 07 [RZONE007]

Cover art - Unknown Artist: R-Zone 07

The much loved R-Zone series continues apace here with three more rough analogue jams for its seventh release. ‘If U Going Thru Hell Keep Going’ is a paranoid, angsty bit of house jack with a busy synth line, hard hitting percussion and plenty of muddy, murky atmosphere. ‘Emojako’ is even more unhinged and off filter with its weird hooks, dusty hi hats and intense drum workouts. It’s a physical one that will fuck with your mind as it changes direction freely, and final track ‘Subatomi’ is just as freaky and left of centre. The synths are lively and charming, spraying about above a cacophony of woody percussion and heavy drums. It’s grainy and roughhewn but groovy and catchy at the same time.

listen

R-Zone – R-Zone 07 [RZONE007]

Spirit Of The Black 808 – Guerilla Shit EP [SYNAPSIS008]

Cover art - Spirit Of The Black 808: Guerilla Shit EP

3 rough, rugged, and raw tunes in which the waveforms are stopping eardrums and woofers, meanwhile experimenting but still staying true to the Chicago ethos. Man, you just got hit with some Guerilla Shit!

listen

Spirit Of The Black 808 – Guerilla Shit EP [SYNAPSIS008]

Hieroglyphic Being – Seer Of Cosmic Visions [Free Album]

Hieroglyphic Being’s Seer Of Cosmic Visions album, of original jams and reworkings of previously released tracks, exclusive to The Wire.

Inspired by Sun Ra, Chicago based House experimentalist, noise maker and Afro-Futurist, Hieroglyphic Being aka Jamal Moss has released an ever expanding cosmos of music since the 1990s. Operating under different monikers including Africans With Mainframes (with Noleian Reusse) and Insane Black Men (IBM), Moss started out selling cassettes of his music outside Chicago nightclubs, then started up his own label, Mathematics Recordings, and sub-labels Music From Mathematics and +++.

Even though Moss started out under the wing of first wave House producers Adonis and Steve Pointdexter, he’s consistently made work on the fringes of Chicago’s electronic music scene: “I never really set out to make sounds for the club or the DJ, I make them for all ears that will listen and maybe be inspired by it for positive purposes. Or hate on it for negative purposes. Either they make me better at what I do, or go out and make it how they think it should sound. Believe me, I got a lot of haters out there letting me know how it should be done, and I have a lot of lovers of what I do modify and apply my sound. It makes it to the dance by three degrees of separation regardless.”

download / listen

Hieroglyphic Being – Seer Of Cosmic Visions [Free Album]

VA – Chicago Service [LIH010]

https://imagescdn.juno.co.uk/300/CS497414-01A-MED.jpg

Here’s the pitch: ask six of Chicago’s finest exponents of bumping house and pitched down disco cuts to contribute some of their finest works, blend them all together and present in the appropriate space either side of two 12″ slabs. What’s the end product? The rather hot looking Chicago Service from the Amsterdam label Lumberjacks in Hell which features a merry cast of the city’s finest in Gene Hunt, Rahaan, Jamie 3:26, Cratebug, Hugo H and Boogie Nite across two hot plates.

listen

VA – Chicago Service [LIH010]

L/F/D/M – Purple Maps [OT001]

Having established Optimo Music as a truly eclectic label more than worthy of the Optimo (Espacio) night it grew out of, JD Twitch and co. expand operations with the launch of the club specific Optimo Trax label. The all encompassing approach of Optimo Music remains the driving force behind this new offshoot, with the label apparently taking in both current artists and excavated “forgotten classics” and it’s with the former that they launch. Little is yet to be known about the London producer L/F/D/M, credited as R. Smith, who was apparently encouraged to pursue music production while studying art with Factory Floor’s man on electronics, Dominic Butler. Taking Butler’s advice, L/F/D/M delivers a strong five track of EP of deep, analogue-fueled acid techno which simultaneously draws upon the influences of the motor and windy cities, while also incorporating the more sinister strands of European techno.

listen

L/F/D/M – Purple Maps [OT001]

