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A regular at Cocktail d'Amore, Bell Towers is a Berlin-based Australian producer best known for his long-lasting collaboration with Munich's Public Possession. Next to that, a number of projects under different monikers - namely Rim Boys, an evolving b2b with Andras.

"I'm Moving To Berlin" is his first EP for Cocktail d'Amore Music. It's a sparkling celebration of the party; its influence on the city and on the producer's life tangents. "It's too late now / There's no turning back / I gave it all for Cocktail d'Amor..." Rohan confesses, while a hybrid EBM-synth pop sonic adventure unfolds.

What happens next is presented in "Sexual Intruder Alert" and "Approach and Identify". The first comes through as a quirky multidimensional future-disco tale, while the second plunges deep into the cosmic hole with punchy percussions and an euphoric groove pattern.

Eaux proudly announces a new collaborative mini-album from label boss Rrose and Polygonia. Containing six tracks and over 40 minutes of music housed in a fully printed sleeve with artwork by Jon-Paul Villegas, the record focuses squarely on the dancefloor while infusing it with the kinds of psychoactive drones, intricate polyrhythms, and relentless modulations that have come to identify both of their approaches to sound. Featured heavily are their shared interests in sonic shapes that resemble natural forms and conjure tactile feelings, in this case related to themes of skin-like surfaces and circulatory systems experienced simultaneously on a micro and macro level. While several of the tracks hover in a flexible tempo range between 125 and 130 bpm, "Stretcher" reaches up to 142, and the closing track "Vena Cava" trades the kick drums for spectrally processed percussion and endlessly diverging high-frequency pulses.

The story behind the release starts in 2022, when Rrose reached out to Polygonia after noticing that her tracks were appearing in their sets more frequently than any other artist. Never before had Rrose proposed a collaboration with someone they hadn't met before, but there was such an obvious connection in their approach to sound that it felt necessary. As it turns out, Polygonia had only become interested in techno after hearing Rrose perform at a festival in 2018. It all made sense, and they began sharing sketches and unfinished ideas with each other, trading them back and forth until they reached completion. Without any announcement of their collaboration, the two artists have since been asked to share the stage together several times. It seems there are other people out there sensing a connection...


Bios:

RROSE

Rrose is an alias of the multi-disciplinary artist Seth Horvitz, born and raised in California, and currently based in London. Active since 2011, the Rrose project explores the intersection of hypnotic techno, experimental composition and psychoacoustic phenomena with a meticulous touch. The first major breakthrough was 2012's "Waterfall" for Sandwell District which followed "Motormouth Variations," a collaborative project with composer, improviser, and activist Bob Ostertag. After the shuttering of Sandwell District, Rrose established Eaux, a home for further solo productions and collaborations. Building on his studies in electronic composition and history at Mills College, Rrose's electronic pieces blur the lines between thrillingly claustrophobic club tracks and destabilizing sound art explorations. In 2015, she released an extended version of James Tenney's postcard composition "Having Never Written a Note For Percussion" for solo gong, and in 2018 collaborated with Charlemagne Palestine on "The Goldennn Meeenn + Sheeenn" for two grand pianos. These works overlapped with the development of Rrose's singular techno: EPs like "Vanishing Pools," "The Ends of Weather" and "Arc Unknown" as well as 2019's debut LP "Hymn to Moisture" and last year's follow up "Please Touch." Rrose is also active as a touring DJ and live performer, equally comfortable commanding sweaty warehouse dancefloors and seated audiences in historic concert halls. Appearances include Unsound, Atonal, Semibreve, Dekmantel, Mutek, Sonic Acts, Nuit Sonore, Mostra, Parallel, Theatre Graslin, Nextones, and Berghain.
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POLYGONIA

Polygonia represents a multidisciplinary music and art project conceived by Lindsey Wang from Munich, Germany.

She draws inspiration from her many years of practicing various acoustic instruments and her keen interest for other cultural forms of expression, which she translates into the digital language of electronic music and art.

Her productions' soundscape exudes a mystical, organic quality, featuring intricate and compelling rhythms. Polygonia's sound palette ranges from energetic, groovy Deep Techno, Downtempo, Grey Area to textural and/or harmonic Ambient. Besides, she is not afraid to include influences from the genres House, Drum and Bass, Electro etc.. In addition inspiration from nature play a major role in many of her productions. Exemplary for her style are for instance her 'Otro Mundo' EP (2023) on Bambounou's Bambel Imprint, her 'Bloom' EP (2022) on the American record label Sure Thing, the release 'Deformed Human Nature' (2021) on her own label IO, as well as the album 'Abbilder einer vergessenen Welt' (2021) on the Korean label Huinali.

Her DJ and live sets too reflect her passion for different genres. Depending on the time of day and setting, Polygonia shows a different musical side. What unites all her dance music sets is the hypnotizing effect that invites to completely lose oneself in the world of sounds for a longer period of time. Several voices from the audience also confirm that the musician always tells a complex story within her mixes, allowing for very clear highs and lows. In the same set there can be very harmonic passages, which provide emotional moments and on the other hand extremely texture-heavy dark tracks, which establish a connection with the subconscious and put the listener in a kind of trance.

Polygonia has already visited numerous of prestigious venues. She is now a regular at Tresor or Berghain in Berlin and additionally started her residency in 2023 at Munich-based BLITZ club.

