This month we have three beautifully pressed mostly unreleased Ike Noble 45s with o.g style silver Ink overprinted labels, they look just

On side A we have the only previously released (but very rare) track on these three 45s. A brilliant, mid-tempo soul chugger that falls between Syl Johnson and James Brown, undeniable, how this did not blow up at the time is beyond comprehension.

On the flip, it is Deep Soul time again with a version of 'Best of Luck to You', also recorded by Sam baker and Earl Gaines, but easily toping both. More

This month we have three beautifully pressed mostly unreleased Ike Noble 45s with o.g style silver Ink overprinted labels, they look just

On side-A we have the only previously released (but very rare) track on these three 45s. A brilliant, mid-tempo soul chugger that falls between Syl Johnson and James Brown, undeniable, how this did not blow up at the time is beyond comprehension.

On the flip, HUGE deepsoul anthem 'Look a Little Higher' was release at the time but is mad rare, again a hit that never made it. Solid Gold! More

Perhaps the best Soul / Funk LP Athens of the North has ever released and you know we have high standards, not one filler and mostly unreleased tracks – Essential LP The Up Tights were formed by Henry Bradley in Forrest City, Arkansas in March of 1967 while most of the band members were attending Lincoln High School.They took their name from the Stevie Wonder song "Uptight - Everything's Alright." Playing at school functions, they quickly branched out to playing bigger shows and headlined the 1968 St. Francis County Fair in Forrest City. The Up Tights first recorded for Action Records in Memphis as Noble and the Up Tights. The 45 featured an original song by singer, Izear "Ike" Noble Jr. titled "Don't Worry About It." Henry Bradley was drafted into Vietnam in 1968. He served in the 1st Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment. While he was away, the Up Tights continued with Henry's brother, Arthur, taking over all the guitar duties. The band also hired a manager named John Mitchell. In 1968, the band met Joe Lee, who owned Variety recording studio in Jonesboro, Arkansas. For the band's first recordings at Variety, Lee chose two originals by Noble titled "Look a Little Higher" and an updated version of "Just a Dream" which Lee released on his Alley Records label in 1968. Lee continued to record the band over the next several months. He liked to experiment in the studio and produced many versions of the group's original songs, adjusting the mix and adding elements to each unique take. For the group's second Alley release, they appeared simply as Ike Noble on the record label. Lee brought in a local songwriter named Charles "Jamie" Holmes, who had previously written for Alley records and Joe Keene's studio in Kennett, Missouri The resulting 45 from this collaboration was "It's Bad" backed with "That's What I Get," two Holmes originals. Another Holmes original was unreleased at the time, but available here titled "There's Gonna Be a Better Day Coming." Stax Records was interested in signing the group and wanted to re-cut "It's Bad" at their studio, but ultimately the label passed since they generally had a policy of working with Memphis based groups. As the band grew in popularity, they began appearing with and competing with Memphis legends, the Bar-Kays. The group's biggest show in Arkansas was an opening slot at Barton Coliseum, one of the largest venues in the state, in Little Rock in mid-1969. As a result, the band was offered a spot on George Klein's "Talent Party" television show on WHBQ in Memphis in July of 1969..... Further Sleeve notes on back of the LP More

Electro-boogie-machine 'Straight Line' is taken from 'Cool Cool', the upcoming third album by British multi-hyphenate James Alexander Bright. "'Straight Line' started out as a wonky homage to 80s & 90s radio", says James. "It's based on the memory of meeting someone you want to stay up all night listening to music with". James' passionate voice, pitched somewhere between Eddie Chacon, Beck and Michael McDonald, takes a confident lead over a melange of body-popping LinnDrum beats, a host of swooping, fuzzy synths, and backseat-rocking bass. Initially written and recorded at his home studio in the rolling hills of the Hampshire countryside, 'Straight Line' was completed with regular collaborator Peter Lyons in East London. It's backed on 7" vinyl with the wonky dancefloor wobbler 'Oh My', sounding something like Theo Parrish producing Arthur Russell after a sleepless night.
More

This month we have three beautifully pressed mostly unreleased Ike Noble 45s with o.g style silver Ink overprinted labels, they look just

On side A we have the only previously released (but very rare) track on these three 45s. A brilliant, mid-tempo soul chugger that falls between Syl Johnson and James Brown, undeniable, how this did not blow up at the time is beyond comprehension.

