Thomas Clarke returns to the wider Optimo Music family with his third offering as MR TC for us and his first on Against Fascism Trax. This collection of 4 tracks were recorded over the past couple of years in Clarke’s home studio and sees him diving deeper into the psychedelic dance explorations that you heard on ‘Soundtrack For Strangers’ and ‘Surf & Destroy’.
Comet presents the first release from the new Disco Highlife series, featuring remastered originals by Ghanaian legends Ebo Taylor and Pat Thomas and disco reedits by LeonxLeon and Leo Nanjo.
Nação África is the new single by Camarão Orkestra, the most Brazilian of Parisian bands. Sinewy bass and battery pulsating, it’s stitched to the dancefloor that “Nação África” spreads its groove. And it’s with a variety of keyboards and synthesizers that the tight production maintains a level of constant motion, surrounded by the burning riffs of the brass section and Amanda Roldan’s refreshing vocals. Patchworks provide two remixes to close the record.
Biologic Records welcomes Cooper Saver to the label with two stunning remixes from Khidja and Abstraxion.
Little-known trio The Bees put out only one full album, 1988’s She’s A Witch (Tikoloshi). Its six tracks all offer dancefloor-ready, distinctively South African grooves that show how bubblegum in the late 80s embraced house music. Produced by Steve Cooks, who would go on to work with heavyweights Senyaka, Spokes H and Umoja in the years that followed. Searing vocals and percussive synth basslines are best on ‘Hlabalaza’ (already a DJ favourite) and the title track, it lyrics telling the spooky tale of an evil woman who rules the night – ‘Tikoloshi’ being the mischievous creature of Zulu folklore (usually a man) who is still widely blamed for all manner of mysterious happenings in the middle of the night.
Il Bosco is back at the controls ably assisted by The Bat & Flemming Dalum. Four Red Laser bangers ready for your local diskotek – Forgotten Euro dreams, euphoric Italo & boogie tinged pop-pretenders.
Alex ‘Kiwi’ Warren’s passion for music has been a fire that has long burned within. He now joins Edinburgh’s Paradise Palms for the latest installment of their highly regarded 7” series. “You Want Her To” is a playful, low slung stomper featuring a slowed-down House beat, pads and a catchy oddball chant from Warren himself. “Peeling Oranges” ups the NRG and uses an Italo-strength arpeggiated bassline to great effect, resulting in a peak time electronic Disco smash.
This is the first release of ODDiscos, the newborn label representing Sao Paulos’ infamous ODD event series! The various arists release showcases the who’s who of the Brazilian electronic music scene.
The third release of Hypnotic Connection is coming from a new musician from Barcelona named Milo Snaider. This release takes us to a cosmic and hypnotic trip by acid lines and arpregiated 90s vocals with groovy percussive pushes. The release is closed by an impressive EBM remix from Russian producer Larionov.
The eight chapter of the infamous Slow Motion Compilation series, “Italian Dance Wave Disco Otto”, has quite some hidden gems to be discovered. Beginning with a track from Marcello Giordani DJ (half of the duo Marvin & Guy), that expresses a perfect Italian melancholic sunset (as the title also states), energetic, strong, but always poetic. Always following that “beachy” vibes we find The Caribbean House, serving a track that could last a century, and we would never mind. Electro hints mixing with deep and balearic vibes: ears glued to the headphones. Moreover, we have again Slow Motion queen, System Olympia with a track that could make even nuns sweat on the dancefloor: beats and bass to die for. To close this chapter, you can pamper your ears with a angry balearic track from Gallo, not suited for the more weak hearts, that’s for sure.
Summer is coming sooner this year, and you can tell from the heat of the two latest releases from Slow Motion. The first of the two, “Italian Dance Wave Disco Sette”, is here to delight you: starting from a half Italo and half Asian influenced Altieri track, killing it with a dancefloor belter that will make you sweat the night away, raving sensations guaranteed. Lukebox (Fabrizio Mammarella and Umberto Saba from the duo Loudtone) will serve you a slightly more downtempo, modular, weirdo beast that will make your head bang without you even notice: banger. Back on your turntables, is also Robotalco who is providing some proto-house extravaganza and adding some charme to the dirty, chunky beats of the compilation. Last but not least, José Manuel, delivering a touch of biting deep house and electro tribal feels to close the gap, and make us scream “hell yes”.
Mappa Mundi’s sole release ‘Musaics’ was released in 1990, riding on the wave of early trance and ambient house sounds and exploring the same sonic terrain and worlds as The Orb, The KLF, Sun Electric and other like minded outfits. A wonderful swirling collage or mosaic of breakbeats, samples and new-age synth stylings, ‘Musaics’ is indeed a real trip. A spontaneous late night studio concoction borne of endless takes and experimentation between Pieter Kuyl and Jan Van Den Bergh who both display a deep knowledge and a shared love of different sounds from around the world. The end result is a meditative, sprawling journey that touches on many different styles from languid widescreen techno to frantic drum machine driven machine-funk, all while retaining a feeling of post-rave atmospherics and psychedelia. This is a very special record indeed, and is somewhat of a lost gem from a very fertile and interesting period in sample based music. Undoubtedly the perfect soundtrack to numerous late nights and early mornings to come
With his upcoming two-part LP on Malka Tuti, Cosmo Vitelli brings forward his more diverse and somehow mature musical side, combining elements of post-punk, krautrock, electronica and pop on this first of 2 four-track records. The songs on the LP transcend style and genre. They manage to hold and playfully sustain an idea that echoes throughout them all – a musical “saying” as well as a personal life experience, and they reflect Cosmo’s prolific studio work of the past 2 years since he moved to Berlin.
Dekmantel welcomes the good time vibes of Canadian selector, and retrotastic, vibe-poppin’ producer Jex Opolis. Cult figure, obsessive Discog-er and Good Timin’ boss, the Brooklyn-based, Canadian has etched out a global reputation with his exotic taste of lo-fi, party productions, with this – his Dekmantel debut – not straying far from the formula Electro, disco-chic, doused in gooey pop, sultry silk, and retro synth-boogie.
Almost forty years later, Frigio is bringing some of their music to a fresh audience, the pioneer proto-techno Spanish band TodoTodo and featuring original music plus killer edits by Juanpablo & Luis Costa. Juanpablo with his extended edit of “Digital Dancer.” A steady kick tethers a tripping mechanical melody, a melody that bubbles and simmers as toms, horns and daring funk collide for this seven minute odyssey into the world of Iberian underground synth. The original version from 81 closes the A, a brief and brilliant piece of proto-techno. The flip is introduced by Catalan Dj, journalist and author of ‘Bacalao’ Historia Oral de la Musica de Baile en Valencia, Luis Costa. Costa re-imagines “Autogas” with his Tool Edit, reshaping the off-kilter keys and future highways and byways of the original. The finale is a true treasure from the annals of time. A live version of “Autogas” from the legendary Rock’Ola club in Madrid, an unreleased work that is as audacious and bold as it was when it was first performed in 1981.
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.
Star Creature continuing it’s pursuit of bold LP’s, this time teaming up with Italian disco don, Giovanni Damico. With recent major dance floor releases on Lumberjacks In Hell & Kalakuta Soul, Damico shifts gears to his Italian roots to give us a modern funk twist on Italo & space time boogie.
A7 Edits is back with its second installment from JD Twitch (Optimo). Volume 2 offers two edits alongside their sought after original counterparts from Africa Seven favourites’ M’Bamina and Tala AM.
The Hipodrome Of Music 