Dr Love is a veteran and key tastemaker / vinyl junkie on the Montreal scene and Laura Ingalls is a wandering French person of no specific sex who has recently landed in the French-Canadian city.

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The inform Kat Records return for their 37th release with three disco edit purlers. A must for any edit enthusiast.
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Andi and David first met in a forest beside a psychedelic castle in the wild west of Scotland and soon bonded over a love of wrong speeders, Balearic gems hidden in plain sight and the odder side of the dancefloor before DJing together just moments after Andi was unraveled from a burning tarpaulin. A firm friendship and fun partnership was born. Hailing from Mancunia but for some time an export to the USA, Andi, for many years was one of the great things about New York City. A charming, low-key individual, a great, great DJ and a graceful presence in the land of the overhyped and ego driven. Andi held down the musical supervision of Rock Star games and was responsible for a lot of great music getting out to the gaming masses. He was a vital member of Body and Soul for the best part of 15 years, delivering infamous warm up sets for Danny Krivit, Joaquin 'Joe' Claussell and François K, pedigree vibes... David, a music lover since birth, a record collector for more than quarter of a century and a reputation for being the first on the floor at any party. DB's transition from dancer to DJ didn't take too long and his selections of rare disco, oddball gems and panglobal pandemonium have seen him play back rooms, basements, festivals and freakouts throughout the land, whether running his own parties in Glasgow or playing further afield alongside the likes of Young Marco, Jayda G and Moodymann.

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Respectful edits from NYC's finest JKriv (Razor N Tape)

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Pedantic record collector and DJ, Stephen King (AKA Virgo Type), has finally started releasing some of the tracks and edits that he's been working on over the past few years with his vinyl debut on KAT Records. There's an eclectic range of source material on this EP including early disco rap on 'Dancing Heart', chopped up, dusty lounge bar grooves on 'Jazz Cigarette' and even some 90s new-jack-swing gets the loop and filter treatment on 'Outta My Head'. Packing an MPC, drum machine and an extensive record collection, Virgo Type's tracks are a love letter to the people and places that have provided the inspiration for his music.

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Release no 31 finds KAT Records on a European tour with 3 reworks based on 80's Belgium, Italy & Germany disco & new wave with man of the moment Moscow producer Phil Gerus (FutureBoogie, Sonar Kollektiv) taking centre stage. Well, 3 really obscure one's here from KAT with Mr Gerus pulling no punches - 80's Soul, (punk) funk, disco, synth pop & new wave are just some genre's that may well get thrown around here but as ever with KAT, quality prevails. We're going to do a sneaky one here and protect the names of the originals (jus' cause we can!) but suffice to say, these are ace! Agent Yuri is a mid-tempo boogie melter with buckets of soul - A killa groove, silky tinkling piano and a vocal that could sink ships - Pure summer lovin' and then some. When we mention 'pulls no punches' then Mr Hero is what we mean - Full on, no holds barred 80s Belgian new wave bordering on punk/funk with raging guitars to boot - A real grower and when heard on a decent sound system we won't be held responsible for any outlandish actions that may well prevail. Be my Lova couldn't be more Italian if it tried apart from the fact that it's actually German ! Italo vibes with super bloody marvellous vocal, synth's all over the show with a chorus more catchy than the common cold. More

Kat Records reach the ripe ol' age of 30 with the 3rd instalment of reworks by all round super ace guy Jonny Miller. Those of you out there of a certain vintage will not need any intro to Half A Minute - A guilty pleasure to some, with nowt to be feeling guilty about. If it's good then it's good is the KAT ethos and Mr Miller fully embraces this and takes this UK Latin stormer up a notch and then some. Matt Bianco, yes you know...Get out of your lazy bed et all were a house hold name in 80's UK (a Saturday superstore appearance also, well worth a mention we think!) - but we're getting away from the point here... The point is that Half A Minute is a tune, always has been and always will be with the JM edit bringing out the very best from the original with much added shine and aplomb ! On the flip we have 2 African tinged mid-tempo chuggers that tick the boxes of house, Balearic, soul, disco…well sort of ! Kalimba Tree is a track that sits perfectly between the aforementioned genres and Jonny Miller delivers a rework rather than straight up edit - The beats are incredible, very funky and infectious but laid back at the same time…Tabled with the beautiful fender rhodes and that vocal hook, it's time to head direct to your fave Adriatic festival and order a large one and pop a toast to the genius of Maurice White. Last up we have Orere-Elejigbo which is mid-tempo afro-Balearic gem and again, a rework rather than your bog standard edit. 4/4 beats, afro vocal hooks, low slung bass line and a mighty arrangement top things off very nicely on this rather fine 3 track-er. Here's to another 30 releases folks !
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Andy Hart returns after an almost two-year hiatus from the studio to release his first EP on the Voyage imprint. Following on from Urulu's Greetings From Namek, Mistress In Your Mind is the sixth release and adds to a growing collection that already includes releases from Harvey Sutherland, M5K and CTEPEO '57.Mistress in your Mind loosely stems from the intertwining influences of a love-induced delusion broken down over four tracks. Hart draws sentiment from several aspects of his record collection, giving subtle nods to break beat, soul, acid and space-laden house. More

