House News

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Longing melodies, warmly distorted harmonies based on deep house foundations.

4 years can feel like a really long time – “Long Time No See“ was Achim Maerz’ frst Wake Up! EP back in 2013, “It’s Been A While“ is his frst track on Metal and Machines and it’s good to see that some things don’t change. it’s a true Achim Maerz track – focused on longing melodies, warmly distorted harmonies based on deep house foundations. “Listening To Machines“ features a kickdrum like a steam hammer in factory hall. For the right mind, even a factory can be an inspiring place.
Benjamin Brunn’s “Iron Copper Gold“ follows his manner of creating timeless and eternal soundscapes. It is less playful and takes the tension to higher grounds. Just like metal, it’s cold being touched and it doesn’t take long until it reaches body temperature. The fourth track Express Mode“ was released on Benjamin Brunns Drop LP in 2015. Achim Maerz’ remix sounds like a screwed-down uptempo house track – slow and heavy, but Benjamin Brunn’s quirkiness is undeniably there.

First Word Records is pleased to welcome back Souleance with a brand new single for Summer 2022!

'GUILI GUILI' is a double AA side 7" single, with an additional remix by Art Of Tones on the digital version.

French slang for "tickle", 'GUILI' is an epic disco-funk piece inspired by the likes of Azymuth, Herbie Hancock and Marcos Valle, but incorporated with Souleance's trademark sounds of fuzzy bass-heavy electronica, synths and samples, giving the track a fresh contemporary twist. Meanwhile, the (digital only) Art Of Tones mix ramps up the disco elements heavily, incorporating some vocals, strings and horn stabs to create some sure fire heat for the summertime. The flipside 'TORO' is a much more tweaked-out, synth-heavy bomb, influenced by artists such as Prince, Parliament and French electronic club music. All tracks mark the evolution of the duo into a full live band, whilst remaining true to their sonic mission of producing music crafted especially for the dancefloor.

The band have been performing live at various festivals and venues across Europe, with upcoming appearances scheduled at the Pura Vida Festival, Greece in August and Jazz à Vienne in July.

This two-track vinyl 7" / three-track digi-single is released on First Word Records, worldwide on May 27th 2022. Another essential one for your record bags.

Credits:

Bass guitar, synths and programming by Fulgeance.

Scratches and programming by Soulist.

Wurlitzer, Moog grandmother, ASM Hydra synth & Roland Juno 60 by Vincent Choquet.

Mastered by DJ VAS.

Hell Yeah welcomes the Italian musical collective Aura Safari for a debut EP on the label.

The band, who are at the forefront of a new Italian fusion sound that blends jazz-funk, electronic and world sounds, is made up of acclaimed house devotee Nicholas Iammatteo, plus Alessandro Deledda, Lorenzo Lavoratori, Daniele Melloni and Andrea Moretti. They contributed a standout track to the Buena Onda - Balearic Beats compilation last year as well as releasing a full length LP on UK label Church to critical acclaim.

Opener 'Dreams of Music' is a lush, new age groove with rich musicality, wind instruments and live drums all glowing warmly as you roll into sundown. 'Oasis' then sinks into a reflective mood, with lazy drums and sensuous late night chords sounding like Roy Ayers all loved up and super stoned. The noodling keys really melt your heart before the excellent 'Slow Divers' pairs more majestic bass riffs with wet claps and splashing cymbals as a wandering lead drifts up to the heavens. It has a dubby swagger to it that is superbly subtle.

Closing out the EP 'Libra', is a heartwarming, slow motion, jazz-funk fusion packed with detail and life affirming synth playing.

These are gloriously heartfelt tracks that showcase this collective's supreme musical ability as well as their unquestionable understanding of jazz, funk and soul, past, present and future.

L'Eclair's EP shows the band taking new directions and approaches to its commitment to the groove.

Gravity Graffiti is back with a pearl.

A compilation of essential music created to make your nights and days fearless, from house to techno, trough ambient and experimental. A genuine selection of six tracks that speak the same language in different moods. Make your choice: fear or music!

This first reference (ATE001) is a reissue of Corsica Ribella, which is the second album by Ghjuvan Petru Graziani (GP.G) in collaboration with the poet Rinatu Coti.

