2018 is going to see the bond between Khidja & Malka Tuti strengthen, with the Romanian duo bringing forward their eclectic, cross-genre approach to electronic music. ‘Plot’ and ‘Am I Really Here’ are two dance-floor bangers, not hiding behind fashions and hype, the duo is pushing forward on both tracks, each with its own idea and story to tell.
Hunee presents a collection of his favorite dance floor cuts from the 70ties till modern times. Going from afro to disco to techno, ”Hunchin’ All Night” holds a wide spectrum of songs, tracks by the wonderful Boncana Maïga, Pat Thomas, Black Beat Niks, Kenny Larkin, Larry Heard, Mappa Mundi and many more. Hunee, aka Hun Choi, is a Korean Berliner who has been drawn in music since a very young age. After working in record stores and studying musicology he resided in Amsterdam, where he released his debut album Hunch Music. As a DJ he has always followed ‘a hunch’, which gave him wings to communicate the music he loves with crowds all over the world. With Hunchin’ All Night, Hunee expresses his relationship with the dance floor.
‘Hello, I am Qnete and these are my Play-Doh Stories. Some of them are already three years old and it feels like I’ve become somewhat of a different person since then. Still, I like to listen to them from time to time, thinking of how I was back then, reminding me of what helped shape me, what helped me become who I am now. Sometimes, I also get the feeling that it is not me who wrote the stories. They seem to seem unknown to me, just like they seem to you, because you are not me. Then I listen, and I know again.’
Rawax returns 2018 with a new EP by Davide Disanto aka Geffen from the lovely Bari. Four raw cuts is good Rawax tradition.
After the uneventful resolution of a labour dispute at Assistance HQ, the resident pencil-pushers turn their tempo dial to a leisurely 105bpm, at long last serving up lukewarm plates of BEAM-03 to the more sluggish peak-time massive. In ‘Mambala’, the now-obligatory bongo jostles with squelchy synths, whilst echoed claps and ominous bells should see even the most hesitant rabbit dragged down the hole. ‘Bebny’ experiments with low pH levels, metallic clutter, and some surprise horn cameos.
Juju & Jordash have announced a new label called Slack Trax, an outlet that focuses solely on material focusing firmly on the dance floor. The first release, from the pair themselves, is entitled Slack Trax Vol. 1 and includes three no nonsense dance-floor oriented techno slayers.
Klasse co-boss Mr. Ho steps up to the plate and knocks it out of the park with a new EP of brand new and original material. Inspired by listening to various library music and funk records found whilst digging in Asia, the Hong Kong based artist lays down three tracks of boogie-disco and funk inspired House music. Funky walking basslines, eerie 1980’s synthetics and spacey snares make for a total tip.
The new release on Les Disques De La Mort is coming from DJ Oil aka Lionel Corsini. ‘Telephunk’ is nothing else than a monster breakbeat funk. If ‘Paresseis’ its twin dark sister, locking electro in its black music roots whilst remaining strangely ‘European’, then ‘Fall’ is its downer baggy brother.
Camelot Arcade is the new triple LP from Ceephax Acid Crew on WeMe Records. 13 tracks of Camelot goodness with all the feeling and melodies we’ve come to expect from Ceephax and his collection of classic electronic hardware. The tracks range from the easy listening sound of Phraxby to the baroque dancefloor pump of Camelot Escalator, to the trap-esque cyber feel of Yodecahedron and the Detroit moodiness of The Green Night. Creon Happy and Trusthouse Forte have an upbeat classical feel (backed up of course by Ceephax’s favourite Roland drum machines.) While Path to the None and Shadowphax Part I&II are more dark in spirit. A lot of the tracks such as Life Started Tomorrow and The Great Greatsby were born randomly of quick jams with live keyboard playing and the album has an organic feel to it which a lot of the more formulaic electronic music lacks. All in all Camelot Arcade is a wonderful breath of fresh air and is sure to go down in history as one of Ceephax’s best.
