Sanctuary Lakes present their debut, self-titled album, out 21 June on Cutters Records. It is a new project featuring members of Cut Copy and Midnight Juggernauts, forged out of lo fi folk psychedelia, instrumental library records and delicate electronic sounds. Opaque soundscapes forged from fluid basslines, aqueous guitar, naturalist field recordings and vague incantations, the Sanctuary Lakes sound values feeling over form, intention over intellect, imagination over the explicit, a faded watercolour image offering an ocean of interpretation in which to swim. Borne in Brooklyn during idle time improvising in front of the meditation station on television, Tim Hoey sent rough sketches of his noodling to Andy Szekeres in Melbourne, initially to see what his old friend made of them. Beyond merely offering feedback, Szekeres went ahead and added to the songs, initiating a workflow than became an almost wordless conversation between the two, as files drifted back and forth with the currents until deemed done. Arrangements are left loose, choruses never come - or that’s all there is, extended instrumental passages emphasise atmosphere over action, and field recordings of the channel whisper low in the mix. Production across the album has a gently edgeless, soft-focus feeling akin to being submerged in a boundless body of water, at once engulfing and instinctively comforting. As two musicians with years and albums of experience under their belts, Sanctuary Lakes came together during a period of reflection and faint anxiety that their best ideas might be behind them. Work on the album acted as a form of therapy and confirmed that the stream of creativity still runs strong. Tim Hoey is most widely known for his work in Cut Copy, Andy Szekeres in Midnight Juggernauts. Together they are Sanctuary Lakes. “In a sea of love, you and me belong, endless together.” More

Tunnel Signs is the nom de plume of Australian born lover, fighter and romantic, Ash Moses. With a taste for playing and producing records that embrace the darkness, Moses parts the sea and finds the wonky middle ground between reverb drenched postpunk, hypnotic techno and spaced out disco. Having previously seen releases on labels such as Nein, Clouded Vision and HAKT he now finds a home with Cutters Records with this 12” with Will Buck. The release, titled “Spirits” came into existence when Ash relocated to New York City, a place he had long dreamed of from afar. As luck would have it he found himself sharing an apartment with another likeminded electronic musician named Will Buck who became his studio-partner and eventual collaborator. Having bonded over a shared love of synthesizers, drum machines and all things rhythm they soon began their own freeform jam sessions which paved the way for this 12” release. “Spirits” shares some of the slow hypnotic swagger and dark disco drone of Red Axes and Multi Culti but with a futuristic percussive palette of the likes of Four Tet. The heady modulated elastic synth sounds give way to deep undulating bass patterns and tribal percussion. On the flip, the lights get turned out and the acid turned up with an ominous Techno rework courtesy of Hivern Disc’s own Marc Piñol. More

STATUE is a live percussion based dance project, the brainchild of Melbourne drummer Tom Gould. Over the past five years he has honed his craft in cult Melbourne bands NO ZU and Worlds End press but now greets the dance world under the moniker STATUE. After featuring in last years Beats In Space - best of the year list with his debut 12", his second EP ‘Monument' is a reflection of the human and a testament to dance floors both indoor and out. MONUMENT further establishes STATUE as a fixture in Melbourne’s dance music culture, constructed for both warm afternoons and the sweaty early hours of Australian summer. The EP traverses multiple tempos, between techno, house and tribal percussion, creating a world of warm percussive dance floor odysseys arriving parched and thirsty for more at it’s aural peak, Monument. The expedition ends with an expansive remix by Disco Halal king pin and recent ESP Institute alumni, Moscoman. More

