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A year and a half ago, THE MFA returned to the fore once more, when we released their "Oranges and Lemons EP".

Their new album, “Lights Out”, which could be described as a long time coming, is definitely THE MFA’s most ambitious work to date.

As they put it in their own words: “The album is very special to us. It’s a long ambition brought to fruition. It’s an album that is at home on the dancefloor or at home. We’ve always been influenced by 90s rave culture and the club scene of that era and the explosion of creative freedom through electronic music that happened back then.”

The album sums up what THE MFA stands for; their love of electronic music intertwined their love of songs and melody, sometimes banging, sometimes pensive, sometimes longing, occasionally up-beat and happy. Melodic techno-pop-rave then.

The album opener "My Desire" pins down the essence of the album, showing some pop sensibility and a healthy dose of that early 90s spirit with longing vocals by Rhys Evans. The track shows from many angles of the intensity of what club culture was about. The track has, for sure, that pop quality which sets it apart - it is a very complete and rounded and in the true sense, a hit.

"Identify This" kicks off with blissed-out sci-fi sounds but commences with 90s rave chords that gets under your skin and creates a fantastic kaleidoscopic picture of moody UK rave with these spurts of emotional uplifting moments which are worth every penny.

"Bear Likes To Rave" takes us back to the warehouse days and reminds us of the acid warehouse parties with fanned stroboscope beams and dry ice cannons. It’s like looking down on a rave party happening from above, from a bird's eye view, which is in full swing where the euphoria spills over into the audience. "Girl Ahead" is a vocal track exclusively on the digital version of the album, again with Rhys Evans on vocal duties. Here they ponder all the possibilities of the future and the mistakes of the past. Features space toms and grand piano rave chords to evoke a housy feel within.

With "Freedom24" a Hi-NRG melody meets nightcrawler sounds ala "Klang De Familie". This is a soundtrack for the night.

"Lammas Day" has the chilling exotic quality of 808 State "Pacific State" if you grant us this comparison, paired with some phantastic Dr Who sensibilities! This track is quite a voyage!

"Warehouse"... Make Some F-...ing Noise... A TV presenter speaks about Acid house...... This is a wild mash up of impressions which nicely go together due to the melodic string composition and the 303 sequences.

"The Snapping Branch" starts with a mash up of sounds and then dives into an episodic snapshot of "happiness" when the serotonin shoots in (just before it drops). Experiencing a perfect flow that does not want to end. Every clubber knows that feeling.

"You Make Me Smile" is the third vocal track on the album featuring Rhys Evans on vocals. It has fantastic radical stark mood changes and blatant shifts, therefore throws the listener from one corner to the other. Just like the contrast of day and night. Bits here and there might conjure a Radiohead spirit, but really this is all MFA.

"Lights Out” certainly puts across the feeling you get at the end of the night - the club has closed; you are walking home. These are the sounds and feelings in your memories as you chase the vibe that is dwindling as the club becomes ever further away.

2023 Repress

His five years at the helm of IDO (Intercontinental Dance Organization) have provided Valentino Mora the outlet to explore his concept of "active meditation", through the lexicon of deep and organically-textured ambient house and techno. Now with the inking of sub-label imprint EDO (Exothermal Dance Organization) Mora's newest output finds direct, molecular inspiration from deep in the aquaverse. Taking its name from the chemical release of heat, EDO's exothermic first EP delivers four tracks of heady, transformative techno atmospheres. Charting Mora's evolution from multi-channel acoustic recordings, samples and digital-analog hybridity, Hydrosphere EP continues his production complexity yet arrives at this point via the singular expression of modular synthesis. "Erosion" opens as a cryptic transmission from submersed entities, with haunting tone tendrils emerging from within the indigo unknown. A subtle echo of reverb softens the edge of its propulsive kick drum, creating an entrancing, enticing and unsettling journey into the deep. The snaking minimalist shimmer of the title track "Hydrosphere" evokes a landscape of frozen tundra, with a backdrop of shifting, urgent techno precision. Bewitching through endless motion and slow deliberation, chimes and pings are stretched out and warped to mind-bending effect. "Doppler Shift" takes a forthright approach, leading with prominent looped bass tones, percussion and rhythmic sweeps. Rounded shapes move rapidly through the inkinesss, forming repetitions that only intensify in pace and energy. To complete the resynthesis, "Solarized" embodies the life-giving warmth of it's name, beaming irregular shafts of illumination into dark, bass-heavy, chugging terrain, forming melodic wisps of tonal condensation.

German project founded in 1984 by Peter Mergener and Michael Weisser. This release features two cheery picked exemplary moments in downtempo contemplative cosmic travels. A side sends the listener well out of orbit with a 10 min long gradient of Krauty arpeggiated showers that grows elegantly, a concerto to the astros of the mind. Flip it and it gets better as your space capsule gets sucked into some distant planet's gravitational pull, feelings of other-worldly sounds, slowed down beautifully almost eerie nuances one won't forget so easily. Sunrise on a Balearic island from another solar system. Berlin-School by trade but also heard on mixes by Jose Padilla. Heftily remastered.

Jeugdbrand is the voice (Dennis Tyfus) and the beat (Jeroen Stevens) of Antwerp. They perform a sparkling drama, a theatrical tragedy, marinated in our classic Antwerp anarchic sense of humor. Recorded at Joris Caluwaerts’ Finster Studios - a landmark in Belgian music.

Inside the multiverse that is Dennis Tyfus’ oeuvre there exists this body of detailed pencil drawings of various sizes. In these drawings the artist puts himself in many tragic situations. Like vomiting on his way home after a long night at the bar. Boiling right wing idiots. Telling sweet little lies on your Tinder profile. Or, you know, taking out the garbage on a Sunday evening. The horror. These seemingly hermetic pencil drawings show a deceivingly simple world. But you’re often stuck with a bitter aftertaste when you understand a bit more what is actually happening behind the colorful masque.

When it comes to his music - and in contrast to aforementioned drawings - Dennis pencils a more piecemeal picture. His recordings and performances often feel like spliced excerpts. Strange sentences and funny remarks waiver by and interconnect. Musical symbols are casually thrown on the table. Instead of a clear picture, we now have the feeling of looking at a bunch of different doodles. Like… sometimes I have the feeling compared to how focussed Dennis works on his drawings, how unfocussed and sketchy he treats his music. We are simply thrown from emotion to emotion. From laughter to tears. It’s a bumpy ride.

I’d like to imagine that Dennis constantly notates all the shards of conversation he picks up during his regular walks in the centre of Antwerp - a wormhole congested with characters, the one more tragic than the other. In a kind of R. Murray Schafer way, Dennis takes in every sentence very un-arbitrary… and that’s the soundscape. Dramatic, normal, boasted, silly, urgent…

Enter Jeroen Stevens. Antwerp’s number one percussionist. If I would have to list all the bands he performs in this text, well, we would be truly wasting data and printers. Jeroen is the grand gift of the wellschooled session musician. But thank the heavens of white improv, he is also sweet and creative. Jeugdbrand is his second entry in the Edições CN catalogue, after taking care of some of the percussive fragments on the “KAGIROI" LP with Sugai Ken (2021). Recently Jeroen has been performing very lengthy - thus correct - performances of Satie’s Vexations for midi instrumentation; Christmas music; and his famed De Stoeltjes project, where he covers Stooges songs on a camping chair. Apparently much to the confusion of Iggy himself. This might all feel like a big joke to you, but when you dare to listen, you will have to admit that Steven’s adventurous music is very rewarding. Special stuff.

