As a DJ and promoter Rick Wilhite has been holding it down for over twenty years. His ‘Vibes New & Rare music’ record store has been a main source for soulful electronic music in Detroit until its closure a few years back. The ‘Vibes New & Rare music’ compilation only features material that Rick Wilhite truly believes to represent the artists. After releasing Volume 1 in 2010, Wilhite now delivers the sequel, featuring pioneers and new talents alike from New York, Chicago and Detroit.
When it comes to DJing there aren’t many names as trusted as Marcel Dettmann to provide the essential mix, be it in CD or podcast format. To date he’s curated the second installment of Ostgut’s in-house Berghain mix series and the Conducted mix for Belgian label Music Man. So it’s about time Fabric invited the Berghain resident to participate in their own mix series, with this 77th edition providing a selection mostly based on unreleased MDR demo tracks that Dettmann’s been utilising in his sets for years. The result is a good primer for what to expect from his label in the future, with Answer Code Request, Norman Nodge, Ilian Taper Dario Zenker and French producer Marcelus amongst the high-profile names contributing unreleased productions.
The compilation series which collects the rarest and most obscure and cool disco collector items ever. Tracks by: OZO, Tonica & Dominante, Comet,…
Last year saw French label ClekClekBoom cement its burgeoning reputation with a compilation showcasing the local talent it had been championing since starting up in 2011, including such luminaries in wild-card bass music as French Fries and The Town. There has been a swarm of left-leaning club bangers issued out since the first volume of Paris Club Music, and so it doesn’t feel rushed to be welcoming the second volume with a stack of choice cuts from the past twelve months. There’s a strong unified vibe to ClekClekBoom, from the tight but slippery electro of Manare to the off-kilter techno of NSDOS, while 50Weapons staple Bambounou sounds right at home with his primal and utterly head-spinning “Idem”.
Ron Hardy is the only man who can test Frankie Knuckles’ status as Godfather of Chicago House Music. Though he rarely recorded under his own name and left little evidence of his life, Hardy was the major name for Chicago’s dance music from the late 70s to the mid-80s. By 1974, he had already effected a continuous music mix with reel-to-reel machines plus a dual-turntable setup at the club Den One. Several years later, Hardy played with Knuckles at a club called the Warehouse and though he spent several years in Los Angeles, he later returned to Chicago to open his own club along with Robert Williams, the Muzic Box. While Knuckles was translating disco and the emerging house music to a straight, southside audience at the Power Plant, Hardy’s 72-hour mix sessions and flamboyant party lifestyle fit in well with the uptown, mostly gay audience at the Muzic Box. A roll-call of major Chicago producers including Marshall Jefferson, Larry Heard, Adonis, Phuture’s DJ Pierre and Chip E all debuted their compositions by pressing up acetates or reel-to-reel copies for Hardy to play during the mid-80s. This CD compilation brings together some of of the classic house and electro-dance tracks he played at the Muzic Box back in the day.
May 2013 saw the premiere of the choreography ‘Masse’, a co-production between Berghain and the Staatsballett Berlin. A whole evening of contemporary dance which has been set up by three different choreographers is in need of three different sound producers. The painter Norbert Bisky has been chosen to create the stage design. At the core of the dance night lies a tryptichon made out of pure sound: the music of Henrik Schwarz, Marcel Dettmann & Frank Wiedemann and DIN aka Efdemin & Marcel Fengler was taken as the starting point for developing the choreographies.
Ten years of Deep Explorer… The celebration started with “The Capsule remixes 10” that was released 2 months ago, now is closed with this “Far & Beyond”, a double pack vinyl where the brothers and heads of the label (Dubbyman & Above Smoke) make their own selection of exclusive material into groove and dark deepest house tunes from artists worldwide.
Felix K’s Hidden Hawaii comes correct with this immaculate sophomore volume. Delivered on beautiful hand-stamped green vinyl, it plunges deep into the furthest realms of drum & bass. From the precision fracturisms from Felix and Es Tereo’s “Spartan” to Dave O’s classical jungle homage “The Love Of Jah” via the infectiously funky clicks and whirrs of Muted’s “Empty Valley”, no sonic stone is left unturned as the Hidden Hawaii crew bombard you with their bass-bitten experiments. Pump up the volume.
