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Experiences Limited, now 3XL, with a new LP from Exael on a highly atmospheric ambient jungle tip, deploying 30 mins of percussive spasms seeping into smoked-out zoners - highly tipped if yr into anything from Lee Gamble to Malibu.

Clearing their cache of stray bullets, Exael returns with a gyring plunge into percussive wormholes and low-lit mood enhancers .The tracks are broadly cleft along schisms of dark/light and demonic/angelic, switching from restive propellers to more sublime sensations in a fine testament to their practice - making for prob our favourite Exael release thus far.

On the “darker” side, they commit the convulsive, fractious footwork pulses and warped tones of ‘Circle (Squishy Mix)’ in a sort of parallel to 33EMYBW’s insectoid rhythms and combustion systems, while ‘Ice That melts The Tips’ trades in rapid, ice-skating thizz and ‘Ghoul Search (Demonic Attachment Mix)’ fires up the junglist particle accelerator for a proper gauntlet of hyper techstep dynamics.

The contrast is epitomised by ’Composure’, arranging flinty breaks on a luscious waterbed of floating pads, before ‘Eidolon’ renders a sort of airborne dembow pressure in the vicinity of Ben Bondy & special guest dj’s xphresh works. ‘L-theanine’ closes the session on a fine tread inside emo ambient styles and flurries on the same spectrum between DJ Lostboi and Teresa Winter, complete with a reverberating, half-buried vocal.

ScruScru is a name you might well recognise but it is fair to say you might not recognise his work on this first release from Talkbox. He shows a very different side off the back of plenty of top edits that bottle up plenty of disco and Bossanova vibes. Here he has teamed up with Russia's dubplate don BR Selecta for an EP full of energy and joy. 'YEAH YEAH' is happy-go-lucky garage with pitched-up vocals and lively drum, 'Get My Gruv' is a kinetic two-stepper and 'Cyberrave' is just that with its all-out synth madness and flurries of breaks, then 'Serious Talking' closes out on a darker jungle tip. A varied and vital 12' for sure.

For 46 minutes Alex Zhang Hungtai punctures our perception of linearity, working like a conductor, encouraging percussive flurries to trip and fall over each other, sometimes tempered by contact mic feedback to help skewer the chronology. He’s assisted by three additional percussionists - Wet Hair’s Ryan Garbes and Shawn Reed, and Leonard King - while Signal Decay’s Nick Yeck-Stauffer plays trumpet, with each extra voice blurred into the middle distance, curling like pipe smoke into convulsive whorls.

The piece is frankly astonishing in its grasp of the maelstrom. Initially tentative, searching, with higher register hits like moths butting lone lightbulbs in an abandoned apartment block, the distant, plangent peal of twin brass wafts between rooms to impart a distinctly floating, OOBE- like feel for space. The brass recedes while the drums’ low end thickens and roils like a gamelan tempest, blurring impressions of knackered buildings or the temple rituals of ancient epochs, with sounds wafting in from other rooms to mess with the stereo field like ghosts of worshippers doing their thing. Remarkably, it conjures a fever dream miasma of ricocheting, thunderous polymetric clatter and proprioceptive fuckry without ever losing its head.

Hungtai’s canny use of contact mic feedback drone and cymbal saw gives the whole thing a sense of gauzy delirium that unites the grouches like mildewed grout and cobwebs, coarsely gelling the elements in a way that resonates with Pauline Oliveros and co’s Deep Listening band acousmagique as much as Basil Kirchin’s keeling ‘World Within World’ classic, the ghosts of Sun Ra’s ‘Nuclear War’, the possessed atmosphere of the cabin where Harley Gaber recorded ‘Wind Rises in the North’, and no doubt Harry Bertoia’s massive metallic sculptures, agitated at midnight.

Humid, menacing, and wraithlike, the album’s’ sense of keening chronics belies a visionary hand at the tiller, here tightened by Rashad Becker’s mastering, which faithfully brings to light, and shadow, the depth of perception and wild but concentrated energies at play, sealing in place a truly staggering session for adventurous ears, cineastes and Lynchian acolytes alike.

Black vinyl, DL card. Bardo Pond's extensive archive recordings series opens up once again with 'Volume 9', an incisive journey into their hypnotic sound. Recorded in the early 2000's it's a heady mix of acoustic ambience and menacing distortion. Infamous purveyors of longform stoner rock, Bardo Pond embrace their sludgestorms with graceful nods to Hawkwind, Earth and my bloody valentine. For anyone uninitiated with the band's tranquilizing sound, Volume 9 leans into their mesmeric practise with reckless abandon. Featuring two tracks recorded with ace percussionist Michael Zanghi (Kurt Vile/The War On Drugs) and the seminal two parter 'War Is Over', a lilting Floydian strum that's invaded - quite literally - by unreconstructed noise. The Zanghi collaboration is an Eastern-facing mantra with percussive flurries and distorted modal shifts - like listening on the other side of feedback. "Effortlessly combining psychedelic inspirations from Pink Floyd's original explorations to the more modern reachings into the beyond" AllMusic

Released in 1973, Lord of Lords was Alice Coltrane's final album for the Impulse! label, as well as the last instalment of a trilogy that began with Universal Consciousness and World Galaxy. Like its two predecessors, Lord of Lords features a 16-piece string orchestra that the leader arranged and conducted, fronted by a trio in which she plays piano, Wurlitzer organ, harp, and timpani accompanied by bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Ben Riley.

The original producer, Ed Michel, later stated that Coltrane worked with the top-rank classically-trained studio musicians of the string section and "opened them up so they could do absolutely astonishing things. Afterwards, the string players couldn't believe that they had done what they had done." According to AllMusic reviewer Thom Jurek, "The interplay between the three principals is lively and engaging, based on droning blues chords, and her soloing - even amid flurries of notes - comes right back to the root. Haden's bass is a beautiful anchor here, and the strings offer a lovely response to her organ and harp. Riley's cymbals are shimmering shards of light throughout, ending Lord of Lords on a very high note. She succeeds here, in ending her Impulse! period with elegance, grace, and soul."

Following the release of his Running Wild album, Grieves let loose a flurry of new music, surprising and delighting fans with fresh new singles each week. He was able to express his growth and hunger in this new work, as the content and production ranged from light-hearted and jazzy to intense and introspective. After releasing a string of five standalone singles he compiled them all onto one sensational project with three additional unreleased tracks, and introduced it as The Collections of Mr. Nice Guy.

