A fun filled four days in Barcelona for the Sonar Off parties has just lead to a Saturday morning session searching some of the tracks. For many years Sonar festival has been gaining widespread recognition and is now a staple part of the Clubbers calender. More recently the city of Barcelona has been filled by club nights, record labels and international DJs across the week, running one of showcase events in a variety of temporary and permanent venue spaces across the city. Beach bars, hotel rooftops, museums, olympic stadium and even a monastery terrace played host to a range of electronic artists across the week.
Once – Dan Ghenacia & David Duriez
Arriving as the sun was setting the Mac Arena was filled with 600+ beach revellers huddled around the Beach bar with the Appollonia DJs laying down a range of 4×4 beats. This deep driving atmospheric track blared across the crowd lead by the protrusive snares and puckering groove.
March (Club Tip Mix) Feat. Franklin Fuentes - The Look
Deep bouncing 1993 classic from Brooklyn/Ibiza DJ legend, Danny Tenaglia producing under one of his aliases. No doubt slipping out for years in his marathon sets, this track was worked through by Shonky as the sun pitched to black. A strong mix of old school knacks, hits, ground breaking freq's; the US vocals still keep this tune close to hand for a host DJs who stay harking back to the early years.
Equilibrio (Original Mix) – Tale Of Us & Visionquest A deep atmospheric techno dub from the Visionquest crew of Seth Troxler, Ryan Crosson, Shaun Reeves and Lee Curtis who have been working wonders across the electronic music scene of late. Laced with escalating piano synths, furturstic melodies and a errie racking high hits this track closed through the tail end of the session as hundreds remained fixed in a spot on by the Mediterranian sea which was complemented the beach side backdrop tampered by a industrial factory looming from behind.
Boo Beach club, a boat shaped venue which protruded out into the ocean was host to W+L's first Sonar party which was backed by label associates Slow Hands, Tanner Ross, Soul Clap and Voices of Black. Early sets paved through dreamy lounge sounds and deep disco electronica before merging into a crate digging vinyl showcase of trip hop, deep house, rock and hip hop. Tracks such as Womacks classic 'Teardop' were mixed into Larry Heard, Pepe Bradock and Homework with Nicolas Jaar making an appearance to play his edit of Missy Elliot.
Frequent Flyer feat. Jules Born – Tanner Ross Tanner Ross followed along the same lounge house dreamy hallucination vein, albeit slightly more uptempo. Featuring vocals by Jules Born, one half of the duo Voices of Black, a variety of 70′s/80′s influenced synths, and a heavy, but groovy bass line, “Flyer” is “sun-soaked electro funk” perfect for riding around with the top down and the system up.
Spyro Evo (Slow Hands Remix) – Chromatic Filters
Downbeat, slo-mo biz number from Chromatic Filters which is out on limited release on Rebirth. Deep electronic acid guitar-tinged track with a backbeat groove chant topped off with leading synths, ska jibes and euphoric reverbed vocals, a staple sound emerging out of Slow Hands live set at Boo Beach Club.
Love Vibe (Jimpster Remix) – Iz and Diz Iz and Diz began making music together in Chicago 1994, recording their first track at the legendary KMS studios in Detroit for the Prescription Records offshoot Balance. Revisiting one of their most notable tracks, Jimpster stears back into house territory with a dreamy, carefully build-up and slowly intensifying version that puts a nice twist on the melancholic piano chords.
Marseille Desole (Original Mix) – John Daly Sunday played host the Secretsundaze party in the incredible Montjuic hills looking over Barcelona. The walk through Poblo Espanyol lead to the outdoor courtyard set amongst towering trees and mystical winding pathways of the Spanish town. After the sun had set the party moved inside to the Terrrazza, a large multi-leveled space with raised dj booth and a central structure which dancers took full advantage of climbing all over.
No19. arrived in Barcelona for their first ever sonar showcase and chosen the brand new Almogavers club with a fully fitted function one sound system to ensure it went off. Following the success of the WMC party, Art Department, Deniz Kurtel, Russ Yallop and Tone of Arc ensured the club stayed open to the early hours with Luca C topping off the show with live vocals from Ali Love
Beautiful World (Deniz Kurtel Remix) - Amirali
Captivating slice of nu-wave wonky electronic melancholic house with Amirali's gothic vocals quickly being compared to Depeche Mode and Underworld. Deniz Kurtel Bringing down the pace on her set, allowing for plenty of spooky spaciousness, her rework is a master class in progression and sonic texture, effortlessly gliding from futuristic bleeps to funky licks and utilising the melody to devastating effect.
Kiss Jesse On The Dick – Jesse Perez
Out on a mix album from Mr.Nice Guy, "Head, Sex, & Welfare Checks" this stomping track has been sneaking out sets from several of the Rebels. With heavy sampling from the Digital Underground's 1980's hip hop tune 'Kiss You Back' this proven blend will always keep the party pumping.
In Love – Tim Green Feel-good, atmospheric, sunny-side disco-inspired piece. House at its finest with its smooth vocal cuts and creamy synth lines. A golden wave of dance club nostalgia comes over us in the most beautiful way, whilst holding its sounds rooted in the modern Tech House scene.
Jazz Fusic – Chris Lattner Fuse resident Enzo Siragusa, teams up with Lattner to create a querky little houser with a twist of a smile about it, Chunky kicks, overlay statements and a groove melody you can switch the lights off to.
