Suche:full dub

A brainchild of YAKO440 & GODBODY108, 'Dub In Full' began with a series of studio visits between two artist-musicians who saw themselves reflected in each other's work. From those early conversations came an idea rooted in instinct and a shared reverence for musical innovation: a mighty dub reinterpretation of golden-era hip hop classics.

2024 Reissue

Baricentro is an Italian funk-rock band founded in 1976 by two brothers Francesco and Vanni Boccuzzi; after the release of two albums in mid seventies (Sconcerto and Trusciant) for the major record company EMI; they recorded in 1983 the single "Tittle Tattle" representing a clear innovation in sound from their past, without believing that would receive a positive response in the New York City underground music scene and soon becoming a Paradise Garage and Loft classic. Best Record Italy today came out with this special reissue-project as a Limited Edition Ep, remastered from the original master tapes and containing for the first time all the versions from 1983 and 84 including the unreleased dub that was previously available as an acetate cut only for deejay play.

Phillip Smart was one of the great engineers to learn his trade as understudy to the legendary dub master himself Osbourne'King Tubby'Ruddock.
Alongside other luminaires such as Prince Jammy and Scientist,Phillip Smart would step in at the controls when demand for King Tubby studio dubs grew to such an extent that each single release was expected to carry a version/dub flipside.
Phillip Smart moved to the United States in the late 70's and in 1981 opened his successful studio HC&F,Long Island,New York.It produced some sizeable Jamaican Dancehall hits for his two record labels TanYah and Eclipse.
Tracks like Dirtsman's 'Hot This Year' and 'Rikers Island' and most notably artist Shaggy used the studio to work up his massive hits 'Oh Carolina','Big Up' and 'Angel'.
But it's in the heady days of the early 1970's and up to 1976 that we concentrate on for this release.When Version was King and Prince Phillip Smart was at the controls mixing up some fine dubs with Jamaica's finest musicians The Aggrovators.
Working some of producer Bunny'Striker'Lee's rhythms in fine style....hope ypu enjoy the set......

Midi Deux Entertainment is back with his first compilation dedicated to Zizou & the Roudourou stadium. Artists of the EP come from Bretagne and offer us great techno & acid tracks.

Bell Gardens combines the musical visions of Kenneth James Gibson (formerly of Furry Things, now recording as
*Bell Gardens' origins began arguably as more of an experiment than the duo's current 'experimental' projects - McBride's drone- and string-laden ambient symphonies, and Gibson's ventures in dub and minimalist techno - as they sought to manifest their mutual reverence for folk, psychedelia and chamber pop in a traditional band structure without cannibalising any particular past genre. Bell Gardens' sound is less reliant on effects and studio trickery than the pairs' independent guises, laying bare as it does vocals and live instruments with emotional sincerity, and presenting songs imbued with an almost pastoral or gospel simplicity and timelessness.
Slow Dawns for Lost Conclusions was again recorded mostly at home studios, but additionally the band made use of a friend's desert cabin in Wonder Valley, California, and it seems this willingness to retreat from the city has lent an expansiveness to the tracks, in particular the spacious, ceremonial 'Silent Prayer' (written in a snowbound mountain cabin in Idyllwild, C.A.) and the crepuscular 'She's Stuck in an Endless Loop of Her Decline' (mapped out under the stars in the desert).
While the addition of strings (contributed by Lauren Chipman of The Rentals and The Section Quartet) and trumpet (Stewart Cole of Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros) provides a double rainbow of tonal textures throughout, the nine tracks of Slow Dawns for Lost Conclusions are united by an understated elegance belying the newly expanded, communal effort in the studio: each instrument earns its place, nothing is overwrought or conspicuous. Moreover, it is McBride and Gibson's artistry in building stirring soundscapes from the barest of materials in their other guises that lends such assurance and sophistication to these arrangements.
The band is a result of the complimentary cross-pollination of Gibson and McBride's musical tastes - borne from a late-night conversation between the two that grew wings - and it is the universality of the sentiments and their restrained, reflective approach to writing and recording that allows the music to simultaneously straddle the past and the present. The music avoids pastiche, its pedal steel, sleigh bells and harmonies giving a nod to the ghosts of musical genres past, but never overriding or distracting from the emotional content of the sum of its parts.
The album ends with the glorious 'Take Us Away' - one of the first demos Gibson gave McBride when he was on tour with Stars of the Lid - neatly bringing their work to date full circle and exemplifying the band's mindfulness of their own serendipitous beginnings: the dawning of an auspicious, unique musical force.

Bell Gardens - Take Us Away -
Harmonies alert!! Actually, this is rather lovely. Slow-tempo, just the right side of 'twee' and packed full of strings, as if Air and Midlake had been taking balloon trips over the mid-West and sprinkling good-vibes dust across the land. From L.A. and subconsciously plugged into the '60s dream-pop scene, taking in a little bit of Mercury Rev and Brendan Perry en route, stopping off at Pearls Before Swine and Big Star's house for inspiration, before getting stoned with '70s era Brian Eno and Harold Budd.

Healing Patterns is the debut full-length release on Appendix.files from Clima, following 2025's Transient State EP. Written between 2025 and 2026 during a period of chronic illness, the seven-track LP translates physical restriction into deep, spacious electronic compositions. Using palatial pads, slow-decaying echoes, and bodily low-end, Clima reminisces over residual club ambience and shared listening experiences with friends.

The record moves from the gradual, dub-heavy pressure of "Weight" through ASMR-like vocal glitter and tight rhythmic clusters, before dissolving into the quiet introspection of the title track's theme. Healing Patterns is a patient study in focus, repetition, and the spaces left behind.

Artist Info: Clima is an experimental electronic music project exploring spatial sound, texture, rhythm and the emotional residue of club culture. Their work moves between ambient environments, dub-weighted rhythm and abstract electronic composition, with a focus on deep listening and subtle shifts in perception.

stray dogs is the second full-length album from the Finnish electronic duo Shepherd’s Call. Released on the BELOW0 label, the project blends moody, emotional ambient textures with experimental club beats and live cello arrangements. This physical edition is pressed on heavy 180g black vinyl and features exclusive vocal dub tracks on Side B with guest spots from 3NDLES5, Merely, and Glayden.

Long time label collaborator and dub maestro Havantepe is back on Berg Audio with yet another journey into the deeper, more atmospheric shades of techno, unfolding across four timeless tracks. This release marks the highly awaited come back of the imprint’s “Monument” series, featuring a full cover designed by Juli Jah.

