Taking his cue from seminal mix albums of days gone by, Glenn Astro is back with a compilation of original productions from a cast of fictional artists on Nothing Is Real. Across 13 tracks, the Tartelet mainstay celebrates the thrill of discovery which came as standard listening to new entries in series’ like X-Mix and DJ Kicks, moving between head-nodding downtempo, ambient techno, broken beat and all manner of chill-out room delights. You might be left wishing artists such as DJ 1999, Mental Trance and Eye Soul8r had actual discographies to go and explore, but as Astro himself is keen to point out, “nothing is real.”

Astro has never been shy to embrace classic tropes and tones in his past albums for Tartelet, Apollo and Ninja Tune, but he’s drawing on a different set of influences for this album and embracing the flexibility afforded by using imagined aliases for varied production styles.

“I had the idea to do a mixtape, preferably with unknown dance tracks that also reflect that whole 90s/early 00s vibe,” Astro explains. “Instead of digging for some records that haven’t been sourced yet or trying to find those ‘forgotten’ treasures, I made the tracks myself. That way I had full control over BPMs, feel and the whole arrangement of tracks. I thought of a few alter egos and started producing the tracks in the order that I intended to play them in a mix. In the end a whole compilation of tracks emerged.”

While the concept might suggest you’re going to hear a lot of over- familiar sounds, don’t be fooled. Astro is inspired and inquisitive, channeling the experimental spirit of the 90s and early 00s when electronic music was still continually being redefined in all kinds of micro-scenes. In many cases, Astro’s productions slip into the cracks between genres rather than specifically mimicking a style.

Even if the reference points are detectable, the end result is a curious blend as indebted to ambiguity as the overall concept of the compilation. Like the spine-tingling sensation of hitting play and awaiting the waves of unknown sonics on one of those seminal mixes, you never know exactly what you’re going to get as you take the trip through Nothing Is Real. More

Glenn Astro returns to Tartelet Records with Purple, a four-tracker of minimal slow burners and futuristic dance music, marking the label’s 50th 12-inch release.

Since releasing his second album Homespun in late 2020, Glenn Astro has been quietly channeling his funky instincts towards new production approaches. Purple, a four-piece compilation of mutant future-boogie daubed in Rogers-Nelson hues, comes through with emotional heft. It also marks the 50th 12" release for Tartelet Records.

“Following up on Homespun, I wanted to try out some more dancefloor- oriented tracks again,” says Glenn Astro. “Keeping it simple and practical, while not being too predictable. I incorporated a lot of modular synth bits and experiments, with ‘Flux’ being an almost exclusively modular-based jam.”

Incorporating tricky sound design and fluid structures, Astro’s new lines of enquiry never come at the expense of the groove. From the opening thump of ‘Penduloop’ onwards it’s apparent that his rugged rhythmic kinks are present and correct to hook in the dancers, while the melodic drops later in the track edge in a little melancholic flavour to take the mind somewhere else entirely. On this opening track, the artist explores new territory with his version of early naughties minimal house – a welcome
slow burner.

The EP title track ‘Purple’ slaps with purpose, not least in the Linn-esque drums and melodic bassline, but it’s a positively dreamy piece which skips on crooked beat formations and floats upwards via a multi-timbral tapestry of yearning synth shapes and robotic vocals. On ‘Out Of Office’ Glenn Astro provides a generous dose of electro nostalgia when he amps up the heavy-hearted feeling with aching string pads and electro-informed machine logic. The track becomes alive with its deep un-synced rhythms and dark bass notes, pushing further into the abyss. ‘Flux’, with its tooly
feel, takes the electronic mantra further and sheds light on the source of much of Astro’s new sound palette.

Crucially, even in its techiest moments, an irrepressible humanity shines through across Purple. Glenn Astro’s soul is the binding agent which links his early, sample-heavy house to his more explorative new angles, and it comes through in abundance on this fully-formed release. More

Five years after his critically acclaimed debut album Throwback, Glenn Astro returns with his deeply personal album Homespun.