The Collections of Mr. Nice Guy showcased a wide range of Grieves lyrical expression, as well as his production talents. On “Perspective”, Grieves waxes about the hypocritical standards musicians often face, while “Let The Devil In” addresses the demons he grapples with personally, rapping: “That shadow on my shoulder weighs a ton, y’all pretend like my experi- ence with hell was just for fun (nah).” On the lighter side, Grieves invites Chris Webby to trade bars back & forth on “Man Down”, where the pair go on to skewer less-than-stellar MCs holding space in the industry. Meanwhile, “I’ll Be Better” delivers a melan- choly reflection on the tropes of heartbreak, letting go of the old and making room for the new. At once, The Collections of Mr. Nice Guy stands at the intersection of all things fans that have historically drawn fans to Grieves—truthful and relatable lyricism over soulful synths and drums.

180g audiophile vinyl reissue of American blues guitarist Melvin Taylor's 1995 album 'Melvin Taylor & The Slack Band', which is appearing on vinyl for the first time with remastering by Cicely Baston at Alchemy/Air Mastering, London "The U.S. release of Melvin Taylor's two early-'80s LPs by Evidence a decade later was a shock introduction to a blues guitarist who seemingly blazed out of nowhere - outside of Rosa's Lounge in Chicago, that is. "Blazed" is the right word, too, because Taylor is a total maximalist who unleashes torrents of notes to fill up every space. But he's so convincing a player that the concept of "blues guitar hero" might get a good name again, even with fans dead- tired of excess who never thought they'd think things like, "Man, can Melvin Taylor play the ever-loving (add the expletive superlative of your choice) out of the guitar" again. Taylor's first real-time release, Melvin Taylor & the Slack Band, is a pretty straightforward affair - basic trio with minimal overdubs, serviceable vocals in an Albert King mode, and a mix of originals and very classic covers. The opening "Texas Flood" lets him rip on a slow blues, constantly changing up his playing with wah-wah blitzes as the real ace in his sonic hole. The originals "Depression Blues" and "Groovin' in New Orleans" add some funk flair, while "Talking to Anna Mae" is a straight- up Chicago boogie instrumental that Taylor shines on. But he's even more in his element on the unadorned slow blues "Tin Pan Alley" and King's "Don't Throw Your Love on Me So Strong." It's partly the speed but even more the phrasing - the unexpected stops and starts, the spiky and blazing runs and flurries, the unusual note selections he tosses in - that sets his playing apart. The other covers have their sporadic moments - "TBone Shuffle" is inconsequential, but Otis Rush's "All Your Love" and "Voodoo Chile" are worth listening to, even if the latter doesn't add anything to the famous Hendrix wah-wah workout. Taylor actually doesn't sound that radical here, like he was playing to establish blues circuit credentials by putting his stamp on familiar songs more than indulging offbeat personal touches like the mellow lounge jazz take on the Champs' "Tequila." But his playing can be truly electrifying and Melvin Taylor & the Slack Band is recommended for anyone, especially Stevie Ray Vaughan fans, looking for a distinctive new blues guitar voice." - Don Snowden, AllMusic Personnel: Melvin Taylor, guitar, vocals / Willie Smith, bass guitar / Steve Potts, drums Recorded and mixed on March 27-30, 1995 at Dockside Studios, Maurice, LA

Der beste Postpunk, ist der, der überrascht und in dem ganz viel Punkrock steckt. TV Cult aus Köln haben das verstanden und liefern mit ihrem Debüt-Album "Colony" eine absolute Ausnahmescheibe, mit deren Sound sie sich in hiesigen Gefilden so ziemlich allein auf weiter Flur bewegen. Mit ihren walzenden Basslines, der kalten, erdigen Gitarrenarbeit, den stoisch-druckvollen Drums und den englisch-sprachigen Vocals, die zwischen Crooner- und Hardcore-influenced wechseln, beschwören die 10 fantastischen Tracks von "Colony" eine breite Palette an Einflüssen, die von DC über Manchester bis Australien reichen. TV Cult vereinen damit eine hohe Bandbreite an Sounds, die sich vom klassischen Joy Division-Postpunk über 90er-Dischord-Elemente bis hin zu Iggy Pop-Reminiszenzen und der aktuellen Aussie-Punk-Szene um Bands wie Mini Skirt erstrecken. Egal ob im Mid- oder Uptempo, funktioniert "Colony" als Konsequenz erschreckend gut auf allen Ebenen und TV Cult können sich getrost auf die Fahne schreiben, ein zugleich vertraut wirkendes und dennoch völlig überraschendes, zeitloses Postpunkalbum aufgenommen zu haben, das zudem einen unverkennbaren, packenden Trademarksound birgt.

On 'Der Ferne', Phil Struck intricately weaves an abstract tapestry of textures, incorporating elements reminiscent of Hassellian-like sounds and multi-textured dubby soundscapes, a testament to the musician's getaways from urban life, journeying in the heart of nature. The music's warm and concise amalgamation of audio fragments lends it an ineffable quality, evoking hazy, sun-drenched memories, while the radiating reminiscences of the natural world invite contemplation of its true essence, remaining captivating for the discerning listener. What enigmatic experiences await discovery, and should the extraordinary always overshadow the ordinary?

„Der Ferne im Nahen. Der Ferne jenseits der Stadt. Der Ferne und den Dingen, die sich einem dort zeigen.“

"Der Ferne" stands as the fourth album by ambient and experimental artist Phil Struck, hailing from Kiel, Germany.

The long awaited next release from Neinzer on Yumé Records.

The kind of band whose members are fully immersed in their local scene-through a handful of notable side projects and the show- promoting Philly staple 4333 Collective- the quintet's sound takes wide- spectrum influence from its environment. The result is an amalgam of complex song structures and flourishes of technical acumen, wholly unconcerned with genre, yet evoking the specific styles of touchstones such as Paramore and Circa Survive.

On their debut longplayer Where the Heart Is, Sweet Pill's unbound, raucous energy presents through ten autobiographical tracks that hinge on singer Zayna Youssef's elastic, enrapturing voice- at times belting and controlled, at others textural and guttural. Supporting Youssef are guitarists Jayce Williams and Sean McCall, bassist Ryan Cullen, and drummer Chris Kearney. Their blistering lead single "Blood" sees Youssef exploring a deteriorated friendship over Williams and McCall's trudging riffs and tactful counterpoint, with Cullen and Kearney rumbling nimbly in the song's foundations.

