Photonz – Nuit [DE257]

Photonz is the alias of Marco Rodrigues a DJ, producer and driving force of Lisbon’s underground scene. For little over a decade now, he’s been crafting his own deeply personal style of Portuguese house and techno. As a DJ, Photonz grew a reputation for deep crates and intensely euphoric sets and in 2017, together with Violet (co-founder at his Radio Quantica) and Lisbon’s own Rabbit Hole collective, he started the now infamous Mina parties – a monthly, sex-positive, queer and intersectional-feminist techno party aimed at using the dissociative potential of intense raving to create a temporary space of suspension away from patriarchal expectations. ‘Nuit’ is Photonz’s debut album and a simultaneous reference the Egyptian Goddess of the Stars or Night. Marco was really swept away by the concept of ‘freedom of form under the night sky’, the accepting embrace of Nuit. Ancestral, but also socially advanced and utopian; a deification of the night time. These ideas manifest themselves as eleven songs spread across two LPs that wax and wane like the moon. Photonz channels early techno, Drexciyan rhythms, balearic & atmospheric house; layering sounds, creating moments.

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Photonz – Nuit [DE257]

Photonz – Etheric Body Music EP [DE239]

Photonz is the alias of Marco Rodrigues a DJ, producer and driving force of Lisbon’s underground scene. Etheric Body Music is Photonz’s debut 6-track EP for Dark Entries and a simultaneous reference to hermeticism and EBM (Electronic Body Music). Marco loves that ‘aesthetic when 80s industrial and EBM bands split up and start to make trance in the early 90s and all the ritual magick pushes them to zen stuff and they do ecstasy.’ There’s this concept in theosophy and hermetic philosophy of the Etheric Body, which is an energy body superimposed and connected to the physical body, similar to the acupuncture idea of an energetic body. That idea manifests itself as six primal club cuts, which also channel early techno, Drexciyan rhythms, balearic & old school jack. Raw arpeggiated synth lines and bass blast jut against metallic stabs and highly percussive shakedowns to create mournful atmospheric warped house.

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Photonz – Etheric Body Music EP [DE239]

Ursa’s Reef – The Ninth Gate [EYE007]

Ursa’s Reef is a late 80’s traveller and surfer wandering endlessly in the secluded raves of Goa, searching for his own soul while dancing in abandon to the proto-Trance journeys of Goa Gil. Brought up in Sintra, Portugal, by a family of uptight catholic hypocrites, UR goes rogue in his early 20’s, seduced by the esoteric teachings of Levi, Pessoa, Crowley and Israel Regardie while keeping an unhealthy obsession with Roxy Music. He is also a fictional, made up persona – a musical heteronym – of Lisbon-based DJ and producer Marco Rodrigues, mostly known for his work under the name Photonz. Together with his friend Jose Acid – a musical heteronym of Joao Ervedosa AKA Shcuro – he makes one last trip to Goa that could prove fatal.

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Ursa’s Reef – The Ninth Gate [EYE007]

Photonz – Corroios Royalty EP [SIL019]

As one of the frontrunners of the new Portuguese house sound Photonz has been flexing a balance between the UK and the Continent way before it became a question of ZIP codes for him, and the EP’s true to this intricate signature. On the flipside, Silverback staple The Phantom reinterprets Parque da Liberdade as an old school flavoured, meditation-tinged piano jam, while London heavyweight Ikonika injects the same track with a dose of her trademark retrofuturistic funky.

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Photonz – Corroios Royalty EP [SIL019]

Photonz – Lotus Wheel On My Orion [VIVOD011]

Vivod move into their next series of releases with Portuguese maestro Photonz at the helm. A 4 tracker of dark house that effortlessly slip into the label catalogue entitled Lotus Wheel On My Orion. Beautiful packaging again this time with full printed sleeve.

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Photonz – Lotus Wheel On My Orion [VIVOD011]

Photonz – Gnosis Of Wolfers [CR1281]

Photonz, Portugese producer based in London Marco Rodriguez, makes his debut on Creme Organization. His first cut, ‘Gnosis Of Wolfers’ is a raw, knackered sounding house track with glassy melodic tension and slow-jack drums. It’s intense, multi-layered and nervy and keeps you engaged from start to finish. ‘Ceremonial Acid’ is then an airy, spacious affair with heavenly pads and gurgling synths and drums. Loose but atmospheric, it’s a fulsome track that really places you in the middle of Photonz’s sound world. ‘Sad Mania’ is another misty sounding cut with watery droplets, aqueous textures and ramshackle drums rattling below, before ‘Filterhatz’ is a slow and sludgy acid offering with sharp hi hats, filtered 303 lines and lots of wobble. Lastly, digital only track ‘Basik’ rounds out the EP in brooding fashion, with big retro synths, percolating drums and pinging percussion.

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Photonz – Gnosis Of Wolfers [CR1281]

Photonz – Love Spectre EP [DBA007]

New release from Photonz on Don’t Be Afraid imprint. “Spectre” is a forward thinking house track with a jaded xylophone hooks and cold as ice groove. “Wall” is a slice of trademark Photonz Portuguese acid, an infinite groove that builds and builds. “Dokos” is a more downbeat track, with old school house sound of Chicago and Detroit. “Prometheus” catches the pair at their most experimental, upping the tempo and unleashing an ambitious techno juke roller.

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Photonz – Love Spectre EP [DBA007]

Photonz – Lamborghini Funk / Xabregas [EYE002]

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Photonz presents the second release on One Eyed Jacks with a very diverse three tracker – 100% focused on answering the needs of a new type of discerning, pace-changing and musically rich dancefloors.

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Photonz – Lamborghini Funk / Xabregas [EYE002]

Photonz – Aquarian Ball/Urban Dreams [EYE001]

One Eyed Jacks is the new record label from Photonz out of Portugal, who make analogue based dance music that wears it’s influences on it’s sleeve whilst remaining unique and original.

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Photonz – Aquarian Ball/Urban Dreams [EYE001]

Photonz – Plague Of The New Age EP [GTCM003]

For the third release, Get The Curse Music turns to Photonz of Lisboa. Going against the grain of current trends, this out of left field EP testifies to GTCM’s disregard for pigeonholing and unique flair for unconventional club music. Plague of New Age is a twisted trip that takes dancefloors up, down and all around. Its intoxicated swagger delivers truly staggering results for both body and mind. Using old school vocabulary with new school grammar, Photonz have created a mental jackin’ monster that single-handedly sums-up Get The Curse’s commitment to challenging boundaries and current trends. Remixes from Maetrik and Clement Meyer.

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Photonz – Plague Of The New Age EP [GTCM003]