Marking a change in course from his first release on Tartelet Records, Glenn Astro is set to showcase his sophomore album Homespun, a testament to a visionary artist who has come into his own. Made up of ten tracks spanning 45 minutes, the record twists and turns between electronic meditations, soulful vocals by Ajnascnet, and futuristic electro, carving out a world of spacey eclecticism that is as nostalgic as it is experimental.

“This album is in all facets different from the first one, which was a deliberate decision. No vintage sounds and references, no sampling, combined with futuristic sound design and song structures.I tried to keep it as current and intuitive as possible,” he says.

Known for his chunky beats and fuzzy textures, Glenn Astro has released on labels such as Ninja Tune and Apollo, leaving a distinctive signature on everything he touches.

But Glenn Astro has quietly been crafting a new sound for himself. Sometimes taking detours – morphing into his dark alter ego and experimenting with artist collaborations.

The sound of Homespun is a culmination of several years of reflection and artistic development – however, the album itself was produced in less than three months. “I set myself an ultimatum to finish the album within three months. If I didn’t make it, I’d
have to rethink my career path and keep music as a hobby, he says.

On the introspective first single and album title track “Homespun,” Ajnascent’s vocals lend a sincerity to the melancholic production. “It’s about the regret of not taking chances and giving in too much, but also about taking responsibility and being honest with yourself. Homespun is a nod to nostalgia and a desire for simplicity and prudence, being equally the culprit and the cure,” elaborates Ajnascent.

On “The Yancey,” an homage to J Dilla, Glenn Astro paints his vision of contemporary dance music with shimmering melodies, deep ambient soundscapes, and advanced drum programming. “Moreira” and “Look at You” feel like spaced-out electronic funk hybrids, while “Taking Care of Business” goes back to the future with Glenn Astro’s take on jungle. Other tracks such as “Mezzanine,” “Slow Poke Flange,” and “Viktor’s Meditation” provide the finest dubby electronics. More

Glenn Astro is a living legend. On this dj essential we compiled six of his most outstanding early productions– incl. Colored Sands, three killer tracks from the Tearz EP and a groundbreaking but almost unknown remix of Scherbe's Me and My Mouse.
It's been 5 years since Glenn Astro had his debut release with Colored Sands on Bigbait. We knew from the first moment that this guy has the explosive potential to become an international star. Since almost all his older releases are sold out by now, we decided to give in to the many requests we got in the last month and repress these tunes on a 12” vinyl special edition.
To put this limited Edition (555pcs) in a proper shape, our pressing plant gave in to produce 555 individually colored vinyls. Every record is an individually colored unique piece. The colors range from black to white, from red, green, yellow and blue to all the mixed and mottled color variations in between.
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2014 was a great year for Glenn Astro, but appearances on DJ Kicks (Brandt Brauer Frick) and Brownswood among other labels, numerous remixes, and a string of beautifully-crafted EPs already look set to be eclipsed in 2015. The Essen-based producer's collaboration EP with Max Graef will launch their new label Money $ex Records in January, while his debut LP is to follow on Tartelet Records in the Spring. In between these comes the Hologram EP, two years after his first release on WotNot. As both artist and label have forayed further into dance styles, they have maintained the spirit of soulful eclecticism. The hip hop/beats roots this is based in are apparent on this release in the warm, jazzy Disco Tempo Cliche Intro and Good Bye Song (Spirit Dance). Love Is Gone pairs Astro's signature bumpy house swing with a distinctive synth hook and a subtle use of vocals. Henry Wu delivers a delightful, jazz-tinged synth-funk flip, offering a tantalising glimpse of what's to come from the 22a artist later this year. User's Guide To is the ultimate tutorial in dusty house, with rolling layers of percussion over smooth synth chords, while regular Astro collaborator IMYRMIND injects his signature swagger and playful edge into Gemini.
All-in-all a great record to kick off a year that will see new records from K15, Kab Driver, Alphabets Heaven, and some new faces on WotNot. More

