Back catalogue: All genres

Review: ***B-STOCK: Torn sleeve & record has light surface marks/scratches, otherwise in excellent working condition***


It's been a while since we last heard from Kinfolk, but the broad-sweeping label with cosmic chuggery in its bones is back with this powerful dose from Ess O Ess and Saulrichards. "Totem" is an epic track that rolls around in the muck somewhere between shoegaze extravagance, post-rock heaviness and psyched-out electronics. The "Swamp Crawl" version of the track keeps the guitars bedded deep within the mix, but there's space for more expressive synth work. Hardway Brothers take the track on a similarly rockist journey, but take their time building up to a climax. Otologic wrap things up with a deadly dub that will have low tempo trippers rubbing their hands with delight.

Review: 20/20 Vision are exiting planet Earth once again with the latest in their perfectly formed series of electro explorations, as Extrawelt leads the charge with an illustrious slice of braindance-tinted funk titled 'Hail The Whale (Coexisting Mix)'. Djedjotronic follows that up with a bold blast of mammoth synth work which hits pretty damn hard without being pointlessly brutal. Ste Roberts takes a break from his self-titled label run to offer up a freaky foray into acid-speckled territory, and Ivna Ji gets expressive with a rich palette of synths moving in harmony around a sharp and snappy beat.

Review: Strap in for this potent new 7" from Killa B which brings the energy across to fizzing new dancehall cuts. The a-side 'Speedy Love' sounds quite a bit like an early Missy Elliott production but reworked into a dance hall framework. The vocals are menacing and delivered with a snarling edge over snappy snares and hefty bass. On the flip is a version called 'Blow You Mind' that is only subtly tweaked - the vocals take on different characteristics but the rhythms remain punchy and compelling.

Review: Earlier this year Buchla synth expert and sometime Nine Inch Nails band member Alessandro Cortini delivered one of the most surprising and rewarding long players of 2014 in Sonno for Dominick Fernow's Hospital Productions. The Italian pulls off another surprise move with a new project called Skarn on Shifted's Avian label, swerving from the majestic textures of Sonno into droning techno experimentation. Some three tracks long, Revolver finds Cortini toying with droning tones with the title cut a superb exercise in slowly building up a wall of oppressive, brutalist wave of noise over minimal beats. With material due on Panzerkreuz too, it's clear Cortini is currently enjoying an unpredictable chapter in a long and illustrious recording career.

Review: First he asked us to follow him, then he asked us if we wanted to find to find him. Now he's asking us to move closer... Steve Spacek's Eglo series has been a remarkable trip so far as he continues to illustrate unseen pictures with far-out, unbounded sounds and arrangement. "Mov Clsr" is the steamy dreamy soul number while "Garage Days" unravels the usually tightly wound two-step into a much spacier, dreamy affair, "Boo Boo Step" is a trip into the heart of an old BBC Micro computer while "Nano Nights" closes on a flighty 160BPM step session where lights twinkle and cascade with fluorescent fun. No one makes music like Spacek. Beautiful.

Review: J. Dugdale returns under his Sumgii alias for Swamp 81 again with some meditative and minimalist rollers. Judging by the pic on his Facebook page, he definitely likes the green, and the collection of tracks featured on Who Is Genre Anyway are perfect for getting blunted. It's total fire on the A side, from the deep, down and dirty grime of 'Absurd' followed by 'Chunks' and it's bouncy wall of sound. On the flip, things get more hi-fi on EP standout 'Skanker' before deconstructing nefarious techstep sounds of the late '90s on the fittingly titled 'Dark Side Burns'. The jagged and off-kilter bass experiment 'Wollop' closes it out.

Review: Hot on the heels of 2021's stellar release of The French Connection's "Speechless" LP, Balance head honcho and legendary producer and DJ Chez Damier teams up again with Camille and Adeen Records for another trip around the the world with Lima, Peru's Surco's Groove, "The Lima Project." This beautiful release titled "What Is Love?" delivers hard hitting versions of the track in the original, dub, instrumental, and an acapella with stellar remixes from Snad and German producer Damien Rausch. Be it France or Peru, Balance and Adeen knows how to take you on a musical journey. We can't wait to see where they go next!

Review: Original live techno duo, System 7 stamp their mark on the dancefloor once again with their new single on A Wave, 'Space Bird', lifted
from their forthcoming album, 'Phoenix', which opens the label's musical account in 2008. Just starting to escape on promo, this buzzing
atmospheric instrumental sees System 7 push the envelope for a minimal sound that embraces trance in truly hypnotic dancefloor style.
'Space Bird' is the first of the two Jam El Mar collaborations on the new album, and straight out the trap is man of the moment, Dubfire's
excellent minimal trance and brooding tech house remix. Liquid Soul toughens it up with a charged, stripped-down affair that rocks the floor,
fuelled by spacey loops; and rounding off is the original version. Its chunky beats underpin the seductive musical loops building into a
full-on floorfiller that's about to start ripping up floors in Europe.
System 7 continue to defy constraints of the 'trend' side of the music scene, having appeared live at a large number of festivals this year.
Highlights include playing twice at Tokyo's Nagisa Festival, this year with Derrick May and Joaquin Joe Claussell; another mighty appearance
at the Glastonbury Festival West Dance Tent in June with A Guy Called Gerald & Trentemoller; the Main Stage at the Glade Festival with
Longrange, Digitalism & Richie Hawtin; as well as Italy's Sonica festival, Harmonia Festival in Spain and Devon's Waveform event with
Eat Static & Banco De Gaia.

Review: Remote working is not new - artists have collaborated by exchanging files since Internet connection speeds allowed it - but few have pursued it more enthusiastically than Sons of the Sun, a duo made up of South East London beat-maker/multi-instrumentalist Maverick Quest and Texas-based singer and rapper JTronius. The duo initially met online and decided to spark up a Transatlantic collaboration. The results, as showcased on this fine debut album, are rarely less than inspired. Casually joining the dots between future soul, synth-powered P-funk, Afrobeat, jazz and hip-hop, it's a set that oozes musical quality from start to finish. At times it sounds a little like Plantlife or Thundercat, at other times like a hip-hop head's take on 21st century London jazz; throughout, you'll be royally entertained.