Cerca:e v sound

Luar Domatrix (Rudi Brito) is perhaps more recognizable as half of the artsy-duo Yong Yong that emerged in 2012. After a long season spent in Glasgow, and with editions by Naivety (Naive’s sublabel of Inês Coutinho aka Violet) , Sucata Tapes (Discrepant) and with a track inserted in a VA from 12th Isle, comes back to Lisbon (his hometown) clearly soaked by the sounds of the Scottish industrial center.

“Baía Stamina”, produced in Glasgow, is strongly inspired by the local club scene and evokes the utopia of a heavenly bay somewhere in Italy. Although always looking to bend the barriers of that “squarish” side of dance music, “Baía Stamina” is a dance record. It starts with “Bo Teias”, a track full of percussive elements and unusual sound effects that presents itself as a hymn of the “Baía Stamina” - pure boilling energy. “Take” is the least functional theme on the record. Metal percussion layers are overlapped over a string, creating a certain unrest and discomfort. A vocal incites consumption ("Take, Take, Take") to the point that a pad clears the way for liberation creating a more relaxing and dreamy ambience.

Closing the A side “Bo Teias” gets a remix from the Glasgow duo General Ludd, with whom Rudi used to live. In this version, and as the name implies, “Bo Teias (Gen Ludd Disco Problem Remix)” moves the focus away from the dance floor, ands transforms itself into a rhythmic exploration over the void, punctuated by some recognizable elements. “Outra Face” is a track made to blow up soundsystems! Anchored in distortion and in a broken beat led by the kick of the infamous TR-808 there is an almost epic vibe to it, that shows the confidence that Rudi Brito has acquired in his relaxed production style. “Heavven” closes the record in a completely British tone. The soulful vocal reminiscent of some garage tracks, echoes Bristol production and a time when dubstep producers decided to lower their bpms to something closer to the house. Without ever rushing the theme moves through different sonic landscapes and electronic glitches until a Portuguese voice announces “Acabou-se a brincadeira” (“Playtime is over”). This is peaktime; it's time to go dancing.

Finland’s Luke Lund is one of the most inspiring modern dub aesthetes. Using odd number time signatures, warped bottom end, and proper experimental murk, HOPIUM creates fiendishly innovative electronic groove and atmosphere. Existing in a far away land tucked north of techno, dub, and noise where all blend and connect, HOPIUM is a wise encoding of fear, frustration, anxiety, and false hope. Luke Lund’s sound is unquestionable sincerity of exploration, equally inspired by Finnish electronic masters such as Mika Vainio and Ilpo Väisäinen, as well the legends Justin K Broadrick and Mick Harris – as such, absolutely at home on our label. Releasing on labels such as Youth, Co-Depedent, Totes Format, as well his own encyclopedic Terranean Recordings, Luke’s catalog of work continues to expand as does his global profile – assisted by touring Europe and playing at venues from Berlin to London to Helsinki. All tracks produced and recorded at Solace, April 2018 – June 2019. Mastered by Daniele Antezza at Dadub Mastering Studio. Design by Luke Lund. Executive producer Kurt Gluck.

Following a high-pressure drop on Sneaker Social Club in 2019, bass-toting instigator Low End Activist steps up with his most expansive release yet.

His sound is a perfect amalgam of elements from the hardcore continuum – at times a dark and malevolent brainstorm of grubby drums dragged through crusty samplers, future-weary textural scrapes, moody splashes of pads and of course bucketloads of crushing subs, lows and low mids all designed to rock you from the waist down. You'll hear spectres of culture past lurking in the shadows – a trip hop skit from a gaunt figure here, a riotous brawl of grime MCs there – and feel the decades of soundsystem absorption seeping off the platters. It's like the LEA reached capacity and these productions were what happened when the sponge got squeezed.

One voice cuts a more prominent figure up front though – the peerless Flowdan, lending some powerful bars to Game Theory. What needs to be said about the Pay As You Go / Roll Deep mastermind you don't already know? His flow is mightier than any sword you care to step with.

Speaking of platters, this particular release marks the first vinyl pressing for Seagrave since the BOA 12" Warp Purpose Vol. 1 back in 2015 (slated for a repress – don't sleep!). It's an occasion worth toasting, building on a powerful and varied catalogue of sub-heavy sonics operating well outside the mainstream in service to naught but the sound, all packaged in a full-colour sleeve. As an expansive double pack of seven sure shots, it's also a fitting document of a subversive operative bringing some devastating angles to the hardcore tradition.

- Oli Warwick.

Seven years after its inception, Eaux is proud to announce the first solo release by an artist other than Rrose. As a member of the Sandwell District collective, David Sumner aka Function was instrumental incultivating the Rrose project. After releasing the first three EPs and album by Rrose between 2012 and 2013, Sandwell District terminated their mission abruptly, prompting Rrose to start a new label (Eaux) for solo projects andcollaborations. This EP brings history full circle.



Following closely on the heels of Function's mammoth 3LP/17 track album "Existenz" for Tresor Records, this EP takes similar themes as a departure point, but moves into more mysterious, yet also heavily dancefloor-focused terrain. "Binaural" encapsulates the timeless essence of the Function sound with menacing bleeps, cavernous stabs, and a sense that it could go on forever without losing its grip on the listener. "Desire and Memory" is a broken beat track drenched in modulated drones that feels like an infinite spiral, moving simultaneously forward and backward in time. Function's early Sandwell District records defined the "hypnotic" techno sound that has influenced countless artists (including Rrose), and this release plants those roots in new, fertile ground.



Recorded at Inanimate Objects, Berlin

Mixed by Tobias Freund at Non-Standard Studios

Mastered by Beau at Ten Eight Seven

Following January’s acclaimed vinyl debut from Exterior and summer’s much-loved Kota Motomura EP, Edinburgh’s Hobbes Music label ends 2019 with its first album release, also a debut, from GAMING, a fresh new braindance electronica project straight outta Glasgow, from producer and musician Alan Bryden.

GAMING is a new solo outing that brings together a lifelong love of music and technology and creating left field, rhythmic electronica. It’s the sound of IDM, nineties techno and mensch maschine computer music that is as spontaneous as it is programmed.

“Scenes From A Deserted City is a collection of tracks that started as a set of riffs, loops, rhythms and grooves and unfurled around a sense of growing unease about the future of the urban environment around me.
It’s an album that started out as sound…and ended up as a way of telling stories about the age of anxiety we live in, how our world is changing, and how we find a way through that.
This is DIY electronica from Glasgow – it was made on a growing collection of digital and analogue synths and FX units, including a bunch of modular racks, each with its own idiosyncrasies and character that belies the assumption of the binary.
The studio where it was recorded – an abandoned, and often very cold, school building reclaimed by the community some twenty years ago – offered up stories of resilience, even when all seems lost. (I’m not sure what the mice contributed but they definitely climbed in and out of some synths).
This album is ultimately about my changing relationship with Glasgow, a city I’ve lived in for more than 25 years. It’s about how I feel now about the increasing sense of urban decay and how the city can be a very isolating place. It’s about how I reflect on my younger creative self trying to find a direction but mainly feeling a sense of dislocation and not fitting in. And it’s about the questions I have about how that relationship is changing, how it will be forced to move forward.
The result is a soundtrack for walking home on your own, in that headphone bubble when it’s just you focusing on that music that makes sense to you alone. It’s for early in the morning, after the night before, or going to work with the memories of that slipping and sliding inside your head. It’s about how it feels to be both elated and lonely, to be lost in the familiar, despairingly hopeful.”
ALAN BRYDEN (Glasgow, August ‘19)

On The Corner Records is delighted to announce the release of Dialectic Soul, the debut album from one of Cape Town's most cuttingedge, visionary artists and musicians, the drummer Asher Gamedze. This is Jazz at its most spiritual, most progressive and most appealing form. As Asher himself says: Dialectic Soul is about motion and a refusal to remain static or stay still. It's the commitment to be continually moving'. Recorded live over two days at the Sound and Motion Studios in Cape Town with renowned musicians (Thembinkosi Mavimbela (bass), Buddy Wells (tenor sax), Robin Fassie-Kock (trumpet) Nono Nkoane (voc)), Dialectic Soul is breathtaking in its musical vitality and expression of soul seeking truth. By incorporating the concept of the Total Art for this project, it fits perfectly within On The Corner's aesthetic of music, art and vision for creative innovation. Label art director Victoria Topping created the sleeve design working with Asher's drawings and concept.

Silver Vinyl repress

The debut of Hamburg-based Quadratschulz on Clone Dub Recordings. A mini album with tracks ranging from a poppy version of Rephlex style braindance to melodies reminisching a modern day John Carpenter soundtrack to almost old Viewlexx style electro. A versatile album where Quadratschulz showcases his broad range of influences all very firmly rooted in the 90's rave.

The funky, atmospheric, evocative and sometimes downright weird output of companies such as DeWolfe, Cavendish, Burton and the ubiquitous KPM have always been a guiding inspiration for ATA Records, as evidenced in the spooky soundtrack works of The Sorcerers, the big band brass of The Yorkshire Film & Television Orchestra and even in the soul-jazz of The Lewis Express ('Theme From The Watcher).

Everything released on ATA is written and guided by the label heads Neil Innes and Pete Williams, who frequently dip their toes in the Library pond while working on other projects. These occasional one-off tracks have accumulated over the past few years and have now found a home on the first volume of an ongoing series : The Library Archive

Ranging from heavy big band brass (Whack, Slap & Blow, Kaye Okay) to evocative thriller soundtrack (Midnight Heist, Wiretap, The Needlenose) via introspective ethereal soundscapes (Nuclear Wind, Siren's Sea) these 11 tracks faithfully recreate the feel of the Library music catalogues of the 60s and 70s.

Of course, Dubblestandart have been keeping a version of the dub flame alive for the last two decades. Formed in 1988 as a reaction to the stagnant Austrian pop scene, the group was heavily inspired by the Black Ark, On-U Sound and Jah Shaka, infusing such dub influences within their heady blend of hardcore reggae and new wave, which soon brought them into the European public's consciousness and as a kind of "European" version of the famous DUB SYNDICATE. Soon, they were so in demand as to be backing Lee Scratch Perry, dub poet Lilian Allen, Dillinger, Ari Up, Ken Boothe, Marcia Griffiths, Chezere and orthers. Well, Austria's / Viennas's finest moments in dub working and collaborating with the new technological dimension of modern dub : Paolo Baldini from Italy. Baldini's stunning excursion into deep dub, chilling dub and dubble-tough dub will reach the DubFiles into perfection @ DUB ME CRAZY. Paolo Baldini's handling of this mission has been exemplary: his production and remixing skills are pleasingly individualistic, retaining plenty of originality and professionalism without seeming stoic, dull or contrived. His collaborations with Mellow Mood, Hempress Sativa, Dub Fx and others are showing faith of what DUB is living for. Since 2007 Paolo Baldini works under the top level name "Alambic Conspiracy" and became world class dub extraordinary performer, bass player, mixologist, producer and provocateur!

Funnuvojere's latest instalment, Minority Resist, comes from Czech Republic and it's signed by Martin Ku?ka under his moniker Goodbye Mirage. Martin has been performing and producing ambient and synthy compositions under his real name for many years, releasing a few LPs for the US cassette labels Sacred Phrases and Origin Peoples, mostly influenced by writing, drawing and photography, as well as by the rhythms of village life.? Funnuvojere's new ethereal EP interweaves nostalgia for the past and reflections on the present. The EP is imbued with Martin's memories of discovering Berlin's Love Parade, the golden cradle of 90s trance and progressive house. Emotional tension and unexpected polymeters characterise the EP, with minimalistic notes rippling back from a distant future. Careful design produces a unique sound and grain that will blissfully envelop those lucky enough to hear it played.?

Fully immersive electronic music by US composer Maggi Payne, inspired by the arctic winds. Maggi Payne's sound worlds invite the listeners to enter the sound and be carried with it, experiencing it from the inside out in intimate detail. The sounds are almost tactile and visible.

The music is based on location recordings, with each sound carefully selected for its potential—its slow unfolding revealing delicate intricacies—and its inherent spatialization architecting and sculpting the aural space where multiple perspectives and trajectories coexist. With good speakers, some space in your schedule, and a mind-body continuum willing to resonate with Payne’s electroacoustic journey, but then it will take you to places that other music can’t reach.

