Minneapolis-based producer and DJ Baher has announced the release of his debut EP on Rakete Records, marking the label’s return following a four-year hiatus.
The Fragments EP, which features five tracks, blends house, techno and upfront electronica, and is shaped by the Cairo-raised artist’s many years of record collecting and involvement in underground club culture.
Leaning heavily on the classic 707 and 909 drum machines, along with an array of analogue synthesisers, the release blends the traditional with the contemporary – no more is this the case than on opening track Afrika, which is build around a driving, progressive groove.
Other tracks on the EP include the stripped-back rawness of Basement Rose; Time Machine, with its immersive textures and progressions; Sun Knights, which explores the golden era of house music – drawing inspiration from memories of Berlin’s Panorama Bar – and Journey To Juno, which, as the name suggests, seeks Rakete fire up the classic Juno-106 synthesiser.
According to a press release, Baher – the founder of Rakete Records – grounds his approach in ‘curiosity, versatility, and a deep respect for the craft as both musically and a communal underground space’. The Fragments EP, encapsulates that, with all the peaks and troughs experienced over a typical night.
The release is available as a limited 12-inch vinyl record and digitally. Check it out here and here.
Tracklisting
1 – Afrika
2 – Basement Rose
3 –Time Machine
4 – Sun Knights
5 –Journey To Juno
