Featuring JOEY ANDERSON

Hush House favourite Joey Anderson has steadily been making a name for himself over the past few years. His style of house verges into the realm of the avant-garde, and sometimes defies categorisation entirely. He's also done some exceptional mixes as a DJ, including a special one for us, which predates both his RA and XLR8R efforts.

HH MIX #041 - Joey Anderson [download]

It's with great pleasure that we get to introduce his first solo LP, entitled 'After Forever'. Upon full listening, some people may find that the album is less accessible than your typical dance LP, but that's what makes it standout in a market saturated with disposable releases.

For example, the ethereal synth washes and gurgling lines of the track 'Space Colors Ideas' sound as though they might have kinship with artists on labels like Editions Mego or Warp. The track is entirely beatless, and shows just how far the artist is willing to push his sound left of centre. Again, 'Maidens Response' combines the sonic aesthetic of experimental music, with that of traditional house music. Sparse use of snare drums accounts for an extremely murky and cerebral sound, breaking down the mould and solidifying Anderson's sound.

In all of Joey's work subtlety is key, but in this album in particular, he demonstrates that philosophy to great effect. 'Brass Chest Plate' begins life as little more than a fast kick drum, hats and a drony bassline. But soon the track builds piece-by-piece and unfurls into a dancing sonic array of delayed kit sounds and almost trance-like detuned synth arpeggios.

Be sure to give the album a few listens, as it will take time for some to adapt to Joey's idiosyncratic sound. But without a doubt, this will be an album remembered to have captured the zeitgeist of contemporary house music in 2014.

After Forever LP - Joey Anderson [Dekmantel]


Pre-order [DKMNTL017] at Rush Hour.

Words by: Ethan Becker

Featuring IKE YARD

The works of the early 1980s American post-punk/industrial outfit Ike Yard have become remix fodder for newer artists who create similarly harsh, post-punk influenced techno. The third instalment of remixes is a welcome addition to the genre, with previous entries from Regis, Monoton, Tropic Of Cancer and Arnaud Rebotini.

Powell's opening remix of Half A God takes apart the very straightforward original and reassembles it into something that sounds like it may fall apart at any minute. The drums are shuffled and gated, the synth stabs and guitar loops are fractured, the vocals are sparse. Bandshell's remix of NCR turns it into noise-techno, everything becomes distorted, with added radio scanner hiss panning around the mix. At one point everything else fades out leaving just the hiss, which fades out to almost silence before everything rushes back in, jolting the listener.

The original 1982 version of 'Cherish 8', from their debut on Factory America, is a throughly unnerving post-punk piece, with a military drum groove, out of tune synths and vocalist Stuart Argabright commandingly repeating his perverted intentions without passion ("I watch where you go, then I follow you home...you're so young, you're so chic"). The KVB's version retains much of the original vibe, with the drums now more restrained and distant, with the occasional firing-off of rapid 808 claps. The synths are more orchestral, the guitars looped quietly, more as part of a bed of sound and less highlighted in the mix. Vessel's remix however, takes the track to an even darker place. The vocals become growled and menacing through the flanger, the drums burst through with ferocity and retreat immediately into silence, and added feedback pierces through.

Cherish 8 (The KVB Remix) - Ike Yard [Desire]


[DSR100] is available from Desire and Juno. Limited to 300 copies.

Words by: Jason Rule

Featuring FALTYDL

After impressive releases on Rush Hour, Planet Mu, 50 Weapons and Swamp81 over the last few years Drew Lustman, aka FaltyDL, returns to Ninja Tune with a pair of new tracks.

Danger is the follow up to last year's 'Hardcourage' 12" (not to be confused with his LP of the same name), again coming in the '93 era sleeve. Although it explores different territory it feels like a natural progression, really delving back into the roots of today's music scene as a whole. 'Danger' is definitely anchored in early breaks and jungle and feels like LTJ Bukem with a garage shuffle. On the flip 'King Brute featuring Shanghai Den' explores FaltyDL's more experimental side, a definite towards the work of Drexciya if you ask us.

[ZEN10377] is available now via Juno.

Preview: St John Sessions, November 2013

Having previously welcomed the likes of Actress, Tim Hecker, and Nils Frahm to the church which they call home, St John Sessions continue their series of live events, showcasing the best in experimental, ambient music.

The next event, featuring Biosphere, Perc, and EQLS takes place on 7th November. If you like your music to be delivered in sonic landscape form, you'd be silly to miss this one.

Tickets are available here. Find out more on Facebook.

Featuring MEDLAR

Medlar AKA Ned Peglar has been releasing EPs on Brighton's Wolf Music for a little over 3 years now. His style of music has a tendency to include elements of classic Chicago and NY house, as well as more bass-orientated influences and a knack for experimentation using synths and pitch-shifted vocal samples.

