Some brief words on current favourites on the 'Tony Poland radar' spanning recent, new and upcoming releases.

B Rupp - Pop Music (Accidental Meetings)

What even is pop music these days? In the hands of B Rupp, and his second album, it materialises as a grubby, mutant strain of dance music with primitive, knackered samples and drum rhythms sludging through muddy bass and barely decipherable vocals. Imagine Beau Wanzer on a special brew binge. The best tracks are the ones that sound early 2000s electro-house slowed to a chopped+scewed crawl. PS Accidental Meetings is turning into one of my favourite labels at the moment! Look out for their soon-come Lord Tusk and James Massiah hookup!

Hearts & Minds - Hearts & Minds (Workshop)

Something of a surprise drop from Lowtec’s trusty Workshop label who embrace the tape format for this debut transmission from Hearts & Minds. I gripped the digital from Hard Wax super quick based on samples without knowing who was behind this album of ‘ambient house modes’ so was pleasantly surprised to discover long-term DFA fixture Tyler Pope was half of Hearts & Minds along with the unknown-to-me Sarah Schneider. Not seen much about the project online but that’s all good because you can just focus on the music, which glistens and gurgles in all the right places and has in “Tough Love” the sort of ascendant shoegazy house cut Weatherall (RIP) would hammer.

Brassfoot - TURMOIL (zippyblogspotrar)

There is always a barreling, marauding energy to Brassfoot’s productions and that’s very much present on this aptly-titled new EP that dropped via his rarely used but excellently-named zippyblogspotrar bandcamp. Ripe breakbeats, obscure vocal samples and ruff bass lines run through each cut as Brassfoot tackles various tempos and styles from rugged Apron-adjacent house on ‘INVIDIA’ to jungle-tekno hybrids like opener ‘VELTRO’ and the chaotic amen jazz of ‘JAILBREAK.’ If you are interested in exploring more Brassfoot moves, I recommend his 2022 album Sweat.

Tolouse Low Trax - Fung Day (TAL)

Not sure when my obsession with Tolouse Low Trax started but anything he touches these days is buy on sight. Düsseldorf-via-Paris MPC maverick Detlef Weinrich ploughs such a singular furrow as Tolouse Low Trax that there is always so much scope and range within the mid-tempo motorik-dub grooves he makes across his plentiful output. Fung Day is his latest album - ninth by my count - and first for the Düsseldorf label TAL after a slew of Bureau B drops and finds Detlef in fine form with nine tracks that all display a crafty snake-charmers approach to queasy melodies and pinpoint drums. Would love to see Detlef making beats for some vocalists at some point!

V/A World of Rubber Vol. 4 (Rubber)

Den Haag’s BAKK label may have shuttered earlier this year with a various artists-shaped flourish but their dishevelled, unwashed cousin operation, Rubber, is still going strong. As the title suggests, this is a fourth volume of Rubber’s v/a EP series which pairs up artists who deal predominantly in wavy, rough and abrasive electronixx with some eye-catching graphic design - provided on vol.4 by Amsterdam-based, Banjaluka-born visual artist Vanja Rakic. Top Swede Peder Mannerfelt is the immediate draw with ‘Lifeline’ typical of his knotty, off-kilter but inherently earwormy approach to techno whilst Bunker fans will immediately warm to Unit Moebius Anonymous’s rowdy Juzer refix. Offering some balance to this are the more avant-garde contributions from MAP71, Senyawa and The Modern Institute - a trio of acts that would make for a good night down Cafe Oto.

Salamanda - Make A Jam (Tom VR and K-Lone remixes) (Wisdom Teeth)

My personal favourite from In Parallel, the 2023 album from South Korean duo Salamanda for Wisdom Teeth, gets the refix treatment from K-Lone and Tom VR on some limited white label business. Immediately drawn to K-Lone’s Marmalade Mix on the B-side which retains the syrupy charms of Salamanda’s original but slowly teases out some intricate, colorific melodies over a cheeky dembow bump. Delightful! Tom VR’s Tech Trip version makes full use of its near ten-minute duration to reveal its own dance floor charms, spiralling out from its scratchy rhythmic backbone into a heads-down minimal tech groover rich in swinging detail and sound design.

100 copies only - available at Phonica and the WT Bandcamp

Deep Nalström - Baroud (Bellyache Recordings)

I’m more familiar with Guillaume de Ubéda’s visual design work for the Atelier Superplus studio than I am with his music as Deep Nalström. As an artist, de Ubéda has blessed the likes of Going Good, Pace Yourself, Deep Cover and Warp Records, made some veee trippy videos for Nummer and brought a distinct visual identity to many a party flyer and poster in Bristol and beyond. Despite my best intentions, I’ve missed out checking his previous Deep Nalström albums for Nummer’s Natural Selections and the Slow Life label, but I got the promo for Baroud for some reason. Very happy I checked this out! There’s an appreciation of dubby rhythms, ambient, jazz and fourth world business throughout here that’s reminiscent of prime Funki Porcini without sounding anything like him.