Review: OHM is quickly becoming a quality imprint you can count on for techno and dub techno. The ninth addition in the series, it calls for an excellent blend of composers to balance this EP out. Veteran Jamie Anderson collabs with the brilliant Owain K on opener. The 'Aqua Dub' builds a euphoria for late night smiles. Smooth is an understatement on this linear gem. One artist on here that's been making strong appearances on many dub techno labels is the ever-talented Francisco Aguado. 'Balance' is a great tribal transition track for any DJ who can it creatively to build the means to an end. On the second side, Star Dub offers the very addictive and techy 'Forst'. Ending on a high note, the brisk and flighty 'Ever Growing' by Volpe completes the ninth edition in a rapturous mood. If you like deep techno, the OHM series is a must to collect.
Curtis Baker & The Bravehearts - "By Hook Or By Crook" (2:55)
Floyd James & The GTs - "The Switchback" (3:01)
Review: Original Gravity serve up yet two more contemporary soul tracks; sides A and B on this latest 7" are shared by Curtis Baker & The Bravehearts and Floyd James & The GTs respectively. The A's 'By Hook Or By Crook' recounts the all-to-relatable feeling of stopping at nothing to get what one wants, while 'The Switchback' ups the big beats and big halls for a roomy guit-funk come mod romp. Yet another delight to add to the OG Newtonians' pile.
Review: The wonderful Er + Er imprint has a knack for getting some of the biggest names in electronic music together and jamming the hell out! Some of the works by Ricardo Villalobos for the label have been simply sublime. This time, we got legend Carl Craig going head-to-head with the supremely talented Francesco Tristano in a sort of classical techno vibe. "Luder Pre" combines a mid-tempo percussive beat with some seriously twisted piano work, twisting and contorting into a right old spin. It's a one-sided gem, it's 300 copies limited, so you better get yourself one quick!
Review: Sure Thing presents Well of Sand, its second compilation. Six tracks from the label's friends and favourites, each new to the roster, offer bold, untempered explorations of tempo and weight, a concise yet expansive collection recalling the deliberate cadence of rippling sand and the sheen of shimmering oases. From Command D's subtly groundswelling, but snappy 'Half Blue (Violet Mix)', to Foreign Material's alarmingly alien 'The Living Planet' and Third Space's supremely stereoized, lowercase opus 'Push (Part 2)', this is a release for that large intersection of audiophiles and techno-philes.
Soundboy Killa (feat Natty Campbell - The Allergies remix)
Jump On It (feat Top Cat - Guadi & Don Letts dub remix)
Review: The proverbial 'Soundboy Killa' is an enduring trope in soundsystem culture at large, referring to the apparently inherent enmity and villainy of the turntablist. Said to have originated in the days of system clashes, the assassin in question presumably refers to the opposing MC, whose barraging verbiage may pack enough semiotic punch to K.O. the opposition through mere utterances alone. Here Natty Campbell and the Freestylers pay tribute to the theme as progeny of the 90s big beat scene; having come up in the age of Fatboy Slim and Chemical Brothers, the supergroup first faced off in a whirl of tricky dub and armour-plated cold cuttage, dispatching two honorary tracks in the style of each artists' respective greatest scene-hitters: Dub Pistols' 'Cyclone' and Freestylers' 'Roughneck'. Now 'Soundboy Killa' and 'Jump On It' in turn hear a remix from Allergies and Guadi & Don Letts, the latter of which is especially experimental in its use of a peaky, 2-step shuffle.
Review: FOXBAM INC is back to build on the momentum of their first EP with a second one that packs a mighty punch. This one kicks off with EBY, who this year has been cooking up acid for 40 years and here offers the warped low ends and garage-techno power of 'Goldtooth'. Foxtrot vs Ma Bla then mashes up old school samples with earth-shattering bass on 'Deep Down Inside' and bRz vs Stije is a double-time hard techno stomper with warped synths and twisted bass that is inspired by and named after ISCO, a concept from Einstein's general theory of relativity that makes predictions about the dynamics of black holes.
