Ikonika: Contact, Want, Love, Have

Since her debut with the stunning ‘Please’ on Hyperdub, Ikonika has developed a highly original blueprint for her production, featuring synth work you’d expect from early Derrick May records, matched to garage inspired dubstep rhythms. The result is a beguiling mix of club and art, abstraction and syncopation, and confounds the clichés attached to the UK bass scene. Now with her debut album set to drop, once again on Kode 9’s Hyperdub, we can expect an exceptional 2010 from this unique producer.



‘Contact, Love, Want, Have’ collects her output over the last two years and the record contains a great balance and sense of creativity. ‘Fish’ and ‘Idiot’ balance synthetic beauty with intricate beats, while opener ‘Ikonoklast’ features an eccentric accordion line, elsewhere she delivers glitch-hop par excellence on ‘Sahara Michael’. Overall it is a dynamically varied collection that for the most part succeeds as a singular musical vision. Fans of forward thinking electronic music of any genre simply can’t afford to miss this compellingly creative talent.

Get the album HERE

Download: Ikonika-Fish
Download: Ikonika-Sahara Michael
Download: Egyptrixx-The Only Way Up (Ikonika remix)

Best of the Week: 14/04/2010

Music for the hectic lifestyles we all lead surrounds us, take the selection this week for example, full of beats and melodies that will sound equally good in the headphones or on the floor in the wee wee hours. After the loud and dirty special last week, we take in some more laidback tuneage, with cutting edge future beat jams; some blues influenced hip-hop, and cosmic house music full of lush atmospherics. All designed to bring enjoyment to your busy day.

Parisian producer Onra has quietly built a reputation for quality sample based hip-hop, crafted with some skill, but this new cut for All City sounds more like Cameo or early Prince/Onra-Long Distance

This brilliant new song from Aloe Blacc could easily be mistaken for Willie Mitchell-produced Al Green, or Bobby Womack, and that is some big compliment. From the new LP ‘Good Things’, out soon on Stones Throw/Aloe Blacc-I Need a Dollar

Brooklyn produces so much good music these days, and that includes newcomer Lando Kal, who comes at us with a deceptively simple future beat, complete with appropriate bleep and bass distortion. It is taken from the ‘The Golden Handshake’ EP, out on Numbers/Lando Kal-Fuzzy Ankles

The deep house fuzziness at its very best right here, Pete Herbert aka Reverso 68 does a smooth and funky job remixing Gomma artist Golden Bug, turning in a groove that will stay with you for days/Golden Bug-Flamingo (Pete Herbert remix)

Taken from the debut album ‘Deep & Meaningless’, this is soulful disco slowed right down to sound like raw rhythm and blues, and takes Ron Basejam’s production to another level/Ron Basejam-Into My Life

You can support these artists by purchasing their music here: Picadilly, Bleep, Rush Hour, Conch, and Samurai.

Another outstanding Flying Lotus album!

Without doubt one of the most respected and celebrated producers in electronic music today, Steven Ellison under the moniker Flying Lotus has over the space of a few short years become the focal point for the glitch-hop scene, and therefore with album number three the expectation is high. Released on Warp Records, ‘Cosmogramma’ is a record that is continually experimental yet on the other hand completely listenable. Some moments push the sonic boundaries to new levels, while others blend vocals into the mix, the record flowing through emotions and textures, tones and settings.



You can check out the album here. We’ve also included a couple of moments from the LP for you to get a taste.

Download: Flying Lotus-And the World Laughs with you feat. Thom Yorke
Download: Flying Lotus-Quakes

Best of the Week: 07/04/2010

When it gets loud and dirty then you need the right weapons for battle. So this week we celebrate making a racket for the dancefloor, with bass meltdowns, sonic extremities, and some damn good electronic music, right here for you to bang your head to, and rub up on ya bassbinz.

This cut from German duo Booka Shade harks back to their original blueprint; warm pads and deep tech-house rhythms, losing the substandard vocals that marred much of their ‘The Sun & the Neon Light’ LP/Booka Shade-Buffer Ruffer

When it comes to noisy bass fueled rave music, Herve has set the standard with releases on Dubsided and Cheap Thrills, and this epic new school monster is no exception, being a cut above the usual fodder associated with this sound. Available on the ‘Zombies’ EP/Herve-Hot Drum Attack

More of same, but when the same is Hot City, then bring it on. This release for Fabric displays the 2-step beats and electro bleeps we’ve become familiar with, and that you should familiarize yourself with if you haven’t already/Hot City-If That’s How I Feel

The perfect tune for those feeling a little hazy at 3am on a Saturday, Italian DJ Riva Starr is making killer tracks like this for breakfast right now, and this remix from Leeds producer Harry Benson accentuates the peak time goodness a little bit more/Riva Starr-I Was Drunk (Harry Benson remix)

Some truly bizarre warehouse rave music from Headhunter, whose dubstep has been a feature of Tempa Records and the Bristol scene for some time, this is a stunning new direction that sounds like a drugged up chipmunk let lose in a make shift studio for an allnighter/Addison Groove-Dumbshit

Bordering on the ridiculous, this gypsy sampling piece of techno mayhem from Sebastian Leger isn’t the most subtle tune, but if you need to make a big room go crazy then this is the track to do it with. Superb production and the appropriate arrangement make this a perfect party potion/Sebastian Leger-Balkanmaniac


These tracks are listed for promotional purposes. Support the artists at these great stores-Picadilly, Bleep, Rush Hour, Conch and Samurai.

