Cerca:tech essentials

(incl. Gaetano Parisio Remix) The Miller joins Backspin with a potent six-track EP that explores the sharper, groovier edges of techno. 'Loops & Tonic' is a no-frills, rhythm-forward toolkit. It's percussive, hypnotic and full of old-school motion.

The A-side opens with 'It Was Just A Knife', a tribal-driven looper layered with Detroit-reminiscent synths. The track is a subtle nod to the past, wrapped in tight modern production. Peak OG hardgroove. 'Tryck' dials up the tension with broken rhythms, tripped-out cymbals and bleeps, adding a leftfield touch without losing the percussive thread. The B-side brings out the funk. 'Snake Venom' and 'Sax' strip techno down to its rolling essentials: it's all about punchy drums, melodic accents and a steady forward drive. The vinyl closes with the 'Groove Cut' version of the digital-only track 'Bastard', a remix by legendary producer Gaetano Parisio that reimagines the original into a leaner, melodic trip with clean basslines and spaced-out synth work.

The fifth release of Regal's label Backspin Records is a versatile, groovy and characterful techno record. The Miller's 'Loops & Tonic' EP is a proof that the most effective techno doesn't shout - it rolls, hits and lingers. It's the perfect record for floors that never stop moving.

The Finnish imprint Vuo Records continues its exploration of deep dub techno textures with Split Dubs Vol. 2, an essential follow-up to the series that bridges timeless atmospheres and dancefloor-focused grooves. This time, Gradient, Star Dub, and label-head Tm Shuffle join forces for four heavyweight cuts that perfectly capture the label’s raw, analog spirit.
Gradient opens the record with “Stone Jungle”, a masterclass in restraint and tension, the kind of dub techno that feels alive in its own pulse, crafted from only the bare essentials yet rich in texture and movement. Tm Shuffle’s Housedubreshapes the original with reverb-soaked accents and elastic low-end energy, turning it into a deep, head-nodding trip tailor-made for late-night systems.
On the flip, Star Dub delivers “Rubber Dub”, a funk-infused roller driven by breaky percussion, floating echoes, and a deep-rooted bassline that vibrates straight through the chest. Once again, Tm Shuffle takes the controls for the remix, pushing the dub dimension even further: thick layers of delay, washed-out atmospheres, and sub-heavy pressure built for those endless outdoor jams and sweaty basement sessions.
Split Dubs Vol. 2 embodies everything Vuo Records stands for, authentic, handcrafted dub techno from Finland’s underground. Warm, analog, and irresistibly groovy, this record continues the label’s commitment to pushing deep frequencies into new, soulful territory.

2025 Repress

The second EP of Global Pulse is brought to you by young Dutch prodigy JSPRV35. Riding a constant flow of creative energy, he originates the Kyoto EP: a solid collection of tracks that explore the full spectrum of pure and unpolluted Techno. On this record, Jasper brings it back to the essentials by mixing a minimalistic sound selection with a fast-forwarding rhythm palette, making The Kyoto EP an essential contemporary masterpiece!

Little introduction for Nils' latest vinyl release, where tech house grooves intertwine with atmospheric sonorities of reggae dub. No need for more details, this release is only about the essentials !

Repress!

Amazingblaze is the latest red-hot new talent to be signed up by Charlotte de Witte's KNTXT label. The Russian artist serves up four fierce techno weapons on his Venture EP, due for release on 25th February 2022.

Though a relative newcomer, Amazingblaze is already making big moves mixing up heavy-hitting hard trance and techno. He has a sound that combines old school influences with new school sound design, and it never fails to captivate the dance floor. On this first EP for KNTXT, all of the signature Amazingblaze essentials are here: weighty drums, massive synths and authentic atmospheres.

Says the artist, "The Venture EP was started when I was living in Saint-Petersburg and there was a pandemic situation. Experimenting with different shades of techno I created a pretty authentic sound which works very well on the dance floor. After leaving Saint-Petersburg I decided to move to Moscow, gladly the pandemic restrictions there were lifted and I became inspired by the new city and parties where I've never been before, I completed the EP adding some new bangers with an already experienced touch.”

Says Charlotte de Witte, “My eye fell on Amazingblaze for the first time during the preparation of my Tomorrowland Around The World Set, where I closed with his beautiful track "Stratosphere". A couple of months later, I fell head over heels in love with his track "Venture", which, I'm proud to announce, turns out to be the title track of the newest EP on KNTXT. Venture captures every crowd of people I’ve played it to, ever since I debuted it in my set at Exit Festival. The entire EP is an out of the box masterpiece.”

