[Music Man Records] A limited edition in stylish plastic spot-varnish sleeve and your choice of colored vinyls (blue, silver, and white), veteran Croation producer Petar Dundov’s latest (and first release since February of 2007) visually jumps off the shelves at collectible-minded buyers, but the real treasures are on the vinyl itself. Released as a taster […]
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Various Artists, Workshop 05
July 28, 2008 – 9:21 PM
[Workshop] Since 2006, Workshop has released a new EP every six months or so. Sold and distributed by Hard Wax, each EP consists of three untitled tracks, sometimes all by the same artist and sometimes by a varied group. The quality of these releases has been consistently solid: Kassem Mosse’s “Workshop 03” had a stark […]
STL, Musik 4 Life
July 23, 2008 – 9:17 PM
[Something] It’s a somewhat rare feat for a producer’s high output to be matched with high quality, let alone stylistic depth. Stephan Laubner, better known as STL, is one of the few who pulls it off. Already this year he has six new releases to his name, ranging from techno and deep-house to field-recorded soundscapes. […]
Mikael Stavöstrand, Dark Eyes Die A Little
July 22, 2008 – 8:25 PM
[Lick My Deck] As a producer with roots in industrial music, Mikael Stavöstrand has a knack for negative aesthetics. His tracks are lean and mysterious, painting bleak landscapes by means of sinister bass lines, urgent beats and glistening found-sounds. Though Stavöstrand is impressively creative and capable as a solo artist, he reaches full potential when […]
Matt John, Teleparty
July 20, 2008 – 9:32 PM
[Holographic Island] Matt and John are the two of the most common names in America. Matt John really deserves to be a pseudonym; remaking “faceless techno bollocks” for the Google age, there are a billion and a half results when searching for one “Matt John.” Even when you dig deep enough, the most common result […]
Function, Anticipation
July 16, 2008 – 8:46 PM
[Sandwell District] The label Sandwell District has always been a mixed bag. In an RA profile, label keystone Function, (or Dave Sumner of NYC if anonymity’s not your thing), explained that Sandwell release are selected by any of the artists involved. So the aesthetic values put forward can therefore have as much to do with […]
John Daly, Atlantis EP
July 15, 2008 – 7:24 PM
[Wave Music] John Daly has quickly proven to be one of the most promising new producers to emerge over the 18 months. The young Irishman’s productions are as deep and elemental as they are anachronistic, recalling a simpler era of electronic music dominated by artists such as Klaus Schulze (Tangerine Dream), Manuel Göttsching (Ash Ra […]
Kreon, Gagnant EP
July 14, 2008 – 7:25 PM
[Resopal Red] For the past two years, producer Markos Spanoudakis, aka Kreon, has forged a distinctive style for himself by melding the beats of house and the sounds of jazz — an experiment in musical alchemy yielding progressively stronger results with each release. His single “Shake n’ Make” was an easy favorite among DJs with […]
Cassy, Cassy 02
July 13, 2008 – 7:37 PM
[Cassy] Panorama Bar’s go-to artist Cassy Britton has spent the last few years carving out a totally distinctive sound. 2006’s first installment on her self-titled label had seeds of it and 2007’s “Somelightuntothenight,” probably her breakthrough track, defined it. Cassy’s last release, “A Poem For You,” brought things to a whole new level. For an […]
Niggemann & Poppcke, L’aurora
July 9, 2008 – 7:06 PM
[Moonpool] Since starting Meerestief Records in 2002, managers Walter Ercolino and Daniela Stickroth have kept busy by expanding into online radio, a booking agency and three sub-labels (Meerestief Rot, Limited and Digital). With Alex Niggemann and Marc Poppcke’s “L’aurora,” the Stuttgart-based label welcomes its fourth sublabel offspring, Moonpool, to the family. Focused on the “house […]
Kevin Saunderson, History Elevate 4
July 8, 2008 – 7:29 PM
