Search:en to end

We’re stoked to welcome back Medlar to Delusions for his third EP on the label and you’re in for a proper treat! One of the unsung heroes of UK underground house music, Medlar has released on Wolf Music, Wah Wah 45’s and West Friends. His remixes and edits for the likes of West End, Kon, Dele Sosimi, Glenn Astro, Disclosure and Billy Cobham always hit the spot with an authentic, raw and crunchy sound that work magic on the dance floor.

Here on his Interruptor EP we have 4 tracks which show off his range as a producer, taking in percussive tools, deep and dusty basement jams and blissful late night atmospherics. Lead track Interruptor is deceptively simple but devastating on a big system. Chopped up percussion, speaker wobbling bass and a heavy kick lay the foundation for crazy timbales and filtering syn-toms, all topped off with a familiar sample from back in the rave days.

Next up we have I Wish which features Kim Anh who delivers a brilliant vocal complimenting the low-slung disco drums, 808 percussion and fat bassline perfectly. This is our idea of what a modern day house hit should sound like. Raw and unpolished with a loose, un-quantized groove so you can feel the funk and a dynamic arrangement which keeps the energy high throughout.

Flipping over we have Cable Street which cranks things up with a techy house jam perfect for more peaks time sets. Once again, Medlar knows ex- actly how to make more with less and keeps the shuffling drums stripped back and simple stabs and modulating FX front and centre for maximum im- pact.

Finally, Turn Things Around brings a more 90’s deep NYC feel to the EP with floating pads, bouncing bassline, piano stabs and organ riff. Subtley epic and grandiose without being showy, this is a slow-burner that could just be one of those B2 tracks which become your favourite of the release.

The French-Hong Kong DJ and producer Romain FX, founder of Fauve Radio and Fauve Records, debuts on Cracki Records !

After having made his mark on renowned labels such as Exploited, Eskimo Recordings, Novaj 新し, LAGASTA, Fantastic Voyage, Mamie's Records or Hard Fist Records, the ultra-productive artist is about to release Le Sucre d'Adam a new EP of 4 tracks and 2 remixes with the Parisian label Cracki Records.

Mixing Italian dream house, jazz, and Italo Disco, Romain FX wanted to create with this EP a timeless record and convey a message of hope for a better world.

The first track "Zeste d'Orange" is full of joyful emotions, with a feeling of unity and sharing, strongly influenced by 80-90's pop songs like "Rise Up" by The Parachute Club, and "Send Me On My Way" by Rusted Roots.

With its melancholic keyboards, "Le Sucre d'Adam" is a pure concentrate of Italo Dream House, and it's not a coincidence that Romain FX entrusted the remix of the track to the German Lauer, specialist of the genre.

"Italominati" with its powerful bass, draws him in the field of the fairy, influenced by artists like Todd Terje or Skatebård. It is the Korean producer Shubostar, new figure of the dark disco scene, who took care of the remix for a very effective cosmic version !

Last track of the EP, "Crave Cave Rave" with its Rave UK and progressive house accents was imagined as a long DJ Set closing. Intense and heavy at the beginning, the track ends with a feeling of extreme release, closing the EP in the most beautiful way.

For a prolific artist as Gerardo Frisina, almost two years without a new release from him seems like an eternity: this brand new 12" EP entitled 'Soul Drum' breaks the silence, giving us three new works composed by Gerardo, made up of four recordings if we consider the two versions of the title track.

This EP anticipates the full album already in the works, scheduled for release at the end of 2022.

Without losing his Latin trademark, Gerardo continues his research into hypnotic and pulsating rhythmic patterns in both acoustic and electronic form, which are now a fundamental stylistic element of his. As on his previous album 'Moving Ahead', the rhythmic style blends naturally with echoes of tribal voices, piano keys and wind instruments (trumpet, saxophone, flute), creating the 'Joyful Sound' (title of the forthcoming album) that reverberates on the surface. With an artist as meticulous as Gerardo Frisina, it is to be expected that even the simplest beat has been deeply thought out and chosen from a potentially infinite sound palette, and this can be heard perfectly in the depth of sound of the four tracks of this release.

"Soul Drum" is dedicated to the loving memory of bassist Enzo Frassi, who contributed to this EP - along with 'usual guests' Fabrizio Bernasconi, Gendrickson Mena, Alfonso Deidda and Ernesto Lopez.

He might be vocalist in bands such as Brighton-based progressive act Diagonal and psychedelic outfit Baron, but when it comes to his solo work Alex Crispin has typically worked in more wordless fields. Last year the songwriter, vocalist and producer released a triptych of ambient albums, consisting of two older albums in 'Idle Worship' and 'Open Submission', as well as new meditative work in 'Resubmergency'. On his new self-titled album, however, Crispin re-emerges from the cavernous soundscapes to – for the first time – put his vocal and song writing stamp on a record under his own name. “I personally find it easier to create more guarded, moody music, but I was at a point where I wanted to embrace a more universal, intimate and open side to what I might say” Crispin says. “Over time I’d got over certain blocks or preoccupations and so wanted to create something accessible and open hearted, which became a big driver for this record.” Pointedly self-titled to reflect the newfound confidence in his song writing away from the collective of a band, the album’s nine tracks are a warm embrace amidst troubled times. Musically there’s nods to everything from tropicalia and Brazilian MPB, to 80’s dusk pop balladeers The Blue Nile and Paul Simon’s explorations into African music. Lyrically aware of the snowballing turbulence that surrounds us, Crispin in reaction tries to see hope and looks around at the relationships and connections in his life that provide him strength. He opens 'Invisible (To Us)' with the words “Before the world did end, there was just one moment when, everybody thought there might be time, to look around again, to laugh to cry to sing.” Elsewhere, 'Listen & Learn' strikes at the heart of other underlying themes of the record, of the rarity of people opening up, taking on new ideas and allowing change. It’s accompanied with a rich, maximal sound palette of flute and sax that play around each other as Crispin’s vocal chips in with gentle encouragement. “One of the main markers on the album that I was aware of from the start, was to let myself express joy and positivity in the music” he says. “I have come to greatly prize the power of accessibility and universality over artistic 'coolness or trend', much in the same way that so often for me, the greatest pieces of art humans make nowadays are things like Pixar movies, with their combination of undeniable human talent and craft, alongside genuinely moving and accessible themes.” Indeed, there is a cinematic feel to much of Crispin’s own music, something brought over from his ambient creations – although his self-titled album possesses a panorama all of its own. Something like 'When I Reach The Ocean' has a hazy, pastoral feel to it like something out of the Canterbury Folk scene; there’s space between the notes though, which in turn pushes the track out to a greater expanse than the comparatively soft-edged and modest sound palette used to create it. Similarly, the likes of 'Effert' revel in the space afforded to them - in the case of the aforementioned in particular, Crispin lets his voice take a back seat and creates an open wash of sound that he allows the guitar to probe and explore within. “In making any music I am definitely conscious of trying to put in only what is effective” Crispin says. “It is so easy to clutter tracks without realising it, just having the ability to add stuff can just become addictive as it’s so easy to do with recording setups now.” The album started coming together at the end of 2020, with Crispin getting most of the songs to a concrete state, before starting recording in May 2021 with Diagonal bandmates Luke Foster (drums) and Daniel Pomlett (Bass), who put down rhythm tracks. Jazz saxophonist Rob Milne then added parts which would become the glue that held the whole organic aesthetic of the album together. There’s no doubt that lockdown played a part in proceedings, with a kind of forced focus resulting in a need for joyful expression. However, Crispin and his partner also suffered a bereavement which led to her travelling for large periods of time. “It was a very intense and difficult time and I think some of the intensity of emotion of that situation coupled with being alone must have inevitably contributed to the work itself” he says. It's perhaps why when even in moments of sheer happiness, such as the 'Sabu’s' breezily euphoric opener, Crispin ponders: “No-one really cares beyond this moment, and even when it's here, it's never here”. It’s the first of several bittersweet moments on the record that give the album its weight. On this new LP, Crispin recognises that sadness doesn’t mean throwing out hope, and that even in moments of joy there’s still a path ahead of you to take.

The inspired pairing of Oxnard, CA producer/emcee/DJ Body Bag Ben and DC-based emcee/producer J Scienide resulted in this stellar, dark joint, ‘Enough To Plague a Saint.’ “To me, the soundscape of the album has a nostalgic feel to it… like it was crafted in the ‘90s in a basement somewhere,” says Ben. “This was the sound I was going for, lots of low ends and filtered drums. I knew J was the perfect candidate for this.” Longtime friends going back to Scienide’s work on Body Bag Ben’s first album (‘The Season’), here we see J on mic duties with Ben on production, joined by guests Rome Streetz, Napoleon Da Legend, Rasheed Chappell, and Wordsworth.

