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Limited Edition to 200 copies incl. Remixes by DALO, Benedikt Frey and Nathan Dawidowicz

R.i.O. welcomes Brainwave Research Center, a NYC-based duo consisting of house/techno producer Chase Smith and documentary filmmaker Christa Majoras. In early 2023 they freed their debut album "figure 1" via their own label BRC. Two more albums followed. All documenting their love for experimental yet charming music of all kinds.

Their influences span a vast spectrum, from Steve Reich, Laurie Spiegel, and Edgar Froese to Martin Rev, John Carpenter, early Kraftwerk, or the ambient techno of Pete Namlook's Fax +49-69/45046 label. Yet, Brainwave Research Center forges a sound distinctly their own, seamlessly blending analog synthesis with electro-acoustic experimentation.

On "Psychic Antenna", the duo takes a gentle rawer approach. The tracks range from the manic verbal Die-Tödliche-Doris-like loops of "I Find Myself" to the meditative cosmic trance of "Open Your Mouth." "Orange Drop" and "Transmitter Park" toy with the dancefloor, channeling slow-motion acid trance and krautrock echoes.
The release is rounded out by three remixes: R.i.O.'s own Benedikt Frey delivers a deep, trippy groover full of inner musicality, while close companion DALO crafts a dark, echo-drenched pop rework, and Berlin's Nathan Dawidowicz injects psyched nu-disco rhythms, expanding "Psychic Antenna" into seven notions of intense neural oscillations.

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It’s always fun to let our audience peer through the party peephole with some hot behind-the-scenes info. For months, Black Light Smoke’s Control EP has supplied several of label head Tiga’s secret DJ weapons. In fact, he’s been sneaking out constantly after 9pm to play it out anywhere they’ll have him. And it’s little wonder to those who wonder why, as the Chicago-born producer’s top-flight mix of EBM, electro and Benadryl-soaked vocals has all the right people dancing.

Leadoff track "New York Is Dead” eulogizes the famous Big Apple Dance Party Scene in a way that will confuse the many who have embraced the city’s thriving “Groove With the Avengers” day rave series in Times Square. But the nihilism-liking doesn’t stop there, with the Friday-Til-I-Die attitude of “Black Hole at the Disco,” the pleather-dreaded post-cyberpunk of “Last Song Before Sunrise”, and the oxygen-deprived acid of “Break Your Back” culminating in the 11:45am-peak-time industrial trance of closer “Mind Control.”

Because we want this to be available to as many inhabitants of the blasted apocalyptic landscape we have pencilled in for 2034 or so, we have decided to make this release available both digitally and on vinyl. So whether you’ve managed to jack in illegally to a Spotify Wind Farm or you’re relegated to the hand-cranked misery of a Victrola while living in a barn or something, we’ve got you covered!

Toy Tonics Music Berlin presents "Para Mytho Disco". The 2nd "Kapote" album of label founder and creative director Mathias Modica.
Keyboarder, DJ, producer, music nerd, graphic designer, multi-instrumentalist, sub-culture impressario and artist (formerly known as Munk of Gomma records.)

Kapote & Toy Tonics
In the last years Kapote was in the spotlight mainly for building the Toy Tonics label with his friends. Developing a platform for new positive quality dance music with a human touch. Toy Tonics is the opposite of the dark, druggy Techno and Trance sounds of the last years.
The warm inclusive music of Toy Tonics represents a new vibe that a young generation of diverse, stylish and culturally intersted generation of dancers loves now. Kapote's Toy Tonics became the key label for that vibe. (In 2024 Toy Tonics made 150 Toy Tonics events in 18 countries. With more than 150.000 people dancing. 90 millions streams on their music.)
Toy Tonics is more than a music label: It's a audio - visual universe. A community, almost a movement.
Based on a new positive attitude and aesthetic diversity. Mixing musicianship with DJ culture, analogue music with electronic, ideas from the past with sounds from now. To create something new. Connecting dance music with graphic design, art and underground fashion.
Kapote and his gang release vinyl, posters, shirts, art fanzines and make exhibitions and partys.

Toy Tonics started in Berlin as a underground niche project. But now became the key label of the new house, wild style disco and organic dance music scene.
Probably one of Berlin's biggest electronic music phenomena along with Keinemusik and Live from Earth.

