nice price deal !!! xglare (all caps), is jessee egan, a brooklyn-based producer, sound designer and multimedia artist. she has released music under multiple aliases since 2011, most notably on ay japan. her latest incarnation, xglare, balances warped sound design, unearthly atmospheres and experimental rhythms that reject genre boundaries. representing brooklyn in full force on the debut record, “morph ep,” xglare yields incredibly heavy atmospheres. this is a mature record showing patience, design and a thoughtfulness sorely lacking in much of the electronic music scene. beats and dance elements take center stage alongside impossibly powerful, almost elemental transitions. track 1, lymph sets the tone with an updated halcyon rave sound. imagine standing in a field in the countryside at an illegal rave at 6 in the morning as the sun is rising, wind blowing in the air. track 2 fossa feat ariadne, an opera trained singer, immediately submits you to whisper shouting, a highlight of the album. in between more dance floor-oriented tracks, spore and plexus, sit two sound design gems, title track morph with its pounding rhythmic charges and vast reverberated rooms, and ganglia, which reminds of early do you know-era squarepusher. a well-rounded ep showing off the many talents of xglare also comes housed in beautiful artwork designed by egan herself.

aus welcome back label favourite shenoda for his third release on the label, burn backed with a remix from juxta position. previous releases on hypercolour & electric minds have seen shenoda firmly on the ascent but its in his recent outings on aus that his bold, rugged club music has really reached its zenith. burn follows suit with its predecessors with its power being rooted in seismic, analogue drums that are balanced against soft, allaying melodies. the muscular vista then rolls out punching stabs and tight, shuffling drums before label mate marquis hawkes dusts off his juxta position alias and delivers a pacey and forthright take on burn. melodies are softly mangled and given a spectral quality that recalls his mazury on dvs1’s mistress wrapping another solid addition to the catalogue as the aus music family continue to deliver the goods.

step up house running, a label making its first steps with this release, welcoming some new talent into the fold and making a strong first impression in the process. tell keeps things deep with the undulating warmth of floating lands, while meemo has a fractured soul mood hovering over therez. baltra s paris la nuit is a more feisty affair with its gnarly, acid lead line but it s balanced out by a fun and funky disco flair, and then kianis virunga rounds the record off with a lovely arpeggio-powered remix of deceds sound curiosit-.

ltd 50 % deal, o.xander is back on nous for another jaunt into textured techno rhythms all sewn together with a cheeky side eye on diverting off the obvious path and sustaining a reticence for anything too formal.ep opener snowspeeder blues is a glacial skitter around pitch perfect retro-techno territories, while thru our veins harnesses the eternal power of acid and a perfect balance takes a wry slo-mo lens to the synth-core sound.over on side b we are back in the acid zone for full spectrum, if a more mournful and disquieting rendition of that genre, with the junipers dub version squirming through a gauzy terra firma of dim lit detroit design.

new vinyl-only label park & ride records set off with their inaugural release, a four track ep of chicago focused, underground techno. welcoming four close cohorts of the balance artists family, the release shifts between groovy techno, deep garage flavours, left-of-centre house and spaced-out deep house with consummate ease. full of individuality and personality, its the perfect way to introduce the world to our new label (powered by balance artists).

after the killer release by marco shuttle vidd is back after a long silence with their 2nd release. a special release from somebody who has done a lot in a very short time: gw from stockholm. surrounded by mystery and simplicity, hurry up demonstrates both power and heft with few elements. the driving force builds a tension which really doesnt reach a peak, something that the locked groove vocal manages to balance perfectly. the energy is constant and keeps things interesting. the b-side starts off with runaway, a chicago-resembling funk track that reflects the 90s tradition and the new digital age. tonight closes the doors of this release and the closing lights come on, it is time to go home.

go disco! a call to all who fall in love with the song >sue is blue<. everything is focused on the slow, but swinging groove, including individual flashing fragments of the 20s. a dirty house music base drum pushes this track towards the dancefloor. the piece >offshore< takes you on a journey with its epic, modest and balanced mood, which turns out to be a dancefloor sensation. >teheran traffic< is speeding up the tempo. the b-side is determined by a powerful sound. just as the >far from here edit< by philipp wolgast works well in the club.