Melbourne based percussive dance collective NO ZU bring us their newest creation in the form of the “Hi Gloss” EP. NO ZU have been recently championed by the balearic connoisseurs from Testpressing, as well as being a featured track on Cut Copy’s Melbourne dance compilation, Oceans Apart. The title track, “Hi Gloss” sets the tone for the EP - one of wild-abandon boogie and no-wave styled house that is at once uniquely NO ZU. Triple X funk and NSFW moods continue to flow and mutate throughout the EP with hedonistic freedom. Hi Hypnomania sees the group nodding to influences like Konk and Pigbag, but then swiftly takes them down into a smoked-out, dungeon basement at an un-godly hour to forget about time and space. Side B begins with a jam (Do Deep Dee) recorded in NYC with Sal Principato (Liquid Liquid) during a session that went from 1am to 6am. The result is as gloriously zonked and dubby as you might expect - a true continuity in free-groove and abstract percussive joy. Finally, the last track sees infamous LA boogie-man, Moon B (PPU, 1080p) take NO ZU's Ui Yia Uia into a darker dub and bouncy minimalist realm. It's so sweet and fresh that it acts as the perfect after-dinner mint for the Hi Gloss EP. Let the "Heat Beat" posess you. More

Uncharted Waters is the debut release for antipodean wanderer, Bobby Boomerang, who is more commonly known in his other life as Cut Copy frontman Dan Whitford.
Whitford has long held a fondness for the deeper reaches of dance music, having DJed an ecclectic mixture of house and disco and in Melbourne clubs some years before keyboards and guitars cross pollinated to bring Cut Copy into existence. And in some ways his first solo release is a musical homecoming. On ‘Uncharted Waters’ we find this Boomerang returning to it’s place of origin to explore his reinterpretations of balearic house and techno, generated by experiments with his menagerie of vintage drum machines, samplers and keyboards. 'Where Am I?' opens with the tranquil feel of a vacant mediterranean shoreline, shaped by glassy synthesizers and distant vocals, before the mood turns, awakening the dance floor with towering jungle drums, acid blips and techno percussion. On the flipside is the title track ‘Uncharted Waters’, whose skittering woodblock percussion and deep analog sub bass sound leans towards the more melodic productions of Caribou and Four tet. Uncharted waters is the first of a series of releases for Bobby Boomerang, as this explorer embarks on his next musical journey. More

Speed Painters are a unique collective of musicians who improvise simmering, slow-burning house music, built from a foundation of techno, disco and experimental/found sound. Over the past few years, the group (Nick Huggins, Oscar O’Bryan, Jon Tjhia and Tig Huggins) have bewitched dancefloors in the rainy backyards, band rooms and basement clubs of their hometown of Melbourne, building a cult underground following. Bellarine, their debut release, is the fruit of a two-week summer recording session in the quiet coastal town of Point Lonsdale. Taped in the shadow of ocean freighters, surf waves and coastal scrub, Bellarine arose from improvisations between Speed Painters’ four members – delivering three songs that curve from minimal techno and balearic surf jams to grubby, visceral rhythm tracks. More

Cut Copy presents: Oceans Apart - VOL 1, is the first of two vinyl 12" EPs that compile a selection of un-mixed highlights from the DJ mix compilation, for DJs, vinyl collectors and home listeners. Globetrotting Melbourne ambassadors Cut Copy present Oceans Apart, a 19-track snapshot of their hometown's thriving underground dance music scene and club culture. This first volume includes Michael Ozone (ESP Institute), Andras & Oscar (Mexican Summer, Dopeness galore), Nile Delta (Cutters), Roland Tings (Internasjonal). More

House maestro Nile Delta returns as the architect of the "Aztec EP", his third release for Cut Copy’s label Cutters Records. Building on the solid foundations of his debut release ‘Channel / All This’ and the anthemic vinyl-only tune ‘Dance To The Rhythm’ this third outing provides the most effortless and promising release to date. Nile Delta's Aztec (12" Version) is a warehouse-sized acid beast propelled by hypnotic congas, and a trance-like vocal chant provided byJohn Parkinson of rising Melbourne band Worlds End Press. The B-side "Achilles" is similarly ancient in title, but futuristic in nature. It infuses the unlikely combination of driving acid rhythms and wonky filtered samples to floor-filling effect. The release is accompanied by some great remixes of "Aztec". Emerging acieeed king Roland Tings (100% Silk) creates an irresistible hook-filled house groove out of re-pitched vocal stabs and metallic synths. Also John Talabot collaborator, Pional (Permanent Vacation) brings a deft production touch to his piano-house rework. More