The music of Jeugdbrand reminds me a bit of the music of the late Ghédalia Tazartès - especially when it comes to reinterpreting and combining musical idioms - but trying to put a direct reference on this album does it a bit short. Most important, this is music how it could be: incomprehensible, hilarious, serious, ludicrous, well crafted, sloppy, non-genre. With a strong sense of personality. You know, a fragmented beam for your own overstimulated temple. To shake things up a little … “They told us, they told her. I told everybody.”The albums comes with a drawing by German artist Albert Oehlen and with a text by Angela Sawyer of Weirdo Records, Boston.

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.

Cosmic Romance is the first LP from Los Angles producer MoodHay that beams down to planet Earth in a swirl of lush synthesisers, hypnotic melodies and warm grooves. It’s a journey of emotions, contemporary and classic all the same. The album orbits around earthly elements of R&B, funk and house, seamlessly blurring in a unique way that MoodHay pulls off with an endearing ease here in the early 21st century. It’s a sonically beautiful love note with a lot of attitude that pilots right to the center of your soul, while keeping your body rocking out real smooth.

MoodHay’s hilltop studio is like a hidden oasis out in the desert, mystical and soothing, where he brings gems (like the ones you’ll hear on this album) to life. He sings and plays all the instruments on this record (minus the hot sax on ‘Melodies’) and is truly blooming as a songwriter.
MoodHay has such a fresh energy around him that is certainly felt throughout Cosmic Romance and these songs were methodically crafted to maximise the vibe out on the dance floor on this planet and others out there.

Impatiently returning to the golden age of Ecuadorian musica national, this second round of retrievals is more of a selectors’ affair: less reverent, more free-flowing, with more twists and turns. There is no let-up in musical quality, maintaining the same judicious, heart-piercing balance between emotional desolation and dignified endurance, the same bitter-sweet play between affective excess and musical sublimity.

This time around, the woman steal the show. Laura and Mercedes Suasti were child stars, with an exclusive Radio Quito contract. Unlike nearly all the men here, they lived long and prospered: Mercedes died last year, at the age of 93. Gladys Viera and Olga Gutierrez both came to Ecuador from Argentina. To start, Gladys plugged the scandalous new Monokini swimwear; Olga performed for visiting British royalty in 1962. Olga was glamorous but tough. She would make little of the amputation of one of her legs: ‘I don’t sing with my leg.’ She is accompanied on our opener by quintessentially reeling, sultry musica national: haunted-house organ, twinkling xylophone, Guillermo Rodriguez’ heart-plucking guitar-playing, and lilting, dance-to-keep-from-crying double-bass. ‘Sometimes I think that you will leave me with no memories,’ she sings, ‘that you hold only disappointments in store for me… In the future your love will search me out, full of regret. By then it will be too late, there will be no consolation, only disappointment awaiting you.’

Other highlights include the two contributions of Orquesta Nacional: Ponchito Al Hombro, like an off-the-wall forerunner of the Love Unlimited Orchestra, beamed into the tropics from an unknowable time and space; and the tone poem Atahualpa, a mystical yumbo invoking Quito’s most ancient inhabitants, the Kichwa. Also the tremulous, gypsy-flavoured violin-playing of Raul Emiliani, who arrived in Quito from Italy, suffering PTSD from the Second World War; the inscrutable, sardonic experimentalism of organist Lucho Munoz; and the mooing and whistling of Toro Barroso — school of Lee Perry — in which a muddy bull dashes home to his darling chola, fearless, full of desire.

Lavishly presented, with a full-size, full-colour booklet, with transporting art-work and expert notes. Luminous sound, by way of Abbey Road, D&M and Pallas.

Part 2 of the Settle Down debut on E-Beamz with 2 tracks connecting the dots beween the eras of UK club music history.

The clattering drums & undulating bassline of 'Sniper' give way to warping mentasms that evoke memories of some of the earliest strains of dance music from acid house to jungle tekno and hardcore.

'No Shoes on The Carpet' speeds things up and doffs it's cap to the ragga jungle of the mid 90's as well as the first strain of what would become drum & bass with the deep, diving bassline recalling classics from the Philly Blunt & V Recs back catalogues.

This is no holds barred dancefloor weaponry of the highest calibre.

RED APPLE MARBLE VINYL REPRESS.

Everything changed for The Beths when they released their debut album, Future Me Hates Me, in 2018. The indie rock band had long been nurtured within Auckland, New Zealand’s tight-knit music scene, working full-time during the day and playing music with friends after hours. Full of uptempo pop rock songs with bright, indelible hooks, the LP garnered them critical acclaim from outlets like Pitchfork and Rolling Stone, and they set out for their first string of shows overseas. They quit their jobs, said goodbye to their home town, and devoted themselves entirely to performing across North America and Europe. They found themselves playing to crowds of devoted fans and opening for acts like Pixies and Death Cab for Cutie. Almost instantly, The Beths turned from a passion project into a full-time career in music.

Songwriter and lead vocalist Elizabeth Stokes worked on what would become The Beths’ second LP, Jump Rope Gazers, in between these intense periods of touring. Like the group’s earlier music, the album tackles themes of anxiety and self-doubt with effervescent power pop choruses and rousing backup vocals, zeroing in on the communality and catharsis that can come from sharing stressful situations with some of your best friends. Stokes’s writing on Jump Rope Gazers grapples with the uneasy proposition of leaving everything and everyone you know behind on another continent, chasing your dreams while struggling to stay close with loved ones back home.

"If you're at a certain age, all your friends scatter to the four winds,” Stokes says. “We did the same thing. When you're home, you miss everybody, and when you're away, you miss everybody. We were just missing people all the time.”

With songs like the rambunctious “Dying To Believe” and the tender, shoegazey “Out of Sight,” The Beths reckon with the distance that life necessarily drives between people over time. People who love each other inevitably fail each other. “I’m sorry for the way that I can’t hold conversations/They’re such a fragile thing to try to support the weight of,” Stokes sings on “Dying to Believe.” The best way to repair that failure, in The Beths’ view, is with abundant and unconditional love, no matter how far it has to travel. On “Out of Sight,” she pledges devotion to a dearly missed friend: “If your world collapses/I’ll be down in the rubble/I’d build you another,” she sings.

“It was a rough year in general, and I found myself saying the words, 'wish you were here, wish I was there,’ over and over again,” she says of the time period in which the album was written. Touring far from home, The Beths committed themselves to taking care of each other as they were trying at the same time to take care of friends living thousands of miles away. They encouraged each other to communicate whenever things got hard, and to pay forward acts of kindness whenever they could. That care and attention shines through on Jump Rope Gazers, where the quartet sounds more locked in than ever. Their most emotive and heartfelt work to date, Jump Rope Gazers stares down all the hard parts of living in communion with other people, even at a distance, while celebrating the ferocious joy that makes it all worth it -- a sentiment we need now more than ever.

