The electronic musician and Poker Flat founder's contemplative new studio album takes in minimal house music, moody techno and effervescent breaks across 11 unique tracks. His previous LP Paradise Sold alongside Langenberg was released in 2018 to critical acclaim, and described as "elegantly euphoric" by Mixmag. Never Ending Winding Roads is an entirely solo release however, with much of it produced during the months of enforced isolation due to the coronavirus pandemic. Many of the track titles reflect Steve's headspace during this time, with themes of solitude, contemplation and reflection brought to the fore perhaps more than with any of his previous work. Steve's formative musical years were spent during Germany's techno and acid-house heyday, with his love for a perfect groove as apparent now as it was back then. His DJ skills and a keen, innovative ear led him not down the typical path of the early nineties trance and harder dance scene, but instead towards a fresher, hybrid sound-merging stripped deep house, tweaked out acid and more minimal forms of techno and electronic music: a strand of music he fiercely champions to this day.
"My mindset when making Never Ending Winding Roads was completely different to any other project I have embarked on. I didn't have to tour, and instead could focus 100% on writing music without having the dancefloor as a constant influence. This allowed me creative freedom to explore a range of styles and emotions, and as a result, it is the album I feel most satisfied with to date." says Steve Bug.
With 11 brand new tracks, Never Ending Winding Roads is a meticulously produced and deeply engaging electronic album; one that explores various shades of house, techno and broken beat with Steve's celebrated attention to detail and consummate originality. Album opener Lucid Loops perfectly sets the tone, immediately ensnaring you with a hypnotic, undulating synth line and a faintly menacing undertone thanks to hushed, discordant strings and unnerving vocal stabs. This atmosphere of quiet paranoia permeates many of the tracks on Never Ending Winding Roads, most explicitly in the sinewy groove and sketchy, panic-inducing synth line of Locked Away In My Head.
This album more than perhaps any other in his career sees Steve experimenting with broken-beats, to incredible effect. Tracks like A Conscious Machine and Electro Harmonix are melodic, emotionally-rich cuts: burst of radiant optimism that juxtapose beautifully with the album's darker moments. Elsewhere tracks like Yellow Snake find Steve exploring deep, dubby territory, while album closer Upon Mountains is a cosmic, arpeggiated masterpiece: an 8bit computer game soundtrack reimagined as a poignant electro ballad.
Поиск:hijack
Все
Inspired by the nocturnal city life, Syntax Error emerges from the dark and lights up your ears with a bunch of new techno shooting stars. Clearly, it is time for a night rave – of course all Syntax Error style.
For all vinyl lovers, he pushes four full-flavored techno tracks through the turntables. Already the first beats of A1 “Finnisage” hit right in the middle of the dusty underground heart. Starting with a pure beat, he builds up level by level and creates his signature sound – an energizing drive, wobbly bass lines all wrapped in spherical sounds. The following tracks “Powder”, “Vegan Monster” and “DT Style” continue this exciting symbiosis of dramaturgy and driving beats.
In the digital version, Syntax Error adds four tracks and enlarges his vinyl ep to a digital album. “Deep Saw” clearly keeps its promise, “Elakt” and “Future” go with full steam ahead through the night, whereas “Test1” finally hijacks you into an experimental sound conglomerate just ready for dawn.
Tucked away in their cover, but never for long, Guts' musical eyebrow wands have once again panicked, this time aggressively marking Africa.
Letting his instrument guide him towards the one he felt was the next signature of his label Pura Vida Sounds, the beatmaker-producer found himself face to face with an old acquaintance: Pat Kalla aka the voice of the Voilaaa Sound System, aka the one with which he crossed the funk on his album Philantropiques and the title "Daddy Sweet".
Convinced to follow him in studio, Pat, accompanied by his Super Mojo celebrates this collaboration by decapsulating La "Canette". Long groove in the mouth, acidic notes of synths and attacks of precise guitars, despite the bitterness of his words, a drink that suits every hour of the day and that strengthens the legs most numb. Heckled by her journey to the bottom of Pat’s musical bag, shaken by the syncopes of the beat, she spreads her funk foam from the very beginning into the A-side furrow.
Bartering the beige trench coat of Commissioner Joss against a colorful toghu, Kalla and his Mojo revisit on the B side the "Requiem Pour Un Con" de Gainsbourg. The martial groove, dark and hypnotic leaves its place to a polyrhythmic afrodisco production, surrounded by a low velocity.
More than a recovery, they are making a real diversion.
A hijacking driven by Pat Kalla and his Super Mojo, with Serge Gainsbourg and Jean Gabin sitting in the back seat like two "Pachas".
When was the last time EDMX served you what you expected? Maybe you drop the needle down in anticipation of some slick boogie-inflected synth pop and get walloped in the face with hellfire techno. Perhaps you were itching for body-popping electro and got cerebrally hijacked by pagan coldwave.
On this latest magnum opus, his first on Queen Nanny. Ed Upton is in the mood to get down low in every sense of the word. On the frequency range, this is a record dripping with lard-fed bass at every turn. The arrangements too are devilishly low in channel count – raw riddims with just a few key ingredients to do the necessary damage. Then there are the tempos, which predominantly set cruise control at 90 BPM and glide.
It’s not hard to tell where EDMX’s inspiration has sparked from on this album – in the spirit of celebrating the compatability of oddball sonics from all corners of the globe, he’s patched his sound into a specific vibe and struck gold with some of the most distinctive riddims you’re likely to hear all year.
The original freaks SES are back for another mind melting EP called “Saboteur”.
Completely tuned for a sweaty underground club system, the kicks in ‘Sounds Like’ hit deeper then your typical sound-boy bass lines of 2019.
Europa is on some dystopian Kraftwerk transeuropean express tip with all the attitude you’d hope to squeeze into four and a half minutes.
Hijacker kicks off the B side with continuing paranoid themes of the SES back catalog.
Flesh Tone simply jacks you in half and makes you throw shapes like it’s 1989. Only in Hi Def.
- all tracks blend with each other flawlessly, so buy two copies why don’t you.
H4E 008[7,98 €]
Roman Jones & Hendrik Zoe erste gemeinsame Veröffentlichung über
Hunting For Emotion. Mit Remixen von Popp & Popp (Hijack, Ton Liebt
Klang), Romeofoxtrott (Hijack, Perlekind) sowie Michael Nielebock
(Mangue Records, Deep Circus, Treibstoff)