The discography of the phantom Gruppo Sound exceeds over thirty titles published in an undefined time frame between the Eighties and the Nineties. However, there is very little information about this curious pseudonym. it is possible to find a library music album by Gruppo Sound inside the Canopo, Deneb, Flower, Monosound Records and Teams catalogues, all managed by Flipper Music publishing group, but both the creators and the musicians have never been the same. Gruppo Sound is only a collective name, maybe to identify a certain number of 'new' productions characterized by an electronic background And, not by chance, the author of “New York City” is a single artist, the multi-instrumentalist Gabriele Ducros. Son of the prolific composer Remigio Ducros, he first followed his footsteps in the field of music libraries and soundtracks and then become the author of many tracks for television commercials of a certain relevance, winning some international awards.

“Some of these tracks may have been associated with a pornographic film. Others were, however, made as brief comments for a theatrical show, perhaps never made”, remembers Gabriele Ducros. What unites the thirteen pieces is the same musical language, which derives from a widespread funk and jazz matrix. Both genres are thus declined through a different approach and taste, in line with the fusion trends of the time, when the early synthesizers were used by few artists. A handful of electric guitar notes for a 'urban' mood, the acoustic ones from a dreamy morning awakening. Electronic keyboards to arouse a sense of nostalgia in the listener, while flute and saxophone always punctuate different atmospheres. A computer melody, a theme for children and a sophisticated ode to the fusion sound of the Big Apple, perhaps true source of ispiration of the work. “New York City” is not a concept album, but one of the best cross-sections of Gabriele Ducros' great creativity.

The inimitable Richard Youngs returns to Black Truffle with this third full-length for the label, Hidden. Like CXXI and Modern Sorrow, Hidden unfolds across two side-long pieces at once eminently listenable and possessed of the ‘bloody-minded’ dedication to ‘having an idea and sticking with it’ that Youngs himself has identified as one of the key qualities of his work.

At the core of both pieces are rapid, randomised arpeggios generated with a Moog Grandmother, hypnotic patterns that wouldn’t be out of place on a Berlin School classic. Alongside these arpeggios, across the seventeen minutes of the first side-long piece Youngs builds an airy structure of shakers, synthetic handclaps and a brief, repeated sample, impossible to identify but sounding like a glitched foghorn. Over the top we hear his unmistakable voice, repeating single syllables—Ha, Ho—with a slow delay, something like a lonely one-man-band take on Anthony Moore’s Pieces from the Cloudland Ballroom or a more musical elaboration of the hypnotically overlapping delayed phonemes of Anton Bruhin’s Rotomotor. Like much of Youngs' work, the arrangement of sounds is sparse, each layer punctuated by spaces that allow others to shine through, in a way that seems to have more to do with dub or early hip-hop than high-brow models of musical reductionism.

On the flipside, the arpeggios return, now accompanied by ringing, filtered guitar chords and long flute tones. The use of a similar ground layer across the two pieces with strikingly different overdubs calls up Youngs' first solo record, the classic Advent, reminding us of how consistent ‘theme and variations’ is as an approach in his enormous body of work. Joined by handclaps and a chiming sound, the piece almost feels like it is about to achieve dance-floor lift-off at times, only for the percussion to disappear and leave the listener once again floating among the guitar and flute, now joined by occasional cut-off vocal snippets, like a radio turned quickly on and off. The suspension of these disparate elements over the steady foundation of the Moog arpeggios might remind some listeners of the free-form studio explorations of Moebius & Plank and Holger Czukay or even give a nod to Youngs’ formative encounter with Cabaret Voltaire.

Like some of Youngs’ much-loved work with Simon Wickham-Smith, Hidden approaches relatively familiar sounds and instruments from skewed angles, delighting in loose structures of interaction that border on gleeful incoherence while remaining outwardly beautiful. Coming up to almost four decades of persistent activity, like little else in contemporary music Youngs’ work beams with the simple joys of exploration and experiment.



Scowl is a band that sounds exactly like their name implies. Venomous, fierce, antagonistic. A sneer not to be crossed. Over the last five years, the Santa Cruz, California, band has firmly planted their flag in the hardcore scene with their vicious sound and ripping live show, sharing stages around the world with Circle Jerks, Touché Amoré, and Limp Bizkit, and filling slots at prominent festivals like Coachella, Sick New World, and Reading and Leeds. But with their new album, Are We All Angels (Dead Oceans), Scowl is aiming to funnel all that aggression through a more expansive version of themselves.Much of Are We All Angels grapples with Scowl's newfound place in the hardcore scene, a community which has both embraced the band and made them something of a lightning rod over the past few years. Standout single "Not Hell, Not Heaven" outright rejects the narratives cast onto them by outsiders. "It's about feeling victimized and being a victim, but not wanting to identify with being a victim," explains vocalist Kat Moss. "It's trying to find grace in the fact that I have my power. I live in my reality. You have to deal with whatever you're dealing with, and it ain't working for me." The band breaks from a sense of disassociation to seek deeper connections on "Fantasy." "It's incredibly challenging to try to balance my love for the scene while also feeling, in some spaces, extremely alienated and hated," Moss says. "`Fantasy' is about feeling like I don't know how to connect with these people anymore, because I have shelled myself away so hard." The album ends in a philosophical place on the closing, titular track, "Are We All Angels," asking questions like, "Is this all there is?" and ultimately putting it on the listener to decide. "It's about the personal struggle between good and evil. It doesn't matter how `good' or `bad' you are, there are systems that will try to rewrite your narrative no matter what you actually do," explains Moss, noting that punctuation on "Are We All Angels" has been deliberately omitted in an attempt to leave the statement open-ended. Are We All Angels is the highly anticipated follow-up to Scowl's debut, 2021's How Flowers Grow, a 16-minute primal scream over punishing riffs. But amidst the pounding chaos, it was the record's sonic outlier, a cleaner interlude called "Seeds to Sow," that, true to its name, planted the seed for what was to come for the band. "It kind of laid out this destiny for us, and I feel like now we're fulfilling that," says drummer Cole Gilbert. The band continued to expand their sound on 2023's widely acclaimed Psychic Dance Routine EP, incorporating more pop hooks and favoring gentler singing over heavy screaming, paving the way for what would come next.Scowl's growth got a huge boost from producer Will Yip (Turnstile, Title Fight, Code Orange, Balance and Composure), who broadened the band's scope. "Will would say, `Everything you have here is correct, but it's in the wrong place,'" says Gilbert. Moss adds: "Will really helped restructure a lot of the material. Some songs he tore apart to make more space for the really good hooks and choruses." But even through this more eclectic approach, Scowl loses none of their edge, and still manages to convey the anger and frustration that lies underneath. They are deeply committed to carrying the ethos of punk and its sense of community. "Hardcore and punk have sculpted how we operate, what we want to do as a band, and how we participate," says guitarist Malachi Greene. "At our core, we are a punk and a hardcore band, regardless of how the song shifts and changes."

