1/2 gott is the new project of sneaker from dresden/berlin and scannoir from zurich, who share their love for ebm and synth pop not only when djing but also when producing. in several nights and with the help of a decent group of instruments, they have evoked a series of tracks that can certainly be subsumed as new swiss wave. the first record is entitled 1/2 gott and will be followed by gott in the foreseeable future. the result is music that sounds as if the iron curtain had never fallen. although sneaker likes to step to the microphone, he leaves the vocals to scannoir, who gives the perfect counterpart for the menacing beats with his deep laments. the tracks are little masterpieces in the matter of repetition with whipping drums and off-beat percussions. however, they cannot disguise their hymn-like gesture. this must be the sound of a sunrise over the industrial area.

tauchen is next up on jam

inc ruf dug mix

brtainfeeder presents the new album from bay area musician salami rose joe louis. the 180 gram vinyl includes a download code.

five essential tracks from detroit techno grandmaster terrence dixon.

volume 9! the man is unstoppable. in 3 short years, hotmood has become a staple across all areas of the house arena. each volume continues to elevate the mexican superhero of soul. 4 dancefloor cuts to fit any vibe or any party. it s soul, disco, jazz & funk flipped by this master chef

los taxis is a new names you can trust-produced project especially dedicated to the many neighborhoods and taxi operators linking the greater-ny area to the vast artists and culture of cumbia sonidera throughout mexico. featuring sonidero mixteco on vocals.

remixes from asc, nuel, von grall and natural/electronic.system.

nois land is a collaboration of artists from the detroit area who have come together to create an ep appropriately titled big kahuna. these are studio sessions pulled from a time capsule, reconstructed and brought back to life. a uniquely diverse and original listen, with styles ranging from island grooves to disco screamers to peak hour beatdown bangers. featured artists include blair french, todd modes, peter croce, mike seversion, damon warmack, topher horn, sam beaubien, and lennox karlisle.

sept back on voxnox with remix support from setaoc mass and pfirter.

last copies arriving in january for a special price!
since it’s inception in 1991 on the streets of glasgow, soma records has stood for uncompromising quality of the highest level in every area it operates. stuart mcmillan & orde meikle formed slam during the acid house explosion in the late 80’s and then together with friends glenn gibbons & dave clarke they forged one of electronic music’s most widely known and well respected labels. with mcmillan & meikle as the figureheads with their slam project and influenced by the early detroit techno scene, soma quickly began to develop it’s own sound and with their eyes firmly fixed on a vision of the future, the team began the quest to instill their unquenchable thirst for electronic music into the world around them. soma quickly became an international brand as slam’s anthemic “positive education” brought about an electronic renaissance that saw the group thrust into the limelight and green lit the furious rise of the label.
limited edition 5x12 inch box set with illustrated vinyl sleeves, poster and stickers.

debut ep from bay area dj, producer, and remixer sepehr. 6 acid attacks to destroy any dance floor.

legwork’s footage series enlists two up-and-comers from the san francisco bay area. sepehr is a regular dj on the sf club and warehouse scene, making waves in early 2018 on the honey soundsystem label. justin lives and works across the bay in oakland, and can be found at many of the same parties. bottom line is you’ll be hearing more from these two in the future. raw detroit-style house is order here, with a remix from legwork hq of justin’s offering.

black vinyl pressing of the new jerry paper album.

yugen’s third entry, laurine, arrives courtesy of los angeles-based producer and these things take time label-head b. hayes. at just 22 years old, hayes has packed remarkable perspective into this immersive deep-house four-tracker. it’s the work of a true participant. as if hayes work as a dj, producer, and label owner wasn’t enough, he has also put in time as a diy party promoter (he threw the beloved like i, love u parties that used to go down in the chinatown area of chicago) and a production assistant at chicago dance institution smart bar. the sum of all these parts is hayes impeccable ability to balance functionality with sonic taste.