The finest German Minimal / Synth from early 80’s NDW Underground by V2 Schneider. For this release Jurgen Schweighart, alias V2 Schneider, sat down, saved and listened to approximately 50 original master tapes, reels and cassettes from 1980 to 1985 including his official tape releases ”Vol. 1” (1981), ”Blues” (1982), ”Abgrund der Gefuhle” (1984), ”Nr.1 in Hong Kong” (1985), ”After A.I.D.S. Symphony” (1985) and many so far unreleased hidden treasures, demos and out-takes. At the request of VOD-Records, none of the tracks were remixed or edited and therefore kept in their authentic original and charming form.
LeLu/Lu’s were an early to late 80’s electronic/synth-based project based around Deni (in the early 80’s known as Yo-Yo and nowadays known as Timekode). In 1985 they released a fantastic 12 song tape on Unlikely Records (URT91) called ”Operating on Specific Cues” which forms the basis of this 25 track 2 LP-release While the tape is still rather unknown to fans of synth music, the three 7”s released from 1985-87 (on Alain Neffe’s Insane Music as well as Possum and R&D Records), with the outstanding tracks ”Spaceman Bassman”, ”Africa” and ”Fragile Thing”, are better known to the minimal synth/wave community and collectors of 80’s wave and minimal synth vinyl.
One of Canadas first synth-pop groups, Rational Youth was formed in the summer of 1981 by Tracy Howe (The Normals, Men Without Hats, Heaven Seventeen) and Bill Vorn (U, Sacred Noise). Within the 10+ years that Howe put Rational Youth on indefinite hiatus, their early vinyl recordings (1981-1982) became much sought after collector items, and had been re-branded as minimal-synth. This 5LP set with booklet provides an almost complete overview of their works from 1981-1984.
Field Records is to release a 2CD compilation of music from the labels artists old and new entitled simply, Collection. The imprint keeps up the Dutch tradition of releasing deep, Detroit-inspired electronic music with high-class contributions from various artists. Built on minimalism and modesty, the boutique label has expanded into a consortium for quality since first emerging in 2008. Artists such as Conforce, Delta Funktionen, DJ Sprinkles, Steffi, Mark Du Mosch and many other assured talents have all appeared on the label before now with sounds that range from deep, classically include house to more rough edged and raw techno. It’s much the same case on this expansive new two CD release, which will also be offered up as 3 x vinyl sampler. Across both CDs, established artists rub shoulders with more recently emerging talents and plenty of coherent and creative ground is covered in the exclusive new tracks. Things start off with the grainy ambiance of Sons Of Melancholia’s ‘Theme From The Lake’ before the likes of Delsin’s Unbroken Dub serves up a crawling bit od dubbed out techno, Acronym explores finely planed techno minimalism and Polar Inertia gets all heady and industrial on their ‘Sonic Outlaws’ contribution. Disc 2 starts off with lumpy ambiance before evolving through broken beat pieces, streamlined and stripped back techno and frazzled acid workouts. As a listening experience from start to finish this compilation works perfectly, too, because it never repeats the same trick. Featuring an exquisite selection of tracks by talented artists as well as contemporary favourites, Collection functions as a blueprint of the sound of the Field records label, delving into new geographical and musical territory in style.
The original Adventures in Techno Soul compilation was released back in 1996 with remixes of Ferox tracks from the likes of Derrick Carter, Carl Craig and Kenny Dixon Jr. A full 16 year’s after its follow up “Further Adventures in Techno Soul” comes this 8 track album of new and unreleased material on double vinyl from 8 different and exciting artists. Ferox is proud to welcome established and respected producers such as Fred P and Germany’s Move D to the roster, as well as a welcome return from Affie Yusuf, Nebraska and Bush Funk (Steve O’Sullivan and Winlord X) who were last seen on Soma Records back in 1996. The label is also proud to introduce two new artists, Darren Harris and Spain’s Hoax Believers who alongside label boss Russ Gabriel round off this package of soulful electronica.
