Scissor & Thread News

Scissor and Thread presents Tailored Cuts, Vol. 06, a four-track selection that accompanies the digital compilation album. All four tracks appear on vinyl for the first time. Opening the A-side is a brand new and exclusive dub mix of Soela & Module One’s Drowning, reworked by Matthias Reiling (one half of Session Victim). Originally taken from Soela’s Dark Portrait album, the track is reshaped here into a spacious and hypnotic dub that emphasizes texture, atmosphere and patient groove. "I have been a fan of both Soela's and Module One's music for quite a while now," says Reiling, "so getting the chance to remix their collaboration from Soela's beautiful Dark Portrait album is a huge honor. I tried to keep the elegant and somewhat tender synth work close to it's original spirit and combine it with simple drumkit samples, acoustic guitar, electric bass and a dash of space echo. The process put me in a slightly eerie, yet romantic mood, which, so I hope, translates a little when listening to the result."
Also on the A-side, Black Light Smoke’s Love Triangle appears in ZG’s remix, a lush and understated reimagining that balances warmth with rhythmic precision. On the B-side, Hidden Spheres remix of Francis Harris’ Earth Moves feat. Eliana Glass appears alongside DaRand Land’s Passion Motion from his album Wander Being, "a more upbeat ride, with melodic overtones that drive the “passion”. Personally, it’s my interpretation of some of the sounds from mid-90’s Chicago." says DaRand Land.

Up next on Brooklyn's Scissor & Thread is the latest EP from Snad, aka Shyam Anand (also known as Spandrel), the Berlin-based artist whose discography already spans labels like Smallville, Minibar, 20:20 Vision, Phonica AM, TerraFirm, Running Back, Cabinet, Kimochi and Dungeon Meat with remixes for names including Seafoam and Chez Damier.
A trusted selector and producer in the underground, Snad has steadily built a reputation for deeply considered productions that balance classic inspiration with his own forward-thinking edge.
The AM Yard EP opens with its title track, a warm, hazy cut rooted in the kind of bassline architecture that recalls Chez n Trent's Morning Factory but reshaped with Snad's signature dreamlike touch.
Anticip8 fanchors the release with a more direct energy, rolling, insistent and focused on the floor, balancing stripped-down drive of dusty samples wrung through his digitakt with just enough harmonic flourish to pull the listener inward.
On the flip, The Pursuit follows in a slightly different mode, drawing on experimental vocoder techniques and filtered percussion creating a hypnotic push-and-pull that feels as intricate as it is understated.
Rounding things out, label heads Francis Harris and Anthony Collins, under their Frank & Tony alias, reimagine The Pursuit with their Housebeat Remix, extending its atmospherics into an even deeper headspace that glides effortlessly into late-night territory.

fka boursin is a DJ and producer out of Bristol, UK.
Previously known as DJ Boursin, he is recognized for his deep, ambient-infused house music that explores political dimensions of clubs and identity politics.
Welcomed into the Scissor & Thread fold, fka boursin shares two cuts of deep and introspective
electronic music.
The original Listless Intertext is a hazy trip through ambient soundscapes, shuffling rhythms and half-caught conversations, drifting across a 12 minute run time that slowly evolves and shifts with time.
"Listless Intertext is a track centred around the "failed" employment of cheap vocoder software that attempted to process explicit words and phrases across 11 minutes." says fka boursin. "Instead, the vocoder output made any words indecipherable and I was left with thematic vagueness. The final text of the track is simply a submission to its own limitations with some french thrown in."
When label bosses Frank & Tony step up for their Housebeat Dub, they keep the essential mood but introduce a thick, fat groove that works just as well in conveying the mood.
"Our remix is a strictly dancefloor approach," says Frank, "an extended psychedelic beat rework perfect for late night, early morning vibes".

