Mystical, minimal house offering hailing from South Africa in the mid-2000s courtesy of Cape Town indie labels Sharp-Flat and Roastin' Records.
RockArt was a hybrid-electro performance art project that emerged during a golden age for electronic music in the Cape, the post-Y2K scene spurred by the maverick African Dope record label that marked the rise of cult outsiders Felix Laband and Tudor Watkins Jones. Harnessing the combined powers of seasoned jazz musicians Hilton Schilder and Alex van Heerden, RockArt cooked up a signature futurist formula laced with musical bows and voice samples that was unmistakably indigenous. Intended as a companion to the group's Future Cape album of 2006, House was conceived as a long-form soundscape of tribal electronica that could stand alone on its own merits but also provide a backdrop for live instrumental improvisation. The project was shelved following the untimely death of Alex van Heerden in 2009 but emerges from Hilton Schilder's archive as a reminder of the duo's profound collaborative alchemy.
Running at 28 minutes over two sides of 12-inch maxi cut at 45RPM, House is available as a boutique vinyl offering with a psychedelic art sleeve pressed in a first edition of 300 copies.
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James Curd presents the fourth instalment from his already essential PRONTO label, delivering a hyper-infectious original alongside a bumper pack of top-drawer remixes on ‘I Am One, I Am Many’.
First up, Curd’s original version of ‘I Am One, I Am Many’ bursts from the blocks with its lively tempo and feel-good groove. Built around an empowering spoken word vocal and pitched somewhere in the fertile soil between disco and house, the funk-laden jam rolls over thick bass, dramatic strings and jaunty guitar licks, with irresistible horn motifs lifting spirits as the dance-ready arrangement unfolds.
Next, renegade UK collective Adelphi Music Factory maintain the uncompromising approach that has seen them garner universal tastemaker heat thanks to impactful releases on Shall Not Fade, Nervous, and their own Beat Factory label. Adding weight to the drums, they stay true to the intention of the original, retaining the track’s key parts while tastefully reforming them as an unfettered main room banger.
The UK remix flavour extends into the third iteration, with notorious party-starters Make A Dance continuing their club-focused manifesto with their brilliantly atmospheric revision. Here, M.A.D. carry on the fine work they’ve been manifesting on their eponymous label, constructing an almost entirely new track around the iconic vocal. A contagious organ hook drives the energy as saucer-eyed sweeps and off-kilter synths meander across the panorama, the sturdy house rhythm expertly powering the kinetically charged groove.
Tel Aviv’s Nenor rounds off the remixes, the esteemed producer and DJ showing the kind of sparkling form that has seen his work appear on benchmark labels including Mahogani, Strictly Rhythm, Heist, and Razor N Tape among many others. Transposing the track into deeper territory, Nenor strips back the instrumentation to serve a mesmerising heads-down roller. The vocal soars over brooding bass and syncopated chords, with loose rhythms and subtle textures combining to hypnotic effect.
Bernard Szajner is a French composer, musical theorist, visual artist. He is credited with the invention of the laser harp, which he patented.
Between 1979 and 1983, Szajner released five albums of innovative and Avant-garde electronic music. He became renowned as a light and visual effects technician with artists such as Magma, Gong, Stomu Yamashta and The Who.
During the 1970s, he became a pioneer in the field of using laser technology as an artistic tool. As a measure of his success, he became renowned by his work with companies such as Cartier and Renault. In 1980, inspired by the novel, Nova, by Samuel R. Delany, he first created the laser harp. The laser harp became so successful that Jean-Michel Jarre ordered a version from Bernard Szajner for his tour of China. Despite all this, Szajner would only occasionally use this instrument in his own performances. He has stated that he would rather the public not know him solely for his work on the laser harp, and that it not be allowed to take precedence over his work in musical composition that it enables. This is also why he continues to develop other instruments which use other innovative methods of interaction, such as tactile or holographic.
Towards the end of the 1980s and disgusted with the music industry, he chose to abandon music entirely, and shifted his focus towards digital and visual arts, and theatre.
