Josiah Fontenot - Unseen Forces (Harmonious Discord)

Harmonious Discord staple Josiah Fontenot (AKA El Natured, JB Fontenot) has a knack for creating wide reaching projects that display a precision for the foundational aspects of dance music with a propensity for boundary pushing. Recently Josiah has been busy with projects on imprints like Denied Music and Colour and Pitch. His productions have the city of Houston, TX, clamoring to find out more about this talented and mysterious artist. On remix duties are Signal Deluxe, who bring a seasoned tenure to the project, and multi-faceted Dallas, TX, artist Wanza Dover (Blixaboy, Black Dots, and Jack Dover). Wanz features his rough and rumble alias Jack Dover, giving listeners a comprehensive variety.

“Unseen Forces” starts with dulcet chimes and disorienting effects. Growing steadily, synthesizer elements begin to collide with dusty drum machine patterns. The track progresses into abject calamity, with distorted acid lines and circuit bent squeals. Signal Deluxe muddies the waters keeping subtlety at the forefront. Their remix widens the sonic landscape and plays tricks in the ears of the listener, instilling a bit of confused delight amid a playful mixture of elements.

“New Paranoia” rattles nerves with expertly executed musical framing. Wrought with tension and growing in complexity this tune introduces a fever to the dance floor that can only be followed with more well-tempered weirdness.

Picking up the pace, “Distant Ally” sits squarely between a techno banger and an electro spectacle. Synthesizer placement and construction are remnant of early electro recordings, but the drum progression is all techno. As with the rest of the project a hint of acid permeates, giving the desired fluidity that only a TB-303 can provide. For the remix, Jack Dover brings a Detroit discipline with big drums, looped-crescendos, and playful percussion.

This fall the Harmonious Discord camp is falling for the weirdness with upcoming features that continue to challenge ears and excite the senses.

Spettro (Get Physical Music) – “I get goose bumps listening to Unseen Forces. The chord progressions and groove are amazing!”
Nick Warren (The Soundgarden) – “Unseen Forces is dope!”
Salah Sadeq (The Crate Radioshow) – “I like the release, and nice work by Signal Deluxe.”
Steve ‘Griffo’ Griffiths (Freak Da Funk radio show) – “Brutal stuff! ‘New Paranoia’ is my fave so far … dirty acid workout! ‘Distant Ally’ brings to mind Dave Clarke’s Reese inspired Red series.”
Snooba (Radio Panik) – “Yeah Acid!”
Henderick AKA Thelonious Funk (Thelonious Funk Sessions) – “Liking the original productions and the Jack Dover mix.”
James Kidd (Thoughtless Music) – “Gorgeous synth tone on Unseen Forces. Both mixes are good.”
Lunacybot (FNOOB Techno Radio) – “New Paranoia is saucy as hell.”
Lcaise (Tanztone Records) – “Signal Deluxe mix for me. Nice minimal house trip.”
Taigo Onez (Bang Le’ Dex Radio Show) – “This is lovely. Signal Deluxe Remix is a sure fire cut for me. Great body of work on the whole EP.”

Available Now From: Beatport, Traxsource, iTunes, And Spotify.

Various Artists - Discordian Dreaming 6 (Harmonious Discord)

Every year at this time the Harmonious Discord label issues a new installment of its Discordian Dreaming series which gives a preview of what the label has in store for the year to come. This sixth annual issue is another superb collection of sonic sensations exploring the outer reaches of the musical frontier and showcases arising talent on the HD radar. Label heroes such as Vegenaut, Signal Deluxe, Smight, and Wirik join newer discoveries Ill76, Gians, El Natured, The Hermans, Joshua Kynd, and Christian Barbuto for a fantastic assemblage of diverse and boundary-stretching electronic sounds. Warehouse techno, moody downtempo, swingy tech-house, and deep, atmospheric machine music are all examples of the styles that can be found here though, in true Harmonious Discord fashion, more than a few of the tracks blur the lines between those designations. Dive in … there’s plenty to take in with a quality quotient that aims to impress.

