Italian Laherte trained at Studio 76 Music and has since built on that early promise with tunes on top labels. He opens up with ‘My Mind’, a driving techno ...]]> Ellum Audio serves up a two part selection of dance floor weapons on a bumper new sampler ‘Ellum Audio Summer Sampler’ handpicked by label head Maceo Plex.

Italian Laherte trained at Studio 76 Music and has since built on that early promise with tunes on top labels. He opens up with ‘My Mind’, a driving techno cut with slapping hits and filtered alien sounds bringing the menace. Ellum Audio artist Waltervelt then keeps it dark and cosmic with the skewed synth energy and prickly beats of his eerie ‘Back Room’

Argentina’s David Bau has made big moves in the underground with this potent take on techno. Here he offers up ‘Deconstruct’, a tense and turbulent stomper with flashy synth designs and intense, grinding bass. French mainstay Madben follows up his excellent recent album with ‘The Drone Dance’, another standout track with strobe-lit synth lasers firing over the face of an ice-cold rhythm.

Part 2 opens with Ibiza-based producer and DJ John Monkman, the founder of Beesemyer Music and a familiar face on this label. He impresses again with ‘Talking Heads’, another sublime mix of futuristic synth designs carefully layered up over compelling, steel-edged drums. 8-Bit Culprit is the house and techno alter ego of Faraz Ehsan from India. His ‘Refurbished Robots’ is an electrifying peak time cut that takes you to the heart of a dance floor in outer space, with nebulous pads and squealing cosmic sounds all wrapping around the urgent grooves.

Next up is the collaborative Headwaters duo from Turkey. They draw on their mix of electronic sounds and instrumental skills on ‘Eternal Madness’, a slick tech track that locks you into crisp loops then mesmerises with the glowing synth harmonies which shine brightly up top. Danish DJ and producer Christian Nielsen is back on the label to round out this collection with ‘Liberate,’ a dark dance floor punisher with neck-snapping snares and ghoulish voices over a slithering and hypotonic beat. This has already been receiving plays from Maceo Plex at the likes of Timewarp, Brunch Madrid and the Ushuaia opening and is set to be a summer highlight.

This is another high-class voyage to the edges of the techno galaxy courtesy of Ellum Audio.

We are presenting Madben’s ‘The Drone Dance’ from ‘Ellum Audio Summer Sampler Part 1’.

‘Ellum Audio Summer Sampler Part 1’ will be available after the 7th of July HERE.

Martijn Ravesloot aka Melawati makes music out of mistakes. He comes from an indie background but has always admired Aphex Twin while playing ...]]> Belgian artist Melawati steps up to Ellum Audio with an arresting debut album, ‘Artimia’. Produced with an array of modified machines and modular synths, it is a testament to finding beauty in chaos.

Martijn Ravesloot aka Melawati makes music out of mistakes. He comes from an indie background but has always admired Aphex Twin while playing in bands such as The Subs and working in theatre. He has a love of experimenting with soundwaves that gives rise to his complex, experimental and improvised sounds. He first met Maceo Plex while jamming and that session turned into the track ‘Daliah’ which dropped on Ellum Audio and was remixed by Tale of Us.

After that, Melawati wrote this most absorbing and beautiful album during the pandemic in a dark studio attic in the heart of Brussels. He set about recording live experiments on analog synths and then deconstructed and reconstructed them into the tracks presented here. The angelic tones of guest vocalist Lisa Jane feature on two tracks though the pair have never met, and Melawati is now set to take his impressive live show to Tomorrowland. His life has changed since writing the album, he now has two children and lives on a farm, but the power of this music where organic and alien worlds intersect remains utterly compelling.

Opener ‘I Just Want To Go Walking’ pairs a heavenly vocal with celestial chords and a bustling broken beat that strikes a powerful emotional note right from the off. The excellent ‘Riddles’ showcases more majestic synth work and molten melodies that suspend you in mid-air while ‘Slow Pulse’ is an intense layering of drones and heavy drum tumbles that again offsets light and dark, tension and release.

‘Red Herring’ rests with beautifully pensive synth patterns that twinkle, warp and melt before your very ears and ‘You And I’ takes off on a rubbery groove overlaid with heart-aching keys and shimmering, wordless vocals. ‘Somebody’ is brain-soothing synth bliss with lush patterns and icy drums that gently unfold to get you in a trance and the gorgeous ‘Radiate’ then offers a widescreen and cosmic ambient interlude. The heartbroken synths of ‘Let Your Love Wash Over Me’ speak of the end of a cosmic love affair and ‘Violent Thoughts’ rebuilds on smooth arps and smeared pads over downtempo drums. The final trio of tracks offers rousing breakbeats on ‘New White Noise’, uplifting synth catharsis on ‘Pain And Pressure’ and a melancholic lullaby on ‘Stellar’.

‘Artimia’ is a beautiful mix of harmony and dissonance, of real emotional power and improvised musical elegance.

We are presenting the eleventh track, ‘Pain And Pressure’.

‘Artimia’ will be available after the 14th of October HERE.

AVNU (UK) is based on the East Coast of Scotland and has been deeply immersed in music for twenty plus years. He has a love of everything from rock, soul ...]]> AVNU (UK) follows up his fantastic recent single on Ellum Audio with a long-awaited and hugely adventurous new album, ‘Tough To Love But Worth The Effort’.

AVNU (UK) is based on the East Coast of Scotland and has been deeply immersed in music for twenty plus years. He has a love of everything from rock, soul and blues to disco, electro, techno, trance and rave. All of that comes out in his innovative sounds, which range from sweat-inducing club tracks to hooky and feel-good grooves. This album finds him working his magic across 15 tracks that bring plenty of fresh perspective to house, electro, synth, techno and pop. They add up to a storytelling record filled with left turns and tracks that work in a range of different contexts.

‘Surprise!’ opens with a glossy electro beat and shimmering 80s synths that set the tone for the whole record. ‘I Love You’ brings a French touch influence with plenty of filtered synth loops and crisp drums under a soulful vocal, then ‘Supaflake’ cuts loose on an old-school funk vibe with nods to early Daft Punk. This most colourful of records plays out through the likes of sombre cosmic techno offering ‘Bad Karma’, the longing chords and heavy-hearted electronica of ‘Odyssey Jam’ feat Mariel Ito and distorted bass of ‘Phlegm In The Street’ which comes with laser-like synths and menacing vocals.

The future styles continue on ‘Yo E, Check This Out’ which collides jungle breakbeats with brain-melting sine waves, while ‘Wilkie’ is a moment to catch your breath amongst bright and shiny synths and deeper drums that suspend you in a celestial sky. ‘Proud You’re Mine’ is a perfect electro-dance-pop gem that has potential to be a summer festival anthem and the title track closes down with six minutes of enchanting and mystical synth lines and hypnotic drums.

‘Tough To Love But Worth The Effort’ is a spectacularly broad and accomplished album that lives in a world of its own.

We are presenting the fifth track ‘Bad Karma’.

‘Tough To Love But Worth The Effort’ album will be available after the 27th of May HERE.