Suche:electro one

ft. Leia Contois

Crosstown Rebels has remained at the forefront of contemporary dance music for nearly two decades. Championing both breakthrough artists as well as those well-established, the 15th of April will see this perfectly encapsulated as label-head Damian Lazarus, global-house duo Gorgon City and rising vocalist Leia Contois team up on Start Over, Crosstown’s biggest release of the year so far.

Tribal-like drum patterns get things underway on Start Over, as we’re soon graced with the enchanting vocals of Leia Contois. Mesmeric and moving, her delicate lyrical offerings complement the electronic sounds of Damian and Gorgon City, with the introduction of a driving lead bassline in the track’s second half helping to create a hard, club-ready edge. It feels emotive and geared for the dancefloor simultaneously, showcasing an innate chemistry between each artist.

Damian Lazarus: DJ, producer, Crosstown Rebels label-head and internationally recognised talent. His contributions to electronic music speak for themselves, from championing the likes of Jamie Jones and Seth Troxler in their early days, to running and operating multiple festivals in the form of Day Zero and Get Lost. From global headline tours to achieving several UK Top Ten singles, Gorgon City have become one the UK’s most successful electronic producers in recent years. Crossing over into mainstream popularity whilst remaining true to their underground roots, the boys have sold out venues the world over, with London club highlights including Printworks, Tobacco Dock and O2 Academy Brixton to name a few. US-native Leia Contois is an actress, model and vocalist. Her contributions on Start Over marks her maiden appearance on Crosstown Rebels, setting the tone for a highlight year ahead.

Montréal singer/songwriter Laroie with an EP of low key radio hits produced by Gene Tellem with Gabriel Rei and Robert Robert.

‘Seductive sadness. Powerful vulnerability. Precise yet irresistible vocals. A few words to describe Laroie as she steps forward in full possession of her means, following up on her debut and namesake EP released in August 2020, and on the recent singles "Can't Let Go" and "One More". Here she is with Speed of Life, an extended play destined to be absorbed and listened to in one sitting. Funny how it sounds both familiar — you feel like you’ve known these songs your whole life — and brand new, all at once. In this nostalgic and emotional territory, standing at the borders of her influences, Laroie's talent shines through.

Skilfully navigating the electro-pop sonic palette, the artist crafts a comfortable, soothing canvas where dance, soul, and R&B from the late 90s and early 2000 also hop into the mix. From the bewitching slow garage "Elevate" to the cathartic and luminous "Can't Let Go", and through the trip-hop infused "One More", the very danceable "A Place on Earth", "Moonlight", reminiscent of the best of TLC, Brandy and Monica, and the title track’s addictive vocal melody, Speed of Life, just like a silky everyday soundtrack, is enjoyable on repeat.’

Belgian instrumentalists Glass Museum have found the perfect balance between piano and drums, where jazz and electronics collide, uniting the surgical precision of the best contemporary jazz, à la Gogo Penguin and Badbadnotgood, with the electronic influences of Jon Hopkins or Floating Points.

In motion since 2016, the duo consisting of keyboardist Antoine Flipo and drummer Martin Grégoire, have a rich history written around a powerful connection to duality. From the initial impact of the 'Deux' EP in 2018, to the synthetic and organic textures of the critically acclaimed 2020 album 'Reykjavik', Glass Museum has found its balance in symmetry.

Released 29th April via the groove-obsessed Sdban Ultra label, 'Reflet' was born out of a desire for freedom, a wish to innovate and travel differently. This new piece stands out as an artistic climax crafted at the crossroads of time and genres, an electronic proposition wrought by two brave hearts, tempered by the organic reflections delivered through computer free melodies. An album which places the human at the core of its compositions and in order to return to a more instinctive and instantaneous means of creation, the duo retreated to a secret location in one of the most remote parts of the Ardennes. It's there, in the shade of spruces, that the album was first born.

