New master piece by the two young guys from Lyon where the label is based. This time they’ve let all their great inspiration take over, to deliver a strong piece of Chicago oriented House with tribal and japanese influences, the 707 is never too far, and a sexy male voice brings you into the moist backroom of this club named ‘Boxboys’.
Miruna Boruzescu, DJ and producer from Bucharest, presents her first EP on Comeme. The film-score like house is filled with enormous drums and ever climbing synth arpeggios.
Lerosa makes his debut release on Slow Motion with ‘Il Nostro Tempo’. Lerosa has crafted four tracks of wistful, propulsive dance music. The trance inducing chug of ‘Il Nostro Tempo’ and the bittersweet synths of ‘La Monarca’ take up side-a, a pair of contemporary club cuts oozing with emotional melodies and stripped back rhythms. On side-b the the skittish rhythms and wobbly arpeggiator of ‘Ninfa’ take you through to the early hours. ‘Pompeo’, perhaps the most emotional of four nostalgically sad club jams works just as effectively tugging your heartstrings on the headphones early in the morning as it does in a smoky club late at night.
“The Girl and the Chameleon” will probably fall under the genre tags of acid, electro and techno but it is so much more. Robert Witschkowski has been responsible for exemplary electronics throughout his career and this latest is undeniably some of his best. The album sees The Exaltics don a dust mask. Warehouse parties, strobe lights and fog machines and the 90s underground acid scene are definite influences. But there’s more. Across thirteen tracks and two slabs of wax the Jena artist takes you on a journey into his world. Gnarled and clinical grooves, caustic 303 encounters, depraved dancefloor destroyers and soothing machine music. A sonic trek through tough and taut textures with touches of tenderness. An album that shows a depth of ability, an enviable talent and a knowledge of how to break floorboards.
Mono Junk delivers four pieces of pure Finnish melancholia for Rat Life’s 7th release. This guy is a true European techno originator and like no one he reflects the darkness of the long, cold and lonely winters of suomi in his music. While listening to these tracks you will find yourself wondering: are these voices coming from the speakers or are you listening to your own morbid thoughts? Perfect soundtrack for your winter depression. Can’t understand what you say!
Palais Des Bauzards pursued an industrial and electronic variant of the sound that swept into vogue during the first half of the ’80s. This compilation digs into the original material provided by the band and offers an amazing selection from start to finish. The sometimes rudimentary though gripping tracks tracks on the first side are emblematic for their early period, for example “Money” a song driven by a screeching rhythm box, distant guitar lines and a nonchalant voice. Cabaret Voltaire comes to mind. They’re not afraid to experiment and to explore new horizons (the track “Lies”). The second side shows a more developed dark wave sound with In The Grassfield and Knowing Too Much both produced by legendary Belgian producer Ludo Camberlin. On top of this there are two dark goth rock stomper hidden in the selection, they hide by the names My Life Is A Sin & Eat Out Of My Hands. Overall it’s a broad selection of tracks which show the capability of the band to do something different with the new wave genre. Initially the group was formed in 1983 in the Belgian city of Leuven by Danny Jacobs, Dirk Van Regenmortel, Chris Serré (+2006), Frank De Wit and Rudy Stuyckens. In 1983 they released two tracks on the Mask Live LP together with Front 242. In the three following years many of their home recorded tracks were published on a bunch of cassette labels.
Crash Course In Science are a post punk band that formed in 1979 in Philadelphia. “Jump Over Barrels” was recorded at the Third Story Studio in Philadelphia in 1981, one year after “Signals From Pier Thirteen”. The song remained unmixed and unreleased at that time for a proposed album titled “Near Marineland”. Lyrically the song tackles overcoming obstacles, self imposed or otherwise, with vocal interplay between Michael and Mallory. On the A Side is the original mix and a demo mix from 1981. Then on the flip is a brand new remix by prolific Ann Arbor producer Charles Manier, a pseudonym of Tadd Mullinix, who toughens up the track. Also included is an unreleased demo version of the song from 1980, accentuating the raw and skeletal nature of the track.
Dark machine music by Metropolis on the Pinkman offshoot label Charlois. The EP starts with the German vocalized protest song “Uberall Polizei, Nirgendwo gerechtigkeit”, an EBM inspired track which reminds us of the early 80s Belgium artists like The Neon Judgement and Nitzer Ebb. On the flip the riot continues with “Kriegdienstverweigerer”, a hypnotic neo-electronic jam with rattling synths, psychedelic baselines and a repetitive robotic vocoder on top. The EP ends with the title track “Unify”, a deep cold cinematic floor burner. Limited to 300 copies, with silkscreened sleeves.
The fourth release from Caustica Waveform, features three tracks written and produced by Diffuse Arc and one produced by Arcanoid.
Norwegian producer Stian Gjevik returns with his third full length album as CN with The Derelict. The sequel to his 2011 concept album The Expedition Beyond (Wil-Ru Records), The Derelict unravels a new chapter in the story of a space traveller wandering the galaxy in his starship only to crash-land on a foreign planet and encounter new lifeforms. The shuffle of crisp airy high hats and punchy robotic rhythms lay down the framework for CN’s signature cosmic sound. Beautiful hardware based electronic sounds paint a colorful soundscape with blissful arpeggios and soothing washed out synth pads over groovy moving bass-lines, creating lush atmospheric listen that is as chill as it is suitable for the dance foor. Ten new tracks of highly melodic motivating braindance music to get utterly lost in.
Bordello A Parigi is returning to where it all began. Four years ago DJ Overdose inaugurated the label under his masked Model Man moniker. Now he’s back. Missile crisis and intercepted communique, Hidden Waves collects six underhanded secret music documents of Cold War espionage. Screaming out of the frost-biten night comes the mean and fast new wave inspired “Peeking Through The Blinds”. Softer encounters lurk, “Hidden Waves” and “The Plot Thickens While Pangea Cracks” being silver screen steeped soundtracks. Twist after twist are added to this narrative. “Burning Bed” smoulders with rich synthlines whilst “Antidote” ducks down an alley and dons a bleaker punk-wave mantle. The final late night exchange arrives with “Flying Knives”. Cool and smooth the track takes its cue from velvet lined wine bars and strong martinis. Model Man rising from the shadows to, again, show how things should be done.
Produced somewhere between a basement in Brussels and an attic in the outskirts of Paris, back when tape reel to reels, primitive rhythm boxes and analogue synths still carried a vague promise of the future, this music translated a certain atomic paranoia fuelled by the cold war industry. Lo-fi music, abrasive, high pressure, dense, clipped to the max, like it was intended to punish any woofer that gets between it and the air.
Invisible Darning brings together 4 unique acts, covering a wide spectrum of techno and electro. Crystal Maze’s Crossroad Blues kicks off the EP with slow mo tripped out techno. Dez Williams’ Hand on Mouth follows up with spaced out, stargazing electro. On the flip we have Switzerland’s Echo 106 – 100M Splutter bringing stuttering arpeggiated synths for an epic showdown. Closing the EP Albert Van Abbe resurrects his dormant The Pulse Projects for the brutalist crunching Grounds.
Giallo disco playboy Antoni Maiovvi and horror synth dealer Slasher Film Festival Strategy team up for a very limited 12″ EP.
Savage Grounds are CCO and Daniele Cosmo, co-owner of Lux Rec. A techno related outfit to explore a darker, noisier and more menacing sound. The EP has been realised by using only three machines. A Roland 808, a modular synthesizer and a Roland Space Echo. Every track has been recorded in one take.
The Hipodrome Of Music 