Few people are onto great records as quickly as a great record store.
After years spent discovering gems in Phonica’s end of year lists, it made sense to give them a regular space on FACT. Every Saturday, staff from the Soho institution pick out the five vinyl records you should grab this week.
LOW JACK
‘Imaginary Boogie’
(The Trilogy Tapes)
TTT give 2015 a kick up the backside early on with a very fine six-track EP of lumbering house, palsied acid, mashed arcade effects and a ton of similarly unexpected flimflam that all tie together in one uniquely imaginative whole. Start the year as you mean to go on.
SUEÑO LATINO
‘Sueño Latino’
(DFC)
The classic Italo house tune from 1989 bubbles up again, 10 years after the last reissue went out of print, and you should welcome it with open arms. Famously based on Manuel Göttsching’s proto-techno album E2-E4, it was later released with guitar additions from the German composer himself – both versions are included here with the Derrick May remix tool to boot. A no-brainer for the bag.
FATHERS & SONS PRODUCTIONS
‘FAS008’
(Fathers & Sons)
This four-tracker of very deep, very banging techno/house from the vinyl-only label operated by Ibiza stalwart Julian Perez will go like hot cakes, just as the rest of the FAS catalogue has done so far, and takes you from rolling grooves (‘Close To My Hip’) to dubby sci-fi (‘The Padlock Mystery’).
SHEILA HYLTON
‘It’s Gonna Take Alot of Love / Falling In Love’
(Golf Channel Recordings)
Two under-the-radar tracks by Jamaican singer Sheila Hylton get starry-eyed, dubby-disco remixes by NYC’s DJ McBoing Boing and France’s Waxist Selecta. The tracks were created entirely independently of each other and found online by Hylton, who saw that they were good and allowed Golf Channel, the New York label home to DJ Nature, Mind Fair and more, to take care of the rest.
STL
‘Dubs Etched Into Relief’
(Echochord)
If any month demands a dose of crackly dub techno, it’s beastly old January. STL delivers his second EP for Echocord, home to all things spacious and spaced out, which contains two frostbitten originals, the first more club-focused and the second more floaty, and a remix from Grad_u.
