The Unearthed Sounds crew members have compiled their weekly picks containing collectively, in no particular order, our favourite tracks/releases of the week.
Here are the selections individually from the crew:
Koralle and Kuranes are two of the most inspiring and successful beat makers from Italy. As it happens, they are both from Bologna and they have been friends for a long time. Strangely enough they never did music together until now! "Beat Kiosk" is their frst joint album. Here they are treating us with 19 jazz-induced instrumentals with an Italien touch. Perfect for hip-hop heads, jazz cats and coffee lovers alike. If you are wondering what a "Beat Kiosk" is, here is the background story as told by Koralle & Kuranes: "Both of us were born in Romagna, a region in northern Italy well known for its high quality food traditions. If you'll ever visit it, driving around from the seaside to the hinterland, you can easily spot on any roadside these cool little kiosks, mostly painted in red/white or green/white stripes, where you can stop by and order some "piadina": a thin ?atbread, normally flled with ham, cheese or vegetables. It's just the most iconic street food, typical of this part of Italy. With this in mind, we would like to invite you to our very own Beat Kiosk, where you can sit and chill with your warm piadina and a cold beer while we are cooking beats and spinning some records for you. Let's get this party started right!" The kongenial artwork comes from Colombian illustrator SagaUno who was also responsible for the The Silhouettes Project artwork. Koralle has released two albums on Melting Pot Music that accumulated over 14 Mio. streams. Kuranes discography contains 9 albums and 14 EP's.
Twisting junglisms into irregular shapes since 2017, Manchester’s pride and joy Alex Lowther-Harris brings Thugwidow to Sneaker Social for a ruff yet refreshing ride through the rave. No doubt his skin in the game reaches back further than his first recorded output, but just trying to get a handle on his released catalogue is work enough. In 2019 alone he released no less than six albums and three EPs, laying down immense slabs of material on tapes as much as wax. As well as coursing through the dense undergrowth of the cassette scene, his 12”s have appeared on labels like Western Lore, Warehouse Rave and Astral Black, and he’s collaborated with Dead Man’s Chest and Bruised Skies.
Make no mistake, this is hardcore-rooted music, but it feels closer in spirit to that ill-defined period before scenes became delineated and tribal. All the ingredients are there, but Lowther-Harris teases them, fires them off at funny angles or flips them on their head. ‘Post Modern Assault Ethics’ maintains a sparse, restrained demeanour throughout even as the diva vocal slices ping endlessly through the mix and the bass wobbles away underneath. ‘Invisible Shell Of Energy’ juggles lesser-spotted breaks through a cloud of downcast pads, only to trip over and open the filter up on the loose and funky bassline at the final stretch. ‘The Sacrifice’ turns the break damage up, but keeps the moody vibe front and centre, and ‘The Voices Beneath The Earth’ wraps things up with a heavy-hearted belter that runs the risk of achieving anthemic status.
For all the snappy programming, crisp edits and artful low end, it’s the pervading sense of emotional depth which makes Thugwidow such a powerful presence in the contemporary jungle scene. Pairing those all-consuming moods with his non-standard structures, you’ve got exactly the kind of renegade we love to carry here at Sneaker.
Mancunian genre-bender Interplanetary Criminal comes back for more on Shall Not Fade sublabel Time Is Now; In My Arms EP makes his third full release on the imprint. This time round, he shares four carefree rave-influenced garage pieces topped off with a rolling drum and bass remix from breakbeat master Coco Bryce.
Much like his previous releases - spanning Time Is Now, Sneaker Social Club, Banoffee Pies and more - these tracks feel mildly tongue-in-cheek. The upbeat title track is skippy, summery garage that adds a twist of organ to add some playful flavour. "Momofuku" utilises cartoon-villain vocal samples for a similar effect, multilayered and crackling with ear candy but with a deep bass that builds through the rest of the record.