It went fast: 2020 Kapote's crew started to make small parties in Berlin's off spaces. The "Toy Tonics Jams". The parties became "talk of the town", and Berlin clubs like Griesmühle and Panorama Bar invited the crew. Then international clubs and festival called. Toy Tonics were invited to SONAR (playing the mainstage with Kaytranada and DJ Tennis), KALA festival, Montreux Jazz festival.
Now TT has a residency at Panorama Bar Berlin and sold out events in Europe leading clubs like Phonox in London, Rex Club in Paris, Tunnel in Milan.
Toy Tonics now is the reference brand of a new generation of music loving dancers. Similar to Gomma records, Kapote's former label (2003 - 2015) that was one of the key labels of the "indie dance" scene of the Y2K years (along with DFA and Output Records).

Kapote created a multi-cultural movement with graphic designers, photographers, illustrators from the Berlin scene.
They publish the Toy Tonics Pocket Poster magazine, posters and design shirts. They organize the Toy Tonics Pop Up Galleries mixing music and art. In underground venues in Berlin and in new gallery spaces and museums around Europe.
Toy Tonics has been invited by Palais de Tokio museum in Paris, Triennale Museum Berlin, Design week Milano to create events.
The new Kapote album
The 12 tracks have a very own style. Based on dance music, but going much further. "Para Mytho Disco' is a futuristic mix of sounds. It's far away from the dark monotone techno and trance music from Kapote's hometown Berlin. Instead, he creates warm friendly atmospheres full of sonic colours and little musical surprises.
Kapote's knowlege of music history and his backround as a jazz piano student and son of classic music composer is clearly inside this music. Before turning into a DJ and electronic music producer he has been playing in bands since he was 13 years old.
The album is full of emotional chord progressions played by Kapote on various keyboards. Sometimes reminding music from the past, without being retro at all. The basslines and melodies are inspired by jazz fusion from the 1970ies. And he programmed syncopated grooves that come from afro-american dance music. There are influences from Japanese electronic music (Yellow Magic Orchestra), from 1980s Synthwave and from 1990s electronica (like Squarepusher and Luke Vibert).

Kapote plays keys, bass, flutes and percussions, he plays synth solos and sings on a few tracks. The complexity of the arrangements makes this music never boring. Lot of melodies and solos that catch the listener. Colourful soundscapes that make you want to listen or dance to this album more, and discover details also after you heard it several times.

Kapote background

Before starting Toy Tonics, Kapote used to run a label called Gomma. He produced four albums under the name Munk and music for other artists.
He produced music with Peaches, Franz Ferdinand founder Nick McCarthy, with New York street art legend The Rammellzee, Italian actress Asia Argento, the first three albums of WhoMadeWho and worked with LCD Soundsystem (listen to "Kick out the chairs", the Munk song with James Murphy )
In those "Gomma days" Kapote aka Munk was also one of the main DJs for VICE magazine parties and made music for art projects and fashion brands (Margiela, Prada, Colette).
In 2015 he stopped Munk and Gomma and started Toy Tonics. He found young producers and helped to develop their sound (Coeo, Cody Currie, Gee Lane, Barbara Boeing, Sam Ruffillo). Later he founded the sublabel Kryptox to release music by Berlin based bands that make new forms of jazz or neo classical sounds.

Under the name Kapote Mathias didnt release much:
Only his Kapote debut album "What it is" (2019) and an EP called "Electric Slide" (2022) and a collabo EP with Italian producer Sam Ruffillo ("Robot Salsa").

An although his Munk and Kapote music was an underground phenomena his music has always been a favourite of many great people from the scene.
Supported by DJs like Harvey, Chromeo, Moodymann, Jennifer Cardini, Gerd Janson, MYD, Andrew Weatherall to Blessed Madonna, Justice and Laurent Garnier… to name just a few.

DJ Support: Erol Alkan, Kenneth Bager, Leo Mas, FFan, Sean Johnston (ALFOS), Max Essa, Coyote, Ban Ban Ton Ton, Chris Coco

Hell Yeah series File Under Balearic Gabba continues its mission to bring some vital, previously digital-only Balearic Gabba weaponry to vinyl for the first time. This second volume has artwork by Planet Luke and features Wallace next to new school stars SIRS and Pedro Bertho.

Tartan Records label head and British talent Wallace opens up with a remix of Sewell And The Gong's 'Better Words' that has been a real summer hit for label head Marco Gallerani.

