Track Of The Day: Sweet Exorcist - Testone (Warp)

Another tune from Richard H Kirk, the dark magus of electronica. One of those that I’m surpirised I haven’t already posted, and that happened because I was triggered by watching ‘Close Encounters . . .’ last Saturday evening, and was reminded of the sample at the start. Of course it’s much more than that. Is it the track that catalysed bleep? Probably. Is it the strongest track of that subgenre? Definitely. An otherworldly piece of music that has it all. The soundtrack to jetting to the dark side of the moon and beyond. All human life is here, or is it? Imagine this being played on analogue stacks, and emitted through vast pyramids of sonic distribution back in the day or into the future. It’ll always sound amazing.

Tom Trago - Ignorance (Magnetron Music)

Title: Ignorance

Artist: Tom Trago

Label: Magnetron Music

Cat Number: MAG243

Genre: Electronic Clairvoyance

1: Clairvoyance

2: Champagne

3: Fast Talking

4: Powerstation

5: Sadari

6: Walk The Dog

7: The garden

8: Eagle’s Nest

9: Ignorance Is Bliss

10: Undertaker

11: The Valley

I love the way the title track kicks into gear. It’s all analogue synths on a foundation of bottom heavy percussion. It’s also got a sense of the grandiose about it. The tyoe of track that had the technology been around in the middle ages, knights would have sliced heads off to its undulating riddimz. Very heraldic in flavour. A difficult act to follow. Not impossible though, and what comes next stands up to scrutiny very well indeed. I think its fair to say that Trago spreads himself artistically over the length and breadth of this work. ‘Fast Talking’ explores electro combined with what come off as quite poppy vocals. Everything glistens. There is a strong eighties cold wave feel throughout, but its more animated than normal, bordering on italo. And, although these influences are nothing new, they’re really handled with confidence and panache. ‘Sadari’ is an incredibly punchy three minutes, so it’s definitely crying out for a remix. And again, if there’s one dominant influence, it’s definitely electro, but its put through the centrifuge again and again; ‘Ignorance Is Bliss’ focusing on its disco tendencies, ‘Undertaker’ going harder and darker. Every track on here feels very accomplished and has a narrative with plenty of room for interpretation. Above all else, it’s a dramatic piece of work in which every beat counts.

 

Track Of The Day: The Congos - Congoman (Black Art)

Posting this because I’m off to see these guys tonight in Cambridge. Also, because it’s one of my oldest reggae memories. Not because it was something I listened to, rather that I came across the group while reading a copy of Sounds in 1977, which sent me beyond Bob Marley and into a parallel world of spiritualism and herbs. My now sadly-deceased friend Peter Pulford didn’t own a lot of records, but he had this one. And the production from Lee Perry allows it to sound like the future, as well as traditional. The opening track ‘Fisherman’, probably gets the most plays, but ‘Congoman’ takes us somewhere else, in which we eavesdrop on another time and place. Rastafarians are what the hippies, who all turned into venture capitalists wanted to be. Has their time passed? Let's hope not.

Track Of The Day: Sniper Mode - Homecoming feat. Exzakt (Rawax)

Sniper Mode is Gregor Tresher, someone whose name seemed to be everywhere a decade or so ago. Anyway, he’s back, albeit under a nom de plume. And for this track he teams up with Miami electro upstart Ezakt, for a piece of post – truth electro with a heavy, discordant undertow. The vocals, who I presume are coming from Mr Exzakt, are intoned in a suitably distorted, cyborgean manner. The whole release is great, and this track kicks things off very powerfully. It doesn’t necessarily go anywhere except making a beeline for your cerebral cortex and shape throwing synapses. If you can’t dance to this then you’re dead inside. A definite candidate for the soundtrack to the ‘They Live’ remake. Probably.

Colin Dale - Abstrakt Dance Show - 16.10.2025

Owain K | HÖR - October 17 / 2025

Track Of Yesterday: CV313 - Seconds To Forever (Echospace)

Over the weekend, CV313 gave away mosty, if not all, of the content of his Bandcamp site for free. I grabbed all of them, clicking away like it was going out of fashion. Great stuff to own and wonderful to play, particularly as atmospheric embellishment to the Sunday roast being cooked, and some taster roasties being consumed. That would have been a good name for any of these tracks actually. Anyway, I doubt this back catalogue is still on offer, but check it out anyway.

Carbon - Miroloja | HÖR - October 7 / 2025

LPY Mix Series 23 - Alia Stanley-Walker

lempuyang · LPY Mix Series 23 - Alia Stanley-Walker

Nicolas Lutz - Live at WOMBTOKYO 22/03/2025

 

Nicolas Lutz · Nicolas Lutz - Live at WOMBTOKYO 22/03/2025

Track Of The Day: Phara - Solitude (Fuse Imprint)

A great track that blends dub techno with deep house to devastating effect. The highest comliment I can pay it is that it reminds me of ‘Raptures Of The Deep’. From the ‘Soft Glow, Fierce Light’ release on Fuse Imprint and, while this might be the pick of the bunch, the other tracks are great as well. Haventepe is another comparison I feel compelled to make, which isn’t bad either.

Track Of The Day: Nick Calingaert - Love and Karma (Paper)

I was rewiring my speakers a few hours ago and the first record I pulled from my shelves was this one. Now I’ve sold almost all of my Paper Recordings collection over the last year or two, but I have kept some. Mainly those that are a little bit techier than the others. And it was a pleasant surprise to listen to this for the first time on ages. Nick Calingaert released mainly as Common Factor on, amongst others, Planet E and Soma. And, despite him using his real name for this release, it follows his general plan of action quite closely. This is a great piece of driving deep house. One for the warm up or early on in a main set. Great!

Coyote - End of Summer Mix '25

 

isitbalearic..? · Coyote - End of Summer Mix '25

Track Of The Day: E-Zee Possee - Everything Starts With An E (More Protein)

This track was an early rave staple and owes its existence to E-Zee Possee, headed by the redoubtable MC Kinky. There’s a million and one things we could say in the context of cultural misappropriation. However, this was the dogs bollocks when it was being played on huge rigs in vast warehouses and aircraft hangars full of gurners. I am positive that this was played at the first rave I attended, which was at Biggin Hill airfield in Kent. I definitely remember Sugar Bear’s ‘Don’t Scandalise Mine’ playing as I entered the fray, and this for sure. Anyone out there know who put this party on, May/June 1989? I will do some research.