Two mega dancefloor tracks made by Doug Lee (Stallions, TBD) and L.I.E.S. label boss Ron Morelli. Real Bad News reminds us of the Cajual/Relief records days with heavy drums and a massive breakdown that is sure to totally confuse or drive people insane. The B-side’s More Bad News is a massive morphing track that sounds like a dying animal trying to escape a garbage can. It’s like German shuffle track through the eyes of two drunk and delusional Americans.
Amazing futuristic and forward thinking three track ep by Japanese producers Takuya Matsumoto, Hiroyuki Onozawa and Kouji Nagahashi. Exotic house music from Asia made with a fresh approach thats stirring up influences from jacking Chicago and Japanese pioneers such as Yellow Magic Orchestra.
While everyone was sleeping Mutant Beat Dance (the production duo of Chicago’s Traxx and Beau Wanzer) were in the studio cooking up something nasty. If you know these guys then you know they are out to push music into a different realm every time they work. On this 12″ we get two very different songs, the lead cut being driven by 727s, JX-3P bass, and some sampled horns which make this a driving and funky excursion bring you back to another time and place. Sketch III clocks in at around 110 bpms and drives on and on and on, plodding through the depths of your mind while conflicting voices (mis)guide you through your trip. Strictly for the freakz.
Protect-U move to Vibrations for this four-track EP of foggy analogue house oddities. “Wild Drift” opens proceedings with a flowing piece of arpeggiated machine funk, shifting through a myriad of hazy moods, whilst “Ultra (Basic mix)” utilizes a conga led rhythm and aquatic bassline in combination with dramatic lead melody. This track is revisited on the flip, as “Slow Ultra” gives a reversion characterized by its shimmering, intertwining pads punctuated by a rich bassline. The EP is closed by “Bright After Dark”, undoubtedly the moodiest track of the bunch; foregoing the relatively rich melodies of its counterparts, it focuses instead on swampy atmospherics and an industrial squelch.
Split release from the Black Market archives with tracks by Larry Heard and The It (with a main role for Larry Heard too). Two amazing tracks which actually 20-25 years later still sounds more futuristic as many releases nowadays. Spaced out jazzy keys on the mind blowing Black Oceans with trademark Larry Heard melodies. Flip side takes things to the darker chicago jack territories with the great Endless flight track by The It. This is one of their overlooked and more obscure tracks.
The Forest is the debut release from Pal +. The two tracks on The Forest demonstrate Pal+ to already be in possession of a fully formed sound notable for its disregard for standing still. The Stottifield vacuum of grainy textures that permeate the opening moments of “The Forest” are soon engulfed by the orchestrated light of the track in full flight, while “Inside” is a constantly shifting mass of jacking drums and deranged key stabs. The mysterious German duo Snuff Crew are commissioned to remix the title track, and they turn in a suitably grubby rework with killer staccato drums, the end result being a vastly different vibe to the original cut.
“FACT mix 333 is a similarly giddy, similarly cliché-capsizing outing from Moss. Recorded on March 15, 2012, at the Musicbox club in Lisbon, it captures Moss across 2 hours and 45 minutes of live PA performance, vinyl DJing and editing on the fly. It’s by some distance the longest FACT mix we’ve ever hosted, but we couldn’t bring ourselves to edit it down: Moss’s exhilarating narrative, at times improvised and free-associating, at others coolly controlled, simply demands to be consumed as a whole.”
Comeme has resurfaced sporting a new artistic look and brandishing the same devilish approach to causing dancefloor chaos. The label’s latest EP comes from Isaac Johan, described in fanciful fashion as the “first genuine ghost” to join the pan continental Comeme fold. Believe what you want but lead track “Everytime I See Your Face” does sound like there’s a spirit careening around the inner workings of some Roland drum gear. Despite his apparent spectral state, the following triplet of tracks finds Isaac Johan to be a perfect addition to the Comeme fold.
Very much unclassifiable house not/ techno/ not disco debut coming from recent NYC transplant, Bookworms. Blown out sample chops, synched up drum machines with those Barney’s claps and outboard synths play throughout making these two jams more than interesting excursions into an intimate place that we just can’t place our finger on still.
Chris Mitchell is up next on Vanguard Sound with a solo piece called Phrenetic EP. A four track 12″ that shows off Chris’ versatility as each track has a different style and feel. Some new music from the American south that is making waves as Chris is creating his own sound.
From North Yorkshire, England, more classic ’88 UK dark acid house from Mantra, a full-length lp on white vinyl.
Big sounding chicago acid tracks produced by Hakim Murphy and Ike Release. Ranging from in your face acid to deeper tracks.
Ra.H & Dynamo Dreesen get reworked by Donato Dozzy, Madteo & Sensational by Hieroglyphic Being.
Two eighties recordings which were taken from reel and have been remastered and made available for your pleasure. ‘Boxbeater’ especially is a track that was inspired by the slam dancers who used to go wild on the rhythm tracks Ron Hardy used to play at the Music Box. ‘Warm’ is a deeper, yet fierce, house cut, which was inspired on early ‘Rhythim Is Rhythim material.
The Hipodrome Of Music 