Powerful rave tracks by the talented Ukrainian producer Daniel Syenichkin aka Bejenec on the first vinyl release of his own label "& The Refugees" (Inspired by his artist name which translates as "Refugee"). This 4 track ep has it all! An energetic hybrid of break-beats, Acid, playful trance elements and beautiful emotions. The young and promising artist has made a big name in the eastern parts of Europe where he is known for his energetic and upbeat live performances. He now is ready to take his artistic inspirations a step further with the start of his new label project!
Suche:la familia
Age Eternal is the solo project of producer and visual artist Lissa Benno. She uses guitars, electronic hardware and her voice to create an hypnotic and heavy haze.
Familiar pop structures collide with organic apparitions of experimental electronic sounds. Layers of choral vocals and synthesizers move as ethereal mass through textures of heavy bass and percussive rhythms.
„Be The Enemy“ delivers an introspective view on transpersonal experiences and supra-naturalistic phenomena.
Some records just stop you in your tracks. They resonate with you and feel instantly familiar like an old friend, even on the first listen. SOYUZ's third album ‘Force of the Wind’ is one of those records. It holds all the trademarks, beauty, and eccentricities of classic Brazilian recordings, from the 60s and 70s, that we have come to love. Think artists such as Milton Nascimento, Lô Borges, Burnier e Cartier, Arthur Verocai et al. But this record wasn’t made in Brazil and is in fact a brand-new release.
SOYUZ (which translates as 'union') is a creative collective from Minsk, Belarus, led by composer, arranger, and singer, Alex Chumak, multi-instrumentalist, Mikita Arlou, and drummer, Anton Nemahai. SOYUZ's previous albums explored and reimagined the legacy of jazz-oriented, non-English-language pop music of the 20th century. For their third album, there is a stronger focus, and it is influenced by 70s Música popular Brasileira and building bridges from it to present-day Belarus. Alex notes that from the moment he first encountered Brazilian music, he found in it a kind of concentrated emotion that felt as if it were familiar to him from his childhood. This non-verbal emotion and connection between the listener and musician echoes in the music, regardless of understanding of the language the album is recorded in.
‘Force of the Wind’ includes songs sung in Russian and Portuguese as well as instrumental compositions. Its musical palette is both acoustic and electroacoustic: rich warm Rhodes piano, soaring string arrangements, and a controlled drum swagger sounding both relaxed yet super tight. Alongside Alex's sublime vocals, that grace the majority of the tracks, the album features guest performances by multi-talented musician and vocalist Kate NV and rising Brazilian star, Sessa. Alex also recently arranged a number of tracks on Sessa's highly praised 2022 album 'Estrela Acesa'.
On the album, the trio is joined by a cast of friends; NY-based musician of Turkish origin percussionist, Cem Mısırlıoğlu, classically trained composer, Simon Hanes, who aided with string arrangements and conducting the string players, Netherlands-based Brazilian multi-instrumentalist, Gabriel Milliet, on flutes. With the collaboration of these friends SOYUZ have created nine songs/suites that are subtle and plenitude and like the best albums, leave you aching for more.
‘Force of the Wind’ is an enigma, Brazilian yet not Brazilian, vintage yet still contemporary, out of sync with modern culture yet completely relevant and necessary.
Magnificent Wolof drum music, performed by an extended griot family over seven consecutive days, in the mystical setting of Lac Rose, outside Dakar.
Doudou Ndiaye Rose — who died in 2015 — is a key drummer in the musical history of the world. He developed a system of five hundred original drumming patterns, ancient and new. Amongst the modern rhythms here is Bench Mi — ‘under the Baobab tree,’ a spot where problems get solved. Also Hibar Yi — ‘passing on information’ — the theme-tune of Senegalese TV national news for decades — and Les Rosettes, the signature rhythm of Senegal’s first ever all-female percussion group, convened by Doudou, and named after his grandmother.
These original compositions sit alongside important traditional rhythms, familiar to every Sabar player, such as Farwu Jar (a courtship game sometimes resulting in a wedding), Ceebu Jin (also the name of the national dish of fish and rice), and Gumbé, often played after a successful harvest.
Recorded in joyful single takes, with no overdubs, mastered by Rashad Becker, the music is deep and thrilling, polyrhythmic to the bone, with a complex, pointillistic intensity at times evoking Jeff Mills in full flight.
