Luca LTJ Trevisi (LTJ Xperience) began his dj/producer career in the 80s. As resident dj in two of the most famous Italian clubs of the
time, Kinky in Bologna and Cap Creus in Imola, he was one of the first Italian jocks to spin House and to re-propose those black music,
jazz and latin-bossa classics from the 70s that at the end of the same decade would have given birth to the Acid Jazz and Rare Groove
movements. His first single release in 1988, titled First Job, together with Kekkotronics, was also the first release ever on Bologna
based Irma Records. It was featured in a lot of compilations of the time and entered several playlists, rapidly reaching cult status for
many UK and US djs. During the early 90s LTJ delivered a couple of singles in a kind of pre-breakbeat style: Dont Stop The Sax, released all over Europe, and Funky Superfly. He also produced US singer Tameka Starrs single Going In Circles, always for Irma Records, still a classic in the downtempo/r&b field. In the second half of the nineties Luca began to produce acid jazz bands like Bossa
Nostra, still today one of Irma Records main acts. Their first album had Vicky Anderson as special guest and today is still considered
one of the most important European acid jazz albums. In the following years he concentrated on developing his activity as collector
and rare vinyl merchant, which gave him the chance to get in touch with djs from all over the World and to discover many forgotten
gems from the past years. Thanks to this experience he was able to create two extremely successful rarities series on Irma Records:
Groovy and Suono Libero. In the meanwhile LTJ started to dj outside Italy too, performing in important venues like the Blue Note and
Jazz Café in London, Giant Step in New York and Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. In 1999 saw the release of his first solo
album under the LTJ Xperience moniker. The album was produced with the collaboration of fellow Irma artist and producer Ohm Guru
and had Taka Boom and Jackson Sloan among the guests. Two of the main tracks on the album are brazil house classic Sombre
Guitar and title track Moon Beat, which became a true hit of the Chill Out genre, featured in dozens of important compilations.
After making countless productions for Irma Records, including their second album When The Rain Begins To Fall (with the participation
of the historic Spanish-American singer Joe Bataan), and the recents singles as ORGAN MIND / I LOVE YOU (favorite track by Larry
Heard ) & ON THE FLOOR / SOUND MACHINE, LTJ is devoted almost exclusively to re-edit and reconstruct tracks from the past with
the addition of sounds and rhythms in post production for labels like SUPER VALUE, SMALL WORLD DISCO, HOT GROOVY RECORDS, OH CRISTO! increasing the production of this new musical genre that is currently defined as beatdown/slo-mo, working with
international labels such as Far Out Recordings, Sleazy Beats, Future Classics, E.A.R. Music For Dreams, Apersonal Music, Roam
Recordings, !K7.
The latest three CDs on the Irma label “I Don’t Want This Groove To Ever End” (2012), “Ain’t Nothing But A Groove” (2013), “Don’t Let
The System Get You Down” (2015) and “Beggar Groove” (2017) show the funkiest and grooviest side of LTJ !
In the last years LTJ has literally toured the world, some really important and popular Festivals have booked him for his reknown DJ
Set performances, Scottish Soul Weekender (Dumfries, Scotland), Mareh Festival (Boipeba Island, Brazil), Garden Festival (Tisno,
Croatia), Jazz Refound Festival (Vercelli, Italy)
And visiting Cities like: Tel Aviv, Skopje(Macedonia), Belfast e Derry (Ireland), London, New York, Berlin, Bucarest, Amsterdam, Paris,
Marsille, Barcelona, and Vilnius (Lithuania). just to name a few.
Deepening of a Groove is the new album, the fifth dedicated to the research of sounds Disco Funk from its origins revisited by today's
rhythms and the dancefloor feeling of 2000. For the first time on this album 4 sung songs appear. Bad Side (already released in single
version) and Infiltrator are sung by Anduze, soul singer from Los Angeles also known for his collaboration with Parov Stelar. I'm Gonna
Funk U and Stranger are sung by the Marche singer AdniL for the first time in collaboration with LTJ.
