Die Groove Metaller DEVILDRIVER können auf neun Alben, zahllose internationale Tourneen und weltweiten Erfolg während ihres 30-jährigen Bandbestehen zurückblicken. Als die Welt im Jahr 2020 in den Lockdown ging, machten DEVILDRIVER keine Pause und veröffentlichten den gefeierten ersten Teil ihrer zweiteiligen Dealing With Demons-Saga. Internationale Medien wie Revolver, Metal Hammer, Kerrang und Consequence rühmten das Album und Blabbermouth postulierte: ”Wenn die zweite Hälfte dieses Mammutprojekts mit der ersten mithalten kann, wird dies als ein entscheidender Moment in der Geschichte von DEVILDRIVER in Erinnerung bleiben.” In Zeiten in denen das gesellschaftliche Klima härter ist denn je kommt DEVILDRIVERs zehntes Album Dealing With Demons Vol. II wie gerufen. Die neuste Scheibe des Quintetts wurde erneut von Steve Evetts mit Unterstützung von Gitarrist Mike Spreitzer produziert.
Unverkennbar ist Dealing With Demons Vol. II härter und unerbittlicher als sein Vorgänger. Schonungslos ist sie nicht nur die düstere beider Platten, sondern richtet den Blick in die dunkelsten Abgründe der
Psyche von Frontmann Dez Fafara und die Auseinandersetzung mit seinen Dämonen, die ihn schon lange heimgesucht haben.
Wenn sich jemand die Frage überhaupt gestellt hat, ob DEVILDRIVER in nächster Zeit langsamer werden, beweist Dealing With Demons Vol. II, dass sie auch nach 20 Jahren in ihrer Karriere Dämonen bezwingen
können und an der Spitze des Metals weitermachen.
Lele Sacchi & Asian Fake’s Stolen Goods Records return with the third instalment of Black Loops & Innocent Soul’s ‘High Cutz’ series, accompanied by a remix from Italian house legends Pastaboys.
After a debut compilation featuring the likes of Bawrut, Elisa Bee, Ruff Stuff & label head Lele Sacchi, Stolen Goods Records amassed a following of Dixon, Harvey, DJ Seinfeld, Dam Swindle & many more. The Italian imprint returns this December, dropping two tracks from deep house mainstays Black Loops & Innocent Soul. Black Loops trawls the depths of his record bag in revered clubs around the world while tallying up releases on labels such as Madhouse, Shall Not Fade and Freerange. Additionally, Strictly Street Sound label boss Innocent Soul has made a name for himself for his energetic deep house music.
Together, they join forces for their collaborative ‘High Cutz’ series, which has previously been released via Toy Tonics and Rough Limited. Robust beats form the backbone of ‘Believe In U’, a plucked bassline brings the funk and passionate vocals provide the soul. They warp its earworm bassline deep into the jacking zone, closing out the first in a series of EP’s on Stolen Goods Records featuring established artists and talented newcomers.
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Vinticious Versions ist die erfolgreiche und umwerfende Zwischenveröffentlichung von De Staat, die ursprünglich im Jahr 2014 erschien. Zum ersten Mal auf grünem Vinyl veröffentlicht, erstmals sogar farbig. Limitiert auf 1000 Exemplare weltweit und eine Auflage
Während I_CON Instrumente so kombiniert haben, dass man nicht sofort erkennt, welches Instrument man hört, und Frontmann Torre Florim es als "sehr gitarrenlastig, aber verrückter" beschrieb, nimmt dich 'Vinictious Versions' auf eine ganz andere Reise mit. Die EP besteht aus überarbeiteten Versionen ihrer eigenen Songs von ihren drei vorherigen Alben "I_CON" (2013), "Machinery" (2011) und "Wait for Evolution" (2009) und nimmt dich mit auf eine Reise auf einem alternativen Weg mit vertrauter Umgebung... etwas, das laut Florim ein wenig "dunkler und leckerer" ist.
Erscheint am 12. Mai! Limitiert auf 1000 Exemplare weltweit und eine Auflage auf grünem Vinyl.
Wieder lieferbar ist ein Klassiker des Dub-Reggae, von Kevin Metcalfe re-mastered und auf dem VP Records Sublabel 17 North Parade wiederveröffentlicht. Im Original erschien der Longplayer erstmalig 1977 auf Joe Gibbs' Record Globe Label und wurde mit seiner Studioband The Professionals eingespielt. Laut Originalcover waren das George "Fully" Fulwood, Carlton "Santa" Davis, Tony Chin, Richard "Dirty Harry" Hall, Tommy McCook, Bobby Ellis und Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace. Am Mischpult saß Errol Thompson. Hier finden sich 12 exzellente Dubversionen von Riddims aus der Treasure Isle und Studio One Rocksteady-Ära, und zu "Hypocrites" von Bob Marley & The Wailers sowie zu"Uptown Top Ranking" von Althea & Donna!
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Metal powerhouses Veil Of Maya return with their 7th full-length on Sumerian Records. The new record, produced by Zach Jones, features menacingly heavy riffs, intense vocals, and a collection of personal experience intertwined with their own imagination.
Sustained exercises in tension. Personal healing. Dischord Records. The Unit Ama make music that explodes outward: dense but soothing metronomic pulses morph into a wild fracturing of the traditional rock trio. The Unit Ama take their time. They act on their own terms. This applies to their music and their work-rate. Two albums and a handful of singles in twenty years. Sporadic gigs. No endless Bandcamp messages or weekly mailing list updates. Rare missions outside their native north-east. And then… Toward is their second studio album and their second Gringo release. It’s not their ‘pandemic’ album but does see the band considering the important things: post-traumatic growth, insight through experience. Utilising the past to navigate towards a meaningful future. Toward was self-produced and will probably get tagged as post-hardcore which is fair enough. But it’s also informed by post-punk, jazz and folk, and by working closely together for two decades. The Unit Ama play in other incarnations that inform their music and the way they dismantle expectations of the rock trio. There’s as much Richard Thompson as Minutemen. Toward takes the exploratory, explosive sound of their debut and adds twenty years of living and listening. Toward is eight tracks that are thoughtful and intricate without losing any impact. This is gut music as much as it is head music. The Unit Ama never let their abilities get in the way of their instincts and Toward is full of surging urgency and roaring anxiety. But there are moments of brooding calm too, and a song – Mary – that could be stripped down and sold as a folk ballad. The trio also play variously as The Long Lonesome Go, Archipelago, The Horse Loom and more. They have supported everyone from Fugazi to Lungfish, Lightning Bolt to Sunburned Hand of the Man
Originally released in 2007 on CD and now re-released on double vinyl. "Heimische Gefilde" was the second full-length release on Traum at that time from Westerwald based DJ, producer and park ranger, Dominik Eulberg. Dominik has since then expended his activities enormously now appearing as a book author with best selling books in the German official bestseller list. He ist he ambassador of the most popular Conservation Union in Germany NABU, he has created a bird quartet and a hand made insect hotel and appears on national German TV regularly next playing in clubs world wide and producing stunning music. "Heimische Gefilde" includes spoken words by the man himself and the release won the price of the German critic awards for music. It is the only compilation that comprises a selection of Dominik Eulberg’s best early works and it is for the first time available on vinyl now.
