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The third instalment of our Versus series see's the return of two previously featured artists plus some super fresh blood. Croydon's king of darkness Paragon comes with
more seriously dark vibes with 'Dominions'. Acid Lab makes his second Versus appearance with the beautiful
'Can't Run'. The don of Haunted Science Amsterdam
chapter Transient bring some dark techno atmosphere's with his epic 'Scripture' and label owner Soul Intent finishes the Volume Three off with a straight up dancefloor roller called 'Bite It'.
Black Truffle is thrilled to announce the first ever vinyl reissue of legendary performance and sound artist John Duncan's forgotten gem Klaar, originally released by Extreme in 1991 and partly created in collaboration with Andrew McKenzie (The Hafler Trio). Duncan is perhaps most well known for his notorious early performances pieces, which explored violence, self-denial, and the establishment of extreme psychological and physical states in both artist and audience. Alongside these transgressive experiments, Duncan began to create audio works primarily using short wave radio. Where some of Duncan's earlier recordings are composed of magnificently sculpted but abrasive walls of noise, Klaar, recorded while Duncan was living in Amsterdam, occupies a more meditative territory.
Opening with 'Delta', which layers long tones seemingly sourced from slowed down voices over a distant, watery field recording, the remainder of the first side is occupied with the epic title piece, which arranges shortwave radio abstraction, vocal experiments, and field recordings (street sounds, fireworks, monastic chants) into an episodic cinema for the ear. The second side is dominated by the long, brooding 'The Immense Room', where layers of shortwave interference and field recordings are gradually built up into a pulsing, wavering bed of sound infused with a subtly disturbing sense of psychological unrest. This rises to the surface near the end of the piece as sexual moans and ominous rumbles crisscross the stereo image before being abruptly brought to a halt.
A singular work of electroacoustic composition, Klaar is both compositionally sophisticated and infused with a sense of mystery and a vital reality often lacking in more academic experimental music; it sits proudly alongside contemporaneous recordings by Duncan's friends and collaborators Jim O'Rourke and Christoph Heemann and is a must for anyone interested in their work.
- Francis Plagne
After moving from London to Berlin Cromby is back on Tenderpark with his second EP for the vinyl label. The young man recreates our love for Deep House with two sample-based tracks which showcase his ever advancing skills with the old school Akai sampler MPC 2000 XL as well as his cool understanding of mixing haunting melodies with gripping groove patterns. The remix on the flip side comes from Hip-Hop super producer gone House lover Hodini who has collaborated with the talented bass player Chez Kerim for this funky workout. The cover image shot by Achim Valbracht is the start of a new artwork series developed by Tenderpark art director Till Sperrle which revolves around critique of investor-driven architechture that has been dominating Berlin for several decades now. The speciously precious and glittering image displays a normalised and globally standardised kind of beauty but at the same time reveals a strong sense of loneliness. As always both the mastering and as well as the lacquer cut of this record have been carefully executed by vinyl sound mastermind Helmut Erler at Dubplates & Mastering.
SOV is glad to welcome aboard the new family member for it's 12th cat. The Mole is a Canadian artist known for his music boutique interpreting elements of disco, jazz, hip hop and funk. Since this kind of game is also the core of our soul, we are happy to present 4 special tracks from him.
Black Truffle is honored to present a new issue of Annea Lockwood's classic 1970 tape piece Tiger Balm, unavailable on vinyl for over thirty years, accompanied by two exquisite unreleased works for percussion and voice.
Created while Lockwood was living in the UK, the side-long Tiger Balm is a singular work within the cannon of tape music. Inspired by research into the ritual function of music, the piece explores the possibility of evoking ancient communal memories through sound. Breaking entirely with the dynamic language of the musique concrète tradition, Lockwood uses a select palette of mainly unprocessed sonic elements chosen for their mysterious and erotic characteristics (a purring cat, a heartbeat, gongs, slowed down jaw harp, a tiger, a woman's breath, a plane passing overhead), presenting at most two sounds at once. As one sound flows organically into the next, their shared characteristics are highlighted, opening a space of dream logic and mysterious associations between nature and culture, the ancient and the modern.
