quête:dr dub

Matt Tolfrey’s Leftroom imprint makes a triumphant return here with a remix package featuring Mathew Jonson, Silverlining, Maher Daniel and Sakro, all reworking cuts from his 2020 ‘All Shapes And Different Sizes’ LP. Across the past two decades the UK’s Matt Tolfrey has been at the forefront of the underground House and Techno scene, releasing material on many seminal labels in the industry such as REKIDS, Cocoon, Music For Freaks, Crosstown Rebels, mix compilations for fabric and Classic, and of course his very own Leftroom which returns here following its last vinyl release back in 2020 from Detroit’s Norm Talley and Ataxia.

Up first on remix duties is Canadian machine maestro Mathew Jonson who remixes ‘How It’s Gonna Be’ featuring Tim Fuller, offering up his signature twitchy synth work, robust analogue drums and cinematic leads running alongside the original’s hooky vocal lines. Maher Daniel steps up next to remix ‘Feel The Same’, opting for an intricate electro tinged drum workout, wavey subs and hypnotic vocal chants.

London’s Silverlining then reworks ‘Fantasy’ featuring Shaun J. Wright next, diving deeper via a skippy, swinging drum groove, airy dubbed out chords, snaking bass groove and soulful, intricately processed vocal licks. Lastly to round things out, Sakro remixes ‘Under The Skin' featuring Lil Mark, the Mexican artist reshapes the original with his unique drum-led, groove driven style, fusing crisp snares and shuffled percussion, alongside an amalgamation of choppy bass hits, bleepy synths and sweeping atmospherics.

From south Kampala, via South London, comes this upfront Electro butt-shaker, the product of a collaboration between one of Uganda’s most talented MCs, Blessed San, and veteran British producers, DJ Moocha and Controlled Weirdness.

Got Your Rolex shamelessly revampes ODB & Kelis’ “Got Your Money”, in a pungent homage to Uganda’s legendary egg-based street snack, the Rolex. This driving Hip Hop headbanger was originally released as the lead single from Blessed & Moocha’s 2020 album "Animal Farm".

On this 2022 Remix EP, Controlled Weirdness ramps up the bass with a full-on Electro Remix bonus Dub Version, with an Extended Discodub of the original tune by DJ Moocha.

Repress!

Dublin
 born,
 London-based
 Zero
 T
 returns 
to
 The 
North
 Quarter 
for 
his
 third
 project: “Off
 Broadway”.
 Influenced
 by
 70's
 Jazz-fusion,
 this
 six-track
 affair
 sees
 the
veteran producer
 once
 again
 show
 off
 his
 effortless
 diversity.
 Heavier
 tracks
 include
noir- soundtrack
 lead
 modern
 jungle
 cuts
Fortune 
Green 
and
 Drama.
 Lighter,
 soulful
 tracks 
include
 the 
New 
Forms 
inspired
 Something
 Got
 Me
 featuring
 Manchester's
 Aaliyah
 Esprit
 as
well 
as
 collaborations
 with
 KILLSWSH
 and
 Steo.
 As
always 
Zero
 T
knows
 what
 it
 takes
 to 
keep
 a 
listener
 interested,
 a
 testament
 to
 his
 20
 years 
plus experience ,
as 
he
 continues 
to 
be
 one 
of 
the 
most
 prolific
 artists
 in
 Drum
 & 
Bass.

Repress!

Following his versatile Alone With Everybody EP, FD returns to The North Quarter with a stunning 16 track debut album: Better Days.

Largely written in a three month window, FDs (real name Freddie Dixon) new long player on The NQ undoubtedly brings the best of the Zurich-based/London-born producer. Better Days is an album that delivers a rare synergy of drive, harmony between subtle & raw and just sheer fun. A versatile yet coherent project drawn from a large pool of sketches, finalised in intricate detail with focused studio dedication.

Drawing influences from Dub, Jazz, Hip Hop, Soul and the Mid 90's Drum & Bass “GoldenAge”, Better Days bridges the gap between genres, as FD enlists carefully considered vocal collaborations. Manchester donny Fox shines on the dubbed out Better Man and Washington DC soul diva Cecily shows shades of Minnie Riperton on Sycamore. Meanwhile Ribs is lifted to one of the album's stand out tracks with Maverick Soul on the keys and the enigmatic Issac Rosie on the boards.

