Review: Peter Kersten, better known as Lawrence, is the veteran deep house producer and gallerist who many of you may know as chief of Hamburg's Dial Records and who made external outings previously on Japan's Mule Musiq where he released several lauded long-players. His latest one comes courtesy of Berlin's Sushitech entitled Earthshine, a 3XLP featuring 12 tracks written and produced by Kersten over the last five years. All in all it's a diverse selection put together by one of the scene's most highly regarded artists.
Review: If you were into house and techno around this time a decade ago, you surely wouldn't have been able to avoid Maceo Plex's acclaimed debut album Life Index. The Valencia-based, Miami native finally hit the big time after many years as an underground artist, with this impressive merging of minimal/tech house with disco/soul-funk influences that would go on to be constant throughout his work ever since. This worthy reissue as part of Record Store Day 2021 features all the hits that soundtracked a rather memorable 2011, such as the lo-slung rolling funk of 'Sleazy E', the druggy and sax-led euphoria of 'Silo' and the blissed-out summertime groove of 'Dexter's Flight'.
Review: Dutch industrial techno producer Parrish Smith created Light Cruel & Vain over the course of nearly three years. Each track on the record was originally conceived solo, then further realised with the assistance of contributing musicians Sofiane Brahmi and Javier Vivancos. The collaborative where no studio sessions occurred due to the pandemic - the full collaboration conducted remotely. Notable tracks include the seething post-punk swagger of "Black Scarlet" or the brooding industrial rock of "Sway", to the industrial strength breaks of "Never Break Faith" and a frantic techno banger towards the end "I Wanna Be An Idol".
Review: Berlin via L.A. based Acid Test has a new one out this week on their Avenue 66 sub-label, which is focused more on leftfield electronics. It comes from esteemed German producer Jens Kuhn aka Lowtec, known for his releases on Out To Lunch, United States Of Mars and Playhouse who presents some rare and unreleased cuts from the vaults on Easy To Heal Cuts. As expected, there's dusty and understated fare aplenty on this one; from the contemplative night moves of 'Going Nowhere', or the low-slung mood music of 'Red Sparrow' (another alias of Kuhn's) to the bittersweet minimalism of 'Nature Thinks For You' and the sun coming through the blinds on Monday morning vibe of closing cut 'From Moment To Moment' - we're sure glad these tunes saw the light of day.
Review: Tom Middleton and Mark Pritchard created a landmark of ambient music when they released 76:14 back in the 90s. Their Global Communication project was never just about ambient though, and it also coursed through deep house and more besides. In the spirit of progress, Middleton has returned to thinking about the project from a contemporary perspective, stepping forth as GCOM with the epic scope of E2 XO. From stirring orchestral suites to high octane DSP, it's an expansive listening experience that shows Middleton pushing himself into new terrain in the studio. Whether you tie it back to the prior material or not, it's a towering piece of work from an elder statesman of UK electronica.
Ringa Ringa (The Old Pandemic Folk Song) (feat The Mediaeval Baebes) (4:13)
Day One (feat Dina Ipavic) (5:15)
Are You Alive? (feat Penelope Isles) (7:34)
You Are The Frequency (feat The Little Pest) (4:37)
The New Abnormal (5:08)
Home (feat Anna B Savage) (4:13)
Orbital & Sleaford Mods - "Dirty Rat" (5:16)
Requiem For The Pre Apocalypse (7:42)
What A Surprise (feat The Little Pest) (4:37)
Moon Princess (feat Coppe) (5:04)
Review: After the 30 Something retrospective that landed during 2022, comes a new Orbital album proper, Optical Delusion, set to be accompanied by a busy summer of gig and festival dates by the looks of it. The album's taster single 'Dirty Rat' was a corker, too, full of post-Brexit/Boris bile and a biting vocal from Sleaford Mods frontman Jason Williamson, not to mention some striking Orbital musical trademarks. It could well point the way forward for more interesting collaborations - perhaps taking a leaf out of Leftfield's book - on the album, though only time will tell. Either way, a serious portion of new material from one of the dance world's most enduring and best loved acts will be feverishly anticipated.
