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Two iconic MOD/Soul tracks by the Godfather of Soul himself - JAMES BROWN and his Famous Flames. First spun at the Scene Club, London, by legendary DJ and label owner Guy Stevens, Night Train' was originally a 12-bar blues instrumental and its roots can be traced as far back as 1940. Lyrics were first added in the early fifties but James Brown put his own stamp on it by shouting a list of cities off his East coast touring schedule. The energy of Brown's delivery and the exotic sounding American locations caught the imagination of Britain's young Mods and it's never lost it's appeal. Think' is the title track from Brown's third album and is a cover of the 1957 5' Royales R&B hit. Brown makes it his own and transforms it into an insistant dance floor workout complete with an extended sax break.

'Psych', the long-awaited Freaks album released in 2014 gets a re-release in 2015 with some brand new remixes.
Freaks, a musical partnership between Luke Solomon and Justin Harris that's spanned twenty years and includes the Music For Freaks label, four albums, and an avalanche of singles on the likes of Playhouse and Hot Creations to Crosstown Rebels, News and International Deejay Gigolos. The album was released to rave reviews and featured a much awaited gathering of material from the late 00s onwards, including collaborations with Robert Owens, Stella Attar and Diz Washington.
This 12" includes interpretations from Dave Aju, Jamie 3:26 and Freaks.For over a decade, San Francisco innovator and a vital part of Circus Company, Dave Aju has been producing and performing his unique brand of electronic dance music, a consistently fresh and expressive sound.
His remix of 'Situations' makes no exception, a strong piece of jacking house music with bubbling sub bass, strong raw percussive beats, and an effective use of Diz' vocals and the flute sound. On the B Side 'Misfits' is reworked by Chicago's master Jamie 3:26 who turns the tune into an acid house monster and by Freaks themselves who extend their Original version for dance floor action. A strong package...and more to come !

Young East London producer Sam 'Palace' Walker has been part of DJ Haus's trusted inner circle for some time, having released on both Unknown 2 The Unknown and Hot Haus Records. Here he unreleased two more retro-futurist house gems - the kind of kaleidoscopic, rave-inspired tracks that evoke memories of early '90s pirate radio stations and illegal parties full of smiling dancers in bad long sleeve t-shirts. Choose between the bouncy stabs, hazy vocal cuts, bleep-era bass and snappy, cheap-sounding beats of "Codex", and "NRG", a piano-laden banger that makes great use of some familiar samples that were once a staple of breakbeat hardcore and bouncy house records. Oh, and the unmistakable rhythmic swing of UK garage.

The Bunker New York is proud to announce the second EP from Mehmet Irdel, also known as Løt.te (pronounced Loat-tey), following his debut release on our label in 2014.
Løt.te's 'History of Discipline' EP features two distinct moods and detailed, industrial-inspired sound design with a firm focus on the dancefloor.

"When I discovered the heavy, dark techno coming out of the U.K. and Japan in the '90s and '00s, like Regis, Surgeon, Female, and Takaaki Itoh, it was a revelation," Irdel says. "Until then, I hadn't realized that techno could reference the grittiness and physicality of industrial music and make it work so well, and feel natural on the dancefloor." These muscular, upbeat techno artists are the perfect reference point for Løt.te's music, but Irdel takes his work one step further, featuring an emotional complexity that many other producers lack. "I'm interested in techno that feels both masculine and feminine at the same time," says Irdel. "These days, most techno feels either very intricate and clean, or very noisy and macho. What interests me is finding an in-between."

True to its name, "History of Discipline" is the darker track here. Built on a foundation of heavy, swinging kick drums and shuffling hi-hats, the track builds to an enormous climax before winding down into a rattle of metallic percussion. "A Mutable Constant" is more ambiguous, featuring a rubbery bassline and steadily-building background percussion - until a moody, longing synthesizer pad begins to take center stage. "I don't honestly know where the emotion in 'A Mutable Constant' came from. That wasn't the plan when I started working on it," recalls Irdel, "but I incorporate a mix of analog synths into my productions, like the Korg MS-20 or Doepfer Dark Energy, and their sounds sometimes surprise me. My production process begins and ends with a computer, but I love being able to have that '90s analog sound' in my work. I'm very conscious of not having any 'overly digital' sounds in my tracks."

Løt.te's latest EP embodies the spirit of techno while simultaneously pushing its sound forward. "Techno, for me, is an experiment in human perception. A way to find the fringes of perception in rhythm, melody, and emotion, to push all the way to the edge, to find the breaking point. I'm trying to push techno's boundaries without ever losing sight of 'what makes techno techno': its restraint and groove."

Record Store Day 2015 will see a special release from Gene Hunt directed and selected by label boss I-Robots.

The two track vinyl EP features unreleased material produced in the early years of the famed Chicago artist's career in the 80s and is dedicated to musical legend Frankie Knuckles who appears on the artwork in a rare picture with Gene Hunt from back in the day.

Gene has regularly produced and remixed for the label before now (including remixing Klein & M.B.O. 'Last Call' and on forthcoming I-Robots project 'Dirty Talk' ft. Donna McGhee) and has already assured his place in house history as a DJ headlining clubs like Warehouse and the Music Box as well as playing with the likes of Ron Hardy and Larry Heard.

As a producer he has been on top of his game for three decades and has released on legendary imprints such Rush Hour, Svek, Djax and many more, so is a true house icon.

His first cut here, 'Drive Yourself Nuts' is a classic bit of Chicago jack with prickly percussive patterns staying busy on top of punchy drums. Wonky bass, physical grooves and coarse claps all make this one a standout banger for the peak of the night.

On the flip of this special package, 'Wildside D Dubb' is a slow building, mania inducing tune with a lead synth line slithering about over dusty metallic drums. Eventually some acid bleeds into the mix and pans all around, adding a sense of scale to this heady, freaky, dance floor smasher. As ever, Opilec Music show others how it is done with this real and rare bit of true Chicago house history.

