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This double 10" vinyl features some absolutely enormous remixes that are not to be missed! Hamilton (Dj Ham) steps up to the plate and delivers a blisteringly dark remix of an already dark tune. Tough and rough, this one has a bassline that shakes the speakers to death and is built to last in his customary RAM records style.
Abyss gives us a glorious old skool drum and bass remix, in line with the 1994 sound, full on amen cuts, heavy sines and deep atmospherics.
Lowercase and Psycangle move the whole track into early 90's Ruffneck Records / Malice territory, with a furious old skool gabber remix, hard as nails and noisy as hell.
But perhaps the best is saved for last, because Sunny & Deck Hussy do the near impossible and take a dark tune and flip it on its head, making it euphoric and deep without losing the essential character of the original.

Club / DJ Support
Shimon, Andy C, Randall, Ray Keith, Chase 7 Status, Zinc, Jack Frost, Billy Bunter, the Fat Controller, Glowkid, Slipmatt, Dj Jedi, Dj Luna-C, Dj Brisk, Clayfighter, Jimni Cricket, Bustin, Sc@r, Doughboy, Saiyan, Dave Skywalker, Liquid, Hyper On Experience, Ant To Be, Ponder and many others

"When You Died" is the first single that anticipates The Dining Room's next full-length album, four years after "Do Hipsters Love Sun (Ra)?".

Side A contains the original version of the song, a funk cut with a 70's psychedelic taste, featuring Sean Martin on some vocals. On the flip-side (Side B), the same track has been reworked by 'Massimo Martellotta' (Calibro '35) to become an compelling disco soul midtempo tune.

... Medjool's story starts in 2010, at "Samar", it's a Kibbutz in the Arava valley in the far south of Israel, based on a unique, hippic and cooperative community. The band's four members met and lived there after their Military service. Being surrounded by musicians they started jamming together a lot, finding a joint creative language.

... In 2011, three of the band, – Ori, Nur & Aviram, moved to Tel-Aviv, trying their luck in the big city. 'Gilad' joined them in 2013 and the four friends became Medjool. The next three years were hectic with shows all over Israel, from small clubs to big festivals, gathering loyal crowd which followed the band everywhere. Nowadays, the band's members turned their energy to other musical projects, saying "we only took a short break which we're not sure when it'll end".

'Gbells' and 'Savana' are two energetic wild Afrobeat tunes.
The fact that the rhythm section comprises of a double base and percussion, grants 'Medjool' its unique highlife, groove color.
The guitar and saxophone travel through middle eastern to ethiopian melodies, suggesting the listeners the option either dancing or riding a camel in the desert, on your way to a flush oasis.

SOS: This two tracks on the 7", ... which were recorded in 2015, were the only music of 'Medjool', they had recorded professionally !!!!!

This new Signatune various artist EP is something special to have in anybody's record collection! It starts off with a cosmic and trippy tune by Timo called 'Pilar', followed by 'Ravisher' an excellent
warm up tune by Romanian LOy. Litmus comes back on the label with 'Shoelace' a bouncy minimal beat guaranteed to get tired feet up dancing, and Hyacin closes the EP perfectly with
'Hayzy'. Out in May 2018!

Pedro "Ramayá" Beltrán, born in Patico, a small town in Colombia's Bolívar province, is a maestro of Colombian folkloric music known as the King of the 'caña de millo' flute, although he is also proficient in various percussion instruments as well as the reed instrument known as 'gaita'. He founded La Cumbia Moderna de Soledad in the early 1970's. With this group he set out to "modernize" the folkloric music of his people, adding electric bass and a brass section to

fresh arrangements of cumbias, porros, fandangos, puyas and other costeño genres. "La Clavada" (1979) was La Cumbia Moderna de Soledad's sixth record and first for Codiscos' Costeño imprint.

The LP has many excellent examples of Beltrán's inventive mix of the ancient and the modern, making for a collection of tunes brimming with tradition and yet fearlessly bristling with innovation, not the least of which is 'Crees que soy sexy', with its gaita refrain mimicking the main melody of Rod Stewart's international disco smash 'Da Ya Think I'm Sexy'.
The album's title song was a massive hit in Colombia and has become a standard of the genre. Restored to its original glorious sound, this LP is poised to be rediscovered as an innovative yet rootsy gem. Presented in facsimile artwork and pressed on 180g vinyl.

