Cerca:dry

Anyone that cut their metal teeth with The Big Four, and then dug a little deeper into the indie scene, should receive a major endorphin rush when they discover that speed and thrash masters RAZOR are about to release their first studio offering in 25 years. The album, Cycle of Contempt, is a direct, cutthroat record that pulls no punches and takes no prisoners. From the catchy, concise riffs and insistent beats of album opener “Flames of Hatred” to the double-barreled assault, muted power chord chugging and combative gang vocal of album closer “King Shit,” Cycle of Contempt is a trenchant reminder of a time when clubs around the world were packed with long-haired bands that played as fast as they could and mosh pits that spun and tumbled like clothes in a short-circuiting dryer. As energetic and exciting as Evil Invaders and as urgent and powerful as RAZOR’s 1989 speed-fest Violent Restitution, Cycle of Contempt showcases a band that never stopped spewing venom. “I tried to write songs that everybody could listen to and say, “Yeah, I know a guy who's done that to me or done this, or I know that situation. I can relate to that,” band founder Dave Carlo says. “And I didn’t want to make everything specifically about me because when you do that, you exclude people. I wanted to include everyone that’s ever felt pissed off about anything.” An unrelenting slab of old-school thrash that showcases RAZOR's encyclopedic knowledge of the past along with Carlo’s growth as a songwriter, player, and lyricist, Cycle of Contempt is here to show that RAZOR are as dominating as ever.

Perc returns to Perc Trax with 'Dirt', one of his most raw and uncompromising works to date. Across three versions of the track, one remixed in collaboration with rising US star EAS, Perc fuses together dry looped techno with caustic industrial sounds and just a splash of rave euphoria.

Opening up the release is the original mix of 'Dirt' layering searing top end percussion over cropped breakbeats before dropping unexpectedly to an unmistakable classic piano riff. The riff has been completely replayed and reproduced rather than sampled and provides the kind of sudden jolt that Perc's productions are famous for.

On the B-side Perc teams up with Los Angeles DJ and producer EAS who returns to the label for the first time since his devastating remix of Perc's own 'Dumpster' in early 2021. Perc provides the beats and EAS serves up the 303 lines, as the hedonism of the original mix's piano drop is swapped for a screw faced slice of warehouse acid.

Rounding off the release is Perc's own 'Crowd Mix' which focuses on the beats with additional layers of percussion and atmospheric crowd samples filling the space taken by the piano hook and acid lines of the first two mixes.

'Dirt' will be released as a hand-stamped white label release in a stickered black paper sleeve. The release was mastered by regular Perc Trax mastering engineer Matt Colton at Metropolis studios with Adult Art Club handling visual presentation and design.

Am 16.09. erscheint eine neue, erweiterte Deluxe Edition von "Holidays In Eden", dem ursprünglich 1991 veröffentlichten Album von Marillion. Die neue Edition erscheint als 3CD/Blu-Ray-Buch und als 4LP-Set. Die Blu-Ray der Deluxe Edition enthält den brandneuen
2022 Stereo-Remix in 96/24 Stereo LPCM, DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 und 96/24 5.1 LPCM sowie B-Seiten und Bonustracks wie die "The Moles Club"-Demos, aufgenommen nach dem langen Songwriting-Prozess der Band für das Album. Außerdem gibt es jede Menge
Video-Content, darunter eine ganz neue Doku, in der di Band über die Entstehungsgeschichte des Albums spricht, Promo-Videos in neuer HD-Qualität - und ein Live-Konzert, das damals im Rahmen der Reihe
"Rockpalast In Concert" im deutschen Fernsehen ausgestrahlt wurde. Außerdem gibt es jede Menge Video-Content, darunter eine ganz neue Doku, in der die Band über die Entstehungsgeschichte des Albums spricht, Promo-Videos in neuer HD-Qualität - und ein Live-Konzert, das damals im Rahmen der Reihe "Rockpalast In Concert" im deutschen Fernsehen ausgestrahlt wurde












l c2 Dry Land [4:40]

Dirtiness and Divergency
It's a mystery what the handwriting of an artist is made of. What are the ties between artist and art? Why do we recognize the sound of a music producer even if they suddenly create music of a differnet genre?

On his new album "Kiss Dance Kiss" F.S.Blumm remains unmistakably himself, even if he assembles dub- infected, saturated, overdriven instrumental tracks. It may be his signature guitar sound, the disarmingly straightforward melodies, or the irresistible groove: This groove is compelling but unobtrusive. Three, sometimes four notes create timeless melodies.
F.S.Blumm unleashes his love for beats and dub by allowing the bone-dry riddims to dive deeply into the genre typical echo-chamber, combined with sweet guitar arpeggios and melodic basslines. These are friendly dub monsters. It doesn’t all fit seamlessly into the homogeneous sound. Take "Nimbb" with it's angular electronic groove, devoid of any melody, or the surprising horn timbres on "Twistert".

As with all of Blumm‘s works, there is a familiar intimacy even within big echo chambers.

His music searches for the sweet spot. He waits for the right time to record a piece, allowing for the exact degree of maturity of an idea, the magical moment when guest musicians meet, the collision between a well-planned process and happy coincidence. Finding the perfect spot for microphone placement, walking the fine-line between too slow and too fast, pinpointing the right delay-time are all inherent in Blumm's craft. It is a music full of these fragile constellations, interferences and synergies.

The concept of 'composition through duplication' is repeated visually on the cover:

Repetition creates blur and noise. Patterns rub against each other. Sound waves flutter in the wind. A simultaneous sunrise and sunset indicate the search for the perfect overlap.
Each track acts like a rhythmic serving suggestion for individual dance moves. Music for the daily dance around the kitchen table. A lookbook for kraut-dub, analog-electro or adult-instrumental-pop.

.. and now out into the sun.

Uit de Hoogte goes raw on new release “Λέων” with 15 analog jams made between July 23 and August 22, summer 2022. All tracks are written, recorded and mixed off the cuff, straight to 1/2 inch reel-to-reel tape which gives the tracks a deep and warm vibe. Some additional editing and mastering duties were done in the box. The Belgian producer doesn’t hesitate to explore new grounds with tracks ranging from house to garage and acid till techno. These 100 minutes of bangers are printed on a limited number of 50 cassettes. Download option included*.

GA-20 clearly is on to something big. It's a movement, a new traditional blues revival. The dynamic, throwback blues trio are disciples of the placewhere traditional blues, country and rock `n' roll intersect. "We make records that we would want to listen to," says guitarist Matt Stubbs. "It's our take on the song-based traditional electric blues we love." Stubbs, guitarist/vocalist Pat Faherty, and drummer Tim Carman have been at the forefront of this traditional blues revival since they first formed in 2018. It's no wonder they skyrocketed to the top of the Billboard Blues Chart. According to Stubbs, "Since we started the band we've focused on the story, the melody, and on creating a mood. Playing live as much as we do,we're finding more and more that people are discovering how cool it all is.Traditional country, soul and funk music have all had these massive recent revivals, but traditional blues so far has not." With their new Colemine album, Crackdown, and an intensive tour schedule, that's all about to change. On Crackdown, GA-20's third full-length release, the band creates an unvarnished, ramshackle blues that is at once traditional and refreshingly modern. Expanding on their previous releases (2019's Lonely Soul and 2021's Try It_You Might Like It! GA-20 Does Hound Dog Taylor) GA-20 finds inspiration on the edges of the genre, where early electric blues first converged with country and rock `n' roll. The album's nine original songs include the loping, Louisiana-flavored Dry Run, the dirty, and bare-bones Easy On The Eyes and the melodic, garage-tinged Fairweather Friend. With tight, propulsive performances and a brevity and punk energy reminiscent of The Ramones, Crackdown is rowdy and fun, filled with instantly memorable, and well-crafted songs.

