DumDum 13

Right before Christmas, it's the perfect time to pause for a moment and to draw a balance of the past year. Cocoon Recordings' eleventh year of operation was characterised by pacesetting compilations: the "K" composition designed an intensive vision of modern electronic dance music, and also "Eleven Years" was a Techno retrospective and an outlook at the same time. And if this wasn't enough already, Cocoon now puts a very special Christmas gift under our tree, the "Dots and Pearls" double vinyl compilation. Eight tracks by eight different artists (plus one bonus track in the digital version), newcomers and old hands, compete to be the listener's winter favourite.

It all starts with DJ and producer Patrick Gallenmüller aka Pele from Rosenheim who fully relies on the deep reflex of Dub Techno with his long runner "Nothing Else", while Frank Lorber together with Bernd Maus and Eric Besier as Tres continue their success story of last year's EP "Tres presents Uno a Cuatro" with a mysterious and soulful Dub House modernism ("Sunrise"). Martin Ferrer Vega aka Mar-T can look back on a more than 12-year-long career as resident DJ at Amnesia (Ibiza) – so, it's no surprise that his Tribal House rocker "Dolce Vita" really makes you dance. At the end of the B side, the record features a true winner track: on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the friendship between Germany and Japan, Sven Väth announced a producer contest, and Yunyamabe's "3745.8", the winner track, already whets the appetite for next summer with its melancholy tropical mood.
On the second record, Dutch shooting star Egbert delivers his most energetic track to date with "Hallucinogeen", while Sardinian multi-talent Alessio Mereu's intensive "Regret" doesn't hide his basic musical education and designs a sensual masterpiece in between Mediterranean spirit and the aesthetics of Detroit Techno. The Mobilee discoveries Marco Freivogel and Ingo Gansera aka Exercise One from Berlin are acting in a very strict way, and their gnawing noise-stressed hypno monster "Top Score (Stop Thinking!)" on side D is the highlight of their current live set. Luca Saporito and Anthony Middleton aka Audiofly still top their Get Physical long player "Follow My Liebe" and bewitch the listener with a hypnotic Dark House jewel ("Which came first"), whose organ sounds and Chicago-like vocals will make the one or other club night freak out.
The bonus track of the digital version of "Dots and Pearls" comes from newcomer Simonpietro Malandra aka Malandra Jr. who origins from the very small community of Casalincontrada in the centre of the Abruzzi. His winterly "Conquest" enchants with orchestral multi-vision layers and pizzicato strings, but never forgets the bass reflex zone massage and thus has all the ingredients in his hands for a lasting club anthem.


It all starts with DJ and producer Patrick Gallenmüller aka Pele from Rosenheim who fully relies on the deep reflex of Dub Techno with his long runner "Nothing Else", while Frank Lorber together with Bernd Maus and Eric Besier as Tres continue their success story of last year's EP "Tres presents Uno a Cuatro" with a mysterious and soulful Dub House modernism ("Sunrise"). Martin Ferrer Vega aka Mar-T can look back on a more than 12-year-long career as resident DJ at Amnesia (Ibiza) – so, it's no surprise that his Tribal House rocker "Dolce Vita" really makes you dance. At the end of the B side, the record features a true winner track: on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the friendship between Germany and Japan, Sven Väth announced a producer contest, and Yunyamabe's "3745.8", the winner track, already whets the appetite for next summer with its melancholy tropical mood.
On the second record, Dutch shooting star Egbert delivers his most energetic track to date with "Hallucinogeen", while Sardinian multi-talent Alessio Mereu's intensive "Regret" doesn't hide his basic musical education and designs a sensual masterpiece in between Mediterranean spirit and the aesthetics of Detroit Techno. The Mobilee discoveries Marco Freivogel and Ingo Gansera aka Exercise One from Berlin are acting in a very strict way, and their gnawing noise-stressed hypno monster "Top Score (Stop Thinking!)" on side D is the highlight of their current live set. Luca Saporito and Anthony Middleton aka Audiofly still top their Get Physical long player "Follow My Liebe" and bewitch the listener with a hypnotic Dark House jewel ("Which came first"), whose organ sounds and Chicago-like vocals will make the one or other club night freak out.