Elements Of Fife (Main Mix) – The Revenge Scotish rising star, Graeme Clark, started creating a skewed blend of electronic music using a couple of his dad’s old drum machines, a 4 track and a sampler. This has continued to develop producing tracks like this slow grooving New York / Chicago style percussive house club jam
Playdo (Laura Jones Remix) – Matthew Burton & Nick Lawson A hypnotic groover, the original mix of 'Playdo' is alive with quirky sonic detail and trippy spontaneity, the spring-like sounds and spry electric keys provide ying to the yang of the moody bassline, clicky drums and evocative vocal ris
Step Aside (Lightweight) – Life and Death A slice of laconic lazy house with growling, pulsing bass line gradually turning more and more analogue and acidic as the warm enigmatic omnipresent pads infuse snarling dismissive vocals…serious sonic skullduggery.
As you would expect, Cocoon Heroes Ibiza closing was nothing short of monumental with Amnesia packed to the rafters for the all-star line-up. The night saw Loco Dice kicking of the proceedings, working into a powerful hour live set from 2011's hottest talent Maetrik (aka Maceo Plex) before Sven Vath stepped in to drive the energy right the way through to the early hours. On the terrace, Ricardo Villalobos was joined by Raresh, Onur Ozer and Tobi Neumann with the whole thing going to an unprecedented back-to-back session with a midday finish.
Cocoon Main Room:
Bekeke - Italoboyz & Blind Minded
Arriving at cocoon at 1.30, Loco Dice was already blazing the main room with huge tech house techno hybrid hammers. Amnesia's ice cannons firing causing pandemonium as dry ice viciously attacked the dance floor like a science fiction fog before evaporating into the increasingly sweat-filled din.
Crush On Me – Maetrik Maetrik moulded the room into his unique style, using halluciognetic vocals, hypnotic beats and a power that is deep and latenly noisy at the same time to put the dancefloor over the edge of insanity. For those who weren't there, A recording of his hour long Live set will be released as a CD on Cocoon Records!
Icon - Christian Burkhardt & Einzelkind
This big tech house hybrid production released on Cocoon Compilation Cocoon emerged early in Svens Vath's set, the electro groove bassline warming up the crowd and paving the way for some hard ripping electronic techno that was set to thunder through the main room.
Cocoon Terrace:
Mauersegler - Andre Galluzzi Onur Özer casually warmed the terrace with the more spaciously percussive side of his sound, playing a series of summery raw house tracks building the tempo for later shenanigans. Andre Galluzzi himself is no stranger to the cocoon amnesia terrace and neither are his productions which frequent the terrace sets of Vilallobos, Carola, Raresh, and Onur Ozer.
Street Movement (Olene Kadar Tool Edit) – Samuel Deep With the terrace really beginning to kick of after 7.30, Villalobos began to really work his magic, upping the tempo and dropping some spanking techno and house anthems such as 'Luvstuffs – Sagat' and even a edit of 'ABC – Look of the Love'. The break rhythms of this tune stormed through the main room with frequencies emerging across Amnesia's custom built phazon soundsystem.
Lombardo – Dirty Harris In a textbook Villalobos terrace style, he reverted briefly to dropping into a free form splatter of beds of noise, diffused chattering, distressed horns, off kilter sound effects and unexpected crunching drops before launching back into a pounding groovy fiesta with Raresh.
Inocencia – Mendo Here's a quality deep tropical tech house gem from Mendo off of his new stunning 'Cadenza' release. Featuring an hypnotizing vocal hook of chanting children voices, over spell bounding metal drums, fluctuating horns and a round, sensual groovy bass line.
Poke T – Leonardo Gonnelli
This upcoming French producer has received widespread support on his 'Crazy Pop' EP. This dark techy house track features deep morphing vocals, relentless driving clicks, sub-bass hits and scutty build up drop. Big plays from Marco Carola, Loco Dice, Nic Fancuili and is no doubt a firm favourite on the Cocoon Amnesia terrace.
Grey Piano – NiCe7 Gray Piano focuses round a dusty old house loop and a big, plump, juicy bassline that you can really sink your teeth 2 and ears 2 into.The slinky groove gives way to a huge, dramatic piano scale breakdown, building the tension before we drop back down into the main artery of this pumping track.
Curious – Sonny Fodera Australian producer, Sonny Fodera is one of the rising stars of the Jacking House scene and is making waves with his groovy, funkalicious, ultra-danceable tracks. With samples stretching across genres, Hip Hop, RnB, Disco, his tracks will always bring a grin to most party dancefloors.
Cooper – Christian Burkhardt & Einzelkind
Einzelkind's Groovy Melodies combined with Burkhardt's heavy and funky basslines
is a recipe for success creating hammers like this
Moonshine – Lauhaus
Both a Peak time anthem and a afterparty unwinder
Deep but driving with a serene melodic hook.
Freek 'N You (MK Dub) – Jodeci
Classic Track from '95. Seems like everyone is
redescovering Mark Kinchen and sneaking him back into their sets.
(and rightly so)
Good Voodoo (Subb – An Remix) – Kiki
Classic house-inspired basslines with bewitching vocals from Chela Simone.
Topped off with a solid input from exciting new producer, Subb-An "Somebody Call the Doctor…!"
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A cheeky dancefloor groove that is underpinned by a textbook Hot Natured bassline. Humerous vocals inquire about Clive's (Clive Henry) well-being which is eventually answered mid way through the song with a sample from a telephone call, confirming that Clive is infact alright…
Un Dia (Reboot Remix) – Juana Molina This huge tune started off as a unknown bootleg of the argentian superstar being smashed out by villalobos and tiefschwarz. Only when Four Tet was watching youtube did he relise Reboot was behind this masterpiece and telling his label (Domino) they were able to official release this 10-minute remix, which lays out Molina’s sing-song chants and acoustic guitars over a rolling groove.
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