Kat Records once again come up trumps with a blazer of a 4 tracker for release number 27 on the ever consistent imprint. Kat debutant Inxxwel continues the run of releases in fine form with a wonderful EP of not so well known dance floor smashers covering Afro, Disco, New Wave, and 80's Boogie vibes. Kicking things off is the Disco Afro goody that is Check It Out. A mid tempo shake down that ticks all the right boxes with infectious guitar riffs, vocals and bass-lines right through this with a cheeky teaser of an arrangement that's sure to do some damage on them there dance floors! Next up is I See You…. Pure Japanese New Wave badness spliced up with pure love (none of this quantising malarky here). Super quirky vibes with a new wave disco biz and bumps along with aplomb. Make Me is a forgotten 90s RnB tune chopped and given the rework love.. Re-jigged from the original half time track, with some added Moog synth vibes for added oomph. Last up is Old Fashioned, a subbed out garage Boo-gie vibe with sweeter than sweet vocals that hark back to shiny outfits, hair spray and some ever so sexy moves. Lets do this! More

Four fine edits of super rare cosmic disco tunes from French playboy and producer Maximilian Blanc. Maxi wouldn't reveal the details of the originals but needless to say these tracks will do the business on the dance floor. The tracks range from wigged out funk to space cruising strutters, all with that classic cosmic vibe. Enjoy the ride... More

Ilija Rudman has a passion for disco, pure analogue disco at that with buckets of soul to boot. For over 10 years he's been producing bonafide dance music which has seen him team up with the likes of Mark E, Chaz Jankel, Steve Kotey, The Revenge and Greg Wilson amongst others with releases coming via Rong Music, Under the Shade, Bear Funk and Tirk labels. Here we see Ilija bring a 3 tracker to the table for the KAT imprint which brings somewhat of a change in direction for them as these are not re-edits or reworks but original tracks. ‘Just Remember' is a sultry Summer time Disco house melter which oozes all that's good about dance music... Fender rhodes, laid back guitar licks, strings and a groove that glides along effortlessly throughout but it's the ever so subtle dreamy soulful feel to this track that makes it really shine through. On the flip both tracks take on a slightly more uptempo House feel but the analogue sound continues... ‘Never Forget' really is all about the hooks...staccato guitar licks and a rhythm section that's more solid than your average breeze block. And 'Once and 4 all' ending things on a high with a breathy pad lead track that delivers on all fronts. Iliya's studio has taken 3 years to build and consists of 15 years of collecting studio gear all based around the MCI 542 D Series console from 1981. Fully restored, this is the hub to the whole operation which also has EMT compressors and limiters, 25+ synths including Moog, Prophet and Oberheim and a huge rack of drum machines and samplers. Ilija Rudman returns! More

3 reworks from Antipodean DJ and Producer, Frank Booker. First up is the monster reworking of King Sunny Ade's afro biggie Synchro System, originally released in 1983 and taken from the album of the same name. Things are turned into a mid tempo 4/4 house shuffler with a killer groove and dope arrangement. The guitar lines, horn riffs and vocal hooks will have you gripped and holding on for dear life, but the real winner here is the groove that underpins the whole shebang which just glides along and takes you with it for a highly enjoyable ride.......This will be causing all sorts of commotion on dancefloors near you soon, you have been warned ! On the flip we have Frank's take on Fela Kuti's Egbe Mi O. Again, a low slung 4/4 house groove sits under this Fela classic....All sorts of Afro goodness are diced up (including the ace Ginger Baker percussion) and lovingly strung back together turning this into an instant mid-tempo house classic.. Rounding things off is a cheeky cut n paste track, People Must Jam named after the Sydney based Disco party. It sits somewhere between P-Funk, Roller Skating Jam Disco and House, an achingly infectious filtered groove teases and then teases some more sealing this fine 3 tracker off with a winning smile. More

DJ SUPPORT FROM: HORSE MEAT DISCO / RAINER TRUBY / CRAZY P / LEFTSIDE WOBBLE ETC More

A. ONCE IN A LIFETIME B. JUST A TOUCH OF LOVE More

KAT011 brings you 4 edits from Shanghai based duo The Horses....

