Man of the moment Alan Fitzpatrick teams up with Jon Gurd to bring us one of his finest tune to date. Quartz headquarter decided to call Rotterdam hero ROD aka Benny Rodriguez to remix the tune and the man gave us two essential versions of From Here to There. If it wasn't enough Paul Ritch - the label boss - complete the package with his own interpretation of the track.
Kartel is delighted to announce the 18th March release on Soundway Records of Magical Thinking by Antibalas multi-instrumentalist, Chico Mann. Tipping a genre-bending wink at 80's funk, boogie and electro stylings, with just a hint of Afrobeat spicing the mix, Chico effortlessly merges a downtempo groove with timeless pop sensibility to create a contemporary dancefloor classic. UK/European dates for March/April will be announced shortly.
Part 2[14,24 €]
The EP starts with Mikael Jonasson's, 'Benefit of the Doubt' which uses dark, melodic bleeps to create tension before the epic chord stabs kick in that resonate over the throbbing bass line. Adam Beyer steps up with the second track 'Never Really Left Home' that uses a rhythmic synth-line to create a dark and moody piece of music. Ida Engberg then delivers her unique style of techno using old rave sounds and a huge hoover style synth to create a driving techno track that will keep any dancefloor moving. The Manic Brother's supply another big track named 'Different Directions' using reverberated stabs to create an atmospheric, but still functional track with lots of rhythmic percussion thrown in. Patrick Siech then steps up with the next track, 'Kill Room' that also uses atmospheric percussion and stabs to build into a funky drum groove. Joel Mull presents the sixth track on the compilation; 'Rimson' that uses hypnotic drums to captures the listener's attention to lead into a floaty synth and vocal line before the track introduces a pulsating bass line. 'Second Coming' is the next offering with Petter B using recurrent percussion to full effect to create a purposeful, heavy hitting techno track. The final track by Cari Lekebusch called 'Xylopeggiator', conveys a dark, pounding 5 AM rhythm that uses vocal samples and a melodic synth to create a hypnotic drum pattern.
Ernesto Ferreyra is a producer of pedigree, and a bastion of quality over quantity. His releases for Cynosure and Mutek_rec and his stunning album for Lucianos Cadenza imprint attest to this. His new Message From Abroad EP for Memoria continues his trend for finding beauty and groove in depth and restraint. The lazy funk of A Ship In The Skys plump bassline doesnt quite suggest whats to come; that being dreamy, atmospheric tech
house of the highest order. A masterful use of space, FX and texture runs through the track, subtle, heady melodies laced with warm, intricate percussion and deft soundscapes. The unexpected twists and turns in Ferreyras genius arrangement make for a constantly engaging ride during which you're always kept on your toes. Think Cocoon in its deeper, more sumptuous moments and you're heading in the right direction. Mostly Numb
goes deeper still, rolling yet subdued bass undulating beneath delicate pad sounds and sprightly piano chords. Otherworldly sounds tickle the tracks edges, a hypnotic undercurrent swirling around the soft melodies and carefully utilised sounds. Chilling rounds off this engrossing EP in a more percussive manner, with its combination of taut snares and juicy wooden percussion pattering away alongside chunky tech bass and tripped-out FX
and vocal.
Vae Victis can't hide their love and passion for raw house and techno. On this 5th release there is another fine selection of hybrids between styles perfectly expressing their love for genre bending music. Durant exsists out of a small collective of producers with main roles for Steve Murphy, Die Roh and Lucretio, alongside Blawan. "The Dove Ultimatum", a 4 tracks ep of punchy analogue electronic music! On the a-side lay General Motors and At Ten, 2 broken beat electro techno tracks a la Drexciya showing the hardest and most experimental side of the project. While on the flip the trio bring things on a housier field, though staying loyal to the a-side vibe by delivering 2 dark and obsessive raw house tracks.
Support:
Ben UFO, Analogue Cops, Truss a.k.a. MPIA3, Tessela, Happa, Herva...
Alex Niggemann's 2012-defining long player 'Paranoid Funk' dropped in June to a rapturous response from DJs, dancers and home listeners alike. Here, Poker Flat Recordings revisits some of the exceptional highlights of that record, and deliver a remix package sure to be as equally sought-after by those in the know. 'Paranoid Funk' saw the Berlin resident explore a variety of grooves and textures, an experiment that won him many new admirers and a great deal of critical acclaim. Here, some of the hottest remix talent in the scene get their hands on the originals and twist them into new shapes. Following on from releases on Cocoon, Kling Klong, Circle and two strong EPs on Poker Flat ("Dinosaurs' and 'This") renowned producers Alex Flatner and LOPAZZ take on 'Don't Wait' and drop a growling, main room monster that will standout in any set. Francys, the young Italian making quiet a name for himself on the underground house and techno circuit, lends his skills to 'Back 2 Basics feat. Benji' - channeling the spirit of the early 90s into seven ecstatic minutes. Next up is Salvatore Freda - the highly respected Swiss DJ and producer who injects Niggemann's 'I Don't Care' with a narcotic groove that sits somewhere between Detroit and Berlin - the dubbed out vocals adding an element of otherworldliness that work in perfect compliment to the track's twisted (paranoid) funk. Berlin's own Andre Lodemann picks out 'Lovers' for his excursion, a deep bomb that grows and grows around an exceptional vocal from John Rydell - this is one for the very late nights or early mornings. What is clear from this release is that Alex Niggemann's star continues to rise - the classical pianist turned producer and DJ extraordinaire is moving on to the next phase of his career - and with the slew of outstanding releases to his name already, who is to say where that could lead. Tracklist:
After last years Hyperdub debut with the popular 'Set The Tone' EP, Ossie's been busy building a name for himself, as a DJ and a producer with both Ossie and Black Orange Juice releases. He comes back to Hyperdub here with the 'Ignore EP', sporting two catchy, housey, broken beat bombs. 'Ignore' features the vocals of Tilz, singing about the game of winding up the opposite sex, over bouncy, broken drums, neat stabs, and a bendy acidic bassline, with wave-like chords building up and down as if in reflection of the cat and mouse antics of the lyrics. 'Find It' on the B-side makes good with layering some roughly cut up female vocal samples, Todd Edwards-style, but twisted and dubbed into strange shapes, incorporating sloppy, dusty drums and a bassline that sounds like Wiley's early eski beat melodies, keeping the track rolling along and sounding mischievous and chunky. This release continues Ossie's building reputation as a house producer with a very British sound.
True house music on The A side with Self Enemy and huge house beat also on the A2 with DJ Aakmael. SEEKER'S BAND with remixes by JACK THE BOX & CORES FOR SPIN !
Self Enemy aka as Parisian Professor Inc & Detroiter Kris Wadsworth play it slow here. Picking on some classic sample, highly tweaked synth and dj friendly structure. Second opus of this raw collaboration.
Dj Aakmael picks another Billie's song, This time it's heavy orchestra chords on a hard kick singing the blues on the house core.
On the B Side, the SEEKER'S BAND aka Miguel Benavides composes with at Vocals: Mathieu Boko, Percussion: Eric Konnert (plays with St Germain, Martha Galarraga..), Bass: Francois Barbe, Tenor & Soprano Sax: Stephane Becarie, Keys: M Benavides and produced by Professor Inc & Miguel Benavides ; inspired by the first house school, jazz accents, afrocuban classic percussion, a tasty radio version right here !
It comes with a remix by the Berliners Tyree Cooper & Bobby Star aka JACK THE BOX. Dj friendly and deeply rooted with one of the pioneers perpetuating the style.
To conclude this ep, a special short dub version by CORES FOR SPIN
* Vinyl LP includes MP3 download for all tracks on the CD version *
C.K. Mann made his name as a virtuous guitar player in Ghana when he played with Moses Kweku Oppong in the Kakaikus Guitar Band in the early 60s. He then became the leader of the band Ocean's Strings until 1966. In 1968, he enjoyed a hit with the single 'Edina Benya'.
Mann was known for blending authentic African music with European influences. He was inspired by Latin American music and created a style all of his own. He became known as the 'King of Highlife' in Ghana in the 70's, when he released the record 'Nimpa Rebre' featuring vocals from Pat Thomas and Kofi Yankwon.
Funky Highlife came out of the Essiebons label run by Dick Essilfe Bondzie. According to Dick, this album could have been a massive hit in Ghana but the vinyl factories ran out of stock because of Ghana's economic downturn, so the demand for the record could not be met. The album is a fusion of highlife and soul. The best-known track 'Asafo beesuon' is a multi-layered, drum heavy, funk medley and is over 13 minutes long.
After a contribution to Ethereal Sound and a full-bloom debut EP on Mule Electronic earlier this year, "Running In Circles" takes the next step. Two power cuts that melt, espouse and mutate classicist Chicago school of design elements with the post-industrial take of the Live at Robert Johnson canon On a meta-level they even deal with such heavy stuff as reincarnation and the cycles of life and death. Oh, yes! How does that sound As sweet and threatening as a sugar skull, of course.
ETG005 the 'Revok Ep' sees two new upfront original tracks from Chris, Dax and Gareth with the additIon of an outstanding extended
remix of 'Revok' from the mighty 'Ø Phase. This will be released on limited clear vinyl with bespoke artwork. This Ep was
heavily influenced from Gareth's first visit to Berlin earlier this year in 2012 and also by the artist 'Revok' who had been putting
up some amazing pieces on East London walls around the same time.
Promo: Being played and charted, so far by the likes of Ben Klock, Answercode Request, Marcel Dettmann,
Kr!z Token, Truncate, Jonas Kopp, Phase, PSYK.
Limited clear vinyl with bespoke insert art. Mastered at AIR Studios. Vinyl only.
Soap Dodgers long awaited Unleashed EP, featuring tracks battered by N-Type Youngsta, Hatcha, Dismantle, MistaJam and Tubby Newham Generals. Unleashed: Unleash the beast! Skanking dark half stepper with the energy to match any tear out tune. Bassline is raw and twisted, dark and industrial. This track is thick with sub, but spacious following the code of the original dubstep sound. Waterlanding: This track was championed by Youngsta late last year. Future dub technologies, skanking reggae dub style with a 2012 twisted bass and 808s. Strobes: Catering for the more jump up side, this is the lighter side of the E.P, as its title suggests, rave driven glitchy, hard and furious. Reminiscent of Benga and The Others. Twister: Euphoric build ups, industrial filtered bass, and a sample that spells it all out; Twisted! A favourite with N-Type & Walsh.
Brighton's Dismantle second single with Wheel and Deal once again delivering his multi genre club smashing sounds. Destroy: Destory is the angry big brother of his first Single Computation & Word Dance! Dismantle delivers the goods again with his bouncing Electro / crack house step. The bit crushed vocal 'Destroy' breaks the epic build to a monster drop that gets every dance floor screaming for the wheelers! This track has been smashing it worldwide with support from N-Type, Hatcha, Mistajam, Shy Fx, Hizzle guy & Kutz to name a few. Computation VIP: The previously unreleased Dubplate! This wasn't going to see the light of day! A staple in the bag of N-Type, MistaJam, Hatcha, Soap Dodgers, Benton, Walsh & The Others! A sick little rework of the original track that launched Dismantle in to the limelight last year. Dismantle is join from strength to strength, and is a force to be reckoned with in 2012.
Northbase are a crew built up of several well know Jungle DJ's and producers (we'll let you do the digging) hailing out of Manchester, London and Leeds. With the uprise of the slower 140/150bmp jungle hardcore (nearer to 91/92 speeds) gaining rave and radio play from the likes of N-Type, Skream, Ray Keith, Benga, Hatcha, Benton, Arc-88, Northbase have their first release on Wheel and Deal. Ruffneck - The club smasher! features hardcore stabs, rolling amens, thunderous sub. All the vibes of a classic jungle rave at a cruising 140 tempo. Sounds wicked mixed with Dubstep half step beats. Somebodies had a bit too much of a party! Hoovers, massive stabs, amens and the infections repetition of open your mind, this one will have your dancefloor climbing the walls, with a big smile. Support from N-Type, Skream, Arc-88, and Benton.
Rachel Went South - Bouncing 4×4 electro step. A popular club smasher at Ibiza Rinse & FWD. This one bridges the gap between House, Electro and Dubstep. Supported by Skream, Benga, N-Type, MistaJam, Dismantle. Belly - Another house influenced club banger, carrying the distinctive wheel & Deal electro step style. Again, supported by Skream, Benga, N-Type and MistaJam, and extensive play on Radio 1 & Rinse FM.
Up and away / To your journey to the sun / Drink your rocket juice / Fly away (Hey, Shooter).
High up in the skies, amongst the clouds, Rocket Juice & The Moon was born. Literally. It happened back in 2008, when Damon Albarn, Flea and Tony Allen convened on the same Lagos flight, to play and exchange musical ideas in that city as part of the Africa Express collective. Relishing a shared enthusiasm for one another's work, and bonding immediately, there and then the triumvirate laid down the blueprint for Rocket Juice.
Still, more than a year passed before conditions were set for three weeks together at Albarn's West London studio, recording and refining two-dozen startlingly out and deeply funky instrumental grooves. The next stage was to invite onboard some extremely talented friends, with further sessions in Dallas, New York, Chicago and Paris... Erykah Badu, no less, queen of contemporary soul. Three companions from Africa Express: Malian singer Fatoumata Diawara, whose debut album has topped World Music charts since its release last Autumn; her multi-talented compatriot Cheick Tidiane Seck, whose prodigious keyboardism has lit up releases by artists ranging from Youssou N'Dour to Hank Jones; the young, Ghanaian rapper M.anifest, quizzically existential, switching seamlessly between Twi and English. And the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, long-time stalwarts in the Honest Jon's set-up — since one of the team discovered them busking near the shop in Portobello Road, on his lunchbreak — with a second album for the label due in May... Finally, the tracks were dispatched for mixing to Berlin, to be meticulously honed, polished and envenomed by Mark Ernestus, one half of the legendary Basic Channel and Rhythm & Sound partnerships.
The result is Rocket Juice & The Moon — out March 26, 2012, on Honest Jon's Records — a triumphant exploration and proliferation of kinetic Afro-funk rhythms: organic, exuberant, communal music-making, evidenced by the project's live debut on stage as part of the Honest Jon's Chop Up in late 2011, which hit London, Marseille, Dublin, and Cork to such great acclaim (witness the flurry of smart-phone film-clips uploaded in the days thereafter).
From the inaugural bars — that absurdly funky slice of instructional timekeeping, 1-2-3-4-5-6 — the liquid pulse of Fela Kuti's classic recordings drives the action through a suite of 18 shape-shifting compositions. The greatest drummer in the world has never sounded so good as he does here. His intricate cross-patterns jostle and lock with Flea's nimble, rumbling bass riffs. Joined by Seck on There and Extinguished — 'when you dispose of something burning, be sure it's out' — Albarn's keyboards spray synth fusillades up top, over, and under... splicing into the mess of wires running between the freaked Afro-disco of William Onyeabor and the space-jazz-moog of Sun Ra. The HBE brings extra intensity and drama to Leave-Taking — likewise Flea's trumpet to Rotary Connection — teasing out the haunting melody coiled in the mix.
Where the best of vintage Afrobeat sides sustained their concentrated energies over the course of sprawling, marathon jams, RJ & TM manages something altogether different: the group bottles the idiom into capsules of funk... and real songs. Beautifully buoyed by Erykah Badu's unmistakable vocals, Hey, Shooter brilliantly traverses metaphysical spaceways sans any semblance of noodling. Lolo and Follow-Fashion — featuring the open-hearted sensuality of Diawara's singing, M.anifest's quick, brawny science, and more brass blasts — play like its musical cousins or codas. Indeed, the album's shrewd sequencing creates the composite effect of tracks working both individually or within the context of an extended song-cycle.
The lovely ballad, Poison, is bittersweet and ruminative: 'If you're looking for love, beware the signs / They will paralyze you one by one / Poison, it will only break your heart.' Down-tempo and dubby, Check Out and Worries amplify the range of styles and moods. And by the time of Fatherless — a chugging Afro blues that evokes John Lee Hooker lost in Lagos, one gets the sneaking suspicion there's very little outside the reach of this collective's inventive musical grasp.
There is, in fact, a palpable openness pervading Rocket Juice & The Moon — the sense of a limber willingness to follow creative impulse — right down to how the group acquired its name. When Ogunajo Ademola — the Lagotian commissioned to do the album's cover artwork — dubbed his submission 'Rocket Juice & The Moon', it quickly morphed into the formal name of the project, like trying to hold onto mercury.
Surely, the stars above also approved.
A new label offering from the ever active vaults of Mr. Sascha Müller is the new imprint named Psychocandies which is setting things straight for an Acid-poisoned future with cat.no. 001 which is a marbled, limited to 200 copies 7" pressing holding Sascha Müllers "Tempelrotation (Edit)" and Acidfloors "Goja 3" on the flip. Whilst the first mentioned tune is on a grinding, distorted MonoAcid tip clearly influenced by long gone labels like Labworks or Propulsion 285 we see Acidfloor working on a mind bending fusion of dry ElectroPhonk and a tweeking 303 that is about to make all breakers twist their legs and the rest of the crew jump around like mad. If you love alltime classics like "Higher State Of Consciousness" you'll surely appreciate this little tune as well. Watch out for more candy!
Edward O’Sullivan Lee “but my friends call me Bunny or Striker Lee” was born in Kingston, Jamaica on 23rd August 1941. He started in the music business plugging records for Duke Reid at Treasure Isle, Coxsone Dodd at Studio One and Leslie Kong at Beverley’s. “I used to do plugging… when I say plugging I used to get their records played on ‘Teenage Dance Party’ and we’d dance so if you had a record to plug you’d put it on and dance to it and show the latest moves”.
Panther Veil is the debut release on Dublin based Apartment Records. Over the 3 tracks London producer NCW explores various avenues of house music in a stripped back, unique fashion. Opening with the slowburning, Detroit-tinged swing of Veil, the flip serves up the bent out of shape jack of My Braindead Acid, while Panther's relentless late night groove rounds things off in a blurry haze.
Tuba's inaugural release features Antiserum's dark, forceful, hip hop focused banger, Mofo. This A side has been supported by Benga, Babylon System, Sukh Knight, Tes La Rok, Nicon, 12th Planet, DJG, Excision, Datsik, and 16BIT, getting plays around the world. Neighborhood Lasersniper, on the flip, is a dubstep interpretation of a hip hop classic.
Over the past fifteen years, Florida-based multi-instrumentalist Eric Lanham has quietly generated a diverse and remarkable body of work both as a solo artist and in group settings. From the disorienting drone/collage ecstasies of Caboladies, his trio with Christopher Bush (Flanger Magazine) and Ben Zoeller, to wildly divergent solo flights under both his own name and as Carl Calm, Lanham’s carefully meted out recordings display the talents of a chameleonic composer who is as capable a sound designer as he is unconcerned with trend in experimental electronic music or notions of prolificness. “Objet Dirt” arrives ten years after “The Sincere Interruption,” his excellent longplayer for the now defunct Spectrum Spools imprint. Captured live, these compositions are brimming with kinetic, elastic, off-grid rhythms, an articulate and enigmatic language that restlessly darts around the stereo field. Of the collection, Lanham says "I haven't made a single piece of music that sounds like this since and it is hard to imagine doing so again.” If this is the case, the 20+ minute closer is a formidable final document. At once chaotic and tightly controlled, it is a torrent of coiling low-end, submerged and stretched rhythms, and seething high-end filigree that is as indebted to the hungry ghosts of free improvisation as it is anything resembling techno.
