New 3 hour session from last Friday on Deepfrequency. Low down industrial funk and melancholic synth ballads for the survivors of the fallout.

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This Saturday (18th) we’ll be hosting out first label party in the basement of Twisted Pepper here in Dublin. It’s gonna work as a lil launch party for Tr One’s Drum Dance, who’ll be djing on the night; their first club gig of the year. Also, we’ve got Lerosa playing live, who’s gonna be doing something a bit different to his norm. Lerosa is gonna be the next release on the label with a 4-track 12 inch of deep electronic/electro bizness, titled No Mad Rush. Not since his first release way back on D1 Recordings  has this side of Leo’s work been showcased on vinyl and with that in mind he’s gone and created a special one-off live set, containing this upcoming material plus a tonne of other brand new and previously unheard trax. You can expect a more full on and abrasive style on the night – He’s keeping tightlipped about it  bar that it’ll all be 130+ bpm. Tr One will be on before him and I’ll be on early doors, digging out some electro jams plus whatever else finds it’s way into the bag. All for the measly sum of E10, or you can buy tickets from here for E8

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The wheels are in motion for the Lerosa 12″ so expect to see more info in the coming weeks on here…

Also like to give a quick thanks to all who’ve supported the Tr One 12″. We’ve been pretty overwhelmed by how well it has done so far…

We generally tend to busy ourselves with music that appears on vinyl but that doesn’t make us totally averse to downloading music, if only when it’s given away for free by the artist who made it. I came across this cracking little release today made by John Lillis, aka mynameisJOhn, a Limerick, Ireland based dj and producer who’s been knocking round doing various bits and bobs on our shores for many a year and I thought it was worth giving our readers a heads up on it. John comes mainly from a hip hop background and the music and stylistic appoach contained within shows, even though overall it’s a bit more far reaching than that. It’s an 8 track EP, hardly anything stretches over 3 minutes but it’s got a wealth of ideas going on while never feeling overly cluttered. I won’t say anything more about it, but it won’t take up much of your time, so go on, give it a punt. All details, download etc can be found on John’s bandcamp page.

Came across this hour long documentary on all things ghetto house last night. Cheers to Simon Conway for the heads up on it. It’s been going from private to public on vimeo over the last couple of days so apologies if it’s disappeared again when you’ve hit the link…

From Jack to Juke: 25 Years of Ghetto House from Sonali Aggarwal on Vimeo.

One day back in November I hit record on my laptop with the sole intention of encoding (for train iPod listening) some tunes that I had picked up late last year. Tom had been nice enough to pass along an extra “promo” copy of the 2010 Donato Dozzy double pack on Further and I wanted to hear it so I started with that. I realized I was in sort of an ambient techno mood, so I put on the Recast record next, which was in my 2011 top 50 pile. I can’t remember where I found the older Scott Grooves record that I had been looking for for a while, but it seemed like the best next step in terms of mood. Besides, it meshes nicely with the Area record which admittedly is a very specific tonal palette and pretty dissimilar from much other house and techno. The rest of the mix just fell into place after that, gradually picking up energy and tempo. I figured I’d post it here – despite the two older records – by way of forcing myself to finish my long overdue year-end mixes. Download it here and let me know what you think! Tracklist behind the cut (more…)

Its great to be able to give a shout out to a new South London label from some people I have a lot of respect for. A little like busses, two are coming along at the same time. Emotional Rescue and Emotional Response. I’m starting to get very excited about some of the releases coming up.

Firstly Emotional Rescue which has got the aim of unearthing and reissuing forgotten remastered gems of dance music’s past (with full artist consent it should be added). The first release is a reissue of a funky disco rock slammer which started life on a 7″ test pressing in 1973 by Bob Chance, with a synth freakout added to its relentless fuzzed out grove. the b side feratures a second later version of equal merit. This one has got some serious potential for dancefloor drama. Apparently only 10 copies exist so this full release for the first time has already caused a lot of talk from people who had assumed they’d never find a copy. It’s out now in Juno and other discerning outlets.

There’s a great Suns of Arqa 12″ coming up after that with a very welcome loud pressing of Ananta Snake Dance. Managed to pick this up a month or two back on test pressing and has been getting a lot of play since.

Also excited about this Cosmic Hoffman spaced out krautrock track.

