Two long-time friends Juho Kusti (Deep Space Helsinki, Parabel) and Ville Vähäsaari (Rezonans) bring you their brand new label, No Future But What We Make.
The label's first release features two broken beat burners on the A-side from Detroit-based Uun (Mord, Ego Death) coupled with a more straightforward remix from acid mammoths Boston 168 (BPitch Control, Odd Even, Enemy Records) on the B-side.
Make a difference. Get involved. There's no future but what we make.
The young virtuoso producer Prins Emanuel follows up his acclaimed debut album on Music For Dreams with something quite different than what we're used to hearing from him. While Arbete & Fritid was an epic odyssey into the furthest corners of disco with an array of studio wizardry and complex rhythms, Diagonal Musik is a sparse and delicate exploration of the acoustic guitar. Steering away from his comfort zone, the Prins follows his intuition for experimentation and lands somewhere in a field of genre-defiant folk-jazz meditations; a development that fits like hand in glove for the eccentric nature of Music For Dreams. The album reads like a soundtrack to the country house Emanuel shares with his family and friends, a place on the map called Oran. From atop a hillside overlooking a lake, Oran is lodged deep in the heart of the Skåne landscape, the southern part of Sweden that once belonged to Denmark. This place encompasses the whole of the album, as the track titles all pinpoint crucial locations on the courtyard and its surroundings. 'Orön' which opens the album is named after the small half-island that sits in the centre of the lake. There's the hand-built sauna ("Bastun") at the edge of the yard, and behind that in a slope the old root cellar ("Jordkällaren"). While the nature here is anything but balearic, the overwhelming calm of the country life seems to inspire the same laid-back attitude and passion for all things organic (and not just musically, as this is where Emanuel also makes cider from local apples according to the vin naturel school). Upon listening to Diagonal Musik one might be keen to draw references to works in similar style, such as the output of late 80's new age label Windham Hill or the dreamy lullabies of long-time friend and Music For Dreams affiliate 55 Cancri e. This is all circumstantial however, surprising as it may seem.
In search of the sublime, contemporary electronic musician Steve Hauschildt has designed grids and panoramas of sound across multiple releases through the rise and dissolution of his former band, Emeralds, an American touchstone of 2000s home-recorded psychedelic noise music. Consistent with his solo work is Hauschildt's ability to coil his craft in precise, varied, and distinctly physical forms. Gently spinning arpeggios converse with post-industrial decay. Sonic bers sway like pendulums from static melancholy to motorik bliss. Dissolvi, the artist's rst full-length with Ghostly International, engages sublimation from an ontological perspective: by dissociating the self. Hauschildt steps out from the singular path, for the rst time in a traditional studio, to compose and arrange contributions from friends. As a result, his most collaborative work to date extends a vast, vibrating framework in which to consider the state of being.
The album's title — a reference to cupio dissolvi, the Latin phrase meaning "I wish to be dissolved" — needn't be taken one-dimensionally or as purely solipsistic. It does, however, serve an apt reference. Physiological phenomena are of interest to Hauschildt. These back-of-mind ruminations nd their way out. Songs are cerebral in orientation, but beyond explanation, the music is truly visceral.
Involuntary eye movement inspires the serene, sanguine-nearing-suspicious "Saccade." Hauschildt feathers soft percussion beneath the echoed refrains of Los Angeles musician Julianna Barwick, together shaping a svelte suggestion of the anxieties brought about by modern-day surveillance; if everyone is being watched constantly, there is no individual, no self, only a broadly monitored and clumsily cataloged populous. The work of Chicago poet Carl Sandburg comes to mind: 'I am the people—the mob—the crowd—the mass.' The individual dissolves into the taxonomic crowd.
Minimalist techno impulses provide a stylistic through-line for Dissolvi. Understated synth phrases and drum grooves take hold in selective moments, like synchronistic structures onto which nebulous mists, like the rapturous voice of Gabrielle Herbst aka GABI on "Syncope," cling to and cloud, producing a dazzling rift in consciousness. The 7-minute centerpiece "Alienself" reiterates this creative logic, burbling like an amorphous body of water on a low-gravity planet, on the verge of dissolving, but never fully dematerializing.
The album was constructed in Chicago (where Hauschildt now resides) and partially in New York. "Much of it was recorded in a windowless studio which removed elemental or seasonal references to time in the music," says Hauschildt. "The focus this time was on mixing the album and incorporating a broader set of instrumentation. I describe my compositional approach as being quasi-generative." Embracing new methods and philosophical curiosities, and in turn, expanding the range of his repertoire, Hauschildt proposes a fascinating and profoundly rich experience in listening, being, and deliquescing.
Already played by:
Craig Richards
Seth Troxler
RPR - Soundsystem
Mennie and Julien Sandre team up under their Jarau alias for an impressive EP on One Records. Dubnova features two originals that span hypnotic synths, warm, sonic basslines and intricate spacey layers. For the remix, musical craftsmen DeWalta and Voigtmann join forces for the first time since their monumental Ground Effect EP on Jan Kruger's Hello Repeat in 2014. Here they showcase the more techno side to their production skills.
Friends and colleagues, Mennie and Julien, began the Jarau project in 2017 to experiment and push creative boundaries. 2018 saw the release of their Interstellar EP on respected vinyl imprint Pleasure Zone, which will be followed by this heavy-weight offering on One Records. Tenax resident Mennie was named by DJ Mag as one of the most prominent emerging Italian producers. Born in France and now based in Italy, Julien runs the acclaimed Blind Box vinyl only label, which he started in 2015.
Meander boss DeWalta a.k.a David Koch is one of the most admired artists in the industry, not only a talent behind the decks he delivers a remarkable live set and has released a wealth of music on key underground labels. Claus Voigtmann was originally born in Germany but bases himself in London, where he co-founded the underground and conceptual party, Toi.Toi.Musik. This year sees the release of his eagerly anticipated album and a focus on his Subsequent imprint, also playing regularly alongside Adam Shelton and Subb-an for their One Records showcases.
On The Latest Release From Make Mistakes, Roy England And Friends Take Us On A Ride Into The Beautiful, Soulful Depths. From Uplifting Love Jams, To The Chunkiest House Funk, As Always, The Gang Has You Covered.
Roy England's Original Mix Soars Through The Night Skies. Pitter-patters, Emotive Pads, And A Driving Groove Bring Us The Softer Side Of Our Little Boogie Baron. Perfect For The Euphoric Abandon Of A Sweat Soaked Dance Floor.
Alexi Delano, A Man Who Needs No Introduction, Kicks Things Up A Notch, Taking The Original And Giving It A Restructured, Pumping Groove. A Dubby Line Runs Through, With Echoing Pads, A Pulsing Bass, And Fluttering Keys And Synths. A Beautiful Dance Floor Meditation, With Plenty Of Junk In The Trunk.
Fredy Grogan Takes A Hard Left, And Steps Confidently Into A Psychedelic, Tribal Funk. Teasing New Vibes Out Of The Original Material, Grogan Transforms Beauty In Rhythm Into A Classic House Groove, Before Settling Us In To A Hypnotic Groove.
Make Mistakes Keeps On Keepin' On. That's All We Know. the Tears Of The World Are A Constant Quantity. For Each One Who Begins To Weep Somewhere Else Another Stops. The Same Is True Of The Laugh. Let Us Not Then Speak Ill Of Our Generation, It Is Not Any Unhappier Than Its Predecessors.
Samuel Beckett, Waiting For Godot
End of summer is nearby again and Luise is reminiscing this year's precious moments. With a touch of melancholy and weightless beauty Zazou & An On Bast are setting the right theme for the upcoming autumn days. While knowing and following each other's musical progression for years, this celebration of polish-german friendship came off with unexpected ease and utterly pleasing results. In the spirit of collaboration this release is supported by Basel's charming Arutani on the vinyl side and Luise's own Niju aswell as Plattenfreund Gottlieb Scheppert on the digital outlet. Completion it is by any means.
'A love project' from the heart and mind of UK broken beat stalwart and iconic keyboard maestro Kaidi Tatham, alongside an outstanding group of Danish musicians led by percussionist Peter Stenbæk.
12 Senses debuts with the Movement EP, a record drawing on jazz-funk, broken beat and disco, laced with the distinctive melodic progressions and boogie touches Kaidi Tatham is known for. Recorded over an intensely productive three-day session, which produced 20 plus songs, this EP is a first taste of what's to come from this creative gathering.
With recent records on First Word, Sound Signature and 2000Black, plus a brand new solo album 'It's A World Before You' it appears there is no letup in Kaidi Tatham's prolific output spanning a 2 decade long career, that has seen him work with artists such as Bugz In The Attic, 4Hero, Slum Village, Jazzy Jeff & Will Smith, Amy Winehouse, Leroy Burgess, Moonchild, Soull II Soul, Amp Fiddler, Mr Scruff and Dego, to name but a few.
Touch starts with the heavily syncopated rhythms of drummer Anders Meinhardt, accompanied by a bed of airy Rhodes, synths and guitar on top of a ruthless, disco-tinged bassline. Life evolves on a spiritual and hypnotic tip with a driving lick that just keeps on building, sprinkled with beautiful intertwining organ, piano and synth solos by Kaidi and pianist Poul Reimann. Movement slows the mood to a soul-tinged stepper with soothing choir and deft touches from the trumpet of Rasmus Juel. Kaidi changes up the pace on his remix with a smooth boom bap vibe before hitting the halfway point and switching up to his signature, breakneck latin bruk funk.12 Senses evolved from yearly marathon concerts at the Copenhagen Jazz Festival, arranged by percussionist Peter Stenbæk, who simply e-met Kaidi Tatham and insisted on him coming to Denmark to share the festival stage. Over the course of five years the friendship and musicianship between the two has gone from strength to strength, reinforced by the skilled musicians around them; drummer Anders Meinhardt, guitarist David Rosenkilde, bassist Andreas Hatholt, trumpeter Rasmus Juel and pianist Poul Reimann. The record was brought to life by Morten Trust (aka. Soulmagic), who kindly contributed his heart, studio and mixing skills to Movement.
At long last! We're delighted to present a hypnotic time-capsule courtesy of Dissmentado aka Ismael Pinkler from Carisma and Kompakt collaborator, Máximo Graesse Bondino.
Recorded during summer trips in Buenos Aires and spending autumn in Tromso, Norway between 2006 - 2010, Maximo and Ismael met several times during that period and used friends houses and studios to produce a long list of material, selecting later the best of it for this compilation.
The tracks are long and slow, with deep and moving beats and long background sounds dedicated to warm up dreamers and after hour survivors.
The elements develop their movements in a relaxed way through the tracks creating a loose feel. Every beat was played with their hands and there is no arpeggiated melodies to remind you where the ground is.
The release is complemented by a beautiful artwork by the supremely talented Glasgow-based artist, Rosie McGurn
At first, it's difficult to pinpoint exactly what makes Our Girl so special, or why the Brighton-formed, London-based trio's music stands out within a busy crowd of fellow guitar-wielding-types. But if an explanation didn't jump out when they first emerged with a debut EP of mighty fuzz-soaked songs in November 2016, it surfaces with 'Stranger Today', a debut album of personal, emotional juggernauts that could have only been made by these three people: Guitarist / vocalist Soph Nathan, bassist Josh Tyler and drummer Lauren Wilson.
Since forming in Nathan and Tyler's Brighton home four years ago - Wilson joining as a late recruit when she was wowed by a demo of their self-titled debut track, and 'Stranger Today''s opener - Our Girl's members have only had pockets of time to work together. A day booked in a local studio here, a soundcheck there, full-time jobs and other projects meant the three rarely had a concentrated, collective patch. This changed in September 2017, when they stayed in Eve Studios in Stockport for a week, recording with Bill Ryder-Jones. Their week in Stockport became a crucial catalyst for what would follow. Ryder-Jones is a guitar virtuoso himself ('He did stuff neither me or Soph had ever seen anyone do before,' Tyler remarks), and he became an unofficial fourth member of the group.
'Stranger Today' is a special debut for several reasons: First, because it's the sound of a band beginning to grasp their own value and place in the world. Secondly, because you can hear the trio's hunger to finally get in the same room and put to tape years' worth of scrapbooks, half-finished ideas, and a slowly-forming feel for how their first album would actually sound. 'What band isn't itching to make their debut But it's quite frightening, knowing you're about to do it,' Wilson remembers.
The real clincher, however, is Our Girl's dynamic, and how it plays out across 'Stranger Today'. Best friends in person, the trio share the same close kinship and chemistry on record. On one side is Nathan's visceral lyricism, which has a habit of detailing and chipping away at precise moments; the first heart-flutter of a new crush; the moment a long-term friendship begins to ebb away. Around her, Tyler and Wilson's rhythm section carefully mirrors each feeling Nathan conveys. When she sings pointedly about love ('I Really Like It'), she's backed by a major-key afterglow. When the subject turns on its head ('Josephine'), out steps a wall of taut, earth-shaking noise. They each 'serve the song,' in Wilson's words, moving in sync but with their own personal slant. Not least on the closer 'Boring', where all restraint is thrown aside and the trio let out one final, violent thrash. They inhabit a space bigger than the first loves, sleepless nights and growing pains that define this record.
Nathan remembers being in Brighton four years ago, shortly after Our Girl formed, and realising, 'I was finally in the band I wanted to be in.' Almost half a decade later, and this eureka moment is sewn up on 'Stranger Today'. It's the sound of three friends totally at ease in their own space, discontent with being anywhere else; a vibrant document of what it's like to be young, invigorated and amongst people who feel the same.
Classic singles like Billy Fury's 'Halfway To Paradise', Dusty Springfield's 'I Only Want To Be With You' and The Walker Brothers' 'Make It Easy On Yourself' would not have been hits without Ivor Raymonde. As their arranger, and in the case of 'I Only Want To Be With You' songwriter too, he shaped the final recordings. He decided on the orchestration and backing
vocals, chose the instruments and determined what was heard on the radio - and what record buyers bought.
'Paradise: The Sound Of Ivor Raymonde' is a long-overdue celebration of Ivor Raymonde, collecting his work as an arranger, musical director, producer, singer and songwriter. The story of a British musical great is told for the first time.
Billy Fury, Dusty Springfield and The Walker Brothers are heard. So is the only vocal performance for which Ivor Raymonde received a credit on a record label. He worked with the pre-fame David Bowie and Tom Jones. He spotted the potential of Los Bravos, steering them into the charts with 'Black Is Black'. Near-misses and obscurities made with Brit-girls Cindy Cole and
Helen Shapiro, the soulful Sonny Childe and confrontational protopsychedelic London band The Flies are as fantastic as the hits. With these and more, 'Paradise: The Sound Of Ivor Raymonde' distils the essence of the magic of Ivor Raymonde.
'Paradise: The Sound Of Ivor Raymonde' is released by Bella Union, the label run by Ivor's son, former Cocteau Twins member Simon Raymonde.
Compiled by Simon and Kieron Tyler, it is a very personal tribute to a sadly missed father. Born in 1926, Ivor Raymonde passed away in 1990. The previously untold story is revealed through a moving reminiscence written by Simon and in-depth liner notes and a track-by-track commentary by Kieron. Ivor Raymonde played on the ocean liner The Queen Mary in 1949. In the Fifties, British television viewers saw him in legendary comedian Tony Hancock's 'Hancock's Half Hour' but music was always going
to be most important - the hits with Billy Fury and Dusty Springfield in 1961 and 1963 meant he was in demand. The 26 selections balance the wellknown with collectable rarities and tracks drawn from - until now - barely heard-of singles. Each is a gem and each shows the magic of an Ivor Raymonde recording.
'Paradise: The Sound Of Ivor Raymonde' is issued on CD and 180g heavyweight double vinyl album with digital download code. The vinyl version is sequenced slightly differently for listening flow. Every track was originally issued as a single issued in mono for the pop market until 1968 / 1969. Keeping the integrity of the compilation in mind, all but four tracks appear in mono as they did originally. The masters used are those of the original singles.
Fresh from touring with Hugh Masekela ( The Boy's Doin' It'), Gboyega Adelaja goes into the lab to drop heavy keyboard science on his Moog and Fender Rhodes. Its Joe Sample meets the Afro Funk of BLO. With names like Jake Sollo on guitars, Mike Odumusu (BLO, Osibisa) on bass guitar and Gasper Lawal on percussion. This is a top quality, Afro-Funk, all-stars affair that shines from the inspired interventions, masterly arrangements to the sublime production.
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Additional Notes:
I was already following Hugh Masekela when I met him, he was an outstanding musician and I knew of his collaboration with
Hedzoleh, that band brought him nearer to many of us, because he was playing authentic African melodies with the Hedzoleh
sound which was mostly percussion oriented. Yes I knew about Hugh's music before I met him. Infact when we started playing
together, he insisted that I stay with him in our three bedroom apartment, other members of the band had their own apartments,
but Hugh and myself shared the same 3 bedroom apartment'.
We were touring, under Casablanca owned by Neil Boggart, we toured as professional musicians, flying to our gigs. There was
a time when we were touring with George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic we had two luxury buses deployed for our use.
We made many friends where ever we went to play, we met many big and popular musicians who came to watch our shows, the
Spinners came to see us in Detroit, we met Wayne Shorter of Weather Report, Freddie Hubbard, we played a gig with Herbie
Hancock at the Carnegie Hall New York City, we toured almost all the 50 States of the US.'
The music on this EP was conceived in China, between 1989 and 1993. The original tracks were mixed to DAT in real time, in a small neighbour-proof studio inside my apartment in Macau, a 19th floor with a view to the hurricanes. There's a small, unexpected or improbable story behind each track, some little magic fused with the local atmosphere, certainly guaranteeing their lasting authenticity 25 years later.
TAIPEI DISCO
Late 80s Guangzhou was an exotic city where the traditional past coexisted in harmony with the present and even already with the future.
I'd rather spend my weekends in Guangzhou than diving into Hong Kong consumerism - as most ex-pats in Macau did. I took a cab at the border and travelled 150 Km through chaotic roads with family and friends until reaching the hot, humid, mega South China metropolis.
We ate on street joints in the evenings, went on to a karaoke bar and ended up at Taipei Disco, the only proper club in town. All the others were inside hotels and played generic music or they were seedy, sleazy, smoky cabarets.
Taipei Disco used to be a cinema and played cantonese pop music and anglo-saxon pop/rock (that was new). The spacious dance floor was generously lighted, the atmosphere was airy and modern. Boys and girls were in the habit of dancing in pairs, one in front of the other, observing a respectful yet sensual distance. When the girl took a few steps back, the boy went along and vice versa. With legs and feet (more than the upper bodies) synchronized with the music, they never exceeded in extroversion. Cool.
I always carried a MicroComposer and a portable DAT recorder in my travels through China and weekends in Canton. Any spontaneous musical idea was imediately recorded and memorized. The MicroComposer allowed multitrack recording, which was very handy on the road. Based on the emphatic choreography of Taipei Disco's dancers, i started to compose a rhythm track while sitting at a table, with headphones, listening to Cantopop in the background. As if by magic - not a rare occasion in music - everything began fitting together. Odd as it may seem, the track ended up sounding more germanic (Kraftwerkian) than Cantonese pop.
The story ends in a circle: the cantonese DJ at Taipei Disco, whom i used to ask to play certain records, wanted to play my music at the disco when it was basically only just a rhythm track and little else. From a cupboard under his set up he took out a battered keyboard (unrecognizable brand) and invited me to play over the track with the available sounds on the keyboard. The circle was complete, with Cantonese clubbers happily dancing forwards and backwards, as if it were another Cantopop hit.
I didn't get payed but the house offered us free ice cream cups in which little Portuguese flags were sticked.
The track would be finished later, in studio, with vocoder strings ensemble and synth solos.
TAIPEI DISCO (LIVE)
The live version of 'Taipei Disco' was recorded during a live set at the China Pop venue, in Macau, 1993. China Pop was a rock club built in the ample space of an old fishing warehouse, located in the labyrinthic Inner Harbour area. It was decorated with large Mao Zedong and Cultural Revolution posters and memorabilia and had a unique atmosphere, fusing Pop Art with film noir. We began our performance at 1AM, pretty early for Macau's nightlife standards. We were lucky. An audience showed up. And in Macau there were always several friends among the audience, which tranformed a musical performance into a relaxed party.
The atmosphere was particularly surreal on that night. The front row was dominated by French Crazy Horse dancers, a sort of Oriental Moulin Rouge. The girls had finished their last performance of the evening at the Crazy Horse and were still energized from their show. During our performance, right in front of us and perfectly synched, we could hear the famous irreverent screams of can-can dancers. You always had to expect the unexpected in Macau.
RED MAMBO (IMPROMPTU)
I was familiar with the Portuguese-speaking African countries well before having lived in China. I found myself returning several times to one in particular, always attracted by its magic and very distinct, identitary culture and music: Cape Verde.
During the early years of DWART a lot of the inspiration for drum machine rhythms (Roland's TR series) came from African music, especially from new musical trends that gained full autonomy with Cape Verde's independence from Portugal, as was the case with funaná.
I had the privilege of having known and befriended some of the greatest Capeverdian composers, musicians and singers during the 70s and 80s, such as Bana, Luís Morais, Cesária Évora, Paulino Vieira, Chico Serra, Tito Paris, and historical bands such as Bulimundo (ambassadors of funaná) and Os Tubarões (great innovators of morna, coladera and funaná, with the sonic impact of an afro-beat big band).
When Luís Filipe de Barros began playing Os Tubarões for the first time on Portuguese radio, that was the turning point for African music in Portugal. The 'Tabanca' album was so widely heard and talked about that it quickly got a Portuguese release through one of the big labels of the time.
The mystic of this band from the Santiago Island would reach the East. Os Tubarões played to a packed room in Macau in 1992, and after the bombastic gig we arranged a dinner and party at my place.
We ate and drank generously and the moment came for a jam session at the small studio on the 19th floor. Because Os Tubarões didn't all fit in the studio, we recorded an impromptu with only three of the musicians: Tótó Silva (electric guitar), Mário Russo Bettencourt (bass) and Zeca Couto (piano). And there we were improvising without barriers, suddenly detached from cultural roots, labels and constraints, a truly unique moment. The track is now being released exactly as it was recorded, imbued with the real communion between the musicians. And it could only be titled 'Red Mambo'. I wish to dedicate it to the memory of Ildo Lobo and Jaime do Rosário, founders of Os Tubarões, sadly and too soon departed from the land of music.
Parallel Berlin head Daniela La Luz returns to her home away from home, HOUSEWAX with a few friends to rework her modern classic, "Did You Ever".
Originally released in 2014 "Did You Ever" was an instant classic amongst decerning house heads, but it was when Detroit legend, Moodymann dropped it as closing track on his DJ Kicks compilation the year later. The light well and truly spun onto La Luz and her sublime approach of house and techno.
Now to kick off 2018 Housewax have invited Virgo 4, Dah Ruh and Cinthie to offer their spin on "Did You Ever". Together they each offer 3 unique takes from house to deep techno, yet managing to stay true to the soulful flavor of the original.
Jonny Drop's debut, Sub Plot, was the very first album release on the fledgling Albert's Favourites label at the beginning of 2016. The initial offering, a 7" of album favourites Mind Field and This Is The One had quickly been picked up on by the good people at BBC Radio 6 Music as well as some of Drop's personal heroes including Kenny Dope, Mr. Thing and Nightmares On Wax.
But when the infectious rhythms and warm production of the beat tape landed, its impact was greater than anyone at the label could have hoped.
Although Jonny never stopped producing beats in the following years, he was also kept busy as a drummer, playing live for Andrew Ashong, The Bongolian and Connie Constance, whose Boring Connie EP he also laid down beats for.
Then in early 2018 his band The Expansions delivered their celebrated Murmuration LP. All the while, with the support of his label family, Drop had been evolving his solo sound too.
'The Only Sound sees a huge progression in my writing direction, as I collaborated with multiple vocalists and musicians, instead of the usual 'one-man band' approach.
The development of these processes make this LP a steady departure from the beat-tape influence of my past releases, and hopefully, showcase the more original sound I've been working to achieve over the past few years.'
The new album is more atmospheric, emotional and expressive. It is filled with beautiful vocal performances, musical contributions from label partners and close friends Deoke and James O'Keefe, and inspirational London jazz composer, flautist and master saxophonist Tamar Osborn (Collocutor/On The Corner).
Voices here include Shea Soul, Grace Walker, former Myron and E soul man Eric Boss with his Lucid Paradise and Pendletons partner Ishtar, plus First Word Records producer/Golden Rules collaborator Sarah Williams White.
While there are thoughtful, down-tempo moments of electronica in abundance here, Drop brings his favourite elements of disco and soul into the picture too.
And there's no shortage of low end throughout. The Only Sound is a welcome next step from Jonny Drop, the sound of a beat maker not just finding his feet as a composer, but thriving in new territory.
Huey Morgan (BBC Radio 6 Music),
Music Is My Sanctuary premiere for All This Trouble, Bonafide Magazine premiere for Looking Glass
'A really talented musician, absolutely loving that" Lauren Laverne on This Is The One, BBC Radio 6 Music
Underworld And Iggy Pop Announce Details Of A 4 Track Ep, Teatime Dub Encounters, Due For
Release On July 27th Via Caroline International.
While Overseeing The Soundtrack For T2 Trainspotting, Underworld's Rick Smith Arranged A
Meeting With Iggy Pop In A Room At The Savoy Hotel On London's Strand To Discuss Working On
Collaborative Music For The Filmhe first track from Teatime Dub Encounters - Bells & Circles - was premiered live as part of
Underworld's recent headline performance at the BBC Biggest Weekend Belfast. A second track -
I'll See Big - is streaming everywhere now. Something of a flipside to Bells & Circles, I'll See Big is a
wash of gorgeous ambient sound that features Iggy recounting how friends - however
dysfunctional - have saved him from a lifetime of bad decisions. The lyric for I'll See Big was
inspired by a conversation Iggy had with Danny Boyle about the subtext of both Trainspotting films.
