After closing the year with four tracks of wintery house from San Laurentino, Aficionado set their sights on the spring with their latest release, which comes courtesy of Glaswegian trio Imperfect Product.Opening with a drifting dreamscape, reminiscent but intangible (entirely fitting for a track reborn out of decade's old rehearsal tapes) 'Solina' blooms into colour and focus at the rattle and crash of a jazzy drum break. An irresistible rolling bassline carries the groove onwards and upwards, loosening your shoulders nicely before spiralling synthesisers, swaggering wah guitar and rippling piano take your breath away completely.
As the fuzzy organ stabs and shimmering drones flood the soundscape, you're overcome with memories of youthful mixtapes where Innerzone Orchestra and Eddie Henderson rubbed shoulders with 'Summer Madness'. Understated but overwhelming, 'Solina's' sweltering perfection works just as well as an end of night life changer as the soundtrack to a spliff and sangria in the back garden.
On the B-side, London's Les Crocodiles deconstruct the track inna dubwise style, turning up the heat for some far out Balearic beat. The head nodding rhythm holds things together perfectly while the acid-tinged rubber bassline, echo drenched middle eastern strings and psychedelic synth lines do their very best to totally blow your mind.
As you head deeper into the groove, the dreamy piano of the original leads us into a euphoric breakdown before pulling us back in for more ecstatic dancing.
A score of releases in and with no two records sounding the same, Aficionado continue to fly the flag for open minded music.
Officially Aficionado.
Suche:the rub
Sifu Hotman are here to remind you why you fell in love with hip hop. Known for sharp, up-tempo hip hop, the group is comprised of two-time National Slam Poetry Champion Guante, deM atlaS who also has a solo deal with Rhymesayers Entertainment and SP-1200 maestro producer Rube.
Matches follows the ground work laid out on the now sold out debut 10' the 'Self-Titled EP' released on Stashin' Records and delivers more superb quality Hip Hop in the vein of heavy Jazz sampling that will have your neck snapping in no time. Mr Fantastic's remix of Embrace the Sun on the flip samples a well-known Disco Break which is chopped and spliced with some Eastern European Funk which completely changes the feel of the original version found on the forthcoming EP coming soon on AE Productions and so gives you 2 flavours on one 7' single.
Coming out of Amsterdam via London, Breach's Naked Naked imprint has been a platform from the globally lauded producer can launch club-ready material both from himself and his peers. Having previously released records from Maison Sky, J.Tijn and Viers - the next in an ever-reliable series welcomes back Church and 2020 Midnight Visions affiliate Lorca for his third outing on the label. Hailing from Brighton, Lorca has garnered a following behind several extolled 12s showcasing his intricate and spectral brand of UK Electronic music. His latest offering expands on this with three moody cuts that meld eyesdown melodies with sharp, lively drum structures. 'Creta Kano' kicks things off with ticking percussion scurrying over a rubbery, tape driven thud. Deft dynamics build depth in the mix as detuned and delayed synth lines interweave to stunning effect. 'Malta Kano' then sets more textures bubbling behind bright drums and powerful, melodic synth leads. The Alt version of 'Creta Kano' then brings things to a dark and purposeful close. Field recordings gently bleed in and out of focus while more glowing synthesis occupies the foreground. A warped sequence circles in towards the close bringing another insight into the chops of one of the UK's most dynamic and exciting young producers to a close".
Introverted Dancefloor is Bevan Smith, a New Zealander who has released music under names like Signer and Aspen, and who has played in the Ruby Suns and Skallander throughout the last decade. His prior output has been spread over many international labels and has touched on sundry genres (like techno, IDM, folk, ambient) while featuring restraint and sophistication as compositional hallmarks.
As Introverted Dancefloor, Smith has kept those features as guiding principles while allowing a more propulsive low end to dominate the construction of this music, winding up with understated but energetic dance tracks. Gestation, too, is a prominent attribute of this music, though not necessarily an obvious one. Smith started these songs with hundreds of layers, which he then pared down to a few core elements before rebuilding again.
