The Gramaphone Records Blog

NYC’s Terekke returns on the acclaimed L.I.E.S. imprint for his eagerly-awaited second 12″. After his early release helped launch the oblique mystique of the young label back in mid-2011, his hand-stamped EP fell into some obscurity until it was repressed this year. Now comes the new release, with a full-art cover that hints at cosmic influences this time around.

His low-pressure, blunted style returns with the curiously named new release. On the A side, a sparse groove riffs around a blurry bassline and droning synths, much along the same lines as characterized his first release. Piano doesn’t stray far from this formula either, though it does differentiate by speeding up and moping deeper into the fog. B2 is the oddball here (as is so often the case,) its slowed plod moves under a dusty vocal sample and delayed wooden stabs that start to veer into Actress territory.

Visit or call Gramaphone Records today!
2843 N. Clark St.
Chicago, IL 60657
(773) 472-3683

This Sunday’s Queen! party coincides perfectly with the Spring Awakening music festival. Don’t let the hype fool you though. Queen! is the place to be, so save your energy. Garrett David and Michael Serafini will be sharing the decks with Harry Cross and J-peg, creators of the monthly Men’s Room party at Wang’s Gentleman’s Club in Boystown for a show that’s 21+ and $7 dollars all night starting at 10 PM. Harry Cross and Jacob Meehan are notorious for their raunchy parties and excellent taste in house tracks. Don’t miss out on Smartbar this Sunday; you may just meet the love of your life. If not, at least you’ll fall in love with one of the following : the building, the dance floor, your dirty cocktail, or the blissful beats of disco coming from the decks. Smartbar is located at 3730 N. Clark St.

The first and best female DJ collective Superjane will be throwing its Sweet 16 reunion party at 10 PM on Saturday, June 8th at Smartbar, 21+. Tickets are $12 dollars before midnight and $10 if you buy them in advance. Every show these women throw is a historic milestone, so you’ll be going down in the books just by showing up.

Since the group’s inception in 1997, the four fierce women of Superjane have used their good taste to transform the way we think about house music. Their hard-driven mixes will keep your head bopping ’til the break of dawn.

DJ Colette’s classical music training combined with Mark Farina and Derrick Carter, her primary house influences. That eclectic background bred her to spin like a pro at a time when women were still fighting for basic recognition in the male-dominated disco world.

Colette’s sultry, oft-improvised vocals are inspired by DJ Heather. Born in Brooklyn but bred in Chicago, Heather got started in the industry by working at her college’s radio station. Things have changed. Now, Heather works with Om Records to produce some serious savasana beats. She was named one of Chicago’s top 45 artists after founding her own record label, BlackCherry, and continues to put out smooth, progressive mixes and make local house fans proud.

DJ Dayhota got her start mixing at underground parties in Chicago. Now her name rings a bell. She’s been featured by Jane magazine, MTV, Billboard, and others. What started out as a drifting residency took off into an international disc jockey career with dates in Paris, London, and NYC.

Lady D is a Chicago local and master of the maternal rhythm. Her boundless energy fuels her life as a mother to a freshman in high school and unofficial mother of the Chicago house circuit; she started spinning in 1995 and never stopped. Performing for major names like Diesel, Cirque du Soleil, and Francois K hasn’t phased her, though. She gave Kaskade a leg up in the biz and brought her talents to Superjane after trotting the globe. Considering her colleagues’ creative capabilities, she finally met her match.

Smartbar is located at 3730 N. Clark St.

Shewey Trax mainstay Live Better Electrically updates electro for 2013 with the label’s first record of the year. The LA-based imprint sticks to the roots of the electro sound, on this 12″ it moves from the rough breaky palette of Walls Of No to the psychedelia of La Gitania to the pretty space ballad melodies of No More Wasted Time and Sorry To Inconvenience Your Apathy. Fans of Ersatz Audio, World Electric, and Intuit Solar should give this a listen.

Upon checking out the Phonocast series, the Pinche Cowboys were eager to get involved so the duo made time to come in for a session on the evening of April 9th, 2013. Their two and a half hour long set hit the ground running with new material from Nina Kraviz and kept the energy high throughout. They cite influences like Green Velvet,  Crookers, and Abe Duque, and it shows in the big-room approach in their dry tech-house and dirty acid techno.

