Plastic City

This summer the Terry's Café compilation should be named Terry's Coffee maybe? - just kidding. But Terry Lee Brown Junior and Plastic City wanted to do something different this year and decided to release a double CD package with two different tech house styles: Mild Roast and Strong Roast – Mild Roast for pleasure and Strong Roast for character. In the Mild Roast DJ-Mix Terry presents gentle tracks with the right flavor it needs to work on the dancefloor too. Effected by a joyfully looseness the mix swings between breezy fulfillment and jazzy liberality. Therefore tracks by Paralelles, Tini, Aland Byallo, J. Axel, Aki Bergen, Basti Pieper, Kruse & Nuernberg, Gorge, Tojami Sessions, Greg Parker, The Timewriter, Lukas Greenberg feat. Nica Brooke and Martin Buttrich give their best. Terry Lee Brown Junior created a well balanced DJ-Mix that is as agile and clever like a cat. The Strong Roast DJ-Mix goes straight forward right from the beginning. It enfolds its rich aroma a bit more with every tune and ends in a culmination of different ingredients. The tracks by Krogmann, Fog, Smalltown Collective, Carlo, Chopstick & Johnjon feat. Fritz Kalkbrenner, Basti Pieper, Sami Wentz, Fapples, Addex, Steve Lawler, Gene, Helmut Dubnitzky and Fred Hush have enough personality to create a really special mood controlled by the hands of Terry Lee Brown Junior. So the new episode of Terry's Café is another highlight on Plastic City. Available Formats: 2CD, mp3.

After the successful Season 2, Gorge is also responsible for the outstanding Plastic City Radio Show Season 3. Gorge aka Pit Waldmann expired electronic music in the late 80’s. He grew up with the sound of Thorsten Fenslau and Alexander Abraham and began to produce his own music in the middle of the 90’s. Taking a trip through all kinds of electronic music he finally came back to house and techno music influenced by deep Chicago house sound and Tech-House. The co-founder of 8bit Records (founded together with Nick Curly in 2005) is producing electronic music since the middle of the nineties and convinced with great releases on Freerange, 8Bit and Plastic City. Furthermore he surprised the JDs, listeners and the worldwide press with his brilliant debut album "Mood" a view month ago on his label 8Bit. On Season 3, he tastefully combined exclusive new tracks from artists like Tojami Sessions, Terry Lee Brown Junior, Cosmic Cowboys & Echonmist, Solan, Strict Border, Bas Amro, Junior Gee, Sasch BBC & Caspar, Tomoki Tamura and - of course - one of his tracks. Further on it is to mention that since 13th of August 2008, Plastic City started the weekly "Plastic City Radio Show" on "Radio Ibiza Sonica", presented by Contact Booking (www.contact-booking.de) and TrackTracker (www.tracktracker.com). "Radio Ibiza Sonica" is broadcasting since summer 2006 on 95.2 FM to Ibiza and Formentera and across the world from its www.ibizasonica.com. Every Wednesday (10 - 11 pm) and Saturday (8 - 9 pm), Gorge plays the deepest and hottest Tech-House tunes on the island. Since January 2010 you can now also listen to the Plastic City Radio Show every Saturday (10 - 11 pm) on the German based web radio station "Sceen FM" (www.sceen.fm). Turn on the radio! Available Formats: CD, mp3.

Actually, it was long overdue: The first own album of Greg Parker, who has always had his home at Plastic City. Everything begun with his friendship to Terry Lee Brown Junior, who brought him to produce own tracks. At this time, Greg Parker was already a local hero in and around Darmstadt and inspired his followers with intense and deep Tech-house sets. In 2006 he co-produced the Terry Lee Brown Junior track "I Feel Lost" which was released on Terry's Album "Karambolage". Since then, the tracks by Greg Parker get an enormous popularity. Be it on vinyl (2009 with the great "All The Good Things EP" and the three digital EP's "Dreams", "Drop Out" and "Understanding" on the sub-label Plastic City. Play), on compilations such as "Plastic City Radio Show, Season Two","Terry's Café" or "Zurich Session" or as a remixer for Terry Lee Brown Junior, The Timewriter, nor elle, Smalltown Collective or modified Tojami Sessions. Greg Parker also experimented very successfully with Terry Lee Brown Junior in the fields of electronica, dub, lounge and as the remix team "Elephants And Lollipops" (for example for the track "Alex Flatner feat. Lopazz - Perfect Circles" on Circle Music). At the latest it should be clear here: The creative output is based on a source of inspirational creativity.Available Formats: CD, mp3; Video: Greg Parker - 10 Solutions.

