Search:riffs

When people talk about Italian dance music, they tend to focus on Rome and Napoli rather than Bologna. Yet the city in Northern Italy not only played a key role in the development of “Italo-house” in the late 1980s and early ‘90s, but also boasts a vibrant contemporary scene. To prove the point, Boogie Café has put together “Bologna On The Move”, a four-track selection of sizzling hot cuts from some of the city’s latest wave of deep and soulful dance music talents.

Leading the charge is Sam Ruffillo, a producer who first appeared on Boogie Café last year following an impressive 2018 debut on Irma Dance floor. He kicks off proceedings with the infectious “U Make Me Sing”, a heavyweight slab of rolling breakbeat goodness rich in tight vocal samples, jazzy guitar licks and wonderfully warm and weighty bass.

Later in the EP Ruffilo returns to action alongside Brine, another rising star with links to legendary Italian label Irma. “Request Line” is a fine slab of chunky, U.S garage-influenced deep house that sees the duo pepper swinging drums and toasty bass with heady organ stabs, cut-up vocal samples and trippy electronics.

Fittingly, Brine gets a chance to showcase his skills as a solo producer via “Star Chaser”, a looser and jazzier house excursion that doffs a cap to the glory years of jazz-funk whilst championing rich deep house synth riffs, jaunty bass and more spaced-out vocal snippets.

You’ll hear a similar jazz-funk influence at the heart of the EP’s only contribution from Red Rooster founder and former House of Disco artist D’Arabia. The most experienced of the three artists on show, he offers up “Straight Outta Fire”, a bouncy, deep and percussive affair that wraps drowsy male vocals, sustained chords and harmonica samples around disco-influenced house beats and what may well be the squelchiest bassline ever to emerge from Bologna.


DJ Support:

Bedmo Disco, Lord leopard, Melon Bomb, Dave Harvey, Haze City, Aroop Roy, Lay Far , Danvers, Kassian, Dave Jarvis,
Jimmy The Twin & Cengiz.

2x12"

Originally recorded in 1994 and released in 1995, Home is characterized by MASSAKER's ultra-refined riffs of shrieking, screeching feedback, and rattling machine gun staccatos.

Exuding confidence, authority and a natural rapport that the musicians clearly had with one another. Certain songs from earlier records were revisited on Home including "The Tribe" and "Massaker" from The Tribe, and "Templehof," "Hunter Song," and "Böhmen" from Black Axis. These pieces had evolved following years of rethinking, rehearsing and reshaping them on stage, as well as playing with Danny Lommen, who had replaced Frank Neumeier on drums after Black Axis.

These refined versions on Home raise the level of density and tension, the ominous evocations of impending doom, booming threat, and the grim determination that's always driven MASSAKER.

Pitto is not one to flood the scene with new music considering he’s only released two ep’s in the last three years. He takes the time to let ideas evolve and it’s clearly noticeable on last year’s EP on ‘Something Happening Somewhere’ sublabel ‘Ooshaa’, where his feel for an almost poppy hook is perfectly combined with his love for darker electronics. On the ‘Baila baila EP’ –his return to Heist after his last ep in 2018- he explores this path further. The EP is filled with live percussion, a dark and rolling acid line, chopped beats and catchy piano riffs. The three originals are accompanied by a remix courtesy of Pete Herbert that has ‘summer’ written all over it.

Opening track ‘Sammie’ has a beautiful sense of melancholy to it, where an emotional piano riff is combined with some 80’s tinged vocals and loads of live percussive elements for a smile inducing experience.

‘Discko’ takes a darker approach with a deep and ‘dubby’ low end and a guitar riff that wouldn’t be out of place on a Caribou track. The horn section and synth lead give it a real crossover appeal and it’s the kind of track you imagine working just as well on a summer festival as in a dark basement.

On the flip, there’s the title track ‘Baila’, a proto inspired acid stomper with a nice wink to early 90’s dance music vocals. An acid line gives the track its backbone, but it’s the combination of Pitto’s chords and instrumentation that give this track it’s unique edge.

The EP finishes off with Pete Herbert’s remix of ‘Sammie’. Pete’s version has that full-on summer appeal with his recognizable style of modern day island disco. He adds a bit of drama to the track with some big breakdowns, changeovers in the piano riff and turns the Balearic vibe up a notch with an added dreamy solo.

We’re happy to have Pitto back on Heist and this unique and diverse EP is one we hope will create a lot of smiles on the dance floor in the coming months.

Yours Sincerely,
Lars & Maarten

M Parent brings us a soundtrack of American dystopia, one that gives a pointed sonic voice to the bubbling frustrations and anxieties of our time. While American politics play out like a circus on the world stage, M Parent responds to the question of what it means to be American through dirty acid riffs
and eerie electro synth stabs. The album opens up with the title track where a deep voice bellows, “The American Dream was a lie,” setting the stage for what comes next. A warped sense of reality bubbles over in Lose Your Mind, as a wailing electric guitar plays a distorted rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. On the track They Gave You What, a glitched out 808 breakbeat unwinds as
psychedelic paranoia sets in over a stiff melodic hook.

But it’s not all doom and gloom, as it wouldn’t be a complete encapsulation of the American dream without a sense of hope. Balancing the LP out are playful tracks and aural details that keep the American tradition of funk alive. Fucked Acid offers a bright acid track with a funky falsetto synth line.
At the album’s cheeky climax, Electric Snake, a reptilian beast is lured out with 808 toms and beat back by unrelenting snare rolls. Maniacal laughter and an acidic bubbly lead race towards the album’s conclusion in the track Get In. The LP finishes with Groovy, an uplifting track that adds a fragile sense
of optimism.

