HIGHLIGHT of the month
LAURA LÓPEZ CASTRO - Inventan el ser Feliz

Jennifer CardiniLaura López Castro y Don Philippe inventan el ser feliz (‘Laura López Castro and Don Philippe invent happiness’): the album’s title both misleads and explains everything. The happiness that these two musicians mean has nothing to do with flamboyant cheerfulness. It is a serene form of joy that is being invented here. These are songs that charm like a wonderful smile or a flirtatious look and they play around your ears with all the gentle magic of a breeze in high summer.
The outlines of this happiness were sketched in 2003 in Stuttgart, Germany, when singer Laura López Castro and guitarist, composer and producer Don Philippe met for their first musical exchange. She, a vivacious acting student with Spanish parents and a weakness for Björk and Kyuss, and he a reserved urbane forty-something with French roots, co-founder of German hip-hop band Freundeskreis
and owner of an exquisite collection of Jazz and Bossa Nova LPs.
Laura López Castro’s second album takes up the story where her first chimed out, although this time more confidence and many more little flourishes are audible. Most of the pieces are original compositions.
But the repertoire also includes almost forgotten treasures of music history - songs dreamt up in the shady places of sunnier continents and now distilled by these two, down the essence of their original beauty. Listen to the full-blooded Bolero Tu me acostumbraste, created by the Cuban Frank Dominguez to express the bitter aftertaste that escorts every passion. Or the carefree Acabou Chorare by the Brazilian hippie collective Os Novos Baianos – a delightful ode to the little wonders of nature to which the young Bebel Gilberto once danced when she and her father João Gilberto visited the band’s shaggy commune in the early 1970s.


Laura Lopez Castro MySpace


HIGHLIGHT of march
Jennifer Cardini v/a - Feeling Strange

Jennifer CardiniIt’s been a very long time coming but finally this day arrived. Our long time friend and the French connection for Kompakt, Paris based Jennifer Cardini has been an integral part of our family for many years now and remains today on of the most open-minded and music loving members of the techno community. And of course we cannot go without mentioning her tremendous talent as a DJ showcased like never before here on her first mix CD in 3 years and her Kompakt debut, “Feeling Strange”.But let’s step back in time and briefly share key events that brought her here to today…the late-‘90’s brought Jennifer alongside Sextoy and together as the Pussy Killers duo unleashed an infrared brand of avant-garde electro punk – her DJ’ing had put her one of the world’s most important clubs for techno, The Rex as a resident at the Automatik party. There she began to connect the dots between the new German techno sound (think Playhouse, Bpitch Control, Sender, Klang etc), the output from Cologne’s new wave of dance music stemmed from Kompakt and the elegance of French dance floor sounds. But it was together with Fany and Chloe (both of Killthedj fame) at Pulp where they would spearhead a movement that would go on to become a major force behind reinvigorating Paris’s club scene and thus making Jennifer one of the most important female DJ’s to emerge. Keeping a deep connection to the lesbian community and an unwillingness to buckle to musical trend and niche – Jennifer has continued to turn on thousands of new faces onto music they’d never easily find. It was by inviting Kompakt co-owner Michael Mayer to play with her in France that opened the door for the label’ssuccesses in France. In the studio, she keeps tremendously busy - continuing to keep a high profile with releases on Crosstown Rebels, Mobile, Killthedj, Output amongst others. And now we come to ‘‘Feeling Strange’’…with this important moment for Kompakt, Jennifer brings forth one of the most personal mixes to have ever been released on the label. Seamlessly connecting some of yesterday and today’s finest tunes, Jennifer follows a long tradition of Kompakt DJ mix CD’s with little concern for what is only as newly produced as possible (like so many generic mixes out there), but opting to follow her deep connection with her favorite songs and how they work together. The result is a vast variety of different musical styles on ‘‘Feeling Strange’’. Entering with Robert Lippock’s gorgeous take on Static to a rare inclusion of Maurizio / Basic Channel’s brightest moment, Matthew Dear’s False alias and the soothing indie- pop of Apparat, Jennifer has succeeded beyond our wildest expectations and once again showcases her talent as one of the world’s most gifted DJ’s.

“Jennifer was the first French DJ who could properly pronounce names like Wolfgang Voigt or Michael Mayer...haha. But seriously, she’s not only the most important ambassador of the Kompakt sound in France and an amazingly consistent DJ - she also became a very dear friend.” - Michael Mayer


Jennifer cardini website





HIGHLIGHT of february
Poker Flat recordings vol. 6 - Dead Man's hand

firefoxThe start of a new year marks the arrival of the sixth dedicated compilation from the world-renowned Poker Flat imprint. Just like the notorious
‘‘Dead Man’s Hand’’ in a high stakes all-nighter, this double CD release is full of carefully judged mind games and more than a few winning surprises! ‘‘Dead Man’s Hand’’ follows strong Poker Flat CD releases like Trentemøller (The Last Resort - PFRCD18) and “Bets’n’Bluffs” (PFRCD19).
The first half of the compilation is dealt out in traditional style by none other than label figurehead and internationally revered DJ and Producer Steve Bug. Bug’s success behind the decks somewhat mirrors the success of Poker Flat’s inimitable sound, and his ‘Compiled by...’, unmixed CD shows off exactly that! CD 2 contains a fantastic mix presented by key label name and one half of the critically acclaimed Märtini Brös, Clé. The German DJ and Producer, who also collaborates with Steve Bug, has chosen 13 more Poker Flat past and future classics for the ‘‘Dead Man’s Hand’’ Mix..


Poker-Flat website





HIGHLIGHT of JANUARY
SYSTEM 7 - Phoenix

firefoxSystem 7’s Phoenix album is their most accomplished in a long and influential dance music career. A fusion of deep dark spacey techno and some rich dreamy downtempo moments, Phoenix contains all the elements that make System 7 great, including Miquette Giraudy’s unique electronica and Steve Hillage’s highly specialised techno guitar. The album is inspired by the manga graphic novel series ’Phoenix’ by Osamu Tezuka - one of the founding fathers of Japanese manga culture – and features collaborations with Jam El Mar (of Jam and Spoon), Son Kite, Slack Baba, Eat Static, Gong’s Daevid Allen and Mito from the Japanese band Clammbon.