STRX004: Satellite Trax presents “DMSAT EP” - a collection of dancefloor weaponry from renowned Serbian and Montenegrin crew @traka-studio.

For the fourth presentation of club-centric sonics through our young sublabel, we set out in search of a new addition to our roster that would surely raise the bar. The timing aligned perfectly with our introduction to TRAKA, a team consisting of three producers and a visual artist. Brought together by Belgrade’s niche underground music and graffiti scenes, their story resonated with ours - a group of friends seeking expression through multiple mediums, surrounded by the chaos of urbanism.

Although relatively new to our ecosystem, TRAKA have been making heavy waves in a short span of time. Within the last three years, they collaborated with heavyweight vocalists like Killa P and Warrior Queen, were remixed by the legendary Commodo, and had songs appear on various radio shows and DJ sets across the globe. Their A/V projects on accomplished label Yuku have established their sound, lying comfortably between modern bass elements and foundational club music. They are unafraid to push a sense of aggression on the floor, while still honing pristine production tactics to create a unique yet recognizable style. This can be heard throughout “DMSAT EP” - a showcase of their standard formula devoted to be more club-accessible.

“DMSAT EP” not only pushes TRAKA to excel in the club music sphere, but also welcomes both familiar and fresh ideas to our imprint. Utilizing hardware to achieve a sense of analog grittiness is something we have advocated throughout our catalog. The newer concepts come with the slower tempo in “47000” and “XE,” which bring forth a heavy, almost experimental hip-hop factor to the equation. Their basslines are punishing, while the vocal sampling blends perfectly with sluggish yet rowdy percussion. “A” serves as a summary of the overall feel to the EP, recruiting another Belgrade-based up-and-comer Praktikal for support. “Rolando” is an ode to the flagship Roland TR drum machines used throughout the project. Its drum work is playful, yet ends up contributing to the peak in energy. “Jungle Machete Fever” builds on this with high-octane breakbeats and rattling bass, a track that has already seen playtime on dancefloors around the world.

Purely influenced by the movement of urban environments, TRAKA have cemented their sonic capabilities with a compelling collection of club-ready tracks. Through a newfound burst of inspiration through the medium of dance, they are swiftly becoming a force to reckon with. Their affirming rise to the spotlight is both exciting and well-deserved, one that we felt would fit well with our label’s mission.

Satellite Trax: an expansion of our core imprint that focuses on dance-centric music and its club roots; part of the foundation within our sonic heritage. This sublabel serves as a primary source of dancefloor weaponry for DJs and enthusiasts aiming to unveil the latest rhythms heard from around the electronic music sphere.

We Are Satellite Era. We Are Worldwide. 

Written & produced by Nemanja Maksimovic, Vuk-Luka Ukropina, & Vukan Kuzman
Track 2 features additional production by Mateja Malinovic
Mastered by Amir Mashayekhi
Cover art & visuals by Nic Juister

BUY / STREAM

TRAKA - A (feat. Praktikal)

Taken from @prayerproduction 's beautiful new album — Now I Know Paradise

Listen in full: https://prayerproduction.bandcamp.com/album/now-i-know-paradise

"This release is probably my most personal to date. I wanted to create something which flows freely whilst interconnected, that is perhaps not possible in Shorter form works. It is a story in eleven parts that focuses on exploring emotional depth; I’ve always been interested in emotion in music, which for anyone reading at a glance could sound self explanatory, but here the focus is really how an story can be told over the course of an hour and how this can then create a longer lasting impact for the listener. The tracks presented weave between a variety of different styles I’ve explored over the years, but are connected via their exploration of ecstatic sorrow and search for catharsis."
—Prayer

Now I Know Paradise

If I Can Feel

Digital

Prayer — If I Can Feel

Ukrainian artist @PVLV slip-and-slides around UK bass music’s gnarliest depths on his sophomore EP for @united-rhythms

‘Lights Off’ is out 26th January. Have an exclusive first listen to ‘Killah Tape’ now.

