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And another new volume of the Meeting Of The Minds series is here, with 4 new collaborations I've done with other producers in the jungle scene!

"Casual Loop" is a collaboration that me & Submerse started working on in 2023 but it was another one of the tracks that I had lost due to my computer being stolen in early 2024, & I hadn't fully backed up everything I had done for a few months, including this track. This meant I had to re-do a lot of the work I had done with what Submerse had started but I was lucky enough to get it near identical to how it was sounding and ready for release. Submerse has been on Future Retro London a few times, with his EP release (FR033) & a track featured on the atmospheric VA EP (FR049) that came out late last year, I'm a huge fan of his musicality & his melodies, which made this track really fun to work on, even with all the obstacles faced!

My first interaction with Quaad goes way back to 2013, when he asked me for a guest mix for a radio show called The After Party that was on C89.5FM in Seattle (which is still up on my SoundCloud for anyone curious) and then before he started his current label (Heavy Sounds), he had started a label with Wetman called Vivid Recordings, which he was sending me the releases on (but I think in standard fashion, I kept forgetting to check them!). But it wasn't until 2022 when me & Dwarde played in Seattle with him and I saw his live Amiga set where he was playing a lot of his own music, & from then on, I was better aware of what he was doing & I got to hang out with him & know him a bit better, which is when I then fully started following what he was doing. Then eventually, we ended up doing a track together (he also uses FL Studio, just like me) and "Judge Dredd" is the end result of that.

Samurai Breaks is also someone that I've known of for a long time but didn't really properly connect with until recent years where I saw what he was doing with his label Super Sonic Booty Bangers, which also does events in Sheffield which I played for in 2024. It was quite an interesting collab because I don't think many people would have necessarily expected our styles to really gel well together but I think we managed to hit a nice midpoint between his craziness & mine haha

Fixate is most likely another person that people would not have anticipated as someone that I would collaborate with, mainly because the style of tune people know him for is more tied with the footwork/halftime sound that became popular in the 2010s, as well as his output as 1/2 of dubstep duo Leftlow, but he has made some jungle in the past & I'm always down for the challenge of stepping outside of my comfort zone to work with people who are not mainly based in the newskool jungle scene but have an appreciation for it. I found out about him through the releases he had on Exit Records from 2015 onwards, plus he was also a part of Richie Brains (the project in 2016 involving many artists forming a loose collective) so I was aware of what he was doing but I properly got to know him from when I went bowling with him, Dwarde & LMajor back in 2022 and then he sent me something to work on early last year (another FL Studio producer btw!), which I took my sweet time in starting it but eventually got done & here we are! And for those wondering, the track title (May Contain Traces) alludes to me & Fixate's shared allergy towards nuts (although his is a lot more severe than mine), which was the only thing I could think of to name the track after when it came down to it!

Bézier ripples their way back to Dark Entries with Decompose, an LP of doomed spa music. Multi-instrumentalist Robert Yang has made numerous appearances on Dark Entries for more than a decade, with releases spanning the stylistic gamut from hi-NRG disco floor-fillers to lush ambient epics. Decompose, Bézier’s second LP, is perhaps his most introspective work yet. It is an album almost ten years in the making, a deep investigation of life, loss, and the struggle of knowing oneself. If one were to pull a tarot deck for this album it would be the Nine of Swords. The album honors the lives of the fallen victims of Pulse Nightclub. It honors lives lost or suffering through the ongoing genocide in Gaza. The title track takes the form of a Buddhist chant, a brooding synth-driven meditation that scales steadily until breaking into John Carpenter-esque arpeggios halfway through. Tracks like “Egg,” “Marionette,” and “A Fading Citadel Atop Black Sand Bluffs” build on this soundworld, one in which intricate melodies and cavernous reverb induce in the listener feelings of both claustrophobia and free-fall. The album’s dancefloor-leaning moments, like “Codebreaking” and “Split a Path Towards the Thicket” are spartan, tunnel-vision techno tracks speeding towards ego-death. Decompose chronicles Yang’s journey to find peace with himself, as a gay Asian American. During this process, they learned to “repot” long-lost parts of their identity so they could grow forth in wholesome fashion. The sleeve for Decompose was designed by Eloise Shir-Juen Leigh, and features a photograph by Frankie Casillo of Robert laying on a bed of rocks in savasana pose, resembling an ascetic, evocative of the monastic vibes of the record.