Part of Vampisoul's reissue series of classic LP's from Colombia's Codiscos and it's sublabels such as Zeida, Costeño and Famoso.

DJ Mad A (Adam Embleton) & Dr. Stevie The Ambient Guru (Stevie Hewitt) originally met when Adam picked up the Saturday shift at 'Record Mart', a record store run by Stevie back in the late 80's. They quickly bonded over shared tastes and enthusiasm for the growing dance club culture in England.

'Balearic Beat' had arrived from Ibiza, house music was taking over, and clubs were pushing boundaries, encouraging DJs to experiment with the dancefloor. Stevie was a regular selector at classic venues like 'Club Havana' and 'Flixx', where he blended house, electro & techno for the loaded English youth. Adam had signed to Island records, at 17, the first signee for newly appointed A&R rep Darcus Beese. Their collaborations in the Island studio is where the early 'Mad A' production techniques were cultivated.

With Adam behind the programming and Stevie on guitar, the two assembled a few songs to add to their explorative DJ sets. They printed a white label tiny pressing of 'The Mad Vibe', four tracks, "sending out waves that shock", their sound was a frantic blend of electro and house. The E.P. sold out fast locally, with their tune, 'Levitating Pharaohs' catching the attention of Drum 'n' Bass duo 'Spring Heel Jack' and labels like Mo'wax. As the 90's rolled on, the two continued to DJ as residents at clubs like Corner House, Brody's, Arena & Dickens.

Smiling C 2019 repress of this cult 12". Remastered and housed in a die-cut 12" jacket with pharaoh's head sticker.

"Play The Trax. Feel The Vibes. Mad as....."

“Osondi owendi. What is cherished by some is despised by others. One man’s meat is another man’s poison. Different strokes for different folks. To each their own. Osondi owendi.

It’s a conventional aphorism in the Igbo language but if you utter the word “osondi owendi” in Nigeria today, the first thing that comes to anybody’s mind is the cucumber-cool highlife music maestro Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe and his legendary album that takes its name from the adage. Released in 1984, Osondi Owendi was instantly received as Osadebe’s magnum opus, the crowning event of an exalted career stretching back to the early years of highlife’s emergence as Nigeria’s predominant popular music.

Stephen Osadebe first appeared on the music scene in 1958 as a spry, twenty-two year-old vocalist in the Empire Rhythm Skies Orchestra, directed by bandleader Steven Amechi. With his dapper suits, urbane Nat King Cole-influenced vocal stylings and jaunty, uptempo, calypso-scented dance tunes, he personified the frisky spirit and anxious aspirations of a young, educated generation that had come of age in the wake of the Second World War, in a Nigeria that was rapidly shaking off British colonization and marching towards an independent future. 1959 would be the year that he truly made his mark in the business with his debut solo single “Lagos Life Na So So Enjoyment.” A giddy exhortation of the music, sex, fun and freedom availed by life in the big city, the song became a sensation and an anthem, and Stephen Osadebe became the leader of his own popular dance band, the Nigerian Sound Makers.

Osadebe would ride this wave of acclaim through most of the nineteen sixties, but a change in direction would be called for at the dawn of the seventies. As Nigeria emerged from a devastating civil war, so did a new generation of youth inspired by rock and funk, confrontational sounds reflective of a more violent, less idealistic era. All of the sudden, the idioms of the post-WWII dance orchestras that nurtured Osadebe’s cohort seemed quaint, the stuff of nostalgia. Osadebe needed to evolve to respond to the new tumultuous, turned-up times.

His response? He cooled it down.

Abetted by a new crop of fire-blooded young players, Osadebe slowed his music to a mellow, meditative tempo, brought forward the lumbering, Afro Cuban-accented bass and percussion, from the rockers he borrowed searing lead lines on the electric guitar. Over this musical bedrock, doesn’t so much as sing as he dreamily muses, coos, sighs aphorisms, words of wisdom and inspiration. “When one listens to my music, all I say appears meaningful,” Osadebe explained his lyrical approach, “at times they are in the form of proverbs which provoke much thought afterwards.” The result is a blend that is both rollicking and soothingly languid. Osadebe christened the style Oyolima—a tranquil, otherworldly state of total relaxation and pleasure. Osondi Owendi represents oyolima at its finest, and possibly Nigerian highlife in epitome.

