Tags: Nu Disco

Review: The second installment of Multi-Culti's Moon Faze Sun Gaze series is a typically psychedelic affair, with an impressive cast of producers delivering a quintet of trippy workouts. Von Party & Dreems join forces to present "Wet Raga", a spaced-out combination of delay-laden drums, space disco electronics, and Eastern mysticism. The ever-reliable Red Axes fuses heavy post-punk bass, with punchy percussion and minimal wave melodies on the excellent "Boosha Gdola", while Dreems go solo on the weirdo acid-electro bubbler "Sine O'The Tymes". Nick Murray and Kris Baha underpin psychedelic disco electronics with the heavyweight throb of house on "Say Something", before Cocolo draws proceedings to a close with the pitched-down shuffle of analogue wobbler "F33lings".

Review: The iconic North London dance music duo Idjut Boys are famed for their nostalgia fueled offerings of dub, disco and house and join forces again for this 4 track single featuring 4 completely different takes on the track 'Speedball'. The 'Full Whip' version is an 80s powersynth with powerful kicks and synth perfection, an authentic use of a commodified sound used in the past couple of years. 'Severe Itching' takes the party downstairs into an acid techno rave, the liquid bass seeping through your ear canal into your skull - an utterly extraterrestrial experience. 'Strip Off Dub' is just that: a stripped back dub version of 'Full Whip'. Focusing on the heftier synths and bass, with the rushing wind effects that compromised 'Full Whip'. 'Whizbang Mix' invites you back into the bassment for another slice of acid house pie, the meeting point between 'Full Whip' and 'Severe Itching' that feels like trying to listen to the former after the laters aforementioned liquid has blocked your eardrums. This one's for the messy afterparty.

Review: Saint-Petersburg based duo Andrey Redkov and Stas Redkov have been hugely prolific since first pairing up in 2019. They have already served up seven EPs and now arrive on Fauve with another new one. It is a second volume of their West & East series and kick off with the jittery analogue grooves and post-disco wonkiness of 'Focal Savor' which is a writhing mass of detuned synths and chattery percussion. Que Sakamoto+NT's remix is a little more smooth and groove based but still sounds unhinged. The same outfit then serve up an original, 'Ninja Wa Sugoi', which is all tense and drawn out electronics that become more techno at the hands of the Radial Gaze remix.

Review: Having devoted volumes three and four of the ongoing 'Heavenly Remixes' series to reworks by the late, great Andrew Weatherall, this double-disc follow-up offers a more eclectic selection of reworks drawn four almost four decades of Heavenly Recordings releases. As with its predecessors, it's a fantastic collection packed to the rafters with highlights, from the shuffling synth pop-goes-dubby nu-disco flex of Ewan Pearson's dub of Out Cold's 'All I Want' and the squelchy, acid-fired indie-dance excitement of Confidence Man's rework of The Parrots' 'Let's Go To Bed', to the psychedelic big beat brilliance of the Chemical Brothers 1996 take on St Etienne's 'Like a Motorway', the 80s new wave-goes-industrial funk excellence of Trevor Jackson remixing Raf Rundell, and the creepy late night techno hypnotism of Daniel Avery's inspired revision of David Holmes.

Review: The rather legendary Heavenly label is always hard to pin down. It has put out a dizzying array of music that pretty much redefines what the word eclectic can mean. Right now they are in the midst of releasing a series of collections of remixes. Once again this one is an eye-opening and ear-popping journey through sound as a well-curated mix of artists bring their own perspectives and reframe the original tunes. They take them into new worlds and in between genres that are all best heard at night, in some well-loved space with the lights down low.

Review: Heavenly Recordings has always been a place where anything goes. From genuinely brave folk to dazzling disco, lush broken beat and jazz to alternative indie, the label has done it all. This fifth collection of remixes of label material focuses more on club sounds. It features a clued-up list of producers from the veterans like Ewan Pearson who adds his own unique spin to Out Cold's 'All I Want' via new school techno and noise specialist Daniel Avery and his take on David Holmes's 'Hope Is The Last Thing To Die.' Thrilling stuff, for sure.

