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Rising Manchester star FINN takes the helm for the next release on Ruf Kutz with two hyper-real contemporary raw bangers crafted for maximum emotional impact backed with remixes from RK big guns RUF DUG & GLOWING PALMS.

Even though he's a comparative youngun, this is by no means Finn's first time at the rodeo - he's a label boss, an NTS pioneer, a Boiler Room veteran, a Defected Records Old Boy and also holds down the coldest twitter account on the information superhighway. It's a big deal to us that we managed to snare him for a release on his ascent to whatever accelerated dimension he is headed for.

Purposely conceived as raw club tracks after a heavy Paul Johnson listening session, TRICK TRICK and BELLE THEME contain many of his beloved hallmarks while also showcasing new creative pathways - the title of the EP surely alluding to what Finn is about to pull from up his sleeve...

Opener TRICK TRICK is many things all at once - a raw turbo-jacker, a hugely emotive bassline roller, a super-fresh club banger that has few elements, yet uses them with such efficiency it's impossible not to be drawn up into its vapour trail.

BELLE THEME winds the pace & harmonic tension up with manic abandon as we find ourselves in Finn's familiar 130-plus territory but while the tempo is slamming he somehow manages to drape everything in a lacy coating, as if we were playing a bonus level from a lost Studio Ghibli PS1 beat-em-up.
Back in the real world we flip the record for 2 textbook Ruf Kutz remixes. First up label boss RUF DUG guts Trick Trick and serves up the fillet on an unashamedly tech-house bed, purpose-built for DC10 circa 2009 - meanwhile Ruffy's partner in crime GLOWING PALMS dips into his secret stash of double doves and takes Belle Theme for an unforgettable night out in a Burnley warehouse.

Of the release Ruf Dug says "It's been a big thrill to follow Finn"s development over the years since we first met. I've been hoping to collaborate with him for quite a while so for it to be finally happening especially at this stage in his career is a genuine mega buzz!"
Finn says: "Been a keen Ruf Kutz fan since Rachel's Team in 2016! So happy to contribute to the label with two rough (ruf) and ready club tracks - late night/early morning hymns"

This Spring, Life And Death hits a half century of releases with a suitably standout album from leftfield innovator Autarkic. Terms and Conditions is a 10 track window into the Tel Aviv artist's rich, wildly-infused electronica.

Critical acclaim has followed Nadav Spiegel's every move since he debuted in 2015. He is impossibly hard to pin down, and brings real songwriting ability to club tracks that colour far outside the usual lines. Weird dub, psychedelic rock, all forms of wave, sideways pop, swampy techno, Middle Eastern subtleties and plenty experimental in-between sounds all inform his work. It defies convention in ways many cannot, and has come on labels like Disco Halal and Turbo, as well as Life And Death with the Heavy Dreamer EP in 2018.

2016 and 2017 brought his first two albums, Can You Pass The Knife? and I Love You, So Go Away, both on Disco Halal. Both were full of intensely emotional wave, synth and lo-fi sounds that fizzed with innovation. Says the artist of its follow up, "Terms and Conditions was created to celebrate the moment in time that is now. The moment we became peasants in a new digital-feudal world, happily giving away our privacy for the privilege of owning a smart phone."

Terms and Conditions is a unique melting pot, a reimagining of familiar sounds in unfamiliar ways, and is another standalone record from Autarkic.

Legendary Detroit Techno collective, Scan 7's 'Burdens Down' release from 2017 was a true testament to their brilliant ability to merge the soulful house textures with the analogue mechanics. The addition of Maurice Jackson's outstanding vocal stylings topped off the original with a perfect human element. Following the global success of the original version, Elypsia Records has enlisted some of the scene's top tastemakers to deliver a remix package worthy of the original, featuring that same calculated combination of soul and steel.

Leaders of the Parisian underground, DJ Deep & Roman Poncet, provide the first remix which is all about building incredible tension. A tightly squeezed kick drum, short synth chops and cleverly placed vocal samples drive the groove. As the track grows, additional hats and synths arrive, leading up to a quick break before all the floor-rocking energy bursts free. Big!

Dutch Techno legend Orlando Voorn steps up next for his first of two remixes, this one leaning towards a very House-centric shuffle with warm, friendly key stabs and the full use of Maurice's vocals. A truly joyful work of dance music magic here, with a relentless rhythmic drive keeping the party happening at full force.

Underground Resistance's very own Mark Flash takes the remix responsibilities for the B1 with his gorgeous synth-saturated rework of the original. An energetic and stomping kick drum powers perfectly alongside future-facing melodies which shine brightly on top of the tune. This one is guaranteed to serve as an earworm for days after the party has ended.

Rounding out the EP is the 2nd remix from Orlando Voorn, this time peering into the underground with a stripped back jackin' track utilizing a looped key melody on top of carefully placed vocal samples and claps. Some unexpected synths appear at the second half of the tune, putting a bit of new-age funk into the party stomper.

Exciting new producer Yves Tomas releases on Rekids with ‘Pilot EP’ this May - a bold and versatile debut release exhibiting the artist’s broad range of influences.

Hailing from London but with roots in Bristol, Yves Tomas is a producer, vocalist and DJ brought up in the centre of UK club music. Since experimenting with music through his childhood and early teens he’s gone on to become an engineer, working in studios alongside some of the biggest names in grime and pop music. This has led to him developing his own unique style of electronic music as a reactionary expression to working in the meat grinder culture of mainstream music. He now joins Radio Slave
Rekids - a label known and respected for discovering many luminary figures in electronic music.

With its otherworldly melody and echoing effects, ‘Braindead’ is a downtempo track that remains beatless until the halfway mark, moving onto the beautifully arranged ‘MA1’ with its reverb-drenched breaks, quivering synths, and ever-evolving chopped and looped vocals. ‘River’ then incorporates elements of grime and jungle courtesy of its lively stabs, soulful chords and compelling rhythm built on punchy percussion. Taking things into a spiritual direction, Elephant & Snake’ meanders forward using
syncopated drums, washy chants and elevating organ keys before ‘Callout FM’ follows with its rattling snares, twisted arpeggios, and crystalline pads.

Nearing the end, ‘Pilot’ is a stripped-back affair with sporadic kicks, a fuzzy bassline, and vocoder vocals until digital bonus track ‘Birds Of The Barbican’ ties everything together by generating an uplifting atmosphere destined to elevate revellers for many years to come.

In the late 90’s, east-side LA was in the throws of a post-indie explosion; a network of stoned bands ranging from neo-psychedelia to pseudo-country overran Spaceland (our generation’s Troubadour) and the local Silverlake Lounge. I was playing freakbeat records twice a week in dive bars, half of Spacemen 3 was crashing at my house (my drop-out roomate was Sonic Boom’s tour drummer) and it was during this blur that I met Raymond Richards, a clean-cut all-American pedal steel guitarist playing in Mojave 3 (the country-tinged side project of 4AD shoegaze royalty, Slowdive). I was instantly swept off my feet, head over heals in love with Raymond's weeping tone—the most chill-inducing, emotionally responsive dialog I’d had with music since discovering Satie as a child—it was then and it is now, truly haunting. After a year of personnel trials, my roomate and I stole Raymond for our own band, and not only did he smother our songs with his enchanting steel, he was virtuosic with a variety of atypical instruments such as baritone guitar and theremin, he utilized them all. The band was short-lived—I joined Ariel Pink, