After a bit of a hiatus, Expansion Unit is finally back with another slice of moody and brooding electro trickery. Courtesy of Berlin-based Pascal Hetzel, the two tracks Extra Terra' and Fermi Paradox' showcase raw and rugged machine funk with a strong wide-eyed escapist undercurrent. The future is now.
Hot on the heels of the co-release between Especial and Cocktails d'Amore Music of the Sfire Remixes EP (EES023/CDA013) comes an accompanying release with a pair of deeper, stripped back remixes from the inimitable Timothy J Fairplay and Willie Burns. Well known as producers, DJs and label managers with their Crimes Of The Future and WT Records respectively, as well as appearing on a who's who of electronic labels including Pinkman, Unknown To The Unknown and L.I.E.S, they have appeared in various guises on both Emotional Response and Especial. Here then are 4 remixes - 2 each per side - that take the unique original to new dance floor extremes. Timothy steps up first with his take on Sfire 2 via differing vocal and instrumental versions. His trademark, echo laden rolling percussion and "Carpenter" key lines take the original Synth-pop homage to the dark room. Adding Arps, a lifting, hedonistic breakdown and the scatter-stepper drums and claps found on the Instrumental version and this is pure COTF territory and the better for it. Willie meanwhile has long followed his own path for his take on Sfire 3, offering one of his deepest remixes to date. Thudding kick, brooding pads and dark strings force the vocals to go down, way down for examination. The distorted vocals of Remix 1 are countered by Remix 2 letting the track shine via a seemingly endless 4/4 beat. Psychedelic, trance inducing, pulsating, this is an ever growing mind expanse.Presented in sparse Hand Stamped sleeves, this one off Limited Edition pressing is a unique EP, taking Sfire to a different sphere that warrants investigation. It was only
Repress
This is the third release on the fledgling Genosha Basic label. Ghost in the Machine is back to serve up four dark and brooding industrial techno dance floor destroyers that are guaranteed to mess with your sensibilities. This record's got everything: huge intros, huger kickdrums, hugerer breakdowns and cute little hi-hats. It's a winner.
Following releases on labels such as Greco-Roman, TTT and Templar Sound, Dro Carey (Eugene Ward) returns to the scene with his new offering, the industrious yet delicate track 'Queensberry Rules' featuring the vocals of KUCKA, taken from his Dark Zoo EP, out now via Australian label Soothsayer.
Where his previous releases have been firmly focused on the smoke-riddled clubs, Queensberry Rules sees Dro Carey traverse new territory. Working with KUCKA and Collarbones' Marcus Whale on the track, 'Queensberry Rules' sees the Sydney producer creating a unique pop sound, however maintain the gritty DNA that he is so distinctively known for.
As Dro states ''Queensberry Rules' are the set of rules that outline the general code for boxing matches. It's a document about fairness and sportsmanship in a pretty violent activity. That immediately struck me as a great title for a demo. Working with KUCKA and Marcus Whale (of Collarbones) as a co-writer, I think their lyrics perfectly hit upon the sense of irony that I wanted the song to have.'
The track was the first official taste from his Dark Zoo EP which sees Ward push the limits even further within his musical explorations. Whether it's the pop moments of 'Queensberry Rules' and 'Dark Zoo' where he employs the vocals of both KUCKA and FKL respectively to elevate the sonic sensory overload to new levels, to the brooding club explorations that are 'Grow Lithe' and 'Hidden Halls'; the EP is his musical coup d'état from the outset - simultaneously sinister, restrained and intoxicating.
We are absolutely thrilled to present this little gem on Vinyl. This special vinyl release also includes not only the single, but two remixes from heavy weights Mall Grab and Cassius, and a very special new track titled 'Under' which is and will always only be available on the vinyl release of this. Dive in!