First up is the mighty 'Venture' with its pummelling drums and turbo-charged trance stabs. They are bright and bring the energy while a rapped vocal adds something utterly fresh. 'Inner Fire' ups the ante further with a diva female vocal straight from the classic trance era. She brings waves of euphoria and, after a spine tingling breakdown, the machine-gun grooves fire on. There is terrific turbulence in the synth stabs of techno gem 'Flashback' as well as industrial textures and walls of white noise that bring real tension. ‘Neutron’ closes down with the most fierce groove of the lot, this time rippled with cosmic psy trance chords and irresistible video game synths to take you into the next dimension.

Venture EP is a superb outing from Amazingblaze.

Repress

Dakar, Senegal. From this hostile land Midnight Menace is the latest KAOS assigned and one of its kind. You all with your support to the label via bandcamp fixed his computer so he can deliver this first one as an introduction. His Schranz/hard techno beat dives into a trance-mission direct to your brain in order to make your body shake.

Moving on to France JKS is half of Jawbreakers his techno rave music is really influenced by iconic figures from the 90's rave culture (Dave the Drummer/ Stay up Forever) name track is a retrotesque beat with a powerful bass-line moving between trance, body music and electro clash. With a ton of class.

Next one on the list delivering one of those weirdo tracks that from time to time we love to showcase on our compilations. DJDJ debuts with a darkroom alike anthem. Job Sifre and DJ Dorien punishing with a high intensity Body music song, taste their Bloody Mary.

Closing this record P.E.A.R.L goes pure HEARTCORE, with his already known Spanish primitivism, a gabber kick and a dismounted amen break dissolves into a mood melody to chill a floor at the peak ready for the next explosion.

This are HEARTCORE ESSENTIALS pls use them responsibly.
#oftenplusneverminus8

With Coalescence, The Third Room brings together artists from distinct yet interconnected techno lineages, united by a shared understanding of the music as both physical and introspective. Rather than staging contrasts, the EP focuses on convergence, where propulsion, atmosphere and restraint fold into a coherent whole. Rene Wise & Ignez open the release with Anjos, pairing Wise's tactile, percussive pressure with Ignez's expansive, oceanic pads. The result sits at the intersection of functional drive and elevated, almost devotional space, reflecting a new generation's approach to techno as both tool and inner landscape. Norbak's remix draws the track further inward, deepening its hypnotic pull and extending its energy into a more meditative, slow-burning form. On the B-side, Claudio PRC & Luigi Tozzi present Onirica, a deeply restrained and immersive composition rooted in atmosphere, spatial detail and subtle psychedelia. Unfolding with patience, it rewards attentive listening and long-form dancefloor contexts. Markus Suckut closes the EP by reducing Onirica to its bare essentials, applying his signature economy and precision to heighten tension and focus. Coalescence reflects The Third Room's vision of techno as a shared terrain, where different voices and generations meet, align and quietly reinforce one another.

After a successful album on DJ Hell’s legendary International Deejay Gigolo Records, Berlin-based but globally-minded Tunisian artist Skatman returns to his own ever-evolving label, Cognitive Prophecy, with Temples, a four-track EP steeped in the spirit of Detroit and laced with its own boundary-pushing vision.
The title track, ‘Temples’, channels a number of timeless Detroit cuts like Rolando’s Knights of the Jaguar into something deeply personal. It feels like stepping into a crowded, smoke and sweat-filled dance floor at 3 a.m., only to emerge into the sunrise hours later. ‘Can It Last Forever’ shifts the mood with pure euphoria, the kind of track that makes strangers grin at each other when the night is ending but no one’s ready to leave. Swiss techno mainstay Deetron steps in with two heavyweight reimaginings of ‘Temples’. His main remix is pure peak-time club tackle, big, propulsive, and precision-crafted for the moment when the night slips into another gear. The Dub strips things down to the bare essentials, locking you into the groove with relentless, club-sharpened focus.