Four years since they released Dring, Nôze are making a very welcome return to Circus Company with their fifth album Come With Us, and once again the pairing of Nicolas Sfintescu and Ezechiel Pailhes has yielded a collection of captivating and curious songs that could only come from the unique sound world they inhabit. As has been evident throughout their career from their early experimental house days through to the more recent song-based material for Get Physical, the Parisian duo have always moved on from album to album, maturing their sound to deliver a new experience for themselves and their listeners every time. On this occasion, Come With Us finds Nicolas and Ezechiel in a particularly introspective mood. Even as their work has naturally turned more to home-listening craft over the years, here they revel even more in personal reflection both musically and lyrically. Tracks such as Saint' conjure up the romanticism of dustbowl blues with its vagabond guitar tones (played by long time collaborator Thibault Frisoni), while Nicolas's voice reaches new distinctive heights in spellbinding tales like Apache". Emiliano Turi also lends a new sense of natural groove to the Nôze sound with his live drumming, and as ever, Nicolas and Ezechiel are keen to bring their friends into the fold for guest vocal spots. Dani Siciliano spars beautifully with Nicolas on the disco-inflected album opener I Need To Know". dOP vocalist JAW, fresh from his Midtown project, joins in for the bittersweet balladry of Come With Me".

It´s certainly one of these rare moments, when you stumble over a record which really stands out ; a record which creates one of those moments that makes your day. A record that slowly makes your foot tap, and makes you drop out of the monotony of our everyday life.
Suddenly echoes of yet undiscovered sounds turn the beat from a localized impact into an environment with you inside. Refractions bounce back from any surface. No other artist manages it to make electronic music sound so organic, opening up rooms with a phenomenal spatial architecture. With his unique technique to arrange frequencies in space, Boris Steffen, better known as Jichael Mackson once more delivers an outstanding series of tracks with his first EP on his very own imprint Teledub.
The 'Foxy Lady' contains three tracks each with the unique dramaturgy Jichael Mackson is well known for, while adding a new almost sexy/funky freshness to his signature sound.
Apart from sounding beautiful and being undeniably serious bombs for any dancefloor, these tracks are simply different. The Foxy Lady EP builds a bridge to Jichael Macksons early releases and one thing is for sure, this is a record that will stay in our bags for a long time.
Jichael Mackson's Foxy Lady EP on Teledub. Grab your copy...

From the Lands that time forgot Birdie is proud to bring you an EP of the highest quality from the artist currently know as Causa. Hailing somewhere from up in the hills on the border between deepest darkest East Lancashire and West Yorkshire (thats up north to you lot) Causa "Joe" is a long time friend of Trevino "Marcus". Joe is underground and a lover of proper house music and has never been interested in music trends (he is a fisherman for christ sakes). He has been making music under various guises for 15 years with an apparent 6 year gap to go fishing.. He has had releases with 202/20 vision tusk wax and paper recordings to name but a few. As Marcus and Joe still meet regularly for a pie and a pint its no real surprise then that this EP of some of Marcus's favourite music of Joe's has come to pass. Enjoy.

Drum & Bass duo The Prototypes, AKA Chris Garvey and Nick White release their much anticipated debut album 'City of Gold' on Viper Recordings. Already one of the hottest acts in the UK Drum & Bass club scene, The Prototypes are reaching new heights with their debut LP which showcases their trademark club sound, vocal anthems plus a few masterful tempo variations which will leave the listener wanting more.

This vinyl album sampler contains two of their biggest hits from last year with 'Pale Blue Dot' backed with 'Humanoid', both of which went #1 on the Beatport D&B charts.

'Pale Blue Dot'
Kicking off with a mysterious, immersive space-themed introduction, 'Pale Blue Dot' transports the rave into the far reaches of the universe. Building up the anticipation with rising synths, 'Pale Blue Dot' transforms into a dancefloor weapon. Crash landing with a stripped back, infectious melody and churning bass, the alien sounds of 'Pale Blue Dot' are sure to get the rave moving.

'Humanoid'
The B-side stays true to The Prototypes' heavy hitting, galactic-inspired sound, with the whirring 'Humanoid'. Exciting and rhythmical use of synth patterns alongside vocal interjections make this the ideal follow up to the hugely popular 'Pale Blue Dot.'

One year has passed since the last release in this series and, as always, the Tramp Records crew have been working hard during the last 12 months to come up with an equally fine selection of tunes for this brand new volume. Our aim is to keep up with the quality of each release, a task which certainly does not get any easier as we step forward into the twenty first century.

There is no need to praise this selection of tracks. It is larger-than-life. And those who do not recognize the distinctiveness of it should better seek medical advice. The most astounding fact is certainly that 99% of the record buying public have never heard any of these tunes, most likely not even the artists. And we are not talking of people who solely listen to mainstream music. No. Even music lovers who believe that they have a good portion of knowledge when it comes to jazz and soul music will be left speechless.

You can skip to any song on this album and you won't be disappointed. The only premise is that you are a fan of raw, earthy soul and jazz music. If this is the case then you can't go wrong. Rene Bailey, Matilda Haywood, Lee Mitchell, Nu Art Quartet, to name a few. It is high time to introduce all these names to a broad audience and to prevent that they vanish into thin air. The Movements series was coined to introduce music lovers to so far unheard musical treasures. Tunes which only hardcore record collectors have had the privilege to enjoy it...until now.

Six years on from his debut album on Cadenza, Swiss DJ/producer Mirko Loko comes with the follow up to 2009's 'Seventynine' as he catapults us into the techno and electronica galaxy with 'Comet Plan'. 'Un voyage entre toute mes influences,' Mirko Loko shares, breaking into his mother tongue to describe the essence of his sophomore longplayer that was conceived in Berlin and later birthed in his hometown of Lausanne after a two-year gestation period. Literally translated as 'to travel between my influences', it's a fitting summation of an artist whose work has respectfully mined early inspiration from Detroit and Chicago that laid the foundations of the emotion-filled productions that we know of him from today. In addition to this, Mirko sees his connection with Luciano's Cadenza Music, a relationship that's been in existence since dot one and saw the likes of Ricardo Villalobos, Melchoir, Pedro and Rahdoo make up one of the most innovative crews in dance music, as leaving an indelible imprint on his musical DNA to this day. It's Mirko's strong sense of musical identity that is at the core of 'Comet Plan', a work that's equally informed by the artist's spiritual connection with the Motor City as his halcyon Cadenza roots. And one thing's for sure; he knows how to captivate: take 'Venus' whose trickles of melody and syncopated drum rhythms increases in intensity with each bar towards an eerie crescendo. Then there's 'U Special' that builds the kind of subtle party vibes you could imagine Luciano dropping to create one of those moments to a heaving blissed out dancefloor. 'Kolor' - the album's early single (also remixed by Carl Craig as part of an excellent EP package) is sprinkled with a dusting of xylophones, chimes and other bells as the melody is driven forward for a heady trip across the electronic galaxy.

