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Browse the latest digital releases on Modern Love
Corner Dancer
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LOVE 128
10 Nov 23
Experimental/Electronic
Paloma
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LOVE 124
21 Oct 22
Experimental/Electronic
The Long Count
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LOVE 121
18 Feb 22
Experimental/Electronic
It Should Be Us
Review: It's been a long wait but like an epic trilogy we thought we were never going to get, Andy Stott delivers a third record related to the ground breaking Passed Me By and We Stay Together EPs. Nothing stops the rolling onward lurch of "Versi" with "Take" a sort of houseir counterpart in rhythm that's given huge bassline pulse of Intelecto reminiscence. Epic Modern Love Sounds. Jus like in 2011, all reference points of genres heard here are contorted, abstracted and blown up to a full scale of subsonic fidelity. Tracks like "0L9" transmute house to a whole new degree of sunken deepness, while amid light footwork numbers and the harmonics in "Promises" and throughout "It Should Be Us", the record is a huge hello for dub music, club culture, tempos and convention.
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LOVE 114
15 Nov 19
Experimental/Electronic
Vanity
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LOVE 112
10 May 19
Experimental/Electronic
Passion
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LOVE 111
26 Oct 18
Experimental/Electronic
Paradise 94
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LOVE 108
23 Mar 18
Experimental/Electronic
Mercury's Rainbow
Review: As one of the most innovative names in electronic dance music, Zomby returns to the front lines with his brand new album 'Mercury's Rainbow'. A fitting title we believe, as Zomby proceeds to weave electronic weirdness to all corners of the spectrum, incorporating a range of classic 8bit sounds, squarewave driven bass synths and unpredictable industrialized percussion. We hear serious grime influences throughout the whole project, especially in the bubbly synth melodies and percussive patterns on 'Whirlpool' and the devil-mix like sounds of 'Solar Ashes'. As a project in its entirety, it is truly mesmerizing, showing once again why Zomby is a name that needs to be held in seriously high esteem within electronic music.
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LOVE 107
01 Dec 17
Dirty Dubstep/Trap/Grime
An American Hero
Review: When he's not busy producing ear-shaking industrial techno or corrupted house bangers, Paris' Low Jack appears under his birth name, Philippe Hallais. While this is technically a debut under his real name, we've already gotten a taste of what the talented producer can offer beyond the dancefloor. This album, An American Hero, comes through on Andy Stott's sublime Modern Love and we feel that there couldn't be a better match on our charts this week. Although the large part of these tunes would scare most normal people off any dance piste, there is something unmistakably club-minded about it; the choice of sonics and atmospherics is most certainly on the experimental side of the spectrum, but there is a noticeable movement and pulse-like beat at its foundations. For instance, the likes of "Everything (Good)" or "Angela (Square)" burst out of the speakers with a mind-bending vortex of sounds that somehow find their own kinetic energy and pull you in to a subtle groove. Compared to most left field or ambient albums out there, Hallais has made sure to keep you locked and excited for the whole damn thing. Recommended. Warmly.
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LOVE 106
09 Jun 17
Experimental/Electronic
18 1/2 Minute Gaps
Review: Manchester's Alex Lewis has been seen on a few local event posters over the last few years, but this is very much the man's debut release. The striking part of it all is that it comes through courtesy of one of the UK's most respected labels, the Boomkat-associated Modern Love. Turinn is the moniker he's riding under, and this new album, 18 1/2 Minute Gasps, the exactly the sort of raucous, off-the-wall material that the imprint specialize in. "Ovum" sets the scene perfectly with its jittery succession of roughed-up drums and sporadic bass shots, a raw and improvisational technique that's carried through on other dope joints like "Elba" or "1625" - the latter of which even tests the deep house waters with a little menace. It's a prototypical dance-not-dance album; a masterful 10-track affair that'll appeal to both the more gifted DJs, and the straight-up leftfield fiends. Excellent.
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LOVE 104
17 Feb 17
Experimental/Electronic
Wonderland
Review: The new album Wonderland is Miles Whittaker and Sean Canty's first LP as Demdike Stare since 2012's Elemental and arrives a year on after the completion of their Testpressing EP series for Modern Love. Starting out with the demonic and guttural body basher "Curzon" where you know right away that this album will be one wild ride. "Hardnoise" goes from industrial noise to sub bass heavy techno to blissful IDM over its epic 10-minute duration. Elsewhere, "Sourcer" tackles a mangled form of late '90s techstep while the beautiful closer "Overstaying" is a glorious exercise in hypnotism that sits somewhere between minimal techno and deconstructed electro.