This release is a collaboration between Needs label and the nonprofit UN Women in support of #HeForShe arts week; a solidarity campaign which explores the power of the creative arts as a means to shatter stereotypes and allow all genders to reach their full potential. Featuring the beautiful sonic soundscapes of the super talented Peggy Gou and Juju & Jordash, the release is housed in fully printed sleeves with bespoke cover artwork courtesy of The Line Girl.
True intergalactic finery by No Moon (AKA Manchester-based producer Fred Shepherd) on the latest Craigie Knowes expedition. All three tracks are impeccably spacey and futurist in tone, with Shepherd wrapping dreamy chords and glistening electronic melodies around snappy drum machine rhythms. Three elegant electro tracks by the highly talented English up-comer.
Having recently relocated to the remote redwood forests of Northern California in order to set up a satellite mixing studio for his old stomping ground, Glasgow’s Green Door Studio, Sordid Sound System returns to Invisible Inc with 4 cuts of Psychedelic Dungeon Disco. The EP opens with his most blissed out track to date ‘Die Ewige Nacht’, an eight and a half minute inverted sun ritual based around shimmering cascades of dubbed up electronic percussion and an overdriven tintinnabulated FM arp. Hi-NRG meets 80s B-Boy electro on ‘Crescent City’ with a careering off-road excursion into tripped out mutant carnival cavalcade territory. Dia De Muertos’s offbeat eerie percussion and driving low frequencies are met with spectral buzzing melodic refrains from the furthermost reaches of a decaying Oaxacan cemetery. The acid drenched ambient lullaby ‘You & Me’ brings proceedings to a fittingly fucked up close. Sordid Sound System’s last release on Invisible Inc, 2017’s ‘Fear Eats The Soul’, received plays and praise from the likes of Manfredas, Trevor Jackson, Sascha Funke, Optimo’s JD Twitch and Thomas Von Party.
For years Nathan Church or Gionata Ecclesia has been cutting up floors in his native Bilbao. Recently the Basque man’s attention has turned from the Dj booth to the studio. Under his WLDV (We Love Dolce Vita) this Iberian electronic inspiration has cast long shadows and brightened rooms with his blend of horror score intensity and disco exuberance. WLDV arrives at the Bordello with a four tracker of serious intent. Sepulchral and sinister synthlines characterise A Dying Feast, nowhere more than in the haunting samples and clean drums of ‘A Bucket of Blood’. Cold chords gleam with icy menace while crisp claps punctuate the entrancing funk of ‘Danza Macabra’. Ecclesia toys with set parameters, exploring what lurks in the twilight between terror and titillation. This flirtation with the divine and the profane is plain to hear in the uneasy elegance and uplifting elation of ‘Far, Far Away’, a work of steady kicks, unsettling extracts and soaring strings. This Feast ends on a delectable note. Keys dance and spiral in the intoxicating ‘Laying Down On Cosmic Dust’, an enthralling end to and enthralling EP.
Core family member and Crisis founder Imre Kiss returns to the Lobster fray with a deep, riveting and emotive EP for sub-label Mörk. Infused with the emotional energy of his previous outings whilst plunging into a wormhole of London-centric sonic references, Strangers is Imre at his most potent and signals a striking return for the Budapest producer.
Cosmic Garden new on our Royal Oak Series. Four tracks of smooth bleepy house that only Italians do right. Deep, timeless, all analog produced tracks for that Pleasure Moment.
Second release of five in the Kavalanic Languages series – three nautical house tracks by Bill Westerby.
Public Possession start 2018 with Wolfram. Maxi Single PP026 features “Automatic Dub”. Powerful Italo Disco that will heat up any given Dancefloor in no time. The original is accompanied by two remixes, courtesy of Samo DJ and Alexi3d. More subtle yet equally effective acid versions including dreamy vocal and stop/pause scat madness.
The Hipodrome Of Music 