Playlist#23

From a stylistic perspective, all bets are off as modernist bass music bowls forward with its sights on the dance. Over the past three years, J-Shadow has embodied that ethic more than most with a hybridised flex snapping fluidly between lurid grime waveforms, rave-indebted structures and hi-tech sound design. A perfect fit for Sneaker Social Club’s own omnivorous tendencies, then. 

Following drops on Super Hexagon, Nous, Comic Sans and Bun The Grid, Shadow lands on Sneaker Social with no less than six shellers packing a potency which has to be heard to be believed. Proceedings start off comparatively mellow with the atmospheric, vocal-laced ‘Fade’ – all cascading breaks and airy pads, before pivoting towards a kind of weightless style sprayed with blaster fire and dislocated snare rushes on ‘Kugelblitz (The Inescapable Rewarp)’. ‘Diffraction’ leans in on grime rudeness, albeit with a flamboyant twist up, before ‘Atlantis’ shakes up the B-side with an aquatic excursion into jungle territory clearly nodding to early Bukem. ‘Particle Horizon’ continues the uptempo charge, but straps starry-eyed arps to the barefaced breakbeat choppage with soul-quaking results. ‘Hibernation (Lumina Falls)’ acts as a kind of mood leveler to round out the EP, but even in these more patient moments the sound palette is vast and dynamic. 

At every step, Shadow’s production prowess shines through in glorious technicolour, all shimmering surfaces and molten sonic matter. The degree of detail is frankly staggering, from cascading sample arrays to infinitesimal FX tweaks. His vibrant personality comes through whether he’s tearing it up at 160 or dropping the kicks out altogether, celebrating the eclecticism that embodies modern club music.

J-Shadow - SNKRX08

We have just dropped a very small repress of one of the most wanted Moonshine vinyl - Steppin' Forward Remixed sampler from 2015 on bandcamp. Many of you have been asking about it so here you go. This time it will come in red plain paper sleeve.

Bandcamp: https://bit.ly/3h86fRr
Moonshine store: https://bit.ly/3toXMMs

Track-list:
A1: Hylu & Jago meet Sleepy Time Ghost ft onlyjoe - Concrete (Zion Train Remix)
A2: Numa Crew - Knowledge (The Illuminated Remix)
B1: Tuff & Powa ft Kinetical - Outlaw Music (Numa Crew Remix)
B2: Violinbwoy - Echo Park (Sekkleman Remix

MSLP004S - V/A - Steppin' Forward Remixed vinyl sampler (repress)

Holidays on secluded beaches; long hikes up a mountain to catch the sunset; an unforgettable meal at a restaurant on the square: her preferred means of escaping reality had become impossible over the last year. Now she relied on her imagination to whisk her away. She closed her eyes and pictured herself somewhere free from the pressures of daily life; the waves gently lapping at her feet, the wind rustling her hair and the sun streaming down on her face.

For his debut release on Loose Fit Records, Leipzig-based producer Planetary Secrets explores themes of escapism, translating his personal take on what escaping reality means to him. Conjuring up fantastical feelings of nostalgia and imagined worlds throughout, the opener, 90s rave-inspired 'Guatemala Dreams', transports listeners into dense jungle, while B-side, 'Burning Fist', is a love letter to vintage video games, specifically Tekken. These two original cuts are backed up by remixes from Lobster Theremin affiliate Pépe and Breaka Recordings boss, Breaka.

Guatemala Dreams

PREMIERE: Planetary Secrets - Guatemala Dreams (Pépe Flute Of The Loon Remix)  [Loose Fit]

Throwing Snow’s fourth album is the audiovisually-augmented Dragons, a work that occupies the space between science and ancestral wisdom. It links music back to its prehistoric capacity for transmitting knowledge to new technology that can untangle the complexity of the contemporary world. Dragons’ ten tracks of heavy primal rhythmic productions incorporate the physicality of acoustic sources, from ancient ritual instruments to modern drum kit, and each track is accompanied by visuals generated by a neural network.

As is typical for Tones’ Throwing Snow project, the album contains a bold and eclectic mix of instruments, from a bodhrán and daf to cello, with their uses rooted in their inherent acoustic properties. Tones also essentially built his own sample pack for the percussion patterns, working with drummer Jack Baker (Bonobo, Kelis, Alice Russell, Planet Battagon) on an intensive two-day session.