The thirteenth drop from Curtis Electronix comes courtesy of veteran of the electronic music scene. Edward Upton has been producing music since 1994 and much has changed since he unveiled his debut release under the DMX-KREW alisas. Warp Zone LP showcases the great mastery of his studio, his technical expertise and his exceptional ability to create monolithic soundscapes using very few elements. Each layer contributes to a rich, immersive experience, each element resonates with depth, highlighting his deep understanding of club music, sonic texture and space. More

Brains rule for the next No Static / Automatic release as the hyper-prolific DMX Krew presents five new tracks of laser gun acid, bleepy electro and mutant tunnelling techno on Brain Mutants EP.

NS/A could not be more honoured to bring DMX Krew to the label, hugely influential in UK’s electronic music world, the sheer mass and relentless ingenuity of his release history is breathtaking. There’s over 24 albums and even more EPs released to date, found on Rephlex Records, his own Breakin and Fresh Up labels, and more recently a string of albums on Hypercolour Records. It really would not be right to pin him down to one style of beat with the expanse of his work covering braindance, electro funk, pop, acid, ambient, techno and beyond.

Working with the Aphex Twin created Sample Brain, old disco records and analogue synth notes were fed into the sample mashing web app to create the sounds used on this EP. Label boss Ara-u picked out his favourites from the palette which DMX Krew cut up, looped and added in rock-hard drums. The results are super playful, high calibre club tracks you expect from the one and only DMX Krew - designed for heavy impact on the club floor. More

Veteran electrohead and former artist on the Rephlex Records roseter DMX Krew's Ed DMX takes the well-known story by Jorge Luis Borges of The Library of Babel, said to contain all the different languages of the earth. Some deep philosophical thought has gone into the album's concept, but we'll leave that to Ed to explain. Instead, we'll tell you that from beginning to end there's plenty of the kind of trademark 80s synth playfulness in evidence, with a generally more mellow and soundtrack-related rather than frenetic and dancefloor-filling vibe in evidence, even on faster tracks like 'The Combed Thunderclap'. Still, Ed knows what he's doing when it comes to this kind of leftfield electro gear, and it's a rewarding, never boring listen. More

Black Vinyl!

The Rephlex alumni and all around electro legend DMX Krew channels the Minneapolis sound, boogie, and freestyle in this classic 2005 Japan-exclusive, now pressed on vinyl for the first time by the good people at Cold Blow.

Kiss Goodbye showcases Ed DMX in his absolute finest form in songwriting and richness of production. A guaranteed antidepressant with timeless moments from an ode to a mature lady in “D.I.V.O.R.C.E.E.”, to a rap about a cheating girlfriend in “Who’s That Guy?". Full of classic quotables combined with funk that would make Morris Day proud.

The 2xLP is available in standard black, and a special sexy red edition. Mastered by Noel Summerville whose CV includes too many classics to mention, from Newcleus and Hashim to Ohio Players and Rick Astley! The sleeve has received redesign treatment by the Organic Analogue’s Benedetta Sodini.

Essential! More

Red Vinyl!

The Rephlex alumni and all around electro legend DMX Krew channels the Minneapolis sound, boogie, and freestyle in this classic 2005 Japan-exclusive, now pressed on vinyl for the first time by the good people at Cold Blow.

Kiss Goodbye showcases Ed DMX in his absolute finest form in songwriting and richness of production. A guaranteed antidepressant with timeless moments from an ode to a mature lady in “D.I.V.O.R.C.E.E.”, to a rap about a cheating girlfriend in “Who’s That Guy?". Full of classic quotables combined with funk that would make Morris Day proud.

The 2xLP is available in standard black, and a special sexy red edition. Mastered by Noel Summerville whose CV includes too many classics to mention, from Newcleus and Hashim to Ohio Players and Rick Astley! The sleeve has received redesign treatment by the Organic Analogue’s Benedetta Sodini.

Essential! More

The Rephlex alumni and Rinse.fm resident DMX Krew channels Prince’s spirit in this new electro-pop maxi on Cold Blow.