The original came on Jason Boardman's fine Before I Die label and is one of those jams that transcends genre and wins over techno heads, Adriatic beach groovers and festival main stages alike. It is 'proper Balearic Gabba' says Marco with its tropical percussion, humid pads and watery droplets all adding lush atmosphere to the dubby drums. The chords and reedy leads are beautifully delicate but get floors in a blissed-out, loved-up trance.

SIRS is an artist on fire right now and already impressed on this label with his remix of Aura Safari which is one of the year's standout Balearic house jams. He has a new single on the way for Hell Yeah but first flips label mate My Friend Dario's 'Tellaro' into a wobbly, psyched-out dub disco and breakbeat chugger. The zippy synths and shimmering keys are underpinned with a taught bassline and playful vocals that bring great fun and irresistible party vibes to any set.

Hell Yeah mainstay Verdo then has his 'Boulevardier' remixed by Pedro Bertho, a rising talent from Brazil with a steamy South American style. This one is a modern beach classic that unites both young and old heads with its frayed analogue drums and snappy percussion joining the dots between 80s Chicago house, new age and Balearic with its big piano chords and phased bass all getting hands the air.

It's hard to imagine El León Pardo, a loyal advocate of some of the most advanced projects in which folklore is the road map and the destination itself, without his kuisi. It's hard to see him with his hands free. Always holding on to that ancestral instrument, that pre-Colombian flute that survived the conquest and has become a symbol of resistance, overcoming the ravages of time, the imposition of ideologies, dogmas and religions. Despite all that, the kuisi continues with its liberating sound, the power of its cry, its invitation to dance, its sound a cure and a blessing. That's why it leads the way in this Viaje Sideral ("Space Voyage"), an astral journey in which the kuisi is the vehicle and the life force of the rhythm. Viaje Sideral feels like floating eternally in the infinite cosmos. This second long player from El León Pardo is inspired by humanity's relationship with the stars, escaping to mythical planes and led into a trance by Caribbean percussions, analog synths, deep bass, electric guitars and the hypnotic vibrations of the kuisis and trumpets that complete the soundtrack of this voyage. Through these nine songs, El León Pardo continues to create a sound of his own, evolving in his intention to pay tribute to the psychedelia of the tropical world of the Caribbean in the 1970s and 80s, but this time also taking as reference artists like Terry Riley, Kraftwerk and Mad Professor, including the roots of ambient and electronic music with the characteristic sound of the kuisi, an encounter of dreamlike and astral sounds, with the music of the bandas pelayeras of the tropics and figures like Pedro Laza and Juan Lara. In this new universe the Cartagena trumpeter dialogs with the past, processing the ideas that have emerged over the years and morphed into his personal search that gives an identity to his ideas, nurtured by figures like producer Diego Gómez (Llorona Records, Discos Pacífico, Cerrero) who awoke his interest in electronic instruments, Edson Velandia and kuisi maestros like Juan Carlos Medrano and Fredy Arrieta. In his sound there is a particular feature, one that contains histories of personal experiences, accompanied by the kuisi, including ancient Zenú flutes dating from between 600 and 800 AD and which helped create the atmosphere of "Invocación." "Viaje Sideral," the song that gives the album its name, was born from a dream in which two stars speed towards the earth and an imminent collision. As the record continues, the stellar connection becomes clear with songs like "Urmah" with Edson Velandia, inspired by an article about extra-terrestrial races and how the Urmah were a race of hominid felines, the greatest geneticists of the universe; and "Cumbia espacial," featuring rapping from N. Hardem, seeking to create that aura of immensity and consciousness of the infinity of the universe.

Of all the artists who recorded for the Black Jazz label, keyboardist and composer Doug Carn was the most prolific, releasing four albums for the imprint. 1972’s Spirit of the New Land was his second Black Jazz release, but the first one (of two) to co-feature his wife, vocalist Jean Carn. It’s the most collectible of the bunch, showcasing Carn’s innovative approach of adding lyrics to jazz standards like Miles Davis’ “Blue in Green” and Lee Morgan’s “Search for the New Land,” while originals like “Arise and Shine” and “My Spirit” soar with spiritual fervor on the wings of his wife’s five-octave range.

Along for the ride are a stellar cast of players, including trumpeter Charles Tolliver, co-founder of the Strata-East label; saxophonist George Harper, who played with Herbie Hancock and Jimmy Smith among others; trombonist Garnett Brown, who appears on albums by Roland Kirk, Albert Ayler, and Art Blakey among his hundreds of album credits; tuba player Earl McIntyre, whose discography spans from Carla Bley to the Band; and drummer Alphonse Mouzon, founding member of Weather Report. This beautiful, uplifting album also comes with liner notes by Pat Thomas, author of Listen, Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975, that feature excerpts from a freewheeling interview conducted with Doug Carn himself. Pressed in blue with black swirl vinyl limited to 750 copies!

