The Disciples
Experiments

Popping The Cherry of 2020’s latest modern-contemporary record label; Step Ball Chain, is Roza Terenzi with “Stylish Tantrum”. Suggestive title to set the tone; the 5 track EP insisting sharp, sassy, high-tempered bombs with full bodied bounce. Unexpected tempo and timing variations, flared-up bpms, half time drum cuts and slicked modular flourishes, Terenzi’s signature cheek ramps up to an extra twisted club climate, atmospheric and evocative in texture as always. Featuring collaborations with D. Tiffany and Saoirse, the release covers extended dancefloor territory, assertive anthems delivering femme finesse, choreographed to perfection.The A side fires up with an exuberant 4-by-4-2-the-floor routine, Cosmology. Vocal cuts from the queen Fiorella, billowing bells and dramatic synthetic sweeps to form fluidity over the tight bouncy low end. Whilst flirtatious melodic notions come and go, zip-lock percussion and commanding drumwork hold it down; squeaky steeze not-so-politely letting you know what’s to come. Deceivingly dubwise introductions soon furiously interrupted with Stylish Tantrum. Ricochet rhythms and bone breaking clap backs echo around your head, electrifying percussive fills and vocal spills snatching your attention before the everything glues together vicious harmony, baseline pulsating underneath a whiplash drum display - one for the dangerous deejays.Chosen Family Feud opens the B side, a collab with seasoned associate D. Tiffany, showing off a bossy stomping brigade. Mumbling voices, waspy sirens and spooked out synth lines haunt the beginnings of the track, stripping back to a bassline breakdown before wailing vocals and clattered percussion take over, cymbals bursting. B2 is a moment to reflect, Illusions brings the energy down, low slung metallic backbeats thrown over encompassing, effortless pads and soaring resonance. The downtempo atmosphere crept up on by a double time d’n’b re-jig, softly gliding in over the growling sub, chopped breaks reflecting and falling. Closing out the record is another joint effort, recorded in Melbourne with Saoirse; Sxc saloon dashing back to the dancefloor, hot and deep. Throbbing bass married with slick galloping drums, sensuous fleeting whispers looping to draw you into hypnosis before a climactic tempo plummet intended to turn heads.STEP01 is kicking its heels up, stomping, strutting and trailblazing for what’s to come.

At long bleedin’ last Peacefrog cough up a repress of Moodymann’s sophomore LP, Mahogany Brown [1998] for the legion house heads baying for an affordable mint copy.A sort of sonic psychogeographic dispatch from late ‘90s Detroit, if you will, Mahogany Brown offers a unique, documentarian perspective on house music as it comes thru its teenaged years from a localised, Black, Latino and Gay club phenomenon to its currency as a soundtrack to dancefloors worldwide, and then back to root in one of the cities that first cradled it’s birth along with Chicago and New York. Equal parts collage, club tools and headphone staples, it unfolds like a hot sticky day in the 313; traversing from the dial-scrolling Radio to the kiddies chorus percolating thru Sunshine, to the reportage of On The Run and M.E.A.N.D.N.J.B.’s gospel soul jazz burn starring longtime accomplice Norma Jean Bell, thru the sublime suspension system of Mahogany Brown, onto the distorted, faded Stonedenjoe (House) and his Black Sunday masterpiece melding gospel, soul and disco like no other at the album’s finale, this record is every inch a classic. No arguing.