MUSIC RECOMMENDATION

FULL REVIEW

For the very first time, our “special guest”, who commented on the last item of our selection below, also took care of today’s review, on a beautiful release. This is how passionate he is. His name is Brice Deloose AKA Pattrn and he honoured us with his “double investment”.

DANCEFLOOR-ORIENTED

After “Vurt” and “Vurt“, here is “Vurt”, to open the EP… Three different authors, yet not the same meaning. Unlike Spieth and Malinowski, BLNDFLD didn’t set a homage to “vurt.” in Seoul, but rather to Bassiani in his hometown, using Jeff Noon’s 1993 cyberpunk novel “Vurt” and the title “Distant Light” to express how the club impacts the Georgian society in a luminous way. The warm-up mood is set…

ATMOSPHERIC TECHNO

It’s been a few years now since the Middle East started to emerge in the atmospheric techno scene, with tracks that however share different codes than Italy, the label’s country. The oriental structures are usually richer (as opposed to minimal), with some housey roots. Assimilated, from Israël, is not exempt. The contrast between his dense tracks and Zemög’s minimalism is particularly striking. The amplitude is yet well-designed, and if there are some housey hi-hats, there is at least no clap 🥹

DARK TECHNO

Let’s take now the lift down to Seoul’s lowest underground floor, so deep that “it scratches Evil’s horns”. This is Soseol’s territory, not a floor that we often visit, because, well, we are “well-balanced individuals” (at least “pretend to be”); we’re usually not aficionados of “too-dark” tracks (or “too-luminous” ones), but Soseol has been in the dark game for more than a decade, so he knows how to keep it interesting, despite the perpetual obscurity.

The remixers accompanied him brilliantly to extend the visit (at your own risk though).

VARIOUS ARTISTS

After the plunge into darkness, we bring you back to the light helped by angelic motives. Melifera is a beautiful project, grouping a top-class record label, a creative magazine, a colourful podcast, and also behind great events including La Vallée Electrique Festival. With its young and positive aura, it is no surprise to see it involved in such a chevaleresque cause, and it is a very sincere project, the VA being also a charity release. It follows a 2022 first volume and it is one more time synonymous with “talent”.

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Label owner Aaron J is a personification of elegance, as sensed in his label’s music, sophisticated with an interesting touch of modernism. Sure Thing‘s discography is not big, but each project magically succeeds to take the best out of its artists, thinking for instance of “Bloom” by Polygonia or “Arcadia” by Bauer, which are, for us, their best works so far. The present VA, mainly made by UK artists, proposes an interesting fusion between hypnotech and UK garage, and seeing our dear “ENA” popping up made us smile…

AMBIENT TECHNO

An old Hindu legend tells that there was a time when all men were gods, but they abused it so much that Brahma, the master of the gods, decided to take away their divine power and hide it in a place impossible to find. Where would it be? Buried under the ground? Laid down on the sea bed? Men are great explorers and could one day find it, so Brahma said: “Let’s hide the man’s divinity deep within himself, for that is the only place he will never think of looking for.” 

Since that time, man has circled Earth, explored, climbed, dived and dug in search of something within him… 

If meditation and art eventually have the potential to unveil it, Sam Goku’s enchanting masterpieces at least give a valuable hint of these “Things We See When We Look Closer”…