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Following on from last year’s acclaimed Sylva Sylvarum, the epic double LP from Ora Clementi (her collaborative project with James Rushford), crys cole returns to Black Truffle with Other Meetings. Originally commissioned and released on cassette by Boomkat Editions in 2021, Other Meetings is a major addition to the body of carefully hewn solo work cole has released over the last decade, offering up two side-long suites of her radically intimate approach to sound. After many years dominated by touring and travel, cole found herself in lockdown in her Berlin apartment, working in a limited space with minimal equipment. Digging through archives of recordings taken overseas and exploring the sonic potential hidden in the objects surrounding her (including a coffee pot and a vase of dying flowers), she crafted what in her liner notes she calls ‘an internal dérive, a journey that drifted through many places without a defining compass’. Totalling over 50 minutes, the two pieces unfold at an unhurried pace, each containing four individually titled subsections. Beginning with a sequence of the highly amplified small sounds characteristic of much of cole’s work, the opening moments of ‘The time between two durations of sleep’ are underpinned by a gentle rocking motion, weaving together contact mic crunch, metallic resonance, glimpses of bird song, and isolated drum machine hits, the sonic space expanding and contracting as focus moves between elements. Briefly side-lined by a tactile but unplaceable sizzling, this complex weave of voices then returns in a kind of dubbed-out ‘version’, the percussive accents echoing around the stereo space. In one of the record’s most beautiful and unexpected moments, these sounds are joined by a sparse melodic line performed on a broken 1980s digital synth, the vaguely New Age timbres being taken on a long, tonally ambiguous wander. Cole’s immersion in memories of travel comes to the fore in the final section of the first side, titled ‘Wat Paknam’ after a royal temple in Bangkok, where snatches of voices, ringing bells and distant waves of chanting blur together with synth tones into an increasingly abstracted wave of sound. The second side, ‘Slices of cake’, opens in a similarly hallucinatory outdoor space of echoing bird song and liquified traffic before abruptly zooming in on a microscopic world of subtly processed and highly amplified objects, explored with a starkness and quiet insistence that calls to mind the fringe not-quite-concrète of outsiders like Paul A.R. Timmermans or Knud Viktor, whose obsessive interrogation of dripping water might also serve as a point of reference for the following sub-section, the aptly titled ‘magischer Abfluss’ (magic drain).

While Other Meetings develops many aspects of cole’s previous work – the hyper-magnification of small gestures, the unsettling edits and fades partly inspired by hypnagogic states, the location recordings smeared into oneiric haze – it is almost as if these pieces are somehow songs, the remnants of an evaporated music of which nothing remains except isolated hits from a synthetic drum, a handful of notes, or simply a duration of emptied atmosphere. Radically reductive yet deeply musical, Other Meetings is a major work from an artist driven by an uncompromising and idiosyncratic vision.

Presented with an inner sleeve with photos and liner notes from the composer and remastered audio.

Unavailable on vinyl for over 20 years, ‘Sings Reign
Rebuilder’ was the stunning 2001 debut LP from Set Fire To
Flames - a sprawling, adventurous 13-piece Montreal
collective, including seven members of Godspeed you black
emperor! plus others from bands like A Silver Mt Zion, Fly
Pan Am, etc.
The sole reason FatCat’s 130701 imprint was founded, the
LP remains an incredible and unique document. Recorded
over a five-day period in a rickety old house in a communal
atmosphere of long-duration improvised creative activity,
operating on no sleep / confinement / intoxication, it was
brilliantly edited to mix post-rock guitar-scapes; extended
passages of scratchy, freeform improv and concrete
clatterings; atmospheric location recordings; stirring,
chamber string arrangements; deep/sparse drones; and
Kraut-like, heavily rhythmic workouts.
Described on its release by TimeOut as “one of the most
broodingly beautiful, dramatically emotional, hauntingly
evocative albums likely to ever scrape at your soul… This
record will kill you”; and by Pitchfork as “a gripping testament
to the power of emotional expression in music... a
marvelously inventive and powerful album.”
Perhaps the most dynamic and adventurous record to come
out of the early 2000s Montreal scene around Godspeed you
black emperor!.
Long-awaited first ever reissue of a classic album, which sold
out of its original (only) pressing within weeks of its release
on 15th October 2001 and has been unavailable since.
Remastered at Dubplates & Mastering and issued in a
heavyweight black vinyl double LP edition, including lavish
gatefold packaging, 20th Anniversary-branded OBI strip and
original 24-page 7” x 7” booklet with full colour print and eight
tracing-paper pages plus full digital download coupon.