From the sounds of dry ice, space transmissions, BART trains, and poor plumbing she immerses the listener in a world strangely unfamiliar. Maggi Payne is a composer, video artist, recording engineer, photographer, and flutist and is Co-Director of the Center for Contemporary Music and a faculty member at Mills College, in the San Francisco Bay Area.

All sounds recorded at various locations in Europe, South America and at EMS, Stockholm using the Buchla 200 modular synthesizer.

soar, all sounds recorded with Klara Lewis in Montreal 2018


Mastered by Russell Haswell. January 2020

Cut at Schnittstelle, Berlin by Andreas Kauffelt, January 2020


Image : Mark Hogben

Layout: Nik Void

The last two years have seen me maintaining an association with an unusual bedfellow, death. The loss of Mika Vainio, as well as three members of my own family, has had a profound effect on me and spurred a lengthy reflection on life, death, and everything in between.

Parallelly, while studying the philosophy of science, I came across shadow photons:


"Tangible photons are the ones we can see or detect with instruments whereas shadow photons are intangible (invisible) detectable only indirectly through the interference effects on the tangible photons.

There is no intrinsic difference between tangible and shadow photons: each photon is tangible in one universe and intangible in all the other parallel universes.

They travel at the speed of light, bounce off mirrors, are refracted by lenses, and are stopped by opaque barriers or filters of the wrong colour. Yet, they do not trigger even the most sensitive detectors. The only thing in the universe that a shadow photon can be observed to affect is the tangible photon that it accompanies. This is the phenomenon of interference.

Shadow photons would go entirely unnoticed, were it not for this phenomenon and the strange pattern of shadows by which we observe it.

Thus the existence of a seething, prodigiously complicated hidden world of shadow photons has been inferred."*


I have drawn a parallel between shadow photons and death. The interference phenomena, parallel universes, and how shadow photons affect tangible photons they accompany, offer, in my opinion, similarities, an unknown universe which is death and how we, remaining tangible human beings, are affected. This quest has led me to be more willing to accept chaos in my life and to conclude that Death is perfection, everything else is relative.

Forma by Lucy Railton, is a work that digs into us. It disorients us, plays with us, but without malice. It is like a nocturnal butterfly whose wings reflect a dark light, thus projecting fleeting hallucinations, which nevertheless persist on the surface of our retina. Its trajectories, too, are unpredictable. But such disorientation is not that of a chaotic space, it is rather a mysterious reason that presents itself to us, an imperious unfolding whose logic escapes us, but which nevertheless fascinates. It is also a history of shapes and their becomings. A story, also of their own vanishing.

Metabolist Meter (Foster, Cottin, Caetani and a Fly), by Max Eilbacher is a teeming piece, a matrix where textures and structures merge together, where the polyrhythmic instances become timbre, where the formal abstraction of the harmonic volutes coagulates around a vibrating form that is actualized in the dramatic reality of a dying fly. And this formal mastery is not disembodied in Max Eilbacher's work and the kaleidoscopic forms of the sound spectra that he has deployed know how to resonate in the sensations and experiences of each one.

These two pieces have this in common, but each with their own agenda, that they evolve with grace and inspiration in the vast domain of the sound world and it is a great pride for us to present them in this new collection.

Released in association with Editions Mego.
Coordination GRM: François Bonnet, Jules Négrier

Executive Production: Peter Rehberg

Ju/Na is a collaborative project between Juri Corrado and Nathan Dawidowicz and was borne in Berlin where both of them live. It's a conjunction of free verse and analog soundscapes - which could be described as 'analog poetry'

This debut album 'Haiku' is an exploration of contemporary narcisism which unfolds against a backdrop of different facets of contemporary life in imaginary/imagined or concrete urban spaces. Each side of the record contains three tracks - reflecting the three phrases of Japanese Haiku poetry. With a surreal language and quotes from mythology, the opus potrays the dreamy delirium of the Ego, from Love to disenchantment.

Swiss jazz bliss! We Release Jazz is very, very, VERY happy to present its sixth release (following Ryo Fukui’s Scenery and Mellow Dream, Le Cercle Rouge’s soundtrack by Eric Demarsan, Stuff Combe 5 + Percussion, and Marc Moulin’s Placebo Live 1971) coming straight from its beloved hometown of Geneva. Boillat Thérace Quintet’s self-titled album is available for the first time since its original limited private pressing in 1974 and comes as a vinyl LP as well as a digipack CD* (with 3 never-heard bonus songs). Full of prolific and inspired local clusters and boosted by the recently launched Montreux Jazz Festival, the Swiss jazz scene was vibrant and inventive in the 1970s, notably in the region surrounding Lake Geneva. This is precisely where jazz activist and brilliant pianist Jean-François Boillat and wind instrument master Raymond Thérace formed their quintet whose dazzling debut album was recorded in 1974. An absolute Lemanic gem of the soul-jazz/modal kind, the self-titled album includes superb covers of Freddie Hubbard’s “Straight Life”, Keith Jarrett’s “In Your Quiet Place”, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s “Sweet Fire”, plus groovy original compositions from the Boillat-Thérace crew. Helvetian fun facts: the velvety “1224” is dedicated to Geneva’s public transport line Tram 12, and one exquisitely funky track on the album is named after the famed yet elusive (and locally legendary) Swiss Marmite: “Cenovis”! This is reissued in conjunction with Boillat Thérace Quintet’s My Greatest Love featuring Benny Bailey (1975), also available via We Release Jazz. *The CD version includes 3 bonus tracks (Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, and Claude Engel covers), never released before.

Warning! This record contains traces of acid and spaced out tripping techno!
Classic unpredictable SW. goodness straight outta SUED: Detroit hitek soul & UK broken beat vibes meet subtle swinging & warm sounding lo-fi house. Artist Info: - SW. is one of the heads behind SUED records - his album from 2017 got voted by Rolling Stone Magazine to the top 20 electronic music albums of the year - this year he is releasing also on Kimochi and a famous label from Salzburg - his past remixes were on Kimochi, Acid Test, Klasse Wrecks, Bright Sounds, and Kalahari Oyster Kult

The globe-trotting Robert Millis returns to Helen Scarsdale for this beautifully fragile album of dissolved glass rendered as a collage of recontextualized minimalism. To astute listeners, Millis should be a household name due to his work in the unpredictably diverse Climax Golden Twins as well as his impeccable curations for Sublime Frequencies (collections include the Deben Bhattacharya: Men and Music on the Desert Road and Indian Talking Machine books). Hie previous solo work include Relief (released here on The Helen Scarsdale Agency in 2013) and The Lonesome High for the Sun City Girls’ Abduction Records in 2016. His scholarship into the hidden corners of music across the world has also earned him Guggenheim and Fulbright fellowships.

Related Ephemera is an album composed mostly from the hiss, the crackle, the surface noise of 78rpm shellacs and wax cylinders. “Horrifying,” Millis explains “is the concept to record collectors that vinyl degrades and can be easily damaged. however, initially records were considered ephemeral, especially 78rpm records. They were novelties. Fleeting. Entertainment.” Millis intends for the album to be a feedback loop whereby the patina of handling, playing, living with the record will circle back to the original source material. Furthering that metaphor, Millis amplifies and dilates feedback tones generated from his collection of vintage gramophones.

That said, Millis does cite the intrusion of exactly one field recording, a broken toy, and a few notes from a cello. But the construction of these rarified tones, crispy textures, ghostly rattles, and fluid resonance that ripples through all of Related Ephemera has its origins in the tactile nature of the vinyl medium. It’s hardly the stuff of sentimental nostalgia though. Related Ephemera is more an act of time travel, slipping backwards and forwards with the scratch of a needle (Watch out! What pre-recorded needle jump sound is not your turntable going haywire!). The emotional core to the album is that of a resigned melancholy, almost Bergman-esque in its starkness but not without a brief moment of dark humor.

Here is an album that aligns itself aesthetically with Nurse With Wound’s Soliloquy For Lilith, Philip Jeck’s more languid collages, and even some of Harry Bertoia’s sculptural atmospherics.

The vinyl was mastered and cut by Helmut Ehler at D&M Berlin, whose expertise was necessary given that part of the original compositions from Millis’ reworked surface noise were exceedingly problematic to cut. The D&M cut does temper the composition into a mysterious, diaphanous cloud; where the digital-only mastering provides a cascade of insects gnawing within your inner ear. Two facets. One piece of music.

Re-Release

Black Truffle is honoured to present the premier recordings of two recent works by legendary American experimental composer Alvin Lucier. A friend and contemporary of pioneers like Robert Ashley, David Behrman, Gordon Mumma, and Christian Wolff, Lucier has been crafting elegant explorations of the behavior of sound in physical space since the 1960s. Lucier is perhaps best known for I Am Sitting in a Room (1970), in which he repeatedly re-recorded his own speaking voice being played back into a room until the room's resonant frequencies entirely obscure the spoken text. Beginning in the early 1970s, he has written a remarkable catalogue of instrumental works that focus on phenomena produced by the interference between closely tuned pitches, such as audible beating, often using pure electronic tones produced by oscillators in combination with single instruments.

Demonstrating the restless creative drive of an artist now in his 80s, the two recent works presented here both feature the electric guitar, an instrument Lucier has just recently begun to explore. In Criss-Cross, Lucier's first composition for electric guitars, two guitarists using e-bows sweep slowly up and down a single semitone, beginning at opposite ends of the pitch range. The piece is a model of simplicity, exemplifying Lucier's desire not to 'compose' in the conventional sense, but rather to eliminate everything that 'distracts from the acoustical unfolding of the idea'. In this immaculately controlled performance of Criss-Cross by Oren Ambarchi and Stephen O'Malley, (for whom the piece was written in 2013), a seemingly simple idea creates a rich array of sonic effects - not simply beating patterns, which gradually slow down as the two tones reach unison and accelerate as they move further apart, but also the remarkable phenomenon of sound waves spinning in elliptical patterns through space between the two guitar amps.

In the comparatively lush Hanover, Lucier draws inspiration from the beautiful photograph that provides the LP with its cover, an image of the Dartmouth Jazz Band taken in 1918 featuring Lucier's father on violin. Using the instrumentation present in the photograph, Lucier creates an unearthly sound world of sliding tones from violin, alto and tenor saxophones, piano, vibraphone (bowed) and three electric guitars (which take the place of the banjos present in the photograph). Waves of slow glissandi create thick, complex beating patterns, gently punctuated by repeated single notes from the piano. The result is a piece that, like much of Lucier's instrumental music, is simultaneously both unperturbably calm and constantly in motion.
Stunning LP design by Stephen O'Malley including an inner sleeve with a portrait of Alvin Lucier by Kris Serafin.
Criss-Cross' recorded at Studios Ina GRM, Paris by Francois Bonnet and mixed by Alvin Lucier. Hanover' recorded in Zurich and mixed by Alvin Lucier.
Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M Belin.
Criss-Cross' recorded at Studios Ina GRM, Paris by Francois Bonnet and mixed by Alvin Lucier. Hanover' recorded in Zurich and mixed by Alvin Lucier.
Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M Berlin.

French synth-pop talent Lucien & The Kimono Orchestra unveils his new solo piano album, a journey into cinematic soundscapes

Alone at the piano, Lucien takes us on a very personal album in a deep and quiet reverie. We spend a soft winter morning in his company, reminiscing about tender childhood memories.

Between previously unreleased tracks and revisited Kimono Orchestra pieces, "Piano Matinée" concludes a trilogy of recordings which have barely been released, while paving the way for a wider future. Universal, sensitive, cinematographic, the piano language spoken here by Lucien opens us to his musical world in a light that is both more authentic and accessible.

The album also tells us a personal story. That of a grandfather - an exceptional pianist but forced to give up his career when the Second World War broke out - who passed on to him a taste for music in his early childhood, before passing away.

Many years later, Lucien came across old cassette recordings of his eldest son, soon afterwards having a disturbing dream in which he swore he had had a dialogue with him and decided to go his own way. The self-taught musician spent a whole year honing his piano skills before deciding to freeze his performance in the summer of 2019 at the legendary Steinway at the Studios Saint-Germain.

Drawing freely on all his influences - jazz, funk, classical, cinema - Lucien's "Piano Matinée" is a special object, as intimate as it is melodious.

