Running Back Germany Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Eagles & Butterflies has had plenty of notable tunes over the years. No doubt that is why he gets the nod from Gerd Jansen's legendary Running back label to offer up Retropolis Vol 01. It is a four-track EP that shows off the producer's well-realised sounds. The title track is the real standout - 'Retropolis' brings electro-styled synth work with brilliantly future retro euro-disco energy. It's packed with hints of Italo and is sure to light up any club scene. Says the producer of the EP, "Retropolis is the past meets the future. I love influences and technology from the past and making music that sounds like it could be from a time yet to arrive." Mission accomplished.

Review: Roman Flugel is back with his seventh full length titled Eating Darkness. The nine tracks were created during the coronavirus lockdown of 2020, and are testament to the Frankfurt legend's penchant for mixing elements of pop with sounds of the underground - a scene he has been affiliated with since the early '90s. A variety of moods and grooves are all delivered in his idiosyncratic style: from the woozy and broken slow burner 'Chemicals', to the majestic and spellbinding dancefloor drama of 'Wow' or the raw hardware acid jack of 'Jocks And Freaks' which harks to his days as Alter Ego. Elsewhere, there's the heartfelt and bittersweet ambient house of 'Cluttered Homes' and the downbeat bliss of closing epic 'Charles'.

Review: Long time German electronic innovator is back on Running Back with a very welcome new mini-LP, Cyclone Days. The Frankfurt man mixes up his usual influences - indie-dance, Italo, power pop and house - into fresh and colourful new sounds. Melody rules OK across these cuts as they take in vocal gems and instrumental beats with lottos joyfulness along the way. 'Somebody' with Dena is a standout and timeless anthem for any dance floor, then 'Resonancer' has a retro-future disco-house vibe and 'Friends' is so perfectly pleasing it cannot fail to make you smile.

Review: Last year saw Gerd Janson and Maurice Fulton shake hands on a deal that Bubbletease Communications fans had long been hoping for, with Running Back penning a deal to reissue some of the producer's digi only work on vinyl. The first fruits came in the shape of the Syclops album A Blink Of A Eye (featuring THAT track) and now Running Back turn to the sublime combination of Fulton on production and Mutsumi on vocals. Both tracks here are taken from the artist formerly known as Mu's 2010 self titled LP. As with most, if not all, Fulton productions, the music here sounds like little else and still totally ahead of the game some four years after it's digital release. Described by Running Back as "hard-hittin-freak-out dance tracks", those looking for the perfect blend of Fulton's squelchy acid instrumentation and Mutsumi's wild vocals are advised to check this post-haste.

Review: Gerd Janson's Running Back seemingly has no borders or boundaries when it come to the sort of music it will put out. Next up is Partiboi69 with Call of The Void, a zippy outing that kicks off with the psychoactive synth swirls and hurried beats of 'Playin'' while 'Bodies' is a sleazy and ghetto-tinged tech pumper with well-treated vocals and big old school piano chords that endlessly stab away. 'Feel This' brings a subtly celebratory mood with splashy cymbals and wispy cosmic pads darting about up top and 'Call Of The Void' shuts down with a deeper house sound but one still lit brightly by the astral pads.

Review: Frankfurt producer Victor Shan has long been one of Germany's premier rave revivalists, periodically returning to Running Back with EPs that evoke mental images of turn-of-the-'90s warehouse parties and sweat-soaked basement parties illuminated by little more than red lights. His belated return to Gerd Janson's imprint pushes this sonic aesthetic to the fore, with the title being a reference to the Chicago venue of the same name that helped birth house music. It's full-throttle, hands-in-the-air music from the off, where stab-happy, breakbeat-powered stomper 'Abfahrt' is followed by the 'Apache'-sampling excitement of 'Strobelight' and the surging, Italo-style arpeggiated bass of 'Volume Up'. The fun continues on the flip via the moody 'Textura', the lusciously loved-up 'R8000' and the classic Chicago house flex of 'Shifter'.

Review: Astral techno cosmonaut Space Dimension Controller serves up his vision of acid on this new sampler via Gerd Jansen's Running Back. The storied producer kicks off with 'Kosmische Conga' which has twitchy and sinewy lines lashing about over mid-tempo drums. 'Echopet' has a dubby feel and nice undulating grocers that are coloured with a prickly 303 that gently weaves its way in and out. 'Minehead' gets more manic as the 303s are louder, brighter, and more manic in their approach and 'Carinacid' then slows down to heavy drums and a mutant acid house and techno vibe that is full of late night menace.