Deep House Classics 2023 1

Joy, Ease, Lightness

Change

Will Saul presents: DJ-Kicks EP

Life Struggle

Cosmin TRG's "Echolab Disaster" is one of eight exclusive tracks that appear on Brandt Brauer Frick's DJ-Kicks mix. The track was pressed onto custom dubplate vinyl in order to be included on the mix, which was recorded live during a day session at Berlin's famed Watergate club. Daniel Brandt elaborates: "I met Cosmin through the Red Bull Music Academy, and we have been talking about various collaborative projects ever since. I was always into his rough sound and he's a great DJ. That's why we asked him to do a track for the Kicks, and the track he delivered was a perfect tune to have in the harder section of the mix. It also is the perfect follow up for the Bok Bok & Tom Trago track before it, to level up the energy even more, and mixes very well with the MMM track afterwards." 

Follow Brandt Brauer Frick:
http://www.youtube.com/user/bigfatpete
https://www.facebook.com/BrandtBrauerFrick

Follow !K7:
https://www.facebook.com/K7Records/
https://www.twitter.com/K7records/
https://www.instagram.com/k7records/
https://www.k7records.com/

Follow DJ-Kicks:
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http://www.dj-kicks.com/

Echolab Disaster

Cosmin TRG - Echolab Disaster [Brandt Brauer Frick DJ-Kicks]

Midland 'Bring Joy' (Youandewan Warehouse Dub)

Vinyl & more: linktr.ee/pokerflat_recordings

The electronic musician and Poker Flat founder’s contemplative new stu-dio album takes in minimal house music, moody techno and effervescent breaks across 11 unique tracks.

Acclaimed producer, DJ, label owner and musical pioneer Steve Bug’s influence on the musical landscape is, at this stage in his career, well documented. With roots in Germany’s legendary club scene and fans around the world thanks to his enviable catalogue of releases, the influence of his label Poker Flat, and his famously exemplary DJ sets, Steve is a singular artist with a lucid and passionate approach to his craft.

His previous LP Paradise Sold alongside Langenberg was released in 2018 to critical acclaim, and described as “elegantly euphoric” by Mixmag. Never Ending Winding Roads is an entirely solo release however, with much of it produced during the months of enforced isolation due to the coronavirus pandemic. Many of the track titles reflect Steve’s headspace during this time, with themes of solitude, contemplation and reflection brought to the fore perhaps more than with any of his previous work.

Steve’s formative musical years were spent during Germany’s techno and acid house heyday, with his love for a perfect groove as apparent now as it was back then. His DJ skills and a keen, innovative ear led him not down the typical path of the early nineties trance and harder dance scene, but instead towards a fresher, hybrid sound–merging stripped deep house, tweaked out acid and more minimal forms of techno and electronic music: a strand of music he fiercely champions to this day.

Steve Bug: “My mindset when making Never Ending Winding Roads was completely different to any other project I have embarked on. I didn’t have to tour, and instead could focus 100% on writing music without having the dancefloor as a constant influence. This allowed me creative freedom to explore a range of styles and emotions, and as a result, it is the album I feel most satisfied with to date”.
With 11 brand new tracks, Never Ending Winding Roads is a meticulously produced and deeply engaging electronic album; one that explores various shades of house, techno and broken beat with Steve’s celebrated attention to detail and consummate originality.
Album opener Lucid Loops perfectly sets the tone, immediately ensnaring you with a hypnotic, undulating synth line and a faintly menacing undertone thanks to hushed, discordant strings and unnerving vocal stabs. This atmosphere of quiet paranoia permeates many of the tracks on Never Ending Winding Roads, most explicitly in the sinewy groove and sketchy, panic-inducing synth line of Locked Away In My Head.

This album more than perhaps any other in his career sees Steve experi- menting with broken beats, to incredible effect. Tracks like A Conscious Machine and Electro Harmonix are melodic, emotionally rich cuts: burst of radiant optimism that juxtapose beautifully with the album’s darker moments.
Elsewhere tracks like Yellow Snake find Steve exploring deep, dubby territory, while album closer Upon Mountains is a cosmic, arpeggiated masterpiece: an 8bit computer game soundtrack reimagined as a poignant electro ballad.

Never Ending Winding Roads

Upon Mountains

Rough Cut (teaser clip)

Ginger & Fred, Influenza forte

Ginger & Fred

Hamburg Elektronisch Vol. 1 - Von House zu House

Do Little

a day and a night

you neva know

Freakin

3rd Movement

Clonki Part II (DJ Kicks)

Melchior & Pronsato - Puerto Rican Girls

Mark Hawkins is a studio based musical artist with a career spanning more than 25 years.

Cutting his teeth in the UK underground party scene throughout the 90s, he has built an extensive body of work collaborating with a wide variety of record labels and artists, in numerous styles of electronic music under many different aliases, including his given name.

After two and a half decades of performing both as a live electronic act, and as a DJ, at many events around the world, which had included many of the most well known clubs and festivals, he decided to narrow his focus down to his main passion of writing, producing and engineering music in his Berlin studio, working on both his own material, and as a sonic “gun for hire”, assisting other artists in achieving their own aspirations in the studio environment.

Mark is a reclusive character who is more interested in sculpting sound, and searching for the perfect beat than promoting his own work, and as such declines to participate in the social media world which dominates contemporary culture.

Preferring to immerse himself in the world of audio manipulation, he has become a go-to studio engineer amongst those in the know, who want their own sound to take on a more professional sheen, or even a more retrospective aesthetic that relates to music from days gone by. 

But this has in no way slowed down his own output of material, in fact, without the distraction of unwanted self promotion or touring, he has been able to place an increased emphasis on crafting exactly the kind of music he wants to create for himself.

Looking ahead, Hawkins will continue to forge his own path via his artistry, blending styles and blurring the boundaries between genres, and will inevitably in the process discover and create exciting new works.

Life Struggle

Mark Hawkins

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