Introducing Josh Caffe’s second single on Phantasy, ‘Do You Wanna Take Me Home?’ is a sensual yet gritty return, a keen document of just one of the many stories of desire always occurring in the shadows, just beyond the strobes. Produced in collaboration with Quinn Whalley, one half of Paranoid London, ‘Do You Wanna Take Me Home?’ also features a headsy interpretation from Steffi & Virginia, marking their first ever collaborative remix.
Dark Entries and Emotional Rescue team up to further explore Psychic TV’s Acid House years. Psychic TV was formed by Genesis P-Orridge and Peter Christopherson of Throbbing Gristle with Alex Fergusson of Alternative TV in 1981. After various line up changes, the band shifted direction to dance oriented songs influenced by the House and Techno scenes of Detroit and Chicago. By 1988 the group included Dave Ball of Soft Cell, Fred Giannelli of Turning Shrines and Matthew Best of Carcrash International. During the summer of 1988 the group recorded a batch of songs at Time Square Studios in London that would appear under the guise of various artists compilations Jack The Tab’ and ‘Tekno Acid Beat’. The idea behind these ‘compilations’ of imaginary artists was creating a sense that a healthy acid house scene existed in the UK.
Berlin-based Dutch DJ and producer Steffi returns with her second album Power Of Anonymity on Ostgut Ton, featuring laid-back, melodic cuts like ”Pip”, ”Fine Friend” and the break-heavy title track next to more straightforward, hypnotic dance floor pieces such as ”Selfhood”, ”Bag Of Crystals”, ”JBW25” and ”Bang For Your Buck”. Besides her solo instrumental productions, Steffi’s collaboration with longtime friends Dexter and Virginia on the uplifting, percussion- driven vocal track ”Treasure Seeking” is the icing on the cake. Just like ”Power Of Anonymity” as a single piece of music, the album itself lives on an industrial-resonating structure of 808s, crisp synth stabs, pulsing staccati and dark, percussive drumbeats. With her second album Steffi recalls classic, landmark Detroit Electro, while creating her very own modern, retro-futuristic sound.
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The hardware radicalists, that are The Analogue Cops aka Lucretion & Marieu and Steffi, present their unification in the studio as Third Side as an LP including the best productions of the past year and this latest LP serves as both a proclamation of their shared love for the analogue sound and as a breath of fresh air for techno. ‘The Absolute’ kicks things off with rippling snare drums, a warm bass line and a sweet cocktail of atmospherics and effects. Restoration friend, nd_baumecker joins the team on ‘Jackie’, where a chopped up vocal is carried backwards and forwards by an edgy drum machine workout. ‘The Base Of All Matters’ is a progressive, heads-down beat filled with crispy snares and disjointed chords, but the trio really get going on ‘Gauge Fields’ – where a frenetic mixture of synth stabs and effects is swallowed by a montrous, syncopating bass line. Side C begins with ‘Unity’, a powerful techno tool which has recently been remixed by Steffi herself, Blawan and the mysterious Nightjars. ‘Subsequent Stages’ enters lighter house territories but still retains that signature Third Side rawness and minimalism. On the flipside, ‘Fundamental Forces’ introduces a heavy, bumping beat floating over a sea of euphoric voices and distant melodies. Finally, the amptly names ‘Shit On Me’ featuring Virginia (the talented singer and songwriter responsible for the astonishing vocals tracks ‘on the rousing hit Yours’, and on the touching ‘You Own My Mind’, both released on Berlin’s Ostgut Ton in Feb 2011) closes things off with a nasty, twisted percussion which evolves into a more experimental, bass-fuelled anthem for the small hours. Real techno excursions for the coinnasseurs.
The Hipodrome Of Music 