Suchergebnisse: Dance Music

Review: Fresh & Low started out as a production partnership between Calum Walker, David Robertson and Julian Dembinski, three deep house heads in the UK with something to say. It's telling they ended up synonymous with Guidance and that wave of dreamy, gritty groovers from the likes of Callisto and Dana Kelley, but their first record Little I arrived on West Side in 1997. The sound was already fully formed, hitting a seductive, nocturnal mood perfectly captured on the dubby sensuality of 'No Going Back'. Dirty drums, subtle swing and synth hooks you could just melt into - this is surely some of the best deep house ever made, reissued by Rawax and sounding better than ever.

Review: Sakro's sound has always been expertly designed a perfect blend of form and function. Now in collaboration with Max Jacobson the same can still be said on the evidence of this new three-track offering on Germany's constantly excellent Raw imprint. It kicks off with 'Walking Into Mirrors' which is a full-throttle tech house cut with nice rubbery kicks and busy melodic patterns swirling about the mix. 'Planet Arium' sinks into a deeper, more heady atmosphere with the kicks still driving but the synth work here is more muted and late night. 'Chapter 16 - Remember To Go Home' is an almost ten minute B-side trip to the stars.

Review: There's seemingly no end to the mind-blowing vaults of UK tech house titan Mark Ambrose. Even after the extensive three-volume run of reissues on Repeats, Rawax have found more of the South Coast legend's late 90s material that hasn't been reissued yet. Sharks be damned, the Cat Groove 12" is back within reach and remastered to bring the best out of the tracks. The title track is one of those artfully squashed, funk loop-riding jams that turns the heat up without any need for studio showboating - just the right ingredients. 'Floating Around' is a heady tripper crying out for the morning, while 'Hook Up' finds another soulful lick to place at the centre of a groove so crunchy it just has to come from an MPC. Hold tight for 'Warehouse Blues', which injects some nasty, pumping techno energy into the mix with a metallic bassline that comes on like Mr Fingers dipped in chrome.

Review: For several years Luciano was one of the kings of the underground. The Swiss-Chilean rode the crest of the minimal wave and had his own distinctive Latin edge that marked him out in a class of one. Now he is back to DJing - often with his equally heralded brethren Ricardo Villalobos - as well as producing. Rawax has the latest goods from the man in the form of this suitably epic two-track EP. 'Assanti Sana' is all subtly shifting grooves and stringy percussive lines with some textured, expressionistic synth lines. 'In Xs' is deeper, and warmer, with ever-evolving rhythms and lots of stringy lines all woven together in an intricate fashion.

Review: Rawax first released John Selway's Real EP back in 2020. It has aged well and is still an in-demand 12" following the sell-out of its first run. As such the German label reissues it now just as it was the first time around. The title cut is a tribal and chunky house number with thumping drums offset but tender and barely-there whispers. 'Sliders' is a twitchy technoid stomper with a sleazy vibe and the urgent, hurried grooves continue through 'Wraecca', this time overlaid with swirling solar winds and busy synth modulations. Proper tackle.

Review: Interplugreaction is a track from Beroshima's 2007 album Real To Reel, but it's wasn't until 2023 that we (now get to) hear the cream of its reinterpretations. If only every track in the world could hear a remix from the likes of Marcel Dettman and Rodhad! Perhaps this calls for an entirely new industry - in fact, let's lock the artists in a room just so they can churn out the music and nothing else. Actually, a whopping four techno heavyweights (also including Frank Muller and Henning Baer) to reinterpret the classic track, with the new mixes ranging from stuffy and oppressive to airy and stark. Certainly not one to miss.

Review: Unbroken Dub has always struck us as an artist who deserves far more credit for what they do. The artist's past mixtures of dub techno and hard techno, for example, have amounted to wild concoctions few others thought to indulge at the time - the tracks 'I Want To Make This Louder' springs to mind. But this new one for Rawax, 'Highway Sleepers', also serves to preserve said keenness. Beginning on an ambient-acid note with the not-a-gabber-track 'Gabba', the EP moves slowly into stickier and gooier dance oceans, ending up completely immersing its beats in spitty acid ectoplasm on 'Murky' before rinsing itself off and drip-drying in the ambient gusts of 'Spectral Wind'.

Review: Since moving from Europe to Canada last year, Jordan Czamanski AKA Jordan GCZ has been relatively quiet, release wise, with just one solo EP and a collaborative album (Recreational Kraut, with long-time friend and studio buddy David Moufang) appearing. This return to Rawax, then, is a welcome development. Title track 'Polyphonic Glide's is particularly potent, with Czamanski combing tight, impactful drums with deeply spacey pads and chords, jazzy bass and his usual stoned, mind-mangling sound design. Elsewhere, 'Why So Serious' is a bouncy, hypnotic, acid-flecked box jam smothered in ghostly pads and echoing synth solos; 'Sunny Side Up' is snappy, out-there and intergalactic in equal measure; and 'Undercurrent' sits somewhere between Detroit tech-jazz, Reagenz style ambient techno and dubby deep house.