Into the B-side, "Opulence" focuses on this darker edge, echoing and growling with a sub bass that begs to be blasted through a towering sound system. "Let Loose" caps off the record in style, a rattling snare giving way to large house stabs that glimmer over swells of bass - a hands-in-the-air rave track.
Coco Bryce's reimagining of the title track sees it transformed into a deep and gritty drum and bass roller with a drop as powerful as a gunshot.
a1. Interplanetary Criminal - In My Arms
a2. Interplanetary Criminal - Momofuku
b1. Interplanetary Criminal - Opulence
b2. Interplanetary Criminal - Let Loose
b3. Interplanetary Criminal - In My Arms (Coco Bryce remix)
Burial + Four Tet + Thom Yorke – Her Revolution / His Rope
Mark System's first solo release on Metalheadz comes in the form of two exceptional pieces of drum and bass for the 4th instalment of the 25 Years series.
Based in Ibiza, Mark's only past contribution to the label is a singular remix but it's always seemed inevitable he would one day have his own Metalheadz release. He has been described as somebody who has "impeccably honed his sound", a sound that is distinctively mature, naturally unique and highly emotive, all of which are as recognisable as ever across these two tracks.
a1. Wanna Dance b1. On Top
Various Artists - PNP 001 [Green 12" Vinyl Repress]
After it's sucess back in 2017, the debut 4 track compilation from PNP is back, this time on transparent green vinyl. Here they combine instantly recognisable edits with dance floor ready funk. Fede Lng is up first with his interpretation of the 1979 Leon Ware classic and, while there have been many an edit of this track over the years, we’re confident in calling this our favourite. Jessu Bru delivers a hard hitting stomper utilising that 909 to full effect as the title suggests. Deejay Astral delivers a track with great closed-hats and sleek vocals in ‘Say Yes’; it was this track that brought our attention to this project originally and the rest of it hasn’t disappointed. Finally, Nostalgia weighs in with a gorgeous sample heavy piece which satisfies all our disco needs and then some. Highly anticipated repress by us here!
Coco Bryce dons his DJ Y alias for his debut on Unknown To The Unknown’s Dance Trax series - 3 tracks of "off the wall” breakbeat-electronix taking in everything from gabber, jungle & tekno.
a1. DJ Y - Modern Wank
b1. DJ Y - Gutter Funk
b2. DJ Y - High Life
Demegy & Lui - Raumwerk EP [Dark Black & Gold Marbled 12" Vinyl w/ Gold-Sprinkled Sleeves]
Aeons ago, mysterious cryptic transmissions were sent from Alpha Cutauri. A team of subversive cyantists from Leipzig were finally able to decipher a new chapter onto polyvinyl chloride.
Examiner LUI came up with rave-o-lutionary methods which have been executed at the low frequency laboratory of doctor Demegy. Finally a secret gold dust ingredient was added to the audio code and it was pressed successfully as the tenth disc on LXC's record label. Flying high at the top spot for such high resolution sound objects.
It is proudly released to the public under the name of Raumwerk EP, holding various uptempo BPM while keeping up sparseness and depth. Some pieces are served straight to the point with pure Drum'n'Bass, others are spiced up with Autonomic cheese flavour one simply can't resist.
Klaustrophon opens wilful and vivid by diving deep into the imaginary space version of a syncopathic Mariana Trench, exploring jittering light beams of plasma clouds inside the frontal lobe.
Stolpergeist spins a yarn about a dramatically failed experimental lifeform, half liquid, half solid rock. Slurp by slurp it was able to escape and still slumps its way through the jellaxy slipping happily even after.
Flächenromantik was field-recorded on a slow-motion moon witnessing solar flares of an innumerable multi-sun solar system. Every bar holds one warm and light autonomic sunset, really romantic synth pads, fluffy bass and a beat like Swiss clockwork, so that every click turns into a microfunky eclipse. Synthoskop is an astronomic showdown on a stone-cold paddock pond. A fascinating piece documenting the skweeekings during impassioned mating of three Cutaurian Gurglers.