cititrax is very pleased to announce cherskogo drive, a full length lp of 6 tracks from one of moscow’s leading underground electronic artists, pavel milyakov aka buttechno. he may not need any introduction to some but to those not in the know, he’s a unique, relatively new yet prolific musical artist who uses a vast range of instrumentation to create his sound. his music captures the listener in the most thoughtful, precise way.
milyakov makes spacious, dystopian, and wonky reflections on techno that mirror the expansive barrenness and desolation of his high rise-dominated environs. despite keeping a relatively low profile, buttechno still manages to attract significant positive attention, whether providing “spastic electronics and fireball ballistics” in one of the local boiler room event or creating soundtracks for european fashion shows. he has close ties to the area’s design and fashion scenes, and his own artwork fleshes out a singular aesthetic.
the 6 tracks on this lp range from driving electro to 90s techno to slower paced, dirty, perfectly pitched 808 sounds.
limited first pressing of 200 copies on grey vinyl.

continuing the samurai music 10 year anniversary celebrations, decade (phase 2) is a further collection of tracks that map out our distinctive approach to 170 / drum and bass in 2018. commencing with a searing slow burn from ancestral voices, phase 2 features a rare 170 track from asc, a dubbed out contribution from calibre, refreshing beat pattern sorcery from sam kdc and lemna and a crucial collection of half step floor freshness from label staples - homemade weapons, the untouchables, torn, last life, and artilect. shiken hanzo and antagonist make their first samurai music appearances in memorable fashion, while es.tereo makes a return on the cusp of launching his own label. presenting advanced angles on a familiar framework, decade (phase 2) is an entree to the next decade of samurai music.

continuing the samurai music 10 year anniversary celebrations, decade (phase 2) is a further collection of tracks that map out our distinctive approach to 170 / drum and bass in 2018. commencing with a searing slow burn from ancestral voices, phase 2 features a rare 170 track from asc, a dubbed out contribution from calibre, refreshing beat pattern sorcery from sam kdc and lemna and a crucial collection of half step floor freshness from label staples - homemade weapons, the untouchables, torn, last life, and artilect. shiken hanzo and antagonist make their first samurai music appearances in memorable fashion, while es.tereo makes a return on the cusp of launching his own label. presenting advanced angles on a familiar framework, decade (phase 2) is an entree to the next decade of samurai music.

2018 repress! full official re issue of paul johnsons sex crazed / track happy ep on dance mania. all areas of chicago house covered in pjs unique style.. includes the classic give me ecstasy. full 2016 re master.

for the ninth instalment of the konstrukt series it is samuel van dijk’s moniker mohlao that graces the spot with a five track minimalistic exploration of the deep electronic realm. targeting the fiction of a journey through metropolitan areas during nightfall, mohlao’s sound gives us comfort and stimulates our dream-state awareness. the environments that appear are real, yet we are more than passive observers.

inits music has the rare quality of transforming bleakness into a soothing experience. in the duos new ep, wildcard, this mechanism is more intense than ever. and that might be because of the particular circumstances that surrounded its inception. two years ago, nadia dalo and benedikt frey decided to move from darmstadt to berlin. adjusting to a rough area of a big city when coming from a quiet town necessarily brings a change of perspective. for nadia and benedikt, that meant experiencing the city life as outsiders while trying to figure out what they wanted from it.wildcard is the sonic result of this process, and proof that changes always bring growth. recorded in their new home studio during winter, the six tracks on the ep are as haunting as their previous lp for hivern, but with a rawer approach and enhanced power. take cover and solver, an approximation to the kind of moody psych-techno they display in their live-shows and two of the most dance floor oriented tracks init have recorded to date. but its the title track which best expresses the mindset of this work. with its skeletal rattle and undulating synths, wildcard feels as desolate as a berlin street in a winter night, but possesses the kind of focus that turns uncertainty into hope. in a similar way, cuts such as copycat or half baked perfectly capture the sort of estrangement -daunting yet hopeful- that comes when moving into a new place, with its slow tempos mirroring the cautious pace of a foreigner and the intoxicated atmospheres calmly distilling the essence of a new environment. nadia and benedikt describe this new habitat as small kids on big bikes, eating dry instant noodles, playing with whats to find on the streets, static aircraft traffic closely over our heads and constant running engines. listening to the music that arose from it, its obvious that, once again, they&# 39,ve been able to overturn apparently hostile elements into a place were youd want to stay forever

lost - minimal-synth-wave - gems have been rescued and now compiled on - nihon no wave-.

