Ian O'Donavon Aurora Borealis

Better late than never, I have just caught up with this incredible offering from John Digweed’s Bedrock label, from an artist called Ian O’Donavon, featuring three top tracks, the title track Aurora Borealis along with Indigo Eyes and Horizons.

Aurora Borealis is a stunning and massive track featuring beautiful haunting harmonies and pulsating electronics the single fades and rises to brilliant effect.

No wonder Aurora Borealis is getting big club plays and credit to Bedrock for recognising yet another new talent who will surely emerge further during 2010.

Both Indigo Eyes and Horizon show off Ian O’Donavon’s exciting productions, coming from different angles to the title track but achieving similar results in putting a smile on the face and getting the foot tapping!

About Ian O’Donavon

After spending much of his youth listening to various styles of music, Ian came across the world of underground electronic music. It was so refreshing and different to all the formatted songs and “cheesy” dance tracks of the time, he quickly began to immerse himself in this music and the scene itself. Influenced by artists such as Steve Rachmad, Underground Resistance, Technasia and DJs like Laurent Garnier, Jeff Mills and DJ Hell, Ian began DJing and seeking out the records that would go on to play an important part in defining his sound.

It wasn’t until he moved to Australia in 2005, that he began to create his own tracks, slowly teaching himself and developing his sound. After nearly four years living in Oz, Ian decided to return to Ireland in 2009 and focus more of his attention on making music, determined to help break the cycle of the boring, soulless “minimal” fad that had dominated house and techno in previous years.

With early support on many of his tracks from the likes of Laurent Garnier, John Digweed, Dave Clarke, Anderson Noise, Hernan Cattaneo, Psycatron and more, the future looks bright for Ian with hot releases on Hype Muzik as well as John Digweed’s Bedrock Records.

Ian O’Donovan
A1 – Aurora Borealis
B1 – Horizons
B2 – Indigo Eyes
(Bedrock) Bed90
12” Vinyl & Beatport Exclusive

For further information visit the Ian O’Donavon My Space.

Ian O’Donovan - Aurora Borealis on Bedrock Records

With a rhythm reminiscent of Pump Up The Volume and an uptempo Voodoo Ray, Ian O’Donovan’s Aurora Borealis invokes a retro dry ice-filled small club full of sweaty happy smiles and whistles.

Aurora Borealis is a chilled uplifting techno trance, this is refreshing, something old something new.  A contemporary take on a retro sound.

John Digweed’s Bedrock label continues to release top tunes, another to add to the catalogue of fine tunes following King Unique, Cristian Varela and Quivver.

After spending much of his youth listening to various styles of music, Ian came across the world of underground electronic music. It was so refreshing and different to all the formatted songs and “cheesy” dance tracks of the time, he quickly began to immerse himself in this music and the scene itself.

Influenced by artists such as Steve Rachmad, Underground Resistance, Technasia and DJs like Laurent Garnier, Jeff Mills and DJ Hell, Ian O’Donovan began DJing and seeking out the records that would go on to play an important part in defining his sound.

It wasn’t until he moved to Australia in 2005, that he began to create his own tracks, slowly teaching himself and developing his sound. After nearly four years living in Oz, Ian O’Donovan decided to return to Ireland in 2009 and focus more of his attention on making music, determined to help break the cycle of the boring, soulless “minimal” fad that had dominated house and techno in previous years.

With early support on many of his tracks from the likes of Laurent Garnier, John Digweed, Dave Clarke, Anderson Noise, Hernan Cattaneo, Psycatron and more, the future looks bright for Ian with hot releases on Hype Muzik as well as John Digweed’s Bedrock Records.

Ian O’Donovan – Aurora Borealis tracklisting:
A1 – Aurora Borealis
B1 – Horizons
B2 – Indigo Eyes

Ian O’Donovan – Aurora Borealis (Bedrock) Bed90 will be released as a 12” Vinyl & Beatport Exclusive (on 14 June 2010)

For more information on Bedrock releases visit www.bedrock.org.uk

For more information on Ian O’ Donovan visit MySpace and Soundcloud.