Originally released in 1979, Iceland is Richard Pinhas' third solo album and his first following the breakup of Heldon. While moving away from the maximalism of his old band, paring down Heldon's hybrid of otherworldly sci-fi imagery and pummeling psych-prog riffs, the journey through Iceland is decidedly more inward.

Consisting of longer, brooding synth-based pieces as well as short proto-industrial études and interstitial sketches, Iceland features Pinhas' delay-ridden electric guitar, pulsating machine rhythms and analog synthesizer washes - all vivid in texture and timbre, notwithstanding an undeniably chilling ambience.

This first-time vinyl reissue includes "Wintermusic," an immersive 25-minute bonus track recorded in 1983 and appearing here on vinyl for the first time. Pinhas' excursions channel the season's stillness and sublimity, its majesty and its threat. Without a doubt, one his finest moments.

Recommended for fans of Cluster, Mica Levi and Fripp & Eno.

Apollo are delighted to welcome Steve Legget & Mark Hand to the fold with their lush new single ‘If You Cannot Try’ featuring the dulcet vocals of Greg Blackman. Originally released as an uplifting bumping house track on Ramrock Records Blackman sent the stems of the release to longtime collaborator Steve Legget for a rework. Legget tore the original to pieces, deconstructing it into a much more ambiguous form. ”I’ve never been a fan of a chorus in a song,” Legget muses. "I like songs that are not direct that leave room for your imagination - Mark and I ended up building a new song around the texture of the original.”

Hand and Legget met in the early 90s at the Northern College of Art in Middlesbrough, and have collaborated at various times in the intervening years, through a shared love of Detroit techno, experimental electronic music, jazz and funk. Their creative process involves sending audio files back and forth - “The release was written in collaboration over the internet Greg in Colchester, Mark in Hartlepool, and me in St Albans."

Hand added spaced out textures and riffs from his collection of vintage Fender Rhodes and classic synths - taking the track into sunny space funk realms that comes on like a lost release from joe Claussell’s Spiritual Life label or Basic Channel jamming with Herbie Hancock.

Using their new version as the seed - Hand decided to try his own ’Teesside Techno’ version - "I wanted to give the track more of a 'machine funk' vibe with my rework” he explains. “I generally like to work by jamming with hardware - the bass line is generated by triggering the arp on my Juno 6..using triggers from a TR606 kick drum and hats replaced by a TR909.. the result being more of a jackin' electronic funk mutation!"

This continuing game of musical pass the parcel has indeed born some juicy fruit -

With the collective generosity of all those involved along the way, from mastering, manufacturing, affiliated record stores and PR to the artists themselves and PDD, all profits from this special one-sided Artwork remix of Mildlife ‘Zwango Zop’ will be donated to two charities combatting the bushfire emergency in Australia via Prime Direct Distribution; Wildlife Victoria and the Australian Red Cross.

Their indispensable efforts continue to assist the emergency response, rebuilding homes and habitats, supporting rescued animals and the shelters that house them, alongside aiding the evacuation centres and recovery hubs created in many communities and implementing recovery plans for those who have been devastatingly affected by the bushfires.

Certified man of the people, king of the content and all-round good guy Artwork has been there, everywhere, and done it all - in more guises than many would even know about. From Magnetic Man to Grain, D’N’D to Artwork he’s a master producer, well versed at knowing what dancefloors want and more importantly need.

Now take Mildlife, the boundary pushing, critically acclaimed Melbourne-based space jazz four-piece, who’ve managed to seamlessly blend jazz, funk and disco into one multi-coloured, multi-layered melting pot of auditory excitement. A band whose hype is certainly lived up to, with the likes of DJ Harvey heavily championing them to the point of including ‘Magnificent Moon’ on his ‘The Sound Of Mercury Rising’ VA LP.

A wash with improvisation, soaring synths, stratospheric bass riffs, and a fluidity of grooves, ‘Zwango Zop’, taken from Midlife’s debut album ‘Phase’, is kaleidoscopic cosmic gold. For this special non-profit release, Artwork extracts that undeniable funk energy and turns into a 10-and-a-half-minute, highly hypnotic, instantly addictive creation that it is as psychedelic as it is slamming.

Just one of many examples of the dance music community coming together as a power of good to raise funds for those affected by the emergency in Australia. Support the cause, through the medium of music.

Imagine a Kerri Chandler track anthropomorphized, then jammed into a Japanese purikura photo booth for a series of bedazzled, glittered, and airbrushed headshots. Imagine that image set to music. What do you hear? Westcoast Goddess' The Inner Snoopy, a frenetic house workout that is puzzlingly contemporary, classic, and alien.

The four-track EP kicks off with the title track, a cloud of cotton candy, supersaturated hot pink, threaded with twinkly bells and a bass shuffle that flips and flops around with cheerful abandon.

“Limelight Golden Age” and “Murder at Passion Cove,” the two tunes that follow, assume a quietly sinister tone, introducing minor-key piano pounds and pinched synth riffs that stretch to the heavens to complicate the overwhelming joyousness of the instrumental palette and arrangement.

A subtly ironic 12-inch that satirizes and lampoons the bubblegum, technicolor sounds from our hyperactive age while hearteningly finding beauty within it all.

Bah — words, words, word! It's wildly fun party music imbued with idiosyncratic humor and life-affirming happiness.
Play it loud, play if often.

