Review: Hey boys, hey girls... Chemical Brothers are back with some superstar business and all is well with the world. Instantly slipping into their signature, 'No Reason' smacks with everything we love about Tom and Ed. Big funk bassline, cheeky party samples and a presence that could get everyone from your nan to your naughty next door neighbour dancing. 'All Of A Sudden' takes us up a few gears in a way that only the Chemmys can; unrelenting laser bass marching music that pushes and pushes and pushes to the very end. Here we go!
Review: Hungarian electronic music producer Laurine Frost's Cabaret Nord lands as the debut release on Spanish label Andermedt, and it's nothing short of a radical statement. A vault of unreleased material over five years in the making, it's a return to Frost's 4/4 roots but filtered through his signature lens of dark mysticism and surreal funk. Earth-shaking drums, warped grooves and grotesque theatrics unfold like a ritualistic performance in each track as he twists techno cliches into something deeply personal. As such Cabaret Nord blurs lines between satire and sincerity, rhythm and poetry. It's not comedy-it's an avant-garde theatre of sound and a mind-bending triumph that demands immersive listening.
Review: Strap in for more rickety breakbeat workouts here from Imaginary Number on a limited edition heavyweight white label. Opener 'Push' is crunchy as you like with raw drum work and frayed edges to the synths. 'Grv' pairs a lively breakbeat drum loop with bleeping synths and the sort of pent up late night energy that gets any floor going. 'Somebody' is a more macho and texture techno wobbler built on ramshackle drums with wild vocals and last of all is another physical and prickly drum workout 'Fools' that is pure heat, especially with the pitched up and snatched vocal that cuts in.
Review: Raji Rags brings his unique brand of melodically infused breakbeat to new label OTIH. His Congratulations EP makes its debut release and after the amusingly titled 'Obligatory Ambient Intro' comes the exotic synth charm of 'Kiran's Bike' and kinetic drum workout that is 'Making Love To A Ghost.' 'Bullet Train' (feat Sonia Calico) is more dark and dirty with busy synths panning about the mix and last of all is 'Enchante', which merges celestial synths with vulnerable string sounds. It all adds up to a unique EP.
Review: Funk maestros Rockid Sound Machine returns with yet more of their timeless and seductive instrumental funk sounds. They have turned out tons of it over the years on a steady and always high quality basis. This double A-side kicks off with 'Scorpio' featuring tight drums and wah-wah guitar smudges next to big horns. The track blends funk with soul and merges old-school vibes with modern energy. On the flip side, 'Stardust' ramps things up with prickly drumming and percussion, wet cymbal crashes and more bendy guitar work that brings psyched-out 60s vibes. Another great outing for Rockid Sound Machine's signature bristling beats.
Review: Israel 'Iz' Gravning aka Tone Scientist hails from the West Coast of the United States. He has a room packed with gear - drum machines, samplers, keyboards - and he sure knows how to jam on each piece if this new EP is anything to go by on Basic Moves. 'Discrepancy' kick off with whirring chords and clacking drums, 'Heartache' is suspenseful and airy drum & bass and 'Pyramids On Mars' dubs and dives on drums that flap like sheets of metal in the wind. There is still time for the deep and sludgy 'Things Get Done' and another jungle work out in 'Esoteric Junglist.'
Review: Stefan Schwander is known for aliases like Harmonious Thelonious, A Rocket In Dub and Antonelli Electr and now strikes once more with his third EP, 'While My Sequencer Gently Bleeps'. Entirely crafted on Elektron's Monomachine, this one delivers deep basslines, ravey bleeps, piano chords and synth melodies that evoke the sounds of Jamaica, UK and Chicago while looking toward the future. The EP opens with the groovy 'Title Track' followed by the minimal, dub-influenced 'Sublime' with shuffling beats and a smooth synth line. On the flipside, 'Definition Of ...' combines deep bass, lively percussion and subtle melodies that are both danceable and storytelling.
