Soul Has No Tempo are proud to present 'The Self' - the new album from London-based drummer/producer Richard Spaven.
Richard Spaven is one of the most sought-after drummers in progressive and contemporary music. Drumming for the likes of José James, Gregory Porter, Guru's Jazzmatazz, Flying Lotus, The Cinematic Orchestra, TY and more, he has gained international recognition, both on stage and in the studio. Richard is an influential, genre-defying musician - the result of working closely with a diverse range of artists, combined with his own rich musical taste. Gilles Peterson said it best - "there's much more than just rhythm with this man".
His debut album 'Whole Other*' (2014) touched on many musical palettes and bridged the gap between jazz and electronica. With 'The Self', Richard introduces us to his personal journey. The moment in time where a jazz drummer affirms his love for club culture, delivering an album that travels from drum & bass to broken beat, dubstep and more, all seen through the lens of a drummer. The club culture influence is apparent in the way Richard wrote and produced this album - sampling his own drums on the Photek cover 'Hidden Camera' and collaborating with Metalheadz MC, Cleveland Watkiss to recreate the London sound system vibe so integral to his background.
Featuring guest artists from diverse backgrounds - Jordan Rakei, Jameszoo, Kris Bowers, MC Cleveland Watkiss and Richard's established partner in crime, guitarist and composer Stuart McCallum, 'The Self' is masterfully combined with Richard's unique production and showcases his trademark drumming style of precision, creativity and finesse.
quête:mo club
Two of Alkan's most bombastic reworks over one disc. His scene-defining cut of Justice's breakthrough club hit 'Waters Of Nazareth' adds a subtle Chicago drum edit to the original's notorious snarl, while the Australian band's 'Why Won't You Make Up Your Mind' psych-rock is blasted through with euphoric electro energy.
The Berlin-based Citylow label has been releasing quality house and techno for some time now. Born from a mix of musical influences from the metropolitan suburban life, the label is characterized by vintage, analogue sounds, modular systems and the many other influences of label manager Alfredo Trastulli aka F.T.G. The heart of the label is Citylow Humans Crew, a movement of underground artists around the world who day-after-day match their story with an underground music philosophy.
Staunchly dedicated to vinyl culture and with an ethos that tends to veer toward assured, confident sounding house and techno, theirs is a modus operandi that's served them very well indeed. For their latest, the attention switches to Fuckthegovernment.Ltd label boss F.T.G, who hooks up with regular collaborator Brando Torri aka Siyha Kuma for another release that speaks volumes of their talents. The A side features the remix, which comes at us from none other than the fucking parisienne talent Jef K, who in this instance has hooked up with Mikael Weill to supply a differing take on the original. Jef K of course, is a man who needs no introduction to house music fans. One of Paris' most acclaimed DJs and producers, he has a monthly gig at famed club Concrete, where he's renowned for sumptuous basslines and exquisite house music. Gritty and relentless, their remix is characterised by some steely bass hits and a stubborn refusal to compromise. A gnarly jam that soon comes to life courtesy of a quite brilliant bassline, this one is sure to make an impression wherever it's let out of the bag. Exceptional stuff we're sure you'll agree. Elsewhere, the B side features the original, which we soon realise is where the aforementioned remix earned its industrial stripes.
Following the success of our recent reissues of classic tracks from the vaults team-Jalapeno decided to start 2018 strong with another 7" release of two certified bangers from our very own breaks legends Skeewiff.
Our dear label co-founders and creative minds whose four Skeewiff albums set the agenda for the Jalapeno funk machine that you know and love - Alex Rizzo and Elliot Ireland have never been found wanting. These guys are the godfathers of the lounge and breaks scenes, they put the fun into funk, and if rumours are to be believed they could mix before they could walk!
From the very first opening horns salvo on 'Mexican Flyer' you know this track means business. A driving bassline and in-your-face drums provide the backdrop for all sorts of sonic madness with DJ cuts, horn solos and breaks galore. It's a bona-fide fiesta that fits neatly in your 45's bag.