Secondly there’s Emotional Reponse which focuses on the sounds of the present day and the future, already has some excellent releases scheduled from Grackle, Alan Hurst, Timothy J Fairplay and Ulysses.

A couple of highlights, this slow jam by Alan Hurst (aka Steve Summers) from the soundtrack to Nzambi lp:

and further cold war zombi film disco scene hits in the form of Timothy J Fairplay’s upcoming Ep

Edit: there’s a related interview regarding the labels here http://thepool-london.com/loop/soft-rocks-new-labels.html

Considering January is seen as a quiet month for music I’ve still managed to pick up a nice bit of wax over the last few weeks. Some are fresh on the racks, some are yet to hit ‘em and there’s one or two things from last year I’m just catching up on properly, so gonna dip into them over the next few posts…

Magnetic Souls – Lovin’ on the Run

This upcoming 12″ from the Atlanta based Rotating Souls imprint is a lil bit scant on info so far, bar that it comes from Magnetic Soul, again an act I know little about (who ever said we were clued in nerds on this site eh?). It starts with a massive blast of funk on the A cut which builds itself around some stonking 70′s brass, a couple of sultry vocal samples and a proper groove that makes the whole thing sound like it was transported directly from back when. Working in a not dissimilar fashion to an edit this is a sweaty bit of funk. It gets a bit more lowslung on the B side cuts which again utilise some old funk vocals, combined with killer boogie bass-lines and more wonderfully catchy samples. Like the first Rotating Souls 12″ from East Liberty Quarters (I missed the 2nd) everything is unashamedly retro in style but things seem less forced than a lot of nu-disco or modern boogie that insists on uncomfortably shoehorning (sometimes, not always, of course) new styles in. The B2 has a brilliantly subtle cut n paste style to it especially, with a couple of unexpected surprises.

Chris Gray/Moonchildren – Go Away

Gray is someone I only came across last year when a mate pointed in my the direction of his Tried To Be Good album that came out quite some time ago, like everything else he’s done; this is his first release in many years. As this 12″ is on Downbeat you know it’s going to be deeeeep and as ever the quality is second to none. Downbeat has a knack of selecting the most ethereal of house cuts and this is no different. Gray eschews some of the more typical deep house sounds that are boring the shit out of everyone these days, bar the traditional square bass sounds utilised on Go Away and the barmily titled It Was The Fried Chicken That Saved Our Sanity (Because The Ghetto Is Sad). But instead of this leading the tracks it takes 2nd place to the most delicate of melodic intonations and slightly off kilter percussion. Fried Chicken, for all its laid backness manages to create some superb tensions with its synth lines. The quality slightly dips on the closing Sun Of God but it’s still another fine early morning jam. For those looking for deep house with a bit of a difference, look no further.

Pittsburgh Track Authority – Untitled/Monongahela Rainforest

This is the latest release from our own Pipecock’s techno/house 3-way with fellow P-burgers Adam Ratana and Preslov Lefterov;  arriving on their own new Pittsburgh Tracks  imprint (this release is brimming with mindblowing titling) which I gave a brief mention to in my end of year round up, but which is only fully dropping at the moment. It kicks off with Untitled which is their biggest dancefloor cut to date. It comes on like a slightly updated UR/Gerald Mitchell cut, the soaring strings especially are hugely in-debt to those masters of melodic Detroit techno. While this is a style that has often been copied over the last ten years – especially in the earlier part of the last decade – the guys have the sense to not over do it on the instrumentation – a problem so many have with this type of music, insisting on making it way too busy – and what gives it it’s own character is the excellent drumprogramming/bass/percussion.   The flip serves up the much more relaxed Monongahela Rainforest (from no name songs to  near unpronounceable, fair play), which on the face of it is maybe a little too chilled for it’s own good but the engrossing sub on it opens it up impressively and while it may lack the hooks of Untitled or, say, the enticing oddness of Chris Gray’s 12″ it still manages to steer clear of a lot of deep cliches too.

Lost Trax / Connection Machine – Lost Connection

The Scots-founded Tabernacle Records are not ones to rest on the laurels at any time and following quickly in the footsteps of this rather ace The Third Man 12″ from late last year comes the 2nd part of their collaboration with Lost Trax and The Connection Machine, the initial fruits of which were this split mini-album from last year. Lost Trax kicks this one off with some top shelf  electro on 801 with a gnarly bass that leads over crisp hi-hats and a deep, wistful synth line. Dominion is a more hectic, face-paced electro jam, full of intricate programming which dips in and out at times, adding more drama as it goes.