Long time friends (since Flex Vienna 95) Patrick and Luke joined forces on Blumoog Music and came up with this crafty and dynamic four tracker EP. Patrick Pulsinger opens the project on the A with two ingenious and uplifting tracks reminiscent of his old 'Sluts'n'strings &909' days with an acidic twist. 25 years have gone by since Patrick Pulsinger made history and put Vienna on the map by founding techno avant-garde label Cheap Records and with productions like 'Dogmatic sequences' on Disko B and pioneering sequential- minimal-techno soon after with the huge LP 'Porno' also on Disko B. On the flip side Luke M.R.E.U.X is consistent with his fine style. Dry percussions and rubbery bass in B1 'Cerebral fix'. A darker approach in confession B2 with a relentless 5 minutes of techno trip that will not let you catch breath.
New album from Anthony Ferraro aka Astronauts, etc, who for most of his music career, served as Toro y Moi's keyboardist, with this album 'Living In Symbol' being his debut solo record.
Sonically, the album weaves its influences into an alien drapery. 'The Border' introduces Latin psychedelia to a groove à la David Axelrod, setting the stage for a vocal performance that manages to be equal parts Lee Hazlewood and HAL 9000. On 'The Room', a Borgesian story gets dressed up in an eerily graceful string arrangement reminiscent of Les Baxter. And 'Who I Talk To' nods to George Harrison in a soft rocking arrangement that supports Ferraro's ghostly croon.
Living In Symbol Is An Ode To Ambiguity, The Future, And Saying 'so Long' To The Known. A Member Of The Last Generation To Experience Life Before Total Interconnectedness, Anthony Ferraro (digitally Known As Tony Peppers) Aims To Be A Bridge Between Two Very Different Realities.
The Spirit Of Change Is Especially Pronounced In California's Bay Area, Where Technologies Dawn And Disruption Is The Noblest Goal. Critics And Advocates Of All Stripes Write Columns And Fill Talk Radio Hours With Their Analyses Of The Times. Ferraro Is A Funny Case: A Sometimes Luddite With A Romantic Streak, He Would Probably Be A Doomsayer If It Weren't For His Being Situated In The Middle Of It All. As It Happens, He Ended Up Writing A Generative Music Algorithm That Sold On Auction At The Smithsonian For $5,000.
His Take On Tomorrow Is Nonjudgmental, Meditative, Imaginative. It Keeps Away From Unqualified Hope Or Outright Alarmism, Choosing Instead To Embrace The Indeterminacy As Food For Dreaming.
Ferraro's Friendship With Chaz Bear, Who Co-produced The Album, Began Modestly Enough: Bear Walked Into The Coffee Shop Where Ferraro Worked While Attending Uc Berkeley. The Two Became Friends, And When Ferraro Graduated The Following Summer, He Signed On As Touring Keyboardist For Toro Y Moi. Musical Bonds Were Forged Over The Next Few Years, And The Pair Began Collaborating On What Would Become Living In Symbol.
Living In Symbol Is A Series Of Rooms, A Choose-your-own-tomorrow Story. Step In And Peer Through Its Open Doors.
Paramida's Love On The Rocks imprint readies its eighteenth release, in this, the year of our lord, 2018 - the latest instalment on the ever-evolving, hard-to-define label is a decidedly non-dancefloor oriented, melancholic/euphoric instrumental number from promising Lon-don/Lisbon producers Elles & Violet.
Elles, fresh from her Netil Radio & Rádio Quântica residences, alongside Violet, with a string of releases under her belt on One Eyed Jacks , Cómeme, Paraíso, Snuff Trax and her own imprint, Naive, deliver big time here with A Life Lived In Fear Is Like A Life Half Lived, a warm and bubbling acid future closing time jam that has all the feels of watching the sun rise over the city with your best friends on ecstasy.
Backed with 4 heavyweight remixes from Love On The Rocks fam Kasra V, Prins Emanuel, Etbonz and Massimilano Pagliara. Pure love.
"Spoki (Ghosts) is the sound of an artist putting their private world to tape. Of exploring and pushing the limits of themselves and technology to realise the music in their head. Recorded in Riga between 1988-2011.
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As Ingus Bauškenieks himself explains: My own world differs a little from my friends' tastes. And - as my father said - the collective art is not art at all.
The music of Ingus Bauškenieks is both deeply private and completely alien. Experimental yet happy to celebrate pop influences such as Engelbert Humperdinck, Simon & Garfunkel or Fleetwood Mac. It is shaped by the artist's engagement with technology and his strive to put to record his 'own world'.
As Ingus explains, it is the sound of him: doing what I like to do.'
For the first time, Volte-Face's BleeD releases a Various Artists compilation, featuring friends and close family of the label. Named after Joseph Beuys' concept of 'Social Sculpture', which serves to harness collective potential in an attempt to transform society (in some small way at least!), the release features eight different artists who embody the BleeD sound of the last few years of activity - Volte-Face, Rote (Daniel Avery & Volte-Face), DJ Nobu, Peder Mannerfelt, Opuswerk, Refracted, AWB and BLNDR.
On Video Age's forthcoming album Pop Therapy, out June 22nd via Inflated Records, longtime friends and songwriting partners Ross Farbe and Ray Micarelli conjure up a thrilling assortment of experimental pop songs. Using a palette of vintage synthesizers and the propulsion of a Sequential Circuits Drumtraks drum machine, the New Orleans-based group's buoyant synth-pop echoes from some imagined vision of the past, leaning on an invented nostalgia to soundtrack an ideal future that never arrived. Video Age brings that future fully to life on Pop Therapy. Emerging from New Orleans' DIY scene and label collectives, Farbe and Micarelli were intrigued by each other's songwriting among several curiously satisfying guitar pop bands. As a producer and prolific engineer, Farbe has helmed some of the most exciting releases from genre-pushing New Orleans artists, whose singular visions are made possible with his gifted ear and love of tape recording. Micarelli's talent for crafting simple, tangible melodies complements Farbe's studio world-building, letting ideas drift until they emerge into impressive arrangements. The pair's seemingly effortless gift for crafting earworm hooks was glimpsed on their 2016 debut Living Alone, a gorgeous collection of guitar-driven melancholy. On Pop Therapy, they're joined by Duncan Troast, Nick Corson and Jordan Odom, taking inspiration from the limitless possibility on sonic canvases of the late 1970s and early 1980s (Yellow Magic Orchestra, McCartney II, Donald Fagen's The Nightfly). Where Living Alone catalogued the solitude of reflecting on what was and could have been, the sentimental love songs on Pop Therapy gaze longingly at the likeliness of a brighter tomorrow.
The unseen forces emitting out around ever being natures forces of destiny. Belief itself is God.
AURA's journey could be best described as a spiritual call to connect man and music.
Each new day brought in new and more difficult problems. In the hardest of times Aura lost their original lead guitarist. Green-Bird real name Dannie Stewart - a Jamaican, humble, handsome, and talented to the bones. He was too nice to die. He was drowned in a river within the historical city of Benin. All friendly hearts cried and cried, a memory too sad to recollect. Aura's journey sorrowly went along. Full of accedents, and frustration. We nearly crash-landed.
Thanks to Sheila, for her love and courage. Uzo, a true frendship that inspired every-body in Aura. He solved so many problems. Gratitude is the only word of our choice. The Lawsons and the Shotade family also have their very noble thanks; they were nice and helpful. Many more thanks to the numerous friends and heart-felt appriciations to Mr. J. H. Booth - Decca's new Director for his kindness and the entire staff that made this great 8 track maiden stereo album possible.
A solid belief in ourselves has pushed this group to this point; Aura making an "Astral Trip". This is an album which is a sincere sweet fruit of determination, soulful enough to turn you loose into true life experiences of good music.
All I owe you is love and appriciation.
"For the final part of SchleiBen 5 - 8, Emotional Response welcomes two Scottish based artists to close out the series. In Jon Keliehor you have a world and music traveler with history from psychedelic rock to fourth world exposure, alongside one of the best electronic producers of the last decade, Lord Of The Isles. As the drummer of West Coast folk rock / psychedelic band The Daily Flash, Keleihor spent much of the mid-60 based in and out of Seattle and Los Angles, playing alongside the likes of Jefferson Airplane, Cream and The Doors, before an increasing interest in meditation and philosophies outside of the 'rock' realm led him to England in the early 70s where he become involved in dance theatre. Teaching Advanced Rhythmic Music Studies at the London Contemporary Dance School, his music composition style became influenced by his studies of world music. Finally settling in Glasgow for over 20 years, while running the Luminous Music label and Gamelan Naga Mas, his earlier recordings for labels like Indipop, Touch and Bruton have seen a recent revival, with music appearing recently on contemporaries Optimo Music and Invisible Inc. The wonderful recordings included here span over 3 decades, from sessions at the Luminous Studio at The Diorama Theatre, London in the early 80s, through to recent field-work based recordings in the Cairngorms. Reconfigured and updated, a common thread appears through the pieces - a sense of longing and appreciation - as Jon's knowledge of outer-national instrumentation alongside equally extensive travels around the globe gives the recordings a seamless blend of organic craft. The tonal consonances within unlikely combinations of instruments, with tuned glasses (tarang), tabla, jaw harps, clay flutes and ocarinas, Chinese instruments that include Xiao-Bo and Xiao-Ping, large Noah bells, small and larges gongs all employed, the recordings have been reconstructed, edited and updated via sampling and digital processing. Featuring the playing of John "Jhalib" Millar - the extraordinarily gifted musician and tabla player - who has appeared with an EP on sister label, Emotional Rescue (ERC029), sadly recently deceased, the contribution acts as a tribute and more. To close, the music of Lord Of The Isles is an excellent companion to Jon's work. Neil McDonald's list of club-based releases on labels CockTail D'Amor, Ene, Firecracker, Permanent Vacation, ESP Institute and Phonica is comprehensive and exemplary, however within his productions has often been an other-worldly element, a space between the beats and occasional fully ambient pieces. Approached originally for series one of SchleiBen, the 7 pieces included were worth the wait, a journey in themselves and the perfect completion. Spanning almost 5 years, the majority were written during an extended exile in the Cairngorms. The lifting, ethereal, but melodic nature of the music fits that aesthetic. Blue skies, snow, long walks, space to think, but with a longing and appreciation of family and friends. The solitary nature found in SchleiBen 8 and the geographical incidence of both artist's recordings including sessions in the Scottish Highlands fits the series ideals and is a nice closure. Enjoy and listen. "
Aaja is a UK based cultural project encompassing a space, label and parties. Not following too many fads or trends. Aaja is an audible quest for deep and raw club rollers and late night neon tales.
For AAJA001 we're pleased to gather 4 friends and artists in their own right for a diverse, inaugural 4-track Various Artists EP. Commencing proceedings on the A1, 'Abzent Mindz' by In:State & Guili lets rip. Following their recent 12" on Not An Animal, this ever-giving cross-European collaboration churns out something that is both functional and emotional. TIP!
For A2, whilst this might be the start of his production journey, Ady Toledano is a permanent fixture on Berlin's queer club scene and we're excited to share his latest production. Regularly spinning at Cocktail D'Amore, Buttons at About:Blank & Riot,
Toledano delivers 'Rare Earth'. A deep, ceremonial journey best suited for those late night, deep in the rave moments and let's be honest, mornings. Flipping the 12" over for B1.
The third track of the EP is produced by Everson. One of the co-founders of Aaja teases sample-work in an out of a grinding, tool style track bridging busy, UK influenced percussion and influence with slower, sledging techno.
Finally, Alex Richards finishes off the VA with 'Platform' on the B2. His words about the track... 'messing about making noises'. Richards lends the compilation a superlative, building and stripped back tune. Suited equally to the early doors as it is the
early morns.
2017 saw the arrival of Pin Up Club here at the Bordello with a superb three tracker, Friends of the Vortex. Now the Dutch partnership are back. This time a quartet of tracks has been selected to produce The Forever Machine. The bold bars of Friends of the Vortex, the romantic rushes and soundtrack silhouettes are all present with new elements being introduced to further develop a truly unique style. Breathy vocals and melancholy are countered by warm synthlines in the brooding 'Valis' before the lonesome 'Is There Anybody Out There' blooms into a daringly bright work of disco dimensions. Opening the flip is the title piece. Smouldering, 'The Forever Machine' burns with quivering chords that rise ever skyward on a column of tight rhythms as lyrics spiral ever upward. 'A Deepness In The Sky' is a perfect illustration of Pin Up Club's ability to transform burgeoning sombre sounds into tempered elation, rumbling strings and fragile percussion intermingling for a heady finale. Welcome back to Bordello A Parigi guys, welcome back to Pin Up Club.
Flight 770 is an EP about global moods and inspirations, made around a trip to Georgia, where Thee J Johanz played at a festival with his friends from Goa. The title track combines old school gfunk grooves with techno sounds and dreamy leads from the rare Korg 770, while the boutique Russian Mad 5 drumsynth is spanking your ass with vibrant claps. Night of the bodySNADchers started as a project for the Goan Gandu label by Snad and Iggy the Bastard. It's inspired by the trippy vibe of the endless (after)parties at Cirrus, near Chapora. Thunder Over Tbilisi expresses the pressure you feel in Georgia, specially after what recently happened to club life in Tbilisi. Coming back to Holland Thee J Johanz played at the Island of Terschelling and refound himself looking at the stars. Small dots in a seemingly infinite universe. But also massive electrifying diamonds.
* 7" vinyl
* 300 copies
* Featuring Planet Asia (Cali Agents)
2 songs on a limited edition 45 - 300 copies, all straight SP1200. Both songs featuring Planet Asia with one of the tracks featuring one of PA's friends Waz on the hook.
Fredfades & Sun Raw are keeping alive the gritty, analogue sound with 12-bit drums and loops but with their own unique style. Fred has been working with KingUnderground for the last 3 years and has a flock of releases. Sun Raw from Stockholm, Sweden is new to the crew but about to drop his debut "Beat Weeks". The duo are both part of Mutual Intentions crew and find inspiration from old music, from Jazz, funk, soul, rock and anything they find in the crates.
Planet Asia has been affiliated with KU from early on with a release and some features. Some MC's have been left behind, Asia isn't one of those. He's been kicking out better and better verses since he first showed up on the scene in the early 90's and it doesn't look like he's stopping anytime soon.
At a time when on every street corner, adolescent wannabe gangstas believed they had to tell everyone and their dog about their greatness and the inferiority of all others, there was a cadre of Munich-based Hip-Hop artists producing incredibly fresh and imaginative music, inspired, of course, by the golden era of the 90s. They played gigs in small clubs in front of some dozens of people, spread mixtapes and Eps and were celebrated by their friends and the rest of the scene. The world took no notice - until now ! Tramp Records, specializing in unearthing forgotten pearls of musical art, documents with "Golden Hits", an era of Munich underground Hip Hop which flew completely under the radar, spanning ten years from 2005 to 2015. The musical bandwidth and quality of the tracks is astonishing, but so much more could have been possible. Much of this music remained fragmented or unreleased for a host of reasons, families, stressful jobs, musical reorientation, and even lost hard disks... but one story has a happy ending! When Masta Ace had a live show at the legendary Atomic Cafe, Primatune's Fid Rizz was able to hand over a CD with demo beats. Unfortunately the CD was blank by mistake! But the curiosity of Masta Ace had been piqued, and he got back to him, the rest is history. Features of other stateside rap heroes like Wordsworth or Declaime followed.
The very best of this era, including tracks never before heard and ideas remaining fragmented, has now been compiled by Tramp Records to take you for a fascinating listening journey.
Hip Hop, as it was since it's inception in the Bronx, fresh and real, and made with passion by neighborhood kids spitting truth about life and the struggle!
Key selling points:
- including many unreleased songs
- the vinyl LP comes with a full album download code
Marquis Hawkes is an alter ego adopted by long time electronic music producer Mark Hawkins, founded for his house music focussed activities. Hawkins decided it was time for a reboot after being head-hunted by old friends Dan Monox and Kenny Wasp, who had just founded Dixon Avenue Basement Jams in 2012, particularly as the material differed from what he'd previously released.
Hawkins solidified his sound during this period, taking influence from house music's Chicago, Detroit and New York home bases alongside the UK's deep house sound. Fusing these styles with contemporary production values, he developed a style synonymous with his Marquis Hawkes alias.
Whilst branching out to release on other labels like Clone and Cremé Organisation, he caught the attention of London club fabric's artist-led label, Houndstooth. They signed him on a long term deal, giving visibility to his DJ profile that meant he could play music full-time.
In 2016 his debut album 'Social Housing' was released to critical acclaim, and the following year, a stellar string of releases on Will Saul's AUS Music label culminated in the ubiquitous club and festival hit, 'The Basement Is Burning'. A track inspired by Hawkins' own shocking experience of a fire in his apartment block, it was played heavily on radio across the summer of 2018.
Looking forward, this new 12' EP for Houndstooth under the Hawkes alias is scheduled for release on June 29th, and features a vocal collaboration withUrsula Rucker, Hawkins is also pursuing other music projects and identities, some known, like his Juxta Position project, which he uses for more industrial but groove based techno material, but others which are more incognito, and may well remain as such.
Austin Based Experimental Collective Thousand Foot Whale Claw Is Back With The New Cosmic Full Length black Hole Party, Out June 29, 2018. Featuring Members Of S U R V I V E, Troller, Single Lash And Future Museums, This Is The Supergroup's Second Lp And Their Most Accomplished Work To Date. Inspired By Progressive 70's German Kraut-rock, Thousand Foot Whale Claw Maintains A Classic Style While Establishing An Original Voice. With Album Art By Renowned Contemporary Sci-fi/fantasy Illustrator Kilian Ang, black Hole Party's Aesthetic Is Cohesively Curated Throughout Its Dense, Multi-layered Track List, Ranging From Serene Sound Baths To Driving Dance Beats.
Tfwc Was Founded In San Marcos, Tx By A Core Group Of College Friends Who Bonded Over Loose Collaborative Jams Of Effects Driven Improvisations. Eventually These Unstructured Practices Evolved Into Refined Studio Sessions And Intense Live Performances, Leading To A Rich Discography And Enthusiastic Fanbase. Balancing Repetition With The Unexpected, Tfwc's Sustained Motifs Slowly Reveal The Band's Signature Free-form Experimentation. Known For Heavy Walls Of Guitar And Electronic Drones, Tfwc Spirals Into Circular Rhythms And Looping Riffs Stacked With Shredding Guitar Solos And Ambient Soundscapes. Explorations Spurring From A Central Theme Is The Basis For The Band's Compositional Approach, Always Seeking New Instruments, Sound Sources And Production Techniques For Each Piece. Recorded And Engineered At Stassney Studios In Austin, Tx With Producer/artist Dylan Cameron, black Hole Party Has Become The Band's Most Defining Body Of Work Thus Far.
On black Hole Party, The Polished Structure And Acute Development Of All Six Tracks Is Distinct And Tangible, Making This Record More Composed Than Any Of Their Previous Releases. Propulsive Songs Such As deridium Rail' And The Album's Title Track Are Driven By Four-on-the-floor Dance Beats And Arpeggiated Synthesizers, Contrasting Songs Like genesis Effect' That Predominantly Features The Natural Tones Of 12-string Acoustic Guitar And Harmonium. The Wide Variety Of Sonic Flavors Is Reflective Of Tfwc's Vast Musical Tastes, Refusing To Settle On One Approach And Allowing The Band's Idiosyncrasies To Shine Regardless Of Genre. To Classify Tfwc As An Instrumental Psych Band Is Only Partially Accurate, However There Are A Lack Of Proper Terms To Fully Encapsulate The Band's Broad Scope. Black Hole Party Is The Latest And Brightest Collection Of Songs From Thousand Foot Whale Claw, Meant To Be Enjoyed In A Multitude Of Environments For All Fans Of Expansive Listening.
HESITATION is the culmination of a slow-burning penpal friendship between Reckno founder Chris Catlin (aka Yaaard), and Kit Records honcho Richard Greenan (sometimes Devon Loch). Meeting in London in 2016, the pair recorded a woozy slab of improvs, using a battered organ, guitars, a saxophone and whatever else came to hand. These takes were then stitched together into a seven track LP over the following two years.
Veering from shoegaze to crystal clear electronics and fuzzed out jazz, the results pull two ways: slow and fast, meditative and exuberant. Here is a place where time bends and bubbles, drunk synthetic choirs follow an endless skywards pulse, and plaited melodies hover in warm air like motes of dust.
Recommended if you like the heart-on-sleeve whistle alongs of Tenniscoats, Zappa's foggier guitar serpents or the creeping black magic of early Sebadoh. HESITATION is a joint release between Kit Records, Reckno and videogamemusic.
2025 Repress
After a wildly successful collaboration on Thatmanmonkz's 'Turn It Out' from the LP, Columbus-ing, Dave Aju suggested they should continue their production streak for a new percussive tracks project. At the same time, Aju had finally kept his word to legendary Bay Area club/underground MC and personality, Foxxee aka Foxxee Brown aka Lawrence Petty, to work on a track together as well. Petty being a core part of the infamous Ya Mama's House radio show on 106 KMEL alongside Pete Avila and David Harness that introduced legions of young Bay Area DJs to real House Music, includ-ing Aju, in the early 90s. While Aju & Monkz had originally been working on more of a slick club romance narrative angle over some robust tumbling drums, some very tragic news had struck their hometown - at an under-ground event in Oakland California, more than 30 people including many dear friends and stalwarts of the local dance music community had been trapped inside a building and killed in a fire that broke out while doing what they love, in the now-infamous Ghost Ship. Lawrence and Aju immediately acknowledged and agreed that the track should serve as a tribute to the event and the loved ones affected by it. But decidedly, rather than it being a solemn requiem of sorts, it should reflect the communal power, strength and uplifting spirit of the underground scene they all helped build and knew so well. At first entitled They Sleep We Live, a representative reference to the iconic arm tattoo of the late Jonny Igaz aka Nacht, one of the more well-known and active DJs whose life was lost that tragic evening, and a lyrical direction idea for Lawrence for a direct tribute to the SF Bay Area scene,
One of the world's most iconic drum & bass acts, Pendulum have announced their return for 2018 with a brand new album and brand new live shows. 'The Reworks' is a project unlike any
other released by the band before, and marks the end of their seven year hiatus, officially launching on 16th March.
To mark their return, the band have announced their first headline show since 2011 at London's unique new space, Printworks . The show sold out in under an hour and will be both an auditory and visual spectacle for fans.
Also announced is Pendulum's return to one of the UK's biggest events - Reading and Leeds Festival . Headlining the BBC Radio 1 stage - the same slot they graced the last time they played in 2010, the shows mark a welcome return for the band in the UK.
The news will undoubtedly be well received by Pendulum 's legions of fans, with the band having hinted at a comeback by returning to the live stage last year, headlining the UK's South
West Four and Nass Festival , and confirming for this years Snowbombing festival in Austria.
For 'The Reworks' , the internationally-renowned band have tapped some of the most innovative talents from over the past few years to deliver dynamic and refreshing interpretations of their
biggest hits and some of their personal favourites. Friends and collaborators Skrillex , Icarus ,Knife Party and Matrix & Futurebound take their turn on this who's who of electronic music
royalty, whilst Noisia 's explosive cut of the now-iconic track 'Hold Your Colour' will be available with the album preorder from the 16th March.
'The Reworks' album will be available in both CD and vinyl formats from the 29th June.
This exciting announcement marks the beginning of a new era for Pendulum , who have long been considered one of electronic music's most important and pioneering acts, famed for their
no-holds-barred live shows. With more huge festival dates TBA across the summer and new originals on the horizon, 2018 marks the an exciting chapter in Pendulum's already lengthy career.
Noisia' s remix of ' Hold your Colour' , the first single to be taken from Pendulum 's 'The Reworks' album, is set for release on 16th March alongside the preorder, with the full album set to drop on 29th June.
"The commonest axiom of history is that every generation revolts against its fathers and makes friends with its grandfathers." - Lewis Mumford, The Brown Decades
Sound archeology,
Silex Device.
Longtime friends and production partners Ali Çakir and Soren Jahan launch their new label Hörru with a 4 track EP. Hörru will focus on releasing vinyl from Düve as well as personal projects from Soren, Ali and friends. Konsekvenser is a reduced house banger for the club, 808 live jam style. Nej takes things a step back and with a little more attitude, saying no to you in the crowd. Uzay Kök is a hard dripping trance exploration. Beluc closes the EP with a dialog between voice, flute and Eliot Bates on the oud.
Second Circle is proud to announce it's tenth release to date with a new EP from L.A. producer Benedek. 'Earlyman Dance' was recorded at Benedek's studio in Koreatown, Los Angeles and fuses mechanistic rhythms and synth work as well as live percussion and trumpet played by friends Chris Parise and Anthony Calonico.
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With five vibed out compositions of coyote jazz, dance floor fusion and canyon bangers, 'Earlyman Dance' is an ode to the urban and natural landscapes of LA, late night noir and early morning sunrises, accented with Benedek's signature chord progressions, bouncing bass lines, meticulous drum programming and dubbed out trumpet.
In 1982, a group of friends deep into post-punk, jazz and dub got together in Mad Professor's studio and lay down their youthful interpretation of a NYC disco cut. Their unique take included trombone, vibraphone, piano, and an ital dose of tape delay. They called the song Trouble and released two versions (vocal and dub) on their friend Tony McDermott's !Drum! label with artwork inspired by Russian Constructivism. TIP!