Scowl is a band that sounds exactly like their name implies. Venomous, fierce, antagonistic. A sneer not to be crossed. Over the last five years, the Santa Cruz, California, band has firmly planted their flag in the hardcore scene with their vicious sound and ripping live show, sharing stages around the world with Circle Jerks, Touché Amoré, and Limp Bizkit, and filling slots at prominent festivals like Coachella, Sick New World, and Reading and Leeds. But with their new album, Are We All Angels (Dead Oceans), Scowl is aiming to funnel all that aggression through a more expansive version of themselves. Much of Are We All Angels grapples with Scowl’s newfound place in the hardcore scene, a community which has both embraced the band and made them something of a lightning rod over the past few years. Standout single “Not Hell, Not Heaven” outright rejects the narratives cast onto them by outsiders. “It’s about feeling victimized and being a victim, but not wanting to identify with being a victim,” explains vocalist Kat Moss. “It’s trying to find grace in the fact that I have my power. I live in my reality. You have to deal with whatever you're dealing with, and it ain’t working for me.” The band breaks from a sense of disassociation to seek deeper connections on “Fantasy.” “It’s incredibly challenging to try to balance my love for the scene while also feeling, in some spaces, extremely alienated and hated,” Moss says. “‘Fantasy’ is about feeling like I don't know how to connect with these people anymore, because I have shelled myself away so hard.” The album ends in a philosophical place on the closing, titular track, “Are We All Angels,” asking questions like, “Is this all there is?” and ultimately putting it on the listener to decide. “It’s about the personal struggle between good and evil. It doesn’t matter how ‘good’ or ‘bad’ you are, there are systems that will try to rewrite your narrative no matter what you actually do,” explains Moss, noting that punctuation on “Are We All Angels” has been deliberately omitted in an attempt to leave the statement open-ended. Are We All Angels is the highly anticipated follow-up to Scowl’s debut, 2021’s How Flowers Grow, a 16-minute primal scream over punishing riffs. But amidst the pounding chaos, it was the record’s sonic outlier, a cleaner interlude called “Seeds to Sow,” that, true to its name, planted the seed for what was to come for the band. “It kind of laid out this destiny for us, and I feel like now we’re fulfilling that,” says drummer Cole Gilbert. The band continued to expand their sound on 2023’s widely acclaimed Psychic Dance Routine EP, incorporating more pop hooks and favoring gentler singing over heavy screaming, paving the way for what would come next. Scowl’s growth got a huge boost from producer Will Yip (Turnstile, Title Fight, Code Orange, Balance and Composure), who broadened the band’s scope. “Will would say, ‘Everything you have here is correct, but it’s in the wrong place,’” says Gilbert. Moss adds: “Will really helped restructure a lot of the material. Some songs he tore apart to make more space for the really good hooks and choruses.” But even through this more eclectic approach, Scowl loses none of their edge, and still manages to convey the anger and frustration that lies underneath. They are deeply committed to carrying the ethos of punk and its sense of community. “Hardcore and punk have sculpted how we operate, what we want to do as a band, and how we participate,” says guitarist Malachi Greene. “At our core, we are a punk and a hardcore band, regardless of how the song shifts and changes.