Mutual Rytm's Versus sub-label returns with a dark, absorbing new EP from contemporary techno innovators Kameliia and BLANKA. Kameliia and BLANKA both previously appeared on Federation of Rytm IV and now step forward with their long-awaited debut EPs. It is another standout for Mutual Rytm's Versus series, which has already made an impact with two previous EPs from Regent and Chontane and Klint and Hemka. This third release subtly evolves the sound into more hypnotic and atmospheric worlds that bring fresh perspectives to the series. Bulgarian-born, Norway-based Kameliia’s music is rooted in cinematic, melancholic and hypnotic sounds. She translates deep emotions into immersive sonic landscapes inspired by nature, particularly the moon, the sky and their atmospheric qualities. Along with Berlin-based Spaniard BLANKA, she has released on labels such as SK_Eleven, while BLANKA also co-founded Room Trax and draws heavily on the human voice, which she considers one of the most personal and intimate instruments. She uses it to create an emotional, direct connection with the dance floor, with a clean, minimal, timeless style rich in emotion. Kameliia opens up with the weighty kicks and eerie atmospheres of 'Bird In A Cage' before 'Red Sky' layers taut kicks and icy synths into a hypnotic forward charge full of depth and darkness, then 'Lightness' has an unsettling and paranoid lead hanging in the air next to vocal fragments and haunting pads. BLANKA’s offering begins with tightly wound kicks and bass on the dubby 'Say It With Me'; 'Self Pleasure' is an immersive and rubbery rhythm with cosmic synth work, and 'Rabbit Habits' brings funky synth lines that radiate a sense of subtle light and hope amidst the darkness of the groove. Two digital bonus cuts from each artist follow: Kameliia's unsettling, dystopian soundscape 'No Longer A Desire' and the backlit suspense of 'Vivere', and BLANKA's gritty, loopy 'Dream VST' and the deep-space odyssey that is 'Gone For Good'.

This release closes the current run of much‑needed raids on the Digi Dub archives. Label boss Berwick emerged from the DIY ferment of Camberwell's squat era , blending reggae and rave influences into a stream of boundary‑pushing music and events under a tangle of ever‑shifting aliases. Nodding to the Far East stylings of Augustus Pablo, South‑Eastern Style finds Berwick, working under his Mudskipper alias, refracting Pablo’s melodic meditations through a mutoid bass filter, delivering six cuts of idiosyncratic, genre- agnostic electronics.

Some of Berwick’s Mudskipper material was partially exhumed for digital release in 2021, but the alias was only one of several he deployed during Digi Dub’s most fertile years and during the 90s Mudskipper material was released sparingly. It feels fitting, then, that this project finally gets its due in the form of a full vinyl release.

Beware Dub is the only track here to have seen daylight before, with a version originally appearing on the 1996 four‑track EP 4 Golems. It makes a fine opener: an agile bassline rolling through tunnels of processed skank, rocking in a haze of centrifugal breakbeat. Ambrosial Dub mounts an imperious, guitar‑laced groove onto a solid steppers march, while Pillars Dub drives another vigorous, sub‑heavy bassline forward in the mix alongside a mechanised rhythm track, shards of noirish piano and bursts of twinkling synth.

The second side opens with the cosmic skank of Stand It Dub, followed by the mutated one‑drop drift of Where There’s Dub, suspended in a canopy of gentle keys. Wasted Dub closes the EP in fine style, Berwick applying widescreen dubwise pressure: a robust low end topped with the distinctive twin twangs of jaw harp and slide guitar, coming on like Jah Shaka meeting Ry Cooder.

Although best-known these days for serving up blissful Balearic beats, Chris Coco's Coco, Steel & Lovebomb project started life as a platform for his early 90s house productions. Pleasingly, the veteran British producer is now making house again, in this instance in cahoots with long-serving Italian artist DJ Rocca. On side A, they both deliver their own pass on 'Echoes In My Mind', with Rocca's fluid, warm and organic Italian dream house-meets-Balearic house pass being followed by Coco's hybrid deep house/nu-disco take. They jointly explore their love of African musical culture on languid, hazy and mid-tempo B-side 'Mama Sol Mama Africa', where fluttering flutes, warm Rhodes keys and layered percussion catch the ear. That comes backed with a lovely alternative 'dub' full of effects-laden musical details and ear-catching percussion hits.

Baxter Dury’s eighth album, 'Allbarone', seemed to be done and dusted after release last autumn, yet super-producer Paul Epworth (Adele, U2) decided it was a good idea to work on extensions of five of tracks from the album. Not just extensions - full on electro-disco mixes that take tracks apart from the edges and reorder them into relentless dance floor tools built to perfectly soundtrack the small hours.

Each track finds a groove and takes its journey right through the middle of the original track, to create classic 12" extended remixes, adding a whole load of echoing dub over flickering percussion tracks, madly addictive basslines and gloriously languid disco rhythm tracks. From 'Kubla Khan’s hefty low-end groove to 'Alpha Dog’s deconstructed nightclub dub via 'Schadenfreude’s Eurodisco bass and fizzing hi-hat pulse, Paul Epworth’s phenomenal new mixes lift Baxter’s tracks up to another level.

