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Still transmitting from Lockdown in the UK. Banoffee Pies Records 14th release in the original series comes from London based ANGEL D'LITE. A deep passion for rave and NRG with an established high-octane approach to music, heavily influenced by hardcore and early pop bangers, her debut EP further reflecting this mood. Three heavy club tracks and a broken beat dubbed remix from JAY to round things off.

The A side is laced with harmonic 90's vocals and euphoric trance synth lines with two versions of "CRYSTALZ". The original, heavily packed with punching drum patterns and UK hardcore builds, followed neatly by the "DIAMANTÈ MIX". A nostalgic UK Garage take with building pads and rolling hats, partnered by murmuring emotional vocals. Perfect late night club fodder.

The B side flips the mood with "DANCE LIKE DOLPHIN" - the original version setting the tone for early AM adventures. Junglists, sonic communications and club lazers setting in throughout the growing euphoric 90's blends, aquatic frequencies and swirling sub bass. The remix from JAY, another London based producer, follows with an energy shift to a more minimal and rough edged depth of textures and colour, with splatters of surprise elements throughout. Everyone has a crystal and dolphin side right? Love core music from BP xx

By now Nicola Loporchio aka Nico Lahs has a discography that has become respected and sought after among DJs and music lovers in dance music across the globe.

Whether it be deep, atmospheric, jackin' or jazz-flecked deep house, it's all firmly rooted in house music tradition, something that Nico Lahs masters with ease.
With releases on labels like Moods & Grooves, Delusions Of Grandeur, Ovum, HotMix, Adeem plus many more, he shows no sign in slowing down either.

Ancestors Call is a musical story told in two parts. Filled with melodic and spiritual deep house, sitting somewhere between classic deep house and the spiritual end of house royalty Ron Trent's output.

Just like his previous releases Nico is a producer that has both the confidence to blend late night deep house vibes with soulful dance floor magic. It's house music that is very honest.

Part 2 dives deeper and adds additional layers of melody that tie the whole release firmly together. With Nico Lahs talented songwriting, his evolution is endless and bright...

Ancestors Call is something you listen to from start to finish, each song building a musically expansive story.

DOUBLE BLACK LP : 2 x 140 G Black Vinyl , Sleeve & 2 x Heavy Weight Printed Inner with UV Gloss Finish

Legendary electronic music duo Orbital return Early 2023 with new album “Optical Delusion”, the Hartnoll brothers first studio album since 2018’s Monster’s Exist. Recorded in Orbital’s Brighton studio, “Optical Delusion” includes contributions from Sleaford Mods, Penelope Isles, Anna B Savage, The Little Pest, Dina Ipavic, Coppe, and perhaps most surprisingly, The Medieval Baebes.
Earlier this year, Orbital celebrated their storied history with “30 Something” which, unlike other Best Of’s, contains reworks, remakes, remixes and re-imaginings of landmark Orbital tracks including “Chime”, “Belfast”, “Halcyon”, “Satan”, and “The Box”

SHORT BIOG:

“A human being experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest of humanity – a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison…”

You many have seen this quote attributed to Albert Einstein on social media, the archetypal Smartest Guy Ever apparently having an out-of-character religious epiphany. It certainly leapt out at Paul Hartnoll of Orbital who spotted it in Michael Pollan’s 2018 book How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression and Transcendence.

“As soon as I saw ‘optical delusion’ I thought Oh hey, that’s the album title,” says Paul. “It just seemed to say so much about how people construct their own realities, how we see patterns that aren’t there, how we see what we want to see.

“But it’s actually a misquote. He never quite said that. In the German original what he’s really saying is that human experience is as relative as physics. Wouldn’t it be good if we could accept that, and find a kind of universal theory of everything for the human race? Then you look at everything from history to art to your Twitter feed and you think yeah, that’s what we’re all trying to do all of the time…”

Hence ‘Optical Delusion’, the tenth original Orbital album and the latest in a burst of renewed post-pandemic creativity for two brothers who’ve stayed at the top of their game longer than anyone from the post-1988 Class of Acid House.

Now with ‘Optical Delusion’ the Hartnolls dig deeper into the unquiet psyche of our increasingly surreal and disordered world. Sketched out partly during lockdown but fully recorded in the uncertain After Times, the album summons up conflicting emotions and sometimes beguiling images from years when the science fiction doomsdays that the Hartnolls watched on TV as kids finally came true. There are mesmeric tracks with names like ‘The New Abnormal’ and ‘Requiem For The Pre-Apocalypse’ and ‘Day One’. But there are also straight-up bangers and ethereal cosmic dreams, abstract sound wars and deeply human songs of separation and loss.

And it all starts with a bang. Lead single ‘Dirty Rat’, an outright Fall-meets-Front-242 class rant with vocals by Sleaford Mods mob orator Jason Williamson, harks right back to the Hartnolls’ days of politicised anarcho-squatpunk. It began as a remix swap (Orbital did the Sleafords’ ‘I Don’t Rate You’) and morphed into a comic, brutal, bass-driven harangue not so much against our rulers but at the petty, mean-spirited, frightened, Mail-reading voters who put them there: the people who are “blaming everyone in hospital/blaming everyone at the bottom of the English Channel/blaming everyone who doesn’t look like a fried animal.”

Also key to the album is opening track ‘Ringa Ringa (The Old Pandemic Folk Song)’ which returns to an Orbital truism, that time always becomes a loop. This chugging, cyclical Orbital groove gives way to an unnerving past-meets-present timeslip fit for ‘Sapphire And Steel’ as goth maenads The Mediaeval Baebes materialise to sing ‘Ring O’Roses’ – the innocent nursery rhyme whose roots are in the Black Death.

“I’ve always liked folk music and mediaeval sounds,” says Paul, himself an occasional Morris dancer. “I had the basis of that track and I wanted to spin it off somehow.” Trawling his archives he stumbled on The Mediaeval Baebes’ version of ‘Ring O’Roses’ “and my hackles just went up. I was like, my God, this is the original pandemic folk song.”

?his being Orbital, there are collaborations galore on the album, the roles once played by Alison Goldfrapp, Lady Leshurr or David Gray now filled by new talents. London singer-songwriter Anna B Savage contributes a compellingly fragile, Anohni-like vocal to ‘Home’, in which nature reclaims the scorched and vacant mega-cities. ‘Day One’ is a pulsing techno track featuring the singer Dina Ipavic. Paul got in touch with her after working on a score for a sculpture show of giant robotic installations by his friend Giles Walker during the pandemic. First Paul cut up his own score and Ipavic’s vocals on the track The Crane, which appears on the deluxe version of the album. Then he thought, Why not work with her for real? The result is school of ‘Belfast’, a bassy dreamscape with vocalised clouds billowing above.

The pensive ‘Are You ?live?’ adds to the Orbital product range of existential questions (‘Are We Here?’, ‘Where Is It Going?’) in collaboration Bella Union signings Penelope Isles, AKA brother and sister act Lily and Jack Wolter. “They’re our studio mates, they work upstairs!” says Paul happily. “And they’ve both got amazing voices.”


But Orbital are Orbital and never far from the dancefloor. “Eventually the more abrasive bits came back into the fold…” ‘You Are The Frequency’, first of two tracks to feature mysterious vocalist The Little Pest, surrounds the listener with warped voices ordering you to the dancefloor (Phil: “we wanted the idea that the music is kind of absorbing you”). And the second, the sinister ‘What A Surprise’, traps you in a paranoid electronic hall of mirrors.

In another nod to Orbital’s resurgent past the cover artwork once again comes from fine art painter John Greenwood, creator of fantastical grotesques for the covers of ‘Snivilisation’, ‘In Sides’ and Orbital’s most recent album, 2018’s ‘Monsters Exist’. Orbital had just had a slick Mark Farrow cover for ‘30 Something’ – this is a return to the overripe and bulbous techno-organic constructions that somehow express Orbital’s own uncontrollably fertile sound.

There are gaps in the future that Orbital are desperate to fill too; there will be tours and festivals and rooms and fields full of people. Those long paralysed months when we had little to look forward to but a Zoom DJ set made Paul and Phil appreciate the things that make life worth living.

2 x Solid White LP, 5mm spine Sleeve UV Gloss Finish, 2x Heavy Weight Printed Inner Sleeve UV Gloss finish, marketing sticker.

