Sam GreenwoodFor the second time this month we welcome our special guest, Karl Guest to pick his 10 favourite upcoming releases, written by Karl Guest himself.
Karl is one of the few Dublin DJs that’s equally talented in playing house and techno alike, constantly altering his style from gig to gig, similarly to what he chooses to listen to – This week he’s selected potentially our favourite 10 tracks since his bi-weekly feature began earlier this summer.
Check them out below and tell us what you think via our group page here.
1. Christophe Salin – Shall I Give (Love Another Try)
Really nice emotive house jam from Salin’s forthcoming ‘Will You Be There’ EP. This track gives a nod to the French touch sound from a few years back but with a more relaxed approach. The added vocals really help the artist to get his message across and the sax samples panning left to right can
momentarily make you forget where you are. fans of Armand Van Helden should be familiar with this great sample from the late Donald Byrd.
Label: Salin Records
Release: 07/09/18
2. Kicks – Turn Off The Light
A deep house track with a jazzy feel, heavily swung hats and dainty vocals. The vibrant pads and chords add a lot of texture and give the track a euphoric feel as it progresses with the addition of some light acid and a deep, pulsating bassline. Definitely one of the best tracks I’ve come across recently and probably my top pick for this week.
Label: Copie Blanche
Release: 26/08/18
3. Cromby – Futurola
Cromby steps up for the very first release on Denis Sulta’s new label ‘Sulta Selects Silver Service’. The Irish DJ/Producer, now based in Berlin has been gaining a lot of recognition over the last while with previous releases being supported by Feel My Bicep’s blog as well as playing the likes of Boiler Room and Panorama Bar with upcoming dates at Warehouse Project still to come before the year is out. This track has been heavily sought after for the best part of a year now having been included in both Denis Sulta’s Essential Mix and Tim Sweeney’s best of 2017 Beats In Space show. Don’t sleep on this.
Label: Sulta Selects Silver Service
Release: 21/09/18
4. Kasper Marott – Keflavik
A nice blend of house, electro and Italo on this one from Kasper Marott. Some high synths bounce around the track, driven by a simple drum pattern which breaks down into a section of synths and snares before an arpeggiated bassline is added, giving the track a lot energy and bounce.
Label: Seilscheibenpfeiler Schallplatten Berlin
Release: 24/09/18
5. Thomas P. Heckmann – Acid Head (CJ Bolland Bad Acid Remix)
Dax J’s imprint Monnom Black is back with a remix EP. This release consists of 4 remixes of tracks from Thomas P. Heckmann’s ‘Body Music’ album which came out on the label in March this year. The B1 track sees the legendary CJ Bolland step up to rework Heckmann’s ‘Acid Head’. Seeing both Heckmann and Bolland’s names side by side should be enough to get you excited without even listening to the track, which is a hard hitting Techno tune with a strong acid line and percussion topped off with some
big, euphoric pads. I’d also strongly recommend having a listen to The Horrorist’s remix of ‘Departure’, also on the B Side.
Label: Monnom Black
Release: 31/08/18
6. Black Box – Strike It Up (Crowd Control Flip)
Crowd Control gifting us with a peak time edit of Strike It Up by the infamous Black Box. An upbeat track with aggressive drums, chord stabs and some uplifting vocals. This was featured over on Novaj this week as a free download. Go get it.
Label: N/A
Release: 27/08/18
7. Fruit – Italo Island
The title of this track left little to the imagination and would sound right at home on one of Young Marco’s ‘Welcome To Paradise’ compilations. A spaced out and dreamy Italo groove with warm pads and rich harps accompanied by a bouncy bassline, high strung synths and rhythmic percussion. The track seamlessly transitions back and forth from feeling like a proper dance track to feeling like a mellow tropical breeze. It was premiered by the Bolting Bits crew on their YouTube & Soundcloud channels this week.
Label: ØEN Records
Release: 07/09/2018
8. Sputnik One – Return
Dublin’s own Sputnik One has been churning out consistently good tunes for a while now, most notably, his ‘Crystal Maze’ track on Houseum which has racked up somewhere in the region of 700k plays on YouTube.
He’s back again with a 4 track EP of deep, funky electro music on Estonian label, Gestalt . Each track is worthy of a mention but I’ve gone for the B1 track by the name of ‘Return’. An acid tinged electro piece with really warm pads and lush chords that compliment the array of arps nicely and help draw attention to the feint, gated vocal which really brings it all together nicely.
Label: Gestalt
Release 22/09/18
9. Subjoi – Give It To Me
Everyone should be familiar with Subjoi by now. The Aussie producer has been delivering consistently for over a year now, hitting nearly 3 Million views on his ‘The Way I Feel’ track. He’s back with his ‘Swerve’ EP which is due out in the next couple of weeks on Piff Records. The lead track ‘Give It To Me’ is a really nice melodic garage jam. Gritty kicks and snares complimented by some swung hats make up the body of the track. The deep pads and chords provide a lot of texture and emotion while the melodic wood block gives the piece some movement. Really nice tune.
Label: Piff Records
Release: 14/09/18
10. Posthuman – Wake Up (Acid Mix)
Balkan Recordings label heads Posthuman are back with a killer 4 track EP of jackin’ acid and rave house. The A2 track is a stripped back, raw acid house banger with some sporadic rave-like vocal chops and heavy drums/percussion that really give the track a lot of power. Nothing fancy here, just bangin’ drums and an angry acid line. This release was a limited edition, one off press of 303 hand numbered copies, which have all since been swiped up, however, there’s a few knocking around Discogs at a good
price.
Label: Balkan Recordings
Release: 14/08/18