Cerca:cole odin

Leng’s San Francisco connection has long been strong, with the 40 Thieves collective – and their friend Cole Odin – providing some of the label’s most memorable releases of the last decade. That Bay Area connection comes to the fore once more on the imprint’s latest release, which sees Odin join forces with fellow San Francisco resident Marshall Watson, a long-serving producer, engineer and live performer known globally for his Balearic-minded productions.
‘Voyager’, the pair’s first collaborative single, is a genuine meeting of minds. It combines Odin’s love of low-slung dub disco, dancefloor psychedelia and low-tempo cosmic house with Watson’s
picturesque Balearic synths, sparkling piano riffs and immersive sound design. It’s this blend that dominates on the EP-opening Original Mix, an infectious workout that gets progressively more blissed-out and saucer-eyed as it progresses. Listen carefully and you’ll hear some suitably psychedelic guitar solos nestling amongst the heady washes of sound, sun-bright piano riffs and weighty bass.


Those languid, stretched-out guitar parts naturally take a more prominent role on the Extended
Guitar Mix. On this alternative take, the pair deliver a lightly tweaked take on the original groove, stretching it out while overlaying eyes-closed guitar solos, pots-and-pans percussion and a more DJ-friendly outro. It’s effectively an extended club mix – the club in question being a Bay Area basement at 5am. To round off the EP, Odin and Watson dust off their dancing shoes and pay tribute to San Francisco great Patrick Cowley. On the appropriately titled Cosmic Rave Mix, the pair swap their bass guitar for a pulsating sequenced bassline, trance-inducing synth sounds, and locked-in electronic loops designed to take you to a higher state of consciousness. By the time the track’s familiar piano refrain drops midway through, you’ll be reaching for the lasers in no time at all.

Leng Records has long had close ties with the underground music scene in San Francisco, with low-slung dub disco and psychedelic disco outfit 40 Thieves releasing their acclaimed album The Sky Is Yours on the imprint way back in 2014. Now Leng has turned to another stalwart of the Bay Area scene, Cole Odin, on a single that’s every bit as trippy and engrossing as you’d expect from one of San Francisco’s most frequently overlooked talents. Cole made his Leng debut earlier in the year, contributing the electro-influenced track ‘Numbers Game’ to the label’s 10th anniversary compilation. On ‘Little Boxes’, he’s joined by good friend Eddie C, a much-loved disco and house producer from Canada best known for his releases on Endless Flight and Red Motorbike. The pair recorded the track while Eddie was staying with Cole in San Francisco last year.



In keeping with the low-slung, hallucinatory sound that has always been a big feature of the San Franciscan scene, ‘Little Boxes’ is a trippy, mind-altering affair in which waves of sitar sounds, cosmic synths, effects-laden guitars and kaleidoscopic electronics rise above a weighty punk-funk bassline and crunchy, snare-heavy beats. It has serious dancefloor chops but is also atmospheric and immersive: perfect 5am music for Bay Area beach parties and mushrooms-fuelled forest raves.



Fittingly, it’s 40 Thieves who provide the accompanying remix, a 10-minute epic created with the assistance of Adonis and Rodney from the psych rock band ‘Guavatron’ for additional synths and the guitars. Beginning with tabla-style percussion, swirling chords, psychedelic guitar licks and mystical sitar sounds, the remix builds in waves, with looser drums and even weightier bass propelling the track forwards at a metronomic and hypnotic pace. By the time the eyes-closed guitar solos drop two thirds of the way through, you’ll be tripping hard and reaching for the lasers. It’s a genuinely stunning remix of a genuinely intoxicating, mind-mangling track.

California house music maestro Jason Merle returns to Whiskey Pickle in 2024 with a revamped mixdown of his slow burning deep chugger 'Fester' paired with the previously unreleased jackin' house groover 'Can U Handle It'.

On the B side coming in from London town we have ALFOS very own Sean Johnston (Hardway Bros) turning in an absolutely wicked rendition of 'Fester'. Hardcore you know the score, acid house for the headstrong. Whiskey Pickle will make you wiggle!

Early support from Erol Alkan, Space Dimension Controller, Makossa, Eddie Richards, Alinka, Marco Carola, Audio Soul Project, Maceo Plex, Alkalino, James Zabiela, DJ Nova, Paco Osuna, Sam Divine, Cole Odin, Harri, Severino, Bruce Tantum, Hakan Dahlby, etc.

Now onto its fourth volume, NuNorthern Soul’s annual Summer Selections EP is fast becoming a must-check for fans of slow-motion sunshine sounds, contemporary Balearic beats and sumptuous downtempo grooves.

Summer Selections Four showcases six hand-picked tracks from EPs and albums to be released by NuNorthern Soul in 2022. A genuine ‘cream of the crop’ or ‘best in class’ feel, with NNS label boss and curator Phil Cooper putting together a varied EP piled high with evocative melodies, atmospheric chords, tactile grooves and ear-catching instrumentation.

First to step up to the plate is experienced producer James Bright, whose cut ‘Amber’ offers a bubbly, colourful and analogue-rich stroll through mid-tempo Balearic house territory. The track is one of the highlights of Bright’s forthcoming Totem EP. It’s quickly followed by ‘Nana a Leon’ from Be.Ianuit’s Entre Dos Islas EP, a gorgeous mixture of deep bass, twinkling pianos, sultry synth-strings, sparkling synthesiser arpeggios, echoing machine drums and spoken word vocals from guest performer Marcos de la Fuente.

San Francisco’s Cole Odin offers a snapshot of his forthcoming Songs For Suns EP via ‘Growing’, a slow-motion sunset soundscape built around ethereal chords, chiming melodies and head-nodding drums, while Gold Suite’s ‘The Cowboy’ – taken from the On My Horizon EP – brilliantly joins the dots between jangling Americana, mid-‘80s Balearic reggae and sun-soaked instrumental synth-pop. While brand-new, it could easily be mistaken for the kind of obscure, hard-to-find gem that gets Balearic record collectors so hot under the collar.

Next up is another new signing to NuNorthern Soul, North of the Island, whose debut EP Feeling Free is undoubtedly a highlight of the label’s 2022 release schedule. ‘I Feel’, the track showcased here, adds attractive, sunset-ready musical flourishes to a chugging, delay-laden rhythm track and the kind if squelchy bass-line most often found in proto-house and early ‘80s electro-funk cuts. It’s a spaced-out, mind-altering delight.

Rounding off another sizzling Summer Selections excursion is ‘Smoke & Fly’ from fast-rising twosome Residentes Balearicos, an Ibiza-based Italian duo who impressed many with their 2021 EPs on Balearic Ensemble. Dusty, bass-heavy, drowsy and picturesque, the track is a simply gorgeous chunk of Balearic dub piled high with organic percussion, undulating acid lines and mazy solos. It provides a fittingly triumphant conclusion to another essential sampler EP from NuNorthern Soul.