Mysticisms' Dubplate series is back once again, this time with Nick Barber aka Doof at the helm. He was a 90s trance icon who here serves up some tunes that have previously only been available digitally. They were all recorded to tape and remixed and live dubbed on the desk so have an authentic feel to the melon twisting sounds. There are plenty of psychedelic twists and turns to the wispy synth leads and snaking hits here, all with heavy and cavernous low ends and plenty of future facing ideas. Each one is sure to set the dancefloor alight when dropped at the right moment. More

ysticism's Dubplate series has got a couple of great drops lined up at the moment and this is one of them - a boule pack from German digidub pioneers TVS aka Trance Vision Steppers. This was a project that never made it out of the studio but still cooked up some brilliant sounds, which in the case of this collection come from their earlier period between 1995 - 1999, all of which land on vinyl for the first time here. Fans of Adrian Sherwood, Dennis Bovell and Mad Professor will be head over heels of these dub delights - they are deep and atmospheric, with lush ambient pads, downtempo vocals and stoner synths next to more twisted rhythms. More

London label Mysticisms knows how to dig out some truly lush house grooves whether that's in the form of unreleased house meets IDM, classic reissues or debuts from new school artists. N-GYNN falls into that latter camp having started to make waves on the likes of Hamam House Pleasure Club and his Superlux Records label. He explores a dreamy and cuddly house world here with rolling analogue drums, wispy new-age percussion and whimsical cosmic melodies that all make for otherworldly grooves. 'Journeys' has the feeling of an ancient ritual in the sky, 'Alistera' is a kaleidoscope of colour and 'Kebaya' has a more earthy Afro feel. 'Funk Break Beat' closes with a jumbled groove peppered with dial tones, string loops and bulbous acid. More

The sublime music of Kaoro Inoue is the subject of this essential new compilation on Mysticisms. Inoue describes himself as an "extreme music lover" and has been for more than 30 years. His Chari Chari alias is all about self-expression and the music here has previously only been available digitally. It fuses ambient, house and techno soundscapes across four sides of vinyl with a deeply spiritual outlook and soul-soothing sound. Organic percussion, traditional instruments and new age moods all colour the deeply enticing grooves. More

Mysticisms continues its global search for amazing music, hitting gold again with an EP of four previously unreleased house meets IDM with a dreamy edges by Romania's HAN aka Dan Handrabur, culled from early studio recordings between 1991-95. After getting into record store culture he began building a studio and eventually gave up studying in favour of production, relocated to Vancouver, Canada, where his debut release (as X Drone with Adham Shaikh in 1993) began to establish Handrabur's role as an integral part its electronic scene. Appearances with Harthouse, Exist Dance, Eye Q Records and many more followed, plus collaborations with the legendary Phil Western. The four tracks here haven't aged at all, with nimble beats, action-packed arrangements and dreamy atmospheres, 'Give In & Resist' coming on like Rising High-era Mixmaster Morris crossed with the playfulness of Air Liquide, and 'Phantasme' revelling in the same cross-rhythmic fun that informed The Black Dog's classics. More

Mysticisms travels again to Japan and reissues a long-term favourite in Little Big Bee's Scuba.
Centred around Eitetsu Takamiya, DJ, engineer and producer of the project, and co-founder of Flower Records, joined by Plaza Fujisak on keyboards and Kenji Jinguj on bass.
Started in 1996, the label has released a steady, but varied mix of Jazz and spiritual influenced House, Hip Hop, Future Jazz, Balearic and soulful modern Reggae to considerable acclaim.
Released in 2006, Scuba is their Balearic house cut to end all Balearic house cuts. Gentle waves, crystal clear waters, over the reef, the raptures of the deep. Timeless. A classic and noticeably hard to find from the moment it was released, here at last it comes in original form and with 2 new remixes.
The flip is handed over to long-time associate, Test Pressing head-honcho, Paul Byrne aka Apiento to present 2 wonderful versions. With cult like releases for World Unknown, Music For Dreams and World Building, Byrne dives deep with a beat heavy "4am Mix" and in the "M25 Mix", delivers pure ambient bliss for the drive home.
Dive into the mystery. More

"Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the bassbins, Mysticisms brings the latest in its Dubplate series. After the success of his first digital dubb excursions on the version, Persian returns with a second 10” of reggae inspired electronics, covering Bass, Breaks, Digidub and now also, Jungle.

