Nation Records

Chicagoians Traxx and Beau Wanzer team up for another Mutant Beat Dance release.
Together they have produced arguably 'the best 80's Chicago house record not made in the 80's. The Mutants call it Jakbeat, inspired by the early days of house music.

'Let Me Go' is as intense and rhythmically inclined as they come. Naughty Wood's sparse vocals cry desperation, almost nearing insanity, which makes up for a pressure cooker like warehouse anthem.

'Rottonfunk' is another intense work out which has a killer groove and makes us wander off to the Promised Land (wherever that is).

Its delightful to hear that Chicago house music this good still gets made. Surely when it was released way back when, it would fetch top dollars on the interweb. Authentic stuff!

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Chicago's Mutant Beat Dance is a collaboration between research scientist and vintage synthesizer enthusiast Beau Wanzer and pioneer of the jakbeat sound Traxx.
Traxx AKA Melvin Oliphant has been keeping the underground alive in Chicago since the mid-1990s, serving as a house music missionary, whether or not the genre is in vogue at any given moment. He remains a shadowy figure despite having released on numerous labels like Relief, Creme, Spectral, M>O>S, Gigolo and his own imprint Nation.

First up is "Another World", this track takes you on a bass heavy psychedelic journey. It has been crushing NYC dance floors for the last couple months. On the flip is "New News is Old News", this is a deep and hypnotic analog track. Clocking in at nearly 12 minutes it's sort of a more updated take on an 80's industrial/italo sound. Not for primitive dj's!

This EP is strictly limited with special picture sleave...

"This Beat Will Make You Move!"

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Aroy Dee is proud to present the long awaited return of his peer and friend, Melvin Oliphant III, with a stunning solo-project on MOS Deep. Under his The Poetic Painter M pseudonym, the man here serves up ‘Marie's Transcendance’ backed-up by two reworks from compadre Sean Hernandez aka Chicago Skyway.

‘Marie's Transcendance’ is a frenetic yet hypnotizing house track that echoes memories of downpitched Newbeat material and the hooky coldness of new wave.
Olliphant III, though, re-defines rather than regurgitates these influences and re-launches them into a dark and moody acid-flecked future. Drenched in icy and pitch-dark deepness, the haunting strings in the track could have been played by Chris & Cosey themselves.

On the flipside, Chicago Skyway takes “Marie's Transcendance” to another realm, reworking it into a deep, emotional just as acid-version which seems to float into eternity as solid 808-beat programming plays out busily behind.

To complete the project, Aroy Dee edits a second rework of “Marie’s”, creating a simple but highly effective and bouncing track that’s carried along by a psychedelic, out-of-this-world bass line: vintage house sounds from three modern masters…

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Nation returns to the Forefront!

A label designed to push the underground to a new level of electronic sound through experimental styles of musical consciousness.
Nation celebrated it‘s 5th anniversary this year with J.T.C.‘s “Creep Acid“ album, marking the 10th release in the history of our movement.
To follow up in our endavour to bring new sounds to the masses, we are proud to present “The Modern Electronic Element Serie 2“

This series was designed to show different aspects within Jakbeat through the mind and conceptional artistry of Traxx and the whole Nation movement.

It‘s a state of mind where everything comes together as one!
No boundaries...

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Next up in the 10'' series on MOS_deep another heavy 2-tracker of D'Marc Cantu, which will be followed by a (mini)-album early next year.

The opening track is a fierce Chicago-styled banger kicking off with an extremely solid and frantic bassline while D'Marc's low-pitched voice asks us "How Are We Doing?".
The track slowly evolves into a deep and atmospheric masterpiece with spatial strings slowly expanding throughout the track. "How Are We Doing?" is counter-balanced by the fragility and subtlety on the flipside.
"A Second Earth" is a laid-back and emotional retro-futuristic techno track overflowing with sadness and melancholy, echoing the sounds of the artificial-intelligence era. Like a lost vessel drifting through space this track captivates and terrifies at the same time.

A Beauty and a Beast!

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There is a fantastic quality to much of Gavin Russom's work, an otherworldliness that emanates from his music in a way that seems, inexplicably, subtle yet palpable. It can be heard – or felt, more precisely – in all of Russom's projects, from his earliest output to his most recent releases, a catalog that includes The Crystal Ark, Black Meteoric Star and his numerous recordings with Delia Gonzalez. More...

X2 Members: Traxx, D'Marc Cantu & JTC drop a three track V.A. EP on the burgeoning LUX REC imprint. Each artist delivers, with some pretty signature styles on display! A great EP showcasing these maverick sickos.
200 Copies ONLY...!

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Traxx - who has productions with the likes of DFA, Creme Organization and his own label Nation under his belt - is the man behind the third release from fledgling imprint Lumberjacks In Hell, following sterling efforts from Spanish edits don Rayko and the mysterious Em Vee.

Sprawled luxuriously across the A Side is the epic 13 minute ode to Danielle Baldelli, "To The Beat Bizarre", all tumbling drums, Tangerine Dream synths, and perfectly timed claps and keys.

"An Insane Experiment", influenced by Ron Hardy, clocks in at a meagre 09:47 and is characterised a straight up jacking rhythm, with junkyard drums, eerie synth squiggles and truly weird robotic gurgles trading blows before the track morphs into a full on acid wigout.

Purple vinyl - ltd to 300 copies only! More...

After the 2AM/FM release, next up in the 10'' series on MOS_deep is a solo-project of D'Marc Cantu. D' Marc delivers two surprisingly melodic, sexy and hypnotizing housetracks.

"Set Free" opens with a hard-hitting flanged bass-sound and a devastating kick and slowly evolves into a dreamy and atmospheric track full of mystery.

"Tonight" is a hypnotic and haunting latenight-dancefloor track, combining long stretched melodic stabs, an ultra-deep bassline and D' Marc's whispering vocals taking you down deep in the uncanny and eery underworld of his soul.

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The 2nd album to be unveiled from Nation is called "Creep Acid" from JTC who's recorded with Spectral, M>O>S, Relief, Creme presents this very special Full Length Production.

He was driven by thoughts about the lifespan of many things. Creep Acid carries the resonance of future past.

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Nation picking up steam!

A Label designed to "Going Out" while "Holding The Lifeline" of the envocations of classical and modern musical practice in the course of an almost hypnotic way in which each improvisation unreels in a mixture of fancyfull flight
and a solid "Alwayz There" Beat. Its about times of change and transformation, where we we feel odd, lost or alienated. Life comes and goes, people in our life come and go, emotions come and go. We have a limited time on this planet and nothing stays the same and everything is in constant change.

The "Rhythm Relics" EP is an approach towards the beginnings of an evolving acid-driven Dance scene in the UK two decades ago. Stemming ideas from that era, Saturn V and X2 came up with a testament of evolutionary ideas and musical shape-shifting to bring our influences to the audiences of today.
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Nation is On The Move! The tracks for this release are unique and striking that their specialness is undeniable. D'Marc Cantu and The Maniacs are particularly compelling. More...