The machines had been turned off. It had been many years since anyone had ventured into the old warehouse, there was only some slim hope that it might still even work. Once upon a time this place had been a paradise, a kingdom and a place in which revellers came to let loose and be free.

This was back in the old days, back when the dance was all innocent and little did we know about what might lurk around the corner. The bans, the trouble, the crime, the chaos.

Yet after all this time, the machinery was still here. The speakers, the towers, the noise. He wondered for a moment, dreamt even, whether they might still have the unction to function.

DJ ojo is back with another release, following on from the well received outing on Blank Mind, things get deep and introspective on a new EP which features odd electronics and dusty, moody sounds.

oneirec001

PREMIERE: DJ ojo - Unction To Function [oneirec]

Somatic Rituals co-founder Kombé embraces flux and uncertainty on his debut EP, ‘Foreign Exchange’. He tools up five tracks built for adventurous DJs, constructed from an assemblage of liquid polyrhythms - inspired by the constant movement of foreign exchange markets and the plurality of Kombe’s own cultural and sonic references that give rise to his distinct sound.

buy: https://kombe.bandcamp.com/album/foreign-exchange

‘Foreign Exchange’ balances function and narrative across its 25-minute length, with each track serving as a strong individual statement and as a part of a greater whole. The EP contrasts and finds common ground between disparate ideas and concepts, rooted in intelligent percussion, intentional sampling, and a synthesis of organic and machine-made sounds. It explores the parallels of currency exchange and cultural exchange, perpetually fluctuating financial markets and the shifting sands of the audio marketplace, the fetishisation of money and fetishisation in electronic music - whilst juxtaposing East African and European vocal samples over hypnotic, angular grooves that evoke traditional and ritual-based musical contexts. Rhythms slowly unfurl and coalesce into a storm, periodically settling into moments of reprieve while encouraging dancers to find their own relief in the syncopated patterns.

EP opener ‘Batian’ opens with skipping, filtered synth stabs over a stuttered kick that develops into a driving, serpentine rhythm underneath whirling atmospherics reminiscent of torn metal, sinew, and electricity. ‘Emerging Markets’ disorients you with a woozy, seasick groove underpinning a clicktrack beat, all welded to a disjointed kick that steps in and out of the arrangement, taunting a response from dancers. ‘Third Pillar’ functions as an elevated DJ tool with its galloping rhythm and bubbling hand drums that settle dancers into their hips, while vocals reminiscent of ASMR on a bad acid trip evoke the harmony and dissonance of man-machine collaboration. ‘Taarab Fragments’ moves into moodier territory, welding DNA from Swahili coastal genre Taarab to subaquatic Detroit electro atmospherics - holding a delicate tension until a darbuka line bursts through and rewards your patience. The textural, pensive, and beatless ‘Future Entropy Quest’ closes the EP with spiralling synth swirls and a looming bassline that suggests the questions provoked by the record have no clear resolution, leaving listeners to sit with the parallels of enduring volatility of markets and cultural values.

Kombé delivers a clear statement of intent with ‘Foreign Exchange’, offering a hybrid vision in the form of dance music for a freaky club or tripping forest rave that flows between worlds, cultures, and traditions with fluidity and grace.

Kombé - Foreign Exchange - [SORI003]

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

Now in its tenth year, Frankfurt-based record label Die Orakel has earned itself a strong catalogue of classy releases in a distinct sonic and visual attitude, its latest being a compilation called Braindance. 

A fair assumption about Braindance as a genre could be, that it's rather in the zone of kaleidoscopic and whimsical quirktronica, less about IDM's futurist tropes. From Die Orakel's point of view, its very own Braindance compilation marks the label's tenth anniversary by releasing an intense listener's atlas, to its own and their creative collaborators' musical slant of mind.

While much could be said about spectral traces of a leftfield past, nostalgia isn't heard anywhere. The more you listen to this selection, the deeper the tracks plug into your brain—stretching from ethereal harmonic licks rippling with fragile glitches, bleepy to bass-heavy electroid steppers of any BPM range, to abstract-scientific neo-modular artistry. 

Die Orakel's Braindance transmission can be had as a 15-track digi-release, as well as a 4-track vinyl EP. Pick either for your library of the future.

01 upsammy – Wumb (Ambient Version)
02 n9oc – Hyphae
03 Pépe – Cloudbusters
04 Gacha Bakradze – Inhumanity
05 Rali Pibs – Hooked & Strungout 
06 Teatre – Daze 
07 O-Wells – Deep Concentration
08 oma totem feat. juns – Sobre Caderas 
09 Dana Kuehr – Biota
10 Benjamin Milz – Cmos
11 Poly Chain – Turbulent
12 Katatonic Silentio – Grain Of Consumption
13 Koloah – The Highway
14 Reptant – Protectors Of The Moss
15 Edward – Blurry Trees And Peanuts

Compiled by Oliver Hafenbauer
Mastering by Lopazz at Mixmastering
Lacquer cut by Daniel Krieger at SST
Cover photo by Neven Allgeier
Artwork by Orakel Studio
Words by Patrick Raddatz 
Distributed by One Eye Witness
Funded by the City of Frankfurt Department for Culture

Braindance

Welcome on board Alpha Solo.

