Repress!

If you can picture the very furthest, coldest, darkest part of Norway, that's where Mind over MIDI resides. If you want to get an idea of what it's like there, and can do without the frostbite, then this is the perfect solution. 1997 re-issue.



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Before New Angels is the debut album by Swills & Phil Mills, a Dutch mixed electronic duo in which vibrant talent and solid experience swirl together in a hazy cloud. Ten cinematic ambient tracks that combine the imaginative power of Biosphere and the hallucinatory club DNA of Huerco S and GAS.? Take for instance a track like Common Parlance. It's a centerpiece and forms the beating heart of Before New Angels. With its elongated, shuffling chords and deadpan kicks it seems to come from an early Wolfgang Voigt recording.?? Utrecht-based Sabine Willems is the newcomer of the two. Her work is experimental and does not conform to any genre. She likes to challenge herself by keeping her instrumentation to a bare minimum. Phone recorded samples of the world around her sometimes serve as a building block. But where her earlier tracks still contain rhythm, Before New Angels is virtually beatless.? Phil Mills is the experienced side of the duo. He's from the North of The Netherlands. Anyone who dives into his musical past will come across dance productions that date as far? back as the early nineties. Mills' experience pays out on Before New Angels, where its layered melodies and slow evolving arrangements never smother the minimalist compositions.?Is this one of the better ambient albums of 2023? We tend to think so.?You better lie down and feel for yourself.?

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SoHaSo keeps finding lost gems in the rich soil of the Dutch electronic underground. You might know P.A. Presents from his epic Entangled EP (1995) or his many releases on U-Trax. When SoHaSo informed if he had any dusty DAT tapes laying around from that particular period in the 90s, Peter Aarsman started digging. And found plenty of goodies. Here's six tracks which will beam you right back the last century, when names like Carl Craig, Drexciya and Bola were household names among the lovers of funky, melancholic electronica. Whether it's moody strings, otherworldly melodies or syncopated break beats, P.A. delivers on his Lost Voices EP. Like on the 4Hero-esque Drum 'n Tech or the mysterious and jumpy electro vibes on Vice. On Drop It and closing track Lost Voices the Dutch producer goes into full club modus. This is techno that used to fill up warehouses in windy harbor neighborhoods. Be sure to check the Drexiyan remix by Proxyan, who masters the art of deduction on his skeleton-like remix of Vice.

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Repress!

The primer of techno was barely dry or England already had its own variant of the genre: UK techno. Original Man by British producer Dave Angel is perhaps the perfect example of what that variant sounded like, back then. If only you knew where to find it. The single was released in 1993 on a record label that has long since ceased to exist. Fortunately, Utrecht-based record label SoHaSo made this transverse techno-soul classic available again, in a punchy remaster. With its juxtaposed rhythm programming and orchestral arrangements, Original Man still lives up to its title, even if it is 30 years later. On the flip you'll find Quarter Pounder. With its nervous hi-hats and high paced rhythms, this seems like the perfect soundtrack for a highway chase between two roadhouses. As a bonus, SoHaSo has supplemented the vinyl version of this EP with a rare Dave Angel track which also was released back in 1993 on French dance label FNAC. It's called 4th Symphony and ticks all the right techno boxes: strings, hihats and a melancholic melody. If you wanna learn more about UK techno, you might as well start with this wonderful re-release.

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How do you get 'in the box'? Gal Tsadok-Hai knows. After some experiments with hardware, the Amsterdam-based electronic producer recently went back to his first love: computer composing. Thus keeping open all the options. Footsteps is his first EP for SoHaSo, filled with four tracks of adventurous, left-field explorations in rhythm and melody. cl_forwardspeed 5 is dominated by sub low baslines and razor blade rhythms, while mp_footsteps 1 nods more towards early Aphex Twin and the IDM trickery from last century. Flip the record for max_smokepuffs 999, on which Gal Tsadok- Hai proves he can also bring a straight four-four to great heights. It is both spacious and tense, which makes for a great combination. On closer sv_gravity 0 it's back to the days when melody was still the default in most techno and electro. If you like the abstract machine funk from Dopplereffekt, this might just be right up your alley.