,Memoria", das neueste Album von Carmen Villain auf Smalltown Supersound, beginnt wie ein geöffnetes Ventil; ausatmende Flötenakkorde füllen langsam eine weite Klanglandschaft und laden den Zuhörer dazu ein, das Tempo zu drosseln und in einen Zustand des tiefen Zuhörens einzutreten. Es ist eine Einleitung, die gekonnt in ein Album aus verlangsamten, spektralen Dub-Klängen führt, die schimmern, knurren und über die narrativ geordneten sieben Titel hinweg ausklingen. In dieser Hinsicht knüpft ,Memoria" dort an, wo Villain mit ihrem 2022 erschienenen Album ,Only Love from Now On" aufgehört hatte, auch wenn der Schwerpunkt des aktuellen Albums auf Klang als Erinnerung liegt - und auf Erinnerungen als sich wandelnde, nicht statische Unvollkommenheiten. Wiederholung fungiert als neu erzählte Erinnerung; die Bearbeitung zersetzt und formt den Klang neu, und Abstraktion ermöglicht eine Art Freiheit von Linearität. Inspiriert von Pauline Oliveros' Schriften über innerlich abrufbare Klänge, die für andere unhörbar sind, sowie von Apichatpong Weerasethakuls Film ,Memoria" aus dem Jahr 2021, betrachtet Villain die Erinnerung sowohl als kognitive Fähigkeit als auch als Form der Komposition und formt Samples aus ihrem eigenen Archiv zu einer kosmischen Selbstbeobachtung - wenn auch zu einer, die das Gegenteil von Solipsismus ist. Der nach innen gerichtete Blick des Albums lässt sich vom tiefen Zuhören als Form der Empathie inspirieren, das uns gleichzeitig mit uns selbst und unserer Umgebung verbindet. Die Arbeit der letzten Jahre an Kompositionen für zeitgenössischen Tanz und Installationen - darunter Kooperationen mit der Choreografin Eszter Salamon und ein Aufenthalt am IRCAM, bei dem sie erstmals ambisonische Räumlichmachung erforschte - prägt ebenfalls die verstärkte Aufmerksamkeit, die ,Memoria" dem Klang als physischem Raum und immersiver Umgebung widmet. Ein Großteil von ,Memoria" basiert auf einer Kombination aus neuen Aufnahmen und älterem Archivmaterial: Aufnahmesessions mit der häufigen Mitwirkenden Johanna Orellana (Flöten) sowie Eivind Lonning (Trompete) werden neben Villains eigenen Klarinettenaufnahmen zerlegt und zu einer dichten, aber luftigen Sample-Bank neu zusammengesetzt. Die viszerale menschliche Präsenz (Atem, Wind, die Körperlichkeit der Luft, die durch Instrumente strömt) und harmonische Stränge des Free Jazz treten durch mehrere Bearbeitungsschichten hindurch zutage, als hörte man sie aus der Ferne - oder durch die Zeit hindurch. Rhythmen und Texturen lösen sich auf. Der Klang erodiert. Erinnerungen werden neu gestaltet. Und Melodien sind, anders als auf Villains früheren Veröffentlichungen, weniger deutlich und weichen anderen musikalischen Leitmotiven. Es lässt sich eine Tradition zurückverfolgen, die zu Rhythm & Sound, Clicks-and-Cuts, Pharoah Sanders, Jon Hassell, Actress und Ricardo Villalobos führt - wenn auch oft in abstrakten Formen: Kleine Klänge werden groß, während große in einen feinkörnigen Rhythmus zurücktreten. Minimalismus ist der Schlüssel, um die Details wahrzunehmen: knisternde Elektronik, Einatmen und Seufzer hallen in weiten Räumen nach und ruhen auf einem Fundament aus Rhythmus. Diese Zurückhaltung unterstreicht Villains Neigung, Klänge und ihre geisterhaften Klanggedächtnis-Doppelgänger nach Frequenzen chirurgisch voneinander zu trennen. Paradoxerweise lässt sich jedes Artefakt als Annäherung an eine Erinnerung mit äußerster Präzision hören. Für Villain scheint die Erinnerung im Klang bequem hinter dem Mischpult eines Dub-Labors Platz zu nehmen und dort gekonnt und unvorhersehbar Lautstärken, Texturen, Filter und alle anderen Parameter - bekannte wie unbekannte - in einer sich ständig wandelnden Erinnerung zu steuern.

Sublime frequencies from the golden era of ambient electronica.

Plumbing hidden depths beneath a deceptively tranquil surface, MLO's mid-90s masterpiece Io is an overlooked gem from a golden era for ambient electronic music. Originally released in 1994, Jon Tye and Pete Smith's collaborative album responded to the growing chill-out movement by leaning into classical and avant-garde influences from Satie, Debussy and Cage through to Soft Machine, Incredible String Band and Eno. Recorded across various studios stacked with classic and rare synths, Io was patiently composed into slowly unfolding suites punctuated with ripples of arrhythmic interference to arrive at a purist vision of true ambient.

The next instalment in Forever Records' ongoing reissue series shines a light back on this landmark piece of UK electronica with the first official reissue since its original edition on Rising High. As well as the original double LP pressing and a new CD digipak version, there will also be a uniquely numbered, limited edition housed in a gatefold sleeve that comes with a bonus 10" featuring two previously unreleased versions of the album's opening cut, 'Wimborne'.

Press response to Io:

"Not so much ambient, more environmental music, Io lets you bring as much (or as little) of your surroundings in as suits your mood. Every listen can be different. Interactive ambient at last.”

IO is pure ambience. Relying on motif as opposed to melody, MLO have produced a truly evocative album.

Peter McIntyre, Mixmag, UK 1994.

"MLO's influences range from the likes of Eric Satie and the intellectual salon music of his era to the more predictable reference point of dubby, modern techno, though they feel, perhaps rather contentiously, that "ambient music can exist in isolation from the rest of the dance music arena". Can it? Take a trip to Io, and find out."
Generator Magazine, UK 1994.

"If you like your ambient deep and moody with long chords that creep along at approximately the speed of drying paint then check out MLO’s Io."
Mixology, UK 1994.

"MLO set the controls for the heart of headspace for their first full album release. Io is top grade ambient brain… Ace album…"
Select, UK 1994.

Sublime frequencies from the golden era of ambient electronica.

Plumbing hidden depths beneath a deceptively tranquil surface, MLO's mid-90s masterpiece Io is an overlooked gem from a golden era for ambient electronic music. Originally released in 1994, Jon Tye and Pete Smith's collaborative album responded to the growing chill-out movement by leaning into classical and avant-garde influences from Satie, Debussy and Cage through to Soft Machine, Incredible String Band and Eno. Recorded across various studios stacked with classic and rare synths, Io was patiently composed into slowly unfolding suites punctuated with ripples of arrhythmic interference to arrive at a purist vision of true ambient.

The next instalment in Forever Records' ongoing reissue series shines a light back on this landmark piece of UK electronica with the first official reissue since its original edition on Rising High. As well as the original double LP pressing and a new CD digipak version, there will also be a uniquely numbered, limited edition housed in a gatefold sleeve that comes with a bonus 10" featuring two previously unreleased versions of the album's opening cut, 'Wimborne'.

Press response to Io:

"Not so much ambient, more environmental music, Io lets you bring as much (or as little) of your surroundings in as suits your mood. Every listen can be different. Interactive ambient at last.”

IO is pure ambience. Relying on motif as opposed to melody, MLO have produced a truly evocative album.

Peter McIntyre, Mixmag, UK 1994.

"MLO's influences range from the likes of Eric Satie and the intellectual salon music of his era to the more predictable reference point of dubby, modern techno, though they feel, perhaps rather contentiously, that "ambient music can exist in isolation from the rest of the dance music arena". Can it? Take a trip to Io, and find out."
Generator Magazine, UK 1994.