With a much-loved signature sound heavily influenced by many active years in the trance scene, Fernie’s blend of emotive pads and cosmic soundscapes has secured him a discography that spans some of deep techno’s most revered labels. Having releases on the likes of Monument, Khoros, KVLTÖ and Informa Records to name just a few, as well as heading up his own imprint Space Textures, curating the Monument podcast, and co-running the Orbits parties with fellow Glaswegians Deepbass and Repart - Fernie’s passion for the deep techno community resides in the energy he consistently commits to our scene.

The third release in our catalogue comes as a limited edition 140g transparent vinyl with black smoke, pressed in Italy and presented in a matte sleeve with full colour artwork. Celestial is a carefully woven journey that searches and probes, be it the outer reaches of space or the inner depths of oneself. Perfectly blending the themes of space exploration and astrology, the EP opens with a brooding wash of atmospheres and voice samples, before broken rhythms, lush pads and moody ethereal tones carry the voyage through the A Side. The B Side sees the record open up into two tracks perfect for deep immersion on the dance floor, with Unbound offering an atmospheric cruise fit for early morning bliss. And finally, we are humbled to have a remix from deep techno stalwart Ness closing out the EP - a ritualistic stomper that reworks the original atmospheres of Critical Functions into an uptempo dub techno infused gem.

Trinidadian Deep is once again back on Neroli his 8th contribution since 2012, this time joined by Chicago’s Light Work Productions. ‘Orisha Stomp’ (Rework) is a fierce percussive and pulsating jam while ‘Italo Disco’ is a relentless melodic builder. On the flipside ‘U R Loved’ closes the record with its trance inducting romantic vibes! Deep!

2023 was a whirlwind year for Oracle Sisters. The trio—Julia Johansen, Chris Willatt, and Lewis Lazar—followed the release of their debut album Hydranism with a globe-spanning tour that captivated fans and critics alike. From the highways between Knoxville and Nashville to sold-out clubs in rain-soaked Seattle, and festival stages across the UK, they logged countless hours on the road. Their journey was a tapestry of exhaustion and exhilaration, falling apart, brawls and disputes, love and acceptance. By the year’s end, just two days before Christmas, they found themselves in Tokyo, reflecting on the fleeting nature of time and the fragments of inspiration gathered along the way. It was there the seeds for their next album, Divinations, began to sprout. Composing as a true trio for the first time, Oracle Sisters pieced together sketches formed during stolen moments on tour. These fragments coalesced into Divinations, an album shaped by the band’s nomadic existence. The recording sessions spanned cozy Parisian studios, a barn in northern France, and the storied Valentine Studios in Los Angeles. Their creative process embraced experimentation—swapping primary instruments, playing with toy drum machines, and crafting melodies on quirky tools like the OP-1 and a baby Casio keyboard. This spirit of discovery lent the album a sense of spontaneity and wonder. At its core, Divinations channels mysticism and timeless storytelling. The band’s songwriting draws on diverse influences, from the surrealist poetry of Baudelaire and Rimbaud to the introspective philosophies of Carl Jung. Musically, echoes of Talking Heads, Air, and Leonard Cohen resonate throughout the album and tracks like “Riverside” delve into existential questions— “How far are you going? Is it more than money can buy?” Elsewhere on the album “Marseille,” born in the city that gave the song its name, kicks off as a trance with lyrics that play between the sincere and desperate self-help affirmations, we give ourselves while trying to find a bridge between our individual lives and a universal feeling. Lead-single “Alouette” is Oracle Sisters at their most direct; propelled by a driving bassline and exuberant strings, the track summons the sound of 80’s, 90’s, and early 2000’s rock n roll as they sing about “getting out of dodge, finding a pirate ship and sailing home.” Inspired by the book Caliban and the Witch, “Blue Left Hand” is a lyrical tapestry weaving together history, philosophy, and cultural critique. The lyrics, “It’s in the harbor of every page / It’s in the corner of the playwright’s stage / And every player and every fake / And every witch that we burned at the stake,” reflect on the forces that shaped the capitalist society we know today. Across Divinations’ 11 tracks it’s not only geographic boundaries that were crossed but also the boundaries of time and circumstance. While their work may not consciously reflect specific worldly events, they seek to embrace the universal and offer a space for healing. “Good music would make sense to a farmer in 17th century France as it would to a pastry chef in Slovenia in the 21st century,” shares Lazar. “It’s not written for any temporal powers that be. It’s about expressing our common humanity and taking it from there.” This intuitive approach fuels Oracle Sisters creative process - whether composing in a frozen French farmhouse or performing live with an ever-expanding lineup of collaborators, the band remains committed to exploring the unknown. Through Divinations, they hope to leave listeners feeling transcendent, levitating on waves of intuition and discovery.

