September 27, 2010
2for1 on Poker Flat - Shaping Elements mix series continues
Poker Flat pulls in the reigns once again with the 8th installment of their ongoing compilation and mix series. This eight-times-tremendous double pack comes with 10 unmissable, unmixed tracks on CD 1 celebrating the best of the recent catalogue - including hot new exclusives from Steve Bug, Patrick Chardronnet and D’Julz. On the bonus-CD Jay Tripwire delivers a scintillating mix featuring 2 more exclusives - from Donnacha Costello and Tripwire himself with Katherine Larr respectively - and segues together a whole host of other recent Poker Flat essentials. THE ALBUM - features 6 brandnew, exclusive tracks by Steve Bug, Patrick Chardronnet, D’Julz, Donnacha Costello, Jay Tripwire & Katherine Larr and Benny Rodrigues - alongside the best 12″ tracks and mixes from the current Poker Flat season by Martin Landsky, Berkson & What, David Durango, Lawrence, Joris Voorn, Wighnomy Brothers, Vincenzo, Steve Bug, Daryl Stay and Sycophant Slags (Adultnapper & Mr. C.) - All tracks on CD1 appear unmixed in full length BONUS CD MIXED BY JAY TRIPWIRE - Jay Tripwire is the DJ ‚’responsible for some of the most exciting underground house music to come out of North America in recent years’ (DJ Magazine). That said, he’s still got his finger directly on the pulse of the underground. This is poetically and dutifully proven in this 22 track, 80 minute mix for Shaping Elements: Poker Flat Volume 8. - The mix perfectly blends some of the newest Poker Flat cuts like Adultnapper’s “Gold And Forgetting", Sven Tasnadi’s “Tell Me Again", Donnacha Costello’s “Stretching Time” or David Durango’s “Starlight” with classic Poker Flat tracks and mixes from Richie Hawtin, Jeff Samuel, Freestyle Man or ADJD in a refreshiung manner. - Most of the tracks appear on CD for the fi rst time! - 2 CDs for the price of 1 CD, packed in a luxury slipcase.
September 27, 2010
Tom Clark's Pressure Points - Album
Good music can sometimes be as effective as acupuncture. You just have to find the right point and with a tiny needle, it’s possible to trigger an amazing impact. Tom Clark’s Pressure Points is just such an album, knowing exactly the right places to exert pressure and thereby leading listeners by invisible threads into a truly hypnotic and pleasurable experience. Three years after his last album, Tom Clark now presents his third studio excursion. It has been some time in the making, for there has been a lot to do, but the time has proven well worth it. This is not a club album, as he says, Pressure Points shows something of Clark’s other side, and of his musical background. It is a confident and complex, but perfectly coordinated album that reflects Tom Clark’s artistic development and is orientated to the sound of his DJ sets: Groovy, deep and full of class. Twelve tracks ranging from downbeat journeys into minimal house, pushing at all the right points of its listeners. The tracks move slowly but constantly forward and enter into your body like a subtle herbal medicine. We can hear that Tom Clark is not interested in an immediate and superficial reaction from his dancers. Here he finds a more relaxed and more permanent effect. You don’t have to listen actively, the feeling is automatic. There is no escape. You could call Clark’s Sound melancholic or anxious, and it’s entirely fascinating. Especially in the tracks with Wareika singer Florian Schirmacher, which emphasise the full effect. Pressure Points is a timeless and universal album that will reveal more and more on every listen. This is music that gives its audience exactly what they need.
September 27, 2010
Cours Lapin - Debut Album
NME favoured Scandinavian/French Indie Pop Sensation Cours Lapin with their much acclaimed Debut. Think if Domino are to release the ultimate Vanessa Paradis album she never did and Sigur Ross to produce it together with Benjamin Biolay- this would be it! The music is beautifully gloomy with wonderfully catchy melodies. The acoustic instruments are complimented by a few subtle electronic elements, which create an intense atmosphere around Louise Alenius’ fragile vocals and melancholy lyrics. Whilst the songs “Mes larmes secrets (My secret tears)” and “1,2,3″ are delivered with a classic innocence inspired by Classic French Chanson Traditions, “Cache-cache (Hide and seek)” and “Cours lapin (Bunny run)” mix sexy jazzy nightclub sounds with a couple of old-school surf-riffs. Bright and Unique but also Soothing and amorph Un, Deux, Trois is one of the most complete Indie Pop Albums we heard this year, Cours Lapin played Roskilde Festival as well as a Notttinghill Arts Club in 2010 to a rapturous reception from both audiences and the critics and got rave revious all over europe from French “Les Inroctibles” to leading Uk indie Mag “Drowned in Sound” .
