DJ Hal

It is two years since lunar warrior DJ Hal released his last single, a long wait for sure but well worth the wait as he returns with a brand new EP of minimal electronic beats and progressive tech sounds.

Desire is the title of the DJs latest offering and features the original version of the track alongside two remixes, one from Alan Barratt and the other from Dudley Strangeways, the EP closes with Hal’s progressive-tech tune Pavlov’s Dog.

The title track, ‘Desire’, features a hypnotic one word vocal from Katy Heath (of Bent fame), that sits snugly over HAL’s intricate programming and deep percussive tech groove. HAL describes the track as an “empathy indulgence that teaches you in just one word what desire is all about”… and you can’t help but be moved by the emotion in the music, whether at home or on the dance floor.

Of the two remixes, it is newcomer Dudley Strangeways version that stands out for me, introducing his beefy percussion and bass-driven magic to great effect, creating an eerily beautiful interpretation, bristling with energy and dance floor attitude.

The closing track on the EP is another brand new composition from DJ Hal, Pavlov’s Dog. A driving progressive-tech track that has Hal saying; ….”the pulsating nature of Pavlov’s Dog sets off an automatic response in the human mind, that opens up your aural awareness paths and makes you dance.”

While the closing track  stutters to start, Pavlov’s Dog does eventually kick off into something of a foot tapper, but it also drifts in and out of aural focus and for me never really reaches Hal’s expectation.

None the less another sterling effort from DJ Hal with the title track and Dudley Strangeways remix version worthy of a listen or adding to your collection.

DJ HAL – DESIRE EP – Okyo
1. Desire (Original Remix)
2. Desire (Alan Barratt Minimal Remix)
3. Desire (Dudley Strangeways Remix)
4. Pavlov’s Dog
(Okyo, Denmark) OKYO 010
Release: 21st June 2010

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

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

Drum Ride Recordings

The track depicts the ‘chimp like nature’ of the collaborators Frisky and Luke Bowditch, the best friends who have teamed up in the studio to produce this funk based tech-house track.

The package also features two excellent remixes – New York ex-pat PQM (Abducted, Yoshitoshi) locks down a classic dub interpretation, taking the key elements of the original and shifting them to head-nodding territory, while Melbourne whiz-kid Steve Ward (Chameleon, Bush) comes up with a superb peak-time tech version.

Fission Chimps – adventurers in musical nonsense make a lot of sense with this one! Visit the Drum Ride site here.

Get Physical - Full Body Workout volume 5

Berlin Label, Get Physical release Full Body Workout Vol. 5 (vinyl edition) compilation on 26th August; and what a fantastic selection of banging house tracks it is.  Full body Workout couldn’t be a more fitting title for 4 tracks designed to make you move.

Track one is a remix by Keine Musik of ‘You’ from Icelandic Pop band Steed Lord.  The original has been reinterpreted into a dirty house track with the main lyric ‘You’ looped over the top.  This is definitely one to be heard grooving the day away wearing shades at a beach party.

Track two by Catz  N Dogz ‘Gotta Know’ has the feel of the West Coast sounds of Mark Farina.  It’s a sneaky track built with tight percussive elements and synthed effects.

On the flip side is Mayer Daniel’s ‘Casbar.’  The track requires a bit of patience as he doesn’t bring in the full body of sound till over 2 minutes in, but when he does it’s the full effect of a high hat balanced with tweeked reverb and all underpinned by a bouncy base line.

The last track ‘Sturm & Drang’ by Berlin artists Turmspringer is the most tech track of the compilation.  Purely stripped out rhythms culminate in a darker sound to those on the rest of the release.

Since winning label of the year in 2005, co-owners M.A.N.D.Y, DJT and Booka Shade have developed the Get Physical label as a showcase for new and exciting talent particularly of the house and tech house persuasion.

The label has over 20 artists on its roster including Damien Lazarus, Italoboyz, Noze, Heidi and Thomas Schumacher.

For more information visit www.myspace.com/getphysicalmusic and the official Get Physical website.

DJ Umek - Umek? Hell Yeah

Hell Yeah Recordings starts off a new compilation series with one of the original ambassadors of techno and of electronic music, Umek.

CD1 is a document of the current techno scene, and it’s all about Umek’s legendary mixing skills and his ear for a killer techno tune, no matter where it comes from.

Umek has selected the tracks from techno artists such as Fergie, Koen Groeneveld, Spektre, Dyno, Piatto, Dandi & Ugo, Olivier Giacomotto, Tomy Declerque, then added a few of his own tracks and remixes, and blended everything into what really sounds like the techno mix of summer 2009.

CD2 is a limited edition that contains 12 exclusive unreleased electronic workouts by Umek. All recorded between 2000 and 2006, and sourced from Umek’s own “Hidden Folder”, and only ever available on this bonus disc. The result is a fascinating retrospective way to discover the roots of a real techno authority.

I last saw Umek battering the dance floor at a disused air force base in the German countryside two years ago.  He banged out hard core track after hard core track. Minimal was one thing his set wasn’t.

This compilation for Hell Yeah! Recordings shows that the intensity remains, but there seems to have been a shift.  The assault of beats is still there, but the set is tighter, perhaps a more thoughtful considered dj-ing style has been used.

Umek forces the beat constantly, slightly tweaking it with a bit of reverb.  He loads on effects to lift the music away from some of those dark industrial techno styles out there.  The end result is bouncy, funked-up techno. Drawing on some of the biggest producers out there and blending them with new talent particularly from his homeland Slovenia, the mix is a pure expression of what the current pure techno sound is.

Minimal this may not be.  But what a nice change that is!