Spanning multiple styles and genres in a seamless blend of danceable music, the album reference synthwave, italo disco, fun and blissed-out synth sounds throughout a constantly evolving record, merging modern feels with rich tapestry of old 80's melodies.

Our first vinyl will go with a big bang!

Early support from Mano Le Tough, Dave DK, Maceo Plex, John Digweed, Gardens of God, Ame, Silicone Soul, Hunter/Game, Kevin De Vries, Massimiliano Pagliara, Fideles, Paul Ritch, Shall Ocin, Raxon, Mind Against, Ae:ther, Ilija Djokovic, Jeremy Olander, Frank Maurel, Alexi Delano & more

Barcelona based producer Adwer returns to his Bolygo Records imprint in 2020 with five alluring cuts entitled "Our Genome" EP with remixes from Amandra and Marc Pinol. Adwer has left his mark on the overall electronic music scene in the last few years through his melodic leaning productions that've picked up support from the likes of Sasha, John Digweed, Joris Voorn and Laurent Garnier. Adwer aims to capture emotion within his music with his synth focused tracks and euphoric vibrations that continue to solidify his reputation of being a purveyor of innovative sound design and gentle sonics.

"Our Genome" EP sees him deliver the first release of the new decade on his Bolygo label where he invites remixes from the Ahrpe Records label boss and French producer Amandra and Spain's Marc Pinol who is renowned for releases on John Talabot's Hivern Discs imprint.

"Messing with the DNA" begins proceedings with thudding kicks, growling bass rolls and dreamy oscillations fluttering underneath before "Recombinant" deploys undulating euphoria through tranquil tones, deep vibrations and progressing synth notes that unravel escapist intentions.

Amandra's remix of "Recombinant" lays focus on raw, crunchy percussion, lo-fi experiments and murky pads that keep you locked throughout whereas Marc Pinol's remix of "Messing with the DNA" offers up electro-styled grooves, cosmic waves and acid-tinged oscillations that carry outer space feels.

"Our Genome" then rounds things off with meandering, 80s styled synths, ethereal, revolving modulations and rumbling bass frequencies to finish.

Soundsmith and technology rebel Katatonic Silentio back now on a solo LP one year after her first personal release.
Bass missiles, encompassing atmospheres & killer fast focused drums shouts, everything is intently encased in an emancipation act, an insurgent statute against our own oppressions.

Seven tracks pathway leading to a final act of awareness and deliverance from ourselves, without any aversion to go far away, beyond all flags, all frontiers, all countries, all barriers, all beliefs.

* A welcome repress of an essential dub set from Centry, originally appearing on the Conscious Sounds label in 1993.
* Featuring 10 varied-in-style rootical dubs from Centry consisting of Nigel Lake, Chris Petter and Dougie Wardrop, with the set mixed by the latter.
* Features some blazing horns and vocal snippets (from Danny Red, King General & Barry Issac) dubbed and phased to the max.
* Limited to 500 copies only.

Black Truffle’s documentation of the prolific recent work of legendary American composer Alvin Lucier continues with Works for the Ever Present Orchestra. This is a very special release for the composer, as it presents pieces written for the thirteen-member Ever Present Orchestra, formed in 2016 exclusively to perform Lucier’s works. At the heart of the ensemble are four electric guitars, an instrument Lucier began composing for in 2013 with Criss-Cross (recorded by two core members of the Ever Present Orchestra, Oren Ambarchi and Stephen O’Malley, for whom it was composed, on Black Truffle 033). Through the use of e-bows, the guitars take on a role akin to the slow sweep pure wave oscillators heard in many of Lucier’s works since the early 1980s, but with added harmonic richness. Like much of Lucier’s instrumental music, the pieces recorded here focus on acoustic phenomena, especially beating patterns, produced by the interference between closely tuned pitches. The work presented here is some of the richest and most inviting that Lucier has composed. Though all of the pieces clearly belong to the same continuing exploration of the behaviour of sound in physical space and make use of related compositional devices, each takes on a strikingly different character. Titled Arc, for the full ensemble of four guitars, four saxophones, four violins, piano and bowed glockenspiel inhabits a world of sliding, uneasy tones, punctuated by a single piano note. Where Double Helix, for four guitars, rests on a pillow of warm, low hum, EPO-5, for two guitars, saxophone, violin, and glockenspiel possess a limpid, crystalline quality. Accompanying the four new compositions are two adaptations of existing pieces for radically different instrumentation, demonstrating Lucier’s excitement about the new possibilities suggested by this dedicated ensemble. Works for the Ever Present Orchestra is an essential document of the current state of Lucier’s continuing exploration, as well as offering a seductive entry-point for anyone who might yet be unacquainted with his singular body of work.

Presented in a deluxe gatefold sleeve with cover artwork and liner notes from Alvin Lucier. Includes a download code featuring hi-res vesions of the LP material. The download code also includes the bonus Adaptions for the Ever Present Orchestra featuring two pieces (“Two Circles” and “Braid”) that are not included on the LP version. Mastered by Rashad Becker. Design by Lasse Marhaug.

Mono Han are brothers Alessandro and Davide, who collectively have a deep and long understanding of electronic music. Davide is a co-founder of N.O.I.A, one of Italy’s first electronic live acts to perform and record with drum machines and synths as early as 1978. He was also behind seminal Italo outfit Klein + M.B.O and proto-house hit “Dirty Talk”. Alessandro, following in his brother’s footsteps was inevitable and he too became hooked on the incredible new sound palette emanating from the early electronic machines.

Since then they have released under an array of aliases, have clocked up numerous club hits and this project brings them back to their 80’s roots.

R.A. The Rugged Man and Atmosphere are two of the most important names in underground hip-hop history. Among the original architects of the independent hip-hop revolution, both of these iconic artists have defied the odds to thrive for decades in the ever-changing rap landscape.

Now, R.A. The Rugged Man and Slug of Atmosphere are joining forces for the first time ever to bring some much-needed joy to listeners during these trying times. Featuring a hook by famed singer Eamon, the historic collaboration "Golden Oldies" is a feel-good trip down memory lane taken from R.A. The Rugged Man's new album All My Heroes Are Dead".

This Ltd. Edition 7" Single gives fans the opportunity to experience the nostalgic anthem in all it's old-school glory.

On Sunset features ten classic yet modern Paul Weller songs. On Sunset is a soul album. At the same time it’s also an electronic album, an orchestral album, an album packed with masterly pop songs and heart-tugging ballads, and an album filled with touches of experimentalism. It’s also an album that sees Weller taking a rare glance into the rear-view mirror as he speeds into the 2020s. Most of the album sees Weller multi-tasking on various instruments with accompaniment from his regular band - Ben Gordelier appears on all tracks and Andy Crofts on most whilst Steve Cradock pops up with his guitar on 4 songs. An eclectic and sometimes surprising gathering of guests appear on On Sunset including Slade’s Jim Lea contributing violin to the Bonzos-esque “Equanimity”, and Paul’s old Style Council chum Mick Talbot adds his signature Hammond Organ sound to 3 tracks. The beautifully lush “More” features a verse sung by French singer Julie Gros, from the band Le Superhomard (whose album Meadow Lane Park was one of Weller’s favourites of 2019) as well as the return of The Strype’s guitarist Josh McClorey. English folk trio The Staves contribute backing vocals for 3 tracks. Once again Hannah Peel sprinkles her magic over the album with string arrangements and The Paraorchestra were invited to add their expertise to 4 tracks. Formats include Black double Gatefold Heavyweight LP, a CD Mintpack and a Deluxe Hardback CD version with additional tracks.

‘Hypnosis’ was one of Drumcode’s most vital under-the-radar releases of 2019. Its creator, Veerus, returns to the mothership for another top-shelf offering.

The Italian’s career is a brilliant slow burner, releasing EPs sparingly over the course of his 14-year career. There’s a narrative quality to each track too, the artist reveling in a drama-laden call-and-response dynamic. All three cuts from his latest ‘System’ EP are made for big moments.

The title track was created with Amsterdam’s holy rave cauldron the Gashouder in mind, and was completed by Veerus just a few days before ADE last year. Balancing on a knife’s edge between tension and euphoria, the track’s twisted synth lines sent an energy surge through the iconic venue.

‘Year’ is a deadly one-two combo of synapse-searing synths and sharp drums as jagged waves of sound throb with panoramic effect. It was a captivating highlight of Beyer’s set at Amnesia in Milan in February, the final session before the lockdown. ‘Pyramid’ was debuted at Beyer’s Cercle performance last September, sound tracking a blissful post-sunset moment at the Théâtre antique de Lugdunum in Lyon.

Creole Soul!" Two words are enough for David Walters to qualify his music. The exclamation point to support radicalism and faith in its purpose.
A lapidary definition behind the doors of which hides the maze of a culture that crosses the oceans, connects continents and islands by an invisible but powerful thread. A deeply ingrained bond that allows Africa, America, Europe, and the Caribbean to converse with each other with a language as universal as music, dance, carnivals, or ceremonies.

Spread on the globe; the different creole cultures find a point of convergence where they are all represented: New York.
In this city, where motivated by his friend photographer JR, he once gave a concert in the street, David Walters decided to set the scene for his new album.

After five years of traveling the world, meeting musicians for the TV show “The New Explorers” (Canal +), it is around this hyperactive city that he chose to shine his Créole Sun. To imbue his music with the state of mind and aesthetics that reigned in the 70s and 80s.
While in 2018, he soloes produced Nola Is Calling (an album recorded in New Orleans with the Creole community of Black Indians, selected by Gilles Peterson in the best of 2019 on BBC 6). That’s with the essential contribution of the musical mastermind Bruno “Patchworks” Hovart (Mr. President, Voilààà Sound System, Da Break ...) that David produced Soleil Kreyol.

More than a musical partner, Patchworks turned out to be the sound engineer David was looking for. The second part of an ideal pair, the one with whom, set on the same frequencies, he wrote, composed, recorded, played all the instruments. Thought all the arrangements, tweaked the details as carried by a continuous breath. Or rather a light. The “Soleil Kréyol” (Creole Sun).

Ghent's Steiger are a piano trio, but not in the classical sense. With their versatile style, influenced by different musical genres such as jazz, rock, pop, classical and electronic music, they try to find a balance between composition and improvisation through the use of experimentation and electronics.

Considered pioneers of the Belgian jazz crossover scene, Steiger have been active for 6 years and have recently found themselves performing at major jazz venues in Flanders, picking up numerous accolades along the way.

The trio's highly anticipated sophomore album 'Give Space', released 14th September on Sdban Ultra, was recorded at 7 different locations, with the music composed to fit and fight these locations within a dialogue of acoustics, atmospheres and appetition. Field recordings, reverbs, ambient sounds, all collected within the search for the unpredictable, were given space within this dialogue as the essential part of the encounter. As a result, the locations emerge somewhat as a fourth member of the trio. The music - sometimes fixed, sometimes completely free - takes on an ever-changing journey into their multi-faceted world.

The third release on Tempo Dischi is 'Keep On Dance' by Contact Music, a little gem that is part of the Italo Disco history, but has characteristics of the early Proto House sound.

Antonio Cucaro, the Italian musician, songwriter and producer behind this project recalls ‘I started playing guitar very early. I drew my inspirations from the echo of Woodstock that came through the ‘Bandiera Gialla’ show on Radio Rai: emotions that were equal to true revelations when listening to Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Cream, Jimmy Page, Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple), Joe Pass, Alvin Lee, George Benson. Stimulated by various musical contamination, which came from rock and Italian authorial music, I started immersing myself into searching new exciting sounds, applying composition to various directions while trying to produce something new without worrying about genres or people's judgements, all without a compromise. I would not have imagined that one evening in 1983, 'Keep on Dance' would be born. It was produced together with three DJs who wanted a sort of opening track for their sets, putting together some sequences recorded by myself using percussion, acoustic and electronic drums (Linn, Oberheim, Simmons). The fact that after almost forty years it has been revived and considered a Proto House pearl really honours me. Composing music is like breathing pure oxygen: you compose, record and realise that you are already thinking about the next step to keep breathing’.

