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Traditionally the liner notes of an album take on a kind of third-party address, where a writer is delivering their thoughts about how an album makes them feel without breaching that space where they are representing themselves or the moment in time directly to the reader. The goal is typically a kind of timelessness, but as we live in unprecedented times, unconventional methods take on new life, and hopefully importance. In the spirit of that idea... man, is this the kind of album we all need right now. So many of us feel like we're constantly walking a tightrope, are feeling like we can't unwind, are in genuine need of a few moments of respite. Every so often an album emerges from an artist that most likely did not realize when they were composing how timely the results would be, and Lofi Dimensions is exactly that kind of record. It doesn't really matter why it's coming when it is, what's important is that it's here, offering peace to the perturbed and inspiration for the downcast. The American Dollar have long been one of those artists operating in a kind of middle ground, a band with a long history of creating moving instrumental rock that has somehow avoided ever becoming synonymous with modern American post-rock acts. They retain a sort of autonomy in a valued position just outside the boundaries of classification. Blending electronic textures with moving guitar and keyboard melodies, their music has always traveled somewhere in the spaces between trip-hop, electronic, post-rock and ambient, and this inability to be defined is ultimately what sets them apart from the trappings of genre, allowing them to be whatever they want The American Dollar to be in a given moment, always on their terms.

“Requiem” is the name of the new Cold Beats Records release. The reference number 14 of the catalan label is written by L´Avenir, the cold synth side project of veteran electronic musician and sound artist Jason Sloan. Known throughout the space and ambient music scenes for his contemplative electronic soundscape work for close to two decades; Sloan founded L’Avenir in 2012 to explore his long time love of synthnpop and dark minimal wave music created purely from analog and vintage equipment. While still retaining the atmosphere of his solo records, the music of L’Avenir is rooted in the tradition of the minimal, analog, synthesizer music of the late 70′s and 80′s ( Fad Gadget, Depeche, Click Click, Chicago’s Wax Trax Records scene etc…). Growing up through the original scene while it was happening, it’s no suprise that Sloan’s music would eventually move in this direction. While releasing over a dozen solo albums and E.P.’s under his own name, Sloan has played live all over the US, Canada and Europe including the influential Live Constructions radio program at Columbia University, STEIM in Amsterdam and Philadelphia’s The Gatherings concert series, one of the country’s oldest continuing ambient and electronic music series. Sloan is a Professor teaching full-time in the Interactive Arts department along with being the founder and program coordinator for the Sound Art concentration at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland. L’Avenir returns with Requiem, the fourth, full-length album for Barcelona’s Cold Beats Records. Requiem finds L’Avenir visiting themes of postmodernity, alienation and spiritualism while expanding the sonic palette far beyond his minimal synth beginnings. The music of L’Avenir has, at times, been compared to 4AD era Clan of Xymox or mid-period Depeche Mode. But while echoes of the former can be heard, L’Avenir brings a uniquely fresh perspective unheard in other bands of the genre. Requiem features eight new songs and is available on limited edition blood red vinyl. Requiem is L’Avenir’s sixth release was written and recorded between February 2018 and January 2019 in a Minimal Space, (Baltimore). Limited edition of 300 copies lacquered pressed on 140 gr. high quality red vinyl and digital album.

Inner space centurion and local star command operative Tommy Walker III returns with a new mission directive this DATE...
Hardwiring to the Red Laser network and initiating an advanced, beta-tested programme of futuro-manctalo cybernetics, TWIII's meta-level hybridisation of Italian synth disco & northern English rave styles, combined with an expert deciphering of modernised club dynamics has resulted in a faultless system capable of withstanding the most extreme sonic test environments. RL30's eight tracks are RL Corp. operation-certified to work alongside Human2.0's electrostatic discharge profile. Universally approved usage for sentient earth dwellers offering portals into dancefloor ecstasy and inter-dimensional transcendence. This programme begins with 'Pocsy', and sees euphoric holograms burst through galloping Italo mechanics, fusing retro-tinged optimism with a nu-age release. 'Shoiab' (named after a fellow starship captain tasked to MCR and in alliance with RL Corp...) unleashes red shifted synths and carnal cowbells for the cyberotic lap-dancers to get jizzy too. 'Autopilot' allows the on-board crew to reassemble, a well automated array of arpeggios guiding the shuttle during the first phase, until reconsolidating in the latter stages for full-on interdimensional 5-D funk jam. 'Lightwork' is pure RL endorsed synth-jizz, erupting out of Tommy's arsenal like a mis-timed giant alien cumshot; minus any Manga references.
'Astral Projectile Vomit' address a common problem endemic to protectors of our star cluster; then channels a shiny, serpentine chrome sequence and thrusts it down the rainbow road for maximum belly aches.
More hydraulic collisions between electronic disc-boogie and newly mined atomic particles from passing asteroids ensures Srg. Walker has enough mainroom material to keep the Sharons and Traceys of the main hub dancing in between injections of dimethyltryptamine. Closing with a trio of humanoid hits that'll have Jonny5 ordering kryptonite margaritas for the entire ship, Tommy Walker celebrates with the cosmic conge, 'Gary Blast'.
RL Corp is confident RL30's internal algorithm is a future-proofed, cross-species platform for auditory excitement, and will continue to stimulate listeners across a multitude of environments.