After a series of successful outings alongside sidekicks Ofofo and Zongamin, studio wizard MYTRON turns in his debut solo full-length for Multi Culti World Records. With contributions on Invisible Inc, Calypso, Bongo Joe, Kalahari Oyster Cult, LYO, Codek Records and Earthly Measures, Mytron has carved out a name for himself in a carefully-curated left-field quadrant of the indie-dance galaxy. Tuning his oscillators to myriad sounds — from dub and disco to krautrock — the London-based producer perhaps most notably channels the pristine compositional style of Kraftwerk. While most apparent in the use of vocoder, there’s a consistent efficiency of arrangement that recalls the man-machine in effervescent, idealistic fashion. Mytron manages to keep it simple, funky and musical — whimsical tunes that bop along with analog grit, wilderness, and wonk. There’s a warmth and wit that shine through every synth line, an understated confidence that speaks of years spent tangled in wires and waveforms, with an inclusive sonic eclecticism that flattens hierarchies between genres, geographies, and generations. Each influence is invited to the table, treated not as pastiche but invited to dine and dance in a space where kosmische dub disco and Afro rhythms can coexist without borders. The sleeve design echoes this philosophy: video-feedback patterns hinting at our modern screens, both portals and filters — coloured, distorted intermediaries through which we perceive the world. In the trippiest sense, the record is both reflection and refraction — a sonic mirror held up to an interconnected, glitchy reality. Tailored equally for DJ use and home-listening head trip, the album is meticulous, mischievous and merry.

BanBanTonTon review:

On Mytron’s debut long-player for Multi Culti groovy 21st Century leftfield house gear collides with Daniele Baldelli and Beppe Loda’s hugely influential `80s afro / cosmic. The 9 tracks are chunky, chugging and full of funky, funny noises. Old school B-lines mixing with eccentric electronics. Spinning, spiralling sounds.

Sugar is an electro-pop, vocoder confection, cut from the same sonic cloth as cult classics like Codek’s Tam Tam. Created from tough trap drums, splashing effects and a mutant Giorgio Moroder bass arpeggio. The title track, Propellor, pits Kraftwerk-esque hardware harmonised vocals against a bongo loop and a whistling hook. Playground has simian shrieks surround tumbling tom-toms. Highway Maintenance adds kosmische synths to a dance of woodblocks and buzzing bottom end. Keep On Dubbing is an organ-led, clip clopping percussive canter.

Tracks such as Speaker Can Talk, shot through with disco lasers blasts and recalling Curt Cress’ Dschung Tek, also lift the tempo up, but the bulk of the music here is a mid-tempo, techno drum circle. Squelchy sequences gurgling in and out of programmed percussion. On Quasar, spiky acid edges in and slowly takes over.

Key references that come to mind are Baldelli’s own turn-of-the-2000s Cosmic Sound Project productions, and Wolf Müller’s scene shaking sides on Themes For Great Cites, from around a decade later.

10 years after the original, The Devil Wears Prada 2 picks up in a new era of fashion, ambition, and shifting power—where old rivalries resurface and the runway is fiercer than ever. The soundtrack matches every moment with Lady Gaga, Doechii, Dua Lipa, Miley Cyrus, SZA, RAYE, Laufey, Olivia Dean, and more, delivering the perfect mix of glamour, edge, and reinvention

ABOUT THE FILM

20th Century Studios’ The Devil Wears Prada 2:

Twenty years after making their iconic turns as Miranda, Andy, Emily and Nigel—Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci return to the fashionable streets of New York City and the sleek offices of Runway Magazine in 20th Century Studios’ The Devil Wears Prada 2, the eagerly awaited sequel to the 2006 phenomenon that defined a generation. The film is directed by David Frankel, written by Aline Brosh McKenna, produced by Wendy Finerman, and executive produced by Michael Bederman, Karen Rosenfelt and Aline Brosh McKenna.

Die Vintage Sounds Vinyl Collection präsentiert eine sorgfältig kuratierte Ausgabe ganz im Zeichen der House Music. Der Sampler vereint zeitlose, hochgradig tanzbare Tracks von prägenden Szenegrößen wie Masters At Work, Bob Sinclar, Kings Of Tomorrow, St Germain, DJ Gregory, Joe Smooth und vielen mehr. Funkige Basslines, soulige Vocals und klassische Grooves treffen auf französischen House-Esprit und internationale Club-Anthems. Ein unverzichtbarer Vinyl-Sampler für DJs, Sammler und alle, die House als Lebensgefühl verstehen.