David Allred is a prolific composer and producer based in Portland, Oregon. His new album The Beautiful World captures an enriched, realised understanding of why he composes in the first place. Dedicated to the expression of existential themes such as death, grief, longing and loss, the album’s core theme centres around the suicide of a young girl Lauren, who was a family friend to Allred. For as long as he could remember, Allred always created music out of a kind of dissociative state which he finds alluringly easy to lapse into. A repetition of a motif is usually where he begins composing. But unlike his previous works, The Beautiful World firmly has one foot in reality and is deeply intertwined with Allred’s relationships, past and present. Through his correspondence with Erased Tapes label head and the album’s producer, Robert Raths, over the past year, he came to realise that everyone has a Lauren in a way – someone they’d lost. Through writing to Raths, Allred was able to draw out this thread from the work and position it more clearly as the central concept to this work. The music doesn’t reflect the chaos of trauma, instead it has a therapeutic quality. It was through this dialogue that Allred was able to create what may be his most cohesive body of work to date. The 11 track album unfolds around Oh Lauren, providing the core of the album’s sentiment – how grief returns to us throughout life over and over. Embedded more than halfway through the album, Allred allows listeners to cohabit a meditative space through ambient textures, drones and ballads echoing the vocal sincerity of Arthur Russell, Daniel Johnston and the hypnotic storytelling of Robert Ashley. To truly reckon with The Beautiful World’s emotional position, listeners must understand the importance of the figure of Lauren, and the significance she has had throughout Allred’s life. Lauren’s suicide as a child provided the catalyst for Allred’s lifelong grief. But it was death anxiety and grief itself which provided Allred a link to a universal relationship that people have with each other and the world they live in. Impermanence and loss are the driving force behind all of our connections. The trance-like nature of the album perhaps comes from David Allred’s time sense – particularly when it comes to memory and trauma. Time becomes non-linear rather than a straight line – where one can repeat or return to the same themes but older and in a different frame of mind. Grief continues to manifest itself in life and despite personal growth, there will always be moments where the same feeling will manifest itself again. The album encourages listeners to sit with the concept of grief, and Allred is hopeful they can find comfort and learn to process it in a healing way. The Beautiful World is therefore heavily influenced by Allred’s work in therapy, particularly his relationship to writing music. In the past, Allred would be composing music as a means to dissociate from his life, but the album sees him engaging and connecting more authentically than ever with others and himself. Despite his prolific previous works being made in the company of others, Allred needed to step back from the scenes that he’s worked in to discover what he really wanted to create. Allred concludes: “In the power of love, curiosity, humour, and reconciliation, we give you The Beautiful World.”

