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LOC 067EP
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Jersey's club queen UNIIQU3's Heartbeats EP finally comes to vinyl, following a slew of "Best of 2021" accolades (including The Quietus's #1 Track of 2021, Crack's #3 Track of 2021, and Best of 2021 lists from Resident Advisor, Mixmag, Billboard, Pitchfork, NPR and more). Released on Local Action (home of India Jordan, DJ Q, Finn, and more), Heartbeats represents both a new creative phase for UNIIQU3, and her most ambitious and personal project yet -- dealing with themes of "self-love, heartbreak, intimacy and lust" across six narrative-driven tracks that showcase her production, singing and rapping at its most accomplished. That's never more evident than on lead single "Microdosing", a modern classic that squares the circle between New Jersey's house history and its legacy of modern club music -- racking up millions of streams and six weeks on the BBC radio playlists in the process. Although it's not the longest release of UNIIQU3's career, in terms of its scope, detail, depth and honesty it feels like a true landmark moment for one of contemporary dance music's most exciting talents.
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LOC 019LP
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Following March's 9696 Dream mixtape (2021) and July's Flex Time EP (2021), this new album sees 96 Back shine the spotlight on his own vocals for the first time, at points (such as on lead single "9 To Find 6") operating fully in the realms of experimental pop. At other times, such as on "Teach Me Tenderness" and "Feel Hard", 96 Back stretches and processes his vocals to almost breaking point, while album closer "Melt You" sees him duet with past collaborator Iceboy Violet, ending Love Letters on a somber but romantic note. That's not to say Love Letters is fully removed from the dancefloor, however: tracks like "Don't Die" and "Love Compact" are precision-tooled for the club, while the likes of "Felzin" and "Vibrant Colours" continue to explore the intricate but emotive electronics that 96 Back has been so successful with in the past. More varied and vivid than any of 96 Back's releases to date, Love Letters feels like a coming-of-age moment. It casts its net incredibly wide at points, and it's an album full of ambition, but it meets every challenge it sets itself -- as affecting in its quieter, tender moments as during its dramatic peaks. In 96 Back's words: "This is a record I feel like I've been trying to write for years, it feels like the most accurate body of work to match the ideas in my mind. Trying to project a lot of the records I hold very dear to me through this lens, interpreting how they sound to me and merging them with ideas of finding the drama and excitement in the full spectrum of emotions on the tip of my tongue, that's what ended up being Love Letters, Nine Through Six."
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LOC 016R-LP
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Local Action and Lena Raine present Reknowing -- a multi-disciplinary series of remixes and reinterpretations of the BAFTA-nominated composer's landmark debut album Oneknowing (LOC 016CD/LP, 2019). A multiple-award winning composer, Raine is best known for the soundtrack to 2018's video game Celeste, a break-out indie success story that tackles themes of anxiety, self-examination, depression, and more. Considered one of the great modern game soundtracks, it was recently named one of the best of the last 20 years by Pitchfork. Since Celeste, Raine has rapidly expanded her CV, working on both independent (in-development painting adventure Chicory) and major soundtracks alike (she composed the music for Minecraft's recent Nether Update release), while also releasing Oneknowing, her 2019 debut LP that Noisey described as "taking her soundtrack sensibility into luscious new realms, positioning her as one of the most exciting modern composers." A year on from Oneknowing, Local Action present Reknowing, a companion piece that sees the album re-interpreted by a carefully selected international group of artists, composers, and soundtrackers. Three of electronic music's finest current artists feature in Yamaneko, Ziúr, and breakout techno star Anastasia Kristensen, as does one of video game's most respected modern composers in Yasunori Nishiki (best known for his work on Octopath Traveller and the recent Final Fantasy 7 remake). Elsewhere, Finnish composer Jukio Kallio, who contributed to Raine's Celeste soundtrack, emergent TV and film soundtracker D'Anthoni Wooten, and the mysterious lycopene complete the package, offering seven unique takes on one of music's most exciting creatives.
