Buscar:flicker rhythm records

Year 3673. The frequencies have taken hold. What began as scattered transmissions from the underground has become an infection. Across the dead zones, abandoned receivers flicker back to life. Forbidden rhythms bleed through the static. Citizens once numb to the Global Order's neural grip are beginning to move again. But something else has awakened with them. Deep beneath the ruins, an unknown signal has begun answering SHIFT's transmissions. Its origin is untraceable. Its frequency predates the network. Those exposed report visions, lost time and an uncontrollable urge to follow the sound. The Global Order calls it contamination. SHIFT calls it evolution. A new generation has been born into the resistance; raised on distorted circuitry, machine funk and frequencies never meant for human ears. The signal is spreading. Do not adjust your receiver.

2026 Repress

Macedonia's own Stojche is Fuse's next guest for the club's freshly made imprint. The long standing DJ and producer has been known to keep Detroit's playfully hybrid style as the focus of his work and 'Metaphor' is the case in point. His four tracks bounce through a nostalgic balance of techno, house, and more with a modern crisp. A refreshing take on club music, Stojche keeps techno's sometimes nonchalant attitude at arms length with a charismatic record that hits its mark with every measure.


The record's first track 'Counterpunch' features heavily lined percussion but still brews up a storm far and wide with resonant dub stabs and open hi hats. The drum machine boasts a full spectrum, rolling through a light show of melodic flashes, perfect for a room compressing soundsystem. The maximalist, vintage detail that Stojche brings to his compositions blurs the lines between classic genres in a time of hasty hybridization, which gives it a sort of authenticity that can't be taken for granted. 'Chordal Tribe', on the other hand, raises the general euphoria of the EP. Luring in the listener with bright pads and full-on drums, Stochje's work is reliable main slot material that adds color to any mix while providing a persuasive low end. Shimmering hi hats give it an ethereal quality making it an appropriate interlude for almost any context. Moving on to the B side, the producer sharpens up his rhythm and emphasizes the hardgroove influence in 'Signal Drive'. Softening the pace of his drums with free use of melodic chord stabs, Stojche opens up his dance floor for a crowd bonding record once again, complete with filter transitions and pummeling toms. As the final contribution, his title track 'Metaphor' begins with a more obscure opening to conclude his EP for Fuse. Leaning more to a techno cut, the record remains flamboyant as ever with open hats and rides shuffling through his arrangement. A muted main synth becomes apparent to focus the energy of the track while allowing for liveset-like drum flickering to take shape beneath, claiming the immortality of old club records with the technical precision of a seasoned modern producer.

2026 Repress!

Tresor Records is delighted to welcome Rod Modell to its catalogue, with the release of his new album Captagon.
Rod Modell needs no introduction, his various projects render him a master of techno. In repetition and barely noticeable change, Modell resculptures perceptions. His sound-design echoes cinematic ethereality, where ferric artefacts slam against percussion, rusty delays filter observation - the resulting web is a complex, radiating ambience that etches a natural ebb and flow.

Transformative sounds alight from the outset, “Triangulation” recalls flickering harmonies and grains, a tectonic swipe. Fast-paced dub techno emerges in “Reiki”, the disorienting clangs suggesting a step away from his recent ambient excursions. “Ito” crunches the pulse further with insistent noise, into soaring epiphanies of darkened transmissions.
Modell singularly uproots standard sonic hierarchies of techno production, crisp static as forceful as his beats, a provocation of rhythm and noise. Unceasing in its fast tempo, “Jade” is trademark Tresor business - the seismic sub-sonics underpin a momentous drive, with reverberated vocal inflections disfiguring warped, dancing materials. “Scrawler” is upfront and direct, a slamming groove and swaying chords di using ethereality. Enter vast chambers of smeared minimalism.
Where Modell’s recent releases had indicated a priority for ambient sounds, this new album extends Modell’s essential vision within techno. Closing track “Air-Port” shows Modell at his most crucial best - an ethereal colossus of sub-bass weight and morphing geometry.

Adam Freeland relaunches Marine Parade with the ‘Transhuman’ EP, a collaboration with Spooky’s Duncan Forbes and the first of three releases set to arrive throughout the year. Available to stream now, the title track previews a deeper, more atmospheric direction ahead of Freeland's first solo material in sixteen years and the first new music on Marine Parade since 2009.

Across Adam Freeland and Duncan Forbes’ ‘Transhuman’ EP, broken rhythms sit subtly beneath spacious arrangements, while flickering synths, sci-fi -infused vocals and static-charged textures create an immersive, cinematic feel. It's a sound that reflects both Freeland's longstanding love of dub and Techno and the distance gained from stepping away from the dance music landscape in the 2010s.

Best known for his seminal ‘Coastal Breaks’ mix album and a run of acclaimed releases, remixes, and mix compilations spanning Fabric Live, Global Underground and Back To Mine, Adam Freeland spent a decade living off -grid in California’s Mojave Desert, while also working with Ry X to form The Acid, a band that has since released the ‘Liminal’ LP on Mute/Infectious, penned a film score and toured to great acclaim from well outside the electronic world.

Joining Adam Freeland is Duncan Forbes, one half of pioneering UK duo Spooky, whose landmark releases on Guerilla Records and influential debut album ‘Gargantuan’ helped define the early ambient Techno and progressive House movements. In the decades since, Forbes has continued to evolve through projects including collaborations with Mr. G and Sasha, as well as recent solo releases via Enzo Siragusa’s Fuse London and his own 49North imprint.

The ‘Transhuman’ EP marks the beginning of a new chapter for Marine Parade, with two further EPs from Freeland scheduled throughout 2026. The label will also expand with forthcoming material from longtime friends and previous label artists Evil Nine, alongside a new generation of talent joining the roster.

'Nicolò's Static forays deep into liminal space, where signal decays, rhythm stutters and sub-pressure thrums.
'The four-track EP is the inaugural transmission from Nicolò’s own Exploring Records. Melancholy bleeds through the frequencies, yet the pulse remains restless, insectoid, off- kilter.
'Here we pace darkened corridors of flickering projections and half-remembered futures, setting the direction for what’s next...'

The Reloved series – Four Flies Records’ ongoing project where today’s producers reimagine select gems from the golden age of Italian library music and soundtracks – welcomes a new chapter from the formidable pairing of Nicola Conte and Nico Lahs.

The tracks reworked in this vinyl EP all originate from the first half of the 1970s, a period when a fascination with African imagery and sounds was so pervasive among Italian composers that it became a prominent cultural and aesthetic trend. Applying their refined touch, Conte and Lahs have expanded the rhythmic and atmospheric potential of the original recordings without the need for invasive overwriting. Instead, they have emphasized the unique identity of each piece, adding a contemporary club energy that remains entirely respectful of the original spirit, structure, and essence.

The EP opens with Piero Umiliani’s “Nel Villaggio” (originally found on the 1975 library album Continente Nero), which Conte and Lahs have filtered through a hypnotic, sensual tribal-house lens. Side A continues with “Orgiastic Ritual”, a reimagining of Gianfranco Reverberi’s main theme for Black Magic Rites (Renato Polselli’s 1973 erotic-horror film), which elevates the original percussive groove, amplifying its ritualistic dimension and drawing the listener into a mesmeric sonic spiral.

On side B, “Oasi nella Giungla” – from Giuliano Sorgini’s Africa Oscura (recorded in 1974) – takes a more minimalist, electronic approach: the original material remains front and centre, enveloped in delays and subtle rhythmic touches. Closing the EP is Romolo Grano and Gianni Oddi’s “Kilimangiaro”, originally composed for the 1974 documentary Le Montagne della Luce; through the use of sampling and loops, Conte and Lahs transform it into an elegant afro-house cut, at once sleekly restrained and irresistibly magnetic.

This is undoubtedly the most club-oriented instalment of the Reloved series to date, propelling Italy’s library music heritage from the flickering screens and analogue airwaves of the past onto the dancefloors of the present.

2026 Repress

Laster Records launches with a powerful VA featuring Alarico, Yanamaste, Chontane and
Roll Dann

Spanish's techno movement force Laster expands its vision with the launch of Laster Records, inaugurating the label with a fierce various artists EP forged for peak-time madness and emotional depth. The debut release, Laster Records VA001, brings together four essential voices in modern techno: Alarico, Yanamaste, Chontane and Roll Dann, each contributing a distinctive cut to a shared narrative of intensity and evolution.

The A-side opens with Alarico's "Of Which Sugars", a gritty, percussive storm of fast-paced
techno, where tension builds through syncopated rhythms and distorted grooves. Following is
Yanamaste's "Disconnection", a cerebral track infused with cold atmospheres, broken patterns and a sense of controlled chaos - reflecting the Georgian artist's unmistakable mental approach.

