san fran synth sensei ben winans aka roche ventures further into his arcane hardware labyrinths on stillhope, his second slab of mind-wired pacific house for 100% silk. as always with his work there is a great sense of spaciousness and flow, coastal fog billowing around alcatraz and over lands end, invisible currents taking control.

classic house torchbearer joins forces with octo octa, newbody, benny badge, the horses, sarah bates, sorcerer, ash williams, swinging & sweat in through funky new wave club mixes, freestyle r&b, mesh-top house, freeform hardware workouts & decadent disco.

scotland-born parisian paradise 100 (a.k.a. dj africa, a.k.a. graham peel) has been percolating stripped-back, bouncy-castle house constructs onto the web for a few years but never locked them in wax until now. high time. following his minimalist dictum *more than three tracks on a song is just indulgence*, his debut eps four cuts share a sleek, spare design, jigsawing slinky bass, classic keys, lean drum programming and flashes of synth mirage into fluid, aerodynamic patterns. touches of melodic acid and crossover new wave color the mood an exotic, hedonistic hue (further evinced by titles like the loin king and french kissing in the house of love). his own vision of the project is appropriately fantastical: *the image in my mind is of tropical forests at night, torchlight, distant sounds of tribal ritual dance and ghosts.* regal music for pleasure domes.

melbournian multi-hyphenate luke brown has his hands in a lot of pots, having dug deep in his dj duo with ricardo ramos, leslie salvador, as well as his ongoing death-disco / dark-synth revisionist twosome, negativ magick. but the past few years have found him exploring more classic, scruffed-up analog house terrain via his latest alias les level, and his six-track debut is purist uncut club gold. bookended by a pair of of mixes of the stellar neo-chicago anthem *house of need*, the rest of the tracks prowl through a host of suave, shuffling, strictly rhythmic variations, from the 3 am skyline seducer *smooth sailing* to the pumping, jazzy jack-groove *working nights*. an expert assemblage by a nuanced craftsman with style to burn.

brooklyns boroughs are contaminated by creators, so the only surprise hearing alex burkats first 100% silk masters was how subtly exquisite he had nailed them down. patient, swelling loops of new age club mist give way to classic chicago figure-8 bass patterns, and dubby, sampled drum fills punctuate before billowing back out into breathy warehouse atmospherics.
his recent ep for mister saturday night explored more upbeat-oriented dynamics but tarot unwinds with a dreamier deja vu—waves of arpeggiated echoes, strobing stereo shimmer, and low acid warble arcing over a limitless subterranean dance floor. this is hypnotic humanist mantric mystery music for the 21st century, for those invested in what the deck has to hold.

killer house on 100% silk

better than a classic cafe del mar compilation, piano cloud offers the sweet samplings of balearic ambience mixed with the cheeky love-hangover of a disco-dance-diana instrumental.

shades of tron with whirls & swirls & some mighty alien ray guns against stomping beats. both not easy listening, & not hard to listen to.

fresh again, silks favorite dunce-dance diva, maria minerva, tries on a new wardrobe with her bless ep. busting out with sweet n swingy single black magick, minerva caters her classic la-la lyrics about an occult/joke-cult romance over a new waif, schneider-esque pop-rock lobsta beat. space 4 u slips echo-drone vocal monologues over a laface-style rnb booty bumper, while symbol of my pleasure sneers with a walk this way funk lick, both reminding fans of minervas naughty/playful creep-creativities. rounding out the ep are soul searchin – a sleazy, down-tuned, junk-jungle comatose doser – and lady blacktonikas black magick garage trippin remix – a layer cake of luscious tush pushin and an ode to another sassy lady, miss kier herself. confidence is key, and this is maria minerva struttin,’ on and off key, through her newest collection of wand songs.

micro-scene main mans deconstructed-dance endevor takes his diagonal dub, mood mixin wonk wizardry to someplace strange & sideways. a style-sampler, approaching acid, teasing techno, & jumbling jazz.

portlandia house bastion ecstasy termed temples 2012 debut mini-lp, i-vii, ambient jack, which captures something of the projects contradictory strengths: airy yet agile, sparse but plush, flights of intuition mapped onto morphing grids of percussion, crystalline electronics, and pastel skylines. avalon kalins latest collection of tech finery, earrings ii, dials back the atmospheric quotient somewhat, though theres still a rock garden spaciousness to his mixes, each element arranged with regard to some higher harmony, the poetry of negative space. recorded in his home studio while dancing, the four tracks here ebb between passages of pressure and release, euphoric but unstable, dusted with pyramid-chamber slap back and live dubbing acrobatics. their melting clock asymmetries more closely echo kalins hardware improvisations with scott goodwin as polonaise than the velvet vocal house of his other solo vessel, finesse, but temples is ultimately a holy place all its own. a sleekly compelling statement from one of the pacific northwests secret heroes. mastered by eric hanson. edition of 305

new england deep house patriot kicks off the new year w/a real shot to the heart. jacking out the gate, followed by a creamy, serene slice of stereo software, a mesmerizing 3rd, & a high-stepping closer.

bay area hardware native chelsea faiths debut as cherushii – a name she has been recording under informally since her first teenage techno tascam experiments more than a decade ago – spills over with loves and lessons gleaned from her lifer voyage through the citys thriving rave underworlds.

