Review: What's that, a new year means a new label from Burnski? We'd expect nothing else. The man has more imprints than a beach has grains of sand, but importantly they all serve a purpose and all kick out killer jams. Mikasa starts with this lush and lithe prog house EP from Abdul Raeva. Stylish opener 'Cream' is a bouncy, feel-good and sleek electronic house sound for peak time fun. 'Helico' is laced with acid and 'Tex Mex' has psyched-out lines rising through the uplifting drums while 'Vanguard' shuts down with a percussive edge and a killer bassline.
Review: Guy J's new alias Cornucopia experiments quite readily with progressive house and techno, veering atmospheric and immersive. Made up of two tracks which fans have been eagerly awaiting for years, 'Remember Me' spans an array of melodic plucks and even warmer grooves, crafting a super-hypnotic haunter. 'Early Morning' evokes the tranquility of sunrise, with Guy J's signature groove and dextrous production proving meticulous, though still easy on the ears. Both tracks exude extra warmth, as do most sonic hugs.
Review: Philoxenia Records boss man Luigi Di Venere continues to blur the boundaries between traditional genres with a new EP that takes its inspirational cues from the multidimensional nature of sound waves. The title reflects the depth and motion captured in the EP's stunning artwork by CGI duo muzzin+samiri while the opener is a tribute to early 90s Frankfurt EBM. 'By Means Of Music' is a more funky vibe with New Beat undertones and real warmth. 'Got Momentum' brings a French house edge and on the flip, Cromby transforms' Got Momentum' into a euphoric UK peak-time anthem, and Cycle_2 reimagine 'By Means Of Music' as a psychedelic techno trip.
Review: Spanish producer Ducados dips toes in adjacent pools of progressive house and straight-up trance here on this latest release for Cupula, impressing with four high-NRG enjoinments. Also their first ever release, the likes of 'Mimi' and 'Calada' are bowler-overers indeed. Smoothened out by scaped preset synths and flirtatious sampled reminders of the energy in the room, the openers give rise to a less scrupulous mood on the B, which works more as the dark side of the disc: 'Estrella De La Mort' and 'Synth Popper' dance with death and chem-sexuality respectively, bowling ever further down cosmo-sonic dust belts.
Review: Where dub and ambient house meets tense techno, Sascha Funk has us covered. The prolific Berlin DJ and producer has here created a monument to a nearly lost cultural artefact: the Germina Speeder, the only skateboard made in East Germany before reunification in 1986. Known for their unwieldy quality - likely the result of technical limitations faced by the chocolate factory improperly tasked with making them - the title track on this record rolls much more smoothly than the Speeder, its trucks comparatively loosened and boardside waxed. But most skateboards out there would likely pair well with this glorious, wind-in-your-hair dance EP; 'Bo Knows' and 'Master Mind' are easy-rolling, manual cascaders of equal calibre.
Review: Gzardin has a pretty singular sound palette when it comes to his take on tech house. His medleys are bright, his drums dusty, and his chords bring colour and radiance. All that is on show on the opener of this new EP with 'Hentroduction' being a mix of laidback vibes and trippy sequences that occupy the mind. 'Rainy Pain' is more twisted and tense in its make-up and 'Part Time Shed' ramps things up again with techno-leaning low ends and warped synth synths taking centre stage. 'Desserted' shuts down with some new school jack.
Review: Berlin's Exit Strategy began their 12"s game releasing EPs in browned sleeves, shortly before branching out into digital-vinyl combo releases with original artwork in the 2020s. Now with over ten years of experience under their belts, they welcome five new artists for a playful bricolage in deep and minimal techno, privileging elite, razor-sharp additive sound design and future-soulful vocal tasters. Ivory's opener 'Rain' epitomises this, while Jimi Jules squelchifies the same formula, and Aera's 'Future Holdings' rolls out the same logic to its ultimate conclusion, veering towards complex, 3D-graphic melodic techno composed entirely of climbing saws.
Review: Neptune Discs specialise in progressive downbeat, upbeat and acid convections, and as a label theme themselves after forgotten marine kingdoms. Though Poseidon has thrusted his trident at us here, there's actually a fourth track/prong on this tenth edition in the Dutch label's V/A catalogue, adding extra implosive impact to an already power-packed depth charge. Standouts here, in our estimation, have to be the faster currents of the bunch, taking shape as Tifra's 'Headspace' - whose breath-of-life melodic sequencings and CPAP pads allow us mammals a moment to come up for air - and DJ Life's 'Carapax' - whose gnatty lead buzz is like a desiccant for contaminant waters.
Review: For its ninth release, Gamine knocks it out of the park again with Konerytmi's new five-track EP. This release is a heartfelt tribute to the 80s, but it offers more than just nostalgia-it's an interpretation of the era's distinct musical style. The tunes capture the iconic timbres, drum sounds, melodies and harmonies of the 80s so take you back to that time on a wave of killer electro rhythms that are both vibrant and fresh but driving and club ready. If you're longing for the 80s but don't have a time machine, this 12" is the perfect way to relive the music of that decade.