Osondi owendi. What is cherished by some is despised by others. In some way, the album’s title constitutes a paradox. Because Osondi Owendi is a record that it’s almost impossible to imagine being despised by anybody."

“We seem to be caught! Trapped, somehow…”
Published for the first time on audio, Demon Records presents a narrated full-cast TV soundtrack, starring William Hartnell as the Doctor in one of his most weird and wonderful adventures!
In this vintage 6-part adventure, first shown on BBC TV in February and March 1965, a strange magnetic force pulls the TARDIS down to the craterous surface of Vortis. The Doctor and his friends learn that the planet has been invaded, and the parasitic Animus is slowly enveloping it in a web-like domain. The giant ant-like Zarbi are under its control, whilst the butterfly-like Menoptra are battling to reclaim their planet.
Presented across 3 x heavyweight 180g pieces of pink vinyl, this narrated TV soundtrack evokes a classic Doctor Who adventure in all its aural magnificence. The alien ambience of Vortis, the insistent chirruping of the Zarbi, and the supernatural voice of the Animus are all accompanied by the eerie sonics of Ron Grainer & Delia Derbyshire’s theme tune.
Written by Bill Strutton, this was the Doctor’s most exotic and lavish adventure yet. Linking narration is provided by Maureen O’Brien (Vicki) and the cast includes William Russell as Ian, Jacqueline Hill as Barbara, Martin Jarvis as Hilio and Roslyn de Winter as Vrestin. Accompanying the pink vinyl LPs are full episode billings, cast and credits, and eight illustrated
panels form a superb artwork montage. This is a first-time audio release for this very special
adventure. Dummedy-dum, Dummedy-dum, Dummedy-dum, Dum-dum…

Steppas Records is back with another heavyweight single in collaboration with Dubzoic, Alpha & Omega and Fikir Amlak.

The earth-rocker sounds of Italian producer, Dubzoic, alongside A&O's mystical foundation style, blend with Caribbean/American singer Fikir Amlak's ethereal and enchanting lyrical and vocal talents to deliver a stand-out Soundsystem single.

This release features Dubzoic and Fikir's original vocal edit, with a mystical flute cut plus two incredible mixes from UK dub pioneers Alpha & Omega (Greensleeves, Steppas Records).

Until now played as an exclusive dubplate, Steppas Records is excited to unleash this tune to the world, beautifully mastered and pressed to limited edition vinyl.

After being blown away by a few tunes - probably just as you will be after listening to this - Samy Ben Redjeb travelled to the infamous capital city of Somalia in November of 2016, making Analog Africa the first music label to set foot in Mogadishu.

On his arrival in Somalia Samy began rifling through piles of cassettes and listening to reel-to-reel tapes in the dusty archives of Radio Mogadishu, looking for music that ‘swam against the current’.

The stars were aligned: an uncovered and unmarked pile
of discarded recordings was discovered in a cluttered corner of the building. Colonel Abshir - the senior employee and protector of Radio Mogadishu’s archives - clarified that the pile consisted mostly of music nobody had manage to identify, or music he described as being ‘mainly instrumental and strange music’.

At the words ‘strange music’ Samy was hooked, the return flight to Tunisia was cancelled. The pile turned out to be a cornucopia of different sounds: radio jingles, background music and interludes for radio programmes, television shows and theatre plays. There were also a good number of disco tunes, some had been stripped of their lyrics, the interesting parts had been recorded multiple times then cut, taped together and spliced into a long groovy instrumental loop.

Like everywhere in Africa during the 1970s, both men and women sported huge afros, bell-bottom trousers and platform shoes.
James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and The Temptations’ funk were the talk of the town. In 1977, Iftin Band were invited to perform at the Festac festival in Lagos where they represented Somalia at the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture.

Not only did they come back with an award but they also returned with Afrobeat. While Fela Kuti’s ‘Shakara’ had taken over the continent and was spreading like wildfire throughout Latin America, it was the track ‘Lady’ that would become the hit in Mogadishu.