Taken from the acclaimed "Migration" album, "Kypoli" sees Poirier sharing production duties with fellow Ninja Tune alumni and hot property Machinedrum. Taking vocal samples from Aleisha Lee (co-writer of Tinie Tempah's recent smash "Girls Like" amongst others) and twisting, chopping and manipulating them into a completely new composition, the pair create a brooding post-dancehall/soul fusion, gaining the perfect balance between ethereal beauty and heavy dancefloor menace. Bukem-esque pads and deep dub elegance give way to pounding kicks and floating harmonies, relentlessly building a wall of sonic beauty.
Remixes come from France's dub mad scientist Moresounds, who ups the jungle influence with a classic Reese-style bassline and signature rolling snare chops, whilst retaining the balance between dark & light and Montreal-based newcomer Thomas White who flips the vibe completely for a slo-mo Soulection style builder.
You Can't Defeat Her, When You Meet Her You'll Get What I Said B2 Marlon Hoffstadt - 2000MG Floating Info: Retrograde returns late September with 'In Reverse Pt.1', a various artist package featuring Matteo Luis, Natureboy Gold, Terron and Marlon Hoffstadt. Berlin based imprint Retrograde marks its fith release here and once again welcomes back a selection of the collective recording artists already featured on the label such as label head-honcho Natureboy Gold, FFRR/Play It Down artist Marlon Hoffstatd, also co-founder of the label and tipped as a Future Star by Pete Tong on Radio 1. Matteo Luis also makes a return following appearances on two EP's for the label prior to this, while an exciting addition to the catalogue comes in the shape of Terron, most notably known for their work with Young Turks sub-label WHITIES. Up first on the release is Matteo Luis' 'Out Here' setting the tone with ethereal pad swells, organic rhythms and choppy bass hits while a soft and brooding melodic tension subtly unwinds throughout the composition. Natureboy Gold's 'Eternal' follows and employs a similarly airy synth feel while introducing a robust tom- driven rhythmic approach to create an understated dance-floor focused contribution. Opening the flip is Terron's cryptically named 'No.57, You Can't Defeat Her, When You Meet Her You'll Get What I Said' which drops the tempo to a low slung feel with dubbed out bass licks, bumpy percussion and spiraling bass drones to create something idiosyncratic and psychedelic. Marlon Hoffstadt steps up to round off the package next with '2000MG Floating' delivering a raw energetic workout with soaring 80's tinged leads, snaking bass grooves and frenetic percussion.
With a title that suggests great things, making reference to 6 Victoria Crosses awarded to the Lancashire Regiment in World War 1, Mr Fantastic and Coherent (of Journeymen fame and much more) have set themselves a tall order. Before you have even listened to the music, the presentation points to success in this venture, with original artwork by the brilliant Stilts and marbled camouflage coloured vinyl to boot!
100 years after the press reported 'the winning of 6 VCs before breakfast' during the Gallipoli campaign in World War 1, S.O.E. (Special Operations Executive) opt for beats and rhymes rather than guns and bombs, and the resulting record is essential. The initial salvo is fired in 'Ready For Combat' which sees Mr Fantastic combine hard-hitting drums with stabbing guitar chops for Coherent to set the tone. The result is an instant smash which will have you rewinding, as I was, time and time again! From there, the duo, joined by Rola (The Numskullz/Journeymen) and Truck (also a member of The Journeymen), stage a three pronged assault over a haunting beat, spitting verse one after another like a creeping barrage before Mr Fantastic delivers the final victory courtesy of his trademark tight scratches. The concept for this EP is highly original and perfectly apt and on 'Foreign Lands', this is perfectly demonstrated as Coherent weaves tales of carnage that would sound at home on a jungle warfare documentary. 'Lyrical Assassin' once more sees Coherent dropping vocal hand grenades over double bass and electric piano skilfully fused together by his fellow soldier Mr Fantastic. Throughout, the subject matter and music is dark and 'Heavy Artillery' encapsulates this perfectly - Mr Fantastic's thumping, bass-heavy production would have sat perfectly on Show & AG's sophomore LP next to tracks like 'Night Time'. On 'Carcasses', Coherent shows the enemy why he is such a skilled MC, delivering surgical strikes with his tight metaphors and hard-hitting punch lines.