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LOC 016CD
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Oneknowing is the debut artist album by acclaimed composer and producer Lena Raine, most recently known for her multiple award-winning soundtrack for the video game Celeste. Based in Seattle, Raine has been composing soundtracks for games and media for 12 years, her breakout moment coming with her work on the classic PC game Guild Wars 2. Her most celebrated work, however, has come in the form of 2018's Celeste soundtrack. A game based around themes of anxiety, self-examination and more, Celeste is considered by many to be the key indie game of 2018, and has won multiple awards for both game and soundtrack -- something which Raine painstakingly developed in tandem with the game's design team since its origins. A flagship year for Raine was capped off in December, where she performed live with soundtrack legend Hans Zimmer at The Game Awards, the video game industry's flagship annual award show (Celeste was nominated for four awards, and won two). Although she's released several non-soundtrack releases, both under her real name and her Kuraine alias, Raine considers Oneknowing her debut artist album -- a ten track set that ranges from distorted paranoia to ambient pop, brought together by the shimmering melodies that make her soundtracks so memorable. An album that draws from "personal experiences, important places, dreams and the lack of dreams," Oneknowing's tracks are also threaded together by Raine's own vocals, sung in a language unique to the album and manipulated by the software Vocaloid. In Raine's words, "I have nostalgia for my voice as it sounded when I was younger. I can't de-age my voice, but I was able to use software and tweak its settings to a point that it has a similar quality to my voice from back then". At times ("Tsukuyomi," "Light Rail") her vocals lean towards traditional pop structures, while on tracks such as "Wake Up," they're repeated, chant-like, to create a hypnotic effect. As well as vocals and software, Raine plays Rhodes piano, zither, and various hardware synthesizers on Oneknowing, while Michaela Nachtigall contributes violin and viola to various tracks. A succinct but expansive record full of detail, Oneknowing represents Raine's most personal and realized original material yet, while showing a different side to one of the most unique and accomplished composers of the modern era.
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LOC 017LP
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One of the most quietly influential underground artists of recent times, Yamaneko returns with Spirals Heaven Wide, his fourth full-length album. Since breaking through in 2014 with his cult debut album Pixel Wave Embrace, Yamaneko has been one of the key artists re-contextualizing ambient music for a new generation, crafting fragile compositions that draw as much from the angular shapes of grime, techno and keygen music as they do the soothing soundscapes of new age cassettes, ambient records, and video game soundtracks. Written during Yamaneko's last winter in London before relocating to Tokyo, Spirals Heaven Wide is his longest and largest-sounding release to date, combining some of his most evocative long-form pieces with the kind of haunting miniatures that made his early music so distinctive. The majority of the tracks were written after Yamaneko's first run of audio-visual shows at the end of 2018, and so are rooted in the same kind of live workflow and production methods that he explored with those sets. As with 2019's Afterglow EP, Spirals Heaven Wide is underpinned by an underlying influence of euphoric dance music, with distant trance and hardcore signifiers -- both key influences on Yamaneko from an early age -- visible through the album's thick blankets of wind and fog. These influences come fully to the forefront on "This Spring Of Love" and "Fall Control", two of the most outright spine-tingling tracks Yamaneko has released to date. Elsewhere, the album explores his love of emo music's bittersweet melancholy, a fascination with constellations, and the cosmos and an increasing love of writing extended, long-form compositions: a side of Yamaneko first explored on 2017's Spa Commissions collection and continued on his contribution to respected ambient series Longform Editions.
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LOC 016LP
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Oneknowing is the debut artist album by acclaimed composer and producer Lena Raine, most recently known for her multiple award-winning soundtrack for the video game Celeste. Based in Seattle, Raine has been composing soundtracks for games and media for 12 years, her breakout moment coming with her work on the classic PC game Guild Wars 2. Her most celebrated work, however, has come in the form of 2018's Celeste soundtrack. A game based around themes of anxiety, self-examination and more, Celeste is considered by many to be the key indie game of 2018, and has won multiple awards for both game and soundtrack -- something which Raine painstakingly developed in tandem with the game's design team since its origins. A flagship year for Raine was capped off in December, where she performed live with soundtrack legend Hans Zimmer at The Game Awards, the video game industry's flagship annual award show (Celeste was nominated for four awards, and won two). Although she's released several non-soundtrack releases, both under her real name and her Kuraine alias, Raine considers Oneknowing her debut artist album -- a ten track set that ranges from distorted paranoia to ambient pop, brought together by the shimmering melodies that make her soundtracks so memorable. An album that draws from "personal experiences, important places, dreams and the lack of dreams," Oneknowing's tracks are also threaded together by Raine's own vocals, sung in a language unique to the album and manipulated by the software Vocaloid. In Raine's words, "I have nostalgia for my voice as it sounded when I was younger. I can't de-age my voice, but I was able to use software and tweak its settings to a point that it has a similar quality to my voice from back then". At times ("Tsukuyomi," "Light Rail") her vocals lean towards traditional pop structures, while on tracks such as "Wake Up," they're repeated, chant-like, to create a hypnotic effect. As well as vocals and software, Raine plays Rhodes piano, zither, and various hardware synthesizers on Oneknowing, while Michaela Nachtigall contributes violin and viola to various tracks. A succinct but expansive record full of detail, Oneknowing represents Raine's most personal and realized original material yet, while showing a different side to one of the most unique and accomplished composers of the modern era.
