Find them at basement nights and warehouse one-offs reaching from New York to Montreal and overseas Berlin, a collective of connoisseuring clubbers. The recent flood of clichéd counterfeits has left much of today's dance music better left unheard, but it’s the rumours stuck in our head that tug at our ego and give us the need to shine light. A compulsive urge to spread from one ear to the next, to draw a line between bottle service cogs and the cutting edge of electronic music, music built to live in. There’s no room for Vegas roller coasters or casual chit chat, just Night Rumours worth spreading.
For this new edition of Night Rumours, you'll notice some familiar producers under aliases you may or may not recognize: specifically, L-vis 1990 provides us with a ravey workout with his second release as Dance System and Steffi and The Analogue Cops treat us to deep, spiraling techno as Third Side. We say a bittersweet goodbye to label favorite 50Weapons with a spacey, atmospheric track off their final release, Benjamin Damage's second full-length album, Obsidian. A personal favorite of mine on this list is BNJMN's "Herz", which manages to send my brain into a 135 BPM-level wormhole despite its 120 BPM tempo as the inaugural release on Creme Organization's new "bigroom" Jericho One imprint. Patricia's Bem Inventory is now a few months past its release date, which in today's age of ephemera means it's practically ancient news, but its lo-fi, crunchy textures are perfectly tailored to carry us into fall (and through a particularly chaotic "Mercury in Retrograde").
Night Rumours:
ROD – "Distance"
Klockworks 15, Klockworks [KW15], September 21, 2015 [Purchase via Klockworks]
[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/222383820" params="color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]
BNJMN – "Herz"
Skur EP, Jericho One [J101], September 28, 2015 [Purchase via Bandcamp]
[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/220626981" params="color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]
Henning Baer – "Shopping in Jail"
Gemini EP, TANSTAAFL Records [TANSPLAN007], September 7, 2015 [Purchase via Beatport]
[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/221415557" params="color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]
Dance System (L-vis 1990) – "Safe Mode" (Extended Mix)
System Preferences EP, Ultramajic [LVX022D], October 9, 2015 [Purchase via Beatport]
Recondite – "Undulate"
Limber/Undulate, Acid Test [ASD025], September 25, 2015 [Purchase via Beatport]
[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/223117385" params="color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]
Third Side – "Opening The Jar"
Pandora EP, Restoration Records [RST020], September 29, 2015 [Purchase via Juno]
[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/220795674" params="color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]
Benjamin Damage – "Tetrapod"
Obsidian LP, 50Weapons [CD/LP18], September 25, 2015 [Purchase via Beatport]
Bastet – "Beast"
Unreleased
[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/217284475" params="color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]
North Lake – "Shimmerland 9.29"
Q/Q Sampler Vol. 1, Q/Q, TBA
[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/227263115" params="color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]
Patricia – "Mercury in Retrograde"
Bem Inventory, Opal Tapes [OPAL066], August 30, 2015 [Purchase via Bandcamp]
[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/212084851" params="color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]
A Light in the Dark:
In honor of the late Little White Earbuds, I'm featuring an older release from Octo Octa off LWE founder Steve Mizek's Argot Records.
Octo Octa – "Where Did You Go"
Where Did You Go / Through the Haze, Argot [ARGOT009], May 20, 2014 [Purchase via Bandcamp]
Featured Mix:
Mutual Dreaming and Sustain-Release founder Aurora Halal's FACT mix will likely serve as inspiration for live techno sets for years to come. After catching her at Mutual Dreaming's New Year's Eve party, her own festival, and at Kremwerk in Seattle during Decibel Festival courtesy of techno collective secondnature, it's great to finally have a digital means of revisiting these unforgettable 5 am moments. I can't multitask while listening to this mix — it leaves me far too consumed in vivid sensory flashbacks. To quote a conversation I had at the club, Halal's melodic, moody techno productions are "the best way to experience the apocalypse."