Tours (France) -based post-psych and deep-shoegaze powerhouse Stuffed Foxes are set to release their third LP, Standardized, on December 6th, 2024, via Bristol’s Stolen Body Records and French labels Reverse Tapes and Figures Libres. Songs / Revolving and Songs / Motion Return, a discographic diptych released in 2022, established Stuffed Foxes as accomplished ambassadors of the French rock scene. True to its predecessors, Standardized was recorded live in the Rennes studio of producer and musician Thomas Poli (Laetitia Sheriff, Dominique A). Mastering was entrusted to Matt Colton (Spiritualized, Swans, Shame). Early on, the six members transformed their youthful camaraderie into an adventure, embracing communal living (sharing a leaky roof had to be an integral part of the ride) and diving into the underground with their label, Reverse Tapes, a source of endless exciting music. They also adopted a democratic approach to creation fueled by endless jams, with the sexted striving to compose together from the outset. It is from this collective spontaneity that the unique expression of their music is born: long, hypnotic tracks, swirling mists of noise, and moments of vocal urgency that should be experienced in person during their invariably cathartic and incendiary concerts. It is a band that strives to stay true to its ethos, its soul haunted but never enthralled by the ghosts of its musical ancestors and battered icons. Their influences create joyful chaos: the musical walls of noise of My Bloody Valentine, the No-Wave drones of Swans, the psychedelic vapours of Brian Jonestown Massacre and the Post-Shoegaze eclecticism of Six-By-Seven. Standardized opens with Biting the Dawn, a Noise elegy that builds with relentless intensity. Léo's recitative voice soars above a searing blend of saturated guitars and echo-drenched drums. Next, Merry Xmas unleashes sharp, incisive guitar riffs reminiscent of Gang of Four and Fugazi, only to surprise with a dramatic twist that builds to a breathtaking, soaring climax echoing the brilliance of Ride’s most epic moments. Rough Up emerges as a Velvet Underground-inspired ballad, built on two simple acoustic guitar chords and an organ, showcasing a more subdued and vulnerable side of the band. In contrast, Standardized plunges into a powerful trance, unleashing a massive, deliciously primal wall of saturation with raw, unfiltered intensity. With Standardized, Stuffed Foxes appear to have reached an aesthetic milestone, transcending the semantics of the genres that once defined them. They have ‘de-standardized’ their sound and embraced a sense of freedom, opening up to the possibilities of a wider creative spectrum. Stuffed Foxes - Pretend to Be a Dog (Gamelle) (Official Video)

Disco Music is probably one of Toy Tonics’s catchiest tracks. Played by DJs like Palms Trax, A-Trak, Louie Vega, Folamour and tons of other big names, this track could become a anthem for the new wave of disco that is invading the clubs 2024. After techno and trance revivals of the last year not just the italo disco movement has become massive among the younger generation but all kinds of afro, latin, new wave and indie disco are invading the dancefloors.

Fimiani who made this track, inspired by a rare old song from the 1970ies played all instruments himeself with a group of friends (no samples).

Now its time to bring on variations of the track, Remixes by Young Pulse, the house maestro from paris, Elado, crazy edit king fro Tel Aviv, Berlin's Delfonic, who one more time proves that he knows how to tune a soul song into a dancfloor anthem and last but not east Paul Older, the guy who just released his debut EP on Toy Tonics with massive support himself by DJs like Folamour, Master at Work and many others..

These remixes are all dancefloor gold. Fimiani is on the roll.

Belgian producer Uit de Hoogte returns to his own label LANK with ‘Polos’ EP, celebrating the mesmerizing art of looping in all its splendor. This release fuses loopy vocal chops, intricate chord progressions, and percussion hits, creating a collection of trance-inducing killers for the dancefloor.

The EP opens with “Pink Polo,” a hard-hitting house anthem that layers wonky chord progressions, super-saw synths, and a vocal acapella from Ye, crafting a high-energy peak time banger.

The second track, "Lazy 8" (stylized as ∞), mellows things out with a hypnotic female vocal loop of the word "octa," repeated into infinity. Driven by a relentless drum machine and a warm, woolly bassline, this track draws dancers into a deep, driving euphoria.

Side B kicks off with "Loops of XTc," a track built entirely from samples salvaged from a 90s sample CD discovered in a local thrift store. With a clever twist on cheap, nostalgic loops, Uit de Hoogte reshapes these elements into a deep, dub-infused house gem that revives the spirit of the 90s club scene.

Closing the EP is “Frida,” a dreamy house piece that brings a sense of droney introspection to the dancefloor. Gradually, the gentle hum of a Yamaha DX7 leads into a meditative Portuguese vocal, lifting the track to ethereal heights.

Made with love & hardware gear only!

So, people. The penultimate edition of the Earquake Vinyl series is coming up. 1998. A great year for experiments on the edge of techno-laws and far beyond. Whether he lets the Schaffel bass drum dance with “Galoppmusik” or explores the resilience of trance through exuberant cluster atonality with “Loikum” on the riot label Auftrieb. Wolfgang Voigt's musical 360 degree universe mutates in all directions and once again reaches for the stars. Of course, a finely chiseled pinch of All/M:I:5 should not be missing, as should a generous measure of “Diskoschleifen 2000”, an art-music concept that saves disco from itself through abstraction and deconstruction, right? You have to go through that now.

