Tags: Leftfield House

Review: Enjoy Your Self EP 3 is, as the title suggests, a third deep dive into the offerings of Osaka, Japan-based label Chillmountain Recordings. It has a wealth of different producers on its roster, all of whom twist up house, electronica, experimental, dub and Balearic sounds into fresh new grooves for cultured dance floors. It is tribal and percussive dub from Aki Nagase that immediately gets us locked in before Akira Arasawa & Ground combine for the sludgy and slow motion dub of 'Multi Gud Z.' Akira Arasawa's 'Dolphin' has underwater sonar sounds and watery rhythms then the EP closes on what might be the best of the lot - a percolating dub in the form of 'Dancing Pikapika.'

Review: Remastered rarities by the late Susumu Yokota under his 246 and Prism monikers. Go Up was originally a defective release which has since been corrected and remastered and Vol 3 - 02 was not released. It also features a megamix of Ambient Love and Squeeze Up (which feature on Cosmic Soup 005) by Gene On Earth and a remix of Flare's Grip - Prism Remix by Matthew Herbert titled "Herbert's Make It Right Dub". Three legends on this EP. Superbly remastered and cut by Mike Grinser at Manmade in Berlin. Artwork by John Williams.

Review: Especial Specials has joined forces with Osaka-based imprint Chillmountain Recordings to offer up another Enjoy Your Self EP. This one once again showcases the talents on its roster with label head Ground kicking off with a beatdown meets trance sound on "Utau Narukoyuri'. After that slow burner come tribal percussive sounds from 'Arauma' (Kobato Dub), sunny cumbia on 'Something Sign' and a meandering Balearic journey from Akira Arasawa With KUN & FRANKY-CH that is brought to life with new age flute sounds, bird calls, jungle drips and folkloric strings. A fantastic EP, then.

Review: Japanese producer Kuniyuki Takahashi's Newwave project is a new interpretation of his musical roots. He was majorly influenced by SPK, Test Dept, D.A.F and various industrial and EBM acts. Then he formed an industrial music band with his brother in the late 80's called DRP. After 25 years, his new release is a unique mixture of his deep and emotional house sound with the aforementioned influences and now presenting the second volume once again on Mule Musiq. Takahashi is a stalwart of the label, having put out close a dozen LP and several EPs on the label over the years. From the broken beat and arpeggios of "Blue Neon" to the neon-lit '80s night deep house of "Newwave Project #11" there's an odd collection of grooves on here from a unique perspective.

Review: Shota Ikawa is Igaxx and is someone who focuses on the details in this music but never at the expense of the dancefloor. Across five new cuts here on his Echoes EP for the Angis Music label, he pairs dreamy pads with dynamic drums. 'Echo Vibe' kicks off and is laced with lovely cowbell as the lumpy drums and molten bassline all stream forward. 'Trips' has a more cosmic outlook with smeared pads encircling the loose drums and 'Sticky Journey' is more loud and proud with its mix of percussive clatter and broad-stroke pads. 'What Is Your Raw Emotion?' is the headiest of the lot for the way the wispy pads hypnotise and 'Nap' explores a darker and more downbeat mood.

Review: Second time around for the late, great Rai Harakami's second album, Opa*q, gets the reissue treatment. It's long been tricky to source outside of Japan and for whatever reason has not been issued in any form since it first surfaced in 2009. It's an attractive and at times off-kilter blend, with Harakimi mixing and matching ambient textures and enveloping electronic soundscapes with jazzy keyboard solos, quirky grooves, madcap post-techno acid lines, IDM and break-core style beats, and the kind of squelchy and tactile synth motifs more often associated with boogie albums made in the 1980s. It feels pleasingly lo-fi, too, as if a writer of 1980s and early 90s video-game soundtracks had made an electronica album. This edition also includes fine remixes by Ian O'Brien and Max 404, plus two hard-to-find bonus cuts.