Smooth and chill

May 2022 Favorite Tracks

Forthcoming: https://basicspirit.bandcamp.com/releases :)

SPRT 002 - Tornado Wallace Presents - Dream Corner

It started, as it so often does, with two old friends hanging out. 

John Shima and C P Smith were joking around one evening in their home city of Sheffield. At some point, Smith challenged Shima that, if the latter could produce a record using nothing more than a small modular synth setup, then Smith would release it on his Central Processing Unit label. As heads will know, while Shima has drops on imprints like FireScope and Subwax Excursions to his name, he had never previously released anything via CPU. Shima accepted, and thus we now have his CPU debut, the four-track EP CPU Modular 1.

The specific setup that Shima worked with for these tracks was Smith’s Doepfer A-100P6 Suitcase, a small but mighty combination of modules and programmers. It’s no surprise that Shima was able to familiarise himself with the equipment in double-quick time - after all, Shima was an early adopter of the Eurorack modular format back in the day. What emerged from the CPU Modular 1 sessions was a quartet of devastatingly effective DJ tools, mid-set rollers which will get the dance moving something crazy.

Opener ‘003’ kicks the EP off as it means to go on. There’s something at once stiff-necked and buoyant about the rhythms here, all thwacking Roland tones and snares which crack like someone whipping a length of sheet metal. While the beat barrels unyieldingly onwards, the programming in the tuned modulars is more exploratory and even trippy, full of delay-laced bleeps and flighty rhythmic motifs. It comes together for a cracking mix in the vein of artists like Jerome Hill and London Modular Alliance. Second A-side cut ‘010’ is no different, the street-beat groove and grumbling low-ends underpinning all manner of modular wizardry.

CPU Modular 1 is really timeless stuff, a set of percussion-heavy, future-focussed beats which recalls Smith’s own CPU drop ‘DJ Tools Vol.1 - 808 Tracks’. ‘011’ kicks of CPU Modular 1’s second-half with a dose of Drexciyan dystopia, playing an atonal loop off of an insistent bass wiggle and neurotic hi-hats. Even when Shima tightens or slackens the modulars here, ‘011’ remains unyielding, a dose of pure ‘Wip3out’ energy that you could happily groove to all day long. The EP closes out with ‘005’, a gnarled, gurgling production which still retains the dancefloor punch of the rest of the record.

For his Central Processing Unit debut, John Shima was tasked to produce four tracks using a single small modular setup. Unsurprisingly given the pedigree of this seasoned machine-funk pro, Shima aced the assignment.

RIYL: Jerome Hill, London Modular Alliance, Matt Whitehead

CPU Modular 1

John Shima - CPU Modular 1

A-side: Manmade Deejay - Crawlspace
B-side: DJ Popup - PU's MPC(Central Remix)

Available in Århus from May 2022
Available worldwide from June 2022

Safe Archive 01 (SA01)

Tony Johns Edits - Little Love

Tornado Wallace Presents - Dream Corner (Speed Bump Mix) (5:53)

Tornado Wallace Presents - Dream Corner (5:59)

Tornado Wallace Presents - Sea Translation (5:40)

Full stream of Stelios Vassiloudis' "Waves," taken from his EP Saudade on Apparel Tronic, out May 27.

More: www.orbmag.com/music

@apparel-tronic
@stelios-vassiloudis

Saudade

Listen more

Premiere: Stelios Vassiloudis - Waves

* Subscribe for more premieres: https://bit.ly/2igyosu
* Read more: https://boltingbits.com/awlies-krytal-kleer-veronique-samsung-experience-sengiley-recordings
* Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/wVLC38Rk1Gg
* Pre-order: https://sengiley.bandcamp.com/album/awlies-v-ronique-samsung-spot-the-difference-ep-sng024

The 24th release of Sengiley has been in preparation and languishing for a long time, like aged dry wine in a French castle cellar, a French bouquet of young talents from Awlies & Véronique Samsung on their original Spot The Difference EP!

This experimental release is a dynamic and hypnotic journey where the languid and experimental sound of Awlies replaces the expressive and driving versions of the duo Véronique Samsung. Individually, Véronique Samsung is a living duo, born after a decade of collaboration between Clement Cosse and Tom Nomine, in 2019 in Nantes (France). The project has recently been marked by several great experimental releases and their virtuoso live show with drum machines, synthesizers and guitar, which showed their professionalism, seriousness of intentions and noticeable recognition.

Awlies, hidden in his Parisian studio in the middle of his tower of analog instruments, between a mpc and a cassette recorder, wants to produce a music without rules. A bit nostalgic, he naively seeks to find the electronic music of yesteryear based on contemporary melodic structures.

His part on the EP remains a plan without a projected artistic direction, like a bottle in the sea. Here, Awlies wanted to try deep-house, he tried.

PREMIERE: Awlies - Modern Ghetto Bird (Véronique Samsung Experience)

Alex Smoke  -  Don't See The Point  [Rework]

The upcoming Summer Split 2 EP from Jennifer Cardini’s Correspondant label assembles five tracks that help crystallize her vision of primitive sound: an emerging movement that reclaims the visceral roots of club music. Tempos are kept low, and lurching rhythms, dub-heavy basslines, and unsettled, sleek synths combine to hypnotic effect. Slowed-down Italo, industrial, Belgian new beat, and electro pop all converge. The five artists featured on Correspondant’s 29th release, due out on July 21, each provide a unique angle on the label’s burgeoning discography.

UNDO - 3,9 Grados En La Escala Richter

Artist: Traumprinz
Title: Freedom  
Label: Traumprinz   
Catalogue: TRAUMPRINZ01
Genre: Electronic 
Style: Techno , House , Dub Techno 
Release date: 20 Jun 2011

TRACKLIST:
A1  Freedom 
A2  Hey Baby 
B    Speak To Me

Tornado Wallace Presents - Dream Corner (5:59)

BASIC SPIRIT