Die ikonische Trance-Hymne „Lizard“ von Mauro Picotto jetzt wieder als farbige Vinyl erhältlich. Der Klassiker aus den späten 90ern begeistert mit seinen treibenden Beats, hypnotischen Synths und dem unverwechselbaren „Komodo“- Sound, der die Clubkultur einer ganzen Generation geprägt hat. Neben den Originalversionen gibt es zahlreiche Remixe, die den Sound noch klarer und intensiver zur Geltung bringen. Ideal für alle, die den Spirit der Trance-Ära neu entdecken oder bewahren möchten.
Mysticisms arrives majestic at 20, transformative ceremonial offerings. Ritualistic, rhythmic, spiritual, chemistry.
The deep house of Elements Of Life returns, the forever sound. Alex From Utopia is a rising name. Utopia Records releasing a myriad, ambient to esoteric, Balearic to breaks, a discerning DJ found in smarter, darker London nightspots. He unearths and sanctifies the rare and lesser known Are You With Me Love?. Alex’s bump and swing version overlays the ambient original in to a late night groove for those hallowed hours. Find the Eternal.
Øyvind Morken comes fresh, How Bleep Is Your Love? all pure Detroit electro and Chicago jack beats, reminding where it’s at. Elemental, creative, demanding attention. The sound intensifies, gliding, heralding the past and future. Find the Control.
Eirwud Mudwasser & Romansoff are the nod’n’wink jack in the pack, popping and locking, Cherrie is all polyrhythmic pots and pans, crackles and unshackled, dubby beats ripple, psychedelic waves overflow. Find the Elixir.
Label brother N-Gynn appears, the on-going uplift of his Superlux label and DJing the globe, from Ibiza to Thailand, always the man who’s hard to pin. Dream house Es Vedra TB Deluxe floats across White Isle waves, embracing Rimini memories, 303 bubbling, fermenting the magic, alchemists all, gold in the sunrise. Find the System.
The latest transmission on Samurai tunes into half-time intensity with a psychedelic edge courtesy of leading French practitioner Vardae. Applying techno hypnotism and cinematic atmospheres to his snaking beat constructions, the Lyon-based artist delivers a pitch-perfect exercise in mystical meditation that follows a natural path from the Ancestral Voices LP.
Since first emerging around 2017, Vardae has been determined to establish a sound unbound by genre restrictions. To date he's successfully moved between cult labels such as Non Series and Ooda while pivoting from linear 4/4 to crooked broken beat without disrupting his immersive, finely sculpted production style.
Alongside his releases, Vardae is also responsible for the ouroboros festival that takes place every year in central France. Last summer, after the dancefloor closed on the final night of the the event, fabled Dutch transcendental ambient group Son Of Chi made an acoustic concert around the campfire that cast a spell over everyone present. This experience formed the inspirational basis for Vardae's new EP, drawing on the instinctive power of insistent rhythm and the spiritual intrigue that lies behind subtly dissonant tones - shadows cast by refined, restrained synthesis flickering in the imagined light of the flames.
From the rattle of timbale on 'The Light Motion' to the laser-focused ripples that charge through 'Voices Of Dispossession', Vardae bends and shapes his drum work with exacting intention across this EP. Treading the line between 85 and 170BPM, he approaches fierce peaks in his tracks with an exacting patience, building to the arp-soaked climax of 'Flaming As A Cloud' and its ecstatic, melodic crescendo.
Proudly individual and drawing from the deepest of musical experiences, Vardae's latest statement promises similarly profound moments when these pieces come into contact with the right souls and the right sound in the right setting.
»White Noise« is a cooperation project between raster-media and the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics. Artistic sound projects generated in the context of the scientific research institute will appear at irregular intervals. The themes and questions of empirical aesthetics research are taken up, questioned or challenged in very different ways. »White Noise« is conceived as an audio archive of the MPIEA artists in residence which records the artistic works on vinyl and documents the respective concepts and working methods in text form.
Victioria Keddie’s »Pshal P’shaw« (white noise #002) is a multimedia exploration delving into phonetic expression’s auditory and rhythmic nuances of phonetic expressions through an amalgamation of text, sound, video, data, and customized learning software. Drawing inspiration from the painter and architectural theorist Hermann Finsterlin who made speculative architectural renderings, the project originated during a residency at the Max Planck Institute of Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt in 2023.
