Continue reading “Mick Wills @ 2 Years Phormix Anniversary, Six D.O.G.S. (Athens) 05.02.2016”
techno
VA – Tales From The Dark Side EP Volume II [KW020]
This is the second episode of our Various Artists serie. The Fallen (a collaboration between Plural (James Johnson) and FBK (Kevin Kennedy)) opens the E.P. with Interference, a fast paced killer hypnotic dance floor friendly dub track: they create a sound that is unique, fluid and extremely danceable. Philippe Petit follows with Exposed, a stripped down, bleepy bass-heavy rhythmic piece of techno. Julixo brings us Own Structure, an aggressive jackin techno track leading to a warm synth line that will leave nobody indifferent. Terrence Dixon closes the E.P. with Odd Numbers, a track that only him can do. Sub bass melodic techno reduced to the max.
Ness – A Personal Voyage EP [MMV004]
A Personal Voyage Ep These walls have made us the beings we are. They have listened and echoed, our words, our creed, our hate. These walls have tied down the souls of us; they made us insane, hysterics, in observing defenceless, uncredulous that there was not, any reaction. We can only halt us, after having used up our nails, over these walls now rough because of our shouts, our burned hopes, by our passions damned; by our minds, dinned. None could ever help us, because as slaves we feel and now we are, of these cursed walls and of these walls damned that, however still give a sense, to our cold life.
VA – Sleep Not Found [TRP008]
Nina Kraviz’ TRIP label knows how to put out conceptual releases featuring some high calibre music canvassing a wide spectrum of artists. “This Sleep Not Found” edition sees the label tap into some minimal sounds thanks to cuts from Roma Zuckerman, a TRIP upstart, Perlon’s Maayan Nidam (“Justice For Some” is damn funky!) and label faithful Exos. His “Dub Jazz” track helps bridge the gap between minimal and techno, with heavier cuts coming from Bbbbbb, A_000 and Deniro’s Skudge-like “G”.
Bleak – Relics EP [NR004]
Naura Records presents the third release of the Bleak series. ‘Relics’ is a full oriented dance floor track, twisted and static in all directions.’Black Ice’ reveals itself as a cataclysmic and intelligent analog tool with pulsating baselines and profound deepness.
Artefakt – The Final Theory [FIELD021]
The excellent Field label embarks on a new mini trilogy of EPs that will “present a magical journey through modern-day trance.” First up in the series is Artefakt with their three track effort The Final Theory. Dutch producers Robin Koek and Nick Lapien make up Artefakt, and between them they excel at moody voodoo music on labels like Delsin. They open this latest EP with the title track, a deep, spacious house roller with subtle pads and gentle acid that perform slow motion acrobatics for nearly ten minutes. It is suspensory, dreamy music that works on the head as well as the heel. Moving Horizon is then less doleful and introspective but just as deep, with sweeping pads add a sense of scale, busy drums bring the dynamism and icy percussive sounds adding a sense of urgency. Last but not least, Solaris is a fatter, more physical groove with claps and gloopy bass, acid flashes and trancey pads all fleshing out a lush and deep electro workout. This is heavenly stuff that cannot fail to get inside your head and heart.
Valent – Amon EP [BAO058]
Be As One welcomes Valent as their new exclusive signing to the imprint. The German producer debuts on the label with this 4 storming acid tracks EP, acid meets techno again on the Be As One catalogue.
Marcel Fengler – Kyu EP [IMF007]
Strength lies in calmness – and vice versa. Marcel Fengler returns on IMF and offers three new inspirited musical pieces that protrude from the club context just as well as cater for your home stereo, picking up on the diverse musical moods defined by his debut album Fokus (Ostgut Ton, 2013) while concentrating on intertwining sound aesthetics.
Africans With Mainframes – Faces of Africa [MATH090]
Noleian Reusse and Jamal Moss team up again as Africans With Mainframes for ”Faces Of Africa EP”. Think early Ibadan or Smile records B-sides of murky excursions in Tribal and Techno.
Faces of Drums – Popping Off [MATH089]
Returning for another spastic floor beating with jack tracks and Gherkin acid experiments from Steve Poindexter and Jamal Moss aka Hieroglyphic Being, this 3rd Faces of Drums EP on Mathematics does not disappoint.
John Heckle – Tributes To A Sun God [BDN010]
John Heckle is remarkably prolific, but still manages to maintain an impressively high quality threshold. On Tributes To A Sun God, he’s in a remarkably melodious mood. While opener “Alexandria” comes blessed with his usual tough analogue beats – not to mention the hissing cymbals of Detroit techno – its’ most endearing features are the drowsy pads and undulating melody lines. A similar approach can be found on the more acid-centric “Mesopatamia”, which pops and spits with dancefloor intent. A fine package is completed by handclap-heavy drum workout “Track 4”, and the Ambient House era electronics and sparse drum hits of “Track 2”.
