Electro/club winter 2020

While other genres and sectors have recently witnessed a massive rediscovery of the Ep, especially as a format for launching and promoting new talent, the entire world of dancefloor electronic music has always held the format in the highest regard, still considering it the prime vehicle for spreading new tracks and bringing fresh talent to the fore, allowing artists to build a solid audience while waiting for more ambitious projects. Practical and versatile enough to be used on the most varied occasions, with the added benefit of offering a broader perspective than the standalone track, the beloved twelve-inch remains the preferred currency among club-culture enthusiasts, a medium as fascinating as it is dizzyingly dispersive, especially amid today's overflowing sea of releases. To bring a bit of order to a distribution landscape that's often all too chaotic, this article attempts to offer a selection of the best Ep/12” releases from the past four months, delving into cult names, connoisseur's gems and new talent seeking the spotlight. Without hierarchies or particular preferences, the most enticing new house, techno, electro and related releases, picked from the most varied corners of the globe. Now dance, dance, dance till you drop!

DJ Trystero – High Speed Wind (The Trilogy)

He may well be a total newcomer, but judging by the tracks that make up "High Speed Wind", the sound is the work of experienced hands, someone who's spent years honing every detail of their aesthetic. And it's in the nuances that the mysterious Japanese producer's debut mini-album reveals itself at its best, playing in the risky territory of lo-fi tech-house, with its lurching progressions and its odd melodic sensibility, nestled within stubborn, almost drone-like beats. Moments of genuine ambient synesthesia, reminiscent of Actress and early Huerco S., slyly creep into the longer tracks, breaking the flow and dissolving the development into slow mechanisms of release and tension, in which club structures retain only a false skeleton. Who knows how DJ Trystero will evolve such an idiosyncratic sonic device.

ELLES – summers_of_love (Naive)

It's certainly no secret that Uk-garage, in its purest forms, stripped of its later hybridisations with the Dubstep universe, is undergoing a fresh revival. Twenty-year cycles repeating themselves, one might say, but it's also true that some artists use this backward glance as a chance to project themselves forward, delivering a vivid image of a future that's more than exciting. Such is the case with Eleanor Pinfold, better known as ELLES, who on "summers_of_love" crafts a curious fusion between the classic 2-step patterns of British garage and the most disparate surrounding contexts, whether the acid trimmings and grime undertones of "put on our classics", or the hazy piano flows of "gotchu", almost dissolved into slow ambient landscapes. In this sense "end of nite", with its piano-house heel just barely rippled with Balearic influences, might seem like an exception, if not for the gentle atmospheric qualities that keep the musician's production (who also boasts a lovely vocal tone) firmly grounded. Allusive and recombinant, a project that puts forward a name worth remembering.

Eris Drew – Fluids Of Emotion (Interdimensional Transmissions)

It's almost surreal that this is Eris Drew's first project of exclusively self-authored material. The Australian producer, quite well known for her thoroughly unorthodox and highly personal approach to mixing, as well as for her top-tier collaborations alongside her friend Octo Octa (with whom she co-founded the label T4T LUV NRG), rewards the wait with a trio of tracks that confirm her skill and her powerful sense of vision, aimed both at reimagining rave culture through an exciting hybrid of house and breakbeat, and at serving as a vehicle for messages of care and love, in a kind of listening experience with almost therapeutic properties, promptly revealed by the title itself. Samples lifted from KLF (the closing banger "So Much Love To Give", where Drew's percussive soul emerges with absolute urgency), psychedelic dynamics (the synthetic clusters of the title track), floor-shaking openings complete with showy string pads ("Transcendental Access Point") make up a fully-formed project, endowed with all the vision it needs to stand out with total ease. New dispatches from this such peculiar creative universe are eagerly awaited.