After the great success of his last EP, 8Ball is back with a 3-track single featuring the already well known Jungle staple "You" plus two brand new cuts.

"Been Higher" is ode to the sometimes overwhelming dread of a post party dip. It features haunting synth lines with a looping vocal and deep under-laying bass. This is taken straight out of the 8Ball hardcore revisited back catalogue.
"Table Spice" is a jam roly poly wrapped in custard being eaten in the garden of De Skool Amsterdam. 8Ball here strips back the drums to leave the bare bones of atmospheric hardcore tune.

Comes housed in a hand-screen printed sleeve and stickered centre label. Designed in house by Grade 10 International.

Ism opens audaciously with the spiritual mic-check “You Are Free To Choose,” a track that features bassist Junius Paul alongside Vincent Davis (drums), Justin Dillard (piano), and Corey Wilkes (horns). This is by no accident. In many ways, “You Are Free To Choose” captures the spirit of Junius Paul’s artistic roots. Corey, Justin, and Vincent were among the multigenerational cadre of Chicago musicians present when Junius chose to follow his own path of creative discovery at the storied Velvet Lounge on the South Side of the city in 2002.

Though he began learning his craft playing in church, Junius’s creative voice really developed during jam sessions at clubs like The Velvet alongside members of the AACM. It was iron sharpening iron, the most natural form of knowledge transfer. He explained The Velvet’s vibe in 2018: “It’s like in Africa.... If you had this society of diviners or medicine people, or you know, sages… The Velvet stuff is not secret; but there are certain aspects of it… if you weren’t there, you weren’t there.” The Velvet Lounge closed in 2010. But, of course, the spirit of the Velvet Lounge is not dead. “Tune No. 6,” recorded live at the Co-Prosperity Sphere in Chicago, is a sweet interlude here to remind us that jazz is alive, bristling with what’s yet to come.

As Junius pushes forward as a creative musician, he is careful to carry with him the spirit and the knowledge he’s gathered from those who have come before him. He is very literally a bridge between generations of the Chicago vanguard, currently playing in a handful of combos with Makaya McCraven (who produced several of the tracks on Ism) as well as a few of Roscoe Mitchell’s working groups – most notably the Art Ensemble of Chicago – in addition to fronting his own band.

So what’s the deal now - are we all just going under? And if so, what will we find below? On his second EP for the label, Leibniz immerses himself deeply in the subject matter with three tracks that draw on the titular »Hydron« as an alternative source of energy, with three tracks offering more water displacement than a regular Typhoon-class submarine - it’s that cold, clear bottle of Fuji in a desert full of uninspired memes.

The hundert co-founder overtakes the discussion about electric cars and those damn scooters by cruising down the aquabahn with his hydrogen car at 132 to 134 knots per minute. There’s a coming changeover of power to be felt in the air here for sure, yet there is much more to be gained from the water - the fuel for your deep dive into the unknown once we’ve gone under. In the meanwhile however, you have two options: become conscious of the impact that we as a species have on this planet or find the one gadget that will serve as a fix for everything. Just remember to stay hydrated along the way.

Through the combined brilliant minds of Fabrice Lig, Kiko Navarro, Karim Sahraoui and Jean Vanesse, the new musical force known as Quadra 163 has arrived. Working together in Jean Vanesse's Belgium studio, their debut EP, "Spin Coaster EP" was born.

Through intense live collaboration over 3 full days, the results are these incredible original tracks and a remix from the American house legend, Osunlade (Yoruba Records). Belgium's Elypsia Records have an absolutely essential release here for those looking for proper club weapons - each track dreamt up by a crew of producers with decades of critical acclaim and club credibility.

Osunlade kicks off the release on A1 with his rework of 'Spin Coaster.' The remix is a late night machine jam saturated with sharp synth textures and a shuffling rhythm which will lock the dancefloor tightly in place. A perfect blend between House and Techno, it's a shining example of Osunlade's keen ability to capture imagination with function, tension with release.

'Ghetto Beat' steps up as the A2, with a drum heavy cut full of off-kilter hits and tones which twist and turn in frequency and timbre. It's the type of track that will get the crowds cheering and jackin' and dancing without a break. A proper tool to slam into the set whenever energy levels need to lift higher and things need to get slightly twisted.