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The group, comprised of Justin Langlands, Chrysta Jones, John Schofield, Tom Dixon, and Dave Killen, decided to call themselves A-Team, having no idea that Mr.T and Co. would make them almost totally ungoogle-able 30 years later. The result of their adolescent studio idealism sounds akin to otherdisco misfits like Arthur Russell, Maximum Joy, Talking Drums and wouldn't sound out of place on legendary NYC label 99 Records. Remastered with an extended Club Dub formaximum dance-floor action.
Following his R&S debut, Afriqua (aka Adam Longman Parker) presents Vice/Principle, his second release for the renowned Belgian label.
Recorded in the summer of 2017, Vice/Principle began as one of Afriqua's seasonal music packs, a quarterly offering of original tracks shared privately with a small cohort of friends and collaborators. R&S quickly picked up the collection, which expands on the melodicism and textural depth explored on his previous release for the label, Aleph.
The extended EP sees Parker veering into psychedelic territory, inspired by the cosmic departures of '70s krautrock and jazz. The title, Vice/Principle, more a coy bit of humor than a philosophical statement, reflects a wittiness that Parker often embeds into even the brawniest of his productions. This offbeatness is active in the music as well, which makes use of his voice, and edges past familiar four-on-the-floor patterns with interwoven polyrhythms and modality. Vice/Principle is confident in its curiosity, harnessing a wealth of artistic threads into a tightly knit, futuristic vision.
Parker currently resides in Berlin, Germany, where he works from his home studio in the city's quiet Charlottenburg neighborhood. Born and raised in Hampton, Virginia, Parker developed his craft as a producer while studying classical piano and practicing hip-hop turntablism from a young age.
After several years developing a hefty catalog of releases, Parker has embraced his R&S signing as an opportunity to dive deeper into his signature, yet versatile sound. His successful winter 2017 tour through the U.S. was a career first, and preceded international events at Comunité in Mexico, Concrete in Paris, and The Block in Tel Aviv.
Dilated Pupils is a collective group of likeminded friends home-based in the Netherlands. When forces are joined in one of their many studios each individual brings his own influences and styles to the table. Together they share a distinct flavor in productions and raw one-take jam sessions created with the use of analogue machines and often recorded on tape. Each of them have their own solo productions as well as other collaborations, but when united as Dilated Pupils they prefer to be known jointly as one entity with their own unique and distinguished sound. Since 2014 the group has developed an interesting and widespread discography with releases on labels such as Fear of Flying, Sol Asylum, Mode of Expression, Tabla, Music is Art, Dorcas, Make Sense and Mayak.
Elektroliza is a series of club events formed by a group of dedicated electronic music enthusiasts in 2006. It is hosted by Ljubljana's Channel Zero, a legendary club that is part of the autonomous social centre Metelkova which used to be the Slovenian headquarters of the Yugoslav National Army.Filling a void in Slovenia's electronic dance scene, the night was a hit from the start and quickly grew into a diverse and successful series focusing on new and exciting electro, acid and dark techno.Elektroliza hosted many memorable DJ and live acts by performers/producers/pioneers coming out of international music incubators in Gothenburg, The Hague, Berlin and as far as Detroit. Even more importantly, it brought together producers and crews from the former Yugoslav republics of Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia. Inside the former Yugoslavian military barracks DJs and producers from Skopje to Ljubljana began bonding again through music, forming new friendships, starting new collaborations and dancing the night away... in 'Electro City Ljubljana'.This first double vinyl compilation of the Balkan Elektroliza family is a collection of our shared memories and visions of the future to come.
Bulkhead present their debut album - Aft Pressure - due June 1st on 2MR Records. In 2015, during the coldest Toronto winter on record, two old friends - Pop District and Patrik Benjamin - locked themselves away in the studio to experiment with a medley of hardware. Both solo artists in their own right, they had overseen their own projects prior, but had never considered how a collaboration might sound. Exploring the polarity of extreme cold and immersive warmth with a distinctly analogue feel, the duo carved themselves an aesthetic. And so Bulkhead was born. Using a raw, organic palette they repudiate formal structure and polish, opting instead for a freeform blend of unhindered mechanical techno and fuzzy ambience - slambient, if you will. Debuting in 2016, their 'Worker's Kampf' cassette album on LA imprint Far Away Tapes sold out quickly, warranting another release on 2MR featuring highlights of the cassette on 12' and digital. Continuing with the purveyance of abstract arrangements and machine wizardry, their forthcoming album - Aft Pressure - is a striking exploration of the intersection between frenzied techno and harmonic warmth.Fragments of techno and EBM mutate without strict guidance, rebuilding themselves into new forms with stunning physical qualities. Whilst many of the tracks might file under dance music, the DIY spirit of the album transcends a nightclub, occupying a peculiar space between the uncensored grit of the post-punk scene and some melancholic form of ambient minimalism. Angular percussion slices its way through dizzying synth leads whilst serene harmonies wander on their own accord. Darting melodies are made all the more powerful by their harsh timbre as drum-less excursions provide a cinematic backdrop. Aft Pressure is a statement of intent, blurring the parameters of dance music culture with equal doses of insanity and serenity. At the same time, it's also a hell of a lot of fun...
Extremely hot on the heels of 'A Library Excursion', Earl Jeffers teams up again with Don Leisure, his partner-in-beats for another EP of Darkhouse Family goodness. Following on from their highly acclaimed debut album 'The Offering' from late last year on First Word, the Cardiff duo have hand selected a group of friends, dons and legends (including DJ Spinna & Kaidi Tatham) to serve us up 'An Extra Offering'. Five remixes curated by the crew.
For the refix of 'The Accession' (which originally featured Kamaal Williams, Dave Newington and Daf Davies from Boy Azooga), label-mate Kaidi Tatham kicks off with some down-low bottom-heavy boom bap, before switching up the tempo mid-way for a blast of his inimitable jazz-funk bruk boogie.
Next up we're honoured to have not one, but TWO tracks from the Brooklyn legend, DJ Spinna. His Galactic Soul rub of 'Another World' flips the original into a deep soulful 4/4 house cut, featuring the lush vocals of Esther (and one Charlotte Church on backing vocals, pop fact fans).
Then there's DJ Spinna's Galactic Funk take on 'Just So You Know' with the marvellous Vanity Jay on vocals. This one is on the same mid-tempo tip as the original, but with that unmistakable Polyrhythm Addict flavour of big kicks, crisp snares, hench bassline and sweet spacey synths.
For the 'GAEA' remix we keep it Cardiff and introduce the man like Alfie Swan. Doubling up the tempo of the original, this adds some seriously wavy sonics and flips the groove entirely, creating a seriously innovative cocktail of riddims. One for those not shy of some jazz ethics in the dance.
And to close out this offering, Andromeda Jones lays down a ridiculously delectable broken beat mix of 'Journey To Love', this one again featuring Vanity Jay. No messing with this one, this is straight dancefloor fire, transforming the hip hop soul track into a future boogie heater. One for the ravers.
This EP illustrates once again Darkhouse Family's wide range of influences and sounds, as selectors and as music makers themselves, and is no doubt one that will stay in your box for a very long time...n
to Me, Sounds Have Always Been More Interesting Than Words,' Says Agnes Obel. i Love It When The Voice Becomes An Instrument And You Almost Forget It's A Human Voice.' Never Is This More Apt Than On This Beautifully Programmed And Bewitching Selection Of Music.
Agnes' 2010 Debut Album Philharmonics Went Platinum In France And Belgium And, Unsurprisingly, Quintuple Platinum In Her Native Denmark, Where She Also Won Five Danish Music Awards (equivalent To The Brits) In 2011. The Follow-up Aventine, Released In Late 2013, Was Imbued With The Same Measured Calmness As Her Debut. It Went Platinum In Belgium And Gold In Denmark And France.
For The Mix You Have In Your Hands It Feels Almost As If Agnes Has Scoured The World Looking For Kindred Spirits - Or Kindred Songs. There's A Quietude About It All, The Antithesis Of A Rush Hour, Like A Frozen Lake On A Sunday Morning. This Is Aided By A Veritable Cornucopia Of New Obel Material, Including A Haunting Reading Of Danish Song 'glemmer Du', Inger Christensen's 'poem About Death' Set To Original Music, And An Agnes Original, 'bee Dance'.
Among Them, There's The Enigmatic Jamaican Singer Nora Dean Who Weighs In With The Hypnotic And Slinky Duke Reid Production, 'ay Ay Ay Ay (angie-lala)' And The Sparse, Sardonic 'party Girl' By Michelle Gurevich, So Good It Inspired The Eponymous French Movie. There Are The Plangent Voices, The Bulgarian Folklore Choir, Nina Simone, Ray Davies And Agnes Herself, Ringing True. Somehow, Ms Obel Makes Even Makes The Electronic Tracks Bow To Her Needs As With Yello Whose 'great Mission' Is More Martin Denny Than Underworld And Cult Greek Composer Lena Platonos' 'bloody Shadows From A Distance' Pulses Gently Rather Than Throbs And Can's Recently Rediscovered 'obscura Primavera', Unusually Hushed.
"i Was Surprised At How Much Time I Ended Up Spending On This. I Collected All The Songs Together With My Partner Alex And We Just Spent Time Listening To Records, Trying To See What Would Fit Together. Some Of The Music I've Included Here Is On Mixtapes We Made When We Were Just Friends As Teenagers. Each One Of The Tracks Produces Stories In My Head." - Agnes Obel, February 2018
In 2006 Salvador Breed and Stijn van Beek met while studying Sound Design and Music Technology at the Utrecht School of the Arts. Ever since then the pair have been beavering away behind an arsenal of blinking banks in Amsterdam. The musical fruit of this twelve year friendship Breek. A partnership that smears the boundaries of styles and sounds with festive flare. For their vinyl debut, a candy coloured cornucopia of elements are swirled and whirled. Braindance, electronica and neo-classical are festooned with dubby tones and underground grit in a unique sound of diverse textures and deep tones. Faster works, like the swooping joy of "Yokai", are countered by more contemplative "Ama." "Hang" is a whimsical dreamscape of squirming acid lines, crisp drums and angular notes that combine to produce a brilliantly bright piece. "Mu-Onna" and "Oiwa" are more abstract works that melt vocals with sweet strings before the final piano swells and ambient rains of "Burabura." A daring and dynamic vinyl debut from this eccentric duo with stunning artwork from Warren du Preez and Nick Thornton Jones (Massive Attack, Bjork en UNCLE).
Superb Fatal Digital Dub From Shinobi, The Digital French Dub Tradition ! .... Check Out The Old School !
Shinobi Was An Artist From Brest, Friend Of Ultramars Who Pressed The First Medicinal Records In Year 2004. Shinobi Also Released Some Gread Hip Hop Tunes Too, By The Way...
Helas Shinobi Died Young... Here Are Some Of His Unreleased Tunes.
May The Peace Be With His Familly & Friends.
And R.I.P. Shinobi.
Joe Powers is from Edinburgh, far outside the network of the Grime capital of London. His caffeinated productions as Proc Fiskal are faster than usual, with many clocking in at 160bpm. 'The Highland Mob', his 2017 debut EP, opened up his music to open-eared footwork and drum'n'bass fans as well as the grime crowd. After following that up with a jungle-inflected EP on Cosmic Bridge, 'Insula' switches the feel and intention towards a personal, and melodic music with one foot in Grime, infused with often comic, often wistful recorded moments from his environment. He says 'I wanted to be aware of where the music is coming from, referencing things I'm presently experiencing, like making Grime, my Radar radio show, phone addiction, alcohol, my surroundings, girls, depression, positivity, being unemployed, being employed and hating it, my friends etc. Trying to be true to myself instead of relying on other peoples' nostalgia, and focusing on now.'
The record is a huge leap in vision, with delicate, pointillist melodies and intricate edits reminiscent of Grime producers such as Terror Danjah. It also resonates with Japanese video game music like that recently explored on the 'Diggin' In The Carts' compilation.
'I think I probably make tunes to get out emotions I don't express in day-to-day life. I used clips of my friends talking, drunk folk, and general Scottish life to preserve and represent what my experience is like right now, like a time capsule. Social media notification sounds are designed to release serotonin, which is what I'd like my music to do, to make me, and other people happy, and in using these manipulative noises in a positive way, I like to think I'm taking back the power of the manipulation.'
Proc Fiskal is adventurous and thoughtful as a producer, and at the young age of 21, his debut album is very advanced in its ideas and execution.
Oblique is proud to present it's second Various Artists EP by friends we have met years ago online.
Before we had our first releases, we would upload our music to Soundcloud and these guys were always on my radar to check instantly. Besides inspiring me, their comments and feedback were invaluable to my growth as a producer.
Fast-forward a few years and everyone has grown in their own way, with multiple releases, labels and parties to emerge. The platforms have changed, but the connection did not, hence the idea to reunite them on wax :)
The EP shows four different takes on hypnotic techno, starting with the driving and slowly morphing
"Radiate" from Kaelan, followed by the intense mindbender "The Nomad" from Antonio Vázquez.
On the flipside we go more atmospheric with Refracted showcasing his expert sound manipulation on "Uku Che". Ending the EP is the subtlely layered and ultra deep "Ditoan" from Alan Backdrop.
Surface are back after a 5 year break with the first 65d Mavericks ep in over ten years ! With many struggles, false dawns and respectfully one man down, the long-awaited return of the 65d Mavericks shocks and awes with output as bizarre as ever!
Included are 4 deviations of the techno template, ranging from the spoken word rage of False Prophets on 'Notions of Progress' to the insane techno jazz workout of A2's 'Cosmic Drift'. 'You Lost Your Mind' goes abstract with live bass guitar and vocals while B2's 'Immovable (Dub)' throws down the angry man dub vibe.
Rebelling against the safety of the current scene and pushing the sound once more, expect more far out Surface releases from friends like Claude Young, Rich Oddie and new project 'The Downfall of Society' (Simon Shreeve + Nick Dunton) amongst others in the coming months.
Raga Abhogi
1) Alap
2) Jod
3) Jhala
Raga Vardhani
4) Alap
5) Jod
6) Jhala
Zia Mohiuddin Dagar : rudra veena
Annie Penta : tanpura
Concert recorded at the home of Shantha and Niranjan B. Benegal, Seattle, Washington 9 March 1986.
Recorded by Niranjan Benegal. Files obtained from Jeff Lewis.
Mastered & Cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering 1117 & 0318.
Liner notes by Renaud Brizard, edited by Stephen O'Malley & Ian Christe.
Front and back cover photos by unknown.
Interior photography by Niranjan B. Benegal, Dan Neuman & unknown, Seattle 1978-1980. .
Around ten years ago, deep into a cozy and hazy night following a concert with my sound brothers Daniel O'Sullivan and Kristoffer Rygg in London (as Æthenor), they graciously introduced me to a recording of rudra veena (a kind of noble deeper bass relative to the sitar, in a way) as performed by dhrupad master Zia Mohiuddin Dagar.
Dhrupad, for those who do not know, is a branch of Hindustani classical music said to "show the raga in its clearest and purest form". It's pacing concentrates heavily on the slow, contemplative alap section and works with specific microtonal gestures and deep characteristics of resonance ... in short I was hooked on this new (to me) and ancient form of music from the first listen, and feel that a more or less continual listening & reviewing of Zia Mohiuddin Dagar's recordings in the years that followed have influenced my own approach to music quite heavily (if, albeit, indirectly).
In early 2015 I was able to make contact with Zia Mohiuddin Dagar's son Bahauddin and some of his American students/disciples, primarily Jeff Lewis. Over time we developed a friendly and educational exchange, access a massive archive of recordings and developed these two paired titles for my label. It's been a long path to arrive at actually releasing them but also probably in many ways one of the most significant releases I've worked on. And I'm proud to be able to reveal these to date unreleased archival recordings of one of the masters of dhrupad, Z. M. Dagar, to the public for the first time.
Zia Mohiuddin Dagar was the nineteenth generation in a family tradition known as Dagar gharana, a rich lineage which continued and performed the musical form of dhrupad (Bahauddin Dagar continues the lineage as a master rudra veena dhrupad player of note today). Initially, dhrupad was a rigorous, austere, devotional genre that was sung in Hindu temples. But between the 16th and the 18th centuries, it became the preeminent genre in royal courts in North and Central India, and the Dagar gharana developed and continued publicly following the eventual loss of court patronage for dhrupad in the 19th century. The French ethnomusicologist Renaud Brizard covers the story of Zia Mohiuddin Dagar's life and teaching (a long story also in Seattle, my hometown!), the Dagar family and gharana, the rudra veena and more topics in an extensive set of liner notes in this release.
Ragas Abhogi & Vardhani were recorded in a private house concert in Seattle at the home of the Benegals in March 1986 (the week before the accompanying release SOMA029 Raga Yaman was recorded). The Benegals were friends (& Shantha Benegal was also a student) of Dagarsahib who sometimes hosted Hindustani music concerts in their home. It's a rare glimpse of a more intimate, personal and perhaps different kind of performance considering the form of dhrupad.
-Stephen O'Malley, March 2018, Paris, France
Stephen O'Malley would like to especially thank Bahauddin Dagar, Jeff Lewis & Jody Stecher for their enthusiasm, cooperation, patience, insight & advice toward developing these editions. Thank you also to Laurel Sercombe & John Vallier from the University of Washington Ethnomusicology Archives, Shantha Benegal, Philippe Bruguière, Dan Neuman, Ira Landgarten, Renaud Brizard, Ian Christe, Peter Rehberg, Rashad Becker, Daniel O'Sullivan & Kristoffer Rygg, all for their direct or indirect cooperation, assistance & patience.
Mgun, Or Manuel Gonzales To His Friends, Has Long Been A Fixture Artist For Dba. Since Making His Uk Debut On The Label In 2012, Having Already Featured On Detroit's Celebrated Wild Oats Imprint, He Has Smoothly Yet Slowly Progressed Through The Presses Of Fellow Dance Music Tastemakers Third Ear Recordings And Kiev's Wicked Bass. Following 2016's Warmly Received 'gentium', 'axiom' Finds Manuel Gonzales Back On Dba With An Index Of Offbeat Jams That Couldn't Have Emerged From The Mind Or Studio Of Any Other Producer.
Once More Envisioned And Engineered In His Native City Of Detroit, The Record Finds Mgun In More Auspicious And Domestic Circumstances. Now Firmly A Father And A Homeowner, 'axiom' Allows Gonzales To Flex His Party Muscle, While Further Pushing The Elastic Boundaries Of His Notoriously Unpredictable And Brilliantly Raw Production Style. Across Twelve Tracks, Listeners Are Offered An Unpredictable Trip Into The Restlessly Experimental Snatches Of Studio Time Gonzales Is Afforded Away From His Day Job At The Legendary People's Records Store. It's Here That Gonzales Absorbs Endless Releases And Rediscoveries Passing Through The Stock, Trading The Occasional Tip With Some Of Detroit's Best Known Producers.
Beginning With The Off-kilter Funk Of 'you Inside Me', 'axiom' Expertly Toes The Line Between Full-bodied, Soulful Club Weapons ('you're Never Home', 'nichrome'), And The Sort Of Lo-fi Tinged Jams That Enable Gonzales's Unusual Weirder Hooks And Rhythms To Extend Into Something Altogether More Hypnotic And Psychedelic ('kartwheel', 'sil').
There Are New Sounds And Approaches Throughout. Centrepiece Track 'see It For Myself' Finds Gonzales On Vocal Duties For The First Time, And The Dystopian Tinted 'vap' Finds His Sound Expanding Into Weightless, Dreamlike Electro. And While Certain Tracks Date Back Years, Having Slowly Matured To Full Funk, Others, Such As The Gloriously Unhinged '359' Were Rapidly Produced To Capture The Inspiring Energy Of A Late-night Glaswegian Rave.
Simply Put, 'axiom' Does The Work Of Representing Mgun At His Musical Best, An Analogue Celebration Of Pure Party Potential.
Following the 'Screaming Ghosts' collection highlighting the music of C Cat Trance, Emotional Rescue and Malka Tuti return with the first of two EPs where the band's music is given over to a selection of artists, friends and collaborators for reinterpretation, re-editing, replaying and remixing to provide a modern outlook on the bands mixture of East meets West musicology.
Very much the vision of Malka Tuti and close to their ground-breaking releases of the last two years, the genius is out of the bottle with a who's who representing both labels. First, Autarkic go supergroup in enlisting Tel Aviv's White Screen for a cover of Screaming (To Be With You). Totally replayed, this is the perfect opening, with wide-screen production, updated arrangement and decimal delivering vocals setting the standard.
Following comes an effusive, simple and on-point remix of Dalbouka by the inspiring ledge that is JD Twitch. Platitudes aside - enough has been said by others - but the fact Twitch is as enthusiastic and driven as ever is testament enough. The simplicity and genius of his rework, where 909 is added alongside fx to speaker shaking effect, shows that less can be much more.
In Sneaker (DJ) we have a name moving steadily from the (cult) periphery to become one to consistently check and respect. Following EPs for Rat Life and Bahnsteig 23, the singularity of his reversion is audacious and entrancing. Brevity, purity and ultimately intensity of percussion, horns, bell and guitar. Enter.
To end volume 1 comes Die Orangen. Kris Baha and Dreems' bromance of Aussie label (red) heads, united in post-industrial explorations. With a deep, expansive album incoming on Malka Tuti, their brooding, rattling, ghostly mix is one for late night thinkers, that steps up to encapsulate an EP that successfully marries old and new, bringing C Cat Trance's music present.
With MEL011, it is Melodies International's immense pleasure to direct their focus towards both Soul and House royalty, selecting and reissuing two of Frankie Knuckles' scarcer remixes of an all-time classic: Womack & Womack - MPB (Missin' Persons Bureau). Now known as Zekkariyas and Zeriiya, partners Cecil and Linda Womack, two eminent members in an extensive lineage of music artistry (i.e. Bobby Womack was Zekkariyas' brother, Zeriiya is Sam Cooke's daughter) engaged in one of music history's most successful and exciting singing and song writing partnerships in the early 1980s. Zeriiya says her process with Zekkariyas flowed like water, their shared complicity and talent led them to write and produce strings of chart topping hits and classic albums as Womack & Womack but also for other renowned artists of the time such as Patti Labelle, Teddy Pendergrass and the O'Jays to only name a few. The original version of Missin' Persons Bureau was first released in 1988 on 'Conscience' (Island Records), a classic album with impeccable instrumentation and thoughtful and relatable narratives that reflect on the nature of life, true friendship, love or in the case of MPB, it's subsequent loss. Following the release of the LP, Island records founder Chris Blackwell introduced the idea of getting Missin' Persons Bureau reworked by House legend Frankie Knuckles and whilst the Womacks weren't originally set on the idea of having their songs remixed by other artists, Blackwell, who Zeriiya describes as a 'record label manager seriously involved in making sure the project is what the creators really want it to be", had earned their trust. With these remixes, Frankie managed to turn a radio hit into underground club classics. The Paradise Ballroom mix conserves the essence of the original, reinterpreting the rhythm section whilst drawing it out over 8 minutes, with expert tension building and release clearly aimed at the dance floor.
Here We Are Releasing The Second Album Of Cologne Born Producer Thyladomid Who Is Familiar To Many Through His Work On Hamburg Label Diynamic Which Has Lead Him To Perform Around The World, Together With Artists Such As: Adriatique, Solomun, Kollektiv Turmstraße, Hosh, David August, Stimming, And Many More. More Then 30 Minutes Playing Time, 6 Tracks And Artwork By Florian Kramer Offer A Lot To Discover. Thyladomid Is Famous For His Forward Thinking Deep Melodic Dance Music Which Earned Him Respect And Support From Many People Of The Scene And Evolved Also In Cooperations With Adriatique And The Singer Mahfoud. You Can Find Two Tracks Featuring Mahfoud On The Album. With His First Album "interstellar Destiny" In 2015 Thyladomid Has Already Changed Towards More Introspective Music And You Will Hear He Has Taken That A Step Further Here. In Comparison To His First Album, "places" Refers To Different Places Which Inspired Him To Write The Album And Offers A Higher Level Of Complexity In The Making Of Music Which Has Helped Thyladomid To Enhance The Moody Quality In A Dazzling Way Sometimes Even Spine Tingling When You Let Yourself Go To Explore The Abundance Of The Trax. As He Said In His Own Words: - the Albums Intention Was That Of An Organic Produced Album With Different Moods. Instruments Such As Piano And And Violin As Well As Field Recording Bring Alive A Special Quality. The Bouncing Of Stones On A Frozen Pond Recorded With Multiple Microphones Suggest For Example An Authentic Spacious Quality. The Self Recorded Percussion, Sometimes Quite Exotic Were Included In All Of The Tracks. The Combination Of Synthetic Sounds With Traditionally Instruments Was One Of The Big Challenges For Me. The Piano And Prophet 6 Und The Moog Sub37 Were The Main Instruments Used For The Album'. Thyladomid Started Working On The Album 2 1/2 Years Ago. His Classical Training On The Piano Helped To Quickly Come Up With A Musical Theme Which Is Based On Different Tonalities Which Were Then Linked To Each Other And Which Actually Helped To Structure The Whole Release. The Good Weather In Summer Was A Good Inspiration And Finally Led To The Idea To Dedicate Tracks To A Certain Place, A Place Which Means A Lot For Him. From That Idea The Title Of The Whole Album Derived: "places ". "a Little Church In Amsterdam" As He Says "is Such A Track Encouraged By The City Of Amsterdam I Love And Respects So Much And Actually Have Spend So Much Time In. It Is A Track I Played Outside In My Garden To Friends And Which Works Perfectly For Me.' "a Little Church In Amsterdam" Is A Track Where Melodies Bloom And Flourish. It Feels Like Zooming In On Nature Grasping A Time Lapse Symphony. "blossoming Limburg Ft Mahfoud" Was Born In The Capital Of Limburg Which Is Located In The South Of The Netherlands And Reflects The Summer Of 2017 And Was Recorded In A Warehouse. It Reflects The Intimacy And Synergetic Level Between Mahfoud And Thyladomid. The Fantastic Deep Vocal Track Is Spiced Up With Lots Of Acoustic Details Which All Happen In The Background But Effectively Surface To Pull The Listener Into His World. "night Owl" Is A Lyrical Dreamy Piano Piece With A Melancholic Note And An Ear For Details. Acoustic Finesse Presented On An Episodic Scale. We Guess The Track Was Influenced By The Works Of Four Tet Or Pantha Du Prince. "kollwitzplatz" Is A Small Park In Berlin's Prenzlauer Berg Which Was Thyladomid's Home For 2 Years . - the Cafes And Restaurants Laced By The Alleys Of The Kollwitz District Resemble A Piece Of Home For Me And Represents The Time Of My Stay In Berlin'. Musically "kollwitzplatz" Is Full Of Life. You Can Hear Children Talking While The Piano Attracts Sounds Like Moths Are Attracted To Light. The Track Offers This Richness Of Percussive Elements And Sound Sources Creating A Stunning Complexity Which Does Not Limiting Itself But Rather Creates This Free Flow Of Acoustic Signals. You Instantly Will Feel: There Is A Lot To Discover At "kollwitzplatz". "underwater Rhapsody", The Title Says It All: It Has That Episodic, Free-flowing Structure, Featuring A Range Of Highly Contrasted Moods, Color And Tonality. What It Actually Means To The Listener Is That Grande Chords Meet Dissonances Of Sound That Fly In Like Drones Cross The Big Time Melodies That Gain A Centrifugal Force At Times... And All This Leaves You Dizzy And Creates Another Big Listening Experience As The Whole Album Is Directed To Entertain You In A Smart And Distinguished Way.
