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Kalahari Oyster Cult welcomes another from down under, Furious Frank with his very own Trip 2 Fantasy via OYSTER28. Three OG acid-licked club-ready rollers from the Australian 303-connoisseur plus a bonus destruction mix from trusted Frankfurt associate Ludwig A.F.

A1 Existential Crisis, aka the current natural state of the world, sparks fly with flanged percussion springing between damaging drum work, making space for the juicy acid evolution. The journey develops to include dystopian stuttered vocals, glistening bells and pads to form a melancholic driver.

Continue the mood, elastic processed rhythms roll and dip for the A2 Artificial Simulation, robotic mechanism holding hands with the heavenly, dream state timbre, fluttered and full of melodic resonance.

The title track on the B2 Trip 2 Fantasy opens bold and brave, a punishing bass line and commanding claps, hot syncopation aimed for bodies moving. Thundering toms run stealthily underneath an ascending motif of delicate synthesis. “Join Me in my Dreams, My Trip to Fantasy” echoing out in seductive bliss over the driving undergrowth.

The record is rounded off with an even deeper, throbbing rejig of the former from none other than Ludwig A.F. The “Floor destruction” mix isn’t coy about its intentions, risers, diced vocals and anticipation through the roof.

A record ready to explode, whenever and wherever that may be. More

Mind Dance’s first release of the year, ‘Furious Frank – Wavepool', offers up four emotive, yet unique, club cuts. Including a proggy remix of the A1 by NZ’s own Eden Burns, which skillfully weaves between energetic perc build ups, catchy vocal synths and indulgent chords. More

or the next Mind Dance excursion Frank delivers Venom Viper; a five-cut genre defying journey of raw emotion for club use and/or home listening. Limited pressing of 300. TRACK LISTING, A1. No Escape, A2. Venom Viper, B1. Frau Freda, B2. No Diving, B3. Bonus Track
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Melbourne based producer Furious Frank has been making plenty of noise of late. He returns in 2019 with his very own imprint “Mind Dance”, of which will undoubtedly be home to much of his expanding portfolio of high quality, club ready tracks. His debut Mind Dance release ‘Infinity Pool’ unveils a diverse yet unified front. Touching on early 90s acid, electro and trance, the release is brought together by a common thread of crisp, classic analog drums and 303 acid lines. Frank expertly contrasts these driving rhythms with moody pads and spoken word samples calling us back to the 90s, creating a nostalgic sense of euphoria sure to capture the hearts and minds of any early morning dance floor. Limited to 300 copies. More

Barna mainstay oma totem is dishing out the cerebral and dubby like it’s nobody’s business. 3 tripped-out accelerators courtesy of the Oyster Cult debutant, complete with an OK EG rework for good measure.

No messing with this purveyor of reverb-drenched dynamics and fractal polyrhythm. But this time, rather than the inward contemplation of releases past, we get something a little more full-frontal.

Robust club gear rooted in ominous portent, opener ‘The Trick’ recalls the heyday of early 00s bass music. It’s tunnelling prog caught on a dark side flex. Then, in a coming together of kindred spirits, Melbourne hardware duo OK EG take it upon themselves to provide some introspection. Expect depth charge bass-weight primed for meditative moments.

‘Choreos’ finds the Hivern Discs affiliate at his deftest. Intricate and kaleidoscopic with careful attention to rhythmic intricacies, but never at the expense of dancefloor propulsion. The same could be said for the follow-up.

Equal parts driving and trance state-inducing, closing number ‘Mania’ has oma returning to the inky abyss from whence he came. Detailed, dubbed-out and quintessentially Kalahari. More

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The mercurial talent that is SW. back in the building with a new album, and if it weren’t already apparent, OYSTER45 goes some way to assert his place in the pantheon of pioneering producers. In fact, nobody can question his position right at the vanguard of forward-facing dancefloor dynamics.

myDEFINITION part II catches the SUED co-founder as vital as ever. Keeping it on that dusty, low-key flex that has long been his trademark, it harnesses ingenuity to conjure some of the most intriguing gear you’re likely to hear from a limited studio setup. Gone are the hi-tek jazz and ambient flourishes of the near-mythical ‘Untiled’ album, opting, instead, for pure dancefloor headiness. Precision-tooled breakbeats, opulent IDM cybernetics, tuff bleep n’ bass and late nite electro across 10 distinct trax.

