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Hochwertiges Digi-Pack des Debut-Album !!!


A solitary shed by a lake. Surrounded by woods coated in ice. It's the deepest winter and the Pentatones quartet finds itself in the deserted nature of the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern County. They are searching for sounds pulsating beyond instruments and machines. Inaudible Music this is, made sound by them only. By night the four move over the frosted lake, play the clarinet and put themselves in a chilly trance. Months later they will remember dimly these moments in the woods and cast them atmospherically into their album debut 'The Devil's Hand' with icy romance. Highly attentive to details, they have worked on it for 3 years. Since 2006 the Pentatones tinker with their tessellate electroacoustic sound, in whose center the voice of singer Delhia de France is floating. To friends of club music she might be known from her collabs with techno producers such as Marlow, Douglas Greed or Robag Whrume. With the Pentatones she combines her emotional timbre in various forms with the raw basslines by Hannes Waldschütz and the analog and electronic beats and samples by Julian Hetztel a.k.a. Le Schnigg. Albrecht Ziepert creates melodic moods on the keys, whose appeal one can hardly elude. Their kaleidoscopic arrangements dance between susceptibility and experi­ment. Enticing pop structures melt with crackling analog electronics - a mixture laid out to make dance at times, at times to chill. The ambiance of her compositions is gloomy, yet light-flooded in a certain way. It is most notably Delhias voice, which outshines everything, never standing still, meandering and spinning, opening up a new emotional space with every bre­ath. The computer with its infinite production possibilities is used in its function as another instrument. Together with the sampler it forms the center of action, processing everything, from voice to keys, which needs an artistic distancing effect. A contrabass is setting the pace at times, then again the brass accelerates the tracks highly emotively. In stylistic regards their compositions are never predictable. A touch of organic jazz here, a subtle hip-hop allusion there, accompanied by a moving club rhythm structure and Delhias captivating voice, which sings, then talks, and whispers in the next moment.
It's not only the infinite world of sound, which inspires them to their adventurously twisted compositions. For all members being equally active in the visual field, art plays an impor­tant role in the act of creating and in the overall concept of the Pentatones. This is being reflected in their life shows, acknowledged with much applause on festivals like 'Sonne, Mond und Sterne', the 'Fusion Festival' or 'Ars Electronica'. When they sample themselves during their concerts, modify their sound in real time and vividly interpret their songs, Delhia dances audaciously in extravagant, self-designed costumes in haughty reserve and effuses eccentric pop magic. Sometimes she takes the megaphone and by hereby altering her voice, she infuses her music with another exotic tone. With their self-produced videos the Leipzig residents by choice create an artistic universe, which stages the dramatic lyrics of the lead singer in a sublime way. After all they see themselves as an artificial band, operating beyond the conventional patterns of presentation, bypassing intuitively and creatively common pop stereotypes. Twisted-Pop which gets straight under your skin, without ever grooving stream­lined. You can dance to it, lose yourself in it or step into new worlds. There is only one thing difficult to deal with after you enjoyed 'The Devil's Hand' and that's to release yourself from its overwhelming emotional impact.

We celebrate our number 30 with a double pack, featuring one of the creators of techno in Spain: Groof.

Roberto Gemelin, from Madrid, is Groof. He's Robert Calvin too. No matter which of his alias you know him by, he's one of the most active producers in the Madrid arena.

Aka Robert Calvin, he released materials with Turbo (Tiga's label) in 2004, having previously collaborated with Star Whores in a joint release with Alek Stark (2002).
Also important are the remixes he did for Disko B or for Sindicato Records and MSX, paying tribute to Megabeat with his recreation of the great classic Strange.

His background as Groof is even more extensive, as his early steps go back to the times of Minifunk (the cheeky and shameless label from Barcelona that was then managed by Omar and Dj Loe). With them he recorded Mambo! (1999) and I want you (2000). He has also recorded with WarmUp, Fieber, Rainwaves or Shareware Records.

At the end of the ninetees Groof shared Quite Unusual with Oscar Mulero: the start of a deep friendship that nowadays brings us WU30 mini-album.

'Angel exterminador' is on the A side; modern and dark techno, based on cemented beats and deep synth work. A track that is constantly growing and evolving; quality and punch in one track.

'Diagrama esporadico' goes next: relaxed BPM, 909 beats, spacey arpeggios, and analogue synth percussions for a mental feeling.

'Gummy' starts with weird flanged noises, fed with distorted drums and drones that create an elastic feeling, hence the gummy name. Scientific techno.