Picking up his electro-pop and synth-funk hat from where it was laid on 2022’s Party Life LP, Ed DMX is switching gears and picking up the pace with four dance-inducing tracks. Another one of the brilliant releases that we’ve become to expect from the consistently hot Cold Blow! The titular track “Still Got It” is a brand new production with vocal and dub versions of driving bassline and Linn fills, exclaiming “I still got the music in me, and it sets me free!” amidst heartbreak. Teardrops on the dancefloor, anyone?

On the flip side, we are treated with an archive gem from the Rephlex era! The Telex-like pacey vocoder synth pop “Paranoia” was recorded around the time of “We Are DMX” album in 1999, and what a treat it is!

The closing track is the only previously released one. A dub version of “Cold Love” borrowed from the Japan-exclusive, CD-only 2005 album “Kiss Goodbye” which Cold Blow has announced to be reissued soon! More

It is a privilege to welcome Ed Upton back to Shipwrec for his sixth release with the label. An artist who has been at the forefront of electronic music for three decades, under his well-honed DMX Krew guise the British musician has crafted icy electro, thoughtful electronica and textured techno. It is a combination of these styles that culminate in Tree in Space. A steady kick tethers "Parasite" to reality, a thick earthen melody countered by twinkling refrains as soaked drums splash. Off-centre bleep and beats introduce the title piece. Solid basslines are lightened by playful brassy electrofunk notes as genre limitations melt into Summer warmth. Skeletal scales find themselves confronted by a bruising bulwark of bass in "Unbelief." Balancing these angular and globular tones are arcing keys that draw the disparate elements into unity. "Meltdown" is the closer. Blending a spread of sounds, acid, braindance and techno, DMX Krew serves up something truly special. Brooding notes are met by cracked percussion and simmering 303 squawk in a track that pursues its own path. An EP from a musician that continues to stretch boundaries and imaginations. More

Today [21st March 2023] DMX Krew announces his return to Peggy Gou's Gudu Records with a new four-track EP, sharing the dreamy, Detroit-inspired title track, ‘Return to Jupiter’. The full EP - out 14th April 2023 - will be his second release for the label and Gudu’s first release of 2023, set to be the label’s busiest year yet. Ed DMX made his debut for Gudu with 2019’s Don’t You Wanna Play? EP, becoming the first artist to release on the label outside Peggy herself. Ed and Gudu have retained a regular working relationship ever since: he mastered Indonesian crate-digger Dea’s ‘Glazer Drum’ release for Gudu, contributed a pair of remixes to the reissue of Riff’s South African electro curio ‘Jacks Jive’, and now returns to the label with Return to Jupiter, a new original four-track EP. Ed has been one of electronic music’s most respected faces for over 25 years. Debuting in the mid-1990s, he released his first decade of music almost exclusively through Grant Wilson-Claridge and Aphex Twin’s Rephlex label and his own Breakin’ imprint, but recent years have seen him ply his trade across a who’s who of dance music’s most respected underground labels: including Hypercolour, Balkan Vinyl, Central Processing Unit and, of course, Gudu. Inspired by the futurist funk and vivid synthesiser epics of classic Detroit, ‘Return to Jupiter’ is dripping with richness and colour, driven by the sort of thick analogue basslines and distinctive melodies that have come to define Ed’s catalogue. The EP’s title track sets the tone for what’s to follow, introducing a language of sorts for the record - before ‘Altered Chords’ turns the funk up to 11, ‘U Ain’t Down’ aims its distorted kicks and wiggy, manipulated lead straight at peak time dancefloors, and ‘I Love Juan’ closes the EP on a star-gazing tip. More

New label Operation Madness records curated by french young blood DVDE has just dropped his first release with legendary producer DMX Krew! A BOMB EP composed by 6 hot tracks between funky synths, groovy bass lines and crazy beats ! A definitely needed record as it is pure madness…!

