Giorgio Records teams up with Bordello A Parigi for the reissue of this beautiful italo disco tearjerker, originally released in 1984 in very limited quantities. Straight from the original master tapes provided by the maestro himself, Rodolfo Grieco.
“Stop the World” is a captivating song released in 1984 by Eyes Records. 40 years later Best Record re-propose on a new release the original song and the instrumental version.
The Don is back to round off the series with maybe his most sought after release, his Remember EP. Reaching crazy prices online, the two tracks have been lost for some time. Now being remastered, ready for any dark club or after party.
The original single from Escape From New York finally gets an official reissue. Originally released in 1983 ‘Save Our Love’ was released a year before ‘Fire in My Heart’ and sets out their highly effective fusion of New Wave, Disco, Italo and Post Punk. Featuring Jaki Graham and D.C Lee on backing vocals, the 12” also includes an instrumental mix and cult classic ‘Slow Beat’ (Dance Mix). Escape From New York were short lived and disbanded in 1984 following the release of ‘Fire in My Heart’, ultimately buckling under the pressure of commercial expectations for their innovative brand of pop music.
Juan Atkin’s masterpiece compilation, the blueprint of Techno albums…. the 1993 Model 500 ‘Classics’ compilation with some of Juan Atkins’ biggest early Metroplex milestones, with some of them in exclusive remixed versions. 3 decades later Metroplex is re-releasing this collection of hugely influential tracks for a new generation to play from fresh and clean vinyl!. Just like the recent 12″ reissue series, this album has been fully remastered with all the care and attention to detail you can imagine. Tracks like ,,No UFOs”, ,,The Chase”, ,,Techno Music”, ,,Night Drive (Time, Space, Transmat)” or ,,Off To Battle” are basically techno ground zero, with the electro influence of mid-80s to late-80s Juan Atkins productions still omnipresent. 30 years on since its original release on R&S records, ‘Classics’ is still as gritty and timeless a statement as ever.
Eighteen years ago, Oppenheimer Analysis made its indelible mark with the iconic track ‘The Devil’s Dancers,’ heralding the birth of the Minimal Wave label. Founded with a singular mission, the label set out to share this musical gem with the world. This historic release graced the world on December 6th, 2005. Remarkably, this EP has been elusive for a decade now. In an exciting development, the fifth edition of the Oppenheimer Analysis self-titled EP, is presented as a loving tribute to Martin Lloyd (1950-2013 R.I.P.), one half of Oppenheimer Analysis. The EP showcases select tracks from the 1982 Oppenheimer Analysis cassette titled “New Mexico,” the original remastered version of ‘The Devil’s Dancers’, along with two previously unreleased gems.
Miss D. used to work as a model in New York. That she ended up in Vienna was sheer coincidence. That she became a recording artist was never planned, either. She moved to the Austrian capital with a well-known commercial producer in the mid-1980s, and soon she found herself recording TV ads for ice cream manufacturers. One day in the recording studio, someone had the brilliant idea of producing a proper record with her. The outcome was the highly sought-after disco oddity “Moving”, which was originally released in 1986, but most copies were destroyed due to a lack of commercial success. Now getting a second chance, “Moving” is as strong as Austrian disco productions from that era come: slow, bouncy, full of personality and consistently surprising.
Metroplex continues its run of reissues with two more seminal releases from the label’s golden back catalog. First off is Catalog number M003, aka late 80’s Metroplex electro staple Channel One, a Juan Atkins joint with Doug Craig (Carl Craig’s cousin) on vocals. Futuristic and playful techno from the late 80s which soundwise evolves from Cybotron and the obvious Kraftwerk influences. Juan Atkins said about the release in a 2005 interview that “it was more fun than politically driven, just about the colors and combination spread from colors”. An important release in the history of Techno from both a cultural and creative perspective. Channel One’s technicolor has been carefully remastered from the original tapes.
