Explore the Heart & Spirit of Evar Records with Trickfinger and Aura T-09 | Beatportal (2024)

Limewax - Whay1 [Evar Records]

We were so psyched when we had the opportunity to put this out as the first vinyl on Evar. Limewax is an outstanding musician. We first became aware of him by his classic 'Scars On The Horizon,' which was a super original take on dark D’n’B/Breakcore. He had ways of repeating phrases in unexpected ways on that record which was striking, and the vibe was ultra intense. He has since grown into being a master of many different moods, and is a magician of sound, texture and atmosphere. We love the vocal sample that occasionally happens in this one; the way it connects to the beat that follows it is hard. This track makes us feel like we’re falling off a cliff into a cave rave.

CZ - Radial Lens [Evar Records]

CZ is a remarkable musician. He has a great sense of melody, and his music has a pleasant spirit of cheerfulness. These and other qualities sometimes make us think he would have fit in well on Rephlex, one of the finest electronic labels of the past. His music is sublimely beautiful and maintains a simplicity that is very engaging. We love musicians who have some of the mechanical/melodic spirit of Trance without actually being Trance. We look forward to hearing where he goes in the future.

Special Request - Spectral Frequency [R&S Records]

Under this alias, Paul Woolford has made some of our favorite music of the last 12 years. Special Request is so solidly perfect in so many different ways. His music sounds like somebody making exactly what they want to listen to. He was already a great musician, and then, with the mastery he had developed, all of a sudden started making stuff that is perpetually interesting and relentlessly fun at the same time. He seems to be tuned to the frequency of never-ending good ideas, and his recordings have a pristine sonic clarity and punch that are exceptional, with just the right amount of dirt for any given track. This one is especially dirty.

Killbourne - Seismic Cross feat The DJ Producer [Evar Records]

Killbourne is probably the hardest thing on our label. If you get the chance to see her live, you should. However intense the other DJs are, she outdoes them, and she has an ethereal beauty underlying her intensity that makes you wonder if you are dreaming the whole thing up. On this track, she collaborates with The DJ Producer, whose “The Biggest Rave On Earth” is one of our favorite extreme Rave tracks of the 2000s.

Amen Andrews - Amen HQ [Blueberry Records]

Luke Vibert is obviously one of the greatest samplists of all time. Under his Plug alias, he took breakbeats to brand new heights, chopping them up in ways that were hitherto unknown. After abandoning Plug, he thankfully came back to Jungle with Amen Andrews, and began developing a style founded on his ability to be somehow deeper in the pocket, with a funkier groove than other people are able to do with the same breakbeats. He seems like he could use nothing but the Amen break and never run out of great ideas. He finds economic, imaginative ways of slicing that make you wonder why you didn’t think of that. But of course, he is all-around one of the great electronic musicians of all time, so his week beats your year, etc..

Evian Christ - Ultra [Warp Records]

Another one of our favorite music makers of the last 10 years or so. Who knew that melody could be so hard! Come to think of it, he has found a way of “repeating phrases in unexpected ways” in his melodies, similar to what Limewax was doing with drums on Scars. A related idea anyways. This is a highly original artist who seems to us to be pointing the way to the future by being firmly located in the present. He has a majestic melodic sense that never descends into cheesiness, his atmospherics are gorgeous, and his beats are hard as f*ck. There is no weak element in his music. We think he is elevating melody to new heights, while being an all around top music maker.

Venetian Snares - Ultra Violent Junglist [Planet Mu]

This track showcases that Aaron Funk is easily the most insane drummer who has ever lived. We threw a warehouse rave he headlined, back around the time when this came out, and it was the wildest show we have ever attended, and everybody who was lucky enough to be there had the same experience. Every Venetian Snares record has been a world unto itself. He never repeats himself, and always pushes himself to new heights. He has continually conquered the unknown, and gone to unexplored territory only to utterly annihilate it. His imagination comes directly out of his fingers. He is our favorite musical artist in the world. No one can do it better.

Dev/ Null - E Yea DJ Marfox Remix [Evar Records]

Pete Cassin is another Breakcore musician who has gone on to new horizons. His Microjunglizm is one of our favorite Evar releases. Great rave music made entirely on a little pocket operator with a staggering 40 seconds of sample time! This is a very special remix of a track from that same record which successfully fuses worlds together, made by the excellent DJ Marfox. We first heard him on his debut record Eu Sei Quem Sou EP, on the fantastic Principe label, from Portugal. His music is mind expanding, and in of itself combines elements from disparate musical places. The blend of his fat beats with Dev/Nulls' take on lo fi Jungle works beautifully.

XL Order - Industrial Dance [Evar Records]

This extraordinarily beautiful track exemplifies what we see as one of the great openings in the future of music; taking Trance away from its formulaic beginnings, making it harder, more beautiful, more experimental, and more atmospheric. We love the way this track accomplishes all these things so concisely and powerfully. XL Order is an anonymous duo, their names and faces being concealed from the public. It is known that they are a duo, and that they are French, and the rest is left to our imaginations!

Sensate Focus-1.6 X [Sensate Focus]

Mark Fell is one of the great experimental musicians of the last 25 years. He first became known as one half of SND, who made what may be the weirdest take on House music ever (not that anyone actually calls it House music), converting some of the basic ideas of House into minimal experimental music that is understated, and yet overstated within its own understatement. That SND stuff was groundbreaking and beautiful. Under his Sensate Focus alias he seems to be taking this idea further, making strange generative music with familiar staples of House, like awesome vocal samples, hard stabs, and drums that remind you of 707s, 808s, etc, but that are actually of his own creation. Where SND did a lot with small sounds, Sensate Focus employs more sonic expanse. His beats are often broken sounding, but are so deep in the pocket that you’d swear you were listening to a straight kick drum (if you were wasted). All 7 Sensate Focus releases are masterpieces. It sounds like House music created on another planet by robots who have been procreating for a million years.

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