Side quests into more abstract realms are fleeting. Dappled melodies evoke warmth in hues of pink and orange but any ambient-dub ephemera quickly dissipates into the peripheries in favour of club-ready pressure. The spectre of mid-‘90s dance music looms large but the SW. blueprint, with its captivating free-form approach, spins those vintage tropes into a distinct sound unto itself. Masterful, cinematic and hallucinatory.

Often drawing comparisons with B12’s seminal brand of ambient techno, SW. will surely be a stylistic reference point in his own right for years to come. Such is the indelible influence he has cast on contemporary electronic music. More

Pavel Milyakov, AKA Buttechno, coming through with the kind of impeccably-produced, trance-inducing deftness we've come to expect.

A kindred spirit of the Oyster Cult, this is a union long overdue. While he’s often found working in horizontal zones, inhabiting the intersection between ambient and downtempo, these are dancefloor dynamics for pure contemplation. Gone is the amorphous abstraction of releases like ‘PSY X’ and the kind output reserved for release under his birth name, instead opting for a lean, hypnotic kind of minimalism.

‘OYSTER57’ picks up where the ‘Inorganic Demons’ LP and aptly-titled ‘Minimal Cuts’ series left off. Saying that, the first three tracks navigate territory gloomier than the aforementioned; uneasy at times but deeply engrossing, smudged and frayed into heads-down interzones of tunnelling throb and icy melodic flourish. Girder-strength pressure primed for metaphysical experience.

Then, like a vestige of the finest turn-of-the-century progressive trance, ’bleeps’ ends proceedings on a slight departure. A showcase of restraint from the Berlin-based maestro and a fitting way to close. More

The Oyster Cult’s Naarm continent grows larger with the addition of Ebbs N Flow. The unholy alliance of Dashiell and Will Holden of Hybrid Man touching down with some precision-tooled tech house variants, and considering their only previous collab came on an Animalia compilation back in 2022, this has been long in the making.

OYSTER56 marks the first full release from this lesser spotted project. The handiwork of two producers, both accomplished in their own right but transcending their respective styles for a 4-track dose of late nite propulsion. Seductively stripped-back and engineered for optimum impact.

Flexing a deftness of touch, and a far cry from the smudged, dubby FX Holden tends to deploy under the Hybrid Man banner, these tracks set the duo’s stall out as purveyors of the nocturnal and club-ready. Sultry, sleek, and sumptuous like only the dankest cuts can sound.

It’s fitting that a track with the title 'Deeper Dream' might feature on a release feeling like a transmission from the other side; a parallel dimension where the after-hours never end. More

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Maara’s out to make mischief with the wryly titled ‘Hear Me Neigh’.

Whether that title’s in reference to a certain equine dissociative or purely a love letter to our majestic, four-legged friends, well, we’ll leave that for you to decide. Either way, the prolific prog house luminary lends her Midas touch to four equally deadly traxxx.

Following last year’s ‘Fancy Feast’ EP comes another proper dose of heads-down hedonism. It’s an eagerly-awaited return to the Kalakari fold, and true to form, opener ‘The Horse Track’ comes hurtling into the first furlong at full pelt. Big equestrian NRG packing some seriously rugged heft and neighing samples aplenty. Then, bringing more of that insistent throb, ‘Juicy Tracksuit’ is no less alluring or propulsive, albeit while channelling some Y2K aesthetic.