Rhiza Semar presents its fourth chapter with Yildizlara, a four-track odyssey shaped from shadow, rhythm, and elemental texture. Crafted as both visceral tools and introspective journeys, the record navigates between ominous density and luminous release, guided by a deep awareness of space, myth, and matter. As an artist, Hitam paves the way for a new sound emerging from his burrows to build bridges between electronic subgenres while shaping a landscape unmistakably his own. Orb Weaver opens the cycle with jagged IDM rhythms that coil and release like threads of a web pulled taut. Originally composed for the graduation project of fashion designer Tim van der Plas, who's collection was inspired on climbing out of depression, its atmosphere is dark and ceremonial, with textures scraping against silence until catharsis emerges from the tension. A confrontation between inner turmoil and release. On Vanishing of the Anasazi, cavernous reverbs carry traces of lost structures, percussion echoing as if across ruins. A relentless drive holds the ghost of ritual processions, summoning a spectral energy that feels at once monumental and hollowed-out. The track suspends itself between presence and absence, architecture and collapse, leaving the listener in a space where echoes become the only surviving form of memory. Mesh Grip plunges downward into subterranean force. A thundering groove rumbles like minerals being unearthed, goblin-like figures at work in hidden shafts, chiseling away at stone in endless rhythm. From this pressure, a sudden swell of melancholy pads rises, reframing the heaviness with emotional resonance as if the whispers of angelic guardians seep into the caverns, transforming extraction into elegy. What begins as pure drive of endurance evolves into an introspective meditation. Closing the release, Yildizlara unfolds as an epic ascent. Layered rhythms rush forward with urgency, intricate yet propulsive, while chopped vocals bring back a sensual human element, scattering like signals across the night sky. Animalistic atmospheres dart through the mix as spectral cries and furtive movements, adding a primal dimension to the drive. What begins as erratic and untamed slowly converges into warmth and ultimate catharsis: a cosmic tale inscribed in sound, both intimate and monumental, familiar yet born of hidden memory. Yildizlara is both innovative and ancestral; a release where turbulence becomes ritual, and where rhythmic complexity unearths fragments of hidden memory. Beneath its dark and erratic surfaces lies a strange familiarity, like echoes of a primal past resurfacing through sound, reminding us of worlds once known but long concealed. Words by A. Veyra

Scott Pilgrim EX, the newest video game from the Scott Pilgrim franchise developed by Tribute Games, is out now with an all new original soundtrack from Anamanaguchi. The sprawling soundtrack, which accompanies a brand-new storyline co-written by series creator Bryan Lee O’Malley, perfectly connects the band's legendary electronic past with their fuzzed out garage rock present while maintaining their unmistakable punchy style. Known for resonant world building across past projects, the depth of emotion and the range of styles displayed on Scott Pilgrim EX are uniquely Anamanaguchi while delivering a host of melodically anthemic and new energetic hooks that are sure to pack a punch for both newcomers and old school fans of the band alike.

Anamanaguchi's collaborative relationship with the Scott Pilgrim universe goes back to the early days of the band. After cutting their teeth programming music with playable Nintendo cartridges and helping to bring a wider audience to a largely internet based 8-bit chiptune scene, the band was brought in to score the fan-favorite soundtrack for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game. The success of this game soundtrack would help them to launch an early crowdfunding success story with their campaign for their debut album, 2013's Endless Fantasy. From there the band would go on to collaborate with virtual pop star Hatsune Miku (resulting in the perpetually viral, Fortnite featured hit, “Miku”), and later develop the intricately soundscaped compositions displayed across their second album, USA, but throughout it all the connection between the band and the Scott Pilgrim universe would remain a pivotal source of inspiration.

After being brought in to score the animated Netflix series, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, in 2023, band members Peter Berkman and Luke Silas would credit the live kinetic energy they channeled when writing songs for the in-universe garage band Sex Bob-Omb with helping them get back in touch with the roots of how they learned to play music even before Anamanaguchi's earliest releases.  This process would eventually lead to Peter and Luke alongside the remaining two band members — Ary Warnaar and James DeVito — flipping their typically meticulous digital writing process for the more collaborative, straight to tape, distorted angst that can be found on 2025's Anyway, marking another significant evolutionary turn for the band to come out of their relationship with Scott Pilgrim.  

Now fresh off the heels of a nationwide tour in support of Anyway, Anamanaguchi have returned to the 8-bit beat em up world of Scott Pilgrim with a relentlessly high energy and genre defying original soundtrack for Scott Pilgrim EX.  A return to form that comes with a depth of knowledge and innovative skills that have allowed the band to continue to evolve and grow alongside the characters in the Scott Pilgrim universe and the multi-generational fanbase that continues to follow along with them.

The new soundtrack for the latest installment in the Scott Pilgrim franchise, Scott Pilgrim EX

Svogue label delivers its fourth vinyl only reference with a brilliant and versatile
journey into breaks, house, dub and a touch of electro.
No peak time or standing out tracks this time but solid underground clubbing cuts,
fully shaped through a completely analog path and fashioned with attention to details.
Matteo showcases once again his vision serving an immersive listening experience
via a nimble blend of slapping drums, dreamy synths, warm grooves and emotional
strains.