Operation Madness Records is a brand new label from France curated by young blood DVDE, based in Paris and defending real underground music in gender as electro break-beat, electro-funk, acid, IDM, Rave 90 etc. First release will come out on 10th of April 2023 with legendary producer DMX KREW and a lot of others are already scheduled with artists such as Matt Whitehead, the obscure band Tache Noire or Wedding Acid Group! More

DMX Krew is back on Furthur Electronix! Here with a fine versatile EP, ranging in style from tripped out downbeat to Bleepy Sheffield style bass techno and acidic breakbeats. All in all another fine release from one of our greatest living underground legends. More

DMX Krew here on a timesless mind blowing ambient, IDM & deeper electronix trip. Highly recommended! More

Repress!
New label by Innershades, presenting banging house tracks with a raw edge! More

After recent explorations into ambient and pop under his full name, Sacha Renkas switches back to his Antenna moniker for ALT013. The Kiev-born, longtime Rotterdam-based artist uses a rough-around-the-edges, hiss-laden palette to construct his intricate, pensive club tracks. Often recording on the fly, he embraces the limitations and quirks of the hardware he works with, curating the happy accidents that come with them and that help make his music feel as alive as it does. It is emotional and imaginative in spirit, yet raw, almost instinctive in its rendering. Renkas cites the new wave and synth-pop from his youth and the sounds coming from Chicago and Detroit, as well as the Dutch West Coast he encountered later on, as inspirations. The sensitivity and hands-on approach associated with these are also tenets throughout his work. The "Another Wave EP," a selection of tracks created over nearly a decade, further substantiates this approach. Made on multiple MPCs, Juno synthesizers, and an Akai S900, and mixed on a Mackie 16-channel mixer, it blends, among others, elements of first-wave techno and European proto-trance. Opener "Alisa" stacks angular sine melodies and formant basslines one upon another yet flows like silk, its balance immaculately kept in check. On "Everyone M1," the bass organ patch from which the track derives its title finds itself amidst a lo-fi flux of capricious arpeggiators, ethereal pads, and decocted drums. "Another Wave" is a carefully sculpted slow burner, collected in its unfolding. Wisps of melody, gated pads, and whisper seem to wind between its drum patterns; the tension looming beneath this patchwork never entirely reveals itself. "Quasar" blends signature dramatic chords and off-rhythm bells with a creeping acid bassline and more kaleidoscopic drum patterns. It closes an EP distilled in its form, confident in its intent, and nowhere too bothered by genre boundaries or other formal constraints. More

Two years after the release of the Polarius EP Inner Voices Of A Clown, Danny Wolfers returns to Altered Circuits, this time under his best-known alias Legowelt, for Ruins Of Cracktopolis: a collection of "hymns to survive the dystopian circus of today's techno scene" in the artist's own words. On Do You Know Who You Never Be, a short staccato lead and dark chords revolve around a monolithic kick drum pattern that takes care of the cadence and bass. A mysterious vocoder and a laser sequence that gets torn and twisted to the max join, but the track never loses its steady pace - it gets help from shakers so much mixed to the front they could be lifted from a B'more track. Amidst the effervescing 303 lines and bold drum sequences of In A Trance Dance All Night" Wolfers finds a canvas for a stretched synthesizer jam with eighties breaking allure. This melody, together with the pads and vocal, are drenched in reverb - they float like mist ascending from the The Hague dunes. Throughout Ruins Of Cracktopolis, more vintage Dutch West Coast, the hiss-laden broken beat that guides the bass sequences and ominous blippy synth patterns switches to a 4/4 structure and back. These make for captivating shifts in pace while the minor progressions continue unfolding. Like Twin Peaks targets prime energy once the arpeggiator sequence present from the start lowers an octave. The track runs smooth like a pomade slick-back; it's only tempered slightly when the crunchy kick and tom change place for a moody chord sequence break. Even if these four tracks target the club, they are equally suited for - quoting Wolfers again - "leisurely home listening". Their greatest strengths are, as so often, their melodic aspects. The artist is known to be a synthesizer aficionado, but his unique personal touch immediately shines through no matter which gear he works with. The machines never seem to dominate the composing process; quite the opposite: it's as if he isn't programming or registering as much as trying to teach them his take on electronic music. More