GA-20 clearly is on to something big. It's a movement, a new traditional blues revival. The dynamic, throwback blues trio are disciples of the placewhere traditional blues, country and rock `n' roll intersect. "We make records that we would want to listen to," says guitarist Matt Stubbs. "It's our take on the song-based traditional electric blues we love." Stubbs, guitarist/vocalist Pat Faherty, and drummer Tim Carman have been at the forefront of this traditional blues revival since they first formed in 2018. It's no wonder they skyrocketed to the top of the Billboard Blues Chart. According to Stubbs, "Since we started the band we've focused on the story, the melody, and on creating a mood. Playing live as much as we do,we're finding more and more that people are discovering how cool it all is.Traditional country, soul and funk music have all had these massive recent revivals, but traditional blues so far has not." With their new Colemine album, Crackdown, and an intensive tour schedule, that's all about to change. On Crackdown, GA-20's third full-length release, the band creates an unvarnished, ramshackle blues that is at once traditional and refreshingly modern. Expanding on their previous releases (2019's Lonely Soul and 2021's Try It_You Might Like It! GA-20 Does Hound Dog Taylor) GA-20 finds inspiration on the edges of the genre, where early electric blues first converged with country and rock `n' roll. The album's nine original songs include the loping, Louisiana-flavored Dry Run, the dirty, and bare-bones Easy On The Eyes and the melodic, garage-tinged Fairweather Friend. With tight, propulsive performances and a brevity and punk energy reminiscent of The Ramones, Crackdown is rowdy and fun, filled with instantly memorable, and well-crafted songs.

After the 2021 Re-Release of “Schwingungen” (MG.ART612) and together with “Seven Up” (MG.ART613) we proudly announce “JOIN INN” as Part3 of the authorised 50th Anniversary “A.R.T.” Re-Edition Series.
“JOIN INN” is the fourth album by Ash Ra Tempel. It was recorded at Studio Dierks and originally released on LP by Ohr Musik-Produktion, catalogue number OMM 556032. Each side of the LP comprises one long track.
In 1972 ASH RA TEMPEL teamed up again with Klaus Schulze during the recording of Walter Wegmüller's Tarot album, and after one of the recording sessions, ASH RA TEMPEL members: Enke, Göttsching and Rosi, together with Klaus decided to "play it again" in a late night session. This recording led to the birth of the “JOIN INN” album, as well as two legendary last concerts in February 1973 in Paris and Cologne.
Manuel Göttsching recalls Hartmut Enke on bass and Klaus Schulze on drums being a dream-team rhythm section for him to play his guitar, especially here to hear on “Freak'n' Roll”, that was ingenious and not to replace ever since.
It was the last recording ever where Klaus Schulze (who sadly passed away this Year) played the Drums and also Hartmut (the Hawk) Enke soon after quit the Bass and music forever.
Join Inn marks the end of the collaboration with Klaus Schulze.
However, together with Ash Ra Tempel, their eponymous first album, which will be released in 2023 as the final edition of our Series, it is considered a highlight of the Krautrock movement.
As for the music itself we again refer to Julian Cope´s review from his book “Krautrocksampler” (published by Head Heritage, 1st ed. 1995):
""Freak’n’roll” fades in like it never started - just was always there from the beginning of time, a dry wah-guitar freerock riff-out unlike any of the other Ash Ra Tempel LPs, and not much like any other music. Yes, there are bluesy riff but none of them have a blues context. Manuel Gottsching’s guitar is so confident that he sometimes drops down to a simple major chord groove, whilst the Hawk pushes that round woody bass into strange overlapping rumbling melody. And ... it’s the return of Klaus Schulze on drums which propels “Freak’n’roll” to its height. No-one but Klaus has the ability to
transcend rock’n’roll in such an on-the-beat non-groove-y way and still send sparks of light into the cosmos as he does it.
-> continued on page 2“Freak’n’roll” is so egoless that it even works at a quiet volume as meditational music. Themes rise from the high tempo pulse beat, then are carried along the muscles of the song into the main area where the riff actually becomes real and expressionist for just long enough before slipping back into the musical fabric of the song.
As usual with Ash Ra Tempel, the other side is an enormous drift piece called “Jenseits (The Next World)”, a beautiful Klaus Schultze meditation of haunting synthesizer chords over which Rosi Muller tells the story of the Cosmic Couriers’ meeting with Timothy Leary. Gradually, the pulsing guitar becomes increasingly intense and turbulent, but Rosi never sounds less than freaked out. Essentially, “Jenseits” is a precursor to Klaus Schulze’s later spacey minor-key grooves.
Unfortunately, this was the last Ash Ra Tempel album in its particular ‘series.
(…) After “JOIN INN”, Manuel Gottsching took over the Ash Ra Tempel mantle alone.”

Beauty School are an emo-infused alt rock band from Leeds signed to independent rock label Slam Dunk Records (ran by the same team behind the UK’s largest independent rock festival – Slam Dunk Festival) The band sold out their debut headline show at Leeds’ rock venue The Key Club in August 2021 (400 capacity) Beauty School have been confirmed to play Slam Dunk Festival 2022 and will be on the first festival announcement in November, alongside Alexisonfire, Rancid and The Story So Far. Their debut singles and album ‘Happiness’ have all been recorded and produced by James Kenosha (Dinosaur Pile-Up / Pulled Apart By Horses)

Kristian is a new anonymous project on Figure Music, exploring a different kind of sound that is based on subtly nuanced live jams and oriented towards a slightly more raw house and dubby-related style.
Opener Doubtful makes a strong first impression as Kristian weaves together lush, cheerful chords with a tight yet rolling bass momentum, carrying the track forward effortlessly. In stark contrast, Dry Dub is groove reduced to its bare essence. A straight-up drum track made of
sparse elements that confidently unfold their subliminal power over time.
The flip holds cuts that really want to spring to life. Swirly, dubbed-out sounds create a colorful and dynamic palette, rapidly changing in movement and direction. Insider riffs on heavily animated, filtered synth action, while closing track Worthiness goes deep and spacey, oozing with warm machine charm, squelching acid, and bubbly bass.

Available on trans blue vinyl with gatefold sleeve. Following the UK chart success & critical acclaim of their last full-length studio album ‘In Vino Veritas’ this new album is another incendiary, 111% proof, guitar-fuelled, alcohol-soaked adrenalin shot. Tyla’s trademark songs of hope & heartache, demons & debauchery and conflict & chaos are taken to new heights by a band in full flow. Big choruses are delivered with power. Tender hearted lyrics with emotion. Track listing: Tree Bridge Cross; Journey to the Centre of the Soul; Stole my Love Away; God Only Knows; Angel Lane; Buried Alive; Raining Fire; Powder Dry; Moth to the Flame; Ghosts - CD Disc 2: Tree Bridge Cross (Acoustic); Journey to the Centre of the Soul (Acoustic); Stole my Love Away (Acoustic with Spike); Angel Lane (Acoustic); Buried Alive (Acoustic); Raining Fire (Acoustic); Powder Dry (Acoustic); Moth to the Flame (Acoustic); Ghosts (Acoustic)

Are you still here? Or are you still there? Berlin-based/Italian warehouse-rave warrior, Younger Than Me, and Italo-American romantic goth-wave prince, Curses are THERE. They're there where it's at!

It was the bond of bold friendship that brought these guys together - and of course a shared history of subgenre juxtaposition and meshing. Both grew up on Punk, Rap, and of course the early days of Techno. »Still There« is their first EP together and thus of course their first for Live At Robert Johnson. It's a venture into the euphoric, psychedelic power of early Trance and Breaks mixed with the attitude and energy of EBM and Electro.

Starting with the moody slow beats of the title tune »Still There«, Y2C takes you on a journey to a faraway chill-out room in some dark yet warm and cozy cellar. Or is this place to be found in synth heaven? It could well be if you listen to those dreamy melodies. Melodies as beguiling as the song of the Sirens that seduced good old Ulysses.

Y2C pick up on that dreamy vibe but throw in that slight and subtle Trance-factor, taking up speed with »Romantic Squat«, dragging you into their very own romantic squat.

Next up is »Love Your Enemy« - oh yes, shouldn't we all? Icey claps with lots of reverb and a bass line draw you onto the dry ice flooded aluminum floor and there's no way back - especially when that strange break with that crazy sound makes you stop for a second and think, why did I stop dancing? Get back on the floor y'all!