one of our most mysterious and intriguing states of consciousness is the dream. we lose consciousness when we enter the deep waters of sleep, only to regain it as we emerge into a series of uncanny private realities. through the fog of the mind we can get a glimpse of a world beyond our day to day realities that sometimes is able to show us deeper truths than those we face in awake states. roger is one of those lucid pioneers that is able to translate these experiences into sound. let him guide you through these wondrous clouds. were very happy to welcome dutch-born german-raised roger van lunteren on sohaso for the first time. his rosa dos ventos ep is a four-track story that oozes retro vibes and nostalgia for a past that never seems to have existed. utilizing raw 80’s analog synths and humanoid acid lines he sets atmospheres that remind of lynchian dreamscapes. vanish starts out with an emotional chord sequence, as you enter the fluid world of the subconscious. a gnarly bassline welcomes your arrival and lets you know things here aren’t exactly what they seem. journeying on through seemingly dark areas, it ends with a hopeful melody and the bass softens as you start feeling weightless. uncontacted uses choral pads and two intertwining 303 sequences as a way of communicating between the different dimensions. aroy dee remixing vanish is like taking a psychotropic liquid, adding more drive to the original while retaining the emotive synth patterns. sleepless is rogers hardest cut on the record, again providing directly plugged in 303 goodness and stomping beats. it rounds off a balanced ep with plenty of introspective dance material.

founding member and co-creator of ‘aiwo rec.‘ dj normal 4 delivers second circle’s eleventh release to date with the ep ‘exoticz’ . . raised close to düsseldorf in the ruhr area, normal 4 grew up amongst a landscape of dusty factory skeletons and abandoned machine complexes in a formerly thriving industrial conglomerate. bringing his signature sound of broken industrial dreams mixed with escapist rave fantasies, normal 4 delves into the archives with two tracks ‘kalaidoka’ and ‘aeo’ recorded around 2011/2012, alongside a new track ‘la arabia’. produced at altstadt studio mülheim an der ruhr, with normal 4’s good friend anke preuß on guitar and vocals, ‘aeo’ is given the remix treatment by phillip otterbach on the ‘aeo (ottertasia mix)’. on the b side the synth freak out ‘kalaidoka’ is followed by ‘la arabia’ which rides the breaks into a dusty moonlit desert rave.

with the new album cubus larvik continue their exploration of dark electronica, this time also incorporating non-musical areas and encrypted occult messages from the worldwide cinematic archive.

gaunt re-emerges after his fantastic mmrh ep on beneath’s mistry imprint, with four tracks of stark, layered audio exploring areas of leftfield techno and club music, as well as pushing out into more abstract and experimental forms.

south london label and party series troy town is proud to present the first release in 3 years from warren brown aka wbeeza, insanely talented south london producer and 1st generation pioneer of what has become affectionately known in dance music as the peckham sound . djs, producers and musicians such as henry wu, bradley zero and chaos in the cbd have added to the wealth of a deeply musical community but it was the likes of brown and another se15 local, el-prevost, who first put the area on the dance music map. although he s resistant to using the word house too often about his music, the swing nods to detroit and chicago while the links to friends and collaborators, delano smith, mike agent x clark and scott grooves are clear. progressing through a musical heritage that has seen him produce across grime, hip-hop, drum n bass and techno but it s his signature low slung, heavy-on-groove and atmosphere productions that have garnered the respect of peers and critics whilst his popular and energetic live sets have seen him tour extensively around the world for the past 8 years. this 3-track ep covers a variety of moods and situations. opening with the od, a heady march to peak time on the dancefloor which has featured heavily in live sets over the last 2 years. the bassline bubbles tantalisingly as it edges through a kinetic, digital riff that sticks with you long after the lights go up. grove park is so low slung that the snare sounds like it might fall out of sync at any moment while the lead synth leads you on a drunk walk home, at times holding it s line before stumbling over a pitch bend and veering to find its balance. bizzle boogie is equal parts gritty, midwest-influenced bounce track and shimmering eyes closed rave moments.