On the flip, it is Deep Soul time again with a version of 'Best of Luck to You', also recorded by Sam baker and Earl Gaines, but easily toping both. More

This month we have three beautifully pressed mostly unreleased Ike Noble 45s with o.g style silver Ink overprinted labels, they look just

On side-A we have the only previously released (but very rare) track on these three 45s. A brilliant, mid-tempo soul chugger that falls between Syl Johnson and James Brown, undeniable, how this did not blow up at the time is beyond comprehension.

On the flip, HUGE deepsoul anthem 'Look a Little Higher' was release at the time but is mad rare, again a hit that never made it. Solid Gold! More

A rare but unknown modern soul dancer from band Premonition or Premonitions depending on what release they put out. The A side is well written proto disco dancer, it's no wonder collectors have been calling begging for the TPs on this , as nobody can find an original (my copy is beat to death).

I actually really dig the sweet soul flip, its almost to cheesy but walks the edge well, and has some great rising moments if that's your bag (which is should be).

500 Only More

Modern soul / disco royalty, written by the talented Mark Beiner and co-writer Ben Iverson about Marks x girlfriend. It is up there with the best modern floaters in the game. I still remember the first time I Heard this on the dancefloor at Prestatyn soul weekender (I cannot remember who played it), I set out on a mission to get myself a copy which failed miserably at every turn. Many years later I finnaly met Mark, he had done a great job looking after the tapes and all the epherma surrounding the band after Ben has passed away.

On the flip, an early new york rap 45 by the band, previously unreleased on vinyl (we did do it digitally with the LP). More

The rarest and best genuinely outsider soul 45 to come out of America (I know that's a controversial shout), Lee Tracy's super rare single outing from the outskirts of Nashville is a dream of something bigger that never came in time for him. A beautiful, haunting song cut to cassette with help from his friend Isaac Manning (on the Casio). Flipped with an almost unrecognizable version of Whitney Houston's hit "Saving All My Love For You" which stands all tall as what was the original B-Side. Beyond essential cut of outside soul. More

Multi-hyphenate artist James Alexander Bright releases soulfully tender paean to romance 'Fall For You', backed with urgent funker 'Viper Flames'. This new music heralds James' third solo album, currently being recorded and mixed, which is planned for release via Athens of the North mid 2024.On 'Fall For You' James says "You know when you've loved, to love is a magical thing. Whether it's an experience, an object, or a person; we've all loved and lost. The senses, vibration and elements have a wondrous strength and power. Love is the most powerful of all." Following the release of !K7 debut album 'Headroom' ("Blissful choruses, sweetly nagging refrains and a lo-fi sensibility. Hard not to love" Mojo), James featured on Groove Armada's album 'Edge Of The Horizon', contributed 'Under The Sun' to the Too Slow To Disco: The Sunset Manifesto compilation and released single 'It's Alright' with Feiertag. His second album, the joyous 'Float' ("Vivid intermingling of buoyant breakbeat drum loops, sunkissed psychedelic folk song, retrofuturist synthesisers and hot buttered British soul" Test Pressing), was released in July 2022 with singles 'Drink This Water', 'Wheels Keep Turning' and 'Sundown' feat Fink paving the way. This was followed in early 2023 by 'Mirage In The Mojave' ("One hundred percent proof dancefloor ready" Louder Than War), an album of collaborations and reworks with cosmic Americana-disco DJ/producer duo Flying Mojito Bros. On radio his tracks have been played across BBC 6 Music (where he's recorded guest mixes for Tom Ravenscroft and Huey Morgan), Amazing Radio, Bandcamp Weekly, Worldwide FM, Soho Radio, KCRW, Triple J and BBC Solent (who chose his track 'Tigers Roar' to soundtrack Portsmouth FC's 2019 journey to Wembley – awkwardly James is a Saints fan). A new project with Groove Armada's Tom Findlay as Bright & Findlay - married around their shared love of machine-led funk, outsider soul, 70s-80s nautica and 21st century basement disco - was released via Athens of the North in summer 2023. Solid tastemaker support included BBC 6 Music's Gilles Peterson, who included 'Slow Dance' amongst his tracks of the year, and Huey Morgan, for whom the duo recorded a Block Party mix. More

