after a couple of sparking. floor-oriented releases by uk luminary henry wu and head honcho pablo valentino. mcde recordings continues its explorations of dance music spectrum with a brand new offering. right on time for the summer. . now batting is nomadic beatsmith hugo lx. who develops a new chapter in his multi-faceted discography with this 5 track opus. ranging from classic house to disco flavored jams. detouring through the ambiant and jazz fields. always with a certain eastern vibe to it. with great help from his regular contributors on bass. keys and horns. he delivers a soundscape that aims to be vibrant. powerful. yet sensual and most of all. prove to be timeless
flight 770 is an ep about global moods and inspirations. made around a trip to georgia. where thee j johanz played at a festival with his friends from goa.
best effort records jumps out of the box with their inaugural release ’number one’ - a selection of tracks that celebrate friends making music together. cold emotion are danny wild and rory stenning. the duo explore improvised club music using various keyboards and modular synthesisers. “toast” is a track taken from an extensive live recording session from 2015. accidental cv messages create unexpected cyclic baseline patterns while keyboard melodies float freely above jacking modular beats. the result is an imperfect. inspired club jam ready for any occasion. -cantao- pitches things down from the hypnotic frenzy of -toast- to offer a unique hybrid between computerized dub. subaquatic g-funk and triphop ambiance. canadian content! -manipulate me- is a collaboration between ivy barkakati and phran. the stark. alienated quality of ivy s spoken vocals & dark subject matter sounds even more claustrophobic and sinister backed up by the duo s frigid machine-funk. which is more in the spirit austere & icy 80s coldwave than modern house music. metric systems are a duo from somewhere in australia. the fathoms-deep -adaptation dub”. recored in 2009. is reminiscent of australia s after-hour dub technicians sheriff lindo or andy rantzen. look out for a full lp later in the year
after a hiatus in 2017. city fly records return with a superb ep from label co-owner & serious sample digger. the last trip to gandahar. with previous sell out releases on better listen. kolour ltd and his sublime disco infused nugget r136a1 also on city fly. gandy’s releases have gained support from the likes of giorgio moroder. larry heard and bbc radio 6music. the ep brings an abundance of dancefloor dynamite which includes a collaboration with the ever talented erik rico. who has previously worked alongside artists as diverse as ron trent. dj spinna. q-tip and hip hop monarch tupac shakur. man of the moment byron the aquarius also steps up with a beautifully deep remix of higher! in a full ‘body & soul’ style.
next release on echovolt s regular run is the debut ep by priori. co-founder of naff recordings. three cuts of large-scale psychedelia where machines get squeezed and bent for sound. it’s dynamic acid for our constantly evolving and restless minds. an ode to the environment that nurtures us. an attempt to ring mod the sun and the sea.
with this debut ep. the ozzie producer succeeds in rounding up disparate & dubious elements together in a serious way without departing from a non-serious attitude - the record even rounds off with a very “put your hands in the air” moment with space gekko’s ravey sirens. “music to party on the river yarra to” (just google it).
ray kandinski embarks on the fifteenth expedition into the exotic lands of palm trees and blue skies with the moody and hazy ‘cressida’ ep for shall not fade sister-label lost palms. expedition fifteen features four jams packed full of dusty synth lines. spacey soundscapes and eerie vocals.
after running parties in liverpool for nearly a decade. abandon silence turn their hand to releasing music rather than relaying it with the launch of abandon silence records. the label will be used as an output for the sounds of their legendary parties with a series of club tracks ready for dancefloors beyond the north west. the label also focuses on new talent. with a preference to those from liverpool and merseyside. with the first release coming from scouse native lucas welle.
bot003 is a two-track release from similarobjects introducing aquatic new depths and euphoric highs to the hard-working manila-based producer’s prolific resume. a case study in compare and contrast. cascading harps and hypnotic signal tones paint “gersisa” with an ominous momentum. while jazzy keys peek out and ultimately flourish from far below surface-level on “blueprint to atlantis”.