Introducing Pala EP, the first instalment of Pressure Dome’s new tape series and a PD debut from London’s City Kudu. So far finding its home across Manchester’s Access Memory imprint, and Kudu’s own beloved brainchild, Kite Hill Records, the emerging producer’s discography toys with space and rhythm to create immersive environments.

In keeping with this theme, Pala EP is a thoughtful display of the ways in which light and shade can co-exist in dance music, each track bolstered by driving bass lines and accented by delicate melodic flares. Honeysuckle and Jade draw on dubbed-out soundscapes taken from the schools of Basic Channel and SND, both enlivened by the dynamism of tuned drums. The former is haunted by a fragmented voice, whilst the latter is bathed in a plaintive ambience. Connected in their half-time pace, Pala and Twine work to further emphasise the dichotomy between light and shade. The title track’s dancehall-indebted rhythm accompanies radiant pads, whilst Twine represents its gritty counterpart, not a far cry from the work of Livity Sound extraordinaires Toma Kami and Kouslin. 

Exclusively on offer to those swift enough to get their hands on a limited edition cassette, the B-side sees Kudu wear the EP’s influences on his sleeve, offering an inspiration mix featuring music that has fed into the sound of the EP.

@citykudu

Pala

Pre-Order

City Kudu - Pala (PDT001) [clips]

Release date : February 16th
Pre-order : gridrecords.bandcamp.com/album/contrast-ep

Grid kick off 2024 with Contrast EP, a mesmerising collection of future-facing tracks from certified one-to-watch Plebeian (@plebeiann). The NYC producer is quickly garnering deserved attention for his acutely detailed and explorative bass productions reminiscent of Objekt and Djrum.

With his EP Plebeian offers up four shimmering and lush dance organisms that exist in an ecosystem entirely of their own. Microscopic drum engineering coupled with flourishes of dubbed out percussion, moments of blissful beauty and infinitely oscillating synth swells, all distilled to create 4D soundscapes that will captivate and intrigue the listener.
credits

All tracks produced and mixed by Andrew Nerviano
Mastered by Krikor Kouchian
Artwork by Unité Services

Supported by : Akanbi, Amor Satyr, Ayesha, Azu Tiwaline, Bake, Bambi, Big Ever, Blume, Breaka, Cameo Blush, Clemency, Cleveland, Chris Farrel, Daisy Moon, Danielle, De Grandi, DJ Fart In The Club, DJ ojo, Dyslecta, Emily Jeanne, Eric Cloutier, Forest Drive West, Fred P, Giant Swan, Hassan Abou Alam, Henzo, Huerco S., Joanna OJ, Jurango, K Wata, Kouslin, Laurent Garnier, Luke Slater, Martha, object blue, Orson, Soso Tharpa, STL-P, Syz, Toupaz, Tristan Arp, Truncate, Solid Blake, Vladimir Ivkovic, Yushh and more.

GRID012

Contrast EP

Plebeian - Contrast EP [GRID012] previews

Next up on Soft Raw!

Austrian maverick Toupaz mints the latest Soft Raw with a grip of rhythmically dexterous, highdefinition firecrackers for the club. Keisaku is a continuation of Danielle’s commitment to highlight the most innovative emergent talent striking a sweet spot between elegance and intensity on her label.

If you’ve kept your ear to the ground these past few years you might have come across Graz resident Timo Bürgler’s outstanding transmissions as Awo Ojiji which landed on well-respected labels like Eclipse Tribez and Control Freak. He debuted as Toupaz last year with a drop on the equally on-point Well Street, and now he builds on the promise of that release with this fiercely inventive four-tracker.

The magic in the Toupaz sound lies in the way he manipulates drums, using non-standard palettes of percussion and making them move in mind-bending ways. The wild rhythmic displays are matched by a virtuoso approach to synthesis and sound design which ducks, dives and darts around the many-limbed beats.

It’s not a simple case of studio shock and awe, though — Timo understands how to maintain subtlety and intrigue even in the most complex, fizzing peaks of his tracks. That’s why, from the bashy strains of ‘Hiccup’ to the high-pressure piledrive of ‘Tubular’, he delivers a sound absolutely in line with the Soft Raw ethos. It’s volatile, daring material, but in the right hands it has an unreal power to unleash on an unsuspecting dancefloor.
credits

releases March 21, 2024

Written & Produced by Timo Bürgler
Mastered by Beau Thomas at Ten Eight Seven
Distributed by One Eye Witness
Design by Atelier Superplus
softraw.bandcamp.com
@soft__raw

Toupaz - Keisaku | Soft Raw (SFTRW03)- Snippets

In the frosty embrace of Berlin's winter, French Berlin DJ and Refuge Worldwide radio host, ophélie, unfurls their debut release on hundert records. We are happy to present “Electric Blue Gecko” as the single from the record. 



Following their inaugural release on the leftfield club music label "Early Reflex," they carefully craft mesmerizing, yet meditative bass music tracks. Ophélie presents her own version of the sonic vision that they explore in their monthly radio show "Therapy Dog". Influences of drum and bass meet the minimalist razor-sharp yet spacious sounds.

   

The artwork was created by Sena Oh who developed the visual style in close collaboration with ophélie. The digital fauna is presented visually through the unmistakable artistic style of the Korean Berlin artist. Whether you're tuned in with headphones or absorbed through pulsating subs of the club, get ready for an experience that transcends the dance floor.

