Returning to Giallo after the split ‘Black Gloves II’, Bogdan Drazic is back with ‘Four Trax On Black Wax’. Three new blisteringly blown out grained to fuck voodoo bangers plus a remix from the mighty Dmitry Distant. Haunted organs, lost jungle tribes, hot cannibal nights… all documented under piles of dirt and ancient spells.
Andrea Noce aka Eva Geist is back with his second album to date, and what clearly makes for a magical companion to 2016’s comparatively murkier Aquator System cassette. Noce returns via Sascha Mambo’s Macadam Mambo imprint, unleashing a flurry of outsider sonics and no-wave vibes thanks to this new Desfan LP. The nine tracks glide with pace and style, ranging form the docile bleeps and pseudo beats of tunes like “Electronic Tribalism” to relatively more ‘dance-friendly’ tunes like “Prologo” or “Nigredo”. It’s hard to put our finger on what makes Noce’s music so singular, but it must have something to do with the artist’s fascination with the Levant – a distant yet perceptible vibe that seeps through all of these tunes.
TenGrams are brothers Alessandro and Davide, who collectively have a deep and long understanding of dance music. Davide is a co-founder of N.O.I.A, one of Italy’s first electronic live acts to perform and record with drum machines and synthesizers as early as 1978. He was also behind seminal Italo outfit Klein + M.B.O and proto house hit ‘Dirty Talk.’ Since then they have released under an array of aliases, have clocked up numerous club hits and this new project brings them back to their electronic roots, with influences like sci-fi movies and old school electro and italo looming large.Devious’ is a very breezy and energetic track with a rolling arpeggio and rich keyboards section over a simply but groovy Tr-808 pattern. Classical Italo Space Disco sound updated to nowadays. ‘Translucent’ sounds like a dreamy electro-ballad heavily influenced by Kraftwerk. ‘Pop Song’ keeps the same 80’s electro vibes with simple, wistful melodies and a great funk bass line. ‘Disco Dub’ is a pretty damn cool early eighties electronica, with a great pumping ‘robo-funk’ Linndrum.
The leftfield electro disco gem originally released in 1982 finally gets an official reissue. Bootlegged badly in recent years, Isle Of Jura does it right with fully remastered versions from Matt Colton and the added inclusion of a previously unreleased Q song ‘Keep It Strong’
Three expansive edits of Turkish funk and psychedelia, each dubbed out through tape delays and spring reverbs, as well as carefully EQ-ed and mastered for an enhanced sonic experience. Side A kicks off with the low slung funk of ‘Ayçiçegi’, featuring an infectious bassline which weaves between subtle flashes of spring reverb, whispered vocals, each underpinned by pounding drums. Side B begins with ‘Biz Burdayiz’ , a relentless drum loop and singular vocal hit looped around and manipulated with tape delays, and the record closes with ‘Günesi Kesin’, a tense funk break which builds before reversing inside of itself.
Waste Editions new release is coming from Giallo Disco’s WLDV. It´s ‘Ritual of Six’ and this one is a gripping and mysterious album which is made up of six creepy and catchy tracks. Indeed, a brilliant work where bloodcurdling sounds, hypnotics atmospheres and thunderous analog arps can make you to look through the keyhole and see a little bit of hell gate.
Eko Roosevelt Louis has had a music career spanning over forty years, born the grandson of a Kribi tribal chief, his musical persuasion beginning humbly with his village’s local church before his formal education at the Senegal conservatoire and Paris’ École Normale de Musique. EKO made a number of jazz funk and disco records in the mid seventies during a stint recording and touring in and around France before returning to Cameroon to take over his grandfather’s tribal chieftaincy, a role he still holds today. Alongside this position of office EKO has continued to work with music, performing, teaching and even leading Cameroon’s national orchestra. The tracks selected for this reissue are all taken from EKO’s third album, Funky Disco Music which was recorded in Paris and released on his own Dragon Phenix imprint. Sung in a combination of English and EKO’s native tongue we’ve lined up a real excursion in feel good afro-jazz, funk and soul made purely for dancing feet and boogying butts.
20 year old Jean Ondeno from Gabon is one of many African singers who found joy in the Parisian Afro-disco scene of the late 70s. Blessed with the voice of Africa’s sweetest angel, Ondeno caught the ear of the French radio presenter Alphonse Marie Toukas who in turn introduced him to producer Philippe Brejean. Together they released 4 tracks, of which ‘Mayolye’ has become a sought-after dance floor rarity over the decades. For this special 12 inch release, Rocafort Records have grouped the original version alongside a Nik Weston Official Mukatsuku edit.
One of Ghana’s most sought-after LPs emerges from obscurity as a high quality reissue on the new Vintage Voudou label from the Netherlands. First released in Nigeria in 1979, this LP (also known as Basa Basa Experience – Together We Win) is a unique collaboration with Themba ‘T-fire’ Matebese, who propelled Basa Basa’s sound, inspired by Ghanaian traditional music, soul and afrobeat, into another dimension, adding disco elements, synthesizers and the production aesthetics of the next decade. The new Amsterdam based label Vintage Voudou focuses on re-releasing a carefully picked selection of rare tropical music on vinyl, paying special attention to sound quality and print work.