Scowl is a band that sounds exactly like their name implies. Venomous, fierce, antagonistic. A sneer not to be crossed. Over the last five years, the Santa Cruz, California, band has firmly planted their flag in the hardcore scene with their vicious sound and ripping live show, sharing stages around the world with Circle Jerks, Touché Amoré, and Limp Bizkit, and filling slots at prominent festivals like Coachella, Sick New World, and Reading and Leeds. But with their new album, Are We All Angels (Dead Oceans), Scowl is aiming to funnel all that aggression through a more expansive version of themselves. Much of Are We All Angels grapples with Scowl’s newfound place in the hardcore scene, a community which has both embraced the band and made them something of a lightning rod over the past few years. Standout single “Not Hell, Not Heaven” outright rejects the narratives cast onto them by outsiders. “It’s about feeling victimized and being a victim, but not wanting to identify with being a victim,” explains vocalist Kat Moss. “It’s trying to find grace in the fact that I have my power. I live in my reality. You have to deal with whatever you're dealing with, and it ain’t working for me.” The band breaks from a sense of disassociation to seek deeper connections on “Fantasy.” “It’s incredibly challenging to try to balance my love for the scene while also feeling, in some spaces, extremely alienated and hated,” Moss says. “‘Fantasy’ is about feeling like I don't know how to connect with these people anymore, because I have shelled myself away so hard.” The album ends in a philosophical place on the closing, titular track, “Are We All Angels,” asking questions like, “Is this all there is?” and ultimately putting it on the listener to decide. “It’s about the personal struggle between good and evil. It doesn’t matter how ‘good’ or ‘bad’ you are, there are systems that will try to rewrite your narrative no matter what you actually do,” explains Moss, noting that punctuation on “Are We All Angels” has been deliberately omitted in an attempt to leave the statement open-ended. Are We All Angels is the highly anticipated follow-up to Scowl’s debut, 2021’s How Flowers Grow, a 16-minute primal scream over punishing riffs. But amidst the pounding chaos, it was the record’s sonic outlier, a cleaner interlude called “Seeds to Sow,” that, true to its name, planted the seed for what was to come for the band. “It kind of laid out this destiny for us, and I feel like now we’re fulfilling that,” says drummer Cole Gilbert. The band continued to expand their sound on 2023’s widely acclaimed Psychic Dance Routine EP, incorporating more pop hooks and favoring gentler singing over heavy screaming, paving the way for what would come next. Scowl’s growth got a huge boost from producer Will Yip (Turnstile, Title Fight, Code Orange, Balance and Composure), who broadened the band’s scope. “Will would say, ‘Everything you have here is correct, but it’s in the wrong place,’” says Gilbert. Moss adds: “Will really helped restructure a lot of the material. Some songs he tore apart to make more space for the really good hooks and choruses.” But even through this more eclectic approach, Scowl loses none of their edge, and still manages to convey the anger and frustration that lies underneath. They are deeply committed to carrying the ethos of punk and its sense of community. “Hardcore and punk have sculpted how we operate, what we want to do as a band, and how we participate,” says guitarist Malachi Greene. “At our core, we are a punk and a hardcore band, regardless of how the song shifts and changes.

“We all grew up playing heavy music. For me personally, listening to artists like Swans, Godflesh, Neurosis and Kiss It Goodbye in my 20s was cathartic in a lot of ways. Identifying with people that have a similar world perspective, who are channeling their angst and frustration into the creative outlet of art and music — that was important.”

Josh Graham isn’t just talking about his decades-long career in heavy music, which has included A Storm of Light, Battle of Mice, and many years as the one-man visual department for Neurosis. He’s also talking about the formation of Guiltless, his new band with bassist Sacha Dunable (Intronaut), drummer Billy Graves (Generation of Vipers) and guitarist Dan Hawkins (A Storm of Light).

Guiltless released their debut EP, Thorns, via Neurot Recordings in early 2024. Crushing and cheerless, it seemed to welcome the apocalypse looming on our collective horizon. “The EP had a pretty narrow focus starting from my ideas,” Graham explains. “With this record, my main goal was to really collaborate with Sacha and Dan and Billy because those guys are great songwriters. The new album is meant to open up the sonic palette and explore more territory.”

That new album is Teeth to Sky, the band’s first full-length. Even more pulverizing and focused than its predecessor, the album’s collaborative songwriting approach was paired with an adjustment to the lyrical content.

You can hear it on “One Is Two,” which channels a tightly controlled Meshuggah churn through the more visceral lo-fi approach of Kiss It Goodbye or Swedish noise rock legends Breach. On “In Starless Reign,” Guiltless blend dissonant black metal and thundering doom while Graham invokes humanity’s inability to see the forest through the trees. Then there’s the bruising title track, which combines the gnarled sensibilities of The Jesus Lizard, Cherubs and Barn Owl into a rumination on Mother Nature’s revenge.

Teeth To Sky was recorded remotely by the members of Guiltless—except for the drums, which were recorded by Travis Kammeyer (Generation of Vipers) at Fahrenheit Studios in Johnson City, Tennessee. The album was mixed by Kurt Ballou at God City in Salem, Massachusetts, and mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege in Portland, Oregon.

Established in 1948 by César Roldán, Discomoda is one of the earliest record labels of Venezuela and the oldest family operated label in the country. Home to one of the most complete folkloric and popular music catalogues of Venezuela, the label also invested heavily in Afro-Caribbean and tropical rhythms that became popular in the 60s and 70s.

In the 1960s and before the Salsa era truly kicked off, Venezuela had a significant dance orchestra and big band movement. Unlike local record competitors dedicated to selling foreign productions, Discomoda achieved its leading position by recording the most important national bands, including Los Megatones de Lucho, Orquesta Sonoramica and Super Combo Los Tropicales; all featured in this compilation.

Later on, surrounding the festivities for the 400th anniversary of Caracas in 1967, the word "Salsa", which had been recently coined by famed radio host Phidias Danilo Escalona, was formalized to identify an Afro-Caribbean musical style with growing popularity in Venezuela and beyond. By then, the country was among the top 20 music markets in the world, with the local label Discomoda leading the way, responsible for one out of every five records sold in the country.

With the prolonged celebrations approaching due to the 400 years of the city, Discomoda and other labels began to capitalize on this new musical style by betting on both established and new local bands, such as Nelson y sus Estrellas, Los Kenya, Principe y su Sexteto and Los Satélites. As a result, this would kick off what could be considered a golden era of Salsa in Venezuela and which lasted until the mid-70s.

As we approach the 80s and with the emergence of new musical styles and bigger multi-national record labels funded by larger pockets, a lot of the previously popular bands begin to disband or choose to leave the country. Nonetheless, a few artists, like Rodrigo Mendoza, La Renovación and Grupo Yakambu, were still pushing out quality music.

We are thrilled and honored to celebrate one of Venezuela's and, equally, Latin America's most significant record labels, and to share a slice of their enduring influence in advancing Venezuelan-made Salsa music.

