One of the things that define the Sound Pellegrino sound is our passion for a certain brand of House music that revolves around samples. We are proud to come from a Hip Hop background and we consider the art of sampling to be a valid, crucial and inevitable part of music-making today. We celebrate and admire the beauty in creating a new piece of music out of pre-existing fragments of popular culture, the genius of sound collage--taking a song out of its context and into the club, putting something old under the spotlight and making it new again. All of this is exciting to us, that's why we couldn't be more proud to release a single by the master of modern sample-based house himself, Italian-born London resident SOLO.

You might know the man from his frequent Mowgli and Crookers collaborations, his work as a sound engineer for Zombie Disco Squad, Riva Starr and Hanna Holland to name a few, his Deadfish and Dirtybird releases and his countless remixes. The thing that ties it all together is his genuine love for the exploration of sound, production techniques, and his search for the perfect sample. “Minimood” and “Rawmania” where both created by the Master in one night, they should be considered as a cohesive project rather than two unrelated pieces of music, they reveal two faces of the same beast, two emotions from the same heart, two sides of the same coin, two shadows at different hours of the same day, two meatballs from the same dish of rich musical pasta.
“Minimood” is SOLO doing what he is best known for: playful and percussive sounds from oddly familiar sources gelling into a piece of as-yet-unnamed music, somewhere in between minimal and fidget--dare we say midget? Hell no, this is more of an axe-swirling drunken dwarf thang. Pumping and bouncy yet slick and dandy.
“Rawmania”'s title speaks for itself, no need for further spoilers. You're going to get a big slice of this thick delicious cake called FUN. So enjoy the ride, do the horns, stomp the ground, clap your hands, and dance to this irresistible floor filler.

In the backstage area of a notorious Oslo club, ROUND TABLE KNIGHTS were referred to by a bunch of sinister Sound Pellegrino alumni, who shall remain anonymous, as "the ZZ Top of house". Facial hair considerations aside, these two dudes from the land of chocolate and cheese keep getting better with every track. We've kept an eye on them since their contribution to Jean Nipon & Orgasmic's “Eurogirls” compilation, which we like to see as the blueprint of Sound Pellegrino. It's only right that we ended up asking them for a remix of “Minimood”. They delivered a mini-funky-techy house monster, surpassing all of our expectations. A moving example of tasteful, intricate yet groovy dance music with an infrabass that will tickle your brain as much as it massages your butt.

BEATAUCUE are two gifted French kids with a tendency to turn every track they remix into a hot-to-death, fast-paced, relentless, impossible-not-to-play banger. After a few iChat conversations in which they proceeded to reinvent the laws of French grammar and revolutionize Internet semantics through the intense half tongue-in-cheek / half dead-serious use of multiple rapid-fire emoticons, they agreed to remix “Rawmania”. A half-second later, they delivered this merciless musical rollercoaster ride that has "hit" written all over it in day-glo stickers, making us all feel like we're 500 years old in the process. But it's all good.

L-VIS 1990. English bloke. One of the most innovative and talked-about producers of the year, with the talent and artistic vision to back it up, not only through music but also video and artwork (see his massive Riton and Dance Area videos). Championed by blogs, sitting atop a pile of Hypemachine and Resident Advisor charts, L-Vis has earned, through his releases (on Mad Decent, Dress 2 Sweat) and remixes (for Riton & Primary 1, Buraka, Crystal Fighters, Gucci Vump), the kind of buzz that comes once a year and changes the face of underground club music. We could spend hours explaining how he is the new incarnation of UK bass / club culture and how he blends years of garage heritage with post-modern tribal house, but it's a lot simpler than that: L-Vis 1990 is his own music genre. He's a true phenomenon, and the feeling that we are witnessing the imminent explosion of a massive success has never been so tangible.

Slightly heavier than your average Sound Pellegrino release, this single marks our first foray into "riddim" territory, AKA we're definitely taking the Eurostar to this one. Somewhere in between UK funky and dark African rave lies “Compass”, a strong, obvious, destructive hit that could be interpreted as a punchy follow-up to L-Vis' previous single United Groove. Already played by the whole universe, from big name Radio 1 DJs to Grenoble techno aficionados, “Compass” is bound to become a must-play, and we'd like to apologize in advance for the loss of your dear little bedroom speakers. On the infamous "virtual flip", “Zahonda” serves as the bubbly, quieter yet lethal house tool. Obsessive, repetitive and muddy, it's the chant of Mother Earth reclaiming the dancefloor, or something to raise your arms and worship the Sun to.