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LOC 015CD
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Following her acclaimed trilogy of solo albums, electronic R&B innovator DAWN (formerly Dawn Richard) returns with new breed, a new album-length project that dates back to her upbringing in New Orleans, taking in the city's rich traditions and musical heritage. After releasing an initial taste of the album through the slow burning R&B of "jealousy", today sees DAWN drop the album's second single and title track. A self-produced return to the electronically-focused sonics of her previous solo work, new breed is an authoritative stamp on the genre in her own unique fashion. Set across ten tracks, the album provides the most intimate portrait of DAWN's life so far, harking back to her years growing up in New Orleans and paying tribute to the city's culture, sights and sounds. Presenting a duality between the more soulful sounds of the city's more traditional forms of R&B and DAWN's own innovative brand of electronic sonics, new breed sees DAWN at her most eclectic, drawing on a wide range of influences and, alongside contributions from the likes of Cole M.G.N (Christine & The Queens, Ariel Pink), Kaveh Rastegar (John Legend, Sia), and Hudson Mohawke, has been largely self-produced. Driven by innovations in tech as well as music, in 2016 DAWN became the first ever artist to perform live in 360 degrees on YouTube, partnered with Wired for the release of an award-nominated virtual reality version of her single "Not Above That", and joined Adult Swim as a curator and designer. Her last album Redemption (LOC 010CD/LP, 2017) went top 5 in the Billboard Dance Charts, and saw her subsequently collaborate with Dirty Projectors, Kimbra, and Mumdance on a series of singles. Live, Dawn has spent the Autumn of 2019 touring with her former Danity Kane band-mates as well as Kimbra, and performed at Adult Swim's festival. With new breed, DAWN has further set herself apart as one of R&B's true iconoclasts, merging styles and metamorphosing them to her own style to create one of the most important, culturally relevant projects of recent times. Increasingly carving her own lane in the landscape of contemporary music, DAWN is writing her own legend; one that those after her have no choice but to follow.
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LOC 015LP
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LP version. Following her acclaimed trilogy of solo albums, electronic R&B innovator DAWN (formerly Dawn Richard) returns with new breed, a new album-length project that dates back to her upbringing in New Orleans, taking in the city's rich traditions and musical heritage. After releasing an initial taste of the album through the slow burning R&B of "jealousy", today sees DAWN drop the album's second single and title track. A self-produced return to the electronically-focused sonics of her previous solo work, new breed is an authoritative stamp on the genre in her own unique fashion. Set across ten tracks, the album provides the most intimate portrait of DAWN's life so far, harking back to her years growing up in New Orleans and paying tribute to the city's culture, sights and sounds. Presenting a duality between the more soulful sounds of the city's more traditional forms of R&B and DAWN's own innovative brand of electronic sonics, new breed sees DAWN at her most eclectic, drawing on a wide range of influences and, alongside contributions from the likes of Cole M.G.N (Christine & The Queens, Ariel Pink), Kaveh Rastegar (John Legend, Sia), and Hudson Mohawke, has been largely self-produced. Driven by innovations in tech as well as music, in 2016 DAWN became the first ever artist to perform live in 360 degrees on YouTube, partnered with Wired for the release of an award-nominated virtual reality version of her single "Not Above That", and joined Adult Swim as a curator and designer. Her last album Redemption (LOC 010CD/LP, 2017) went top 5 in the Billboard Dance Charts, and saw her subsequently collaborate with Dirty Projectors, Kimbra, and Mumdance on a series of singles. Live, Dawn has spent the Autumn of 2019 touring with her former Danity Kane band-mates as well as Kimbra, and performed at Adult Swim's festival. With new breed, DAWN has further set herself apart as one of R&B's true iconoclasts, merging styles and metamorphosing them to her own style to create one of the most important, culturally relevant projects of recent times. Increasingly carving her own lane in the landscape of contemporary music, DAWN is writing her own legend; one that those after her have no choice but to follow.