For Introverted Dancefloor, Smith limited himself to the use of two synthesizers, one mic, one filter, and one effects processer. This constraint is not obvious upon listening as the album works across the idioms of electro, Detroit techno, pop house, and leftfield disco, playing with the line between fluid melody and drum machine programming. Each track has a playlist as its scaffolding, Smith's goal being to filter a certain set of varied influences through just a couple of instruments. Metro Area's Miura' (Original Mix) turned into Introverted Dancefloor's Happiness is such a mess/Pipedream.' If there can be such a thing as a subtle banger, then Smith may have earned that distinction here. Take it high' seems to be a constant ascent with its climbing bass and layers of chords, relying on no hackneyed drops or releases for its crescendo. Smith's layering practices show their precision on tracks like Even if you try' and Tiger bones,' in which disparate elements contribute to pointed melodies, an unidentifiable percussive part entering the same expressive plane as a sung line.
One of the record's most striking features is Smith's inclusion of certain elements of a song in a neighboring one (vocals from Pipedream' in Happiness is such a mess,' a synth line from Even if you try' in Always turn your head') to lend a phantasmagorical effect to the procession, blurring the distinction between a track and its reprise. The result is a song cycle wrought from painstaking labor, while nonetheless retaining core values of amorphousness and motion.
Now here's something special. A straight up, bona fide summer smash. A massive dancefloor-smashing beast of a tune. Daniel Dexter continues his long and fruitful relationship with Poker Flat by channelling the sound of classic Clivillés & Cole in 'Deeper Love', an early 90s house bomb that will send shivers down your spine. Underpinned by a resounding synth riff and dancing counter-motif, Kaori Kaneko's vocals provide the perfect foil, packing a powerful and soulful punch. Prolific Parisian Alexkid provides a radical reinterpretation: stripped down, muted and glitchy, with the vocal cut up into fragmented shards that flutter and fibrillate in an ear-tingling fashion. While on the flip, Berlin's Bay Area import Kevin Knapp intones the names of classic Hollywood starlets over the smooth groove of 'Heroine'. The fulcrum of the track - a fat and rubbery analogue bass - comes to the fore on an instrumental mix, perfect for long blends and deeper palettes.
Prolific electronica polymath Emika found acclaim once again this year with new studio album 'DREI', an opus that picked up Ibiza Spotlight's 'Album Of The Week' accolade and was called a fascinating album' by Rolling Stone. With six new remixes on this EP, further life has been breathed into her latest LP - with stunning results.
UK techno legends The Black Dog provide a foreboding rework of Battles, all brooding pads, electro glitchery and stomping breakbeats.
Kamikaze Space Programme's version is more dramatic still, returning the favour after Emika appeared on his own 'Choke' recently.
CNCPT (Brenda, Natch Records) kicks off the remixes of What's The Cure with an industrious slab of dubbed-out, reverb-heavy techno, doing away with Emika's vocals entirely and instead making use of her sound design expertise with subtle finesse.
Mysterious German Clone and Bunker affiliates The Exaltics tap into their electro roots on their rework with a thick, rubbery bassline working its way under a simple, atmospheric arrangement that allows Emika's honeyed delivery to take centre stage.
Borai (Tasteful Nudes) teams up with Emika herself to provide a stripped-back, heavily-swung, stomping take on the track, boiling it down to its melodic and textural essence.
Eomac rounds off the package with his stunning string-laden instrumental interpretation.
Tough, to the point, no-nonsense machine music is a longstanding Midwestern tradition.
Drawing a line all the way back to the old guard, The Bunker New York's latest EP is Walk The Distance, courtesy of Mark Verbos, a techno veteran and New Yorker by way of Milwaukee who put together four pieces of heavyweight dancefloor artillery, informed by an intimate, inside-out knowledge of the machinery used in the production of these tracks.
"I've been doing this for a long time. In the beginning, there was only hardware, and it feels better to make music with physical objects. Plus, I make hardware, too," says Verbos, recounting his production processes. Verbos not only produces music, he also produces the hardware he uses to make music—his company, Verbos Electronics, manufactures Eurorack synthesizer modules with a vintage sensibility. When he's making music, Verbos says, "I try to get to know the devices I use well enough that whatever I imagine can come from them. Techno is machine music. When I'm recording, it's just me and the machines."
