Kalahari Oyster Cult Vinyl & CDs

Review: "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.

Review: Fresh from delivering a fantastic, club-focused album on Ninih (the robust 'Dwang'), Remco Hazewinkel AKA Eversines returns to Kalahari Oyster Cult for the first time in three years. He hits the ground running with opener 'Gaze', a moody and acid-saturated slab of nostalgic house-tempo techno full of foreboding motifs and psychedelic electronics, before wrapping winding TB-303 lines and dreamy pads around a rubbery bassline and elastic house beats on 'Fast Fall'. Over on the B-side, 'Affection Toward The Urban Environment' joins the dots between early 90s Dutch techno, Yorkshire bleep & bass and acid-flecked new beat, while 'Wavedash' is a bleep-sporting acid-electro shuffler that may well be the EP's standout moment.

Review: While much of Volodymyr Gnatenko's album was produced during the worst points of the ongoing global pandemic, it sounds scarily contemporary - not least because the Ukranian producer's love of poignant chords, melancholic melodies and heart-aching aural textures are as emotionally resonant as the horrors currently unfolding in his homeland. Rainalice, his debut album, is undoubtedly a triumph: a thrillingly retro-futurist collection of IDM, electro and ambient techno excursions completed in his Kyiv studio (where he now shelters during air raids), that inadvertently offer a reminder of the vibrancy of the pre-war electronic music scene in Ukraine whilst sonically transporting listeners to some distant plant or galaxy.

Review: It's been a while since we've heard from Moroccan breakbeat favourite and Convergence Records founder Kosh, but he's back with a bang on none other than everybody's favourite Atlantean, underwater-breathing, acid trance house everything kru - Kalahari Oyster Cult. 'The Chopper' EP spans everything from Drexciyan kitsch-lectro to to floaty tech house trance to sillily verbatim breakbeat, ending on a hilarious high note with the timestretching, disc-scratching, stadium-ready rave rampage 'Come On'.

Review: Following a recent headline-grabbing appearance on Eversines' 'Plooi EP' and the release of his debut 12", 'RDS Theme', on De Lichting, RDS delivers his first 12-inch for Kalahari Oyster Cult. It's a typically trippy, mind-altering affair, with the Amsterdam-based artist first channelling the spirit of 1993 progressive house on the acid-laden, otherworldly stomp of '2312', before joining the dots between jazzy deep house, breakbeat hardcore and mid-90s D&B on 'BB Suite'. On 'Silky', he layers intergalactic-sounding synth refrains and dreamy chords over an uber-deep, Rob Gordon style bassline and rolling deep house beats, while 'Autechrein' sees RDS doff a cap towards head-nodding, hip-hop influenced mid-90s IDM.

Review: Having previously impressed with some deliciously wide-eyed, mind-mangling missives on Salt Mines, Planet Euphorique and Craigie Knowes, Reptant pops up on Kalahari Oyster Cult with some similarly inclining late night workouts. Check first title track "Phasic Reflex", a bustling body-pop across intergalactic electro territory that flits between string-laden dreaminess and weighty, acid-fired wonkiness, before admiring the tighter electro bounce of the Egyptian Lover-ish "MS Plenty". Over on side B it's all about "A Realist's Realistic Reality", where Reptant's foreboding, spacey and Dexter-ish original version comes accompanied by a wonderfully melodious, breakbeat-driven electronica re-make by Roza Terenzi.

Review: Reptant rears its head again with more slithering and slimy electro bangers here on the cult Kalahari Oyster Cult label. This punchy 12" kick off with 'Lizard Eyes', a twisted and kinetic cut with squelchy lines and super wet synths, vocoder vocals that bring the future freakiness and restless energy that cannot fail to get a floor writhing and sweaty. 'Polygrams' then gets more twisted with unrelenting drum pressure and spangled synths darting in and out of the drums while sine waves, acid droplets and whirring machines all flesh out the extra details.

Review: SUED co-pilot SW offers up a six track MyDefinition of techno on Kalahari Oyster Cult that is utterly fresh. He starts with dubbed out rhythms and percolating percussion before getting tripped out and break-y on 'Moonnewso On', with its alien effects and squelchy bass. 'Goiossee' is another slow motion braindance the 'Massless' recalls the early work of Two Loneswordsmen. There are hectic rhythms and wild detuned chords tumbling all over the place on 'J JustMUST4y' before closing salvo 'VFXpeaksTWIN' is an ambient piece pairing church chords with breaking waves. Weird and wonderful.

Review: DJ soFa continues his Elsewhere compilation series on Kalahari Oyster Cult with a superb sixth instalment that showcases a load of exciting and hybrid electronic styles. These are tunes that are ripe for club play but are rooted in odd-pop, synth-punk, DIY and post-kraut styles. The artists hail from all over the globe and include the twisted funk of Seytan Tuyu's 'Anita,' hall of melodic mirrors that is Cilin's 'An Abhainn Mhor' and Mytron & A Von F's soot-black and gritty motorik thriller 'Confiture.' This series has been going since 2017 and this proves, it is still as strong as ever.