Uku was born in the Soviet Union and split his youth between Sweden and Santa Monica, California. For the last 20 years, he’s been living in Estonia and continues to produce in his own Bigtree Studios. Santa Monica is a collection of naive sun-drenched funk, weirdo love songs, and obscure soft-jazz which he released on his own label in 2006. For me the stand-out tracks are Uku’s classic “Vision Of Estonia”, “Soft Fashion”, “AO”, and the alluringly titled “Cat Dream”. From start to finish Santa Monica delivers nothing but the purest summertime vibes. The thought of rolling with this bumping and the top-down may sound a bit cliche, but it’s on my to-do list this summer — no doubt about that.

According to Uku’s MySpace he is “happy to collaborate with talented funky acts overseas – we do have the internet.” If you fit the bill you should hit him up, I’d love to hear the results!

A few weeks ago I recorded a short mix for my friends at Ecstasy Records in Portland, USA. The mix is a collection of some my all-time favorite dance records and a few new ones that I’ve got a really good feeling about. Ecstasy Records is the brainchild of Portland’s The Miracles Club, a two piece deep-house ensemble consisting of the ultra-talented Honey Owens and Rafael Fauria. If you are not familiar with their music, their SoundCloud and YouTube pages are a perfect place to get acquainted, they’ve got a handful of releases for sale over on their blog, buy some records, it feels good!

http://theecstasyblog.blogspot.com

Two great vignettes the fellows at Mood Hut put together, a nice little slice of life (there’s even a slice of cake at one point).

Be sure to stay in touch with these talented young men online: Twitter, Tumblr, and SoundCloud.

‘Lawndog’ begins with similarly ecstatic laser beam glee, but side-steps its way into a funky high-tech drum circle with some crunchy voicings. An inaudible sing-song vocal leads us back to the blissful refrain of the introductory melody, which eventually trills out to the fringes of the track. ‘Invisible Halo’ is a downtempo take on the EP’s neon palette. Intro notes and drum pads recall the fiery Evangelis-scored skyline opening of Blade Runner. Flames and flying cars loop listlessly until a dopamine groove whisks us into the rain-soaked catacombs of the city, while giant animated bill boards whisper softly of a better life on the off world colonies. Don’t worry about the replicants.

“Artie’s Mood” is a slinky, jazzy swing boogie, whose stretched, sliding notes and funky stepping percussion suggest balmy late nights of aimless delight and the gentle yearning of youth. “Heartstrings” is an extended hard-driving jam session with a rolling bass line, bongo hits, stern claps, vocoder talk, trailing vocal moans and sweeping rays of synth in a foggy, psychotropic atmosphere. “Essex” has the bubbling, dreamy, computerized inflections of the Motor City sound, along with its rigid hand clap spine. You can see the welding sparks whenever a regular chime hits amid the industrial jangle. Then suddenly the sun sets with a sweet blast of that old-time lakeshore soul-flute flavour.

‘Phaedra’s Love’ is sonic social psychoanalysis by allusion to classical drama. In the original Ancient Greek tragedy, Hippolytus, Phaedra is the Queen of Crete, who falls madly in taboo love with her own stepson, the prince Hippolytus. Consequences for both are predictably brutal. An alternative Oedipus tale, highlighting the plurality of personal and social complexities available today and through history. Yør’s adaptation is a babbling brook of urgent, shuffling conversation with no audible words, but crackling with emotion. Like Sarah Kane’s 1996 theatrical update of the same name, all the violence in ‘Phaedra’s Love’ happens off stage. Yet Yør builds consistently toward his EP’s suitable thematic and musical climax.

It is possible to view The Dream of Amnesia as a comment on our relationship with history. To always feel the thrill of the new, we long to forget yesterday’s importance, and believe in tomorrow’s legends. Together, we dream of amnesia. But Simoncino won’t forget. He still dreams of Ammnesia, and its vintage futurism that grows bolder with age. Throughout his album, Simoncino polishes and retouches memories of the work that has inspired him for so many years. While Larry Heard’s original is just that – a bright, crackling, raw, swaggering experimentation – Simoncino has quieted things down, longingly fine-tuning the details and air-brushing the fly-aways. In effect, he has brought to the surface much of the subtle beauty in Larry’s delicate arrangements, and given them the palette only possible through today’s audio recording and engineering advancements.

Mr. Fingers’ ‘Distant Planet’ (which did not appear on Ammnesia) is an earnest, shuffling, whispering wish for the liberty of alien escape, a metaphor for freedom of expression and equality in an often oppressive world. Heard melds the spare aesthetic of drum machines and synthesizers with a bluesy soul lament and interstellar spoken word chatter. Simoncino’s remake is a softer, melodic exploration, driven by the pitched down vocal refrain, ‘Distant Planet,’ funky jazz synth-bass and light, spacey chords. When the master, Larry Heard himself, treats Simoncino’s ‘Distant Planet’ to a remix, the story comes full circle. Larry’s version pushes 12 minutes, amps up the funk, and digresses into refracted, sparkling wormhole changes just when the ride seems destined for looping stability. Satisfyingly, the laws of gravity dissolve and the space-time continuum folds in on itself. The past revisits and remakes its own story, opening new doors to the unknown.

Lone sports an impressive resume; one of the first talents sought out by Actress’ Werk Discs, tipped by everyone from Radiohead to Kode9, and finally coming into his own on R&S records, where last years Echolocotions EP culminated his long gestating ascension from post-Dilla beatsmith to full-on dance-floor doyen. Galaxy Garden is Lone at his most fully-formed; circulating chords of cinematic ambiance, toeing between revivalist and futuristic moods, but what cuts through each track is relentless percussion and impeccable sound design best described visually, as in the Konx-om-Pax designed album art– dripping wet, writhing, pulsating technicolor tentacles.

What’s most thrilling about this record are the moments where Lone reaches outside of his comfort zone, collaborations with Machinedrum & Anneka underline his mutability, stretching from hardcore rave interpretation to pop-formalism, or the bump ‘n grind breakdown of Dream Girl / Sky Surfer that sticks out as a clear album highlight. That there may be more undefined territory for Lone to extend into and fill-in with his blissed-out style may be the most remarkable thing gleaned from this already remarkable record.

For the eleventh installment of our Leisure Mix Series, Amsterdam’s Gijs Poortman, better known as G-String, delivers a hard-driving tour through a self-described, “deep outer space techno mix.” Recorded in his personal studio on two SL1200′s, a mixer, and a pair of CDJ’s with some effects, this mix effectively blends two worlds. A balancing act of pounding, funky percussion and bright chords, paired with the menacing depth the M>O>S camp is famous for. Paradise’s Deep Groove’s masterpiece “I Love” guides you with whispers of an unknown future over disintegrating, robotic textures, setting the tone for one of Leisure’s most memorable podcasts.

R-A-G - Black Rain EP to be released on May 21st, 2012.

http://soundcloud.com/gstring
http://soundcloud.com/r-a-g-1