2026 Repress
As electronic music pioneers and co-founders of Soma Records, Slam have continually shaped the landscape of underground techno. With their forthcoming album, Dark Channel, they present a raw, club-focused record that stands as both a reflection of our turbulent times and a celebration of the dance floor's enduring power.
In 2025, the world feels fractured, dominated by division and extremism. Amidst this chaos, the dance floor remains a rare sanctuary-one of unity, self-expression, and collective escape. Dark Channel is an unapologetic tribute to this sacred space, where rhythm dissolves barriers and music serves as a universal language. Through relentless energy, deep textures, and hypnotic grooves, the album embodies the essence of club culture: a place where we reconnect with ourselves and each other.
Slam make no mistake when it comes to the sonic tone of the album as it opens with the tribalistic Use It, Lose It before the discordant sounds of title track Dark Channel hints at the relentless nature of things to come. The intensity continues with Parametric Factor & Glide - both pushing a pulsating, synth driven trip; the later leading on a more traditional Slam percussive workout. The dance floor warping Morganatic pursues dark territory while Infinit Spaces adds trippy FX to an already animated synth hook. The beautifully crafted Kuture Version delves into a more immersive sound as more direct, chord driven elements take the lead. The pace quickens yet again with Ghost Dancer highlighting sub tones whilst still crafting ominous intonations with its modulating FX. Approaching the conclusion, the ferocious Beat On The Drum delivers a lesson in rhythm and energy before the contorted Irregular Object completes proceedings in a suitably hypnotic fashion.
Mastered By Conor Dalton @ Glowcast Mastering
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After a series of successful outings alongside sidekicks Ofofo and Zongamin, studio wizard MYTRON turns in his debut solo full-length for Multi Culti World Records. With contributions on Invisible Inc, Calypso, Bongo Joe, Kalahari Oyster Cult, LYO, Codek Records and Earthly Measures, Mytron has carved out a name for himself in a carefully-curated left-field quadrant of the indie-dance galaxy. Tuning his oscillators to myriad sounds — from dub and disco to krautrock — the London-based producer perhaps most notably channels the pristine compositional style of Kraftwerk. While most apparent in the use of vocoder, there’s a consistent efficiency of arrangement that recalls the man-machine in effervescent, idealistic fashion. Mytron manages to keep it simple, funky and musical — whimsical tunes that bop along with analog grit, wilderness, and wonk. There’s a warmth and wit that shine through every synth line, an understated confidence that speaks of years spent tangled in wires and waveforms, with an inclusive sonic eclecticism that flattens hierarchies between genres, geographies, and generations. Each influence is invited to the table, treated not as pastiche but invited to dine and dance in a space where kosmische dub disco and Afro rhythms can coexist without borders. The sleeve design echoes this philosophy: video-feedback patterns hinting at our modern screens, both portals and filters — coloured, distorted intermediaries through which we perceive the world. In the trippiest sense, the record is both reflection and refraction — a sonic mirror held up to an interconnected, glitchy reality. Tailored equally for DJ use and home-listening head trip, the album is meticulous, mischievous and merry.
BanBanTonTon review:
On Mytron’s debut long-player for Multi Culti groovy 21st Century leftfield house gear collides with Daniele Baldelli and Beppe Loda’s hugely influential `80s afro / cosmic. The 9 tracks are chunky, chugging and full of funky, funny noises. Old school B-lines mixing with eccentric electronics. Spinning, spiralling sounds.
Sugar is an electro-pop, vocoder confection, cut from the same sonic cloth as cult classics like Codek’s Tam Tam. Created from tough trap drums, splashing effects and a mutant Giorgio Moroder bass arpeggio. The title track, Propellor, pits Kraftwerk-esque hardware harmonised vocals against a bongo loop and a whistling hook. Playground has simian shrieks surround tumbling tom-toms. Highway Maintenance adds kosmische synths to a dance of woodblocks and buzzing bottom end. Keep On Dubbing is an organ-led, clip clopping percussive canter.
Tracks such as Speaker Can Talk, shot through with disco lasers blasts and recalling Curt Cress’ Dschung Tek, also lift the tempo up, but the bulk of the music here is a mid-tempo, techno drum circle. Squelchy sequences gurgling in and out of programmed percussion. On Quasar, spiky acid edges in and slowly takes over.
