Best New Releases from May 2019
Spring flourishes all over the world with beautiful albums, exciting releases, and mesmerizing remixes coming from the likes of New Jackson, STL, Lake People, Qnete and Carmel, Cleveland, Amandra and Mattheis, Dorisburg and Arkajo, Tracey, Son.Sine, upsammy via Cin Cin, Echocord, Remote Scope, QC Records, Hivern Discs, Ahrpe Records, Arkajo, Dial Records, Echo Echo and Nous’klaer Audio.
Dorisburg and Arkajo
Untitled 2
Arkajo
Arkajo’s newly launched label, Arkajo, comes hard on the heels of their second release. “Void Pyramid” EP is an ongoing creative collaboration between an infamous duo Genius Of Time, Swedish sonic architects Arkajo and Dorisburg. A brand new package splits across two deep and hypnotic tracks and exhibits a full talent of these two legendary names in the world of house and techno.
The “Untitled 2” is an atmospheric deep-vibe gem, brimming with rich ambiance, hazy textures, and smoky dub-techno rhythms.
Mattheis and Amandra
Malpa Malpa
Ahrpe Records
Dutch electronic music producer Mattheis and Nous’klaer Audio affiliate join forces with the French artist Amandra to deliver “Ventriloquist Chant EP on Amandra’s Ahrpe Records. Their debut package is comprised of four tracks, each harness a unique type of raw energy and explore an innovative and intelligent side of modern electronic music.
“Malpa Malpa” is a beautiful panoramic mirage wrapped in sheer depth and warmth of the sound palette and arrangements used by Amandra and Mattheis. Drawing from an amalgam of exquisitely nuanced soundscapes, abstract undulating synth waves and magnetic percussive groove, “Malpa Malpa” is dream-inducing, hypnotic, and entrancing.
Tracey
TRR
Dial Records
Amsterdam-based electronic music producer Tom Reuijg, better known as Tracey, has unveiled his outstanding debut full-length album “ Biostar”. After releasing music on Aus Music, Voyage Direct and Integrated, Dutch artist brings a 13-track collection of “sublime electro, ambient experimentation and warm, tonal techno” to the Dial Records. “Based in the Netherlands”, describes the label”, Tracey’s music is undoubtedly indebted to a legacy of emotive electronic music, the sort whose stark futurist vision cannot be equaled. Instead, he strives and succeeds to create something personal and charismatic from a perhaps familiar palette of sounds. Somewhere between experimentation and understated songwriting, ‘Biostar’ is a worthy addition to Dial’s legacy of unique, artist-led albums.”
son.sine
Evident Topology
Echo Echo
Echo Echo, a sub-label of Danish Echocord record label, continues its rise with an impressive EP by son.sine.
After four years of hiatus, since the release of the “seconds:minutes:hours” EP in 2015 on Delsin Records, Leyton Gle graces his fans with a new “Variable States” EP under the guise of son.sine. The three-track package strikes the elegant balance between evocative moodscapes and dystopian atmosphere.
Uniting hazy dub techno rhythms with emotive lyricism, twisted bassline and airy strings, “Evident Topology” is beautiful, atmospheric and dubby spaced out.
Qnete and Carmel
Forest Magic
QC Records
QC Records, an enigmatic operation out of Leipzig, continue to carve out its path as an impressive new imprint. Following up an unsigned debut earlier this year, QC Records proudly presents its second release, “Trifecta” EP from Qnete and Carmel, a creative collaboration between Marvin Uhde and Reece Walker. A beautiful three-track package channels delicate torrents of sun-drench romanticism and far-reaching flurries of tropical-tinged melodies.
Glowing with sparkling sunny vibes, the second track “Forest Magic” is a strong melting pot of breakbeat driven rhythms and kaleidoscopic washes of lush synth-laced with infectiously bright hooks and mesmerizing melodies. It's a perfect addition for any DJ set.
