Gang of Four meets Manfredas uptown… with Hard Fist in tow.

https://www.theransomnote.com/music/premiere-shkema-sarka-syrkaza-hard-fist/

@shkema @hardfist

PREMIERE:  Shkema - Sarka Syrkaza [Hard Fist]

Artist: @soelaela
Buy/Stream: www.linktr.ee/scissorandthread

Soela is the DJ and production alias of Elina Shorokhova, a Russia-born Berlin-based experienced pianist and vocalist who has made a hugely impactful transition into electronic music.

Having released material on such labels as Kompakt, Dial, Shall Not Fade, Lost Palms, E-Beamz, Red Ember Records, Sushitech, and others, Soela joins the ranks of Scissor & Thread for this exquisite album - Dark Portrait. 

The album opens in a typically understated manner with Unsuitable - a melancholic trip-hop adjacent track that sets the tone for the next 8 pieces. As Soela explains, “I was dealing with some very complex feelings, so I came up with this album, which helped me not to despair, to work on myself, to grow internally, and to start listening to myself. It helped me to keep sane when my country invaded Ukraine with a full scale war. It absolutely broke my heart, and music was one of my main salvations.” 

This complex mix of emotions plays out across the album with tracks that utilize her beautiful musicality (Through the Windows feat. Francis Harris and Philipp Priebe, Drowning feat. Module One) and ear for details with skittering beats, ambient soundscapes (Spirits, Lost In The Fog) and lose-yourself dancefloor moments such as the collaboration with Lawrence on February Is Not Going To Be Forever. The title track Dark Portrait combines dubby elements with affecting pads and melodic touches, while the lead single Even If I Ask You Stay delves into multiple feelings around escaping toxic situations, and battling depression. It features a powerful vocal from Soela supported by a deeply affecting arrangement. The closing track The Darkest Hour Before Sunrise brings a sense of hope and light, balancing subdued keys and strings with ethereal tones and atmospheres

Dark Portrait

Soela - Lost In The Fog

Soela - Dark Portrait

The Final Versions - Movements in an Empty Department Store (Remixes |||)

Clouds Floating in a Haze of Light (Hame Remix)

Dessous Recordings presents another classic!
 Vinyls & more: https://dessousrecordings.bandcamp.com/merch 
Dive into our timeless classics catalog: https://on.soundcloud.com/frbLqkFe3ke2GRD57

Sunchaser

Urban Ghosts

Artista: @seis-drum
Sello: @bulletdodge-records

Seis Drum entrega una pieza con vértices afilados y pulso magnético. Octagon no busca el atajo del drop fácil: dibuja un patrón de ocho caras —bajo tenso, hats en contrapunto, golpes secos que cortan el aire— y deja que la presión crezca por capas hasta abrirse en un break de respiración corta. El lead aparece y desaparece como un destello estroboscópico; la percusión, de grano áspero, empuja hacia delante con un swing que huele a acero y club subterráneo.

La mezcla es seca y amplia, con microdetalles en los bordes que sostienen la hipnosis sin saturar el campo estéreo. El resultado es utilitario y elegante a la vez: un tema que funciona para construir tensión a media altura y, si hace falta, cerrar con un último giro de tuerca. Octagon confirma el ADN de Seis Drum: groove profundo, narrativa minimal y una manera de encajar melodía y fricción que se reconoce sin mirar.

PREMIERE: Seis Drum – Octagon - Bulletdodge

Hell Yeah's lovingly curated Buena Onda series is back with a new edition that focuses on Adriatic Beats & Beyond. It has been assembled by label head Marco Gallerani and features four exclusive new tunes that reflect his summer residences at a cosy beach bar on Italy's Eastern and Adriatic coast.

Marco moved back to his hometown of Ferrara after the pandemic and began spending more time at the local seaside, the famous Lidi Ferraresi. It's there, at Lido di Spina, that a friend runs Kai Beach Bar, a small spot where, every Thursday throughout August for the last three years, he has soundtracked afternoons and sunsets under the Buena Onda banner, more than a decade after the party first started in Berlin.

"The beat has become less Balearic, more Adriatic," he explains of the sounds that can be heard up and down the coastline. "There’s no sunset culture yet, but they like a groove for aperitivo. This selection reflects the music I propose there, a kinda sunrise to sunset trip."

The 13-track selection includes four exclusives: the first is Blende's 'Amor,' which is forthcoming on the label. Johan Blende is a Swedish producer, songwriter and DJ who weaves together modern dance with retro sounds of the 70s and 80s and debuts on the label this summer with his Recess EP. 'Amor' is a bubbly groove with a New Age wash and lo-fi pads full of charm.

Hell Yeah regular and Italian magic man Walter Del Vecchio aka Quiroga also offers a new Baia Club Ambient Version of 'French Kiss' which has a lazy acid line worming its way through dubby kicks and tabla drums, and his dreamy electro soother 'Cala Ventosa' also features. Secret Soul Society, aka South Wales's Cal Gibson, also tests a new EP with his 'Orange Surprise' blending off-balance rhythmic shuffles with starry cosmic melodies. The final exclusive is from Balearic Gabba Sound System, who flip The Vendetta Suite aka the legendary Gary Irwin's 'Della Notte' into a quietly epic cinematic closer with icy analogue beats and a warped bassline for dubbed out late night escape. His 'Island Hill Microdot' also offers some warped cosmic ambient house introspection.