The single will feature two tracks from the album Central, each representing the purest Technasia style. Esperance is on the A side, a funky track in constant motion with a huge chord progression.

The gritty street-level techno of Innocuous Clouds on the B-side doesn’t forget that dance music rightfully belongs on the dancefloor. So this new single is sure to become a cherished tool for DJs across the house and techno spectrum.

While both tracks are worthy of release purely for club or dance pleasure, the album from which they are taken is an altogether different animal. Central is an amazing collection of tracks that form a complete journey through the senses, making this collection of tracks one of the stand out moments musically so far this year.

Technasia – Esperance

For more information vist the Technasia website.

Technasia – Esperance/Innocuous Clouds is available as 12″(TA11) & digital release on 10.05.2010

Technasia  – Central is released on Technasia Records on 31.05.2010

John Foxx & The Maths New Single

John Foxx & The Maths New Single

John Foxx & The Maths release their debut single, Destination/September Town on 24th May, 2010.

Recorded at Play Studios in Shoreditch, the single brings together for the first time, John Foxx and analogue synthesizer musician/producer Benge, whose work has been described by Brian Eno as a ‘brilliant contribution to the archaeology of electronic music.’

Destination/September Town has already picked up support from presenters on Radio 2 and 6Music and media including News of the World, Clash Music and MusicOMH.

Benge’s London studio houses one of the biggest collections of analogue synthesizers in the UK and was heavily featured in last autumn’s BBC documentary, Synth Britannia. Gary Numan was also recently filmed at the studio for an interview where he discusses the impact that John Foxx had on his own music.

John Foxx - Short Circuit 2010 Live @ The Roundhouse

John Foxx to Curate Short Circuit 2010 & Play 100% Analogue Show @ The Roundhouse, London

Meanwhile, last year the Roundhouse launched its festival of electronica, Short Circuit, with a line-up including Jeff Mills, Erol Alkan, Holger Czukay (Can), Gavin Bryars and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

The first acts of Short Circuit 2010 are now announced: an evening celebrating the best of electronic music headlined and curated by John Foxx.

Following DJ sets by Jori Hulkkonen (best known for his Sunglasses At Night hit with Tiga) and Gary Numan with co-producer Ade Fenton, John Foxx will perform a unique analogue synthesizer show to mark his 30th anniversary as a solo artist.

The founder of Britain’s first synthesizer rock band Ultravox, released his debut solo album Metamatic in early 1980. This dark electro classic is one of the few albums to be acknowledged by Aphex Twin as an inspiration and is described by the Klaxons as a ‘visionary’ record.

John Foxx and a one-off group of special guests will assemble on stage for the first time with the machines he used on that album – the Moogs, ARPs and drum machines that created the sound of the future – to perform material from the forthcoming John Foxx & The Maths album (due out in the autumn), at least one new collaboration with Paul Daley from Leftfield and a selection of songs from Metamatic and early Ultravox.

Earlier in the day there will be a series of events programmed by Foxx. These will include movies, DJs, VJs, audio-visual work by Ghostbox and his own new collaborations with various film-makers, including a Super 8 project he’s currently working on with London Orbital author, Iain Sinclair.

John Foxx & The Maths – Destination/September Town is to be released on 24th May 2010

Short Circuit 2010
The Roundhouse
John Foxx (100% Analogue Show)
Saturday 5 June 2010
+ Special guests

For more information on John Foxx, visit www.metamatic.com

Foamo new single Jookie on Fat! Records

After more than two years of silence Fat! Records returns with a release from fresh faced Chew The Fat! DJ resident Foamo.

Jookie Foamo’s new single has drumline percussion, marching horns and ever-rising synths, underpinned by a growling bassline. The drop recalls Dubfire, simultaneously transporting you to the dancefloor at Space as the track becomes some kind of twisted rolling monster.

The main riff in Jookie reminds me of the old skool disco classic, Jingo and I can imagine it being a big hit in Ibiza this summer.

Centavo sees Foamo (aka Kye Gibbon) reworking the formula. Like L-Vis 1990 doing Fake Blood ultra-rigid programmed drums, more brass and an odd vocal provide the backdrop for a high pressure bass workout. This is house music at its toughest. This sounds as much at home in the depths of London as it would on a festival stage.

