Two dubs of Matt Tolfrey’s ‘Distant Story’ taken from his brilliant ‘Word Of Mouth’ album courtesy of Larry Heard. These intergalactic slices of effortless dub-tastic beauty are truly mesmeric. Larry Heard has created two beguiling takes on Matt original track.
Hailing from Melbourne, Mike Steva with his debut release on Yoruba. Mike brings forth an ep of three of the deepest grooves. The opening track “New Beginning” is a drum infused floor filler, whereas “Moment In Time” features the lovely voice of seasoned vocalist George Levin hinted with flowing electric pianos, rolling bass lines and percussive rhythms creating a modern day soulful classic. We complete the package with “Chiko”, A battle of piano stabs, percussion and a driving kick drum makes this a nice addition.
Bristol-based producer Borai comes with his first solo work via Tasteful Nudes – a brand new label from Chicago.
The second in this series of collaborations focusing on live improvised hardware jams, again from Bookworms and Steve Summers..cool and heady stuff once again.
‘Ladies and gentlemen, we are going through an area of turbulence, we ask all passengers to remain seated, with your seatbelts fastened…’ Anyone who’s ever experienced the treacherous descent to Cagliari airport will totally understand Renato Figoli’s fear of flying, but in contrast to the loudspeaker announcement that introduces Funkoholic, the Sardinian producer’s album is anything but turbulent – the smoothest of takeoffs, superb in-flight entertainment and controlled touchdown make it an early contender for one of 2013’s most rewarding listens. Funkoholic allowings Renato the scope to fully realize his potential while setting out a musical doctrine that merges deep techno, funk, dub, jazz and ambience in a truly idiosyncratic manner. The album consists of nine tracks, each linked by elegantly crafted ambient transitions that leave the listener in a state of suspended animation. This constant alternation between inner space and outer space is one of the album’s defining features, balancing style and content in equal measures.
Split 12” on Mahogani Music featuring two of Detroit’s hidden gems: Paul Hill and Nikki O aka Sky Covington, a talented vocalist who has shared the stage with many of Detroit’s known jazz musicians and has sang vocals on past KDJ works.
Hoya:Hoya welcomes the multi-talented Tadd Mullinix with his JTC alias. This time round, on ‘Park Days’, he flexes a house side that’s not been seen too often in his career of 13 years. Whether the driving groove of South Brooks, the late night drum machine jam of Argo, Creal’s ever evolving scatter, or the delicate Gallup, ‘Park Days’ is one of those records where everyone has a different favourite.
Austrian label Praterei kick off 2013 with a various artists EP. Mysterious jack lovers Snuff Crew take the lead with an unsurprisingly old school flavored slice of house. Raw and unpolished, classic hi hats and sturdy kicks set the tone beneath colorful stabs and increasingly wild percussion. 7 Citizens ́s ‘Perse’ is darker and deeper, a nagging hook snakes about menacingly as a starry night sky of melodies reveals itself above. Esteemed Chi Town man Chicago Skyway’s track ‘Shy Girl’ is anything but, instead it’s a gauzy and derelict house track with scattered drum hits caked in dust and grime. Ethyl closes out a dark and delicious EP with a feels-like-you’re-floating, dubby house track.
The tenth release on Don’t Be Afraid is coming from Alis. Alis is the new project from Italo-Bulgarian Londoner, Sabina Plamenova. Azimuth EP showcases this producer’s fresh take on electronic music across a range of tempos. The influence of acid house on Alis’s music, and the influence of cities like Detroit and Chicago, are pronounced. In addition D’Marc Cantu remixes the EP’s most dancefloor-friendly track, Azimuth, lending it a deeper and more brooding edge.
Santiago Salazar the UR DJ, Ican co-founder goes deep after releasing a slew of tracks on Historia y Violencia, Seventh Sign, & our own label in recent years. Lush moods with lots of strings & pads on this 3 tracker.
For Illusion Recordings 6th edition we travel across Europe to the current deep house mecca of Russia to present Volta Cab for his Illusion debut. This is not your typical house release and that’s the way we like it. This eclectic EP crosses many genres from Soul to Hip Hop to Deep House and shows off a dexterity of sound Illusion has been building towards since its first release. Featuring remixes by Trus’me and Creative Swing Alliance.
Generation Next has appeared on some of the Big Strick cuts like Alpha & Omega and Resivior Dogs. The 17 year old is the newest addition to the 7 Days Ent. camp and he brings his first self titled E.P. A four song masterpiece that is sure to move the dance floor.
Low-key German producer Yør returns to similarly low key Dutch imprint Purple Maze for his third full outing on the label in the form of the ‘Sublimation EP’. Across the four tracks Yør continues to explore the same frayed and decayed, abstract electronics as he has in the past. The opener and title track is an intense and moody, nerve jangling affair where huge searching synths pan in the background of grinding drums and dense percussive clatter before ‘Gravity’, with its heavyweight and churning drums, trudges on through sonic scuzz and lo-fi blizzards as a backlit melody keeps things from growing all too dark and abstract. The dystopian, tortured industrial funk of ‘Parallels’ with its slapping claps and decaying percussive lines are proof of that, where through chaos comes beautiful order. Closer ‘Trust’ holds its head a little higher, more spiralling synths and bleepy fax machines tones add a sense that the apocalypse is coming and machines will take over, but there’s enough organic beauty in the deeply hidden melodies to keep the track from being all too hostile.
Vitalik presents the ‘Jedi House EP’ by Agnes. Agnès is the embodiment of the consummate perfectionist and here on the ‘Jedi House EP’ he makes a welcome return to the dubbed out, chugging house grooves he first became renowned for. Each high hat, each snare, each kick is meticulously crafted. While the EP contains weapons for deeper dancefloors, the audio motifs throughout allow the listener succinct excursions left and right of the underlying musical theme, enabling it to flow from start to finish as one rounded body of music
Massimiliano Pagliara is back where he belongs. A backbone of Live At Robert Johnson records, Pagliara’s take on neo-dance, post-disco and proto-house is as unmistakable as it is dreamlike. With this sound palette, a love for hardware and surgical arrangements “Magic Serials” sees the Berlin-based producers on top of his game. While name checking the tools of his work, MP unfolds untold stories of love, high spirits and deep meditation that every romantic rave craves for – acid poetry included.
New 12″ from veteran producer Patrik Sjeren, with two smooth and bumping House tracks for the A side. On the B side, Sjeren changes it up and gets dark and dirty with two acidic techno tracks.
Dani Plessow aka Motor City Drum Ensamle returns to his label for a new EP featuring some Awesome gospel inspired 4 Track House tracks.
This is the 5th Black Catalogue release. “Modern Underground Music Volume 2” is another collection of tracks from all sectors of the electronic music underground. This sampler contains some fantastic exclusive tracks from Monty Luke, London’s Ibrahim Alfa Jnr., San Francisco’s Lance De Sardi, the amazing AbJo and brand new artist Kneco Uqdah Jr., hailing from the Detroit. Each track has its own style and fashion and continues Black Catalogue’s commitment to global dancefloor devastation.
The Hipodrome Of Music 