relax your ass 19

Running through the corridors he began to panic. Why did he always leave everything to the very last minute? The sound of the school bell rang loudly as he weaved quickly between passing groups of giggling girls and boisterous boys. Heaven forbid that he might be late... 

He could already hear the words of his teacher ringing and reverberating. Those words sent the fear of god up his spine as the deadline loomed and time was running out. 

Racing between lockers, quick, through the canteen. Almost there... 

Giuseppe Leonardi is set to release an eclectic assortment of leftfield Pop, Balearic infused House and other oddball synth experiments on Unsure. It follows off the back of appearances on Music From Memory affiliated offshoot Second Circle.

PREMIERE: Giuseppe Leonardi - Deadline [Unsure]

LENG SHOP - https://lengrecords.bandcamp.com/music

Riding a wave of critical praise and positive feedback for his most recent Emperor Machine album, the fabulous Island Boogie, Andrew Meecham returns with a typically wild and dancefloor-focused set of dubs, ‘versions’ and remixes.

According to Meecham, Island Boogie is his most personal set to date – a full-length excursion that not only delivers perfectly formed expressions of his dub-tinged, off-kilter synth-boogie sound, but also tracks that draw deeply on his earliest influences and long-held musical expressions.

It’s fitting, then, that this remix EP begins with his own sparse, stripped-back ‘version’ rework of ‘S-S-S-Single Bed’, a fine cover of the mid-80s Fox single featuring the vocals of Michelle Bee. Meecham’s dub-wise revision is a skeletal and driving affair, with snippets of echoing guitar, colourful synths and Bee’s distinctive vocalisations rising above a weighty dub disco bassline and rock-solid percussion.

It's followed by two revisions of album favourite ‘Wanna Pop With You’ from A Love From Outer Space main man Sean Johnston under his now familiar Hardway Brothers alias. Combining his own love of raw, analogue-sounding electronics and trippy dancefloor psychedelia with select elements of Meecham’s original – percussion, synth sounds, crisp guitar licks and elements of Séverine Mouletin’s lead vocals, Johnston’s main ‘remix’ is a weighty, mid-tempo treat. Arguably even better is his accompanying dub, which is more groove-and-effects focused and makes more of Meecham’s superb original bassline. It’s heavy, spaced-out and undeniably intoxicating.

To round off the package, long-time friend of the label (and sometime contributor) Rose Robinson dons her Tigerbalm pseudonym and gets to work on ‘La Cassette’. Brilliantly cutting up Séverine Mouletin’s vocals, she delivers a driving slab of spaced-out, synth-heavy dub disco that adds more weight and energy to Meecham’s original. It’s a fittingly on-point way to close out a superb selection of club-ready revisions.

LENG SHOP

The Emperor Machine - Wanna Pop With You (Hardway Bros Remix)

Calm - Before (Remixes) (Vinyl, 12") (Forthcoming September 13, 2024)
Available on Bandcamp (Vinyl/Digital):  https://tinyurl.com/bdfemr4a
Label: Hell Yeah Recordings

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before - Remixes

Calm - Feel It (Aura Safari Desert Remix)

SJU - Nye Sko (Vinyl, 12") (Reased September 9, 2024)
Available on Bandcamp: https://tinyurl.com/434vhr9h
Label: Snorkel Records [SNRKL014]

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SJU - Nye Sko (Olefonken​’​s Sole Service Mix)

Leng’s San Francisco connection has long been strong, with the 40 Thieves collective – and their friend Cole Odin – providing some of the label’s most memorable releases of the last decade.

That Bay Area connection comes to the fore once more on the imprint’s latest release, which sees Odin join forces with fellow San Francisco resident Marshall Watson, a long-serving producer, engineer and live performer known globally for his Balearic-minded productions.

‘Voyager’, the pair’s second collaborative single, is a genuine meeting of minds. It combines Odin’s love of low-slung dub disco, dancefloor psychedelia and low-tempo cosmic house with Watson’s picturesque Balearic synths, sparkling piano riffs and immersive sound design. It’s this blend that dominates on the EP-opening Original Mix, an infectious workout that gets progressively more blissed-out and saucer-eyed as it progresses. Listen carefully and you’ll hear some suitably psychedelic guitar solos nestling amongst the heady washes of sound, sun-bright piano riffs and weighty bass.

Those languid, stretched-out guitar parts naturally take a more prominent role on the Extended Guitar Mix. On this alternative take, the pair deliver a lightly tweaked take on the original groove, stretching it out while overlaying eyes-closed guitar solos, pots-and-pans percussion and a more DJ-friendly outro. It’s effectively an extended club mix – the club in question being a Bay Area basement at 5am.