Extremely cinematographic, 'Reflet' delivers a panoramic view point: jazz, breakbeat, minimal techno and deep house, collide on neo classical grounds. From the dynamic instrumentation of album opener 'Caillebotis' to the absorbing oscillations of 'Shiitake' and grand gestures of the album title track, 'Reflet' is an odyssey running through troubled times, an ode to night time, to life, dreams and to all rhythms that convey emotions beyond words. Like its immersive creative process, the album offers a counterpoint and, above all, endless perspectives. Elsewhere, the pulsing, melodic 'Auburn' and entrancing electronic textures of 'Opal Sequences' continue the exploration before the strutting 'Kendama' showcases the electronic sensibilities that are buried within their productions.

Shining as a true instrumental tour de force, 'Reflet' also takes inspiration from the progress of the Ohme Collective. At the crossroads of art disciplines, science, new technologies and societal challenges, this creative community draws the future of visual arts and created the album artwork for this resolutely futuristic album.

Having initially won the opportunity to perform at the Dour Festival, Tournai back in 2016, Glass Museum have picked up a series of awards and distinctions back home in their homeland and they now find themselves dining at the top table of Europe's contemporary music scene. The international music scene opened itself to the band once again in 2019, with the duo performing at Elb Jazz in Hamburg, the legendary Ancienne Belgique in Brussels and the Iceland Airwaves Festival, Reykjavik.

In 2020, Glass Museum distinguished themselves by remixing a track for electronic artist, Rone. Having recently received a César Award for his soundtrack to the Jacques Audiard film, Les Olympiades, the French producer called on the Brussels duo's know-how - a mark of confidence which once again underlines the international reach of Glass Museum. Germany, Iceland, Turkey, Romania, Greece, France or Czech Republic have already approved Glass Museum's singular recipe.

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Los Angeles native Sha Sha Kimbo undeniably lives for the rave. As exemplified through her every intentional move as a producer, DJ, promoter, radio host and label owner, Sha Sha radiates an unwavering love for amplifying, nurturing and supporting the culture of underground electronic music and the community that surrounds it, with her forthcoming release absolutely no exception to this.

Set for release as a digital download and limited edition cassette tape on August 13, the LA rave staple is happy to announce her debut EP on Evar Records, Total Chaos. A brilliant testament to the cathartic importance of staying up late and getting lost in a buzzing crowd of kindred spirits, Total Chaos harnesses the universal experience of having pent-up energy into massive, angst-ridden breakbeat anthems. Over six tracks, Sha Sha channels the hair-raising spirit of '90s rave along with her formative experiences with DMZ-via-Low End Theory dubstep and punk rock. Finding her place within LA's bass music, house, techno and rave scenes while defying easy categorization, Sha Sha personifies the no-rules electronic music ethos behind John Frusciante and Aura T-09's Evar Records. To supplement Total Chaos' three originals, LYZZA, Machine Girl and LCY provide three raw remixes highlighting various aspects of Sha Sha Kimbo's renegade rave spirit.

Drawing from the Los Angeles punk rock and '90s rave music that soundtracked her youth, Total Chaos personifies how she grew up on the dance floor, showcasing Sha Sha's tried and true ability to express rich, nuanced emotions through tracks that, first and foremost, can level a warehouse party. Kicking off the vibe on July 30, the EP's lead single "Save The World" is a perfect representation of this, with the jump-up rave cut employing a megaton breakbeat and sickly-sweet vocal samples over simmering base of dark, UK-influenced atmospherics. From the late night energy of the title track to the euphoric, dawn-breaking feel of "Limited Perfect," Total Chaos offers the refuge of a robust dance floor with the warm reassurance to be one with the universe.

Rounding out Total Chaos EP are three remixes that amicably and serendipitously support Sha Sha Kimbo's visionary aim to both explore the unknown and bring people together along the way. Brazilian-born, Amsterdam-based powerhouse LYZZA adds a full verse and a nest of serrated rhythms to her version of "Total Chaos," while New York's Machine Girl applies their trademark punk electronics approach to "Save The World." Meanwhile, Bristol's own LCY hollows out "Limited Perfect" into a haunting amalgam of post-punk minimalism and low-frequency pressure. A study of the opposing light and dark energies of underground dance music, Total Chaos presents a breakbeat-heavy vortex, sure to awaken everyone's inner raver.

