Distortion Inc – Echo Of Tape

We stay in pastures uber-deep now with this newie from Denmark's ever on-point DeepWit Uncovered.

In fact, Echo Of Tape marks one of the label's deepest excursions yet, and that's saying something! Across the EP's three tracks, then, expect warm pads, muted percussion, disembodied vocal snips, tinkling minor-key jazz piano licks – you know the story – all at a tempo that means this EP is best filed somewhere between slo-mo and ambient. And that makes it perfect for those moments when you just want to lean back, shut your eyes and drift off into inner space.

Out: This week

About: You can find the DeepWit crew on Soundcloud, on Facebook or at their own website.

Nikosf – Remembrance Remixes

It's been another hard day so to make up for it, in tonight's reviews we're on a seriously chilled-out tip. First up, this remix EP from Etoka Records.

You know that point where deep house gets SO deep it essentially turns into ambient/chill-out music? Well that's about where we're at with this, particularly if you're talking about the two Alveol rubs of More Than Sad or Lazzich's take on Gray Morning. The Verano mix of Summer Afternoons and Nikosf's own End Of Summer Colours Mix of Sensual Colours, meanwhile, do actually have a 4/4 beat behind them, but we're still at the very, very deepest end of the house spectrum.

Not one for rocking the clubs with then and, to be fair, these are tracks you'd want to find the right time and setting for. Right now, though, they're sounding pretty perfect.

Out: This week

About: Etoka are based in Liverpool and can be found at their own website or on Soundcloud.

Daat – Orange Line

I posted the video for this on the Facebook page earlier, but that was just the A-side. And it's really the AA-side that we need to discuss.

Cos the A-side's fine, in fact it's a rather pleasant slice of downtempo electronica that reminds me a little bit of Yellow Magic Orchestra and a little bit of Tangerine Dream. But it's the AA-side that's of most TIWWD interest, where you'll find lurking a refix from the D&B legend that is Deep Blue. In his hands, Orange Line becomes a sublimely deep, liquid-y, chilled-out affair that'll appeal to D&B fans and non-fans alike.

"A collage of smooth glacial textures with hypnotic driving beats," is how the hype sheet describes it, and yeah, I'll second that.

Out: This week

About: Now, this gets a bit complicated. This comes on UK label Organic Beats, but its catalogue number is OBSORG002 and it's actually a joint EP series conjured up by Organic and US D&B imprint Offshore Recordings.

Nacho Marco & Paul Hardcastle Jr – Callisto

Coming from Nacho Marco and Paul Hardcastle Jr – yes, the 22yo son of the Paul Hardcastle, of 19 fame – Callisto is as epic a slab of electronic music as you could wish to hear blasting from big speakers outdoors this summer.

Think a mellower, more laidback relative of Garnier's The Man With The Red Face and you're not far off: there's that same feel of constant progression, and parping live sax galore. Remix-wise, there's a Dub which is considerably more tech-y and percussive, plus a Forteba Remix which goes the other way, being a languid, beach-friendly affair with added Spanish guitars.

Those of you lucky enough to be packing a record bag/CD wallet/WAV folder and heading off to Ibiza should probably, y'know, put this in it.

Out: This week

About: This comes to you courtesy of the mighty King Street Sounds.

Prosis feat Pablo Fierro – Better Days

Here's one of those from last week that I didn't manage to get round to… with my boy Edmund on the remix, though, and coming on the ever-excellent Deepwit, it couldn't just get ignored. Two tracks, four mixes in total, with Pablo Fierro's soulful male vox applied pleasingly sparingly (remember kids, less is more!) on both.


Better Days is a slow-building and very chilled deep houser with a dreamy feel overall and some quietly meandering jazz sax, while the Silt remix strips things down somewhat and takes us into afterhours territory. As for How To Move, think laidback, summery grooves and you're along the right lines with the Original. But for me it's the Edmund remix of this one that stands out, its funkier bassline and added vibes upping the dancefloor ante considerably in a vaguely west coast-ish fashion.

Cool summer vibes all round, then.

Out: Last week. My head is suitably hung in shame.

