300th POST! New from R&S Records: Delphic, 4 track label sampler, and more

R&S records is one of THE MOST RESPECTED TECHNO LABELS OF ALL TIME. So I'm very proud to announce that this, ARCADIA'S 300th POST will be highlighting the relaunch of this great label.

Read below to see why... there's LOADS of goodies today, but I think it's more than worth your time to read why these tracks are so relevant and this label so cool... we'll start with Delphic, then move to a FREE 4 track R&S sampler, and then I'll give you a tip on a couple new tracks that are pure dancefloor fillers :)

I kept hearing about Delphic from various media types and industry people. On a daily basis, almost, I've been seeing their names. Now I understand why... check out this undeniable video for "Counterpoint"


If you wanna watch it outside of this site the link is here.

Here's a nice live version of "Counterpoint", the song you won't be able to get out yer head:
Delphic- "Counterpoint (Live in Amsterdam, 19_02_2009)"

Delphic- "Counterpoint (Live in Amsterdam, 19_02_2009)" YSI

And here's a little press on these guys... you know how I love Manchester (speaking of, The Whip interview should be up soon!)...
Delphic are post-dance futurist nostalgics from Manchester. In a world
of indie bands dipping a cautious toe into dance music’s occasionally
baffling computer world, Delphic are the real deal, the missing link
between the Chemical Brothers and New Order, between Underworld and
Muse. The next giant leap forward for a dance outfit to take
repetitive beats and crisp electronics out of the underground with the
swagger, confidence and tunes to take over festivals and ultimately to
fill stadiums.

Delphic are Richard Boardman, Matthew Cocksedge and James Cook and
have been together for only a year. They make their music on laptops
before figuring out how to play it live, throwing guitars, bass and
drums over the electronics to results their unique sound, then take to
the stage and stitch their songs together into one continuous euphoric
DJ set-like onslaught.

‘Counterpoint’ is their first single on Belgium’s classic electronic
label R&S. It’s an epic, a timelessly optimistic pure rave moment
produced by Berlin based producer/remixer Ewan Pearson, who is soon to
start work in Berlin with the band on their debut album, due for
release later this year.

Check out more about Delphic @ www.randsrecords.com. NOW ON TO SOME MORE AWESOME SHIT!

NEXT UP is a 4 track sampler you can get over at Amazon.com. Click here to download it. I was gonna post up individual tracks? But you want all these puppies, trust me.

The tracks included are:
"Quail"
"Shining"
"I Become Overwhelmed"
"Majestic 12"

Here's some press on this sampler...
"David Morley

Although producer David Morley ( www.davidmorley.com ) has been
involved in a range of recording projects, encompassing trance and
techno as well as the more ambient and "intelligent" offshoots
thereof, his work has been marked by a consistent experimentalism,
earning him a reputation as a compositional innovator among producers,
DJs, and home listeners the world over. Born and raised in England,
Morley's name is most often associated with the Belgian techno scene,
primarily due to early R&S releases as Spectrum, TZ4, and under his
own name which helped to solidify the label's nascent sound.
Spectrum's "Brazil," recorded with R&S owner Renaat Vandepapeliere,
was a visionary fusion of dancefloor techno/trance and
ambient/experimental strains that helped earn R&S its association as
an important force at the fore of European dance music. Morley,
together with Outlander's Marcos Salon, was also behind the fourth
release (known as TZ4) in R&S' Test Zone series (and co wrote 2 of the
TZ7 tracks with Maarten Van Der Vleuten with whom he also wrote the
classic and highly sought after black label "Mantrax - Sonic Circus"),
an important signpost in R&S' early development. In 1994, Morley
released his first two EPs under his own name -- "Evolution" (the
first release on R&S sublabel Apollo) and "Shuttle" (on R&S-proper) --
both exploratory ambient/electro classics that sit neatly next to the
works of such artists as Biosphere, Aphex Twin, and Higher
Intelligence Agency as early examples of ambient/intelligence techno.
More recently, Morley has released increasingly dark and textural
works, both solo and in combination with former Inky Blacknuss
collaborator/current Mo'Wax signee Andrea Parker. In addition to the
pair's Infonet EP Angular Art (1995), Morley and Parker recorded the
Too Good to Be Strange EP (Apollo, 1995) under the name Two Sandwiches
Short of a Lunchbox (later used in the Tom Cruise film "Vanilla Sky"),
as well as contributed tracks to R&S ambient sublabel Apollo's second
label comp The Divine Compilation. Morley's debut full-length, Tilted,
appeared on Apollo in 1998. He also co-wrote Andreas Parker's classic
debut "Kiss My ARP" on Mo Wax and has recently released a variety of
songs on Miss Parker's "Touchin' Bass" label and on Sub Rosa's sub
label "Quatermass". A new album is apparantly in the works for release
this year..... His music is published by Bug Music