Limited to 500 copies worldwide.


Heavy as f-ck and deep as hell, this devastating split album gleefully corrupts and corrodes Dub’s sunshine reflections. Celebrating rhythm & noise in its dank echo chamber, these demolition dub tracks are built from obsessive studies in distortion, overdrive and seriously ruff textures, amongst an absolutely insane amount of sub-bass level.

‘Disintegration Dubs’ is a three way low end collision, between G36 (The Bug aka Kevin Martin/Gorgonn’s rig torturing beat project) and JK Flesh (Justin Broadrick of Godflesh/Jesu etc…). As the album title suggests, this instrumental pile up of floor crawling, sound system crushers, is a clearer sign than ever, that these three producers crave their dub cuts to be mutant and heavyweight, totally damaged and completely atomised. Dub as sonic obliteration

Anyone previously smitten by Techno Animal’s deeply psychedelic face off with Porter Ricks, on the long out of print ’Symbiotics’, or who worshipped Zonal’s recent rhythmic wreckage via Relapse records, will surely gorge greedily on Disintegration Dubs’. Likewise, newbies, who have snapped up this year’s ‘Fire’ by The Bug or ‘New flesh in dub’ by Godflesh, will find endless pleasure within these dread-tech, annihilated dubs and Industrial strength steppas rhythms. Echoes of Basic Channel, early Iration Steppas, Public Image Limited or even Andy Stott can be heard within this collection’s haunted atmospherics and bulldozing rumble. Yet, these three individual producers have obviously found their own recognisably original sound, within these monolithic grooves, and what makes this album so utterly refreshing, is just how well the three disparate sound manipulators complement each other fully, as they collectively set their sights on some shared, relentlessly futuristic sci-fi vision, for a new form of dub.

Obviously, Martin as The Bug, and Broadrick with his colossal dubs of Godflesh and his filthy back catalogue of JK Flesh releases, have both long since subscribed to the genre, aesthetic and fragmentation of Dub. Meanwhile relative newcomer, Gorgonn, is The Bug’s long time, live soundman, and former bandmate with DJ Scotch Egg in Devil Man, as well as having formed Dokkebi Q with Kiki Hitomi (ex-King Midas Sound), so he is no stranger to the art of deviant dubs either…

G36 dropped their appropriately titled debut EP ’Floor Weapons’, in 2018, on PRESSURE, as well as providing the backing riddim for the first ever release from Jamaican MC phenomena Nazamba, with his startling debut, ’Vexed’. Alternately, Justin has previously released seven albums solo, as JK Flesh, that systematically contorted, distorted and completely bastardised techno for labels such as Hospital Productions, Downwards and Speedy J’s Electric Deluxe… (Next year will also see a full JK Flesh album on PRESSURE too…!)

This album is Mastered by Stefan Betke aka POLE, at Scape Mastering.

Hailing from Adelaide, Australia's CHARNEL ALTAR formed in late 2018. Not long after, the band's self-titled debut demo followed in January 2019. Originally self-released digitally, a cassette version was soon released by Desert Wastelands Productions and a 12" vinyl version by Seed of Doom Records and Impure Sounds; a tape re-release then came in mid-2020 via Blood Moon Productions. With this underground momentum building, CHARNEL ALTAR released a split EP with fellow Aussies CARCINOID, which was released on tape by Headsplit Records and on 10" vinyl once again by Seed of Doom. During all this, CHARNEL ALTAR became a prolific force on the live front. Their first show was supporting Uada, and they went on to play with the likes of Incantation, Krisiun, Integrity, Primitive Man, Faceless Burial, Gutless, Ignivomous, and Vile Apparition. A tour with CARCINOID was planned for 2020, but was unfortunately cancelled due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Nevertheless, CHARNEL ALTAR make their full-length debut with the slimy 'n' stultifying Abatement of the Sun. Horrific and harrowing, churning and gestating with utter dread and doom, CHARNEL ALTAR's death metal is like a slo-mo melting of mind and matter. One could arguably qualify it as death-doom, but the band's version of such evades easy categorization and aims more for hovering tension and paradoxically spacious density - indeed, like old(er)-school death metal dragged through tar but trudging forward like a tank. That all three members previously played together in the cult Tombsealer - who toured nationally in support of Mournful Congregation and played with such acts as Dead Congregation, Portal, Fetid, Windhand, Cough, Inverloch, and Nocturnal Graves to name a few - shows in their seemingly effortless execution, that these dreadful 'n' doomed-out ruminations have been simmering in their hearts for time eternal. Or, put another way, Abatement of the Sun is all-too-perfectly titled: the end is not just nigh; it's NULL.

Third pressing on transparent pink vinyl. At the 2018 edition of Roadburn Festival - a congregation of all things obscure, heavy and experimental in Tilburg, the Netherlands - two generations of Japanese Krautrock genius took to the stage for a live collaboration that was just as hypnotic as it was inevitable. The artists in question were Tokyo's Minami Deutsch and the legendary ex-Can frontman Damo Suzuki. With Minami Deutsch's heady metronomic jams providing the backdrop on which Suzuki was left free to deliver his distinct improvised vocals, the Live At Roadburn LP is challenging, raw and, at times, totally alien. Divided into three parts, from start to finish the LP is consumed by an unrelenting motorik rhythm section that never lets loose for a second. At the flick of a switch, intricate guitars veer from hypnotic and meditative to skewed psychedelic freak-outs drenched in fuzz. Where Minami Deutsch's playing is sharp and meticulous, Suzuki's stream-of-consciousness ramblings steer the music into whatever direction he sees fit. The result is equal parts disorientating, sporadic and totally all-consuming - the only thing keeping you grounded being that distorted and seemingly-endless 4/4 drive. Repetition. Minimalism. Improvisation. Transcendence. That was the ideology of seminal Krautrock pioneers Can, whose 1970-1973 work with Damo Suzuki at the helm unleashed something in music that would change it forever. Some 45 years since Can's final record with Suzuki - the inimitable Future Days - and the spirit of that era still lives on. Not least because ever since then Suzuki has embarked on an endless one-man tour, traveling around the world and taking to the stage backed by countless different bands. Crossing paths at Roadburn, Suzuki's ensuing performance with Tokyo via Berlin-based group Minami Deutsch is now available to relive on wax.

