House News

ØEN Records is back with a five track EP from Copenhagen based producer En Anden. Following up two tape releases with ØEN Records and S A M M E N, En Anden debuts on wax with “Hvor går vi Hen” consisting of five tracks from different periods brought together in new versions. The EP is a testament to En Anden’s unique production style perfecting the subtle art of making tracks, where everything standstill, but is still evolving with small waves, connotations and intermissions. The EP is rounded off with a remix by local talent DJ Popup.

The first time I heard of Mattes Schwarz, someone called him 'Stecken-Mattes'. Stecken was a defining, if almost secret, Cologne dance music venue of the 2000s and early 2010s, a minuscule basement without curfew and seemingly any other restrictions, where the up to twelve hour long DJ-sets felt like a tightly knit circle of friends just playing records to each other: The selectors from the night before and the one after reliably sitting right in front of the just over one meter long stretch of the bar that formed its booth, never missing out on a chance to see their mates play, heads nodding and hands clapping through the smoke-filled air, until someone started to sing along, and eventually everyone got up for a few hours of moves on the 15 square meter dancefloor, on a grey Wednesday or Saturday morning at 7 or just as well 10 am.
Mattes Schwarz started DJing in 1982 at age twelve, inspired by, as many West-German kids, the GI-DJs of the roller skating rinks around US army bases. While he got heavily involved in Cologne's BMX scene of the 90s, he never really stopped, and during the main years of being known as Stecken-Mattes and playing there each Friday night, he coincidently lived in Magazine record's homebase, North- Eastern Cologne's old harbour.
One day after Stecken's closure had sent restructuring ripples through the city - I imagine him getting up in the morning and taking a deep breath - he decided to send Magazine a few tracks.
'I Don't Know' is Mattes Schwarz' first release.

Welcome back our longtime friends on Mule Musiq.

Finland born now Berlin based producer Freestyle Man aka Sasse and no explanation needed, German house music producer Henrik Schwarz teamed up for their collaboration 12inch.

A side “Moat” feat veteran producer Jimi Tenor is elegant deep house and b side “dub 5” is German style dubby minimal House.

Hope you enjoy.

GMUF is ready for the next chapter and brings with JUZZ some sparkling grooves to the floor. Our Zurich based italian friend names it beautiful life EP! Enjoy...

Vinyl Only

Poa 002 is a blend of three tracks with an energetic and summerish vibe. A mix of acid sounds, effective basslines and rhythmic drums

Ben Ritz has released EPs on Sweat Equity and Merge Layers. He's not afraid of the high bpms, but this isn't all blender no tender. This is futuristic, hard yet funky techno that is undeniably for the freaks. Find him in NYC or on his vinyl debut right here.

A1 "Up And Down" opens up with an ear-worm, repetitive melody that bangs and jacks with the hard kick and hi-hats. Freakish manipulation of the melody, tasteful breakdown and build-up, and a good dose of space throughout the track make this an undeniable sweat-dripper, trippy chugger. A2 "Do Make Me Strange" has a similarly catchy diddy that undulates around the drums. Restraint is the key here. Hard but funky, with distorted and drippy acidic takes on the main simplistic melodic line--this is a cerebral come-up, cooling your sweaty skin and leading your body to the nooks and crannies of the Hyper Groove.

The title track "Easily Disturbed" opens up the B side by ushering in the mood of the later hours. This is titillating, popping, syncopated, subtle, but still raucous techno right here. Perfect for mid-peak and when you're in your head, sending forces of rave rhythm telepathically to the rest of the dance floor. "Crystalline" closes out the EP with a boom and bang. Hypnosis overcomes. The ego-death has won out against your anxieties. This is music for the thrill-seekers of metropolitan dystopias worldwide...executed with nuance and style.

KRB004 welcomes the start of the second series of vinyl-only records from the Australian based label. The highly anticipated release enlists the work of Manchester based Nolga, who recently solidified himself as a staple throughout the scene with a string of killer releases. Having been tried and tested across numerous dance floors, Nolga's latest EP continues with his signature style of minimal house as he delivers a pair of bouncy minimal rollers complimented by two huge remixes from Romanian heavyweights Arapu & Nu Zau.

FH10 marks Onirik's debut EP on his very own Finest Hour imprint. The A side, with Kaleidophon' and Vivid', carries the slightly darker and trippier sound recently embodied on his solo label, Garage Hermétique. On the flip, a more traditional stripped down deep house affair, an 11 minutes groover for the early hours, aligning perfectly with the label's aesthetics.