The music, however, speaks for itself. No punches are pulled here—the record starts in top gear with "Start Up Drive," a devastating techno bomb centered around a throbbing, repeating bassline and a meaty kick drum that builds to a massive climax in the span of five minutes. "In The Back Room" kicks the tempo up a notch, featuring spaced-out atmospheric synth leads floating atop syncopated percussion. "Just A Little Late" is funkier than the other two, built around a rubbery, insistent synthesizer groove that worms its way deep into your head and doesn't let go.
The aforementioned three tracks alone would comprise a solid techno EP suitable for any number of dancefloors. But the last track on the record—its namesake—shifts gears entirely. "Walk The Distance" is a moody, pulsing slow burner, introspective and emotional. It's a haunting listen that adds remarkable depth and complexity to the record. "Walk The Distance, the track, is a reference to the fact that music is not a career. Any advice you could offer someone on how to have a successful career doesn't really apply to a career in music. By that I mean to say, process is everything, and the results don't really matter."
Sage advice indeed, but judging by Walk The Distance, Mark Verbos has figured out how to produce results that matter.
The Bunker New York is proud to announce the second EP from Mehmet Irdel, also known as Løt.te (pronounced Loat-tey), following his debut release on our label in 2014.
Løt.te's 'History of Discipline' EP features two distinct moods and detailed, industrial-inspired sound design with a firm focus on the dancefloor.
"When I discovered the heavy, dark techno coming out of the U.K. and Japan in the '90s and '00s, like Regis, Surgeon, Female, and Takaaki Itoh, it was a revelation," Irdel says. "Until then, I hadn't realized that techno could reference the grittiness and physicality of industrial music and make it work so well, and feel natural on the dancefloor." These muscular, upbeat techno artists are the perfect reference point for Løt.te's music, but Irdel takes his work one step further, featuring an emotional complexity that many other producers lack. "I'm interested in techno that feels both masculine and feminine at the same time," says Irdel. "These days, most techno feels either very intricate and clean, or very noisy and macho. What interests me is finding an in-between."
True to its name, "History of Discipline" is the darker track here. Built on a foundation of heavy, swinging kick drums and shuffling hi-hats, the track builds to an enormous climax before winding down into a rattle of metallic percussion. "A Mutable Constant" is more ambiguous, featuring a rubbery bassline and steadily-building background percussion - until a moody, longing synthesizer pad begins to take center stage. "I don't honestly know where the emotion in 'A Mutable Constant' came from. That wasn't the plan when I started working on it," recalls Irdel, "but I incorporate a mix of analog synths into my productions, like the Korg MS-20 or Doepfer Dark Energy, and their sounds sometimes surprise me. My production process begins and ends with a computer, but I love being able to have that '90s analog sound' in my work. I'm very conscious of not having any 'overly digital' sounds in my tracks."
Løt.te's latest EP embodies the spirit of techno while simultaneously pushing its sound forward. "Techno, for me, is an experiment in human perception. A way to find the fringes of perception in rhythm, melody, and emotion, to push all the way to the edge, to find the breaking point. I'm trying to push techno's boundaries without ever losing sight of 'what makes techno techno': its restraint and groove."
Recorded in a Bunker somewhere in the ancient basque region, Sagas of Subterranean life is a collection of 5 sagas that are heavily influenced by Scandinavian life and European culture in general. Showcasing a versatile collection of 5 bits that range from moving distorted house jams to synth blops and violating techno, ''NORSE'' is not just a collaboration between soul notes head honcho ''Kastil'' and Rotterdam based ''Gitchell Moore'', it's also a project that tends to avoid genre-restrictions and box thinking.
Odd Sequences X Violating Drum Patterns X Palindrome Titles = Sagas of Subterranean life.
