Following his breakthrough release on cult Bristol label Happy Skulls, which carried a tearing Funkineven remix,Adjowa marks his second release of the year with a slamming addition to the DBA DUBS series. Beautiful Swimmers’ own Max D (known to his friends, but perhaps not his family, as Maximillion Dunbar), contributes the compulsory US remix on the flip, drawing on the grime, jungle and breakbeat hardcore tropes to create a truly otherworldly banger. More

To follow a long awaited single from the legendary D'Arcangelo brothers, Happy Skull has turned to a friend of the family and former Bristol scene stalwart, Bass Clef.
The long-serving producer first rose to prominence via a series of inspired, genre-mangling albums and singles on Blank Tapes, he has since gone on to deliver hard-to-pigeonhole material on fellow Bristol labels Punch Drunk and Idle Hands, as well as PAN and the Trilogy Tapes amongst others.
Those versed in his bulging back catalogue will notice familiar stylistic traits throughout – think an endearing looseness built on hardware manipulation and a playfulness rarely seen in modern dance music. For his Happy Skull debut he takes on acid house, to great effect. This is most evident on flipside "Acid Hearse", a constantly-rising roller built around a nagging, TB-303 style riff and a swinging, off-kilter drum machine rhythm.
Echoes of acid can also be heard in the sparser A-side, "Charnel House", where sharp, psychedelic lead lines and mind-bending electronic motifs weave in an out of a crunchy rhythm track to create a track that is as fun as it is weighty. More

With three contrasting cuts, Creta Kano's Skyway Motel EP, released earlier this year seemed ripe for remixing. Thus, the idea of Creta Kano Versions was born. Label bosses the Kelly Twins looked close to home for inspiration, handing over the parts to a trio of Bristol acts, each renowned for carving out their own niche in the increasingly homogenized world of electronic music.
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Cologne based acid maverick Andreas Gehm dons his Elec Pt1 guise for his debut 12" on Bristol's Happy Skull. Following a string of releases for acclaimed labels such as Jamal Moss's Mathematics Recordings, Creme Jak, Chiwax, Bunker and Solar One, Gehm is fast emerging as one of the most prolific and distinctive producers bubbling up from the European underground... More

Having previously impressed with vivid blends of cosmic R&B, skewed space-pop, glistening post-ambient soundscapes and mangled, synth-laden grime, rising star Throwing Shade (AKA producer Nabihan Iqbal) demonstrates her dancefloor side with a killer 12" on Happy Skull. "Chancer" and "Blanx" both retain Iqbal's uniquely intergalactic aesthetic,whilst flitting between jacking, Chicago-influenced house rhythms and jazzy, off-kilter dancefloor grooves. Synths sparkle, while vocal snippets drift in and out of the mix. The 12" is completed by a riotous, predictably heavyweight remix from Kowton, whose guttural techno grooves are peppered with cut-up samples of Iqbal's distinctive, dreamy vocals More

After years sound tracking the dancehalls of Bristol via their considered selections as DJs, brotherly pair The Kelly Twins add label bosses to their CVs with the establishment of Happy Skull. The label kick offs in illustrious fashion with a collaborative release between two of Bristol's most interesting producers, Kowton and Hyetal. Adopting the name Systems Of Desire, the pair worked on a track together, before going off to produce their own individual versions entitled "Control" and "Consumption"; the results are exactly the intriguing cross between Kowton's raw, crunchy, grime influenced techno and Hyetal's glistening synth work you would imagine.
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