With this little number in the arsenal the only worry that the DJ's will have is the stampede to the dancefloor...
Over on the flipside 'Delta Dawn' sees the guys get a little help from a famously little lady with one of the most recognisable voices in country music. But make no mistake - this is no barn dance... Breaks, bass and a healthy dose of Hammond wizardry inject the funk into proceedings to complete this 7" club weapon of mass destruction.
It's a double act that's up there with the best of them and a must have for fans of Jalapeno and high quality party music.
Air Lows is the debut solo album by Silvia Kastel. The Italian artist has been a fixture of the underground since her precocious teens, clocking up many miles in Control Unit with Ninni Morgia ('It's like Catherine Deneuve dumped two cases of post-Repulsion psychiatric notes over Pere Ubu's Dub Housing, lit the fuse and, ahem, stood well back" - Julian Cope), including collaborations with the likes of Smegma, Factrix, Gary Smith, Aki Onda and Gate (Michael Morley of The Dead C). Both solo and in her work with others, Kastel has explored the outer limits and inner workings of no wave, industrial, dub, extreme electronics, free rock and improvisation. Air Lows is both her fullest and most refined offering to date, a work of vivid, isolationist electronics which draws deeply on her past experience but assuredly breaks new ground. Prompted by a late-flowering interest in techno and club music, Kastel sought to create something which combines a steady rhythmic pulse with the otherworldly sonorities of musique concrete, and avant-garde synth sounds inspired by Japanese minimalism and techno-pop (Haruomi Hosono's Philharmony being a particular favourite). The formal artifice of muzak / elevator music, the intros and outros of generic popular songs, the extreme light-heavy contrasts of jungle, the creative sampling of hardcore, and the very 'human' synths in the jazz of Herbie Hancock's Sextant and Sun Ra: all were touchstones for Air Lows' conception and composition, and all strains of music addressing - or complicating - the relationship between the human and the technological. By extension, visual inspirations also proved important: anime, and the avant-garde fashion of Rei Kawakubo. What does that shirt or dress sound like Though used sparingly, Kastel's voice remains her key instrument, whether subject to dissociative digital manipulations as on 'Bruell', delivering matter-of-fact spoken monologues, or providing splashes of pure tonal colour. Recorded between her expansive Italy studio and a more compact, ersatz set-up in Berlin, Air Lows gradually takes on some of the character of the German capital: you can hear the wide streets and uninhabited spaces, the seepage of never-ending nightlife, the loneliness. Air Lows is The Wizard of Oz in reverse: the glorious technicolour J-pop deconstructions of its first half leading inexorably to the icy noir of 'Spiderwebs' and 'Concrete Void'. These later tracks are reminiscent of 2015's magnificent 39 12', Kastel in the role of numbed, nihilistic chanteuse stalking dank, murky tunnels of reverb and sub-bass. But in fact there is contradiction and emotional ambiguity to Air Lows from the outset, and throughout - a sense of both infinite space and acute claustrophobia; energy and inertia; fluency and restraint.
ORBE is no stranger to the hypnotic side of techno, and his newest release on Eric Cloutier's recently created Palinoia label properly allows the Spanish artist to do what he does best. Four tracks of deep, psychedelic techno, all slightly twisted and quirky in their own way, the entire EP is perfect for those headsdown nights deep in to the morning on the dancefloor of your favorite darkened club.
Version Galore is a newly found label, deeply rooted in the music culture. We bring you the selected reworks / versions from the top producers in the game, showing lots of respect and care for the original, but elevating it's spirit and taking it somewhere else. It's all about the dialogue of cultures and the idealistic desire to pass the music legacy on! No half-measures, played-out tunes, lazy cuts, or boring "808-kick boosting" biz!
K2 is an alias of someone who you should be very familiar with by now, especially if interested in quality house music. No clues He the music legend from Baltimore, one of the most versatile and technically-gifted DJs on the scene, a master of CDJs, who singlehandedly restored public's interest in gospel music with his ultimate dance bomb "Work It Out". Still Hesitant Ok we'll help you - it's the one and only Karizma!