Lake People
Trip To Amherst
Remote Scope
Leipzig-based multitalented, versatile producer, live-performer and man of many monikers Martin Enke has launched the new record label Remote Scope under his Lake People alias. The new imprint is described in a press release as “a platform based around total creative freedom... space for Martin to remove all expectations and explore production from a completely freeform perspective. No rules, no boundaries. As proved by this incredible and open-armed vibe smorgasbord that crosses his entire sonic terrain.”
The label’s inaugural release, “In One Place” EP, is a diverse five-track which is masterfully balances with elements of breakbeat, electro and Detroit house influences.
“Trip To Amherst” is a beautiful fusion of abstract experimentalism and b-boy electro funk. In true fashion, Lake People blends elements of delicate and emotive beauty alongside distinctive complex rhythmic patterns embedded in layers of shifting sonic soundscapes.
Cleveland
DX6
Hivern Discs
Never failing to surprise, Brussels-based electronic music producer Cleveland continues to take creative risks pushing his music forward. His latest musical adventure is a mighty double EP released on John Talabot’s Hivern Discs. “nDSi” EP introduces a collection of seven tracks which explores a colorful PALETTE of vintage sounds jam-packed with electric flavor, retro-futuristic soundscapes, and minimalistic rhythmic patterns.
The electro-gliding beauty “DX6” shows another notable example of the retro-futuristic electro funk. The structure is adorned with textured undertones, cycling soundscapes and abstract synth insertions punctuated by blissful bleeps and bloops.
upsammy
Wild Chamber
Nous’klaer Audio
May marks an exciting return of Utrecht-based producer and De School resident upsammy to Nous’klaer Audio. Following on from the success of her previous work “Words R Inert” EP on Oliver Hafenbauer’s Die Orakel and “Another Place” EP on Nous’klaer Audio, upsammy brings kaleidoscopic electro-reflected sound in form of a new mini-album "Wild Chamber" to her Rotterdam homebase. Here is how the album is described in the press release:
"A mini-LP that captures dawn mist, reflecting-pool shimmer, and occasional flashes of brilliant blue light. Swells of bass sag and yawn, time signatures switch up and break down drums stutter and charge, and gossamer melodic trails are traced like ice skates atop a thawing lake. Innumerable shards of ideas are present, yet the music is airy and uncluttered. Wild Chamber is upsammy at her most pure, sketching sonic miniatures with a precise eye and an inquisitive ear quite unlike anyone else’s right now."
The title track is a poetic beauty colored by flourishes of electronic intricacy and beautiful buoyant harmonies.
STL
Lost Harbour
Echocord
German producer STL, returns to the Copenhagen’s Echocord with a new EP, “Take Your Seats”. Ever since his first EP in 2003, Stephan Laubner, better known as STL, has prevailed as one of the most empowering forces in the underground electronic music scene. Across music on highly notable record labels such as Smallville Records, Perlon, Echocord, and his own Something imprint, STL seamlessly incorporates elements of ambient, electronica, field recording and dub-minded house and techno. The trend continues on the new three-track “Take Your Seats” EP, most spectacularly on the amply titled opening track “Lost Harbour” which allows the textured soundscapes and modulated synth lines to expand on their own time. The added elegant piano melody creates a sense of sonic dissonance and brings a further layer of ambiance, surrounding the hypnotic and dubbed-out techno rhythms.
New Jackson
Moonfeel
Cin Cin
Fort Romeau’s and Ali Tillett's Cin Cin is embracing a philosophy to release a split EP format bringing together established and new artists. Their next installment of the split 12's series welcomes back Irish producer New Jackson and a young London-based producer Will Lister for a brand new “Glass Stabs / Disruption” EP.
Following hot on the heels of his impressive “Romancecar” EP, released earlier this year via Permanent Vacation, a highly respected producer, musician and singer-songwriter David Kitt, better know as New Jackson contributes two gorgeous tracks “Glass Stabs” and “Moonfeel” to the split.
Fortified with a power of intelligent lyricism, “Moonfeel” is a well-crafted record that introduces New Jackson’s musical multiplicity with driving textured percussion and evocative elegant melody that will get listeners into a hypnotic groove.