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The second edition of Dekmantel’s foray into the era-defining, trans-Atlantic, cult techno label that is Djax-Up-Beats, comes another re-issue of classic 90s cuts.

The label say "The Dutch label was responsible for releasing some of underground’s most foundational dance music, mixing together Chicago and European artists alike, and acting as the launchpad for some of today’s biggest producers. Featuring offerings from luminaries such as Felix Da Housecat, and Glenn Underground, alongside veterans such as Steve Poindexter, and DJ Skull, this second EP highlights the classic label’s old-school’s sound, while showcasing its diverse range, from dubbier, ambient moments, to wall-thumping, body crushing house force. Timeless music, repressed, and re-released for a new generation of DJs who covet the classic machine music.

The second re-issue EPs, offer a more introspective look at the label’s earlier releases. Leading Volume 2 is Terrace’s 'Bewitched', to which DJ Richard has described as being the defining track of the label’s beginnings with its "dreamy, Detroit-style techno mixed with the harder rave elements of Northern Europe”. Glenn Underground’s bass-roller 'Real Space' weaves together soulful passion and Chicago prime beats, while Felix Da Housecat’s Temptation — originally from 1993 — gets a well earned re-release, reminding us of the soulful, deep and lustful energy the producer once had. China White, whose name doesn’t get banded around as much as it should nowadays, see their ethereal hit 'Theme from the Underground' get another opportunity to bliss out the more upbeat rave community.

The energy turns darker with Frank de Groodt’s The Operator, breaking the outer-most barriers of electro-techno, with 'The Mind Strike'. Chicago and Dance Mania’s Steve Poindexter turns out rolling, dance-energy bomb 'Body Jam', while Mike Dearborn’s deliverance of unreal, dry techno in 'Deviant Behaviour' runs aplomb with classic drum-machine pulses, claps, and uncomfortable, yet punishing melodies. DJ Skull’s 'Don’t stop the beat' rides the EP with gushings of hand claps, and gentle, early 90s warm techno color, that transport you back to a time of more informed, and conscious electronic musings, a feeling that embodies Djax’s heyday.

Founded in Eindhoven at the turn of the 90s, Djax-Up-Beats quickly earned an international reputation for being a key source of Chicago house, acid techno, and floor-filling, heavy-hitting, straight up underground 12”s. It’s a sound that spawned the sonic aesthetics of today, and can be heard in the left field techno productions of the likes of Bjarki, Salon des Amateurs and other erstwhile analog junkies."

Tiger Stripes follows up ‘Baby’ with a quintuplet of aces on Drumcode.

Death, taxes and Tiger Stripes crafting dancefloor weapons for Adam Beyer’s Drumcode and Truesoul labels. Not many things in life are certain, but we’ve always counted on Mikael Nordgren knocking it out of the park. Last year’s ‘Baby’ EP was a label highlight, while in March he released ‘Sneaking Hotdogs Into People’s Pocket’, which mined the spirit of ‘90s-drenched euphoria and was a standout on Truesoul. Now he’s back dropping heat on DC.

Taking the retro vibes of Hotdogs into more techno-orientated territory, he bunkered down with his family in the Swedish forest, setting up a makeshift studio in the kitchen. From this, the five-track ‘Into Desolation’ was born. Beginning with ‘Recluse’, it combines steely bass rumbles with old skool stabs and a heady vocal from Mikaela Rahmqvist. ‘Basshunter’ is propelled by galloping bass and a catchy undulating melodic loop and is brilliant in its effective simplicity.

‘Into The Early Night’ is a pearl, comprising deep compression-heavy bass stabs, perky percussion and a rousing vocal, making it a winner at festivals so far this summer, including Awakenings. ‘Ignition’ fires on all cylinders with a wicked arpeggiated hook and pounding drums. ‘Ride’ is a nostalgic nod to the past as trance-inspired chords marry deliciously with crunchy future-focused techno.

Belpaese set their sights for the stratosphere with this double header of exotic delights for your aural pleasure. Strap in for another certified dose of disco – exotica – balearic - Italo-funk for the demanding digger!

Straight Outta Belpaese!

It´s been a while for the Microtonal camp – but back with a really great double A-sider by duo Analog Agenda (Supdub Records).

After almost a year Innervisions is blessed to have Toto back with a package of four tracks showing why they are in love with his productions.