After an intrepid new phase in the label’s history - initiated by the “Solidarity Forever” series and followed by releases from Katerina, Mujaji The Rain, Gladkazuka and also Matias Aguayo’s “Support Alien Invasion” (w/ “Crammed Discs”) - Cómeme is happy to announce a new release by a wonderful and unique artist, who chooses to walk adventurous paths beyond nowadays musical normativity, and media spectacle: JOE.
(You might already be acquainted with his releases on the ever - exciting “Hessle Audio” label) On his first EP on Cómeme, JOE invites us to “Get Centred” via fresh sounds, perfect beats, and unusual time signatures – difficult to play, and easy to dance!

A1 GET CENTRED
New rhythms inspire new dances and new ideas, and already at the very first bars you realize that this record can be both a joyfully twisted dance floor work out as also beautiful listening experience - with its shifting arpeggios and trippy crescendos. Reminiscent of minimalist milestones it crosses the artificial barriers between body, mind and soul, satisfying those in need of getting centred, in times of accelerated alienation...

A2 LINE TO EARTH
Triplets are back and here to stay! Such as in this percussive creature Joe unleashes onto the festive crowd. This very catchy jam is clever and intense drum programming at its best, with its swirling toms that seem to float in the air. We feel them activating different body parts for futuristic popping, whereas the relentless boogie rhythm that lays the foundation for this track gives us material to twist our legs in sync to the beat.

A3 RIO LEA
Joe closes this EP with “Rio Lea” - an elegantly swinging jam that smoothly and slowly builds up to a melodic meditation. Its many decorative elements seem all - necessary to make this work and are always falling rightly into place. You can imagine this a perfect fit for a long drink on a spacecraft, watching meteorites pass by, as we are sure it will also work in a bus on headphones late at night, watching the rain rolling down the windows...

Cambridge-based beat-scientist Filter Dread presents the third release on the Tech Startup catalog, TS000003. Inspired by laboratories across the street from his studio, the four tracks take motifs from the genres of jungle, hardcore, and grime, and teleport them to alien dimensions.

The record kicks off with Rainforest, a track which mutates grime hammer kicks and classic jungle drum-rolls. The following track, Blizzard, flows like metallic ooze with its cold, cybernetic percussion and liquified pads. Tripping Up dishes a devastating jungle-tekno sequence with crushing snares and a sinister bassline. RX-4 Real brings the release to a close, bubbling and percolating with its reverb-soaked stabs and glitched out beats.

Sami Baha is a Turkish producer based in South East London. His music was introduced to the world via his 2016 EP 'Mavericks'. Sami got into producing through being a rapper himself, working with local rappers in Turkey and producing beats for them, before setting his sights outside the country. 'Free For All' features MCs from all corners of the globe: UK drill squad 67's Dimzy, Stockholm's Yung Lean and Chicago rapper and singer DJ Nate (aka Flexxbabii). The record also features Egyptian MCs Dawsha and Abanob. Sami's production is refined and elegant, familiar tropes are reassembled in original ways, the instrumentation reflecting his background and influences simultaneously. Everything Sami brings to the album sounds relaxed and minimal, but tough, built from thoughtful arrangements and instruments, shot through with emotion and a dreamy night-time feel.

Compilation of the works by MJ Lallo, weird harmonizing mantras layered with drummachine rhythms.. Very psychedelic compositions where she uses her voice to create all kinds of sound(scapes)
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Take Me With You is a revelatory voyage through the captivating universe of voice artist and poet MJ Lallo. The works on this 2LP compilation were all recorded in her home studio between 1982 and 1997, primarily using drum computer, synth and her own voice processed through a Yamaha SPX 90 digital effects unit. They range from wordless harmonizer mantras and primitive drum computer meditations, to psychedelic latin dance-floor anthems and synth-drenched end-of-the-nighters. Lallo has created her own inimitable galaxy of sound where the human voice, liberated from the constraints of language and abstracted using digital technology, is able to explore the outer realms of human expression, like Joan La Barbara with an Eventide and a new-age sensibility. Although Lallo's flight path is distinctly her own, her journey converges with other travellers as diverse as Jon Hassell, Laraaji, Stereolab, William Aura, Laurie Anderson, Meredith Monk, Gertrude Stein and even Terry Gilliam (whose film Brazil was a big influence on Lallo). Like something beamed in from another planet, Lallo's work is both fascinatingly strange and strangely familiar, and will leave a lasting impression for lightyears to come. Double gatefold LP, remastered DDM pressing.