SUPPORTED BY:
RODHAD, DAVE CLARKE, DEEP SPACE HELSINKI, ARNAUD LE TEXIER, STRANGER, ASAN REGAL, EXIUM, RAIZ, HECTOR OAKS, VIKTORIA, EKSERD, XHEI, GREY PEOPLE, TOM TRAGO, PAUL MAC, POSTHUMAN, PHOTONZ, JONAS KOPP, DVS1, TOMMY FOUR SEVEN, BAS MOOY, EOMAC, RUB-N-TUG, TENSNAKE, RANDOMER, EL TXEF A , FABRICE LIG, LAST WALTZ, PERTHIL, DENITE, TRUNCATE, DARKFLOOR, DEEPBASS, BLEAK, NX1, KLANKMAN, LAURENT GARNIER, MARCEL DETTMANN, HEKKLA,
- A1: El Yayabo - Ruben Gonzalez
- A2: Me Diras Que Sabroso - Compay Segundo
- A3: El Platanal De Bartolo - Ibrahim Ferrer
- A4: Tu No Eres Nadie - Tito Puente
- A5: En Guantanamo - Abelardo Barroso
- A6: Francisco Guayabal - Beny More
- A7: Patricia - Perez Prado
- A8: Oye Mi Ritmo - Omara Portuondo
- B1: Goza Negra - Celia Cruz
- B2: Tirando Tiro - Bebo Valdes With Sabor De Cuba
- B3: Eso Se Hincha - La Sonora Matancera
- B4: Comiendo Y Cantando - Pio Leyva
- B5: Ya Tu Lo Ves Campeon - Chapotin & His Estrellas
- B6: Soy Del Monte - Beny More
- B7: El Jarabe Loco - El Negro Peregrino
- C1: Bodas De Oro - Ibrahim Ferrer
- C2: Mambo No.5 - Perez Prado
- C3: Juancito Trucupey - Celia Cruz
- C4: Mango Mangue - Aldemaro Romero
- C5: Nuestras Vidas Mi Corazon Es Para Ti - Ruben Gonzalez
- C6: Tin Tin Deo - Chano Pozo & James Moody
- C7: Suena Tu Bongo - Conjunto Roberto Faz
- C8: La Campnia Cubana - Alfredito Valdez & Trio Caney
- D1: Cao Cao Mani Picao - Vicentico Valdes
- D2: Maracaibo Oriental - Beny More
- D3: Zambia - Machito
- D4: Mosaico - Lecuona Cuban Boys
- D5: Merengues, No - Bebo Valdes
- D6: Voy Pa Mayari - Compay Segundo
- D7: Tinguaro - Tito Puente
Whether you're beginning a love affair with cuban music or renewing the relationship, this double
album of vintage recordings, served up on vinyl in the traditional way, will bring sunshine into your life.
LP version comes with free download card.
Radio support from Benji B & B Traits (BBC Radio 1), Nemone (BBC 6 Music), . DJ support from Ben UFO, Joy Orbison, Caribou, Tessela, Mosca, Kowton, Ron Morelli, Bok Bok
Print features confirmed in Groove, Beat Mag, Faze (DE), Tsugi (FR), DJ Mag (IT), Volkskrant (NL), The Gap (Austria)
Print reviews confirmed in Mixmag, The Wire, Crack, DJ Mag, Uncut (UK), Blow Up, Rumore, Rockerilla (IT), Irish Times (IE), Musikexpress, Doppelpunkt, Westzeit (DE), Exclaim (CA)
Online features / premieres: The Fader, NPR, XLR8r (USA), The Quietus, Dummy (UK), Wasabeat (JP),
Hessle Audio are excited to announce the release of the self-titled debut album by Pearson Sound, aka label co-head David Kennedy. Characteristically minimalist in approach, its nine tracks use a handful of elements to craft mesmerising, self-contained worlds, alive with motion and near-subliminal detail: from vast and inky landscapes, to electrifying rhythm tracks, where layers of percussion and bass tumble over one another like rocks in a landslide. Recorded between 2013-4, Pearson Sound documents a distinct phase of Kennedy's studio explorations. "I had a signal chain set up that I was really happy with, and I started sending my machines through the same processes" he says. Expanding upon the techniques underpinning his recent REM and Starburst 12"s, its tracks emerged swiftly through improvised jam sessions, some were captured in a minimum of takes, while others later took shape through extensive sculpting and post-processing. "A lot of it was made by feeding the the same sounds between two different pieces of equipment and they'd end up feeding back between each other and snowballing. On some tracks it's about harnessing that and taking it to the brink before it disintegrates, and some of them are about just letting it go full-blown out of control." The result is a record of striking contrasts: bold, stark and visceral, yet also subtle, harmonically complex and deceptively playful. While Pearson Sound's livewire percussive energy remains inextricably rooted in the club, this exploratory studio process has created Kennedy's most wide-ranging yet coherent body of work to date: a suite of thrillingly impulsive, expressive and open-ended music, untethered from restrictions of form.