To round off the EP, Odin and Watson dust off their dancing shoes and pay tribute to San Francisco great Patrick Cowley. On the appropriately titled Cosmic Rave Mix, the pair swap their bass guitar for a pulsating sequenced bassline, trance-inducing synth sounds, and locked-in electronic loops designed to take you to a higher state of consciousness. By the time the track’s familiar piano refrain drops midway through, you’ll be reaching for the lasers in no time at all.

Marshall Watson & Cole Odin - Voyager (Cosmic Rave Mix)

https://soundcloud.com/max-essa
https://soundcloud.com/nathan-dawidowicz
https://soundcloud.com/coyotesounds
🛒 https://www.juno.co.uk/products/max-essa-when-im-homeward-bound-feat-nathan-vinyl/1033800-01/

Max Essa returns to Is It Balearic? for his 9th release on the label. ‘When I'm Homeward Bound' brings us that classic Essa sound with a hint of Tears For Fears for good measure! The pads are delightfully gooey and subtly uplifting over gently percussive and stuttering beats and the whole thing is rich in lazy poolside energy. Nathan Dawidowicz remixes the original into a hypnotic, percolating piece of deep and tribal disco, while Secret Soul Society brings out the early evening house grooves ready for those sunset sessions. The record finishes with the closing cut, 'Chasing Horses’,  a super sweet late night groove with heartfelt chords and instrumentation.

Tracklist: 

A1. When I’m Homeward Bound
A2. When I’m Homeward Bound (Nathan Dawidowicz remix)

B1. When I’m Homeward Bound"" (Secret Soul Society remix)
B2. Chasing Horses

PREMIERE: Max Essa - When I’m Homeward Bound (Nathan Dawidowicz Remix) [Is It Balearic? Recordings]

https://soundcloud.com/thomash_voodoohop
https://soundcloud.com/g-a-t-s
https://soundcloud.com/invisible-inc
🛒 https://invisible-inc.bandcamp.com/album/mondo-ritmo

Following on from last years's "Mondo Organico" compilation, the latest Invisible Inc mini-compilation "Mondo Ritmo", as its title suggests, sets its sights firmly on rhythm and percussion.
Featuring a global array of artists hailing from Argentina to Senegal and everywhere inbetween, the influences and styles on display include latin, afro, dub, dancehall, experimental, acid and more...although it's safe to say none of the tracks are just one of these labels and some of them so impossible to categorise they are genuinely unique.
Initially this EP was intended to be Dancefloor Detonators Vol. 3 but the tempos and vibes of the music that found their way to Invisible HQ were so varied that the whole concept shifted in another direction entirely.
However, lacking in dancefloor killers this EP most certainly is not. Proven and tested dancefloor bombs are Mytron & Balam's opening track "Cabasa Loca" which label boss GK Machine has been spinning at his Wrong Party nights and elsewhere for the last 6 months or so, resulting in track ID requests on several occasions...and the house/dancehall hybrid floor filler "Wicked Can't Run" by LA producer Tom Chasteen (Exist Dance/Dub Club) featuring legendary Jamaican DJ and toaster U Brown, and mixed by equally legendary producer/keyboardist David Harrow who first came to our attention through his regular keyboard contributions to all things On-U Sound related in the 1980s.
The rest of the tracks may not be peak time bangers but they are sure to please the more esoteric and adventurous dancefloors out there....it's an honour to have on board Calypso Records head honcho Thomass Jackson, Thomash (Voodoohop) and Gats (Suçuarana / Curuba) who together as Changa Boys bring in Senegalese drummer Ndiaxo dal Jaam, and finally the little-known Machine and percussionist Congo Caveman.

Tracklist: 

A1 Mytron & Balam - Cabasa Loca (Poland/Argentina)
A2 Caveman & The Machine - Grasslands Dance (Scotland/Germany)
AA1 Natural Numbers feat U Brown - Wicked Can't Run (US/Jamaica)
AA2 Thomass Jackson - Numeris Vienas (Argentina/Mexico)
AA3 Changa Boys feat Ndiaxo dal Jaam - Jaar Jaar Dub (Germany/Brasil/Senegal)

PREMIERE: Changa Boys feat Ndiaxo dal Jaam - Jaar Jaar Dub [Invisible Inc]

In Trance 95 - Warm Nights Driving On Wet Streets (Vinyl, 12") (1991)
Available on Discogs: https://tinyurl.com/mr2r7p6t
Label:Elfish [elf002]

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Warm Nights Driving On Wet Streets

In Trance 95 - Wild Beauty Ocean (Toujours Pour Jamais Mix) (1991)

DC Promo Tracks #1481 "Free Yourself" by Treasure Island is part of the upcoming release Be Who You Want To Be  on Epicure Records @epicure-rec