Title track 'Spin Coaster' sets up the B-side with a master session of prime time techno making magic. A playfully thick bassline resonates in and out of the analog rhythms while a synth tone builds tension over the track's entire duration. A few breaks for the clubbers to catch their breath are placed in the perfect spots - but only for a brief moment before things kick back in.

Rounding out the release is 'Ghetto Train,' an absolutely mental banger designed to melt the minds of those fortunate enough to be on the dancefloor when it's dropped. Relentless rhythms, huge hand claps and a sharp staccato shuffle drive the tune whilst synth stabs grow filthier with each passing phrase. Clearly the results of an insane studio session from the crew.

Being heavily influenced by the house sounds coming from the U.S. past and present it should not come as a surprise that Red D‘s WPH imprint is launching a new 12” series on which his favorite producers from Detroit, New York, Chicago and beyond get to shine in all their glory. A whole slew of Detroit and New York friends of the label have already confirmed to take part in this series, so good things await us!

But to kick things off we are extremely happy to present label boss Red D’s collaboration with Reggie Dokes, who has been a WPH regular since the very early days. Reggie Dokes and Red D a.k.a. RD² team up for three tracks full of electronic soul and analogue dirt, ranging from the ethereal beauty that is ‘Sharing Angels’ to the minimal dance of ‘Beyond Borders’ and the tribute to their respective cities of birth ‘From D To Shining D’. To complete the E.P. Reggie contributes the solo track ‘Birth Day’, bringing his trademark deepness to the table.

Time will tell if there was a better way to start this new series on WPH, but we are pretty happy with this one as it is. Stay tuned for more and enjoy!

Lefto: ‘Sharing Angels’ & ‘Birth Day’ are my favourites!

Red Rack’em: ‘Beyond Borders’ & ‘Birth Day’ for me. Loving the chords and choppy melodicness of them.

Satoshi Fumi: I really love ‘Sharings Angels’ & ‘Beyond Borders’. Timeless tracks!

Fabrice Lig: ‘Sharing Angels’ is magnificent!

Beyond Space And Time is the new record label from Japanese music festival, Rainbow Disco Club (RDC). RDC has been welcoming music loving people to Japan for over a decade. Throughout the festival's history, RDC have been fortunate to constantly encounter performers and DJs who've collaborated with them in establishing a beautiful dance floor year in, year out. These relationships have lead RDC to start their own label, and now gives them the opportunity to reveal one of the best-kept secrets: What is in a DJ's record bag?

This time around, festival regular DJ Nobu kindly opens up his collection and shares the music he loves with us all. On visual duty we welcome Senekt - his representational yet contemporary drawing illustrates the emotion we feel from DJ Nobu.
We have much more music to come in future from artists that we trust and respect.

▼ DJ Nobu describes 10 tracks this way ▼

A1. Laurent Garnier - Water Planet
Highly respected French DJ/Producer Laurent Garnier has been releasing tracks for decades capturing the very essence of Detroit Techno and Breakbeat. He always manages to create something truly emotional. This is not his biggest hit, but it's my favorite.

A2. Mono Junk - Beyond The Darkness
This track represents the very early days of Techno with it's ravey atmosphere. It has a primitive feel, and the obscure mixdown sounds almost unbalanced. That said, this one really stands out when DJing. Very cool.

B1. Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia - The Valley
It was always my intention to include this track in a compilation if were I ever to do one. It has a fat underlying groove, with some indigenous spices thrown in. The whole thing is put together beautifully. No complaints!

B2. Melody Boy 2000 - Plenty Of Love
I wanted to include a track that had Jacking feel to it - that is my definition of dance music. This track mixes well in both Techno and House DJ sets.

C1. Drax Ltd. II - Amphetamine
This is my all time favorite track by Thomas P Heckman. It asks questions and strikes down all the boring 'wanna be cool' techno tracks. It is obviously a well known tune already, but I include it here because I'm often asked for it's track ID from new kids in the game. This is a classic that should be passed down.

C2. Dan Curtin - 3rd From The Sun
Curtin's refined synth grooves and bass lines make this a true timeless classic. It do not get tired of listening to his rhythms and melodies - he always gets it just right.