‘Dimension Intrusion’ was the first full-length studio album by Richie Hawtin, who was 22 years old at the time and living in Windsor, Canada. It was first released in June 1993 under the F.U.S.E. name on Hawtin’s own Plus 8 Records imprint and again as the second release of Warp Records seminal ‘Artificial Intelligence’ series. The album compiled previously released F.U.S.E. EPs from Plus 8 complemented with new music specially recorded for this release. It would be a fundamental album for the young producer, who was experimenting with different themes and techniques to find his very own sound. Largely inspired by sci-fi movies he used a collection of synthesizers and drum machines, playing with their electronic yet warm sound effects and in turn discovering some of his favorite instruments.
Poetical License was a brief project uniting Scottish born and Aotearoan (New Zealand) musician Mark Airlie and keyboardist and vocalist Keri Ansley after the duo met in New Plymouth. The solitary 7” came together in 1986, recorded at the infamous Auckland studio, The Lab. The A side’s fragile Footprints is as utterly charming as it is drenched in melancholia with a delicate glockenspiel lick and Ansley’s ethereal delivery of the vocals. On the B Side, Room 101 pivots to wonky rock and a more post-punk approach to composition. The two tracks shine brightly among an abundance of outsider gems made in Aotearoa during the 1980s
The 10th release on DBH Records comes from ACME. “Rhythm Of Life” was originally released on Delirium Records USA in 1996.
Before British house and techno found its’ distinctive groove at the turn of the 1990s, one act led the way: Bang The Party, a trio who emerged from London’s vibrant underground party scene in the mid 1980s and proved, beyond any doubt, that UK producers could make music every bit as magical as the pioneering productions put forward by their counterparts in Chicago, Detroit and New York. By the time long-running DJs and party promoters Kid Batchelor and Leslie Lawrence joined forces with trained engineer Keith Franklin at legendary North-West London reggae studio Addis Ababa in 1987, they’d spent years as DIY dance music activists in Britain’s capital city. They channelled these experiences and their love of imported house and techno sounds into a new project, Bang The Party. The latest Rush Hour Reissue Series release offers a snapshot of some of the numerous gems nestled in the Bang The Party catalogue, delivering a much-deserved celebration of one of Britain’s most significant early acid house collectives. It features four fully remastered cuts recorded and released between 1987 and 1990 – on-point and far-sighted club workouts that sound as fresh and timeless now as they did when Britain was sweltering under its infamous ‘second summer of love’.
Cover versions of international songs have long thrived in South Africa’s music industry. Often unable to license the original tracks (until the early 90s the result of an international boycott of the country) labels instead hired producers and session artists to re-record them for the local market. Early house music in South Africa was no different. When Ron ‘Robot’ Friedman, former bass player for local rockers Rabbitt, was winding down his label On Record in the early 90s, he reached out for new inspiration as the popularity of ‘bubblegum’ disco waned. For one of the label’s final releases he hired young DJ/producer Quentin Foster, obsessed with the new soulful house sound coming out of the US, to take the reins on a studio project dubbed Citi Express. The result offers a glimpse into those early days of house, a uniquely South African take on a global sound that still resonates today — reissued for the first time on Afrosynth Records.
South African production duo of Emil Zoghby and John Galanakis were responsible for a string of high-quality disco singles in the early 80s, typically cover versions of international hits — Klein & MBO’s ‘The Big Apple’, Sly & the Family Stone’s ‘Family Affair’ & David Joseph’s ‘You Can’t Hide (Your Love From Me)’ — backed with their own compositions. When Starlight hit the market with an album in 1983, it featured only one cover, the local hit ‘Picnic’, along with five of the duo’s original compositions, including their similarly styled response, ‘Picnicing’, which replaces the original’s sax with spaced-out synth stabs. Then there’s ‘Jah Jah Love’, an ecstatic disco sermon of dancefloor dynamite weighing in at over eight and a half minutes. Other tracks on this landmark album — ‘Let’s Go Dancing (Boogie Boogie)’, ‘Keep On Moving’ and an eponymous instrumental — offer a similar fusion of classic disco with newer Italo and proto-house influences: machine music with a human touch. Remastered from the original master tapes and reissued for the first time, Starlight is available on vinyl and digital platforms, 40 years after its initial release, via Afrosynth Records.