DaRand Land, who hails from the post industrial confines of Buffalo, NY was one of the leading figures of Deep4Life, a cult label known for submersible oriented, yet dancefloor-friendly productions. With ambient synth-driven tones and heavy funk basslines being at the center of his sound, DaRand Land’s music often evokes an introspective quality, without losing its groove fundamental. DaRand’s works, which span decades on deep house labels such as Downbeat, Confluence and Pulp have been described as “uncompromising” and has afforded him a passionate following of listeners who seek a more emotive, thought-provoking brand of underground music.
Teaming up once again with Scissors and Thread - the perfect fit for his sound - DaRand Land drops an album full of crafty, trippy house for the heads. Wander Being contains 10 tracks on the double vinyl release with a pair of additional tracks for the digital release. The vibe is deep and sleek, with a rough, bumping edge. The title track sets the tone, a smattering of percussion accompanying a thick, round kick drum and Rhodes chords, giving off a classic Detroit feel. Tracks like Turn to The Music ramp up the energy somewhat, but overall the tracks sit in the sweet spot between dancefloor burners and soulful, jazzy, deep cuts. Noticeable is the space given to each element across the tracks - the hi-hats sparkle, the snare snaps, and the basslines roll and rumble. Add to this the magic melodic flourishes provided by the pads and synths, reminiscent of the late Mike Huckaby in places, made this whole album a thoughtful, joyful experience.
„The genesis for the Wander Being LP”, says DaRand “was a desire to return to the essence of some of my original Deep4Life productions. How was this accomplished? Principally, through the exclusive use of hardware components, minimalist arrangement, and a minds-eye approach to source the musical elements. In particular, the single, The Nature of Reality was written to convey a sense of what it feels like to be in a state of suspended animation. There is a natural tension introduced via the organic, swirling pad progression juxtaposed against endless vocal echoes and the low-end groove of the bassline. Thematically, I wanted to carry this forward through the entirety of the album.
balancing subdued keys and strings with ethereal tones and atmospheres

Soela is the DJ and production alias of Elina Shorokhova, a Russia-born Berlin-based experienced pianist and vocalist who has made a hugely impactful transition into electronic music. Having released material on such labels as Kompakt, Dial, Shall Not Fade, Lost Palms, E-Beamz, Red Ember Records, Sushitech, and others, Soela joins the ranks of Scissor & Thread for this exquisite album - Dark Portrait.
The album opens in a typically understated manner with Unsuitable - a melancholic trip-hop adjacent track that sets the tone for the next 8 pieces. As Soela explains, “I was dealing with some very complex feelings, so I came up with this album, which helped me not to despair, to work on myself, to grow internally, and to start listening to myself. It helped me to keep sane when my country invaded Ukraine with a full scale war. It absolutely broke my heart, and music was one of my main salvations.”
This complex mix of emotions plays out across the album with tracks that utilize her beautiful musicality (Through the Windows feat. Francis Harris and Philipp Priebe, Drowning feat. Module One) and ear for details with skittering beats, ambient soundscapes (Spirits, Lost In The Fog) and lose-yourself dancefloor moments such as the collaboration with Lawrence on February Is Not Going To Be Forever. The title track Dark Portrait combines dubby elements with affecting pads and melodic touches, while the lead single Even If I Ask You Stay delves into multiple feelings around escaping toxic situations, and battling depression. It features a powerful vocal from Soela supported by a deeply affecting arrangement. The closing track The Darkest Hour Before Sunrise brings a sense of hope and light, balancing subdued keys and strings with ethereal tones and atmospheres

New Jersey-born Ali Berger is a drum machine specialist and low-key US dance music standby, now based in Pittsburgh after spending the 2010s in Boston and Detroit. His catalog of original music runs deep, with over 60 releases on his Trackland label and EPs on imprints like Spectral Sound and Sequencias, all resulting from a lovingly-cultivated studio approach which respects improvisation as a spiritual practice.

Here with this sublime release on Scissors and Thread, Ali shares a multitude of sounds and atmospheres across the five tracks. As Ali himself puts it “This record collects tracks from the last three years, plus 0221 (Serious Mix) which is from 2018. There's a full cross-section of production techniques represented here, from one-take jams to multi-tracked compositions, but through it all there's a deep melancholy which (I hope) is tempered by enough groove to be uplifting. Maintaining emotional balance takes constant, caring attention; music is a part of that process for me and these tracks reflect that.”