His new album 'Sleep' is a good indicator of what he is capable of in terms of production, and it also gives you a sense of the breadth of his sound. The music carries a certain understated and confident tone that resonates throughout the LP. The manipulation of the piano, cello and other acoustic instruments give the work a natural, earthy feel, not totally dissimilar from that of Archie Pelago. If this LP is any indication, Medlar will be up to big things in the near future.

The Sleep LP is available now from Juno.

Featuring R-ZONE

As 2013 rolls on, the weird and seemingly directionless nature of underground and eclectic dance music continues. R-Zone is a label that represents a collective of established artists, working under one anonymous pseudonym. By releasing their work under this guise, it challenges them to release material that doesn't rely on a well known label name or producer's 'street cred' to generate interest.

'Rebecca in the Hall' is the first track on R-Zone 06 and is a good gateway track for what the label is all about. a 303 bassline meets terse percussion and other spacial effects with the occasional injection of a vocal sample. 'Romijn Ravine' touches on the breakbeats and ravey synths reminiscent of UK hardcore, while 'Night Level II' rounds out the EP with similar otherworldly and synth laden 4/4 sounds.

Rebecca in the Hall / Romijn Ravine / Night Level II - R-Zone 06 [R-Zone]


You can pick up this up at Juno this month, and check out the rest of the labels back catalogue here.

Featuring dBRIDGE

Few would have guessed that dBridge would be the next to join the R&S Records renaissance, which has been spearheaded thus far by the likes of Lone, James Blake, Blawan and Space Dimension Controller.

[RS1311] sees Darren Smith partner two chunky drum 'n' bass workouts with a more experimental cut in the shape of 'Plain To See'. Here's to hoping Smith will reappear on R&S in the future.

Plain To See - dBridge [R&S Records]


Available from Juno now.

On another note...R&S printed some really nice, Joy Division-inspired t-shirts to celebrate their 30 year anniversary. Click the image below to pick one up.

Introducing STELLAR OM SOURCE

The new album from Christelle Gualdi (AKA Stellar OM Source) entitled Joy One Mile is one that defies categorisation. It would be difficult to classify the album solely as techno in the traditional sense, as Gualdi's knack for programming and harmonic abstraction push the album into the realm of the experimental. This being said, most of the tracks do rely on steady rhythms to propel them forward, which places the album into a grey area between conventional dance and the avant-garde.

Joy One Mile (Preview) - Stellar Om Source [RVNG Internationl]


'Polarity' opens the album with a mixture of percussive elements and a throbbing bass synth. Kick drums chop in and out throughout the track, giving the track a wobbly unsteadiness, a theme that recurs throughout the album. 'Par Amour' then follows with its rave like synth stabs and a vocal that sounds like it could be from an old Inner City track. The heavy use of 909 and 303 sounds on this album nod to classic Detriot techno, as well as Chicago acid, but these elements are mutated through the abstractions in programming. 'The Range' provides listeners with what appears to be Gualdi's take on contemporary bass music, whilst 'Trackers' is a study in hyper synth arpeggio that eventually gives way to cool pads and 303 sounds towards the end of the record.

The single from album 'Elite Excel' stands to demonstrate the concept of the album best, constantly morphing, twisting and is really several small compositions in one track. 'Fascination' begins with an airy, cosmic synth line and a few percussive elements, before it gives way to a heavy, albeit stuttery, 4/4 bass kick. Almost every track on the album has some kind of redeeming quality, and also serves to push our own perceptions of what is and isn't right for use on the dance floor.

It should be noted that Gunnar Wendel (AKA Kassem Mosse) was a collaborator on the album and his remix of Elite Excel is included on the CD / digital version. If you decide to pick up the vinyl, which you can do from Juno, then it's advised you download the Kassem remix via the code included with the release.

1. Polarity
2. Par Amour
3. The Range
4. Trackers
5. Elite Excel
6. Fascination
7. Natives / Most Answers Never Unveiled
8. Elite Excel (Kassem Mosse Remix) (Bonus Track)

Digital is available for download from Bandcamp.

Introducing MGUN

Manuel Gonzalez (aka MGUN) had a productive last portion of 2012 with releases on Don't Be Afraid as well as The Trilogy Tapes. His distinctly weird and lo-fi sound resides somewhere in between Detroit techno and the more experimental fare of producers such as Container.