Key references that come to mind are Baldelli’s own turn-of-the-2000s Cosmic Sound Project productions, and Wolf Müller’s scene shaking sides on Themes For Great Cites, from around a decade later.
- A1: Sixfold Radianz (G-Man Remix) - 7 18 (From '8 1/2 Bit' )
- A2: Frontera Extraterrestre (Hardfloor Remix) - 5 55 (From 'The Psychonautic ..)
- B1: Hypothermia (34,8) (Silicon Scally Remix) - 6 58 (From 'Wetware Unveiled')
- B2: Mäckchen (Annie Hall Remix) 5 30 (From 'Wetware Unveiled')
- C1: Pseudoliparis Swirei (Electro Nation Remix) - 5 23 (From 'The Electrifying
- C2: Reklonstrusion (Martin Matiske Remix) - 5 00 (From 'Sermans Of The ..)
- D1: Verquerer Weise (Lloyd Stellar Remix) - 4 47 (From 'Sermans Of The Electr
- D2: Sycorax (Dj Di'jital Remix) - 5 17 (From 'Wetware Unveiled')
pdqb, the producer whose name sounds like a coded message, has surpassed the need for introduction. It emerged from nowhere, becoming omnipresent almost instantly, leaving every electronic music producer eager - if not obsessed - to work with it. Its original tracks are raw and elegant with warm synth lines, pulsing rhythms, and melodies that feel like echoes from forgotten futures. They always carry a strange magnetic pull.
Presented here are eight stunning remixes of its already-released tracks. Each one its own universe, each one remarkable in its own way, each one crafted by an expert in their field. The eight pieces twist, stretch, break apart, and rebuild the originals. They mutate into technoid creatures, melodies dissolve into vapor, and rhythms reorganize themselves into something alien and alive, yet each still holds a faint spark of pdqb's DNA, buried beneath layers of transformation.
Listeners will understand: this isn't just a remix album. It is an evolution - eight reinterpretations of the same musical core, each pushing pdqb's world into a new dimension.
Should you happen to have been paying attention to progressive house and trance in the mid 1990s, you may well be familiar with Brendan McCarthy's most celebrated release as Aquartherium, 1994's Full Moon EP. It was a massive record across Europe but also found favour in San Francisco's freewheeling free party scene. 'Full Moon' itself is especially potent - an all-action chunk of hallucinatory progressive house/trance fusion full of star-burst synth motifs, bubbly electronics and ambient techno sonics - though the heavier, bleep-sporting, Brown Album-era Orbital flex of 'Luci In Deep Hypnosis' is just as good.
Although he's released on numerous labels since debuting almost a decade ago, Eduardo Barbi aka Gledd returns to his own reliable imprint Saint Wax. On his fourth vinyl missive for the imprint, My Church Is On Fire, the Italian producer delivers a quartet of cuts that happily boast samples from vintage gospel cuts. It's a simple idea, brilliantly executed, as proved by the righteous, spiritual, organ-rich stomp of opener 'Let It Shine', featuring guest lead vocals from Steve Salmaso. Elsewhere, 'Mama Don't Preach' is a whirlwind of sampled gospel soul vocals, expansive piano solos and chunky deep house beats, 'Be Real' is a heavily electronic slab of gospel-house deepness, and 'Back on My Stay' is a locked-in, late-night delight with an effortlessly soulful finish.
For their very first offering, Hanna & Robbie unveils a 5-track album making an ever possible encounter between psychedelic fractured grooves and mellow sci-fi haze in a divergent electronic shell. Planet42 carves a slow-burning path through severance and trance, a trip back to the subconscious like an escape or a sin, guiding both body and mind into unfamiliar exploration
Taking a fey look on electronic performance, where dubby-inspired and fractured rhythms tend to unveil ethereal ambiances, HR was born and raised in the emergent underground electronic French scene and started being moving targets in 2023 with a first live show at the Supercamp Festival happy few’s gathering.
With a mosaic of gritty textures, clubby breaks and otherworldly echoes in the lead-off project Planet42, Hanna & Robbie dives deep in this restless esoteric tension their identity is all about : an spunky early signal sculpting precise and intricate yet atypical tones revealing this crawling need of delivering unsettled arrangements and dreamscaped lines. Already in the move for their next in order work, it is settled in their experimentation lab that new doses of psychedelia and delusive resonances were written as an incipit to a future alternative live act.
