Back catalogue: All genres

Review: Following the critical success of last years mini-LP The Last Tortuga, Black Deer is back on Emotional Response with a 4 track remix EP featuring friends and alumni Nacho Patrol, Luke Wyatt, Sad City and Valet. William Burnett returns to the label in the form of a remixes EP that takes his original productions and hands it to a broad selection of today's finest electronic producers, plus a rare outing from one of the label's favourite pyschedelic experimentalists. While Danny Wolfer's Legowelt project needs little introduction, it was only right that his inclusion on the label came from a more cosmic outlook. With must have EPs and a long player offered, his afro-infused Nacho Patrol moniker is a must check. In Circle Dance the original is taken by the hand down to an afro-tech-funk'n'breaks basement for one of his best remixes to date and rightly so for one of his old buds. Luke Wyatt follows with an uplifting and warped retake on Meditation. The kraut influence of the original is built on with fuzz guitar and a solo that builds across the track to a higher peak. Play this at sunrise for reaffirmation of life itself. Next is a big favourite of the label, catching the ear from his first release on Underwater Peoples
and a lush follow up for Phonica. His pure ambience of a remix strips everything back and lets the 4th World shine. With a 2nd EP due on Phonica, look out for something on this label soon. Finally, one of the main influences on the label when it started a few years back. Valet aka Portland multi-instrumentalist and mum, Honey Owens offers a deep, beautiful and haunting retake, adding whispers, drones, guitar, toms, keys and intonations to swallow you whole.

Review: Bespoke cutter's journey into the unknown continues across five tracks of stripped hyper-funk. Sliced and diced, this meticulously crafted music is designed for the body as much as the brain. There are hints of so many genres here and yet, all woven together for maximum funk - and damage on the most discerning of floors. The previous bespoke cutter releases have gained widespread attention from those in the know - and this is the most developed and satisfying work yet.

Review: Bezier returns to Dark Entries with Valencia, a six track rumination on memory, geography, and transmutation. Multi-instrumentalist Robert Yang's Bezier project has appeared on Dark Entries many times over the last decade, most recently with the 2018 LP Parler Musique. Says Yang, "What started as a project to investigate the love of the sound and scenery while living in San Francisco quickly developed into a passionate search for interlocking melodies and driving rhythms." On Valencia, Bezier invokes twinned places. The Valencia Street of San Francisco is channeled, which was the center of the city's vibrant new wave scene in the 1980s. But also echoed is Valencia, Spain, and La Ruta del Bakalao aka La Ruta Destroy, the Spanish clubbing scene throughout the 80s and 90s famed for its aggressive and synthetic sounds. Valencia is a darker record for Yang, exploring themes of submission and catharsis with nods to SF's gay leather bars of the 70s and 80s. The high BPM salvos of "Valencia" and "Scrupulous" capture the frantic energy of Bakalao and Valencian wave acts like Oltima Emocion. Elsewhere Yang mines the dreamy space disco and Hi-NRG sounds they're known for, like on the brooding "Past the Marshes" or the anthemic "Reservoir", which features their partner Len.Leo on vocals. Bezier deftly navigates past and present, light and dark, pain and pleasure, the stasis of memory and the flux of time. Valencia was mastered by Alex Michalski, with EQ for vinyl done by George Horn. Gwenael Rattke designed the sleeve, which features an 80's punk zine-esque geometric grid pattern mirroring San Francisco street maps. Also included is a 5x7 postcard with notes.

Review: Bigeneric was the alias of veteran Swiss producer Marco Repetto, under which he released the now legendary Venydia EP back in 1995 on The Spacefrogs label. Diamonds & Pearls Music now reissues this seminal classic, which features the evocative title track - a true zeitgeist which treaded similar sonic territory as Laurent Garnier at the time, while on the B side 'Styrax' is a more minimalistic and rhythm-based cut similar to what another contemporary, Plastikman, was doing. Finally, a previously unreleased, beatless version of the Detroit hi-tech soul influenced 'Electrophoria' is featured as an exclusive.