Imperfect Stranger is the pseudonym of Glasgow based soundtrack composer and producer Kenny Inglis. “Everything Wrong is Right” is his debut solo album for Castles in Space.
Born in 1975, Kenny didn't listen to much music, unless it was the opening credits to a TV show or a film score that had caught his ear. "I loved the pre-title music on a lot of those 80's U.S. TV shows. From the family orientated stuff like The A-Team, to darker dramas such as The Equalizer. My mother would let me stay up to watch the opening sequence of the latter then send me to bed because the story would be too heavy for a kid. That left me with this hanging sense of ambiguity as to what would happen in that hour after the titles came up.”
Exposure to a work colleague’s tiny project studio in a kitchen cupboard was a lightbulb moment for him and the experience of utilising music technology as a way of writing and producing entire tracks stirred a wave of determination to chase a career in music using the opportunities that technology could offer. Kenny figured the best way to move forward was to start a small project studio and learn his craft as a recording engineer. "It was a bit of a shock to the system. I literally had no idea how to work any of the equipment. Kenny focused on learning as much about the craft as he could whilst winging his way through recording and mixing everyone from the likes of singer/songwriters to bands, to voiceovers artists and anything in between. "Eventually, I stopped writing the music I thought people would want to hear, and started writing the music I wanted to make. I didn't come from a music loving background, but I was always obsessed by the way music and film would interact - how music brings this atmosphere and tone to even the most mundane visual stuff. I wanted to capture that. I wanted to grab some of that ambiguity I felt from the TV shows of my childhood and make it into a project of some sort". That project was Spylab. A dark, downtempo project with a cinematic edge. The initial demo consisted of three tracks, with the melancholic 'This Utopia' leading the playlist.
"At the time you did demos on normal cassette tapes. I remember having this endless battle with the bias control to try and get the best sound I could on these little tapes. Ten went in the post one Monday morning, and the following Monday there were three offers from three different labels. Studio K7 were interested in a singles deal, as was Flying Rhino in London. But then there was an offer from a Chicago based label by the name of Guidance Recordings. They wanted an album, and were offering a $15,000 advance. It wasn't a difficult decision to make"
Writing and recording Spylab 'This Utopia' began in 1999. The album took a whole year to produce. The album was to catch the attention of Mary Anne Hobbs at Radio One. At the time Mary Anne was presenting The Breezeblock - a late Sunday night show with an eclectic playlist of alternative electronic music. Picking out the album's title track 'This Utopia', Mary Anne would go on to play it no less than 8 weeks in a row. A request for Spylab to DJ on the show was to follow. "I had never DJ'd before. I think I had a week to figure out how to do that and put a playlist together. I'm not entirely sure how I pulled that off.” In March 2001 the Spylab album was finally released to a hoard of excellent reviews. A North American live tour would follow. From the launch party in Los Angeles, to a sell out show at SXSW in Austin. "I then started a new project under the name Cinephile. It had some of the core elements of the Spylab sound but it was deeper, more cinematic.” Kenny received news that a track from the previous project Spylab had been requested by HBO for the first episode of a new TV drama called Six Feet Under. This was to become a major turning point in Kenny's career. The Spylab track 'Celluloid Hypnotic' dropped during a poignant party scene of the first Six Feet Under episode. Within a couple of days Kenny was getting requests for music from other music supervisors. "It was a chain reaction. The Six Feet Under sync was like the tip of an iceberg. One day I called CBS in America and they put me on to the CSI music supervisor and I managed to get on a call with him. I sent the Cinephile stuff out and within a few months I got this fax through from CBS - a quote request for one of the tracks for a potential use on CSI. It changed my life."
The tone and style of Kenny's music sat perfectly with the CSI score requirements. So much so he found himself part of a pool of incidental writers who worked on all three aspects of the franchise - CSI, CSI: NY, and CSI: Miami. This would continue until 2013, when the last of the series would come to an end.
"I was juggling a bunch of stuff for those ten years. Writing material for CSI, whilst releasing new Cinephile stuff and playing live. As Cinephile continued to gather pace, one of the tracks from Kenny's efforts on CSI was chosen for the Hollywood trailer for the Samuel L. Jackson film 'Lakeview Terrace'. Further trailers would follow, from Gangster Squad to Dead Man Down, Spike Lee's Undisputed Truth, to Fifty Shades Freed.
At the same time, Kenny picked up his first factual commissions in the UK, and this too would be the beginning of a regular run of fully scoring factuals and documentaries. By 2021, six of these had won BAFTAs. He also would find himself soundtracking adverts for the likes of Nike, Audi, and American AirlinesIn early 2020, Kenny made a return to focusing on his own music under the pseudonym Imperfect Stranger. A tweet from Colin Morrison from Castles In Space regarding a charity compilation album 'The Isolation Tapes' caught his eye. Kenny had made a start on his debut album as Imperfect Stranger and submitted the track 'Hymn To The Sun' (which would become the lead track on the album). Further discussions ensued, and the album found a home on CiS. "I had been doing TV and film stuff for almost ten years. It paid the bills and was as close to a 'real job' as I'd had, but I yearned to get back to writing for myself, so doing an album for Castles in Space was a joy.
“The music I write is like a diary. There's an authentic narrative to everything i do. I don't write tracks for the sake of writing. I write tracks to diarise and process the stuff that I've lived through, and the experiences that have come along with the passing years. That's what makes me tick. It's a very public and vulnerable way of expressing myself. If people want to know the real me, all they have to do is listen."

Naomi Alligator is fed up. She’s sick of trying to make relationships work that have already run their course, and tired of sitting in a wintry apartment waiting for her life to kick into gear. On »Double Knot«, the modern folk singer/songwriter from Virginia attempts to unwind her life from all that is holding her back. In a way, it’s a coming-of-age record about shedding what no longer serves you and, ultimately, finding something like deliverance.

On the opening track, “Seasick,” Naomi Alligator is already in the midst of a sort of awakening. Right off the bat, she sings, “I don’t know what’s happened to me / It’s like I turned 16 / It’s like I grew to be 6-feet tall.” This is the announcement of a wide-eyed artist coming out of hibernation and into their own. Still, Naomi’s vocals ache with guilt and longing, belying the track’s playful catchiness. Longing for what? Maybe attention from a crush, but mostly a sunnier place to call home.

Naomi Alligator began writing Double Knot while living in Philadelphia during the height of the pandemic and the deterioration of a longterm romance. “I scream: How’d the hell I end up here? / I’m 1-inch tall, it’s crystal clear,” she chants on “Neighborhood Freak,” returning to height and size as an emotional barometer. When asked though, Naomi rejects the notion that Double Knot is a breakup album, or autobiographical at all. Moreso, she says, it’s a personal reckoning in which, “the minute before you make a big decision, you tally up the reasons why you don’t want to do what you’re doing anymore.”

That desire to turn the page expands to the production of the album as well. Naomi Alligator generally houses her narratives in beds of minimal, home-tracked instrumentation—influenced by the stripped-down poeticism of Joan Baez and Liz Phair’s Girly-Sound tapes. Double Knot finds Naomi continuing to hone the winning combination of guitar and banjo she established on 2021’s Concession Stand Girl EP. For Double Knot though, Naomi wanted a fuller, more dynamic sound: more instruments, more harmonies, more layering, more, more, more. Inspired by the impressionistic melodies of Animal Collective and MGMT, Naomi peppers in computer-generated synths throughout the album, most notably on the song “Burn Out.” These electronic flourishes augment the more grounding string instruments, arriving somewhere more ethereal than Naomi’s earlier work while still maintaining her warm songwriting.

If anything, Double Knot is a reminder that you can always pack up your bags, try something new, and change your life. As for Naomi Alligator herself? She moved west, to California.

WRWTFWW Records and MEG Museum (Geneva) are honored to present the first new solo album by renowned Japanese percussionist Midori Takada (Through The Looking Glass) in 23 years, Cutting Branches From A Temporary Shelter, available on vinyl LP, housed in a 350gsm sleeve, with OBI, and liner notes, as well as on digipack CD.

Recorded in a live setting and played with instruments conserved in the collections of the MEG Museum, Cutting Branches For A Temporary Shelter is Midori Takada’s very own rendition of "Nhemamusasa", a traditional work emblematic of the musical repertoire for mbira of the Shona of Zimbabwe, well known worldwide, thanks notably to its version by Paul F. Berliner included on the famed 1973 album The Soul of Mbira.

The choice of this title by Midori Takada evokes the links between traditional African and contemporary music which are the foundation of this work, and it also translates the resolutely multicultural vision of the artist.

Midori Takada explains: "African music is remarkable for its polyrhythms. Not only are there simultaneously several rhythmic motifs, sometimes as many as ten, but furthermore it may be that the part played by each musician has its own starting point and its own pace, all combining to form a cycle. All the cycles progress at the same time according to a single metrical structure which functions as a reference point, but which is not played by any one person from beginning to end. The structure emerges out of the multi-level parts, all different. With the Shona, the musical system is based on the polymelody: one performs simultaneously several melodic lines which are superimposed, each having its own rhythmic organization. It is truly captivating. In Western classical music, one four-beat rhythm induces some precise temporal framework and regular reference points, which come on the strong beats 1 and 3. But in the logic of the Shona musical system, and in other African music, the melody can begin in the very middle of the cycle and be continued up to some other place in an autonomous manner, as if it had its own personality. It’s very rich."

The album comes with in-depth liner notes that include an interview by Midori Takada, a point of view by Zimbabwean scholar, musician and activist Forward Mazuruse, and background information on the project by Isabel Garcia Gomez and Madeleine Leclair from MEG Museum.

The sleeve features an artwork by celebrated Zimbabwean painter Portia Zvavahera.

Part of the budget for the album was donated to Forward Mazuruse’s Music For Development Foundation whose aim is to identify, nurture, and record young but underprivileged musicians in Zimbabwe.

The album is released in conjunction with Midori Takada and Shomyo of Koya-san's You Who Are Leaving To Nirvana, also available on LP and CD on WRWTFWW Records.

Obscura label head Fedele makes his long awaited return to the imprint for new EP ‘The Awake, Pt.1’, backed by remixes from Extrawelt and Midnight Operator aka Mathew Jonson and Nathan Jonson. Fedele’s penchant for synthesizer techniques and drum machines has caught the ear of global tastemakers, with projects released on the likes of Turbo, Afterlife, and Ellum receiving support from the likes of Maceo Plex, Tiga, Tale of Us, Dixon, John Digweed, Miss Kittin, and DJ Stingray. With sights set towards summer peak, the Italian returns to his Obscura Music imprint with his latest work, The Awake, Pt. 1.

Riot Dance leads the line with crisp kicks on a heady rise to set the groove before an analog-tinged synth line claims the hook. Acidic tones & ethereal stabs offer a generous dose of psychedelia, while the gritty groove ensures the cut’s ability to ignite dance floors. Modular Madness harnesses ominous flavors and a driving bassline that ebbs & flows to keep minds melting. The melodies open into swirling synthetics, with revolving reverberations and rich soundscapes capturing the ear from start to finish.

