This is EleKtro

 

ElektroGlobal · This is EleKtro

Track Of The Day: Miles Davis - Mtume (Columbia)

‘Get Up With It’, the Miles Davis album that this track has been plucked from, is the perfect music to listen to while cooking the Sunday roast. I’ve already featured ‘He Loved Him Madly’, Davis’ tribute to Duke Ellington, a long, careering 30 or so minute piece of abstraction, and now this, not as long, and maybe more coherent. Mtume provided percussion for Davis in the early 70s. “it is crazy to me that his hands didn't just fall off with the way he played those congas. Plus, he was blasting a drum machine into a mic in the early 70s. It's crazy how much Mtume's work with Miles during that period foreshadowed drum and bass music.” Quote from a Reddit post around the time of James Mtume’s death a few years ago. You don’t get a Miles Davis tune named after you just by making up the numbers.

Track Of The Day: David Shaw & The Beat - Fever (Virgin Music FR LAS S & D)

First released in the mid-fifties, popularised by Peggy Lee, and covered by everyone, form Elvis, to The cramps and Madonna, ‘Fever’, sung here by David Shaw, has never sounded so sleazy. There’s a low throb of longing throughout, as well as some crystalline highs, which makes it perfect for the ALFOS massive. And I guess it wouldn’t be here had I not heard its power channelled through Sean Johnston. Proper filth.

LPY Mix Series 24 - Kenneth Christiansen

 

lempuyang · LPY Mix Series 24 - Kenneth Christiansen

Track Of The Day: 23 Skidoo: Just Like Everybody (Fetish)

The Second track in a row from 80s UK bastion of the out-of-kilter Fetish (I think this track first appeared on this label), ‘Just Like Everybody’ is typical 23 Skidoo. Grainy, disembodied and quintessentially political, it’s the type of that almost seeped out of the underground around the time of its release, and represented a distillation of industrial=leaning influences, as well as going on to be very influential in turn. It’s a soundscape which feels like it’s emerged from a ouija board experiment gone wrong. Voices from beyond the 5^th dimension listened toby Burroughs and Gysin as they discuss the proclivities of a new experimental kinaesthetic device.

Track Of Yesterday: Clock DVA - '4 Hours' (Fetish)

Coming from Sheffield and, therefore, sometimes mentioned in the same breath as contemporaries Cabaret Voltaire and The Human League; Clock DVA were a bit of a one-off and, as this track makes clear, not necessarily the same at all. ‘4 Hours’ is, I guess, very post punk but eschews the industrial that Clock DVA were always runmoured to be a part of. It’s a great tune. All because of an out of tune synth wail, that sounds like it may have been made on a wasp (look it up). Anyway, memories are hazy as to the exact provenance of said sound, which is as it should be.

Track Of The Day: L.B. Dub Corp - Only The Good Times (Dekmantel)

An absolutely incredible tune from Luke Slater, which is remixed by Burial on the B side. However, that remix is put in the shade by this, the original. It’s a unique piece of music which uses space as a weapon, and puts the vocals front and centre. Unusual for a techno track, if that’s what this is. It sounds amazing in the mix as well, particularly with added muscle.

Track Of The Day: Sparks - Beat The Clock (Virgin)

Cabanne - Live at Moga Festival 2025

Track Of The Day: Carl Craig - At Les (Planet E)

Absolute classic klaxon. First seeing the light of day in 1993, ‘At Les’ is a unique piece of work that merges a strange synth line that seems displace from ‘Close Encounters . . . ‘, break beats, a rumbling, urgent bassline and a huge amount of ambience. Craig would have been around 23 when it came out, some achievement really. And, although he may have equalled it, has it ever been bettered? It would be difficult to imagine him making anything as deep now. It would be good if he tried though, just to prove that his best efforts weren’t those produced in the flowering of his youth (relatively speaking).

Voyage de Lux w/ Alex Downey - 26.11.25

 

1BTN · Voyage de Lux w/ Alex Downey - 26.11.25

Track Of The Day: Talking Heads - I Zimbra (Sire)

From ‘Fear Of Music’ and probably the most played track from that album. ‘I Zimbra’ rode the wave of rising interest in African music prevalent at that time. We have the NME to thank for eliciting such an interest in the UK, and it was a masterstroke. Post-punk was influenced by, and thrived on such riddims, whether it realised it or not. And Talking Heads were wearing it a little bit more on their sleeves than most. Just over three minutes of polyrhythmic perfection.