As Dominik Eulberg says in his own words: „After more than 16 years, "Heimische Gefilde" is finally released on vinyl. At that time it was still a daring experiment to combine music with lustful science communication. Quickly one was thrown into the pot of the "weird eco-techno sound owl". Today, we are increasingly finding that we cannot stop the impending ecocide in a cognitive way. For more than 60 years we have known about the concrete threats to humanity from global warming and species extinction; yet nothing changes. Many alarmist efforts fail miserably, red lists grow longer and longer each year, and global temperatures continue to rise unchecked. It is becoming clearer and clearer that we have to reach out to our fellow human beings in a positive emotional way in order to make a difference, because we only protect what we love. Then sentimental minorities become majorities that change something. Art and culture are low-threshold vectors to make things majority-friendly. They are a fertile and valuable breeding ground to sensitize people outside the eco-bubble and to let their environment become a co-environment again. Today my transdisipilnary work is inseparable. I write books, develop games, lecture, make film, and am a visiting scholar at museums. "Heimische Gefilde" was a valuable cornerstone for my creative work, a very intrinsic work to go my very own way.“
We would also like quote here the description of Forced Exposure done at the time when the album was originally recorded and released to keep the authentic feel: „The influence of nature (bird twitters, owl hoots, flowing water, crunching leaves) and other domestic sounds has made his music easy to identify with. „Heimische Gefilde" means "native habitat," and this release takes the concept of his debut a step further and at the same time is a retrospective of his major hits. Tracks like "Die Rotbauchunken vom Tegernsee" and "Björn Borkenkäfer" are included here in unreleased edits that are even stronger than the originals, and as a bonus, previously vinyl-only
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2022 marks the 100th birthday of Charles Mingus, renowned American composer and bassist in the jazz genre. After his death in 1979, he was acknowledged as one of the most important jazz composers, alongside Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. Mingus was innovative in his use of melody, rhythm, harmony, and form, and his compositions have become a core part of jazz repertoire.
This boxset includes his final studio recordings for Atlantic Records, spanning from the 1970s, featuring previously unreleased outtakes of “Big Alice”, “The Call” and “Music For Todo Modo”. Mingus had two periods of recording with Atlantic Records, the first being in the 1950s and 1960s, and the second in the 1970s, which marked his last phase of music
RESOUND NYC - Das neue Album von MOBY! Nach seinem gefeierten Album ”Reprise” (Mai 2021), auf dem unter anderem Kris Kristofferson, Mark Lanegan, Jim James und Skylar Grey zu hören waren, hat Moby nun 15 seiner legendärsten New Yorker Tracks aus den Jahren 1994 bis 2010 neu interpretiert und instrumentiert. Mobys 20. Studioalbum ist nicht nur eine Reflexion über die vielleicht entscheidendste Zeit in seinem Leben, sondern auch über sein einstiges Zuhause, New York City. Dort wurde er geboren, dort nahm seine Karriere ihren Anfang – im Punkrock und als DJ in Underground-Clubs.
»Bevor ich Punkrock für mich entdeckte, war ich im Classic Rock zu Hause«, sagt Moby. »Mein erstes Konzert war 1978 Yes im Madison Square Garden. Es war also mehr als verlockend, sich noch einmal mit meinen Liedern auseinanderzusetzen und zu gucken, ob sie einer traditionelleren, nicht-elektronischen, orchestralen Bearbeitung standhalten.« Begleitet wird Moby auf diesem Album von großartigen Künstlern wie Nicole Scherzinger, Gregory Porter, Ricky Wilson und Amythyst Kiah.
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RESOUND NYC - Das neue Album von MOBY! Nach seinem gefeierten Album ”Reprise” (Mai 2021), auf dem unter anderem Kris Kristofferson, Mark Lanegan, Jim James und Skylar Grey zu hören waren, hat Moby nun 15 seiner legendärsten New Yorker Tracks aus den Jahren 1994 bis 2010 neu interpretiert und instrumentiert. Mobys 20. Studioalbum ist nicht nur eine Reflexion über die vielleicht entscheidendste Zeit in seinem Leben, sondern auch über sein einstiges Zuhause, New York City. Dort wurde er geboren, dort nahm seine Karriere ihren Anfang – im Punkrock und als DJ in Underground-Clubs.
»Bevor ich Punkrock für mich entdeckte, war ich im Classic Rock zu Hause«, sagt Moby. »Mein erstes Konzert war 1978 Yes im Madison Square Garden. Es war also mehr als verlockend, sich noch einmal mit meinen Liedern auseinanderzusetzen und zu gucken, ob sie einer traditionelleren, nicht-elektronischen, orchestralen Bearbeitung standhalten.« Begleitet wird Moby auf diesem Album von großartigen Künstlern wie Nicole Scherzinger, Gregory Porter, Ricky Wilson und Amythyst Kiah.
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Favorite Recordings proudly presents its new series of 7" reissues with the following concept: each side dedicated to one Funky French track coming with its original artwork. You just have to flip it!
On the first side comes "Givin’ It Up" by Belgian funk band Charms. Compiled by Charles Maurice on French Disco Boogie Sounds Vol. 2, the original vinyl 7inch was released in 1982 on famous Biram label and is now a very hard to find gem for reasonable prices. Not really surprising considering the immediate power of this Disco track, filled catchy synths lines, sweet vocals and fateful chorus.
On the other side comes another French Disco underground hit with “Pour moi ça va” by France-Lise. It takes only a few seconds to get driven on the dancefloor by the heavily funky guitar and bassline and the immediate energy of this song. Also compiled by Charles Maurice on French Disco Boogie Sounds Vol. 1, this is also a quite hard to find OG. With its charming French vocals and bouncing percussions, it should delight any Disco player.
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For its debut release, Wobbly Mob Records welcomes Newcastle and London based DJs Glockta and Shawn Cartier.
Glockta has created three dark, pulsing, Garage tracks broken up by an interlude, each with impeccable drum programming. The five track EP acts as a reaction to the energy vacuum created by lockdown, due to abandoned dance-floors and a struggling electronic scene. Shawn Cartier has orchestrated the finale with a fast-paced electro ripper, a remix of Plastic Fiver on the A side.