On the flip, Chontane delivers "Palindrome", a futuristic and dynamic tool with flickering synth stabs and machine funk energy. The EP closes with Roll Dann's "The Red House", a cinematic and melancholic trip through layered textures and deep basslines, paying homage to the label's own mythology.

Laster Records VA001 sets the tone for a label that, like its club roots, is raw, inclusive, and
uncompromising.

See you under the red light.

Alien D, aka Daniel Creahan, is a staple in the NYC underground, known for his releases on labels including Lillerne, 1432 R and Banlieue Records. On his latest album, For the Early Hours of a World in Bloom – his first for Theory Therapy – Creahan takes us deeper into the dubby landscapes of his previous work, with a renewed focus on groove and movement.

Where Lillerne’s Spiritual World leaned toward ambient abstraction, Early Hours pulses with kinetic energy, with tracks like “Soil Dub” and “Sleepy’s Gambit” propelling us forward with dubwise rhythms crafted for the dancefloor.

The album thrives on its infectious, steady groove, with repeating phrases and subtle shifts that keep the music in constant motion. Nowhere is this more evident than on the gentle roller, “Breather.” Over 13 minutes, Creahan lets small variations in tone and a propulsive low-end evolve gradually alongside Ben Seretan’s guitar.

While Early Hours embraces a more rhythmic direction, it still retains the eccentricity and atmosphere that defines Alien D’s sound. Conceived in the first days after the COVID lockdown, there’s a hopeful quality to the music – flickering tones, soft percussive elements and organic textures that hover just behind the beat – making it feel both intimate and expansive. It’s as though Creahan has bottled those transcendent moments that can occur during the early hours of a party, when everything feels suspended in a state of potential.

Run time - 33 minutes



Credits:

Written & produced by Daniel Creahan

Guitar on 'Breather' by Ben Seretan

Mastered by Special Guest DJ

Cover & design by Gary Hunter

Chalo & Vell return with Made From Moss Volume 2, marking the next step in their collaborative EP series. This four-track of club rollers explores a range of styles and tempos, each track anchored by distinctive rhythms and textures aimed squarely at the dancefloor.

Bangkok, despite being a bustling metropolis, boasts a music scene that feels as intimate and vibrant as those found in smaller European cities. It’s a place where local creatives from various disciplines come together, leaving their artistic imprint across the city. This collaborative energy resonates through Boiled Wonderland’s catalog, which features artists like DOTT, Sarayu, and Chalo—pioneers of Thailand’s burgeoning underground music movement. Both DOTT and Sarayu are co-founders of the record store and label More Rice Records, while Chalo plays a pivotal role as the mastering engineer at Thailand’s pressing plant, Resurrecc. It’s here that the Made From Moss project took root.

While Boiled Wonderland continues to champion eclectic and boundary-pushing music, its sonic direction has evolved to embrace a more dancefloor-oriented approach. This shift reflects the label’s immersion in Bangkok’s electrifying club culture and the inspiration drawn from the city’s warm, sunlit atmosphere.

The Made From Moss series emerged from a creative dialogue between Chalo and label founder Vell. Moss, with its simplicity yet dynamic nature, became the symbolic foundation for a series focused on rhythmically driven, danceable tracks. This vision also sparked the creation of Mosspit events and welcomed MetalMetal as a core contributor.

Chalo’s opener, Feeling, weaves house-inflected vocals with acid synth lines, building a steady groove that carries effortlessly to the finish. Tolerance Break follows, layering dynamic snares, tight breaks, and basslines that pulse with energy. On the B-side, Vell leads with The Ship Rolls Through, a euphoric roller balanced by flickering sound effects that keep the track grounded. Back To Normality closes the EP, leaning into progressive tones with bouncing bass lines that sizzle toward a breaking point, bringing the EP to a close.

The record is already receiving support from the likes of: Ploy, Mixtress, Raresh, Space Dimension Controller, Jennifer Cardini, Answer Code Request and many more.

repressed !

● Essential 14 track collection of "WaJazz" music selected and compiled by renowned Japanese jazz expert Yusuke Ogawa, owner of the Universounds record store in Tokyo.

● Gatefold 180g heavy double vinyl LP. Comes with extensive track-by-track liner notes by Yusuke Ogawa.

● All tracks licensed by Nippon Columbia, Tokyo, Japan.

● Mastering and lacquer cut by Jukka Sarapää at Timmion Cutting Lab, Helsinki, Finland.

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Universounds, HMV Record Shop and 180g team up for an exceptional release: from blazing hard bop to free jazz, to introspective saxophone solos and massive big band sounds, renowned Japanese jazz expert Yusuke Ogawa presents an essential 14 track collection of "WaJazz" music taken from the Nippon Columbia vaults. Featuring Jiro Inagaki, Minoru Muraoka, Hiroshi Suzuki, Hozan Yamamoto, Count Buffalo, Takeshi Inomata, and much more!

"Japanese jazz has been recognized and celebrated by music lovers worldwide for decades. The origins of this trend may be traced back to the rare groove movement that flourished in the 1990s, but its current deep and wide popularity seems to be connected to the fact that Japanese people have been reevaluating their own jazz since the mid-2000s, locally referred to as WaJazz ("Wa" meaning Japan but also theShōwa emperor period, from 1926 to 1989). Since the beginning of the 2000s, there has been a growing trend to move away from the DJ-focused perspective and to appreciate jazz with a deeper understanding. Nowadays, there is more and more interest in the background and roots in which jazz has developed in Japan, with Japanese jazz as a whole now considered as its own distinctive genre.

Of course, even if we speak about "WaJazz" as one genre, there is a truly wide variety of styles within it. However, when Japanese musicians play, there is something uniquely Japanese flowing through that creates a kind of synergy. It may be the melody, the rhythm, or even something deeper, like an inexpressible flicker. I would be happy if some of its charms and secrets emerge from the fourteen tracks included in this collection." (Yusuke Ogawa)

Yusuke Ogawa has been running the Universounds store in Tokyo since 2001, specializing in jazz and second-hand, rare, and collector records. He is also a reissue supervisor, label manager, DJ, and music writer. Known for his vast musical knowledge, eye for detail, and archival skills, Ogawa has worked on more than 250 reissues and compilations – including the highly praised Deep Jazz Reality and Project Re:Vinyl series. He is the co-author of the Wa-Jazz Disc Guide and the Independent Black Jazz of America books.

Moulded By Industry is William D Drake's six album, his first for ten years and a return to the richly layered sonic texture and epic production of his majestic Briny Hooves. He is joined by long time collaborators James Larcombe, Dean Gaisburgh-Watkyn and Steve Jackson, with the addition of a new crew member, singer Treana Morris. Moving on from his nine years of pianistic and compositional duties in Cardiacs, Drake's solo work has been known for its synthesis of Mellotron-driven grandeur with a surreal playfulness.

But the deep heart of Drake's work is in its powerful evocation of the landscape of the countryside and its connection with love, longing and loss. To this end, his own enigmatic lyrics have rubbed shoulders with poetry drawn from across the centuries. From obscure sources such as Samuel Spree to the poetry of Thomas Hardy and Rupert Brooke, his settings make old words shimmer with human emotion. The texture of his music also reflects an inspirational lack of concern for distances of time. The earthy breath of his harmonium is interwoven with tones teased from archaic instruments by James Larcombe – hurdy-gurdy, dulcitone and melodeon.

But Drake's sound-world is no museum. Here, ancient words and the timbres of ancient instruments become one with the rush of a moment's emotion. Moulded By Industry brings this approach a new sonic depth, intoxicatingly shaded by Treana's lush vocal harmonies and underpinned by Steve's rhythm. Dean's evocative guitar textures give an oceanic sense, tinged with Americana, recalling his work with Drake in their alt country band Nervous. These many layers of sound are drawn together into vivid soundscapes by the painterly mixing of producer Ott. Renowned for his work in electronica and dub, Ott's two decades of experience working with artists such as Sinéad O'Connor, the Orb and Brian Eno bring an organic touch here, more akin to the elemental forces of land and sky than grid electricity. More than any of Drake's previous albums, Moulded By Industry reignites the emotional urgency of old texts. The gorgeous single The Flickering Shade, haunted by glimmers of lost possibilities, is set from words by Thomas Ashe. Turtledove's heady evocation of the blissful madness of love sets the words of an anonymous 17th century ballad. above all, the album is a testament to Drake's love of John Clare, 'The Northamptonshire Peasant Poet'. Clare wrote as the centuries old process of enclosure, in which wild and common land was appropriated commercially, was accelerating.

