Various
Various Artist 02

Berlin-based French selector Shonky adds a new dimension to his music career with the launch of his brand new label, Stoned Pilot. Inspired by his love of collaboration, the platform will focus exclusively on collaborative projects with each new release. At his studio in Berlin Shonky has assembled a mouthwatering array of equipment; vintage synths, drum machines and sequencers. The set up allows him to cultivate a highly creative atmosphere - a playground for those who visit - and the resulting productions exude the kind of energy that you typically find during liberating jam sessions. Shonky cites the studio, and its many playthings, as a key part of his growth as an artist. While everyone he invites to join for a session leaves feeling invigorated by the experience. On the first release he appears with Otis, an Italian producer who lived in the same building as him. Through lockdown the two men became better acquainted and they decided to hit the studio together. The result is the Humanizer EP, featuring four cuts that encompass the merging of Shonky and Otis’ individual styles into one cohesive body of work. On the EP the duo delve into the deeper side of the dance floor, utilising bass, rhythm and energy to explore varying styles and tempos, tinged with an air of mystery.So the stage is set, Stoned Pilot heralds a new phase in Shonky’s career, from global tours, to his exemplary back catalogue and now label owner with a core ethos centred on creative collaboration.

Cupula Recordings' debut release from Adria and Pau Roses teams up with Quim and Vince Void to deliver three smash hits of organ progressive house with acid melodies and trance energy with a modern club punch.The B-side follows up with an extraordinary trip from Yung Prado infusing John Heaven’s voice creating a beautiful hypnotic soundscape of Ciutat Bella. Arnau Obiols provides a massive acid version of Ciutat Bella accompanied by tribalistic patterns.

Up next in our main series are Milan-based dub techno outfit Primal Code. With a solid back catalogue comprising releases for Hypnus Records, TGP and Konstrukt, the Italian duo have honed their skills to impressive effect over the last few years, forging a sound signature thoroughly engaging on both body and cerebral levels, and now punching in on KOC to breathe further hard-hitting opaque heat into the collection.Putting things into gear, “AI Calculator” propels us across dim-lit streetscapes and murky subterranean entrails, pared-down to a minimal array of modular signals, subtle machine inflections and particularly acute rhythmic progression. Steering the original into further pumped-up, DJ-friendly territories, NAFF affiliate Priori, hot on heels from his sophomore album, drops the hammer badman style, bringing forth the racing muscular bass and squelchy machine talk on loop mode to keep everyone on their toes from start to finish. Flexing a different kind of acidic swagger, “Autopilot” pulls out the weird extra-terrestrial jazz tropes and whirling dynamics for a round of proper otherworldly bop in the outer-space. Last but not least, “Mainframe” rounds off the release on a more openly experimental note, letting the loops, envelopes and textures float in a haze of half-controlled abstraction. The result evokes something of an immunocompromised Rubber Johnny getting glazed as he weightlessly drifts off from a galaxy to another, and into another world completely.