Originating in Newcastle, Wobbly Mob Records first began as The Wobbly Mob, a Facebook platform for sharing music and creating an online community with an interest in similar music genres. This EP will mark a new direction for The Wobbly Mob, which has outgrown its initial purpose, now linking promoters, collectives, DJ’s and producers from all over the globe.
Wobbly Mob Records encourages and supports artists experimenting within and beyond their genre orientation, providing an open space for DJs to develop their skills.
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São Paulo-based carnival collective and brass band combine retro horns with cumbia, baile funk, jazz, Michael Jackson & more
A Espetacular Charanga do França started as a political act, part of a recent movement which has seen the people of São Paulo reclaim their streets, turning their city into a revelation of Brazilian carnival. The group takes equal inspiration from the powerful charanga horn and percussion bands that stir the crowds at Brazilian football matches, and the expertly-arranged sounds of 60s
samba, finding that sweet spot between musicianship and music that makes you lose your shit. And they do it with humour, clear as day in their covers of Michael Jackson and pagode pop hits, and the baile funk and Balkan rhythms that sneak their way in to the tunes.
Since forming in 2013 the group have become an iconic staple of São Paulo’s revived carnival, generating crowds 15,000 strong. Though COVID-19 put a stop to them hitting the streets this year, in 2020 they made their way to carnival with over 60 brass players and 30 percussionists, declaring their bloco an anti-fascist zone, their reply to a political climate in Brazil that is suffocating human rights, culture and any hope for equality.
“I like to think that Charanga is an oasis in the middle of all the shit that we live, where you don't have to be worried about who you are, what are your preferences, whether you can be comfortable. If you want to parade with us wearing a tea towel you can, you won't be harassed. And it's also about music, it's about listening to music. We do this thing the whole year, we rehearse all year, we do too much so that people can just get crazy and not care about the music.” Thiago França
The group is the brainchild of saxophonist Thiago França, best known as a founding member of Afro-punk explorers Metá-Metá, and one of São Paulo’s most in-demand horn men, with credits on influential albums by Criolo, Elza Soares, Céu and Lucas Santtana. A
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Celebrating 40th Anniversary of SHOUT AT THE DEVIL. Reimagined 40th anniversary 12” picture disc EP featuring all new images from the infamous Blood photo session! Also features paper insert with additional shot from Blood session. 12” EP Features 2 tracks from SHOUT AT THE DEVIL and 2 tracks from TOO FAST FOR LOVE.
Having emerged as a luminary of the Los Angeles Beat Scene, MatthewDavid immersed himself for several years in the rich, neglected, and all-too-often-derided archive of New Age sound/culture, stewarding a kind of New New Age sensibility into being. Mycelium Music constitutes a synthesis of these aesthetics, an alchemical marriage of sorts, in which the digital and the organic, the earthen and the aethereal, the bloom and the rot all collide and coexist. How might the Mycelium sing? Where other sound artists might be tempted to capture the phenomena, reaching for a field recorder, MatthewDavid responds with a succinct, impressionistic, and diaristic suite of “songs” (although, as with the mycelium itself, one cannot easily distinguish where one song/organism ends and another begins). Leaving Records founder Matthewdavid announces his new album Mycelium Music, his first proper full-length since 2018. The first single to be taken from the album 'Liquidity', was created as a direct response to ambient pioneer Laraaji encouraging Matthewdavid to innovate zither music. Beautifully textural, Mycelium Music constitutes an alchemical marriage in which the digital and the organic, the earthen and the aethereal, the bloom and the rot all collide and coexist. The record is a product of serious contemplation on the meaning, the problems, and the promises of interdependence.
First release of this label featuring Gehlektek, Pozek and SPK
A1 "Gruntler" from Gehlektek with a long 9 minutes track at 45rpm, mega bomb at 150 bpm! Super HQ sound, stompy kick, melodic themes and delicious ear candy. Proper crowd control tool !
B1 "MR.Kubickeh" is a track from the super talented Pozek 33rpm this side with a very easy but super effective Acidcore tune at 150 bpm! Clean mix and driving atmosphere with a very important kick! The track was composed to support the victims of Redon party in 2021, parts of the revenues will go to the crews involved in that party. Massive support to Pozek for this pearl track!
B2 "We Are The Resistance" is a driving nu school Tribecore banger! It starts with a long monologue with a very well done crescendo bringing to a massive sentimental and impressing drop. Synths arrangements drive you dancing crazy with a very persistent, solid distorted kick. 165 bpm. Amazing production from the notoriously skilled SPK.
First release of this label featuring Gehlektek, Pozek and SPK
A1 "Gruntler" from Gehlektek with a long 9 minutes track at 45rpm, mega bomb at 150 bpm! Super HQ sound, stompy kick, melodic themes and delicious ear candy. Proper crowd control tool !
B1 "MR.Kubickeh" is a track from the super talented Pozek 33rpm this side with a very easy but super effective Acidcore tune at 150 bpm! Clean mix and driving atmosphere with a very important kick! The track was composed to support the victims of Redon party in 2021, parts of the revenues will go to the crews involved in that party. Massive support to Pozek for this pearl track!
B2 "We Are The Resistance" is a driving nu school Tribecore banger! It starts with a long monologue with a very well done crescendo bringing to a massive sentimental and impressing drop. Synths arrangements drive you dancing crazy with a very persistent, solid distorted kick. 165 bpm. Amazing production from the notoriously skilled SPK.
Taavi Suisalu is an Estonian media artist particularly interested into complex and adventurous sounds, field recordings and harsh audio emergencies, organized under the form of symphony or as a result of performative interactions.
In 2014 Suisalu received the Young Estonian Artist Prize as curator of Project of In-existent Villages, an articulate exhibition full of installations and site-specific sound performances. The use of peripheral spaces and the crossovers, sometimes extremely creative, of human interactions, data, sounds and technologies, are recurring in the works of Suisalu, whose subjective perspective unconventionally investigates different social and cultural phenomena. He is always attracted by the different forms of technologies. It can be an old seismograph he reconstructs to record the underground vibrations of a volcano, or, it can be some 3D models he uses to analyze a grain of soil coming from the ancient Pompei. The results of the researches would lead to the installations. The whole set of data is often the premise of a narration, a datafiction, as in the case of the signals recorded from some abandoned satellites, who are later presented with a speed set by the position of other satellites gravitating above the gallery hosting the event.