Wah Wah 45s are proud to present the return of a unique collaboration between the U.K. 's very own Afrobeat Ambassador, Dele Sosimi, and a producer who's been at the forefront of the South London electronic music scene for over a decade now, Medlar.

The pair first joined forces seven years ago, when Medlar was asked by Dele's label to remix the title track from his last album, You No Fit Touch Am. The result was possibly one of the most popular and cherished remixes to appear on the imprint. The producer's respect for the history of Afrobeat shined through in the mix of course, but it was his ability to finely balance that with his house music instincts whilst adding an infectious groove and classic 80s analogue synths that really stood out.

The track was an instant classic, and it soon became clear that the Afrobeat Ambassador and Peckham producer needed to make some music together. Having never actually met during the remix process, the dating began, and luckily the two were a perfect match.

Two years on from their first recorded output, the Full Moon EP - a record that received radio support from Gilles Peterson on BBC 6Music, as well as tastemakers and DJs across the globe, and was even featured on the latest edition of Grand Theft Auto -the duo return with the State Of Play EP. The heavy hitting four tracker features special guests Tamar Osborn of Collocutor fame, and South African rising star Zito Mowa, as well as a pair of Dele and Medlar's most popular jams from their live sets, perfectly baked for the dance floor.

Early support has come from Huey Morgan, Tom Ravenscroft and Deb Grant on BBC 6Music; Sarah Ward on Jazz FM; DJs on Resonance FM, Worldwide FM and many more besides.

The EP will be available on vinyl this summer with incredible artwork from our in-house art director Animisiewasz and eye-catching packaging.

Emerging Netherlands-based pairing Parallells will land on Damian Lazarus’ Crosstown Rebels imprint for the first time next month. Gifting us an emotive offering in Ashes of Snow (The Rebirth Of The Phoenix), it acts as a tribute to their favourite Portuguese beach club, Yamba, which was tragically destroyed by a fire last year.

The title track hits a wonderful sweet spot between electronic elements and organic instrumentals. It feels raw and authentic, blending saxophone segments, electric guitar tones and a jazzy-like backbone to form a cut that feels ripe for both sunrise or sunset. On The Banks of The River comes next, manifesting as a more toughened dance music number thanks to deep bass components whilst still retaining the boys’ natural sound. Rounding off proceedings is Clive Henry, who’s remix of Ashes of Snow flies the flag for contemporary minimal. Weighty kicks reside next to delicate hats before ethereal synths are brought in, creating a romanian-inspired piece that you can’t help but dance to.

Parallells are two Amsterdam-based brothers hailing from the south of France. Multi-instrumentalists, composers, producers and label owners (Klassified), their music cuts across electronica, electro-jazz and underground dance music. Their live, hybrid and DJ sets have graced some of the world’s most esteemed stages, including DGTL, Robot Heart, Mayan Warrior, The Gardens of Babylon, Wonderfruit and many more besides. Their music is also heavily influenced by world culture, a feat that led them to launch their video series concept A Day In. Through this, they immerse in diverse cultures around the world, capturing sounds from their day-to-day life and unfold the story through the medium of music. Clive Henry is a linchpin of house music as we know it today. Cutting his teeth as one half of the tribal house duo Peace Division, he has held a long-term residency at Circoloco, Ibiza and has racked up bookings at standout venues and festivals including Printworks and Houghton to name a few.

Cult South Asian New Wave! Naya Beat is proud to announce its second release, Tere Liye, the highly sought after and impossible to find New Wave album by the unsung pioneers of the British Asian music scene, Pinky Ann Rihal. Remastered for vinyl by multi Grammy-nominated Frank Merritt at The Carvery and available for the first time since its limited 1985 release, the album is as fresh and relevant today as it was 37 years ago.

