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Readers of encyclopedic tomes are obviously familiar with exploding animals – there are numerous reports of torn-apart toads (even in Hamburg, Germany!), actual ants exploding altruistically – but humans that decide to jointly detonate, and with no harm done, that’s rare: Kobe’s own o'summer vacation are unique (and volatile) like that, and they’re back to light the fuse for the second time, presenting 13 more musical quarter sticks that have already blown up venues in Europe and Japan.

“Keep it lean, keep it mean,” they say, and that’s what this band loves to take to the extreme: breakneck concision and collective combustion meet freeform noise punk hazards on o'summer vacation's second (not quite) full-length – as the Kobe-based three-piece’s “Electronic Eye” is set to arrive on October 11, 2024. Following a bunch of trips to Berlin, Munich etc., the Japanese fire starters have found a new home with Alien Transistor, and it’s the perfect launch pad for their latest set of guitarless pyrotechnics. Going right for max q (maximum dynamic pressure), “Electronic Eye” is (unlike those Starships) actually supposed to explode right after lift-off ;)

Even though there have been some line-up changes since the group recorded its sophomore album, the energy caught by producer Shinji Masuko (DMBQ, Boredoms) is still unmatched: a very physical and hard-knocking barrage of mosh-inducing madness that leaves you speechless + inevitably twitching towards the pit. Mastering was done by Masaki Oshima aka Watchman (Melt-Banana).

Opening with sizzling hi-hats and heavy ripples of breathless bass, singer Ami presents a non-sequitur kind of lullaby over the math rock-style interlocutions of “宿痾 (Shuku - A)” – which at 6+ minutes makes up more than a quarter of the album. A shapeshifting frenzy of voice (Ami), unbridled, pedal-powered bassline insanity (Mikkki, formerly Mikiiiii), and hot-blooded drums (Manu, meanwhile replaced by Karry), the album features mosh-inducing blows (previously released “Luna,” “Anti Christ 大体 Super Star”), 30-sec mini noise punk anthems (“竦(shou)”, “Days Go By Fast”), and continues to surf at breakneck pace up and down scales (“@ The”), which often feels like catharsis served with a hammer (“Ultra”). Whereas some tracks are bigger more song-y than others (“Song#2,” that full-throttle “Poodle”), “Vs I” is on time like Tierra Whack (exactly 60 seconds of pick-grinding action), and “Rage” indeed feels like Zack is about to join the party – only to see Ami wipe the floor with pure onomatopoetic fire. Finally, “Aloooooone” and “Humming” (that opening lilt!) are sure going to be live favorites, shifting up and down via hardcore speeds and various break-downs.

Quite hotheaded and terminating things on a high note, o'summer vacation point out that the quick-fire lyrics of their “songs have no meaning. It’s called onomatopoeia in English. Ami, our vocalist, does not like to communicate her thoughts through her music.” Although she considers her contribution “a part of the instrumentation,” they still have strong messages and concerns (unrest, discontent, willingness to shake, wake up, enliven anyone near the audible bomb crater): “That doesn’t mean we don’t have a point of view, but we choose to express ourselves through sound rather than words. Generally, but not exclusively, we are anti-racism, anti-war, gender-free, angry at the companies we work for and their bosses, etc., which are very common sentiments held by so-called rock bands.”

It’s only three ingredients, just like sonic gunpowder: bass, drums, voice – but they tend to explode a few bars into each new track. In a perfect world, there’d be giant colorful clouds of dust gracing the sky over each venue they descend upon.

On their third full-length album, 'The Signal', the Compact Disk Dummies keep a few interesting balls in the air. They play with the opinions and expectations of the outside world, while also confronting their own desires and doubts. This is aptly depicted on the cover with a table, a bell, two brothers and an impatient crowd: who is waiting for whom? The album is as diverse as its cover is surprising. In a mix of styles and influences ranging from retro house to funk, Lennert and Janus Coorevits demonstrate their versatility. Following their scintillating performances at Rock Werchter and Pukkelpop, and the success of the radio hits 'There's No Sex Without You' and 'fomo', 'The Signal' marks the start of a new era for the Dummies.

Lennert notes, "Pfff, I would think about everything indefinitely. And I'm not the only one, I notice. Stuck in a kind of limbo, a state of uncertainty, surrounded by signals, but still feeling a certain fear of following the signal."

On 'The Signal', 'fomo' dissects human desire, reaching for the unattainable. 'Where We Go (Calypso)' is like the shipwreck no one wants. And in the title track, the female lead character finds herself in a toxic relationship, the signs of which are obvious, at least to the outside world. While the content of 'The Signal' revolves around doubt, contemplation and acting or not acting, the musical interpretation is in direct opposition to that. The Compact Disk Dummies do not doubt; they hold their heads up and their chests out. With certainty, they mix everything that excites them musically into the blender, without grinding the identity of the Dummies themselves; actually enriching it instead. The retro house of 'Solàr' (a song about Louis the Fourteenth? Why not) flows into the rampant funk of 'Ballet Dancer' before expanding into 'Underwater'. In every track, you sense the long road the Coorevits brothers have travelled since their breakthrough - and their then angular electro-punk. This third album is Lennert and Janus' most sophisticated work in the expanding universe of the Compact Disk Dummies.

In addition to being a mix of styles, 'The Signal' is also a mix of collaborations. There is the French touch of mixer Michael Declerck and mastering engineer Alex Gopher. There is the Dutch input of Wieger Hoogendorp (Goldband) and Jens Van Der Meij (Froukje). Beautiful string sections are provided by Wietse Meys and Reinhard Vanbergen, bass licks by Boris Van Overschee and backing vocals by Isolde Lasoen and Judith Okon, among others. Producer Jasper Maekelberg always kept an eye on things. And again, for the third album in a row, after 'Mess With Us' (2013) and 'Neon Fever Dream' (2020), artist Athos Burez also provided the artwork for 'The Signal'.

But however international the music sounds, however great the contributions from other top artists, 'The Signal' remains largely the work of the Dummies, with Lennert as vocalist, lyricist and multi-instrumentalist, and Janus as engineer, producer and all-around tech wizard. The album was not made in New York, Tokyo or Berlin, but in Desselgem. Studio 87, the Coorevits family's garage converted into a studio, remains Ali Baba's cave for the Compact Disk Dummies. In their studio crammed with synths, percussion and guitars, Lennert and Janus could not ignore the signal: time to smash it!

Carla Boregas is a Brazilian musician, composer and sound artist. By merging synthetic and acoustic instrumentation and techniques, Boregas builds up sonic scenarios driven by an invisible force, where the sensation of presence and discovery lies between density and delicacy. Her work spans composition, improvisation, performance, sound installation and radio art, and aims to transport the listener to different subjective perspectives of time and space, to invoke memories and to reflect about the nature-human relationship.

Carla Boregas writes: "Using a Tascam Portastudio 4-track cassette recorder, I invited three musicians to improvise alone with the sound recording of the sea that I did in Massaguaçu, the place where I used to live in Brasil. The recorder that I used had a defect in one of its tracks, therefore I could only invite two musicians – Vinicius Cajado (double bass) and Réka Csiszér (cello), plus the sea in another track. While listening to the tracks together, I felt a deep sense of absence ("ausência" in Portuguese). Perhaps due to their sonorous answers surrounded by the tape hiss? Because that's one of the symbolic meanings of the ocean? Maybe "saudades do mar, de estar ao seu outro lado"? Who knows – listening can be something very mysterious. Afterwards I played with and interweaved them all: the sonorous sea, Vinicius Cajado, Réka Csiszér and the absence - "Absência Tape" is the final result." – Carla Boregas, Berlin, 8 August 2024.

Egle Martin enjoyed a long career as a dancer, actress, singer and played an important role in the promotion of Afro roots in Rio de la Plata and in reclaiming Afro-Argentine culture. Her performances were fresh and powerful, showcasing diversity and, later on in her career, her desire to diffuse Afro-Latin American culture. By the time this single was recorded, Egle Martin had already performed in several plays and films; she had already sung with Dizzy Gillespie and the Berlin Symphony Orchestra; she had already released an album with composer and bandoneon player Astor Piazzolla. And she was already beginning to frequent the Casa Suiza, with its gatherings and carnivals in the neighborhoods of San Telmo and San Nicolás in the beautiful Buenos Aires of the 1960s, teeming with happenings and avant-garde galleries. Egle sings in Spanish and her voice dazzles with a very distinctive sound and texture as she performs these rhythms; you can clearly appreciate the freedom and power in her vocals. In 'El Dombe' tenderness permeates the lyrics as she tells the world what this dance and its cadenced rhythm is all about. 'Dombe Bariló' is bolder and more sweeping in scope: the ritual and empowering message is uplifting... Roberto Montiel's arrangements are a prime example of the brilliant fusion of soul, funk and Latin American music, all linked through Afro roots. Originally released in 1970 on Music Hall in Argentina, it has become an elusive and sought-after record over the years, at the top of many collectors wants list due to its amazing dance floor energy. First time 7” reissue. TRACKLIST Side A EL DOMBE Side B DOMBE BARILO

2024 Repress

Undoubtedly the darlings of electro-pop, Satin Jackets finally unveil their debut artist album, 'Panorama Pacifico' featuring a string of cameos from vocalists familiar and exotic, jetting in from LA, Berlin, London, Belgium and Australia.

Scaling the heights of the Hype machine from their first release to the latest, and clocking up almost ten million plays on spotify, Satin Jacket's original brand of diva funk and smooth disco has whetted the tastebuds of the likes of Majestic Casual and i-D mag who said the duo's "super sexy, infectious house music is filled with the vibe of summertime." Their smash single, 'You Make Me Feel Good' has accumulated close to three million plays on Soundcloud (soundcloudsatinjackets/you-make-me-feel-good) and Youtube concurrently.

"The idea came from our character, Mr. Satin Jackets, who's been travelling the world quite a bit the past two years," explained Tim Bernhardt, the founder of the duo. "Four continents, about twenty countries in, he's on the West Coast and takes a break. He watches the ocean to put his mind at ease and out pours Panorama Pacifico."

This idyllic perspective is launched by the vocals of Scavenger Hunt, the Los Angeles-based electro-pop 4-piece, charted by Billboard and featured by the likes of Nylon mag. They explain about their contribution, "Feel Good' feels like jumping into a cool pool on a hot summer day- refreshing, exhilarating and sexy." Nigerian born and Birmingham based UoB's Got Talent winner, IsaacO contributes to 'Keep Moving On'. He explains it's, "a song about having a nonchalant attitude towards life regardless of what it throws at you. Best listened to on a nighttime drive on the highway."

The album also takes a peek into the past successes of Satin Jackets, with last year's smash single, 'Shine On You' featuring UK born and Berlin based talent Esser, dubbed by Clash magazine as "an exploratory glimpse into the mind-expanding side of Satin Jackets' electronics," and recent single 'We Can Talk' featuring vocals from Emma Brammer.

Further new collaborations include Ghent-based collective I will, I swear, Melbourne's Kids At Midnight and diamond in the rough of Belgian pop Marble Sounds. Fellow Eskimo artist and Greek producer NTEIBINT and KLP from Australia also feature. Each plots a similar narrative about the struggles of love. "'Say You' is about being afraid of being happy,' explains Jane Elizabeth Hanley AKA Kids At Midnight; 'Coast To Coast' is "a sweet love song that could also work on the dancefloor," says George Bakalakos AKA NTEIBINT; and Emma Brammer explores the concept of, "the exciting and painful first love - maybe it's not so good for you but it feels historical."