For some the better days in life are in their childhood memories: nostalgia-infused wonderings of the mind to a care-free time without today's online distractions. Although FD’s debut album 'Better Days' is inspired and informed by a period earlier in life, his best days musically are definitely in the present. To put it into the man's own words:

"I’ve been wanting to do an album for quite a while now, but the circumstance never felt right. Once I started working with The North Quarter that all changed – it feels like being part of a team all pushing in the same direction, all supporting one another, all wanting to do the best for each other. Once we’d done the first EP together, for me, it was only a question of when."

Repress!

As 2019 winds to a close, Polish producer Satl delivers a statement of intent with hisThe North Quarter debut release on Amsterdam boutique label. Consisting of 9 tracks his “Things We Can’t See” project draws from a varied palette of influences includingJazz, R&B and Dub Techno to stunning effect.

The Rotterdam resident possesses a refinement and depth beyond his years, making him one of the leading lights in a new generation of Drum & Bass producers and on “ThingsWe Can't See”, a coming of age of sorts, he truly manages to rise above himself. With work on a follow up already underway this is just the beginning of his relationship withThe North Quarter.

Take the 101 north out of Los Angeles, and you'll pass by Agoura Hills, where the core duo of the band Dub Thompson grew up. Whatever you see in that town won't readily prepare you for the music they wrote while there, but you're free to look."Most everyone who's in a group who's our age lives on the Internet," says guitarist Matt Pulos. "The kinds of things that have shaped our band aren't anchored to any one time or place."Pulos and his bandmate, drummer Evan Laffer, are currently both 19 years old, and are putting that line of thought to the test; their musical influences travel from the Midwestern malaise of Big Black and Pere Ubu, to Kraut pioneers Can and Kraftwerk, while bowing to the British belligerence of The Fall and This Heat.Recording the album while living with Foxygen's Jonathan Rado at his rented house in Bloomington, the band had its first taste of a heavy Indiana summer, and all the humidity and insect life that buzzes along with it. "We woke up every day, ate hard-boiled eggs and stood on a porch," says Pulos of the experience.Their first collection of songs slyly unties the shoes of genre and convention, shapeshifts mischievously, and tramples on the promises delivered on the name itself.There are only eight songs on this rangy debut.Intense blasts of hook-filled noise rock ("Hayward!"), rocksteady marionette stomp ("No Time"), hypnotic bouts of doomy poetics ("Epicondyles"), outlandishly sexy groove rock ("Dograces"), and a number of other bite-sized forays into parts unknown are made manifest across 9 Songs. The vibes are strong here. Pulos sings and plays like he's working out long-standing grudges, pulling the most sinewy tones from an acoustic guitar and ripping huge chunks of demon flesh out of his electric. Laffer matches him step for step on the drums, an exacting presence behind the kit who pushes even the band's more placid moments into bouts of tension. Together they succeed in animating their musical ideas to startling, almost unnatural life. Reverb units, keyboards, samples and processing gluing everything together, saturated in the August heat and worn in until they sound second nature, it's like somehow you've been listening to these songs forever.

What are the differences and similarities between human and artificial sound, between oscillations generated by vocal cords and synthesizer voices, voltage amplified by speakers? On Silencio, his latest album for Tresor Records, Moritz von Oswald works with a 16-voice choir to explore this concept.
Drawing from the ensemble works of long-standing inspirations Edgard Varèse, György Ligeti and Iannis Xenakis, von Oswald and Vocalconsort Berlin delve into the space between sounds, creating a deeply textured collection that shifts between light & ethereal and
dark & dissonant.
As masterfully demonstrated in the early work of von Oswald and Mark Ernestus’ influential Basic Channel project, repetition and reduction are key elements here, much in the tradition of techno and minimalism. The vast dynamism of the human voice adds to the
profound weight of electronics while offering up a rhythmic source and sonic noise palette unexplored in von Oswald’s repertoire. In Silencio, von Oswald dredges a dank murk, pulling clouds over a distant pulse. It hangs, ready to take on new forms.
The compositions were written in von Oswald’s Berlin studio on classic synthesizers, such as the EMS VCS3 & AKS, Prophet V, Oberheim 4-Voice and the Moog Model 15. These abstract recordings were transcribed to sheet music for choir by Berlin-based Finnish composer and pianist, Jarkko Riihimäki and performed by Vocalconsort Berlin in Ölberg church in the city’s Kreuzberg district, only few metres down the road from where Dubplates & Mastering and Hard Wax opened their doors for music enthusiasts for many years so long. The recordings of the choral versions were then incorporated into the synthesized parts of the album and brought into anew electronic context; in Silencio, the focus is not on using one means to imitate the other, but to sonically discuss the tensions and harmonies between the two worlds and create a dialogue between them.
The relationship between von Oswald and Tresor Records goes back thirty years, all the way to Blake Baxter’s Dream Sequence in 1991 - which von Oswald engineered alongside Thomas Fehlmann. The collaboration with Fehlmann lived on, seeing the duo team up as 3MB with Eddie Fowlkes or Juan Atkins. More recently, the Detroit-Berlin connection continued as Juan Atkins & Moritz von Oswald present Borderland.
For von Oswald, Tresor Records and also the participating guest musicians of the choir, this release brings together audiences from other musical areas, cross-pollinating; Silencio is an album that stands for itself beyond the musical genre boundaries.