September 10, 2010
The upon you diary
In just a few years’ time, Berlin’s Upon You has established itself as a leading figure in European club culture, not just as a label for its 35+ well received 12” EPs, but also for its curated nights at world-renowned spots like Berghain, Watergate and Arena Club. With their combined experience of producing, DJing and promoting, company founders Marco Resmann, Marcus Meinhardt and Hawks Grunert have formed a powerhouse whose momentum shows no signs of slowing down. In spite of (and perhaps because of) its unpigeonholeable stylistic approach, Upon You has become a respected source for all DJs and clubbers in search of forward-thinking sounds, and now with its first full-length compilation, the label offers a succinct overview for both followers and newcomers.
Upon You Diary No. 1 has been compiled by Marco Resmann
(half of LunaCity Express) and is split into two parts: the first features 13 new, Exclusive tracks from the label’s roster including The Cheapers, Re-UP, ONNO and Mathias Mesteño. The second part, showcasing Resmann’s dynamic DJ ability, is meticulously stitched together using elements of 25 tracks from Upon You’s back catalog, including contributions by Holger Zilske, Catz ‘n
Dogz, Mathias Kaden, Luna City Express and many other respected names.
On the surface, the artists on Diary No. 1 clearly follow the tradition of techno and house music, but it’s clear that many of them use these forms as merely a starting point for further auditory exploration. From tropical acid and tribal grooves to somber dub and hypnotic minimal, it’s clear that Upon You doesn’t hold any purist attitudes, and in fact, cross-pollination is encouraged: check
Channel X’s be-bop hoedown “Rodeo” and the laid-back blue-eyed funk of “Together” by Marek Hemmann.
Diary serves as both an up-to-date survey of Upon You in 2010 as well as a reflection on its origins, with the knowledge that there are many blank pages to be filled out as we push forward into the future of dance music.
The compilation is available as an elegantly packaged 2xCD set and as a digital download. Upon You will support this release with a tour in autum
September 10, 2010
Steve Bug & Chris Tietjen mixing on Cocoon
It’s looking really good for the 2010 edition of Green & Blue Festival. The location and date have been established and friends and electronic music lovers worldwide have massively copied the popular date into their agendas. In the end Langener Waldsee is the only location that can compete with the beaches of the Balearic Islands. Full of enthusiasm Steve Bug and Chris Tietjen have released the first official soundtrack, and this is done with a musical exclamation mark! Steve Bug, Labelhead of Poker Flat and Desseous, has been a welcome guest since the early beginning of Cocoon Recordings, with his CD “the Flow” Steve was one of the first to record a Mix-Compilation in 2001. The “Minimal Funk” lover surprisingly prepared a magnificent House-set of the finer art and starts with an exceptional track at the beginning of his set. Christian Smiths rework of „At Les“, THE classical track of the album „More Songs About Food And Revolutionary Art“ by Carl Craig from 1997, is already now one of the most visionary techhouse tracks of this season and available for the first time on cd. Especially the asychron xylophon-play from Kenny Larkin's "Glob" and the bassline endurance operation "The Light" by the Berlin DJ-institution Andre Lodemann is to be warmly recommended from the 72 minutes of eversparkling moments of surprise. More than ever the 25-year-old DJ from Frankfurt Chris Tietjen has established himself as a member of Cocoon, with his yearly appearing Cocoon-Mix-Compilations „Eins“ To „Fünf“ he has his fingers on the pulse of Cocoon like nobody else. In his mix Chris remains true to his DJ-style, which is an exceptionally groovy form of reduced tech-house where he creates plenty of breathing space within his tracks. It is not coincidental that the Brooklyn-based producer Gadi Mizrahi starts with a soulful tribal bomb which aims deep and has a hypnotic effect on the dancefloor before Lee Burridge´s and Matthew Dekay´s organic-jazzy „Wongel“ ups the tempo indistinguishably. However, the encouraged US-House-tribute by Niko Gala („The Pump“) from Thessaloniki, which has already created a furor on Radioslave´s label Rekids and the „Deadly Bees“ from the likewise Greek producer CJ Jeff, causes a totally euphoric feeling. We can definitively expect a hot Sunday in September at the Langener Waldsee.
September 10, 2010
Terence Fixmer Album on Speedy J's electric deluxe
Speedy J’s own label Electric Deluxe is a platform for artists, operating within any conceivable genre in the broad spectrum of techno, who wish to fully explore and embrace the ever-expanding technological possibilities, manifesting in the label and the event series Electric Deluxe Presents, currently resident at Melkweg, Amsterdam. www.electricdeluxepresents.net Beyond Music, it’s the platform for music and its culture in the digital age, concerned with technology, creation, distribution, intellectual property rights, how people consume and experience music. While pushing the idea of DJing with parts and stems became its trademark, the most important edge is bringing out the special talents in artists, letting them do the thing they always wanted to do but never got to, for being too much out there, or not being a good career move – or whatever other reason Electric Deluxe is not concerned with. The goal is to see “the suffocating rubber clown suit dissolving (D. Lynch), freeing the artists and their potentials is the agenda. In the same fashion, Electric Deluxe is the place for projects that reach beyond audio as shown in the current project Open Collabs.