Jacobs Optical Stairway

Jacob's Optical Stairway project from 4Hero's Dego and Mark Mac. The
album was something of a superstar collaborative effort at the time,
also featuring Juan Atkins and Josh Wink getting in on the Junglist
action. The album moves beyond 4hero's previous ruffneck ragga style
and incorporates a mellow jazz instructed vibe to proceedings, married
beautifully with Atkins on the Detroit meets West London experiment
'The Fusion Formula', and exploring live organic textures with
saxophone from Lascehes, Niles Hailstones trumpet on 'Solar Feelings'
or Quincey's guitar on the title track.


Locust

Mark Van Hoen (born September, 1966 in London, England) is an
electronic music performer and producer recognized for his
contributions to the advancement of electronic music in the last 20
years. He has created music under his own name as well as: Locust, and
Autocreation. His production work includes albums for Mojave 3, Scala,
Sing-Sing and many others. He was a founder member of the influential
group Seefeel and has toured with Massive Attack and Orbital as well
as opening for Slowdive. He is a greatly admired and influential
composer and performer that has inspired countless other musicians.
His music is known for its distinctive blend of old world electronic
music with the more modern strains of electronica, creating a rich and
colourful body of work steeped in emotion and expression. His work has
brought a deeply human and emotional depth to a genre of music that
has been criticised as being sterile and mechanical.

After offers from Warp Records, Rephlex and Virgin Records, Mark Van
Hoen chose to sign with Belgian Label R&S in 1993. Locust's early
records were distinct in their pure use of vintage analogue
synthesizers and tape recorders to create a romantic and somewhat
dark, broody sound environment in which his music could unfold along a
current of beats and rhythms while escaping the mechanisation of many
of his contemporaries. As the Locust sound moved towards and
increasingly more vocal oriented approach in the late 90's, Mark Van
Hoen began to release music under his own name and returned to the
instrumental music of his early period which he continues today.


Sun Electric

Sun Electric saw the light of day in 1990, with their first 12"
O'Locco on Wau! Mr.Modo. (Well, there was actually one track before
that: Sundance, which appeared on the first Cafe del Mar compilation.)
After splitting up with the third member in a band called Fischerman's
Friend, Max and Tom carried on as Sun Electric.

O'Locco got great attention by Alex Paterson, Jimmy Cauty & Youth in
London. They considered S.E. to be the inventors of Ambient House.
From there a great friendship and collaboration with Thomas Fehlmann
(to whom they were already closely related ever since they moved to
Berlin) and The Orb started, which lasts until today. In 1994 The Orb
released "Pomme Fritz" - a collaboration between The Orb and S.E.

After being stuck with a record deal at ZTT records, which didn't lead
to any releases, Sun Electric found a new label: R&S in Gent, Belgium.

"O'Locco" got re-released and a double 12" followed, then the first
album "Kitchen" came out in 1993. The first big tour in England,
opening for The Orb, took place in late 1993.