Originally released in Japan only, back in 1979, Prone is considered by most aficionados to be Ned Doheny's crowning glory. Even better than the superlative Hard Candy. So quite why this AOR/soft-funk gem has not been available legitimately on vinyl for over 35 years is anyone's guess.

To celebrate 'Be With Ned' - the West Coast maestro's first ever tour of the UK and Europe in March 2015 - Be With Records proudly present the first ever officially licensed reissue of this forgotten-funk classic. What makes this release truly special is the inclusion of the full-vocal version of jazz-funk classic To Prove My Love. It's the version of Prone that everybody has been waiting for.

Produced again by the legendary Steve Cropper, Prone's super-smooth grooves showcase Ned's beautifully laid-back vocals, virtuoso playing and forever-wry lyricism. Aside from To Prove My Love, it boasts some of Doheny's most under-appreciated tracks: witness the slickness of Think Like A Lover, Guess Who's Lookin' For Love Again and Funky Love.

Pressed on audiophile 180gram vinyl and featuring the original artwork for both jacket and lyric-insert, this limited reissue is one to treasure.

We are proud to have dug out these two bomb tracks from the 90's by Manchester legend KID SIMMONS.
For some weird reasons these tracks were never released, but here we go now: 2 funky house bombs that will make you bounce and jump like there was no tomorrow.
Expect more to come from the archives of this man!

I am very happy and excited to present the new EP by 'Claudia Anderson' on Singular Rec., it's her second release on the label and it's a real pleasure.
She cooked a really varied record once again, 'Liquid Forms' takes place on A1 and it's real voodoo here, the effect of this track is very unique, it's space and deep, surrounded by many little effects that give such a special result, then comes 'Neutral State', a timeless dub & house feeling, very loopy, that reminded me some STL cuts.
'Be One' opens the B... I ve been really sensible to its very sexy percussion's play and delayed lead, it transports literally during all the length, it's very high quality.
To end properly this ep, Claudia did a superb ambient cut, everybody knows I love ambient and so here I ve been charmed... it's a deep, noisy atmospheric track that close the all perfectly, with simple little percussions that come and go, just what it takes...
It's a confirmation of all the good I thought about Claudia's talent, a very subtle, deep and charming record, and I hope you will like it as much as I do!
Marcelus.

* Hospital Records present their latest compilation 'Fast Soul Music' - a welcomed lesson in the art of soul-inspired drum & bass of the high-speed variety. After nineteen years spent building upon it's lounge-core esthetic their extensive library of smooth-rolling sounds is at the ready, now it's time to get retrospective.

* From the work of thirty artists, a carefully selected forty-six tracks highlight the quintessential sounds of soul music in the Hospital Records back catalogue. Not only effortlessly blending classics from Hospital mainstays London Elektricity, High Contrast, Danny Byrd, Nu:Tone, S.P.Y and Logistics but also showcasing the fresh wave of talent that's reached our ears in recent years. The work of Fred V & Grafix, Hugh Hardie, Keeno, Etherwood, Anile, Tokyo Prose and Technimatic showcasing just how prominent soul music is in drum & bass today.

* Accompanying this two-CD collectors item is a perfectly polished mix by longstanding practitioner and newest member of the Hospital A+R team, Nu:Tone. With over two hours of soul-inspired sounds that effortlessly create the ideal soundtrack for any daydream-filled afternoon.

* With a nod back to London Elektricity's '03 classic 'Fast Soul Music' and a look forward to the fresh influx of talent passing through, Hospital Record's latest compilation provides any drum & bass fan with a chance to rediscover those once forgotten gems and dust off the cobwebs from their favourite nostalgia-fuelling drum & bass anthems.

* Digital Marketing: Youtube upload schedule for music and video content on Hospital Records YouTube channel - (260k subscribers), cross promotion exclusive mix upload with UKF Youtube channel.

* Press / Promotion: Comprehensive campaign in-house serving all UK music and dance titles as well as national, regional and student press - Mixmag, DJ, Trap, Notion, Music Week, Future Music, Time Out, Metro, London Evening Standard, The Guardian, The Independent, Dazed + Confused, Vice, The Wire, The Fly, Vice Magazine, Clash. Kmag (interview), D&BA (interview). UKF Website and Youtube Channel. Reddit AMA, FACT Mag TV interview.

* Radio / Internet: Comprehensive in house campain from Hospital Records. BBC Radio1 & 1Xtra support from Mistajam, Friction, B Traits, Annie Mac, Andi Durrant (Kiss), Eddy Temple-Morris (X-FM), DJ Hype (Kiss), D&BA TV Takeover, Rinse FM Hospital Records Show, Hospital Podcast Hospital Records Podcast USA series, Kmag Podcast, Ministry of Sound Podcast. D&BA Podcast, Hospital records Website, Hospital Facebook (262K Likes), Twitter (64K Followers), Soundcloud (48k followers), YouTube (238k subscribers), Hospital Records Mailing List (53k Subscribers)






aG CD 1-7 | Logistics feat. Nightshade and Sarah Callander 'Crystal Skies'
















DISC 2

A1, "Capitulo 4". We find Gregor surprisingly accepting of his new reality: far from going crazy, he has serenely discovered in his new self everything he didn't know and didn't perceive as a human being. "Capitulo 4" is an incredibly precise description of the awakening of the new Gregor. Shadows, fog, sinuous silhouettes that are impossible to identify. In one word: confusion.
B1, "Capitulo 5". Vertigo starts to ease, we can hardly feel the anguish and the heartbeat is gone. We are in a new reality and although it seems a done deal, every movement he makes tells Gregor that understanding this new world and his perception of it will not be easy. Chapter 5 demands our everything while we listen: our full dedication and attention to the last minute detail that reveals a new horizon and its new colour, or lack of it. A horizon that, nevertheless, is more perceptible for Gregor, because he can now capture all sorts of colours and emanations.
B2, "Capitulo 6". Light. Gregor still ignores that most domestic insects have a strong aversion to intense light, but his human conscience is still intact and it will take him a long time to reprogramme certain habits, instincts and automatic behaviours, like a preference for lit environments. The painfully intense sensation that his antennae convey to his tiny brain when faced with light is an effective path to learning: little shocks that Reeko reproduces in this track, surrounded by an oscillating and changing ambience that redefines itself each time we listen to it.