The difficulty in putting together a mix compilation is that it will be listened to in a very different environment from where the inspiration came from.  I’ve found some DJ mixes to have been modified for the bedrooms and lounges that they will be played in.  Not so with Umek.  From the start to the abrupt finish this set has all the power I have come to expect from his live sets.

Umek? Hell Yeah! Tracklist

CD1 – mixed by UMEK

01) Federico Milani – Green (Alex Di Stefano Remix)
02) Aneuria – Koya Si Ti (Tomy DeClerque Remix)
03) Andrea Mattioli & Gabriel C – Twister (Dandi & Ugo Remix)
04) Marshall & Libex – Turin Quality Clubbing (Piatto Remix)
05) Spartaque – Fobia (Piatto Remix)
06) Marco Brugattu & Paul Cart – Billie’s Mascotte (Nihad, Lasse & Nima Remix)
07) Oliver Koletzki & Roland Clark – Yes We Can (Umek Remix)
08) Joy Kitikonti – Voiceover (Kiko rmx)
09) Olivier Giacomotto & DJ Tonio – Rex The Club
10) Lollo – Microminitech (Gennaro Mastrantonio Remix)
11) Umek – You Might Hear Nothing
12) Mowree – Special Wine
13) Steve Mac & Paul Harris – Dizzy Heights
14) Alex D’Elia & Da Lukas – Didascalia (Piatto Remix)
15) Namtrack – This Is What U Need (Amir Remix)
16) Koen Groeneveld – Wake Turbulence (Spektre Remix)
17) Maxime Dangles – John Conrad
18) Umek – 16th Century Japan
19) Dyno & Alex Di Stefano – Sutura
20) Sinisa Lukic – Frka Frka
21) Joseph Capriati – C’est La Vie (Umek Remix)
22) Tomy DeClerque – Loki
23) Quivver – Is There Anybody There (Boz Boz Cut)
24) Fergie – Exit People

CD2 – UMEK unreleased exclusive tracks

01) Always Avoided
02) Generation Roots
03) Luda Koka
04) Mild Fun
05) Monoton Falling
06) My Fellow Captives
07) Satisfying Place
08) Seems Artificial
09) Signs Speak
10) Sladoledar Iz Tomacevga
11) Sneaking Sequence
12) The Final Piece

All I can say is, get me back to that air force base’s dance floor, so I can dance my ass off and say Umek?  Hell Yeah!

Umek? Hell Yeah, DJ mix CD from Slovenia’s Uros Umek is available on Hell Yeah Recordings

For more information on Umek visit his website www.umek.si or myspace
www.myspace.com/djumek

Started back in June 2007, the Tech My House series gets a third outing this month, and follows the evolution of the electronic music in delivering 1o heavy Tech House tracks.

The international lineup includes Animaltek, Alex Tomb, Datensi, Breger, Dominic & Moog Conspiracy, Pete Nouveau and Digital Filth diffusing the Elektrotribe sound all through the compilation.

Newcomers Insect Elektrika from Prague, Steve Lorenz from Italy & Tiari from Detroit are also included.

Most of the songs have been especially produced by Elektrotribe artists to make this new Tech My House 3 compilation the best in the series so far.

Tech My House 3 Track List:

1. Dominic & Moog Conspiracy – Lost
2. Steve Lorenz – Overload
3. Digital Filth – Edition
4. Breger – Il Pavone
5. Animaltek – Bucket Dance
6. Datensi – Morana
7. Pete Nouveau – Fun Box
8. Tiari – Ware Road
9. Insect Elektrika – When I met 19
10.Alex Tomb – Just copy & paste

Tech My House 3 was released on 25th June

Animaltek – Aspiree EP

Animaltek are Oleg Slepak & Shay Raban (aka DJ Earthian) from New York. Aspiree includes three tracks: Bessame, Ghetto Twist & the title track Apsiree.

The Aspiree 3 track EP is a smooth electronic adventure navigating an electronic path with essence of electronica, jazz and minimal techno universe.

Bessame introduces a warm groove against the colder minimal trance rhythm. There seems to be a merging of contemporary minimal techno with an old skool analogue synthesizer giving the track a distinctive twist.

In contrast, Ghetto Twist is a dark, brooding straight deep minimal techno groove that throbs so hard it will bring a lump to your throat, and might leave unexpecting clubbers dazed and confused.

Aspiree, included here in its original mix, escapes from the darkness of the last track and returns instead to the centre of the minimalist techno dancefloor, but keeps that throbbing techno sound.  Simple yet effective use of a phaser gives light refreshment to the EP and will bring smiles to faces. Great track.

Oleg Slepak and Shay Raban released their debut Karmik loops EP on WIR, both sides of the which on numerous occasions reached air play from some of the World’s Top DJ’s such as John Digweed, Sasha, Satoshi Tomie, Anthony Pappa, among others.

They followed their debut release in 2008 on Germany labels Treibstoff and WIR, and Canada’s Thoughtless Music, receiving positive reviews from the likes of DE:BUG, the French TSUGI and Progressive-Sounds, and appearing in the charts of Mathias Schafhauser and DJ Hell, among others.

Animaltek – Aspiree EP will be released on 9th July.

The track doesn’t so much as build as keeps the groove constant and sweet, overlaying only electronic sounding sheep bleating sounds effects!

The Silence of the Bombies 12″ vinyl has an remix courtesy of DJ Jamie Jones on the flip side.

Jamie Jones is renowned for his special productions and an in-demand DJ who seems to be rocking all floors.  He is currently a regular at Fabric (London), Back to Basics (Leeds) and Rainbow (Birmingham).

Dave Brennan – Silence of the Bombies (Bomb008) will be available as a 12″ vinyl (10th April) and a digital download (4th May).

To listen to both versions of Silence Of The Bombies visit www.myspace.com/bombisrecords

For more information on this and other Bombis releases, go to www.bombisrecords.com