The Kempe Stone Portal is the long awaited debut album from long time musical adventurer The Vendetta Suite. It arrives on Hell Yeah Recordings on June 18th, and spans over 20 years of diverse musical experiments. In the words of label boss Marco, 'it's a nice ride.'

Gary Irwin started dancing in 1990, when he was drawn to the dubbed out and psychedelic sounds of Andrew Weatherall and The Orb, at the same time falling for the forward looking house and techno played by David Holmes and Iain McCready at their regular nights at Belfast's Art College. After studying music technology and performing arts, Irwin gave Holmes a cassette of bedroom produced techno and it started a long and fruitful relationship that has continued to this day.

In the intervening years, Irwin has been the in-house engineer at Holmes' Exploding Plastic Inevitable studio and label, has engineered and remixed with him, released on his labels and written music for his Holy Pictures album, all while picking up credits on labels like NovaMute, Sabrettes, 13Amp and many more. As time passed, Irwin explored non-dance sounds such as krautrock, library music, synth and 80s b-sides before more recently circling back to acid house, downtempo and Balearic. All of this and more informs this panoramic 12 track album, which is a testament to a life spent submerged in many different sound worlds.

The Kempe Stone Portal opens on the ‘Neon Secrets’, which along with tracks like ‘Morning Star’ and ‘I Am The Ghost In My House’ betray Irwin’s love of wonky, shimmering experimental synth-pop musik. They are glistening tracks with heavenly harmonies that are truly life-affirming in their richness. Elsewhere, ‘Purple Haze, Yellow Sunrise’ is an homage to his early experiences of Balearic acid house music from the late eighties and early nineties with a not too subtle reference to the narcotics of the time. ‘Who Do You Love’ was Irwin’s first non-dance music production in 1998, a cover of The Jesus and Mary Chain's version of the Bo Diddly classic, with guitar feedback and distortion drawing you into a murky world of fuzzy sonics.

‘Della Notte’ came 10 years after, with rumbling toms, bubbling synths and phased Rhodes making for a psyched-out post punk dub. Seasonal sleigh bells and obvious krautrock influences abound on ‘Christmas in Cologne’ while ‘Maybe Tomorrow’ is Air meets Phil Spector on a beach at sunset. ‘Warehouse Rock’ is a dubby acid track that follows on from where 2017 track ‘Shut Up Ya Dub!’ left off, but with a more experimental approach that found the artist limiting himself to a 303, drum machine, dub effects and samples. If King Tubby were to release on Acid Trax, this is how it would sound. Shorter tracks ‘Spring Blues’ and ‘The Adult Section’ were originally made for a modern library music side project and are brilliantly suspensory pieces of lush electronics, yawning chords and gentle rhythms that empty your mind of any tension.

This is a storied album that traverses different musical worlds with style and skill. Some are old, some are new, but they add up to a long player that is both fascinating and timeless. More

Hell Yeah welcomes the Italian musical collective Aura Safari for a debut EP on the label.

The band, who are at the forefront of a new Italian fusion sound that blends jazz-funk, electronic and world sounds, is made up of acclaimed house devotee Nicholas Iammatteo, plus Alessandro Deledda, Lorenzo Lavoratori, Daniele Melloni and Andrea Moretti. They contributed a standout track to the Buena Onda - Balearic Beats compilation last year as well as releasing a full length LP on UK label Church to critical acclaim.

Opener 'Dreams of Music' is a lush, new age groove with rich musicality, wind instruments and live drums all glowing warmly as you roll into sundown. 'Oasis' then sinks into a reflective mood, with lazy drums and sensuous late night chords sounding like Roy Ayers all loved up and super stoned. The noodling keys really melt your heart before the excellent 'Slow Divers' pairs more majestic bass riffs with wet claps and splashing cymbals as a wandering lead drifts up to the heavens. It has a dubby swagger to it that is superbly subtle.

Closing out the EP 'Libra', is a heartwarming, slow motion, jazz-funk fusion packed with detail and life affirming synth playing.

