**All proceed of this record will go to AFRORACK, a Chicago audio arts organization dedicated to providing modular synthesis education for African American youth.** The enclosure of night promises freedom of another kind. Subterranean fantasies are consecrated in flesh. The voice calls and is answered by a beating pulse. They swell and break in rapturous cycles. On Sombras, Dosis operates from this intimate space, conjuring electroid visions rooted in techno, zynth-pop and nuova-beat.
Winter is coming, with ‘Archive Tracks 2005-2009’ by Newclear Waves as its soundtrack. For the album, Berlin-based and Italian-born producer, DJ and label owner Alessandro Adriani let us dive into the vast archives of his Newclear Waves project. The resulting collection of 8 tracks can be described as minimal wave pur sang, reminiscing of the darkness and doom from the cold war period. The exorbitant and jumpy synth lines and derailing revolving drum machines keep us moving, all analogue of course. With this album, Adriani confirms his musical excellence.
COVID-19 pandemic infectiousness and the relative necessity to put hard distance between people has brought up a wide range of means to cope with it. For some it went by as nothing happened, some struggled with not being able to be social, some were overly social on social medias, some spent it in a total drugged-out haze. Some, like Leroy se Meurt, used it to actually create something. The 5 tracks presented in this EP are the result of that forced stay in, the push towards the outside and the realization that, in the end, there’s nowhere to go.
Inflitrate’s electro mission continues unabated with this new drop from Maltese producer Sound Synthesis. ”Hidden Realms” is a brooding yet cosy workout, while ”I Guess You Know” heads into more sparkling, emotive territory, and ”Sonically Entwined” lets in a little Kraftwerkian noir. ”Electronic Feelings” is a more downcast track to close out the 12”, but there’s still plenty of punch in the broken beat powering the track.
The first transmission from the Altered States label, which is a new Furthur Electronix off shoot label dealing in limited hand stamped pressings. Coming from Cignol, It’s a cosmic adventure that rides on undulating bass pushes, with far-sighted chords bringing that forlorn sense of melancholic that makes Detroit house music so well loved. ‘Altered Sense’ is a popping electro cut with smooth drum funk and comforting chords, while the flip is more unhinged as it rolls through rugged betas on ‘Gatwick Runner’ then manic melodic patterns and glitchy hits on ‘Last Chances.’
Credit 00 recorded live @ Altenburg 1964 (Prague) 28.06.2020
Debut album from Israel Vines on Interdimensional Transmissions, a futuristic fusion of UK bass, post-jungle breakbeats and techno with the rhythmic flex of Detroit Electro. Across its nine tracks, Vines channels the spirit of undulating UK techno and bass — think Bristol and London — into a form and shape all his own, indebted to his American Midwestern roots. Rolling beats, uncommon rhythms, and club-floor sensibility paired with a polyrhythmic touch.
Group Rhoda, the solo project of Mara Barenbaum, returns to Dark Entries with ‘Passing Shades’. An integral member of the Oakland electronic music scene, Barenbaum has been writing, performing, and plunging into oneiric depths as Group Rhoda since 2009. This is the project’s fourth LP, and the third time Barenbaum has collaborated with Dark Entries. Passing Shades is an investigation of the metaphysics of loss and the transitory nature of the material world. But it is not a grim collection; over 8 songs, Group Rhoda diverges through synthesizer-laden symphonics, four-to-the-floor inflections, and cosmic musings. Barenbaum’s striking voice and singular songcraft guide us through this labyrinth. Arpeggiated waltz “Flow” channels wisdom sought through martial arts; “Earthly Ark” sets a Margaret Atwood poem from the God Gardener’s Hymn Book to somber electronics. The vocoded canticle “Nevermore” is dedicated to the memory of a beloved cat. ‘Passing Shades’ is both mystifying and revelatory. Folk forms are echoed only to detour into the alien. Each song functions as both a fragment of a larger puzzle and a koan unto itself.
Heavyweight 12” just in time to soundtrack the demise of humanity. No internet-ready ‘deep’ home listening tracks but a continuation of the previous 12”s. Big nods to the past, but then again it somehow seems fitting that our demise is founded on the relics of the past. For those who like to get wild or die trying.
Moscow musician Alexander Lomakin performs his debut on Hypnotic Connection under his pseudonym Gegen Mann. Alexander presented in this release a dark and somewhat melancholic synthesizer sound, balancing between electro and EBM, smoothly plunging into a hypnotic trance and unpretentiously obliging to dance. The remixes were performed by the head of the label Muzikalist and a mindfriend from Moscow Unit-83 aka Sergey Timoshov.