Giorgio Gordano and Giorgio Dolce originally produced ''KKK'' back in 1983, and the track was taken into the hearts of the blossoming Balearic scene hovering around DJ Alfredo at Amnesia. It's as gentle and sweet natured as Italo disco can be, and of course it makes perfect sense that Best Records would dig it out of the archives and give it the shiny new reissue it deserves. The ''Club Mix'' of ''KKK'' is a feast of simple, charming programmed melodies and crisp drum machine rhythms with the innocence of the early 80s in its heart. The ''Dub Mix'' and ''Bonus Beats'' on the flip are handy for the technical DJs out there, but the ''Club Mix'' is where it's at for the lovers.

Demuir's Visions album gets its first series of remixes here as standout cut 'Home Sweet Home (The Journey)' gets reworked by Baltimore's finest dance music ambassador and bona fide legend DJ Spen.

First up he brings some shuffling and deep soul to the groove with an irresistible skip to the drums and a lush vocal. The dub pairs things back a little further with more splash in the percussion and last of all comes the Hump mix. This one has noodling keys working their way up through the mix to bring real enlightenment.

Steve O'Sullivan's Mosaic label is back with a second volume of its dubs series, this time on nice yellow vinyl with Sub Basics and Fletcher given one side each to shine. Sub Basics goes first with 'Mediterranean', a lovely liquid dub with bottomless depths and perfectly smooth, frictionless drums. Lovely soft melodies drift in and out as the echoing hits and icy hi-hats help oil this most heady of grooves. On the flip, Fletcher offers up 'Sludge' which is a little more tense and menacing, with darker bass and more texture as well as distant groaning pads that keep you guessing and on edge.

"Acts of Light" ist eine Fuge, die aus neun langsamen, hypnotischen Klageliedern besteht. Auf ihrem dritten Album lehnen sich Woods' Experimentalismus und Klangforschungen an die Intimität und Zärtlichkeit dieser intuitiven Komposition an. Nach ihren Erkundungen von Gefühlen und Körperlichkeit durch Klang, die in ihrer 2021 erschienenen EP "Feral Hymns" gipfelten, ist "Acts of Light" ein beunruhigendes, persönliches Angebot an Wildnis, Verlust, Abwesenheit, Mysterien und höchste Liebe. Verletzlichkeit, Erhabenheit und Offenheit, hervorgerufen durch Drone, Noise, Synthesizer, Kontrabass, Field Recordings und sakralen Chorgesang, bilden das private Ritual. "Acts of Light" ist ein klangvolles, reichhaltiges und gewichtiges Lamento, das sowohl unterirdisch als auch abgründig ist, während gleichzeitig seine detaillierten Ranken verborgene Formen erwecken, die bei jedem Hören aus dem Schatten hervortreten. Texturaler Staub und gesprenkeltes Licht bewegen sich hier langsam und ausladend durch einen klanglichen und sensorischen Übergangsritus, bei dem Woods' bewegende Kompositionen uns das Gefühl vermitteln, mit dem ganzen Körper empfangen zu werden. Geschrieben, aufgenommen, gemischt und produziert über einen Zeitraum von zwei Jahren zwischen der Westküste Irlands und Dublin, nahm Woods die Chorsänger des Palestrina-Chores in der Pro Cathedral Dublin auf, zusammen mit den Stimmen des Galway City Chamber Choir. Die Streicher wurden von Jo Berger Myhre in Oslo aufgenommen, während die Feldaufnahmen nomadisch auf ihren Reisen durch den Nordwesten Spaniens entstanden.

