naming your first release after your band is an auspicious way to introduce oneself, to say the least, but birds & souls have done just that-and the results more than live up to their sensational packaging. birds & souls lead single >birds & souls< (from the debut birds & souls ep on spectral sound) is an exuberant track built more for rock shows than dancefloors, charting a journey from giddy, congas-and-claves house to synth-drenched space disco to ecstatic arpeggiated bliss and back again.

velvet records proudly presents « v003 », a four-tracks long overview and celebration of the contemporary electronic music scene. together, the artists featured on the french label s first compilation present an audacious look at the depth and span of the scene while also moving the form forward into bold new shapes. touching on expansive deep techno and minimal house, this compilation is made up off exclusively produced and previously unreleased music from ekomine, yaroslav lenzyak, leopol and damien k. sahri, capturing the essence of the current chapter of these genres, hinting at the shape of those to come. french producer ekomine is the first to hit the road with « ramble », a solid sweet-sour blend of atmospheric sounds leading the listener to find himself gently trapped into an unpredictable deep-space diving journey. this is where ukrainian artist yaroslav lenzyak and acolyte rata come in with « cellar door ». no constellations here, but the substantive claustrophobic tale of a spectral entity slowly catching your doppelgänger in the twilight hours. an angel flies and we re suddenly entering the sensitive world of « joy misery » from parisian early analog machines enthusiast leopol, who invites wandering souls to a dance-oriented and delicate voodoo ritual before passing the torch to berlin-based producer damien k. sahri s « travel marvel » which confers the record a multi-ethnic dimension, kindly whiplashing bodies with a mixture of unavoidable pulsations.