Limited to 300 copies, the reissue includes the restoration of the cover as well as an 8-page booklet containing sketches, poems and exclusive interviews with the artists translated into three languages (French/English/Corsican).

Below a bit more about the artist Ghjuvan Petru Graziani (GP.G) :

Born in Corsica, with a childhood in Toulon, then planer and toolmaker at the Renault Billancourt factory, GP.G created the Groupe Culturel Renault which had an impact in the political strike of 1971.

Multi-faceted artist, GP.G is known among other things for his activist music label Les Disques Vendémiaire with which he produced a few big names in free jazz such as JEF Gilson, François Tusques, Cossi Anatz and ByardLancaster.

Corsica Ribella record is born in 1984 when G.P.G was back in Corsica. He was at this time highly committed to the Corsican National Liberation Front (FLNC). Corsica Ribella is then the first Corsican electronic disc ; a clever mix of electronics, poetry and field recording. Jazz-funk influenced, the LP is a cosmic ballad oscillating between ambient and leftfield with large instrumental parts against backdrop of nationalist demands, an ode to freedom.

„Marriages are made in heaven - so is thunder and lightening.“

João Pais Filipe (drums) and Burnt Friedman (electronics) ultimately hypnotize their audience by activating cosmic mechanics. Both refer to it as „automatic music“, yet their focus is on playing and exploring rare rhythmic modes; in Friedman`s terms: “We organize pressure mediation according to mother nature.“

Friedman & Pais left behind the consensus–artificial–paradise of cultural musical idioms, developing an immersive, archaic next level–dance music, deeply rooted in natural laws of motion.

Yet informed by the works of Jaki Liebezeit –one of the most influential drummers of all time–Friedman & Pais pursue a different path. On side B the listener is confronted with 2 more recent, unreleased “Secret Rhythms”– contributions. The 2 Friedman & Liebezeit–studio–tracks were recorded in 2016 and were played lived frequently.

Since his passing in early 2017, Liebezeit’s drum theory has been carefully retrieved and presented to the public for the first time. The book is now available via Unbound, U.K. and reviewed in FREQ,

Little nitty chucky latte walkie walkie here comes pappy...which means just one thing…the Sworn Virgins are back and they’re out of control! They threw you some dollars and burnt off your clothes with laser beams and now they've got the Male Man coming to deliver some dirty beats and even dirtier baselines as they slide your little monster back onto that sweatbox dancefloor. Fear dripping down your little cheeks hungry eyes gnawing their way up down left right and into your soul. Better turn it up creatures of the night...

The vinyl is housed in a UV Gloss Sleeve with a heavyweight printed inner.

Hell Yeah's next project is to revisit a collection of jazz covers of dance classics. Back To New Roots (Serotonin Fuelled Jazz Covers) was first released in 2011 by 3iO, a band lead by double bassist Manuel Moretti and including Richard Maggioni on piano and Matteo Giordani on drums. They were veterans on the Italian jazz circuit and put out a couple albums, but they are no more.

Samuele Pagliai's Angis Music is thoughtfully curated with deep and groovy electronic music in mind that will test time; sporting a young yet impressive portfolio, Angis Music returns faithful and strong with a new EP from the lush imagination of Chicago veteran Specter. Entitled Ironside, and inspired by a late 60s crime drama- you will Embrace a dense 3 track journey catered to premium vibe lovers of deep house and deep techno grooves spanning from jazzy and romantic to funky and dark moods. Pressed on vinyl with love and exclusive artwork by Serbian talent Floating Bastard, electronic music selectors and checkers should not hesitate on this beautiful wax presentation.

404 – the Paris based electronica group and their debut LP “off course” unveils a 7 track journey through future ambient and intelligent beat music. All rhythms were performed and conducted live by the members of the band: Martin Carlier, Xavier Lanquet, Gauthier Carlier and Bab Mendy.

