Premiere: A2 – Spekulant & Shakolin – Luxus Iskaliom [CLO002]

It was just a matter of time for Kyiv’s club Closer to start their own label. The question about its presence (or absence?) was on everyone’s lips in the city for years (and to be honest, it was really obvious with THAT roster of residents and their own studio inside the same building) – started as a visionary joke, but with years was transformed into a very urgent matter (a lot of people inside the club’s walls knew that a lot of music, they heard from the booth, was from their well-known DJs). At the end of 2019 Closer finally came with the answer.

Their first ever EP was a teamwork of Closer’s co-founder, art director and resident Timur Basha and, probably the most legendary person of their roster – Alex Savage (don’t ask me about that characterization, I’ll just tell you, that the track’s name “Chiochups” put a lot of smiles on faces of people that know).

Even the cover of the second one tells us that we’ll have more darky and techno-y moods on this release. Again, with the appearance of Alex Savage – now as a part of his Spekulant project (with another Closer resident – Lobanov K), this one shows us the toughest part of the club’s music temper.

“Luxus Iskaliom” on A2 could be easily imagined playing on Closer’s main dancefloor at 9:00 in the cloudy morning (and, probably, it already was, and for a number of times). The only track from this EP made not by Alex Savage and Lobanov K themselves, but with a little help of Closer Record Store founder Shakolin, drives us through the well-known, rough and raw sound of Spekulant, where the dry and simple bassline sound stands hand-in-hand with the sometimes totally unexpected melody, that appears from nowhere.

All other tracks on this EP are just in their places – opening electro “Mr. Whatisyourname” with another trademark of Spekulant – deconstructed voice, that fits electro rhythms perfectly for all their existence and could be heard in, like, their every live appearance. “Subasstation” on B-side’s opening drives us through all possible kinds of broken beats and makes a great introduction for the ending track “Osvald Jam” with the elements of dubstep inside that one.

So, the main question now is – who’s next? And, to be honest, with their community it’s a very hard thing to predict.

CLOMMUNITY002 is available at record stores – hurry up!

More info on Spekulant
Soundcloud | Discogs

More info on Shakolin
Facebook | Discogs

More info on Clommunity
Facebook | Soundcloud | Discogs