this 12inch release comes with two functional tracks which enables the electronic music scene in excitement. the a-site kicks off with >fesselfete<: the designers of the track - j÷rg dinsher and julia husler- implemented a rhythmically complex track with this release. detached from insipid song-structures, the galloping beat leads through the eight minutes of the track. shifting hi-hats and smacking beat-elements, snuggle around the groove and influence in a spectacular style the sensed speed. the extra bass- pressure catapulting the - full of character - >fesselfete< directly to the floors of the clubs, where it scores with memorable features and powerful impression. the second a-site comes with danny d.s enthralling >lederpeter<. danny doesnt dilly-dally and starts >lederpeter< with a bulletproof beat. an atmospheric mood and a deep bassline creat the perfect balance between crisp and soft. he succeeds in creating a wonderful and intelligent transparency. the spell of monotonous passages gets an individual boost from a fantastic kick.

part 2 of the simple, maybe release reveals the dark side of the brothers schwarz. yeah ought to be taken literally. batten down the hatches and turn up the volume, here comes a true masterpiece. naturally, tiefschwarz have saved the banger until last. there are not many tracks out there, which make you get up and dance after two bars already. the basis of yeah is a perfectly orchestrated drum beat. a steady bass drum, rolling toms, a crisp snare, all together powered by a low-pitch synth sample in the background. a sound, that is as offensive and sentimental as possible at the same time. add a well-filtered choir sample on top and you get a deepness and amplitude that can only be mastered by the finest soundsystems on the planet. like looking through a burning glass, the break shows what tiefschwarz are really all about with this track: gradually, all sound elements are shut down, overlayed by white noise that comes with goosebumps guarantee. this spring, youll better be on the dancefloor, when the drums set in again! deininger on the b-side is an almost gloomy track, driven by a dark deep-house bass line. once again, tiefschwarz play with a wide range of elements: an off-beat synth wind section, dry tinker bells and sliced vocals, well-orchestrated by a fine mix. all together this creates the perfect atmosphere for a monday morning sun rise. exhausted, dried-out, longing for your bed and a glass of water, yet at the same time not wanting to go home. great music got soul, the perfect balance, that keeps the heart pumping and the body dancing. deininger is about this certain temper, the groove, that makes you carry on.

persona label boss stewart walker returns with his first 12 release since last year s well-received album >concentricity<. on this release he continues to seek the correct balance between power and detail in high, medium, and low intensity versions. the powerful a - side, >the stiff materialist< kicks off the release with at least a thousand sounds and a clearly defined dynamic narrative which shifts between many unique-sounding peaks and plateaus.

after hyperdubs first compilation of 10th anniversary dancefloor heaters, -hyperdub 10.2- features some of the labels best songs of the last five years or so. hyperdub is often associated with dark and brooding instrumental music, however, this mid-summer collection sheds some sunlight over that dread filled reputation, showcasing an underrated cast of talented songwriters, vocalists and producers. the album is laced with brand new cuts from kode9, cooly g, morgan zarate feauring. eska and ghostface killah, jessy lanza, dean blunt & inga copeland, and dva featuring zaki ibrahim. ranging from melancholy r&b, garage, funk, footwork and icy pop, -10.2- covers this overlooked side of the labels back catalogue. the album opens with dean blunt & inga copeland-s grime lullaby signal 2012, one of their final collaborations, moving into burials dubbed-out r&b on shell of light from his seminal album untrue, and jessy lanzas stand-out cut 5785021, before sliding into the digi dub meets r & b slow jam of south londons cooly g with obsessed. king britt features next, with his fhloston paradigm project, on the deeply emotive never defeated- featuring rachel claudio. after their collaboration on his pretty ugly album, dva is joined again by south african singer zaki ibrahim with their brand new summery mutant garage track solid. dam funk jumps on ikonikas funk bomb -mr. cake-, adding a fun, party vocal. continuing the -80s funk vibe is morgan zarate and roses gabors ice cold prince-influenced pusher taker, the lead track from his 2013 ep. jessy lanza contributes some more sparkling r&b with the brand new you and me, followed by another track from morgan zarate, a lost dub featuring the soulful eska and wu tang clans ghostface killah. the tempo raises in the final stretch of the album with dvas and fatimas collaboration just vybe, terror danjah & melekas shimmering r&g cut you make me feel and the 160 bpm soul of the late dj rashads only one from his acclaimed double cup album. the cd closes with the lo-fi, bashy mutation of kode9 & copelands lies lies. 10.2 calls on hyperdubs sirens to balance the moody energy of 10.1 with fourteen slices of hyper soul. let them lead you astray

its all too easy for nostalgia to tip into something negative. at its best its a celebration of the best the past has to offer while putting it into a contemporary context, at its worst its moaning that things arent as good as they used to be. hercules & love affair have always been firmly in the first category. main man andy butler takes classic house and disco sounds and uses them to craft dance music that has one foot in the past, the other cutting a rug on dancefloors right now. its a well-judged and expertly executed balance.