Demuir: Past to the Future
"Scratch a cynic and you'll find a frustrated idealist" is my new favorite quote. It's a constant back and forth between getting mad about why things aren't better and getting on a soapbox and...
Strong Souls: Deep Sensation
You know those mysterious black slabs you see in the shop with little ID other than a smudged stamp and a single fingerprint on the sleeve? Where do they come from? France, in this...
NERKKIRN: Obervolt EP (V-Records)
When you spend a lot of time going through modern techno music, you find a lot of stuff that sounds big and polished and clean, but lacks any sort of real energy, inspiration or...
Gavin Boyce: Haboo EP (Nordic Trax)
What defines a great record label? Is it the artwork & branding? Is it gathering together a roster of big names? Is it breaking fresh artists and pioneering new sounds? Although all of the...
Hardkiss: Cameras Are Watching
We all know the story by now. George Orwell wrote about it, as did Isaac Asimov. Living, as I do, in a country with more government-controlled surveillance cameras per capita than anywhere else in...
Pezzner Returns with The Island Fantastic for Visionquest
Just when Pezzner is out of the picture he slides right back into center frame. He's back after a notable absence from the charts with a new EP getting massive support from the world,...
Raw Jam: Back On The Street
Forget what you read elsewhere about the decline and fall of the House nation: as long as there are people like Raw Jam making tracks like this and people like Marc Cotterell releasing them,...
Cinthie and Ed Herbst: Beste 005
I've been finding some dope split EPs and choice cuts from the always prolific "Various Artists" lately, and this split between Cinthie and Ed Herbst for Beste Modus (Berlin) was near the top of...
Reeko: Constellation Andromeda (Modularz)
If you are ever tasked with writing about Techno tunes, it's really important to remember the context in which so much of it is meant to be heard. Sure, you could sit and listen...
The Genius of Romanthony, Revisited
Trojan Horse feat 69 Mercedes: Years O' Pressure
Downtown 161 (Reissue)
Trojan Horse: What $ Love
Vinylmania (Reissue)
The word I'm searching for is "elegant." "Regal" is another. Steady and patient was the hand of Romanthony, and...
Garrett David’s A New Room on Gramaphone Records
The good people of Chicago really don’t need an Englishman to talk to them about a local institution like Gramaphone Records, any more than I might require your advice on how to make a...
Franck Roger: Home Invasion 006
Home Invasion is Franck Roger’s main outlet for new production these days, and he attacks his work with the joy of a man whose beloved hobby has become lucrative enough that he could quit...
Bai-ee and Johnny Fiasco: How Deep
How Deep is a tour de force from Chicago exile Bryan Bai-ee, taking you from the floor and secret cubbyholes of the Red Dog to the rooftop afterhours where the night lingers and is...
Four Walls & Funkyjaws vs Saine: Triple Stakes
I'm coming to grips that preaching to the choir may be the only sensible way to go about things now. Advocating for authentic music that touches my soul - the essential role of a...
Brame and Hamo’s #001 (Vinyl Only, Suckas)
I stared at this record for two weeks, three weeks, then a month. It can't be that good, can it? It can. It isn't this well-produced, is it? It is. People aren't already going...
Wavelength: The Collective EP
So many good things to say about this record, starting with the people on it. Brian Harden has a discography more solid than granite stone - among them, one of the best records ever...
Joey Negro & Sean P’s Supafunkanova Vol 2
There was a moment in the documentary Muhammad And Larry, captured with the usual calm and steady cam the Maysles Brothers were known for, in which heavyweight champion Larry Holmes is driving his car...
DJ Oil’s Phantom LP
Since DJ Shadow dropped Endtroducing on an unsuspecting World back in 1996, the bar for creative and original sample-based music was raised permanently. It seems a lifetime's worth of dedicated crate digging compressed into...
Joe Silva: Memory Fade (PureSpace)
I'm not sure what this year is going to bring but I have a feeling it will involve an onslaught of new producers trying to earn stripes with legit underground music. So many of...
The Measure of a Man: Robert Hood’s M-Print
Jeff Mills has had a hand in far more labels than Axis, Purpose Maker and the other imprints he has his name on. His was the invisible hand that guided Tresor and corrected its...
MUST READ!
Library of Congress adds Jamie Principle’s “Your Love” to National Recording Registry
The classic of classic Chicago house tracks was selected for preservation as one of "the defining sounds of history and culture." Here's how it was made.
