Lobster Theremin presents the label’s inaugural full-length: a double LP from rising Chicago native Chicago Jim. Having cut his teeth in the Windy City—first on the electro clash appearing on labels like Ersatz Audio and Ghost Arcade, and later championing Trax Records as part of Vancouver’s recent house renaissance—Jim’s synthtopian tales of old-school Chicago and the birth of house music are a genuine reflection of a talent re a genuine reflection of a talent rarely seen at the helm of records in the post-00's.
Dutch DJ and producer Coco Bryce makes his anticipated return to Lobster Theremin with another stellar EP of breakbeat-heavy jungle goodness.
Hailing from Breda, Netherlands Coco Bryce is an artist who cemented his way into every vinyl lovers bag over the past few years, time and time again delivering killer records with his own unique take on jungle and breakbeat. Bryce’s sound blends classic jungle breaks with dreamy synth patterns and clever sampling creating a truly original signature take on the genre. At once old school yet so achingly fresh and exciting.
The second Lobster Theremin white label comes from the mysterious Australian producer, Daze. Making his release debut with four original tracks, Daze covers varying strains of tough melodic house, ferocious acid and old school breakbeat, taking us on an experiential journey into the heart of British rave culture via Detroit-influenced electro and rough and ready tape jams.
Taking a purely scorched-earth approach to production, Longhorn finds Daze on typically reverent but ever-more pounding form. Pushing the limits of acceptable lo-fi techno and crushing everything underfoot into one bass-addled debris-strewn mush.
Daze follows up his seminal 'Lips' white label with a huge three-track EP for the core Lobster Theremin label. Traversing a bastardised series of themes that sees Jersey house blended with overdriven rave, tinker-toy acid lines slicing through shrouded doom techno and chattering hip-hop loops rolling over classic breakbeat house.
Sheffield production // DJ trio Denham Audio , make their Lobster Theremin debut with an incredible 5 tracker of breaks and bass, backed with a club fuelled remix from Lobster family regular Maruwa. EP opener ‘Feel The Panic’ sets the pace, crunchy drums with scorching acid basslines and old rave esque vocal hooks, merging into a dancefloor driven weapon.
‘Volt’ injects a punch, chopped up drum sequences with floating vocals and pulsating synth lines, one for the early hours of the dance. On the flip side Denham Audio leads with a drum driven roller ‘Bobby Wobbler’, breaks and beats soar and transform into a weighty number.
‘Check 1’ blends classic rave esque sound pallets with punchy kick drums and clean, crisp synth lines. Maruwa’s remix of ‘Check 1’ showcases her incredible ability to create productions destined to do the business in the clubs, hands in the air pads play gracefully with the drum elements from the original production. This one is for the ravers.
After a tropical storm powered by gaming-vengeance battered the long lost Secret Island, our young protagonist DJ Sonikku - ruffled but not deterred, having drifted for months on a bird-nested raft - finds himself landing on the shores of New York City. Megadrive chip intact, mates along for the ride, and a half century of electronic heritage soaked up in a flash - All My Friends is the culmination of Sonikku's mental and spiritual journey into his own version of a hyperreal NYC.
Brutalist techno beat-down from the heart of the Canary Islands, Gilmer Galibard finally comes through with a massive techno four-tracker for the LT Black Label series. Showcasing a rugged production style, GG manages to simultaneously sound like a palm tree-crushing bulldozer whilst keeping the rhythms and grooves undulating under booted foot.
Drifting as a snow-smattered cloud from The North, breathing icy winds crackling with the splinters of crystal water and effervescent dust, Hedge Maze returns to the Lobster Theremin fold with four gently glowing tracks-from-the-hut that span crunchy house, hotel elevator ambient, deep-sea techno and skittering percussive drone.
Sand-blasted productions that curdle and bake with the treatment of valve-driven machinery, steadily condensing ideas on a window pane in Todmorden.
Both Kerb Hits and Hyowl tread familiar Hedge Maze territory; coated in hazy noise, rumbling along in a hap-hazardous late night stagger and drawing melodic elements from the radiance of passing street lamps.
Ourca finds Hedge Maze in mask and flippers, diving below the light and into the darkness of the Pacific where only the blue and killer whales reside. Calling out from the void and feeding the racing heartbeat of the terrified and wondered observer.
Interlude is the closing masterpiece. An elevator refrain heard a thousand times reimagined for end-of-the-night slow dance usage. A club-cleanse born out of an opposing idea. Swaying as one or as two or as three or more. The curtain drawing on the final act.
Lobster Theremin finally welcome back one of the original LT fam, with Imre Kiss taking the reigns for a full on raw-power white label.
With two lucid and hazy releases for LT in his wake, plus an excellent contribution to the Proto Sites catalogue, Imre finally returns with a rough and overdriven in-the-dance EP of floor-crushing fire.
Never is an up-tempo late-night stomp from the night bus exit through dark estate alleys, dogs barking into the long night, soundtracked by percussive late night synth meddling and rumpeting drum patterns that shift and shake.
Taking a lower slung approach, Stateless is a hard-welded fusion of Detroit techno pads and 2-step bass heavy throbs. Absolute cracked-speaker material and one that wouldn't be out of place in a 2010 London basement.