REPRESS

Space Ghost from Oakland California.

FREE 2 B is a detour between Space Ghost’s albums ‘Endless Light’ (2018) and ‘Aquarium Nightclub’ (2019). With Apron in mind and a bit of new found creative freedom, producing this album allowed Ghost to explore a different side to his influences. Shimmering House and glossy R&B sounds collide on this collection of 9 vibes. It feels good when you’re free 2 b yourself.

Produced and Mixed by Sudi Wachspress Lyrics and vocals on “I’ll Be Yours,” by G’la
All tracks recorded in East Oakland, CA 2018 - 2019 “Thanks for listening!” -SG

KingUnderground presents a stunning collection of 8 releases pressed onto 7” vinyl from the Cavendish Music catalogue. Paying homage to the genre of Library Music, furthering its exposure to a new generation of listeners.
Library Music experienced its heyday in the 60s and 70s, as thousands of instrumental tracks were produced by musicians and composers for the purpose of placements in Radio, Television, and Film. This rich piece of European music history would go on to inform genres to come and speak heavily to the Jazz, Funk, and Hip Hop communities of the future.
This was often a musician's first opportunity to become a composer, or what most would commonly know now as producer of music. These composers would work with a stable of musicians to record 100’s of tracks that would go into a publishing Library. The pieces of music were recorded quickly and deliberately. The composers, musicians, and engineers understood their role in the process, it was an act of discipline amongst all involved. Often the composer was given a brief on what the end goal was for the client. The specifics would include tempo to lock into, song ending time, ect.
Never before have these tracks from the Cavendish Music Library been pressed on 7” vinyl at 45RPM. In all there will be 8 individual 45s, licensed from Boosey & Hawkes & Cavendish Music Library. The collection includes compositions by Tony Kinsey, John Scott, Sam Fonteyn, Ray Davies, and more.

There’s a boldness to Library music. It's in the forward nature of where the drums sit in the mix and the percussive playing of the keys that gives you something to grab hold of, it feels grounded yet exciting. It’s music beamed in from a different galaxy!

People often ask why we started Soul Clap Records and I usually answer: “because we were receiving tons of unique demos by creative artists that we had to start a label.” 11 years later and that flowing faucet of incoming music is still the driving force behind the label. Sure, there is the Funk, House, Disco, and multi-cultural influences in all of the music that we release, but it’s always the artists themselves who guide us.” – Eli Goldstein (Soul Clap)

Having nurtured a community, built many a life-long relationship and brought together an extensive musical family over the past 11 years, Soul Clap showcase these deep bonds with their 11th Anniversary Remix Compilation across two 12 inch records in a beautifully designed picture sleeve. A real smorgasbord of flavours and feelings, from beaming boogie and dizzying disco to blissful broken beat, house and downtempo nuggets coming courtesy of a plethora of the finest artists on the planet right now including the likes of Zopelar, XL Middleton, Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy, FSQ and many more, alongside the mighty Soul Clap themselves. There’s no denying that this compilation is one with community at it’s core.

DJ Feedback:

OSUNLADE / YORUBA
Very funky.

PABLO VALENTINO/ MCDE FACES
Love this comp

CROSSTOWN REBELS/ PAOLO BARTHOLEMEW
Oh yes! Big fan!

FRANCK ROGER/ REAT TONE
Dope compilation.. still in love with life on planets guy :-)

MR V/ SOLE CHANNEL
Dope. Love it.

AROOP ROY
Diggin the remixes from Zeynep, Cosmodelica, Zopelar and Charlie.

PONTCHARTRAIN/ WHISKEY DISCO
OH my, that Afriqua remix is absolute fire! Whole album is hot.

DJ ROCCA
All the remixes are great. Big fan of SC records, of course ;-)

THE SILVER RIDER/ MUSIC IS 4 LOVERS
Holy crap that Zopelar remix is amazing!

DICKY TRISCO
Love the Underground System remix by Zeynep Erbay. Class! Feeling the Mickey Lion too. Lovely.

FISH GO DEEP/ SHANE JOHNSTON
Phenomenal line up here with a great range of music. Standouts for me on first listen are Life on Planets and John Camp ft. Greg but it’s all quality from start to finish.

MARK BROADBENT/ PIKE HOTEL
This s a killer comp. I’ll be playing this for sure.

DAZ-I-KUE/ BUGZ IN THE ATTIC
Love this comp so dope.

WILLI GRAFF/ THE STANDARD IBIZA
What a killer compilation of remixes. Especially feeling the Cosmodelica Mix and Michael The Lion's mix.

CUSTARD VINYL PRESSING.

The Beths' Warm Blood is a strong contender for the catchiest record you've never heard. Formed when four jazz students at the University of Auckland bonded over their shared love of the pop-punk sounds of their youth, The Beths bring new energy to the genre. This 5-song debut EP, a deliriously pleasurable statement of purpose, comes crammed with enough blissful hooks to carry through most bands' careers.

Listeners for whom the tag 'New Zealand indie rock' brings to mind the Flying Nun sound of bands like The Clean and The Chills may be surprised to find Warm Blood's five unstoppable tunes landing closer to artists like Slant 6 and The Breeders. The nimble guitar work here moves from heavy riffing reminiscent of Sleater-Kinney to hazily bending lines that would make Stephen Malkmus and Mary Timony beam, while the joyous vocal harmonies from all four members bubble and swell to ecstatic crescendos that channel The Zombies' Odessey and Oracle.

With impeccable production from guitarist Jonathan Pearce and stellar musicianship across the board, Warm Blood is a non-stop delight. Tracks like leadoff track and first single 'Whatever,' the ridiculously addictive standout 'Idea/Intent,' and 'Rush Hour 3,' a playful ode to romance in this era of download-and-chill franchise films, take delight in the challenge of breathing new energy into the limitations of the 3-minute pop song. 

LP 180G HEAVY BLACK VINYL, INCL. 12 TRACK MP3 ALBUM

For the better part of two decades, the acclaimed band Calexico has crossed musical barriers, embracing a multitude of styles, variety in instrumentation, and well-cultivated signature sounds. With their forthcoming record Edge of the Sun, out April 13th via City Slang, they take inspiration from a trip to a place surprisingly unexplored by the band before in Mexico City, and with the benefit of many friends and comrades to help guide the way.

Encouraged by the experience, the guest list grew to include Ben Bridwell (Band of Horses), Nick Urata (Devotchka), Carla Morrison, Gaby Moreno, Amparo Sanchez, multi-instrumentalists from the Greek band Takim, and Neko Case. Burns' brother John Burns lent a hand to some lyrics and songwriting, and the band's keyboardist, Sergio Mendoza, stepped up to co-write and arrange certain songs, ultimately co-producing the album along with Burns, John Convertino, and longtime associate Craig Schumacher.

For us at 1985 Music, our Various Artists series are extremely important. It not only provides a great platform to celebrate music from a wide range of artists, but it also enables us to promote both veterans and newcomers in the scene and to introduce them as part of our extended family. We are very excited to share the second part of our Atlas series which includes both new and familiar faces.

