Jeff Mills revives his Millsart alias with first album since 2003

Every Dog Has Its Day Vol. 5 lands January 31st on his Axis Records label.

This New Year, Jeff Mills is inviting us to look inward in the form of his Every Dog Has Its Day series. It is due for a double vinyl set (12”x 2) and digital release on January 31st on his own Axis Records. The last time we had an installment came 17 years ago, just enough time for a periodical cicada to emerge from the ground, finished with its former life as a nymph. The series itself has acted as a barometer of the times, and Mills feels after a long lay off it’s time to rehash his Millsart persona and gauge the here and now, and where we fit in. The record itself will be the fifth chapter. It’s donned in a specific colour, taking heed from its predecessors. The first four were gold, silver, pearl, and sky blue. Now it’s time for red: the first of the series to be a primary colour, it was chosen for its connotation. Red, being very emotive, stirs different feelings in us all; lust, love, rage, power, energy, desire, passion. This music is a tool for us to see the world as is, and be able to reflect inwards to see what we are. It’s not your stereotypical electronic dance track or DJ tool. Each of the eight cuts has a story behind it and invites the listener to get lost in it and curate their opinions about it or themselves. Stripped and left in a way for true music listeners, those with unconditional love and appreciation for a master at their craft.

Mills himself has said, “You never figure out life, you just get used to it.” Reflected in this record is that sentiment, that life doesn’t present to you the answers because there are none. What is right and just for you, may not be for me, so how can I share with you any secrets. Electronic music can act as a guide, a catalyst of your headspace; it is not the map. The sixth edition of this series is soon to follow in spring dressed in brown, continuing to deliver a spiritual and emotional raft for you to see that Every Dog Has Its Day.

Axis Records will release Every Dog Has Its Day Vol. 5 on January 31st, 2020.

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Get to know: Adiel

Label: Danza Tribale

From: Rome, Italy

Having made a practice to steer crowds into deep ecstasy with her hypnotic sets at famed Goa Ultrabeat parties in Rome where she operates as a resident DJ, Adiel kicked off her own label, Danza Tribale in 2016 with a solid debut instalment, Anatomia Del Cavallo, that urged new ravers and dancers to join in with her densely forested musical fantasies where swirling melodic motifs, eerie atmospheres and entrancing 4/4 rhythms coexist in a rapturous communion of sorts. Orbiting around her own output, Danza Tribale is intended to provide a bespoke landing platform for techno dynamics both obscure and profound, alternately wild and held-in, instinctive and sophisticated, functional yet far from merely tool-esque.

Fresh off the release of her latest EP, Ritmo, Adiel strikes again with Tokyo followed by Cavallina EP where she teamed up with Italian dub techno legend Donato Dozzy to sculpt a truly mindbending mosaic of delayed drums, stealth acid accents and rolling bass moves. In July 2019 she returned with Musicofilia, her first record outside her own label, on Kangding Ray’s ara imprint.

About to release a new EP, Adiel teams up with the Northern Electronics’ head Anthony Linell for a raw, “there-faceted gem” of “hauntingly evocative near-ritual techno odebience”. It’s out on February 14th. Raso forms the sixth release on Danza Tribale.

Adiel’s skills both as a DJ and producer have seen her play at some of the coolest clubs and festivals around Europe, such as Dekmantel, Off Sonar in Barcelona, Berghain for the Klockworks showcase, Panorama Bar invited by Marcel Dettmann, London’s Printworks for Ben Klock’s Photon event series, Concrete in Paris, DC 10 in Ibiza, De School in Amsterdam, Fuse in Brussels, Amsterdam’s ADE for Photon, Ibiza’s Afterlife and London’s iconic Fabric club amongst many others.

Listen to “Decoro.”

Danza Tribale will release Raso on February 14th, 2020.

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Lucy and Stroboscopic Artefacts celebrate 10 years

Italian label Stroboscopic Artefacts will mark its 10th anniversary in November with the release of X – Ten Years Of Artefacts, a 13-track compilation featuring music from various affiliates of the label.

Curated by label head Luca Mortellaro, AKA Lucy, the compilation features tracks from Rrose, Alessandro Adriani, James Ruskin, Efdemin, Shifted, Adriana Lopez, Chevel, Denise Rabe, Serena Butler and Luke Slater’s L.B. Dub Corp alias. Lucy also contributes a solo track as well as collaborative tracks with Rrose (as Lotus Eater) and Speedy J (as Zeitgeber).

The label will follow the compilation’s release with Lucy Remix EP featuring reworks of back catalogue tracks by Donato Dozzy, Caterina Barbieri, Ben Klock and Xhin. Below, you can hear Lucy’s remix of Caterina’s “Virgo Rebellion”

Stroboscopic Artefacts will release X – Ten Years Of Artefacts on November 15th, 2019. Stroboscopic Artefatcs will release Lucy Reworks EP on January 24th, 2020

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Stavroz taking their organic house around the world

Stavroz is big. Considering the facts that this Ghent-based collective has been releasing a string of solid EP’s over the years (through labels like Laut & Luise, Délicieuse Records, Denature Records and their own Moodfamily) and that they have played sold out venues in every corner of the world, it’s remarkable they have not yet been featured on any major magazine cover. More so, few people may actually know that other than Amelie Lens and Charlotte De Witte, Stavroz was the third act representing Belgian club music on Coachella this year.