The project’s engagement with the sonic landscape of the eight diphthongs in US English, documented through recorded sessions at EEG labs with participants of diverse international backgrounds, is not just a technical analyses. The applied script for the recording session, infused with a contemporary Western US dialect, ventures beyond, exploring the primal essence of phonetic expression and its impact on the oral landscape of mouth, throat, and tongue.
This work focuses on the spoken aspect of language: the art of oration, conversation, and mimicry. It reflects the beauty of our perpetual change, speaking directly to our humanity and the raw, tender moments of existence. It embraces the awkward, beautiful and vulnerable essence of our shared human experience.
Victoria Keddie is a multidisciplinary artist delving into sound, video, installation, and performance. Her work uncovers hidden narratives within ordinary artifacts and spaces, emphasizing their role in shaping our collective story. The examination of acoustic phenomena and language is a recurring theme in her artistic work. Keddie’s current projects navigate the acoustic complexity of language and dialects.
For over a decade, Keddie was co-director of E.S.P. TV, exploring the televisual medium for performance and sound. Keddie has performed and exhibited internationally. Recent fellowships include the NYSCA/NYFA for Music/Sound (2022), the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics (2023), and the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Sound Art and Experimental Music Fellowship (2024).
»White Noise«, 40 p. magazine English/German, vinyl LP, cardboard box
Azzurro 80's new album—his first ever on LP—is a beautifully faded Polaroid that, like a true flashback, plunges listeners into the heart of the 1980s. It's a sonic journey that captures the essence of a decade, distant yet vividly etched in our collective memory.
The Roman producer unleashes his sonic vision with even greater intensity than before, weaving through dreamy italo-disco, electric atmospheres, soundtrack-worthy synth-pop, and boogie-funk grooves.
Each track opens a window onto an era the artist experienced only fleetingly as a child, yet he evokes it with a powerful and refreshingly original touch. Much like a classic library music record, these tracks conjure a wealth of images, scenes, and visual sequences—perfect soundtracks for imagined films or evocative advertising campaigns: as seductive as a perfume ad, as desirable as a car commercial, and brimming with the bright future the 80s promised.
It's no surprise that cinematic references spring to mind even before musical ones. The album echoes the dreamy atmospheres of early 80s Italian cinema, particularly films like Carlo Verdone's "Acqua e Sapone" (1983) and Carlo Vanzina's "Amarsi Un Po'" (1984). Meanwhile, flashes of New Romantic aesthetics and hints of electro-funk transport you to a neon-lit dance floor where a DJ is spinning the vinyl copy of Flashback.
Azzurro 80's new album is a vibrant, energetic work, balancing groove and emotion in equal measure and infused with a sense of nostalgia that feels remarkably contemporary.
Available May 9th on LP and Digital from Four Flies Records!
Erstmals veröffentlicht in 2002 - 'Oblivion with Bells' (Reissue).
Underworld sind ein echtes Unikat, das auf den größten Festivals und Veranstaltungen der Welt als Headliner auftritt, in Underground-Techno-Clubs und Lagerhäusern spielt, Theaterproduktionen vertont oder Kunstgalerien, stillgelegte Schuhläden und japanische Kaufhäuser bespielt.
- Ltd. 2LP: (180g schweres schwarzes Doppelvinyl. Auf halber Geschwindigkeit geschnitten und sorgfältig auf höchste Audioqualität getestet. Double-Gatefold mit dem klassischen Design der Originalpressung und neuem LP-Cover-Rücken-Artwork, das neben den anderen 2025er LP-Reissues der Band ein einheitliches Bild ergibt.)
Tresor resident DJs LNS and DJ Sotofett have for some years been developing a style at the club‘s Globus floor, and their new EP is a die cut of exactly the classic techno, electro, and house music they play.
Here are no productions drenched in reverb, no hi-fi obsessions or generic algorithmic patterns – this is Globus Trax, the duo's third release on Tresor Records, four tracks consisting of real TR-909 workouts, rude and driving basslines, live runs through the mixing desk, and a Blake Baxter cover version with LNS on vocals.