here it is ! the long-awaited new lp from former dubtribe soundsystem shaman sunshine jones far from basking in bay area bliss, sunshine has been busy redefining his organic approach to music making and sound synthesis into a rich and textured fresh take on the house blueprint - best realised in his elaborate & ever-evolving live shows. assembling these improvised pieces into a cohesive whole, that might well just be the best vinyl based representation off a full night out you re likely to hear this year. from the emotive opener to last year s anthemic fall in love, not in line closer, home represents the fluid but refined garden of sound that s grown from dubtribe s rich 90 s foundation. the artwork on this splendidly presented gatefold lp is a photograph of sunshine performing live at the garden party in san francisco by the holy mountain, the collage is done by sunshine and the design is by fernando_graphicos. accompanied by detailed track notes, with all equipment used to make the record alongside sonic schematic. man and machine aligned for total transcendence ! single gatefold lp

substrato continues its path through the research of sounds from the hidden worlds. the label returns with the first various artist called “submerged worlds”. this release is marked out by the juxtaposition of artists coming from different areas lead together by the exploration of sharpened sounds, contributing to this timeless installment.

after the release on french label basse resolution and after a couple of years since his last ep on bosconi, having released with the -under the line- track one of the highlights of our latest 10 years compilation and as bss together with his mates fabio della torre and mass prod, rufus is back on bosconi with a new four tracker record which goes on a new direction compared to the past music he did. -ritual chants- was mainly recorded in the abandoned industrial area of milan called bovisa and probably for this reason the release sounds all around a bit sci fi, cinematic and especially gothic. all begins with the raw techno jam of -fast rituals- where structured mellow and dreamy synth lines combine with the dusty, aggressive and driving rhythmical transportation of its drum section. fast rituals is one of those electronic pieces which tells you a story from the beginning till the end, so please pay attention to it. -sapere sparare- looks calmer but actually has the more mental and psychotic feeling of the whole record, driven by an intoxicating and fat bass line, rough jazzy beats and a lot of twisted out fm synths goodness whose times are punctuated twice by the warning female vocal theme of the track. -last shot #5- instead is a jacked out, hypnotic and darker broken house track dense of pumping low ends and subtle but glorious synth riffs properly made for the late hours and totally in the vein of a baby ford - minimal man production.-tenebre- closes up the ep with its horror movie atmosphere, drilling drones here and there, big bouncy bass lines, reverberated snares, drama strings and a dominant sinister melody which slightly reminds of some old dbx track.

after a wildly successful collaboration on thatmanmonkzs turn it out from the lp, columbus-ing, dave aju suggested they should continue their production streak for a new percussive tracks project. at the same time, aju had finally kept his word to legendary bay area club/underground mc and personality, foxxee aka foxxee brown aka lawrence petty, to work on a track together as well. petty being a core part of the infamous ya mamas house radio show on 106 kmel alongside pete avila and david harness that introduced legions of young bay area djs to real house music, includ-ing aju, in the early 90s.

the new label instereo recordings comes courtesy of dj dan, a us heavyweight who has been in the game since the 90s. while instereo has existed in digital form for some time, this new incarnation of the label brings dans full-fat sound to vinyl, and it kicks off in style with an instantly recognisable, purple tinted edit of a perennial dancefloor funk classic entitled squissh. this is an unreservedly big room record, as in your area also ably demonstrates with its immaculately produced hooks and punchy rhythm section. dan teams up with ido on that sound, whipping up a disco-funk influenced frenzy, and then he tackles scotty boy s silky smooth hey mr dj and turns it into a peak time belter.

