Felon5
Reserved For The Moustache Man EP

Brad P, Producer from UK/US, delivers a nice selection of Deep Techno and Future Jazz on the swiss label Moto Music. Besides DJing and producing Techno Music he also runs the label Inner Shift Music and Common Dreams together with Rai Scott.

Following the last Ma.to's EP we joined forces with two artists taking care of music and artwork on the 4th release. The first one delivered by the infamous Italian legend Miki 'aka' Major Hypnotic Key Institute. His resume and collaboration's list are known and long enough to establish him as a pioneer and precursor of electronic and rave music since the 80s. 4 tracks ranging from slower hypnotic rhythms to speed-up marched techno/trance.And for the occasion on the artwork we collaborated with friend and genius Conxi at Ivvoki Studio, the result speaks beautifully for itself. Proudly presenting this 4 track Ep with included a repress of an old work from Miki on Interactive Test and a Re-Edit of miki and 2Volt of an early work from the Italian synthpop electronic band A.T.R.O.X.Well balanced music, techno / trance / minimal spreading pure 90s vibes from both sides but sounding so contemporary. A Must! have.

With the UKG scene carving out it's niche, 1996 saw the all too brief, but much lauded appearance of the mysterious Mred Marquez for this excellent one-off release on Crosstown Records. Dedicating himself to the tougher, trackier & darker side of UK house and garage, this 4 tracker perfectly encapsulates his vision.'I Release', opens with melodic chord stabs and heavy, warm analogue bass, swinging percussion drives the track on before a classic garage organ plays an unforgettable riff. 'I Realise' (Dub) strips it down and goes for a heads down vibe, a slammer of a track that never loses any of the original's devastating punch and potency. 'Nathalie X' brings the muscle, driven along by yet another monstrous speaker rattling b-line that builds and moves to an incredible peak, there's yet again top draw bumpin' drums and quintessential garage chords and keys. Lastly, 'Do Not Pass Go' is a classic sweaty basement jam. Gritty and more uncompromising in it's approach, banging kicks underpin the percussion that builds with those ever essential skipping snares and clipped hi-hats.There's hefty lo-slung bass throughout, whilst classic riffs and dubbed out chords lift the higher end.

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.