X-Kalay

18/02/2025

When DJ Life gives you lemons, press ‘em on vinyl. 4 zesty tech house nuggets bringing the swing and vitality in a big way.

Keeping it widescreen throughout and the percussion pulls focus. At times slick and sultry, at others more ominous and ill-tempered, we’re dishing out high-velocity dynamics across four distinct trax. Constantly nudging towards the peak-time, but with plenty of breathy sensuality and dappled melody as he flexes a detailed, sound-sensitive approach.

Drums, drums and more drums. You know the deal by now: direct torque in full effect as we traverse the rugged, funked-out and percussive. Plenty of trippy flourish for good measure too, from humid fusions of rainforest FX and hallucinatory detail to light trail synths punching through inky abyss.

It all recalls Terry Francis and his Housey Doingz project at the peak of their powers - big stabs, big forward momentum. Think the golden era of their Wiggle parties circa 1999.

🎹 Written & produced by DJ Life
📦 Distribution by Subwax Distribution
🎛️ Mastered by CURVE PUSHER
🎨 Artwork and design by .fk
📝 Words by Matt Blair

14/01/2025

I met Yana aka Unjack last autumn when I saw her play after Timur Basha at CDV, and knew right away that we had to get her involved in the mix series. Here we are a few months later and she kindly drops number 12 - a 1 hour 20 minute blend of bumping minimal and slick tech house >:) Thanks Yana!

👉 https://soundcloud.com/x-kalay/xkm012-unjack

04/12/2024

4 in the chamber as X-Kalay first-timer Boss Priester steps up to the plate. A quartet of the toughest joints you’re likely to hear, maximising that dancefloor impact with minimal fuss.

Flexing like a new-skool combination of golden era Todd Edwards and Nathan Coles right from the off. Groove-forward gear accelerated to new levels through the sheer pressure of that drum programming. Proper dancefloor wreckers.

Stripped back with only the most necessary components required, there’s a dreamlike warmth and sensuality to the funked-out chords and flourishes of hallucinatory detail. Heat-seeking tech house rollers and speed garage revisionism serving pure dancefloor propulsion from beginning to end.

Itchy 2-step into piquant, puckered sidewinders, if the Boss is making baseline and groove his hallmark, then this is a case in point.

Available 20/01/2025

🎵 Written & produced by Boss Priester
🔁 Remix written & produced by Harry Wills
🔈 Mastered by CURVE PUSHER
🚀 Distribution by Subwax Distribution
✒️ Words by Matt Blair
🧑‍🎨 Artwork & design by CMDP.FK

05/11/2024

Sandpit Alias, co-founder of Melbourne based party Techworld, serves up 1 hour of loopy tech house for number 11 in the mix series. Get it.

Techworld Melbourne founder Aidan Dimitrios, AKA Sandpit Alias, serves up 1 hour of loopy tech house for number 11 in the mix series. Get it.

11/07/2024

Velvet Velour's Clickin' EP has landed!

Available now 👉 https://tinyurl.com/vvnd7mmf

11/06/2024

Prior to the upcoming show at Platforma Wolff, Bucharest this week, Christopher Ledger delivers a blistering mix of club centric house sounds for the X-Kalay mix series 🌪️

22/05/2024

Rapid-fire with the releases like it’s effortless, minimal donny Velvet Velour steps up with his latest 4-tracker. Strong tech house currents in a similar vein to Kepler’s recent ‘Lowlife’ EP, but with extra zonk - it’s a head turning label debut.

Available 11/06/2024

Pre-order the 12" here 👉 tinyurl.com/vvnd7mmf

24/04/2024

Following in the sublime wake of releases from Ronan and Ocean Stirs, Christopher Ledger is the latest to make Another Place his home.

Splitting time between Berlin and Rome, ‘Access Denied’ is the latest addition to a back catalogue paying no mind to shifting trends. Timeless, ultra-refined deepness flush with wide-eyed wonder and positively utopian NRG.

We’re effortlessly transcending genre boundaries, and where ‘Access Denied’ is built in the model of classic UK bleep & bass, ‘Nala’s Groove’ leans into widescreen house dramati###. Then, all dappled euphoria and boundless warmth, ‘From Above’ comes thru with the rolling, half-time breaks.

Bit of a departure on the flip-side as ‘Enigma’s ruffneck rave revivalism recalls Crème Organization’s anonymous R-Zone series or Klasse Wrecks founder Luca Lozano at his finest. That said, it still retains the same sense of expansive, heady exploration, as is the case with both tunnelling, fractal torque of closing number ‘File Inspectors’.

Last up, and more sofa-bound than its predecessors, digital bonus ‘A Sweet Memory of Nothingness’ ends proceedings with some sweeping IDM pointillism.

Three AP releases deep and it seems we might have entered a prolific period for purveyors of crystalline, exploratory dance music.

Get your copy here 👉 https://x-kalay.bandcamp.com/album/access-denied

18/01/2024

In dialogue with both past and future, Slapfunk protégé Julian Anthony drops his debut solo EP and touches down on X-Kalay with a 4-track invocation of classic 90’s house 🌪️

Pre-orders are available now 👉 tinyurl.com/c6n8xt3w