The artwork for all covers on R&S until the last S.E. release in 1998
was done by Designers Republic, who added an outstanding visual aspect
to the music.

Three more studio albums were released, "Aaah!" (94), "Present" (96)
and "Via Nostra" (98) and one live ambient-album "30-7-94", recorded
that day in a park in Copenhagen.

The years 1993-98 saw the band touring all over Europe, Japan, US and
Chile. After the release of "Via Nostra" the band took a turn to
freeform improvised live music, got more into programming with MAX/MSP
and changed their name to S.E.Berlin.

One vinyl release on the shortliving label Bad Orb followed, then Max
and Tom decided to end the project.

Seven years of individual projects went by. Then Tom discovered an old
CDR at a friend's house on the Canary Island Lanzarote, which Max and
Tom had left there in the year 2000. It had a bunch of unreleased
tracks on it from that time. Listening back to it came out as a
surprise: they still sounded good and fresh, even quite special in the
new musical context of 2007."

Very hot shit indeed. Scoop that up NOW. Not often that legendary labels give you so many free track, right?

Now this isn't free.... BUT, You do NOT wanna sleep on these two tracks! Click here to read more and download from Beatport

"Geo" by The Chain is, well errr, off the chain lol? I'm such a fucking dork.

"If you’re a fan of the very early days of trance when soul collided with hypnotic chords and techy beats, be sure to check ‘Geo’ by The Chain. As former mule electronic [l] artists, Foat & Boddy aka The Chain have been releasing music together for a number of years and with an album planned on R&S next year they are sure to get more fans on the back of this Balearic-sounding release.

There are tribal-influenced rhythms, deep vocal snippets and sun-drenched syths that nod towards the early 90s, but the transitions and FX are up to date.

‘Geo’ sounds like a classic already."

Yeah, it's good to see R&S back in full effect. Their logo, like Ghostly International's, is one that is like a stamp of quality... you know as soon as you see that stallion that you're on to something good. I hope you all enjoyed this as much as I have... "Counterpoint" is available as of yesterday on Beatport.

As I said I've got really good stories from Chicago and an interview with The Whip (one of Manchester's other great bands) and that should be up soon. Until then!

Everybody gotta work it out... Herve gives you 'Cheap Thrills'...

Me in a bad jean-short/visor/sweat-soaked-combo with my friend the legendary Larry Tee

SO here's a fun post where I get to tell you guys about a great memory. I mean a great memory. And I get onto Herve starting his own label... Trust me it will all tie together...

Ok. For those of you who have been reading for the last year, you may remember me telling you about all the fun that was had in Miami during the Winter Music Conference... alas, I will not be going this year, BUT all the awesome shit that happened last year makes up for it.

SOOOOOOO... the last day of the 'conference', Sunday, was a pretty down day. My partner was totally worn out from the whole week and not trying to deal with the world. I had some new found friends call me out to kick it at Remix Hotel insuring me they had badges lying around and I wouldn't have to pay. At the end of the afternoon I found myself standing on Collins waiting for Anya (aka Womso... the only girl I've never slept with who almost ended my relationship doing nothing!) to come out and get me because there was a SUPER long line (she was waiting to come out when she knew she could sneak booze back in)... while I'm standing there waiting my buddy Curt Autobot (of Flosstradamus fame) just happens to walk down the street after having just flown from SXSW...

...so I tap him on the shoulder and he's like "Yeah, dude, I'm so wiped. We've just been moving non-stop. Josh (J2K of Floss) got stranded at some airport, I just met MSTRKRFT like two seconds ago and was too tired to talk, and I'm fucking starving. Everything is just too intense right now and I feel like shit. I gotta get something to eat... walk and talk." So we walk a few blocks down some really crowded area I didn't know existed (really how much of Miami, or rather South Beach, do you see when you go to WMC?) he runs into some people and I begin to feel a little out of place...