Review: Named after their infamous Brixton club night, Basement Jaxx's second album Rooty saw them continue to push the boundaries of pop and club music. The album mixes classic house with generous lashings of punk, funk, R&B, jazz, hip hop, 2-step and pop song-craft in a mad genre crash that works like a charm. It features the massive tracks 'Where's Your Head At', 'Romeo' and 'Do Your Thing'.
Review: Bobo is Mr. Burns's beloved teddy bear but it is unlikely that the same bear is also a dab hand at crafting weighty bass music. Although born in Sweden, this Bobo is now based in Manchester and this is his debut album on Erbium. It's a work that draws on all forms of electronic sound from bass to dubstep as well as ambient, house and electro. The resulting melting pot is a triumph of both dance floor clout and home listening richness. 'Beyond This Realm' is tinged with old school rave energy, 'Rebellion' is eerie and empty bass music and 'Nowhere' is a deep jungle excursion with cuddly bass pillows.
Mood 111 (feat Dino D'Santiago & June Freedom) (2:24)
Leve (feat Tuyo) (4:49)
Slide (feat Jay Prince) (3:28)
Nuvem (feat BIAB & Gafacci) (3:22)
Fortuna (feat Yeri & Yeni & Carlao) (3:24)
Found My Way (feat Carla Prata) (4:07)
Soma (2:38)
Cinzas (feat Teresa Salgueiro) (3:38)
Impulso (3:07)
Agenda (feat Bryte) (2:50)
Voar/Balanco (outro) (2:19)
Review: Portuguese producer and Enchufada label owner Branko is back with his fourth full-length solo album and once again he pushes his own high standards even further. Soma was recorded in Lisbon over a three-day jam session that saw him asking plenty of top local Lisbon-based musicians to improvise over rhythmic frameworks. The resulting man-hours live recording was the blueprint for the album which Brano then worked into the compelling and worldly tunes you have here with vocals from the likes of London, Cape Verde, and Brazil, including Jay Prince, June Freedom, BIAB, and Tuyo.
Review: The late great Cosmic AC's vast catalogue again yields some posthumous treasure with part two of the For Now album. It's another record that is as sophisticated as it is adventures with plenty of painstakingly crafted but effortless smooth breakbeats on 'Larvy' topped with pensive synths. Elsewhere there are logic-defying rhythm structures on 'Snood', hooky synth shimmers and more raw textures on 'Wisconsin Desert' and jazzy, cosmic motifs on the wonderful 'Setting Sun'. This is a high-class mini-album full of next-level sound designs and turbo-brain drum patterns. It makes for a compelling listen wherever you may be.
Review: Dark Entries welcome back the inimitable Doc Sleep aka Melissa Maristuen for a superb new album of ghostly and ethereal house and techno. This is a welcome follow-up to last year's ambient and IDM exploration, Birds, and shows another side that draws on Maristuen's years of queer clubbing. It fuses aspects of New York house, Berlin techno and West-coast breakbeats and is "a love letter to the West Coast's magnificent natural landscape, the light of the Pacific sunrise." That is reflected in the sublime synths and silky rhythms which manage to both move your body but also captivate your mind. It's another cracking album from the Doc.
Review: Inventive acid-ambient from Guy Contact here, who returns to Butter Sessions for a round total of 10 new tracks. Following up 2019's 'Liminal Space', 'Drinking From The Mirage' hears the Perth pusher's penchant for plinky chord plucks, not to mention a subtly heavenly sound design that sounds somewhat informed by '90s trip-hop. The self-titled track, featuring fellow artist and singer Nori, is a prime example, while other tracks chart increasingly bangerized feels. 'Spirit Level' might just be our highlight; a phased-out, downtempo breakbeat bit that recalls peacefully free-running in Mirror's Edge, or cruising a future vision London in a self-driivng sustainable drop-top. Make sure to cop this one before the pain of missing out on its neural, brainwaltzing fruits fries your brain.