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LOVE 105
02 Dec 16
Experimental/Electronic
Housebound Demigod
Review: Gary Howell, otherwise known simply as the enigmatic GH figure, features on several different labels under several different aliases, but this particular material for the might Modern Love imprint is arguably his best and most intriguing. This is his first album under the GH moniker, but already we can hear that his thoughts neatly shaped into one single-minded vision of noise and industrial music. For much of Housebound Demigod, the producer only uses beats to add to his abstract shapes; freeform sounds that manage to create enough movement with the simple and minimalistic components that they're constrained to. Drones and distortions sound full of life and direction, with little attention devoted to making them as full a possible, and instead on how to make them sound as interesting as possible. A wonderfully executed piece of experimentalism.
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LOVE 103
16 Sep 16
Experimental/Electronic
Lighthouse Stories
Review: Along with pal Black Zone Myth Chant, Low Jack has been responsible for some of the most intense, interesting and downright odd electronic music of recent times. Given this impressive record, it's unsurprising that Modern Love has snapped up Lighthouse Stories, his third full-length. Interestingly, it sees him move away from the dystopian, post-apocalyptic techno sound he's become famous for, instead delivering a set that mirrors the dark-and-light, slow-and-fast hybrid frequently showcased on Black Zone Myth Chant releases. Like that project, the music on Lighthouse Stories is damn near impossible to pigeonhole, sitting somewhere between uncomfortable intensity and exotic beauty.
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LOVE 102
01 Apr 16
Experimental/Electronic
Testpressing#007
Review: Is this the end? It seems like this seventh edition of Demdike Stare's dancefloor brutalising Testpressing series is the final installment "for the time being", bringing to a close a rather vicious succession of rugged club killers and noisy experimental tracks dating back to 2013. If this is indeed the final one, Sean Canty and Miles Whittaker end Testpressing proceedings on a high note with another two track single that's up there with the best in the series. Up top "Rathe" begins in heavenly fashion before a sea of white noise brings about a left turn into AFX style distorted half step jungle - wait for the break at the 3 minute mark! It's matched by "Patchwork" which sees a deftly sliced vocal sample from a Wookie classic bounced around the channels as Canty and Whittaker draw vicious lines in the ground with a razor sharp 2 step pattern.
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LOVE 099
29 Jun 15
Experimental/Electronic
Death Is Unity With God (Complete Version)
Review: Dominick Fernow doesn't do things by halves. When he unleashed his sixth solo album under the Vatican Shadow pseudonym, Death Is Unity With God, it came on no less than six cassettes. Oh, and only a hundred of these six-tape packs were manufactured. Naturally, an online scramble for copies ensued. Happily, Modern Love has decided to reissue it, stretching the 20 tracks across three CDs. For those in love with his typically dark, murky and intense take on electronic music - think droning textures, foreboding electronics, glitch-influenced rhythms and bombastic post-dancefloor workouts - it should be essential listening. Given the sheer scale of Fernow's ambition, it's undoubtedly his most remarkable work.
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LOVE 100
29 Jun 15
Experimental/Electronic
Faith In Strangers
Review: On 2012's Luxury Problems, Andy Stott delivered his most rewarding work yet - an impeccable exploration of the twin attractions of lightness and darkness that was near impossible to pigeonhole. Faith In Strangers, that album's belated follow-up, is similarly minded. Peppered with audible references to his many inspirations - field recordings, found sounds, dub techno, IDM, ambient, post-dubstep and trip-hop, in particular - it's a set that quietly drifts between sludgy dreaminess and pin-sharp late night horror. As such, it's an inspired set, with Stott's use of odd instrumentation and the evocative vocals of Alison Skidmore significantly enhancing the experience.
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LOVE 098
17 Nov 14
Experimental/Electronic
Testpressing#006
Review: Sean Canty and Miles Whittaker make a swift return to the Testpressing series with a sixth installment arriving just a month after the excellent TP#5. The superbly titled "40 Years Under The Cosh" finds the Demdike pair wedged in the punishing crawlspace between detroit techno and vintage grime for six thrilling mind bending minutes, with the track gradually falling apart at the seams as the middle of the track draws close. Fans of both Pharrell Williams and Demdike Stare (there must be one or two) will probably express disappointment that "Frontin" isn't a cover of the big hatted fella's noughties hit; instead it's a brutal exercise in lurching industrial wave that will fry the brain cells of unsuspecting individuals.