Taking no prisoners with the massive opener Survival Dub, Persian marries classic breakbeats and toasting to bouncing, dance floor effect. THE party starter. This is followed by Smoke Mari, a looping steppas of FX and breaks to lay down the Dubplate clash.

As ever the link between rave, breaks and sound system culture is explored, this time with the Roots’n’Lovers opening of There Is No Love giving way to a Junglist drop, before risin’ to a beautiful soul sermon.

Finally, taking it all down, tings wrap with the deep, sampledelic dub of Zatoichi’s Troubles. With a bass to destroy many a speaker, it’s lanquidity morphs from the EP’s hedonism of sound clash styles to a gliding “tokers delight”.

Smoke the Mystery. " More

The Mysticisms label welcomes Coral D aka Duncan Stump for a debut outing here that marks the first new music to be part of the ongoing and most excellent Dubplate series. This artist has a long history of crafting "deep dub electronic swing" in his roles in Mock & Toof, FX Mchm and his 6000 Degrees project. This one finds him bringing some dub reggae influences as 'Dissolves' is built on a chugging rhythm with smeared chords. 'DR 55' is then a masterfully laidback digi-dub groove that warps space and time and so leaves you utterly hypnotised. More

'Mysticisms' prides itself on finding the groove, but with a nod (and wink) to discerning ears. However, sometimes it's right to just let it all out and go route one. Berlin based producer Daniel Scholz aka (DJ) Leinad was all about the dancefloor, releasing a series of simple but highly effective EPs of cut up, looped house music that summed up that late 90s Chicago-NYC-London-Paris influenced bombs.

The jack that house built the "heroes" with the "touch" Souvenirs embodies Leinad's sound. Moving from high-school DJ, to computer programmer to professional producer, DJ and soundtrack artist, remixing for the likes of Yellow and Peter Gabriel's Real World, moving from early classic mid-90s German techno and trance releases on to his 'Leinad' moniker (Daniel spelt backwards), the series of releases on JXP can now go for dizzing sums. In Souvenirs, taken from the Disco Part's III EP, Mysticisms found the source - elastic bass, filtered loops, watertight kick and twisted disco'n' strings, all cut back and forth 'for the party' to abandon.

Present day remixes come from Lewie Day's 'Deep Dean' project, offering a wonderful example of an artist at work, a laid back groove, pushing all the right dancefloor buttons, all presented with respect to the past, but with acres of modern day swing; Mysticisms' own cohort Piers Harrison, side stepping his edit school as one of Soft Rocks, to produce a literal peak time acid banger; and to close the 'DJ' returns, Leinad offers a bumping 2022 remake to show he's still a teacher.

Guru The Mystery.
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Mysticisms keeps the Dubplate series moving, welcoming one of the seminal Dub producers of all time in Scientist. His unique studio techniques and understanding of rhythm are exalted and present on Step It Up, an enlightening example of his genius and matched with a widescreen remix by label associate DJN4, aka DJ Normal 4, teaming up with fellow Dusseldorf producer AKI AKI, to offer a dreamland breaks-steppers anthem.
The fact that Hopeton Overton Brown aka Scientist is one of the true pioneers of Dub music is undisputed. His productions, first as an apprentice at Studio One, then breaking through whilst teamed at King Tubby's studio, led to Channel One and a series of seminal Dub masterpieces throughout the 1980s, mixing engineer Henry 'Junjo' Lawes' productions with the Roots Radics, alongside vocalists Barrington Levy, Jonny Osbourne and Jah Thomas.

Step It Up precedes, taken from the period of seminal Tubby's work with Bunny Lee and in this instance, with Barry Brown classic vocals and Lee's house band, The Aggravators, backing. As often with Reggae's history, much is disputed, however, this unmistakable Scientist production showcases Brown's high pass filters in effect, the trademark riding 4/4, utilising the 4 track mixing desk to create a joyous bounce.