LP limited to 500 LP copies. Nina Garcia ’s first solo record widely available via international distribution. Nina has collaborated with artists like Stephen O’Malley, Sophie Agnel, Fred Frith, Antoine Chessex, Louis Schild, Leila Bordreuil, and supported for bands like Sonic Youth, SUNN O))). After a decade of performing concerts under the Mariachi guise, Nina Garcia has finally unveiled her unique approach in Bye Bye Bird, her first album under her name. Bye Bye Bird is her second solo album. With no pretence or demonstration, the album is a captivating blend of chiaroscuro, melodies, and raw emotion. Nina Garcia’s album takes on an almost documentary-like quality by adopting a simple approach to gesture and sound recording. It offers a candid portrayal of a moment, a lack, a state, and a breathtaking energy. With ostinato as her only credo, Nina Garcia’s music is an experiment in freedom, where the peaks answer the abysses, and the power of movement and the emotion of sound serves as her compass. From very short (01:28) to never very long (07:34), the eight tracks that make up this set explore a moment, a space, a mechanism, an intention or a way of doing things. As a common feature of almost all these pieces (all but one, the last), Nina Garcia explores a new technique. She adds to her instrumentation, reduced to the essentials (a guitar, a pedal and an amp), an electromagnetic microphone which, when held in hand, makes it possible to listen in on the exact zones where the vibration of the string creates a sound amid vast spaces of silence. The guitar is unplugged, and the body/instrument relationship changes in dimension. In this series of variations, you can get caught up in masses of noise seen from very, very close up, evocations of melodies in the making, feedback on ridgelines, pulsations that hold their own, modulations weakened by exhaustion and harmonic bursts that hint at better days to come. Neither hopelessly chthonic nor beatifically ethereal, Bye Bye Bird is a sum of musical pieces that make a whole and give voice to echoes of what has been, the presence of what is and the hope of what will be, a record movement in the form of flight and salvation. Since 2015, Nina Garcia has been researching and creating around the electric guitar, halfway between improvised music and noise. On numerous stages in Europe and North America, she has played occasionally with Stephen O’Malley, Sophie Agnel, Fred Frith, Antoine Chessex, Louis Schild or with Luke Stewart and Leila Bordreuil’s Feedback Ensemble, in addition to more regular formations in which she participates, such as the ensemble Le Un, mamiedaragon, Autoreverse (with Arnaud Rivière), duets with trombonist Maria Bertel and percussionist Camille Émaille, and the installation piece De Haut En Bas, De Bas En Haut Et Latéralement (with Christophe Cardoen, Jennifer Caubet, Etienne Foyer, Anna Gaïotti and Romain Simon). “Nina Garcia has been actively moving the art of noise guitar into surprising and intriguing new spaces. She has been at it for some time now, a bit of a secret weapon all the while hiding in plain sight. As I listen to her music and ruminate upon seeing her perform it brings me to a realization which I have with very few musicians: the ego inherent in making art can be transcended through a purity of direct action. At least that’s the feeling I have when experiencing Nina’s music which comes across as serious and radical and wholly engaged in the moment of its creative impulse.

Specially prepared liner notes by renowned music writer Brian Morton.
Canadian pianist Glenn Gould (1932-1982) became one of the best- known and
most celebrated classical pianists of the 20th century and particularly renowned
as an interpreter of the keyboard music of Johann Sebastian Bach. Gould's
playing was distinguished by his remarkable technical proficiency and his
capacity to articulate the polyphonic texture of Bach's music.
This release presents Gould's complete original 1955 rendition of Bach's Goldberg
Variations (Columbia, ML-5060). The work launched the pianist's career as a
renowned international player and became one of the most well- known piano
recordings. Sales were astonishing for a classical album at that time - 40,000
copies by 1960, and more than 100,000 by the time of Gould's death in 1982.

ORKA is a duo comprising Francine Perry from London and Jens L. Thomsen from the Faroe Islands. They crossed paths in the vibrant club scene of London, an immersive world that had a profound impact on their creative journey. ORKA's music draws inspiration from the Hardcore Continuum and UK sound system culture, blending it with elements of minimal techno, progressive electro, and ambient music, resulting in a diverse range of stylistic influences. Now ORKA emerges with their long-awaited new album. Once again, they greet us with their distinct blend of earthy tones and a bold, adventurous spirit, taking us to a realm bursting with neon-lit hues, pulsating club beats, and an abundance of sensory stimulation. Aptly named "All At Once," the album title provides a clue to the auditory and sensory experience that awaits the listener in this immersive record. ORKA has continuously evolved as a project over many years and iterations, embracing fluidity and a relentless quest for fresh sonic amalgamations. Their journey has been marked by a gradual refinement, stripping away layers to reach the core essentials. This transformative process has unfolded over the years, reaching from their site-specific, cowshed sampling and band-based expedition in "Livandi oyða" (2007) to the bold, innovative exploration of minimalist techno in "Vað" (2016). However, their latest release, "All At Once," signifies yet another remarkable leap forward in their artistic evolution. The seeds of this artistic progression were already planted in previous releases like the <13 EP (2017) and the hard-hitting techno single "Juno" (2018). However, it is with the arrival of the album "All At Once" that ORKA's vision fully blossoms, unveiling a vivid and expansive sonic landscape. This latest offering presents a glorious and vibrant tapestry, showcasing a maximalist approach to techno that pulsates with energy coupled with their signature meticulous attention to sound design, reflecting a deep awareness and intentionality in their creative process. If this album was to be thought of as a place, it would be a shimmering, futuristic, buzzing kind of city with vibrating night-time drizzle from above and endless glowing lights in the distance. Several of the tracks are built around cut-up vocal samples that are divided from their semiotic meanings and reconfigured as loops, and thus mined for their timbral and percussive qualities. Recurring collaborators South London duo LV (Hyperdub, Keysound, Brownswood) are featured on a handful of these tracks, mixing in their complex cocktail of grime and bliss. The result is a sort of queer erotic dance-floor mysticism, and the closest to a full-blown dance record that ORKA have ever made. There must be a club in that shimmering futurist city of the night.. and it is a collective, inclusive and alluring place. There is no need to fear any dancefloor exhaustion by listening to this album though, as there are also moments of floating cyber beauty and pure enveloping warmth to be found among its tracks. As always, following the artistic journey of ORKA is a joyous experience, filled with unexpected twists and turns that keep us captivated.