Pipa Pipa

Electric Blue Gecko

Bandcamp

Ophélie - Electric Blue Gecko

Club Moss

Calvepen 666

Artist: @djstrawberrymusic
Titile: Beyond
Label: guides
Release date: 15.03.2024
Format: digital / cassette (edition of 70)
Additional mix and mastering: Mateusz Wysocki
Artwork: Marta Sieczkowska

Released in 2022, the debut album "Cycles" by Turkish producer DJ Strawberry brought a surprising mix of genres. The tracks, which were kept at 160 bpm, combined the Chicago footwork tradition with its hybrid formula inspired by Japanese minimalism and spacey dub techno in a highly inventive way.

Two years after the release of his debut album, DJ Strawberry, returns with a follow-up to "Cycles" entitled "Beyond". The process of making the album was accompanied by many difficult moments. In February 2023, his country was hit by the largest earthquake in its history that significantly affected his family and loved ones. What brought the producer respite from these hard times was to dive into making music. "Beyond" is therefore a story about suffering, anxiety, but also about the process of coming out of these difficult emotions towards something constructive that brought joy and relief.

The album begins with crystal and delicate sounds in "following you". We see some idyllic and jittery imagery, which lightly jumps to the rhythm of complex rhythms. The character and atmosphere of the album transform with the second track. In "soyut", a noticeable tectonic shock is triggered by nervous percussion loops and the deep intensity of the infra-pulse. This physical aspect of experiencing sound and the vibrations it generates constitute the primary foundation that binds the music of "Beyond". The low-pitched, rough bass that appears in "soyut" also resounds in the next anxious track "çıkmaz", its dirty, earthy sound referencing footwork productions dedicated to competing dancers. The change in atmosphere doesn't come until "euphoria." After the first half, echoing the emotions of earlier tracks, the second half of the piece, DJ Strawberry, transports the listener into a space of liberating relief and affirmation. Ending the album, "feedback loopjuke" is a minimalist coda with swirling looped drums and juke claps fired off in the final part of the track.

The therapeutic aspect of the music contained on "Beyond" places DJ Strawberry's actions in close proximity to the similar sonic practice of another representative of the outlines, Jana Rush. Her album "Painful Enlightenment", released on Planet Mu, also used footwork to deal with difficult emotions. Once again, then, a musical genre whose prior function was mainly to "serve" competing dancers has transcended this traditional format to become a vehicle for DJ Strawberry's personal narrative.

DJ Strawberry - Beyond (preview)

Kiosk Radio is an online community radio streaming 24/7 from a wooden shack in the heart of Brussels’ historic “Parc Royal”. 
More info and music: https://kioskradio.com

Beatrice M. @ Kiosk Radio 16.02.2024

We’re thrilled to share with you the third volume of our beloved series ‘‘traversée’’ - a space for producers to explore their own versatility.

‘‘traversée 03’’ gather – once again – super talented artists who shape the vision of the label on a daily basis through the diversity of their musical background and origins.

Talking about musical process with artists is super important to us and sharing it to the world is even more significant : soon we'll share some ‘‘words behind the track’’ from artists themselves to dive deeper into their own reflexions: take a deep breathe in —

(:

releases March 13, 2024

credits
Artwork by Maureen Caron
Mastering by Daga Audio
Mastering of "royalbrut - Wäutformatplakat" by
Digital distribution by MusicDeli
vocals by sensuaii in “Chewlie - Good Feed”

ophélie - Baby Steps [traverse]

@ojodj
@twinsystem

BC: https://twinsystem.bandcamp.com/album/in-the-slush-iii-2

pi pi pi premiere: DJ ojo - Cylinder (Twin System)

Laenz - After Sunset [WZY004]
Announced: 13th Mar 2024
Release Date: 29th Mar 2024
Preorder: https://woozydublin.bandcamp.com/album/wzy004-after-sunset

Laenz joins EMA’s beloved Woozy family with After Sunset; an extended player of haunted dub architecture, set out within a found-sound planetarium of deconstructed rhythms and textural deviancy. Seminal UK producer and Hemlock Recordings’ founder Untold also features with his first remix in 9 years. 

Brooklyn-based Laenz reimagines the expansive structures of her native city as aural scaffolding, reconstructing indeterminate spaces via an emotional rendering process of world building. It’s music that explores the duality of shape and unform, immersed in traditions of sound design and latter-day UK broken beat techno binded by a tender hauntology that’s sublimely immersive as it is intimately personal. After Sunset is her debut for EMA’s boundary-pushing Woozy imprint, following releases for Early Reflex, Rhizome and Eastern Margins, a project detailing elongated processes of varying intensities evoking a rawness which she described as a “war on the heart”. It’s a body of music that’s a direct portal into Laenz’ singular vision, and highlights her inimitable talent amongst the milieu of bass-leaning producers of New York and beyond. 

Ballad Before The Break intros us with a garbled chug of out-of-body proportions, before Choices marches in with an uncanny half time of tense textures and After Sunset follows with trip-hop adjacent psychedelia gorged in subs. B-side opens with Echoes Until, a lurching wormhole of disorientating skank while wiL offers a gorgeous ambient epic circled by a percussion-heavy concrète of breakcore abstraction. Untold sees us out with a remix of Choices, a trip into his unrivalled sound world, buoyant by throbbing modulation and rolling kicks of pure surreality.

Mastered by White Peach 
Artwork: Blixa Aguerreberry
Press Release: Nevan Jio
Cassette Production: Band CDs UK

Tracklist:
A1 Ballad Before The Break
A2 Choices
A3 After Sunset
B1 Echoes Until
B2 wiL
B3 Choices (Untold Remix)

Laenz - After Sunset WZY004 (Previews)

Cognitive trouble (New wave mix)

complex structures | rhythmic grooves | minimalism
label owner @paide

DJ Strawberry - Beyond (preview)

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