His works, rather than representing simple sentimentality, are passionate love poems to the landscape and cries from a soul reeling from the creeping unfamiliarity devouring it. This sense of the tension between passion and ill-ease has its most potent expression in Green Shadows. The brooding, slow-tempo energy of Steve's drums drive a horizon-wide lament, alternately lulled by Treana's vocal textures and made restless by James' plaintive hurdy-gurdy and the emotive pull of Dean's slide guitar. The present moment is also a time of enclosure, both metaphorically, as our lives, memories and emotions are drawn into the commercial space of social media, and literally as land and water are swallowed by vast data centre developments. Moulded By Industry celebrates a regained sense of being in the moment in the landscape, in life and in love. The album closes with the utterly delightful single Love In The Universe. The kind of song that could make a cynic use the word 'joyous' without irony, this Harry Nilsson-esque romp reassures us, with a wink, that 'in an infinite universe everything has its place ... even the human race'.

With "Jamaican (Bam Bam)," HUGEL and SOLTO breathe new life into Sister Nancy's iconic anthem - a bold, rhythm-charged reinterpretation built for the modern dancefloor. It grips from the first beat: dynamic drumming, crisp claps, and a bassline that rolls deep with sway and sensuality. Layers tighten and unfold, teasing the body as electronic tinctures flicker beneath, building lift and slow, simmering tension. Through it all, Sister Nancy's voice cuts steady and alive, grounding the track in its roots while driving it forward. The energy keeps rising vibrant, climactic, and free. "Jamaican (Bam Bam)" smolders from within, a kinetic force that turns motion into release.

Artwork by Rachael D’Alessandro. Words by Marie Floro. Executive Producer Mimmo Falcone. Distribution by Muting The Noise.

2024 repress

In February 2021, Jan Jelinek's seminal album "Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records" turned 20. The anniversary repress, a double LP with two bonus tracks (B-sides from the Tendency EP, 2000), is a little late to the party.
What the press said about Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records:
“Don’t be misled by the title, though for there isn’t a finger-snapping rhythm c bebop lead anywhere on the album. Instead, Jelinek chooses to explore the visual effect moiré - two shifting patterns creating an implied third dimension - in the audio realm.” (Alternative Press)
“The title acts as explanation for the studio technique that provided the basis for this album, snippets of other people’s arrangements deconstructed through a sampler into loops and then splashed onto an audio canvas.” (ATM)
“Jelinek’s sound evolved out of his dislike for (and inability to play) keyboards.” (RPM)
“Jelinek has abstracted his sources beyond recognition, looping his millisecond samples into flickering patterns of sonic moiré laid atop a dub Techno framework. (...) Jelinek might as well have sampled a horn player’s hissing intake of breath – it would have been ‘jazz’ enough for his purposes.“ (The Wire)
“It’s a perfect inversion of conventional music, a sonic negative. Everything that would typically be foreground is moved back or pushed off the screen altogether, and the flecks of sonic debris that would normally be covered by other sounds are left to carry the melody and rhythm.” (Pitchfork)
“All you need to know is that these onomatopoeic non-specific songs (...) are warm, paradisical creations”. (NME)
“Listen carefully and you’ll hear textures slowly unfolding and mutating. Presuming you’ve not fallen asleep of course.” (iDJ)
“At times, it’s all a bit dripping tap Japanese water torture; so sedentary it drowns in its own motionlessness” (DJ)
“Loop Finding Jazz Records' is a genuine modern classic whose re-release is anything but a cynical mortgage repayment exercise. Consider this a second chance, then pretend you had it all along.” (Boomkat)
PS:
“I’ve been fortunate enough to see Jan Jelinek live once, at Tonic NYC (...). Wearing a black and white striped shirt, he looked like a nihilistic Charlie Brown.” (beachsloth)

“sitting in the terminal at Barcelona airport, health safety warnings echo through empty architecture. feeling slow, and fast, out of sync with rituals and routines. structure and rhythm disintegrate into micro gestures appearing in random order, a daily psychedelia... amid all of the chaos and distraction in the last few years, it’s only through letting go that I've found solid ground to stand on.”

These are some of the experiences and reflections that gave shape to Slipstream, a hallucinatory mini-album by the artist PVAS and the fourth release on Objekt's label, Kapsela. Slipstream is an aural document of PVAS's interior life, conceived not as a grab-bag of DJ-friendly tracks (although it’s clearly inspired by the club) but as a single, delicately crafted artistic statement. The entire record is shrouded in a flickering haze, worn through by smudged breakbeats and wiry drum machines. “Wetland”, with its swampy percussion and crystalline arps, echoes T++ and Kraftwerk. The radiant incandescence of “Gathering Drift” recalls GAS or Monolake's “Hong Kong.” Sampled breakbeats dip and swerve asymmetrically through “Boba” and “Terminal”. Across the record, textures and voices are reshaped by PVAS's homemade algo-software, UMT, which, in PVAS’ own words, “reconstructs one audio file by sampling another, resulting in output that merges their aesthetic qualities, creating rhythm with non-rhythmic sound files and abusing the stereo field.” But the most striking union of technology and poetic self-exploration comes at the end of the record, in the title track, from words murmured through a classic vocoder:



“when i stop framing myself as a boundaried stone

immovable, and powerful, and heavy

when i stop figuring my deepest space as my own

something which i am solely responsible

i surrender, i surrender”



PVAS is Jordan Juras, a Berlin-based artist who grew up outside of Windsor, Ontario. He has released solo EPs on Isla and xpq?, and is half the duo NUG (3XL, West Mineral Ltd.). In addition to developing music software professionally, he has used his UMT software on records by Lyra Pramuk and Dylan Kerr. Slipstream was recorded from 2022 to 2025.

Written and produced by PVAS

Mixed by TJ Hertz

Mastered by Anne Taegert at D&M

Artwork and design by Brodie Kaman

Grisline is a fresh-born label exploring the balance between light and shadow — a sonic playground where genres blend, bend, and collide. Rooted in the pulse of electro, techno, and house, we’re drawn to contrasts, emotions, and movement, always in search of unexpected harmony.

Our first release comes from Fabrega & Christian, delivering four original tracks that chart a dynamic journey across the dancefloor. The title track, Dark Chai Bowl, opens with a groovy electro cut full of harmonic twists and crisp synth work, setting the tone for the ride ahead. Onda Vampiresca dives into darker territory, layering driving rhythms with flickers of brightness — a hypnotic blend for losing yourself in the moment. On the flip, Lilac Lebal ramps up the intensity with a percussive, floor-focused tool built for peak-time energy. Finally, Lampin’ (featuring Ku$h) winds things down with a smooth, atmospheric break — perfect for the after-hours or sunrise sets.

"I Became Birds feels like emo once again flipping the switch on its eternal energy source." - PITCHFORK // "One of the most arresting and interesting rock albums in recent memory." - SPIN // "Composed of self-deprecating wails, crashing guitar riffs, and a flicker of lyrical hope that almost feels naive _ in other words, the perfect foundation for classic emo catharsis." - STEREOGUM //// With I Became Birds, Florida's Home Is Where push their unique blend of whirlwind hardcore aggression and warm, open-hearted folksy melancholy to even further heights. Frontperson Brandon MacDonald's Dylan-esque eccentricities are on full display here, from the occasional blast of harmonica (like on early standout "Long Distance Conjoined Twins" or the disaffected, despondency-soaked closer "The Old Country") to their knack for abstractly evocative neurosis-as-poetry. But far from being a copycat act, Home Is Where's wearily raw-throated aesthetic and dynamically vivid compositions feel idiosyncratic and vital. The bittersweet folk melodies seep deeply into the band's DNA, adding an element of accessibility and immediate nostalgia to otherwise churning and angular song structures and sonic assaults. Vocals range from an intimate, gentle, and disarming croon to a full-bodied expectoration of the soul, oftentimes in the same song (like "Sewn Together from the Membrane of the Great Sea Cucumber," which splits the difference between mournful, gothic post-punk and staccato-heeled screamo with aplomb). A devastating rhythm section and nimble, versatile, yet powerful guitar work assist with the record's genre-bending, which ranges from maniacal chemical mixtures to gymnastic flips, twists, and turns. And yet, even amid the din, Home Is Where find ample time for hooks-- the oddball effervescence of lead single "Scientific Classification of Stingrays" and the shimmering, propulsive, delightfully off-kilter late-album stunner "Assisted Harakiri" are more than proof of that. Ultimately, I Became Birds shows Home Is Where hitting an early high-water mark. A brisk record-- six songs in roughly 17 minutes-- it never takes a dip in enthusiasm and inventiveness. Home Is Where's inexhaustible creativity and restless energy is bound to serve them well, and I Became Birds is all the proof anyone needs.

Returning to an aphotic minefield of sound – Seismic Records is back with its third release, Drum Ring, crafted by Norwegian producer and Ute Records co-founder Ekkel. Emerging from the forests of Nordic electronic heritage, Teo Bachs – aka Ekkel – channels the raw energy of ’90s progressive sounds into his mind-bending productions. From the studio, his signature blend of breaks and intricate percussion create soundscapes that are as cerebral as they are propulsive. Titled Drum Ring, the EP captures the feeling of a complete mental trip through a narrative of tension, ancient textures, and enchanting melodies.

