It was such a great pleasure to see Tanner Ross & Sergio Santos’ Space Cakes (AD013) featured on Chloé‘s ‘Let It Slow‘ April mix for Tsugi, France’s top electronic music magazine. The mix is a wise selection of slow burning grooves and dirt, à la Chloé.

When we discovered that Bleed, one of our favourite writers in the fundamental German music magazine De:Bug, had written not 1, not 2, not 3… but 4 reviews on our latest record releases (AD012 / AD013 / AUX01 / AUX02), we quite simply fell from our chairs, onto our buttocks! All four reviews are very positive and builds some constructive criticism, which has us shine like proud kids who just received a sticker for good conduct! Read all the reviews below and get yourself a copy of De:Bug #139, the Jan/Feb 2010 edition!

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Cape – Rosario United – Le Post Remixes
[Airdrop Records/012]

‘Afterawua’ ? Am I getting this right ? In any case, Franco Cinelli’s remix which opens the record is pure joy. Nice dubby touches, a delicate ride, a melodically funky bassline, a few violon strings and something from a totally old school groove, spiced with minimal synths that shine in the higher frequencies. A track sprinkled with small explosions. ‘Desasters’, remixed by Nico Purman heterogenically mixes acid synth lines, gaudy percussions, while still conveying some sensuality. Andres Zacco puts a strong emphasis on the dazing side of ‘Afterawua’ but only the volatile harmonics of Jorge Savoretti’s ‘Family.ar’ remix, can pretend to share the vibe with Cinelli’s rework.
www.airdrop.com
BLEED

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Tanner Ross & Sergio Santos – Space Cakes EP
[Airdrop Records/013]

Tanner Ross (of Voodeux fame) and Sergio Santos form quite an unusual team. The title track, Space Cakes, brings hope as it shows that there still is a lot of space for original grooves coming from the depths of slow BPMs, often dominated by stale disco. This is for me one of the Slo-Mo hits of the year! Warm organs in the background, swirling sound effects on the vocals and the whole surrounded by so much groove that one could only wish they duo only made tracks like that, inaugurating a new genre. ’Excuse Me While I Hit This’ is similarly relaxed, but this time with children voices and different parts switching radically from sparkling melodies to a soft yet super efficient groove, getting even closer to the warm blooming sound which is at the foundation of House music. It smells like freshly cut grass. One of the House EPs of the month.
www.airdrop.com
BLEED

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Club Rayo & Franco Cinelli – The Fever Mixes
[Aux-Rec/001]

Aux-Rec hails from France, with a courageous intent to produce a new House-kicking variant of ‘You Give Me Fever’. The ‘King Dub’ is a phat classic funk-dub with rests of Elvis’ voices and a lot of acid in the background. The ‘Fitzgerald Mix’ focuses on Ella Fitzgerald’s swinging vocals, stimulated even further with flourishing delays. Franco Cinelli’s remix is the most House-accentuated groove on the record, and in bonus we are even offered a cheminee-side guitar variant.
www.aux-rec.com
BLEED

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Soul Clap / Childhood ’87 – Baker Man / Caught Up
[Aux-Rec/002]

The label’s second EP shows a clear orientation towards a bluesy house retakes, that sometimes, as with ‘Baker Man’ (the original is from Laid Back) exagerate a little on their position. However the Childhood ’87 track is pure old-school House bliss with soul vocals and this ’70s sample which made the bright days of Inner Life. Vintage Diva-House.
www.aux-rec.com
BLEED

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Translated from German to French by Antoine Bigot
and then from French to English by Paulo ^^

A day before leaving for Detroit, I was kindly informed that a press pass had been set aside for me and that I could pick my favorite artist to interview: Damian Lazarus of course! This year was my first opportunity (Paulo speaking) to attend the legendary Detroit Electronic Music Festival. Learning that this year’s festival-goers would be celebrating an unofficial decade of existence, my expectations were heightened and now I can say surpassed by far! No need to say I was extremely excited upon getting to the Motor City, source-point of our dear Techno. It was my first time leaving the East Coast and I was just relieved from my duties as a student for good.

