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Poker Flat's Forward To The Past anthology returns in its 3rd iteration, as lean and mean as it ever was and precision-engineered to make you jack, dream and all things in between. The winning formula remains the same: task a selection of hotshot veteran and up-and-coming producers with recapturing the style and mood of early club music, paying homage to the golden years between 1985 and 1992 when Chicago House and Acid, New York House and Detroit Techno took the world and its dancefloors by storm. The result is a collection of new and exclusive tracks as addictive as the stone cold classics that influenced them - a tribute and, at the same time, the cutting edge of contemporary music production. LA-based compatriot MANIK contributes a rolling, no-frills jam that sticks to the tried and tested production values of early acid as if to say, Why mess with perfection' From his small Amsterdam studio crammed with classic drum machines and synths, Wouter de Moor serves up 'Bon Voyage', a simmering analogue acid jam bedecked with snickering percussive flourishes and long, sustained chords for that blue-tinged Detroit vibe. Pavel Iudin, meanwhile, adds jazzy Rhodes inflections and whistling birdsong to a similarly bubbling groove. Veteran DJ Aakmael adopts the classic Juno bass sound to pay homage to the godfather of deep, Larry Heard, for an exercise in immersive repetition.

The stage is set from minute one on Clay Wilson's new 4-track EP, "Skandha," his second release for The Bunker New York.
The eponymous first track begins with a familiar techno throb, but is quickly overcome by a blooming swirl of coruscating synthesizer pulses that seem to gather inside the listener's head, a phenomenon Wilson seems particularly interested in: "I've never been into really straightforward club techno that works in neat 8- and 16-bar sequences," he says. "I'm always looking for things that have forward momentum, ways to escape that 'block-y,' downbeat-centric feeling that you find in so much contemporary techno. For me, it's the drone—what's going on in the background—that serves to hold my interest."

Nowhere is this more apparent than on the record's second track, "Cataleptic." The meat of the track is its tightly-wound techno core built from insistent, hypnotic percussion, but it's what's happening in the background that keeps you coming back for more: The sound of a babbling brook and a plaintive, meandering bird call ("the only actual recorded animal sounds on the record," notes Wilson) gently give way to the tintinnabulation of a distant bell, whose meditative timbre brings to mind a Tibetan singing bowl. It turns out that the naturalistic, organic sounds in many of Wilson's tracks are often just that: "I make field recordings all the time, actually—on my phone," he says. "I've found field recordings have been a great way to pull things along, never repeating themselves, but also never being so upfront as to draw your attention away from the synths and drums."

That's a key point, and make no mistake—for all the flora and fauna lurking in the background of Wilson's productions, they're designed for the dancefloor through and through. "Feres," the EP's third track, slows down the pace a little bit, keeping time with a static kick-hat pattern while chunky, stepped percussion laid on top makes the track feel remarkably dynamic. The final cut, "Pict," seems to slowly unfurl like flowers at dawn, while a ghostly vocal sample (or merely something approaching it) repeats itself underneath it all.

While at times the drawn-out shimmering tones in Wilson's work may recall modern minimalism, "getting into techno, and more specifically techno production, was kind of a way for me to get away from (formal, classical musical) training," he recalls. "I had been headed down an open-minded, anything-goes path with a compositionally-geared approach, and ... all those paths led to techno." And for that, we're glad.

180gr! This 12" features remixes from Henry Wu and Ben Hauke, two rising South London natives whose dusty house sounds are reminiscent of the jazz-wise swing of the West London broken beat sound, a movement Sean Khan himself was heavily involved in.
London based jazz appassionato Sean Khan, will release his second album 'Muriel' later in 2015. Dedicated to the driving force behind his musical career, his mother Muriel McGinley, the album is virtuosic free, Latin and nu-jazz experimentation, drenched in soul with the help of the vocal talents of Omar, Sabrina Malheiros and Heidi Vogel (Cinematic Orchestra).

This 12' features remixes from Henry Wu and Ben Hauke, two rising South London natives whose dusty house sounds are reminiscent of the jazz-wise swing of the West London broken beat sound, a movement Sean Khan himself was heavily involved in.