Review: Malmo, Sweden-based Bolero Record store boss Dip Shim comes correct on his debut album with a sublime series of personal and storytelling cuts that find him digging deep into his reserves. The music is said to draw on his childhood in Spain and mixes up elements of downtempo, electro, techno and house. Across the 12 tracks there is plenty to explore with pensive electro opener 'Enter The Maragrillo' twitchy downbeat acid jam 'One For Regen' and deep space ambient soundtrack 'Bases Didacticas' all making an indelible impact.
Review: Carsten Jost is the DJ and Producer alias of David Lieske, co-founder of Dial Records. His latest collection of functional, ultra-utilitarian techno tracks here is essentially a slew of music for Moon exploration. Peaceful, raw and wonky techno tunes with a blue temperament are firmly arranged across 10 portions of wax; all carry the comparative sense of having less gravity weighing them down than techno made on Earth; it's techno made at 1.62 m/s² compared to our 9.807. Standouts include the alien voice cameos on 'IV' and the subterranean cave excursion that is 'VII'.
B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent working condition
Entangled (2:45)
Phantom (6:58)
Out Of Focus (8:26)
Nebula (2:12)
Escalating (2:15)
Freewalk (7:23)
Paralyzed (7:08)
Exosphere (7:19)
The Earthshine (2:15)
The Essence (Earthshine mix) (6:53)
Salty Dog (7:23)
Solstice (5:06)
Review: ***B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent working condition***
Peter Kersten, better known as Lawrence, is the veteran deep house producer and gallerist who many of you may know as chief of Hamburg's Dial Records and who made external outings previously on Japan's Mule Musiq where he released several lauded long-players. His latest one comes courtesy of Berlin's Sushitech entitled Earthshine, a 3XLP featuring 12 tracks written and produced by Kersten over the last five years. All in all it's a diverse selection put together by one of the scene's most highly regarded artists.
Review: New Interplanetary Melodies is a great name for a label and it also sums up the sounds of this new album from Sindaco. It's a beautiful mix of exploratory soundscapes, organic percussion and lush melody that unfolds in charming and captivating ways. Found sounds add more real world details to these tracks which range from lazy downbeat jaunts on a wide open savanna to more dynamic deep house trips through the cosmos. Worldly percussion, exotic melodies and unique instruments are all deployed to mark for multi-layered tracks that work equally on brain and body. It makes for a triumph of a record that is experimental yet aborsbing and packed with great detail.
Review: This is Freestyle free from any style.
There is no need for the disembodied voice telling you THIS IS HOUSE.
It is simply felt and known.
{Every kick.
Every arpeggio.
Every bass note.
Experienced through the prism of now.
Ribs rattle from the heart center to the endless reaches of consciousness.}
The racks are stacked high beyond the heavens as the Filter Queen speaks of love without words.
Bound to no earthly constructs, beholden to no laws.
This is the joyous sound of overground resistance.
Review: After being commissioned to produce several 'interlocking' ambient pieces for an art gallery piece in LA, Brian Foote and Sage Caswell decided to take the concept of 'audience crossfading' to the next level, creating an entire ambient album using a particular sonic technique. Over five long pieces from 'Waterwheel' to 'Smiley', their aim was to evoke the feeling of bodies moving in thoroughfares. The tracks are long-exposed movements captured in ambient space, blending rhythms and soundscapes for chillout rooms that exist only in memory now.
Review: Following up great efforts by the likes of Van Bonn & Luis Baltes, Unknown and Shadow-Area, here is the debut LP from Hamburg's Achim Maerz on Berlin-based Freund der Familie. Relief features a wide selections of moods and grooves; from the cavernous and glacial deep house of 'Black Hole', the contemplative ambient journey of 'Dream', plus there's more deepness of the emotive variety offered up on 'Changing Weather', the understated late night mood of 'Memories' and the mesmerising closer 'On The Way' awash in dazzling layers of rich synth tones in the vein of classic Chicago sounds. Mastering by Sven Weisemann.