Van Halen did more than announce to the world the earthshaking arrival of a revolutionary guitarist. Performed by an enterprising California quartet that took its name from two of its principal members, the 1978 debut ripped headlines away from punk, injected fresh energy into a then-moribund rock 'n' roll scene, reimagined how heavy music and throwback pop could coexist, and invited everyone to experience the top-down pleasures of a beach-front Saturday night every day of the week no matter where they lived. Painstakingly restored by Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab, and the first of a multi-album series in an exciting partnership between the famous reissue label and Van Halen, Van Halen delivers feel-good thrills and hormonally charged desires like never before.

Limited to 12,000 numbered copies, pressed on dead-quiet MoFi SuperVinyl at RTI, and mastered from the original analogue master tapes, Mobile Fidelity's ultra-hi-fi UltraDisc One-Step 180g 45RPM 2LP collector's edition pays tribute to the record's merit and allows fans to experience Van Halen's original blend of raw power, Hollywood flair, and vaudeville fun for generations to come. Playing with reference-setting sonics that elevate a 10-times-platinum landmark whose importance cannot be quantitatively measured, this definitive version provides a clear, clean, transparent, balanced, and turn-the-volume-up-to-11 view of an album that birthed entirely new styles. Since MoFi's unique SuperVinyl compound allows you to crank the decibels to your wildest desires without risking noise-floor interference, prepare to not only hear but feel Van Halen in your chest, no fifth-row concert seat necessary.

The premium packaging and gorgeous presentation of the UD1S Van Halen pressing befit its extremely select status. Housed in a deluxe box, it features special foil-stamped jackets and faithful-to-the-original graphics that illuminate the splendor of the recording. No expense has been spared. Aurally and visually, this UD1S reissue exists as a curatorial artefact meant to be preserved, touched, and examined. It is made for discerning listeners that prize sound quality and production, and who desire to fully immerse themselves in the art – and everything involved with the album, from the iconic cover art to the meticulous finishes and, yes, of course, Eddie Van Halen's pioneering fretwork and his brother Alex's double-bass percussion.

Indeed, could a piece of music that transformed how countless guitarists approached their instrument be more fittingly named than "Eruption"? Likely not, and in just 102 seconds, Eddie Van Halen rewrote, reimagined, and reconfigured a vocabulary last significantly updated a decade earlier by fellow six-string wizard Jimi Hendrix. Akin to the Washington State legend, Eddie Van Halen developed his own techniques and tones all the while making his seismic accomplishments seem effortless. Devoid of the pretence, ego, and showiness that infected many of his imitators, the Dutch native sticks to a straightforward approach that underlines the authority, prowess, and visionary scope of his playing and then-unheard-of finger-tapping skills. Throughout Van Halen, he establishes himself as an instant idol – a savant whose otherworldly combination of breadth, poise, feel, speed, force, and melody seems beamed in from another galaxy.

As does nearly every song on the record, whose cohesiveness and dynamic put into perspective the advanced chemistry and one-for-all spirit the youthful band had out of the gates. Having paid its dues for years in bars and clubs – going as far as recording a 24-track demo for Kiss bassist Gene Simmons at Village Recorders only to be spurned by management companies that felt its music wouldn't go anywhere – Van Halen finally got a deserved break when Warner Bros. executives signed the group in 1977. The subsequent recording sessions further testify on behalf of the band's synergy and alignment. Completed in just a few weeks with producer Ted Templeman, Van Halen was primarily cut live in the studio with minimal overdubs and edits. The explosiveness, energy, and electricity remain definitive, and as heard on this UD1S set, put the group on a private stage – humming amplifiers, Frankenstrat guitar, bright spotlights, sweaty headbands, and then some.

Van Halen yielded just one hit in the form of a Top 40 single (a breathless cover of the Kinks' "You Really Got Me") but practically every song on the revered LP has become a staple. Named the 202nd Greatest Album of All Time by Rolling Stone and considered by countless experts as one of the best debuts in history, the record displays what can happen with four distinct talents gel and strive for the same purposes. In Van Halen's case, the latter almost always involved partying, freedom, sex, and, in the immortal words of singer David Lee Roth, living "life like there's no tomorrow." The celebration manifests from the opening notes of the strutting "Runnin' with the Devil" – announced with the blare of droning car horns, Michael Anthony's robust bass line, and Alex Van Halen's thumping drumming – and continues through the conclusion of the white-hot "On Fire," goosed by Eddie Van Halen's race-track-ready lines, Roth's flamboyant deliveries, and the rhythm section's cat-like pounce.

Picking out individual highlights on Van Halen is akin to trying to count all the stars in a clear nighttime desert sky: There are far too many to identify, once you see one you notice another dozen you didn't spot before, and the cluster is best enjoyed as a whole. What's evident over repeat listens is the sheer diversity, a fact that's often overlooked: The high harmonies and background funk of "Jamie's Cryin'"; the insistent cane-and-a-tophat shuffle and doo-wop shoo-bop vocal break on "I'm the One"; the throwback acoustic blues that spreads into fast-paced, single-entendre wildfire on the Roth-led standout interpretation of John Brim's "Ice Cream Man." Like the man says, on Van Halen, all the flavours are guaranteed to satisfy.