Review: Mushroom Pillow is on a proud and so far successful mission to bring back Latin American music from the 60s-80s via its Relatin project. it's all about mixing up the traditional and the modern and putting fresh spins on what went before. Many of the originals they look to have gone unnoticed the first time round and that's the case here as Franc Moody adds his own twist to Elia & Elizabeth's 'Alegria.' His remix is a sympathetic one that gets the hips swinging over fat and funky disco bass and beneath the sunny Latin vocals. He strips them away on the instrumental version on the flip.
Review: Expansion have been busy recently with a wealth of superb releases all dropping in relatively quick succession. This one comes from 70s and 80s Us soul family, Family Brown. They put out just one album in 1978 and a couple of singles with these two tunes now pressed onto 45rpm some of the best. On the a-side is the slow motion stepper 'Never Had A Love' which has pirouetting strings and male and female vocals playing off in seductive fashion. On the flip is the more groovy but just as melodically lush 'Listen.'
Review: Working with its sister label OST Recordings, Acid Jazz releases a new version of 'Family Tree' by Family Tree, on a smart-looking label based on the look of the original's Ananda label. For the first time since 1975, this new reissue comes with the Kevin Beamish Disco version and a shorter disco mix, as was initially compiled. Handcrafted by 'I Specialize In Love' hitmaker Sharon Brown and her group Family Tree, this eponymous disco-funk sheller is an unpolished study of musicianship above overproduction; the drums are dynamic and dry, lending ample space to Sharon's nostalgic familial reminiscences.
Hooked On Your Love (John Morales unreleased edit) (8:13)
Review: Serious Philly boogie business: In 1979 the Aleem brothers teamed up with serial hit maker Leroy Burgess for this outstanding bass slapping floor burner. Listen closely and you'll hear a young Luther Vandross on backing vocals as the twins bounce off each other with their signature high ranges. Meanwhile on the B we have a previously unreleased edit from one of the most vital, direction shaping remixers of the time; John Morales. Expect nothing but 8 minutes of pure disco bliss. We're hooked on this!
Review: Kiss Klassics have been producing some high-quality promo double singles for a while now, this double headliner of Nelly and Fat Joe being the eighth instalment in their archival series. Side A was the runaway standout from New York rap legend Fat Joe's 2001 titanic-sized album 'Jealous Ones Still Envy (J.O.S.E.)', 'Whats Luv' with the one and only Ashanti. This marked Ashanti's debut year as an artist, the Tina Turner sample hook becoming the soundtrack of the block party and becoming one of the biggest songs of 2002. Side B needs no introduction. "It's getting hot in here, so take off all your clothes". No matter what you think of Nelly, 'Hot in Herre' continues to have the world in a chokehold over 20 years later.
Review: Miami's Far Produce are fresh faces, but their sound is full of respect for times past, building on classic soul jazz by bringing it a modern instrumental twist. Led by two Studio City, CA natives - Addison Rifkind on guitar and Michael Duffy on drums - Fat Produce deliver a veritable cornucopia of fruits and groceries to chew on here. 7" A-sider 'Sticky Beets' turns our inners red, as we're led to imagine chowing down on the perfect beetroot yield and the funky euphoria that inevitably follows ingestion of such a delicacy. B-sider 'Son!', meanwhile, draws on an amalgamation of several Bay Area-inspired grooves - Duffy is a walking rhythmic encyclopaedia - set against an improvised, on-the-fly groove first laid down by Rifkind, whose hook-worthiness is unmistakable here.
Review: Reade White has many aliases to his name, including Caustic Everything and Fiction Life, but the Fate 258 moniker is the one that has grabbed our attention the most thanks to the excellent Why 2K? EP that came out in 1999 on Path - still a digger's favourite and a gorgeous piece of techno. He's back out of the blue on Path with the dark and molecular sonics of "Path To Hell" on the A-side, followed by the slower and more hypnotic "Path To Heaven", and the wonky sways of electro in "Heaven Or Hell"; both the B-side tunes are the ones for the corner dwellers. Sick; please do not sleep on this.