Berlin’s Pure Hate releases the first record in their new Various Artist series ‘Noise Bleed’ featuring tracks by Ryuji Takeuchi, Gaja, Swarm Intelligence & STRISC. Ryuji Takeuchi: Making a return to Pure Hate after his infamous ‘Essentials EP’ on PH002, Ryuji Takeuchi is renowned for his driving, hypnotic, atmospheric, raw, emotional interpretation of Techno. he has released on some key labels over the years including Inner Surface Music, LK Rec, Arms, Clan Destine Records, Infidel Bodies, Instruments Of Discipline, Depth. Request, his own LSN & Hue Helix imprints and more recently Mord and Dax J’s Monnom Black. Gaja: Once locked into the throes of Berlin’s ceaseless techno throb and now back home in Albenga, Italy, Gaja represents the gnarly, noisy extremity of modern dance music. It’s a desolate, distorted place where blasts of noise spit in the empty footprints once shaped by snares and hi-hats, and the bass bleeds out over everything. Having recently released his debut album ‘Morning Fist’ on his own Ophism imprint, Gaja makes his Pure Hate debut in style with track ‘Hangman’. Swarm Intelligence: From rhythmic noise to the brutal and bleak constitute a distinctive sound that Simon Hayes has been honing for more than a decade under his Swarm Intelligence guise. Having remixed MDD on PH003 The Dublin-born artist has cemented his place in the Techno underground with critically acclaimed LPs and EPs on labels like 47, Instruments of Discipline and Voitax plus standout sets at clubs like Berghain and Basement NY. Simon also recently launched his own self titled vinyl imprint Swarm Intelligence as a platform to explore his own imaginings of futuristic industrial music. STRISC.: Last but not least and rounding the record off in his trademark brutal style, label head STRISC. finally makes his anticipated debut on Pure Hate with track ‘Melt Pit’. VHXX1 is available in stores from 16th January 2023, distributed by Ready Made Distribution, Berlin. Mastered by Joe Farr. Artwork by Slave To Society. Tracklist: A1. Ryuji Takeuchi – Spur A2. Gaja – Hangman B1. Swarm Intelligence – Deviant B2. STRISC. – Melt Pit

Daniele Ippolito compose songs of Ambient, Synthwave, New Age, Dark-wave, Progressive and Soundtrack styles. He dislike to define himself under a specific style cause his influences goes from Italo-Disco to classic music and from SoundTracks to Dark-Wave. He already collaborated for some artists of Pop and Techno music. But his foundations will stay on the 80’s style sound called also 80s revival, one of his phylosophy is to work with only vintage synthesizers hardwares who will give to his songs a warm and unique.

There is nothing quite like an evening under the rhythmic spell of the legendary David Morales. Stepping on the dancefloor while he's behind the decks requires full trust and surrender. You agree to hand the reins of your mind, body, and spirit to his intuition and ability to guide you to where you need to be at all times. It will occasionally be cathartic and intense. It will often make the hairs on your body stand on end, and make you sweat more than you ever have before. The endorphin release will be powerful. You will feel like you can touch joy and euphoria it in the air around you. As he gently brings you back down to reality, you will feel renewed and ready for anything life brings your way. This is more than a night of dancing. This is an experience at the hands of a magical maestro of music. How is this possible from a night on the dancefloor? Well, it begins with the brilliant mind of an artist at the peak of his creative power, imbued with the empathy necessary to connect with what has become a global legion of fans. "If there is any secret, it's really simple: I love what I do with all of my heart," Morales says. "I'm a DJ first. I thrive on human interaction. I am always adjusting my sets based on what the people in the room need. Each night, we form an emotional connection that inspires the music as it comes."

For Morales, "working in the studio is important, but it exists as a way of supporting the DJing experience. It's all to inform how it will work on the dancefloor."

To that end, you're reading these words as you dive into a new collection of Morales classics. Ever the collaborator, he has enlisted the input of a wide range of voices and talent. There is the diva power of fellow legend Ultra Nate, who brings her signature sass to "I Can Dream," while Michele Perera's explosive chemistry with David is all over the inspiring "Life is a Song" and "Never Give Up", as well as the impassioned "Addicted."

Morales reminds the listener of his ever-evolving musical scope in collaborations with blondewearingblack ("What Can I Do"), Lea Lorien ("Never Looking Back"), and Blakkat ("Can't Get Enough"). There's the clubland supergroup of David with Mr. V, Scotty P. and DJ Rae on "The Feels." Rounding out the set is a reunion with longtime muses Elle Cato ("I Feel Love") and British soul icon Joe Roberts ("Easy"). Just be sure to listen closely, because there's bound to be a surprise tucked between these grooves to tickle your ears and move your body.