Born Bad Records knew exactly what it was doing when it signed this Nantes-based trio, whose sharply defined sound and raw authenticity stand out. With Rage Blossom, Île de Garde unveils an EP charged with palpable tension, somewhere between dark pop and psycho-wave. A catalogue of modern misdeeds, a David Lynch-like backdrop where Sylvia Plath’s poetry might cross paths with the controlled excesses of Fever Ray.
The EP opens with “Fear The Sun,” its Mike Oldfield-esque soundscapes plunging us into an apocalyptic and unsettling world. “Homicide Volontaire” follows with meticulous narration, a technical exercise evoking the anger and defiant lucidity of a Virginie Despentes. The hallucinatory hit “To Death” snaps like an anthem to collective dancing in the face of the inevitable. Since we’re going to die, let’s dance! On the B-side, “Ageless Woman” weaves together a half-mythological, half-mysterious text, carried by haunting backing vocals. “Birthday Girl,” featuring Kuntessa, radiates an ironic and joyful riot-grrrl energy, an uninhibited celebration of women’s liberation. Finally, “Boy,” a small post-punk jewel, closes the EP with an ending as surprising as it is delicate.
The group’s genius also lies in the complementarity of its musicians. Morgane Poulain anchors the drums with a dynamic that is both subtle and narrative, airy yet jagged. Cécile Aurégan, the architect behind a multitude of synths, builds powerful sonic landscapes, layer upon layer. Klara Coudrais, the band’s poetic figurehead, elevates her texts with a rich and plural vocal palette, giving life to several characters who vibrate with intensity. The band’s writing, hovering between darkness and light, echoes a kind of visceral poetry, exploring the seasons of the soul with authenticity and force.
With this EP, Île de Garde establishes itself as a band to watch closely, capable of translating on stage both the raw energy and the fine craftsmanship that define their music. An immersive journey, full of tension, urgency, beauty, and electric flashes.
Île de Garde, a Nantes-based trio with sharply drawn sonic contours and raw authenticity, unleashes its full arsenal on Rage Blossom, an EP radiating palpable tension between dark pop and psycho-wave. A catalogue of modern misdeeds, a David Lynch-like setting where Sylvia Plath’s poetry would meet the controlled excesses of Fever Ray. An immersive journey of tension, urgency, beauty, and electric sparks.
Opening track “Fear The Sun” plunges us into an apocalyptic and unsettling landscape. “Homicide Volontaire” continues with meticulous storytelling, a crime vignette evoking anger and the fierce lucidity summoned by a situation with no way out. The hallucinatory trance of “To Death” snaps like an anthem to collective dance in the face of the inevitable. Since we are going to die, let’s dance! “Ageless Woman” blends a half-mythological, half-mysterious text, carried by hypnotic backing vocals. “Birthday Girl,” featuring Kuntessa, releases an ironic and joyful riot-grrrl spirit, an uninhibited celebration of feminine liberation. Finally, “Boy,” a small post-punk case study, closes the EP with a simple, sensitive truth.
The three musicians propel and relay one another in this breathless race. Morgane Poulain drives the drums with a dynamic that is both subtle and narrative, airy yet staccato. Cécile Aurégan, architect of multiple synths, builds powerful sonic landscapes, layer after layer. Klara Coudrais, the storyteller, elevates her texts with a rich and multifaceted vocal palette, giving life to all their characters, both mythical and ordinary. The band’s writing, between darkness and light, proclaims a visceral poetry, exploring the seasons of the soul with authenticity and strength.
Arizona-based producer Kareem Ali returns with Renewal, his second EP on the French label Noire & Blanche, a luminous blend of deep house, jazz, and Afrofuturism that captures both personal and collective transformation. Praised by Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, and Boiler Room for his visionary sound, Ali continues to expand the language of modern electronic music with a project rooted in emotion, movement, and hope.