Have you checked out Floating Points?

If you’re not yet familiar with Floating Points then you are missing out on one of the most sublime electronic music makers out there in any genre right now. Sam Shepherd’s production sounds like Larry Heard crossed with Global Communication, with lush pads, quirky basslines, and melancholy beauty to the fore. After releases on Mike Paradina’s Planet Mu imprint, and his own Eglo Records, Shepherd made his mark with the gorgeous ‘Love Me Like This’, a favourite of many critics and DJs in 2009. Whether making deeper than deep house or more future beat orientated fare, Floating Points seems to have a knack for sculptured sounds and classic arrangements, making him a producer we should expect a lot from in 2010.

Download: Floating Points-Vacuum Boogie
Download: Four Tet-Sing (Floating Points remix)

Best of the Week: 31/03/2010

From the way that it makes you move or the way it makes your head feel, music works its way inside you, demanding listen after listen until you’re hooked. The playlist this week does just that, with hip-hop from either side of the Atlantic, a metronome led piece of disco trickery, an gorgeous nod to Chicago house in the golden days, the sounds of techno pushed through a dubstep rhythm, and a hero of the club scene over the last two years brings us a hot new talent.

The Strong Arm Steady long player ‘In Search of Stoney Jackson’ has its moments, but really memorable tracks were few and far between, this throwback to bygone days when hip-hop was fun and had great sampled beats will make you wanna chill and roll a fat one/Strong Arm Steady-Best of Times feat. Phonte

So prolific right now, Londoner Paul White’s recent output is hard to keep up with, but make the effort because the quality is of the highest order. This typically eccentric sample mash up is out now on Now Again Records/Paul White-Ancient Treasures

Fans of Cosmo Vitelli’s I’m A Cliché label know what to expect here, with the head honcho delivering, under the guise of Bot’Ox, a typically sleazy, bleep heavy, piece of cranking disco. Also available is a rework by Azari & III/Bot’Ox-Blue Steel

If you heard this in a club, you might ask yourself, wow this old piece of Chicago house is well produced for something made back in the day. That is because this track from The Revenge came out this year on their Home Taping Is Killing Music imprint. Fans of Marshall Jefferson or Frankie Knuckles really need to hear this/The Revenge-Forever In Their Debt (Original Mix)

Another great release from Hotflush Recordings, this latest effort from label manager Scuba is perhaps his best yet, sitting somewhere between classic techno of Transmat Records and the funky minimalism of early Doc Scott/Scuba-You Got Me

Scots Clouds have been brought to the club scenes attention by the one and only Fake Blood, a man with a big, brash and heavy club sound hard to match, and this track follows a similar path, destructive kicks underpin a crazy bass line and various horns and whistles, the whole thing perfect for both dancer and DJ/Clouds-Eyes


Support these artists. Buy music here: Bleep, Picadilly, Rush Hour, Conch, Samurai.

Best of the Week: 24/03/2010

Whether it glitches or grooves, distorts or harmonizes, you still gotta dance to it, and this week the selection fits just that formula. Tastings from New York, Hamburg and the UK, take in indie disco, shimmering deep house, and the new school imaginings of the British bass scene.

UK based Sully is a producer mixing pure Warp-style electronica with booming dubstep, and in the process making some seriously cool dance floor IDM, this track is out on Keysound/Sully-In Some Pattern

Underpinned by a truly unique rhythm, this excellent remix from Ramadanman builds to a blistering tribal intensity disrupted by mutated pads and bleeps, showcasing two of the dubstep scenes most consistent talents/Scuba-Tense (Ramadanman remix)

French based duo John & Jehn are a group worth checking out in their own right, but this remix from new disco darlings Mighty Mouse is something else, turning the track into a indie jam so catchy this will be stuck in your head all day long/John & Jehn-Lookin’ For You (Mighty Mouse NYC Sensations remix)

Hamburger Tensnake is another disco/house producer set for a huge 2010 on the back of some incredible productions. This subtle but effective cut is from his recent EP on Permanent Vacation/Tensnake-Coma Cat

Prolific yet nothing less than incredibly consistent, New Yorker Falty DL always makes a mash up of rave samples, dubstep rhythms, clicks and feedback, into something more than the sum of its parts. This is from his All In The Place EP out now on Rush Hour/Falty DL-St. Marks


Show these artists your support: Bleep, Picadilly, Rush Hour, Conch and Samurai.