On the record buying front it’s been a hectic couple of weeks for me, overspending to the point of stupidity – and no Christmas presents bought for anyone yet either, oops. Most of these were picked up on a recent trip to London, where it was nice for a change to have so many places to go digging, both for old and new stuff.  Here’s a lowdown on a few of the goodies I came across in the last while…2 / 3  years ago both Styrax Records and Redshape were greeted as two welcome new bright sparks on the techno front, but in recent times have some what lost their way for me. Thankfully,  the two of them have put themselves back on the map with Kramer’s latest,  Blood Into Dust. The lead off cut contains many of the dynamics of his recent work that had become somewhat tiresome but this time he’s rediscovered the depth and funk of earlier releases. It has you in a complete trance for a number of minutes before the acid line cuts through your chest like a knife. On the flip, Slow Monday is a more unsettling work out, equally impressive with a dark, paranoid tone, yet with the arrival of a simple high hat midway makes you realise it’s not just for sitting in the corner with your head in your hands, scared to look out. Definite contender for my techno record of the year.Patrice Scott’s Sistrum Recordings has for the most part been an outlet for his work, but the latest comes from Mike Edge, a relatively new deep house producer. As with other Sistrum releases this continues in a deep-as-it-gets manner, sparse synths matched to a simple groove ideal for some late night shimming. Scott adds his own remix of the A side, prooving again he is one artist that can do no wrong at the moment.

As to be expected at this stage Lerosa has knocked out another EP; Lovers (on Millions of Moments) where he manages to gather together as many influences as possible into 4 tracks, something that has become somewhat of a trademark of his. Electro, deep house, minimal techno and even a little hip hop (maybe that’s just me)  – on Arctor – fight for space on this impeccable 12″, which could be his finest yet. Next up is a twelve that’s been mentioned in the comments section here recently and most of you may know it already, but in case you don’t, go out and buy Theo Parrish’s Chemistry right this minute. The title track is a piece of modern soul/house genius, but don’t let it cloud you from the beautiful Untitled One on the flip either.

Anyone who can say they predicted that acid oldies Hardfloor would ever have their name on a release that would add any true depth or progression to their wares is either a liar or called Gerard Hanson, as just a couple of weeks ago Hanson snuck out this E.R.P rmx 12″. Truth be told these dark, relentless electro cuts  have been part of Hanson’s live sets of late, but he has taken the Hardfloor originals and completely made them his own, to the point no one guessed they were remixs. You can slipt hairs yourself over which you prefer, cause they are both equally brilliant.

As nearly all of you will have experienced at some stage, record buying online can be a bit of a pain in the ass due to the small snippets that most sites supply you with, either resulting in you buying something that isn’t very good or  missing out on a gem. So i’m stepping back a few months by mentioning Basic Soul Unit’s Lotus Roots E.P on Mathematics. Maybe I was the only one silly enough to initially skip on this acid house banger back in May but getting to listen to it fully in a shop last week awoke me to it. I don’t remember it getting a mention on here before, so better late then never.

Going local for a moment- label wise, if not artist-wise – Dublin crew Lunar Disko, who’s partys in the capital have been some of the highlights of the clubbing year for me have just put out their their debut record featuring Sneak Thief and Mr Paulie. I’m not the biggest Sneak Thief fan ever but Not A Ghost off this is a winner; eerie, bleepy disco fun. Dutch maestro Paulie however gets the gold medal for his remix of main track Zmaj,  which is sure to go down well with fans of dutch electro. The Lunar guys have a couple more gems up their sleeves for future releases, so lets hope this gets some notice for them.

2nd hand digging is not something one gets to do much in Ireland so while over in London it was nice to pick up some older twelves in the crates. Two old disco faves I got a hold of were Loleatta Holloway’s Love Senstation (Pettibone’s rmx) and Hit and Run (Walter Gibbons 12″ rmx) put together nicely on this 12″ reissue from 92. Shalamar 12″s were ten a penny in a few stores but the one track I was looking for I could only find on the flip of a Take That to the Bank remix 12″, the incredibly naff cover of which you can see above (sadly Discogs doesn’t have an image for the equally awful rainbows and clouds sleeve that the Holloway twelve came in). Regardless, Right in the Socket was what I was after, and stupid sleeve or not, I got my mits on it. And anyways, why bother getting the original pressings when 80’s/90’s re-issues look as tacky as those? Some more digging also unearthed the beautiful Love Has Come Around by Donald Byrd which has Groover Washington’s Just The Two of Us on the flip. Finally, German oddballs Yello’s You Gotta Say Yes to Another Excess has so many levels of wonky, tuetonic, machine funk on it you could fall over yourself trying dancing to it. I’d wholeheartedly suggest giving it a go.

On a side note, my trip across the water showed up the 2 facets of the hallowed record store, one good, one bad. The welcoming and enjoyable experience against the rude and “maybe we don’t need your custom” attitude.  Vinyl Junkies was a joy to shop in, friendly staff who were little bothered by my questions and repeated trips to the decks, even if I didn’t purchase a massive amount. On the other hand was haircuts and fuckheads hang out, Phonica. Yes, they do have an excellent selection of records and I couldn’t help but buying quite a bit off them but having a 6 record only rule shouldn’t come in to play when you have SIX free listening posts and not a lot of people in the store. They are obviously lucky enough to be a store that is still fairly succesfully riding the downturn in vinyl sales and don’t have to worry about turning off perspective customers, but it’s no excuse to tell someone who has more than six records in their hand to go to one of the computers on the floor and listen to your selections on their website, especially when the shop is not particularly busy.  One of the joys of being in a store is that you don’t have to deal with making decisions via 1 minute samples.  I don’t use their on-line service and I won’t be using their physical shop again, either.