This balancing of melancholic atmospheres and groove is evident throughout - Rhythm & Simplicity is a low key thoughtful banger for the more discerning dancefloors, while A New World To Forget also exhibits a deep love of cultured house music and analog drum machines. Tape Jam pt 2 is the perfect mix of improvisation and pure groove, put down in a rough and gritty fashion. 0221 (Serious Mix) merges a breakbeat with pads and synths that give off a balearic sunrise vibe, while Motion Anthem wraps up the EP with a tougher groove coupled with wistful melodies and oceans of feeling.

More about the world has changed than not in the decade since dance production dyad Frank & Tony released their last full-length record, 2014’s You Go Girl. Despite, or perhaps in spite of, this shifting landscape, house music has managed to stay fundamentally reliable (either a bug or its greatest feature, depending on who you ask). Where previously, Frank & Tony have been celebrated for their contemplative, studious approach to the genre, with 2024’s Ethos, the Brooklyn/Biarritz-based duo return amidst metastatic cultural upheaval to prove out those scholarly credentials — with an album that serves to remind listeners why dancefloors and liberatory politics consistently share the language of movements and revolutions.
Undoubtedly, Ethos is tremendously influenced by the multitude of projects originating from, and supported by, the duo and their label in the decade since You Go Girl– releasing records from a vast diversity of artists (including Nadia Khan, Gry, Villete, Darand Land, Alex Albrecht, DJ Sprinkles and CCL), and Harris becoming curatorial voice of Brooklyn’s premiere venue for audiophiles, Public Records, where he continues to amplify work across a global diaspora (and where the duo maintain a residency of wide praise).

It is this bright energy and focus on the necessity of community and relationships that animates the aptly-titled Ethos. If past Frank & Tony releases have been lauded as ‘a coloring book in which someone has exclusively drawn inside the lines… with extreme precision,’ Ethos deviates by inviting friends in for a game of exquisite corpse. From singer and pianist Eliana Glass, whose androgynous, double-reeded voice freestyles across album opener Olympia, to distinct track features from fellow house masterminds DaRand Land, DJ Aakmael and Lawrence over half of the album’s nine tracks highlight artists in the larger Scissor & Thread circle.

Will Long is an American artist. He curates and manages the label Two Acorns, as well as producing music since 2005, in various forms under his own name for Terre Thaemiltz's Comatonse Recordings, and as Celer for his own label and many others.
Here he joins the perfectly aligned Scissor and Thread label of Francis Harris and Anthony Collins for the Too Much EP.
"Too Much" is a deep cut from the same grooves as the Long Trax series," says Will Long, "a further entry for the downtrodden, the overwhelmed, and those that think change has come. A midnight meditation of intentional simplicity, strained, and on that night train."
The title track is lush, loose deep jam that combines wistful, warm pads with an insistent groove and choice samples.
Francis Harris steps up to provide one of his signature reforms, adding a little more percussion and drive to the track, while DJ Aakmael (Greg Stewart) offers up another version that takes the track somehow even deeper, adding some additional instrumentation and raw sounds.

Sean La’Brooy is an Australian producer and composer currently based in New York, who’s work traverses ambient, jazz and house music. He is the co-founder of Australian ambient label Analogue Attic Recordings. With this release, La’Brooy has hooked up with the Scissor and Thread label to put out Merchant - five dreamy and versatile tracks featuring his distinct style of harmonically complex pads mixed with jazz-influenced instrumental melodies and solos. Snow Storm starts the journey, coupling field recordings with snippets of gentle jazz lines and wandering percussion. Cargo is the most dancefloor-oriented of the release, and locks into a driving groove early on, featuring various synth and piano fragments to add and flow through the track. Pilot is a track that also finds an off-kilter groove, embellished with dubbed-out percussion by fellow Australian Joseph Batrouney and samples. Storage too features a guest—New York based drummer Leo Yucht—who delivers a rolling breakbeat which is intertwined with live percussion, airy pads and snippets of piano to build a rich atmosphere. The closing piece is Helipad, a dubby bassline providing the anchor for an intricate rhythm of bongos and synth to support a light-as-a-feather melody.

