Aussie DJ and producer DJ Life has been a name on everyone’s lips since surfacing as one of progressive dance music’s most exciting emergers. Stellar releases have come on Dansu Discs and Echocentric Records, with remixes from fellow prog-trance-techno influencers Adam Pits and Rudolf C, cementing his place at the top of the long-blend rise. 

Now, debuting on Distant Horizons, DJ Life produces four typically entrancing cuts of hypnotic, stylish and straight-up fun dance music with its crosshairs fixated firmly on those dark, sweaty, underground nights.

‘Gnagnag’ gets the warm-up underway with its playful M1 chords and punchy kicks; a marching-on-the-spot number that was born to get silly to. ‘Zweop’ takes the tempo up a notch as we swap the waft for a heads-down aesthetic; a heady-blend of tech-house (the good kind) and prog creating a peak-time cruiser.

‘Behemoth’ presses pause on the trippy 4x4 in favour of wobbly basslines and breaks - much in the vein of the excellent Casa Voyager crew - electro feels and glowing atmospherics taking you on a 6-minute trip driving down the desert highway, before ‘Acidophilus’ sees us out with? You guessed it. A hefty dose of synthy acid to guide you into the wee hours.


>> @djlifee

Quantum Travel

BUY RELEASE

DISTANT006 // DJ Life - Quantum Travel

The undisputed Irish prog master Dylan Forbes steps up with an idiomatic release of club-orientated house tracks marbled to perfection. Sitting beneath swathes of euphoric synth lines, acidic iterations and probing basslines, 'Mind Expander' is a record formed by collective ideals from the solitary walls of Dylan's lockdown studio back in 2020. The realms of your augmented consciousness are waiting for you inside our digital mind expander. Enter... if you dare. TIP!

Buy: tinyurl.com/HAWS014BC

@dylanforbesirl
@hawsmusic

Premiere: Dylan Forbes - Ride Da Flange [Haŵs]

Pre-Order - https://fanlink.to/HHANDS021

Vinyl Release - 27th May 2022
Digital Release - 24th June 2022

We have rolled around to one of my favourite forms of Holding Hands releases. The various artists goodness that is Slam Jams, this being number 3.

I have drafted in bangers of the highest calibre from the likes of Ste Roberts, Bolam, Inner Zone and Yosh. They go high, they go low, they go fast and they go…slightly less fast. If you like slammers, and I’m guessing that you do, then this will be a veritable day out at the fair for your ears.

OK enough of my blather. Go and listen to the damn things yourself and decide if you like them, rather than trying to work it out from reading a bloody press release you weirdos. 

All four tracks are produced and sculpted for the club. They want big sound systems and dark rooms. Close your eyes, hold hands and experience transcendental space flight...

Slam Jams Vol. 3

Pre-order

Various Artists - Slam Jams Vol. 3 (HHANDS021) [clips]

Zaltsman is next up on Dansu Discs  with his ‘In Close Proximity’ EP. 4 track emotional, heavily dance driven club tracks to be enjoyed far and wide.

[DSDDIGITAL004] Zaltsman - In Close Proximity EP

Esteemed proponent of outré dancefloor manoeuvres, Superconscious Records co-founder Fantastic Man makes his Kalahari debut proper.

Having shown up for rework duties on a couple of occasions, we find the mutable oddball at his most trippy and esoteric. In fact, OYSTER42 is the handiwork of a producer who has his formula of balmy, lysergic dance music down to an exact science.

‘Alltogethernow’ gets on a swaggering cosmic tip, all sub-loaded and celestial as levitational arpeggios and funked-up groove dovetail to mesmeric effect. ‘Alpha’, on the other hand, takes a vision quest through enchanted jungle terrain. Initiating with a hypnotic ritual chant, it’s tunnelling and murkily psychedelic; occulted dancefloor rapture tailor-made for the wormhole interior.

