Silk For Sale

NEWBODY “EMOTIONAL” 12″ (HOS004) $9

LA/Detroit two-steppers Newbody (aka Roberto Ramone and Jonathan Roshad) keep the faith on their latest single. “Emotional” and the flip “Wut U Do” share the duo’s brisk vocal house signature: cooled garage energy, uptown piano, bass calisthenics, satin shirt soul. The remixes flex different tendons of the tracks: Emotion II Emotion pumps it to Jack City, piano stabs and discotheque horns over a lush, lewd bounce, while Cromie & Sage Caswell go more stereoscopic, dizzying the song into an abstract sunrise awakening. Also includes a radio edit of “Emotional,” to bait the Top 40 DJs on the fence. Mastered by Mark Pistel. Center label design by Trevor Tarczynski.

VERTICAL67 “AURA” 12″ (SILK067) $9

Berlin sequencer Thomas Pahl aka Vertical67 pitches his latest sheaf of sim city nostalgia acid away from the lovers lanes of his last SILK sides, Soulmates, towards a new nocturnal dome. Faded neon, concave rubber basslines, fluorescent synths, and Roland rhythm patterns interweave across expanses of spheric interior space – an Aura pervades. The EP’s 5 pieces patrol different perimeters, evoking various shades of windswept, moon-burned, ecstatic, restless states of mind. Pahl’s interests in electronic textures spill over into his ambient work as The Coloured Chaos, a fixation with fluidity, weightlessness, lasers fluttering between microchips, an android’s haunted thoughts. Interface and inter-place. Features a remix of zero gravity poolside theme “Invisible Presence” by Octo Octa. Mastered by Eric Hanson. Edition of 167.

STILL SHIPPIN’:

TEMPLES “EARRINGS II” 12″ (SILK063) $9

Portlandia house bastion Ecstasy termed Temples’ 2012 debut mini-LP, I-VII, “ambient jack,” which captures something of the project’s contradictory strengths: airy yet agile, sparse but plush, flights of intuition mapped onto morphing grids of percussion, crystalline electronics, and pastel skylines. Avalon Kalin’s latest collection of tech finery, Earrings II, dials back the atmospheric quotient somewhat, though there’s still a rock garden spaciousness to his mixes, each element arranged with regard to some higher harmony, the poetry of negative space. Recorded in his home studio “while dancing,” the four tracks here ebb between passages of pressure and release, euphoric but unstable, dusted with pyramid-chamber slap back and live dubbing acrobatics. Their melting clock asymmetries more closely echo Kalin’s hardware improvisations with Scott Goodwin as Polonaise than the velvet vocal house of his other solo vessel, Finesse, but Temples is ultimately a holy place all its own. A sleekly compelling statement from one of the Pacific Northwest’s secret heroes. Mastered by Eric Hanson. Edition of 305.

ROCHE “STILLHOPE” 12″ (SILK062) $9

San Fran synth sensei Ben Winans aka Roche ventures further into his arcane hardware labyrinths on Stillhope, his second slab of mind-wired Pacific house for 100% Silk. As always with his work there’s a great sense of spaciousness and flow, coastal fog billowing around Alcatraz and over Land’s End, invisible currents taking control. “Stillhope” and “The Medicine” skew more towards the hazed and zen, cliffside smoke seances rendered via samplers and circuitry, percussion patterns ghosting through hidden lunar cycles, while “Change” brings back the bass, riding an acid-funked electric slide into a chorus of street soul chanting. Closer “Theme For Ikaros” leaves the bay (and earth) behind, a techno spy theme for hijacking a distant moon base, filtered arpeggios ramping the suspense against a steady stalker’s pulse until it all dissolves in dubby echoes, a stark clap, and a sample whispering about “the essence of life.” Even in deepest space, there’s Stillhope. Black vinyl 12 inches in SILK label sleeves designed by Luke Brown. Mastered by Eric Hanson. Edition of 315.