Wildflower (Leon Brichard, Tom Skinner, Idris Rahman) continue to explore areas of groove-based improvised jazz on their 2nd album. Taking a slightly freer approach to the writing process, simple but effective melodies and bass motifs are explored to to create fully realised pieces with dynamic extremes that bring a full range of emotion. Recorded over a two day session at Fishmarket Studios in London, the band sounds relaxed and at ease, giving space to explore intricate improvised interplay and dialogue fully whilst at the same time building to fiery powerful climaxes and emotional peaks. Skinner is on fire here whilst Rahman and Brichard trade riffs and push the harmonic and rhythmic boundaries. Rahman’s use of clarinet and bamboo flute plus additional layers of woodwinds, Skinner’s unique approach to stripped-down use of his very personalised kit, and Brichard’s use of both acoustic and electric basses make for a sonic landscape that is both unique and highly approachable. Touching on heavy spiritual vibes whilst taking in dark alternative grooves and delicate folk-like tunes, the overall sound remains instantly accessible



Sax, Flutes and Clarinet: Idris Rahman
Electric and Double Bass: Leon Brichard
Drums: Tom Skinner

Leagues Beneath is the first release immediately following Sleep’s long-prophesied, critically-acclaimed opus The Sciences. Recorded as a part of a series of songs for Adult Swim, this 12” single is a testament to what has made The Sciences such a success: bottomless tone, spacetime-melting riffs and a unparalleled aural experience from start to finish. Leagues Beneath is a full 17 minute plunge, now available to experience on black vinyl.

A unique album of outtakes from the classic ‘Songs
Of Praise’ and ‘In Pursuit Of Shashamane Land’
albums, compiled by On-U archivist Patrick Dokter
from the original tapes and expertly sequenced to
work as an immersive listening experience. A
companion piece to the acclaimed ‘Return Of The
Crocodile’ set from 2016 that took the listener on a
version excursion through the early years of the
group.
 These are the dubbier and more out-there
experiments mixed down whilst Adrian Sherwood
was shaping the sound of the albums. Bubbling
percussion lines skitter across the stereo spectrum,
ghostly voices echo inside the machine and
mangled guitar riffs beam down from Mars, whilst
staying rooted in the tough tribal rhythms that
form the bedrock of the AHC sound. This is music
for the head and feet, take heed!
 Mastered by King Kevin Metcalfe. Comes with
digital download card for full contents plus doublesided poster insert containing an extensive new
interview with African Head Charge mainman
Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah, telling the story of his early
life.

Fresh off a run of vinyl releases supported by legends of the scene like Gerd Janson, Todd Edwards, Move D and DJ Sprinkles, Skylax Records are mighty proud to present Sweden’s Lukas Lyrestam for our 150th release.
“When 2 Bodies Become 1” treads a fine line between raucous deep-house, balearic blues and straight-up sexy music. The opener “Raw Loop” channels classic Pepe Braddock vibes while “Moving Day” sounds like it could’ve come from the sonic experiments of a certain 90s house producer who loves to play keyboards. Lukas is a musician and singer first, which really shows on the flip side of the record – something which Mano Le Tough & Jimpster were very happy to support on a recent release for Clouded House.“Strange Beast” marries off-kilter chorus-kissed guitar riffs with a driving four-to-the floor arrangement while “2 Bodies Become 1” takes a step further away from house music to combine vintage new-order textures and shuffling deep-house. Lukas also builds digital synthesizers in his spare time, something which must’ve come in handy for “Bike Ride With U” an italo-banger closing out the record and sporting a very rubbery bassline. We are super happy to add yet another great house 12-inch to our catalogue and remember, stay underground, it pays!

"Mr Bongo" is proud to present three unique reworks of Kit Sebastian.
Each of the producers featured in this package created their own
interpretation of the 'lo-fi-hi-fi’ originals and have taken the duo’s
sound into bold new directions. When it came to choosing who should remix Kit Sebastian, Natureboy Flako (Flako/Dario Rojo Guerra) was a producer at the top of our list.

Keeping true to the original, whilst leaving his own stamp on the
track, his mix adds break-beat drums and middle-Eastern guitar riffs
that transform the track into a more cinematic piece. It sounds to us
like the music from an exotica dive-bar scene in a David Lynch film -
which of course, is a very good thing.

Producer and DJ Baris K, who was behind the awesome 'İstanbul 70'
series (re-edits of classic Turkish gems), takes ‘Durma’ in a very
different direction. Totally reconstructing the track, his remix has
flipped the original and totally run wild.

The results are an epic left-field electronic workout. By bringing the spoken-word vocals to the forefront and giving the track a darker industrial vibe, it wouldn't sound out of place bouncing around the walls of a Berlin basement club at 5am on a Sunday morning.

The paring of Kit Sebastian and Halal Cool J grew after DJing together
at the alternative Great Escape party at the Mr Bongo HQ in May 2019.
They share a love for dusty old psychedelic Turkish records. Halal Cool J (aka Aly Jamal/Don Leisure) has released records on First World and is a co-member of Darkhouse Family with Earl Jeffers.

For his interpretation he has delivered a mix-tape-collage with a hip-hop aesthetic, and rather than focusing on remixing a specific song, he has cut and paste his favourite elements of tracks taken off the band’s 'Mantra Moderne’ album. Available in 2 limited-edition, hand-numbered sleeve designs.

Opening 2020 with a storm, Malka Tuti delivers a new 7” by mysterious artist 'Lena Muir'. Two cuts of Post Punk infused dance floor bonanza for your weirdo selectors set, or your next car chase. Sounding like they were taken out of a Robert Rodriguez movie, the 2 tracks push relentlessly forward, with a quirky drum machine, heavy bass and kick-ass guitar riffs. The 7” will be a vinyl only release, limited edition of 300 Copies.

Label Boss of UNCAGE label, Marco Faraone delivers a series of incredible remixes of Tin Man's Nonneo single, which was originally released in 2011.
First up is the Floor Mix, which leaves the wispy, undulating acid line form the original in place but layers in more heavy, earth rattling drums down below. It makes for a truly hypnotic track.

Then comes a dub version, which is built on elastic drums with gentle acid riffs floating above the compelling kicks, and last of all is a Dreamy Version that is awash with lush heavenly pads that float up to the skies as the rooted drums keeping things moving down low.
This is a varied and vital package from Faraone, coming on a fresh slab of 10".