Startisha introduces Naeem as a restlessly creative artist with an impressionistic, genre-bending album. As a complete work, Startisha exemplifies artistic daring and emotional intelligence while exploring new ideas and sounds, and philosophically excavating the artist's histories. Startisha may be loaded with impressive collaborations and left-field sounds, but don't get it twisted_this music comes straight from Naeem's heart, representing the journey he's taken to get to this point as well as what lies in the future for him. Baltimore-hailing Naeem Juwan has spent much of the last decade stretching his creative legs in a variety of ways: he's hit the road with artists ranging from the Avalanches and Bon Iver to Big Red Machine and Mouse on Mars, took part in a 37d03d residency in Berlin, and was selected as the music resident in 2019 for New York's Pioneer Works space. Through it all, he's been building the songs that make up Startisha, a record a half-decade in the making that featured Juwan pulling from creative circles all across the U.S. to craft a truly unique document of sound. After studio sessions in Philadelphia and New York, Juwan decamped to Minneapolis and holed up in Justin Vernon's home studio, where Startisha continued to come together with contributions from Vernon, Ryan Olson (Gayngs, Polica), Swamp Dogg, Velvet Negroni, Francis and the Lights, and regular collaborators Amanda Blank and Micah James.

New release by one of Berlin’s most unique and long standing producers. Patrick Stottrop’s activities are at the heart and foundation of Berlin’s Techno sound, active since 1996 and founder of Zhark Recordings, he’s been pushing and challenging the definition of dance music since it’s inception.
On this release we find the title track “Legeia” as well as the tracks “Die Erwartung” and “Richmond”, taken from The Garden of Time LP recoding session from 2019. These 3 tracks set the prevailing mood for 2 subsequent cuts, “Horus” and “Sorcerer”. While Richmond follows a more andante direction “Legeia” presents a unique combination of drones engulfed in a wild & hectic Technoid percussive Inferno. “Die Erwartung” on the other hand might resemble in its overall mood the Rheingold Prelude (in a higher register) with its drone like strings layer build up. wHILE “Horus” and “Sorcere” are recent tracks form KAREEMs current live set and were recently arranged to fit into the EP format. Both tracks build on static percussive hostility and climax towards their middle parts to an overall acoustic orgy of reverberating string strikes and high-pitched drone oscillations. An over all grand addition to his continuously growing and ecstatic catalog.

While the ongoing global pandemic means our chances to gather and dance beneath deep blue skies are likely to be limited, there’s never been a greater need for warm, positive and life-affirming music. NuNorthern Soul has decided to do its bit by offering up a brand new 'Summer Selections' sampler that’s packed to the rafters with magical musical treats lifted from some of the label’s most potent forthcoming releases.

The EP begins with something rather special from Canadian producer Igor B: a gentle, sunrise-ready soundscape rich in languid hand percussion, bubbly synthesizer lines and glistening guitars. Entitled 'Deep Breath', the track is just one of the many highlights you’ll find on his forthcoming debut album, “Stranded Seaside”.

There’s a similarly tactile and immersive feel to 'Early Morning Ferry' by George Koutalieris, a Greek producer whose debut album 'Stop, Look, Listen' will be released by NuNorthern Soul later in the year. On his contribution to 'Summer Selections Two', Koutalieris wraps lilting, sun-soaked guitar solos and soft-touch electronics around a chunky groove that doffs a cap to the more laidback end of the 1970s West Coast rock spectrum.

Next up, long-time friend of the family Chris Coco delivers a stunning interpretation of 'Dinum', an overlooked neo-classical/ambient fusion track by Faroe Islands-based producer Kristian Blak’s Yggdrasil project. Coco’s simmering, string-drenched re-imagining is featured here as a teaser of NuNorthern Soul’s reissue of the 2014 track in the autumn, which will also feature a mind-blowing 10-minute rework by Mike Salta – an artist who is also featured on 'Summer Selections Two'.

This time round you’ll find Salta collaborating with Mortale on the starry, EP-ending ambient bliss of 'Bells of Burgibba', a deliciously drowsy mixture of twinkling electric piano motifs, chiming lead lines and woozy pads taken from the forthcoming “Celestial Hike EP”. It paddles in similar sonic waters to label boss Phil Cooper’s stretched-out, slo-mo Balearic dub of new signing Faint Waves’ 'Aphrodesia', a teaser of the artist’s “Islands In Time EP” which can be found elsewhere on 'Summer Selections Two'.

No NuNorthern Soul label sampler would be complete without a contribution from BJ Smith, an artist who has been with the imprint from its earliest days. Smith returns to the imprint with another reminder of his uncanny ability to deliver ear-catching cover versions that re-cast classic cuts as loved-up rays of Balearic sunshine. This time round Smith takes us on a huggable shuffle through Prefab Sprout’s 'All the World Loves Lovers', re-imagining it as a future Balearic anthem and a summer 2020 sing-along. It’s not only a sneak peak of what we can expect from 'Dedication to the Greats Volume 3', his first covers collection for nigh on six years, but also a life-affirming highlight of an EP that oozes musical positivity from start to finish.

For the last 20 years London-based author and party organiser Tim Lawrence has dedicated himself to excavating the history of New York City party culture and bringing some of the most powerful aspects of that culture to London’s dance scene, from where it has ricocheted around the world.

Having conducted the first and set of major interviews with David Mancuso of the New York City Loft, Lawrence started to host Loft-style Lucky Cloud Sound System parties with David and friends in London in June 2003. In February 2004 he published the first of three published three pioneering histories that have excavated and championed the previously overlooked foundations of contemporary party culture: Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music (1970-79), Hold on to Your Dreams: Arthur Russell and the Downtown Music Scene (1973-92), and Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor (1980-83). Since 2018 Lawrence has hosted and DJed at the community audiophile party "All Our Friends. Paper Magazine describes him as the “reigning authority on the history of dance music in New York”.

With knowledge to share, and a readership as well as a dance floor to feed, Lawrence released Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor as the debut imprint on Reappearing Records. A year in the making, a compilation featuring rare and iconic tracks that appear in his much-loved and heavily-thumbed classic Love Saves the Day amounts to the follow-up. The collection features several tracks selected regularly by Mancuso, the party host who exerted a prophetic and unparalleled influence on New York City party culture, as charted by Lawrence. It also includes choice picks from groundbreaking DJs such as Michael Cappello, Steve D’Acquisto, Francis Grasso, Richie Kaczor, Larry Levan and Nicky Siano, whose expressive contributions are faithfully recorded in Love Saves the Day. The compilation traces how disco grew out of the record collections and intuitive sensibility of these and other DJs, offering a unique survey of the era’s expansive sonic palette.

Amnesia Scanner announces Tearless, the Berlin-based duo’s second LP. As Amnesia Scanner founders, Ville Haimala and Martti Kalliala watch their icy home country of Finland thaw, the staggering scale of political recalibration and the worldwide climate crisis to come blows open old norms. This album reflects what it feels to experience Earth at a time when collapse is emerging as the prevailing narrative.


The musical scope of the record is expansive, with guest vocalists—the Peruvian artist Lalita and the Brazillian DJ/producer LYZZA—descending into a vast uncanny valley of sound. Tearless follows the 2014 AS Live [][] mixtape, 2015 audio play Angels Rig Hook, two EP’s for Young Turks, and their 2018 debut album, Another Life (PAN).



“There’s a looming sense of radical change,” they note, connecting the present to a fin de siecle horror and curiosity regarding what new world is being ushered in. Someone called Tearless a “breakup album with the planet.” To which Amnesia Scanner responds, on the LP’s closing track: “Youwill be fine, if we can help you lose your mind.”


With the crossfader on Tearless sitting closer to pop than abstraction, so too does the audience for this record widen in scope. Listening through: Opener “AS Enter” sets a sombre tone until the fucking riffs of the second track(the titular, Lalita-helmed “Tearless”) make clear there’s plenty of roaring to come. A feature from metalcore band Code Orange on “AS Flat” follows, along with “AS Trouble” (feat. Oracle, the third, machinic ghost-member of Amnesia Scanner) and together they hit as black-metal-gaze dirges. At the album’s midpoint, Lalita returns for the beautiful, operatic breakdown of “AS Acá” (released as a single in 2019), before “Call of the Center” guides listeners through three club ready tracks—the grain-processed dembow of “AS Too Late” and “AS Going” with LYZZA, and then the ambientheadbanger “AS Labyrinth.” Closing “Tearless” is the sadboy grunge of “AS U Will Be Fine” with a clear statement of intent: doom, despair, insanity, absurdity, it’s all natural, all cathartic, and all OK. Refuse like the ‘90s and party like the ‘20s—if that seems senseless, you are doing it right.

The voice comes from a radio, protests in a country far away. Under the rising sun, cranes stalk the horizon, building more towers for the super -rich. Was it a dream, or did you hear sirens in the night? Qui volé? Who stole?

The rhythm, the battle, the call, a warning. The siren, the street, the horns. The bugs, the birds, the bees. And sounds stolen from your dreams. The last chapter in the Vertigo Inc odd-ysee. Hypnotic, pulsing late - late night leftfield house jams and junkyard rave constructions. On the flip, Flabberghast (Guillaume Coutu Dumont and Vincent Lemieux) massage a jiggling, whooping club dub from the track’s nervous skeleton

Circoloco resident Luca Cazal teams up with Italian talent Andrea Fiorito as the pair deliver their ‘What Is Music’ EP on Infuse this June, backed by a remix from Mariano Mateljan.

An Ibiza mainstay, with regular appearances at DC-10 for Paradise and his long-standing global Circoloco residency, See Double boss Luca Cazal has established himself as a quality and consistent force within the minimal house scene and beyond. An avid digger with an innate ability within the studio, Cazal’s career has also welcomed sets at internationally renowned institutions including fabric and Club der Vissionare, with late June now welcoming a debut appearance on Infuse alongside fellow Italian Andrea Fiorito. An artist driven by idealism, with a sound palette that takes in influences and productions from experimental techno through to lighter more delicate and orchestral sonics, Bari-based Fiorito has himself served up material via the likes of Housewax, Broquade, Get Physical and Cynosure to date, and here we see the two talents combine for the very first time to offer up ‘What Is Music’, accompanied by Infuse talent Mariano Mateljan on remix duties.

A-side opener ‘Tornado Girl’ is a groove-fulled rolling production armed with slinking hats, evolving basslines and warping lead synths, whilst on the flip, title cut ‘What Is Music’ delves deeper into darker, more paired back afterhours aesthetics with slinking organic percussion and sci-fi electronics throughout. To close, Croatian favourite Mateljan’s lively interpretation welcomes sharp kicks, distorted vocal hooks and haunting melodies, punctuating the package in impressive fashion.

Multidisciplinary NYC artist Gavilán Rayna Russom launches her own label Voluminous Arts, dedicated to highlight electronic and experimental artists whose work challenges fixed categories of genre and categorization. Her aim is to create a platform for multidisciplinary work and events. The inaugural release being her second solo album as Gavilán Rayna Russom 'Secret Passage', following up last years 'The Envoy, an homage to the East Side Rail Tunnel in Providence, Rhode Island, and the friendships she made there.

In Rayna’s words:
“I grew up in Providence, Rhode Island in the 1970’s and 80’s. The booming jewelry and textile industries of the previous decades had pulled out by that point. The Italian mob ran most details of the day to day operations of the city. As kids coming up in that environment, before the internet, me and the people I hung out with didn’t know anything else and we worked with what we had to entertain ourselves. We found places that had been forgotten by market interests and made them spaces of creative community building. One of the most special of these places was the East Side Rail Tunnel. Running for almost exactly one mile beneath the city’s streets, the tunnel and nearby Crook Point Bridge were unsupervised autonomous zones where I tasted the possibilities of a world without surveilance. The tunnel was particularly important in my creative development because not only was it a marginal zone apart from monetized spaces of creative consumption, but it also had specific experiential properties. It had a bend in it which meant that when you got to the middle of it you were in complete darkness, and I learned quickly that when you spend enough time in complete darkness you start to hallucinate, which I liked. The acoustics were also remarkable; long natural delays and harmonic-reinforcing reverberances. Making any sound in there added layers of acoustic effects which made noises physical and fluid and, combined with the complete darkness, absolutely dissolved boundaries between internal and external experience. I started hanging out there when I was 14 and continued to return there regularly until development, gentrification and policing eventually made it inaccessible. By the mid ‘90s it was sealed off with progressively more impenetrable barriers. Nowadays it looks very different. This music is about some of the significant experiences I had in this beautifully neglected place and the people I had them with.”

