Hailing from the deeper westside of Frankfurt (South Hessia), Sound mirror welcomes Gerait, head honcho of Bockenheim Housenation. Sweet ambient sounds slide into a deep house stomper on side A, followed by an atmospheric and lush minimal synth disco track on B1, plus a bass heavy, slightly eery and sort of tribal rhythm track on B2.
From the twilight zone of Rhythm Section International comes a new label for 2017: International Black. International Black is the sound when the lights go off. Recorded entirely on analogue hardware via reel to reel tape, this inaugural release features two hypnotic and timeless tracks from two of South London’s finest exponents of real house music. The record is made with the dancefloor in mind; channelling that moment in the club where things get dark, hypnotic, a bit weird and a lot more interesting.
The Chicago Maste Ron Trent returns on his own imprint Electric Blue with the second part of the “Humans, Drums & Machines” – trilogy.
American artist Deviere is back on Parisian label Unlearn. Lobster Theremin artist and Unlearn affiliate Royer is on remix duty. Water Drums (A1), a deep and spacey cut for a moody and introspective club experience. Strong yet subtle in the low end, this one is for the big sound systems. Royer’s Demi-Monde remix comes up as a more housy interpretation, mixing dubby inspirations with lo-fi aesthetics. Rising (B1) is an upfront dancefloor track suited for peak time euphoria. Speak Into Existence (B2) is probably the most accessible track of the EP, oscillating between acid-yet-warm feelings and solemn preacher-preachin’ vibes.
Prague based label Neo Violence releases music from all over the world and with no genre restrictions. Or as they claim “simply anything good from house, techno, electro, acid or bass music” in addition to running a bunch of club nights in their fair city and we salute them. On their second label sampler, we get treated to a bunch of gnarly and jackin’ lo-fi grooves from the current mainstays of the label roster. Tracks from Jupiter Jax, Baltra, Low Tape and newcomer ROWVN.
On ”Portal To Canis”, Chicago’s Radius aka Ramon Norwood serves up 4 tracks of House with a downtempo/electro sensibility. ”A Dash Of Acid” and ”Seperated” kick off the A side, ”Women Are The Gateways…” continues the party on the flip.
Rick Wade delivers 3 excellent tracks for People of Earth’s sixth release. Escapism is warm, distorted & moody. Dark strings, chords & a thick kick with low end that gives subwoofers a work out.
Continuing a geological Journey, Rings Around Saturn (AKA Dan White) returns with part 2 of his Erosion series. Dreamy pads and arpeggiated synth patterns weave throughout hypnotic rhythms. 3 tracks spanning from Ambient to Techno.
Debut longplayer by Romanian DJ and producer Jay Bliss. After a few years of releasing quite a bunch of EPs on various labels, Jay Bliss has pulled down the throttle for a while. This doesn’t mean that he took time off from the studio, on the contrary, he perfected his signature sounds. Spending time to bake his own imprints aswell, its only natural that his first LP will see the light of day on Stomping Grounds. Lush and organic pads, playful textures and attention to details are the building blocks of this introspective work, divided into 6 pieces.
Underground Quality boss Jus Ed is beginning 2017 in fine fettle, with Transition – his first album since 2014 – heading up a spate of vinyl releases. The triple-vinyl set is full of evocative, immaculately produced deep house treats, from the Alton Miller style intricacy of “The Loop 222 Bodin Strasse” and shuffling, yearning “The Day Prince Died”, to the rich bass and dancing drum machine hits of “Medellin My New Grooveland” (inspired, apparently, by a recent trip to Colombia), and the low-slung, Motor City grooves of “Sci-Fi Connection”. Best of all, though, is the rushing positivity of “Spring is Near”, where intertwining synth lines bubble away over a fizzing, techno-influenced rhythm track.
Italian producer Lamusa II is a master of atmospheric, synthesized concoctions that often sound like they’re being transmitted straight from a time machine out of the 1980s. The RBMA alumni’s latest release, ‘Club Mondo 2000’ on the Gravity Graffiti label runs the gamut from sleazy, break-infused house jams to hazy boogie and weightless flute meditations. “Agua Planet”, closes out the 5-track EP with a New Age feel.
Deepblak’s Chief Alchemist Aybee come with his fourth full-length studio album, ‘The Odyssey’. As befitting its grand title, this newest long-player finds him concerned with personal journeys: both the personal one that has brought him to this point – living in Berlin, 15 years since founding Deepblak in his native Oakland – and the one that beckons for him personally and creatively in future: Aybee sees himself as being halfway up a mountain, looking back on where he has come from, and to where he will be headed next – both concepts play a profound role in the emotional textures of the album, which in true Deepblak fashion draws from jazz, deep house, techno, hip hop, blues, experimentation, cinema, space, time and infinity. ‘The Odyssey’ represents a change-up for AYBEE in several ways, forged from a desire to keep expectations at bay and throw something of a curveball for those who felt they had him pegged: “a good pitcher always keeps you off balance”. This newest work saw him deliberately limit his sound palette in a creative exercise that challenged him to create a full body of work from a small pre-selected library of sonic elements. While this was restricting in some aspects, the approach to – as he puts it – “throw the ingredients in a basket and cook with it later” gave him more freedom to focus on atmosphere and groove instead of putting hours into trying out different options – “otherwise I’d still be in the studio now trying to work out which hi-hat to use on the third track!”
Psychic Advisor, is a worldwide affair: mysterious Makybee Diva from Down Under, Snad – hailing from Chicago, L’amour Fou on B1- the project of Move D and his friendsf rom Taipeh (Benoit and Marco), plus Arnaldo closing down the compilation on B2. You might consider this record as a clubnight from start to finish. There is everything from slow euphoria to crystaline deepness, from shake-moments to different states of a sweet dream, but it all fits as if it was bound together.
Chicago’s own Ricardo Miranda is back on Neroli with his Latin Soul Brothas project. This time exploring the deeper sides of his sound with jams like ‘Moog Sessions’, ‘Dizzy Vibes’ and ‘Friday Grooves’. While ‘Otra Voz’ recalls some of his previous latin influenced tracks on Neroli.
The 3rd release from TH Pressing run by Tokyo’s deep houser Tomonori Hosoya. This EP compiles tracks from 4 producers Life Recorder, Ernie, Brad P and Japanese Takuya Yamashita.
Area provides the soundtrack for another long Winter. From late night meditative dancefloor bliss, to midtempo 4 to the floor sonic experimentation. So without getting too wordy, we’ll leave these flowers right here, please don’t let them dry.
Space is most definitely the place as far as the latest vinyl adventure from us here at Future Reactions is concerned. With galactic references aplenty, futuristic soundscapes and more than a hint of interstellar travel on the Analog Core EP, the only thing missing is an astronaut suit. Tracks by José Rico, Cygnuss (aka Leonid & José Rico) and Diego Perrisson.
The Hipodrome Of Music 