Following January’s acclaimed vinyl debut from Exterior and summer’s much-loved Kota Motomura EP, Edinburgh’s Hobbes Music label ends 2019 with its first album release, also a debut, from GAMING, a fresh new braindance electronica project straight outta Glasgow.

GAMING is a new solo outing that brings together a lifelong love of music and technology and creating left field, rhythmic electronica. It’s the sound of IDM, nineties techno and mensch maschine computer music that is as spontaneous as it is programmed. It's a bit of a grower and may take time to get under your skin....

“Scenes From A Deserted City is a collection of tracks that started as a set of riffs, loops, rhythms and grooves and unfurled around a sense of growing unease about the future of the urban environment around me.

It’s an album that started out as sound…and ended up as a way of telling stories about the age of anxiety we live in, how our world is changing, and how we find a way through that.

This is DIY electronica from Glasgow – it was made on a growing collection of digital and analogue synths and FX units, including a bunch of modular racks, each with its own idiosyncrasies and character that belies the assumption of the binary.

The studio where it was recorded – an abandoned, and often very cold, school building reclaimed by the community some twenty years ago – offered up stories of resilience, even when all seems lost. (I’m not sure what the mice contributed but they definitely climbed in and out of some synths).

This album is ultimately about my changing relationship with Glasgow, a city I’ve lived in for more than 25 years. It’s about how I feel now about the increasing sense of urban decay and how the city can be a very isolating place. It’s about how I reflect on my younger creative self trying to find a direction but mainly feeling a sense of dislocation and not fitting in. And it’s about the questions I have about how that relationship is changing, how it will be forced to move forward.
The result is a soundtrack for walking home on your own, in that headphone bubble when it’s just you focusing on that music that makes sense to you alone. It’s for early in the morning, after the night before, or going to work with the memories of that slipping and sliding inside your head. It’s about how it feels to be both elated and lonely, to be lost in the familiar, despairingly hopeful.”

Die Orangen back on the adventurous Malka Tuti with their sophomore album ZWEI ORANGEN. It’s been two years since their debut album Zest animated the underground scene, merging obscure samples, field- recordings, krautrock motifs and a spattering of humour and self-perception into their newly forged genre: Krautback. The Australian duo - Kris Baha & Dreems - return with 2 more years of wisdom tucked under their hats to deliver a matured, developed sound. The industrial sonics & propen- sity for a dusty bush-beaten tone remain, however the sam- ples and ambience take a backseat, handing the map over to the guitar riffs, vocals and song writing to navigate the al- bums vast terrain. Collaborators Jono Ma (of Jagwar Ma), Alex Akers (of Forces) and Hayley Morgan expand the al- bum into a diverse journey across zones and styles, offering their own observation of the spacious musical world of Die Orangen. These 11 tracks will make you contemplate, they’ll will make you reminisce, they’ll give you friendly advice, they’ll ask you to dance, and they’ll question the direction of your compass... Fear not, however, this is music for everybody. As the Oranges say "Saft für alle”

C.Y.M. is the collaboration between British producer and DJ Mike Greene (otherwise known as Fort Romeau) and LA-based American musician Chris Baio, who releases music as Baio in addition to playing bass in the acclaimed band Vampire Weekend. Their debut, self-titled EP arrives on Phantasy as an elegant pean to the infinite possibilities of kosmische music, driven by a motorik strain of psychedelia. The foundations of a wider project, C.Y.M. speaks not for analogue nostalgia, but a subtle and modern update on imagined futures that are still open to interpretation.
‘Capra’ immediately establishes the duo’s masterful if unsurprising grip on rhythm, a man-machine stomp that persists as the track takes myriad turns, from post-punk guitar licks and processed vocals, through bubbling modular synthesis and culminating in a soaring, cathartic melody. On ‘Far Gone’ C.Y.M. turn their studio inward for a more brooding and intimate interpretation of their sound, a balearic amalgam of intriguing vocals, feedback soaked riffs and no-wave inspired movement. The bliss beneath the waves of noise that crash across C.Y.M’s music emerges fully on the driving conclusion, ‘Super-Cannes’. A hypnotic tempo and blistering drums intertwine with whirling organs, and shimmering keys, providing a wistful and warm finale.

Industrial techno doom jazz meets Touareg percussion and mantric chanting

Soundway presents the unique results of a one-off 2018 meeting in Marrakech between Belgrade-based tribal/ techno/industrial outfit Tapan and the nomadic Touareg electrified desert-blues group Generation Taragalte.

Tapan is not an ordinary “techno” project, rather it escapes easy categorization. It is the Belgradebased production duo of 20/44 club resident Nebojša Bogdanović (Schwabe), and Goran Simonoski, a producer behind music projects such as Belgradeyard Sound System, Piece of Shh and more. Both have been active in the Belgrade music and nightlife scenes since the 1990s, and since 2015 have brought together their diverse musical experience under the collaborative moniker of Tapan.

While performing at the Atlas Electronic festival in Morocco in 2018, they encountered Generation Taragalte of southern Morocco, and recorded the initial music for the Atlas EP in an improvised studio on the festival grounds, followed by final production on returning to Belgrade. The result was the 4-track EP “Atlas”, a dark, desolate and potent collision of the electronic drone-jazz of Belgrade and the windswept, desiccated psych-guitar riffs of the Moroccan Sahara.