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Back in the nineties, Human Beings were pioneers in the Dutch techno scene. And The Matrix may well be their finest moment. SoHaSo gives this stone-cold classic the re-release it deserves, together with a magical Plaid-remix and a forgotten track, straight from DAT. Together with Quazar and Fierce Ruling Diva, Utrecht-based duo Human Beings were among the very first brave enough to go live, back in 1992. Dance music was still called house or techno. Other flavors only came later. Both Allert Aalders and Bert van der Grift were proper nerds. Their studio was filled to the brims with vintage synthesizers and drum computers and all machines were constantly challenged. Van der Grift sadly passed away in 2005 after a sudden cerebral haemorrhage, marking the abrupt end of Human Beings. The Matrix ticks all the boxes of a proper Human Beings-tune: crystal clear melodies sweeping from corner to corner, ultra-clever drum programming and a main theme that knocks your socks right off. In the energetic live version, they have shaped the track to perfection. A secret weapon that works wonders on dancefloors, even 30 years later. London duo Plaid strip The Matrix to its bare essentials, focusing on the main melody while giving the kick a bit more oomph in a Plaid kinda way. Ghost in the Shell is exactly that. A forgotten off-beat track, made during one of those many sessions in Bert's crampy studio. Its murky downtempo rhythms take a nod to both Meat Beat Manifesto and Renegade Sound Wave. Ah, those golden days....

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SoHaSo continues their summer sampler series. Again, the Utrecht based record label brings you some forgotten beauties from the past. Mostly from the Lowlands this time. Perfect Virtue by British trio Shi Take is one of those gems. Tribal house rhythms from 30 years ago, with a bassline that makes you want to wiggle all the way to the center of the dance floor. SoHaSo label head honcho Nuno had been playing a demo of Tools for Fools by Dutch producer Sluwe Vos for years, when he found out the energetic rhythm track never got a proper release. Well, now it has. Flip over for some more forgotten Dutch house history. Jibaros is a project from dance veteran Eric Cycle. It has all the elements that made house music from the lowlands so good in those days: percussive beats, a decent baseline and good melodies sprinkled on top. It's a layercake of sweet stuff that just keeps on building. Very pricey on Discogs nowadays, but luckily Cycle still had the original DAT-tape lying around. Nozem is a bit of the odd one out. It's actually a project by a young dude from the south of Holland but it sounds like he stepped into a time machine which warped him back to the 90s. The vocals (in ancient Greek!) are from Sister of Iris. Closure track Tinkling Sensation by Delta (Alex Dijksterhuis) is more than 25 years old. With it's fast-paced rhythms this piano driven tune could well be something post-progressive from Scandinavia. But this is the real deal. Uplifting rave music from the days people were still carrying fluor sticks.

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With four highly focused and crisp new tracks, Bas Dobbelaer and Vand return to SoHaSo once again. Their Laren EP from last year got high praise from dj’s and lovers of deep, percussive dance music and ZL2 seems to wander down that same and interesting path. Though some things have changed. On their new EP the vibe seems more melancholic, more introvert. Might the pandemic and the locked down nightlife have something to do with it? Or is it perhaps due to Dobbelaer’s new favourite instrument, the Waldorf Blofeld? This small synthesizer combines the technology of today with the analogue vibe of the last century and is a therefore perfect metaphor for the delicate ‘vintage feel productions’ of Vand and Dobbelaer. In any case, ZL2 is manna for headphone junkies. The condensed kicks on tracks like Nomansland and Runner make way for some excited listening, with beautiful details everywhere in the sound spectrum. Listen how the hi-hats unfold slowly on the blissful off-beat belter Story of Blade. Where a melancholic strings ties it all together. Once again, youth friends Dobbelaer and Vand made something special together. Let’s hope the clubs reopen soon, because you really want to hear ZL2 on a proper sound system.

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If you know Dervaig is actually a small village in Scotland you begin to understand why the openingtrack of Sigward’s Balmung Beam EP sounds a bit eerie and dark. Long, long ago the Vikings came ashore at Dervaig (the word means ‘small inlet’ in Norwegian) but in the winter of 2019 Dutch producer Sigward uses it as a passage way to lead us into his new record. Balmung Beam is Sjoerd Sigward’s second EP for SoHaSo, the follow up for the well received Black Mambo-single from 2014. In the meantime Sjoerd moved from Holland to Germany, where he now resides in Berlin. This step has provided him with a cinemascope view on dance music, as his new EP clearly illustrates. Italo-esk flavors on the title track, meditative pulses on the beautiful Woodland Wells Inc and spacious Andy Stott-like tension on Jettison. DL/MS take Balmung Bean to new wave territories on their slumbering arpeggio-driven remix. You might just stick around in this small inlet.

