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Will Hofbauer & Sangre Voss team up for ‘Steppe EP’ this June on Control Freak Recordings, featuring a remix from Discwoman’s Ciel.

London-based Will Hofbauer and Sangre Voss, who’s individual work has seen them appear on labels such as Rhythm Section and Will’s own Third Place imprint, team up for the first time on Control Freak Recordings for the wonky ‘Steppe EP’, picking up early support from Ben UFO, Bradley Zero, and more.

Leading the release, ‘Pumice’ tumbles through rolling low end, crunchy percussion and an eerie breakdown for a high energy start to the A-side. ‘Flundra (Flundra Mix)’ follows with bubbling pads and speaker-rattling subs around a kick-less drop, leading into a shimmering breakdown.

On the flip, ‘June-O’ sees the duo craft a low tempo slugger, peppered with tablas, bells and eagle samples around warped, loopy synthesis. Ciel’s remix of ‘June-O’ takes the B2 spot, adding stuttering percussion, vocal chops, and additional wildlife samples to the mixture to round out the release.

Will Hofbauer & Sangre Voss ‘Steppe EP’ drops on Control Freak Recordings on 18th June.

Squid announce their debut album, ‘Bright Green Field’, already one of 2021’s most highly anticipated releases.
Produced by Dan Carey, ‘Bright Green Field’ is an album of towering scope and ambition, it is deeply considered, paced and intricately constructed. With all band members playing such a vital and equal role, this album is very much the product of five heads operating as one.
Some bands might be tempted to include previous singles on their debut - and the band already released two more in 2020 via ‘Sludge’ and ‘Broadcaster’ - but instead ‘Bright Green Field’ is completely new. This sense of limitlessness and perpetual forward motion is one of the key ingredients that makes Squid so loved by fans and critics alike, from 6 Music, who have A-Listed previous singles ‘Houseplants’, ‘The Cleaner’ and ‘Match Bet’, to publications such as The Guardian, NME, The Face, The Quietus and countless others. The band was also on the longlist for the BBC Music Sound Of 2020 poll.
‘Bright Green Field’ features field recordings of ringing church bells, tooting bees, microphones swinging from the ceiling orbiting a room of guitar amps and a distorted choir of 30 voices, as well as a horn and string ensemble featuring the likes of Emma-Jean Thackray and Lewis Evans from Black Country, New Road.
Squid’s music - be it agitated and discordant or groove-locked and flowing - has often been a reflection of the tumultuous world we live in and this continues that to some extent. “This album has created an imaginary cityscape,” says Ollie Judge, who writes the majority of the lyrics and plays drums. “The tracks illustrate the places, events and architecture that exist within it. Previous projects were playful and concerned with characters, whereas this project is darker and more concerned with place - the emotional depth of the music has deepened.”
For all the innovative recording techniques, evolutionary leaps, lyrical
themes, ideas and narratives that underpin the album, it’s also a joyous and emphatic record. One that marries the uncertainties of the world with a curious sense of exploration as it endlessly twists and turns down unpredictable avenues.

Bedouin’s Human By Default recruits Upercent for the four-track ‘Inconformisme EP’ this May.

Previously recording for Watergate, Kompakt and Adana Twins’ TAU, the Valencia-based DJ/producer arrives on Bedouin’s imprint for his debut appearance on the label, delivering some of his most accomplished productions to date on vinyl.

Across the record, Upercent displays combines his wide range of musical influences into a set of engaging downtempo dancefloor cuts with impeccable attention to detail. Opener ‘Elefants’ twists various acoustic instruments and vocal samples around soft shakers and warm low end, leading into theloose percussion of ‘Fluir’, grounded by a softly thudding kick amongst fluttering and glitched out FX.

On the flip, ‘Caduco’ combines the natural and the synthetic as hand percussion meets sharp synth stabs and glowing pads. ‘Hipocresia’ twists mangled horns over a low slung backbeat.