Storied German duo Extrawelt arrive on remix duty, taking the reins on ‘Riot Dance’ to twist a low- slung groover. They bring the bassline into the foreground, keeping a delightful vibe alive and welcoming a touch of light to the dark underbelly of the original, before diving back into the deep as the track unfolds. Obscura regular Mathew Jonson connects with a producer he knows well – his brother Nathan. Together, they remix ‘Modular Madness’ under their alias Midnight Operator. Picking up the pace, they maintain the acid-laced grit from the original arrangement, while adding serene melodies to the high-end. A balanced rework from two seasoned veterans.

Concocted in a share house in the South of Brisbane in the mid-80s, a small collective of well-acquainted musicians including Jon Anderson, Rainer Guth, Gary McFeat & Rod Owen gathered to compose film soundtracks, music for pictures, therefore ‘Picture Music’. To this end, a ‘spec’ tape of Picture Music recordings would be produced to give to potential clients and or sold to local stores. A distinct album comprising a collection of ambient, minimal-jazz and experimental music.

If there is a red thread running through the Picture Music album, it is its "late night" ambience. The wrath of the sub-tropical summer heat of Brisbane is not kind on electronic equipment, which would crash regularly by day. So, all recording was done in the relative cool of the late evening, in a room only dimly lit by lamp and candle. The Picture Music collective would make music and party all through the night, departing around sunrise. They would sleep through the heat of the day, only to return in the evening for more of the same.

This 2021 reissue of their self-titled 1987 cassette, was taken from the original master tapes and remains an evocative representation of the music that resulted from the late-night, dimly-lit, atmospheric-enabled environment, that sparked the creativity of a group of like-minded friends in a tiny corner of Brisbane. Dedicated to the memory Rainer Guth.

"At the end of 2021, POWERWOLF – the most successful German metal band to date – fascinated with a streaming event of unprecedented dimensions. Those who thought they had seen everything in the live sector were instantly proven wrong with unmatched audio production and visuals that can only be described as simply breathtaking. This summer, on July 8, 2022, this new benchmark for music streaming events will finally be available to view any time you crave. THE MONUMENTAL MASS - A CINEMATIC METAL EVENT will be unleashed on DVD, BluRay and many other physical formats! POWERWOLF have stood at the peak of superlative, epic metal moments for years, but what they present with this streaming event surpasses anything seen before. After months of detailed work, a story was crafted and presented in several chapters based on the stunning music and elaborately staged cinematic scenes. All show effects, actors and stage settings work hand in hand with each other and bring the medium of live music to a level never seen before. From battles with clergy to stories of nuns, monks and burning angels, cinematic images immediately capture the viewer. Each song has its own stunning set designed and is perfectly staged - the production and size alone are unparalleled. One live premiere of a POWERWOLF classic follows the next, one after another – all with impressively produced sound design.

Matte Silver 180g. Free MP3 Download. GUM aka Jay Watson is a multi-instrumentalist, founding member of POND and touring member of Tame Impala. Gum’s solo debut album was originally released in 2014 and has now been newly remastered by tour mate Kevin Parker. Delorean Highway is a collection of 10 songs, described as “paranoid pop songs, mostly about falling in love and all of the things that he thinks are going to kill him”. ‘Delorean Highway’ is the first track off the album of the same name, inspired by a dream Gum had of driving through the desert in the silver car from Back to the Future, before taking off into the night. In the real life, Gum can’t drive, but he has seen Back to the Future and it’s fair to say he does look a little bit like Doc. The second single, ‘Growin’ Up’ was unleashed onto willing ears towards the end of 2013 and taps into every emotion that the name would suggest – a sense of paranoia, doubt, fear, honesty and hopefulness.

The Logic of Chaos is the latest release of Elisa Batti for the label One Instrument that gathers music composed over a period of 3 years. Fascinated by the idea of developing pieces with strict and limiting guidelines, the confined environment gave her the possibility to explore and expand the creativity and the freedom of composing. Each single piece has a specific story and is recorded with a different instrument.

“Asa” is produced together with Sebastian Josef Brunnlechner while composing the sound design for an installation. The piece comprises repetitions of a few simple loops layered and arranged over a carpet of long notes played with a bow. The bow has been intentionally played slowly in order to obtain as many overtones as possible. The short pizzicato melodies consist in small and simple repeated loops that appear and disappear dissolving with the other sounds. The intention behind this track is to let the beautiful sound of the instrument speak for itself evoking a dreamy atmosphere.

“Slow Fall” sees the collaboration with the pianist Marko Ivic and has an improvised approach. While Ivic was playing the piano Elisa Batti was processing the sounds on the fly. The piece is based on a minimalistic procedure, where continual loops create a scenographic effect.

“Taiga” includes different patches of the Moog Mother-32 and is an emotive landscape where sounds rise and disappear again, leaving space to thoughts and images.

The EP ends with “Ecstatic” created with the Korg Minilogue. It was part of a commissioned dance piece that afterwards has been readapted for the release. The final outcome sees a more complex and erratic behaviour.

Elisa Batti’s work induces a state where time stands still whilst simultaneously being in motion. Her sound palette is broad and expresses a high artistic achievement.

Moxie’s On Loop label is back with a new release from Eternal Ocean label founder Ronan. The new EP, Interdependence, follows on from his highly acclaimed debut album ‘Reflections On Intrinsic Value’ and further contributions to labels such as Pressure Dome, Vanity Press and Jungle Gym.

Ronan’s productions are described as ‘aquatic sounds for healing’ and this release for On Loop is no different. Very much driven by percussion, the EP opens with a trippy dub-infused ‘Suderoso’, whilst the second track ‘Interdependence’ showcases a more emotional driven production, filled with blissful, ethereal pads and hypnotic vocal samples. It’s a moment of reflection before picking things up again on ‘Geodesis’ where excitable drum patterns lead the way, bringing you to the centre of the dancefloor. ‘Morning Glory’ rounds off the EP in glistening style - the perfect sunrise anthem.

Deciding to take a brief hiatus after the 2020 release of Moxie Presents Vol. 5, On Loop made its return at the end of last year with the stunning release of Matisa’s ‘Peace Building’ EP. Back for good, the label has now evolved into a new era, signifying the start of this chapter with the the brilliant On Loop 001 compilation earlier this year. The release showcased Moxie’s global impact, enlisting new tracks from the likes of Eris Drew, Nicola Cruz, Space Ghost, Olive T, Nachtbreaker and more.

Famous present their first vinyl release, a double EP comprising their lauded 2021 EP The Valley on side A, and their equally acclaimed 2019 debut England on side B. The Valley is an intense, engrossing body of work from a band firmly stepping into their own space, foregoing the easy route, whilst interrogating themselves and everything around them. References to Soundcloud rap stand side-by-side with Greek Tragician Euripedes, along with the white noise of endless Simpson’s repeats colliding with daydreams of settling down and one day owning a gilet. It’s both complex and accessible, the sound of a silver-lining appearing from a dark cloud. England presents a distinctively hyperbolic, mythic re-imagination of urban life; using theatricality and the emotional authority of art to navigate the chaos of anxiety. The music is, nonetheless, thoughtful and surprising, as shown by the six self- contained yet interconnected tracks that make the whole. Opener ‘England 2’ is a rumbling call to arms that ushers in the haywire ‘Surf’s Up!’. The heart of the record is the two-punch of tainted-pop cut ‘Forever’ and the skittish paranoia of ‘Jack’s House’. All that remains is the expansive, circling ‘2004’ before the most tender moment ‘My Crumpet’ closes the show. Famous live shows are intense brash affairs. Alternating between the pathetic showmanship of Vegas-era Elvis and the controlled experimentations of post punk, the band has built a reputation as one of the best live acts on the London underground circuit. Playing shows with Black Midi, Sports Team, Jockstrap and supporting Black Country, New Road on their full UK tour, Famous has undeniably placed itself at the centre of that new generation of English bands. 2022 sees the band playing major festival dates and venues across Europe, alongside supporting Los Bitchos on tour in France, in April.

Mit ‘SERPENTINA’ betritt BANKS bisher unbekanntes Territorium und zwar in jeder Hinsicht – vom Sound bis zu den Lyrics, den Visuals und allem dazwischen.
Der Albumtitel reflektiert dieses Spielerische und das Gefühl, sich neu zu erfinden. Das Wort “Serpentine” kritzelte BANKS früher oft in ihren Schulkalender. Das “a” am Ende steht für eine Feminisierung dieser Idee – eine Verkörperung von einer Art Schlangenkönigin, wie BANKS es beschreibt.