From Bernard Szajner : “These tracks are my preferred ones .... Ever ! ... For a long time I've been waiting for a record label to release what corresponds to what I like playing these days... Until Sleepers records decided to release this compilation which contains most of the tracks I enjoy playing live on stage ! At last my wish is fulfilled !”
'Intensely textured, interlocking guitar riffs weave together on New Bright Object, the debut album from Berlin and Edinburgh-based duo I’m Not You.
Working under the name I’m Not You, artist Alex Gibbs (bass & vocals) and sound designer Niall McCallum (guitar & drums) have honed a sound that draws in equal measure from jazz funk of Weather Report and the math rock of Don Caballero. Their debut album, New Bright Object is their most developed statement to date, an intricate, robust and unique collection of songs born from serpentine jam sessions in rural idylls.
The duo make no secret of their admiration for bands like Battles and Tortoise. They reference Jim O’Rourke’s lounge numbers and the droll lyricism of Modern Lovers’ Jonathan Richman. There’s a touch of Vini Reilly in their sparse and serpentine guitar lines. A hint perhaps of Mogwai. All these names place New Bright Object within a constellation of albums made with bigger budgets for wider audiences.
New Bright Object opens In a flash of light, comet-like, with the sound of ‘Mr. Wind- Up Bird’. The threads they weave are full with intent, as moments of density rise like hills from the track’s quieter valleys. It’s easy to imagine the pair looking out over the rolling fields of the garden studio in East Lothian where they recorded the album, as they assiduously try and draw their own landscapes in sound.
Similarly, there is a crispness to ‘A Certain Arrangement Of Atoms’ - every clipped hat, rim-shot snare and tightly wound tom a fine-tipped mark on the score. It is intricate and precise, a result perhaps of Niall’s attention to detail. Then there is the piano, Alex’s grandmother’s, slightly out of tune, which adds a few expressionist strokes to this pointillist composition. The piece loosens, until all we’re left with is the bass.
Although the album orbits around the pendulum sway of ‘The Older I Get’, it is ‘What Cats Think About’ that stands out most. That it does is by design – a nod to the Sun City Girls and albums that like to throw their listeners a curveball every now and then. Pleasantly ramshackle, confusingly domestic, agreeably strange.
All this speaks to the spirit of the album and the creative relationship between two best friends whose differences seem to have been the only things they could agree on.'
Andreas Koeper is a German contemporary/experimental composer and drummer with a background in Philosophy and Art history. “Niemand Tanzt” was originally released in 1989 and in the past years it has become a sought after obscurity amongst diggers ever since Chee Shimizu put it on the radar after unearthing it throughout inspection rounds in Berlin record stores. Although the A-side might have been the essence of the single at the time, it's the B-side's “Pink Rhythm” that puts this release on the map for DJs, the track's gradient from an empty half tempo to rich 4 on the floor patterns serves any well versed DJ as an on-ramp for new gears to be put into place as the track grows into various ramifications of Andreas' studio production techniques: playful percussive elements, provocative guitar riffs over a solid rhythm section. Freshly remastered by manmade in Berlin.
The musical project of Jake Webb, Methyl Ethel have always been a surrealist outfit - a dark and obscured expression of life set to the backdrop of dream pop hooks.
'Triage' is a more reflective album than their previous two however, featuring 'Scream Whole' and 'Real Tight' it explores the notion of coming of age, only to reference it for the snapshots and passing memories that it has become.
Enjoying phenomenal successes over the last few years, the single 'Ubu' was recently accredited Gold in Australia (helped by it landing at #4 in Triple J's Hottest 100) and their tourdates in Australia and the UK since 2016 have all been sellU outs.