Heist welcomes rising star of the French House scene Marina Trench to the roster with a stunning release full of classic house cues across 4 warm & deeply grooving house cuts.
With only a handful of releases on DJ Deep’s Deeply Rooted (2019) and Wolf Music (2020), the young Parisian producer is only just getting started. And as far as starts go: This release on Heist will definitely open some eyes & ears across the house scene.
With her elegant and soulful sound both firmly rooted in classic deep house as it is contemporary, Marina showcases a mature sound that’s rarely seen with emerging producers. With a smart choice of samples, beautiful original vocals and smooth pads,
Marina layers her tracks effortlessly into warm compositions that work just as well in your living room as in any sweaty club.
The aptly titled opening track “Sunrise” is a smooth affair with pads oozing in and out and a faintly recognizable and definitely catchy choice of samples. An open electronic bass gives the track a serious tone, but it’s the melancholic chords that make you doze off reminiscing the days of endless festivals in the sun.
“Carry on” is built around classic house stabs with cleverly layered arpeggios and textures giving the track it’s depth. The main attraction here is the trumpet solo by German wunderkind Christian Altehülshorst. As far as chance meetings go, this is a nice one. Christian (who we met through our mutual friend Lorenz Rhode) was our impromptu trumpet player during a show at La Machine back in 2019, where Marina played alongside us. They got talking and before we knew it, we had this track in our inbox. It’s jazzy deephouse at its finest.
On the B-side, we’ve got “Over there”, where Marina layers here own vocals on an infectious house groove and the closing track “Wake up” featuring the emotive vocals of French Algerian artist Sabrina Bellaouel. The latter track evolves around a LFO’d pad and a minimalist groove, giving the vocals all the space to shine in a track that could easily be the one in your set that sets the room on fire.
As far as label debuts go, we could not have hoped for a better one. We’re sure we’ll get to see a lot more of Marina in the near future and hope she serves as a shining example for other emerging producers.
Enjoy the music,
Maarten & Lars

Music in Exile announce their forthcoming remix EP, featuring reworkings of Music Yared by Melbourne cult hero, Mikey Young (Total Control, Eddy Current Suppression Ring, The Green Child). SINDAYO - MIKEY YOUNG REMIXES features remixes of an original track from Music Yared’s self titled debut EP, released last year through Music in Exile. In addition to today’s announcement, we’re delighted to also share the first single, Sindayo (Mikey Young’s Masinko Remix - Radio Edit), out March 26 via Music in Exile.

Mikey Young’s legacy is well known throughout the Australian music scene, most notably as part of garage punk band Eddy Current Suppression Ring, and synth-driven outfit, Total Control. However, the talents of Young extend well beyond the performance setting to the world of engineering and mastering with his name appearing in the liner notes of an incredible number of releases, becoming something of a trademark of quality. In this release, Young showcases his skill and nuance, creating a remix where tradition and sonic exploration co-exist.

Anbessa Gebrehiwot and Haftu Reda are masterful players of krar and masinko, traditional string instruments from Eritrea and Ethiopia. Now based in Melbourne, Australia, the pair collaborate with multi-instrumentalist Dale Gorfinkel to create an innovative ensemble sound that celebrates their East African culture. The band's seemingly endless repertoire ranges from modern takes on folk songs to new, original compositions with Anbessa’s strong vocal presence a perfect match to Haftu’s sweet lyrical modesty.

Music Yared’s compositions are inspired by traditional Etheopian and Eritrean folk songs and they sing about love, distance, separation and culture. Their songs also feature virtuosic mastery of traditional instruments - the krar, (a 5 string lyre style instrument), and the masinko (a single string violin-like instrument that is played using a bow.) Although inspired by tradition, Music Yared’s compositions embrace the notion that music is always developing and changing with the times. Taking influence from traditional folk songs, Music Yared finds newness and originality through their personal approach to their lyrics, their treatment of rhythm, and the creation of new beats. This change and openness to new sounds is also apparent in their instrumentation, as they pair their traditional instruments with drums, as well as samples of bass lines and percussion.