Rekids begins 2016 with the launch of an exciting new talent. South Korea-born DJ and producer Peggy Gou has been honing her production skills since her days in London. Having moved to the UK capital at age 14, she began producing tracks at a prodigious rate while studying university, honing her sound and refining her skills with advice from some of the city's most renowned DJs and producers until she had crafted an initial selection that will form her debut EP, set for release Rekids in January 2016.

Now based in Berlin, Gou has drawn on her years of DJing to help shape a sound that draws on Detroit & NYC house, as well as the African rhythmic sensibility and boogie funk influences she shares with Early Sounds duo Nu Guinea, with whom she had piano lessons and sought production advice from as her music took shape. In addition to her work as a stylist and fashion producer, Gou has also drawn on her art & design abilities to create the EP artwork.

The Art of War 12" includes two original productions plus a remix from White Material's Galcher Lustwerk. The original mix of Troop centres on a funk bassline which propels its dream-like tropical groove, while Lustwerk's remix re-purposes the track as a Fred P-esque jazz-infused star-gazer. The EP's other original production, In Sum, again asserts Gou's talent for raw, propulsive rhythms and subtle melodies.

ANiML comprises accomplished and storied electronic artists. Their Stratasonic label has become a respected home for their freeform musical explorations, with no genre restrictions. They often call on friends and influential pioneers to collaborate on releases, and the originals they produce are defined by improvisation, creative songwriting, and intentional collisions of different moods and grooves.

'Unioness' is a tender but crisp late-night sound. Soft, jazzy melodies drift over orchestral swells with drum breaks cascading below. Abstracted vocals and serene strings further enrich this sophisticated sound, which draws on soundtracks and instrumental soul groups.

Stoned Autopilot is an alias of long-time studio magician Martin Buttrich, who is also part of Better Lost Than Stupid and has a fulsome catalogue on many of the scene's most recognisable labels. His dub rides smooth waves with aching vocals melting into the mix, and the melodies looped, smudged, and smeared in hypnotic fashion.

The second rework comes from DJ Sneak, the hugely prolific and consistent Chicago house innovator whose famously raw, tracky sound keeps him in a class of one. His fantastic Big Bawse Re-Rub brings a rolling four-four groove, a delicate sprinkling of percussion, and a loopy rhythm that locks you in and zones you out as curious melodies unfurl up top.

Contains tracks by Amon Tobin, Two Fingers, and Cujo previously only available to members of The Nomark Club, Nomark’s online subscription service.
NOMARK SELECTS Vol.1 includes the first new Cujo music since the Adventures in Foam album (1996)
A compilation of previously publicly unavailable tracks selected by the members of Nomark's online subscription service, The Nomark Club. The album features work from Amon, Two Fingers and sees the return of Cujo, Tobin's earliest alter ego.