There’s more of that turn-of-the-century flex on the next one too. Evoking Love Parade circa 1999, ‘God Save The Bender’ deploys scything hard trance flourishes while opening a portal to the fractal realm. And finally, ‘Sheela Na Gig’ lands dripping with more of the seductive appeal that has become Maara’s hallmark. More

Huge, triumphant return for the man they know as Olsvangèr. This might be the most radiant, life-affirming manifestation of his devotion to trippy dancefloor propulsion.

If last year’s EP with fellow Tofistock co-founder MYKI was the pre-induction, ‘Icy Hookups’ signals his full initiation. Solo manoeuvres from the Berlin-based producer and starts as he means to go on with the buoyant flex and ‘90s nostalgia of opening cut ‘Grand Slammin’. Blissed-out vocals vocoded beyond recognition, this is pure dancefloor jubilation but not at the expense of directness or heft.

Clearly, he’s no stranger to a late-nite tech house incursion either. Where ‘Paranoweed’ comes thru with the tuff, full-bodied groove, ‘Bubble Toy’ recalls the oddball, mescaline-strength tribalism of his DJ Headshot alias. Then, just as uplifting as its predecessors, ‘Quadi B’ shuts things down with a heady, levitational dose of fractal fuel. More

OK EG, AKA Lauren Squire and Matthew Wilson, take intrepid recce’s on a Kalahari debut of fathoms-deep techno minimalism and opiated braindance styles.

With release titles like ‘Intertidal zone', 'Anther' and 'Prismatic Spring’, their ambition to evoke natural worlds is evident. But these tracks aren’t of this planet. Navigating truly alien terrain, ‘Rivulets’ finds the duo imagining uncharted environments into existence through the medium of analogue hardware.

This is very much an album of two halves; the first on heads-down tip aimed straight at the dancefloor, with a second plate that veers further into abstraction. That said, they’re all the kind of far-reaching explorations where close listening yields great rewards.

Between ‘Oxygen Channel’’s cavernous throb and the dub techno-leaning ‘Circular Arc’, the Antipodean duo set their stall out with a widescreen sense of space. Then, ’Rivulets’ comes in strong with the spiralling, trance-inducing gear. Stripped-back, no fuss; proper live improv techno for the most inquisitive souls.

Sending signals into the endless expanse, the second half is a demonstration of OK EG’s versatility. Where ‘Surface System’ and ‘Matched Grip’ further indulge dubby tendencies, ‘Flow Regime’ and closing gambit ‘Endless River’ traverse dreamlike dimensions through breaks and flow state IDM. More

The sounds of Cleveland seem to grow increasingly abstract with each passing release and a third Kalahari outing is no exception. Manipulating house and techno templates into newly mutated forms, ‘Lola Ran’ is a testament to a producer always playing fast and loose with concepts of genre. It’s possibly his most probing set of productions thus far.

Where predecessors came bearing remixes, it's strictly originals for the duration here.

‘Rand’ and ‘PrideBRK’ are direct but decidedly off-kilter; at once modern and faintly retro in their approach to breaks and deep-dwelling techno. ‘Lola Ran’, ‘Mano’ and ’Temp Oro’, on the other hand, shift gear into opiated, rhythmelodic territory. There are no doubt traces of Detroit-style sci-fi but the Brussels-based producer terraforms an alien microcosm unto itself. More

Six years, more than fifty releases, countless artists and multiple subsidiaries; the Oyster Cult’s reach extends far beyond what sceptics once thought possible. It’s only fitting, then, that we gather some of our finest under the Kalahari banner in celebration.

The anniversary release is upon us. Six whole years since Jacy helped inaugurate the label with a spin on Midwestern house, OYSTER40 signals a landmark occasion. 18 tracks, quadruple vinyl boxset action, and in true Oyster Cult tradition, it comes bearing pearls.

Dancefloor squarely in focus, the Cult assembles on a compilation spanning alumni and new inductees alike. It’s an assemblage of the fractal, explorative and ritual-ready; at once a focused distillation of the Kalahari sound and celebration of its many acolytes. Big on atmosphere, heavy on groove, we delve deeply into the musical DNA shared by all who grace the label.