Review: This week's lesson in simple musical mathematics is demonstrated by Tensnake and Aloe Blacc. The former's inexorable rise in 2010 has perhaps been matched by the worldwide popularity of the latter's "I Need A Dollar", so getting Mr Niemerski on board to remix the track was a smart move. The end results are typically appealing, with Blacc's vocals looped brilliantly around a burning deep house arrangement that peaks in all the right places. The central energetic pulse of cavernous bass stabs and slick hi-hats are inundated by massive swathes of soaring chords as the track progresses, with the requisite breakdowns augmented by choral vocal refrains. Totally euphoric in its intentions and execution, this is bound to have devastating effects when implemented at the right time.

Review: It's hard to keep up with the number of releases that Athens Of The North are putting out this month, but you really must try. This one is a gooey and loved up disco 12" from the dream team pairing of Tom Findlay from Groove Armada and James Alexander Bright. They hook up via mutual appreciation over Twitter and worked up a load of new material in the studio as Bright & Findlay. Their first offering 'Slow Dance' is perfection - lush 80s synths, slow-motion boogie beats and drum machines marbled with little guitar riffs and soulful vocals that ate you to a better place. Two further heart melters come on the flip side and we are already in love with this project.

Review: German artist Stephan Bodzin has done a fine job of keeping himself at the forefront of the melodic techno world, not least with his always boundary-pushing live shows. He takes that energy into the studio when cooking up his scintillating club tracks, too, and always has. This reissue on his own Herzblut label revisits one of his many stand cuts. 'Valentine' is a wonky one with creepy bass and mysterious melodies over crunchy tech beats. 'Papillon' takes flight like its butterfly namesake, with elegant leads and rubbery bass all doused in glorious melodic rain that has a sci-fi edge.

Review: The second Abstract Cuts release is an EP split four ways, but with new, unconventional approaches to the dancefloor at the heart of each submission and all using vintage drum machines and samplers. The Robot Dance Connection's 'Powers Of Ten' (R2d2 live edit) kicks off side one, shiny high frequency polish played off against a gorgeously stubborn techno beat, before the slinkier and smoother 'Gold Saucer' by Brunzi offers an equally danceable but less angular counterpoint. Flip it over and Tomska's 'Lethal Overdose' (Touch dub 2022) offers rushing sonics, off kilter snare damage and four to the floor thump, before Emile's 'Jeu Froid' completes the set in grimy basement style.

Review: The amount of ultra-rare, hard to find, essential Northern Soul classics seems to be infinite. Here comes another reissue that aims to right that wrong with an officially licensed pair of tunes from the Phase One Network that has artwork based on the original promo version. 'Don't You Worry Baby The Best Is Yet To Come' is brimming with soul and immediately swells your heart with its elegant strings, graceful piano chords and swirling sense of groove all lifting you off your feet. 'Try To Leave Me If You Can' is a heartbroken slow song to conjure up memories of all the loves you've lost, or maybe never had.

Review: Woof! Hyperdub bring together two of the most recognisable and enigmatic artists of recent times on this 10", as Zomby and Burial square down ahead of the former's new album for the label. Zomby's Ultra LP is undoubtedly one of this year's most anticipated albums and "Sweetz" suggests it may be a very moody affair indeed. Whilst rooted in UK dance, Zomby and Burial do look elsewhere for inspiration too. Just under seven minutes long, "Sweetz" veers through various sub-heavy soundscapes with intermittent rhythmic patters and a distinctive looped vocal sample whose pitch changes with dramatic effect.

Review: Bleep techno formed as a result of likening the arpeggiated bleeping of techno, with the sound of contempoary bleeps: small toy robots, Speak n' Spells, the digital chatter of sci-fi foley in franchises like Star Trek and Star Wars. Now, music editor Jurgen Laarmann argues vehemently that bleep is back, and in EP form, likens its resurgence with the advent of NFTs and cryptocurrencies. 'NFT', therefore, is a four-tracker like no other, with the banging original track coming together with Bleep stalwarts including Michael wells, Tricky Disco and Justus Kohncke.

Review: Street Corner's FliP Sessions is a great source of beats for hip-hop heads and this eighth volume is no different. It's limited to just 200 copies and features five more exquisite little sketches that are loveably rough around the edges and full of laidback and dusty soul. After the busted breaks of GREENMINDZ, Toby Glider zones you out with lo-fi loops and Beaulemaire brings heavier beats. Side 2 has a more jazz cut from Elusive and star gazing cosmic melody from Shri!. All five of these are delightful little pieces.