South Asian New Wave. Four words that you will rarely see together. Pinky Ann Rihal were the brainchild of two London-based Punjabi immigrants and progressive rock musicians – Harry Rihal and Jati Sodhi – at a time in the U.K. when progressive rock musicians were almost exclusively white and Punjabi musicians were almost exclusively making Bhangra. Encouraged by their friend and disco pioneer Biddu (yes, that Biddu!), they cut ‘Tere Liye’ – a one-off Hindi-language New Wave album with producer John Hamilton and vocalists Pinky Rihal (married to Harry) and Anne Barrett (married to John). It is an album that exemplifies the cultural collaboration and musical synthesis of the time. Complementing the rich, cosmic and layered synths and drum programming of Hamilton and the distorted guitars of Rihal and Sodhi are the Hindi lyrics of vocalists Pinky and Anne. The result is an amazing one-of-a-kind South Asian New Wave album. Nothing like it has come out before or since.

Stymied on its original release by bungled distribution, poor marketing and plenty of bad luck, this incredible album seemed destined to be lost to history. With Asian electronic music in the U.K. seeing a rebirth and capturing imaginations around the world,‘Tere Liye’ can finally take its rightful place as one of the pioneering albums of the Asian underground.

This is Naya Beat’s second release in a series of reissues, reworks and remixes, and compilations dedicated to uncovering electronic and dance music from the overlooked ‘80s and ‘90s South Asian music scene. Their first release Naya Beat Volume 1: South Asian Dance and Electronic Music 1983-1992 was named by the Vinyl Factory as the Number 1 reissue of 2021.

Once again Studio Mule dives deep into the music history of Japan, unearthing the multi-colored album “A-Key” by Eiki Nonaka, released as CD only on the short living japanese label Sun & Moon Records in 1995. An album, that uniquely unifies global ethnic music styles, the playfulness of Jazz, innovative electronic soundscapes, and the winding per-sonality of spiritual music.

It’s the only solo album of a musician, that is triggering the advanced electrified japanese music culture since the early 1980ees. Eiki Nonaka was part of electronic New Age quartet interiors, releasing the two minimalistic, synth-pop leaning albums “Interior” and “design” in 1982 and 1987. likewise, he was a member of Haruomi Hosono’s band friends of earth, playing, voicing, and tuning the drum machine, guitar, synthesizers, and mi-crophone on their second landmark experimental Pop Electronic album “Sex, Energy and Star”, released Hosono’s outstanding non-standard label in 1986.

His one and only solo album “A-Key” features the essence of all his musical journeys until 1995, bringing, as he puts it on his blog: viewz.jp, “all my musical career up to that point designed in sounds that were ringing in my head at that time. It's extremely introspective, but the various mental landscapes of that time are still vibrating fresh and acoustically new.”

When Isa Gordon sent the demo of this album to me I knew I wanted to release it before I had got half way through it. I had previously released her super good Resili collaborative project but I wasn’t quite prepared for how good this was going to be. Isa is patently a once in a blue moon talent and I feel honoured to help get her unique, visionary sounds out into the world. This is next level programming & sound design but always with soul, and musicality. Sui generis.

Isa says

“For you only came about in the lockdown winter in 2020. I started seeing a lot of beats and motifs that I’d been working on working together as a collection and spent a few months compiling, completing, mixing and weaving together the tracks into a coherent album.

It was many nights tucked away entering the wormholes of making music and trying to honour the emotion contained in each song by expanding the sentiments within them into complete pieces, chasing down the journey in each one.

It was a very personal, solitary exploration of how I interpret and compose instrumentals, with the rare global situation inhibiting outsider contact and influence. I include a mix of tempos, styles and freely combine digital and live instruments in order to serve whatever intention or feeling needs to be heard”.

