The Vunders Ov Vilnius

 I've been developing a slight fascination with Lithuania. Specifically the city of Vilnius. Stumbling on a couple radio shows out of Vilnius and some sets by DJs from there it immediately caught my attention with left of the middle, dark, melodic beats. Sometimes a borderline "world music" element appearing in the sets... its combining everything from dark industrial noise, hip hop, deep house, melodic techno, reggae and downtempo electronica  into this slurry of wonder. I was on a steady diet of radio shows from Vilnius or by people associated with Tomas Von Party's Multi Culti label for about 6 weeks before i was ready to resume my regular listening habits. If you don't know Tomas Von Party, i highly recommend getting acquainted. For one he's Tiga's brother... good reason to pay attention. Secondly, he was the head of A&R at Turbo Records since its inception until he decided to start his own label Multi Culti Records, which sounds exactly like you'd expect: bird sounds, drum machines, chanting, acid bass lines. Its a rabbit hole i got lost in and if you are into a more underground element of dance music... this was a VERY refreshing rabbit hole.

Here is a sampling of some stuff I've been listening to lately

Anchorsong - Butterflies

Kelli Hand - Roots

The Oddness - Get It Together

Miss Represented - Crack That Habit (Johnny Aux Remix)

youANDme - Jungle Book

these boots were made for postin'

Maybe its the beautiful Spring day outside. Maybe its the Kombucha I just drank. Maybe even its the poking from a few select friends about not posting anything. I'm just going to skip the mumbo jumbo and get to some choons.

The Players Union are a collective of guys in Manchester that I seriously recommend checking out! They have all kinds of cool productions and a fantastic mix on their soundcloud titled "Gold". Pretty damn appropriate, too. Cuz its a deep soulful disco set that is pretty much Solid Gold. Here's what introduced me to them.  You really can't go wrong paying respect to Bill Withers.  And what better way to do so than in song.

The Players Union - Respect To Bill (Vocal Mix)

You know those tracks where theres just an endless lists of the who's who being listed as inspirations. Daft Punk and ummm some other French act who skips my mind are the most notable ones I can think of. Anyway it happens in this track, so if that bugs you I appologize. Usually it bothers me but I just love the crackling of the vinyl at the beginning of this track and the fun jazzy riffs through the whole thing. Reminds me of the old days in Halifax, with some Mark Farina playin' on the Hi-Fi on South Park St...

 Jacob Korn & Kelli Hand - Dance Away (Original Mix)

On a recent musical pilgrimage on the old tinternet I found a bunch of artists I didn't know about.  And these guys are my favourite "new to me" find. They're fantastic! I love the sound, the energy and everything I've heard from them so far.  This track likely being my favourite, asks some very good questions that I'm sure we all know the answer to (and choose to ignore most of the time, thankfully). Umami in Space or Umami for short are a duo from Germany that've been producing together for a couple years. I highly recommend checking out their 2 Year Anniversary mix on soundcloud where they feature a selection of their original productions and remixes they've done over that time into one pretty dope set.

Umami - Not To (Original Mix)