The third release on Midnight Drive takes us back to the heady days of 1984, New York City, while doing a re-issue job on this classic anthem by Clive Stevens.
disco
Willikens & Ivkovic @ Dekmantel Festival (São Paulo) 03.03.2018
Llewellyn – San Junipero [RVN014]
Not that long ago, one had to introduce Llewellyn as Martin Enke’s House- and Disco-bound sideshow to his main-moniker Lake People. That’s kinda obsolete these days, as Llewellyn has been cranking out enough high quality material over the last months to be on everybody’s radar anyway. “San Junipero” is already his second proper EP release on Riotvan in less than one year, not counting compilation tracks and remixes. It is the successor to his “The Other Side Of You” EP, the actual “Other Side” so to say, if not his prime moment so far.
Fakundo – Telo [WE006]
The sixth instalment of Slow Motion’s retro-futuristic international-sister label is the debut release of mysterious Russian producer Fakundo. This record sits at the heavier end of our musical spectrum and is brimming with hard-hitting electro swagger that conjures up a dystopian video-game underworld, the best bits of Alien Sex Fiend and comes atop a whole bunch of wobbly baselines. Not for the faint of heart this record is a total dance-floor destroyer.
Gallo – Orange Stripe [SLOMO038]
Slow Motion’s 38th release comes courtesy of Berlin-based Gallo who you may know as part of Balearic Gabba Soundsystem. Joining the family for his debut solo release Gallo drops the tempo for three deep-cuts of blissful Balearica. Backed up with an acidic, chugging re-rub of ‘Faron’ from Fabrizio Mammarella which is perfect when the sun goes down, Orange Stripe arrives just in time for Summer. How to get the most of this track: combine it with blissful and dreamy beach-excursions or with a sunset aperitivo.
Chinaski – Unruhe [OMDP003]
Robert Johnson resident Chinaski makes his Omnidisc debut with 4 power cuts on the Polyester Series sub-label. Including a remix by Shokh.
Traxx @ SmartBar (Chicago) 25.02.2018
Khidja – Plot [MT0016]
2018 is going to see the bond between Khidja & Malka Tuti strengthen, with the Romanian duo bringing forward their eclectic, cross-genre approach to electronic music. ‘Plot’ and ‘Am I Really Here’ are two dance-floor bangers, not hiding behind fashions and hype, the duo is pushing forward on both tracks, each with its own idea and story to tell.
VA – Hunchin’ All Night [RHMC001]
Hunee presents a collection of his favorite dance floor cuts from the 70ties till modern times. Going from afro to disco to techno, ”Hunchin’ All Night” holds a wide spectrum of songs, tracks by the wonderful Boncana Maïga, Pat Thomas, Black Beat Niks, Kenny Larkin, Larry Heard, Mappa Mundi and many more. Hunee, aka Hun Choi, is a Korean Berliner who has been drawn in music since a very young age. After working in record stores and studying musicology he resided in Amsterdam, where he released his debut album Hunch Music. As a DJ he has always followed ‘a hunch’, which gave him wings to communicate the music he loves with crowds all over the world. With Hunchin’ All Night, Hunee expresses his relationship with the dance floor.
Arp Frique – Welcome To The Colorful World of Arp Frique [CW001]
The Colorful World of Arp Frique is the exotic and super funky debut album of Niels Nieuborg. After his surprising, very well received debut release on Rush Hour, Arp Frique continues collaborating with Orlando Julius, Ed Motta, Americo Brito, Ronald Snijders and more. On this surprise debut album, he continues the same approach, delivering a scintillating set of tracks that gleefully join the dots between Afro-disco, jazz-funk, boogie, Caribbean reggae-disco, bossa-soul and the kind of up-tempo, synth-laden madness that defies easy categorization. Throughout, the presence of live drums, vocals and instrumentation gives the album a loose and fluid feel, as if what we’re listening to is not a fresh album, but rather a long lost African rarity from the turn of the ’80s.
Nu Guinea – Nuova Napoli [NG01]
After touring the world looking for sounds suitable for their vibrations, Nu Guinea decided to go back to square one, Napoli, where Massimo Di Lena and Lucio Aquilina were born and raised. They watched their city from a distance reconstructing its energy from their studio in Berlin, calibrating the synths on the meridian of Vesuvius, the volcano that has always protected and threatened Napoli. ‘Nuova Napoli’ is the result of a long musical research that has become a historical investigation on the sound that shaped Napoli during the ‘70s and ‘80s, starting from the contamination of genres (disco, jazz-funk, African rhythms) which ended up in Nu Guinea’s DNA. In this album the synthesizers fill the spaces between the past and the future, tightening in a single body acoustic instruments, electronics and voices in Neapolitan dialect. It is the first time that the duo has worked with such a large group of musicians, some of whom are exponents of the contemporary Neapolitan scene.
Elena Colombi – BIS Radio Show #934
VA – Selectors 005 [DKMNTL-SLCTRS005]
Lena Willikens is the kind of artist who’s only capable of following one path – her own. In many ways, she’s the archetypal selector, an unpredictable DJ who often eschews all notions of genre in favor of what she describes as “different temperatures, different time zones, different moods and a healthy portion of chaos.” Although her methods have certainly proven effective on the dancefloor, Willikens also refuses to be bound by its traditional limitations.
Max Abysmal – Sutekh’s Mirage / Donna, Don’t Stop [ST008]
Hysteric – In The Moonlight [SZABO9]
Khidja – BIS Radio Show #932
Alexander Arpeggio – Streng Geheim EP [BAU007]
Streng Geheim EP is Alexander Arpeggio’s first ever solo 12″. Coming out on Vienna’s admirable Neubau label, the EP is druggy, trippy and strangely alluring, featuring impressive use of psychedelic electronics and exotic, Middle Eastern melodies. Check, for example, the foreboding chords, gently pulsing drum machine beats and distortion-drenched Middle Eastern motifs of “Streng Geheim”, which is also given a weirder and even more hallucinogenic flavour on the acid-flecked Geier Aus Stahl Remix. Bonus cut “Du Hast Kein Gesicht”, an unusual but superb combination of muscular EBM grooves, whistling melodies and glassy-eyed house riffs, is also well worth a listen.
International Music System – Nonline [MD31804]
Mr Assister – Mambala / Bebny [BEAM03]
After the uneventful resolution of a labour dispute at Assistance HQ, the resident pencil-pushers turn their tempo dial to a leisurely 105bpm, at long last serving up lukewarm plates of BEAM-03 to the more sluggish peak-time massive. In ‘Mambala’, the now-obligatory bongo jostles with squelchy synths, whilst echoed claps and ominous bells should see even the most hesitant rabbit dragged down the hole. ‘Bebny’ experiments with low pH levels, metallic clutter, and some surprise horn cameos.
King Sporty & The Ex Tras – Rock Attack [ERC059]
The King Sporty reissue series continues with the lesser known, but no less worthy, Rock Attack. This first time release of the song under the King Sporty name – having previously only been released as by the vocalist in The Ex Tras, Johnny Griffin – brings in to focus the breadth of music, numerous alias and versions used by Noel Williams on his Konduko label. This is backed with another specially crated Discomix done in fine style by discoid duo, Faze Action.
The Hipodrome Of Music 