2025 REPRESS ON TRANSPARENT GREEN VINYL


Compiled by Philip King “And then came the rise of synth pop : blokes with dodgy haircuts hunched over keyboard-operated machines stuffed with wires and do-it-yourself tone oscillators making sounds like a brood of geese passing gas in a wind tunnel. Whoopee! This is the way the ‘70s ended : not with a blood-curdling bang bang but with a cheap, synthesized, emasculating whimper.” NICK KENT, NME. All The Young Droids: Junkshop Synth Pop 1978-1985 is a new compilation that charts the underbelly of the epoch-defining sound of the synthesiser in 80s popular music. Compiled by Philip King (previously seen compiling All The Young Droogs, Glitterbest and Boobs - The Junkshop Glam Discotheque), the music here connects the dots between DIY synth enthusiasts grappling with new, cheap synthesisers at the tail-end of punk and wannabe, jobbing songwriters enthral to the new music pioneered by Gary Numan, Depeche Mode and Daniel Miller’s Mute Records. Featuring rare tracks of auto-didactic progressive pop music, proto-techno punk, shoot-for-the-stars-land-in-the-gutter chart flops and heralded, underground synth classics, School Daze paints a picture of beautiful failure. Complete with extensive sleeve notes written by King and never before seen imagery, all 24 tracks were remastered by RPM in-house engineer Simon Murphy, many from vinyl copies due to lost master tapes. The story told on All The Young Droids is one of the dawning opportunity presented by both the emergence to the market of cheaper analog synthesisers and the distribution networks plus indie labels that exploded with the advent of punk music in 1976. While the music that sprouted out all over the globe in the wake of these factors was decried as fake, plastic, a refutation of punk’s guitar-led revolution, it’s telling that much of the music on All The Young Droids.. was created in bedrooms, ramshackle studios and home-made set ups with often borrowed equipment. In the era of record labels jumping to capitalise on the success of The Sex Pistols, The Clash (both on major labels, of course) these artists struggled to stand out from a new gold-rush with next to no budget or PR team. With radio and labels desperate for the new Yazoo, what resulted was a testament to necessity being the mother of invention. At the time, the synthesiser was the music of the future, a shiny new machine that could paint like an orchestra with a single finger and a 4-track. In the hands of Manchester avant-pranksters Gerry & The Holograms it’s a pulsing, sardonic weapon.. the only instrument on the Messthetics classic lampooning of New Wave fashion. In Hamburg, a 16 year old Andreas Dorau used it to write and record (with his female classmates on vocals) a global smash in Fred Vom Jupiter (later licensed to Mute Records). The hard-to-find English version (Fred From Jupiter, natch) is included here. Many artists with alreadystoried careers caught the bug and recorded synthesiser-fuelled peons to space, computers, the future and, of course, love-interests. Harry Kakoulli, late of Squeeze, recorded a solo album in 1979 that included the incredible power-synth-pop smash-that-never-smashed I’m On A Rocket. Similarly, Ian North of Neo and American Power Pop stalwarts Milk ’n’ Cookies bought a Korg MS20 and used a tape machine to record We’re Not Lonely, an absolute lost-classic of minimal synth pop. We’re Not Lonely also features on the Junkshop Synth Pop sampler 7” twinned with John Howard unreleased track You Will See, released April 12th 2025. There are plenty of compilation debuts in evidence. Sole Sister were a mysterious trio who were featured on the Scaling Triangles compilation of female-fronted, queer-adjacent post-punk / underground music that also featured The Petticoats. Selwin Image were from San Francisco and featured members of the recently defunct power pop/punk group The Pushups. Their stupidly catchy The Unknown fizzes with New Wave energy - think XTC to Sparks but remains unreleased until now. Dream Unit’s A Drop In The Ocean is an early synth wave cut, positively teaming with Joy Division instrumentation, previously only released on a long-forgotten and super rare, self-released EP. Incandescent Luminaire’s Famous Names belies an archetypal struggle of a small-town trying to make it in a cruel industry but is a thrilling New Romantic-Synth Wave cross over with a OMD gloominess that’s a joy to hear. Feminist Minimal Wave track I Am A Time Bomb by performance artist Peta Lilly and Michael Chance is a revelation destined for new found cult status. It was released on 7” and lost until now. The flipside to the subterranean, never-made-it synth pop mentioned above are the ambitious, even fruity attempts at success that have a perennial elegance to their confidence. New Jersey-ite Billy London (real name Ed Barth) tried to cash in on the synth boom with Woman, released by a major label, a lurching new wave track built on the Louie Louie rhythm and a wonderfully camp Lou Reedstyle sleazy vocal before exploding in the synthesised chorus. The song bombed but with a chorus like this, you have to wonder why? Ex-Glitter Band member John Springate’s My Life is truly epic, with doomed chord progressions and massive sounding drums turning into at least 3 different songs in the course of the track. Before you wonder what’s going on the song resolves with a glorious return to the main refrain. The dry-ice-dressed dance floor is well catered for too. Design’s Premonition and Vision’s Lucifer’s Friend are stone-cold minimal synth bangers, well loved but given a new lease of life here. The Warlord’s The Ultimate Warlord was released in 1978, a homespun proto Hi NRG banger that was later re-recorded by The Immortals in Canada who had a club hit with it. One-man- band Disco Volante’s No Motion was re-issued by Synth wave label Medical in 2012 but makes its first vinyl compilation appearance here. Close your eyes and you can imagine what Lawrence of Felt would have sounded like with some cheap Korgs a little earlier in his career. Gibraltar-based trio The Microbes imagined a computer programming people to dance - how prescient - and ended up with a propulsive, robo-funk track with splendid rubbery bass playing over a tectonic drum machine. Previously picked up by Belgian label Stroom TV, Dee Jay Bert & Eagle’s heavily Euro-accented I Am Your Master demands the listener to “come to paradise!” In a frankly terrifying manner. All The Young Droids is the first compilation to peel away from the narrative that dour, Minimal Synth and Cold Wave were the only musical children of the first rush of synth pop. Philip King and School Daze Records describe a much more complicated world: along with the austere, Brutalist children of Daniel Miller (who produced Alan Burnham’s Bowie-Low-influenced Science Fiction here) was a plethora of desperate cash-ins, accidental mainstream hits, ambitious pop dramas and major label punts that went nowhere. Crucially, the compilation blurs the line between junk and treasure. What if the two things are interchangeable. What if it’s all science fiction?