Working on the license from the outset, Tim Schumacher aka DJN4, waited in the wings to dive in the desk for a modern-day remix. Partnering with up-and-coming producer Aki Vierboom (Phaserboys / Candomble), the Digi-Dance MixX is bass-quaking histrionics, a steppers meets rave culture overdose that will be heard from festivals to dancehalls, a righteous dub-breaks riddim y'all.

Step the Mystery More

Repress!
After shining a light on the Garage’n’Breaks of Persian and the Bump’n’House of Brian Bristol, the Mysticisms’ crew return with another reissue, to a source of love and inspiration, the epicenter of the 90s NYC club music’s explosion and development, with an EP from the music production partnership of Lee Rodriguez and Steven John Craden. Better known as the team behind must-have The African Dream double-header on Eightball Records, they were a feature, under numerous pseudonyms, on the early 90s NYC scene with appearances on a who’s who of labels including Movin’, Strictly Rhythm, Tribal and with Elements of Life, on Oxygen Music Works. Released as a 12”, a 2 x 12” and a CD album, the want of a lot of US labels at the time to mirror the success of Hip Hop saw an attempt to grow House ‘projects’ from club EPs to being seen as artists via albums and onwards. The limited success of that tactic wasn’t to the detriment of solid music and what the four tracks included here show is at their heart are talented producers who can encompass ambient, jazz and deep / spiritual House music with aplomb. More

The 2nd Dubplate follows the Persian 10", presenting a combination of highly prized and archival dub influenced music to be given a deserved wider appreciation and some, a first pressing on vinyl.

Little is known of B:dum B:dum Sound except they came from the ever mutating Manchester art, film and music scene. Based around a core of Jamie Crossley, Nick Farr, Steve Gears and Karl McGinley, they merged their backgrounds in post-punk through dub and the City's vibrant dance scene, to produce their sole 12"" - the 1993 self released (and Bolton Art Council funded) B-Dum B-Dum EP.

Containing the perfect marriage of samples, sound design, dub and house in Istanbul, the music was perhaps too ahead of its time, becoming a secret for the City's aficionado's and diggers. It's appearance on the "Originals" compilation series, included by Moonboots and Balearic Mike, brought it to wider attention and reverence and today sees the EP selling for upwards of L300.

The tracks inclusion being worthy alone, also included however are the unreleased Stateless and 3 tracks making up the flip, all culled from a mythical album some 10 years whence, of deep dub vocal, with nods at techno, that makes this 10"" essential.

Dub the Mystery. More

Mysticisms presents Dubplate, a series of (sporadic) releases to showcase the blurring of genres between breaks, house and dub, even techno, wrapped around and within that oft-misunderstood take on digital reggae, the sound of Digidub.

To begin, label favourite Persian acts as selector, with 5 rare archive cuts that typify the producer and sound of the series. From the digital dubbing of Dunya - here in a previously unreleased Extended Mix - to the warped groove and monster bass of D Dub Retwist, this unique link between rave, breaks and sound system culture is clear.

As always Persian aka Peter Reilly, moves across styles with ease, offering the warm roots vibrations of Jacob Dub and Augustus, alongside title cut, Space Within Art - here in Dubplate Mix - a street soul breakbeat and sampledelic mash up, all touched with the heavy hand of dub.

An open expression within a loose framework, Dubplate #1 acts as guide and educator. Where cultures clash, morph and grow, embracing the diaspora through music; Arabic melody meets Jamaica riddim meets English hedonism in a Soundclash.

Digi the Mystery. More

Following the success of the label's Cassiopeia reissue, Mysticisms presents a second EP from Nail with four previously unreleased tracks of gliding deep house, dub techno and Balearic sunrise anthems, highlighting this respected talent.

Recorded between 1993 to 1999, predominately at the DiY collective's Strictly 4 Groovers studio in Nottingham, with the ever reliable Damian "Deadbeats" Stanley engineering. While edits and overdubs were completed at home, some were mixed down to DAT and cassette to became part of Nail and friends after party soundtrack, as much for pure enjoyment as appraisal.

