Zopelar - "Move This Way" (feat Antonio Dal Bo) (6:28)
Retromigration - "Fret" (6:15)
Cem Mo - "Rushmore" (5:41)
Monty DJ - "Sat15" (5:25)
Review: To keep it in the family is to imply things stay pure and untainted, but the irony with the Keep It In The Family 12" series is that every record sounds raw and unsheltered. So, although 'Feel' and 'Move This Way' cycle through unperturbed and dreamatic sounds, their finish is rough, suggesting a well-wrought processing chain, the music having seen through many a prodigal battle. Retromigration's 'Fret' and Cem Mo's 'Rushmore' continue the mood of vintage deep raspiness, with one-up arpeggios closing out the final track with special glee.
Review: The eighth instalment in Running Back's playful Hits! series arrives with a globetrotting batch of quirky dancefloor charmers, spanning interstellar disco, Italo throwbacks and Berlin School eccentricity. Kicking things off, Skatman leans into sleazy synth funk and smoky melodrama with 'What I Am Feelin'', a crooning synth-pop number pitched somewhere between space cabaret and Metro Area. Baron Von Traxian Australian prince of peaktime pompibrings glitzy melancholy with 'If I Only Knew', layering ascending Italo arps and soft pads over a chugging disco pulse. Janis Zielinski and Sowhy3 (both Berlin-based) turn in 'In Your Eyes' twiceifirst as a vocal daydream of euro-pop yearning, then as a sleek instrumental. Morphena's 'Venus Underworld' dials up the noir with icy stabs and new wave propulsion, while Zoe Zoe's 'Palikau Dzemperi' signs off with a Tangerine Dream-style glide repurposed for the club. There's no unifying concept, but as with earlier volumes, that's the point: a polychrome snapshot of Running Back's curious, cosmopolitan world.
Zero Days - "Neurotypical" (feat Casey Hardison) (6:04)
Zero Dayz - "War On Drugs" (feat Casey Hardison) (5:12)
Acerbic - "Acid On My Mind" (6:21)
Acerbic - "The Acid Saga" (5:58)
Review: Eddie Santini and Matthieu-F are have poured years of dedication into Resilient Recordings. Now their second addition to the catalogue appears as a split side shared between Zero Days and Acerbic, two newcomers to the scene, but freshly cut and spruced by their patrons nonetheless. 'War On Drugs' with Casey Hardison hears an expansive likening of the USA's war on drugs to a "war on mental states", suggesting an illiberal attitude which sows a repressive, anti-revelrous hell. Hardcore techno reaches its apotheosis on 'Neurotypical Consciousness', meanwhile, whose stuttering sixteenths and mega-compressed mix brings a decisive ploughing forth.
Review: Z.I.P.P.O's return to Setaoc Mass's Berlin-based SK11 imprint hears the Italian producer break out from biostasis, stretching his/its tendrils out across four world-devouring tracks. 'Eleven' trades formula for feeling, its pseudopodial tempos binding to high-suction mechanics. Mournful synth phrases grate against a heavyweight pulse, as 'Hypernova' submerges into swung drum programming and murky mellifluous atmospheres. Flip it over and 'Kaus' introduces tribal momentum and swelling chords that slowly tilt the record into trance-adjacent territory; closer 'Replication' tightens the screws, bringing the most propulsive moment of the set with its warped detailing and hard-edged groove.
Review: Increasingly vital Brazilian artist Zopelar is back with more of his twisted house concoctions, this time with plenty of 909s and 808s defining everything from samba jack to Chicago swing. 'Fornix (feat Martinelli)' is a caustic, acid-laced sweat-box tackle, then 'Conga Master' is more dubby and roomy with fizzy cymbals almost acting like ASMR. 'Gon Hard' is a proto-house scuzz-fest that morphs into zoned out depths and 'Zwing' is a collision of drum loops and hits, balmy pads and fuzzy pads that fires many different feelings at once. '909 Samba' is just that and is a clear standout and 'Do It Wild' is raw and dusty house with detuned synths bringing an eerie edge to the party.
Review: Iowa's Zuul hand modulates the proverbial Pressure Control with a five-track slab of tightly wound menace, shifting gears from his earlier appearances on Exarde and White Scar. As head of Laik, Ollie Burgess has previously shown a taste for precise, brooding rhythms; but here, he leans rawer, drawing on EBM, new beat and the wave-inflected electronics of the late 80s, invoking spirits of early Frankfurt and Ghent while keeping an eye firmly on the functional demands of contemporary sets. There's a nitty tension running through each cut, making them as suited to murky warm-ups as to teeth-gritting peak hours.
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