Given their openness to new musical approaches and experimentation, it only seems fitting for the songs of Music Yared to be remixed, allowing further exploration of their inherent musical attitudes towards change and development. The first single from the EP, Sindayo (Mikey Young’s Masinko Remix - Radio Edit) traverses new sonic territory, pairing the traditional character of Music Yared with contrasting ideas from different sonic landscapes. Beginning with a musical acknowledgement to the original song, Young’s remix then changes direction into a new sonic world; synth pads and melodies swell and intertwine, samples interject, whilst grooving electronic beats underpin a new approach to texture and song structure.

Recorded by Dale Gorfinkel in Thornbury. Mixed and mastered by John Lee at Phaedra Studios.
Remixed & additional production by Mikey Young in Rye.

It's been a while now since dance music stopped suddenly and also it's been a while since the Exium duo released stuff here at home.

Hector and Valentin have been busy in their studios during these uncertain days, extracting the best out of their minds and tools to create this four tracker. If you are familiar with the Exium sound over the years, you can feel here a sort of comeback to their primitive roots. The sound is harsher, more violent, the components are a chosen few but well standing in the mix, the rhythms are broken and twisted. Nothing easy for the ear. If you push the boundaries like they do, there's still hope in techno as a constantly new and risky journey. Totally the opposite of cloning what is done.

"Ascendo" relies on a broken kick surrounded by industrial noises and distorted textures. Merciless

"Atheris" uses again nonlinear drums as the basement, spicing the recipe with overdriven pads and abstract sonic elements.

"Cyclotron" is the only 4/4 cut here. A random square wave distorted synth line is the leitmotiv, joined by different layers of sonic components creating an aggressive sci-fi joint.

"Low Pressure Discharge" closes the release returning to abstract breaks as foundation, with metallic industrial hits on top.

Moving into 2021 Pure Space is excited to deliver another year of Australian electronic music. Lately we’ve found therapy through regular body movement to help us see that better days are ahead. We hope you feel this too with this new release…

For our first release of the year, Melbourne’s Third Space captures his most club-focussed exploration to date. It offers a broad path which melts genres, instead showing us an alternate domain.

Having started his own label ‘Nice Setting’ in 2020 and self-releasing an album and an EP, Third Space has established his sound of complex undulating rhythms. For his release on Pure Space, ‘Pattern of Spring’ continues this exploration of dramatic structures with continually shifting timbres - morphing them as they progress through energies, rumbles, and struck surfaces.

The two A-side tracks are powerful displays of organic instrumentation with fluttering pads and subtle resonations. An upbeat tempo and abright atmosphere underpins the opening side, anchored by dnb leaning programming and off-kilter polymetric rhythms.

‘170 Shitshow’ showcases complex percussion underwritten by a formidable resonating karplus-strong section throughout the track. Whilst ‘Pulsing Delay Mod’ builds upon this notion of polymetric rhythms continually at play with one another, it offers a crisp and menacing drum pattern pulsating amongst metallic timbres.

Flipping to the B-sides; ‘Cyclical Pan Workout’ reflects an unruly and evolving atmosphere, anchored by a wonderfully cerebral drum pattern and delicate pad toward the close.

The final track ‘Nonlinear (For Pillows)’ offers re-contextualised melodies and percussion, providing a sense of closure and sonic bookending by linking tones and timbres referenced throughout the EP into a pillow like state.

White Vinyl

The record opens out with clamouring field recordings taken on Vernon's travels in Japan; the cacophony melts effortlessly into the muted beauty of "Amber Fade", its cold synths and sombre chords striking a perfect emotional balance. "Tilted" similarly plays with ambient elements, lush pads easing their way out of the sounds of a waterfall but the natural sounds are contrasted by a touch of acidic 303. This hint of the club is forefronted in "Late Nights", which dials up the energy with chunky big room drum loops, a stirring piano section showing Vernon can turn up the heat without losing the emotional side.

On the B-side, "This Moment (I Feel)" toys with a muzak sound palette and dazed poolside beats. "Disappear" lean heavily on an electro beat; but for a hazy elongated drop it's a heady dancefloor number, before easing off again into the closing track. "Start Again" is full of texture and character, cleverly arpeggiated synths cascading over a soft house jam.