"If you like your ambient deep and moody with long chords that creep along at approximately the speed of drying paint then check out MLO’s Io."
Mixology, UK 1994.

"MLO set the controls for the heart of headspace for their first full album release. Io is top grade ambient brain… Ace album…"
Select, UK 1994.

Teal return on October 2 with Love Comes Thru, the trio's nine-track debut album. Expanding their emotionally resonant blend of downtempo trip-pop, the record reaches into street soul, dub, and experimental grooves, marking a confident new chapter for the group.

At its core, Love Comes Thru is a reflection on the quiet strength of love—not through grand gestures, but through the steady presence that carries us through uncertainty, change, and connection. Written over the course of a year of bi-coastal collaboration, the album became a testament to the bond Teal share as artists, friends, and family.

From the lush synth landscapes of "Aries Moon" to the footwork-inspired pulse of "Time Is Blind," the album explores themes of patience, vulnerability, longing, and intimacy. Standout singles "Kissing in a Dream" and the title track lean into left-field street soul, while stripped-back, 808-driven tracks like "Change Your Mind" and "Anomaly" demonstrate the power of restraint without sacrificing momentum. Building on the group's love of ambient improvisation, Love Comes Thru also features instrumental pieces with percussion by Brandon Valdivia (Mas Aya/Lido Pimienta).

The album closes with the sensual "Bubbling," bringing the journey full circle with a reminder that love ultimately comes through in its most embodied, physical form. Love Comes Thru is presented in a deluxe, limited-edition matte-finish, double-embossed jacket with a printed inner sleeve. Available on LP and digitally through Rubadub, In Sheep's Clothing, and Forced Exposure beginning October 2.

Mr Bongo reissues, in full for the first time, a pioneering Trinidadian steelband album from 1979. Masterminded by the key and highly influential calypso / soca steelpan player, Len "Boogsie" Sharpe, Phase2 showcases Boogsie’s innovative fusion of jazz, funk and Caribbean rhythms in stunning style.

Dubbed ‘the Mozart of Pan’ by Wynton Marsalis, Boogsie began playing pan at the age of five and composed his own music by the age of nine years old. Across a long and illustrious career, he has won seven National Panorama Championships in Trinidad and Tobago with his compositions and band, a world Steelband Music Festival with his original compositions “In the Rainforest”, and two Notting Hill Panorama Championships with Mangrove Steel Orchestra. Over the years he has also played with Andre Tanker, Lord Shorty, Lord Kitchener, Leston Paul, Clive Zanda, and other amazing Caribbean greats. Len became an arranger for the National Steelband of Trinidad and Tobago and is a cultural ambassador for the country promoting the instrument.

"The Whole Of The Moon" is a classic. It's a song about awe and hope and love for the people who show us the best of this often broken world, the blessed few who show the way and introduce us to things and thoughts. Keith McIvor aka JD Twitch of Optimo was one of those people, and this version of the track - electronic, euphoric, open-hearted - was made by some members of the broader Optimo community after his terminal brain cancer diagnosis in 2025. The task of making a version that could've been heard on the dance floor at Planet Peach, Mas, or the Sub Club on a Sunday night or Monday morning brought them together across oceans, an act of joy amidst so much loss. It was never intended to be released, but as it made its way to friends and others, it also felt wrong not to. Its sentiment is universal and applies to so many incredible people in music and beyond that are sadly missed. So here is the Watergirls' first and last track, presented as a limited white label with some particularly lethal mixes from Sean Johnston of Hardway Bros and A Love From Outer Space. We're giving all the profits to charity. It's meant to be played out. It's meant to make two friends hug and sing into each other's faces. It's for Keith and for everyone like him.

Grammy-nominated German producer and DJ, Mousse T is set to headline the next installment of Defected's celebrated House Masters vinyl series with a sprawling three-LP retrospective of his remix career. Spanning six sides of wax, the collection pulls together two decades of dancefloor alchemy, tracing his signature style from disco- inflected house to breakbeat- tinged funk and back again. Including four brand new "Shizzle" and "Re-Rub" productions that are exclusive to this compilation and one remix that has previously never been released on vinyl before, makes this a particularly essential release, offering vinyl access to mixes that may otherwise circulate only in DJ pools or digital crates. House Masters Mousse T. features classic and fresh takes on the likes of Dennis Ferrer, Martin Solveig, Moloko, Camelphat, Spiller, Shakedown and many more, cementing Mousse's reputation as one of house music's most versatile and prolific talents.

YARN welcomes René Audiard for its tenth release with "Makes Me Feel", a four-track EP from one of underground electronic music’s most singular voices.

Across years of dub techno, minimal and leftfield electronic experimentation, René has developed an approach to stripped-down music that feels anything but limited. Where minimalism can often become an exercise in taking things away, his work finds possibility in what remains. "Makes Me Feel" is a particularly fitting example: immersive, at times strange, but always full of feeling.

‘Lovin’ opens the EP in familiar Audiard territory: murky low-end, locomotive groove, reduced rhythmic compositions and an understated framework swimming in a pool of detail. 'Possession' lets in more light. Vocal echoes, persistent rhythms and occasional string phrases give it a cinematic quality, while a groove that seems to circle endlessly takes on an almost shamanistic pull. The EP’s 11-minute behemoth, 'Flesh', fills most of the release’s B-side while making a convincing case for patience and sophistication. There are echoes of minimal’s golden age here, but Audiard never mistakes repetition for standing still. Tiny rhythmic fragments sit alongside expansive orchestral gestures, with samples working at every scale of the arrangement. Warmth and cinematic drama run through the track, but it's the playful programming underneath that keeps it moving. 'Night' closes the record on a different note, recalling Audiard’s work with Ali Çakır in Düve. Percussive samples, accordion and Middle Eastern guitar phrases bring a more acoustic character to his reduced 808-infused broken beats, making for a playful, occasionally melancholic ending with a distinctly microtonal feel.

What makes René Audiard’s music so rewarding is how readily you recognize his hand in it. There is a particular grain to the sounds, a way of placing details within a groove, and a willingness to follow an idea wherever it leads. Across “Makes Me Feel”, those instincts give four quite different tracks a shared identity. Even when working within familiar forms, Audiard makes them sound entirely his own. It’s the holy grail of music production: a personal sound signature. And a thoughtful addition to YARN’s growing repertoire of reduced, sophisticated dancefloor music.

*2X12" Gatefold LP - includes download code.