The B-side presents two pieces for percussion recorded here for the first time. Amazonia Dreaming (1987), performed by Dominic Donato, uses unaccompanied snare drum and voice to evoke the nocturnal soundscape of the Amazon rainforest. Unorthodox techniques and materials (marbles, chopsticks, a plastic jar lid) transform the snare into a resonant field of sensual textures.
Immersion (1998), performed by Donato and Frank Cassara, is a slow-moving exploration of gentle beating tones, performed on marimba, tam tams and gong. Like the other two works presented on this LP, it provides captivating proof of Lockwood's belief in the complexity that deep listening can reveal within seemingly simple sounds.
Francis Plagne
Presented in a stunning deluxe gatefold sleeve with archival pics and liner notes by Annea Lockwood including the score to Amazonia Dreaming.
LP design via Stephen O'Malley
Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, Berlin February 2017
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A post-Tropicalia masterpiece from one of the movements key figures and true legends of Brazilian music, Gal Costa. Features a stellar line up of musicians including Gilberto Gil, Arthur Verocai, Dominguinhos, Rogério Duprat and Tenorio Jr. amongst others.
Replica original gatefold including the cover that was banned by the Brazilian military government in 1973 during the brutal dictatorship.
'India' includes the incredible 'Pontos De Luz' as sampled by Kaytranada on 'Lite Spots' - one of our favourite Brazilian songs of all time. A wonderful album from start to finish, touching on MPB, folk, jazz, funk and rock with strong Tropicalia and Nordestino influences throughout.
A record that we have long been wanting to reissue! Licensed courtesy of Universal Music Group Limited.
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First Word Records are very proud to present a heavyweight EP in collaboration with seminal groove collective, CoOp: 'Selectors Assemble'.
It's been almost two decades since a bunch of music makers, bored of the genre constraints of their time, began toying with time signature and syncopation to birth what is now known as broken beat. Summer 2017, the 'Selectors Assemble' EP is in our laps and we have a fitting reminder and long-overdue renaissance of one of London's most valuable musical movements.
IG Culture and Alex Phountzi were integral to this movement, the focal point being the CoOp club night, which ran predominantly on the famed floors of Plastic People, up until 2007. CoOp remerged late in 2015 as a Boiler Room session, in which the originators linked effortlessly with new school players such as K15 and Alex Nut. The following day, a session was inspired between an assortment of artists, and the seeds were planted for the 'Selectors Assemble'.
Here we have the first offering. The steady-paced roller of 'Gangz' (IG & Seiji), the dutty wine-ready getdown of Henry Wu's 'Substance', the heads-down low-end theory of '2nd Intention', the dominant soundclash call-out of the 'Spartan Riddim', riding out with the garage-flecked jam 'Can't Hold It', also featuring Sonar's Ghost (Domu). Five tracks deeply rooted in groove and as beautifully diverse as Bruk ever was.
Pressed up lovingly onto 140g vinyl, this release is accompanied with a fully-printed insert, featuring an extensive piece on the history of Bruk, written by Andwot (Touching Bass), classic photography by Sarah Ginn, and full-colour artwork by Mitchy Bwoy, a legendary artist to the original scene in his own right. This is an essential artefact for followers of the sound, new and old.
First Word prides itself on its ethos of musical diversity, and we're ecstatic to welcome aboard the CoOp foundation to the stable. A crew of British dance music pioneers, sound-system legends, and now-school heavyweights, this is but a taste of what's to come. Lead by the don IG Culture, the family spirit has quickly formed, the selectors have assembled.
The stage has been set for bruk's second wind. Be ready.