Pieter Van Dessel of Marble Sounds digs further on 'Find Out'. "The lyrics 'Shut your eyes, and you'll find out' started as a reference to childhood memories: as kids we often had to close eyes when somebody wanted to surprise us with a gift. But it can also mean that you could learn more about reality when you disconnect and close your eyes, instead of gathering (too) much information."

Three quarters of the tracks are fresh and introduce exciting guest vocalists and producers. These are complemented by the much-loved staples from the duo, 'Girl, Forever' and 'You Make Me Feel Good'. Tim of Satin Jackets explains, "We're ending the journey of this album with 'You Make Me Feel Good',

German music producer, Tim Bernhardt and lead performer Den Ishu are Satin Jackets. Their eponymous live show has relentlessly toured the US, Canada, Mexico and Europe, opening their fluid pop appeal and accessible four-to-the-floor groove up to the world at large. Their debut album, 'Panorama Pacifico' is set for release on 8th April on their home label, Eskimo Recordings. The Belgian imprint has been a purveyor of disco, house and everything in between for over fifteen years.

This album is about memories. About a feeling of nostalgia and longing, both beautifully comforting and devastating. It is an attempt to transform an unspoken sensation of the past to a solid object serving the future, an urge to remember and hold onto moments that we can't keep forever. On the 6th of October 2023, the release date of her third solo album ‘Ghosts’, Hania performed a very special album release concert with a string ensemble in a uniquely special location - Witold Lutosławski's Concert Studio at the Polish Radio in Warsaw. Over the years, the spaces of Polish Radio have become an important part of Hania’s life - both privately and professionally.

Visiting for the first time as a student of Chopin University of Music and returning to make her first recordings in late 2018, just before the release of the debut album ‘Esja’. It was also in these studios that Hania recorded her Live from Studio 2 video and EP. But whereas that featured a much-loved solo performance, for this very special recording from the larger Studio 1, Hania is joined by her regular collaborator Ziemowit Klimek on double bass and moog as well as a luxurious eight-piece string ensemble featuring Karolina Gutowska violin Jan Pietkiewicz violin Marta Piórkowska violin, Paweł Czarny viola, Tomasz Rosiński viola, Dobrawa Czocher cello, Marianna Sikorska cello, Mateusz Błaszczak cello.
Beautifully mixed by Greg Freeman in Berlin the music takes on a new life as Hania’s ethereal vocals, beautiful playing and exhilarating compositions are brought fully to life by the beautiful sweeping strings of the expanded ensemble. The concert is included here in its entirety with the addition of one beautiful extra performance – the title track ‘Nostalgia’ a beautiful interpretation of a much-loved piece from the Ghosts album taken from her concert at the Roundhouse in London. In addition the LP features a beautiful 16 page booklet of photographs of the Polish radio studios taken by Hania herself and featuring her thoughts on the recording, studios and the compositions themselves and the CD includes the photos in a beautiful glued in 12 page booklet.

Ruby Wine Vinyl. Manchester UK's Space Afrika make music of what they term "overlapping moments" - oblique mosaics of dialogue, rhythm, texture, and shadow, half-heard through a bus window on a rainy night. Honest Labour, the group's first full-length since 2020's landmark hybtwibt? (have you been through what i've been through?) mixtape, expands the project's palette with classical strings, shimmering guitar, and visionary vocal cameos, leaning further into their enigmatic fusion of ambient unrest and cosmic downtempo. It's a sound both fogged and fragmented, at the axis of song craft and sound design, born from and for the yearning solitudes of life under lockdown.The album title is tiered, alluding to a legendary patriarch from co-founder Joshua Inyang's Nigerian family tree (who was lovingly called "Honest Labour" for his loyalty and resilience) as well as the nature of self-designated work, such as Space Afrika's music - a "labor of love" in its truest sense. With fellow co-founder Joshua Reid recently relocated to Berlin, the pair began sharing files last fall, piecing together poetic vignettes of looping haze and found sound, inspired by the notion of "records that leave an impression, and help the listener deal with their life." As the isolation of Covid compounded with the worsening winter, the songs skewed increasingly introspective and emotive, reflecting a mood of dissipating futures and the infinite nocturnal unknown.The artists cite two core motivations for Honest Labour: to transcend the sum of their influences, and "to show what we're capable of." Both ambitions are entirely realized. The collection's 19 tracks flow with a synergy and sophistication as rare as they are radical, untethered to the dusty dub-techno templates of Space Afrika's early years. These are interstitial anthems, expressionistic and open-ended, delirious but deliberate, attuned to the drift and dreamstate of the present moment: "Ultimately this is an homage to U.K. energy, and an album about love and loss."

Toy Tonics ITALOMANIA Vol. 2 is a compilation dedicated to NEW ITALIAN DISCO. (Not Italo Disco.)
13 young contemporary Italian producers made new organic disco, indie dance, avant pop and house tracks with Italian vocals.

Everything on this compilation has been produced in 2023. Fresh dance music by Italian indie electronic star Myss Keta together with DJ Severino (of Horse Meat Disco) and newcomers Sam Ruffillo, Fimiani, Magou, Tommiboy, Daniel Monaco, Giovanni Damico. And new music by artists Stump Valley (from Dekmantel), Munk (Gomma records), Rodion (Slow Motion Records) and DJ legend Lele Sacchi,

The ITALOMANIA compilation was initiated by Toy Tonics boss Kapote. The idea is to show the status of Italian Disco of today. It’s like a „manifesto“!
Kapote invited the most relevant Italian producers to make new tracks with Italian vocals and show different styles of modern Italian disco, dance and house music.
with Italian vocals. All tracks compiled by Kapote aka Mathias Modica aka Munk. Italo-German producer, DJ, keyboarder and head of Toy Tonics and Gomma records.

Italian Disco is not Italo Disco.
While the last years the slightly trashy pop music of the 1980’s called Italo Disco (with English lyrics) had a big revival. But now also the attention for more quality and organic dance music with Italian language is rising. This compilation is about this Italian Disco,
It’s a fact that not just in Italy but also in France and Germany there are now artists singing in Italian or using Italian words and names - even if they are not Italian.

Let’s not forget: The world’s culture of party, dancing, showbizness and pop music would be unimaginable without the heritage and creativity that Italians contributed.
Italy is not just the country of good food, beautiful beaches and high fashion, but it’s also the original country of dance music. Since almost 3000 years, since the ancient roman times the Italians have been making (dance) music culture, creating popular culture and being the maestros in organizing parties.
Also the disco wave of the 1970ies and the Pop music of the 1980ies has been co-created by Italians (and Italo-americans in New York).

The ITALOMANIA artists & tracklist:

M¥SS KETA
The most famous artist on the compilation is singer M¥SS KETA. The Italian press calls her "the Italian Lady Gaga“. M¥SS KETA is an edgy performer that reached the top of the charts with indie pop songs, but is also well rooted in the Milan art, fashion and LGTB scene.
To create a song for Italomania she teamed up with DJ Severino. The Italian part of London’s Horse Meat Disco DJ collective. Probably the world leading queer DJ team. (M¥SS KETA recently was invited to perform Berghain in Berlin).

Sam Ruffillo
Sam Ruffilo has contributed a new (party) version of his song Mediterranea. A organic disco track with lyrics in Neapolitan dialect. Sam Ruffillo is an upcoming Italian DJ and producer and one of the lead artists of Toy Tonics (along with Coeo, Kapote and Cody Currie). He had a few underground hits combining leftfield disco and Lofi House with Italian vocals creating a new genre that is finding lot of fans right now. One of his songs (Chiamami Subito) made it into the rotation of big Italian radio station M20. On Instrgam you can see his DJ sets where hundreds of Italians sing his songs at Toy Tonics parties.

Munk
Toy Tonics head honcho Kapote reworked the Munk song ‚La Musica‘ for this compilation. Munk is the former producer name of Mathias Modica aka Kapote. The creative mind behind Toy Tonics and Gomma records. ‚La Musica‘ is an Italo house song that he originally released 2010 when he was doing his former label Gomma records. Now there is this new version of this catchy dance song with the Italian hookline that became almost iconic when first released.
It made sense to include a new version of this track on ITALOMANIA because its a blueprint of italian disco and sounds so fresh again now.

Giovanni Damico
The south Italian DJ, producer made „Tropica“. The song is a tribute to the music of the Italian discos of south Italy of the 1980ies. A Balearic session that can be great at a beach in the afternoon, but also for dancing in the early morning. Damico is part of the new Italian disco scene releasing his dance tracks on international labels like Lumberjacks in hell and White Rabbit records since 2013.

Kapote
His new song „Sono tropical“ is an ironic Latin pop song based on a classic salsa piano riff and a strong Latin soul bassline. It reminds the big tunes from the 1970ies New York Salsa Scene (Tito Puente, Willie Colon, Fania All Stars). The vocals performed by Kapote are a mix of Italian and Spanish. The girl’s voice is also performed by Kapote. But transferred into a female voice by an AI. All instruments played by Kapote who before starting to get into the DJ and label business used to to study jazz piano. Before starting Toy Tonics Kapote he released 3 albums under his former name Munk and produced records with big names from the electronic music scene like James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem, Peaches, The Rammellzee and three albums of Danish band WhoMadeWho. Mathias/ Kapote also worked with artists like Franz Ferdinand, The Rapture and Asia Argento.

Lele Sacchi
Lele Sacchi is an Italian DJ legend and host of Italy's most important DJ radio show on RAI national radio. He has been djing all around the world playing from Circoloco Ibiza to Avalon LA. He has Besides being on Italian national radio he has been doing shows on NTS Radio or guest on BBC Six. He produced for labels like Soul Clap, !K7, Internasjonal, Nervous, Snatch, Crosstown Rebels, Poker Flat and his own Stolen Goods imprint.
Sacchi teamed up with young vocalist Elasi, a new talent from Milano that is making waves in Italy for a few songs she released in a indie disco style. Their song is an interpretation of late 70’s cult slow disco pop classic ‘Malamore’ by the underdog Enzo Carella. A mix of slow house and playful pop with a slight touch of acid!

Tommiboy
Tommiboy made a nasty, disco rock song called Sfinge. Only 26 years old he is one of the most hyped up Italian disco diggers and collectors. Originally from Rimini, the capital of discos, he is the son of a father who was a regular dancer in Rimini’s clubs of the 1980is and fed his son with all things disco.
Tommiboy started to do parties and compilations under the name Disco Stupenda three years ago. By now he and his parties are a big thing in Italy and has fans all around the country. He also is DJ for fashion brands like Gucci and he is the guy who re-introduced 1980s stars like Pino D’Angio.