Review: Progressive melodic phenom Sebastien Leger is an unstoppable human current; the egressive mood of his music matches the restless energy he has channelled into his productions and DJ appearances across Europe since 1999. Bringing his latest opus to the tiny island of Malta to add to Guy J's Early Morning label, 'Koi Fish' and 'Gaufrette' serve as twin dawn and dusk choruses for the emo-valent raver. Continuing Leger's recent penchant for naming his music after food, 'Gaufrette' brings a chocolate-sauced, latticed sonic wafer of burbling synth and engineered drum fill, and 'Koi Fish' a synthetic set of lateral undulations and slippery synth-flicks, like the titular fish. That breakdown too!
Review: Offbeat, bouncy Euro-house come new beat from Lvca, debutant artist on Bordello A Parigi. 'The Wanderer' works piquant acid lines and visitant vocoders around a precision pump, alluding to, and serving as the stylistic fountainhead of, the artist's own analogue-gear driven live sets. 'Chromatic Equanimity' privileges no colour over any other, with its pointillist plucks betraying only a minimal investment in the dance, and 'Opal' contrasts this with a well-wrung, dripping torrent of emotion set to 4x4. Rounding off the proceedings is the overloaded high of 'Opium', our withdrawal from which track is indeed rather tremulous and painful.
Review: Ophan, formatively a festival hosting talents the likes of Onur Ozer, Hicham, and P.O in Cyprus, now branches out into deeper and increasingly original sonic territory with the launch of its own label. They kick off with a four-track EP from Turin's Otis, who joins a new throng of V/A releasers alongside Innershades, Derek Carr, Munir Nadir, Lvca, and Dawl. Synthology, the debut release under Ophan's label (Oph001), recaptures Otis' ability to finely balance peak times and rolling intervals, with 'Techno Rock'n'roll' in particular marking an especially perfuse detour through high school hair metal synths set against cosmic riser stabs. The release also introduces Lithos, a new subseries.
Review: BeAvantGarde Records have been away for a while but now makes an always-welcome return with the underground favourite that is Riccardo. He does his usual do of serving up four tracks of spaced-out invention. 'In Space' opens up with nice warped bass and insistent synth stabs with jacked-up drums and perc. 'Frequency' then has a more bright and cosmic sense of mood as the drums slow down and lull you into their hypnotic patterns. There is plenty of snap and crispy bass to 'Timeout' with its searching lead synths and gritty baseline while last of all is 'Kalapas' which cuts are loose and has ragged rhythms and textures for a more arresting vibe.
Review: Ghost dancing progressive techno via amapiano from Roy Rosenfeld, bringing a determinedly dark-carnivalesque two-track smokeout to 12" wax. 'Da Vision' extends slippery synths and savanna-brushy sound effects underneath a shuffling tresillo, while 'Get Loose' aims to unburden us from the stresses of daily life through well-sculpted Reeses and pads, as a cascade of vitreous sound befalls the pre-drop breakdown. Overall an impressively atmospheric outing from the London DJ.
Review: Prog house legend Sasha collaborates with Newcastle's Artche on a stunning new track, 'Hold On,' which blends dramatic, sweeping synths with deep, moody basslines and emotional vocals. The original version is a cinematic journey, building with profound melodies and lush chords that create an expansive, atmospheric vibe. The track is both sophisticated and impactful, with its grand architecture tugging at the heartstrings. The 'Artche Mix' offers a different twist, working in airy, dusty broken beats while keeping the original's vocals and synths. This version introduces a fresh rhythm and texture, yet still retains the emotional core of the track. Both mixes highlight the collaborative synergy between Sasha and Artche, showcasing their ability to craft deeply emotive, melodic dance music.
Review: The debut album from Ukrainian collective Noneside unites musicians and visual artists under the inspiring words of poet Taras Shevchenko, who said 'Make love, o dark-browed ones.' Framed by a painting from contemporary artist Iryna Maksymova, the music explores the trance and tech house that is destined to bring souls together on the dancefloor this summer and beyond. Shjva opens with fresh and mashed bass and sleek trance pads that are subtle but effective. Lostlojic layer sup deep, bubbly techno drums and bass with an angelic vocal tone and Saturated Color's 'Trancia' is a speedy, scuffed-up tech groove for late-night cruising. Peshka and Yevhenii Loi offer two more future-facing trance-techno fusions packed with feels.
Review: Reissued 30 years on, SYT's 'Deep Drift' first hover-slammed its way onto our turntables as a spinoff EP of the much-nattered-about Shave Yer Tongue free party, which took place every Sunday night somewhere in suburban West London. The night's founders, Scott James and Christopher Hayne, took on this duo-deistic alien guise as a response to the tractor-beaming blisses they'd experienced on the dancefloor, yet which they could not find solid enough expression for in words. 'Siren' and 'Loop Hole' span allotropic forms of the same style, quantum superpositions of trance: cascading, welcoming, introductory; then cautionary, hovery, supernatural. 'Drift' goes big on the surround mix with extra boxy kicks; 'Jitter' then serves as a bleeping, free-teknikal enervation in trance, and is by far the best on the record, for its unguent stereo design and strobing synth patch layers.
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