Phormix presents the 4th collection of works from various artists. Waves leds the Night elevates the exploration of the minimalist aesthetics in the soundscapes of non-trivial patterns and surfaces the artists creativity in-hand with the monastic possibilities elevate imagination.
This is what legends are made of: Acid House, Chicago 1988, Mickey Oliver and his Hot Mix 5 Records, Larry Heard aka Fingers, Pierre, Phortune & Armando. Released in 1988, ACID LP was the first and only full length on Hot Mix 5 Records. It is much more than a classic album, it’s a staple for any self respecting DJ. This is probably one of the best Acid House compilation to make it out of Chicago. Still Music is proud to start its Hot Mix 5 Records reissue series with such a monument to House. Every track on here is a classic in its own right, with Pierre’s “Dreamgirl”, Armando’s “151”, the two incredible Fingers tunes ”The Juice” and “Ecstasy” and so much more. For the first time, this reissue features all the songs that were on the original release but remastered and on a red vinyl DLP. Don’t sleep on the ACID.
The latest in the synth-heavy sludgedown from Public System Recordings, invites a new cast of characters into the dungeon dance. The common theme throughout this sampler of titans of industrial the world over, seems to be wide, slowed down melancholy. Some tracks take a floor-friendly jump, while others demand the attentive consumption of a more serene setting. These two discs are packed with dynamic, chugging, and forward thinking jams that make you mesh all things PSR is passionate for.
Barro from Spain brings for the second release a compilation of six industrial tracks from Betek, Nole, Orlok 101 and Persona Non Grata.
The fourth various artists compilation album on Netherlands based 030303 Records. Splitradix has been given the honour to kick off with a wonderfully meandering acid epos, reminiscent of 808 State’s more obscure output, with a euphoric element entering about halfway. Zaphyd takes the energy level up a bit further with a strange dry beat driving the tune which is full of melodies trying to elbow each other to the side in the friendliest possible way… Side B opens with Star Flip by Holovr where a series of classic throbbing acid basslines are accompanied by an unsettling melody, not for the faint hearted! The Exaltics’ What If We Could is a haunting bubbly motherfucker of an acid track, not totally unlike Polygon Window’s Untitled, pure dark bliss… The C side then starts with a brilliantly bouncing contribution containing a beautiful melancholic theme by Piepiep, one of 030303’s co-founders. Argentina’s Nacho M Meyer is the mastermind behind Planeta, yet another dreamy cut full of Detroit-like melancholy. Zelfkant, the first contribution on the D side, is by Betonkust and feels like a classic Warp Artificial Intelligence armchair track with a touch of wave/electro. One of the best tracks on the comp then, is by Dirty Data, who delivers a track full of twisted breaks, hectic bleeps and eerie synths, mind blowing this one… Kramphaft is behind the final contribution to the compilation, again a sinister and dark one with haunting melodies spun out over unusual hard hitting electro breaks.
The third release from the Pubblicazione series is out on the Italian label Hiroshima 45. Chernobyl 86. Windows 95. 80s EBM Mexican band Interface went digged, contacted, then re-edited by Sneaker Dj. The unique slow industrial marchs signed Raw Ambassador strike again. Rawmance: 3AM when the walls sweat. Addictive dance. Dutch master Das Ding hosted here with a progressive storm, rougher than ever.
Emotional Response presents Elsewhere LVI. the 4th of soFa’s compilation series. This double LP takes us to the darker side of the elsewhere ouvre, via another 12 artist / 12 track travelogue. With certain future-retro feelings, this is club music for the open minded. An album that roams from dreamy ambient territories to rhythmic patterns – internationalism for the adventurous DJ. Rusty slow-mo bangers and post-industrial synth-wave kidnap the listener to a dystopic and shady wasteland. Elements of ethnic folk, vintage vocoders and Gamelan samples all united on one homogeneous selection. With artists now known to welcoming new brethren, this is an audio trip to leave reality behind. Exotic, hypnotic, tactile, trance-inducing meditations, washed down with a spoonful of magic.