Poised with a sense of urgency, the A-side unfolds with a neatly rolling rhythm. Hradec Fog Fever builds a controlled frenzy of percussive elements, with layers stripping in and out, consistently driving the track forward. Slipping into A2, Owl Foot casts a sonic mist, a haze that tentatively creeps forward, flickering between atmospheric dips and shadowy contours. Vocal-cut whispers transcend through the soundscape, shy yet impactful, drawing you closer. It’s a tender introduction to a minimalist, dark progressive journey – a delicate balance of intrigue and mystery, where each sound lingers like a secret waiting to be discovered.

The B-Side strikes with poignant, powerful drum kicks that reverberate through layers of distortion. Drum Ring displays echoes of tension and unease, building a restless energy that urges deeper introspection. Ancient, enchanting tones weave through the chaos, grounding the frenetic soundwaves in something timeless and mystical. Sealing the EP, Endphase begins with faint, distant string notes that offer a fleeting, hopeful moment of rest. Growling chords and textures swirl, edging you to a meditation, only to be punctuated by sharp, deliberate drum patterns, adding a sense of momentum and purpose – a glimmer of light breaking through the mist. Experience the full cycle of a delicate trip as Ekkel guides you through Drum Ring – a precious and dark progressive journey.

‘Zeitgeist’, the debut LP from celebrated Italian electronic music producer Dukwa, begins with a timeless dancefloor equation; swung drums, a clattering cobwell and flickering hi-hats lurch forward into a serious bassline. Within seconds, dancers are flung into the house anthem ‘You Don’t Want It’ that’s equally raw and charismatic, sensual and powerful. For the next forty-five minutes of rhythm, melody and studio trickery, ‘Zeitgeist’ continues to bend time, eras and bodies.

Having released EPs on respected labels including Numbers, Gudu and Diynamic Records, invariably with the support of Jackmaster, Peggy Gou and Solomun, Dukwa folds into the Slacker85 philosophy with ease, laying down a statement of intent that’s squarely for the dancers. Indebted to a youth digging in Florence’s record stores, embracing the peerless Italian rave scene, as well as his recent appearances at Circoloco and Kappa Future, ‘Zeitgeist’ subverts it’s knowing title to dance between styles with an urgency you can feel in your heels.

Before long, Dukwa is smoothly oscillating between acid overdrive and weightless house on ‘Catch All’, while the balance between softness and severity is refined even further on ‘Show Me’, showcasing the record’s first euphoric breakdown, a heads down, hands up moment that sacrifices none of his organic flow. Ably mastering many corners of his record box, ‘Avec Moi’ makes a confident left turn into tunneling trance, interspersed with a sensual french vocal.

‘All You Need’ provides the record’s beating heart, Dukwa’s overarching philosophy front and center around layers of synthesised groove, build and release: “The world is full of fighting, ignorance and greed, but right here on the dancefloor - the rhythm’s all you need”. Meanwhile, ‘My Turn’ channels more cinematic instincts, zoning in on an elegant piano riff in order to unravel a quietly epic deep house trip.

As ‘Zeitgeist’ heads toward its conclusion, Dukwa effortlessly squeezes the most emotive juice from his well-oiled studio. ‘Sad Eyes’ possesses the emotional punch of many vintage end-of-night anthems, still driving yet touched with a wistful ecstasy. Finally, for closing passage ‘Stck1’, Dukwa truly lets the machines sing, capturing a brief symphony of harmonising modulations that dip into weirdo electronica, without ever skipping his signature beats.

With Short Circuit Control, Berlin electronic duo Diagram (made up of Brian Jonestown Massacre guitarist Hákon Aðalsteinsson and Fred Sunesen) re-emerges ith a refined yet unpredictable sound, a testament to resilience, collaboration, and the endless possibilities of analogue synthesis. What began as a bedroom project by Aðalsteinsson culminated in the debut album Transmission Response (2019, Fuzz Club), a raw and exploratory work that set the foundation for what was to come. When Sunesen joined, Diagram evolved into a live act, carving out a space for itself in Berlin’s underground music scene. Built on mechanical rhythms and eerie textures, their second album Short Circuit Control plays with tension and release, its analogue pulse imbued with a restless, human energy. There's a hypnotic, almost ritualistic quality to the music, where modular synths hum and crackle, beats loop and fracture, and melodies emerge like ghostly transmissions from some distant, flickering signal. The result is an album that feels both controlled and unpredictable—moody, immersive, and always teetering on the edge of something unknown. It is released on P.U.G Records, the new label from the Psychedelic Underground Generation music blog.

2025 Repress
Singing black-lit liturgies of bog bodies caked in mud, entranced by nocturnal landscapes flickering in the moonglow and powered by queer enchantment, Tristwch y Fenywod are a Welsh-language gothic avant-rock powercoven. Exhumed from the depths of Leeds’
experimental underground, the trio consist of Gwretsien Ferch Lisbeth (Guttersnipe, The Ephemeron Loop), Leila Lygad (Hawthonn) and Sidni Sarffwraig (Slaylor Moon, The Courtneys).
Stark, striking and bewitching, Tristwch y Fenywod’s self-titled album is their debut studio recording, following just 10 gigs and a live demo. Formed in 2022, Tristwch y Fenywod ("The Sadness of Women”) record exclusively in the Welsh language, conjuring an eldritch, subterranean, alien folk music played on dual zither, electronic drums and bass guitar. With towering, siren-like vocals curling around the Welsh consonants, accompanied by stark, martial rhythms and swirling claw-plucked strings, Tristwch y Fenywod feels like an early 4AD recording dredged from the waters of an Anglesey swamp. The effect is simultaneously chilling and stirring.
The eight tracks on the record constitute what feels like a recently rediscovered, unholy grail of edgy, atmospheric, occult feminist goth emissions. Gwretsien’s dual-zither playing scatters melodic fragments and spirals of harmony around the decimated space opened up by the lugubrious bass playing and pounding, brooding drum pads.
Coupled with the Welsh vocal, Tristwch y Fenywod embody a new, unique Celtic darkwave sound, equal part Pornography-era The Cure, Svitlana Nianio’s haunted hammered string-work and the dark beauty of Dead Can Dance or This Mortal Coil. Opener Blodyn Gwyrdd feels like the last ride of Princess Ukok, with lumbering bass and 6/8 rhythms in procession to the event horizon with an entreating, impassioned vocal and surprising lyrical theme. The doomed dancing of the zither provides the mysterious melodic bedrock throughout the album, particularly on Ferch Gyda’r Llygaid Du’s heavy funereal swa and the slowly building, paroxysmal banshee breakdown of Awen: an astonishing swell of thrilling chaos.
The album was recorded and produced by Ross Halden and the band at Hohm Studio, Bradford, Summer 2023.

Red in Clear Vinyl. First compiled as a double CD in 2002, Moon's Milk (in Four Phases) is a suite of four EPs that Coil released seasonally via their in-house Eskaton imprint across 1998. The line-up for these sessions were John Balance, Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson, Drew McDowall, and William Breeze. Recorded primarily at their home studio in Chiswick, London on the eve of a permanent relocation to the small seaside town of Weston-super-Mare, the collection has long loomed as a pivotal and pinnacle work in the group's discography, but has never been officially reissued, or repressed on vinyl. Time has only ripened its tapestry of regal strangeness.Arranged sequentially in tribute to the equinoxes and solstices, Moon's Milk captures Coil at a revelatory crossroads, leaning deeper into improvisation, spontaneity, and sound design. "Moon's Milk or Under an Unquiet Skull" initiates the proceedings on Spring Equinox, a two-part netherworld organ séance woven from vocal drones, cathedral keys, seasick strings, and opiated undertow. From there, Summer Solstice skews lighter but no less incantational, with Balance embracing his voice-as-instrument across lucid dream torch songs ("Bee Stings"), purgatorial spoken word ("Glowworms/Waveforms"), sultry chamber pieces ("Summer Substructures"), and falsetto ravings ("A Warning From The Sun (For Fritz)").Autumn Equinox exudes more of a pensive and twilit mood, from the Rose McDowall-sung folk ballad "Rosa Decidua" ("I hear your voice sing near to me / I've put away the poisoned chalice (for now) / And lie down amongst the flowerbeds") to hall-of-lords hallucination "The Auto-Asphyxiating Hierophant" to the liminal string-plucked classic "Amethyst Deceivers," featuring excellent alien guitar by Breeze layered with Balance's oft-quoted couplet: "Pay your respects to the vultures / For they are your future."The album's final chapter, Winter Solstice, is its most swooning, remote, and ceremonial. Opener "A White Rainbow" stirs strings, layered choral vocals, and shivering rhythm into an imploding burial hymn. "North" oscillates bleakly, a ghost in the machine murmuring opaque prophecy ("This black dog has no owner / This black dog has no odour"), while "Magnetic North" is its inverse, a guided meditation of gently flickering software and surreal chakra poetics ("Red rose filling the skull / Yellow cube in the lower pelvis / Silver moon crescent below the navel"). The suite fades to grey with a traditional English carol ("Christmas Is Now Drawing Near"), rendered like an executioner's song by Rose McDowall's doomed, beautiful voice.The Dais box set includes the entirety of the rare Moon's Milk Bonus Disc CD-R / 2019 Threshold Archives CD, which includes three collaborations with Thighpaulsandra. This material is as rich and intoxicating as the previous four phases, ranging from electro-acoustic singing bowl rituals ("Copal") to dissonant electronic recitations of visionary Angus MacLise poetry ("The Coppice Meat") to ominous classical melancholia ("Bankside"). Once again, Coil confirm the vastness of their confounding, infinite alchemy, explored and refined across decades of experimentation - both sonic and bodily. From post-industrial to post-everything, theirs is an art untethered, in the wilds of its own design.

