Hip-Hop News

* Blu Mar Ten’s 2003 album “The Six Million Names Of God” gets a very limited repress with 75 hand numbered copies.
* Six Million Names Of God see’s the Blu Mar Ten trio showcase their musical influences in what has been hailed as a downtempo classic.

Tagliabue’s cosmic music is a transcendental journey through introspection and imagination. The latter has no limits, when stimulated by sounds that slowly shade and snake deeply in the listener’s conscious.

With “Ambiente Sonoro” the Milan based DJ and producer now introduces his debut mini-album. The concept is inspired by the Italian library music of the 70s from Daniela Casa, Egisto Macchi and Piero Umiliani, characterized by the extensive use of electronic, experimental and psychedelic sounds. It is arranged and produced in a contemporary way, alternating dark ambient, tribalistic sounds mixed with abstract electronic and IDM influences from artists such as Biosphere, Higher Intelligence Agency, Global Communication or Coil.

His experience as a music selector and his previous works anticipate the character of this concept album. A record that cannot be placed in a specific genre.

Ancestral rhythms, post-industrial waves, apocalyptic chants and drones, suggest a mental projection into a new planetary system consisting of six bodies with different landscapes kept in orbit by a cosmic sound perturbation. A dreamy state of emotional, protracted and reflective abandonment.

Early support: Vladimir Ivkovic, Cosmo Vitelli, Alexis Le-Tan, Tolouse Lowtrax, Odopt, Ransom Note, Whypeopledance

2020, a year that will be forever engraved in our memories as Year One of the Covid debacle.

So much has already been said about it that we feel there is no need for more.

However, 2020 was also the year when we’ve released Tapan’s remix to Decha’s song Niebla from her sold-out debut album Hielo Boca as part of MT0028 Decha - Hielo Boca Remixes. This remix led to a fresh collaboration between the Serbian duo and the German vocalist, which in time bred a brand new track, titled simply TWENTY.

On Twenty, Tapan’s massive bass lines, heavy kicks and their sense for drama and epicness, meets Viktoria Wehrmeister aka Decha’s soft poetic lyrics and tribal style. The result is a massive slow yet heavy tribal industrial track for the alternative dance floors and late night situations in dark dark basements.

The record is comprised of 4 tracks, an original version and a beatless version as well as a deep and trippy dancehall interpretation by our favourite remixers Full Circle (aka Joakim & Alexis Le-Tan) and a punky mid-tempo banger by Mexican maestro and total inspiration Rebolledo who gives his signature sonic attitude to his interpretation of the original track.

Philipp Otterbach’s psychedelic music never been a sunshine pleasure pill. But yet, the souls of his notes are deeply gentle. With “Everything Else Matters” the Berlin based DJ and producer now introduces his debut album, that follows a long introduction. Already since a while he devotes himself with endurance to music. He was an early resident at Düsseldorf’s shrine for outernational grooves Salon Des Amateurs. Since 2014 he releases music under his given name or as Grand Optimist on labels like Grokenberger Records, Knekelhuis or Themes For Great Cities and leaves marks as a remixer for artists like DJ Normal 4, Brainwaltzera, Wolf Müller and Niklas Wandt on labels like Growing Bin Records or Second Circle. His long DJ nights and already released music prefigures the spirits, that he now bunched on his first album. It’s a record, that does not want to pursue a straight categorization. It rather aims to spellbound with an atmosphere, that is made for moments in the absence of hysteria. Tribalistic, trip-hopping rhythms, menacing sounds, cold cool vocal passages, drone chants, morbid goth-ambient spheres, Indie rock indications: its many facets meld into some kind of black highway sound for thoughtful night prowlers in a dissociative state of mind. In context all particles achieve delicate sculptural effects that operate like the surprising architecture of a dream. A forward- thinking dream, that bundles something otherworldly, something unspeakable, that lives hauntingly between the sounds, rhythms and suggested melodies.

You have to know how to move away from the rich, strong and noisy streets, if you want to discover another Havana. A Havana far from the tourist circuits and preconceived images. A Havana where one discovers bucolic, but hard and stripped too after slow journeys in the crowded buses, a Havana with which Al Quetz maintains a passionate history since more than fourteen years.
Installed in one of those neighborhoods that can only be reached by going deeper into the alleys, from the open window of the studio comes the sound of banging drums and thumping bass. The sound reaches the streets on which the day rises.
The place wakes up in a growing tumult, with some rare engines coughing, conversations under the windows, songs of the street vendors , an urban ballet sets up as the sun darts its rays.
Far from the musical clichés with percussions and horns, Cuba is an island bombarded with influences that one discovers.
An island which vibrated for the jazz, the soul, the psychedelic rock , from the waves coming from the Caribbean to those of the bulky neighboring ogre.
A musical flowering as varied as abundant that the glorious post-revolutionary label Areito has on thousands of recordings,
and that Al Quetz has designated as the sole source of his samples to compose Habanologia.
From the ambiences that punctuate the local daily life caught by his samplers, he let the melancholy infiltrate his hip hop beats, the nostalgia melting in the depths of his grooves. Nostalgia in the Cuban air, even during moments of intense laughter, which never totally disappears.
Habanologia restores these moments when the song of the birds has extinguished those of the cars. Where, sitting on a doorstep, we comment on the life of the neighborhood, we watch the women's swaying at eye level. The whole day if necessary, the coffee at one peso, after a certain hour, which leaves its place to the Planchao rum. Wandering through its streets where a chance encounter can itself bring others and lead to the essence of the habanera life. From Regla, after a short trip on the bus-boat that crosses the bay, savor the end of the day, observe the capital from afar, let the nocturnal insects ensure some arrangements and drift towards mysterious horizons, bringing to the contemplation of the place and the moment.
A flute, a keyboard, percussions or a voice. Al Quetz also invited his friends from the island or elsewhere to decorate his productions with their live touch. To share with him this Havana for which he covered his tracks, mixed times and distorted space-time to make it timeless.
To write with Habanalogia, a declaration of love to the Cuban capital, to make Havana, His Havana.