Buscar:fe
We are proud to celebrate our Tenth release with an ambient/downtempo special from sonic wizard Dan Handrabur. Rezpektiva features select cuts from the past that have made an impression on us over the years, released with the maximum respect. Rezpekt to HAN !
KiNK's first release on Sofia Records this year lives up to its title and its creator's reputation. The relentless energy, love of musical adventure and undamped enthusiasm of a KiNK live set can be found here in all its glory.
Wake Up is not only an instruction and a hidden compliment to Laurent Garnier, it's also evidence of the Bulgarians uncanny ability to deliver steamrollers with various twists and turns, while hitting the peak effortlessly.
Beep Beep adds a certain element of mania to the menu. For the lack of a better description, please imagine Mr. Oizo and Steve Poindexter making a record together. Not for the faint at heart.
That can be said for the rest of the EP as well. Featuring Redeye, Room To Jack is on the same level of Beep Beep. Traditional topics of Chicago House get a bench test on a speed farm.
Dancing to Scrambler one would probably need the same room to jack. Swapping the Windy City with British raving fields, KiNK and Raredub deliver a take on the early sound of UK that might miss breakbeats, but manage to re-use all the other ingredients to a hair: fine-tuned and updated. Quotation without modern misinterpretation. Hyper and epic at the same time. And always remember the future!
With the spring awakens: Bionda e Lupo. Hand in hand we walk back to the playful whimsical music land. With bare feet in the grass, around us melodies and bass. Everything shines: colors and lights, sun and faces. A cosmic happiness, from heaven a piece. Here we want to stay with you forever and dance, just dance. With their anthem for the Camp Cosmic festival Bionda e Lupo rolls out a carpet on the dance floor for a new 12″ series on “Eine Welt”.
Label maker Alexander Arpeggio personally feeds the project with his own sounds. Together we float through the sound of the 80s through authentic warm stories.
Freestyle comes with it again - presenting the first officially licensed reissue for a previously white label-only slice of fantastic 1982 UK boogie funk, featuring the vocal talents of a then 19 year-old Caron Wheeler!
La Famille were a group put together at the turn of the 1980s by seasoned reggae & jazz guitarist (and later band-member with the award-winning Jazz Jamaica) Alan Weekes. The band's main line-up consisted not only of a young Wheeler, but also a young Cleveland Watkiss - as well as the late Claudia Fontaine (who would go on to pair with Caron as Afrodiziak) & Roy Hamilton - with guitar, arrangement and production provided by Weekes.
While the group was short-lived - recording only this 12" alongside a couple of singles for Leonard "Santic" Chin's Sanity label (a stellar cover of the Mary Jane Girl's classic All Night Long) and Alan's later Bpop label (the down-tempo groover Lost in Paradise, co-arranged alongside Watkiss) - there is no denying the talent on display here, as the years and decades that followed can surely attest.
- A1: Robert Miles - Children (Dream Version)
- A2: T & F Moltosugo Vs Rondo Veneziano Feat Ce Ce Rogers - Stay (T & F Club Mix)
- B1: Moony - Dove (I'll Be Loving You) (Club Mix)
- B2: Nell - Every Time You're Feeling Down (M V.s Remix)
- C1: Kronos - Magica Europa (Bliss Co Extended)
- C2: Pink Coffee - Another Brick In The Wall (Saffa 135 Extended)
- D1: 2 Black - Waves Of Luv (Mattara Vs Traxx Extended Mix)
- D2: Nylon Moon - Sky Plus (Over The Sky)
- A1: Cha´kwaina (Marcel Dettmann Remix)
- A2: Beauty Begins With Us (Μ-Ziq Remix)
- B1: Clouds Over Clifden (Dauwd Remix)
- B2: Sun (Placid Angles Bonus Track)
- C1: Our Love Is The Place (Baltra Remix)
- C2: Natsukashii (Plaid Remix)
- D1: Deep Blue (Cassy Remix)
- D2: Touch The Earth (Feel The Rain) (Jakojako Remix)
- D3: When The Sun Shines Through (John Beltran Remix)
One year after its original release, the Placid Angles album Touch The Earth is being remixed by an impressive array of artists from the extended Figure family. With John Beltran being a distinct voice within the electronic music scene for over thirty years now, Figure is thrilled to reveal a whole LP’s worth of reinterpretations, including two works by the original artist himself.