Starting things off is It just happened, a reworking of Vangelis's blissed out classic Let it Happen from their 1973 album Earth. Subtle 4/4 beats sit oh so well underneath the plush rhodes, pads, chimes & laid back guitar thus shifting the track from the deckchair to the dance floor. Next is Backed up, originally recorded and released in 1975 by Fantasy Records at the height of their jazz funk golden era, this rare groove classic by the Three Pieces and is brought bang up to date, almost doubling the length of the Donald Byrd produced original with a filtered intro and killer groove throughout - BIG !! First up on the flip is Do you Remember...An ace summer mid-tempo melter that could be destroying a soundsystem near you very soon and to finish things off we have the Donald Byrd discofunk biggie Change. Weighing in at over 7 mins in length with dubbed out vocals a plenty, a sure party winner if there ever was one - makes you wanna hustle !
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Repress!

26 years after its initial release, In The Lab EP by Language receives a reissue via Few & Far Between, a new imprint out of Bristol. Founder of Few & Far Between, Sam Hall, makes the 1992 deep house record the figurehead of his new label, setting the scene for the forthcoming original releases and further reissues in 2018 and beyond. More

Gondwana Records are proud to announce Octava the sublimely beautiful second album from immersive LA deep-jazz masters Phi-Psonics. Phi-Psonics is a meditative, deeply soulful immersive jazz group from Los Angeles, led by bassist Seth Ford-Young and featuring Sylvain Carton on woodwinds, Mitchell Yoshida on electric piano, and Josh Collazo on drums. Their deeply soulful music draws on jazz and classical influences together with Ford-Young"s own musical experiences, relationships, and his introduction to spirituality, yoga and philosophy at a young age, along the way they create something uniquely their own, beautiful landscapes for your thoughts to roam within.
Tracklist
1.1Invocation
1.2An Offering
1.3We Walk in the Gardens of Our Ancestors
1.4Green Dreams
1.5Where We've Been
1.6Lunar Reflections
1.7Becoming
1.8New You More

Repress!
Double trouble from the depths with this audacious edit package taking in two ultimate, belt from the bottom of your heart classics. Reworked, reloved and revamped to provide maximum dancefloor elation. Two big, bold edit beasts to help you break on through to the other side. More

Rayko the Spanish Disco Producer and DJ extraordinaire has been busy in his Madrid based Studio burning the midnight oil to deliver Vadillo Vice Volume two.

Four reworked funk fuelled bass heavy cuts, tried and tested by the man himself on dancefloors across the globe and due to be released on vinyl only later in the year.

Deeply rooted in the golden era of the 70s and 80s, Rayko’s influences are masterfully interpreted and transformed into modern day dancefloor bombs, and are a key signature sound of his long established label Rare Wiri (Since 2008) an outlet for his productions alongside other likeminded artists such as Daniele Baldelli, Man Parrish, Gazeebo, Ilija Rudman, Ichisan, Spirit Catcher, Mushrooms Project, Eric Duncan among many others. More

“‘A La Sala,’ I used to scream it around my house when I was a little girl, to get everybody in the living room; to get my family together. That’s kind of what recording the new album felt like. Emotionally there was a desire to get back to square-one between the three of us, to where we came from–in sonics and in feeling. Let’s get back there.” - Laura Lee Ochoa

The title makes it clear. A La Sala (“To the Room” in Spanish), the fourth studio album by Khruangbin, is an exercise in returning in order to go further, and do so on your own terms. It extends the air of mystery and sanctity that’s key to how bassist Laura Lee Ochoa, drummer Donald “DJ” Johnson, Jr. and guitarist Mark “Marko” Speer approach music. Yet if 2020’s Mordechai, the last studio album Khruangbin made without collaborators, was a party record whose ensuing post-lockdown tour enhanced the band’s musical reputation far and wide, A La Sala is the measured morning after. It’s a gorgeously airy album made only in the company of the group’s longtime engineer Steve Christensen, with minimal overdubs. It is a porthole onto the bounties powering Khruangbin’s vision, a reimagining and refueling for the long haul ahead. A La Sala scales Khruangbin down to scale up, a creative strategy with the future in mind.