For Fans of Khruangbin, El Michels Affair, William Onyeabor. Fantasy 15 is a band of mortal fighters striving to prevent an evil & merciless digital government from destroying the entire galaxy...Armed with analog synthesizers and a never ending supply of primordial rhythms reminiscent of Nigerian funk, Brazilian tropicalia and New York City new wave, the rebel group works diligently day and night to save all of humanity from the horrors of robotic automation. When they are not busy saving the world, Fantasy 15 serve as the house band for Philadelphia-based "Synth & Soul" record label Eraserhood Sound. The group are proud to beam their latest 45 "Burgundy Mist b/w Percy St." into Earth's atmosphere in early 2021. Lead single "Burgundy Mist" is a lush, tropical slow jam featuring a sophisticated rhythm section, electrifying guitars, and euphoric flutes. Flip side "Percy St." features a hypnotic groove, bolts of analog synthesizer, and angelic vocal harmonies. This 45 proves to be another masterful slice of intergalactic synth funk from Fantasy 15.

CoOp Presents is incredibly proud to present an all-new compilation album put together by Allysha Joy. This 14-track LP gives us a solid glimpse into the current wave of Antipodean bruk / broken beat artists.

Allysha explains "the connection began with a guest mix for CoOp Presents Worldwide FM radio show. I was asked to guest on the show, so pulled together some heavy unreleased and unmastered "Australian" broken sounds. I immediately called Horatio, Close Counters and Setwun, some of my nearest and dearest inspirations and collaborators to get them in the mix! Within 24 hours I had a brand new beat from Setwun called 'H.B.Y', I ran up some vocals on a Close Counters track and landed a wild jazz-bruk collaboration called 'Fly' from Horatio Luna and Nikodimos! We all felt really blessed to be linking in with some of the innovators of the sound we love!

Also in the mix, I played a track by Lanu a.k.a Lance Ferguson, one of "Australia's" funkiest songwriters and producers. Mike Gurrieri and Chris Gill over at Northside Records had already been scheming to set Lance and I up on a music date for weeks, which turned into writing 'Rewind' . Lanu, along with Ennio Styles, have been integral in the broken beat sound down here from the early 2000s and they connected Jonny Faith in to bring 'Southern Stepper'.

After linking in over the music and working on some collaborations, Alex Phountzi and IG Culture asked me to put together this compilation. The first person that came to mind was Sampology. A wild ride of shifting harmony and incredible vocals, Sam delivered 'Sunny', featuring Maia. Also of Middle Name Dance Band acclaim and a beaming light of creative energy, Kuzko created 'Immunity' for the comp — their debut solo release!

Also up in Meanjin, Special Feelings and Squidgenini were making their own style of jazzy house music and we absolutely knew that they would kill it on the broken beat tip. They sent through 'On Heat' and 'Prophecy' respectively, and inspired me to write and produce 'Listen'. A track about the struggle to be heard as female and non-binary artists. A hard-hitter mixed by co-collaborator Yelderbert of our new duo project, Totek.

As my brother and the one that first introduced me to Agent K, I knew we had to get Ziggy Zeitgeist up in the mix! He immediately sent over a bunch of tunes, and from alongside all of the 30/70 Collective demo drum loops and fresh Z.F.E.X sounds, we selected 'Bruk Samba' featuring Cody Curry, the CC Dance Orchestra.

I had managed to pull together a bunch of tunes for the compilation and after a studio session one afternoon I was walking down Sydney Road and bumped into Silent Jay, Alien and A.KID a.k.a. ACID SLOP at their new spot, the Mandarin Dreams HQ. We were just chatting and above Jay's head I spotted the New Sector Movements record, 'Download This'! To see that they'd just been spinning this record felt so serendipitous, so I had to ask them to be on it! Acid Slop sent me through a tune literally the next day, called 'Everything Falls Apart' and within the week we got 'Walk Away', from Lori and Silent Jay. It felt complete.

The way that this music just effortlessly and lyrically fell together, is a testament to the broken beat undercurrent that runs within the jazz and dance music scene down-under. 'They're Energised' connects a scene of deeply talented and inspired musicians, collectively shaping the new wave of uniquely "Australian" bruk and broken beat music!"

'They're Energised' is released mid-November 2022 on double vinyl and digital worldwide via CoOp Presents.

After previously releasing stand-out music on labels such as VEX, DPR, Rhythm N Vibe, Obstacle Records and on his own imprint Moodwing, DJ Perception has decided the time is right to truly express himself via the album format. As the standard bearer of modern UKG and after 1.5 years in the making Timehri is extremely proud to finally unveil DJ Perception's debut album, Journey To The Star. A 2x12" LP built for millennia in the future, retrieved during Perception’s deep exploration through space, guided by a faint starlight in the outer reaches and beamed back to earth for your listening pleasure.

As a forward thinking bridge between UK Garage and House music, Timehri Records has established itself as a fiercely independent, leading contributor to the underground scene in the UK and overseas since its inception. Three records deep, production guest mixes via cassette and events for the sonic purist provide the output for this label, who’s emphasis on heritage and the afrofuturistic ideas that underpin it, hold huge importance.

"Infinite Echo" is a fresh suite of voyaging Balearica, tinged with ocean mist. Over the years, the incredible British duo Seahwaks have crafted an expansive catalogue of trippy and cosmically-influenced, ambient instrumentals, which has seen them collaborate with the likes of Badly Drawn Boy, Tim Burgess and Jon Goddard (of Hot Chip). Helmed by perennial co-captains Jon Tye (founder of Lo Recordings) and Pete Fowler (acclaimed Welsh visual artist), their latest collection emerged from a series of scraps and vignettes informed by a breadth of eclectic chillness (mid-80's digital new age in the Higher Octave vein, Michael McDonald remixed by Oneohtrix Point Never, etc.), then fleshed out with Lyra Pramuk's Siren Songs app and Holly Herndon's Holly+ software, rendering it choral, otherworldly, and "emotional in a new kind of way." The results sound elevated and ineffable, like music heard at the edge of dreams, hinting at worlds yet to come.

The Person is back on the dancefloor and she brought the delicious Australian version of a good old Italian recipe - ITALOZ DISCO. Mouthwatering rhythms spiced with everyday hustle, cosmic boogie and the extra dose of synthesizer! Changing the Meatballs for Oddballs to worship the Magic $ properly. Sull' alto lato (aka on the B-Side) we're changing the Oddballs for the Mothballs as the one and only Hysteric warms up the magic ragout in his unique steam-powered kitchen. Now go to work!

You still need to be convinced? Take these great lines by Patrick:
"Magic $" beams into the discotheque direct from deep space; a shimmering body of squelching bass, nebulous pads and snapping percussion which hosts Minna's bewitching vocals. The arch delivery and vintage sequences flirt with kitsch, but that playful genius particular to The Person pushes this into wonderfully wonkier territories. Basslines climb, keys collapse and the whole thing chugs and bubbles through a flawless arrangement. We thought they didn't make them like this anymore, but we were wrong. Stepping in on remix duty, renowned (Moth)baller Hysteric turns out a treatment that's worth a million bucks, boosting the bottom end with an acidic sequence, supercharging the percussion and punching in some strange sampler fun to guarantee utter club chaos.
Every superhero needs a theme song, and "The Person" sees Minna step away from the dancefloor to deliver a synthetic ballad for lucid dreamers everywhere. Jamming on top of a malfunctioning Jomox, Minna channels chimes, piano and a gentle chug into the classiest chord progression this side of Mike Francis. Closing cut "Go To Work" gives us neon lights and nighthawks as The Person indulges in a little Antipodean electro, proving once and for all that Australians Do It Better.