The last track »Lullapaluza« is indeed some kind of a lollapalooza ride, a very special ride. And no, it does not lull you to sleep because the beat created by Y2C here is a demanding one, a special which gets you going all over its eight and a half minutes. It's sheer bliss, you gotta believe it.

This is not a one-off novelty EP, it's a kinetic collaboration. Y2C is a force of nature, a force of RAVE/WAVE energy, with many more to come, a force to reckon with.

Her debut LP, Banshee, was released on Wax Poetics. Has collaborated with MF Doom, Czarface, Ghostface Killah, Dennis Coffey, and more. Kendra Morris’s Nine Lives, to be released on Karma Chief Records (a division of Colemine Records) in early 2022, marks not only the culmination of the decade since the release of her first LP Banshee, but also a turning point in Kendra’s life. Nine Lives heralds the beginning of a new chapter; label, and an evolution to the next level of adulthood. This collection of her original songs encapsulates moments from what could be nine lifetimes. Kendra, while very much a New Yorker and veteran of almost 2 decades on the NYC scene, hails from Florida and aesthetically embodies the broader sense of American culture, bringing to her contemporary sound influences found in music and cinema dating back to the mid 20th century. Her music conjures imagery evocative of road trips to weird and wonderful places. Concurrently a visual artist, filmmaker and animator, Kendra harnesses the feline nine lives metaphor repeatedly. In the context of the chapters of her musical trajectory alone, we see at least 9 lives. From discovering multi-tracking on a karaoke machine as a child, to playing in bands in Florida, moving to NYC and creating music alone on an 8 track, releasing her first 2 LPs on Wax Poetics, releasing her 2016 EP Babble and collaborating with DJ Premier, 9th Wonder, MF Doom, Czarface, Ghostface Killah, Dennis Coffey, and David Sitek, to name a few. The life of this multi-disciplinarian artist contains units of time and story lines through which we can all relate to universal themes of love, loss and overcoming one's fears. Kendra, never ceasing to heed her spiritual calling to continue creating music and art, no matter what, has no plans of slowing down but a belief in only evolving, eager to begin experiencing her next nine lives.

New album from South London producer, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Wu-Lu.

Leader of the punk-rap awakening, Wu-Lu pulls inspiration from personal hardship and the underrepresented on his latest for Warp entitled 'LOGGERHEAD'. Miles Romans-Hopcraft based his artistic moniker on the Amharic word for water, “wu-ha”. True to his fluid sound and nature, he decided to change it to something that felt more liquid. He ended up with Wu-Lu, a name he has been using since 2015. His first record GINGA opened the floodgates to a career that would take him to various places, people, and genres. From breaking bones at skateparks as a teenager, to DJing as one of the original members of Touching Bass, and eventually getting signed to Warp in 2021.

As an artist, Wu-Lu seems concerned with feeling and communicating the full spectrum of human emotion. Throughout his varied discography, he touches on disparate themes and sounds, straddling a divide between blissed-out beats and grungy guitar dirges, and often mixing both into one amorphous, unclassifiable sound of his own.

On ‘'LOGGERHEAD'’, Wu-Lu hones his unique sound. On ‘Take Stage’, a despondent spoken word intro opens with sombre strings and underlying bows dragged delicately across them. Then the lights flicker to life on ‘Night Pill’, and the mosh pit with them - the bassline approaches like a hungry shark and the guitars snarl with a homemade 90s grunge energy. This grunge drawl and punk spirit is peppered with dry old-school drum sounds of classic hip-hop, with laid-back beat-oriented tracks are spread amongst those with intermittent growls, scratches, and shrieks. Sonic elements are constantly rearranged and juxtaposed throughout the album, like on ‘South’ where the fluctuating pitch of squealing guitars and screaming vocals is contrasted with the steady flow of Lex Amor.

Listening through the album you are constantly greeted with about-turns, and through the element of surprise and deft use of contrast 'LOGGERHEAD' sits at an exciting point in Wu-Lu’s genre-defying artistry.

“Rob wanted the world of The Northman to feel harsh and uncomfortable, and for everything to feel like it was caked in mud and dry blood, so it was crucial for the score to mirror that.” Composers Robin Carolan (Tri-Angle Records) and Sebastian Gainsborough (Vessel) were given a task of epic proportions when director Rob Eggers (The VVitch, The Lighthouse) asked them to create the score for his ambitious and highly anticipated new film The Northman, releasing on April 22nd. They needed to make a score that both honored the immense research that had gone into the authenticity of this Viking era period piece and complimented the cinematic maximalism of the film for a modern audience. The artists stretched themselves to the depths of their creativity and the resulting album is a gorgeous sonic tableaux that places the listener right in the center of the film.

While arranging the score the composers consulted musician and ethnographer Poul Høxbro for inspiration and insight into the history of Viking music. Having backgrounds in left field electronic music, Robin and Sebastian felt liberated by the constraint of using a small selection of musical tools for this piece. “Electronic music has almost limitless potential when it comes to making sounds and that’s obviously an incredible thing, but you can also go down the wormhole and get lost in it sometimes. There’s no risk of that happening when you only have a few primary instruments to draw upon.” Robin remarked.

They utilized traditional instruments such as the tagelharpa, langspil, kravik lyre, and säckpip to build the cinematic world of The Northman but they also took creative freedoms in adding instruments likes drums, which some academics believe wouldn’t have played a big part in Viking musical culture, simply due to the lack of archaeological evidence of actual drums. “One of the pieces we wrote was intended to emulate the sound of a bullroarer; an ancient instrument used in sacred rituals or in battle to intimidate enemies. It makes a really disorienting roaring vibrato sound and low frequencies capable of traveling insane distances.” Robin says when asked about one of the more unique aspects of the score. Everyone involved put so much effort into both their research and their creativity and this richness is evident in every track. The album as a whole is a cinematic masterpiece of sound and ambiance, both gorgeous and disturbing, like the film it so beautifully accompanies.

“Rob wanted the world of The Northman to feel harsh and uncomfortable, and for everything to feel like it was caked in mud and dry blood, so it was crucial for the score to mirror that.” Composers Robin Carolan (Tri-Angle Records) and Sebastian Gainsborough (Vessel) were given a task of epic proportions when director Rob Eggers (The VVitch, The Lighthouse) asked them to create the score for his ambitious and highly anticipated new film The Northman, releasing on April 22nd. They needed to make a score that both honored the immense research that had gone into the authenticity of this Viking era period piece and complimented the cinematic maximalism of the film for a modern audience. The artists stretched themselves to the depths of their creativity and the resulting album is a gorgeous sonic tableaux that places the listener right in the center of the film.

While arranging the score the composers consulted musician and ethnographer Poul Høxbro for inspiration and insight into the history of Viking music. Having backgrounds in left field electronic music, Robin and Sebastian felt liberated by the constraint of using a small selection of musical tools for this piece. “Electronic music has almost limitless potential when it comes to making sounds and that’s obviously an incredible thing, but you can also go down the wormhole and get lost in it sometimes. There’s no risk of that happening when you only have a few primary instruments to draw upon.” Robin remarked.

They utilized traditional instruments such as the tagelharpa, langspil, kravik lyre, and säckpip to build the cinematic world of The Northman but they also took creative freedoms in adding instruments likes drums, which some academics believe wouldn’t have played a big part in Viking musical culture, simply due to the lack of archaeological evidence of actual drums. “One of the pieces we wrote was intended to emulate the sound of a bullroarer; an ancient instrument used in sacred rituals or in battle to intimidate enemies. It makes a really disorienting roaring vibrato sound and low frequencies capable of traveling insane distances.” Robin says when asked about one of the more unique aspects of the score. Everyone involved put so much effort into both their research and their creativity and this richness is evident in every track. The album as a whole is a cinematic masterpiece of sound and ambiance, both gorgeous and disturbing, like the film it so beautifully accompanies.