Following the success of their EPs released last year on Scissor and Thread, Frank & Tony return with another outing of deeper than deep house with a three track EP including an expansive collaborative exploration with Comatonse recording artist Will Long.
The title track, Understanding takes a nod to 90s Chicago deep house with a slow rolling groove set against plush pads and euphoric stabs sure to send dancefloors swirling in the earliest of nights and mornings alike. We Begin, a dreamy trip of emotive soundscapes, kicks things up a notch with jazzy undertones but a drive meant for peak times as it unfolds in moods and grooves for ages.
The EP then culminates with a vast rework of the same track in collaboration with Comatonse artist and DJ Sprinkles collaborator, Will Long, pushing the EP to psychedelic lengths as the essence of what we call a house groove reaches new idiosyncratic heights. Essential.

Black Light Smoke is the electronic music moniker of Jordan Lieb - producer, songwriter, and award winning film and TV composer. A Chicago native, Jordan transplanted to New York City in 2001, where his career as a multi-disciplined musician has taken flight in many forms.

Currently residing in upstate New York, Black Light Smoke returns to Scissor and Thread for his first full length debut-album: Ghosts.
The 12 tracks (plus three digital bonus tracks) span everything from 90s house, smooth and deep soulful beats, dusty grooves and thoughtful treaties on the state of creativity, capitalism and identity.
It’s a collection that sits together as a listening experience perfectly, building peaks and sliding into serene troughs, all with a strong sense of radical thought and creative experimentation. Tracks bend and warp in unexpected directions, while gritty, distortion and overdrive counterpoint classic rave stabs and vocal samples. Taken as a whole, the album could be the soundtrack to a night drive through the city, as much as certain tracks will no doubt find themselves woven into the sets of the more leftfield and genre pushing DJs. Either way, it’s an essential release from one of the most exciting and vital producers out there and the first artist signed to Scissor and Thread back in 2011.

The album title, Ghosts, tells two stories. One is personal - an artist embracing the shadows of his past in order to move forward and complete a body of work. The second story is a search for the original meaning of house music - not just the usual sample, appropriation or casual nod to the originators of house - but a meditation on the living story of Black America in which house music is an inseparable chapter. Both stories are a reflection on grief and the transformation of trauma into celebration.

100% of Jordan Lieb’s personal proceeds from this record will go to Little Bit Foundation, empowering students living in poverty to achieve their academic goals.

JVXTA is a DJ and producer based in London (UK). He also co-founded the label Hardmatter.
Here, Scissor And Thread, the Brooklyn imprint headed by Francis Harris and Anthony Collins share JVXTA’s new EP - Euston Blues. Elements of free improvisation and experimentation pepper the album, while a strong thread of atmospheric cohesion winds its way through the eight tracks - making Euston Blues a truly rewarding and rich listening experience.
"Euston Blues synthesises deep chords, classic house rhythms and jazz laden influences to chronicle an intimate journey of physical and psychological isolation." says Charles Field, the man behind the JVXTA project. "Scope is relative and this transposition is explored from the seclusion of a single room to the expanses of the Beyond". Euston Blues is available as a four-track vinyl EP and full digital album from March, 24th on Scissor And Thread.

ZG ist der Name des neuen Projekts von Zansika Lachhani aus London und Grant (auch bekannt als Anthony Collins und der Tony in Frank & Tony) aus Brooklyn. Das Konzept entstand aus einer Online-Verbindung, als Grant und Zan sich auf Soundcloud kennenlernten und beide unabhängig voneinander von der Musik und des anderen schwärmten.

