Browse by Artist: VAZ, ANDY

Artist:	VAZ, ANDY
Title:	People Inside/Outside
Label:	PERSISTENCEBIT (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	VAZBIT 007EP

"Just like Andy Vaz's previous EP the First Aid Course on Persistencebit, the People Inside/Outside EP also showcases a more expansive and dance-based sound from Andy Vaz, in contrast to the self-imposed minimalistic style that runs throughout the 'Sound_Variation' series. The down-tempo 4/4 A-side track is as deep as it can get, slow building up, authentic deep house with original '90s-sounding phantom chords, raw bass lines, and various hi-hat patterns that nicely offsets the regulated pulse of the bass drum. Vaz adds layer upon layer to make the piece dense and intricate without ever sacrificing its fundamental propulsiveness. The track almost refers to Moodymann's soulful house tunes, yet totally in Vaz's own handwriting that cannot be imitated. The B-side features a dark, linear minimal techno track, also slowly building up into a more driving forward moving piece towards the end, while B2 is a funky Chicago house-influenced melodic track, making this EP an overall diverse and interesting release."

Artist:	VAZ, ANDY
Title:	Live in Detroit
Label:	PERSISTENCEBIT (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	VAZBIT 008CD

"Recorded at one of the most 'on' clubs in Detroit right now, 'Club Oslo,' Andy Vaz continues his highly recommended Live in... series with a great tour de force through recent and future electronic music that simply had to be pressed up. 70 minutes of great versatile sounds of now that yet have to be labeled. Based on a solid eruptive minimal foundation, Vaz is able to inspire with unexpected 'Frikkel Electro,' Classic Detroit deep-house, technified jazz and crystalline techno. Superb for warming up to endless nights out or simply put it in your local club's CD decoder at 2pm and let it work."

Artist:	VAZ, ANDY
Title:	Repetitive Moments Last Forever
Label:	PERSISTENCEBIT (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	VAZBIT 009CD

"CD version of the long-awaited full-length album Repetitive Moments Last Forever by Andy Vaz, the man behind Background Records, A Touch of Class, and the 'Soundvariation' series. Repetitive Moments Last Forever downplays minimal click-house (even though there are references to it) and the free jazz-influenced experiments of the 'Soundvariation' series for a unique and fresh house style that favors soulfulness and strong, almost old-school grooves over technical perfection. Vaz cultivates a swinging, perpetually shape-shifting future-techno that reveals traces of hip-hop, broken beat, house, acid, throughout the album's eight pieces. As his first love is and always has been the deeper, traditional sound of house music (the fundamental reference for genres like clicks & cuts, minimal house, microsound, and others), it doesn't surprise that the new album's focus is house, specifically a deep and soulful version of it. What results is a very personal, multi-faceted collection of jacking grooves that pays tribute to the electronic sounds of Vaz's past."

Artist:	VAZ, ANDY
Title:	Lost & Recovered Data
Label:	PERSISTENCEBIT (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	VAZBIT 010EP

"Andy Vaz returns with his latest 12" showing the undeniable connection between 'minimal techno' and 'deep house,' sneaking in with a deep, impressive, almost old-school sounding, groove. The 3 tracks follow the demands of the club-situation as well as being unique in Vaz's typical sound signature, yet heading towards a new direction. The tracks are not even slightly clicks and cuts flavored, not even that fragmented, really, just killer deep house music, with a dark edge to it. 'Dark Changing Patterns' on the A-side is a long, slow build-up, slightly dark in its overall mood, refreshing house-tune, perfectly arranged to make the piece dense, rhythmic and interesting. Full of ideas, all perfectly jammed together into a long, floating mix which gives you a lot of choices and lots of different ideas to experience. Side B features two tracks, which are melodic, strong grooving DJ-friendly house tracks with a more optimistic feel which definitely demonstrate Vaz's strong connection to the early house-music movement. The EP is entitled Lost & Recovered Data EP, as during the process of finishing the project, the tracks were partially lost during a hard-drive crash and had to be recovered and re-edited."

Artist:	VAZ, ANDY
Title:	Remixes
Label:	PERSISTENCEBIT (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	VAZBIT 011EP

"The Andy Vaz First Aid Course EP remixes are without a doubt a must-have survival pack. His first EP on Italian Persistencebit records, remixed by four of the biggest global talents in the four to the floor game. Jan Jelinek, Detroit's Anthony Shake Shakir, Krikor and Mapstation (aka Stefan Schneider/To Rococo Rot). All mixes relay different contexts and approaches, creating a unique 12". Andy Vaz's original elements of deep house are reinterpreted as serious dancefloor hits. Jan Jelinek (as Farben), delivers a minimal house version of 'Places And People Change' that swings and flows like there's no tomorrow, while Mapstation steps it up a notch in a more old school techno manner. On side B, Krikor delivers a dark, sinister, bomb shelter mix, in a pumping, analog-sounding, noisy cut-up style that he is so well known for. A superb mix that will initially twist up the floor and blow the speakers in the true sense of the meaning. Last but not least, Detroit's legend and one of the originators of the initial wave of Detroit techno Anthony Shake Shakir, takes it back to the good old days, delivering an authentic Detroit techno ain't-never-going-out-of-style mix of pure madness. Rearranging Vaz's original melodies spicing up in tempo with harmonies so sweet and timeless that sends you on a wild cruise through history."