[E b2 | Places Ft. Mahfoud
Combo Lulo is that rare possibility of true magic moments manifested. Embodying the classic sentiment of a New York supergroup with an ensemble of friends and like-minded musicians whose resume is too full of credits and accolades to grasp in one shot, the band is a testament to what can happen when locked together for a two-day session in a Brooklyn studio.
Drawing inspiration and direction from band leader, composer and multi-instrumentalist Mike Sarason, Combo Lulo moves side to side from effortless Jamaican foundation rhythms into the further reaches of Caribbean influence...incorporating a natural transition between Jamaican classics and the essence of Afro-Latin ritmo. It's a musical match made in heaven and, more importantly, it's carried out with the gentle and deft touch of veteran studio musicians with deep appreciation and nuanced understanding. Together with Names You Can Trust, it's a locked in groove that is a perfect slice of roots, collaboration & present day experimentation that is sure to have any listener feeling nice.
2x12"
It's the return of the sexual vigilante Sex Judas and his trusted sidekick Ricky. This time in full album mode. Norwegian producer Tore Gjedrem of Ost & Kjex fame, channels his love of comix, bohemia and fascination with human vice, the unspoken, the Red Light districts, the alleys of the mind into his alter ego.
Sex Judas is no bad character but certainly says what it's author cannot.
'I wanted to create a world where any musical idea is possible, wound together by the world and word of Judas, the ultimate sinner, reborn as a child of Venus.'
Inspiration ranges from Africa to 80's NYC, from Bohannon to Quasimoto, from Norwegian New Wave to Acid House. With contributions by friends in the Oslo scene as hometown legend Dj Pål Strangefruit Nyhus, composer Ole-Henrik Moe, jazzpianist Bugge Wesseltoft, Sidiki Camara from Mali playing that beautiful Ngoni, and multi instrumentalist Ivar Snuten Winther, the album touches anything from blues, funk, disco and post-punk to IDM, acid house and electronic explorer music.
Wolkenbett EP is brought to you by Claude Steiner and Yannick Sardi. Together they form Elektro Baboushka, a music project born as a result of the duo's close friendship and joint discovery of electronic music. Inspired by bands like Yello, Kraftwerk, and Depeche Mode, Elektro Baboushka developed their own style: a blend of ambient and downbeat spiced with jazz grooves and minimal. Musically trained in guitar and piano, Claude plays the guitar and builds loops while Yannick accompanies him with vocals and keyboard. Wolkenbett EP features two massive originals and an intricately deep remix by Sleep is Commercial's Andrea Ferlin.
Finally Copenema drops on vinyl. This special limited edition vinyl EP especially for those summer beach bar vibes.
The EP includes the much loved Te Faz Bem which became a Balearic classic in Ibiza last summer after DJ Harvey regularly played it at his residency 'Mercury Rising' at Pikes . This caught the attention of Pete Tong who played it on his BBC Radio 1 show multiple times.Deixa Música Tocar (Let The Music Play) on the B side is the second single (currently unreleased) and carries on the same classic Balearic vibe from Te Faz Bem.
Super strong remixes from Riccio & Kenneth Bager complete the 12' nicely. The single representing 'the other side of Ibiza' is receiving strong support from Pete Tong, DJ Harvey, Ruf Dug, Peaking Lights, Alfredo, DJ Pippi, Phli Mison, Jon Sa Trinxa and other Balearic inspired DJs and echoes a renewed interest in Latin and Brazilian inspired sounds across the beach bars of the Mediterranean in summer 2017. Copenema (Copenama = Copenhagen Vs Ipanema) is a collaborative project between artists from Denmark and Brazil with the album partly recorded in the living room of Brazilian star Rodrigo Sha in Rio Di Janeiro, and finished at the legendary Volmers studio in Copenhagen.
Copenema is the latest incarnation of Music For Dreams' label boss Kenneth Bager in collaboration with artists and friends Rodrigo Sha, Danish composer Troels Hammer and producer Thomas Schultz from Ambala. The lead single 'Te Faz Bem' was the last track recorded during the sessions and will be the first single released on Music For Dreams this autumn.
Spazio Disponibile hits release number 13 in style with a collaborative effort between label co-founder Donato Dozzy and longtime friends Retina.it. It is a typically experimental release that features five weird and wonderful tracks, seeing the label taking yet another dip into the more leftfield areas of electronic music.
It's a pleasure to get behind your friends from around world, in fact that's the motive behind the breadth of the ESP Institute catalogue, but its truly a special feeling to represent your friends and your neighborhood at the same time. Producers Sonns (Alexandre Mouracade) and the mysterious Venice Beach native Tavish Graham are both long time friends of the ESP Institute family, we break bread, we take care of each other, and we cherish our collaborations more than anything, but we're also neighbors. That said, ESP is proud to announce a homegrown endeavor, the debut of Sonns & Tavish. The two have long been stewards of the Los Angeles underground, but after loads of early morning banter and the camaraderie that comes with this smoke'n'strobe life, they've now committed their singular vision to print—two epic cuts that make us proud. Side A's title track Trycksaker is a thumper, a mid-tempo big-drum-laden beast that chugs the whole way through carrying an array of eerie bleeps and fleeting sighs. Side B's Roguish Days pulls together influences from various corners of the pair's DJ repertoire, gelling a wicked breakbeat with a wormy acid bassline and even more exotic sighs, something that might possibly grow into a signature of sorts. This release is ready just in time for the Spring/Summer exploits, and we couldn't be more proud to finally enjoy hearing these heavy-hitters in the club. Tip!
"Hi again!
It's been a couple years, but I've put together a new record, this time with my neighbor Stu and a few other friends. Stu's been tuning the piano Linda and I were using for our Lejsovka & Freund and Trouble Books recordings, and I've always enjoyed the test scales and vignettes he would run through checking his work.
I floated the idea to collaborate on a sort of 70s/80s ECM kinda vibe, and soon started bringing my laptop and a couple microphones over to his house to collect his improvisations and have him add to pieces I had started. Other friends from the neighborhood dropped by to add parts here and there as well.
The recordings were made primarily in the summers of 2016 & 2017 (with a break in-between to mourn the triumph of neo-fascism as well as the passing of beloved pets). Ultimately I tried to follow the feel of those summer nights and the tranquility they offered. Open air or at least open windows, drifting along, you know"
-KF, Spring 2018.
Aqueduct Ensemble is a collaboration between Ohio based artist Keith Freund - who has previously released music as part of both Lejsovka & Freund and Trouble Books - and his neighbour Stu, who is a piano tuner and professional pianist. Their debut album together, "Improvisations On An Apricot" is the second release from label Last Resort, and follows G.S Schray's "Gabriel" (2017) - the sleeves for which were both designed by Keith, who does does all the art direction for the label. Beginning life in 2013 as an NTS radio show of the same name, Last Resort is run by Tom Cathcart from his home in London.
The Works of John B. McLemore, the star of one of last years biggest podcasts, S-Town, which is coming out on Dais. The story behind this release is truly fascinating.. the music itself is ambient remixes of Tor Lundvall's best works, but with John's idiosyncratic slant on them, with some having been woven together using the horde of clocks he use to keep in his basement. This story is really worth a read if you get a chance."In September 2012, I received an e-mail from someone named John B. who said he had assembled a lengthy remix of my music, which also incorporated some of his own material. John asked if I'd mind if he posted this recording on YouTube, to which I agreed. He also mentioned that there was a second part to his mix that was "roughed out", but never completed. I was curious to hear both parts, so shortly afterwards, John mailed me two CDrs which I enjoyed very much. The recordings were hypnotic and haunting, evoking images of vast fields at twilight. I was especially fond of the second disc which had a darker atmosphere and featured more of John's original material, beginning with ghostly clock chimes and ending with a mysterious piece using dried seed pods and other cryptic sounds that slowly built-up into an intense, almost claustrophobic environment.
My correspondence with John lasted about two months. In one of his final e-mails, John said "I have to observe that your paintings seem to have a great deal of loneliness involved in them... even multiple characters seem to be together alone, so to speak... I really appreciate looking at your paintings as well as your music, I think I have connected with the spirit of them both as much as anyone can." He went on to discuss his struggles with depression, caring for his aging mom and his concerns about the future. I tried to encourage his music as a possible outlet, perhaps as a means to help transform his feelings of loneliness into a more content solitude. Always easy to say, but as I well know, not always easy to do.
In his last e-mail in late October 2012, John sent me a beautiful slideshow of his Fall flower beds and his dogs. I was touched and I told him how much watching his video had brightened my day. That was the last time I heard from him.
Last year, I visited John's YouTube channel to see if Part One of his mix was still posted, which it was, and still remains. I was shocked and saddened to read in the comments section that he had passed away. The comments also suggested that John had received some sort of national attention recently. This quickly led me to the S-Town podcast. Although I had mixed reactions after listening, I was thankful that S-Town shed more light on John and his remarkable life... but somehow, I just couldn't place the person in the podcast with the person I had corresponded with. Had I not listened to S-Town, I would have remembered John as a very private, somewhat dark and lonely person. He may have been these things, but there was obviously far more to him than that.
After finishing the final episode, I decided to play the second, unreleased CDr of John's recordings for the first time in years. Listening to his clock chimes ringing in the dark was an eerie and chilling moment. I was reminded of a line from my song "29" which says "I live with dreams and a lonely mind, my clock is set to a different time". I wondered what those lyrics might have meant to him.
John had mentioned that he wasn't satisfied with his final mix, but I felt his work was too special not to be heard. I hope that these recordings offer another glimpse into the creative mind of a unique, complex and gifted individual who tragically left this world all too early."
Tor Lundvall
January 17th, 2018
JOHN B.'s NOTES:
This is what was intended to be the second part of my Tor Lundvall Remix series. Unfortunately I am dissatisfied with it due to a few defects, and it is highly unlikely that I will ever be able to complete it. Still it serves as a testament to my interest in the work of Tor Lundvall that I made it this far. Defects are as follows: The first movement is too 'fussy', and the first section of the fifth movement seems a bit long and may bore the listener, but since it consisted of so many slow moving textures, I don't know how I could redo it and still achieve what I was wanting to accomplish. Additionally, this recording was done just days before my Father died, and there are many feelings of guilt associated with the time spent on it. If you are receiving this recording, either you are one of my better friends, or you are a great admirer of Tor Lundvall, and requested that I send it to you.
1st Part: Basically a track of me fiddling around with old clock bells, and air turbulence mixed with Tor Lundvall and Field Recordings of rain, birds, cicadas, frogs and such.
2nd Part: My interpretation of Lundvall's Dark Spring. This track was inspired by the music of Carl Michael von Hausswolff.
3rd Part: Very ambient Field Recordings inspired by the work of Francisco Lopez.
4th Part: A Very Quiet passage consisting of delicate Field Recordings.
5th Part: Music performed entirely by me inspired by the Darker paintings of Tor Lundvall. Most of the instruments on this piece consisted of dried seed pods from the plant; Showy Rattlebox (Crotolaria Spectabilis), that I had collected and dried the previous Fall. There are other sounds from my own environment as well.
This mix was assembled in the Late Fall of 2003. There are some very Quiet passages in this piece, so it requires a nearly Isolated listening environment... It should be heard After Midnight, in the Late Fall of the year, and, not surprisingly, a Very Long Attention span is a Prerequisite.
John B. McLemore
September 10, 2012
Martin Hübner A.k.a. Mh, Who's Been Around As A Dj / Producer For More Than Twenty Years, Has Fulfilled A Dream For Himself And Fans. Mh 2018, His First Vinyl Record. On The A-side, He Presents Two Club Remixes That Will Surely Convince Even Discerning Musician's Ears. Friends Claim, Sing Sing Will Be The Club Summer Hit 2018! The B-side Surprises With Two Mh Compositions. Vocals Are Presented By Two Ladies, Who Couldn't Be More Different. If Struggle Immediately Associates You With James Bond Movies, Eyes Crossed Surely Fits Into The Festival Category.
· Bart Davenport's 7th album since his 2002 solo debut
· West Coast yacht rock meets '80s English pop
· Produced by L.A. Takedown's Aaron M. Olson
· Confirmed live dates in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, San Diego, Vida Festival (Spain)
Recorded in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, Blue Motel is the new album by Bart & The Bedazzled, a brand new musical enterprise by Bart Davenport and his seventh album proper since his solo breakout in 2002. Alluding to Los Angeles with the lights down, it's an amalgam sound of '80s English pop and West Coast yacht rock jams, sprinkled with cinematic flourishes clearly influenced by the understated production of L.A. Takedown's Aaron M. Olson. The jangly pop aesthetic, resplendent with choppy chorus tinted guitar, snappy snares, sax and bass is underlined with life trodden stories about day jobs, dating, financial insecurities, lost innocence and most prominently, time travel.
The album lives somewhere in an imagined past (or future) that is curiously both the 1960s and 1980s conveying the groups's nostalgia for a fantasy world with a cheeky cynicism, despite a perception of a world that is, for Bart, on the downfall. To that end, Davenport's songs are, as always, delivered with a happy and sad sensibility reminiscent of the great Burt Bacharach. From the surreal yet humorous 'The House That Built Itself' to the sad surf music of 'Halloween By The Sea' or the romantic L.A. noir of the title track, Blue Motel arrives with a spoonful of tears, a nod and a wink.
The Bedazzled band lineup, united by their love of the 'Elegant '80s', includes the guitar of Wayne Faler (Dream Boys), drums, percussion and beats by Andres Renteria (Jose Gonzales) and post-punk bass lines from Jessica Espeleta (L.A. Takedown). The four friends from Los Angeles, united in their affection for the more sophisticated sounds of English '80s groups like Prefab Sprout and Style Council give the setlist a more distinctively pop flavour compared to Bart's soulful last outing on his album Physical World, also released on Lovemonk. Blue Motel features regular appearances from female vocalist Nedelle Torrisi (Domino, Asthmatic Kitty) who notably adds the lush layers of harmony on 'The Amateurs'. Saxophonist Billy McShane is also featured on three songs with improvisations that evoke the scene of whales in outer space.
Producer Olson often incorporates soundtrack and avant-garde elements in his own work. His gift for song arrangement, understanding of the synth and penchant for subtlety all shine brightly on Blue Motel.
Clear & White Mixed Vinyl
After a hectic weekend you awake dazed and confused deep in the urban jungle. As the sun starts to rise, in the distance a lush pad starts to drift closer. The sounds of your past... a time when everything in the world was right, perfect. Tearing breakbeats release, kinetic energy moves your body and you start to reminisce about friends, love and music. Days gone by, the vibe never ends.
Jem One kicks off 117 spring with 3 fresh cuts pressed on a special edition clear & white mixed vinyl.
As the buzz surrounding her latest single 'You Gotta Be' continues to spread, UK soul artist, Soulful Emma Louise - S.E.L - celebrates with a vinyl release of this flanked by her new single 'The Sweetest Pain' on the much celebrated Record Store Day on Saturday April 21st 2018.
Having recently featured on TalkRadio's, BadAss Women's Hour with a wonderful accapella and interview, Soulful Emma Louise's cover of Des'ree's wonderfully uplifting song 'You Gotta Be' resonates with authentic old skool hip hop and 90's soul characteristics and is a must for vinyl lovers everywhere.
Making the vinyl release even more special is the flipside's beautiful new recreated version of Dexter Wansel's classic 'The Sweetest Pain', S.E.L's forthcoming new single, which updates the expansive soulful musical message for today's dance floors. Produced by Quantize Record's own Gary Hudgins, this S.E.L double header marks another milestone in S.E.L's on going journey with her first vinyl release.
'Record Store Day' is something really special and I'm so excited to be part of it with the new release. It;s always an amazing day as you connect with fellow music lovers and friends as well as getting the chance to pick up some of the most collectable and distinguished vinyl releases' S.E.L
Instant is the trio of Bernd Schöll (Bass, Vocals, Rhythm), Mike Hauer (Guitar, Synth, Percussion), and Marion Siekmann (Vocals) from Munich, Germany. They formed in 1980 after meeting through mutual friends attending the local art and graphic design school. The trio were dissatisfied with their surrounding musical environment. Inspired by the Velvet Underground, Kraftwerk, and Giorgio Moroder, they set out to create their own brand of Neue Deutsche Welle fusing Dada, disco, and Krautrock.
Over the course of 2 weeks in Summer 1980 the band teamed up with local producer Mario Strack to record 6 songs. These would make up their debut eponymous album that was originally self-released on 10' vinyl in 1981. They utilized a simple set up of guitar, bass, and keyboards, plus the BOSS DR-55 Dr. Rhythm drum machine. Metal scraps clanging appear on the tracks 'Do Not' and 'Optimate Minimum', and a washing machine was sampled on the track 'Joyboy', which features Marion reading from the appliance's instruction manual. The A-side features 4 tracks in 11 minute, while the B-side hosts 2 songs in the same stretch of time. 'Charade' features no wave saxophone accompaniment from Kai Taschner of Munich New Wave band Luna Set. Marion's vocals are between Nico's Teutonic chill and Alison Statton's (Young Marble Giants) playfulness, while Bernd takes a monotone approach. Lyrics for 'My Boy' and 'Everybody's Gotta Mutate' were adapted from 'Rotwang', a fragmented novel written by Tim Hildebrandt, one of the brothers famous for illustrating the works of Tolkien.
All songs have been remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. The vinyl comes housed in a replica of the original jacket design, which features a neon red screen-printed drawing of a cut-out doll family on a stark white background. Each LP includes a postcard insert with lyrics.
2018 marks our first step into album territory, releasing the sophomore album 'High life' of Heist's very own Detroit Swindle, to be released end of May. This single features the album cut 'Flavourism' with vocals from Seven Davis Jr. Here, the single is presented with remixes by the amazing Pépé Bradock and Boston-to-NYC house duo John Barera & Will Martin.
Flavourism is as much a throwback track to classic Detroit Swindle territory, as it is a look into their contemporary view on soulful deep house. The vibe is set by Seven Davis Jr.'s distinctive vocals, accompanied by warm 'side-chained' pads and a rubbery live synth-bassline. Fans of 'The Wrap Around' will definitely feel a nod to that 2012 classic with those Prophet pads. If you've seen their live performance with Seven Davis Jr. during Dour festival in 2015 or heard their remix for SDJ's track 'Friends' on Classic Music Company, you might already anticipate a collaboration that works like a charm.
When deciding on a remixer for this project, the boys wanted to do something special. Ask someone special. And so it happened that they asked Pépé Bradock: someone who stood at the root of European house music and has pioneered in the genre, carefully curating his own style into something that surpasses genres. Here, he delivers both a stunning and deep interpretation of the original, with added harmonies, a touch of lo-fi and his own signature electronics. On top comes the 'acapella', stripped from all percussion and leaving the vocal and all of Pépé's lovely weirdness.
The single further features US house duo John Barera & Will Martin, who have already released some amazing music on Dolly, or John's own ' Supply records'. Not surprisingly, they deliver a great clubby house cut with some Chicago flavour, dubbing and out the vocal to a basic mantra: 'I'll always keep'.
Keep an eye out for High Life out soon with more collaborations. For now, please enjoy Flavourism.
Best Regards,
Heist Recordings.
FIRST EVER VINYL PRESSING OF JOHANN'S 2006 ALBUM - DELUXE GATEFOLD SLEEVE, 2 x CLEAR LP - TWO BONUS TRACKS, DOWNLOAD CODE INCLUDED
Never before pressed on vinyl, IBM 1401, A User's Manual, is one of Jóhann Jóhannsson's most loved works. Released in 2006, the decade since its release has seen Jóhann establish himself as one of the most important composers in the World today, most notably scoring movies such as Arrival, Sicario and The Theory of Everything.
Inspired by the work his father did in the sixties when chief maintenance engineer of one of Iceland's first computers, Jóhann originally wrote IBM 1401, A User's Manual to accompany a dance piece by long-standing collaborator and friend, Erna Ómarsdóttir. For this album release, he rewrote it for a sixty-piece string orchestra, with a new final movement (built around a poem by Dorothy Parker) and incorporating both electronics, and reel-to-reel recordings made by his father and friends in 1971 of an enormous IBM 1401 mainframe computer singing the hymn Ísland Ögrum Skorið by Sigvaldi Kaldalóns as it was being decommissioned.
The first ever pressing of IBM 1401, A User's Manual comes in a deluxe gatefold sleeve, having been reworked by Chris Bigg (v23) from his original design. Pressed on clear vinyl, two album tracks recorded in 2010 with the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra at the Rudolfinum, Dvorák Hall in Prague have also been added and are exclusive to this release.
2x LP + 7"[22,65 €]
IT'S TIME TO PAAAARTY! Why The Universe knows that Tramp is celebrating their 40th trip around the sun in 2018. And what about planet Earth Well... it is as blind as it is in so many other situations. Therefore, it is time to shine the light on Tramp for all of its unremitting efforts. As musical diversity is vanishing, especially in the field of African American music from the 1960s/70s, it is our duty to stop the extinction of threatened species of music in the same way an animal welfare activist would do anything to save a gorilla's life. Tramp Records keeps this beautiful heritage alive, every single day, again and again and again. So we are here wondering why Earth people and especially to those from our beloved home country, why why are you just sitting there, going about your life unaware of this historic event What a pity!
The announcement is especially striking when it comes to the prestigious "Movements" series. Like all its predecessors, this ninth volume contains Rare Groove nuggets recorded between the early 1960s and the late 1970s. The fact that only one of the songs appear anywhere else is a jaw-dropping phenomenon! The chronological track listing starts with two amazing cover versions: "Fever" by Gee Gee Shinn & the Boogie Kings and "I'm A Woman" by Connie Kaye Trio. Bus Brown, Earl Demus and Chuck Finney remain in the same direction although their contributions are slightly jazzier. Chick Willis' gut-wrenching "Sometime Soon" easily rivals James Brown's "It's A Man's World" and the recordings by Australia, J.R. and Joe Akens are beautiful examples of privately produced soul from the 1970s. The latin-soul of "Cho Cho San" by Hummingbird 4 heads the sound in another direction for the next three tunes, highlighted by one more stunning cover version, Oscar Brown Jr.'s "Brother, Where Are You". The album closes with some pre-disco tracks from The Counts, Reunion and Hot Cakes' dance floor bomb cover of "Harlem Shuffle".
Over a hundred great unknown songs have been re-released on the first eight volumes in the "Movements" series, the majority of which can not be found elsewhere, and Vol. 9 is no exception. The work of Germany's tiniest but grooviest record label is still incomprehensibly underestimated. We know you diggers, collectors, mavens, aficionados, fanatics, completists, enthusiasts, and just plain record geeks know what's up and we heartily salute you! Without your support there would be no Tramp Records. But now it's time for a broader cultural shift for good music and a sweeping move to uphold the legacy of the unsung heroes of funk and soul. Therefore, we humbly petition you: in 2018, Don't keep all this glory to yourself! Turn your friends and neighbors on! Thank you!
- the double vinyl LP comes with a full album download code
- deluxe double-gatefold LP with detailed liner notes, label scans & unseen photographs
- all but one song appear on vinyl-LP for the very first-time
First new LP in over 15 years. Builds on 3 successful ATFA reissues of Mergia's music. Legendary artist still active after decades of historic work. Modern Ethiopian jazz built on ancient scales and standards. Capping several successful years traveling the world performing to audiences big and small, Hailu Mergia's Lala Belu has been a long time coming. It builds on Mergia's remarkable career resurgence over the past few years. Beginning in 2013 with the reissue of his dreamy Hailu Mergia and His Classical Instrument followed by the enormous success of his seminal Ethio-jazz masterpiece Tche Belew and continuing with last year's widely acclaimed Wede Harer Guzo, Mergia has received considerable accolades from listeners and press globally, including The New York Times, Pitchfork and The Wire. His old recordings are cherished revelations for Ethiopian music fans; however, Mergia's return to the stage has been just as inspiring and electrifying. Mergia's vintage recordings are known for an inherently mysterious and worn-in quality, while his new recordings echo his band's 21st century live show with modern instrumental interpretations of crucial Ethiopian standards and Mergia's own original compositions. Tony Buck (drums) and Mike Majkowski (bass), who have backed Mergia on tour throughout Europe and Australia, form the bass-drums trio on the recording. Having played venues from Radio City Music Hall and the Kennedy Center to jazz festivals, rock clubs and DIY spaces all over North America, Europe and Australia, Mergia and Awesome Tapes From Africa want to document this moment in his landmark career with a snapshot of Mergia's current sound. Since he emigrated from Ethiopia and built a life in Washington, D.C. around 1981—where he remains working as an airport taxi driver when he is not on tour—Mergia's career has followed a humble trajectory. He made a few recordings in America but they didn't easily reach fans back home. He kept making music on his own and with friends but after the early 80's his gigs in the U.S. mostly dried up. It wasn't until he began working with Awesome Tapes From Africa and putting together bands with the help of booking agents and musicians in Europe and the U.S., that he was able to chart a new path. With a broad audience of young listeners in diverse venues and distant locales, at age 71, Mergia is enjoying his comeback and is not slowing down.
