Search "Christopher Ledger - NRG" 517 Items

1st press

Belfast-producer Space Dimension Controller, a.k.a. Jack Hamill, may be landing his debut release on Dekmantel, but he’s definitely no stranger to their shores. With the three-track EP ‘Gaining Time’ clocking in at over 35-minutes, phasing between cosmic kaleidoscopic house, and serene, epic ambient, — a sonic atmosphere reminiscent of the background resonance the galaxy permeates on a daily basis — Hamill’s Dekmantel debut is closer to that of an album, than your average set of club 12”s.
Hamill began his production career with the space-disco EP ‘Journey to the core of the unknown sphere’, a record that truly set him apart from his peers, showcasing his technical nuance, and love of melodics. Since then he’s further established himself through conceptual-album projects on Ninja Tune, experimental dancefloor EPs on R&S Records, and experimentations on techno through Royal Oak. With his penchant for techno, and inclination towards painting musical narratives around science fiction and electro-futurism, Hamill is the next step in evolution towards Detroit-like, future music, albeit from Northern Ireland. His latest EP kicks off with ‘Everything is Better Now’ and a countdown that blasts off into a trans-dimensional 14-minute journey of warped kicks, pads that phase in-and-out of our conventional timezone, a bassline that doesn’t pop-up until the four-minute mark — like a gravity fluctuation abruptly peering through a temporary wormhole—, melody, character, and a free flowing story arc worthy of the Space Dimension Controller himself. ‘Everything is Better Now’ is an epic, techno-futurist journey of progressive, fluid, epicness. ’NRG Intersect’ is a beautiful 15-minute ambient transmission from outer space, played out with synth chords, across strummed melodies and a tape deck hitch here and there, like an uncoded language from a far off land - as if Brian Eno himself has forgotten to include the track on his lunar, legacy record ‘Apollo’. ‘Still Returning’ takes the ambient coding and minimises it yet further, like Solaris itself beckoning from its cloudy, deep, mystic blue oceans.

The latest from Dam Swindle's Sound Support alias, Méhari, will keep you warm and bouncy, wailing and flailing, all through the fall and winter.

Big electro energy on this five-track EP. Funky, sassy synth melodies snaked around tight and punchy drums that instantly make you wiggle like a worm.

It starts with the title track, a thumper with a herky-jerky swing, then slides into a slightly more melodious and noodly territory before completing with “Detox Your Feelings,” a high-speed Hi-NRG and Italo disco rocket ship off this planet into interstellar space.

Four blazing Disco Edits venturing deep into American and Asian Disco by Son Of Lee from Brooklyn. He played a seamless DJ set for Disco Bizarre at KitKat Club Berlin in November 2019 and ever since we wanted to release some of his material... What a great opportunity to start up our new label, venturing deep into Italo, Disco, HiNRG and all the bizarre stuff in between!

Some Nicholson is an ensemble created by artist David Nicholson. Their debut album is a collection of blues infused material presented in the form of a classic 70’s LP.” David Nicholson was born in Montreal in 1970. His career began at Artists Space in NYC in 2002 and he now lives and works in Berlin, where he is represented by Galerie Michael Haas. In 2018 Nicholson decided to state a musical position based on his lifelong love of the blues by producing a vinyl album, reminiscent of the LP records of the 1970s. Recording took place in his painting studio, summoning the minimalist spirit of field recordings, rendered with modern technology. This approach set the parameters for the project which later expanded to include a recording made on location at the Freiberg Cathedral, home of a baroque masterpiece, Gottfried Silbermann’s organ. To help him realise his vision, Nicholson gathered an ensemble of 12 musicians and singers, including renowned jazz organist Brian Charette, trumpet player Christoph Titz, and guitar maestro/sound-übernerd Thomas Büchel. The results speak for themselves. Sit back and immerse yourself in a musical adventure and note that the album’s creators advise that this LP record is best enjoyed with a bottle of 2018 Chinon.

White vinyl seems unplayed. Label cover.