B.AI has been quickly rising to prominence within contemporary electronic music, and, arguably, one of her most enticing feats is her ability to make the minimal, electro and tech house genres she navigates her own by injecting them with a unique sense of melody. On "The Best EP", the Chengdu based artist shows she can not only write memorable hooks but can do so while covering a broad array of registers. "Nightdreaming" is a moody builder: although new, sturdily patched layers keep being introduced and the pace never slows down, a sense of restraint remains. This atmosphere quickly changes on "Satisfy", which, with its tapestry of indeterminate arpeggios and EBM-evoking vocals, takes a nervous turn. "The Best" on the B-side is a slab of vigor tailored for the peak time. Set to an effective bass groove, modulated chords, white noise sweeps, delicately mixed moans and bright pads nearly trip one over another. On "Crash Landing On Nimas" B.AI , together with Diego Santana, unleashes a batch of detuned and portamento heavy square wave patterns. The EP, diverse yet balanced, ends on a note so ominous... the contrast with how bright we imagine the future for this maverick talent could not be starker. More

Repress from Innershades & Betonkust's 2018 NEW BEAT superhit Forever In Boccaccio! Comes fully remastered and in a new sleeve. Limited to 300 copies. More

- coming soon - More

"bio coming soon" More

Altered Circuits' next release comes by way of Bologna-to-Berlin transplant Jacopo Latini. On the Motherboard EP he combines stubby drums and sultry, efficient basslines with richly hued synth work. Once the cuts get going, a tapestry of melody reveals itself: gated leads are accompanied by burbling arpeggios, momentous chord progressions and bright pads that crawl in and out. The patches often incline to the bright and dreamy but are deployed with restraint; in the same vein, concealed and aloof vocal samples get sprinkled in. These techniques - staples for the artist - add an inscrutable quality to his work's mood. It is dance music that feels direct on the surface yet hides more ambiguous emotions underneath. Being a DJ was Latini's first approach to the electronic genres, and it arguably still is his main inspiration - it even occurs he writes tracks with a specific venue in mind. Since starting over a decade ago, and having meanwhile swapped the local Italian stages for the international ones, he has amassed a ton of analogue gear to help him do so. On this occasion, he plugged in his Roland D-50, Moog Sub 37 and microKorg XL, among other favorites, to take on progressive, trance and tech house. "Motherboard", "High Voltage", "It Comes In The Morning", and "Dual Effect" make for a diverse selection but have indeed the same objective: the club floor. More

Paolo Mosca makes intricate, multi-layered electronic music. Inspired by the early club sound pushed by the pioneers from his home region Veneto, he fuses house, trance and ambient - and moves forward. The Metaphysics EP displays the artist's passion and ingenuity, unfolding technical skill that makes clear his studio clock is set to 2023 and not 1993. On "Luciddreams" a statically charged beat and organ bass work up a groove. Accompanied by a misty pad and a slow, pensive arpeggiator, it pulses towards the break: there an acid line emerges, finds its spot in the mix, and refuels the track. "Energia" draws from a bolder, more euphoric range. Hand drums, a glittering lead and airy yet restrained chords float soaked in reverb and delay. A lean bass sequence tightly keeps the rhythm as flanged claps and subtly positioned sweeps create extra movement. The second side's opener, "Under the sea" features a formant filter lead meandering within the sweaty framework of heavily gated choir pads and a frugal bassline that eventually gets layered with an M1. Modulated vocals and strokes of additional melody ensure the stereo field again gets used to its full capacity. "Acqua" is a fitting coda. Some familiar patches are deployed over a tumbling beat that takes charge of the pace from the get-go. The palette might seem bright and blissful, but as always, the track's latticework contains enough contrast for a slight feeling of melancholy to keep simmering beneath. Mosca cited his meditation routine, how it helps him materialize ideas and thoughts, as a main drive upon finishing this record. The Metaphysics EP is a ruminative work. Comprised of four explorations in deftly manipulating energy with due attention to balance and momentum, it easily flows between genres, details darting in and out, showing the artist's understanding of composition and dance music history. It is a deep-dive selection of club-oriented cuts we are excited to release on Altered Circuits. More