These are gloriously heartfelt tracks that showcase this collective's supreme musical ability as well as their unquestionable understanding of jazz, funk and soul, past, present and future. More

Max Essa completes a trio of terrific releases on Hell Yeah with The Great Adventure EP. It's packed with more grown up dance floor dynamite and later in the year will be collected together with the first two parts to make for a full album.
More

The second Keep on Wankin EP continues Hell Yeah label boss Marco’s on going quest for the perfect remixes. This time out he serves up the most Balearic Gabba influenced material yet and takes you on a trip to the clouds with Bjorn Torske and Fango both stepping up. First up is Bjorn Torske’s take on everybody’s favourite Luminodisco tune ‘Oh Mary.’ It’s an impossibly adventurous 11 minute epic with buoyant chords dancing over trilling guitars. Lush, multi-layered and brimming with musicality, this is the sort of dubbed out yet percussively lively masterpiece that will mark the high point of any set as it washes over you time and time again. Then it’s to Fango’s chunky and spaced out take on Somerville & Wilson’s ‘Yantar.’ It’s been the final track of all recent Fango sets around the world for a while now and that won’t change any time on thanks to the slow build to a colourful dub disco peak. It takes you ever higher on wandering lead synths as the fat drums pump away below. Essential stuff. More

A year after his debut outing on the label, Max Essa makes a welcome return to Hell Yeah with the Han zon Roc EP, which is another of his impossibly laidback offerings.
Essa is of course the long time UK talent who has become a part of the Balearic mafia thanks to releases on labels like Aficionado, Music for Dreams, and his own Jansen Jardin. This is the second coming together of artist and label and is another timeless excursion far out to sea.
Opener 'Han zon Roc (Midori Coup)' is an epic 12 minute adventure that slowly awakens your spirit with new age guitar plucks and heavenly ambience before organic drums slowly being to drift into earshot. They grow ever larger as synths start to spray about the mix, hand drums pitter patter and big chords bring the soul-shine. It's like the soundtrack to an afternoon boat party all condensed into one brilliant cut.
How You Showed Me Everything' then gets super chill with lazy drum tumbles, bendy guitar lines and scattered hits. Withering cosmic chords colour the airwaves and its a track that will slow your heartbeat to nothing.
Last of all, 'Rain Bird's Alfalfa Jam' is a analogue drum work out with early 90s hip hop influences and diving basslines. It's light and airy, nimble and playful and of course filled with the sort of tropical rays that make all of Essa works so brilliantly escapist.
More

Acclaimed Russian producer, DJ and live musician Kito Jempere is back with a stunning second album, this time on Italian label Hell Yeah. Entitled Sea Monster and due for release in early 2017, the nine track album is a fantastic fusion of live instrumentation and electronic production. Kito Jempere is a musical polymath. The Russian artist, producer, multi-instrumentalist and band leader has been involved in many projects over the last ten years plus. These range from rock to acid jazz to electronic bands and often call upon a rotating cast of ]]other members who are all equally talented. From playing in small bars to headlining big shows for thousands of people in Saint Petersburg, he has put out a number of albums and singles on labels like Freerange, Room With A View and Hell Yeah and DJs around Europe. Jempere plays live as the Kito Jempere Band, and here he calls upon his bandmates for their many skills to lend the album a richly musical feel. Mixed and co-produced by band member Roman Urazov, the album features Artemiy Gunbin aka Noteless, the voice of the Kito Jempere Band and front man of his own rock band Videatape, as well as Ruslan Gadzhimuradov, a long time drummer on many projects, plus Matvey Averin, the bassist but also co-producer for cult group Manizha and finally Sergey Lipsky who here plays guitar and is also half of Simple Symmetry as well as having played for Kito's other project Saint Petersburg Disco Spin Club group. Sea Monster kicks off with Lifetime Theme, a heavenly groove with loose drums and percussion and gorgeous keys. Form there, Artemiy Gunbin's ethereal and crystal clear vocals take centre stage amongst balearic guitars on album single 'Ampa', and then 'To Talk' is a deeper cut with bumpy drums, long tailed pads and shiny synths all making for a curious and whimsical atmosphere. ‘Grid Cells' is a lush instrumental track with clever revel and echo adding a sense of grandeur to the freeform jazz drums and frazzled synths, 'Uohha' is as sunny and laid back as an afternoon on the beach and 'Puzzled' then layers up scuzzy basslines, popping hits and suspenseful synths into something smooth and seductive. The final third of the album closes out with blissful guitar licks, lazy broken beats and brilliant drum playing that all have you wishing it was summer again. This is an album with elements of jazz, house, disco, balearic and many more sounds all smoothly blended into one coherent and captivating album full of soul and musical skill.