More About Mobile Fidelity UltraDisc One-Step and Why It Is Superior


Instead of utilizing the industry-standard three-step lacquer process, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab's new UltraDisc One-Step (UD1S) uses only one step, bypassing two processes of generational loss. While three-step processing is designed for optimum yield and efficiency, UD1S is created for the ultimate in sound quality. Just as Mobile Fidelity pioneered the UHQR (Ultra High-Quality Record) with JVC in the 1980s, UD1S again represents another state-of-the-art advance in the record-manufacturing process. MFSL engineers begin with the original master recordings, painstakingly transfer them to DSD 256, and meticulously cut a set of lacquers. These lacquers are used to create a very fragile, pristine UD1S stamper called a "convert." Delicate "converts" are then formed into the actual record stampers, producing a final product that literally and figuratively brings you closer to the music. By skipping the additional steps of pulling another positive and an additional negative, as done in the three-step process used in standard pressings, UD1S produces a final LP with the lowest noise floor possible today. The removal of the additional two steps of generational loss in the plating process reveals tremendous amounts of extra musical detail and dynamics, which are otherwise lost due to the standard copying process. Every conceivable aspect of vinyl production is optimized to produce the most perfect record album available today.

MoFi SuperVinyl


Developed by NEOTECH and RTI, MoFi SuperVinyl is the most exacting-to-specification vinyl compound ever devised. Analogue lovers have never seen (or heard) anything like it. Extraordinarily expensive and extremely painstaking to produce, the special proprietary compound addresses two specific areas of improvement: noise floor reduction and enhanced groove definition. The vinyl composition features a new carbonless dye (hold the disc up to the light and see) and produces the world's quietest surfaces. This high-definition formula also allows for the creation of cleaner grooves that are indistinguishable from the original lacquer. MoFi SuperVinyl provides the closest approximation of what the label's engineers hear in the mastering lab.

“On this, their second LP, P16.D4 solicited tapes from several artists from Europe, England, the U.S., Canada, and Japan, and mixed that with their own material. Though in the current digital age collaborations from artists thousands of miles apart is quite normal, this was a quite radical approach back in 1982, when work on this LP began – an interesting concept that actually works quite well, since these artists, which include Bladder Flask, DDAA, the Haters, Merzbow, Nocturnal Emissions, Nurse With Wound, and several others – work in a similar free-ranging experimentalism as P16.D4, and their particular elements, usually just vocals or one instrument or noise implement, blend well without diluting P16.D4’s own peculiar brand of avant-garde post-industrialism, but merely give it another facet. One of the best tracks, “Aufmarsch, Heimlich,” consists of a choir submitted anonymously from Eastern Europe phasing in and out of static while a skronky alto sax bleats away. Most of the pieces exist somewhere just beyond the borders of free jazz, industrial, and even classical avant-garde, full of jarring noises and strange transitions and with a heavy overlay of electronics. What started out as an experiment yielded one of P16.D4’s best albums.” - Rolf Semprebon / AMG

“Distruct is organized around sounds provided by the cream of experimental musicians of the early ’80s, from Nurse With Wound to Nocturnal Emissions, via De Fabriek, Die Todliche Doris, The Haters, Merzbow, and others. Obviously, there is no question of remixing here, and at no time do P16.D4 seek to hide its sources, clearly identifying the contribution of each artist in the liner notes. It would be futile to try to find the paw of each artist, the trio operating vis-à-vis its collaborators the same methods as in their own work. Reworked, distorted by various effects, cut, edited, aggregated with other sounds, produced by P16.D4 themselves, reprocessed. Exchange, communication, two other data that will constantly recur in the work of P16.D4, rich in external contributions and encounters of all kinds. Musically, and despite the diversity of sources treated, Distruct escapes the heterogeneous character, which often marks this type of collaboration, to offer a coherent whole: fragments of opera, Soviet speeches, out-of-tune guitar, saxophone, tattered violins, overdriven and metallic noisy attacks, jackhammers, field recordings, battered choirs, and many other less identifiable sounds. In addition to the desired dialogue between the artists, Distruct also offers a real reflection on listening, and on the expectations of the listener.” - Dissolve

P16.D4 was a German electronic noise music collective, active primarily from 1980 to 1988. P16.D4 embraced tape cut-ups, musique concrète, endless recycling and transformation of previously published material, and many long-distance collaborations with like-minded artists such as DDAA, Vortex Campaign, Nurse With Wound, and Merzbow. Their active participation in the international industrial tape scene yielded collaborative output such as their release Distruct, where bands such as Nurse with Wound, Nocturnal Emissions, Die Tödliche Doris, and The Haters provided the source material. The longest-term collaboration was with the installation and conceptual artist Achim Wollscheid, who used P16.D4 sounds as the basis for LPs he recorded under the name SBOTHI. Ralf Wehowsky, the only constant member of the group, later released solo material under the alias RLW.

Members of P16.D4 were also involved with Selektion, a collective of people involved with sound as well as the visual arts. Selektion published LPs, CDs, books, visual art and design.

The collective worked in a strongly improvised, spontaneous and anti-professional way, using acoustic and electronic instruments, using existing sound fragments, duplicating and alienating them, using repetition, distortion, changes in speed and playing direction. For this they used not only sounds of other artists but also their own material from earlier productions. Late works of the collective are associated with musique concrete.

„All The Colours“ was a concept that came about from Andy Ash bringing together his music and visual art in an attempt to try and identify the common ground between the two. In both mediums, Andy attempts to convey the full range of human identity – at first you see and hear euphoria and playfulness, but look a little closer and you will also notice anger, sadness and tension. On this album, Andy approaches house music as the vehicle to convey many different feelings. These tracks are designed to be played on the dancefloor and bring people together – this is what house music has always been about!

The whole album was made over a two-year period in Andy’s home studio using a mixture of analogue hardware and samples. During this period, Andy was suffering with some significant mental health problems and this album represents his attempts to channel this energy into something productive. This is also the first time Andy has worked with vocalists, bringing a new dimension to his music. Whether it is the old school inspired „The sound“ which features vocalist Erik Rico, or the deep and moody „I’m Here“ featuring Liverpool vocalist Amber Kuti, this album brings many different shades of house music to the table! A real statement!