Since the release of their debut EP in 2013, IJsbrand De Wilde and Gert Beazar – both DJ’s and sound engineers – made Stavroz grow into a full band, now joined by Pieter De Meester and Maxim Helincks. Although the guys have a background in club culture, they have a unique way of stretching their concept of dancefloor music by blurring tempos and taking the listener into new and surprising directions. Some call it electronica, while other fans came up with the name gangster jazz. For the guys themselves, organic house still covers the load. Red Bull Elektropedia
met with Gert and IJsbrand at their headquarters in Ghent for a little coffee chat.

Listen to the full EP, streaming below

Moodfamily will release Gold Town EP on December 6th, 2019

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Radio Martiko reissues Om Kalsoum’ Enta Omri and Laylat Hob via new label, Souma Records

Sublabel of the Belgian record reissue label Radio Martiko dedicated to the renowned Egyptian singer Om Kalsoum (1904-1975) who was active from the 1920s to the 1970s. The name “Souma Records” is called after Oum Kalthoum’s nickname “Souma” in her native Egypt.

A Night With Om Kalsoum

Enta Omri is Om Kalsoum’s most famous song, composed by Mohamed Abdel Wahab, who is still rightly regarded as a prominent musician and composer in Egypt. The creation of this song was the first long expected collaboration of two musical giants, which came at the repeated urging of Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser. There was talk in Egypt on the streets and in the media about what was believed to be a cold relationship between the two legends. Finally, after years of estrangement, Mohamed Abdel Wahab took the initiative and offered Om Kalsoum a song by poet Ahmed Shafiq Kamel, for which he had just composed a musical score. To his surprise, she responded positively and started to like the theme upon hearing it a few times. After a month of rehearsals, Enta Omri was released in February 1964 to critical acclaim and packed performances. The event was so grand it was labeled The Cloud Meeting.

With Enta Omri, Abdel Wahab opened up the traditional repertoire of the diva to a more innovative style, for which the composer was known for. The use of the electric guitar and a long instrumental intro, fusing oriental themes with Western musical elements, made the song particularly special, securing its place in Egyptian musical history. Despite some criticism from other Egyptian composers from that era, the song was soon recognised as a milestone and opened a path to modernise Arabic music for many other musicians and singers. Enta Omri is loved by Arab and non-Arab audiences alike. Paying respect to the great diva, dozens of artists around the world have reinterpreted the song, adopting the intro’s catchy guitar melody in their compositions.

Mohamed Abdel Wahab wrote another big score for Om Kalsoum in 1972. In Laylet Hob (A Night of Love) we hear Arabic music and poetry in perfect symbiosis. The rich and lengthy instrumental intro is just a precursor of the emotion present in this song. The talent of the composer is underlined by how he utilises the traditional style of singing poetry in a more open and creative way. Abdel Wahab’s infusing of long and groovy interludes with varied tonality, rhythmical patterns and an overall unique approach, carries Om Kalsoum’s powerful voice and brings the song to an incredible climax. In this way, he gives more colour and depth to the music and the skilled soloists in the orchestra are finally able to breathe. Sensual rhythms, breaks and breathtaking solos of accordeon, guitar (Omar Khorshid), violin and organ (Hany Mehanna), have ensured this song is an all-time classic for belly dance routines.

Enta Omri and Laylat Hob are released by Souma Records

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Visionary British artist Daniel Maunick releases debut album

Daniel Maunick practically grew up behind the mixing desk. As the son of Brit-funk legend Jean-Paul ‘Bluey’ Maunick (of Incognito fame), he found himself immersed in music from an early age, and quickly became involved in London’s drum n’ bass, acid-jazz, house, broken beat and soul scenes, releasing his first production at the age of sixteen on Gilles Peterson and Norman Jay’s Talkin’ Loud label. Since then, he has produced albums by the likes of Azymuth, Marcos Valle, Terry Callier, Incognito, Ivan ‘Mamao’ Conti and Sabrina Malheiros.

 From Far Out Recordings‘ in-house producer, Daniel Maunick‘s debut solo album Macumba Quebrada conjures scenes of collective hedonism from start to finish. Spanning Afro-Brazilian spiritual dance ceremonies, late-eighties Detroit techno parties and jungle and broken beat raves in nineties London, Maunick celebrates our instinctive, age-old desire to come together and lose our sense of self.

Reflecting his dual residence between Rio de Janeiro and East London, Macumba Quebrada features deep house stompers and broken bangers littered with Brazilian rhythms – in the form of both dusty percussion and Maunick’s intricate drum programming. But the album sees Daniel draw inspiration from across the black music continuum, and the rich histories of communal celebration in Detroit techno, Chicago house, London D’n’B and New York disco. Bringing all this together in explosive peak-time club tracks, moments of eerie ambience, South American swing and tribal earthiness, Macumba Quebrada expands on Maunick’s recent vinyl-only EPs A Vicious Circle and Sombra Do Dragao, with a 13-track double LP and 14-track CD and digital release.

3 preview tracks of Macumba Quebrada below.

Macumba Quebrada is released by Far Out Recordings

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