First release of Malmø’s Electro Label. Stunning 5 track VA record with loads of stiff Electro from the Scandinavian parts of the mind. Eargoggle, Obergman, Dip Shim, SPH Alliance and Babylon Barseback delivers a mix between classic Electro sounds, club bangers and Breaks and neo-trance atmospheres.
”Principi d’incertesa” is the debut by 4Cantons, a Berlin based musician from Barcelona. The EP is filled with dark elektro tracks, spiced up with touches of techno, EBM and acid, making them perfect for some body work on the dance floor.
No presentations are necessary for one of the boss referents in the international scene as far as Synth and Italo Disco are concerned. Our admired Kid Machine is in charge. This extremely prolific artist comes to Aspecto Humano after releasing real gemms in reference labels such as Viewlexx, Red Laser or Cyber Dance. The record consists of five tracks and is conceived open-mindedly and with sounds which refer us to Synthwave, Electro and Italo Disco.
Legowelt’s new EP ‘System Shapeshift’ will be released on Lapsus sub label C.E.E., specializing in more club-oriented sounds. The label returns to action after a two-year hiatus, during which time its intrepid explorers failed twice to scale the dizzy heights of Nanga Parbat. Now back at sea level C.E.E.’s head honchos have confirmed the release of Legowelt’s new five-track EP, bursting at the seams with 30 minutes of unrelenting old-school techno, synth house and snaking electro bathed in pure acid. The EP is a genuine time bomb, ideal for the most discerning of electronic music lovers.
Third number in the DDS split series sees Budapest duo SILF (alias Farbwechsel chief-operators Alpar & S Olbricht) and Den Haag-based pair Intergalactic Gary and Pasiphae join forces on a quartet of elusive, unpigeonholeable power moves. I-G and Pasiphae are back at it with two left-of-centre hybrids of futuristic techno on a whirring electro-industrial tip. An off-kilter jam percolating fine hints of spiritual elation and post-apocalyptic anxiety, “Microwaves” gets the ball rolling on a dichotomous note. To slo-scudding flocks of loud, bouncy kicks supersede skeins of brittle chimes and rattling drums, all woven together by subtle tectonic shifts of moody pads. A further hi-intensity affair, “Indistinct Chatter” drives that essential heavenly/nightmarish duplicity to higher spheres of consciousness. Fusing lighthearted, daydreaming tonalities with brooding, cavernous onslaughts from the depths, the track has us navigating in a zone of its own, deftly oscillating betwixt moments of mystique-imbued euphoria and darkling introspection. A choice exponent of the Hague-based dyad’s capacity at busting antiquated patterns and limitations. Having slept in the label’s vaults for a few seasons, the two tracks composing the B-side emerge from their slumber in all their time-proof bravura. An in-your-face trampler, the ten-minute long “Mono Miner” takes no byway to get its point across, all set to smash basements and warehouses by the dozen with its electrifying compound of 909-emulated gut churn and spinning synth arpeggios circling like birds of prey over your sore, rhythm-enslaved carcass. Closing the journey on a much softer, hazier vibe, “Aces” steers us towards a realm of ambient wonder, where slo-drip cascades of tapping percussions and elegiac synth waters flow into warm, glimmering summer beds. A most contrasting, tranquillising finale to an EP defined by its propensity to change colours and intensity throughout.
Following his debut contribution to the label’s catalogue this year via the Midnight Shift x Voitax ,”Mothership” compilation, (a contribution saw the artist paired with Veronica Maximova) the Brighton based producer L/F/D/M, also known as Richard Smith, is the latest to join the catalogue on Voitax. Having pushed the boundaries of his own music, Smith managed to release an impressive amount of records throughout the last years and has perpetuated his sound on cult labels such as Cititrax, Midnight Shift, Optimo Trax, Ecstatic and Clan Destine Records. The British producer now returns to Voitax with his “Mutual Autopsy” EP – a strong four-tracker that is characterised by Smith’s undenably grainy lo-fi signature. The whole package is armed with heavyweight kicks, bloating basslines and crunchy, percussive patterns, that he perfectly crowns with some memorable and catchy synth lines. The former art student, as well as one half of Bronze Teeth, shows once again his ability to modulate his way into the abstract, while keeping it groovy and warm and firmly secures himself in the ranks with the techno avant-garde.
The Hipodrome Of Music 