A - 45 rpm - cozy - Get Used to Me'
An emphatic anthem from the mouth of a young woman with something to prove, this track is a bold first statement, both in production and lyrical content. With this track on wax, Im gonna be around for a while, so you better Get Used to Me!
B1 - 33 rpm - cozy - Useful'
A piece created by someone tired of being underestimated, Useful might come from a place of frustration, but overall its a reclamation of power and agency. You havent been utilizing my ability to its greatest potential'
B2 - 33 rpm - cozy - Hip Hopity'
A funky closing piece to this EP, Hip Hopity just wants you to shake your thang around! Encouraging those of all dance ability to move their body and have a good time with their friends.
cozy is a songwriter, rapper, producer, and musician who currently operates out of Vancouver, British Columbia. Originally hailing from the small village of Cumberland, cozy has small town roots that have heavily influenced her art. With her music, cozy hopes to bring people into her world of experiences and give them as clear a picture of her perspective as she can. Throughout her songs, cozy weaves strong lyrical themes of femininity, sexuality, and reclamation of personal identity within a vulnerable context of self examination.
Seven years ago, Max Tundra sent Daphne and Celeste a tweet, asking if he could write and produce their comeback single. Four years later their song You & I Alone ripped through the internet. Today they announce the forthcoming release of the most unlikely comeback album of 2018.
Three years after their comeback song, 'BB' arrives online as their new album's appetiser, an uncompromising takedown of the anodyne and anonymous. BB stands for Basic Busker,' explains Max, any one of countless identikit instigators of mundane melodies that have brought the mood down in recent years. Pop music should lift the spirits - so why are the airwaves full of these mundane strummers'
The world has changed a hell of a lot since Daphne & Celeste stormed up the charts with their effervescent earworms U.G.L.Y. and Ooh Stick You, back near the birth of the 21st century. So you'd be forgiven for failing to predict the fruitful union of D&C with a maverick electronic producer known for his records on Warp and Domino Records. But Max Tundra has long held an ambition to become a pop producer, and this new album is an addictive combination of the eccentric, creative and melodic.
After an initial sharing of tracks and ideas around the release of that first single in 2015, Max Tundra set about writing an album's worth of material, inspired by the unique kinship, born of shared experience, between Daphne and Celeste, and his own unexpected part in their story. Last year, Tundra brought his suitcase full of songs to a desert retreat near Joshua Tree, where he joined D&C for the 'working holiday' that produced Daphne & Celeste Save The World.
A full-length album of giddy, ridiculous, genre-bursting pop, 'Daphne & Celeste Save The World' finds our friends in fine, soaring, melodic voice, with Tundra's restlessly inventive production a toothsome, chordy, maximalist feast. These 13 songs touch on subjects as varied as time travel, succulents, pipelines under the ocean, cabins in the wood, unadventurous guitarists and different regions of the brain, but above all the sweet, enduring friendship of those two people who, long ago, told us all to Ooh Stick You.
Long time friend of the label, Neue Grafik, steps forth with his most fully realised offering to date. This record has been a long time coming, born out of a encounter in Paris back in 2016. This meeting of minds led to a blossoming friendship between Fred ( Neue Grafik) and Bradley ( RS INTL) which has taken them across 3 continents, countless dance-floors and finally crystallised onto this 12'.
The record itself takes cues from the broken-beat sound of London while paying homage to the Parisian house dance scene. Largely sample based, but also employing much more live instrumentation than ever before, Neue Grafik's music is informed by movement and in turn offers so much for Dancers to respond to.
The EP begins with the lysergic ebbs and flows of 'Innervision', ( in which Wayne Snow graces the record with a sublime vocal performance) and moves effortlessly to the uplifting bruk of 'Dance to Yemanja' via the staccato of ' to Peckham Rye'( a homage to the labels origins) , before finishing on the hauntingly melancholic tones of 'Aulnay's Tears' - an homage to the victim's of police brutality in the Parisian Suburb in 2017.
With releases on 22a, Beat X Changers and Wolf Music and a whole host of exciting plans for the near future - we're very pleased to welcome Monsieur Grafik onboard!
Mogwai return with their 9th studio album which was recorded with renowned producer Dave Fridmann (Mercury Rev, The Flaming Lip's, Mogwai's Come On Die Young and ROCK ACTION) at his Tarbox Road Studios in New York State.
Every Country's Sun named after a friends lack of knowledge in how the universe works, takes two decades of Mogwai's signature, contrasting sounds and distills it, beautifully, into 56 concise minutes of gracious elegance, hymnal trance-rock, and transcendental euphoria. It will definitely appeal to fans of the band and will gain many new ones along the way.
Boxset includes: White vinyl double LP, 12" black vinyl (containing 6 tracks of album demos), CD, plus a set of Tarbox Road photographic prints - Includes download card redeemable from the label.
Strata-Gemma's eponymous debut album is set to provide a soundtrack to 2018.
The trio hail from Modena, the Northern Italian motor city. As with the Ferrari and Maserati cars that are designed and manufactured in Modena, Strata-Gemma produce a music of beautiful symmetry.
Strata-Gemma create jazz for the head, the heart and the body. Their sound is shaped by the ambient adventures Miles Davis and Ron Carter engaged in alongside the electronic pulse Mo' Wax and Ninja Tune carved out of clubland. Add to this a touch of Nino Rota's Fellini film scores, employ a pinch of Balkan and klezmer brass arrangements, and you have an instrumental trio who create music so fresh it stimulates the senses.
Strata-Gemma are a collaboration between Billy Bogus, Luca Cacciatore and Andrea Moretti. The trio first took shape as a club jam between DJs and musicians. Their ability to create atmospheric music, pulsing with rhythm but never solely reliant on beats, music that breaks free and explores sonic possibilities, quickly won notice and lead to the trio playing their freeform music in clubs, music venues and festivals across Italy.
Strata-Gemma consist of producer Niccolò Bruni (aka Billy Bogus), horns player Luca Cacciatore, double bassist Andrea Moretti. Bruni is a DJ, producer and founder of Pizzico Records. Over the past two decades he has striven to mix jazz, beats, soundtracks and funk. Coming together with Luca and Andrea allowed Bruni to explore a vision of post-club jazz that is as rich as Modena's food and as elegant as Modena's cars. Strata-Gemma create a sensual sonic storm, music to be savoured and explored, the opposite of much of today's fast-food music.
Lorenzo Bandiera, the London-based Italian founder of Fly By Night Music, heard a Strata-Gemma demo via friends and was immediately impressed. "I thought 'this is great!", he says. "Music as strong as this can't be ignored. I'm excited about releasing Strata-Gemma."
In their fifth release, DC label Partial Magic welcomes four friends and producers from the Knoxville, Tennessee based collective TEKNOX. Alex Falk opens the record with an upbeat slammer, looping cocky vocal samples over brash, noisy textures sure to please those familiar with his sound. Second on the A side, Saint Thomas LeDoux follows with an introspective track perfect for building or releasing dancefloor tension. On the B side, Nikki Nair brings back the raunch with a cheeky breaks-and-bleeps acid track. Dialectic Sines closes out the record with an ethereal cut backed by a hypnotic, tropical electro-techno groove.
The second Modugroove installment from the 100Hz studio is a mixture of live improvised session recordings and arranged music taken also from live studio recordings. 2 tracks are collaboration projects with good friends of mine who happen to be great artists. We have 1 from Richard Rogers aka Black Booby and myself and 1 from Julian Giles and me aka Junction Chaos. This 4 track Ep spans several styles of music from deep Techno to graceful and emotive string dance. The focus of the EP and the label is the unusual, trying to not use usual drum patterns and 4 beat structures,
A great strong man with a brush in his hand once said: everything you can imagine is real and art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. So is making music just another form of keeping a diary In terms of Ana Helder, the Argentinian girl with the special twist, the answer is: maybe. More than two years after her last release on Cómeme she is back with a hand full of tracks. Five to be precise. She got more, but this is what the Müstique's received. They are mean, dirty, harmful, amorevolous, seductive and addictive. Surrender tunes from a producer and DJ that does not think in boxes. Her three Eps 'El Groove De Tu Corazón', 'Fiebre De Marte' and 'Beating PC' mark some warped grooving heights in the edgy catalogue of Matias Aguayo's label Cómeme. Also on the French label Astro Lab she already dropped the 12inch 'Soy Canalla' with a playful psyche tune, that additionally got remixed by folks like Les Disques De La Mort seducer Ivan Smagghe or the mysterious West-German ghost-(w)rid(t)er Frank West. Furthermore, she re-tuned tunes from Chilean friends like Alejandro Paz or Mamacita and sang on songs of colleagues. For Müstique she now looked into her always-growing production crate and found some post-punk waving funk odes, which want more than just to dance this mess around. They bring soulful LSD-melodies for Jazz lovers with techno legs that like to get high on Liquid Liquid. They are electronic but yet so organic. And they move deeply while spreading the feel of a meditative rest. When Diagnose heard them first, he came to the idea of writing a script for a flick that tells the story of a music-making machine, which has more to offer than answers. It forms sound with no traces of reality, but is so human that humans fear it. Why did he think that way Only because of what Ana Helder recently got to say Well, let the music play...
Placed under the media spotlights in 2011 thanks to their joyful and loony indie pop, Concrete Knives went on to sign with the legendary UK imprint Bella Union (Beach House, Fleet Foxes, Lift To Experience, etc.). Their first album Be Your Own King was successfully released the following year, selling more than 7000 copies in France alone and sending the group of friends on the road to play more than 150 live dates all over Europe. Quiet for the past six years and after recording with Danish producer Andreas Pallisgaard (Trentemøller, Goat, Pinkunoizu), the band is set to return with a much awaited second effort on the French label Vietnam (H-Burns, Chevalrex Pharaon De Winter).
FUN FARE is the experimental pop laboratory of Friedrich Günther, Julia Boehme, Joseph Heinze and Jakob Zander, which hails from Leipzig. In combining and distilling their respective influences they are constantly withdrawing from all possible expectations and presumptions. Krautrock meditations are interrupted by synth-pop intermezzi and bathed in waves of post-punk without laying false or random trails. It's more like an experiment under controlled conditions or an elaborate construction that is spontaneous and playful. In the autumn of 2015, Fun Fare recorded their debut album - Wrong Gong , which was released in February 2016 via Hartnack Records and played shows with Candelilla, Soft Grid, Friends Of Gas and Priests. Recently they released a split tape with Berlin post-punk band Plattenbau via Flennen and at the Trans Century Update Festival in UT Connewitz in Leipzig shared the stage with John Maus, Alex Cameron and Thurston Moore Group among others. Their second album Trifles & Events Are Your Concern' promises to deliver on the promise of their early releases and is a strong addition to the catalogue of Späti Palace.
East Man is a new project from Anthoney Hart and its material predates his previous work as Basic Rhythm. His unique take on grime reduces the sound to its steely fundamentals, bringing in influences from dancehall, drum and bass and techno to gird the voices of the MCs he works with. His own name for this hardcore continuum mongrel is 'Hi Tek'.Anthoney struck a friendship with the academic and theorist Paul Gilroy, who wrote the album introduction.
The new release by POLY SONE on FRIENDSHIP & DECADENCE is an introspective trip with a bouncy, dubby flair that sets the scene with gritty synths and spacey arpeggios reminiscent of sci-fi soundtracks from the 80's and continues by avoiding the ordinary with some light Trance and a tinge of Acid. Get ready for this out-of-body experience and exit flesh!
Picture disc LP housed in gatefold sleeve. Includes CD with bonus track.
With his second release for the Swiss-based Hallow Ground imprint after 2016's Soisong reissue, Ivan Pavlov pays tribute to the late Sentrax founder and prolific musician John Everall, who passed away in September 2014. Sourced from analogue material provided by the artist widely known for his output under the Tactile moniker for a collaboration that never came to fruition, the six tracks are an exercise in minimalism and subtlety singular even in Pavlov's impressive back catalogue. On COH plays EVERALL, Pavlov focuses on swirling arpeggios whose colourfulness is mirrored in the Ruth Stofer's artwork for the limited picture disk release. From the joyful, handclap-driven »2016« to the hectic gabber derivate »OVERBEAT«, the Russian producer explores a minimalistic yet organic palette of synthesizer sounds that stylistically reach from the hymnic poise of »WAVETRAP« to the playful and warm vibes of »ALONE (MINIMAL SELFIE)«. While it might sound almost pointillistic on first listen, COH plays EVERALL unfolds its multitude of layers slowly over time. With a feature of Coil's Jhonn Balance on the CD-only bonus track »Hunger Remix«, Pavlov adds yet another facet
to this evocative marriage of sonic purity and emotional rawness. Over a throbbing rhythm, the late poet's dry intonation serves as an eerie coda to this tender tribute to lost friends. As a dialogue between this world and the other, CoH's digital manipulation and Everall's analogue source material as well as stark minimalism and tonal richness, COH plays EVERALL captures two kindred spirits bidding each other farewell.
Mondo Groove celebrates Italo-Disco in fine style delighting us with the most important tunes from the legendary Phantom Records; a ride deep into the world of the label that has not only produced renowned music, but has been acknowledged as a serious influence on modern disco sounds. Emerging in the late 70's to early 80s, Italo bridged the gap between disco and house, and was a staple of seminal Chicago DJs like Frankie Knuckles (who pioneered many of the drum machines and synths that are still in use today).
I-Robots, a true connoisseur of the genre, hailing from the Piedmont area of Italy, curated and carefully selected the tracks on this compilation.
This eleven track collection features originals and rarities, officially repressed here for the first time, and 2 tracks re-edited by I-Robots. The LP comes with the original Phantom Records logo on the front, scans of original 7-inch and LPs covers, as well as photos of the era on the back.
The sequence begins with "Come with me" by Carlotto. Roberto Carlotto was a keyboard player and singer who was very active since the 1960s. His solo recording career began in 1971 with a 7-inch release, and was followed by the progressive rock cult album "Dedicato a Giovanna G." signed under the pseudonym Hunka Munka. At the time he was distinguished by its remarkable technique and the high quality of its equipment that included an incredible number of keyboards and even the first examples of electronic measures. "Come with me" is an astounding unique Rock-Disco tune pressed only on 7-inch and highlights all of its instrumental and vocal prowess in a tight rhythm.
Comet Music Hall also came out as a 7-inch as a promotional edition for the homonymous discoteque - a kind of psychedelic-disco still currently produced by Enzo Draghi, a key figure of the Phantom, among others.
Roberto Ferracin is the man behind the Music One project, the name by which he produced only one LP of short electro-disco jingles. Included here are four of the most powerful cuts.
Every Italo Funk-Disco collector knows "Radio Cosmo 101", a soulful jazzy-disco-funk number produced by the homonymous radio station that was based in Alessandria in 1975, and spawned from the mind of Tony De Giglio, his two brothers, and a group of friends. At the end of 1974, Tony saw "American Graffiti", which instilled the desire to create a free radio format which became very popular in Italy. The programming took place at De Giglio's house and the wavelength was, in fact, 101 Mhz. The show immediately became quite popular, with programming that began in the morning at 10am and ended at 11pm. Included in this LP are the vocal and instrumental versions, as well as a long-version edit by I-Robots.
Don Luigi Bernini is a Piedmontese priest who has devoted his life to music. His father played the organ in church, and in those days the electric organ did not exist, therefore the father used little Luigi to push the bellows. The boy soon learned to play it as well. He then entered the seminary but continued to study music and graduated from the Vivaldi Conservatory of Alessandria in piano and choral composition. Later, he became a teacher of music education at the State School. He was introduced into the world of pop music by producers Riccardi & Albertelli and debuted with a single in 1977. Of his discography, his most interesting work is undoubtedly the weird "Telepatia" of 1979 - an experimental album, electronic, psychedelic, with the theme of good and evil always in the foreground. Featured in this collection is 'Whirlwind', which was recorded by Roberto Ferracin (Music One) and Enzo Draghi.
For all Italo maniacs!
B. Fleischmann, the longest-tenured solo artist on Morr Music, returns with indie-spirited, electronica-enhanced moments of bliss on his new album Stop Making Fans': Recorded with a little help from friends including vocalist Gloria Amesbauer, Markus Schneider (guitars), and Valentin Duit (drums), it's a two-part reflection on artistic self-reliance vs. fame-seeking conformism, another deeply personal, utterly idiosyncratic album by the Indietronic trailblazer.Stop it and just DO,' Sol LeWitt once wrote to sculptor Eva Hesse - and listening to B. Fleischmann's new album, he indeed does both: He slams on the brakes and stops looking at what anyone else is doing, stops pleasing, stops being restrained, and at the same time he floors the accelerator and delivers the kind of high-paced work that bursts at the seams with polyphonic energy and an urgency unique to his music.Arriving with interlocked bleeps, the hustle and bustle of an invisible grand station's atrium ( Here Comes The A Train'), Fleischmann's trademark vocals serve as a gentle reminder to resist the siren calls, to not trust the latest hype. Energy levels remain high throughout the first part of the LP - whether it's the mumbling, personal stocktaking of what feels like an underwater hymn ( There Is A Head'), the robotic, immodest pop tune It's Not Enough' (feat. Gloria Amesbauer) or the return to light-speed mode on Wakey Wakey' - the first half of this album is indeed all about letting off some steam.After the collected canter of 7-minute instrumental Hand In,' the multi-instrumentalist & his studio mates kick off the slower-paced part II with the title song: a note to self, a reminder to never buckle or water down an original vision... and indeed, it's a sonic tapestry that's impossible to compare or pigeonhole when he changes the rhythm in mid-track and turns yet another corner when you thought you had discovered a fixed pattern. That said, B. Fleischmann certainly knows how to orchestrate an entire funfair full of sonic attractions. Guest singer Gloria Amesbauer returns for soothing tunes The Pros of Your Children and "Hello Hello . B. Fleischmann guides us to his almost jazz-tinged Little Toy , and leaves behind an Endless Stunner — another typically dense and shape-shifting stream of harmonies that keeps winding its way until the very end of this album It's rare that an album is great because it does not live up to its title - but here's one. Stop Making Fans,' his first full-length release in five years, is another totally unique, and thus potentially fan-base enhancing release. But then again, it's always been like that: We're usually at our best when we care the least - look at the delightful ways of toddlers or really old people. That natural ease, those invisible shrugs of shoulders: it's what does the trick. And you can hear a lot of that on Stop Making Fans'.
Hackney Vandal Patrol is a brand new project from long time friends and neighbours Scott Fraser & Richard Sen. Focusing on their joint love of that deep Miami/ New York house sound, Vol I is the first edition in a series of LTD 12s. Heading back to Richard's heritage of being a highly respected graffiti artist, each one is hand tagged by Richard in his own unique style and numbered with an insert by Scott. The first release, ""Bound By Faith"" is a straight up and direct for the dance floor Miami style deep house cut, complete with Reverend Jesse Jackson speech on the vocal version. For the DJ crews there is a deeper ""Redemption Dub"" stripped back ""Bass Hit"" with added percussion and a re-programmed instrumental of the original....The Hackney Vandal Patrol were once despatched to patrol the streets around the mighty London Borough of Hackney.
Each 12"" is individual and collectable... strictly limited!
It's quite funny that it took 11 years for us over at Metroline Limited to release an EP with tracks from different artists (at least on vinyl that is) but hey, good things go to those of wait so the wait is finally over! For our first Positive Contribution we gathered Metroline Limited friends and label owners and put together a tasty four tracker that focusses on the deep and minimalistic end of house music. Hamid went a long way since his debut EP on Metroline in 2010. The Berlin based French producer has since released on influential labels such as his own H+, Nervmusic, Minibar as well as becoming a regular figure in clubs all around Europe. His track Unterdrücken starts off the EP in style with his bleeps, squelchy acid b-line, pads and crisp drums. Octad takes control and the second half of the A side and it's yet another display of his amazing production skills. The man behind the mastering of each single Metroline release to date knows very well how to get the best sound out of his tracks! And what a bassline he's come up with for Checkmated! Dhaze and Phiorio have been collaborating for a while swapping remixes and musical ideas. NT is one the finest results from these music exchanges. Deep and rolling, the track has a monster groove, lush pads and dubbed out elements. Last but not least we have another long time friend of the label, Gabriele Mancino. His Cheddar, Lion and Lamb pays tribute both to a London trip and old Perlon releases when groovy and reduced house music was gracing most of the records on the pioneering house label. An ultra-groovy and playful minimal house number with funk and style!
ossession Records proudly present the new album by Soft Riot, entitled 'The Outsider In The Mirrors'.Soft Riot is the stylised musical alter-ego of JJD, Canadian by birth and an ex-resident of London and Sheffield, now based in Glasgow (so not unfamiliar with sites of post-industrial decay!). With over twenty years of playing in various post-punk and synth-punk bands, he has been crafting the sound of Soft Riot since the early turn of the decade, releasing a slew of albums across a multitude of labels and touring obsessively around Europe and beyond.With 'The Outsider In The Mirrors', his sixth full-length, he has found a new home for his sound on Possession Records, a fledgling Glasgow imprint founded by JJD, Claudia Nova (aka Hausfrau) and Andy Brown (Ubre Blanca). Their aim is to bring together their pool of musical talents and provide a more permanent home for their future creative endeavours, whether it be music, video or otherwise and to experiment with what it is to be a 'label' in the ever evolving 21st century. Future projects and releases will see them getting a select group of their peers and friends involved in Possession's focused vision, locally or from further afield.'The Outsider...' is a consolidation of all the stylistic elements Soft Riot has pursued in the past; the manic propulsive energy of 'Waiting For Something Terrible To Happen', the infectious, off-kilter dynamics of opener 'The Eyes On The Walls' and the pulsing, elegiac synth washes of 'The Saddest Music In The World'. Throughout the album Soft Riot fuses his maximalist sonic palette with a sharp-edged sense of post-punk anxiety, unique synth interplay and brooding, claustrophobic new-wave dread. Comparisons to musical kindred spirits like John Foxx, DAF, early Depeche Mode, Fad Gadget and Virgin-era Cabaret Voltaire would be analogous, but JJD is defiantly fusing these basic references into something highly idiosyncratic and personal.
The music on 'The Outsider...' is evocative of an kind of nostalgic futurism, of a refusal to give up on a desire for the future (dystopic or otherwise) and the unpredictable nature of the urban situation. The music is tense, synthetic and precise, embodying and exploring issues of isolation, urban alienation and social paranoia. Yet despite these dark thematic preoccupations the Soft Riot sound is not without its warmth and humour. Wry and self aware without irony, the songs are hook laden, infuriatingly catchy and designed for dancing as much for static listening. It is a peculiarly Soft Riot take on the electro pop sound that will engross and captivate any adventurous listener.
Man Power his raw electronic sound, organic flourishes and diverse selection make him a perfect match for DGTL, both on stage as well as on the imprint. Next to releasing a steady flow of records on established labels like ESP Institute, Optimo Trax, Correspondant and Hivern Discs, Man Power is running his own shop as well: Me Me Me. This gives him an outlet to release music by both friends and himself. For his release on DGTL Records he created a three-track EP called Apologue EP, that showcases just two of different sides of his multi-faceted musical scope.
The a-side features two firm, acid influenced tracks. The first of these two, The Duelist, is an emotive house record, with a soundscape of piano melodies, synths and syncopated percussion laid on top of an acid bassline. El Mago del Tiempo features heavy hitting kicks combined with a sharp synth pattern. It has a long build up that keeps evolving throughout the entire composition. Halfway through, the track breaks in to a raw and fierce rhythm accompanied by yearning, drawn-out synth pads.
On the flipside, Put Your Hands on the Car (And Get Ready To Die) brings back memories of a long gone past with nods to Balearic Pop, EBM, and the Soundtrack work of Stewart Copeland, James Horner, and Jan Hammer. This multi layered production has a warm and analogue sounding feel to it that rounds off a 3 dimensional release.
You will find the new Man Power record in your favourite record shop, be it online or offline, on the 2nd of February.
The title track "Empty Dancefloor" combines a thumping kick drum, stuttering hats and mesmeric chords, a combination that prove to be the perfect backing track to a captivating synth solo. It's extremely difficult not to find yourself lost in this enchanting track. Fracture" is a track where Skygaze really showcases his ability to combine broken beat, complex drum patterns with bewitching chords, magical marimbas and a curious bassline.
It is a track that really keeps you guessing throughout and one that can really add variety to any DJ set.
First up on remix duties is Jonna, who has put his own stamp on "Empty Dancefloor".
jonna is a DJ, Producer & one of the Label owners of City Fly Records, his sets are prominently House but take in influences from Disco, Techno, Hip-Hop, Funk, Jazz... Basically any music with Soul.
His first artist EP dropped early 2016 on 'Shadeleaf Music' & featured the incredibly talented Erik Rico on vocals with remixes by Atlanta's Kai Alce. The EP achieved great success & Sold Out in the first Month & was supported by heavyweight's Recloose, Derrick Carter, Jimpster & Osunlade to name a few.