Jookie is Foamo’s third full release and at the tender age of 22 he has established himself as one of the best producers to come out of the UK in recent years. It’s not often that talent comes rising through the ranks fully formed, undiluted, and with as much potential as Foamo has done.

Countless comparisons have been made between him and some of the very finest and he’s gained the support of DJs including Diplo, Armand Van Helden and Rob Da Bank. Not bad for a boy from High Wycombe. Having risen through the ranks, a product of the blogosphere, Jookie sees Foamo fulfil his potential and justify the those  comparisons.

With early support from Brodinski, Drop The Lime, Feadz, Martelo, Marcus Nasty, Toddla T, DJ Zinc (who included it on his Mixmag CD) and many more it marks a strong return for Fat! Records.

Jookie / Centavo is available on Fat! Records as a 12” Vinyl & Digital Download.

The first track ‘Press to Begin’ has 5 am shuffle all about it.  It sneaks in with looped sounds of dripping water before introducing the main drive of the track- multiple synthesised sound effects and a dirty driving bass line.  It’s the layers of the hooks and sound effects that turn what initially appears to be a simply constructed track into a sure fire summer smash for all the Minimal freaks out there.

The title track ‘Disko Kats’ continues to deliver the same clear and precise manipulation of effects and production tools.  The sound is all the more darker and sinister though and I can’t help but wonder what type of disco these cats go to?

By two minutes in, we are assaulted by a groovy bass hell bent on keeping us bouncing along to the track.  This is bang up to the minute Tech-House.

The other two tracks ‘Float’ and ‘Ganjah’ follow a similar aesthetic and ‘Ganjah’ includes a vocal sample moving it slightly more towards the Progressive House/ Tech- House spectrum of things.

The Jalebee Cartel mix of ‘Ganjah’ propels the track into a fairly definitive House camp with softer more rounded bass and greater attention to the vocal sample.

For more information visit www.myspace.com/animaltek

Damian Lazarus - Diamond In The Dark

Nearly a year after Damian Lazarus released his debut album ‘Smoke the Monster Out’ he offers us a re-release of one of the tracks ‘Diamonds in the Dark’ on the Get Physical label.

He releases the track as it is on the album but then offers us a reinterpretation of it by way of the Damian Lazarus club mix.

For those who caught his album last year, it was a wonderful delight of weird soundscapes, melodic peaceful moments and tripped out glitch.

The re-release of the one of the least ‘dance music’ orientated tracks from the album shows the breadth of Lazarus’s talent as a producer.

Where the original sounds like a country and western singer strumming on his guitar under a full moon when a space ship beams down and interjects into the track with synthed out vocals; the club mix pulls us back into familiar Lazarus electronic music territory.

Here the acoustic guitar is replaced with the same melody by way of programmed music.  Loops provide the hypnotic perpetual motion of the track.  The synthed vocals from the original get slowed down to create dirty disorientating electro.

Lazarus also includes French Producer dOP’s remix with the release.  His interpretation sends the track into distorting and disturbing possible future sound of Techno to great effect.

Damian Lazarus, the head honcho of the Crosstown Rebels label shows in this re-working of his own track infinite skill in pushing dance music, in particular Techno, Electro and Glitch into the final frontier.

For more information visit

www.myspace.com/damianlazarus

www.damianlazarus.com/

Mike Monday new single on Get Physical

Mike Monday’s new two-track release ‘Yoppul’ and ‘Touch’ for the Get Physical label emphasises the producer’s ability to blend dance music genres to create his own unique sound.

As developed in his last full-length album ‘Songs without Words Part 1’ on Om Records, he manipulates and contorts both programmed and live sound to add to the aural aesthetic.

Both of the tracks stand fairly firmly in the House camp and show a masterful understanding of the genre. ‘Yoppul’ is funk flavoured and percussion heavy.  The driving mood is reminiscent of standing between three different sound stages at Notting Hill Carnival- a bit of a funky base line here, a steel drum coming over the top and a looping synthed sound meshing it all together.

