Who would not love to wander around with a heart-shaped record around the neck like Mayer Hawthorne?

‘Just ain’t gonna work out’ by Stones Throw artist Mayer Hawthorne is around for a while now and he really got some hype recently, and that well deservedly. The HipHop producer and admitted vinyl junkie initially just was unnerved by the hassle of clearing the sample rights for old soul tracks – so he started to record them in the studio, playing every instrument himself. This was followed by own productions, which have a strong oldschool Motown touch but in a progressive way (watch him performing an ingenious Motown-inspired cover of M.I.A.s ‘paper Planes’ here) . He counts Isaac Hayes, Leroy Hutson, Smokey Robinson and Curtis Mayfield as his influences, but relies equally strong on HipHop producers like J Dilla – when you hear him crooning in a falsetto voice over his breakbeat productions you can’t decide if this is old or new – it’s just great soul music.

You can still get ‘Just ain’t gonna work out’ as a red, heart-shaped 7-inch in the Stones Throw Online Shop and should watch out for his european tour dates this fall.

Vinyl Lovers from Jack Somerville on Vimeo.

Short documentary looking at the future of vinyl, and the individuals who share a passion for it … Directed/shot/edited by Andrew Norton & Jack Somerville

Vinyl Lovers from Jack Somerville on Vimeo.

May 2009 will see the release of the long awaited Delsin 2.0 Compilation. Label boss, Peel Seamus, has selected the label’s highlights from the last three years and put them into this journey through the best of deep techno (lasting over 2 hours). For over 10 years Delsin has been fulfilling its mission to release music that stands out above the rest. The Delsin roster contains only authentic artists, each their own profiled character and sound.

Two Remix EPs are out to accompany the compilation featuring remixes by Redshape, Quince, Shed and Steve Rachmad. Very limited vinyl editions of both are available through the just opened Delsin Webshop!

To celebrate these releases (and above all, the existence of good music!) the true ambassadors of this soulful electronic music will take to the road and rock the world in various line ups! The first Delsin 2.0 parties will be Saturday May 16th Trouw Amsterdam, and Friday May 22nd Panoramabar Berlin.

Also keep an eye on the new Delsin Webshop!
More stock added soon, including some of the gems which seem pretty unavailable elsewhere! For this moment it has all the latest vinyl & cd releases, digital to be added coming weeks.
For example – available some last copies we found of Newworldaquarium’ Trespassers (on Discogs towards 40 euro!) for more decent prices. The Delsin web shop will offer several special limited releases, To start both Delsin 2.0 Rermix Eps are pressed in limited edition of 100 copies. So act quick!

Years after their initial release, you’ll still hear the likes of Derrick May and Carl Craig, along with hundreds of others, spinning these techno masterpieces. When Novarum asked Mike Banks where the inspiration came from for Red Planet, he replied that he couldn’t say, as all the trax are created by an entity know as ‘The Martian’ . . . Now if we could only get Nasa to send a probe into deepest Detroit, perhaps all would be revealed?

The aptly named “Tension” is a masterclass in suspense and hypnosis; a sleek, brooding techno cut which doesn’t so much attack the danceflooor as enfold it. It simply builds and builds, scooping the listener up on a wave of dubbed-out chords and intertwined synth melodies, under and over-scored with taut drum edits, a rolling bassline and strings which hang like mountain mist.
On remix duty is Appleblim – the Skull Disco co-founder and Apple Pips boss who has made the space where dubstep, house and techno overlap his own – in partnership with Al Tourettes. Typically unconstrained by genre expectations, the duo sculpt an epic, adventurous  re-version of ‘Tension’. Propelled at first by a galloping steppa’s rhythm and analogue bass stabs, soon echo-drenched vocal samples and deep dub flavours take hold, before the track climaxes in heads-down, thrillingly linear four-to-the-floor style.

Officially out on March the 23rd but you can preview it on Phonica Records MySpace page, or you can wait for advance copies to hit the shop (lucky one living in london)

I listened to both version (sorry i promised Simon I would not spoil) & i prefer the original, just my personal taste.

We’ll keep you posted.
& by the way, Phonica sells our t-shirts in london ;)

B12 Records was founded in 1990 by Mike Golding and Steve Rutter as a vehicle for themselves and other like minded individuals to release electronic music for listening and dancing. Many thought the duo hailed from Detroit, as their sound fused many of the elements of techno coming from the Motor City, alongside labels such as Transmat and Plus 8. Every record was hand-engraved in the run out grooves, with cryptic clues and messages, recurring themes of futurism and science fiction.

Releasing under a series of monikers, such as Redcell, Cmetric, and Musicology, their connections with Kirk DeGeorgio’s A.R.T. Records are well documented, each artist featuring on the others label, and even a pair of split 12”s with a label taking each side of the vinyl. The pair were also snapped up by Warp Records, featuring on the seminal Artificial Intelligence series and releasing two albums and an EP on Warp under the umbrella name ‘B12’

Then in 1996, with test pressings of B1215 in their hands, they disappeared without warning or reason. B1215 never made it to release.

