Suche:dance decade

‘Only Fans’ ft. Digital Liquid, taken from Joseph Malik’s acclaimed ‘Proxima Ebony’ album of last year, gets the first-class remix treatment from London’s legendary production duo, X-Press 2. Joseph delivers an impactful vocal, waxing lyrical on his memories of being brought up around sex workers, underpinned by Digital Liquid’s acid worm lead, as X-Press 2 unleash a sublime dance floor slayer loaded with catchy hooks, jackin’ beat wizardry and dynamic production. Propelling the song into another stratosphere, the duo have created the chugging Lo-Fi 'Back Room' behemoth, armed with slo-mo breakbeats and a badass dubby bass groove, culminating in hypnotic groover that would make the late and great Mr Weatherall very proud.

Scotland’s Joseph Malik has crafted a fantastic catalogue of music over the decades and is highly respected for his distinctively soulful voice and on point song writing skills. Together with co-producer, David Donnelly, he released his first album, ‘Diverse Part 1’ (Compost) in 2002. This was followed by ‘Aquarius Songs’ album (2004), and ‘Diverse Part 2’ album (2018) on Ramrock Records which was ‘Album of the Month’ on Gilles Peterson’s BBC 6Music show. Joseph’s ‘Diverse Part 3’ album (2018) was Craig Charles’ BBC 6Music ‘Album of the Year’. Joseph then released ‘Diverse Part 3 Variant Issue’, the remix album (2022) and most recently his outstanding ‘Proxima Ebony’ album (2023) on Ramrock Records to great acclaim.

London’s X-Press 2 have been at the vanguard of British electronic music for three decades. In that time this acclaimed DJ and production duo, alongside Ashley Beedle, have turned out many hits. Both Rocky and Diesel have a truly pioneering spirit that fueled early nineties underground anthems such as the percussive ‘Muzik Express’, ’Kill 100’, the 2003 Ivor Novello Award winning single ‘Lazy’ and ‘Give It,’ with vocalists Talking Heads’ David Byrne and Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner. They’ve continued to turn out powerful club cuts such as ‘Tonehead Chemistry’ and ‘Siren Track’, and recently delivered big remixes for Gabriels, David Holmes, JIM and David Kitt. To date, X-Press 2 have released 4 albums, including their recently released, ‘Thee’, album on Acid Jazz. Rocky and Diesel are still fanatical about the music they play and produce, they still very much have their finger on the pulse and continue to lead from the front.

"Join the Kyle Shepherd Trio on 'A Song More Sweetly Played' as they explore, collaborate and improvise on the ‘songs we like to play’. The album’s title is a dedication to the celebrated South African artist William Kentridge, with whom Shepherd collaborated on a joint-work “Waiting for Sybil” that has toured world-wide. In addition to ten Shepherd originals, perhaps most unexpected is the inclusion of an exquisite reading of Massive Attack’s ‘Teardrop’ and a deconstructed take of Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believing’, a favourite rock anthem that Shepherd describes as a ‘guilty pleasure’.

‘The inclusion of the Massive Attack and Journey tunes – that’s something out of character to me,’
observes Shepherd. The selection rests well within the grand jazz tradition of repurposing popular songs as vehicles for improvisation, thought, and pleasure. ‘It just came down to playing some tunes that we like and we can flow with, so that we can be inspired and express ourselves in a very natural organic way,’ he says. ‘We walked away from the from the studio feeling like – you know, we actually really enjoyed playing this record! I felt less attached to any sort of predetermined concepts except that we would play some music that I wrote that we like – a selection of things that we like to play. It felt like a bit of a tonic – every musician gets a chance to breathe through the music, and the music just flows and moves as organically as we could make it.’

To hear one of South Africa’s foremost pianists play with intention, freedom and enjoyment, in the tradition and beyond it, is above all a gift to the listener, and Matsuli Music is proud to be able to share the Trio’s first album in a decade, A Dance More Sweetly Played.

