This Week At Juno

The new Kojak Sounds twelve from Maxxi Soundsystem proved there was still plenty of life in the edit yet, spending less than twenty fours in the Juno warehouse before completely selling out – who would have thought Alexander O Neal would prove to be so popular?

Elsewhere socks were figuratively rocked by the sheer epicness of “Heavenz Gate” from the new Binary Chaffinch EP on I’m A Cliche, whose artwork adorns the top of this page and is contentiously regarded as electro house by the Juno Genre Committee. I’m not sure about you, but I’ve never heard a twenty minute electro houser filled with industrial EBM menace soundtracked by six musicians, two vocalists and a choir! Oh, and do check the synth pop cover version of Henry Mancini’s “Theme From Peter Gunn” that sits on the other side.

These were just the tip of a mammoth vinyl shaped tidal wave that caused plenty of late nights this week and it’s kind of hard to choose what the highlight was. How about Ben Klock dropping three excellent refixes of O/V/R/s “Post Traumatic Son”? What about those Model 500 and Egyptian Lover remixes of Moodymann? Or maybe Rush Hour reminding us who the real Swedish House Mafia are with Skudge and MRSK remixes of Shake Shakir, and following that with equally brilliant twelves from Tom Trago and Freak Seven!?

And then there’s the return of techno’s finest name, Norman Nodge, to Marcel Dettmann’s label with some particularly throbbing techno. But we also have to mention the flexing warehouse jackers on Jam Factory Vol 2 from Disco Bloodbather Dan Beaumont and Ben Gucci SS Rymer, as well Anton Zap’s brilliantly deep EP on his own Ethereal Sounds imprint, plus Deniz Kurtel’s delightful new release on Crosstown, the Emo Edits from W+L Black and the debut of Hot Creations all star team Pteradactil Disco.

“You alright Clive?”

For those of a digital persuasion the chance to indulge in George Fitzgerald’s brilliant “Don’t You” should not be passed up, not least because of the excellent Berghain leaning edit from Hot Flush boss SCB. Equally noteworthy are the two Automatik Datamatik releases from Adalberto and The Man Behind The Screen which proved so irresistible on vinyl last week. Special mention too for the latest release on Cutters from Das Moth that comes with a suitably fine array of remixes courtesy of KiNK & Neville Watson, Jacques Renault, SidWho? and rising local talent Rio Lobotomy.

Fans of physical products and LCD Soundsystem will be delighted to hear the bands London Sessions album has arrived on CD along with the brilliant Sofrito Tropical Discoteque compilation from Strut – for those unfamiliar with the London clubnight and label Sofrito we highly recommend you indulge in this short documentary that explains the story behind one of London’s best kept secrets.