Federsen returns to Fifth Interval for another sublime instalment of dance floor friendly dub-techno. Dewpoint is an altogether tighter affair when compared to the label's first release, Point Reyes.
The drums are taut and razor-sharp, propelling the listener effortlessly through a dense fog of ferric clouds, swelling to fill the outer-reaches of the echo chamber. A highly polished metallic production style that can be compared to some of Andy Stott's early and classic works.
Tomas Rubek remixes Dewpoint for the B-side, remaining faithful to the original track's structure but viewing it through a tinted lens. Dewpoint's chords become iridescent, kick drums fall into a straighter pattern and are backed by further dusty percussion, shifting the original into spheres inhabited by the likes of Rod Modell and Fluxion.
12" 180g vinyl with printed sleeve.
Mastered by Lewis at Stardelta.
"Original mix is dope." - Brendon Moeller (Beat Pharmacy)
"Really digging this remix. It's been on repeat this morning." - Silent Season
"Full support, I will play it, love Federsen's work!" - Fingers in the Noise
"Played on BBC Radio" - Steve Barker (The Wire)
Seattle/San Francisco based Techno label, From 0-1 issue "Time Dilation", a 12" vinyl/digital EP by label director, and co-owner Milkplant (Justin Pennell) of the San Francisco Bay Area. Andrei Morant and From 0-1 co-owner Sone join in as remixers. Including an endless groove and two locked grooves, this piece of vinyl is meant to be as utilitarian for the vinyl DJ as possible. 'Dimension 4' starts off the EP with a classic big room percussive Techno vibe, closing in an endless groove. Following is Andrei Morant's absolutely punishing treatment of Dimension 4, a tearing lead, and searing percussion point to the main room. Two locked grooves, one percussive, the other synth based close out side '0'. On the flip side Milkplant's 'Spherical' reps a tight "future-retro" vibe; elements of old Motor City Techno dominate with a bit of grit to keep it dirty. Sone dials in a perfect toned down, more expansive and hypnotic interpretation of Spherical showcasing slowly evolving filters and modulation fit for the wee hours of the morning. 'Plasmic' is included only as a digital extra in this release- tough, noisy, and a little tripped out with a bit of swing to keep them on the floor.
All12" vinyl jackets are custom screen printed by Bloom Press in Oakland, California, with design curation by label art director, Rubidium. Mastering and distribution by Dietrich Schoenemann of Complete USA. Marketing and promotions by Pullproxy Berlin.
After taking a short break 'House of Disco Records' are back with a purpose. Not content with the adding to the plethora of 'Disco Edit' labels representing the genre they have opted to walk a more distinct path, determined to lean on originals or clever sampling as opposed to outright re-rubs.
In this their twelfth release they recruit previous label-mate Harry Wolfman and compadre Skinny Love to provide three stunning dancefloor ready originals. The duo have certainly delivered on the brief and turned in three diverse and clever takes on what a modern Disco track with a House soul can represent.
On remix duties they have recruited a promising young producer 'Kickflip Mike', who has released on Box Aus Holz as Joschka Seibt and paired him with experienced disco merchant 'The Revenge' who is responsible for some of the best remixes we know of, and he doesn't disappoint here with either remix
It has been over a year since the last Schmorgasbord release dropped, which saw Al Tourettes (better known now as Second Storey) rubbing up against Paradroid in a mix up of electro, techno and electronica styles.