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LOC 012LP
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Local Action presents the debut album by Erskine Lynas, Lease Of Youth. Although Erskine -- aka Thomas Emslie -- is a new name, he's a long-time ally of Local Action who was known for his acclaimed electronic work as T_A_M. Written and recorded in Aberdeen throughout Summer '16, Lease Of Youth is heavily inspired by the naive melodic synth-pop of bands like Tears For Fears, The Blue Nile, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, and Magnetic Fields, smeared against the grey skies and coastline of Emslie's hometown with an approach to after-effects and sampling that betrays his relationship with modern electronic music. Although the album's lyrics are downcast, they're paired against bright sounds in a bittersweet way. All vocals, production, and instrumentation are handled by Emslie himself, with a knack for hooks and ear-worms far beyond his years.
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LOC 011LP
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LP version. Earth Body is the long-awaited debut album by Deadboy -- one of UK underground music's most influential and respected artists. His early singles U Cheated (2009) and If U Want Me (2010) predicted an entire generation of post-dubstep dance music, bringing much-needed r&b, house, and dancehall influences to a landscape dominated by grime and dubstep, helping to pave the way for a new age of UK club music. After developing his unique attitude to the club across longer EPs like Here (2011) and Blaquewerk (2013), 2015 saw Deadboy usher in a new phase of his career with his deepest record to date, White Magick (LOCWHITE 006EP), which saw elements of new age, meditational, and ambient music. Earth Body is not only Deadboy's first album, but the first time his own vocals have been front-and-center of his music rather than simply sampled. Although this is clearly an album by someone who's done their time in the clubs -- as evidenced by the clattering drums of "Caballero", for instance -- it's ultimately a pop record, inspired by Deadboy's long-standing love of Scott Walker, Sade, Drake, and the Beach Boys, and filled with bold choruses and multi-tracked harmonies.
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LOC 011CD
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Earth Body is the long-awaited debut album by Deadboy -- one of UK underground music's most influential and respected artists. His early singles U Cheated (2009) and If U Want Me (2010) predicted an entire generation of post-dubstep dance music, bringing much-needed r&b, house, and dancehall influences to a landscape dominated by grime and dubstep, helping to pave the way for a new age of UK club music. After developing his unique attitude to the club across longer EPs like Here (2011) and Blaquewerk (2013), 2015 saw Deadboy usher in a new phase of his career with his deepest record to date, White Magick (LOCWHITE 006EP), which saw elements of new age, meditational, and ambient music. Earth Body is not only Deadboy's first album, but the first time his own vocals have been front-and-center of his music rather than simply sampled. Although this is clearly an album by someone who's done their time in the clubs -- as evidenced by the clattering drums of "Caballero", for instance -- it's ultimately a pop record, inspired by Deadboy's long-standing love of Scott Walker, Sade, Drake, and the Beach Boys, and filled with bold choruses and multi-tracked harmonies.
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LOC 010CD
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DΔWN's, aka Dawn Richard, last album Blackheart (2015) was FACT Magazine's #1 album of the year. It was in the Best Album of 2015 charts by Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, Vogue, LA Times, Spin, Elle, Noisey and The Guardian, who called it "the most ambitious and revelatory album of 2015." Her first single of 2016, Not Above That (LOC 027EP), has garnered just as much success and she followed it with a series of show-stealing shows at SXSW (at the Pitchfork, Spin, FACT and Hype Hotel showcases). She also collaborated with Kingdom on "Honest", which received Pitchfork's Best New Track. With future collaborations in the works, she looks set to continue breaking down barriers of music, performance and technology. Redemption strikes the perfect balance between future-facing electronic music (with production from Machinedrum and Noisecastle III) and the music of DΔWN's New Orleans upbringing, bound together by an untouchable approach to songwriting and flawless vocal range. The final part in a trilogy that started with Goldenheart (2013) and continued with Blackheart, it represents her most focused, complete album yet. Features contributions by Trombone Shorty and PJ Morton.
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LOC 009LP
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Local Action presents Grotto, the long-awaited second album by Lil Jabba. Jabba made his name producing hypnotic juke and footwork records back when he was based in Baltimore, quickly catching the attention of footwork figureheads like the late DJ Rashad. His early music was self-released or issued via small-run cassettes, but built Jabba a cult following online. In 2013, Local Action released Scales, a critically-acclaimed collection of Jabba's key material to date, described by Dummy as one of the year's "most singular albums." Grotto is the encapsulation of his story so far; It's a genre-less record that draws from dub, Southern hip-hop, jungle and more without ever conforming to stereotypes, driven by the moonlit melodies and dynamic shifts that have always been present in his work. This is one of electronic music's most individual voices in its most realized form yet.