Isa is an Ayrshire bred, Glasgow based producer and singer. Impressed upon by myriad styles; Singing folk music since a youngster, Playing guitar since a teen, Producing electronic music thereafter. Now freely cherry-picking whatever sounds, instruments, words and methods serve the feeling. Exploring solitary beat making as Isa Gordon and Singing and writing heartfelt lyrical ditties with her band Fantasy Land.

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

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

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

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Statique is the fifth full length album on Mille Plateaux and Force Inc. labels by Automatisme (the Canadian musician and conceptual artist William Jourdain active since 2011). Jourdain met the label owner Achim Szepanski in 2019 and did an album in solo (Alter-, Mille Plateaux, 2020) plus four others in collaborations (with iadema, Beyond Humans, Stefan Paulus and Viatorism in duo with Pheek). Automatisme now returns as a solo act on that label. The results are, on one side, an expanded vision of fast rhythmic clicks and cuts, like we heard on his Alter-Rate tracks and that are entitled Ultra-Rate on the Statique album. On the other side, it is the multiple Ultra-Scape tracks that are an augmented version of the granulized ambient dub techno he developed since the beginning of the Viatorism moniker. Jourdain adds elements of chaos and perturbation into algorithmic electronic music like static electricity is the presence of a disturbing body in a circuit.

Following on from acclaimed recent releases on Hallow Ground and Boomkat’s Documenting Sound series, NOISEEM is a major new work from Japanese sound artist/instrument inventor Yosuke Fujita, who performs under the name FUJIIIIIIIIIIIITA. Where Fujita’s recent recorded output has focussed primarily on documentation of his remarkable self-built pipe organ, NOISEEM is the culmination of half a decade of work with highly amplified water. The evocative and timbrally rich sound of water has inspired concrete and experimental music practices since ground-breaking works such as Hugh Le Cain’s ‘Dripsody’ and Knud Viktor’s obsessively aquatic ‘Images’. However, other than his compatriot Tomoko Sauvage, few have explored the possibilities of water in live performance to the extent that Fujita has, constructing a series of water tanks that, with their pumps and amplification controlled by the performer, become a new musical instrument. The recordings contained here are drawn from live performances in Tokyo and London, edited and mixed by Fujita into two side-length pieces dominated by water, pipe organ, voice and subtle electronics. On ‘AWA’, which occupies the LP’s first side, the listener is immediately immersed in an aqueous world of recognisable drips and splashes, as well as more mysterious squeaks and squawks. While the liberal use of delay at times conjures up the sound world of early electronic music, the sparklingly clear amplification is unmistakably contemporary, lending the music a stunning weight and tactility. Building over several minutes, the piece eventually comes to a rapid boil, criss-crossed by washes of white noise splashes of electronics, before the untempered long tones of the pipe organ enter. The slowly shifting harmonies lend the remainder of the side a meditative, almost oneiric quality, inviting listeners to lose themselves in the aquatic layers that ripple across the harmonic foundation. On the second side, ‘UZU’ begins more starkly, with a single rapid bubble, quickly joined by full-spectrum wooshes and silvery, ringing tones. After a few minutes, the music undergoes a radical, entirely unexpected shift with the entry of a distorted, auto-tuned voice that repeatedly cycles through ascending and descending melodies. Left alone at times to be heard acapella, this mysterious element at times takes an odd resemblance to dhrupad singing. Eventually joined by rich, sonorous chords from the organ, the high tones of Fujita’s voice, and water, the piece takes on an ecstatic quality, channelling the sublime expansiveness of the natural element on which it is built. Disappearing as abruptly as they entered, the voices then make way for a haunted coda of isolated drips and distant whistles. Far from the intellectualised abstraction of much sound art, NOISEEM is strikingly immediate, both rigorously experimental in its explorations and unashamedly direct in its musicality. Tracklist 1. Awa 2. Uzu

Now onto its fourth volume, NuNorthern Soul’s annual Summer Selections EP is fast becoming a must-check for fans of slow-motion sunshine sounds, contemporary Balearic beats and sumptuous downtempo grooves.