[E B1 | Midnight in the Sky

Planet Mu are excited to announce Ital Tek's 'Bodied', the follow up to his acclaimed 2016 album 'Hollowed'. Stepping in a different direction from that album, It's as if Hollowed's detailed world has been fleshed out and filled with the spectre of human voices.

As on his last album, the sounds on 'Bodied' are highly designed, but this time barely a whisper of dance music remains. Instead it's built around acoustic elements and ghostly choral arrangements, refracted and transformed into atmospheric, alien forms which are given the time to settle and transform. Rhythm is used only as a tool to give his world a sense of dark, mechanical momentum.

Alan explains; "After completing 'Hollowed' I had over a year away from writing any of my own material. I was working, composing music for a video game and a number of different projects. I needed to find a way back in and I rediscovered the joy of music being a release as opposed to a job. I was getting up really early and sketching out lots of ideas very fast, squeezing in quick bursts of writing at the beginning or end of long studio day spent working on other musical projects."

"It was important for me to define the world that the album was going to inhabit before taking it any further, so I put a much greater focus into the sound design and palette than I had before. I wanted to make the music sound very physical, geometric, and monolithic, as if it inhabited a physical space."

"On 'Bodied' the music focuses on the interplay between the minuscule and the vast, beauty and brutalism. With this album I was much more concerned with dynamics and the discipline of holding tension; the use of space and silence to provide a counterpoint to the intensity."

"Most importantly, I was keen for there to be a human acoustic foundation, so I did a lot of live recording of cello, violin, harp and guitar - anything I could get my hands on. I was certain that I wanted there to be a greater vocal presence - nothing lyrical or at the forefront but to give it an underlying organic quality - to impart some humanity into the music."

As Ital Tek moves further from his roots, he's creating new sounds and spaces in which his music can exist. It's up to the listener to decide what kind of world 'Bodied' evokes, but it's certainly one that's beautiful and rewarding to spend time in.

ESHU, the production collective and record label from Nijmegen are back with their next offering. Their 12th release is a various artists release that features BLM, Jburg and Steven Siwalette alongside label members Ivano Tetelepta and Jocelyn Abell. It comes on the heels of Tetelepta's absorbing dub techno album, Senang, and is another high class offering. Nijmegen based Siwalette is first, previously contributed to the label as part of SYS. His Stragglers is a sparse but atmospheric track with industrial drones and slowly turning drums taking you through a desolate factory late at night. His second offering is Alien Encounter which is just as it sounds - a spooky, unsettling bit of cinematic sound design with menacing bass and icy pads all growing in loudness until they eventually consume your mind. Lastly on the A-side, UK producer and Fear of Flying label boss BLM lays down a skeletal groove that's embellished with beautiful, yawning synths. Scattered little details and fx making this a cavernous piece that encourages your mind to wander and get lost. On the flip, Jocelyn Abell and Ivano Tetelepta cook up a heavyweight, mid tempo bit of dub techno with sharp hits and rolling kicks lulling you into a trance. Last of all, the emerging Jburg picks up the pace with a perfectly chiselled bit of rock solid dub with looping drums and icy hi hats sinking you deep into its midst. This is an excellent EP that packs in a range of fascinating sounds for both the home and the club.

* Still Circles announce the release of their debut album, 27:36, available March 30th via Killtone Records.

* Currently at 7 in the chart on the Josh Hannen show Amazing Radio

* Session for Alan Raw BBC Introducing on Sat March 3rd 2018

* Comprised of Natalie Kolowiecki and Jack Donnison, the Bradford based duo bridge the worlds of trip-hop and ambient music: splicing slo-mo beats, grainy atmospherics, haunting melodies and soft-wax drones. Their first single, 'Only Noise' is testament to this - with its manipulated vocals, heavy bass line and lurching percussion, the track's stark surrealism evokes the thrum of their northern English town.

* Upon the surface, 27:36 has the indelible markings of the band's influences: Brian Eno, Poliça, Adrian Sherwood (to name a few) - but the duo never settle into pure pastiche. Instead, they contort the sounds of these artists into something all their own. 27:36 is an alien vision of what pop music could be.