Kyle Shepherd is one of South Africa’s leading jazz, film and theatre music composers and pianists of his generation, internationally recognised for his distinctive compositional style and performances. He was the Standard Bank Young Artist of the Year for Jazz in 2014 and the UNISA piano competition winner in 2019, and has performed in 28 countries around the world, including 11 concert tours to Japan."

The Kyle Shepherd Trio: Kyle Shepherd (Piano), Shane Cooper (Double Bass) and Jonno Sweetman (Drums).
All Compositions by Kyle Shepherd except “Teardrop” by Massive Attack and “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey.
Recorded May 2024 at Sunset Studios, Cape Town
Recording Engineer - Jürgen von Wechmar
Mixed by Martin Ruch.
Mastering by Frank Merritt.
Artwork and Design by English Designed and produced with support from the Baxter Theatre, Cape Town.

The evocative home listening journey presented in Âme's debut album "Dream House" has now been transformed into a range of indispensable dance floor remixes, reminiscent of the dance weapons crafted by Âme over the last decade.

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, Nottingham 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!

Forged in the fertile acid house scene of the late 80s, A Trifle Too Far comprises childhood friends Simon Ward and Tony Grimley from Hornchurch, on London's outer fringes in Essex. Their insatiable thirst for seeking out new sounds led them to countless shindigs, parties and raves, eventually inspiring them to craft their own music based on their adventures on the dancefloor.

Their studio collaboration culminated in the creation of the remarkable record you currently hold in your hands: 'Catch Your Ear / Meringueatang'. This two-track release, recorded in 1992, offers forward-thinking and fresh prog-house cuts, as rare as hen's teeth and as exhilarating as they were upon their original release over three decades ago. Catch Your Ear was expertly engineered by Evren Omer, boss of Essex-based techno bunker Strategy Records, while Meringueatang was helmed by Matt Clayden, one half of M&M and Acorn Arts and the proprietor of X-Gate Records, another stalwart in Essex's underground dance scene.

'Catch Your Ear / Meringueatang' remains the only musical collaboration between the duo. When Mint Condition approached them to reissue this highly sought-after EP, both Simon and Tony were surprised and delighted in equal measure by the proposition. Now, a few months down the line, we find ourselves with yet another top-tier addition to the MC reissue catalogue, fully licensed from the artists, mastered and cut by Keith Tenniswood at Curve Pusher, and available once again for purchase. Do not resist the beat!

Transcendental poetry meets Southern Nightmare Jazz on the third album by Alabama-based artist Johnny Coley Mister Sweet Whisper is the meeting of poet & artist Johnny Coley and the band Worst Spills, led by guitarist & arranger Joel Nelson. (Imagine "King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown," but more like "William Burroughs Meets Lounge Lizards in Ghost Swamp"). Joined by vibraphone player and recordist of the group, Jasper Lee, Mister Sweet Whisper centers Coley as a gifted writer and unique elder voice, supported by an eclectic cast of friends & collaborators. Tapping into French surrealism and transgressive American poets such as John Ashbery, the songs in Mister Sweet Whisper evolve, cinema-like, with Coley as an uninhibited, almost mystical, narrator. Textural, jazz-like playing complements Coley's decadent landscapes, which glide by like cigarette-inspired invocations. Echoing, and at times, dissonant notes of saxophone, crystalline tones of vibraphone, and jagged guitar arrangements punctuate Coley's dreamlike visions, populated by ballet dancers, haunting nightclubs, and ghostly car drivers. Wistful and expansive, the songs in Mister Sweet Whisper speak of Coley's talent and natural ability to channel his poetic world into songs. A remarkable follow-up to Coley's first two albums_Antique Sadness, from 2021, and Landscape Man, from 2022_which were praised as "exquisitely haunting, sublime, hilarious" and falling "somewhere between Robert Ashley, David Wojnarowicz, and Intersystems," Mister Sweet Whisper arrives in full form: unpredictable and brilliant. LP comes with a 4-page booklet featuring artwork and writing by Johnny. Pressed in black vinyl.