So, Leute. Die vorletzte Ausgabe der Earquake Vinyl Reihe steht an. 1998. Ein super Jahr für Experimente am Rande der Techno-Gesetze und weit darüber hinaus. Ob er nun mit „Galoppmusik“ die gerade Bassdrum Schaffel tanzen lässt, oder mit „Loikum“ auf dem Krawall-Label Auftrieb die Belastbarkeit von Trance durch überbordende Cluster-Atonalität auslotet. Wolfgang Voigts musikalisches 360 Grad Universum mutiert in alle Himmelsrichtungen und greift mal wieder nach den Sternen. Da darf natürlich ebenso wenig eine fein-ziselierte Prise All/M:I:5 fehlen, wie ein gerüttelt Maß „Diskoschleifen 2000“, Konzeptkunst-Musik die vermittels Abstraktion und Dekonstruktion Disko vor sich selbst rettet, oder? Da müsst ihr jetzt durch.

There are few hidden gems that we can find on the different streaming channels, and it is precisely our job to have them for you. This Saturday we want to bring you a Chilean band that is born from transversal rock and its variants. We talk about The Cruel Visions. The Cruel Visions is the name that Pablo Giadach (founder) proposes to imagine a luminous and nostalgic interior landscape, expressed in songs of subtle composition and evocative beauty. The guitarist and musician in the bands Casino, Trancemission and The Ganjas, brings with him an album weathered by the passage of time in nightly improvisations and his recording studio, influenced mainly by the sounds of the early 80's, new wave, paisley underground, post punk and dark wave. The Cruel Visions was born from the idea of grouping together different recordings that Pablo made in parallel to his work with The Ganjas between 2015 and 2017 at different times and formats. Most of the album is a collection of demos and improvisations with a Rickenbacker 12-string guitar, an echo chamber and a drum machine, which were then worked on for almost 3 years in the free time at Estudio Lautaro, where he also performs. as an engineer and producer. His authorial present discovers the ethereal and light sounds that bands like The Cure or The Jesus and Mary Chain decanted, who left the initial rawness to give way to a more atmospheric and personal repertoire, which, although luminous, maintains traces of the darkest noise of the post-punk era. This time the path taken in other formations where Pablo provides precise sounds, completed with effects such as reverb and distortion, gives shape to a more personal list of songs that sails with the wind in its favor through foggy waters, already known to listeners of English 80's alternative music. Vocals and some arrangements were done at Woodbine St Recording by John A. Rivers, who has produced records by Love and Rockets, The Specials, Nikki Sudden, Close Lobsters and Dead Can Dance, among many others

Repress!

Techno, Disco, Italo, Electronics, House, Library, Cosmic and Ambient frequencies - These are the bedrocks of the Midnight Drive ethos and sound. A label shining a light on overlooked or unheralded creations and respectfully reissuing them for the contemporary audience.

A label that respects and understands the connection between these disparate and sometimes forgotten forms of musical expression and celebrates them. Midnight Drive are extremely proud to reintroduce the world to the sublime after-hours, cult downtempo sounds of Belgian duo Pieter Kuyl and Jan Van Den Bergh aka Mappa Mundi.

Mappa Mundi's sole release 'Musaics' was released on Belgium's legendary USA Import label in 1990, riding on the wave of early trance and ambient house sounds and exploring the same sonic terrain and worlds as The Orb, The KLF, Sun Electric and other like minded outfits. A wonderful swirling collage or mosaic of breakbeats, samples and new-age synth stylings, 'Musaics' is indeed a real trip.

A spontaneous late night studio concoction borne of endless takes and experimentation between Kuyl and Van Den Bergh who both display a deep knowledge and a shared love of different sounds from around the world. The end result is a meditative, sprawling journey that touches on many different styles from languid widescreen techno to frantic drum machine driven machine-funk, all while retaining a feeling of post-rave atmospherics and psychedelia.

This is a very special record indeed, and is somewhat of a lost gem from a very fertile and interesting period in sample based music. Undoubtedly the perfect soundtrack to numerous late nights and early mornings to come, remastered and spread across 2 discs for maximum sonic playback.

Peggy Gou’s Gudu Records is proud to present the label’s first ever album, from someone who’s been part of the family since the start: Brain de Palma.

Born in Ukraine, settling as a child in Turin and spending three years in Egypt before settling in his current home of Berlin, Alexei Versino has one hell of a story.

