“Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless – like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.” The steadily brilliant French producer Nathan Melja – who’s made the rounds between choice outlets over the past half decade, from Mister Saturday Nights to Antinote, via Ninja Tune offshoot Technicolour and Opal Tapes, seems to have learnt Bruce Lee’s lesson by heart, and his seamlessly fluid, no-nonsense debut foray on K.O.C. is here to potently cement his status as one of Europe’s number one club trailblazers, and one that knows all too well how to turn any dancefloor into an infinity pool of pure liquid euphoria.
Drawing its name from the physiological and psychological process that results in a confusion of one’s sensory perceptions, ‘Synesthesia’ is indeed the kind of club single that shall trigger off massive reaction amongst right-minded bipeds and chromakey house suckers. Straightforward club business done right, Melja’s original is a vivid kaleidoscope of skittish drums, swampy bass stabs and a well-rounded, supremely curvy synthwork, tailored to take ravers on a flash journey through space and time without the help of Richard Branson or Elon Tusk (pun intended).
Called in on remix duty, TTT affiliate and Incienso co-founder Anthony Naples delivers a more fragmented and ambientish variation, though functional and club-ready in its own right. Brushing even wider verbed-out pad tapestries for your brain to wander in, the track expands to deeper organic horizons with a field-depth that can not but recall that of the KLF and Bochum Welt’s emotional soundscaping. Meanwhile, Karenn half Pariah takes care of whelming us deep into more techno-friendly terrains, true to his ever masterly touch for epic buildups and multi-level textural innovation, bringing up the acidic phlegm of Melja’s original as he treats us to a carefully orchestrated ballet of synthetic whorls, contemplative chords and propulsive drum programming.
Adam Curtain & Bobby. return with their EXTRA TERRESTRIAL alias, bringing three tracks of interstellar dancefloor wonk. Expect electro, techno and broken beats all written at Mission Control - Devon Analogue Studios.
A re-issue and remaster of another classic from the Cross Section stable on vinyl due to public demand. “Rush N Soul” is a certified anthem in Detroit since it’s first release in 1997 on his Active X-TraX ep and has been supported by the likes of Derrick Carter, DJ Sneak, Honey Dijon (BBC Radio1’s Residency) Mark Knight (Toolroom Radio), Mike Huckaby, Junior Sanchez, plus a host of other House Music heavy hitters!
On the flip is a brand new production from Chris, “Do What You Like”, displaying his continued passion for music production, pushing boundaries and taking risks. This track is definitely delivering attitude, and following no trends!
This release is a part of a series of releases forthcoming to celebrate 25 years of Cross Section which has been a constant giver and inspirational label for the real House heads across the globe!
Deep Heads are proud to present ‘Hope & Light’ - The Remixes by Zeb Samuels. Pressed on beautiful, clear 12inch Vinyl with full colour sleeve and with remixes from some amazing artists from around the globe.
On the A1 cut is none other than Om Unit, who flips the original of the track ‘Hold on’. Mr Unit takes the original Piano hook and puts some serious weight behind the drums and baselines to give this remix a classy drum & bass twist. The remix contains a very distinct Om Unit flavour and is a collaboration of the highest order.
For the A2 cut is a Deep Heads favourite, Nottingham due Congi. Congi have stripped back the vocals for their remix and added their signature sound. The beat work is remarkable and all round production is impressive. A fantastic display of what these 2 talented producers are all about.
Then on the flip side and for the B1 is the one and only Ash Walker, with his interpretation on the track ‘Stars Glow’. Ash pitches down the original vocal and takes this remix somewhere far away from this planet. It’s gritty, twisted and bursting at the seems with low frequencies.
The beats and hard and punchy and is certainly one for the sound system crew. Finally for the B2 side is LA based producer Feverkin. We’ve had our ear on this talented man for a while, so is a honour to have him giving us some of his Feverkin flavour. His remix of ‘Night Wave’ is exactly what we were expecting from him and does not disappoint. He adds some signature 2step beats and sounds that can only be described as Feverkin, but keeps some of the original energy and mainly vocals for this incredible remix.
