49TH SELECTION – A new one every Monday.
Want to stay up to date with the most recent music, for instance for your DJing? Each Monday, we list and comment on our favourite releases of the moment. This week:
MYSTERY RELEASE
FULL REVIEW
Our “full reviews” came back some weeks ago; we do them again from time to time, and here’s a new one on a phenomenal album.
Click on “the keyhole” to spend a few minutes in the company of our deep writer Tina Camilleri. Then come back here 🙂👋
Lindamann – Hidden Space [Huinali Recordings, 2023-02-03]
Do you remember?
ATMOSPHERIC TECHNO
“Give a wolf a taste of your leg, and he’ll ask for your hand.” (Seven Samurai, 1954).
Last Saturday at 2:48 PM CET, when playing “Hidden Space” on a snowy afternoon, we found our Grandmaster. Hailing from Tokyo, the Japanese wizard doesn’t have a long white beard, since his discography only contains a few tracks and one other album. Yet his power is infinite.
In “Hidden Space”, each facet of the hypnotic effect is perfectly executed. We have the groovy minimalism of Jeff Mills: Detroit’s stalwart once visited a club where Lindamann was working and lighted his love for electronic music. We have the intriguing creativity of A Made Up Sound, the experimental touch of Livity Sound, the dubby ambiences of Kassem Mosse and Basic Channel, which are all projects that Lindamann confessed having been inspired from. As if this perfect blending of genres wasn’t enough, Zemög and Adhémar close the refined journey with their own sonic natures, trippy and beautiful.
Now that we’ve “a taste of the leg”, we for sure wish to bite “the hand”, hoping that Master Lindamann will increase his production flow.
Na Nich – Super Earth. SEMANTICA 144 [Semantica Records, 2023-02-03]
ATMOSPHERIC TECHNO
We try in vain to remember, but no, we’ve never witnessed a “sample of ping pong game” in a track. If this choice is somewhat confusing in the beautiful opener, it becomes clearer after listening: Na Nich brings to techno a dimension often under-exploited in our niche sound: the design of well-thought drops, inherited from his long drum’n’bass career. Since hypnotic techno is by definition a repetition, it often comes without break, while such sequences may bring efficient grooves which don’t damage the hypnotic effect when subtle enough. In “Super Earth” more than ever, the Ukrainian artist shows virtuosity to build such grooves, hidden behind beautiful deep ambiences.
Alexskyspirit – 0456 [Circular Limited, 2023-02-03]
ATMOSPHERIC TECHNO
A random number to name the opener, cosmic references for the second and third titles, a dreamy one for the fourth track: no doubt, we are already in another dimension before hitting play. The hazy artwork and sonic fogs achieve the process: it’s one more time very easy to get lost in Alexskyspirit’s deep layers. After “Wormhole“, “0456” is the Greek artist’s second EP on Circular Limited. Yet let’s not forget his own label Khoros, which recently also released a dope EP, by Hod.
Neural Scape – Cerebral Cortex [KVLTÖ Records, 2023-01-31]
ATMOSPHERIC TECHNO
We tearfully announce it: “Neural Scape is finally becoming a grown man!” 🥹 … Indeed, his rich musical paths in psytrance, acid techno, gabber, jungle, tech house, chillout, psychedelic rock, electronica, dubstep, under tons of aliases and channels, seem to have finally led him to the present deep – more mature – techno release… Or we misinterpret his evolution and “Cerebral Cortex” is just another string to his psychedelic bow. The EP is yet so outstanding, that we secretly pray for his stay in the musical depths 🤫
Vector Field – Rituals of Memory EP [Visions of Hiira, 2023-02-01]
👆 Enjoy also the superb artwork designed by Marek Bartunek, label-owner of Cellar Door Records, which also released an amazing EP lately.
ATMOSPHERIC TECHNO
“We”, “you”, mankind basically, are adorable yet slightly lazy creatures: Sport or chocolate? Book or movie? Documentary or reality TV? Article or meme? Provocative: soldier or politician? Mental: listening or judging? Last but not least: nature or techno? … Happily, artists such as Vector Field, formerly known as Stigr, succeed in bringing “nature into techno”, such as in this EP, marking the birth of the British label. So we say “thank you”, for letting us stay on the couch and not “moving da ass” outside 🫣🤭
Worg – Il Piano di Medea [Lykos Records, 2023-01-23]
DANCEFLOOR-ORIENTED
Only an electrical shock may kick us out of the couch during our current musical trip. Let’s do it tho, because the fridge is scandalously distant. One solution; calling Worg from Rome of course! His massive bangers always explode the sofa. According to some persistent rumours, Putin himself asserted he would surrender if Worg was playing in Ukraine!!! In the present EP, he’s moreover not alone: “Neel created an escalation of tension with mad energy”, said Worg in his recent chart for us. See? We invent nothing…
SPECIAL GUEST
Combine the Elettronica Romana style with Sandwell District’s deep atmospheres, add a touch of OZORA’s psychedelia, and you’ll get a pretty close definition of his music. With epic events in some 40 countries worldwide, legendary collabs with Deepbass, Claudio PRC and !nertia, with emblematic podcasts and releases on Prologue, Informa Records and of course on his own label The Gods Planet, our guest today casts a shadow over our whole scene. He remains yet very humble, having for instance entrusted his awaited second LP to the young label Navigare Audio, which he salutes below, with his musical language and passion:
NESS PRESENTS
DJ, PRODUCER AND LABEL OWNER OF THE GODS PLANET
Solarythm – Agápē [Navigare Audio, 2023-01-23]
He also collaborated with Vanta lately on another dope EP:
TRIBAL TECHNO
Ness: Solarythm has been on my radar for a while, with catchy compositions and a clear influence from trance music, which he also produces. The EP, released by my Swedish mates from Navigare Audio, is yet another example of his great musical skills.
The five pieces have been carefully selected and arranged, from the beatless opening to the natural dancefloor-oriented evolution, closing the story with a soothing vibe. The way the EP is structured makes sense to me, with a well-thought coherence in sound design throughout the whole course of listening, track after track.
In “Agápē”, my favourite piece is “Through True Freedom”, whose title speaks to me and adds a gentle pathos to the adventurous journey, which fully matches my personal “tastes and colours”.
* Page’s cover picture: Oye Kreuzkoelln in Berlin, a record shop from a member of our community.