Across five tracks, Feel Everything All At Once, On My Heart, Procession, Wake Up My People, and Want, Kareem Ali invites listeners to experience the full spectrum of feeling. Opening with the warm, jazz-infused pulse of Feel Everything All At Once, the EP unfolds into the hypnotic rhythms of Procession and the heartfelt refrain of On My Heart. The soaring horns and urgent groove of Wake Up My People capture the project’s spirit of resilience, before closing on Want, a meditative reflection on desire and renewal.
Drawing inspiration from Sun Ra, Miles Davis, and Underground Resistance, Kareem Ali continues his pursuit of what he calls Future Black Music — a sound that merges the spiritual depth of jazz with the cosmic potential of electronic music. With Renewal, he offers not just an EP, but a vision: music as liberation, rebirth, and awakening.
STRIKER TRAXX proudly presents its very first release — STX101: BALLAN “Chantal Grooves EP”.
Born as the new sub-label of SUPREME STRIKER, itself a direct emanation of the Skylax Records universe, STRIKER TRAXX sets the tone for a new era: raw, uncompromising, and forward-thinking. As always, the visual identity is entrusted to the legendary H5’s exclusive artwork (Daft Punk, Air, Logorama), delivering a striking design that transforms each copy into a true collector’s object.
For this inaugural strike, we welcome Asaf Ballan, aka BALLAN, an artist emerging with force from the vibrant beatscape of contemporary electronic music. With Chantal Grooves EP, he delivers a 12-inch packed with five club-weapons that dive deep into the essence of house and tech house, reshaping them with his own relentless, pumpy twist.
The trip opens with “How Should I Start”, a perfect ignition, teasing anticipation while locking you instantly on the groove. “Goddamnit (Club Tool)” follows as a pure machine workout, echoing Kerri Chandler’s house foundations while pushing them into today’s territory. “Members Only Club” exudes exclusive sophistication, a secret-weapon built for late-night dancefloors. On the flip, “Keep the Frequency Clear” hypnotizes with razor-sharp frequencies, proof of BALLAN’s sonic craftsmanship, before “Futuro” launches us headfirst into tomorrow—where innovation collides with the Romanian sunrise aesthetic, infused with a heavier, raw energy.
Influenced by the minimal masters (Zip, Ricardo Villalobos, Raresh) yet unwilling to compromise on drive and power, BALLAN delivers here a record where every track stands as a killer. Chantal Grooves EP is both a homage to the roots of house and tech house, and a manifesto propelling the genre into its next evolution.
STRIKER TRAXX launches with a statement: this imprint is made for DJs and dancers who still believe in vinyl as a sacred object and in the dancefloor as a transformative space. With H5’s exclusive artwork (Daft Punk, Air, Logorama)and Skylax’s uncompromising vision, each release is conceived as a weapon for the underground, and a jewel for the true collectors.
Vinyl only. For devoted believers.
- A1: Slap, Whack And Blow
- A2: Duck Strut
- A3: The Needle Nose
- A4: Wiretap
- A5: Wigged Out
- A6: Nuclear Wind I
- B1: Kaye Okay
- B2: Siren's Sea
- B3: Midnight Heist
- B4: Nuclear Wind Ii
- B5: Planet Nine
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
Recorded using the same techniques and equipment used to create the now legendary catalogues of music sold to the film and television industry of the 60's & 70's, The Library Archive could easily sit alongside the plain minimalist covers of KPM or Telesound.
The fierce Brass of 'Whack, Slap & Blow' and 'Kaye Okay' could both be a Keith Mansfield cut, acting as a theme tune to a glamorous saturday night tv show circa 1972. 'Duck Strut' is a cheeky slice of Bass driven Brit-funk, Muted horns and flute adding an element of Quincy Jones amongst the grooving drums and percussion. 'The Needle Nose', 'Midnight Heist' and 'Wiretap' are amongst the more cinematic tracks on the album. Moody and atmospheric, they conjure up images of dark alleys, shadowy figures and dead letter drops. 'Wigged out' channels the wonky organ weirdness of Italian library legends I Marc 4 while 'Nuclear Wind I & II' use Moog and Mellotron as electronic counterpoint to ethereal voices. 'Siren's sea's' acoustic interlude conjures up images of distant clifftops, gossamer vocals enticing you onto the rocks before album closer 'Planet Nine' traverses the cosmos.