The next electronic City Guide takes us into the magic spirit from Paris. Each compilation from the new "City Session" series shows us a place which is known for its vibrant nightlife. In the case of the second episode, Plastic City has decided to take a look at the French capital Paris, compiled by the French DJ Yellow. Because of his brilliant album "Ending Of Time", which was released in autumn 2009, and because of he is one of the leading DJs and producers in France for years, he is the perfect choice. DJ Yellow purchased his first slabs of vinyl at the tender age of 13, in the year of 1979. With a pair of turntables that he acquired from his older brother, the sounds of James Brown, Barry White and more obscure contemporaries inspired him to pursue his dream to become a DJ, his chance to rise from a life in poverty in the Parisian ghetto. When he met Bob Sinclar in the early 90's during a night out, things took a turn. As young Alain was not satisfied with local fame alone, they jointly set out to explore new means to bring the music he loved so much to a larger audience. With this philosophy in mind, they started their label Yellow Productions in 1993, to critical acclaim. An underground label at first, it was perhaps Yellow's search for personality and his ear for quality that opened the door to a colourful palette of signings, that included artists as diverse as Dimitri From Paris, Kid Loco, Bang Bang, Joe Claussell, Salome de Bahia and of course Bob Sinclar himself, all of which have helped to shape the French sound, as it is today.Available Formats: CD, mp3.

Alain Ho aka DJ Yellow is one of the electronic music artists who established himself as one of the forward thinking artists in general. In the eighties DJ Yellow pushed forward French hip hop and he also had big influence on what French house music is today. With his label Yellow Productions (founded 1993 with his mate Bob Sinclar) he released artists like Salome De Bahia, Dimitri From Paris, Joe Claussel, Bang Bang or Kid Loco. With his label Yellow Productions (founded 1993 with his mate Bob Sinclar) he released artists like Salome De Bahia, Dimitri From Paris, Joe Clausell, Bang Bang and Kid Loco. With his second imprint Poussez Music (founded in 2003) he created an outlet for his own sounds. Thus here he started his projects Alienation, Intermission and Paule with which he experimented on different fields of electronic music. His releases and remixes (e.g. for "Nacho Marco - Estefania" on Plastic City this year) can be found on labels like Saw Recordings, Ovum, Slip'n'Slide, ProgCity Deep Trax. His tracks also appear on many mix compilations like "Fabric 38", "On the Nippon Road" (Terminal M) and the Plastic City compilation "Imagination Of The Shape". On the new album DJ Yellow fuses characteristics of deep, funky and tech-house by using tender basses and well dosed percussion lines, paired with some real e-bass parts one feels remembered to the album "Paradise" from Bob Sinclar (which Alain assisted to). But these little elements can only be seen as little quotes to the roots. All in all the album, which was produced together with Portuguese producer Tiago Fragateiro (aka Hi-Tech²), provides a clever mixture of deep and funkyness. Using dark and promising spoken words from time to time the record takes a mystic narrative mindset at the very beginning. What follows is an emulsion of warm arrangements with a strong and well balanced base that aims directly to the dancefloor. Compared with the very playful album "Intermission" which he created together with Astrid Suryanto in 2008, this is a very grounded complement of his artificial work.Available Formats: CD, mp3.

With his first album “Rhode Stories” Lukas Greenberg received a lot of attention and convinced the critics (e.g. “Rhode Stories” was record of the month in Raveline). The mixture of house, easy listening, electro and downbeat combined with soulful vocals and spoken words opened a new chapter of relaxed and at the same time still deep sound on Plastic City. The tracks from Lukas Greenberg are solid, emotional and straight with a touch of naturalism. For the new album “Prisoner With A Key” he improves that concept from his first album “Rhode Stories”: Spreading out his facilities in combining and creating sounds, he wrotes chapters for his new "book of sounds". The chronological order of the tracks is his story of the second step of his musical work on Plastic City. For this album, Lukas Greenberg worked together again with the singer and electronic musician Karl Jenkins aka Ideophonic from Great Britain, who was also part of the “Rhode Stories” production process before. Furthermore he engaged the vocalist Nica Brooke, who is working on her new album at the moment together with Grammy Award winner Don Mizell. The result is a great combination of warm, bright and tight tracks which we inclined to call album art. “Prisoner With A Key” is also a real masterpiece on account of metamorphosing jazz, funk and soul elements into a new and electronic surrounding. This album is a must have for everybody who does not want to miss the next step of high quality electronic music: intelligent, complex and absolutely deep!Available Formats: CD, mp3; Podcast: Audio Interview.

