2023 repress

Tracklist
A. Pick Up (12" Extended Disco Version)
B. The Love Truck

DJ Koze might be one of the world's best producers, but above all he's a DJ, and it's his DJ ear that governs. Just as in a great set, so with his releases: "Seeing Aliens" came out of nowhere, a big buzzing beast of a track, to announce that Koze was back on the scene and prime everyone for the coming album, knock knock. But now that Koze has your attention, it's time to remind everyone what's most important about club music, pull things back, take a turn to the left, and get deep into the groove.

Thus "Pick Up": the second single from knock knock is 100% pure groove, doubly so in the extended 12" version. In a sense it's incredibly familiar - it is essentially a filter disco record, very close to something you could imagine coming out of Paris around the turn of the millennium. But of course, this is Koze. Nothing is normal or familiar in his world, and he's taken this most foundational of clubland staples into new territory. Flipping samples of Gladys Knight & the Pips "Neither One Of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)" and Melba Moore's "Pick Me Up, I'll Dance", it creates something completely airborne, shot through with emotions such as gods must feel: not quite explicable to the human mind but strong enough to knock you off your feet. In its way it's absolutely as powerful as "Seeing Aliens", but it comes in like the proverbial iron fist in a glove of velvet.

The flip, a ten-minute new track, "The Love Truck" is a big contrast again. If "Pick Up" is giddy flight, "The Love Truck" is woozy floating. Its sharp, clicking percussion recalls 2000s minimal techno, but this time absolutely nothing is generic. The long, intense, on-and-off bass tones, the flickers of birdsong, the pure voices slipping in backwards as if from the future... it's all like the most blissful dream, and culminates in a coda so subtle yet so beautiful it's like ever time you've ever seen the sun rise and thought "I never want this to end", all the while understanding deep down that the fleeting nature of the pleasure is also what give it its power. But of course, being created with that consummate DJ's ear, it's also full of the thrill of wondering what Koze has in store next.

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2023 repress

Special remarks:
180G VINYL // VINYL ONLY // NEW PRINTED SLEEVE

Tracklist 12":

A1 Nima Gorji - You & I
A2 Irv.in - Future Vision
B1 James Dexter - Small Talk
B2 Sous Sol - All Around


German label Bondage Music delivers the eighth instalment of its ‘Bondage Games’ series. Another vinyl only release, this time with four fresh tracks from Nima Gorji, James Dexter, Irv.in and Sous Sol.


Vinyl pressed on 180g, vinyl only release.




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2023 repress

Tracklist:

A: Blume Der Nacht
B: Rue Burnout


DJ Koze doesn't aim for technical perfection for its own sake, but rather to serve the purpose of giving birth to great music. On his debut 'Rue Burnout EP' from his own Pampa label, he plays with finesse and sophistication, and implicitly understands the importance of subtlety, leading from dreamy and restrained parts to a noisy frenzy at the end. 'Blume der Nacht' starts with a looped piano solo from Arabian dodecaphony, interwoven with bangs of violine bows, piercing high-pitched strings, almost shrieking glissandi, deep angel chants and obsessive sharp rhythms. The 37 year old constantly horny wunderkind producer has made a habit of creatively foiling expectations, and works also under the pseudonyms Adolf Noise, Swahimi and recently Madima Lokkah to redefine the boundaries of electronic music. This daring concept works perfectly in the title track 'Rue Burnout' - it is very rare that you find house music this excitingly light-fooded and precisely transparent. The musician cuts the pigtail off the term 'Kackmusik' for good, and demonstrates how sounds are capable of creating the most delicate musical interplay.
Amen.
DJ Koze, Germany, April 2010.
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