The Havoc guys have been on an enforced hibernation through the winter due to a lurgy that had been affecting the planet. They have remained in the cave throughout this time huddling up to keep warm and exploring what had become their home away from home for months on end. One night, whilst lighting a fire, trying to find motivation for the next release (basket weaving had lost its appeal) they spotted a glint across the way – On further inspection, it was a small bottle and had a label of sorts – It looked to be medicine or smelling salts – Liquid Gold. Curious creatures they are they all took a long good sniff of this elixir. And just like that, they rummaged around the records stacked in the corner put some more coal in the old computer and began their work.
Soon the A-Side of the new EP was born. Most certainly a step up in the BPM from the previous A-Side off EP1. A1 kicks off with a Germanic Proto Throb Job, that's sure to cause errr...Havoc on the dance floor. Whilst A2 is a Bassline Driven, Reconstructed Austrian Euro Pop Monster. One for late-night Discos.
After a while they had stopped sweating, hearts had stopped beating quite so quick. Whilst the creative juices were flowing a few more records were dug out and a log put on the fire and a cup of fungus juice imbibed. B2 came rattling out the speakers in no time at all in all its chugging glory, the vocals take in a nod to god after the devil has done his dirty work.
At this point, the sun was starting to peek through the mouth of the cave and a new day was upon them. One last record had been found, earlier, that was decided would work at this time, actually after consideration, any damn time... B2 Is like a familiar Balearic Back rub with pop-infused French vocals and beats for days...So now EP2 is complete. Back out into the world our intrepid or is it tepid threesome went... Let's only hope their wives haven't left them after all this time locked away.
DJ Support:
Jim (HMD)
Bill Brewster
Kelvin Andrews
Eric Duncan
Al Mackenzie
James Holroyd (Begin)
Pete Herbert
Phil Mison
Nick The Record
Justin Robertson
Coyote
Mind Fair
Steve KIW
Craig Christian
Dr Rob
Dave Jarvis
Max Essa
Andy Simms (Soft Rocks)
Howler
Jaye Ward
Nancy Noise
Andy Taylor (WATS)
Graeme Fisher
Severino (HMD)
The Tenets of Forgetting is the long-awaited follow-up to MSYLMA’s lauded 2019 debut, Dhil-un Taht Shajarat Al-Zaqum. This time he’s joined by fellow musician and producer ISMAEL for seven tracks, built around a lush palette of synths and MSYLMA’s singular voice.
Written and produced in Cairo between 2015 and 2020, The Tenets of Forgetting is the first collaboration between MSYLMA and ISMAEL. Like his first record, The Tenets of Forgetting finds MSYLMA singing in classical Arabic, and the musicians have enlisted Nariman Youssef to provide translations of the lyrics. This gesture of openness runs parallel to the themes of the record; romance and vulnerability; growth and change; pathos and passion. Listeners who aren’t familiar with pre-Islamic poetry or classical Arabic will find the lyrics just as rich and beautiful as the vocal melodies imply, telling a story of love, loss, self-doubt, and grave introspection.
Musically, the album moves in broad, painterly sweeps of 808 kicks, rich synthesizer chords, and MYSLMA’s soaring, plaintive voice. The English translations reveal a second world of mathematically sound rhythmic structures and poetry in the lyrics. The music pushes and pulls in both tempo and timbre, swirling both around and underneath MSYLMA’s voice but never losing a sense of self-contained narrative.
The album is rounded out by Jesse Osborne-Lanthier and Omar El-Sadek’s immersive, esoteric art, and features additional production on track 7 by Osborne-Lanthier, Pierre Guerineau, and Asaël Robitaille.
Limited run of 300. Includes insert + DL code.
Kilòmetro 4.5 takes you into danceable ambient sounds through a dreamy album produced by Snad. Loop DreamZz is an ethereal representation of nostalgic soundscapes. It wraps you in a strange yet familiar sense of paradise at twilight, be it before dawn or post-sunset. Faint birdsong, gentle waves, and the bittersweet tiredness when you’re one of the last on the sandy dancefloor, yet perpetually craving to keep the dream looping.
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
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!
London producer Yosh continues his hot streak of putting out a twelve inch a month with typically breaksy, UK focused EP on Distant Horizons that further earmarks the emerging artist as one of the producers to watch in 2021.
Following releases on Time Is Now and an announcement on Desert Sound Colony’s Holding Hands sub-label, Yosh serves up four steppers that navigate us from the doors of the club to front left of the speaker. ‘Don’t Say’ is a fast cut of subby breakbeat-garage; the producer’s knack for emotionally stimulating vocal samples and peak-time basslines moving into the frame.