Review: Truesoul is the little brother label of Drumcode, a label founded sometime this decade by international megastar DJ Adam Beyer. Welcoming their latest signing Pig & Dan to the imprint, their latest LP Soulcatcher hears the pair hears a thorough scouring of the wondrous limits of progressive house, melodic techno and all styles in between. Layers of kick-driven rhythm, filtrated texture and sublime rapture coalesce to form a monolithic body of work here.
Kings Of Tomorrow - "I Hear My Calling" (feat Sean Grant) (6:18)
Free Energy - "Happiness" (7:41)
Omegaman - "Into The AM" (6:18)
Presence - "How To Live" (2022 remaster) (9:16)
Review: Wild Pitch Club is next up in the excellent and ling running Running Back Mastermix series. It's a legendary space that has very much defined the Frankfurt and wider german scene and was also something of a predecessor venue to the new well-loved Robert Johnson. That club was itself a place where Panorama Bar's very own nd_baumecker really made waves and it is they alongside co-founder Ata who have curated these tunes. The venue was hooked on the US sounds and often hosted the likes of Robert Hood and Claude Young to Kerri Chandler all of which shows in the sounds of the tunes.
Review: A tricksters' release - in that it's almost certainly one of those that cleverly aims to look like an old late 80s house cut, but isn't - Boo Williams' newest deep house LP 'Depths Of Life' is a subtly head-swanging swayer through leagues of tunes that defy anxiety. One can almost be guaranteed an easy ride through this album thanks to its emphasis on vibe rathe than posey complexity. Echoic laughter, sonic reflections and delayed acid lines all pepper its omnipresent, rubbery basses, with baseball organs ('Creepy') and trance tropes ('One Step Closer', 'Mortal Trance') cropping up aplenty.
Ich Schreib' Dir Ein Buch 2013 (feat Hildegard Knef) (5:20)
NooOoo (4:59)
Auroville (2:33)
Review: DJ Koze is a master of his craft, and without even so much as lifting a finger, it's proven yet again with his 10th Anniversary Edition of 'Amygdala.' Known for its experimental yet minimal style - which has since trailblazed in his home country of Germany - Koze's knife-edge productions for the LP were far ahead of their time in 2013, breathing fresh life into an often exhausted genre, while also enlisting the help of fellow titans such as Caribou, Apparat, Dirt Von Lowtzow, Milosh and Matthew Dear. It's a classic album of restless detail and domestic lowercasery. Much-aped, but never outmatched.
Review: California's Joe Babylon has been steering his own Roundabout Sounds through some lovely deep house waters over the last few years. Now the producer makes a big statement with his own debut album. He is something of a veteran having co-founded Plug Research back in 1994 and hosted underground events in Los Angeles during the mid '90s. Following on from outings alongside the likes of Rick Wilhite and Rondenion he now brings his own dusty, carefully disheveled house sounds to the fore. They have been crafted using an MPC which gives them their rough-edged appeal and they go from heads down back room joints to dubbed-out minimalism via dream late-night reveries. It makes for a fresh take on a tried and tested house template.
Review: It's very much a case of expecting the unexpected when it comes to Omar S' FXHE label and this latest effort is no exception. In the US the gap between hip-hop and dance music culture is even wider than it is here in the UK, only not in Detroit and its unique export, namely ghetto tech. FULL BODY DU RAG whips up an idiosyncratic but thoroughly addictive combination of ghetto, house and garage, hip-hop and jazz across eight tracks here, the borders between the genres being fluid at all times. Omar himself makes an appearance on 'Juice', a speedy but classy dancefloor workout, half tech and half house, that along with the hilarious but irresistible 'Trillionaire' boasts a skippy garage swing to the beats to boot. At the other end of the BPM spectrum we get 'Pussy On The Map" (feat NLGHTND) with its r&b strains, only nicely warped and sonically corrupted. Probably best of all is 'FBD X CERT', almost a moody grime exercise until a four to the floor rides roughshod through such conventional plans. Raw, racy - and utterly essential.
