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As we get ready to say goodbye to the Telomere Plastic series, we are excited to present Telomere 020.1, aka the first part out of 5.
Each release will have four different artists, making it a compilation of twenty different artists who will deliver unique, juicy and eclectic frequencies that will keep your telomeres bopping for the rest of time!

This first VA, features producers, ESB, Synaptic Voyager, Vinaya and Vonsuck.

A1, Fancy Organ from Vinaya, is a sexy deep and house cut that is guaranteed to bring smiles all around the dance floor. Arpeggios and groovy bass lines galore. Prepare your piano hands because you will find yourself playing that sweet air organ on this one!

A2, Self Destruct Sequence from Synaptic Voyager (aka Telomere 014’s Illuminators), is a very emotional cut. Originally released digitally on Frame Of Mind, we were overjoyed to be given the green light to put this beauty on wax. Deep pads, tommy drums, hints of IDM and techno, and soul striking arpeggios pave the way for a special sonic journey. Close your eyes and melt away with this one!

B1, Keio Acid from ESB. We are always delighted to share more ESB with you. Elan’s love for analog and tape give off a raw and authentic energy that is hard to come by. This deep, jazzy and loopy cut will keep you on your toes from start to finish. We can only dream of being on the dance floor as this one plays out!

B2, Unemati from Vonsuck, is a deep and dubby cut that beautifully blends the three genres dub techno, house and techno. Dark rooms and dark skies are recommend for this one here, even though we could see these frequencies accompanied by a pink and red sunrise bringing waves of energy and nostalgia to your soul. Its a real treat to have Vonsuck aka Galaktlan on the Telomere series!

Very limited black copies as always with a few colored copies available via the Wex bandcamp, be quick!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Reverend Horton Heat ain’t
just a person, or a band—it’s a
state of mind. Drawing on such
crazed rockabilly ancestors as
Charlie Feathers, Hasil Adkins,
and The Killer himself, James
(Reverend Horton) Heath and his
long-time bassist Jimbo Wallace
have, over the course of the
last 30-plus years, helped bring
rockabilly kicking and screaming
into the modern age, marrying
punk with rockabilly to create the psychobilly genre.
And, on their 2000 album Spend the Night in the Box—which,
to burnish the “psycho” credentials, was produced by fellow
Texan Paul Leary of Butthole Surfers fame—The Reverend
Horton Heat struck gold (hence our gold vinyl edition!), going
to #2 on the CMJ charts on the strength of such numbers as
“Sue Jack Daniels,” “The Girl in Blue,” and other misbegotten
tales of babes and booze. This is actually a bit of a return to
a classic rockabilly/swing sound, powered by the Rev’s 1954
Gibson ES-175 and the rhythm section of Wallace and drummer
Scott Churilla, but it’s no less (ahem) heated. Vinyl debut
boasting inner sleeve with lyrics!

Jean-Luc Mocard met Jean Ronde in September of 2009, while working at the CASIO Palaiseau factory, near Paris. Before, they were both active musicians with a particular taste for synthesized music, touring extensively through European and Asian underground venues and clubs. Eventually, their furious passion for collecting 80’s keyboards brought them together to become the fabulous duo Vive Les Cônes.

Presently based in Porto, Portugal, by a matter of pure chance, Vive Les Cônes is a CASIO explosion, the fuel of a dancing machine that never stops and cherry picks moments from dance and pop music culture along the way. Their live concerts are non-stop hit parades featuring their very own local cult classics, such as “Bonaparty” or “Brocoli-Rave”, and medleys of pop-culture classics ranging from video-game soundtracks, to dance hits, to classical music.

“De France”, their debut album, is the product of years of playing live, training and mastering the perfect CASIO technique. Every track in this album is played live using only pure unmodded Casio PT-380 and Yamaha PSR-37 keyboards, thrift store fx pedals, bringing to the recorded form the meticulously crafted tracks that set dancefloors on fire all throughout the world.

The album is an eclectic journey through electronic and dance music on cheap keyboards, from traces of House Music in “Maillon” and the instant hit “Je Ne Sais Pas”, fumes of vaporwave in “Machine à Vapeur”, and, of course, baguettes of French electro in “Brocoli-Rave”, the track that usually andeuphorically ends Vive Les Cônes’ set.

The Quietus has referred to the duo as a “weird John Shuttleworth take on house music”, but them being French, a better comparison would be something like “Daft Punk lost all their gear on tour and had to play a gig using some old keyboards”. But could they even do it? Maybe a “Pascal Comelade on molly live set for Boiler Room” could make thembetter Justice. We’re not really sure what to compare them to though, and probably there’s no need to compare them to anything, as the best thing you can do is to give them a go and check them out for yourself.