Nina Simone was multi-faceted, both as an artist and on a personal level, and she spent her whole career
drawing from such a wide variety of influences that it was always impossible to pigeon-hole her. She drew
from the classical music world, from folk roots, from blues, from jazz and from the writers of the Great
American Songbook, and delivered all of her material in her own unique style. This collection of songs is
drawn from the early years of her releases and very much reflects her diversity of musical choices. Her work
is amongst the very best and this album is a taster of her immense talent

The word masterpiece gets bandied about a lot. Not least by us. But here is a release that truly befits such a lofty title.

In 1980, Randy Muller’s Skyy dropped the monumental “Here’s To You”, comfortably one of the greatest dance singles of all time. Released on Salsoul, “Here’s To You” is now exceptionally hard to find in its original form. On this special Be With double-header, we present the sought-after 12" mix and back it up with the strutting “You Got Me Up”, which has never been on a 12" before.

Naturally, both are cut loud and bumping for devastating dance floor power.

A sure-fire classic of the NYC club scene and a true block party rocker, “Here’s To You” beautifully combines sweeping synth-strings, loose cymbal hits and swaggering lyrics delivered with enviable style. But the real hero is *that* bassline. Oh, wait, no, actually, it’s *that* synth refrain halfway through. Harnessing the Oberheim Matrix 12 to emulate a horn section has provided goosebumps on discerning dance floors ever since.

As Muller expressed in his 2007 Red Bull Music Academy lecture, “It’s a very special record, it’s positive and has that spontaneous, life-giving spirit in the groove. Everything locks, just pure chemistry.”

Like we said, it’s a masterpiece.

If that wasn’t enough, over on the B-side is “You Got Me Up”, a real hidden gem from Skyy’s Skyway LP. Also released in 1980, the track is a wonderful showcase of the group’s airtight rhythm section and Muller’s uncanny ear for a groove and a melody.

Two contrasting remixes of ‘Space Date’ come courtesy of Pleasurekraft and John Monkman, as the three-way collaboration between Adam Beyer, Layton Giordani and Green Velvet continues to thrill.

Joining the strong reworks is an unexpected treat for fans; a last-minute inclusion of a fresh new original track from the trio.

Drumcode got its first taste of Pleasurekraft’s unique production touch in 2016 when ‘Dopefield’ dropped on ‘A-Sides Vol.5’.

The Swedish/American duo’s exploration of cosmic techno realms made them the ideal candidates to re-work ‘Space Date’.

Their contribution is as visceral as they come; defined by a hypnotic vocal arrangement, a stirring call and response melody and propulsive galloping beats fashioned for peak-time moments.

No surprise it was a highlight of Adam Beyer’s Ultra Resistance sets and gobsmacked Maceo Plex who requested a promo to play at Time Warp a week later.

Meanwhile Drumcode debutant John Monkman steps up with a very different, but not less deadly reinterpretation of ‘Space Date’.

The Brit has impressed in recent times with strong releases on Ellum, Kompakt and his own Beesemyer imprint, and takes this form into DC207.

His is a twisted intergalactic re-rub drenched in warped electro, blistering modular sounds and touches of IDM that manages the difficult task of taking the original to darker, more leftfield realms without ever losing its powerful dancefloor pulse.

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.

Repress!

Wiggle celebrate 25 years and relaunch their iconic label with a releases including co-founders Terry Francis, Nathan Coles and Eddie Richards, as well as artists like D’julz, Silverlining, Mihai Popoviciu, and more.

Wiggle, the brand that gave birth to tech house a sound that would power London’s club music community for over two decades, step out into their 25th year. To mark reaching this remarkable milestone, they plan a special series of international shows and a relaunch of their influential and ground-breaking label.

Taking their lead directly from the acid house movement, Nathan Coles and Terry Francis first brought Wiggle to life through their heady warehouse parties in the early 90s. Unpretentious to their core, these now infamous events were known for their purist values – community and a sound that booms. Finding a kindred spirit in another new face, Eddie Richards became resident from early sets and was a key figure from the off.

Through these now historic events, they embedded themselves deeply into London’s party landscape becoming familiar faces at cultural institution fabric. Heavily based around the core residents they also invited parts of the international and local world from Richie Hawtin, Jay Tripwire, Abe Duque and Colin Dale.