Second single "High Hopes" counters with introspective, melodic punk that reshapes anxiety rather than succumb to it. But third single "Diamond Eyes" momentarily slows the pace, with McCall joining Youssef on vocals for a breakup lament laden with acoustic sentimentalism and an emotive flurry from guest flutist Jill Ryan. Such range is the central facet of Where the Heart Is, where Sweet Pill's penchant for combining punkish tropes enlivened with the vibrance of math- rock and the aggression of post- hardcore sweetened with pop sensibility compound into something stylistically new yet still familiar.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame® inductees, Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees, and GRAMMY® Award-winning music legends The Isley Brothers proudly present their anxiously awaited new album, Make Me Say It Again, Girl. It marks the duo’s first full-length LP since 2006 and thirty-first original album overall. They originally set the stage for the record with a recreation of The Isley Brothers classic 1975 love ballad, “Make Me Say It Again, Girl,” joined by none other than Beyoncé. It recently catapulted to #1 on the Billboard Adult R&B Airplay Chart, standing out as their first #1 since “Contagious.” It incited a flurry of critical applause from the likes of The FADER and Vulture who proclaimed, “For this one, Bey is out of Club Renaissance, trading lines with Isley over a smooth, polished track.” Make Me Say It Again, Girl THE ALBUM places the pair’s classic sound in the spotlight for a whole new era. Whether it be the cinematic scope of “Long Voyage Home” or R&B escapism of “Disappear,” they lean into the hallmarks of their signature style with undeniable energy. They’ve also brought a few friends—both old and new—along for the ride. El Debarge and Earth, Wind & Fire team up with The Isley Brothers for the generational banger “There’ll Never Be,” while Rick Ross flexes with pure lyrical fire during “Biggest Bosses.” Elsewhere, Quavo and Takeoff ignite the irresistible and infectious “Keys To My Mind.” After more than 60 years of creating massive hits, The Isley Brothers continue to produce timeless and impactful music showing why they are international treasures who are firmly woven into the fabric of our culture.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame® inductees, Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees, and GRAMMY® Award-winning music legends The Isley Brothers proudly present their anxiously awaited new album, Make Me Say It Again, Girl. It marks the duo’s first full-length LP since 2006 and thirty-first original album overall. They originally set the stage for the record with a recreation of The Isley Brothers classic 1975 love ballad, “Make Me Say It Again, Girl,” joined by none other than Beyoncé. It recently catapulted to #1 on the Billboard Adult R&B Airplay Chart, standing out as their first #1 since “Contagious.” It incited a flurry of critical applause from the likes of The FADER and Vulture who proclaimed, “For this one, Bey is out of Club Renaissance, trading lines with Isley over a smooth, polished track.” Make Me Say It Again, Girl THE ALBUM places the pair’s classic sound in the spotlight for a whole new era. Whether it be the cinematic scope of “Long Voyage Home” or R&B escapism of “Disappear,” they lean into the hallmarks of their signature style with undeniable energy. They’ve also brought a few friends—both old and new—along for the ride. El Debarge and Earth, Wind & Fire team up with The Isley Brothers for the generational banger “There’ll Never Be,” while Rick Ross flexes with pure lyrical fire during “Biggest Bosses.” Elsewhere, Quavo and Takeoff ignite the irresistible and infectious “Keys To My Mind.” After more than 60 years of creating massive hits, The Isley Brothers continue to produce timeless and impactful music showing why they are international treasures who are firmly woven into the fabric of our culture.

Infernal Sounds dish out the 3rd and final instalment in their IFSDIGIV series, loading up 4 more of their digital tracks onto a jam-packed 12". Mungk & Ego Death kick off proceedings with the beautifully oriental and melodic 'Crestmoon', before Drumterror takes charge in magical fashion on 'Likeness', incorporating a weighty and spacious mainframe to wrap around the saxophone wizardry of Ed Hodge. The B side takes a slightly more subterranean vibe with 'Memento' by Metafloor, dropping in on a heavy and bass-loaded swinger, before Grawinkel rounds off the EP with militant and wonky 'The Future', a tune that'll be battering the speakers with mid-range punches and flurry of low-end jabs. It's a release that has everything you need - four very different selections but packing variety and substance.

Recieved heavy support from the likes of Truth, N-Type, Deep Tempo, Bukez Finezt, Enada, Sicaria Sound, BunZer0 and many more.

Bowling out of Offenbach with a swing in his step, Dogpatrol returns for round three on Sneaker Social packing another four-strong payload of mutant rave clout. If you caught the previous missives then you should have some idea of where he's coming from, getting freaky with rave signifiers and laying down ear-snagging swerves to juice up the dance good and proper.

On this latest release we dip-dive into the grime-licked garage-tech shuffle of 'Non PGR' only for the script to get flipped at the mid-section in favour of diced up Think breaks. The pressure doesn't ease once Nasty King Kurl comes on board for a rolling remix strapped to a disgustingly massive kick drum impulse.

'Sassafras' takes a leaner approach to bleepy breakbeat contortions on the B side, holding down the arrangement and letting the track rip when everyone's wound up and hungry. NKK returns again to partner up with our resident Dog for the collab joint 'Creepin', chopping out the RnB samples and whipping up square wave synth flurries shouting out that overlooked substrata of dubstep - the Purple sound. It's a cheeky hint at the deep-level affinity for all rave gear which powers this EP, another sure step on from your favourite canine soundsystem practitioner.

It's a cohesive song cycle purpose-built for pit stops at points beyond along the California country corridor. Sonically, Stay In It feels equally at home in 2022 as it might in 1972, evidenced by nods to "After The Gold Rush"- era Neil Young, Jonathan Wilson,and The War on Drugs.
The singer-songwriter trucked Jerry Garcia's old console to the desert to embrace the analog. The kind where if you want to rip a guitar solo at 3am with the windows open, you go for it, cowboy. A flurry of calls reverberated back and forth until Eric and his producer Damien Lewis (Kevin Parker, JamesBay), crash-landed in the tiny high desert outpost of Landers, California...in August.

"Stay In It" is a way of saying be present, it's "Be Here Now" says Silverman, an accomplished veteran of the Bay Area live music scene (with appearances at festivals such as Outside Lands and Noise Pop under his belt). "So the record is really about just finding that moment where it all locks in and flows. Get there and stay there."

This is music that picks up influences and imagery and shapes and colors as it encounters them on Interstate 62, before dropping them off as they turn into specks of dust on the horizon. There's the two-step lilt of "Better Days", where we start awash in melancholy synths but end up hopeful for possibility. There's the synthesizer summoning courtesy of first- call session keyboardist Adam MacDougall (Black Crowes, Circles Around The Sun) on "All In My Head" where
things get fully cosmic.

But no matter the track, there's something bigger happening here.

Sometimes, things "just happen". For months, we’d been working away on various projects and then, without really thinking about it, The Black EP just happened. It seemingly appeared from nowhere.

We’d been talking about the old days; making music with friends and dodgy kit, renting small practice rooms and using makeshift recording studios. It was such a common thing back then, you could pick a dusty space in a half-derelict building for as little as £25 a month. In those days, the Cabs and Human League had studios with posh-sounding names, but in reality, they were the same old workspaces long abandoned by the industries they were built for. Nevertheless, the grand names made them sound magical.