Jean-Luc Mocard met Jean Ronde in September of 2009, while working at the CASIO Palaiseau factory, near Paris. Before, they were both active musicians with a particular taste for synthesized music, touring extensively through European and Asian underground venues and clubs. Eventually, their furious passion for collecting 80’s keyboards brought them together to become the fabulous duo Vive Les Cônes.

Presently based in Porto, Portugal, by a matter of pure chance, Vive Les Cônes is a CASIO explosion, the fuel of a dancing machine that never stops and cherry picks moments from dance and pop music culture along the way. Their live concerts are non-stop hit parades featuring their very own local cult classics, such as “Bonaparty” or “Brocoli-Rave”, and medleys of pop-culture classics ranging from video-game soundtracks, to dance hits, to classical music.

“De France”, their debut album, is the product of years of playing live, training and mastering the perfect CASIO technique. Every track in this album is played live using only pure unmodded Casio PT-380 and Yamaha PSR-37 keyboards, thrift store fx pedals, bringing to the recorded form the meticulously crafted tracks that set dancefloors on fire all throughout the world.

The album is an eclectic journey through electronic and dance music on cheap keyboards, from traces of House Music in “Maillon” and the instant hit “Je Ne Sais Pas”, fumes of vaporwave in “Machine à Vapeur”, and, of course, baguettes of French electro in “Brocoli-Rave”, the track that usually andeuphorically ends Vive Les Cônes’ set.

The Quietus has referred to the duo as a “weird John Shuttleworth take on house music”, but them being French, a better comparison would be something like “Daft Punk lost all their gear on tour and had to play a gig using some old keyboards”. But could they even do it? Maybe a “Pascal Comelade on molly live set for Boiler Room” could make thembetter Justice. We’re not really sure what to compare them to though, and probably there’s no need to compare them to anything, as the best thing you can do is to give them a go and check them out for yourself.

Fans of Coltrane will certainly dig this historical 1970s spiritual jazz album from Argentina which left an everlasting imprint in the local jazz scene. From the eerie "Blues para un cosmonauta" —which could easily fit in the Twin Peaks soundtrack—, to the majestic "Líneas Torcidas" or the mid-tempo groove of "Mi amigo Tarzán", new landscapes in jazz are explored without hiding, at moments, the musicians' bebop pedigree. Venturing into unchartered dimensions, the album breaks with traditionalism and combines jazz and new electronic instruments into a contemporary concept that is both cosmic and sensual, a sound where timbre and space play a crucial role. Here, no track sounds like the other.

The charismatic, multifaceted saxophone player Horacio "Chivo" Borraro is joined here most notably by Fernando Gelbard —who pioneered electronic keyboards and analog synths in Argentina, playing here Fender Rhodes and Minimoog— and Brazilian musician Stenio Mendes —who plays the 12-string craviola and contributes two tracks. Jorge González on bass and Néstor Astarita on drums —both part of Gato Barbieri's rhythm section in the early 60s— and Chino Rossi —responsible for much of the unusual percussion and special effects that give the album its unprejudiced aura— complete the line-up of Blues para un Cosmonauta.

"Alles glänzt" - Das neue Album von Feine Sahne Fischfilet erscheint am 12.05.2023.

Vor fünf Jahren erschien das letzte Album von Feine Sahne Fischfilet, mit dem es die Gruppe aus Mecklenburg-Vorpommern erstmals weit nach vorne auf Platz 3 in die Charts schaffte und im Anschluss das, was man landläufig den "großen Durchbruch" nennt.

Die darauffolgenden Jahre waren sie konstant auf Tour. Feine Sahne Fischfilet nahmen ihre Hörerinnen und Hörer in den Arm, wenn es brenzlig wurde. Und es brannte eigentlich immer. Alles war dabei: Ernüchterung, Suff, Spaß, Agitation, Vernunft, Randale und Exzess. Und weil sich die Band auch immer wieder politisch einmischte und aneckte, ist Ärger bis heute vorprogrammiert und vielfach Dauerzustand. Nazis, AfD und auch lokale und überregionale Rechtsausleger jeglicher Couleur legten der Band immer wieder Steine in den Weg.