The latest project by belgo-moroccan producer Reda Senhaji, alias Cheb Runner, focuses on breeding a new style of music between electronics and Gnawa. Taking inspiration from New Beat to Techno, Acid House and Gabber, the grooves are relentless, stiff and club oriented, relying heavily on analog synths and drum-machines. The sound is darker, more experimental and mature than his previous Gan Gah project.

Cheb Runner digs into the acoustic sounds of his youth, for an organic feeling of warmth and celebration. The syncopation of the classic Gnawa percussions, the “Tagnawit”, its groove is undeniable. Featuring two traditional Gnawa singers based in Brussels, Mâalem Driss and Mâalem Hicham, the EP is a reunion for the belgian Gnawa scene, keeping the vibe alive.

In a world of dematerialized culture, we tend to forget where we come from : by putting Gnawa music at the center of his production, Cheb Runner creates a bridge with the past. The young producer is a son of Gnawa himself, this is the music he grew up with and played as a kid.
Now he brings it to the club scene; Cheb Runner’s first EP is experimental, brutal, innovative. Getting past definitions and genres, it opens new horizons for North-African producers, showing them how to use their roots to make new beats. It encourages both tradition and modernity in Music. In 2019, Gnawa music, dance and culture was added to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural
Heritage list, demonstrating both the relevance of the genre and the necessity to preserve it.
of the genre and the necessity to preserve it.

Cheb, the Arabic word for “young boy”, is traditionally used to describe the young generation of Raï singers – like Cheb Hasni, Cheb Mami or Cheb Khaled. It means the new generation is here, to create something new with something old. The reference to the Ridley Scott movie Blade Runner is just that: while the Cheb comes from the bled, a moroccan village in the Agadir region, the beats come from the club scene of an industrial city, like Berlin, Detroit or Molenbeek/Brussels.

Cheb Runner takes you on a trip through space and time, as well as to pass on ancient rhythms to inspire the next generations.

A collection of Jamaican doo wop & R&B records taken from the late 50s and early 60s. These records represent a period in which soundsystems were just starting to dominate the island, with Duke Reid and Sir Coxsone stepping up their rivalry by beginning to make and release their own records rather than rely on US imports for use in their dances. Many of these records are definitely more-or-less imitations of the American records, as the uniquely Jamaican ska sound was yet to take hold - however many of the future stars of ska, rocksteady and reggae were beginning to cut their teeth in the industry on these records, incl. Jimmy Cliff, Derrick Harriott, Alton Ellis and more, and they provide a unique view into the fledgling independent record industry culture in Jamaica that would prove to be unbelievably proflific and unparalleled for an island of it's size.

»Efia,« the sophomore album by Rosaceae, picks up where the Hamburg-based sound artist’s 2019 debut on Neoprimitive left off, further exploring the topics that had already informed »Nadia’s Es- cape«. From its confrontative front cover to the eight tracks on the album, »Efia« is fully dedicated to the motif of resistance, but does not exhaust itself in polemics. Rather, it masterfully translates the complexities of its underlying central themes into a visceral narrative.
»Efia« was originally conceived as a commissioned work for the 2019 edition of Hamburg’s Noise- xistance festival and departed from a sentence uttered in the British 1980s TV show »Sapphire & Steel« which inspired cultural theorist Mark Fisher in his analysis of what he had coined »hauntolo-gy,« a term originally coined by the Algerian-French philosopher Jacques Derrida in the early 1990s: »There is no time here, not anymore.«
The album again showcases Rosaceae’s knack for combining abstract experimental sound art with a form of storytelling that had already been at the centre of »Nadia’s Escape« and which relies on both verbal and musical means of giving a voice to the voiceless. The disembodied voice of - amongst others - Jesseline Preach and manipulated vocal samples blend in with dense soundscapes, elements of Neue Musik and occasional pure harsh noise. It’s a mix that deliberately puts different artistic tradi-tions into a dialogue with each other: the hallmarks of European salon culture are con- fronted with Kurdish wedding music and the unnerving loop of someone demanding a »Zugabe« (»encore«).
Thus, »Efia« not only blurs the lines between cultural and regional traditions, but also conjures up the ghosts of a past, ghosts that are more than ready to haunt the timeless present trying so hard to repress the atrocities happening at its fringes. As a whole, this makes »Efia« both a chilling work of sound art and a vibrant political statement fuelled by burning hot energy.

Originally released in 1980, now remastered & cut at revelatory Half-Speed at Abbey Road Studios from vinyl specific original tape transfers designed to get the very best possible sound from the format.

Pressed on heavyweight 180g black vinyl, this album features the singles ‘Emotional Rescue’ and ‘She’s So Cold’.

Höga Nord Rekords proudly presents Birds from London. Birds or Katie Wilkinson is relatively new as a producer but has been DJ-ing and playing in bands for the last nine years, marinating herself in interesting underground music. This 7”, Transcendental Phases/Tunnel Vision is her first release on Höga Nord Rekords.

Birds is a declaration of love to electronic music and psychedelia. The vocals in Tunnel Vision bares traces from the psychedelic pioneers of the 60’s – Think Roky Erikson with a Roland 303! Birds’ music is powerful and monotonous and she creates a dirty, warm and monumental soundscape. The production is airy and dynamic

Wilkinson mean that “we must try and find harmony in what we have and try and aim towards something positive, despite the fact that we live in a society that’s been completed fucked via the selfish behaviour of others (and most probably, ourselves at times).” With Brexit and the new wave of racism, spreading over Europe Birds makes music for a generation left with little hope but with the desire for something too long for.

Siegmar Fricke has made a name for himself in the tape culture since 1981 - with a mixture of Musique-Concrète and Post-Industrial. As a former label owner of "Bestattungsinstitut" he released numerous works that went beyond EBM, Electro, Techno and Ambient. In the heyday of the netlabels he focused mainly on his own productions, which he then made available as free downloads. Since 2002 Siegmar has been active with clinical sound experiments under the pseudonym "Pharmakustik". In 2005 he started his collaboration with Maurizio Bianchi from Milan, who has dedicated himself to "industrial decomposition" since 1979. For his Time Compression EP on Infoline, Siegmar Fricke has unearthed compositions from the period 1992-1994 and curated them anew. A phase in which he listened to the radio day and night and connected his sampler to the stereo to record material around the clock. He listened to many radio shows from England or Holland, which often broadcasted techno, trance and acid. At that time those sounds were new territory for him. He recorded inspiring sequences at first go, edited them and then let them flow into his own productions. The result was "future-pop collages mixed with sequencer-controlled trance and sampled voices", to put it in the words of Siegmar Fricke.

Fresh from their release on John Digweed's Bedrock Records under their more covert Techno guise 'Cypherpunx' the Brighton based duo Flip Fantazia unleash their debut album ‘The Trip’.
Touching on influences from Air to Bonobo, The xx to DJ Shadow, ‘The Trip’ guides you down a road less travelled meandering through Downtempo, Electronica & Trip Hop with a few Jazzy twists & turns.
Essentially Flip Fantazia is a meeting of two minds,
four hands, several synths, quite a few guitars, some very clever computer software with a variety of drum machines. The prolific duo spend most of their time writing, recording, producing, mixing & mastering original music down in an old bank vault in Brighton... well, Hove actually! Their real names… Douglas Horner & Tim Belcher.
Born from a project focussed mainly on music for Sync, writing for Ninja Tune PM, Cavendish Music, Delimusic, BMG PM & Deep East + more this is their first artist album to be commercially released.
Their first brief for Ninja Tune’s Production Music company was to create an authentic 60s sounding Samba song and a Boogaloo / Salsa, both of which appear on the Ninja Tune Latin Excursions album.
Along with a contemporary breaks / glitch remix of the classical masterpiece Flight Of The Bumblebee and a piece of funk with a foodie flavour for two other Ninja Tune production music albums. Another brief came in for some Australian influenced Beach House from delimusic to be used on the BBC Commonwealth Games Gold Coast 2018 coverage, so out came the Didgeridoo and five new tracks were born. Writing to brief is a delight & an adventure for Flip Fantazia covering many genres from authentic Samba to electro disco new-wave post modern cosmic soul funk afro-boogie punk alt+indie dance crossover and everything in between! So it was tough to narrow The Trip down to 10 original tracks which best illustrate the authentic Flip Fantazia sound.

After racking up a handful of recent releases on Macro and Field Records, L'estasi Dell'oro has returned from the woodshed to mark his debut solo EP on Voodoo Down Records, the label he co-founded in Brooklyn nearly a decade ago.
Soaring guitars, twisted violins, dusty pianos, tolling bells, stretched drums, and outward-bound synths are all features of the sonics presented here across the four songs on this record. Additionally, the A1 feature song 'Proserpina' revisits the vocals of Crystal Boyd,
the singer featured on the L’estasi tracks from the early Voodoo Down compilations which helped define his sound in the techno world. Along with the three original songs, his Penalune alias strips the A1 tune to it's floating core elements for full atmospheric immersion.

colored vinyl

Never ones to turn down some acid, Schrödinger’s Box welcome a well-seasoned 303 master into its ranks. With more than a decade’s experience of knob jerking body bending bangers, Snuff Crew are true veterans.

The intent of Always Oldschool is laid bare on the needle drop. Throbbing beats are laced with silver-box squawk as vocals circle in the midnight sweat of “Mile High.” Forged in the sound of Chicago, “Mousehole Groove” is a gnarled and nasty banger brimming with attitude. Accentuating that attitude, Hard Ton arrives to bring his unique vocals to the proceedings. Drenched in simmering decay, spiked with rusted snares, “Jack Until” is an ode to the club and the possibilities it brings. Carrying on from that late night romp, we wake up with “Sunday Morning.” Club comedown? Think again. Piano keys cut a sharp and fine mood with lyrics only pushing the happiness even higher. Smouldering with a touch of something sinister, “Friendship” closes the proceedings.

Always Oldschool burns with a full intensity. A 12” of fiery floor funk and enflamed passions, a 12” that comes with Snuff Crew’s guarantee of sore muscles and a flourish of romance.

Ambient and environmental Japanese scene has flourished stronger than ever in the last years. The pioneers of this sound and the creators of an innovative way of making and understanding ambient music, such as Hiroshi Yoshimura, Yoshio Ojima, Toshifumi Hinata or Takashi Kokubo have been championed and their works have been successfully unearthed by reissue labels.

Continuing in this endless path, Glossy Mistakes adds Takashi Kokubo’s brilliant “Volk Von Bauhaus” to its catalogue, with the Japanese masterpiece as the third official release of the Spanish label.

As most of 80’s Japanese ambient and environmental music, “Volk Von Bauhaus” is an audio impression designed to give a multi-sensory experience to the listener. An effort to make things audible, an exercise of understanding and soundtracking objects or situations. The main objective of this sound is to create an iconic musical landscape to accompany a specific place.

Though his name might be unfamiliar to many, Kokubo has crafted music that has impacted virtually all of Japan, from national mobile phone earthquake alerts to contactless card payment jingles. He was one of the first artists to create ambient music strictly through loops. As he mentioned when release this album, "this recording used no keyboard players, no multitrack tape recording techniques, no analog sounds”. A shift on the process of imagining sound.

“Volk Von Haus” is and ode to this ambient, new age and environmental music created in Japan throughout the 80’s. Throughout 9 cuts, Kokubo handcrafts his own sound and immerses the listener in a peaceful yet challenging adventure. The record is the first piece of his Digital Soundology series, and arguably his most interesting work due to the groundbreaking techniques he used.

"A revolutionary musical expression that shatters the old values”, explains Kokubo about this piece. And its just what we can hear when we play “Volk Von Haus”.

The album includes an unheard exclusive track by Takashi Kokubo an insert with an interview made by Takashi Kokubo. A true gem that must land in every ambient head’s musical library.

Remastered from master tapes by Frederic Stader.

4 tunes of pure old school tribe sound, 148/160 BPM on top sound. A very good surprise ! ENJOY !

After some quiet, comes a new storm. Fresh on the heels of his first solo album, 6th Floor or Basement, which just came out on Key Vinyl, Dimi Angelis is set tot release a new EP on his own imprint. ANLGS 009 features three fine tracks.

