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

Shinichi Atobe / The Red Line / DDS

I’m stretching it, listing Shinichi Atobe’s Ship-Scope E.P. under a heading of Balearic Beats, but I wanted flag-up the fact that this landmark piece of electronic music has been repressed. There’s no way that you might have jacked to this at Shoom, however The Red Line in particular is the sorta 4 / 4 I could sunset cocktail and chill to. An exercise in sonic reduction, muted, melodic, soothing, and seductive, the track explores a space between deep house and dub techno. Warm bass tones wrap around circuitry buzz and percussion that shakes like rattlesnake tails. All of it echoing, ringing, softly into infinity. It’s definitely one for dancing, even if it’s only inside your head.

Following its original release in 2001 on Basic Channel offshoot, Chain Reaction, the spotlight shy Atobe promptly disappeared, only to be relocated and championed 13 years later by Demdike Stare. DDS first remastered and reissued the 12 in 2015, and since then they’ve handled Saitama-based  producer’s output, both archival and brand new. The latest LP Discipline landed in shops last week.

Rupert Cross & C.A.R. / Strapped Out / Ransom Note

Ran$om Note regulars and frequent collaborators Rupert Cross and C.A.R. join forces on an E.P. of excellent, energetic EBM flavoured jack. For me the title track, Strapped Out, is the highlight, as it harnesses the sleazy vitality and velocity of Liaisons Dangereuses’ Los Ninos Del Parque and Mexico’s Daniel Maloso, in a fashion akin to Factory Floor. Chloé Alexandra Raunet’s cryptic, camp beat poetry channels a little of Paranoid London’s Mutado Pintado. Think Gabi Delgado and Saba Komossa’s Delkom via Decius. 

Dub Syndicate / Intercommunications / On-U Sound

In 2025 Dub Syndicate will be the focus of some serious On-U Sound reissue action, with their albums from 1989 to1996 complied as a box set. This collection, Out Here On The Perimeter, will be accompanied by an additional LP of previously unreleased mixes, titled Obscured By Version, which has been promo’d by the track Intercommunications. This is a fresh take on one of On-U’s perhaps most “Balearic” rhythms. First cropping up on Lee Scratch Perry’s Music & Science Lovers, then the Italian Dub Syndicate 12 Night Train, it finally featured on Bim Sherman’s Haunting Ground, backing a Little Annie song called Life. I say “Balearic” because Fairlight-fractured voices happily hiccup over its percolating programmed percussion and bubbling bionic bass – conjuring images of the second summer of love’s synonymous smiley face.

Freddy da Stupid / Back to Pangea Part II (Jazzapella) / BBE

Back To Pangea Part II is a 3-track E.P. of ace Afro-house, that comes care of Mozambique-based producer Freddy da Stupid. There are banging dance floor-directed main and dub mixes, but it was the racing percussive patterns, with the 4 / 4 far removed, of the Jazzapella that caught my interest. The steel tongues of a psychedelic sanza clicking, strings plucked like harps, and urged on by excited, excitable carnival cries and shouts, its counterpoint is kinda Steve Reich-ian, its melodic phasing kinda kosmische, and its ambient techno rainforest vibe kinda Bango’s Ritual Beating System.

Happy Mondays / Loose Fit (Greg & Che Wilson Mix) / London

Greg and Che Wilson bring us a brilliant update of Happy Mondays’ Loose Fit. Their remix stays true to the band’s 1991 single but adds 21st Century bang to the beats and the bass. Transforming the track into something that’d be equally at home at ALFOS today, or at Future back in the day. Extending the groove, beefing up the “baggy”, introducing tasty twists of acid toward the end while building to a final guitar freakout. Not for a minute losing any of the original’s X-slinging swagger. Plus in the process restoring some of the menace – conveyed by Sean Ryder’s clued-up, criminal argot – that was present on Bummed, but that production polish airbrushed out of Pills, Thrills & Bellyaches.

“You don’t know what you saw, but you know it’s against the law, and you want some more…”

Ed Mahon & Louise Spiteri / Give It All / Tangential Music

Cowbell Radio co-founder Ed Mahon continues his collaboration with singer Louise Spiteri on a new tune, Give It All. A lush, loved-up, peaceful piano-led piece it employs soaring strings and vocals, to pack a positive, soulful early 1990s Acid Jazz vibe. In the vein of Rose Windross and Tammy Payne, with a nod to Knuckles, Kupper and Morales’ classic mid / downtempo Def Mix productions. For now, it seems only a radio edit is available, but there’s an instrumental and a beatless, gently echo washed Poolside Dub on the way.

Mudd / Spielplatz (Quiet Village Mixes) / Claremont 56

A few things on this list are reissues, and Mudd’s Spielplatz is another one. Joel Martin and Matt Edwards Quiet Village dub of the track, a tribute to the sound of Francois Kevorkian’s Deep Space residency at NYC’s Cielo, was released on Californian label, Rong, 17 years ago. Their instrumental mix surfaced a little while later on a CD collection of their remixes called Too High To Move. Both 13 minute plus epics are now available again on a white vinyl 12. Lunar winds whistle, and dubwise details drift in and out of a space-y kosmische void. The drums, a slow heartbeat. The percussion, a hypnotic rattle. The vocals, a little refreshed – I think borrowed from Roach Motel’s The Night – reference Rickster and Jimi Hendrix.

The Noodleman / Acid Ting / Red Motorbike

Toronto’s Noodleman first released Acid Ting on Eddie C’s Red Motorbike in 2015. A fun, funky dancehall version excursion diversion it chunkily cuts up some classic roots reggae and boasts about licking down Babylon before an acid spike kicks in. Recently repressed, I distinctly remember playing it at Bar Bonobo, in Harajuku and our guest DJ, Hell Yeah’s Marco, coming over for an ID.

Totem Edits / Go

The latest track to take my fancy from Justin Deighton and Leo Zero’s Totem Edits is a pukka, piano-laden rework of Moby’s Go. Mid-tempo bumping, those arms in the air keys pumping the results are doubly retro – like a cheeky Italian boot of the seminal Twin Peaks sampling early `90s rave staple.