Opening up is Marcel Dettmann, who seamlessly has integrated the lush soundscapes of the original album into a beat-driven but equally serene journey. Picking up on the LP’s underlying dark garage tropes, Planet Mu headmaster M-ziq infuses his rework with even more rolling drums and ethereal vocal chops. The also inherent IDM roots of Touch The Earth have been kept close by Warp-veterans Plaid who deliver a shuffling flurry full of horns, synths and syncopated rhythms. More straightforward interpretations include Dauwd’s dazzling piece of feathery, fast, atmospheric techno; a gorgeous melodic house remix by Baltra and Cassy who turns in a rigid UK stomper.
Amidst all the reworks, John Beltran himself makes two appearances across the record. As Placid Angles he adds another heads-down percussive/ambient swirl, which represents exactly what the producer has been hailed for since more than three decades now. His own remix finishes the record on an epic note, with an organic drum track that celebrates life and the necessity for communal gathering in order to dance.
Beltran’s own additions to this LP are like the essential glue that makes it all bind together, forging the old and the new into something equally exciting as already intimately familar.
Four years in the making, Duct Tape Project is the new brainchild of Tripmastaz in the realms of Trip-Hop and Downtempo. And it's a project that makes perfect sense to anyone familiar with Andrei's background (making Hip-Hop beats since his teenage years), musical capabilities and decades-long experience. Duct Tape Project joins Andrei with a troupe of stellar musicians not only from many different corners of the world but also from acutely distinct genres - Guti, Argenis Brito, Mad Dim, Denis Kaznacheev, Krussia, Damien Vandesande of DOP, Sarkis Ricci, Andrey Orenstein, and vocals by Inga.
Featuring all sorts of live instruments, drum machines, synthesizers and modular systems, Duct Tape Project brings forward a complex work brimming with musicality. Using Hip-Hop, not only its rhythmic structures but also its sampling techniques, as a foundation, Tripmastaz created a vibrant and fascinating ecosystem with enough sonic texture to leave one captivated, enraptured and lost at the edge of words. There are 13 musical compositions in total that explore all things Hip-Hop, Downtempo, Trip-Hop, Chill Pop and Lounge, forming a cohesive and deeply soulful album.
Over the past few years an increasing number of bands hailing from the former USSR have been appearing on the screens and the phones of the so-called Western world’s underground music enthusiasts.
With most of them being pretty obscure and only a very few ones having established a worldwide following (Motorama, Molčat Doma) the Sovietwave tag has worked usefully enough as a tool to identify a wide range of bands each one with a different sound and yet something in common. Whether it be the harsh weather or just the distance creating an exotic effect, there is some icy-cold touch with these bands that immediately makes you know they’re from Russia, regardless of the language they perform.
This goes for Blind Seagull too.
The trio from Kaliningrad, a small russian enclave on the Baltic Sea between Poland and Lithuania, has been around since quite a few years now, releasing tapes and limited edition vinyls on labels like Detriti, Sierpen and Pine Hill.
Finally taking up the challenge of writing a longer full-length (previous albums were seven or eight track long at best), the trio led by Denis Zarubin has created twelve new songs that shine a light on the impressive skills of this young combo to deliver very classic and yet extremely fresh and modern cold post-punk gems.
Keeping it short and sweet, their two-three minutes long compositions cut right to the chase of the darkwave soul: stomping drum machines, frozen guitar arpeggios, tense bass riffs. The formula is occasionally rocked by the intervention of laser synths, noise raids and gothic chorale, while the industrial pièce of the title-track and the IDM-tinged collaboration with experimental giants Xiu Xiu ‘Fear’ will show how this band stands out and how their upcoming, new album is the best proof of this.