BANKS ist eine amerikanische Singer-Songwriterin, Produzentin, Dichterin und Regisseurin. Seit ihrem atemberaubenden Debüt 2014 hat BANKS insgesamt mehr als 1,4 Mrd. Streams erreicht und rund um den Globus ausverkaufte Konzerte und Festivals gespielt. Ihr Debütalbum Goddess wurde von der Kritik gefeiert, schaffte es in sieben Ländern in die Top 20 der Charts (u. A. in Nordamerika) und machte ihr einen Namen für einen ganz eigenen Sound: Alternative Pop mit einem Hauch unkonventionellem R&B, mit dem sie aufgewachsen ist. 2016 meldete sich BANKS mit The Altar zurück – eine dunklere, intensivere Abwandlung der Themen, mit denen sie sich auf Goddess beschäftigt hatte. Auch dieses Album fand bei den Kritikern großen Anklang und erreichte mehrere Top 20-Platzierungen in den USA und weiteren Ländern. Zu ihrem dritten Album III präsentierte sie 2019 die aufregende, synthlastige Vorabsingle “Gimme”, produziert von Hudson Mohawke. Mit seiner eher experimentellen und fast verspielten Produktion und den reiferen Texten war III ein weiterer Schritt in ihrer künstlerischen Entwicklung. Nach dem Erfolg von III begab sich BANKS auf ihre mit 33 ausverkauften Konzerten in neun Ländern bis dato umfangreichste Tour. Als Muse von Modehäusern wie Chanel und Dior war sie bei diversen Fashionshows in der ersten Reihe und auf den Covern zahlreicher Hochglanzmagazine auf der ganzen Welt zu sehen. Sie ist auf vielen der größten Festivals aufgetreten, darunter Coachella und Lollapalooza, spielte im berühmten Guggenheim in New York und war in vielen TV-Shows zu sehen (z. B. Colbert, Kimmel, Meyers).

White Vinyl.
Includes postcard and poster.
Part of the Optic Sevens 3.0 Reissue Series.
Originally released on the Sub Aqua label in 1988. It appears here on 7” for the first time. This is a previously unreleased version of Back Between Places. The band were never really happy with the original single release and having discovered the master tape of a superior version, it is to be mixed and released here for the very first time.
From East Village
Both tracks were recorded at Greenhouse Studios at the same one day session in August 88 and are technically unreleased.
‘Back Between Places’ is an alternate mix made at the time and better than the one we chose to release.
‘Violin’ is a completely unreleased recording. It was planned as the original B-side but ended up being replaced by two early recordings ‘Her Fathers Son’ and ‘Precious Diamond Tears’ on the actual 12” release.
We rerecorded ‘Violin’ at few months later at Scruttocks along with ‘Freeze Out’, ‘Vibrato’ and a couple of others that have appeared on the ‘Hotrod Hotel’ LP.

DRONE PLANETS...dropping beat science from the cosmos on citizens of the underground

Drivetrain (Detroit, USA) - Istanbul (featuring Joell Krista)
This colossal big room blast features punchy bass with flavored syncopation strutting atop a relentless rhythm track to produce the perfect sound track for a late night, tour guided excursion through the streets of the city of Constantine

G.E.N.I (Nottingham, UK) - Civil Unrest
The clandestine trio is sure to deliver kaos on the dance floor as they tickle the bottom of the frequency spectrum while playing mind games with twisted bleeps, tweaks and the sporadic heckling of an official warning announcement

DistantLover (Detroit, USA) - Sexual Chocolate
Loud and unforgiving, hinting of the essence of disco this infectious groove with its tasty vocal samples generate maximum energy and a debut endorsement for body stimulation

Das Album „Regimental Sgt Zippo“ von Elton John, welches 1968 in den DJM Studios aufgenommen wurde, erscheint nun endlich als Remastered-Version am 8. Juli.

„Regimental Sgt Zippo“ wurde 53 Jahre nach seiner Entstehung im Jahr 2021 zum Record Store Day das ersten Mal veröffentlicht. Nach dem Erfolg der limitierten Veröffentlichung wird das Album nun in
Stereo angeboten, die von Eltons Katalog Team in Abbey Road gemischt wurde.

Das Album erscheint als 1LP und 1CD. Die neue LP-Ausgabe enthält eine bedruckte Innenhülle mit allen Texten. Die CD-Ausgabe enthält sowohl Stereo- als auch Mono-Mixe.

Repress

Identified Patient drops another calamitous record on Pinkman - 4 dungenous slowbeat cuts, brimming with energy, emotion and attitude. The EP kicks off with Geen Syndroom where jaded, murky melodies go in tandem with sexy bass lines and an obliterating broken drum beat. Thereafter, Nog Steeds High Van De Lak progressively evokes feelings of desolation and melancholia, while carrying an aggressive punch and irresistible groove. Do the flip to find two more ferocious productions in Ver Verwijderd Van Vermoeid and Haar Glans Altijd Strak. The former grips you firmly with bubbling acid and machine gun snares on the backdrop of violent kicks. The latter ends the voyage entrancingly with hypnotic synth lines, whiplash-snares and rattlesnake-hats.

'Hasenchartbreaker' ist die 2. von 10 akustisch verzauberten & optisch knalligen Faceliftschallplatten aus der frischen Vinyltheke von Knorkator!

Rod von 'Die Ärzte' ist damit einverstanden, dass die Band den gewünscht großen Plattendeal mit Universal Mercury Records unterschreibt und so freuen sich die Musiker auf die bevorstehenden, aufregende Sachen. Knorkator nimmt im eigenen Studio auf. Am Ende kommen wundervolle Lieder zusammen, die leider fürchterlich klingen, weil die Musiker keine guten Produzenten sind. Fans jedoch feiern das Album. Wir wundern uns.

'Hallival' is the long awaited debut album from Leeds based folk singer
and songwriter Iona Lane, Having found herself fascinated by folklore
and folk stories from across the UK 'Hallival' is inspired by natural
landscapes, scientific discoveries, equality, human relationships and the
supernatural, all tied together by a strong sense of place and a love for
being in wild places - creating something truly special.The name 'Hallival'
is taken after one of the mountains on the Isle of Rum, which inspired the
writing for the opening track 'Western Tidal Swell'
Karine Polwart and Julie Fowlis, amongst others, selected 'Western Tidal Swell' to
win Feis Rois'/NatureScots' In Tune With Nature competition in 2020.With Andy
Bell on production, Iona and her band ventured to Watercolour Music (Ardgour,
Highlands) for a week of recording in April 2020. The studio was chosen due to
it's stunning location - every day the team woke up to herds of deers guarding the
studio, ever changing weather and phenomenal views over to Ben Nevis 'Hallival'.
The lead single from the album 'Humankind', featuring Jenny Sturgeon on
backing vocals, was written from the depths of the Lake District in Wasdale just
before the first lockdown. Being the closing track on the album, it reflects on how
important humans are to each other and the kindness that we can bring
particularly whilst feeling isolated, a feeling that we all know too well after the
past couple of years.
'Schiehallion' was written after discovering the Schiehallion Experiment that was
carried out in 1774. During the experiment scientists from the Royal Society used
the shape and location of Schiehallion to calculate the mass of the Earth for the
first time. After a summer of calculations on the hill, the scientists and locals had
a party in a nearby bothy. The fiddler got so drunk that they burnt their violin and
the bothy to the ground. 'Schiehallion' features Lauren MacColl on fiddle and
Rachel Newton on harp.
Stemmed from being read 'Stone Girl Bone Girl, The Life of Mary Anning' by
Laurence Ann Holt as a child, Iona's song 'Mary Anning' focuses on the life of the
groundbreaking paleontologist who lived and worked in Lyme Regis in the 1800s.
Mary made vast contributions to the scientific world, however, due to her being a
woman she was unable to present her findings and would often end up selling
them to her male colleagues. Up until very recently Mary Anning has had little
credit for her work.
Having studied under the tuition of Nancy Kerr, Jim Moray and Stuart McCallum,
Iona has been praised throughout the scene for her delicate yet powerful vocals,
which have captivated audiences up and down the country.
Iona was chosen by Karine Polwart to receive the Taran Guitars Young Players
Bursary 2020. Since receiving the bursary luthier Rory Dowling, of Taran Guitars,
has designed and built a bespoke instrument for Iona's music.

As the daughter of a blues musician, Chastity Brown was born with an
innate ability to channel complex circumstances into beautiful, uplifting
songs
But after surviving the isolation of the early pandemic and witnessing the global
racial reckoning that manifested itself in the riots mere blocks from her South
Minneapolis home, even she is surprised to hear the way her new album 'Sing To
The Walls' turned out. "It's a love album, in a way I didn't plan on," Chastity says.
Like so many artists who endured the uncertainty of the 2020 lockdown,
Chastity's instinct was to turn inward, at first out of self- preservation, and then
because the new songs kept coming and coming. Since finishing her last album,
2017's 'Silhouette Of Sirens', she estimates she's written nearly 100 new songs,
10 of which found their way onto 'Sing To The Walls'. Produced by Brady Blades,
'Sing To The Walls' is a sonically expansive album; it mines the roots of
Americana, folk, and soul music, but Chastity's stories are delivered in a style that
feels remarkably timely, modern, and forward-thinking. "I celebrate the emotional
richness in the tradition, but in my music I've committed myself to moving
forward and reflecting the experiences of those overlooked by tradition."
Chastity Brown has been praised by NPR, CMT, American Songwriter, the London
Times, Paste Magazine, and The Independent, among many others, and appeared
on the U.K.'s Later… with Jools Holland. She tours nationally and internationally,
having shared the stage and supported artists such as the Indigo Girls, Ani Di
Franco, Andrea Gibson, Jayhawks, The National, and Micheal Kiwanuka.