Davide disanto is an amazing Italian producer born in bari, after multiple releases on excellent labels such as Let's play house, Politics of dancing or even Theory of swing, he delivers us a fabulous 12 inch which borrows as much from the heyday of the purest New-York City 90s deep house as well as the purest techno made in detroit. The 1st track from this EP seems to have come straight from an imaginary collaboration between Boo williams & Ron trent, the violence of the rhythm is counterbalanced by some airy & ultra deep pads, the aptly named Atmosfear. A banger as we rarely hear today. C'Mon, Let Me See on A2 sounds like a modern take on the awesome Jerzzey boy. On the B side, Da Love Feeling (Main Mix) & le (4am Underground Dub) revisits the 90s once again for our greatest pleasure, particularly the latter seems to have come straight out of a lost mix of the great danny tenaglia. And to end this ep in style, davide allows himself the luxury of summoning the spirit of MBG and all the best Italian deep house from the early 90s on the superb Lungomare (Ambient Reprise). ESSENTIAL ITEM !

SKYLAX RECORDS 4 EVER

Nick Lapien and Robin Koek's latest collaborative album, Days Bygone, helps launch Delsin's Interstellar Series as they continue to explore beyond the dancefloor trappings of conventional techno to create a body of work steeped in mystery. Although not totally devoid of percussion, Artefakt shift their focus away from dominant drums and lean on the keys and pads to map out the landscape each track traverses. Sometimes furtive and suggestive, elsewhere pearlescent and diffused across great expanses, it's these striking, sublime formations which define the atmosphere Lapien and Koek have created - a textured, dynamic exercise in techno as internalized listening music.

With this fifth release on the catalogue's main series, we continue to care about rising talents and extend to new musical borders. Siwei is an Antwerp based producer who made his specialty to blend ambient and techno with moody waves of distortion and fidgeting modular patterns.

The A side takes you on an industrial tinged techno trip while the other takes the direction of beat science, and the dark side of dub. A1 feels like a head-on charge in a dusky and smokey room. It starts with a rolling bassline, introducing the full-on energy of a mighty steady kick drum stomping over howling pads. An ambitious track to lose oneself and the ordinary sense of time.

B1 is in the lineage of far-out dub explorations and forward-thinking dance experiments. This fractured cutting-edge aesthetic blends ideally with the reverberating synths and the eastern vibe of the lead melody. B2 is an epic broken beat stepper, a secret game for adults, with cinematically engineered sci-fi synths and a ruthless palette of sounds. It's not just dreadful, but also playful, thrilling for the mind, challenging for the body.

A Deep House 3 track EP featuring more of Matt’s production.

A. Deep Within - Almost metallic percussion accompanies atmospheric pads evolving into a breakdown with lush chords and bass.

B1, Last Dance a jackin’ styleHouse jam with shuffling beats and happy melodies.

B2 Acid Jasz A jazzed out Deep House track with a repeating drum loop sample complete with chords and Vibraphone.

Limited edition to 500 copies vinyl + 16 pages comic.

Record Kicks presents the reissue of the rare and in-demand Calibro 35 EP Dalla Bovisa a Brooklyn on vinyl. The EP includes an original Calibro 35's comic and is limited to 500 copies, which makes it an instant collector's item.

Originally recorded in 2012 in Brooklyn during the sessions for their third studio album Any Resemblance, Dalla Bovisa a Brooklyn (literally 'from Milan's district Bovisa to Brooklyn') came out in that same year as a limited edition 10". The EP contained an original comic by Italian gurus Gianfranco Enrietto and Marco Philopat that tells, between reality and fiction, the experience of Calibro 35 in the Big Apple. Rapidly gone out of stock, the original copies are rare to find and change hands for big money amongst record collectors and Calibro fans. Following the re-release of the first 3 Calibro 35 studio albums, now also Dalla Bovisa A Brooklyn sees the light again on the superior 12" format that includes a restored colored version of the original 16 pages comic. From the opening "Broccolino funk" to the last track, the 6 minutes of the afro-funk winner "Bushwick, Nigeria", on the six tracks on the EP the band sounds as groovy as ever, serving another funk-filled journey, full of fuzz guitars, distorted organs and brooding bass lines.