Over the past decade, East London artist Kojey Radical has cemented himself as one of the most creative and unique voices in British music. His debut album Reason to Smile (2022) was released to critical acclaim, and saw him emerge as one of the defining voices in UK culture. Now, the 32-year-old readies to release his second album Don’t Look Down.

“I wanted to make this album more personal and more honest,” he says, “we have to be able to accept that the messenger has flaws and all.

16-tracks long, Don’t Look Down, set for release on 19th September 2025, is a musically rich and deeply introspective reflection on the shifting tides, lows and joys that have passed through his life since his emergence into the public eye.

Sonically, the album provides the most experimental and eclectic music of his career, with influences ranging from golden age Hip Hop to disco, grime to Indie, Jazz to Ska. Together, these strings combine to give a pertinent insight into Kojey’s inner world, and a timestamp documenting the feelings, emotions and experiences that arise when many reach the milestone of their 30s.

“When you’re younger, certain ages seem so grown,” he says, “you feel like you’re supposed to have your life together and all figured out by 30. Then especially when you're in the spotlight you feel extra pressure to have it figured out because so many people are looking towards you.”

Don’t Look Down follows debut album Reason to Smile (2022). A critical success, it landed at No.11 on the UK Album Charts and was nominated for the Mercury Prize as well as two MOBO Awards. In the following year came a nomination for Best New Artist at 2023 BRIT Awards and Best Contemporary Song at the Ivor Novello Awards. He toured across the UK, as well as hitting the festival circuit.

This sense of growth was not limited to music. Kojey was tapped by the British Fashion Council to host the 2023 and 2024 editions of The Fashion Awards as his stock in music and wider culture continued to rise.

The album he says, is a reflection of “the experiences I’ve had over the past few years. That shaped the direction I took going forward. It’s given me the opportunity to tell new stories from newer perspectives. It was liberating, and it was very necessary to keep me in love with the process and to keep making music.”

The result is his most innovative album yet, a project where a sense of profound personal interrogation and introspection dance in union with the rich musical tapestry. Don’t Look Down is a story of purpose lost and then found, of what happens in the aftermath of achieving your childhood dreams, and the ranging flux of emotions that rise to the surface once the music stop

Disco Mind Records impressed everyone with its first EP and now it deals with the pressure of coming back with a second in fine fashion. This one is perfect for warm days and summer nights as it offers four high-impact and gloriously feel-good Brazilian and disco edits all pulled off to perfection. New young talent Brother Julian kicks off with a peak time and groovy burner, then disco don Romand Truth goes a little more deep and smooth with his seductive sound. Delfonic offers the percussive Latin grooves of 'Nada is Going to Change' and 'Grito de Guerra' is another upbeat open-air rhythm.

SPTLP008 - Aural Imbalance - Fractional Spaces LP

Returning for his third solo album on Spatial, Aural Imbalance continues his journey through the cosmos with a breathtaking array of breaks, bass and inimitable ambient wizardry.

A1 - Fading Reality

Kicking off the album we are treated to a blissfully ambient intro akin to a perfect sunrise across a tranquil unfurling landscape - just as we have come to know and love from Aural Imbalance. Long, airy washes of textured pads usher in a fantastically snappy break pattern which brings an alluring energy to proceedings, driving the track along with funnels of tuneful melodies lazily drifting by in the ambience.

A2 - This Time

Jumping right into the breaks DJ-style with a delicious Hot Pants pattern, This Time's central theme utilises a hypnotic simple but effective chime melody that plays a key role throughout the track, alongside fluttering birdsong and a luscious array of samples. The exquisite breakdown which delights with an incredible blend of bass atmospheric synths & pads is both beautiful and poignant.

B1 - Always With You

Introduced by what sounds like footsteps echoing through the darkness, Always With You lives up to its title by surrounding you with a warmth usually reserved for arriving home and nestling by the fire. Driven by delicate but vibrant breakbeats, this track showcases Aural Imbalance's relentless dexterity with ambient soundscapes dancing in perfect harmony with deep 808 bass and old school beats.

B2 - Solarity

Lightly excitable hats and elegantly filtered breaks open Solarity, a deeply evocative track with breakbeats rising through the intro towards a drop with solid analogue kicks and a wonderfully deep and persistent bassline. Sporadic micro melodies cruise the waves of floating synthwork, effects rippling gently in the foreground and background of the mix like playful phosphorescence.

