Fhang
Fhang

Featuring 8 different artists from Mexico to Lithuania, Peru, Portugal, Florida, UK and Belgium, ‘Maloca Vol. 1’ outlines the worldly focus of Le Motel’s new label.Launching Maloca Records earlier this year, the label’s ethos is to build bridges interlinking disparate yet like-minded musicians dedicated to blending organic electronic and acoustic elements. The global network of makers highlighted on Maloca Vol.1, the label’s first compilation, confabs a terrestrial and borderless percussive sound that has been bubbling in clubs and Le Motel’s orbit.Opening the compilation is esteemed Peruvian duo Dengue Dengue Dengue followed by Lithuania's DJ JM who has previously released on the likes of Nervous Horizon and Goon Club Allstars, Miami artist and NAAFI affiliate Nick León and Lisbon’s DJ N.K. On the second half of the compilation, there are contributions from the label founder himself, Mexico’s Omaar, UK’s Coen and mysterious artist Tsongo. Maloca Records has put out three vinyl releases to date from Oakland’s Farsight, Beijing’s Howie Lee and Le Motel. The label is quickly building a reputation for releasing brilliant forward-thinking club records whilst capturing specific international sounds.

ABST016 - SP - 2020RPReissue of this obscure cassette from 1987, a really interesting rarity by Carl Matthews under the CAM moniker. Sturdy synth basslines sculpt solid rhythm patterns that bring to mind the innovations of the moment in electro and dance records. Having in mind that Matthews was a white ambient composer, it´s very curious to find him dropping these groovy bombs that sound like a primitive detroit electro or hip hop beats, mixed with sampled voices that recall Art of Noise influences. Also to mention the conceptual work: Quid Rides is inspired in Roman Civilization, as the name of both the album and tracks point (all of them in latin). Experimental-roman-electro seems to be a pretty weird label, but works fine here... Mutant-futuristic-proto-electro for roman statues would work too.Letterpress cover, including insert with liner notes by Colin potter, who has also been in charge of the remastering.

Mr Telephones pumps up the pace drastically from his previous downtempo-oriented "Point Breaks / Beach Breaks" EP. Here closing in on the 150 bpm mark, with the vibey raw pump of "Blue-Tek", a funky oddball-roller hybridizing ghettotech, balearic, detroit and italo house. Flip wax for the soundscapey ambient techno-trip "FV555", twilight-speeding through hazy highways, with the forest on one side, and ocean on the other. Both sides neatly wrapped up with trippy reprise-versions. Pressed at 45 for max flex! Essential.

Reunion time again. Running Back regular Redshape returns with Release Me. Four tracks and four deeper shades of Techno (or House?). It’s not a secret that the music of the man with the red mask is heavily influenced, inspired and informed by the blueprints and the symbolic language from the twin cities Detroit and Chicago.

New World is the fourth album from Nipaluna (Tasmania) via Meanjin (Brisbane) based artist Scraps. Over the past ten years, Scraps has proven to be one of the biggest unsung heroes in the Australian music underground. Her sound draws links between 80s and 90s synth pop and club music whilst remaining firmly set in the contemporary Australian underground. Her first album since 2016’s highly regarded “TTNIK” - New World takes us deeper into her infectious universe of abstracted wave classics, free form humour and contagious songwriting. These are charming pop songs with a certain indistinguishable glow floating around them. This album sees Scraps distilling what we love about her sound even further to produce one of her most realized albums to date.