About: You can find Deepwit here (web), here (FB) and here (Soundcloud)

ALBUM Robert Lamm & John Van Eps – Robert Lamm Songs: The JVE Remixes

Sorry reviews have been a bit thin on the ground this week… been stupid busy. But I'm gonna be spending a significant portion of the next couple of days sitting on trains, so we should be able to catch up a bit. In the meantime, here's something of a curveball of an album… it's been out a couple of weeks now but I promised! And besides, you can't listen to tech-house all day, every day you know…

If the name Robert Lamm doesn't mean anything to you, he's the singer and main songwriter from Chicago, and what this album consists of is Chicago classics from their late 60s/early 70s days as a jazz-rock-fusion outfit (ie, before they went all AOR later on), remixed by contemporary producer John Van Eps into…well, therein lies the rub. I'm not sure exactly how you'd describe the fruits of JVE's remixing labours. But "Latin-leaning, jazz-flecked downtempo grooves with a lounge bent," is the closest I could get, just off the top of my head.

Not being any kind of Chicago expert, it's the refixes of well-known tracks like 25 Or 6 To 4 and Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is? that are appealing most to me. But taken as whole, this is definitely an interesting listen, even if I'll confess to being a little outside the TIWWD comfort zone trying to write about it. You can see tracks here slotting easily into Sunday chill-out sets and the like as well, so a job well done, I'd say.

About: If your leftfield sonic fancy has been tickled, you can find out more (and buy the album) at the Robert Lamm website. Oh yeah, and it's brought to you by the Blue Infinity label.

PS Some good news: one of the things I've been busy with this week, has been putting the framework in place for a TIWWD revamp, redesign and relaunch! More details soon but it's all tremendously exciting. No, really.

Ksoze – Wobble Jazz

Sorry there were no blog reviews yesterday… spent most of the day climbing a download mountain and by the time I finished that, I'd kinda lost the will to do much else. But anyway here we are back once again…

And we'll start with a nice easy one. Easy cos there's only the two mixes; easy because it's pretty 'easy' in the sense of being laidback, mellow, easy on the ear etc; and easy because, well, if you know the kind of dusty, downtempo vibes that Cold Busted trade in, then there's not a lot that I can tell you about Wobble Jazz that the title doesn't! Except that the remix comes from Vitamin D, but to be honest even that doesn't do huge amounts different.

But don't let either the lack of mix variety or my shoddy, half-arsed review put you off… if it's lazy, Sunday afternoon grooves you're after, this is gonna delight.

Out: Wednesday (June 20)

About: This comes, as I just suggested, on Denver's Cold Busted. Find 'em at their blog, on Facebook or on Soundcloud.

ALBUM Peter Visti – Illusions In A Twisted Mind

If you like your disco-inspired grooves with an arty, cerebral twist then this impressive long-player from Denmark's Peter Visti, coming on Bearfunk, should suit you down to the ground.

There are no idiot-friendly disco-house screamalongs or identikit glacial analogue Italo workouts on Illusions In A Twisted Mind. Instead, imagine the soaring strings of Philly and the stomach-churning basslines of late 70s/early 80s NYC art school punk-funk colliding with the ambient house/techno experiments of early System 7, topped off here and there with a few lines of spoken or whispered poetry, and you're somewhere in the right ballpark. As unlikely a ballpark as that might sound on paper!

As nu-disco goes, this is about as unobvious as it gets, and as such it won't appeal to everyone. It also might take a few listens to sink in… but it's worth exploring for sure, particularly (as I said) if your tastes veer towards the leftfield.

Out: Now (but only for a week)

About: You've got to love the fact that the 'About' bit on Bearfunk's Facebook page just says "Grrrrwr"! But once you're done chuckling at that, here's their website and Soundcloud page as well.

Pykup – Nature

And if you thought the Demarkus Lewis track was deeper than deep, then wait till you hear this!

If you dig that Greta Cottage Workshop kinda vibe, where the very, very deepest of house meets more experimental, downtempo vibes, then this one's for you. Coming from French producer Pykup, what you have here are two tracks that are about as esoteric as it gets. Nature lives up to its name by putting the sound of birdsong atop the quietest snare roll you ever heard and gently tinkling ivories, while How's Wally on the B rides a rhythm of fingerclicks, brushed snares and the gentlest of hand percussion as jazzy, ambient piano chords throb over and over in time with a single repeating bass note. It's all a little outside the TIWWD comfort zone, almost… but it works.

An understated gem made for come-down sessions and chill-out tapes.

Out: This week

About: This comes on a brand new Welsh/German label, Cambrian Line. Here's their website, and you can also find 'em on Soundcloud where you can get preview of their next, more overtly house-ified release from Darko Kustura.