Alex G - the Philadelphia singer, songwriter, and producer Alex
Giannascoli - releases his highly anticipated ninth studio album,
‘God Save The Animals’, on Domino.
 ‘God’ figures in the album’s title and multiple of its thirteen
tracks, not as a concrete religious entity but as a sign for a
generalized sense of faith (in something, anything) that fortifies
Giannascoli, or the characters he voices, amid the songs’ often
fraught situations.
 Filtering his experiences through fact and fiction, Giannascoli
also opened up the songs through a more practical method:
collaboration. ‘God Save The Animals’ features several
individual contributions from his bandmates (guitarist Samuel
Acchione, drummer Tom Kelly, and bassist John Heywood) or
frequent collaborator Molly Germer on strings and / or vocals.
 CD in printed inner wallet and spined capacity outer wallet with
8-page folded poster insert.
 LP in gatefold outer sleeve with special gold foil print and white
polylined inner sleeve with digital download card.
 C45 audio cassette in coloured shell and standard clear plastic
outer case with cassette inlay (J-card with panels) and digital
download card.
 UK headline tour in 2023.

Alex G - the Philadelphia singer, songwriter, and producer Alex
Giannascoli - releases his highly anticipated ninth studio album,
‘God Save The Animals’, on Domino.
 ‘God’ figures in the album’s title and multiple of its thirteen
tracks, not as a concrete religious entity but as a sign for a
generalized sense of faith (in something, anything) that fortifies
Giannascoli, or the characters he voices, amid the songs’ often
fraught situations.
 Filtering his experiences through fact and fiction, Giannascoli
also opened up the songs through a more practical method:
collaboration. ‘God Save The Animals’ features several
individual contributions from his bandmates (guitarist Samuel
Acchione, drummer Tom Kelly, and bassist John Heywood) or
frequent collaborator Molly Germer on strings and / or vocals.
 CD in printed inner wallet and spined capacity outer wallet with
8-page folded poster insert.
 LP in gatefold outer sleeve with special gold foil print and white
polylined inner sleeve with digital download card.
 C45 audio cassette in coloured shell and standard clear plastic
outer case with cassette inlay (J-card with panels) and digital
download card.
 UK headline tour in 2023.

The ‘A Day At’ concept, from Parallelle, started in 2017 when they were helping their uncle in his leather factory, manufacturing belts. The variety of melodic sounds during the manufacturing process, from small tools to big machinery, quickly became the soundtrack to their day and the inspiration behind their very first song – The Factory.

Little did they know it would lead them on a sonic expedition to explore places where unexpected sounds became the centre of their musical pieces. A carpentry, a ski station, a supermarket, an airport, or a kitchen were their creative playground. The sawing of wood, the chopping of carrots, the rustling of plants, the click of a ski-shoe and the shaking of quinoa are just some examples of sounds that inspired their creativity.

After years of gathering sounds and composing the basis of their album. They teamed up with conservatorium musicians Nicolo Ricci on Sax tenor, Alessandro Mazzieri on Base and Simone Cesarini on Guitar who helped them sculpt the final touches to the album.

A fusion of jazzy vibe with concrete sound recording and electronic elements is the foundation of their first album “A Day At”

In response to the current political and ecological turmoil, the famous Malian quintet BKO appeals to the magical spirit of the djinn with Djine Bora (the appearance of the genie). An explosive and mystical third album, embodied by a music of resistance, the fruit of their unique experimentation with Mandingo music and their extraordinary history

The three letters B.K.O. are the code for Bamako airport. It is in the Malian capital that the group has been rehearsing since 2012. In the same year that Mali declared a state of emergency, no one could have imagined that these musicians would be responsible for three albums and over 450 concerts in 25 different countries. BKO fights, does not fail, unifies and looks like no one else.