Fimiani aka BPlan
The DJ und producer from Napoli is part of the new, vibrant disco scene from Napoli. (NuGenea, Mystik Jungle, Manny Whodamanny )
His collabo with italian 1980ies crooner Angeleri called SessoSpaghetti is a remake of a song originally released in 1983, but never became famous when it came out. The drums on the song are played by Napoli legend Tullio De Piscopo and the guitar by Lucio Battisti guitar player Massimo Luca.
The new version is a ironic summer disco with sexy vocals and Italian fun rapping about beach life, beautiful girls and sex on the beach. Fimiani also does edits of rare italo disco under the name of BPlan

Daniel Monaco
Daniel Monaco is a multi-talented artist, producer, and bass player DJ, bandleader and producer from Napoli - but has been living for many years in Amsterdam where he hosted show on Red Light Radio released on Labels of the likes of Rush Hour and Bordello a Parigi. Is one of the key figures of the scene due to unique fusion of Italo Disco, Proto House, Obscure Disco, and a captivating tropical touch. His latest EPs came out on Slow Rush Hour records and Periodica Records contributed the song ‚Milly‘ for Italomania. Played with a 5 person band.

Stump Valley
The two DJs, producers and vinyl collector are experts in all things Italo Disco and Balearic music. Before joining Toy Tonics they released an album on Dekmantel records. One of the guys (Brain de Palma) is the favorite DJ of Peggy Gou. He is regularly opening the shows of Peggy as a warm up DJ and releases his solo records on Peggy's label Gudu records. For this compilation they made Non dire di no. An old school piano house track with catchy vocals in the finest tradition of the piano house style that Italians invented in the early 1990ies.

Ltd Edition - 200 copies**

Canadian-currently-residing-in-Berlin and multi intstrumentalist Aidan Baker teamed up with Dutch demolition duo Dead Neanderthals late 2023 to work on the collaborative album entitled Cast Down and Hunted.

Cast Down and Hunted is an abstract affair. Angular and dark, droney and lush. Two lengthy tracks, Subterfuge and Paranoia, each fill one side of the LP, which will be released by the Dutch label Moving Furniture Records.
The artwork was made by Steven Kenny and the album layout was done by Rutger Zuydervelt (Machinefabriek).

The album was mixed and mastered by Marlon Wolterink at White Noise Studio.

ABOUT AIDEN BAKER
Aidan Baker is a classically-trained multi-instrumentalist focusing on the electric guitar as his primary instrument. Using prepared and alternate methods of playing the guitar, along with various electronic effects, Baker creates music which generally falls within the ambient/experimental genre but draws on influences from post-rock, shoegaze, electronica, neo-classical, and jazz.
A highly prolific artist, Baker has released numerous recorded works, both solo and with various group projects—most notably his dreamsludge duo, Nadja—and including collaborations with Tim Hecker, Carla Bozulich, Jussi Lehtisalo, and Andrea Belfi, among others—on such independent labels as Karlrecords, Gizeh Records, Important Records, and his own imprint, Broken Spine Productions. A frequent live performer, Baker has toured extensively around the world, including appearances at such international festivals as FIMAV, SXSW, Incubate, Unsound, Roadburn, and Mutek.
Originally from Toronto, Canada, Baker currently resides in Berlin, Germany.

ABOUT DEAD NEANDERTHALS
Dead Neanderthals have spent more than a decade putting together an eclectic and envious back catalogue that spans multiple genres – from free-jazz to grindcore to doom drone by way of psychedelia – and continuously throwing curve balls that defy expectations. You never know what you’ll get, but you know it’ll be heavy.


ABOUT MOVING FURNITURE RECORDS
Moving Furniture Records is a label based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands specialized in releasing experimental electronic music, run by Sietse van Erve, started in October 2008. We are mostly interested in drones, minimalist, microtonal and field-recordings music.
Moving Furniture Records has released music by both renowned, musicians such as Richard Chartier, BJNilsen, Jos Smolders, Gareth Davis & Merzbow and Machinefabriek, as (young) new talent such as Gagi Petrovic, Fani Konstantinidou, and Ryan van Haesendonck.
Aside from the regular releases Moving Furniture Records has two special series: Eliane Tapes: music inspired by and dedicated to the work of Éliane Radigue. Contemporary Series: contemporary music written for acoustic and electro-acoustic ensembles and solo artists.
Moving Furniture Records also organizes concerts in various venues in Amsterdam. For all our releases and more information

It’s abundantly clear from the first bars of their 5th studio album Through Other Reflection, that this is, and could only ever be, The Soundcarriers. From the enchanting vocal duets of folk-bidden Chanteuses Leonore Wheatley and Dorian Conway; to the precise bass lines of Paul Isherwood and the limber, jazz-cool, Hal Blaine-esque drums of his his co-songwriter Adam Cann; from the fairy-like flutes, 60s-garage guitars and organ sounds pilfered from the archives of exotica - listening to the Soundcarriers resembles a rediscovery of all the most prized, esoteric corners of the 1960s, all bundled up, warped and refracted through the quartet’s astutely modern cultural lens. Channelling Tropicalia, Middle Eastern psychedelic Jazz/Funk, The French Library sounds of Nino Nardini, and a whole host of lavish obscurites beside, Through Other Reflection delivers another sonic adventure from one of the most unique and distinctive voices of British Psychedelia. After an 8 year wait for their album 4 - 2022’s Wilds - it thankfully didn’t take so long for the follow-up this time round. In many ways, this feels like a companion to Wilds; recording again at their Nottingham warehouse studio, Through Other Reflection retains that same organic glow, all the passions and imperfections of a tightly clipped unit jamming out these living, breathing pop-art nuggets as if straight onto the acetate.”We wanted to keep an air of spontaneity with this album and not get too bogged with the recording process”, explains Cann, “It was more a case of getting the songs as tightly written and arranged as possible first so we could get them down quickly in the studio. It always takes longer than you think” Less packed with strident pop hooks as its predecessor however, the music of Through… has been given extra licence to breathe, stretch out, and wander more uncharted terrains. While gleaming psych-pop of tracks like ‘The City Was’, or ‘Already Over’ confidently carry on from where they left off, from the album’s 2nd track ‘Always’, the trip becomes a little less predictable. Starting out as a smoky Procol Harum-meets-French-Psych organ ballad, the music drifts, as if of its own accord into an eerie, garage trance that lingers, cycles, and hypnotises, growing ever stranger, reaching ever-further away from its point of conception. And almost every track on Through Other Reflections holds that outer-body moment, where the band fix themselves on a limber, lysergic groove, lose all grip on time and reality, and melt themselves away into a liquid state of blind euphoria. There are sequences on this record that feel more like rituals than songs, built upon a single hypnotic rhythm which, like the centre of a vortex, pulling everything under its beatific command. Take the finale to ‘What We Found’ for instance, sounding like a ghostly march across the psychedelic moors, or ‘Feel The Way’, where a single athletic drum-loop rises and rises, growing ever more urgent and suspenseful underneath its frantic harpsichords and rasping flutes. Full of such rich stylisms as these, The Soundcarriers showcase themselves as abstract storytellers par excellence by virtue of their textures and arrangements alone. Resembling Romantic composer Maurice Ravel, but if he had just a four-piece rock band at his disposal, Through Other Reflects is rich with detail; there’s shakers, rattles, clarinets, booming drums; there’s synthesiser swarms, chiming xylophones, vintage organs and experimental Cluster & Eno-esque ambiences. Within all this nuance the music flows like some undisclosed narrative swathed in a magnetic secrecy. “It almost comes across like a story in some ways”, says Cann of the album, “the music is quite sectional with elements of exotica and cinematic type layers, it's a good balance of grooves, tunes and weirdness”. No more is this “epic cinematic feel” heard more proudly than on short instrumental ‘Sonya’s Lament” - its innate, hauntological atmospheres befitting a Peter Strickland soundtrack, or the classics of Lex Baxter, the so-called ‘Founder of Exotica’ himself. On the other hand, providing a greasier undercurrent to all these bucolic sounds is a leaning towards a more “direct” lyricism referencing more “external concerns. Laying down the first tracks for the album in the wintry gloom of pre-lockdown 2020, and drawing inspiration from time spent in Berlin, Through Other Reflections returns to some of the post-apocalyptic futurism explored in 2014’s Entropicalia - a loose concept album inspired by J.G Ballard’s The Drowned World. “The songs explore a disillusionment with the way things are going particularly after 40 years of neoliberalism”, says Cann, “They follow that folk-song tradition of wanting to escape to an imagined time, but here it’s more urban than pastoral. The first couple of ideas I came up with when doing some music in Berlin and had some time to wander aimlessly. And think the atmosphere seeped in, particularly on The City Was and Already Over. He continues, “One aspect of the title, ‘Through Other Reflections’ is about synthesis and layers of influence. How things can be filtered through other things and change the perspective. This is something you get in cities as well.” Though, as with everything The Soundcarriers make, “It can mean anything. It also just sounds kind of cool.”

It’s abundantly clear from the first bars of their 5th studio album Through Other Reflection, that this is, and could only ever be, The Soundcarriers. From the enchanting vocal duets of folk-bidden Chanteuses Leonore Wheatley and Dorian Conway; to the precise bass lines of Paul Isherwood and the limber, jazz-cool, Hal Blaine-esque drums of his his co-songwriter Adam Cann; from the fairy-like flutes, 60s-garage guitars and organ sounds pilfered from the archives of exotica - listening to the Soundcarriers resembles a rediscovery of all the most prized, esoteric corners of the 1960s, all bundled up, warped and refracted through the quartet’s astutely modern cultural lens. Channelling Tropicalia, Middle Eastern psychedelic Jazz/Funk, The French Library sounds of Nino Nardini, and a whole host of lavish obscurites beside, Through Other Reflection delivers another sonic adventure from one of the most unique and distinctive voices of British Psychedelia. After an 8 year wait for their album 4 - 2022’s Wilds - it thankfully didn’t take so long for the follow-up this time round. In many ways, this feels like a companion to Wilds; recording again at their Nottingham warehouse studio, Through Other Reflection retains that same organic glow, all the passions and imperfections of a tightly clipped unit jamming out these living, breathing pop-art nuggets as if straight onto the acetate.”We wanted to keep an air of spontaneity with this album and not get too bogged with the recording process”, explains Cann, “It was more a case of getting the songs as tightly written and arranged as possible first so we could get them down quickly in the studio. It always takes longer than you think” Less packed with strident pop hooks as its predecessor however, the music of Through… has been given extra licence to breathe, stretch out, and wander more uncharted terrains. While gleaming psych-pop of tracks like ‘The City Was’, or ‘Already Over’ confidently carry on from where they left off, from the album’s 2nd track ‘Always’, the trip becomes a little less predictable. Starting out as a smoky Procol Harum-meets-French-Psych organ ballad, the music drifts, as if of its own accord into an eerie, garage trance that lingers, cycles, and hypnotises, growing ever stranger, reaching ever-further away from its point of conception. And almost every track on Through Other Reflections holds that outer-body moment, where the band fix themselves on a limber, lysergic groove, lose all grip on time and reality, and melt themselves away into a liquid state of blind euphoria. There are sequences on this record that feel more like rituals than songs, built upon a single hypnotic rhythm which, like the centre of a vortex, pulling everything under its beatific command. Take the finale to ‘What We Found’ for instance, sounding like a ghostly march across the psychedelic moors, or ‘Feel The Way’, where a single athletic drum-loop rises and rises, growing ever more urgent and suspenseful underneath its frantic harpsichords and rasping flutes. Full of such rich stylisms as these, The Soundcarriers showcase themselves as abstract storytellers par excellence by virtue of their textures and arrangements alone. Resembling Romantic composer Maurice Ravel, but if he had just a four-piece rock band at his disposal, Through Other Reflects is rich with detail; there’s shakers, rattles, clarinets, booming drums; there’s synthesiser swarms, chiming xylophones, vintage organs and experimental Cluster & Eno-esque ambiences. Within all this nuance the music flows like some undisclosed narrative swathed in a magnetic secrecy. “It almost comes across like a story in some ways”, says Cann of the album, “the music is quite sectional with elements of exotica and cinematic type layers, it's a good balance of grooves, tunes and weirdness”. No more is this “epic cinematic feel” heard more proudly than on short instrumental ‘Sonya’s Lament” - its innate, hauntological atmospheres befitting a Peter Strickland soundtrack, or the classics of Lex Baxter, the so-called ‘Founder of Exotica’ himself. On the other hand, providing a greasier undercurrent to all these bucolic sounds is a leaning towards a more “direct” lyricism referencing more “external concerns. Laying down the first tracks for the album in the wintry gloom of pre-lockdown 2020, and drawing inspiration from time spent in Berlin, Through Other Reflections returns to some of the post-apocalyptic futurism explored in 2014’s Entropicalia - a loose concept album inspired by J.G Ballard’s The Drowned World. “The songs explore a disillusionment with the way things are going particularly after 40 years of neoliberalism”, says Cann, “They follow that folk-song tradition of wanting to escape to an imagined time, but here it’s more urban than pastoral. The first couple of ideas I came up with when doing some music in Berlin and had some time to wander aimlessly. And think the atmosphere seeped in, particularly on The City Was and Already Over. He continues, “One aspect of the title, ‘Through Other Reflections’ is about synthesis and layers of influence. How things can be filtered through other things and change the perspective. This is something you get in cities as well.” Though, as with everything The Soundcarriers make, “It can mean anything. It also just sounds kind of cool.”

