Having spent the last few years digging for house, techno and every possible genre between. I decided to start this blog to share my finds with world and give people a starting point to find their own tracks.
I’ve only recently discovered Mor Elian and what a discovery she is. She’s one of those producers who never fails to deliver the goods.
She is a Berlin based DJ and Producer, who hails from Tel Aviv. She She runs her own label called Fever Am but, has also released on labels such as Hypercolour and Hot Flush. She tends to make this really melodic but hard hitting techno and it’s such a nice change from the rut that lots of techno producers seem to have fallen into.
Xeric Zula is a great example of Mor Elian’s production style and abilities, its a superb tornado of drums, synths and melodics bleeps and bloops. It starts off with a carchophany of kicks, high hats and snares with the bass punching kicking every other beat to give this wonderful percussive throbbing track. Then some acidic subs come pumping into mix with single bleeps every now and then adding to the layers of the track along with some backing synths that swirl in and out of the mix. A really fantastic piece of music that is sure to turn heads and move feet on the dance floor.
The Streets, are an English group, who produce everything from Garage to Electronica and the lyrics in their tracks often depicted everyday life with everything from going on a night out and trying to find your mates in haze (Blinded by the Lights) all the way through to dealing with grief (Never Went To Church) and break ups (Dry Your Eyes Mate). Their debut album Original Pirate Material, is in my opinion, an absolute masterpiece in UK Garage and “Has It Come To This?” (the debut single) is a banger in it’s own right and this reimagining of it was on the vinyl release of the single.
DJ Zinc aka Benjamin Pettit, is a Drum n Bass DJ and producer who has also turned his hand to making breakbeat, house and garage recently. He started his career in the early 90’s playing on various radio stations including Rinse FM before it got its official broadcasting licence in 2010. Some of the stand out tracks that he’s made include 138 Trek and Distraction.
This track is the brain child of Stanton Warriors (Dominic Butler and Mark Yardley), who are DJ’s and Producers in their own right. They’ve put the vocals from Has it Come to This by the Streets over the top of Distraction by DJ Zinc, to put a really cool take on the track. It was actually the A1 track on the Vinyl single of Has It Come To This, with the original being the A2 which shows just how good this remix actually is when it keeps the original from being the main feature on it’s own single.
Sadly there’s no digital version of this, so if you want it then you’ll have to buy the vinyl from discogs. However, with the prices as reasonable as this – I’d advise you all go out an buy it now.
Hans Berg is a Swedish producer and performer, his live sets have seen him play all around the world form Berlin to Tokyo. He’s equally at home playing live sets in clubs and curating atmospheric scores for video art installations, both are done with incredible care and attention. To truly appreciate his skill and craftsmanship, highly recommend checking out his set Live at Loft Radio on youtube I was absolutely blown away by it when I watched it for the first time and for every other time after that!
Tucan Fever is the deepest of rollers and guaranteed to make people’s minds turn inside out. It starts out with a popping kick and simple synth loop which is slightly off beat to make it sound like it’s rolling onto the kick drum. Eventually the high hats come scattering in while the loop of a xylophone comes rolling in, making the track sound much faster than the 125 that it is. Each melodic roll of the xylophone manages to fit in between each kick and is constantly changing between rolling low to high and high to low to give this really trippy and pulsing feel the track. This feeling is only enhanced when the throbbing baseline comes in giving a low slung acidic edge to proceedings, at times it can feel like two different tracks being mixed together to create an completely different song. Sometimes samples of individual xylophone keys are introduced over the top of everything to give the feel of a song which is constantly evolving. This is no doubt a by product of the fact that when Hans Berg would be playing out he would be trying to evolve the track in a number of different ways. Really superb bit of music that as I mentioned before will definitely turn people’s heads inside out!