Review: Esteemed American IDM producer Drew Daniel is back with a new album under his The Soft Pink Truth alias titled Is It Going To Get Any Deeper Than This? Of the title, Daniel explained it's an actual question proposed to him which has become a mantra of sorts, with the album created as a way to imagine possible musical responses to her question. Created during Covid lockdowns, Daniel recruited a virtual disco band from friends across the world and traversing many genres such as disco, minimalism, ambient, shoegaze and jazz, then pieced together in his Baltimore studio. Guests include Turkish arranger Ulas Kurugullu, Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xu, Jenn Wasner (Wye Oak, Flock of Dimes), Brooklyn techno artist Rose E Kross and Daniel Clark.

Review: Now more than 45 releases deep into their journey, Apron Records have teamed up with Patta Soundsystem to work on their first various artists release. To celebrate this monumental milestone, both camps have collaborated to create a clothing capsule to accompany the release. Better Together is the slogan that runs throughout the entire collaboration, stressing how unity makes us stronger as individuals. A diverse array of offerings are featured here: experimentally minded offerings by Ashtrejinkins and Brassfoot, System Olympia does slo-mo electro, while sublime deep house comes courtesy of Shamos and Shy One, and label chief Steven Julien provides some emotive broken beats.

Review: For their 12 year anniversary, Munich's Compost Disco serves up 15 previously unreleased tracks. The variety ranges across the floor from classic soul (Ed Lee's 'You Are The Star' feat Allison David - extended dub) to boogie (Dimitri From Paris & DJ Rocca's 'The Compass Point') to some Italo (Ron Deacon on 'Killersong' or Imperial Porcelain's 'Tulip Moon'), and even a bit of deep disco (as heard on Mark E's playful 'I'm Your Eversion'). 12 Compost Disco Years is what the label best described themselves as tasty, hypnotizing and emotional.

Review: By his previously prolific standards, Disco Halal founder Chen Moscovici AKA Moscoman has been rather quiet of late, choosing to release low-key digital singles on his own label. Here he breaks cover and returns to wax after two years away. Title track 'Adventura' is as atmospheric, off-kilter and druggy as you'd expect, with minor-key melodies, trippy electronics, buzzing effects and psychedelic guitar flourishes riding a chugging, arpeggio-driven groove. Over on the flip he joins forces with Zoot Woman on the pleasingly wayward, new wave-goes-indie dance creepiness of 'Reinvention', which rising star Alan Dixon then turns into a sparkling slab of dark nu-disco with added loose-limbed drums.

Review: Given her South Korean roots, it's perhaps unsurprising that Peggy Gou has chosen to give a platform to Mogwaa, a producer who has long been a fixture on the South-East Asian country's electronic music scene. His debut EP for Gudu is genuinely impressive, offering synth-heavy, mid-tempo takes on house and nu-disco awash with colourful melodies and sun-kissed chords. Opener 'From Above' is a bubbly, energy-packed affair that gathers momentum throughout, while 'Spacial Bliss' cannily combines live drums and guitars with sparkling washes of sound, cascading melodies and a deliciously tactile bassline. Over on side B, 'Fizz' sees Mogwaa add synthesized Gayageum melodies to a punchy electro beat, before 'Cloudride' rounds things off via turn-of-the-90s Italian deep house sonics and more gorgeous, life-affirming lead lines.

Review: STG Soundlabs' first drop is a wild ride. First up, Suit & Tie Guy goes up against Dorian Electra on 'Fa$t Ca$h (Easy Credit & The Economic Cra$h)' which gets remixed by Objacktivist into eight minutes of bendy deep house with lashings of Ibiza soulfulness. The Lorenzo Vektor is a wild footwork remix with drums piled up on top of one another and the vocal chopped and diced into pieces. On the flip is a star-gazing synth house exploration of outer space and then a killer electro-funk jam. One of the most unpredictable EPs we've heard in ages.