Berlin-Hamburg duo Session Victim return to the ever-reliable Delusions Of Grandeur imprint with Chapter Two of their Sidequests trilogy, marking yet another high point in their almost twenty year journey through heartfelt, sample-rich music. Overflowing with analog warmth, sun-drenched textures and irresistible grooves, the release also features a stellar remix from label co-founder and deep house pioneer Jimpster who kicks off the EP.

Here he takes Behind The Glass into spaced out house-not-house territory. With crisp drum programming, trademark Rhodes, and subtle pads that build over time, his version delivers that late-night sophistication he’s known for—steering the downtempo original in a clubbier direction without losing its blissed-out essence.

Up next we have a brand new collaborative effort with long time friend, label mate and fellow sample nerd Nebraska. Make It Happen is a dusty, slo-mo house groove featuring delicate keys, euphoric strings and that unmistakable sense of journey. It’s just the kind of low-slung epic house they do best—intimate yet club-ready, nostalgic but never retro.

Flipping over, Too Soft To Be Loud, another collaboration with Viken Arman, follows with a jazzy, almost samba-esque rhythm and swirling atmospherics. Loose percussion, catchy guitar riffs and Rhodes stabs collide with off-kilter dub FX and soft vocal snippets giving the track a laid-back, live-band feel that harks back to their See You When You Get There era.

Hubcap Candy dives deep into funk territory. Nebraska’s on point boogie bassline drives the track forward as crunchy drums and layers of synths create a dreamlike haze. It’s loopy, moody, and finds Session Victim at their very best.

Closing out the EP we have the original of Behind The Glass, a headsy, beatdown piece that slowly unfolds over an unconventional brass-like bassline and delicate guitar textures, paying homage to the golden age of Trip Hop haziness and it’s pioneer turntable spirit.

Blending crate-digging sensibilities with forward-thinking production, this latest release solidifies Session Victim’s reputation as genre-blurring tastemakers, and their chemistry with Delusions Of Grandeur remains as strong as ever.

Pre-order.

text has been provided.

Keita Sano joins forces with fellow Japanese producer XTAL and makes a welcome return to Delusions following last years amazing Love Is Emotion EP.

Those familiar with Keita’s production will know that his sound is a unique blend of raw, crunchy disco beats, touches of acid and a left-field sensibility which creates an intense and captivating atmosphere on the dance floor. A vibe that has seen his tracks be-come secret weapons for DJ’s as diverse as Ivan Smagghe, Pablo Fierro, DJ Nature, Frank Tope and Hot Toddy.

Kicking off the EP we have a track called Broken, a high energy and uplifting slice of loopy filter disco which hits all the right notes. Things roll along perfectly, building to a crescendo as a full on string break cuts loose, everything dropping away before slam-ming in with timbale fills joining the party.

Let Us Have Nice Days, The Sun is up next and makes great use of a classic Italo bassline to drive the track along whilst dub delay FX and side chained pads keep the energy bubbling. Bending bass synth notes bring an extra bit of drama without upsetting the flow and rolling 16th note intensity from the bassline. Feel the love!

Closing the release, we have Time Passing which slows the BPM slightly for a chug-ging slice of string-drenched gorgeousness. Drop this at sunset and watch as this mel-ancholic gem creates a little bit of magic on the dance floor.

Pre-order.

text has been provided.

Keita Sano is a prolific Japanese producer who has released on revered labels such as Mister Saturday Night, Lets Play House, Morris Audio and 1080P. His fusion of dark, distorted, acidic textures and crunchy disco beats gives his productions a unique sound which works perfectly for Delusions Of Grandeur and the label is proud to welcome him for his debut DOG EP entitled Love Is Emotion.

The title track comes on like a proverbial runaway train with heavy, pounding beats and bassline forging things ahead while the most twisted, tripped out FX rise and fall creating an absolute juggernaut of a track which takes no prisoners. A deceptively simple DJ tool which is loaded with drama for maximum impact on the more left of centre dance floors.

Up next we have Violet which takes a low-slung deep house approach but with the grit and dirt that Keita always brings to the party. The first half of the track teases with tension-building chords and syncopated bassline which bounces around a massive four on the floor kick drum. Things fall away in the middle of the track to reveal a beautiful, heartwarming piano part, setting the scene before things get truly epic with orchestral strings bringing a touch of the film noir to proceedings.

I’m A Man picks up the pace again for an intense acid work out which pushes the sonic boundaries to the limits with seriously warped FX creating mayhem around a simple, percussive disco groove. As secret weapon DJ tools go, this is right up there.

Closing out this mind-bending release Keita remains in experimental mode on Love Is Emotion offsetting melodic arpeggios and sweet chords with off-kilter sonic madness ensuring things remain dark, dirty and deep.

Pre-order.

text has been provided.

---

Hey guys thanks for chatting with us. We are very excited about your new EP; it feels like it’s been a while. Or maybe 1 year in a pandemic feels more like 2. 
Hey, glad to be back! Yes… and yes, I guess. It has been a while since we talked last, and it also feels to me that time is passing in a weird way. Some days it seems it’s just running away and on other days more like someone pushed the ultimate pause button. Anyway, thank you so much for having us again, and for all the support over the year!

Can you describe the direction of the Two Crowns EP? It feels like you sampled a little less and went heavier on the analog synths. Is this something we can expect to hear more from the two of you?
I see where that feeling comes from, but to be honest I’d have to take a close look at the song arrangements now to tell you if that’s even the case really. It does feel a bit more synth focused to me too, but that was not planned at all. When we wrote Needledrop we had a fairly good idea where we wanted to go sound wise relatively early in the process. Now listening to Two Crowns with a bit of distance, I think we both just had our main emphasis on different details than we did on the album.