Tough, direct cuts (Sansibar, Roza Terenzi, Big Zen, Maara & Priori) to the pristine and widescreen (S.O.N.S., Volodymyr Gnatenko, Adam Pits), this is all quintessentially Kalahari. Elsewhere though, the likes of D. Tiffany and SW. journey further into realms of abstraction: the former opting for hi-tech, dreamstate IDM, while the SUED co-founder dissolves a house template into dubby introspection.

Calling upon contemporary talents for the most part, there are also exceptions. Raymond Castoldi - the one-time house producer best known as Madison Square Garden’s music director - returns with an unreleased nugget from ’91, while an ‘Aliens’-sampling track from Detroit-indebted techno outfit Syzygy gets the reissue treatment. More

Preorder for repress
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Kalahari Oyster Cult welcomes another from down under, Furious Frank with his very own Trip 2 Fantasy via OYSTER28. Three OG acid-licked club-ready rollers from the Australian 303-connoisseur plus a bonus destruction mix from trusted Frankfurt associate Ludwig A.F.

A1 Existential Crisis, aka the current natural state of the world, sparks fly with flanged percussion springing between damaging drum work, making space for the juicy acid evolution. The journey develops to include dystopian stuttered vocals, glistening bells and pads to form a melancholic driver.

Continue the mood, elastic processed rhythms roll and dip for the A2 Artificial Simulation, robotic mechanism holding hands with the heavenly, dream state timbre, fluttered and full of melodic resonance.

The title track on the B2 Trip 2 Fantasy opens bold and brave, a punishing bass line and commanding claps, hot syncopation aimed for bodies moving. Thundering toms run stealthily underneath an ascending motif of delicate synthesis. “Join Me in my Dreams, My Trip to Fantasy” echoing out in seductive bliss over the driving undergrowth.

The record is rounded off with an even deeper, throbbing rejig of the former from none other than Ludwig A.F. The “Floor destruction” mix isn’t coy about its intentions, risers, diced vocals and anticipation through the roof.

A record ready to explode, whenever and wherever that may be. More

Repress!

A man of many aliases and jack of as many trades, Dominic Glynn aka Syzygy (together with Justin McKay) aka Zentik aka Fluid aka Mind Control aka Luke Warmwater resurfaces from the sunken slumber of years to re-establish his name as a much unsung artisan and key exponent of the UK electronic scene’s heyday.

Two unreleased tracks and another two enhanced re-edits compose the “Tri-Phase” EP here presented - each cut making for a snapshot of Glynn’s fast evolution as an electronic music producer, a career he was then running in parallel to his day work for the BBC including all-time TV classic series Doctor Who.

Starting with the yet unheard ‘Little Pieces of Love’, Syzygy provides us with a dynamic trancey roller that does the splits between hectic 303-riddled leads, catchy vocal hooks sheer old-school style and generously layered FXs extending the scope to further horizon-clearing soulfulness.

Drawing towards more muscular, club-ready techno linearity, ‘Luminous 4AM’ reveals an explosive combo of driving momentum, melodic richness and high-impact bass engineering, tailored to take the rave to a whole other level of consciousness. No-holds-barred floor weaponry set for tearaway peak-time ops.

Initially released on No Bones in the 90s, the other two cuts ‘And It’s Wonderful’ as Luke Warmwater and ’The Man With Three Heads’ as Fluid boast a distinct style. Whilst the first rushes us headfirst into a bumpy maelstrom of chromed techno fitted with an array of acid-drenched attributes and Chicagoan piano tropes, the latter has us zoning out to a playful reverie of trip-hop-laced, ambientoid jazz-house. More

Expanding on the blueprint of previous releases, Trieste-born, London-based producer Sohrab is the Kalahari clan’s latest inductee. OYSTER43 is a distillation of the Italian producer’s stylistic scope in its purest form; impeccably crafted dance music with a healthy dose of prog.