The Chameleon was a drum n bass project comprised of Tom Middleton & Mark Pritchard. The project was so short lived that they only produced two eps and a handful of remixes, thankfully Links was one of those tracks that they produced. As well as producing tracks under their own names, Tom Middleton & Mark Pritchard have teamed up for a number of other projects including the pretty fantastic Jedi Knights (great if you like breakbeat and Star wars themed song titles) and Global Communication.
Link starts off with some vocals proclaiming “behold this marvel, this gleaming paradise, this missing link in the evolutionary chain!” however, the vocals are so distorted you could be forgiven for thinking you’re about to hear the most possessed thumping techno. Instead you’re greeted by the sound of running water and a piano gently playing an arpeggio with a windchime in the back ground, while a gentle pitter patter in the background slowly grows into the rolling drums and snares getting louder and pushed further and further to the front of the mix. The juxtaposition between the thump of the drum and the ambience of the piano and deep synthesizers rolls incredibly comfortably along before the synths rise high out of the maelstrom before peaking and seeming to dive back in. After a quick drum roll a simple stabbed chord pattern joins the fray and the mid ranges drop off a bit to make it more minimal before it’s eventually just between the drums and the chords. Eventually this dies down to the beginning ambience and a vocal from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off comes in saying “Life moves pretty fast, if you don’t stop to look around every once in a while you might miss it” before the track builds back up.
You can buy the EP on discogs – although the price isn’t great at the moment hopefully there will be a repress or digital release soon!
Cinthie is a German DJ and Producer, who grew up and lives in Berlin. She’s runs her own label 803 Crystal Grooves as well as Beste Modus with Diego Krause. She’s an absolutely sublime DJ and her music reflects the variety and complexity of the music that you can hear in Berlin. This is the most clear through looking at her back catalogue and the evolution from the more techy side of house through to some of the more vibrant music that’s being put out on her 803 Crystal Grooves.
Trust is a deep trippy roller that came out on Will Saul’s Aus music label in 2018. It starts with some frenetic Xylophone playing which, is the main component of the track and this plays out by itself before the punch of a kick drum and a clap punctuate through it. Eventually a rasping bassline wubs its way through manic xylophone, accompanied by a vocal singing “yeahhh yeah” and some atmospheric synths build the tension perfectly. This tension is released when the chatter of high hats is released into the mix along with some synths that mirror the frenetic xylophones rising up out of the track. Absolutely amazing piece of music, this is one of the few tracks I’ve played out and had people come up to me demanding to know what it is.
Avalon Emerson and HNNY combining on a track? You know that it’s going to be good. What a melodic thumper this is, an absolute masterpiece.
HNNY is a Swedish DJ and Producer, whose based in Stockholm. His musical creations often sample the vocals form 90’s R&B or Hip Hop and uses them in great effect to make them in to stripped back house music. For example, his use of TLC’s No Scrubs in his track No, is a fantastic slow chilled track and in complete contrast to the original. Sadly he’s taken a hiatus from DJ-ing but, his musical outputs are still here to ease us through until hopefully he returns. His boiler room is definitely worth checking out.
Avalon Emerson is an American DJ and Producer, who quite frankly blows my socks off every time I listen to one of her productions or sets. She’s released her tracks on labels such as Whities, Spring Theory and Spectral Sound and she’s remixed the likes of Octo Octa and Bwana. Her remix of Octo Octa’s Adrift will be making an appearance on this blog later on given how much it slams. If you get the chance to see Avalon Emerson play then, grab the opportunity with both hands. Her essential mix is definitely worth checking out.
Anyway enough about the producers and on to the track. Solsidan starts as you’d imagine as HNNY track to with sharp highs and a muted high pitched synth providing an eery back drop before stabs of synth and vocal come in. While this builds passages of kick drums coming in, running for 2 bars before dropping out until a run of snares announces its introduction properly along with the main riff which has been being teased with the stabs. This track has a great juxtaposition of the smooth laid back melody over the top and the aggressive drums layered underneath, the sharpness of the snares and the thump off the kick are more akin to a harder track but, the contrast between the two works perfectly. It’s the sort of song that you can imagine hearing in the twilight hours bridging between either the afternoon and evening or night and early morning. Absolutely wicked track, great producers and one that you should just throw your money at.