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Listening to music while travelling is one of the best things to do in life. Bas Dobbelaer and Vand both know this. The Dutch producers label their delicate compositions with titles like ‘Transit’ and ‘Gateway to Gaia’ and travelled to Laren (a small town in beautiful nature) to isolate themselves from the hustle and bustle of hometown Amsterdam. They came back with four beautiful tracks which combine floating melodies with soft percussion pads and lukewarm basslines. Just listen to Void (Pulse Mix) and imagine the sun setting behind lined trees while being on a public bus to the one you love. Laren leaves you with a sense of melancholia and longing, which in this case is a wonderful thin

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Never underestimate the power of a good bassline. Mark du Mosch certainly doesn’t. This veteran from the harbor city of Rotterdam let’s his vicious bass line creep up on you from behind on 202 AC Ra. A dark and jacking club belter with clear Chicago roots. The five track EP The Heavens may be his debut on SoHaSo, Du Mosch has been releasing music for over fourteen years on a variety of respected underground labels, such as Moustache, Dekmantel and Royal Oak. His versatile style draws on sounds that evoke strong mental imagery and a sense of eternity, which clearly shows on the introspective Resonance Delay (She) on the B-side. In which a melancholic melody is supported by muffled slow motion beats. The beautiful artwork on The Heavens EP is by Joost Stokhof, an Amsterdam based graphic designer who is known for his love for detail. Which makes him perfectly suited for Du Mosch’ subtle and well crafted dance tunes. In a normal world you would open your EP with the title track. Du Mosch chooses to close with it. The Heavens stays true to it’s name. A harp like melody that washes ashore as foam from a greyblue Northsea that calmed down after the storm. Heaven indeed.

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SoHaSo is very happy to welcome an recently unknown entity on the label, Joannes is here with a fresh sound originating form the North of Holland. We all need to do shadow work once in a while, integrating our inner demons to create a more balanced reflection to carry out our lives from. The Got Needs EP provides the soundtrack for this personal journey, including delightful remixes by Nadia Struiwigh and Melatonin Man. Got Needs A1 is a powerful groove with heavily driven drum machines and 303 bassline for peak hour introspection, it doesn’t get more hypnotic than this. Melatonin Man strips down Joannes’ efort into a down- tempo electro afair containing some spell-binding rhythms that sure is to move some boo... On the B-side we fnd Joannes taking a more emotional approach, having pads and a cross rhythmic synth rif do the heavy lifting. Nadia Struiwigh takes these elements to the outer reaches of the universe. In her remix she slows i down and creates an intriguing dubby atmosphere with dystopian chords and industrial percussion.

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Limited Edition 300 copies / Vinyl only / Comes with silkscreened sleeve and doublesided poster. Wit Bad is the result of a beautiful collaborative project that started with illustrator Joost Stokhof. He was asked as an artist in residence for Amsterdam’s Hortus Botanicus, a place where Joost locked himself up for a week alongside the finest biodiversity in the city. Joost asked Eefje de visser to join him for a day and Eefje asked Nuno dos Santos to form a powerful trinity of which Wit Blad is the unmistakable evidence. The original version was released in April of 2018 and we finally have a vinyl (only) version to go along with it. On the A side we find an 808 version, which is an extended version by Nuno of the ‘Wit Blad’ original. Zooming in on the drums and bass line while leaving even more space for Eefjes haunting voice. Eefje is one of Holland’s best kept music secrets, her voice is soothing and her presence like a siren song seducing you in. Immersing the music with field recordings, you can hear the birds and surroundings the piece was recorded and even some whispering voices that only add to the atmosphere. Flipping to the other side we find our dear friend Mattheis remixing Wit Blad in a strong hypnotic vibe. Containing Mattheis’ trademark synth swirls, it’s as soothing as it is driving with spine tingling harmonics slowly creeping in and out.