Sheffield had thousands of these spaces, and some still exist today, but their abundance and low-cost made Sheffield a very active place. Someone was always doing something. They’d exploded onto the scene in a flurry of excitement before disappearing just as quickly.

There’s something about these little mesters (workshops) that we believe lives in the very consciousness of Sheffield. It’s one of the reasons we never really had big scenes like Manchester or Leeds. The Hacienda would've never been built here.

We don’t really do big gangs or have that kind of mentality. We tend to exist in little pockets, often leaving each other alone. It would be 30 years before any member of The Black Dog talked to Cabaret Voltaire. Sure, we’d stood outside their practice room as kids, trying to listen in, but never felt any reason to approach. Sheffield is like that.

Once we had the first two tracks of the Black EP, we set off to see Jon at Do It Theesen, where he manually cut the tracks to an extremely limited set of 7" singles using a vinyl lathe. It just felt right to go back to the old ways; a small gang creating something special in workshops and sheds. There’s something very satisfying about it, a perfect circle, if you will.

We pushed further by adopting old practices, working with one synth per person and limiting the use of our computers. We only stopped short of putting everything on beer crates. It seems like madness these days, but there is raw creativity within these confines. Pretty much every band started this way. Depeche Mode travelled to the studio on the London Underground for their first appearance on Top Of The Pops, all lugging a synth each. That's how we approached the creation of this album; stripped back, raw and minimal - it just felt so right.

And then there’s the competitive element that was influenced when the original Human League split and became Human League MK II and Heaven 17. Both continued to use the same studio to write what became the albums "Dare" and "Penthouse and Pavement". There is something about that drive that is very Sheffield, just making stuff and hoping everything falls into place.

In Sheffield, we do things differently, because that’s how we are built. away on various projects and then, without really thinking about it, The Black EP just happened. It seemingly appeared from nowhere.

Mercy Of The Crane Folk’ is the beautifully accomplished second album from Athens GA’s Immaterial Possession. A theatrical soundscape littered with subconscious flashbacks, retro keyboard flurries, wandering Morricone-esque guitar and dreamy Sumac-like harmonies. Featuring the ethereal eerie dream pop of former artist commune residents Cooper Holmes and Madeline Polites, with drummer John Spiegel and Elephant 6 descendant Kiran Fernandes (keyboards, clarinets, flutes). Additional contributions come from drummer Jon Vogt who can be heard on ‘Mercy Of The Crane Folk’ and ‘Birth Of Queen Croaker’. It’s a haunting and immersive trip into the inner psyche of these nomadic soothsayers; a psychedelic dance party from a half-lit underground world; breathlessly eerie and all consuming; a salubrious sojourn that sounds like nothing else. Filled with a kind of peculiar optimistic uncertainty that any quest to make sense of a drowsy recollection of simpler and far better times would have; ‘Mercy Of The Crane Folk’ is soft and serene summoning up a fanciful folkloric place where, undoubtedly, the mysterious crane flock prosper

Star Funeral is the full-band solo project of Nikki Es- posito. Stepping into the spot light from behind the bass in Secret Tapes, Esposito adds guitar and lead vocals to her list of duties while drums are handled by Ethan Kreidemaker. Sonically, Star Funeral walks a fine line between pleasant and somber tones- dreamy guitars splash through plodding bass and drums with Esposi- to’s vocals driving them forward through a flurry of aching longing and regret. This is indie rock at its finest and Star Funeral feel set to be a standard bearer for a long time. “In the Dark” came together in 2020 after urging from close friends and producer Billy Mannino (Bigger Better Sun, Oso Oso). Singer/multi-instrumentalist Nikki Es- posito built this solo project from the ground up, per- forming all instruments alongside Ethan Kreidemaker’s studio percussion. It’s a lightning bolt of intensity and harrowing growth set to honor and expand upon her primary influences, a flash of self-understanding while re-entering a lightless era. Star Funeral’s debut is a potent discovery of new ways to shoulder old wounds, such as the murmurs of body dysmorphia trailing be- hind double-jaw surgery (“Mouth Bleeder”), the lack of closure in lost friendships (“Outgrow”), and the anxiety of letting others in after these hurdles (“Breather”).

Time and duration are core themes in the work of both William Basinski and Janek Schaefer, and this long-distance collaboration took a suitably long gestation of eight years from start to finish. In that time, our collective perception of time has at times become disorienting. “ . . . on reflection” remodels that instability as an exquisite work of art – one that is unmoored by time or space. Limitation breeds creativity, revealed as an expression of minimalism and close focus. Deploying a delicate piano passage from their collective archive, Basinski and Schaefer weave and reweave in numerous ways, forging an iridescent flurry of flickering melodies. The sounds of various birds heard from late night windows on tour can occasionally be heard throughout, ricocheting off mirrored facades, reflecting on themselves as they continually reshape their own environments with song. “ . . . on reflection” looks backwards, a bustling revelry of positive emotions heard through the aging mirrors of memory. It is a celebratory meditation where sound shimmers through time like the light of the sea’s waves glistening as it folds and unfolds upon itself. Created 2014-2022 between L.A. & London. Mixed at Narnia, Walton-on-Thames. For Harold Budd. Press Quotes: “At its best, William Basinski’s music inspires the sort of rapturous testimony usually reserved for peak experiences, cult leaders and the dead.” Pitchfork // "Schaefer finds peace in discord. His musique concrete pieces tend to evoke an ominous sense of mortal doom, yet enrapture in the process.” Pitchfork

La Tène"s boundary-blurring fragmentation of traditional music is a propulsive and pulsating trip drawing upon Terry Riley and the minimalist masters. La Tène named themselves in reference to a cultural period spanning a few centuries of the late Iron Age, first defined in the mid-19th century after a flurry of archaeological discoveries near a Swiss lake. That"s not a superficial hat tip, either. La Tène"s long, hypnotic, wordless pieces are built from traditional folk instrumentation, wild percussion and blurred, subtle electronic embellishments, and feel as ancient and earthy as those millennia-old artefacts - with all the metal, wood, dedication, and craftsmanship they entailed. Ecorcha / Taillée, their fourth release and third for Geneva"s Bongo Joe label, is the sound of three musicians playing together as intuitively as if hooked up to a central, pulsating brain.