The question, then, given the highly ambitious nature of this project, is whether S.O.E. have won the battle they set out to win. With meticulous artwork, dark brooding beats and Coherent's masterful wordplay, the result is clear. They didn't just win the battle but the whole darn war!
Recorded in one take after a trip to the zoo last Autumn, here is the first new track from the undisputed king of home-disco... Superstar. Check that B-side too..home recorded vocals straight from the heart, with the brooding Braindance synths....TIP for the boombox crew! Limited edition..
As hypnotic and floor-shaking as ever, - Keep on Rocking' keeps you on your toes through twists and turns, focused on a central mantra, it is what Jamie Principle's fathers lullaby might have sounded if had tried to put his son to sleep with his best impression of Michael Jackson and Leroy Burgess.
The B-Side is a powerhouse reimagining turned to a delightful 11 from the mysterious DJ Im Sorry.
Late September marks the arrival on the second edition of Unclear Records 'A Tribute To Klang Club' featuring Move D, Fred P, Christopher Rau and label-heads Easy To Remember.
The Unclear Records imprint has carved out quite the reputation over the past few years with an already impressive back catalogue featuring material from Juju + Jordash, Rick Wade, Gigi Masin and Gerry Read. Here thought we see the welcome return of the labels 'A Tribute To Klang Club' series with its second contribution, following the inaugural various artists package that boasted material from Baby Ford, Roman Fluegel and more.
Move D opens with 'Rise!' and delivers a typically brooding, hypnotic number before Fred P follows up with 'Lush Life' laying down raw acidic bass and ethereal pads alongside shuffled rhythms. On the flip Christopher Rau's 'Unclear Joint' ups the energy levels via weighty drums and intricate use of string, bass and vocal samples before label-heads Easy To Remember round off the package with 'I Don't Know' a stripped back house cut led by sparse percussion, jazzy synth licks and soft pads.
'A Tribute To Klang Club Vol.2' is out on Unclear Records 26th September 2016.
Collapsing Horizons is the third full length album from Netherlands based deep ambient duo Tangent.
Limited clear with white splatter and blue with white vinyl. NON-RETURNABLE
This album much like the two preceding it—2013s "1mk2" (Mindtrick) and 2014s "Transience" (Tympanik)— is a sonic journey with arching atmospheres and themes. An aural representation of the formation of matter and it's disintegration in unison. The music, much as the album's namesake, could very well be the soundtrack to new universes being created on the ashes of collapsing ones.
Ralph van Reijendam and Robbert Kok who are the two behind Tangent moonlight in a long list of paradoxical musical projects. Fire Walk with Us, Rob Klerkx and the Secret, Disavowed, and Synesis Absorption are all quite different from Tangent's sprawling yet steady ambience.
This such daily musical juxtaposition allows Tangent the immersive focus on the ideas that make Tangent what it is. It would be a misnomer to think that with all the extra curricular time spent in more extreme forms of music that Tangent is a frenetic force. They are exactly the opposite. Dense pads, rolling beats and brilliant shimmers of resonance punctuate their electronic based instrumentals in just the correct manner to stargaze, day-dream, bliss-out, or even brood about starting over...
Very cool ep from Skatebard on Vivod ! A mixed bag from the prolific Norwegian producer showing us why he's still at the top of his game. Maskindans kicks things off with some speak & spell funk followed by Hissige Helger, a brooding Chicago style banger sure to tear up some discoteques across the planet.
On the flip are Langbolgen and Gloymde Skogar. The former is an acid style work out, the latter is more of a subtle, hypnotyizing opus. All very strong tracks. Don't sleep on this. They will go fast !
Raime's second album, Tooth, arrives June 10, 2016 on 2xLP, CD and digital formats. The widescreen melancholia of their 2012 debut, Quarter Turns Over A Living Line, gives way to an urgent and focussed futurism, in the shape of eight fiercely uptempo, minimal, meticulously crafted electro-acoustic rhythm tracks. The DNA of dub-techno, garage/grime and post-hardcore rock music spliced into sleek and predatory new forms.