Every now and again, a record carves itself an indelible place in the history of a place, a scene or a genre, all under its own steam – without a big budget, without a press campaign, without mainstream radio, just by hitting all the right notes at the right moment. Maybe you had to have been there to really feel it – locked into the pirate stations, a regular at the right clubs, or leaning on the counter in the right records shops on a Saturday afternoon – but if you were, there are some tunes that will always vibrate with the underground cultural energy of their time. Bô'vel's 1996 Manchester streetsoul anthem 'Check 4 U' is one of those tunes. The kind of song that makes the over-used phrase 'underground classic' mean something again, it effortlessly distills the sounds of its era into one of the most undeniable, genre-spanning cuts of the mid-1990s. The song resonates with the regional flavours of UK sound-system culture: the sweet club sound of Manchester's vibrant streetsoul scene, the dubwise hip-hop throb of the Bristol movement, and the bass-lore of the reggae sound systems whose wisdom stretched from Leeds to South London and beyond. Built around a humid kick drum and a bin-busting bass pulse arranged in head-nodding syncopation, the song is blessed with an instantly memorable harmonised hook, and perfectly set off by Bô'vel's crystalline vocals. Upful, stepping and tinged with melancholy, it remains one of the most well-loved and highly sought-after UK streetsoul sides. The three mixes of 'Check 4 U' appeared as the a-side of a blank-label five-track 12". It was Bô'vel's second release, after a soulful five-track EP issued in 1995 on her own Bô'vel Records had been a surprise success. Produced by Kev Waddington, that initial record had come about almost by accident after a chance encounter in Manchester's HQ Studios, as Bô'vel recalls today: 'We were making these five tracks because we were having bit of an argument with radio not being able to play what they wanted, really, only what the record labels wanted… they never had anybody coming through properly, because everything was pretty much underground. We were making records, like really pop stuff, to take the piss… So in the studio one day, this guy came in – all I know is that his was name was Nigel. And he came in and said, I want to put that five-track EP out with you. We just don't know who the hell he was to this day, really. And he said, you've got to do it 50/50, it's going to be £1000. So I said okay – I just trusted him. I gave him 500 quid. He gave me 1000 records. He just dropped them at the studio. I picked them up and then I went into Manchester city centre and gave it to a couple of DJs on underground radio.' Pirate radio loved it. With play on stalwart Manchester pirates like Buzz FM and Soul Nation, the EP immediately blew up. Bô'vel took the record into Fat City Records, Manchester's premier outlet and distributor for soul, hip-hop and dance, who took a batch, quickly sold out and took several hundred more copies; it eventually transpired that a large quantity were selling to Japan, where the combination of soul smarts and classy production had been caught by discerning ears. Elsewhere, friends distributed the record by hand in London and Birmingham, working them through UK's then burgeoning network of independent dance music shops. The warm reception the record received encouraged Bo'vel to return to the studio for sessions that would become 'Check 4 U'. The EP had been issued under a Bô'vel Records imprint, but she had sold it to Fat City without disclosing that she was the artist – 'I said, "There's this singer, she's great, she's done this cheesy stuff, try it, it's a bit Kylie Minogue". He said "oh, give us 300", and then he had some more.' For the next release, she decided to keep things completely minimal. 'The next one, I said, right, let's just put it out as a white label, and if people like it they like it, they don't have to see who we are or anything.' Though punitive legislation and overexposure had tamed rave culture, and the inflated status of superstar DJs had pushed once underground scenes fully into the mainstream, dance music culture in mid-1990s Britain still retained a certain feral energy. There was still a groundswell of vital local scenes and rapidly changing musical styles, and – combined with local record shops – clubs and pirate radio were still the chief arbiters of influence. 'In the 90s, pirate radio just played the best music. I mean, you couldn't really get music like that anywhere. The same as you couldn't get music like that [being played] in the Reno, which was very different,' remembers Bô'vel, referring to the legendary Moss Side soul club, an underground institution from 1962 until its closure in 1986. 'That's where music really started for me, going to clubs like the Reno at the age 15, 16, 17, and going to places like the Nile [upstairs from the Reno], which was all reggae, you know – that's really where the beats came for me.' The production on the new record would reflect these influences more than the EP had been able too. 