Review: The fifth release on Kimchi Records comes wrestled from the hands of Ecuadorian mastermind Fauna Extinta, aka. Nicola Cruz. The First EP under the alias, we hear Nicola make use of electro analogia to explore idea of a biology that once was, but no longer is, and now lingers only in memory or myth. Drawing on ideas of creation, biogeography, evolution and extinction, the likes of 'Everything Is A Green Screen' and 'Features Of Human Beings' serve as biosynthetic, existential meditations on change, urging us to imagine new realms, alternative means for actualizing the human spirit.
Review: Italian DJ and producer and Afrotemplum co-founder, Feel Fly, revisits the sunned, balearic mood of his childhood on this early-stage career definer of an EP. As a series, 'Mediterranean Dreams' lets the light in on only the haziest of sonic visions, letting in island stenches and coconut skitters between the palms. Everything from dub, ambient, balearic and kraut is here channelled into a realised smattering of deep trance, tittilating the senses with an echoic foray into navel-gazing reverie.
Review: International Feel kicks off what is presumably a new series given its title, Mediterranean Dreams - Part 1. For it, they turn to Perugia synth obsessive, underground mainstay and fine producer Feel Fly for four tracks of breezy and sunny disco-house chuggers. 'Onironauta' brings retro Italo chords and nice chunky drums, 'Grace In Space' is a leggy cosmic wonder with far-sighted chords and muted acid magic, then 'Mediterranean Dreams' is pure 80s dream house bliss. 'Becalmed' is the most rough edged and analogue house jack track of the lot.
Review: The connection between ZamZam and Feel Free Hi Fi was sparked by Bristolian Neek out in Portland and lead to an immediate bond forged over a shared sound and DIY ethos. Inspired by early digi-era dancehall and UK dub, the duo crafts a sound here that honours tradition while venturing into bold, idiosyncratic territory. It comes on their own Digital Sting label and opens with 'Voyageur' which is a mix of cinematic atmospherics with haunting synths that evoke wild and mythic landscapes. 'Underground' pays tribute to the spirit of DIY underground music and captures the struggle to preserve both nature and the essence of basement gigs in today's shifting cultural landscape.
Review: Watery and washy techno tracks from Vernon Felicity aka. Borris Bunnik aka. Versalife, conjuring an array of sci-fi vistas on this four-track fantasy. 'Contemplation' hears synth organ and detuned saw-synth imagine a heady stew of soniquatics, while 'Alternate' rounds things off with a light and breezy kaleidoscope of kicks, claps and breath sounds.
Review: Anyone who's ever run a record label will happily tell you how it's rare to find musical gold amongst the many demos speculatively submitted by up-and-coming producers. Imagine Claremont 56 boss Paul Murphy's surprise, then, when he received these superb cuts from previously unheralded German musician Ferdi Schuster. Naturally, he snapped them up straight away. A-side "Little River", in particular, is spectacularly good. Based around the sound of a babbling brook, sun-kissed acoustic guitar licks, vintage synthesizer solos and a languid, samba-inspired groove, it's a grade-A chunk of Balearic brilliance. While B-side "Befreit" doesn't quite reach these dizzying heights, it's still a wonderful trip into sunrise-friendly downtempo territory. As debut singles go, it's little less than stunning.
Review: In cahoots with legendary Japanese record store Jet Set, Freestyle Records has decided to offer-up a 45 featuring two tidy cuts from Lance Ferguson's Rare Groove Spectrum 2 album, a second set of inspired cover versions from the multi-instrumentalist, bandleader and producer. On side A the Melbourne-based musician gives his take on Azymuth classic 'Veo Sobre O Horizonte', re-imaging it as a starry, vintage synth-laden shuffle through sun-baked South American jazz-funk complete with woozy horns, Herbie Hancock keyes and eyes-closed female vocalizations. On the reverse Ferguson turns his hand to Carly Simon's 'Why', adding gorgeous horn solos and sunset-ready flourishes to a faithful re-recording of the reggae-influenced number's familiar groove.