I have been following Damian Lazarus’ various activities and gigs ever since I first heard him play in Ibiza in 2004, a year after he founded his own record label, Crosstown Rebels. Always on point and faithful to his sound, Lazarus has been taking his label, artists and now his own productions to the forefront of underground dance music’s hustle and bustle. It was fantastic to get to ask the experienced label manager a few insights, right after his tremendous set on DEMF’s Beatport stage on Sunday May 24th:

To begin with, I would like to go back to your earlier days at City Rockers, the label you co-founded with a friend and for which you took care of the A&R department between 2001 and 2003. What release were you most proud of throughout this experience?

It’s hard to say, there were so many! However, I can keep in mind Felix da Housecat’s Kittenz And Thee Glitz album of course and organizing the Royksopp Remix for What Does it Feel Like?. That’s really one I am proud of. There was also Riot Society and Drug Punks and many more…

Crosstown Rebels has existed for 6 years now and has seen most of its release become hits while others simply milestones in the underground electronic music niche. A few months ago, you have started a digital-only line to the label, CRD. Is there a precise vision and musical direction behind this new line or does it come to support the original release plan for the actual record label?

Yes, the digital line was elaborated as an experiment. We want to explore what a new platform could bring to us while having the possibility to release some remixes we couldn’t release on vinyl. It stands as an additional space for our music.

Until this month, we never had the chance to hear productions of yours. Now you just released your first album. The 13 tracks are all some that you would play at the end or beginning of your sets.

Yes that’s right, the tracks I play at these times, are always the challenging, crazy and beautiful ones, not dancefloor tunes, but most importantly they are my favorites so that’s what I wanted to reach and achieve with my album.

How come you decided to release this on Get Physical Music, when you could have done it on your own label? The music fits Get Physical’s direction but it would also felt perfectly at home at Crosstown?

Yes it does fit well at Get Physical, but I didn’t want my album to interfere with the ones coming up on Crosstown Rebels, like Jamie Jones’.

Did you have a say in the release strategy for your album at Get Physical?

Of course! I have been running my label for years now so definitely gave them some orientations that correspond to my plan.

I really enjoyed the covers of the Crosstown Rebels releases between 042 and 045. True genius! A super inventive take on anime and manga imagery. How did this work out?

Well I was looking for something really special, and fell upon the artist Saiko in London. I really liked the stuff, but asked to change a few things. The main idea being to create that panel divided in four covers that come together to form that bigger work. This way people would go back to the record stores to get this artwork and collect it.

You recently moved to Los Angeles. What prompted this?

I needed a change from the European scene and routine, and I perfectly got what I wanted here. I moved my studio and everything to Los Angeles too, and we are having a blast with our friends over there!

Any books you’re reading these days?

Some Bukowski.

Ah! You should look into reading some Ryonosuke Akutagawa, a Japanese author! I am sure you would enjoy it a lot!

Will do! Thanks for the tip man!

Today is very special for us. Why? If the picture above isn’t self-explanatory, well this kind of article doesn’t fall from the sky in a ribboned egg every day – and easter has not even come yet! What an unwordable warm feeling taking all over our bodies and computers upon receiving this. Two pages in the illustrous German magazine raveline composed by our favourite music journalist Kat Richter (www.planetkat.com) about Techno situation in the US – hard environment, very hopeful nonetheless – and our new compilation dedicated to the country’s emerging scene, EXTRACTION US. Read more about it right below.

Get your EXTRACTION US limited edition copy now!

Nick Chacona from XLR8R writes about Soulclap and AirDrop’s two first release
AD001 – The Giraffe and AD002 – die Ente ! Wooop !
This is what the article says:

“As a Bronx-born New Yorker, it’s not really in my blood to say that Boston is representin’ in any way, but considering the magnitude of the first releases from the new AirDrop imprint, it looks like they’re in the midst of a real (tea) party. Both releases come from Soulclap, the duo of Cnyce and DJ Elyte. The label’s inaugural release, “The Giraffe,” is a limited-edition colored-vinyl 10″ that features a mix from Franco Cinelli that’s straight out of Lee Curtis‘ twisted tech-house playbook. The second single, “die Ente,” also keeps things on the deep-tech tip initially, then launches into some serious early ’90s-style synth-sax house business that could fit easily into Luciano’s and Quentin Harris‘ sets. Boston’s hero of the moment, dirtybirds’s Tanner Ross, is enlisted here on mix duties, and utilizes some highly reverbed crystalline synth tones and thunderous bass growls to full modern-rave effect.”

-En Tu Casa, p. 100, XLR8R #118 June/July 2008