Review: Brussels-based DJ Hadone serves up his most ambitious musical statement to date with What I Was Running From., which also serves as a glimpse at what his immersive label project Things We Never Did' is all about. All nine tracks blend contemporary techno with various parts from subgenres and make for richly emotive soundscapes that are more than just functional DJ fodder. On 'Sonar' he joins up with Asking for a thrilling and dread fuelled minimal jungle stepper while 'Nobodies Oscillation' is pure euro-dance madness. Other highlights include the irresistibly emotional 'A Key To The Shadow'.
Michael DeVellis - "Want Some" (John Howard & Ben Viguerie remix) (6:15)
Can't Need Sunlight (4:52)
Barry Van Hammer (7:35)
Sciabolic (unreleased mix) (5:13)
Fly Under (5:14)
Sway (5:39)
Review: The 90s East Coast house scene owes a real debt to John Howard. He was a pioneer of the era who led the way with his mix of groove, soul, jazzy rhythms and fresh breaks. His best work has become the subject of a new series of reissues from Repeat who kicked off with his Scianloic 12" and now drop this hand-stamped double 12". Shessions is packed to the brim with innovative early house grooves that are up there with your favourite artists from Chicago and Detroit - or at least should be. Our pick is the shimmering late night glow of deep house delight 'Can't Need Sunlight'.
Review: Kicking off his new R&R imprint, LA-born and Berlin-based producer Huerta brings us TV Slang - an LP which exists somewhere between rhythmic and ambient house. For the title track, woozy voice samples drift in and out of focus, existing in a space just outside of reality. 'Stutter Dub' emerges as one of the more dance-geared tracks, yet it's still decorated with the hazy sound design of the release's ambient numbers; its buffed-out environment softening the edges of Huerta's percussion. On the B-side, 'Traces' features dreamily reverberating piano chords embellished with glittering breaks. This is a highly multi-faceted release which promises to take listeners and dancers alike into a beautifully realised soundworld.
Review: This project celebrates B-Boying, which is one of the core elements of hip-hop culture, with tracks inspired by spontaneous dance challenges-whether in the street, subway or at a bus stop. Featured in Marc-Aurele Vecchione's ARTE series Boys and Girls Africa, the collection includes tracks like 'Perkushun,' 'Latin Breakdown' and 'Tex Mex Breaking.' Limited to just 300 copies, each vinyl sleeve is tagged, numbered, and signed by street artist Golf which makes it an authentic and collectible record for hardcore breakdancers.
Review: Mike Paradinas is a veteran producer and owner of Planet Mu but he keeps on serving up thrilling new sounds. Grush is his latest, a new album packed with energetic tracks that he hopes reclaim the "dance" element of IDM. Inspired by the melodic dance music of the genre's early pioneers, Grush blends sweetly nostalgic melodies with dynamic, road-tested rhythms. Many tracks were developed during times on the road and from the spiralling notes of 'Hyper Daddy' to the aquatic acid footwork of the title track, Grush traces Paradinas' musical journey with signature style and invention. With influences from early Black Dog to Drexciyan funk, it's a vibrant, live-inspired record that works in a wide range of contexts from the club to the sofa.
Review: A Beautiful Place label founder Noha (also head of Panick Panick) offers up his latest slice of sonic wonderment with The Abyss Between A&B. Hailing from Italy's great capital, Rome, but having lived in New York for some time, once that's clear you can't help but hear a mixture of old world musicality and modern - or indeed futuristic - production happening across this startlingly good, rather different electronic effort.
Comparing the first and second tracks alone is enough to prove this, with 'Today' and its beautiful beatless harmonies invoking a kind of ancient mystery, while the dub-stepp-y 'Kudos Kid' feels very much born in the clubs and streets of our time (while also nodding to another synth gem, Elektro Guzzi). From there, things continue to flit between those two worlds, combining lush soundscapes with infectious and often slightly off centre percussion, making for one of those outings that can make you move and dream.