Legendary electronic music duo Orbital return Early 2023 with new album “Optical Delusion”, the Hartnoll brothers first studio album since 2018’s Monster’s Exist. Recorded in Orbital’s Brighton studio, “Optical Delusion” includes contributions from Sleaford Mods, Penelope Isles, Anna B Savage, The Little Pest, Dina Ipavic, Coppe, and perhaps most surprisingly, The Medieval Baebes.
Earlier this year, Orbital celebrated their storied history with “30 Something” which, unlike other Best Of’s, contains reworks, remakes, remixes and re-imaginings of landmark Orbital tracks including “Chime”, “Belfast”, “Halcyon”, “Satan”, and “The Box”

SHORT BIOG:

“A human being experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest of humanity – a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison…”

You many have seen this quote attributed to Albert Einstein on social media, the archetypal Smartest Guy Ever apparently having an out-of-character religious epiphany. It certainly leapt out at Paul Hartnoll of Orbital who spotted it in Michael Pollan’s 2018 book How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression and Transcendence.

“As soon as I saw ‘optical delusion’ I thought Oh hey, that’s the album title,” says Paul. “It just seemed to say so much about how people construct their own realities, how we see patterns that aren’t there, how we see what we want to see.

“But it’s actually a misquote. He never quite said that. In the German original what he’s really saying is that human experience is as relative as physics. Wouldn’t it be good if we could accept that, and find a kind of universal theory of everything for the human race? Then you look at everything from history to art to your Twitter feed and you think yeah, that’s what we’re all trying to do all of the time…”

Hence ‘Optical Delusion’, the tenth original Orbital album and the latest in a burst of renewed post-pandemic creativity for two brothers who’ve stayed at the top of their game longer than anyone from the post-1988 Class of Acid House.

Now with ‘Optical Delusion’ the Hartnolls dig deeper into the unquiet psyche of our increasingly surreal and disordered world. Sketched out partly during lockdown but fully recorded in the uncertain After Times, the album summons up conflicting emotions and sometimes beguiling images from years when the science fiction doomsdays that the Hartnolls watched on TV as kids finally came true. There are mesmeric tracks with names like ‘The New Abnormal’ and ‘Requiem For The Pre-Apocalypse’ and ‘Day One’. But there are also straight-up bangers and ethereal cosmic dreams, abstract sound wars and deeply human songs of separation and loss.

And it all starts with a bang. Lead single ‘Dirty Rat’, an outright Fall-meets-Front-242 class rant with vocals by Sleaford Mods mob orator Jason Williamson, harks right back to the Hartnolls’ days of politicised anarcho-squatpunk. It began as a remix swap (Orbital did the Sleafords’ ‘I Don’t Rate You’) and morphed into a comic, brutal, bass-driven harangue not so much against our rulers but at the petty, mean-spirited, frightened, Mail-reading voters who put them there: the people who are “blaming everyone in hospital/blaming everyone at the bottom of the English Channel/blaming everyone who doesn’t look like a fried animal.”

Also key to the album is opening track ‘Ringa Ringa (The Old Pandemic Folk Song)’ which returns to an Orbital truism, that time always becomes a loop. This chugging, cyclical Orbital groove gives way to an unnerving past-meets-present timeslip fit for ‘Sapphire And Steel’ as goth maenads The Mediaeval Baebes materialise to sing ‘Ring O’Roses’ – the innocent nursery rhyme whose roots are in the Black Death.

“I’ve always liked folk music and mediaeval sounds,” says Paul, himself an occasional Morris dancer. “I had the basis of that track and I wanted to spin it off somehow.” Trawling his archives he stumbled on The Mediaeval Baebes’ version of ‘Ring O’Roses’ “and my hackles just went up. I was like, my God, this is the original pandemic folk song.”

?his being Orbital, there are collaborations galore on the album, the roles once played by Alison Goldfrapp, Lady Leshurr or David Gray now filled by new talents. London singer-songwriter Anna B Savage contributes a compellingly fragile, Anohni-like vocal to ‘Home’, in which nature reclaims the scorched and vacant mega-cities. ‘Day One’ is a pulsing techno track featuring the singer Dina Ipavic. Paul got in touch with her after working on a score for a sculpture show of giant robotic installations by his friend Giles Walker during the pandemic. First Paul cut up his own score and Ipavic’s vocals on the track The Crane, which appears on the deluxe version of the album. Then he thought, Why not work with her for real? The result is school of ‘Belfast’, a bassy dreamscape with vocalised clouds billowing above.

The pensive ‘Are You ?live?’ adds to the Orbital product range of existential questions (‘Are We Here?’, ‘Where Is It Going?’) in collaboration Bella Union signings Penelope Isles, AKA brother and sister act Lily and Jack Wolter. “They’re our studio mates, they work upstairs!” says Paul happily. “And they’ve both got amazing voices.”


But Orbital are Orbital and never far from the dancefloor. “Eventually the more abrasive bits came back into the fold…” ‘You Are The Frequency’, first of two tracks to feature mysterious vocalist The Little Pest, surrounds the listener with warped voices ordering you to the dancefloor (Phil: “we wanted the idea that the music is kind of absorbing you”). And the second, the sinister ‘What A Surprise’, traps you in a paranoid electronic hall of mirrors.

In another nod to Orbital’s resurgent past the cover artwork once again comes from fine art painter John Greenwood, creator of fantastical grotesques for the covers of ‘Snivilisation’, ‘In Sides’ and Orbital’s most recent album, 2018’s ‘Monsters Exist’. Orbital had just had a slick Mark Farrow cover for ‘30 Something’ – this is a return to the overripe and bulbous techno-organic constructions that somehow express Orbital’s own uncontrollably fertile sound.

There are gaps in the future that Orbital are desperate to fill too; there will be tours and festivals and rooms and fields full of people. Those long paralysed months when we had little to look forward to but a Zoom DJ set made Paul and Phil appreciate the things that make life worth living.

Pink Vinyl
Canadian producer Dylan Khotin-Foote has kept his Khotin alias going for the better part of a decade; the impressionistic electronic project shifts with the movements in his life. Sometimes it leads, like when the club-friendly grooves of 2014's Hello World immersed him in the heart of Vancouver's underground dance scene, and sometimes it follows, like 2018's Beautiful You, a downtempo salve for DJ fatigue His melodic sensibility and playful ear for atmosphere remain the rippling core of the project's fingerprint; whether beat-driven or ambient, a foggy smear or a dusted and pristine print, a Khotin track has a distinct and instantly recognizable swirl. During and after the 2020 release of Finds You Well, his second LP on Ghostly International, Khotin-Foote settled back into a slower vibe in his hometown of Ed- monton. Even before the pandemic, his pivots to softer production, and away from DJing, left him with fewer opportunities in Vancouver and club bookings overall, and as a self-identifying introvert, he was fine with that. But the change of pace did open space for Khotin-Foote to grapple with concepts of adulthood and career. At his lowest, he almost walked off this musical path altogether; instead, he doubled down on the craft _ the tone, pacing, and dynamism of new material _ arriving at a definitive full-length. With Release Spirit, Khotin releases himself from the pressure of expectation, fusing and refining everything we know about his music. The warmth and familiarity of Khotin's dreamy, dulcet style meet new ideas and frameworks, a natural progression, a modest revelation; Khotin confirms it is okay to move slowly and he's never sounded better doing it. The album title borrows from the "release spirit" mechanic in the video game World of Warcraft. When players die, they are prompted to release their spirit and return as ghosts to find their corpses and come back to life. Khotin sees it as a worthy metaphor for the impending change his return home presented and the resulting process of purging artistic expectations to find his creative self again. On this go- around, he is freer, more playful, and more intentional within his palette of warped synth, breakbeats, and piano sounds _ including the classic Casio SK-1 presets he's used since the start _ mingling with wistful samples, field recordings, and other abstract snippets. For the first time, he enlisted Nik Kozub to do the mix and assist with sequencing. Khotin-Foote has long worked with the Edmonton-based musician and engineer in the mastering phase, as well as their days co-running the label Normals Welcome, and this time was able to involve his ears earlier given their newfound proximity. "I think it's my best sounding record to date." We begin on "HV Road" or Happy Valley Road, where Khotin-Foote spent time during a family vacation in British Columbia's Okanagan Lake. His plans to record crickets at night are quickly foiled by his younger siblings; the cute exchange orients the listener to a core memory of sorts, setting the tone of universally understood warmth and wonder that has defined some of Khotin's most transportive tracks. Hazy percussion takes hold, and we are swept further into the wisp of "Lovely," a grooving, melodic standout built on the interplay between the beat and human voice-like hums. Khotin knows this zone well; equally suited for a reverie or a club warm-up. The bubbling atmosphere and absurdity of "3 pz" offer a cosmic/comic interlude and also speak to reflections on his family's move to Canada two generations ago, and the audio tutorials they used to learn English. "I can only imagine my grandpar- ents repeating some of the bizarre phrases." "Fountain, Growth" finds Khotin in collaboration with Montreal's Tess Roby (Dawn to Dawn) for the project's first-ever vocal track. Roby's soft cadence echoes atop spiraling air pockets of rhythmic production, lending a breezy, almost shoegaze pop feel. Throughout the single and the album, wind gusts between the compositional layers, akin to the roaming spirits of its namesake, curving around the birdsong of "Life Mask" and seamlessly reaching "Unlimited <3." The latter bumps in slow motion; disembodied whirrs from his Casio collide with 808 drums and sub-bass for a vibe that teeters on trap and instrumental hip-hop. Release Spirit rests in a dream sequence. Oscillating synth lines dance around the heartbeat of "Techno Creep," a hyperactive REM state before the digitized ambient sprawl of "My Same Size." In the final pass, Khotin imagines transcontinental travel from the glow of his screen. He recorded "Sound Gathering Trip" to soundtrack a genre of YouTube videos he's taken to that follows train routes through Europe and Japan. The scene is serene and moving; piano keys warble as static-filled sound design shimmers off the rails, from cityscapes to the countryside, an introspective ride through a world beyond his bedroom. It doubles as an apt parting image for Khotin's project as a whole: dreaming big but happiest when riffing on the details, shaping environments from the inside out. Over the last decade, he has stretched from his core in Edmonton, leaving a trace in Vancouver and beyond; but when all signs point home, he loops back to see it all from a different vantage, revitalized, refined, and free.

