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viewing 1 To 6 of 6 items
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12"
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AMAM 028EP
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Greek producers Lee Burton and Mr. Statik are already familiar to fans of groove-inducing, deep minimal house, creating intricately-woven tracks that spark dancefloors and neurotransmitters in equal measure. Now, AMAM gets first dibs at issuing their first release as Steampunk'd, their new collaborative project, hotter than Ashton Kutcher in metallic neo-Victorian garb. The title-track is propelled by highly compressed funk juice that maintains a relatively lower BPM, "Sinderella" is a similarly eerie but catchy fairy tale, and "Peanuts in Love" features wispy vocals yearning atop a vibrant house beat. Includes a remix by Ion Ludwig.
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12"
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AMAM 026EP
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Alessio Mereu is pleased to scoop up Ukrainian producer Qbeck for a full EP on AMAM, titled Railway Mood. "Eureka" has an irresistible, galloping groove, with an off-kilter tick-tock giving a countdown to eternity. Soon, after the slightly unnerving melodic plucking sounds, you can hear breathy gasps punctuating the atmosphere. Then, Hooved takes the more menacing aspects of Qbeck's original and reworks them into his own style. On the flipside, Romanian producer and Highgrade Recordings artist Mihai Popoviciu offers his own vigorous interpretation, combining Detroit otherworldliness and Chicago jacking rhythms to take you on a nocturnal cruise.
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12"
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AMAM 025-1EP
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Renato Figoli and Alessio Mereu have curated a remix package from top producers to contextualize the deep, aquatic qualities of some of the tracks off of Figoli's Funkoholic (AMAM 025CD). Sascha Dive plunges into deeper vibes, accentuating the atmosphere without neglecting the driving rhythm, summoning mermaid ghosts in its wake. Christopher Rau shifts the once-smooth "...Anymore" into a swirl of uppity energy, subverting the spoken-word vocals of Neville Attree into a mere whisper amongst myriad other interplaying elements.
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12"
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AMAM 025-2EP
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For the second part of Renato Figoli's Funkoholic (AMAM 025CD) remix series, LoSoul takes the downbeat dub-techno-jazz of "Underpool" and turns it into an anthemic deep house number that's 12 minutes long and 20,000 leagues under the sea, yet full of bounce. Finally, Ed Davenport takes "...Anymore" and gives it an entirely different edge -- a naval onslaught of crashing, jacking breakbeats, while sonar frequencies gently circle outward like the sirens' call, rounding out the Funkoholic Remixes voyage.
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CD
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AMAM 025CD
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AMAM presents an album by Sardinian producer Renato Figoli. Figoli has been drifting on and off the electronic radar since a flurry of releases on Lo Fi Stereo, Gumption, and Trapez launched him into prominence. During this timeframe, he also linked up with a teenage Alessio Mereu who, under Renato's guidance, learned the ins and outs of production with Logic. Now that Alessio's label AMAM has built up an international audience over the past few years, it seemed the perfect home for Renato's new full-length record, his first since 2008. Funkoholic closes the loop in a musical sense, merging deep techno, funk, dub, jazz and ambient in a truly idiosyncratic manner. The album consists of nine tracks, each linked by elegantly-crafted ambient transitions that leave the listener in a state of suspended animation. This constant alternation between inner space and outer space is one of the album's defining features, balancing style and content in equal measures. It also allows Renato to patiently strip down his arrangements. His music has always sung in a language of its own: the chord progressions, fat, rolling bass lines and quirky rhythms instantly recognizable to anyone acquainted with his sound. Here, though, he takes the formula one step further, inviting jazz guitarist Carlo Ditta and trumpeter Mario Massa to add their virtuosity to the proceedings. In fact, their classy improvisations dominate the opening section of the album, adding an additional dimension to the epic soundscapes of "Underpool" and the raw, shuffling title-track, while Neville Attree's commentary on the double-edged nature of obsession lends "...Anymore" a dark, brooding energy. "And Again" is a fine example of how peripheral elements from one track can slowly move to the foreground to become the central focus of the next, while "Buck a Guy" returns to classic Figoli territory, turning the screw with a twisting acid loop. "Call One" slows things down to a deep, throbbing groove, again utilizing Ditta's deft fingerwork in a spontaneous merging of minds. "Super Lemon Vapor" dives even deeper into the subconscious with tripped-out metallic FX. This all sets the scene for one final push as the twin forces of "Morning" and "Night Express" up the tempo in a powerful burst of cyclic energy. When Renato's at the controls, the crowd will be out of their seats and dancing in the aisles.
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CD
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AMAM 015CD
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Sardinia's Alessio Mereu has made quantum leaps in his DJ/production career: after releasing an impressive string of EPs for respected labels like Contexterrior, Tuning Spork and CMYK, many top-name DJs took notice, including Dubfire and Duke Dumont (who picked some of Mereu's tracks for their respective Cocoon and Fabric mix CD compilations). In early 2010, he set up AMAM, which has quickly become one of the most popular techno/house imprints in Italy, and as savvy dance music enthusiasts are catching on, throughout Europe as a whole. Now, with his debut full-length album, Alessio Mereu captures the magical energy of the club and distills it into a personal statement, resulting in the title Tripolarity, which reflects his three different musical "personalities": warm-blooded house, sinister techno and -- a side not heard from him before -- experimental abstractions that ignore the dancefloor altogether. To ease into the more kinetically-charged numbers, the album begins with "First Pole," with an ebb and flow of breakbeats and sci-fi synths. Then we enter 120 bpm territory with "Only You Know Who I Really Am," showing off Mereu's funkier side with flourishes of purple paisley. "Purity" flirts with eastern tambours and textures, followed by the contrasting candlelit warmth of "The Perfect Lover" with an anonymous yet expressive voice that floats somewhere between enamored and heartbroken. On "French Connection," Berlin's Bloody Mary contributes, together offering a piece marked by rackety percussion and a siren that echoes a wolf howling at the full moon. The album's most cerebral moment happens with "Second Pole," which is more of a digitally-sculpted art object for the ears rather than what we might refer to as music. Then, "Hypochondriac" shows symptoms of dancemania (restlessness, the shuffles, incessant hand-clapping), followed by the more low-key, tip-toeing suspense of "Distraught." The pumping "Lucky Sinners" was made together with fellow Italians and relative newcomers Naph & Carlo Caronti, and -- punctuated by the computer jazz interlude of "OK, Now Stop And Restart" -- the dusty thump of "The Case Of Mr. Bishop" was produced with Parisian DJ Acumen. The final club-functional track "Survived Boy," weaves in his experimental tendencies for a radiating, buzzing tech-house number. After such a multifaceted audio journey into the world of Alessio Mereu, the album denouements with "Third Pole," an introspective moment soundtracked by digital water dripping from the liquid sky. As a whole, Tripolarity navigates through a spectrum of emotions, with a passionate drive to keep moving forward.
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