C3. Front 242 - U-Men.
The originator of Electric Body Music. Their husky vocals, hard rhythms and strong synth basslines made the group very popular at the time, and they are still to this present day. To me, this track represents what the Belgian New Beat scene is all about.

D1. The Prince Of Dance Music - E3 E6 Roll On
This is the track I played the most up until around 2006. It is a genuine house track that cuts through trends in music. A hidden floor killer.

D2. Pan Sonic - Lähetys / Transmission
Electronic music has existed for decades, and if you are to choose some of the best from all scattered & hidden places, Pan Sonic's 'Lähetys / Transmission' must be considered. The track emerges beautifully - breaking structures and transcending the past. Every layer of the piece is produced with such delicacy and care, that as a whole it magically drags you into the world of the unknown.

D3. Burial - Archangel
This track merges melancholic emotions with technological prowess at the highest level, and deeply impacted the dance music scene on it's release. I recently played this track at the end of my set at the forward thinking Terraforma Festival in Milan. It faded out to huge applause from the open minded crowd. A moment to be remembered.

Green Vinyl

STAR CREATURE's OURRA spent years chasing down a long forgotten private press jazz CD from Detroit. When he finally did, this global collaboration resulted. Detroit's JAMES MERRIWETHER JR. teams up with Brit OURRA for 3 tunes started in the 90s and finished in 2019. Limited to 300 copies.

Beastly sounds for a zombie nation as classic 80s gaming soundtrack Shadow of the Beast gets debut vinyl edition with a recording taken from the original platform game, and new artwork from acclaimed illustrator Keith Rankin.

Composed by David Whittaker for the 1989 Amiga platformer of the same name, Shadow of the Beast sees its first ever vinyl release courtesy of the UK's Lag Records, presented in also its first mastered edition as directly taken from the original game system.

A prolific VGM composer, Whittaker holds more gaming soundtracks to his name than any other, with titles such as Lazy Jones to his name, as (in)famously sampled for the 1999 club hit Zombie Nation.  

Shadow of the Beast remains a prime example of his pioneering hands-on approach, programming music directly with instrumental samples of his own on a Korg M1 synthesizer. The tunes make for a singular combination of Spaghetti Western-style tension mixed with world beats. Tracks like The Plains play with harder rhythms like warped speed techno, while a hard-to-miss melancholy pervades the Underground suite.

The fiendishly difficult Shadow of the Beast itself was an interesting example of game design for its time, recorded at a frame rate to match arcade machines as opposed to monitors, and loaded with a 128 colour palette. Two sequels later followed in the 1990s, along with a 2016 remake for the Playstation console.

The soundtrack comes ready for a 2019 audience with mastering courtesy of Jerome Schmitt at the AirLab, and brand new artwork from acclaimed illustrator and musician Keith Rankin in collaboration with artist Ellen Thomas. Shadow of the Beast will also come on transparent purple vinyl, in standard LP format.

The teen girl falling in love with greasy biker melodrama that set The Shangri-Las on the scene was beaten to the core when English high society child Lynn Ripley -better known as Twinkle- took it to the next level on her own composition "Terry". Penned at the tender age of sixteen, Twinkle's lyrics were found so twisted and bad tasty that the song got the honour of being banned at the BBC thirteen years before the Sex Pistols ran the same luck with "God Save The Queen." A ban that, as you would have guessed, instead of hiding the song from the era's teenage record hunters made it even more coveted. Thus "Terry", Twinkle's first 45 issued on Decca in October 1964, became an instant top 5 hit in the UK and was released successfully worldwide as well as covered by many bands (like Claude François French version or Los Extraños cover sung in Spanish).



The success of "Terry" encouraged Decca to release other comositions by Twinkle, along with her recordings of songs by other songwriters, in 6 singles and one EP published between 1964 and 1966. Another of Twinkle great tunes, "Golden Lights", was covered by big Twinkle fan Morrissey and The Smiths in their 1986 "Ask" 12" EP.



The 14 songs from the Decca 45s are collected in this fatastic LP, housed in an amazing period style sleeve w/backflaps and including a gatefold insert with photos and first hand told liner notes by Twinkle's own sister Dawn James, a music journalist working for New Musical Express back in the 1960s.