Music from Skalpel's iconic debut for Ninja Tune, reinterpreted by top Polish producers! 

Poland's ambassadors of jazz-inspired electronics invited outstanding local producers of downtempo, dance music, hip-hop, and jazz to remix this album. The result is "Recut," the best remix album in the history of Polish phonography. A record every bit as worthy as the historic original. It’s an extraordinary tale of the past and present of Polish electronic music.


This year marks the 20th anniversary of the release of Skalpel’s debut album, which was released by the famous British label Ninja Tune in 2004. The Polish duo, Marcin Cichy and Igor Pudło, gained international acclaim by venturing into the then lesser-known territory of Eastern European jazz, updating it with electronic tools.
Pitchfork praised the album enthusiastically: „On these tracks, Skalpel smudge the line between organic and electronic effortlessly, like a landscape artist working with charcoal, creating deep nuances of light and shadow that give the work its overall depth. (…)Its rhythmic dexterity and melodic sweep are hard to deny” -
The prestigious The Wire added: "Jazz, breaks, scat shuffles and funky riffs? of the highest standard. This release deserves to see them revered far beyond Poland"

Today, looking back over two decades, this album can be confidently considered a milestone in Polish electronica and a timeless classic of downtempo, nu-jazz, and trip-hop. Thanks to this record, the band also gained worldwide recognition, and their subsequent consistently high-quality albums like "Highlight" and "Origins" continue to attract significant interest.
Skalpel’s debut with Ninja Tune undoubtedly changed the face of Polish music, redefined the perception of the Polish jazz canon, and paved the way for younger creators. "Many of them, on 'Recut,' pay tribute to the enduring legacy of Marcin Cichy and Igor Pudło.
Artists like Magiera, Emade, 1988, Kixnare, Steez, Latarnik, Envee, Pejzaż, Etnobotanika, and others are now recognized names and respected figures in the Polish music scene. Though each of the artists invited by the Wrocław duo has developed their own original style, they find common roots in the duo’s music, on the border between jazz groove, hip-hop ease, downtempo moodiness, or ambient.
The excellent interpretations showcase the incredible potential revealed by Skalpel’s debut material, which continues to inspire new discoveries. This is a record that does not age, still captivates, and continues to inspire and provoke new interpretations.


Let’s RECUT this!!

Spyro Gyra, a jazz fusion band from Buffalo, NY formed in 1974 and created the framework for contemporary jazz in the 80s and 90s. Celebrating this milestone 50th anniversary of the band's formation, comes Jubilee, a new collection featuring 16 songs that capture the band's ever-expanding palette in its first decade of recording (1978-87) and includes fan favorites "Shaker Song", "Morning Dance" which have had chart success in multiple countries plus tracks the band continues to perform across the globe.

The new LP and CD contains never before seen photos from the band's early days and more recent world tours, liner notes from veteran music journalist Jonathan Widran and a newly recorded song, "50/50" - a riff on the title of the band's 1997 release 20/20, which marked 20 years and 20 albums.

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


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

Second release on Robert Pollard's new Splendid Research label is a vinyl & CD reissue of a 1984 demo cassette by Children's Crusade, post-punk teenage band of Guided By Voices' Doug Gillard. The Cleveland guitarist went on to record for Scat, Homestead and Restless Records with the bands Death of Samantha, Cobra Verde, My Dad Is Dead, and Gem, before joining GBV (1996-2004), then Nada Surf (2010-2016), then rejoining GBV (2016-present), as well as playing on albums by Richard Buckner, Neko Case and others. 1980s Cleveland was a hotbed for indie rock, following in the Northern Ohio footsteps of Pere Ubu, The Dead Boys, The Styrenes, Mirrors and Devo. "Children’s Crusade was a fleeting blotch on the wild, mid-80s Cleveland underground music scene, slowly seeping through like a drop of oil on the uniformly black jeans of that era – noticeable only after it settles, spreads, and you realize it won’t come out in the wash."