Lasse Marhaug is one of those characters that operates at the nexus of so much stuff that’s important to us here - working as a producer (over the last couple of years alone he’s helped shape albums by Jenny Hval, Kelly Lee Owens, Okkyung Lee, Hillary Woods etc etc), a mastering engineer (far too many releases to mention), a prolific sleeve designer (likewise), publisher (his occasional Personal Best magazine is still going strong) and, perhaps most importantly - a recording artist in his own right. ‘Context’ is his most substantial release in years - a crushing assembly of bone-dry/darkside drone/machine malfunctions that’s bursting with a visceral, throbbing, mass of feeling. If yr into anything on the spectrum from Mika Vainio to Grouper to Kevin Drumm or Deathprod - this one’s as good as it gets

Over almost three decades of activity, Marhaug has carved out notoriety as a solo performer, a prolific collaborator (working with everyone from Sunn O))) to Jim O'Rourke) and as a busy producer, who's notched up credits on some of the most striking-sounding albums of the last few years. This new album was created as a swan song for the infamous Oslo studio that he's inhabited for 17 years, prior to his move back to the Arctic Circle where he originally came from. Recorded over a 14-month period and painstakingly edited from hours upon hours of material, it might just be the most impressive, moving record we’ve heard from him so far.

The interplay between piercing softness and deafening noise is the key to "Context", displaying a philosophy Marhaug has been exploring for years. Few other artists are able to balance chaos and harmony with such ease; Marhaug does it without grandstanding, it's music that sounds as simultaneously beautiful and as daunting as the Arctic landscape he's returning to. At any moment a sound can be alluring or treacherous, like the frozen sun reflecting on a snowy mountaintop. Marhaug's deftness with rhythm and bass emerges on 'Context 3', as he pairs Vainio-esque low-end pulses with crumpled noise and widescreen tones; as disquieting music-box chimes absorbed into the blasted soundscape on 'Context 5', while we're thrust into the freezing cold on 'Context 6', subjected to punctuating gusts of white noise and trapped string loops.

Trust it’s a rare and near-mythical beast, conjuring vast, treacherous soundscapes illuminated with pangs of sentiment that naturally weave strands of his non-musical practice in their psychosensual lustre and gritty attrition. As he steps into a new phase of his career, we're left with a concluding chapter that stands as a summation and open-ended post-credits reveal.

21st Century pop is curiously irrelevant: autotune, twelve 'writers' on a single song, sensationalist yet skin-deep social commentary . . . with none of the joy, excitement and surprises of pop's lengthy heyday, from the Brill Building through the New Wave era. Where did it go? That would be an apt introduction to an album of calculated throwbacks to a three-minute pop ideal . . . but No Place Like Home isn't that record. We doubt even Gemma could tell you where this collection of beguiling jewels came from exactly, each fully-formed, complete and satisfying, no two quite alike, and each devoid of Wet Leg or Dry Cleaning's crafty calculation, but with every bit of those acts' charm. The first single, Stop, is based on an idea so simple that it's nearly unfathomable why no one had come conjured it earlier. Like toilet paper or a pair of scissors, the song feels entirely obvious until one ponders its late arrival. Stop's motorik beat propels verses to a chorus of pure delight, bested by a bridge occurring so late in the tune that it comes across like a surprise second dessert. My Idea Of Fun, a tale of frequent drunken regret, comes with a video of minimalist humour and visual brilliance. On other songs, Gemma channels acts Delta 5, Au Pairs and The Raincoats, along with the humour of Ian Dury and a similar verité of London life found in the best of Madness. The more serious fare is equally compelling. Rabbit Hole projects a daring newness of young freedom, Dance Of A Thousand Faces veers into Sprechstimme and expands into a swooping chorus, the feel of which subtly conveys present-day tensions reminiscent of the Weimar era. Tailspin captures the dark feeling which comes burdened with real-time consciousness of a loss of control, while the album closer, Frida, a tale of the loss of a dear friend manages to end in a guardedly upbeat tone. Gemma's debut album is sure to stir up deep interest and will be supported by a number of videos and live performances, plus free digital singles featuring otherwise unavailable non- album tracks.

Dewa Alit, Bali’s master of contemporary Gamelan composition, returns to Black Truffle with Chasing the Phantom, presenting two recent works played by the composer’s Gamelan Salukat, a large ensemble that performs on instruments specially built to his designs, using a unique tuning system that combines notes from two traditional Balinese Gamelan scales. Alit explains that the ensemble’s name suggests “a place to fuse creative ideas to generate new, innovative works” and both compositions demonstrate the composer’s ability to wring stunning new possibilities from variations on the traditional Gamelan ensemble. While using familiar elements of Balinese Gamelan music, such as unison scalar melodies and stop-start dynamics, Alit’s music is overflowing with harmonic, rhythmic, and timbral inventions, the latter often facilitated by unorthodox playing techniques.

“Ngejuk Memedi”, an English translation of which gives the LP its title, results from Alit’s reflection on the complex relationship between tradition and modernity in Balinese culture, particularly in the way that belief in the phantoms or spirits known as ‘memedi’ are shared through social media using digital technologies. Embodying this uncanny co-existence, the opening passages of the piece are at once immediately recognisable in their use of the metallophones of the Gamelan ensemble and strikingly reminiscent of electronics in their timbre and movement. At points, what we hear seems to have been fragmented with digital tools, or even to originate in some incessantly glitching DX7. Short melodic figures loop irregularly, with the ensemble splintering into polyrhythmic shards before unexpectedly recombining for intricate unison passages. After several minutes of this manically tinkling metallic sound world, the metallophones are joined by drums for a meditative passage of lower dynamics, as the uniformly high pitch range explored in the opening sections gradually opens up to include resonant low gong hits. Recovering some of the manic energy of the opening, but now enhanced with the full range of percussion, the piece weaves through a series of tempo changes to a stunning passage of rapid-fire melodies and ringing chords that sweep across the metallophones, their unorthodox tuning creating complex clouds of wavering harmonies.

“Likad”, written during Covid-19 lockdowns, channels anxiety and uncertainty into musical form, resulting in a piece that, even by Alit’s standards, is stunning in its complexity and the virtuosity it demands of Gamelan Salukat. Its opening section is perhaps most remarkable for its mastery of texture, with rapid transitions between dry, muted strikes and metallic shimmers calling to mind the use of filters in electronic music. At points, the complex irregular repetitions of short melodic patterns, where the music seems to get stuck or be suddenly interrupted by a skip, recall the mad sampler works of Alvin Curran or the skittering surface of prime period Oval more than anything familiar from acoustic percussion music. Moving through a dizzying series of twists and turns, the piece ends with a majestic sequence of chords possessing an almost hieratic power. A major statement from a radical contemporary composer, one cannot help but agree with Alit when he sees Chasing the Phantom as an answer to the “question of the future of Gamelan music”.

Musically, Hackney-based female trio deep tan draw on the brooding, melodic indie of early FOALS and Warpaint, their sound is always seductive, but also underpinned with an edge of darkness. An undercurrent of post-punk in the vein of contemporaries Dry Cleaning, Drahla and black midi – in addition to multiple comparisons with post-punk pioneers Television – mean their sets never stray far from the shadows. In the past year and a half deep tan have been the darlings of indie tastemaker press such as So Young, DIY, NOTION, Dork, CLASH, had a 3 page spread in Loud & Quiet December 2019 issue and have been selected as NME 100 and for the Green Man Rising competition. Their tracks have had plays on BBC Radio 6, BBC Whales, Apples Beats 1 and Radio X, as well as Apple Music’s ‘Breaking alternative' in the US.