Editions Mego welcomes KMRU back to the fold. Kin is Kenyan born, Berlin based, sonic wizard Joseph Kamaru’s second release on Editions Mego, following on from the classic 2020 release Peel. Since the release and subsequent praise for Peel, the artist has been a staple on the electronic scene performing on numerous stages and festivals worldwide in tandem with a flood of media recognition. Kin could be construed as the second child following Peel. The project came out of initial discussions with Peter Rehberg about what a Peel sequel would sound like. Kamaru is quick to clarify that Kin is not that record; “I'll know when that record will come and when I'll make it. It's already happening... or maybe it lives within both of these Mego records”.
It is this deft ambiguity and vague tiptoeing around the concrete that encapsulates the ambiguous sound world of Kamaru’s vision.
Kin was started early 2021 in Nairobi with Kamaru exploring his noisier palette of sounds encompassing distortions reminiscent of the sounds he would muster from in his youth when playing guitar. He paused making this record for a year as soon as Peter died, then slowly returned to it through 2022 resulting in the immense new work we have here.
The charms within Kin lay as Easter eggs revealing the true identity behind the colourful sonics only after multiple deep listens. With Trees Where We Can See sets the tone by way of a warm swaying melody inviting the listener in for further investigation. In 2022 KMRU and Mego stalwart Fennesz toured the USA together resulting in a strong friendship and also, the second track here, Blurred. A neat Mego/Editions Mego loop as such. Blurred arranges twangy guitar strums alongside glistening glaciers of shimmering drones. They Are Here represents a darker hue as melancholic clouds of shadowy noir tap directly into the listener's nerve stream. Maybe takes a detour into a bristling euphoric electronic storm whilst We Are screeches in a pattern formation not unlike a highly abstracted Aphex Twin forcing its way out of a hard drive. By Absence concludes proceedings, operating as both exit music and a portal to further sonic investigation with acoustic bellowing residing amongst a kaleidoscopic backdrop.
Kin is a trip that rewards close repeated listens as all the colours and textures, nuance and narratives unveil themselves. This isn’t a record to be glossed over, magic rewards concentration.
Kin is a record to be Played slow and LOUD.
For Pita.
All tracks written, produced, mixed by Joseph Kamaru
Blurred co-written & produced with Christian Fennesz
Mastered by Stephan Mathieu at Schwebung Mastering
Photography: Joseph Kamaru
Layout & Design: Nik Void
Cut by Andreas Kauffelt at Schnittstelle, Berlin
repressed !
Francois Kevorkian is a name that should need no introduction. With over 40 years in the game FK has occupied numerous roles in his long and storied career - drummer, DJ, A&R man, remixer and producer - his skills know no boundaries. Having DJ-ed during the nascent days of club culture in NYC alongside Walter Gibbons, Larry Levan and more, Kevorkian has been there from day one. Years spent in the seminal clubs of the day sharpened his ears and his prowess behind the mixing desk saw him become the A&R man at the legendary Prelude records in the early 80's, this in turn led to him working with everyone from The Eurythmics, Depeche Mode, Erasure, D-Train, Yazoo, The Smiths, Kraftwerk and many many more. A true NYC original and legend, Kevorkian is still active today and the respect he commands amongst his peers has never waned, his adventurous extended DJ sets, seminal mixes and remixes and his open ears and open mind have ensured that he will go down in history as a musical pioneer.
Rewind to 1995. Kevorkian's 'Wave Music' imprint has come into existence with a handful of releases. No-one could imagine that his self-produced 'FK EP' - the next release on the label - would be a stone cold classic. Easily one of the most consistent, exciting and solid EP's to come out of NYC during this golden era of dance music. Across 4 tracks we are taken on a sound journey through a world that is undoubtedly informed by FK's time as an engineer, DJ and most importantly, a music lover.
EP opener 'Hypnodelic' brings us into this world, a deep, driving cut that fuses the dubbed out vocals of Freddie Turner against FK's keyboards and immaculate drum programming, oozing cosmic electronic soul, this track was destined to be a future classic. 'Mindspeak' also boasts some tough drums and with a respectful nod to Chicago is an incredibly mixed and arranged peak-time cut that will drive your dancefloor into deep space again and again. 'Edge Of Time' welcomes us to the flipside of the EP, wild Latin percussions, tablas and old school horn stabs drive this monstrous cut, not to mention cavernous dub FX and that huge bassline that just doesn't let up. Essential. 'Moov' rounds things out on a more subdued, stripped back vibe. Reversed percussions and spaced-out synth chords lace this beautifully understated and warm track, one that builds into a crescendo of melodies and hypnotic rhythms and the perfect way to close what has been a truly special musical journey.