C1 - First Protocol

Up next we see Aural Imbalance crack the amen knuckles with a real treat for old school heads - an ambient, synthy ambient laden with incredibly light spaced-out hats through the flowing waves is soon jolted into life by a satisfyingly crisp amen break, edited and programmed with flair and majestic detail that sits perfectly with the light, often sullen textured soundscape drifting above.

C2 - Crystals

An otherworldly landscape brimming with wonder and intrigue unfolds with Crystals, an atmospheric delight with a twist. The serene opening leads into a terrific old school break which takes center stage, punchy in the mix and edited with a precision as shimmering textures and meditative synthwork are expertly layered around the ever-rolling beats, perfect for any occasion at home or the 160bpm dancefloor.

D1 - Velarious

Continuing his showcase of breaks from across the atmospheric drum & bass spectrum, Aural Imbalance introduces Velarious with a quietly epic ambient flow, with filtered drums creeping in before the drop arrives, breakbeats buoyed by some seriously deep 808 bass and distinct hi hats. Micro melodies intersect and reverberate throughout the track to complete an enduring and eclectic composition.

D2 - South Coast Sunrise

Closing with a good old fashioned love letter to the Hot Pants break, South Coast Sunrise perfectly encapsulates its title with a gorgeous panoramic overlay of ambience, spread over an intensely memorable edit of that classic break - programmed and mixed to remarkable effect and cementing Aural Imbalance's ongoing rise as a master of edits as well as ambience, fully realised for our listening pleasure on Spatial.

SPTLP007 - ASC - Vanishing Point LP

Evolving further with each release, ASC delivers his latest monumental album on Spatial, a varied and memorable journey through stunningly realised fusion of modern and classic atmospheric breakbeats.

A1 - Mystic Street

Setting a murky tone with light cymbals and synthwork flecking the intro, Mystic Street calmly purrs and growls towards a drop of analogue kicks and a sparse, menacing drum pattern to kick off this incredible album. Enveloped by a dense cloud of darkly atmospherics, the track coils with tension, each element rippling through the mix like distant memories as the suitably enigmatic bassline rumbles beneath.

A2 - Convergence

Straight into the beats with a DJ-friendly two step intro, ASC utilises sparse, sci-fi hits and persistent danceable breakbeats with a melodic bassline. As the atmosphere builds, percussive tones punctuate the swirling pads, creating a luscious sense of forward motion with echoing samples and effects combining in the mix to create a dreamlike soundscape perfect for the dancefloor and headphones alike.

B1 - Invisible Borders

No ASC album would be complete without an amen workout, and we certainly have that here as Invisible Borders rushes into view with simmering intent, melodic samples tore from battlegrounds of yesteryear providing a truly epic atmosphere, rippling breakbeat trickery teasing the listener before crushing full contact amens arrive with panache and veracity - twisted across yearning bass with an unflinching fighting spirit.

B2 - Celestial Bodies

Up next a moment of calm as we soak up the charms of the dreamlike Celestial Bodies, a soothing journey of beats, breaks and atmosphere from Spatial's label head. Melodic notes ripple across the mix with old school breaks filtering to and fro, conjuring images of a cosmic journey unfolding, where old school breakbeat rhythms pulse like distant constellations, echoes shimmering in the vast expanse of ASC's versatility.

C1 - Losing Track Of Time

Into an absolute stunner next as ASC unleashes a modern classic which has a wonderfully instant familiarity to it - like it was lifted directly from the golden era of atmospheric drum & bass. The old school breaks have a distinctive feel while a variety of pads teaming with life swirl around above. A myriad of spirited melodies develop and maintain your attention with classic 808 basslines to complete this remarkable composition.

C2 - Slipstream

Switching up the vibe in style, ASC delivers an intense, cosmic intro to Slipstream which builds gradually with whooshing effects and long female vocals before a crisp, crunchy slice of Hot Pants breakbeat heaven tears through the mix, chock-full of excitable edits portrayed in a brilliant clarity. Warm sub bass punctuates the track while a reverberating earworm melody slowly etches itself into your mind.

D1 - Paradigm Shift

A good old fashioned roller up next as Paradigm Shift sees ASC blend a superb 2-step rhythm with a sumptuous smooth bassline - guaranteed to move the dancefloor. Atmospherics take no back seat either as elegant synthwork swirls and washes across the soundscape with subtly used vocal samples adding texture and warmth to an impressively layered mix that maintains its pace right through to an echoing conclusion.

D2 - Transmitter

Sending us back to interstellar space for an inspired mission through vast unexplored star systems, Transmitter sees ASC create a stunningly evocative, ethereal collage of atmospherics with sonar-like beeps punctuating and persisting throughout. Driving the track along are the superbly programmed drums, filtered and layered with twisted, distorted vocal samples to complete this exhilarating album in pure Spatial style.