Um all diesen Wahnsinn, all diese Ambivalenzen, all die guten und all die schlechten Tage geht es in den Liedern ihres neuen Albums "Alles glänzt", große Songs zwischen Gefühl und Härte. Und auch eine der besonderen Stärken von Feine Sahne Fischfilet kommt auf dem neuen Werk voll zur Geltung: Immer wieder überqueren sie musikalische Grenzen und machen so ihren Uptempo-Punkrock zu einem facettenreichen Hörvergnügen, das nicht nur die Beine, sondern auch die Herzen ihrer Fans bewegen wird. Produziert hat die 12 neuen Lieder von "Alles glänzt" Philipp "Philsen" Hoppen, der u.a. für seine Produzententätigkeiten für Die Ärzte, Kraftklub und K.I.Z bekannt und gefeiert wurde.

Since the release of the Sentimental Fool, Lee Fields has been touring relentlessly, playing to capacity crowds all across the US & EY with the drive and determination of an artist a fraction of his age. The fruits of which have culmi-nated in his song "Forever" being featured in 2023's top rated Super Bowl commercial, further solidifying Lee as the king of soul. In keeping with the momentum it is our pleasure to announce the release of his brand new single "Waiting on the Sidelines". Written by Thomas 'TNT' Brenneck (MSB, Charles Bradley, Diamond West Records) this beat-ballad grooves low and slow, giving Lee ample room to unleash a heart-breakingly soulful display of vocal acrobatics - an absolute must-have for fans of the Penrose sound. On the flip you'll find "You Can Count On Me", an in demand, upbeat moover previously only available on a limited edition 12" EP. Now bow to the king!

Die deutsche Rocklegende Phillip Boa und seine Band Phillip Boa and the Voodooclub, in Zusammenarbeit mit Universal Music, freuen sich, anlässlich des 30-jährigen Jubiläums die Wiederveröffentlichung des
bahnbrechenden Albums Boaphenia anzukündigen.

Im Jahr 1993 veröffentlicht, stellte das Album aufgrund ihres musikkritischen so wie kommerziellen Erfolg eine wahre Zäsur in der Karriere der Band dar und gilt heute als Kultklassiker. So erreichte es in den deutschen Albumcharts Platz 25 und war auch in Österreich und der Schweiz in den Charts vertreten.

Boaphenia wird weithin als eines der bedeutendsten Alben der hiesigen Szene angesehen, welches vor allem Phillip Boas einzigartigen Ansatz beim Songwriting und seine Fähigkeit, verschiedene Genres und Stile zu vermischen, eindrucksvoll unter Beweis stellt. Mit seinem innovativen Ansatz zur Rockmusik und den
poetischen Texten etablierte sich die Band als einer der wichtigsten Acts in der deutschen AlternativeRock-Szene. Gleichzeitig reicht ihr Einfluss auch heute noch über deutsche Grenzen hinaus.

Die umfangreiche 30 Jahre Jubiläumsedition fährt mit edler weißer 2LP-Doppelvinyl und einem 2CDMintpack auf, und enthält außerdem ein nie zuvor dagewesenes Earbook, bestehend aus insgesamt vier
CDs, einem Hardcover-Fotobuch über 52 Seiten und einer 10“ Single auf Vinyl. Zudem befinden sich auf dem Release 10 komplett neue, bisher unveröffentlichte Songs.

Die Groove Metaller DEVILDRIVER können auf neun Alben, zahllose internationale Tourneen und weltweiten Erfolg während ihres 30-jährigen Bandbestehen zurückblicken. Als die Welt im Jahr 2020 in den Lockdown ging, machten DEVILDRIVER keine Pause und veröffentlichten den gefeierten ersten Teil ihrer zweiteiligen Dealing With Demons-Saga. Internationale Medien wie Revolver, Metal Hammer, Kerrang und Consequence rühmten das Album und Blabbermouth postulierte: ”Wenn die zweite Hälfte dieses Mammutprojekts mit der ersten mithalten kann, wird dies als ein entscheidender Moment in der Geschichte von DEVILDRIVER in Erinnerung bleiben.” In Zeiten in denen das gesellschaftliche Klima härter ist denn je kommt DEVILDRIVERs zehntes Album Dealing With Demons Vol. II wie gerufen. Die neuste Scheibe des Quintetts wurde erneut von Steve Evetts mit Unterstützung von Gitarrist Mike Spreitzer produziert.

Unverkennbar ist Dealing With Demons Vol. II härter und unerbittlicher als sein Vorgänger. Schonungslos ist sie nicht nur die düstere beider Platten, sondern richtet den Blick in die dunkelsten Abgründe der
Psyche von Frontmann Dez Fafara und die Auseinandersetzung mit seinen Dämonen, die ihn schon lange heimgesucht haben.