Im Jahr 2018 begannen sie zusammenzuarbeiten und entwickelten eine Reihe von Tracks, stellten das Projekt aber schließlich ein, da andere Lebensverpflichtungen in den Weg kamen. Im Jahr 2021 entdeckte Grant beim Entrümpeln alter Festplatten die Aufnahmen wieder und war begeistert von der Musik, die bereits darauf gespeichert war. Gemeinsam begannen sie, das Projekt zu überarbeiten und weiterzuentwickeln, was zu einer atemberaubend schönen Sieben-Track-LP führte.

Der Opener 'Jungle Times' ist ein atmosphärischer, verträumter Song mit einem eigenwilligen Breakbeat und geflüsterten Vocals von Zan Platz, die den Sound gleichermaßen zwischen Londoner und New Yorker Stilen schweben lassen. Es folgt das rätselhafte 'Roll of Thunder', das mit seinen kraftvollen Breakbeat-Patterns, tiefen und gefühlvollen Streichern an 4Hero in ihrer Glanzzeit erinnert.
'When Young' bringt eine Jazz-Ästhetik in den Vordergrund, mit vordergründigen Drums und Rhodes-Akkorden, die sich in melodischer Glückseligkeit überschlagen. 'Ombre' beginnt mit einer dicken Basslinie und drängenden Synthesizer-Stabs, bevor es sich zu einem abgedrehten Groove entwickelt, der von dicken Synthesizer-Linien und subtilen harmonischen Akzenten überlagert wird. In ähnlicher Weise verwendet 'Aura' die gleiche Klangpalette mit Gitarren und funkelnden Flächen, die eine erhebende und doch melancholische Reise erschaffen. Der erste echte Gesang kommt im vorletzten Stück 'Dog Days' zum Vorschein, das sich verträumt über wunderschön sich entwickelnde Synthesizer-Waschungen und flirrende Beats legt. Wenn 'Drift Out' den letzten Akt dieser außergewöhnlichen LP einläutet, schweben wir auf Wolke sieben.

Finally getting a vinyl re-release is Frank & Tony’s seminal work with breakout duo Bob Moses. Back in 2012 Francis Harris and Anthony Collins (Frank & Tony) worked with their fellow New Yorkers before they went on to sign to Domino and blow up globally.
The four track EP kicks off with Elea - a deep and thoughtful collaboration utilizing Frank & Tony’s slick production with understated vocals. Next up on the A side is Holding On, featuring iconically Bob Moses vocals atop of a low-key bumping groove. There’s also washes of brass that add a new dimension to the track. Flipping over to the B side, Holy for Her (which also appeared back in 2012), is a densely wound, hypnotic rhythm, providing the basis for Tom Howie and Jim Vallance to do their special thing. Winding things up, Marigold is another early classic from the same period - a dubbed-out groove with sharp percussion and a killer, signature vocal. An essential release capturing a vital period in both outfits' development.

While previous albums, most notably Leland and Minutes of Sleep (2014) as well as two albums released as one half of the duo Aris Kindt (most notably the stellar Swann and Odette from 2017) have relied on singular thematic and narrative drives that were often of a personal, collaborative, or hermetic in nature, Thresholds is an album that aspires to sonic universality and the presentation of a fully formed psychoacoustical world. That being said it is not an “album of ideas”. Inspired by the ecological and political upheavals of the present and the role of speculative thought as an avenue of global transformation Thresholds is the work of a mature artist fully in control of his powers. Both expansive and nuanced the album widens the aperture of the affective possibilities of the electronic assemblage; themes skip from one track to the next, elevating and informing each other in tangible fields of abstract figuration. The titles, while often heady, concisely allude to strategies implicit in the construction and arrangement of the works: Cut Up, within the context of the album, is exactly that. Luck Takes a Step juxtaposes stately synths with just the right touch of playful fluctuation and latent atonality. The title track itself is a knotted mass of uncertainty and propulsive beats the breakdown of which is a nervous series of fits and starts that resonate not just within the track but as the fulcrum of the entire album: the threshold of our Threshold: “…we are caught up in our own original transversals of time to the point of dissolution, and that which remains a part of the contrivance of ourselves is ultimately that which crosses the threshold and is somehow, miraculously, reconstituted on the other side of it. Because it is via the threshold that we can best observe the conditions of experience as lived even as we cross to the other side of understanding, rejoining the ancient equilibriums of which we, in our depths, are comprised.” (From the liner notes)
No track overstays its welcome and with the help of standout vocalist Eliana Glass, and instrumentation by Dave Harrington (Darkside with Nicolas Jaar), Mark Nelson (Pan American), Will Shore, Greg Paulus and Gareth Redmond, and mixed by Phil Weinrobe, the result is a dizzyingly pure inward gaze that is first and foremost an album about connection.