The legacy of the Japanese-US label Dailysession continues with this stunning EP produced by Chachi Romero feat. Kathleen Bryant. The classic black wax is embellished by the correct and skilful hand of Pablo Cruz and the label owner Toshi aka Dj Monchan.

Following on from the warm reception to Hell Yeah and Music Conception reissuing Calm's cult Before album, the labels have come together once more to offer up a reissue of the Japanese master's highly sought-after long player Moonage Electric Ensemble. The hard-to-find original has been given an all-new mixdown from original stem files and then re-mastered by Calm himself, and the double LP will also come with a bonus 12" featuring his very own Daydream Dubs plus an obi-strip and original artwork by FJD.

The blissful yet soul-stirring Moonage Electric Ensemble, which landed first in 1999, was Kiyotaka Fukagawa's stunning sophomore album and the one that kept the bar high following his debut Shadow of the Earth. It investigated all new worlds of future jazz, ambient and downtempo and has since become a cult classic that often fetches three figures on secondhand markets. He has released over 18 albums since including Before which was reissued in 2022, though Moonage Electric Ensemble remains a favourite with those who enjoy the most accomplished and innovative sounds from the first wave of chillout.

This escapist charmer opens with the suspensory synths and piano keys of 'Unseen Small Steps' featuring spoken words from Dan Gamble, then 'Light Year' has gently tumbling rhythms and shimming synth moving about the soothing mix. 'Noon At The Moon' brings gorgeously fizzing future jazz drums and mellifluous piano playing full of subtle joy, and 'The Other Side Of The Moon' then layers up melancholic chords and chunkier rhythms that are detailed with gorgeous persuasive details and mystic flutes. 'Tsukiyo' is a new age charmer with paddy hand drums and romantic interplay between sax and trumpet, 'Between Worlds' is an ambient interlude with distant winds blowing and intimate whispers from Gamble before closer 'Authentic Love Song' rides on dusty trip hop breaks as lazy piano chords melt the heart and Gamble serves up another aloof monologue.

This is another welcome reissue of a sublime album that is not only one of Calm's finest but also a true gem in the wider world of downtempo music.

blue repress !

Nearly 15 years have passed since the original release with all tracks lovingly remastered for this new remastered edition; which also includes STL's first ever remix and sounds just as beautiful as the day we first heard it!

As Bleep so elegantly stated, "Deep, reduced dub-techno with ethereal production nuances from Stephen Hitchell and Rod Modell. Both original tracks here reveal the duo's obsession with the likes of Maurizio, Basic Channel and Chain Reaction. Features a dreamy, minimal house reduction from STL.

Rico Puestel steps up his Dub game and delicately reinterprets two songs from his forthcoming 2024 singer-songwriter double-album „Anthems For A Lost Generation“ as Rico Friebe, delivering 10 deep and immersive minutes of electronic music on each side.

While the original songs have never been designed for the dancefloor, both perfectly blend into the dry and groovy environment of Puestel's remakes and won't loose anything from their original message: Struggle, hope, friendship – things we desperately need in this world...

Multidisciplinary artist GAIKA returns with a new track titled “LADY” featuring bbymutha from his forthcoming album, Drift out on September 8th.

Thrashing drums and droned out guitars take immediate effect on “LADY” but it’s the two mavericks' electrifying chemistry that is the driving force of this track. Enlisting KIDÄ (Yves Tumor) on production with additional contributions from Azekel (Gorillaz) and Max Winter, alternative rock and audacious rap come crashing together as GAIKA and bbymutha flex their lyrical prowess, unapologetically expressing their devotion to their lovers on this twisted, feverish affair.

Newly signed to Big Dada Recordings, home to Roots Manuva, Yaya Bey, Kae Tempest, Brian Nasty and more, GAIKA jumps back into music with new invigoration after delving into work as a composer to unveil Drift - his most expansive work to date. The visionary invites listeners on a high-speed journey where love, pain, brutality and beauty collide to produce a vivid and provocative cinematic masterpiece. The sonic universe of Drift is the most stylistically accurate representation of GAIKA’s personal tastes to date, stitching musical influences past and present such as Prince, Wu Tang Clan, Massive Attack, John Coltrane, Pink Siifu and A$AP Rocky to land on a gritty, distorted sound pulsating with an unwavering, formidable energy that’s disruptive yet timeless.

