The Way We Move (Spaventi rework) - (6:39) 118 BPM
Review: Hot on the heels of the recent ASOK EP, label owner Aroy Dee teams up with Ma Spaventi to deliver the next MOS release. Both artists have been quiet on the release front over the past few years, but this split EP has been clearly worth the wait. In its original format, the title track is a wonderfully atmospheric serving of Chicago meets Detroit, with soulful vocals and eerie synths unfolding over rolling drums and powerful thunderclaps. The 'reprise' ventures down an ambient path, but "The Way We Move" is more in keeping with the title track style wise, with similar grainy kicks and hushed vocal tones spookily moving in and out of the arrangement. Few labels do this kind of soulful techno-house better than MOS.
Review: Having got a taste for all things Liverpool with last year's long overdue MOS Recordings debut of John Heckle, Aroy Dee has clearly surveyed the area for further talent and struck gold once more with this slammer from ASOK. The production mantle of Scenery Records boss Stu Robertson, ASOK has seen him trade his D&B roots for raw, analogue house and techno and following the one contribution to a Use Of Weapons records this Poltergeist slab represents his most high profile release to date. Ease yourself into the four tracks on this MOS DEEP release and you can hear why Aroy Dee wanted some ASOK action, with lead track "Project Poltergeist" using the minimum of elements - cascading acid lines, swift hats and a fluttering chord line - to impressive effect. "Smash Dimensions" and "Walker" are ASOK in stripped back and deep mode respectively whilst "Captain Blood" is the sort of ascendant track a jobbing house DJ will gravitate towards. A superb release on MOS - just as you'd expect!
Review: Stu Robinson aka ASOK returns to MOS after four years with his idiosyncratic take on techno and house music. The title track is a stripped back, bleep-laden affair, its gritty rhythm underpinning fuzzy, hazy synth lines. On "Find A Way", the UK producer delivers crisp break beats, busy percussion and a lumbering bass as a backdrop for shiny hooks and bubbling acid lines, while "Many Locations" sees the UK producer go deeper. Similar in style to other contemporary producers like Simoncino and John Heckle, the rolling drums and atmospheric synths sound inspired by vintage Larry Heard. Changing course once again, Robinson ends his comeback on Aroy Dee's label with the beatsy "Baal".
Review: D'Marc Cantu may have languished in the shadow of his more high-profile associates Traxx and James T. Cotton, but A New World, his second artist album in as many years shows that he should be viewed as being the master of his own destiny rather than an engaging sideshow. Indeed, one of the most noticeable aspects of A New World is the lack of Jakbeat, the primal interpretation of Chicago house that the Nation stable of artists have developed. When it does rear its grungy head, it does so in the most irresistibly creepy manner; "Green Bike Sea" starts with rolling snares and leads to a grainy bass and shaking percussion underpinning muffled vocals and bleeding acid lines. "Try Me" is meaner and yet more suggestive, with the scent of blood and sweat-caked bar counters rising over a red-lit, heaving bass. However, this is not an album about shebeens and one-night stands with random strangers, but rather a reflective, more introverted work. "Mobile Communication" sees heavy claps supporting bleeding, bleepy bass licks, but it's merely a prelude for "The First Planet". Inspired by Detroit techno, it's Cantu's piece de resistance: atmospheric synths arc slowly upwards, their acidic undercurrent like tail lights on a jumbo jet as they reach into the upper levels of the night sky, hopefully guiding Cantu towards greater recognition.
Review: Last year M>O>S boss Aroy Dee released his debut album Sketches, an album of classic drum machine heavy house and techno. Now come the remixes, or re-sketches, with Dee searching out Bio Rhythm chief Paul du Lac, label affiliate D'Marc Cantu, Skudge White debutant Cliff Lothar and Dee's own R-A-G trio for creative interpretation. All four reworks stay true to the original, Chicago and Detroit influenced sound of the album, and R-A-G's bass mix, although heavy in low end, soars into cosmic fields. Cantu, deftly rides the faders and distortion units in his remix of "Until The Music Dies" while du Lac's submission is reminiscent of Tobias Freund's classic "Street Knowledge". And for something a little dubbier check out Lothar's mix of "City Of Others".