Growing Bin burst into 2018 with a bang, crash and symbol splash, uniting a premier pair of per-cussion obsessives for a supernatural mission into the heart of the rhythm. Dressed in the pitch black of Dusseldorf stands Wolf Muller, master of the tropical drums and seven time Salon Des Amateur breakdance champion. Repping Cologne and Berlin is Niklas Wandt, Germany’s funkiest drummer and a mixed musical artist as adept in experimental jazz as demen- ted Euro dance. Standing toe to toe in a no holds barred, no drum unstruck groove contest, these two titans will make you swing your pants like a Crash Bandicoot victory dance…so stretch out and step in to ‘Instrumentalmusik von der Mitte der World’.
Phantasm is a new vinyl label and collaboration between Amsterdam’s Sinchi Collective and the much-admired Night Noise outlet, based in Geneva. It kicks off with a strong EP from The Soviet Union aka Richard Baldwin, including classy remixes from Sinchi themselves and In Flagranti.
This boogie anthem release is manufactured from the master tapes and remastered at D&M in Berlin. The release is authorized from the artists. Includes a San Soda refix.
Jerome Derradji + Still Music present Let’s Dance Records – Mike Macharello & Duane Thamm Jr. Chicago 1983-85. The origin of house music, at least in a commercial sense, is generally associated with young African American producers from Chicago’s South Side, but one of the first Chicago house music labels was started by a young, white, gay DJ from the far west suburbs. The Let’s Dance story will take you back to the beginnings of Mike Macherello and Duane Thamm Jr. when Chicago’s house music was in its infancy. Back then, after starting as young roller disco Dj in the late seventies, Mike Macherello gradually made its way to the best radio station in 1981 – WBMX – and started a movement that still ripples through the city today. Let’s Dance’s founder, Mike Macharello, was a DJ who bridged diverse music scenes, from rock clubs to discos. The Let’s Dance record label helped establish Chicago’s dance music industry between 1983 and 1985, before becoming Play House Records (which will be reissued by Still Music in an upcoming set). Macharello’s pal, DJ Duane Thamm Jr., also from the ‘burbs, became the label’s main producer and one of house music’s most important studio engineers and producers. Mike and Duane went on to release a few legendary singles for Let’s Dance that are still to this day considered to be the earliest House music records coming from Chicago.The 12’ pack includes faithful reissues of Selenia’s ‘Single Girl’, Duane Thamm Jr. ‘Jump Trax’, the insane Knight Action ‘R-Trax/D-Rail’ 12’s along with a 5 tracks 12′ compilation and an accompanying poster insert including rare pictures and artifacts with the story of the label.
The 5th installation of Power Station, this time from the unused tunnels of Berlin’s U-Bahn. A first time artist release for us as himself and vice versa – metaphorically but not limited to reality. German born, Stefan (wunder) Junge aka Piska Power is Med student by day and neurotic composer by night which is clearly examined and demonstrated with his 6 track ‘Landung’ EP.
All City spent years putting together this superb compilation, which shines a light on Ireland’s previously unheralded underground and alternative music scenes of the ’70s and ’80s. It’s packed with obscure and lesser-known gems covering a myriad of related styles, from the jazz-funk inspired soul smoothness of Pumphouse Gang’s “Welcome Back Into My Life” and dub-fuelled, post-punk synth-pop brilliance of Natural Wild’s 1985 cut “Hot & Sexable (Mega Mix)”, to the slow and intoxicating, delay-laden throb of Stano’s “White Fields (In Isis)” and the Stiff Records-ish cacophony of Micro-Disney’s “Leper”. In other words, it’s a great example of a compilation that not only tells a previously untold story, but also includes some genuinely must-have tracks.
Temperatures are dropping and we’re all feeling the effects. Bordello A Parigi is letting the cold winds of the north swirl inside its doors with Russia’s Volta Cab bringing a fresh 2LP to the table. A spread of influences come together for the eleven tracks of Rise Again. Take Emerald’s Phantasy, a piece built on layers of percussion that blends elements of disco with notes of techno. Dark Room is a different affair. Arctic chords are cut with electro and distant vocals for an unsettling treat. Kruger stomps to a terse beat before lush pads bloom in a work that builds to dizzying peaks. Warm blasts balance these colder moments, the rich grooves of Savage Fury, the floor filling funk of Board Scandinavia and the removed romance of Sweet Exorcist all show another shade to the Volta Cab sound and of course there’s more. Rise Again is an audio collection of vibrant colours and hues, tracks pitch from icy blues to autumnal ambers and fiery reds; a musical kaleidoscope that stretches across a spectrum of styles.
Dublin’s Modern Magic welcomes Bari’s Armonics for the label’s third release. A trained pianist and resident DJ/curator of the We Talk event series in his home city, Armonics draws influence from electronic music across the past 40 years: Chicago & acid house, italo- & electro-disco, new wave, synth-pop and vaporwave. His ‘Italowave’ style is a fusion of these retro-futuristic and cosmic styles, forged through Armonic’s production processes which include cassette recordings, vintage synths & modern Korg/Roland gear. Accompanying the EP’s three original tracks is an anthemic, piano-led remix of ‘Red Eye’ by International Feel act Black Spuma, aka Phillip Lauer and Fabrizio Mammarella.
This 6 tracks LP travel through again into the unique sound of the early 80’s Italo Disco built with spacey analog sounds, some cheesy atmospheres and a touch of primitive Trance chords. Marcello’s taste is very clear and specific when we speak about Electronic Disco and this LP is totally inspired by artists like Farina/Rago, Sangy, Alexander Robotnick, Alessandro Novaga, Doris Norton and also from his experience collecting and playing this shit during the last 20 years.
The Hipodrome Of Music 