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Kurt Baggaley is back on Something Happening Somewhere with his trademark drawn out manifestations and trance inducing melodies. Remembering Infinity is an 8-minute ode to the limitless, waves of arpeggiated notes and subtle pads wash you away with an endless display of dazzling forms. Trading off your mentally accepted shape and exchanging it with that within us that is unbounded. On the same side we find Mattheis taking this sonic meditation to the club environment, channeling the blissful experience to our inner dancer. Stretching, bending and condensing the sonic tapestry. On the B-side Kurt Baggaley shows a different side with electro slow burner ‘Under It’s Watchful Eye’. Packing a more sinister vibe while peaking inside our Orwellian society, it slowly unveils a more mature reflection. Completing the story is Awanto3, reworking the digital only ‘Detect’ into a house injected vibey piece. Think scrungy vocoders, rumbling drum computers and walking bass lines.

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What’s this unidentified vinyl object? After Nuno dos Santos’ striking Trigonometry of Love EP, Something Happening Somewhere presents a killer four track remix pack that let’s others retell the story in their own way. Far Out Radio Systems, Fader From Borneo, Mark Du Mosch and Polynation are all presenting their version on an exclusive ‘white label’. Containing a special silkscreen printed remix of the original artwork, every edition of this one is truly unique and a collector’s item to behold.


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Uzoamaka is an original track by King Britt from 2002, that still remains as fresh and uplifting as it was 15 years ago. Besides remastering the original, it gave the opportunity to invite other artists to retell the story. This time the mighty Dixon gives the original track an update for modern dance floors. Pushing the groove to the foreground, adding some extra percussion and drive while letting the choir guide you to a monumental break in which the chord suspends in the air. “Free to… Free to… Free to…” Nuno dos Santos has used his magic touch for a short beat edit, which focusses the whole affair on the groove even more. A powerful tool to add some impact to tracks or to break up an otherwise repetitious dj set. Mathias Schober is back under his SB alias, carefully tightening and shortening the original version from 2002 with his edit to create a version that celebrates the quality of the elements. Pushing and pulling, enhancing the entrancing effect of the musical soul.

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SOMEWHERE III is set to be released as two vinyl samplers, with a selection of the tracks featured in the full digital compilations, which will feature four extra digital only tracks. A host of familiar SoHaSo figures make an appearance, but there is also room for new faces like Aril Brikha, KAAP, Ripperton in his stunning collab with Love over Entropy, Equus, Tracey and Mulde

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Quince is back after a short hiatus on Something Happening Somewhere with a four track killer no filler EP that oozes character out of every sweaty pore. Making the kind of records you still remember after an intense club night slowly comes to an end, Quince presents a diverse pallet of sounds to choose from. ‘Rif’ provides perfect sturdy dance floor material with Quince’s compelling groove trusting alongside splintered melodies and Detroit influenced synth sounds producing a sense of undeniable optimism. B1’s ‘Coïtus’ shares a similar punch, combining raspy synth stabs with a detuned bell pad giving the feeling that you’re sucked into a wormhole propelling you towards an unknown location.‘Propheet’ hits you in the gut like nothing you’ve experienced before, like a smack in the face in the most positive way imaginable. It’s a raw driving electro cut, sounding like it could be coming from a long forgotten industrial era, with so much vibe that sweat starts dripping instantly. Think of it as travelling trough the wormhole and realizing you ended up in a dark nightmare of the soul. ‘Stop’ sounds like the musical equivalent of an artificial intelligent life form’s onboard computer slowly malfunctioning, experiencing true emotions in the downfall. It could be the sound of that intense night coming to an end and fits the closing of this class ep by Quince flawlessly.