CCL b2b Yushh at Draaimolen Festival 2025

 

DRAAIMOLEN · CCL b2b Yushh at Draaimolen Festival 2025

Track Of The day: Adrià Duch -- Why You Mad (Kirill Matveev Rework) (Mixcult Records)

It’s about time that I gave Mixcult Records some love. A mainly digital label operating out of Montenegro, it’s a pretty safe bet for deep, dubby, driving house. And this track form Adria Duch’s ‘Move On’, is fairly typical of its output. I like that it doesn’t take the piss. It’s what I want from this type of label and this type of music. And that’s all that needs to be said. Right, I’m off to bed.

Ytack Of The Day: Kuniyuki & Jimpster - Kalima's Dance (Sprinkles' Deeperama) (Soundofspeed)

There are few guarantees of quality in this world. However, rthe name DJ Sprinkles/Terre Thaemlitz on a record is one of them. Even better is ‘Sprinkles’ Deeperama’, because you know you’re going to get something transcendental, something going out on a limb. I have no idea how many remixes have been done under this moniker, but I’m very much enjoying discovering them. I do hope there’s shitloads. And this sounds like Weather Report on crack. Maybe not something that everyone would be into, but I love it. And all of what I’ve discovered so far weighs in at at least 10 minutes. These versions are nothing if not cinematic.

Track Of The Day: Domenic Cappello -- Time (Analog Concept)

Great track of the just released ‘The Retroactive Future’ by Domenic Capello which, in my mind, can currently do no wrong. He’s been posting some mixes recently which make me want to visit the Sub Club after an absence of thirty years, and has stepped up his release schedule. So we have not only this tune and three others to play to death, but also ‘Dream Of You’ on Clone Royal Oak coming out this Monday. ‘Time’ is a track which reminds me of ‘Outta Limits’, mainly because the voice intoning “Time” sounds not unlike Timothy Leary. It also has some flourishes which could have come from mid eighties Cabaret Voltaire, as well as a veneer of sophistication which can only come from someone who knows how to twiddle their knobs. This is boss, as is the rest of the release. 

DJ Koolt | Episode 10: Brave! Factory 2025 IN REC

Yoyaku Instore Session with Cabanne

Track Of The Day: Exercise One - Steady Pulse (Mobilee)

Easily the most interesting of the Mobilee artists, Exercise One used trance as a weapon, blending it with the minimal aesthetic prevalebt at the time. I remember going to a Mobilee party Off-Sonar many moons ago on the roof of a hotel. It was full of Eurotrash cadging free drugs. Exercise One weren’t there, but Radio Slave was, amongst others. This track is more minimal then trance, and feels very much influenced by Ark and Akufen. Sliced up micro house using spoken word samples as an instrument.

DJ Koolt | Episode 10: Brave! Factory 2025 IN REC

Track Of The Day: Stephan-G & The Persuader - Kaos (Untitled A) (Svek)

You want something minimal, before minimal? And funky? I’m sure that what put a l,ot of people off minimal when it was dominating around 20 years ago was its lack of funk. This tune, one of the earlier and better on Svek however, was ahead of its time. Great production values spanning techno and house, brought together by dub. And it’s that which acts as the sauce on the meat and veg. The B side has been featured on these pages, although I can’t say how long ago. Long ago. And for my money it’s slightly superior to this all because of a steel drum sample. This is the dog’s bollocks though. 

Track Of Yesterday: SIT - Magnetized (Adam's Bite)

SIT are Cristi Cons and Vlad Caia and ‘Magnetized’ is a superior piece of deep house that crosses over into trance and had requisite phantom voices to make things feel messier than they actually are. My theory, and it’s been tested, is that all tracks of this ilk can be put on a family tree that starts with ‘Raptures Of The Deep’. A track so seminal that it precedes itself. This, and tracks like it, are being churned out at the moment. And while it would be wrong to say that I love them all, there’s something about that bass in conjunction with layers of spectral sound, that gets me shape throwing. This is a keeper.