Dave Taylor (Switch, Major Lazer) - “Tight!”
Orde Meikle (Slam, Soma) - “Nice tracks!”
Joshua Jacobs (Music You Need blog) - “Deep and dark sounds from the underground courtesy of Harmonious Discord. Smooth bass lines, soothing melodies, and funky drums make for quite the compilation.”
Summer (Tulipa Recordings) - “Very good release!”
Cheets (Global Dance Sessions) - “Some lush deepness here. The remix for ‘Day Dreaming’ is my pick.”
Steve Venom (Kozmik Hype) - “Classic style with today’s sound … will play!”
Ulysses (Neurotic Drum Band) - “Nice pack of tunes.”
Paul Corey (Ibiza Voice) - “A nice, cosmic collection. Particularly ‘Lost Messages’ and ‘Pink Tangerine’ for me.”
QuestionmarQ (Red FM) - “Hard to pick a favorite … ‘Day Dreaming’ just pips it, though am very found of the Oskan remix and loving the driving hypnotic rhythm on ‘Pink Tangerine.’”
Andy Slate (Soulmate) - “WOW! ‘5th Objective’ is amazing … love it!”
Bobi (Global Movement, Club FM) - “Wow. Really needed this cool deep dosis for my ears. Will support it all.”
German MT (Como Las Grecas blog) - “Some really great tracks. Molecule, Ill76, and Wirik are all superb.”
Aldrin (Zouk Club, Singapore) - “I’m feeling the dubby-ness of Gians remix, ‘5th Objective,’ and ‘Pink Tangerine.’”
Maxim Ryzhkov (Free Ends Radio Show, Moscow) - “Absolutely great track from Vegenaut!”
Paul Corey (Ibiza Voice) - “A nice, cosmic collection. Particularly ‘Lost Messages’ and ‘Pink Tangerine’ for me.”

Available now from Beatport.

Monad - In the Stars EP (Harmonious Discord)

St. Louis based DJ/producer Don Tinsley AKA Monad is quickly becoming a Harmonious Discord staple, consistently producing heady-floaty tunes that aim to tickle the synapses. Within the Monad project obscurity is paramount, but this latest EP showcases an energy driven trio of tunes well suited for peak time danceability while retaining Monad’s trademark dissonant tone. Coupled with a quality group of originals are remixes from Mexico’s power couple Signal Deluxe who bring a dirty resonant funk to the project and Canadian producer Driip with an acid soaked dance workout.

Our sonic journey begins with propulsion into cosmic territory via “In the Stars,” a chugging techy piece peppered with creeping effects and steady beat movement. Its second section transitions into housey minor chord interplay while keeping a string of off-key elements at play. “Never The Same Again” is a sharp detour back into the cavernous depths of bass driven minimalism. Sharp percussion and big atmosphere treatments make this a full moon montage of techno elements. Driip provides a remix here, applying some old-school acid technique. Pitch-bent trills steer the listener into odd collisions of melody while building beats rock this sweat-soaked cellar dweller. “Said To The Wind” submerges the listener further with flighty sprints of compressed air and an intriguing background cacophony. Signal Deluxe steps in to remix “Said To The Wind” with their trademark brand of dirty funk, utilizing fragments of bell reverberation and low down bass. Monad’s latest contribution is most certainly a taste of sounds in store on the Harmonious Discord fall menu.

Orde Meikle (Slam) - “Nice EP. Will spin.”
MIke Clark (Agent X) - “Nice, deep rhythms.”
TJ Norris (Resident Advisor) - “Once Monad’s ‘In The Stars’ heats up there is no stopping it, or yourself from feeling maximum groove pleasure from head to toe. It’s like a super DNA restructuring life force in space, planned and one in x-million.”
DJ Linus (Exun / Pacha) - “Excellent! Right up my alley.”
Chris Udoh (Tigerhook) - “Super HOT!”
Tyler Stadius - “Cool, trippy tracks here.”
Merlyn Martin (Subdivisions Global Radio Show) - “‘In The Stars’ is a mover and a groover.”
Dino Michael (Godfathers’ House radio show) - “Deep and dark. Loads of energy and will rock the deep, harder crowd.”
Velanche (Urban Landscapes) - “Another quality Harmonius Discord release here. Trippy and interesting. I’m liking it.”
Cheets (Global Dance Sessions) - “‘In The Stars’ is dreamy … love that! ‘Never The Same’ is a real chugger, also. Great work!”
DJ Bonehead (Heads Up radio show) - “Solid EP as usual with Harmonious Discord.”

Additional support from Luciano, Richie Hawtin, Paul Van Dyk, Onionz, Andy Cato (Groove Armada), Claude Von Stroke, and Omid 16B.

Available now from Beatport.