MAGIC TOUCH “PALERMO HOUSE GANG” 2×12″ (SILK060) $20

After three thick years of performances, passport abuse, and pumping, pleasure-principle EPs, Damon Palermo aka classic house torchbearer Magic Touch presents his pinnacle statement to date: Palermo House Gang. Joining forces with a vast cast of collaborators sourced from his intercontinental travels – Octo Octa, Newbody, Benny Badge, The Horses, Sarah Bates, Sorcerer, Ash Williams – the album’s eight cuts swing and sweat through funky new wave club mixes, freestyle R&B, mesh-top house, freeform hardware workouts, and decadent disco, a sprawling celebration of communal motion and dancefloor idealism. Sustained heavy touring often grizzles some musicians into cynical survivalists but it seems to have had the opposite effect on Palermo – these are his most generous, playful, and sensual tracks to date. Let go, lighten up, join the Gang. Mastered by Dietrich Schoenemann. Krazy cat artwork by San Fran cartoonist Primo Pitino.

Beats A La Burkat

ALEX BURKAT’S MINNIE HOUSE MIX:
1. Tool – Mantra [Volcano]
2. Black Madonna – Venus Requiem [The Nite Owl Diner]
3. Shawn Rudiman and Relative Q – Temporal Displacement [Broken Planet]
4. Community Corporation – Salt [Crisis Urbana Recordings]
5. Linkwood – Robot Parade [Prime Numbers]
6. Samo DJ – Leggo [L.I.E.S.]
7. Sir Stephen – Turbo [100% Silk]
8. Juju & Jordash – Coffin Train Getaway [Golf Channel Recordings]
9. LCD Soundsystem – Too Much Love [DFA]
10. Pittsburgh Track Authority – Visions of Serengeti [Pittsburgh Tracks]
11. Chakana Inca – Music Takes Me Higher [Unreleased]
12. DJ Kaos – Horny Morning Loop (Dr. Dunks Kaotic Mix) [Jolly Jams]
13. Moodymann – Freeki Mutha Fucker (Catz ‘n Dogz Edit) [Free download]
14. Willie Graff & Tuccillo – To The Music (DJ Qu Remix) [Isgud Records]
15. General Ludd – Woo Ha [Mister Saturday Night Records]
16. Alex Burkat – The BQE [Third Ear Recordings]
17. Dntel – The Dream of Evan and Chan (Burkat Edit) [Unreleased]
18. Rick Wade – Night Station [P&D]
19. Policy – Big Beast Anthem [100% Silk]
20. Paul Woolford – Razor Burn [Planet E]
21. Jacques Greene – No Excuse [LuckyMe]
22. Here We Go Magic – Make Up Your Mind [Secretly Canadian]
DOWNLOAD LINK

100 Days In Paradise

An hour of cruised Paradise 100 selections. Sophomore SILK 12″ dropping later in the year!

Robotalco’s Summer Freedom 2014 Mix

TRACKLIST:
1 – Parker Medicine – Life On Mars – CT-HI
2 – Andras Fox – After The Rain – Dopeness Galore
3 – Pender Street Steppers – M Flight – PPU
4 – Policy – Ghost in The Groove – 100% Silk
5 – Merwyn & Inkswel – Eternal Freedom (GB Rmx) – Hotshot
6 – D’Boldiss – Freak Huh? Round One – Coco Machete
7 – Erosion Flow – Bedroom Jam – Man Make Music
8 – Max Graef – Bummse – The Gym
9 – Legowelt – Cruise Till The Sun Shine – PPU
10 – Moon b – Untitled – Going Good
11 – Magic Touch – Passion – 100% Silk
12 – Telephones – Blaff – Running Back
13 – Sequence Report – Been Steppin to your Love – Tevo Howard Recordings
14 – New Musik – Warp (llo Edit) – Pleasure International Exports
15 – Seven Davis Jr – Celebrations (Funkineven Edit) – Apron
16 – Suzanne Kraft – III – Running Back
17 – Andras Fox – Soft Illusion – HLR

Vertical Mixing

Fly Vertical67 mixtape originally recorded for Panaural on Future Music FM

TRACKLIST:
Vertical67 – Fly
Lord of The Isles – Horizon Effect
Submersible Machines -­ Amni
Metropolis -­ Black Hole
Vertical67 ­- Playing Games
Wisp -­ House of Aos
Ceephax – South Bank
Legowelt -­ Sark Island Acid
Vertical67 -­ Clacid
Osborne -­ L8
Vertical67 – Turn
James Booth ­- Christa’s Reverie