Egbert: Hallucinogeen

on Format:B's label Formatik - out end of July/begining of August

Format:B - Dog Tag (Sébastien Léger remix) - Formatik Records

Buy on beatport

Egbert - Vreugdevuur (Cocoon Recordings)

Alan Fitzpatrick "loving the Egbert remix for sure!"      
Eelke Kleijn "Loving the Egbert remix as usual. Ogirinal is excellent as well"      
Jamie Stevens "Absolutely love the original and Egbert is of course, as always, on point. The guy amazes me every time."     
John Digweed "good stuff" 
Loco & Jam "Original & Egbert Remix is great! Full support"      
Monika Kruse "egbert remix is beautiful"      
Paul Hazendonk "Solid remix by Egbert!"      
Stephen Bodzin "egbert for me!!!"

Remy - Stick the dragon (Egbert Remix)

Sasha Carassi - Old Rustle (Dub Mix) [Phobiq]

Sasha Carassi - Old Rustle (Luigi Madonna Dub Mix) [Phobiq]

Cocoon Recordings is back in full force with the follow up to last year’s superb vinyl compilation ‘Dots & Pearls’. Providing a tracklisting that is nothing less than the modern interpretation of House, Techno and Tech-House ‘Dots & Pearls II’ eschews monotonous loops and predictable formulas and rather delivers a selection packed with energy and depth. 

Ilario Alicante and Todd Bodine have the honour of opening the record and very much set the tone for the feel of the album. "Modern Apocalypse" gives the impression that the duo wanted to produce a matching track to follow up Ambivalent's "Iwato" in a DJ set. The record has a wonderfully stripped and spacious feel to it, conjuring up an early hours feel with its entrancing effect and stabs plucking at the air around you. Next up we have Subb-an feat. Jacob Phono with "In The Night" a track that explores how the sound and atmosphere of big 90s Techno acts like Underworld can be transferred into our contemporary Minimal and Deep House universe, a task in which they succeeded brilliantly. Resonant beats and percussions, some 808 claps, funky fills and filtered layers match perfectly with the hypnotic vocals and form an impressing overall result that fits into the DJ's set at any time during the night. 
Mark Reeve's contribution "Carry Me" springs from typically Reeve-like UK-influenced House sounds. Softly filtered layers and cool vocal elements provide the right mood, and the long build-up with much patience and even more emotion makes "Carry Me" one of the best and deepest British Tech House tracks in recent times, a certain winner for fans of 20:20 Vision and Global Communication. 
With "Jellied Eels", Marco Effe steps up to try and win the prize of 'the fattest beats on the compilation'. The E-piano chords are a sure fire hit and the warm layers in the breaks loosen the heavily muscled beats a little, but they can't hide the fact that there is an energy packed affair, which erupts in a perfect surrounding and will take any dancefloor beyond the boiling point. It’s easy to hear why this has been sitting in the sets of Sven Väth and Luciano for some time. Danito & Agent! have just recently delivered their Cocoon debut and their mix of deep House elements and big-room Techno citations has already convinced the experts. Their track "Raw Symphony" is no exception here but rather travels further into the realms of cinematic techno. Detroit sends its regards with a fat bass/strings combination and much pathos, based on an elegant House-style beat that never demands too much and leaves enough space for the above mentioned big-room sound. With "Iwato", Minus figurehead Ambivalent contributes a slightly dark but still deep and minimal Techno track that lives on a juicy Chicago bass line and pays tribute to the compilation's motto by using uncommon sounds and effects. The pearls are literally hearable in the arrangement, setting accents in order to prevent the track from sounding too rounded-off. Hypnotic and kicking, but still unpredictably different. Berlin, 07:30 h in the morning – here's the matching soundtrack for a winter sunrise! 
Harvey McKay's "First Strike From Mars" sounds like its title suggests, and Captain McKay doesn't take prisoners. Demanding, massive and equipped with a mighty beat, the tune is reminiscent of recent Slam releases or some of the stronger Santos productions. A peak time production that has only one message: no escape and total madness on the dancefloor, this is a winner that has been getting plays from Sven Väth and Luciano! Sawlin's "Posay" is plumbs the depths of the Techno ocean, with plenty of echo and even more reverb, his remote metallic percussion sounds create an atmosphere that would also be perfect as the soundtrack for a big art installation. "Posay" shows that Techno in the year 2012/2013 does not only mean 'in-your-face', but rather depth and elegance. 

