UE.25: DJ Thes-Man

Following Kojo Akusa‘s stunning mix earlier this month, we continue on our journey through the sounds of house music in South Africa today. Picking up where we left off is DJ Thes-Man, aka Joburg-based Thesele Moshoeshoe, whose releases on DNH, … Read More

State of Play: Samurai Music, Auxiliary & Nuage are running the 170bpm multiverse this month

And so it is, here we are in the month of March: a month which marks the beginning of an invariable wasteland for new releases as the scourge that is Record Store Day clogs up pressing plants across the land. … Read More

Digging Deep: Monika

New blood (often finds it hard to break into the established order of many labels’ rosters with only truly unique and exciting talents being given an opportunity. Step forward Maxwell, better known as Monika who seems to be on a … Read More

Digging Deep: Tenderlonious

As you’ll have seen from our recent review of Henry Wu’s Negotiate EP, the tight-knit Peckham-based collective drawn together under the banner of 22a Records have really been catching our fancy of late. Musically speaking their sultry organicity is becoming … Read More

State of Play: Auntie Flo & Esa, Wbeeza, The Traxxmen and Mister Saturday Night are our tips for this month’s House edition.

Highlife World Series: Cuba

First up, we’ve the first in Auntie Flo & Esa‘s latest project Highlife World Series – a collaborative snapshot of sound from various places of interest around the world. HIGHLIFE01 is the culmination of a handful of studio … Read More

State of Play: Peter Van Hoesen, Marcel Dettmann & Seth Troxler all feature in this month’s stomping Techno edition

This is David’s debut piece for Urban Essence, no better way to pop his cherry than to get stuck in to a round-up of March’s Techno releases.

Peter Van Hoesen – Seventy Secrets

One of Belgium’s finest techno exports, Peter … Read More

UE.24: Chet Matuto

Every so often you stumble across a track that has you scrambling for an ID on contact. That track for me a few weeks ago was Zurich-based Chet Matuto‘s ‘Mund Rethink’ (via Lek‘s consistently quality podcast series) – cinematic 170 … Read More

Matthew Styles picks some heavy hitters ahead of Hideout

Having appeared on a slew of high-profile labels in recent years including Gerd Janson’s Running Back, Tamed Musiq and Ostgut Ton, English-born Berlin resident Matthew Styles draws influence from a melting pot of sound both in his productions and in … Read More

South London’s Henry Wu delivers a quintet of outstanding modern-day soul in the Negotiate EP

8.5

Rating

Negotiate, the latest release from Peckham-based beatsmith Henry Wu, is a sophisticated collection of grooves designed to indulge your ears.

As we touched on in last month’s State of Play, the five-track EP on Alex Nut’s new HoTep imprint is … Read More

UE.23: Kojo Akusa

For our first podcast of 2015, we’re very excited to welcome into the fold one of the rising stars of the South African deep house scene, KOJO AKUSA.

With a slew of releases spanning the last 4 years on respected … Read More