Speedy Ortiz is proud to announce their sophomore album, Foil Deer, which will be released via Carpark Records on April 20th.

'Major Arcana' released in 2013 won them glowing reviews , features and several UK tours (highlights below):

- 4 PAGE NME FEATURE

- 9/10 LEAD REVIEW IN NME: 'One of the reasons 'Major Arcana' works so well is because it's addictive and fun. The guitars and bass sound incredible, like the last Deerhunter album without the Yankee Doodle Dandy'

8/10 Drowned In Sound : ' Speedy Ortiz are way too euphoric and glorious to suffer for their artfulness. Stripping away the frills, at heart Major Arcana is a mournful treasure that asks to be celebrated.'

*NME RADAR FEATURE: 'What's miraculous, though, is that Major Arcana doesn't sound at all self-pitying; it's torrid Slint-meets-Pavement rattle bolsters Sadie's relished words so that yelling along is an exercise in gleefully exorcising your own demons'

8.4 ON PITCHFORK: : 'There's the squalling, guitar-on-guitar carnage of Archers of Loaf, the grungy mysticism of Helium (Dupuis lifted the title Major Arcana from a book she was reading on black magic), and of course the deadpan wit of vintage Liz Phair ('I was never the witch that you made me to be,' Dupuis tells a burnt-out old flame on 'Plough', 'Still you picked a virgin over me').

Standard LP is gatefold, single black LP with chapbook, plus digital download card.
Deluxe LP Is as above but with metallic gold coloured vinyl, and sticker.(200 ONLY FOR UK)
CD comes in digipak with a folded poster approximating the chapbook in the LP.

Speedy Ortiz said they would get the flowers themselves. What a lark! What a plunge!

When considering Massachusetts' Speedy Ortiz, that line from Virginia Woolf comes to mind. Not only for the obvious echoes to DIY, a form and function that's characterized the band's nascency, but in the proto-feminist undertones driving much of their sophomore album, Foil Deer. "I'm not bossy, I'm the boss," Sadie Dupuis sings on "Raising the Skate," invoking in spirit one half of the Carter-Knowles clan and echoing the other's wordplay. And wordplay makes sense, considering Dupuis-the band's songwriter, guitarist, and frontwoman-spent the band's first few years teaching writing at UMass Amherst. She's drawn to the dense complexity of Pynchon, the dreamlike geometry of Bolaño, the confounded yearning of Plath-all attributes you could easily apply to the band's 2013 debut Major Arcana, which fans and press alike have invested with a sense of purpose and merit uncommon in contemporary guitar rock.

The group, including Mike Falcone on drums, Darl Ferm on bass, and new addition Devin McKnight of Grass is Green on guitar, have spent the last year on an almost endless cross-continental touring jag, tagging along with the likes of The Breeders, Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, and Thurston Moore. That shift into full-time musicianship brought with it an attendant reordering of priorities when it came to songwriting, and the band members' lives in general. They would get the damn flowers themselves.

Dupuis wrote much of Foil Deer at her mother's home in the Connecticut woods, where the songwriter imposed a self-regulated exile and physical cleansing of sorts, finding that many of the songs came to her while running or swimming alone. "I gave up wasting mental energy on people who didn't have my back," she says. "Listening to our old records, I get the sense I was putting myself in horrible situations just to write sad songs. This music isn't coming from a dark place, and without slipping into self-empowerment jargon, it feels stronger." Many of the songs deal with a similar sense of starting over, editing out the unnecessary drama. "Boys be sensitive and girls be, be aggressive," she sings on "Mister Difficult."

And while their debut album was recorded on the fly, Speedy Ortiz spent almost a month in the studio on Foil Deer. Falcone's drums are taut, mechanistic; Ferm's bass ranges from the aggressive rattle of an AmRep classic to smoother, hip-hop inspired lines. McKnight, meanwhile, lends spacier, textural riffs to complement Dupuis' wiry, melody-driven guitar style. "The demos for our songs have always had tons of small details and production experimentation, but we never had any money to pay for more than a couple days in the studio, so the songs came out very live-sounding and guitar heavy," Dupuis says. It was recorded and mixed at Brooklyn's Rare Book Room with Nicolas Vernhes (Silver Jews, Enon, Deerhunter), with the record mastered by Emily Lazar (Sia, Haim, Beauty Pill), lending a more polished sound and a pop sensibility that will stand out to existing fans and new converts alike. For all the lyrical complexity and guitar-based excursions Speedy Ortiz have built their reputation on to this point, Foil Deer has a sense of light-footed fun. What's the point of doing things yourself if you're not going to enjoy the trip

Standard LP is gatefold, single black LP with chapbook, plus digital download card.
CD comes in digipak with a folded poster approximating the chapbook in the LP.

Factory Benelux presents a new studio album by cult Manchester postpunk group Crispy Ambulance, issued in a
limited edition of 500 vinyl copies to mark Record Store Day 2015.
In many respects Compulsion is the second album Crispy Ambulance might have recorded in 1982 after the release of
The Plateau Phase, with six of the eight tracks written and performed live at that time. To these are now added Rain
Without Clouds, an outtake from The Plateau Phase newly restored from the original multitrack masters, and WMTP.2
with added synth lines by producer-cum fifth member Graham Massey, of 808 State and Biting Tongues.
Almost uniquely, Crispy Ambulance has retained the same line-up since the group was originally founded in 1978: Alan
Hempsall (vocals, keyboards), Gary Madeley (drums), Robert Davenport (guitars), Keith Darbyshire (bass).
'There's a sense of feeling compelled by irresistible forces,' explains Alan Hempsall. 'Compulsion is an apt way to
describe our constant urge to go back and make music with people we've known since childhood. While the world may
have changed, our music continues to be the product of the same influences - the passing of time, the changing of the
seasons, the content of our sleeping dreams, and the existence of space.'
Cover art by Peter Staessens. The package also features a free digital download of the album.
Praise for The Plateau Phase: "One of the best albums Britain's second city has unleashed" (Q, 03/2006); 'Perfect,
wonderful and with a compelling gravitational pull' (Record Collector, 03/2013); "17 years on The Plateau Phase
sounds like what it probably always was: urgent, postmodernist psychedelia with less debt to Joy Division's music than to
the universal abstract existential tension that comes with being young" (Uncut, 12/1999); "Cold and ferocious, but with
enough inventive melody to lighten the black abyss of the overall mood" (Les Inrockuptibles, 02/2012); "An enthralling
glimpse at a moment in musical history when the DIY ethos of punk gradually gave way to experiments with electronics
and song structures" (NME, 01/2000); "Mixes driving rock, gritty new wave and odd atmospheric stuff" (Option, 1990)