We’re happy to announce the reissue of this italo club classic on 12″ vinyl. Written by Goomy aka Duke Lake aka Antonio Gabelli and produced by Alessandro Zanni and Stefano Cundari for the legendary Memory Records imprint back in 1983. This action-packed-track was one of those few italo disco productions that made it to the US airwaves with radio play on stations like WBMX. The original release was a double A-side while it mistakenly stated it had an instrumental version. This instrumental was nowhere to be found on the master tapes, so our in-house production duo Vanzetti & Sacco made one for the flip side after almost 30 years! Time for changes, time for love…
The debut full length album from Gloved Hands, entitled Empty Terminal, finds the musician straying from the dance floor in search of something amorphous and less tangible. Ambient in nature, the eight tracks that comprise the LP have a deep focus on texture, space, and human feelings rather than a need for constant propulsion and momentum.
The A-side, the more rhythmic and percussive of the two, is awash with vague echos and smudged, slow-moving chords. Subaqueous drums shift in and out of focus. Sound sources are at once distant and intimately close. The curtains part to reveal a glimpse of a crystalline melody or a fraction of a vocal phrase only for the room to fill with fragrant smoke and go dark. It is a place beyond the dance floor. Perhaps it's a place without any floor at all.
The B-side is even more fragile and diaphanous. The foreground and background are obscured, leaving a hazy mesh of delicate, interwoven forms and rhythms; glistening and brushing against one another in the warm, dimly-lit space in between. With a swirling mix of cavernous bass and sweet-but-never-saccharine melody, the details are stretched and abstracted into something new yet familiar. The compositions ripple in midair, appearing and vanishing, close but just out of reach.
b A2 The Hungry Army Arrived As the Beans Ripened Master
Much deserved, remastered reissue of ‘We Are I.E.’ by Lennie De Ice, arguably the first proto jungle tune, now coming correct with fresh remixes from Solo & Blades alongside Borai, as well as the sought-after Horsepower Productions remix.
Released in 1991 on I.E. Records, an imprint based out of De Underground Records, a store in London’s Forest Gate run by Mike De Underground alongside Uncle 22 and Randall, it famously featured elements that paved the way for the Jungle sound. Centered around the Amen break, ragga style basslines, vinyl spinbacks and gun shot samples, it stood out as something different back in ’91, A certified classic, rinsed on dancefloors everywhere and anywhere, from back in the day to the present.
Solo & Blades are the first of the new versions, hitting hard with a heavyweight jungle remix, as Borai steps up with a beefy bassline rework. Horsepower Productions killer and sought after remix rounds off the package.
DJ Feedback:
Foul Play
Moving Shadow
"All the remixes totally land, great package, respectfully done. gonna hear a lot of these over the summer I think."
Jerome Hill
Super Rhythm Trax, Don't, Kool FM
"Was a little sceptical seeing these were remixes as its such an iconic track - BUT fair play ! Borai and Ed Solo & Blades both knocked it out of the park and i'll be playing both these, plus replacing my personal (slightly. crusty) vinyl rip of the original ! Bigups !!"
Om Unit
"Untouchable until now tbh"
jd Twitch
optimo
"even though I have probably heard it ten thousand times you can't beat the original. remixes are cool though."
Louise Chen
"this hits so hard it's tough choosing a fave mix!"
Emerald
BBC 1xtra/ Rinse FM
"Yeeeeeh found the dubstep remix vinyl of this in barcelona recently"
Werdna (Circular Jaw)
"Classic, lovely to see Hooj bringing in the big guns for the remixes. These are going off!"
Cortese
"Sick breaks on this one"
Truss/ MPIA3/ Overmono
"wicked"
Oli Warwick
Crack/ RA/ International Orange/ JunoJuno Plus
"Absolutely seminal bomb drop here, and the remixes are no joke either!"