Review: While there's no over-arching concept behind the series, it's always safe to assume that any new Selects compilation from Global Underground will be packed to the rafters with brand-new house and techno that tends towards the melodic, atmospheric, glassy-eyed and tactile. Volume eight certainly ticks those boxes, with 12 highlights from the (more expansive) mixed version stretched across two slabs of purple vinyl. Our picks of a predictably strong bunch include a delightful deep tech-house tweak of Fulltone & Parallel's 'How Can I Resist' by Patrice Baumel, the Space Invaders-goes-trance throb of 1979's 'Vulcano', the bleeping brilliance of Captain Mustache's retro-futurist rework of O.N.O's 'Gran Music' and the ambient soul beauty of Yotto's 'Silhouette'.
Review: Originally released in 1995, Metaphor is Detroit second wave icon Kenny Larkin's sophomore full length under his own name. This is a truly timeless release which really captures the zeitgeist of the most seminal period in techno's recent history. For those that know, we know we're preaching to the choir, but to those who don't - get familiar! From the classic hi-tech soul of the title track, to the moody future funk of 'Nocturnal' and the driving Motor City energy of 'Catatonic (First State)' and more - Metaphor has certainly held its own 26 years later. Essential.
Roman Flugel & Frank Wiedemann - "Karmadonut" (7:42)
Manuel Tur - "Bubble Wrap" (5:19)
Herbert - "Air" (7:16)
Lauer - "Dimmo" (6:04)
Kalabrese - "Last Drive" (with Lapcat - long version) (9:02)
All Is Well - "Sajkvfighosgo" (Lost Heroes Redux) (6:09)
Jimi Jules - "Too Young For Me" (feat Jaw - Ripperton Neptunians Marathon mix) (9:08)
Fred Everything - "Dreampoet" (5:58)
N4E - "Closure" (6:11)
John Daly - "Slide" (6:11)
CCO - "Molecular Cloud" (3:56)
Manuel Fischer - "Bingus" (3:35)
Nicola Kazimir - "RNB" (3:47)
Review: Swiss label Drumpoet has been one of those super reliable outlets that serves up good quality deep house. It has now been doing so for 15 years and marks the occasion with a bumper triple vinyl collection featuring 13 cuts from all the label's finest associates. There is brilliantly left-of-centre minimal from Roman Flugel and Frank Weidermann to kick off, then melody-rich deep house from Bubble Wrap, and an absolute classic from the one and only Herbert who supplies 'Air.' Plenty more lushness comes from the likes of Fred Everything and Ripperton to make this a fine collection.
There Is No Acid In This House (Just Emotions Rmx) (6:24)
Dogs Don't Wear Pants (4:45)
Review: Chicago extraordinaire Jamal Moss aka Hieroglyphic Being's third solo album is titled There Is No Acid In This House, and sees him return to Soul Jazz Records. Using his idiosyncratic electronic sound, Moss takes influence from the experimental minds of fellow Windy City innovators such as The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, The Art Ensemble of Chicago and Sun Ra, through to icons of his hometown's house music scene like Ron Hardy, Marshall Jefferson, Lil Louis and others who have defined Chicago's musical universe over the last half a century.
Review: During the early-to-mid 1990s, Nurmad Jusat released a string of now sought-after singles on Likemind that showcased an emotive, far-sighted take on techno that still sounds timeless all these years on. This fine collection features various recordings he made - but never released - as Nuron and Fuge back in 1993 and '94. As inspired by the techno sounds of his native UK as the far-sighted brilliance of purist Detroit techno and the dreamy soundscapes of Larry Heard, it's a genuinely brilliant collection of long-lost gems. Our picks include the subtly clonk-influenced opener 'The Coded Message', the skewed deep electro shuffle of 'Another Way', the sci-fi techno brilliance of 'Contrapoin (First Version)' and the out-there ambient soundscape that is 'Dialectic Confusion'.
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