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LOVE 097
26 Aug 14
Bass
Drop The Vowels
Review: Although now better known for their respective solo work, and the latter's involvement with Sean Canty as Demdike Stare, Andy Stott (pictured above) and Miles Whittaker's Millie & Andrea project stands as one of Modern Love's more unique projects. Releasing a string of 12? singles on Modern Love sub-label Daphne from 2008-2010, the duo's music under the name experimented with various combinations of 2-step, jungle, grime, dub techno and footwork across five 12" singles. Now they return with Drop the Vowels, which makes complete sense given underground music's renewed fascination with all things revolving around the hardcore continuum. Just as wide ranging as previous material, with the LP covering the kind of tectonic mood pieces and wiry noise techno as Stott and Whittaker's recent solo material whilst delivering some of the most straight-up dancefloor material Modern Love has put out in years. Without doubt one of the albums of the year.
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LOVE 094
31 Mar 14
Techno
Testpressing#004
Played by: Dva Damas
Review: When we thought it was all over, Demdike Stare come through with one last serving for the year of their ongoing Test Pressing series . Like the three previous TPs, TP004 continues the theme of one track dance, one track noise. The noise-side this time features the horror intensified steel hum and pressured hiss of "Fail" which sounds like a piston-fuelled (and filled) factory that at any moment is about to burst from too much heat. The Dance-side, "Null Results", sees the pair venture away from the housier rendition they provided on TP03, looking to jungle loops for inspiration this time - which they slice, dice, silence, and warp into a new-school banger - which in a way is like a minimalists reduction of Miles' "Lebensform".
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LOVE 089
10 Feb 14
Industrial/Noise
New Brutalism
Review: After their debut release last year, emergent Mancunian duo Rainer Veil return with another in-depth EP for Modern Love that sees them postulating on creative possibilities at the juncture of techno, dub and industrial, with an immersive swell that is all their own. "Three Day Jag" has a lot to unravel, from the surface drones to the sunken breaks to the haunted echoes of melodic chord progressions choking somewhere behind the monochromatic fog. "Strangers" is a little sweeter in nature, letting the chords lead the way in to a magnificent tumbling beat that kicks in at the midway point. At every turn the production is magnificent on this EP, dense and highly detailed but beautifully rendered to give the most evocative kind of end result.
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LOVE 092
10 Feb 14
Experimental/Electronic
Watching Dead Empires In Decay
Review: Man of many pseudonyms (15 and counting) James Leyland Kirby returns to one of his lesser known projects, The Stranger, for a typically unsettling trip into drone territory on Modern Love. Built around strange samples, field recordings and curious use of clattering live percussion (see the blacksmith ambient jazz of "We Scarcely See Sunlight"), Watching Dead Empires in Decay is like the unofficial soundtrack to Britain's continued decline. Certainly, its woozy electronics and unsettling melodies evoke mental images of late night walks through desolate urban wasterlands. Though bleak in outlook, there are some particularly emotion-rich moments, not least the superb, mournful "Providence or Fate".
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LOVE 088
28 Oct 13
Experimental/Electronic
Testpressing#003
Review: The Test Pressing series has seen the Mancunian duo of Miles Whittaker and Sean Canty continue to move away from the meditative, dark, sample based collages of previous Demdike Stare material. Whereas the previous two Test Pressing releases were attempts to combine noise and industrial elements with the rhythmic framework of jungle, much in the vein 2562 or T++, Number #003 in the series shows a slight change in sonic direction. Described as a "devotional to the soul of deep Chicago and Detroit house", "Eulogy" takes its cues from the classic square wave basslines of Mr Fingers and Terrence Dixon, with swelling synths anchored by weighty kick drums. A return to significantly darker pastures can be found on the figurative flip where crunchy breakbeats, monolithic, dystopian chords and drill bit synth pulses hide the relatively modest tempo of "Dyslogy".
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LOVE 087
26 Aug 13
Deep House
Testpressing#001
Played by: Jaws
Review: Initially released on highly limited replica test pressing vinyl, Demdike Stare's excellent Testpressing series arrives at Juno Download and offers a chance for digital enthusiasts to bask in some truly excellent music. The Testpressing series is described by Modern Love as an outlet for Demdike Stare's most "untamed" creations, and both tracks on this debut release set the tone accordingly. There have been plenty of words spilled about the electronic music and noise music spheres drawing ever closer lately, but the appropriately titled "Collision" seems to capture these two forces in perfect unison as vintage jungle breaks are mangled cacophonously with Pansonic-esque harsh white noise. "Misappropriation" meanwhile sounds reminiscent of the eeriest, skin crawling moments from their Tryptych trilogy of imaginary horror soundtracks.
