BASICS recommends: CE009 - Morphology - Information Paradox EP

If you take pleasure in spending your weekends in a dungeon here's one for you. Brand new signing for Cultivated Electronics - a rather unknown UK-based label specialized in pushing powerful drum-machine riddims and raw electronics - from the finnish duo Morphology.

If their name sounds a bit unfamiliar to you, their biggest release to date - Euclidean Algorithm - dropped late 2011 on Semantica, via a limited press of 400 12"s and got identified quickly as a darker, more rugged approach to a sound brought to the spotlight by the likes of Boddika or Jon Convex...with a Detroit twist.



If Morphology managed to prove that Finland's export doesn't only handle rally drivers, Cultivated Electronics on the other hand are yet to break through anonimity. But 2012 seems to have started well enough for them. The label just signed a brand new distribution deal with none other than the guys who brought you a massive Drexciya repress just a couple of months back - Clone Distribution.

So...following some simple logic pattern, their 9th release had to be good. And, guess what? To our surprise, it actually is!

Analogue four-tracker built exclusively for dancefloors consisting of one 808 vs. 606, spatial-strings construction - Escape Velocity; one EBM-infused, twenty-first century Juan Atkins-reviving, Electro-Funk anthem - Information Paradox; a laid-back technoid, arp-driven, Marcus Intalex-pleasing mutation - Tangent Spaces and the indisputable highlight: Sync 24's take on Information Paradox. Dark roller (and by dark we mean pitch fucking dark) set to move the immovable. Simple, not at all pretentious and a banger to play out. The kind of track that gives you the warehouse chills even when played in a pair of headphones.

CE009 - Morphology - Information Paradox EP

In less words brilliant EP and a strong impression from a couple of scene-outsiders, that would fit nicely in a set alongside Jon Convex's Pop That P, Dexter's Space Booty or Mensah's Off The Traxx anytime, anywhere.

The only argument against it could relate to its simplicity and to the fact that it seems to be stubborn enough to try and cater for a lost cause in today's dance music, but then again, we wouldn't have it any other way. It scores an A+ on our list and if your main dish is ~130 bpm Bass Music, it should score one in your book as well, without even trying too hard. So yeah, we'd say...buy a copy.

Do it via Boomkat.

BASICS recommends: Wbeeza (Third Ear Recordings - UK) @ Tralala Club - 14 Oct.

We wrote something about Wbeeza's brilliant Void album a couple of months ago, being quite aware of the fact that, given his reputation as one of UK's most underrated House producers, he wasn't to set foot in a club round our corner of Europe that soon. Fortunately we were wrong. Again!



The veteran promoters at Tralala Events worked their magic and sorted out a live performance by this guy due next Friday, on 14th of October in their own Tralala Club on 43, Lipscani Street right in the historic centre of Bucharest. We're excited as fuck about it and you should act exactly the same. Given the amount of hype building up around this guy after his latest EPs, his strong performance at secretsundaze's birthday bash a couple of months ago - the one that got streamed by Boiler Room - and his Fabric debut at the request of Hessle Audio's Ben UFO, Pangaea and Pearson Sound earlier this summer, this has every chance of settling in as one of the finest events in Bucharest this autumn, we believe!

Oh yeah! And as much as we are not very keen on pushing our own buttons, a fact worth knowing is that we're showcasing BASICS in the warm-up slot through Toné, while Meewee - you've seen her a couple of times spinning at our own club nights as well - is taking care of what happens after Wbeeza wraps up his set.

If you didn't get the chance to go through it yet, here's WB's Boiler Room live set. Including tracks from his latest Bagwag EP and one certain cheeky as fuck Skee-Lo sample use!



With nothing else left to say, we simply URGE you to get downtown for this! Here's the Facebook event as well. RSVP!

BASICS recommends: ECHOCORDCOLOUR016 - Skudge - First Observation EP

Few years ago, a series of records appeared out of nowhere under the Skudge guise. Nothing was known when they appeared about the person or people behind the alias, other than the fact that they had released a record on Alphahouse in 2009. There are just a few underground artists who have made an entrance onto the electronic music scene that strong as Skudge.

Skudge are two Swedish guys, Elias Landberg and Gustaf Wallnerstrom. When they were asked about why they initially chose anonymity, one of the members of Skudge told the interviewer: „We choose to be anonymous because we want the listeners to put focus on our music and not our personalities. For us, the music speaks for itself.”



Although the duo was only formed a couple of years ago, in the summer of 2009, they have already moved out of near-anonymity of deep, warehouse-styled House and Techno fans. What is so impressive is that all of their releases so far have been strictly vinyl affairs - no digital files at all.

Following the 2010 inception of their own imprint, Skudge Records, the duo has built up quite the cadre of devoted followers, and seeing their work on some a more widely-recognized imprint is well deserved acknowledgement, indeed.

This year was a great year for Skudge with a wonderful debut album out this spring and two new releases, first of them named „Below / Phantom” and the second being exactly this one which is also an intersection between House and Techno which seems to be the point where the duo most often find themselves.

It’s always been difficult to talk too much about their music.

Elias and Gustaf have delivered a lot in a short time under their partnership as Skudge. This may be a bad thing for most if we think about the quality of their music, but the Swedish duo knew how to make a good catchy thing and to maintain a high standard of output since the Autumn of '09.



The „First Observation” EP is the first release by the Stockholm-based Skudge on Echocord Colours which is a label that has been pursuing its own style without giving away the headscape of having a solid representation over a selection of crafty artists. For Skudge though, this is a release not so similar to their other tracks on Skudge Records.

„Surplus” and „Void” both sit at the deeper end of the Techno spectrum with the flip being the marginally more punchy of the two cuts, while dutchman Conforce completes the package with an uncharacteristically dull Dub workout.

„Surplus” sees agile dubby flexes, immaculately executed and is based around a set of deep Techno chord stabs thrown in with a measure of discrete whistles and driving claps. There’s a certain Dub atmosphere to it, but it’s really rather too busy to call Dub-Techno.

Flipping the record over we find „Void” and with it more reasons why this pair have gained the attention of so many people who all seem unable to say exactly why it is they’re so good. This one is a catchy two-note dancefloor driven piece which mutates and intensifies just enough to keep listeners wondering what the next bar will sound like.

The ever-reliable Conforce steps up for a remix of „Void” and flips it in a new direction, reconciling skippy rhythm and Detroitian hi-tech Soul with a heavy sub-bass mixed in with distorted stabs and dreamy synths lines.

Skudge - Surplus

Skudge - Void

Although these productions are optimized for maximum dancefloor impact, there’s also another impressive fact about them: sounds and vocal snippets are subtly, selectively employed to imbue each loop with an extra infectious sense of swing or to underline a groove or accentuate an emotion.

There is no doubt that this is a supernaturally good EP!!!

You can buy the release via Boomkat in the form of a 12” / digital download, and if we managed to get you interested into Skudge’s sounds they have loads of previously released material ready for you to check and add to your record collection.

Denisa Lazar