Ingi Visions – Ingi Visionair EP (SlapFunk)

There's a party atmosphere in the SlapFunk camp, and you're all invited to join in. Active for a good decade now, brothers Samuel Deep and Julian Alexander join forces and sign a short Ep under the name Ingi Visions, ready to be sweated out on the dancefloor. The verb is house, but the declensions couldn't be more divergent, ranging from lashing bass (the compelling percussive patterns of "Visionair Wain") to nods to garage of old ("SlapTrax"), to sinister omens crushed under basic synth lines (the ill-boding ambience of "Macrodyn"). If Holland has often shown it knows how to personalize and stamp its own signature on house idioms, the two brothers from Utrecht here demonstrate the evolution reached by the scene, capable of combining escapism and emotional/descriptive substance to the highest degree: ready for a party in dark hues?

Jett Chandon – Julia (Kontainer)

A staple of the Washington techno scene, Tara Algios is a magnetic performer, by virtue of a research into timbre, melody and composition that goes beyond easy comparisons to scenes and influences. Four tracks over just under half an hour, "Julia" is a bizarre, uneven work with a shifting gait, one that keeps interest alive thanks to its great internal variety and a thoroughly alien sense of ambience and progression. "Warrior" moves eccentrically, a constant surprise around every corner, industrial clangs intercepting suspended Idm interludes. While the title track knows how to use its length to sharpen the hypnotic feel stemming from its seductive percussive loop, "Flutter" is pure electro energy set within a context of oppressive rhythmic obsession, ready for the most discerning themed nights. Hypnotic.

Julian De'Angelo & Viola Klein – We (Meakusma/Ominira)

Cologne and Detroit join forces, heading toward Dakar and its musical heritage. Without any discrepancy that might spoil its suspended, timeless flow, Julian De'Angelo's house sound combines with the latter's linguistic eclecticism, drawing a fascinating link between the most luxurious deep house and mbalax (the quintessential Senegalese genre), uncovering their mutual elective affinities. The result is a project with a strongly collective spirit (there are many vocal and instrumental collaborations), one that manages to be deeply atmospheric while tracing convulsive rhythmic paths, often complementing the intriguing Senegalese patterns (the almost footwork-like tone of the first movement of "We") with meticulous attention to detail. Yet another demonstration of a globalism synonymous with deep cultural engagement and broad linguistic knowledge, it proves to be one of the brightest moments of this first quarter of 2020.

KamavoSian – Sign Of Light (Death Bell)

Singer in Ghoulchapel, a symphonic black metal quartet from Yerevan, Ando Kamavosyan also runs a parallel solo career, dedicated to exploring the contours of the most evocative and atmospheric techno. The latest effort in a path already begun in 2017, "Sign Of Light" presents five tracks of substantial but never excessive length, showcasing the producer's excellent taste for compositions with a sinister allure, reflecting the deep red immortalized on the cover itself. Livid, dramatically charged ambiences pair with powerful rhythmic patterns, free to roam with total freedom, between dark interruptions and restarts (the ominous omens of "Meet In Dream"), changes of clothing (the hammering accelerations of the title track), and distant vocal openings (the unstoppable progression of "Through Time And Memories"). Pulsating and evocative, the Armenian musician's techno exerts its magnetism immediately.

Mor Elian – Clairvoyant Frog (Visible Spectrum)

There's an ancestral, not to say supernatural, touch to the latest 12" from Israeli-born (but Berlin-based) producer Mor Elian, three tracks that shift her techno surfaces toward even more evocative and surreal shores, never pinned down to a definitive framing, as blurred as the truest essence of memory. While "Shoshana's Roses" would have every right to turn into a top-tier club banger (excellent Middle Eastern references, in a kind of more jagged electro-dabke), the winding drones in the background offer further layers of meaning, granting attentive listening a privileged dimension. Closer to a sinister rereading of Idm, though marked by a regular rhythmic turn, is "Clairvoyant Soup", devoted to bizarre alien musings, while "Planet Kismet" steers its research toward a narcotic, obsessive techno that hides its deep mystery behind dark synthetic ostinatos. It's really easy to be captivated.