In this album, the band delivers an abrasive music where tradition is tinged with rock, polyphonies, distortions and shrill breaks. They invoke ancestral spiritualities by marrying for the first time in Mali
two diametrically opposed traditions.

In the course of the ten tracks of Djine Bora, BKO propels the traditions within a powerful and hybrid universe, just like Bamako. In this bewitching atmosphere, crackling concrete and ritual ceremonies
meet. The group has released one of its most accomplished albums, tinged with trance, enigmatic melodies (Ntiaro's Peulh prayer) and unifying messages (Maya, Bamako, Toumaro).

Lee Baggett began a new chapter of his eclectic and varied songwriting career with the 2021 release of Just A Minute, and he’s continuing his experimental streak with his latest full length, Anyway. The seasoned musician is changing his stripes again with this 10-song collection by leaning into a more rollicking sound at times, as evidenced by the brisker feeling “Fruit Dog,” the album’s lead single, and the bustling and twangy penultimate track, “Highway Roll.” By embracing more country-tinged sonic elements like banjo, organ-sounding keys, and harmonica, Baggett is able to weave through winding narratives that poignantly parse through the challenging nature of change and evolution. On “Highway Roll,” he confronts how landscapes and settings he once knew are now unrecognizable, and takes that motif a step further on “Earlier Than The World” by achingly and vividly describing “concrete and rubble” amongst a sea of delicate, yet biting guitar riffs. Escape seems to be a viable option for Baggett with “Sink In My Dreams” and “Dust In The Wind” serving as the album’s soothing remedies, inviting the listener to sit back and get lost in Baggett’s mesmerizing guitar playing. His nimble guitar work is a prominent fixture on Anyway, acting as a crux at several key points. It resonates forcefully and feels emotionally charged. Just take the meandering bridge on “Earlier Than The World” as a prime example of how Baggett can aptly convey feeling through riffs.



Delving deeper into Anyway finds some familiar sounds, with songs like “Oh Well” and “Anyway” evoking the seaside melancholy of Baggett’s prior works. But there’s decidedly more intimacy hidden in the crevices of his words and hooks. Throughout, Baggett uses his refined storytelling skills to share his relatable fears and coping mechanisms, his river-like path to unexpectedly finding love, and his musings on an ever-changing world, amongst other experiences. His conversational disposition, folk-styled lyricism, and emotive sonic backdrops make for an immersive listening experience. - Tom Gallo

The debut 7” vinyl from bloody/bath ‘Idle Hands’ is also the debut release by Kooky>Too, an offshoot of Kooky Records est 1996 (previous output including the acclaimed Durutti Column album ‘A Paean To Wilson’). This limited 7” is a peach – a gloomy neu wave banger for our gloomy fin de siècle death-spiralling age. And it’s increasingly relatable - previous bloody/bath digital single ‘Washed Out’ was championed by Lauren Laverne on 6 Music. Limited to 300 distro copies – black vinyl – 300gsm spined sleeve – reverse board printing. Sonically a bout of sleep paralysis, emotionally a midnight text from your favourite ex, bloody/bath are feverish, infectious and bewitching taking a post-punk passage that sounds distinctly their own. Catchy melodies dance throughout the tracks, disguising a heaviness, a desperation, drowning somewhere beneath the surface. Louder Than War describe the bloody/bath sound as “Stop-The-Clocks pop. Music to submerge yourself in. Wallow deep, then count your blessings”. Summoned initially by Northampton singer-songwriter Kailan Price, but now a fully fledged five-piece band, interest has been soaring following their incendiary live sets invited to play for Slow Dance at the Brixton Windmill, and other shows in London, Bristol and Bedford with Ritual Howls, Do Nothing and Minor Conflict. Bloody/bath have steadily created a large following on spotify with over 1.8 million streams and over 36,000 monthly listeners - particular streaming numbers in London, Berlin and across Eastern Europe - their sparse expanses, concrete homogeny and heavy atmospheres - perhaps testament to what bloody/bath are creating and why people are listening. Bruised and beaten down, a whole load of listeners can’t get enough of bloody/bath.

AM006 is by Berlin's ML, titled 'Life always breaks your heart'. Two 30-minute pieces were written, constructed, collaged and fixed together by himself. It's an important story, so there's a copy from ML below and also ours was written by Bokeh Version Industrial to do it justice.