Review: Is Boris Bunnik capable of releasing a sub-standard record? Hot on the heels of his excellent Versalife album comes Dawning, recorded as Vernon Felicity. Like a halfway house between his Conforce sound and the more reflective end of Versalife, Dawning inhabits a dreamy, synth-laden netherworld, where low-slung, jacking rhythms and ghostly synths prevail. This combination is audible on the title track, but Bunnik impresses most on "Wrong Notion", with its wiry acidic framework and angelic chords and "3". Forsaking the jacking rhythm that makes "Dawning" and "Breaking Silence" such groovy propositions, "3" is bathed in a glow of introspective synths.
Review: Boris Bunnik is the techno producer with the seeming unending string of pseudonyms - the one constant in all of his work is his ability faithfully and effortlessly capture classic electronic tropes. Running Late is unusual in that it brings together a number of the styles he is inspired by. "Fake Profile" for example, is a glorious, widescreen affair, which wouldn't sound out of place on one of his Hexagon releases. "Induce" meanwhile is an acid-laden jacking groove that recalls earlier Conforce records. The highlight here is the title track, where this talented Dutch producer departs from the script to deliver a powerful, pulsing bass-techno track in the E-Dancer vein.
Review: Having already been responsible for one debut album this year in Astral Travelling, the Innerspace Halflife LP issued on Hakim Murphy's Synapsis label, Ike Release lives up to his reputation as one of Chicago's most prolific artists with a solo debut album. Issued by Aroy Dee's MOS Recordings, the ten track Noir will not sound like any sort of immediate departure from the weighty brand of hardware driven house and techno we've come to associate with Release. As usual the finer nuances and intricacies of this album will reveal themselves over repeat listens, and it's time you'll appreciate spending with Noir as Release really showcases a variety of emotions between the commencement of "Lost Cities" and the climax of closer "Sierra".
Review: Ike Release returns to Holland's MOS Deep under his own alias, and with it comes a gorgeous three-tracker filled with enough analogue grit to have you crunching away on those low-bit drum shots. "Cosmic Supreme" is so gritty in substance that it literally feels like house soundtrack to Blade Runner, bringing forth one monster of a bassline and some squelching, rave-fuelled synth jerks. "Spells" is similarly sublime, but this time uses acid as the main ingredient of the cocktail, while "Westview" takes care of the deepness, where its aqueous chords glide frantically across time and space only to leave one with a warm, longing feeling of more music from Ike. Recommended.
Review: After Hakim Murphy and Ike Release inaugurated the Innerspace Halflife project earlier this year with a sublime debut on the former's Machining Dreams imprint - they now grace Aroy Dee's ever excellent MOS Deep label with a further enthralling journey. Even if the aforementioned Cosmology EP passed you by, you should be familiar enough with the respective solo endeavours of both producers to be suitably excited by "Wind". You won't be disappointed either, with the track unfurling from its icy origins into a monstrous arrangement dominated by the fluctuating acid bassline and razor sharp hi-hats, while the soaring chords that intermittently spread expansively over proceedings add brief moments of Utopian calm amid the relentless jacking pressure. This is complemented by a solo Ike Release cut in the shape of "Phazzled" which adopts a more atmospheric tone as ever present clouds of analogue fx add a hazy sensation to the strident drum programming and woozy chord arrangements - quite aptly described by MOS Deep as "classicist house with a future perspective".
Review: Few labels do deep techno as well as Aroy Dee's MOS Recordings. The Dutch imprint has evolved from mainly releasing Dee's own material to putting out music from new artists. This time it's the turn of Kovyazin D and he doesn't disappoint. Previously responsible for two releases on Chiwax, the upcoming Russian artist drops a three-tracker that has all the hallmarks of a classic MOS release. From the raw, stuttering drums of "The Iron Jack" and the windswept synths of "Destiny" to the liquid acid squelch of "Ural Mash Buidlings", it sounds like it was Kovyazin's destiny to release on the singular Dutch label.
Review: The Aphrology EP marks a killer induction into the MOS Deep annals of excellence from Ksoul & Muteoscillator, the Italian duo who have impressed intermittently with their dense brand of techno for Uzuri and Kinda Soul Recordings (which is overseen by Ksoul himself). The two part "Criminology" opens proceedings face up, with the restrained acid leanings of the opening gambit slightly overwhelmed by the unrelenting modulated brutality of its subsequent partner. Face down and MOS Deep ringleader Aroy Dee sneaks in with his own edit of "Aphrology" before Ksoul and Muteoscillator can demonstrate the title track's prowess - it's Dee to a tee, taking the well judged house that swells with ever menacing machine squeals and adding his own subtle percussive embellishments.