Bewitching Avant-Pop album from impromptu supergroup built around acclaimed Japanese duo, Tenniscoats. Featuring members of Notwist, Jam Money and Joasihno.

In these dark and uncertain times, there's an ever-growing collective of peaceful, loving types, bound together by an understanding of one peculiar word: Tenniscoats. Aside from being the name of an influential Tokyo-based duo, it represents fun, artistic freedom, experimentation and - perhaps most important of all - inclusivity.

A Tenniscoats gig is rarely the audience watching the performers. Instead, Saya and Takashi regularly shun the stage in favour of any particular spot that takes their fancy, whether it's an empty seat in the auditorium or the roof of a neighbouring cafe. In the world of Tenniscoats, music can happen anywhere, and everyone is invited to join in.

During the winter of 2016, the music happened in Munich. As a long-time fan, Markus Acher (Notwist) jumped at the chance not only to put Tenniscoats on the bill at the Alien Disko festival he was organising, but also to invite Saya & Takashi to a small apartment studio, together with Mat Fowler (Jam Money) and Cico Beck (Aloa Input, Notwist). This is where Spirit Fest was recorded over the following 14 days.

Tenniscoats are known for their collaborations - some of their finest work was done in conjunction with Tape, The Pastels, Jad Fair and many others - so making good use of the time and friends available was natural to them. For me, timing is important,' Saya said. We met in season, and the song flowers are now blooming!' Mat Fowler recalls the Spirit Fest sessions taking place in an idyllic, festive atmosphere. Every morning we'd all share breakfast, chat and learn about German Christmas customs. We'd catch the bus in the morning and walk home in the evening. The journey ran parallel to the beautiful flowing Isar River that bubbles, ebbs and flows right through the middle of Munich.'

While Tenniscoats sit at the heart of proceedings, it isn't their album alone. Markus, Mat and Cico also brought songs, providing a solid base on top of which the artistry could evolve. Mat explains that, a melody would begin, and slowly, each of us - in our own time - would find our way into the music.

Producer Tadklimp would sensitively set-up around us in this narrow window of time, so as to document that first and intuitive moment of collective discovery.' Nearly everything was recorded live,' agrees Markus, playing and singing together in one room with piano, guitars, percussion and some keyboards.' The collaborators came from Germany, Japan, the UK, Greece and beyond. That sense of inclusivity is palpable.

From the tender beauty of Markus's River River' and Saya's Mikan' to the electro-Merseybeat of Tenniscoat's Nambei' and the half-crazed pianica-reggae of Shuti Man', the resulting album is a testament to the manner of which these musicians are able to channel their songwriting through their spontaneity. It's also a snapshot of a gentle and intuitive moment in time - a beautiful meetup that expands this community, happily, even further.

Jon Willks (Grizzly Folk)

After impressing with his debut album, 'Buy The Ticket, Take the Ride', on Tsuba last year, Magic Feet label boss Craig Bratley is back with a hot new EP on his own label that features tracks by Unisexl Audio Club, Beato Cozzi and the man himself.

Since 2014's LP release, Bratley has been remixed to great effect by Ewan Pearson and has continued to take his machine made, darkened disco sounds to clubs and festivals around Europe.

His sound is robust and analogue, has come out on labels like Andrew Weatherall's Bird Scarer and Is It Balearic and now for the first time arrives on his own Magic Feet, a label that has showcased sounds by Timothy J Fairplay, Antoni Maiovvi and Tommy Awards amongst others.

Up first here is Unisex Audio Club with 'Event Duality,' an elastic, low swinging, mid tempo track with frazzled synth lines, pixelated melodies and lots of dark energy. Flabby bass adds serious weight to this most arresting affair.

Beato Cozzi offers up 'Killer ', which comes on like a long forgotten Italo B-side, a chugging rework of a solitary 1990 chart hit that sounds all the more resplendent for its rainy alien melodies, extra visible and twinkling chords and invitingly laboured drums.

Then comes Bratley with the first of two cuts. 'Photons' is seven minutes of loose and lush house music with arcing pads, feel good chords and emotionally swollen melodies. It's the sort of breezy, al fresco tune that would sound great at a boat party and shows a more tender, vulnerable side to Bratley's work.

His second, 'Analogue Voodoo', is a slow and sparse affair where futuristic synth lines, apocalyptic drums and darkened spoken word snippets all conjure an unsettling, industrial mood. It's a fresh sounding cut that is destined to stand out on any dancefloor.

This is another fine offering from Magic Feet that offers disco lovers of all shapes and sizes something to explore and enjoy.