Track Of The Day: Nicolas Barnes - Vision Expectations (Luck Of Access)

‘Vision Expectations’ is one of four tracks that make up the latest release on Andrey Pushkarev’s consistently good Luck Of Access. Not all dub techno swings as much as this. But I do try and search out what does and feature what I can in this blog. Anyway, what is certain is that this label is reliable as far as that sonic g spot is concerned. 

Track Of The Day: Cahl Sel - Blink (Reflective Records)

Here’s a random pick from the new Cahl Sel LP ‘Traces’. ‘Blink’ is another tune I’ve recently comes across which sounds indebted to early Autechre, well third album vintage. It’s all in the layers innit. What sets this apart is it also feels like it could have been used in ‘Close Encounters’ as an alternative to the five tones. Well, bits of it anyway. Maybe a bit too suny for Autechre as well. Because if there’s one thing this puts me in mind of it’s summer days and staring off into the middle distance. Always a good thing.

Laseech - Astral Destiny EP (Cosada)

 

Title: Astral Destiny EP

Artist: Laseech

Label: Cosada

Cat Number: COS002

Genre: Deep House

1: Astral Destiny

2: Dreams

3: Abyss

4: Evolving Depths

I guess this is deep house. An umbrella term innit. However, it crosses genres into genial electro jazz and broken beat. ‘Astral Destiny’ and ‘Abyss’ both have that Larry Heard hallmark. The former a very danceable, uptempo piece of sparkling, reflective mood music. The latter a low end journey into parts unknown. Slower and more deliberate than the title track, but united with it in its dense, cosmic approach. ‘Dreams’ is an off-beat shuffle draped in spoken word and with an abstraction that works within its limits very effectively. And there’s a slight French Touch feel about ‘Evolving Depths’, its downtempo highs and lows nicely tying up this varied release.

Track Of The Day: Tarta Relena - Mille risposte (Dopplereffekt Isotopic Filter Re Structure) (Latency)

I came across this track the other day. It’s not really what you might expect from Dopplereffekt, but then what is? Having said that, their touch has often been deployed to the weird and the wonderful with the outcome being even weirder and more wonderful. I thin that soon synths will be made with a Dopplereffekt button. Which, when pressed, will instantly Dopplereffekt whatever is in your head at that time creating a parallel world overseen by dystopian, minimal, electronic flourishes. Here, the original is time stretched across a solemn electro strata which uses space as a weapon of acoustics and alien communication. The result is a stunning symphony of disembodiment and haunted ambience. A piece of genius.

Track Of The Day: June - Lost Area (DJ Sprinkles’ Lost Dancefloor,) (These Days)

027 - Nicolas Lutz - Recorded live from fabric

 

fabric · 027 - Nicolas Lutz - Recorded live from fabric

Track Of The Day: Thoughtforms - Chicago Trance (Thoughtforms)

I’m sure there’s a story behind this track’s title. That said, it does what it says on the tin, minus the Chicago bit. So that’s a 50% hit rate. What I like about it is its speed and intensity. It’s almost chug trance, and is suitably dense in structure. Spoken word is on point too. Could have done with one more phrase, but it sounds good. 

Track Of The Day: Cabaret Voltaire - Why Kill Time? (Some Bizarre)

Track Of Yesterday: Cabaret Voltaire - 24-24 (Some Bizarre)

Track Of The Day: Inner Zone - Folded Realm (Space Lab)

I’ve been posting quite a few recent Bandcamp purchases for the last few weeks, and here’s another. Space Lab have been championing this sound for a while now through the likes of Adam Pits, etc. Think Prologue from over ten years ago, and you’re pretty much there with this one. I would call it deep techno rather than trance. You may beg to differ, however. What it is for sure is a very immersive sound which maintains more than a shadow of funk. The remix of this track doesn’t do too much to it, but does turn up the contrast and the colour somewhat. There are interesting Goa vestiges floating around in this tunes’ headspace. Thankfully the good bits.