Taking the flip-side solo, Untitled closes out the EP in destructive style, showcasing the heaviest and more crushing side of Imre's productions. The eerie caressing flanger sets the unnerving tone, slowly oscillating over crunched-up kicks. Another massive blown-out bass-line precedes a creepy vocal whisper and more mid-heavy percussive artefacts that crackle and snap a wavy, drifting pad that lingers it's way anonymously into the mix.
Lobster Theremin present the vinyl debut of yet another talent in the shape of Budapest's Imre Kiss. Born with a cosmic identity that sees his sound referencing everyone from 80's film composers through to The Hague sound of Legowelt and Orgue Electronique, Imre manages to squeeze every ounce out of the every sound he uses whilst simultaneously absorbing the user into another world.
nthng returns with a mysterious white label hint at the near future.. A very special hand-stamped vinyl sampler containing two tracks from his forthcoming 3LP album on Lobster Theremin plus the long-awaited remastered release of Untitled (Human Pt. II). Effusive, ambient techno shrouded in a warm melancholy haze.
The first Lobster Theremin EP of 2015 comes from London-based newcomer and hazologist, Ozel AB. Striking a distinct tone with his lucid day-dreamer pads, blown-out MPC drums and Werkdiscs-inspired weirdness, this debut release is the missing piece in the final core artist tapestry of the London-based label.
The Lobster white label series finally gets back into gear with a sublime five-track scorcher from core London member Luke Palmer aka Ozel AB.
After firing some deafening shots with last year's Crimes EP - which burrowed deep into some seriously trippy and journey'd house, techno and acid -Valis sees Palmer develop those evolving arrangement ideas across five very different soundboards that bring his signature brain-fuzzed deepness, rubbery acid and dubbed-out sound design to the fore.
Allejo is the morphing club slayer, built on a stack of crystalline synths that slowly breakaway into a gutter full of tumbling basslines and shuttered chord stabs. Proper heat that's been battered by the LT fam since early last year.
Down The Cut is a deep and mysterious cut, channeling Palmer's knack for paranoid atmospheres and suspended tension into a cloak 'n' dagger style spy pursuit. All moving shadows and shifting figures under late night lamp light.
Built around a bubbling and squelching synth loop, Glow is the central ambient skit providing a pivot point and gateway to the flip-side of the EP, where live favourite and full extended jam Stoosh 95 opens proceedings. Almost a forgotten 90's classic - if it wasn't pitched down to a dragging, groove-soaked tempo - this is Ozel AB in his most dangerous state. Forever building layers of grooves and percussive teasing, punctuated by small spoken word whispers and ending in utter euphoric bliss from the lush, sun-gleaned synths to the chopped vocal wails. File under big time room-crusher.
Then rounding out the proceedings is the prickly Needler. Broken air con-esque blasts of foggy noise crash over a camel-humped bass-line and more late night contemplative pad work, which does a full about turn into a final minute of hazy London garage. Another little surprise to keep the toes tickled 'til next time.
Berlin-based producer Palms Trax offers up the inaugural release for new imprint Lobster Theremin with three slices of Detroit and Chicago-inspired house.
Cheeky, groove-heavy "Late Jam", referencing the randier sides of Miami boogie and glitter funk, "Equation", an original Detroit cut, and "Houses In Motion", a percussive, balearic-tinged jam nodding to early Drumpoet Community, comprise the EP's three original tracks. Willie Burns turns in a spacey remix of the EP's opener that hits like an early 80's drum jam, flipping between off-kilter, warped synths and stripped-down, hammering Chicago house.
Panthera Krause joins the Lobster Theremin stable with a mid-summer trip into the heart of the sun. Drawing on a plethora of classic house influences, Krause weaves these into a style which is a at once recognisable yet uniquely his own, production-wise drawing as much from the MPC-led West Coast beat scene as the European house approach.
After releasing one of Lobster Theremin's biggest EPs in the shape of 'Rules', we're please to finally see Panthera Krause back in the Lobster den with a trippy, head-spinning white label of lucid house and acid.
Drawing from a spectrum of electronic-island tropes blended with early 90's rave, Krause develops the chunky MPC-led sound of that first EP by adding layers of shimmer synth work, clanging piano samples, intergalactic acid processing and proper brain-churning drones from beyond the purple sea.
Lobster Theremin debut yet another young Berlin talent in the form of the electro and new wave future-son Privacy. Drawing on a rich heritage of Detroit and Dutch staggered soundworks and beat engineering, Privacy's debut is a spectral reminder of the power of the swung beat with roaring synthesizer mechanics and industrial leanings all present and correct.
Qnete joins the Lobster Theremin gang with a trek through inspired drum machine-based house tracks on this debut white label. Channeling the spirit of Chicago, Detroit and New York in a dash through long-buried catacombs to find the lost pads of yore, Qnete imbues his sound with melodies so jacking yet so yearning that they belie his young age and short discography. Melancholy moods come and go like waves of a fever, leaving us confused and isolated, yet somehow comforted by the overriding desire and optimism left over. A release for the secret lovers, the lost individuals and anyone who's ever been caught dancing in the dark alone.