“Noisephony of Lawn Mowers" was originally composed in 2013, but it was unreleased until now, when Staalplaat, a fundamental label for its unusual experimental connections and for the sound events performed in unconventional spaces, decided to publish it. It's a score for lawnmowers, whose making is given to a conductor and executed by a group of artists. Suisalu reminds us that historically, lawn has been a symbol of power and wealth as it required substantial upkeep and unused land. Today, it still indicates wealth, but is mainly maintained by the owners themselves. This puts us in a schizophrenic situation where we strive to be privileged by taking the role of the servants.
“Silver Meets Ted” is the other track included in the selection. It's a recording of over ten minutes, whose trend cryptically moves on and with some unsettling minimal tolls, always more metallic. Some deaf beats follow, and then we have a splash of water and some slightly hinted neighs, chirps, different spills of liquid, more intense and measured, clackings and vibrations, some hardly identifiable frequencies and again a series of punctuated metal bells. The work by Taavi Suisalu stands out as a calibrated combination of mathematical coherence and elements of surprise, automatized and causal processes, some small oblique utopias, that work well together by improving highly subjective resources and create some slightly unsettling final results.
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Die Band, die Anfang der 90er die Rave-O-Lution startete, lieferte im Laufe ihrer Karriere Monsterhits, die zumeist zu Klassikern gerieten, die noch heute die Tanzflächen brodeln lassen. Allein ihr weltweit mit Platin überschüttetes Meisterwerk "Fat of the Land" enthielt derer drei. Ihr 15-jähriges Jubiläum feierte die Band um Liam Howlett 2005 mit einer ordentlichen Best-of. Inklusive Hits wie "Firestarter", "Smack My Bitch", "Spitfire" etc.
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"A Place For Love" is a captivating electronic house music endeavor, expertly crafted by the synergistic partnership of San Proper and Figi, hailing from the vibrant city of Amsterdam. The project boasts an impressive roster of guest contributors, including Tom Trago, Seth Troxler, and the esteemed label heads of Guti & David Gtronic, each imbuing the compositions with their signature style. The project exudes a funky, charming, and inviting energy, inviting listeners to fully embrace their individuality and lose themselves in the hypnotic beats. Whether it be the electrifying dubby techno, the shimmering and ethereal twists, or the razor-sharp edges injected into the club-ready tracks, "A Place For Love" offers a diverse array of auditory delights. It is truly a sanctuary for those seeking to indulge in the boundless beauty of electronic music and the euphoria of self-
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The 5th release from Drifted comes through featuring Anna Wall & Corbi who have collaborated for DR005 and it’s a banger.
The release opens with the title track, "Satellite", a thumping 4x4 style club cut that immediately sets the tone for the rest of the EP. This track has a relentless beat that will keep the club jumping. "XTC" follows on the A2, a composition that showcases true rave textures. On the flip side, "Mind Sweeper" is a real bad boy that is sure to melt the dance floor. Rounding off this latest output on the London based imprint is "Basement Damage", a beautiful atmospheric design with fierce break drums.
This EP is a true testament to the power of collaboration and creativity in the
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The »Icol Diston« compilation, released in 2002 on DIN, comprised the three first EPs released by Uwe Zahn under his Arovane moniker. Following up on vinyl reissues of his path-breaking debut album »Atol Scrap« as well as 2000’s »Tides,« the German Keplar label finally makes »Icol Diston« available in its entirety on vinyl for the first time in a remastered version with new artwork. This expansive reissue sheds a new light on Zahn’s first two outings as a producer on the »I.O.« and »Icol Diston« EPs on Torsten ›T++‹ Pröfrock’s legendary label as well as highlighting his radical inventiveness as a remixer with the two renditions of Pröfrock-produced material offered on »AMX.« Taken together, these musically complex and emotionally rich electronic compositions form the prologue to an artistic story like none other while also documenting a very specific era in cultural history.
The energy running through Berlin and its boundaryless electronic music scene at the end of the 1990s is reflected by and refined through these eleven tracks. »There was an overwhelming dynamic of liberation reverberating through the city—through the clubs, the arts, the people,« says Zahn today. At this early stage in his career, he had a head full of ideas and slowly started filling up his studio with samplers, synthesizers, and sequencers to put them into practice. »I would compose percussive structures in my mind during long metro rides and record them once I was back at the studio as well as composing melodies spontaneously on my sequencer.« The Yamaha QY700 would become his sketchbook that allowed him to experiment with different patterns, creating polymetric figures out of discrete musical elements.
Zahn’s sessions, recorded live in stereo and straight to DAT, resulted in two very different EPs of original material. His debut »I.O.« showcases a playful and gentle, albeit dubby and at times moody aesthetic. The four tracks are exercises in sonic worldbuilding, creating vast spaces and filling them with a plethora of intertwining melodies and rhythms. Its successor »Icol Diston« drew on similar parameters, but painted a very different picture in terms of atmosphere and mood. »Berlin’s history felt still so tangible and yet somewhat ghostly during the 1990s, and it is a reflection of all that,« explains Zahn. »The weight of its past, starting with World War II up to the end of the GDR, clashed with an atmosphere of departure, a new zest for life among the people in the city.« It is perhaps no surprise then that the five tracks put a firmer focus on beats, at times even approximating techno or electro grooves despite never eschewing the complexity that is so central to Zahn’s work.
The »AMX« EP features two remixes of tracks originally produced by Pröfrock under two different guises. »Außen vor« had been released under his Dynamo moniker and was reworked by Zahn after having been introduced to his label owner’s Studio 440 sampler, sequencer and drum machine. By leaving the groove at the core of the original track mostly intact but infusing it with more dub as well as anthemic synth drones, Zahn gave it more depth both sonically and emotionally. With his remix of »No. 8,« released under Pröfrock’s tongue-in-cheek pseudonym Various Artists, Zahn followed a more radical approach which led him even deeper into dub territory. »I used a relatively short sample as the tonal foundation and then added an incredibly deep bass and percussive elements,« he explains. Widely different from the original version, it perfectly translated the spirit of this singular masterpiece into another stylistic idiom.
The »Icol Diston« compilation is imbued with a forward-thinking spirit that remains exhilarating until today. It captures the sound of one unique artist, but also electronic music during that time more broadly. This is the sound of opening a new chapter, the willingness to venture into the unknown.
All tracks composed and recorded by Uwe Zahn in 1998/99.
D1 is a remix based on the track by Dynamo. D2 is a remix based on the track by Various Artists.
Originally released on three 12inches by DIN in 1998/99 and on CD in 2002.
Remaster and cut by Kassian Troyer @ D&M.
Cover art by Jim Kühnel based on a photograph by Uwe Zahn.
Text by Kristoffer Cornils.
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Arovane's acclaimed 2004 album »Lilies« has been out of print on vinyl for nearly 2 decades now. It finally gets a well-deserved reissue through the Berlin based Keplar label. The new version has been remastered by Kassian Troyer at Dubplates & Mastering and comes with a brand new cover artwork.