Electronic musician nthng presents his fifth album, Last Light of the Sun, his debut release on topo2. Renowned for his meticulous productions and quietly distinctive artistic voice, nthng continues to move effortlessly between ambient, IDM, dub techno, and drum & bass without ever feeling bound by genre. Last Light of the Sun shows that the album format is a natural home for nthng's expansive musical vision. Throughout its ten compositions, the album moves gracefully between dreamlike melodic passages, restrained, fragile 4/4 structures, melancholic drum & bass punctuated by vintage house vocal fragments, and spacious ambient compositions that feel unmistakably his own.

The double LP is released by adventurous electronic music label topo2 on October 2, 2026. The record is pressed on two 180-gram discs of ICCS-certified bio-vinyl and housed in a heavyweight full-colour gatefold sleeve. Mastered by Isabel Schröer at OLO Mastering, with artwork by Alyssa Warren and Raen Coplin. Additional contributions include bamboo flute on "Flutter" by Temple Rat and typewriting by Karina Rovira.

Pleasurewood return with 'Electric Telepathy', their second full-length LP offering Simla Space Funk, Psych-Library and Vintage-Cinematic Raga-Rock grooves.

This new offering from the band embraces more of their vintage Hindi Cinema soundtrack influences — "Chump Change", "The Hoverfly" and "RAMMM" could easily fit into the middle of an R.D. Burman score, each with their incongruous synthesis of different genres, infectious percussion, classical modes and funk chops.

There is also a slight sweep across a too-slow-to-disco tempo and feel with the moody Johnny Guitar Watson-esque slow burn of "Good Falcon" up to the nonchalant four-to-the-floor of "Last Dance Saloon" with its lyrical warning of digital over-saturation in our social-media saturated world and a foreboding of the mini-monoliths sat in the palms of our hands that in a Kubrickian way threaten to cosmically absorb us all as a species into their individual jet-black abysses.

And then, coming into focus like a sweet slice of disjointed, lo-fi, 8 bit space disco, "Mojave Desert" is a slacker-strut with telephone vocals dub guitars, dry cosmic synths and futurist Farfisa organ driven by an almost Acid-Jazz meets Post-Punk Bass line. The song is autobiographical in its account of an excursion along the 29 Palms Highway reflecting on an escape from the City of Angels not so far away, up into the stark psychedelic desert realm.

There is a lot to unpack in this record and yet more to discover so it will be best to allocate 40 minutes in a comfortable dimly-lit room with eyes closed and maybe a cognac in hand, to have a deep-dive into its well-travelled and esoterically funky grooves.

Gi Gi describes his process as “dubwise sampledelia.” It begins with fragments and ends somewhere else entirely, destabilizing its source material until it stops pointing backward. A borrowed sound, looped and bent, eventually forgets where it came from; it stops referencing anything but itself.

This liquid sensibility shaped his earlier work, music that hovered between drift and propulsion, suggesting the dance floor without fully stepping onto it. Presence was implied, edges stayed soft. The center was always there, but diffused like mist on a screen.

With In Lieu, that center comes into focus. Half written in Texas, half in Australia, the shift isn’t simply geographic, but internal. The record moves with a coiled, anticipatory energy; the drums arrive with more force and the bass organizes the room instead of melting into it. It's dense with the feeling of more bodies in the frame. Textures still smear and refract, but they move around a clearer axis.

Where past records circled their core, these inhabit it, pulling closer to the body. “Some Of” and “Arque” lean into low-end pressure without abandoning his instinct for drift. "Pink Dirt" circles around mechanical drums and dizzying vocal chops, head-down and visceral. Elsewhere, voices gain newfound contour, materializing in “Downswept” with intimate musings and nearly forming a lead vocal on the title track before dissolving again.

In Lieu moves with a newfound confidence, compressing inward, sounding closer to the source of its own pulse.

After running a sound system and studying electronics overseas, Spanish Town-based Harry Mudie began releasing rhythm and blues recordings by local performers, enjoying more concerted success during the reggae era of the late 1960s and mid-1970s, crafting lasting hits with artists like Dennis Walks and the Spanish Town-based toaster I Roy.

The first volume of the Dub Conference series, made with King Tubby, has stripped-down cuts of some of Mudie’s greatest productions, including ‘Lorna’s Dance,’ a percussion and horns take of ‘Caught You In A Lie’, and a strings cut of the Heptones’ ‘Love Without Feeling.’

180g Heavy double vinyl LP with liner notes by Tyran Grillo. Limited Japanese Obi for the first pressing. Original artwork by Russell Mills and photography by Jean-Baptiste Mondino.

The third Time Capsule is a body of dub reinterpretations by celebrated producer Bill Laswell of Ethiopian singer Gigi. Curated by Tokyo record collector, music researcher and seasoned reissue supervisor Ken Hidaka, it is the first time Illuminated Audio is pressed to vinyl after its CD release in 2003.

Ejigayehu Shibabaw was born in 1974 in Chagni, northwestern Ethiopia and by pursuing a career as a singer, went against her father’s strict, traditional gender roles. As Gigi, she embraced the same musical freedom she had strived for in her personal life, incorporating the Ethiopian church, funk, hip-hop, West and South African music into her work. She first settled in Nairobi, then Addis Ababa, where she quickly established herself as one of the city’s leading singers. A move to San Francisco in 1998 led to a long and fruitful creative partnership with bassist and producer Bill Laswell.

Around the same time, Chris Blackwell had stepped away from Island Records to start the art house film company and label Palm Pictures. He took an interest in Gigi and together with Laswell, pulled together an all-star cast of musicians for her self-titled US debut album, including Herbie Hancock, Pharoah Sanders and Wayne Shorter. It won international critical acclaim, not just for its musicianship but for making Gigi a “defining voice for the Ethiopian expatriate community”, as journalist Tyran Grillo praises in his Time Capsule liner notes. From the nation-defining 1896 victory over Italian invaders to the quiet revolutionaries who wear simple shemma garments, Grillo believes the themes in Gigi make it “a shower of sunlight on her homeland for those ignorant of its struggles.”

After its success, Blackwell encouraged them to go back into the studio to rethink the album and Illuminated Audio was born. “Anyone can make a voice sound worldly”, Grillo remarks, “but rare are those who can make one sound inner-worldly.” Gigi was clear with Laswell to give her vocals a minor role “because it’s already been done.” Instead her Amharic verse is fleeting, exhaling through the textures like ghostly fragments; soaring yet muted. Yet the album is still titled under her name, an assertion by Laswell of her central role in the album’s creation. Not only was it a fully endorsed project by Gigi, but she would be present throughout its development, giving feedback on half-finished ideas as Laswell played them back in the studio. “It works perfectly”, she reflected after the album’s release. “We wanted to capture the whole spirit of each track, and Bill’s remixes create a different music language that really puts you in a pleasant place”.