ElectronicaA Mountain Of One are set to return to the musical landscape with their brand new track “Custard’s Last Stand”, released 6th August through their new label AMORE via Above Board distribution. It is the first new piece of music the band have released in over a decade.

”Custard’s Last Stand” shows the band, made up of musical soulmates Mo Morris and Zeben Jameson, have lost nothing in the past decade. Recorded over Skype during the coronavirus pandemic, with Mo now in Bali and Zeben in west London, it is a shimmering, modern classic, experimental but accessible, melodic and adventurous. As ever, it is utterly unique, made in a musical universe all of their own.

“Custard’s Last Stand” EP is out 27th August, and will come with an incredible Dub Versions from dub pioneer Dennis Bovell MBE, as well as another new track “Stars, Planets, Dust, Me”. He has also provided a rare vocal performance.

The forthcoming album will be released this autumn. The whole project has been mastered then remixed for a forthcoming album by the legendary Ricardo Villalobos.

When A Mountain Of One AMO1first started performing, they quickly became one of the most-acclaimed bands out there, with the likes of i-D, Sunday Times Culture, Pitchfork, NME and more raving about them and their inspired and original approach, led by Mo and Zeben’s almost telepathic understanding.

Sold-out shows and awesome reviews followed with “Collected Works” and “Institute of Joy”, two phenomenal records that have stood the test of time, criss-crossing Balearic, folk, jazz, dance, rock and psychedelia.

A Mountain Of One have collaborated to create a coming together of music and virtual reality. With NYX VX, the band have developed a virtual world, one that will help provide inspired opportunities for artists looking to identify, connect and engage with audiences on multiple levels. This is the first stage of a new world that people will be building out and inhabiting, as venue for performances, home for musical and visual archives, space for play and exploration. Welcome to 'Stars, Planets, Dust, Me'.

Watch the teaser, soundtracked by new single “Custard’s Last Stand” HERE

The band also supplied the music for the stunning short film from acclaimed director Daniel Lindegren, filmed in London over lockdown. Check that out HERE

A Mountain Of One are set to return to the musical landscape with their brand new track “Custard’s Last Stand”, released 30th July through new label AMORE via Above Board distribution. It is the first new piece of music the band have released in over a decade.

”Custard’s Last Stand” shows the band, made up of musical soulmates Mo Morris and Zeben Jameson, have lost nothing in the past decade. Recorded over Skype during the coronavirus pandemic, with Mo now in Bali and Zeben in west London, it is a shimmering, modern classic, experimental but accessible, melodic and adventurous. As ever, it is utterly unique, made in a musical universe all of their own.

“Custard’s Last Stand” EP is out 27th August, and will come with an incredible Denis Bovell Dub Remix, as well as another new track “Stars, Planets, Dust, Me”. The full EP package will come with a dub remix from musical pioneer Dennis Bovell.

The forthcoming album will be released this autumn. The whole project has been mastered then remixed for a forthcoming album by the legendary Ricardo Villalobos.

When they first started performing, they quickly became one of the most-acclaimed bands out there, with the likes of i-D, Sunday Times Culture, Pitchfork, NME and more raving about them and their inspired and original approach, led by Mo and Zeben’s almost telepathic understanding.

Sold-out shows and awesome reviews followed with “Collected Works” and “Institute of Joy”, two phenomenal records that have stood the test of time, criss-crossing folk, jazz, dance, rock and psychedelia.

A Mountain Of One have collaborated to create a coming together of music and virtual reality. With NYX VX, the band have developed a virtual world, one that will help provide inspired opportunities for artists looking to identify, connect and engage with audiences on multiple levels. This is the first stage of a new world that people will be building out and inhabiting, as venue for performances, home for musical and visual archives, space for play and exploration. Welcome to 'Stars, Planets, Dust, Me'.

This is the 1973 solo album by Ghanaian percussionist Anthony Kwaku Bah, who was given the nickname „Reebop“ by American
jazz legend Dizzie Gillespie. He passed away early at the age of 39 in Stockholm in 1983, but before made himself a name for his
works with UK 70s rock heroes TRAFFIC and German Krautrockers CAN, amongst others. If you might expect here the prototypical
Afro Beat and Afro Rock you mostly know from British bands, you will be surprised that this is only one part of the deal. Yes, there
are African elements to be found, buried somewhere in this boiling cauldron where polyrhythmic grooves are the base for jazz
improvisations by the brass section, that range from naughty swing and bebop, to freaked out free jazz and enchanting soul jazz
the way it was popular in the late 60s. The arrangements are utterly lush with so much going on here in every aspect that you
would get lost if there was no trace of melody to be discovered, but there they are and they tell you fantastic stories of exotic
places that only exist in your wildest dreams. Kwaku Bah’s rhythm patterns grab you by the horns and pull you into a world of
their own. Hypnotical, irresistible, hot and vivid. The tunes combine jazz, soul, funk and each one is constructed like a self –
contained story. One could imagine these tunes being used as library music for 70s movies from action to romance. All pieces
though are characterized by the constantly pulsating rhythm. To avoid drifting into the field of insubstantial disco dance music,
the performances witnessed here were executed with the highest possible emotional intensity and dedication. Lay back, close
your eyes and float away on a raft of sound upon the wild river of grooves and melodies. Some haunting Exotica jazz passages
with a typical „jungle“ feel get thrown in for the good measure. There are even vocals in an African language hard to identify,
which create and even more mysterious atmosphere. This is just an introduction part of another powerful speed funk groover but
the vocals stay and make this a clear standout track. Saxophone and guitars seem to have a duel here. You will not sit still while
having this tune „Iphonohimine“ coming down on you like a thunderstorm. Blues, Afro Beat, Psychedelic Rock, Funk, it can all be
found in here and the band goes wild into an everlasting improvisation that deprives you of your breath. Can this record get even better? Do not ask, just enjoy what comes next. If you think that some melodies by the giant brass section sound a bit too catchy
just reach out beyond these harmony lines and find yourself in a thicket of grooves, pulsations, bits and pieces of melody with a
dense, sultry atmosphere. Some smaller parts might make you think of cruise ship big bands and white suits, but everybody will
soon drop these and dance in their underwear for the hot blooded power funk base of the tune called „Africa“, which will take
over one’s soul and set it on fire. So clean, so nice and so filthy and dangerous at the same time, this album is a masterpiece of it’s
style. The exciting and very sensual funk rock of „Lovin‘ you baby“ with crazy fuzz guitars and a dark and haunting approach is
another reason to kneel down when you put this record onto your turntable. Great clean lead guitars give it a latin garage rock
edge Carlos Santana would commit serious crimes for. If you love bands like OSIBISA, Eric Burden & WAR, GINGER BAKER
AIRFORCE, SANTANA, Miles Davis, all around 1969 to 1973, this is what you always wanted to listen to. Grab your copy now.