'I liked a big bassline,' the singer reflects. 'There's a big bassline there on the five-track EP, 'I Can't Get By', which is a really, really good song, but they just could not get the bass – I was so gutted when that came back…if they'd have shown us the master we'd have said no.' These problems were to be avoided on 'Check 4 U' by the involvement of producer Uriah Gale. 'We already had the tune, and Uriah came on board, and I said, it's just not soulful enough. I was working with Kev Waddington, and he said "I just can't do it." So when Uriah came along, the bass was there, but he tidied it all up and made it really cool, and he was tremendous on the harmony,' she recalls. 'Out of all the mixes, his was the best. He was incredible to work with, and also incredibly talented. With alternate mixes of 'Life Changes You' from the 1995 EP as the b-side, 'Check 4 U' was issued with blank blue labels and sent out with a DJ one-sheet describing Bô'vel as 'Manchester's favourite soul Diva'. 2000 copies were pressed, and the record was distributed by Jetstar. It quickly became another pirate radio hit. 'Soul Nation and Buzz FM did support me from the very start [along with] every single DJ on Manchester radio,' she recalls, 'They're my biggest fans, the DJs here, I've got to big them up!' Manchester's support was mirrored by pirates around the UK. 'We had the support of radios across the country – I just could not believe it. So we went on a tour… We would go to the pirate stations, do an interview, then do a gig – that's how the gigging came about… gigging in Birmingham, Huddersfield, Liverpool, London – I've got so much respect for the pirate radios down there. They were brilliant… We used to take all my stuff straight to London,' she remembers. 'Each radio was doing pretty much the same thing, in their own style, with their own beats. Like, when I went down to Bristol, I showed them the EP and 'I Check 4 U' and they said, hey girl, you've got the Bristol beat!' But her core audience was at home in Manchester. 'London did support me a lot, but not like my home town – they loved me as I love them… Manchester supported me through and through, to this very day,' she remembers. Performing in mid-1990s Manchester was not always straightforward, though: 'In Manchester, it was kind of hard to do gigs, because there was a bit of gang warfare. So, you know, that was a problem. You'd be doing a gig and they'd all be there in their [bulletproof] vests, you know, Cheetham Hill and Moss Side, and it was a bit of a nightmare. And because I was more Manchester side, even though I went to school in Cheetham Hill, I was with a guy from Moss Side. So it was pretty hard gigging in Manchester, I had a bit of a hard time.' Nevertheless, 'my gigs were packed to the rafters…I wasn't scared because I knew I had protection. The gigs were fantastic, here in Manchester and everywhere, and I'm glad and very grateful to be able to say that.' A further single followed – the garage-flavoured 'Earthling', made with producer Ben Stansfield – but this would be her final release. 'My life changed,' she remembers. 'I had a split… I was just bringing my daughter up. I used to live in the countryside, and I was having a bit of a different life… I just spent a lot of time writing when I split up – I couldn't sing, it was like my voice wouldn't work. I was just thinking all the time, and not speaking. So I was just speaking through my music… I just became a writer, and I was more looking for other people to sing the [songs], you know? Because there's a lot of talent here in Manchester.' However, she retained access to a studio, and over time she began to record again, working with various producers and amassing a large amount of material. It is this unreleased material that we collect on Life Changes – nine unheard Bô'vel songs from the period 1997-2008(dates?), selected from her own archive. Until now, none of this unreleased work has been heard. Not an artist to be constrained by genre, the music showcases Bô'vel's exploration of a wide range of styles, from the dubbed-out downtempo of 'My Man' or 'I Wanna Be Free' to the updated streetsoul of 'Let Down And Liar', via the breakbeat hype of 'Do It Your Way' and the straight-ahead reggae vibe of 'Daydreamer'. This unreleased music is presented alongside the unfadeable 'I Check 4 U' and two classic streetsoul cuts from her 1995 EP, 'Life Changes You' and 'Coming Back'. The common denominator across the album is of course Bô'vel herself: a singer of rare timbral clarity whose musical vision has determined the sound of every record she has made, a prolific and personal song-writer in the UK soul tradition, and the artist behind one of the most celebrated underground soul tunes of the pirate radio era. Still most definitely someone to check for. More