Beau Wanzer / Svengalisghost – CCCP 02 [CCCP002]

https://i0.wp.com/imagescdn.juno.co.uk/300/CS503449-01A-MED.jpg

After totally missing the incredible CCCP 01, we are happy to have finally tracked down some of this illusive heat.. get it quick. blistering tracks from Chicago’s Beau Wanzer and Svengalisghost.

listen

Beau Wanzer / Svengalisghost – CCCP 02 [CCCP002]

D’Marc Cantu – Alternate Frequency EP [CR1265]

https://clone.nl/platen/artwork/large/plaatimage28069.jpg

18 Months after serving up his debut LP ”Fallen”, D’Marc Cantu returns to his other home from home, Crme Organization. He’s back with a six track EP, Alternate Frequency, that sees him explore the same prickly analogue house and techno that has made him into the revered producer he is today. The title track opens up the EP with fizzing analogue synth lines and a nervous, howling melody before acid, muffled vocals and coarse claps all get chucked into the dense sci-fi mix. ‘Size And Shape’ is a more propulsive and dancefloor facing track. Surfing along on a lively kick drum, repeated vocal phrases interact with choppy percussion, glowing pads light up the backdrop and a delightfully lively melody runs amok at the centre of it all. Like an old school garage house track in overdrive, its full of charm. ‘Straight Shooter’ is then a zithering, 100 mile an hour piece of skeletal acid techno that grows ever more frantic and ‘Tazakuro’ is a lively analogue brew of cowbells, freewheeling synths and tumbling drums. Titanium Control Arms lurks deep in outer space with the humdrum of intergalactic space travel gurgling all around the central melodic motif and ‘Speed Freak’ is just that, a hyper-driven bit of electro with frantic percussion and riddled with unnerving synth lines that makes you want to jiggle every bone in your body.

listen

D’Marc Cantu – Alternate Frequency EP [CR1265]

Beau Wanzer – Beau Wanzer [LIES031]

https://i0.wp.com/imagescdn.juno.co.uk/300/CS499960-01A-MED.jpg

Chicago’s Beau Wanzer known for his work with Mutant Beat Dance and Streetwalker makes his debut on L.I.E.S. with his first solo EP. Wanzer who has been involved in the underbelly of American electronic music for many years, cut his teeth working at Magas’ now defunct Weekend Records and Soap. Through that time Wanzer constantly worked on music amassing a sizable studio where he worked in various electronic strains creating an impressive body of work. These tracks come from different points of his career and are stripped down functional pieces made for the dj even if that was not their initial intention.

listen

Beau Wanzer – Beau Wanzer [LIES031]

Gerstaffelen – The Old Villagers [MOSDEEP017]

GERSTAFFELEN - The Old Villagers

Mysterious producer Gerstaffelen here debuts on Dutch label MOS Deep with The Old Villagers, a four track EP of grainy analogue house. The title track opens things up at a mid tempo house pace. It’s a dense, multi-layered track with plenty of squiggly synths, bobbling analogue basslines and radiant pads. ‘Game On Major’ is slightly more frenzied, with dusty hi hats looping over fairly frenzied synth sounds and some hints of acid are buried deep within this hazy sound world. ‘Little Green Munchkin Men’ gets even more unhinged and techno leaning with the sounds of various analogue machines all meshing together into a nebulous brew of off killer melody and curious metal hooks, before last track ‘When The Mind Stops’ brings a bit of raw old school house flavour to the table. The beats jack, some muffled vocals add an important human element and like everything on the EP the track invites you to lose your shit in the most beguiling of ways.

listen

Gerstaffelen – The Old Villagers [MOSDEEP017]

Greg Beato – Apron EP [APRON005]

FunkinEven’s Apron imprint next release will be the first not to come from FunkinEven himself, and will be sourced instead from 19 year-old Miami producer Greg Beato. “Respect The 78″ pairs crunchy kicks with a noisily filtered arpeggio, “Let Em Know” delivers some smudgy yet powerful deep house, while “3″ finishes off with an abstract techno jam with all the rough sound of a badly scratched Chicago house 12″.

listen

Greg Beato – Apron EP [APRON005]