Kölsch Reveals New Album 1983, Preview Track Now

1983, Kölsch’s new album will be released via Kompakt on 8th June.

The Danish producer enjoyed a breakthrough year in 2013 with the release of his acclaimed debut LP 1977, which was also issued by the Cologne label.

Kölsch says 1983 is inspired by travel and the long trips he would take with his family as a child, “When I was a kid in 1983, we used to drive through Europe every summer on the way to the south of France”, he explains. “A lot of my early music memories stem from these long travels, as we would listen to all my father’s favorite records on the cassette deck. After getting a walkman, I would make up my own soundtrack for travelling, with early electro and hip hop creeping into my life.”

The 13-track album includes collaborations with Gregor Schwellenbach and WhoMadeWho’s Tomas Høffding. Two album cuts DerDieDas and Two Birds also appear on Kölsch’s forthcoming Speicher 84 12″ for Kompakt, which drops on 20th April.

1983 will be released as a double LP, CD and digitally.

Listen to a snippet of DerDieDas via the SoundCloud player below where the tracklist is also detailed.

Tracklist
01. 1983
02. Talbot feat. Gregor Schwellenbach
03. Moonface
04. Two Birds
05. Pacer
06. The Road feat. Gregor Schwellenbach
07. Cassiopeia feat. Gregor Schwellenbach
08. DerDieDas
09. Die Anderen
10. Bloodline feat. Tomas Høffding of WhoMadeWho
11. Unterwegs
12. E45
13. Papageno 30 Years Later feat. Waa Industry

Marquis Hawkes Readies New EP, Stream A Track Now

Marquis Hawkes is set to return to Houndstooth with Raw Materials, which drops on 27th April.

After debuting on the label in September 2014 with the Fifty Fathoms Deep EP, his new release is a three-track EP focused on “primitive house rhythms” that are heavily “influenced by house originators like Ron Hardy, Gene Hunt and Roy Davis Jr.”, resulting in a record that is focused on the dancefloor.

‘Ave That, a cut from Raw Materials can be streamed in full via the SoundCloud player below where the tracklist is also detailed.

Tracklist

1. Raw Materials
2. ‘Ave That
3. Jerk U Later

Mix Of The Week: Ron Morelli

L.I.E.S. label boss Ron Morelli describes his latest mix for Solid Steel, Ninja Tune’s long running radio show, as  “Straight ahead high-octane beating Techno” and a tracklist that includes cuts from Regis, Function, Blake Baxter, Sleeparchive and a punishing Perc remix of a Paula Temple track proves his assertion. The New York based imprint Long Island Electrical Systems will be celebrating their 5 year anniversary this year as they continue to release a rich catalogue of techno and house tracks from artists such Delroy Edwards, Legowelt, Gavin Russom and Morelli’s own project Two Dogs In A House.

Listen to and download Ron Morelli’s Solid Steel mix via the SoundCloud player below:

Download Avalon Emerson’s Free Cybernetic Edits

After releasing two EPS, Let Me Love & Steal, which I wrote about here, and Church of SoMa, for the Spring Theory label last year and maintaining a busy DJ schedule, Avalon Emerson has issued a new collection of DJ-orientated reworks of classic techno and house tracks. Titled Cybernetic Edits, the project started last summer when the producer put out several remixes and now she has turned the venture into a consistent series.

This current group of tracks, which includes Emerson’s reinterpretations of Technotronic’s Pump Up the Jam and Groove Me by Friction & Spice, can be downloaded for free here where listeners can also subscribe to the Cybernetic Edit service and download the previous volume. The full tracklist for Cybernetic Edits is at the foot of this post.

Stream Avalon Emerson’s Let Me Love & Steal EP via SoundCloud below

Tracklist

1. Technotronic – Pump Up the Jam (Avalon Emerson’s Marshmallow ReHEAT)
2. Bananarama – Love in the First Degree (DZ’s Fairlight Freakout)
3. Friction & Spice – Groove Me (Avalon Emerson’s Truth of Omission Mix)
4. Julie Ruin – A Place Called Won’t Be There (Avalon Emerson’s Fake Feminist FuckUP)

Actress To Mix Next DJ-Kicks

Actress has mixed the 49th installment of !K7’s DJ-Kicks series, which is set to land on 4th May.