LNS & DJ Sotofett programmed an EP to perfectly fit their warehouse style of DJing, bringing out colour and variation in a spectrum more similar to a club compilation than a dogmatically reduced concept. With a single repeated vocal sample, Globus Trax opens bombastically with ClickClickClick, a dub -infused UK garage house track anyone in the world can easily describe in the course of a second.
Following this comes Gearbox which is a hefty slab of big room electro featuring a centerpiece arpeggio and the warmest harmonic pads on the EP's four tracks, which not-so-subtly makes reference to the pioneering band that shares a name with Globus and Tresor's home, the Kraftwerk.
The house vibe returns on Destination 909, which is nothing but a manifesto for the TR-909, where the beloved drum machine's jacking beats meet galactic strings and synthetic bass, only to be ripped apart in a slamming break that sees the machine take centre stage as it cuts in-and-out of the mix, again a clear nod to the duo’s sets in the club.
LNS steps up on vocal duties and DJ Sotofett keeps the 909 running for their final cut, taking a deeper dive into the realms of classic techno and paying tribute to “The Prince of Techno” Blake Baxter by covering his Reach Out originally released on Tresor Records in 1995.
The 12” was cut by DJ Sotofett himself at Manmade Mastering, where he resurrects the lost art of late-90s loud cuts with sonic presence and punch, optimal for the club-focused 12” format, and is the first to come in the new Tresor Sleeve, boasting an embossed logo on either side.
oop of Life is presenting the diverse palette of analog synthesizers and drum machines of Kuiper Belt. A wide range of tracks kicking off with a harsh and heavy 808 slow burner filled with 303 acid. 'Prg Select' and 'Two Voice' both drawing inspiration from the underground techno scene with pulsating beats and bleeps that truly resonates. An melancholic analog machine soul electro track with vocoder vocals closing off the EP in style.
Hand stamped black label release with an urge to break out of the algorithm and to be released on vinyl available at your specialised record store.
Hikari to Kage is the next chapter in the story of Wabi Sabi Audio Imprint, diving into the experimental and ambient realms of electronic music.
This beautiful album comes from the hands of Sarah Wreath, a German artist whose unique approach to sound exploration captured our hearts the moment we saw her live at Monument.
The album It's a narrative, an introspective journey that doesn't tell you what to feel but gently guides you toward your own perspective.
Three incredible remixes by DJ Hi-C, Pianeti Sintetici, and Jorge Fons bring their own vision of Sarah's music, each artist weaving their own story within Sarah's framework. Like Yin and Yang, light and shadow exist in balance, defining the beauty of the other-this is Hikari to Kage.
Tornado Wallace arrives at Test Pressing with the main mix being a beautiful long track that develops over ten minutes, starting with keyboard melodies before the tracks goes into the club zone. The ‘Symphony Mix’ takes the train on an ambient mix with the Bitter Beats bringing fin for the DJ squad.
Crowns by The Rebel feat. Corey James Gray is out now on 7’’ via Little Beat More!
The Rebel, aka Tommaso Taroni, producer from Rome and Founder of DJ’s Choice label, delivers a raw, soulful track that opens the door to his debut album. Crowns features the sharp lyrics and smooth, magnetic delivery by Corey James Gray (FKA Ill Spookin), riding over a sturdy groove with crisp drums and deep guitar loops.
On Side B a further explosion comes: Clap! Clap! signs a Power Trio remix of the track that flips everything on its head. With thunderous syncopated riddim and wild brass stabs, this version hits like a futuristic brass band from New Orleans: unrelenting, joyful, and rhythmically overpowering. A bold reimagining by one of Italy’s most visionary electronic producers.
Packaged in a stunning disco bag illustrated by El Moro, this 7” is both a record to play and a piece to keep. A snapshot of a fresh project in the pipeline, ready to go!
As most of us now live in a world saturated with information, this album feels like a reflection of how the modern world might sound if it were to process its own chaos through a unified scream. Hailing from the highlands of Bandung, West Java, a city where tradition and modernization intertwine in the rhythm of daily life, Xin Lie unpretentiously translates this cultural fusion into a sonically rich and rhythmically bold debut LP.