The lines of genre have blurred beyond recognition. The landscape flickers between haunting ambiance and noisy immersion, electronic and acoustic elements expressing emotional and mental states that are ever changing. "Somebody Else's Song" was their first true "New York album" since the band's relocation from Chicago, and much of the weight comes from the personal change inherent from living in a new place as life continues to whir around us. The duo took their time, the ideas coming into formation over the course of two years. That patience is apparent as the album unfolds, a balance between vulnerability and enormous shapeshifting rhythms.

First compiled as a double CD in 2002, Moon's Milk (in Four Phases) is a suite of four EPs that Coil released seasonally via their in-house Eskaton imprint across 1998. The line-up for these sessions were John Balance, Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson, Drew McDowall, and William Breeze. Recorded primarily at their home studio in Chiswick, London on the eve of a permanent relocation to the small seaside town of Weston-Super-Mare, the collection has long loomed as a pivotal and pinnacle work in the group's discography, but has never been officially reissued, or repressed on vinyl. Time has only ripened its tapestry of regal strangeness. Arranged sequentially in tribute to the equinoxes and solstices, Moon's Milk captures Coil at a revelatory crossroads, leaning deeper into improvisation, spontaneity, and sound design. "Moon's Milk or Under an Unquiet Skull" initiates the proceedings on Spring Equinox, a two-part netherworld organ séance woven from vocal drones, cathedral keys, seasick strings, and opiated undertow. From there, Summer Solstice skews lighter but no less incantational, with Balance embracing his voice-as-instrument across lucid dream torch songs ("Bee Stings"), purgatorial spoken word ("Glowworms/Waveforms"), sultry chamber pieces ("Summer Substructures"), and falsetto ravings ("A Warning From The Sun (For Fritz)"). Autumn Equinox exudes more of a pensive and twilit mood, from the Rose McDowall-sung folk ballad "Rosa Decidua" ("I hear your voice sing near to me / I've put away the poisoned chalice (for now) / And lie down amongst the flowerbeds") to hall-of-lords hallucination "The Auto-Asphyxiating Hierophant" to the liminal string-plucked classic "Amethyst Deceivers," featuring excellent alien guitar by Breeze layered with Balance's oft-quoted couplet: "Pay your respects to the vultures / For they are your future." The album's final chapter, Winter Solstice, is its most swooning, remote, and ceremonial. Opener "A White Rainbow" stirs strings, layered choral vocals, and shivering rhythm into an imploding burial hymn. "North" oscillates bleakly, a ghost in the machine murmuring opaque prophecy ("This black dog has no owner / This black dog has no odour"), while "Magnetic North" is its inverse, a guided meditation of gently flickering software and surreal chakra poetics ("Red rose filling the skull / Yellow cube in the lower pelvis / Silver moon crescent below the navel"). The suite fades to grey with a traditional English carol ("Christmas Is Now Drawing Near"), rendered like an executioner's song by Rose McDowall's doomed, beautiful voice. The Dais box set includes the entirety of the rare Moon's Milk Bonus Disc CD-R / 2019 Threshold Archives Copal CD, which includes three collaborations with Thighpaulsandra. This material is as rich and intoxicating as the previous four phases, ranging from electro-acoustic singing bowl rituals ("Copal") to dissonant electronic recitations of visionary Angus MacLise poetry ("The Coppice Meat") to ominous classical melancholia ("Bankside"). Once again, Coil confirm the vastness of their confounding, infinite alchemy, explored and refined across decades of experimentation - both sonic and bodily. From postindustrial to post-everything, theirs is an art untethered, in the wilds of its own design.

The organic minimalism of composer and producer Kirk Barley is collected on his new studio album Marionette, released via Odda Recordings.

Whether drawing from field recordings, found sound, instrumental improvisations or synthetic processes, Barley’s compositions evoke unfolding sound worlds, as simple ideas or motifs are layered and developed into complex set-pieces that reveal themselves over time.

Marionette showcases the breadth and variety of the Yorkshire-born artist’s sound, weaving together familiar and uncanny moods of rural England and its Victorian architecture, as suggested by the gated garden print of the album’s cover. Unfurling between physical textures – the patina of vinyl crackle or gentle rain – and the hyper-real spaces that his music inhabits, Barley describes the compositions as “landscape or static scene paintings,” with many of the album’s tracks taking nature’s rhythms as their compositional cue.

On ‘Seafarer’, this manifests in the repeated synth swells of a boat on rough waters, while title track ‘Marionette’ imagines an eerie scene, were shadows flicker by an open fire. Similarly,‘Lake of Gold’ layers plucked strings at different scales and velocities to create what Barley calls the “rain-like quality” of the rhythm.

Drawing from jazz, minimalism and techno, Barley focuses on the detailed qualities of sound, experimenting with time signatures, temporals and tuning systems. His esoteric alter-ego Bambooman (2013-2018) found a home on Matthew Herbert’s Accidental imprint, releasing the album Whispers in 2017.

In contrast, under the pseudonym Church Andrews (most notably in collaboration with drummer Matt Davies), he produces synthetic, often beat-focused music, using digital synthesis and algorithmic composition techniques, with the live drum performances triggering and modulating Barley’s synths. The duo has recently performed at festivals such as Rewire and Waking Life, filmed sessions for Fact Magazine and Slate & Ash, and recently had their music played out by Aphex Twin.

Under his own name, Barley released his debut album Landscapes in 2019 on 33-33 Records and received support from the likes of NTS Radio and BBC 6 Music. Barley has performed at events across the UK and Europe alongside the likes of Andy Stott, Beatrice Dillon, Jan Jelinek, MF DOOM and Madlib. He has also completed commissioned work for the British Art Show, Camden Arts Centre, MSCTY and the Open Music Archive.

Berlin party series and label AWAY Music continues its limited vinyl series called "Reissued", dedicated to re-releasing iconic cuts from the vast collaborative catalog of Move D & Pete Namlook. The third installment "Reissued 3", which follows the series' first two EPs from previous years, features again some exceptional pieces that were previously only available on CD. Move D and Pete Namlook are electronic visionaries whose 26-album relationship explored and intertwined psychedelic synthscapes, deep house and techno, future jazz, and downtempo on Namlook's cult imprint Fax Records. Their innovative and influential works keep inspiring electronic music producers today, showcasing their willingness to collaborate and push the boundaries of electronic music. First up on the A side, “Der Strahlender Verlierer”, from the 2006 Album “Let the Circle Not Be Broken”, begins atmospherically before pushing subtly into open filter and undulating synth territory. Introspective and accepting, the piece gradually lets the sum of its parts coalesce into a peaceful whole with sustained chords and the flicker of played steel strings.
“Hardwired Tangent” from the 2001 Album “Wired” rounds out the first side with edgier and more ominous tones. Brooding and bubbling its way through artificial textures absorbed by carefully weighted rhythmic tension. Shuffling jazz electronics. The moody low-mid hum providing buoyancy throughout. Also from the 2001 album, the B side’s “Hardwired Hypotenuse + Asymptote” is a synthetic journey. Textural, pseudo-organic, pulsating with urgency. The motoric percussion imparting structure to the sonic alchemy. Tactile yet integrated components offer the listener (or dancer) multiple entry points into the music. This is both artful and kaleidoscopic — a treatise on contemplative and psychoactive house music.
"Reissued 3" is a true testament to the innovative spirit and pioneering work of Move D and Pete Namlook. With these tracks now available on vinyl for the first time, AWAY's limited series is a must-have for old and new fans alike.