Pressing Info: 180g black vinyl, standard sleeve, printed inner sleeve. In dark, troubling times, maybe the most instantly gratifying solace one can seek is a wittily barbed diagnosis of the situation. “The fox has his den. The bee has his hive. The stoat … his stoat-hole,” Stewart Lee once remarked: “But only man chooses to make his nest in an investment opportunity.” Caustic retorts like this are what fuel the debut EP by dance-punk outfit Regressive Left, ‘On The Wrong Side of History’. For pervading through their dynamic and glitching music is a duty to report unflinchingly society’s ills. They are a staunchly political group, but far from your average po-faced by-numbers punk band. There is a gristly social commentary at the band’s core, but the songs themselves are characterised by a need to have fun, to find some kind of solace and escapism from the inevitable rapture. Recorded over an intense 5-day spell with in-demand producer Ross Orton (Arctic Monkeys, MIA, Amyl and The Sniffers) in Sheffield, Regressive Left’s debut EP ‘On The Wrong Side of History’ was immortalised over a handful of 11am-1am sessions in his studio. In many ways it is a time capsule of the maelstrom of ideas that got the group to this point in the first place – the infuriating, bleak political climate, and the urge to find escapism from it – consigned to vinyl in one herculean effort. Taking influence from the booming post-punk, funk and disco scenes of New York, Regressive Left’s sound is stark and danceable. Angular guitar scratches meet dirty synth basslines, whilst Simon Tyrie’s Edwyn Collins croon is chased around by effervescent drums. The banal horror of life in Tory Britain expressed with sharp and dry wit, and then set to truly barnstorming and infectious dance music Due out July 15th on Bad Vibrations Records, the new EP arrives following a trio of acclaimed singles (‘Eternal Returns’, ‘Take the Hit’, ‘Cream Militia’), tours with the likes of Bodega and Folly Group, festival appearances at End of the Road, Latitude, Great Escape and Wide Awake, and a sold out headline at The Windmill.

"The past 5 years we have taken our music all over the world: Europe, Asia, Africa besides our homeland Denmark, and even though we cannot speak with many of the people we meet, our music is a universal language that transcends borders. The meetings we have had (and continue to have) all over inspire us to create new music. But of course we are the composers of the music, so this is our representation of those meetings.

Our 3rd album is called AFROTROPISM. Tropism is a biological phenomenon that indicates growth of a plant in response to the environment; so when you see a plant turning for the sunlight, this is tropism. In other words, this is not so much about the plant's roots but more about how it reacts when it touches the air, feels sunlight or rain - in other words the outside world. So AFROTROPISM refers to the fact that we are drawn towards the African traditions, but we are "growing" our own music.

On our first two albums we have recorded extensively with African musicians, and AFROTROPISM is centered around The KutiMangoes (TKM) as a band. We are developing our artistic direction by going more in depth with how we can mix our inspirations with our own musical heritage. Our musical mission is (and has always been) to mix cultures and create our own sound.

With our background in jazz music, TKM counts virtuoso instrumentalists with a heartfelt intent and sound innovators with our horns, effect pedals, synthesizers, drums and percussion from all over the world. AFROTROPISM is a further and deeper development of our trademark bold sound that experiments with synthesizers, soundscapes and a bit of electronic effects without losing it's focus on groove, melody, atmosphere and musicianship."

The KutiMangoes, July 2019


About each track:

STRETCH TOWARDS THE SUN
This track opens up with a synthesizer groove that is inspired by the polyrhythmic grooves played by the balafon (a predecessor of the piano) from West Africa. Our rolling sequence could not be played on the balafon because of the key changes, but the basic idea comes from that instrument. Quick and light, we wanted to write a song where you can feel the sun coming out and feel the energy it's rays give. The combination of the programmed groove, the horn-arrangement, the huge percussion section and the live instruments makes for a sound that we have not heard before, and it illustrates what this album is all about (and what the track's title refers to): that we stretch towards the things that give us energy – and that although our roots are in Denmark, when we encounter a musical tradition as rich as in West Africa, it changes us and our music.

A SNAKE IS JUST A STRING
The first time we saw Mali-bluesman extraordinaire Vieux Farka Touré on stage was just after we had played at a huge festival in Burkina Faso, and we almost literally caught on fire. Their groove was so strong and insistent that we were mesmerized, and it inspired us to come up with the opening guitar part of this song. Basically a bluesy tune with some unusual chord changes and a crazy synthesizer solo by Johannes Buhl Andresen reminiscent of that fuzzy guitar-sound we love so much in the Mali blues. The title is an homage to the Nigerian writer Chinua Acheba, who in his masterpiece novel "Things Fall Apart" tells that in the village during the night, to ward off the fear of darkness, people would call dangerous animals by a different name: don't be afraid, a snake is just a string.

KEEP YOU SAFE
It is a basic human necessity to have a place where you can feel safe. But there are far too many people in our world that fear for their safety, their livelihood, their children, their relatives – and this is surely not a feeling that helps us to flourish as humans. With this song we are saying that we all need to make it a priority to help our fellow humans to feel safe. And of course, if our song can offer a feeling of safety and comfort for a short time to those who listen, we are truly thankful.

MONEY IS THE CURSE
This track is directly inspired by Fela Kuti's ability to create music that is both physical and political. Dance music with a serious message about our times. For the solo part we wanted a more melancholy, pensive feel (than the full-on baritone-trombone melody) and also wanted to experiment with some choppy, stuttering effects to make the horns sound desperate. Money is the curse because it can become the objective of our life; money is the curse because it changes the relationships we have with our fellow humans. Money is the curse.

THORNS TO FRUIT
This melody is inspired by the scales and developments of a traditional Bambara folk-song. We love the way these melodies constantly evolve with small developments and changes. We felt like an accompaniment that is really dry, sparse and earthy would fit well and then made a contrasting solo part. As a group we are interested in how to develop our improvisations together and create sonic landscapes that evoke a distinctive atmosphere – so here, we have no soloist, but a collection of synthesizer parts, saxophone lines and guitar-sounds that together create a dreamy and lush ambience.

SAND TO SOIL
We started out with a short ngoni riff played by our good friend and master musician Aboubacar Konaté. We then sampled it, built soundscapes and our own both meditative and pumping groove around it. We created a melody with both melancholy and joy, with afterthought and impulse and then the brilliant Aske Drasbæk added an emotive and blistering saxophone solo. The title refers to the contrasts in our humanism. As part of our human nature, we have a dark side that drives us (and each other) towards destruction – making the fertile soil into barren sand. The title is an encouragement to emphasize the opposite movement in our nature: to create life and help it flourish. We keep ourselves human by insisting that we must never forget this side of our nature no matter how tough, tiresome or trying it might be. Let's keep our focus on the light, the warmth, the positive energy – that can turn the cold stone into fertile ground.

Amy Winehouse’s Live at Glastonbury 2007 will be available on vinyl for the first time from June 3. It captures her performance on the Pyramid Stage at that year’s festival, 15 years ago this summer.

Winehouse’s show, her second at Glastonbury, will be released in a 2LP black vinyl set. They bring back to the fore one of the most memorable highlights of her all-too-short career, capturing not only her unique artistry and song craft, but the singer and writer’s trademark, between-songs banter and the sheer love for her emanating from the festival crowd. Highlights include “Rehab,” “You Know I’m No Good,” “Love Is A Losing Game,” “Valerie,” and “Tears Dry On Their Own,” as well as her cover of Toots and the Maytals’ “Monkey Man.”

Amy played a second set later the same day on the Jazz World Stage, and returned to the Pyramid Stage the following year, firmly establishing herself as part of the world-famous festival’s remarkable history. The artwork for the forthcoming release includes recollection of the performance by Glastonbury Festival’s co-organizer Emily Eavis. “Amy Winehouse was a Glastonbury-goer through and through,” she says. “She either came and played or, when she wasn’t working, came and camped. She played in the blistering heat and the heavy rain, and there were so many magical moments to her performances.”