Coyote release a new 12” single. The A side Will We Ever Dance Again is an unashamedly celebratory Balearic house track. Subtle acidhouse grooving leads to a big smiley piano drop. Made for the return of life and fun. The B side As Above is a mid tempo houser inspired by 90s Italy dreaming and memories of heads down piano chuggers. We will dance again

Completing a fantastic triptych of LPs for 2016, Will Saul's Aus Music is delighted to announce a debut full length from Youandewan. The Berlin based Brit's ten track 'There Is No Right Time' lands in October 2016 and shows a very real development of his deep house style. Youandewan is Ewan Smith, a DJ and producer who has quietly but consistently gone about fomenting his own tender brand of deep house. He has been doing so since 2009 and most recently settled on this label with tracks that are shy but seductive, and full of both motive and emotive forces. This album stays true to that narrative, but really sees the producer finding his feet with his most accomplished and elegant work to date. Much of the music was sketched out during a wintery Berlin three years ago. Having left London, hungover from a breakup, Smith found himself broke and secluded in an apartment for four months. All this lent the music he wrote a melancholic vibe, one that nods to the lonely nature of the job and to the darker side of constant partying and all that comes with it. A swelling, expansive piece of melodic atmospherics starts things off, then the soft hues of some analog chords bring a neon glow to the weightless whirl of 'Be Good To Me, Poly'. Soaring synths marry with a raw drum and bass combo on 'Waiting for L',
then 'Time To Leave (Can't Mix)' resets to a piano laced beatdown vibe that is willfully wallowing. '10405 (Alice)' is a
shimmering, crescendoing piece, and from there the second half of the album begins to take an upward and optimistic swing through the floating, graceful harmonies of 'Our Odyssey'.
'Something Keeps Me Real Quiet' is a concession to the floor with its rusted electro slither, 'Left On Lucy' calls upon friend Huerta for a flailing bit of hi-tek soulful house Derrick May would be proud of, and 'Earnest Kelly' nods to the '80s with its stomping retrosynthesis. Finally, '4D Anxiety' allows all pent up emotion and energy to dissipate via a playful hip-hop jam effortlessly tapped out on an MPC. Essentially, this is a listening album that proves deep house done needn't be reserved for the club. It is
vulnerable and musical, and stays with you long after it finishes playing.

At the end of a crooked, narrow alley, tucked away behind a cluster of spindly palm trees that protect it from the intense, direct Southern California sun and shield it from the persistent dusty haze is the lair of Zen 2000, a new project from a Los Angeles native who's been intimately involved in the city's latest wave of electronic music and Nik Mercer, creative lead behind Let's Play House.

The imprint has set out to, through a tight and concise series of 7-inches, explore spacey textures and ambient colors from an amorphous cast of friends and family members, all either also from L.A. or with a deep spiritual connection to the city.

House of Ho, the name behind this debut single, is a little bit of both, stuck somewhere between the island of Hong Kong and the City of Angels; the pair of tracks included here were written, recorded, and produced between the two cities. Perhaps as a result of claiming both Western and Eastern Hemispheres as their place of origin, the songs sound fundamentally “in between”: in between sprawled-out, wandering ambient and sharply scored instrumental exercises; in between late-night trumpet figurations that twinkle around the Canyons and neon-lit karaoke-bar backing tracks that hit with a particular, sugary snap.

For the second release in our Re-Issue Series we've teamed up with London duo Euphonic for a cherry picked deep dive into their back catalogue exploring some of their finest works, fusing Jungle, Breaks, and Down Tempo with unique programming, bass lines and traditional jazz/blues instrumentation.

The "Low Orbit Archives" 12" features a number of artists whom they have collaborated with since the project's inception back in 1997, including dr. Israel, Soothsayer, Kirsty Rock and Neech. Euphonic is led by producer Rob Henry and former Graffiti artist turned DJ Nick Trimm.