The beauty of this sparkling new foray into electronic music is the heightened intimacy between Morales and the music. What you are hearing here is almost exclusively from the man's own fingertips. "The technology has evolved in the most extraordinary and liberating ways," he says, adding that he is now able to be far more directly hands-on during the building of each track. "Back in the '90s, I had to have more people involved, With the changes and growth in technology, I can now do it, myself. I don't even have to be in the studio anymore. It's smart, financially, but it's also way more fun and creative."

David adds, "I don't have to wait to manifest an idea anymore. I can just build my ideas as they come to me." In fact, he reveals that many of these new tracks were born in unique places, like planes, cars, his bedroom, and a host of other settings. "Music is always spinning around my mind. I no longer worry about losing an idea."

Surviving the highs and lows of an ever-changing world has also brought Morales back to the basic essentials of life and music. "The pandemic has brought things full circle for me," he says. "I love what I do and I still have the passion of a kid who is just getting started"

Yet, we know that Morales has been in the game for longer than a minute. He's a Grammy award-winning producer, remixer, and songwriter. He has lent his skill to countless of records by icons that include Mariah Carey, Madonna, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Donna Summer, Seal, and Jamiroquai. As a turntable artist originally from New York City, he earned his bones of credibility back in the '80s and '90s in clubs like the Paradise Garage, Red Zone, Tunnel, and Club USA. He initiated the concept of DJs touring beyond their hometowns with countless, wildly successful treks that have taken him the farthest-reaching corners of the world. As electronic music thrives on pop radium, David tops the list of every young artist and DJ as a primary influence.

Even with such a staggering legacy, Morales never looks over his shoulder.

"That is how you stumble and fall," he says. "If you get all caught up in the past, you're going to lose sight of what is right in front of you. You lose the excitement of discovery. That is what gets me off; taking what I know and combining it with what I don't know as I learn it. There is nothing better than experiencing how it all comes together. It's different every time."

And that is the ultimate secret to that extraordinary spell that David Morales casts over us all every single time.

For their 9th release Slam City Jams welcomes the fabulous Manuel Darquart to the family!
After brilliant releases on imprints like Wolf Music or Coastal Haze and recently getting remixed by the Italo-House legend Don Carlos, we are happy to have the duo on the label with their „Down 2 Dance“ EP. Originally from New Zealand but now living in London, Manuel Darquart bless us with a record full of balearic bliss, backed with a dope remix by Tech Support.
We are kicking things off with the title track, a deep, yet uplifting Italo-House tune: „Down 2 Dance“ is full of sweet chords, perfectly cheesy sax stabs and this catchy vocal cuts we just can’t get out of our head. On „Cultivating Yucca“ Manuel Darquart maintains the Italian vibe but
gets even more balearic with warm pads, some muted trumpets and of course: The slight sound of the ocean.
On the flip things get interesting with „Prince Of The Rinse“: Distorted 808s paired with a funky lead that builds up steadily and finally dissolves into a wonderful synth solo. A tune that reminds of the early Funkineven on Apron Records. To round this record off, we invited
Londons finest Tech Support to give the title track his remix treatment: He added his signature 80s sound to the original and perfecftly stripped back the tune to its essentials, with gated snare drums and little synth blips. What more can you ask for?!

Bounding on from the Door to the Cosmos, the label'sexpansive triple vinyl compilation, OnTheCorner has paired up new artists in this series of cosmically twinned EPs. Twinning EPs on a single piece of wax reduces the impact on the environment and wallet friendly. Each brace of cosmically twinned OnTheCorner artists interstellar balearic for the deepspace bound. Each 12" will be split taking over a whole side of black wax. Party wax loaded with Stardust. Get your fix of tomorrow's sound, tonight! Side A is UFFE's 'Not All the Stars EP' - an underground emissary channeling dark bass weight through a prism of jazz-house - dub-tech hitters. A singular talent leading the charge into new frontiers with OnTheCorner. Not All The Stars EP is aprelude to his first LP on the label and follows on from City's Dead and that featured on Door to the Cosmos in 2020. Petwo Evans' 'Bootstrap EP' on the flip side is made of soundsystem-primed, innovative club tracks. Welsh Futurism, celestial electrics and objects of space-junk percussion. CERN loops, cyber kinetic grooves, machine pulses and chugging house kicks converse in the orbit of 'Gyroscope'. Petwo Evansfeeds the tracks compulsion with heady layers awash with dreamy vocal stabs, synths and hazy harmonics.