Joeski returns to Crosstown Rebels with ‘Music Is My Home’, featuring the vocals of Troy Dillard. The release, landing on 25th October 2024, features a remix by label regular Made By Pete alongside a ‘Dub’ mix.

A pioneering figure in the house music scene for over two decades, Joeski continues to show his mastery in blending rhythmic grooves with emotional depth. Known for his signature fusion of classic house with Afro and Latin influences, the Brooklyn-born, Queens-raised DJ/producer and Maya label boss has maintained his influential presence globally, with releases on an endless list of leading labels. Here, he delivers once again with an impressive return to Damian Lazarus’ Crosstown Rebels imprint with ‘Music Is My Home’ —a track that merges rhythmic beats with regular collaborator Troy Dillard’s emotive vocals.

‘Music Is My Home’ is a sonic journey, paying homage to the roots of house while showcasing Joeski's seasoned touch. Led by Dillard’s impassioned vocals, the track’s soulful rhythm, deep bassline, and atmospheric melodies make it a standout and emotive slice of modern house music. Label favourite Made By Pete steps up on remix duties, with the UK talent delivering an expansive production aimed at the dancefloor with wonky grooves and swirling synths, perfect for after-hour moments. Rounding out the release is the ‘Dub’ mix, a stripped-back version that lets the groove speak for itself.

Nearly a decade after the release of his breakthrough debut album 'Sunday', Swedish producer HNNY (aka Johan Cederberg) returns with the album Light Shines Through, released independently via HNNY's own imprint.

For his first album in almost a decade, HNNY has returned to the electronic soundscapes that inspired his earliest releases. It's made for the quiet, brain-tingling moments of solitude at home and contains a consistent thread throughout, not just in the ambient sounds used, but also more conceptually with what the songs evoke and what they are about: the album lands at a particularly pivotal moment of HNNY's life after the birth of his two daughters which have given him a new perspective on life.

HNNY's melodies are a gentle alternative to the more complicated corners of dance music. Debuting on Studio Barnhus in 2011, HNNY aka Johan Cederberg quickly became one of house music's most talked about artists with a signature sample driven style. He has won a Swedish Grammy in the electronic music category, toured the world globally and created a following both in and outside of the dance music community for his bittersweet strain of dance music.
Shortly after the release of his critically acclaimed debut album Sunday, the producer stopped touring solely focusing on production. Since then, HNNY has racked up hundreds of millions of streams, released a number of singles and EPs on the likes of Let's Play House, Puss and Omena and he is now finally ready to return to the LP format for the first time in nearly a decade with the album Light Shines Through.

Kylie invites fans to return to the dancefloor with a collection celebrating all things ‘DISCO’.

DISCO’ was released in November 2020 and entered the charts at Number 1 in the UK, making it Kylie’s eighth UK Number 1 album. It is a record-breaking release for the pop icon, making Kylie the first female solo artist to claim Number 1 albums in five consecutive decades (‘80s, ‘90s, ‘00s, ‘10s, and ‘20s). ‘DISCO’ received widespread critical acclaim, deemed ‘an irresistible tonic to real life. Thank God for Kylie Minogue’ by Metro in a 5* review, ‘the ultimate rescue remedy’ by The Observer (4*) and ‘an exquisitely produced, effervescent tribute to 70s and 80s disco music and dance as escapism’ by The i (4*).

For ‘DISCO’, Kylie worked with long-time collaborator Biff Standard plus Sky Adams (with whom she worked with on Golden), Teemu Brunila (David Guetta, Jason Derulo) and Maegan Cottone (Iggy Azalea, Demi Lovato), alongside others. The album was largely recorded in lockdown with each team member recording and working from a separate location, leading to Kylie having a vocal engineering credit on all but two of the sixteen tracks on the record.