Kusht surfaces with a playful release full of tottery synths, crisp percussions and mind-bending samples.
On this 6-track LP released on almost occult YNFND from Germany's ever rainy baltic coast, the Scottish producer easily blends bluesy guitar riffs
with wailing electronic pads. 
Shuffled backbeats melt with ominous samples into a sticky glue, trapping every listener into a bouncy dance.
Kusht can already look back on a vivid and versatile back-catalogue but still manages to top it off with a many-sided and thought-out work of art in his signature style. 
This 12" full of folkloristic beats has what it needs to become one of this year's secret weapons, with early support of some of Germany's acknowledged tastemakers.

The A side features an analog approach for a solid, instrumental techno, enriched with harmonica’s riffs. B side keeps a live techno touch, but flavored with house vocals and thought beats.

Indio & Ronin, famous but top secret Djs and Producers from the world scene, with their first release with a 12" vinyl,
sure to turn on the dance floors! Having found an idea in a debut version full of unexpected riffs and counter riff keeps
the fire lit from the biginning to the end. On side A there is a real killer for more 'fiery tracks, while side B is 'a more' clubs interpretation
while remaining in the same mood. One of the newest releases in the best game at the moment!

May not know Maedon, the artist formerly known as pulsewidthmod, but you will soon; she has been pulverizing select dance floors with live sets since her arrival in Brooklyn late summer of 2018. Shrouded in mystery, there is one thing known about her, she’s a wizard with the hardware driven by some fierce passion for the music.

After having toured across the country on her own, she released a 12″ EP with the highly-respected Detroit Underground. Now she is ready to bring her work to the next level with a hard-hitting EP that epitomizes her sound on Adam X’s legendary Sonic Groove label. The label, of course, is known for delivering some of the hardest and intricate records in EBM and industrial, having releases from Rebekah, Dasha Rush, and Orphx.

Against His Will opens with the uncompromising ‘Illusion’ and its all-out destructive energy. Industrious and unforgiving synths dominate this cut, while a riff shifts in and out of chaos. The unrelenting percussion almost calls out like demons, as if you’re making your way down the river Styx, but instead of a boat, you’re on a mechanical conveyor belt.

Tasked with the difficult job of following that opener is ‘Limited Hangout’ which ends up proving as powerful as the first. A bit more punchy, this track has more body to it, the percussion is enchanting, and through all the chaos you will be dancing and stomping.

Next up is ‘Special Report’ in an attempt to tame and focus the disarray. The track has less overall unpredictable texture, and more EBM flared body banging beats. Still an absolute powerhouse, it uses door-pounding percussion to drive it along with modulated synths and riffs generating a menacing presence.

‘Alchemy’ brings the proceedings to a close. The textured cut is a slow down to things. Well-thought-out and more EBM than industrial, it demonstrates Maedon’s dynamic range of skills. Rhythmic drum patterns sway the beat while swirling and electric modulations percolate and oscillate throughout. The dark stabs evoke an underground feel, and although the track evokes smokestacks and assembly lines, it is inherently primal.

Alexander Pletnev started an entirely new journey under his own name two years ago. Release after release on forward thinking and respected labels like Media Fury, KUMP, Fleeting Wax, SZE and Hard Fist, he has built a solid discography of incredible diversity - from percussive DJ tools to viscous synthetic EBM to dreamy weirdness.

His latest EP titled Voranto Bros is a long awaited return to Le Temps Perdu and the prime example of refined musical storytelling. Title track is a cinematic tale, a sound novel about two migrant brothers hitting the shores of USA in the dawn of XXth century to became vicious gangsters, broken souls ruling the night of NYC. Dusty tape hiss, off kilter percussions and melodies all alternate to later sink under the weight of heavy drums. While Hope They Wont Come Back is a severe instrumental ballad with low drums, talking bass lines and noisy guitar riffs - five minutes inside confused man's mind.

On a remix front, Cocktail D'Amore's head honchos Discodromo strip Voranto Bros down to bear bones to deliver EBM style dance floor burner. And Harold Boué aka Abstraxion aka Lion's Drums of Biologic Records fame delivers menacing remix for Hope They Won't Come Back, a dark & mystic journey, which unwinds slowly and builds up to unexpected climax.

Amen manipulator extraordinaire FFF and fellow Dutchman Coco Bryce team up for the first release on Myor's sub label Myor Massiv.FFF kicks off the a-side with "Superhero Can't Test", a 170 bpm slice of reggae infused jungle
wizardry, followed by "Free Your Soul", which brings down the tempo a couple of notches, taking things back to an era where breakbeats, piano riffs and pitched vocals reigned supreme.
The flipside holds 2 cuts by Coco Bryce. "Deeper And Deeper" features heavy Amen choppage and filtered breaks, carried by a small series of rap threats and boasts uttered by a not-so-underground MC, whilst "Runnin" takes a more melodic and rave-centric approach.

Cologne’s resident conjurer Hodini steps up for his second solo EP on WOLF Music Recordings. Bringing elements from his hip hop background into this unique five tracker, Hodini dusts off long forgotten cuts, sampled with that MPC chopped graininess, blending lo-fi vocal sound bites with deft jazz loops, all adding a distinct, textured edge to his work.

‘Velved Groove’ and ‘Special Shoutout’ kick things off, snapping in funk fills and skipping guitar riffs behind a concoction of hazy spirals that transfix from the off. The former is an uptempo, twisted, jazz club house jam and the latter a bubbling voyage through the afterhours, bourbons flowing and faces flying from every corner.

A master of misdirection, Hodini also moonlights as one of Germany’s leading underground hip hop producers HulkHodn, proving he can flip styles and meld genres with ease. Featuring his alter ego, ‘Doggo Content’ is his nod to this - a crackling slo-mo trip through the intoxicated mind, soundtracked by stretched vocal snippets, wading bass notes and a crunching snare.

Two of the harder-hitting club tracks close out the EP, both focused around hypnotic bassline carousels and looping layers. ‘Where’s The Wine’ interjects Rhodes flickers with bongo rhythms and unsettling laughes, as ‘One4Fries’ marries off-kilter, piano stabs alongside jazzy flourishes and fizzing percussion.

