Beppe Loda
Italian Spaghetti Disco Freak

The first X-Kalay release of 2022 finds Melbourne’s Escape Artist traversing wormholes, complete with an assist from the ever-prolific Roza Terenzi.Picking up where a 2019 Salt Mines debut left off, ‘Wanna Dance’ allows proggy tendencies to flourish across some mind-altering electro. Portals to higher planes of consciousness and uncharted star systems fling open as widescreen, celestial pads make way for lysergic climax.Ramping up the intensity with her ‘Bassbin Mix’, Roza Terenzi jumps on remix duties; another electro workout, but this time more urgent, more propulsive. Bringing the tribal-breakbeat pressure in spades, it’s quintessential Terenzi.More prog, but leaning further towards cosmic techno percolation, ‘Levitator’ finds mazy arpeggios in seemingly infinite ascent. ‘Time Knife’, on the other hand, is a radiant, beatless highlight. Deploying cascading synth arps to truly mesmeric effect, it sees the Antipodean achieve sublime tension in a rare moment of introspection.

A beautifully produced collection of instrumental tracks by The Disciples' Russ Bell-Brown featuring 8 excursions in chill out, atmospheric downtempo and dubby breakbeat. Surely we wouldn't be surprised to hear some of these at a Cafe del Mar sunset session in Ibiza. The way these tracks build up over a gradient (sometimes up to 11 minutes long) from silence to mellowed out spacial trance was clearly not done with industry standards of any sort in mind, allowing the listener to dive deep into the takes of this uncompromising producer. The title Experiments couldn't be more appropriate. In his own words: “This is a collection of tracks recorded in the mid 90`s... not reggae but what i call my `experiments`... downtempo, electronic, ambient, ethnic, jazzy, funky, dubby.... whatever came into my mind.” Surgically re-mastered for vinyl by manmade mastering in Berlin.

RDS plumbs the depths of analogue texture on his Kalahari debut proper. Following a guest appearance on Eversines’ ‘Plooi’ EP, the Amsterdam artist returns to explore the more expansive integers of his hi-tech sound across four deftly crafted tracks.It's exactly the sort of enveloping, sophisticated material we’ve come to expect from a De Lichting member.Straight deep space manoeuvres on the opener. Setting billowing widescreen pads against solid, tight groove, ‘2312’ feels as if it’s escaping the eye of some turbulent solar event. Then, landing with a sensitivity absent from the harsh climes of its predecessor, ‘BBsuite’ leaps from translunar to tenderness with dappled keys and lithe breakbeat intricacy. Saying that, there’s still something undeniably explorative and sc-fi in its mood, almost reminiscent of Orbital or Future Sound of London.

Sweat Ur Prayers, the next wavy addition to Radiant Love’s catalogue, is the first solo-EP of Byron Yeates. In their messaging, their timbres and grooves, the 4 tracks speak faithfully to Yeates’ inclinations as a DJ and label-head: the playfulness and buoyancy, a constant nod to the roots of rave, and a faith in dance music’s transformative power.Opening the release is the title track, a bubbling and breakbeat-laden 8 minutes. Mantric repetition is a running theme throughout the EP, and we hear “Raindrops falling all around, freeing me from other sounds; trickling down my weary eyes, bringing me back, I’m ready to fly” as an opening salvo. Yeates’ is known for his vast, enduring DJ sets, inducing sheens of sweat from all involved – with these tracks, it’s clear he’s unafraid to take his time to build tension as a producer as well. The percussive conversation between hi-hat and snare complexifies until a clap enters near the 2 minute mark and suddenly we’re in the main, driving groove.