It is also a response to the unique moment Khruangbin finds itself in now: following a decade spent cultivating extraordinary music paths, beginning a year when they'll perform for more people, in more iconic spaces, staging a live show that pushes a creative envelope peculiar to them alone. (Look for the band at major festivals and venues near you.) 2024 feels like both marker and pivot, cementing Khruangbin’s stature as a commercially and critically successful group that continues to be guided by creative possibilities.

Such crossroads are familiar for iconic artists throughout the rock era — your Dylans, Stevies and Bowies, up thru turn-of-the-century Radiohead, all have navigated these straits. On A La Sala, Khruangbin also pulls exploration inward, spurning the din of the crowd’s expectations, mapping a personal direction home. The trio’s collective musical DNA and the years spent constructing it in Houston’s local-meets-global cultural stew ensure the band carries on sounding like no one but itself. A La Sala may in fact be Khruangbin’s purest distillation. A cascade of crisp melodies still emanates from Marko’s reverb-heavy electric, dancing gently around Laura Lee’s minimalist almost-dub bass triangles, while DJ’s drums serve as the tightened-up pocket and unwavering dance-floor on which all this movement takes place.

Where prior album-by-album growth seemed to point the narratives towards music’s polyglot edges, such inquiries now sound like known intimacies. What once seemed like sonic invocations — spaghetti-western film scores, found-sounds, dancing moments more living room than rooftop disco — are ingrained characteristics. This is who they are! And there’s a freshness to the instrumental interactivity on A La Sala that’s less concerned with getting further out than going deeper in. That depth is not about therapeutic self-reflection, but a profound desire to celebrate the world’s external wonders.
A La Sala invites intimate intercontinental partying. The first single is, after all, called “A Love International.” “Pon Pón” holds the band’s table at the West African discotheque; yet the joy now moves to the corner left of the dancefloor, where the back-and-forth between Laura Lee’s bass, DJ’s hi-hat, and Marko’s tuneful rhythm scratches, is a marvel of knowing head-nods. There’s “Hold Me Up (Thank You),” a familial sweetness in its spare lyrics, feeding off the rhythm section’s sturdy funk shuffle, and a chorus on which Marko’s guitar evokes both sides of the Atlantic in confident unshowy rhythms. They’re on “Todavía Viva” too, next to DJ’s noir-soul rim-shots, synth strings and a pregnant pause that is Laura Lee’s favorite moment on the album, the mood kin to the band’s glorious live interpretations of G-funk fantasias. And the rocked-up miniature, “Juegos y Nubes,” demonstrates Khruangbin’s Houston-born superpower to culture-mix, a dancing mood less concerned with worldly glamor than communal grooving.

“I read something long ago, attributed to Miles Davis. He said, ‘When they play fast, you play slow. When they play slow, you play fast.’ And it's definitely how I've approached looking at music: Don't follow the trends. And if the trend is this, then do something else.” - Marko

From the get-go, Khruangbin’s journey has been emphatically its own: a sound and visual representation with few precedents, ignoring pop expectations, relying only on internal inspirations, and a multitude of visions. It’s a mindset of penetrating the self, connecting to the surrounding world, modeling your own life experiences. This ethos is threaded throughout A La Sala, audible in the album’s form and function. (It’s even visible in the vinyl version’s physical package, which will be released as a set of seven distinctive covers and color-sets — more on which in a sec.)

The building blocks for the album’s 12 songs were jigsaw pieces found in Khruangbin’s creative past. Having stockpiled ideas originally set down as off-the-cuff recordings (voice-memos made at sound-checks, on long voyages, as absentminded epiphanies), they began fitting those pieces together in the studio. Which parts were apt? Which could be massaged and stretched out? Which inspired new sections or rhythms or musical interactions? Once more, Khruangbin’s familial DNA kicked in. Layer-by-layer, the intimate work, rework and re-rework bore new fruit. They also brought back a strategy once foundational to their records: seeding an album with field recordings.

Some results fold directly into A La Sala’s down-home feel. “Three From Two” and “May Ninth” are wistful mid-tempo numbers, with guitar melodies that reside somewhere between Bakersfield and by-the-riverside, cues that, for all its borderless inclusivity, another core Khruangbin value is being steeped in American roots. And in the landscape that music comes from. Like all albums prior to Mordechai, Marko made sure environmental sounds — natural and man-made — appeared as textures. (At times philosophically: the group recorded while cricket chirps played in their headphones, presumably for terroir.) It’s how A La Sala achieves such interconnected set-and-setting-ness.