This essential reissue of the 'FK EP' has been fully licensed, sanctioned and remastered in conjunction with FK from the original master sources by Optimum Mastering, Bristol UK, repressed onto high quality vinyl and packaged as the 1995 release was. A truly classic record indeed, available again for 2018. Welcome back Wave Music!
Vinylneuauflage von Mobys Sampler "Early Underground" (1993), einer Zusammenstellung seiner Frühwerke unter zahlreichen zusätzlichen Pseudonymen wie Barracuda, Brainstorm, UHF oder Voodoo Child. Mit Ausnahme einer limitierten Vinylausgabe 2022 gab es diese Kollektion nur als CD, nie flächendeckend auf Vinyl. "Early Underground" enthält auch seinen Techno-Klassiker "Go" in der Original Version, laut Rolling Stone "einer der besten Tracks aller Zeiten". Moby hat die Techno/Electronic-Szene massgeblich beeinflusst, später den Popmarkt erobert und Acts wie David Bowie, Public Enemy, Ozzy Osbourne, die Beastie Boys und Daft Punk produziert und geremixt.
We Jazz Records presents "Pu:", the boundary-breaking solo debut of bass player Ville Herrala, to be released on 21 February 2020. Utilising only the double bass but looking at the instrument from various different perspectives. The end result is an inspired set of 14 miniatures, each pushing the concept forward in a highly personal way.
The first single "Pu: 12" presents a rhythmic approach with echoes of from the world of minimal classical music and electronic music. Bowed tracks such as "Pu: 2" offer another perspective, as does the second single "Pu: 10", going back to the essence of the instrument and opening new doors while doing so. Each of the tracks is a compact musical adventure unto its own.
Ville Herrala (b. 1979) is one of the most higly-regarded bass players working in the Finnish scene. He's known from the ranks of such top ensembles as PLOP, Jukka Perko Jazztet, U-Street All Stars, Jukka Eskola Orquesta Bossa and UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra, to name but a few.
A milestone in electronic music, is finally receiving its well-deserved re-release: Liaisons Dangereuses' legendary self-titled debut album still fascinates today, through its innovative sound and the mystery encompassing it. Since its release in 1981, it has become a classic in electronic music. The 10 electrifying songs produced by Chrislo Haas (DAF) and Beate Bartel (Mania D. / Matador) - reinforced by Krishna Goineau's French and Spanish Speech-Attack-Lyrics - created a unique style. The album - anything other than a Berlin or Düsseldorf 'thing' - was propelled to an international favourite. Songs such as 'Peut Être... Pas' and 'Los Niños Del Parque' played a decisive role in the development of Detroit and Chicago's house sound, as well as various forms of European techno
Cindytalk has remained a majestic proposition over the decades, one marked by a continued process of disintegration and regeneration. Change has been a constant for Cindytalk, as has been the presence of the Scottish musician Cinder, who has fronted the project since the early '80s. The first Cindytalk albums embraced a dark theatricality of post-punk dissonance and abject rock deconstruction that coupled industrial dirges with Cinder's beatific vocals, these same vocals that were once plied to the earliest This Mortal Coil and Cocteau Twins recordings,forever binding Cinder to the 4AD lore. But even on those albums, Camouflage Heart and In This World, Cinder was pushing the band to embrace the studio as a tool for further abstraction of sodden drones, cobwebbed dark elegance, and decayed textures.
By the early aughts, Cinder had reimagined Cindytalk through the granular processes of digitalia with a handful of equally celebrated works of glitch-born expressionism for Editions Mego. Cinder explains that "those elements were growing roots under our sound and had started to organically change the shape of what we were doing. The fucked-up rock music was in retreat and the electro-acoustic abstractions were becoming apparent. Fast forward to the early part of the 21st Century and my first laptop. It seemed natural where I needed to begin that part of my new sonic journey. To further explore those and new territories. Sunset and Forever is intrinsically connected to what came before."