Drift is 14 tracks of nostalgic escapism, a shape-shifting body of work with hip hop and club music cultures at its core, as those simply run through the veins of GAIKA. Analogue and retro in feeling, Drift’s psychedelic feel is formed by incorporating 90s grunge, dark wave, post-punk and alt-rock into its tapestry. It’s a representation of his heritage and environment, featuring calypso steel pans to gospel vocals, reverberating dub to frenetic rap and elements of sound design taken from recordings of the real world. GAIKA’s music transcends borders and his nomadic nature means he simultaneously belongs and doesn’t, his music cannot be confined to just one genre and this unique new record further cements him as one of the most progressive artists of our time, telling the tale of modern day renaissance man driving away from the economic hierarchy he doesn't believe in.

GAIKA endeavoured to create a waking dream by constant participation in communal art making, removing the separation between art and life, his imagination and community and breaking the boundary between real life and any spectacular representation of it. He set up a number of situational arts facilities in the heart of London including shows at ICA, 180 the Strand, Now Gallery and as the world reopened, created pop up galleries, studios, exhibitions and raves with the intention to enhance the experience of real life by dreaming. To achieve this coherently and authentically the process became akin to a form of psychological examination of memories made before music “mattered” to GAIKA - before becoming commodified, individualised and his name capitalised.

Drift became the term used to describe the creative happenings in these spaces and the name for the collective of people who made this record. GAIKA is the central writer and composer working closely with KIDÄ on production and a group of classically trained musicians with contributions from Azekel, Charlie Stacey, Brbko and The Narrator over an extended period of time where they recorded music late into the night, night after night.

Up first is the original version of title-track ‘We Need Space’, a merging of winding bass grooves, skippy percussion, modulating, bubbling synths ebbing and flowing amongst one another while a hypnotic, spoken word vocal winds within the groove throughout.

An instrumental version follows next, as the name would
suggest, pulling back the vocal elements for a more robust, drum driven feel.

‘Separation’ then opens the flip-side with a more frenzied feel via and amalgamation of vacillating synth flutters, dubbed out percussion and bumpy low-slung drums which all dynamically evolve and retract throughout. ‘The Feeling’ then completes the EP, diving back into deeper realms with murky atmospherics, vocal chants and
gritty stabs at its core, underpinned by a bouncy stab led bass groove and crisp, crunchy drums.

Today we announce The Vinyl Collection, Vol. 2, an 11-LP boxset to follow 2021’s Vol. 1, which includes the remainder of Billy’s catalogue: Glass Houses, The Nylon Curtain, An Innocent Man, The Bridge, Storm Front, River of Dreams. It exclusively features Fantasies & Delusions & Live from Long Island on vinyl for the first time. The boxset includes a 60+ page booklet that highlights the era through photos, quotes, and an essay by Rob Tannenbaum. All albums remastered from original sources at Sterling Sound.

"The Vinyl Collection, Volume 2" vereint Billy Joels monumental erfolgreiche Alben aus dem späteren Teil seiner Karriere: "Glass Houses" (1980), "The Nylon Curtain" (1982), "An Innocent Man" (1983), "The Bridge" (1986) und "Storm Front" (1989), "River of Dreams" (1993). Außerdem gibt es 2 Titel zum ersten Mal auf Vinyl: die Doppel-LP "Fantasies & Delusions" und die 3er-LP "Live from Long Island" aus dem Jahr 1982. Alle Songs stammen von den Original-Album-Mastern, Zudem ist ein über 60-seitiges Booklet mit Billys persönlichen Anmerkungen und einem Essay von Rob Tannenbaum enthalten

In the midst of the UK house rave-olution of the early-’90s, London’s V4 Visions imprint documented the confluence of street soul, deep house, swingbeat, and jungle sounds emanating from the clubs and pirate radio signals. Over the course of half a decade, V4’s unparalleled 12” output referenced every significant Black British music scene; from lovers rock to jazz-funk, sound system reggae to hip hop, new jack swing to garage, from artists Ashaye, Julie Stapleton, Maureen Mason, Rohan Delano, The Wades, and Endangered Species. This 18-track double LP is the first critical overview of the label, with extensive notes by Simon Reynolds, era-defining photographs, and fresh remasters, all housed in a glorious foil-stamped gatefold tip-on sleeve. Is this a dream?