Track Of Yesterday: Autechre - Rsdio (Warp)

This track from Autechre comes from ‘Tri Repetea’ and closes the album. This is probably my favourite album by them because of its approach to melody and structure. There’s a lot of layering going on, and with layering comes spacial awareness. You can feel the build within each track and, even though it may be obvious what is coming next, you can never be completely sure. Sometimes there’s a tangent to go off on, often not. This album came out after the ‘Anti’ EP, which was a protest against the Criminal Justice And Public Order Act 1994 “which would prohibit raves, defined as any gathering of nine or more people where rave music is played. Rave music was defined as music which "includes sounds wholly or predominantly characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats". This album experiments with that approach to rhythm, it’s anything but “rave” orientated though, taking a forensic and detailed approach to the science of patterned and textured shape-throwing invocation. And it’s influence is clear on the likes of the recently-released album by Noumen, whose ‘Oion’ feels like an homage of sorts.

Jeff Mills - Liquid Room, Tokyo, Japan (Nov 15th 2025) Dommune HQ

Grégory · JEFF MILLS live at Liquid Room 30th Anniversary, Tokyo 2025-11-15

Track Of The Day: Massive Attack ~ Bela Lugosi's Dead Radio City Music Hall ~ Live 2019

Track Of Yesterday: Kraftwerk Numbers ComputerWorld Live, 2004

Colin Dale - Abstrakt Dance Show - 13.11.2025

Track Of The Day: Olsvangèr -- Goldman's Propeller (Craigie Knowles)

Following on from ‘Red Lights’ by Genning, this would sound great being mixed out from it. Adding the bass, layers of mystical vocal disembodiment and having heavy trance overtones, but staying within the deep house realm. No arpeggiating, which is nice. Just deep, messy, mind-bending music.

Track Of Yesterday: Genning - Red Lights (Mud Trax)

This is great once it gets going. It spends a little bit of time shuffling around with very little low end, but then the dub flange kicks in and deploys mucho undulation. A very solid, functional mixing track with flourishes.

Z@p @TheLotRadio 11-04-2025

Domenic Cappello | themuddshow x The Big Bang

Theo Parrish | Mixmag Lab Bali

Electronic Convergance - Verdant Session - October 2025 [b2b Ohm

verdant-recordings · Electronic Convergance - Verdant Session - October 2025 [b2b Ohm b2b Kvadrant b2b Lentza]

Steffi at Dekmantel Selectors 2025

dekmantel · Steffi at Dekmantel Selectors 2025

Eli Verveine at Dekmantel Selectors 2025

dekmantel · Eli Verveine at Dekmantel Selectors 2025

DJ Koolt at Dekmantel Selectors 2025

dekmantel · DJ Koolt at Dekmantel Selectors 2025

The Hacker at Dekmantel Selectors 2025

 

dekmantel · The Hacker at Dekmantel Selectors 2025

Track of The Day: The 4th Wave - Attention Please (Op-ART)

The 4^th Wave, aka Steve Paton, aka Steve Paton, throws together some undulating break beat magic with a very live feel. I suppose its that blend of spontaneity and preprogrammed nirvana that makes this track so unique. It has a distinctly British feel, blending an emotive ambience with a more hard-hitting momentum and is one of many similar pieces that has more than stood the test of time. I would love to know who was the first person in The UK to hear Detroit techno and say “Right. Let’s do something like it, only with a strange kind of pastoral emotional content that could only come from the pagan countryside.” If only any thought process was as easy to nail down.

Ryan Elliott | themuddshow

DJ Python b2b Kit Seymour | themuddshow x Multi Multi

Jade Seatle b2b Seb Odyssey | themuddshow x Number 90

Willow | themuddshow x Number 90

Felix Dickinson | themuddshow x Number 90

Track Of The Day: Noumen - Oion (CPU)

This is the first track of Noun’s new album for CPU and it’s a real statement. Tracks like this are made to eternally unfurl, and that’s exactly what this does, with new sonic flourishes at every juncture. There’s so much space between the monolithic groove that almost all life has the chance to be accommodated. This really is the electronic music of the spheres, an imagined soundtrack to the workings of the universe as imagined by a maverick victorian inventor. So many floating textures complimented by light years of interplanetary layers. This track could go on for ever and I wouldn’t get bored.

