Spring has already arrived at his Secret Playground: The warm air is filled with cheerful laughter and bare feet are moving rhythmically in the green grass. Mollono.Bass reveals a very laid-back character but also a very independent and open-minded approach to electronic dance music on his debut album. The first track In The Meadow represents not only a humorous hint on the best possible place to listen to this work but also creates kind of atmospheric foundation for the entire album in its light and fluffy manner. The lively hustle and bustle on the Hidden Playground happens in many different ways: Sometimes it’s the frisky bounce of hopping basslines and stimulating House rhythms, sometimes its hypnotic sound structures that take the listener on an adult adventure. But above all it’s the unmistakable sound of real instruments and their melodies which create that earthy, organic groove of Mollono.Bass, a groove that gives rise to mighty spring feelings.

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This album was released on Acker Records.

Gone are the days when nerd used to be a derogatory term- especially when it comes to music production: Isn’t it that certain pinch of nerdiness, that kind of odd knowledge about instruments and their possibilities that makes a good artist? Jack-of-all-Nerds Neelix serves a triple proof on the available EP. He doesn’t even need much to make Expect What a catchy stomper, combining his unmistakable forcing offbeat groove with some rocky synthie riffs and subtle melody entries. In his remix on Meller’s Robot Monsters Neelix introduces a very epic and cinematic atmosphere that is chopped to pieces and mixed with relish into an intoxicating sound cocktail. Finally even the biggest music nerds will have problems to categorize You And I Belong: During the intro Neelix combines Breakbeats, Wobble basses and Trance in an outrageous casual way. Adding to this mixture the vocals of pop singer Shereen Shabana during the break makes Nerd finally a class of its own.

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This EP was released on SpinTwist Records.

The limits of Progressive Trance are pushed further and further every day. More and more often this results in interesting hybrid productions between various electronic music styles. Also the Symphonix brothers Sirko and Stephan Wötanowski take part in this musical evolution process- but they keep their rather experimental bits on the side for various other projects. In the matter of Symphonix, they always strived to keep the original idea of Progressive Trance. And accordingly also the already third studio album of this project is solid, bouncy and distinctly psychedelic- but still modern and up-to-date as it can be. It is exactly this tightrope walk that is characteristic for the sound of Symphonix: Keeping up a clear Progressive Trance vibe and only slightly scratching recent trends and other genres, working in only subtle quotes from there to spice up the overall mixture and keep it fresh and exciting. That this recipe works out really excellent can be watched every weekend somewhere on this globe, when the two musical jacks of all trades present one of their positive, sunlit and uplifting live sets. So all together their new album meets all the characteristics to be beyond the usual suspects once again… The Usual Suspects of top-notch Progressive Trance!

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This CD was released on Blue Tunes Records.

Once you get into a genuine music collective, the tendency is to push it as far as you can. Look at: The Amplidudes. When this likeable messed-up bunch of buddies from the German Psy Trance hotspot Hamburg realized that their social environment was not only pretty much party addicted and able to hold its drinks but also remarkably engaged into producing music, the idea to join forces was obvious. The first pretty cool thing about this easy-going ass-kicking crew is a rather long list of different project names to drop, here we go: Hyperion, Optokoppler, Slackjoint, Imago, Psytrain, Tulk, Magoon, Bounder, J&B Project, Prahlad, DJ Egalo and DJ Mape. As not only experts of the genre might have realized now, the Amplidudes pretty much take the line of powerful, boosting and intoxicating Psy Trance tunes while still also some inspiring Sunrise Sound and Progressive producers are included. Basically their musical approach is open towards the ever changing stream of contemporary music, as long as it aims the mind of the listener and creates some surreal and alien stuff going on inside there. Since everyone who is anyone runs a label nowadays and since the Amplidudes are not only anyone but quite a cunning rat-pack, Amplidudes Records was just a logical step. Expect some solid party music being launched from here that never takes itself too serious because in the end it takes only one thing really serious: Massive escalation!

The term “Northern Progressive Trance” alludes to the geographic origin of this style, since many of its pioneers came from Nordic regions. And despite there has been a lot of development during the past decade and good Progressive productions can be heard from all points of the compass today, they still bear that certain characteristic traits of that originally Nordic version of Psychedelic Trance: The arrangements summon strength from focussing on single sound elements and their production quality, sophisticated melody entries and effects create those special, relaxed but still so much stimulating groove. The recent Northern Avantgarde can be understood in front of this background. Beside the well-known Progressive protagonists of the northern scene it includes also colleagues from all over the world namely who excellently know their craft.

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This CD was released on SpinTwist Records.