Fifty Fifty is a whizzing powerhouse, its syncopated arpeggios driving it along. Eastern Phantasy takes the listener across a dark and revolving landscape of sound. Mysterious and alluring at the same time. Final track Magnetik is the odd one out on this EP. In terms of sound design, certainly not in terms of impact. Repetitive, industrial stabs interlaced with a subtle driving synth make for a compelling whole.

Mental Tribe and techno EP, dark and progressive deep sounds... Fatal !

Superb tunes from Brosda and Collision. Fat 1 track a side sound ! Ols:cur new cycle paradise !

Insane times like these call for insane measures to counter all that's going to shit in music these days. Great music in all its glorious forms should be timeless with no expiration date. Here at PRSPCT this has always been our mission and especially now this should count for every record any of the labels releases.

Thank god we got Limewax aka Maxim Anokhin in our ranks delivering a work so unique, only this artist could even be capable of producing. An album that for sure will survive the test of time and not lose any of its relevance in the years to come.

Limewax at his absolute best bringing his signature out of the box sound. Snaredrum warfare. Pots & pans, Moodswings, Weirdness, Dancefloor smashers and total mindfuckers. Settime LP by Limewax is a record any lover of good music needs in his or her life.

11 tracks on this record. 8 solo tracks + 3 collabs with KRTM, Dolphin and Baseck. Available as 2 12" in printed gatefold sleeve & digital formats.

Designed by Mike Redman.
Mastering by Bryan Fury.








h C2 Fingers With KRTM

Off the heels of a few successful digital compilations, newly found LA based label For The Heads proudly kicks off their vinyl series with a 4-track collaborative EP from Subtle Mind & mrshl. All 4 of these cuts bring freshness and originality to the ever-growing 140 sound and are a meticulous blend of styles given both of the artist's virtuosity and creative ability.

First, "Built The Same" sets the pace of the EP with luscious chords and a prolific melody all wrapped together by it's enticing low end. Next, the title track "Can You Hear It" is a weighty number focused on it's orbiting sub-bass and crisp percussion with a switch up that is sure to get any dance moving. On the B-side, an exceptional and unparalleled fusion of both modern synth-bass oscillations with the classical UK style groove and step of some jungle and garage is evident in "When The Rain Comes"; all of this pieced together nicely with a jazzy saxophone sequence. Rounding out the EP, "We're Alright Now" features a radiating, encircling melody that is sure to grab the attention of it's listeners with punching low end and soulful vocal shouts.

The Bees are a textbook case of the chew and spit cycle that was the late 80’s South African music industry. Although their unknown story is likely unique, it is just as likely that it is no different to that of many other young artists who dreamed of getting their music heard at the time.

By 1988, the independent record label was no longer as uncommon as it had been at the beginning of the decade. As the 80s went on, more seasoned A&R reps and Producers that had gained experience and connections from their work under major labels would be trying to cash in on a market they helped create. Without the need of big rooms or expensive recording equipment, the digital advancements allowed many Producers to open or work in smaller studios and promote unknown artists under their own imprints. They would then have their catalogs marketed and distributed by the same major labels they had been working for just years prior. This would open up the possibility of a new era of stars as potential talent no longer had to be pitched to major labels in hopes of them taking a chance on a new signee over their already established artists. With the market growing and a struggle to keep up with the demand for new sounds this agreement would allow the major labels to put new emerging artists or groups on their catalog with little investment and high reward if it happened to be a hit.

ON Records was just one of the independent players at the time. Ronnie Robot had just signed the unlikely trio The Bees in hopes of adding a hit group to his label roster that consisted of solo acts. Despite the debut’s fresh house inspired sound, it failed to catch on was outsold by the bubblegum disco the label was known for. Over the years unsold back stock and promos would build up with the distributor. Luckily this allowed sealed copies from the label’s catalog to survive into the 90s when the distributor’s stock was unloaded and picked up by legendary Johannesburg jazz shop Kohinoor. Here sealed copies of the Bees first attempt sat under appreciated for over 20 years before becoming a hot title after they started circulating online and became club staples. This is how the first album of an unknown group with no success was able to become a collectors item and earn a reissue over 25 years later.

With their first record behind them The Bees were ready move forward and get back into the studio. A suggestion from producers had the trio change camps and go work with the newly formed Creative Sound Recordings, the label that promised “Music for the Future” and ended up being an essential studio in the early years of Kwaito. They would work with producer Chris Ghelakis and guitarist George Vardas, while a young Marvin Moses sat behind the desk. Musically the sophomore album was as good as a follow up as you could get. Building on the first album, Mashonisa delivers catchy melodies backed by heavy drum programming that would score points with any Pantsula. The Black Box inspired “ Never Give Up” was one of two tracks chosen to be pressed as the promo for the album, hoping to trick listeners with their catchy version of the hit( A year later the label would release their first volume of Black Box covers sang by neo soul diva BB, it would be a great seller). The label printed up an unknown amount of these in a last attempt to push the release in Shabeens and on Radio. The cheaper route of flooding the market with promo copies would only pay off 25 years later when unplayed copies started being rediscovered and had survived the years in a quantity that original run of the full album could not. Once again it was clear that with no mainstream appeal, the quality of the music on its own was not enough to garner any success at the time. The album flopped worse than their first and failed to make it past it’s initial run, making it one of the harder titles to get from the CSR catalog.

Mashonisa would be the last attempt from the Bees. They would disappear from the scene as quickly as they appeared. Of the three members it is only known that lead Singer Solomon Phiri continued in music fronting a wave dance group before he mysteriously vanished in 1993, never to be heard from again. Through a combination of luck and circumstance the group, which is unknown in South Africa to even the most plugged in musicians, producers and radio hosts of the time, managed to finally get some of the recognition they deserved 30 years later. Unfortunately this small blip of fame would happen with none of the band members present to give their side of the story, or even aware of how their two albums became popular enough to be printed on different continents in a new millennia. The Bees suffered the same fate as countless other artists of the time, who thanks to emerging independent labels and willing producers were given an opportunity to have a short career, only to be replaced by the meat grinder of the music industry when they failed to produce a hit.

After a way long and overdue pause with music the Sugarloaf Gangsters duo is back again where they belong...on GAMM!

Mark & Cliffy aka Sugarloaf Gangsters have a long history with Brazilian and world inspired dance music and have that magic touch when it comes to spotting rare tunes that needs their signature rework style.Â

The A side 'Temarasa' literally explodes from the first breakbeat with a big Brazilian funk-jazz monster, peak time music.
The flip is all about the drum! 'Chor Gway' is an African style percussive jam that's got everything from crazy chants, sound efx and DJ friendly tempo changes.Â

Another G.A.M.M sureshot !!

Jimi Tenor & Bizz O.D. met 1989 in a Helsinki club called Berlin. They decided to move to New York City in 1992 to start the band "Public Extacy" which never saw the light of day. A few years later, Jimi had already left NYC but was visiting so the two met to record "Bizz O.D. & Jimi Tenor's Traffic E.P.". Released in 1995 on OZON Records founded by nobody else but Jammin' Unit and Biochip C. Originally a 3 track e.p.but we at Temple Traxx thought that it was the right time to remaster and reissue this acid jewel and add an unreleased bonus track called "Girls" in this limited edited edition. This 4 track e.p. shows once more that the two artists are real inovators and pioneers of a sound that is hipper than ever in 2020.

Re-Issue on Extreme Eating. Housed in a gatefold sleeve designed by Steve Lippert, mastered by Matt Colton at Alchemy. Everything else was done by Sleaford Mods. From Original Press Release 2015 "Key Markets was a large supermarket bang in the centre of Grantham from the early 1970's up until around 1980," explains Jason Williamson. "My mum would take me there and I'd always have a large coke in a plastic orange cup surrounded by varnished wood trimmings and big lamp shades with flowers on them. Beige bricks with bright yellow points of sale and large black foam letters surrounded you and this is why we called the album 'Key Markets'. It's the continuation of the day to day and how we see it, the un-incredible landscape." "The album was recorded in various periods between summer 2014 through to October of that year. We worked fast as we normally do, the method was the same as the other albums and like the other two, the sound has naturally moved itself along. 'Key Markets' is in places quite abstract but it still deals heavily with the disorientation of modern existence. It still touches on character assassination, the delusion of grandeur and the pointlessness of government politics. It's a classic. Fuck em." 1/Live Tonight 2/No One's Bothered 3/Bronx in a Six 4/Silly Me 5/Cunt Make It Up 6/Face To Faces 7/Arabia 8/In Quiet Streets 9/Tarantula Deadly Cargo 10/Rupert Trousers 11/Giddy on the Ciggies 12/The Blob

After many hints and teases MANIC STREET PREACHERS have confirmed the re-issue of a deluxe edition of their 1993 second album ‘GOLD AGAINST THE SOUL’ on 12th June 2020 for Columbia/Sony.   Available as a 120 page A4 book featuring unseen images from the bands’ long time photographic collaborator Mitch Ikeda, many personally annotated by Nicky Wire and original typed and handwritten lyrics from the bands own archive.  It will contain two cd’s featuring the remastered album, previously unreleased demos, b-sides from the era, remixes and a live recording of The Clash song ‘What’s My Name’.  There will also be a 180g vinyl version of the original album with download codes to the extra tracks on CD1 and a digital version featuring all the songs. 

Nicky Wire said of the release “We moved our studio a few years ago and I unearthed a lot of demos and pictures from the ‘Gold Against The Soul’ era and thought it would be a shame not to let them see the light of day.  We haven’t always been the most complementary about this album in the past, but with hindsight it was a strange and curious record with many fan’s favourites on it.  James always gets a huge response when he teases the riff to ‘Sleepflower’ live.” 

‘Gold Against The Soul’ entered the Top 10 on release just over a year after their debut album ‘Generation Terrorists’ and saw the band shift musically to a classic rock sound.  Lead single ‘From Despair To Where’ was followed by ‘La Tristesse Durera (Scream To A Sigh)’, ‘Roses In The Hospital’ and ‘Life Becoming A Landslide’.  Produced by Dave Eringa who had been working in various guises with the band and continues to do so to this day, the album was recorded over six weeks at Outside/Hookend Studios.

Black Sheep – and their 1991 ‘A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing’ album - were definitely an outlier in the Native Tongues fold. They were raunchier and more playful than their peers which, given that those peers were A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul and Jungle Brothers, is really saying something.

‘Strobelite Honey’ catches that difference perfectly, leaning heavily on a pair of 1980 disco samples rather than the jazz of their brethren, and taking a somewhat less chivalrous approach to women. ‘Strobelite’s slender but fun narrative sees rapper Dres up in the club and fooled by the lights – approaching a girl he likes the look off but backing off when they reveal she’s not what he expected. Charmed, we’re sure.

Dres and his partner Mr. Lawnge were always willing to push boundaries, and that extends to the often confusing labelling of the various remixes of this choice single. 12”s dropped with the ‘No We Didn’t Mix’, ‘Yes We Did Mix’ and ‘Maybe We Did Mix’ (not to mention a separate 12” of House mixes).

The last and best of these accompanied the original version on the now-rare 1991 7”, as it does here. The ‘Maybe We Did Mix’ adds urgent horns - almost like the buzzing of a bee - and a new beat to completely reconfigure the sound into something much more of its era. It’s a reminder of when remixes were about much more than the same beat with different rappers.

The late engineer and producer Paul C’s fingerprints are all over this single from Ultramagnetic MC’s, perhaps the defining release of their career. While earlier records gave notice of their strange and unique talents, they were loveably messy affairs. This, however, is the real deal, as polished as their early sound would ever be.

‘Give the Drummer Some’ grabs a fistful of different elements – from James Brown, Dee Felice Trio and James Brown – but bends them to its own purpose. This is a song with a momentum of its own and endlessly quotable lyrics. One of which, of course, was sampled by The Prodigy – huge hip-hop fans – for ‘Smack My Bitch Up’ in 1997. The now hugely rare 7” of ‘Give the Drummer Some’ edits this out to make it more radio-friendly, but this reissue reverses that cut, giving you the original lyrics. If anyone knows why Kool Keith also changes the word ‘rappers’ to ‘monkeys’ for that edit, answers on a postcard…

The brilliant B-side harks back to the time when every group had a song dedicated to their DJ. ‘Moe Luv’s Theme’ sees Kool Keith at his most straightforward, singing the praises of the turntable skills of Moe Luv. It would be throwaway were it not for the effortless repurposing of Jackie Robinson’s oft-sampled ‘Pussyfooter’. That – and the presence of one of the world’s great MC’s at the height of his powers – elevates it far above a footnote.