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Optimo (Espacio) started life as a weekly club night. It was born at The Sub Club in Glasgow on a wet, windy, wintry November Sunday night in 1997. Run by JD Twitch and partner in crime Jonnie Wilkes. Optimo was a reaction against what felt like an increasingly conservative musical soundtrack in clubs here at that time. Clubland felt as if it had become very bland and a bit too serious; it was the era of the dawn of the Superstar DJ. Clubs often felt like bastions of male energy. It seemed dance music and culture was going somewhere far, far away from where it was meant to be. The notion of fun had got lost. It was no longer the world they had devoted ten years of their lives to already, and lots of their friends felt the same. When the opportunity came up to do a Sunday night at The Sub Club it felt like the perfect opportunity to rip it all up and start again. So they did. There was nothing in the city (or possibly anywhere) like it. As the club believed wholeheartedly in what they were doing, there was no pressure from The Sub Club to fill the club. So, they embraced the freedom. Groups of people who had never been in the same room at the same time before came together. A community of kindred spirits started to emerge. Word spread, slowly. Lots of people checked it out. Many loved it, some hated it. The core of the Optimo idea was to embrace music they loved that might work on the dancefloor from whatever era or genre they thought felt right. It might not seem very radical now but at that time it was revolutionary.After about a year and a half, the club went from having 100 people attending most nights to suddenly one week having 500 people turn up. It was very weird. It was as if a collective light bulb went off in people’s heads in Glasgow. From that week on, until the very last weekly Sunday night at the Sub Club, in 2010, over a decade later, it was packed. There were 550 Sunday Optimo nights. A LOT of music was played. So, what was the music? People often find it hard to pin down exactly what Optimo is. This has been a positive but also a negative as we live in a world where people want easily defined “brand identities”. The simplest definition of the music played is “music for dancing”, which of course is a very broad definition. Even better than trying to define it in words, we have these 2 volumes of music that give a hint of what that might be. This is not a “Best of Optimo” or a “Greatest Hits of Optimo” compilation. For people who come to, or used to come to the nights there are of course “Greatest Hits”. But, over such a long timespan they are “hits” belonging to a certain moment in time and space. Someone who came to Optimo in 1997 would have a completely different notion of the big tracks at the club to someone coming in 2003, or 2010, or today. This compilation is just a snap shot missing several genres that might make up the DNA of Optimo. There is though a broad sweep through lots of music Optimo loves, that they believe is amazing. Music that they know will rock a dancefloor, that they have played between 1997 and 2023. Of course Optimo nights were not all about rocking the dancefloor. The first hour was always a time for them to play music they loved that often was far removed from the dance. Side 1, Volume 1 of this compilation is the kind of music one might hear at the very start of an Optimo night. Optimo have always loved a good slogan. The most long lived, and fitting Optimo slogan is "We Love Your Ears", which is in essence what it is all about to them.

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Optimo (Espacio) started life as a weekly club night. It was born at The Sub Club in Glasgow on a wet, windy, wintry November Sunday night in 1997. Run by JD Twitch and partner in crime Jonnie Wilkes. Optimo was a reaction against what felt like an increasingly conservative musical soundtrack in clubs here at that time. Clubland felt as if it had become very bland and a bit too serious; it was the era of the dawn of the Superstar DJ. Clubs often felt like bastions of male energy. It seemed dance music and culture was going somewhere far, far away from where it was meant to be. The notion of fun had got lost. It was no longer the world they had devoted ten years of their lives to already, and lots of their friends felt the same. When the opportunity came up to do a Sunday night at The Sub Club it felt like the perfect opportunity to rip it all up and start again. So they did. There was nothing in the city (or possibly anywhere) like it. As the club believed wholeheartedly in what they were doing, there was no pressure from The Sub Club to fill the club. So, they embraced the freedom. Groups of people who had never been in the same room at the same time before came together. A community of kindred spirits started to emerge. Word spread, slowly. Lots of people checked it out. Many loved it, some hated it. The core of the Optimo idea was to embrace music they loved that might work on the dancefloor from whatever era or genre they thought felt right. It might not seem very radical now but at that time it was revolutionary.After about a year and a half, the club went from having 100 people attending most nights to suddenly one week having 500 people turn up. It was very weird. It was as if a collective light bulb went off in people’s heads in Glasgow. From that week on, until the very last weekly Sunday night at the Sub Club, in 2010, over a decade later, it was packed. There were 550 Sunday Optimo nights. A LOT of music was played. So, what was the music? People often find it hard to pin down exactly what Optimo is. This has been a positive but also a negative as we live in a world where people want easily defined “brand identities”. The simplest definition of the music played is “music for dancing”, which of course is a very broad definition. Even better than trying to define it in words, we have these 2 volumes of music that give a hint of what that might be. This is not a “Best of Optimo” or a “Greatest Hits of Optimo” compilation. For people who come to, or used to come to the nights there are of course “Greatest Hits”. But, over such a long timespan they are “hits” belonging to a certain moment in time and space. Someone who came to Optimo in 1997 would have a completely different notion of the big tracks at the club to someone coming in 2003, or 2010, or today. This compilation is just a snap shot missing several genres that might make up the DNA of Optimo. There is though a broad sweep through lots of music Optimo loves, that they believe is amazing. Music that they know will rock a dancefloor, that they have played between 1997 and 2023. Of course Optimo nights were not all about rocking the dancefloor. The first hour was always a time for them to play music they loved that often was far removed from the dance. Side 1, Volume 1 of this compilation is the kind of music one might hear at the very start of an Optimo night. Optimo have always loved a good slogan. The most long lived, and fitting Optimo slogan is "We Love Your Ears", which is in essence what it is all about to them.