In-demand, groove-fuelled producer Opolopo and 24 Carat singer-songwriter Angela Johnson join forces for the eagerly awaited album ‘Best Of Both Worlds’ – a stellar collection of uplifting, struttin’ soulful house, disco & beat-laden music.

Stockholm-based DJ-producer Opolopo can boast two decades’ worth of productions right across the soulful dancefloor spectrum for labels such as Local Talk, Z Records and Defected. His remix discography includes Gregory Porter, Jungle, Leroy Burgess and Mother’s Favorite Child. NYC native Angela Johnson was a member of acid jazz group Cooly’s Hot Box before enjoying solo success via a string of acclaimed R&B albums including They Don’t Know, It’s Personal and Naturally Me & featuring on a host of singles from Reel People Music.

The album follows previous collaborations and provides another stylish pooling of these two soulful talents. The chemistry fizzes and uplifts as ever, Johnson’s rich, fully-flavoured vocals riding confidently upon struttin’ disco, soulful house & dancefloor dynamite.

Legendary singer-songwriter Dana Gillespie, with over 70 albums to her credit in a career spanning six decades, adds a new chapter with the release of her stunning new album First Love, available on Fretsore Records. While First Love is a deeply personal album, it marks a shift for Dana who teams up with close friends Marc Almond and Tris Penna who together produced the album. Born in 1949 and raised in London in an era of unrivalled experimentation and artistic rebellion, Dana began her recording career at 15 with Pye Records. Her journey in entertainment is marked by significant milestones, including collaborations with icons such as David Bowie, Bob Dylan and Elton John. A project of refined integrity, recordings including the first single "Spent The Day In Bed" (a Morrissey song) showcase a diversity of influences that only those who have lived the experience could so masterfully convey.

The Post-Punk Synth Alchemists return with new album ‘Strange Loops’. With blistering rhythms and searing bass, AK/DK return with their highly anticipated fourth album, ‘Strange Loops’. It builds on the momentum of their previous release; Shared Particles, which sold out of the Dinked edition even before its release and achieved no. 7 in the Indie Record Store charts. Known for their trademark motorik energy and riotous joy, AK/DK are back, and for the first time, they’ve introduced guest vocalists into the fray. This new release sees the drum and synth duo collaborate with three exciting artists: the musician TVAM, punk poet - Thick Richard, and I Am Fya; sound artist. The angular guitars and spaced-out vocals of TVAM intertwine with the duo’s driving beats and convulsing synths, resulting in the pulsating Devo-esque powerhouse of ‘Square Route’. The two bands have been crossing paths on festival line ups for a while now and it seemed inevitable that they should join forces. I Am Fya’s usual experimental textures and sound-collage is temporarily put to one side on ‘Pull Up’. For this deep and heavy sub-rattling cut; I Am Fya and AK/DK lean heavily into sound system bass and dancehall style. Her febrile and powerful vocals interweave with tectonic sub bass and stuttering rhythms, sounding like Missy Elliot jamming with a modular synth. Manchester’s very own Thick Richard adds his lyrical, jet-black humour to the track ‘Nobody Shouts’. Their collaboration began when the band invited the punk poet up for an impromptu improvisation during their set at Beatherder festival 2020. It went down so well that they had to record it; learning the track from fan footage online. This is nothing new for AK/DK, creating powerful improvised moments for those lucky enough to be in the audience. Strange Loops presents two distinct halves of music. The A side offers sure-fire bangers that will linger in your ears and have you pounding the dance floor, while the B side delves into more experimental and ambient territories with completely live takes from the studio, reflecting the duo’s love of ‘70s German Kosmische bands. “We always had more ambient experimental tracks on our records, and wanted to give them a spotlight on this release” says the band’s Gee Sowerby. Their previous releases have earned accolades such as BBC 6 Music’s ‘Album Of The Day’ and impressed judges on Steve Lamacq’s Roundtable, solidifying their reputation as pioneers in their genre. It’s on stage where AK/DK truly come to life. Their electrifying performances, characterised by joyous live-looping of keyboards, drums, and distorted whoops, have made them a fervent fan favourite for over a decade. They’ve left an indelible mark on audiences at festivals like End Of The Road, Blue Dot, and Green Man, winning over new audiences wherever they play. With Strange Loops, AK/DK continue to push boundaries and defy expectations, reinforcing their status as one of the most dynamic and innovative acts in the scene