On the If You're Reading This EP you'll find six more tracks of MGUN brand techno and electro weirdness. Tracks such as 'Bean Chirp' and 'Funnel Vision' provide us with brief glimpses into the bizarre and dystopian world of this producer, with crunchy kicks and hi-hats meeting strange analog synths. The EP is diverse in its range, fans of last year's 'The Race' are certain to find kinship with the track 'Jijijijij$ijijijiji', a similar excursion into the world of lo-fi and ghetto breakbeat techno. With 'Proxy' and 'Tritan' Gonzales delivers two longer tracks that lean more towards dance floor use. Acid lines gurgle away on 'Proxy' until at the end of the record everything seems to malfunction and collapse in on itself, before beginning again. 'Tritan' emerges as the most atmospheric track on the EP, with synths colliding and a solid drum track that serves to drive the whole thing forward.

If You're Reading This EP - MGUN [Don't Be Afraid]

Gonzales manages to keep expectations high with this release, and you can pick it up from Juno on May 20th.

Featuring SILENT SERVANT

Former Sandwell District mainstay Silent Servant (a.k.a. Juan Mendez) offers a headlong exploration of twisted, mutated techno that juggles post-punk and industrial aesthetics within his debut long-player for Hospital Productions, Negative Fascination.

Paced at only thirty-six minutes across seven tracks, Negative Fascination comes with an immediate sense of urgency. After the beatless, reverberating pulsations of ‘Process (Introduction)’ the album begins in earnest, as ‘Invocation of Lust’ begins to build hurriedly towards some kind of endgame. Save for the brooding (and contrastingly melodic) interlude of ‘Moral Divide (Endless),’ Mendez directs listeners to the crux of proceedings in the form of ‘The Strange Attractor.’ Harshly pulsing chords develop pace beneath a sonorous blanket of searing white noise, a visceral and intense portrayal of what Mendez described in a recent interview with FACT magazine as "this weird mutation in my head."

Negative Fascination LP - Silent Servant [Hospital Productions]

Following on, ‘Temptation & Desire’ again ups the ante in terms of pace. A refined death-march drumbeat thumps out alongside the pained wails of wordless voices as an austere synth line furthers the albums sense of dystopian bleakness. After another intermission in the form of ‘A Path Eternal’ comes the eight-minute crescendo of ‘Utopian Disaster (End)’. Within this track, Mendez comes closest to the spacey, echoed dub-techno forms to which he is perhaps most famously associated. Here, a Basic Channel style bass line rumbles languorously towards a final gritty, spiraling groan.

Though generally the tone of the album is dripping in Lynchian austerity, there is much to like about Negative Fascination. In spite of its relatively short duration, throughout the LP there is a definite sense of both direction and coherence. Additionally, the album is coupled with a specific visual-aesthetic as the grainy, shadowy images that accompany the record align perfectly to its aural content. Mendez himself appears to recognise the importance of marrying the musical to the visual with the promise that a special, limited press is due to be released each with its own hand-labeled switchblade.

In similar ways to its post-punk influences, Negative Fascination wastes no time in presenting stunted, invasive sonic outbursts. In truth, much of what is covered within the LP will be familiar to fans of Mendez or any of the acts to which he has become associated. Yet in spite of this, the record feels entirely worthwhile for the way Mendez refines and condenses his raw, uncompromising techno sensibilities into a package that bulges heatedly at the seams. Overall, the album feels like an exercise in controlled aggression – as though holistically, Mendez’s vision teeters delicately upon the edge of the switchblade that adorns the albums cover.

Negative Fascination is available now from Juno.

Introducing U

Like many artist-run labels, ManMakeMusic ran the risk of becoming a sidenote to the career of co-owner, producer and DJ George FitzGerald. It's clocked in three solid 12"s from up and comers Jack Dixon, Leon Vynehall and Trikk so clearly the man's got a knack for A&R. But these singles, as good as they were, couldn't help but be outshined by his self-produced inaugural effort, Fernweh/Hearts.

But change is in the air for their 5th release. Simply title MMAKEU01, information is about as scant and mysterious as the interlocked grooves within; there's a review up on Portuguese FACT (don't bother with Google translate, I already tried) and a few words on the offical site.



What you get for your buck is four cuts of blearly-eyed dancefloor approximations. Lead track Eah comes somewhere between recent moves by Cupp Cave and Gerry Read. Gone is the crisp, dancefloor-ready precision we've come to expect from Mr. FitzGerald, replaced instead by smudged synths, woozy ambiance and pitched vocals floating in and out of the mix without the build and drop dynamics required to set the dancefloor alight.



Things ease up ever more when Evil Spirits trades in vocal hooks for treated piano lines that conjure up ghosts of James Blake's pre-album days. The flipside touches on sultry lo-fi RnB (Haunted) and the blunted drum programming of the best LA beatsmiths (Heaven). It's all over in a flash, the only constant throughout, aside from the quality, is the skewed vision these touchstones are filtered through.