[KMS] Fans of this website are no doubt aware of the remix series which has seen a host of modern techno and house luminaries breathe fresh life into classic Kevin Saunderson productions on KMS. “History Elevate” has given our ears a few sensational pieces of music, some of which may indeed emerge as classics in […]
Andri, Flash Royal EP
July 7, 2008 – 10:18 PM
[Slutfunk Records] Here’s a bold move: launching your spanking new label with a young turk’s vinyl debut. That’s just what Zurich-based Slutfunk Records has done with the first entry in its catalog, the “Flash Royal EP” by hitherto unknown, Andri. But given founder Disco Dave’s long partnership with Ibiza superclub Privilege and his ownership of […]
Ricardo Villalobos, Vasco EP Part 1
July 6, 2008 – 7:41 PM
[Perlon] Far be it from me to challenge the stated aspirations of Ricardo Villalobos, but I find myself increasingly skeptical of his search “for the perfect club track” with each of his new releases. Which isn’t to say his tracks don’t stir dancers to hollering peaks; one needs only to witness the sweaty carnage his […]
Emptyset, Doxa EP
July 2, 2008 – 5:44 PM
Bristol-based American James Ginzberg has masqueraded as 30Hz for the past few years, producing crowd pleasing breakbeat numbers and putting them out on his Vertical Sound label. Given his involvement in the founding of seminal dubstep label Tectonic, however, his interest in fare less likely to hit number one on Beatport has been there to see for anyone who cared to look. His new project, Emptyset, probes a sound most easily described as Monolake gone to Bristol. The first two EPs, released on the Future Days imprint, have so far failed quite to hit the mark, but nevertheless forged a distinctive tone consisting of sparse and monochromatic minimal informed by the ever ebullient voice of Bristol bass.
Sleeparchive, Hadron EP
July 1, 2008 – 5:33 AM
[Sleeparchive] You have to give credit to Roger Semsroth for the balls to label his austere minimal techno brand Sleeparchive and to categorize his label with the onomatopoeia for sleep (Zzz). It should be easy ammunition, but save for a track or two, like my personal un-fav “Track 4 (Recycled),” Sleeparchive has never been willing […]
Various Artists, You Are My Mate
June 29, 2008 – 9:50 PM
[Dial] Dial had been releasing its lean and emotive variety of techno/house for nearly seven years before breaking to a larger audience, but the recognition could hardly have come at a better time. Last year the Hamburg-based label, owned and operated by Peter M. Kersten (Lawrence/Sten), Turner and Carsten Jost, cranked out two of their […]
Guillaume & the Coutu Dumonts, They Only Came Out at Night
June 22, 2008 – 9:35 PM
[Musique Risquée] Guillaume & the Coutu Dumonts is a slightly misleading name. The “group” might only have one member, Guillaume Coutu Dumont, but his output of the last year could be described as a one-man Hitsville Berlin (via Montreal). Recording and remixing for no less than nine labels in the past year, Guillaume has spread […]
Los Updates, First If You Please The Remix Part 1
June 18, 2008 – 10:08 PM
[Cadenza] Most of us didn’t know who Jorge Gonzales was when his jaunty voice bounded from the pogoing depths of Ricardo Villalobos’ Fabric album, but we were glad for his spirited and slightly lewd narrative. But Gonzales, a long-standing figure in Chile’s music scene, was no one off vocalist. His 1980s rock group, Los Prisioneros, […]
Leonid, Mora EP
June 17, 2008 – 8:31 PM
[Statik Entertainment] Perhaps more interesting than deep-house’s resurgence is how the resurrected sub-genre has melded with others, like tribal, minimal and dub. The elongating and relaxing side effects of reverb and delay have proven complimentary to the already subdued atmosphere common among deep house cuts. A good recent example of this amalgamated sub-genre can be […]
Peter Van Hoesen, Trusted EP
June 17, 2008 – 5:36 AM
[Time To Express] Witness the power of the techno blogosphere: After seven years of releasing music as Object, Vanno and now his own name, Belgian producer and DJ Peter Van Hoesen has recently seen a sharp uptick in his stock. His contribution to Modyfier’s Process series (of which I am an alumnus) grabbed quite few […]