Even in its moodiest, most downbeat moments there's a spark of energy
that bursts out of A Face In Your Life, the new album from Pet Fox.Where
past efforts played around with after-the-fact layering of instrumentation,
the band's third full-length comes alive in the moment
Tracked live in one room, without the use of a metronome, the ten songs that
unravel across the album capture Theo Hartlett (Guitar/ Vocals), Morgan Luzzi
(Bass), and Jesse Weiss (Drums) in their rawest, most immediate form. Touching
upon notions of anxiety and self-doubt, A Face In Your Life travails the depths of
these themes while also offering little snippets of hope and guidance along the
way. Indeed, the album's sprawling opening track 'Settle Even' is billed as a selfhelp pamphlet, a reminder to the band themselves and those listening that there
will always be people in the world looking out for us, even when that feels like an
impossible feat. An inspired collection of riffs that twists and turns into varying
shapes throughout, Pet Fox never outstay their welcome in the half-an-hour or of
A Face In Your Life but do more than enough to make the kind of impression that
leaves you wanting to journey back through the shadows, to unpick the little knots
of the ideas they're exploring here. It was brought to life by just three people in
one room but it lends itself to something way beyond that; the never- ending
search for coping mechanisms in the messiest of worlds.

It's hard to believe it's taken this long for a proper retrospective of legendary Los Angeles collective CVE. "We Represent Billions" is a crucial portrait of one of the West Coast's most low-key influential crews - a hydra-like collective of rappers, producers, designers and engineers who were key members of the Good Life Cafe's open mic scene, going on to inspire artists like Jurassic 5, Kendrick Lamar amongst many other. Initially called Chillin Villain Posse before morphing into Chillin Villain Empire in the late 1980s, they eventually centered around the core trio of Riddlore, NgaFsh and Tray-Loc. The crew were years ahead of their time, self-producing music without samples and pioneering a stream of consciousness lyrics that still sound fresh and innovative. CVE were self-sufficient and motivated from the beginning, named "Chillin Villains" because that's how they were perceived by white America. This social motivation was channeled into their groundbreaking performances at Good Life Cafe, the South Central session that evolved into Project Blowed and later on came to influence LA club night 'Low End Theory'. It was chronicled by Ava Duvernay, herself an MC in short-lived duo Figures of Speech, in her "This is the Life" documentary, where she interviewed CVE alongside Jurassic 5, Freestyle Fellowship, Abstract Rude and Busdriver. On "We Represent Billions", we're treated to a snapshot of the CVE sound from 1993-2003, their most prolific era. The retrospective collects music from the handful of albums the crew released on their own Afterlife Recordz label (mostly as limited edition CD-R's) plus many previously unreleased tracks and highlights their untethered eccentric creativity and sheer breadth of influence. Whether twisting twitchy West Coast electro on 'All Over Da Globe' or free associating over horror synths and foley sounds on 'Made in Chillz Ville' there's a sense that their music was just too future for its time. Assembled from heaving industrial samples and graced by back-and-forth tongue twisting flows, 'Thugs and Clips' is as eerie and hard-hitting as anything 2Pac's "The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory" full-length. Fuzzed-out and unsettling, 'Calistylics' welds an ambient synth loop and bone-rattling percussion to Tricky-esque percussion, while the flickering closer 'Unicycle' is a cross between Dr. Dre's icy G-gunk pressure and Three 6 Mafia's pitch black lo-fi funk. In many ways, 2022 is the perfect time to rediscover this music: an urgent, creative fusion of spine-tingling pre-grime electronic minimalism and mind bending wordplay that still sounds completely idiosyncratic and utterly alien. Tracks: 1 All Over Da Globe 2 Thugs and Clips 3 C.V. Vault 4 Made in Chillz Ville 5 Bring It On 6 Calistylics 7 No Feelins 8 Let's Get It On 9 Today Was A Fucked Up Day 10 Untitled (Freestyle) 11 Unicycle

It's hard to believe it's taken this long for a proper retrospective of legendary Los Angeles collective CVE. "We Represent Billions" is a crucial portrait of one of the West Coast's most low-key influential crews - a hydra-like collective of rappers, producers, designers and engineers who were key members of the Good Life Cafe's open mic scene, going on to inspire artists like Jurassic 5, Kendrick Lamar amongst many other. Initially called Chillin Villain Posse before morphing into Chillin Villain Empire in the late 1980s, they eventually centered around the core trio of Riddlore, NgaFsh and Tray-Loc. The crew were years ahead of their time, self-producing music without samples and pioneering a stream of consciousness lyrics that still sound fresh and innovative. CVE were self-sufficient and motivated from the beginning, named "Chillin Villains" because that's how they were perceived by white America. This social motivation was channeled into their groundbreaking performances at Good Life Cafe, the South Central session that evolved into Project Blowed and later on came to influence LA club night 'Low End Theory'. It was chronicled by Ava Duvernay, herself an MC in short-lived duo Figures of Speech, in her "This is the Life" documentary, where she interviewed CVE alongside Jurassic 5, Freestyle Fellowship, Abstract Rude and Busdriver. On "We Represent Billions", we're treated to a snapshot of the CVE sound from 1993-2003, their most prolific era. The retrospective collects music from the handful of albums the crew released on their own Afterlife Recordz label (mostly as limited edition CD-R's) plus many previously unreleased tracks and highlights their untethered eccentric creativity and sheer breadth of influence. Whether twisting twitchy West Coast electro on 'All Over Da Globe' or free associating over horror synths and foley sounds on 'Made in Chillz Ville' there's a sense that their music was just too future for its time. Assembled from heaving industrial samples and graced by back-and-forth tongue twisting flows, 'Thugs and Clips' is as eerie and hard-hitting as anything 2Pac's "The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory" full-length. Fuzzed-out and unsettling, 'Calistylics' welds an ambient synth loop and bone-rattling percussion to Tricky-esque percussion, while the flickering closer 'Unicycle' is a cross between Dr. Dre's icy G-gunk pressure and Three 6 Mafia's pitch black lo-fi funk. In many ways, 2022 is the perfect time to rediscover this music: an urgent, creative fusion of spine-tingling pre-grime electronic minimalism and mind bending wordplay that still sounds completely idiosyncratic and utterly alien. Tracks: 1 All Over Da Globe 2 Thugs and Clips 3 C.V. Vault 4 Made in Chillz Ville 5 Bring It On 6 Calistylics 7 No Feelins 8 Let's Get It On 9 Today Was A Fucked Up Day 10 Untitled (Freestyle) 11 Unicycle

Owing to a focused period of growth as a home recordist and producer,
there is a distinct, refreshing current that charges outtakes from 'bad
summer', the latest full-length album from Philly-via-Portland's cool
original (FKA cool american)
What under other circumstances might have been a string of homespun indie
rock songs is instead an energized pop- focused collection of tracks born from
what Nathan Tucker describes as 'the contrast between total formlessness and
rigid claustrophobia'. As heard almost immediately on album opener 'monad, no
windows', an electric atmosphere envelops outtakes from 'bad summer'. Pitchshifted vocal samples and previously- scrapped drum recordings fill out the
overture, setting the table for a patchwork of repurposed, resampled ideas
shaped into songs that rarely end up in the same place they started. The
unhurried and sentimental 'i just need a second' boasts the full spectrum of cool
original's songwriting prowess: foregrounded, infectious melody over subtly
chopped and screwed drums comprise the foundation for Tucker's own take on a
classic road song'a marked contrast to 'breaking my own rules', an experimental
pop number unlike any previous cool original work. Similar contrasts abound
throughout outtakes, making for a listening experience that's equal parts
rejuvenating and unpredictable.

“V I N C E N T” is FKJ’s second album and signals a new dawn, not just as a go-to producer and remixer for artists like PinkPantheress and Moses Sumney but as an artist in his own right, continuously selling out headline tours across the globe with his acclaimed ‘one-man-band’ live shows, and having a billion plus streams across all platforms for his music.