No let-up, no hesitation. Needlepoint guitar, deftly junglist drum programming, brooding synths and lethal sub-bass drive the engine. The production is immaculate, high definition. No hiss, no obscuring drones or extraneous noise: the music of Tooth is wide-open and exposed. The seeds of its supple dancehall biomechanics can be found in the self-titled 2013 EP by Raime side-project Moin, an ahead-of-its-time synthesis of art-rock and soundsystem sensibilities, but Tooth pushes the template further, binding the disparate elements together so tightly that they become indistinguishable from one another.
If Quarter Turns was an album that confronted total loss and self-destruction, even longed for it, then Tooth is the sound of resistance and counter-attack: cunning, quick, resolute, calling upon stealth as much as brute-force. At a time when so many pay lip service to experimentation without ever fully committing themselves or their work to it, Raime return from three years of deep, dedicated studio research with a bold and original new music: staunch, rude, and way out in front.
We are proud to present a new addition to our artist roster.
STÄRKER have crafted an AURA of Uniqness in their compositions, it is rare to find such denseness and well crafted sound design says Label head kareem.
STÄRKER's 2nd ep "Scorched" delivers raw, pulsating rhythmic
progressions all masterfully connected to deep ambient drones.
The Berlin-Montreal based duo of Frederic Arbour (Cyclic Law) and Martin Dumais (AUN) deliver haunting industrial rhythms and brooding atmospherics, drawing from an austere palette of abstract sonorities
Dusky's 17 Steps present Floor To Floor. Featuring tracks from Velvit, Trevino, Lo Shea, Hugo Massein and Alan Fitzpatrick, Floor To Floor compiles 12 tracks that approach the modern house and techno aesthetic with a UK edge.
Joining the dots between electronica-leaning sounds, melodic house and warm-up grooves to moody techno, looping tech house tools and broken beats, Floor To Floor represents a snapshot of current UK House and Techno sound worlds - all heavily road tested in Dusky's DJ sets. Carefully compiled over a 12 month period, each track combines artistic individuality with dancefloor utility.
A statement of intent for 17 Steps future dancefloor visions, Floor To Floor journeys from the dark, brooding atmospherics of Velvit's 'Looking Glass' and Dusky's own stripped back 'Mount Belzoni to the quirky warehouse techno of Christian Piers' 'Tooth Decay' and Trevino's militant 'Ojak'.
Resin label head & Avian affiliate Pris launches UNBEKNOWN white label series. Pris offers up a floor-focused five tracker, hot on the heels of his debut on Shifted's Avian imprint. Where "This Heavy Heart" explored a more subdued aesthetic: tense, widescreen exercises in Drone & reduced, heads-down club fare, UNBEKNOWN01 is fiery & immediate. Three rolling 4x4 recordings open the EP, followed by a brooding half time dirge that segues into a noisy ambient cut to close. Released 15th March.
* Following on from successfully funding her How To Make A Symphony Kickstarter project, Emika returns with a new four-track EP that sees her chart yet more new territory.
* Lead track Flashbacks is a typically haunting affair whose deeply personal lyrics are a heartening example of how art can turn feelings of trauma into something beautiful
* Her velvety voice belies the deep subject matter while the sounds gracefully tread the line between the brooding and the ethereal, with pulsing, filtered synth delays, low register piano bass octaves and a stuttering slo-mo beat produced with The Exaltics, building an engrossing atmosphere
* Restless Wings goes into more experimental territory - both in terms of composition and concept. 'It's about creating a new personality which lives in the internet - something we all know
* Total features the silver-toned soprano star of How To Make A Symphony, Michaela Srumova, and tackles the complicated relationship between a mother and her daughter
* French musician Franck Vigroux provides a stark, shuddering remix of Flashbacks to complete the EP, driven by gnarled blasts of wildly distorted synths and bass grunts, rising to an intense, mesmeric crescendo
* This EP brings together the classical and electronic extremes of the Emika sound, proving that her signature is like no other and continues to evolve.