Berlin party series and label AWAY Music continues its limited vinyl series called "Reissued", dedicated to re-releasing iconic cuts from the vast collaborative catalog of Move D & Pete Namlook. The third installment "Reissued 3", which follows the series' first two EPs from previous years, features again some exceptional pieces that were previously only available on CD. Move D and Pete Namlook are electronic visionaries whose 26-album relationship explored and intertwined psychedelic synthscapes, deep house and techno, future jazz, and downtempo on Namlook's cult imprint Fax Records. Their innovative and influential works keep inspiring electronic music producers today, showcasing their willingness to collaborate and push the boundaries of electronic music. First up on the A side, “Der Strahlender Verlierer”, from the 2006 Album “Let the Circle Not Be Broken”, begins atmospherically before pushing subtly into open filter and undulating synth territory. Introspective and accepting, the piece gradually lets the sum of its parts coalesce into a peaceful whole with sustained chords and the flicker of played steel strings.
“Hardwired Tangent” from the 2001 Album “Wired” rounds out the first side with edgier and more ominous tones. Brooding and bubbling its way through artificial textures absorbed by carefully weighted rhythmic tension. Shuffling jazz electronics. The moody low-mid hum providing buoyancy throughout. Also from the 2001 album, the B side’s “Hardwired Hypotenuse + Asymptote” is a synthetic journey. Textural, pseudo-organic, pulsating with urgency. The motoric percussion imparting structure to the sonic alchemy. Tactile yet integrated components offer the listener (or dancer) multiple entry points into the music. This is both artful and kaleidoscopic — a treatise on contemplative and psychoactive house music.
"Reissued 3" is a true testament to the innovative spirit and pioneering work of Move D and Pete Namlook. With these tracks now available on vinyl for the first time, AWAY's limited series is a must-have for old and new fans alike.

Having toured the world with Mczo and been at the helm of his own studio Pamoja Records since he was just 18, influential Singeli producer Duke, now 25, is one of Tanzania's busiest club alchemists. On his acclaimed solo debut "Uingizaji Hewa" we were introduced to his idiosyncratic "hip-hop Singeli" sound, a slower cousin to the Dar Es Salaam-rooted hard 'n fast club template that takes as much special sauce from Busta Rhymes and Eminem as it does the 200BPM clatter of genre veterans Jay Mitta and Sisso. On September's "Sounds Of Pamoja," we were treated to a closer look into Duke's studio, and specifically at his work with the city's best young MCs like Dogo Kibo, Pirato MC and MC Kuke. "Early Instrumentals" allows us to witness the depth of Duke's evolution with a selection of unearthed genre melting Singeli mutations laid completely bare without vocals. This 11-track set features some of his most arresting hybrid dance music yet, expressing his visionary fusion of contemporary rave sounds, US rap attitude, and Tanzanian dance history. While the roots of Singeli are in taraab, a popular fusion of East African and Middle Eastern traditional dance rhythms and melodies, Duke steers the sound into a synth-led, syncopated firework display that sounds spry and futuristic. Centered arounda bumping staccato melody and urgent synth strings 'Dukelo Fl Sing' echoes the lo-swung swagger of early Dr. Dre productions, but kicks the tempo into overdrive, decorating any gaps with flickering late-nite synths. 'Beat Kali Duke' meanwhile drives carnival trance leads through hard and fast rolls of kick drums, whistles and woodblock cracks. It's not all completely high speed either: 'Duke Selecta' is almost afro-house, with slow, sexy bass and woozy vocal melodies, and 'KKKKKKKKKKKKKKK' absorbs the propulsive spirit of South African gqom. "Early Instrumentals" is the most varied picture we've been presented yet of Duke's rousing dance cocktail. IT's a physical call to action that assures listeners the genre is for movement, not headphone listening

Limited rerelease. Unavailable for years. The legendary album from 1984. Fully remastered by David Cunningham. These recordings were originally released on cassette by Touch in 1984 with the exception of 'Parts Of My Body', released on a single by Canal Records in 1979. Performed by: Steve Beresford: bass, piano, farfisa organ, prophet 5, trumpet, flugelhorn, euphonium, percussion, glockenspiel, voice, toy piano, melodica, noises, rhythm tracks, drumkit. David Toop: guitar, prepared guitar, bass, percussion, flute, alto flute, glockenspiel, voice, tapes, noises, rhythm tracks David Cunningham: tape treatments with guests: Lol Coxhill, Dawn Roberts and Maartje ten Hoorn 'The atmosphere which General Strike conjure together suits an old fashioned, cold war-ish scenario of technology. Their 'Interplanetary Music' is the space pop of George Pal and 'The Day The Earth Stood Still', of computers built like Blackpool Tower in order to struggle through simple trigonometry, of 'The Jetsons' and I.G.Y. They go no further than Expo 67, the world's last gasp of optimism. And although there are dark and disquieting moods set in this mosaic which their listeners have pieced together, it is made with a humour which is true to the spirit of adventure which those references apply. The sanitation merchants who make up most of the world's record-makers today would forbid our ears from hearing these strangely electric keyboards, earthworked textures, bizarre chattering of percussion, and voices that seem like puzzled robots. Cataloguing the sound in that way makes it all seem a bit of a joke, but it isn't: laughter is encouraged, but it's serious music, made with a great deal more serious spirit than the great and disheartening mountain of music which today implores you to hear and not listen.' (Richard Cook).

Ground Groove, the third full-length release from the LA-based, Iranian-American producer and DJ, Maral, begins with an invocation: the sprawling, achingly heavy Feedback Jam opens the floodgates of history. Conventional (linear) spacetime collapses, crushed beneath the track’s lumbering 4/4 heartbeat and successive waves of distortion. As each wave recedes, samples trickle forward in the mix — seeking, perhaps, to fill the void. Voices and instruments rise and fall in uncanny reverse. Overlapping, implied melodies flicker into focus, then flit away. Feedback Jam is at once an initiation ritual, and a thesis statement for the record that follows.

Drawing upon a vast personal archive of Iranian folk, classical, and pop recordings (some sourced from mixtapes made by her parents in the eighties/nineties), Maral presents, on Ground Groove, a further refinement of the signature “folk club” sound she developed as a live DJ— a sound she would later codify on Mahur Club (2019) and Push (2020). By collecting, dissecting, and re/presenting sonic fragments from Iran, Maral practices a kind of dance-floor ethnomusicology. The subject of her inquiry: Iranian


culture and contexts, throughout history and in the present. But, crucially, this inquiry is instantiated within and throughout the body of the listener, whether this listener is dancing in the club, or riding the train, nodding along with headphones on.

Maral speaks of being in collaboration with her samples, treating each as a distinct bandmate, often consulting with an artist’s catalog (or even a single recording) as one would a trusted creative partner. In so-doing, Maral claims to seek to transcend the self. In this regard, her output neatly triangulates contemporary dance and heavy music with much of the traditional religious music that she samples. Broadly speaking, each of these idioms addresses a desire —shared by audience and performer alike—to transcend the self through volume, repetition, and movement.

Having, in her youth, studied the Setar under Nader Majd (the founder of Virginia’s Center for Persian Classical Music), Maral cycled through various genres (ex: punk, emo, dub) in her adolescence and early twenties, all the while expanding her knowledge of, and appreciation for, Iran’s diverse musical traditions during regular summer trips to Tehran. In college, Maral taught herself to make beats with a ripped copy of Ableton (which remains her DAW of choice), eventually transitioning to playing and hosting various club nights. Forever abiding by an autodidactic, DIY impulse to create art and foster community, Maral relocated to Los Angeles in 2013, where she quickly immersed herself in the city’s numerous overlapping music scenes.

Collaboration (beyond sampling) has proven an important component of her process, with notable spoken word contributions from the likes of Lee Scratch Perry and Penny Rimbaud, as well as a 2021 Panda Bear collab track (On Your Way), which the Animal Collective founder co-produced. Maral is equally attentive to the visual components of her records (album art, music videos, etc.), drawing upon the work of peers and friends for inspiration.

Indeed, the genesis of Ground Groove can be traced back to an audio-visual collaboration between Maral and the artist Brenna Murphy, originally commissioned for the 2021 Rewire Festival — a project that would eventually serve as the album’s foundation. Tracks eight through eleven on Ground Groove comprise Maral’s half of this installation, with tracks one through seven composed afterwards, inspired by the fruits of Maral and Murphy’s collaboration. Murphy’s visuals will be released alongside Ground Groove as a visual accompaniment. Additionally, Murphy designed the album’s art, directed the video for the lead single (the aforementioned Feedback Jam), and is featured on track six, Shy Night.