'Amb' goes back to darkness, subtle ambiences and drones, fixed sequences and a clever arrangement.

'Vac 04' continues on the same mood: obscure synths, classic drum machines, sharp hats and white noise.

Closing the release, 'Islands' is a liquid track based on lush keyboards, and a dubby feeling with those endless delays. A classy number.

A nice mini-album which is diverse, complex, classic and futuristic at the same time.

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.

2024 Repress
Following the legendary first two, stoically super minimal records “SOG 1“ and “SOG 2“ that provide ecstasy disguised as boredom on Kompakt Extra/Speicher in 2007, and the outstanding beautifully bizarre “SOG - Abweichung“ on Profan in 2010, we are now listening to “FREMDE HÄNDE“. Like its predecessors, this SOG stands in the tradition of „The Art of Omission“ with Wolfgang Voigt variegating his preference for the bluntly straightforward quaver bass in two different forms. The A-side contains a tonally noncommittal sequence ambling across the keyboard in quantised form, reminiscing of the arpeggiator (accompaniment function) function of early 70ies' and 80ies' synthesizers. On the B-side, daring and thoroughly unquantised quaver rhythms rock around a bass drum that, as the only straight element, tries to keep the whole thing together. The result sounds a little like a delirious Can Live.

Nach den legendären ersten beiden stoisch-superminimalen, als Langeweile getarnten Ekstase-Platten “SOG 1“ und “SOG 2“ auf Kompakt Extra/Speicher in 2007 und der überaus skurril-schönen “SOG - Abweichung“ auf Profan in 2010, hören wir nun “FREMDE HÄNDE“. Auch diese SOG steht natürlich ganz in der Tradition der “Kunst des Weglassens“. Wolfgang Voigt variiert hier seine Vorliebe für den stumpf-geraden Achtelbass auf zwei verschiedene Weisen. Auf der A-Seite haben wir eine tonal unverbindlich über die Tastatur wandernde Sequenz in quantisierter Form, die an die Arpeggiator (Begleitautomatik) Funktion früher 70er und 80er Jahre Syntheziser erinnert. Auf der B-Seite kreist die Achtel-Rhythmik in eher rockigem Sound ganz und gar unquantisiert und rhythmisch gewagt um die Bassdrum, die das Ganze als einzig gerades Element versucht zusammen zu halten. Das klingt ein bisschen wie Can live im Vollrausch.

The unstoppable Spaziale Recordings set their sights on an absolute Paradise Garage classic from 1982 - the much sought after and instantly recognisable ‘Together Forever’ by Exodus. This fully licensed, remastered reissue comes housed in a full picture sleeve and contains a killer DEF Mix from Stefano Ritteri alongside the original extended vocal and dub versions.

Bursting with passion, ‘Together Forever’ is a record that was destined for greatness. A Larry Levan favourite, and for good reason. Produced by Errol Mattis and featuring one of the most sampled vocals in house music, there’s a triple threat of plucked basslines, clavinet power and joyful horns backed with the kind of percussion that ignites a rarely witnessed tribal energy within. It’s had crowds in fits of frenzies ever since its release and every collection deserves this gem nestled within it.

As well as the original extended vocal and dub versions, Stefano Ritteri steps up to add his own special touch, giving it some proto house power. He echoes and manipulates those fiery vocals, introducing each element gradually from the acid tinged topline to the layers of drum machine heat, gradually building the suspense to pure fever pitch.

Three releases deep now, Shadow Play transports us back to the nineties with this extra special collection of music from UK wizard Scott Edward. The Bristolian producer dropped a killer series of tracks from 1993 onwards, using a variety of aliases to explore the realms of the techno universe. It's an honour for Shadow Play to be able to rerelease one of Scott's classics, 'Access Activist', alongside three previously unreleased cuts from the same era. We hope you enjoy these classic examples of British underground techno...On the A-side it's the Scott Edward alias that handles matters, going straight in with the title track 'Access Activist', a mesmerising journey into analogue hyperspace. His flair for composition and arrangement really comes through on this opening track, and leads us nicely into 'All Is Lost', a nifty slice of paranoid techno with a jittery rhythm and a pervasive air of mystery.On the flip Scott's Ultra-Modern Art moniker is at the controls and the change in style is immediately apparent. Gone is the cosmic atmosphere and in its place is a funky, jazzy retro sound. The old equipment gives every sound its authentic identity, which filters through to the final track 'Brave New World' - a jaunty number, which uses acid licks, an optimistic b-line and sweet percussion to provide a delightful end to the project.