Perseus Traxx makes his Schrödinger’s Box debut with a 4-track EP of experiments forged in the depths of Northern England. Pristine plateaus and eerie sweeps cover the entire first side, a Perseus Traxx from 2090, shimmering in and out of phase within a murky acidic landscape. Introspective and thoughtful throughout. Timothy J Fairplay finishes off the final quarter with a summer-garden Techno banger.
Biologic Records welcomes Cooper Saver to the label with two stunning remixes from Khidja and Abstraxion.
The new installment of the Hivern split series features John Talabot and Khidja. Both tracks have slowish tempos, are built around obsessive motifs and make an outlandish use of delays. An unsettling and menacing atmosphere, fruit of masterful exercises on tension building, that seems tailored for those early moments in a set when you feel the need to rise the pressure without causing too much of a blast. These tracks are prime examples that’s there’s space for functional tracks away from the most obvious paths. And that’s the ultimate purpose of the series.
John Daly resurfaces with an outstanding 4 track house record on Craigie Knowes. Daly has reached an almost mythical status within the house music community; his tracks have been adored by record collectors, DJs and dance floor enthusiasts since the mid-2000s. This record is the embodiment of everything we love about John Daly’s sound, and a bit more.
Acid techno experiments from the Italo disco master with Alessandro Adriani extended rework of Technologies.
Alex ‘Kiwi’ Warren’s passion for music has been a fire that has long burned within. He now joins Edinburgh’s Paradise Palms for the latest installment of their highly regarded 7” series. “You Want Her To” is a playful, low slung stomper featuring a slowed-down House beat, pads and a catchy oddball chant from Warren himself. “Peeling Oranges” ups the NRG and uses an Italo-strength arpeggiated bassline to great effect, resulting in a peak time electronic Disco smash.
The fourth various artists compilation album on Netherlands based 030303 Records. Splitradix has been given the honour to kick off with a wonderfully meandering acid epos, reminiscent of 808 State’s more obscure output, with a euphoric element entering about halfway. Zaphyd takes the energy level up a bit further with a strange dry beat driving the tune which is full of melodies trying to elbow each other to the side in the friendliest possible way… Side B opens with Star Flip by Holovr where a series of classic throbbing acid basslines are accompanied by an unsettling melody, not for the faint hearted! The Exaltics’ What If We Could is a haunting bubbly motherfucker of an acid track, not totally unlike Polygon Window’s Untitled, pure dark bliss… The C side then starts with a brilliantly bouncing contribution containing a beautiful melancholic theme by Piepiep, one of 030303’s co-founders. Argentina’s Nacho M Meyer is the mastermind behind Planeta, yet another dreamy cut full of Detroit-like melancholy. Zelfkant, the first contribution on the D side, is by Betonkust and feels like a classic Warp Artificial Intelligence armchair track with a touch of wave/electro. One of the best tracks on the comp then, is by Dirty Data, who delivers a track full of twisted breaks, hectic bleeps and eerie synths, mind blowing this one… Kramphaft is behind the final contribution to the compilation, again a sinister and dark one with haunting melodies spun out over unusual hard hitting electro breaks.
Seminal NYC deep house sounds from the legendary Strictly Rhythm catalogue, this is some straight 1991 heat. ‘I Wanna Feel The Music’ / ‘Gotta Have You’ are 2 stone cold jams. Sound Waves is a crew made up of Andrew Richardson and Gijo Rosario, who crafted 2 slamming 12”s for Strictly in the very early 90’s. Both cuts ooze so much soul, and those unmistakable deep synth pads that wash over those tuff NYC drums with uplifting emotion. A true underground record that sounds like it could have easily dropped last week.
Camarade release there first full EP on Duke’s Distribution. Dan Piu & Grant come together once more, but this time showcasing a completely fresh sound under a new moniker inspired by early IDM all while maintaining a clear grip on the dancefloor with deep atmospheric ambience and rhythms.
The eight chapter of the infamous Slow Motion Compilation series, “Italian Dance Wave Disco Otto”, has quite some hidden gems to be discovered. Beginning with a track from Marcello Giordani DJ (half of the duo Marvin & Guy), that expresses a perfect Italian melancholic sunset (as the title also states), energetic, strong, but always poetic. Always following that “beachy” vibes we find The Caribbean House, serving a track that could last a century, and we would never mind. Electro hints mixing with deep and balearic vibes: ears glued to the headphones. Moreover, we have again Slow Motion queen, System Olympia with a track that could make even nuns sweat on the dancefloor: beats and bass to die for. To close this chapter, you can pamper your ears with a angry balearic track from Gallo, not suited for the more weak hearts, that’s for sure.