1000 Robota im Jahr 2022 sind, soviel sei verraten, immer noch Sebastian Muxfeldt, Jonas Hinnerkort und Anton Spielmann. Und was macht eine Band, die schon immer den Zeitgeist angeschrien hat, mit der hochfrequenten Gegenwart? Sie durch den Fleischwolf drehen und ihr die eigene Reflexion vorlegen, genauer: Ein neues Album. Es klingt gewaltig, intensiv und intim zugleich und strahlt eine utopisch finstere Wärme aus. 1000 Robota über das Artwork: Jede Platte ist physisch (per Hand) individuell von uns gestaltet worden. Kein Artwork sieht gleich aus. Durch Heißluft werden handelsübliche Supermarkttüten um die Albumhülle geschmolzen. Faktisch gibt es kein "grafisches Artwork", es ist physischer Natur und schafft sich seine ganz eigene Form, die zu immer wieder neuen, unberechenbaren Oberflächen, Kerben und Strukturen führt, zu einer zusammengeschmolzenen und übersehenen Welt. Wahrscheinlich unsere Welt.

On in february, Isik Kural works like a photographer of sound, documenting the passing and returning of time as if material snapshots of life's temporality. Across the album's twelve songs, each composed from chance loops and cocooned within the soft container of Isik's memorable voice and melody play, time is held on to hopefully, impossibly, eternally.
Born in Istanbul, Isik studied music engineering at the University of Miami, alighted in New York City, and eventually settled in Glasgow, immersing in a sound design masters and audiovisual practice. While these paths guided him between different projects and cities, a voice was simultaneously growing inside the artist, informed by a vision of the world in its everyday luminosity. This voice was expressed in the lyrical and instrumental waves of 2019's As Flurries, a cassette collection for Italian label Almost Halloween Records.
Isik Kural's in february will be released on October 15, 2021 on vinyl, cassette, compact disc, and digital formats. On behalf of Isik, a portion of the proceeds from this release will benefit Turkiye Egitim Gonulluleri Vakfi, an organization that creates and conducts workshops, educational training programs and after school programs for children across Turkey.

After his latest ‘Youth EP’ that experimented with spacious vocal chops and whimsical soundscapes, Nocow returns with a relentless flurry of blows on the heavily computerized ‘Magnit EP’ released on npm. Featuring gloriously broken melodies and hard-hitting rhythm, Nocow explores the darker, more formulaic side to his sound. Brooding acid-infused synths shimmer across the four tracks, morphing between moods as the EP progresses. ‘Magnit S’ kicks off the EP with scattered bass hits, driving dark techno arpeggios, and a hint of footwork-esque percussion. The intense atmosphere is a relatively new direction for Nocow, straying from his more meticulous, introverted beats prior. ‘Kali’ incorporates warbled synth with a more subdued rhythm, playing with a modular sound and distant echoes of robotic vocals. This fragmented track is more akin to his 2018 sound of the Voda/Vozduh/Zemlya trilogy as the kinetics of sound play a strongly defined role in the overall sonics. ‘Sputnik’ commences with a blistering arpeggio of bit-crushed synth and chimes. The rocket-propelled pacing creates a frantic, yet ultimately controlled piece, worthy of a place in a club 300 years from now. Yet, after the frenzy comes the calm. The closing track ‘Extasy’ grinds the EP to a kaleidoscopic halt. Vocoder passages drift across the dense soundscape as Nocow transports you to an other-world, filled with spacey percussion. This closer is a well-deserved return to solid ground, following the perpetual trio of dark, yet utterly compelling techno pieces. Once again, Nocow exhibits his multi-faceted approach to electronic music that truly sets him apart.

Time and duration are core themes in the work of both William Basinski and Janek Schaefer, and this long-distance collaboration took a suitably long gestation of eight years from start to finish. In that time, our collective perception of time has at times become disorienting. " . . . on reflection " remodels that instability as an exquisite work of art - one that is unmoored by time or space. Limitation breeds creativity, revealed as an expression of minimalism and close focus. Deploying a delicate piano passage from their collective archive, Basinski and Schaefer weave and reweave in numerous ways, forging an iridescent flurry of flickering melodies. The sounds of various birds heard from late night windows on tour can occasionally be heard throughout, ricocheting off mirrored facades, reflecting on themselves as they continually reshape their own environments with song. " . . . on reflection " looks backwards, a bustling revelry of positive emotions heard through the aging mirrors of memory. It is a celebratory meditation where sound shimmers through time like the light of the sea's waves glistening as it folds and unfolds upon itself. Created 2014-2022 between L.A. & London. Mixed at Narnia, Walton-on-Thames. For Harold Budd.

The renowned trio of Keiji Haino, Jim O’Rourke and Oren Ambarchi return to Black Truffle with their 11th release, “Caught in the dilemma of being made to choose” This makes the modesty which should never been closed off itself Continue to ask itself: “Ready or not?” Demonstrating once again their commitment to continual experimentation in instrumentation and approach, the record begins with a long-distance collaboration made in response to a commission from New York’s Issue Project Room in 2021 during widespread lockdowns and travel limitations. A unique piece in the trio’s extensive body of work, this side-long epic finds Haino performing on metal percussion, O’Rourke on electronics and Ambarchi on gongs and bells. Initially dominated by rapid patterns on resonant, high-pitched tuned percussion, the piece sets Haino’s dynamic and dramatic performance against a calm backdrop of cycling electronics, thrumming gong strikes and hanging bell tones. The performance develops a heightened, intensely concentrated atmosphere reminiscent of Haino’s classic Tenshi No Ginjinka or his Nijiumu project; when Haino moves to clashing hand cymbals in its second half, the piece’s ritualistic energy suggests aspects of the music of Tibetan Buddhism.

The remainder of the double LP documents the trio live at Tokyo’s SuperDeluxe (the location of all but their very first recording) in a wide-ranging set recorded in December 2017. The concert opens, in another first for the trio, with Haino on drums, O’Rourke on Hammond organ and Ambarchi on his signature Leslie cabinet guitar tones. Haino’s explosively untutored approach to the drumkit will be familiar to some listeners from the radical duo iteration of Fushitsusha heard on Origin’s Hesitation. Setting flurries of rapid activity against moments of silence, his drumming here at times suggests Milford Graves in its tumbling toms and thudding kick-drum propulsion. Accompanied by O’Rourke’s organ and Ambarchi’s guitar, which in their shared use of long tones and shifting modulation speeds almost blend into a single voice, the opening sections of this performance are some of the most magical music the trio has committed to tape thus far.