It wasn’t really a movement, barely even a moment, but the Daisy Age was an ethos that permeated pop, R&B and hip hop at the turn of the 90s. Playfulness and good humour were central to De La Soul’s 1989 debut album, “3 Feet High And Rising”, which would go on to cast a long, multi-coloured shadow over rap.

In Britain, the timing for “3 Feet High And Rising” couldn’t have been better. The acid house explosion of 1988 would lead to a radical breaking down of musical barriers in 1989, and its associated look – loose clothing, dayglo colours, smiley faces – chimed with the positivity of De La Soul and rising New York rap acts the Jungle Brothers and A Tribe Called Quest, all at the heart of a growing collective called Native Tongues.

The Native Tongues’ charismatic, summery aura quickly spread west to the Bay Area’s similarly-minded Hieroglyphics crew (Del Tha Funky Homosapien’s ‘Mistadobalina’); Canada’s Dream Warriors (‘My Definition Of A Boombastic Jazz Style’) used “3 Feet High”’s colour palette and borrowed Count Basie and Quincy Jones riffs; Naughty By Nature (OPP) were mentored by Native Tongues heroine Queen Latifah, while Londoner Monie Love was also adopted by the collective, resulting in her Grammy-nominated ‘It’s A Shame (My Sister)’.

It wasn’t built to last, but the Daisy Age reintroduced Multiplication Rock, bubble writing and the gently psychedelic into the charts. It was a brief, but extraordinarily warm and optimistic moment. The songs on this collection promised that the 90s would be a lot more easy-going than the 80s.

Available on CD and double LP.

Vinyl-Wiederveröffentlichung des vierten Studioalbums von Millencolin aus dem Jahr 2000.

Melancholie verbinden die meisten mit Schwermut. Für Skater ist "Melancholy" aber einfach ein Trick mit dem
Board. Und wer des Schwedischen mächtig ist, verbindet Millencolin mit einer Ska-Punk-Band. Die wird von
Nikola Sarcevic (Gesang, Bass), Erik Ohlsson (Gitarre) und Mathias Färm (Gitarre, Drums) im Herbst 1992 in
Örebro, Schweden, beim - ist doch klar! - Skaten gegründet. Komplett ist die Band 1993, als Schlagzeuger
Fredrik Larzon dazu stößt. Einige Platten und weltweite Touren später erscheint im Frühjahr 2000 ihr viertes
Album "Pennybridge Pioneers". Pennybridge ist die wörtliche Übersetzung des Namens ihrer Heimatstadt
Örebro (Öre = Penny, Bro = Bridge). Produzent ist Brett Gurewitz, Chef der Labels Epitaph und ehemals
Mitglied der amerikanischen Punk-Urgesteine Bad Religion. Für viele Kritiker gilt "Pennybridge Pioneers" als
beste Veröffentlichung von Millencolin. Kennzeichnend für das Album ist der Abschied von Ska-Rhythmen bei
gleichzeitiger Hinwendung zu eher rockigeren Riffs. Wenn man so will, bietet "Pennybridge Pioneers"
Punkrock nach amerikanischer Tradition in einer schwedischen Variante. Die Vinyl-Wiederveröffentlichung
kommt wie seinerzeit das Original via Epitaph auf den Markt.

Daughter of the mighty George Kerr, Sandy set the scene alight in ’82 with the explosive classic, ‘Thug Rock’. Badass slap basslines, zapping synths, ethereal pads and Sandy’s iconic rap were a timeless recipe of pure ‘80s, boogie-infused power that’s blasted from many a boombox, sung on all manner of club systems and sound tracked endless open road cruises over the years.

Released on the South Carolina label Catawba Records, two prolific duos blessed ‘Thug Rock’ alongside Sandy and co. Her father, who produced for the likes of Alice Clark and The O’Jays and Sugarhill wizard, Reggie Griffin, headed up the production and arrangement, with ever-dependable M&M aka John Morales & Sergio Munzibai taking the reins on the mix. Their combined talents can be heard in the tangible weight of the track, each element getting the space it deserves to facilitate that crystal-clear clout - from the huge bass riffs and sublime keys, to the punchy drums and Kerr’s infectious rap. An earworm if ever there was one!

Take to the flip to find the much in-demand dub version, echoing out choice snippets of Sandy’s rap to focus in more on that killer boogie-funk groove. Original copies are tough to come by in the UK, so an official reissue will be music to many an ear.

Franc Spangler makes a welcome and long overdue return to Delusions with a mighty-fine three tracker packed with the good stuff. The throbbing bump of the title track with it’s bouncing square-wave bassline and drifting stabs leads the charge, crunchy hats driving along the groove whilst a cut up vocal ratchets up the energy.

Flipping over we have Somewhere Else, a much deeper and jazzier affair based around a repeating four bar horn part. Never straying too far from the dance floor, Franc keeps things percussive and dynamic whilst conjuring up a moment of musical bliss, chiming synths dripping down like golden rays of sunshine on the densely textured orchestral layers.

Closing off the release, Dreamworld takes us by the hand on a tropical excursion, low slung beats punctuated by echoing xylophone riffs and Apito whistle. Dubby atmospherics and warm Juno106 chords give the track a Balearic mood perfect for the summer months ahead.

Reed Records presents the fifth single from Mohawkestra ‘Mo Heavy’ b/w ‘Buffalo Bill’ available on 7” vinyl

Mo Heavy is the first Mohawkestra single to feature one of their original compositions as the A Side and it’s a belter! Replete with the signature Mohawkestra heavy organ working alongside driving guitar chops and the percussion gets plenty of time to shine.