Following on from the RELOCATE 12" released earlier this month, comes an EP of 4 original tracks from Cutters Records' latest signing; KAUF. The LA based artist has been honing his own dark twist on modern electronic music since 2011, with heavy drum production, dense, cinematic synth buildups and high-pitched, echo-laden vocals. His aesthetic lies somewhere in between the worlds of slow house, industrial dance and drony avant-pop earning comparisons with the likes of CARIBOU, MATTHEW DEAR and TORO Y MOI. The AS MUCH AGAIN EP is KAUF's most substantial release to date and (much like the artwork) paints a dark, but distinctive picture of the man himself, as a unique and undeniable talent. The EP kicks off with two slow-building, hypnotic pop songs; IN TOW and THE CLOSEST. Then the energy switches up a notch with his percussion-heavy slow-dance anthem; RELOCATE. Things reach a climactic conclusion with the sun peaking over the horizon, but the party still in full swing as WHEN YOU'RE OUT unfurls it's snake-like arpeggiators and bewitching rhythm track, up to the heavens, then slowly back down to earth. Maybe it feels like dusk… or maybe it's more like dawn; it probably doesn't matter. AS MUCH AGAIN will be the perfect soundtrack. More

Nile Delta is enigmatic dancefloor wizard Joel Dickson, the man responsible for last year's "Channel/All this EP" on Cutters featuring Cut Copy's Ben Browning. It was an essential building block of DJ sets by the likes of Holy Ghost (DFA), Aeroplane and The Revenge. And now, as if inhabited by the spirits of the early house and techno pioneers, he has returned with a irresistibly potent dance anthem which excites as much as it surprises.
The aptly titled "Dance To the Rhythm" is definitely a nod to heroes of shadowy 90's dance such as Jeff Mills and Larry Heard. But with a foot firmly planted next to the current rising crop of UK production talent such as Daniel Avery and Julio Bashmore. Featuring staccato drum machine fills, classic analog bassline and siren-sounding future house sparseness, the A-side is purpose built for peak-hour jacking. The B-side is (admittedly only slightly) more reserved, remagining the "Dance to the rhythm" as trucking late nite acid dub. With another release due for Nile Delta in early 2013, this vinyl-only-gem is a tantalising hint of things to come. Now do as the man says, and "Dance To The Rhythm"!
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The Miracles Club are producer Rafael Fauria, singer-songwriter Honey Owens and dancer Ryan Boyle from Portland, Oregon. Since 2008 the group embarked on a mission spreading the joys of classic dance music vibes. Their style draws from an endless palette including early New York & Chicago house, Detroit techno, and psychedelic pop. On stage The Miracles Club have manifested live alongside acts like Larry Heard, Glass Candy, Gang Gang Dance, MikeQ, Kim Ann Foxman, Blondes, and Hunee. From 2010 onward they have released 12” EPs and provided remixes on labels and imprints such as Mexican Summer, Wurst, Ecstasy (their own homegrown shop), Discaire, Future Classic and DFA. The Miracles Club are anticipating a new release on the Australian Cutters Records imprint with two new tracks “U&ME” and “Ocean Song”. Additionally, the release will feature three remixes by Cutters stable-mate Nile Delta and Argentine house guru Ultimate Man. More

A pulsating solo effort from electronic pop crooning man-child and Cut Copy bassist Ben Browning is the shiniest, newest addition to the Cutters stable of artists. More

Cutters Records brings us the ‘Light of love remixes’ EP which has all the makings of a mid 80s house party except on the dance floor is a giant cosmic rug to float you through space and time. ’Light of Love’ is the psychedelic piano house jam from the deepest depths of a dank dark rave cave and Cut Copy have reworked it into an entrancing dancefloor gem. Also Included is a dubbed out house mix by New York’s ever-consistent Neurotic Drum Band. And dont sleep, because on the flip Miracles Club journey into classic 909 house with two versions of their jam ‘So Hot’. It feels like the second coming of Jack, but believe… it’s the rise of a new dawn! More