Little information about the reign of Osiris appears in Egyptian sources; the focus is on his death and the events that follow. The murder itself is frequently alluded to, but never clearly described. The Egyptians believed that written words had the power to affect reality, so they avoided writing directly about profoundly negative events. Osiris is connected with life-giving power, righteous kingship, and the rule of Maat the ideal natural order whose maintenance was a fundamental goal in ancient Egyptian culture.
Cardopusher lands on Mechatronica's White series with a violent mesh of EBM, electro, industrial, techno and unearthly ambience, impaled with sonic truths and programmed for mass feeding. A menacing antidote to these deceitful times. No repress.
Pressure Dome welcome in the new year with their second vinyl direct from the test-bed, a split EP showcasing two rhythmically focused beat-architects; Joe Craven and Human Resources.
Following a head-turning debut release on Scuffed Recordings, Joe Craven delivers two more imaginatively designed polyrhythmic workouts. Airy, distant pads and delicate percussion roll over driving kicks, giving ‘Hurt Potential’ its detailed futuristic landscape while ‘Dyeus’, with its high tempo distorted breaks, chopped vocals and distant piano riffs takes us to an altogether more abstract space.
On the flip, Human Resources takes us forward in his own singular style with the thunderous ‘Shaq Stem Edit’, combining cymbal heavy breaks, huge subs and prodigy like bass leads that mutate with club-shattering velocity, and on to ‘At Tanagra’, where pitching leads and sporadic, wonky mid basslines hold a tough, yet mysterious energy and drive.
Both enter the Dome with their individual technical form, the perfect additions to our collective of phonic explorers.
Brooklyn’s finest FaltyDL debuts on Studio Barnhus with two slices of lovestruck rave classicism. Flechazo steadily builds a shifty groove before eur(o)pting into lavish synth themes, New Lover gets straight to the point with razor-cut breakbeats and showstopping sub-bass. Cupid’s ammo for all the deadeye deejays out there!
Frosty… 4 ice cold trax from Toby Smith AKA Tobias Schmidt and 1/2 of Sugar Experiment Station. Following the release of the new EP by SES alongside Neil Landstrumm who coincidentally designed the sleeve for this record as well, comes the “Arctic E.P.” Jacking Detroit Techno meets footwork on these 150 BPM plus hitters. Get your party started or send everyone home with this rave gear. Not a lot is known about Toby Smith and we at BBR like the mystery. Let these tracks tell you everything you need to know about the myth that is the… Secret State.
The mighty Truncate crash lands on Catz n’ Dogz’ Pets imprint with two outstanding slabs of forthright techno tension. His first full single for the label, Truncate was last spotted aboard remixing KiNK way back in 2015. Now he’s making up for lost time, thumping away relentlessly like two old mates who haven’t caught up with each other in years.
‘Pressure’ takes the lead. Bouncy, stripped-back, pounding and riddled with Ovum-level acidic funk, once you’re locked into Truncate’s loopy hypnosis, you may never escape. ‘Level Up’ does exactly what its title suggests, too. Total rolling thunder with builds upon builds, there’s a sense of momentum that elevates at every twist.
And if that’s not enough, Unknown 2 The Unknown bossman and fusionist king DJ Haus gets involved with some prime remix real estate. Buckle up friends, the pressure is only just beginning to rise…
DJ Haus drops the last UTTU release of 2019 with Modul8 - a slamming techno-house clone backed with a remix from ItaloJohnson! On the flip Jak Beat an IDM-Houz infused DJ tool gets the remix treatment from Spandau 20’s Nikk who recently turned heads with his incredible split EP with FJAAK. Tek Houz - a glitch house groover co-produced by Marquis Hawkes wraps up the EP of cold DJ kutz for House & Techno DJs alike.