Musically, he’s been around for a decade now, releasing his previous music (solo as Panama Keys, and also as one half of the duo Stump Valley) on labels like Dekmantel, Soul Clap and Off Minor, before settling on Gudu with his Brain de Palma alias. But personally, his relationship to music goes much deeper: as a young child growing up in the former Soviet Union, a lot of European music was banned, so he relied on his well-travelled uncle to bring him back smuggled cassettes of Italo Disco, Depeche Mode, Kraftwerk, Erasure and early DJ mixes – getting an illicit musical education behind closed doors as a child.

He still carries that underground mindset to this day: the press release for his last Gudu EP, Purple Brain, reads: “dedicated to all the ravers, DJs, aficionados who had to go through the lockdowns … a shout out to people who keep on fighting for the underground culture!”. The perfect candidate for Gudu’s first album, then.

Comprising eleven tracks made across the past year, Versino describes Rhythmption as “my redemption through rhythm”, and a tribute to “seeing people enjoying themselves on the dancefloor, that feeling of unity where people become one thing, regardless of their life path or social status.” Opening with the gorgeous ‘Thandolwami’ (featuring South African vocalist Sfiso Atomza), Rhythmption charts a path through sun-drenched Balearic house, stuttering drum work-outs, Italo-inspired synth romps, trancey house and even a touching tribute to his former home of Egypt, taking in every aspect of Versino’s journey to date. After all, it’s not all about the destination, it’s also the sights you see along the way.

Shock Room it’s a double vinyl release who takes the name from the main room of the discoteque.

ULTIMO IMPERO DI Torino; an historic temple of the techno music from the ‘90s. in this compila)on are all included the most iconic and an)cipated “techno, trance & progressive” grooves that have made dance en)re genera)ons of people, nowadays again on track and well
spinned up by djs all arounf the world.

Leng’s San Francisco connection has long been strong, with the 40 Thieves collective – and their friend Cole Odin – providing some of the label’s most memorable releases of the last decade. That Bay Area connection comes to the fore once more on the imprint’s latest release, which sees Odin join forces with fellow San Francisco resident Marshall Watson, a long-serving producer, engineer and live performer known globally for his Balearic-minded productions.
‘Voyager’, the pair’s first collaborative single, is a genuine meeting of minds. It combines Odin’s love of low-slung dub disco, dancefloor psychedelia and low-tempo cosmic house with Watson’s
picturesque Balearic synths, sparkling piano riffs and immersive sound design. It’s this blend that dominates on the EP-opening Original Mix, an infectious workout that gets progressively more blissed-out and saucer-eyed as it progresses. Listen carefully and you’ll hear some suitably psychedelic guitar solos nestling amongst the heady washes of sound, sun-bright piano riffs and weighty bass.


Those languid, stretched-out guitar parts naturally take a more prominent role on the Extended
Guitar Mix. On this alternative take, the pair deliver a lightly tweaked take on the original groove, stretching it out while overlaying eyes-closed guitar solos, pots-and-pans percussion and a more DJ-friendly outro. It’s effectively an extended club mix – the club in question being a Bay Area basement at 5am. To round off the EP, Odin and Watson dust off their dancing shoes and pay tribute to San Francisco great Patrick Cowley. On the appropriately titled Cosmic Rave Mix, the pair swap their bass guitar for a pulsating sequenced bassline, trance-inducing synth sounds, and locked-in electronic loops designed to take you to a higher state of consciousness. By the time the track’s familiar piano refrain drops midway through, you’ll be reaching for the lasers in no time at all.

The 1980 space disco hit you probably never heard of. Now officially remastered including new stunning edits by Peaking Lights and Korkut Elbay. Picture sleeve with an outstanding painting by Antonia Freisburger.

'Inside' with loads of synths and some vocoder on top is a wild jam that is propelling more and more into a frenzy during its course.

Following the orginal is a dancefloor-edit by Korkut Elbay which puts the vocal part into focus. Korkut Elbay, part of the Cómeme camp and an integral part of Cologne's electronic music scene for over 20 years, crafted an edit in its purest form.

On the flipside Aaron Coyes of the California-based duo Peaking Lights stretches out the original and reaches higher grounds with his stomping rework. He gently adds some more keys and puts you into a trance with his soothing melodies. Now dance!

But what's the story behind this unearthed gem stone? In the late 1970s a marketing company owner faced an increasing competitve market and wanted to work indepently from the professional studios which were charging high rates for commercials back then. The solution was to build his own sound studio. So he set one up in the basement of his company in Saarbrücken, Germany. He hired a studio operator and a composer that got quite a reputation in the local scence back then and besides daily job routines 'Inside' was created.