It’s about here we acknowledge Wiggle’s place in originating tech house - working the hard line swagger of techno together with the depth of feeling of house, matching rhythm with bass in a way perfectly aligned with endless hours of hedonism. This potent mix of musical elements is where it began and set down the foundation of London’s rich and active community of DJs, producers and ravers.

The label was founded close to the parties, sourcing tracks from the ever building network of producers who were fuelling this sound evolution. For their 25th birthday you can expect to see the Wiggle imprint coming back in strength - returning to cutting tracks to wax and continuing its legacy for bass fuelled party sounds and pioneering new talent.

2019 will see a series of international shows and a quarterly London party bringing the much loved Wiggle sensibilities and celebrate what they are and have achieved.

Back on the Riotvan with the third installment already, it is the ever on point Llewellyn, still being the more extroverted Synth/Wave/NeoDisco-alter ego of Lake People - that just as a minor gloss for those who've been living under a rock over the last years. On "These Days" we see him further elaborate his distinctive signature sound, more than ever brimming with confidence and splendour.

Australian label Nightime Drama builds on its assured discography with a new EP from Dutch artist Stefan Vincent, while one half of Artefakt aka Nick Lapien assumes his Metropolis alias for a remix.
Stefan Vincent has a decade long career that has taken him to labels like Dynamic Reflection, Anagram and Traut. Here he offers Exigent Mistress, a cavernous and dubby minimal techno cut that has warm, gooey bass and drums interwoven with each other to hypnotic effect. The Metropolis remix is a mind melting affair with warped and bendy synth lines looping over and over and taking you deeper down the rabbit hole.
Dissociation is the next original and is a more journeying techno cut that looks to the cosmos with its swirling sci-fi pads and sense of edgeless infinity all run through with a soft sense of acid. Last of all, Grey Haze is a skeletal groove with deft and delicate sound designs, dreamy pads and suggestive percussive sounds that suspend you in mid air. This, then, is an EP of high grade and mindful techno.

Comet presents the first release from its new Disco Highlife series, featuring remastered originals by Ghanaian legends Ebo Taylor & Pat Thomas and disco reedits by LeonxLeon and Leo Nanjo.

Founder of Comet Records, Eric Trosset, started working with those great heroes of West African music, back in 2010. Taking on the role of manager/publisher, Comet teamed up with Strut Records
and musician/producer Ben Abarbanel Wolff to revive Ebo Taylor‘s international career with a string of album releases: Love & Death, Appia Kwa Bridge and Life Stories. In 2014, he collaborated with
Pat Thomas & The Kwashibu Area Band on a new album, gathering together the old ‘pals’ (Ebo Taylor, Pat Thomas, Tony Allen) in producer Kwame Yeboah’s studio in Accra.

It is with great pleasure that Comet launches this new series. Let's make this beautiful and timeless music the soundtrack to an unforgettable summer!

On side A, comes “Enye Woa” by Pat Thomas, originally released in 1988 on Nakase Records and taken from the album Me Do Wiase. It’s killer disco cut, and as innovative a piece of highlife as it
was 30 years ago. Paris-based producer LeonxLeon has been cooking up songs in his Parisian home-studio since 2013. He did a remarkable remix of Cerrone's "Funk Makossa" and more recently released his new Rokanbo EP on Cracki Records. His remix of “Enye Woa” is a classy modern disco cut with funky bass and spacey synths.

On side B is “Atwer Abroba” by Ebo Taylor, a stand out up-tempo track from the album Twer Nyame, originally released in 1978 on Philips West African Records. Tokyo-based multi
instrumentalist/producer/arranger Leo Nanjo formed the first Japanese afrobeat group, Kingdom
Afrorocks. Since the band broke up in 2014, Leo has been producing and arranging music with various collaborations, such as DJ Muro, Pushim and Misia. This is a trippy afro-futurist, broken
beat reedit with highlife grooves flying to deep space

Infinity is the new release by Melbourne-based Leo James, and the second Patience production. Leo scratches a longstanding itch and delivers two sidelong excursions that inhabit a similar sonic space but spin off in opposite directions on the continuum.

Desert Nightflower hums with vitality in a seemingly lifeless landscape. Impressionistically tracing the lifecycle of a flower’s bloom in the desert night – from the searing afternoon sun through dusk’s chill, the midnight blossoming and symbiotic relationship with travelling bats, through the blue hour comedown to first light – Leo employs vibrant, buzzing electronics, plaintive strings and levitating clarinet to illustrate beauty’s brief conquest of nature’s harshest environment, with vividly evocative and deftly moving results.