A1. THE POWER A2. FEELIN’ ME A3. SHUTTER SHADES B1. THE POWER (MEDLAR REMIX) B2. SHUTTER SHADES (DEFT REMIX) More

Glenn Astro is a living legend. On this dj essential we compiled six of his most outstanding early productions– incl. Colored Sands, three killer tracks from the Tearz EP and a groundbreaking but almost unknown remix of Scherbe's Me and My Mouse.
It's been 5 years since Glenn Astro had his debut release with Colored Sands on Bigbait. We knew from the first moment that this guy has the explosive potential to become an international star. Since almost all his older releases are sold out by now, we decided to give in to the many requests we got in the last month and repress these tunes on a 12” vinyl special edition.
To put this limited Edition (555pcs) in a proper shape, our pressing plant gave in to produce 555 individually colored vinyls. Every record is an individually colored unique piece. The colors range from black to white, from red, green, yellow and blue to all the mixed and mottled color variations in between.
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“Gold” is a carefully compiled 12” vinyl sampler featuring some of the best club music tracks ever. Feat. Fidel Astro aka Glenn Castro, Hodini, Georgi Barrel, Peter Clamat, Blunt- ed Monks, Roman Rauch and Torpedo Fred.
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Somewhere in between De la Soul, Max Graef and Terrence Parker lives Georgi Barrel. This mini album is a musical paradigm representing our definition of 2015 club music. Georgi Barrel is a highly creative genius producer from Kassel, Germany. In 2014 we first time took notice of him – and were instantly excited. His highly distinctive, very relaxed and boogie-influenced style is pure joy. From wonky De-La-Soul-Grooves up to smashing Ugly-Drums like Disco Edits: On this album Georgi is traveling through the undiscovered no man’s land between House, Hiphop and Disco – the result is a masterpiece that definitely holds a candle to Glenn Astro’s Throwback or Max Graef’s Rivers of the Red Planet.
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London Deep House, heavily influenced by jazz and dub. Three master- pieces of House-groove minimalism for the foggy, hazy clubs of today and tomorrow.
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We open spring Season with a stellar Various Artists EP featuring four emerging Southwest German producers and projects: Odysea, Hendrik Vogel, Joseph Tacker and Georgi Barrel. The guys did their best to create a groundbreaking 12” taking you on a joyful journey through a broad spectrum of deep house music.
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München Jazz Bar – a tribute to our passion for Jazz Music Big Bait Records is publishing high quality House Music vinyl since 2009. With our 18th release we introduce Bavarian producer duo Monikca. Monikca’s young and funky sound is everything else but typical Bavarian “Blasmusik” – it’s playful and jazz-bound Deep House. The two 25 and 26 year old producers are trained in classical piano and jazz drums. Instead of taking some random samples from jazz records, they perform and record their own sounds and snippets. With the two upbeat smashers “Want No Other” and “Münchner Jazz Bar” Monikca proves that time is right for their first vinyl release! Chocky draws in the reins and turns down the excitement level for his dub remix. His track is something like the sedated counterbalance to the high energetic Monikca sound. Foggy, dope and deep.