Following Part 1 of the project, the recently released 10" vinyl "Jah Science", the full LP follows, featuring an additional 5 tracks with Part 2 offering a wide spectrum of music for audio lovers and record collectors. All tracks have been taken from CD, Vinyl and DAT, unearthed and newly remastered.

The producer, multi-instrumentalist, DJ and label head from Bogota´, Colombia is nothing short of a phenomenon, effortlessly fusing complex sound combinations from Jazz samples to flowing pianos and acid basslines into hugely exciting and unique house records.

He delivers his new EP “Superimposition”, released on French label Noire & Blanche in May 2022. An eclectic collection of solid deep house club burners (Ventana Al Tiempo, Inherently Deep), acid breakbeats (Superimposition) and soft afterhours hip-hop downer (Feeling All Over It).
Gordon’s ability to blend complex jazz instrumentation with acid-licked basslines, golden-age house aesthetics and the cultural sounds of South America is unrivalled; creating a distinctive and beautiful EP.

For its 10th release and 7th vinyl edition, Subject To Restrictions Discs presents another musical journey from Angelo Repetto. He has dived deep and resurfaced with these four heavy, emotional compositions. Together with wonder drummer Nicolas Stocker, Repetto turned his story into music. On the A-side, ‘Panther’ and ‘CP Verletzung’ let us drive through the night, perhaps with the last drop of the enthusiastic feeling of the last dance. Right on the other side, we experience the ‘Sundown Explosion’, hard-hitting all the emotions we have left. ‘No Access’ points the way to our next, as yet unknown, journey.

Octave One's deep and downtempo 90s project Never on Sunday will be back later this year with another EP. Before that, they tease with a lead single that comes with remixes from Skream, P41 and the legendary Detroit brothers themselves.

Though best known for their electrifying live shows and stadium-sized techno productions as Octave One, the Burden brothers also started the electronic band Never On Sunday back in 1991. It saw them put out one solo EP, and one with MK, before the success of the Octave One project took over. Aside from an experimental audiovisual live show in Rome in 2018, it has laid dormant... until now. During the pandemic and no doubt inspired by more time at home and away from the energy of the dance floor, the brothers have cooked up a wealth of deep and thoughtful new material that is rich in detail and atmosphere, as this new single proves.

The Bearer (Original Instrumental) is still defined by scintillating angle sounds, from the meandering synths to the crunchy broken beats, but the tempo is slowed so you have more time to gaze at the cosmic pads and sink deep into the otherworldly sonic landscapes. First to remix is party-starting UK DJ and multi-faceted producer Skream. He lays down rock solid kicks with rib-rattling bass rumbles that make for an incendiary techno track. Add in the spine-tinglingly chilly vocal performance from Karina Mia, and you have a track designed to make a huge impact in even the largest of warehouses.

Next up is P41, the Italian electronic-engineer who worked with Francesco Tristano on his famed live shows and has himself played everywhere from Off Sonar to Studio 80 in Amsterdam. His remix is hugely emotive, with chunky drums laced with subtle melodic bleeps and a futuristic atmosphere that will hypnotize all who hear it. Finally, the Octave One remix is six minutes of perfectly well-swung deepness. The hits are dry, the vocal becomes more warm and soulful and the mid-tempo groove is irresistible.

This is a superb new EP that re-introduces the Never on Sunday in fine style.

When first released back in 2000, Tourist was a global success, selling over four million albums worldwide. It was Ludovic Navarre’s (aka. St Germain) third studio album which really transformed his career into superstardom; combining elements of house and nu jazz to produce an impeccable album to chill out to. The album continues to be hugely popular to this day, with the critically acclaimed Jorja Smith doing a cover of Rose Rouge earlier this year.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of his Tourist album, Ludovic Navarre aka St Germain has invited UK, South Africa, USA, Reunion Island and France producers, DJs and remixers with various musical inspirations, from Deep House to Afro House and Chicago House.

He declares: “I would like to thank all the people I asked to travel through their favorite Tourist album track. Some of them worked on my last Africa-in- spired album in 2015, like my dear friend Atjazz, who helped me a lot on this new project, and also Terry Laird Dj Deep and Traumer. I don’t haveto introduce highly respected newcomers such as Nightmares On Wax ,Jovonn, Ron Trent, Black Motion, Osunlade and Jullian Gomes. I truly enjoy their passion for music, their personality and musical integrity. I know they’ve got soul!”

SONIC002, consists of four tracks that confirm and continue the concept of the label. In the first three tracks the search for "club" sounds focuses on innovative and futuristic sounds. The fourth track, "Timeless", changes the rules with an experimental 100 bpm imprint; it represents a timeless journey where sounds seem to create "parallel dimensions". Vinyl Only.

Andrey and Stas aka Radial Gaze, one of the freshest production duos to emerge from Russia’s vibrant underground scene, are set to release their ‘Refined’ EP on April 23, 2021. Due out on Berlin-based independent label Thisbe Recordings, the project features three original tracks and two remixes. Drawing on Andrey’s background as a resident DJ at Skotny Dvor club and Stas’ background as a sound designer and both theatre and musical director, ‘Refined’ is a perfect representation of the dramatic club music the duo are known for.

