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After a devastating opening salvo of 19 modernist rave mutations on a double tape pack for Sneaker Social Club, Minder lands on Hypercolour with another 19 cybernetic fever dreams still reeling from the open season NRG of hardcore.

If you need to understand where Minder wants to take you, strap in for the labyrinth narrative of ‘Knotted’, a smudged, 15-minute breakbeat suite barrelling through lurid dystopian street scenes with only a blown-out bass sprite as a guide. Throughout Sanctuary, bass is the constant when all else is chaos. It comes in thick, warped Reese tones on ‘Simulated Hunt’, gets twisted out through angry filters on ‘Popcorn Lover’, comes on wobbly in true 2-step style underneath grimey garage anti-anthem ‘Ard’.

There’s a lot to take in across the spread of Sanctuary. It’s the sound of every rave genre slowly digested over 30-plus years, until the lactic acid metabolises every snare rush, every searing lead line, every chipmunk vocal lick, and everything gets mashed up and spat back out into a gnarly signal chain at the flash point of inspiration. The time taken is key – this is the sound of a life in front of the speaker stack manifesting in something too wild and weird to be derivative. You’ll hear snatches of familiarity thrown into unfamiliar contexts, but for all the detectable lineage, Minder’s sound is unsettling in its originality.

Dislodged ragga jungle techno, muffled hardcore nightmares, hard n’ haggard acid trance, junked up jump up – you could write an essay on the sounds you can spot and the way they’ve been twisted. Aside from the omnipresent low-end, it’s the unflinching honesty of Korron’s repeat appearances on the mic throughout which bring Minder’s disturbing patchwork into focus. For all the futurism attached to these sounds, it’s also caked in a very human filth which can only come from this earth. The roots run deep, and the fruit is rotten, and isn’t that how it should be?

American singer-songwriter, poet, and photographer Thomas Meluch, known musically as Benoît Pioulard, returns with his most structured and vocal release to date. Titled »Eidetic,« a word denoting the ability to recall mental images with extraordinarily rich precision, the album presents unprecedented clarity and vitality for Benoît Pioulard. To access its thematic ground, Meluch looked inward with an affinity towards the people he loves during a period marked by his move from Seattle to Brooklyn in 2019. The resulting work engages with the universe's unflinching mortality and, as he says, »the ways it has modified and improved my relationships, especially with family.« Embodied by the creek, leaves, and ferns of the cover photography — taken in Michigan’s Burchfield Park, where he and his dad used to hike and »muse on existence« — the music glistens and unfurls with the flow of life he’s come to know. »Eidetic« is the culmination of Meluch's craft both as a producer and writer. An evocative sonic vocabulary meets deft lyrical introspection, articulated with the nuance, vulnerability, and confidence of a longtime artist hitting a stride.

Meluch has continually refined, redefined, and adjusted the focus of his gentle pop project over the last 20 years. Recorded primarily with guitar, tapes, and voice — and spanning labels with albums for Kranky, Morr Music, Beacon Sound, and Past Inside the Present — his catalog flows seamlessly between ambient improvisation and pop composition. Much like the analog photos that often accompany his releases, songs can feel dreamily softened and distant, and others beautifully vivid and detailed. 2021 full-length »Bloodless« found Meluch deep in droning decay, expressive yet wordless. With »Eidetic,« he swings back to sharpened forms. Lush banks of treated guitar and synth brush against hushed percussion; there is mist in the distance, but everything up close is intricately constructed and radiant. Meluch's voice is notably forward in the mix — a warm and calming tenor, a harmonic coo more than a whisper — ever-observant and actively processing.

To record much of the album, Meluch filled a cabin in rural Maine with his usual setup of simple percussion, a couple of Fender electrics, and a parlor guitar made by his friend who does bespoke luthier work. The modest utility is what he knows best, and here he pushes the output to its most pristine potential.

»Eidetic« opens in a swirl of familiar haze; »Margaret Murie« eases listeners in, as lush and verdant as the landscapes conserved by its famed namesake. With the setting established, Meluch, the narrator, enters the foreground with »Crux,« a tender piece written about finding new motivations in a new city. »We covet this rare green hue / Here at the farthest point from home,« he sings above a reassuring pattern of strums and percussion. Meluch's prose shines on the swiftly-moving »Nameless,« inspired by the neurological effects that came with the antiquated practice of manufacturing mercury mirrors; »folks would slowly go insane while looking into their own reflections every day,« he adds. The idea informs a series of surreal abstractions before everything drops out in the final minute, and we are left free-floating in eerie nothingness.

Across the album, labyrinthine lyrical ponderings scatter with dazzling imagery, artfully blurring scenes from world history with Meluch's more personal, present-day. The propulsive and earnest »Thursday Night« catches his mind overly active and too stoned, riffing on black holes and songwriting itself. »Halve« references the splitting of the atom, what he considers »the beginning of man's downfall,« and the unrealized initiative proposed by the US government that would have created 'nuclear refuges' in its national parks. Meluch's loved ones weave throughout; »Tet« holds his father's experience in Vietnam and its lasting effects. »Lillian Isola« touches on his maternal grandmother's spinal curvature, and »Pastel Dust« navigates the wake of his cat, who died on New Year's Eve 2020.

At first blush, Meluch's atmospheric and melodic sensibilities resonate purely in their own right. Upon closer meditation, his ability to render stories — many of which surround human tragedy, misfortune, and understanding — through the prism of his poetry makes »Eidetic« even more rewarding.

Dark Green Vinyl

American singer-songwriter, poet, and photographer Thomas Meluch, known musically as Benoît Pioulard, returns with his most structured and vocal release to date. Titled »Eidetic,« a word denoting the ability to recall mental images with extraordinarily rich precision, the album presents unprecedented clarity and vitality for Benoît Pioulard. To access its thematic ground, Meluch looked inward with an affinity towards the people he loves during a period marked by his move from Seattle to Brooklyn in 2019. The resulting work engages with the universe's unflinching mortality and, as he says, »the ways it has modified and improved my relationships, especially with family.« Embodied by the creek, leaves, and ferns of the cover photography — taken in Michigan’s Burchfield Park, where he and his dad used to hike and »muse on existence« — the music glistens and unfurls with the flow of life he’s come to know. »Eidetic« is the culmination of Meluch's craft both as a producer and writer. An evocative sonic vocabulary meets deft lyrical introspection, articulated with the nuance, vulnerability, and confidence of a longtime artist hitting a stride.

Meluch has continually refined, redefined, and adjusted the focus of his gentle pop project over the last 20 years. Recorded primarily with guitar, tapes, and voice — and spanning labels with albums for Kranky, Morr Music, Beacon Sound, and Past Inside the Present — his catalog flows seamlessly between ambient improvisation and pop composition. Much like the analog photos that often accompany his releases, songs can feel dreamily softened and distant, and others beautifully vivid and detailed. 2021 full-length »Bloodless« found Meluch deep in droning decay, expressive yet wordless. With »Eidetic,« he swings back to sharpened forms. Lush banks of treated guitar and synth brush against hushed percussion; there is mist in the distance, but everything up close is intricately constructed and radiant. Meluch's voice is notably forward in the mix — a warm and calming tenor, a harmonic coo more than a whisper — ever-observant and actively processing.