Nadia Khan returns on Scissor and Thread for another sublime mini LP, Port Ana. Based in North Carolina, Khan first drew a lot of attention via a cassette release on Where To Now? Records in 2015.
Her sophomore statement was the beautiful In Gleam released in 2018 on Francis Harris’ Brooklyn-based label, which set the tone for these five tracks of meditative music. The title track Port Ana opens the journey - a gentle, droning soundscape with effortlessly bewitching glints of melody. Conversation follows on, drawing on loops and textures to create the background for a deep, pulsing kick drum. The sounds shift and evolve, leaving a hazy sense of movement to drift away to. Next up is Objects In Form which presents a fragile chord progression that barely holds itself together, surrounded by shifting pads and swathes of reverb. Rain Again is presented here in two versions. The original combines ethereal sounds, weightless and adrift, while the Lawrence remix firmly grounds the track with a hypnotic, deep groove. The Dial boss provides another remix for the digital release that further plays with the textures of the original to create something that works both for an open minded dancefloor and as a home listening experience.

Villete aka Amsterdam based producer Anne Korteweg returns to Scissor and Thread with a brilliant new EP. Her debut 12″ ‘Girl Next Door’ was released on Scissor and Thread in the fall of 2016 and sold out quickly. Now here with the new EP Dawn is Mine, we are treated to seven tracks of understated, floating beauty. On her new release she explores the more abstract sides of electronic music. Using a variety of synthesizers, she creates rich and lush sounding structures that continuously bend and flow loosely. She finds inspiration from listening to Pauline Anna Strom, Takashi Kokubo and Actress. Opener Penrose Stairs sets the tone with gentle arpeggiated synths creating a warm, fuzzy atmosphere - a combination further explored in Midnight Arp later into the mini-album. The title track Dawn Is Mine uncovers a low bass throb mixed with dubbed out effects and textures, while Lilac emits an ethereal, woozy atmosphere, with lush pads, choral textures and blissful melodic motifs. Myst also luxuriates in hazy pads before a slo-mo groove emerges to carry the track towards the edge of the dancefloor. If Myst flirts with the idea of dancing, Show Me dives right in - an exquisite slice of deep, outsider house with a psychedelic twist. Winding the release down with Wild Things - a beat-less vignette of synths engaged in an melodic interplay of chimes and tones.

The latest transmission from Francis Harris' exquisite Scissor And Thread imprint showcases the many talents of Tokyo's Tomi Chair aka Tominori Hosoya. The DJ and producer goes by both names, and here presents five tracks of lush, emotional music veering between ambient excursions and dance floor heaters. The original version of title track 'Tropical Imagination' opens the EP, and is a deep and thoughtful dance floor number. Elegant chords set the tone while the percussion adds a silky funkiness that's impossible to ignore. The 'Dream Version' strips the track down to its pads and atmospheres. Next up is Tomi Chair's 'Heat Exhaustion' - an exceptionally beautiful beatless piece that drifts through droney pads and occasional fragments of minor key melody. Using the Tominori Hosoya moniker, side B begins with 'We Are Here' - another powerfully restrained piece that merges woody percussion with low key pads and field recordings to create a magical whole. Francis Harris adds his touch to 'Heat Exhaustion' with his respectful Reform version, adding skittering percussion and underpinning the piece with a leftfield ambient house edge that builds and builds. Another essential addition to the Scissor And Thread catalog

