Underground, Dance and Electronica with Chris Honnery.

French producer Erwan Castex, who goes about his business under the guise of Rone, will release a six-track mini-album Tohu Bonus next month through Infine, a follow-up to his Tohu Bohu album (which translates as ‘commotion’ in French) that dropped last year. With a background as a filmmaker and soundtracker who also composes music for exhibitions and adverts, Castex sprung to the attention of electronic music fiends – that means you, dear readers – after his tracks were featured on compilations such as Sasha’s Invol2ver Agoria’s At the Controls. However, it was with the release of his maiden LP Spanish Breakfast in 2009 that Castex truly announced himself, arresting listeners with a distinctive sound that merged melodic flourishes with the cinematic grandeur of Apparat, and the Border Community label at its most blissed out. (Comparisons to the likes of Sasha, Kollektiv Turmstrasse and Max Cooper would also not be amiss.) Over the past four years, Castex has refused to make music that allows him to be pigeonholed within a single genre. Castex’s enterprising approach to his craft is apparent on both Tohu Bohu and Tohu Bonus, a mix of rejigged tracks from Tohu Bohu along with a few new compositions. Those hanging out for this release should be alerted to the fact that Rone also released a new EP only last week, a remix package of ‘Lets Go’ featuring reworks from Four Tet’s pals Rocketnumbernine, Principles of Geometry and Clark. Here’s hoping Castex’s creative outpouring doesn’t slow down anytime soon.

Details of the next edition of Ministry Of Sound’s Masterpiece mix series, helmed by Detroit techno auteur Carl Craig, have been unveiled. The concept for the series, which has previously featured mixes from Andrew Weatherall and Francois K, involves the selector drawing upon separate influences and inspirations across three discs. Each of Craig’s three discs has a distinct theme: the first disc, ‘Aspiration’, is dedicated to tracks that have inspired Craig of late;the second, entitled ‘Inspiration’…well, that really speaks for itself; while the final disc, ‘Meditation’, is comprised entirely of new compositions Craig made exclusively for the release. For those curious, artists featured on the first two discs include Moritz Von Oswald, Derrick May, Lance Desardi and Moodymann. Craig’s relationship with radio apparently also had a strong influence on his Masterpiece mix,with his press release stating, “even though all of my professional career I’ve been travelling around the world and my scope of music is very global, how I listen to music is still very rooted to how I listen to radio, how it is now, and how it was in Detroit when I was growing up”.

Swiss producer Ripperton will release a new album, A Little Part Of Shade, later this month on Joris Voorn and Edwin Oosterwal’s Amsterdam-based Green label. Ripperton first made waves via his Lazy Fat People project, but his solo output is (in the opinion of your author at least) more interesting, and has attracted the attention of the likes of Radio Slave and Isolee for remixes. A Little Part Of Shade follows 2010’s Niwa, and is predominantly made up of tracks that feature vocal contributions from the likes of Hemlock Smith, Germain Umdenstock and Van Hai. Getting all deep and metaphorical on listeners, Ripperton described the album – via press release – as being “about the part of shade that everyone has…about the private garden.” He stated that this release is “quite the opposite of Niwa. It’s an inside garden. It can be bright or dark or in the middle. It can destroy or help you”…whatever that means. I’m just going to listen to the album, rather than attempting to decipher any more of that garble – which is probably the conclusion that many of you readers who’ve managed to endure this week’s column will have arrived at after bushwhacking through the jungle of jargon and tangents entangled in the above paragraphs. It’s been a fun journey to arrive at this point though, hasn’t it? But it is past time you stopped reading about these releases and actually wrapped your ears around them – so run along now, and see you next week.

Deep Impressions: electronica manifesto and occasional club brand. Contact through [email protected].

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