Active since 2008, Calibro 35 enjoy a worldwide reputation as one of the coolest independent bands around. During their thirteen-year career, they were sampled by Dr. Dre on his Compton album, Jay-Z, The Child of lov & Damon Albarn; they shared stages worldwide with the likes of Roy Ayers, Muse, Sun Ra Arkestra, Sharon Jones, Thundercat and Headhunters and as unique musicians they collaborated with, amongst others, PJ Harvey, Mike Patton, John Parish, Stewart Copeland and Nic Cester (The Jet). Described by Rolling Stone magazine as "the most fascinating, retro-maniac and genuine thing that happened to Italy in the last years", Calibro 35 now count on a number of aficionadosin every corner of the planet.

YELLOW VINYL
A taste from his upcoming debut album, Biesmans’ ‘Cold Void’ EP is brilliantly wistful and nostalgic, traversing indie dance, rock, electro and pop-tinged cuts.
Released in February, the artist’s ‘Planes, Trains & Automobiles’ EP laid the retro groundwork, taking inspiration from ‘80s video games. ‘Cold Void’ takes the baton and runs with it. The title track sees
Biesmans team up with guitarist Boi Wonder and Tom The Bomb, front man of Belgian rock outfit The Guru Guru. The resulting track is driven by steel blue synths, a massive guitar riff and memorable vocal
hook. A certified gem.
Disco Halal label founder Moscoman links up with emerging Ukrainian producer Komilev to beef up ‘Cold Void’s’ bottom end, adding ascendent pads and lush melodies, shifting the vibe into punchier dancefloor territory. ‘When Will It Stop’ is a woozy indie dream, propelled by robotic vocals and ‘80s piano chords. A handy radio edit of Moscoman & Komilev’s remix rounds out the package, promising broad appeal.

Hugh Padgham-produced albums have sold well over 100 million copies worldwide, and gathered over 100 billion streams on digital platforms to date. Despite these stratospheric stats, the multi grammy award-winning producer has not been involved in any new material for well over a decade, and it would always take something ultra-special to pique Hugh's attention enough to get him back into the studio. This new album by Drummer/Composer Graham Costello, co-produced by Padgham and out May 7th on Gearbox Records, is most definitely that. Veering away from solid Jazz and into minimalism, electronics and post rock, Costello builds triumphantly on the foundation he laid down on 'Obelisk', his debut 2019 release which was nominated for the Scottish Album of the Year Award. It garnered much attention from the UK press and further, receiving 5-stars from The Scotsman and strong accolades from the likes of Clash Magazine, who called it ”startling, groundbreaking...it explodes definitions to seize fresh space”. 4 leading singles will drop to dsps in advance of the album street date of May 7th - each chosen to unpeal a little of the multiple layers to be discovered on the full set. 2nd single 'Circularity' (March 10th) hints at Blackstar-era Bowie while calming the soul with its sensuous hypnoticism, while 'Impetu' (April 9th) reveals a dense, lustrous sound bursting with colour, rich in energy, and 'Legion' (April 30th) explodes with muscular force and purpose.

2024 Repress
Grey Marbled Vinyl

Focus mode to the fullest. Berlin-based Lars Huismann strikes back on Voxnox Records, with his four-track EP "Take The Step".

Self-titled "Take The Step" kicks in first by delivering filthy hat shuffles on even nastier drums and a growing arpeggiator line. With small, yet effective vocal pieces emerging over the place, mysterious pad shapes build a tremendous climax ready to roll further into the future on this one. It's a Voxnox Fam thing with this perfect introduction!

With "Not The Same" stepping up next, Huismann showcases an ever-evolving percussion line on top of some tasty claps and flowing synthesizer plugs. Small voice parts enter the situation too as we get into deeper, atmospheric vibes bringing us a never stopping joy.

And so it's said that the B-sided "Bulletproof" takes nothing less but marching drum patterns and melody glitches coming out of nowhere to prove a forward-directed vibe afterwards. Eventually taking us back to the good old raving area, where eclectic synth lines were the regular state, followed by clever arrangement moves.

