Deep Impressions

Dance and Electronica with Chris Honnery

French producer Julien Veniel, who makes music as D’julz, will release a mixed, digital-only compilation called This Is Bass Culture: 4 Years Of Bass Culture Records early next year. A resident DJ at renowned Paris techno hub the Rex Club, D’julz released one of my favourite club EPs earlier in 2013 with ‘Special Day’ on the Circus Company imprint. Comprising three hypnotic, slightly cosmic cuts of robust house, each track on the EP is laden with evocative, off-kilter melodies that separates them from the generic tech house flooding the market, while Veniel’s knack for creating a stupendous bassline ensures that all three tracks boast strong dancefloor potential. The DJ is no newcomer to the scene, releasing on labels such as 20:20 Vision, Ovum and Dessous since starting out in the early ’90s, but I’d recommend that anyone uninitiated with Veniel’s productions start with ‘Special Day’ and work back through his discography from there. His forthcoming mix is concentrated on tracks released on his Bass Culture label throughout its four-year existence. The likes of DJ Qu, Cassy and Anonym all feature, while there’s also a trio of unreleased cuts thrown in, including a D’julz-Cassy collaboration. There’ll undoubtedly be many mixes that arrive in the new year enveloped by far more hype than D’julz’s latest, but I’m confident that those of you who seek out this compilation will be far from disappointed.

Mad Racket will return to its spiritual home of Marrickville Bowling Club for its New Year’s Eve bash, which will be headlined by Detroit producer Leonard Strickland, AKA Big Strick. The cousin of Motor City luminary Omar-S, Strickland has established himself as a formidable producer in his own right through the release of his albums Resivior Dogs [sic] and his 2011 debut Detroit Heat. Of course, Strickland has made the most of his family connection with Omar-S, releasing a number of EPs on his cousin’s FXHE label, including Hustler, which featured ‘Old E 800’, a visceral house cut that was grittily remixed by Omar-S. Big Strick’s forthcoming tour to Australia will be his first trip Down Under, and he’s certainly in the right hands playing with some of Sydney’s most respected veteran DJs at Mad Racket NYE.

German producer Stephan Laubner, who makes dubby machine funk as STL, will release his 14th album on the Smallville label in January. At Disconnected Moments will mark the first time Laubner has entrusted another label with releasing his album, having released all his previous STL LPs through is own Something imprint. It’s not as if Laubner hasn’t affiliated with other labels throughout his career though; he previously released his Silent State EP on Smallville in 2009, having initially made his mark through his output on the hallowed Perlon imprint. It was on Perlon that Laubner shared a split 12” with Ricardo Villalobos and Dandy Jack back in 2000, recording as Ric Y Martin, a guise he has subsequently resurrected for remixes of Luomo. The forthcoming STL album features ‘Silent State’ from Laubner’s debut Smallville EP, along with ten new tracks that adhere to the immersive deep soundscapes that characterise the STL oeuvre.

For anyone who missed it, Italian producer Paolo Lodde recently released his latest album as Dusty Kid, III. Coming in at nearly two hours, the release is a techno opus that Lodde constructed using analogue synthesizers and Ableton software, drawing on his classical musical training throughout the process. III is designed to be consumed in a single listen rather than as separate tracks, and is available online as a free download in this format. “2013 was important because ten years before, I released my first track ever under the alias Dusty Kid,” Lodde said. “I had to do something for the people that were following my music for such a long period so I thought that a free album could be a nice gift to share my gratitude.” It’s fair to say Lodde rose to the occasion to celebrate ten years of Dusty Kid – there are no excuses for not snapping up III, stat!