Running deep with this one. Smartly refined constructions primed for meditative club use, the first four tracks are rendered in pristine detail. From the widescreen and tunnelling to straight-up utopian, there’s a life-affirming vitality like only the most quintessential '90s prog-house can achieve.

The record begins to veer into realms of dilated abstraction on the second plate. Where ‘Fleeting Thoughts’ unfurls like a slice of hi-tech IDM undergoing an ayahuasca ceremony, ‘Sunseeker’ and ‘Deconstruct’ keep the ritual going at a lysergic, slo-mo chug. ‘Crystal Clear’, on the other hand, evokes the ‘70s with a bucolic, avant-garde synth lullaby. More

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Rushing us headlong into a vorticist maelstrom of hard-edged drum stutter and polychromatic synth fragmentation, Sansibar sophomore long-player for Kalahari Oyster Cult - “Sans Musique” - tackles the very essence of post-trancey, breaks-loaded UK blends with unabashed joy to wreak havoc on his path. Throughout seven tracks oozing burnt kerosene and depleted uranium residue merged with a hint of sacred incense, Sansibar deploys his extra-wide vision for the present and future of dance music.

“Scully” attacks pedal to the metal, hi-intensity bass onslaughts and knee-buckling breaks roaring as the groove slings us at bullet-speed into a hot, narrow barrel of floor-focused aggression. Fusing rattling DnB engineering with Goa trance motifs, “Force of Equilibrium” showcases Sansibar’s hybrid attachment to functionality and headspace fractalisation. Hi-velocity rimshots, pep vox samples and alien basslines blazing, “NRJ” eases us into a shape-shifting network of underground tunnels dwelled by shady raving creatures, harking back to Prodigy’s early wares and subsequent offshoots of the 90s era.

One to bend your mind to, “Teal’c” taps into an even darker vein with its fast-cascading hats and von Oswald-ian dub whirlwind set against a surgically laid-down, unstoppable EBM bass comber. Jagged and oneiric to the finest extent, “Send It” peeps at prime Hokusai and Photek material in its first stretch, slowly making room for further spacious liquid junglism as bars run by. Cranking the 2-step/garage power levels up a notch, “Fantasmas” sends us spinning into orbit right away, while the LP’s closing track “Aurora” takes us on a languidly serene voyage of a finale, tempo slowed-down and suave trip-hop flavours exuding with increased sensitiveness.

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Hailing from Helsinki, Finland, Sansibar is a non-pareil cosmic traveller - also producer, resident DJ at Kaiku and Post Bar and wave agitator on IDA Radio and EOS Radio - whose genre-unbound sound credentials for the likes of Kalahari Oyster Cult, Natural Sciences, Émotsiya, Darknet, Avoidance et al. have helped establish as one of today’s most intriguing talents in the European scene. More

All (label, artist and distribution) proceeds of this next record will go to UNHCR, The UN Refugee Agencys' emergency interventions in Ukraine.

Third and closing chapter of the Oyster Tribe series, the revised single edition of Brent Lewis ‘1739’ oozes a mix of breezy outback dreamtime, red earth funk and sun-baked drum virtuosity. Originally issued in 2004 as part of his self-released ‘Drumsex’ album, Lewis’ mystique-imbued tune sculpts a tripped-out hybrid jam out of spoon percs and folk-infused broken beat; and who better than OZ home-boys FIO and Fantastic Man to add their masters' spin to that totemic chugger.

Whilst FIO cranks the BPMs a notch further and beefs up the bass to turn the OG mix into a serious contender for countryside banger of the year, Fantastic Man plays havoc with the whole of Lewis track’s DNA sequence, slicing, dicing and re-hashing its bits and bobs over and over again to form a Southerner variant of the Frankenstein creature, all sight set on busting dancefloors by the dozen. More

Exploring hybrid music styles and outernational, borderless musical influences, DJ soFa’s Elsewhere compilation series continues with a sixth instalment, and the second to appear on Kalahari Oyster Cult.