Patagonia Wave series is back on the Orange Wedge imprint. From the glorious collaboration of Joey Beltram, Lenny Dee and Ralphie Dee this is a masterpiece to have in your collection.
Minimal Wave presents the first vinyl reissue of French legends Martin Dupont’s seminal album from 1987, ‘Hot Paradox’. Martin Dupont was originally founded by Alain Seghir in Marseille in 1980. He enlisted numerous collaborators throughout the years, including Beverley Jane Crew, Brigitte Balian, and Catherine Loy. Martin Dupont was immensely talented with a rare dynamic between its varying members that was likely inspired by a combination of their magnetic personalities, creative vision, and the home studio where they recorded. Their music was colorful, enthusiastic, delicate, melancholy, and mysterious. A mixture of hot and cold, light and dark. They created electronic music that incorporated guitars, clarinets, and saxophones and is described by many as New Wave yet truly transcended genres. The ‘Hot Paradox’ album hasn’t been available on vinyl since 1987. It is one of Martin Dupont’s most exquisite albums, illustrating the band’s mastery of synthesizer work, drum programming, and vocal duets. The album is vibrant and emotive, simultaneously somber and bright, theatrical and danceable. It is an essential album in the French cold wave, new wave, and minimal synth scenes, and in recent years, has finally received the recognition it deserves beyond any musical categorization.
Schicksal is the alias of Rudi Huybrechts from Belgium. Heavily inspired by Front 242 first album “Geography”, DAF’s elektronische körpermusik “Alles Ist Gut” and of course Kraftwerk’s “Man Machine” and “Computer World”, Rudi bought his first Roland SH-101 synthesizer and started in 1982 with Schicksal to experiment with synths and drum computers. He spent lot of hours programming and composing on his bedroom and recording everything on a tape recorder. A selection of these old tracks are included on this album. You can definitely feel the vibe of this period and the place where the songs were created: the old industrial town of Hoboken, the culmination of the cold war and the aim of a young musician to combine melody and harmony into minimal electronic music.
Schicksal is the alias of Rudi Huybrechts coming from Hoboken, a small town near Antwerp. He started experimenting with synths and drum computers in 1982. Heavily inspired by Front 242 first album “Geography”, DAF’s elektronische körpermusik “Alles Ist Gut” and Kraftwerk’s “Man Machine” and “Computer World”, Rudi spent lot of hours programming and composing at home with just some gear and a tape recorder. Some of these tracks appeared on local compilations but it was not until the hype of New Beat in Belgium that Schicksal gained a real attention. In 1988 Rudi persuaded Marc Grouls, the resident DJ of discotheque Prestige in Antwerp, to play the track “24 hours”. All the people on the dancefloor just got wild and the next day Schicksal signed a contract with Maurice Engelen for the release of a maxi-single on Subway Records.
Max & Intro was a short-lived duo formed by Vincent Max and Intro Johnnie in Belgrade. In 1984 they composed “Ostavi Sve” (in English: “Leave Everything”), probably the greatest ex-Yugoslavian minimal synth song of all times with heavy rotation on radio and even TV appearances. It was a tribute to Fairlight synthesizers, in that time non affordable for these young musicians and became an obsession, especially for Max. In 1985 was published their first and only release “We Design The Future” including “Ostavi Sve” and the B-side “Beogradska Devojka”, another synth gem.
Twenty five years after its initial release, and accompanying the re-release of ‘Internal Empire’ Tresor Records present a new cut and pressing (180gm) of Robert Hood’s essential ‘Master Builder’. The ongoing importance of this single and its adjacent album is indisputable, essential both to techno and to Tresor. It is a history intertwined. This work elevates its maker as master, and remains a cherished moment in the Tresor story, sharing an irrefutable singular magic, sounding as present and indispensable as when first created. To understand this work fully is to stand back and celebrate its impact.
The Hipodrome Of Music 