More

With summer just round the corner, Hell Yeah come up with some essential—and fully, officially licensed—new cuts from Balearic Gabba Sound System edit master Enzo Elia. He touches up some historic Italo house with his usual masterful touch and will have you yearning for boat party season before the tracks have even finished playing. If you loved the Italian's take on Soft House Company What You Need, you should go crazy for this new offering. Up first is italo-piano-house classic Morenas's Hazme Sonar, which is eight minutes of diva vocal athletics, big synths and pumping retro drums that will make you punch the air. Fun and fulsome, it is a sure fire classic house winner this summer. Jazzy Doll's Ladybird is next and in Enzo's hands becomes a rubbery, ducking and diving house cut with big hand claps, bubbling bass and loose limbed percussion that is ripe for raves on the sea. White label with hand stamp and sticker... More

After the killer club versions of Bella Ciao, Leo Mas & Fabrice team up with Italian ambient master Gigi Masin to deliver the already legendary Laguna Mix.
As you probably know Gigi has worked on the label with Tempelhof (watch out for their sophomore album Tsuki…), has made albums as Gaussian Curve (with Young Marco and Johnny Nash) and has worked on many great modern classical albums. His version is super slow, littered with emotive piano chords and breezy ambient atmospheres that make it perfect for sunsets. Also on this 12", Leo and Fabrice combine once more for an On Air Remix that is invitingly sparse and gentle sways to and fro with gorgeous trumpets, twinkling keys and a slowly, blissfully building sense of Balearic tension.
More

Dimitri From Paris and DJ Rocca have lots of history of producing together as Erodiscotique and once again here they team up on a new single for Hell Yeah. The stunning original, Disco Shake, comes backed with remixes from Luminodisco, J Kriv, D&G and remix pioneer Tom Moulton. Dimitri from Paris is a true electronic music legend - he pioneered his own French house sound at the start of his career, has mixed seminal compilations including the cult "Deluxe House of Funk" and the infamous "A Night At The Playboy Mansion" and has remixed everyone from The Rapture to Storm Queen in recent times. His partner in crime here, DJ Rocca - who is part of Ajello and the excellent Crimea X - is one of the key figures in the new Italian house scene. He has released lots of productions and remixes for Classic, Rekids and International Feel and once again comes up with the goods here. In original form the single is a foot stomping bit of disco with organic drums, breathy vocals and plenty of laser like guitar lines shooting through the arrangement. Bright golden chords add a luxurious quality to the Italo referencing pianos and the twinkly, starry breakdown allows a moment to catch your breath before is off to authentic disco town once again More

Hell Yeah's tradition of serving up great remix EPs continues here with a new two-track effort featuring Willie Burns and Young Marco. The original material is taken from super hot Italian electronic duo Tempelhof and their stunning latest album, Frozen Dancers, which released on Hell Yeah back in late 2013 and garnered plenty of praise from press and punters alike. First up is Amsterdam's Young Marco, who has made a name for himself with his subtly layered, slowly unfolding tracks on labels like Rush Hour and ESP Institute (where he will be releasing a full length soon and maintains an essential role in the label). True to form this sensationally emotive remix of 'Drake' is a lush, melodically rich affair right from the off. Gurgling bass synths bubble underneath as spritely house percussions skips up top. Celestial pads add a heavenly back glow and the whole thing is perfectly epic. Next up is Willie Burns, aka William Burnett, the New York based W.T Records label boss and someone who has already released on Unknown to the Unknown, LIES and The Trilogy Tapes in 2014 alone. He tackles 'Nothing On The Horizon' and turns it into a prickly, lo-fi house jam with plenty of echo, urgent vocal cries and a muggy sense of humid atmosphere. It builds to an ever more intense peak More