Pre-Order: https://epicurerecords.bandcamp.com/album/be-who-you-want-to-be

Epicure Records is thrilled to announce its 19th release, featuring Italian artist Treasure Island. Release date: October 24, 2024

​​https://soundcloud.com/treasure_island_music
https://www.instagram.com/treasure.island.music
https://www.Instagram.com/epicurerecords

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Be Who You Want To Be

Pre-Order

DC Promo Tracks: Treasure Island "Free Yourself"

"A BORDO RING" MIX MATCH by SPOKI vs. ARNOLD
Here a back to back Mix Match between Spoki and Arnold  Co-founder of Maledetta Discoteca.
Let's dig into Electronic Music!
From Disco to Acid, Proto House & more.
Enjoy the battle !

"A BORDO RING" MIX MATCH by SPOKI vs. ARNOLD

Hear & Now’s story is one of friendship and a shared passion for music. It began with a chance meeting on the dancefloor at Red Zone in Perugia, one of Italy’s most legendary clubs of the 1990s. Nearly three decades on, these glassy-eyed clubbers have joined forces to deliver one of the most magical and sun-kissed albums that Claremont 56 has ever released.

By the time Ricky L and Marcoradi first joined forces in the studio in 2016, both had become established producers within Italy’s vibrant deep house scene. Between them, they’d released records and remixes on such labels as Ibadan, Uomo, Reincarnation, Top Tracks, Restricted Tracks and Vega. Keen to step away from the dancefloor, they decided to simply create beautiful music for bleary-eyed after-hours sofa sessions, lazy summer afternoons and early mornings spent blinking at the rising sun.

Aurora Baleare, their debut album, follows on from a fantastic double A-side 12” for Claremont 56 in February 2017. Those two tracks take pride of place amongst an eight-track selection simply brimming with evocative workouts, gentle soundscapes and noon-bright sonic bliss. While you’ll find luscious instrumental cuts designed to inspire baggy, glassy-eyed shuffling – see the mid-tempo, spine-tingling brilliance of “Salsedine”, mind-massaging “Hirundo” and dreamy slow-house treat “Sabbia Magica” – it’s the effortless brilliance of Marcoradi’s improvised guitar playing and the duo’s atmospheric approach that really catches the ear. Check, for example, the heady horizontal shuffle of “Trasimeno”, where poignant ambient chords, jazzy electric guitar solos and deep space electronics tumble down over shuffling beats and a squeezable synthesizer bassline, and the sun-down Adriatic wonder of “Stella Dei Venti”, a track so effortlessly loved-up and blissful that you might be overcome by emotion (it certainly had us daydreaming of days spent exploring the intense natural beauty of Italy’s Adriatic coast).

Moments like this, where the duo’s dreamy electronics and smile-inducing melodies seemingly shimmer across the sound spectrum, can be found dotted throughout Aurora Baleare. There’s the darting digital synthesizer motifs, sparse hand percussion and ricocheting solos of “Airone”, the Italo-disco-inspired chugging positivity of “La Marsa” and the title track’s humid beachside breeze, where intertwined electronic and acoustic lead lines seemingly glimmer like rays of sunshine bouncing off the surface of a becalmed, crystal clear ocean.

Their roots may be on the dancefloor, but Hear & Now are fast becoming down tempo masters. You can dance if you want to, but you may just want to hug a stranger instead.

Hear & Now - Aurora Baleare (Clips)

Ready To Die (Mudd's Extended Mix) Clip

Two years ago, Ferdi Schuster was a young multi-instrumentalist and producer daydreaming of releasing his music on Claremont 56, one of his favourite labels. Now he’s set to release his stunning debut album, “All One”, on Paul Murphy’s long-running imprint.

It’s been a long time between drinks for the German producer, who last graced C56 with his superb double A-side single, “Little River/Befreit”, in the autumn of 2017. Fittingly, it’s “Little River” – a babbling brook of audio bliss rich in samba-influenced drums, soothing acoustic guitars and spacey synthesizer licks – that kicks off “All One”, a seductive set in which every drumbeat, piano note, guitar riff, synthesizer flourish and fireside-warm bassline was played by the man himself.

Throughout, it’s easy to see why Murphy decided to snap up Schuster and push the producer to record a debut album. Check, for example, the dubbed-out shuffle of “Thinking of You”, where ghostly chords, soft-focus guitar solos and ethereal vocals drift across the soundscape, and the slowly unfurling bliss of “The Good Fight”, an effortlessly Balearic workout rich in sun-kissed guitars, bubbly synth lines and chords so snugly they could probably be used as a comfort blanket.