To record much of the album, Meluch filled a cabin in rural Maine with his usual setup of simple percussion, a couple of Fender electrics, and a parlor guitar made by his friend who does bespoke luthier work. The modest utility is what he knows best, and here he pushes the output to its most pristine potential.

»Eidetic« opens in a swirl of familiar haze; »Margaret Murie« eases listeners in, as lush and verdant as the landscapes conserved by its famed namesake. With the setting established, Meluch, the narrator, enters the foreground with »Crux,« a tender piece written about finding new motivations in a new city. »We covet this rare green hue / Here at the farthest point from home,« he sings above a reassuring pattern of strums and percussion. Meluch's prose shines on the swiftly-moving »Nameless,« inspired by the neurological effects that came with the antiquated practice of manufacturing mercury mirrors; »folks would slowly go insane while looking into their own reflections every day,« he adds. The idea informs a series of surreal abstractions before everything drops out in the final minute, and we are left free-floating in eerie nothingness.

Across the album, labyrinthine lyrical ponderings scatter with dazzling imagery, artfully blurring scenes from world history with Meluch's more personal, present-day. The propulsive and earnest »Thursday Night« catches his mind overly active and too stoned, riffing on black holes and songwriting itself. »Halve« references the splitting of the atom, what he considers »the beginning of man's downfall,« and the unrealized initiative proposed by the US government that would have created 'nuclear refuges' in its national parks. Meluch's loved ones weave throughout; »Tet« holds his father's experience in Vietnam and its lasting effects. »Lillian Isola« touches on his maternal grandmother's spinal curvature, and »Pastel Dust« navigates the wake of his cat, who died on New Year's Eve 2020.

At first blush, Meluch's atmospheric and melodic sensibilities resonate purely in their own right. Upon closer meditation, his ability to render stories — many of which surround human tragedy, misfortune, and understanding — through the prism of his poetry makes »Eidetic« even more rewarding.

Lawrence Hayward knew that he wanted to be a pop star as a teen, and he devised a plan to release ten albums and ten singles over ten years to make that dream come true. A particular and determined individual, he would only be known as Lawrence from that day forward. His hopes for stardom would be pinned on his newly formed band, the succinctly named Felt. Soon signed to Cherry Red Records, Lawrence’s achingly cool vocals and the group’s way with walking melodies were evident on their debut for the label, “Something Sends Me To Sleep.” This compilation collects material from Felt’s Cherry Red period of 1981 to 1985, kicking off with that confident start, assembling numerous high points, and closing with their biggest hit, “Primitive Painters.”

This phase of the band is defined by the songwriting partnership and unique interplay of Lawrence and guitarist Maurice Deebank, with Deebank’s stylish and confident playing the envy of many of their counterparts. He delivers a constant string of shimmering hooks that wrap themselves around and over top of Lawrence’s more traditional beat combo song structures, as if trying to fit four songs worth of ideas into a pre-set radio friendly cutoff time. It works wonderfully as Lawrence always counters with a solid bedrock.

In one of many brushes with the brass ring, in 1984 Felt recorded versions of “Dismantled King Is Off The Throne” and “Sunlight Bathed The Golden Glow,” for the newly formed and Warners-backed label Blanco y Negro, in hopes that the band would follow their A+R man Mike Alway to the executive suite. Despite putting forward two of their finest songs, it was not to be. While major label dreams had to remain on the shelf, fans were delighted to be able to hear these beautifully stripped down and more direct versions when this compilation was released a few years later.

By 1985 the Felt roller coaster was something Maurice Deebank was constantly getting on and off of. As Gary Ainge always kept the beat, and Lawrence never lost focus, they were joined by local teen prodigy Martin Duffy on keyboards, filling out the arrangements, and following Deebank’s racing six-string cascades in “The Day The Rain Came Down” you can even hear a tiny hint of the next phase of the band in Duffy’s organ before Maurice swoops to the finish. The newly expanded Felt would then put everything they had into making one of the defining releases of the 80s: “Primitive Painters.”

Lawrence Hayward knew that he wanted to be a pop star as a teen, and he devised a plan to release ten albums and ten singles over ten years to make that dream come true. A particular and determined individual, he would only be known as Lawrence from that day forward. His hopes for stardom would be pinned on his newly formed band, the succinctly named Felt. Soon signed to Cherry Red Records, Lawrence’s achingly cool vocals and the group’s way with walking melodies were evident on their debut for the label, “Something Sends Me To Sleep.” This compilation collects material from Felt’s Cherry Red period of 1981 to 1985, kicking off with that confident start, assembling numerous high points, and closing with their biggest hit, “Primitive Painters.”

This phase of the band is defined by the songwriting partnership and unique interplay of Lawrence and guitarist Maurice Deebank, with Deebank’s stylish and confident playing the envy of many of their counterparts. He delivers a constant string of shimmering hooks that wrap themselves around and over top of Lawrence’s more traditional beat combo song structures, as if trying to fit four songs worth of ideas into a pre-set radio friendly cutoff time. It works wonderfully as Lawrence always counters with a solid bedrock.

In one of many brushes with the brass ring, in 1984 Felt recorded versions of “Dismantled King Is Off The Throne” and “Sunlight Bathed The Golden Glow,” for the newly formed and Warners-backed label Blanco y Negro, in hopes that the band would follow their A+R man Mike Alway to the executive suite. Despite putting forward two of their finest songs, it was not to be. While major label dreams had to remain on the shelf, fans were delighted to be able to hear these beautifully stripped down and more direct versions when this compilation was released a few years later.

By 1985 the Felt roller coaster was something Maurice Deebank was constantly getting on and off of. As Gary Ainge always kept the beat, and Lawrence never lost focus, they were joined by local teen prodigy Martin Duffy on keyboards, filling out the arrangements, and following Deebank’s racing six-string cascades in “The Day The Rain Came Down” you can even hear a tiny hint of the next phase of the band in Duffy’s organ before Maurice swoops to the finish. The newly expanded Felt would then put everything they had into making one of the defining releases of the 80s: “Primitive Painters.”

Dauw welcomes back Jogging House to the label for the first release of the year 2023. His new album Face is a synthbathed meditation on decay and acceptance and shows the typical Jogging House sound in which warm soundscapes are mingled with soft and playful melodies.

Boris Potschubay is a German musician based in Frankfurt am Main. Besides his own music, Potschubay curates his own label, Seil Records which forms a home for Hainbach, KMRU among others. Jogging House debuted in 2011 and brought us more than a dozen releases in the meantime. Listening to all the records chronologically one after the other, demonstrates us how Potschubay is experimenting a wide range of sound sources and creates a variety of atmospheres but stays true to its own individuality.

Dauw welcomes back Jogging House to the label for the first release of the year 2023. His new album Face is a synthbathed meditation on decay and acceptance and shows the typical Jogging House sound in which warm soundscapes are mingled with soft and playful melodies.

Boris Potschubay is a German musician based in Frankfurt am Main. Besides his own music, Potschubay curates his own label, Seil Records which forms a home for Hainbach, KMRU among others. Jogging House debuted in 2011 and brought us more than a dozen releases in the meantime. Listening to all the records chronologically one after the other, demonstrates us how Potschubay is experimenting a wide range of sound sources and creates a variety of atmospheres but stays true to its own individuality.