Super deep n’ rolling ambient junglist mutations from hyped cloakroom attendent Florian T M Zeisig and mysterious XPQ? operator PVAS, uniting under the NUG moniker for a highly atmospheric session beamed directly from that short-lived, elusive sweetspot in the mid 90’s when Omni Trio and DJ Crystl collided with Mo Wax’s Some Scientific Abstract Type Shit! and Gescom’s Disengage, all red lights dappling thru a dense fog of smoke.

Rinsed out under the timeless influence of “bong & sterni” - who sound like a legendary Berlin ambient duo, but are just weed and beer - Zeisig and PVAS collide in midair for a stereo-swirled recollection taking us back to 1995 - that Autechre radio show on Kiss FM, peak Mo Wax, Kodwo Eshun’s ‘club trax’ column, just before everything went fully tasteful. Throwing links to more contemporary refractions found on various J. Albert workouts as much as Skee Mask’s most vapourised breaks, the NUG sound keeps toes and heads off the ‘floor with a rugged but lush suite of rave suspension systems making critical use of negative space and recoiling dub dynamics.

One for the early hours of the club, ‘Not Many People Here yet’ gives acres of room to bounce off the walls, while the ruder ‘Filthy Club’ sounds like the backroom heard from ceramic tiled bogs, and you’re already healthily zonked for the zombie float of ‘Is Under The Blanket.’ The radiant pads and swingeing breaks of ‘Morpheus’ dial up Skee Mask’s most pendulous rave visions, and ‘Napping Under God’ rolls out on 9 minutes of webbed breakbeat for the locked-in steppers, with Florian’s ambient texturing fully coming into effect on the blurry-eyed flex of ‘Lite.’

Twisted and irreverent, The Rabbits combined ear-splitting guitar shrapnel with one of punk’s greatest-ever snot-nosed vocalists. With hints of PIL or Chrome, but beamed in from a parallel dimension and filtered through the warped lens of visionary loner Syoichi Miyazawa. First-ever vinyl release, fully remastered from the band’s original early ’80s cassette releases, and housed in a sturdy tip-on sleeve. Includes a double-sided, printed insert. Edition of 500

Singer-songwriter Syoichi Miyazawa’s tale is a confounding one.

He grew up in a small town in Yamagata Prefecture (in northern Japan), loved Dylan and The Beatles, and had very little exposure to, or interest in, underground music. And yet, shortly after 24-year-old Miyazawa arrived in Tokyo in 1978, he began performing solo shows at tiny clubs in the city, singing and playing guitar. His performances quicky devolved from brisk acoustic jaunts to lengthy, heavy dirges sung in a snot-nosed wail over a blown-out electric guitar detuned to produce a kind of sonic sludge.

At one of his earliest gigs, a mutual friend introduced him to Endo Michiro, who would soon become the legendary front man of Japanese punk icons The Stalin. It turned out Miyazawa and Endo had attended Yamagata University at the same time just a few years earlier, but hadn’t known each other at school. In Tokyo, they became fast friends, moved into the same apartment building, and for years were inseparable. Endo played guitar and drums on Miyazawa’s debut release, the “Christ Was Born in a Stable” flexi disc. But while Endo was social and outgoing, Miyazawa preferred to be alone, avoiding concerts unless he was performing.

Despite these antisocial tendencies, Miyazawa came to despise playing solo. In 1982, an eccentric high school student named Chika introduced herself at one of Miyazawa’s gigs, and Miyazawa asked if she’d play bass. She agreed and drafted two of her friends to play second guitar and drums. The Rabbits were born.

Miyazawa wrote the tunes, and had a clear vision for the group, but struggled to get the sound he wanted from the other members. His second guitarist was more of a fusion player, and Miyazawa took great pains to get him to tone down the shredding. The group quickly went through multiple line-up changes. Frustrated with the sound of their first proper recording (self-released as the “X1(x)” cassette), Miyazawa spent a full year mixing their second cassette, “Winter Songs,” on his own.

The hard work paid off — the sound of “Winter Songs” is striking, and unlike anything the band’s peers produced. There’s liberal use of delay on the vocals, giving the music a psychedelic feel, but the guitars are caustic, cutting through the mix like metal shrapnel. The rhythm section seems on the verge of teetering out of control throughout, an overdriven and pummeling current below abrasive slabs of guitar and vocals. Even at their most aggressive, though, The Rabbits had strong pop sensibilities, complete with cooing backing vocals and the occasional harmonica solo. Miyazawa delivers his borderline nonsensical lyrics with equal amounts of menace and gaiety, consistently riding that fine line as only a natural oddball can. At times, the band sounds like a distant cousin of PiL, Chrome or The Homosexuals, but beamed in from a parallel dimension and filtered through Miyazawa’s warped lens.

Although The Rabbits briskly sold all 500 copies of the "Winter Songs" tape, live audiences at the time seemed dumbfounded by the group, and would stare at them in silence. After two years together, The Rabbits called it quits in 1984.

When asked if any of the many legendary groups (Les Rallizes Desnudes, G.I.S.M., etc.) he shared stages with left an impression, Miyazawa recently revealed that he always left the venue as soon as he finished performing, so he never caught any of the other bands…

All of which is to say —

The Rabbits are one of the great punk bands of the early ’80s, but their leader had no interest in the punk scene and always thought he was making “normal” music. They rubbed shoulders with a slew of notable groups of the era, and their singer was best friends with arguably the most famous Japanese punk of all time, but Miyazawa shunned fraternization and purposefully distanced himself from his peers.

Could this be why so few underground music fans are familiar with the group, even in Japan? Why they seem to have been written out of the official history of Japanese punk? One can never know for sure, but Mesh-Key hopes to remedy this travesty by offering this compilation, the first-ever official LP by The Rabbits, to a new generation of punk and psychedelic music connoisseurs.
credits

DJ Different dons his Terraform alias as he begins his journey in ‘Entering The Void’ on CYBERDOME; exploring phat electro bass-lines and party-starting ghettotech energy with its crosshairs fixated firmly on the club environment.

Born and raised in the culturally rich city of Malmo, the Swedish producer has previously released on London based label Deeply Cultured, Distant Hawaii, Mood Of Era, 1Ø PILLS MATE and Traxx Underground, spanning atmospheric techno, ethereal breakbeat and chunky electro.

‘Ultrasonic’ is an ear-wriggling cut of stripped-back psychedelia. As David Holmes would say, all the best electronic music tracks are made up of only a few components. Here, typical electro synth stabs, robotic vocal sampling and sparse precision allows the track room to breathe, whilst maintaining a deep and funk-driven groove.

‘Ghettotech’ sounds how you would expect it to; pounding kicks, frantic atmospherics and lairy screw-face hype combine on a certified fire-starter, before ‘Exiting The Void’ introduces itself on a footwork vibe that evolves into a sequence of interstellar-dungeon dub-electro.