Hot wiring dancefloors with their immersive orchestration of uplifting sonic waves, Soft Crash sets out to soundtrack the unified, euphoric heartbeat of the crowds they foster with their mechanical yet fantastical, Italo Body Music. Presenting their highly anticipated EP ‘nrg’, the Berlin-based collaborative project of Berghain resident and Bite label head Hayden Payne (aka Phase Fatale) and French prolific producer Pablo Bozzi works to forge Soft Crash’s unique vocabulary of post-humanist production with the harmonic grandeur of their rhythmic, machine-made anthems.

Fresh off the back of their 2022 debut album ‘Your Last Everything’, Soft Crash present their latest 4 track EP ‘nrg’, chronicling their synonymous surrealist visuals infused with the contagious punch of Italo and Synth-wave. Geared towards the dancefloor from a fresh perspective, Bozzi and Payne pull from their respective wheelhouses to curate a sound additionally influenced by Wave-Pop, Acid House and Post-Punk sensibilities.

Procuring their cerebral yet zealous indentation of dance music, the EP features sanguine vocals from Kyiv-based singer and musician Ready in LED on the first single ‘Free Yourself’. She comments about the track “I became captivated instantly with the idea of the track that Hayden and Pablo sent me. At that moment, I was a bit tired of carefree disco and wanted to reveal my dark side in music. The demo sounded very daring. This track demands attention to itself from the first seconds. My sources of inspiration were glam rock and grunge. I had a blast in the studio, and I hope the people on the dance floors will feel that energy too.”

While full throttle vitality and booming grooves on the title track ‘nrg’ showcase Soft Crash’s take on 90’s sample-filled techno. Closing the extended play with an updated cut of the bewitching ‘Your Last Everything’, featuring Canadian musician and producer Marie Davidson, Soft Crash breathe a new life into the namesake track from their preceding album, concluding with an additional remix of the track by cult favourite producer Alen Skanner. The intrinsic dance floor vigour emulated in NRG further fleshes-out the pair’s recognisable DNA of nurturing a revitalised techno sound, cementing them as pioneers of the Italo Body genre.

The pendulum of life swings from simple to complicated and swoops across everything in between. If the devil is in the details, the true meaning is in the grey areas. Whilst the quest for nuance is noble, sometimes, it pays to be intentional with your target and get to the point. For their first collaborative project, Str8 Shot, Gary "Sivion" Watson and Maurice "malex" Alexander aim, fire and spit with a barrage of hard-hitting Hip Hop that will inspire new and old heads alike. Across the beats and rhymes, the duo showcases kin-like chemistry, which extracts depth from simplicity. The opening salvo on Str8 Shot is like a special ops assignment meets manifesto. Heavy Gunner introduces MALEX's spaced-out Blade Runner-esque bounce, where Sivion shoots for the stars while swinging "a hot sword of the spirit". The experimental production and Sivion's staccato style sound like a chauffeur-driven ride in the Delorean from Back To The Future. Sivion then links up with long-time collaborator Braille and the Dallas freestyle king, Infored, on the latest single, Come Through Me. All three pilots plot a flight course to a higher level of mental liberation. MALEX's mischievous bleeps and blips encapsulate push-and-pull energy. The cheeky bop, in turn, opens up Sivion, Braille and Infored to go all the way in with a call and response flows while calling out pretentious folks prone to take the bait of what this world supposedly has to offer. The firing squad take a breather to reload their bullets on Straight Cool featuring Mokah Soulfly. Sivion, Malex and their fellow gunners shoot the breeze straight to the milky way and write bars on Mars. With live bass from the masterful Nigel Rivers (Erykah Badu, Royce Da 5'9" and Eric Roberson), sonically, the track converges with genuine reflections of their come-ups, tinges of otherworldliness and dashes of a five-star resort turn-down service. With eight tracks, Str8 Shot is a short, sharp, stirring experience that puts peps in steps and batteries in backs. Written by Christopher Mitchell for Ten Pounds of Gold.