More info: https://djmag.com/listen/premiere-pvlv-killah-tape

Premiere: PVLV ‘Killah Tape’

Pr​ů​van returns to Tectonic Recordings with 'Flagrant Vagrant'. To be released on February 16th, it's part of his 'Kampaň EP' which will be out on March 1st.

Read the article: https://rendahmag.com/article/pruvan-flagrant-tectonic

● Tectonic Recordings - @tectonic-recordings
● Pr​ů​van - @pruvancz

---

Connect with Rendah Mag
● https://rendahmag.com/connect

Kampaň EP

Flagrant Vagrant

Pre-order

Pr​ů​van - Flagrant Vagrant [Rendah Mag Premiere]

Get it here: https://juicychewlie.bandcamp.com/album/transforming-matter
@juicy_chewlie — Transforming Matter

I'm running back to me feeling homesick
soon I might recall the savory flavor
of what will ease me until I'm mellow
I move so the floor beneath me transforms into a flow
does it really matter if I'm loved beloved unloved
if I submerged deep in dirt and died slow
-li al

We breathe in oxygen, transform it into carbon dioxide and breathe out. One simple witness of transforming matter. With this album I became aware of this inevitable movement and my deeply rooted need to live that. So I could not restrict myself any longer not to surrender to it, to the creative flow.
Very new and important to me was to collaborate with such immensely talented artists. It has elevated and transformed my production skills & process. I feel very honored to connect, learn and transform matter - together.
-Chewlie
credits
releases February 16, 2024

credits:
„Run“ features a piano recording of Rahelle Fischer
„Beloved feat. Synkro“ features a voice sampled from „Księżyc - Zakopana“
„Home“ features vocals from li al

composed & mixed by Julia Häller
remixed by Leese
features with Tinkah, Synkro & Fiesta Soundsystem
mastered by Precise Master
released by @yukumusic
Poem written by li al
cover art by Julia Häller

Transforming Matter

Savory

Get Me

Chewlie - Savory feat. Fiesta Soundsystem

FKOF Premiere! 

Back at it with @beatricemasters' @baitlabel imprint. Their next release is the label's first various artists extended player and taps five French producers up for material. 

Here's @orchidj's inclusion, 'Burning Steppes', and you can grab this on pre-order from Bait's bandcamp by hitting the buy link. The EP drops 05/03/24. 

"Bait's first various EP format release 'Baby Steps' is an exploration of steppers: pounding four to the floor kicks, organic percs and an overall 'elephant march' feel. Featuring tracks by five French producers, Strasbourg-based Orchid (half of or+be with Bait founder Beatrice M.), Bruxelles-based Moriiiis J., most-known for his broken-beat project Kuna Maze, as well as Quasar, whose name is well established in the dubstep world with releases on legendary UK labels such as Artikal and Deep Medi to name a couple. Agôn (Few Tips/Trajectoire) & Céline B. (Technorama)'s collaboration opens a door towards the more abstract and contemplative side of bass music with influences such as Shackleton, perfectly closing 'Baby Steps' VEP."

https://soundcloud.com/fatkidonfire/sets/fkof-premiere

@orchidj
@baitlabel
https://fatkidonfire.com
https://instagram.com/orchid.mp3
https://baitdubstep.bandcamp.com
https://instagram.com/beatricem._bait

Baby Steps EP

Burning Steppes

Orchid - Burning Steppes (BAIT05vEP) [FKOF Premiere]

'Glory Days' by
@alanjohnsonmusic
Is out now: https://airjohnson.bandcamp.com/album/glory-days

"The ‘Glory Days’ EP marks a new chapter in the Alan Johnson output. Following sporadic releases throughout the last decade owing to a separation across different continents for both of us, we take a step forward from last year's Stillness EP - with an EP that constitutes our first release of entirely new music, since our first record back in 2013.

We have a propensity to work and sit on music for long periods of time which has previously produced complex and challenging outcomes but the last 2 years has seen a growth in our abilities to focus on refinement in our creation process, and an attempt to tell a story through more simplistic means.