Composed largely on Ableton, Ground Groove features more frequent and more prominent live recordings from Maral (guitar, bass, and vocals) than either Push or Mahar Club. The cult favorite Roland MC-909 groovebox rears its head on Mari’s Groove. Mixed by Trayer Tryon (Hundred Waters) and mastered by Daddy Kev, the attention to sonic quality on Ground Groove constitutes another significant step in Maral’s development as a studio artist.

Ground Groove’s eleven tracks are “grooves” in the obvious sense, in that they are each driven by a persistent, propulsive rhythm, but the album’s title may just as well suggest the glacial passage of time—the scope of human history, in which individual voices, like streams, carve paths (impossibly) through earth and stone, winding their way to the vast sea of the present.

Cabaret Voltaire co-founder Stephen Mallinder's second solo outing for Dais further distills his signature fusion of minimal synth, oblique wordplay, and "wonky disco" into a riveting rhythm suite ripe for our Age of Escalation: Tick Tick Tick. Channeling the temporal malaise of lockdown through a lusher palette of modular electronics and stereo strings, the songs embrace ambiguity and plasticity, loose systems of percolating circuitry and airless funk. Recorded across a handful of sessions at Meme Tune Studios in Cornwall with frequent collaborator Benge (aka Ben Edwards), Mallinder cites no guiding aesthetic premise for the collection beyond "cowbell on every track, and entirely no reverb." From the first coiled cybernetic groove of opener "Contact," the album's spatial dynamics are disorienting and asymmetrical, alternately cold and sensual, opiated and claustrophobic. But, throughout, "rhythm is the default, the bedrock, the building block-even the melodies are rhythmic." Across 40-plus years of electronic musicianship, Mallinder's sense of timing and tempo has honed into a rare tier of mastery, limber and fluid but knotted with strange frictions. Shades of Detroit technoid industrial ("ringdropp," "Shock To The Body") crossfade into now avy punk-funk ("Guernica Gallery," "Galaxy," "The Trial"), bad trip IDM ("Wasteland"), and jittery vapor house ("Hush"), at the threshold of modes both familiar and foreign. Lyrically the record is equally evasive, rich with allusions and associative linguistics, surveying liquid notions of societal noise, ecological ruin, art world pretension, and the trials of daily life. But the lack of fixed meaning remains Mallinder's main muse: "Music should draw you in; lyrics should make you think. Most interpretation is misinterpretation." This is music of countdowns and comedowns, fleeting pleasures and opaque futures, observing the great decline while dancing on its ashes. Flux is deathless and forever; the rest, illusion: "I will be a constant figure / Flickering a moving picture / Turning in your head forever / Split apart but held together."

Cabaret Voltaire co-founder Stephen Mallinder's second solo outing for Dais further distills his signature fusion of minimal synth, oblique wordplay, and "wonky disco" into a riveting rhythm suite ripe for our Age of Escalation: Tick Tick Tick. Channeling the temporal malaise of lockdown through a lusher palette of modular electronics and stereo strings, the songs embrace ambiguity and plasticity, loose systems of percolating circuitry and airless funk. Recorded across a handful of sessions at Meme Tune Studios in Cornwall with frequent collaborator Benge (aka Ben Edwards), Mallinder cites no guiding aesthetic premise for the collection beyond "cowbell on every track, and entirely no reverb." From the first coiled cybernetic groove of opener "Contact," the album's spatial dynamics are disorienting and asymmetrical, alternately cold and sensual, opiated and claustrophobic. But, throughout, "rhythm is the default, the bedrock, the building block-even the melodies are rhythmic." Across 40-plus years of electronic musicianship, Mallinder's sense of timing and tempo has honed into a rare tier of mastery, limber and fluid but knotted with strange frictions. Shades of Detroit technoid industrial ("ringdropp," "Shock To The Body") crossfade into now avy punk-funk ("Guernica Gallery," "Galaxy," "The Trial"), bad trip IDM ("Wasteland"), and jittery vapor house ("Hush"), at the threshold of modes both familiar and foreign. Lyrically the record is equally evasive, rich with allusions and associative linguistics, surveying liquid notions of societal noise, ecological ruin, art world pretension, and the trials of daily life. But the lack of fixed meaning remains Mallinder's main muse: "Music should draw you in; lyrics should make you think. Most interpretation is misinterpretation." This is music of countdowns and comedowns, fleeting pleasures and opaque futures, observing the great decline while dancing on its ashes. Flux is deathless and forever; the rest, illusion: "I will be a constant figure / Flickering a moving picture / Turning in your head forever / Split apart but held together."

The latest offering from French shape-shifter Maxime Primault (High Wolf, Black Zone Myth Chant, etc.) is both a distillation and deepening of psychedelic soundsystem strategies honed across a decade plus of production and performance, in crisscrossing trenches of vibrational exploration. The four cuts comprising IN D EV IL were born of bass and syrup, designed as anthems for baser desires: “I just wanted to make bangers really.” Alien squelches and insectoid chatter pulse above thick swells of low end, intercut with sirens, screwed voices, and seasick wobble, alternately pummeling and prismatic. Masterfully disorienting, flickering with FX, drops, and narcotic murmuring, at the threshold of dissociative and dubstep.

Recent years spent performing in clubs influenced Primault’s listening habits, both in taste and production methods, skewing towards a starker contrast of highs and lows. IN D EV IL encapsulates this evolution, hallucinatory but urgent, like DJ tools for an underworld afterhours: tight, tripped, and lightless. The EP’s tracks vary in energy and density but share Primault’s premise of “tunes that sound fat and heavy.” Club music as dimensional gateway, booming and liminal, rippling with tremors, texture, and undertow. Whether deployed in public or private, these designs manifest vividly altered states, testament to their creator’s omnivorous vision of rhythm and sound.

Portico Quartet announce Monument, the electronic driven follow-up to their acclaimed ambient-minimalist suite Terrain, presenting the band at their most direct

It's rare that a band releases two albums within six months of each other, rarer too that while both are so different, they are both as epochal in terms of the band's output as Terrain and Monument are to Portico Quartet. The irony is that Monument, a stripped-back, intentionally direct album, was the album that the band set out to write in May 2020, before the dream like long-form Terrain came into focus. Briefly they were two halves of the same record, but the band ended up developing these two distinct bodies of work concurrently. And although they were written side-by-side and recorded at the same sessions, they are records best understood as distinct from each other, each with opposing ideas and forms.

Monument is one of Portico Quartet's most accessible, direct records to date. If Terrain addressed the darker side of how Duncan Bellamy and Jack Wyllie made sense of the pandemic, then Monument resonates as an ode to better times. If not quite a dance record, it nonetheless pulses with an energy, radiance and a scalpel sharp focus. Jack Wyllie explains: "It's possibly our most direct album to date. It's melodic, structured and there's an economy to it that is very efficient. There's not much searching or wastage within the music itself, it is all finalised ideas, precisely sculpted and presented as a polished artefact."

Bellamy expands "Monument sits somewhere between our albums Portico Quartet and Art in the Age of Automation. It has perhaps a more overtly electronic edge to its sound – there are more synthesisers and electronic elements than we have used before and the music is often streamlined and rhythmic".

After the ethereal, stage-setting of Opening, the album kicks into overdrive with Impressions, a short energetic track that pairs a club influenced groove with hang drum and close, delicate saxophone. It's the balance between these elements that push and pull the track through a selection of melodic and rhythmic re-configurations, contrasting human touch with a machine-like focus. Ultraviolet is a kaleidoscopic, krautrock inspired track with a haunting introduction and an insistent pulse. The wistful Ever Present builds from a simple piano refrain; a nostalgic melody line floats over the top as drums and bass groove insistently underneath, before reaching a euphoric peak. The title track Monument builds around a looping vocal sample, drums and an enigmatic melody, the ending giving way to a gauzy, weaving synth line. The power here is in its economy and luminosity. AOE flips back and forth, like a dial that's been switched. Mining the tension between a pastoral inflected cello and saxophone melody, with an abrupt shift to jilted live drums, wailing delayed saxophone and a flickering synth line. Warm Data comes straight from the same Portico Quartet tradition as older tracks like Current History and Laker-Boo. It's a marriage of instrumental minimalism with drum machines and synths. Finally, the album closes with On The Light, a track that transmits a sense of suspense and freedom, driven by the twitching drums of Bellamy and evocative sax of Wyllie. It offers the perfect bitter-sweet and evocative ending to Portico Quartet's latest Monument.

Airplay from Mary Ann Hobbs, Liz Alker and Tom Ravenscroft and beyond

Reviews in Mojo, The Wire, Quietus, Uncut and more

On October 9ththe multi-instrumentalist Jack Wyllie (Portico Quartet/Szun Waves) presents his new project Paradise Cinema. It was recorded in Dakar, Senegal in collaboration with mbalax percussionists Khadim Mbaye (saba drums) and Tons Sambe (tama drums).