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LOC 008LP
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One of electronic music's most individual voices, Yamaneko operates on the peripheries of instrumental grime, but is equally inspired by new age, video game soundtracks and Drexciya's aquatic techno. His debut album Pixel Wave Embrace (2014) has already proved influential and is considered a cult classic, praised highly by Dummy, Dazed, Resident Advisor, FACT, Tiny Mix Tapes and more. Project Nautilus is bleaker, darker and more inward-looking than Pixel Wave Embrace, heavily inspired by the simple, often melancholic music made by keygen composers. It's not an easy or inviting album, but it's filled with as much subtle detail as it is blank space, resulting in one of the most haunting electronic records of 2016. The first edition of Project Nautilus comes in a card inner sleeve and screen-printed PVC outer sleeve.
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LOC 010LP
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Repressed. DΔWN's, aka Dawn Richard, last album Blackheart (2015) was FACT Magazine's #1 album of the year. It was in the Best Album of 2015 charts by Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, Vogue, LA Times, Spin, Elle, Noisey and The Guardian, who called it "the most ambitious and revelatory album of 2015." Her first single of 2016, Not Above That (LOC 027EP), has garnered just as much success and she followed it with a series of show-stealing shows at SXSW (at the Pitchfork, Spin, FACT and Hype Hotel showcases). She also collaborated with Kingdom on "Honest", which received Pitchfork's Best New Track. With future collaborations in the works, she looks set to continue breaking down barriers of music, performance and technology. Redemption strikes the perfect balance between future-facing electronic music (with production from Machinedrum and Noisecastle III) and the music of DΔWN's New Orleans upbringing, bound together by an untouchable approach to songwriting and flawless vocal range. The final part in a trilogy that started with Goldenheart (2013) and continued with Blackheart, it represents her most focused, complete album yet. Features contributions by Trombone Shorty and PJ Morton.
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LOC 031EP
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Two of the artists doing most to push instrumental grime in new directions, Mr. Mitch and Yamaneko team up as Yaroze Dream Suite which comes after success for Mr. Mitch and Yamaneko's individual solo albums. Yaroze Dream Suite finds them collaborating at the top of their game. "In The Moonlight" features Hannah Mack.
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LOC 027EP
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Dawn Richard aka D∆WN presents "Not Above That," the second official single released in advance of her highly anticipated 2016 album RED*emp*tion. Produced by Machinedrum and written by DΔWN and Maya Vik, it reflects the more up-tempo vibe of DΔWN's Red Era, but is packed with late-night longing and subtle emotion. This 12" is pressed on clear vinyl and includes a remix by Deadboy. Richard's acclaimed 2015 album Blackheart took the top spot in FACT's "50 Best Albums of 2015" and appeared on year-end lists at Pitchfork, Tiny Mix Tapes, Rolling Stone, the LA Times, Spin, Rap-Up, and more; RED*emp*tion completes the trilogy begun with that album and 2013's Goldenheart.
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LOC 026EP
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Though he's mostly known for house anthems on labels like Local Action and PMR, in the early 2000s T.Williams was known as Dread D. His tracks as a key part of Jon E Cash's seminal Black Ops crew still sound great, as proven by his 2013 Boiler Room set for RBMA. For Siege, T combines his classic Black Ops sound kit with the studio expertise he's developed since for timeless grime tracks that could be classics in 2002 or 2015. Also includes a re-tooled version of an overlooked vintage Dread D cut, "Time Command." This is as authoritative as grime gets.
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LOC 025EP
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Two of bassline house's biggest anthems ever finally get a vinyl release. "Rocky" is one of the biggest bassline house tracks ever made, and has been the climax of DJ Q's sets for the best part of a decade. It's been bootlegged, it's been edited, but it's never been given an official release until now. File it alongside T2's "Heartbroken," Piddy Py's "Giggle Riddim," and others in the instant-bassline-classic category. Even better, it's backed with "Poison," a similarly legendary bassline dub that has also somehow never been officially released.
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LOCWHITE 006EP
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Deadboy is an innovator. White Magick (2015), his first EP for Local Action, marked Deadboy's largest record to date -- six tracks as driven by atmosphere as by drum patterns, but never losing the melodies and hooks that continue to set Deadboy apart from his peers. He now follows that release with Black Magick, a vinyl-only EP with extended, club-focused edits of three of White Magick's songs, as well as a VIP mix of "It Did Not Feel Right," previously released on Crazylegs.
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