‘The Rise of the Slavs’ takes its inspiration from the diverse group of tribes who lived in Central and Eastern Europe in the 6th to 10th centuries, establishing the foundations for the Slavic nations; it’s marching rhythm beaming historical context into 21st Century dance music.

Following the Kota Motomura and Exterior debuts earlier this year, it’s another first from Hobbes Music. Maastricht Research is a brand new project from Scottish artist Jonathan Hunter producing ambient/drone style material. Jonathan was part of the quartet behind the much-loved Slabs Of The Tabernacle parties at Glasgow's now-legendary La Cheetah club back in the late 00s/early 10s. He's also one half of The Three Lives, whose debut EP, Mud & Flame and follow-up Across & Beyond were released recently by Glasgow's Full Dose label.

Written and recorded over a number of years, whilst living in Amsterdam, Glasgow and Dublin, the Maastricht Research vibe is about as horizontal as it gets and is the perfect soundtrack to long, lazy days and balmy eves in the park, by the pool, in the bath etc! There are zero beats. It's proper ambient / drone music and could well have been beamed in from another dimension, planet or century altogether, including field recordings, atmospheric fx, lush and eerie pads, with the occasional snatch of a weird vocal and generally other-worldly sounds.

The record owes a debt to the likes of Manuel Gottsching, Cluster, Susumu Yokota, Detroit Escalator Company, Astral Industries and Alessandro Cortini, among others…

Mastered by Keith 'Radioactive Man' Tenniswood, Idle Animation will now be out at the end of October on extremely limited edition 12" vinyl, with CMYK printed labels, contained in a plain white sleeve with 3mm spine (reverse board for natural finish) including full colour artwork plus titles* printed using a Risograph on 135gsm ‘Context Natural’ A3 paper and finally all packaged in a polyurethane bag. *printed on the ‘Obi flap’ - excess paper folded around the spine.

"Loving it. Beautiful stuff here - all tracks doing it for me" ROLANDO (UR)

"This is great! Will use in on Ambient Flo" AUNTIE FLO

"Really diggin the MaastrichtResearch release" INTERGALACTIC GARY

"Love this, thanks for sending" DOMENIC (Sub Club)

"This sounds fantastic!" NICK CRADDOCK (Gateway To Zen)

"Really liking the sound of the record. Dublin air tugging on his emotive side by the sounds :)" JOHN HECKLE

"Mesmerizing music, something we all need to listen to because of so much chaos and stress in the world...with this, just sit back and zone out for a bit and regain balance...." DAN CURTIN

"This is nice music, thank you for sharing it with me. A3 is the one for me, really nice vibe" ARIO (Astral Industries)

"More emotive and soulful ambience and drone from this red hot label. Maastricht Research have been reviving the Poolside revellers at Pikes morning sessions this summer" DRIBBLER (Pikes, Café del Mar, Ibiza)

Red vinyl LP. Lars Finberg, confirmed genius guy and poet laureate of sunken 21st century Rock, acts as manager in perpetuity of THE INTELLIGENCE, primary vehicle for his prolific creative swirl and a project that has taken on new shapes across myriad trials and shifts. The project began in his Seattle bedroom – a lad and his Tascam cassette 8 track – with the classic Boredom & Terror and has now landed in his Los Angeles studio apartment – an urchin and his Tascam digital 12 track – with Lil’ Peril, a new album that finds Finberg 1000% back at the controls. Over the course of 11 albums (!), The Intelligence has established a backbone that boogies through revolutions, allowing each jam-crammed dispatch to feel and sound admirably unique. The angular sharp shocks heard in earlier years have steadily evolved into the ballooning grooves heard on more recent releases (including Finberg’s recent solo work). Lil’ Peril is a dreamy gamble that captures this current bubbling penchant in The Intelligence’s inaugural homemade mode. With inspirational templates as far-flung as LES PAUL, THE SPECIALS, LEE PERRY and MARY FORD, Lil’ Peril pulls off the absurd shift “from ‘No-Wave SANTANA’ to ‘SCREAMERS recorded by JON BRION’”. Playing shoulder parrot to studio engineers has no doubt informed Finberg’s approach to home recording, specifically in how much further he can go without wincing budget-minded eyes staring him down. This is immediately sensed on the opener “Maudlin Agency,” which begins with canned minimal bleep and closes with a full recreation of the “Brass Monkey” hook. These surprise-attack conclusions are a running current throughout the Lil’ Peril’s program and demonstrates that the main lesson Finberg has learned in The Intelligence is to never reel it in. Centerpiece banger “My Work Here Is Dumb” ranks among the finest Intelligence moments existent and an apex in Finberg’s songcraft, boasting a bonkers arrangement and a thematic gnaw that is both brutal and playful. The collection closes with the epic “Soundguys,” a suite cut-up that fuses CAN and STEELY DAN into one of the most dastardly tunes available for consumption in the plague age. As Finberg himself states, “They may say this is ‘lo-fi’, but I say it’s ‘no-CGI’”. “The band disintegrated, so it devolved back to the core idea: if I do every aspect, it’s indestructible.” 20 years on and Finberg has finally let everyone know what The Intelligence actually means! All those wily experiments and warm flubs have come back full circle and the shit’s pure goddamn gold. Proof positive that there is always some sort of cute trouble, farcical tragedy and Lil’ Peril at play with The Intelligence. - Mitch Cardwell, 2022. Tracklisting: 01 Maudlin Agency 02 70's 03 Keyed Beamers 04 Purification 05 My Work Here Is Dumb 06 Lil Peril 07 Frog Prints In Preset City 08 Portfolio Woes 09 Soundguys

Club Glow powerhouse and all-round Bristol bass-bin baiting badman Borai returns to his Higher Level label with three new drops of elevated breakbeat science. As well as his work alongside Denham Audio, L Major and Mani Festo in Club Glow, Borai has been busy landing uptempo slammers on Hardcore Energy, Vivid, E-Beamz and Infiltrate in the past couple of years, and he returns to home turf in peak shape.

The A side lights up with the dizzying break-juggling ruffness of 'Lights On', a surefire call to squeeze the last juice from the party, while 'Bobbi' opens the B side treading an artful line between deep and depraved as immersive tones face off against taut, driving rhythms. 'Sargasso Sea' smooths the proceedings out good and proper in true B2 style with a pitched-down slice of soul-charged broken beat that smacks where it counts, Borai's established instinct for forward-facing melody shining through in the interplay between 90s keys, diva vocal samples and illustrious pads.

After "La Légende d'Eer" in 2016, the PERIHEL series presents one of the milestones of electroacoustic music: IANNIS XENAKIS' mindblowing 54-minutes oeuvre "Persepolis", mixed from the original 8 track tapes by MARTIN WURMNEST and mastered / cut by RASHAD BECKER.