The 8-LP box set Miles At Newport 1955-1975 - The Bootleg Series Vol. 4 features of live performances by Miles’ stellar band lineups from 1955, 1958, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1971, 1973, and 1975, in New-
port, Rhode Island, New York City, Berlin, and Switzerland. From Miles’ debut performance at NJF in 1955 (a hastily arranged jam session featuring Thelonious Monk and Gerry Mulligan), to his final public performance of the ‘70s in 1975, the box set traces the ascen- dance of Miles’ music as the jazz superstar he has become known to be.

The full-length concert performances alone of Miles’ famed “Kind Of Blue” Sextet (with Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Paul Chambers, and Jimmy Cobb), and second great quintet in ‘66 and ‘67 (with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams) represent templates that reverberate in jazz and popular music to this day.

Miles At Newport 1955-1975 - The Bootleg Series Vol. 4 is available as a deluxe 8LP box set, housed in a lift-off box. The set includes print- ed innersleeves, a mini poster of Miles, and a 12-page booklet with extensive liner notes and rare photos.

Miles Davis' 20-year association as an artist at impresario George Wein's renowned Newport Jazz Festival is a thriving tradition that is celebrated with the release of Miles Davis At Newport 1955-1975: The Bootleg Series Vol. 4.

The 8-LP box set, comprised of live performances by Miles' stellar band lineups in 1955, 1958, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1971, 1973, and 1975, in Newport, Rhode Island, New York City, Berlin, and Switzerland.

The 4th entry in the critically-acclaimed Miles Davis Bootleg Series, contains hours of previously unreleased material. From Miles' debut performance at NJF in 1955 (a hastily arranged jam session featuring Thelonious Monk and Gerry Mulligan, that immediately led to the trumpeter's Columbia signing), to his final public performance of the '70s in 1975, the box set traces the ascendance of Miles' music as the Jazz superstar he has become known to be.

The full-length concert performances alone of Miles' famed ""Kind Of Blue"" Sextet (with Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Paul Chambers, and Jimmy Cobb), and second great quintet in '66 and '67 (with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams) represent templates that reverberate in jazz and popular music to this day.

Completing Kranky's chronologically reverse reissue program of the earlier loscil albums on vinyl, the 2001 debut album is issued on the format for the first time with the addition of three bonus tracks from the same sessions that produced the original release.

‘’Triple Point was my first full length album under the loscil name, and it was my first with kranky - a relationship now 25 years old. This reissue is as much about celebrating that relationship as it is about the music. I am extremely grateful for this journey. Arguably, none of it would have happened without this release.’’

“Pay no mind to the label and pay no mind to the producer's locale (Vancouver isn't Cologne or Detroit); Triple Point is one of the finest—and most varied—ambient techno releases of 2001.”— AllMusic

"Finding itself nestled halfway between the endlessly spacious mechanoid constructions of Berlin's Basic Channel and the drifting expanses of Labradford, Scott Morgan's work as Loscil never ceases to impress with its deft use of technology and percussion.”—Boomkat

Jaqee – is rhythm and life ”Places becoming journeys in themselves… Different places where I have lived and learned, places that have made my heart beat, the emotional realms that I have experienced. This is where it all starts, every time. Where I am is where it happens, because I am, there. Here.” She sings. She laughs! And she cries, too. Jaqee cannot tell when music and singing became her life, it has ”just always been there, in my head” she says. Now with the fourth album she has taken a closer look at herself, from every possible angle. No hiding. Different phases, different sides of her personality and musical creativity are all there. All as one. ”I am a diaspora kid, I fell in love with all kinds of music, I let myself embrace it all, because good music, is good music. All the way from Uganda at age 13 to the new home and culture in Sweden, then leaving Sweden as an adult for Berlin – has made me the Jaqee that I am”, says the Ugandan /Swedish artist who also received a Swedish Grammy nomination for her past work. Being on the move is without a doubt an important part of her life. “For me travelling is about being exposed to different perceptions, situations, cultures and extreme emotions, it has always made me grow. How many times have I not thought that: I wouldn’t have experienced this or that, if hadn’t been here. I love that feeling!” Jaqee’s music reflects this constant movement and progress. The album is inspired by places like Berlin, South Africa and Jamaica. The trip to Jamaica resulted in the only collaboration track on “Yes I am” recorded in Kingston with reggae artist Anthony B. Teka, the “Kokoo Girl” and “Yes I am” Producer says: ”This time around, like on the last album, we have worked with our colleagues in different countries. Musicians we love and musicians that are inspiring like Martin Hederos (The Soundtrack of our lives) who arranged the strings on the album. We also had New York drummer Daru Jones of Rusic Records play on some tracks. All these talents enhance the idea and expression that we wanted for “Yes I am”. With the album done, it is again time to hit the road and tour for Jaqee. “Getting out there and meeting the crowd is a high. We laugh, we dance and we get loud together. This is the best part of working with music – having a good time together. Music is a universal language.” On composing music, she admits that this time, more than ever, the words matter. Newly found motherhood has made this album in particular a significant legacy. Every song has a life punctuation of its own she has not limited herself by thinking in genres. Making the tone very straightforward. “The melodies and lyrics are closely intertwined, how I sing a word makes all the difference. Even though I love word play, it has to be very clear. Since I am not educated in reading music, I instead visualize and hear it, it seems to be the way my system works. It is all about rhythm and life, it is “YES I AM“.

Joanna Gemma Auguri releases her new album "Hiraeth" on 28th June via Duchess Box Records Joanna Gemma Auguri is a Berlin musician, songwriter and actress. In the various stages ofher musical solo and band projects, she incorporates influences from folk, ambient andavant-garde music.Being five years old she escaped with her parents from Poland, which was under martial law,and had to learn at an early age what uprooting means. This experience is reflected in her music as an expression of personal sadness, compassion, but also despair about the state of the world.2021 she released her solo debut "11" on her own label Lavender Music. It was mainly characterized by accordion, zitherand her vocals. Her new album "Hiraeth" was recorded at Candy Bomber Studios in Berlin by Ingo Krauss, with a large number of musicians. Besides choir, double bass, lap steel guitar, drums, cello, horns , different organs and keyboards her original instruments accordion and zither still shine through from time to time. Joanna's voice sits unmistakable on top of the majestic,nearly monumental compositions which despite their richness always stay basic and delicate. "Hiraeth" is an untranslatable Welsh word that describes the longing for a home, a place or a feeling that no longer exists or never existed.The album will be released June 2024 on Duchess Box from Berlin.

Music From Memory is pleased to announce the upcoming release of ‘Salt And Sugar Look The Same’, a collaborative album from Tim Koh and Sun An.

Tim Koh is an American multi-instrumentalist and visual artist born and raised in Los Angeles. He has been touring, releasing music and showing art works internationally for nearly two decades. Sun An is a Southern California-based graphic designer, art director, and sound designer who has self-released music since 2012.

‘Salt And Sugar Look The Same’ plays somewhat like a dreamlike collage; across 18 short compositions, finger-picked guitars melt with electronics and warped samples to create a form of American Primitivism bent and refracted through Tim and Sun’s unique lens.

Their collaborative journey unfolded gradually, exchanging snippets via email over the span of a year or so, Sun in LA and Tim in Berlin. Amidst personal struggles and uncertainties, the act of recording and composing became a refuge, a safe space where they could navigate life's complexities together. Though they didn't converse much, mostly just sending music, their musical dialogue spoke volumes, shaping a narrative that evolved naturally over time. As they shared their musical ideas, they discovered a profound sense of connection and understanding with one another. The music became a conduit for healing, bridging the gaps between them and offering comfort in times of need.

Their musical influences and backgrounds anchored them. From reminiscing about past scenes to exploring cultural intricacies of being Korean American in Los Angeles, infused with a natural sense of shared identity, their collaboration reflected a mergence of old and new memories into a hallucinatory, dream-like experience. Across the 18 compositions that make up the album, incense emerges as a poignant motif, symbolizing the passage of time. Each incense stick becomes a vessel carrying the essence of moments gone by, while the holder becomes the custodian of these ephemeral memories.

‘Salt And Sugar Look The Same’ invites the listener on a boundary-transcending journey of introspection, joy, and pain, creating an experience that lingers long after the last note fades.

Sleeve art by Brian DeGraw, design by David McFarline.

Doc Sleep returns to Dark Entries with Cloud Sight Fade, an album of ethereal house and techno. Doc Sleep is the alias of DJ and producer Melissa Maristuen. Following 2023’s Birds, her ambient and IDM-leaning debut album, Cloud Sight Fade shows Doc drawing on her years of queer clubbing to bring us seven diverse tracks sitting between muscular New York house, Berlin twilight techno, and funky West-coast breakbeats. Production began in the Bay Area and was completed in Berlin; Maristuen says that this work became a love letter to the West Coast’s magnificent natural landscape, the light of the Pacific sunrise. While draped in dreamlike textures and melodies, this is also a record about embodiment and the memories that live within our corporeal forms. The powerful grooves on the breakbeat-inflected “Lemon Zest” and the propulsive “Cloud Sight Fade” remind us that dance music is for bodies dancing. Meanwhile, tracks like the sparkling album-closer “Enchanted Static” or the brooding groover “Water Sign” plunge us deeper into hypnotic depths. On Cloud Sight Fade, Doc Sleep guides us through slumber and wakefulness, in and out of our bodies, with the mastery of a seasoned DJ and clubgoer.