Always ahead of the tide, the Kalahari Oyster is a fine specimen when it comes to the discipline of next-level sound-snooping. Meticulously curated by Belgian sonic globetrotter soFa, Elsewhere XX showcases a dozen outstanding tunes, each dwelling in their own personal space between the imaginary worlds of post-kraut, DIY synth-punk and odd-pop ballads.

Melting these genres with contemporary club music is the mission here. Doused in a thick fog of arcane machine talk, tribal rhythms and cosmic synths, Elsewhere XX is an invitation to escape the hall of LED-backlit mirrors that we’ve so mistakenly come to call our “reality”.

Gathering artists from all corners of the globe – including Radio Hito, Anatolian Weapons, Eylul Deniz, Dame Area and Electronic Body Girl – soFa’s curation lays the groundwork for a unique and thoroughly immersive listening and dancing experience. Through a carefully selected suite of like-minded, yet diverse joints, we run the gamut from distorted funk (“Anita”, “Confiture") and cross-pollinated electroid blueprints (“Walk Away”, “An Abhainn Mhor") to oddball synthpop (“Credo” & Twin Peaks cover "She Can't Die"), reverb-soaked audio safaris (“Fifty Fifty (Anatolian Weapons Dub)") and static-filled postpunk (“Umani”).

soFa's Elsewhere series started in 2017 and this is the sixth compilation to date. Shifting focus with every new instalment, the compilations have previously appeared on labels likes Music For Dreams, Emotional Response and Crevette Records. More

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Storming in with his newest slice of extraterrestrial swing-ology, Liquid Earth (alias Urulu under guise) returns to dish out the playful above all “Scope Zone” - a lush and bouncy gem primed for ecstatic workouts and bold galactic excursions, complete with a reshape from Scottish born, Berlin-based vibist, Youandewan. Flush with garage va-va-voom and low-end paranormal activity, “Scope Zone” indeed lacks no wide-screen power of crowd subjugation.

Taking us back to the 90s continuum with its astute mix of chopped-up vox, pong-like bleeps and propulsive buildup, Liquid Earth’s latest is a fun-loving ode to the kaleidoscopic sound of an era and its untamed flow of energy. True to his signature refined melodic touch and airy 4x4 architectonics, Youandewan’s version has us embarking for a proper deep, exhilarating ride across bumpy time warps and oddly familiar parallel universes. More

“I Go” is an incredible piece of club-focused electronic music and showcases a very different sound to previous single “Nabi”. Described by The FADER as “the kind of dazzlement you get from light dancing off of ocean water on a hot day: pure dopamine activating bliss” and Resident Advisor as “a refreshingly low-key jam”, “Nabi” was an evocative piece of slow-burning, 98bpm electronic pop, inspired by 80s synth classics, the piano pieces of renowned composer Erik Satie and the 80s and 90s Korean songs Gou's mother used to play at home during her childhood. “I Go” takes inspiration from a similar era but this time the energy comes from Gou’s love of 90’s dance anthems, many of which she revisited during lockdown and an enforced break from touring. Both retain the hallmarks of Peggy Gou’s unique take on electronic music; at once both nostalgic and totally modern. But on “I Go”, the tempo, 808s and 909s are dialled right up for a self-motivating anthem that is set, to soundtrack a summer when we can all hopefully dance together in our thousands again. TRACKLIST: A1. I Go, B1. I Go (Instrumental) ,B2. I Go (Acapella) More

Joey Beltram mega-ultra-classic, ‘Energy Flash’ re-mastered by Matt Colton. Pressed nice and loud on a one sided 12”. E.S.S.E.N.T.I.A.L.!!! (...still after all these years...)

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Here comes the first release of re:earth records!

Local DJ delivers 5 golden house-ish tracks, with echoing synths and evolving rhythm structures. A refreshing EP that puts you in the right mood. More

Strictly dancefloor biz on Terrazzo number five as Kalani, Beltrac, Macé and Iro Aka jump up and down and move it all around with a glaring selection of 303-laced tech riddims. More