The 20th anniversary year of Dial Records couldn’t have been more exciting for us so far! After the extraordinary well-received release of Soela’s debut-album Genuine Silk and steady excitement around our ongoing series of digital anniversary compilations, we are more than thrilled to announce the second album release of this our very special year: XDB - Inspiron. As a longtime companion and true inspiration throughout the label’s twenty-year history, Kosta Athanassiadis aka XDB enriched our lives with his brilliant productions in the form of countless 12”s and legendary remixes. His long-overdue full-length debut album Inspiron in hand, we find ourselves unpacking the most beautiful jubilee present we could have ever imagined. For almost three decades now Kosta Athanassiadis aka XDB has been involved in the constantly changing world of dance music. His curiosity and dedication to electronic music spiral deep into the depth of House Music and Techno and where ever he appears he generously shares his unique knowledge in this field with equally dedicated crowds. Whether you follow his bloggish “Tracks I do really LOVE”, a collection of club essentials and a library of taste, or you witness one of his remarkable DJ sets from Panorama Bar to Freerotation Festival - XDB will elevate you to one of those unforgettably magical music moments. In 1993 Kosta Athanassiadis started his DJ career in the medieval hometown of Goettingen. To find what he was really looking for, namely, the newest and most exciting new records he frequently had to leave this picturesque city, that is most popular for inventing the traditional Baumkuchen pastry, but has not been on the maps of music connoisseurs necessarily. Frequent trips to visit records stores and clubs around Germany built a network of likely minded people. Some of his favorite and most thought after record labels of the time like the Chicago imprint Relief, or UK's Mosaic, are still fundamental to his very specific musical taste. By the turn of the century, XDB hosted a series of nights at Goettingen's Eletroosho, where he invited Dial’s own Lawrence and Carsten Jost in 2002- the beginning of a still ongoing friendship. He had established himself as a sought after and internationally active DJ and started his fist endeavors into music production as well. Later on XDB founded his own Label Metrolux and released on iconic labels like Sistrum and Wave to be followed by countless remixes for legends like Aaron Carl, Norm Talley and Patrice Scott. An extraordinary stream of gravity connects both, his productions and DJ sets. Once breaking through a seemingly transparent surface, one get’s lost in the beauty and depth of forms and figures. There’s barely DJs and producers who keep searching for this hidden formula in such a microscopically detailed way to pass a lifetime in House Music and Techno on to the world. XDB's Inspiron embraces this unique approach, filters and develops inspirations in an entirely delicate way, and magically emphasizes the desires of the most dedicated listeners and dancers.

2x12"

It’s taken Yotam Avni a little while to get to his debut album; almost a decade, really, since his debut 12”, “That’s What The World Needs”, on California’s Seasons Limited imprint. During that time, the Tel-Aviv based producer has refined his productions, tightening the groove and paring everything back to bare essentials; the power in an Avni cut is its combination of piston-pulse propulsion and a deep, but gently applied, musicality. This combination gives his techno productions added heft on the dance floor, but also a lyrical sensibility that places him squarely in a tradition of techno legends who somehow manage to make the four-to-the-floor a space of poetic intensity, of rigorous joy.

Avni’s been on Kompakt’s radar for a while, first appearing on the label last year, with his Speicher contribution, “Mañana Mañana”. (“Track For Agoria”, from that EP, also appeared on Total 19.) The connection immediately made sense – dance music that managed to feel both lush and streamlined across the same great gasp of late-night energy. But with Yotam Avni Was Here, he’s taken a huge leap. After a brief intro, Avni sets his stall with “Beyond The Dance”, which features slow-moving vocal melisma over sculptural, melting tonalities, a tintinnabulating, harpsichord-like two-note phrase pacing out the track. Then “It Was What It Was” comes into view, its strip-light textures suddenly placed into sharp relief by a muted trumpet figure that hangs in the air, melancholy and pensive.

It’s no surprise, at this point, to discover that Avni’s inspirations for Was Here took in the histories of both techno and jazz. “I wanted to try something more around Detroit Techno meets ECM,” he reflects, when explaining the motivating forces behind the album. “Carl Craig’s Just Another Day EP and Kenny Larkin’s Keys, Strings, Tambourines came out during my high school years and had huge impact on me.” Avni’s also appeared on Transmat compilations, and remixed artists like the Midwest’s Titonton Duvanté, and Orlando Voorn – the latter particularly important for the way he connected the Detroit and Amsterdam techno scenes – his career path is marked by ongoing connections, direct and indirect, to Detroit’s storied history.