Following up on the worldwide success of their new album Education & Recreation, Surprise Chef drops a must have two-sider for those of us who can't get enough 45s. The A side, "Money Music" is a bassline driven mid tempo tune that catches you from the first note and carries you through all the gorgeous changes. Piano, vibraphone, and guitar trade places over a watertight drum track that builds up, drops down, builds up again, and changes to half time to take it all home. The B side "Suburban Breeze" kicks in the door with an intro that is bound to be sampled and will get your blood racing and your head nodding. They lure you in with the neck snapping intro that is bound to be sampled and bring you from mood to mood as they change the energy from tough as nails to floaty and groovy, and back to tough as nails. Also Available From Surprise Chef: Education & Recreation LP / CD, Velodrome b/w Spring's Theme 7”.
Memento records is thrilled to announce "Hotter than Hell" a dancefloor twister release produced by Matteo Lago, Andrea Santini and Miky R, three DJs with more than e decade of experience behind the Booth. They are best known for their sweaty kinky party named Pandemonium that is soon becoming a record label as an output for their studio work.
"Make Some Changes" by Andrea Santini is a groovy hi-shuffled percussive track with a juicy acidic touch with an outbreak of good vibes and positive energy
"The Party Zone" by Matteo Lago is a killer cutting edge House track with an hypnotic synth, a full-bodied kick and sharp hi hats that lead straight into an anthemic 90s vocal hook
Miky R's techoid "Wild Flight' spreads elegant quirks rand clinks over a relentless sub bass and sophisticated uplifting Detroit-reminiscent chords.
Don't miss it! It's gonna make a Pandemonium!
zzzahara (They/Them) is the solo moniker of Eyedress/Simps/US Velvet
guitarist Zahara Jaime
Plenty of people come to Los Angeles looking to make their California dreams a
reality. But zzzahara has always been here, turning reality into a dream.
Attwood: "A feverish indie rock song drowning in intimate emotion and frenetic
energy, zzzahara's "they don't know" is a vulnerable and raw outpouring from the
heart."
Dummy: "An infectious indie rock number overflowing with emotion and frantic
energy, zzzahara's 'they don't know' is a clear statement of intent from a solo
artist coming into their own."
Paste: "…this single feels like something special."
Guardian: "Cantering through the gloaming with a blend of coldwave and early
Cure, the Los Angeles guitarist and songwriter banishes summer, to cheers from
neo-goths everywhere."
Samuel L Session and Van Czar drop a four-track techno EP on Unrilis that showcases a deeper and more hypnotic sound with dystopian atmosphere and driving percussion. Rino Cerrone launched the Unrilis record label over 15 years ago, and part of the label's back catalogue is its iconic Rilis series. 2022 sees the relaunch of the Rilis series that has a focus on underground DJ tools with raw analogue sounds. The Rilis series was originally launched in 1999, and was restricted to a concept on only 10 releases, each pressing a limited run of vinyl. It was hugely popular with each one often selling out in only a week and picking up DJ support by people ranging from Jeff Mills to Richie Hawtin. Those first 10 releases were focused on Rino Cerrone's own music, but since his retirement from the industry, the revitalised Rilis series will welcome other artists whose sound matches the label's underground concept.
This latest release in the Rilis series features collaborative tracks by Samuel L Session and Van Czar who have previously teamed up for releases on other imprints ranging from Marco Bailey's MB Elektronics to Ben Sims' Hardgrooves. Both are also successful solo artists, Sweden's Samuel L Session being well-known for his headline DJ sets at clubs around the world, along with the music he has released via iconic imprints such as Slam's Soma, Shlomi Aber's Be As One, Len Faki's Figure and Emmanuel's ARTS plus his own imprints SLS, Cycle, New Soil, and Klap Klap Belgium's Van Czar is also an accomplished DJ who is well-established across Europe and he has also released music on respected record labels ranging from Kevin Saunderson's KMS Records as well as the classic imprint, Yin Yang.
'Air Raid' opens the release with its eerie pads, spine-tingling melody loop and machine-driven percussion. It's got a raw aesthetic with dramatic claps and snare fills that add to the building suspense.
'18-022' is a dark and stripped back track with modulating synth textures layered with fast-flowing high-end percussion. Its pounding kick drum and clap rhythms add rigid structure to its expansive atmosphere and dance floor focused groove.