The hour long mix from the acclaimed DJ and producer includes cuts from artists such as John Beltran, Mark Fell, experimental techno heavyweights Autechre, STL and Shxcxchcxsh as well as an exclusive track from Actress himself. The full tracklist is detailed below.

After releasing four highly acclaimed albums (Hazyville, Splazsh, R.I.P. and Ghettoville), DJ-Kicks 49 will be Actress’ (Darren Cunningham) first commercial mix and in the press release he explains his process, “When I’m selecting music I’m not always thinking about the music alone, I’m thinking about the names of the artists, tracks, and labels, and what they mean to me. I often base my tracklisting purely on how well the track titles work together in a poetic sense. I’ve tried to keep space between tracks, allowing them to speak. I tried not to force BPM shifts and to let the programming remain choppy and quick.”  In keeping with the DJ-Kicks series tradition, Actress has also included an exclusive track in the mix (Bird Matrix). He says, “My studio was going through a transition, so I was testing all the equipment, and that was one of the first tunes that came out of those experiments.”

The Werkdiscs label, that Actress runs, recently announced a new EP from Helena Hauff – more about that here.

Stream Let’s Fly, a cut from Splazsh via Youtube below

DJ-Kicks 49 will be available digitally and on CD while a selection of nine tracks will be pressed onto vinyl.

Tracklist
CD mix:
01. Breaker 1 2 – 2
02. Lorenzo Senni – Elegant, And Never Tiring
03. Reel By Real – Look At Me
04. Autechre – Pen Expers
05. Chameleon – Thought 2
06. Beneath – Stress 1
07. Simbiosi – Impari
08. Zennor – Tin
09. John Beltran – Anticipation
10. Moon B – Those Moments
11. STL – Psychelicious
12. Snakepiss – Toil
13. Shit And Shine – Pearl Drop
14. Chez N Trent – Windy City Club
15. Mark Fell – Section 1-7
16. GNESIS – Pear
17. Shxcxchcxsh – LDWGWTT
18. Hank Jackson – Track 3
19. Actress – Bird Matrix (DJ-Kicks)
20. Gherkin Jerks – Red Planet

Vinyl:
A1 Lorenzo Senni – Elegant, And Never Tiring
A2 Reel By Real – Look At Me
A3 Simbiosi – Impari
B1 John Beltran – Anticipation
B2 Shit And Shine – Pearl Drop
C1 Chez N Trent – Windy City Club
C2 Mark Fell – Section 1-7
D1 Actress – Bird Matrix (DJ-Kicks)
D2 Gherkin Jerks – Red Planet

Kelela Reveals Hallucinogen EP; Hear a Track Now

LA vocalist Kelela will release a new EP called Hallucinogen on 5th May.

The six-track record features at least one collaboration with Venezuelan producer Arca, who contributed to Björk’s Vulnicura album.

News of this release follows the announcement of a deluxe reissue of her debut mixtape, Cut 4 Me, which will drop in April. Hallucinogen is described as a “six-song cycle that explores the light and darkness of love and sexuality… ranging from tumultuous to blissful.”

Talking about Arca’s contribution, Kelela says, “I met Alejandro [Arca] on a boat in August of 2012…We sought one another out across a dance floor and within five minutes agreed to meet each other as soon as possible to collaborate. I had one song released to my name and had just heard one of his mixes, but we knew we’d found something in one another. We spent the next three days, 14 hours a day, talking about our artistic visions and how it intersected with our personal lives, making songs that reflected that while dancing around the room to let it all out. About five or six demos were born out of these three days.”

Opening the EP is the Arca-produced A Message, which can be heard in full below now via Youtube. Hallucinogen‘s tracklist is detailed at the foot of this post.

Many were first introduced to Kelela via her excellent appearance on the otherwise unbearably saccharine EFX by Teengirl Fantasy and her live session for the always great Boiler Room in 2013, which is embedded below.

Tracklist

1. A Message
2. Gomenasai
3. Swoop
4. All the Way Down
5. Hallucinogen
6. The High

BleeD Launches Label With Volte-Face EP

London club night BleeD will start a record label with an EP from Volte-Face serving as the inaugural release. Titled Charlatan and consisting of five tracks, the 12″ will drop in May.