Algiers haben sich eine Crew zugelegt: Für ihr viertes Album "SHOOK" versammelte die Band eine Schar gleichgesinnter Künstler um sich herum. Der Nachfolger zum gefeierten Album "There Is No Year" (2020) ist ein musikalischer wie inhaltlicher Blitzableiter in bewegten Zeiten und mit seinen 17 eindringlichen Songs schon jetzt eines der aufregendsten Alben aus 2023. Das komplette Album entstand, als Fisher und sein Bandkollege Ryan Mahan für einige Monate in ihre Heimatstadt Atlanta zurückkehrten, wo sie unter dem wachsenden Druck litten, was schließlich in einem Burnout gipfelte. Eine extreme Zeit für die Band und für die Freundschaft der beiden Musiker, in der sie schließlich auch persönlich wieder zueinander fanden. Sie hörten viel alten Hiphop und eine Neuauflage von DJ Grand Wizard Theodores 1970er Punk-beeinflusstem New Yorker Rap-Meisterwerk "Subway Theme" diente als spirituelles und thematisches Moodboard für das Album. Während Gemeinschaft und Zusammenarbeit schon immer ein wesentlicher Bestandteil der Arbeitsweise von Algiers war, kommt dies bei "SHOOK" nun voll zum Tragen. Die Liner Notes lesen sich wie ein Who is Who der zeitgenössischen Underground-Musik, mit Zack de la Rocha, Big Rube (The Dungeon Family), Billy Woods, Samuel T. Herring (Future Islands), Jae Matthews (Boy Harsher), LaToya Kent (Mourning A BLKstar), Backxwash, Nadah El Shazly, DeForrest Brown Jr. (Speaker Music), Patrick Shiroishi, Lee Bains III, und Mark Cisneros (The Make-Up, Kid Congo Powers). Dank ihrer Beiträge wird "Shook" aus verschiedenen Blickwinkeln neu geformt und kontextualisiert. "Es vertieft und erweitert die Welt von Algiers", so Schlagzeuger Matt Tong. Atlanta, der Ort, an dem die Platte entstanden ist, steht schließlich im Mittelpunkt. Das Album beginnt mit einer robotergesteuerten Zugdurchsage vom Hartsfield Airport, die vielen Einwohnern von Atlanta ein Begriff ist und Fisher als Kind immer eine Heidenangst gemacht hat. "Wir haben in einer Umgebung gearbeitet, an die wir gewöhnt waren", sagt Gitarrist Lee Tesche. "Es fühlt sich an wie die beste Algiers-Platte, die wir je gemacht haben." Dass diese Platte überhaupt entstanden ist, grenzt an ein kleines Wunder, da die Band immer wieder vor der Auflösung stand. Algiers haben jedoch Reibung in Energie umgewandelt und mit "SHOOK" ein außergewöhnliches und kraftvolles Album produziert, das am Ende von seiner starken Gemeinschaft lebt. "Ich glaube, mit dieser Platte haben wir unser Zuhause gefunden", sagt Mahan, und Fisher fügt hinzu: "Es war eine ganz neue, positive Erfahrung - eine erneuerte Beziehung zu der Stadt, aus der wir kommen, und Stolz dafür zu haben. Mir gefällt der Gedanke, dass diese Platte uns auf eine Reise mitgenommen hat, die aber in Atlanta beginnt und endet."

For over 28 years envy have been crafting soaring compositions with captivating melodies that owe as much to Explosions in the Sky and Mogwai as they do to Bad Brains and Cro-Mags. Their new EP continues to display a masterful control of tension and release in chords and melodies behind the steady spoken-word Japanese of singer Tetsuya. Throughout their storied career, Japanese ENVY have paved the way for iconic bands like Isis, Converge and Deafheaven with their unique sound blending elements of hardcore / punk with reverb-drenched tremolo-picked guitar lines owing to the world of post-rock. Envy sit right in between these 2 worlds, and prove that they are not as disparate as it seems at a first glance. Opening track ,Seimei` marries tear-inducing melodies with gut-wrenching grooves to create a soul journey, while ,Zanshin` (meaning ,uninterrupted heart` in Japanese) dashes forward with an upbeat groove and soaring post rock leads. On ,Tamayura', the energy is dialed back as reverb-drenched tremolo-picked guitar lines wash over you from behind alongside Japanese spoken word-parts and a throbbing heartbeat. This is ENVY at their very best. FFO Mono, Mogwai, Explosions In The Sky, Isis, Swans, Pelican, Caspian, Thursday, From Autumn To Ashes, Thursday, Birds In Row, Deafheaven Limited (400 copies ww) Single Coloured Tamayura (Dark Red Vinyl) Edition!

Spanky Wilson's 'Let It Be' is the lead single from her album of the same name back in 1970. The original version of the tune was of course written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney and was first recorded by The Beatles in the same year. Her version is a big band celebration with Spanky's gritty soul vocal soaring up top. The album features other lung-busting performances from Spanky such as on the raw and guttural soul of 'Bridge Over Troubled Waters' and the slower, more sentimental 'Love, Or Let Me Be Lonely'. Spanky has one of the most powerful and distinctive voices in soul and never was that clearer than on this classic.

Vitamina gives back energy with the 3rd Vinyl, this time presented by his resident dj.

4-track club-ready to make you sweat on the dance floor: get ready for some jacking snares, electric basslines and steamy vocals.

Tracks from Cromby, Annika Wolfe, DJ City and 131bpm.

Over the last half decade, the music collective Constant Smiles has produced a prolific output of acclaimed music, culminating in their forthcoming record Kenneth Anger, masterfully brought to life by engineer Jonathan Schenke (Parquet Courts, Liars, Dougie Pool). The group is known most recently for their much-praised debut album for Sacred Bones records, Paragons, an emotionally resonant offering of indie folk masterpieces that all confront the internal ways we process our struggles with intimacies, addiction and humanity produced by Ben Greenberg. Constant Smiles' primary singer/songwriter Ben Jones uses the creative process as a tool for working through deeply transformative periods in his life. The band's indie folk music lays bare this internal process, but on Kenneth Anger, the music shifts to synth pop and looks externally, examining creativity, community, ritual, and their place in the healing process. Ritual takes a primary role in the eponymous Kenneth Anger. Not only is auteur Kenneth Anger himself known for his sensorial depictions of ritual, Jones often used the films as a silent visual back drop during his song writing sessions, a ritual that grounded the creation of the album. And while the director's use of saturated color inspired the warm `80s synth style production, the director's trailblazing spirit of authenticity also pushed Jones through his most vulnerable expression to date. While the narrative undertones of the songs deal with fear and isolation and anxiety, the songs themselves were created through the healing process of ritual, and enriched with collaboration, community and trust. The resulting music produces a balm that can genuinely recalibrate the nervous system. The listener journeys through the depths of every track while being lifted and guided by the music's transformative, hypnotic power and this illustrates one of the foundational accomplishments of the album. Just as a Kenneth Anger film explores the underbelly of the unconscious through often soothing visuals, Kenneth Anger the album conjures the underworld into a series of synth pop classics.

From his heart-racing productions to resounding mixes and live sets, Alliance Club founder OTON has found his distinct voice mixing tantalising vocals and compelling grooves, translating his love for music from many influences. After several releases on his own label, OTON now septs up with four playful, wide-eyed tracks that mix well known classics with a maximalist approach.