Other results are more metaphorical, especially in Khruangbin’s flirtation with ambient spaces. The dramatically beatless “Farolim de Felgueiras” and “Caja de la Sala” both feature only Marko’s unmistakable guitar dueting with Laura Lee’s Moog, lightly layered with sounds of shoes on stone steps, and cicadas in an open field. The closing “Les Petits Gris” more fully reduces and fleshes out the ambiance, with a piano and a simple single-note bass pattern, Marko’s plaintive spare guitar echoing the melody of a ballerina-turning music box. It feels an apt way of ending — as a passing of this particular moment, preparation for the next one, soon-come.

Even the seven different covers that adorn A La Sala’s various vinyl editions offer a throughline from the music into Khruangbin’s current frame. Designed by the band using Marko’s multitude of travelog photos, they are windows from the band’s living room onto a set of daydreams, scenes of impossible skies, external glances illuminating what is going on inside. These are also directly related to David Black’s images of DJ, Laura Lee and Marko which accompany A La Sala, and to Khruangbin’s live staging reinvention. It’s all about looking out and looking back, in order to better look ahead.

“All the little moments you capture. You don't see how impactful they are until you hear what eventually comes of them. A lot of those scraps end up being the thing — and you don't realize it until it's ‘The Thing.’” - DJ
credits
releases April 5, 2024

Produced by Mark Speer & Steve Christensen
Written, Arranged & Performed by Khruangbin
Art Direction: Tiny Frees
Mixing: Steve Christensen
Mastering: Chris Longwood More

Repress!
The first in a series of compilations by Jura Soundsystem is a blend of Dub, Ambient, Downtempo, Boogie and Proto House with a focus on music never before released on Vinyl, sought after out of print titles and some special versions edited specifically for the album.

The intention with this project was to delve deeper into the reissue pond and unearth some lesser known tracks and artists. Highlights include Smackos (AKA Legowelt) Ambient epic ‘We Can Watch Alf In The Hotel Room’, never before released on Vinyl, the Dub / Psych hybrid of Minus Group’s ‘Black Shadow’, Kash’s sought after ‘Percussion Sundance’ and special edits of Ken Dang and Tabou Combo. The end of the album includes some soothing Ambient tools. More

The return of Gaussian Curve - Gigi Masin, Jonny Nash and Marco Sterk’s much-loved trio are back for the first time since their 2016 sophomore album 'The Distance', presenting two new tracks entitled 'Winter Sun' and 'Fever Dream'.

Both tracks originate from recording sessions that took place in Amsterdam in 2016 for 'The Distance'. Despite not finding a place on the final album and being left as unfinished sketches for six years, the tracks represent an important part of the Gaussian Curve story which the band felt compelled to complete. Coinciding with the decision to perform a handful of live shows in 2022, they finally revisited the sketches, mixing and arranging them with the goal of giving them the full release that they deserve.

The trio’s trademark sound hits from first moments of 'Winter Sun'; a lush slow builder with all the classic GC ingredients; Nash’s airy and spacious guitar lines interplay with Masin’s warm rhodes, underpinned by Sterk’s subtle use of electronics and the minimal rhythm of a CR-78 drum machine.

On 'Fever Dream', the trio subtly expand their palette; a gently building 303 bass line and 808 rhythm form the foundations of the piece, with Masin’s vocals adding to a slow-burning intensity. Arguably a fuller sound hinting at new areas of exploration for the trio, but unmistakably Gaussian Curve.

Graphic art by Qiu Yang, design by Steele Bonus, More

Tracklisting:
A1 Gunjack - From Within
A2 Gunjack - Theme From Dubwars
B1 Gunjack - Gatekeepers Ball
B2 Gunjack - Ratsel Box More

Tracklisting
A1 Gunjack - Fat Lady Sings
A2 Gunjack - Body Memory
B1 Gunjack - Footprints
B2 Gunjack - Iceman Cometh More

A heavyweight classic! 'Don't Laugh' is one of those records, you know you've heard it, you may not who, what or where, but you know it! The original Winx mix is a classic, often imitated, never bettered, but the real gem here is Richie Hawtin's manic, almost borderline sinister 15+ minute reworking. Monster doesn't do it justice, tweaked out, narcotic, minimalist jacking gear. A dope combination of severe LOW end and some bracing sine waves that cut straight through. This one will surely test any club sound-system, if the venue is built for it you will know! This is one for the real heads, pure late night business oft overlooked for the more famous A-side, but trust us - Hawtin's mix will smash any dance! Oh, and there's an insane laughing acappella for those who want to mix and blend! Reissued, remastered and re-sorted for 2017 by Above Board Records with the full involvement of Nervous Records NYC. More