On the A side, Henry Wu, a key member of the tight-knit label/ loose collective 22a Records (also home to the likes of Mo Kolours and Al Dobson Jr.), imbues the original track with a distinctly organic and off-kilter groove: a loose and earthy quality which is hallmark of the Wu sound and makes for a perfect complement to Khan's delicious melting pot of jazz, soul and broken beat flavours. Sturdy yet swinging with strong jazzy synth stabs and topped with a child-like, wordless, sing-along vocal, it's sure to be an underground summer club hit.

The B Side sees the mysterious Ben Hauke, whose previous releases have been courtesy of Melodica Recordings, steep Khan's 'Things to Say' in his own murky yet soul-drenched sound, one that falls somewhere between hip-hop and broken house. Not much is known about this young producer, but what we can glean from his work on this remix is a sound drenched in syrupy, slightly sinister keys and a plodding, unpredictable thump not entirely dissimilar from previous Far Out remix contributor Theo Parrish. Like the work of that Detroit innovation, these two young Londoner's contributions both look set to lend a funkily idiosyncratic and offbeat edge to all the right dance floors.

Speedy Ortiz is proud to announce their sophomore album, Foil Deer, which will be released via Carpark Records on April 20th.

'Major Arcana' released in 2013 won them glowing reviews , features and several UK tours (highlights below):

- 4 PAGE NME FEATURE

- 9/10 LEAD REVIEW IN NME: 'One of the reasons 'Major Arcana' works so well is because it's addictive and fun. The guitars and bass sound incredible, like the last Deerhunter album without the Yankee Doodle Dandy'

8/10 Drowned In Sound : ' Speedy Ortiz are way too euphoric and glorious to suffer for their artfulness. Stripping away the frills, at heart Major Arcana is a mournful treasure that asks to be celebrated.'

*NME RADAR FEATURE: 'What's miraculous, though, is that Major Arcana doesn't sound at all self-pitying; it's torrid Slint-meets-Pavement rattle bolsters Sadie's relished words so that yelling along is an exercise in gleefully exorcising your own demons'

8.4 ON PITCHFORK: : 'There's the squalling, guitar-on-guitar carnage of Archers of Loaf, the grungy mysticism of Helium (Dupuis lifted the title Major Arcana from a book she was reading on black magic), and of course the deadpan wit of vintage Liz Phair ('I was never the witch that you made me to be,' Dupuis tells a burnt-out old flame on 'Plough', 'Still you picked a virgin over me').

Standard LP is gatefold, single black LP with chapbook, plus digital download card.
Deluxe LP Is as above but with metallic gold coloured vinyl, and sticker.(200 ONLY FOR UK)
CD comes in digipak with a folded poster approximating the chapbook in the LP.

Speedy Ortiz said they would get the flowers themselves. What a lark! What a plunge!

When considering Massachusetts' Speedy Ortiz, that line from Virginia Woolf comes to mind. Not only for the obvious echoes to DIY, a form and function that's characterized the band's nascency, but in the proto-feminist undertones driving much of their sophomore album, Foil Deer. "I'm not bossy, I'm the boss," Sadie Dupuis sings on "Raising the Skate," invoking in spirit one half of the Carter-Knowles clan and echoing the other's wordplay. And wordplay makes sense, considering Dupuis-the band's songwriter, guitarist, and frontwoman-spent the band's first few years teaching writing at UMass Amherst. She's drawn to the dense complexity of Pynchon, the dreamlike geometry of Bolaño, the confounded yearning of Plath-all attributes you could easily apply to the band's 2013 debut Major Arcana, which fans and press alike have invested with a sense of purpose and merit uncommon in contemporary guitar rock.

The group, including Mike Falcone on drums, Darl Ferm on bass, and new addition Devin McKnight of Grass is Green on guitar, have spent the last year on an almost endless cross-continental touring jag, tagging along with the likes of The Breeders, Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, and Thurston Moore. That shift into full-time musicianship brought with it an attendant reordering of priorities when it came to songwriting, and the band members' lives in general. They would get the damn flowers themselves.

