(Emotional) Especial Vinilo y CD

Review: REPRESS ALERT: Travelling both space and time with his constructions, Alphonse Rozel makes a welcome return on [Emotional] Especial after the Same For Me EP released last year. The incisive hit of the disco beat on "Smokey" is hard to ignore, while the booming toms and African chant lines feed into a perfect slice of dancefloor dynamite from an unspecified era. Meanwhile The Pilotwings take to the track with glee, whipping out some crisp breaks to drop over the proceedings in a pleasingly early '90s manner. "Glint AM" is quite the foil to the A side, leaning on some uplifting synth chords to provide the magic around the crafty drum programming.

Review: It's been a hot minute since Timothy J. Fairplay slipped on his Junior Fairplay guise, but he's done just that for this bleep-tastic new 12" on (Emotional) Especial. "End Of Love" is unabashed in its embrace of early Yorkshire techno tones, making a fine job of resurrecting the bleep spectre and letting it shake up the dance once more. Roy Of The Ravers is a smart choice of remixer, and he brings an off-kilter acid rub to the table in his idiosyncratic, braindance-inflected style. The B-side is equal laden with purposefully dusty dance grooves transplanted from the late 80s / early 90s, with "Faxes From The Future" hitting a particularly sharp point in its lazy breakbeat roll and the clanging harmonies of the stabs.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Record has very light surface marks/smudges, but otherwise in perfect working condition***


Strange happenings are going on down at Scrutton Street, EC1. With release after release cementing the names of those based or working out of the studio bunker, a desire for pushing the boundaries of electronic music is primary with little concern for what's hip. So if anyone can Tim can and here with his newly birthed pseudonym comes Junior Fairplay. With a one-sided release and remix to his name on Crimes Of The Future a glimpse has been offered of what's in store, but How Do You Like Me Now? gives it straight. Pioneering and back to the British techno of early Black Dog, Reload, Stasis and of course, the seminal "Selected Works" clearly inspires, but so too does one of those musical moments where genres clash, tear and stretch as something new is being born. It all starts with the uplifting House anthem of Classic Version, eschewing the oft-tasted horror stylings and aims direct for that 4am MDMA airfild rush, before the EP drops, locks and spins on it's axis, with 3 pure breaks cuts to overload the senses and say, now is the time! A voyage to another side to the mythical lost chord via a moment in time where open filds, abandoned warehouses, the kick of 4/4 house, hip hop breaks and the dub of sound system culture merged but for a short while. Not house, not rave or jungle. A proto sound born of blood, sweat and Rage.

Review: Strange happenings are going on down at Scrutton Street, EC1. With release after release cementing the names of those based or working out of the studio bunker, a desire for pushing the boundaries of electronic music is primary with little concern for what's hip. So if anyone can Tim can and here with his newly birthed pseudonym comes Junior Fairplay. With a one-sided release and remix to his name on Crimes Of The Future a glimpse has been offered of what's in store, but How Do You Like Me Now? gives it straight. Pioneering and back to the British techno of early Black Dog, Reload, Stasis and of course, the seminal "Selected Works" clearly inspires, but so too does one of those musical moments where genres clash, tear and stretch as something new is being born. It all starts with the uplifting House anthem of Classic Version, eschewing the oft-tasted horror stylings and aims direct for that 4am MDMA airfild rush, before the EP drops, locks and spins on it's axis, with 3 pure breaks cuts to overload the senses and say, now is the time! A voyage to another side to the mythical lost chord via a moment in time where open filds, abandoned warehouses, the kick of 4/4 house, hip hop breaks and the dub of sound system culture merged but for a short while. Not house, not rave or jungle. A proto sound born of blood, sweat and Rage.

Review: Remotif is a fast-rising star with a sound being called 'trance fusion.' He makes his mark again to that end with a new one on Especial that brings more of his modern-day ethnic styles to the driving breaks of techno following outings on the likes of Coymix and Space Lab and sets everywhere from Fabric to Berlin's Warning parties. This one kicks off with 'U 15' which is a busy blend of shimmery timbres and sharp perc, spaced-out pads and psychedelic synths that are ever on the rise. More trance overtones define 'Glint's Pursuit' and 'The Elevated Place' is slick and sleek, ascending and always rising. 'The Sunken Place' shuts down with more slow and percolating dub mutations to round out a superb EP.