Collab Singles (with Samwell) 'Henry Western' Featuring Lady Blacktronika followed on City Fly which was supported heavily on BBC 6 Music, that followed by 'Alright' on 'Future Society', a compilation curated by Seven Davis Jr on R2 Records and more recently the Luke Soloman Edit of 'Through The Night' again on Shadeleaf Music.
He has been busy in the studio since with a release on Secret Crunch (Austria) & 2 EP's forthcoming on Marcel Vogel's excellent Intimate Friends (NL).
The remix of "Empty Dancefloor" is one that is done in the unmistakable Jonna style, it's got groove! By chopping and changing the chords from the original, Jonna has created an entirely new melody, which when combined with rolling bongos and punchy bassline, you can't help but tap your feet.
The all too familiar synth solo from the original resonates throughout and pulls the track together, creating a guaranteed hit on any dance floor. Last, but certainly not least is Chicago based, Garrett David. The Smart Bar Resident has taken time out from his A&R / House buying duties at the famous Gramaphone Records to conjure up a bumping, yet dreamy remix of "Fracture".
He has previous releases on labels including Distant Hawaii, Residual Recordings, Night Sea Journey as well as his own imprint Stripped & Chewed and has really brought some Chicago flavours to the table with this one.
Boris Bunnik is no stranger in the worl d of electronic music. He released several albums and ep's under a variety of monikers since 2007 on labels like Delsin, Shipwrec, Frustrated Funk and his own Transcendent imprint. Fauxpas Musik welcomes him for a new project called Severnaya. Originally hailing from the Island of Terschelling, the most Northern and remote part of the Netherlands he now made a piece of music dedicated to this special place. Severnaya means north in Russian and refers to the bright frozen landscapes of the northern archipels. Boris often plays with the influences and elements of ambient in his music. If we have to believe the man himself, Polar Skies is his most personal sound trajectory to come from his mind. Drum programming is scarce and what remains is a lush and profound listening experience floating on scapes and melodies. We clearly hear his roots and intentions represented in the airy, tranquil sound design of this new album project. Things sound spacious, and life is at ease in these melancholic compositions. Crispy crackling percussions and icey pads place you in the midst of a resonant arctic landscape. You can hear influences drawn from producers like Biosphere, Pub, Brian Eno but we also hear more contemporary influences from modern day film composition but most of all we here Boris his own signature. The tracks were composed over a couple of years (2015-2017) in a more contemplative mindset. At some point this selection formed a consistent piece of music and as a result you hear his most personal and fragile works to date. Fauxpas Musik is proud to release this new project in 2018. written and produced by Boris Bunnik aka Conforce at the PasadenaOceanlab Studios Special thanks to family, friends and Fauxpas
Don't wanna move to Southern California / I wasn't really meant for LA...' So sang Dent May once upon a time, now he's eating those words with a side of avocado toast in his new Los Angeles bungalow. What made the lifelong Mississippi boy pull up stakes and head west No one looks at you funny if you wear a tuxedo to the supermarket.' What he means is he moved there to shake up his surroundings, clear his head, and write the most accomplished record of his young career, the magical mystery tour de force Across the Multiverse.
Following the lead of musical-polymaths-with-LA-ties before him like Brian Wilson, Van Dyke Parks, and Harry Nilsson, Dent's style on Across the Multiverse will be familiar to fans of his previous work. Yet there's something more refined about this collection... Stately strings mingle with boogie piano like old friends. Synths weave a celestial backdrop throughout. Every verse, bridge and chorus in its right place, giving it the unmistakable feel of a true songwriting craftsman at work. Lyrically Dent has never been sharper, musing on themes like modern romance ( Picture on a Screen', Face Down in the Gutter of Your Love'), existential dread ( Dream 4 Me', I'm Gonna Live Forever Until I'm Dead'), and the distance to the moon ( Distance to the Moon') as he searches for meaning among the infinite scrolling feeds of our 21st century augmented reality. The title track, a duet with Frankie Cosmos, is a deep space love song about finding love beyond impossible boundaries.
Across the Multiverse was written and recorded in a sunny bedroom in LA's Highland Park neighborhood, with Dent producing and playing nearly every instrument himself. The tracks were selected from dozens of songs written after the LA move, a gold rush of productivity inspired by late nights DJing rare disco funk cuts at local watering holes. It's his first record for new label Carpark and will be released August 18th.
Dent May is a self-described hotel bar lounge singer and aspiring daytime TV talk show host - has been charming his way into the hearts of music fans since the release of his debut album The Good Feeling Music of Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele on Animal Collective's Paw Tracks label in 2009. The Mississippi-born, Los Angeles-based songwriter, performer, and Dolly Parton enthusiast has since released two more acclaimed records, Do Things (2012) and Warm Blanket (2013), dropped the holiday smash I'll Be Stoned For Christmas', and played hundreds of shows from Shanghai to Chicago. His latest album, Across the Multiverse, is an interstellar voyage of mythic proportions.
(Disclaimer: release notes refer to the combined CD double-album release "Hot Flash: Best of The Voltags" on which all tracks appear together. "Electric Nightmare" and "Danger High Voltag" are released separately on vinyl format)
It does not happen that often any more that unreleased music from 40 years ago surfaces. Even more unlikely it is that the songs put on tape are such treasures. The Voltags were right at the forefront of the local Washington DC New Wave/Punk scene of the late 1970s. Influenced by Kraftwerk, Gary Numan, The Clash, and The B-52's, they have released only one 45rpm single during their existence. But during the time span of not even 18 months, they had recorded enough material for an entire album - but the songs remained in the can.
This is the story of The Voltags, a short-lived band which could have become famous and mentioned in the same breath as the aforementioned music legends of that era - if their songs had been released back in the day. Dive in and enjoy the sound of The Voltags, it is truly special. We here at Perfect Toy are thrilled to be label to finally release their work and we sincerely hope that they are finally getting the appreciation they so richly deserve.
Detailed information:
Dave Bennett and Hangnail Phillips grew up in Brookside Park, Newark, Delaware, USA, a small suburban college town nestled midway between Philadelphia and Baltimore. Their first band project evolved into Pump Productions (Pump) under which they released their only 45rpm single in 1970 (one of the two songs, "Pappy's Rug", can be heard on "Down & Wired 3", Perfect Toy Rec.). Soon after the recording of the single the two graduated from High School and disbanded Pump. Both moved on to form two new Newark bands. Dave was a founding member of "Snake Grinder & The Shredded Fieldmice" and Hangnail co-founded "Rudy Baker & The Vegetables".
In early 1979, two friends of Dave's, Nick Norris and Mike Fisher, became partners in a music production company, White Clay Productions. One of White Clay's first artists was Dave Bennett who had just written two excellent songs: "Electric Jungle" and "Son Of Sam". White Clay set up a recording session and Dave assembled a group of friends to record the songs. Before the recordings were even mixed, Dave asked Hangnail if he would join in a band to support the single and other songs he had written. When James Keesey (drums) and Rick Reid (bass) were added the line-up was complete. For a while they didn't have a name and then one day Nick Norris was looking at a photo of Dave standing next to a "Danger High Voltage" sign. Dave's head was in front of the E in Voltage and Nick laughed "Danger High Voltag" and so it was soon suggested that the band should be called "The Voltags" (pronounced Vol'-togs). After months of preparing a repertoire they were ready to play out. Their first gig was (October 20, 1979) at a gay disco in nearby Wilmington called The Backstage. On December 30, 1979, White Clay decided to put on a big show at the State Theater to celebrate the end of the Seventies ("The End Of The Decade Bash").
For the next year, with the help of White Clay, they recorded 19 songs, both studio and live recordings with White Clay's mobile unit. If not for these "off the board" recordings, many of their songs would have never been recorded. There was always talk of a second Voltags single but the strains of working so closely together were taking their toll on them and Dave decided to leave the group in December of 1980. The Voltags couldn't be The Voltags without Dave, and by the end of 1981, Hangnail, James and Rick, too, were ready to disband.
- all songs previously unreleased
- mastered from the original reel-to-reel tapes
- limited vinyl release
All that changed when Morrison received an email from Spacetalk Records two years ago, asking about the possibility of reissuing 'To See One Eagle Fly', the B-side to one of their 7' singles that has long been a favourite of label co-founder Danny McLewin. Once a deal had been done, Morrison mentioned that he had hours of unissued recordings in his loft; a treasure trove of ultra-rare multi-track master tapes that could be freshly mixed and mastered for release. When the Spacetalk Records' team finally got a chance to listen, they were astonished by the timeless quality of the songs. Put simply, they just had to be released.
The resultant album is a stunning set: an intoxicating glimpse into the world of two previously unheralded master songwriters whose musical vision encapsulates all that was good about Californian music during the late '60s and early '70s. Rooted in the American folk revival and folk-rock movement of the late '60s, the album's 15 thoughtful, heartfelt songs are laden with sly nods to the likes of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Ned Doheny, Michael Deacon, Cy Timmons, Gene Clark and Buffalo Springfield. The tracks were recorded at various times between 1970 and '82 and gives a small glimpse of the duo's total body of unissued work. The release comes with extensive liner notes telling the remarkable story of two lifelong friends and musical collaborators who thought their moment had passed.
2x LP[17,61 €]
**INITIAL 400 LPs CONTAIN A BONUS 7" BY MEL-O-MADNEZZ**
IT'S TIME TO PAAAARTY! Why The Universe knows that Tramp is celebrating their 40th trip around the sun in 2018. And what about planet Earth Well... it is as blind as it is in so many other situations. Therefore, it is time to shine the light on Tramp for all of its unremitting efforts. As musical diversity is vanishing, especially in the field of African American music from the 1960s/70s, it is our duty to stop the extinction of threatened species of music in the same way an animal welfare activist would do anything to save a gorilla's life. Tramp Records keeps this beautiful heritage alive, every single day, again and again and again. So we are here wondering why Earth people and especially to those from our beloved home country, why why are you just sitting there, going about your life unaware of this historic event What a pity!
The announcement is especially striking when it comes to the prestigious "Movements" series. Like all its predecessors, this ninth volume contains Rare Groove nuggets recorded between the early 1960s and the late 1970s. The fact that only one of the songs appear anywhere else is a jaw-dropping phenomenon! The chronological track listing starts with two amazing cover versions: "Fever" by Gee Gee Shinn & the Boogie Kings and "I'm A Woman" by Connie Kaye Trio. Bus Brown, Earl Demus and Chuck Finney remain in the same direction although their contributions are slightly jazzier. Chick Willis' gut-wrenching "Sometime Soon" easily rivals James Brown's "It's A Man's World" and the recordings by Australia, J.R. and Joe Akens are beautiful examples of privately produced soul from the 1970s. The latin-soul of "Cho Cho San" by Hummingbird 4 heads the sound in another direction for the next three tunes, highlighted by one more stunning cover version, Oscar Brown Jr.'s "Brother, Where Are You". The album closes with some pre-disco tracks from the mid-to-late 1970s. Funk 7" collectors will freak out to finally get a chance to listen to Mel-O-Madnezz' superheavy "What You Getting High On" but will certainly also enjoy The Counts, Reunion and Hot Cakes' dance floor bomb cover of "Harlem Shuffle".
Over a hundred great unknown songs have been re-released on the first eight volumes in the "Movements" series, the majority of which can not be found elsewhere, and Vol. 9 is no exception. The work of Germany's tiniest but grooviest record label is still incomprehensibly underestimated. We know you diggers, collectors, mavens, aficionados, fanatics, completists, enthusiasts, and just plain record geeks know what's up and we heartily salute you! Without your support there would be no Tramp Records. But now it's time for a broader cultural shift for good music and a sweeping move to uphold the legacy of the unsung heroes of funk and soul. Therefore, we humbly petition you: in 2018, Don't keep all this glory to yourself! Turn your friends and neighbors on! Thank you!
- initial 400 LPs contain a bonus 7" by Mel-O-Madnezz ("What You Getting High On")
- the double vinyl LP comes with a full album download code
- deluxe double-gatefold LP with detailed liner notes, label scans & unseen photographs
- all but one song appear on vinyl-LP for the very first-time
Our 7th production is about to come! (official release date on 12th of January) Once again in a different kind of music : this time Hip-Hop! Produced by Luke Vibert (Ninja Tune, Warp, Planet µ, Mo Wax, Rephlex...), with all rhymes by BluRum13 (One-Self, Bullfrog) and recorded by Kid Koala & DJ Grandtheft... in 2004! The album was at the time kept aside by Ninja Tune (only digital release) because of similarities with One-Self project (led by Dj Vadim).
13 years later, we are offering this UK Hip-Hop jewel secretly hidden on vinyl!
New tracklisting especially made for vinyl, which comes with exclusive track on bonus colored 7".
Some more good news : this reissue made the two friends work together again for a new collaboration coming out on 2018!
The Second Single of Prins Thomas brand new - 5th Album - gets unveiled with a Remixes and Bonus Beats by our dear friends - The Pilotwings ! Tracklist: PTM003A_Prins Thomas - Lunga Strada (The Pilotwings _Bubble-Zouk_ Remix) PTM003B_Prins Thomas - Lunga Strada (The Pilotwings Bonus Beats) Thomas on 'Lunga Strada' : The track that took me the longest to complete hence the 'long road". Personal favourites The Pilotwings from Lyon sent over 2 ridiculously good and fun remixes
For a year, friends and producers Jean-Gabriel Becker and Susumu Muka have been meeting for collaborative recording sessions at Sounds And Sons studio in Shoreditch.
Susumu Mukai, originally from Kanagawa, Japan, has been involved in diverse projects such as Zongamin, Stalactite and Off World as producer and multi-instrumentalist. Mukai is also a member of bands including Fimber Bravo, Vanishing Twin and Floating Points. Jean-Gabriel Becker, originally from Paris, France, has been writing music under various names and in numerous projects, from Jeanga And George and Economy Wolf to Lux Prima to name only a few. He also composes extensively for films and television under his own name. The sessions for Eyes, their first EP together, unfolded as a musical dialogue between the duo - open-ended, discovering the sounds as they revealed themselves in an organic way. Although some influences can be heard, from acidhouse to krautrock, to jazz and psychedelia, the otherness of Eyes EP refuses to be categorised easily.
The album is the fourth LP from FM Belfast. Broadcasting from their home on a remote island you can sense that the tracks are personal. The album has 11 tracks, 11 intimate stories to dance to. It's like you've been invited to a Cabin Fever Dance Party in their living room. The lyrics are about bliss, euphoria, trying to be a human in this strange world, friendship, of loss and growing up.
ALL MY POWER The first song of the album deals with guilt. When you're surrounded with people who wake up early and do everything they are supposed to do but you can't get out of your own bed. This will make you feel guilty. The others don't need to rub it in since you already have bad feelings about yourself. There are two characters in the song. One is a blamer while the other one is being blamed. FOLLOW ME I'm not longer blind, you can follow me". The song is about a person who is no longer blind to the world around her. It's about taking responsibility for your choices. We are not just a group of individuals, we are citizens of this planet and we can't stand idly by when powerful people are destroying it in front of our own eyes. We have ways to connect and we can band together against the hatred and violence. The rich and the greedy are taking everything and ruining it for the rest of us. Being kind is not the same as being naive, it's a choice everyone can make.
ENJOY
Enjoy life while it last. Don't watch the world go by without having a good time. "Here's to feeling alive, everywhere, all of the time".
UP ALL NIGHT
Sometimes you just postpone everything you're supposed to be doing and run away from your problems. The night is the best time for procrastination, you can hide in the dark and nobody can see you waste your life.
AGENT
Like many songs on the album, this one is about holding your head above water in this strange world we live in. It's easy to get blindsided and lost but who's going to speak up for the weak if you don't do it.
YOU'RE SO PRETTY
The lyrics for You're so Pretty originally come from a short story written by Lóa. They are about getting old without maturing. The song is about being restless and broke. Sometimes you feel like there is nothing left to do but shout.
STREAMERS
Streamers is a quiet love-story about having found the person you want to sit next to for the rest of your life and watch crappy TV together. Lyrics are by Árni and Lóa.
LEAVE A MARK
Even if things are not great today, there is always tomorrow. Leave a Mark is a personal reminder to do something about the life you are given and not waste time. It doesn't have to be important, it could just be writing your name on a wall. I little bit of "I was here" for the people who come after you.
FEARLESS YOUTH
It's a nostalgic song about being a fearless adolescent and the friends you used to have. The lyrics are written by Örvar who's also a founding member of MúM.
STROBE
The Strobe is an atmospheric track. It's made for people who want to dance in a euphoric bliss. The lyrics are like a mantra: It's getting dark so turn on the strobe. Don't think, just get lost in the dance.
THE GAME
The Game tells you to resist the power of bad people and bad governments. There's a big game being played and you don't need to participate, you can resist. The power hungry people of this world will never be satisfied but you don't have to support them.
World excluding FR. Blackstrobe Records under exclusive licence to Because Music . LP with Printed Inner Sleeves. House music broke through in 1987, at the same time when AIDS arrived in France with the first contamination peak in gay and drug addict circles. In 1989, the founders of Act-Up Paris knew that both the fight against AIDS and triumphant house music should be joined together.
House music broke through in 1987, at the same time when AIDS arrived in France with the first contamination peak in gay and drug addict circles. In 1989, the founders of Act-Up Paris knew that both the fight against AIDS and triumphant house music should be joined together. From 1992 to 1995, the period covered by '120 BPM", house reached its most beautiful plateau even though techno was becoming dominant. '120 BPM' is a get-together moment through clubbing, this moment where fears are forgotten by dancing with one's friends, what we called 'the chosen family' at Act-Up. Boys and girls dancing in a club where the walls cannot be seen, flooded with simple light. This is their activist recess. Arnaud Rebotini, composing the soundtrack of Robin Campillo's previous film, 'Eastern Boys", is a recognized DJ, a composer and a kind man, which is for me the most important quality. Here, his work is marked by restraint of his love for house and after techno. I believe he deliberately withdrew himself in relation to the film's power and the AIDS theme. He accompanies and supports the image on the screen and even his remix of Small Town Boy by Bronski Beat is in a process marked by respect and almost intimidation (even if I would have
The Black Pearl is very proud to present a real 80´s futuristic proto club banger from the STRÖER Brothers, with lots of clubby remixes by buddies & friends. The original track "Night Falls" was only released on a very limited hand-spread promo 12inch, which was especially pressed for the Kunstdisko art-project for the 24th Olympic games in 1988 in Seoul / South-Korea. Together with the Goethe Institut they created the "Kunstdisco" project for germany, which was located at the Yoido Ankara Square and took part for the german Seoul Olympic Art Festival. The Ströer Brothers, who were responsible for the video & music sector, invided and encouraged 25 young german composers and producers (among of them was the young DJ West Bam) to produce new music for the Kunstdisco between Rap and new electronic club music from the end of the 80´s. The Ströer Brothers, together with Howard Fine & Nadeen Holloway, were presented through many DJ´s who played their music that they espacially created for this event. Next to the in-house project Mudegg, the single audio tracks of "Night Falls" were givin to musical buddies like First Touch, Enzo Elia, DJ Rocca, Siggatunes and Manelet to remix them and Black Pearl is more than proud to present a great variety of remixes, styles and visons on the original track.
NickBee, or Nikolai Bogomolov to his friends, has been the staple diet of discerning drum & bass fans the world over for some time now. Having already released a steady stream of deep, dark and disturbingly good tracks, this Ukrainian producer is ready to show just why the likes of Ed Rush & Optical, The Upbeats and Invisible label owners Noisia have been jumping on his sound.
Noplace is an improvised collaboration between Aidan Baker (Nadja / Caudal / B/B/S/), Simon Goff (Molecular, Bee & Flower) and Thor Harris (Swans, Shearwater, Thor & Friends).
Having known each other for a number of years and previously contributed to one another's recordings this trio finally came together as a whole on May 7th 2017 at Redrum Studios in Berlin. In a short, improvised session of just a few hours they set about laying down as much material as possible which was then subsequently edited and re-worked (without overdubs) to form this album.
The same evening the trio played together as part of a 9-piece Thor & Friends ensemble which also included Christopher Hefner (on musical saw) whose artwork graces the cover of the record and gave it its name.
Noplace is a hypnotic and deep listen. Kinetic rhythms pulsate throughout whilst the guitar and violin jostle and weave around the metronomic beats, creating a cathartic and all-encompassing experience. The very nature of the instrumental repetitions give it an immediate avant/krautrock feel but the whole record is coated in a wonderful psychedelic atmosphere that's both melodic, textured and innovative.
Without doubt a perfect marriage and the sum of its parts. You would be forgiven for thinking Noplace took years to craft but that's testament to three excellent musicians who have produced a real treat of a record. Broken down into seven pieces but very much best enjoyed as a thrilling whole, Noplace is a powerful and highly addictive album.
Throughout its nearly 20year heroic label's journey, Turbo Recordings has fulfilled its pledge to 'keep on lookin' for the music' no matter where it takes them, working with artists from cultures as diverse as Sweden, Finland, England, Spain, Scotland, Mexico, Australia, France, Argentina, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Italy, the United States, Israel, Denmark and Toronto. We realize that certain parts of the world are still underrepresented, and are working hard to correct this. Our Antarctic A&R guy has been asleep at the wheel for far too long, and can expect a sternlyworded email any day now.All of which brings us to our newest core artist, Russia's Dimitri Veimar. We'd like to tell you we discovered him when he and his friends shot down our Eurasian Outreach Ableton Tutorial Helicopter for being 'too condescending,' but the truth is actually much simpler. Veimar is merely fluent in the universal language of floorfilling, one that transcends borders and skincrawling descriptions alike. It is a primal tongue describing a future where all communication is elevated to an endless loop of sweatdrenched clubgoers pressed tightly against the front of the stage, smiling at everything you do.
Southern Italian sociologist, DJ and electronic music producer Simone Gatto is about to release his second album, 'Heaven Inside Your Frequencies', in November 2017.
Gatto's second album represents a complete excursus of his personal and professional paths, into which he combines music, words, studies, researches and experiments. Along with the album, split in two parts and to be released on both his labels Out-ER and Pregnant Void, the artist is also releasing his first essay, named as the album; the latter offers a theoretical and practical analysis on the use of sounds and frequencies in diverse areas of interest, dedicating space to music therapy and primordial techniques as well as their application in the current digital and virtual era.
Both the album and the essay result from Gatto's personal experiences as well as his ten-year's artistic career: the love of his motherland and his parents, the first approach to clubs, the studies about the potentiality of frequencies, the electroacoustic experimentation and last but not least, the aesthetic sonorous research.
The the first part of the album showcases Gatto's experimental inclination for electronic and electroacoustic music; as such, the upcoming on his label Pregnant Void, has been created to enhance the sounds of the environment and personal panoramas by agglomerating artists, projects and publications. The second part definitely focusses on Gatto's dance personality and club vision, even so, it stays strongly connected to its first part as complementary for the artist's objective.
Ranging in between his favourite club niches, and collaborating with producers with whom he has shared embryonic projects, DJ booths or vinyl releases, Gatto prepares the audience for a complete journey into his idea of club music and grooves, featuring wide aesthetics and emotional resonance. It goes from the gentle tidiness of ambient and deep techno - 'No Te Olvides De Acordarte', 'Today Will Be Tomorrow ft. Kaelan', 'When I Was With You' and 'Limbo' to the intrinsic vitality of break beat, dub and funk tracks 'Caronte' and 'Holographic Drama' continuing with the dynamism of a typical Detroit techno brand of sound reinterpreted in a modern context, like in 'Forbidden Area' and 'Amazonia ft. Aubrey', and finishing with the joyful wildness of distorted sounds, in 'Jamming On The Couch ft. The Analogue Cops, OL047' in collaboration with long-time friends OL047 and The Analogue Cops; the last track, 'Il Canto Dell'Anima', is a partial excursion into the electroacoustic sound, articulated by ethereal soundscapes and piano arpeggios. The whole work is enriched by samples, field recordings and filtered vocals, sound elements which have been deeply explored in the first part of the album, confirming Gatto's aesthetical aptitude as for the club's universe as for the aesthetic sonorous research dimension.
'Heaven Inside Your Frequencies', recorded and produced between his motherland and other significant spaces and cities - the Ionian coast and natural parks of Lecce, his second home Berlin, the Whitney Museum in New York City and other significant places - 'Heaven Inside Your Frequencies' combines Gatto's theoretical background with personal and artistic maturity, achieved in the last decade. Simone Gatto's life, culture and emotions translate into a sonorous and written project, among sounds, frequencies and attempts to achieve empathetic communication with people. Specifically, the second part of the album in meant to increase the sensibility about potential interaction between performer and audience as for club contexts. The album listening and the essay reading are therefore complementary and equally functional to the achievement of the artist's goal: the empathetic communication through sounds.
Drumcode returns with its 6th installment of the internationally celebrated A-Sides series. Renowned for fostering a shared space between industry tastemakers and rising talent alike, the careful curation that goes into each volume is a fine example of why Beyer's brand continues to go from strength to strength.
Techno titan Adam Beyer has grown Drumcode into a force to be reckoned with; the label has become synonymous with forward-thinking, functional techno and even after 20 years, Drumcode continues to find new boundaries to push, and ways to solidify its legacy as the world's number one techno label.
2017 is no exception, with Beyer's imprint hosting it's first stage at Tomorrowland, not to mention the expansion of the critically acclaimed Junction 2 where the Drumcode stage is the centrepiece and Adam plays the key role of festival director. The Drumcode phenomenon continues to grow each week, chiefly fuelled by Drumcode Radio, Adam's radio show that's broadcast in 57 countries via 86 stations and to a global audience of 16 million techno fans per week.
The A-Sides series acts as a perfect vignette of Drumcode's cutting-edge sound; functional yet inspired techno, all tracks tried and tested by Beyer himself. Vol. 6 continues this tradition with a collection of 16 multi-faceted cuts from a mixture of both emerging artists and experienced label friends.