Review: Scott Ferguson came to house and techno in one of its most fertile grounds - Detroit, in the mid 90s. Since then he has served up his own take on the timeless genres on a range of quality labels. Now he arrives on Chateau Chepere with four more of his stylish cuts. They are couched in deep house as always but with cues taken from future jazz, garage and plenty in between. These are real winter warmers that will seduce an early evening crowd or lock in a 5 am dance floor in equal measure.
Review: Former Silver City man Fernando Pulichino seems to be mellowing with age. Having previously explored punk-funk, nu-disco and deep house on his solo releases, he's now switched his focus to dub-influenced, slo-mo Balearic synth-rock. Many of the old trademarks are still present - think rubbery live bass, fluorescent, vintage-sounding synths and unfussy beats - but are here joined by fuzzy guitar solos and an evocative vocal from guest star Fiorucci. It's a potent blend, reminiscent of early '80s cosmic rock with a little more nu-disco nous. The original vocal version is joined by a delicious Extended Dub, which impressively stretches out the infectious, head-nodding groove.
Review: This week on Peoples Potential Unlimited we have '1 2 3 Stella' which is the debut release by Alex Fernet - an artist from Bassano del Grappa, near Venice, Italy. A breezy and neon-lit boogie down affair from the late night that gives a brazen nod to the '80s, it is complemented on the B side by the romantic late '70s easy rock vibe of 'Tornerai' which is an Italian cover version of 'In your Eyes' by Badbadnotgood featuring Charlotte Day Wilson. Fernet impressively walks the fine line between undeniably kitsch and impressively cool.
Review: Shirley Finney's 1979 debut album "Pray Again" has recently become something of a sought-after set amongst collectors of disco-era gospel soul. Original copies of the LP are expensive and hard to come by, so Rain & Shine has decided to stick two of the set's most admired tracks on one 7-inch single. "Pray Again" is rather wonderful, with Finney delivering a strong, heartfelt vocal above a backing track rich in sustained organ chords, jangling pianos and clipped guitars. "Give Your Best To The Master", meanwhile, is a more up-tempo and stomping gospel-disco affair that benefits greatly from some stellar choral backing vocals. It sounds like the sort of thing that Tony Humphries may have championed at Zanzibar in New Jersey back in the day.
Review: San Franciscan soul crooner and multi-instrumentalist Kelly Finnegan shares the 7" vinyl edition of his 2023 single 'Leave You Alone', following on from its original cassette and digital release. A lo-fi testament to unrequited love, moving on and giving in, regaling a love story from the femme perspective and recalling the soulful themes of singer Bettye Swann. This time, the record also comes backed by a B-sider, 'Thom's Hartbreak', is a sonic thank you letter to Thom Bell & William Hart, two names synonymous with the 60s-70s Philly Sound.
Review: The American female vocal trio First Choice released their rendition of 'Love and Happiness' in 1973. The track is a cover of Al Green's original released just a year earlier in 1972, but First Choice's version was perhaps helped along the way by a peak case of nominative determinism: for us, theirs is the first choice. Featured on their debut album, Armed and Extremely Dangerous, it stood out on the Philly soul girl gang's record as one of the records most propitious to sampling by house and techno musicians, such as Todd Terry and Jungle Brothers. But this time, the legacy of this preceptive soulful-house interplay is honoured by a newly reissued remix by the mysterious but titanic Chicago producer Ron Hardy, whose inclusion on the record is the real star here. Hardy's signature reel-to-reel fuzzes and presence-bled hues effect recollections of a pre-DAW production setup, and the resonances of dub (woodblocks, four-tone hooks, burly basslines) nest the original Al Green vocal nicely.
Review: Pioneering disco outfit First Choice built up a fine arsenal of hits in the 70s and 80s. Amongst them was their epic "Armed and Extremely Dangerous" which now gets two new versions served up by Brookside. Hot Mix 5 and Chicago house legend Ralphi "The Raz" Rosario is the man doing the work and the brings big drums and vocals with some superbly soulful keys next to Craig J Snider. On the flip, the band's most iconic tune "Love & Happiness" gets a rework by Mike Maurro. It is more soulful and warm, laced with big drums and sweeping pads.
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