Kenn hat es wieder getan... Es würde Sinn machen, sein vorheriges Werk "Dancing with the Past" als das neue Anacrusis-Album zu bezeichnen und das nicht nur, weil das meiste darauf enthaltene Material mit der Absicht geschrieben wurde, ein Comeback zu feiern. Acht Jahre später meldet sich Mr. Nardi mit einem weiteren Epos zurück, das zwar eine Stunde kürzer ist als der Vorgänger, aber von der Qualität her "Trauma" atmet seinen Nacken. Die epische Länge beider Alben sollte den Hörer aber nicht zurückhalten, denn das hier ist wirklich fesselndes Material von Anfang bis Ende, dunkle Progressive/Thrash-Scheiben, die nichts von dem vermissen lassen, was das Repertoire von Anacrusis zu einem der beliebtesten in der Szene gemacht hat. "Trauma" ist dynamischer und ein bisschen weniger atmosphärisch, was an der geringeren Anzahl der Balladen liegt. Hier sind es nur drei, die sich jeweils einem bestimmten Segment zuwenden aus dem balladesken Bereich, ansonsten bestimmt eine brachiale Kombination aus Progressive und Thrash die Handlung, das schnellere Material pulverisiert, vielschichtige Thrasher voller voller inbrünstiger Tempowechsel und abrupter Stimmungswechsel. Das Herzstück des Albums ist die 11-minütige Odyssee "The Orphan", eine zusammenfassende Reise durch alle Ecken und Winkel des des Anacrusis-Katalogs, ein fesselndes Epos, wie es Anacrusis bzw. Nardi noch nie versucht haben.

Wir wollen glauben, dass die Anacrusis-Fans bereitwillig ins Nardi-Lager gewechselt sind, das in nicht allzu regelmäßiger Folge deftige Genüsse verspricht. Das ist auch gut so, solange er einen ganzen Vormittag füllen kann, wird er bei allen ganz oben auf der Liste stehen.

Für Fans von: Anacrusis, Nevermore, Atheist, Voivod, Forbidden, Control Denied

Landscape Tantrums Lost for two decades, the recent rediscovery of Landscape Tantrums the first attempt at recording the music that would become The Mars Volta’s De-Loused In The Comatorium revealed an important and hitherto missing chapter in the group’s evolution. Selfrecorded by Omar (assisted by Jon DeBaun) at Burbank’s Mad Dog Studios within a head spinning four days, Landscape Tantrums captures De-Loused in somewhat embryonic form, though much of what would make The Mars Volta’s debut album such an electrifying, sublime experience was already in place: the fearless invention, the fusion of futurist rock elements and traditions from outside of the rock orthodoxy, the sense of virtuosity working in service of emotional effect. From a distance, The Mars Volta must have seemed as if they were on a high when they walked into the studio to record what they expected to be their debut album (“I didn’t think of it as demos or a dry run,” Omar says). The group had recently played the Coachella festival to rave reviews, a vindication of the quixotic risk Omar and Cedric had taken, quitting At The Drive In to lead such an uncompromising musical proposition.






Their debut EP, Tremulant, had similarly signalled their singular vision, and been rewarded with similarly positive feedback. But the truth was that The Mars Volta entered Mad Dog in tatters, scarcely believing anything other than failure lay within their reach. They’d recently lost their bassist, Eva Gardner, and parted ways with keyboard play Ikey Owens. Tensions were brewing with drummer Jon Theodore, too himself a replacement for founding drummer Blake Fleming Omar questioning Theodore’s commitment to the group. And sound manipulator Jeremy Michael Ward’s drug problem had gotten so far out of hand that he’d been sent to rehab, and wouldn’t return until two days into the Landscape Tantrums. The pressure upon Omar was intense, and it began to manifest in the form of physical and emotional breakdowns. His art was his life, but now he began to wonder if it was actually going to kill him. Under such heavy manners, miracles occurred at Mad Dog. Surely that’s the only way to describe the music contained on Landscape Tantrums, as Omar fashioned early versions of Inertiatic ESP, Drunkship Of Lanterns and Eriatarka that rivalled the Rick Rubin produced versions that ended up on De- Loused for intensity, precision and immediacy, as Cedric delivered a powerfully intimate reading of Televators, and as a bare bones version of the group sketched out the peaks of what would become their debut masterpiece in barely half a week, on a shoestring, and believing they wouldn’t last long enough to see it hit the shelves. Listening to Landscape Tantrums now, with the benefit of hindsight and the knowledge of what these songs will become, one notices Cedric has yet to fully find the voice that will lend The Mars Volta their devastating authority, that Eriatarka will evolve even further under Rick Rubin’s watch, and that the lyrics to De-Loused’s climactic chapter, Take The Veil Cerpin Taxt, have yet to be penned. But one also notices how lithe the group sound here, how hungry, and one appreciates the raw edge that Rubin would later polish to a venomous sharpness. More than mere historical curiosity, Landscape Tantrums is an essential text for the dedicated Mars Volta aficionado, and a breathtaking album in its own right.


[a] a1. Roulette Dares (The Haunt Of) [Unfinished Original Recordings Of De-Loused In The Comatorium]

“This 45 marks the label's 100th 45 and what better way to celebrate it than with a 45 from arguably our most prominent artist, Durand Jones & The Indications. This mix of "Power To The People" was the first new recording by the band after their self-titled album had been released. I distinctly remember hearing it for the first time and just feeling like we were hearing the next phase for the guys. I was behind the counter at Plaid Room, with my laptop plugged into the speakers so we could listen. There was no one in the store, just Bob and I. And when it finished playing Bob said, "Where can I pre-order?" So what you're hearing on this 45 is the original demo mix that was sent to us, with little to no reverb on Durand's vocals, a marching band kick drum in the mix, and no synth. Something about the dry falsetto vocal of Durand's voice made it feel like he was right in your ear. Such a special recording to all us."

Noise industrial dub effect for the start opening on a Breakcore dry long drink.

 With their duo debut, Dean Spunt and John Wiese invite you to experience
the frenzy of percussive space and discreet sound found inside ‘The Echoing
Shell’.
 This is the first official collaboration between the two veteran music-makers,
though their connection goes back to 1999. As John recalls, “Dean was in a
high school arts program at CalArts. A friend and I were recording the first
Sissy Spacek demo in the design studios there, and taking a tape to my car
over and over again to check the mix. Dean was walking through the parking
lot with a Locust shirt on, we said hello, and he immediately got into a car
with two strangers to ‘listen to a tape’.”
 The tape-listening ended well, apparently. Dean and John became friends
and fellow travellers in LA circles and beyond: in 2005, John did a remix for
Dean’s first band, Wives; in 2007, Dean played percussion with Sissy
Spacek’s 13-Tet Los Angeles; John toured with No Age several times and
collaborated live with them in 2010.
 Under the Sissy Spacek name as well as his own, John’s recordings for his
own Helicopter label and many others kicked things off for him around the
end of the century; since then, he’s been constantly engaged in solos and
collaborations on record, performances, and installations around the world.
 In addition to Dean’s ever-growing discography with No Age, he curates his
own label, Post Present Medium. In 2018, Radical Documents released
Dean’s solo debut ‘EE Head’, which explored concrète and experimental
techniques in a four-part, album length piece.
 ‘The Echoing Shell’ is born of Dean and John’s shared understanding, using
John’s process common to Sissy Spacek: elaborate sound-collage works
using source material originating from punk, hardcore and improvised music.
A series of impositions, tape manipulation and edits recompose the material,
cracking open the crust of the source, freeing its implied guts to steam forth
in gushes of extreme noise. On ‘The Echoing Shell’, this is as often noise as
it is extreme intimacy, seeming at times to be sourced from within Dean’s
drumkit, at other times appearing to emanate from the capsules of
microphones and the circuits of the signal path itself.
 One may read these collaged sounds as abstraction, but there is a unique
language conveyed in their assembly, forming something like word-shapes
and meaning. And intention: the two side-long pieces, comprised of many
short sections, form a linear whole, creating alternately ripping and
discriminating music - and meaning - in the process.
 ‘The Echoing Shell’ is a fantastic conception in contemporary musique
concrète, combining incendiary post-rock power, dry humour and astonishing
depth of field. Whether projecting the sound through headphones, ear buds,
bookshelf speakers or your own personal amp stack, crank up ‘The Echoing
Shell’.