Limited to a 10" run, it may be that ManMakeMusic won't be pursuing this sonic territory any more. Wherever they end up going, they've struck gold on their 5th release and seem well on their way to becoming a force in their own right.

[MMAKEU01] is due for release on Monday 15th October. Pre-order it now from Surus

Damu - Unity LP

In recent years Damu has been consistently up there with the best in the business and his unique sound has been hotly tipped in various quarters. His debut album is out now on Martin Clark’s Keysound Recordings, which follows acclaimed releases by LV & Joshua Idehen and Sully earlier this year. Damu has previously only had two physical releases, Ridin EP and Mermaid, so this 60 minute release is a big step for the producer.

Damu exemplifies his unique sound perfectly in Unity, with euphoric climaxes crashing together with vibrant and melodic beats to create a modern and experimental display. 'Ridin’ The Hype’ has to be the masterpiece of the album, with the diction of Trim solidifying the track with a deep and dark vibe. The majority of the tracks are bubbly garage stepping tunes like ‘L.O.V.E’ and ‘After Indigo’, but Damu also shows his depth and development in tracks such as ‘Maths is Fine For Sum’ and ‘Waterfall Of Light’, which gives more of a shuffling house sound, full of deep gear-changing shifts that keep you guessing.

Ridin' The Hype (feat. Trim) - Damu [Keysound Recordings]


Through this LP you can really see the development and progression that Damu has made as a producer. He shows knowledge of chord progression and structural sleight of hand that many of his peers would kill for and I am sure this producer will continue to shock in the future.

Unity LP Preview - Damu [Keysound Recordings]


Unity was released on 17th October and is available via Juno etc.

Rustie - Glass Swords LP

Rustie has been producing quality beats since 2007 and it is hard to believe that the London based producer is only just releasing his first LP. The album is being released by the prestigious Warp Records who have already released his single 'Ulta Thizz' earlier in September. Warp seems to be a fitting label for Rustie as his futuristic and experimental sound sits perfectly alongside label peers such as Hudson Mohawke and Flying Lotus.

Rustie will release the Glass Swords LP in early October and the hype surrounding this long awaited album suggests that it is going to be a huge. Apart from Hudson Mohawke’s Satin Panthers EP release earlier this year it is hard to remember something sounding so fresh and different. It takes guts to experiment so extremely, with a mixture of 80’s pop and contemporary rap templates fusing into a synergy of electronic genius. Rustie is producing an underground renaissance of progressive electronic music that is grasping the music world by storm.



There will be thirteen tracks on this album with each song giving its own razor-edged intensity that fluctuates throughout. The tracks create an energetic vibe of unorthodox glitches and micro samples that at times cross a fine line between being overcomplicated and frantic. However Rustie somehow manages to balance the hectic array of beats and warps them into an aesthetic cohesion.

The two most prolific tracks in the album have to be 'All Night' and 'Ultra Thizz' which both perfectly depict Rustie’s experimental direction in full effect. The first taste of the album 'All Night' gives a crisp and fun vibe that uses hip hop instrumentals fused with 80’s electro beats. Then we have 'Ultra Thizz' which is more of a futuristic journey of stadium style synths and chopped vocals. It seems that Rustie has broken from the mould and produced something that is not meant to fit into any category or set pattern. Trying to label this album into a genre would be pointless as it is a combination of various influences and this is one of the reasons why it gives off such a refreshing sensation.

Featuring DJG

DJG of San Francisco informed us the other day of a brand new project he's started. It's called 'Voids'. There's very little stuff we get sent that after 30 seconds of the first track I click 'New Post' so I hope you feel the same and even can donate some money for his efforts. Here's what he had to say about it...

"I'm releasing a collection of twelve tracks through my website djgsound.com this Wednesday September 15. It's not an album, but I do feel the tracks belong together, and I decided they belong in two parts; Voids One is really for the ravers & the djs. These songs represent the sound I've pushed hard in the club over the last few years: dark, energetic, moody rave vibes. Voids Two is more personal, a bit lighter maybe, and closer to my heart.

I've decided to release them for free, without the help of a record label. I simply feel like sharing these songs with people in a direct and personal way."





"These are songs that I’ve never really been able to let go of, nearly all of them I pulled from scheduled releases or turned away offers from labels for various reasons. They are songs that I really believe in and feel connected to. Some were written as far back as 2007 and as recently as a month ago. They’ve been supported by an endless list of big name DJs and requested by friends and listeners for release."

All in all, this is not one to miss out on. Take the time to listen to the tracks, there is too much beauty within. In the words of Sonic Router (who have an interview with DJG about 'Voids' here) "it's people like him that've given us that vital boost when life takes over and post frequency wanes". However, post frequency is about to resume.