After an interlude of spoken vocals in both Japanese and English, Haino makes a dramatic entrance on guitar. Against O’Rourke and Ambarchi’s increasingly intense electronic backdrop, Haino unleashes a stunning passage of slowly moving chromatic melodies and sudden shrieking explosions bathed in distortion and reverb. By the time we reach the third side, the guitar/bass/drums power trio is established and lurches into a passage of massive, lumbering rock that threatens to fall apart at every beat, O’Rourke’s strummed chordal work on six string bass creating a harmonic density equivalent to a second guitar. An abrupt edit throws the listener in media res into a frantic locked groove grounded by fuzzed out bass patterns and caveman drums. As Haino moves through a variety of approaches, from massive edifices of stuttering fuzz to ominous swarms of feedback, the trio eventually stumble into a kind of Harmolodic military tattoo, Haino’s guitar weaving and slashing across the rhythm section’s irregular accents. Moving through an epic opening duet for O’Rourke on Hammond and Haino’s wailing guitar, the fourth side eventually ramps up into a frenetic finale of mad bass riffing, crackling snare hits and guitar squall.“Caught in the dilemma of being made to choose” This makes the modesty which should never been closed off itself Continue to ask itself: “Ready or not?” is a testament to the continuing power and invention of this trio, who continue to seek out new terrain after over a decade working together. 2LP set presented in a lavish gatefold sleeve on heavy stock along with inner sleeves containing live pics by Tsuyoshi Kamaike. Photography by Jim O’Rourke, design by Lasse Marhaug and translation by Alan Cummings.

Following the recent flurry of newly remastered releases from Ampoule records, most notably Pubs timeless ‘Summer EP’ & classic albums ' Do You Ever Regret Pantomime?’ & ‘Single’ besides releasing ‘Cheeky Speaker’ under his alter ego ‘Lucky & Easy’ last year.

Pub ‘Autumn EP’ sees his return to Ampoule with four brand new tracks that merge his love of all things Black Dog and Chain Reaction with a healthy dose of shoegaze and freaked out folk.

Progressive rock bent with a considerable amount of rock 'n' roll gospel
soul!
.Sanctuary's virtuosity is undeniable, and every song displays each
member's considerable talents
The album is abundant with soaring and passionate vocal arrangements that are
carried on high by the lively interplay of Norm Weinberg's percussive flurries as
they weave their way through a tapestry of flutes, strings, and guitars. Deeply
resonant keyboards set the foundation for the band's sound, and in fitting, albeit
unsuspecting, fashion, it is Eric Bikales' flute playing that shepherds the listener
through the album.
Beginning with "All In My Dreams," the flute's light and colorful timbre captures the
ear, serving as a clarion call for all to follow and creating moments of majesty, as
music and message seamlessly transform into one. Sanctuary's interpretations
of Yes's "Time And A Word" and Edgar Winter's "Winter's Dream" are not mere
covers. They are bright and bold musical statements, refusals to submit to the
negativity of the times. Their unique take on these compositions, as well as their
own, provides the kind of bright eyed anthems their generation's voice needed to
compete against the backdrop of war and social upheaval dominating the
headlines.

Fabrice Lig has melody running through his veins. On his quest to explore his deep love for the bitter-sweet yearning of Motor City techno, his tracks transcend trends. Over his three-decade spanning career he has refined his blend of soul-infused dance music to striking effect. His gift for a catchy hook is unmatched. His new studio album "The Mental Bandwidth" shows his musical range as a producer once again. On the album's twelve tracks, he effortlessly traverses, cosmic house, funkified techno and electronica, combining his trademark quirky melodies with playful songwriting and dance floor focused beats. The album format is giving Lig enough space to explore his musical ideas from different directions while staying true to the overall atmosphere. "The idea for the album was to go back to the fundamentals of the original Detroit sound and to find new ways of expressing that soul in my music - as I've been doing for years", explains Lig. With Ann Saunderson and the former Kraftwerk-member Wolfgang Flur, the album features two heavy-weight collaborations that connect the "The Mental Bandwidth" to Detroit's musical legacy, too. Slikk Tim aka Garry Grittness also has a cameo in the form of a funky bassline on "Healing", the pop-infused Ann Saunderson collaboration. The title of the album is inspired by Lig's lecture of Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir book "Scarcity: Why Having So Little Means So Much" which explores new approaches to reduce poverty. "The authors discovered that the mental bandwidth of poor people is sometimes really low because of short term issues they are facing and are forced to solve", explains Lig. Those issues are reducing the mental bandwidth for long term thinking capacities, which in turn has consequences for the decision making process. An example: before the quality of education of poor kids is increased, the quality of life they have must be increased. This increases the capacities of the kids to learn more than solely better educational programs.

CITY OF CATERPILLAR return with their first new album in 20 years, Mystic Sisters! When guitarist/vocalist Brandon Evans, guitarist Jeff Kane, drummer Ryan Parrish and bassist/vocalist Kevin Longendyke unveiled their self-titled debut in 2002, their emotional, frenzied and often cinematic music was at the vanguard of the burgeoning screamo movement. Along with bands like Pg.99 (with whom they shared members), Majority Rule, Planes Mistaken For Stars and others, they helped develop a style of music that took hardcore into convulsive new territory. After years spent living in other parts of the country and playing in other bands—including Darkest Hour, Malady and Ghastly City Sleep, the long awaited CITY OF CATERPILLAR reunion shows snowballed into writing sessions. The result - Mystic Sisters, an album that recaptures the magic of old while taking the band’s music into exciting new territory! The winding and atmospheric title track that embodies CITY OF CATERPILLAR's experimental side features some noise violin from Evans’ former Pg. 99 bandmate Johnny Ward, while tracks like "Decider" and "Paranormaladies" showcases the band's roots with a flurry of viceral, noisey hardcore swagger. Tracked primarily at Montrose Recording in Richmond, Mystic Sisters was self-produced by the band and then mixed and mastered by Jack Shirley (Deafheaven, Bosse-de-Nage). Ultimately, CITY OF CATERPILLAR are more concerned with creating a mood than telling a story. “The band is always focused on mood,” Evans confirms. “To me, that’s the most important thing. I don’t really want people dissecting what we’re trying to say, because it’s not really about us. It never has been. What we cared about 20 years ago was innocent, raw emotion, and that’s what we care about now.”

Nyokabi Kari?ki wrote her upcoming EP, peace places: kenyan memories out next year on SA Recordings, while away from home, Kenya, in the United States, during the pandemic. She found that imagining peaceful, gentle, memories from her 18 years of a childhood in Kenya became an antidote to remedy homesickness and emotional fatigue — and almost naturally, these imaginings evoked a very visceral and creative response within her. From Nyokabi’s childhood home in Nairobi, where her piano, gifted to her at age 8, still sits; to her father’s hometown of K?r?nyaga (‘Ngurumo, or Feeding Goats Mangoes’) and her grandmother’s farm in Kiambu (A Walk Through My C?c?’s Farm); from holidays by the Kenyan coast (‘Galu’ and ‘Naila’s Peace Place’) to a few in Laikipia (‘Equator song’); these places find themselves crystallised in each track of the EP, most apparent through the inclusion of field recordings taken in each respective place; but also in the music and lyricism of the pieces. As she worked on this record, she realised that her mind was not only taking solace in imagining ‘home’ as physical spaces, but also in seeing that ‘home’ was in ancestry, in language and words, in family and friends, in the palpability of her instruments, in harmony but also dissonance, and of course, in music. My album artwork was painted by a dear childhood friend, Naila Aroni, and so I decided to give back in a similar way: by creating a track around her own ‘peace place’. She chose Lamu on the Kenyan coast, a place I’d never been, so I used the video to guide me. In it, she walks along the beach with her best friend, having a conversation that — in the track, we first hear as a unrecognisable ‘yells’, which are actually timestretches of the conversation; framed alongside hyperreal flurries on the vibraphone (played by Chris O’Leary). Then, in the final moments of the song, the conversation is revealed: “Naila, how happy are you?” her best friend asks. “It doesn’t even feel real, It’s surreal,” Naila responds. When I’d heard the audio, the emotion of pure joy & euphoria seemed distilled into the sounds of their voices. And so Naila’s Peace Place is an effort to freeze that moment in time, so we can marinate in the sound of that joy for just a little longer. - Nyokabi on Naila’s Peace Place.