He is not so easy to find. You have to follow the kilometres of pipes down and along a labyrinth of corridors, to enter in the basement den of Romain Turzi. This once cavernous space has been metamorphosised into a recording studio for the purpose of creating and completing the A & B albums trilogy with the latest LP release: C. Closed off from the world, without natural light and water supply, but full of consoles, synthesizers and old guitars, Romain cocooned himself here for several months to perfect his music and sonically construct the soundtrack that is C, with tracks entitled by nine types of birds, to glide you through this treasure hunt through the complexities of his musical mind.
After Turzi's sophomore album: B, recorded under the Corsican sun, the change of conditions is quite radical. Closing off from the world in a place where you can only do one thing, make music, Turzi was able to gain the greatest luxury within this process: time.

We are delighted to welcome prodigious Glasgow producer Alex Smoke to Optimo Trax for an EP. in our opinion, Mr. Smoke is one of the most advanced sound designers in modern electronic music who has demonstrated his talents across all sorts of releases in all sorts of not easily defined areas of music. He also knows how to make advanced electronic music that will work on a dancefloor as all four of these stunners amply demonstrate. No filler here. Four tracks to make you stand up strong and proud. A-HEM.

Given its short gestation, it is striking how far removed the new album is from its predecessor . After the dark complexity of recent output, Same As You is startlingly fresh, as inclusive and accessible as the title suggests, while still maintaining the playful experimentation on which the band has made its name.

Originally conceived as a single longform piece, the tempo remains constant but does not prevent the band from producing swells of raw, joyous, life-affirming energy within these self-imposed limits

The vocal performances and the heartfelt, spiritual lyrics are an inspired addition to the rich instrumental mix: Pete Wareham and Mark Lockheart (tenor sax), Tom Herbert (double bass) and Leafcutter John (guitar, electronics), with Shabaka Hutchings (Sons Of Kemet, Melt Yourself Down) making a guest appearance.

The album's lead single 'Dont Let The Feeling Go' sees Rochford take on vocal duties alongside a choir of friends and collaborators: it's Polar Bear at their most direct.

The use of vocals may catch the ear but that should come as no surprise given that Rochford has enjoyed working with singers as diverse as Beck, Spoek Mathambo, Paolo Nutini and Rokia Traoré over a 15 year career that has seen the drummer, composer and producer emerge as a pivotal figure in contemporary British music

Recorded by Rochford in London, and mixed in the Mojave Desert with Ken Barrientos late last year

Polar Bear will tour Europe from February (see confirmed dates below)

Mutual fans Sherard Ingram and Mariska Neerman join forces to present four essential tracks spanning the breadth of contemporary electro on this second release from Bleep43 Recordings. The first side sees Ingram exploring the edges of his famously unique blend of intricate yet relentless electronics, simultaneously touching on Autechre's metallic abstractions while sounding the depths of bubbling oceanic vents. Mariska answers with two tracks of melancholy machine music that embody her talent for melody and arrangement and promise to make their presence felt on dancefloors across the spectrum.

Hot off the back of the their successful inaugural release from Quenum & Cesare vs Disorder, the young Barcelona label continues to drive forward with their mission to move people by drawing from an expansive and expressive universe of melodic and rhythmic sounds. The result of this is a carefully curated, limited edition of vinyl and digital releases, and next in line is a brand new EP from Russian producer and DJ, Tripmastaz. Andrew Guyvoronsky (aka Tripmastaz) is the one of a few underground producers from Russia to make serious tidal waves in the dance community gaining world-wide recognition and respect from fans, media and DJs alike. On top of his tracks being featured in a variety of famous compilations such as Fabric and DJ-Kicks, Tripmastaz has been focused on a busy touring schedule and on making Russia decidedly more funky for the past 10 years. This new EP melds the stripped back with the downright, dirty bass bombs synonymous with Tripmastaz's style. Title track 'Ain't Made 4 U' is a swirling house-funk journey that is built to move bodies across floors. 'Live from the Basement' takes things back a little with a more minimal approach to percussive techno then Christian Burkhardt & Andre Buljat's remix of EP opener slams us back to the heady, peak-time dance floor, before HITCH closes out the EP with his rolling and hypnotic take on the A-side. Good taste will always prevail.



[C] B1 | Ain't Made 4 U (Christian Burkhardt & Andre Buljat remix)

Apartment returns with a release exploring 3 facets of house music all inter-connected by the vocals of UK Soul & R'n'B singer, Greg Blackman (BBE Music). Steve Legget's (Four Hands, Claremont 56) original Believe Mix, the catalyst for the project, is an expansive 10 minute-plus journey through wistful dub lead by Blackman's soaring vocals. On the flip Mark Hand (Signals From The North) delivers a re-working; sculpting a beautiful, sun-kissed masterpiece featuring drums and percussion by Darren Moore alongside Hand's inspired playing on the Rhodes and Moog. To close out the release NCW finally makes a return to APT and subsequently gets lost in the DMZ pitching and twisting Blackman's vocals over a pulsating, bumping house banger.

Oh yeah, we love those tunes, we love the idea of this west (Mexico) to east (Lithuania) studio exchange, we love the jam style, we love the instant 'let's record it and put it on wax' feel! So we don't want to blow this up. No big PR stories, just good music made by Ponty Mython (Dirt Crew, Swedish Brandy, Eat More House) and Sebastien Vorhaus (Quintessentials, Faces Records, Vicario Musique). Buy it, play it, feel it! Thanks!

