Helikon Records launch with the debut vinyl release from Greek electronic duo Sone Urbia. A collection of improvised live recordings which took place between 2012 and 2013.
Restore label owner Jean Claude Gavri join forces with 2020 Soundsystem Julian Sanza and Dave Gerarrd (ChopShop, Get Down Edits), resulting a fancy essential DJ friendly four tracker, limited edition heavy 180 gram vinyl.
Always Human Tapes are back for round two and this time it's a fight to the death. Label head Ryan Wurst assumes the identity of Soul Tangler once again and unleashes a brutal mix of raw electronics, knife edged percussion and jagged techno.
Lago Santo was made for the road. Inspired by a drive through the mountains and valleys of northern Italy in the summer of 2016, Mculo's new EP is a soundtrack for highways, torn maps, sunrises, glacial lakes, and the wind.
Opening with In Retrospect, a motorik, driving number that climaxes with a synthesized melodic hook, the B-Side softens into the shimmering, windows-down piano riffs of Bra Hugh.
The title track wraps things up with dizzying psychedelic tones and a smattering of percussion. Early DJ support from San Soda, Dark Sky, Gratts and Kong, Chaos in the CBD, Youandewan.
JeanGa & George are composers, producers and music enthusiasts with strange and indecipherable accents. Their taste in music is as wide as the Amazon and covers everything from Georgian choirs to Detroit Techno, African folk and Belgian New Beat. The music they make themselves is based on electronic repetitions, melodic idiosyncrasies and their strong sense of being European.
Steve Spacek returns to Eglo Records after making his label debut with the summer smash 'Follow Me'. The Lewisham born singer/producer continues to innovate, utilizing the latest technologly (he made these two tracks on an ipad) to push his unique London style from his new home in Sydney NSW. 'If U Wan 2 Find Me' is a celestial slice of vocal footwork/soul, with Spacek offering his own zero gravity take on the chicago sound. Bside 'Time Is Running Out' completely switches up the tempo, this stripped back techno bubbler feels like the soundtrack to a late night cruise around the red planet. Signature Spacek swing and acid bounce througout. Steve Spacek remains one of the most unique and versatile artists from the UK, born out of Londons soundsystem culture his fearless and forwarding thinking approach to music and technology has made him impossible to pigeon hole. Consistently on the cutting edge of new evolutions in sound and style.
With only 4 records behind him on various labels like Beat X Changers, Slime Recordings and S3A Records, French producer and DJ Fred Bwelle aka Neue Grafik has quickly rised as one of the most promising acts on the new French and European electronic scene (ask Laurent Garnier, he will confirm). Eclectic and versatile, Neue Grafik’s sound emerges from different roots: Paris (his home-town) and its music and cultural legacy, the ethnic sounds of Africa but it also goes from house, to jazz and hip-hop. Go check him playing live on his MPCs, you’ll witness what the man is all about.
In 2016, Neue Grafik launched his own label VERTV, released a new record (« Roy ») on Beat X Changers, composed 3 tracks on Wayne Snow’s debut album alongside Max Graef and Nu Guinea (release date: early 2017) and started a new live project called Raheem Experience with Mad Rey and LB aka Labat.
In December 2016, the Parisian producer is set to release « Ukiyo », his brand new record on UK-based label Wolf Music (Medlar, Laszlo Dancehall, Casino Times, Frits Wentink). It goes without saying that you should definitely keep on eye on this dude.
Rotterdam based 25 Places are back on Dirt Crew with a bang! since their Love More release in 2015 the boys have been hard at work and have just released an EP for Chez Damier on his Prescription Records sub label Balance.
The bounce begins with Party In The Hills hosting a huge kick, loopy Rhodes, squelching bass, Ragga flavoured vocal and squeaky lead, it's straight up good times right from the get go. An infectious groove on this one! "Closing Title Song" heads into deep soaring territory, it's forward house beat and pulsing synth lead intertwine with loose tropical percussion and a rhapsodic horn hook.
On the flip we have Laurence Guy who does not really need an introduction anymore, the man has been all over the place since this year's releases on Cin Cin, Outplay and the imminent Church where he dropped two big EP's Bamboo and Kojak. Here he takes on the soulful deep Chicago House of 25 Places and turns it into a 90's breakbeat acid galore of ecstasy tingled UK House.
Places wrap up the rave session with Backyard Stories, a raw and bouncing, bass face inducing jam. Uplifting and dirty in one stroke, its thumping kick and feverous melodies make it impossible not to move.
This is the second 12” of a 2-part series of 12”s that will be released digitally as a full-length LP. After a split single with Muslimgauze and a single of their own on Optimo Trax, we are delighted to present the first Optimo Trax album release by Italy’s Underspreche. The album is split across two four- track EPs, released two weeks apart (and also as a complete digital album).
We try to avoid over-hyping our releases, but this one is really fully deserving of the hyperbole I am about to bestow on it. Underspreche first sent me some music a few years ago and seeing them grow and develop has been nothing short of astonishing. I think this is some of the most nuanced and advanced music that Optimo Trax has ever released. There are several dancefloor destroyers here but also music for more developed/leading-edge floors too, as well as some music simply designed to make one’s mind melt.
It is very rare that I listen to 4/4 music at home, but this album has been a constant on my hi-fi since it was sent to me.
