Selections 001
The rate at which producers, aliases, labels and tracks seem to appear on the scene is thrilling! We’ll be digging through the mountains of recent releases, pulling out a few highlights and making some selections.
Lola Percussion - Oasi [Intersezioni]
Our first pick is from an ambient release built almost exclusively from dance music’s fundamental materials - percussion. Lola is the self-titled first release from Gabriele Lattuada and Lorenzo D’Erasmo, both students of Percussion Instruments at Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan. The duo uses a barebones setup of percussive instruments, objects and frame drums. On ‘Oasi’, percussion and timbre are presented not as backbone or structure, but as the track’s narrative force. The result is somewhere between surprising, haunting and mesmerising. It’s a piece for events like Intrinsic Festival, Terraforma or a conceptual party in Milan.
Ethel/E.N.E - I Need You [Laik Records]
RA+RE’s Ethel, one of our favourite selectors, debuts on Laik Records with Radio Neukölln, nominally a split-EP shared with her own alias, E.N.E (her and Elliot Sindall aka Jäfar). The EP came about after Ethel’s appearance at a Laik party in 2019, a collective of budding producers and DJs from Leeds. You can hear Ethel’s signature sound and influences ranging from her parent’s rock vinyl collection to Mr Fingers and Ricardo Villalobos, as well as from her female collective and the "new school" taste of today. Bold yet inviting moves include the vinyl’s lipstick cover, romantic track titles and Ethel’s own self-expression. ‘I Need You’ is all about the driving synths, unique samples, clipped vocals and loads of attitude.
After the sell-out and subsequently repressed debut EP on Welt Discos by And.rea, Lisbon based label owner and DJ Joe Delon maintains the label’s quality with another solid release Kiss Me Again by Dublin based Lerosa, a producer with quite a discography under his belt, having delivered music on various labels from Ostgut Ton, Assemble Music and the electro Lunar Disko Records. Lerosa’s appearance on Welt Discos showcases the producer’s wild versatility, with four tracks spanning Lee “Scratch” Perry-esque dub, detroit house and laidback downtempo. ‘Karnak’ is a spacey drexciyan electro track with a great earworm melody. We are looking forward to more releases on Welt by selector Joe Delon.
Seekers return in full force with a 4-part vinyl set (plus a 90 minutes tape cassette). About a month ago the label announced the compilation on the sly with single album Integrated Consciousness. No label artwork, neither any artist name, keeping to its underground values of letting the music do the talking. The release reminds us of the label’s classic Flirting with Melancholy LP which came with the heartfelt ‘Love Intensified By Absence’ as a cute 7-inch hidden in the bigger sleeve. For this new release we’ve picked ‘Eleven’, a live recording written by Picone, Piermattei and Salvadori, from a special live set that took place out at sea. You can hear the vibe in the rolling broken beats and bassline. While on the A-side it’s UK techno veteran and R&S mainstay Paul Weston with a new pseudonym, L74.According to the label, the compilation was inspired conceptually by Corrado Malanga’s Flash Dynamic Triade Color Test. While Integrated Consciousness comes as a transparent vinyl (more incognito styling here), the rest of the records are coloured.
Leo Rosi – Hypnotika (Dr Freud) [Sleeve Records]
Double Mix, the classic but rare LP by Italian house master Leo Rosi was recently reissued, in part, by Sleeve Records, a Florence-based record label (and shop) founded by Luca and Francesco Gori aka DNArt, specialising in repressing expensive rare records. ‘Hypnotika (Dr Freud)’ is one of Rosi’s best - energetic yet laidback, with enough surprising twists and turns to keep dancers on their toes - and that funky telephone sound! Stay tuned for more collectors items by Sleeve Records, who before Rosi's release repressed the Del Garda anthem 'You' from 90s Italian label Trancebeat as well as music by Florence's 90s rave collective Open Spaces.Mond
Enrica Falqui - Mond [Marginal Returns]
Andrew James Gustav demonstrates a refined digger's ear on his own Marginal Returns, unearthing quality underground music by UK veteran Controlled Weirdness while also introducing talented producers to the scene with debut EPs by Sohrab and Two Phase U. With that in mind comes the latest and fascinating Plexus EP by Enrica Falqui, her first solo release. The EP is split in two minds, reflecting the producer's duos Eris (electro/techno) and Yhdessa (ambient/experimental). In tune with the current musical climate, the A-side is taken up by three elegant and spacious downtempo tracks, while a couple of unexpected dancefloor bombs are smuggled in on the B-side. A2 ‘Mond’ is a classy piece of head massaging deep, ambient house.
Radioactive Man - Born in the USB [Sonicus Croniclus]
The first in a series of 10” from the UK electro/breaks iconic, volume 1 of Sonicus Cronicus features two direct and blunted dancefloor gems. The spooky stabs and coarse bassline on ‘Unsaid’ recall a memorable dance in the rain at Houghton. ‘Born In The USB’ is our pick, with its wobbling synths over a badass, low slung electro beat. The artwork on the label was made by plasticine, yes plasticine! Let's play.
Selections 001
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