The record was assembled with a vision and purpose over the last 18 months for the YUKU label specifically. It represents a shift in our existing sound, consistent through our past outputs which can be identified on some of the tracks across the record, and delivers us to a place which is influenced by a wider variety of experimentation, centred around more danceable outcomes and an air of glossy playfulness. The EP is split into two easily identifiable moods, representing a nod to a sometimes chaotic and pastiched past and a suggestive view of where the future may lie.

It's been an honour to work on an EP for the infinitely attentive and carefully crafted series of records curated by Jef and Ilda at YUKU, along with our friends at dsplaced who helped create the visual aspects of the release with us. This record is for everyone."
—AJ

Glory Days

Vinyl—Digital

Alan Johnson - Many Faces Of Tutu

From 'Pits' by @fiestasoundsystem
Get it here: https://fiestasoundsystem.bandcamp.com/album/pits

"I love watching bodies of water. Ripples in the swan’s wake make the image of the willow above shimmer and play; the swirl of the algae reveals the complexity of these currents; even crashing waves on the coast begin with a single drop, if you listen closely. Last year’s Sinking was all about the action, the warp and weft, the striated emerging from the smooth emerging from the striated, and so on. It was a toil, well aware of its own futility. With this album I wanted to stop squeezing the life out of the moment, but still to capture its richness. In more direct terms, I avoided meticulous editing and instead built up a hodgepodge of custom sequencing software over the course of about 18 months, recording things as I went. These tracks all came out rather effortlessly from a damp and dreary two-week span in the height of summer, after which the systems that created them collapsed into an overwrought mess."
—Fiesta Soundsystem

Pits

Fiesta Soundsystem - Dewy Slate

Get it here: https://yukumusic.bandcamp.com/album/old-haunts

"When conceptual art really kicked off in the mid twentieth century, many of its protagonists were so determined to purge art of its decorative frilliness, they turned more and more towards words, or rather, lack thereof. The likes of Duchamp, Dalí, Breton, Reinhardt, each uncensored by the rational mind, made moves towards the absurd and the sublime, with varying degrees of success and failure alike.

In this piece, what one finds is the artist attempting to convey a number of things, and asking a number of questions of us as the listener; what do we seek in such art? In which ways are to be intellectually, spiritually and sexually fulfilled by its visceral and confrontational abandonment of conventions? Is it incongruous juxtaposition? Does it lead us as the audience to question ourselves as living breathing beings, our hopes and truths, and our benign tastes so often dictating our choice and free will?

The piece is a natural extension of surrealism, dadaism and indulgence, themselves often strange bedfellows. Elaborate and provocative in its execution, displaying a signature of insatiable curiosity, and leaving no stone unturned, it portrays the artist as a provocateur of postmodernism, mysticism, and decadence. It transgresses the elusive world of the subconscious more imaginatively than previous offerings. It's also a piece which stitches together the scraps of art and culture, politics and poetry, and science and exotica that could often be found in the Southport of the late-noughties and beyond. An extremely clever conceit; there could be any manner of things concealed within this record, but we as the listener will never know because as as soon as one opens the record, the art is destroyed, the value is lost, so we will never, ever find out.

One's most overriding sensation is that the piece feels like a shit-filled hand grenade which the artist has flung into our collective psyche. It is quite simply, a joke, and a very poor joke."

Old Haunts

Aroma Nice — Bmw With Blacked Out Windows And 2 Subs In The Back Blasting Michael Bolton

Bleep Test -  Cocktail Party Effect - Out Now -  YUKU

Jim Solis - Jawbreaker (Original Mix)

Bandcamp: https://yukumusic.bandcamp.com/follow_me

YUKU is an open and accepting forum of ideas, expression, and creativity for listeners who enjoy diving into the emotions and concepts of those create; we are an island of experience and stimulation for the kinds of people who like to be surprised — a listening oasis in the endless sea of digital information.

We invite you to join us there

Curated by @oolongbru and @kumquat-tang
Contact us: music@yuku.io
For sync & licensing, contact: gavin@syncsmith.com

Fiesta Soundsystem - Dewy Slate

YUKU

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