After Desert Nighflower floats completely off the grid, an ever-present kickdrum drives Infinity’s near 20-minute trip into timelessness. Sharing Side A’s subliminal synthesised hum and free-form clarinet, Infinity moves fast and firm down a dub techno dirt road towards the end of time. As elements drop in and out of the mix, Infinity builds momentum to a pulsing, cathartic peak of poignant piano, ethereal keys and lucid clarinet expressions.

As an avid nature enthusiast, spatial awareness looms large in Leo’s work. His solo releases on Berceuse Heroique, Neubau and his own label Body Language have been inspired incarnations of techno, EBM, industrial and wave.

Patience is a new outlet for exploring further beyond the break than usual. Inspired by the music perpetually on rotation at HQ – with E2-E4 representing the format’s high tide mark – each release will be one artist’s deep dive down one inspirational wormhole spread across two sides of vinyl, or two side-long sojourns making full use of a round 12” piece of plastic. Set and forget, zone out to tune in.

The second part of 'Path Integral' paves the way for six new tracks. Ready to be discovered. Ready to be played out. Ready to hit the zeitgeist and ready to give a set an advanced whiff without sounding pretentious.

Copenhagen’s Echocord welcomes YWF onto its roster this June with the ‘Replaced’ EP, backed with remixes from Berlin’s Freund Der Familie. YWF is a Copenhagen based Techno producer and DJ, most notably known for his output on the Freund Der Familie imprint, the founders of which step in to remix his work here, and Baum Records, the label run by Resoe, a good friend of Echocord label boss Kenneth Christiansen and with whom he forms the group Pattern Repeat. It seems it was only a matter of time before YWF became a part of the family. Title-cut ‘Replaced’ opens the package via a sturdy rhythmic foundation, wandering synth licks and winding modulations before ‘All Is Temporary’ embraces a cinematic aesthetic, edging in elongated sub drones, emotive strings and delayed percussive hits. Freund Der Familie take control on the latter half of the package, delivering two interpreations of ‘Cutoff’, first up is ‘Fdf’s Reshape’, employing an airy asmtopheric feel amongst fluttering low-end and dustry drums while the ‘Days Of Doom Remix’, as the name would suggest takes a darker approach, laying focus on menacing bass, expansive delays and menacing voices alongside heartbeat like pulses of low-end drums.

DJ Deep's Deeply Rooted label once again spotlights rising French talent Marina Trench for the second instalment of 'Signature featuring remixes from the boss and Hugo LX. Arriving on Deeply Rooted in March with the slick sounding 'Signature EP1', since then Trench has debuted at Rex Club where she played alongside Kerri Chandler, further bolstering her rising reputation as one of the Parisian scene's most exciting names. She now returns to Deeply Rooted bringing another instalment of classy House music - perfectly suited to the respected label's aesthetic. She shows off her knack for jazzy keys on the lively, raw-edged 'Thema Urbain' which oozes late night soul and effortlessly intimate house vibes. The equally excellent 'Ahead' is a surging house cut with well-crafted synth stabs fleshing out an off balance groove while a twanging bass riffs props things up from below. It's perfectly propulsive but has a real sense of heart. The third sublime original is 'Navigo', a bottomless track with splashy hi hats and suggestive string stabs up top. A rasping bassline brings texture to the smooth grooves as they keep rushing over you to make this another fresh and original offering from Trench. Remixing 'Ahead' is Hugo LX, who cruises from downtempo beats to soulful electronic sounds on the likes of Balance and NDATL Muzik. His classy version is a dubbed out classic with a musical bassline tumbling down the scales as you're sunk ever deeper into his pillowy pads. Deep himself then steps up to flip 'Navigo' into a driving deep techno number that surges on soaring synth smears and prickly percussion. This EP is set to take Trench to the next level and confirms she is one of 2019's brightest new stars.

FÆR is a collaboration between Felipe Valenzuela, that has released on Raum…Musik before, together with Argenis Brito. The A side „Dream of yours“ is featuring vocals from another artist that has released on our label earlier, namely Jorge González from Chile and we are very happy to have him back on board for this project.Two unusual club cuts off the beaten track, mixed and mastered for your listening pleasure by Tobias Freund and we hope that you you enjoy them as much as we do.