Extremely happy to present our TGS002, produced by Rowan and Bessone and remixes by our boy Vern and Kirik's debut, only 200x ,no repress.

welcome to a new planet of music

Jimi Tenor & Freestyle Man with their third outing on Studio Barnhus,
fully focused on thawing our frozen future with this sincere, glorious
hymn. Ricardo Villalobos on the remix – upping the tempo and warping the original’s choral melodies into something slightly more menacing, with that classic RV rubber bassline to keep us bouncing through it all.

repressed !

Experience DJ Life on R.A.N.D. Muzik Recordings

repressed !

#follow up to the 1999 "superlongevity" compilation (PERL10), that became a "must have" for musiclovers all over the world. another 9 exclusive,brandnew songs out of the perlon-universe. this album is yet another perlon essential. 2X12" abum release

The electronic musician and Poker Flat founder's contemplative new studio album takes in minimal house music, moody techno and effervescent breaks across 11 unique tracks. His previous LP Paradise Sold alongside Langenberg was released in 2018 to critical acclaim, and described as "elegantly euphoric" by Mixmag. Never Ending Winding Roads is an entirely solo release however, with much of it produced during the months of enforced isolation due to the coronavirus pandemic. Many of the track titles reflect Steve's headspace during this time, with themes of solitude, contemplation and reflection brought to the fore perhaps more than with any of his previous work. Steve's formative musical years were spent during Germany's techno and acid-house heyday, with his love for a perfect groove as apparent now as it was back then. His DJ skills and a keen, innovative ear led him not down the typical path of the early nineties trance and harder dance scene, but instead towards a fresher, hybrid sound-merging stripped deep house, tweaked out acid and more minimal forms of techno and electronic music: a strand of music he fiercely champions to this day.
"My mindset when making Never Ending Winding Roads was completely different to any other project I have embarked on. I didn't have to tour, and instead could focus 100% on writing music without having the dancefloor as a constant influence. This allowed me creative freedom to explore a range of styles and emotions, and as a result, it is the album I feel most satisfied with to date." says Steve Bug.

With 11 brand new tracks, Never Ending Winding Roads is a meticulously produced and deeply engaging electronic album; one that explores various shades of house, techno and broken beat with Steve's celebrated attention to detail and consummate originality. Album opener Lucid Loops perfectly sets the tone, immediately ensnaring you with a hypnotic, undulating synth line and a faintly menacing undertone thanks to hushed, discordant strings and unnerving vocal stabs. This atmosphere of quiet paranoia permeates many of the tracks on Never Ending Winding Roads, most explicitly in the sinewy groove and sketchy, panic-inducing synth line of Locked Away In My Head.
This album more than perhaps any other in his career sees Steve experimenting with broken-beats, to incredible effect. Tracks like A Conscious Machine and Electro Harmonix are melodic, emotionally-rich cuts: burst of radiant optimism that juxtapose beautifully with the album's darker moments. Elsewhere tracks like Yellow Snake find Steve exploring deep, dubby territory, while album closer Upon Mountains is a cosmic, arpeggiated masterpiece: an 8bit computer game soundtrack reimagined as a poignant electro ballad.

12",180g, Vinyl Only. Limited copies! Early support by Nu Zau, Vincentiulain, Miroloja and more.

The latest transmission from Aesthetic is a various artists 12" that introduces some fresh names as well as welcoming some familiar ones. Dudley Strangeways is up first with "Mutual Core", a soothing balm of a deep house production with a hazy late morning mood. Loht Vostok ramps thing sup with "La Luz", a crisp and uptempo tech house trip with mellow synth parts to offset the urgency of the drums. TIJN takes things in a decidedly subtle direction with the gentle lull of "Amorpheus", and then Jean Bressan gets into a seriously immersive groove on the shimmering "Apartment 303".

Vinyl Only

iO (Mulen) is ready with his 4th album. Now he's coming back to the home of his special releases - Mulen Records. This time - with "Oldivibes". And, no, we're not talking about his label - we're talking about his vision of "oldie vibes". Prepare for the superhot meal of iO (Mulen)'s signature basslines, double dose of energy, premium collection of chords and a delicate pinch of those "oldie vibes" that are at the background of every single track in this 3x12". 1992, 1996 or 2005 - you'll decide the date of retro journey by yourself - the year doesn't really matter here. What does - we're having one more album, designed straight for the dancefloors. 12 tracks that could make any dancer happy - no less.

Every release is special for us here at Hizou. But to clock up our tenth one is a particularly special moment. So it is even more pleasing that we reach this milestone by welcoming on board a producer we admire enormously, Life Recorder. The man from Marseille has a lengthy discography of must-have records to his name already and the super-deep Pressure Jazz EP will only add to that growing list as he delivers a trio of prime cuts, from the punchy, raw analogue sounds of the title track to the warming Subconcious Drive and the melodic, acid-flecked Traffic Jam.