Review: Taking off where her debut album Spurn Point left us in 2014, musical innovator and serial boundary blurrer Shelley Parker returns with another long playing adventure. Her debut on Hypercolour, it's another immersive and very fluid experience that rattles through a whole range of flavours and forms. From the slower hardcore breakbeat style cuts like 'Glisten' and 'Cage' to more up tempo fires like the dubbed out 'Scrubs Lane' and the rampant sci-fi sizzler 'Coldstream' by way of raw, uncompromised experimentalism like 'Deluge' and 'The Faun', Wisteria is another exciting reflection of Shelley's wider work as an installation artist and sound performer. Highly recommended
Review: Pixel82 hails from Portugal and has been making music for the last 20 years. Early on they made punk/industrial and were then in a metal band but now they deal in powerful techno. Infinity is a concept album about "the continuum of life, of a constant loop that evolves over time. It is a discovery of myself musically, a rediscovery of the past to find the future." It is also full of club cuts designed to drive a crowd into overdrive. These are emotive tunes laden with synths that bring rushes of euphoria and plenty of psychedelic colours. It's a widescreen and rewarding listen.
Review: Posthuman, the duo of Richard Bevan and Joshu Doherty present the latest full length release on their Balkan Vinyl imprint titled Requiem For a Rave, where they get nostalgic about their teenage years growing up in Scotland and the north east of England. The album conjures up memories of raves in the fields, cassette recordings of pirate radio stations, mixtapes, strange warehouses, strobelights and dancefloors. Indeed you can pick up on these sentiments throughout the album, from the ruffneck ting of opener 'RMX', to the cavernous tunnel vision of 'Fontalic', the acid trance euphoria of 'Proof & Fade' and the early '90s rave throwback of 'Rushing High'. Prepare to go all the way back.
Review: Never one to sit still, Sasha used the change in mindset that came with the lockdown to inspire his approach to music. LUZoSCURA (which means light and dark) is the new compilation that has resulted having evolved from the playlist of the same name. It's packed with new music from the man himself as well as newer names and more established artists. There are floaty, synth heavy ambient pieces like the 'Yin/Yang' opener, lush melodic electronic grooves from QRTR, symphonic garage cuts from MJ Cole and crunchy old breakbeats with more than a hint of Renaissance from Because Of Art.
Review: The next level beat maker and sound designer that is Skee Mask returns to long-time home label Ilian Tape with another bold and brilliant album, Resort. It's an album that expands on the artist's usual sound with fusions of celestial ambient, IDM sound design and lithe, rhythmic techno drums. There are breakbeats on 'Reminiscrmx' backlit by heavenly pads, 'Schneiders Paradox' is marbled with zippy pads and raw drum hits, 'BB Care' glistens with a futuristic glow and 'Holzl Was A Dancer' slips into a shuffling, UKG tinged dub house pumper. It's a wild, wonderful ride that reaches all new levels for this already accomplished producer.
Review: Munich based producer Bryan Mueller aka Skee Mask presents his latest album titled Pool, via local imprint Ilian Tape which follows up his LP Compro which came out three years ago. There's an extensive collection of sonic experiments on offer on this one, such as opening cut 'Nvivo' which goes down an IDM route, to the glassy eyed rave euphoria of 'LFO', the intelligent drum and bass reductions of 'Rio Dub' and UK influenced steppers like 'Crossection'.
Review: Yo Speed has been making moves on the likes of 83 and Distorsion Records, and after several standout EPs, now makes his full-length debut with Colores. Across four sides of vinyl he explores every facet of breakbeat, starting with the sort of emotionally, architecturally grand cut that has defined Sasha's approach to sound for many years. 'Fucsia' gets more down and dirty with howling basslines from drum & bass and soulful r&b vocal hooks. Elsewhere are gems like the sun-kissed and serene 'Esmeralda' and masterfully melodic, tightly sequenced arps of the potent 'Escarlata'. A real widescreen trip.
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