NOW Music is proud to present the newest addition to the ‘Yearbook’ series: NOW – YEARBOOK 1982. 3 LPs of 44 defining tracks that ruled the charts in 1982.
Featuring number 1s, including ‘Eye Of The Tiger’ (Survivor), ‘Ebony And Ivory’ (Paul McCartney), ‘Town Called Malice’ (The Jam), and 1982’s biggest seller ‘Come On Eileen’ from Dexys Midnight Runners.
1982 saw the first huge hits from a wealth of new artists including Culture Club, Wham! and Tears For Fears, as well as an incredible line-up from artists who had established their chart presence in the prior 18 months and would produce some of the greatest tracks of the decade; Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, ABC, Haircut 100, Soft Cell, The Human League, and a newly solo Adam Ant.
‘Fame’ was the TV phenomenon of the year, and Irene Cara’s theme from the original 1980 film enjoyed massive success.
As ABBA released their last singles for nearly 40 years, pure-pop from Bucks Fizz, Blondie, and Madness is celebrated alongside synth-pop gems from New Order, Simple Minds, Visage and Japan.
Leading artists from the punk scene enjoyed continued and renewed success, including The Stranglers, The Clash and Pretenders, whilst Foreigner, Meat Loaf with Cher, and Steve Miller Band provided radio-favourite rock and power ballads.
1982 saw a huge chart presence for dance music – from the hi-NRG of Boys Town Gang, to the electro-infused beats of Malcolm McLaren, and Rockers Revenge, the 1980’s disco of Shalamar, alongside soul classics from Marvin Gaye and Donna Summer… plus stellar ballads from Elton John, Lionel Richie, and Roxy Music.

Brand new collection of Studio One killer tunes, focussing on the late 70s, 80s and beyond.
Since the early 1960s Clement ‘Sir Coxsone’ Dodd had established Studio One as the unparalleled leader in reggae music in the world. In the years that followed he established the careers of countless reggae legends – Bob Marley & The Wailers, Marcia Griffiths, The Skatalites, Horace Andy, Dennis Brown, Burning Spear and many more.
From its inception Studio One had been at the forefront of every major development in reggae music – ska, rocksteady, roots, DJ, dub and, starting in the second half of the 1970s, dancehall.
Having attained such great success, by the late 1970s Clement Dodd was free to enjoy Studio One’s now firmly established supremacy in reggae music. He released a series of stunning new albums at the end of the decade by Sugar Minott, Johnny Osbourne, Freddie McGregor and others that rode the wave of dancehall and set the path of Studio One’s output for the following 25 years.
During this period, long-established artists such as Alton Ellis, Jackie Mittoo and others returned to the label, recording some of their most creatively satisfying albums with new music that both celebrated the classic sound of Studio One while continuing to experiment, push boundaries and look forward to the future.
This release celebrates this sometimes overlooked golden era at Studio One in the 1970s,1980s and beyond.