Nikolai Szymanski (geb. 1986, Düsseldorf) ist Musiker und bildender Künstler. Er nutzt werkbezogen die unterschiedlichsten Medien mit Schwerpunkten in Film/Video, Performance und Musik. Er ist zusammen mit Lucas Croon und Martin Sonnensberger Gründungsmitglied, sowie Sänger und Texter der Band Stabil Elite. Nikolai Szymanski lebt und arbeitet in Köln und Düsseldorf.
Im Hören der neuen LP von Nikolai Szymanski alias AIRCHINA reichen Fäden zurück zu seiner LP 1 (2018), in der Töne sich seidendünn und -schön zu einem feinen Gewebe aus Ambient und Klangkunst verwoben haben und dessen pudriges Narrativ sich in LP 2 (2020) als ein mehr plastisch wirkendes Gefüge des Elektronischen mit Nuancen des Pop fortgesetzt hat. LP 3 (2022) nun ist zugleich konstruktiver und feinstofflicher in ihrer kompositorischen Substanz: Ein musikalischer und sich divers verdichtender emotionaler Raum, in dem sich alle (Er-)Kenntnisse aus dem zuvor von ihm Komponierten zu einem Tanz treffen.

As a moth of light we felt strongly gravitated to the “New Light” by Dinkis. Intensity fits closest to this composition; it is the deepest, hitherto most personal work, packed in an emotional five-part journey.

The paths... between particles shrink, often drifting apart; but they are on an endless search for the new, the one point of attachment, which with all its nuances forms its very own finite world. Don't hold back, go ahead. According to this pattern, Dinkis sounds travel to “New Light”. The unknown traveller crosses the sonic spaces in quest of variety and continuity.

A dark contrast that oscillates back and forth through slow, powerful beats and an octave bouncing bassline. We virtually breathe the restraint, the fear of emptiness of “L'Astronauta”. So close to the target, the guides emerge as bright, floating points on the horizon; as the “Butterfly Poet” over a synthetic flow of sine waves. The present chapter of this composing journey provides a passionate realization.

Suddenly, the stream of thought stops and await for new impulses begins, until gradually, very slowly inspirations just dropping away. This is exactly how it feels when the “Rain In The Desert” sets in and everything starts to live. “Fuoco Nello Stomaco” or as long as the inner fire burns, no sudden drought on any level can cause a general stop.

Ambitions, dreams and creativity never stand still, are in motion; jump from sound to sound. It's this continuous excitement that Dinkis creates in this surprisingly real-feeling EP.

Vinyl Only - Limited

Poltergeist has that strange power of attraction that these personalities with their icy, mysterious aura hold. As soon as Ari Girard (aka Poltergeist) appears, something happens, he catches the light and strikes the spirits.

Kämpfer LP is a ghost story where Poltergeist invites Joy Division, New Order, Talking Heads, The Cure, Can, Kraftwerk, Nine Inch Nails or Jeff Mills for its first album. At the Poltergeist banquet, the crows of cold wave and the barbarians of krautrock, the metallers of indus rock and the freaks of techno meet.

The epicentre is Berlin, the Wall, Lou Reed's Gotham, the Bowie/Eno trilogy and the toxic nights of underground clubs...

Kämpfer LP, Poltergeist's first album, reveals its dark and disturbing universe. Marked by a heavy, deep and majestic atmosphere, this project evokes, without ever saying it openly, the climatic urgency, the ineluctable destiny, the human obsession to be first, to leave a trace of its passage and the nightmares which agitate the nocturnal spirits.

Between frenetic synths, bewitching waves and marked foot, this implacable album marks the beginning of the Poltergeist era.

Scratching synths, a dark and heavy universe: we can understand Vitalic's crush, who decided to sign the project at the first listening on his label Clivage Music.

Es zirkulieren wenige LPs, die über die gesamte Albumlänge die Schönheit und Wärme des „Balearic Sound“ widerspiegeln. Man kann das auch dem Genre “Cosmic“ zuordnen. Arno E. Mathieu aus Südfrankreich schafft auf “Contemplation” das einzigartige flimmernde Licht des „Mediterranen“ einzufangen, und in einem modernen Sound die Stimmungen der Natur des Mittemeerraumes rüber zu bringen. Die Songtitel und das Cover Image ergänzen das abgerundete Stimmungsbild.