The concept for “V I N C E N T” came about during a solo trip to Los Angeles before 2020. “I just stayed in this house totally on my own, turned my phone off and had some time away from everything to figure out what I wanted to do.” He realised he wanted to tap into the freedom of being a teenager: “back then, I was making music strictly for playfulness, without overthinking it,” he says. “V I N C E N T’s” opening and closing songs underline the sentiment of the new album: the future-jazz of ‘Way Out’ (a playful mini soundtrack in one; a dainty piano motif underscored by a skittering trap beat and serene strings) and the lullaby-styled “Stay A Child”. “I wanted to get back some of that lost innocence of making music purely for pleasure,” he says.

Back in his home studio in the Philippines, with no wifi and an impending global lockdown, FKJ was quite literally cut off from the world, able to explore music’s endless possibilities. “Sometimes I would get into it for the whole night and go to bed when the sun came up.” Out of this freedom comes an expressionistic, touching album that’s impossible to pin down. There’s no more hiding behind a branch of leaves, as he did on the cover of his 2017 debut: “V I N C E N T” marks FKJ out as a crucial new voice. He’s redefining chillout music with his bursts of late-night jazz sax and piano, coupled with his wood-cabin whispery vocals, recalling Bon Iver’s early work, and those Santana-styled guitar flourishes.

Much of “V I N C E N T” is wilfully romantic, sometimes super sexy, and often with its head in the clouds, as on tracks like “Us”, a dreamy ode to his wife June, or “IHM”, which has a 90s hip-hop flavour slowed right down to lights-out tempo. Not entirely a solo record, ((( O )))) appears on ‘Brass Necklace’ – which has the soft power of The Internet and Stevie Wonder’s keys. It’s no wonder that lead single ‘A Moment of Mystery’, featuring Toro Y Moi, has a spacey vibe: while recording in San Francisco together, FKJ, Toro and his keyboard player Tony took some of what Tony called “holy water” – “we shared this bottle and took a bit of a trip,” laughs FKJ. The result is a gentle electronic ode to long-term love that could rival Tame Impala for melodic progginess.

Little Dragon’s Yukimi Nagano vocal, meanwhile, laces its way through the stunning “Can’t Stop”, and there is a call back to FKJ’s dancier beginnings with “Let’s Live”, a galvanising techno-pop number that blends piano, handclaps and soulful vocals to dazzling effect. Each of FKJ’s songs glistens, lambently, with a myriad of ideas but it never sounds overblown or too dizzying.

“V I N C E N T” is a marvel – and testament to the magic that can happen when you dig deep. “This was a challenging record,” he says. “I’m a perfectionist and it’s hard to shake that off. But once I did, and I let the music take over, I felt totally free.”

After two UK #1 albums, 2 million album sales and an array of international acclaim, you might’ve thought you knew what to expect from Royal Blood. Those preconceptions were shattered when they released ‘Trouble’s Coming’ last summer. Hitting a melting pot of fiery rock riffs and danceable beats, they delivered something fresh, unexpected and yet entirely in tune with what they’d forged their reputation with.
The reaction was phenomenal, with highlights including 20 million streams, a premiere as Annie Mac’s Hottest Record and a run on Radio 1’s A-list and earned alternative radio support and media attention across the globe. In short, Royal Blood are primed to be bigger than ever before. That feat is set to be realised when they release their eagerly anticipated third album ‘Typhoons’ on April 30th via Warner Records.
When Mike Kerr and Ben Thatcher sat down to talk about making a new album, they knew what they wanted to achieve. It involved a conscious return to their roots, back when they had made music that was influenced by Daft Punk, Justice, and Philippe Zdar of Cassius. It also called for a similar back-to-basics approach to what had made their self-titled debut album so thrilling, visceral and original.
“We sort of stumbled on this sound, and it was immediately fun to play,” recalls Kerr. “That’s what sparked the creativity on the new album, the chasing of that feeling. It’s weird, though - if you think back to ‘Figure it Out’, it kind of contains the embryo of this album. We realised that we didn’t have to completely destroy what we’d created so far; we just had to shift it, change it. On paper, it’s a small reinvention. But when you hear it, it sounds so fresh.”

Those traits pulsate throughout the new single and title track. Kerr’s spiralling bass riff casts an hypnotic allure as it grows in intensity, while his vocals switch at will between a raw rock roar and a soulful falsetto. It’s underpinned by Thatcher’s thundering beats, his taut rhythms infused with groove-laden hi-hats.



After setting the tone with ‘Trouble’s Coming’, the album opens in breathless, take-no-prisoners style with the fierce metallic grooves of ‘Who Needs Friends’ hitting an early visceral peak. Royal Blood further reference their fresh array of influences by deploying vocodered vocals on ‘Million & One’ before dynamically switching between the biggest contrasts of their sound with ‘Limbo’. Already a fan favourite having been a regular during the duo’s 2019 shows, ‘Boilermaker’ lives up to its reputation and is more than matched by ‘Mad Visions’, which evokes a hyper-aggressive Prince. It ends with a final surprise in the shape of the stark piano ballad ‘All We Have Is Now’, a vulnerable and revealing reminder to live in the moment.

That song’s unguarded sentiments gives the album a redemptive finale. Whether directly or allusively, the album focuses on exploring the flipside of success that they’ve experienced. It comes from the realisation that success is much more complicated than it seems and that having the time to regain perspective is a precious commodity which becomes ever more elusive. The situation called for reflection and change, which Kerr addressed in Las Vegas. He downed an espresso martini and declared it to be his last drink, and soon discovered that his new-found sobriety would have a positive impact upon his creativity and life as a whole.

That new approach manifested itself in the duo’s decision to produce the majority of ‘Typhoons’ themselves. ‘Boilermaker’ was produced by Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme, the two bands having first connected when Royal Blood supported them on a huge North American tour. Meanwhile, the multiple Grammy Award winner Paul Epworth produced ‘Who Needs Friends’ and contributed additional production to ‘Trouble’s Coming’.

"Insane and heavy beats by the og don Pixelord featuring great remixes by an all-star line-up comprising Dj Ride, Dj Pound, Starkey and Dranq!

Like a lightning bolt in the middle of a dark sea, PIXELORD has returned once again from the frozen lands to shock and disquiet the tides of Futuristic Bass Music. Perhaps the best thing about Russian electronic music godfather Alexey Devyanin's PIXELORD project returning to SATURATE! for this "Demonslayer" release is not simply the exciting and hard-hitting beats contained within, but the simple fact that it shall be offered on delicious, glorious VINYL. An artifact for all time, perhaps to be found in future wastelands by those who would consider this "Demonslayer" to be the VanHelsing (or perhaps Trevor Belmont) of the 21st century bass music scene.

The last decade has seen PIXELORD riding the wave of forward-thinking bass music, and always staying at the crest, and 2020 is no different. "Doomguy" comes tearing straight in with menacing, distorted synth weaponry, assaulting with ballistic beats (even some nods to Junglism) until finally bestowing some glittering melody atop the fray, showing that not only is Alexey an elder-statesman of the genre, he's still the eager bass monster that explores his own depths. The depths are again evident in "Pain Elemental" where the vibe is established immediately, and only delves deeper into the slightly-detuned bass signals and ominous creeping atmosphere. The melodic elements are no longer here to sooth, they are newly charged laser beams that sear the flesh, scorching the eardrums.

This foreboding, demon-dispatching vibe is indeed present throughout this entire release, as you enter the "Bonus Stage" of this deadly game, where the aggression does not abate, and the bass plays backseat to the synth bell sonic geometry on display. The drums especially feel the wrath of PIXELORD on this track, where some impossibly tortured tambourines take a beating, and the chopping and relentless reorganization of the rhythm keeps you churning with intensity. The title track brings the "wild style", even though the drums are less frantic, the bass frequencies and laser blasts from our protagonist, the ever-ready "Demonslayer", are sure to dismantle any submissive subwoofer in range.

"BFG" rounds out this collection in a disheveled fashion, dishing out low frequency divebombs and squelches, whilst otherworldly transmissions from synth realms afar come leaping in trying to assert their dominance, only to be eaten alive by daemonic bass and telluric currents of seismic drum activity. An utterly destructive end to this tale… BUT WAIT, IT GETS WORSE! We have here on hand SATURATE! stalwarts DJ Ride, DJ Pound, DRANQ and big daddy STARKEY on remix duty, who all take the tracks down their own rabbit holes to parts unknown, with equal aplomb. The result is equal in intensity and aggression, but the textures by which this is conveyed are wholly transformed and re-imagined skillfully.

All this on one slab of gorgeous VINYL. No demon shall stand a chance against PIXELORD's battalion of beats and bass."