Who said we didn't need another Beyonce edit? OTON proves us all wrong with his club stomping take on 'Baby Boy' culminating in music that has serious dance floor momentum, while keeping things uplifting and memorable. Madonna's iconic 'Frozen' then plays out against the backdrop of acid leads and electro flavoured breakbeat; the overall sound design feels poignant and the lyrics add dramatic melancholy in a cathartic end to the record's A side.

OTON doubles down on our dopamine receptors with 'Hump'. The tracks' propulsive bass and fast moving kick drums are submerged in pink hued synths that move like lasers before 'Juicy' closes the show with a jittery workout that could be used to make any crowd get down.

British producer Burland and Ghanaian vocalist Zongo Abongo join forces here for UK to GH, a new collaboration that collides the respective backgrounds of each artist. Reggae, highlife, dancehall, UK bass and rave all meet in a world of fresh rhythm and melodic invention. 'Telephone No Wire' opens with a feel-good highlife sound on a 2-step beat with vocalist Adotey Johnson in fine form. 'Nyura' heads to the club with weighty bottom ends and enchanting melodies then things get darker on the flip with 'Try To Test' exploring another take on 2-step with hints of UKG and grime overlaid with catchy vocal hooks. 'Last Chance' pairs dancehall vocals with downtempo breaks for a superb conclusion.

“On this, their second LP, P16.D4 solicited tapes from several artists from Europe, England, the U.S., Canada, and Japan, and mixed that with their own material. Though in the current digital age collaborations from artists thousands of miles apart is quite normal, this was a quite radical approach back in 1982, when work on this LP began – an interesting concept that actually works quite well, since these artists, which include Bladder Flask, DDAA, the Haters, Merzbow, Nocturnal Emissions, Nurse With Wound, and several others – work in a similar free-ranging experimentalism as P16.D4, and their particular elements, usually just vocals or one instrument or noise implement, blend well without diluting P16.D4’s own peculiar brand of avant-garde post-industrialism, but merely give it another facet. One of the best tracks, “Aufmarsch, Heimlich,” consists of a choir submitted anonymously from Eastern Europe phasing in and out of static while a skronky alto sax bleats away. Most of the pieces exist somewhere just beyond the borders of free jazz, industrial, and even classical avant-garde, full of jarring noises and strange transitions and with a heavy overlay of electronics. What started out as an experiment yielded one of P16.D4’s best albums.” - Rolf Semprebon / AMG

“Distruct is organized around sounds provided by the cream of experimental musicians of the early ’80s, from Nurse With Wound to Nocturnal Emissions, via De Fabriek, Die Todliche Doris, The Haters, Merzbow, and others. Obviously, there is no question of remixing here, and at no time do P16.D4 seek to hide its sources, clearly identifying the contribution of each artist in the liner notes. It would be futile to try to find the paw of each artist, the trio operating vis-à-vis its collaborators the same methods as in their own work. Reworked, distorted by various effects, cut, edited, aggregated with other sounds, produced by P16.D4 themselves, reprocessed. Exchange, communication, two other data that will constantly recur in the work of P16.D4, rich in external contributions and encounters of all kinds. Musically, and despite the diversity of sources treated, Distruct escapes the heterogeneous character, which often marks this type of collaboration, to offer a coherent whole: fragments of opera, Soviet speeches, out-of-tune guitar, saxophone, tattered violins, overdriven and metallic noisy attacks, jackhammers, field recordings, battered choirs, and many other less identifiable sounds. In addition to the desired dialogue between the artists, Distruct also offers a real reflection on listening, and on the expectations of the listener.” - Dissolve

P16.D4 was a German electronic noise music collective, active primarily from 1980 to 1988. P16.D4 embraced tape cut-ups, musique concrète, endless recycling and transformation of previously published material, and many long-distance collaborations with like-minded artists such as DDAA, Vortex Campaign, Nurse With Wound, and Merzbow. Their active participation in the international industrial tape scene yielded collaborative output such as their release Distruct, where bands such as Nurse with Wound, Nocturnal Emissions, Die Tödliche Doris, and The Haters provided the source material. The longest-term collaboration was with the installation and conceptual artist Achim Wollscheid, who used P16.D4 sounds as the basis for LPs he recorded under the name SBOTHI. Ralf Wehowsky, the only constant member of the group, later released solo material under the alias RLW.

Members of P16.D4 were also involved with Selektion, a collective of people involved with sound as well as the visual arts. Selektion published LPs, CDs, books, visual art and design.

The collective worked in a strongly improvised, spontaneous and anti-professional way, using acoustic and electronic instruments, using existing sound fragments, duplicating and alienating them, using repetition, distortion, changes in speed and playing direction. For this they used not only sounds of other artists but also their own material from earlier productions. Late works of the collective are associated with musique concrete.

Beinahe neun Jahre (!) nach ihrem letzten Release melden sich die SpeedBottles aus Idar-Oberstein mit ihrem dritten Album "Get Down And Pray" zu Wort. Außer dem Alter der Bandmitglieder, die ihre Zwanziger inzwischen allesamt hinter sich gelassen haben, hat sich nicht allzu viel geändert: Punk- und Hardrock sind hier immer noch Chef im Ring, und textlich nimmt man sich und seine Umwelt noch immer nicht hundertprozentig ernst.

Fingier Records were established in 2020 as a
group label of Acid Jazz Records to showcase the
Latin American productions of Argentine producer,
Kevin Fingier.

The label has produced a series of sell-out and
collectable 7” singles, with some going for
hundreds of pounds on collector sites.

This compilation brings these singles together onto
one album, with graphics and photography to
match the sound and style of Fingier Records.
Features the vocals of Diane Ward, Jo-Ann
Hamilton and Gerri Granger, Brazilian singer Jose
Dias and Senegalese vocalist / percussionist
Abdoulaye Badiane, backed by the all-star Kevin
Fingier Collective.

Radio - BBC Radio 6 Music Craig Charles Funk & Soul
Show.

Steve Mason’s most open, honest and vibrant solo
record to date, ‘Brothers & Sisters’ marries the
personal and the political but does so in an emotive
and uplifting manner.

Written against a backdrop of fear and uncertainty, and
at a time when those in charge lurched from one
disaster to the next mismanagement with increasing
regularity, ‘Brothers & Sisters’ is, in fact, an incredibly
joyous, even spiritual, listen.

The five songs on the Kingfisher EP deal in nostalgia, lost time, and the peculiar pleasure of sadness. It was recorded in StudiOwz in Pembrokeshire in December 2021, engineered by Iwan Morgan (who co-produced along with Georgia, and with whom she worked on her last album Mai). Musicians include Stephen Black (Group Listening, Sweet Baboo) and Iwan Huws, and with additional percussion by Osian Williams, and string arrangements by Owain Roberts. Georgia’s one-year-old son Idris features in the background of a few of the songs, if you listen closely enough! Glassy electronic beats and improvised vocals sit alongside dreamy Americana.
Georgia said: “There's a freedom you get with an EP - you can try things out, get it all out of your system. But all these songs are connected - they come from the same place. I imagined them all as scenes from the same film! “

Repress!

“This album has been built, robbed, destroyed, rebuilt, held up, postponed, cancelled, shelved, bootlegged, analyzed, exploited, slept on, supported, patiently awaited, and appreciated, long before you got your hands on this slim neat little package.