London’s Warriors Dance label was a unique operation and a pioneering London label during the late 80’s acid house phenomena. Home to an assortment of DJs, MCs and soundmen, they went on to make their own original and indelible mark on the rave scene from the infamous ‘Addis Ababa’ studio on Harrow Road on the North-West side of the city. This is an updated and expanded 2019 version of the Warriors Dance compilation 89′ that boasts some unreleased DAT tape outtakes and cuts that have never seen the light of day – until now. This compilation is crammed full of the breakbeats, deep as the centre of the earth basslines, left-field influenced acid cuts and dubwise new-wave esque dance sounds..
The skies are calling and its time to board our trusty jet for the 5th outing of Africa Seven’s premiere class compilation Africa Airways. For volume 5 its time to brace yourselves for 10 slices of Afro boogie goodness. There’s a slightly different feel to the latest instalment of the fantastic “Africa Airways” compilation series. While previous instalments have largely focused on heavy Afro-funk and Afro-soul, this fifth edition showcases material recorded during the disco and boogie era (1976-82). The ten included tracks are superb, with highlights including the fuzzy, Clavinet-driven thrills of “Sweet Sidney (Edit)” by Black Bells Group, the heavy grooves and dancing synth lines of Gyedu Blay Ambolley’s “Highlife”, the spacey Afro-boogie badness of Fotso’s “French Girl” and the flash-fried disco-funk celebration that is Jide Obe’s spacey, Moog-sporting “Too Young”. As the old cliche goes, this is all killer and no filler.
Splattered vinyl with a silk screen printed cover and a huge poster inside. Lustpoderosa`s eclectic lifestyle continues with its very first various artist compilation. A clash of generations in sonic form, ranging from slow and heavy industrial beats to gloomy minimal wave. Four contemporary tracks and two reissues from 1984.
Massive 22 track compilation spanning three vinyl lps and one 45 showcasing a wide scope of subterranean American electronics. This is just a small look into the the massive contemporary underbelly of odd-ball sonic bottom dwellers making noise across the 50 states. These tranmissions come from remote government outposts, booming overcrowded metropolis’, outskirts of America’s South and even the long forgotten muck and sleaze of Northeastern suburbia. This America in its glory, a nasty place rife with tension and division, ready to boil over into complete chaos at any given moment and these are artists that walk amongst it. Absorbing it all and spitting it out, moments of clarity and tranqilty go head to head with dramatic clashes, attempting to make sense of it all or simply to isolate oneself and escape this morbid world. A definitive sonic document of modern life in a nation on the decline.
Veyl is introducing the second edition of ceremonial covenant, ‘Previously Undisclosed Rituals II’. The all-star cast which includes December (Blackest Ever Black/Pinkman), Vaal (Pale Blue Dot), TV.OUT (L.I.E.S.), Instruments of Discipline overlords Operant, Lost Highway, human bulldozer Ayarcana and the Greek tragedy DJ Loser.
The Blue Note record label needs little introduction. Musically, graphically and sonically iconic, the label created and defined the golden age of modern jazz on record. Founded in 1939 by German émigré Alfred Lion, the label’s roster of artists is a litany of giants – Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins, Horace Silver, Lee Morgan, Art Blakey, Lee Morgan, Herbie Hancock and many more. With peerless musicians in the grooves, the legendary Rudy Van Gelder behind the boards, and graphic design genius Reid Miles creating emblematic artwork for every release, Blue Note – ‘the Cadillac of the jazz lines’ – was outstanding in every way. Volume 8 of Jazzman’s Spiritual Jazz series takes a close look at the deeper side of Blue Note – from the experimental avant-garde explored by younger musicians such as Bobby Hutcherson, Joe Henderson and Pete La Roca, to the exciting new developments in modal sounds put forward by stalwarts Hank Mobley, Jackie McLean and Duke Pearson. The music we have selected shows how musicians working with the label responded to a period of dramatic social and sonic change, charting the route toward the esoteric and spiritualised sounds that would dominate the deepest jazz of the 1970s. As ever, Blue Note had lit the path, and this new Spiritual Jazz collection shows that the progressive and underground jazz sound of the 1960s was not only the preserve of obscure artists and private pressings. Blue spirits and heavy sounds on Blue Note – the finest in jazz since 1939, brought to you by Jazzman.
June Records latest compilation welcomes new artists on the label, the Australian newcomer Lbeeze, Raum-Zeit (Toni Quiroga & Eindkrak), Mannequin Records’ boss Alessandro Adriani, Morah (Phormix), Penelope’s Fiance and Outermost & Venus Volcanism.