'Route 200' has thrashing cymbals punishing claps and rippling pads that create a stripped back groove submerged in deep atmosphere. Rich with analogue textures and gritty sound design, its relentless energy is tailor made for club sound systems.
'Objectivism' closes out the release with it's funky bassline and bleeping melody. Whirling textures and fluttering percussion maintain an unrelenting tension that's driven forward by the pounding kick drum.
As luck would have it, this seventh exclusive Deep Site Vinylized edition sees the pure class of Tojami Sessions (Dessous Recordings/Plastic City) with two stand out original tracks each offering remixes that contrast and compliment the full atmosphere of this release.
Falling (Original Mix) takes you on a late afternoon cruise filled with soft seductive whispers and a surprise percussion during the break. Falling (Manuel Sahagun Remix) adds more of a jazzy element, focus on inspiring words, and the laid back improvisation keep the groove flowing non-stop. Falling (Kessidis Remix) takes on a more mystical and minimal approach amidst modulating synths and the spoken words declaring what is to unfold. What Is Love (Original Mix) The extended intro and groovy bassline start this track off, bathing you in sunlight while the vocal samples splash over and refresh you creating a radiant joy. What Is Love (Deep Spelle Remix) layers some harder beats and an 808 bassline producing that contagious dancing feeling impossible to resist.
What Is Love (Funtom Remix) sends the track to high emotional levels with use of melody and dynamics making it a true anthem bound to leave its touch.
- A1: Chris Rock (Intro)
- A2: Life Is What You Make It
- A3: Live My Life (Feat Ashtin Martin)
- A4: Faithful (Feat Westside Gunn)
- A5: The Rear View
- A6: Godly (Feat Ashtin Martin)
- A7: Neva Settle (Feat Ashtin Martin & Dre)
- B1: Ouuu (Feat Stacy Epps)
- B2: Smoke Sumthin
- B3: The Wrong Thing (Feat Ashtin Martin)
- B4: Flying High (Feat Posdnuos)
- B5: The Man's Swift
- B6: The Scorn (Feat Kp)
- B7: Inertia
Fresh off the heels of 2021’s collaborative LP, Gotham from Talib Kweli and Diamond D, the BX icon returns with his sixth studio album, The Rear View. Comprised of 13 tracks, the album proves that without a shadow of a doubt, Diamond D’s reputation as the best producer on the mic remains unrivaled.
Never one to bogart the spotlight, Diamond is joined by a supporting cast of guest appearances that include Westside Gunn, Dre (Cool & Dre), Posdnuos (De La Soul), Ashtin Martin, Stacy Epps and KP, with a momentous introduction from the great Chris Rock. To boot, Diamond adds to the unblemished production value with additional board work from the likes of Nottz, Focus, D.R.U.G.S. Beats and Mr. Brady.
"I took my time crafting this LP to make sure every track could stand on its own as a possible single,” says Diamond. “Every feature and track was carefully selected from an elite group of artists and producers that I had the honor of working with. The end result is top tier bar work over pristine production,” he concludes.
Lined up next on Toolroom, we’re set to welcome the return of WEISS to the label 3 years after his last outing. Most known for his certified gold, 2018 smash-hit ‘Feel My Needs’, which received critical acclaim, topping 5 international music charts at #1, and earning DJ Mag’s ‘Best Of British Winner’ in 2018. WEISS himself has locked in an incredible collaboration with legendary Soul act The Jones Girls, using their classic record ‘You Gonna Make Me Love Somebody Else’ to create the club stomping cut that is, ‘I Need Some’.
A prolific DJ and producer, WEISS has released cuts on DIRTYBIRD, Universal, Island Records, D4 D4nce, Glitterbox and Toolroom along with remixing A-list artists including Kylie Minogue, Robyn, Calvin Harris, and Rag n Bone Man to name a few. When it comes to the House Music elite, Weiss is amongst some of the best there is, touring worldwide and sharing stages with Armand Van Helden, Todd Terry, and MK.