Brilliant rough and funky two sider from Charles Barnwell's band The Funnybone express. A very obscure deepfunk spin with that splash of modern sound that was so appreciated at the time (I can't actually remember whether it was Ian or Keb that first played this). It has remained an extremely rare and sought after slab of wax and this limited run of 500 will serve to sort out the heads that know the score. Big up DJ Mr Big Happy (check out his NTS show) and Daniel Mathis (Check his show Reachin' Out on WYXR) for helping unearth this rare banger. More

When Ben White was 25 years old Eddy Bongo Brown of the Funk Brothers brought him to Motown to play with Marvin Gay, 5 years later he recorded this single 'I would have to be a fool' and released it himself. Ben comes from a long line of musicians in his family, his cousins are Cab Calloway and Otis Redding. Over the years he sessioned for Marvin Gay, Bloodstone, Carl Carlton, High Energy, Harold Johnson, J.W. Alexander, Richard T & The Salsoul Orchestra Unfortunately, as is often the case, children came along and Ben moved away from music, this and forthcoming AOTN single 'Give Me Love' were his only solo recordings unless we can find the tapes of his lost LP further down the line. More

Amazing floaty modern soul / disco goodness out of late 70s Queens, NY. 'Love Is The Same' two brilliant and different versions, both dancefloor fire… Mark Beiner met Ben Iverson in 1976 when I was 17 years old, at the time he was a junior at Newtown High School in Elmhurst, Queens. Mark had taken a part time job as a Produce Clerk at Walbaum's Supermarket on Northern Boulevard in Jackson Heights, Queens, where I met Ben Iverson, the "Frozen Food Manager." Back then Mark remembers, 'I was going to work early just to talk to him about his musical background and his time spent in the 50's and 60's with the Ohio Doo Wop Group, "The Hornets", or better known as, "Ben Iverson and The Hornets."' In 1978 after Ben and I discussed getting together and composing music, I started writing poetry and expressing in writing my break-up with my college girlfriend, Paula. Ben and Mark went on to writing two albums worth of material, which in turn gave us a lot of time and presence on stage at our live gigs. The regular Coast to Coast Band members consisted of Ben Iverson on Lead Vocals, Rhythm Guitarist and Co-Executive Producer, Joe Crowley, who is known today as "New York Congressman Joe Crowley." Carl (Woody Wood) Morton on Bass Guitar, Jimmy Johnson on Keyboards. Lead Guitarist, Lou Jimenez, currently owns his own recording studio, Music Labs in Elmont, Long Island. On Drums, Eddie Byam, on Alto Sax, Jay Cohen, who in the 70's used to record for "Gary U.S. Bonds." Gary Pevols on Trumpet. On Bone, Scott Burrows, Trumpet player, Steve Becker, along side Neil Levine, Stan Stockley, Tom Russo. More

We love to just try things at Athens of the North and when Clara and Theo (one of our PR friends) were chilling with us at pikes one evening it came up in conversation that Theo has a lovely singing voice and fancied having a spin in the studio. Roll on a month later, and they were home in Edinburgh, and we threw ourselves into a couple of days of experimenting, this little electro floater we were all super pleased with came out of the session. Tonight is a super late night CR78 drum machine mashed work out with a Theo's floaty falsetto smashing out the park, we flipped the OG with a brilliant dubbed out mix that's not to be slept on either. More

East Coast Love Affair is back with a 9-minute epic late-night mid-tempo deep disco chugger featuring Shetland-born and Edinburgh-based R&B Singer and songwriter Philomenah. Hanna (Philomenah) has done some great backing vocals for ECLA in the past but takes front-and-center Vocal and lyric writing duty on this Epic 12". It's Like a modern-day Onda with a sprinkle of pop. On the flip two percussive house dub workouts with maybe a little hint of MAW 90s major label work (we have been revisiting these in the club recently) with our own Athens of the North studio special sauce More