Wenn sich jemand die Frage überhaupt gestellt hat, ob DEVILDRIVER in nächster Zeit langsamer werden, beweist Dealing With Demons Vol. II, dass sie auch nach 20 Jahren in ihrer Karriere Dämonen bezwingen
können und an der Spitze des Metals weitermachen.

Sustained exercises in tension. Personal healing. Dischord Records. The Unit Ama make music that explodes outward: dense but soothing metronomic pulses morph into a wild fracturing of the traditional rock trio. The Unit Ama take their time. They act on their own terms. This applies to their music and their work-rate. Two albums and a handful of singles in twenty years. Sporadic gigs. No endless Bandcamp messages or weekly mailing list updates. Rare missions outside their native north-east. And then… Toward is their second studio album and their second Gringo release. It’s not their ‘pandemic’ album but does see the band considering the important things: post-traumatic growth, insight through experience. Utilising the past to navigate towards a meaningful future. Toward was self-produced and will probably get tagged as post-hardcore which is fair enough. But it’s also informed by post-punk, jazz and folk, and by working closely together for two decades. The Unit Ama play in other incarnations that inform their music and the way they dismantle expectations of the rock trio. There’s as much Richard Thompson as Minutemen. Toward takes the exploratory, explosive sound of their debut and adds twenty years of living and listening. Toward is eight tracks that are thoughtful and intricate without losing any impact. This is gut music as much as it is head music. The Unit Ama never let their abilities get in the way of their instincts and Toward is full of surging urgency and roaring anxiety. But there are moments of brooding calm too, and a song – Mary – that could be stripped down and sold as a folk ballad. The trio also play variously as The Long Lonesome Go, Archipelago, The Horse Loom and more. They have supported everyone from Fugazi to Lungfish, Lightning Bolt to Sunburned Hand of the Man

Freitagabend. Das Wochenende ist immer noch eine glänzende Aussicht und die Müdigkeit verwandelt sich plötzlich inin einen energischen Drang, Spaß zu haben, auf Beutezug zu gehen, einfach zu LEBEN. Das ist der Moment, in dem NIGHTHAWKsperfekte Mischung aus klassischem AOR und Weltklasse-Hardrock am besten zur Geltung. Unverblümt, unverblümtund verdammt brillant.

"Prowler", ihr neues Album, hält genau das, was es verspricht: erstklassigenRock'n'Roll.Außerdem hat die Band den richtigen Stammbaum, um das zu liefern, was sie verspricht. Nighthawk begann als einSoloprojekt von Robert Majd (Bassist bei Metalite & Captain Black Beard). Die Idee war einfachSpaß zu haben, Gitarre zu spielen und energiegeladenen Rock'n'Roll zu schreiben. Das Debütalbum enthielt eineverschiedenen Sängern. Nach der Veröffentlichung des ersten Albums im Sommer 2021 verspürte Robert den Drangmehr zu machen.Diesmal sollte der Einsatz höher sein. Er buchte die weltberühmten Abbey Road Studios, eine Bandund eine Sammlung von Songs, die dem Kaliber des Studios entsprechen. Björn Strid (The Night FlightOrchestra, Soilwork & Donna Cannone) übernahm den Gesang, Magnus Ulfstedt (Ginevra) das SchlagzeugSchlagzeug, John Lönnmyr (The Night Flight Orchestra) an den Keyboards und Christan Ek (Captain BlackBeard) am Bass. Neun Eigenkompositionen und zwei Covers (von Kiss und Bruce SpringsteenKlassikern!) wurden in nur zwei Tagen live im Studio aufgenommen.

Ghosts of Princes in Towers is the only studio album by British band Rich Kids, founded in 1977 by Glen Matlock (ex Sex Pistols) and Midge Ure (Ultravox) and Rusty Egan released in August 1978 and produced by ex-Bowie guitarist Mick Ronson. Exclusive for RSD 2023, the original album will be newly remastered. Release overseen by Rich Kids Rusty Egan. Tracklisting: Side A - Strange One, Hung on You, Ghosts of Princes in Towers, Cheap Emotions, Marching Men, Side B - Put You in the Picture, Young Girls, Bullet-Proof Lover, Rich Kids, Lovers and Fools, Burning Sounds

Offering a three track EP on Token, emblematic UK producer James Ruskin proves his capability and linear focus once again through 'From the Ashes'. Looking past trends to create a lasting record rich in texture and thick with impact, the project affirms what the scene has already known to be true about his work for the past 25 years.