Los Angeles April 18, 2024The origin of this record is a weird one. In 2019, we had just returned from two long European tours when we decided to take a “little break” from the road. You all know what happened next. That “little break” turned into a couple of years and during that time Dane, our drummer, decided to quit the band and music in general (no hard feelings).. Sean and I had a discussion and thought about ending the band as a whole, but I knew I had to go out on my own terms. I had an ace in the hole, though. Jeff Murray, drummer from LA rippers The Shrine. I had been friends with Jeff and The Shrine’s founder, Josh Landau since our “Scavenger” 7” came out, around 2012. We had run into them in Berlin a few months back and I knew they weren't playing anymore. I called Josh first, ‘cause asking a dude if you can take his drummer, is like asking your girlfriend's Dad if you can marry her. And Josh said “go for it”. And Jeff was in. Honestly if he had said no, that would have been the end. I had written a ton of stuff since our last album but I had shelved most of it. I was trying too hard - basically. Eventually Sean, Jeff and I said, ‘Fuck it, let’s make a “Fake Live” record’ - like Kiss or Slayer did. John Dwyer from Osees was opening his new studio, Discount Mirrors and it seemed like the perfect place to record it. We settled on re-recording a bunch of old stuff while simultaneously demoing our new material, as the three of us were now starting to really get in the groove. The result is Strange Masters Vol. 1. These are not new songs. These are Zig Zags classics re-recorded with a ripping-ass band that’s old and angry and just wants to get on with it. We are already on to recording the next album of new songs. That one is coming soon, but in the meantime, enjoy this one…while you still can!-Jed Maheu-Guitars-Vocals-Zig Zags

A home, a house, has countless frequencies. Each room, each corner feels different. Swings differently. And as you grow older, you realize which corner is yours. But yeah, it takes time…

It certainly marks the end of an era when the house one called home as a kid no longer exists. This home, it was the starting point of so many journeys. Of one big, ongoing journey. And so it feels good, soothing, reassuring to at least return to a spot nearby – to that (proverbial) hill from where you can see it. Feel the vibe that made you.

Andi Haberl’s debut solo album as Sun is sort of dedicated to that house. It’s a journey leading to that hill overlooking everything that made him. It’s not about nostalgia, not about actually returning to a specific place. Instead, it’s about finding a personal frequency, an overlapping of sounds and samples, an open space that mirrors and extends whatever frequencies felt right at different points in time.

“To me, the results feel like Gold Panda/Four Tet meets Steve Reich meets Krautrock meets film scores. I just really wanted to create moods that touch me – and ideally others, too.”

Talking about his first solo album, Haberl recalls many stages: early compositions that ended up on Alien Ensemble’s albums, early DIY/home studio/multi-instrumentalist inspirations (Le Millipede), new technologies that came and went, even a set of wildly convincing arrangements (done with Cico Beck’s crucial input) that ultimately became stepping stones for yet another round of DIY takes. “It was a long, recurring process, and the songs went through so many different versions,” he says, talking about phases of growth (“I added more and more equipment over time”) and pruning, “cleaning up my music a bit.” Tending towards instruments that open up space, and slowly falling in love with sampling, he certainly didn’t rush things once it was time for interior design decisions ;)

“During this whole process I got to learn so much about my own taste, how I prefer to listen to the pieces, which musical elements really matter to me… and what my own voice is. For example, that acoustic elements are most important to me: the banjo, piano, drums, my voice, glockenspiel, trumpet, melodica. Anything that opens up some space.”

Every journey begins with a search: “Missing” with its plucked chords opens like a sunrise over pastoral plains, gently leading the way towards the intricate, playful explosion that occurs once a certain amount of energy (“Sun”) hits dirt and other surfaces: things grow, clot and curdle into new shapes, like new buds; layers of sound move forward, drenched in Spring’s new light. Relying on samples to ask for precipitation (“Rain On Me”), robotic “Low” goes from barren to bass-heavy after its midway shift in pace, full of loops plucked from the shade.

Towards the album’s midpoint, things are suddenly reversed: “Cluster” has that backwards pull, you can’t tell what’s what, yet everything is perfectly locked in, as the pace increases once again. And before the title song shimmers with densified cheering (to eventually stand tall like early Lymbyc Systym), “Beside Me” swipes you off your feet with its booming bass drum. The beat returns once again (“Daydream”), full of searching voices underneath, and at “Dawnday,” we can finally catch a melancholy view of the house. Voices hum. It’s the score moment of the album. Everything makes sense now. A happy end of sorts?

“I want to take people on a journey. A personal journey, too, because when my parents split up and sold the house I grew up in, I felt a bit like the ground had fallen out from under my feet. But I have dedicated the album title and the accompanying piece to this house… so I can keep it in good memory.”

“I Can See Our House From Here” has been a long time coming. It’s been a long journey. Homeward-bound. Leading to a place that’s really Haberl’s – his sound. His frequencies.

Known as a long-time member of The Notwist and various other bands/projects (Alien Ensemble, AMEO, jersey, Ditty etc.), Berlin-based drummer/composer Andi Haberl has also worked with My Brightest Diamond, Till Brönner, Owen Pallet, and Kurt Rosenwinkel, to name a few. “I Can See Our House From Here” is his first solo offering.

About 10 years ago I tried to contact Dutch artist and scientist Felix Hess, when he was still alive, but never got a reply. Years later, in 2022, I was talking to Frans de Waard, who told me he was administering the sound archive of the late Hess together with Mark Poysden. Together we started working on an album to celebrate his life and many accomplishments. It includes selections from all the highly collectible Frogs releases from the 80's and 90's, while the artwork is sourced from his Zenga collection, unifying his two greatest passions.

While in Australia conducting research for his PhD thesis on the aerodynamics and motion of returning boomerangs in 1975, Felix Hess heard frog choruses for the first time. The hills, close to Adelaide, generating amazing natural rhythms and waves of spatial sounds. He started traveling to the outback to record similar frog choruses, camping in quit places to enjoy these wonderful nightly concerts.

Mystified by how the waves and rhythms of frog choruses could emerge without a conductor or a score and by the physics of this method of communication, he started to research the phenomenon in 1982 by designing and building small electronic sound creatures that could respond to each other in a similar way. These creatures and his various other installations earned him international acclaim.

During the 1990s, Hess was invited to Japan many times to present his work and he became interested in Zen Buddhism. One summer evening in 2001 he visited a museum in Berlin and saw actual Zen art for the first time. Overwhelmed by the extraordinary power radiating from this and similar artworks he became addicted to Zenga and gradually built up one of the world's most representative collections of hanging Zen scrolls. A collection he named Kaeru-An (Frog Hut) to honor his original teachers, the frogs

2024 repress.

Everyone has their own imagination about outer space, and each one us gets to daydream about what exactly floats or exists there. ‘Fortune Goodies’ is Minami Deutsch’s long-awaited 3rd studio album and an encyclopaedia of Krautrock, as band leader Kyotaro Miula describes it. While not all the songs on the record function as straightforward Krautrock this time around, they still manage to capture the spirit and heart of the genre. After relocating from Tokyo to Berlin, Miula’s musical vocabulary has greatly expanded, thus resulting in this ultimate Japanese take on cosmic music in 2022.

2024 Repress!

The eye of the storm: welcome to Tornado Wallace's debut album! The accumulation of about four years of work, with tracks written in Berlin and Melbourne, 'Lonely Planet' is nothing like you may have expected from the Australian expat. No stranger to fans and followers of ESP Institute, Beats in Space and Music From Memory's sister Label Second Circle, Tornado Wallace's strain of releases so far merged functionality with a musical playfulness that led him to find himself as one of the producer's behind José Padilla's International Feel album. Here, he leaves the needs of the dance floor behind in order to create a magical mystery tour de trance into his and our inner jungle. How about some references New Age sounds meet new wave melodies, Grace Jones runs into the Dire Straits at Compass Point, while a Korg Mini Pops and a Roland CR78 make amends for Sly & Robbie's absence, Michael Mann pictures Joseph Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness', Robert Rauschenberg tries his luck at naturalism and an imagined Wally Badarou echoes through all of it. Sandwiched between the title track and the yearning beauty of the album's final point 'Healing Feeling', you get all of that as well as collaborations with and contributions of NO ZU, David Hischfelder and the voice of Sui Zhen on 'Today', who would easily make Anna Domino take her proverbial hat off. Tornado Wallace created an album that supersedes the requirements and expectations of a debut. Like a lost Island Records or a never released Made to Measure album, 'Lonely Planet' soundtracks notions and ideas that recall the nostalgic future in the past as much as it looks ahead.

SIHR: sonic manifesto by a post-anything quartet feat. multi-instrumentalists from the Mediterranean inland Sea. New folklore for a devastated planet, including Frédéric D. Oberland (Oiseaux-Tempête), Grégory Dargent (H), Tony Elieh (Karkhana) & Wassim Halal (Polyphème).

After a few concerts/screenings improvised as a duo in Cairo and Beirut, as well as for the Rencontres d’Arles, the Lille photography center and the Belgian magazine Halogénure, Dargent and Oberland have teamed up with mavericks Elieh and Halal for a puzzling cross-border manifesto. The first sonic moves of this eclectic quartet, made in a bunker studio somewhere between Paris and Berlin, urgently took the form of a quest, that of a neo-folklore for troubled times, a music seeping with many kinds of atavism and experimenting in all directions. A fertile no-man’s-land where trance and contem- plation, jazz and electronica, acoustics and electricity would merge in a stimulating mystical magma.

From the possible emergence of a Babelian language to the shared desire to rediscover music as a ceremonial act, this encounter took place over three days of improvised sound bacchanalia, the phases of which were all recorded by Benoit Bel (Zombie Zombie, Thurston Moore Group, Oi- seaux-Tempête). A hallucinated and generous testimony, SIHR is a synergy of many different worlds and many different possibilities, the sonic vision of a present conjugated in a hybrid tense and exalted by too many tangos danced on the glowing ashes of our days.

Multi-instrumentalist & photographer, Frédéric D. Oberland has been leading the Oiseaux-Tempête collective for over ten years, lying somewhere between avant-rock and free jazz, repetitive music and electronics. Founding member of the bands FOUDRE! and Le Réveil des Tropiques, he’s also perfor- ming solo and composing soundtracks for cinema and installation art. Since 2018, Oberland co-cu- rates the NAHAL Recordings imprint alongside producer Mondkopf.

Electric guitarist, oud player, composer and photographer, Grégory Dargent cultivates his musical schizophrenia and identity through improvised music, trance music, jazz, hijacked maqam, repeti- tive music, pop, electro-acoustic installations and French chanson. From L’Hijâz’Car to Babx, from Berber singer Houria Aïchi to Rachid Taha, from Trio H to Sirventés enragés, from music for images to contemporary choreography, from the most acoustic of ouds to the most nuclear of guitars, he conducts, accompanies, composes, deciphers, questions, delves, makes mistakes, bounces back, ar- ranges, orchestrates and tirelessly shares his creative passions.

Tony Elieh is one of the pioneers of experimental music in Lebanon. A founding member of the first post-rock group of post-war Lebanon, The Scrambled Eggs, he has since developed his unique elec- tric bass skills in various groups and styles of music including collaborating with in groups such as Karkhana, Calamita and Wormholes Electric. Relocated in Berlin in recent years, he has performed a solo set of heavily processed bass generated sounds.

