Having grown up in the 80s, it's downright strange to see young kids today walking around rocking that era's fashion. A few weeks ago I saw a young lady walking downtown and I had to do a double-take; for a second there, I thought 1983 Madonna had come back in a time machine. My point? There was a lot of bad s--t that came out of the 80s, but amidst the waste there were a few gifts that have stayed to this day - one of them being the Italo sound.
The new release from Noisebrigade, PLASTIC FOG hit's all of the right buttons and simultaneously takes you to 1982 dirty rotten scoundrel cocaine drug clubs and modern-day dark bunkers in Rotterdam and Berlin. Bunkers where the crowd rides these rhythms in lockstep with Dj's spinning the platters. The cokes still there, but the new generation is getting off more on basslines.
The PLASTIC FOG EP mixes it up with the dancefloor Italo groovers of 'Soldiers' and the most excellent 'Hacking Your Brain', as well as the more abstract funk of 'Plastic Fog' and 'Bullets and Diodes' for the headphone phreaks.
Topping it off with some banging electro remixes from Darxid, Hyboid and Embryonik, this is a killer release from Italian producer Noisebrigade. Out now on Binalog Productions.

After releasing different 12"s on labels like on Goodlife and Properproud, Millimetric signed a deal with M-tronic for the release of its debut CD album entitled "Expériences Modernes", which was released back in 2009. Containing collaborations with The Hacker, The Horrorist, Beta Evers and Martin Dupont the album linked electro/techno world to old school e.b.m. sounds (Front 242 / D.A.F / Liaisons Dangereuses / Severed Heads) giving life to a powerful mix made of cold synth sounds and breathtaking rhythms. This new album RECONFIGURATION sees cool producers and bands giving their version of the tracks coming from that debut album. The Hacker opens the dances with an acid version of "Smoking kills" just to leave space to an upbeat dark electro version of "Dans mes yeux" remixed by Lyynk. Also David Carretta opted for a dark techno atmosphere for his version of "Manic depression". Adriano Canzian for "Colargol" used fat lead synth sounds to create an obsessive atmosphere, while Christopher Kah for "Die angst" used dissonant detuned monophonic synth sounds to create an alienate atmosphere. 9 Elma's dark electro atmospheres infected "Dans mes yeux" while Nomenklatur gave their treatment to "Colargol", turning it into a sensual mid tempo in balance from electro and house. People Theatre did a nice job on "1972" turning it into analog sounding obsessed tune. Club Amour on "Escape from camp 81" mixed cinematic atmospheres and dark electro sounds. The Horrorist on their version of "Smoke kills" mixed e.b.m., techno and treated vocal samples used like an instrument. Strange Connection remixed "Dans mes yeux " turning it into an old school e.b.m./electro mix. Dirk Da Davo (the Neon Judgement) worked on "Prejudicial silence" working mainly on rhythm. The album is closed by three unreleased tracks recorded in 2004 (Industry and morality"), 2003 ("Action body") and 2000 (Can't speak"), where Millimetric is sounding more e.b.m. influenced (imagine a sort of Die Form of the 90s) and focused on minimal melodic variations and hard beats. This is a nice release and I hope that Millimetric are working on new tracks, because at this point I'm curious to hear what is next.