RIYL: Beach House, Cocteau Twins, Cigarettes After Sex, Slowdive. Isolated from any kind of music scene and enveloped by the cold Brutalism of Preston, White Flowers are a young, enigmatic band developing their own eccentricities away from the influence of big cities. New EP ‘Are You’ is a sonic and aesthetic collage drawing deeply from their environmental and social surroundings. The songs on the EP may at first seem delicate and beautiful, but closer listening reveals dark undertones and dry humour fuelled by the frustration of feeling trapped with no way out. Driven by this sense of claustrophobia, the duo have sought to create a form of escapism outside of their physical and geographical limitations. Recorded late 2021 between Preston and Bristol, ‘Are You’ weaves together a mixture of intuitive home recordings and refined studio production aided by producer Ali Chant (PJ Harvey, Portishead, Perfume Genius). The four songs on the EP are an intentional collection of contrasts and paradoxes - beauty and repulsion, calmness and mania, anxiety and stasis - all combined to form a balanced whole. Whilst influenced in part by the writings of the late Mark Fisher and his idea that we are haunted by futures that failed to happen, that what might have been may yet be the dream that saves us, White Flowers have also found inspiration in the Brutalist architecture that adorns their hometown - futuristic yet dated buildings that serve as an appropriate visual metaphor for Fisher’s theories. Bleakly imposing yet comfortingly familiar, the monochromatic starkness of these structures has fed into the imagery for the record, as well as the sounds found within. Not intending to wallow in cynicism, however, White Flowers’ art ultimately aims to provide a way out of these dystopian fever dreams and spiralling thoughts into a forward facing place.

Our next mixtape features a superb, tight blend of some of the very best tracks to fly out of the speakers at the Cherry Moon Club. At the helm we have DJ Ghost, spinning the grooves to take us on a journey through the ages, through the genres, from twisted acid concepts to hypnotic trance and gut busting hardcore. Ghost aka Bjorn Wendelen has been a stalwart for us at Bonzai since the very early days. He’s delivered several cuts for us over the years and has branched out with his own Ghoststyle brand with great success. The famous Cherry Moon was and remains one of the biggest names in Belgian club-life, with 30 years of embracing club culture. Since the start in 1991, they have brought the best techno, hard-trance and house to the scene. During the 90's and early 00's, Cherry Moon was the place to be for clubbers from all over Belgium, France, the Netherlands and even other European countries. Housed on classic K7 tape, this comp features a host of tracks from the likes of DJ Ghost, Insider, Body-Shock, DJ Looney Tune, Jones & Stephenson, Push, Blue Alphabet, Final Analysis, Joyrider, Dreamland and more. So, dust off your vintage cassette machine and prepare to be blown away by the sound of Cherry Moon.

Something fresh and dark from a newcomer. First record on a new label... At the frontier between Hardcore and Industrial Techno... This new label will provide one EP per industrial catastrov... Infinite project init ? Here Individu Lambda offers an unconfortable industrial techno, pushing it to the core with strident frequencies and obsessing sounds. Intro and drops are beautyfull and kick is hard and dry. The whole thing really offers an industry-core ambiance and gives the naufrage trauma another memory in time....

Die Neuauflage des Solo Debütalbums von Matt Deighton, dem Mother Earth Sänger und Noel Gallagher Nachfolger bei Oasis.

New album from South London producer, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Wu-Lu.

Leader of the punk-rap awakening, Wu-Lu pulls inspiration from personal hardship and the underrepresented on his latest for Warp entitled 'LOGGERHEAD'. Miles Romans-Hopcraft based his artistic moniker on the Amharic word for water, “wu-ha”. True to his fluid sound and nature, he decided to change it to something that felt more liquid. He ended up with Wu-Lu, a name he has been using since 2015. His first record GINGA opened the floodgates to a career that would take him to various places, people, and genres. From breaking bones at skateparks as a teenager, to DJing as one of the original members of Touching Bass, and eventually getting signed to Warp in 2021.

As an artist, Wu-Lu seems concerned with feeling and communicating the full spectrum of human emotion. Throughout his varied discography, he touches on disparate themes and sounds, straddling a divide between blissed-out beats and grungy guitar dirges, and often mixing both into one amorphous, unclassifiable sound of his own.

On ‘'LOGGERHEAD'’, Wu-Lu hones his unique sound. On ‘Take Stage’, a despondent spoken word intro opens with sombre strings and underlying bows dragged delicately across them. Then the lights flicker to life on ‘Night Pill’, and the mosh pit with them - the bassline approaches like a hungry shark and the guitars snarl with a homemade 90s grunge energy. This grunge drawl and punk spirit is peppered with dry old-school drum sounds of classic hip-hop, with laid-back beat-oriented tracks are spread amongst those with intermittent growls, scratches, and shrieks. Sonic elements are constantly rearranged and juxtaposed throughout the album, like on ‘South’ where the fluctuating pitch of squealing guitars and screaming vocals is contrasted with the steady flow of Lex Amor.

Listening through the album you are constantly greeted with about-turns, and through the element of surprise and deft use of contrast 'LOGGERHEAD' sits at an exciting point in Wu-Lu’s genre-defying artistry.

Elders is the debut release from Ensemble Nist-Nah, a nine-piece percussion group led by Nantes-based Australian drummer and percussionist Will Guthrie. The diverse group of French musicians that make up Ensemble Nist-Nah – whose collective experience encompasses traditional Gamelan performance, contemporary composition, noise, jazz, and everything in between – perform on drum kits, traditional and junk percussion, and a complete set of Javanese Gamelan instruments. Though building on the foundations of Guthrie’s solo work with Gamelan instruments (Nist-Nah, BT057) and primarily performing his compositions, Ensemble Nist-Nah is a collective endeavour, propelled by a breathtaking enthusiasm that has seen the ensemble manage to rehearse, perform, and even tour Europe during the Covid-19 pandemic.

From the first seconds of opening track ‘Geni / Tirta’, it becomes immediately obvious that this is no dry academic exercise or exotic indulgence. Rapid arpeggiated figures are propelled by manically busy kit drumming while slow-motion melodic lines float above. After a series of abrupt tempo changes and fragmented unison passages that crossbreed the rhythmic intensity of the Balinese Kecak with the joyride of an Ornette Coleman head, the music slows to a monumental groove, equal parts Javanese court music and Dark Magus. Another sequence of thrilling divagations leads us to the unexpected guest appearance of acclaimed vocalist Jessica Kenney, who elaborates a haunting Javanese Bedhaya across a spacious backdrop of massive gong hits, shimmering cymbals, rustling bells, and gritty textures.

The remaining pieces that make up Elders explore a dizzying variety of approaches, from the shifting rapid-fire muted textures of ‘Overtime’ to the ghostly bowed tones and ominous swells of the title piece (developed from a track on Guthrie’s solo Nist-Nah release), which gradually builds into waves of shuddering low resonance and asynchronous percussive clicks like a haunted clock mechanism. On the aptly titled ‘Rollin’, virtuosic twin drum kits criss-cross errant metallophone patterns in propulsive polyrhythms, while ‘Planeker’ manages to achieve a bizarrely effective fusion of Harry Partch and Autechre. Arriving bedecked in beautiful monochrome images of gongs drawn by ensemble member Charles Dubois, Elders is a feast for the ears: music that burrows deep into timbral and rhythmic possibility while possessing an intoxicating physicality and revelling in the joy of collective performance.

"The exquisite corpse shall drink the new wine", wrote the French Surrealists almost 100 years ago, and from this missive stems the parlor game in which we partake here. Through obscuring the tower itself, they cobble together meandering staircases in which to ascend with absent-minded haste; spontaneous line-weaving amasses figures and phrases into new planes of thought, therefore holding captive the illusion of creative reciprocity. Although housed in unrecognizable quarters, dull rain now tallies itself upon your window panes just as it once kept count on theirs. Apparitions unknown sound instruments of winding origin in celebration of the ink dry in the well. A graffito of tea leaves stains the porcelain cup.

This cloven tall-tale traces an epistolary journey between id and consciousness upon a page that has been adorned and wiped clean again and again and again. The wet meadow expands and contracts within a breath, moving through the windpipe to expel upon the glistening dew. From this dew rises anthills of diminishing complexity, and busying themselves within insanity, the occupants labor to hold fast against the unseen wave of oblivion.

An exercise in aleatoric sentence-finishing between two aligned performers, The Exquisite Corpse Shall Drink the New Wine mimics the economics of unconscious beauty-making to such a degree that light will neither pass through it nor divert its path. Draw upon it what you will, and ready yourself for the unrelenting ataraxy.