The “Compass” remix is provided by none other than Christian Martin, half of the notorious Martin Brothers and one of the heads of best-in-class San Francisco-based house label Dirtybird. This is another case of “we are psyched to have one of the inspirations behind the creation of Sound Pellegrino do a remix for us”. The result: an amazing slice of detailed, elegant and vicious electro-tech that will surprise and win over DJs from across the spectrum. London's Greena remixes “Zahonda” into an immediate funky stomper that will leave crowds all shook up, wrapping up this essential single that will undoubtedly give to young underground prince L-Vis 1990 the well-deserved title of "King of Bass".

There are times In the carreer of a top international DJ/Producer where things get a little bit out of control. Times when the glitter, the glam and the fame get a little out of hand. Times when the whole "travelling from the hotel to the jet, and from the jet to the 5000 capacity venue via a helicopter made of gold" - thing kinda blurs one's vision of day to day reality. In times like these, it's important for said DJ/Producer to take a step back, return to anonymity and focus on the music that keeps the underground clubs buzzing. The sweaty, dirty, forward-thinking, genre-defying, risk-taking house music that drives the cool kids crazy. That is exactly what the mysterious entity hiding behind GUCCI VUMP is doing with the release of Sha! Shtil!, The Boogieman and Casablanco on Sound Pellegrino.

If we wanted to tell you who Gucci Vump was, let's just say we get into some big fat legal trouble with legions of record company people, managers and agents and it would cause an unprecedented diplomatic incident. He is such an important and heavy money-generating figure in the international DJ scene that every piece of information regarding every single one of his release shakes the whole industry up. It's an amazing and exciting thing but we feel that such a media tsunami would turn Sound Pellegrino into a relentless money-making-attention-grabbing-hype-creating machine and ultimately cause more harm than good to the label. The humble little craftsmen of house music that we are much prefer to keep it on the down low. Therefore Gucci Vump's mysterious identity shall not be revealed.

Evidently there has been a lot of talk and speculation surrounding this release and the identity behind the alias "Gucci Vump". People have not quite nailed it yet and all the names that have been thrown around the internet in the last couple of months have all revealed themselves to be phoney. The mystery remains, and the buzz is growing, as gucci vump appears to be playlisted by more and more VIP DJs from around the globe, leaving people asking "who is this guy and what the hell is a Vump?". Mystery and controversy are one thing but when it comes to the music itself, Gucci Vump delivers.

Sha! Shtil! was inspired by a traditional Klezmer song teling the story of a Rabbi dancing like a madman to get rid of the demon in him. According to the general feedback we received, from tastemakers to regular weekend clubbers, the track is a smash hit capable of pleasing every dancefloor. People are just too happy to hear that lady sing in Yiddish, and the production is so crisp, it makes it the perfect tool for every dj to turn the techno party into RABBI-DOME VOLUME FIVE.

Totally in touch with the current interest in local scenes and the merging of fhe folkloric and the futuristic, gucci vump adds a political dimension to the "conceptual sample" game by using bits and pieces from both Jewish (as we heard with Sha! Shtil!) and Arabic traditional music on the same EP. The Boogieman could be the background for a fantasy Indiana Jones pursuit scene in a bazaar that ends up in an indian pit of snakes. And when he received Casablanco Orgasmic instantly described it as "Raï meets UK Funky". The comparison is a little bit "pulling it by the hair" as we say in French, but the tracks are two immense bangers.

On remix duties we have the man of the moment L-VIS 1990, known for his recent releases on Mad Decent and Dress2Sweat, building anticipation for his forthcoming Sound Pellegrino release Compass/Zahonda by providing a deadly yet classy take on "Sha, Shtil!" including one of the most venimous typhoon-shaped basslines heard in a while. Last but not least, Downtown, one half of star duo Renaissance Man, re-invents The Boogieman as a brilliant dubby tech house odyssey complete with sitar stabs and menacing howling noises, a guaranteed hit on deeper dancefloors.

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It doesn't take an expert to notice that, in the last few months, a new musical family has built itself on the ruins of loud big beat-like fidget and overly distorted washing machine-electro.
Inspired by the "less is more" ethics of minimal techno as much as the DIY/"sample-anything-as-long-as-it's-got-attitude" philosophy of hip-hop, this new unnamed form of groovy and refreshing house music is rising and Sound Pellegrino is proud to be at the forefront of such an exciting phenomenon.

In the wake of their acclaimed Dubsided hit EP "Spraycan", with Kitsune and Deadfish releases already buzzing and the whole dance music world wanting a piece of them in 2009, Finnish duo Renaissance Man deliver a massive EP for Sound Pellegrino which promises to catch the ear of an insanely wide spectrum of audiences, confirming their status of most exciting new house act of the year.