I'm Single Records's upheld by Can "Khan" Oral's firm belief the future of dance music could be single out nearby the boundary marks detaching classic tunes and sounds and contemporary beat forging as well as in the interchange of roles played by acoustic instruments and typical elements of a disco track, so that a piano could be played in a bumpy way or human voice could sound coming from a beat-box! Such a stylistical belief has already been hallowed in Khan's self-titled issue together with Mark Boombastik and Boris Bergman (Khan Of Finland...whose excerpts in this selection, Walking In The Rain and even the terrificly infectious Italo-house remix by Rodion of Strip Down, are persuading bodies of evidence about how electronic dance could be amazingly soulful, funky or bluesy without loosing its catching mechanics) and this compilation including 11 previously released tracks taken from the brilliant I'm Single catalogue and 2 unpublished ones, amog which I've been positively surprised by one track, Tropical Tasting, by Cascao & Lady Maru, the astonishing discovery by Rodion himself. Don't think I'm Single roster is made up of newbies as many legendary names are more or less hidden behind surprisingly well-programmed beat-boxes and hybrid dance styles: maybe someone has already had the opportunity to swing on the pretty remix of a collaborative song Fine Mouche between Khan and the eccentric French singer Brigitte Fontaine, a sort of living legend of 60s chanson, by the notorious Parisian act dOP, the vodka-propelled fuzzy trio of French house made up of Clément Zemstov, Damien Vandesande and Jonathan Illel - whose style and mission has often been compared to the one by Noze, who also appears in this selection with a "dirty" track, Gossip Rats 122bpm side by side another VIP singature, the one by President Bong (frontman of Gus Gus). There're also some not so convincing tracks, such as Ponelo Ya by the Argentinean dj Parejas, who in order to not sound mannerist stiffend his groove on some standard (!), and Khan's mix of How Could You by Legally Jammin, nothing special except for the playful percussive game, but they're totally compensated by the rest of the selection. If you don't have already done, check the supreme crescendo Bjorn Torske has created from Coka Kohle by the Norwegian kraut noise band Big Robot featuring Conrad Schnitzler from Tangerine Dream, the best example of voodoo dance spell in this squeezed collection. Enjoy it!

This lovely musical knick-knack issued on Big Bait Records has been signed two renowned techno producers, both of them intended to sew, pressurize and secure an ideal suite for your musical extra-vehicular activity. The first version of Original Badass has been propelled by Annette Sihler and Peter Clamat aka Elektroherde (literally the electric stoves and you'll easily notice that this analogy between this device anyone has in kitchen converting electricity into heat to cook food is suitable!), who are able to compress fumes rising from Berlin (for its cinematic and kinetic minimal energy as well as its refinement..), Detroit (for its bumpy cutting sounds...) and Paris (for its unquestionable elegance and its closeness to French deep-house..) techno style into one enchanting track, that is going to uplift you with its mono-tonal melody. On the other side, Alan Abrahams aka Portable, respected international known artist with South-African roots with a plenty of releases for important labels such as Ghostly, Perlon and Background, prefers not waiting too long to elevate listener's consciousness: while Elektroherde decided to arrive to some heights step by step and recipe after recipe, Portable immediately starts with airy and sulphur sounds and then minces hypnotic metallic clings and agogo&conga-like percussions, which are going to leave the listener on a suspensive state in total absence of gravity!

After the superb compilation Werkschau, I personally expected something different from the worthy Ellen Aillen's label, especially as a cadeaux for St.Valentine's day! It doesn't mean that BPitch doesn't love listeners at all, but to be honest the strong-willed Israelian "producer" Chaim Avital's debut album doesn't manage to seduce my ears at all. It's true that Chaim declared that most of tracks included in this issue are related to memories of parties he took part when in Tel Aviv, so that some of them could have fatally been influenced by some vintage house - even if I have to admit that some tracks sound like a blood transfusion from New York sonorities' strong veins into the emaciated body of Chicago house, still kept alive by the ventilating machines of an host of producers and djs such as Robert Owens, are interesting especially when refined with delicate melodies...check tracks like the initial Rain, Everything, Alive or the crispy and warm (Balearic) breeze of Runaway Frequencies, one of my favorite piece of the whole album in spite of the plenty of musical quotations, maybe cause it reminded to me some "Morriconian" soundtrack in exotic sauce! -, but sometimes I got the feeling he'sputting pressure on prodigious pupils to study harder. In some tracks, it appears that kind of glamouresque ghosts who recently haunted the sound machines of Bomb The Bass or even Unkle - tracks like Who Said What, featuring the nice vocals of Elisa Sednaoui, and above all Robots On Meth are bodies of such an evidence - or the ones haunting prestigious German techno club such as Cocoon - on the nice People Can Talk one of these ghost seems to speak...even ghosts need to be loved, lads! Should it be the reason why among brimful synth-brasses and forged claps, does Chaim insert the sample of a departing airplane?!?!? -, but this good guy could dare give more...