a little while before metro area came into life, there was acronym city

extraordinary pieces of music have long stood in direct correlation to the physical surroundings that inspire them. when oliver koletzki and niko schwind packed up their berlin studios last april to spend a month locked away in a cottage nestled in the stunning nature of cape towns noordhoek area before heading to afrikaburn, little did they know that its long beaches, dramatic mountain views and the heritage of its indigenous people would have such a profound effect on the club-ready sound they had championed with a string of eps and live-performances since 2015. the result of four weeks of geo-cultural stimuli and creative experimentation culminated in the album noordhoek, released in may 2018 on stil vor talent. while the productions on noordhoek display the same on-point sound design of previous oliver koletzki and niko schwind releases, the impressive emotional depth and electronic floor-focus of its twelve tracks effortlessly merge with complex rhythmic textures to form a contemporary narrative on ancient dance rituals. after a roller coaster ride through twelve versatile yet coherent productions, one thing is certain as the ultimate crack of thunder crashes down on noordhoek: south africa fuelled the creative energy of two remarkable musicians, who where able to translate the abundance of their impressions into a truly original world of sound.

word of advice to funk lovers, there is not a minute to lose. get on board of the big hustle’s spaceship. before we take off, let s do a little history. the band was founded in 2014 by bass player and composer sébastien levanneur and its aim is to bring together 70 s old school funk with the hippest actual sound laced with influences spanning from steely dan and headhunters, to snarky puppy and soulive. with mighty horn players, a rock and funky rhythm section, the big hustle s music has a very large variety of soundscapes. the first destination takes us to the washington, d.c. area with “turn up”. the groove is clearly go-go music flavored with the trademark sound of cowbells and of course it reminds us of zapp by the use of the talk box on lead vocals, performed here by saad el garrab. and don t miss out shaun martin (snarky puppy, erykah badu, kirk franklin amongst others) as a very special guest performing the talk box solo! second stop is “a curse, a blessing”. it’s an instrumental very much in the freddie hubbard vein during his cti years. the last leg of the a side ends with an instrumental interlude titled “flying donut”. double tribute to jay dee and flying lotus, the music is a simple hip hop loop based on samples. the b side takes us back into the past with two brilliant covers, involving rod temperton the late great british songwriter who scored some of michael jackson s biggest hits. now the idea for this b side is to do the opposite approach from the a side. taking 70 s and 80 s original music and make them travel into time to 2018. we first land with a heatwave song named “the star of a story” from their 1976 central heating album. track 2 is a herbie hancock song named “gettin to the good part” from his 1982 lite me up lp. this time traveler ep journey ends with an interlude. called “gimme dat”, the song deals with the need of new music, new sound. again, this blend of deep rooted funk laced with a contemporary edge is to be consumed without moderation. and do not forget that e.p. also stands for extended pleasure.

sent from a nearby star system, from one world to ours. wondering the streets with misguided importance. how du is new to our planet, but does not yet know why he is here, only that he must heal himself and all those he meets in order to find his home. an inherent feeling that he has arrived to protect and serve others from the deepest patterns of evil overwhelms him. evil that spreads through the mind in conscious frequencies of the brain. areas we call the shadow realms of oneself. unable to communicate in the correct language his correspondence with earth people can only be transmitted through sound and melody. music is his language and his tool. this is the landing. deep garage with a minimal spin and a broken beat format. a story in sounds. best served on the rocks. shouts to the bristol crew. banoffee x

gorgeous and essential archive material from this master of mood. the latest unearthing on chee shimizus 17853 - previously only available on a very limited japanese cassette back early 80s. big tip!

was haben dr. doom, rhythm x, dr. octagon, big willie, mr. gerbik oder black elvis gemeinsam? alles pseudonyme des hiphop-urgesteins kool keith. da kann man schon mal den Überblick verlieren, zumal der ultramagnetic mc s-mc sich auch noch in zahllosen kollaborationen verstrickt. einen künstlerischen höhepunkt erreichte er aber zweifellos als dr. octagon. und nun erscheint endlich moosebumps an exploration into modern day horripilation – das follow up album zum 1996 erschienen dr. octagonecologyst. zum ersten mal seit mehr als 20 jahren ist das dreamteam dan »the automator« nakamura, mc kool keith (keith thornton) und dj qbert (richard quitevis) wieder vereint.