The artist’s roots in the hardcore and punk scenes reverberate throughout the album, though they’ve been reshaped and refined for the club. There’s an undeniable pleasure in experiencing the chaos Xin Lie channels—irregular beats, dynamic frequencies, and disjointed grooves collide and expand, each track laced with a sense of unpredictable energy. Yet even in its most chaotic moments, the music feels deliberate, its edges softened by a sense of compositional care.
The album reveals a strange duality: tracks that seem to beckon you to the dance floor but never quite let you settle there. Frequencies flicker and fluctuate in patterns that feel just slightly off-grid, as though resisting traditional structures. Yet, amidst the digital textures, Xin Lie weaves in organic sounds—snippets of native conversations or environmental noise—creating layers that feel both intimate and expansive.It’s fair to say this album extends far beyond the boundaries of today’s club music.
Picture this: you’re moving through your daily routines—mundane, repetitive—and suddenly, the music shifts your perspective. It reframes the ordinary as something surreal, as though it’s deconstructing itself in real-time, breaking into fragments or conjuring entirely new forms. Perhaps it’s best imagined as the soundtrack to a multi-sensory art installation or a performance staged not in a gallery but in an unassuming house down your street. Who’s to say where it might take you?
After a 2 year gap Sticky Plastik presents its third VA with a new look and sound featuring dark disco flavoured minimal techno by Corsican artist P.O. on side A and progressive house collaboration of Chinese artist B.AI with Polish Marcelina, previously known as Marcelina Wick, on the side B.
A1 with 'Dodo' by P.O is a touching and deep track resembling an emotional dark disco/techno melancholic story tale with a happy ending. Next is 'Arcade' a fast 80ties inspired minimal acid house beat recorded on a groovy and uplifting note.
Flipping to the side B with progressive house ‘Homesick’ by B.ai and Marcelina combining Asian profoundness with Slavic edge. This is followed by P.O’s remix of the ‘Homesick’ adding more punch and techno to the track and the VA.
"Throughout all my time as a musician and producer, ever since Jack the Tab, I've been focused on developing a single idea: Blending psychedelic sounds and effects with rhythm." Richard Norris, Strange Things Are Happening White Rabbit 2024
Over the past few years Eskimo Recordings have invited some of the best crate diggers around to curate compilations that don't just reveal the hidden contents of their record bags but something about themselves too. Now, following in the footsteps of the likes of Bill Brewster and Psychemagik, producer, musician, DJ, writer and more, Richard Norris, takes us on a globetrotting psychedelic journey with the epic 42 track collection, Mr Norris Changes Brains.
For over forty years Richard has played a part in many of the UK's most important music subcultures. Whether sharing stages with the likes of Tracey Thorn as a pubescent punk in St. Albans, or running freakbeat nights in Liverpool and working at the pioneering psychedelic label Bam Caruso, co-producing the UK's first acid house inspired LP with Throbbing Gristle's Genesis P. Orridge or riding the wave of creativity that the second summer of love unleashed all the way to the Top of the Pop studios as The Grid, Richard's career has continually seen him work to expand both his own and the public's musical horizons.
With Mr Norris Changes Brains it's the most recent part of his mercurial career that he's focused on. Drawing inspiration from his post 2006 adventures as one half of Beyond the Wizard's Sleeve, alongside Trash's Erol Alkan, this compilation shows how a more connected world has blown the dust off a paradoxically sometimes straightjacketed scene. The result is a dizzyingly wide-ranging collection that explores the further out there reaches of worldwide psychedelia and dancefloor mayhem.
"A lot of these tracks are fairly recent discoveries, things that I've discovered from around the time I started working with Erol and going right up to today," Richard explains. "Whether that's from going out to play and finding new records in places like Istanbul or just connecting with people online from all around the world. Psych can sometimes be a sort of narrow-minded field, with everything having to sit in its specific niche, but more and more people are open to new sounds and that's allowed for a much broader selection."
Despite their disparate origins what does unite these tracks is that they aren't just there to zone out to on a bean bag as projections of swirling coloured oils and psychedelic patterns wash over you. Mr Norris may change brains but his DJ sets also move feet, and whether it's their killer guitar riffs, oscillating synths floor shaking drums or soulful Hammond organs these are all cuts that from festival tents to underground clubs have proven time and time again to get people dancing.