The swift unveiling of his debut album signals its arrival in early February, boasting 11 tracks that delve into the multi facets of his studio expertise across various tempo zones. The perfect harmony of tension and balance at its zenith. 

01 A Tergo Lupi
02 Cave Canem
03 Der Kiosk
04 AK74
05 Morganic
06 Vulgus
07 TRPL9
08 Nos
09 Propaganda
10 Vox Populi
11 Young Gunz

Out on February the 2nd 2024
CD + digital

mastered by Daniele Antezza at Dadub Mastering Studio
design by Linkin Bios

Alpha Solo — Propaganda | XM009

Shimmering cuts of bass-futurism from one-to-watch Plebeian on label of the moment Grid Records. Don't sleep!!

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

With the Contrast 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.

https://gridrecords.bandcamp.com/album/contrast-ep

https://soundcloud.com/plebeiann
https://soundcloud.com/grid-records

PREMIERE: Plebeian - Cassone [Grid Records]

Buy/Stream

Kreggo - Swaying - Nous'klaer 036 (previews)

Low-key producer and Ruffhouse Industries co-founder, Tymotica, indulges his fondness for precision-engineered dance music and glacial textures with Temporal Bias, a 4-track collection of crystal tipped techno and bass music soundscapes, each expertly crafted both technically and sonically.
 
This is a deeply personal journey, one that traverses ice-cold landscapes, unashamedly wearing its influences on its sleeve while simultaneously sounding completely fresh and unique. This is pinpoint-accurate production at its finest, and you’re all invited along for the ride.

1. Aerial Threshold
2. Center Unity
3. Repulse
4. Wrkt48

Tymotica: https://soundcloud.com/tymotica

Temporal Bias

OP026 // Tymotica - Temporal Bias

https://soundcloud.com/tibiatibia
https://soundcloud.com/perspektifrec
🛒 https://perspektiflabel.bandcamp.com/album/dream-pulse
🔊 https://youtu.be/NruNu4EeWgM

Dream Pulse marks the second release of Perspektif. Tibia's Dream Pulse is all about unconventional drums and exploring different emotions through moody and experimental vibes.

Tracklist: 

1.	N.O.D.
2.	Lingering Feeling
3.	4/4 4 Romantics
4.	Tulips
5.	Interloper
6.	Adaptations
7.	Nttld
8.     Dream Pulse

PREMIERE: Tibia - N.O.D. [Perspektif]

French disrupter Jan Loup debuts on Nerve Collect with a new EP that channels her emotional response to events of the last year into a bold collision of dubstep, breakbeats and drum and bass. Maquis Son Sistèm as well as label co-founder Gamma Intel remix two tracks on the EP which arrives digitally on May 18th.

This EP, "In My Fury", is the sound of her channelling personal challenges into empowering music that serves as a soundtrack to a therapeutic warrior dance. 'Shanti' opens up with lurching broken beats and malfunctioning percussion against a backdrop of witchy wordless mantras. It's a dense and eerie dystopian world that leads into the more ethereal 'Oda Damo Asodi' backlit by celestial white light as ghoulish sounds and fractured drums come at you from all directions. 'Mojo Nosoa' is jittery dubstep with menacing low ends and jumbled metal sounds conveying the breakdown of a factory and 'In My Fury' is built on a heavy half-time rhythm that fizzes with caustic sounds.

First to remix is Maquis Son Sistèm aka Stefan Dubs, a sound system music innovator who tangles disparate sounds into trance-inducing rhythms. His take on 'Shanti' is a deeply hypotonic world of loopy sound detailed with sonic bacteria, alien life forms...  more
credits
releases May 17, 2024

All tracks mixed and arranged by Jan Loup
Artwork by Nina van den Berg
Mastering by Maspaventi Studio

NC006 // Jan Loup - In My Fury EP

This is a soundscape i made 5 years ago today. Thought id revive this from a old account. 
Art by Jake Matic

Linear Exchange

WhyPeopleWar Fundraiser for Ukraine: https://whypeopledance.bandcamp.com/

The Why people dance question was asked for the first time in Lithuania back in 2013 but it gained a worldwide echo in its 8 years of existence. Run by @pauliuskamblevicius with the help of @experimentsserial and a network of collaborators, the online electronic music platform and label keeps its heart open for new friends and treasure finds but its filter tight and deep underground. Tune into WPD channels on Soundcloud, YouTube and Bandcamp.

PREMIERE: Tibia - N.O.D. [Perspektif]

whypeopledance

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