Rounding up this EP is the delivered "Bulletproof" remix by Manchester's powerhouse AnD. Taking a faster pitch on the original stems, this remix is a forward-moving rave machine par excellence. With synthesizers marching around the room, proofing that nothing can stop them, we get lost inside this epic round up for the 44th Release of VNR.

Satomimagae is a songwriter, singer, producer and composer residing in the environs of Tokyo, Japan. Hanazano is Satomimagae's fourth album and first for RVNG Intl. Her last albums Kemri (2017), and Koko (2014), were released on Chihei Hatakeyama's White Paddy Mountain. A tribute to everyday mysticism, Hanazono (translated as "flower garden") is an ecology of simple, cyclical refrains and elegiac entreaties cross-pollinating with ludic and layered folk vibrations. Each song on Hanazono is dedicated to a simple theme, object or image, out of which grows uncomplicated melodies wrapped in layers of textural warmth, like a flower subtly moving in sway with its environment. Accompaniments of avian calls and electric guitar strata, added by Hideki Urawa, who also mixed Hanazono, suggest a spacious firmament above this burgeoning bed of earth. An ecology of simple, cyclical refrains are bathed in humming ethers, elegiac entreaties cross-pollinating with ludic and layered folk vibrations. These are songs, lyrically light footed and tunefully mellow. Every element has its place, blooming in synchronicity with its sphere. Hanazono realizes a shift in the artist's habitually intimate and introspective tendencies. Though there are perceptible shades to this space_suggestions of isolation and vulnerability_there is a balance of light which resonates outwards. There is a sense of seeing the world around with wide-eyes, and belonging to it. This way of looking and being is reflected in the folktale relief print illustration which covers the album, setting a scene of sanctuary and insight for this green, growing patch of sound.

Magical is a fusion of a dozen genres, where every song opens up like a Russian doll, splitting into real songs within the song.
Hundreds of details are part of the different sonic worlds in which each song progresses.
Magical is no doubt hard to decipher for very good musicians, but it's easy to dance to for very normal people.
Since the orchestral introduction of the first song your senses will be automatically taken on a journey between irony and sadness, emotional intensity and vibing, extreme nerding and introspection. Magical is a dream that, through sound illusion, makes you meditate on the meaning of life, death and love, three fundamental topics in the album lyrics.
The album is a leap into a future where no tradition is missing.
Just a perfect way to discover the surprising world of Ze in the Clouds.

Ze in the Clouds is a cutting edge multi-instrumentalist and producer.
He created his own compositional style as the result of his jazz origins and his continuous studying and evolution. He shares his thousand faces without any stylistic boundaries with people and musicians who have the same vision.
Born in the Po Valley of Northern-Italy at the end of the last millennium, from a very young age Ze attracted the attention of promoters and artistic directors of the new avant-garde scene linked to jazz and electronic music. JazzMi and Jazz:Re:Found, the two most influential Italian festivals to focus on this kind of artistic proposal, immediately understood the potential of his amazing talent, showcasing him in their lineup. Jazz:Re:Found, captivated by his unique and inimitable style, decided also to reward his genius by inaugurating the catalog of the new record label project "Time is The Enemy" with his debut album.

Live At Robert Johnson introduces SIRS to its artist roster, with a two-track laid-back Balearic disco EP, reducing the tempi to bring on a nicely crafted and floating cosmic groove. Arrived EP kicks off with Keep Forgetting, a laid-back and slowly evolving cosmic vibe, which lets you forget the daily routines and hardships for a while. On the flip-side, Junee widens the Balearic panorama with added pads, uptempo beats, and a heart-warming synth line. Available digital-only, Call Me turns a notion of long-distance longing into a punchy downbeat, with floating chords and melodies building into a labour-of-love tune. Daniel Klein aka SIRS (read: Sounds In Real Stereo) has come a long way since getting acquainted with electronic sounds in the 1980s and into DJing just a decade later, inspired by the early Hamburg gay scene. His mid-Nineties relocation to Ibiza and Mallorca has clearly informed SIRS’ productions and overall style, which features on many remixes and co-productions, as well as his own tracks and label SIRSOUNDS.