Asphalt DJ & Gzardin
Now & Zen

After this pair of Leeds residents made waves last November with their first EP for Pilot, Bobby O'Donnell and Reeshy return to lay down four new tracks that definitely stray towards the electro end of the breaks/electro spectrum. There's a sense of continuity, as the first EP's tracks - labelled 1-4, are followed by tracks 5-8, as well as being executed with a proper human touch that not all such machinefunk can boast. '6' is full of spiralling Drexciyan mystery, before being pared down to an LFO-style bass prod. '8' also echoes the former legends of Leeds with its dreamy pads and acid backdrop - something in the local water supply. Definitely funky enough to keep the breaks DJs onside, but with a thorough knowledge of love of 40 years of electronic music heritage at its disposal too, this is one release you should make sure you not miss.

Maara’s latest effort comes straight from the inner zone. Whether meant for use as vision quest guidance or club hedonism, Fancy Feast continues the Canadian’s tradition of crafting seductive, trance-inducing dance music in mesmeric fashion. ‘Can’t Slo Down’ is a vehicle for transcendence. Locked-in, hypnotic fare with subtle gear shifts consistent with Maara’s propensity towards trippy atmospherics and urgent dancefloor dynamics. Then, in a heady alloy of ritual throb and fractal warehouse ruffness, ‘Highrollerz’ finds Maara at her most propulsive. Prog reigns supreme across the record, but 'Princess Express' has the third-eye dilating magick in full effect. It’s both fractal and functional, a ritual incantation with rugged appeal. ‘Rude, Crude & Out Of Control’, on the other hand, harks back to those halcyon days of the free party movement. Proper breakbeat torque with yet another healthy dose of prog.

Die Orakel presents the ORKL-0114 series: Three 12″ white-label vinyl releases produced by Frankfurt based artists 386i, Benjamin Milz and Koga as a tribute to Sheffield’s bleep techno era.

Boiling club music down to a brutal, incisive essence, Anthoney Hart AKA Basic Rhythm returns to Sneaker Social Club with a trio of sharply honed Drum & Bass cuts for the dance.With releases on labels as varied as Type, Warp sub-label Arcola, Planet Mu and Future Retro, Basic Rhythm has always presented a clear-sighted vision of what works in the context of hardcore-rooted sounds without ever sounding derivative of what has come before.Following 2019’s New Style and 2020’s I Don’t Know What I Would Do, Basic Rhythm returns to Sneaker Social with the icy impact of ‘Still’. The lead track runs across the A side in a nuanced sound field of atmospheric impressions, architectural punctuation and an understated but deadly effective beat. With a minimalist approach these subtle touches carry all the more weight.On the flip, ‘Le Samouraï’ has a similarly spartan palette, albeit with a much knottier rhythmic framework and a more pronounced bed of dread-filled string pads ensuring the vibe remains as moody as possible in a time-honoured UK style. The extraneous silence around the 2/3 marker is the definition of an anti-drop.Referencing a totemic study of magic and religion, ‘Still (Golden Bough)’ approaches the A side from a subtly altered angle, switching up the textural matter and thus shifting the atmosphere towards something more ritualistic and unnerving. As with the rest of the EP, In something so stark your ears relish every individual element, and yet each subsequent listen brings another dimension of the track to the fore. In the rigour of his sound, Hart once again demonstrates how his rhythms are anything but basic.

After a long period of significant changes, comes a release that will set a mark on the label, in this pack the tempo has risen up, the usual chords, delays & reverbs this time evoke (till a certain point) an almost extinct sound where techno and trance manage to go hand in hand in a stylized and subtle way that in today´s field is hard to find. This release, aside from being the artist's first solo reference, also marks an evolution of the label's sound towards new horizons without losing the essence that has characterized the brand from the beginning.Long live the 10th.