A-side is a pure fire-starter! One of those tunes that works perfectly in any surrounding, location, context, club. Here Karizma flips a version of a certain African-American work song, which catchy refrain just seem to resonate with anyone, while the rough dirty beats with the cheeky start/pause technique destroy the dance floor! Essential party tool!
On B-Side the maestro travels in time to grace us with a retro-futuristic workout on the edge of jazz-fusion / prog-rock & Italo-disco. "In Spite Of" is a peculiar, yet beautiful combination of hypnotic chord progressions, step-sequenced synthetic bass-lines, the virtuoso dialogue of electric guitar and electric violin (yes), spiced up with African percussion and forceful beats, all working together in harmony in accordance with the intricate time signature of the song! That's Karizma at his most Balearic!
IMA (Intense Molecular Activity) is the duo of Don Hunerberg (synthesizers) and Andy Blinx (drums and percussion). Based in New York City and active between 1979 and 1982. Don, a studio Sound / music engineer and musician, Andy an electronic clothing designer, drummer and sound reinforcement engineer at downtown clubs like Max's Kansas City, Mudd Club and CBGB. In between doing sessions at Radio City Music Hall Studios for groups such as Ramones, Richard Hell, Sonic Youth, Liquid Liquid, John Zorn, Glenn Branca and many others, IMA took advantage of off hours to create their own music. As far as influences go, Don's background was in electronic music and Andy's in prog rock. To produce the songs, Don used his own method of creating patterns from 2-track tape loops and then edited them together on to a 24-track recorder adding more tracks of overdubs, In a very similar way that sequencers are used today. By 1980 the duo honed their own unique sound and version of Post Punk and No-Wave with the tools of the trade of the early 80s. Situated above the proscenium of the Radio City Music Hall stage, the studio was outfitted with a variety of orchestral instruments (timpani, bells, xylophone, etc). They self-released a 4-song EP titled 'IMA' on an 8' flexi-disc which was distributed by Ed Bahlman of 99 Records. The music bridges the wild psychedelic-rock of the 60s, the synth-punk of the late-70s and the elaborate constructions of progressive-rock. There are nods to the freak-outs of Chrome and the super neurosis of Suicide, but IMA takes a more clinical approach which also takes notice of Hawkwind and Pink Floyd's interstellar overdrive. We've added 4 bonus tracks recorded during the same studio sessions and included them here for the first time on vinyl. DJ Hell lifted elements of IMA's song "Blurb" virtually intact and uncredited for his electroclash club hit "Keep On Waiting" 20 years later. All songs have been remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. The record is housed in an exact replica of the original jacket featuring a spray painted IMA tag a top a red dashed 'Do Not Enter' sign. Each copy includes a double-sided postcard with notes. This Album Is dedicated to the memory of Andy (Blinx) George.
Nested Structure is the first Great Circles release from artists outside of Philadelphia. THRIVE are Tetsuya Yoshida and Hitoshi Kojima. They both grew up in the North Kanto area of Japan. They first met at the club run by Tetsuya Yoshida called SOUND A BASE NEST, which is known as having the best sound system in the North Kanto area. In 2007, the duo started their DJ / Producing unit THRIVE. Previous releases have included a split 12' with Keia Yano for Japanese label Struct, and recent solo releases by Hitoshi for Always Human Tapes and for his own label Ambivalent Deviation. This record almost didn't happen! --- Tetsuya and Hitoshi were picking up Great Circles records in Japan and, having periodically communicated with each other about music, they sent us the Struct 12' to check out. While
cleaning out the back of the car a few months later, the presumably empty record mailer was about to land in
the recycle bin when we fortunately discovered a demo CD of unreleased THRIVE material inside. We drove
around listening to it and week later we agreed to release a 12'. The music on the Nested Structure 12' is dark, foreboding, even outwardly threatening. It's hypnotic, textural and rhythmically complex.