Schuster’s greatest strength is undoubtedly the evocative and enveloping nature of his instrumental music, which draws on a variety of complimentary influences but never sounds anything less than original and fresh. Some listeners may be enchanted by the loose and languid pulse of “Fading Away” or the lo-fi reggae-jazz of dusty closing cut “Night Talk”, though others may prefer the stoned funk shuffle of “Interaction” or the spacey vibrations of “Pulsa”, where intergalactic synthesizer lines wind their way around heady bass guitar and sparse, off-kilter deep electro drums.

“All One” is that kind of set; an atmospheric and musically accomplished collection of cuts capable of muting the mundane and distracting from the stress of 21st century life. As debut albums go, it’s something of a stunner.

Thinking Of You (Clip)

Over the years, Claremont 56 has played host to some memorable collaborative projects, most notably Bison, an unlikely super-group whose members included Holgar Czukay, Ursula Kloss, Liquid Liquid’s Sal Principato, Ben Smith and label boss Paul ‘Mudd’ Murphy. Now Murphy is at the helm of another collaborative outfit, Hillside, whose seductive debut single contains two deliciously pie eyed instrumental workouts.

Hillside is very much a family affair, with Murphy joining forces with two old friends: bassist/guitarist Alex Searle and percussionist Patrick Dawes. The trio has a collaborative history that stretches right back to Murphy’s time in Akwaaba in the mid nineties. For their debut outing, Hillside has also welcomed a very special guest musician: award-winning jazz violinist and long-time Bert Jasch collaborator Mike Piggott.

As opening gambits go, “Hidden Port” is an emphatic statement of intent. The audio equivalent of sailing slowly around a cluster of sun-baked islands in search of shelter from an approaching storm, the track sees Searle wrap bluesy, Peter Green style guitar passages around a shuffling, Latin-tinged groove rich in Dawes’ distinctive percussion patterns and Murphy’s languid electric piano and synthesizer lines. As the track progresses, Piggott steps up to make his mark, with his undulating electric violin lines complimenting Hillside’s impeccable instrumentation while adding extra emotional weight to proceedings. It’s a stunning beginning to the Hillside story.

Piggott also makes a big impression on accompanying cut “The King’s Tun”, delivering fluid and energy-packed solos that weave in and out of a bright and breezy instrumental track rich in jangling acoustic guitars, subtly spacey electronics, fireside-warm bass and more sparse-but-intricate percussion courtesy of the effervescent Dawes. Searle’s eyes-closed, rock style guitar solos cap another memorable excursion from Claremont 56’s latest in-house band.

Hidden Port (Clip)

arlier this year, Claremont 56 served up something rather special: the atmospheric, claustrophobic debut single from Greek band Sillyboy’s Ghost Relatives, “In A Small Place”. A warm, drowsy and evocative commentary on smalltown paranoia, the single showcased a band not afraid to embrace their love of blue-eyed soul, soft rock, West Coast jazz-rock and hazy AOR.

These influences shine through on the band’s eponymous debut album, which will be released worldwide (with the exception of Greece and Cyprus) by Claremont 56 this September. It’s a slight diversion from an imprint renowned for its sun-kissed Balearic grooves, pastoral soundscapes and dubbed-out dancefloor moves, but one fully in keeping with the imprint’s love of warm, beautiful and atmospheric music.

It’s certainly a confident debut from Sillyboy’s Ghost Relatives, an Athenian four-piece founded by titular hero Sillyboy (AKA experienced musician, producer and vocalist Charalambos Kourtaras, who has previously released a string of solo albums to wide acclaim in his home country). The band is modeled in his image, with a warm and hazy sound marked out by bold, toasty basslines, effects-laden guitars and a mixture of retro synths and thickset electric piano motifs.

Sillyboy naturally takes centre stage throughout, delivering his loved-up and lovelorn lyrics like a latter-day Michael McDonald. His vocal performances, and that of his similarly experienced colleagues, lend the album a dreamy, visceral quality fully in-keeping with the languid richness of the music.

Highlights are plentiful throughout. Check, for example, the dewy-eyed, string-laden bliss of opener “Secret”, the 1960s style dream pop cheeriness of “High Life” and the drowsy, late night drift of “Daylight”, an impassioned plea for reconciliation rich in close harmony backing vocals and soft focus saxophone solos. Or, for that matter, the chunky blue-eyed soul grooves of “Muscle Cars”, the slow and seductive “Favourite One”, the tropical wooziness of “Better Than Words”, the vintage Steely Dan shuffle of “Learn To Forget” and the breezy Americana of closing cut “Wasted”, which delivers a stunning conclusion to an album of rare cohesion.

Better Than Words (Clip)

Claremont 56 is an independent label  dedicated to releasing beautiful music.

Please don't message me here as I don't read them, please get in touch via the website, thanks.

Hidden Port (Clip)

Claremont 56

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