Next up on Francis Harris' exceptional imprint Scissor & Thread comes a collaboration with American Producer, DJ Aakmael. Aakmael has built a reputation for some of the deepest, rawest house music sounds coming out of the States, releasing well-received tracks on the likes of Freerange Records, Release Sustain, Kolour Dogmatik and NDATL. Returning to Scissor & Thread, Aakmael and label boss Harris cook up an intoxicating vibe across this 5 track EP. Each shares a track and work together on the fifth, while also remixing each other's solo cuts. First up Aakmael's Deep Muzik- a quintessential nod to its self-proclaimed mission statement. Skittering drums, a shuffling groove, deep keys, and chords make up this essential opener. Frank's (aka Francis Harris) All That Light Mix shows another side, finding pockets of space and developing the fizzing percussion to produce an equally affecting piece of dancefloor bliss. Sharing production duties from the outset on Mercy of Means, the guys slip into an easy mid-tempo groove with plenty of depth - the rhythm rolls along and offers the perfect basis for some sublime melodic touches. Frank's Part Song also hones in on the subtle deep grooves. Bumping, slightly filtered and saturated drums provide the main body, with beautiful washes and keys finding their way through, Aakmael's remix beefs up the groove somewhat, making the snares snap harder and kick hit a little stronger, but the essence of the tracks melodic atmosphere remains perfectly in place.

The latest release on Francis Harris' Scissor & Thread label out of Brooklyn is another exercise in deep and meditative atmospheres. The label, comprised of a tight knit collective of multi-faceted composers, vocalists and instrumentalists, always strives to develop new projects based on a shared aesthetic, and this five track EP is both boundary pushing and fully synchronized with the label's approach. With Melquíades' 'Blue Caves' Melbourne based Composer and Sound Designer Alexander Albrecht presents his solo debut EP following on from the 'Tidal River' album he released as part of the Albrecht La'Brooy duo. The title track 'Blue Caves' is a skittering, weightless exploration of space, seemingly built around lush field recordings and fragments of melody developing out of the ether. 'Avlemonas' flows from a similar source, but crystallizes around an off kilter rhythm and occasional subby bass, balanced against swooping pads and piano motifs. 'Morning Breeze' seems to revel in the evocative nature of its title, with hand played percussion backing more wistful, emotive piano sketches and wandering bass notes, before the track settles into a hypnotic groove. Label head Francis Harris provides another take on the track for his Re-form version, a more dancefloor aimed excursion that draws deeply from the classic deep house of the New York and Detroit masters. Ending the relases is 'Patio', which drifts back towards the ambient territories of the opening tracks, with exquisite, understated instrumentation and a melancholic yet elated vibe.

On Scissor and Thread's fourth release of 2016, newcomer Villete takes a turn in the spotlight on their deep house stunner, 'Girl Next Door'. The A-side opens with the swelling pads and earnest hi-hat of Dreams". A distant voice declares everyone is devoted to their emotion, it's me and my imagination' before a springy bass line drops in, ushering in the mantra never be afraid to dream". A brassy synth further envelops the listener into the track's warm embrace as layers of percussion skitter in and out of focus. September' takes a turn for the cerebral with its' skipping hi-hats and airy pads. A springy bass line is accompanied by celestial synths that envelop the senses, making this psychedelic cut primed for after hours devastation. Villete goes even more cerebral on their introspective title cut, dialing back on the BPM, but keeping the energy high. A hushed bass and thudding kick take the backseat, allowing the hypnotizing, submerged pads and swirling, reverbed synths to take center stage, transporting dancers into eye-closed euphoria. The EP closes with the murky drum tones of Rillia". Droning pads, delicate claps, and a shy, skittering shaker keep things bubbling and light above the track's thicker than molasses kicks. Deep house maestro Darand Land takes his turn on the aforementioned track, lifting it out of the murk and straight up to the heavens and drenching it in his sun-kissed, euphoric style.