Review: The work of an Italian duo, Velocity sounds like the product of many late nights spent pounding away at the machines. That said, this three-tracker is darker and less musical than many hardware-based productions. "Stone" sets the tone for the release as a stepping rhythm underscores the thumping, throbbing bass that curves and arcs seductively through the arrangement. The title track is straighter and more driving as insistent claps and a grungy bass propel it forward. Best of all though is "Invisible Symphony", where a stomping, throbbing groove breaks and drops into dreamy textures and a vocal sample claims that 'music's playing inside my head'. Like the other Life's Track material, "Symphony" will get inside your head and control your feet.
Review: MOS Deep travel into the uncharted waters of Glasgow on their latest release, securing The Haggis Trap from rising production talent Stephen Lopkin. Some four tracks deep, this EP sees an approach seems perfectly in line with Aroy Dee's label. Take for example "The Haggis Trap" which fluctuates superbly between moments of calm and acid drenched chaos or the superb hi tech jazz stylings of "Catherine's Track". Meanwhile, the superbly titled "Let's All Talk About Me" shows Lopkin can lay down dusty kicks with the best of them whilst "Mugs Alley" expertly demonstrates his talent for melody.
Bruiloft (Aroy Dee Percussion mix) - (6:38) 117 BPM
Best Regards - (5:43) 115 BPM
Undisclosed Intermezzo (feat S Thuraya) - (5:17) 138 BPM
Luna Piena - (3:51) 118 BPM
Smooth Professor - (7:41) 122 BPM
Titanic Moments - (5:26) 118 BPM
Review: Amsterdam-based Italian Marco Antonio Spaventi has been one of M>O>S Recordings' most reliable artists over the last three years, delivering a string of fine 12" singles for the acclaimed label. It's perhaps fitting, then, that his latest album - the Rome-born analogue obsessive's second in total - should come out on the Dutch imprint. Predictably, it's a hugely enjoyable set, with Spaventi utilizing a range of vintage synthesizers and drum machines on a series of explorations of classic deep house, Motor City techno, and the grey areas in between. Highlights include, but are not limited to, the deep space shuffle of "Luna Piena", the rising, piano-laden snappiness of "Titanic Moments", and the deep house/techno fusion of the wonderfully warm and hazy "Missing Sunlight".
Review: Having steadily emerged under the guidance of the Delsin family, Marco Antonio Spaventi looks set to whip a few heads around on the strength of this latest single for M>O>S. "The Jungle" is simply impossible to question, so powerful is the groove on the drums and the relentless bass arpeggio. Clearly powered by the right kind of gear, the end effect is one of John Carpenter crafting a boompty house cut and getting it right. "Insanity" heads into a noisy, staccato electro work-out shot through with the intensity of industrial, annihilating you in a completely different way to the A-side.
Review: Deep and tunnelling techno for avid fans of the acid life up for grabs here, courtesy of Aroy Dee's always reliable M>O>S imprint. Gijs Poortman, MarcoAntonio Spaventi and Steven Brunsmann bring you "Dreadfully Nervous" which would mark the trio's sixth release on the label. "Dreadfully Nervous" (Aroy Dee's Acid mix) will take you all the way back to Chi-town circa '88 when Phuture and Trax reigned supreme. The reduced DJ tool "Dreadfully" (Stoned version) strips the track down to its bare elements for creative effect at your volition. Finally on "No Soul" (Shallow String mix) they really saved the best for last on this grinding, squealing and tripped out vortex: which really works that little silver Roland box like a you know what!
Review: Although the RAG trio of MOS Deep boss Aroy Dee, and label regulars G-String and Marco Spaventi, are inspired by classic Chicago deep house, their hardware productions come laden with a heavy set weight and alien synth textures that put their productions into a totally different league from the majority of current revivalists. "Vacuum (Ignition mix)" is a case in point, combining twisting acid lines with soaring galactic chords and a weighty concrete kick that sounds controlled yet brimming with manic energy. Meanwhile "Plenum (Outer mix)" offers an ambient lead in to "Plenum (Inner mix)", a more restrained affair than "Vacuum", letting its languorous acid line glide over a soft kick and sea of synthetic bliss. Highly recommended stuff from the MOS crew as always.
