Berlin’s resident Electroid funkmeister Vertical67 is the latest release from the Magic Waves label with a 4 track EP of ‘Positive Vibes’ to get your summer into gear with. Vocodered electro builder ‘Clacid’ opens proceedings before we’re hit with the summery anthemic and futuristic Italo sounds of ‘Back In The Groove’, while on the flip ‘Let’s Dance’ continues that feeling before we’re whisked off ‘Into The Night’ with the closing track in pure aquatic Detroit styled bliss.
Acid is the name of the game on Magic Waves’s twelfth release, an undercover excursion from one of the UK’s most eminent masters of the genre. ‘Borrowed Fogs’ on Side A is a 303-driven odyssey into dark and rapturous realms of analogue jamming, taking the listeners and dancers on a far-reaching flight to tweaking peaks on the far side of their minds before Side B bumps us back down to Earth with two hard, slamming, raw, sweaty, dusty and downright dirty basement-shakers in the shape of ‘Empty Warehouse’ and ‘R.T.F.M.’
Continuing where ‘Subspace Transmission 1’ left off Casionova brings another triple-tracker 12″ of synth jams and dancefloor grooves ranging from the merciless bass-driven Mecha-disco assault of ‘Droids Night Out’ to the epic, booming and deep bass box-jam ‘Magic Touch’ and with the galloping, mystical and hypnotic ‘Necromancer’s Spell’ sandwiched in between – for those who like their electro-disco raw and relentless.
Magic Waves delivers the third and final installment in its series of EPs focusing on established artists working in disguise and encouraging the listener to put the “music first” ahead of names, trends or gimmicks. ‘Music First Vol 3’ opens in serious style with Fashionable Male’s epic EBM/New Beat stormer ‘Hardbody’; slow, deep and hard, building pressure to a crushing crescendo and guaranteed to drench any industrial basement dancefloor in litres of sweat. As if that wasn’t enough of an audiophysical workout we’re also treated on Side A to Deflektor1000’s ‘Krunch’, a punchy analogue technoid jam for the DJs that raves the bpm’s up to the next level in classic Detroit-Chicago style featuring whooshing strings, grinding bass and generally heavily elevating vibes. Flipping over to Side B things quickly get deeply hypnotic and very acidic indeed courtesy of Pagan Ritual’s squelching and jacking box-jam ‘Think Like Me’, another bomb no doubt destined to sit in many a DJ-bag for a long time. And closing things off we have an analogue Italo-Electro instrumental hard-rocker from Albert Ross in the shape of ‘Fly Away’, one that has been doing the rounds in the underground for some time and even popping up in the occasional I-f mix or two, finally available on wax but just as mysterious as ever.
Magic Waves brings us the first full-length EP from the enigmatic and secretive JaX DaX. ‘Retribution’ is a dark record that breathes a breath of fresh (rotten) air into techno, re-connecting it with its New Beat and rave roots.
This DJ set was recorded at Magic Waves Summer Festival 2014.
The Hipodrome Of Music 