Comet Records is so thrilled to present Psyco on Da Bus 20th Anniversary, for the occasion it will be reissued as a Double Vinyl LP and newly remastered.

Recorded in just few weeks in the US during Tony Allen's Black Voices album tour in Spring 2000, on Doctor L’s G3 in different places as hotels rooms, local studios (Nyc, Toronto) and the tour bus.
Doctor L and the members of Tony Allen & Afrobeat 2000 band get the idea of making a collective album alltogether, co-writing both songs and music a
nd creating a new spectrum that reflects their different musical backgrounds. Doctor L, Tony Allen, Jean-Phi Dary, Cesar Anot, Jeff Kellner are the “psyco bus” members.
Completed later in Paris with guests artists like Smadj, Dom Farkas and Eric Guathier, Psyco On Da Bus project fill the gap between the 70's and the new millenium, blending afrobeat rhythms, gospel & soul vocals, jazz & funk licks with wicked electronics and astonishing production.

From the futuristic funk of “Afropusherman” to the eastern sounds of “Many Questions” or the killer floor filler “Push your mind Breakbeat” , from the underrated spiritual suite “Time To Take A Rest”, hybrid fusion of free jazz, poetry, rare groove and nu-beats, to the outstanding “Never Satisfied”.
Last but not least the artwork was created and produced by the talented french graphist designer, filmmaker Edouard Salier. Tony told about his collaboration with Doctor L on this project in 2001: “Younger people are coming into Afrobeat right now. And I personally don't want to be past, I want to be future. Young people like hip-hop, and techno, which is what I must think about. It's the direction I want to take. It's an experiment I've wanted to try. That's why I wanted Doctor L to produce the album.”

Ajak Kwai is a name well known to the airwaves, stage, and broader Australian music community for her powerful performances and strong messages that call for inclusion and celebration of the diversity found throughout Australian society. Originally hailing from a small town of Bor (pronounced ‘bohr’) on the Upper Nile in what is now South Sudan, music has always been part of her life.

Alongside sharing political messages through her music, Ajak Kwai is also a radio broadcaster in Melbourne on both PBS and 3CR. Her shows give a voice to the local African community so that they can tell their stories through music and spoken word, and her music selections focus on songs that have changed the world in a positive way. She challenges bias in our society and reminds politicians to be accountable for their language and actions.

Performing in English, Arabic, and her native language, Dinka, Ajak Kwai’s music draws upon South Sudanese funk and blues influences and brings together elements of traditional music alongside more contemporary gestures. The result is something notably unique and powerful.

Ajak Kwai is joined by a band of exceptional standards, including musicians Matthew Erickson, Kanyakumar Shome (Silent Jay, REMI, The Bamboos, Cat Empire, Sampa the Great), Kofi Kunkpe, Maria Moles (Jaala, Jonnine (HTRK), Mildlife), Gabriela Georges and guests Boubacar Gaye (Ausecuma Beats) and Allysha Joy (30/70).

Ajak Kwai’s previous release and fifth album, ‘Let Me Grow My Wings’, was featured as RRR album of the week, feature Album on 2ser, and saw widespread support across community radio. Ajak Kwai has been an ambassador of the Melbourne International Arts Festival for three years and her sets have been highlights at festivals including WOMADelaide, Bluesfest, Brunswick Music Festival, A Festival Called Panama, Dark Mofo, Port Fairy Folk Festival and Woodford Folk Festival.

Tecwaa is no newcomer in the Höga Nord-roster. He has already made two appearances on the label with an album and a single. This, his third release on the label is another 7” containing pure, high quality Left-field and Slow-disco.

The sound in Tecwaa’s music might be explained partly by his geographic position. Being based in York the sound is not as predictable as it might have been if the music was produced in one of the country’s larger cities. It holds a lot of influences found in, say Manchester and London, but still the music holds a contrasting quality with equal parts of freedom and melancholy resounding in the tracks. And the result is unique and beautiful: Airy and free-floating piano drills, dub effects from space and ghost-choruses recorded from secret rooms inside York’s Minister give the electronic sound an organic feel. The melancholy is more of an eerie feeling hiding beneath it all – maybe the case for most DJs living through these times.

Still the show goes on and on and with Tecwaa staying productive and keeping top premium music alive, all the messed-up kids missing life in the clubs get their share while in this hiatus.

Superkasety (new label from DJ Duch) and The Very Polish Cut Outs join forces to release the stunning debut album from ETNOBOTANIKA - a duo of producers from Ruda Slaska - one of the most exciting new acts on the Polish electronic music scene.
Their eyes and ears are turned to the hauntological scraps of the past - fragments of old Polish movies, communist era TV series, excerpts from half-forgotten Polish songs.
With their LP 'FruwajÄ…cy Przestepca' the duo takes listeners on a musical journey which goes far beyond the lush land of nostalgia and explores brand new territories of house, trip-hop and ambient music. What stands out is a completely different approach to sampling techniques and combining beat-maker practices with instruments and the sound of contemporary electronic music.