Leonard Grandsons'The Sands of Zanziibar' is a classy, extremely rare floater which has remained extremely elusive despite having a sound which could make it an extremely popular spin for soulies, disco and rare groove heads. Steve Trebbin believes it was recorded in 1977, the studio was in Hollywood not far from the Capitol Records building, Tal Armstrong's office was next to it. Steve recalls a story, "I went into the Capital records offices one time to pitch Leonard to them. I mentioned how much he sounded like Stevie Wonder. After listening, they agreed he sounded very much like Stevie - with a smile they told me they already had one.". Big thanks to Daniel Mathis and DJ Mr Big Happy for helping track down Steve. More

Over the past few years, London based DJ and curator Sam Don has shone new light into the Reggae sub-genre of Lovers Rock with his comps 'For the love of You'. His deep, yet deeply accessible selections have opened the ears of many to the genre. With this new compilation 'Just A Touch' Sam shines his torch even deeper, this time through crates of UK Underground Soul. He painstakingly researched and tracking down each producer to bring you some of the sweetest soul cuts that will ever grace your eardrums. Sam Don explains: Whilst the US is most well-known for soul music, the UK has created its own take on the genre, due to the melting pot of cultures and musical styles that makes the UK so special. I didn't 'set out' to make a compilation like this, but one night an idea came to me, and I sketched it out at home with my record collection. When I saw how well these sounds came together, I started my mission to find the people involved with them and 'Just A Touch' was created. More

Absolute smasher of a two-sider 45 out of Waycross Georgia. The 45 was licenced from original band member Michael George & Tim Gillans with help from DJ MR Big Happy & Daniel Mathes. We flipped the sides for the re-issue, the A side now being the more uptempo. 'What About Love' is a melodic spacey floater (you know I'm a fan already) with a brilliant vocal and top sax break. On the flip, 'Dream of a lady' is an absolute killer downtempo floater, I can't stress enough not to sleep on this side, it's a textural dreamy wond More

Athens of the North is very proud to present this insanely rare Georgia rarity (I have never seen a copy of the original vinyl) 'You Can Tell Me Goodbye' by Bernetia Miller. Itwas recorded in Phil Walden's studio (Capricorn Records) in Macon, Georgia. Bernetia remembers a many takes and hard work before they were happy with the record. The Soul Groovers toured extensively, they even had their own little tour bus. The Reissue is taken from the master tapes which Bernetia has held onto for all these years and from whom ewe licenced this single directly More

Sometime in 1984, San Diego native Anthony "Antone" Williams found himself sitting alone at Pure Sound Studios, tinkering around with a drum machine. Eventually he landed on a "sinister groove" which would lay the propulsive foundation for his hauntingly melodic tour de force, "Windows of My Mind." Released the following year as a seven-inch single on his own Unity Records label, the song features Antone's otherworldly production. Some have referred to the result as "post punk soul," but we'll let you be the judge. Coming up in San Diego in the Seventies, part of an extensive musical family, Antone's creative fuse was lit by the sounds of Stevie Wonder, Earth Wind & Fire, and the Jackson 5.. At the age of 13, he was performing in area clubs, making a name for himself. By age 22, he had opened his own recording studio, Pure Sound. The influence of Sly and the Family Stone was decisive for Antone, who took to wearing a star-shaped gold necklace, not unlike the one famously worn by Stone on his epochal 1975 LP High on You. "Windows of My Mind" was Antone & The Underworld's sole release. Limited to 500 copies and handed out as a promotional tool for a purported album of the same name, the single didn't get much traction. (A story as old as time.) Perhaps the music was ahead of its time and Antone's visionary message will finally sink in 2023. "I didn't want to make a song like Shake Your Booty", he says now. And yet we think that this long-lost record with its "sinister groove" is eminently danceable, almost 40 years later. We challenge you to take a listen to this home-grown 1985 7", remastered directly from the original tape, and make an assessment of your own. More

Embarking on a celestial journey, "The Day And Night" drops on Sex Tapes From Mars, unfolding as a four-track odyssey, each piece serving as a stellar waypoint in the vast universe of groove. Thudding drums, warbling bass, and tingling synth leads - Ildec’s sonic tapestry transcends conventional techno, with a hard focus on the 90s, blurring the lines between the earthly and the extraterrestrial. With each track, he invites listeners to lose themselves in the infinite expanse of deep, titillating sound.