Altered Circuits dives deeper in the world of playful and versatile club music with roots in the early 90's! There's an obvious parallel between Ildec's DJ performances and his own music. Part of a scene with a focus on extended, broad-minded sets, the Ibiza-based artist lets his yearning to unearth and play obscure gems flood into his production process. The "Ahora Si EP" is testament to this adventurous spirit as it tackles a wide array of tempos, styles and moods. Opener "El Principio" and closer "Grt Plschr" display Ildec's fondness of hazy, recondite atmospherics. With its sustained ambient chord, delay-washed newsreader samples and manipulated themes, the former sounds like a fever dream radio bulletin. On the latter, a broody motif meanders alongside loosely played drums, while a buried bass guitar occasionally reveals itself. "El Break Del Dia" furtherly explores some of these elements, but this time with the dance floor front of mind. Languidly morphing bass sequences and staccato synth salvos build up anticipation. When a slowly emerging, ceaselessly arpeggiating organ lead finally materialises, the track explodes. Natural flow is partly traded for sturdier form on the remainder of the EP. "El Break De La Noche" lets an ever-modulating lead groove alongside rigid, dry drum beats. Descending tom fills, truncated squeaks and a top layer LFO gone haywire complete this sparse yet exciting cut. "La Nueva Version" has a similarly efficient bassline as its bedrock. An interplay of zaps, risers, transposed percussion, and other dusty cartridge samples pulls it left and right while subtle disorienting hints of speech thicken the mix. On "Modificacion", Ildec moulds his take on progressive and tech house into its toughest shape. A druggy, bleepy lead twirls in and out of the track, carried by the road-tested combo of a taut drum pattern and a piercing backbeat bass. Ominous chords and equally menacing vocals mark its aim: to create tension in the club. It is a standout on a diverse, daring EP we are delighted to present as the fifth release on our label. More

Over the last years a rehabilitation of the New Beat genre has taken place. Short-lived it succumbed under its own immense popularity at the beginning of the nineties, watered down once producers with an eye for commercial success - and not quality control - joined in on its seemingly easy recipe. Below the surface a lot of highly original tracks remain to be enjoyed however: the sound, with its unique mix of amongst others Chicago acid house and Belgian EBM, reveals itself to be an essential node in electronic music's Trans-Atlantic trajectory. Innershades has been a longtime enthusiast of the genre and made it a focal point of attention on "Heritage Vol. 1", the first part of a series that celebrates his inspirations and influences. Rather than making a selection of style exercises, he opts to subtly inject his tech and progressive productions with some of its tropes. It is a blend that comes naturally as menacing melodies and throbbing pulses are vital to his sound. Monolithic drum sequences, consisting of propulsive four to the flour kick drums and gated snares, run throughout the EP. On "This Is Belgium" this clear-cut rhythm structure leaves ample space for the bassline to glide and glint against the frantic SH-101 leads, while a deadpan vocal points out the release's theme. In a similar way a 303 runs havoc on "Eternal Voices". Hazy pads and understated dashes of melody furtherly infuse the track with a sense of emotive call and response. Just like most of its source material, it aims for high NRG via a low BPM. "The After Hours Club" lets a gnarled square bass line and a resonance intensive lead interplay until they get interrupted by a possibly familiar sounding news bulletin sample. "Rave Signal" finally combines an ever-modulating, hypnoid lead, silky string layers and a slab of trusty solid bass. The energetic track epitomizes Innershades's contemporary palette - it is a fitting conclusion to a record that renders regard for its precursors into current day dancefloor fervor. More

After a 20 year hiatus, Polarius a.k.a Legowelt is back with 5 banging house/techno tracks! More