Since its 2005 debut, Torsten Profrock's T++ project has grown in stature and scope to the point where it's admired by fans of techno, dubstep, d'n'b and experimental electronics alike, and annexed by none. Anchored in the kind of scuffed, sub-heavy atmospherics Profrock developed in his 90s recordings for Chain Reaction, and naturally influenced by his work with Robert Henke as Monolake, the sound of T++ is singular, always evolving, difficult to fix.
Long ago snagged by the rhythmic innovations of the post-jungle underground, here Profrock makes explicit his debt to the radical fringe of UK garage. Snapping 2-step rhythms are at the heart of all four tracks; for all the distress, deconstruction and detournement they undergo at his hands, the spirit and swing of the British soundsystem tradition is unmistakable.
Further, Wireless is a kind of remix, a commission, shot through with the contorted samples of voice and ndingidi from a handful of old East African 78s (collected on the Honest Jon's compilation Something Is Wrong).
The result is a record that sounds at once ancient and modern, possessing a unique tonal language, and with it a curious, almost occult power — his most expressive, energetic and fully-realised work, affirming the enduring fundamentals of the T++ aesthetic even as it steers it into uncharted climes.

Paradise Valley's debut 'Deep Probe' EP could well be a case study on how to make an unforgettable electronic music record. Take an incredible, psychedelic collection of ideas that have been drenched in emotional content and heart ache and then infused with optimism and inspirational, healing emotions, shake it with visions of outer space, and the production level 99, put that into a track that will be the defining moment of any dj set: you just got 'Deep Probe'.

Inspired by the success of last summer's retrospective on Poker Flat, Steve Bug takes up his Traffic Signs moniker once more for a fabulous jam that more than merits the 10-year wait. The uncredited tunes that first came out under this name were classic jack tracks that devastated dancefloors - and 'Cookie Jar' is a more than worthy successor. This is stripped-down house, Chicago-esque, direct and determined to make you move. Berlin legend Jake The Rapper adds downright dirty humour with a spoken vocal fit for an age of internet sextapes and celebrity photo hacking. 'I like what you're cookin. Those cookies smell goooood,' he rascalously declares. Three mixes sprinkle the musical equivalent of chocolate chips, pecans and Brazilian stardust over the original. Steve Bug makes fine adjustments for the club, bouncing around the kick drums and doubling the synth riff with strings, while Joyce Muniz's dark, strobing treatment adds a dirty bass line for sexy, sweat-drenched dancefloors everywhere. Stripping away the vocal on the dub, Muniz's production talents are all the more scintillating, irresistibly kinetic from beginning to end. The brilliant video for 'Cookie Jar' has been created by swiss-french duo Ben & Julia, who let us take part in their playful, colorful and surreal world that suits the song so well.

Prolific Seattle producer Jon McMillion returns to Nuearth Kitchen with another crucial chapter in his epic tale of haunted house-music subversions. This EP offers four variations on a bizarre and engrossing theme. Don't It Make You (edit 1)' is a work of extremes: By some miracle of aural physics, it's at once one of McMillion's strangest tracks and one of his most accessible. He sets into motion a staunch, relentless house rhythm bolstered with congas, massed claps, synth-bass raspberries, and a badass male singer intoning, Don't it make you feel good, if you wanna get down/Just say it, say it again,' over which a miasma of enigmatic tones bubbles and swirls. Like Bohannon's disco-funk classics from the '70s, Don't It Make You' seems like a tease, even at 10 minutes duration, you wish it would roll on for at least 30. On Don't It Make You (edit 2),' McMillion strips things down to dance-floor essentials and erases some of the free-floating background weirdness.

The two remixes are revelatory. New York house icon Fred P. (aka Black Jazz Consortium) slides the track into a tighter pair of pants, but that just makes it swivel harder and slyer. He emphasizes Don't It Make You''s mysterious drones and then loops a female vocalist singing He keeps me' while dropping in some echoed male chatter to gently disorient. What a dreamy, soulful trip Fred P. conjures here. And rising German wunderkind Orson Wells layers and pitches up the original's cascades of bleeps, which becomes the dominant motif, and then subtly modulates said bleeps over the tune's seven minutes, while keeping that irrepressible rhythm strutting. McMillion's raw materials prove to be fertile ground for these two maverick remixers to flaunt their own fascinating quirks while maintaining the original cut's club-darkening and ass-moving functionality.