Ramrock on the cutting edge

Should 'The Great Encyclopaedia of Musical Genres' be at a loss for a word to describe the music of Ghent-based Ramkot, they wouldn't have to look far. 'Ramrock'; done. It's how the solidly carefree rocking Ghent triumvirate themselves describe the music with which they have been selling clubs, concert halls and festivals spicy maws since 2018. With two EPs to their credit, 'Ramkot' (2019) and 'What Exactly Are You Looking For' (2021), and a giglist that you can only be in awe of, the laureates of De Nieuwe Lichting 2021 thought it was high time to stamp their awe-inspiring sound on a first album.

Le nouveau Ramkot est arrivé: with 'In Between Borderlines', Ramkot delivers a debut full of particularly solid, yet danceable, 'ram rock' and bangs its way through the wall of sound to a - no doubt - very exciting future.

'In Between Borderlines' is the apotheosis of two years of rock hard work. Idea. Elaborating. Polishing. And there's the diamond. Ramkot is not the band to sit still and wait for the time to put their music on tape. The time is always ripe.

For 'In Between Borderlines', Ramkot dove into the studio for a year - at different times - where they canned eight songs, all with the familiar Ramkot signature: hard and cutting, melodic and danceable and now and then gleefully deviating from the usual path.

The two advance singles 'Exactly What You Wanted' and 'I Can't Slow Down' already beautifully indicated the tenor of 'In Between Borderlines': the back straight and firmly in line, ready to continue on the successful and - above all - very eager momentum. And did the music hit its mark? Absolutely. Studio Brussels, Willy and KINK were immediately on board. With a spot in De Afrekening, Catch Of The Day (Studio Brussel) and Daily Drop (KINK) as a result.

It is sometimes said that three is a magic number. It is. A three-piece band reduces music to its essence and cuts harder live than a Japanese chef's knife. Whereas during the recording process Ramkot was tempted to also get to work with synths, live they invariably opt for the more pared-down versions of their songs that - just like on the album - grab the audience by the neck and show them every corner of the room. And it is this playing live that has certainly not hurt the band in recent years. On the contrary, it made Ramkot more natural, tightened the reins and gave the band an even more distinctive look. 'In Between Borderlines' is brimming with the pleasure of playing, the desire and eagerness to go flat out until 'everything is broken'.

Ramkot never gets stuck. On 'In Between Borderlines' this manifests itself in multi-layered songs with tentacles in solid riffs, occasionally borrowing from other genres. Does a song have a ragtime feel to it? Or is there a hint of 'despacito'? The band is not afraid to blend some exotic influences with abrasive guitars and sulky drums. Extra flavour makes the dish more interesting. And as for 'In Between Borderlines', the starter, main course and dessert are immediately on the table. It may be finished in one sitting.

Ramrock on the cutting edge

Should 'The Great Encyclopaedia of Musical Genres' be at a loss for a word to describe the music of Ghent-based Ramkot, they wouldn't have to look far. 'Ramrock'; done. It's how the solidly carefree rocking Ghent triumvirate themselves describe the music with which they have been selling clubs, concert halls and festivals spicy maws since 2018. With two EPs to their credit, 'Ramkot' (2019) and 'What Exactly Are You Looking For' (2021), and a giglist that you can only be in awe of, the laureates of De Nieuwe Lichting 2021 thought it was high time to stamp their awe-inspiring sound on a first album.

Le nouveau Ramkot est arrivé: with 'In Between Borderlines', Ramkot delivers a debut full of particularly solid, yet danceable, 'ram rock' and bangs its way through the wall of sound to a - no doubt - very exciting future.

'In Between Borderlines' is the apotheosis of two years of rock hard work. Idea. Elaborating. Polishing. And there's the diamond. Ramkot is not the band to sit still and wait for the time to put their music on tape. The time is always ripe.

For 'In Between Borderlines', Ramkot dove into the studio for a year - at different times - where they canned eight songs, all with the familiar Ramkot signature: hard and cutting, melodic and danceable and now and then gleefully deviating from the usual path.

The two advance singles 'Exactly What You Wanted' and 'I Can't Slow Down' already beautifully indicated the tenor of 'In Between Borderlines': the back straight and firmly in line, ready to continue on the successful and - above all - very eager momentum. And did the music hit its mark? Absolutely. Studio Brussels, Willy and KINK were immediately on board. With a spot in De Afrekening, Catch Of The Day (Studio Brussel) and Daily Drop (KINK) as a result.

It is sometimes said that three is a magic number. It is. A three-piece band reduces music to its essence and cuts harder live than a Japanese chef's knife. Whereas during the recording process Ramkot was tempted to also get to work with synths, live they invariably opt for the more pared-down versions of their songs that - just like on the album - grab the audience by the neck and show them every corner of the room. And it is this playing live that has certainly not hurt the band in recent years. On the contrary, it made Ramkot more natural, tightened the reins and gave the band an even more distinctive look. 'In Between Borderlines' is brimming with the pleasure of playing, the desire and eagerness to go flat out until 'everything is broken'.

Ramkot never gets stuck. On 'In Between Borderlines' this manifests itself in multi-layered songs with tentacles in solid riffs, occasionally borrowing from other genres. Does a song have a ragtime feel to it? Or is there a hint of 'despacito'? The band is not afraid to blend some exotic influences with abrasive guitars and sulky drums. Extra flavour makes the dish more interesting. And as for 'In Between Borderlines', the starter, main course and dessert are immediately on the table. It may be finished in one sitting.

Ramrock on the cutting edge

Should 'The Great Encyclopaedia of Musical Genres' be at a loss for a word to describe the music of Ghent-based Ramkot, they wouldn't have to look far. 'Ramrock'; done. It's how the solidly carefree rocking Ghent triumvirate themselves describe the music with which they have been selling clubs, concert halls and festivals spicy maws since 2018. With two EPs to their credit, 'Ramkot' (2019) and 'What Exactly Are You Looking For' (2021), and a giglist that you can only be in awe of, the laureates of De Nieuwe Lichting 2021 thought it was high time to stamp their awe-inspiring sound on a first album.

Le nouveau Ramkot est arrivé: with 'In Between Borderlines', Ramkot delivers a debut full of particularly solid, yet danceable, 'ram rock' and bangs its way through the wall of sound to a - no doubt - very exciting future.

'In Between Borderlines' is the apotheosis of two years of rock hard work. Idea. Elaborating. Polishing. And there's the diamond. Ramkot is not the band to sit still and wait for the time to put their music on tape. The time is always ripe.

For 'In Between Borderlines', Ramkot dove into the studio for a year - at different times - where they canned eight songs, all with the familiar Ramkot signature: hard and cutting, melodic and danceable and now and then gleefully deviating from the usual path.

The two advance singles 'Exactly What You Wanted' and 'I Can't Slow Down' already beautifully indicated the tenor of 'In Between Borderlines': the back straight and firmly in line, ready to continue on the successful and - above all - very eager momentum. And did the music hit its mark? Absolutely. Studio Brussels, Willy and KINK were immediately on board. With a spot in De Afrekening, Catch Of The Day (Studio Brussel) and Daily Drop (KINK) as a result.