Summer is coming sooner this year, and you can tell from the heat of the two latest releases from Slow Motion. The first of the two, “Italian Dance Wave Disco Sette”, is here to delight you: starting from a half Italo and half Asian influenced Altieri track, killing it with a dancefloor belter that will make you sweat the night away, raving sensations guaranteed. Lukebox (Fabrizio Mammarella and Umberto Saba from the duo Loudtone) will serve you a slightly more downtempo, modular, weirdo beast that will make your head bang without you even notice: banger. Back on your turntables, is also Robotalco who is providing some proto-house extravaganza and adding some charme to the dirty, chunky beats of the compilation. Last but not least, José Manuel, delivering a touch of biting deep house and electro tribal feels to close the gap, and make us scream “hell yes”.
Dekmantel welcomes the good time vibes of Canadian selector, and retrotastic, vibe-poppin’ producer Jex Opolis. Cult figure, obsessive Discog-er and Good Timin’ boss, the Brooklyn-based, Canadian has etched out a global reputation with his exotic taste of lo-fi, party productions, with this – his Dekmantel debut – not straying far from the formula Electro, disco-chic, doused in gooey pop, sultry silk, and retro synth-boogie.
Steven Tang’s Emphasis returns with the reclusive Intrinsic on Firewalls. ”Firewalls” builds soulfully techno syncopated synths & rhythms while the deeply modulated ”Falling” is thick & smoky filled with delayed synth madness that coalesces with a brooding bass line. Includes ”Bonus Beats”.
Tribe is a record label created by like-minded artists from Barcelona, with a bold purpose of generating and sharing their idea of timeless electronic music. The debut EP Tribe01 comprises four different yet catchy and charismatic tunes that meet at the same point – the dance floor.
Digging deeper into rescued attic-material, Telephones offers even more genre-wobbly, and inspired sounds, featuring bipolar detroit techno/bongo-disco, stuttering warehouse-atmospheres and a failed attempt at making Speed Garage (without ever really knowing what that was) – instead ending up somewhere, which can best be described as balearic techno with a dutch twist, hyperactive steroid-disco and degenerate house. Originally conceived and programmed by a juvenile Mr Telephones on ancient PC-software at the turn of the 90s/Y2K – 20 years later, salvaged, exported and meticulously overdubbed, re-recorded and edited to current high standards of Telephonic Communication.
London’s Warriors Dance label was a unique operation and a pioneering London label during the late 80’s acid house phenomena. Home to an assortment of DJs, MCs and soundmen, they went on to make their own original and indelible mark on the rave scene from the infamous ‘Addis Ababa’ studio on Harrow Road on the North-West side of the city. This is an updated and expanded 2019 version of the Warriors Dance compilation 89′ that boasts some unreleased DAT tape outtakes and cuts that have never seen the light of day – until now. This compilation is crammed full of the breakbeats, deep as the centre of the earth basslines, left-field influenced acid cuts and dubwise new-wave esque dance sounds..
Hieroglyphic Being has materialized with the limited & stamped “A Synthetic Love Life Vol. 1” created a decade ago to cassette & sonically presented to higher plane listeners. Volume 1 of 9 for Mathematics Plus.
The New York Haunted label owner Drvg Cvltvre drops 3 new tracks on Concrete Records. Strong synths, acid bass lines and aggressive sounds are the elements that always characterized Drvg Cvltvre’s music, in this EP he shows another more sophisticated and personal side: pads and ambient suggestions coexist with the strong basslines and rhythms. A different approach that gives a more deep and mental oriented tone to the tracks. A lot of percussion add raw sound characterized this three tracks, a just balance between the raw house genre and the violent techno sound.
OCP presents their debut release, coming from Koga, Frankfurt underground DJ and connoisseur of the M1 organ bass. The ‘Hive Mind’ EP contains four well executed tracks that are likely to disintegrate dance floors around the globe. Title track ‘Hive Mind’, featuring Simon Moncler, is a Brooklyn-style techno jam packed with hard hitting RZ-1 hats, while ‘Survivor (M&M’s techno will survive mix)’, featuring Maurice, freshly connects trancey elements with breaks and bleeps. The B side kicks off with ‘Fox Undercover’, a jam displaying developed knowledge of clunky baselines and pounding grooves, the 12″ rounds of with a bass-heavy remix of ‘Fox Undercover’ by DJ Slyngshot.
The Hipodrome Of Music 