by day he guides lasers into position using precision equipment, at night he crafts raw house music. welcome to the unusual world of reflection port assembly. we got to know one another through a few brief, slurred encounters in the smoking area during the fabled forza italo night or at the aptly named gary’s gang. pretty soon it was clear that he had impeccable taste, like that record that featured coil and ice t. one sunny friday afternoon in june, he tore himself away from guiding the lasers and we met up in the city centre. the light breeze did nothing to dissuade the office workers from gathering outside the pub for sneaky post-work pints. surrounded a sea of grey and blue business attire, we agreed to make ‘retribution’ the second release on first cut. featuring three cuts, it spans house, electro, boogie and even some detroit techno influences. but ’retribution’ is more than the sum of these parts. unlike his precision-based day job it’s rough and imperfect, flawed but warm, messy and charming - like a snapshot of every day life in dublin.

to those familiar with the output of cologne-based imprint firm from back in the early ‘00s, the name of geiger, alias nass, shall undoubtedly ring a bell. herald of an hedonistic melange of funk-soaked electro pop and guitar-riddled synth music, sitting somewhere close to acts like ween and junior boys, alexander geiger is about to break a eight-year hiatus with the drop of his debut album under the newly-founded moniker of fahrland. a release that both encompasses a healthy dose of the discoid tropes from the firm era but also aspires to split with a segment of it, geared towards exploring further undisclosed fringes of his shape-shifting sound universe, ‘mixtape vol.1’ is the fruit of a decisive move from the sleepless berlin to the peaceful countryside landscapes of fahrland – a lushly forested area near potsdam which you’ll have understood played an essential role in geiger’s longed-for return. this limited edition bundle includes the vinyl lp plus mc and download code.

hard work is the first release on industria, robi insinna s brand new project label.

back in 2001 robi insinna founded the seminal relish label in direct response to a then- dominant sound in club music. its catalogue is as vast as it is varied and foreshadowing the music he d go on to make himself under headman/manhead. fast forward to 2018 and after more than a decade he s on the move again launching new project label, industria with not quite an album, not quite an ep, hard work. robi felt there was no reason to split projects the way he did with his aliases and as such the debut will be released under robi s own name.
industria will be focused more on vinyl releases, but not solely vinyl. the project will encompass all area s of robi s work and ties together elements of his art and visual design projects.
limited to 150 numbered copies.

hand-numbered clear mint vinyl 12inch in spray-painted sleeve limited to 200 copies (comes in different coloured sleeve, we cannot guarantee which one you will receive) conoley ospovat, having crossed paths with deep heads like pier bucci, pablo bolivar, and area, now turns up with a fully-realized ep for kimochi. solitude is a pulsing meditation, but with the rays of sunshine breaking throughout, its clear that if its alone, its not lonely. the springtime sounds are full of optimism as well as introspection. ambient house for the adventurous.

5 1 1 5 9 3 is the first full-length album release of vienna based artist electric indigo, who started djing in the late 1980s, worked at the legendary hard wax record store in the early 1990s, and effortlessly manages to entertain the dancing crowd at berghain as much as the contemporary music avant-garde at wien modern. 5 1 1 5 9 3 combines influences of both worlds into a consistent and coherent album. crystalline metallic objects collide, embedded into fractured endless spaces, sparse rhythmical syncopations shaping grids, holding sonic particles in place. rare vocal transformations inject a human touch. 5 1 1 5 9 3 offers a unique universe, full of color and light, partially flirting with current club music and at other times diving deep into sublime sonic areas.

after the successful solaris vinyl on this tracks we keep the rhythm grooving with our fresh innovative views on the donna summer/giorgio moroder hit from the 70s. this remixes on the tom tom club version from 2000 give a splendid atmosphere on the visionary tunes that mark the beginning of the disco house area. some funky tech house mixes flourishing in its disco beats round up this record in a minimalistic electronic approach. our fabulous artists show once again their magnetic skills and vitalize the plutonic waves with its magnificent love rhymes of the hot original hitsong. we recover this pearl with a unique approach to bring back a special tune into our time. the release with its saturated colourful sounds zooms the meaning of love into present times and generates a new vision from the past.