Propelled into the industry at just 19, Foxes was at
the forefront of the pop stratosphere with her
critically acclaimed debut album ‘Glorious’,
Grammy-winning collaboration ‘Clarity’ with EDM
giant Zedd, big name support slots and six singles
in the UK Top 40. In 2017, she decided it was time
to press pause and focus on connecting with
herself.
 ‘Friends In The Corner EP’, available on
transparent vinyl, is ultimately about facing up to
tough experiences that led her to pressing that
pause button, and the effects of having your
confidence and agency diminished.
 The EP features previously released singles ‘Love
Not Loving You’ - her bold, buoyant comeback
single that transports you to the light at the end of
her time away; ‘Friends In The Corner’ on the
fragility and hidden nature of mental health
struggles; ‘Hollywood’, revealing some of the most
challenging experiences she’s had to date,
chasing her dreams to Los Angeles as a young
songwriter; ‘Woman’ with its universal message of
standing up to the unacceptable; new single
‘Kathleen’, an ode to her grandmother and
unheard tracks ‘Courage’, ‘Dance’ and an acoustic
version of ‘Kathleen’.

»Sull’Accordo Mimetico (On the Mimetic Chord)« dates back to the end of the 80’s. It was commissioned by the artistic director of the ParcoScenico Festival, held in Treviso, Italy. Since the area where artists and the public gathered after the Festival was located to a very busy street, Marco asked me for a sound installation that could work as some sort of a defensive barrier for the street noise. I suggested that my work, rather than hiding the noise, should aim to harmonize the disturbances coming from the street within musical structures and forms, without burdening or saturating too much the acoustic spectrum of the place. In this way, I thought about sonic veils, consisting of repetitive – but also light and discreet – harmonic-rhythmic structures. Since the Festival took place in a beautiful centenary park, I also integrated the music with natural sounds and animal calls, always as an attempt to bridge these sound events and the other materials that made up the composition. The human voice constitutes a central element in this musique d'ameublement project, as a constant source of memory of places and times – here with many references to traditional music for children.

A pearl of ambient electro-acoustic mimimalism with field recordings components in which the nostalgia of Maestro Tiziano Popoli shines through in painting landscapes that slowly change to be seen with the ears. Nocturnal, emblematic, Lynchian.

Repress!

Leeward, released in 1978 on Union record, is the second album by tenor and soprano saxophonist Mabumi Yamaguchi. Here the quartet comprises of Ikuo Sakurai on bass, Hideo Sekine on drums and Ichiro Doi on piano and electric piano.

Leeward opens with “Dawn” a long and slow piece led by a Fender Rhodes played in flanger mode, on which Mabumi Yamaguchi expresses a certain melancholy, which we also find on “Dewdrop”, a duet piece with Ichiro Doi at the piano. The rhythm picks up on “Distant thunder”, a kind of jazz-funk samba in which Mabumi Yamaguchi lets each of his musicians take a long chorus before ending by taking up the haunting theme of this superb piece.
The beautiful “Leeward” closes the album in a slightly more traditional but equally mastered style. It is not known if the cover of this album contributed to its lack of success when it was released, but it is almost impossible today to find an original pressing of this record.

It should be noted that Mabumi Yamaguchi is still active and that he continues to release records and perform in concert in Tokyo (dates to be found on his website mabumi).

Basically, it's become common knowledge that Saturate is all about some heavy bass music on that hip-hop tip and Zeke Beats' Pay Attention release is easily one of their finest ones yet. Every track has a sinister punch to it and it all ultimately sounds like the most epic video game music ever to come out of the ghetto. Zeke Beats clearly didn't hold back in any way, as this is easily some of the wildest, most high energy bass music we've heard. The low end is hot and heavy, the synthwork is wacky and in your face, and the arrangement is spot on; there's always a lot happening, but not one element ever sounds out of place. The flip side is featuring the one and only Subp Yao.
Deep, dirty, Grimey and glitchy and insane beats, this will take your brain for a spin and turn your legs to jelly it will make your jaw drop, then smash it clean off. The work that's been put into this is second to none!

Time Cow & Ossia take 2 tracks from Jabu’s 2020 album ‘Sweet Company’ into unfamiliar (and dance floor friendly) territory. Side A sees ‘Us Alone’ gets transformed by Time Cow from slo-mo tearjerker into syrupy disco wrecker, managing to somehow touch on reference points everywhere from east LA lowrider anthems through 00s garage and all propelled fwd by an eyeball shaking low end pressure. On the flip Ossia takes snatches of the original ‘Slow Down’ and flashes them in around a 4/4 and a synth melody, fragments of Daniela’s vocal floating like a half remembered conversation. Later Rakhi’s strings come in but in a more unsettling way than the original, eventually dissolving to a kind of Majora’s Mask (in dub) conclusion. All terrain / all weathers - club / bbq / afterparty / late night introspection sessions.

Yellow Vinyl

Parisian producer DJ Atlance follows up an appearance on Happiness Energy’s various artist compilation late last year with five sun-soaked house cuts on Running Out Of Steam, just in time for January coming to an end.

‘Le Club, La Nuit’ gets things underway with a sample-heavy slice of early evening house music; funk-driven basslines, radiant atmospherics and a distinctive Atlance, hip-house bounce hold the door for the listener as they venture further into the dimly lit room. ‘When I Hear Your Voice’ throws it back to the 00’s with its MTV-pop-dance blend of catchy vocals and murder-on-the-dancefloor energy.

‘Eternal Sunshine’ is as radiant as the title would suggest; a bright sequence ofsaxophones, jazz-keys and feel-good warmth that we wish would never come to an end, before Atlance shows what he would ‘Do For Love’ on a synth-bending, playful cut of coastal house music.

‘After The Storm’ maintains its housey aesthetic, but this time on an electro-tipped 2-step; instantly recognisable vocal samples, dreamscape aesthetics and meditative breaks uniting on a blissed-out trip.

Minru is the project of Caroline Blomqvist, a Swedish musician based in Berlin. Woven from light and shadow, the interplay of her folk and indie-rock blend appears from a personal space of finding life after death. On her debut LP »Liminality« she paints melody in soft tones, whispering secrets to navigate feelings of loss.

Built around winding layers of acoustic guitar, piano, and strings, Minru is a surprisingly uplifting and stirring testament to Blomqvist’s own suffering from the passing of someone close to her. Returning to Berlin from Sweden feelings of grief, confusion, and pain travelled with her, and these emotions prompted the journey both of and within the album, heard as a dreamlike actualisation of wandering lost between them. "I read that Carl Jung used the word "»Liminality«” to describe the psychological process of transitioning. I instantly felt seen; it reflected my own experience and the feelings I carried whilst making the album – a sense of the old certainties being gone, but the new not being quite there yet,” she says.

Defined as "the threshold separating one space from another" »Liminality« moves between feeling the ground beneath your feet fall away, fighting through the darkness and the doubt, and the emerging shades of hope and light as you painstakingly make peace with mortality and find yourself as a person again. "I am happy to have encapsulated this moment of time in sound," Blomqvist says, "it will always be there as a memory."

Flourishing from a preferred position of solitude, »Liminality« sees Blomqvist’s vision radiate with intensity from her home-based studio in Neukölln - a small, 2-room apartment with squeaky old wooden floors. Capturing the intimacy of the space, she recorded vocals and synth on gear partly borrowed from friends (to swiftly reunite it with its owners), and the songs flow with a stream of consciousness as feelings become entwined with melody. Time-restraint drew the process to a natural close, preventing Blomqvist from losing herself to experimentation. “Maybe I would have been stuck in »Liminality«, trying out sounds forever,” she suggests of the way ‘Into the well’s instrumental swims into a warm stream of synth pads. "It’s the cosiest moment on the album,” she says, “Cosy is a feeling I always strive for in life."

Finished and self-produced at a Berlin-Lichtenberg recording studio alongside musical friends (Povel Widestrand, Tobias Blessing, Sunniva Lilian Shaw Of-Tordarroch, Marlene Becher and Liv Solveig Wagner), the result is beautifully detailed and rich like the folk of her Swedish roots. First picking up a guitar as a kid and becoming obsessed with it, she would skip school to spend extra hours mastering the instrument, grappling to perfect the ‘Stairway to Heaven’ intro. “As a child I was fascinated by my dad’s acoustic guitars around the house and would hit the strings to make them sound,” she recalls. After attending music high school in Gothenburg and playing in bands during her teens, Blomqvist later moved to Germany. As well as enjoying walks at Tempelhofer Feld and coffee at Leuchtstoff café, she performed with Tuvaband, Adna, and Tara Nome Doyle and played in Berlin venues Loophole and Schokoladen, where music became her world. With the passing of time she felt a growing urge to find an outlet for her own songs; Minru was the answer along with her first »Yearnings« EP.

Now writing whenever she returns to Sweden, within the calm and stillness of her family’s mountainside cabin, her skilfully constructed arrangements summon the comforting atmosphere of home. “I hope listeners will feel inspired to slow down a bit, create, draw, cook something. Just be in the moment that is now.” »Liminality« is the kind of record that rewards attention. Give this album your time, it will give you its soul.