‘All That Acid’ gives squirming acid lines and stripped-back percussion, mutating the breaksy, UK energy into something more electro focused, and in doing so provides what could be the score for an old racing video game, before ‘Choose One’ takes us back into familiar Yosh territory with a cut of dreamy garage, with the odd dubby wobble for good measure.
We finish on a personal note with ‘Home’, a cut that epitomises that good feeling that can only come with returning to a place of comfort; relaxed atmospherics and 2-step rhythms providing the perfect warm up number.
The Tears of Joy label boss returns with an encompassing tribute to the power of the dancefloor. As a member of Pacific Horizons and under a host of other aliases, the Los Angeles-based producer has explored the breadth of dance music - from Mancuso-inspired loft house to bassbin rumblers that nod to his familial relationship with the U.K. - but his most personal statements have been reserved for the Live For Each Moon moniker.
As a result of this, and also by nature of its journey/trip sequencing, 'A Vision of Dance' reaches for a comprehensive sound, honed over decades of observation and participation. The producer's varied interests shine through, and they are pushed beyond genre experiment into new, hybridized shapes - sinewy, searching, warehouse techno shares space with crunchy, heaving breakbeat cut-ups and churning, slow motion chugs. While the overall pace leans toward the trancelike whirlwind, a few atmospheric, introspective interludes are cut in as kind of existential breathers - nods to LFEM's back catalog of haunted ambience as much as ravers' respites.
Three years after he released the incredible New Experience EP (picking up plaudits from Bill Brewster, Tim Sweeney, Laurent Garnier, Horse Meat Disco, Leo Mas & 6Music’s Tom Ravenscroft, among many more), Tokyo’s Kota Motomura returns to Hobbes Music for his debut LP, Pay It Forward. This is the first vinyl release on Hobbes Music since the much-loved ‘Aranath’ EP by Leonidas & Hobbes last Spring. While the label maintains the level of quality control for which it has become recognised, the artist continues to subvert electronic and dance music norms in his iconoclastic way on this extraordinary record.
He’s a mysterious character with an ear for idiosyncratic music that runs the gamut from ambient, exotica and jazz to disco, house and techno via post punk, new wave and funk. It’s highly original and all adds up to a confection perhaps best described as ‘Balearic’.
Album opener Paradise is a certified jazz-funk JAM. Destined for dance floors worldwide, this one’s been dropping well with DJs, Motomura demonstrating his piano chops alongside Mutsumi Takeuchi’s sax. Tropical pushes the boat in a more rhythmic direction, some pretty wild drum programming laced with more sounds of the, um, tropics, before mad vocal yelps suggest something yet more tribal. To Be Free initially resembles early 90s progressive house (pulsing bassline, synth-driven melodies), before the arrival of some new wave guitar licks a la classic Talking Heads/David Byrne and ooh ooh vocal chants take it to another dimension altogether.
B-side opener Emotion features Takeuchi again (on flute this time) and more vocal chants before things take a dramatic turn, threatening to open up into a full fanfare before calming and then bursting into wild life again with the exhortation that “C’mon, everybody dancing!” Rhythm flirts with an energy and pace more akin to a techno record: drums, drums, more drums plus a fair few yelps and chants - the kind of DJ tool that will send a simmering dance floor wild in the right hands. Flower closes things in a more melancholy style, familiar to fans of ‘Aboy’ from the New Experience EP, with plaintive acoustic guitar (performed by Akichi), birdsong and big piano chords.