Dupuis wrote much of Foil Deer at her mother's home in the Connecticut woods, where the songwriter imposed a self-regulated exile and physical cleansing of sorts, finding that many of the songs came to her while running or swimming alone. "I gave up wasting mental energy on people who didn't have my back," she says. "Listening to our old records, I get the sense I was putting myself in horrible situations just to write sad songs. This music isn't coming from a dark place, and without slipping into self-empowerment jargon, it feels stronger." Many of the songs deal with a similar sense of starting over, editing out the unnecessary drama. "Boys be sensitive and girls be, be aggressive," she sings on "Mister Difficult."

And while their debut album was recorded on the fly, Speedy Ortiz spent almost a month in the studio on Foil Deer. Falcone's drums are taut, mechanistic; Ferm's bass ranges from the aggressive rattle of an AmRep classic to smoother, hip-hop inspired lines. McKnight, meanwhile, lends spacier, textural riffs to complement Dupuis' wiry, melody-driven guitar style. "The demos for our songs have always had tons of small details and production experimentation, but we never had any money to pay for more than a couple days in the studio, so the songs came out very live-sounding and guitar heavy," Dupuis says. It was recorded and mixed at Brooklyn's Rare Book Room with Nicolas Vernhes (Silver Jews, Enon, Deerhunter), with the record mastered by Emily Lazar (Sia, Haim, Beauty Pill), lending a more polished sound and a pop sensibility that will stand out to existing fans and new converts alike. For all the lyrical complexity and guitar-based excursions Speedy Ortiz have built their reputation on to this point, Foil Deer has a sense of light-footed fun. What's the point of doing things yourself if you're not going to enjoy the trip

Standard LP is gatefold, single black LP with chapbook, plus digital download card.
CD comes in digipak with a folded poster approximating the chapbook in the LP.

Prolific Seattle producer Jon McMillion returns to Nuearth Kitchen with another crucial chapter in his epic tale of haunted house-music subversions. This EP offers four variations on a bizarre and engrossing theme. Don't It Make You (edit 1)' is a work of extremes: By some miracle of aural physics, it's at once one of McMillion's strangest tracks and one of his most accessible. He sets into motion a staunch, relentless house rhythm bolstered with congas, massed claps, synth-bass raspberries, and a badass male singer intoning, Don't it make you feel good, if you wanna get down/Just say it, say it again,' over which a miasma of enigmatic tones bubbles and swirls. Like Bohannon's disco-funk classics from the '70s, Don't It Make You' seems like a tease, even at 10 minutes duration, you wish it would roll on for at least 30. On Don't It Make You (edit 2),' McMillion strips things down to dance-floor essentials and erases some of the free-floating background weirdness.

The two remixes are revelatory. New York house icon Fred P. (aka Black Jazz Consortium) slides the track into a tighter pair of pants, but that just makes it swivel harder and slyer. He emphasizes Don't It Make You''s mysterious drones and then loops a female vocalist singing He keeps me' while dropping in some echoed male chatter to gently disorient. What a dreamy, soulful trip Fred P. conjures here. And rising German wunderkind Orson Wells layers and pitches up the original's cascades of bleeps, which becomes the dominant motif, and then subtly modulates said bleeps over the tune's seven minutes, while keeping that irrepressible rhythm strutting. McMillion's raw materials prove to be fertile ground for these two maverick remixers to flaunt their own fascinating quirks while maintaining the original cut's club-darkening and ass-moving functionality.