Jaxx Madicine is a jazz-funk inspired house-ish outfit from Milan consisting of Turbojazz (Local Talk, GAMM Records), Parker Madicine (Heist, Bastard Jazz Brooklyn, CT-HI Records) and the talented jazz keyboardist 'Veez_0'.
With an organic and melodic sound collage you can hear influences from classic 70's jazz funk labels and artists like CTI, Mizell Brothers, Kudu and Bob James but also the current sounds of Kaidi Tatham, Byron The Aquarius and Harvey Sutherland.
After their debut EP 'Montreux' they are now ready to drop their full album 'Distant Classic' where the Jaxx crew exit planet earth and treat us to a space music odyssey that is full of surprises.
During the journey they deliver house, jazz, fusion, boogie and jazzy beats from a highly melodic keyboard perspective.
All tracks are made with a genuine love for analogue synthesizers, fender Rhodes, clavinets and some soulful MPC programming.
'Distant Classic' is an album that can be enjoyed both in the club and at home, but we hope you will enjoy their melodic sounds on any platform. Just press go and enjoy the trip...
Absolutely stellar proto-disco jam from 1975 on the minute Shield label, Nassau County's Hokis Pokis may not be the most well known of funk / soul outfits but that doesn't mean they groove any less than any of the big guns!
'Nowhere' is a true underground classic, one for the real disco aficionados. One of those grooves that straddles the thin lines between rock, soul and funk. This is a proper club record and in the right hands will keep a dancefloor locked in and moving.
Speaking of 'right hands' this special 12" reissue sees NYC DJ and edit royalty Danny Krivit tastefully extend the original 3.32 7" A-side version into an extended club jam. Never one to utilise tired filters, loops, sweeps and so called laptop 'production methods' Danny turns in a fine extension that is subtle, effective and most of all - funky. A truly glorious slice of uplifting dance music 'Nowhere' is an essential purchase for those of you who dig the real deep stuff.
This reissue is a legit, licensed and proper release. Made by Above Board distribution in conjunction with Henry Stone music and the skills of the legendary Danny Krivit. 2018.
In recent years Moiré has become an integral figure in re-imagining club music. The enigmatic artist has travelled a note-perfect path and in just a few years has collaborated with fundamental record labels such as R&S, Werk Discs and Rush Hour. After his second and long awaited album "No Future" (Ghostly International, 2017), Moiré's "BBOY EDITS 01" is the first signing on C.E.E. The four track EP is comprised of unreleased material designed for the dance floor and provides continuity to his much prized Neversleep series. Club Excursionista de l'Electrònica (C.E.E.) is a moral, spiritual and cultural entity founded in 1875 in Vall de Camprodon. C.E.E. includes thousands of anonymous members who are organized into subdivisions and enjoy Sunday excursions into nature to end the weekend, where the joys of nightlife give way to clean air and mountain pursuits. C.E.E. can be described as "electronica folklorists", with a select catalogue of sounds from across the continent and beyond that represent an ethnographical journey through the most modern treatments of songs and popular dances practiced in clubs and tents all over the region.
Monstrous repress action from Chicago's Dance Mania - The source of the ghetto house movement, the rawness!
Club Style is the pseudonym used by 2 all-time Chicago legends, a truly all-star line up on this record, that's right, the pairing of Paul Johnson and Robert Armani. Say no more really. 'Crazy Wild' is a 4 tracker of infectious, grooved out, jacking and tough house jams, both producers fingerprints are all over this one. Narcotic, driving drum machines, phased out loops, armour piercing claps and basement trembling basslines are all over this EP, originally released in 1994. This one's a bit of a cult release from DM, collectors and freaks rating it highly. As usual it's a tough one to try and track down, changing hands for some hard earned cash too. This is the first time "Crazy Wild" has ever been reissued in full, just as it was originally released in 1994, complete with original Dance Mania label artwork. 100% legit, reissued in conjunction with Dance Mania records, Chicago IL and Parris Mitchell. Don't sleep.