Chris Farrell
"Always good to see this come round again, original and borai mix for me"
Smolny
"CLASICK !"
Doc Martin
Sublevel USA/Fabric UK.
"Complete Rave Warehouse Flashbacks!!!!"
Lil Mofo
The Trilogy Tapes / Tokyo
"wow!"
Moody Boyz
all over the worldstudio rockers records
"classic tune feeling the Filter Dread Remix"
Ciel
Rinse FM / Refuge Worldwide
"really nice collection of tunes!"
dop
"love the original"
First striking us with his exhilarating ‘Yakka’ EP, Bambi OFS has continued to surprise us with his musical output ever since. (…) The Belgium-based producer is carving out an almost unique take on dance music with a heavy debt of gratitude to the endless rhythms and percussion-centric styles of Gamelan, and other styles of music native to Indonesia and further afield (…) the revised ‘Kwon-9’ EP goes for the jugular and ties together the percussion-heavy originals on vinyl alongside phenomenal remixes from Don’t DJ, Georgia, Icon Template and Broken English Club.” Inverted Audio Super excited to bring this killer release on vinyl with a brand new remaster and remixes by Broken English Club, Georgia, Don’t DJ and Icon Template! Meshing together industrial mirages and ethnofictional mindscapes, Bambi OFS provides Antibody with a new suite of polyrythmic spins. Extending on his first ep YAKKA, KWON-9 blurs the line between the synthetic and the organic while pushing the Brussels-based producer’s interest in uneven grooves and mixed meters into sharper detail. Mirrored by the puzzling archaic-futuristic alphabet featured on the cover, this new set of trax softly draws the listener in an elusive and multi-faceted experience. Bambi OFS is Cédric Dambrain, composer, electronic musician and virtual instruments designer based in Brussels, Belgium. Dambrain’s approach to music is motivated by an exploration of perception thresholds, psychoacoustics, and the physiological impact of sound. This diversity of themes is matched by a wide range of productions which include electroacoustic computer music, compositions for ensembles, noise, sound installations and, more recently, club- oriented polyrythmic explorations. Dambrain has also been composing extensively for performance artists and music theatre.
The full moon of May 2022 brings the 6th Hypnus record by Birds ov Paradise.
Early support from Dorisburg, TM404, Brando Lupi, Abstract Division, Arnaud le Texier, Ben Buitendijk, Felix Lorusso, Mosam Howieson, Samuli Kemppi, Takaaki Itoh, Hydrangea and Forest on Stasys to name a few.
Love and light
For PT21 we welcome the mysterious duo, Carebears. After making an initial debut on our sister label OFFPath a few years back we knew it was only a matter of time before we welcomed them to the parent label with a full EP. Known for their raw analog sound this EP delivers exactly that. Punchy kicks, snappy claps and crisp hi hats are a staple throughout, interwoven with distinctive synth lines and infectious percussion elements. Label owner Niko Maxen rounds things off with a slick remix.
Dave Lee teamed up with Omar. A gifted, prolific artist, Omar learned his craft classically, playing the trumpet, piano, bass guitar and percussion. A former principal percussionist of the Kent Youth Orchestra and later a graduate of the Guildhall School Of Music, Omar was awarded an MBE in 2012 for services to music.
'Starlight' is a gorgeous, mid-tempo dance record, with Omar’s silky vocals backed up with rich production: soaring live strings, groove-laden clav and a warm bassline creating a heady, inviting atmosphere. Almost viscerally life-affirming and unashamedly positive. This is an exclusive 7” version.
On the B side, Destiny II featuring Aria Lyric - I'm Here For This. An uptempo boogie synth filled track in the spirit of Leroy Burgess’s 80’s offerings. Written by Dave Lee, Audrey Martells & broken beat don Kaidi Tatham. An exclusive new track not part of the album Produced with Love II.