Throughout the seventies the productions of Bunny'Striker'Lee were incredibly prolific and he created a number of different labels to handle his ever expanding output.
Bunny had always worked closely with Osbourne'King Tubby'Ruddock,who had built his first Sound System in 1957.But Tubbt felt that thingsreally got going when he took on Ewart'U Roy'Beckford as his DeeJay in 1968.When Bryon Lee upgraded Studio B at Dynamic Sounds to a sixteen track recording in 1972 Striker brokered a deal for Tubby to purchase the old four track equipment.The package included the MCI console that Tubby would go on to make world famous and as they say the rest is history...
Here we look at the Attack label and have assembled a compilation of some of the finest Dub cuts released on this label....enjoy

6th Borough Project are all set to release the follow up to their 2011 debut LP One Night In The Borough at the start of March. A hectic couple of years have been lived out by Graeme Clark and Craig Smith during the making of their Borough 2 Borough LP with Graeme continuing to play week in and week out as Revenge and setting up his new imprint Roar Groove whilst Craig has established the brilliant Fifty Fathoms Deep label. Studio time has been tight to say the least but that hasn't stopped the duo from pulling out all the stops and ensuring that this LP surpasses the already sky-high benchmark set by it's predecessor.

As a taster for the LP we present you with this sampler single containing three gems that'll whet your appetite and leave you gagging for more! Kicking off we have In Your Arms which sees the duo deliver some classic 6BP business with a party-starting house track laced with Philly strings and a heavy dose of soul. Next up things take a slightly darker direction on U Know U with this heads-down track incorporating a crisp, stripped-back beat joined by filtering pads and a distant vocal for company. Flip over for Read My Mind which brings some deep and brooding warehouse vibes to the table. This is the sound of 6th Borough Project doing techno with just a hint of 909 ride adding to the layers of bouncing stabs and off-kilter vocals.

Tis the season to remain anonymous it seems. The guessing games continue here with The Unknown Prankster. We can't tell you who it is, because that would render the artists chosen title useless. And he might be slightly miffed at. If it's even a he....

What you do need to know is that these two tight little magic numbers should not be missed! We'll leave you with the clips so you can make your own mind up..... needless to say, you might recognise one or two things here.

There are many ways to move forward as an artist. You can reinvent yourself, keep track of fashions, or try bold new things. Tom Trago has spent the best part of 10 years pushing his sound in impressive new directions. Yet on his new album, the well-regarded Amsterdam-based producer has done things slightly differently. This time round, his influences come from much closer to home, and he has admitted to being inspired by the dancefloor-focused style with which he made his name.

Welcome to The Light Fantastic. We're sure you'll enjoy the trip.

Trago is an old hand at this kind of thing. Back in 2009, his debut album, Voyage Direct, impressed with its warm, disco-centric blends of full-throttle deep house and boogie-influenced synthesizer funk. He cast his net wider on 2011's Iris, choosing to work with a wide variety of international collaborators on an album that laid bare his myriad of musical influences.

On the Light Fantastic, he's decided to 'step back to move forwards' with a warm, involving set that puts the simple pleasures of the best dancefloor moments at its heart.

'I tried to go a bit back towards the style I was doing on Voyage Direct, so dancefloor beats with deeper impact,' Trago admits. 'I was trying to male tracks that work on the dancefloor, but also move your heart.'

In some ways, The Light Fantastic is Trago in 'back to basics' mode. Partly inspired by his ever-increasing travels around the world to DJ, it melds together a range of influences - deep house, vintage synthesizers, classic boogie, disco, Chicago jack, acid house, and even a dash of full-throttle rave revivalism on the raw funk of 'The Elite' - on a set that sounds like it was painted in vivid colours by an artist at the top of his game.

'I'm like a professor in a lab, trying to make little ideas work,' Trago enthuses, warming to the theme. 'The tracks are all there in my head, like a puzzle, and I have to make all the pieces fit together.'

The 'back to basics' theme extended to his choice of collaborators. Whereas Iris was notable for featuring an impressive cast list of international singers, musicians and producers, The Light Fantastic is more of a homegrown affair. While plenty of people lent a hand during the recording process, they were trusted locals from the Dutch electronic music scene, rather than outsiders.

'This time, I thought 'whoever walks in the studio can get involved',' he says. 'If they walked in, they could sing, play some synths or do some mixing. A lot of people came to hang out and ended up lending a hand. It's a much more fun way of working than sending your track to somebody across the other side of the World.'

There are many collaborations on The Light Fantastic, but listen out for contributions from Steffi, Ben Westbeech, 'studio neighbour' San Proper, Makam, vocalist Holly Wood and, most surprisingly, a local club owner who just happened to swing by the studio. 'Using my friends was a big part of the process,' Trago admits. 'One of the points of the album was using people who were close to home, part of the family almost.'

