ES-Q
You Create, We destroy

R.A.N.D. Muzik Recordings welcomes Kepler to the label with 4 modern takes on the classic 90s UK tech-house sound.

After two years stuck in the virtual world our lil’ ninja is ready to jump back in the real world to deliver the 5th volume of the label’s Ninja tool series. From 1991 to 2022, over 30 years of electronic music are covered through 5 tracks.

After three EP's in his own name, and one with Moreno Ácido at Holuzam, Diogo makes his debut 12” in the Discos Extendes series with “FINALMENTE!”. In a singular appropriation of the vast legacy of rave culture, Diogo crosses, along four tracks, a certain time span between the 90's and the 2020's, with all kinds of recycling and updates that the exercise entails. Syncopated rhythmic patterns, robust basses, junglist echoes, haunted voices or celestial pads make up a revivalist sound palette, here rearticulated beyond linear structures. “Até Segunda” sets the tone in territories close to Objekt's Theme from Q in a live sound design amidst sudden disturbances and rallying hooks. Tracks 2 and 3 stand out for their plot twists: “Ponto de Não Retorno” starts with a frenetic breaky maze before get immersed in a oneiric landscape, and “What?!” progresses gently within Vancouver coordinates to be opened to a schizophrenic rawness that, from there, completely remakes the track. “Errar É Ok” is an exercise of decompression, melodically woven, with a dreamy coda pointing to nostalgic horizons. Violet closes the EP with a muscular version of “Ponto de Não Retorno”. "Finalmente!" marks for this unstable balance between familiarity and strangeness, intuitiveness and disturbance, euphoria and immersion. Tracks for the dance floor, yes, with a twist, to be rediscovered as often as you like.

Developer Archive returns with its 13th chapter and as you'd expect, the EP is made up of four groove based techno bangers tailor-made for floor-filling. The moods differ on each track and it's mostly exotic grooves, looped riffs, haunting modular electronics, and occasional mind-altering synth lines. Huge TIP!

Lowless Opens 2022 with a newcomer on the label, the French producer Sindh.The first track “Baltal” introduce the EP with a dark and subtle atmosphere mixed with field recordings.Then come “Koyul” and “Miari” more dance oriented tracks characterized by organic and sophisticated rythms mixing modular percussions with bongo drums.The last track “Lingshed” guide you through more psychedelic landscapes and broken slow-motion beats.

A timely reissue of UK house maestro Charles Webster’s heavily sought-after Spectrum EP, originally released under his Presence alias back in ’96. ‘Gotta Be Paid’ sets the tone, a huge deep house number reminiscent of the Prescription/Murk/Shelter Mix camps with shuffling drums, sweet low end and a looping vocal sample. Across the rest of the tracks Webster nods to various strains of US dance music that inspired the British club scene of the era but shows why he is regarded as one of the best in the business. A2 ‘Partyboy’ continues on with the well-swung, punchy attitude, underlying keys seemingly harking back to the bleep days prior to the hardcore continuum. The sound is classier and more refined though, mostly due to the improvement the mid 90s saw in production opportunities and Webster’s clear affinity to the New York scene across the pond. The EP is an exercise in the classic house template of addition and subtraction, yet with all of Webster’s chosen elements oozing quality and nothing ever sounding out of place. ‘Work on Me’ opens the B-side with a big room diva mantra imploring all the dancers to get to work. Simple and totally effective. ‘I Believe’ grooves along ever more subtly, an after-hours burner rounding the 12” off in a wide-eyed romantic fashion.