Feel my Bicep

Finally our plastic homage to Detroit has hit the shelves. BUY BUY BUY. Have a listen, we hope you like it. Instead of describe the track for you we thought it may be better to give you an insight into the production.

Bicep – 313

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‘313’ was basically a melody I recorded of my laptop, my neighbour was getting his Jazz on, so I stuck the mic up to the wall and clicked record. **Note: he will have no credits on the sleeve- His dog shits all over my steps**. We knew the claps were a fundamental part of the track so to add some realism, we set off to Dalston market- inspired by stories of Marshall Jefferson hiring 15 people for the claps on his tunes when he played live. Instead of forming an alliance with the common people we stocked up on meat and what a fine selection there was on offer. On returning to the studio we took turns recording and slapping each other with various types of beef and fish- finally we layered these sounds to give this ‘Real‘ meat thing in action. The chatting you can hear around the start was recorded of my phone while in the waiting room of a very lively brothel, all I can say is that the recording got a little messy towards the end.

Bicep – Winter

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‘Winter’ was just a demo song on our DAW, cant believe people didn’t pick up on this one ;)

Hope this gave you a brief insight into the lengths we take in the strive for perfection! And perfection it is.

Buy the vinyl over at Phonica

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Buy it digitally at Traxsource.com

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Great errie soundscapes and haunting synths. Perfect for 6am, when some of your fellow partygoers are feeling a little tender….

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Continue reading ‘Legowelt – Lunar Maximus’

A recent interview, when asked about how his fabric mix had been recieved…..said:

Did you read the shit people are saying already about the Fabric Mix? A few assholes are talking about “Oh, Omar-S. He did the same thing as Ricardo Vi-vi–….” whatever the fuck he’s called. I don’t even know who Ricardo Willalobo is. I ain’t start hearing his name till like a year ago. Who the fuck is that? So how would I know what he did for Fabric? I don’t even know how to say his last name, why would I bite off of him?

Here’s some classic Omar s, twisted acid sounds matched with an old school Chicago bassline and an enticing soulful vocal. Enjoy!

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Continue reading ‘Omar S aka Alex Smith – Here with me (feat Divinti)’

Any kids born in the eighties will have remembered this Sega Mega Drive classic as a seriously tough guy beat em up. Streets of Rage, or as its known in Japan, “Bare Knuckle: Furious Iron Fist” was released in 1991. Recently I was playing this and realised that long ago I used to love the rolling street beats, without even knowing they were techno, electro disco and freak funk chuggers. The music is so driving while playing it, super urban. Produced by game music hero, Yuzo Koshiro.

Below are a few (there will be more to come and I feel an few edits may be coming out of some of this material). They sound like when speeded up oldschool deep house crashes into synth disco. ‘Boss’ sounds like 90s rave then breaks into some pretty crazy tech synth pump. Interesting.

City Street

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Beachfront

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Boss

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Continue reading ‘Streets of Rage!’

Keeping things deep I’ve got two cracking beautiful soulful house reworks from Motor City Drum Ensemble, who time and time again hit the nail on the head with his signature old school drum patterns and thoughtful pastiche keys.

Over the past few years MCDE has really soared from their humble beginnings to leading the pack with their (previously posted) Raw Cut’s serious getting by absolutely everyone!

Jazzanova feat Phonte – Look what you’re doing to me (MCDE remix)

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Nu Frequency Feat Ben Onono – Fallen Hero (MCDE remix)

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This classic detroit cut reminds us that utter simplicity can often be just as effective as the tightest production! Omar has sampled the 1980’s track of the same name – Midway’s ‘Set it Out’ over rich warm ethereal keys and a very simple drum machine pattern – It works. The E.P ”002” has just received a repress before Christmas and with Set it out being the closing, (and for me the stand out track after Flying Gorgars) I thought it deserved a spot on here. Enjoy (But you’ll have to buy the E.P)

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Ibadan Records has been and continues to be a groundbreaking tastemaker deeply rooted in the influences of colorful New York life as is represented in the range of our repertoire.

”There isn’t really an Ibadan sound. Ibadan has a principle to make high quality music which covers all areas of electronic music, acoustic dance music, ultimately jazz funk, jazz and maybe even hip hop and R&B”. 

Now over a decade doing business, label founder Jerome Sydenham’s artistic ambitions for Ibadan Records couldn’t be clearer. From the earliest years of acoustic, afro-tinged house to the Pan-African Electro of the 10″ series to the more recent explorations into Techno and TechHouse, the sound of Ibadan has always pioneered new directions in dance. 

Here are some of my favourite tracks from Ibadan Records, support the artists and pick the track up on beatport/juno.

Jerome Sydenham and Dennis Ferrer – The WJ

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Jerome Sydenham and Kerri Chandler – 36 degrees (tokyo dub)

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Jerome Sydenham and Dennis Ferrer – Sandcastle (Pete Heller re-edit)

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One of the standout tunes of his fabric CD, which is quite the statement! Released in 2004 it has become an underground anthem in Detroit.