'Fruwający Przestępca' contains 15 tracks that will stimulate your mind at home - as effectively - as your body in the club.

The Leuven based organisation nacht invites friends of the party to start their journey as a label. Something for the heads and the feet, NACHT01 contains 3 tracks that span different levels of intensity and cross different tempos, mirroring a good night out the way the crew feels it should.

The fifth release from the mysterious ‘Edits From’ series… HDB concocts 4 downtempo countrydisco-dubs equally applicable to a West Texas sunset as they are a Balearic sunrise. Every release thus far has sold out, this one will too

It's the platform for most past, present and future productions from Frederick Schmid and we can tell you - the Vaults are endless!

We'll start with Fred Fresh ‎– Feelin' Mighty Fresh from 1996!

From when he got his first multitrack recorder as a teenager, Jesper Ryom has been conveying moods through all kinds of genres of music. Over time, this has led the Berlin-based Dane to create a swirl of evocative, yet danceable atmospheres, drawing inspiration from hip hop and weaving in samples from an eclectic music collection. His sound is as emotive and climactic as the post rock that defined much of his musical upbringing, and while his music has been played for the dance floors around the world, his own private persona will rarely be found in clubs.

It was 2010 that marked the beginning of a steadily growing catalogue of intricately assembled house tracks, conveying both buoyant dreams and melancholic moods. A homely perfectionist at heart, Jesper has made the rare choice of saying no to most gigs to focus instead on tracking down whichever sample or coincidental noise that can express the current state he is in – for the benefit of himself and his dedicated following.

The second edition of Freakadelle’s ‘44’ series. ’44-2‘ is inspired by the collective’s annual Space Night event – an open-air event happening in front of the club, which aims to push genre boundaries and question the notion of what is nowadays considered the soundtrack of club culture.

Freakadelle residents and associated artists present themselves across nine diverse tracks ranging from free-floating and experimental electronics to more concrete experiments in leftfield club music. 


Mastering by Mattias Fridell, A3 mastered by DJ Buzz
Artwork by rochus.design
Print by Unschuldig Verdorben

Scuba begins a new project with London vocalist and producer DOMiNii, who makes his debut with ‘Diivorce’.

Paul Rose (aka Scuba) has long since explored cross-genre sounds, blending disparate elements and mining nostalgia to create cool moods and moments of pure escapism. Over four critically acclaimed albums and mix CDs for DJ Kicks, fabric, and Ostgut Ton, he’s established himself as one of the industry’s most respected artists and tastemakers. He’s continued to evade musical pigeonholing over the course of his career, never hesitating to challenge himself with new creative endeavours. The fresh sonic direction expressed on ‘Diivorce’ is one he’s been developing since 2018, when he took an indefinite break from the full-time DJ circuit.

‘Diivorce’ is a collaboration with debut artist DOMiNii, a vocalist and producer who takes influence from the likes of Wang Chung, David Newman, Arthur Russell, and The Blue Nile. Although he appeared uncredited with backing vocals on Scuba’s ‘Forgive Me’, which initially came out last summer, ‘Diivorce’ marks his first official release.

Covering areas as varied as power pop, indietronica, exuberant house, and classic rock, the project seemingly touches as many points as it can think of, something Rose acknowledged in a recent interview where he stated that “we made so many tracks, with no real set direction, so with this record I just wanted to pick a limited number that kind of showed where we’d been. We are working on something now that I’d call a ‘proper album’, which I think will come out in 2022, Diivorce is something I see as a documentation of a period of time.”

The project includes illustrations by French artist Virginie Kypriotis who tells the story of ‘Diivorce’ through the eyes of DOMiNii, detailing a world of abandonment and separation against a backdrop of a faded paradise. Rose was first acquainted with Kypriotis’ work through her iconic illustration ‘A Night at Berghain’, which was later used by the club as their official flyer artwork in December 2017.

The vinyl edition of ‘Diivorce’ includes previously unreleased (and vinyl-exclusive) track ‘Tricks’, and is packaged in a limited edition, numbered, screen-printed sleeve.

Vilnius based Moisk turns to the new Belgian imprint ‘Pleasure Express’. Their Melancholic Raver EP combines deep tribal rhythms with out-of-this world voices and soundscapes. Acidic goodness elegantly draped over slowed down breakbeat patterns and percussions. Dusseldörf based AKI AKI did his magic on the remix. Let’s take a ride on the Pleasure Express!

he first release of Escape Artist’s new imprint is a various artists affair brought together by the power of friendship. After years of being sent amazing music by new and old friends from near and afar, the time has come to share this joy with the rest of the world. As a label, we will seek to shine a light on psychedelic music of all designs and the first release will focus on the dance variety. It is the label’s hope that the love and friendship that brought this project together will shine through in the music.