Kalakuta Soul Records joins forces with waf80music to proudly present Kai Niggemann's solo debut, an all original album of outrageous poetically abstract music created live and without overdubs on a Buchla 200e Electric Music Box, one of the rarest and most sought after electronic music instruments. Working on the platform since 2013, Kai Niggemann has become one of Germany's leading artists who perform live with a Buchla 200e. His style is an electro-acoustic storytelling, a clubby dreamscape and a poetically-abstract kraut-infused energetic mix of new Elektronische Musik with contemporary club culture. Nerds love the technology and clubbers love the throbbing drive of the basslines. It's all improvised and recorded live in Berlin — yet it sounds meticulously crafted in a dark basement studio throughout the entire last winters. Kai is a member of the 30-piece kraut-noise-jazz collective "The Dorf" and the electronics duo "The Last Books" (with Achim Zepezauer), performs and records with Mia Zabelka (Vienna) as "Redshift Orchestra", cofounded the internet-computermusic "European Bridges Ensemble" (EBE, e-b-e.eu) and the electroacoustic duo "Resonator". His most recent releases were the CD/vinyl "Lux" (feat. the noise drone artist N), "EviL/EvyL" and the cassette "Made in Österreich" with The Dorf (feat. Caspar Brötzmann & FM Einheit (Ex-Einstürzende Neubauten) or "Thinking Light" by Redshift Orchestra (duo with Mia Zabelka). He performed concerts with Mia Zabelka (Wien), Yoshio Machida (JP), Trap & Zoid (BE), Stian Westerhus or Shahzad Ismaily (with The Dorf) among many others.
Eddie C's Red Motorbike rides again...
Space Glide chops unheard wrong-tempo Cosmic Funk into a 4 minute mouthful of slippery dubwise underwater dancing while Werewolf Invasion takes us to an out-of-the-way Leather Disco in Eastern Europe by motorbike, only to find the club rammed with thirsty man-beasts half cosmonaut half wolf.
Another keeper...
Hand - stamped, 7" vinyl only business
With his 3rd album Dear Stranger, Duesseldorf artist TG Mauss appeared 2013 for the first time on Berlins quality music label Karaoke Kalk. Proving once more his skills in meshing up folk pop with electronic music, he left a big mark at Hans Nieswandt (Whirlpool Productions), who now throws the track Ghosts into the club: a grooving funk bass played by Levent Canseven meets a rattling hi-hat and spacey soundeffects. Mauss voice makes the disco ball and our dancing hearts pause for a moment, just to explode on the dance floor. That's what you call state-of-remix-art.
World excluding FR. Blackstrobe Records under exclusive licence to Because Music . LP with Printed Inner Sleeves. House music broke through in 1987, at the same time when AIDS arrived in France with the first contamination peak in gay and drug addict circles. In 1989, the founders of Act-Up Paris knew that both the fight against AIDS and triumphant house music should be joined together.