A family affair since the early days, WOLF Music have been shining a light on the scenes and sounds the duo are ingrained in. Staying true to form and rolling deep for WOLFEP065, the spotlight turns to a selection of familiar faces and new recruits for a four track VA EP that’s strictly for the groovers.
WOLF OG, man like Medlar kicks it off in signature style with 'Bandit', a heads-down, techno-tinged trip. Machine music with the soul of south London. Next, professor of the dark arts, Manuel Darquart, conjures up the aptly named 'Euphoria' a deep, ‘90s leaning house excursion, synth wizardry and all, that works just as well as a sunset cruiser, as it does an end of the night closer.
On the flip, two long time listeners, first time callers, with a double dose of debuts on the label. Jon Sable takes the B1 with 'Infinite Care', offering up that trademark strong and Sable, In Dust We Trust flavour. Deep, emotive, intricate house with a nod to the worlds of Bruk and Chicago house melded together with that NZ feel.
Closing it out, debut number two comes in the form of rising star moon who lays down a beatsy, broken earworm ‘Handmade’ featuring some dreamy bars from Tamu.
Full crew, through and through – this one hits different!
Ever get the feeling you’re being manipulated? Ever get the feeling you’re manipulating things? Somewhere between these two questions exists this seismic slab of dark post-disco drama from Leipzig duo New Hook: ‘Manipulation’.
The original version of ‘Manipulation’ has recently been released on Underground Pacific album ‘The Only Good Wave Is A New One’. But there’s more to story… Now redeveloped and reworked, ‘Manipulation’ has been manipulated into this epic club missile on Riotvan. Electrified and strident in its swagger, this new version maintains the duo’s sultry, provocative vocal but carries much more dancefloor weight. Every bit as sharp and to the point as the name New Hook suggests, it’s also been blessed with an equally forthright twist from dark disco don Curses who brings a little added funk to the bassline, manipulating the already manipulated ‘Manipulation’ with his own unique flare.
Now it’s time for your turn to manipulate it in the mix…
- A1: Don Carlos - Purple Day (Don Carlos Edit)
- A2: Deep Aural Penetration - Let Your Body Be Free (Club Xero Mix) Don Carlos Edit
- B1: Be Noir - It’s Gonna Be Alright (Don Carlos Rimini 4 00 A.m. Mix) Don Carlos Edit
- B2: Deep Aural Penetration - All I Want To Do ( Josh Wink H E.r.e. Mx) Don Carlos Edit
- C1: Love Nation - Everything 4 U (Remix) Don Carlos Edit
- C2: More Heavy Soul - Magic Tonight (Irregular Dub) Don Carlos Edit
- D1: Outdance - Pump The Jumping (Sexy No Dirty Mix) Don Carlos Edit
- D2: F I.t.z. - The Reigh Forest (Fitzcarraldo) Don Carlos Edit
Among those who have written the history of the Italian House is certainly Carlo Troja, aka Don Carlos. In 1991 Irma Records released her first single Alone which immediately became a cult record for DJs across the Channel and especially American DJs. Its particular soft and ambient sounds defined a genre that was then called Paradise House.
And it is precisely from this genre and from this Dj that Irma Records began the celebrations of its thirtieth anniversary a few years ago by
proposing a selection of its catalog chosen by Don Carlos, trying to dig among some of the pearls of the genre but above all among some
songs that featured in his evenings but were less popular at the time of their release.
This compilation had a great response and it was decided to make a volume 2, always selected by Don Carlos. Also this compilation, like the first one, consists of two compact discs and a vinyl version this time with a selection of only 8 of the 20 tracks contained in the CD and Digital version.
All the tracks on the double vinyl have been re-edited by Don Carlos for the occasion. The double cd is in a limited numbered edition.
Among the artists and producers included are: Don Carlos, Lust Unlimited, Subsonic Posse, T.M.V. (Marco Trani, Moz-Art and Maurizio
Verbeni), The Sweatbox Orchestra, Aritmya, Deep Aural Penetration, Be Noir, Love Nation, More Heavy Soul, Outdance, F.I.T.Z. and many
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