Review: Back in 2020, hip-hop, breaks and electro stalwart Freddy Fresh decided to turn his hand to vintage-sounding house and techno, self-releasing a set of tracks called The Harvest online. Rawax were impressed, with the popular label deciding to put the pick of the cuts out on vinyl. Title track 'The Harvest' sets the tone, with the veteran producer wrapping a house-tempo, post-electro groove in sustained organ chords, spacey synths and bubbly electronic melodies. 'House-Spanner' sees him doff a cap to The Middle of Nowhere-era Orbital (seriously, it's very reminiscent of the Hartnoll brothers' late '90s output), while 'Misunderstood' is a woozy, delay-laden chunk of early morning U.S deep house. Elsewhere, the deep house dreaminess continues on the interestingly swung 'Twain', and clonking, TB-303 speckled 'Horlywagon'.

Review: They say that death and taxes are the only sure thing about life, but Rawax serving up high functioning house is another. This 20th such EP comes from William Caycedo and he nails a groove from the first time you drop the needle on the record. 'Cuban Linx' is speaker busting house that is heavy and dusty with plenty of dub swagger. 'Steppin' Razor' again shows a great swing to the drums but this time a more airy vibe pervades. 'Roasted' gets tough with slapping hits and off-balance kicks then 'Dirty Dancing' closes with warm, humid basement sounds for the heads.

Review: Jordan GCZ is having a hell of a year. He's already delivered two sublime albums (his debut solo set and one created in collaboration with Detroit legend Terrence Dixon) and here drops another must-check EP, his first for Rawax. 'Making Me Dizzy' sees the Amsterdam-based producer add gorgeously ambient lead lines, lilting TB-303 motifs and funky bass to a classic Motor City techno groove, with the accompanying 'Dub Mix providing a heavier, sweatier and more intoxicating alternative version. 'Tongue Twister' is jazzier and even more intergalactic, sitting somewhere between blissed-out Move D deep house and melodious techno. The dub that accompanies it is pleasingly deep, out there and effects-laden, escorting us even further into deep space. Tip!

Review: Cesare Vs Disorder aka Cesare Marchese joins the ever-growing Raw family with an EP that shows off his studio mastery across four varied cuts. 'All One' (feat Kevin Knapp) is a fleshy minimal house cut with silky rhythms and lots of machine funk. 'Leo' then flips the script with old school breaks and rave tinged vocals for spine-tingling peak time action. 'You & I' drops into a dark and garage-tinged house groove that shuffles and wiggles under well treated vocals. 'Robot Backpack' shuts down with maybe the best of the lot - cyborg electro funk with dry hits and irresistible bass.

Review: Buoyed by the profile boost provided by Running Back's expanded reissue of his 1996 classic 'Open Door', Peter Kremeir AKA LoSoul brings his unique brand of dusty and hypnotic house to Rawax's RX series. He begins in confident fashion with 'Outer Signal', where squally flash-fried funk guitar notes and subtle synth tones get locked into redlined beats, dark stabs and looped bass. He flips the script on 'Art Form', offering for a pitched-down groove, fuzzy analogue bass, mind-mangling modular loops, trance-inducing house drums and echoing, soundsystem style bleeps. Basically, it's another top two-tracker from one of Germany's most singular-minded house producers.

Review: Rawax call on some contemporary big dogs for this new EP which features two Wareika tracks, both of them made in collaboration with various other artists. First up it is Lost Souls of Saturn aka Seth Troxler and Phil Moffa who step up with 'United'. It's a dubbed out cut awash with glistening and cosmic electronics and a funky minimal rhythm that has a cool vibe. It is perennial underground minimal favourite Sonja Moonear who then appears on the flipside joint 'That Conga' which is busier and more indebted to decor with its shimming synths and crispy rhythms.

Review: Bucharest-based producer Guy From Downstairs is ten years deep in releases at this point, having graced the likes of Robsoul, Neostrictly and Pleasure Zone in recent times. Fresh from a razor-sharp collab with Nu Zau, he sidles over to Rawax for a blissful trip through emotionally charged club tracks ranging from deep, bumping house to fluttering electro. 'Time Is Short & Love Is' pins you down with its fulsome bassline, but there's plenty of space for shuffle and slide in the smooth, seductive groove. Meanwhile 'Kitkat Sessions' comes on with more than a little influence from the glory days of ambient techno and electronica thanks to its skittering drum machine programming, expansive pads and melodious acid lines.