‘Social Graces’ is the debut album from Australian
post-punk outfit Loose Fit. Made up of Kaylene Miller,
Anna Langdon, Max edgar and Richard Martin.
 Kaylene and Anna met in fashion school and instantly
bonded through their love of experimental music.
 After toying with lo-fi bedroom recordings, the pair
recruited Max edgar on guitar and Richard Martin on
bass and started making some actual noise.
 Kaylene is also behind the cult knitwear brand WAHWAH Australia, with items worn by Noel Fielding,
Courtney Barnett and Kim Gordon.
 The band’s rhythm-heavy sound contains echoes of
UK post-punk titans such as PiL and A Certain Ratio.
 “Their post-punk indebted sound is barbed, wiry, and
overwhelmingly infectious.” - Clash
 “This is music to truly let loose to” - So Young
Magazine
 “If you thought they were going to make a quiet
entrance, you thought wrong.” - DIY
 “Loose Fit have ever been producers of the most
kinetic percussive tracks that have a restless and
visceral energy about them.” - Backseat Mafia
 For fans of Shopping, The Slits, Delta 5, Dry Cleaning,
Amyl & The Sniffers, Sonic Youth, A Certain Ratio

After just over a year-long hiatus from the Earthly Tapes series – the 3rd Chapter is finally upon us. Offering more mind-altering tracks to the series, we welcome 6 new members to the Earthly Measures familia!

We kick things off with ‘Comets (part I & II)’, the first release by ORSO, the new musical project from Jean Dasso AKA Yeahman, stepping into club and drum music. Alongside faster rhythms, with influences of UK Break music, African dances and traditional instruments, we’re taken through a two-chapter journey led by modular melodic loops, old traditional voices samples and ORSO’s own recordings.

Up next is a trip to Argentina as we welcome Balam to the EM family, join him as he takes you on a daydream across the Latin-American rainforest where synthesizers and nature collide to create the perfect mix, guided by a voice from the deep jungle. ‘Ensueño’ is a dance-floor tool fitting for both the start and end of the night.

Japanese native Mamazu steps up the tempo for the third track ‘Tombi’. Transporting us to a hypnotic and hedonistic state as delightful aerophones sound with the exotic chant, delivering the feeling of a dry breeze from the unseen frontier. Another dance floor ripper!

The B-side starts with ‘Voces’, a track inspired by the music that Chilean artist DJ Raff’s mum listened to when he was a teenager making beats in his bedroom. He used to take her records and tapes to sample and make boom-bap beats. Voces is influenced by both Spanish and Chilean 70’s music, although deconstructed to make an amazingly catchy melody. .

Ditti takes us through an ever-twisting groove as we swim upstream, spot a wave and take off... welcome to ‘Poly Party’. The soundtrack to a carnivalesque funked out ballad on a Polynesian beach shifting between the rhythms of a guitar & riding the surf, cutting synths & dripping flows.

We wrap things up with ‘Small Town Rebellion’, a story told by Scottish producer Kusht – this downtempo chugger reflects the story of a young man in a dead-end town with no future. He needs to break his fate and carve his own path by revolting and manifesting his own destiny.

Back in 1968, a pair of Germanic behind-the-scenes sound
librarians called Horst Ackermann and Heribert Thusek left a
tiny but indelible pinprick on the history of German Pop in the
misshaped form of a sexy horror cash-in concept album called
‘Dracula’s Music Cabinet’. Shelved at a micro-cosmic axis
where Krautrock meets lesbian vampire Horrortica and easy
listening meets psychedelia, the delayed reaction of this mutant
concoction eventually exploded in the mid-1990s in the hands of
a generation of ‘record diggers’ sending currency-crushing
tremors through the wallets of mods, rockers, hip hoppers and
psych nuts around the plastic-pillaging planet. The vinyl junkies
had resurrected a monster but, like addicts do, they ravenously
sucked it dry and moved on looking for the next fix to feed their
habit.

Luckily for some, Ackermann and Thusek were also creatures
of habit. And it wouldn’t take a genius to figure out that they
were holding the next dose, but by the turn of the millennium
the mad scientists had been given a thirty-five-year head start
on the pop archaeologists and their mythical sequel was literally
light-years ahead of their previous draconian instalment.
Encouragingly, the unclosed cabinet left a shiny white clue in
the form of its closing track ‘Frankenstein Meets Alpha 7’.

The Ackermann and Thusek duo were far from dynamic. They
were undercover agents hiding behind user-friendly mock-rock
monikers and, like most B-Musicians, the only way to sniff them
out would be to read the small print. But when an unidentified
record on an unknown label with a title like ‘Science Fiction
Dance Party’ crops up in the Eins Deutschmark crates it’s not
exactly rocket science - although the track titles might suggest
otherwise. ‘The End Of A Robot’, ‘Monster On Saturn 1’,
‘Galactic Adventures Of The Outer Space Fleet’, ‘The Whistling
Astronauts’, ‘Death Rays Out Of The Universe’… The tell-tale
signs are all there and if that doesn’t clench the deal then what
will?

Even rarer than its horror counterpart, this ultra-rare record
regularly reaches sums in excess of €400 plus online.

Planet Mu presents ‘ADDLE’ – Bogdan Raczynski’s first album of new music in 15 years. Marking a change from the high-octane jungle tekno braindance for which he is most commonly known, here we find the Polish American musician in a more melodic and zen-like place of peace, which is ergonomic and decluttered, whilst also bittersweet and tinged with melancholy. ‘ADDLE’ is closest in spirit to 2001’s tender ‘myloveilove’, or the light-hearted ditties of this year’s ‘BANANS’ EP, but is also a markedly new milestone. A robust and bottom-heavy rhythm section juxtaposes with sad electronic tear jerkers, at points laced with the soft cooing wail of his vocals, which are loaded with a haunting, heavy and almost wounded emotion. Bogdan comments “Calm is great. You need to take a breather in the eye of the storm now and then. But the real growth happens in turbulence, when your feelings oscillate in and out of sync. It’s not dry land you’re after. You’re trying to build a new island while on a piddly raft. Beleaguered and weary you lay the foundation with your bare hands while the rain lashes your back; a new place for you and yours to moor yourself to until the next storm hits. ‘ADDLE’ is about that storm, its adjacent periphery, and what you look like, in and out, when you set foot. As space and time push against you, that process of adapting becomes an anchor. Among that state of being addled, out of flow, seemingly untethered, there is beauty.”

Although less unhinged and riotous than some of his previous work, ‘ADDLE’ is no less impactful. Lean, punchy and purposeful, this seemingly simple combination of beats and melody belies a razor sharp skill, which bursts with verve and virtuosity. Across its eight unique and moving tracks the listener experiences tenderness, feelings somewhere between unease and comfort, and a sense of reflection, with Bogdan seemingly gazing at twinkling stars, but with his view distorted by welling-up. Sonically, spaces range from razor-sharp choppage, juddering heavyweight head-nodders, bit-crushed siren squall and something akin to Philip Glass’ ‘Candyman’ score played through a high-tech-fairy-tale music box. There’s also a warming, life-affirming moment as close to deep house as Bogdan will ever comfortably get, neck-snapping metallic percussion, Casiotone on steroids and reverberant warehouse throb. Booming drum machines are a prominent factor too – reminiscent of early hip hop instrumentals – but spirited off somewhere, lost in purgatory. Bogdan Raczynski (born 1977) is a Polish-American electronic musician. Raczynski’s work draws inspiration from the chaotic breakbeats of jungle and hardcore rave as well as traditional Polish music and other sources. He has collaborated with Bjork, remixed Autechre, CLPNG and Jonsi from Sigur Ross, and toured with Aphex Twin, who commented how “his records are so underrated.” Bogdan was also a roster mainstay of Richard James’s seminal Rephlex label, with additional releases on Warp, Ghostly, Disciples and Unknown to the Unknown. A keen proponent of tech, he created a sample pack using pollution and recently collaborated with Polyend on a custom made banana-themed tracker.