It is sometimes said that three is a magic number. It is. A three-piece band reduces music to its essence and cuts harder live than a Japanese chef's knife. Whereas during the recording process Ramkot was tempted to also get to work with synths, live they invariably opt for the more pared-down versions of their songs that - just like on the album - grab the audience by the neck and show them every corner of the room. And it is this playing live that has certainly not hurt the band in recent years. On the contrary, it made Ramkot more natural, tightened the reins and gave the band an even more distinctive look. 'In Between Borderlines' is brimming with the pleasure of playing, the desire and eagerness to go flat out until 'everything is broken'.

Ramkot never gets stuck. On 'In Between Borderlines' this manifests itself in multi-layered songs with tentacles in solid riffs, occasionally borrowing from other genres. Does a song have a ragtime feel to it? Or is there a hint of 'despacito'? The band is not afraid to blend some exotic influences with abrasive guitars and sulky drums. Extra flavour makes the dish more interesting. And as for 'In Between Borderlines', the starter, main course and dessert are immediately on the table. It may be finished in one sitting.

Canadian producer Dylan Khotin-Foote has kept his Khotin alias going for the better part of a decade; the impressionistic electronic project shifts with the movements in his life. Sometimes it leads, like when the club-friendly grooves of 2014's Hello World immersed him in the heart of Vancouver's underground dance scene, and sometimes it follows, like 2018's Beautiful You, a downtempo salve for DJ fatigue. His melodic sensibility and playful ear for atmosphere remain the rippling core of the project's fingerprint; whether beat-driven or ambient, a foggy smear or a dusted and pristine print, a Khotin track has a distinct and instantly recognizable swirl. During and after the 2020 release of Finds You Well, his second LP on Ghostly International, Khotin-Foote settled back into a slower vibe in his hometown of Ed- monton. Even before the pandemic, his pivots to softer production, and away from DJing, left him with fewer opportunities in Vancouver and club bookings overall, and as a self-identifying introvert, he was fine with that. But the change of pace did open space for Khotin-Foote to grapple with concepts of adulthood and career. At his lowest, he almost walked off this musical path altogether; instead, he doubled down on the craft _ the tone, pacing, and dynamism of new material _ arriving at a definitive full-length. With Release Spirit, Khotin releases himself from the pressure of expectation, fusing and refining everything we know about his music. The warmth and familiarity of Khotin's dreamy, dulcet style meet new ideas and frameworks, a natural progression, a modest revelation; Khotin confirms it is okay to move slowly and he's never sounded better doing it. The album title borrows from the "release spirit" mechanic in the video game World of Warcraft. When players die, they are prompted to release their spirit and return as ghosts to find their corpses and come back to life. Khotin sees it as a worthy metaphor for the impending change his return home presented and the resulting process of purging artistic expectations to find his creative self again. On this go- around, he is freer, more playful, and more intentional within his palette of warped synth, breakbeats, and piano sounds _ including the classic Casio SK-1 presets he's used since the start _ mingling with wistful samples, field recordings, and other abstract snippets. For the first time, he enlisted Nik Kozub to do the mix and assist with sequencing. Khotin-Foote has long worked with the Edmonton-based musician and engineer in the mastering phase, as well as their days co-running the label Normals Welcome, and this time was able to involve his ears earlier given their newfound proximity. "I think it's my best sounding record to date." We begin on "HV Road" or Happy Valley Road, where Khotin-Foote spent time during a family vacation in British Columbia's Okanagan Lake. His plans to record crickets at night are quickly foiled by his younger siblings; the cute exchange orients the listener to a core memory of sorts, setting the tone of universally understood warmth and wonder that has defined some of Khotin's most transportive tracks. Hazy percussion takes hold, and we are swept further into the wisp of "Lovely," a grooving, melodic standout built on the interplay between the beat and human voice-like hums. Khotin knows this zone well; equally suited for a reverie or a club warm-up. The bubbling atmosphere and absurdity of "3 pz" offer a cosmic/comic interlude and also speak to reflections on his family's move to Canada two generations ago, and the audio tutorials they used to learn English. "I can only imagine my grandpar- ents repeating some of the bizarre phrases." "Fountain, Growth" finds Khotin in collaboration with Montreal's Tess Roby (Dawn to Dawn) for the project's first-ever vocal track. Roby's soft cadence echoes atop spiraling air pockets of rhythmic production, lending a breezy, almost shoegaze pop feel. Throughout the single and the album, wind gusts between the compositional layers, akin to the roaming spirits of its namesake, curving around the birdsong of "Life Mask" and seamlessly reaching "Unlimited <3." The latter bumps in slow motion; disembodied whirrs from his Casio collide with 808 drums and sub-bass for a vibe that teeters on trap and instrumental hip-hop. Release Spirit rests in a dream sequence. Oscillating synth lines dance around the heartbeat of "Techno Creep," a hyperactive REM state before the digitized ambient sprawl of "My Same Size." In the final pass, Khotin imagines transcontinental travel from the glow of his screen. He recorded "Sound Gathering Trip" to soundtrack a genre of YouTube videos he's taken to that follows train routes through Europe and Japan. The scene is serene and moving; piano keys warble as static-filled sound design shimmers off the rails, from cityscapes to the countryside, an introspective ride through a world beyond his bedroom. It doubles as an apt parting image for Khotin's project as a whole: dreaming big but happiest when riffing on the details, shaping environments from the inside out. Over the last decade, he has stretched from his core in Edmonton, leaving a trace in Vancouver and beyond; but when all signs point home, he loops back to see it all from a different vantage, revitalized, refined, and free.

Pals FM: Floor Materials Vol.2 is the second dance music compilation from WALLS AND PALS. The aim is to share various ideas of dance floors instead of lingering on a certain genre or style, and while being DJ Friendly, it also serves as an exchange ground where production techniques of artists co-exist. All four tracks in Vol.2 correspond with the common purpose of bringing out ‘Floor Materials’, keeping distinct identity from each musician. In ‘Cofrica’, rapper and producer Simo of Y2K92 injects his long-time affection of Detroit flavor into a minimalistic form. Conversely, DOTT from the Thai label More Rice brings intricate and complex rhythms centered around the step sequencer in ‘Antibody Movement’, walking a fine line between House and Techno while the essence of Tech House is preserved . And in ‘Pump It Up’, ACIDWORK demonstrates what the outcome would be when Electro runs through digital instruments and samplers. Last but not least, Seo John, who put out his first EP DIVE last year from the label GODDEZZ, follows up with ‘miQro’, creating a different side of Trance that is more adequate for clubs or concrete spaces rather than outdoor raves or festivals. In the same manner with the preceding release Pals FM: Floor Materials Vol.1, Vol.2 is a compilation executed by fellow Asian musicians across the region. Beyond the reopened borders, and just like the excitement and stimulus at unusual events, this compilation serves to contribute to the dancefloor as an interesting ‘Material’ than simply as a ‘Tool’.

For the third in its fifth anniversary release series, Stroboscopic Artefacts brings together tracks from Xhin, Tommy Four Seven, Kangding Ray and Dsrcd. Xhin's Blade Moth', previously released digitally by Meerestief, finds today new (and remastered) life on SA. It is deep and propulsive, with scattershot percussion reverberating around finely tuned kicks and sci-fi oscillations. The detailed sound design and experimental quirks are typical of the producer; they made for a stunning debut album on SA in 2011, and here elevate the functional 4x4 skeleton into a fantastically ethereal piece of dance music. On 'FFFFF', an incessant bass groove channels pounding kicks and high-end distortion into powerful form. Tommy Four Seven's experience in the DJ booth informs the less-is-more approach, as carefully selected elements roll dynamically and to gripping effect. Flip the record over and Kangding Ray provides the most dramatic offering in 'Luna'. Warehouse-style synths slide from behind drums and throbbing pulses of sub bass, driving the track forward with vigour. 'Luna' closes with an extended and euphoric outro, it heightens the peak-time force and lends itself to spellbinding mixes. Parisian act Dscrd end the EP with slow, grinding techno cut 'Apparition Hill'. It opts for tension over release, ebbing and flowing with restrained arrangement and masterful guile. Illusory vocal samples and washes of noise rise from the murky atmosphere, filling the mid-range with harsh textures. Dscrd's contribution offers something slower and more heady, finishing a special record with finesse.

Mint Condition - A record label focused on excavating the outer fringes of classic House and Techno. Unreleased mixes, classics and overlooked gems mined from the last 20+ of contemporary dance music are the order of the day. From Chicago, Detroit and New York to London and beyond, Mint Condition have got their expert digging hats on to bring you exclusive heat and those rarer than rare jams that have been on your wants list for years! Dig in....