Support from Bill Brewster, Leo Mas, Al Kent, Red Rack’em, Nick The Record, Phil Mison, Phat Phil Cooper, KZA, Sean Johnston (ALFOS), S/A/M, Dribbler, Joe Muggs, Monolith Cocktail and more…
‘Gonna review in MÜ mag... very fine stuff!’ JOE MUGGS
‘Will be reviewed on the blog’ MONOLITH COCKTAIL
BILL BREWSTER played Flower on the DJ History podcast #641 (25.3.22)
'I really like this album, Flower and Paradise are my favourite' LEO MAS
‘I like Paradise’ AL KENT
‘Woo this is tasty. DEFO playing on my next radio show. The label’s A&R is defo getting better and better. HM has been putting out some dope stuff and this one seems really good quality’ RED RACK’EM
‘Paradise and Flower sounding good’ NICK THE RECORD
‘Tunes sound great!’ PHIL MISON
‘Going to include Paradise and Flower on my Sunday Ibiza global radio show PHAT PHIL COOPER (Nu Northern Soul)
‘Very nice album with influences from many different genres. I especially like To Be Free with nice synths and guitar cutting, and Flower, which is a chill vibe’ KZA (Mule Musiq, Endless Flight)
'100% correct about the ALFOS potential of To Be Free!' SEAN JOHNSTON (A Love From Outer Space)
'Stunning, will fit perfectly with the vibe of my radio show’ S/A/M (Music For Dreams, DK; Playa Del Sol, Ibiza)
'Stellar work, i'll make a bet that Flowers is a Balaeric classic this summer' DRIBBLER (Breakfast Club, Ibiza)
‘It's cool in a nice smelling psycho sense, it was a very DEEP sound that I couldn't produce. Congrats!’ ALTZ (Altzmusica)
‘Paradise is my jam, it's deep, sunny and never boring. I'm interested to see how this will work on the dance floor. Overall a great album with solid composition and impressive use of live instruments!’ SOBRIETY (fka Chloé Juliette)
'Very tidy selection' ASTROJAZZ (Kelburn Garden Party, Wee Dub, Samedia Shebeen, Disco Makossa)
‘This is a lovely release. Follows on from New Experience in the best way possible. It's got lots of vibes going on but holds together as a cohesive piece of work. Love it’ JAMIE THOMSON (La Cheetah, Glasgow)
‘To Be Free is a track i could imagine Andy Weatherall playing in one of his sets at A Love From Outer Space’ KIRSTIE PATON aka She-Bang Rave Unit (Threads Radio, Radio Magnetic)
We're here with the 14th vinyl release in our catalogue. And those of you who've been following us since day one can probably tell that it's something both new and quite familiar. How so? Well, because this particular record features a brilliant track released on CD ten years ago (!), as part of our "Mystical Deep Vol. 2" compilation, but the "new" part here is the two completely fresh remixes by two amazing artists. So let's get to the names, shall we? As for the track in question, we're talking about "Leagues Deep" - a forward-thinking half-stepper by two heavyweights known as Loxy & Resound. The track has been making waves for quite a while, and has finally reached the light of day on vinyl. As mentioned before, it is accompanied by two remixes. One is by an up-and-coming talent going by the name of AM94, who turns the original version into a dual narrative, so to speak: the first half is a proper action-packed syncopated roller, the second half - a more modern, deep sub-laden half-tempo interpretation of it. The other remix is brought to you by no one else than Resound himself, who's transformed the original piece into a breakneck-paced drum-focused killer. But do watch out for the bassline too - it takes absolutely no prisoners. You've been warned.
Pond Life co-captain, Marma Boog reaches for the sixth gear on OTE010 laying down three no nonsense, mind melters. Taking first prize for best song title, Marma Boog hits with an Italo mix of ‘Hypnotizing a Kookaburra’ to kicks things off. Proper hyperspace pumper business, synth hypnotism with that cosmic kookaburra in tow.
On the flip a dark percussive, tribal-tinged chugger in the form of the Mood Mix with a familiar vocal that sits all to sweetly in the midst of the psychedelic stomping.
Keeping it on a similar tip and rounding off the EP in style, ‘East of Canada’ powers on through - a downtempo, piano poised, acid-laden trip to expand your mind.
Back In Stock!
The debut collaboration between techno alchemists Ben Klock and Lucy will probably provoke quivers of anticipation before a single note has been heard. After all, both producers have carved out names for themselves as scene innovators at what they do, and both have already proven that they can more than capably work in a duo format without sacrificing an iota of their unique aesthetics: in Lucy's case, there has already been the sublime Zeitgeber pairing with Speedy J., and Klock has joined forces with the likes of Marcel Dettmann to craft some of the more memorable output from the Ostgut Ton label. This new release makes good on each producer's talent for working with epically unfolding tracks, maintaining a strong command of both 'drone' and melodicism, and envisioning sound as a kind of inter-dimensional mass transit. As the record indicates, things can get very interesting when the two working methods superimpose perfectly, but can be just as interesting when the two fall slightly out of phase with one another.
Listeners familiar with the classic kosmische feel will be taken immediately by the opening gambit "Bliss," whose feeling of floating through the coldness of space is accompanied here by nicely warm production values. The bassline that introduces the subsequent track ("War Lullaby") is close to being a continuation of the opener's leitmotif sequence, although with a change in atmosphere that will keep curious ears from turning away too soon: an FX-shrouded voice delivers a monologue at once seductive and foreboding, followed by a confident kick thump with ephemeral trailing clatters in tow. This affective orientation pulses through the whole record well, building up to the second rhythmic track ("Santeria") which is the busiest and most engaging of the bunch. Here a variety of sonic flavorings are ritually thrown into the pot and allowed to simmer - fleeting snatches of conga, phasing zaps and rhythmic ricochets all make for a rich concoction that epitomizes the progress that has been made in techno music within this decade. The closing "A Ghost Love story," like the opener, is a non-'dance' piece, but is no less compelling for that fact: as a foam of white noise pans between the listener's ears, a slurred / pitch-bent refrain conjures the feeling of either entering or exiting from some erotically tinged hypnagogic state.