Hallucinated Brazilian poetry read by text to voice engines, supernatural thrillers ripped from Youtube, the clang of cutlery and distant canteen conversation, that noise wire fencing makes when you rake it with a stick, crickets chirping over odd dance emotions, a sample you think your recognise but can’t name…..

The trivial is cosmically important, the cosmically important is trivial. ‘It’s about the product’ - all of life’s a sample. You contain universes.

Alice in Wonderland, late night sessions with kosmische guitar legends, ethnographic chants from an unknown land, “There’s no monopoly of knowledge / there’s no monopoly of power”: forecasts from global political trends, China will be important they say, someone’s whistling a tune that doesn’t exist, I’m thinking of times long before I was born . . .

Growing naturally like a beautiful montage from his field recordings (a rich library of personal psychoacoustic details) and his 150 Session on NTS, ML's Life Always Breaks Your Heart is mixtape-concrète:

Gamelan of the soul, Bio-Curry-Wurst in Kreuzberg, zither overlays the booms of the squatter’s homegrade grenades…

Mark Leckey vs. Alvin Curran, Gustav Flaubert vs Cabaret Voltaire, free association flashbacks with the timestamps mixed up, with added bass guitar, OP-1, Ableton, distinguishing the ‘real’ instruments becomes unimportant….they’re absorbed by memory foam….

No country, no flag – outernational without a cause!

There is no purpose, there is only reverie.

ML -

"A useless ruin, things are falling apart, even in our deepest, we long for harmony. A hypothetical path, for obscure reasons, fades into transparency. The mediocrity of Western culture, sicken by P.R., life offers a chance, a place for enthusiasm. The texture of the world, them can read it in your eyes. In the heart of schizo-culture, distance, suddenly shortened, forms characters as symbols. Deafen by mass media, embittered by unsettled chemistry, the willing body, forever in transition. The pre-invented existence, owned by language, creates a passage towards chaos. Paragraphs of currents, amplify the feelings, while silence leaks into the new luxury of time. Gentrification of sentiments, beneath our palms, all these memoirs. A modern consciousness, stretching over years in narcissistic differentiation. In touch with another human spirit, blowing backwards, beneath dark waters. We put our hands on your body, onto a new landscape, employed by metaphysical mutations. At the edge of the cosmos, prairies and mountains hide the truth in tactical silence. Apparently so, a number of months ago, above our head, a landscape of journals. Mystical content, statistically insignificant. A new patio, them crawled through the walls."

This album presents two multichannel works recorded at the seminal INA GRM Studio in Paris and ZKM Institute in Karlsruhe respectively, mixed to stereo at the composer's Cellule 75 Studio in Hamburg with excellent mastering by Rashad Becker. While his releases under the Black To Comm moniker often touched the fringes of acousmatic techniques and Musique Concrete this is Richter's first foray into a more abstract spatial music.

Recorded in the week leading up to the Paris terror attacks at the GRM studio, "Diode, Triode" (21:57) is loosely based on a reading of (and, in parts, a failure to understand) "Le Parasite" (1980) by Michel Serres, a philosophic metaphor about human interaction and communication (which can also be interpreted as a lyrical essay on capitalism; part confusion, part enlightenment).

As core elements Richter is using speech synthesis and the transformation and distortion of concrete sounds, instruments, voices and breathing. Abstract incognisable sounds are combined with strings, reeds and percussion while dismembered musical fragments emerge and vanish rapidly. Chunks of interfering noise are followed by long periods of silence; chaos and order are alternating. Choirs of synthetic and processed human voices are recounting stock market values, seemingly random sequences of numbers and inscrutable lyrics while parasitic sounds are trying to crack, collapse and fractionise the compositional stream and sonic interactions. Finally, a haunting piano chord is wrestling with a broken Publison machine. Like the book, it's part confusing, part enlightening - and a radical piece of sonic art.

"We are buried within ourselves; we send out signals, gestures, and sounds indefinitely and uselessly. No one listens to anyone else. Everyone speaks; no one hears; direct or reciprocal communication is blocked." (Le Parasite)

"Diode, Triode" was premiered on the Acousmonium at INA GRM's Akousma Festival in Paris, January 22, 2016 alongside new works by François Bayle, Robert Hampson, Leo Kupper and Ragnar Grippe.