This collection of thoughts, songs and relationships has literally been on the verge of completion since 1997. It was intended to finally be released in 1999. Most of the songs were written between 1995 and 1998. However, from the first to last verse, it reaches as far back as 1988 and stretches forward up to 2001. Throughout this tedious, relatively arduous process, the people involved in this project have successfully delivered the intended message that was conceived, forged, and galvanized through its delivery. The understanding is the best part. Enjoy!”

Originally intended for release in 1999, The Best Part was shelved multiple times due to label politics, until it was finally released in 2001, as J-Live points out in his prologue above. Now it’s getting the much deserved re-issue treatment.

With an All-Star production team featuring Pete Rock, Prince Paul, DJ Premier, DJ Spinna, 88 Keys & Grap Luva, along with J’s crafted and precise lyricism, this is one not to miss!

Back to the roots! Mit "In Our Blood" liefern REDLIGHT KING wieder einmal genau das, wofür sie bekannt sind: ein Album voller Rockhymnen! Neben dem #3 Einstieg in die US Billboard Charts im Jahr 2011, mehr als 44 Millionen Streams auf ihre Top 10 Songs und Songverwertungen in Filmen wie "The Italian Job", "Iron Man 3" und "The Avengers", wurde ihre Musik bereits bei ESPN, NASCAR, NFL, CFL, NHL, NBA und MLB gefeatured. Dazu kommen support Shows für Linkin Park und Tourneen mit Bands wie Shinedown, Awolnation, Halestorm, Stick Puppies und vielen anderen. Jetzt melden sie zurück mit einem powergeladenen Album voller Motivationshits zurück. Darum ist die neue Platte mehr als nur ein Lebenszeichen - es ist die Fortsetzung des Spirits aus 2013 à la „Borne To Rise“!

Slade waren in den siebziger Jahren nicht zu stoppen
und wurden zu einer der größten Bands Europas. Sie
veröffentlichten sechs Hit-Alben, darunter drei britische Nr.
1-Hits und 17 aufeinanderfolgende Top-20-Singles. Ihre
Hits sind ein Synonym für die Glam-Ära. Auf dieser 1976
erstmals veröffentlichten Splatter-Vinyl von "Nobody's
Fools" ist die Band mit einer Reihe von Hits zu hören,
darunter "In For A Penny", "Let's Call It Quits" und
"Nobody's Fool".

Belgium's Ahl Iver has become synonymous with the Lenske name since founder Amelie Lens singled out one of his demo submissions back in 2018. Since then, the young DJ/producer has dropped two EPs on Lenske whilst holding down a busy international touring schedule including regular appearances at Amelie's revered Exhale party series. 'Paradox' contains four dance-floor orientated cuts with the typical Ahl Iver sound that's steadily become a Lenske staple.

Opening the record is 'Reverse Psychology', featuring a thunderous kick drum, whirring sonics and industrial slams. Ahl includes a stripped back rave synth and siren combo with sharp stabbing sequences. Next up is 'Paradox', kicking off with a distant alarm, wicked keys and another blistering kick drum. The elements build together to form the foundation for the jacking vocal sample that dominates and drives the track onward, always with a singular acid line buzzing menacingly in the background.

On the flip is 'Rumble In The Jungle', kicking off with twisted and devilish effects that snicker and shoot across the hurried pace of the roaring kick. The track develops into a battlefield, with the initial mischievous sounds mimicking a frenetic laser fight, before stripping back the focus onto the main kick drum and singular percussive slap. Rounding off the record is 'No Salvation'. The track builds on the initial kick drum combo as well as an ever-present melody that gradually rises to the forefront of the track in a powerful takeover. There's a cinematic feeling to the cut created by airy elongated pads as the hook of the track, gliding and ascending under the harsher elements.

Second VA for ISSUES is a limited copy and special edition yellow vinyl and its big one as all the tracks included on the vinyl are the top selling tracks of the past few months.

First track on the A side is by Detlef. “Back2back” is simple but effective, with a strong kick, subby bassline, technical effects and a massive captivating vocal in the breakdown, creating tension using effects that leads to a massive drop. On the same side Just Jake’s “Sphinx” has a unique Ancient Egyptian vibe, with a funky Sitar and traditional Arabian singing driving the breakdowns, the track has a quick thumping, wobbly bass line groove with solid percussion.

On the B side there is Nicola d’Angella’s “Kill vibe” which is a dancefloor weapon with a quick bass that creates a unique groove and a massive breakdown with full vocals. On the same side there is also Chicks Luv Us with their popular track “Look so fun” which is extremely groovy and catchy with a big bassline and vocals that create a playful groove.

Der Grammy-nominierte Shawn Mendes veröffentlicht sein viertes Studioalbum ”Wonder”. Über sein neues Projekt verrät er: ”I wrote an album. It’s called ’Wonder’. it really feels like a piece of me has been written down on paper and recorded into song. I tried to be as real and as honest as I’ve ever been. It’s a world and a journey and a dream and an album I’ve been wanting to make for a really long time. I absolutely love it. Thank you for being by my side for so many years. I love you all so much. I hope you can listen front to back. I’ve missed you all so much! I know it’s been a really scary year for everyone so I’m sending buckets of love to all of you x” Shawn Mendes hat weltweit über 20 Millionen Alben und 175 Millionen Singles verkauft. Er hat zwei ausverkaufte Welttourneen mit über einer Million verkaufter Tickets absolviert und legendäre Stadien und Arenen wie den Madison Square Garden in New York und die O2 Arena in London innerhalb von Minuten ausverkauft. In den Jahren 2017 und 2018 stand er an der Spitze von Billboards ”21 Under 21” und wurde in Forbes ”30 Under 30”, Spotifys ”25 Under 25” und im Time Magazine ”Time 100 Most Influential” aufgeführt. Das neue Album ”Wonder” enthält insgesamt 14 Tracks.

Our next foray into the world of 12” vinyl sees three classic cuts from Tyrome - aka Kris Vanderheyden and Pascal Deneef, remastered for today’s standard and pressed onto glorious wax for that nostalgic feel. Tyrome formed in 1996 and quickly gained a following with their brand of electronic dance music. Their first outings appeared on the famous Bonzai Trance Progressive label where they’d deliver these three top-notch joints before appearing on other labels. Kris is a Belgian techno and electronic music producer who is considered one of the leading pioneers of the Belgian techno scene. He is also known by his stage name Insider, as well as The Assistant and he belonged to a host of groups including Quick Reverse, Cherry Moon Trax and Tripomatic Allstars to name just a few and he contributed heavily to the Bonzai sound of the 90’s. Pascal is also a name synonymous with the 90’s techno sound in Belgium. He worked closely with Kris on several projects including Indicator, Technodrive, Total Remedy and Quick Reverse. His repertoire also includes the monikers Big Jim and Emoryt (Tyrome spelt backwards) and has appeared on a raft of labels over the years.

On the A-side we get a taste of Tyrome’s most famous groove, the 1998 joint ‘Electric Voodoo’, with its instantly recognisable vocal sample. A highly charged and energetic slice of trance with a nice techno edge that always gets the crowd moving. On the flip, the B1 slot holds the much deeper grooves of ‘Noxious’ which saw the light of day in 1996. Dark and mysterious, the beat mesmerizes as a melodic siren fades up to the backdrop of erotic voices. A definite contender at any late-night session to keep the party flowing. Concluding the release in the B2 slot, the 1997 cut ‘Monkey Way’ has the honours. A feisty number with a driving groove thanks to a powerful bassline and rhythmic percussions. The track is laden with stabbing synths and pent-up energy just waiting to be unleashed onto the floors.