Back to 2002, the beginning of the new millennium. Tom Churchill's Headspace Recordings label had already been making an impact on the deeper strains of techno emanating from within the UK. With releases from detroit's Sean Deason, CiM, Hanna, Vince Watson and many more, Headspace was already a 'must check' label within record buying and DJ circles. This stellar split EP with NYC's Dennis DeSantis saw the pair remix each others tracks, both turning in very different, but equally complimentary sonic excursions. Churchill's 'Spaces' is surefire deep-space techno boogie of the highest order, swinging and funky and melodic in equal measure. The DeSantis remix of 'Spaces' is also a total winner, a stripped back exercise in expert minimalism, full of feeling and a perfect partner to the original mix. On the flip is Dennis DeSantis' 'Leisure', a sprawling and laconic broken house jam. Brilliant and teasing melodic synth motifs sit atop nagging acidic basslines and space. Again, the remix follows the original and Tom Churchill dials the track down into chasm deep shuffling drums and basslines and dubbed out FX. It's hard to think of an EP where two artists can remix each others music in such a compelling way, and for it to work so well. This is truly an excellent release and it's a real pleasure to see these tracks back on the streets. Sublime, and essential.

'Spaces / Leisure' has been legitimately re-released with the full involvement of Headspace Recordings for 2020 and remastered by London's Curve Pusher from the original sources especially for Mint Condition. 100% legit, licensed and released. Dug, remastered, repackaged and brought to you by the caring folks at your favourite reissue label - Mint Condition!

Impatiently returning to the golden age of Ecuadorian musica national, this second round of retrievals is more of a selectors’ affair: less reverent, more free-flowing, with more twists and turns. There is no let-up in musical quality, maintaining the same judicious, heart-piercing balance between emotional desolation and dignified endurance, the same bitter-sweet play between affective excess and musical sublimity.

This time around, the woman steal the show. Laura and Mercedes Suasti were child stars, with an exclusive Radio Quito contract. Unlike nearly all the men here, they lived long and prospered: Mercedes died last year, at the age of 93. Gladys Viera and Olga Gutierrez both came to Ecuador from Argentina. To start, Gladys plugged the scandalous new Monokini swimwear; Olga performed for visiting British royalty in 1962. Olga was glamorous but tough. She would make little of the amputation of one of her legs: ‘I don’t sing with my leg.’ She is accompanied on our opener by quintessentially reeling, sultry musica national: haunted-house organ, twinkling xylophone, Guillermo Rodriguez’ heart-plucking guitar-playing, and lilting, dance-to-keep-from-crying double-bass. ‘Sometimes I think that you will leave me with no memories,’ she sings, ‘that you hold only disappointments in store for me… In the future your love will search me out, full of regret. By then it will be too late, there will be no consolation, only disappointment awaiting you.’

Other highlights include the two contributions of Orquesta Nacional: Ponchito Al Hombro, like an off-the-wall forerunner of the Love Unlimited Orchestra, beamed into the tropics from an unknowable time and space; and the tone poem Atahualpa, a mystical yumbo invoking Quito’s most ancient inhabitants, the Kichwa. Also the tremulous, gypsy-flavoured violin-playing of Raul Emiliani, who arrived in Quito from Italy, suffering PTSD from the Second World War; the inscrutable, sardonic experimentalism of organist Lucho Munoz; and the mooing and whistling of Toro Barroso — school of Lee Perry — in which a muddy bull dashes home to his darling chola, fearless, full of desire.

Lavishly presented, with a full-size, full-colour booklet, with transporting art-work and expert notes. Luminous sound, by way of Abbey Road, D&M and Pallas.

Paris' own Marwan Sabb joins Sous-Vide Records with three tightly trimmed tracks for the sophisticated dance floor. Known for his trademark hybrid style, Sabb's kaleidoscope of influences is on full display with subtle shout outs on every track. Smooth and sultry melodies find themselves paired with dubby bass lines and rough glitchy abrasions that texture the audio landscape. Sabb's affinity for precision percussion finely compliments the upbeat rolling groovers that fill out this EP. Marwan Sabb makes a welcome addition to the SVR catalogue.

On Origins Chris Bartels takes on the role of singer-songwriter for the first time under his Elskavon moniker, unveiling a voice that wouldn't sound out of place next to vocal-forward artists like Justin Vernon, Jónsi, or Baths, who master the balance between conventional songcraft and bold, idiosyncratic experimentation. Origins is vast yet intimate, fluttering yet cohesive, tattered yet clean, a little like rainfall during sunlight. Shedding the ambient-classical confines of his previous output, the album's opener and title track, offers a swirling mosaic of acoustic textures that recall the beloved duo The Books, laced with warped vocal utterances flitting in and out of a club-friendly beat. "Origins" is followed by the equally danceable "Coastline," which drives home the smiling melodies and intricate sound-design that form the spine of Origins, keeping Bartels' voice in a largely decorative and impressionistic role up to this point. "Blossom and the Void" dissolves the introductory tension as Bartels comes out lyrically swinging, his digitized voice chanting widely over the mutated New Wave-esque anthem. Here, Bartels shows his instinct for dynamics by rising to bombast and quickly dispelling it, making steep yet grace- ful descents into skillfully delicate sound-design. Throughout Origins, the patient glacial aesthetic of his previous work is still discernible-- there are wordless, expansive panoramas that stretch out patiently for minutes at a time and smartly resist the impulse to pack each moment with a persona made even more impactful when Bartels chooses to wield it. At other times, his spokesmanship is woven discreetly into a larger tapestry, like on "See Out Loud" (and its ambient reprise) where Bartels' voice shimmers from a distance, covering the scene in diffuse splendor. "There is so much warping, mangling, re-sampling, reversing and pitching," Bartels says of his intricate vocal manipulations. "I printed a lot of the vocal recordings onto a tape machine from the `60s, first at one speed, and then I'd halve, or double the speed going back into my comput- er," he elaborates, illustrating how this kind of analog processing freed him from his habits. "Sometimes I'd do this multiple times on one recording or layer-- it gave me such a unique and unexpected sound. At this point, I threw away any inhibition on what type of vocals to have, or not have, on the album." This newfound freedom is palpable in the peaks of soaring grandeur that dot the emotional landscape of Origins. "All These Years" cathartically reaches one such summit in its second half after laying a path of gently plodding indie-IDM in its first. The cinematic vignette "Dreymur Aftur" provides pause for reflection amid its brisk procession of string plucks and rhythmic synthesizer while marching wordlessly into album-closer "This Won't Last Forever." Here at the end, Bartels' guitar playing is laid bare in the mix, skeletally framing a single ribbon of his voice as it unfurls into the atmosphere. Though the track isn't expressly lyrical, its starkness still exemplifies the new leaf of vulnerability Bartels has turned over on Origins, an album that documents his hard-won evolution from musician, to producer, to composer_ and finally_ his confident arrival in the role of songwriter.

Welcome to another fine episode of SIRS aka »Sounds in real Stereo«! After last years' arrival on LARJ with his »Arrived EP«, Berlin based versatile DJ & producer Daniel Klein is back with »Travel To HDF.Y3D« - an utopian (or more likely dystopian) ode to space travel:

The last few remaining humans are traveling with 140bpm to the most distant galaxy in the universe on a mission to seek out a new space for mankind to live after many years of exploiting good old Mother Earth. What sounds like a horror scenario if you start thinking about it, SIRS manages to wrap up in quite a positive musical message. Thus »Travel To HDF.Y3D« becomes that hopeful uplifting slightly dreamy tune we all need these days - not unlike Christian Bruhn's theme of a certain Captain called Future back in 1980 …

It's also nice to have two more versions of such a strong tune at hand: The first one is a true first one for »Cocktail D'Amore« DJ BUDINO as she comes up with her first remix and production work ever. Budino's approach is a slightly darker, maybe indeed more dystopian one. The synthesizer bass lines dominate her remix and by getting rid of the original's playful melody she creates a very special melancholic feel.

Leipzig based PANTHERA KRAUSE's take isn't quite that different from Budino's as he too focuses on the darker vibes of this journey in space. It's his added extra dose of punch that surely will keep dancers on the floor for sure.

The former »Space Ibiza« resident SIRS now takes over the controls again with »Summer Desire« which too is destined to rule dancefloors not only in Ibiza but all over the world with its lovely airy vibe.

»Travel To HDF.Y3D« returns for one last time in form of the spoken word prolog - a nice extra tool to play with.

Lütfen is a new project by Tayfun Sarier (1/2 of 25 Places). Releasing his first solo EP 7PM In Leyton on his
new imprint LTFN Records.