It's an approach that definitely paid dividends. Certainly, this celebration of Amsterdam's blossoming electronic music scene adds a little extra frisson of excitement to The Light Fantastic's impressive vibrancy.

By the time the rush-inducing positivity of 'The Wrong Right' gives way to the mutant alien funk of album closer 'Desire', you'll be ready to listen to it all over again. That's the thing with The Light Fantastic - it's a trip you'll want to take again and again.

17 years after first releasing a cassette EP from label boss Marsel van der Wielen under his Peel Seamus guise, Delsin is soon to hit the landmark category number of 100.
Truth is, taking into account choice re-issues and specials such as the recent house series, there have already been scores more than 100 releases. Nevertheless, in that time the Dutch label has become synonymous with a wide range of timeless sounds from house to techno to dub to electronica, nurturing and championing some of the most respect names in the scene.

To mark the occasion, the label is to release five new various artist EPs (100 copies will be special, limited and coloured vinyl exclusively available through the Delsin web shop with a collector's box) that will be compiled onto one special CD compilation come the final release.

'After many different life cycles, with this compilation I try to go back to the core of Delsin, to showcase more otherworldly/dreamy/soulful but still raw techno sounds from a selection of key artists who best represent the label,' says Marsel. 'The tracks are all individual offerings but are tied together with the common themes of the label, and as a compilation will paint a nice overall picture that is not shy of moving away from the dancefloor side of things.'

Across the five EPs you can expect tracks from newbies and old favourites alike, including Sawlin and Delta Funktionen, John Beltran and Bleak, Redshape and Convextion and plenty more. The first - like all of them - features three tracks, one each from Gerry Read, Unbroken Dub and Claro Intelecto.

Alex Font is a serious guy who knows that now is his time. A multi-instrumentalist, as well as a producer and DJ, he can sometimes be seen on stage in trademark shirt and bow tie. He declares himself a lover of vinyl and, above all, what he calls real house. I think that says it all.

'NOW IS MY TIME' is the fifth release on the Oblack label and is available in black vinyl and digital. It is undeniable proof that Alex Font has arrived and is now a permanent force on the House scene, mainly in soul and dance, but who also knows how to reinvent his sound using new tech. Always with an eye on the future of sound innovation, he still manages to keep hold of his roots and respect his great influences. Well, nothing less would do. On this EP you can tell that Alex Font (remember, this is one serious guy) knows what he has in his hands and spinning on his turntable. His knowledge of musical composition, harmony and engineering skills jump out at you as soon as the first beat of 'Now is my time' hits the speakers: darkness, sophistication, soul and groove. There's a perfect command of tempo, of where, when and how. You pick up on the instrumental skills which allow him to do what he wants, when he wants. That's what's so great about this: you're struck by the ease of how such perfect technique and astoundingly good taste come together. Digitally analogical (or is it the other way round), this is the deeply profound vs. the dancefloor. It fascinates and liberates, carrying you off through different dimensions before breaking out of itself, with no need for artificial fanfares as it's so perfectly defined by Chicagoan pianos, hi-hats, funkoid vocals, etc. He's simply extraordinary: Alex Font signed by Oblack 005.

The remix by Martinez gives this track a technical edge and club splendor. Leaving out the more classic elements of house that are present in the original, the Swedish producer slows things down so that it doesn't lose any of its elegance, but at the same time the track gains punch on the dancefloor, and there's no doubt that it works. As cool as it is effective at inciting dance and everything else that comes with gyrating your pelvis in the early hours of the morning.

Finally, the Argentinian Shall Ocin plays the scoundrel here by adding diverse electronic elements that take the track into a new dimension. By giving the vocal more prominence, here it takes centre stage, and over a well-layered tech-house base, it makes the tremendous savoir faire of the original literally surf, while at the same time respecting and completing it.

In the end, it's great that you know that this is your time and that you want to share it, through Oblack and on vinyl, with all of us. Thanks comrade.