The heart-throbbing bass in Amelie Lens' electrifying piece 'In Silence' sets the tone for the dark and dance-floor-ready energy that Vol.6 carries the whole way through. Other standouts include Mars Bill's rough'n'ready 'Mohave'. Pulsating and precise, 'Mohave' has highlighted many of Beyer's sets recently as has Wehbba's monster track 'Fake', which fans have been anticipating the release of all year.
Label-favourites Dense & Pika also feature on 'A-Sides' Vol. 6 with their hard-hitting 'Just a Beat' and a huge track from Beyer himself who has joined forces with Enrico Sangiuliano to bring us their undeniably infectious 'Preset Heaven'.
With many more notable selections from the likes of Julian Jewell, Timmo, Tiger Stripes and Pig&Dan, A-Sides Vol. 6 is another impressive addition to the label's prolific release roster and a testament to why Drumcode remains at the forefront of the electronic world.
On the Corner's DJ tool and eclectic favourite, Versus is back for a second instalment. There are some familiar faces occupying this tasty wax and some new comers pushing the needle further-out On the Corner.
As 2015's Versus sold-out we'd already acquired some fresh production talents and sent stems over to new and old friends alike.
Get your atlases out as we criss-cross the globe introducing you to artists from afar-afield as Nairobi, Manchester, Pune, Iringa, Detroit, and South London.
We kick off with Jinku, self-proclaimed space monkey hitting OtC wax for the first time. The producer is one-fifth of the East African Wave, a collective of young DJ Producers who are revolutionising the East African arts scene. As a 'sponge' of different influences, Jinku lays down a balearic reworking of fellow Nairobian, Makadem's 'Nyako'.
Of the returning artists none is quite as mysterious as the elusive and incomparable Black Classical - discordant-Ra-like organ meets Brazilian poly-rhythmic percussions bludgeoned with a heady slab of rave breaks make for 'Jeje': already a firm fave of Gilles Peterson.
Boundary pushing Contours brings a new swing to the 'Agama' groove, following the underground smash from Al Dobson Jr back where it all started with the release of Tamar Collocutor's first album in 2014.
Wonky psychedelic perambulations through the Traab al-Beidaan (Sahara) from Sam Jones who adds another construct to his mantle. Group as Salaam have a cassette release forthcoming and this construct comes from field recording sessions conducted during a feast out in the shadow of Africa's largest Windfarm by label head Pete OntheCorner. Vibes!
On the B-side, sprightly producer Daisho from the Indian hotbed of Pune brings a layered percussive heater hanging in the atmosphere with ominous synth b-lines and rightly tipped to be in the realms of and early Four Tet mover.
The release enters into a deeper shamanic dance territory in the final third: the beathead's elixir, M.I.X.G. and their massive xylophone (Embaire) are back and gets a heavy acid rerub as South London's FYI Chris appear OntheCorner wax again with
'Drop the beat'.
Peter Croce, head of Detroit's Rocksteady Disco brings it deep into the early hours for this euphoric 4am fix of OntheCorner's
afro-latin-electronic party experimentalists, Penya.
Tact Recordings launch their new vinyl only sub-label 'Tactics' this November, with the first EP coming courtesy of Yard One, who deliver three excellently programmed cuts in the shape of 'Tactics Vol.2'.
Launched by Yard One, aka Jordan Bruce and Larry Jones, and Richard Fletcher (who produces under numerous guises including Adventures In Daydreams and Fletcher), Tactics is set to become the labels latest project with a focus on solely vinyl releases. Inspired by the 2012 Various Artists release 'Tactics Volume 1' on Tact Recordings, which featured productions from Isherwood (Sharingtones/Imprints/Lize Records), journalist Per Boisen-Moller, and label regular Luke Black, the sub-label is set to showcase a more stripped back and minimal side to the Tact Recordings family with releases coming courtesy of Yard One, Fletcher, Luke Black and their close friends only.
The EP opens up with 'Avenoir', a raw and hypnotic production that utilises a multitude of lasers, glitches and pops at the forefront to keep listeners firmly on their toes, whilst a delicate and captivating melody floats fluently amongst ever-evolving percussion shots and twisting bass licks below.
On the flip, 'Granular Movements' snakes its way through swinging drums and hazy, jazzy melodies to reveal an effortless rolling groove, before 'Hexad' keeps the focus on percussive elements strong, whilst a moody bassline goes to work under layers of meditative pads and subtle background nuances to punctuate an excellent debut offering from the label. (Vinyl Only).
The founders of // DELIRIOUS EYEWEAR and Katnip met each other through the exchange of music and fashion. They became close friends and as you'd expect this would lead to this unique product you're about to preview. Heavy on the downtempo italo disco, dub and soul cuts, once again LdK provides the listener with an exquisite track selection and also found the privilege to introduce a fresh newcomer in the scene called "Juno" on vocals and some hot keys by Thomas van Dijk. The releaseparty for this album will be in Milan with an exclusive liveshow from de Kat including the whole band. Something to look forward to! Tip!
A great strong man with a brush in his hand once said: everything you can imagine is real and art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. So is making music just another form of keeping a diary In terms of Ana Helder, the Argentinian girl with the special twist, the answer is: maybe. More than two years after her last release on Co´meme she is back with a hand full of tracks. Five to be precise. She got more, but this is what the Mu¨stique's received. They are mean, dirty, harmful, amorevolous, seductive and addictive. Surrender tunes from a producer and DJ that does not think in boxes. Her three Eps El Groove De Tu Corazo´n', Fiebre De Marte' and Beating PC' mark some warped grooving heights in the edgy catalogue of Matias Aguayo's label Co´meme. Also on the French label Astro Lab she already dropped the 12inch Soy Canalla' with a playful psyche tune, that additionally got remixed by folks like Les Disques De La Mort seducer Ivan Smagghe or the mysterious West-German ghost-(w)rid(t)er Frank West. Furthermore, she re-tuned tunes from Chilean friends like Alejandro Paz or Mama- cita and sang on songs of colleagues. For Mu¨stique she now looked into her always-growing production crate and found some post-punk waving funk odes, which want more than just to dance this mess around. They bring soulful LSD-melodies for Jazz lovers with techno legs that like to get high on Liquid Liquid. They are electronic but yet so organic. And they move deeply while spreading the feel of a meditative rest. When Diagnose heard them first, he came to the idea of writing a script for a flick that tells the story of a music-making machine, which has more to offer than answers. It forms sound with no traces of reality, but is so human that humans fear it. Why did he think that way Only because of what Ana Helder recently got to say Well, let the music play...
fter the world applauded sascha funke for his latest album 'lotos land', he gave away some tunes to friends for remix duties.
düsseldorf based tolouse low trax formed 'twirl' into a foggy dark mpc-seducer for romantic nighthawks that love dancing.
also australian boy dreems prepared a remix that grooves odd and uncommon. his percussive version of 'im feiern und feuer' is a slow whirlwind, perfect to start and end a great dj night.
with tuff city kids a duo formed a remix that is good for big room love affairs. their version of 'purple hill' is a heartfelt melange between trance and house deepness that works on any dance floor.
the final edit comes from glasgow's junto club, who transformed 'comola', a tune that they already produced originally with sascha funke, into a longing dark melodic synth stepper.
four versions, four hits, four atmospheric dimensions beyond words. tune it loud!
Tessellate is a South London party that has been running for the last four years predominantly at Corsica Studios in Elephant and Castle. The label is a natural progression of their events, featuring artists and friends they have booked and met over the years.
The debut release comes from a new alias of a regular guest to their nights. Firmin crafts two tracks for the club - La Selva for the sunrise and Energetic Solution for the peak time.
Brassica (Feel My Bicep) and Tel Aviv's Moscoman both deliver with two different takes of La Selva on the B-side.
First outing for this collaborative effort from the prolific Posh Isolation mainstay Loke Rahbek and Frederik Valentin of KYO, also on the revered Danish label. As old friends circling around the same scene this is the first time they have combined their respective perspectives. The results are an ambitious aquatic infused audio environment. Recorded near water at Valentin's studio within the vicinity of the new aquarium in Copenhagen, Buy Corals Online channels the sensual floating aspects of such environments.
"During Japan's Edo period (1615-1868) the phrase "the floating world" (ukiyo) evoked an imagined universe of wit, stylishness, and extravagance—with overtones of naughtiness, hedonism, and transgression. Implicit was a contrast to the humdrum of everyday obligation. The concept of the floating world began in the Japanese heartland, migrated eastward, and came to full flower in Edo (present-day Tokyo), where its main venues were popular Kabuki theaters and red-light districts." - Wikipedia
Buy Corals Online arrives as a suite of works embracing the joy of being close to something you don't require interaction in order to experience. This enchanting aquatic infused audio hovers a sensual world rich in sensory experience. Loke Rahbek & Frederik Valentin's debut outing conjurer's a world both sensual and abstract as it moves casually alongside fantasy.
Alex Ferrazzi and Matteo Keemani a.k.a. Blue Mondays, longtime Laterra friends and collaborators (with releases on Sonar Kollektiv, Rebirth, Snatch!,Memento, Manocalda as well), strike again. They do it, as usual, their very own way: shades of Balearic flavours in there, but with a very dark and malicious twist. Marvin & Guy add some disco nuances (keeping it raw and obscure, though), while Nick Anthony Simoncino delivers a solid, strict, gloomy dancefloor affair. No frills, mad quality.
The first Single of Prins Thomas coming - 5th Album - first Single on the new label as well gets unveiled with "A" remix by our dear friends from Pional! plus there´s a an extended 12" version by Thomas.
Thomas on "Å" : Initially the final track AND then: scrapped idea for the alphabet soup of "Principe del Norte". Later evolved into what we have here. Comes with a really nice remix by Pional on a separate 12 here!
Backyard Boogie present their first release from the new label coming out of Amsterdam. The release comes from the friendship of Charlie & Jody and what they created together coming from two different musical backgrounds, now with their music crossing paths. They used a variety of analog machines and field recordings to help create the music. The release also sees a collaboration with a local Amsterdam artist Ardjoen Mahangoe, who helped create the artwork for the release.
For the 4th release from our beloved 'Ourselves' they've once again invited a group of friends to serve us up a healthy dose of tasty House and Disco. This time, originaltracks from Luvless, Snacks, Siggatunez und Jan Ketel are on the menu.
For starters we have Luvless from Leipzig whose prepared a floor stomper with a side of heavy drums paired with a warm chords- and stringsounds and a groovy bassline... completely love.
The Berlin duo Snacks appear for the first time on Ourselves with their track 'Sisters'. A delicious Disco snack that sounds like an effortless kitchen jam with an extremely funky aftertaste - you're tastebuds will be dancing. Hand played bass sprinkled over percussion, guitar licks and building up synths....hopefully you like your snacks authentic...they muste be true musicians...they are!!
The one love disco & funk and the other jazz...so does Siggatunez. He cuts us up a vibraphonline and sends it on the chase with a chord so delectably deep that not even the side of fat drums can keep up with the bounce and speed it creates but finally gets it and breaks down the club.
Jan Ketel has prepared a desert that at first, tastes like a mere groovy tool but it soon opens up into something bigger and more hectic. It's like you gotta check in at Charles de Gaulle while in anothher moment the unmistakable flavour of a lush warm Rhodes appears...a timeless flavour, and one that you'll never forget.
Bewitching Avant-Pop album from impromptu supergroup built around acclaimed Japanese duo, Tenniscoats. Featuring members of Notwist, Jam Money and Joasihno.
In these dark and uncertain times, there's an ever-growing collective of peaceful, loving types, bound together by an understanding of one peculiar word: Tenniscoats. Aside from being the name of an influential Tokyo-based duo, it represents fun, artistic freedom, experimentation and - perhaps most important of all - inclusivity.
A Tenniscoats gig is rarely the audience watching the performers. Instead, Saya and Takashi regularly shun the stage in favour of any particular spot that takes their fancy, whether it's an empty seat in the auditorium or the roof of a neighbouring cafe. In the world of Tenniscoats, music can happen anywhere, and everyone is invited to join in.
During the winter of 2016, the music happened in Munich. As a long-time fan, Markus Acher (Notwist) jumped at the chance not only to put Tenniscoats on the bill at the Alien Disko festival he was organising, but also to invite Saya & Takashi to a small apartment studio, together with Mat Fowler (Jam Money) and Cico Beck (Aloa Input, Notwist). This is where Spirit Fest was recorded over the following 14 days.
Tenniscoats are known for their collaborations - some of their finest work was done in conjunction with Tape, The Pastels, Jad Fair and many others - so making good use of the time and friends available was natural to them. For me, timing is important,' Saya said. We met in season, and the song flowers are now blooming!' Mat Fowler recalls the Spirit Fest sessions taking place in an idyllic, festive atmosphere. Every morning we'd all share breakfast, chat and learn about German Christmas customs. We'd catch the bus in the morning and walk home in the evening. The journey ran parallel to the beautiful flowing Isar River that bubbles, ebbs and flows right through the middle of Munich.'
While Tenniscoats sit at the heart of proceedings, it isn't their album alone. Markus, Mat and Cico also brought songs, providing a solid base on top of which the artistry could evolve. Mat explains that, a melody would begin, and slowly, each of us - in our own time - would find our way into the music.
Producer Tadklimp would sensitively set-up around us in this narrow window of time, so as to document that first and intuitive moment of collective discovery.' Nearly everything was recorded live,' agrees Markus, playing and singing together in one room with piano, guitars, percussion and some keyboards.' The collaborators came from Germany, Japan, the UK, Greece and beyond. That sense of inclusivity is palpable.
From the tender beauty of Markus's River River' and Saya's Mikan' to the electro-Merseybeat of Tenniscoat's Nambei' and the half-crazed pianica-reggae of Shuti Man', the resulting album is a testament to the manner of which these musicians are able to channel their songwriting through their spontaneity. It's also a snapshot of a gentle and intuitive moment in time - a beautiful meetup that expands this community, happily, even further.
Jon Willks (Grizzly Folk)
After their first baby steps with two digital releases, the Leipzig based label Old New Records is finally making it's leap to the stairs made of vinyl. Each artist is involved by heart, willing to contribute something for the higher goal, called good music.
In the end they forged a record of different styles, like House, Deephouse, NuFunk or Beatz. So welcome to the musical soap opera about a circle of friends and their reflection of musical taste - welcome to Old New Records.
Marco Bailey's 5th full-length album, one that he personally claims to be the best overall representation of his sound. With seventeen tracks comprising almost an hour and a half of music, he has ample room to stretch out and to give listeners an excellent portable version of his potent live show.
By maintaining a consistently high-quality output that does not merely ride the wave of current trends, multi-faceted producer Marco Bailey has managed to survive through decades of mercilessly shifting adjustments to popular taste in dance music. From his beginnings in the late '80s spinning eclectic sets comprised of everything from punk to old school hip-hop, to his present interest in pure unadulterated techno, the Belgium-based DJ and producer has won over audiences with his keen knowledge of how to squeeze the greatest physical and emotional impact out of a few well-placed elements, along with his instinct for seeking out the most innovative and resilient kindred spirits (his impressive number of professional friendships includes artists as diverse as Markus Suckut, Jonas Kopp, Alex Bau, Edit Select, Speedy J, Steve Rachmad and many more). These combined talents have led to his formation of several different labels: MB Electronics in 2001, the 'limited edition' label MBR in 2013, and lastly the new Materia Music label begun last year. His similiarly named event series, Materia, has also been a truly worldwide 'state of the art' summit for advanced techno artists.
The full-length personal releases by Marco Bailey, which stretch back to his mid-'90s period as a trance producer, have been gracefully arcing and anthemic affairs composed of individual tracks that follow that same blueprint. He is now about to drop his 5th full-length album overall, one that he personally claims to be the best overall representation of his sound. With seventeen tracks comprising almost an hour and a half of music, he has ample room to stretch out and to give listeners an excellent portable version of his potent live show. Of course, an epic running time alone is not the marker of a great audio experience, but an epic running time in which one loses track of time completely is - Bailey accomplishes this feat by never rushing the payoff; by organically building up each track until listeners are fully immersed in his alternate universe.
This skill can be heard on banging, sweat-saturated tracks like 'Ash', 'Genetix' and 'Hasai,' but also on comparitively gentle pieces like 'Klauth' (which straddles the line between disciplined electro and something more dreamlike and weightless), or the blissed out 'Suoh,' which feels like a fresh snowfall in audio form. Low-key cuts like 'Rex,' driven by echo FX and other windswept sounds, form natural counterparts to busier tracks like 'Ruth,' with its spring-loaded sequencer attacks, or 'Reboot That Device,' which is ingeniously driven by a psychedelic organ whose sound evolves with various filter settings. Minimalist vocals are occasionally injected into the mix - i.e. on the 'The Darkness' - to impart a subtle message of constant, ongoing expansion into unexplored galaxies without and within. It's as good a definition of the artist's musical mission as any.
We are pleased to welcome back two old friends: Dmitry Distant and Igors Vorobjovs! Remember the amazing track these pros teamed up on for In
The Dark Again 05 Now they've come up with a whole EP, featuring 3 tracks each. You'll find Igors delivers some intergalactic Electro, and Dmitry lets the melancholy of a gloomy Wave sound rise.
Black Truffle is thrilled to announce the first ever vinyl reissue of legendary performance and sound artist John Duncan's forgotten gem Klaar, originally released by Extreme in 1991 and partly created in collaboration with Andrew McKenzie (The Hafler Trio). Duncan is perhaps most well known for his notorious early performances pieces, which explored violence, self-denial, and the establishment of extreme psychological and physical states in both artist and audience. Alongside these transgressive experiments, Duncan began to create audio works primarily using short wave radio. Where some of Duncan's earlier recordings are composed of magnificently sculpted but abrasive walls of noise, Klaar, recorded while Duncan was living in Amsterdam, occupies a more meditative territory.
Opening with 'Delta', which layers long tones seemingly sourced from slowed down voices over a distant, watery field recording, the remainder of the first side is occupied with the epic title piece, which arranges shortwave radio abstraction, vocal experiments, and field recordings (street sounds, fireworks, monastic chants) into an episodic cinema for the ear. The second side is dominated by the long, brooding 'The Immense Room', where layers of shortwave interference and field recordings are gradually built up into a pulsing, wavering bed of sound infused with a subtly disturbing sense of psychological unrest. This rises to the surface near the end of the piece as sexual moans and ominous rumbles crisscross the stereo image before being abruptly brought to a halt.
A singular work of electroacoustic composition, Klaar is both compositionally sophisticated and infused with a sense of mystery and a vital reality often lacking in more academic experimental music; it sits proudly alongside contemporaneous recordings by Duncan's friends and collaborators Jim O'Rourke and Christoph Heemann and is a must for anyone interested in their work.
- Francis Plagne
For his third release, VERTV returns by presenting the first EP of the new Icône serie that focus on showcasing local talents and friends from the label's circle, the songs are put together in order to create a coherent yet versatile DJ friendly EPs that can be as much appreciated as a whole than separately.Built as a crescendo, Icône 1 is a great summary of the label interests from Jazz (Rafiki's La Fourche), urban melancolia (Monomite's City Life), deep funkyness (label's cofounder Neue Grafik & Lieu Saint are making their first appearance on VERTV here with Moutons Electriques and Sale Paradis) to spontaneous straighter-to-the-face lo-fiesque house killers (Mad Rey's Travail de Porc).Icone #1 is a great panomara of what you could expect from the people from VERTV.
We are bringing together the creative might of our residents to bring the sound of Renate on a double release EP. Over the years Renate has grown from a impetuous party to a glorious club. The people who came together under her roof and played beats that made bodies pulsate with ecstasy have become benchmarks in the music industry of today. We want to share with you that talent. The second EP is visited by long time Renate friends dOP. These french guys were there in the first Renate Party and there techno stylings grace us with a linguistic masterpiece. Michal Zietara the Polish heartthrob turned Bavarian hiker is joined by Voe the mastermind behind Suxul, together they merge to create a drop beat tune. Homeboy's Hadi is the Croatians influence by the Arab World in a culturally appropriate track that makes you wonder the streets of Damascus, leading to Mehmet Aslan our very own Sultan of beats making a sandstorm with this timeless piece.
Formed in Washington, D.C. in January of 2014, the EFFECTS are Devin Ocampo, Matthew Dowling, and David Rich.
A multi-instrumentalist, Ocampo is a former member of the bands Faraquet, Medications, Smart Went Crazy, and Deathfix, all of whom released music on Dischord. He has also toured and recorded with Mary Timony, Beauty Pill, and J. Robbins.
Dowling was the bassist and co-leader of Deleted Scenes, while Rich was the drummer in the instrumental group, Buildings. Both released music on the experimental-minded (and now defunct) local record label, Sock- ets. Devin met both Matt and David years before and while there had been talk of a possible collaboration everyone had their own projects at the time. However, by 2014 all were between bands and it finally made sense to get together and start something new.
For the trio, playing together was a nice change in routine. It was a new configuration of musicians, rather than a recombination of old friends and former bandmates, which happens regularly in the close-knit music scene of Washington D.C. Matt and David offered a fresh perspective and (possibly) gave the Devin a nudge out of his comfort zone.
Since then, the EFFECTS have performed sporadically throughout the East Coast and digitally released four two-song singles. Their full-length debut, Eyes to the Light, will be out this fall on Dischord.
Serotonin Records, the little neuron that could, returns with a compilation of futuristic electronic funk.
'It's What We Live For: Volume 1' is the first in a series of compilations sharing our vision of tomorrow and/or the sound of the day after yesterday... Serotonin has always been what we've lived for, now we'll try and make sure it's what you live for too.
John Selway takes us 'Solar Sailing' on a tour of classic Serotonin themes set in the deep space between our ears. Of course it sounds like Selway, but it's the unique sound of Selway on Serotonin.
Alex Cortex has been making electro for years and Serotonin is excited to finally catch up with him. His contribution 'Proxy' is a deep, fat and brain chemistry-altering groove.
Synapse, the duo consisting of label heads John Selway and Jason 'bpmf' Szostek, reach into their archives to deliver 'Payback'. What was the debt Well, that was already paid back with another track so we can share this golden slice of the electro dream with you.
TCMF with isti.f can transform your body with laser beams and bass. 'We Are The Almost People' is just weird enough to rock you out of your seat so you can get up and jam.
Pointsman and bpmf each deliver a loop so that the Serotonin never runs out.
Watch out for more releases soon, including a full Synapse EP and some old friends doing new tricks.
Serotonin, It's what you we live for...
The return of Brain Machine, with their Peaks album, was one of the highlights of last year for Emotional Response. Juan Tripp (aka Jon Tye of Seahawks), Guido Zen (Vactrol Park) and Kyle Martin's (Spectral Empire/Land Of Light/Vactrol Park) acclaimed kosmiche opus is followed up with 2 remix EPs featuring some of the best proponents, peers and friends of deep electronic music.
Remixes One is given over to a quartet of trusted hands including man of the moment, Tolouse Low Trax, ambient visionary Gigi Masin, afro-techno-dub specialist Harmonious Thelonious and stalwarts Ronny & Renzo.First Detlef Weinrich shows his mastery of a unique percussive sound that has seen his identity become as respected outside of his native Dusseldorf as he is in it for his role as one of the founders and curator of Salon des Amateurs. A brooding, propulsive culmination, the original's haunting ambience is retained for a subtle, driving rework that hits the mark.
Surprise of the EP is Gigi Masin's remix of Crystal Clouds. Eschewing the original's celestial soundscapes, scattered percussion interplays with sub-bass to change the context, giving a rhythmic dimension while retaining the shimmering guitar and arpeggio infused cohesion.Starting the B-side is another Dusseldorf elder statesman, in the afro-visions of Harmonious Thelonious. Solo, as well as one third of The Durian Brothers, Stefan Schwander, has carved a distinct sound. Chrematistic percussion is matched with an atmospheric, dub-techno feel that perfectly fits the EP. Play loud for full understanding.
Finally, Remixes One concludes with the return of Ronny & Renzo. Long time associates of Brain Machine, their 10 minutes plus remix takes the glacial original's ambience to a darker plain, fusing rhythmic pulses with alluding acid intent.
diamond black metallic:
confidns founded their own label 'diamond black metallic' in 2017, as a platform for releases and remixes by friends and admired producers of the techno scence's old and new generation.
The 12" debut on diamond black metallic will be released in summer 2017 with the confidns tracks EXTASE and PROMISK, as well as a dark, powerful and refined remix of EXTASE, produced by nobody less than Chris Liebing.
confidns bio:
Talking about confidns, it is impossible not to mention the rumors and legends surrounding their 2016 residency during the Afterlife label nights, hosted by Tale Of Us every thursday at famed Space Club Ibiza. The two Berlin based long term friends, who grew up in Mannheim, Germany attracted attention with their super long dj-sets, lasting up to 8 hours.
Performing the warm up on the Space Club's sunset terrace and closings in the chamber, the duo, founded in 2015, proofed a mesmerizing sense for playing with the crowd. They mastered the artistic challenge of leading the audience through the night, with both spherical ambient sets and driving techno beats. Confidns does not shy away from mixing timeless classics from genres like ebm, synth pop, dub and industrial techno with unforgettable pieces/tracks, such as from boards of Canada and Tropic of Cancer in their ambient sets. One could already experience the two daredevils in clubs like Nordstern Basel, Labyrinth Club Hasselt, Egg Club London and Loft Club Ludwigshafen, where they played two sets of 7 hours alongside Chris Liebing and Dj Deep during the official Time Warp 2017 pre-party.
Driven by the high artistic and musical standard of Tale of Us' Afterlife label, the two artists behind confidns founded their own label 'diamond black metallic' in 2017, as a platform for releases and remixes by friends and admired producers of the techno scence's old and new generation.