»Lilies« was a follow-up to »Tides« in every sense, exploring a trip to Japan and drawing on shimmering textures and the sort of melodies that you might need some time to recover from. There's a hugely evocative sense to these tracks, emotionally driven, free of complexity or conceit, piano melodies providing the central focus for a twilight cascade of light that seems perfect for the Tokyo skyline - just as the sun sets. It's an album that radiates warmth and vulnerability, fusing the technological might at the heart of each track (and at the heart of the city) with an age-old understanding that certain echoes of sound, small melodic changes and cushioned lullabies can imprint sounds on your mind like childhood memories - remembered forever. Like a dreamlike score, or maybe even an alternate soundtrack to »Lost in Translation« - the sort of music that intertwines with images and stays in your mind indefinately.
After coming back from Tokyo and completing the production of »Lilies«, Uwe Zahn disassembled his studio in the big flat in an old building in Berlin's Prenzlauerberg district and stored it away in boxes. He needed a break from making music. »Lilies« was the last album prior to a nine-year hiatus for Arovane, ending in 2013 with the release of »Ve Palor«.
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FOR FANS OF: LOUNGE-MUSIC, PACHA, AMBIENT MUSIC.
Sommer, Sonne, Ibiza-Feeling: IBIZA BEACH BEATS ist die ultimative Chill-, Relax- und Lounge Music Compilation im LP-Format; gepresst in schneeweißem Vinyl. 24 Tracks, emotionale cool-down Klänge für Ibiza-Lovers.
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FOR FANS OF: ERIC CLAPTON, JEFF BECK, ROLLING STONES.
Anfang der 60er Jahre gelang den YARDBIRDS aus England mit den drei einflussreichsten Rockgitarristen Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page und ERIC CLAPTON unzählige Hits und führten die britische Band zum Weltruhm. Diese 2-Song-Picture-Vinyl-Single (Vinyl) enthält die Klassiker "Louise" und "I am A Man" mit ERIC CLAPTON; aufgenommen im Jahr 1964. Strikt limitiert und ein Augen- & Ohrenschmaus für alle Fans.
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Offering a three track EP on Token, emblematic UK producer James Ruskin proves his capability and linear focus once again through 'From the Ashes'. Looking past trends to create a lasting record rich in texture and thick with impact, the project affirms what the scene has already known to be true about his work for the past 25 years.
Setting his intentions from the A1, Ruskin wastes no time by creating an intimidating introduction. Saturated percussion and stuttering keys whip through a 4 minute masterclass of sound system focused production. Adventurous in structure, Ruskin remains unquestionably in control of a bursting, almost chaotic track. 'From the Ashes 2' picks up what was left off, containing a hard-set groove with hi hats slithering in progressively from the stereo image to slightly destabilize an impressive club-heavy tool. With intricate work being done in the ambience, the EP's hard hitting second track booms through a cavernous acoustic, giving the record not only body, but dimension. Switching up the rhythm and focusing on more mental synth work for the third act, Ruskin quickly and mercilessly rips through his work with a shrill pad, creating overwhelming tension to be released in the first third of the recording. He brings a dosed dissonance between his elements, reflective of the qualities of vintage techno with today's capabilities and arrangement. Pushing intensity through waves, Ruskin leaves us in anticipation of a fourth track that is never given.
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Irish-born, Manchester-based Kerrie is a multi-disciplinary artist, incorporating live sets, DJing, producing and running her label Dark Machine Funk across her repertoire of work. Now, Kerrie follows up last year's 'Raw Regimen' (BP063) with a second EP for James Ruskin's seminal Blueprint Records.
Having garnered a rich musical education through working at and holding a DJ residency for one of the UK's most respected record shops Eastern Bloc, Kerrie's in-depth knowledge and unwavering dedication to music shines through her notable back catalogue and bolshy, unforgiving DJ and Live sets. Honing her craft for over a decade, Kerrie has played worldwide in celebrated venues such as Tresor, Berghain, fabric, FOLD, Elsewhere NYC and festivals including Freedom Medellin, Freerotation, Drift and Basilar.
First learning to mix via her brother's turntables in the early 2000s, it wasn't until 2009 that Kerrie invested in her own set-up and built an extensive record collection, covering everything from ambient, electronic, house, EBM, acid, electro, and her go-to genre, techno. Kerrie delivers tough moods from the turntables, as conveyed in her mixes for Reclaim Your City, Bassiani, SLAM and Crack, where she carefully blended high-energy styles of UK, Detroit, and European techno, many of which stem from the 90s and the 00s. It's frequent to hear Kerrie weave broken elements into her mixes too, chopping up the 4/4 groove at just the right moment to keep things propulsive. Kerrie's Live sets are fast becoming renowned for their trippy motifs and high impact on the dancefloor, applauded by Berlin's long-running club Tresor, where she made several appearances with her Elektron machines. Kerrie's Live set at Freerotation in 2019 was one of the festival's most talked-about debuts, and this year, Kerrie will return to and debut at multiple festivals and clubs across Europe and the Americas.
Following well-received releases on labels such as Don't Be Afraid, Cultivated Electronics, I Love Acid and Symbolism, Kerrie launched her imprint Dark Machine Funk DMF in 2020. The label homes her distinctly raw aesthetic and honours her love for dark, gritty, metallic and industrial sounds melded with elements of funk, heavily influenced by second-wave Detroit artists, UK techno and music by some of her favourite artists; James Ruskin, Blawan and Surgeon. Kerrie's first release on DMF, 'Inner Space PT1', was praised by Resident Advisor, who credited her ability to make "lean, fierce techno that knows how to groove."
2022 was a watershed year for Kerrie's productions. She debuted on the monumental UK techno label Blueprint with her EP 'Raw Regimen', which landed acclaimed reviews. Truly welcomed to the Blueprint family, Kerrie shares her second EP on the label in May and joins the crew at Blueprint showcases around the globe. This year marks the release of Kerrie's 10th EP on vinyl, and considering her consistent output on DMF, Blueprint and many more labels, the producer shows no sign of slowing down.
Coming to international prominence in more recent years, regardless of her decade-long tenure in Manchester's vibrant scene, Kerrie is deeply invested in the culture of electronic music, starting from her teenage era as a raver in Ireland up to her innovative projects today. In 2017, she founded Eastern Bloc's in-house event space to nurture local talent, which remains at the heart of Manchester's music community. Having ended her 11-year stint at the shop in 2023 to fully commit to the studio and accommodate her increasingly busy tour schedule, Kerrie is forging a long-lasting path fuelled by drive, passion, authenticity and a community-first way of thinking.