Terror Danjah's second Hyperdub album is 'The Dark Crawler', a well-paced and much more upfront and energetic journey through his musical world than his debut 'Undeniable'. The album revolves around the 'Dark Crawler' theme, a blistering grime track that pops up several times, vocaled by MC's Riko Dan, Mayhem, Deadly and Saf One, and then lastly Trim and Kossie. That's not to say the album is one dimensional or relentless. It's subtley balanced with the 'Dark Crawler' thread of tracks allowing the album to spin off in a web of directions without losing any focus. It's a much more contained body of work, paced to keep the listeners interest. From the 'Dark Crawler' intro into the cartoonish horror soundtrack of 'Mirror's Edge', which tricks you into thinking its just any dubstep tune, before scattering into Terror's signature broken kicks and claps. 'Dark Gremlinz' featuring D.O.K. is a classic peak-era asymmetric grime instrumental. The album then drops down into the 130ish speed of 'Air Max 90' featuring Champion, which builds from a soca-like drum drill stretching the rhythm to the point of collapse with a wonky synth, before concluding on a driving baseline house 4/4. The first 'Dark Crawler' vocal is next, with a ferocious performance from veteran Roll Deep MC Riko Dan, who drops bloodthirsty threats at a breakneck pace. Next, the tempo drops down again to the drunk funk of 'Full Hundred', with criss cross claps and a rasping bassline breaking down into live drumming and tight trap door edits. Things speed up a little again with the intricate 8 bar funky of 'Rum Punch', a hard drum tattoo rolling out over a heavy detuned bassline and intense bleeps. On the second 'Dark Crawler', mic duties are shared by Birmingham MC's Mayhem , Deadly and Saf One. Their hard vocals contrast with lush styled R'n'B of 'You Make Me Feel' featuring Meleka. The album then rolls out into the galloping drums and smooth G-Funk synths of 'Baby Oil'. Trim and Kossie drop the final 'Dark Crawler' vocal, with Trim dropping deadpan threats contesting with Kossie's focussed hysteria. Next up 'Delicately', with Ruby Lee Rider, starts in slow motion R'n'B mood, sweet Rhodes chords drift and bubble up as the track doubles up into dreamy drum and bass with a fluttering tabla keeping the time, and Ruby's tender vocals tempering the pace and aggression. Overall, it's a brilliant exercise in breathless rhythmic arousal. 'Moschino', on the other hand is a darker, chunkier and grimier mirror image to 'Delicately', switching up into a ferocious metallic riffage, before the album closes on an outro of 'Dark Crawler' again. Form, function, energy and talent fuse perfectly over 'The Dark Crawler' s length. Enjoy the ride.

Kenny Gino and Big Mike a.k.a. the Solid Gold Playaz both started playing records in the late 70's/early 80's. Having family from Chicago, who were DJ's and down with some of the big guys at the time, "heavily influenced our music and production styles" both say. "Living so close to the city, we could go down to all the legendary night spots. The Rainbow and the Warehouse, the Box, the Shelter... places where you could just feel the vibe. And you could hear guys like Farley Funkin' Keith, Ron Hardy, and Jammin' Gerald (the Chicago DJ/producer who is Kenny's cousin) play these incredible records". They both were hooked on the house sound, and would bring it back to their home, a small city named Racine, Wisconsin, located about an hour and half north of Chicago. They continued to develop their DJ and production skills into the 90's, but musically, weren't taking things very seriously until they met Chicago producer Louis Bell. He introduced them to many of the people who were building the mid-90's Chicago sound. "Louis gave us access... access to places we hadn't been before. He took us into the offices of Cajual/Relief Records and Underground Construction, and suddenly we were face to face with guys who were doing what we wanted to do... Cajmere, Paul Johnson, Glenn Underground... showing us that we could do this too. We did a few releases just to get our name out, and soon we had some pretty big named DJ's playing our music. We had DJ's actually looking for our records, and telling us how much they liked our sounds... that just blew us away, especially with very little promotion and in the limited numbers we were pressing... our music just started to build a name for itself."