”Brightside” heißt das 4. Album von Wesley Schultz und Jeremiah Fraites, alias The Lumineers. Produziert wurde es von den längjährigen Partnern in Crime Simone Felice (The Felice Brothers) und David Baron, der auch für Engeneering und Mixing zuständig war. Das Album präsentiert die erste neue Musik der Lumineers nach mehr als 2 Jahren. Nach dem sehr düsteren und sehr konzeptionellen Vorgängeralbum wird schon durch den Titel klar, dass es sich hier um ein sehr frohes und spontanes Album handelt.

Die 9 Songs-Collection spielten Schultz und Fraites zusammen mit Baron in dessen Studio in New York ein und wurden dabei u.a. bei den Backing Vocals von Simone Felices’ Tourmitgliedern Byron Isaacs und Lauren Jacobson, Cindy Mizelle (Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews Band), James Felice (The Felice Brothers) und Singer-Songwriter Diana DeMuth unterstützt.

Four new tracks from Eb Flow mark the latest release from the ever prolific Constant Sound label, as ever providing solid and dependable dancefloor gear that boasts a myriad of different flavours. 'Sunshine' wastes no time setting up a strutting, Van Helden-esque groove and lets it roll, adding a few vaguely nostalgic samples on top. 'Running' has more of a breaks feel, harking back to the days of rave's roots when breaks and acid could sit together naturally rather than in different genre pigeonholes. 'Before' is the most minimal of the four, peppered with frisky garage snares and a subtle but ultimately devastating filter breakdown, while a feelgood gospel-style vocal gives the closer, 'Searching', a lovely optimistic tint. Constant Sound continue to deliver.

UK producer Dennis Huddleston goes by the artist name of 36. He is a much-loved producer with a fine back catalogue which is investigated here with The Box, a new collection of his earliest and perhaps most admired works. They were all written between 2005 and 2012 and are drawn from albums such as 2009's Hypersona, 2010's Hollow and 2012's Lithea. The bumper six vinyl collection also features a bonus album, Orphans, of all new and previously unreleased tracks. There is a real depth of range and emotion to these tracks so it is no wonder the artist says they are some of the most personally cherished works he has written.

If you find the time, please come and stay a while in abracadabra’s beautiful neighbourhood; a magically wonky wonderland where strangers leave as friends to a block party soundtrack as eclectic as it is infectious. The California duo’s album shapes & colors is a dazzling collage of psych-fuelled synthscapes and contemporary Baroque-pop of anti-capitalist movements and escapism, precisely pieced around their own working lives in a blue-collar town.
In the heart of Oakland’s industrial Jingletown above a former auto-repair shop in what was once a mechanics’ break room where poker rounds ensued, Hannah Skelton (Vocals, Synthesizers) and Chris Niles, (Bass, Synthesizers) constructed the angular 80s-tinged anthems (think John Hughes montages to Talking Heads) of their new album, to positively offset the pandemic’s amplification of dysfunctional society. “It reflects our current reality: a huge mess that is systematically broken but isn’t entirely lost,” Hannah tells. “We’re inviting listeners to conjure up every drop of hope and willpower left inside them, pour that into the giant vat of anger and frustration bubbling inside us all, and with this potion collectively enact the necessary change to bring love and light into this dark space.”
When Covid forced Hannah from her salon in San Francisco to become a backyard mobile hairdresser, what she saw inspired them both and the lyrical foundations for their new record. “I’d drive to mansions and people would complain about how hard the pandemic had been next to their swimming pool and tennis courts.” First meeting after the album’s co-producer Jason Kick (Mild High Club, Sonny and the Sunsets) recruited the pair for a Halloween band covering Eurythmics’ art-rock debut ‘In The Garden,’ the pair hit it off and shapes & colors is a product of the years that followed. It combines Chris’ own rhythmic demos following years on the road touring and opening for Amon Tobin, Matthew Dear and Generationals in Maus Haus with Hannah’s lyrical musings honed from project Cassiopeia, so even when topics are as heavy as the beats, they’re met with luminously positive arrangements of hope and warmth.
The by-product of a psychedelic New Year’s Eve escaping a monotonous 2020 reality, the title track itself captures fireworks over East Oakland as viewed from the pair’s couch whilst listening to Mort Garson’s Plantasia for 6 hours straight. The daydream collage of ‘inyo county’ is “a little souvenir taking me back into the bottled-up essence of a slow lazy morning, waking up in bed far from home,” Hannah tells recalling those enforced stay-at-home days. “It fell out of me because I was craving that blissful flavour.” Meanwhile ‘dawn of the age of aquarius’s new parallel reality evolved from a happy accident when their demos had reset to a drone which Jason reworked into a Laurie Anderson-esque breathy vocoder effect. Even bloops and beeps from a forgotten recording session at the Vintage Synthesizer Museum in Emeryville can be heard, where the pair used Mini Moog, Fairlight EMI and ARP 2600 to arrange their sound into shapes whilst distortion and dirt from mixing on 1979 Neve 5313 Console added to the recordings’ color.
Casting a brighter rainbow still, in all its pastel-hued glory, Hannah, also illustrated a self-portrait of the band for the album artwork. “It reflects our makeshift recording studio to encapsulate all aspects of that time and space,” she shares of their abode where, over an intense two-week period and fuelled by the aroma of fermenting vino from the winery below, their single chord, bass and drum-heavy, groove-first momentum took them on an unexpected journey whilst the next-door couple would fire pizzas in their yard and a grandfather across the road would sweep the street clean. “We’d drink coffee and start the day, consistently working, without interruption,” Chris tells of finding their flow. “The loft is a cool space with skylights, tall ceilings and no shared walls so we could be as loud as we wanted to be.”
Just as well. Diving into decades of electronica and crunchy sound effects, field recordings and animal sounds, blended with an infectious Latin influence, shapes & colors is bolstered by live percussionists Greg Poneris (drums), K. Dylan Edrich (Vocals, Percussion: congas, bongos, chimes, cow bells and wood blocks, tone drum and tri-tone whistle) and Tom Smith (Guitar, Synthesizers, Vocals).
NIMBY crews grab those earplugs now. abracadabra is your new noisy neighbour, and there’s no turning this party down.

On her third album, Berlin-based Dutch-Italian composer and sound designer Aimée Portioli, aka Grand River, asks what guiding forces might be driving, enticing, and affecting us. “All Above” is rooted in her deeply personal philosophy as an artist, blurring the boundaries between electronic music and acoustic music and sculpting familiar ambient forms into personal themes painted with rich emotional colours. Written painstakingly over the last two years, the album is the most ambitious and divergent set of music Portioli has assembled so far, with a wide variety of instrumentation (including voices, strings, organs, guitars, and synthesisers) focused around the piano. She‘s keen to assure listeners that while that instrument isn‘t always heard, it‘s constantly at the forefront of the album, shepherding its emotions and anchoring its mood. It makes sense then that on the opening track ‘Quasicristallo’, the acoustic piano is the first element we hear, recorded closely, so its characteristic rattle and creak can speak as loudly as the familiar tones themselves. When the music blooms into abstraction and processed electronics, it‘s almost imperceptible: reverb mutates into ghostly vapour trails, and distortion forms the keys into another instrument entirely.