FREE TRACK Shades Of Gray – Illusions

Before we get on with the evening's reviews… here's a little treat for you. Shades Of Gray, AKA Mikel Schwa and Nick West, have an album forthcoming on Beef Records in January called Soul Machine, which is really rather good. But more about that nearer the time… for now, you'll have to content yourself with this taster track, Illusions, which is being released into the cyberwild ahead of times.

by Shades of Gray

Various – Late Night Chronicles

A four-track EP from Soiree Records concentrating, as you've probably guessed, on mellower vibes on a post-club kinda tip. As it's from Detroit, I guess we should use the word 'beatdown' as well.

CloudMasterWeed gives us Sunny (remixed by Mattimo-Perine), a very deep and quite slow number with bruk-style percussion, pulsating pads, nicely understated minor-key jazz pianos and what I could swear is a sample of Presuming Ed's chanting from Withnail & I! Blackjack's Triaxial is more firmly in deep house territory but just as dreamy and drifty, while Professor Inc's Quindrant Dub is for those who like it a little techier and more experimental. And more minimal, cos it's barely even there at times!

But the star of the show here for me is Peppermint Kisses by Drivetrain, AKA Derrick Thompson, who I hadn't heard anything from I don't think since the excellent One Wish Wonder album on Little Angel in 2005. It's a simply sumptous slice of sultry, soulful and uber-deep house… with some rather filthlicious spoken vox if you listen carefully.

All told, a highly recommended purchase for sofa surfers and lounge lizards everywhere.

Out: This week

About: This comes on Soiree International. Based in the Motor City as I said, the label is run by Derrick Thomson himself and was also home to Drivetrain's OTHER 2005 album, which I've only just found out about, The Deepest Harmony Of Drivetrain. Hey, every day's a school day...

Ostracon - Unauthorized Modifications

Right then, something a tad different today as we venture into the realms of downtempo/chill-out/ambient music. I don't claim to be any expert in such fields but I do quite like this album and I rather rashly promised I'd review it, so I'll try to do it justice!

I guess as good a place to start as any is the fact that all of its six tracks are called things like Particle Agent, Dwarf Plutocracy and Photon Coercion… though that might lead you to expect weirdy techno à la Planet Mu/Warp/Peacefrog etc, which this isn't. Instead, the influence of the likes of The Orb and System 7 is writ large in this album's grooves… but I'd say it owes as much in other places to the space rock of Hawkwind and Gong, the free jazz experiments of Caravan, the avant-garde soundscapes of Harold Budd, Philip Glass etc and the synthtronic soundtrack adventures of John Carpenter. All of whom, it may surprise you to learn, do grace my record collection to some extent or other*.

Or to put it another way… hear this at a festival, and you can pretty much guarantee there'll be a stall selling chai nearby, and probably some sort of 'sonic art installation'. In fact it sounds a bit like a sonic art installation itself at times… just one that for once isn't, y'know, rubbish.

Definitely a good bet for those of you who like to sit up late smoking funny cigarettes, then.

Out: Now

About: This is brought to you by Unearthed Music, a Minneapolis based label dedicated to 'organic electronic music'. Find 'em online
here (website) or on Facebook.

*especially Hawkwind but we needn't delve too deeply into my cupboard full of dodgy hippy skeletons, need we?

Various - Spring Tube Sampler 02

Spring Tube is a relatively new label who've been sending me some good stuff of late... if you've get to catch the Spring Tube vibe, then this second label showcase is a fine place to start.

The general idea for the label seems to be to put out what they regard good music regardless of genre. Hence, there's quite a range of styles on here, and so every single track might not be to every single listener's taste (one or two are a bit too proggy or a bit too "downtempo" for me personally). But hey, variety is the spice of life and all that. For our purposes today, this has enough groovy little nuggets – Antifish's laidback chillout/deep house cut Everything Will Be, Claes Rosen's Into The Bloom, the drifty, uplifting, want-to-hear-it-in-Ibiza-really sunshine prog of Kenneth Thomas's All Is Not Lost, and more – to make it certainly worthy of your attention.

Out: Last week, sorry, but I didn't get to review it at the weekend as planned - an emergency tooth extraction due to excruciating pain kind of got in way of things…

About: Spring Tube is run by Russian duo East Sunrise and Latvian DJ/producer Slang, but as far as I can tell they're based in the US. Find out more at their Facebook page and website/blog thingy

Oh, and the toothache seems to be gone now. Just in case you were wondering. But I'm not counting any chickens just yet...