It is quite hard to resist the catchiness of the tongue-in-cheek vocal sample in "What Is Guru", and even your mother will soon ask you to burn her a CD of "that Krishna song" you play all the time. But once the novelty's gone, the thing that makes "What Is Guru" an ultimate club hit is the impeccable and original production, serving a groove reminiscent of Akufen's early radio-chopping work.
It's so good that Riva Starr, a fan of the early demo version of the original, and one of artists who helped define this new sound we keep writing about, made us the honor to provide an infectious percussive remix which will prove itself more than useful for DJs who aren't feeling the whole vocal/spiritual breakdown thing.
"Aloha" and its accompanying dub are equally as lethal on dancefloors, perpetuating the tradition of tribal, menacing post-Baltimore Sound Pellegrino riddims installed by Zombie Disco Squad's "Eurovision".

We said we weren't gonna give it a name, but if "sparse house music with conceptual samples" is an army, then Renaissance Man are the most devoted soldiers who become generals in the middle of the movie.

We got to know Harvard Bass through Johnny Love from Guns 'n' Bombs back in december 2007 when TTC flew to California on a quest for the perfect hamburger (shout out to In & Out). We closely followed his career since then, inviting him to remix our "Sixpack Anthem" on Institubes and watching him gather massive support from DJs like Crookers, Brodinski, Christian Martin, Jess & Crabbe, Acid Girls, Fluokids and many, many more. It's finally Harvard Bass's time to shine. FA SHOW!

As demonstrated in “Caked” and “81”, the music of Harvard Bass is a combination of elegant, smooth and sophisticated minimalism on one side and bad ass dirty jacking ghetto house grooves with filthy drums and simple, obsessive riffs on the other.

And fresh from their smashing debut EP "Spraycan" on Switch's Dubsided imprint, Finnish duo Renaissance Man provide a slamming remix of “81” in the form of percussive house jam in true Sound Pellegrino fashion, foreshadowing their highly anticipated S.P. release "What Is Guru / Aloha" in the coming weeks! That's what's up.

Teki.

Tracks from Buenos Aires french expat Douster have been around on everybody's hard disks and playlists for ever, but thanks to Sound Pellegrino and Dan Haaksman's Man Recordings it is now Douster's time. He is finally getting actual official releases. With “For Weirdos Only” and “Freak Mode”, Douster moves one step away from his early banging fidget works to venture into pure house territory, and the result is a wonky banjo joyride backed with a jacking burst of pure energic groove. Warm and cold, perfect for the early summer days when you can hang out in a tee shirt all day but still have to wear a jacket at night.

We asked Das Glow from Institubes (Sound Pellegrino's proud "big brother label") to remix “For Weirdos Only” and in typical Das Glow fashion he named the first draft "Doustin Hoffman" and the second one "Doustin Timberlake". With his final file, he attached a picture of Mr. Potato Head dressed up as a Halloween ghost.

On the virtual flip, Momma's Boy (Trouble and Bass alumni Mikix The Cat's housier alias) provides a slow-boiling party-starting version of "for weirdos" ideal for hula hoop training sessions that also works as an introduction to Momma's Boy's forthcoming EP on Sound Pellegrino.

BEATPORT RELEASE: APRIL 20TH

Zombie Disco Squad are two London blokes with a passion for forest grooves and tribal drums as well as profound respect for pure house music and classy techno. In-between releases for two of the most acclaimed electronic music labels of today (Claude Von Stroke's Dirtybird and Jesse Rose's Made To Play) they made us the honor to inaugurate Sound Pellegrino with the release of their single Esperanto / Eurovision. The two Baile House bangers merge South American accordions with mini-Bmore rythms made playable at Panorama Bar. With Mowgli providing an eerie horror score take on Eurovision and Solo (UK) remixing Esperanto into a deep techno sure shot, we could easily tell you this release represents House music's cultural diversity at its best--but frankly, who cares about the whole "world music" shtick anyway? These four bangers will rock any club and it's all that matters.

Forthcoming is Argentina's French expat Douster with Freak Mode / For Weirdos Only, re-inventing jacking house into a half intimate-half frenetic wonky banjo ride.

Our good friends at Ill Studio will handle all artistic duties.


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Sound Pellegrino's sonic identity is a paradox.
When I play the current house and techno music that I like to my French "banging electro" friends they think it's minimal. When I play it to minimal DJs they think it bangs too hard. We love hard stuff when it's creative and groovy, and we love minimalist music when it's not boring nore serious. The first two Sound Pellegrino releases totally embody that state of mind.