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On this tremendous 4-Tracker Detroit deephouse grandmaster Rick Wade meets Bigbait founding father Peter Clamat. The latest Bigbait bomb is exposing two different generations of groove science and philosophy to each other - forming a synergetic dancefloor orgasm built upon pure dopeness and deepness.
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London underground sound meets south German dopehouse science: Shuffling Grooves, deep chords and the little extra spice of bigbait flavour – that’s the Stoney Clouds EP. On this groundbreaking 4-tracker we introduce London- based producer Chocky, supported by Big Bait stalwarts de:pot and Scherbe. Stoney Clouds – About the Record The Stoney Clouds Ep is unfolding a wide span of warm and soulful electronic dance music, again beautifully boxed by our in-house visual-arts-mastermind Marek Slipek! Go Bananas Original The opener of this wonderful EP immediately sets the record straight, with smooth as silk drum-patterns rolling around an obscure vocal sample over dirty state-of-the-art-jazzloops. With these ingredients, mastermind Chocky unfolds his unique world of shuffle-laden hyperspace-house, fizzling and wonking every floor to great extent! Go Bananas Scherbe Remix Dresden-resident and long-time bigbait collaborator Scherbe takes control of the remix. In his highly significant Slowhouse-style, he turns the original into a lightfoot dancefloor bomb with trademark MPC-grooves slowly pioneering the way for this huge and wet clap, that’s bursting every club speaker into pieces. After the break a sparkling synth arpeggio comes in, abducting the dancer into unknown yet addictive discoid heights. Stoney Clouds Original Straight forward from the beginning, the title track of this EP opens dj-friendly with huge kicks and jazzy hihat patterns. In an unbelievably smooth stop-and-go manner, a deep bassline pairs itself with an almost sucked-out clap compressing everything into an amalgam of UK-history-laden deephouse funk for every smoked out latenight workout. Stoney Clouds de:pot Remix Last but not least we have de:pot, the crazy beat-wizard from Gera. His remix doesn’t even bother to stay close to the original. Instead, inscrutable, de- quantized patterns wipe over deconstructed sample melodies twisted with his highly educated trademark sound to a completely new definition of German dopehouse science. This one is for the sophisticated headphone connoisseur who likes his b2 sides slow and dirrrty!
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With her 3-track-smasher “Random Nature” Jenifa Mayanja gives us an impression of what House Music in 2013 should sound like! The Random Nature EP is a tasteful collection of warm and Detroit like Deep-House- Meditations with definitely that little extra spice of Afro-American awareness for rhythm and sound! After the release of her very successful album “Woman Walking in the Shadows” – rated by the Groove Magazine as one of the best albums in 2011 – and a celebrated DJ-tour through Europe’s most famous clubs, Jenifa now makes her debut at Big Bait Records with this amazing 3-track EP. More