Still a teenager for the early years of these recordings, Nail was honing his craft. Utilizing the ever faithful S1000 sampler, Juno 106, Oberheim Matrix 1000 and Roland SH101, influences from Future Sound Of London, the emerging 'West Coast Sound' rising in the US, Maurizio's dub fusion, through to the bouncing free party sounds emanating out from the Midlands to a now nationwide party scene embed in to machines.

Unreleased until now, the Cassiopeia release ignited an interest in these old cassettes and DATs, bringing them to life and offering further proof of Nail's place as one of the UK's best House producers.

Ghost the Mystery. More

Persian, the man who launched the label in 2017 returns, again offering classics from the archive tapes in the Garage bounce of Feel Da Vibe and the Jungle tinged Silver Spaceships.

Since appearing on Acetate 10" back in (where were you in) '92, Persian, Persian Prince or Artist Formerly Known As PP, aka Peter Riley, has been following his own path, breaking ground with self released, slabs of dynamite wax.

Delivering a myriad of styles, from Breaks to House, Digidub to Jungle, here, as with MYS001, the original masters were handed to contemporaries to work their magic. Brother Nebula is a secret non de plum of a producer who has been around long enough to know the score, switching continents and releasing music on a myriad of labels before setting up his new Legwork label, creating a fresh wave.

The respectful but wonderful spacial dub house remake of the anthem Feel Da Vibe builds perfectly before snaps bring it back down to Earth. Alphonse (Especial / Klasse Wrecks) however, heads for the heavens with an expanse of floating percussion that explores the line between Breaks and Jungle to move Silver Spaceships in to a new decade. More

Mysticisms eyes summer luv dancin’ as new-not-new Deep Dean emerges from the Antipodean well to offer sunrise anthems for the me generation. A man of mystery, but too tight to be a total new-jack-wack. Releases on a who’s who confirm the tight-tight-tight production matches the swing brimming of technique, confidence and factor one, fun. Undiluted vibe alives, we ride Ocean Groove, with the Original setting us afloat, teasing the monkey, bassline for open skies and warm hearts. You feel good? The drums club, the hats fly high and that’s all you need.
Someone say ‘more Piano’? Hop, skips, yearning keys and whooosh. Beyond plastic dreamz, break down, up to the stars. Basement dub, tribes and community embrace, progressive, House muzak. 6 hours in deep to Tenaglia, heads down Barberellas, past or present, today or tomorrow, it’s a way of life. To close The Awakening presents. Beats familiar, but in a new (beat) style. Eastern strings and bump-to-jump. Never get off that caravan train.

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Back to the future and northern velkommens to bro Morken. EPs for Prins “Blud” Thomas’ Full Pupp show early production chops, but it’s his residency as part of Oslo’s Jaeger crew where the range of styles is truly showcased. Appearances on Trushmix series and his recent Road Trippin’ cassette for L.I.E.S last year show depth(charge) DJ on a roll, but it’s setting up the Moonlighting label where vibes came alive via some electro bass tribal sub bass wonder. Jungle dialects! All and more over these 5 cuts >>> afro-bump-shuffle-rat-tat-hats-acid-stab-meets-storyville-dark-tom-toms-pads-relentless-hypnotic-down-down-electro-italo-endings-and-bass! Strange? Thank f*** More

Bump, skip, hats, jack, jack, jack. Danny. Kenny. ‘Little’ Louie. Junior. FK. Sound Factory. Twilo. Body & Soul jus’born. When a walk to the Alphabets still has you checking your shoulder. NYC going through changes, condos just on the horizon. Strictly, King Street, MAW and a myriad of the City’s labels were ahead of the pack. Like many, Ear Candy had its moment. Chopped vocals sampled, looped and riding a bass and kick as only an analogue can do. “Yer can I listen to the new Maxi?” Boom, talking, talking, talking. Reasons to release Brian, Persian or whoever comes next, alongside today’s producers is that the lineage carries on. Right FYI Chris?! Better than today? No. Different. Keep digging, keep debating, keep on keeping on as only that 4/4 kick and rumble can move…you. Discover the Mystery. More