house
TWINS – Standard Of Truth [COTF010]
Crimes Of The Future rounds off the year in fine style with an absolutely essential EP from TWINS. Three moody US house cuts straught out of Atlanta and a sublime deep remix from label boss Scott Fraser.
Basic Soul Unit – SKUDGE-X03 [SKUDGEX003]
After signing his album to the Amsterdam Dekmantel label, Basic Soul Unit still has more to offer. His first outing on the Skudge imprint shows four rugged dark techno jams.
Basic Soul Unit – Under The Same Sky [DKMNTL028]
Stuart Li, better known as Basic Soul Unit, brings his rugged house to the Dekmantel imprint for the very first time, serving up this finely crafted follow-up to his 2012 debut album. Delivering ten Detroit and Chicago-inspired house tracks of the finest calibre, Li’s offset and grubby bruk drums are a constant nod to the dance floor, while his melodies lean towards an unparalleled industrial edged emotion. From the LFO-like synth-line and crunchy jack of ‘Fate In Hand’, to the Levon Vincent-esque techno shuffle ‘n mutter of ‘Landlocked’ and the Morphosis-gone-wild style of ‘Unwavered’, on the to the dark subbass welt of ‘The Rift Between’ and the relentless floor destroyer ‘Temptress’: ‘Under The Same Sky’ sets the bar fly high for raw yet extremely original house music.
Sneaker – Algerian Rai [RAT006]
Sneaker is going deep with his interpretation of Rai music on RAT 6. “Rai is a type of Algerian popular music that arose in the 1920s in the Algerian city of Oran, back then known as “little Paris”, it was a melting pot of various cultures, full of nightclubs and cabarets, it was the place to go for a bawdy good time. Out of this milieu arose a group of Male and Female Muslim singers, who rejected the refined, classical poetry of traditional Algerian music. Instead, to the accompaniment of pottery drums and end-blown flutes , they sang about the adversity of urban life in a raw, gritty, sometimes vulgar, and inevitably controversial language that appealed especially to the socially and economically disadvantaged.” sounds like the definition of Rat Life! Put some drum machine patterns on top of it and here we go: long overdue Sneaker solo EP on Rat Life Records!
Anthony Naples – Smacks [PRB014]
Four track EP made in four places at four very different times – one in NYC, one in Miami, one in Tokyo, and one in Berlin. All in memory of D.M. forever and ever.
Napoleon Cherry – Walk Alone [MFM007]
Napoleon Cherry is perhaps not the unknown name that Music From Memory excels at celebrating but the Philadelphian musician’s releases are certainly suitably hard to find. This career retrospective offers a mix of impossible-to-find tracks, many from his deliciously rare 1990 debut full-length, and previously unheard cuts. It portrays Cherry as a master of warm, evocative, Balearic soul and lo-fi synthesizer funk, whose analogue-rich releases were always out-of-step with the musical trends developing around him. Crucially, all 10 of these tracks are superb, making Walk Alone yet another essential Music From Memory purchase.
MR TC – Soundtrack For Strangers [OM030]
Glasgow based Thomas Clarke encompass Left-field Disco, Tropical Oddity, House and Techno whilst channelling the spirit of a youth spent playing in psychedelic rock bands in Luxembourg, listening to krautrock and worshipping Lou Reed and David Bowie. Another ep from the depths of the Glasgow underground. Unique, organic, mind expanding.
SHMLSS – Special Edition Volume Three [SE003]
Following strong releases on Disco Deviance and To Rack n Ruin, Dutch Disco fiends SHMLSS return with 2 killer reworks on Special Edition. Both cuts work the trackier and clubbier side of the discotheque and are 100% guaranteed to shake the dance floor.
Magic Mountain High – Louche Podcast 145
Voiski – Dekmantel Podcast 041
Juanpablo – Phormix Podcast #25
Legowelt – Institute Of The Overmind [UTTUFACT]
The Dutch artist releases music at a rate of knots – there’s been at least nine albums under the Legowelt name alone now, and he has over 30 different aliases, all of which interact in weird, wonderful ways. His music has appeared on labels as Creme, Clone and Bunker bringing that original Dutch West Coast Flavour. Here Institute Of The Overmind, which was made live in a session filmed for FACT TV,gets the vinyl treatment backed with a monster 90s trance re-work from Photonz.
VA – Knives Replace Air Vol.1 [COMMONTHREAD005]
For the fifth installment in the Common Thread series we are launching our series of Various Artists EPs called *Knives Replace Air*. For the first effort in this series we have the likes of Chinaski, MangulicaFM, 33.10.3402 and Gitchell Moore cooking up stuff. Expect an odd mixture of genres all sharing a common thread in terms of feel. Maybe not the most dancefloor friendly record but definitely some kind of miniature soundtrack in its own right.
Intergalactic Gary @ Dimensions Festival 29.08.2015
John Heckle – Trema EP [MATH086]
John Heckle is back on Mathematics with this 4 track EP. Bringing back some serious textures and sequence in sonic mentalism. “It’s a Chicago thang don’t be confused or afraid.”
Solar @ Dekmantel Festival 2015
Romansoff – Forbidden Land EP [SIG009]
Signal Code release number eight comes from the Romanian outfit Romansoff, including a remix by Privacy.
Costelloe – Infiniti EP [RWT-3]
Next on Raw Tools is Irish producer and Signal Code label owner, Costelloe, delivering two tracks much in the manner of his previous works, both of them at the fine line between techno and house music. While the title track, “Infiniti” is definitely a dance floor track, with its rave pads and solid bassline, “Pheta X” shows a more darker side of Costelloe’s music. Both of these cuts get special treatment from two of the most prolific and respected producers out there, Lerosa and DJ Overdose, rounding off the EP with two amazing, yet diverse remixes.
Egyptian Eyeliner – Theda Bara EP [KAFTEN007]
The second Egyptian Eyeliner release on KäfTen is just as tearful and sentimental. Ecstasy on the housefloor.
The Hipodrome Of Music 