Summer Selections Four showcases six hand-picked tracks from EPs and albums to be released by NuNorthern Soul in 2022. A genuine ‘cream of the crop’ or ‘best in class’ feel, with NNS label boss and curator Phil Cooper putting together a varied EP piled high with evocative melodies, atmospheric chords, tactile grooves and ear-catching instrumentation.

First to step up to the plate is experienced producer James Bright, whose cut ‘Amber’ offers a bubbly, colourful and analogue-rich stroll through mid-tempo Balearic house territory. The track is one of the highlights of Bright’s forthcoming Totem EP. It’s quickly followed by ‘Nana a Leon’ from Be.Ianuit’s Entre Dos Islas EP, a gorgeous mixture of deep bass, twinkling pianos, sultry synth-strings, sparkling synthesiser arpeggios, echoing machine drums and spoken word vocals from guest performer Marcos de la Fuente.

San Francisco’s Cole Odin offers a snapshot of his forthcoming Songs For Suns EP via ‘Growing’, a slow-motion sunset soundscape built around ethereal chords, chiming melodies and head-nodding drums, while Gold Suite’s ‘The Cowboy’ – taken from the On My Horizon EP – brilliantly joins the dots between jangling Americana, mid-‘80s Balearic reggae and sun-soaked instrumental synth-pop. While brand-new, it could easily be mistaken for the kind of obscure, hard-to-find gem that gets Balearic record collectors so hot under the collar.

Next up is another new signing to NuNorthern Soul, North of the Island, whose debut EP Feeling Free is undoubtedly a highlight of the label’s 2022 release schedule. ‘I Feel’, the track showcased here, adds attractive, sunset-ready musical flourishes to a chugging, delay-laden rhythm track and the kind if squelchy bass-line most often found in proto-house and early ‘80s electro-funk cuts. It’s a spaced-out, mind-altering delight.

Rounding off another sizzling Summer Selections excursion is ‘Smoke & Fly’ from fast-rising twosome Residentes Balearicos, an Ibiza-based Italian duo who impressed many with their 2021 EPs on Balearic Ensemble. Dusty, bass-heavy, drowsy and picturesque, the track is a simply gorgeous chunk of Balearic dub piled high with organic percussion, undulating acid lines and mazy solos. It provides a fittingly triumphant conclusion to another essential sampler EP from NuNorthern Soul.

 Matmos are one of the most prominent experimental electronic artists working today, crafting work by creating new conceptual frameworks and immediately testing those frameworks’ absolute limits. For ‘Regards/Ukłony dla Bogusław Schaeffer’ they’ve focused on another artist known, in large part, for doing the same.

 Bogusław Schaeffer was one of the first Polish artists creating electronic music. In step with American contemporaries like John Cage and Morton Feldman, he worked across the boundaries of classical composition, electronic experimentation and radical theatre, in playfully form-breaking ways.

 Matmos are not the first ones to recognize the power of his catalogue, from ‘Solo’ (a 2008 documentary that garnered numerous international awards), to the annual Shaeffer’s Era Festival (most recently celebrated simultaneously in Warsaw and Los Angeles), Bogusław Schaeffer’s work continues to inspire.

 ‘Regards/Ukłony dla Bogusław Schaeffer’, however, was not just inspired by his work. Matmos were given access to the entirety of Schaeffer’s recorded works to use as they saw fit, commissioned by the prestigious Instytutu Adama Mickiewicza. They re-assembled and re-combined these recorded works with modern instrumentations in a way that only Matmos could, and what emerged is a composite portrait of the utopian 1960s Polish avant-garde and the contemporary dystopian cultural moment regarding each other across a distance.

 Vinyl packaged with digital download card.

Diving once more into the forgotten corners of the electronic Spanish music scene from the 80’s and early 90’s, Soundway reissue Scan Man’s full single Arabian. Bringing together a Furious Five retro styled bounce & rhyme and a bite of UK street soul, the track is taken from Soundway’s hugely popular compilation Ritmo Fantasía. Expect soulful American expat rap layered over sitarlike sounds, and a tumbling, rattling, 808 pattern. Along with the original track and instrumental, DJs Trujillo and Ray Mang serve a souped up instrumental primed for modern dancefloors.