A A1 | Henry Wu - Substance (IG Culture & Alex Phountzi Remix)
Inner8 is Daniele Antezza, a multi-faceted thinker and electronic music producer, member of Dadub duo, co-founder of Artefacts Mastering Studio, Dadub Studio owner and Holotone label manager, whose regular invocation of the term praxis begins to hint at his creative aims: a primary synthesis of contemplation and action that, in turn, encourages a secondary and entirely unpredictable set of syntheses dependent upon the listener's unique interpretation. Though the Inner8 moniker has been in existence for several years as a private nickname for, as Antezza puts it, his 'experimental anarchist sounds,' his recent releases are just now surfacing which will reveal just how much this project has to communicate.
Like many transplants to Berlin's pulsating sonic underground (Antezza moved there from Italy in 2009), his past work seems to communicate traces of the ecstatic with the argot of technical precision and / or scientific rigour. However, Antezza is not what one would call a 'Berlin artist' despite sharing these traits in common with the city's most visionary producers: his work gives off an impression of restless nomadism that has little to do with representing a localized scene. Rather than carrying on the territorial / parochial projects of reinforcing an arts scene's geographic boundaries (or even redefining the boundaries of a musical genre), Inner8 is more concerned with a holistic 'deconstructive approach' through which 'it's possible to reveal the paradoxes of the dominant thought, the paradoxes behind the status quo.' His fascination with concepts as diverse as asymptotes and particle physics, though often trendy among those looking for a seat at the table of the avant-garde, is a heartfelt fascination - moreover, these interests merge perfectly with his relentless theoretical questing.
Antezza's relationship with that city's Stroboscopic Artefacts techno label has been a particularly fruitful one, to the point where his sound work prior to Inner8 is almost synonymous with SA's own development. As one half of the psychonaut duo Dadub along with Marco Donnarumma, Antezza has sculpted deep and immense tracks that mesmerize with their harmonious interplay of force and ambiguity. After having co-founded and managed for years Artefacts Mastering Studio, he recently launched his brand new audio postproduction Studio (Dadub Studio), where Antezza lends his sonic signature to an eclectic variety of electronic recordings. That signature can be identified by its hyperreal sense of presence and immediacy, qualities that have become crucial to the presentation of a music that generally relies on only a few sonic elements per track to communicate its message.
Antezza also takes pride in the ritualistic quality of Inner8's live sets; a mobile laboratory of dynamic tension in which his theories manifest as massive physical vibrations (here we can also see / hear / feel just how well Daniele has absorbed the lessons of the dub 'sound system' aesthetic).
Richy Ahmed's Four Thirty Two imprint continues to shine a light on the freshest talent emerging from the house music underground, and on the label's third release, the London based Senzala get to flex their muscle on a fine release, backed with a remix from Ahmed and Jansons AKA Lovehertz.
Having previously released on the French label Mr. KS & Friends, and Politics Of Dancing, the Senzala boys, otherwise known as Jonni Santos & Sam Holland, deliver the goods once more on the 'Phase' EP.
The title track packs rolling 909s and looping filtered disco riffs into its punch; never letting the energy levels drop. Vocal licks and techno-laced stabs drive this club-focused track fantastically, with a glossy production that really shines through. Richy Ahmed and Jansons come correct with a Loveherts remix; a heavyweight analogue bassline dominated the mix and the vocal parts slide down the arpeggiated riff as incessant synth stabs ramp up the heat, taking their remix right to fever pitch.
The Senzala boys grind out more solid house grooves on 'All For You', deploying disco samples and vocals that are filtered and twisted around the tough drums to great effect, whilst on 'Agora', the mood remains unfaltering as feel good riffs and warm keys wrap around Senzala's steady beat to complete a stellar release that's packed with energy and infectious vibes.
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Never before reissued, this legendary 1968 EMI recording is a revered Indian jazz rarity, a collectors' holy grail. Raga Jazz Style is an original Indian excursion into Indo-jazz fusion. A one-away recording from the almost unknown Bombay jazz scene, it is among the few jazz LPs to hail from the subcontinent.Closely contemporary with the UK-based explorations of Amancio D'Silva, John Mayer and Joe Harriott, Raga Jazz Style takes the melodic, scale-based raga system of Indian classical music and marries it with a swinging jazz rhythm section assembled by Bollywood's most highly acclaimed musical directors, the soundtrack composing duo Shankar Singh and Jaikishan Panchal.Singh and Panchal were a dominant force in Hindi film music from the late 1940s onwards. Shankar had been trained in classical tabla, while Jaikishan was an expert harmonium player. They worked together on well over a hundred films, and their innovative compositions and orchestral scoring revolutionised the music of the nascent Bollywood industry. Central to their sound was regular collaborator Sebastian D'Souza. From 1952 onwards, D'Souza would work on every Shankar Jaikishan soundtrack, eventually becoming Bollywood's most coveted musical arranger.
