MOS Deep is back with a fascinating four track EP, The Tales Of.. Part 1, that veers from slow and beatless to fast and energetic. It comes from R-A-G and is a soundtrack to a distant world with corrugated drums, free flowing synths and lots of mysterious forces at work.
TX Connect steps up for Lower Parts 09. Replacing Memories is a pounding voyage into the unknown. Pulsing acid and urgent FX ring out over banging drums.
ENDILL006 goes split. Scottish Stephen Lopkin and Greek DimDJ have delivered quality Detroit informed house tunes straight for the floors, except “Grave Roll” which can be nice opening track. 909 turns 707 and It’s not Endless illusion without proper synth lines.
Debut four tracker by Peeping Tom on the Pinkman imprint. Blistering techno and dramatic electro injected jams from this unknown Rotterdam based voyeur. Comes with an insert with pictures taken on the streets by the peeper himself.
Lush house and surf ridin’ techno from Italian producer Lock Eyes. Coming from within the heat-wave drenched depths of Puglia, Lock Eyes’ tracks are a crossroads where harmonious polyphonic synths meet rough-cut vintage drum patterns and sun-soaked dreams of future nostalgia.
Jean Nipon most recently known for his standout productions on Parisien label ClekClek Boom joins the L.I.E.S. stable. The a-side sees Nipon go straight for the throat with a Chicago-esce muted-synth beating drum track, not unlike early Poindexter or Ricky Smith productions- it is effective, dj ready, and geared for the club. The two track b-side takes a more mellow and dusty approach- without losing his sense of rhythm engaging drum programming push along tape warbled melodies as the tracks expand and release, balancing out and letting this ep breathe perfectly.
Grainy and overdriven machine house from Brazil on Berlin label 777 which sounds like it’s been recorded from tape. This stuff is properly dirty in a seriously lo-fi way… First track “Charlie” is dirty techno punk using a rusty pawn shop drum machine pattern and backed by growling black metal guitar feedback; pretty serious! Next up “Mini Folia” clangs and clatters about the shop with a skipping and antagonising melody plus more overdriven guitar grunt in the background. On the flip “Metados” is more uplifting and dare we say… soulful? This melancholic deep house number still packs some punch with its overdriven kick and bumping bassline though, don’t worry. Finally “Damas” is one more underground basement jam; a driving vintage groove with equals parts emotion and machine hiss and squeal!
After a promising start like “Night Drive” The Caribbean House is finally introduced by his creator/curator Billy Bogus through this four tracks EP. The Caribbean House is a live project that finds Bogus teamed up with Federico Bologna, from seminal Technogod and Ohmega Tribe collective, and Cristiano Santini, from legendary italian act Disciplinatha. Straight from electronic Italian suburbia of the nineties, skilfully mixed with Bogus uncommon approach, this is an outstanding blend of new wave and slow motion disco, strictly for midnight vultures. Let’s begin Very DJ friendly, “Ivory Pagoda” hits with a catchy rhythm which evokes some sort of deep techno vibes but with house-disco flavours and jazz aftertaste. “Il nuovo Dragone” sounds like an afro spin cycle with gluey synths and a hidden sick atmosphere. On the b side: “Haitian Party” is a lively piece that can also be crepuscular and “Ivy” comes full circle with a hypnotic afro-wave with a premonition.. This EP aims to break the rules through a bizarre idea of temporal continuity which may look like a bit of a paradox : from the dark vibes/atmospheres of the 80s via the glacial synths and the warm sampled beats of the 90s to the vaporous present day disco. If you are a DJ who knows history on the dancefloor but also like to experiment with the unusual you are definitely going to love this one!
With tickering hi-hats leading the first tracks on both side A & B Skymax enters a familier Finnish sounding disco (and part rock) sphere with kraut elemtents, synth-bass, a DJ Sotofett dub, a tango-fied slow machine ballad and a beatless 80s soundtrack conclusion to round it off. It has that utterly great and little-bit-hard-to-swallow Finnish quality stamp.
Antoine Harispuru, otherwise known as Golden Bug, has been delivering consistently excellent levels of disco-tinged house and electro over the last eight or so years, and it was only a matter of time before he’s pop up on Ivan Smagghe and Leon Oakey’s eclectic Les Disques De La Mort. The original mix of “Wild Boys” features Yan Wagner drooling over the beats in his familiarly lamenting, 80’s reminiscent style, and there’s a Lord Tusk mix on the back of it; the Londoner adds a subtle EBM flavour to the song, making harder and more penetrating on the dancefloor. “Ik Voel Je” is the weirdo in the crew, a magnificent piece of lo-fi psychedelia that stutters its guitar riffs amid heavy distortions and delays, while “L’Horloge” enters Kraftwerk territories thanks to its broken chops of mechanical voices and robotic beats.