Side A opens with cris. p’s ‘Lemon’, a mid-tempo breakbeat roller that epitomises the ideal qualities of a track found in an opening set. Playful acid notes and indecipherable spoken work glisten against a backdrop of thumping kicks and warm sub-bass. Grim Beazley’s ‘Acid Leaf’ evokes a memory of crowded peak time floors. The song’s gentle introduction gives way to powerful 303/909 interplay and leaves us yearning to go back to that place.

Hex Editor’s transcendental breakbeat dreamscape ‘Tuesday’ opens the B side with expert precision. Soaring pads and swimming arpeggios provide the perfect spot for the listener to land after their flight from the previous side. Escape Artist & cris. p’s ‘People Division’ rounds out the release. A kaleidoscopic downtempo introduction leads to a groove punctuated with intricate polyrhythmic basslines. Produced during the lockdown, this piece is an attempt to sonically manifest our collective desire to return to the dancefloor.

PSY SECTION was founded on stolen land. We acknowledge that this release was created on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. We pay our respects to elders past, present, and emerging.

Over the last few years, NuNorthern Soul has established a number of traditions, most notably annual releases that provide a snapshot of the label’s output while also considering their suitability for certain seasons. Perhaps the most popular is founder Phil Cooper’s Summer Selections series, which each year showcases warm and sunny gems mined from a range of forthcoming releases.

The 2021 edition of the sampler, the third in total, may well be the best yet. Six tracks deep and as subtly varied as you’d expect, the entertaining set features tracks from a mixture of exciting newcomers, experienced producers and long-time members of the NuNorthern Soul family.

To kick things off, Cooper introduces us to Marshall Watson, an American producer who later in the year will release two five-track EPs on the label. ‘A Door To The Sky’, which will feature on the Sunsets On Larkin Part 1 EP, is sumptuously sun-kissed, with delay-laden electric guitar textures and sparkling electronics reclining over a tactile electronic groove.

LOVA’s ‘Echoes of Memories’, the track that follows, recalls the atmospheric, synthesizer-sporting new age Balearica popularised by Quiet Force in the late 1980s. The Italian producer was signed after bringing a USB stick of productions to one of Phil Cooper’s gigs in Ibiza; his Gypsophilia EP will be one to check when it drops later in the year.

Gusk’s ‘Sketch #4 - Anafi Nights’ is seductive and exotic. It’s a crackling and atmospheric musical painting that daubs starry stabs and yearning melodies atop a bubbly, lo-fi drum machine beat. It provides a perfect snapshot of the Greek musician’s Mediterranean Sketches EP, which gathers together home recordings made between 1997 and 2003.

Arguably even more immersive and enveloping is ‘Aqua Blancas Sunrise’ by Tambores En Benirras, the musical project of Cumbrian selector DJ Gripper. A slow-burning delight full of intricate musical flourishes –think drifting female vocalizations, Indian-influenced percussion, twinkling pianos and haunting clarinet motifs the track is one of the many highlights on the Barrow in Furness based producer’s forthcoming debut album for NuNorthern Soul.

To round things off, Cooper has chosen to offer-up cuts from two very experienced artists. George Solar (real name Georg Boskamp) is an Ibiza-based German producer who has been collaborating and releasing music since the late 1980s. ‘Infrared’, his contribution to Summer Selections 3, is a languid and glassy-eyed slab of slow-motion Balearic dub. His Los Ra-yos Del Sol EP will be one to look out for later in the year and is his debut solo release.

The sampler’s final missive fittingly comes from long-time friend of the family B.J Smith, a regular contributor to NuNorthern Soul releases who has reunited with Huw Costin – a vocalist he previously worked with on Smith & Mudd releases for Claremont 56 for a double A side single due later in 2021. ‘Sun When You Come’ is as warming and hazy as you’d expect and features Costin’s emotive, reverb-laden vocals and mazy electric piano solos rising above a suitably horizontal groove. It provides a stunning, sunset-ready conclusion to another superb set of Summer Selections.

limited edition of 200 copies, tip-on cover, black vinyl

Krokakai, an emergent Glaswegian producer with a penchant for hardware – largely using an MPC2000XL, SH09, MS20 Mini, TT-303, Roland Alpha Juno and other trusted tools – he’s already turned heads on labels such as Invisible Inc and PowerStation Records. Right here he lays down the label’s parameters with four unique, far-reaching escapades.

A limited-edition, hand-numbered L.P. dedicated to the previuosly unreleased 1990 project by Manrico & Nicola - featuring two special new Balearic versions by Ed Longo. Manrico & Nicola are comprised of Italian artist, singer, composer and author Manrico Mologni, together with saxophonist, composer and sound engineer Nicola Calgari. Manrico and Nicola were collaborating for some time in artistic harmony, and decided to form a duo to undertake their own album. Nine songs identified, arranged and recorded on a wave of enthusiasm - their "alchemy" gave excellent results. At the last stage of the work unfortunately, misfortune struck - Manrico fell very ill. For the respect of a unique creative moment, and for a sort of psychological "removal" all of this was forgotten until recently. By chance, Manrico had an old cassette with a couple of those songs - the memories resurfaced and it was immediately a race to meet again. Going though many recording studios, Nicola found the DAT with the temporary mixes which had been waiting for years with their emotional content.
But finding a way to transfer the songs was not easy. Quite by chance, a miracle took place. Their friend Massimo Parretti, in his post-production studio, was still equipped to transfer from DAT, and everything worked - with the sound intact as 30 years before!
The rest is news, and now a 1990 album - and piece of history - resurfaces.
Archeo Recordings is a re-issue record label that regenerates old, lost, or forgotten rare gems, of mostly Italian music, but also 70's, 80's and 90's music from across the world.
All releases are licensed audio tracks, re-mastered in their original form. The sleeves are re-created for today, but all based on the original images.
Archeo would like to make the music available to a wider audience of collectors, DJs, music lovers of a forgotten time.
Artwork by Filippo Sala, Milan, 1990.

