Running Back Germany レコード& CD

Review: Wild Pitch Club is next up in the excellent and ling running Running Back Mastermix series. It's a legendary space that has very much defined the Frankfurt and wider german scene and was also something of a predecessor venue to the new well-loved Robert Johnson. That club was itself a place where Panorama Bar's very own nd_baumecker really made waves and it is they alongside co-founder Ata who have curated these tunes. The venue was hooked on the US sounds and often hosted the likes of Robert Hood and Claude Young to Kerri Chandler all of which shows in the sounds of the tunes.

Review: "One swallow doesn't make a summer" isn't just a famous aphorism by the philosopher Aristotle. It's also the name of this stalwart Running Back V/A compilation, which aims to live by the mantle of the famous Ancient Greek thinker's passion for gestalt consistency via a stunning series of house musical forward-movers. This time bringing five tracks across the spectrum of technicolour dance music, we kick off on the trance-dance pscyho-efflorescences of Ricardo Baez' 'The Age Of Energy' and end on the twinklingly ovular world-as-will that is Jonus Eric's 'Ribbon'. All tracks here burst with the energy of a flowerbed on steroidal growth serum, yeahsome yellers and puce petunias flourishing with lady-lucky eudaimonia.

Review: In the late 1980s and early '90s, twins Rheji and Ronald Burrell did more to define the sound of deep house than almost any other producer bar Larry Heard. It's for this reason that this new EP from Rheji under the Utopia Project alias - one of many monikers he and his brother adopted back in the day - is such big news. The five tracks are totally fresh, rather than archival cuts, but are every bit as magic as the music Burrell released all those years ago. Expect tactile basslines, classic deep house rhythms, huggable melodies, chiming motifs, sun-bright piano riffs and immersive chords, all created using the same combination of synthesizers and drum machines that he and his brother once used to craft pioneering NYC house jams. Essential!

Review: Remember Digitalism? The German duo formed in Hamburg in 2004 and in the years after Jens "Jence" Moelle and Ismail "Isi" Tufekci went on to make dance music that people rocked to. It came as part of the high energy and highly textured blog house scene but leaned more on electro and made them main stage festival favs who made an entry into the DJ-kicks mix series and plenty of epic tunes. Well now after three years out they return to Running Back - the last label they appeared on in 2020 - for some more raved-up electro bangers.

Review: With acid sounds once again being all the rage, Running Back has decided to launch a new series featuring previously unreleased, TB-303-heavy cuts. The versatility of the machine - which, after all, was initially designed to create basslines - comes to the fore across the EP, from the throbbing, acid bass-propelled techno-jack of DVS1's 'Lower Wacker Drive' and the low-tempo early morning creepiness of I:Cube's 'Folie Noire', to the excitable acid house funkiness of 'Go Kart' by Marko East and Jordi Chu's, and the colourful dreaminess of 'Meet Chu In My Dreams'. Best of all though is Prins Thomas's remix of Like a Tim's 'Wonderline 1', whose TB-303 squelches ride a cowbell-rich disco-not-disco groove rich in the Norwegian's usual loose-limbed, live-sounding drums.

Review: Eagles & Butterflies has had plenty of notable tunes over the years. No doubt that is why he gets the nod from Gerd Jansen's legendary Running back label to offer up Retropolis Vol 01. It is a four-track EP that shows off the producer's well-realised sounds. The title track is the real standout - 'Retropolis' brings electro-styled synth work with brilliantly future retro euro-disco energy. It's packed with hints of Italo and is sure to light up any club scene. Says the producer of the EP, "Retropolis is the past meets the future. I love influences and technology from the past and making music that sounds like it could be from a time yet to arrive." Mission accomplished.