As if it were some artefact from a distant ‘90s utopia, Bioxy’ evokes a time when warehouse parties littered the Melbourne landscape. Where its predecessor evokes ceremony and ritual, this is an anachronistic, dilated flashback to simpler times. FM kicks it languid and life-affirming on the closing number. Radiant synth lines flutter with a gentle headiness as ‘Trojan Force’ takes us full circle with a reprise of the rainforest FX.

Alltogethernow EP

Fantastic Man - Alpha [Kalahari Oyster Cult]

BANDCAMP: https://craigieknowes.bandcamp.com/album/cosmic-confession

Adam Pits bows down to the cosmos and bears witness across the super-technical 'Cosmic Confession' EP for his Craigie Knowes debut. A record for the DJs packed with sounds that work throughout the movement of the night. Time to confess.

A1 - Adam Pits - Secret Entrance
A2 - Adam Pits - Cosmic Confession
B1 - Adam Pits - Lucky Dip
B2 - Adam Pits - Let Your Mind Go (ft Lourene)

(P) + (C) 2022 Craigie Knowes Ltd
Written + Produced by Adam Pits
Artwork by Glen Cutwerk
Mastered by Johanz Westerman @ Ballyhoo Studio, NL
Distributed by Clone Distribution

Buy @ Bandcamp

CKNOWEP40 | Adam Pits - Cosmic Confession

Today felt like the first time he could see clearly; as if every day that had come before it he'd been living with his eyes shut. There was no telling what had been the catalyst, it seemed to happen almost instantly. Before, the most joyous and exhilarating experiences never moved him, he's always found ways to pick holes in everything. But now he found beauty in the most mundane things, in seemingly boring situations and dull encounters - after all this time his life could start, the idea that it was all a mirage was finally over. 

Semi Delicious boss Demi Riquísimo shared the first volume in his Reconfigured series two years ago - a remix project that invites friends of the label to put their own stamp on tracks from the back catalogue. This time round a fresh batch of artists breathe life into their label favourites, namely Viscera alumni Manami, Holding Hands producer Gallegos, WHP resident Gina Breeze and Tech Support under his Asa Tate alias. There's something for all dance music lovers, from hypnotic techno and vintage percussive house to tropical-tinged chug and pacy Balearic prog.

PREMIERE: Demi Riquisimo - Mirage Over (Manami Remix) [Semi Delicious]

Next up on X-Kalay it's fresh heat from one of the finest among a current generation of prog-inclined producers. Navigate the mystic zone and achieve ascension with Guy Contact's "Out of My Head (Into My Body)" - a sublime exploration of utopian dancefloor utility ♨️

Pre order: https://bit.ly/3YC5YK4

Available 30/01/2023

@guycontact

Buy 12"

XK031 | Guy Contact - Out of My Head (Into My Body)

Support it here: https://slumprecordings.bandcamp.com/album/slump005-slumped-vol-1-abdul-raeva-baby-roll-n-bolam-mpeg
Slump kicks off 2023 with a 4-track compilation of dancefloor magic. Spanning through subgenres with musical navigators from across Europe - Abdul Raeva, Bolam, mpeg and Baby Rollén. @abdulraeva @slumprecordings

YouTube

PREMIERE: Abdul Raeva - Ultramagic [Slump Recordings]

Lauryn Hill - Doo Wop (That Thing) - (Verso Edit)

A lil sumin' sumin' from P-Flex aka @henry3000 to say thank you for the incredible support so far.

We've had a few delays with pressing RIDE01 - Phyzikal Flex (sorry!) but we've been promised it's leaving the factory tomorrow 🥳

You can preorder RIDE01 with all discerning record shops, and there are still a couple of copies left on Bandcamp: https://magiccarpetrecords.bandcamp.com

Sam & Harry 🧙‍♂️🧙‍♂️ XX

[DSDDIGITAL004] Zaltsman - In Close Proximity EP

Dansu Discs

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