Setting his intentions from the A1, Ruskin wastes no time by creating an intimidating introduction. Saturated percussion and stuttering keys whip through a 4 minute masterclass of sound system focused production. Adventurous in structure, Ruskin remains unquestionably in control of a bursting, almost chaotic track. 'From the Ashes 2' picks up what was left off, containing a hard-set groove with hi hats slithering in progressively from the stereo image to slightly destabilize an impressive club-heavy tool. With intricate work being done in the ambience, the EP's hard hitting second track booms through a cavernous acoustic, giving the record not only body, but dimension. Switching up the rhythm and focusing on more mental synth work for the third act, Ruskin quickly and mercilessly rips through his work with a shrill pad, creating overwhelming tension to be released in the first third of the recording. He brings a dosed dissonance between his elements, reflective of the qualities of vintage techno with today's capabilities and arrangement. Pushing intensity through waves, Ruskin leaves us in anticipation of a fourth track that is never given.

About the album TEKHENU: Holistic, soundscape storyteller The Allegorist takes inspiration from the ancient world for her fifth studio album, set for release on her label Awaken Chronicles.

A sonic fable titled TEKHENU, it continues the trajectory that the Berlin-based electronic producer and sound-designer has been following since the beginning – conceptualising narrative-heavy LPs centered around mythical lands. Her new works depict a lost protagonist and her spiritual, inward search across ten enrapturing chapters.

The title of the LP is a nod to the towering monoliths by the ancient Egyptians. Known to most by their Greek-given name “obelisk”, they stand tall around the world and it’s their global dispersion that inspired The Allegorist for the title of the album, seeing it as an allegory of a common bond, a point of connection. The Tale of TEKHENU, for the seekers Written by The Allegorist TEKHENU For the seekers

A juicy 4-track EP from Eine Welt. 700WET is an art pop project by queer opera singer Marja Christians (award-winning dancer) and Cid Hohner (Moonwalk X Records, OTTO, Aufgang B). Luring outsider synth-pop with touching and honest opera vocals. It reminds of Grace Jones doing minimal wave in a Chicago house.

They call it “Lovers-Dance”. While you may melt on the slow and extended dubbed out title jam “Gimme Love”, the sassy “Cannoli Amore” is a catchy, fun dancer at 120 bpm. Recorded during the pandemic primarily with nothing but cheap 1989 Yamaha keyboards.The project also reflected what they wanted to hear when there was a big void.

Loftsoul Recordings' new life continues in this renewed "Re-works" series. This time we have the well known label owner Masahiko Uchikawa aka "Loftsoul" who releases this 7" for the occasion of his 40-year career.

Downtempo rhythms and Japan vibes come together with a really energy-giving and slamming B side. All supported by the team with Keyco, H. Ikeuchi (Guitar) and Mbanja Ritchy aka B-Bandj.

Since relocating to Brazil some years back, Needs Music co-founder Lars Bartkuhn has returned to his long-held love of musical improvisation. Although it’s a product of his jazz roots and classical training, the German producer has constantly found new ways to apply it to his work in the sphere of electronic music.

‘Dystopia’, his first solo album for almost nine years, was born out of two interlinked ideas: a desire to create improvised music without the aid of computer sequencers or an electronic drum set, and a deeply held love of storytelling through sound. Bartkuhn set to work improvising with modular synthesizers, acoustic instruments and hand percussion, later adding light-touch overdubs to a handful of pieces. When he listened back to the recordings, an aural narrative emerged, and you’ll hear it if you listen to the album from start to finish, as is intended.

As you’d expect from a musician and composer of Bartkuhn’s undoubted ability, ‘Dystopia’ is a stunning album – an undulating, expansive ambient journey packed with emotional resonance. While Bartkuhn naturally sees it as a logical progression of his previous ambient-leaning work with Kabuki as The First Minute of a New Day (and particularly their self-titled 2020 album Séance Centre), ‘Dystopia’ also features subtle nods to many of his long-held musical loves, including John Hassell’s ‘fourth world’ recordings, the impossible-to-pigeonhole 1970s catalogue of deep jazz imprint ECM, and the far-sighted American minimalism of Terry Riley and Steve Reich.

