Noleian Reusse (half of Africans with Mainframes) and Thomas Cox (one third of Pittsburgh Track Authority) got together in the studio in Pittsburgh during a week of extreme social unrest in the USA in late 2015, resulting in these recordings. The tracks are crafted with a stripped back electronic funk and a stark, relentless feel that reflects the energy in the air at the time.
Africaine 808 drop a fresh single on Golf Channel. Intriguingly, “Everybody Wants To” is something of a departure from the polyrhythmic, global fusion style explored on Basar. Instead, it sees the Berlin-based duo explore the world of synthesizer-heavy space-funk. Of course, there’s still plenty of Latin and African influences amongst the loose and organic percussion, but these seem to play second fiddle to the vocoder vocals, bustling bassline and intergalactic synthesizers that dominate. Of the two versions, it’s the flipside 12″ Disco Dance Mix that really hits the spot, with DJ Nomad and Dirk Leyers extending the groove and emphasizing the superb bassline for greater dancefloor enjoyment.
DJ Nomad and Dirk Leyers’ Africaine 808 project has been responsible for some of the most inventive and enjoyable music of the last few years. It’s little surprise, then, to find that the Berlin-based outfit’s debut album, Basar, is rather special. Built around their now famous polyrhythmic, Afro and Latin influenced drum machine programming, it begins with a touch of snaking jazz, and climaxes with a dense, rising, uplifting Afro-gospel workout that should leave listeners thrilled and breathless. In between, you’ll find 21st century broken beat, delicious downtempo torch songs about break-ups, Juke-influenced Cajun blies bangers, and hard-to-define – but thoroughly engaging – dancefloor wig-outs.
Since donning the Payfone guise, former Kitty Bronx and Leon Lace man Phil Passera has yet to put a foot wrong. Both 2013 debut “International Smark” and last year’s “Paradise” – the latter for Phil South’s Golf Channel imprint – were both superb exercises in re-imagining New York boogie for the house generation. He’s at it again here, with “Quarantine” offering the perfect blend of jaunty electrofunk synths, early New York garage dubbiness, effortlessly soulful vocals, rubbery disco bass and a dash of Giorgio Moroder. Flipside “Padre Pray For Us” is an altogether deeper, woozier proposition, with blazed drums, hazy Rhodes keys and fluid synths being joined by a killer trumpet solo – the kind that makes you want to close your eyes and just drift away.
In typical Golf Channel fashion, this collaborative 12″ from Detroit native Todd Modes and Heroes of The Galleon Trade guitarist Mike Severson offers the perfect balance between left-of-centre experimentation, and disco-influenced dancefloor grooves. This is first evident on the baggy, slightly psychedelic stoner disco throb of “Midnight Exotics”, where Severson’s hazy guitar passages and beat boxing style vocal samples ride a trippy, disco-rock groove. Flipside “Disco Desire” pushes the intensity level up several notches. This time, Severson offers up wild, heavy metal-inspired guitar solos, which build in intensity over Modes’ pulsating, italo-influenced backing track.
Coming from a cultural landscape that is still yet to fully form can instil in a person an unusually strong force of will. Autarkic is the latest representation of Tel Aviv’s cold wave scene. The leftfield movement through an Eastern lens. Holding up a mirror to the current state of his world, Autarkic (assisted by Red Axes) has provided 4 tracks which manage to be thought provoking, compelling, and even anthemic, in equal measure.
Having impressed with a variety of weird and wonderful singles on International Feel, Golf Channel and their own Rogue Cat Sounds imprint over the last three years, it’s probably about time Ben Shenton and Dean Meredith dropped their debut album under the Mind Fair alias. Predictably, it’s an impressively wonky, off-kilter and dubbed-out affair, effortlessly joining the dots between dub disco, hazy punk-funk, heavy African rhythms (see stand-out “Voodoo Train”), slo-mo chuggers (“Neon Carnival”) and bluesy Balearica (“Sunny Carter”). Blessed with plenty of live drums, guitars and bass, as well as vintage synthesizers, it’s an attractively loose affair, with great ideas and beautiful mood pieces complimenting the low-slung, out-there experiments.