Es kommt nicht von Ungefähr, dass DJ Harvey großer Fan von Arno E Mathieu ist und viele seiner Tunes spielt. Wer auch in diesen Kosmos passt, ist Joe Claussell, der neben Franck Roger, I:Cube, Beanfield, Julien Jabre, Mark E, Simoncino, Woolfy, DJ Deep, Gigi Testa, Next Evidence, Max Essa jeder für sich einen tollen Remix abliefert. Fast jeder Track des Albums wurde geremixt.

Building on the promise of nearly 10 years testing limits within club music, Batu presents his debut album Opal. Experimentation is a well-established facet of Omar McCutcheon's identity within the leftfield techno zeitgeist, but more than ever on Opal he seizes the opportunity to incorporate ideas beyond dancefloor impetus into his animated, forward-leaning sound.

Through the course of 11 tracks, rhythmic forms are mutated and manipulated, sonic matter bends across the frequency range and narrative structures coalesce and dissolve according to Batu's own internal logic. Unpredictability lies at the heart of all this music, bound together by a consistent modernist glint. It's a sound intrinsically connected to the superlative string of club 12"s, EPs and collaborations Batu has spun behind him thus far, even as it moves into unfamiliar terrain, guided by abstract inspiration from coastal landscapes and the mineral matter all life on Earth is built on.

Debut album from Batu on his own Timedance imprint following releases for Livity Sound, Hessle Audio or XL Recordings.
UK & Worldwide press campaign led by Dawn Creative. International press cover TBA and strong media (RA, Mixmag, DJ Mag, XLR8R) and radio coverage around the release (Jamz Supernova, KEXP, Dublab, Rinse France)
Extensive touring schedule for 2022 includes US, Mexico, UK, Europe, and features headline slots in multiple high profile festivals (Sonar, Dekmantel, Outlook, Dimensions, Waterworks and more)

Soft Armour is Christian Hougaard, a Danish producer. 'Multi Terrain' is his debut full length, after two ep's. The album is a mesmerizing marriage between ambient and IDM, loaded with soundscapes, field recordings, bass lines and dynamic electronic percussion. That being said, don't expect typical techno, drum & bass or dubstep beats. The ones on this album seem to breathe their own air, go their own way and drag you into an immersive audio adventure. Think Autechre, µ-Ziq or Squarepusher, that will get you closer to the sounds on this album.

First time on LP for 5 songs from last year’s acclaimed Uwami CD. Blazing a new trail in amapiano. First pressing of debut LP sold out before street date. Features new song “Gijima”. DJ Black Low burst on the international scene last year with Uwami, a collection of his early, downright avantgarde amapiano work. The young producer and DJ makes electronic music that sounds like nothing else: glitchy and fierce while smooth and soulful, all under the rubric of South Africa’s most-exported dance music movement to date. Now comes Uwami II, which features the rest of the tracks from the acclaimed debut plus a new song “Gijima.” The Pretoria, South Africa-based artist has more work in the pipeline as we present these inimitable songs for the first time on vinyl. The song “Gijima” is a previously unreleased track Black Low chose to include in this collection as cremates more work at a furious pace. Quotes : “This is essential listening from a 20 year-old star.”—Resident Advisor Best Tracks of 2021 // “Uwami keeps an adventurous spirit at its core and pushes far beyond genre conventions in the process.”—The Vinyl Factory 10 Favorite Releases of the Week // “A producer with a fully realized voice.”— Bandcamp Best Albums of Winter 2021

Phono Ghosts (Skam, Fonolith) is a project from experimental electronic artist Neil Scrivin. Under his given hame he's made house, IDM and electro across a number of albums in the last decade. This record dips into dub, acid and downtempo - and that's just the first track. Second cut 'Red Star Horizons' is even slower, with far-sighted chords sounding Balearic and cosmic at the same time. 'A Distance Of Gold' brings eights vocals and shiny synths to a slow motion groove that is delightfully drawn out and sensuous. It's the same story on 'Crack The Great White Colour', with blissed out, cast-adrift-at-sea vibes on 'Lakeland Opal' and subtle jazz funk on 'Solid Beige.' A brilliantly varied EP.