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LOVE 085
26 Aug 13
Industrial/Noise
Testpressing#002
Review: Demdike Stare inaugurated the Testpressing series on Modern Love as a means of showcasing the duo's most "untamed" creations, though the two tracks on the first release could equally have been classified as "unhinged". The second Testpressing continues in this manner; for example "Grows Without Bound" combines what sounds like a supercharged organ with rumbling sub bass and scratchy, stumbling beats in the distance. But it's "Primitive Equation" that offers the standout track. Once again revisiting the jungle template present on the last Testpressing record, the duo construct something that could be mistaken for a track from 2562 or T++.
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LOVE 086
26 Aug 13
Industrial/Noise
Unsecured
Review: After the heavyweight impact of his Faint Hearted long player, Miles Whittaker is back on Modern Love with more claustrophobic excursions into industrial techno with soul. "Blatant Statement" surges forth on a broken kick pattern while thick scrapes of white noise interfere overhead, but it's the vaporous melodies that win out in the end, reaching to a melancholic but hopeful future beyond the clamour of the track. "Technocracy" spits and snarls with a whisper of electro and a pulse of dub techno, while "Infinite Jest" goes all out on the industrial clangs and rasps even as a cheeky sub bass line wobbles out underneath. "Plutocracy" ends the EP in stunning fashion with a slow stalking, dread-fuelled beast of a cut.
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LOVE 084
03 Jun 13
Experimental/Electronic
Faint Hearted
Review: Whittaker has played an integral role in Modern Love's rise over the past decade, initially as part of Pendle Coven, Whittaker has moved on to produce solo as MLZ and HATE before working with Andy Stott as Millie & Andrea; in recent years he's been most notable for more experimental fare with his work as one half of hauntological duo Demdike Stare with Sean Canty. His debut solo album, entitled Faint Hearted - released simply under his first name, Miles - looks to be an encapsulation of his wide ranging tastes as a DJ and producer, and is described by the label as "an exposition of Miles' love of electronic music in all its shapes, harnessing his fidgety production style into one expansive, restless set of tracks". "Lebensform" is described as a "looped jungle mutation" while "Sense Data" supposedly comes across like "a lost Move D production from the classic Studio Pankow era"; some decidedly avant-garde material also features in the form of "Archaic Thought Pattern I" which apparently sounds like "Aphex Twin's Donkey Rhubarb EP rebuilt by Mika Vainio". A bracing encapsulation of one the UK's most interesting electronic artists.
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LOVE 081
08 Apr 13
Experimental/Electronic
Struck EP
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LOVE 083
18 Feb 13
Experimental/Electronic
Ornamented Walls
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LOVE 080
13 Nov 12
Experimental/Electronic
Luxury Problems
Review: On Luxury Problems, Mancunian producer Andy Stott builds on the knackered house and techno sound showcased in last year's brace of brilliance, Passed Me By and We Stay Together. The album will contain eight tracks recorded in the last 12 months, with five of the songs featuring vocals from his old piano teacher who Stott hadn't seen since he was a teenager in 1996, with the opening track "Numb" seeing her looped and layered vocals exuding a cinematic quality. The paranoid, dense, slow-moving qualities that Stott has made his signature remain, but they've been toyed with and manipulated, and the vocal elements feel like a calculated gamble - one that has truly paid off. Highly recommended.
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LOVE 079
30 Oct 12
Experimental/Electronic
Ascetic Ideals
Review: Otherwise known as Demdike Stare's Miles Whittaker, Suum Cuique is a moniker in which he has free reign to create warped, noisy analogue shapes. Opening with the searing, white hot metal of "Strohtopf", you'd be forgiven for thinking that the album moves away from the quiet reverence of the Demdike Stare project, but "Kuiper Anomaly", grit-caked as it is, is soothing stuff. Elsewhere, he lets minimal sounds take free reign, exploring the simple pleasures of echo and reverb - "Atlas Levels" and "Core Value" especially are reminiscent of Bristolian radiophonic knob-twiddler Ekoplekz, whilst "Intonation" has echoes of the lumbering soundscapes of labelmate Andy Stott. But despite the parallels that can be drawn with his contemporaries, Ascetic Ideals is a singularly bleak, yet undeniably beautiful record - one that only Miles Whittaker could have made.
