Paraphrasing the Soul Sonic Force and sorting through today`s releases for tunes that could have graced Alfredo Fiorito & Leo Mas’ Amnesia dance-floor…

Nine Minutes To  Cairo / Sunny Crypt

Sunny Crypt have snagged Nine Minutes To Cairo, a sought-after 12 from 1991. Dan Steel is the person behind it, but according to Discogs, it appears to be the only music that he’s released. The tune was originally licensed to German label, Westside, the same folks who put out the second summer of love hit, Oh Well. There’s a “Techno Mix”, which is mid-tempo electronic dance, with chanted female vocals, snake-charming synths, and Middle Eastern / North African zithers and strings. It puts me in mind of New York DJ, Mark Kamins, Mark’s own Mohammad’s House, and the music he championed, like Cheb Fadela’s N’sel Fik*, and records he remixed, such as Ofra Haza’s Im Nin’Alu – plus the original Balearic beats of Richard Strange, Blancmange, and Monsoon’s Indi-pop. A slightly lighter “Commercial Mix” swaps the strings for chimes and fanfares, and is a little more William Orbit-esque. 

*Mark was instrumental in getting this signed to Factory Records

Paranoid Pyramid / Acid Quest / Mystical Disco

Paranoid Pyramid is New Yorker Jackson Lee Hendrix. This 6-track E.P., straight outta Brooklyn, on his Mystical Disco, has some real bangers on it, but it’s the 2 marvellous mellow acid missives that really interest me. Acid Quest’s meditative TB-303 modulations twist trippy, hypnotically, somewhere between the classic mid-90s output of F.U.S.E. and Pete Namlook, and the more modern machined magic of Tin Man and Recondite. A slowly rising tide of sighing, emotive synths calming its big kick. 

With a tick, click, pop, and boom, Water Temple is another downtempo techno treasure. Again with sighing synths, this time accompanied by cascading piano and wonky, weird, kinda jazzy / modal chords, a Hoover-like hum, the reference point for this one is Steve Pickton / Stasis’ highly prized 1993 side, as The Otherworld Collective. If you do like this sort of stuff, then Steve himself has a terrific new 12 lined up for De:tuned. 

Satoshi & Makoto / Mix Out Session / Soundofspeed

Casio CZ-5000 connoisseurs, Satoshi & Makoto, get remixed and re-edited for Soundofspeed. The a-side is given over to a Soichi Terada house rework of Satoshi’s Coastlnes – a track singled out from his recent solo retrospective, Ambivalent – while on the flip you’ll find 2 Kuniyuki Takahashi takes of the brothers’ collaboration with California’s Benedek, After New Dawn – also lifted from the same album. The first of these moves to a mid-tempo thump. Its bass and beat a nod to Bobby Konders and classic Nu Groove. Mr. Takahashi elegantly, expertly drawing dancers in by, one by one, bringing in the b-line, and adding layers of shimmering synth and piano, plus flashes of Benedek’s clipped, “cool & breezy” jazz guitar. His final, flamenco-edged virtuosity causing the cut to come on like a pitched down reprise of Mandy Smith’s Balearic classic, I Just Can’t Wait. The second mix features similar instrumentation, but snapped to a slightly more spritely electro samba drum pattern. 

Sons Of Dub / Citizens Of Vice

One of the standout tracks on Citizens Of Vice’s forthcoming Meraki compilation, Sons Of Dub is the work of Secret Soul Society’s Cal Gibson. A radical re-imagining of Junior Delgado’s Sons Of Slaves – a mid-70s Lee “Scratch” Perry-produced Black Ark bomb – it reminds me a little of the early Moody Boys stuff. Cal splicing the reggae and funk lifts into a four-to-the-floor house groove. Juxtaposing the electronics with happy horns and rushes of rhythm guitar. Bass booming, Junior his righteous gruff self. Disco syn-drums popping between the techno bleeps.