30/10/2012

LABEL FOCUS. WOLF MUSIC

WOLF music are one of the most exciting UK underground house labels to keep your eye on.  With a series of dynamic releases under their belts, including the dance-floor bomb Give It To Me Slow, by Grey Matter, the label are bringing serious paw to the floor.  I shared a few words with Matthew Neale, co-owner of the Brighton based label to give an insight into the labels musical vision and style.



          With E.P releases ranging from mid paced funked up disco, to more recent deep,  bumping 4/4, WOLF is not a label with a regimented outlook. Neale acknowledges that there has been a change in musical dynamic from the early releases, but this has only widened their musical perspective, "our last few releases have been towards the deeper spectrum of house...we have certainly matured and not stagnated by sticking to one sound.  WOLF is chiefly mine and Stu WOLF'S (Stuart Clarke) musical tastes as well as the music that our resident producers bring to the table.  This combination creates a unique dynamic and this is reflected in the music we release."
          Listen to the variation on WOLF EP 015 and it's easy to hear this unique dynamic; Feel My Voices by Waze & Odyssey is a strong, deep house cut, whereas Squarehead & Mella Dee's Get Together has a delightful old school feel, reminiscent of current Bicep material.  Elsewhere, Nowt by James Welsh is a funky, soulful excursion reminiscent of WOLF's earlier disco-rooted releases.


 

"We are HOUSE and if you know house you know that this is an umbrella term for a lot of different styles.  If they gave us a disco track or a beatdown track and we liked it, it would come out on WOLF.  That's what house is about"  (Matthew Neale)

Matt Wolf, left. Stuart Wolf, right

SOS. - Matthew, you've worked with a lot of UK artists, including talent local to yourselves, such as Maxxi Soundsystem and Grey Matter.  As the label grows, how important is the local hub of talent in and around Brighton for the label?

M.N - Local talent is important if it's talented.  I don't support artists just because they live near me, I am just lucky to live here at the same time some extremely talented people do.  I would be releasing their music no matter where they lived.  I will always try and support Brighton's scene, but 90% of the people involved in WOLF are London based, so we are as much London as we are Brighton.

SOS. - How would you describe Wolf Music in 3 words?

M.N - Living the Dream

SOS. - Who or what influences you outside of music?

M.N - Good question.  Personally I suppose it's the usual things that influence people; art, travel, media, history, environment, peers and a burning desire to make this thing work for all involved.  We have a strong team who are all vital for making WOLF what it is, from the artists, to the art directors; WOLF is a composite and therefore a diverse mix of influences.

Check out WOLF HERE

WOLFEP015 - Various Artists, Out on 12" November 2012.  Digi to follow.



25/10/2012

FREE DIRTYBIRD MIX

Download FREE Halloweend Mix from Dirtybird's Justin Jay!


19 year old Justin Jay once got turned away from a club for being under-age.  The extremely talented, young DJ didn't always have bad luck though, and soon got picked up by Von Stroke's Dirtybird US label and has released some excellent dirty, bass fuelled releases on the label.  He's now dropped a free mix for Halloween.  It's not very spooky, but pretty damn nasty.  The mix twists peaks and chills through the Dirtybird sound and more; from deep tech-house courtesy of Nina Kraviz, to the twisted bass of Trubble from label mate Eat's Everything, to the blissed out dark-house of Leeds' Last Magpie.  Seriously good stuff.



TRACKLISTING
1. George Benson - Breezin'  
2. Deft - Loqux & Past  
3. Nina Kraviz - Ghetto Kraviz w/ Alexkid Edit; Deft - Lucid/Overline; & SHDWPLAY - Drama Queen  
4. Learning to Hide - Carlo  
5. Aidan Lavelle - Stronger  
6. Justin Jay - Altitude  
7. Tom Flynn - Be Yourself w/ Philipp Schneider, Mike O Velja - About You  
8. Mak, Pasteman - Give It Up  
9. Eats Everything - Trubble  
10. Bobby Champs - Brooklyn Bomb  
11. French Fries - Space & Smoke (Justin Martin Remix)  
12. Last Magpie - 1995  
13. Copy Paste Soul - I Need Ya  
14. Breakage - The Promise  
15. Velour - The Scent of Romance  
16. Jett - I Know I Want You  
17. Cajmere, Russoul - Lets Dance  
18. Qbeck, Julia Govor - Alice  
19. Justin Jay - Femme Fatale  

Maxxi Soundsystem - Stella's Way (Huxley Remix)

Wow, insane stuff here from Huxley, once again proving he is one of the best re mixer's in British House.  He takes the original vocal from Maxxi's techy original and brings in a hard, ascending bumpin' bass-line, super cool chord jabs and trademark garage-house beats.



Out now on Maceo Plex's Ellum Audio Buy here on vinyl

24/10/2012

IN THE GROOVE

Funky, Deep House, Bass grooves

Sick On Sunday favourite Shadow Child has joined forces with Birmingham house producer/DJ Tom Flynn for the Phil Collins E.P.  Skream and Benga dropped Drive Hero in the 'Hot House' section of their Radio 1 show recently, and it's easy to hear why.  A bouncing, uncluttered underbelly of a bass-line works it's magic underneath swirling, high-pitched, quirky synths, which circulate the sound-space.  Giant Woo is a stripped-back solid house groove, with short, sharp synth notes and blissed out atmospherics.

Out on Deleted Records, November 5th.

