Much has been said about Nami Shimada’s JPop Bubblegum Deep House anthem. Produced by Soichi Terada in 1989, Larry Levan used to bang it in he Paradise Garage, ressurected by Creme in 2004, over a decade before the hype. Here’s all the versions that matter, including a beautiful and haunting Legowelt remix.
Keeping up with the number of different aliases Legowelt has is as hard as keeping up with the number of personal beefs Prince Harry has, only far more worthy of your time. Here the prolific Dutch producer becomes Smackos and links up with Brightness Shallan Davar for a second of 10 proposed volumes of Whispers Of An Ancient World. Davar takes care of the first side, which offers four deeply atmospheric pieces of analogue ambient fuzz and cosmic imagery. Smackos steps up on the B-side with a more mystic ambient sound and plenty of his signature shapeshifting synth patterns that melt the mind and submerse you deep in an interplanetary world.
A Philosophy of Tracking was a vinyl LP album that came with the Legowelt Polyend Tracker hardware sequencer/sampler released in 2021. All songs were made on this machine. This digital release has a bunch of extra tracks that were not on the LP. The Polyend Tracker is a Polish electronic music instrument, a hardware version of 1990s tracker music software like Protracker and Octamed. Originating mainly on the Commodore Amiga and PC computers this software could extensively sequence sound samples. Starting thousands of music careers, they enabled more then ever anyone with just a cheap computer to make releasable music in their bedroom without the need of expensive music gear. It played a vital role in the development of many electronic music styles: Jungle, Gabber, Breakcore and The Hague electronix to name a few. In 2021 Polyend released the TRACKER Legowelt edition. Sporting a custom faceplate designed by Legowelt and including 5000 samples from his studio. it also came with a bunch of tracks: “.mod files” that could be studied, altered or whatever you waned to do with. This album is mainly a selection of these tracks with some vocoder/vocals added. All songs.were made on the tracker, except vocals and vocoder which were done on a ZOOM1201, Korg RK100S, Roland VT-5 and some reverb and delay effects from an Alesis Midiverb 4.
We are starting this year’s retrospective with some “musical gifts” we discovered on the net. Music shared for free download / pay-what you want from artists and label we admire.
More
Some sort of low slung house tracks with a twist from the unpredictable and unparalleled brain that roams the dunes of the Hague. Responsible for Dickie Smabers & The Moerwijk crew, Nacho Patrol, Gladio and a swath of other mysterious and inscrutable aliases. This one comes straight from his private rave cave. Hermit in a Rave Cave is Legowelt’s latest project and this is part 1.
French Sailing Captain had to stop on Parisian shores of Les Yeux Orange to refuel before extending his electronic journey. He teams up here with legendary producer The Advent, delivering “Computer Monkey”, a concept EP coming with relentless lyrics about egocentrism on social networks. Two awesome remixes by electro cult artists Legowelt and DMX Krew round up the package made of crystal transparent copies with pixel art full color sleeves.
Something special on Nightwind Records: Last December Danny Wolfers met up with Japansese digital dub legend Taka Noda aka Mystica Tribe to produce this Far East style heavy digital dub album. Custom made lo-fi oozing echo effects transform synthesizers and drummachines into a comforting mist of arcane sludge, laced with Taka Noda’s enchanting melodica playing.
Boogie Woogie NOW! is an ode to the Victory Boogie Woogietunnel and the new connection it creates between The Hague and Rotterdam. Boogie Woogie NOW! was conceived by David Schoch and the creative team behind culture podium PIP Den Haag. Together with artists from The Hague and Rotterdam they developed a light installation, with which they show their interpretation of the boogie woogie. The installation is by David Schoch, Jorick Mulder, Polo Vreedenburgh and Jeroen Meijer of PIP The Hague. Light and installation artist Philip Vermeulen adds 2 of his works. The music has been specially composed by DJs and producers Alden Tyrell and I-F, 2 leaders from the electronic music scene of The Hague and Rotterdam. The whole is introduced with a poetic ode to the Victory Boogie Woogietunnel, by Steven van Lummel, word artist from The Hague, and Dean Bowen, until recently Rotterdam’s city poet.
After a 20 year hiatus, Polarius a.k.a Legowelt is back with 5 banging house/techno tracks on Innershades’ Altered Circuits imprint.
Italo Moderni presents “A Dauntless Sprite Descends” the new album of The Hague’s electronic music producer Dim Garden aka Sara Vollmond. This is a musical jewel and each tracks is a part of the astral journey in the enchanted forest of Dim Garden in The Hague. Giant mushrooms and animals running alongside us while they wink at us, so that we can continue to enter the forest while some magicians with giant long beards are playing synthesizers in the treetops in the light of the Moon. When we believe that we have completed the entire forest, a giant light appears from the bottom of the forest and all the animals go towards it, to pay their respect. One of the Forest Gods of Dim Garden appeared… the white wizzard named ”Legowelt” with a super magic remix and his fast paced take on the track ”Visions of Love” and all his synths around him. The housekeeper of the Forest is Jentlemen with her Remix of ”Na Mata”. Without realizing it, you have already been absorbed by the essence and atmosphere of Dim Garden… Open your eyes… or was it just a dream?
LDI Records serves up a celebration of The Hague’s famous electro sound with native Cliff Dalton aka Sander Evers behind four originals and fellow West Coast legends Legowelt and Rude66 both remixing.
New Danny Wolfers AKA Legowelt album under the Smackos alias on his Nightwind Records. Most of this album was recorded around 2017 at the North Sea Institute for the Overmind. As usual heavy tripped out raw melodic Smackos synth compositions for all your deep listening hobbies. Instruments used: Novation Supernova, Akai S900, Waldorf Blofeld, Waldorf Pulse 2, Roland JP08 & JV2080 and probably lots more.
The latest issue of “Internets most controversial underground e-zine” the Shadow Wolf Cyberzine issue#10 is out now on Nightwind Records. A 19 track ‘cover tape’ compilation with various artists. The term ‘cover tape’ stems from when magazines came with a cassette tape full of music or software on the cover back in the 1980s/1990s.
This is the first selection of recordings from Intergalactic FM Streaming Festival 2021, which took part at the end of May. This was is just a part of of the recordings that were run continuously for more than a week.
Continue reading “Intergalactic FM Streaming Festival 2021 Recordings (Part 1)”
Danny Wolfers dons his Dickie Smabers alias on his return to UTTU for his 7th release on the label – low-slung-house grooves rub shoulders with robotronik-jakbeat over 2 slabs of electronxxx straight outta The Hague.
From time to time I like to take a brief look at what our readers enjoyed the most and the end of the year is always a good time to do so. In order to do this I compile a top 3 of the most appreciated albums, compilations, mixes our readers liked in the last year.
As a cover for this year’s post I choose a map showing from where our visitors come and the first 10 places are the US, Germany, Romania, UK, Ukraine, The Netherlands, Spain, France, Russia and Italy.
Danny Wolfers striking another album at the Northsea Institute For The Overmind. This time is coming under the Smackos alias, providing a 11 track album free to download / name your price on his bandcamp.
2020 was a tough year for almost everyone and definitely a year to forget for our scene. Events and gigs canceled, venues closed, artists lacking a way to earn a decent living and club culture facing a threat like never before.
In the midst of these events were several people / organizations who tried to ease the pain, offering out some comfort by releasing music to people for free or by pay as you want download. This was always done, but this year I noticed that more and more artists are doing this.
Here is a selection of albums and compilations I came across this year and that I think is worth mentioning again.
The Hipodrome Of Music 