The EP falls into the club friendly and dance floor focused category. Was that a conscious choice you made, perhaps missing being in a dark sweaty basement? How much are you looking forward to being able to get back out there and do your thing?

M: Like I said before, not as conscious as one might think. Do we miss the dark sweaty basements? Of course, we do, but it’s not like either of us is sitting around whining about how empty our lives are. We’re both in good health, so are our families and that feels like the most important thing right now. We still get to work on songs several days every week, and we feel incredibly lucky about that. Besides the fact that Hauke and me always have been Club Kids, this EP wasn’t happening with us saying “Yo, let’s show people that we’re still about the dancefloor”, just like Needledrop wasn’t us thinking “let’s change our direction, we made enough house music”. We jam with stuff, and it either feels right or it doesn’t, no matter what the actual sound is. Just the other day we chopped up some things and it suddenly felt like a Sammy Davis Jr. or Sinatra type of thing. Our first and main goal is and always has been to come up with something that excites us, for whatever reason. If we don’t get a feeling out of what we do, how could we expect anyone else to?

The prolific nature in which you two can churn out quality releases is almost dumbfounding. It honestly never fails to impress us. Not only do you come out with a full-length LP every two years, but you manage to fit in an EP or two between each venture. I think you have released 28 EPs and 4 LPs in just 12 years?
Haha, yeah, it looks like that on Discogs but it’s not exactly true as our first three albums were all available as 3×12“pack and as single 12“s too. There’s some VA’s in there too so it’s more like 18 or 20 EPs really. But don’t get me wrong, that’s a whole lot of records. It’s still hard to believe that there has been such a constant interest in our music over the years and that our time in the studio together has brought us so much joy and so many results we feel good about. If you met my 18-year-old self right now that’s everything he would have ever wanted.

How much time do you guys spend in the studio working on new material throughout the year? Is there anything unique about your creative partnership that allows you to be so productive?
Uhm, hard to say, definitely a lot. I’d say right we spend maybe 10 to 20 hours a week together on the sequencer, and then some more time each on our own or jamming with other friends. Of course, that is a little less during times when we are spending one week a month on the road playing shows.

What sort of musicians, if any, have been most influential when crafting your sound? Artists such as St. Germain come to mind when we hear your music.
St. Germain is cool, I have a few records and really like some of his songs, but he wasn’t a huge influence really. The first names that come to my mind would be DJ Shadow, Photek, Premier, Pete Rock, Portishead, and talking House music, Nick Holder, Moodymann or Sound Stream. But also, bands, stuff like Booker T and the MG’s, Joni Mitchell, plus some German Kraut and Jazz people like Volker Kriegel or Christian Bruhn.

Are there any specific genres or songs that directly influenced the originals we find on your EP Two Crowns on?
Genres well, all three tracks happen somewhere between House and Breakbeat I would say. Talking specific influences – Guidance has its name as it became a bit of a homage to the label of the same name. We both have a bunch of Guidance records and regularly play some of them out to this day.

How much of this record was recorded during the Coronavirus pandemic? What impact has it had on this record?
Most of it was. Well, I think the aforementioned Guidance, was the only one we had a rough sketch of when the lock down first started. What impact the Pandemic had on the record is hard to specify. It surely did impact the EP of course, as it did our lives in total, just like anyone else’s.

Other than making music, what else have you two been up to while locked up? Discover any new hobbies?
Not really new hobbies, no. I did finish more books in 2020 than in the years before though. Pinball places aren’t open obviously, so we probably spent a bit more time on video games. My cooking got a little better, that goes for a lot of people, doesn’t it?

We have seen you two jam out in your studio in Berlin quite often. To say we are envious of all the gear would be an understatement. What were some of the tools specifically used for constructing this EP?
Well, the studio you saw in our latest posts is our friend Iron Curtis’ place and he has been sharing this space with Nick Beringer over the last years. They were so nice to let us move in as the third party when the pandemic started so only a few pieces in those videos are ours.

The songs on the ‘Two Crowns EP’ feature some different things: The main pad sound, as well as the melody both come from a Korg Poly 800. Not the fanciest keyboard of all time but very capable of some sweet sounds and affordable to this day. Hahaha, I just remember meeting Philipp Lauer at a dinner in Munich years ago. The first thing he said to me was something like “Hey, you look like you’re pretty broke, have you ever tried the Poly 800? It’s great and super cheap!” On Village Youth it has to be the Yamaha DX200. What an ugly looking, amazing sounding little box that is. Never been a huge fan of FM synths, but this beast is about to make me a believer. Finally, the title track, as many of our tunes before, is a prime example of how insanely good the Moog Moogerfooger Delay really is. Definitely one of our favourite pieces for a long time now.

Ali Herron aka OOFT! Music has been doing the rounds for years with his rock solid original productions and numerous edits. Releasing on Instruments of Rapture, Delusions of Grandeur and Wolf Music, he’s been a long-running regular at Glasgow’s Berkeley Suite, with a former residency at the notorious The Sub Club. Ali also ran the L.E.S.S. Productions imprint alongside The Revenge. Shortly to release his ‘Reclaim Landscape’ EP on Leeds label Clandestino, he has a little chat with Bolting Bits.

---

INTERVIEW