Pongo – UWA (Caroline)

The Lisbon diaspora never stops delivering thrills, and the second Ep from Angolan artist Engrácia Domingues, better known as Pongo, reveals a scene that's anything but dormant or resting on its laurels — quite the opposite, ready to tackle the challenge of a pop approach head-on. Rooted in the country's electronic scene (you won't struggle to spot the rhythmic traits of kuduro, kizomba and the most brazen Portuguese batida), the musician combines the frenetic, sparkling touch of the various genres in play, fitting them with an interesting melodic component that shapes the tracks into fully-fledged songs. The musician's voice, energetic yet soulful, takes over every single moment, projecting her as a new dance queen in an exciting game of mirrors. By the close of "Wafu", the track that comes closest to a more "ordinary" dance context, the urge to hit "play" again is almost instinctive.

Roman Flügel – Garden Party (Running Back)

Talking about Roman Flügel means covering twenty-odd years of adventures straddling techno and house, an experience that has crossed boundaries and over time enriched itself with new ideas, partly thanks to the deliberate use of multiple monikers. Released under his own name, "Garden Party" is a brilliant revisitation of the italo disco of old, viewed however through an oblique angle that doesn't sacrifice its groove and melodic impact but sharpens its edges, energizes its rhythmic drive, and thickens the sound with electro blasts and luminous house openings. While the title track takes the lion's share, wringing every drop out of its euphoric melodic sensibility (some cite Todd Terje, and the comparison isn't so far-fetched), "Parade d'amour" arms itself with the soothing nuances of Studio Barnhus, keeping its Eighties fascination intact, before "Juke City" displays clearer deep ambitions, reread through a vein that wouldn't be out of place on a Juan MacLean record. The true outlier of this brief collection, "Young & Lean" delves into subtler, more minimal aspects than the preceding tracks, yet still knows how to translate this kind of sound into a more hazy, chillout setting without losing substance. A 12" with guaranteed impact.

Sofia Kourtesis – Sarita Colonia (Studio Barnhus)

Read Studio Barnhus, and you already know where this is headed. Not that Peruvian artist Sofia Kourtesis falls into whatever clichés might be associated with the label co-founded by Kornél Kovács, but it's undeniable that she shares a great deal with the label's founding traits. Her aesthetic, naturally house-rooted, knows how to squeeze the most out of samples (even bolder here than in the past) and loops, how to pair the dancefloor with the subtlest melancholy, how to wrap her language in a muffled, dreamlike aura. Across the four tracks of "Sarita Colonia", the producer takes the lead in unfurling a soaring micro-melodic sensibility that, compared to the obsessive rhythmic cycles of her earlier work, here counters with a more pronounced internal development, as reminiscent of the French touch of Motorbass and Pépé Bradock as it is of less angular techno, also put to use in the various breakdowns supporting the main lines (take the central section of "Hollywood"). Lush, comforting, and equipped with just the right drive to avoid flattening into mere (albeit excellent) background music, the 12" thrives on a solidity that confirms the instinct and consistency of a top-tier label.

YNZN.P – How About That (Skip-A-Beat)

Straight from Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, Prasidha Yonzon, the producer hiding behind the fairly self-explanatory moniker YNZN.P, signs to Mumbai's Skip-A-Beat for one of the season's most distinctive and elusive electro moments, a genuine achievement in conciseness that makes the most of every passage and gives it its own specific weight. Barely ten minutes long, the EP digs deep into a sound that evades expectations and easy categorization, yet still manages to deliver worthwhile rhythmic ideas (albeit diffracted through a chopped-like lens) and translate them into intricate percussive lattices. At times you can even catch glimpses of melody ("Dirty Swing Thing", enveloping in its constant shifting of center of gravity), at other times it pushes toward a more extreme direction, though never given over to abrasion or sonic rejection. Techno, fragmented and reassembled samples, and atmospheric play combine into shifting structures with fragile balances, which nevertheless reveal a gentle, even delicate soul, as evident as its creator's creativity is fresh. Simply delightful.

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google