While we’re on the topic of recent videos that’ve caught our attention it seems only fair to shout out the brilliant Photonz plate that dropped this week. Pretty much everything that the Don’t Be Afraid label put out is heat, and the new EP from the Portugese duo is no exception. The four-track Love Spectre EP is one of those records that lives in your DJ bag from now until forever, alongside Container and Rhyhtim Is Rhythim – tracks produced to perfection that you’ll always find an excuse to play.
Warm analogue drum sounds twist around our ideal style of 120-ish house, updated with the likes of marimba sampling meeting machines and some electronic psych elements layered over classic acid drums and structures. The final track Prometheus is the one that proper blew my mind though, kicking up the tempo for a kuedo style techno joy. Check the press release below.
Photonz have taken no prisoners in 2011. Following their dancefloor destroying third release on One Eyed Jacks alongside Tiago they up the heat yet again with a first outing on Don’t Be Afraid. Spectre is surely destined to please fans of Oni Ayhun, Joy Orbison, and other forward thinking house music producers alike with it’s jaded xylophone hooks and cold as ice groove. Wall is a slice of trademark Photonz Portuguese acid, an infinite groove that builds and builds. Dokos is a more downbeat, tracky number which will slot nicely into the sets of DJs who favour the old school house sound of Chicago and Detroit. Prometheus catches the pair at their most experimental, upping the tempo and unleashing an ambitious techno juke roller which is as much Machinedrum as it is the sound of 1990’s techno circa Pacific Records and Plink Plonk.
Markur and Rhodes aka Photonz have been delivering their trademark crunchy psych techno on several releases for London labels Living and Dissident as well as Pilooski’s D.I.R.T.Y. for some years now, turning the heads of glitterball grandees such as Trevor Jackson, Gerd Janson and DFA’s Justin Miller. With two sizzling remixes out for Anthony ‘Shake’ Shakir, and a weekly show on Radio Oxigenio that regularly joins the dots between early UK hardcore and the latest in future garage and twisted disco, the future looks even brighter for these two talented Portugueezers.
The Semtek run DBA obviously spared no expense in purveying some public domain material to use as a loop for the tracks identity. There’s something scarily / suitably addictive about it watching these guys skate around to some dope music. Got to love the sneakers as well.