Speaking of which, the overall impression given off by this record is that of a special kind of reciprocity: that is, of dreams influencing reality and reality feeding back into dreams. The rhythmic intensity of these tracks, at once an indicator of a hard and immediate reality, is regularly complemented by oneiric flourishes that make the partitioning line between these two realms of consciousness less distinct. As the next chapter in the Stroboscopic Artefacts saga, and in the personal journeys of both Ben Klock and Lucy, it will contribute to the ongoing mission of all these parties: giving longtime fans what they want while expanding their consciousness and inquisitiveness.
Irish producer and DJ Mano Le Tough announces his new record, At The Moment, out August 20th on DJ Koze’s Pampa Records, and presents the first single, “No Road Without A Turn.” After more than a decade of releases and touring, Mano has spent the past year at home in Zurich, rearing his young family and focusing on the positives of 14 months without performing, amid the uncertainty of the pandemic. In the face of horror, Mano channelled inspiration. With At The Moment, the follow-up to 2015’s Trails, those struggles have produced a record which balances the ambivalence of the current moment, with wistful streaks of unguarded optimism.
At The Moment shows Mano’s modes of expression evolving too. The synths and rhythms common to earlier works are now complemented with less familiar sounds and influences. Jangling guitars and sun-bleached chords envelop his own tender, plaintive vocals in a dappled wash of summery pop. Another track grounds overlapping melodies and sci-fi soundtrack pads with hip hop beats, creating a hypnotic slice of slinky retro-futurism. Where there is reflection, there is also a sense of being unafraid.
“I’ve always liked that Mallarmé quote, ‘poetry is the language of crisis,’” says Mano. “It’s hard to make good music about everything being amazing. Everything is going great – who wants to listen to that? Anything I’ve done - anything which I thought had any kind of artistic merit, has been through struggles I’ve had in my life”.
Berlin-based, Dutch-born Steffi possesses near-boundless prowess. As a DJ, she’s proved her effortless mastery of disco, house, electro, and techno; as helm of labels Klakson and Dolly, she’s long maintained her status as tastemaker; as a producer, she has graced us with three solo LPs and numerous 12”s. Dark Entries is now honored to unveil the debut of her project Crushed Soul, a moniker she had used only once in 2013 for an Ostgut Ton compilation track. The mutual esteem of Steffi and DE has been previously fruitful, with Steffi providing a remix for Cute Heels’ 2016 EP on DE, but this is their first full-length collaboration.
The Family of Waves EP represents both familiar and novel pastures for Steffi. While her love of electro and classic Detroit techno have been oft-evident, here we witness the darker shades of new wave and industrial creep to the forefront. This turn for the twisted feels not just natural, but predestined, an inevitable succumbing to morbid forces. But Steffi also views Family as “a playful association...a mix of my past and new modern waves". There is a kernel of whimsy, even joy, lurking within the record’s temporal jumblings. The A-side opens with “Gravitational Field”, which juxtaposes its gnarled bassline with unearthly percussives and a recurrent resonant gong. The wild sonic palette speaks Steffi’s singular voice. “Scalar Property” continues the paranoid propulsion with an unhealthy dose of what can only be described as Metroid-funk, its staccato bass jabs interlaced with ghastly vocal pads. The B-side contains a diptych of slower tracks that juggle reference points both retro and futurist. In “Family of Waves”, a churning EBM-esque bassline battles acerbic yelps. On this track, the collision of past and present is most pronounced, as if A Split Second were covering Mike Parker. “Diffusion of Heat” closes the EP with what feels like a perfect synthesis of Steffi’s musical passions: funky, warbling chord stabs; intricate rhythmic diversions; the ecstasy of repetition. Here, disco, new wave, and techno marry harmoniously, if only to inform us of the disharmony of our present.
All songs have been mastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios. The sleeve and accompanying postcard were designed by Eloise Leigh using video art stills by Goldenliustra.
