Whilst clubs have been firmly out of our minds for almost a year now, that hasn’t stopped artists breaking out via their releases and certainly hasn’t stopped people from pushing forward and starting a label. Club music has almost entirely been confined to living room parties and bedrooms but that hasn’t stopped Moscow-based label Exarde from releasing some of the most distinctive music during this strange period.
Their first two releases saw the musical blueprint for Exarde quickly laid out. Residents of their party, Orbet and Sorv, combined for the first release, unleashing four dark and off-the-wall bombs whilst the release just before the end of the year by unidentified alias ‘Δ‘ bounced between pulsating and melancholic in a wholly confident way.
Slovenian artist Eliaz has turned heads in the past few years with his slick releases on scene-defining labels like Cartulis and EYA, thanks to his delightful crafts of acid, electro and techno which often lead to a re-imaging of how genres and sounds can fuse and work together in entirely new ways. With that in mind, Eliaz and Exarde feels like a match-made in heaven for his Nidark EP and the label’s third release.
‘Bass (Bells Mix)’ is deeply hypnotic even for Eliaz’s standards. The gliding ambient intro, accompanied only by chirps of hardware is whipped up by some rattling drums and a booming, face-scrunching bassline. Whilst the Slovenian’s music can put you in a trance, and that’s whether you’re listening at home or on the dancefloor, there’s always elements of kicking your consciousness back into gear and Bass’ means of doing so is with an ethereal melody that enters halfway to create a musical ying-yang with the ever-pushing bassline.
Joining Bass (Bells Mix) is A-siders ‘Leit Dist52’ and ‘Funkodopolis’, the former offering funk-infused melancholy complete with bubbling 303s and squeaks of hardware whilst the latter offers the ever-winning dancefloor combination of chunky drum patterns, a beefy bassline and mind-burrowing chords. ‘Bongo Shuffle’ brings a delectable combo of acid and glee to the record and show Eliaz’s ear for crafting mammoth basslines that are groove-laden and stay on the side of funk.
Nidark EP will be available to purchase shortly from Deejay, Juno or any good record store of your choice.
More info on Eliaz
Facebook | SoundCloud | Discogs
More info on Exarde
Facebook | SoundCloud | Instagram | Discogs