It comes in a limited edition of only 500 copies : if you like sixties girl-pop sounds like those of The Shangri-Las, pop stars like France Gall, singer-songwriters like Margo Guryan and Phil Spector-ish productions you must get your copy of Twinkle's "Golden Lights" before it sells-out!

Hot off the heels of Aluxes, his 2018 Lumière Noire debut EP, young Mexican DJ/producer Iñigo
Vontier is inviting Chloé's label on a trip to the far corners of the body & mind with an album of
demented grooves, psychedelic take-offs and imaginary comic strips of mystical rituals. A
bewitching debut full-length. Mexicans may never possess the sonic science of the Germans,
the hedonistic madness of the English or the gift for synthesis of the French, but, as proven by
Iñigo Vontier's first full-length for Lumière Noire, their universe is much more exciting than
anyone would have ever thought.
The DJ/producer fully asserts his origins by brandishing the album’s title "El Hijo del Maiz" ("the
son of the corn") almost as an emblem: "in Mexico, corn is eaten daily. It has long been defined
as 'the gold of America', and I consider all Mexicans as children of corn". A spiritual and
embodied vision Iñigo's first Lumière Noire release, the four-track Aluxes, set the tone of the
young talent's distinctive interpretation of dark disco, which creeps up on the dancefloor from its
iconoclastic side. The two tracks and two remixes (one by Flügel, the other by Inigo himself)
featured on the 12" for lead single "Xu Xu" (featuring Red Axes-affiliate Xen's irrelevant vocals)
was a full-bodied confirmation that Vontier sees the dancefloor as an arena for the occult –
whether from the peoples of the equatorial jungle, the Middle East or, even from indocile
machines. But, while the spiritual element seems part and parcel of the Jalisco native’s output, it
is in no way the only ingredient of this first long-player: "this album best reflects my own vision
and spirituality, and the way I feel it" he says.
Whether contemplative or frenetic, the collection of tracks that make up “El Hijo Del Maiz” takes
the kitchen sink and throws it out the window: languid rhythms, haunted vocals, and mysterious
percussion fuel a discombobulated house set that scrambles the listener's five senses, leaving
one disoriented and exposed to the vagaries of vertigo. Following the demented, dystopian “Xu
Xu” EP, which explored an imaginary jungle that harbored Mayan and Egyptian pyramids,
Middle Eastern accents are once more present in the off-kilter “Bo Ni Ke” and its Japaneseinfluenced vocal trickery, which Moroccan flutes à la Jajouka transform into a feverish trance.
With the following three tracks, Iñigo Vontier raises himself to the same level of excellence as
the Pachanga duo (of which pride of the Mexican scene Rebolledo, is also known as a prolific
artisan of deconstruction): “Awaken”'s slumbering voice, heard as through the veil of hypnosis,
slowly introduces a techno beat which, as in follow-up “Time”, literally brings the listener to a
levitative state. In a housier vein, yet continuing in the same psychedelic, 90s-infused spirit,
“Don’t Go Back” disrupts the genre’s usual signatures with an out-of-tune keyboard that is
becoming the artist's trademark, destabilizing the listener into a drunken vertigo, with a good
helping of sexiness: "I think the sexy dimension definitely brings a kind of magic to music," says
Vontier. “I'm sure I felt this magic during my DJ sets, and I like to think that sorcerers use this
element in their practices. I might consider myself a bit of a sorcerer when I take over the DJ
booth, by the way." A mood and sound that can once again be found – in a quieter, more
bucolic version – on “Chiquitita” (feat. the flute stylings of pioneer DJ Rocca, now a partner of
cosmic disco legend Daniele Baldelli). The more cinematic, fast-paced and dreamy beat of the
no less captivating “Little Monster” might evoke the mischievous spirit of the Mayas' minor
mythological creatures, while ode to the magical herb Marijuana (feat Thomass Jackson)
proudly tramples into the debate that such a provocative title inevitably provokes: "psychedelic
drugs are powerful tools to reach a higher level of consciousness about what surrounds us, but
we must learn how to complete this psychic journey by ourselves, notably through meditation
and love.
In the end, El Hijo del Maiz is an album-length confirmation of Iñigo Vontier's uniqueness, and
his adherence to Lumière Noire's policy of letting artists fully express their vision – while letting
their passions guide their idiosyncrasies and explorations of innovative electronic signatures