The impressionistic and dream-like quality of 'Paradise Cinema' is a stunningly effective realisation of Wyllie's experience, in ahypnagogic state of aural consciousness:

"I had a lot of nights in Dakar, when the music around the city would go on until 6am. I could hear this from my bed at night and it all blended together, in what felt like an early version of the record."

Atmospherically 'Paradise Cinema' is vaporous and enigmatic, but also percussive; existing in a paradoxical sound-space that's amorphous,yet still purposeful, serene, but propulsive and aesthetically sharp.

Khadim Mbaye and Tons Sambe, provide the rhythmic backbone of the record. There are traditional elements of mbalax rhythm, but it is often deconstructed or played at tempos outside of the tradition, so while it hints at a location it occupies a space outside of any specific region.

'Paradise Cinema' is also informed by notions of hauntology – a philosophical concept originating in the work of French philosopher Jacques Derrida– on possible futures that were never realised andhow directions taken in the past can haunt the present.

On the album's title Wyllie comments, "there are a handful of old cinemas in Dakar – these big modernist buildings dotted around the city built around independence. They're old and derelict now, but feel to me like monuments to that period, when the city was flooded with utopian ideas about its potential futures."

As such it sits closely to 4thworld music – situated in an imagined culture and time that never came to pass. And while it contains rhythmic references to Senegal it combines these elements with ambient and minimalist music to produce a sound that sits outside of any tradition.

Setting the tone for the long-player's themes is the optimism-driven, balmy beauty of 'Possible Futures', where rich-toned drums throb and levitate in a stratospheric ether.

Like a time-lapse video of plants in bloom, 'It Will Be Summer Soon' is the sound of anticipation and growth. Rhythmically it flickers and flutters, evoking rainfall, or the blurred wings of a bird in in flight.

Casamance moves through field recordings drifting in and out of focus, beats pitched-down low and unfurling saxophone, whilst the ambient 'Utopia' was made mainly with processed saxophone and suggests a longing for a perfect world.

Galloping percussion juxtaposes with a wistful mood on 'Liberté' – a title that referencesa derelict modernist cinema in Dakar of the same name– a hauntological landmark, made more poignant by the its name being part of the French national motto.

Tying into the cover artwork, Jack explains, "the 'Digital Palm is a telecommunications mast disguised as a palm tree in central Dakar. As a modern piece of technology that on first glance looks natural, it mirrors the combination of modern and acoustic elements."

Perhaps eliciting a time that never came, or maybe still in hope of it yet to come, 'Eternal Spring' concludes the LP's otherworldly beauty with hypnotic drums powering a subtly-building, sparkling and powerful crescendo.

Jack Wyllie is a musician, composer, electronic producer who draws on influences of jazz, ambient, and the trance-inducing repetition of minimalism.

Wyllie performs and records in Portico Quartet, Szun Waves (withLuke Abbott and Laurence Pike)and Xoros. He has also collaborated with Charles Hayward, Adrian Corker and Chris Sharkey and released on Ninja Tune, Babel, Leaf, Real World and Gondwana.

Khadim Mbaye and Toms Sambe play in various mbalax groups in Dakar. Khadim has also toured internationally with Cheikh Lo.

Unveiled Nuance is the newly founded imprint by Manchester’s Means&3rd, a platform solely for his own productions. The Eastern Bloc Records staff member inaugurates his debut vinyl release with 3
tracks covering a balance between hypnotic and driving techno, in keeping with his adopted style of recent years.

‘Thought contortion’ opens the EP with a thunderous low end, propulsive rhythms and immersive sweeps of sound design, teamed with modulated synth patterns that assist the unfolding of its persistent structure. ‘Fragility of perception’ follows with its elastic 3 step synth groove and reverb rich textures which provide the bed while the percussion provides an airy dynamic. ‘Aural Dissociative’ closes the EP with an all together headier affair, a dynamic drone providing the backdrop while flickers of rhythm supplement its evolution and heavily modulated lead lines take the focus.

Pressed on 140g Black Vinyl, reverse board full colour print sleeve with poly-lined inner sleeve

The collaborative debut of American minimal techno pioneer Troy Pierce and Colombian audiovisual artist Natalia Escobar aka Poison Arrow was conceived in reverse: first they created a collection of shadowy surrealist videos, then wrote music inspired by them. This inverted process proved remarkably fruitful. Shatter is a simmering, slow-burn noir odyssey inspired by the Greek myth of Echo and Narcissus, traversing subtle shades of sleepwalker dub, metallic lament, broken beats, and erotic negative space. It's an effectively unsettling evocation of the legend's core theme: “There is nothing more complex than a shattered heart, or a heart that can't love.”

Considering their shared background trafficking in darkened dance floor modes, what's most striking about Pierce with Arrow's partnership is its rhythmic restraint. The album's 10 tracks seethe and shudder between glamor and gloom, with only occasional dread-steeped metronomes mapping the malaise to a grid. They speak of pursuing a “spatial approach” with this project, which manifests in the music's immersive design and patient execution, each mangled clang and rippling pool of bass allowed to reverberate

its full flickering waveform.

The collaborative debut of American minimal techno pioneer Troy Pierce and Colombian audiovisual artist Natalia Escobar aka Poison Arrow was conceived in reverse: first they created a collection of shadowy surrealist videos, then wrote music inspired by them. This inverted process proved remarkably fruitful. Shatter is a simmering, slow-burn noir odyssey inspired by the Greek myth of Echo and Narcissus, traversing subtle shades of sleepwalker dub, metallic lament, broken beats, and erotic negative space. It's an effectively unsettling evocation of the legend's core theme: "There is nothing more complex than a shattered heart, or a heart that can't love." Considering their shared background trafficking in darkened dance floor modes, what's most striking about Pierce with Arrow's partnership is its rhythmic restraint. The album's 10 tracks seethe and shudder between glamor and gloom, with only occasional dread-steeped metronomes mapping the malaise to a grid. They speak of pursuing a "spatial approach" with this project, which manifests in the music's immersive design and patient execution, each mangled clang and rippling pool of bass allowed to reverberate its full flickering waveform. Guest appearances by austere techno producer Konrad Black ("Obsidian Glass") and drum n bass institution dBridge ("It's A Love Story, After All") flow seamlessly into the whole, subtle sculptural accents on a dimly lit descent through purgatories of longing and lust. But the shadows recede for the record's closing cut, "Narcissus," which swells elegiacally in a mass of devotional drones over a muted heartbeat, like Narcissus gazing upon his reflection in holy awe: elusive true beauty, finally beheld, by itself.

The collaborative debut of American minimal techno pioneer Troy Pierce and Colombian audiovisual artist Natalia Escobar aka Poison Arrow was conceived in reverse: first they created a collection of shadowy surrealist videos, then wrote music inspired by them. This inverted process proved remarkably fruitful. Shatter is a simmering, slow-burn noir odyssey inspired by the Greek myth of Echo and Narcissus, traversing subtle shades of sleepwalker dub, metallic lament, broken beats, and erotic negative space. It's an effectively unsettling evocation of the legend's core theme: “There is nothing more complex than a shattered heart, or a heart that can't love.”

Considering their shared background trafficking in darkened dance floor modes, what's most striking about Pierce with Arrow's partnership is its rhythmic restraint. The album's 10 tracks seethe and shudder between glamor and gloom, with only occasional dread-steeped metronomes mapping the malaise to a grid. They speak of pursuing a “spatial approach” with this project, which manifests in the music's immersive design and patient execution, each mangled clang and rippling pool of bass allowed to reverberate

its full flickering waveform.

White Vinyl

This is "Altair", a collection of kaleidoscopic post-breakcore on Love Love Records from veteran french surrealist Ruby My Dear. Presented with artwork by TAPT on white vinyl.

The lights are out and a strange alien force surrounds the periphery of your hearing.. The sound of a haunting music box flickering in the darkness draws you closer but as you begin to approach everything explodes into dank crossbreed DnB rhythms that punch you in the gut and send you flying. As the bombardment of breaks momentarily subside you realise you've been beamed aboard the mothership and are now surrounded by unknown and indescribable visions.

You are given a brief moment to contemplate before your legs are swept from underneath you by a flurry of amens that would fry the minds of the hungriest of junglist's epicures. Journeying deeper into the heart of the beast you become aware of distant and immense rumbles but are stopped in your tracks by grinding brutal machinery rising up on all sides. As quickly as it appeared it starts to collapse and you are plunged into near darkness once again.

Pulses of light slowly begin to stab rhythmically from behind clouds and you feel yourself begin to move faster and faster through a void that is now streaked by a spectrum of colour. Floating debris starts re-arranging around you at light speed and every fiber of your being is simultaneously stimulated with needle-like accuracy. As the last string plucks play out the darkness falls away and the cover artwork comes back into focus. You immediately leave wherever you are and encourage someone else to experience this music.