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After two years and a half, Pietro Santangelo (formerly Nu Genea sax player) and his PS5 ensemble are back to Hyperjazz Records with a brand new album: Echologia.

'Echologia' draws inspiration from the idea of natural biodiversity as an expression of contamination, coexistence and balance. In the same way as the biological agents contribute to the life of a certain ecosystem, seemingly distant musical languages act as elements of balance in a fertile and blooming musical system. Multiculturalism becomes coexistence.
As in the previous 'Unconscious Collective' (Hyperjazz, 2021), suggestive saxophones textures interwine on a solid rhythmic equilibrium and move naturally along an imaginary line highlighting the ancestral connection between Africa and Mediterranean Sea. On the background, the tribute to the earlier Jamaican dub masters with a strong use of vintage echoes in the mixing phase.
Album cover by Sabrina Cirillo is inspired by the myth of the nymph Echo, the Oread condemned by Juno to be able to express herself by repeating only the last words of theinterlocutor, who died of pain due to the impossibility of communicating her love to Narcissus.

A0 - Preludio
A1 - Caldera
A2 - Talea Nera
A3 - Pajarito Perdido
A4 - Scalinatella
B0 - Interludio
B1 - Trenta Dune
B2 - Abela Danco
B3 - Tufo
B4 - Quando Maje

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In the mid-seventies, discotheques were booming in Tokyo and all over Japan. When the Fatback Band topped the 1975 US charts with their infectious "Do The Bus Stop" hit, Japanese label Victor put out the following year the first Japan made Disco tune with "Sexy Bus Stop", released under the mysterious name Dr. Dragon & Oriental Express, a pseudonym for successful Japanese pop composer Kyohei Tsutsumi. "Sexy Bus Stop" became an instant hit in the country and, taking this opportunity, various Japanese record companies started releasing Disco music. From 1976 until the early 1980s the music was often recorded by skilled studio musicians, rather than by computer input, providing a really solid sound to the dancefloor. Disco music was also spreading into TV series, commercials and anime. From Godiego's monster hit "The Birth Of The Odyssey - Monkey Magic" to Pink Parachute's obscure (and excellent!) "Disco Great Tokyo" tune, this selection explores some of the finest Disco and Boogie music released on the legendary Nippon Columbia label in the late seventies and early eighties. Are you ready? Put your dance shoes on, and enjoy!

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"Recorded and produced during late night sessions from 2019-2022 while re-watching archive episodes of the German TV show Space Night from the late 90s."

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In 1994, UK ambient pioneers O Yuki Conjugate recorded their landmark Equator album. To mark the 30th anniversary of this musical milestone, many of the same personnel – Roger Horberry (co-founder of O Yuki Conjugate), Dan Mudford (ex-Sons of Silence and co-creator of the Shaun of the Dead soundtrack), Joe Lamb (ex-Sons of Silence) and Malcolm McGeorge – came together to make New Meridian, reflecting the range of influences they’ve picked up over the intervening years.

Generously described as “almost like normal music”, the eight tracks of New Meridian feature instrumentation ranging from classic analogue to actual wooden logs. The result takes you on a rain-drenched, open-top ride from Electronica Avenue to the drone caverns of Uranus, with various Fourth World ambi-dub diversions along the way. File under: duress.

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WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More