Track Of The Day: Random Noise Generation - Instrument Of Change (430 West)

Random Noise Generation, aka Octave One, have been around since year zero and, as such, have amassed a considerable back catalogue. Something that always intrigued my was that their very first release, ‘I Believe’, sounds like nothing else they have released since. Their sound having since become recognisable for a deep, percussive groove. Their influence is considerable and I think it’s fair to say that while their sound is economical, they are experts at maximising it. I just plucked this randomly from the shelves and stuck it on as I’m testing my technology in preparation for a long-overdue mix. My copy needs a good clean, but nothing can stop the delightfully dissonant soaring & diving riff that permeates its very being. Lovely stuff.

Track Of The Day: Joe Seven x dBridge - Possible Future [Exit]

Another incredible piece of future music here. And I’ve got to say that a few of the cuts I’ve featured recently, including this one, have been lifted from 214’s most recent mix. That’s the power of including a tracklist with your set pop pickers. Everybody gets to know who made the music and then they can go out and buy it, making the artist that little bit richer, and then checking out not just the back catalogue, but future releases as well. The bass is a rumbling monster, the spoken word sample comes in for just the right amount of time, and there is a lovely feel of dissonance about the whole record, which heightens as it goes on. We’re under heavy manners with this one folks.

Track Of The Day: DJ Sprinkles - Grand Central Part I (MCDE Bassline Dub) (Mule Music)

This is all about the bass, hence the name of the remix. I don’t think (checks notes) DJ Sprinkles, aka Terre Thaemlitz has been remixed that often. And, having said that, I doubt whether this could have been better reinterpreted by anyone. An amazing low frequency grind that would raise the dead with an innovative use of the sub bass that threatens that of ‘LFO’ for tectonic shift capabilities. This hasn’t ever been repressed. Now’s the time.

Track Of The Day: VC-118A - Distorted Name (Delsin)

AlthoughI’ve already posted the title track from this monster of a release, I couldn’t ast too long without giving this beast its due. ‘Distorted Name’ again allows VC-118A to reply his singular take on electro. The beats and the superstructure are there, but what makes his productions so interesting is their depth, drive and dirt. The sound is dirty. Everything is frayed around the edges, but together. There’s a feeling in a track like this that sonic decomposition is taking place. However, before it has a chance to fall apart, it’s reassembled by the next beat. This is the soundtrack to the dust murmurations in the asteroid belt, and that of one of those rocks breaking free and finally hurting towards Earth.

Andrey Pushkarev B2B Mihai Popoviciu @ ADE 2025 - Berg Audio

 

BERG AUDIO · Andrey Pushkarev B2B Mihai Popoviciu @ ADE 2025 - Berg Audio x B. Club [FULL SET]

Track Of The Day: Eno & Byrne - America is Waiting (Sire)

Preceded by The Cabs‘Voice Of America’, not by that much though; ‘America Is Waiting’ opens ‘My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts’, which means that whenever we played the whole album, this robotic funk barrages the first thing to pummel our often baked brains. It’s approach to sampling is very much reminiscent of Double D & Steinski. Voices become instruments blending in with their accompaniment. Such a great track from such an amazing album. The amount of times I’ve heard this in my head alongside an imagined entrance into Vinny’s old bedroom is incalculable. 

Track Of The day: Skymaster - Shooting Stars (Offshoot)

What makes this is “the noise”. You’ll know what I’m talking about as soon as it kicks in. Like some primeval behemoth yawning at the dawn of time. Something from beyond the 5th dimension, previously seen in the imagination of H.P. Lovecraft. I remember some things so well they defy description. And so it was that when visiting Fabric for the first time, probably it’s second or third week, I heard Derrick May play this on that system. The beans were very good back then so the effect that it has open me was instant and cataclysmic. It’s funny because the rest of the track isn’t normally the type of groove I’m fond of, but the monster’s groan keeps things effervescent. 

Track Of Yesterday: DJ LInus - Who Stole The Soul (P.Weeks & D.Duriez remix) (Brique Rouge Trax)

A great example of a remix that really takes the original into another dimension. The boogied original is good, but Messrs Duriez & Weeks really deliver some much needed oomph in the shape of bass and keys. Everything is amped on this with great results. It fairly lopes along the deep house steppes of machine funk. The keys remind me of some of the sounds Robert Hood was deploying during his minimal/M-Plant heyday. Sadly long gone. You can do it again Robert, we believe in you!