Frak – UH006 [UH006]
Since 1987, Frak have been everyone’s favourite, premier Swedish synthesizer-touching weirdos. Even if most people hadn’t heard of them until 4 years ago. And yet, world of Frak is as long as it is wide. As blue as it is black. As ominous as it is glorious. As dirty as it is hairdryer. Sweet it is as yellow paper As. All of the above is a perfect example of how trying to convey what Frak is in the crass form of words is ultimately fruitless. Here is a double 12” vinyl product from Ultimate Hits featuring eight audio recordings from Frak: three men who have known each other since at least 1987. The sleeve was lovingly hand screen-printed at the studio of House of Traps, and features the colours commonly known as pink and black.
Cliff Lothar – All It Takes [TURBO179]
Cliff has clearly been smoking something special. “All It Takes” is one of his richest efforts to date, and that’s saying a lot coming off a consistent roll of terrific releases. A-side “Devotion” answers the EP title’s question with a masterclass in heavyweight groove-building. It’s an instant cult anthem, gritty but buttery compression, warm, wet bass, driven forward by stoner-friendly organ solos and the vocal call. It’s a perfect afterhours gear-shifter, squelching with the sweat of one hundred thousand hours of studio jamming and countless seasons of acid. “100 Dollars” is wiggly pork bun of a beat, our old friend Roland never sounding fatter or more luxurious. The only question here is whether this super-kush urban house bomb is more well paired with a low-slung indica driving in an elite automobile, or a punchy sativa dancing in a world-exclusive night club. “Big Brother” is a paranoid romp through the dark corridors of your dance-algorithm, a wonky, dissociative funk experience for heavy heads trying to unlock their own brainwashed brain and seriously dance. Rounding things off is “Xenit”, a relatively placid, deep, trancey trip that transports you 8 hours in to an amazing party, when you’re loose and well oiled with positive feelings.
Borusiade – Feelings Of Entropy EP [COR044]
Romanian born, and Berlin Based, Borusiade (aka Miruna Boruzescu) makes her Correspondant debut in dazzlingly bleak fashion. Over a four track EP the artist manages to channel a wealth of disparate sounds, referencing Giallo disco, New Wave longing and Pitched-down ghetto techno amongst other dark and otherworldly tropes. All of the music on offer here possesses a slow and dark drive that purposes it for the dance floor, but also contain such a wealth of loss despair, and a perverse pathos that elevates them from simple dance music and move them in to a more artistic realm.
Seixlack – Bed Bug Bites EP [XK004]
Hot off the back of his debut LP for Delroy Edwards’ LA Club Resource as alter-ego Innyster, Seixlack serves up an EP of trademark, super raw, machine funk. Spanning the full gambit of dredged up acid, synth stacked daydreams and straight up 4×4, the breadth of this EP showcases a real talent.
Amato – Le Desordre Et La Nuit [CITI020]
Michel Amato aka Amato is a French producer more widely known as The Hacker. Alongside Miss Kittin, Amato has been a cornerstone of the European house, techno, and electro scene, dropping singles and album like bombs. Having contributed to a previous split 12″ on Cititrax, Amato returns to Minimal Wave’s sister label with a wondrous homage to industrial, EBM and electro in Le Desordre De La Nuit. The difference between The Hacker and Amato? The sounds of The Hacker are more constrained than this particular whirlpool of pseudo electro and gargling quasi techno. Whatever you want to call it, these four slammers are all made for the dark room dance, each one nastier than the other and all of them audibly produced by an artist with plenty of experience and effectiveness know-how.
Ron Morelli – Dekmantel Podcast 079
Hipodrome Podcast 020 – Roxxete
The 20th podcast from the Hipodrome Series makes a premiere, is actually the first female dj that has a podcast on our site. Roxxete aka Roxana Zangar is a young dj from Cluj, but she is making a name for herself for quite some years already. Her style is very melodic, strongly rhythmic, with great attention to detail. With a strong curiosity for the spiritual side of music, she believes in sharing her feelings, moods and beliefs through sound.
Johannes Volk – Fanzine Podcast 041
Head Technician – Zones [E022LP]
Ecstatic label catch Martin Jenkins (Pye Corner Audio) in Head Technician garb for a slippery set of slow, plasmic acid workouts that were originally issued on a super-limited tape, and now sit heavy on wax. Over the years Jenkins has used the Head Technician alter ego as a sort of evil engineer Hyde analogous to his day-to-day Jekyll, a sort of hyperstitious studio partner in a time-honoured tradition of sleeve credits ghost chasing. Where Pye Corner Audio’s pieces may tend to be lustrous, optimistic, the Head Technician’s Zones LP hems to the shadows of the ‘floor with a furtive, noirish quality that works a treat in the right situations, whether soundtracking gaslamp-lit raves or midnight street patrols seeking out ne’erdowells and laudanum dealers.
Fired on a classic trinity of Roland TR-606 drum machine with an MC-202 (a beast to program, he admits) and TB-303 to sequence his baselines, it clearly makes explicit reference to the early days of Detroit techno and UK bleep ’n bass, but the vibe is more anachronistic, out-of-time, possibly thanks to his patented, lagging basslines and slowly unfolding arrangements, bridging that imaginary, dilated gap between fuzzy dancefloor head melt and curtains-drawn next day gouch out.
The Hipodrome Of Music 