The second piece "Spiral Organ of Corti" (17:00) has been composed in 2014 for the 47-speaker Klangdom concert hall at ZKM Karlsruhe at the foot of the Black Forest (where Richter was born and raised).

How does one listen with closed ears? Sine tones, alienated human voices and breathing noises build a labyrinthine puzzle alternating between the natural and the artificial. Human sounds merge with winds and strings, sine tones morph into metal sounds. Acoustic illusions confuse the listener, and dense noise-clouds slowly emerge from deceptive silence. Deep base sounds define space. Temporary focus glides into chaos. "Spiral Organ of Corti" is yet another extended composition that proves Richter is on a path of his very own.

"Spiral Organ of Corti" is dedicated to the late Gary Todd.

"Tongues that came from wind and noise. To speak in tongues after the fire." (Le Parasite)

Marc Richter records as Black To Comm for Thrill Jockey, Type and Dekorder and under the Mouchoir Ètanche and Jemh Circs monikers for his own Cellule 75 imprint. He collaborated with visual artists such as Ho Tzu Nyen, Jan van Hasselt and Mike Kelley. Under his own name he is composing for film and installations.

Gazelle Twin, Lali Puna, This Mortal Coil, Slow Walkers, Atlas Sound, Bowery Electric, Broadcast Press Release: Snakeskin is an album of visionary electronic dream pop, shapeshifting above ambient and industrial undercurrents. It is moody, unsettling, luminous – the culmination of a decade of collaboration and friendship between Lebanese producer/musician/ engineer Fadi Tabbal and singer-songwriter Julia Sabra from Beirut-based indie trio Postcards. The duo began working on Snakeskin in the aftermath of the August 2020 Beirut port explosion, which killed at least 218 people, injured 7,000, and left over 300,000 people homeless. Indeed, Julia's home was destroyed by the explosion and her partner and bandmate Pascal badly injured. The first song that they wrote together afterwards was 'Roots', which closes out the album and was composed for the Ruptured-curated series The Drone Sessions in the fall of 2020. Snakeskin utilizes tape loops, synthesizers, vocals, and drum machines, combining Julia’s pop-inspired melodies and choral roots (an echo from her religious upbringing) with Fadi’s affinity for minimalism and musique concrète. The album seamlessly incorporates the melancholy electro-pop of 'All The Birds', the quiet menace of 'In Our Garden' (long-lost treasures, ancient lies / another buried paradise), and the beat-driven 'Signs'. The title track sums up their frame of mind, beginning as a lullaby and evolving into a glittering tapestry of distortion and feedback. As the artists write, Snakeskin is a product of "the disappearance of life as we know it, and with it the decay of nature and living creatures. There is no rebirth, no renewal. It’s about what it means to feel at home in such a place." Some tracks were also inspired by events happening in the surrounding region, such as the invasion of Armenia by Azerbaijan and the Palestinian uprising of May 2021 in Sheikh Jarrah - both events shedding light on relationships to home and land across the wider region. That such compelling art can emerge from unceasing tragedy may be the ultimate testament to human resilience and the pursuit of freedom and justice. "The moon speaks in tongues we can't discern / A plastic dove hangs from a cypress branch / Haven't you heard? / Nothing grows here anymore / The air is burnt / Nothing grows..." Highlights: – This is the second volume in the Corrosion Series, a collaborative effort by Beacon Sound and Ruptured, and the sixth collaboration between the two labels. – Fadi used samples of Julia's voice on his fifth solo album Subject to Potential Errors and Distortions (2020, Beacon Sound/Ruptured) – The Tunefork Studios team, led by Fadi, administered the Beirut Musician's Fund after the port explosion, as covered by Pitchfork, NME, and the Financial Times. – Julia's band Postcards released their third full-length album After The Fire, Before The End on Berlin label T3 Records in 2021 and are currently touring Europe. Credits: All music composed, performed and produced by Julia Sabra and Fadi Tabbal between November 2020 and December 2022. Lyrics by Julia Sabra. Drum samples by Pascal Semerdjian. Recorded by Fadi Tabbal, mixed by Sary Moussa and Fadi Tabbal at Tunefork Studios, Beirut. Cover photo by Lujain Jo. Design by Josette 'ZOoz' Khalil. Mastered by Rashad Becker. Bios: Julia Sabra is a Lebanese musician, songwriter and composer. She co-founded acclaimed Lebanese dream-pop outfit Postcards in 2013 and is the band’s multi-instrumentalist, lead singer and lyricist. Postcards have released two EPs (2013, 2015) and three albums (2018, 2020, 2021) and have been regularly touring Europe and the Middle East since 2015. She has been the manager of Tunefork Studios since 2017. Lebanese musician, producer, and sound engineer Fadi Tabbal’s work consist of minimalist pieces ranging from ambient and electronic to drone and contemporary classical. He has released six solo albums and has collaborated with various musicians, artists and filmmakers through the years. Often referred to as “the hardest-working person in Lebanon’s alternative music scene”, Tabbal established Tunefork Studios, a collective of producers, engineers and musicians, which has helped shape Beirut's contemporary music scene since 2006.