The 12' debut on diamond black metallic will be released in summer 2017 with the confidns tracks EXTASE and
PROMISK, as well as a dark, powerful and refined remix of EXTASE, produced by nobody less than Chris Liebing.
2017 is promising to be an exciting year for confidns. In addition to gigs at the Afterlife showcase in Privilege Ibiza
and the Sziget Festival in Budapest, the duo will start their collaboration with the booking agency Artist Alife and
AMM' ask my management.
Step Time Orchestra was the collaborative work of producers Jori Hulkkonen and Toumas Salmela, who began producing music together in the nineties whilst studying in Oulu, Finland. Whilst all their friends would be getting up early to go to university, they would only just be going to bed, having spent the night listening to house records from New York, drinking Whiskey and programming their MPC 2000!
Step Time produced a slew of tracks during this time, some of which were licensed and pressed on 12" singles during the late nineties/early noughties on labels operating in North America and Europe, but not everything they made saw the light of day. Heavily influenced by labels like Ibadan and Spiritual Life Music at the height of the New York House Scene, 'Jazz Error NYC' and '2am in Africa' were never signed, not fitting the profile of their other releases at the time, they were left in the drawer and sadly forgotten!
Skip forward to Winter 2016, and FBNM's Lorenzo, whilst over on a DJ excursion, visits Jori in Finland. Keen to keep working together, he presses him for something uniquely special. Magically, the Ajos E.P jumps out of the drawer into Hulkkonen's hand, and as it turns out, it has aged with a rather remarkable grace. Written using a combination of MPC sequencing and an Atari ST powering vanilla Cubase for some midi programming duties, it features the sounds of the Italian made Siel Opera 6, an Alesis S4 Rompler and other vintage Roland, Yamaha and Kawai Synths. They went full out on this one, even finally learning to play keys for that jazzy piano action. It was recorded live through a soundcraft analog board with outboard Fx, creating a sound that transcended it's time to feel remarkably fresh today!
The Ajos EP is named after an area in their native city of Kemi, Northern Finland, which is where they wrote and produced it in 1999.
Eric Maltz is a producer from New York City and now resides in Berlin, Germany.He is a former employee of Halcyon records from its' OG glory days in it's first location in Red Hook/Carrol Gardens areas of Brooklyn."Eric Provided a sofa to me often through-ought my 20's and vice-versa, we both cared about music above all else- we lived and breathed music- and we helped each other survive when we were penniless - if one was up, so was the other...Eric and I were roommates, friends, we looked out for each other in a rough city with tough rules. Every time one of us got a job at a restaurant or record shop, within weeks we would have the other working there too. We did that for a decade. We slang records for years at Halcyon- a shop on Smith Street which had a portrait of Stevie Wonder painted on the front facade- and we threw parties all around Brooklyn back then too.. Every shitty bar that would have us lol. We were a dope team. He's the only person who has ever touched the third rail on a subway and survived too! True story. So you know I couldn't wait to release his Debut LP. Proud of this guy" - Levon Vincent
For the third and final part of Jerome.c, Dubfluss - Friendship connection we invited Julian Alexander and Guy From Downstairs to join our artist roster. A lot of hard work was made into this 3 part LP by our good friends and we hope everyone enjoys it as much as they did producing it. Lots of Melodic grooves and solid bass lines, proper house music dance tracks on this release. Cheers from Berlin
As BPMF started making techno again, he surveyed his techno friends asking them what it was about his music they found the most annoying. The answers TR-606 hi-hats and portamento.
He proceeded to focus on these aspects of his music and today the results are here: "Abide the Glide Volume 4" wherein BPMF is pushing all the right buttons to get the DJ thinking about the sounds their pumpin. Jamie Morris provides an excellent DJ freindly remix of "Even Straighter", taking BPMF's idea and going even straighter.Old Man Raver Pants" proves that a 50 year old man can still party, so long as he's wearing his raver pants and while there's been alot of talk about alternative facts, "Alt-Slacks" is a dub inspired jam that seems like it's narrative might fall apart at anytime.Schmer label head BPMF has been making electronic music since 1984. As Free World released cassettes, was entered by WFCS into CMJ's Best Unsigned Bands competition and in 1985 earned the duo a spot on an Epic Records compilation. In 1986 they released "Amagi", an eclectic collection of experimental electronica inspired by underground new wave and industrial music of the 80s.BPMF and Taylor Deupree formed Decameron and released two cassettes on Havoc Music. Some tracks would appear on early techno CD compilations under pseudonyms. Havoc Music's own compilation "Techno Criminal Sub Cultures" is where BPMF first appeared in 1991.
With Dietrich Schoenemann and Taylor Deupree, BPMF assembled classic early 80s analog gear and as Prototype 909 they released "Acid Technology" on Instinct records; performed their first live show, met Abe Duque who invited all of his techno friends to the legendary Limelight Club in NYC. BPMF brought records and gear jammed live with them. The Rancho Relaxo All-Stars would release three albums and tour Europe together even destroying the original Ultraschall in Munich, quite literally tearing the place down. With John Selway, BPMF channeled early electro and new wave sounds forming Synapse and creating Serotonin Records to bring the funk back and help give birth to the electro revival scene.Prototype 909 recorded four albums and played 70+ shows. Synapse was the first American electro group to play live in Moscow. BPMF released tracks on Serotonin, Schmer, Instinct, Analog/EMF, Tension/Rancho Relaxo Records. His approach to electronic music is hands on and experimental, so more than having a "sound" his music reflects his values: spontaneity and a sense of urgency.
The first time I heard of Mattes Schwarz, someone called him 'Stecken-Mattes'. Stecken was a defining, if almost secret, Cologne dance music venue of the 2000s and early 2010s, a minuscule basement without curfew and seemingly any other restrictions, where the up to twelve hour long DJ-sets felt like a tightly knit circle of friends just playing records to each other: The selectors from the night before and the one after reliably sitting right in front of the just over one meter long stretch of the bar that formed its booth, never missing out on a chance to see their mates play, heads nodding and hands clapping through the smoke-filled air, until someone started to sing along, and eventually everyone got up for a few hours of moves on the 15 square meter dancefloor, on a grey Wednesday or Saturday morning at 7 or just as well 10 am.
Mattes Schwarz started DJing in 1982 at age twelve, inspired by, as many West-German kids, the GI-DJs of the roller skating rinks around US army bases. While he got heavily involved in Cologne's BMX scene of the 90s, he never really stopped, and during the main years of being known as Stecken-Mattes and playing there each Friday night, he coincidently lived in Magazine record's homebase, North- Eastern Cologne's old harbour.
One day after Stecken's closure had sent restructuring ripples through the city - I imagine him getting up in the morning and taking a deep breath - he decided to send Magazine a few tracks.
'I Don't Know' is Mattes Schwarz' first release.
"Feeling numb from all the electronic dancemusic coming out, moaning about how its become a bit samey, or are you just tired of your shitster friends saying its not like in the 90's anymore. This record will shut everyone in the room up. A1 is a deeply psychotic acid death march into confusion, so minimal and primitive (kick, snare, acidsquelch) it will challenge every beard and armpit and might even hypnotize the dj to the point he cannot mix in the next one. A2 is a straight up Commodore 64 SID track with mongoloid data elephants tooting over a wobbly and tarded electroish beat. B1 is a dystopic dreamy rave stomper, starting out kinda datacuddly but gets more and more serious, with choirs of fable mooers taking you into that virtual bad trip you need. b2 continues as expected with more c64 SID madness, so snary I cant even determine if its in 115 or 230bpm. But it leaves you with the feeling your ears and mind just been wrestled, smacked and poked at, and thats the point. This is no record for the safing chickenshit DJ." - /DJ Joakim Cosmo, Sweden.
Jiaolong and Now Again team up for this special limited 12" featuring the Daphni edit of Luther Davis Group's disco classic 'You Can Be A Star' fresh from its inclusion on Daphni's Fabriclive 93 mix and heard in the dj sets of Daphni and his friends at festivals all over this Summer.
The evergreen original is included in all it's glory on the B side.
The 12" comes housed in a gorgeous hand screened sleeve by Tazelaar Stevenson
First & foremost - thank YOU for supporting this album, and for your patience. Special thanks & love to my family, friends - you know who you are. Your love & support means everything - I wouldn't be here without each one of you. Much love & P.E.A.C.E. to my Bruvz - RaSoul & Testament, for blessing our track & always having my back! Huge thanks & love to Relic/Rel McCoy for the hilarious impressions & Skydiving with us! Mad love & respect to Timbuktu for steering the ship & keeping us laughing at all times. Tremendous love & thanks to Evul & the entire Droppin' Science family - a dream come true! Massive love to my UK fam - DJ Rumage & Ruztik Records, for connecting us with Mr. Fantastic & the AE Productions crew - so thankful to be working together! And last, but never least - to my partner in rhyme, Ghettosocks - nothing but eternal gratitude, love & respect for you, your unmatched artistry, & incredibly selfless dedication from day one. Thank you for saying yes.
Valkyrie is a voice for the Warrior. It is dedicated to those who have faced adversity, and been tested in life. For those courageous souls who push through to the end, prevailing against all odds. It is especially for those who feel like giving up. You will make it. You are powerful. Keep going. Surround yourself with the truth-sayers. Educate your minds, hearts and souls. Show love. Give love. Be love. Connect with all of our generations. Be strong. Be brave. Be real. And above all, remember - always stay true to yourself.
Live Ones returns with Lorca after a six-year hiatus. Having released his debut record LIVE001 'Moments' we've teamed up again to relaunch as a home for the edits, refixes and sample heavy music produced by friends and family that we love so much.
After a brief break from production duties, Lorca moves away from the eclectic, melodic style he's been known for and returns with a new sound and aesthetic. The 'Tribute to Eddie' EP firmly nods at Detroit, New York and Chicago House styles and is dotted with a wide array of influences and soulful sampling throughout.
Having previously released EPs and singles with Naked Naked, Dummy Records, 2020 and the like, Lorca's ear for melody has earned him fans from across the board with his music being supported by a diverse array of DJ's from Ben UFO to Bonobo to Pete Tong. We're proud to be back releasing this diverse producer's music.
REPRESSED !!
Frak are Björn Isgren, Johan Sturesson and Jan Svensson, a trio of synthesizer lovers from Sweden. The band was formed when Svensson and Isgren's older sisters were best friends and they introduced their little brothers to each other. Inspired by Severed Heads, DAF, Human League, Devo, Skinny Puppy, the boys began collecting analog equipment and started Studio Styrka. While the band were still in their early teens they released the first FRAK cassette album in 1987 on their own record label Börft.
Almost 30 years later, FRAK continue to release their bizarre brand of Scandinavian techno with their debut release on Dark Entries. 'Sudden Haircut' was recorded in 2015, a ten-minute brooding, heavy hitting acid attack full of 808 drum claps aimed at the dance floor. The three remaining songs come from a studio tape the band found in their archives named 'FRAK "After The Silence" 2001-2010' 'Synthgök' and 'Synthfrilla' were recorded in 2010 and originally released on the 'Börft' EP by Sex Tag Mania in 2012. Utilizing a 808, 303, 101 and MS-10, both are supreme cuts of electro leaning acid techno that perfectly fit the sweatiest moments of any club land experience. The deliciously rugged final track 'First Glimt I Ögat' is a vintage unreleased Frak song from 2001 recorded one month before the track 'Second Coming' (later released as B1 on 'Börft' EP).
All songs have been mastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. Designer Eloise Leigh has created a playful DIY jacket based on a mysterious black and white photo of the band in their classic tin foil masks. Each copy comes with a black and white postcard featuring a distorted back stage photo of FRAK in their teens. 'Forget all you know about Swedish electronic music, this is Börft crew, the core underground of "söta bror's" techno history - here represented by Frak - a full out techno acid punch.' Juno Records
Ian Tocor is a smiling ambiance man, into ambient ,deep, dub and techno, half of « Outlander Wax Theory » and « Drnchd » bands, he signed his first vinyl on the American label Love What You Feel in 2014. Played by Fred P, this Ep oscillates between a dub House in lace and a deep and colorful deep house. It has been found on the first compilation of Simple Music Experience with a dreamlike journey called "Blue" or on Label Vastechoses, the latest project built with his friends Sevyce and Lostsoundbytes, adventurous music, intrepid grooves and editions of all kinds are on This platform with evocative name.In short, music is for Ian an outlet, deeply anxious to provoke in various forms links between moving bodies, his dj sets are as rough and strong as they are surrounded by sensitivity.
"MODEM:39 is booted and connected. Main task: Linking components like friendship, art and communication. This sustainable mixture results in label artist Tommes' first release on solid 180g black gold. The A.R.L.T. EP represents a thoughtfully crafted selection of analog sounds, inspired by classic house music. Tommes, being a part of eastern Germany's underground scene since 20 years, demonstrates his unique style with four timeless tracks. His passion for dubby sounds and chords echoes through the whole EP - solid deepness incoming!
"McDrive" is a bass line driven tune, full of versatile, warm synthie-melodies and catchy percussions. Its length offers great mixing possibilites. Let's get smooth and dreamy on the - StendalSunsetBoulevard'. A beautiful piece for any occasion.
Side B features two more linear and straightforward tracks. "Deeples' hypnotic dub-groove creates a very profound depths. Club approved!
Cheerful house roller - Deemin Goes" glares with atmospheric pads and a punchy bassline - perfectly rounding off an honest Solo-EP. The EP is limited to 300 editions with a handcrafted cover artwork - 50 of them comes in a special black and white edition, 250 copies in decent black artwork."
The debut EP from Seltron 400, AKA, Polish dance favourites Eltron John (Uncanny Valley / Transatlantyk) and SLG (Studio Barnhus / Step), arriving on MOST, following a recent appearance on Catz and Dogz' PETS Recordings.
Stemming from a run of well-received back-to-back sets, these close friends emerge from the studio with two imaginative slices of house and contemporary electro, alongside a jackin' bonus beats accompaniment.
After a well-received Boiler Room set, the duo will promote their officialdebutin summer 2017with aproper live act.
Say You Love Me wasn't "Om" Alec Khaoli's first solo recording but the 1985 EP solidified the bass player and songwriter's standing as one of South Africa's most consistently innovative pop auteurs. He built a career on ubiquitous rock, pop and soul hits with groundbreaking bands like the Beaters, Harari and Umoja.
But Khaoli's seemingly endless fountain of music continued outside these ensembles, where he usually played bass and contributed songwriting and vocals. Khaoli released several successful solo works while he made records with Umoja and worked on other productions with friends. This creativity was aided by Khaoli's own recording studio. He was the first South African to have a privately-owned studio.
As black artists were forced to record during lunch breaks and didn't get sufficient access and time in the white-owned studios, having his studio allowed Khaoli to develop in his own way. Hence his productive output during the 80's and early 90's, releasing 5 LPs with Umoja and 5 solo LPs, along with numerous singles and EPs. There's something broad and dynamic about the almost epic pop sound Khaoli creates on Say You Love Me.
Being the first South African to take control his recording process and thereby free himself from one of apartheid's many strictures, he took his vision of music to new realms and made timeless music for the dance floor in the process.
RDV, the new imprint from French DJ & producer Molly, presents its first release, from Prophets of a New Generation (aka Michael Zucker & Pete An).RDV , the abbreviation of« Recits de Voyage » will simply be a meeting with artists that I have crossed paths with during my travels - a platform for my very talented friends, artists I really like, and also music from myself. This project was in my mind for so many years. It was not until now that it felt like the appropriate time to realize it, but I feel ready now to help push new talent & music from people I love.' - Molly
PP SERIE is here to combine music by label artists & friends showcasing a broad spectrum of Audio Entertainment. "SERIE A" features: trance inducing collage, pop build up, homage to the almost forgotten communication medium Telefon and a heavy acid tool.
Artists included: Tambien, Rhode & Brown, Mr. Tophat & Obalski
This grouping of audio recordings is for aural use only. Any emotional content perceived herein is borne of its listener, and is in no way intended by its author. Any sounds resembling speech are not intended to convey meaning.
Several Shades Of The Same Color is Patricia's first album for Spectral Sound — produced in conjunction with his own label Active Cultures.
Tips for listeners: consider the moment in which you exist; pay attention to how these sounds evoke physiological (rather than cognitive) responses. Listeners may find themselves deriving immense physical pleasure from exposure to these sounds. Inability to achieve such pleasure is likely attributable to over-analysis of the aforementioned audio content — or to improper amplification.
Each of Shades' three LPs features suites of tracks that, considered alone, comprise their own distinct, unique worlds. Disc One opens with "I Know The Face, But Not The Name," an unabashedly plaintive trip through classic electro rhythms; flip it over for "The Words Are Only Sounds," a haunting affair for synthesizer and voice. Disc Two's "The Electric Eye is Upon Me" swirls endlessly, while "Shiba Inu Dub" is cut for the floor and coy as its namesake. Disc Three's jackin' "Feel Your Body" will cause you to do just that; "German Friendship" sounds like D.A.F. on dissociatives.
Any emotional associations incurred while listening come at the listener's discretion. Furthermore, the identity of the author and/or their passions regarding the recordings herein shall bear no weight on the listener's experience. This body of work is not intended to generate ideas; rather, its goal is to produce physical sensations in the listener.
Taken altogether, Several Shades Of The Same Color is kaleidoscopic, a multi-faceted techno trip. Listen in full, or listen in part. And if you consider only one of these intermittent listening notes, make it this one: Don't think; just hear.
Summer has not officially kicked in yet but Antinote's new addition to its roster will sure soundtrack perfectly its upcoming warm nights: encapsulating the teenage dream of an endless summer, 18 RAYS is the moniker behind which some of the label's most steady fixtures gave a try at recording music together, somewhere straight in the heart of Paris' 18th arrondissement.
.
Nico Motte, Zaltan & Raphaël Top-Secret have been friends way before each of them occasionally played his part in the Parisian label and it is mainly out of this friendship that they conceived 18 RAYS, a vessel to finally give life to the band they dreamed of in their teenage years. It is safe to say that 18 RAYS has been in their mind for quite a while, but it was only last winter, after a couple of bottles of natural wine on a hazy evening, that they decided that it was time to give it a real go and to pick up the instrument each learned years ago: the guitar, the bass and
the drums.
Produced by Nico Motte - the man behind all the artworks of the label - the trio spent 5 weeks between Synth City (Motte's studio) and Red Bull Studio in Paris working on these 4 songs, each sitting somewhere between some sort of timeless and somehow aquatic dream pop and blurred visions of an eerie grunge sound, that probably
never was.
That being said, the genesis of 18 RAYS might explain why their debut EP turns out to be such an intimate affair: while it took its members down memory lane, the listener will embark on an ethereal trip, taking him to a parallel universe in which the sounds of Cocteau Twins,
The follow-up to last year's LPHWHTD! As with the last one, this is a collection of tunes from some of our friends and folks already on the label, though these, unlike those, are 100 percent new—not one of the four has been released online or elsewhere yet.
Keita Sano, Klubbhuset, Lovers (Harry Benson, formerly of Sisterhood), and Jacques Renault. Easy!
One of four unique hand-stamped Cover Artworks by Jan-Paul Müller
For our 10th release, we put together a ten track compilation featuring new material by us and our friends titled 'Nie wieder Streit'. The four sides showcase some familiar Lehult sounds as well as some unexpected surprises: Original crew members Liem, Lucky Charmz, Eddie Ness, Johan Kaseta and DJ Assam are all on board with new material, while Matthias Reiling, A Trap Jr. & DJ Slyngshot, Rainboy and Epikur also join the party. For the special occasion we wanted to compile a collection aimed at the DJs that have been buying our records and supporting the little outlet we founded a couple of years back. LHLT10 is one of those versatile records that offers something for every situation, one that never leaves your bag. There's chilled, intricate songs for the early and late hours on the dance floor, dark and vibey Jams for the dungeons, joyful and weird peak time stuff, and some straight up groove monsters - all on one release. Liem & Eddie join forces for the seemingly deteriorating, jumbling peak-time cut 'Exodoros' while Liem's other contribution, 'Truly Super', serves up sweaty basement magic. Lucky Charmz shows a unheard shade with his 150-BPM Kitch-Anthem 'Trance Song Cover', while Johan Kaseta's opener 'Venue Flieder' and Assam's floaty groover 'Looking for Revenge' stay in line with their trademark fruity/meditative sound. Epikur, a project between Eddie Ness and his longtime partner in crime Kryptofauna, snatch their debut release with the club-ready, synth-laden groover 'Speedrunner IV',
With 44 releases across 12 years since its inception, Butane's infamous Alphahouse imprint closes its doors this June as he welcomes long time colleagues and friends Alexi Delano and Worldline to shape up the final EP on the label 'Omega'.
Having established the imprint back in 2005, Andrew Rasse aka Butane's Alphahouse has served as an example of unapologetic underground quality and curation for over a decade. With previous releases from the likes of Ricardo Villalobos, Ryan Crosson, Ion Ludwig, Quenum, Mark Broom and of course Rasse himself, the final Alphahouse EP welcomes back another staple of the imprints success, Chilean Alexi Delano, and mysterious American talent Worldline who marks his debut on the label.
'Sometimes in order to grow, you have to leave things behind. It's time for a fresh start... the final Alphahouse record. Alpha/Omega' - Butane.
The A-side sees Delano and Rasse effortlessly re-combine and pick up where they left off in 2013. 'Bass Theory' is an energetic, blooming production that lays the focus on raw crunchy drum licks, chunky bass slabs and an ever- evolving melody that eases listeners into a state of trance, before 'Jazz Lick' reveals a lighter aesthetic with a delicate jazz-infused lead line, filtered vocal loops and crisp organic percussion that hold the production in sync.
On the flip Butane is joined by a new collaborator, Los Angeles-based underground fashion designer Worldline for two brooding cuts. 'How Deep' kicks things off showcasing eerie low ends layered beneath tripped out vocals and hypnotic, meandering chords. 'What We Do' wraps up the esteemed Alphahouse catalog in style. An underground manifesto with a trademark Butane groove and Wordline's vocals punctuating over a decade of work. That's a wrap.
In true Alphahouse style, Rasse signs off here alongside two extremely talented artists with an EP that radiates understated sophistication and intricacy throughout, whilst opening the door to his new project 'Extrasketch' in the most fitting and suitable way imaginable. Stay tuned; this is only just the beginning...
We are very proud to welcome back one of our greatest artists and good friends Scott Monteith aka Deadbeat. Scott original comes from Canada but now lives in Berlin for some years.
Scott is mostly known for his own BLKRTZ label, but have been releasing on many other labels over the years.
The track "Put On Your Red Shoes And Trance" is a peak time bomb, dubby, deep, powerfull and melodic track.
The B-side, "Just Jackin Around" is Techno bomb full of dubby chords and build-up-madness.
300 limited marbeld vinyls. When the coloured edition is sold out we only have black vinyl left.
These two joyful minimal synth-pop pearls were first released on the compilation Walkin' After Midnight' in 1982 and are in the same vein as early 80's singles by Carol (Breakdown) and Rive Gauche (Friends Are Friends). Both tracks on the 7' are a delightful proof of the lively and creative music scene in Brussels during the early eighties, supported by labels such as Factory Benelux and Les Disques Crépuscule and the famous venue Plan K.
Occidental White was founded at same time as Kaa Antilope, the extraordinary new wave band founded by Bernard Vranckx and Frédéric Walheer. Bernadette was the additional member and took care of the vocal part. The idea was to do 'pop' songs inspired by occidental white culture, which was the opposite to Kaa Antilope which was more focused on outside inspiration.
Following 2016's much-acclaimed solo album Mondo Alterado (HIPPIE 008CD/LP), original Pachanga Boy and Hippie Dance mentor Rebolledo returns to the limelight with the jam-packed Mondo Re-Alterado, tapping into his vast and varied network of friends and fellow soundsmiths. Artists such as Superpitcher, DJ Tennis, Maceo Plex, Red Axes, Fango, or Fantastic Twins deliver stunning takes on Rebolledo's unique signature sound, creating a full suite of exclusive remixes, cover versions, and reinterpretations. From the super-energetic club rumblings of Maceo Plex's "Discótico Pléxico" to DJ Tennis's dreamy "Pimiento Drive Version" of "A Numb Gas To The Future" or Fantastic Twins' party bomb "Fantastic Pow Pow", the journey through Mondo Re-Alterado is full of twists and turns -- a world where an epic, cinematic soundscape such as Superpicher's "Rainboy Super Space" sits comfortably alongside the claustrophobic, punishing banger that Fango sculpted from stand-out cut "Pow Pow". Meanwhile, Red Axes turn the casual narrative of "Life Is Strange, Life Is Hard, Life Is Great" into a bouncing workout -- a great companion piece to "WANT", Danny Daze and Shokh's propulsive, jagged dub version of "Fears Come True". Other highlights include Jörg Burger aka The Black Frame with the lush "Black Rainbow Woman", Paulor's country rock extravaganza "Discótico Desértico" and not one, but two excellent contributions from former Italians Do It Better honcho Mike Simonetti. It's a magical, surprising ride that finds beauty in contrasts -- while staying tuned to Rebolledo's spirit of adventure and powerful sense of style.
The second release of Dilated Pupils on their own platform DPBEATS.! Techy yet classy vibes.! All beats are ready for the club.!
About DP:
Dilated Pupils is a collective group of likeminded friends home-based in the Netherlands. When forces are joined in one of their many studios each individual brings his own influences and styles to the table. Together they share a distinct flavor in productions and raw one-take jam sessions created with the use of analogue machines and often recorded on tape. Each of them have their own solo productions as well as other collaborations, but when united as Dilated Pupils they prefer to be known jointly as one entity with their own unique and distinguished sound. Since 2014 the group has developed an interesting and widespread discography with releases on labels such as Fear of Flying, Sol Asylum, Mode of Expression, Tabla, Music is Art, Dorcas, Make Sense and Mayak