Sunset and Forever is a labyrinthine opus, one that returns to the themes of the sacred and profane that have rippled through all of Cindytalk's recordings, albeit in various guises. The opening track "Embers of Last Leaves" is a haunted piece of undulated, cyclical tones that entwine into a sorrowful chorale with Cinder's own voice. Thumps of electronic drum kicks and bass drops dot the apocalyptic menace of "Tower of the Sun" but serve not as a rhythmic grid, but as painterly noises that further disrupt and disturb the machined dissonance. A cinematic radioluminescence blooms from the tempered electronics within "For Those Eyes, Shadows Of Flowers." The finale "I See Her in Everywhere" bookends the opening number with a seemingly human chorus build from electronic tones cast in cathedral reverence. Sounds throughout may appear adjacent to those of Fennesz, Holly Herndon, or even Lovesliescrushing from time to time, but Sunset and Forever remains purely Cindytalk.
Cover designed by Chris Bigg, known for his iconic design work for 4AD. Mastered by James Plotkin.
Alex Kardo was initially a choreographer and dancer for Riccardo Cioni, with whom he shared his most important successes in the 1980s (he is one of the two dancers dressed in red in Cioni’s legendary video “In America”). He is still very active today as a dancer and singer.
In 1988, he released “Music Flying”.
This 12″ 45rpm, in addition to the original and instrumental versions, includes a powerful Chicago house (Ron Hardy… / Electro Italo remix by Delphi, one of the Tiger & Woods who has a drum machine instead of a heart and who has been setting dancefloors in Rome and beyond on fire for over twenty years. Also included is a house version by Kardo’s loyal friend, DJ Alex Gomma.
Melbourne / Naarm strongholdButter Sessionsclock 15 years in the game with a trilogy of 12"s, sustaining their uncompromising streak of peak-form electronics. The family-style V/A binds friends, collaborators, former studio neighbours and DJ booth allies, capturing a label that exists as community as much as catalogue.
Disc Three entrantRBIserves up a tweaked-out psy-not-psy cut with a built-in spin-back upending the room, beforeUnsolicited Joints- siblingsCousinandBen Fester- slide in with a deep dub techno shuffler. Tokyo mainstayHarukaseals the side withEventide, a serotonin-tipped house curveball made in collaboration with Rotterdam'sCharlton Bakeliet, one of the last internationals to grace the Mercat X booth.
The B-side blooms withOK EG's zoned, psychoactive techno, handing over toHybrid Manto diffuse the tension with their morphing dubwise excursion.Yuzo Iwatacontinues his uncategorisable strain, self-described as EPM (Electronic Psychedelic Music), marked by Japanese ingenuity and free of genre boundaries. Finally,Sleep Dround out the set with a rogue link-up withPosseshot, a raw and adrenalised raver laced with a vocal that snarls closer to The Prodigy than hip-hop.
Whether taken alone or folded into the three-disc triptych, each instalment stands as a bag-ready constant, charged with Butter Sessions' curatorial finesse.
Melbourne / Naarm stronghold Butter Sessionsclock 15 years in the game with a trilogy of 12"s, sustaining their uncompromising streak of peak-form electronics. The family-style V/A binds friends, collaborators, former studio neighbours and DJ booth allies, capturing a label that exists as community as much as catalogue.
Disc Two lifts off with recurring contributor Rory McPike's first label outing as Rings Around Saturn, a blissed-out cosmic floater skimming the periphery. Booked in the early days of the label's formative Mania residency, Japanese don Gonno twists freestyle, techno and breaks into pure ecstasy, before the unerringly bold Jennifer Loveless spikes the punch with a hallucinatory mix of drums, disembodied voice and jazz club keys.
On the flip, Boorloo's Guy Contact rolls out Dance In The Grey, a shadowy prog churn pitched between new-romantic vocal sheen and EBM muscle, with Kate Miller completely rewiring the script on Sub Series E - a masterfully minimal, double-time meditation. suki presents his Sniper1 alias to close with a demonic body-jacking groove loaded for the system.
Whether taken alone or folded into the three-disc triptych, each instalment stands as a bag-ready constant, charged with Butter Sessions' curatorial finesse.




















