Various Artists – Iffy Bizness

With close to a century of IF? releases over the past 14 years, Hypnotic Room is proud to present a tribute collection of the more recent material from their coffers
- 14 tracks, some unleashed over the past few months and others as-yet-unreleased, to celebrate 14 years of one very innovative, energetic and insightful record label.

14 tracks compiled by DJ Hi-Shock and Andrez Bergen that suitably reference 14 years of absolute madness? For sure – more, please.

Starting up proceedings here, fitting enough, is label founder Andrez Bergen, with ‘Merian Cooper‘ – which goes for the hypnotic tech-minimalism of Basic Channel. It’s a killer chill-out opener: thought-provoking, innovative and sensational.

Straight after, Japanese artist ChizQ (R&S) injects more of a funky swing into the continued chill/tech equation with absolute aplomb, then current Swedish wunderkinds, Donk Boys (Trapez) go all wonky-funk electro in sublimely cool ways on Little Nobody’s ‘Compulsion’.

Bergen returns with a remix of Romanian trip-hop hipsters, ABiS, that simply smolders in its take on the cruisy, cut-up vocal house aesthetic, like Basement Jaxx colliding with Scanner (if you can even begin to imagine that!), followed by one of Japan’s current tech masters, Takashi Watanabe (DJ Warp), expertly remixing new
Melbourne producer Alkan with a bubbling, beautifully-rendered dancefloor experience that references his own country as much as Detroit.

Pushing the acid in sublimely quirky, cool fashion is Ginza Spy with ‘Dark Pop’, a track that just begs airplay, then Schlock Tactile explores new, chilled, serene
piano tinkerings in the remix of Mumeishi’s ‘Profondo Prima‘.

Track 8 is another remix of ‘Days’ by Melbourne-based producer Ben Mill (better known as Bitch Shift, but here under the alias Chairman Of The Board). Think laid-back house accompanied by Afro-Cuban percussion; to us, it sounds like Portishead, if they were drinking Bacardi in Havana.

Ein Kleiner Schelm continues a more chilled vibe, albeit with breaks, on ‘Your Move‘, while current Scottish enfant terrible, e383, goes into more hypnotic acid terrain with ‘Radion 1′, and he’s followed up by one of Melbourne’s hottest current live acts, Enclave, with the gloriously bubbling acid-reverberations of ‘Resynd’.

At Track 12, fellow Melburnian Alkan’s track, ‘Bosphorus Breathing‘, is a stunningly deep industrial/tech debut for the young producer, promising so much more on the horizon.

The two final tracks are by Bergen in Little Nobody guise – the first an uptempo funk/breaks remix of his classic ‘Juice & Jelly‘ that’s truly ingenious; the second (and last here) a superbly meandering, cut-up disco/industrial remix of ‘Interstate 75′ that knocked us out when we first heard it – and still does several dozen spins later.