Of course, The Jones Girls are an act that needs no introduction, the legendary Philadelphia trio of sisters are the vocalists behind the classic Soul cuts ‘Nights Over Egypt’ and ‘Who Can I Run To’, released on the renowned Philadelphia International label.
Backing singers to both Aretha Franklin and Diana Ross during the 1970’s, The Jones Girls have left their mark on Music History and still influence artists and vocalists alike today.
With a passion for all things Soul, Disco and R&B, WEISS has officially fulfilled a childhood dream working with The Jones Girls to create ‘I Need Some’. This is a Disco House focused cut that pays homage to the original record ‘You Gonna Make Me Love Somebody Else’, whilst reinterpreting the sample and making it club ready for dance floors.
Into The Woods returns with ITW002 produced by none other than the Legendary underground hero, Swoy. Recently signed to the Into The Woods Artist Agency and Record Label - Swoy hands over 4 previously unreleased classics, heard on club dancefloors throughout the world over. The Fairytale EP consists of 4 dreamy and dramatic dancefloor smashers ready for any occasion.
Dies Lexic is a duo by Inês Tartaruga Água and Xavier Paes. Part of Favela Discos collective and label, they explore the channelling potentialities of sound, wandering between spectrums, ethereal soundscapes and zones of sonic subduction through means of DIY electro-acoustic instruments, amplified objects, electronics and composition processes based on repetition, language, chaosmosis and error.
Lexicon Hall, the long overdue debut album by the Portuguese duo of intrepid sound explorers, is a sort of digital ayahuasca, an intense psychedelic journey guided by drums and harshly bowed strings, channelling voices from other planes and fusing them with Dies Lexic’s very own distinctive voice. If you close your eyes hard enough you can probably see Tony Conrad waving hello in the middle of a dark jungle that is inhabited by tribes of our ancestors.
Artists bio:
Inês Tartaruga Água is a multidisciplinary artist, focused on the issues of deep ecology and radical regeneration, sound explorer and practitioner of DIY philosophy as well as collaborative and participatory practices in public space. Participates in collective exhibitions since 2013, highlighting the “XIII International Biennial of Artistic Ceramics” (Aveiro, 2017), “Убежище / Suoja / Shelter Festival - Laboratory” (Helsinki, 2019), «48 часов Новосибирск» (Siberia, 2019), or “Soundscapes” (Bahrain, 2019), and has her first individual artistic residency “Méhtēr: Matter, Form and Transformation” at Júlio Dinis Museum in Ovar (2018). Recently, Água has debuted sound pieces in Casa de Serralves (Porto, 2021) and in Casa das Conchas (Spain, 2021).
Xavier Paes is a transdisciplinary artist based in Porto. He divides his practice between visual arts, sound, performance, gleaning improvisation and multi-instrumentalism, focusing on ideas such as acoustic phenomena, repetition, resonant and sympathetic bodies, echo and ecology. He has presented his work at institutions, galleries, festivals, kiosks, raves and after-parties, highlighting places such as Serralves Museum, Oliva Arts Center, Porto Municipal Gallery, Stichting Centrum (The Hague), OCCII and Vondelbunker (Amsterdam), La Pointe Lafayette and L'international (Paris), STUK (Louven), Overtoon (Brussels) and Villa Arson (Nice).
Flexi Cuts is pleased to introduce Lazy Snail's new EP, Lucky Life. A truly valuable work, the result of time and research, where Alessandro (aka Lazy Snail) wanted to explore different sides of electronic music of an inner and mature nature at the same time.
Lucky Life is like going up to the attic and finding something precious to take care of; it sums up a long musical journey, from the past to the present, in five tracks full of meaning.
The first track, Remèrcier, is a tribute to 'dance' music, an intense talk over a hypnotic moog bass.
This is followed by Vagrants, dedicated to his hometown (Cudgnola), where we find an 808 rhythmic patterns as involving and beating as a walk in the rain.