1000 Robota im Jahr 2022 sind, soviel sei verraten, immer noch Sebastian Muxfeldt, Jonas Hinnerkort und Anton Spielmann. Und was macht eine Band, die schon immer den Zeitgeist angeschrien hat, mit der hochfrequenten Gegenwart? Sie durch den Fleischwolf drehen und ihr die eigene Reflexion vorlegen, genauer: Ein neues Album. Es klingt gewaltig, intensiv und intim zugleich und strahlt eine utopisch finstere Wärme aus.

1000 Robota im Jahr 2022 sind, soviel sei verraten, immer noch Sebastian Muxfeldt, Jonas Hinnerkort und Anton Spielmann. Und was macht eine Band, die schon immer den Zeitgeist angeschrien hat, mit der hochfrequenten Gegenwart? Sie durch den Fleischwolf drehen und ihr die eigene Reflexion vorlegen, genauer: Ein neues Album. Es klingt gewaltig, intensiv und intim zugleich und strahlt eine utopisch finstere Wärme aus. 1000 Robota über das Artwork: Jede Platte ist physisch (per Hand) individuell von uns gestaltet worden. Kein Artwork sieht gleich aus. Durch Heißluft werden handelsübliche Supermarkttüten um die Albumhülle geschmolzen. Faktisch gibt es kein "grafisches Artwork", es ist physischer Natur und schafft sich seine ganz eigene Form, die zu immer wieder neuen, unberechenbaren Oberflächen, Kerben und Strukturen führt, zu einer zusammengeschmolzenen und übersehenen Welt. Wahrscheinlich unsere Welt.

Keith Fullerton Whitman brings his 3-part Generators series for Japan’s NAKID label to a close with a third and final instalment that ravishes the senses with hybrid analogue/digital systems tekkerz.

Hazing into a solemn start of floating organ and slurred drums, the first part fizzes into action with pranging irregularities, tentatively allowing the system to voice varying pitches and nimble rhythms that resemble balletic footwork plies as much as classically-trained instrumentalist flurries. It’s deeply trance-inducing, meditative gear that over the course of 25 minutes slowly gains momentium and complexity, first adding robust arps to complicate the structure, treading the finest line of chaos and discipline. In time, those arps turn themselves into a rhythm track, landing somewhere between Whitman's earliest junglist works as Hrvatski and a sort of plucked rhythmic minimalism that reminds us of Mark Fell’s Sensate Focus, gliding on natural, brownian motion and flux of texture, punctuated by what sound likes a plucking of a drum machine from the inside-out.

In part 2 the mood pools and diffracts in slow-fast meter, bristling ruptures of atonality that send limbs flailing one way and then another, adding subs for a dimensional shift that’s rhythmically fractured but always grounded at the low registers. The wavy embroidery of Whitman's machines trigger each other in endlessly fascinating forms of gyring workshop ballistics and dub reverberations.

A special bonus piece ‘Meakusma (Generators, Soundcheck)’ is the most curious of the lot, with a lone clarinet heard in the air, perhaps a serendipitous inclusion form someone else’s soundcheck, lending an enchanting depth perception to his frolicking bleeps.


[a] 1 | MEAKUSMA [Generators] (190606) Part 1
[b] 2 | MEAKUSMA [Generators, Redactions] (190606) Part 2
[c] 3 | MEAKUSMA [Generators, Soundcheck] (190606)

Repress of the the debut album of synth-pop pioneers La Roux.

Originally released in very limited quantities on vinyl in 2009, the album, La Roux, contains the UK No. 1 single Bulletproof as well as Top 3 smash In For The Kill. La Roux was shortlisted for the 2009 Mercury Prize and won Best Electronic/Dance Album at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards in 2011.

La Roux was a refreshing addition to the world of pop. Brixton-born Elly Jackson was inspired more by the music of Nick Drake and Neil Young than synth pop, and when Ben Langmaid first heard her, she was playing her songs on an acoustic guitar. Together, they updated the template for the synth duo, Langmaid resolutely in the background, while Jackson became the face and mouthpiece for the group.

Their debut single, Quicksand, was released on Kitsune Records in December 2008, and soon after Polydor signed them, and amid a flurry of press attention, In For The Kill came out in March 2009, rising to No. 2 in the UK. In June that year, Bulletproof topped the charts, paving the way for the album, which was received warmly in the UK and made huge inroads into the US charts.

Jackson's androgyny and the duo's musical style evoked the 80s, yet this was no mere pastiche. The songs had heart and soul and were delivered with matchless panache. "People don't just want R&B girls thrusting their groins at them," she told The Guardian. "It gave me hope. People bought the record even though it was fronted by this odd boy-looking ginger girl."

La Roux is presented with scrupulous attention to the detail of the original UK first pressing and available in audiophile 180gm vinyl. Whether replacing a much-loved original copy, or adding to a collection afresh, this is a superior way to enjoy such enduring and influential music.

Eric Dolphy's final studio album is hailed as one of the finest examples of mid-'60s post bop. Its reputation is purely one of backwards significance. Dolphy, having recorded the album in February 1964, was in Europe less than six weeks later and his all-too-brief life ended less than two months after that. Though likely he never held a copy in his hands or heard any critical opinion of it, it marked his last flurry of original compositions and is considered his apex. It is fascinating to consider whether he would had moved past or away from the album in 1965, had he lived.

Though Dolphy should not be considered an avant-garde musician by the term's most common definitions, most interpretations of Out To Lunch have been done by players working squarely in that area. So it is with this album, the most ambitious in its recreation of the five-tune disc (with one original added to the final "Straight Up and Down, extending the piece to almost thirty minutes). All five compositions from the original quintet LP are revisited in the same order, the record sleeve even duplicates the old album jacket, down to the typeface and black-and-blue color scheme, although a photo taken by Daidō Moriyama inside Tokyo's massive (and massively busy) Shinjuku railway station replaces the Dolphy's album's enigmatic "Will Be Back" sign, whose clock hands indicated no conventional time of expected return.