Review: Beautify Junkyards and Ghost Box label co-head Jim Jupp is Belbury Poly here as he serves up a cover of The Incredible String Band song 'Painting Box.' It was original by written by Mike Heron and is a beautiful piece of acoustic guitar work with tender vocals and sweeping string sounds that come over like an adult lullaby, all soothing sounds and enchanting moods. The flipside is an original by Beautify Junkyards, 'Ritual in Transfigured Time,' which was produced by Joao Branco Kyron and is another perfectly lilting groove for lazy days.

Review: We've been digging in our warehouse and found some classic electro from the prolific Boris Divider on the superb Satamile Records. This EP was released almost 20 years ago but you couldn't tell - the electro contained within it is as sharp as a knife and relevant as a selfie. 'Clone Factory' kicks off with lashings of metallic snares and jagged rhythms, 'Robot Skin' brings some high-speed cyborg funk and 'Digital Mind' then cruises through the cosmos on coruscated low ends. 'New Race' closes out with a fourth and final electro workout of the highest order.

Review: Tony Rodriguez has many strings to his bow already as Brothers' Vibe and the head of Mixx Records, and now he's embarking on a new venture in the shape of the Toad Red label. Focused on a harder-edged sound than the deep house he's normally associated with, Rodriguez has invited Esther Duijn and youANDme to join in the fun with some finely crafted techno for open-minded dancefloors. Meanwhile there's an original BV jam in the shape of "Dee's Drama", while Rodriguez also unveils a new modular-focused alias named Silent Rodgerz. It's a new chapter for the New Jersey mainstay, and it promises exciting things to come in the future.

Review: A repress for four prime slices of classic Baby Ford minimal tech gear, from the rhythm-centric drum machine fest 'Very', the resonant bleepy tones of 'Test', the sparse and spacious 'Down' and the subtle acid undertones of 'Percy'. Baby Ford is finally getting his props as one the UK acid and techno scene's true innovators and pioneers, and these four very mixable tracks are four more reasons why this is only right.

Review: Is there any artist in electronic music that releases as little music yet remains as highly revered as Burial? We can't think of any. As it happens, this new Streetlands EP is actually the hallowed UK producer's second outing of 2022 after the ambient offering Antidawn back in January. As always it finds him back on Kode9's Hyperdub label. 'Hospital Chapel' is eerie atmosphere and lo-fi samples, 'Streelands' is another sparse ambient cut that is full of melancholy and 'Exokind' is the soundtrack of a faraway planet with distant solar winds and only the smallest of microbial activities for you to tune into before a signature angelic vocal brings the beauty.

Review: Justin Vernon's voice has always been the people's main attraction to Bon Iver, and the fact his pseudonym even exists is certainly no coincidence. As fragile and heartbroken as it is forthright and experienced, when you're wearing a shredded heart on sleeve and confessing to all your deepest insecurities using a pen name can help immensely. Album number four perhaps proves this more than any of its predecessors. While the three previous chapters have all made his thoughts, feelings, insecurities and fears clear, this one takes honesty to new heights. Combining the frail electronics that have gradually slipped their way into his back catalogue with the acoustics of his earliest, rocket-to-fame efforts, it's a culmination of all that's been in the truest sense. Perhaps even more intimate than the breathtakingly personal "For Emma, Forever Ago", "i,i" is a striking work to say the least.

Review: Album number six from the Ruffians certainly means business. Honest and painfully on-point in terms of overarching themes, its sonically highly polished and - while not a concept record - incredibly well conceived as a coherent whole. A rock 'n' roll offering that grabs your body to make it move while boring into your mind and soul to make you think and feel. Word on the street is this was some three years in the making, and it certainly feels like an un-rushed process will have led to this package. Tracks kick and punch in all the right places, but they never forget the need for balance, peaks and troughs. It's more than likely that you'll walk away from this with the scale of the anthems cemented to the mind, though, rather than the more tender moments. After all, it's a masterclass in major key melodies, and a striking example of the powerful effect those have on listeners.