Is Wassim Halal only a darbuka player? Maybe !? But what about his music, compositions, ideas. You can find him with Polyphème playing and co-composing popular-contemporary music with Gamelan Puspawarna, or next to the french bagpiper Erwan Keravec, with the Bey.Ler.Bey trio (w/ Laurent Clouet & Florian Demonsant) working on an improvised-balkan-already-improvised-music, with per- formers and drawers Benjamin Efrati and Diego Verastegui, with Gregory Dargent and Anil Eraslan in H, creating a new pedal generating »Random taksim«, composing his own »Poème Symphonique pour 100 youyou« or composing pieces for ensembles.

FIRST OFFICIAL REISSUE OF ONE OF THE MOST SAMPLED TURKISH RECORDS IN 45 YEARS! SAMPLED BY RAP LEGENDS LIKE SCARFACE OF THE GETO BOYS. TURKISH PSYCHEDELIC MASTERPIECE FROM 1980

Licensed from "Warner Records Sweden" and remastered from original material in Warner Record's vaults by Shawn Joseph at Optimum Mastering Bristol. 180 gr heavyweight vinyl Manufactured in Optimal Berlin.
Recorded between Istanbul and Stockholm, it captures the era between Okay Temiz's Don Cherry Trio touring and his own band Oriental Wind's sensational debut.
Mentioned distinctive elements have elevated the record to 'cult' status among record collectors, sample enthusiasts, and diggers around the world.
By 1980, Okay Temiz had already embarked on a series of dynamic collaborations and sound experiences with Don Cherry as a member of the Don Cherry Trio. This period included a noteworthy summer in the early '70s at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, hosted by Jon Appleton, a notable American composer and visionary in electro-acoustic music.
"During that summer, Jon asked me, 'What kind of sound do you have in mind?' I had already given this considerable thought, using a tape recorder to capture sound frequencies influenced by the moon's position. Jon Appleton's question made me think about the extension of 'Organic Music Theory,' which we were exploring with Don Cherry at the time."
In 1982, Okay Temiz recorded the most comprehensive answer to 'What is Turkish Jazz?' at the Montreux Jazz Festival (CAZLP 004) with his band Oriental Wind, featuring Bobo Stenson (of the Jan Garbarek - Bobo Stenson Quartet), Palle Danielsson (of the Peter Erskine European Trio), and Lennart Åberg (of the Scandinavia New Jazz Group).
In 1980, without fully realizing he was navigating between these two worlds, Okay Temiz entered Stockholm's renowned Metronome studios to record the 'sound in his mind' as a solo artist.

`Drummer of Two Worlds` is a star map of Okay Temiz's musical worlds. Blending elements from the grand piano to his handmade drums, and from the amplified Berimbau to his cowbell array, weaving Turkish rhythms like 9/8 and 7/8 with the universality of 4/4, it presents a unique sound narrative that resonates with the dimensions of a well-traveled mind."

Haluk Damar

Warehouse Find - Test pressing!

Following the red hot Detroit Swindle release this month, Freerange continue to bring fresh talent to the fore with the introduction of Nils Penner to the label. Although not exactly a newcomer (having produced the mighty Presence Of Another Man alongside Muder on his own Wazi Wazi Music as well as several remixes and appearances on Baalsaal and Moodmusic) it's fair to say he's been flying under the radar and we think it's about time that all changed.

On Gut Buster, Yosa Peit spawns fleshy sonic escapades, a swarm of vigorously processed vocals and soulful bass, set to a backdrop of visceral percussive structures. Full of roguish curiosity, the record is cast with an air of lo-fi experimentation, but with a platinum glint of pop sensibility. Peit's second album grapples with the destructive force of modern consumption, Gut Buster is an anti-capitalist battle cry that syntheses intimacy and hostility; a surrealist-punk affirmation and a testament to Peit's singular vision and unique approach. The free-ranging sound of Yosa Peit recalls the intense arrangements of a cyber-era Prince with the surrealist tones of Arthur Russell and early Björk. At the album's core, "World Eaters" unleashes scorching guitars in search of humankind's end, "I was born on a planet, I got hungry and I ate it." Even in the face of planetary doom and personal obstacles, Yosa evokes our propensity for mischief, humor and pleasure. "bb moon" processes sound solely from her bass into wicked oblivion. "CALL ME," a song about friendship, chews up it's anthemic melody into a gnarled strut worthy of an A$AP Rocky production, while "HAD3S" urges us to find balance, nodding to the mystical fuzz of Prince. Yosa's work has been called "personal, punk, poignant, deep" yet her genre-defying production, as textured as it is catchy, escapes definition. Gut Buster takes that collective playground for creation to planetary reaches, congregating friends from Berlin, Cologne, and New York's fuzzy musical underbelly: Employee, Funkycan, Gerry Franke, Glenn Astro, Nauker, Paingel, Tbz, and UCC Harlo. The record was mixed by Brainfeeder affiliate Benjamin Vukelic in Portland and Jan Brauer in Berlin. "Glitchy yet supple, the broken beats and warped abstractions are wholly unpredictable yet deliciously odd, like an esoteric mashup of Bjork, Aphex and Laurie Anderson" Electronic Sound Classic Black Vinyl, Gloss Laminated Sleeve, Printed inner "Gut" sleeve plus DL card.

Gimme, Gimme, Gimme Desire, an everlasting grip of that youthful energy, that fire and fury you felt playing a style of music that gives you a lifelong addiction and appreciation. If you’ve once been part of that certain something, that became part of your identity, it never lets you go. Drummer Sascha, bassist Jan, guitarists Philipp and Tobias know how it is getting older but still feeling the fire. The four friends shook up the scenes out of Frankfurt in the 90s and 00s. They played in different bands, they toured Europe and the US of A, they were mods, punks, hardcore kids. And they never lost their connection and love for their music. That’s why they got together some years back, rehearsing and writing songs just for the heck of it. Out of pure desperation the four of them were thinking about staying a goddamn instrumental band, maybe working with projections and shit to fog the fact that there was something initial missing: a singer. The road was calling their names, and they wanted to play shows and let you and you and you know what they got... So, they gave it one last try to find somebody to fill the void behind the mic. What helped was a platform – basically Tinder for musicians – to find that certain somebody. They kept it simple and only dropped one thing: #blackflag. On the other side of the screen there is Sam, a mystical, ghostly punkrock fairy. Sam shares that same hashtag, and she wants to sing. So, why not give it a try? Sam takes the offer, shows up in the rehearsal space, and the rest is history. Sam owns it. Sam is prepared. Sam can sing, scream, kick ass and has the lyrics to back it all up! On different occasions they now set stages on fire. They played a sweaty show in a packed Molotow cellar at Reeperbahn Festival, they joined the “Female Fronted Is Not A Genre” festival at legendary SO36 in Berlin and took the place by storm. They are ready. They were born ready. And they have that record to prove it. As any classic hardcore/punk LP it’s almost over before it started. Ten songs in twenty minutes. That’s the way. I Am A God sets the tone: “You think that I’m a girl?”, Sam asks, “Let me tell you I am a god/ And you know that I’m heaven sent.” What else would Sam be? The legendary hashtagged Californian hardcore icons drip out of every note here. This is old-school knowledge, played today. Fast, furious, and packed with energy. But it’s way more than just a bland tribute. It’s a middle-finger that finds its own direction. Salary Man allows itself a certain amount of melody – also carried by Sam who obviously can do more than bellow. Or Somewhere that shows that The Pill is a more dimensional band that can even Hüsker Dü things up if they are willing to. The Bitter Pill presents itself surprisingly angular and kind of melancholic. And What’s New almost makes its way into post-hardcore territory. Inbetween Switch and Off give you all the Greg Ginn vs. Dez Cadena your damaged souls were desperately striving for. The debut album Hollywood Smile will be released on April 5th, 2024 by Hamburg’s Sounds Of Subterrania.

Sofia Portanet releases her highly anticipated 2nd album "Chasing Dreams" on 8th March 2024 via Duchess Box Records. The album features the top 100 Radio Charted singles Real Face and Unstoppable, as well as the hits Mi Amor, Ballon, and My Time as well as a piano version of Real Face featuring special guest Chilly Gonzales as a bonus track. In December 23, Sofia Portanet will be on tour in Germany as support to Betterov. Sofia has performed all over the world including showcase events such as SXSW, Eurosonic and Reeperbahn Festival. The new album Chasing Dreams features duets from the likes of Chilly Gonzales and Tobia Bamborschk, better known as lead singer from German indie rock group Isolation Berlin. Sofia Portanet who won Germany's prestigious VUT Award for Best Newcomer in 2021, following her critically acclaimed debut album Freier Geist, released in 2020 has gone on to be Spotify Equal Ambassador and make multiple national TV performances, duet with the likes of Chilly Gonzales and Kreator as well as making live sessions from NPR. Talking about her new album Sofia Portanet explains "Inhaltlich wollte ich ein poppigeres Album machen. Einfach, weil ich Pop Musik liebe und damit aufgewachsen bin. Ich möchte mich nicht auf ein Genre festnageln lassen. Ich werde immer die Musik machen, die ich für den gegebenen Moment fühle und gut finde. Es macht also auch wenig Sinn mich selbst mit meiner eigenen ersten Platte vergleichen zu wollen."

Chasing Dreams by Sofia Portanet, released 4 April 2024.

Il Quadro di Troisi presents La Commedia
Everything changes, all things evolve: four years after their eponymous debut, Il Quadro di Troisi return with a new album and a new line-up.

The perfect circle traced by Eva Geist (aka Andrea Noce) and Donato Dozzy (aka Donato Scaramuzzi) becomes a triangle with the permanent addition of Pietro Micioni, who collaborated in the previous recordings and had been part of ll Quadro’s live set.
Nothing stays the same, and the world is a lot different from what it was in 2020. The global crisis generated by the constant escalation of conflict and by the pandemic was mirrored by a time of individual crisis and personal, often irreversible transformation that underscored the entire period of the album’s composition.
The influence of these turbulent times is felt in the writing: La Commedia is about turning a crisis into an opportunity and using change as a catalyst for rebirth. Much like the characters in classic Italian comedies, who are masters in using irony to face life’s hardships, Il Quadro di Troisi explores the vast and unpredictable terrain between the lighter and darker sides of the human experience, matching the magical with the mundane.

La Commedia is about the many facets of life: each song is named after an archetype (e.g. the truth, the night, the Earth, the prophet), as though our existence were a tarot deck and its reading an exercise in collective consciousness.

La Commedia marks the band’s embrace of a more traditional song form, shaped by a very personal and distinctive musical style. The distinguishing elements of Il Quadro di Troisi’s music – classic Italian songwriting with an electronic spin – meld into a unique mix that is both seductive and eerie, elegant and earthy, contemporary and timeless. La Commedia celebrates the band’s cultural roots while constantly moving into new territory, balancing nostalgia with a forward-thinking approach.