Experimental artist Volte-Face, who has run BleeD since 2010, contributed a remix to Daniel Avery’s recently released Drone Logic Remix EP – more info on that here – but Charlatan is his first release of original material, which promise to be geared towards techno and experimental music. In addition to four new tracks, Roll The Dice’s Peder Mannerfelt’s contributes a remix of Until The Light Takes Us, the EP’s opening track. The full tracklist for Charlatan is laid out below.

Stream Volte-Face’s remix of Daniel Avery’s track Platform Zero via SoundCloud

Tracklist
A1. Until The Light Takes Us
A2. Sine Qua Non
B1. IXAXAAR
B2. Until The Light Takes Us (Taken Lightly By Peder Mannerfelt)
B3. Charlatan

Review: Zenker Brothers – Immersion

A couple of months ago, when Immersion was announced, Marco and Dario Zenker explained that their debut album would give them “the opportunity to go deeper. To explore unknown territory. To dive into our sound and let everything go. No matter where it leads to, everything is possible. It’s the next step in our journey together”. Hence the album’s self-referential name and its promise of a deep, mesmerizing listen.

Although they have previously worked together, releasing a handful of 12″s as the Zenker Brothers, their debut full-length solidifies their sound while also coalescing the brother’s individual strengths into one coherent piece.

Immersion is dense with atmospherics; layers of synths spiral over gently-swinging drums that sound coated in a layer of soot. Tracks such as Innef Runs and TSV WB stand out as the best examples of the album’s aesthetic. Across open structures, thudding beats propel forwards the opaque, hazy clouds and the brothers’ precise synth sequencing and, other than a couple of ambient cuts, the record, which heavily references ’90s techno, continues in this manner. Despite its restrained tempo, High Club is an intense flexing of the muscles and Ebbman‘s distorted techno thunders the speakers while the beatless Erbquake embodies a storm where modular synths thrash and roll with apocalyptic anger.

The Zenker Brothers move effortlessly through this mix of foggy dancefloor experiences and add numerous flashes of colour to protect against the feeling of being one-note. Though Immersion doesn’t necessarily introduce listeners to anything new, the sense of unity and collaboration among all the tracks is striking. A feeling that is further strengthened knowing that the brothers’ own label Ilian Tape is releasing the record and their mother painted its cover.

Stream clips of Immersion via SoundCloud:

Maya Jane Coles Returns As Nocturnal Sunshine

Maya Jane Coles has announced the release of her debut album as Nocturnal Sunshine, her “dark and dubby, bass-driven alter ego.”

Set for release on 25th May, the self-titled LP is described as “eminently dark and – at times – menacing” and “a heady journey steeped in dancefloor tradition… that portrays another side of an artist.”

The British producer has been busy in recent years, focusing on DJing and releasing her debut full-length, Comfort, in 2013 and contributing to Fabric’s long-running mix series in 2014 with Fabric75. Nocturnal Sunshine will drop via Coles’ I/AM/ME imprint and includes contributions from Chelou and singer Catnapp. The album’s tracklist is detailed below.

Before Nocturnal Sunshine arrives on 25th May, album cut Take Me There, which can be streamed below via SoundCloud, will be available on 12″ with a bonus track Never Too Late on Record Store Day on 18th April.

Tracklist
01. Intro (Holding On)
02. Believe feat. Chelou
03. It’s Alright
04. Take Me There
05. Drive
06. Footsteps
07. Down By The River feat. Catnapp
08. Bass Bin
09. Can’t Hide The Way I Feel
10. Intergalactic
11. Skipper
12. Hotel

Pev and Kowton Return With New 12″

The first release of 2015 for the Livity Sound label will be Signal 3 / Low Strobe, a collaborative 12″ from Pev & Kowton which will be available on 16 March. Last year saw the Bristol label release a string of 12″s containing reworks and remixes of the Livity Sound trio (Peverelist, Kowton, Asusu), which culminated in a full compilation and they’ll begin this year with some new material. Signal 3 / Low Strobe is the first Pev & Kowton release since 2013 when they put out Raw Code and End Point / Vapours. Late last year Kowton released the Glock & Roll 12″, which I wrote about here.

Listen to snippets of Signal 3 and Low Strobe below