“I always wanted to go back to those hi-tek soul roots on a full album,” he continues, and he’s definitely exploring that terrain here, with the sky-strafing brass on “Free Darius Now”, morse-code keys on “Vortex” and glitchy, microhouse tickles of “Know Hope” all contributing to an oblique narrative that seems to arc across Was Here – one fleshed out by guest musicians, who include dop and Gerog Levin on vocals, and trumpets by Greg Paulus (of Beirut and No Regular Play). The cover art makes the jazz connection explicit, riffing on the text-based, minimal design of The Modern Jazz Quartet’s 1955 album for Prestige, Concorde. But the way Avni has gathered around him both inspiring musicians and intriguing reference points makes me think of his broader career as well, the collectivism behind his AVADON nights in Tel-Aviv, his many and wide-ranging releases on labels like Innervisions, Hotflush and Stroboscopic Artefacts, and the openness of his productions, which seem to be all about the multiple, the possibilities of cross-pollination, of fusing this with that, of adding and subtracting, all under the pulsating thumbprint of techno.

Good things, after all, are worth waiting for.

After well received releases on Shadeleaf, Dead Horse and Hot Peas And Butter last year, Preston's finest soul brother Simba comes through Quintessentials with the 'Box Room Perspective' EP.
Leading the way is „Can You Free Me?“ featuring the beautiful vocals of Maddie Ellerby taking a distinct soulful flex a la Kerri Chandler.
The dub takes things a lil deeper for the heads stripping back to the essentials much like a Matthew Herbert dub. On the flip we have „True“, what has been described as „90's Planet E meets Broken Beat“, an excursion between the lines of house, disco and techno.
It’s hot up north!

East Man returns with a four track EP that explores his own Hi Tek take on Grime, stripping everything down to the raw, bare essentials.
Opening the EP is Fight For A Cause, a rough a fuzzy sub bass driven exercise in beat science that draws as much upon Dancehall as it does Grime. The second track, Selector, is a straight up DJ tool, utilising an alternating 32 bar pattern interspersed with splashes of pirate radio chatter.
The flip side opens with the storming Bandit Country.
The subdued intro lulling you into a false sense of security before the beats and bass are unleashed in full attack mode, the relentless onslaught pausing only briefly midway for you to catch your breath before continuing on it's devastating path.
The closing track, Darkage, is an ominous brooding affair that those of you familiar with East Man's sets will know well.

A real head nodding roller, it's definitely one for the technical DJ's.

"The art of the future, therefore, will not be poorer, but infinitely richer in subject-matter. And the form of the art of the future will also not be inferior to the present forms of art, but infinitely superior to them. Superior, not in the sense of having a refined and complex technique, but in the sense of the capacity briefly, simply, and clearly to transmit, without any superfluities, the feeling which the artist has experienced and wishes to transmit." - Leo Tolstoy, "What is Art"

This statement can be made of Lucky Brown's attempt to "briefly, simply, and clearly" capture the feeling of the sound, soul, smoke and soil of the Texas Hill Country with his upcoming album "Mesquite Suite".

A little more than one year after the release of his firebrand "Mesquite Beat/Justice" single on imprint "Tramp Tapes" (TR-1040) Lucky Brown offers us here another glimpse into the sound and concept of the Mesquite Suite.

Saints & Beggars is a rustic pentatonic horn-led 6/8 anthem that builds upon a simple primitive melody assembled from two opposing figures set against two repeating figures. Brown conceived the motif while in meditation in a yoga-turned-composition studio in San Marcos, Texas. He later delicately draped the parts around it like woodsmoke. The overall effect of the composition is one of economy and restraint - nothing could be added or taken away. The horns, guitar and vintage electric combo organ begin in unison and then the figure brazenly explodes like a flock of white winged doves from a pecan tree in humid dusk. Here are featured extemporizations from Jason Cressey - trombone, Peter Daniel - saxophone, Colin Higgins - guitar, and drummer Ollie Klomp, with an exposition of open horns in the climax. The tune is drenched in shitty reverb which engenders a mysterious dimension begging the record diggers' favorite questions: "...when is this from", "...where is this from".

'Bout To Blow, remaining uncompiled in the upcoming "Mesquite Suite" (exclusively released on this single only), is a specimen of the generic Deep Funk on 45 that lit a fire in Lucky's heart more than 20 years ago. The use of the word generic here is not meant to be derogatory. Rather, it is to transmit the sense that this tune falls squarely within the confines of the so-called Deep Funk canon. 'Bout to Blow offers classic dancefloor essentials: driving bassline, hard drum beat, chanky guitar, and outrageously distorted horns fiercely executing a devastatingly primitive horn line. Also, for devout followers of Lucky Brown's recorded work, there is hidden in the bridge an easter egg in the form of a self-referential quote: the bridge of 'Bout To Blow is also the head of T.D. & The Jimmy James 3's "Jalapeño Pep" (TR-1025)!

