Three For Friday

Some new dance/ electronic music for Friday, from a variety of sources. First up is the latest release from Leeds based label Paisley Dark, an EP by Airsine- the title track Like Fire and a trio of remixes. Like Fire is a low slung, dark corners chugger, pulsing with the stuff of lost nights and speaker systems. Rolling bassline, distorted voices, acidic toplines to mess with the synapses....

The remixes come from Mindbender, The Machine Soul and label boss John Paynter with Ben Lewis doing their Space Age Freak Out thing- stripped back and hypnotic, going nicely weird around the edges.  The EP is available at Bandcamp. 

Secondly, here comes the latest from Raxon whose track Your Fault was one of late 2024's peakiest peaks. Based in Barcelona but originally from Egypt, Raxon's newest release came out on Cologne's Kompakt in February, two tracks released as Speicher 134. Acid Call is in your face, high energy thumping acid. The flipside, Don't Cry Pluto, is slightly subtler but comes from a similar place and is no less nutty- kick drum and synth madness that is very persuasive. Available digitally and on 12" here. 

Thirdly/ finally Manchester's Sprechen label have just released an EP by Hull maestro Steve Cobby,  a man who over the course of a long musical career has left few musical stones unturned. His four track EP on Sprechen, UNO+, is unabashed house music and kicks off with No Rope Will Bind Those Who Refuse To Submit, a straight ahead, four four banger with percussion, synth whooshes, chopped up Afro vocals and all manner of seductive noises.

After that This House jacks and jerks, with stuttering vocals, rave breakdowns and massive bass. I Need A Fix slows things down slightly, a classic late 80s house tempo and synth chords- then the 303 kicks in and we're off again. On the last track Koreo Mr Cobby strips things down to drum track and single synth part, some bleeps and bloops and the deepest bassline. Fine work from Hull's hardest working shed based musician. Buy or listen here. 

Nights In Siolim And Coconut Groves

Paisley Dark is one of the smaller UK record labels that has been coming up with the goods all year. Based in Leeds and run by John Paynter Paisley dark specialises in dark, electronic psychedelia. It's releases this year include chuggy, synapse twisting stuff from Jay- Son, The Machine Soul, James Rod, MAN 2.0 and Warriors Of The Dystotheque (whose single with Joe Duggan, Fitzroy Avenue, is a fantastic combination of Joe Duggan's Derry tones, acid house with a slew of great remixes). You can find all of those and releases from 2022 and 2021 as well here. 

The latest emission from Paisley Dark came out at the start of the month, a seven track EP  by Hogt I Tak made up of  A Night In Siolim (with three remixes) and Coconut Grove (with three remixes). A Night In Siolim is not a track that is messing around, it gets straight down to business with a dizzying acid squiggle, kick drum and synths coming in sideways. Gnarly, tripped out acid house. Listen and buy here. The three remixes come courtesy of The Machine Soul (stripped down heavy duty acid), John's own Space Age Freak Out Remix (fairly self explanatory, both space age and a freak out) and this one from Keith Forrester, a deep, dark twisting journey into an acid underworld. Keith is from Urmston, not far from here and somewhere I know fairly well and not necessarily somewhere I associate with deep, dark acid underworlds. 

Coconut Grove  is cut from similar cloth, Hogt I Tak riding the sine waves and kick drums into an acid sci fi dancefloor, blinded by the lights and throwing shapes as the strobe goes off. Keith returns on remix duties and is joined by Mindbender who goes all in on the mindbending. 

The Effect

Something altogether darker and less earthbound today, a remix from a forthcoming Dan Wainwright e.p.  by John Paynter (who runs a night/site called A Space Age Freak Out). Percussive, chugging science fiction with a springy bass, theremin action and noises zooming in and out, sounds beamed in from space and bouncing around from the red planet to the Sea of Tranquillity, from Convair Aeronautics to mission control.

A Space Age Freak Out

This is a three hour mix from DJ John Paynter from a radio show he hosts called A Space Age Freak Out- an accurate name all things considered. Plenty of chuggy, cosmic, psychedelic house and techno from the likes of Tiga, Somerville and Watson and Future Unit. It's all top fun and optimistic, forward looking stuff. Perfect on the hottest weekend of the year with something cold and wet.