Last year Sweden born producer and DJ Jonathan Axelsson aka J. Axel convinced on Plastic City with the singles “This Time” and “Love Letters” (produced together with Astrid Suryanto). Now he comes around with his second album “Start Receiving”. His passion for the Deep House genre started in the middle of the nineties. Jonathan started Djing and producing his own music and met Johan Bacto, who later founded the PlackTown Sound imprint. The productions that were released on PlackTown Sound caused a huge feedback from radio stations, magazines, Djs and television. After releasing a mini album on Chris Grays label Deep4Life he layed his focus on vocals in combination with the deep character of his music while producing and releasing instrumental house tracks beside under his early alias Ronin (on Driftwood). At this time he met Sumatra born vocalist Astrid Suryanto, who worked with Victor Calderone, John Digweed or The Prodigy's Neil McLellan so far. They started working together and Statra Records released their first production “You Give Me (Love)”. On this album Astrid features three songs. But one more female voice supports a track on the album: the voice of Stockholm based Zemya Hamilton. Zemya Hamilton releases singles and albums since 1989 on labels like Sonet Grammofon, WEA, EastWest or Warner, where she published her album “Trollbunden” in 1993. “Start Receiving” is an extraordinary Deep House album. Through the strait structures of the arrangements the voices of both vocalists are able to breathe while the romantic and melancholic synthesizer combinations create a wide and strong background for the melodies they create. In the instrumental tracks Jonathan Axelsson aka J. Axel draws fields of emotional colours that are opening like huge blossoms. “Start Receiving” is a really big album that hits heart, body and soul directly. Available Formats: CD, mp3.

Sin Plomo is one of the most famous Djs and producer based in Ibiza and well known for his feeling for the audience. The “Sunrise” compilations on Plastic City announces the summer year after year and is as successful as the latest release from Sin Plomo called “Desierto” on the “Plastic City. Play" last year. Sin Plomo picked only the finest and hottest releases for his new compilation again. In his playlist some of Plastic City's latest releases like Sasch BBC's “Setuper” or Bucher & Kessidis' “Time”, of course. Right from the beginning the man behind the Chica Disco compilation series that only features productions originated on the island surprises the listener with absolutely warm and melodic tunes that find their way into legs and feet directly. Between dry grooves and wet chords and stabs Plomo opens a wide range of ecstatic emotions and summer feelings with sentimental vocals, multilayered rhythm structures and wide electric landscapes the official DJ of the “Bacardi B-Live Germany Tour 2008/2009” shows once more that he is able to set different climaxes in his DJ sets by turning the energy level up and down and back again. No matter whether tribal, electronic, progressive, house or tech house – Sin Plomo who is furthermore one half of the Ministers Of Music beside his mate Torsten Stenzel is the master of his tunes and opens new thematic fields with every record he plays. So this is the first summer breeze of the year. Enjoy!Available Formats: CD, mp3.

Being the sixth album from Jean F. Cochois, this latest one is a fresh surprise in many ways. First and foremost, he has chosen the German title “Tiefenschön”, wich could be translated as 'beautiful depth', but really it is a more poetic way of saying that in the German language. Secondly, he has positioned himself in an altogether different way on a musical basis but still continues in his unmistakeable Timewriter style, and once again proves as a producer his fine feeling for sound and musical arrangement. After a long musical journey beginning in 1994 with his first single and subsequent albums, he now melts together his continuously developing sound with the sound of the good old days. The results are deep and tech house tracks which have a warm old school twist and flavour to them at the same time as totally hitting the zeitgeist.Although there are vocals being used in parts of this album, they have nothing in common with typically known vocal house tracks containing verses and choruses. It’s mostly a maximum of four lines being repeated and used in a very rhythmic and hypnotic way. In the cracking intro “Einatmen”,The Timewriter opens with the words “In the beginning there was nothing but a sweet sound - so tiefenschön” followed by “Broken Spell” which brings back the vocals of the incomparable Theresa Baltimore who has already featured on The Timewriter’s Club Classics “Reachin’ Out” and “Lion Steps”. Also Ven Lizard, a new Vocalist, features on the very pushy deep house gem “Ten Strut” riding on the track like thunder with a repeating fourliner. As on his last albums Jean F. Cochois himself is featured, this time with rhythmically spoken words instead of a singing voice on the massive “Creatures Of The Night”. “Back in School” with its overwhelming chord and drum programming and well chosen vocal snippets is a killer track and definitely one of the highlights. . “Superschall” rolls over you with the same power by unveiling it’s magic slowly throughout the complete track without using a direct bassline. It is also remarkabe that even with his interlude “Atemzug” and the outro of the album “Ausatmen” where he gives the listener time to breathe with a chilled out athmosphere, he manages to keep you in the flow by using subtle background beats which keep up the tempo and rythmic feel. Especially “Ausatmen” is emotionally loaded with this pleasant kind of pain that just hurts in the right places.Tiefenschön as an LP is a complete whirlwind having a raw and dirty feel to it, albeit without losing focus on the original and well-known Jean F. Cochois sound. This is an extremely strong club album with a powerful recognition value – not only musically, but also visually thanks to its album cover. It stands out as it has an overall concept and, throughout it, a sense of continuity from beginning to end.Available Formats: CD, 2LP, mp3; DJ Feedbacks: The Timewriter - Tiefenschön.