La Commedia is a rare gem that confirms Il Quadro di Troisi’s relevance in the international music scene, as demonstrated by the number of top-level artists featured on the album: from Suzanne Ciani, a legend and a pioneer of independent music with a career spanning five decades, to Aimee Portioli, aka Grand River, a Dutch-Italian musician, composer and sound designer based in Berlin, along with Francesca Colombo’s eclectic violin (the de facto “fourth angle” of Il Quadro di Troisi’s frame), Fiona Brice’s strings, cultural agitator and icon of the Roman underground scene Stefano Di Trapani (aka Demented Burrocacao and a member of Trapcoustic and System Hardware Abnormal, among other projects), Maestro Daniele Di Gregorio, an excellent musician and a longtime collaboration of songwriting legend Paolo Conte, and Tommaso Cappellato, whose professional description goes well beyond “drummer” and who has been working with artists like Rabih Beaini and Maurice Louca.
The cover of the album, as well as those of the singles, was designed by Francesco Messina, another icon of Italian music. Messina is a longtime Franco Battiato collaborator and co-author, a cult musician (his Prati Bagnati del Monte Analogo, made in collaboration with Roul Lovisoni, is considered a seminal record by the alternative Italian music scene), as well as a photographer, visual artist and the author of legendary record covers.

Halle Weissensee (or Weißensee if you wish) starts where Sascha Funke’s last Ep for Running Back stopped. Mesmerizing house and techno music that interweaves classic forms with modern means and looks through the lenses of nostalgia with an open mind.
The Halle was a former engine plant in Berlin that got converted into a rave areal for the now legendary Mayday raves and one of the birthplaces and leading spots of the nineties. Coincidentally and unknowingly, 1993’s winter edition was attended by Funke and Gerd Janson and a conversation about it spawned this record. Don’t be mislead: this is not a retro rave fest, but an ode to the esprit of the times, the possibilities if an envisioned future and maybe most of all an afterglow. While Reality (sounding like a Relief record if the label would have been a topic at Bauhaus university) and the warped bleepiness of Halle Weissensee itself come closest to the actual sound aesthetic of that very night, Fantasy invokes the language of contemplative deep house from vintage New York, while Puzzle evokes a notion of what the same thing could be with the prefix progressive instead. Reality often falls short behind fantasy, but once in a while both complement each other very well.

Violist, violinist and singer-songwriter Marla Hansen returns to Karaoke Kalk with "Salt", her second full-length album to date. Building upon the sonic palette the Berlin-based musician established with her debut "Dust" in 2020, "Salt" takes the delicate mixture of acoustic instruments such as viola, violin, piano and guitar combined with subtle electronics to the next level. The new album is both a remarkable departure and at the same time sheds a new yet reassuring light on Hansen's work and creativity. "Salt" features numerous collaborations with like-minded musicians and friends, e. g. producer and composer Simon Goff, The Notwist's drummer Andi Haberl and the renowned artist DM Stith.

The "Dust" has settled. After having recorded her solo debut of that name, in 2020 the world came to a grinding halt, leaving Marla Hansen left to her own devices in her adopted home of Berlin. For Hansen, who previously had lent her talent to many creative minds such as The National, Sufjan Stevens, The Hidden Cameras, Jay-Z and Ravi Coltrane, the collaborative aspect of writing and producing music had always played a crucial part in finding her own path as a solo artist.

"I started to explore synthesizers and electronic production myself," she remembers of the time when meeting other musicians in person was out of the question. "I am proud that I accomplished many of the electronic elements of the new album by myself, and otherwise laid the groundwork for the final electronic structures through my own experiments. I always wanted to record a 'big' record, one that has a lot of power and sound, and this one is 'bigger' than anything I have done so far."

"Salt" is big, indeed. The opener "Chains" is driven by a gliding bass line, bobbing 808 snares, deep chords and a mesmerizing chorus doubled by luscious strings, marking the beginning of a new chapter in her creative journey. A stark statement, both musically and lyrically. Meanwhile, the title track of the album is an almost abstract sounding ambient miniature, sketch-like, dark and haunting, showcasing Hansen's voice in a shy, brittle and fragile state. If This Mortal Coil/The Hope Blister were ever to record another album, these songs should be high up on the shortlist of tunes to pick. "The One Time" - a duet with Hansen's long-time friend DM Stith - gently meanders between a Philip Glass-inspired piece for chamber orchestra and a vocal ensemble performing on Top Of The Pops. In this range of styles and approaches, Hansen's vision is more present than ever.

For refining and finishing the songs, Hansen turned to Simon Goff, who produced the album and engineered much of the recording, merging Hansen's newly-found songwriting approach with the artistic delicacy which made her debut album an exceptional piece of work. Features include among others: Alice Dixon (Oriel Quartett) on cello, Kyle Resnick (The National, Beirut) on trumpet, Benjamin Lanz (The National, Beirut) on trombone and tuba, and Miles Perkin on bass. And then there is The Notwist's Andi Haberl, who "crafted perfect drum and percussion parts to move the songs wherever they needed to go, either into their driving grooves, slow-build explosions or gentle swells of feeling."

But what are songs actually about? "The themes revolve around a feeling of being trapped. Having to stay inside during the pandemic, with all the silence and stillness coming with it. Simultaneously, I was caught up in a professional situation that was not working for me, yet it required a lot of energy and time. I was thinking a lot about how to break old habits and patterns. Patterns in my life, patterns I saw my friends and loved-ones stuck in. There are a lot of ways that people can be trapped, and breaking out of that requires a lot of courage and energy - on all levels. The title 'Salt' seemed to fit, ocean themes showed up naturally in some of the songs, and I thought often about the quote: 'The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea.' Maybe I was just dreaming of the ocean, since it was inaccessible for the first time! But I wanted a cure for this feeling of being trapped, in a time of uncertainty and anxiety, salt as a remedy seemed to have some truth in it: sweat, tears or the sea."

Perseverance and the urge for freedom prevailed in the end. "Salt" is a bold artistic achievement, with songs as big as the biggest waves imaginable. With melodies as alluring as the most comfortable breezes. Perfect from start to finish.

Deer Jade – Jukurpa

Tired of grey skies and long faces? We’ve got a serious dose of musical vitamin D for you! Deer Jade is hailing from the picturesque Lake of Geneva, an area about which the late Jean Paul Belmondo had to say a thing or two. Her infectious smile and uplifting energy behind the decks already made her a household name in clubs and festivals around the globe. This solo debut is an expression of her strong self confidence and in-syncness with the world surrounding her. “Jukurpa” might be just one of the most flamboyant house tunes you’ll come across this year, readymade for swaying to on an early summer morning dancefloor. “Cosmic Dream” is of a more introspective nature, putting gentle psychedelic synth movements to good use. There’s a lot of heart in Deer Jade’s music. We’re happy to give it a home.

David Hasert & Niconé – Wasting My Time With You

Tired of grey skies and long faces? We’ve got a serious dose of musical vitamin D for you! ?This Cologne – Berlin joint venture is shedding rays of sun galore with this lost in reverie deep house jam. Built around a catchy as hell soul vocal and occasional piano outbursts “Wasting My Time With You” will certainly be one of our favorite tunes to waste our time to in 2024.

Deer Jade – Jukurpa

Hast Du genug von grauem Himmel und langen Gesichtern? Wir haben eine ordentliche Dosis musikalisches Vitamin D für Dich! Deer Jade stammt vom pittoresken Genfer See, einer Gegend, über die der unvergessliche Jean Paul Belmondo so einiges zu sagen hatte. Ihr ansteckendes Lächeln und ihre mitreissende Energie hinter den Decks haben sie bereits zum gerne gesehenen Gast in Clubs und auf Festivals rund um den Globus gemacht. Dieses Solo-Debüt ist Ausdruck ihres starken Selbstbewusstseins und ihrer Verbundenheit mit der Welt, die sie umgibt. “Jukurpa” ist vielleicht einer der extravagantesten House-Tunes, die man in diesem Jahr zu hören bekommt, wie geschaffen zum Mitschunkeln an einem frühen Sommermorgen. “Cosmic Dream” ist von eher introspektiver Natur und holt uns mit sanften psychedelischen Synthesizer-Bewegungen ab. In der Musik von Deer Jade steckt eine Menge Herzblut. Wir freuen uns, dass sie es bei uns verschüttet.

David Hasert & Niconé – Wasting My Time With You

Hast Du genug von grauem Himmel und langen Gesichtern? Wir haben eine ordentliche Dosis musikalisches Vitamin D für Dich! Das Köln-Berliner Joint Venture versprüht mit diesem verträumten Deep-House-Jam jede Menge Sonnenstrahlen. ?”Wasting My Time With You” ist mit seinen ?catchy Soul-? Vocals und gelegentlichen Klavier?-?Kaskaden sicherlich einer unserer Lieblingssongs, mit dem wir im Jahr 2024 unsere Zeit verschwenden werden.

HJirok is a mythical figure, conceived as a fictional character by Iranian-born Kurdish singer and artist Hani Mojahedy. Together with versatile music producer And Toma of Mouse On Mars, she combined a variety of sounds collected during their joint travels to Iraqi Kurdistan and elsewhere with heavily processed recordings of Sufi drum rhythms and setar melodies. The result is a driving, dubbed-out, and deeply intricate soundscape that perfectly sets the stage for Mojahedy's extended, unconventional vocal techniques and polyglot lyrics. Both informed by tradition and rigorously forward-looking, »Hjirok« (with a lowercase J) is at once a profoundly personal album and a universal utopian promise. As a ghost from the past, HJirok draws on Mojtahedy's memories to mould a new future out of them.

The foundation for »Hjirok« was laid in the city of Erbil in the Kurdish part of Iraq. During one of their stays in the region, Mojahedy and Toma recorded the three percussionists Hadi Alizadeh, Jawad Salkhordeh and Serdar Saydan as well as setar player Ali Choolaei from Motahedy's backing band while they were playingthe rhythms and notes that she had grown up with in the house of her grandfather in the Iranian city of Sanandaj. Her memories of that place revolve around hypnotic Sufi music, dervishes in deep trance, and ecstatic singing. Much like this music seemed to open a portal to other dimensions, the inhabitants of the house lived in a sort of alternative reality: It provided them with a hideaway from political circumstances. Following the Iranian revolution in 1979, a Kurdish rebellion ensued but was met with the utmost brutality by the new regime, which resulted in the death of thousands.

It is no coincidence that the music on »Hirok« would draw on rhythmic patterns that were passed on from one generation to the next for hundreds of years. »The project is rooted in the figures of the Sufi dervishes and thus a culture that precedes today's political, social, cultural, and religious systems,« explains Mohtahedy. »The Sufi sound travelled around the entire world. I like to think of it as a dialogue between peoples-one based on the rhythms of the drums and the sound of their voices.« Toma adds that by electronically transforming the recordings and enriching them with field recordings from both rural and urban spaces, they were able to use the stories told by the drums and the setar to create an entirely new narrative.

The story told by these eight pieces is hence a deeply personal, but also inherently political one. Moitahedy herself left Iran in 2004 and relocated to Berlin in 2010. Having continued to use her art as a platform to tirelessly advocate for the rights of the Kurdish people and women under oppressive regimes, she has not been allowed to return to her country of origin ever since. »Hani is singing for equality and there are people who are afraid of that-her femininity, her strength.« Toma says. Much like earlier Hirok sound installations addressed human-made climate change and other systemic ills, also »Hjirok« can hardly be disconnected from far-reaching struggles for liberation and equality.