The EP arrives with a set of tracks representing authentic sounds by blending attitudes and colliding modern-day genres such as house and techno. Strictly inspired by and dedicated to today’s dance floor.

Gaze into the moment with 7PM In Leyton to witness how low-toned and organ-esque sounds naturally unfold. Define the atmosphere with 808 Views with never-ending rhythm sections. Shift gear with Red Extreme with percussion-based drum patterns designed to exist as a big room tool in small room venues. Step out of the routine with Untitledx 22 by changing direction rhythmically with vocal chops and chord pads bringing in the warmth at any given moment.

All tracks have been mixed, written, and produced by Tayfun Sarier in London and mastered by Salz Mastering in Cologne.
Distributed by Wordandsound and EPM Music.

After opening the dimension door via a hypnagogic contribution to recent Ruf Kutz comp 'Expansion Pack 2: Textures' and offering a sonic submersion into his 'Deep Waters Mixtape', Inner Glow takes the controls for RK18, treating the DJs and dancers to a high grade house triptych.

For the uninitiated, the man behind the music is a lifelong friend from Ruf Dug's Sydney sojourn, when the two would host mushroom squat parties with the rest of the "Bodega Clan", and who helped mastermind the seminal Paradise Lost warehouse parties. Virtuously patient, the Australian spent the years since perfecting his craft, maxing out the XP and emerging as his evolved form, Inner Glow.

On the A-side, Inner Glow comes through with the two clubbiest cuts from the 'Deep Waters' cassette, unmixed, mastered loud and exclusive to vinyl. Already a firm favourite with Bradley Zero 'Party People' pulses on the A1, its one note bassline and taut pads keeping tension at a maximum. At the top of the frequency band sparse stabs and nuanced percussion dance in tandem, while the deft use of E-Smoove and First Choice acapellas provide an underground intertext Sprinkles would be proud of.

'Call Me' coaxes us into the shadow realm with the lure of Lynchian dialogue, slowly taking shape as a dub techno phantom. It's a heads down affair as urgent subs push against the mist of static, until a rising, wriggling keyboard riff unwinds waists with a hint of UKG exuberance.
Inner Glow brings the beatific on the B-side's 'Love Has No Age', combining rippling keys and MK vocal chops over waves of hiss and haze.
The percussion combines classic house swing with the tinny hats of electro, keeping perfect time as the soulful vocals swell into the sublime.

Over the last twelve months Ruffy's rocked the spot from Pikes to Houghton with these heaters, and now he's sharing them with you.

Is Cory Okay? Opening on pads that sounds like a warm LA sunrise and bubbling with the characteristic dorky, oddball mawkishness that is Tungz 101, ‘Is Cory Okay?’ blossoms into a sugar-glass 80s pop ballad for the masculine mental health crisis. Quincy Jones guitars chip away at the soft underbelly of synth, shaping and modelling until sleek lines are established and the entire track becomes effortlessly aerodynamic. The lyric explores male anxiety disorder from the point of view of friends looking to alleviate the psychological distress of a protagonist who outwardly rejects the value of the support but internally begs for it to continue as he can see the light at the end of the tunnel. It’s yet another example of Tungz multi-dimensional approach to song writing, asserting theirs as an essential voice in 2023. Album: Dripping with licks so richly sophisticated they ought to have their own Beverly Hills postcode, Tungz debut album ‘A Good Dream’ mixes the emotional downer of chillwave with the rhapsody of disco and hits perfection. Across 11 tracks, Tungz access a dancefloor utopia, where a French house aesthetic lives out an opulent psych-pop fantasy; beautifully simple yet sneakily complex. Brimming with confidence, the collection not only fulfils the promise of Tungz early EPs, but asserts their multidimensional approach to song writing, confirming them as an idiosyncratic prospect within alternative music.

2023 Repress, Marbled Vinyl

After their Grime / Dubstep leaning debut single in late 2018 Intrauterin Recordings mastermind baze.djunkiii and production partner Sascha Müller return with a new outing of their conjunctional COMBAT DUBS project. With „Crystals“ they're coming at us with a special twist, presenting a fascinating crossover of UK Garage and Breakbeat sporting overwhelming basslines and a crystalline, most beautiful and ever cascading synth motif whilst the flipside sees the pair of producers diving deep into raw SpeedGarage / BasslineHouse territories for maximum dancefloor pressure with the aptly titled „Crystals *Speed Mix“.

Initial pressing will be limited to 200 copies on white vinyl.

The 2nd solo EP by Bielefeld’s finest RR on Feuilleton is bringing jazzy & classic house music feels toge-ther with a fresh & futuristic twist on 5 cuts - dedicated to the fine stereo systems & sophisticated dancefloors on the planet. Written & produced by René Raabe, mixdown by Tim Eder, mastering by Sven Weisemann, lacquer cut by Stefan Betke at Scape Mastering and photography by Paula Theiss.

Nach der erfolgreichen "The Stadium Tour" von MÖTLEY
CRÜE mit DEF LEPPARD, bei der sie in diesem Jahr vor
über einer Million Fans in Nordamerika gespielt haben,
kündigt BMG die Veröffentlichung des limitierten Box-Sets
"Crücial Crüe: The Studio Albums 1981-1989" mit den
ersten fünf Platin-Alben von MÖTLEY CRÜE auf farbigem
Vinyl an: "Too Fast For Love" (weiß/schwarz Splatter),
"Shout At The Devil" (gelb/schwarz Splatter), "Theatre Of
Pain" (pink/schwarz Splatter), "Girls, Girls, Girls"
(cyanblau/schwarz Splatter) und "Dr. Feelgood" (Coke
Bottle Green/Oxblood Splatte). Die 5LP Box kommt in
einem edlen schwarzen Schuber

Über 6 Milliarden Streams für ihren bisherigen Katalog und mehr als 20 Millionen Follower:innen rund um die Welt – Aya Nakamura hat in den jüngsten Jahren Standards gesetzt. Nun öffnet der französisch-malische Superstar das nächste Kapitel für sich: Am 27. Januar erscheint das neue, vierte Album „DNK“, schon heute gibt es die Single „Baby“ in Begleitung eines Musikvideos – siehe unten.

„DNK“ folgt auf das 2018 veröffentlichte „NAKAMURA“ – das meistgestreamte französischsprachige Album aller Zeiten – und „AYA“, das 2020 erschien, zum meistgestreamten Album des Jahres 2021 einer Künstlerin in Frankreich wurde (über 1 Milliarde Streams!) und den Victoire de la Musique France Music Award 2022 gewann. Zusammen haben sich Nakamuras Alben weltweit über 1,5 Millionen Mal verkauft – und das nicht etwa nur in französischsprachigen Ländern, sondern quer durch Europa, Afrika und Südostasien. Wie populär die Künstlerin ist, zeigen auch ihre Zahlen bei TikTok: über 40 Millionen Creations und mehr als 40 Milliarden Views auf fünf Kontinenten gehen auf ihr Konto.

Nachdem die Titel der beiden Alben „Aya” und „Nakamura“ sich auf ihre Künstlernamen bezogen, gibt der Titel „DNK“ des neuen Albums einen Hinweis auf ihren bürgerlichen Nachnamen Danioko. Unverändert bleibt ihr einzigartiger lyrischer Stil, der der Pariser Slang, Arabisch und Bambara (die malische Sprache ihrer Eltern) vereint und Afrobeat, Pop, R&B und den karibischen Dance-Sounds des Zouk einen frischen Anstrich verpasst. Für zusätzliche Abwechslung sorgen die Features des Albums, darunter die aufstrebenden Rapstars Tiakola & SDM und die bekannte karibische Zouk-Sängerin Kim

Repressed !

Dirty Mind, Prince's third studio album, originally released on Warner Bros in 1980 and now re-issued for the first time by Rhino with original content.

Produced, arranged, and composed primarily by Prince, it incorporates musical elements of funk, dance, and rock music. In 2003, the album was ranked number 204 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Funkadelic have created an enduring legacy, and the power of their impact is visceral in Detroit. Their records not only played with genre, but possessed a diabolical sense of humour that led to music domination by the late 70s with Parliament, Funkadelic, Parlet, Bootsy's Rubber Band and the Brides Of Funkenstein all releasing albums the same year for two years in a row.

The music itself is beyond stereotype, but equally huge is that they were a black band not allowing themselves to be limited by anyone else's notions of who they could be, having a massive impact on the next generation of Detroit music, Detroit Techno.

But more than just Techno, it is a freedom of thinking that extends beyond boxes, so we included all sorts of today's generation of Detroit musicians and producers to show the wide range of music that was Funkadelic and how these ideas are still contemporary, they endure and inspire.

