ANSBRO, C303 - Ex Anima (Extended Mix) [ARTCORE Records]
Buy: www.beatport.com/release/artcore-ade-2024-vol-2/4797909
Stream: open.spotify.com/album/4TsHKi2lyG3qUzd0L7K8Nb?si=mdr61Aq-RRqpccd2DWUiog
Indira Paganotto is an unstoppable force in the music industry right now. After a killer 8-week summer residency at Amnesia for Metamorfosi, with a weekly line up curated by Indira, she took ARTCORE around the world, as the label expands at a rapid rate with a global tour spanning into the first part of 2025.
ARTCORE’s presence at ADE was unavoidable, with their brand takeover of the X BANK store for their new winter merchandise launch, it only makes sense they return with a colossal new VA release in November. A total of 20 tracks and 23 artists, ARTCORE ADE 2024 Vol.2 will be released on the 14th November.
Whilst ARTCORE welcome back artists on the VA who have already released on the label including CHRS, AD7USTMENT and TEUTON. But with another 7 artists making their ARTCORE debut, there is a lot of exciting talent Indira wants to create awareness for, young Colombian Noise Mafia, Spanish collaborators Victor Magan and Franklin Dam, Mariana Revilla from Mexico City known for her acid techno sets and French Teletech favourite
Eskha.
Raw femme power comes in the form of Fei-Fei, an established artist from the US, she is all about sexual liberation and making hyper techno for the hoes. Whilst Reblok has made a remarkable comeback as a techno producer after a decade in Tech House, with his music supported by I Hate Models, Kobosil and even Netflix.
Columbian producer Noise Mafia kicks off the VA with ‘Gansha’. The Bogata resident - who recently debuted on digital platform HOR - masterfully blends a frenzied bass and drum combo featuring a vocal improv that harmonises with whistling pan flute melodies. The energy remains at full-tilt with the arrival of Mexican techno-export, Mariana Revilla and her track ‘Baby G’. From the off a rush of fidgeting synth riffs run riot through a capacious soundscape of dreamy melodics whilst a hype man MC sample judders alongside.
From the Americas to Europe, Rex Club regular Eskha manifests the spirit of the Parisian underground with his track ‘Bisous Bisous’. A warehouse party thriller featuring a female vocalist whose rave-ready hooks rotate around measures of bulbous bass, hypo percussion, and neon whistle effects. Riding the electro-rush set early on comes Fei-Fei - who recently topped Beatport’s Top100 - with ‘Queen of Acid’. Employing original vocals to offer a tongue in cheek “allegiance” pledge at the intro the beat is in stark contrast to her sugary online persona as she opts for gritty industrial sonics, pounding drumbeats, and chaotic breakdowns.
Hailing from the Balklans, Reblok’s music has featured on a number of labels throughout his career, but ‘Vigor’ is his first on ARTCORE. The track isn’t exactly PG-friendly with a revolving hook that reels off various illicit substances atop a marching, warrior bass and distorted synth. The duo of Victor Magan & Franklin Dam collaborates for their VA contribution titled, ‘Locura’. A curious track that pulsates with kinetic vigour and features a side-scrolling arcade like melody that skips and dances in-between each verse and hook. ARTCORE regular CHRS abruptly changes the VA’s course with ‘Hot Rhythm’, an all-out audio assault of fast, chasmic techno that incorporates a breakbeat style loop and thudding old-school rave stabs.
With the VA drawing to a close AD7USTMENT follows the techno trail with ‘Seventeen’. Again, it’s a tough, rock-steady melody that chugs with an ethereal resonance amid a torrent of perpetual percussion. The eerily enigmatic TEUTON is another familiar name from ARTCORE-verse and his track ‘Gaya Calling’ epitomises his dramatic musical style. Beginning with a decisive drum-kick the beat ominously begins to develop by way of clamorous laser effects, delirious vocals and mechanized basslines. Wrapping up ‘ARTCORE ADE 2024 Vol.2’ are ANSBRO and C303 with ‘Ex Anima’. A war-cry of a beat that could soundtrack the final battle-scene of a dark space-opera with its stomping lead, hellish space pads and metallic sonic textures.