January 2012 techno set

Well, maybe it's been too short since I recorded my last set. I think it was less than a couple of weeks ago but there's a good explanation for this: I finally bought Traktor Scratch from Native Instruments. I'm not thinking in playing techno with Traktor, I bought it mainly for those moments when I want to play some other styles while keeping (more or less) the same feeling and technique as playing vinyl records.

So, in order to check how this toy works, having a good reference to compare with, I decided to download some techno tracks that I enjoyed lately and put them together with some other stuff I already have and this is the result. Most of the tracks are from Cicuta Netlabel. Much respect for them, I like their way of thinking and I love the fact they share their quality stuff for free! Might this set be some kind of tribute for them... I advise you keep an eye on them during this year. Next week they're releasing their 5th reference and it's been made by Voidloss, huge EP! I've put a track from that release on my set, although I think I didn't squeeze all the juice it deserves...

I'm pretty happy with the global result. You'll find information about all the producers on soundcloud and you can download all the Cicuta releases from their website. Again: respect to all that people who, for any reason, can't release their great stuff on vinyl and decide to make their creations available for anybody who can appreciate them:

01.- David_Meiser - Assault Forces [promo]

02.- Kike Pravda - Quantum [cicuta]

03.- Reeko - Never again [md]

04.- Vegim - Librium [cicuta]

05.- Drugstore - Udayan [cicuta]

06.- Drugstore - Shadai (David Reina dark mix ) [cicuta]

07.- Orphx - Critical mass [circuitbreaking]

08.- Hyo - Skyquake (Drugstore remix) [cicuta]

09.- Radial - A Coke and a Smile [PRRUK]

10.- Orphx-Simulacrum [circuitbreaking]

11.- Zair - Overfeeding [cicuta]

12.- Radial - Allright Allright [PRRUK]

13.- Hiroaki Iizuka - Glow (Grovskopa Remix) [soleil]

14.- Voidloss - Rtual at château des amerois (forthcoming)[cicuta]

15.- The Black Dog - Future Delay Thinking (Live) [promo]

   humo - free is good too - january 2012 set by humo

Orphx - Traces EP

Richard Oddie and Christina Sealey are Orphx, a really experienced duo and, in my honest opinion, a clear example of the kind of sounds that will always fix on any of my sets. They sound quite classic and modern at the same time and they maintain the darkness and the dub on their productions just in the right balance. So they're really close to perfection for me, specially their latest stuff.

This EP that I can't stop playing since I got it, around two months ago, has been published by Sonic Groove, a Berlin based (but Brooklyn born) label owned by the well known DJ Adam X. I've got to say SG is one of those labels that have always been there (founded in the early 90's) and that I feel really happy when I see they're still publishing records on these hard times...

I think this three tracker perfectly keeps SG and Orphx essences in a good point, more than the previous one (Division-EP). A side, comes with a track sounding a bit like those recent Blueprint EPs but with a more analogic, even xylophonic, touch which I really dig. "Vapour", the first track of the B side, is a track full of bass with a martian ambience around that sounds pretty useful track for me. It softly comes and goes to you while you don't even notice. The last track "Density Current" is the best for me. Starting with a growing melody that also suggest a martian invasion, it suddenly explodes to bring you to a broken beat that calls the rest of the elements of the track to come back in order to show us the real power inside of this track.

Again, that's what I'd call a great release. Thanks to Orphx and thanks to Sonic Groove.