House music broke through in 1987, at the same time when AIDS arrived in France with the first contamination peak in gay and drug addict circles. In 1989, the founders of Act-Up Paris knew that both the fight against AIDS and triumphant house music should be joined together. From 1992 to 1995, the period covered by '120 BPM", house reached its most beautiful plateau even though techno was becoming dominant. '120 BPM' is a get-together moment through clubbing, this moment where fears are forgotten by dancing with one's friends, what we called 'the chosen family' at Act-Up. Boys and girls dancing in a club where the walls cannot be seen, flooded with simple light. This is their activist recess. Arnaud Rebotini, composing the soundtrack of Robin Campillo's previous film, 'Eastern Boys", is a recognized DJ, a composer and a kind man, which is for me the most important quality. Here, his work is marked by restraint of his love for house and after techno. I believe he deliberately withdrew himself in relation to the film's power and the AIDS theme. He accompanies and supports the image on the screen and even his remix of Small Town Boy by Bronski Beat is in a process marked by respect and almost intimidation (even if I would have
The Black Pearl is very proud to present a real 80´s futuristic proto club banger from the STRÖER Brothers, with lots of clubby remixes by buddies & friends. The original track "Night Falls" was only released on a very limited hand-spread promo 12inch, which was especially pressed for the Kunstdisko art-project for the 24th Olympic games in 1988 in Seoul / South-Korea. Together with the Goethe Institut they created the "Kunstdisco" project for germany, which was located at the Yoido Ankara Square and took part for the german Seoul Olympic Art Festival. The Ströer Brothers, who were responsible for the video & music sector, invided and encouraged 25 young german composers and producers (among of them was the young DJ West Bam) to produce new music for the Kunstdisco between Rap and new electronic club music from the end of the 80´s. The Ströer Brothers, together with Howard Fine & Nadeen Holloway, were presented through many DJ´s who played their music that they espacially created for this event. Next to the in-house project Mudegg, the single audio tracks of "Night Falls" were givin to musical buddies like First Touch, Enzo Elia, DJ Rocca, Siggatunes and Manelet to remix them and Black Pearl is more than proud to present a great variety of remixes, styles and visons on the original track.
Swiss producer Honorée returns to Rekids with 'Marée Haute EP' this January, featuring two intelligently produced deep cuts with a remix from Perlon's Margaret Dygas.
Basel-based artist Honorée's inaugural release 'Marée Basse EP' appeared on Rekids earlier this year and demonstrated a musical understanding acquired from extensive DJ experience within Switzerland's club scene. 'Marée Haute EP' is Honorée's second outing on Rekids and includes a remix from renowned minimal DJ/producer and Panorama Bar regular Margaret Dygas.
'Dorian' delivers crisp drum grooves which underpin mesmerising chord progressions, haunting synthesizer motifs and spacey vocals before '208' provides infectious drum rhythms, glitched vocal cuts and hypnotic melodies which sit on top of a rumbling low-end. Margaret Dygas' take on 'Dorian' offers a pulsating bass hook and sharp percussion which lays the foundation for dubbed-out synths and ethereal atmospheres to close the release.
MW present two classic Minimal Wave tracks which have been on heavy rotation for years now, Computer Bank' and Like I Am, Comme Je Suis' remixed by The Floor (Veronica Vasicka & Karl O'Connor).
Five Times Of Dust was formed in Bristol, U.K. in 1981 by Mark Phillips and Rob Lawrence. Mark had answered an advert that Rob had placed in a local record shop and later that year they went on to record and release their first tape, The Dadacomputer. A standout track from that tape, Computer Bank' is a seminal, proto-techno banger'. The Floor remixed it a while ago to DJ it out and since then have been receiving many requests about where it could be purchased.
The flip side features Unovidual & Tara Cross' Like I Am Comme Je Suis'. It appeared on our first compilation entitled V/A The Lost Tapes LP, in 2006. Unovidual was a Belgian producer involved with the Micrart Group (Autumn, Linear Movement, Twilight Ritual) and Tara Cross, a long lost girl from Brooklyn' who used to play in small NYC downlown clubs alongside Madonna during the early 1980s when she was still an unknown. Unovidual and Tara collaborated on several tracks through the mail during this time as well as in the studio. Like I Am Comme Je Suis' was recorded in a studio in Ghent, Belgium in 1985.
We find both of these tracks prime examples of innovative and pioneering synth wave tracks that work on and off the dance floor. And through these mixes, The Floor aim to stay true to the artists' original intentions whilst making the songs more dance floor oriented.
Featured alongside these remixes, are two unreleased tracks. Rob Lawrence's Armoured Car' which at one point was released on a compilation CD as Robert (not to be confused with Rob Doran from Hard Corps) and Unovidual's Imponative', a beautiful minimal synth track which has remained unreleased to this day.
The Five Times of Dust / Unovidual & Tara Cross EP is pressed on standard weight royal blue clear vinyl and housed in a hand stamped disco sleeve. Limited to 600 numbered copies.




