youAND:THEMACHINES is the solo moniker of Martin Müller, one half of the Berlin based luminaries youANDme. A year after the release of his ‘Behind’ LP youAND:THEMACHINES presents ‘Behind’ LP Reshaped – an opulent collection of selected edits, interpretations and remixes courtesy of a prestigious roster of distinguished producers including Matthew Herbert, Steve Bug, XDB, Boo Williams, Sascha Dive, Legowelt, Marko Fürstenberg & Luke Hess and Basic Soul Unit amongst many more. ‘Behind Reshaped’ mines deep beneath the original’s surface and is a varied compound of textures, tones and atmospheres. From Steve Bug’s glacial ‘Raw and Reduced’ edit of ‘Drift’ to The Analog Roland Orchestra’s allaying take on ‘Desire’ and from XDB’s armoured and clap-heavy remix of Perception to Freund der Familie’s lucidly textural version of ‘Entrance Room’ the listener is ferried through a broad spectrum of feeling whilst a spectral and rueful current remains consistent.
Deep Space Orchestra’s Use of Weapons label has always been a reliable source of analogue-heavy left of centre deep house, with each split EP, featuring tracks from a variety of like-minded producers, featuring a range of must-have nuggets. This expansive sixth release, with eight tracks spread across two slabs of wax, is no different. DSO’s beautiful and surprisingly fragile “Mendoza” leads the way, with 7 Citizens calming, alien house groover “Fatum” close behind. Arguably best of all, though, is Other Worlds’ “Coldname ELD”, a sparse and bassy concoction blessed with some brilliant, Head High style pianos. It is, though, all good, with further impressive contributions from the Detroit-included Haku.
‘Fields Of Light’ is an ambitious compilation release containing 6 tracks by BNJMN, Aroy Dee, Lerosa, Metropolis, Perseus Traxx and Tr One, that focuses on other qualities than the usual style-similarities. Here, the focus has been put on some other aspect; their soulful and melancholic nature. On each side 15 minutes of dreamily emotive and sometimes alienating works from these 6 producers have been pressed. Some of them appeared earlier on Photic Fields, others are new here. Among these works you’ll find a deep and multilayered sonic excursion (by BNJMN), a dark, futuristic and movie-inspired piece (by Metropolis) and an emotion-drenched late 80’s inspired house music-cut (by Perseus Traxx). Each of these tracks may have their moment to be played, some might work on dancefloors while other are ‘just’ for the home-listener. But a true sentimentalist should find these moments.
Flight Recorderl – home to modern interpretations of other European genres of dance music – Italo, New Beat, and EBM, in conjunction with Radio Oscillations, brings together a collection of music by those producers inspired by these ‘krautrock’ pioneers of the early to mid 1970s on Obliged to Space – a heartfelt and beautifully written love letter to those cosmic sounds of the 1970s. Tracks from Rude 66, Phantom Love, Antoni Maiovvi, Alessandro Parisi, Ian Martin and others.
The ‘Movements’ saga started to discover, study, and properly represent great black American music that is at risk of being lost or forgotten. Today, his illustrious label: Tramp Records, proudly releases the 6th volume of this essential series. Though the track listing still contains amazing music you may never hear elsewhere, the series has matured since its first volume. The track selection has become more open minded, compiling ballads and soul-jazz tunes, even proto-disco in addition to the rare funk Tramp fans expect. Tracks are selected in chronological order so that the listener may get an impression of the development of of the art form from jazz to rhythm and blues to rock & roll to soul and of course – funk. As the website states: ”we ain’t going for bootlegs,” so, whenever possible, Tramp sought out and was granted permission to release each track from the original musicians who are very often in their late seventies now. He took that opportunity to interview them about their careers, their groups, and the recording sessions from which these gems arose. The artists’ stories are meticulously published in extensive liner notes which are printed in the included full-color booklet. Their own words illuminate the colorful backstory behind each track.
It’s time to celebrate! At catalogue number 20 Uncanny Valley extends its compilation-concept to 12 tracks spread over three records (or as a bundle if you prefer digital). The tracks will also be released as a CD compilation. With new music by label-regulars like Jacob Korn, Cuthead and Credit 00, friends like RVDS & K’Alexi or Filburt and fresh talents like Goetterkreis & Steve Kasper it is an exciting ride along the winding roads through the Uncanny Valley. The three records are visually linked with distinctive artwork by the ever-reliable Paul Waak.
The Hipodrome Of Music 