A meditation on the current political climate in the United States, “Raise” sits somewhere between 90s techno, NY house, and the hybridized warehouse bangers of the future. Urgent vocals call out to “raise your voice and speak” while hard-hitting drums, booming bass, and an elastic acid line coincide to illustrate the paramount importance of addressing societal complexities and working to enact tangible change. Plus it bangs.
“Anxiety” takes on an ever- present aspect of modern life. With distressed-yet-proud vocals, crunchy drums, icy synth stabs, and swinging hats, this track fuses Chicago and NY house influences into a claustrophobic yet contagious anthem. Simply put, “Anxiety” captures a paradoxical feeling that is all too familiar in 2019.
London based DJ, producer, and Holding Hands label boss Desert Sound Colony turns to Moxie’s On Loop imprint for the sprightly Can Can Wingspan EP. Featuring three dynamic and experimental club tracks, the EP channels the same raw energy and excitement that typifies On Loop’s infamous touring club nights.
Opening cut ‘Can Can Wingspan’ is a fiery garage-indebted, dancefloor focused track, loaded with explosive breakbeats, bubbling synths, and a throbbing low end. ‘Mox Diamond’ is an up-tempo house gem featuring clattering percussion, seductive whispers, and infectious keys. Closing track ‘Zoom To Your Doom’ is a tripped-out experimental jam with hallucinatory vocal samples, jacking snares, and kaleidoscopic synth splutters.
Second release of greta wohlfahrt. three tracks of post-techno lucidity in sound on 33,3 rpm black vinyl find their way to a noisy surface of modern worlds decay. first track „jargon der eigentlichkeit“ is a 12 minutes long growing journey into the acid electro continuum, evolving from halftime to a 4/4 beat and runs out into particles of a dying handclap. on the flipside „-„ is a dark melody synth track mostly made with soviet synth faemi-1m and „ausweichquartiere“ a more uptempo post-techno and new-wave punk track with a more live performance feeling and wild structure.
Greta wohlfahrt is both the labels name as it is the name of an unknown, invisible collective of electronic flâneurs and boulevardiers.
London’s Will Hofbauer has been steadily making a name for himself in the UK capital over the past few years via his own Third Place Records and Co-Select, an event series he runs alongside his collective with a focus on gender equality in DJ Culture, curating back to back sets with a balanced representation. Here we see Will mark a new milestone in his career with his production debut via New York’s HOMAGE Records, while hotly tipped producer and DJ Desert Sound Colony steps in on remix duties, known for his material on labels such as Scissor & Thread, Me Me Me, Futureboogie and of course his own Holding Hands.
The original mix of ‘Caned’ leads the release, laid out over six minutes with crunchy off- kilter drums, gritty disorted bass tones and wandering arpeggios all dynamically unfolding and evolving throughout. The Desert Sound Colony Remix follows next (seeing early support in from Bradley Zero, Gilles Peterson and Tristan Da Cunha), the fellow London-based artist stamps his own mark on things with a UKG tinged vibe via heavily swung drums, heady synth flutters and a menacing bass line all weaved together amongst the shuffled groove.
‘Whiplash’ follows next, fusing choppy amen breaks and bumpy broken drums alongside bubbling synths and an infectious vocal hook before ‘Rocks Off’ rounds out the release, this time round embracing a raw 4/4 approach rhythmically while a stab- led bass line, vacillating resonant synths and airy string sequences further fuel the murky, hypnotic groove.
a1. Will Hofbauer - Caned
a2. Will Hofbauer - Caned (Desert Sound Colony Remix)
Hearse return with their second output and is worth the wait. Dutchman Cosmic Force kicks off the A side with Suckers Divide, a brutal slice of vocodered darkness only he can do. Bulgarian industrialist MANASYt makes a welcome return after a few years off with his track Sister Ping sounding like hornets on acid ready to attack. Tobias Schmidt adopts his Secret State alias for the B side with his anthemic Dominant Narrative, fast paced and derranged machine madness. Brassica finishes the ep off with 0898666420, an electro psychedelia vocoder drum ensemble. Think cylob on mushrooms and you’re almost there.
Again it comes in a beautiful screen printed sleeve. 300 for the world. Don’t sleep.