before birthing his blasted acid house identity bobby draino drummed for various synth-punked groups around vancouver, and some of that scorched earth live energy bleeds through the five primordial bangers comprising his vinyl debut, *brain drain*. tracked live through one channel of a space echo straight to his computer, draino’s mo is overdriven drum machines saturated with gritty fried acid, bass damage, and blown-tone sequencer patterns, fused into a radical and weird debased mutant house. the eps five tracks are the cumulation of two years of demo workshopping, tr-606 and 303 autodidacticism, warehouse party spelunks, etc, all savvy tactics for developing a shredding, progressively singular style, which bd has in spades. one of the most awesomely wrecked and raw silk slabs to date. a west coast wiz worth watching. mastered by eric hanson. edition of 430.

manhattan filmmaker-turned-beatbroker francis hsueh aka policy has been unfolding a skewed yet chic house blueprint across the last three years, as evinced via a series of eps for eminent dancefloor wholesalers such as rush hour and argot – yet his latest seems his most assured and distilled to date. postscript plays street dice with choppy electronics and disrobed rhythm architectures, maxed out but close to the chest, splashed with off-grid percussive patterns and muted jazz textures.
limited edition of 450 copies.

bunkered between an arrangement of stackable synths, the squad jams workshop-style, 1 part airy coastal jazz, & 2 parts sci-fi soar into the new age, complete with philip k. dick winks, tech-know wonks & sleek daft punk-choreographed boogies.

metro detroit frisky/risky dreamer dj coyote clean up serves up a heart n hardbody emotional saga with 2 hot 2 wait, his deep-debut freaky full-length on 100% silk. hot-under-the-collar horniness (a woman simply counts to three on zebra go seek and you start to undress), headphone-house grain (the fuzzy gut-bump on the least u could feel is like warm breath whispering in your ear), skrewed rnb freestyle strip-hop (stuttery layers give hopeful, life-affirming energy to the lover-lost awesome luv) and out-of-time mash-ups (double dip is a memory overlapping, with a classic 95 dial-tone under and over contempo edm knob-twists) blend blissfully, fashioning a sentimental journey through a sex-love-loss odyssey. 2 hot 2 wait is a sensua-stellar standout, beckoning, daring, colorful and celebratory in its exhibitionism and lust.

sophistication and elegance have not always been the strobe light honey for die-hard divers into the dance genre, but it has been octo octas strongest suit since his 2011 debut 12 inch on 100% silk, and here again are those initial ideas of identity and hunger for intimacy all leading to an adrift, uneasy feeling, only they have materialized into that instantly recognizable, authentic oo sound.

like the satisfying first sip of soda water spritz, roland tings debut ep, *milky way*, bubbles, barms, and beads through your body. roland tings is rohan newman, a melbourne producer who, like recent rubies holy balm, forces, and canyons, proves there is just more and more greatness behind the great and powerful oz. melodic acid trips doused with swish-ticky-booms, like a rubber ball in space with endless bump and bounce. sweet off his japanese jaunt, speeding things down with sapphire slows shows, newmans taste is pure effervescence and buoyancy. but he has got a percussive stickiness as well, a vim/vigor that raps and rips through trax touch-ups and echo-plexes. not the nineties but the none-ties – no glimmer glam, or sampladelic vocal vacations, or happy house heartbeats. he ends the creamy *milky way* with a brilliantly wonky theme that springs like a wind-up toy gone loose. roland tings, dings, and zings.

when 2 become 1: >just wanna feel< is gush-worthy, hype-topping, expectation-shattering perfect house pop from blonde disco don, magic touch, and heavenly weirdo wizardress sapphire slows. the single is singular, like early st. germain mornings, breezy, bright, and breathtaking. b side, >when i see you<, is pure piano pleasure, from opposite sides of the pacific, touch and slows have created coastal holiday sand n? sea sweet sensuality. the 12 inch also includes end-of-days echo-ccordian, slippery dark nights risin? rubix remix by outside-the-box beat bester i:cube, as well as a dub-do-over from m. touch himself. a match made for the internet age, a flawless faraway coolaboration with the best of both and mucho more. all design by effortless art hooligan bobby houlihan.

nice price deal !!! as roche, bay area balearic boy ben winans designs long nostalgic nights with no sign of morning. on >a night at the haç<, his keys converse the epic dialogue of classic house thematics: high notes begging romantic love, low notes daring physical freedom. acid alien gears turn >insider outsider< into pivotless progression, straight ahead until the record breaks. side b sees >cg vision< through a fish-eye lens, all underwater bubbles n submarine wubbles as the synthy sea swells. finally, it is hi-hats off to the fx channel in >psycho zombie dreams<, a tunnel trauma of modulated raunch—seductive, intoxicating and mind-munching. haç is boss, now do the work.

ezlv craft playfully luxurious extended-mix radio hits from the bi-curious, bygone dance-meets-soul era. its sound stream in song form, luscious and light, brought to juicy lime-life with cool-curated club samples, late 70s horn porn, and elegant dj creationism.

nawlin dahlin sir stephen knows why the cajun bird sings. the homme of homage creates a time-trippin, style-hoppin virtual reality fantasy zone with his new lp house of regalia. 8 flava profiles to drop on yr tongue – from the brand new heavies-inspired, ndea-diva vocals by fleur de lis on >one x one<, to the cooltempo/rare groove take on new order, >dance for life<, to the underworld-weary born-and-raised slippy ripper >get wet<. hor is a lux layer cake of sister-soul mantras (i ll be pushin on!), acid jazz latte lounge breaks, jackin-the-black box piano house holds, thrown shades, fashion plates, and dizzy dancefloor dee-lites. this is music for dancers, pure n sample. limited edition 500 vinyl with luscious spencer longo x-scape cover art.