Das Londoner Duo Jockstrap (Georgia Ellery und Taylor Skye) wird sein lange erwartetes Debütalbum "I Love You Jennifer B" am 9. September via Rough Trade Records veröffentlichen. Jockstrap haben die bevorstehende Veröffentlichung bereits mit ihren Singles "50/50" und "Concrete Over Water" angedeutet. Beide wurden von BBC Radio 6 Music auf Rotation genommen und von der nationalen und internationalen Presse hoch gelobt. Das kosmische Begleitvideo zu "Concrete Over Water" wurde bei einer exklusiven Vorführung im The Castle Cinema, Hackney, uraufgeführt, gefolgt von einer weiteren von Jockstraps kultigen Partys im The Glove That Fits. Georgia Ellery und Taylor Skye von Jockstrap kommentierten die Albumveröffentlichung wie folgt: "I Love You Jennifer B ist eine Sammlung von Jockstrap-Tracks, die seit 3 Jahren in der Mache sind. Alles darauf klingt ziemlich einzigartig, also hoffen wir, dass für jeden ein Track dabei ist; also etwas, das dich anspricht und sagt "Ich bin ein Banger"." Skye fügte über "Glasgow" (ihre neue Single) hinzu: ""Glasgow" ist unser coming of age, moving forward, long-distance, travelling, beautiful bosk, wonderful thicket song." Und Ellery sagte über das Thema des Songs: "Glasgow ist eine tolle Stadt, vielleicht meine Lieblingsstadt in Großbritannien! Der einzige Nachteil ist, dass es die ganze Zeit so verdammt kalt ist." Wenn Georgia Ellery und Taylor Skye als Jockstrap Musik machen, gibt es für den Prozess und das Ergebnis nur eine Definition: pure moderne Pop-Alchemie. Mit ihrem Debütalbum"I Love You Jennifer B" werden sich Jockstrap als eine der vitalsten jungen Gruppen etablieren, die seit Jahren aus Londons Schmelztiegel der Musikkulturen hervorgegangen sind.

Das Londoner Duo Jockstrap (Georgia Ellery und Taylor Skye) wird sein lange erwartetes Debütalbum "I Love You Jennifer B" am 9. September via Rough Trade Records veröffentlichen. Jockstrap haben die bevorstehende Veröffentlichung bereits mit ihren Singles "50/50" und "Concrete Over Water" angedeutet. Beide wurden von BBC Radio 6 Music auf Rotation genommen und von der nationalen und internationalen Presse hoch gelobt. Das kosmische Begleitvideo zu "Concrete Over Water" wurde bei einer exklusiven Vorführung im The Castle Cinema, Hackney, uraufgeführt, gefolgt von einer weiteren von Jockstraps kultigen Partys im The Glove That Fits. Georgia Ellery und Taylor Skye von Jockstrap kommentierten die Albumveröffentlichung wie folgt: "I Love You Jennifer B ist eine Sammlung von Jockstrap-Tracks, die seit 3 Jahren in der Mache sind. Alles darauf klingt ziemlich einzigartig, also hoffen wir, dass für jeden ein Track dabei ist; also etwas, das dich anspricht und sagt "Ich bin ein Banger"." Skye fügte über "Glasgow" (ihre neue Single) hinzu: ""Glasgow" ist unser coming of age, moving forward, long-distance, travelling, beautiful bosk, wonderful thicket song." Und Ellery sagte über das Thema des Songs: "Glasgow ist eine tolle Stadt, vielleicht meine Lieblingsstadt in Großbritannien! Der einzige Nachteil ist, dass es die ganze Zeit so verdammt kalt ist." Wenn Georgia Ellery und Taylor Skye als Jockstrap Musik machen, gibt es für den Prozess und das Ergebnis nur eine Definition: pure moderne Pop-Alchemie. Mit ihrem Debütalbum"I Love You Jennifer B" werden sich Jockstrap als eine der vitalsten jungen Gruppen etablieren, die seit Jahren aus Londons Schmelztiegel der Musikkulturen hervorgegangen sind.