On the flip The Connection Machine goes down a slightly more abstract route and as fun as the Lost Trax material is, is the real show stealer of the release. Klute is a brilliant oppressive slab of electronica, its droning synths and sparse beats creating an eerie, unsettling atmosphere. The release closes on it’s high point, After. It starts off on a lighter if melancholic note, and gently trips along before another heaving synth drops out of nowhere, giving the song a nicely dramatic twist.  The track then steps up a gear with some twisted, efx laden (well, what sounds like) vocals, and a great balancing act is played between the opening musical assonances and the darker elements it picks up along the way. A pretty special piece of music drenched in emotion.

Sunday Times! is an amazing lil party that takes place up the hill on Barrack St in Cork City, here in Ireland. It’s a unique  party where the Djs get to do their thing  from  early in the evening while sat upon a wee bar stool, chopping and changing their musical selections at will, gently easying the crowd into a full on dance off by nights end. I’ve played it a couple of times along with Lerosa and  I’ve rarely had more fun playing music. John and Barry put a lot of effort into making everything right and anyone who’s attended or played really appreciates this.

The mix is more focused on the early evening before it gets too rowdy, not too much mixing, nothing toooo uptempo and so on. So I don’t get berated for not mentioning it, I was informed that the first track had to be on it by Dean from Tr One. I didn’t own the record at the time of playing down there last summer but another friend had bought the 7inch the day before in a flea market and I took it off him to start  my set. So, after a bit of discoging, I put this mix together.

The mix can be found over here on the guys website. T/list is below. Enjoy.

Julee Cruise – Falling
Tangerine Dream – Tangram Set 1
Conrad Schitzler – Auf Dem Schawrzen Kanal
John Daly – Sea Level (Haze Mix)
Pittsburgh Track Authority – Archipalego 6 (Dub)
E.M.A.K – Filmmusik
Kraftwerk – Trans Europe Express
Cosmic Touch – Nothing Ever Changes (inst.)
Ali Renault – Cuffs
The Cats n’ Jammer Kids – Disco Drum (C2C4 specimen)
Dfd – Go Ahead
Tullio De Piscopo – ‘E Fatto ‘E Sorde! E? (Max Essa edit)
Cottam – Cottam 4 A1
Massimo Barsotti D.J. – Whole Lotta Love
Fockewulf 190 – Body Heat (vocal mix)
Sensitive – Driving
Wolfram feat. Haddaway – Thing Called Love (Legowelt rmx)

Image : Amy Plant

Just a quick post to point you in the way of a small interview myself and Dean Feeney from Tr One did with Irish website Thumped.com. The usual topics for us luddites; vinyl n’ hardware plus how we feel about the Irish electronic music scene….

Read it here

The Drum Dance 12″ has now hit Hardwax, Piccadilly and a bunch other places etc, enough spam. Nice one.

Just a quick heads up to say that Drum Dance is hitting stores over the next couple of weeks.  Juno, rubadub, decks.de amongst others are selling it already in Europe while Rush Hour and Clone amongst others are taking orders now.  Crosstalk International are distributing it on the other side of the Atlantic, so hopefully it will be hitting the likes of Gramaphone in Chicago in the next while.

For any of those out east, Jetset, Underground Gallery and Lighthouse Records are stocking it (or upcoming) in Japan and over the next while it should be hitting many other stores, pre-orders from the distro have been pretty healthy! And if you still like to shop local in real shops,  give them a shout for an order.

This Saturday, the 28th, Tr One will be celebrating the release with a gig out in Galway at The Bierhaus, one of the city’s finest drinking establishments, so if yer out the west of Ireland, be sure to drop in. Friday night sees former ISM guest mixer Paudi Ahern playing in the same venue, so it’s shaping up to be a fun weekend.

We’re also doing our first label party in February in Twisted Pepper’s basement, Dublin, with Tr One djing and Lerosa playing live. And, yes, you can gather from that that Lerosa will be the next artist to feature on the label, but not quite as you expect. More info coming very soon on all that…

Thanks for all the support so far too, be it from bloggers, djs, everyone…