The Liverpool-based DJ and producer ASOK returns to DVS1's Mistress Recordings with his most diversified EP yet: "Mistress 14" unfolds ASOK's raw, analog-heavy sound aesthetic full of broken kick drum patterns, stepping basslines, and lush synths.
With 25 years of record collecting, DJing, and promoting parties around the UK, there is little of the dance music spectrum that Stu Robinson has not been involved with. The Liverpool-based artist has amassed a fine understanding of a wide array of scenes, styles and sounds from drum & bass to electro-funk, disco to house and techno – underpinned by a love of breakbeat. The music under his alias ASOK is an amalgamation of this diversity that has found favor with labels like M>O>S, Lobster Theremin, Crème Organization, and Mistress Recordings.
"Mistress 14" opens with "Space Rockets" which is a nod to his breakier love affairs without using actual breakbeats. While second track "Is Anyone" displays his take on classic Chicago House with a little Roland JD-800 euphoria thrown in. On the flip, "Last Refuge" explores driving, rhythmical techno with ASOK's typical ravey pad-like break in the middle until "The Alchemist" closes the 12-inch by laying more focus on melody and texture with a growing, always changing bassline and an ethereal synth that carries the track's energy. The digital bonus track "Apano Sin" concludes the package with a scruffy somewhere in between everything vibe.
ASOK about Mistress 14:
"Mistress 14 is probably the most important EP I have ever made in terms of showing all the different things I am into. I’m difficult to pin down because I’m not really a techno DJ, or a house DJ, or anything like that. I like all forms of electronic dance music. As a DJ, I mix up old and new, familiar with unfamiliar, playing everything from Italo disco to really dark high-bpm breakbeat. As a producer, it’s not easy to put an EP together that covers a little of everything, yet still sounds cohesive. Especially considering that all my tracks were recorded in long live takes, then edited down with no ability to change parts. Sometimes that requires some pretty heavy editing, but that’s one of the good things you get when making music this way. I’m in control of the creative process, rather than feeling like some kind of colored block administrator drawing blocks out on arrangement view of my computer."
finally repressed !
The Vivus family ends 2018 in style with its fifth instalment in the vinyl-only series VRV. This release brings back some familiar faces in label founder Daniel Broesecke and an old friend in Silat Beksi.
These two close friends who share their passion for music are fresh off their release on Curtea Veche back in September but they bring some raw energy on this one, resulting in timeless and hypnotic music from two creative young artists.
The first track, Mistral, starts off as strong as you would expect from its name, deriving from the cold northwesterly wind that blows from the south of France to the northern Mediterranean. The heavy bassline floats just above the surface as a cool breeze of atmospheric sounds make their way across.
Next up, on the B side, we have Get Some More, with a calmer approach but powerful nonetheless. An unexpected vocal greets us at the beginning only to make way for a steady flow of uninterrupted intertwined noises that go hand in hand with the firm bass line just underneath.
Otis Stacks, three syllables. A name and a first name that recall a mythical singer as much as the Memphis music label that got him to it's days of glory. A name that evokes him in particular and soul music in general. Behind a name that sounds familiar are Elias Wallace and Justmike, two men united to become one: Otis Stacks. In truth, the optimized version of a work started long ago, when Justmike was producing the Danish hip-hop sound of Dafuniks and decided to get in touch with Elias after hearing his voice on a friend's tune. He first wanted him to lay his voice on a
chorus, then a verse, and ended letting him take over the lyrics of 'All I Want', the song that would later bring Dafuniks on air and around Europe. After traveling miles and miles across the ocean and the seas separating California from Denmark, Elias undeniably became a member of the group. As gigs went on, stages after stages, Justmike got inspired by Elias's voice and presence. Thus, the idea of a duo collaboration between the two men geminated and grew in his mind. As the evidence of their getting along, 'Fashion Drunk' became the first tune to
infiltrate Nova and FIP radio playlists, as its music video reached 8 million views. This now obvious complicity as extended in the form of an album, also called Fashion Drunk, released by Underdogs Records. With this French stopover, the line between California and Denmark is now completed. The result is an artistic fusion in which Justmike has plugged his instruments to the machines he uses to compose, letting Elias in charge of the
lyrics and singing. Here, the soul music is printed as a guideline in an organic and digital composite matter. In an ethereal and aerial production that perches its arrangements in the air of the mix or buries them in its bases, letting electro music spread on a groove punched with black and white keys. Each element intervenes with discretion to let Elias stories be related with elegance. Frustrated, disappointed or aborted love stories.




