Artist:	VAZ, ANDY
Title:	Way Back When
Label:	PERSISTENCEBIT (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	VAZBIT 012EP

"The new EP presents a slightly different Vaz persona than the one heard on the EPs and the full-length Repetitive Moments Last Forever. Whereas those releases showcase a mercurial, future-groove style, the latest material invokes the classic sounds of Detroit techno and Chicago house while also directing its gaze firmly towards tomorrow. That's nowhere more evident than on the A side's 'Day Light Saving' where a glimmering keyboard pattern's sunny vibe sets the stage for an old-school stomp to gradually emerge from the shadows. Over the course of its seven minutes, the tune shifts from classic techno to a free-flowing mode closer in spirit to Vaz's current approach. Also representative of that current style, the B side's propulsive shape-shifter 'Walking Up My Own Alley' gathers steam as reverberant chiming chords twist into oblique configurations, the path ahead illuminated by hand-claps and a buoyant pulse. At disc's close, Vaz mixes the jazz-funk strut of the house-flavored 'Way Back When' into an infectiously swinging groover before battering it into shape with an incessant stream of syncopated percussive accents."

Artist:	VAZ, ANDY
Title:	Endings & Beginnings
Label:	PERSISTENCEBIT (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	VAZBIT 013EP

"Certainly the title of Vaz's latest Persistencebit 12" suggests the close of one chapter and the start of another -- the end of the experimental edged Sound Variation series and the start of bringing back the old school feel, which here is closest referred to as house -- Vaz's undeniable first true love. But regardless of one's titular interpretation, these tracks are undeniably three of Vaz's freshest and most rocking ones to date. 'Endings & Beginnings (Your Mix)' kicks off the set with a boisterous, Motown-inflected bass line and swishing hi-hats that rapidly settle into a driving funk groove. Vaz builds tension by recycling a circular melody until it becomes a hypnotic mantra and by dropping out the groove at key moments and then building it back up again even more forcefully. Equally relentless, 'Two in One Solution' casts its propulsive gaze upon Chicago and Detroit house styles, with Vaz again exploiting drop-outs and sweetening the groove with creamy synth streams during the tune's eight-minute bounce. The B-side's entirely devoted to a ten-minute rendering of 'Endings & Beginnings (My Mix)' that's slightly slower and a little looser than the original but equally funky."

Artist:	VAZ, ANDY
Title:	Minimalism VIII
Label:	SOUND_VARIATION (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$9.00
Catalog #:	SOUND 8-8

"The 8-8 edition of the Andy Vaz vinyl series on the elusive and nameless label which is therefore entitled [- - -] features four tracks, build around the usual Sound_Variation concept, where the same sounds were used from a small pool of audiosounds that get twisted around until they result in a new musical formula made from scratch. As the name of a record label usually represents a specific genre of musical releases of a specific sound, this series shall remain nameless. This series shall not be associated with any specific production style, and the musical vision shall not be limited by expectations based on a record labels, static, given name. The sound can be defined by the criteria of one's imagination constrained only by the definition of it being 4/4 based electronic music without following any clearly defined linear sound aesthetic or concept. This 8th long-awaited edition after a pause of one year features a very diverse and wide ranging mixture of modern electronic music, from jazzy electronic clickhouse to strong floorshaking minimal techno tracks to oldschool-flavoured housetunes. All tracks come with an electronic contemporary free-jazz approach, which has made Soundvariation an interesting and unique listening experience that breaks out from the norm."

Artist:	VAZ, ANDY
Title:	Humanization
Label:	YORE RECORDS (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	YORE 004EP

"Naturally, the material's deep fusion of house and techno is given the lush production treatment we've come to expect from Vaz but the EP is also, without question, his most dancefloor-oriented release with all three tracks exuding a laser-sharp club focus. Another distinguishing feature is that the material locates a perfect middle ground between exuberant extroversion and carefully calibrated restraint. Of course, Vaz is no stranger to the world of minimal techno -- in his Background releases, he's been pushing the sound for years -- but his sound is rendered even more irresistible when wedded to Yore's sleek Detroit-edged vibe. Setting the EP's tone with an infectious, eight-minute journey, the A-side's 'Humanized' breezily moves through episodes of locomotive swing and jazzy technofunk. Having been tested live over the last three months, the flip side's 'You Got?' regularly incites 'hands-in-the-air' results when played during club dates. While a female singer repeatedly chants the mantra-like title, a disco-house strut grows around it, powered by classic '70s bass lines and horns; the tune's as funky as it gets, and oozes serious hit potential. Shifting stylistic gears, the aforementioned deep house cut 'One For Charley' becomes even more alluring when Berlin's Tilman Ehrhorn lays enticing sax melodies over Rhodes keys and a classic swinging groove. Much like the inaugurating Yore releases by Rick Wade and .xtrak (Todd Sines), Vaz's Humanization EP feels both old-school and contemporary, and represents a bold new stage in his ongoing musical evolution."

Artist:	VAZ, ANDY
Title:	Different Times
Label:	YORE RECORDS (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	YORE 012EP

On this strictly limited release, Andy Vaz teams up with Detroit's Alton Miller, revisiting his deep house cuts from his previous Different Times EP, here in extended vocal versions, with Miller singing layers on the hook. "Bygone Times" gets a choice reprise that intensifies into a steamy deep house treatment with Miller's multi-layered vocals. The bass-thrusting groove of "Hurry, Hurry" also gets another workout with Miller boosting the cut with his soulful croon. Vaz's music has never sounded more energized.

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