The album’s emotional depth is evident early on, with the slow-burn title track – all bubbling electronics, billowing chords, clarinet-style notes and gently strummed guitars offering the most melancholic and bittersweet of openings. The becalmed ‘A Drop Of Water In The Ocean’ follows, with discordant aural textures and hand percussion mimicking the rolling ocean, before ‘Largo (Calm Before The Storm)’ hints at unsettling times ahead.

‘Water and Warm Air’, the only track on the album whose starting point was not Bartkuhn’s cherished modular set-up, bleeps and bubbles across the sound space, adding a starry and otherworldly slant to proceedings, while ‘Disembodied Journey (Parts 1, 2 and 3)’ is a sublime, slowly unfurling journey in three movements – all Tangerine Dream style synthesizer motifs, Pat Metheny-esque guitars and jazz-fusion instrumentation.

So the album continues, with the poignant warmth and looped motifs of ‘Still Existing’ and the sparse, dubbed-out minimalism of ‘Do You Know How To Get Out?’ – a kind of 21st century jazz-fusionist’s take on sparse electronic hypnotism – giving wat to closing cut ‘Into The Waves’, a gentle combination of undulating electronic arpeggios and echoing instrumentation that offers a hopeful and undeniably picturesque conclusion.

Fittingly, the album cover features a painting by the late Dutch artist Franz Deckwitz (1934-94), whose images of alien landscapes were used by Phillips on a series of music concrete compilations. The image featured on the cover of ‘Dystopia’, depicting a deep blue ocean and shoreline, was painted by Deckwitz in Amsterdam in the late 1970s and inspired by a trip to the island of Ponza, Italy.

Matt Anniss

Tom Trago returns to Rush Hour after 10 years with a wonderfully accomplished mini-album, tip!

During the years he spent living in Amsterdam, when his DJ career seemed to become an unstoppable juggernaut, Tom Trago was a regular visitor to Deco Sauna, a local institution that helped him “decompress” and de-toxify his body. Eventually, a more extended period of “decompression” was needed, with Trago moving to the coast to reassess his priorities and spend more time with his young family.

‘Deco’, his sixth album and first for Rush Hour in a decade, was recorded following an extended absence from club dancefloors, as Trago cut back on DJ commitments to prioritise family life. When he returned to the studio, often with his daughter by his side, Trago initially struggled to get back into the groove. The desire to make dancefloor-focused music had – temporarily, at least – deserted him; instead, he found himself drawn towards a desire to create “electronic lullabies” and music that reflected his more pastoral environment (his home backs on to a patch of woodland in which he would walk every day).

Returning to his most familiar synthesisers – and specifically the first synthesiser he bought, on credit, as a young DJ and wannabe producer – Trago set about navigating different musical routes without the straight-jacket of club-focused dancefloors. Occasionally, old friends from Amsterdam would join him in the studio – Tracey and Maxi Mill, both of whom are part of his Voyage Direct label roster, contributed to tracks on the album – but for the most part the production process was a solo endeavour: musical therapy for an artist determined to do things differently after years spent making club hits and sweat-soaked peak-time workouts.

The results are rarely less than spellbinding. Trago sets his stall out with opener ‘Dark Oak’, a gorgeous, colourful, sun-bright scene-setter co-produced by Tracey that layers tumbling lead lines, chiming melodic motifs and kaleidoscopic chords atop the gentlest of bubbly beat patterns. Maxi Mill lends a hand on ‘Central Park’, a deep and hypnotic excursion marked out by rhythmic bleeps, minimalistic beats and layered melodies, and the summer sun-down rush of ‘Never Peace a Puzzle’, where kaleidoscopic synth sounds, meandering solos and looped electronic stabs rush towards a dancefloor of the mind.

Trago’s desire to create “electronic lullabies” for his young daughter comes to the fore on ‘To Be Left Unlocked’, a hypnotising fusion of spacey electronic motifs, Steve Reich style (synth) marimba melodies and slowly building musical intensity, while the echoing Fender Rhodes riffs, squelchy synth-bass, glistening guitar notes and sparse, snappy post hip-hop beats of ‘When The Sky Is Watching Us’ doff a cap to the producer’s roots as a bedroom beat-maker.

Given the project’s genesis, it’s perhaps fitting that Trago chose to conclude proceedings with ‘It Might Be Forever’ and the digital only ‘Blue Dope’, the album’s most rejuvenating, immersive, and vibrant moments. Both feature sustained chords painted with vivid aural brush strokes and come blessed with the merest hint of a rhythmic pulse – a thread that subtly runs throughout Trago’s most mature and musically rich album to date.

Matt Anniss