Opening with the buzz of a smartphone on vibrate, First Hate’s sophomore album Cotton Candy launches to life with “Someone New,” a synth-driven statement of intent. The Danish duo’s charged songs are rooted in a recognizable universe, but traverse a wide array of genre experiments and pop detours. Cotton Candy follows the quest of its protagonist stumbling through a crumbling world, winning and losing lovers, swinging from extreme highs to hopeless lows. The title alludes to transience and ecstasy, the surge of a sugar rush before nausea sets in, the way cotton candy dissolves into nothingness leaving only sticky fingers. Throughout, the productions glitter with synthetic detail and hypermodern finesse, effervescent but elusive. “Life is a rollercoaster and we’ve ridden the ups and downs.” During the recording sessions, a collage of Copenhagen musicians flowed through the studio. First Hate is a fixture of the city’s creative community, but ultimately exists in their own sphere, carving a niche as parallel universe pop stars, embracing sweet and bitter, risk and reward: “Sometimes the ones who love you most are the ones who hold you back.” Anton and Joakim grew up in Copenhagen and met when they were 15 through common friends on the street where they lived. “I didn’t enjoy being home so I used to stay at my friend Jakob's basement in an old church on Willemoesgade street,” says Wei. “His mom was the priest. She baptized Anton at age eight during his Jesus phase when he demanded a late baptism from his atheist parents. Jakob was friends with Elias who lived up in Anton’s end and they introduced us to each other. One summer my parents finally married after 20 years of dating. Joakim moved in for two weeks and we accidentally trashed the apartment while they were on their honeymoon. Later on Jakob, Elias, and two other friends, Dan and Johan, formed the band Iceage. Watching our friends’ growing success was a catalyst in creating our own project. At that point everybody in our friend group was making punk music, so the most punk thing we could think to do was start a pop duo.” The First Hate catalog comprises more than nine years of work, including their 2017 cult classic, A Prayer For The Unemployed, a collaborative album Dittes Bog, two EPs and several singles. All of the recordings are self-produced, until they are ready to be finished in the studio. “We have sort of a twin alliance. Like couples finishing each other’s spaghetti at restaurants, we finish each other’s music. Having people enter this sacred mix has been such a pleasure.” On stage Anton and Joakim embody the contrasting yet complimentary energies of yin and yang: Joakim pushing buttons, steering the ship, working synths and samplers with harmonious calm, while Anton’s body bullets around the stage, pounding out his kinetic dance moves. The name Anton means fragile flower, an apt metaphor for his stage presence. A fragile flower shooting through concrete. To behold a performer who consistently delivers such intense live performances is a rare pleasure. “Live means love. When everything is right. When we meet the audience heart to heart. Then the planet spins even faster.” First Hate has performed over a hundred shows across Europe, Asia, the U.S., and Russia, both as headliners and alongside fellow Copenhagen acts Iceage, Lust For Youth, Communions, Soho Rezanejad, Trentemøller and Grand Prix. “We are on a quest of love, yes it’s as cheesy as that.”

The music on this long-awaited solo vinyl album by legendary tape artist Jérôme Noetinger was recorded live in the studio with no overdubs. Signals were sent through tube broadcast monitors and picked up with room microphones. Produced by Tobias Levin. Cover by Meeuw.