Phonocast 18 - Pinche Cowboys Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Luke Hess, Xdb, Steven Tang all on one record, things are bound to go deep. Each of the contributors is known, in his own way, as a heavy weight in the combined fields of dub techno, deep techno, and new Detroit.

Starting things off on the first of the A side tracks, Steven Tang contributes a chordy, driving tune. Xdb’s entry is slinky, sub-driven with squeaky leads and strings barely there overtop, and loads of space in between. A strange melody develops as it goes. Spaced out.

For the B side, Luke Hess’s Suplication is a little housier and more melodically developed than his usual fare, and it has the same no-nonsense mechanical drive that characterizes so much of his prolific catalog. Overall, strong if not stand-out work from these busy producers, and an excellent primer in the underground sound that’s moving parties around the world.

Visit or call Gramaphone Records today!
2843 N. Clark St.
Chicago, IL 60657
(773) 472-3683

After a little break, our Phonocast series is back – this time with rising star and Gramaphone affiliate Jay Caston mixing the beats. Presumably recorded in one of several in-store jams he had earlier this spring, the selections move from chunky slow house to raw techno, and then finally thaw towards the end with some warmer chords. This entry is short and sweet, and well worth checking for the sounds that are shaping some of Gramaphone’s uptempo offerings today and into the future.

Phonocast 16 - Jay Caston Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

As part of his nation-wide tour, Andrew Emil will be hooking up with Michael Serafini and Garrett David at Queen! on Sunday via Change Request, his very own eclectic musical compilation. This night of naughtiness will be $7 dollars, 21+, and a total wild card. Unlike the ones in Uno, this wild card is guaranteed to be good.

Andrew Emil’s classical music background primed him to join the ranks of the fast-paced Chicago music scene. Marching to the beat of his own drum, he used to put on gallery shows with his brother while studying at Columbia College. Graffiti, art, and music flew together like magnets to form what is now known as Change Request. Emil’s goal is to reinvent R&B by mixing in some house and making it the creme de la creme in avant-garde ear candy.

This is a Queen! with a big question mark after it. To find out the answer, come to the show at 10 PM tonight. Smartbar is located at 3730 N. Clark St.

Taken from Danny Wolfers‘ unusually clean-cut album, The Paranormal Soul, comes the first single with remixes from the unusually abstruse studios of Actress. Where the original material tidied up Legowelt’s electro sound for maximum dancefloor impact and raw appeal, Actress takes that source material and drags it in the opposite direction.

The two takes here are essentially different arrangements of the same basic concept, once in the roughly house-friendly 120BPM range, and once at a lumbering half-tempo gait down around 50BPM. These are chunky beats laid over a droning, drifting, dry-wash of pads and vocals, rolling on a bit aimlessly towards hypnosis.

Visit or call Gramaphone Records today!
2843 N. Clark St.
Chicago, IL 60657
(773) 472-3683

3 Chairs is a collaboration between prolific Detroit beatdown house heavyweights Theo Parrish, Kenny Dixon Jr., Rick Wilhite, and Marcellus Pittman, so it’s with some degree of self-awareness that they’ve titled this rare outing (with 6 years having passed since their last EP.)

Braggadocio (or sass) aside, this is a record that Detroit heads would be well-advised to check out while it’s still available. With contributions evident from each member, some trademarks are more evident on one track or another. Theo Parrish’ drifting piano and dreamy loops (see Parallel Dimensions) are the centerpiece of Elephant Ankles, whereas the raw spontaneous programming of Marcellus and Rick Wilhite is more evident on 6 Mile, and the rhythmic idiosyncracies of KDJ’s recent outings seem to step to the forefront on Celestial Contact.

All that in mind, there has been so much cross-influence throughout their careers as solo outings, the individual contributions to this project could be anyone’s guess – most importantly it’s exciting to have them all releasing in one package, and while this record doesn’t immediately transcend their individual outputs, it’s a worthwhile outing and hopefully a sign of more work to come.

Visit or call Gramaphone Records today!
2843 N. Clark St.
Chicago, IL 60657
(773) 472-3683