...see, Curt and I came up in the same town in Michigan, played the same weird ass warehouses, both went to school in Chicago at the same time, and even worked on songs together for a while... as in we were close enough that I stayed at his house while my roomie and I were finding a place in Chicago... but eventually I moved out of the Chi, which is one of the things that caused us to stop talking/working/hanging out together (we reconnected at Intonation Festival right before Flossy D BLEW UP)... but if you find a copy of my first demo you'll find that Curt's the first person I thank... but frankly you're never gonna find that unless well I dunno you're Larry Tee, or Errol formerly of Astralwerks, but I think I retrieved all the other existing copies!

...so anyway, here I am with my newly anointed "international-jetset-superstar-dj" buddy (he was on the cover of URB that month) walking with his friends I totally don't know and I start to feel weird. I mean REAL weird. He, although very tired, keeps trying to engage me in conversation and I start to become more and more uneasy. I release he's headed somewhere NICE and here I am, Midwestern Retard, dressed in a wifebeater, a black visor, JEAN SHORTS (which trust me I have since given up), sweating like a crack whore in a sauna from nervousness/heat...

...and we arrive at, exactly as I thought, a fucking really nice cafe! And I hesitantly walk in with him ...and I feel the air conditioning hit me and I'm like thinking "Ok, maybe I can hang. I just need to relax." So, the hostess takes us to a table that seats about 12... I can see most of the people have been sitting for a little while, and there are two seats left! Sweet right? So, Curt sits down and I go to join him BUT I suddenly look up and see Naeem Juwan at the other side of the table... I mean, that's probably what you'd call him if you knew him well like Curt does... but to me, my sweaty stupid looking Midwestern ass is staring at Spank Rock... and despite having met him two nights previous at the Turntable Lab party, I knew I couldn't sit around and chill with someone whose CD I listen to like every fucking day... no seriously, I'm man enough to admit I couldn't hang! I was in over my head... Now Benny Blanco is apparently trying to fuck my ex-girlfriend seeing as she "accidentally" sends me emails about it all the time but I digress (I guess go gettem Benny!)...

So I immediately bail and find a slew of mean text messages from Anya about how I left her in line and she saw me walking off and how I was a motherfucker for making her come out for nothing... she was REALLY pissed. I hauled ass back to the Remix Hotel gig and we all danced like retards... or at least I did... I was wearing an inflatable duck on my head...

Then blah blah blah we went to this Oakenfold thing and got past the wait, which despite the fact I don't care for him anymore was really fucking cool to bypass a three hour wait and a velvet rope! PROBLEM was Anya didn't have her ID... I mean I dunno??!? She's Russian! I don't know how that all works... but she couldn't come in with us... so I was there for like 10 minutes and declared "I gotta go to downtown Miami. My friend Curt is playing down there. I'll see you guys next year!"

And off I went. Patrick and Anya drove me to a corner where I knew I could catch a bus and that was that. I took the bus downtown and walked to the venue. It was REALLY fucking tiny and both Curt and Pase Rock were playing... there were like maybe 20 people there and I could tell both of them were like "Who fucking roped me into playing this place on a Sunday night in Miami?"... I went to talk to Curt but he was going on and... what was I going to do? Hang out with Pase Rock? Nope nope nope nope... I listen to Five Deez and his solo shit quite a bit so that's not happening. Some people I can do that with and some people I can't (that's kind of where this story is heading). So I stand in a corner and slowly make my way backwards to the bar. I figured "Hey, I'm gross, out of place, still wearing an ill advised beater and a visor, and I probably just need to go home. Just like earlier. Blah."

So I depart from this bar that is JUST far away from the bus station to be scary. There are literally crack heads walking around like zombies and then start coming closer to me. Every time I look over my shoulder they get closer, every time I speed up so do they! As I think I'm about to get dragged into the crackhead underworld a silver two door comes speeding up to my side, the door flings open and who is it other than my mentor Larry Tee!