This new vocabulary takes its lead from a technical approach that Laswell had been perfecting during a furtive creative period at the turn of the millennium. Much like his ambient interpretations of Miles Davis (Panthalassa, 1998), Bob Marley (Dreams of Freedom, 1997), and Carlos Santana (Divine Light, 2001), Laswell approached Illuminated Audio by returning to the original multitrack masters. Gigi wasn’t just reworked, but recomposed into an expansive lattice of instruments, submerged in a watery ambience of dub and trance undercurrents.

Sonically, this new language that Gigi refers to, is manifested by the original album’s more understated parts being pushed to the fore. Explaining his contrasting methods, Laswell saw Gigi as being “put together in a way that fits”. Contrastingly, in Illuminated Audio, “a lot of things that I featured in the remix weren’t as audible in the original.” Instrumentation laying near-dormant, deep in the mix, are brought to the fore: the acid rock guitar and Wayne Shorter’s saxophone on ‘Tew Ante Sew’, Graham Haynes’ flugelhorn on ‘Nafekeñ’, Laswell’s bass on ‘Kahn’, the melodica in Mengedegna or the floating synths and talking drums in ‘Gud Fella’.

Brought to his attention by mentor DJ Nori, Hidaka describes Illuminated Audio as a “masterful sonic exploration into ethereal ambience and dub” and made sure this reissue also contained a full remaster to give its “deep musicality” much better dynamics and density in the overall sound. Hidaka admits that Laswell's music “is sometimes so out-there, it is often misunderstood” and, indeed, to dub album non-believers this might seem like a prolific producer imposing himself on another artist’s work; eternally developing rearrangements that never quite get to its destination. But that’s missing its true power and triumph. This is more than the reissue of a remix, but “a wholly unique musical entity”, as Hidaka describes. Illuminated Audio refers to the illuminated manuscripts that comprise the major part of Ethiopian art and its new compositions stand in proud solitude as a rare body of reworks that both informs and enhances their originals.

Riva Starr teams up with Australian duo Close Counters for a sun-soaked debut on Heist.

What do you get when you put an Italian house legend in the studio with 2 of the most talented artists from Melbourne? Have a listen to the newest release on Heist and you’ll find out. On their ‘Push your luck’ EP, Riva Starr, Close Counters and UK soul singer Andre Espeut bring a heavy dose of jazz & soul and most of all, upbeat dancefloor energy. Whether it’s the deep soulful vibe of the title track or the house meets jazz-funk energy of ‘Gearbox’, this EP brings together everything we love about house music.

‘Push your luck’ comes right in the middle of Close Counters’ world tour, just after Riva Starr’s album ‘Keep me on the dancefloor’ and is the follow up to their recent collab ‘Jinga’ on Riva Starr’s own Snatch Records. We all know Riva Starr from his 2013 Fatboy Slim collab ‘Eat sleep rave repeat’, his work with Groove Armada, and more recently his collab with Prunk on his PIV records debut album. Close Counters have already worked with Heist mainstays Fouk and had their breakthrough moment with their 2023 album ‘Soulacousta II’, which got wide support ranging from Gilles Peterson to Jyoto and Folamour.

Their ‘Push your luck’ EP kicks off with the title track featuring the silky vocals of Andre Espeut. When we first heard this song, we immediately got transported to the soulful sound of the mid 2000s led by Recloose’s unique track ‘Dust’ with Fat Freddy’s Drop singer Joe Dukie. It’s moody, stripped back, and bouncy at the same time. The lush chords, disco bassline, and vocal harmonies all make for a track that goes beyond genres and trends. This is a future classic.

‘Gearbox’ is a disco-tinged piano jam full of live elements, rolling congas and disco bleeps, where the musicality of the Close Counters boys comes in at full speed. This song takes its inspiration from the Brazilian jazz-funk of legends Marcos Valle and Azymuth, with a clear sense of modern-day dancefloors and a love for electronic noise. Also; 10/10 for creatively naming the track after the glitchy electronic sound that freaks & funks throughout the track.

On the flip, ‘Dizzy’ sees the trio go more into disco-house territory, again teaming up with Andre Espeut for a track that blends catchy vocal loops with a tight groove and lush chords. The EP finishes with a club dub of ‘Push your luck’ for those in favor of more groove and less vocals.

We’ve had Riva Starr and the Close Counters boys on our radar for a while, and they landed on Heist with the perfect combination of musicality and dancefloor power. We hope you like this release as much as we do!

As always, play it loud and share the music.

Lars & Maarten

Have Isaac Carter & Callum Asa made the most tasteful tech house EP of recent memory? The short answer is
yes....

Isaac and Callum, known for their respective club nights: OCHI and Planet People have been quietly chipping away at the coalface of underground dance music for quite some time now.

Isaac - perhaps known more widely as a regular at Circoloco & Phonox has shared bills with the likes of Moodyman, DJ Bone, Kai Alce, Laurent Garnier and Marcellus Pittmann whilst being championed by Joy Orbison, Ben UFO, Moxie, Seth Troxler, Raresh and Floating Points to name but a few. With such an impressive CV and wide ranging support, it’s wild to note that the first EP released on his own label, OCHI only came out in 2023. His star is clearly ascending with rapidity - so when we throw long term collaborator Callum Asa into the mix, things start to get really interesting. Calum has been running Planet People for the last couple of years, welcoming incredible names such as Shed, Surgeon, Willow, Ploy, Cooly G, Rroxymore and so many more. Steel sharpens steel and having been surrounded by such esteemed talent, it’s clearly rubbed off on the pair who present 4 polished, meticulously constructed, club ready masterpieces, each with their own distinct feel and an insatiable groove.

‘Feel Me’ sets the scene with a descending baseline that would eek a wiggle out of the most reluctant spectator. The twisted dub eeks out even more groove, locking in a more sinister bounce for the heads. By The time ‘Understand’ get’s into full swing, we’re already under the spell of Carter & Asa, this is the kind of roller that could go on forever and ever. The synth embellishments and washes of analog synth pull us deeper and deeper in, prepping us for the finale , ’Try You’ which simmers with deep, brooding intensity.

The magic of the dup’s appeal is that this EP will find its way into the bags of the deepest diggers and also appeal to a new generation of house fans. Elements of it are accessible , but in the right hands - the EP will open a portal to new worlds.