The B-side opens with One Place, which features a vocal stunning collaboration with Flicker Fox, who brings the track into a techno universe with percussion and intimate echoes.
Climbin' High was inspired by Alessandro's passion and admiration for the mountains. He composed it imagining an extreme climb, and immediately afterwards an equally dangerous but necessary descent. Just like in reality.
The record ends with No Evil, an ambient-flavoured gem that opens on the climax in a riot of expert snares and synths.
Everyone’s favourite Israeli digger is back for another round of gloriously rare edit heat on RNT!
‘Baila’ gets the party started with infectious flamenco chants and claps over a churning acidic groove, and ‘Disco Hummus’ rounds out the side with a bit of joyful disco cheek.
On the flip, ‘Sun’ turns an unlikely cover of a classic into an Afro Disco banger, and ‘Simba’ rumbles and rolls with restraint toward a hypnotic peak of brass and vocals.
Elado has done it again…Mazel Tov!
Nearly 10 years on since his last solo LP, Berlin techno icon Marcel Dettmann arrives on Dekmantel with an expansive album captured in a flash of inspiration.
In many ways Fear Of Programming is a reflection on the artistic process – the critical hurdles one has to overcome, the constant strive for originality, the ability to capture inspiration in its pure moment of inception. Bar the closing title track (and we all know Marcel loves a surprise closing), these 13 tracks came together during a period in which our hirsute host was able to immerse himself in studio practice and set the intention to record an album’s worth of material every single day. From the resulting mass of work there were many options to choose from, and Fear Of Programming stood out as one of the most complete statements on Dettmann’s approach in the here and now.
Unconcerned with an overarching concept, it was the work in the studio which drove the musical direction. No labouring over knotty arrangements, no painstaking mix downs – just honest expression, a moment caught, a groove locked, a stroke of synth sent pirouetting over a cavernous bed of texture. The results are varied, and while you might well hear plenty of bruising machinations in line with the techno Dettmann has made his name on, there are plenty of other shades expressed across the album.
Ambient sojourns, beatless epics and angular electronica have equal footing with strident, floor-friendly workouts. Standout piece ‘Water’ offers an icy ballet of swinging minimal and drip-drop melodics fronted by Ryan Elliott on lesser-spotted vocal duties, urging, ‘give me a sign, just a little something to let me know that you’re mine’. It’s playful, but still underpinned with the sincerity that comes with Dettmann’s work.
Running on instinct, Dettmann presents an honest version of himself in the here and now, speaking through the sonics and not over-thinking the results. His decades of experience helming a thousand techno parties speak for themselves, while his evolution as a musical entity through collaboration and his own BAD MANNERS label demonstrate his appetite for change. Indeed, the working method which resulted in the album also spurred him on to create a live set beyond his well-established DJ practice. Without resorting to a conceited overhaul, Fear Of Programming opens up the idea of what Dettmann represents in the modern techno landscape.
Finger Prince recordings debut with the ‘Make U Feel Project’
A four tracker with the same assignment handed to four artists including some of the original Music For Freaks and Classic Music Company recording artists.
The first release is a close-knit affair with Lil’Mark handing out the project to who he regards as three close family members. No brief was given with the material so that all versions were unique. No spoilers either.
First up on side A, Mark provides a true groove with the swing he’s renowned for. Chords, catchy muting, stabs of vocal and a heavy rolling bassline sets the scene. Straight up house.
Track 2 is from Pale People who takes a great dub approach looping the bass and keys beneath the Vox adding tight percussion reminiscent of his Phonic Crunch collab’s with Mark. After a long hiatus it's great to have him back.
Side B Track 1 comes from Rob Mello doing his ’No Ears’ spectacular. It’s the Classic No Ears sound making great use of original elements and sounding fantastic as always.
Belgium’s export to Ibiza Bart Ricardo gets the final say on track 2. Taking it deeper Bart brings stretched chords into focus over a HEAVY kick and big bottom end. This track has a relentless groove with some well executed breaks.




