"With a lot of these tracks there's a kind of fun element in them," says Richard. "It's still psychedelia, but they've also got these solid, funky grooves. They sound phenomenal on the dancefloor and as much as these records might excite old psych heads, this compilation is also for a new generation out there who might have never heard anything like this before and, just like when I was 18 and heard The 13th Floor Elevators for the first time, think 'Oh, my God, what on earth is this and more importantly what else is out there?'"
"Throughout all my time as a musician and producer, ever since Jack the Tab, I've been focused on developing a single idea: Blending psychedelic sounds and effects with rhythm." Richard Norris, Strange Things Are Happening White Rabbit 2024
Over the past few years Eskimo Recordings have invited some of thebest crate diggers around to curate compilations that don't just reveal the hidden contents of their record bags but something about themselves too. Now, following in the footsteps of the likes of Bill Brewster and Psychemagik, producer, musician, DJ, writer and more, Richard Norris, takes us on a globetrotting psychedelic journey with the epic 42 track collection, Mr Norris Changes Brains.
For over forty years Richard has played a part in many of the UK's most important music subcultures. Whether sharing stages with the likes of Tracey Thorn as a pubescent punk in St. Albans, or running freakbeat nights in Liverpool and working at the pioneering psychedelic label Bam Caruso, co-producing the UK's first acid house inspired LP with Throbbing Gristle's Genesis P. Orridge or riding the wave of creativity that the second summer of love unleashed all the way to the Top of the Pop studios as The Grid, Richard's career has continually seen him work to expand both his own and the public's musical horizons.
With Mr Norris Changes Brains it's the most recent part of his mercurial career that he's focused on. Drawing inspiration from his post 2006 adventures as one half of Beyond the Wizard's Sleeve, alongside Trash's Erol Alkan, this compilation shows how a more connected world has blown the dust off a paradoxically sometimes straightjacketed scene. The result is a dizzyingly wide-ranging collection that explores the further out there reaches of worldwide psychedelia and dancefloor mayhem.
"A lot of these tracks are fairly recent discoveries, things that I've discovered from around the time I started working with Erol and going right up to today," Richard explains. "Whether that's from going out to play and finding new records in places like Istanbul or just connecting with people online from all around the world. Psych can sometimes be a sort of narrow-minded field, with everything having to sit in its specific niche, but more and more people are open to new sounds and that's allowed for a much broader selection."
Despite their disparate origins what does unite these tracks is that they aren't just there to zone out to on a bean bag as projections of swirling coloured oils and psychedelic patterns wash over you. Mr Norris may change brains but his DJ sets also move feet, and whether it's their killer guitar riffs, oscillating synths floor shaking drums or soulful Hammond organs these are all cuts that from festival tents to underground clubs have proven time and time again to get people dancing.
"With a lot of these tracks there's a kind of fun element in them," says Richard. "It's still psychedelia, but they've also got these solid, funky grooves. They sound phenomenal on the dancefloor and as much as these records might excite old psych heads, this compilation is also for a new generation out there who might have never heard anything like this before and, just like when I was 18 and heard The 13th Floor Elevators for the first time, think 'Oh, my God, what on earth is this and more importantly what else is out there?'"
"Throughout all my time as a musician and producer, ever since Jack the Tab, I've been focused on developing a single idea: Blending psychedelic sounds and effects with rhythm." Richard Norris, Strange Things Are Happening White Rabbit 2024
Over the past few years Eskimo Recordings have invited some of the best crate diggers aroundto curate compilations that don't just reveal the hidden contents of their record bags but something about themselves too. Now, following in the footsteps of the likes of Bill Brewster and Psychemagik, producer, musician, DJ, writer and more, Richard Norris, takes us on a globetrotting psychedelic journey with the epic 42 track collection, Mr Norris Changes Brains.
For over forty years Richard has played a part in many of the UK's most important music subcultures. Whether sharing stages with the likes of Tracey Thorn as a pubescent punk in St. Albans, or running freakbeat nights in Liverpool and working at the pioneering psychedelic label Bam Caruso, co-producing the UK's first acid house inspired LP with Throbbing Gristle's Genesis P. Orridge or riding the wave of creativity that the second summer of love unleashed all the way to the Top of the Pop studios as The Grid, Richard's career has continually seen him work to expand both hisown and the public's musical horizons.