This EP was made during a period where my whole outlook on everything was transforming. The Voidloss project started as an investigation, I was conducting a lot of research and study on the mind, the occult, on different thought modes, and the Voidloss project represented this. The idea was about a leap in to the void. A leap of abandonment into the dark, with total acceptance, total commitment. The idea was to lose myself to the void. This was mainly a spiritual journey for me, and could be best explained by 3 things, the void of Miyamoto Musashi from Go Rin No Sho, The concept of the Tao from the writings of Lao Tzu, and the concept of the abyss from the works of Aleister Crowley. Part of this journey deep inside the self was frightening and horrific, the total loss of self, of all identity and ego, and part of it was beautiful and enlightening. I wanted the music to reflect this, and I wanted the music to change as I changed, as I went to and through all these interesting places. In essence this was about freedom. So fast forward some years and I felt I had sharpened my mind quite effectively, the music had twisted and changed and flowed with me. At the point I began making the music for this EP, I had grown quite angry with the amount of conformity I was perceiving in life. Politically, socially, musically, there was this drive of conformity in the world. I think part of it, and only a part, comes from the prevalence of social media, the need to belong and to be liked, the idea of judging yourself and your works through the perception of others. Musically I felt that within techno there was a tendency for the music to fit within a set of confines dictated by fashion and hype, and this was reducing the diversity of the music, it seemed also that the practices of commercial music were seeping in to techno as the music became more popular. Hype and business driven decisions, brand building and so on. I always felt techno was more about art, and I began to get frustrated. Equally I felt that politically there was less and less choice, as all decisions seemed to lead to the same outcomes. I became more interested in the concept of anarchism, of the idea that government was no longer needed. I have always in my life had a drive to question everything. I've always been 'naughty' and rebellious and done things my way, to my advantage or my disadvantage, I could never accept being anything other than myself all the way. If everyone walks in one direction, I will walk the other way, even if it takes me over the edge of a precipice, just to see what is there. All this stuff influences my music, and during the period of making this EP I was angry, kicking against the things I no longer liked or wanted, screaming dissent. There is a lot of anger and rage, and of course rebellion. I wanted the music to capture that unbridled fury you have when you are in your late teens, when you just start learning about yourself and you start rebelling and questioning things around the time the world is really pushing you to conform. I was soundtracking my own philosophical riot. Previous to this my Voidloss stuff had been more introverted, more pensive and melancholy, more self destructive, more cerebral. For this new music I wanted something more immediate but without being too obvious. In terms of the choices I made I still leaned more towards broken rhythms for beat structure. I find it very difficult to do anything interesting with 4x4 kicks any more, it's too rigid for me, it limits my freedom. I like the looseness you get from more 'drummer' like beats, I guess probably because I have been playing drums all my life. The challenge is to get the same rolling power from broken rhythms as you get from 4 to the floor. It's not easy, there is a ridiculous amount of trial and error and the rejection percentage is high. I also was trying to use less 'synthy' sounds. I wanted to try to take a more acousmatic approach to sound design. With the current modular synth revival in techno I was hearing a lot of 'old' synth sounds re-emerging, and this didn't seem like a progression to me. I wanted to make sounds that were hard to source for the listener, where they weren't sure if it was synth or real world sample, digital or analogue. This involved a lot of experimentation. My process involved a lot of field recording, especially with contact microphones, which open up a whole new world of interesting sounds. You are effectively recording sounds through objects in the environment, 'hearing' the world as these objects hear them, I was using guitars, feedback loops, handmade instruments as well. So I was combining this with different synthesis, granular synthesis, sample synthesis, physical modelling, FM synthesis and of course analogue. Everything was reprocessed and re-synthesised, I tried hard to obscure the source and make something new as much as possible. The stuff on this EP was part of my live PA for some time, so as I learned how the music worked live I could go back and make changes, sometimes the environment I was playing in transformed the sound as well, and so I would try to go back an incorporate this in to the music. For remixes I wanted to choose artists that I respected for their vision as well as for their output, so my list of people I wanted was extremely short. Inigo Kennedy has always been an artist I have respected greatly. His music has always been unique to himself, he remains outside of fashions and trends even though his name has become very big recently. He takes risks with his work, experimenting and exploring, yet remaining relevant to the club, and just tirelessly forging ahead, seemingly for the sake of art above all else. And he's just a really nice guy to deal with. His remix is everything I expected it to be in that it is the unexpected. Regis is another artist who forges his own path in music, you cant really even begin to discuss the avantgarde in techno without including his name, he is one of the foundation stones for artistry and the outsider mentality in techno. His music is always unique to his own vision, and along with it comes an interesting artistic philosophy taking in situationism, post punk and industrial ideology and a good dose of tricksterism ala PT Barnum, all of which comes out in his music and the way it is presented. The man is a truly singular force and it is an honour to have him on this record. Overall the concept here is that of rebellion and dissent. Of asking questions, following your own path, of maintaining some place in yourself that burns like a forest fire.

Whether or not I have succeeded I guess is down to the listener, I'm never happy with my music, I keep wanting to move forwards, or somewhere else, and am constantly trying and failing to capture some essence of perfection. But like Bukowski said
'It's the only good fight there is'

If we have press-agent, you can read now something like "smashed drums", "ultra fast broken beats", "sharp guitar riffs", "earfucking duel of vocals", "wall of noise", "absolutely dancefloor killers", and again about guitars - "hard, speedy, motorbike sounding", and again about drums - "punchy hammerbeats", and again about noise - "king size",
and again about vocals - "mouth full of nails, unique, sexy".
If we have press-agent, you can read: "industrial", "hardcore", "breakcore", "gabber", "noise", "digital hardcore".
If we have press-agent, you can read: "must have", "strongly recommended", "you can love it or hate it, but you can not stay in the middle".
But we have not.
We made this album, just because we are. We believe one hundred percent everything we says.
We don't make music - we are the music. It's sound of underground. It's our rock'n'roll.
Are you ready for blowjob, suckers Bon courage!

Working on opposite sides of the landmass we call Canada, Vancouver/Montreal duo Potatohead People (producers Nick Wisdom & AstroLogical) have been making waves for quite some time with their signature jazzy boom-bap meets boogie inside the bassbin vibes. Called a "formidable tandem" by OkayPlayer, their sounds have been championed early on by the likes of Kaytranada, Soulection, Nightmares on Wax, Pomo, Exmag, Big Boi, and Phife Dawg. After a few early releases on Vancouver based netlabel Jellyfish Recordings, Brooklyn's Bastard Jazz reissued their 2012 landmark Kosmichemusik EP and pressed a 7" released on Valentine's Day 2013. The association landed their song "Back To My Sh*t" (featuring Frank Nitty of Frank'n'Dank) on a Powerade produced LeBron James documentary and Nick and Astro began working on a debut LP for Bastard Jazz, presented here.

Big Luxury draws from influences disparate as classic jazz, prog rock, disco 90's hop, DJ Shadow-Era downtempo beats, alongside modern influences like the Brainfeeder crew and new electronic sounds coming out of Nick Wisdom's adopted hometown of Montreal. What's resulted is a finely honed, extra buttery album that effortly glides between tempos, but never loses the mood. The album also features a whole host of guest vocalists - J Dilla's younger brother Illa J, legendary Canadian MC Moka Only, New Zealand's Sorceress, and Amalia all provide contributions to the sounds within. Big Luxury is a velvety ride through vibes and a magnificent debut for these talented young Canadians.

Requiem for a dreamstate. It's possibly somewhere between heaven, hell and high water, down the Thames Delta towards Eden. It may involve techno and a distorted state or simply mates sat listening to music together, drifting on the open sea of their minds. This is Jon Hopkins' world, not so much joining the dots as colouring the whole damn picture in.

After releasing his debut album 'Opalescent' at the rookie age of 21 in 1999, he's gone on to work with Brian Eno and David Holmes, produced King Creosote and via Eno, worked on three Coldplay albums. He released the breakthrough album 'Immunity' in 2013, which was nominated for the Mercury Prize.

The story arc with which Hopkins succeeded on 'Immunity' makes its appearance on Late Night Tales too with a perfectly sculpted excursion on this widescreen mix. . Opening with the unreleased 'Sleepers Beat Theme' by composer Ben Lukas Boysen, ghostly pianos skip elegantly hither and thither, among rising strings, as on Darkstar's 'Hold Me Down'. Nils Frahm is here, his sonic palette perfect for the job, while labelmate A Winged Victory For The Sullen contribute 'Requiem For The Static King Part I'. Sigur Ros offshoot Jónsi & Alex's heroic 'Daniell In The Sea' sends us forth towards the Baltic with tears streaming.