This mish mash is perfectly constructed to create a stand out dance track for the summer.

With ‘Touch’ there seems to be a very intentional appropriation of Monday’s different influences in the execution of the track.  What appears on first listening to be a fairly simply constructed piece of Deep House actually opens itself up throughout it’s seven minutes to indicate a huge amount of depth within it’s repetitive rhythms.

Snatches of Detroit Techno loops and early Derrick Carter vocal arrangements merge with a sound that seems to fit onto today’s dance floors with ease.

On Mike Monday’s myspace profile he sees appropriation as an important part to finding inspiration, ‘And don’t bother concealing your thievery – celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from – it’s where you take them to.”’  With these two tracks Monday has drawn on his influences and his inspirations and turned them into two powerful pieces of music for you to shake your ass to in 2010.

For more information visit Mike Monday on MySpace or www.mikemonday.com

jim rivers - full tilt

Having bubbled away just below the ranks of mainstream recognition since his debut in 2006, Jim Rivers has none the less gained a reputation as one of the brightest stars to emerge in recent times.

A string of releases on labels across the house and techno spectrum including Bedrock, Mouseville, Simple, Bluefin and INTEC have ensured that Rivers has served his time and is firmly back on the map.

Full Tilt sits neatly in the middle ground between house and techno. Tribal drums energize a steady chugging groove while a gigantic throbbing analogue bassline is tweaked to provide the builds and drops.

The remix supplied by Webbah turns the original version of Full Tilt on its head; subbing in a swaying, melodic groove and adding resounding old school keys to create a deep and euphoric vibe.

Full Tilt is released via Christian Smith’s Tronic label, that itself has seen a resurgence in 2009. Originally set up in 1994, Tronic was amongst the first labels to embrace sounds from house and techno to create records that DJʼs from both scenes would play. With tracks and remixes from Umek, Mark Broom, Stryke, Fergie, Steve Mac, Anton Pieete and Psycatron, Tronic has re-emerged with a bang in 2009.

For more information visit the Tronic Music website.

integer EP

Giorgos Gatzigristos has released his latest offering on the Outside the Box label, an excellent three track EP called Integer that draws inspiration from the modern techno sound but with a distinctive atmospheric edge.

The Integer EP follows the inclusion of two of Gatzigristos’ tracks on the latest Bedrock Eleven LP, where Binary Star System and Pencils For The Weak can be found.

After releasing his first EP on Darko Esser and Ger Laning’s Wolfkuil Records in 2004, Giorgos Gatzigristos signed with Kompakt’s K2 and released
three records with that influential label.

He has been on a roll ever since, releasing music on Channels Music, Snejl Records and John Digweed’s Bedrock label. His work with the Manual Music family has seen him perform with the Manual Orchestra in Amsterdam and Gatzigristos is also responsible for some of their finest releases to date including Ronin, which was favoured by Sasha.

Tracklisting for Integer EP from Giorgos Gatzigristos
1. Latent Presence
2. Mutila
3. Integer
(Outside The Box) OTB028
Beatport Release: 26/11/09

Below is a list of the ‘Top Ten’ tracks for November 2009 as selected by Giorgos Gatzigristos:

Giorgos Gatzigristos – November 2009 Chart

1) Furrr & Hazendonk – Rrrhythm – Melomane
2) Giorgos Gatzigristos – Binary Star System – Bedrock
3) Pole Folder – Hate Myself (Sasha Intrumental Mix) – La Tour
4) Adam Beyer & Par Grindvink – Seq 3 Zoetrope – Drumcode
5) Guido Schneider Meets Jens Bond – Eijeijei – High Grade
6) Piet van Dongen – Firewoods with Strings  0.9c – Manual Music
7) Levon Vincent – Late Night Jam – stgut Ton
Applescal – Avoiding Mental Lazyness  (Russian Linesman rmx) – Manual Music
9) Giorgos Gatzigristos – Latent Presence – Outside The Box
10) Information Ghetto – How To Build A Brain (Xpansul Remix) – StolenMoments

For more information visit the Giorgos Gatzigristos website.