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

Cloud Canyons / Discipline / Berliner Tonaufnahmen

Cloud Canyons have a 12 out on Berliner Tonaufnahmen which finds the Italian quartet mixing motorik and magick, while fine tuning their contemporary kosmische. 

Ecstasy is spoken prose, an incantation, that invokes the elements – water, fire, air, and earth – set to urgent ambient arpeggios. Their gated ringing rapidly rippling like an electronic riff on Steve Reich’s minimalism. The bottom end buzzing, and in the the background a rising rush like sampled surf.  

Discipline, conversely, is pounding, boisterous big room, analogue machine funk. Acid house and industrial / EBM adjacent. Heavy and hallucinatory, with a bubbling B-line and wicked whiplash crash snares. Mirroring the moves of Chris & Cosey, Death In Vegas and Factory Floor. Reed-like synth and ethereal exclamations soften the raw drum programming, but the TB-303 becomes increasingly frenzied and reverb raises a disorientating wall of echo. Drawing dancers deep into the delirium of its techno tarantella.

Crooked Man / Don’t Leave Me This Way / Vicious Charm

With an album on the way, Crooked Man and Vicious Charm unleash a full digital release of their manhandling of Thelma Houston’s cover of Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes’ `70s Philly soul classic, Don’t Leave Me This Way. 

Circulating on vinyl for around 6 years now, and currently commanding online market place prices upwards of 100 quid, the track is totally rebuilt, and for a large part unrecognisable, around distorted, basement-bashing bass. This bastard bottom end forming the basis of a ruff, raw warehouse party reimagining. Stretched out to nearly 12 minutes and sugared slightly with a sprinkling of handclaps, fingersnaps and disco diva vamps. 

The result is a dangerously sexy, rude, machined mating ritual. An aural aphrodisiac. Similar to what Ron Hardy once did with First Choice’s Love & Happiness. After a sweat-soaked breakdown the song finally erupts, with the old school Music Box vibes turned up to 11. 

Deep88 / Acid Flamenco

Prolific Italian house music veteran Alessandro Pasini dons his Deep88 guise for a pairing of delicate piano pirouettes and proper Chicago drum programming. His Acid Flamenco is a divine bit of Balearic dance floor introspection. Kind of like the offspring of Richie Rich’s classic Salsa House, which Ale, coincidently, once covered. 

Deeply Armed / The Healing (Richard Fearless Mix) / Echo Pet Recordings

Richard Fearless has radically remixed Deeply Armed’s The Healing. The results are coming on a limited hand-stamped, signed 12”. Typically uncompromising, Fearless transforms the original’s space rock / folk into a 10-minute machined, trance-inducing meditation, inspired by Belfast’s Black Mountain. 

Stripped back and minimal, its banging beats are a room-shaking arrhythmia, doubled in delay. Robotic snares rattle in its distance, Soothing drones, however, temper the track, so the sensations it summons are kinda calm despite the pounding. Acid begins to boil and bubble, and the synthetic strings are made to swoop and circle. Their orbiting weaving, casting a hypnotic spell. Ultimately  falling to a finale of distorted signals, feedback and fuzz.

Quiet Village / Naked Hunger / Quiet Village 

Quiet Village collaborate with New York dance music veteran Vanessa Daou on a new single, Naked Hunger. The track is a beefed-up bit of bass heavy, mid-tempo disco, and comes in 2 different mixes. The Vocal version is fleshed out with hand claps, foot stamps, a bubbling B-line and short, sharp synth fanfares. Congas and some cool, jazzy piano playing. Daou’s delivery of the lyrics split between sung, sultry sighed and recited like a prose poem. Her words, like much of her previous work – both solo and fronting The Daou – are rooted in downtown NYC’s rich tradition of performance art and concerned with the rules of attraction. Here Daou talks of “givers and takers” and the deceptions at the heart of desire’s game. The promises – saying anything to get what they want – that lovers often fail to keep. Characteristically sexy and seductive she whispers “take me” while explaining the deep seated need to let go of reality and get lost, “skin on skin”, “in the blur together.” An extended, more stripped back Spoken Word mix drops the singing, while spotlighting the poetry,  and filling the spaces with dub techno echo. 