Review: Chris Barratt aka Eagles & Butterflies possesses the rare ability to unite a larger-than-life peak time personality with the understated production method of comparatively underground records, techno pop and Italo. Bridging such gaps of authenticity and palatability can be a mean feat, but Barratt sacrifices few opportunities on his new 'Heartbreaks & XTC' EP to really think about how both poles can be met. Focussing on skeletal, hands-off mixing and yet apotheotic buildup production, Eagles & Butterflies truly do fly in unison on this stonker.

Review: Italian producer Fango has been busily building up his own sound world via his Degustibus Music label, but now he makes a strident move into the wider world with this outstanding record for Running Back. The authoritative tech house label knows its onions, and you can tell why they were drawn to these distinctive, inventive twists on the formula. 'Dimetrodonte' in particular is the kind of freaky workout which will get people paying close attention thanks to some artful vocal sample juggling, while there's some subtly anthemic joy to be felt in the likes of 'Diplodoco' which once again finds original ways to express classic ideas in the tech house tradition.

Review: Roman Flugel has been one of the European underground's most consistent and innovative names over the last 20 + years working on everything from acid to minimal to tech. He shows a slightly different look on this new EP for Running Back with a disco-tinged and happy melodic house cut 'Lucky Charm' taking up the a-side in three slightly different versions. The flip then has three more originals - 'Luv Armour' is a zippy house cut with big percussive energy and 'Whatever This Is' is then a beautifully innocent and playful cut with naive melodies. 'Film 4' is a moody downbeat piece to close out a varied and vital outing.

Review: Roman Flugel is back with his seventh full length titled Eating Darkness. The nine tracks were created during the coronavirus lockdown of 2020, and are testament to the Frankfurt legend's penchant for mixing elements of pop with sounds of the underground - a scene he has been affiliated with since the early '90s. A variety of moods and grooves are all delivered in his idiosyncratic style: from the woozy and broken slow burner 'Chemicals', to the majestic and spellbinding dancefloor drama of 'Wow' or the raw hardware acid jack of 'Jocks And Freaks' which harks to his days as Alter Ego. Elsewhere, there's the heartfelt and bittersweet ambient house of 'Cluttered Homes' and the downbeat bliss of closing epic 'Charles'.

Review: After a break of two long years, tech-house scene stalwart Sascha Funke has finally delivered a new EP of typically atmospheric, on-point music. It's his first outing for Running Back after years spent flitting between BPitch Control, Multi-Culti and Endless Flight. Interestingly, what's on offer is more retro-futurist in tone than much of his work, with audible nods to vintage electronic disco, early 2000s nu-disco (think Morgan Geist) and tactile '90s deep house. Our picks of a very strong bunch are rubbery, morse code-sporting nu-disco-goes-bleep house number 'QAM', moody analogue deep house treat 'SEZ', whose creepy chords and spacey sonics are undeniably alluring, and ultra-melodious, Italo-disco-influenced opener 'FEZ'.

Review: Sascha Funke is a long time master of the deep who arrives on the always tastefully diverse Running Back label headed up so expertly by Gerd Janson. He brings a slightly different look here with the wonky, twitchy and tech infused rhythmic stomp of 'Reality'. There is more melody on display on 'Fantasy' with its ever rising synth loops glowing bright with a celestial hue and on the flip-side 'Puzzle' pairs some subtly joyous piano chord stabs over prickly disco-tech beats with molten arps underneath. 'Halle Weissensee' then closes down with a nice stiff and rave ready house sound, snappy beats and tight bass.

Review: Dance of Enjoyment seems a perfectly fitting name for an album from Geed. The German DJ, label head, writer and tastemaker is known for his party-starting sets and for being as liked by threads as he is the more casual dance music enthusiast. His joyous selections span sounds and eras with ease and this new collection of tunes does the same. The title cut is a throwback, piano-laced banger, 'Let The Music Take Control' brings some raved-up breakbeats and 'Change of Heart' brings 80s synth energy to lively house betas before 'Digital Illusion' is a glistening and synth-laced disco gem.