With Mr Norris Changes Brains it's the most recent part of his mercurial career that he's focused on. Drawing inspiration from his post 2006 adventures as one half of Beyond the Wizard's Sleeve, alongside Trash's Erol Alkan, this compilation shows how a more connected world has blown the dust off a paradoxically sometimes straightjacketed scene. The result is a dizzyingly wide-ranging collection that explores the further out there reaches of worldwide psychedelia and dancefloor mayhem.
"A lot of these tracks are fairly recent discoveries, things that I've discovered from around the time I started working with Erol and going right up to today," Richard explains. "Whether that's from going out to play and finding new records in places like Istanbul or just connecting with people online from all around the world. Psych can sometimes be a sort of narrow-minded field, with everything havingto sit in its specific niche, but more and more people are open to new sounds and that's allowed for a much broader selection."
Despite their disparate origins what does unite these tracks is that they aren't just there to zone out to on a bean bag as projections of swirling coloured oils and psychedelic patterns wash over you. Mr Norris may change brains but his DJ sets also move feet, and whether it's their killer guitar riffs, oscillating synths floor shaking drums or soulful Hammond organs these are all cuts that from festival tents to underground clubs have proven time and time again to get people dancing.
"With a lot of these tracks there's a kind of fun element in them," says Richard. "It's still psychedelia, but they've also got these solid, funky grooves. They sound phenomenal on the dancefloor and as much as these records might excite old psych heads, this compilation is also for a new generation out there who might have never heard anything like this before and, just like when I was 18 and heard The 13th Floor Elevators for the first time, think 'Oh, my God, what on earth is this and more importantly what else is out there?'"
*all original recordings from mid 90s Estonian released cassettes. Fascinating interpretations of the UK breakbeat and Jungle sounds recorded when the world felt like a much bigger place.
Since hearing the first breakbeats via the Finnish radio nightly shows introducing the burgeoning UK scene, Virko Veskoja, later head figure of Lu:k, was completely swept away by this new technological language that sounded like machines trying to initiate contact with people. The fluttering rhythm patterns, strings and vocal lines haunting the pathways of the infinite network. Like hip hop taken over by Skynet.
Reimagining it all in mid-90’s Estonia, a fresh and dirt-poor republic newly welcomed to the family of sovereign states on the outskirts of Eastern Europe, was challenging, to say the least. Finally, with the help of entry level music programs, custom-made soundcards and self-built computers by the other Lu:k-head Tõnis Valk, Lu:k took the first tentative steps in the history of Estonian jungle.
Eight Lu:k cuts have been compiled into a handy selection, a true sign of the times when uncertainty came with certain hope and optimism – new territories to chart, new frontiers to conquer. A time of innocence captured so sublimely in Lu:k’s music.
The compilation starts with menacing orchestration that sounds like the birth of a civilization, like in „2001: A Space Odyssey“, or the arrival of Godzilla, only to give way to sweeeet strings and the inimitable Minnie Riperton in “Lovin U”, combining all the essential elements of Lu:k in a track that has remained uncorroded by time since its inception in 1994.
The following “Demo 3” is its antithesis – fast and nervous, a harbinger of the darker days of neurofunk and techstep ahead. More in line with the social realities of the time, when something (or someone) could materialise out of thin air and attack you just as violently as those beats here.
“La:v” was Lu:k’s signature track throughout their brief career that went on only for a few years, 1994-1997. Lifted to heaven’s by Petula Clarks’s wonderful vocals, it perfectly captures the pure essence of creation. “I made it in my bedroom. Something like that just came out. Sorry”, says Virko apologetically.
From the themes of love we are led towards darker scenarios again with “Drunk-Drive”, a more vengeful cut reminiscent of early Ram Records’ nocturnal dangers, skylines shaped by basslines. Previously only available on the uber-rare “Raadiomaja valvelauas” CD compilation from 2005.
“In the Limelight” is lifted from their second album “Dreams in Drums” from 1996 (only released on cassette), and if it’s meant to address their new-found underground celebrity status in Estonia, there is surprisingly little elation here – the track rather consists of introspective strings and beats that sound almost melancholic.