Let’s be honest – the first time many of us heard the otherworldly talents of the Ultramagnetic MC’s was on a compilation. A smattering of singles in 1986 had barely registered beyond a small circle in New York, but the inclusion of the 1987 single ‘Travelling at the Speed of Thought’ on Street Sounds’ ‘Hip Hop Electro 16’ set, sandwiched between classics from MC Shy D and Just-Ice, was a watershed moment.

In a way, it’s their most atypical release. The deceptively simple combination of drums ‘borrowed’ from The Rolling Stones and a scratched hook from The Kingsmen’s definitive version of Richard Berry’s ‘Louie Louie’ is one thing. The simple by their standards vocals, however, render it into a loveable pastiche of rock-rap, a more esoteric equivalent of Run DMC’s ‘Walk This Way’.
The flip is more in keeping with their style both on their earlier ‘Ego Tripping’ single and the soon-to-arrive landmark classic album ‘Critical Beatdown’. Over some heavily chopped drums from erstwhile breakbeat classic ‘Apache’ by the Incredible Bongo Band, Ced Gee and Kool Keith showcase flows that were different from anything out there at the time.

‘M.C.’s Ultra (Part II Edit)’ is part brag-rap, part baffling science lecture. Leaning heavily on the thesaurus, it’s a slang heavy manifesto that elevated the boast rap to the next level. While Kool Keith would go on to be the group’s breakout star, this is a showcase for the whole collective, right down to DJ Moe Love’s slithery scratching sliding from one channel to the next.

Only previously released in the UK as a 7” that’s now very hard to source, this is a chance to re-embrace this breakthrough from a legendary group.

Fifth studio album featuring Malcolm Catto, D'Alma, Idd Aziz and Modou Touré. Includes the singles Sua Alma, In The End and Afande. His most accomplished album to date Will Dorey aka Skinshape moved out of his comfort zone to create a new sound while retaining his trademark feel. While Skinshape has often been influenced by African music ‘Umoja’ directly incorporates styles and rhythms from the continent. Drawing on London’s vast talent pool from across the globe collaborators bring the essence of Senegal, Portugal, Ghana and Kenya via Norway no name but a few. The initial plan was to travel to various African nations to record ‘Umoja’. This proved to be an unnecessary step because Skinshape's hometown of London ended up bearing many fruits. It was a challenging project for Dorey taking a year and a half of dedicated work to complete with many ideas left unfinished along the way. The album has a very global feel which was enhanced at the end of the process by a collaboration with Japanese painter Ken-ichi Omura. Fans of Skinshape’s distinctive voice will not be disappointed as he features on ‘In The End’ and ‘Sun’. Long-time friend and collaborator Jon Moody (from the band Franc Moody) wrote the album’s horn parts.

A focal point for the unique punk-funk that was coming together in Bristol as the bridge from the 70s to the 80s arrived, Maximum Joy was formed by Glaxo Babies multi-instrumentalist Tony Wrafter and 18 year old vocalist Janine Rainforth. Soon they drafted in additional Glaxo Babies in the form of drummer Charlie Llewellin and bassist Dan Catsis, along with guitarist John Waddington, fresh from The Pop Group. The group set about making a one-of-a-kind mix of funk, punk, pop, jazz, dub, soul, afrobeat and reggae; creating a brilliant burst of danceable tunes wrapped around elastic basslines and complex percussion, punctuated by melodic horns and stabs of guitar, all of it highlighting Rainforth’s naturally enthusiastic vocal style. They immediately took their place on the rosters of influential labels like Y and 99 with iconic debut single Stretch, as the band had clearly captured something special.

Entering 1982, Kevin Evans had replaced Catsis as Maximum Joy set out to make what would be their only full length LP. Recording at Berry Street and The Lodge with producers Adrian Sherwood (On-U-Sound legend), Dave Hunt (Flying Lizards, Pigbag, This Heat) and Pete Wooliscroft (Kate Bush, Talk Talk, Peter Gabriel, OMD, This Heat) the band would mix practiced grooves with imaginative improvisation. The results were absolutely jaw-dropping.

Station M.X.J.Y. kicks things off with Dancing On My Boomerangand promptly sets forth the blueprint for bands like !!! and The Rapture to capitalize on nearly twenty years later. In fact, those bands can only dream of the mix of driving percussion and spectral shards of guitar that Maximum Joy has clearly already mastered. Do It Todayannounces itself immediately with Rainforth delivering a looping and infectious vocal melody that the others dance around playfully, as handclaps keep the stomping groove intact, leaving a dancehall hit for outer space circling your turntable.

If you ever wondered what it would sound like if ESG and The Slits combined forces, Let It Take You There has the answer for you. Llewellin periodically delivers a cascade of marching band percussion while Waddington’s classic R&B riffs are transformed into a slithering snake trying to keep pace with Evans locked in groove as Rainforth’s singsong vocals are reduced to whispered echoes. They close out side one with the delicious slab of pop that is Searching For A Feeling. Clearly pronouncing the band’s intention to find the positives in a dire time for England, they look to rally those around them to focus on making real change in the face of opposing voices via one of Rainforth’s most delightful deliveries.

Side two sees Wrafter stretching out on Where’s Deke?, showcasing what had already been obvious, as he is the band’s secret weapon, often coloring each tune with his horns, sometimes in several styles just seconds apart. He underlines that feeling with the raucous and bouncy Temple Bomb Twist, before they hit a straight groove in Mouse An’ Me, like a dub infected Train In Vain. Well, if The Clash had ever allowed themselves to properly lose their minds on the dancefloor.

A funky afrobeat flute and guitar battle breaks out (way cooler than it sounds) before Rainforth rallies the troops to not only fill up the disco, but also the surrounding streets in political resistance to Thatcherism via All Wrapped Up. It is entirely genuine and their activism has none of the menace of the others in their scene, but rather a feeling of sharp optimism amongst this danceable masterpiece. It is that optimism that always set Maximum Joy apart, and makes their grooves all the more irresistible today.

Sadly, the upward trajectory of the band was cut short as Rainforth left the group, and soon afterwards seemed to stop making music altogether. The reasoning seemed destined to remain a mystery, until earlier this year when she gave a brave interview to The Guardian where she revealed that an assault by someone in the industry caused her to retreat entirely from music for nearly three decades. Luckily, Janine has embraced music once again, and she refuses to let the magic that was Station M.X.J.Y. be lost as well.

Introducing new sounds into the continuing MANHIGH project with Azteka Tekno, emerging Moscow producer Ober Dada finds rare power with his refined combinations of EBM and techno. Fusing concepts from Dadaist, Futurist, and Suprematist art with vocal guests from the Krasnodar Opera on ‘Tomorrow No’ and ‘Erdefalt’, the sophistication of his vision is immediately apparent in the arrangements and structures. With lyrics sourced from World War I-era apocalyptic poetry and a forthcoming opera from the artist, these two efforts show uncommon complexity in their running times, with layers of vocals and melodies trading off in sections with punishing rhythms that move between lashing breakbeats and straighter 4/4 sections. The comparably straightforward title track prominently features the producer’s own snarling vocal refrain, repeated through heavy distortion over pounding kicks and wayward electronics, while a contrasting melodic sequence enters from the breakdown for needed relief. Again featuring Ober Dada’s voice, ‘Hey’ foregrounds its wandering keyboard line for a comparatively restrained but still intense study on the styles found across the record.

James Brown would be proud of this one just like Maceo. Killer version of "Superbad" on the A-side and a soulful funk instrumental titled "Ma(r)l Sehen" on the flip make this one a must have for any funk djs' record bag. For the first time on 45, it sounds BAAAAD!

“All heads realize, recognize. Real heads on the rise, recognize. You better recognize”. Another milestone of Hip Hop's Golden Era gets an official 45 rpm on 7" vinyl release to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Smif-N-Wessun's debut album "Dah' Shinin”.

Representing Brownsville & Bed Stuy Brooklyn, rap duo Smif-N-Wessun, Tek and Steele, first appeared on Black Moon’s debut album Enta Da Stage in 1993. Adding relentless rhymes to tracks "U da Man" and "Black Smif N' Wessun," the pair paved the way for the Brooklyn Supergroup Boot Camp Clik.

25 years later, the raw and gritty sound of Da Beatminerz productions cut through the noise that is often found in the present day music industry, and was selected as one of The Source's 100 Best Rap Albums of all time.

Khruangbin has always been multilingual, weaving far-flung musical languages like East Asian surf-rock, Persian funk, and Jamaican dub into mellifluous harmony. But on its third album, it's finally speaking out loud. Mordechai features vocals prominently on nearly every song, a first for the mostly instrumental band. It's a shift that rewards the risk, reorienting Khruangbin's transportive sound toward a new sense of emotional directness, without losing the spirit of nomadic wandering that's always defined it. And it all started with them coming home. By the summer of 2019, the Houston group_bassist Laura Lee Ochoa, guitarist Mark Speer, drummer DJ Johnson_had been on tour for nearly three-and-ahalf years, playing to audiences across North and South America, Europe, and southeast Asia behind its acclaimed albums The Universe Smiles Upon You and Con Todo El Mundo. They returned to their farmhouse studio in Burton, Texas, ready to begin work on their third album. But they were also determined to slow down, to take their time and luxuriate in building something together. Musically, the band's ever-restless ear saw it pulling reference points from Pakistan, Korea, and West Africa, incorporating strains of Indian chanting boxes and Congolese syncopated guitar. But more than anything, the album became a celebration of Houston, the eclectic city that had nurtured them, and a cultural nexus where you can check out country and zydeco, trap rap, or avant-garde opera on any given night. In those years away from home, Khruangbin's members often felt like they were swimming underwater, unsure of where they were going, or why they were going there. But Mordechai leads them gently back to the surface, allowing them to take a breath, look around, and find itself again. It is a snapshot taken along a larger journey_a moment all the more beautiful for its impermanence. And it's a memory to revisit again and again, speaking to us now more clearly than ever.

For the second instalment of Subaltern’s 2020 program, we welcome one of the scene’s best-kept secrets – Imajika. The three hard-hitting tracks take listeners on a sonic journey through tribal rhythms, punchy drums and immaculate sound design. Calling upon ancient forces, Imajika makes a powerful statement with the Stagger EP.

Stagger
Ethereal glass chimes sing in the distance underneath an airy pulse to create an eerie intro until the groove enters to break the tension. We are offered a moment to breathe before being submerged by staggering drums driven by powerfully persistent bass-waves. Playful dubby FXs, gritty wobbles and naughty drum fills keep the head nodding throughout this stomper. After offering one last breath, the second drop hits with a relentless grunt that leaves us gobsmacked and then proceeds to devastate any sub to cross its path.

Unti Pundi
Mystical textures set a ghostly tone, overlaid by the meditative ‘Unti Pundi’. We are whisked through the caverns of time - space is created through reverbs and echoes of snares and droplets. A sinister pitch-oscillating synth takes your hand and as Imajika takes you deeper down the rabbit hole. Evolving basslines and masterfully placed drum fills add new depth to this monstrous beat before a shattering second drop wreaks havoc - Imajika shows no mercy.

Inside the Sycamore Root
Foreboding voices whisper in a secret language, seemingly summoning ancient spirits in a circular tree-based ritual. A cataclysmic drop fused with a tribal rhythm and propels us deep Inside the Sycamore Root. The spirits have been awoken. A gnarly bass pulsates as calls of the wild and menacing laser-synth stabs respond to the ancestral voices. The summoning continues and takes us even deeper into the wilderness as rumbling bass and tribal percussion take over - the descent into the great unknown continues.

Another West-End sure-shot! This sublime piece of early electronic Boogie has always worn it's "classic" badge with a relaxed sense of pride since it's release in 1982, perhaps it's the languid synthed out groove supplied by studio maestros Nick martinelli & David Todd or Brenda Taylor's sublime vocals reminding us all that the game of love is always a 2 way street that are to blame

Whatever it is, this is a solid, classic slice of Disco gold, more on the down to mid-tempo tip but still big enough to keep the dance-floors packed from the Garage to the Loft & beyond with ease! The production simply sounds years ahead of it's time (still does!) & it has the FUNK in bucket-loads, this is as essential as it gets, the real deal. Featured here are all the original mixes that were on the 1982 pressing (Yes! There's a dub mix!).