Fresh off the heels of the success of their 'Waiting Ground' EP, the boys in black, Frank & Tony, are skating back onto the scene with another four track summer stomper, 'Under the Jaguar Sun'. The A-side starts things off with the titular track, a rollicking deep house number primed for sunset raves. A bouncing and lush bass line is the back bone of the track, as crisp hi-hats, distant, yearning pads, and shimmering bells propel dancers forward into eyes closed euphoria. Things ramp up quickly into peak-time ecstasy on the Breakaway edit of Solo Andata's A Ballet of Hands.' A whirling dervish of delicate music boxes, bowed guitars, delicate music boxes, and distant horns swirl around and weave in and out between a skipping drum pattern, pushing and pulling alongside a gruff and stuttering bass, perfect for those late night rooftop ventures. The B-side takes listeners into early morning after hours territory, starting with the groovy Difficult Loves.' An airy and luscious double bass keeps things bouyed as introspective pads shimmer alongside pillars of aquatic synths. Backed by a classic, shuffling NY House drum groove, this one is best served late into the evening. The boys wrap things up on a high note with the latin vibes of Sargasso.' Crisp tambourines keep things light as dense kicks and a bass line deeper than the deepest canyon pull dancers deep into the floor with a warm embrace. The star of the show is the bouncing and earnest synth line, which is partnered up with a pair of playful toms in a game of cat and mouse, making this track a weapon anywhere you place it in a set.

Nearly a year after his acclaimed debut EP, 'Every Inch of You', a musical project meant as an ode to the memory of a once great man, his Grandfather, the enigmatic, Rosas Nievas, steps up to the plate with a sophomore outing for Scissor and Thread, Going Away Soon' On the A-side, the bombastic opener, wastes no time getting its feet moving with charged up percussion, guitar licks, and playful sampling with a clear ode to the likes of Matthew Herbert. Nearly Lost You, Though' sees Rosas Nievas pair up with the singer Poppy Roberts on an emotional house jam primed for a peak time lovers rave . A rock steady kick and shuffling percussion are the anchor, as smooth pads and ethereal, hypnotic vocal snips swirl around the listener before the singer's voice emerges forward with a heartfelt, soulful ode. The b-side takes things down several notches with the funky and loose, Roses are Dead, Violets are Blue,' a hypnotic rhythm cycle flanked by a powerful bass line a reverb-laden piano and a sax ensemble emerging as we are lead with eyes closed on a euphoric early morning dance ritual. The closer, Edge of Keys", continues the shuffling rhythmic patterning of the latter track, but couples with a loose form Rhodes piano, finishing off the EP on a gentle tone, as if coming to terms with loss, bittersweet and full of joy.

2015 will prove a benchmark year for Scissor and Thread with the rising momentum of Frank & Tony and Desert Sound Colony and now with the introduction after many months of work of their new enigmatic artist, Rosas Nievas, with a sublime debut EP, Every Inch of You. Like a tip of the hat to Herbert, the title track entices with easy piano licks, a cooing vocal and a lush atmospheric enveloping the 'floor in a warm embrace. Flipping the switch, the bounce of "Opinions" propels dancers into hands-up, Chicago-style elation, while the rollicking, looping closer, "Hear Me Rain", entrances with its early morning psychedelia. Completing the package is a breakaway edit from label heads, Frank & Tony, who transform "Every Inch of You" into a sun-drenched, euphoric deep house stormer, in a way only they can do.

At once foreign and familiar, Desert Sound Colony brilliantly scores a nostalgic journey through the proverbial looking glass. The plaintiff vibe of "The Way I Began" envelopes the listener in warm guitar licks and hushed vocals, transporting them to a time when innocence and insecurity gave way to transcendence. The road takes a turn with "Fire Egg", a classic stomper that drives introspection with looping guitar melody and bouncy bass. And before we return to size, "Iris" carries us further inward with scattered claps and a skipping kick, before releasing us into a deep and chugging, eyes-wide-shut, euphoric roller.