gitanes is olde gods new ep and longest output to date. following a series of singles on the minor planets label, the barcelona duo are up to a 12inch four-tracker on amsterdams atomnation. gitanes brings echoes from spains not-long gone golden club era. its cover depicts an abandoned club from the 90s in a coastal town in the mediterranean, could be anywhere from valencia to barcelona. all four tracks are trippy yet solid-grounded, spacey voices and strings leads all flying up and magically suspended over gross rhythmical foundations. dear cz, a fetiche track, built around a moody casio cz synth stab topped up with acid videogame-like crazyness. gitanes brings entrancing vocals intertwined with more cz pad action. all around is a foggy and paranoid late-night drive, and none of these bitches, a homesick folks walk around tokyos daikanyama area. olde gods are jmii and guillamino

four tracks of ny-flavoured boogie and house goodness - quality is the key word from copenhagen based music for dreams and here is another home run. willie graff splits his year between dj residencies in new york and ibiza. in this new outing with studio partner darren eboli, the influence is, as the title suggests, clearly ny-based. over only four tracks, the pair manage to craft a stunningly comprehensive exploration of the essential elements of dance music. opening track -love flight- staggers into a lush string-driven groove that recalls the glory of metro area meets wally badarou vibes. minimal yet playful, it lounges somewhere in the depths of the house tradition, calling on familiar sounds while throwing in odd details along the way (harmonicas?). it takes both skill, devotion and a sense of humor to pull this track off, making for a strong opening. -moon tan- lingers on a metallic hook that drags you into a plethora of percussion followed by a rubbery soft baseline. dubby key work would suggest this was a new wave band jamming at compass point, while the icy chill of the xylophone transports you into 80s italo territory. -second sun- pulls out the bag of boogie tricks, relying on a firm but humble baseline and smattering drum machine claps. nile rodgers-style guitar licks guide us onwards into a well-orchestrated jam that builds up and breaks down with perfect timing while dreamy chords reach for the sky. -first light- keeps the groove tight while dipping over towards more balearic temperatures. steeped in a watery atmosphere and gentle organic percussion, it focuses in on a trance-inducing arpeggio that lulls you in to the swaying badarou-style synth swirls that intercept it.

beware, discomatin is back. in 2018, the parisian crew of diggers and dj’s originally known for their edits goes official with fully licensed and remastered reissues. for this new adventure, they chose an incredible in-demand french boogie ep from diva, an eighties funk band from bordeaux. diva only released one ep with la nuit, a sentimental, almost poetic boogie banger with great synth, guitar and vocal parts. the track could honestly have been a radio hit in the eighties with some real promotion. today, it’s still time to make it right and it is already an anthem in the french underground disco scene. originally on the b side of the 1985 original release on cactus, la nuit is here available with its two different versions (12inch and 7inch mix) and comes also with prise au piege, a more synth-pop influenced funk track which gave its name to the original release. the band was formed by gabrielle andriampanana, alex louisor and olivier renoir. before diva, these last two already played together in the local new-wave band bolton which was one of the first of the area to use synthetisers. even if they had a small recognition at the time, the original release stood quite underground. thanks to discomatin, its now available to the real connoisseurs and still with the fantastic illustrations of french artist camille de cussac on the back cover.

fuzzed out and psychedelic covers of rare and classic tracks performed by san francisco’s monophonics. monophonics are back with a six-song ep that fuses the complimentary and explosive soul, rock and funk influences, proving themselves to be the rightful inheritors of the bay area’s impressive psychedelic soul sound. mirrors is comprised entirely of cover tunes, except that i doubt you’ve ever heard of half the deeply funky and soulful originals that inspired these soulful, tastefully produced, and timeless monophonics treatments. “we wanted to do a couple songs that were more familiar to people and then shine some light on groups we’re big into,” lead singer, keyboardist and co-producer kelly finnigan explains. it takes a lot of guts to cover your favorite songs, your van jams, that song you play as a shot of inspiration to break-up a marathon studio session. “not only are these great songs, but these are artists that we listen to and are influenced by.”