It has been Lucky Brown's aim to paint for the world a picture of the vernacular jazz that America's neighborhoods once crafted as their own homegrown cultural heritage. Lucky Brown's music is a rejection of the elitism, classism, and status of the music industrial complex and is an antitoxin to it's resultant homogeneity. He wants with his heart and his art to transmit an everyday people's sound, made by everyday people, dedicated to the upliftment of all people. Could this be the "art of the future" that Tolstoy wrote of in 1904

Key-selling points:
- "Bout To Blow" is available on this 7" release only
- "Saints & Beggars" is taken from the forthcoming album "Mesquite Suite" (out september 2018)

Autotomy is a collaboration between Belgium's Sleeperhold Publications, Brooklyn-based musician Patricia (Max Ravitz) and the Dutch artist Louis Reith. This output is the result of a long process of contemplation, discussion and elimination which gave us a record that encapsulates both Patricia's sense for hardware production and dance floor rawness. Describing this release is not a simple task. So we'll just tell it like it is: it's a record that slows down and, in this process, reveals its mystery. Referencing the title of this release, wunderkind Max Ravitz seems to provide the listener with the possibility of transformation, a way to shed part of your own being.When running though the tracks, one discovers the essentials of Patricia's sound architecture: the presence of lightness, of longing, mixed with the ability to deny it in the next instant. Sonically, there's a careful balance in these productions that belies their fundamental function as body music. It's ambient yet danceable, approachable despite it's often deconstructed layout, and ultimately warm and inviting.The entire record is made using Ravitz collection of hardware, which gives it its uncompromising texture. The presence of kicks, beats and soundscapes does not originate from a clean digital source but from a physical action, an excerpt of movement, a tick of the human hand. It is floating versus rhythmical movement, visceral versus strict. But above all, it is alive.The artwork used for Autotomy's sleeve design and the etching on the B-side was provided by Louis Reith. (All three tracks feature on the record's A-side.) Just as Patricia, Reith tries to resist technology in favour of physical and craft-based media, though the contrast between digital and analog is always present.Dutch artist Louis Reith produces works through a variety of different media, ranging from collages to wood sculptures, to paper objects and ink on paper works, always keeping an interest in simple abstract shapes and their combination. With an interest in materiality Louis resurrects found footage and creates new landscapes of shape and color, celebrating the human hand at work. Deliberate compositions form an illegible visual language where hidden words are portrayed as abstract sculptures.Reith also co-runs Jordskred, an independent publishing company worth checking out.Ravitz certainly is unstoppable and releases in a relentless and uncompromising fashion.Besides many collaborative projects with an array of artists (released under monikers such as Masks, Pulpo, Inhalants, DSR.MR...) he's released music on labels like Opal Tapes, L.I.E.S., Russian Torrent Versions, Ghostly Intl.,... 2017 has been quite a year for him so far. He not only founded his own imprint, Active Cultures, but also released a triple LP. Ghostly Intl. describes the release as a 'kaleidoscopic, a multi-faceted techno trip' and we couldn't agree more.

One half of Scottish duo Clouds, Perth Drug Legend tear off a solo EP of rugged, apocalyptic bloke-techno. Stunners, all of them. Freak genius at work.
What more can be said about Clouds, young prodigies who have put out as much innovative techno in the past few years than anyone. The story takes a twist with a wealth of material being released by PDL, hot off a remix of Tiga's Bugatti and releases on Resin and Westend Communications. The sound is reminiscent of Ghost Systems Rave, but there's the feeling that things have gotten even more refined, something that smacks of a real subcultural movement.

Opener Balquhidder Ruins is a stomping gate-crasher, the tempo pulled back just enough to feel the grit of industrial funk, everything restrained to it's bare essentials. Monzievaird swings heavily around a few twinkling bleeps, sparse, chunky kicks that thunder through the greased hats. Pushing things even more into the dark corners with overdriven, haunting resonance is Clackmannanshire Crusaderz, which sounds like the soundtrack to being blacked out on the ground in a Berghain tunnel. Thisistullohnottibetpal adds a mystical, multi culti dimension with some mountain flute inexplicably soaring through the air before a bell breakdown zens things into a forceful yet tranquil climax.

If that madness weren't enough, there's a digital bonus track which is an absolute bomb if you're into lower tempos and hip hop inflected bangers.

Stunners, all of them. Freak genius at work.

Shimmer was the record that put Stefan Goldmann on the map of techno. The dark and throbbing tracks, reduced to the essentials, were love at first sight for many of the DJs who ruled the scene back in 2004. Josh Wink threw in one of his most focused remixes for Stefan Goldmann's debut on Ovum - which was also the first one by a German artist on the label. As so often in dance music, things have come full circle. About time to give a mint copy of "Shimmer" to the DJs who play this prototypic sound today. Remastered meticulously by Rashad Becker at D&M, with the title track cut to a full 12" side, it never sounded better.

months after the last Uturn output it's time for some news. The project C-MEM delivers this great debut contribution to the selective catalog of the Uturn label, the rude dark brother of Kanzleramt. The project fits perfectly with the small but like-minded Uturn label family. It's functional chord-techno without any intellectual concepts or advancements but with deep production skills and effective pure essentials.