Besides the vinyl edition, ‘Dots & Pearls II’ is also released in a digital version, which contains four extra pearls, in addition to the eight tracks of the vinyl version: With "Sequence Of Moments", Martinez sends the listener back to the high times of that DBX-influenced Detroit sound full of bleeps and blonks, like Daniel Bell or Fred Gianelli perfected at the time. However, he doesn't deliver a retro piece at all, but combines the raw and direct vibe of Bell with modern sounds, layers and pads, and thus moves himself a little towards the Reboot or Johnny D corner. With their contribution "The Gate", Patrick Kunkel & Sascha Barth follow the current sound of now: matching parts of House, Minimal and Techno, in a skilful mix that, on the one hand is reminiscent of the hypnotic-minimal DJ sets of Ricardo Villalobos and on the other hand releases energy galore, in order to make demanding ravers happy. This is definitely one for fans of Pele and Matthias Tanzmann. Next Ross Evana pays tribute to fat Chicago beats and follows Sneak & Co. with his superb production "Cheget". The kick drum pumps, the claps and hi-hats clack heavily and the thick, pitched-down organ stabs in combination with the percussive staccato vocal fragments make the whole thing even more driving. And as if this wasn't enough, Evana adds some industrial sounds and effects that would easily fit in any big Depeche Mode remix, just lacking Dave Gahan's vocals in order to make the crowd freak out. Playing, dancing, partying, you have everything in here. With their track "Still Laughing", Fumihiro Hoshi & Tadac present their unique and different sound and provide a perfect closing opus to this outstanding compilation.

Ambivalent – Iwato

Format:B - Gospel (Super Flu_s Antichrist RMX)

Gregor Tresher thunders back with his second solo EP for Drumcode. Gregor has been busy throughout 2012 with lots of new material and remixes being released on Cocoon, Ovum and Music Man and has released lots of new music and remixes on his very own imprint, Break New Soil. Break New Soil was launched in 2009 and has gone from strength-to-strength. Highly regarded within the tech- house world, the imprint has releases from the likes of Bart Skils, Karotte, Dosem and Gregor himself. DJ’ing across the world every week to packed out clubs and rocking the party deep into the early hours of any morning, he knows how to work a crowd.

Gregor has delivered four outstanding tracks for Drumcode that are creative, whilst still functional. Relevance uses a filtered, bubbling synth line and sparse percussion effectively to build a groove that will rip through any club. System X uses a detuned synth stab and an unusual bass line harmoniously to construct a track that sounds like its from out of space. Secura is a straight-laced techno groover that uses some distinctively unfamiliar sounds. The track is gelled together with a repetitive hum sound that adds to the groove. The fourth track on the EP; Call To Arms, uses a melodic rhythmic sequence and reverberated drums to eloquently smash any dancefloor.

Gregor Tresher - Relevance (Drumcode)

Gregor Tresher - Call To Arms (Drumcode)

<p>Dany Rodriguez&#8217;s &#8220;Distance&#8221; gets the Carassi treatment for the kick-off of this EP on MB Elektronics, and the result is a stripped-down rhythm section, dislocated riffs and Sasha&#8217;s trademarked claustrophobic atmosphere.The original mix chugs with a mechanized groove, while eerie stabs take the lead over throbbing subs. Closing up with &#8220;Gate 2&#8221;, we are treated to ghastly effects setting the tone, and optimistic chord stabs keeping the momentum strong.</p>

DumDum 13

László Botló