Shadow Child. Mysterious
Shadow Child also drops this free remix of Angels; the gorgeous, atmospheric and emotive single from The XX's Coexist album.  The deep and bouncy bass-line is softly mellowed by Romy Madley Croft's hushed vocal.
                                                          Download now via XLR8R


Leeds based techno-groove DJ's Audiojack have pursued a deeper, housier sound in recent times and this is evident on No Equal Sides.  The track has a stripped back, classic feel with very sensual overtones and whispered gasps.  The deep, funked up bass-line is sure to get heads nodding, whereas the robotic beeps put me in mind of their earlier techno offerings.  Delicious.



No Equal Sides  E.P out November 5th on Vinyl, 19th November digitally on 2020 Vision

Erase Records are delivering a plentiful supply of underground deep house cuts at the moment.  I featured the Franco & Salla produced track, Emotion, a few posts back; a mid-pace house track with old school ambiance and a classic vibe.  On remix duties here is Erase Records Chief, Wasabi.  Classic organ stabs combine with original vocal snippets to induce a more dance-floor orientated version of the track.  Deep and dishy.
Wasabi. Flavoursome.

22/10/2012

KRY WOLF & CLAUDE VON STROKE



Kry Wolf are DJ's, producers and label owners of the super-cool, South Coast based label, Sound of Sumo.  Claude Von Stroke has helped cement the sound of 2012 with his bass infused house releases on Dirtybird.  Together they have produced Turbosteppa, a garage infused, 4/4 bass bomb.  This will tickle a few bellies on the dance floor, big stuff.




16/10/2012

DIRTYTWO. FREE MIX

If you like your house deep, classic and bumpin', then download this free mix from Swedish duo DirtyTwo, showcasing the sound of,  Swedish label, Local Talk.  Local Talk are a label who have been making a lot of waves this year with high profile releases from Kyodai,  Kindimmer and, the aforementioned, DirtyTwo.


12/10/2012

FRIDAY FLAVOURS. SPECIAL REQUEST, ERASE RECORDS, ANGEL HAZE

PAUL WOOLFORD SPECIAL REQUEST 'RIDE' / 'RIDE VIP'



Special Request Lolita release
Special Request is house/techno Ibiza veteran Paul Woolford's new alias.  Taking inspiration from pirate radio and jungle, this is the second 12 inch, vinyl only, release due from the project.  In 2011 Woolford gave us some techno inspired releases on Scuba's Hotflush label and the incredible T William's Heartbeat remix.  Now, Woolford has sidestepped into ambient-jungle-hardcore, remixing a Rick Rubin produced track as Special Request.  The use of the Lana Del Ray sample over the dark jungle-hardcore sound is mesmerising.  The second track throws in a deadly 90's hardcore Belgian hoover over some nasty broken beats and some funked up bass.  The results are equally nostalgic and fresh sounding, and pretty astounding.
An album is in the pipeline.
 
SPECREQ003 vinyl in stores soon.



Sebastiano Sedda & Phil D'Bit are an Italian house-tech duo who found a creative kinship around the age of 15, started running all the club nights in their native Verona by their 20's, and have also had an E.P released on Riva Starr's Snatch! label.  The duo's latest release is on the very fresh Erase Records, and could roughly be described as clinking, playful and irregular shaped techno, with a pulsing house soul. 




Angel Haze is the latest female rapper to be compared to other female rappers, purely because she raps, and has a vagina.  Truth is, Angel Haze doesn't need sexuality to make a mark in a male dominated world; she's more Drake, than Minaj or Banks.  It's simply her fierce and frightening ability, her almost sinister New York drawl, knack for twisted syllable defying dark poetry and an unrelenting ambition that sets her head and shoulders above the rest.  And I'm not just talking about the women.  She knows it too; her youtube channel has the tag, 'Subscribe, idiot'.  You can forgive her if she sounds a bit rude; she really is that good. 
Check out fellow Gil Scott-Heron sampler JamieXX doing his thing all over radio 1 favourite, New York



The video for Werkin' Girls is genuinely creepy, and looks how your worst nightmare on bad drugs would feel.  It's a perfect representation however of the sinister energy of the song: sparse, cold and a brilliantly bad trip.



Download the free Reservation mixtape HERE.

04/10/2012

BARESKIN - EYES E.P



Hypercolour really do have an eye for talent and young producer Joshua Thompson is no exception.  The Winchester DJ/producer has had garage tinged releases on Losing Suki but it this seocnd E.P, on deep house label of the moment Hypercolour, that is sure to propel him to greater things.  The 4 track E.P is equally ambient, garage influenced and atmospheric; with deep, sultry grooves coupled with silky smooth vocals.  Title track, Eyes, is sure to be huge; a thick, acid tinged baseline reminiscent of Huxley's Let It Go, a classic 4/4 shuffle and sultry female r n' b vocals.

03/10/2012

KARENN - SHEWORKS004

Blawan and Pariah, aka Karenn, truly are a colossal force.  A series of pummelling, atmospheric techno releases on their own SHEWORKS (the long nights) label have cemented Karenn as a key player in the UK techno scene, and not just a side-project.  The regimented title of fourth E.P, SHEWORKS004, the vinyl only releases and the self-releases on the SHEWORKS label are somewhat of a mission statement, echoing early Detroit records.  Tracks such as Clean It Up and Nicotine Window Netting are exhilarating; unrelenting and rhythmically abrasive tracks that shake you to the very core.  Elsewhere the shuffling textures of Sailing Solvents and Wideyed are reminiscent of a very techno sounding Burial.  Lifesbleach, another abstract title, is a mutated acid trip.  Karenn are a dose of everything intrinsically brilliant about techno.

Karenn-Pariah(left) & Blawan



ZINC FREE D/L

Sustained Loud Sounds

Zinc is churning out the free downloads for fun at the moment; the best being this house stomper,complete with Zinc's trademark crack house bassline.  Download it for free now.