Super-advanced, organic sampling, inspired vocalisations, acute psychedelic modular sequences, forward- thinking drum programming, this is exactly what I hoped Optimo Trax would be about when I started the label.
Brand new Inkamera EP on Last Known Trajectory! Inkamera's fresh, fluid and often poetic twist on electro is evident via all six tracks on this striking release. Includes the gorgeous 'Skylar' and 'No Dead Men's Cries (feat Bogdan W. Rousseau)'. Pressed on clear white vinyl and featuring artwork by Anaïs Boudot.
Fresh from guesting on the debut Powell LP ‘Sport’ (XL Recordings), and having released on labels such as The Tapeworm, Entr’acte, and Halcyon Veil, Dale Cornish now presents ‘Clap’ - four rhythmic experiments that explore the mesmeric tones of the digital clap using the ever-popular TR909 clap pre-set. Sharing similarities in intention with N.M.O’s “as strict as possible” approach, pieces subtly evolve and mutate around the clap to generate motion, tension and action. ‘Oolovka’ takes an unashamedly joyous look at the clap, where melodic repetition whirls and whirls until it takes on a form of mesmerising minimalism – perhaps taking its cues from a modern take on Steve Reich’s ‘Music for 18 musicians’ as a backdrop for the clap to playfully roll over and mutate into a sound which is both refreshingly light hearted yet steeped in rhythmic experimentation. ‘Cxema’ takes us a into a tenser, more claustrophobic space where a heads down pulse keeps the body locked until the fog is occasionally broken and the tension momentarily cleared via delayed claps and familiar sonar tones. This vibe continues into ‘Isolate’ with Cornish upping the anxiety by using the clap as a foreboding menace. Coming across like an inspired soundtrack to a military performance piece the concern appears to revolve around strict precision and strict movement and how the clap can be used to enforce and heighten this functional display. ‘Before Encore’ winds things down by stripping things back to the bare minimum for movement – a single effected clap gradually layers and layers itself to create pleasingly odd high tension atmospherics solely through a meticulous process of delicate rhythm and repetition.
Theo Parrish has teamed up with Rotating Assembly member Duminie DePorres and Dirt Tech Reck head Waajeed. The EP, Gentrified Love Part 2, is the first new work Parrish has released since his 2014 album American Intelligence.
Compassion Crew fires up Windows ’95 for the three-pronged ‘Habitué’ - the hardy Dubliner gets in a huff on Habitué I, does it for the trackheads on II, and stops you in your tracks with the mesmerising, meandering Habitué III.
For the debut Always Human Tapes vinyl release, Heckadecimal delivers a dark, hardware-driven landscape of electronic pleasure. Derived from countless studio sessions, Heckadecimal’s quasi-improvisatory music is a distillation of electro, O.G. IDM, and a healthy experience soundtracking midwestern warehouse raves. The result is a versatile and cohesive cross-section of hard-working beats, sure to find a home in any adventurous DJ's record bag.
With the trust and work of Isaiah Tapes, «Destroy the Comfort Zone» is the second long play record coming out by the Mathematics releasee - Le Matin. Going along with its full 12 tracks cd album version insert, this is a non-impairing dreamt and solid record composed by 3 quarters of swamp-sounding electro and water world techno, kept a long time in the dark for maturation and finally coming out. "Destroy the Comfort Zone" brings deepness that will surely help the listener to reach new places.
Focusing on a strong aesthetic, throughout every aspect, of every release. Black Jesus Casino produces limited runs of 180 gram black vinyl, accompanied by in-house bespoke films and 35mm photography.
Greek label Lower Parts is back with a cinematic new EP from Athenean artist Ioannis Savvaidis. Influenced by his love of old school computer programming, all four tracks are live jams made with classic Yamaha machinery from the nineties. Form start to finish this is an absorbing ambient release that transports the listener into the world of science fiction. Gently unfolding and expanding in all directions, Savvaidis invites you to cut loose and get lost in your own mind. Some are tracks darker and more foreboding, some are airy and heavenly, but all together the EP acts as a movie lived out in the mind.
FIT SOUND welcomes Moscow's OL to the label with his debut 12", Lada Passenger. Three late night dance floor stompers that pay special attention to textures of percussion, woven with expert touches of melody and bass. Essential tracks for the working DJ from an artist that is clearly coming into his own!
Disco inflections and happiness-driven chanting begins this release. Off-placed rhythms call one to move. Listening and dancing, is what needed. Such need is further pursued in A2. Listen. Move.
‘Which Of The Waltzes’ explores layering of sounds and is driven by Shama Joseph’s spontaneous vocal improvisation. While the rhythm swings, the vocals and piano maintain the warm harmonies.
The final track is a broken rhythm expulsion. Snippets of vocals and deeply resonating piano hints to what ‘Which Of The Waltzes’ could have sounded if further experimentation in sonic reductionism would have taken place.
After the previous collaborations with Blawan and Lucretio & Marieu (aka The Analogue Cops), Mannella is back with his first solo work "Nebula Viator". There’s no definitive recipe for his individual productions, but you can usually expect varying amounts of evolving pads, nostalgic rhythm and structured drums change that give to his productions a rich hot surge. In this four track EP Mannella is going back to his roots and main influences, showing us how essential is for him shaping them into his latest feeling: swaggering techno tracks powered by sleek house chords.
Nebula Viator is a 24minutes EP crammed with slamming and chubby grooves set against a sprawling astral substrate..