You can buy Solsidan (Avalon Emerson’s Second System Mix) on beatport
A brilliant 80’s italo disco tune which absolutely screams Miami Vice. It was also sampled by Nero on their first album Welcome Reality, for the song Reaching Out. The opening arpeggio in the introduction of Another Life is sampled and sped up for the Reaching Out.
Kano was an italo disco band formed in Italy in 1979 and were active between 1980-1985. They fused funk, R&B, disco and extensively used synthesizers to get that distinctive electro funk sound. Another life was released in 1983 from the album of the same title and was the lead single.
As mentioned above the track starts with a slow arpeggio which becomes the main bulk of the intro with the introduction of a kick and crash cymbal, with an occasional chord echoing through behind the arpeggio. Then the main riff kicks in with some a wonderful electro keyboard pattern with all the notes nicely merging to create a tapestry of sound before the vocals come crooning in over the top at which point the main riff drops off with only a elastic sounding bass slapping out with some echoing individual notes coming over the top. Words can’t describe how much I love this track, it makes me want to buy a white suit, move to Miami and change my name to Tubbs. I hope you’ll all listen to this and feel the same.
You can get a copy of it on Discogs for a reasonable price, which is very refreshing given how obscene prices normally are
Kiril is a Drum and Bass DJ from Italy – who it’s been surprisingly hard to find information on, so lets crack on with the track.
Minimal Instinkt is a dark and broody 3 minutes track with an absolutely filthy sound. It starts with some chattering hats, and a synth swirling up before another one puncuates with a dun sound before the kick sounds. It builds for about twenty seconds before dropping into a dark mechanical pummelling, which sounds like you’ve got stuck in a factory with the machines on full pelt. The twings and twangs in the background sound only add to this mechanical factory feel. Absolutely savage – I made an edit of this where I slowed it down to 138 BPM and it sounds like the sort of thing like the most brutal techno you’ve ever heard. Great tune if you’re into that sort of thing.
This is a real weapon of track and absolutely boots off.
System 7 are an electronic band, who are based off the name of the mac operating system at the time when they formed in 1989. System 7 is comprised of Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy but, has also had notable collaborators Laurent Garnier, Carl Craig and Paul Oakenfold helping to make tracks with them. This track comes from the album 777 which is there second album and came out in 1993 – the whole album is pretty no holds barred techno & trance and in complete contrast to their first album which was more ambient.
On the Seventh Night starts with an Arabic vocal sample with the pitter patter of hand drums before kick joins along with hats that give the impression of a shaking tambourine. Eventually after about a minute the Arabic vocal sample dies off a pulsing acid lines comes in blowing aside everything in its path with a sitar being plucked over the top of it. Savage snare hits kick in to add to the sense of urgency and drives the track forward before the Arabian sounding vocal kicks in again. Honestly words just don’t do justice to how much of a banger this track is, it’s got an electric guitar riffing over the top of it at one point and it perfectly fits the vibe of the track.
Alexi Delano was born in Chile but, raised in Sweden. He really came to the fore in the 90’s when he moved to New York and his sound found it’s niche combining techno with the musical variety found in New York.
Slam that bass baby, is a really fat tune – it’s pretty much the comic book guy of electronic music it’s that fat. It does exactly what it says on the tin, has an absolutely outrageous slamming distorted bassline that bounces up and down. It starts off with that bassline and a kick like a mule before some wooden percussion joins in with the musical miasma being broken through by a strong clap. Over the top echoing samples of chord stabs add to the party atmosphere produced by the rest of the elements. Finally a chattering array of hi hats join in and the groove is complete.
The few times someone has been silly enough to let me behind the decks, I try to play this out because of how groovy it is.
Fantasia 