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The second instalment in the Titrate series marks the debut of Pagan Red. This 180g vinyl album, housed in 350gsm reverse board print packaging, contains three experimental compositions featuring subtly enveloping drone, weightless percussion and immersive tonal resonance. Field recordings interweave with the synthetic, sparse rhythms emerge and dissolve, absorbing textures layer and evaporate. Exploring the symbiosis between the natural and the nonmaterial, Materia guides listeners on a journey across the threshold.
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das album JAHRE ist ein musikalischer abriss der letzten 15 jahre zweier freunde und weggefährten. alle persönlichen höhen und tiefen sind auch hier musikalisch zu finden und sollen durch einen typischen abend unserer generation führen.
es beginnt mit dem prolog, der alle ängste und hoffnungen auf einer einsamen straße zum gemeinsamen sein skizziert. was erwartet einen, wird man sich wieder mit seinem besten freund streiten, oder liebt man sich mit einer fremden auf dem klo? all das läuft langsam die straße hinunter…
die abenddämmerung beschreibt das zusammenkommen mit deinen liebsten und freunden und die erste euphorie auf das was kommen mag. man sitzt gemeinsam beim essen oder im wohnzimmer, redet über alte geschichten oder neue liebschaften, alles schwingt und swingt im richtigen groove der zeit.
in aufbruch kommt die ganze nervosität und vorfreude auf das gemeinsame ausgehen zum ausdruck. alle werden hibbelig und springen umher, einer zieht sich etwas durch die nase, die andere tanzt auf dem sofa und schreit ihre liebe in die nacht. wenn endlich alle fertig sind kann man dann auch mal aufbrechen.
getanze beschreibt den moment des betretens einer musikalischen szenerie und tanzerei, die alle sofort mitreist und befreit. der geruch im club ist stark und leicht süßlich von rauch und schweiß, alles bewegt sich, alles fließt, man wird einfach geführt und lässt sich gehen.
mit begierde kommt der sexualisierte augenblick, verstärkt durch alkohol und drogen jeglicher fasson, über uns alle - man möchte alles begehren und besitzen, man liebt alles, fickt alles und beweint alles und jeden, bis man wieder klar wird und den ursprünglich pfad zu seiner gemeinschaft findet.
ricardo zerlegt kurz vor dem ende des abends nochmal völlig wild und ekstatisch das gehör, den raum und die zeit. alles biegt sich wie in einem schwarzen loch, überall ist gravitation und klang, alles zerschmilzt zu einem brei aus liebe, angst, geborgenheit und wahnsinn.
das morgengrauen ist der moment des erwachens, sowohl der sorgen und des grauens der folgen dieser nacht, aber auch der geborgenheit der freundschaften die einen umgeben. man schwankt freudig und zitternd nach hause, manch einer alleine, andere wollen noch weiter in ihren armen liegen, ob aus furcht oder liebe ist eigentlich egal, hauptsache man spürt!
am ende soll der epilog heilen, er zeigt uns wie gut und selten unsere fast schon schizophrene lebensweise war und immer noch ist :).
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It takes a lot to achieve the status of legendary or era defining in dance music, its sands shift so quickly artists, genres and labels have often come and gone before you realise.
So it's with some pride and deserved justification that Yoshitoshi marks its 20th anniversary with celebratory remix packages of its most iconic tracks.
Already riding high in the Beatport charts with the success of the Uto Karem and Robosonic mixes of Eddie Amadors House Music, the latter of which has spent the past month in the overall top 5, the label now plans a one, two punch with the follow-up: Alcatraz seminal Giv Me Luv.
We thought long and hard about how we scheduled this 20th anniversary project, says label boss Sharam, little point launching big and then following up with a whimper so we deliberately chose Alcatraz for this difficult task.
But the challenge didnt end there; a massive record still deserves a massive remix and I think its safe to say we found the perfect woman for the job...
Step forward undisputed techno titan Nicole Moudaber who leapt at the opportunity to remix the track.
Ive got so many fond memories of Giv Me Luv, it was one of my favourite tunes from my formative clubbing days, recalls Nicole happily, so, when Yoshi mentioned the idea of me remix-ing it I just couldn't say no.
In fact I was so familiar with Alcatraz I was already awash with ideas of what I could, or should, do with it.
As I got into the mix one of those ideas just grew and grew, namely an extended breakdown that constantly builds; layering the memorable vocal to an intense pay-off and (hopeful) moment of real dancefloor drama. Nicoles humble description doesn't quite do the end result justice, which is a modern, masterful take on the classic.
Her iconic techno beats, dark twisted stabs and arrangement of that bassline drive toward the mentioned break, which will undoubtedly rival the fireworks of any impending NYE celebrations. In fact, expect this track to be THE soundtrack to many a dance floor come the all-important hand-over to 2015. And, just in case that weren't enough, Yoshi has also secured the skills of Tent Cantrelle to deliver the perfect deep house foil to Nicoles techno ferocity as Sharam concludes, We wanted a real slice of contemporary funk from the companion mix.
Yoshi is synonymous with exploring the line between deep house and techno, perhaps no more so than during its formative years, so this re-mix completes the package perfectly.
Volta Cab transports us, once again, into his own-defined post-punk universe, bringing nostalgia from 80s synthwave and 90s beats in his own modern context.Throughout his new EP “Alphabet of Humanity”, Volta Cab creates raw emotions from the first track to the last. There is a before and an after when listening to the subtle arrangement and dynamics of each tune, as the atmosphere that embeds his music can only let our imagination flow.
The EP also features astonishing artwork by Anthony Burrill.
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Originally released in 2014, now on the band's own Guruguru Brain imprint for the first time.
"Kikagaku Moyo here sound anything but lost, their child-like wonder manifested in a confident, courageous exploration of sound. Labels – psychedelic, folk, prog-rock, psychedelic-folk-mixed-with-prog-rock – do little to accurately reflect the spectrum of influences on display, let alone the more impactful realization of completeness in Kikagaku Moyo’s songs."
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Essential UK experimental composer Richard Skelton returns to Phantom Limb for new album selenodesy, interweaving his newfound love of electronics and synthesis with mastery of gritty organic texture.
Skelton’s music has always been rooted in landscape, in the loam and grit of the earth: from his 2009 Pennine Moors-inspired modern classic Landings to his more recent Moraine Sequence of geological excavations, his work has been bound inexorably with the stark and untended wilderness of northern landscapes. With this new album, however, Skelton shifts his gaze skyward — in part the result of a move in 2017 to the countryside near the Kielder Observatory, and to a so-called ‘dark sky’ region of the UK. In this remote landscape, light pollution is minimal, allowing the austere majesty of the night sky to be seen with greater clarity.