Our journeys into uncharted lands of the Reducerverse continue.

Essential must-buy shit for all disciples of: The Rootsman x Muslimgauze, Love's Secret Domain era Coil, Chris & Cosey, Meat Beat Manifesto, early Reinforced Recs, Shut Up & Dance, He Dark Age, Zombies Under Stress, SPK.

If you've just joined us: Reducer ARE the greatest lost dub punks. Rumoured to have almost signed to On-U Sound but told Sherwood to stuff it when he wanted his hands on the desk. Fame never found them, cos they didn't want it anyway. Living in the obscure memories of the select squatters and weirdos lucky enough to have had their minds blown, their first recordings were scraped off the linings of the cosmic dustbin recently through a series of self-released 12"s, cassettes, USBs and strangest of all a 3D performance screened at the Cube (in association with pals Bokeh Versions).

In short: Reducer's the most thrilling fairytale resurrection these pages have been privy to, joining 23 Skidoo, Killing Joke, PiL, Slits, Terminal Cheescake etc on the Mount Olympus of the Punky Reggae Party.

This latest slice of karmic justice comes from The Human Aerial aka Reducer's guitarist and prime mover Hooly. And ohhhh what a justice it is. Drawing on 40 years of private solo recordings across 7 tracks from Abu Ama style dabke jaguar steppas punishment to thumping bass-led electro, peak Depth Charge dubby big beat to careening breakbeat hardcore, trashcan gamelan spirituals and Jamie Vex'd style maximalist beats blissouts,

Tying together this jaw-dropping range of styles and fashions is a relentless sampladelic bombardment. The Human Aerial's habitual pilfering of TV and radio for into lovingly spliced tape loops and samples showcases humanity at its best and absolute worst. Tele-evangelists rub shoulders with long dead chieftans: "there is no death, only change of worlds" "We're MAD AS HELL AND WERE NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANYMORE" "THe land is sacred, a cathedral of the spirit". These wisdoms and grave sins slip into us subliminal through the dance, the needle drops like a waking dream.

While the Reducer archives may be running low, we assure you the Human Aerial coffers are full. And long may our minds be blown by this ongoing renaissance.

Opsin- the new collaborative alias of longtime friends and producers Keydell and Kincaid - announce their debut LP on wax, Through The Wall, from London-based record label Hypnic Jerks.

Artist Info:

Opsin is the debut project between artists Keydell (Liam Keydell Myers-Cook) and Kincaid (Joe Arthur). The Pair have previously released on the following labels: Well Street Records, Banoffee Pies, Redstone Press & Bliss Print.

Both have extensive work in sound design and collaborated on the soundtrack for Mithridate at London Fashion Week 2024. Kincaid also produced the soundtrack for Alexander Whitley's Anti-Body Ballet.

Release Info:

The album is named after the birthplace of its creation. Sharing files between bedroom walls during COVID-19. Keydell's meticulous Ableton-based resampling of found audio and modular synth racks, and Kincaid's Reaktor-driven synthesis in Logic.

Draws on a wide spectrum of electronic influences the album infuses elements of rave, techno, industrial and ambient sounds, whilst never quite landing in any specific genre.

Second release from London label Hypnic Jerks on 4 sides of 180 gram vinyl, in a gatefold sleeve designed by Jacob Wise and mastered by Rashad Becker.

A followup from their first release - Toumba's debut physical release 'Rosefinch', which saw later releases from Hessle Audio and Nervous Horizon.

Experienced Dutch producer Tom Ruijg rightly won praise for his first 12' as Tracey, Skyfall, which surfaced on Voyage Direct in early 2017. Combining elements seemingly inspired by vintage Detroit futurism, '90s ambient techno and his own love of colourful synthesizer melodies, the EP saw Tracey set out his stall in impressive fashion.
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Compare and contrast, for example, the two A-side cuts. While Testarossa' is far-sighted and spacey, with Tracey wrapping intergalactic electronics and lilting synthesizer melodies around a darting synthesizer bassline and swinging, electro-influenced house drums, Sidekick' is blissful and almost overwhelmingly melodious: all 16-bit new age motifs, head-in-the-clouds electronics and driving, locked-in machine drums.

The contrasts continue on the B-side, too. Many DJs may instinctively be drawn towards Made My Love', whose energy-packed groove (think vintage Chicago jack with a dollop of slick NYC house soul) is peppered with spacey chords, undulating electronic motifs and glacial melodies. Yet the track that follows, the wild and windy electro workout that is Interceptor', is every bit as potent when played over club sound systems. The track's inherent hustle, seemingly the product of Ruijg's darting synth stabs and feverish audio textures, is almost impossible to resist.