Otomo Yoshihide first came to international prominence in the 1990s as the leader of the experimental rock group Ground Zero, and has since worked in a variety of contexts, ranging from free improvisation to noise, jazz, avant-garde and contemporary classical. The always surprising and sometimes confounding turntablist, sound artist, onkyo improviser and now avant jazzer heading up a 15-piece aggregation of Japanese and European experimentalists. Who better to grapple with Dolphy's legacy -- so idiosyncratic in its day and yet so influential to creative improvisers who followed -- than a musician with his own singular take on how sounds can be organized in the jazz realm over 40 years later and half a world away? In other words don't expect the conventional from Otomo any more than you would from Dolphy himself. That's not to say that recognizable themes ("Hat and Beard," "Out to Lunch," "Straight Up and Down") don't appear, or that individual players -- including Alfred Harth on bass clarinet bursting into the mix and leaping across the instrument's tonal range in a way that recalls the master himself -- don't carry forward echoes from the past in the spirit of a sincere and heartfelt homage.

However, a good deal of the time all bets are off; in addition to the usual brass, reeds, bass, and drums (and of course a bit of vibraphone, here played by Takara Kumiko in far less prominent role than that of Bobby Hutcherson) are such sonic paraphernalia as sine waves, contact mike, no-input mixing board, and, of course, "computer." (Otomo himself plays skronky electric guitar.) From composition to composition and even during episodes within compositions, the band takes radically different approaches. There are blasts of free jazz energy not too far removed from the Peter Brötzmann Tentet, an impression reinforced by the presence of spluttering wildman Mats Gustafsson on baritone sax. Not surprisingly and often in contrast with the Dolphy original, the music is dense and filled to overflowing with sounds -- sometimes due to fundamental reworkings in structure rather than just the larger size of the ensemble. The middle section of "Something Sweet, Something Tender" somewhat belies the original's title with elongated howls and cries from the horns over slo-mo bass, drums, and electronic noise poised somewhere between dirge and drone, and the sudden explosion of punk-ish rock energy in the following "Gazzelloni" is a startling contrast.

At times, the feeling is that of listening to the original Out To Lunch while a séance is going on to contact Dolphy's ghost, with supernatural sounds swirling around the stereo. The effect is disconcerting, as is the post-apocalyptic cloud hanging over the arrangements, but it makes the effort more than an unnecessary tribute album. Instead, Dolphy is transported into the 21st Century and allowed to romp through modern developments in music. An inspiring concept and an album that will stretch the boundaries of anyone who comes into contact with it.

Philadelphia's Sweet Pill write eruptive emo songs that embrace the
edges of pop and hardcore
The kind of band whose members are fully immersed in their local scene-through
a handful of notable side projects and the show- promoting Philly staple 4333
Collective- the quintet's sound takes wide- spectrum influence from its
environment. The result is an amalgam of complex song structures and
flourishes of technical acumen, wholly unconcerned with genre, yet evoking the
specific styles of touchstones such as Paramore and Circa Survive.
On their debut longplayer Where the Heart Is, Sweet Pill's unbound, raucous
energy presents through ten autobiographical tracks that hinge on singer Zayna
Youssef's elastic, enrapturing voice- at times belting and controlled, at others
textural and guttural. Supporting Youssef are guitarists Jayce Williams and Sean
McCall, bassist Ryan Cullen, and drummer Chris Kearney. Their blistering lead
single "Blood" sees Youssef exploring a deteriorated friendship over Williams and
McCall's trudging riffs and tactful counterpoint, with Cullen and Kearney rumbling
nimbly in the song's foundations.
Second single "High Hopes" counters with introspective, melodic punk that
reshapes anxiety rather than succumb to it. But third single "Diamond Eyes"
momentarily slows the pace, with McCall joining Youssef on vocals for a breakup
lament laden with acoustic sentimentalism and an emotive flurry from guest
flutist Jill Ryan. Such range is the central facet of Where the Heart Is, where
Sweet Pill's penchant for combining punkish tropes enlivened with the vibrance of
math- rock and the aggression of post- hardcore sweetened with pop sensibility
compound into something stylistically new yet still familiar. Pressed on 180-gram
Red color vinyl

A luminary of anthemic and melodic-driven techno, Enrico Sangiuliano’s path to the upper echelon of dance music has been a rapid, yet authentic one. Taking us on his newest exploration into the world of sound design and story-telling, the Emilia-native unveils the first chapter in a series of opuses under his time-limited NINETOZERO record label. The highly-anticipated countdown of releases begins today with number 9; the 4-track “Silence” EP - out now across all streaming platforms.

The extended-player opens with the reserved ‘inner mix’ of “Silence”; a cinematic masterpiece that challenges the format and flow of techno cuts and instead, radiates a measured and reflective spirit. Bright, twinkling synthwork ebbs and flows between its crisp percussion and distorted bassline, creating a push and pull effect that allows each element its moment in the spotlight. The second offering, “Future Dust”, is teased with the sound of a ticking clock that morphs effortlessly into a strong percussive line, commanded by the raw hollow sensibilities of its kick. The distinct ticking returns to welcome in the break, bringing with it a hypercharged melodic sequence and pitch-bending rave stabs. The components soon flurry together in preparation for the monumental drop, which is succeeded by an unrelenting peak-time worthy drive to the finish.

“New Expression Of Love” is the next to play; a quirky cut with plenty of intrigue and unpredictable twists and turns. Laced with offbeat synth hits that ooze a nostalgic timbre, the tune’s intro airs a subtle swing groove. As it reaches its all-important core, we’re cloaked in an intoxicating melody that serves as pure rapture for the ears, and will no doubt satiate the modern audience’s craving for euphoric sequences. Entering the break, Enrico flares his experimental capabilities, providing us with a moment of break-beat bliss that’s fuelled by acid goodness. A ‘vocal mix’ of “Silence” rounds out the EP with the distinct mantra, ‘we live in silence’, whilst its modular ‘beeps’ signal a countdown clock in reference to the project’s embedded concept of time.

Championing music on a deeper conceptual level, Enrico’s NINETOZERO output is a reflection of his tenacious appetite for evolution and refinement. Producing with a level of finesse well beyond his years, his artistic vibrancy has ensured quick elevation to the top, all the while maintaining a sound that is discernibly his own. Now standing as one of the circuit’s most cherished visionaries, and with an unrivalled back catalogue of Beatport No.1’s to his name, the contemporary sound designer’s first and forthcoming bodies of work under the NINETOZERO umbrella are further proof of his impending rise to dance music royalty.