this gives me a jersey club vibe, i love it!

Banlieue enters 2022 with a bang courtesy of Mortimer Dubaton’s Athens VS Predator EP. Behind this monicker is Louis De La Gorce, an Athens-based French producer, notorious for his duo The Pilotwings and his solo project Eiger Drums Propaganda.

De La Gorce’s well-documented jocularity seeps through this release, right from its title to the track names and actual productions. This idea is approached through another angle with NEED FOR SPEED, a tune where car-related sounds are brilliantly used by the producer. Layering samples and building a tribal groove sprinkled with chopped up breaks, thick low-end bass, and a zest of vocal samples, this mutant track fit for a car chase in the eponymous video game finds its influence in modern hip hop vibes, but the spirit of rave music is never too far. The result is playful, forwarding thinking bass music that will elicit a response from listeners and dancers without fail.parallels with hard drum purveyors.

Words by Ed Isar
Mastering by Mathieu Berthet
Illustration by Nicol Bolas

Athens VS Predator

PREMIERE - Mortimer Dubaton - Need For Speed (BR014)

T5 02 (Siren Head Also Wants To Dance)

Following their much loved NTS radio shows and parties of the same name, re:ni and Laksa have announced a brand new label - RE:LAX.

On ‘Body Score’ Laksa continues to traverse the same 150bpm territory as his releases for Hessle Audio and Timedance, but here we also find influences from his job as a social worker.

Early support from the likes of Pearson Sound, Zenker Brothers, Darwin and Om Unit.

If you pre-order Body Score EP you can get 'Mind' today
https://re-lax-sounds.bandcamp.com/album/body-score-ep

Laksa - Mind

New York-based label Kindergarten Records is thrilled to unveil Ayesha’s (@aye5ha) debut album, ‘Rhythm is Memory’ – 10 boundary-pushing tracks, a shape-shifting percussive journey with electric moments. While intended for maximum dancefloor impact, Ayesha’s first LP is also conceptually thought-provoking and playful, exploring how bodies store and channel creative knowledge.

Ayesha - Rhythm is Memory (KINDER016)
Out on Kindergarten Records on November 3, 2023

Rhythm is Memory

Ayesha - V7

DJ JM - Abnormal EP

Abnormal is the sound of DJ JM ratcheting it up a notch, both in production-value and musical creativity. The title itself stands as a compact explainer of DJ JM's constant sonic assignment – Abnormal consolidates years of JM's work to keep club music weird and unexpected. Retaining the chunky percussion and quick-stepping rhythms he built his name on, the EP also contains intricate, cleverly designed sound-beds, and extends the menacing electro-techno swagger DJ JM began exploring on his previous No Days Off and Squash EPs.

Preferring synths over samples, Abnormal is filled with sudden bursts of psychedelic melody, off-kilter audio-manipulations and bubbling acid-trip basslines. The tracks also have a subtle but distinctly Lithuanian edge, drawing influence from the iterative, morphing patterns of the folk symbols and insignia carved into the remains of ancient settlements near Vilnius.
'Syze' bounces melodic percussive riffs across an arpeggiated bassline, with synth flourishes and talking drums squeezed in between. 'Pepper' has DJ JM's trademark high-energy vocal chants and a thick, slamming bassline. The title track, 'Abnormal', is perhaps the most stripped back, building a weighty atmosphere through increasingly choppy perc stabs. 'Erazer' closes out the EP with ducking filtered pads and sliding scales through an industrial rhythm section. Each one stands as a "wtf was that?!" set highlight, a vortex of wild ideas in a club-primed package.

DJ JM - Abnormal

An entrancing, energetic and textured remix of Anaäm—the opening track from the ‘Nomäa’ EP which released on the amazing YUKU label back in 2022—forms the perfect psychedelic-tribal closer of this compilation.

VIP VA

Leese - Anäam VIP

Hassan Abou Alam is next to step up to the unconventional Nerve Collect label with six tracks of futuristic club-ready chaos. The finely crafted EP arrives in August and comes on 12" vinyl and via all digital platforms.

Hassan Abou Alam has established himself as one of Egypt's most innovative underground musicians over the last 10+ years. His music is a meeting of disparate worlds - organic and synthetic designs, digital and analogue tools, the traditional and the futuristic, and it has come on the likes of YUKU, Rhythm Section, Banoffee Pies and Casa Voyager. His versatile sound pulls apart existing genres and reconstructs them as something entirely new.

Opener '3asabi' is a stylish sonic assault with thumping rhythms and trippy oscillations that will get any dance floor bouncing. It's fun yet functional, serious yet seductive.

Hassan Abou Alam's blurring of the lines between the real and the imagined is second to none on this EP. It's a sub-heavy mix of the human voice, machine-made sounds and inventive rhythms that make for something new, weird and wonderful. 

@hassan-abou-alam
@nerve-collect

Buy:
https://hassanaboualam.bandcamp.com/album/mesh-mafhoom

NC007

PREMIERE: Hassan Abou Alam - 3asabi [Nerve Collect]

Subtronics's amazing and latest album TESSERACT all remixed by BUFFA

FREE DOWNLOAD

Subtronics - Omnidirectional (BUFFA Remix)

Turn me....on

https://bit.ly/2Gsp7ul

@3phaz track taken from @irshcairo compilation Did You Mean: Irish, out September 25, 2020.

Pre-order: bit.ly/2QR2aCZ

If you’re not that into House and Techno, neither are you into partying for partying’s sake then Cairo can be quite boring. That’s why Rama and ZULI decided to start irsh; an excuse for them to hang out with their friends and play music, masquerading as a video series of live music and DJ sets.

When the Corona virus hit and brought social interaction (and hence the series) to a halt, Rama and ZULI thought it would be a good idea to collect tracks from everyone who has played irsh so far into a compilation to serve as a snapshot of what everyone’s currently up to, but to also showcase the richness of talent in their circle of friends and affiliates. Provided the loose and casual nature of irsh, a handful of artists who are yet to feature in the series were also asked to partake in this compilation, which feels like the first of many more to come.

Tidallal

Toumba

Recent comments

Yelram Selectah

Pérez

SAYF

RaNja

Related tracks