Currently celebrating ten years of releasing music on vinyl & cassette and following hype for recent releases from Moscow (via Tallinn)'s Galun (Glagol album) and Osaka's Kiji Suedo (Hosek EP & Riot album), plus the new George Demure album, Ear Candy Dandy, Edinburgh's Hobbes Music label welcomes the return of Leonidas & Hobbes, with their debut album, Pockets Of Light.
As well as being their first long player, this will be their fifth release, following 2021's widely acclaimed Aranath EP and 2017's Rags Of Time EP (voted Record Of The Year by DJs on Bill Brewster's DJ History podcast). Pockets Of Light is also very much the duo's Lockdown Album (everyone's got one) and reveals Leonidas & Hobbes in a reflective mood.
"UFOs, metaphysics, climate change, technology/AI and the possibility of human extinction - all subjects that have preoccupied our minds and conversations for a long time," they explain. "Becoming parents and then finding ourselves both dealing with respective break-ups during the pandemic brought all these topics to the forefront and compelled us to address them, albeit subtly and implicitly, in our music."
While they have previously delved into house, disco, techno/electronic, ambient and soundtrack styles, making a name for themselves on the international 'Balearic' scene, the recordings here are even more stylistically expansive. Uptempo dance tracks rub up against more introspective, downtempo numbers, fully beatless, ambient tracks and dub. Drawing the whole package together, a narrative flow emerges more explicitly through a series of spoken word samples - a hallmark of many L&H recordings - conveying a series of messages…
The sleeve art features a photograph of the Buzludzha Monument in Bulgaria by Evgeni Dinev.
A 12” vinyl EP is being released with these five tracks from the album: Magik, Reboot, Reality 2.0, RSVP, Keep Livin’. A cassette will feature the full album.
REVIEWS/DJ FEEDBACK/RADIO:
'F**king brilliant' SEAN JOHNSTON (A Love From Outer Space)
'Excellent EP. Thanks a lot' LAURENT GARNIER (Worldwide / PBB Radio, Paris)
'It's so good, really, just loving all the tracks, the lovingly cared for production only adds to the overall effect. I can't even pick a favourite as you seem to have presented an album of all A1s! ' DAN CURTIN (Metamorphic, DE)
'Very nice. Both tracks doing it for me' ROLANDO (UR) re 'What Is In Space' / 'Space Symphony' (Feb '22 single/promo)
‘Nice!’ JD Twitch (Optimo)
'Really cool textures, as usual. You can feel how much love went into the production, it’s slick. My two favourite tracks are Reboot - sounds like a modern, percussive E2E4 and a production from Rone. Love the unusual structure of Keep Livin’: cosmic, slightly broken. Takes its time to settle in but when it does….!' BELLE BETE (Beauty & The Beat, LDN)
‘Warm and lysergic soundscapes. Absolutely love. Thank you!’ S/A/M (Music For Dreams/DK, Cafe Del Mar, Pikes, Playasol Radio and many more, Ibiza)
'Likin’ dis…A LOT! Experimental tracks and solid deep, techy sounds for the heads.' YOGI HAUGHTON (MFSB, Scottish DJ Legend)
As well as being their first long player, this will be their fifth release, following 2021's widely acclaimed Aranath EP and 2017's Rags Of Time EP (voted Record Of The Year by DJs on Bill Brewster's DJ History podcast). Pockets Of Light is also very much the duo's Lockdown Album (everyone's got one) and reveals Leonidas & Hobbes in a reflective mood.
"UFOs, metaphysics, climate change, technology/AI and the possibility of human extinction - all subjects that have preoccupied our minds and conversations for a long time," they explain. "Becoming parents and then finding ourselves both dealing with respective break-ups during the pandemic brought all these topics to the forefront and compelled us to address them, albeit subtly and implicitly, in our music."
While they have previously delved into house, disco, techno/electronic, ambient and soundtrack styles, making a name for themselves on the international 'Balearic' scene, the recordings here are even more stylistically expansive. Uptempo dance tracks rub up against more introspective, downtempo numbers, fully beatless, ambient tracks and dub. Drawing the whole package together, a narrative flow emerges more explicitly through a series of spoken word samples - a hallmark of many L&H recordings - conveying a series of messages…
The sleeve art features a photograph of the Buzludzha Monument in Bulgaria by Evgeni Dinev.
A 12” vinyl EP is being released with these five tracks from the album: Magik, Reboot, Reality 2.0, RSVP, Keep Livin’. A cassette will feature the full album.
REVIEWS/DJ FEEDBACK/RADIO:
'F**king brilliant' SEAN JOHNSTON (A Love From Outer Space)
'Excellent EP. Thanks a lot' LAURENT GARNIER (Worldwide / PBB Radio, Paris)
'It's so good, really, just loving all the tracks, the lovingly cared for production only adds to the overall effect. I can't even pick a favourite as you seem to have presented an album of all A1s! ' DAN CURTIN (Metamorphic, DE)
'Very nice. Both tracks doing it for me' ROLANDO (UR) re 'What Is In Space' / 'Space Symphony' (Feb '22 single/promo)
‘Nice!’ JD Twitch (Optimo)
'Really cool textures, as usual. You can feel how much love went into the production, it’s slick. My two favourite tracks are Reboot - sounds like a modern, percussive E2E4 and a production from Rone. Love the unusual structure of Keep Livin’: cosmic, slightly broken. Takes its time to settle in but when it does….!' BELLE BETE (Beauty & The Beat, LDN)
‘Warm and lysergic soundscapes. Absolutely love. Thank you!’ S/A/M (Music For Dreams/DK, Cafe Del Mar, Pikes, Playasol Radio and many more, Ibiza)
'Likin’ dis…A LOT! Experimental tracks and solid deep, techy sounds for the heads.' YOGI HAUGHTON (MFSB, Scottish DJ Legend)
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