The resulting album, selenodesy, reveals a new, reverberant spaciousness to Skelton’s use of electronics. It marries the twin worlds of his previous Phantom Limb release - 2020’s These Charms May Be Sung Over A Wound, and its abandoned-factory threnody - with the landscape-revering arcana of his earlier work, which saw him bury instruments in the soil to return months later to recover and record with them, newly imbued with the land they occupied. selenodesy was prefigured by a period of insomnia and the relief found
in stargazing, during which Skelton tried to transcribe his hypnagogic visions: “much of this music came to me in the early hours, in that nowhere state between dreaming and waking. I’d look out the window and the night sky would be swirling with stars. Mars or Venus would be hovering in the corner of the room. I’d lie there and watch the Aurora Borealis dance across the ceiling.”
In selenodesy, we find the lingering, distorted sine waves of album opener “Albedo” that thrum and fizz with an icy, foreboding moonlight, rays of subtle movement that illuminate and darken alternately. Next follows lead single “The Plot of Lunar Phases”, whose passive shrieks echo about a cold, yawning space, reaching an ecstatic crescendo of hissing sonics and swirling celestial drone. Its dynamic range acts like the light of a lunar passage, from utmost darkness to radiant luminosity. Elsewhere, the pulsing, precessional bass of “Faint Ray Systems” gradually opens to reveal mournful, elegiac synthesis that reaches high into the night sky with an unearthly beauty. It is as if, during those long months of lockdown in the Scottish countryside, Skelton tapped into a series of sidereal electromagnetic transmissions, and transposed them into musical form.
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Since relocating to Brazil some years back, Needs Music co-founder Lars Bartkuhn has returned to his long-held love of musical improvisation. Although it’s a product of his jazz roots and classical training, the German producer has constantly found new ways to apply it to his work in the sphere of electronic music.
‘Dystopia’, his first solo album for almost nine years, was born out of two interlinked ideas: a desire to create improvised music without the aid of computer sequencers or an electronic drum set, and a deeply held love of storytelling through sound. Bartkuhn set to work improvising with modular synthesizers, acoustic instruments and hand percussion, later adding light-touch overdubs to a handful of pieces. When he listened back to the recordings, an aural narrative emerged, and you’ll hear it if you listen to the album from start to finish, as is intended.
As you’d expect from a musician and composer of Bartkuhn’s undoubted ability, ‘Dystopia’ is a stunning album – an undulating, expansive ambient journey packed with emotional resonance. While Bartkuhn naturally sees it as a logical progression of his previous ambient-leaning work with Kabuki as The First Minute of a New Day (and particularly their self-titled 2020 album Séance Centre), ‘Dystopia’ also features subtle nods to many of his long-held musical loves, including John Hassell’s ‘fourth world’ recordings, the impossible-to-pigeonhole 1970s catalogue of deep jazz imprint ECM, and the far-sighted American minimalism of Terry Riley and Steve Reich.
The album’s emotional depth is evident early on, with the slow-burn title track – all bubbling electronics, billowing chords, clarinet-style notes and gently strummed guitars offering the most melancholic and bittersweet of openings. The becalmed ‘A Drop Of Water In The Ocean’ follows, with discordant aural textures and hand percussion mimicking the rolling ocean, before ‘Largo (Calm Before The Storm)’ hints at unsettling times ahead.
‘Water and Warm Air’, the only track on the album whose starting point was not Bartkuhn’s cherished modular set-up, bleeps and bubbles across the sound space, adding a starry and otherworldly slant to proceedings, while ‘Disembodied Journey (Parts 1, 2 and 3)’ is a sublime, slowly unfurling journey in three movements – all Tangerine Dream style synthesizer motifs, Pat Metheny-esque guitars and jazz-fusion instrumentation.
So the album continues, with the poignant warmth and looped motifs of ‘Still Existing’ and the sparse, dubbed-out minimalism of ‘Do You Know How To Get Out?’ – a kind of 21st century jazz-fusionist’s take on sparse electronic hypnotism – giving wat to closing cut ‘Into The Waves’, a gentle combination of undulating electronic arpeggios and echoing instrumentation that offers a hopeful and undeniably picturesque conclusion.
Fittingly, the album cover features a painting by the late Dutch artist Franz Deckwitz (1934-94), whose images of alien landscapes were used by Phillips on a series of music concrete compilations. The image featured on the cover of ‘Dystopia’, depicting a deep blue ocean and shoreline, was painted by Deckwitz in Amsterdam in the late 1970s and inspired by a trip to the island of Ponza, Italy.
Matt Anniss
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Tom Trago returns to Rush Hour after 10 years with a wonderfully accomplished mini-album, tip!
During the years he spent living in Amsterdam, when his DJ career seemed to become an unstoppable juggernaut, Tom Trago was a regular visitor to Deco Sauna, a local institution that helped him “decompress” and de-toxify his body. Eventually, a more extended period of “decompression” was needed, with Trago moving to the coast to reassess his priorities and spend more time with his young family.
‘Deco’, his sixth album and first for Rush Hour in a decade, was recorded following an extended absence from club dancefloors, as Trago cut back on DJ commitments to prioritise family life. When he returned to the studio, often with his daughter by his side, Trago initially struggled to get back into the groove. The desire to make dancefloor-focused music had – temporarily, at least – deserted him; instead, he found himself drawn towards a desire to create “electronic lullabies” and music that reflected his more pastoral environment (his home backs on to a patch of woodland in which he would walk every day).
Returning to his most familiar synthesisers – and specifically the first synthesiser he bought, on credit, as a young DJ and wannabe producer – Trago set about navigating different musical routes without the straight-jacket of club-focused dancefloors. Occasionally, old friends from Amsterdam would join him in the studio – Tracey and Maxi Mill, both of whom are part of his Voyage Direct label roster, contributed to tracks on the album – but for the most part the production process was a solo endeavour: musical therapy for an artist determined to do things differently after years spent making club hits and sweat-soaked peak-time workouts.
The results are rarely less than spellbinding. Trago sets his stall out with opener ‘Dark Oak’, a gorgeous, colourful, sun-bright scene-setter co-produced by Tracey that layers tumbling lead lines, chiming melodic motifs and kaleidoscopic chords atop the gentlest of bubbly beat patterns. Maxi Mill lends a hand on ‘Central Park’, a deep and hypnotic excursion marked out by rhythmic bleeps, minimalistic beats and layered melodies, and the summer sun-down rush of ‘Never Peace a Puzzle’, where kaleidoscopic synth sounds, meandering solos and looped electronic stabs rush towards a dancefloor of the mind.