Long-time touchstone of international experimental music presents his monolithic (and first) solo vinyl »Sur Quelques Mondes Étranges« on Felix Kubin’s Gagarin Records. Jérôme Noetinger is known to most for the audio-visual trio Cellule d’Intervention Metamkine, alongside his countless recorded & live collaborations, compositions for radio & stage, and breathtaking multi-channel diffusions in the acousmatic tradition.

Discovering the ReVox B77 tape machine as his tool for live electro-acoustic music in 1987, Noetinger has doggedly investigated his instrument over 35 years, establishing him as a vital contemporary composer/performer of the medium. His work is radical and interrogatory, using a pan-historical array of analogue devices to construct soundworlds which sidestep digital monochrome, landing in a galaxy of simmering malfunction, dynamic physicality & rhythmic debris. Programming Le 102 in Grenoble for over a decade, as well as directing Metamkine distribution for over three, his encyclopaedic knowledge of manifold sonic traditions is on display here; unified by a staunch discipline, impressive dedication and flat rejection of empty trends.

The results synthesise his tireless timbral research into 11 striking sonic investigations which combine modern studio possibilities with years of performance experience worldwide. An ominous malaise hovers over proceedings; yet it never feels nihilistic, presenting solutions which electrify the listener with ecstatic discovery. The perceptual orchestration therein - from throwing our ears right against the body of the tape machine to flinging them into cavernous space alive with the aurally strange - is both delirious & calming. Noetinger is all too aware things are bad, but his drive for discovery and joyous belief in music somehow coruscates brilliantly through contemporary gloom.

Meticulously recorded & produced with Tobias Levin in Hamburg, Sur quelques mondes étranges presents a detailed & rich vocabulary both real & unreal: gesture & repetition, structure & collapse, familiar & uncanny all dance with each in the most pumping discothèque concrète in this universe. This is a powerful and exacting statement from an elegant composer & extraordinary musician who has humbly dedicated his life to his practice.

– Anthony Pateras

Markus Suckut returns with his second EP on 'made of Concrete'. Named after the Ruhr area, one of the densest regions in Germany, 'Ruhr' shows off the mesmerizing skillset and versatility of the producer. His hometown Düsseldorf is one of the three major cities on the Ruhr map and has brought up its very own Düsseldorf-sound within German electronic music, with local heroes Kraftwerk paving the way in the 1970s. The twists and turns of the Ruhr river and the musical paths that electronic music has taken all come together in this EP, which steers from techno to electronica with ease.

While 'Tunnel' is a rather straightforward minimal techno banger, the title track 'Ruhr' is almost melancholic. 'At The Park With Friends' ventures into the realms of ambient. The 5-tracker is accompanied by a technoid remix of 'Smoke' by Markus Suckut's longtime friend Thomas Hessler.

Mures are Joshua Cordova and Santiago Leyba. They fit perfectly as MRT010, transporting the label from the cold, grey, drowned in concrete atmospheres of Acid Ernst to the working class heat of the American south. Electronic body music, factory music, machines intensify their rhythm as degrees rise. Hot iron is forged, sweat and black stains cover bodies, hard labor, the struggle and the hammers, tools for modern times restraint. Rare Metal and Workers have just paved the way to that bullet that is Trains of Thought.

City life isn’t always easy or pleasant, but whether you call it home or you're just out for a visit, there’s an undeniable energy that envelopes you. Danger becomes excitement, speed becomes the regular pace, and exhaustion morphs into an urge to rally, to not miss a beat of what these myriad concrete jungles have to offer. And after a while, you learn to settle into it. You relax, you walk with a little more ease, and, eventually, you become yourself at your most slick. Hiatt dB’s
City Slick celebrates that carnality of the city, while simultaneously asking the one question burning in every city dweller’s mind - why am I even here?? Rat races, dumpster res, endless injustice, outrageous prices, conquered green spaces... an innite array of inhumanity hurled in your face on a daily basis; Is it really worth it? But we all know why
we're here, and it’s not something you can verbalize. It’s the feeling you get when the hellscape precipitates that which life is all about: real, serendipitous, life-arming experience.

Still, even on its best days, the City can be unkind. So if you need some tunes to help you push on, Hiatt’s cooked up the perfect soundtrack for your pavement-pounding steps