As the a-side is a Mohawkestra original on this one the B-Side is ‘Buffalo Bill’ which is a rather unique funk fuelled take of ‘The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill’ from The Beatles’ White Album. The hint of the title and the melody are the only similarities though as Mohawkestra take the groove far out into the Funk spectrum and stripped back to raw elements.

Available on 7” vinyl

The fifth and final Mohawkestra 45 in this series for Reed, and for this final donut they have gone into the realms of soundtracks vibes, a lost 70s cop show theme immediately comes to mind. This is a wide open joint, a spaced-out arrangement with super tough drums n' bongo breaks that keeps building into a killer jerkin' funk burner, just needs a cop car's siren wailing at the end! Special mention to Joe Wilkins for the raw as **** guitar riffs, heavy stuff. All in all a wicked and furious 45 for B-Boys & B-Girls.

It had taken him almost three years to record, but in 1985 Jake Hottell finally finished his debut solo album, Break The Chains. Inspired by his opposition to fracking, anger at government corruption and a series of profound spiritual experiences, a hundred copies of the album were pressed and given away to radio stations, friends and local business interests in Hottell’s home state of New Mexico.



The album would have remained an obscure footnote in musical history had it not been for the efforts of DJs Danny McLewin and Jeremy Spellacey. Between them, they tracked down Hottell to hear his story, offering the former electronics engineer and Nashville-based music producer the chance to get his music to a whole new audience. Now, some 34 years after the private press edition was produced, Spacetalk is giving Break The Chains a full release for the very first time. Hottell began recording the album in 1982 after reading Your Body’s Many Cries For Water, a best-selling book by Dr Fereydoon Batmanghelidj about the health benefits of clean, purified water. Remembering the poisonous, methane-laden water that came out of his mother’s taps in the 1970s – a by-product of extensive fracking activity in the area around the family farm – Hottell wanted to create a set of tracks that registered his concerns, reflected his recent spiritual experiences (many of which he still finds it difficult to discuss today) and offered a meditative listening experience.



The resultant set is suitably cosmic and emotive, with Hottell cannily fusing gentle drum machine rhythms and dreamy synthesizer motifs – influenced, he says, by a love of the contemporaneous new age output of former jazz label Windham Hill Records – with his own glistening guitar passages, which sit somewhere between the homespun riffs of country music and the classical guitar solos that have long been a sonic staple of Spanish styles such as Flamenco. Many of the tracks have stories attached. “Horizon” features a profound spoken word vocal from local man Darald McCabe – whose homemade purified water helped Hottell recover from serious illness – while “El Rio dos les Delores” was composed after discovering that fracking was taking place on a local Native American reservation. “The Truth Is All I Want”, meanwhile, reflects Hottell’s growing exasperation at the extent of corporate greed and government corruption in the United States.



This new edition of Break The Chains has been painstakingly re-mastered from the original master tapes, while extensive new liner notes shed light on the remarkable musical and personal experiences that inspired Hottell to create an obscure, overlooked classic.

Back in stock!!


Reissue of this HEAVY Ghana disco / rap / boogie tune..., BIIG one!! Comes with a instrumental cover version by Welsh group Drymbago on the flip..

Soundway Records reissues Free Youth’s long sought-after 1985 single “We Can Move”, their only release - fully restored, remastered and available for the first time on digital and 12” vinyl. “We Can Move” is the first known iteration of Ghanaian hip hop, emerging at the dawn of ‘hip-life’ (hip hop meets highlife).

Free Youth comprised three main members: Terry “Sir Robot” Bright, Lenny “Nii Addy” Dimple, and Abednego “King Abed” Ayim Bright. In the early 80s they began performing in clubs and parties across Accra, with friends and other dancers occasionally joining them on stage – including Reggie Rockstone, who later went on to find commercial success.

In 1985, the band were approached by a producer and invited to record at a local studio. Without having written down any music, Terry, Lenny and Abed sang the parts and beatboxed the rhythms to the session musicians prior to recording. Out of this session came “We Can Move”, a blend of hip-hop and Afro-funk with a proto disco-boogie beat, punchy trumpet riffs and melodic rapping.
Included in the Soundway reissue is an exclusive instrumental cover version of “We Can Move” from Welsh ensemble Drymbago. This replaces the original B side track “Freedom Video Centre”, which was an advertising jingle for a business associated with their former producer.

The Timespan returns after a 12 month rest, teaming up with both a new artist – Mr Arthur – and a new label. Or perhaps it is an old label as The Timespan was one of the original Remix Records artists back in the early 90’s. Yet the style remains, even if some of the tracks are in the 140bpm range. Deceptively simple sounding piano anthems and rave riffs, with sly hip hop loops and rolling beats. All three tracks on this EP are made entirely with hardware, yet the sound is crystal clear and the bass rolls with weight. A perfect combination of old skool and old skool.

Southern Lord announce the next Caspar Brötzmann Massaker reissues in the ongoing series, continuing with Der Abend Der Schwarzen Folklore and Koksofen this July. Read on for more insight into these albums, and for information about incoming live dates supporting Sunn O))).

Caspar Brötzmann is one of the most unique and innovative guitarists of the last 40 years. With his Berlin-based trio Massaker, he evolved a whole new autonomous approach to writing rock songs, starting from sounds that were widely considered ornamental if not detrimental ‘sonic waste’, such as shrieking feedback and droning overtones. This plethora of sounds were arranged into tracks to sound like breaking concrete, grinding metal, or bursting glass, at once monumental and threatening, impenetrable and hermetic, yet also archaically tender and loving. 

Even today, as the art of noise has reached a level of sophistication that no one could have imagined 30 years ago, Caspar Brötzmann Massaker’s music is resoundingly singular. Ultra heavy riffs and beats, ominous tribal chants and a raw physical force is conjured up by these three sinister and proud minds of their era. Their unhinged, unified stream of energy is captured on these remastered reissues and the results are thrilling.

