‘Empty Patterns” is a collection of tracks named after empty, programmable user patterns founds in most modern sequencers, synthesizers, and drum machines. All tracks are DJ tools and is geared towards DJs and dance floors. Lots of Chicago jacking house style drum patterns and bass synth stabs, with added reverb and distortion for grit and color.
New release on Machining Dreams, this time from Chicago Skyway who is rocking with a 6 track release called EP Fall Down. Five beat tracks and 1 deep house tune that has come to be Skyway’s signature sound over the years. Classic in the sense that beat tracks have formed the glue between styles in many djs bags. Skyway use of arrangement and familiar drum kits will sure to bring the nostalgia back to the djs who were in it before the technology revolution and interest to the djs who came after it.
Eargasmic brings this split 12″ with four solid raw house cuts. On the A-side Chicago Skyway brings two heart pounding tracks with “I don’t give a f*ck” and “Run Coward”. The flipside introduces Isoke to the game with the Relief sounding, Chicago “Rough Sh*t” and the heady bass heavy joint “Haunted”.
Upcoming deepness from the inimitable Chicago Skyway (Sean Hernandez) with Altered Moods Recordings executive director Malcolm Moore in on the remix for the title track.
Traxx aka Melvin Oliphant III returs to MOS Deep with a stunning solo-project. Under his The Poetic Painter M pseudonym he serves up ‘Marie’s Transcendance’ backed-up by two reworks from compadre Sean Hernandez aka Chicago Skyway and label owner Aroy Dee. ‘Marie’s Transcendance’ is a frenetic yet hypnotizing house track that echoes memories of downpitched Newbeat material and the hooky coldness of new wave. Melvin, though, re-defines rather than regurgitates these influences and re-launches them into a dark and moody acid-flecked future. Chicago Skyway reworks it into a deep, emotional just as acid-version which seems to float into eternity as solid 808-beat programming plays out busily behind. Aroy Dee edits a second rework of “Marie’s”, creating a simple but highly effective and bouncing track that’s carried along by a psychedelic, out-of-this-world bass line.
The Londinium EP is the latest release on Uzuri Recordings and welcomes Chicago Skyway back to the fold. Musically, he keeps it closer to his Windy City heart. Hakim Murphy remixes the track and his rework retains the drawn-out essence of the original but brings a whole new hips-and-shoulders groove to the track. On the flip, Traffic plays out a very simple analogue groove over a clapping 808 percussive pattern. A slow, static-filled monster of a track – not abrasive for the sake of it – instead switching between muffled warmth and the hiss of synths working overtime.
Chicago Skyway is back on MOS deep with another epic release, ranging from melodic deepness to wild-jackin’ dance floor-madness. The Lager EP kicks off with Bad Driver, a raw and solid Chicago-banger with an irresistible driving bass-line, rattling beats and atmospheric strings. For Lager Nord on the flipside Chicago Skyway teams up with his compadre Dcook, delivering an emotional and dreamy classical Detroit Techno influenced track. Lager is reworked by Steven Tang, another rising star in Chicago’s contemporary electronic-music scene, known for his Obsolete Technology imprint and his Verged Sessions on Aestatic Audio. Steven’s Obsolete Technology Remix focuses on lush orchestrated strings and deep synths flowing over a massive foundation of thumping beats.
Debut album from Sean Hernandez aka Chicago Skyway that brings top quality production from start to finish. 8 tracks that range from the hard hitting acid house to raw basement cuts to the ultra deep beats.
His new EP for Uzuri will only enhance his reputation even further – four tracks for brains in basements that thump and glide and scream of a man with a big future ahead of him. Crisp drums and synths dissolve into super strong acid on A1 cut “CP1”. On A2 Confusion comes over like something Morgan Geist didn’t make in 1995 but should have done. B1 track “Acid” is the heaviest cut of the four. A massive twenty-first century Armando monument that will ruin any discerning dance floor it encounters. B2 track Glasswerks sounds as clear and clean as its name suggests, with chimes and a thoroughbred old school Chicago beat and bass.
The Hipodrome Of Music 