In September 2012 we initiate the 2012/2013 Big-Bait-black-label-vinyl-series with a tremendous solo-ep from Scherbe, who recently got a lot of attention for his releases on Uncanny Valley and Reh Incarnation. His off-the-hook Slowhouse-beast “Me and my Mouse” is accompanied by twowide-ranging reinterpretations from “wonky wunderkind” Glenn Astro and label boss “shufflemaster” Peter Clamat himself, everything packed up in a completely redesigned, shimmering- handprinted cover artwork, designed by our newest family member Marek Slipek! The title-track “Me and my mouse” by Scherbe is the musical gift you have been waiting for: timeless American grooves, colored in deepest shades of sound-layers, floating around an irresistible bassdrum/snare combination. This tune is rightfully bringing in mind DJ Premier and Theo Parrish in their haziest moments, giving us a dope beat fusion roller, that's breaking the line between 90's New York Hip Hop and 2012 Dresden Underground House Music. While the 7 minutes playtime Scherbe slowly sucks us in his world of dope-injected, hiphop-flavoured soundpatterns, gracefully paired with a spoonful of his upfront and tricky-rumbling production skills. Labelmate and “shining star” Glenn Astro returns to the Dancefloor with a full scale Glenn Astro. Surprisingly different from the original but nevertheless grooving like hell, again proving his capability as creator of delightful and well balanced compositions with an extra spice of glittering deephouse extravaganza. On the final track label-boss Peter Clamat is sending out his “groove-armada”. By using exclusively the sounds of the orginal Scherbe version, he takes Scherbe's basic ideas to another plateau by strippin' things to the bone while joyfully adding his very own rotten-basement shuffle to the recipe, lifting you up on a flight over the morning hour dancefloor!
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GEFAHR! – The funky twins from Citizen Funk came for a visit to celebrate with us the third and final installment of our successful white-labelled 12-inch series!
With their first full EP on Big Bait Records, Citizen Funk aka Peter Clamat and Scherbe are serving two fresh, different and by any means necessary interpretations of contemporary Deep House Music.
The title-track, “Gefahr!”, handsomely cut out from slices of a well-known source in music history, presents citizen funk at their best: high prolific and
state of the art arrangement, sophisticated reverb handling and a never ending story of deep and dirty beat-funkyness form the steady-shuffling ingredients of this eight minute future-house monster. Taking the stairways right down to the basement for the second track “Bing Bang Bong”, the dynamic duo digs deep in the crates of timeless Korg-patterns and irresistible melodies to create a moody piece of highly danceable and heart-filling house-dopeness dedicated to the early hours of any open-minded dancefloor.
The remix comes from no other than the don of dub-influenced House- and Techno Music: Roger 23. With all his passion and experience, he transforms the original into the lightly floating and by the same time heavily bouncing Killerdub we all can't get enough from!
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Peter Clamat returns with two downgraded state- of-the-art Slowhouse rollers straight from South- West Germany. The A-side with “Future” and “Dispatch” shows once again the great development of Peter’s sound into more and more deepness and originality. Slow, dope and shuffling like hell.
Not less deep and fluffy comes the B-Side of bigbait009. With “Late Night Remix” Peter opens the throttle and gives an idea of the french infuences on his music. Short vocal loops, flashing hihats and jumpin’ grooves lift you up to a playful journey on airy sound-clouds through a world of finespun melodic progressions. “Late Night” is a remix for the electronic-acoustic band project “¿Dangerous Person?” by the producer Gustav Jäger and the vocalist Rose Hunter, whose first album will be released this winter, too. With bigbait009 we present the second installment in our white-labeled 12” Vinyl series. Again we compiled a raw and soulful House EP featuring three deep and groovy tracks – this time by a single artist, the label founder himself Niels Hofheinz aka Peter Clamat. All tracks from this EP are based around complex rythms and deep melodic patterns, further relieving our definition of raw and soulful (Slow)House Music.
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After our trilogy of black-labeled records (bigbait005- 007) featuring dark and rather technoid House tracks, i.a. by Portable, S-Max, Elektroherde and Peter Clamat, we now start our white-labeled, hand printed 12“ Vinyl series with a raw and soulful House record featuring three stripped-down-to-the-bone tracks by Lee Webster and Glenn Astro. Colored Sands by Glenn Astro is a laid back, two-parts composition circulating around a continuously evolving, richly colored chord-pattern. Despite its relaxed mood, the shuffling groove and the narrative Bassline of Colored Sands Part One are irresistibly calling for the dancefloor. Colored Sands Part Two is the variation of this theme. Glenn is creating a surprisingly different soundscape by adding very few essential modifications. That’s about the dope. Mr. Lee Webster brings with Hotel Groove the sex in bigbait008 and gives an example of the sucessful concubinage of Jackin’ House and Disco Funk. Lee grew up in the UK and is living in Barcelona for many years. That seems to be just the right mixture of influences you need for producing unapologetic Up-To-Date-Vocal-House-Tracks with outright allusions to 90s UK Garage. Hot!
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Original Badass is an outrightly genuine record by the German producer duo Elektroherde and the South- African musician Portable. After their trendsetting sophisticated vinyl debut Elektroherde (bigbait005), Annette Sihler and Peter Clamat take us back to the House-Floor. Original Badass starts with straightforward shuffling grooves over an intoxicating bassline. From this starting point Annette and Peter take the listener on a space flight passing by Berlin, Detroit and Paris. So does the Portable track. But Portable finally leaves the earth orbit and takes the listener to remote places – to places in outer space. At the end of the B-side the listener remains in poise in the middle of a pleasant tunnel of deepness. Nevertheless – be aware! Original Badass and its Portable Remix are still children of the dark side of the force...
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