Frontline is the 9th studio album by Dub Pistols. Chief rabble-rousers & festival favourites, the band are known for their veritable feast of jump-up party-starting sounds, melding dub, reggae, dancehall, ska & DnB into an irresistible tonic that has seen them amass a merry band of Pistoleros across the world.

For this chapter, they are joined by a stellar band of featured artists including both legendary & award-winning collaborators such as Horseman, Top Cat, The Freestylers, Myki Tuff and Chezidek alongside long-term Posse members The Ragga Twins, Lindy Layton, Natty Campbell, King Yoof and Cheshire Cat, and regular Dub Pistol frontman Seanie T.

So, saddle up and join the gang, it's time to ride to the Frontline!

Mint Condition - A record label focused on excavating the outer fringes of classic House and Techno. Unreleased mixes, classics, overlooked gems and never heard before material, mined from the last 30+ years of contemporary dance music are the order of the day. From Chicago, Detroit and New York to London and beyond. Mint Condition have got their digging hats on to bring you exclusive heat and those rarer than rare jams that have been in your wants list for years. Dig in....

With acclaimed releases on Strictly Rhythm under his belt, much lauded Californian DJ and producer Safar followed up his early success on L.A. based Aqua Boogie. Originally released in 1996, 'Tangerine Train' would become his most sought after release, rightly garnering the attention of the most discerning DJs, record collectors and music heads alike as the eye watering Discogs prices will attest. 4 complimentary mixes of 'Tangerine Train' feature here, so get ready to jump on board.

The 'Absolute Runaway Train Mix' opens proceedings with driving beats and railroad bells. An undulating acid line builds and builds, adding chords that lead to a dramatic breakdown, train FX and strings add to the tension, reaching a mesmeric peak when a killer breakbeat kicks in and the acid line returns. Next up the 'Train Beats Mix' cuts the track back to the percussion and FX for those wanting to get creative in the mix. 'Lost In A Tunnel Of Dub' has all the classic elements of its predecessors, although programmed in a slightly more subtle way, the percussion remains as crisp as ever and a classic organ riff lightens the mood without ever losing the dancefloor energy. Last, but by no means least the 'Last Acid Train To Euphoria Mix' goes on a deeper hypnotic trip, losing the train FX, but adding an ethereal vocal to devastating effect.

Whichever mix you choose to play you can't go wrong, all are worthy of your attention and hard earned cash. The sound design and execution are second to none and what's more your dancefloors will shudder. "Tangerine Train' has been legitimately re-released with the full involvement of Safar, lovingly remastered by London's Curve Pusher from the original DATs especially for Mint Condition. 100% legit, licensed and released. Dug, remastered, repackaged and brought to you by the caring folks at your favourite reissue label -
Mint Condition!

Exclusive and limited 7” with two new recordings by The Phenomenal Handclap Band and Buscabulla, recorded for the new RELATIN project (the reimagining of Latin musical roots from another time for our generations).

The Phenomenal Handclap Band is a dance music trio from NYC, a heady mix of raw soul, vocal harmonies, African percussion, fuzzy guitars and analog synthesizers. They take the first single from the colombian sisters, from 1971… imagine the mix: Sweet sixties soft pop meets funk & club culture.

Buscabulla is the music project of Puerto Rican duo and Brooklyn resident.

Their diverse influences make up a hybrid that combines a mellow Caribbean sensibility. Their particular taste for tropical and unique
chilled sounds now added to Elia y Elizabeth. This version is exclusive to this 7”.

Part 2 of the Settle Down debut on E-Beamz with 2 tracks connecting the dots beween the eras of UK club music history.

The clattering drums & undulating bassline of 'Sniper' give way to warping mentasms that evoke memories of some of the earliest strains of dance music from acid house to jungle tekno and hardcore.

'No Shoes on The Carpet' speeds things up and doffs it's cap to the ragga jungle of the mid 90's as well as the first strain of what would become drum & bass with the deep, diving bassline recalling classics from the Philly Blunt & V Recs back catalogues.

This is no holds barred dancefloor weaponry of the highest calibre.

Repress !

The long-awaited reissue of the best ever album of rare Eastern and psychedelic Jazz music by this famous Hungarian guitarist
Gabor Szabo, originally released in 1968. For the first time as extended edition with 2 bonus tracks: radio versions of Fire Dance
/ Ferris Wheel from the 1969 7” single 7”. Deluxe 8-sided Digipak CD and Gatefold Vinyl come with long, exclusively written
inner notes by the famous researcher and biographer Douglas Payne. Remastered by Martin Bowes at Cage Studios (UK).
Gabor Szabo was one of the most original guitarists to emerge in the 1960s, mixing his Hungarian folk music heritage with a deep
love of jazz and crafting a distinctive, largely self-taught sound. Born in Budapest, on March 8, 1936, Szabo was inspired by a Roy
Rogers cowboy movie to begin playing guitar when he was 14 and often played in dinner clubs and covert jam sessions while still
living in his hometown. He escaped from his country at age 20 on the eve of the Communist uprising and eventually made his way
to America, settling with his family in California.
He attended Berklee College (1958-1960) and in 1961 joined Chico Hamilton's innovative quintet featuring Charles Lloyd. Urged
by Hamilton, Szabo crafted a most distinctive sound; as agile on intricate, nearly-free runs as he was able to sound inspired during
melodic passages. Szabo left the Hamilton group in 1965 to leave his mark on the pop-jazz of the Gary McFarland quintet and the
energy music of Charles Lloyd's fiery and underrated quartet featuring Ron Carter and Tony Williams.
Szabo initiated a solo career in 1966, recording the exceptional album, Spellbinder, which yielded many inspired moments and
"Gypsy Queen," the song Santana turned into a huge hit in 1970. Szabo formed an innovative quintet (1967-1969) featuring the
brilliant, classically trained guitarist Jimmy Stewart and recorded many notable albums during the late '60s. The emergence of
rock music (especially George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Jimi Hendrix) found Szabo experimenting with feedback and more
commercially oriented forms of jazz.
During the '70s, Szabo regularly performed along the West Coast, hypnotizing audiences with his enchanting, spellbinding style.
From 1970, he locked into a commercial groove, even though records like Mizrab occasionally revealed his seamless jazz, pop,
Gypsy, Indian, and Asian fusions. Szabo had revisited his homeland several times during the '70s, finding opportunities to perform
brilliantly with native talents. He was hospitalized during his final visit and died in 1982, just short of his 46th birthday.

A new label out of Mexico, Short Attention Records launches its second release with a five track offering of proper melodic house & techno from Hector Ram with the word 'quality' stamped large upon them. 'Midnight Sounds' starts things off with the grand rhythmically-building 'Midnight Sounds', almost New Order-esque at times. 'For Our Small Parties' follows, old skool again in flavour, blending subtly employed breaks and a sturdy house framework, then 'Dear Dancefloor', probably the gentlest and most fragile effort here, opens side two. 'On The Road' boasts a more electro feel and Orbital-esque synths, and is deemed worthy of a second airing via a nicely throbbing remix from Detroit's Generation Next closing proceedings.

repressed !

Firmly entrenched in techno's haziest alcoves, every new record from Denise Rabe is as punishingly hypnotic an experience as it aims to penetrate the deepest laid of your cerebral zones. Having plied her trade on Arts' sub-division Arts Collective before moving on to establish her own dedicated label, Rabe, in 2017, the Berlin-based DJ and producer steps up with her much anticipated debut platter for Stroboscopic Artefacts, as she takes the helm for the fifth sortie of the Totem series. True to her love for all things droney and psychoactive, this time Rabe has us descending into rugged, hostile sonic terrains with just a headlamp and the thick mantle of darkness for closest companions. Ahead’s a demented safari across nightmare-prone visions and thunderstruck vistas.

Hosing off the loud, churning 909 kicks and passive-aggressive machine talk straightaway, 'Manifesto' sets the tone for the warehouse-sized hammering to come. Evil-minded swashes of hyper-delayed percs and criss-crossing chimes lash out in successive waves, further subjugating the dancers as bars fly by. A more spacious and atmospheric number, B-side opener 'Clouds' heads for quieter high-altitude spheres as the dubbed-out drums beat an off-kilter, leftfield friendly pulse and ominous synth stabs and pads envelop the listener in entrancing textural folds and interplays. Back to floor-ready dynamics, the adrenaline booster 'Don't Leave' caps it off on a truly mind-bending tip. Primed for unrelenting peak time action with its angry buzzard-like drones, pacey 4/4 swing and refined palette of eerie circuit noises and click-y minimalism, this one's a high-impact steamroller, sure to get maximum response when things start getting muscular.