Out of the remaining three tracks, “Proov2mix” and “Kadunud leitud” are the result of a treasure hunt amongst the old, obsolete harddrives – little nuggets that were condemned to obscurity until now. Between them, another vocal-led cut “010”, a non-album track only featured on two comps until now, is a strong reminder of Lu:k’s prodigious ability to handle vocal lines and morph them together with their own weaving synthetic melodies, strong pads and commanding beats.
Lu:k’s music has been largely unavailable for the better part of this century, with original tapes and CD’s changing hands for a small fortune. This vinyl release couldn’t come at a better time, bringing a seminal chapter of Estonian dance music’s mythical history to light again, both for the old-school acolytes and new converts.
All music by Virko Veskoja
LP vinyl only release + 4 page liner notes (comes with hype sticker)
The percussive new age soundtracks of '80s and early '90s Japanese TV, anime and manga built alternative worlds and pushed boundaries in the process.
When Japanese composer Yas-Kaz left Tokyo for Bali in the mid 1970s he had little idea of how influential his trip would become. In studying the storied art of gamelan, the jazz and avant-garde percussionist opened a door to a world of sound and rhythm left behind by the West. The music he and his contemporaries made would become known as new age. It also happened to soundtrack the golden era of anime.
Awash with money and with the prerogative to entertain the burgeoning middle classes, anime in the 1980s experienced a creative and commercial boom. Not constricted by generic expectations, production houses such as the now renowned Studio Ghibli were able to experiment liberally with both form and content. And with it came the space for composers to be similarly adventurous.
TV, Anime & Manga New Age Soundtracks 1984-1993 charts this moment across eight tracks spanning classics of the genre and previously unknown rarities. The collection brings together music that found kinship in electronic and acoustic instrumentation, often combining spiritual or environmental themes with percussive, varied and highly refined syncopations of non-Western musical traditions.
Among them is ‘Kaneda’ by Geinoh Yamashirogumi, the shape-shifting group of self-styled musicians, anthropologists and computer scientists that masterminded the soundtrack to game-changing dystopian anime Akira - and with whom the sound, tuning and breakneck speed of Balinese gamelan has become indelibly entwined.
Reflecting the desires of the era to reach beyond Japan’s borders, many of the soundtracks featured were commissioned for narratives set in distant lands or alternative worlds. There’s violinist and composer Norihiro Tsuru’s ‘Farsighted Person’, written for The Heroic Legend of Arslān, set in ancient Persia; Yas-Kaz’s own ‘Hei (Theme of Shikioni)’, for period sci-fi manga & anime series Peacock King - Spirit Warrior; and two tracks - Tassili N’Ajjer and Fiesta Del Fuego - from Yoichiro Yoshikawa’s soundtrack to NHK’s proto-Planet Earth series The Miracle Planet.
Such was the variety and quality of the music produced, if there is a guiding principle to the tracks collected here it is a sense of escapism and adventure that came with the confluence of modern electronic instruments and a fascination with percussive traditions.
Elsewhere, pioneering children’s TV composer Chumei Watanabe’s ‘Fushigi Song’ (performed by a vocal group Korogi ‘72) offers a trippy and infectious groove with sonic similarities to Don Cherry’s ‘Brown Rice’; little-known jazz-funk library group Columbia Orchestra showcase the best of Tokyo’s session musicians on ‘Hearts Beats - Theme for Andrew Glasgow’; before lawyer-turned-composer Kan Ogasawara closes out the compilation with a dramatic flourish on ‘Gishin Anki’.
Following on from Time Capsule’s acclaimed deep-dive into the world of manga & anime synth-pop in 2022, this vinyl only collection is set to broaden and diversify an understanding of how soundtracks shaped the sound of new age music in Japan for a generation.
Curators: Kay Suzuki, Rintaro Sekizuka (Vinyl Delivery Service)
Artwork: Tu-yang
Good things take time, and this time they bring us a true gift: Brett Johnson, a living house legend. From his base in Austin, he delivers a special mix of two classic tracks and two new ones, all with his unmistakable sound that has moved dance floors worldwide. His timeless beats return in the most beautiful format: vinyl. A unique release to enjoy!