Prins Emanuel's third LP, breathing hope & sentimentality. The album showcases a delicate mix of instrumental proficiency and a keen sense of space. All tracks have a very intuitive and organic feel, mixing medieval dance tempos with modern drum computers.

Greenhouse Vol. 1 is a striking compilation of new electronic music emerging from the far-flung western corner of the Australian continent; the Whadjuk region around Perth. The artists represented, themselves contributors- turned-alumni of the Greenhouse, have turned in tracks that deftly illustrate a long, dreamy evening inside the Greenhouse – “a place of warmth and recovery through the exchange of music and good company”.

From the opener, Mei Saraswati’s ‘Wannaz’, to the closer, Late Night Protocol’s ‘Drone Clarity’, there are palpable atmospheric and aesthetic threads running right the way through this Greenhouse compilation. CTP’s ‘untitled’ detours into gauzy dub techno territory, whereas Dentistry’s ‘Resin’ floats skittishly into almost free-time space.

Those familiar with Phil Stroud’s sublime drumming will likely also appreciate the exercise in restraint and colour he displays on ‘Harp Dub’. For those of you as of yet unfamiliar with Lia T, she follows up Sketches222, also released on Deep Water, with ‘Mini Jewel’, yet another strong addition to her growing catalog of loosely ambient sketches and field-recording-adjacent sound works.

Hame DJ and Roza Terenzi convene on ‘Pinky’s Network’, a percussive workout decked-out and resplendent in the sonic cues fans of each will recognise; similarly, Basic Mind’s ‘Sicilian Slide’ slips into the Balearic territory of prior outings with a robust, emphatic broken-beat. In addition, Leaving’s ‘Detached Lines’, a fragile, gorgeous spurling of meditative pads and phrases, touches on the best shades and tones developed across an expansive recorded output.

Remastered vinyl re-release of Kamchatka EP from Garo. Stumbling beats, trippy melodies and some chopped up madness. Featuring legendary track Freddy and exclusive bonus scratch skit.

Vinyl re-issue of Future Sound of London’s seminal album, Dead Cities. Marking 25 years since its original release this cult album is pressed on vinyl for the first time since its 1996 release.

“Herd Killing” and “We Have Explosive (Herd Killing mix)” both feature several samples from the Run DMC album Tougher Than Leather.

Title track “Dead Cities” contains a vocal sample at the beginning of Laurence Fishburne from the film Deep Cover.

Single “My Kingdom” features A vocal sample of “Rachael’s Song” (aka “Rachel’s Song”) by Vangelis, from the Blade Runner soundtrack .

The album charted in the UK top 40 with “My Kingdom” & “We Have Explosive” both entered the UK singles chart in the top 15.

Imagine Prometheus, the thief of fire, the father of civilisation, had been spellbound by the sirens chanting and never felt pain, when the eagle bit his liver. Total enchantment, created by sound to overcome the pain of existence. A sound, styled by the ideal harmony of body and soul. And yet, the pain is still there, hidden between the notes, driving a romantic vision of salvation.

If Prometheus could have translated his fictitious epiphany into singing, it might sound like Ghédalia Tazartès’s chanting in “White Layers Over Black Paper”, one of the eight snake dance tracks-not-tracks by German producer Detlef Weinrich aka Tolouse Low Trax and French singer, hurdy-gurdy, spinet and harp player Emmanuelle Parrenin. During some days of intimate plays in Paris they created “Jours de Grève”, a bouquet of music full of mirrors, eyes, statues, secret doors, rooms, and blood. With the offhanded help by friends and like-minded souls like Versatile aura mystic Gilbert Cohen, French avant-garde saxophone player Quentin Rollet and his fellow countryman, experimental voice artist Ghédalia Tazartès, they transformed in Cohen’s studio impulsive emotions into a kind of medieval cult sound that dances with tribal dub layers in search for a higher ground.

The session took place during an intensive time of public strikes in the French capital, that tied up the public life of Paris and gave birth to the album’s title Jours de Grève. After the jam, Weinrich drove back to his old hometown Düsseldorf, sat down with his friend Jan Schulte aka Wolf Müller and mixed the captured notes, sounds, rhythms and singings into pristine tripping music, that avoids stylistic categorisations. As rather architecture, sculpture, painting, performing or film could express what Parrenin’s hypnotic hurdy-gurdy performances, Tazartès’s ancient deeply emotive ululations, Rollet’s almost religious saxophone notes and Weinrich’s toting grooves evoke in the psyche, it might be better to go back to Prometheus and the fire, that brought us light and warmth. Jours de Grève does too.