Dublin-based producer Moving Still further blends both his Saudi Arabian and Irish heritage on 'Kalam Hub', a triumphant new EP that marks the fifth release on CWPT/Cooking With Palms Trax. Following a series of 12” edits and original productions that have put his sounds in the record bags of DJs including Hunee, Nabihah Iqbal and Esa Williams, 'Kalam Hub' presents an ambitious expansion of the Moving Still sound, delving into his identity and background to open up imaginative, universal new corners for club culture.

This potent musicality is immediately evident from the first notes of 'Kunafa King'. Taking its title from a traditional Arabic dessert, analogue midi sounds deliver a skewed take on the traditional Saudi rhythms of the artist's youth, before expanding into a wistful diversion for any self-respecting dance floor. It's a trick Moving Still pulls off again on the pulsing 'Hayati 89', which transforms from a traditional aesthetic into a blistering, neon-tinted Italo banger, the kind of track designed to compliment an accelerated spin in the car gracing the eye-catching cover of ‘Kalam Hub’, a collaboration with the artist alongside Manchester-based graphic design studio, Dr. Me.

Concluding the record's A-side, the rhythms take a trippier turn for the duration of 'La Titasil Feeya'. Translating to “don't call me!” and making sonic reference to teenage years immersed in rock, metal and general angst, it unfolds as something akin to Middle East-tinted techno with a formidable kick drum, before exploding in colourful, organic breakbeats. Immediately on the flip, the sense of wonder returns in a sonic mirage for 'My Bosa Is For You', weightless rhythms blending with an electric organ and charming, lightly psychedelic breakdowns.

Further sonic tricks fall from Moving Still's delicately-tailored sleeves on 'Haram Odyssey', where an almost impossibly tight bass line provides the function for contrasting synthesis and unpredictable percussion, drawing parallels between the sometimes confusing aspects of the artist's dual-cultural life as a child, through to the music he makes as an adult. Fittingly, the record concludes with ‘Kalam Hub', a triumph of minimalist percussion and traditional instrumentation that pays tender tribute to the Moving Still's grandmother, translating simply to “Love Talk”.

Following up last year's orchestral album opus “Overtones For The Omniverse", Mocky has been releasing a number of upbeat and uplifting instrumental tracks and now collects them as "Goosebumps Per Minute, Volume 1" on classic vinyl and digital. Putting his vocals and songwriting to the side for this project, Mocky employs harps, horns, and 70’s analogue synths to provide a funky soundtrack that spreads a little of that California sunshine in the listeners direction. Built around Mocky's signature basslines and ensemble vocal arrangements that include his son Telly and his daughter Lulu, all recorded to his vintage ampex tape machine, Mocky did away with the normal metronomic BPM calculations in modern production and instead measured his music in "GPM" (the tempo at which music transmits Goosebumps) - and on top of a multitude of summery bass, drums & strings perfection, Vicky Farewell drops a blistering Rhodes solo on "Flutter" and Carlos Niño lends a percussive hand on the sublime "Iridescence”. Todd M. Simon handles the horn duties, and Liza Wallace infuses the dance tracks with live harp which recalls the floating approach of Alice Coltrane. Titles like "Refractions", "Wavelengths" or "Conduction" are hinting at a scientific approach to creating the conditions for "Goosebumps Per Minute" - his own calculus for the timing of how and when to hit and strum the things in his studio to make it raw & funky.

The songs were also inspired by his time hanging out at the Goldline bar in LA’s Highland Park. “Throughout the pandemic it was the one place I could go and sit outside and hear incredible music as I listened to my friend DJ Phonecalls playing from the Goldline's vinyl collection. He would be dropping these uplifting funk and disco cuts - and at the end of the night I would go home to my studio and make a track and upload it to my Bandcamp and the streaming services immediately … It reminded me of my time in Tokyo's vinyl bars so "Goosebumps Per Minute" owes a lot to that inspiring culture as well“.

About Mocky:
Performer, producer, songwriter, composer and multi-instrumentalist, Dominic "Mocky" Salole came to prominence in the Berlin electronic scene of the mid 2000s, releasing three acclaimed solo albums and co-writing and producing classics like Jamie Lidell's "Multiply" and Feist's "The Reminder". In 2009, his music took a jazz-inflected turn to the acoustic with the release of "Saskamodie" and in 2011 Mocky relocated to Los Angeles, where he quickly established himself as a co-writer with uncommon credentials collaborating with L.A.’s brightest breakthrough artists like Kelela, Joey Dosik, Vulfpeck or Moses Sumney. Mocky channeled those new creative energies into his fifth full length album "Key Change" and four digital mixtapes/EPs "The Moxtapes" Vol. IIV. After co-producing and co-writing Feist's "Pleasure" and Kelela's "Take Me Apart", in 2018 Mocky released two albums: "Music Save Me (One More Time)" and "A Day At United", an instrumental jazz album, recorded in a single day. In 2019 Mocky delved into soundtrack work by collaborating with legendary Anime director Shinichiro Watanabe on the first two seasons of the breakthrough show “Carole and Tuesday” (Netflix) for which he won Best Score at the Anime Awards. In 2020 he started a new Single series with 2 releases featuring the portugese singer Liliana Andrade and in 2021 he released his orchestral album "Overtones For The Omniverse" and started a series of funky instrumentals under "Goosebumps Per Minute".

Peace And Love, Inc, the fourth album from Information Society is
celebrating its 30th anniversary, which was initially released on October 26, 1992.
The track "300bps N, 8, 1 (Terminal Mode Or Ascii Download)" is actually a text file encoded as modem tones. When decoded, the content is a tale by Kurt Harland about a bizarre but purportedly true event that took place when the band was playing in the city of Curitiba, Brazil. The title track, which hit #10 on the Dance Chart, takes aim at corporate culture and blind conformity but the band envisions themselves as one that sells peace , love and truth.

Release date Jan 9th 2023
This incredible trio of poets, were not only musicians but Civil Rights Activists, rising up in the early 1960’s. They formed the group whilst in prison where they began performing the “spoken word” to rhythm and percussion. The last poets where born! None of this prolific music has been issued as a 7” before, great music for all good music lovers

A - “It’s a trip” - Vocal ACID JAZZ / dance gem!
Killer Track. Percussive vocals; addictive and funky. Acid jazz club classic. Dare you to keep up. Once you start, you can’t stop dancing. Such vibes. Environmental and racism-alerts messages chorused as early as 1977. You gotta listen to the words. Zeitgeist extraordinaire.

B - “Blessed are those who struggle” - Exclusive 7” cut for this vinyl release. The super funky drums of Mr Bernard Purdie, one of the best drummers in the World, if I may say so myself. Stunning.

We are excited to present a 4-song EP by the iconic French synth duo, Deux, entitled Let’s Go ! Gérard Pelletier and Cati Tête formed Deux shortly after meeting in Lyon in 1981. They became known for their stripped-down synthpop compositions and suitably cold duets, through their first Minimal Wave release entitled Decadence (2010) and later their Golden Dreams EP (2012). In the late 1980s and early 1990s, they began to branch out and make more dancefloor-oriented music. The Let’s Go ! EP features three remastered mixes of their underground classic Let’s Go ! and an unreleased version of Everybody’s Night. This release is pressed on 180-gram black vinyl, presented in a heavy printed sleeve, based on their 1991 artwork, and accompanied by a black and white photo of the duo. The record is pressed as an edition of 999 copies.

black repress !

Everyone's favourite Italian duo Micky More & Andy Tee joined in full force with house music icons Cevin Fisher and Roland Clark. The Logo side sees ‘All About The Culture’ feat. Cevin Fisher, a track doused in live bass, fiery grooving Rhodes chords and spoken word lines that shines a light on the freedom of expression and liberation found through the culture of house music. Already tested on the dancefloors of New York, London And Ibiza this track is ready to become a future classic!

Flip it to find ‘The Rhythm’ feat. Roland Clark; a groove heavy concoction of live instruments from strings and guitar, to keys and bass that come together tp create a warm, uplifting, funk-disco-house heater topped off with those spine tingling spoken word vocals. A timeless original production.

Repressed on Black Vinyl.

DJ Support:

The Shapeshifters, Hector Romero, Terry Hunter, Seamus Haji, Quentin Harris, CJ Mackintosh, Quibiko, Northy Cotto, Double Dee, Roog, Dr. Packer, Angelo Ferreri, Kenny Carpenter, Benji Candelario, Dj Disciple, Dj Pope, Luis Radio, Richard Earnshaw, Lenny Fontana, Dj Pippi, Marco Fullone