Review: The Running Back label welcomes that much loved dance floor hit maker Krystal Klear for more of his impossibly catchy house grooves. This latest EP opens with some Ibiza at the turn of the millennium trance chords layered over potent drums. 'Typhoon' is another one that sounds like it could have been made by Chicane with its pure synth waves and driving, uplifting drums. Kevin and Perry themselves would indeed go large to 'Love Is All I Need' with its waves of euphoric piano energy and 'Rampage' then brings things down for when the sun has set and the vibes get more dark and moody.

Review: The collaboration between Public Possession and Running Back has yielded a nostalgic gem with the release of 'Boli Boli', a track that revives the essence of 80s disco-synth-pop infused with Balkan emotionality. This autumn, Krystal Klear and La Raf present a record that melds cultural nostalgia with contemporary sensibilities. 'Boli Boli' stands as a tribute to the bittersweet and evocative soundscapes of the 80s. The track emerged from a spontaneous session between Krystal Klear and La Raf in London, where the Croatian singer channeled personal experiences of heartbreak into the song's lyrics. La Raf's evocative vocals, paired with Krystal Klear's distinctive production, capture the essence of a bygone era while celebrating the emotional complexity of Balkan self-pity. The production is marked by a seamless integration of La Raf's expressive vocal delivery with Krystal Klear's knack for creating melodies that are both reflective and rhythmically engaging. The result is a track that balances introspection with an infectious danceable quality, offering a unique exploration of grief that is both poignant and celebratory. The release of 'Boli Boli' thus not only revisits the golden age of disco-synth-pop but also enriches it with a distinctive Balkan touch, reflecting the artists' ability to infuse personal and cultural narratives into a universally resonant sound.

Review: Long time German electronic innovator is back on Running Back with a very welcome new mini-LP, Cyclone Days. The Frankfurt man mixes up his usual influences - indie-dance, Italo, power pop and house - into fresh and colourful new sounds. Melody rules OK across these cuts as they take in vocal gems and instrumental beats with lottos joyfulness along the way. 'Somebody' with Dena is a standout and timeless anthem for any dance floor, then 'Resonancer' has a retro-future disco-house vibe and 'Friends' is so perfectly pleasing it cannot fail to make you smile.

Review: Back in 1996, Losoul's first outing on the now legendary Playhouse label caused such a stir across Europe and the U.S that it ended up being licensed and reissued - with additional reworks - by labels in Detroit and the Netherlands. This double-pack from Running Back brings together Losoul's original mix - a loopy, is-it-house-or-is-it-techno loop jam that cannily builds in intensity over the course of 11 and a half minutes - and two of the smartest revisions: Theo Parrish's mesmerising, deep and hypnotic revision (one of his best, we'd argue) and Dutch producer Gerd's jazzy, warm and sub-heavy shuffler. Also included is original B-side '00000000', a fine slab of minimal house hypnotism, and the previously unreleased 'D1', a more laidback and stripped-back disco-house loop jam.

Review: Billed as an elusive producer now primarily offering his services to the deep house label Running Back, Mute here reissues and repackages the second in his 'Direct Cuts' EP series, 'Redux'. First released in 2006, the 'Redux' versions clarify a fresh set of takes on older material, hereby the artist Gerd Janson. Continuing to flash, tease and periodise four of many possible glimpses of both Mute and Janson's crafts, this new edition of the first EP, released almost twenty years later, hears a right smattering of hypnotic grooves and tricky temperaments. Our fave has to be the version of 'Vibes', bringing electric movements and nighttime prowls to an already all-analog flavour palette.

Review: Gerd Jansen's faultless Running Back is back with another of its hard-to-define but essential albums, Keep Looking Where The Light Comes From, this time from Panoram. It is a record that blurs the line between chaos and beauty, with fuzzy synths and improvised rhythms offering up some intriguing sound designs and unusual textures. There is a psychedelic feel to many of those, but so too a dream-like quality where barely-there melodies and half-remembered vocals drift in and out of earshot. Both maximal and minimal compositions feature with nods to ASMR pleasures and a mix of synthetic and acoustic sounds.