This is also true on a thematic and even linguistic level. »The lyrics are about a promise,« Mojahedy says, citing Kurdish writer Ebdulla Pesêw as an inspiration. »At their core, these are about that day on which violence and fear become a thing of the past; what they tell you is ot not give up, to keep hoping,« she adds. The promise embedded in them is an emancipatory one. These contents are mirrored on a linguistic level: The lyrics were written in both Kurdish and Farsi, blurring the lines between the two languages and thus, Kurdish and Persian cultures.

Mojahedy, or rather HJirok, conveys these philosophical themes with elegance. Herversatile vocal performance is only loosely basedo n established styles. »Of course everything started with traditional rhythms, but we kept pushing things further and further, so Idid the same with my voice,« Mojahedy explains. »There were no boundaries.« The same can be said of the field recordings that she and Toma used. Whether it's conversations between members of the Pesmerge, the Kurdish armed forces, having a chat in meadow full of bunnies or the humming and buzzing of metropolises like Tehran: »Hirok« paints a sonic picture that is quite literally autopian one; that of a non-place in which different soundscapes, cultures and ways of life coexist peacefully.

What the album conjures up from Mojahedy's memory is not only a very specific place during a unique time in history as experienced by a single person. It is also ametaphorical home open to anyone who wishes to enter - promise of a better, more egalitarian future for everyone. Hence, HJirok will bring it on tour, presenting the material as an audio-visual live show that makes use of the photo and video material that Mojahedy and Toma have collected during their travels through Kurdistan.ja

Hot wiring dancefloors with their immersive orchestration of uplifting sonic waves, Soft Crash sets out to soundtrack the unified, euphoric heartbeat of the crowds they foster with their mechanical yet fantastical, Italo Body Music. Presenting their highly anticipated EP ‘NRG’, the Berlin-based collaborative project of Berghain resident and BITE label head Hayden Payne (aka Phase Fatale) and French prolific producer Pablo Bozzi works to forge Soft Crash’s unique vocabulary of post-humanist production with the harmonic grandeur of their rhythmic, machine-made anthems.

Fresh off the back of their 2022 debut album ‘Your Last Everything’, Soft Crash present their latest 4 track EP ‘NRG’, chronicling their synonymous surrealist visuals infused with the contagious punch of Italo and Synth-wave. Geared towards the dancefloor from a fresh perspective, Bozzi and Payne pull from their respective wheelhouses to curate a sound additionally influenced by Wave-Pop, Acid House and Post-Punk sensibilities.

Procuring their cerebral yet zealous indentation of dance music, the EP features sanguine vocals from Kyiv-based singer and musician Ready in LED on the first single ‘Free Yourself’. She comments about the track “I became captivated instantly with the idea of the track that Hayden and Pablo sent me. At that moment, I was a bit tired of carefree disco and wanted to reveal my dark side in music. The demo sounded very daring. This track demands attention to itself from the first seconds. My sources of inspiration were glam rock and grunge. I had a blast in the studio, and I hope the people on the dance floors will feel that energy too.”

While full throttle vitality and booming grooves on the title track ‘NRG’ showcase Soft Crash’s take on 90’s sample-filled techno. Closing the extended play with an updated cut of the bewitching ‘Your Last Everything’, featuring Canadian musician and producer Marie Davidson, Soft Crash breathe a new life into the namesake track from their preceding album, concluding with an additional remix of the track by cult favourite producer Alen Skanner. The intrinsic dance floor vigour emulated in NRG further fleshes-out the pair’s recognisable DNA of nurturing a revitalised techno sound, cementing them as pioneers of the Italo Body genre.

Written and produced by Hayden Payne & Pablo Bozzi
Mastered by Conor Dalton at Glowcast Mastering

A cycle of songs about dead dogs. Dealing with loss, grief and loneliness, they recount the tales of lost dogs both real, metaphoric and mythic, and use our relationship with and treatment of dogs as a measure of our humanity.

Collaborating as The Unattached on this record are Joad R Wren, sister Gwenifer Raymond, uncle Neil White, and daughter Celia, along with friends Darren Hayman, Ian Button, John McGrath and Holly Rogers.

Joad notes: "The album was written and recorded during the height of the pandemic. I've no idea why it's taken so long to release it. I do know that it's a great pleasure to work – even at a distance – with such talented musicians, with many amazing albums in their back catalogues."

The final song was a surprise – especially to Joad – as Neil wrote it years ago about a forgotten dog, and it fitted beautifully as a coda here.

The songs are at once lush, sensitive, bleak and unflinching - there's a similar feeling to something like Lou Reed's 'Berlin', or the darker moments of Roy Harper. The LP comes in a numbered, hand-printed linocut sleeve with a 20 page booklet of lyrics and art.

The sleeve is a bit special. The oil-based ink used on this hand-printed sleeve may feel sticky to touch, and can potentially transfer to other surfaces. Please handle and store this record carefully.

It's an edition of 100, and because of the hand-printing process each cover is imperfectly unique and uniquely imperfect (and hand numbered).

lim. to 250 Copies ww!

"The world is rich, the world is colorful. So why not show it in all its complex diversity and contrasts? Why, when you go in one direction, do you have to follow it further and can't just go in all directions at once? These are all questions that Berlin-based Turkish singer Basak Yavuz may have asked herself when she began recording her new album "Raum 610."

Basak Yavuz doesn't take much time to get down to business. Right away in the opener "Promised Lands," different stylistic elements like jazz, rock, funk and hip-hop chase each other as if it were a matter of life and death. The message is unmistakable: this is about energy. The energy of the big city. Crowds on the sidewalk, congested streets, noise from construction sites, cyclists and drivers yelling at each other, barking dogs, screaming children, shattering glass, a new surprise around every corner. Basak Yavuz does not hide, but picks up the tempo of the Moloch and makes it her own pulse with all its fractures and border crossings. She is not afraid to overload her songs, but confidently juggles the explosiveness of creative oversaturation." (Wolf Kampmann)

toechter is an all-female trio operating from Berlin. toechter’s 2nd full-length album »Epic Wonder« sees its classically trained members blend elaborate string arrangements with ethereal indie pop and delicate rhythms. Katrine Grarup Elbo, Lisa Marie Vogel and Marie-Claire Schlameus exclusively use analogue sound sources (such as violin, viola, cello, and their voices), which were then electronically processed.

Named after the Greek god of the wind, toechters 2022 album »Zephyr« exhaled deeply with concurrently invigorating and confusing sounds. »Epic Wonder«, their second album, was created in the spring and summer of 2023. Playing with forms and contours, the music sounds like the awakening of something new. One seems to be listening to an ongoing conversation, an exchange about what music could be, where it wants to go and how it contributes to our view of life. It all rests on a simple premise:

»Every sound you hear in our universe comes from us. The string trio is the core of toechter, the starting point of all our work.«

Those looking for new worlds of sound can find them in the work of this classically- trained musicians. Whether they add voices or percussive instruments, sample the sounds, or manipulate them electronically; ultimately they are exploring the string trio's place in a world shaped by the digital.

»Prelude« opens the album, seemingly a conversation, yet not only between humans. We catch the word ›love‹ which soon morphs into pure sound images, while a violin theme tentatively takes over. Is it the dawning of a new day? The chorus of sound transforms into a fascinating rhythmic figure, creating a club-like experience that fades out in delicate structures. A perpetual transformation.

According to toechter, »Epic Wonder« is all about making connections. Connections between people, animals, plants, fungi, rocks, soils, oceans, ice caps, stars, and planets. One imagines oneself in a folk-pop song of the 60s, or even blown around by Morricone's desert wind:

»The world as we see it is in desperate need for a deeper understanding; for compassion, for empathy. We have to understand that we are all part of the same organism. Epic Wonder is a dream, a wish, a longing for kinship between all species that share the world - all that is alive.«

The acoustic throbbing and knocking in »Sea Of Serenity« makes you think of encounters with mythical creatures or planetary oceanography; and out of the mechanically clacking groove of »Shift Souls« a gentle, but steady movement awakens with voices that seem to sound from the depths of the sea. Everything is in flux, floating in and out of dimensions and elements.

The album ends with »Mercury«, spherically elegant and almost science fiction-like. Here, a pizzicato melody leads us back to the baroque, simultaneously representing a detail of intertwined sonic worlds, while the steady, housy baseline develops its driving theme.

»Creating the music for the album, we allowed ourselves to waft away with the aspiration that connections are possible. Sometimes dwelling on subtle, yet marveling phenomena like the evening fog covering a valley on Midsummer, sometimes on grandiose splendors like the genesis of mountains or the birth of a child - letting interactions and encounters with other beings float through the musical universe as drips of emotional perceptivity.«

For the visual manifestation of »Epic Wonder«, toechter has engaged with Finish up-and-coming lens-based artist Aino Kontinen. Her work will grace both the cover art of the album and accompany the first single and video as an ephemeral tale in motion.

A tape with the rather factual title “Rosa Beton – Demo 83” gained currency in 1983, albeit among an inner circle, or as it says in a lexical note on the band: Rosa Beton “achieved beyond-regional fame in and around Berlin”. Unlike some other bands that were merely rumoured to exist, this name was widely recognized in the East Berlin punk scene and the demo tape was received with some delight. It had been made in the suburb of Hönow, or more precisely in music enthusiast Thomas Wagner’s childhood bedroom. The band was less a classic combo than a short-lived pro- ject run, for a brief underground season, by 16-yearold Wagner and Ronald Mausolf, who was known as “Mausi” and had just come of age. An old clunker of a four-track machine served as an impor- tant nutritional supplement for the duo, allowing bass and vocals to be overdubbed separately. For a project without a professional background, especially for an illegal punk band in the East, this conventional procedure was clearly exceptional. Punk bands would usually record vocals and instruments simultaneously and on a cassette recorder. Recording gear was not readily available in the GDR, and it was disproportionately or prohibitively expensive. The adversities that had to be overcome in starting up a punk band were certainly challenging for teenagers. Rooms for rehearsals were few and far between despite wide- spread vacancies, and public space was taboo thanks to the state. Concerts, whether in flats and studios or under the protection of the Protestant church, remained rare events and, moreover, risky; starting with the party-loyal neighbour alerting the People’s Police as if there were a war on, to the ever-present “digging activity” of the Stasi. The only planned appearance by Rosa Beton never materi- alised. Whether it was the goddesses of fate who averted a show or the Stasi who prevented it can no longer be reconstructed. In any case, Rosa Beton never played live and thus joined a long list of GDR punk bands that, in the early 1980s, did not make it out of illegality into a public sphere, not even into a conspiratorial one. ausi compensated for the band’s lack of live performances by at least distributing a few copies of the demo tape. Among others, at the Kult, the Kulturpark Plänterwald, which provided an initiation field for the Berlin punk scene and a hotspot with a pull beyond it. The punks adapted the Kulturpark to their understanding of an amusement park.
They would thrash about to Schlager music and pogo to third-rate Ostrock bands, make fun of overwhelmed provincials, hang out and exchange half-baked ideas as superior knowledge. In between, the punks liked to ride the chain carousel, there was a certain liking for chains. The Kulturpark management made quite a fuss about the riot the punks put on. Initially they were banned from the chain carousel, then, when the punks switched to bumper cars, they were banned from the bumper cars, then from the roller coaster, and finally from the ghost