Review: Riva Starr and Mark Broom are both huge names in their respective scenes, but put them together and they've got real Star potential. Star B potential that is, the name of their collaborative project which debuted in 2020 returns with an incendiary fusion of house, disco and techno! Pumping up two recognisable dance classics for today's Ibiza inspired dancefloor - "Fire" looks to early-2000s Hed Kandi compilation gold, with "Gotta Have You" full of '70s disco flex and modern day techno heat. Hi-hats for days.
Review: Back in 2020, Stefano Miele (better known for his productions as Riva Starr) joined forces with UK techno veteran Mark Broom as Star B, serving up a celebratory chunk of string-laden disco-techno on Snatch (the excitable and energetic 'Gotta Have You'. They explore similar funk-fuelled, disco-tech territory on this belated sequel for Radio Slave's Rekids imprint. Full to bursting with scintillating stabs crafted from disco samples, thumping beats, sampled party atmos, hazy spoken word snippets and restless walking bass, 'Love Will Remain' sounds like a retro-futurist peak-time anthem in the making. They flip the script on 'I've Got Joy', peppering a sweat-soaked, bottom-heavy groove with effects-laden female vocal samples and nagging organ stabs.
Review: Apart from the odd appearance by like-minded producers like Sterac, M-Plant is primarily a vehicle for Robert Hood's own productions. Therefore, this release by Mark Broom is tacit recognition of the UK veteran's huge contribution to the sound over the years. Fittingly, Stunned is in a similar vein to Hood's own Floorplan style. "Stunned (97 Mix)" is a tough, rolling peak time affair, its heavy drums underpinning insistent, powerful filter sweeps. "Decay" comes across like a more nocturnal version of the Floorplan sound; an acid-soaked organ riff gnaws away incessantly as a sharp riff that sounds like a recycled take on The Bells constantly jabs at the listener's eardrum.
Review: Belgian label Token dip their toes in the reissue game with this reissue of a Mark Broom cut from 2002. Originally released through the Coda offshoot of James Ruskin's Blue Print, "Two" apparently highest amongst Token boss Kr!z's personal favourite Mark Broom productions and the track still sounds immense some eleven years on. A classic example of Broom at his most relentlessly thumping, "Two" is given some contemporary context with a Syntax remix whose spacious textures and brushed syncopation offer a more serene accompaniment.
Review: If there was a dedicated techno dictionary, there is no doubt that "Redial" would feature under the entry marked 'big room'. While Broom has made a wide range of electronic music over the years, his focus is now firmly set on putting out peak time tunes for cavernous clubs. The title track is an upfront jacking affair, with reverberating drums underpinning screeching sirens, walls of jarring effects and visceral claps. "Mist" is even more over the top, with a rolling rhythm and filtered metallic riffs leading to an insane crescendo. It may not have the subtlety of his A13 work, but it's certainly effective. Recommended.
Review: Mark Broom and Riva Starr's recent two-tracker as Star B, 'House Sound', has been given the remix treatment. The results are predictably impressive. To kick things off, Rob and Lyric Hood don their popular Floorplan alias to re-make 'House Sound', brilliantly re-imagining it as a dense, intense, mind-altering techno workout that makes merry with pulsating, restless bass, whistle sounds, delay-laden percussion hits and big piano riffs. It's followed by two takes on 'House Massive' featuring MC GQ: a bouncy, Inner City-inspired, warehouse-ready affair courtesy of Johannes Albert and a booming, breathless, tribal techno style tweak by Gaetano Paraiso of SouthSoul.
Make Me (Mella Dee Raw Traxx Mixx) - (5:13) 132 BPM
Review: Mark Broom is the UK's official tech-house don, and has been for nearly two decades. The amount of music this dude has put out never ceases to amaze us, especially for its continuity and inarguable smoothness. He's up on Gary Bek's Bek Audio, reigning down on us with an absolute blinder in "Make Me", dominating the EP with a fat, fully-locked groove driven by sensational disco vocals. "Fun 18 Mix" feels like 90s era Versatile, or the sort of tune that Gemini would have played, all blasting horns and heavy kicks, while the Mella Dee remix of "Make Me" proceeds to inject the original with yet more percussion, yet more groove and, of course, Dee's natural rawness.
Review: Thanks to his releases on Token and Power Vacuum, veteran UK producer Mark Broom is enjoying a renaissance. That come back continues with the mighty Afterlife release. Like the record on Power Vacuum, the title track is based on a simple premise; use stomping beats and a mangled, grainy bassline as a back drop for a wild, trancey synth line that gets more and more euphoric as it progresses. If that sounds too intense, fear not as Phase has delivered a killer remix. Understated and menacing, it pulses along until he lets loose with the most threatening chord sweeps since Dave Clarke's Red 2.
Review: This sampler from Norman Nodge's new mix CD shows that the Berghain resident spends a lot of time searching out music that no one else has. The upshot of his approach is that Nodge creates a mood like no one else. From the mix opener, the grayscale ambience of Birds Two Cage's "Gase", through the menacing builds of Mark Broom's "Vault 5" to newcomer Patrick Graser's "From Foreign Territories" - an insistent, bleep-heavy groove to rival Sleeparchive at his most austere - this taster release proves that when it comes to setting a menacing, spooky tone, no one can match Norman Nodge.
Review: When he launched his Beard Man label, UK veteran Mark Broom decided to take ownership again of his releases. Now he's steering his music again and this time it's back to the old school. "48" is an inspired combination of modern white noise bursts and tribal drums that lead into a massive filtered breakdown, while "Fever" is reminiscent of the stab-heavy, acid-tinged techno Broom used to deliver with such aplomb for Pure Plastic. Best of all though is the title track: featuring the distorted beats of DJ Rush and Ben Sims' insistent discoy loops, it is both familiar and fresh.
Review: Given that two of UK techno's most experienced techno producers feature on "Night Nurse" you could be forgiven for thinking that it might turn into a lesson in dance floor intensity. However, while "Pigeon" is based on a solidly jacking rhythm augmented by firing hats and insistent, stabbing riffs, that only tells half the story. Midway through, it veers into a Chain Reaction-style chord sequence that subsequently morphs into a dreamy outro. It's the musical elements that Norman Nodge's remix centres on - the stomping backing helps too - while the title track isn't all sturm und drang either, its broken beats providing the basis for chilling strings and mysterious pads.
Review: Veteran UK producer Mark Broom proves once again that diversity is key to remaining relevant. While most of his peers have faded into obscurity at best, Broom's both versions of "Satellite" sound as fresh as the day that he first started fiddling with a sampler. Combining the old with the new, both versions are underpinned by contemporary-sounding dense beats and snappy percussion, but also feature panning, nagging acid lines that are reminiscent of vintage Plastikman. Broom also makes nods to the recent mnml explosion with hissing percussion descending into bursts of white noise - but he does it with such style that it sounds fresh. Here's to another 20 years.
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