And it is a stolen one. A borrowed one. Affected by art and life outside of sound. Lent from a forgotten monument in a random city around the world. Swayed by an afternoon glass of wine in a Parisian street café. Affected by music of all ages. Unconsciously developed in the spirit of Philippe Doray and Les Asociaux Associés, Théâtre du Chêne Noir d'Avignon or Areski Belkacem’s collaborations with Brigitte Fontaine. Above all Emmanuelle Parrenin extramundane voice swings, mutating between speech and chant, while Ghédalia Tazartès mourns like a wise illusionist. In tunes like “Caltec’s Dance” you even feel the airiness of early Fun Boy Three recordings. All that is rooted on Weinrich’s Tolouse Low Trax magnetic signature grooves, this time floating between dark tribal upbeat sexiness and dubbed-down bass sculpturalism.

If it is true that illuminating music stirs by its mysterious resemblance to the objects and feelings which motivated it, then “Jours de Grève” is an in impulse composed primitive state of rhizomatic paranormal psychic phenomenon, that incorporates all the worlds, that the naked eye cannot see.

Born and raised in Indonesia, Omar Joesoef built this EP with samples of old records of ethnic music that he has found in an abandoned radio station on Java island. Named Lokananta, it is one of the first radios setting up in Indonesia in the 50’s. The recordings in Omar’s EP come from rituals and meditative chants of one of the last tribes still living in the ancient way, completely disconnected from the modern world.

Chants of Gorontalo opening track is named after a province of Indonesia located on the island of Sulawesi. Over there lives the Dayak tribe who still follows its ancient traditional way of life. They practice rituals to communicate with their ancestors using chants and meditation. This first track is about a prayer for harvests, fertility and prosperity. Dayak is a very intimate and enclosed tribe, keeping themselves away from modern society. These recordings of them singing found by Omar in Lokananta radio station are very rare and special. Lokananta is also the first record label of Indonesia, releasing recordings of wayang performances, speeches, Javanese orchestra. It is a great source of inspiration for Joesoef’s work.

Morning World track is a reading of a Java old story about a mythical creature called Gatot Kaca. Searching old records in his storage room, Omar accidentally found somewhat of a scripture in ancient Javanese. The meaning of it came from his family. The script was released by Kraton, an ancient Javanese royal palace, and was passed down on Omar’s mother’s side of the family. The story is a simplified folklore called Wayang, a traditional form of puppet theatre play from Java island. Omar found a Latin version of the script and asked his friend Sasha Alatas to read it in the way he used to hear it at Wayang plays when he was a kid. To complete the track, Omar made some minor manipulations of the voice and added a few samples of Lokananta records such as bird sounds and environmental soundscape.

“It’s the Heat in the Room” track conveys a strong and powerful energy with consistent heavy bassline, snappy snare, groovy percussion ensemble and vocal samples of the Dayak tribe. The song emulates the adrenalin rush one might feel in the middle of a night hunt. Some of the sounds chosen reminds of the echoes that may be experienced in a dark cave when a single stone breaks on the floor.

For ONO Records’ debut release we are incredibly excited to present to the world the illusive Perth producer e-Plume. Wafting through from the suburbs of Perth, e-Plume conjures floaty breakbeat science, rantzenian digi-dub and twisted illbient manipulations to create five mystical yet utterly unique tracks.

Side A embarks on a tripped out subaquatic voyage, discovering a flurry of liquid breaks and swirling organs on Fountain Trip. Eventually docking on a concrete mainland with the trip-hop induced End of Voltaire.

Side B ventures further in-land at a breakneck speed with the frenetic soundclash junglism of Channel 3, before launching into the atmospheric slo-mo breaks n’ bass of Lorizon. Ending up well into the outer-rim with the otherworldly melodic communique of Kiki’s Gambert.

In March 2020, the Omakase team decided to gather some producers, musicians and singers they knew around a collective project, having the large electronic music spectrum as principal axis. From this idea was born, a few months later, a multiple opus, varied, rich of textures, shapes and influences going from trip-hop and bass to ambient, breaks, beat, house, lo-fi and jungle. This compilation, first record of the label, regroups several talented artists from the modern electronic
music scene who try to question sounds of today and tomorrow.

Soundclash or romance? Androo versus Bony Fly have composed six tracks finely balanced between the care given to sound experimentation and the explosive ardor of the dancefloor. Love Affair EP was born from this particular research, the fruit of a common passion for dub music, dancehall and its infinite variations. Radical and popular, the EP carries within it this generous and spontaneous quest for dance, naturally provoking body movements. It is also combined with a particular attention to sound textures, subtle and harmonious, whose multiple references (to jazz in particular) testify to an overflowing curiosity.