The Social Background series on Ethereal Sound continues with another deep house 2 tracker from label boss, Anton Zap.
house
Serge – House Mix From Cassette (Around ’93’94)
Fudge Fingers – Mass X Remixes [FIREC008]
Two killer dub versions of ‘Mass X’ from Fudge Fingas. Vakula turns the original tropical cut into a brain-melting, dark warehouse soundtrack. Meanwhile, Juju & Jordash slow things down and get lost in a shimmering bass odyssey.
Volta Cab – Finale #7 [FINALE007]
Volta Cab present a new release on Finale Sessions, including 4 tracks. “Empire Times” is a throwback to the early nineties classic New York signature four on the floor sound with fuel injected synths and a great dance floor peak time get down groove. The other tracks differ from an 80’s disco sound to massive deep techno.
Soul System aka Nicholas – Lost Tapes I [WXC002]
Skylax Records present the 2nd release on Wax Classic, featuring 5 fantastic trax done by Nicholas’ new incarnation as Soul System. Deep and analogue synth heavy grooves.
DJ Kaos – Lovebomb EP [DISCOFIL808]
DJ Kaos’ debut on Discofil imprint, with some cool selection of tracks, ranging from slo-mo disco house to more jacking tracks with classic house grooves.
Legowelt – LWE Podcast 106
Arthur James Denton – An Odyssey [ENDLESSFLIGHT40]
The 2nd release of Arthur James Denton on Endless Flight. Title track “An Odyssey” is dark chicago house track, a2 “Loon” is funky rave house track. Legowelt remix on b side is more tech house style.
Matt Whitehead – Obsession EP [RI003]
Matt Whitehead returns with the 3rd installment on Rebel Intelligence. This time 4 tracks of finely crafted acid house in keeping with his acclaimed live sets of the past 2 years. From the Inner City inspired ‘Good Fun’ to the deep atmosphere of the title track ‘Obsession’, this EP captures a sound and feeling guaranteed to move both hearts and feet on the dancefloor.
Paul Mac & Mark Broom – Essex Acid EP [BMD005]
Paul Mac & mark Broom revisit those aciiied days to show us how it’s done with the four-tracker, ‘Essex Acid EP’ on Mark Broom’s own imprint, BeardMan. Joining their production forces for the first two tracks, Paul Mac then goes it alone for the second half of the EP. Originally recorded back in the day, ‘I Don’t Know’, ‘A Certain Era’ and ‘Knocker’ were first released on Mark Broom and Dave Hill’s seminal Pure Plastic label (PP066), while ‘Remember When’ was never previously released.
Cuthead – Brother EP [UV007]
The third artist-EP by Uncanny Valley comes from Cuthead and is nothing less than a proper power package. With ‘Vibratin’ things start off as deep as the bottom of the sea. Underneath Cuthead’s dense drums there is an intense and meditating synth line which is eventually complimented by an acid figure as if it was an evil twin. ‘Brother’ rolls in with a mighty kick drum, before a catchy sample and not less catchy piano motives prepare for a propitiating end. With ‘Transgressions’ and its bass line for the bigger floors things get down to House business once again. The remaining two tracks then give an impression of what happens, if Cuthead takes to the MPC for his liveset. In ‘Seram Lembah’ and ‘Heartless’ Cuthead combines his drumming with South East Asian disco-mantras und bittersweet Blues chants to heavy Hip-Hop-grooves.
A Drummer From Detroit – Drums #1 [FIT004]
Naturally for a producer who prefers to remain anonymous and call themselves A Drummer From Detroit and name their debut EP Drums, both tracks here veer into dextrously percussive house territory. Amidst the dizzying, jazz influenced rattle of Shake Shakir style rhythms that characterise the A Side workout our erstwhile protagonist weaves in desperate vocal strains and overtly dramatic piano and horn stabs which only serve to increase the panic inducing pace. The flipside treatment is slightly slower in its execution, yet increases the jazz funk melodic elements which make it the less a hectic and more involving production.
VA – Sound Sampler Vol. 1 [SSMPLR001]
Frank Timm aka Soundstream/Soundhack/half of Smith N Hack is one of Berlin’s most coveted producers of discohouse in the Chicago tradition. A substantial collection of four tracks. A-side there’s the swirling, filtered strings of ‘Just Around’ as Soundstream, beside the ruff-cut jack of ‘Vintage’ in his Soundhack guise. B-side he introduces a new moniker, T.S.O.S. with the smashing ‘Over And Over’ and ‘Over Beats’, plus four loops which will definitely get used and abused.
Arttu – Transfiguration [PHP057]
Lisbon-based producer Arttu Sellman release the second two-tracker for Philpot. Both the title track and flipside “Upwards” bear the aural hallmarks and raw drum machine sounds of early house and techno. While the latter is a driving fusion of drifting vocal samples, fuzzy beats and brain-melting acid bass, it still retains the analogue swing and evocative feel of the immaculate title track. While neither track could be described as revolutionary, both offer an attractive package of spellbinding grooves and intoxicating analogue riffs.
Dj Qu – Bass Culture podcast Nov 11
Crackboy – Back To The Future [CRACKBOY001]
Crackboy sticks two fingers up to the chin-stroking shoe-gazing deep house heads and drags us to the middle of the peak-time dancefloor with this Prince / Sueno Latino-sampling bootie! “Back To The Future”, aka “The Future” by Prince, gets a rocking house revamp on side A, one that will be sure to have everyone in a sweat. “Ebeneezer Knight” might have you worrying that the Shaman would be involved somewhere along the line, but actually this is a fattened up version of late 80s Manuel Gottsching-sampling Italo house classic “Sueno Latino” by Sueno Latino. Simple, effective music – nothing fussy, nothing over-worked, just tailor-made for dancing.
Lucretio – Broadside EP [MSP002]
State of the art work on the dusty binding between house, techno, dubstep and analogue processing. On side A we find a dancefloor smasher with solid 808 beats and absorbing new yorican piano hooks, followed by an acidic voyage of epic proportions. On the flip, we get a proper piece of functional minimalism and a soulful uptempo excursion into the garage territories. The heat of magnetic recording, the funkyness of the machines, the driving force of the human feeling.
Hazylujah – Too Many Ghosts EP [DSRSP003]
Hazylujah is a new talent from Italy who here presents the first in a new series of webshop exclusives. His four track ‘Too Many Ghosts EP’ is a fizzing and machine wired world of deep space atmospherics, house beats and techno futurism. It clunks and splutters with analogue details in its own unique way.
Fake Left – The Future That Never Was [IS002]
Second release on iS Records. The A-side, The Future Never Was combines sparse beats and pads held together by a growling stuttered bass, which gives the track an industrial feel but on a techno/house tip. On the flip, Fake The Feeling, draws on sounds beyond the current trend for vintage analogue in an original take on the house blueprint. The B2 track Out of Orbit is 4 minutes 48 seconds of Tech soul, for the floor or the headphones.
Inhalt / Jam Factory – World Unknown 4 [WU004]
Number 4 from World Unknown. Side W is a big vocal banger from San Francisco synth duo Inhalt. O side U, Jam Factory creates a throbbing club style track, slower, steadier and more strung out than their usual deep house grooves.
