Vitess - Holly Kush

SoHaSo continues their summer sampler series with part 3. Again, the Utrecht based record label brings you some forgotten beauties from the past. Mostly from the Lowlands this time.

Perfect Virtue by British trio Shi Take is one of those gems. Tribal house rhythms from 30 years ago, with a bassline that makes you want to wiggle all the way to the center of the dance floor.

SoHaSo label head honcho Nuno had been playing a demo of Tools for Fools by Dutch producer Sluwe Vos for years, when he found out the energetic rhythm track never got a proper release. Well, now it has.

Flip over for some more forgotten Dutch house history. Jibaros is a project from dance veteran Eric Cycle. It has all the elements that made house music from the lowlands so good in those days: percussive beats, a decent baseline and good melodies sprinkled on top. It's a layercake of sweet stuff that just keeps on building. Very pricey on Discogs nowadays, but luckily Cycle still had the original DAT-tape lying around.

Nozem is a bit of the odd one out. It's actually a project by a young dude from the south of Holland but it sounds like he stepped into a time machine which warped him back to the 90s. The vocals (in ancient Greek!) are from Sister of Iris.

Closure track Tinkling Sensation by Delta (Alex Dijksterhuis) is more than 25 years old. With it's fast-paced rhythms this piano driven tune could well be something post-progressive from Scandinavia. But this is the real deal. Uplifting rave music from the days people were still carrying fluor sticks.

V/A - Somewhere Summer Sampler 3

BUY on BANDCAMP

PREMIERE : Shi Take - Perfect Virtue (Full Moon Over Maduri Club Mix)

Label:Virgin, Virgin
Catalog#:VSTG 1421, 615 463
Format:Vinyl, 12", 45 RPM, Part 1
Country:UK
Released:1992

The Grid - Figure Of Eight (Grid Tribal Trance Mix)

Numero Uno

Elation

BUY: orcd.co/cwpt007
Wallace - Willow EP
CWPT007, 03 November 2023

Having initially forecast his production energy into his own Tartan imprint, Wallace’s music quickly developed a cultish following among record collectors and influential DJs including Gilles Peterson, Optimo, Hunee and Ryan Elliott. Another supporter has been CWPT’s founder Palms Trax, who, following releases on Studio Barnhus and Rhythm Section, snatches four highly sought-after tracks for the seventh release on the label, each showcasing Wallace’s inimitable and enviable skills as an engineer and a willingness to stoke the sort of organic euphoria that DJs dream of igniting.

Amongst the curios, rarities and other finds that have peppered Palms Trax’s sets this past summer, it’s title track ‘Willow’ that has levitated entire club and festival dance floors like few others. Escalating from a disco percussion loop, ‘Willow’ soon brings on high-energy melodies and a captivating sense of something more ethereal, seemingly reinvigorating old tricks with exciting new flavours: if you only raise your hands to one climactic snare roll this year, we ask you to make it this one.

This refreshing intersection between flourish and function is felt even more heavily on ‘Breathe’, a contemporary electronic battle weapon whose breaks-and-bassline arrangement fluctuates between weightless wonder and heavy business. Frontloaded with the detail and atmosphere of a vintage Chems or Leftfield cut, 'Breathe' exhales then explodes all the skill and reverie of the most memorable 90s techno.

Wallace appears to dip into the chillout room for the swampy rhythm of ‘Masada’, before proving his slow-motion mettle, a Sergeant Peppering of psychedelia creating true hedonistic density and groove. In conclusion and on the contrary, ‘River Dancers’ maintains subtle hypnosis at a similar pace with much less, employing simple timbres and a stuttering, innocent vocal inflection to conjure wide-eyed whimsy far downstream from the EP’s earlier, maximal wonders.

Released by:
CWPT
EP release date:
3 November 2023

Breathe

Tofubeats - Suisei (qbc remix)

Gargantuan

Schmoo

Soul Odyssey : "Rapture"

Solar Plexus

Alex Kassian steps up for his first solo 12” on Love On The Rocks with ‘Oolong Trance’, a driving, tropical-tinged uplifting acid trip in ‘Club’ and ‘Paradise’ mixes and a supercharged ‘ADHS’ mix from Telephones. Kassian is no stranger to the label, which celebrated its fifth birthday last year with the 4-part ‘Supergau’ compila- tion that opened with Kassian’s ‘Chopstick Romance’. He also remixed Ghost Vision in 2018 on their Love On The Rocks debut, ‘Shakuhachi’.

Young Kassian from Kyoto, who has the silkiest hair in house, has recently been enjoying success alongside his longtime collaborator Hiroaki OBA as Opal Sunn, taking their live show on tour around Europe and Asia with stops at Field Maneuvers in the UK and Panorama Bar in Berlin. Their first releases on their own imprint, Planet Sundae, got the attention of the late Andrew Weatherall (RIP) and early support from the likes of DJ Sprinkles and Nick Höppner, who released their last two EP’s on his label, Touch From A Distance: ‘Parallax’ in late 2018, and ‘Laika’, earlier this year.

As well as being Kassian’s debut on the label, ‘Oolong Trance’ is the first Love On The Rocks record for 2020, so, what’s in the tea? The Club mix is classic Kassian: big kicks, driving percussion, swirling pads, a tropical sunrise, a celestial organ and a large dash of acid. The Paradise Mix is what you get when you let it brew a couple seconds longer: off the charts trance levels and Alex delivering some truly ecstatic piano work, channelling the spirit of a young George Michael, truly intoxicated on the Oolong drank.

Telephones also delivers a hell of a brew, with his 9-minute, 90s house and garage inflected ‘ADHS’ remix taking the keys off in yet another direction and delivering a energetic, Chicago-inspired oddball rework with hints of De- troit and more than a few drops of old school, classic house spiritualism. The tea, as they say, is particularly good today.

Oolong Trance

LOTR022 Alex Kassian - Oolong Trance (Incl. Telephones Remix)

COY002

Soma