Track Of The Day: Amfibian - Pa Relax (Jark Prongo Remix) (Touche)

Three posts ago is to blame for this. Drawn into listening to another excellent ‘Abstract Dance’ show from the one and only Colin Dale, I was immediately transported back to the carefree days of the mid nineties when this came bounding in. And it does bound. It’s like trance with beats on steroids. One of the best tracks on Touche, along with Tata Box Inhibitors, 51 Days and Trancesetters. The production of Dark Prongo has that ineffable Dutch strap. Everything seems like it’s riding on a cushion of air. Proper uplifting pill music. It’s difficult sometimes to remember how good the nineties were, then you hear a track like this and it sort of condenses all the positive energy into a druggy sonic symphony. Then the Internet started and it was the beginning of the end. Possibly.

Animix One Hundred & Eighty Three: Carl H

Animalia · Animix One Hundred & Eighty Three: Carl H

Gated 66 // Andy Green // November 2025

 

Gated · Gated 66 // Andy Green // November 2025

Colin Dale - Abstrakt Dance Show - 30.10.2025

Track Of Yesterday: E.R.P. - Microcentric (Syncrophone)

It’s debatable as to whether Gerard Hanson has ever made a duff track. I say this as a fan, but also as a student of dramatic music tension, particularly in the electro context. And, while most of the genre’s kingpins have a recognisable signature sound, there’s no one who can match him for a sense of the grandiose. This tune, taken from his just released eponymously named EP is a case in point. It’s excellent and, while not unique in the Hanson repertoire, always feels fresh and unique. This is Hanson’s second release on Syncrophone, the previous one being ‘Torc’ as Convextion. And, on the basis of this track alone, it’s better..

Track Of The Day: Basic Channel - Lyot Rmx (Basic Channel)

So I’ve chosen this one because it sort of echoes my dissipated state right now. This morning I ran the ‘Bonfire Burn’, a 10K in North Cambridge that is mostly on road, but goes off for around a third of its route. I had to dig deep, but hit was worth it, as I came through with a time of around 43:40. I’m really happy if I can still go under 45 minutes at this distance, so it’s a bonus that I go even faster. Anyway, I’m sitting on the couch, my bones slowly knitting themselves back into some sort off symmetry, watching lower league FA Cup action, and about to wrestle with the necessity of roasting a chicken. Slowly does it. Rather like this reverse, respiratory soundscape.

Dietroiter Electro Mix DR021125

 

DIETROITER · Dietroiter Electro Mix DR021125

Track Of The Day: Pile - 1 Of Those Days (Perlon)

Following on from the last post, this is the first Perlon release I bought, back in 1999 from IQ Records on Lexington St, Soho. Staff included Deano, Dave Mothersole and Andy Jaggers, who was the manager I think. IQ was a relatively short-lived, but great shop. The amount of parties I found out about just by walking into the shop on any given day is incalculable. Also the amount of good records I bought from there. This is one of the earliest Perlon releases, and also one of the most unique. I don’t know of any others that have a spoken word monologue similar to it. Having said that, I haven’t listened to all of them. It’s also minimal to the core, a full three years before the Ben Nevile track was released.

Track Of Yesterday: Ben Nevile - Shiver (Mosaic)

A track like this underlines how influential a label Mosaic is. Coming out in 2002, ‘Shiver’ was on the cusp of the minimal explosion. Person had started releasing a good few years before mind. However, a tune like this hidden away on a B side, although not the the of stuff Mosaic is normally associated with, broadened its repertoire and seemed a natural progression. This piece of stripped down deep house,,for that is what it is, and much like it, is imbued with funk, and its patchwork quilt approach is as good as anything contemporary.

Coyote Dub Cleanse 2 Mix

isitbalearic..? · Coyote Dub Cleanse 2 Mix

IT.podcast.s14e08: Intergalactic Gary at 30

ithqdetroit · IT.podcast.s14e08: Intergalactic Gary at 30 Years of IT – Strasbourg

Skatebård dj set at Bordello A Parigi, La Paloma

Skatebård · Skatebård dj set at Bordello A Parigi, La Paloma Barcelona

XTDLive001 - Barac FOLD Main Room - 19.September.2025

XTD · XTDLive001 - Barac FOLD Main Room - 19.September.2025

Slow Life Podcast Series - 5.2 - Laurine

 

Slow Life · Slow Life Podcast Series - 5.2 - Laurine

Track Of The Day: Featherstone -- Morning Star (Who Is Paula)

A great track that I discovered recently when listening to 214’s ‘October Mix’. A mix of ambience, electro and heady emotional content. It comes from the recently released ‘Shapeshifter’, and is one of five excellent tracks. Featherstone comes from Australia, of all places. However, it is also one of those places that is becoming an electro hotbed. This EP isn’t completely composed of B -Boy beats, but shows a sonic sleight of hand which culminates in this, possibly the stand out of the package.