"Persepolis" is the longest electroacoustic composition by IANNIS XENAKIS (1922-2001) who ranks among the most influential 20th century avantgarde composers. Commissioned by the Persian Shah, the piece was part of a multimedia performance - XENAKIS' so-called "polytopes" - which premiered in 1971 in Shiraz-Persepolis (Iran) as a performance including light-tracks, laser beams, groups of children walking around with torches and 59 loudspeakers to project the music in an open-air situation. XENAKIS had realized "Persepolis" on 8-track analogue tape in the Studio Acusti in Paris and released a stereo reduction on vinyl in the famous Philips series "Prospective 21e Siècle" in 1972, adding the new subtitle "We bear the light of the earth", his most hymnal title ever.
Out of print for decades now, the LP became - especially the Japanese edition from 1974 - one of the most expensive collector's item of electroacoustic music. There were some later CD versions with different durations - too long due to a wrong sample rate, others shortened by 3 minutes due to other reasons. The PERIHEL series now presents a new version: mixed from the original (!) master 8 track tapes by longtime zeitkratzer sound engineer MARTIN WURMNEST and mastered by RASHAD BECKER at D&M, Berlin - the same experts who had already taken care of the 2016 KARLRECORDS release of "La Légende d'Eer", another milestone composition among the works of the Greek-French avant-garde composer.

It has been twenty years since the first Back To Mine release but still the series is going strong. These personal after-hours soundtracks have never sounded more relevant than now, and next up is GRAMMYr Award-nominated, San Francisco-based artist Tycho. It finds him going deeper than one of his famous Burning Man sets as he heads into otherworldly, cinematic headphone territory with tunes from Lancaster, Little Dragon, Octo Octa, Ulrich Schnauss and many more across four fantastic sides of vinyl.

What do you get when you mix a Culture LP with the dub stylings of the master of dub Scientist? An extraordinary LP that is, simply put, out of this world! By implementing the vocals of the great Joseph Hill from Culture and flavoring these with his dub touch, Scientist has flavored this concoction in a way that only he is capable of doing. This stellar release will take you where no man has gone before. Deep into a solar system that has no bounds and where the infinite endless vastness of space has no beginning. And no end. Take the journey beyond our galaxy into a parallel universe and rediscover a dubwise experience that will have you drifting weightless into the inexplicable unknown. Let your mind and body go.

And in addition to this brilliant musical journey you may also feast your eyes upon the impressive album cover art which has been thoughtfully created by noted American artist extraordinaire Eric White. Eric’s work has created much excitement in art galleries and collections around the world and it is an honor to have him lend his artistic eloquence to such an important project.

Longform: EXHUMED return from the depths with their macabre new album, To the Dead! The band' storied career needs no introduction; EXHUMED are the pioneers of blood-soaked "Gore" Metal. To the Dead is the culmination of decades upon decades of nightmarish riffs, obliterating blast beats, and hellish screams from the very depths the band crawled out from! "To The Dead is a destination," EXHUMED mastermind Matt Harvey says. "A rotting world populated by the grotesquely twisted truths of our waking world and the decaying fallout of our most deranged ambitions. But it's also a title that evokes a celebration of, and an invitation into the gore-soaked world of EXHUMED." The very celebration of EXHUMED's history is ever-present on this album. "We've expanded the writing team on the record to include former members Mike Beams, Leon del Muerte, Matt Widener and Bud Burke in an effort to celebrate the band's history - at this point decades of it - and I think the resulting record is an excellent testament to the surprising longevity of Gore Fucking Metal!" Harvey says. So please, accept the band's humble invitation and sink six feet down to their level. EXHUMED can't wait for you to get a whiff of what they've cooked up - this will be the most fun you've ever had being disgusted! Short: EXHUMED return from the depths with their macabre new album, To the Dead! The new album is the culmination of decades upon decades of nightmarish riffs, obliterating blast beats, and hellish screams from the very depths the band crawled out from! FFO: Carcass, Repulsion, Aborted, Autopsy, Dying Fetus, Impaled, Cannibal Corpse, Napalm Death

Emeralds _ musicians John Elliott, Steve Hauschildt, and Mark McGuire _ emerged from the rust-pocked, post-millennial Midwest drone/noise scene seemingly unable or uninterested in keeping up with themselves. Their proliferation of material was intimidating; mountains of improvised, home-recorded music were released on limited-edition tapes, CD-Rs, and split LPs. There is and was a sense that the Ohio trio was after something beyond physical mediums. By 2008, their sprawling live sets were a known can't-miss at any underground experimental event. Tiny Mix Tapes reviewed that year's appearance at No Fun Fest: "No one's sawtooths, sines, and other various waveforms were so beautifully sculpted and beamed out into the Plejades as Emeralds'." These basement dwellers were shaping meditative, psychedelic, arpeggiated electronic music in the veins of German kosmische forebears like Ash Ra Tempel, Klaus Schulze, and Tangerine Dream. Made primarily with synthesizers and guitar, Emeralds' music possessed the same astral psyche with a home-crafted punk edge, a distant descendant of that pioneering era, and a bridge to someplace new, someplace scorched. Released on Aaron Dilloway's (Wolf Eyes, etc.) Hanson imprint, Solar Bridge was the first Emeralds album to receive any kind of proper distribution and represents the first attempt to archivally preserve their fluid craft. The first of an inimitable five-LP run before the band dissolved in 2013, Solar Bridge is a moment of glistening primacy that boots up a catalog and legacy that the heads still grapple with. Emeralds begin to make sense of it in the fall of 2022 with a remas- tered Solar Bridge LP release on Ghostly International. Emeralds materialized as a fully formed entity radiating cosmic potential. Their discography evolved and incorporated different qualities and vocabularies, but hearing where it started will always feel different. The density, the patience, and the sheer refinement presented on Solar Bridge legibly demonstrates how and why Emeralds has become a legendary part of the contemporary electronic music canon.

 The Orielles have created their first genuinely
contemporary record - an experimental double
album self-produced in collaboration with producer
Joel Anthony Patchett (King Krule, Tim Burgess).
 In doing so, The Orielles have utilised holistic jazz
practices, oblique 21st Century electronica,
experimental 1960s tape loop methods,
otherworldly Auto-Tuned vocal sounds, the downer
dub of Burial, Sonic Youth’s focus on improvisation
and feedback, and Brian Eno’s legendary Oblique
Strategy cards.

Double LP documenting a realtime collaboration between Terrence Dixon (Metroplex/Tresor/Rush Hour) and Jordan GCZ (Off Minor/Minimal Detroit/Rush Hour). Finally the full results of these special sessions see the light of day (a ltd edition 12" of exclusive tracks owas released in 2020).
BIG TIP!

"In September 2019, Motor City techno legend Terrence Dixon made a rare trip to Europe. He was introduced to Jordan Czamanski AKA Jordan GCZ, a serial collaborator and electronic music improviser best known for his work as part of Juju & Jordash and, alongside David Moufang and Gal “Juju” Aner, as Magic Mountain High.

The pair hit it off immediately, so Czamanski powered up his studio and the pair began to jam. Over the following five days, the pair improvised extensively, stopping only periodically to drink coffee and discuss music, life and much more besides. While in the studio, they barely uttered a word to each other, instead responding almost psychically to the rhythms, grooves, riffs and musical motifs the other was spinning into the mix.

The results of these surprisingly magical 2019 studio sessions are showcased on Keep In Mind, I’m Out of My Mind, the pair’s first joint album and Dixon’s most significant musical collaboration since the Detroiter’s 2018 hook-up with German techno and ambient veteran Thomas Fehlmann.