Now the label returns with Bass Clef and Frak, who were asked to each commit a half-finished sketch of a track to tape, exchange tapes and finish off each others tracks.
Bass Clef has been a strong solo force on the electronic music scene since he first emerged in the wider bass music field in 2006, and has since released on Idle Hands, Punch Drunk, Pan and Public Information as well as running his own Magic + Dreams imprint.
Swedish trio Frak have been releasing since their debut album in 1987 when they were thirteen years old. The Swedish trio have been active for most of that time, running Borft Records and releasing a huge amount of music as well as performing live. In recent years they have enjoyed more recognition with releases on Kontra Musik, Digitalis and Sex Tags Mania.
Schmorgasbord launched in 2011 with a release that saw Appleblim and October collaborating for the first time. It was followed up by a release from S-Max and Spatial.
ZOV ZOV is a collaboration of Oliver Ho and Tommy Gillard - the culmination of almost 10 years of unreleased sound experiments. The two artists have worked on building up a vault of music that holds hours and hours of material.
This debut release signifies the first step of compiling this huge archive of material into reduced and distilled installments. Ruin Lust holds four sonic excursions, which further define the boundary-challenging aesthetic of Shifted's emerging sub-label Mira.
ZOV ZOV, a new word to describe something unknown, something ancient and deep inside that floods from the depths of the earth.
EAN steps up to bat for Cosmic Bridge, bringing 4 tracks of heavyweight, eyes down 80/160-range BPM rollers blending footwork rhythms with deep soundscapes and tinges of Jungle and Techno. His past work has come in the form of remixes for Om Unit's Searching on Stretched records, Ghostpoet's Cash and Carry Me Home and his contribution to Project Mooncircle's recent 10 year anniversary box set entitled Pictarus. More recently Civil Music enlisted him for a blistering re-rub of XLII's No Cure which has been very well received.
On the back of an exciting debut album in 2012 that saw him perform live at Sonar festival and later with his band at Vienna's Volkstheatre, before disseminating music on Permanent Vacation, Suol and Connaisseur Recordings, enigmatic Basque Country producer El_Txef_A returns with his sophomore longplayer 'We Walked Home Together'.
El_Txef_A (pronounced 'Elchefa') has crafted a work that just like its journey-conjuring title, charts a shifting palette of sounds and moods, exemplifying its creator Aitor Etxebarria's breadth of skill.
Produced entirely in Aitor's homeland of the mountainous Basque Country, the album showcases the talents of not just its creator who producers, sings and plays piano on the record, but also some of the Spanish region's most outstanding musicians.
Local artist Biskonti is one contributor, whose vocals coat a brooding bed of rough-cut drums on the ice-cold slice of electronica 'I'm Going to Paint You', while Hannot lends his pipes to the moving 'You Left Us In This Physical World' that sweep over a delicately crafted brew of guitars and keys. Both Basque vocalists featured on El_Txef_A's debut 'Slow Dancing in a Burning Room'. Sublime title track 'We Walked Home Together' turns into a family affair, with Aitor's brother Hibai playing the grand piano.
A graduate at 2013's Red Bull Music Academy in Madrid, El_Txef_A has an impressive array of sonic strings to his bow and the Detroit techno inspired 'Claim of Planet Earth' deliciously rubs shoulders with the album's single, the alternative slice of pop 'The Love We Lost' featuring DFA's Woofly.
Elsewhere, Aitor paints a dream-like soundscape with the sublime shoegaze-inspired trip '0730' that seamlessly bleeds into 'Every Day Is Blue Monday', with its atmosphere-heavy swirl of subtle acid lines, floating synths and evocative vocals delivered by Suol records contributor Meggy.
An artist whose music is inextricably connected with his homeland, the album concludes with the stirring 'Mugarrirantz' sung in the native tongue of Euskera by country folk band Napora Iria. It's proof that El_Txef_A is equally adept at doffing his cap to tradition as moving a dancefloor with his inspired brand of electronica.




