Originally from Goa, D'Souza had cut his teeth in the dance-band era, arranging and playing with his uncle's jazz bands in Lahore and Quetta. After Partition, he had moved to Bombay to follow the reliable work provided by the film industry, where Goan musicians had become the mainstay of Bollywood's film studio orchestras. Goans were also the core of Bombay's thriving dance-hall and hotel-based jazz scene, with artists including saxophonist Braz Gonsalves, guitarist Amancio D'Silva and trumpeter Chic Chocolate all working in the city during the post-war years.
The team assembled for Raga Jazz Style were drawn from this inventive and forward-thinking milieu. Pianist Lucilla Pacheco, saxophonist Manohari Singh and guitarist Anibal Castro were all fixtures on the Bombay jazz circuit, while drummer Leslie Godinho is reputed to have taught Joe Morello the 5/4 'Take Five' beat when they jammed together during Dave Brubeck's State Department tour of India. To this jazz backbone was added the sitar of Ustad Rais Khan, scion of long line of classical instrumentalists, and nephew of the renowned sitarist Ustad Vilayat Khan. Bombay's jazz modernists had been experimenting with the fusion of ragas and jazz since the 1950s, long before American or British jazz musicians had tuned in to Indian classical music. But very little of this exciting scene was ever captured on record. Raga Jazz Style offers a rare chance to hear the innovative sounds of the Indian jazz scene, as peerless composers Shankar Jaikishan and arranging supremo D'Souza join with veteran Bombay jazzers to explore classical themes in a jazz setting — eleven ragas to a swinging beat!This is a highly impressive inaugural salvo by Outernational Sounds, using original masters and beautifully rendered facsimile artwork, with 180g vinyl pressed at Pallas, in Germany.
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also available
004[11,35 €]
Coming off of EP releases on Dynamic Reflection and 100% Pure, Uun returns to his label Ego Death for it's third release, and it's first on vinyl. The title track references Carl Sagan's classic work of skepticism Demon Haunted World. It features a percussive attack that builds into a swirling tornado of distorted synths and hihats. The Scarlet Martyr takes a different approach that is heavy on pads and atmospheric elements all over a bed of field recordings. The B side starts with NX1's remix of the title track. This interpretation chops up the synth and percussive elements into a broken beat onslaught that builds into the track being deconstructed piece by piece. The final track Dominions continues in the broken beat direction with a more straightforward dancefloor approach. "It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring." -Carl Sagan
Alexey Volkov first appeared in the techno scene in 2011. His past releases on the Semantica and Jealous God labels have gained Alexey and his music widespread acclaim. Since his debut, Alexey has been busy crafting and perfecting his sound. His origins in Punk and Industrial become apparent in his new EP for Escapism. He continuously proves that his assertive yet refined style is worth the hype as unconventional rhythms and unsettling sounds dominate the tracks.