DJ Himitsu is a Tokyo-born, London-based producer and DJ, known for his understated approach and deep knowledge of Japanese vinyl and book culture. Following a debut EP of acid house on Australian imprint Lunatic Music in 2023, 'Exotic Animals' marks a new waypoint in Himitsu's artistic evolution.

On this debut full length, driving 303 basslines and kickdrums are traded in for obscure recordings and convoluted samples, which spiral and fuse to form shuffling, heady new compositions. Like shattered pottery reassembled into top-heavy sculptures with golden glue, 'Exotic Animals' shapes and juxtaposes opposing forms and fragments, with lolloping aplomb.

When not producing, DJ Himistu runs Caravan - a vintage Japanese record, ceramics and bookshop in London. It's with the same warmth, care and curiosity that he arranges his findings in the plunderous grotto of 'Exotic Animals'. In this way, stepping inside this work is like entering a remote trading post of instruments, memoirs and other sonic curios - as Himitsu stands patiently at the counter.

Recommended for fans of Jon Hassell, Giovanni Venosta, Discrepant.

Apex militant late '70s style here, if you think you are into steppers you should have this one firmly in your sights. One of Mr. Smart's hardest records, this originally appeared only as an album track, but also had some fame as a dubplate played at the time by Jah Shaka and others. We've long had that cut in our sights, and while some nice new re-mixes of this tune appeared in the last few years, here is the real thing from '79 steel. The A-side features the raw dubplate cut vocal, no horns or other adornment, HARD to the point stepping drum and bass style. The B-side features the original Gussie Clarke dub mix aptly titled "Hot Steppers", also previously released only on album. This cut as well was run on dubplate back at the time, a killer mix with full horns but no vocal. Leroy Smart is one of our all time favorite artists and we take pride in having re-released a handful of his all time best records, this one now added to that list.

MCRV019 – VA – Phase Drift. Passage is a graceful and emotionally nuanced four-track journey through modern deep tech house. Blending reimagined echoes of early 2000s deep sounds with forward-thinking production, the release moves between moods and textures with surgical control and quiet sophistication. It’s an EP that balances warmth and restraint, melancholy and motion — built for selectors who appreciate finely tuned emotional arcs.

A1. Stephano Franca – Arriving opens with a fluid, introspective piece. Gentle and melancholic, it glides with cinematic poise, drawing listeners into a state of suspended reflection.
A2. Dot – Distance Call introduces a percussive, tribal undercurrent — earthy and grounded, yet full of bounce. It energizes the space while maintaining depth and groove.

Flipping over, B1. Reenday – Last Call (Nicolas Barnes Remix) brings a refined sense of cold elegance. Dubby and atmospheric, it’s a minimalist piece that evokes distance and stillness — a cool breath in the night.
Closing the release, B2. Jeronimo Watson – On The Prowl is a deep tech gem — emotive, seductive, and sharply detailed. With a slow-burning energy, it brings the record to a confident and composed close.

From Brazilian talent Stephano Franca to Dot and Nicolas Barnes, two of the label’s most precise and consistent producers, and rising standout Reenday, a finalist of the ANTS: NEXT GEN Artist Program 2025, this release represents the current essence of MixCult. It is sealed by the distinct touch of Jeronimo Watson, whose Los Angeles–rooted sound closes the circle with style.

Phase Drift. Passage is not just a collection of tracks — it’s a refined toolkit for navigating emotional shifts and dancefloor narratives, framed by elegance and intention.

Limited Edition.

Following up 2007s well received X-dub was the Phalaenopsis 12inch that came out later that year. A track selection that came from the same hyped mysterious MySpace track folder, but now transmitted through Frustrated Funks subsidiary, the now defunct Frantic Flowers imprint that was emerging through the early Clone channels. Signing there, without the staffs knowledge of the producers identity, further muddied the waters. Exploring a more housy dub-techno vibe and diving deeper into experimental dub territory. And with it deploying an even bigger smokescreen around Ovatows real identity. Both Phalaenopsis versions re-appear now, for the first time after almost 20 years, fully retouched and remastered, together with an unknown unreleased track (edit) called So It Goes. This is the second in a series of Ovatow work, revived for the heads that appreciate the foggy deep of the Undacurrnt.

Since the release of DAMAGED in 2024, Michael Fiedler aka GHOST DUBS has been surfing intensifying waves of adulation, earning praise from such diverse underground legends as Justin Broadrick (Godflesh/Jesu), Regis, Stefan Betke (Pole) and Steve Von Till (Neurosis). With second album Oblique, his mastery of sculpting sound waves results in a spellbinding set of alien soundscapes: larger in scale, richer in tone and considerably more cinematic than its predecessor. Lower, deeper and moodier, its cloudy abstractions, shadowy pulsations and submerged rhythms find Fiedler reaching further into his own sonic void, crafting blurred melodies and addictive narco loops into something simultaneously heavyweight and hypnotic.

Lead single and album opener “Low Times” sets the atmospheric pressure to maximum, resembling a dream date between prime dirt-house era Andy Stott and Berlin dub-tech pioneers Basic Channel. From there, Oblique descends into a series of enchanting mood scenes: the furtive, balletic gyrations of “After All”, the haunting ambience and buried heartbeat throb of “Soft Collapse”, and the noirish atmospherics of “Blackout Dust”, which worms its way into the mind like some forgotten David Lynch scene. The spirit of reggae is more distanced here than on DAMAGED, but the ghost of Jamaican dub still permeates these foggy soundscapes, particularly on “Bombed Suburbs”, where Augustus Pablo-style melodicism is chopped, screwed and slowed into a magnetic lock groove.

Superficially minimal but maximal in its minute detail, Oblique is a record of contorted reflections, mesmeric echoes and tantalising audio mirages. By the vaporous mist of closing track “Almost a Structure”, obvious rhythm has been craftily filtered away, leaving a blurred and blunted residue full of mystery and implied narrative. Dense in the best possible sense and crushing when played loud yet equally potent played quiet, Oblique imagines dub techno burning its own rigid rulebook: sensual, funky and concussive rather than dry or alienating. Following Fiedler’s recent work scoring Sound of Falling, recognised at Cannes in 2025, Oblique finds Ghost Dubs shedding his influences and making it clear he has arrived at a sound entirely his own — essential deep listening and a bewitching dose of future shock.

2026 Repress

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


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

YL Hooi returns with 'Running Around (83)', the project's first release since 2019's Untitled. Valya Ying-Li Hooi and Tarquin Manek finally commit a long road-tested live favourite to tape, welding together engine room doom, disembodied vocals, cryptic lyricism and a smouldering dub-techno bassline, recast and overdriven.