For its 3rd release, Malka Tuti is welcoming Khidja to the ever expanding family. The Romanian Duo appears to be in great form after their successful releases on Emotional Especial and Love on the Rocks. With their unique approach to production that combines recording alot of friends playing live instruments (Saz, Guitars, Violins, Persian Poetry just to name a few) and with references to obscure Fusion Jazz as well as to early Industrial and techno music, a very fertile and creative ground was made. Out of it Came Racheta El Fadaa, a unique slow hypnotic tune with some Arabic and Andalusian touches, that keeps on evolving, Drums of Taksim, a timeless tune, with the mesmerizing speech in the beginning followed by heavy bass and uncontrollable string grooves, and Monkey Tiger, a pure Industrial mid-tempo power track for all the chuggers out there to go mental to with its heavy baseline, screaming violins and dance floor scorching synth lines. On the remix to Drums of Taksim we find a collab between Turkish maestros Baris K & Mehmet Aslan, that strips the original down, pitches it up, and give the ep a bit of a mid-tempo house touch and a final seal of approval.
The art of omission is a craft New Jersey native Joey Anderson masters like few others. After releasing his acclaimed debut album After Forever in 2014 and the 1974 EP earlier this year, Anderson returns to the Dekmantel label serving up the signature sound we love him for. Invisible Switch is the perfect example of what Anderson can do with very little, catapulting him to one of the finest and most original techno and house producers to date. Hammered to loose 4/4 rhythms, and without the use of the obvious percussive spasms, Anderson serves up some of the strangest dance floor tracks around. The lack of snares in ‘Waves in the Organ’, the schizophrenic ‘Blind Light’ and the sprawling ‘Reset’ show his fresh take on what modern dance floor music can sound like: elegant and urgent at the same time, while the wonderfully weird ‘Invisible Switch’ vouches for his versatility as a producer. Anderson’s minimalism doesn’t affect the musicality of the tracks. The strength lies in the details and unexpected twists. Freaked out chords cut through ‘Nabta Playa,’ a peak-time club track that stands out thanks to its enchanting madness. One of the many highlights is the impressive, more-than eight minutes-long ‘Disappearance’, which builds around a wrung synth line and neurotic rattling hi-hats, leading the dance in a hallucinatory techno trip that excels in originality.
Unknown To The Unknown’s early ’90s inspirations are well documented, with boss man DJ Haus frequently signing and releasing tracks that doff a cap to ghetto-house, acid, Belgian techno and early British hardcore. Despite this history, Gnork’s “Space Beach” feels surprisingly fresh. Described, somewhat matter-or-factly, as “jungle techno”, the title track does a brilliant job combining booming, skittish, energy-packed early jungle rhythms with the kind of spacey melodies and chords that you’d expect to find on vintage Detroit techno records. Flipside “Double Sunset” jettisons the Motor City inspirations in favour of a more straight up, bass-heavy early jungle flex, with rich dub bass enhancing the mood.
Synth wizard and disco don Massimiliano Pagliara is the latest addition to Uncanny Valley’s roster. From the first bass drum it is clear that “Connection Lost” pulls out all the stops. There is an urgency in its drumming and synth work that shouts “dance floor anthem” right from the get-go. “I Am Running All My Drum Machines At Once And Dancing” plays out like a percussive orgasm triggering pretty much all the drum sounds you could imagine. On the sleazy Disco affair that is “Don’t Give Up On Love” Massimiliano gets vocal support from Sigrid Elliott. This is a oh-so-sexy alliance that would have shined bright even in the heydays of Boogie. Finally, “I Enjoy Myself While I Am Here” shows off once again that when Massimiliano Pagliara is at the keys he creates glorious vibes like nobody else.
All three tracks here are on a stretched-out, dubbed-out electronic disco tip, beginning with what appears to be Hardy’s reel-to-reel extension of Disco Dream & The Androids’ quirky 1979, Moroder-ish arpeggio-jam “Dream Machine”. Flip for an all-instrumental dub take on Craig Peyton’s decidedly wonky, electro-disco cover of “Be Thankful For What You’ve Got” and “116 BPM Trax”, an un-credited, boogie-era, proto-house jam full of bubbling electronics, cheeky synthesizer riffs and clanking drum machine hits.
The Pilotwings are back on Brothers From Different Mothers with another ode to rurality and old-fashioned analogue. Including 4 tracks, Molitor 71 goes deeper into retrofuturist nostalgia and bucolic
mood.
Nemas Problemas are a crate-digging crew linked to Malmo’s Wildlife Records. Here, they make their first appearance on Passport To Paradise, editing up a quartet of suitably obscure tracks found on various dusty-fingered record hunting trips. Rizzolo DJ kicks things off with “Ride To Paradise”, a suitably rolling, dancefloor-friendly version of a stoner rock/cosmic disco gem, before Kool DJ Dust raises the pressure further with the vocoder-laden electrofunk jam “A Brew With My Crew”. Flip for Rastanils lo-fi, synth-laden disco delight “Darling”, and arguably the highlight of the entire EP, The Keeper’s deliciously Balearic, melody-rich jazz-funk chugger “Quivering Crevice”.
A tri-continental modern funk teamup with Tug Boatmen joining Megadon to rerub 2 of his deepest cuts. The A-side is a funky boogie classic with a Cylon-esque robotic vocal. B/w ”Don’t Ask” a floor filling modern disco knockout-one of TZ’s personal secret weapons.
The Hipodrome Of Music 