Uf0
I'm Lost

Back in 2021, when Volodymyr Gnatenko agreed to work on his debut album, none of us could have predicted it would be released, post-pandemic, against the backdrop of war. At the time, the 23-year-old producer from Lutsk was riding high on a string of well-received 12s for labels such as Where We Met and Animals On Psychedelics, besides local Ukraine labels such as LSS557 and Rhythm Buro. He was, between covid closures, playing live at Kyiv clubs such as Closer and Kureni, looking to tour in Europe, and spending every spare second making music.How things change. When missiles began to rain on Kyiv, Gnatenko, alongside a few friends from Closer, hid in his studio. For a while, the bombings did not stop. But for the producer, neither did the music-making. Choosing to stay in the city, he continues to make beats, managing only to mix down between bombing raids. He changed his first name to match that of his president, ditching the previous spelling of his name because it was the same as the aggressor, “[the same as] my worst enemy, I am ashamed and disgusted that I started my career with it”. The album speaks of softer, easier times. A combination of rich ambience, and laidback breaks alongside loose progressive and trance-fused dancefloor tracks, this debut brings together all the strands that Gnatenko plays with. The process, he says, was exhausting and long. Yet the results are lighter, fresher. Maybe because, he says, “it is dedicated to my future wife. All the tracks are my words of love for her". Deeply hypnotic and freely moving between ideas, it feels like it was made a lifetime ago, not a matter of months. Now, it resonates with a new defiance. It is a debut with an extra layer of meaning.

Pancratio: In the early 2000s, Korg invented, engineered and distributed four little instruments called Electribes. A drum machine, one analog modeling synthesizer, a sampler and a music workstation respectively called ER1, EA1, ES1 and EM1. Initially I always found it very difficult to use them in my studio, because they weren’t really fitting with the sound and the workflow. Between march and may 2020, I stopped worrying about trying to force the Electribes into the setup: i just put them together and started jamming, recording several tracks without using anything else apart from these little boxes and their own effects… eventually sampling a few things along the way with my headphones into the ES1.The title, as well as the aesthetic of the project, are inspired by a future-retro approach to early electronics and 70s Italian product advertisement.

In the post-apocalyptic world of JTEKKEN 3, life as we know it has almost disappeared. Not so long ago, was an electric and violent atmosphere, full with the sweat of dancing bodies and the scent of alcool and other substances. This world is now dead. The horrible Covidos boss has wiped it out with the back of its clawed hand and has placed the rare survivors under his yoke. Turned into slaves, they only survive as shadows who disappear at night with the last rays of the sun…But! A handful of heroes is refusing to let the world in the hands of Covidos and has decided to fight for the rescue of the planet. They compete against each other in a final mortal kombat in order to select the one who will have the honor to stand up to Covidos in a final showdown to end its evil reign. Their weapons: powerful and destructive gravitationnal sound waves called Musique. Join the Frappé Guild, select your weapon and your hero and add your name to the legend.

Bike Thieves are back. On last year’s celebrated “Laura EP”, the Stockholm duo plunged into the sounds of classic garage and deep house. On “Catherina EP”, Daniel Strand and Erik Danielson move in a slightly different direction. An explosive blend of afro grooves, tribal vocals and deep kicks and basslines, “Catherina EP” lets the rhythmic frenzy of Fela Kuti encounter modern house. The record also features Saine, one of Finland’s finest underground producers.On the opening title track of “Catherina EP”, Bike Thieves offer a mysterious deep house burner which slowly builds up around punchy congas, sweeping pads and female chants, eventually exploding in an orgasmic djembe solo. They get even more organic on “The Greatest Curve”, an afro jam driven by funky basslines and polyrhythmic percussions. On the B-side, Saine offers his own take on “Catherina”, turning the track into a hypnotizing and sleepless groove of dance floor tribal.

"La Compil" is an annual production contest organised by the french label Nymphony Records. Every year, at the end of the contest, the label selects 5 house tracks and 5 techno tracks to release a compilation that is distributed everywhere in France.