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LOVE 078
11 Jun 12
Experimental/Electronic
Elemental
Played by: Celestial Trax
Review: Since first emerging under the name Demdike Stare on Modern Love back in 2009, Sean Canty and Miles Whittaker's project has provided listeners with a series of self-consciously dark and mysterious albums inspired by the occult (Demdike was a notorious 17th century witch). This fifth full-length - a double CD, no less - is as formidably creepy, intense and bloodthirsty as their previous outings and provides alternate takes -along with bonus material - of the tracks that appeared previously on a series of equally collectable twelve inches. While there are moments of fleeting beauty - see the gentle "Shades", bubbling echo-techno of "Metamorphasis" or sleepy ambience of "All This Is Ours (Sunrise)" - these merely serve to highlight the horror-fixated darkness and gothic soundscapes that abound throughout. Genuinely chilling, all told.
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LOVE 077
12 Mar 12
Experimental/Electronic
We Stay Together
Played by: Scott
Review: Andy Stott follows up the incredible reinvention that was Passed Me By with another EP of dark, slowed down techno that takes his style further down his bleak rabbithole, concentrating on the micro level detail within its expansive scale. Opening with the beatless "Submission", a Fennesz style wash of recorded waves subjected to crushing compression, he moves into the 100bpm territory of "Posers" which concentrates on a roughly treated, barely there vocal sample, and "Bad Wires", which slowly disorientates the listener with its sludgy bass loop and fizzing atmosphere. Meanwhile "We Stay Together" opts for a cleaner atmosphere with demonic undertones, whilst "Cherry Eye" offers the faintest sceptre of melody in a cavernous backdrop. Finally "Cracked" hypnotises with its metallic textures and undercurrent of acid which gurgles beneath. For anyone who considers themselves even remotely adventurous in their techno tastes, We Stay Together is essential.
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LOVE 072
24 Oct 11
Experimental/Electronic
Facets
Review: This latest release on Modern Love is the work of Miles Whittaker, aka MLZ and one half of both Pendle Coven and Demdike Stare. Despite the fact that he has reverted to his first name, there is no mistaking the UK producer's production style. Leaning more towards Demdike Stare than his other dance floor material Facets teems with life, each track a veritable treasure trove of sounds, ideas and moods. Of course given that it draws inspiration from and in some place directly invokes the spirit of Whittaker and Canty's witch-loving Demdike project, it is no surprise that the prevailing mood is dark, eerie and even sometimes downright menacing. "Flawed" sets the tone with splintered break beats scattered across an ambient soundtrack that flickers in a half-light before darkness envelopes it. Like the Demdike releases, "Lustre" suggests that the mood may be about to change and offers some concessions towards a lighter mood, as a warm bass and more plaintive chords echo and ebb across its spacious arrangement. It's followed by "Primer", where the kind of unquantized tribal drums that underscored Whittaker and partner Canty's ode to the hashassins, "Hashshashin Chant", roll in like thunder. Finally, "On the Fly" sees Whittaker focus on shifting tonal frequencies, underpinned by a rhtyhm that starts at a dead pace and speeds up to infinity. It's a fittingly offbeat finale in this latest compelling release from one of the UK's great techno eccentrics.
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LOVE 068
08 Aug 11
Experimental/Electronic
Passed Me By
Review: British dub-techno producer Andy Stott returns to the production fold with this excellent doublepack entitled Passed Me By. Although strictly a double EP rather than an album, there's enough here to fill the void left since the last Stott long player, Merciless. Stott opens with the disturbed paranoia of "Signature" and the brilliant "New Ground", which utilises a drowned-out vocal snippet that immediately brings to mind the work of Actress. The grumbling dub of "North To South" contrasts neatly with "Intermittent", in which rasping drum hits form the rhythmic pulse, allowing another ethereal vocal to float over the top. The second half of the release takes on an even darker hue; with the raw drum hits of "Dark Details", terrifying drone of "Execution" and ghostly atmospherics of the title track rounding off this most stunning release.
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LOVE 069
23 May 11
Experimental/Electronic
Metanarrative
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LOVE 038
01 Apr 11
Minimal/Tech House
Unknown Exception
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LOVE 050
01 Apr 11
Minimal/Tech House
Chadderton EP
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LOVE 057
01 Apr 11
Minimal/Tech House
Patience
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LOVE 018
25 Mar 11
Minimal/Tech House
Merciless
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LOVE 024
25 Mar 11
Minimal/Tech House
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