“Digital native. Noun. A person born or brought up during the age of digital technology and so familiar with computers and the Internet from an early age.”
Prime handler of comet powder-fuelled floor heroics for the sun-dazed hours, Melbourne’s Escape Artist made quite the impression with his previous pair of EPs for Salt Mines and much enticing debut tape album for Couch Acid Recordings. Turning up on Kalahari Oyster Cult with his anticipated third outing, ‘Digital Natives’, the Aussie producer pulls out a quartet of old-school ravey pumpers, rife with the usual pack of patented Escape Artist tropes. Kalahari’s 19th oyster is sure to get dancers wading knee-deep in their own sweat as EA takes care of whooshing us off to dreamier Utopian heights in one smooth movement.
Cutting a path of cyber-organic fascination, ‘Another World’ flies us straight off to fantasized tropics where warm swashes of bleached-out pads and roguish acid froth languidly lap at convulsive ridges of breaks-riddled drum programming. Taking the original for a dive into swampy, Chain Reaction’esque depths, Canadian techno deconstructivist Flørist offers a moment of calm before the B-side’s storm.
An all-out dynamic affair, ‘Digital Natives’ cranks up the heat a notch further with its heavy alloy of propulsive electro and ankle-breaking rhythmic outbursts, which shall wreak absolute havoc no matter the hour or place. Rounding off the trip on a jazzy, laid-back after party vibe, ‘Inner City Pressure’ is a vivid mix-&-match of junglistic engineering and ethereal house-ism; a most spitting sum-up of Escape Artist’s playful and versatile approach toward production. Roll the dices and brace yourself, this is some massive magic at work right here.
For their ninth record TRUSIK enlists the German producer bhed whose long form constructions blend ambient, dub, techno, and dubstep into forms that stretch each genre’s signifiers to their breaking points.
The monumental opener “eighteenhundred” melds sun-drenched synth work onto a meandering rhythm that gives way to a dub techno influenced beat that morphs into a jittering whirr of glitch-like percussive brushstrokes and serpentine sub weight.
Title track “apatheia” harkens back to ’08 Peverelist with a strident march and groovy Jamaican bass weight as the mixing board comes alive with fading guitar chops that encircle themselves like an ouroboros.
Lastly, “east” is a loose homage to Augustus Pablo’s mystical “East of the River Nile” with a cloudy fog of one-drop rim shots echoing into infinity and a steppa’s amble.
As with label mates Tremble and Zygos, Ben LaDieu is called upon once more to grace TRSK009 with his dense, hallucinogenic artwork that melds the mundane and surreal.
Maelstrom links up with DeFeKT and Berlin syndicate Mechatronica, to deliver four bloodcurdling electro and techno cuts for the floor, forcefully designed to activate bodies and transport minds. Not for the faint hearted.
Nathan Micay is pleased to present the next re-issue on Eternal Schvitz: Aaron Palmquist - Cohesion EP. As a mainstay of the Canadian underground rave scene during the 90’s, Aaron (aka Chameleon) performed live at legendary Toronto parties such as Exodus, Chemistry and Pleasure Force. Using an assortment of gear including two TB303’s, a TR909 and 808 drum machine, he was able to road test a number of originals, eventually leading to an EP in 1997 on Solo Recoridings. Now, 22 years later, these amazing tunes can live again, completely re-mastred from previously lost DAT tapes along with a brand new 2019 remix of ‘Dreamtime’. As always, Schvitz gives back. To fight the evil no-ID-DJ forces currently at work, every Eternal Schvitz release will be providing 60% of the cut to the artists and ensuring their credits are front and centre. The remaining 40% of profits will go to aequa, a Berlin-based collective with a focus on empowerment of women, trans and non- binary folks through gatherings for interpersonal exchange. Schvitz is Love. Schvitz is Communal.
a1. Aaron Palmquist - Beautiful
a2. Aaron Palmquist - Dreamtime
b1. Aaron Palmquist - House People (Chameleon Remix)
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