There is something distinct jolly, sometimes even tipsy going on within the grooves of the recent Acker record. For their remixes of “Nouvelle Chance”, the gents Eule:nhaupt and Molle:nhauer skilfully mixed up very different musical ideas and forcing rhythms with their typical humorous wink. Already the first bars of version 1 reveal that this track has quite some song character: Founding on bulbous bass sounds, perky guitar chords and the cheerful but unobtrusive voice of the female French singer find their way to the ear, and also the driving and rolling percussions create a hand-made impression. The final take-off of this title happens some time later, when a bouncy piano sets the listener into the mood of a frisky saloon party in it’s Wild West manner. Also version 2 distinguishes itself by a song-orientated character but refers to another instrumentation and appears slightly more slim all together. On the flipside, the remix of Mollono.Bass relinquishes the vocal part and concentrates on a reduced and functional groove that directly aims the dance floor and delivers that certain variation that is typical for Acker releases. Finally the original version from the Berlin based duo Pupkulies & Rebecca gives the available record a laid-back finish.

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This record was released on Acker Records.

Slim, sporty and very casual- that’s the way in which current number 18 on Acker Records sneaks into listener’s ears and hereby wonderfully illustrates the much longed for beginning of the open air season in Europe. Other than the name Justin Side implies, its even two dudes from Denmark who conjure up this unusual Voodoo. Bedded on a gently shaking groove and larded with tropical warm percussion and lots of vocals, the magic takes effect immediately but still unobtrusively. Beside the original mix, the groove of the A-side includes a minimal Club Mix by mister Mollono.Bass that creates rather nightly associations in its straightforward manner. On the flipside he pulls out some other stops of his sound repertoire and calls the sunbathed result very appropriately his Summer Mix. Last but not least the unmistakable, humorous organ sounds of Rundfunk3000 represent the unique, local Mecklenburg version of a mighty Voodoo magic.

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This record was released on Acker Records.

To sound the bell for the slowly but constantly sprouting spring also in a musical respect, the crew from Acker called for support from the Mediterranean sceneries of Italy: The two operators of the Lula Circus have already pricked up the ears of lovers of flamboyant Tech House tunes with their recent releases on Resopal. Matching the season, they are now back to send up the temperatures on dance floors again. “Waiting For The Sun” to come impatiently, this tracks frisks along on a bouncy bass and prompts dreamy spring fever with breezy- warm panpipes sounds. After that, “Tears And Ice” makes quite clear where it goes to already during the first bars: Straight ahead! Beyond whipping hi hats and cutting snare impacts, slowly but constantly a piano loop clears its path to the surface. Later on the smoky and outrageously casual rap of a lady adds on and prepares a really explosive departure. The panpipes from the A-side make a perfect meal for Mr. Mollono.bass and so the euphony, in which he launches himself into a remix on the other side of this vinyl, can clearly be heard. Beside his typical, extensive percussion repertoire also his hypnotic style is unmistakable. Finally the “Lipstick Gang” comes around in a crunchy and reduced manner, this time it’s the rhythmically emphasized voice of a male lending this track a distinct easiness.

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This record was released on Acker Records.

Almost one year after their musical hiking day, their “Wandertag” to the winter state of Mecklenburg, the two Berlin gents Dreher & Smart return to Acker. Once again they tinkle the ivories of their very own keyboard of unmistakable groove and start playing some considerable hypnotic chords this time. A bubbling bass brew and discreet but pretty twisted rhythm constructions form the basis of Flic Flac. The mysterious wind player samples and sound effects, that hover apparently weightless above those, lend a dramatic- cinematic expression to the track. Hirnholz, meaning something like brain-wood, keeps what it’s name implies with a distinct forcing thrust in its lower frequency spectrum, that evolves quite some mass appeal together with crunching and clicking background noises. Finally the Spiegelkabinett, the hall of mirrors, is haunted by pregnant with meaning voice recordings which complete with the dreamy, melodic character and the organic bass line of this track.

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This record was released on Acker Records.

Matching the cold season in northern Europe, Acker Records extends its collection with a beautiful just as functional ear warmer. Designed by the gents Carsten Rausch and Ferdinand Laurin from the city of Trier, this acoustic accessory convinces in even four aspects. On the one side, the warm sounds of Shout can be found, a really inspiring track that develops certain trancy qualities with its throughout melodic character and some pretty trippy delay experiments. After that, the pleasant boost is taken up by Quattrow, here the anyway outrageous groove of the lower frequency spectrum is raised to the stakes by a casual and housey motive. This track is redesigned by the dudes of Rundfunk3000 on the other side, they serve it on crunchy and highly energetic rhythms and spice it up with their typical, playful instrumental entries. Finally, The Tribe is also pretty much straight forward and again scores with warm feel-good sound that dives into intoxicating depths.

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This record was released on Acker Records.