“All Above“ follows 2020‘s acclaimed “Blink A Few Times To Clear Your Eyes“ and 2018‘s “Pineapple” released on Donato Dozzy and Neel‘s Spazio Disponibile imprint. Having garnered praise from outlets like Resident Advisor, XLR8R, The Quietus, Inverted Audio, and The Verge, Portioli operates in a unique space within the electronic music scene, straddling the art world and the wider electronic music scene. She‘s developed sound art installations for Rome‘s La Galleria Nazionale and the Terraforma Festival-related Il Pianeta, and has appeared at Barbican, MUTEK, Le Guess Who?, Kraftwerk, and other internationally renowned venues and festivals, often collaborating with Marco Ciceri on A/V presentations. Ciceri also maintains the visual identity of Portioli‘s label One Instrument, a concept imprint that asks artists to create music only using a single device. All this experience is poured into “All Above”, a richly visual album that‘s far more than just an imaginary film score. While on ‘Human’, her piano punctuates a rhythmic synthesised bassline and smudged choirs that can‘t help but trace out the silver screen. The composer is keen to clarify that she doesn‘t think of her music (or sound in general) in visual terms.

Portioli studied as a linguist and used her art to develop an emotional language that‘s not bound by expected cultural constraints. When she adds a different instrument or process, it‘s not to reference a visual cue but to mark a journey through different states of being. Each element embodies a different emotion or mood: the electric guitar represents strength or violence, synthesisers shuttle us into the dream world, and the acoustic instruments highlight intimacy and warmth – even heart. Read like this, the tracks are like meditative poems rather than cinematic vignettes: ‘The World At Number XX’ is seemingly centred around a chugging synthesised arpeggio, but the cosmic, Klaus Schulze-esque pads, strangled guitar and evocative organ tones hint at the open-hearted, literate psychedelia of the 1970s; ‘In The Present As The Future’ meanwhile is breathy and windswept, juxtaposing urgent rhythmic phrases with light, flute-like gusts of harmony.

Dedicated to Editions Mego founder Peter Rehberg, who died suddenly last year, “All Above” demands engagement and refuses to evaporate into the background. The album asks listeners not just to absorb the album as a whole but notice the cracks in the structure and discern the tension they cause. That‘s never more evident than on the closing track ‘Cost What It May’, a piece of music almost jarring when Portioli chops into noisy waves of electric guitar. In the wrong hands, this might sound like a power move – some rock posturing to act as a finale. But Portioli‘s expression is different. She‘s forcing a level of engagement that perceives the negative space as just as necessary as the saturated positive, and what could be more haunting and emotionally resonant than that?

Composed, produced and mixed by Aimée Portioli.
Mastered by Stephan Mathieu.
Cut by Andreas Kauffelt at Schnittstelle, Berlin.
Photography by Federico Boccardi.
Design and layout by Riccardo Piovesan.

Wipe your blade clean. The bloodline of Eastern European kosmische and groundbreaking, grinding cinematic psych rock finally emerges from fifty years of forbidden forestland to fill your thirsty grails. Poland’s prime progressive provocateurs Żuławski and Korzyński finally expose the jagged roots of Possession and The Silver Globe and give the devil his due via this historical vinyl release.

If an opening strapline that reads “Forget everything that you thought you knew about the history of psychedelic rock and horror movies” appeals to you, then further potentially hyperbolic phrases like “Lost Grail” and “Banned Forever” will surely clinch the deal, leaving the hugely significant wider context of this dream come true release surplus to requirement. But as we hope you have come to expect from Finders Keepers releases “The devil is in the detail” and the fact that any mention of the perpetually elusive original master tapes to a 1972 project entitled Diabeł and the phrase “Holy Grail” have become synonymously associated only adds the twisted irony that surrounds this genuine masterpiece of both aforementioned fields.

For those fastidious enough to pursue the hunt, these unearthed recordings represent the crowning glory of the lifelong unison of Maestro Andrzej Żuławski and filmmaker Andrzej Korzyński, two genuine mavericks of Polish experimental cinema who challenged artistic and societal norms, on both sides of a politically restricted regime and on an international artistic stage, without compromise. Friends since childhood, Korzyński and Żuławski may have become divided by limelight and geography (Żuławski the intrepid emigre), but they remained united in their kaleidoscopic creative vision, resulting in a fractured stream of troublesome and mind-bending golden era collaborations such as Possession, The Silver Globe, and Third Part Of The Night. This long-awaited liberation of the psychedelic masterpiece known as Diabeł finally completes the duo’s full vista with what many consider the most vital piece of the prism.

If we want to look into the future, we have to start considering the implications more holistically. All too often, science fiction is a dystopian projection of the current era's grimmest realities spiked with pragmatic historical hindsight - but what if instead it was able to reflect our needs, hopes, and dreams? On "SPINE", award-winning Danish composer SØS Gunver Ryberg considers a sustainable alternative, buoyed by interconnectedness, empowerment, and understanding. Channeling her dextrous sound design into advanced, time-bending music that fluctuates through techno, experimental ambient, and soundsystem-vibrating bass music, she maps out an artistic landscape that's futuristic and complex, but never oppressive.

Ryberg is an accomplished producer who's developed her sound over many years, playing concerts and working tirelessly on video game soundtracks, film scores, dance, performance, and multichannel installation pieces. Her first solo album "Entangled" appeared in 2019 on Berlin's esteemed Avian imprint, and was praised for its sensitive approach to noise and abstracted techno, while its EP-length followup "WHYT 030" was nominated for the Nordic Council's prestigious music prize this year. "SPINE" is the inaugural release on Ryberg's own label Arterial, and stands as a thematically dense statement of intent. The label provides a platform to extend Ryberg's artistic goals and reflect not just her world but a world she wants to see develop in the future: somewhere connected and creative, where exploration and free expression is prioritized over genre division and petty compromise.

This philosophy is central to the sounds on "SPINE", which have been carefully sculpted to accurately lay out Ryberg's worldview. Opening track 'Unfolding' presents a sonic ecosystem that flourishes as it spreads itself out, and quivering kick drums vibrate alongside unstable atmospherics. There's the faint fingerprint of Chain Reaction's notional dub techno in there somewhere, but Ryberg interrupts the thought before it can coagulate, assuring the listener that her vision isn't ponderous but playful and optimistic. This mood flickers into view again on the title track 'Spine', as fragmented breaks rumble beneath disorienting synths, faint images of a life we once knew refracted into cosmic beams of light. 'Mirrored Madness' meanwhile is warm, assertive, and optimistic, contrasting skittering cybernetic percussion with dense, enveloping harmonies.

When she pushes rhythm into the background, like on the cinematic 'We tumble on the edges', Ryberg's compositional skill is placed under the microscope. We're presented with the opportunity to examine another dimension of her work, the mystery beneath the stone, hearing saturated, alluring pads infused with hidden harmonies. In these moments, Ryberg implores all of us to consider the environment, asking us to think about the earth's essential nutrients on the dreamy 'Phosphorus Cycle', and what we might do to save ourselves on the delirious 'Where do we go from here'. Ryberg's concern isn't chastising, it's laid out in a warm embrace. The future could still be bright - there's something beautiful in the complexity if you just take the time to look closely.