“A simple house beat and bassline rolls on and on while a short looped sample of the Supremes’ “Come See About Me” rises and falls hipnotically in the mix. Super simple sample based Detroit house in the vein of Agent X’s “In The Morning”, this will blow up dancefloors for sure.” – from Discogs

Omar-S – Day

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The Supremes – Come See About me

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Continue reading ‘Omar-S – Day’

“Controlling dimensions, loitering in space, seducing astro-bitches”, are just some of the things Space Dimension Controller AKA Jack Hamill likes to spend his free time doing. We wanted to catch up ahead of his appearance at this years Red Bull Music Academy to chat about some of the records he has made over the last couple of years, which have gained him admiration across the board.

One of the first things that attracted us to your music was it’s crisp analogue edge, in comparison to this era of digital synths and  theory “the louder the better” over-compressing tunes to death when it comes to mastering, attention to detail in production is paramount.

First things first, does your name derive from the Technics SH 8040 “Space Dimension Controller”? If so do you actually own one and use it?

It was the first piece of hardware I bought before I had any real synths. It was advertised as a reverb but it’s actually a bucket-brigade delay with a really short delay time. Its cool to use on snares and stuff. I use it sometimes. I loved the name of it so I decided to use it as alias. at first I never expected to go anywhere with sdc, but things changed!

What have you been working on recently?

At the moment I’m working on a track for an ep I’m doing with a young guy from Detroit called Kyle Hall. I’ve also got another EP finished and I’m just waiting for a remix from Kyle for one of the tracks.

What are your trusted electronic weapons of choice?

The TR-808 for sure. Recently I got an Akai S-1000 sampler I’ve had sitting around for about 2 years up and running and I’m really enjoying sampling loads of stuff and using that. Those are just drum weapons though. I just got a Korg mono/poly and its the funkiest synth I’ve ever played.

Which producer/artists have inspired your sound and are there any out there now inspiring you?

Drexciya/Dopplereffekt and all those guys used to inspire me a lot, but I’m much more into my funk these days and most of my inspiration comes from the 80’s. I can’t actually think of any main influences at the moment, I’d have to flick through my iTunes library but that’s on my laptop. old school breakdance electro definitely has a factor and the 4/4 influence is probably still a bit of James Stinson. it’s hard for me to pin point a direct influence because I don’t really listen to music any-more since my laptop is on the other side of the room and not hooked up to my monitors. there are a few producers around today that I’m into, but I wouldn’t say they influence me really. the likes of Boxcutter, Kyle Hall, Jimmy Edgar and an album by some guys called Linkwood I heard recently was sounding really good.

What else is in store for 2010 from SCD?

Just more releases, I’m working on getting a couple out in the spring and then the summer hopefully for some more. So far I have 3 pretty much confirmed and another label has suggested that I do a single for them so we’ll see how things go. I’m hoping all these releases get me some good shows, it’s been a quiet winter!

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Continue reading ‘Space Dimension Controller’

Very weird and slightly unsettling minimal synth track from 1982 equipped with those classic cowbells and an awkward vocal. Whilst I don’t particularly rate this track, I’m sure it has it’s place and could work quite nice as a weird little tool, due to its simplicity. 

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Continue reading ‘Jive rhythm trax – 112 bpm’

Only heard this subtle little track for the first time last week, even though it’s 5 years old. Could realy see it fitting it with the likes of James Holden and the Border community stuff. Great thoughtful synths  and an arp’d bass that sounds like a constantly approaching helicopter. Cool wee track. Enjoy

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Continue reading ‘Isolee – My hi-matic’

The thing i really love about this track (well this recording) is how truly rough and ready it is, little double beats here and there, bass cutting it out and back, hat pitch frequency moving up and down….it really captures the raw live vibe, you really feel as if someone is just twiddling with knobs (which they are)…..Its got a great tough dark beat and i’ve seen this totally destroy Fabric before. Enjoy. 

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Continue reading ‘Luciano – Mi nombre es Juan Pachanga (Esteban Bravo remix)’

Slimey acid madness here in the form of Abe Duque’s classic remix of Miss Kitten’s classic – Requiem for a hit. I remember hearing this every week in the bar of Belfast’s almighty Shine back in the good old days. Abe’s trademark sleaze and wooden block give this a familiar yet original feel. Perfect to give the night a darker vibe. 

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Continue reading ‘Miss Kitten – Requiem for a hit (Abe Duque remix)’

This is quite simply a track for little weirdos, kind of elite minimal, for the die hard fans….. Ridiculously repetitive with its twisted little bleeps and bloops, it’ll drive the sanest of us into madness, most likely fulfilling the creators intentions. I’ve been quite a fan of some of Melchior work over the past few years, especially his Cadenza stuff. Anyway, Enjoy!

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Continue reading ‘Thomas Melchior – In the spirit’

Classic 1990’s techno, this kid was 14 when he produced this track! Trent’s father was a disco DJ. He recorded the track “Altered States” while still a high schooler, releasing it on Armando’s Warehouse Records in 1990. The track became a huge club hit among devotees of techno, despite Trent’s grounding in the Chicago house scene.  This classic detroit sound has had an influence on uk labels, especially lots of the earlier  Soma releases etc. Enjoy

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Continue reading ‘Ron Trent – Altered States’