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Cologne's electronic music community keeps on giving, drawing on a dense plethora of fresh talent ready to shake up our little big grassroots industry. The latest ace up the city's sleeve must be Tim Engelhardt, part of a new breed of incredibly versatile young producers that get their cues from all sorts of genres and listening situations, combining profound musical knowledge with intuitive playfulness and multiple perspectives on sound. In Tim's case, we're dealing with a solid pianist background - which becomes rather obvious in the great care he takes over harmonies and an expanded melodic structure. However, that's just one side of the story, as the organic fluidity and atmospheric dexterity of his music most certainly hark back to an upbringing among the rolling hills and sprawling forests of Germany's Westerwald - one of the country's best known mountain ranges that has already inspired artists such as Dominik Eulberg or Gabriel Ananda. Having released your first recordings at the tender age of 14 - as Tim did in 2012 - might put you in a 'wunderkind' category - a flattering, but ultimately risky proposition, finding many a prodigy overwhelmed with the dubious honour. Not so much our hero, who chose to put his skills to work: in only four years, he grew his portfolio with plenty outings on labels such as Traum Schallplatten, WIR, Babiczstyle, Amuse Gueule, Ostwind Records, Popart Music, Playmusic Productions, Parquet Recordings, Manual Music and more - but his breakthrough release was hands-down the 2015 EP 'Everything Is All You Have' on Steve Bug's iconic Poker Flat imprint, followed by 'Enigmatism' on the same label.
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"Daito" The Temple
Sub filtered kick delays deliver heart pounding bass, followed by spacious overhead sounds of nature, leaving the tubular synthesis builds up the tension. Featuring a melodic buildup, to get any dance floor calm, quickly to be filled with warm sub bass & soft percussion, ending with a clean mixable outro.
"Balas" Molecules (J. Manuel Destruction Mix)
A mechanically arranged techno slammer, with creatively delayed sci-fi elements, pounding broken beats & subtle, clean percussion, all coming together to dominate any dance-floor!
Starting with a slowly resonating acid line, medieval sounding pads add depth & progression, followed by a sharp snare & tribal tom, all ending in a galactic buildup, with the acid line adding the energy & the pads giving the track an ancient sound.
"Projekt Gestalten" The Fight, The Victory, The Death
Starting with a slowly resonating acid line, medieval sounding pads add depth & progression, followed by a sharp snare & tribal tom, all ending in a galactic buildup, with the acid line adding the energy & the pads giving the track an ancient sound.
"Cristian Marras" Project to Escape
Hypnotic but also energetic, this is peak time techno!
The first hook gets your attention as the overdrive percussion builds you up to the breakdown. As the frequencies slowly change, the buildup arises, building up the energy levels ahead of the discreet drop, filled with high frequencies to put you into a state of trance.
After starting out with EP's showcasing tracks by various artists, Invite's Choice is back with a 3 track EP by Drafted.
The EP is opened by Detached with it's dominating, repeating tom/percussive low-end sound. The frequential spectrum is filled up by other percussive elements and reverb-filled effects, which give the track a spacious feel. Oxidian starts out in your face with it's droning and repetitive synth. The track evolves into an abstract apogee with intense synthesis before it breaks down again, allowing for a smooth mix to be made. Sphere closes down this 3-track EP on the B-side and does so with lot's of fast changing hi-hat and ride patterns and one sharp sounding synthesizer, which makes it a perfect B-side closing track. Once again a great showcase of sustainable modern day electronic music by Invite's Choice!
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In this space between chaos and conformity disorderly moments welcome new phases into existence, leading to the awakening of an elevated version of the self. Between highs and lows, Transitions of Life remain; the concept behind Synthek's first solo full length sound narrative on his Natch Records imprint. Unfolding across a vexing two-year transformation phase, Synthek's crossings along rough roads are the tribulations to reveal this intimate personal journey of reve- lation through emotional downshift, spiritual upheaval and cerebral quandary. In this dominion, Synthek shapes the eleven track escapade along a sophisticated array of synths and warm analog drums, while contrasting the build and decline of atmosphere through deep bass soundscapes.
Pivotal turning points execute the programming of the album's three part sound design; beginning from darkness and repression, evolving to a more colourful aerial majesty of lucid dream state, morphing into the developed nature of life lessons learned; Transitions of Life making its incarnation into the discovery of the self and re-entry into reality.
*Transitions of Life is a 2x12' release made available through Natch Elements, intro- spective extension to the Natch Records imprint. Visual embodiment of the project artfully presented with photographic time capsule by Salar Kheradpejouh of Berlin, Germany with graphic work curated by Jacopo Saveritano, co-founder of Natch Records.