He says "Do you know where Karu & Y is?", without even looking up at me.

To which I said "Larry, I'll get you there but you've got to take me with you!"

When he looked up and saw it was me, he leaned forward, I jumped in the back of the two door and we ran off to this club...

...which was the greatest thing ever because Larry didn't play which meant we got to hang out all night. Top five best nights of my life ever and I was totally sober. Amazing. I could tell you all about it again but I think I did last year.

Anyway, it comes time for the night to end and Kevin (Larry's friend and assistant) drops Larry off, and then goes to drop my ass of (because it's SO not safe to take the bus that late). Kevin turns to me and says "Have you heard the song?"

"What song?"

"Have you heard the song he did with Concetta? Off Larry's Sampler that he gave you?" (FYI: Concetta is Princess Superstar)

"Well, no, because he just gave me I copy. He hasn't had them on him all week because I always see him when he's relaxing or it's the end of the night."

"Holy fuck. You have to hear this..."

AND THIS LADIES AND GENTLEMEN IS WHERE THE STORY TIES BACK TO HERVE! We're driving down the highway at god-knows-what-o-clock and I'm hearing "Gettin' low low on the ground" thinking "Awwww fuck. This is why Larry is a fucking genius." And then Kevin goes "Hold on, I gotta turn it up." And then I hear...

"L-i-Licky-c-k-Licky-y-L-i-Licky-c-Licky-k-y"

AND THEN A BASS LINE AND A SYNTH THAT MAKE THE EARTH SHAKE. Which of course resulted in my jaw hitting the floor. And Kevin goes "I know right? This is the Herve remix... it's so fucking good". That drive back to my hotel on 72nd was fucking amazing... best WMC ever... how can you top moments like that? I waltzed into the hotel at like 5am and said "Hey, Electroboy, guess what you just missed out on?"... (FYI: Electroboy is Larry's nickname for Sam)... and, of course, he knew he realllllly missed out... especially if my lame ass is coming home at 5am because I'm usually in bed by 10pm lol...

When he finally got to hear the Herve remix the next day we were like "How did we ever end up in the position where we have a copy of this before everyone else?"... sometimes you're just lucky I guess...

AND today my friends you are luck too because I'm gonna get you hooked up with some good shit fer reals... here's the info on Herve's new label...

New label launched by Joshua ‘Hervé' Harvey aka The Count

Featuring new releases by all the alter ego’s and new talent including Action Man, Voodoo Chilli and Detboi

The Count & Sinden’s “Beeper” released in the UK on Domino Records on 24th March 2008

The Count & Sinden debut album out in summer 2008

www.MySpace.com/hervespace

www.MySpace.com/thecountofmontecristal

Maybe this is "DJ snobby" of me but errrr hasn't "Beeper" been the hottest shit on wax for 12 months? How is it JUST getting released? PLEASE tell me this doesn't have to do with red tape from Star Trak (seeing as the vocal is from a FamLay song... I jumped on his back once... but that's a different story for a different place... it's been easier to explain that story since the "Beeper" song came out)... still just as hot 12 months later though...

ANYWAY... here's the goods kiddo... I tried to keep it as British as possible... so here's a Herve remix of the Chemical Brothers that is fucking soooooooo sick... from 2:30 on it's like a weird Prince song and then the drums are sooooo fucking dope....

Chemical Brothers- "The Salmon Dance (Herve Remix)

And here's a mini mix Herve would like you to have... enjoy.....

The Count of Monte Cristal EP 2 Martelo Mini Mix

So see.. there, you got a fun story where I make an ass out of myself multiple times and we get to hear one of the greatest songs like ever... you wanna hear the Larry Tee song? Go to his Myspace and buy the damn thing... or swap that new Steve Aoki because it's on there with Santogold rapping... I'm not giving it to you for free... sorry kids... hotness... see you soon...