Secret Soul Society / Keep On Trying / Hell Yeah

Cal Gibson’s Secret Soul Society resurface with 4 fresh, polished productions on Hell Yeah. The slightly stoned / sedated, sunset / sunrise perfect, To Be Happy revolves around a gently lapping rhythm and the titular, soulful sample. Keep On Trying, which features a buzzing Wasp synth riff and fat, flatulent bass, also takes its name from a repeated vocal hook that encourages perseverance and a positive outlook. What You Do To Me is blissed-out, spaced-out `80s boogie, with strings and glimpses of gospel. Finally, Orange Surprise, constructed from looped synthetic sighs and rubbery robotic ripples, deals with dreams. Its lyrics delivered as a suitably echoed drift / wash.  

Triana Y Hermana Juana / Bamboo Tango / Panzon Records

Triana Y Hermana Juana, a talented trio of friends from Colombia, Italy, and the UK, have 2 tracks coming on a 7 for London label, Panzon Records. 

Marakuya is a fairly chilled chunk of Brazilian-flavoured boogie. Full of funky details – handclaps, congas, woodwind-like runs – and powered by slapped bass and a percussive vocoder scat. There are horns, and synths that wanna be horns, and if you’re looking for a reference point think Switzerland’s Fuga Ronto in Rio. 

On the flip, Bamboo Tango, still beholden to Bahia, is eccentric electronic Tropicalia, where Tom Ze (and CAN and Yello) must surely have been an influence. Mixing squelchy sequences with rattling traps, raps, chants, brass blasts and Moog-y keys. Closing with some heavenly harp. 

Vital Disorders / Zombie / Wah Wah 45s

According to the press release, this new Wah Wah 45s reissue was a Gilles Peterson find. Originally released in 1982 by Norwich-based, 8-piece collective Vital Disorders, it’s an impassioned post-punk reading of Fela Kuti’s classic Zombie. A direct shot at the Nigerian Government and its army, the song, when recorded in 76, put Kuti in incredible danger, and resulted in the destruction of his commune, The Kalakuta Republic, and the his mother’s murder. The Vital Disorders take is suitably spiky and angry, powered by cornet and trombone solos, and group call-and-response vocals, in a style similar to Rip, Rig & Panic. 

The reissue is backed by a brand new cover from Kotoa, who deliver a jaunty, jazzy fidget, with all the horns and classy keys, that’s far more faithful to Fela’s original.  

Wavetest / Directions / Silum

Zurich’s Wavetest return to Liechtenstein’s Silum, taking their cues from classic techno and house. Each track on the EP is named, in the imprint’s local dialect, after a Direction, and Uffi (Up) opens proceedings with racing programmed percolating, synthetic Detroit orchestration. Its Sci-Fi key changes eventually switching to improvised acid. 

Ahi (Down) is beatless, and beautiful. Constructed from quick cascades of twisting, metallic counterpoint, that conjure images of colourful festival flags, dancing, darting, toyed with, tugged at, by the wind, against a blue, summer sky. In a similar fashion to Irresistible Force’s “ambient” landmark Lotus Position. Ihi (Inside) then brings the beat back, with a skipping, jaunty, boompty boomp, and a singing, siren synth hook. 

Ussi (Outside) starts hitting harder, heavier, enlisting the team of TRs 808, 909 and TB-303, but what threatens to be a tough, raw workout is softened by strings and jazzy keys, as it opens, blooms, into the sunny vibe of 90s Italian paradise house. 

Windy City / 시장에 가자 Si Jang e Gaja (Adrian Sherwood Remixes) / Eastern Standard Sounds

Adrian Sherwood remixes recently reformed South Korean afro-funk band Windy City. The track, Si Jang E Gaja, rides a blistering Tony Allen-esque beat, fired by some mad, Moog-y synth. Shouts, chants and wild ringing wah-wah guitar race along with its rattling, frantic, shuffling syncopation, while Sherwood’s tape effects further shake things up.  

The dub gets more deranged, with drum hits exploding and the resulting debris sent spinning in delay. Individual elements get singled out, isolated, echoed, and the On-U Sound man generally gives the bass more space.