In keeping with the project’s improvised roots, the six-track set is notable for its immediacy, pleasing looseness – it was mostly created using outboard equipment including synthesizers, drum machines and effects units – and sonic fluidity. It offers a neat, symmetrical blend of the two producers’ trademark styles, with Czamanski’s attractive chords, melodies and jazz-flecked motifs rising above hypnotic, cymbal-heavy rhythms that have long been the hallmark of Detroit’s sci-fi-fuelled techno sound.

This unique and appealing, dancefloor-focused sound ripples through album opener ‘Fretless’, an ultra-deep chunk of heady liquid techno, and the breathless bustle of ‘Operation Delete’, where bubbly synthesizer motifs, cascading ambient electronics and urgent bass cluster around a killer broken techno groove.

It’s there, too, throughout the surging, deliciously percussive ‘Space Chime’, an alien-sounding concoction that sounds like it was beamed down from some distant galaxy, the warming-but-intoxicating minor key swirl of ‘Axis Mundi’ – a two-part slab of techno psychedelia full of trippy electronics, dystopian jazz riffs and intergalactic intent – and the pitched-down, mind-altering oddness of closing cut ‘Above Ground’, when the pair goes all-out in pursuit of leftfield techno perfection.

Created from scratch in a few days by two of electronic music’s most accomplished improvisers, Keep In Mind, I’m Out of My Mind is an exemplary meeting of musical minds and sonic sensibilities."

Matt Annis

Comes with insert with photographs by Atelier Fantasma (Jop Verberne).

Vinyl Only

The mystical undefined tales returns after the last release in 2019 - *warning*: this split EP made by Cosmonaut & M4771 will gravitate you all to the dancefloor. Two heavenly heavyweights on the a-side by Cosmonaut, catapulting you into space. On the flipside we have Lapucci under his monniker M47714 providing a unique blend of deep, dark and acid - get ready to be beamed up -

Emeralds _ musicians John Elliott, Steve Hauschildt, and Mark McGuire _ emerged from the rust-pocked, post-millennial Midwest drone/noise scene seemingly unable or uninterested in keeping up with themselves. Their proliferation of material was intimidating; mountains of improvised, home-recorded music were released on limited-edition tapes, CD-Rs, and split LPs. There is and was a sense that the Ohio trio was after something beyond physical mediums. By 2008, their sprawling live sets were a known can't-miss at any underground experimental event. Tiny Mix Tapes reviewed that year's appearance at No Fun Fest: "No one's sawtooths, sines, and other various waveforms were so beautifully sculpted and beamed out into the Plejades as Emeralds'." These basement dwellers were shaping meditative, psychedelic, arpeggiated electronic music in the veins of German kosmische forebears like Ash Ra Tempel, Klaus Schulze, and Tangerine Dream. Made primarily with synthesizers and guitar, Emeralds' music possessed the same astral psyche with a home-crafted punk edge, a distant descendant of that pioneering era, and a bridge to someplace new, someplace scorched. Released on Aaron Dilloway's (Wolf Eyes, etc.) Hanson imprint, Solar Bridge was the first Emeralds album to receive any kind of proper distribution and represents the first attempt to archivally preserve their fluid craft. The first of an inimitable five-LP run before the band dissolved in 2013, Solar Bridge is a moment of glistening primacy that boots up a catalog and legacy that the heads still grapple with. Emeralds begin to make sense of it in the fall of 2022 with a remas- tered Solar Bridge LP release on Ghostly International. Emeralds materialized as a fully formed entity radiating cosmic potential. Their discography evolved and incorporated different qualities and vocabularies, but hearing where it started will always feel different. The density, the patience, and the sheer refinement presented on Solar Bridge legibly demonstrates how and why Emeralds has become a legendary part of the contemporary electronic music canon.

Canada's Preoccupations return to the post-punk, post-pandemic world
with Arrangements - Their 4th studio album finds them restoring their
roots with the singular, guitar driven, dissonant yet anthemic washes of
intricate noise that has brought them international acclaim since their
basement beginnings
For lovers of all things Bowie, Branca, Spacemen 3 and MBV, progressive punk,
jangle rock and mangled goth. Arrangements sees Preoccupations finally and
confidently inhabiting the dystopia that they have been carefully creating from
their musical genesis. They are in a room with taped up windows, except for a
tiny pinprick of light beaming from the otherworld onto the far wall, upside down
and blurred, it's recognizable enough to fill you with warm familiarity and
nostalgia of unknown origins.

SECOND TITLE IN THE LOCKDOWN TRILOGY 'CLAUSTROPHOBIC
UNIVERSE' NOW AVAILABLE ON VINYL.In 2020, Polish Prog multiinstrumentalist Mariusz Duda (Riverside, Lunatic Soul) decided to
conduct an experiment
He set out to create a third music world, independent of his band 'Riverside' &
solo project, Lunatic Soul. A world which would differ stylistically from the
previous two & underline the first steps he took in music.
30 years ago, a certain shy boy fascinated by the works of Jean Michel Jarre,
Vangelis & Tangerine Dream, locked himself up in his room & started to think up
his original music stories. He recorded them on cassette tapes, created covers
for them & arranged them on the shelf next to those of his masters. 30 years
later, when the world was taken over by a pandemic & an international lockdown,
Mariusz was beamed back to his childhood bedroom, where he was reading &
drawing comic books, playing games, listening to lots of music from cassette
tapes... & recording his own electronic sounds. "Why not do it again?" he thought
to himself, feeling inspired. "Why not create a new project where I will play only
the keyboards? And why not sing it just like I used to when I was a kid? Simply
'Mariusz Duda'".
And that's exactly what he did. Between 2020 & 2021, he recorded & released
online three electronic albums that make up the "Lockdown Trilogy".
'Claustrophobic Universe' is not an album inspired by books about astronomy &
astrophysics. It's an album about a journey into our mind. The universe here is a
metaphor for our escape from reality, escape to the place where we soothe our
response to stimuli.
MARIUSZ DUDA'S SECOND IN THE TRILOGY IS OUT VIA KSCOPE

Das postume Album „Faith“ der New Yorker Drill- und Rap-Ikone Pop Smoke ist ab sofort auf Vinyl erhältlich! Sein neustes Meisterwerk debütierte auf Platz #1 der Billboard 200 Charts und auf Platz #7 der deutschen Albumcharts. Auf seinem Projekt ist die Crème de la Crème der Rap und Pop-Welt vertreten, darunter Megastars wie Kanye West, Pharrell, Kid Cudi, Chris Brown, Rick Ross, Future, Dua Lipa und viele mehr. Auf 20 fulminanten Tracks stellt Pop Smoke sein Talent und seine Vielseitigkeit wieder einmal unter Beweis, darunter die hitverdächtigen Songs „Demeanor“, „Woo Baby“ und „Tell the Vision“. Pop Smoke konnte in seiner kurzen Karriere bemerkenswerte, globale Erfolge zelebrieren und erreichte mit seinem Debütalbum „Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon“ als erster posthumer Künstler die Spitze der deutschen Hip Hop Album Charts. „Faith“ ist ein weiteres Testament an die Rap-Welt, welches seinen Legendenstatus nochmals untermalt. Rest in Peace Pop Smoke – gone but never forgotten.