Running Back Germany Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Wild Pitch Club is next up in the excellent and ling running Running Back Mastermix series. It's a legendary space that has very much defined the Frankfurt and wider german scene and was also something of a predecessor venue to the new well-loved Robert Johnson. That club was itself a place where Panorama Bar's very own nd_baumecker really made waves and it is they alongside co-founder Ata who have curated these tunes. The venue was hooked on the US sounds and often hosted the likes of Robert Hood and Claude Young to Kerri Chandler all of which shows in the sounds of the tunes.

Review: Roman Flugel has been one of the European underground's most consistent and innovative names over the last 20 + years working on everything from acid to minimal to tech. He shows a slightly different look on this new EP for Running Back with a disco-tinged and happy melodic house cut 'Lucky Charm' taking up the a-side in three slightly different versions. The flip then has three more originals - 'Luv Armour' is a zippy house cut with big percussive energy and 'Whatever This Is' is then a beautifully innocent and playful cut with naive melodies. 'Film 4' is a moody downbeat piece to close out a varied and vital outing.

Review: Nacho Marco and Garen Moreno have not released much music as Jet Hammer - just two singles in a decade, in fact - but what they have put out is genuinely superb. Their latest EP, an expansive collection of retro-futurist gems inspired by 12" mixes of the 1980s, is similarly impressive. For proof, check opener 'Last Night', which sounds like the missing link between Italo-disco and the Cure; the Bobby Orlando-era Pet Shop Boys meets New Order wonder of 'How It Started'; and 'On Your Side (Instrumental Version)', which adds an early UK acid house veneer to the shimmering, club-ready extended synth-pop jams of the late '80s. Throw in an alternative new wave/post-punk style '1981 Mix' of 'Last Night', and you have an indispensable package.

Review: Frankfurt producer Shan has enjoyed a long and productive friendship with Running Back Gerd Janson. To date, it has included a swathe of collaborative tracks and remixes, as well as regular solo releases on the label. Shan's latest EP for the imprint is naturally packed with playable material. Saucer-eyed, retro-futurist opener "Who Run Tings", for example, underpins jaunty, Inner City style stabs and piano riffs with corking, hip-house style breakbeats, while "Awakenings" offers a slightly more muscular, big room-friendly take on the turn-of-the-'90s piano house blueprint. Shan deviates further from the script on the Nu Groove style vintage deep house musicality of "English Summer" and deep '80s synth-pop-meets-deep house flex of closer "Take Me To The Top".