The first part of another Golf channel double header from the insanely prolific and scarily on form combination of Dean Meredith & Ben Shenton. A side ‘C.E.R.E.M.O.N.Y’ has been dubbed ‘the barnyard stomp’ by split secs’ / sonns’ Travis Kirschbaum (aka TK Disco) – 11 minutes of bluesy peyote riot that features Derek Holt of 70’s black country legends The Climax Blues Band. B side ‘Hiding from my Shadow’ is ripe with the funk too, but takes us away from the fertile stench of the psychedelic session in the barn and instead channels Minneapolis via Stafford as P-funk squiggles give way to Mr. Meredith’s trademark chugging bass.
After ‘Saffron’ and ‘Fox’ stormed the clubs last year Eric Duncan and Dean Meredith unleash another double headed monster that will detonate the dancefloor.
This is the first project for new NYC native and Golf Channel signee under the new nom de guerre of Bogdan Irkuk aka Bulgari who did a bunch of celebrated stuff on Rollerboys over the last few years! It’s a heady duo of upfront modern Disco jams, all muscular bass lines, swirling atmospherics and tough drums.
‘Groovotica’ is a special one to be sure – a box set featuring two 12’s (one original material, the other a selection of edits from DJ Nature’s private stock).
Those cheeky scamps at Golf Channel come through with a surprise here with A Walk In The Dark, the debut album from a mysterious group of individuals known only as The Central Executives. Concerted internet searching as to the exact identity of The Central Executives has proved fruitless, as have attempts to coerce the label for information. However given how extensive Phil South’s figurative rolodex is, not to mention the sheer breadth of talent that’s appeared on Golf Channel over the years, we are willing to wager there is some high profile disco talent behind The Central Executives. Certainly A Walk In The Dark is filled with loose limbed punk funk and supple house that’s quite aptly described by the label as “Sound Signature style machine jams, bare bones vocal led improvisations, discordant Arthur Russell moments & the distorted reflections of roots House that run to the very core of the big apple.”
For those unwilling to participate in Golf Channel’s “catch me if you can” white label release antics, you can now indulge in the latest example of Eric Duncan’s prospering production relationship with Dean Meredith in this fully finished edition. As The Rhythm Odyssey and Dr Dunks, the pair have already served up two plates of incendiary discotheque burners for Golf Channel and this two track Fox 12″ is every bit as good. The A Side ‘Version’ of “Fox” plummets down the disco rabbit hole with dubby abandon, acting as a precursor to the technicolour delights of the original on the flip, which is blessed with a rawness akin to early Chicago house.
Juju & Jordash present the second part of their ‘Unleash The Golem’ on Golf Channel Recordings, featuring two tracks ‘Coffin Train’ and ‘Coffin Train Getaway’.
Justin Vandervolgen presents the latest in his Try To Find Me series on Golf Channel. This release is a selection of electric romping disco that gets looped into a frenzy, something Justin has a knack for. Another duo of obscurities, reworked and rendered in glorious 21st century technicolour. The A Side houses a fierce, camp and snare pounding mid-party banger, while the flip carries the Balearic gem ‘Needs Ending’ , a nice chugging electronic disco rhythm, great percussion and dreamy female vocals.
Golf Channel dip into the groundbreaking work of Spike once again. This time the title track from his 1983 New Germany LP takes up the A Side, a filmic, taught drum machine and string piece. On the flip, DJ NATURE steps up again to deliver a great rework, taking a pop at punk-funk.
Spicy krautrock-like melodramatics by DVS, introcately refining the genre. Especially the beatless version on the flip illustrates some special beauty and nuance. Ably assisted by Thomas Bullock, this compellingly motorik, spaced out song punctuated by heavily effected blasts of guitar, sounds like a lost classic. The B side features Mix 2, a beatless version that lays the vocal and guitar elements bar.
The Hipodrome Of Music 