Cabaret Voltaire - Nag Nag Nag - FORGE Warehouse, Sheffield - 25 October...

I will be in Birmingham next month to see this. Can't wait.

Sharlese at Sustain-Release Yr. 11

 

Sharlese · Sharlese at Sustain-Release Yr. 11

Track Of The Day: Circulation - Patterins (Iz & Diz Ghosts In Detroit Wake Up Dub) (Balance)

“It sounds a lot more glamorous than it actually was. We were invited up there by Chez Damier who was basically living at the studio in 1995. So me and Diz drove up to Detroit with the back of my van filled with studio gear. When we arrived, Chez was nowhere to be found (surprise surprise) although we ended up running into him at a show that night. That show was actually one of the last times Ken Collier, a Detroit pioneer, DJ’d. When we got back to the studio the next day, the water had been turned off and there was no equipment set up. We spent three days waiting to get the basic amp and board set up and then only had about 20 hours to finish a track which was “Patterins” on Balance. While we were recording it we could feel all the ghosts of sessions past in the room so we called it the “Ghosts In Detroit Wake Up Dub”. All in all it was a great experience, although I remember Chez initially not liking the track. He still put it out and it is one of my favorite tracks we have ever done.” I love Iz & Dis. Still one of house music’s best double acts, although I recently heard that Diz was ill, which is a pity. I hope he’s recovered. Iz, aka Joshua, has one of the most recognisable styles in what used to be my favourite brand of house music. Something that, while it was indelibly from Chicago, went out on a limb somewhat and embraced dub a lot quicker than most. Anyway, this is a lovely piece of horizontal windy city business which is definitely Balearic. 

Track Of The Day: Federsen - Polarity [Alt Dub]

This just hits the spot. The drive, the tones and textures, the pervasive feels created by those frequencies hammering on the sweet spot. It doesn’t all sound the same, as is often said or inferred. When it’s really on its game it defies description and is a true music of the imagination. It’s difficult to say if anyone currently making music will ever reach the levels of, say. Basic Channel, but Federsen is one of the best out there and his tracks evoke and captivate as much as anything out there.

Track Of The Day: Cabaret Voltaire -- Low Cool (Plastex)

Track Of Yesterday: Pure Science - We Must Feel (Rehab Music)

Track Of The Day: Soft Cell - Memorabilia (Some Bizarre)

These two were impossible to avoid during the early eighties, and they left a mark much more indelible than the sum of their parts. Moreover, even though it was probably Marc Almond who was the face and voice of the group, I would be dancing to them because of their sound which revolutionised pop music forever. We have Dave Ball too thank for that. This is my favourite track by Soft Cell, mainly because of his sterling, driving synth work. Revolutionary then and still ahead of the pack now. 

Track Of The Day: Liaisons Dangereuses - Los Niños del Parque (Roadrunner Records)

In spite of their French name, Liaisons Dangereuses were a German ensemble from Kraftwerk’s home town, Dusseldorf. And, like DAF, who were also from the same city, they crossed over in the 1980s with a piece of dark synth disco which couldn’t be more angular or teutonic. I remember dancing to these tunes in Merseyside’s finest early to mid eighties watering holes. Places like The Chelsea Reach in New Brighton, and the Pyramid Club and State in Liverpool. Tracks like this brought the romance of the cold war closer, minus the threat of nuclear weapons. As far as I know ow this was the band’s only single. Good to begin and end on a high.

The Frontier 018 - Andy Green

Quadrant Soundscape · The Frontier 018 - Andy Green

Voyage de Lux w/ Alex Downey - 22.10.25

 

1BTN · Voyage de Lux w/ Alex Downey - 22.10.25

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.