Tag: vinyl only

The heat is on!

so hot it will melt your chocolates
so hot it will melt your chocolates

It’s that time of the year again: the sun appears for the first time in months, Berliners are in a better mood and the Retreat HQ is buzzing with activity after a long hibernation!

But to be honest, the people behind your favourite vinyl-only label were actually quite busy these last few months: Hauke has been on an extensive touring schedule with his mate Matthias Reiling as Session Victim, smashing club after club in Europe, Russia, the USA and Canada while still dropping essential remixes and tracks for Wolf Music, Compost Black and Retrofit. Quarion on the other hand worked hard in the studio and finally delivered a follow-up to 2010’s “Moons Around Jupiter”! Introducing 3 monster tracks that cover a wide spectrum of Dance music, the “Shifts In The Environment” EP is a return to form as well as a departure from the traditional House sound associated with the producer. Expect the record to hit the shelves in mid-june, but of course, we’ll keep you posted on this one.

Actually, RTR13 is only the first out of six releases coming out this summer. What?!!? Well, sort of: we’ve decided to finally repress some of our earlier catalog on full quality 180 gram vinyl! Needless to say that you might run into a lot of Retreat wax in the shops these next months as most of the EPs were sold out until now! But if you want to secure a copy of “Pepper Candy”, “Move Me So” or the classic “Good Intentions” (yes!) you can also go straight to our webshop, put in a preorder and receive the records as soon as they’re hot off the press! Oh, and we’ll even throw in a special present for those looong summer afternoons at the festival, open-air afterparty or biergarten!

It’s getting hot in here so stay tuned for more news!

Iron Curtis – Glazing EP – RTR12

RTR_Label-12After the well-received “Treats Vol.4”, Retreat closes its 2012 chapter with a fantastic 4-tracker from House maestro Iron Curtis! Following his accomplished debut album on Mirau, «Glazing» is a highly versatile EP which sees the producer breaking new ground while staying true to his inimitable style. Expect the unexpected as Iron Curtis stretches House music far beyond its known boundaries with the help of Psychedelia, Dubstep and Hip-Hop!

«Glazing» kick things off with a swinging beat, a cowbell and one of those square bass punch that has «Chicago» all over it. But appearances can be deceiving as a drunk bassline emerges from the background with snappy vocals and hidden chords. The track builds steadily for almost 3 minutes before a very dramatic break: the wonky bassline takes center stage, majestic chords rise from every side and before you know it, your skin starts to crawl as you witness once again another euphoric “House” experience. You lose control as the beat comes back with extra ride cymbals which take you on a dancing frenzy. Subtle arpeggios float from left to right and vice-versa as «Glazing» takes you higher and higher. It finally eases down after 5 minutes: the bassline is reduced, the beat stripped down to its essentials and you’re gently taken to the tracks’s final stop. What a ride!

But if «glazing» takes you sky-high, «Helio» flies you to the center of our solar system as Iron Curtis displays his incredible talents for a tribute to our sun.You can almost see the solar flares as different beats smash into each other while surprising effects are dropped. A simple but solid bassline holds the whole madness together while 909 percussion, strings and pads seem to appear at will. A terrific break with cosmic wurlitzer chords suddenly takes “Helio” in a place beyond space and time. But the rotation starts again and you’re taken for another mad spin before the pads slowly disintegrate and you’re left with just the bassline and sound effects…

Flip the record and mysterious chords introduce «17» before a massive kick drum nails the track down. It takes a minute for the tune to pick up speed until a growling, almost reese-like bassline drops in. As additional percussion fills the whole, «17» sounds like the most «traditional» House track of the whole EP. That is until beautiful pads take it in a more emotional direction. It’s another goose-bump moment as a vocal loop filters up in the background before the groove comes back in a more basic form. Wahwah chords and strings make sure that “17” stays firmly on the deeper side of things before it reaches a classic beat-only conclusion.

Iron Curtis concludes his Tour De Force with the brilliant «Super Sorry», a nifty little Hip-Hop tune with descending chords, weird vocal samples and off-beat percussion. A few sneaky synths creep up in the background here and there and before you know it, the track comes to an end and leaves you with no other option but to play it again!

A1 – Glazing
A2 – Helio
B1 – 17
B2 – Super Sorry

Release: January 16th 2013 (get it here)

(RTR-12_Releasesheet)