Review: Gerd Janson's Running Back seemingly has no borders or boundaries when it come to the sort of music it will put out. Next up is Partiboi69 with Call of The Void, a zippy outing that kicks off with the psychoactive synth swirls and hurried beats of 'Playin'' while 'Bodies' is a sleazy and ghetto-tinged tech pumper with well-treated vocals and big old school piano chords that endlessly stab away. 'Feel This' brings a subtly celebratory mood with splashy cymbals and wispy cosmic pads darting about up top and 'Call Of The Void' shuts down with a deeper house sound but one still lit brightly by the astral pads.

Review: Since making his Running Back bow 12 years ago, Sebastien Kramer has periodically returned to Gerd Jansen's label to deliver EPs (and one memorable album). Acid Leak is his eighth release in total for the imprint, and as the title suggests makes extensive use of sounds created by the small-but-mighty TB-303. Kramer sets the tone with the title track, a triumphant blend of acid house and Detroit techno sounds featuring some classic, Underground Resistance style synth strings, before cannily combining rising and falling melodies, buzzing electronics and undulating acid lines on 'Wing Wing'. 'Acid Flow' is a more jacking, forthright and mind-mangling slab of breathless peak-time brilliance, while 'Frantic' sees the experienced German producer join the dots between sci-fi-powered excellence and tactile deepness.

Review: New to Running Back is the latest record from Raphael Schon, best known for his enduring hit 'Fiesta 2000'; here the Augsburger develops that track's sound with a similarly irreverent set of lub-dubs, six to be exact. Never once skipping a beat (don't panic, palpitators), the likes of 'Baerhit', 'Breathe' and 'Do You Like That' scour the recollective depths of a childhood spent ingesting Italo, house and electro-disco, albeit bringing a modern flair to the mix via warming pad cloaks and janky, intermittent lead synthetic daggers, all to back up the crucial 4x4. Despite its mood of joy, 'Heart Times' was conceived during a very emotionally turbulent time for Schon, owing to its later vocal beltings and emotional groundswells. Danke, Schon.

Review: Frankfurt producer Shan has enjoyed a long and productive friendship with Running Back Gerd Janson. To date, it has included a swathe of collaborative tracks and remixes, as well as regular solo releases on the label. Shan's latest EP for the imprint is naturally packed with playable material. Saucer-eyed, retro-futurist opener "Who Run Tings", for example, underpins jaunty, Inner City style stabs and piano riffs with corking, hip-house style breakbeats, while "Awakenings" offers a slightly more muscular, big room-friendly take on the turn-of-the-'90s piano house blueprint. Shan deviates further from the script on the Nu Groove style vintage deep house musicality of "English Summer" and deep '80s synth-pop-meets-deep house flex of closer "Take Me To The Top".

Review: Shan's second installment in his warehouse series continues to deliver the high-octane energy that made its predecessor a hit. The TRACKS perfectly capture the essence of underground raving in forgotten, defiant spaces. The opener, 'Phantazia,' leads the way, blending proto-hardcore vibes with soulful strings reminiscent of Soul II Soul. It's a track that commands attention, demanding action on the dancefloor. '89 Swing' and 'Euphony' bring in breakbeats that nod to the golden era of rave, with the latter evoking the atmospheric soundscapes of The Future Sound of London. 'Elevate' blurs the line between house and techno, creating a pulsating rhythm that's as hypnotic as it is driving. 'Uplift My Spirit' brings a touch of warmth with its break-for-love vibe, adding emotional depth to the EP. Each track on this EP is crafted to fit any rave setting, offering something for everyone, whether you're deep in a warehouse or lost in a late-night set. Shan delivers another potent dose of rave nostalgia, with a modern twist.