After contaminating rocking Auckland dance floors for last 3 years New Zealand’s very own slamming Hard House event Meltdown has now mutated into a record label. The much anticipated Meltdown Records has landed and exploded into the scene with reckless abandon and no small amount of success!!!

The initial wave of releases has turned heads worldwide with the first few tracks charting high in the charts top ten’s and low on the moral standards league – just like the event. Filthy hard beats from Aotearoa infesting the international airwaves like only Meltdown can!

Roll the Dice by Manik & Grimm was the first high charting track to kick start the label, and sets the scene for what the label is all about. As with everything else branded by the red hot Meltdown poker it is New Zealand made, banging and guaranteed to makes cattle’s backsides sore. 100% dedication to Phat Proper Hard house and bringing forwards NZ artists is the name of the game here.

We know you guys need a regular fix so Meltdown Records will be releasing fortnightly on TrackitDown.Net and iTunes, so you won’t have to check into hard house rehab any time soon. (Unless someone in your family stages an intervention ... you have to turn down the stereo to hear them though so we doubt even that would work).

Make sure you check out Meltdown and Meltdown Records on Facebook as the best place to check what’s in the pipeline. (Like Manik recently getting in the studio with UK hard house diva Lucy Fur ... that one was free now check the websites for more info!)

You can catch the leader of the pack Manik at Meltdown’s huge 3rd Birthday on the 7th May to hear a showcase of the past present and future releases lined up for the label. Don’t take our word for it, hear it for yourself on the night but be prepared to crank yourself stupid!!!

Manik.

First off, forgive my excitement, this is a long review. Well .....seems I got a little behind the times. When I discovered Flying Lotus, I had no idea he was part of a new genre. I had always enjoyed Dubstep, but was blown away by the sonic complexity and range of Fly Lo’s work, which is far more musically varied in influence and experimental. Well I discovered recently, this is LA’s “beat” scene, the American, the more organic, more hip-hop/“nu jazz”/game music/glitch/experimental influenced sound that emerged parallel to other forms of so-called “wonk”, such as IDM and UK Dubstep, largely out of experimental instrumental hip hop scene.

So though this album was out last year, it’s with some excitement that I review this again rather different album, Drink the Sea, by the, now trio, The Glitch Mob. Trust me, its still fresh as just popped toast. So hard to describe this kind of music really, but I’ll give it my best shot. The album, by comparison to Flying Lotus, is sans the lounge, jazz, downbeat and full dub influences. Like most beat scene artists, the personal influences are diverse – originality is a must.

Rather, this album is more rock influenced in rhythm. While still plenty Dubstep and wonk influenced, it features some staple rock funk rhythms, and loads of rock style drum rolls for build ups and breakdowns – A consequence of their live midi drum style – something than sets them apart. It’s full of unstable and throbbing electronic leads and basses, and features some vocals. There’s a definite early mod game music influence here (think Amiga 500 and the era)– the leads are a fair bit reminiscent of this style. Of course, it’s also full of bass, some of it pretty damn driving.

The leads vary from Rhodes keys, trancey elements to slippy bent saws – and there a lot of bent writhing high end saws – sort of a blend of funk, trance & rock, like some of the funkier electro influenced Dubstep, or breaks but on a whole 'nother planet of its own – the overall effect is funky, modern sounding, yet somehow progressive or psychedelic in some way, something well explained by the cover art really – almost neo-70’s looking like something you might see for a psychedelic influence rock bands cover. Or perhaps it’s better described by that mod file game music influence. I almost feel like I can’t pin it down exactly – which is refreshing.

Read the rest of the review here.

“For the masses” was a well produced album, that was a little sketchy lyrically and in tone in places. It marked a departure from Hadouken!’s more basement dance punk electronic sound, and a launch into more proper electronic dance music, which was somewhat prodigy-esque.

This new single, is even more promising as to their direction. The title track, “Oxygen”, has a dance floor epic quality, and vocally and lyrically deeper, more palatable, with an abstractness hinted at in there last album. The beat, rhythm, leads and bass are chunky and funky, the vocal just right for that loved up dance floor madness. There's a short rythmn and bass work at the end of the song, that reminds me of the slippy bass and rhythm trickery in Noisia.

“Mecha love” has more of the MC style vocal, but similarly has a “deeper” or more mature quality to the lyrics. The production is more of the typical pumping four on the floor style, but with those, now almost trademark, "out on a limb" rave influenced leads.

Theres a host of mixes on here, with various styles, which in themselves are very good, and introduce various different elements - slippy slow breakbeat trickery, big open epic trance saws & drum and bass. Overall I was pretty damn happy with this, and am looking forward to see where these guys are going - check it out.

For those hardhouse veterans familiar with the good old Cube days, the phat, driving sound of hardhouse played on vinyl will always have a special resonance. Meltdown Vinyl Sessions is a night dedicated to phat proper hardhouse, a sound that originated from vinyl and had the Cube punters coming back for more for many years. Vinyl sessions is both a tribute to the music itself and the good days at the much loved Cube. For those who never made it to Cube in its heyday, let Meltdown take you there with the sound of Hardhouse the way it was always meant to be played - on vinyl!

Where? Area 6, Newmarket, Auckland

When? 26th Feb