The hand-stamped white label 12" honours its roots with three heavyweight remixes. After corrupted audio files erased YL Hooi's recent live collaboration with Mad Professor, the Ariwa boss gives their encounter lasting form with a percussion-dripped halftime stepper featuring veteran Black Steel and new blood Karmelody.

The flipside immediately detours with Ulla's full-scale tear down and rebuild, layering woodwind, keys and subtle percussion into an improbably elegant convergence of ambient, minimal jazz and modern classical. John T. Gast's Midas touch then drags it into bardo dancehall territory, a rugged soundsystem destroyer that's scuzzy, screwed and wired with punk instinct.

Das einzige Trennungsalbum, das Sie jemals besitzen müssen. Mit seinen schwebenden Harmonien, taschenraubartigen Rhythmen und den in der Ferne um 2 Uhr morgens heulenden ,Krankenwagen"-Gitarrensoli verbreitete sich Idas zweites Album aus dem Jahr 1996 von Brooklyn aus über herausnehmbare Auto-CD-Player und Mixtapes von Fernliebenden. Ursprünglich auf dem traditionsreichen Label ,Simple Machines" veröffentlicht, enthält diese zum 30-jährigen Jubiläum erschienene Deluxe-Edition von ,I Know About You" bei Numero ein halbes Dutzend Extras, eine Fülle an fotografischem Material sowie neue Einblicke von Jenny Toomey und Sara Marcus. Taschentücher sind nicht im Lieferumfang enthalten.

Das einzige Trennungsalbum, das Sie jemals besitzen müssen. Mit seinen schwebenden Harmonien, taschenraubartigen Rhythmen und den in der Ferne um 2 Uhr morgens heulenden ,Krankenwagen"-Gitarrensoli verbreitete sich Idas zweites Album aus dem Jahr 1996 von Brooklyn aus über herausnehmbare Auto-CD-Player und Mixtapes von Fernliebenden. Ursprünglich auf dem traditionsreichen Label ,Simple Machines" veröffentlicht, enthält diese zum 30-jährigen Jubiläum erschienene Deluxe-Edition von ,I Know About You" bei Numero ein halbes Dutzend Extras, eine Fülle an fotografischem Material sowie neue Einblicke von Jenny Toomey und Sara Marcus. Taschentücher sind nicht im Lieferumfang enthalten.

Electronic music legends Soft Cell release ‘Out Come The Freaks’, the very first single from singer Marc Almond and multi-instrumentalist and producer Dave Ball’s final album ‘Danceteria’. Download and stream the track, featuring vocals from the late Dave Ball and special guest vocals from Nona Hendryx.

‘Out Come The Freaks’ is a cover of Was (Not Was)’s mutant disco classic and sends Soft Cell into prime disco territory, conjuring the hedonist spirit of early 80s Manhattan and a Danceteria floor filler spun by DJ Mark Kamins. There couldn’t be a more fitting alternative disco banger to pull back the curtain with and beckon you into the world of ‘Danceteria’. The final album is a homage to the legendary nightclub where young Marc and Dave would party until the small hours after the recording sessions for their seminal 1981 debut ‘Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret’. The final flourish of glitter to Soft Cell’s ‘Out Come The Freaks’ comes courtesy of guest vocals from Nona Hendryx, the iconic singer, one third of Labelle of ‘Lady Marmalade’ fame, and producer of Lisa Lisa and Bush Tetras.

This is the very first material to be released from ‘Danceteria’, Soft Cell’s forthcoming sixth and final album. It is also the first time new music has been released since the sad, untimely passing of Dave Ball in October 2025. Almond led the tributes, describing Ball as a “brilliant musical genius” and the world’s media hailing Dave as an electronic music pioneer. Dave finished ‘Danceteria’ very close to his passing and it is in full tribute to him that the album release goes ahead as planned. More details are to follow very soon about the release date.

„Öd“ marks the long-awaited return of Institut für Feinmotorik - the Black Forest collective known for using eight prepared turntables to investigate acoustic micro-phenomena generated by everyday objects - with a new album and their first full-length release on Faitiche. It is also the return of their almost comical understatement as personal artistic principle: „making almost nothing out of almost nothing,“ compressed into the dots on an umlaut.

The Öd-nis, the wasteland, is a field that the collective has been ploughing in sound since their first release in 1997. Eight prepared turntables, four mixers, no records, six hands (give or take) merge into what they call the „Octogrammoticum“. A rotating organism of surfaces in friction, fed with the clutter from a drawer: rubber bands or tin foil, CDs, a discarded socket board. Under IFF's scrutinizing stylus, mundane almost-nothings get scratched open to reveal the acoustic density of negative space itself.

Last year’s „Adhesive Tape“ drew IFF closer together after an almost ten-year hiatus. An eponymous event series at Berlin's silent green set in motion what would become their most twistedly funky release since „Penetrans“ on Staubgold in 2002.

The only thing öd about „Öd" (meaning „barren" or „boring“ in German) may well be its title: layers of improvised play and randomized loops convolve around porous, dubby groove locks, tugging at each other in a call-and-response with howling static that cuts through bulbous ambient techno into a scrap-metal Dixieland phantasm. Stratified yet spacious, these sonic double exposures always hover on the verge of collapsing. What you think you hear might not be what you actually hear.

The album’s track titles resemble Conceptual Poetry, extending this psycho-phenomenological gesture into the realm of spoken language. Conceived by renowned poet Dagmara Kraus, they become word molecules - „stern,” „dies,” „lose“ - tilting delicately between German and English, constantly changing depending on the ear’s perspective and pointing back to the deeply unstable fabric connecting meaning and sound. Which also makes „Öd“ an unusual cross-disciplinary collaboration - at least in the field of electronic music.

PS: Since its beginnings in Bad Säckingen, IFF has always been more than the sum of its rotating parts, moving tirelessly between multimedia art, theory, solo projects and collaborations. With IFF Expanded, the collective now opens its eight-doored apparatus, inviting artists working with CDJs or samplers to join - an ambitious live format that loosens its former purity law while carrying forward a long-standing curatorial practice. The same thread also runs into the related event series Acephalic Headspace.

Institut für Feinmotorik (*1997), artist-group originating from Black Forest working in various fields. In musical context known for transforming turntables into instruments by removing the records and instead applying rubber bands, paper scraps, household materials – resulting in a vivid laboratory for the productive misuse of everyday objects. This approach is documented in record releases and performed live.