Limited business from Light Sounds Dark. Very little info on this one, but quality ambient excursions from start to finish. Touching on post-punk textures and mildly orientalist tonalities
Light In The Attic’s Japan Archival Series continues with Kankyō Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980-1990, an unprecedented overview of the country’s vital minimal, ambient, avant-garde, and New Age music – what can collectively be described as Kankyō Ongaku, or environmental music. The collection features internationally acclaimed artists such as Haruomi Hosono, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Joe Hisaishi, as well as other pioneers like Hiroshi Yoshimura, Yoshio Ojima and Satoshi Ashikawa, who deserve a place alongside the indisputable giants of these genres.
Russian label Hypnotic Connection presents it’s second releasee, with tracks from artists from Mexico, Sweden, Germany, Holland and Russia. In the compilation you will hear elegant synth motifs and a banger acid house, electro and raw EBM stuff.
It took a while before it was this. It was a place to find clothes made by people lost in a minefield of ideas who liked to party. It was a place for temporary visions that turned out to happen and were then forgotten. It was always a place to find a new circle of friends. A place for expression where the throttle had been loosened and we all careered into the next day and the day after that. We all need to meet in the flesh away from the pixels and connect our first thoughts. Somewhere to ruffle our own feathers and take off on a phantom flight. It has been all this and it still is. Only now there is a record label to try and actually document a little of all of that. Welcome to Sameheads. This record is a morsel from the community. Novo Line, Twoonky, Kruton, Kris Baha and Antoni Maovvi and Balance Crew aka Dane Close & L. Zylberberg. Six acts whose sweat is in the carpet and who all owe more than seven euros to the place for one reason or another. Six songs that electrify a new way to no wave. Don’t forget, this a mince based dish.
Dekmantel announce the re-issue of some of the most era-defining trans-Atlantic, techno cuts from the early nineties, thanks to cult label Djax-Up-Beats. The Dutch label was responsible for releasing some of underground’s most archetypal underground dance music, mixing together Chicago and European artists alike, and acting as the launch pad for some of today’s biggest producers. This timeless music is being re-issued on vinyl for the very first time. Founded in Eindhoven at the turn of the 90s, Djax-Up-Beats quickly earned an international reputation for being a reputable source of Chicago house, acid techno, and floor-filling, heavy hitting straight up, underground 12”s. This first re-issue volume sublimely blends esoteric, ambient sounds, with staunchly fierce, and energetic electronic rhythms. Throughout the eight-tracks you can hear the sounds of sequencers, drum machines, and motor-city basslines. It defined the beginning of an era that never went away. Whether you’re a collector, or DJ looking to add to the your left field techno collection, the re-issue of Djax-Up-Beats best records is not one to pass up.
For the last 20 years London-based author and party organizer Tim Lawrence has dedicated himself to excavating the history of New York City party culture and bringing some of the most powerful aspects of that culture to London’s dance scene, from where it has ricocheted around the world. Having conducted the first set of major interviews with David Mancuso, Lawrence started to put on Loft-style Lucky Cloud Sound System parties with David and friends in London in June 2003. In early 2004 he published Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture, 1970-79, which tracked the influence of the Loft on the wider New York DJ, dance and disco scene. In 2009 his biography of the iconic musician Arthur Russell became the first book to map the wider downtown music scene. These beautifully written and politically insightful histories have educated, inspired and celebrated the previously overlooked foundations of contemporary dance music. Lawrence’s most recent publication, Life & Death On The New York Dancefloor, 1980 – 1983, published in late 2016, shines a light on ‘one of the most dynamic and creative periods in the history of New York City’. Falling between the more regularly celebrated sounds of disco, house and techno, the period produced a uniquely hybrid series of sounds that never acquired a settled name. This led them to be largely ignored by historians and even DJs, yet the power of the period’s music and the scenes it birthed, Lawrence argues, remains undeniable. Met with a rapturous response, Life and Death On The New York Dance Floor saw Lawrence on the road for most of the next year as he spread the word about the characters, the records, the clubs and the bands that shaped the post-Disco, post-Punk, and burgeoning Hip Hop landscapes of New York City during the early 1980s—a period when freedom still ruled.
The Hipodrome Of Music 