Luigi's Primo and Unconditional Beauty both made their way through the charts to become number one in the techno charts and we are tipping Magic Land to do the same! Storming his way back onto Drumcode Luigi Madonna closes off the Summer with a 2 track EP smasher that will see him welcome in Autumn with a bang. Each track contains the solid, raw drums that are the backbone to each track Luigi has conjured up.
With a brooding undertone, the simplicity found in each track gives the lead lines and ideas more space to breath, which overall creates a unique and charismatic submission that can only be found from the Italian.
Prolific electronica polymath Emika found acclaim once again this year with new studio album 'DREI', an opus that picked up Ibiza Spotlight's 'Album Of The Week' accolade and was called a fascinating album' by Rolling Stone. With six new remixes on this EP, further life has been breathed into her latest LP - with stunning results.
UK techno legends The Black Dog provide a foreboding rework of Battles, all brooding pads, electro glitchery and stomping breakbeats.
Kamikaze Space Programme's version is more dramatic still, returning the favour after Emika appeared on his own 'Choke' recently.
CNCPT (Brenda, Natch Records) kicks off the remixes of What's The Cure with an industrious slab of dubbed-out, reverb-heavy techno, doing away with Emika's vocals entirely and instead making use of her sound design expertise with subtle finesse.
Mysterious German Clone and Bunker affiliates The Exaltics tap into their electro roots on their rework with a thick, rubbery bassline working its way under a simple, atmospheric arrangement that allows Emika's honeyed delivery to take centre stage.
Borai (Tasteful Nudes) teams up with Emika herself to provide a stripped-back, heavily-swung, stomping take on the track, boiling it down to its melodic and textural essence.
Eomac rounds off the package with his stunning string-laden instrumental interpretation.
FINA Records presents 'Tyranny of Fun', the debut EP from Slow Learner. The coining of the new alias 'Slow Learner', marks a new chapter and musical direction for an already established artist who is by no means new to the game. Preferring to start afresh and steer clear from associations, the somewhat reclusive figure from the South Coast is now focused instead on allowing his new output to speak solely for itself. And his debut release under his new pseudonym achieves just that. 'Tyranny of Fun' is an accomplished sonic offering that reveals a versatile sound characterized by original combinations of samples, depth and range. The EPs opener, 'The Skin Horse' is surely one for the after afters - a dark and off kilter growler of a track whose prevailing bassline and waltz time beat provide a brooding backdrop and relentless rolling nod to its intricate fusion of dissident chords, dusty synths and jazz stabs. On the flip side, an unpredictable 'Cupboard Love' starts muted and deep but soon surprises, opening out into a warm and progressive feel-good groove. Mixing things up again, Slow Learner impulsively cuts up the flow 4 minutes in with a funk-filled refrain, leaving the track dancing in and around dirtier disco territories. Last up, a made for vinyl 'Honey' goes deeper still; a delectably crafted down tempo offering whose syrupy vocals stir and evocative cross-rhythm synths, coupled with the vintage analogue percussion, ooze an unmistakable old 90's deep house sound.
Rich NxT helms the next release on the Fuse London label, with his 'What's In The Box' EP, the 3rd solo EP from one of the parties chief residents. This release brings yet more variety to the NxT stall with a classic feel on the A1 track, 'Defy' where he kicks things off with his trademark, crisp beats and razor sharp percussion riding over the dubby low end, then opening out into lush pads and a vocal that never fail to raise the atmosphere, proving popular with people everywhere.
'Mylove' is the release's vinyl only track and is an understated anthem, once again delving deep with brooding bass, paired with drum snatches echoing that of his early jungle days. When the tripped out male vocal and percussion builds into the drop and counter melody, all the elements align in that unique NxT fashion. Over on the flip, 'Twang' has become another firm favourite with audiences, calling again on memories of old school rave combined with a rolling, edgy groove, whilst 'Cannonball' finishes the EP off in fine style with a slab of atmospheric wonder perfect for those early morning sunlit sessions.