Beats occasionally appear, as on the Grace Jones-sampling 'Yr Love' by Holy Other or the pair of Black Country acts Bibio and Letherette, whose 'After Dawn' is almost spry in comparison to the minor key symphonies on display here. The perfect contrast to this comes from Alela Diane's wistful 'Lady Divine' or even Four Tet's mesmerising 'Gillie Amma I Love You', with its enchanting kids' choir. Exclusive to this release, Jon Hopkins provides a startlingly vulnerable new piano version of Yeasayer's 'I Remember'.

Poet and fellow Brian Eno collaborator (their joint album 'Drums Between The Bells' was released by Warp in 2011) Rick Holland narrates the exclusive spoken word closer 'I Remember', underpinned with additional sound design by Hopkins.

"Putting this album together was a unique opportunity for me to present music that I have been listening to for years, free from the constraints of a club setting or from trying to stick to one genre. I chose tracks not just because they have been important to me but because of how they sit together, putting as much thought into the transitions and overall narrative as I did into the track choices. I mixed by key and by texture more than anything else, using original sound design, pivot notes, and often recording new synth or piano parts to link things together in a way that flows as naturally as possible." - Jon Hopkins, December 2014

Since its conception three years ago, the Hamburg based label hafendisko has been patiently building its reputation with a diverse and varied artist roster. Alongside releases from emerging talent such as Deo & Z-Man and Brynjolfor, it forms parent label hfn music's outlet for club oriented music whether with full releases or remixes for artists such as Kasper Bjørke and Faded Ranger and just recently welcomed renowned remixers such as Michael Mayer, Charles Webster and Luke Solomon, to name a few. Now with the release of Nummer Eins, Hafendisko is taking the next step in its evolution, serving up the best of past and present releases together with a string of exclusive cuts that signal an undeniably bright future. It's machine music with real heart and soul as, time and again, the tracks locate that elusive sweet spot that unifies mind and body. The opening act replicates this highly collectable four track vinyl EP that precedes the digital release: Snacks' ‚Easy' provides an aptly titled intro, with sweet melodies, warm synth swells and looping vocal hooks evolving over a low slung, funk inflected groove. 'Purdie', the duo's debut last September instantly became a huge underground hit, while they are currently working on their debut album. Unkwon is Anders Dixon from Copenhagen and people will stop asking if it's a typo soon. Just off his stunning remix for Trentemøller's Deceive he takes it underground with the stuttering beats and melancholy phase of ‚Everything', building a cavernous yet claustrophobic soundscape that's designed to make your eyeballs sweat, before Ewan Pearson's NRG instrumental of Kasper Bjørke's ‚Apart' goes into dance floor overdrive, upping the ante again. Both the Michael Mayer and the Ewan Pearson mixes of Bjørke's final single off his newest album stirred a buzz.

THE company focused on realeasing original obscure dance classic and everything's that sounds fine to their ears !What a special one we have here on Skylax Classic! Damien Zala, the man who put out the superb album 'Lonely Happiness' on Rowtag Records in late 2012, who gets heavy support from the great Theo Parrish, dishes up six special tracks for our next release. Before diving in, it is well worth noting that a selection of Damien's album tracks had remixes by the likes of house icons such as DJ Jus-Ed, Rick Wade and Boo Williams! If those names register even the slightest blip on your radar, which they should, then this record might be the treasure you've been searching for. Damien's sampling technique has a certain air of grandeur to it. 'Shake Vibration' makes this apparent right from the start with intricate layers of vocals, guitar licks and keys. 'All My Respect' and 'Come Around' both follow suit whilst 'Dizzie' picks up the B side with a bit more energy and frenzy compared to what has come before it. The record rounds out with two tracks taking things a bit deeper. 'Stay Where You Are' drives forward with filtered pad chords that accompany jazzy sax and vocal cuts while conversely, 'Z To The Jz' brings in a moodier vibe with its jazz samples and smoky drums.
Do not miss the chance to get such a gem of a record from Damien Zala!, C L A S S I C ! A must to have in every djs collection. Essential Item No Digital .

Throughout the seventies the productions of Bunny'Striker'Lee were incredibly prolific and he created a number of different labels to handle his ever expanding output.
Bunny had always worked closely with Osbourne'King Tubby'Ruddock,who had built his first Sound System in 1957.But Tubbt felt that thingsreally got going when he took on Ewart'U Roy'Beckford as his DeeJay in 1968.When Bryon Lee upgraded Studio B at Dynamic Sounds to a sixteen track recording in 1972 Striker brokered a deal for Tubby to purchase the old four track equipment.The package included the MCI console that Tubby would go on to make world famous and as they say the rest is history...
Here we look at the Attack label and have assembled a compilation of some of the finest Dub cuts released on this label....enjoy

Objektivity is starting the year with launching the long-awaited vinyl-only sub-label called OBJ Analogue. As the name says, the concept behind this is that in order to make the record, it has to be totally hardware based: No plug-ins! Objektivity head-honcho Dennis Ferrer says: "The OBJ Analogue is a special project for me and is dear to my heart because I love analogue gear, vinyl, and hardware, so I keep that side of me happy."
The first OBJ Analogue release is coming by VIVa Music's Steve Lawler, who delivered a very rough two-track EP called - Inna State / Recuperate", produced with the Roland 808, 909 and 606 drum machines. The bass lines are recorded and played from Moog Voyager and the piano on - Recuperate" is coming from Emu Orchestra Rack Mount. Completely analogue!
Make sure you get your hands on the vinyl as there will be only a few limited copies out.

With this release, Anne Arbor's jakbeat man delivers 6 minutes of electronic mania; a piece of repetitious, dance-inducing machine funk with a hook that hits you like a punch in the face with a velvet glove, brooding pads, and a top line like steel drums on acid. D'Marc Cantu twists the sound of Detoit techno and Chicago house with his own visceral production style and makes it his own.

"Sonically I'm reminded of old home videos, a lower quality presentation of a memory. Decay has that quality to it that reminds of a time gone but stills feels familiar and comforting" DMC

"Rival was the first experiment of my first alias, Rival. It was recorded in with a Volca drum machine the first day I got it, no effects and no edits, as is the basis of the alias, unedited analog sessions. One take" DMC