»Holo« by the US-American three-piece Kiln, first released in 1998, is one of those rare records that managed to carve out a niche of its own while also building bridges to variety of genres like Chicago-style post-rock, the ambient mysticism of projects like Rapoon or the music made at the intersection of shoegaze, and electronic music in the late 1990s. Lush textures, subtle rhythms, jazzy inflections and electronic experimentation seamlessly blend into each other over the course of the eleven tracks. This reissue through the German label Keplar makes the fully revised version, self-released by the group in 2007 under the name »Holo re/lux,« available on vinyl for the very first time. »Twenty-five years later this newly mastered vinyl edition is evidence that the sound of ›Holo‹ continues to attract like-minded listeners,« says member Clark Rehberg III. »Which on many levels means that our mission was successful.«

Rehberg had embarked on this mission together with Kevin Hayes and Kirk Marrison in 1993. They had first worked together under the name Fibreforms as a live trio that used treated guitars, kit drums, and tapes of found sound to explore the balance between band composition and recording experiments, while Marrison made heavy use of the Akai S612 sampler as a fabricating strategy with the project Waterwheel. »Kiln seemed to encapsulate the evolution and melding of those previous approaches to one that insisted on the continual opening up of the compositional process, allowing more of the mystery that can be discovered through studio experiments—and accidents—to become important elements of creating our music,« says Rehberg of the trio that is still going strong after three decades. »The word Kiln implies heat and transformation, an attitude that we apply to every sound we use—we begin with notes and performance and then mosaic with shape and colour.«

»Holo« followed up on the trio’s debut self-titled EP that had been recorded in the summer of 1996. »That same year, during a lull in our collabs, Kirk began building pieces on a low-memory Mac using an early 8-channel DAW,« explains Rehberg. Enchanted by the unprecedented fidelity and energy of those recordings, the three reconvened to build upon them and make more music in that manner. »I’d say our intention was no different than any other time: create something immersive and compelling: dense melodic blasts of uniquely constructed but ultimately accessible audio moments.« The group worked individually and in pairs for about 18 months while being spread across the United States. »We poured everything into it that we had at the time, working dead-end jobs by day and on audio in every other open moment. I remember the struggle of that process, but also the pure joy as we pulled down countless moments of magic while the pieces took shape.«

Rehberg says that he still hears »a time-stamp of those efforts and the belief that we were creating a special audio experience« when listening back to »Holo,« a record the band itself chose to revise almost a decade after its initial release. »Ultimately we just felt those pieces needed more impact and we had the tools and ability to make that happen,« he explains. 16 years after that and a quarter of a century after it first introduced Kiln as a force to be reckoned with, the remastered version feels indeed timeless. It is both a snapshot of the first extensive album project by a group whose bond is still »diamond strong,« as Rehberg puts it, and a record that continues to sound fresh, if not visionary also today.

All tracks composed and recorded by Kevin Hayes, Kirk Marrison, Clark Rehberg III.
Originally released on Thalassa in 1998.
Remaster by Stephan Mathieu. Vinyl cut by LUPO.
Cover art by Kirk Marrison & Clark Rehberg III.
Text by Kristoffer Cornils.

(ASMR) is a tingling sensation that usually begins on the scalp and moves down the back of the neck and upper spine. It signifies the subjective experience of "low-grade euphoria" characterized by "a combination of positive feelings and a distinct static-like tingling sensation on the skin." It is most commonly triggered by specific auditory or visual stimuli.

OTHR is the techno alias of KHIDI resident and Tbilisi native Ladouka Ninua releasing his first EP on BITE 'Scythe Of Vyse'. One of the most prominent musicians in the Georgian electronic music community, his involvement and support has left a legacy that has established him at the center of Tbilisi's club scene. 'Scythe Of Vyse' represents Ninua's accumulation of uncertainty and isolation from the past years in Tbilisi and cathartically releases it into a triumphant record with singular sound design of metallic samples of groove that sound of a bygone age yet from a cybernetic future. With releases on KHIDI's own label and collaborations with Ancient Methods already, this EP marks a new beginning for OTHR as he steps into new, uncharted territory in electronic music with his singular style.

Skins is a producer/DJ based in Leeds with an active history in dance music that goes back over 10 years. He cut his teeth DJing regularly at the legendary former Oxford nightclub The Cellar. He played here as part of the Subverse Radio collective as well as for other favourite local promoters, alongside a regular radio show on the aforementioned station which he co-founded. After moving to Leeds in 2016, Skins focused his attention on music production and self-released a string of white-label techno EPs which garnered support from artists such as Djrum, Jane Fitz and Mike Schommer of Deepchord.

More recently Skins has moved away from the dub techno sound with which he had become associated, with an EP from speed garage newcomers Spin City on heavy rotation with DJs including Evan Baggs, Andrew James Gustav and Sugar Free. His latest explorations have found him returning to the futuristic jungle stylings which originally drew him into the world of electronic music in his teens.

Whether it’s in the studio or behind the decks, Skins draws on a wide range of influences from hip hop, deep house and techno through dubstep and grime to jungle, with a preference for playing vinyl over three turntables. He has performed alongside the likes of Willow, Batu, Answer Code Request, Levon Vincent and Ben UFO.

NYC leftfield disco darlings Phenomenal Handclap Band made their first appearance on RNT by way of a collab with JKriv in 2022, and now they return for an offering all their own, the Burning Bridges EP.

The title track juxtaposes riffy guitar driven funk with plaintive vocals that smack of 1970s Heart in the best way, and Prins Thomas turns the tempo knob up a few clicks and launches into an extended interstellar excursion with his remix.

On the B side the cinematic slow burner ‘It Was The Summer’ begins sparse and hazy and builds to driving peak of backbeat rhythm and an insistent vocal soliloquy. Each Other (Justin Strauss & Max Pask) then take the tune straight the rave with arpeggiated and acidic synths, recasting the haunting vocals as a modern New Wave anthem.

Italian DJ and producer Francis De Simone debuts on Lee Foss and Jamie Jones' label Hot Creations with London Bass. Having built a solid back catalogue in recent years, his first Hot Creations release embodies the dynamic sound of the Palermo-born artist, channelling chunky tech house and disco-flavoured melodies.

De Simone explains his creative thinking behind the EP. "These tracks fully express my devotion to music. I ranged a lot, trying to remember an 80's sound up to a more raw and synthetic groove with Latin vocals to embrace the different ethnic groups." Reflecting his thoughts to a tee, the title track rumbles with a massive bassline and chopped-up vocals that add an instant burst of energy. Things get weird on Saludos A Todos, as thumping kickdrums collide with a trippy melody and even trippier vocals, creating a wavey atmosphere. The ideal club curveball. On Off White, De Simone delivers a pacey number packed with burbling beats and clicky percussion, complemented by dreamy vocals. The hint is in the name on closing track, This Is Undergound. A big room delight, De Simone drops a stripped-back banger, where the lyrics do the talking in tandem with a driving bassline. An excellent addition to the Hot Creations discography.

Based in Palermo, Italy, Francis De Simone stems from a family of musicians. Having played the drums from age two, the versatile artist can make anything from rock, pop and jazz, but these days, De Simone pens electronic music. His father worked as a bouncer for various local discos and exposed De Simone to dance music from a young age, later inspiring him to produce house and techno with an uplifting tint. Releases on Glasgow Underground, LW Recordings and REALM Records have helped shape the profile of this flourishing artist, with plenty more to come further down the line.