Recorded at the CEV Studios in Madrid, Arabian was the first composition and production of Marcos Manzanares to get an official release. Using an Ensoniq Mirage Sampler (one of the early, affordable synth samplers), and with Stephen Sutton providing the vocals for the track, he first made his entry into the Spanish music scene. A short while later he would go onto make a career for him self under the name of Tension808.

Andrew Heath describes his music as 'lower case', but although this cross-nation collaboration with Anne Chris Bakker and M Cosa de Resistance is understated, serene and slow moving, it's also capable of painting ambitiously widescreen images at the same time. The seven tracks here revolve around the UK producer's trademarks - solitary sounding piano and atmospherics both courtesy of field recordings and electronics - but with extra embellishments, most notably the eerie sound of the zither and six string experiments from Dutch guitarist Bakker. It's a horizontal listen, certainly, but one that's full of life and creativity all the same.

Will Sessions steps into the next phase of their sonic vision and invites you into their Electromagnetic Reality. The new 11-track LP of original compositions explores a new direction that pulls influences from an array of styles, highlighted throughout the 15 year discography from the Detroit-based ensemble.

Jazz, hip-hop, and soul swirl through the lens of producer and co-founder Sam Beaubien, capturing the spirit of live performance while utilizing the unique subtleties and styles of beat making. Other founding members Bryan Arnold (drums), Ryan Gimpert (guitar), and Tim Shellabarger (bass) welcome special guest musicians Ian Finkelstein (keys), Marcus Elliot (Saxophone), and Quentin Joseph (drums) to create a sound-scape that pushes and blurs the boundaries and musical concepts that Will Sessions has become known for.

Will Sessions has put together this fabric of sounds using threads and influences from all over the musical spectrum, setting their creative compass to their new Electromagnetic Reality.

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On her second album (first one on Umor Rex), the Minsk born / Paris based artist Lina Filipovich continues her experiments on deconstruction and re-appropriation of classical pieces. BFHC includes seven electronic interpretations of the works of Baroque composers such as Bach, Handel, Frescobaldi, Carleton and Couperin. Inspired by memories of her experience of interpreting Bach's pieces in early childhood, Filipovich explores the desire to push the limits of performing classical music in the traditional way. Her baroque compositions are manipulated, modified, transformed into loops, cut, slowed down and recycled like any content could be, becoming a raw material for new compositions accompanied by electronic sequences, rhythms and basslines. Through the recycling, sampling and reassembly, Lina creates new listening experiences. And if BFHC can be interpreted as a tribute to baroque music, it can also be understood as a call to action to the work of contemporary artists like Oval, and to all the boom of clicks and cuts at the beginning of this millennium.

Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri
Artwork by Daniel Castrejón

The story of Same Mind begins with the first release by Yaroslav Kinsky, who brings us an atmospheric audio journey formed by 3 original tracks and a remix by Pablo Bolivar.

In recent years, Yaroslav has been exploring synthesizers and other electronic music hardware, focusing more on recording than releasing. Now it's time to bring ideas to life.

The A-side starts with the title track 'ALT' which stands for 'After Long Time'. The mysterious synth sounds over a groovy bassline make the listener sail above the clouds and get a bird's eye view of the beauty of nature. 'Enduro' continues the storyline with a dreamy atmosphere, warm synths and enigmatic vocals.

The B-side starts with trippy 'Moons' and definitely sounds and feels more dancefloor-oriented and while listening you could easily find yourself dancing in the middle of your room. The release ends with a dubby remix of 'Moons' by one half of Pulshar duo, Seven Villas founder and AvantRoots co-founder Pablo Bolivar, which goes in a more hypnotic but equally mysterious direction.

Do you also believe that quality is above trends? Then we are of the Same Mind.