The journey kicks off with "Pesadillas", a haunting exploration of dark, atmospheric textures intertwined with pulsating rhythms, transporting the dancefloor into their subconscious.

"Listo Para El Space" emerges as a guiding light in the night, its hypnotic beats, vintage prodding bassline, and ethereal chords propelling woozy momentum forward into the stratosphere and beyond.

"Dai Fra" follows suit, weaving intricate sonic layers with its relentless disco-esque bassline, and retro synths, evoking a sense of weightlessness.

"You High" on the flip isn't merely a late-night bop; it's a sonic manifesto that celebrates the boundless potential of electronic music past and future, and as a medium for transcendence. Ildec's approach defies categorisation, drawing inspiration from a myriad of influences to create a sound that is both timeless and futuristic.

As Sex Tapes From Mars continues to lead the charge in sonic innovation, their sixth outing stands as a testament to the label's commitment to lesser-heard artistic excellence. Ildec's offering serves to guide listeners to distant galaxies and offers a glimpse into the infinite possibilities of outsider dancefloor moments. More

Repress!
On the label (A-Side):
This special release is dedicated to Detroit DJ Legend Ken Collier. His untimely passing deeply touched me personally, as he was one of a small few who always supported me & my music. Because of Ken Collier, Detroit developed a dance scene, which inspired artist & producers to make dance records, which gave birth to Techno, which has provided careers for many of you in the business today. So I dare ask all you techno producers, djs, record labels, record shops, techno magazines, clubs which play techno music, and fans of techno to pay respect to Ken Collier just as you would our other fine music innovators.

Side B:
However, this special compilation isn't about techno, it's about H.O.U.S.E. sounds - broadcasting it to you live from the inside in lovely Ste - re - o!!. This record contains no artist or track listing because i don't want this to be about who made the tracks, track titles, or even who wrote this commentary. This record is my personal tribute to him and how he has motivated me to make my contributions to house music. Thank you Ken Collier, for helping me grow not just as a dj or record producer, but as a person. Every dj and dance artist here in Detroit owes thanks to you for going out into the musical forest, chopping down trees, thus paving the way for us to build HOUSE!.

"In Loving Memory Of Detroit DJ Legend Ken Collier"

More

Demi Riquisimo’s Semi Delicious return for their 18th vinyl only excursion via Berlin based Revivis’ ‘Surrender The Body’ EP.

A dance floor focused 4 tracker, the EP is a distillation of the sonic palette quickly becoming synonymous with the sound of Revivis, nodding to the past whilst looking to the future, all through the lens of timeless house fundamentals.

The release kicks off with ‘Pick Me Up’, a diva vocal affected chugger that leans on the 90s progressive aesthetic whilst remaining versatile and current. The A-side wraps up with the title track ‘Surrender The Body’. A minimal fuss, hands in the air, euphoric piano house jam that can be noted for it’s subtlety despite it’s anthemic nature.

No foreplay on the flip as we’re straight into the mixer via ’Perceptions’. A sample heavy four/four beat combines with a bass line that implores your head to nod along a menacing top line.. big peak time business on this one. Closing out a wildy impressive Semi Delicious debut from Revivis is ‘Ruminating’ bringing with it a healthy helping of gospel keys and acid. More

Running up another re-edit sensation, that soulful sampler Chaka Kenn hits with three more edits to flip the script on an assortment of classic De La Soul cuts. From hip hop leaning jazziness to club-ready euphoria and summertime house, here are three different flavours, to get those taste buds tingling. More

(Gatefold Sleeve) Album of the month in The Face, Muzik and Ministry. A little something for everyone with splicing downtempo tracks next to deep house next to breakbeat work outs next to retro techno.

Tracklist:

A1. Dangerous Drive
A2. Le Groove De Ta Mère
B1. Downfall
B2. The Sound Of The Big Babou
B3. City Sphere (Sax Mix)
C1. Smart Move
C2. The Man With The Red Face
D1. Greed 1 (12" Mix)
D2. Greed 2 (Long Version)
D3. Last Tribute From The 20th Century More

Bonafide boingtastic. Release your release. More