Koksofen (which translates as blast furnace), originally released in 1993, has become one of Massaker’s most popular albums. Like it’s predecessor, ...Schwarzen Folklore, the album took shape in Massaker’s rehearsal room below the Berlin subway station Schlesisches Tor, and was recorded at Conny Plank’s studio near Cologne, with Plank’s former associates Ingo Krauss and Bruno Gephard producing. 
 
There’s a different kind of intensity to Koksofen. The features of Massaker’s sound are in full bloom.  Mountainous noises tower up and crash down, and tormented sounds rise from ominously seething grounds, haunting the entire song-scape. The feel of doom and dread hangs heavily over the five songs, and the title song rumbles, shrieks and wails, plagued by Caspar’s guttural growls of war, suffering and death.
 
Caspar recalls one anecdote from shortly after the original release whereby Bassist Edu Delgado called him asking to turn on the TV, thus discovering that “Hymne“ was being used as background music to a report about the death penalty in the US. A different kind of intensity indeed. 
Reflecting on the album to this day Caspar remarks “Koksofen is still a mystery to me,'' he continues “I can still feel the troubled times in these songs.” - the effects are certainly potent for the listener too. And the album undoubtedly affirms Massaker as the fiercely original and compellingly raw musicians that they are.  

„Pitcher“ is Nadia D’Alò’s very first solo appearance on vinyl. Playful forwarding drums running hand in hand with a laid back wuthering synth line, carrying her melting voice right in it´s fountain. „Benzin“ on the flip side is a much slower, charming impish early morning jam by INIT (D’Alò & Benedikt Frey), based on a simple 808 infrastructure that leaves space for weird guitar riffs, wavy vocals and a bassy undercoat.

Like a homage to smoke-filled vaults, aging billiard rooms and crumby packets of pork scratchings in the Working Men's Clubs of days gone by, Todmorden-by-way of-Europe trio Syd, Jake and Giulia are about to fling open the doors of their own millennial social hub with the fresh post-punk of infectious debut single, 'Bad Blood' / 'Suburban Heights.'

'We grew up in northern towns trying to get in to pubs in social clubs because that's all we had. The name is an ode to that,' explains Working Men's Club's 17-year-old singer and guitarist, Sydney Minsky-Sargeant. 'Our surroundings and their differences has influenced us a lot on these tracks.'

Joined by guitarist-vocalist Giulia Bonometti, 23 and drummer Jake Bogacki, 18, the trio have always had a clear sense of their whereabouts; quite simply, they wouldn't even exist without multi-nationalism. Meeting at college in Manchester, Syd and Jake are from Todmorden and Hebden Bridge, but their families hail from Poland whilst Giulia moved to the UK from Lake Garda, Italy. 'The songs are based on the culture of walking round Manchester every day then going back to the countryside each night and how the contrast of going back into the hills made us sane,' Syd tells.

Working Men's Club are wise beyond their years as they seemingly offer words of wisdom, to be repeated like some kind of break-up mantra, until everything's ok; 'Be happy when the sun shines / Be happy when the sun rains / You know you should do the same.'

If 'Bad Blood' is the day, 'Suburban Heights' is the night. Recorded with Alex Greave at The Nave in Leeds, steady riffs from Syd's fingers tap-dance on the strings alongside Jake's skill in working a jagged snare. Meanwhile Giulia's heavenly disco 'ooohs' recall Donna Summer feeling the love whilst cutting right to the contentious subject of gentrification. 'Suburban Heights refers to how apparent it is that cities are expanding to hold more people and buildings are rising, they're morphing into these dystopian party towns,' tells Syd.

Already with shows supporting The Wedding Present and Brian Jonestown Massacre behind them, Syd says it's only the beginning; 'Those shows were great experiences and ones we'll have for life. We love making music and we're so grateful for what we've achieved so far; hopefully there'll be plenty more to come.'

After a brief appearance on the first edition of ‚Previously Undisclosed Rituals‘, Exhausted Modern is back
on the label with ‘Moral Discourse’. 5 tracks of twisted, heavyweight, slow-motion electro filled to the brim
with the producers’ trademark riffs.

Dutch producers Mindmapper & Fre4knc team up to deliver the 'Martial Manners' EP in celebration of Translation Recordings' tenth vinyl release, which comes on a visually stunning piece of crystal & transparent white vinyl! Up first is 'Collessius,' whose heavy-rolling bassline rushes in with the
force of a tsunami, leaving a wake of dancefloor destruction in its path. 'Shutter Angel' is a futuristic track where tight, snappy breakbeats slingshot back and forth between an electrifying bassline that surges across the airwaves like a beam of focused energy. Mindmapper & Fre4knc
delve into darker territories on 'Fenryr,' whose gritty atmospherics and subterranean low
frequencies deliver a unique and immersive listening experience. They close the EP on a deep, meditative note with 'Mind of Steel' (digital only) where drum edits slice through growling bass riffs with blade-like precision. The 'Martial Manners' EP strikes the perfect balance between dancefloor and experimental to carry on Translation Recordings' ongoing mission to bridge audiences with quality music that can be enjoyed in all listening environments.
---
Translation Recordings is proud to unveil its summer 2012 project capturing all moods sublime with the 'Universal Grooves LP'. A limited press on transparent blue vinyl, this special edition 12inch showcases a diverse sampling of Translation's full album that will not disappoint. The A-side brings the thunder showcasing the heavy hitting, rolling and dubby sounds of Loxy and Resound's 'Civil War' and Theory's calculated genius behind the ragga and amen tear-out, 'Final Confrontation.' Flip to a switch in vibe as DBR