Re-mastered, re-pressed & re-released for 2015 with all original West End Records label artwork intact. Done in conjunction & with the permission of all right holders.

Celebrating live music and record store culture.

After having completed the first run of shows for their recent album "2066" through UK, France and Germany, the Mighty Mocambos did an intimate performance at world-renowned Groove City Record Store in their hometown Hamburg.
Not content with just playing stripped down versions of existing material, the band wanted to step up a notch from the "tiny desk" type concert idea and decided to record unreleased tunes for a vinyl single capturing the live energy and crowd atmosphere with analog studio techniques. After having warmed up with a couple of songs from "2066", a cheerful crowd in the packed shop witnessed the band tracking magic takes of unheard songs directly to tape.
"St. Pauli Second Line", an instrumental live favourite with simple but irresistant swamp funk ostinatoes turned into a frenetic call and response chant workout midway of the song. Singer Nichola Richards' tune "Keep It Movin'", a mainstay of the band's live repertoire for years, was cut with great energy, finally finding its way onto wax. "Something's Missing" is a brand new tune with a raw sister funk vibe - written and arranged for the occasion, rehearsed once and performed live for the first time in the version you hear on this record.
While many live recordings a are mere mix of crowd noise and neglectable renditions of well-worn tunes that are unusable for DJs and hardly appealing to the dedicated listener, THE MIGHTY MOCAMBOS - Live At Groove City au contraire is a treat for turntableists and a testimony of the spark that a well-attuned live band can light up, combining the vibes of a concert with the no-nonsense analog sound of their well-loved studio recordings.

Since making his debut as 96 Back in 2018, Evan Majumdar-Swift has become one of underground electronic music's genuine rising stars. To date, the Sheffield-born producer has released two acclaimed albums for labels such as Hypercolour and CPU as well as a string of singles and collaborations. His EP for Happy Skull showcases his growing versatility as a producer and marks the labels return following a brief hiatus.

"143 Connections", is a rapidly unfurling club cut that sees him pepper a weighty 140 rhythm track with crispy arpeggios and rolling acid motifs . The track increases in intensity as it progresses, with Rob Gordon's immaculate mastering work bringing out the cut's inherent weight, sharpness and subtle Bleep influences.

Elsewhere across the EP, 96 Back takes the opportunity to expand his trademark sound a little further. "Set Science" is a colourful slab of electro machine funk, full of fizzing sci-fi melodies and brain dance era synth work while "In The Trunk, Belting Down The Highway" drops the tempo but turns the intensity up to red with a slow motion chunk of mutant electronica complete with misty eyed breakdown.

The premise for Quindi Records is simple – to represent music with a universality at its core.
Without adhering to specific genre tropes, the releases are intended to have a meaning and purpose in all kinds of situations – a social soundtrack as much as a stimulating experience,
feeding emotions and the psyche with a sentimental palette of sounds. Lovers’ music, loners’ music, music for friends and family alike.
Woo makes for a perfect choice to meet this loose concept head-on – the music of Clive and Mark Ives straddles disparate worlds and finds its own peculiar balance. On one hand it’s delicate synthesizer music with a minimalist bent, while on the other their joyous, twinkling harmonies have an immediacy that speaks to the soul. You can detect privacy in their craft – the brothers originally recorded their music in relative isolation in London in the 70s, 80s and early 90s. It’s only in recent years their sublime work has enjoyed a wider audience through an extensive run of reissues.
Arcturian Corridor ? presents a rare, previously unreleased piece of music from Woo – the expansive suite of the title track that unfurls across five parts. It’s an enchanting listen that shows a new breadth and depth to the duo – detailed drum programming and a broader palette of synth tones cascading in elegant unison. The name refers to Arcturus, the fourth brighteststar in the night sky. As Woo themselves explain, “The Arcturian Corridor is said to be a channel of light that brings unconditional love and wisdom from Arcturus to Earth.”
In addition to the 20-minute A-side piece, Woo also presents a new version of “Love On Other Planets”, a standout piece from their 1990 album ?Into The Heart of Love? . The fragile subtlety of the original has been embellished here with rich new passages that turn it into a kind of electronica epic, although still marked out with the sensitivity one expects from a Woo record.
Two remixes complete the set, both furthering Quindi’s modus operandi as a genre-agnostic force for cosmically charged music. Dublin’s Wah Wah Wino collective present their Wino Wagon manifestation for a tastefully strange house version of the fifth part of “Arcturian Corridor” that channels the freakiness of Pepe Bradock, the robo-funk of Metro Area and a soupcon of pop nous. British duo Ultramarine maintain the stylistic ambiguity as they channel decades of expressive experimentation between live band dynamics and machine soul on their version of the title track’s second chapter.

Outta Sight’s collectable ‘Real Side’ series continues with two stunning sides from Ted Jarrett’s Nashville based ‘ref-o-ree’ label. Jarrett was a hugely successful songwriter and producer for a number of Tennessee labels before he formed Poncello and Spar ahead of the harder Soul sounding ‘ref-o-ree’ that was home to our star turn Wendell Watts. Little is known about Wendell Watts other than he recorded and released two 45s for the ‘ref-o-ree’ label in 1969. According to some sources he hailed from Detroit but these recordings are certainly Nashville based and were produced by label owner Ted Jarrett and arranged by his long-time collaborator Bob (Robert) Holmes. The 45s are highly collectable with “Kiss A Good Thing Goodbye” rarely seen for sale and available as a reissue for the very first time. Incredibly, both of our featured spins were originally released as B-sides. “You Girl” on the back of Watts’ soul-cover of the Peppermint Rainbow hit “Will You Be Staying After Sunday”, whilst “Kiss A Good Thing Goodbye” played second fiddle to the novelty Bob Holmes song “The Love Bug”. The latter was reissued in 1972 coupled with “Grooviest Thing Side Of Heaven” on the tiny Jiminie logo. Watts also released a chidren’s Christmas album in 1972, for which he wrote most of the songs, before bowing out of the music industry.

Currently riding high with one of the hottest sounds around.
The beautifully seductive IN MY GROOVE gets a timely vinyl release and there’s an ace in the sleeve: mix maestro Nigel Lowis has conjured up a new version for the B Side!
Presented in thirst quenching orange vinyl, limited edition of 300 copies.

You cannot say Nu Groove without saying Burrell. The seminal New York House label that existed from 1988 until 1992 was at the helm of a sound that was as much traditional as it was transitional. Since the closure of the Paradise Garage in 1987 and before the „NYC House sound“ was well-defined and fenced, Nu Groove was a kaleidoscope and an amalgamation of everything that informed it until then: uptempo r&b, reggae, dub, disco, freestyle, techno, jazz, and the sound that was embossed by Larry Heard in Chicago that was so well picked up in the Big Apple, you name it. Ronald and Rheji Burrell provided its basis, first floor and roof. But that story has already been told by our dear friends from Rush Hour, including its most important chapters. But we are going to tell a new one.

Rheji Burrell presents N.Y. House’N Authority & The Utopia Project. Twelve tracks split over two EPs on Running Back. Named „Out of Body Experience“ and „The ’V’EP“, it features all new music that feels like modern garments cut out of a classic cloth. Almost as if the Nu Groove would have never stopped. And that it is - at the risk of self-praise - all that old or new fans and also we could hope for. Two EPs full of deep-that-doesn’t rhyme-with-sleep house music, has simple, yet clever arrangements, features jazzy sounds, but snappy drums, merry melodies and glossy grooves. An overall joy to listen or dance to. The difference in both EPs is for the Burrell-die-hards and Nu-Groove-scientists to decide.

Mooring the 'Train Of Thought' at Hamburger Hafen, Latvia's R_R_ delivers aquatic ambience, buoyant electronics and tidal rhythms on the Growing Bin. Hold this shell(ac) to your ears and you’ll hear the sea…

As we hasten towards the inevitable Waterworld of the next century, Latvian composer, sound artist and lecturer Reinis Semēvics charts our safe passage to dry land with his debut album 'Train Of Thought'. Inspired by the rhythmic movement of water and how its rippled reflections bend our perception, Reinis sculpts an immersive sound collage - a precise mixture of field recordings and self-made sounds which swell and swirl as we bathe in their beauty.

Bookended by the Baltic's roar at the Bay of Rīga, 'Train Of Thought' drifts from the harbour to the open sea, conveying the restful calm and frenetic power of a body of water throughout. Misty pads and delicate piano conjure lapping waves and blue skies, bubbling sequences ripple up from the deep and cascading melodies fall around hypnotic rhythms, each distinct droplet offering a different feeling and mood. One moment flows into the next, nine rivers pouring into a single ocean of sonic bliss.
The alias R_R_ is a tribute to his grandfather, the composer Ģederts Ramans, whose influence helped set Reinis' sonic journey in motion. We're very happy he's decided to stop off in the Growing Bin, and we're sure you will be too.
Patrick Ryder

Heavyweight sounds from 60 Miles aka John Daly & Cian Frawley. 4 track sampler from the Swamp 2 Sea project.

French label Plaisir Partagé, run by Master Phil, is proud to announce a new release by Domotic aka Stéphane Laporte, known for his work in the french soundtrack field and for his two albums on Antinote.

After "Smallville Tapes" released on Gonzaï Records and the two volumes of Fourrure Sounds on Antinote under the name Stéphane Laporte, Domotic returns with a soundtrack of a short film by Sébastien Auger, Friendship without Love.

A tasty mix of soundtracks à la John Carpenter, sound illustrations Roland Bocquet-esque, and even a hint of Synth pop.

A soul-funk studio project for the Italian label S.P.Q.R. (Sound Production Quality Record) featuring vocals by Nathaniel Bush and arranged by Marco Colucci (aka Mark Owen). Comes on a 2020 re-edition of 300 copies!

‘Reality Tunnels’ is a concept that was originally introduced by Robert Anton Wilson in his 1983 book ‘Prometheus Rising’. In essence, the concept of a reality tunnel relates to an idea on how we create our own perspective – the subjective filter that we each apply to the world around us; the things we perceive and what our consciousness deems worthy of attention, IE what we see and hear is entirely relative to what we do not.

At points angular and uncompromising with levels in the red, frequencies pushed out and EQ curves stretched into strange new shapes, Pinch mixes both low and hi fi on this boldly distinct sonic statement. It sees him flexing years of production skills – but unconventionally so – knowing well that safe predictability and rounded polish don’t get the most interesting results.
Dark trip hop Bristolia segues into blistering jungle on album opener ‘Entangled Particles’, before planet-hopping onto the spiky insidious grimestep of ‘All Man Got’, featuring the rugged rasp of OG warhorse Trim.
Beginning a triptych of future techno, ‘Accelerated Culture’ offers the album’s most relatively straightforward moment, albeit one of scorching, anthemic dancefloor heat. Delving deeper into the vortex is the synapse sparking wobbler ‘Returnity’, before ‘Finding Space’ reaches to the cosmos’ far-flung, glowing outlands.
Back to an urban reality is ‘Party’, where a subtly menacing sense of dread is ignited by Killa P’s incremental flow, which ramps-up and pairs-back the intensity in unexpected ways. Still moving freely between different realities, ‘Back To Beyond’ is beautiful gloaming ambience, executed with equal fine-tuned grace as the genre’s masters.


Jamaican vocalist Inezi lends sweet tones to the slow burning, roots-meets-modern-bass spiritual ‘Change Is A Must’, and on ‘Non-Terrestrial Forms’ an atmospheric, misty steppers intro segues stealthily into fiercely dystopian, amen-fuelled jungle tekno; marking one of several surprise attacks on the album, where a subtle-slight-of hand shoots the intensity level dynamically up.Closing as it begins, the album is bookended by a piece that recalls the dark, intricate soundscapes of Massive Attack’s ‘Mezzanine’ and Tricky’s ‘Maxinquaye’ – found here in ‘The Last One’s scorched, smoky rocker.

Hit the vinyl double pack for an exclusive and quite unique sounding 120bpm glitchy techno roller featuring man like Trim once again and live cello recordings.