Elsewhere, Michele Mininni features twice - once with Gallo's Tropical Hinterhof Remix of the suspensory ambient lushness pop 'Carousel of Tears' and once with the original percussive pressure and hip-house fusion of 'Urban Voodoo' from his Pop Archetypes LP. Buena Onda veteran Feel Fly comes through with an Estatico Danzante Remix of Pedro Bertho's 'Tornei' feat Mariana Gehring and takes us to the stars on twinkling keys, dusty breakbeats and steamy vocals that glow as warm as a setting sun.

Add in further groovy gems such as Bonnie and Klein's synth and vibes laced 'Horizon Avenue,' dreamy, breaks-driven downtempo brilliance from pub wave innovator Dawn Again, hints of Ibiza cool from Willie Graff's remix of Aura Safari & Jimi Tenor and some upbeat synth-laced house from label stalwart Luminodisco and you have a faultless collection of grooves for grown up dance floors. 

Compiled by Marco Gallerani
Artwork by Matteo Gallerani

Thanks to Everyone at Kai Beach Bar - Lido di Spina (FE)

download

Quiroga - Cala Ventosa

AVAILABLE HERE : http://yoyaku.io/joule02

A1 Roger Gerressen - Spirit

The keeping of pets marks humans’ attempt at taking possession of a part of reality that is not at his disposal. Dressing a piece of the real that lives according to entirely non-human rules and which only in the saddest case does not resist the discipline of the human symbolic order vehemently and in a sustained matter, is a violent act of protection. Because in the non-place of the real, all that which we are helpless in the face of looms: the non-logical and the nameless, the violence and the noise, yet also the unrestrained and unfiltered desire.
The innocuous figure of the pet marks a gateway to an investigation of these eerie milieus, while electronic dance music lends itself to this investigation in an outstanding way. This constellation marks the subject of Column’s ‘Pets II.’ 

Column is the name of Cologne based renaissance man Jan Philipp Janzen, who, as chief emissary of Cologne’s pop internationalism, has been playing the field in various functions for Von Spar, Cologne Tapes, Urlaub in Polen, Owen Pallett, Scout Niblett or The Field, and who has also, in one way or another, been involved in most relevant records coming out of Cologne for the past number of years. After his
excellent solo debut ‘Pets I’ (Areal, 2016), Janzen presents another extraordinary record in ‘Pets II,’ perfectly complemented by another ghostly oil work of Burkhard Moennich on the cover.
Sonically, ‘Pets II’ marks a clear development for Column. In its exploration of the thresholds of the real, it sets two points of focus, corresponding with the split in sides A and B. Side A, on which Janzen teams up with long-time friend myr. (PNN), explores the uncanny as a fissure of the symbolic order, and the subsequent breaking in of the real. It opens with two peaktime rockets that have their wooden, nether-regional groove narrated by grim, down-pitched vocals. The ethereal remix by Leibniz (hundert) seems to be observing the situation from a hiding place, and is the side’s clandestine and no less dark closer. Side B, for which Janzen invited studiomate Marvin Horsch (Dorfjungs/Beats in Space) along, delivers two swaying synthesizer workouts, the second of which, “Molly and Swerve,” is directed firmly at the dancefloor again. What is at stake here is the transition between a free, undirected jouissance of the real and a more ordered becoming-lust. Here, as in
Map.ache’s (Kann/Giegling/Altin Village) remix which closes out ‘Pets II,’ it becomes clear what connections dance music can foster between a free, impersonal desire and the sphere of interpersonal wanting, but also the losses that are negotiated in it.

Above all, however, it becomes evident what a courageous daring project ‘Pets II’ is in all of its conceptual and aesthetic determination; with Von Spar’s standout ‘Garzweiler’ 12” (Altin Village & Mine, 2017), it documents a New Cologne Realism.

Pets II

Hostels (Map.ache Remix)

Column - Hostels (Map.ache Remix)- IRR017

Artist: Baby G
Track: Bot Energy
Label: Love Above Records
Format: Digital
Release date: 04/12/20
Purchase: https://loveaboverecords.bandcamp.com/

Love Above Records rounds out the year with its largest offering to date, a mammoth 16-track digital compilation of house music compiled and produced throughout the lockdown in 2020. 
LAD004 “Locked in the House” boasts an array of diverse house music in all its forms, featuring both new and old friends of the label. An introduction to the sound of Love Above Records, this compilation will certainly fulfil your musical needs. 
Travel through the sounds of deep house, dreamy breaks, UK garage, the inspired 90s era, and all the way through to the hypnotic after-hours. You'll want to stay for the jazzy excursions and everything in between. This compilation is for the discerning house music lover. 
Baby G is the DJ/producer project of Aotearoa (New Zealand) born Georgia Farry, surfacing from a background in live music as a jazz-trained drummer. Baby G is drawn to all sounds dubby, ambient and drum heavy, which she weaves throughout her production and sets. 
Baby G's debut track 'Bot Energy' sees dreamy pads infused with a deep bassline and some beautifully programmed drums. A ripper of a first release.

https://soundcloud.com/its-baby-g
https://soundcloud.com/loveaboverecords4

YouTube

PREMIERE #1344 | Baby G - Bot Energy [Love Above] 2020

Scissor & Thread is cut from a different cloth than your average dance imprint.

Soela - Dark Portrait

Scissor and Thread