For Farsight, California’s bucolic San Geronimo Valley was the space that allowed for the creation of this handpicked selection of artistic output. Following a period of deep interest in abstract painting and its relationship to music, the artist found this lush and sparsely populated region to be an ideal location for contemplation and composition.

Although the majority of the work was executed in the first two months of 2020 in this forested setting, some of the pieces were based upon drafts created as early as Summer 2017. United in their eclecticism, the six cuts that comprise “Not Here, But Somewhere'' reveal a broad spectrum of musical influences. They are statements in an age in which influence is omni-directional, and in which the pace of artistic invention outstrips the ability of observers to identify and reify sub-genres. Although each track presents a unique approach, “Cadena,” “Sans Titre,” and “Door to the River'' reflect the continuing global suffusion of Latin American and Carribean styles such as reggaeton and dancehall. Simultaneously, the duo of “While” and “Hot Half” suggest the ongoing dialogue of techno, electro, and industrial music and the interstices between them. “Mid-Winter Burning Sun”
invokes the intensity of American trap music with its booming bass while touching equally upon the feel of early dubstep.

Ultimately, the idea that there is a “space for each artist” can be taken both in a literal sense— One’s physical environment— And also in the figurative sense that there is room enough for the ideas of all artists, who are kindred spirits in the endeavor of radical self-expression. In this way, “Not Here, But Somewhere” exists as an acknowledgement and gesture of goodwill towards every artist daring enough to explore the unknown.

Stefan Smith has channeled an elevated reverence for process, texture and synth-extrapolation with the forthcoming release of his self-titled LP on the Sapiens imprint. A relative new-comer to the land of rapid fire releases and dance floor formulae, Smith is deeply steeped in the art of music creation, performance and theory.
As a graduate of Mills College's revered music department, Smith's prosaic understanding of music partially explains his migration to Sapiens, a label headquartered in Paris, France, which, under the direction of techno luminary, Agoria, has been expanding the realm of possibility for what a techno label can become. Collaborating with musicians, visual artists, film directors, shamans and sound designers, the young Sapiens platform releases may include political speeches, radio hits, dance floor tunes, sensorial or cognitive music or a gentle computer
virus'. Smith's LP contribution will definitely fall on the more delicious end of this spectrum, having woven a synth-lovers dream tapestry.

The nine tracks composing the album, Stefan Smith', draw the listener in on a river of oscillators, which push just past the banks of perceptible sound with with flawless production and loving sound treatment. The idea behind the album is very raw and organic. Stefan Smith focuses on atmosphere, mood, tones, and frequencies, rather than melodies. His productions are a response to the subliminal, and about feeling.
This album came together from a natural flow of working with computers and synthesisers, and also from the musical connection fostered Sebastien Devaud (Agoria). His approach to the album's production was to edit as little as possible, keeping the original feeling of chance and temporality intact. We can sense here Smith's intuition as sound designer, a role which has enabled him to work with artist Nicolas Becker and through this association further contribute work to the Philippe Parreno 'Anywhen' exhibition in Tate Modern Turbine Hall. The feedback
generated by studio experimentation gives birth to new ideas for aural shapes and textures. If one were only to lie back and identify the various wave forms, like butterflies and birds flittering through dappled sunlight, in each track's canopy of bountiful synth elements the mind's eye would dance with the steady intervals of Smith's real-time probe of his machinery, however, deep tracts of emotion and effortless grooves won't allow for a purely sensory listen. In the spirit of exploration, enjoy the ride.

Bartellow has long been associated with the ESP Institute though Tambien, a trio formed alongside Bavarian cohorts Marvin and Valentino, who have released seminal dancefloor material over recent years. With his debut album Panokorama, we are invited into a completely different world of Bartellow's creation—a place where influences become a melting pot of mood, nuance and texture, and where instrumentation is abstracted from a variety of cultures, including those that exist solely within his imagination. Bartellow has found a way to merge Primitivism with Retrofuturism, identifying their point of intersection and reveling in their union across ten songs. While his academic background as a Jazz musician certainly informs both his progressive approach to composition and non-linear production, it is his obsession with electronics and synthesis that shape his current musical climate. The title Panokorama stems from Bartellow's visualization of the album, a surreal landscape with a foreign presence centrally embedded, a 'panorama' punctuated by a 'ko'—although a hybrid word that reads as nonsense, it somehow feels and sounds just right.