Trago’s desire to create “electronic lullabies” for his young daughter comes to the fore on ‘To Be Left Unlocked’, a hypnotising fusion of spacey electronic motifs, Steve Reich style (synth) marimba melodies and slowly building musical intensity, while the echoing Fender Rhodes riffs, squelchy synth-bass, glistening guitar notes and sparse, snappy post hip-hop beats of ‘When The Sky Is Watching Us’ doff a cap to the producer’s roots as a bedroom beat-maker.
Given the project’s genesis, it’s perhaps fitting that Trago chose to conclude proceedings with ‘It Might Be Forever’ and the digital only ‘Blue Dope’, the album’s most rejuvenating, immersive, and vibrant moments. Both feature sustained chords painted with vivid aural brush strokes and come blessed with the merest hint of a rhythmic pulse – a thread that subtly runs throughout Trago’s most mature and musically rich album to date.
Matt Anniss
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Tropical Disco Records open their 2023 vinyl account in triumphant form with Volume 27 of their well loved 12” series. Yet again they have successfully delivered a four track paean to the boundless dance-floor power of jazz infused disco. It’s a sound which the label has very much made their own over the last half decade.
Opening proceedings is Scruscru, an artist whose immense rise to prominence has very much followed the same time-line as Tropical Disco. He is in glowing form here with vinyl opener ‘Phunk U Do’, a slinky hip-shaking 70’s funk-fuelled disco bomb. Expect this one to set dancefloors on fire across the summer with it’s swirling keys, James Brown-esque vocals and ferocious bassline.
Next up are Lance and Disco Strummer who keep the feel-good vibes topped up to full with ‘Hey Amigo’. An ever so cheerful Latin bomb, it packs in happy-go-lucky vocal loops with brass stabs aplenty alongside a shoulder shaking bassline which will keep those floors grooving from dusk till dawn. If you want to unleash uncontrollable joy in your DJ sets, look no further.
Over on the Flip Tropical Disco’s own Sartorial delivers a smokey sexy-as-hell vocal gem in the shape of ‘Fly’. Merging 70’s jazz licks with a powerhouse live bass, sublime sax solos a divine vocal and some serious scatt, this is a track that just exudes cool.
Closing out the EP in style is one of Mexico’s finest disco proponents, Monsieur Van Pratt. On ‘Journey’ he deploys a huge brass section and percussive breakdown to serious hip shakin’ effect. With guitar licks and synth stabs galore he has given this one both a ridiculously tight groove and bags of warmth. It’s a winning combination.
Tropical disco have yet again unleashed another exquisite 12” showcasing their unique sound. You can expect to see this one hitting the heights of the vinyl charts in quick smart fashion.
Support across Mi Soul & House FM.
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Today sees Belgian-Caribbean provocateur Charlotte Adigéry and her long-term musical partner, Bolis Pupul announce their debut album Topical Dancer, due for release on March 4 2022 via Soulwax’s iconic label DEEWEE.
Cultural appropriation. Misogyny and racism. Social media vanity. Post-colonialism and political correctness. These are not talking points that you’d ordinarily hear on the dancefloor but Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul are ripping up the rulebook with their debut album Topical Dancer. The Ghent-based duo, who broke out with their 2019 Zandoli EP, are rare storytellers in electronic music: they take the temperature of the time and funnel them into their playful synth concoctions – never didactic and always with a knowing wink.
Their debut studio record – which cements them as a duo under both their names for the first time and is co-written and co-produced by Soulwax – is both a triumph of kaleidoscopic electro-pop and “a snapshot of how we think about pop culture in the 2020s.” It captures Charlotte and Bolis’s essence as musical collaborators and the conversations they’ve had over the past two years on tour, as well as their perspectives as Belgians with an immigrant background, Charlotte with Guadeloupean and French-Martinique ancestry and Bolis being of Chinese descent.
Beyond the album’s thematic heft, Topical Dancer reflects Charlotte and Bolis’s idiosyncratic sound: it’s thoughtful but it bangs. Their take on familiar genres is always off-kilter; songs sound undone or a little wonky; but these are nocturnal heaters to make the club throb. “We like to fuck things up a bit,” laughs Bolis. “We cringe when we feel like we're making something that already exists, so we're always looking for things to combine to make it sound not like a pop song, not like an R&B song, not a techno song. We’re always putting different worlds together. Charlotte and I get bored when things get too predictable.”
Topical Dancer is fizzing with ideas – there’s certainly no filler among its 13 tracks. But above all, perhaps, it has a restlessness, a desire not to be boxed in and to escape others’ narrow perceptions of who they are. It’s summarised by the refrain of their new single, ‘Blenda’: “Don’t sound like what I look like / Don’t look like what I sound like.” “One thing that always comes up,” says Bolis, “is that people perceive me as the producer, and Charlotte as just a singer. Or that being a Black artist means you should be making ‘urban’ music. Those kinds of boxes don’t feel good to us.”
‘Blenda’ in particular references how “I am a product of colonialism,” says Charlotte, “and I feel guilty for taking up space in a white country.” The song was inspired in part by Reni Eddo-Lodge’s book Why I’m Not Longer Talking To White People About Race. “It talks about the colonial past and post-colonial present in the UK,” Charlotte continues, “but that isn’t merely a British or American problem, Belgium is part of that as well.” She says that her home country is likewise “oblivious to a big part of its history” which “results in general ignorance and a lack of understanding and empathy towards Belgian inhabitants of immigrant descent.”
On Topical Dancer, it’s less about finger pointing or being dogmatic about all the things they speak about. It’s about emancipation through humour. “I don’t want to feel this heaviness on me,” says Charlotte. “These aren’t my crosses to bear. Topical Dancer is my way of freeing myself of these issues. And of having fun.”
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DJ Seduction's debut release marks the start of an Impact Records Remastered Series. Both "Hardcore Heaven" and the flip side "You & Me" were essential dancefloor pleasers upon release, the total sales hitting 89000 after reissue on ffrr (London Records).
Sourced from Digital Original Masters we have carefully restored and remastered this classic release while retaining all the character of the original. Remastering is by Bob Macc @ Subvert Central Mastering. You can be assured the tracks sound fantastic but do not suffer from the Loudness Wars while still holding their own when mixed with modern productions.
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Essex-based trio Statues have made their presence felt with a string of impressive singles for a variety of labels from Sweden's Lovely and Plastic Idol in the US. Here they offer up their timely summer breezer 'Clear Skies' with crystal cleat synth lines evocative of John Carpenter or Tangerine Dream powered by a simple but effective groove. Coyote Ambient are the first of two guests invited to remix it, and theirs is more of a classic 90s chillout reworking, while Vendetta Suite combine a similar vibe with some soaring solar guitars and live drums. Another original from Statues, 'The Creek ', completes the package, with arpeggios melded with organic voices and guitars.
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