Forward to 2005. Illegal bootlegs of old B12 material are circulating – poor quality, without the engravings in the run-out grooves. Mike & Steve return to play a live show in London to a sell-out crowd (the bouncers had to stop queues inside the building). B12 absolutely blew everyone away, a decade away hadn’t dampened their sound one bit. The applause at the end was so overwhelming that the following act was shouting at the crowd to shut up and stop cheering so he could begin his set. They announced there was new material to come, and their intentions of re-mastering the back catalogue for release on a 12 CD box set, with bonus unreleased materials.

Now B12 Records has exactly the same goal it did in 1990, to provide quality electronic music for futuristic feet and forward thinking minds.

Photography: Mike Golding
Sources: Discogs, B12 Records

2006 saw the introduction of new talents as Redshape and Quince, and releases by artists like Vince Watson, D5, Taho and Shed. Since the 50th release, ‘Planet Delsin’, concentrating more on the dancefloor side of things – all oriented Deep Techno, Neo-Detroit, Post-Detroit, Technosoul, whatever they call it.. To quote UKs Dj Magazine: ‘There is no doubt that Delsin is the real flagbearer of the Motor City’s techno heritage.’

The sublabel Ann Aimee is an androgen entity: Delsin offshoot for deep electronica. Originally lost during a storm of metroids in space cluster x69dsr/ann27n. After several light years of re-generation, re-covering and pre-final re-orientation, Ann Aimee now decided to return home, return to the place of eternal love and undisputed goodness, to return to The Mothership. Although the exact position of The Mothership is yet unknown, several exploring excursions are now set up to prepare the final journey home. Additional supplies on all journeys will be delivered by Deltainc.nl

All releases come in beautiful sleeves by graphic artist Delta.

Another hit from the Rush Hour galaxy!

http://ann-aimee.net/

http://www.deltainc.nl

http://www.rushhour.nl/

http://www.delsinrecords.com

http://www.myspace.com/planetdelsin

http://www.rushhour.nl/distribution.php

The label is home of the early works of Steve Rachmad, Jerome, Stefan Robbers & Orlando Voorn. It was setup to give home to the deeper melodic techno. Consciousnessly they didn’t do any promotion, to keep the label Underground. It worked, because the label sold itself. Around 1995 the label was at his peak of popularity, both national and international. The track Asphyx was the first major clubhit around the world for 100% Pure, played by dj’s like Darren Emerson & Sven Vath. In 1997 “loop techno” was very popular. This was the beginning of the end for the first era of 100% pure. The techno was getting harder and more abstract with less room for the warm sound 100% pure stood for. They released one loop based ep by Steve Rachmad, but the damage was already done. Their distributor Mox Music went bankrupt, which left the label with big debts. This led to what seemed to be the end of 100% pure and in 1998 Dylan & Sandy pulled the plug out of the label.

Dylan decided to start working in the IT-business to pay of his debts. He was so sick and tired of his defunct label that he didn’t enter his studio for 6 years. He thought he would never make music again but his heart kept beating for the passion of producing. Obviously, Dylan thought he was finished with house music, but house music wasn’t finished with him.

In the summer of 2003 he regained his trust in the techno scene. He began visiting record stores again and got his old studio gear back from under a layer of dust. When he visited the Amsterdam based recordstore Outland again, he met many of his old friends from the scene & realized it was time for him to get back into the world of bassdrums and hi-hats. The second era of 100% pure began after six years of absense with a release from DJ Madskillz. Their second released ep after the ‘time out’ was a debut from “then” newcomer Shinedoe. Dillema was one of 2004’s biggest tunes. After that success Dylan & Shinedoe started the label Intacto. The third release on this label was by Shinedoe. Phunk with the warm Detroit techno funk feel was one of the biggest tunes of the year 2005. It was played by the likes of Richie Hawtin, Sven Vath and Carl Craig.

In the spring of 2006 Dylan set-up a new sublabel from 100% pure called Remote Area to be the home for the more experimentel techno.

In the years to come we will hear much more from the already semi-legendary label 100% Pure. This is only the beginning of their second youth.

The first episode of this serie is Headspace Recordings, founded in 1996 in Cardiff by Tom Churchill and Raeph Powell. It has been described in DJ Magazine as ‘one of the world’s finest deep techno outlets’. Past releases have featured tracks and mixes from artists such as CiM, aubrey, funk d’void, morgan geist, hanna, dennis desantis and tom churchill and have been supported by djs such as laurent garnier, andrew weatherall, john tejada, daniel bell, dan curtin, chris duckenfield and tyler stadius.

Headspace’s sister label, Emoticon, was launched in 2001 to focus on soulful techno, broken beats and abstract electronica, and its fourteen releases to date have featured artists such as russ gabriel, future beat alliance, total science, jeff samuel and double helix.

As of Summer 2006, Headspace Recordings and Emoticon Recordings stopped releasing any more records. After 10 years, three artist albums, a compilation cd and 34 12″ singles they’ve decided to call it a day.

RIP Headspace Recordings