. By his early 20s, Kurious was already an in-demand voice on the mic. His 1994 major label debut album, A Constipated Monkey, is a classic of its style, marked by heavy beats and nimble rhymes that are razor-sharp yet frequently hilarious. Despite being hailed as one of hip-hop's most compelling lyricists, he didn't release another solo IP for the rest of that decade, but he continued to be sought after. Rap fans the world over know him for his verse on "?," one of the standout songs from his longtime friend and collaborator MF DOOM's heralded Operation: Doomsday. As he prepares for the release of his new album, Majician-the nickname his peers blessed him with a generation ago-Kurious is well on his way to establishing the legacy he's long deserved. The LP, which was executive produced by MF DOOM before his passing, is a mesmerizing blend of technical wizardry and personal introspection. Take "Eye of Horus," where the pulsing drums convey an urgency that borders on panic; Kurious weaves a complex tapestry of history and insight, but does so while ducking through and under each pocket in the beat. Produced in its entirety by Mono En Stereo, Majician is filled with songs like "Eye of Horus," which dance on the line between confession and confrontation. "Separation Anxiety" is a personal bloodletting in the form of lyrical exercise; "Par For the Course," which features the elusive Mr. Fantastik, makes drum breaks from the early Reagan era sound totally revitalized. Through the radical amount of work Kurious put into the writing and recording of this material, he's removed all ambiguity from the question of whether he can stand as one of the premier MCs of his time.

One of London’s most loved underground parties, Tangent, celebrates its 10th birthday this year with a new compilation on Mr Bongo. Its residents, John Gómez and Nick the Record, have curated a selection of prized, rare and dancefloor-ready tracks that have soundtracked the past decade of their parties. Alongside remastered reissues of these original cuts, the CD version of the compilation also houses three incredible edits from Nick, John and Dan Tyler of the Idjut Boys. These were too good not to press onto vinyl, so we’ve given them the standalone 12" they deserve.

Contextualising their edits Nick states, “Tangent was not only the place for us to play the music we love the most, it also became the testing ground for our edits. It was really helpful being able to see the effect each of these had on a dancefloor before the records were released and many of them also became firm Tangent classics.”

Up first, Nick is joined by Dan Tyler (Idjut Boys), who he runs the edit label Record Mission with, for a furiously feel-good re-edit of Leo Basel’s ‘Quelle Drôle De Vie’. Basing their edit on the 1987 ‘Special Remix’, it does what any great re-work does, dropping the sections from the original that don’t quite hit the mark, whilst focussing on the gold in amongst it all. The result is a slice of peak-time, French boogie joy, that will warm even the coldest hearts.

John then joins Dan at the dials for a cosmic revamp of Love Isaacs 'Surprise Surprise'. A serving of ‘80s electro-funk, dripping in swagger with a highlife tinge. John and Dan extended the grooves for maximum dancefloor power, space echoing it into the stratosphere at all the juiciest points.

Lastly, Nick takes on Rick Asikpo and Afro Fusion 'Let's Get High' from the super sought-after 1980 album, Got To Be Me. Celestial, gospel-infused soul from Nigeria, Nick homes in on the energetic last 2 minutes of the original as the building block of his 12-minute edit. A completely reworked, feverishly paced creation, Nick switches the sections around, saving the slow, soulful segment for a brilliant cosmic breakdown before the track erupts back into its full flow. Synthesised, jazz-funk elation from start to finish!

Under 1 House is the blazing new mixtape from Blue Hawaii - a six track tour-de-force showcasing the duo's trademark blend of liquid beats, dance-floor euphoria, and soaring diva-vocals.Under 1 House was written during Blue Hawaii's 2019 North American and European tours, and recorded at a wood cabin in rural Québec. Finding each other trapped on different sides of the Atlantic, the record was then finished over long-distance between Montreal and Berlin due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. This music is dedicated to the spirit of togetherness. Unity achieved through confidence, in the seductive redemption of one's own sexuality, finding power in feelin' one's self. Under 1 House honours the magnetism of impulse and first takes. This flow can be found in the brooding, early Warp Records reminiscent "Where are the Keys???", the sub-heavy, lustful organ groove of "Feelin'", the lo-fi high energy "I Felt Love" or the chanting of "I'm my own damn woman" during the screeched ending of "Not my Boss!". Blue Hawaii have been around for a decade, having released 3 full length albums and two EPs to date. Consisting of Ra and Ag, the duo met throwing parties and shows in Montreal and continue to create together despite living in separate cities - split between Montreal and Berlin.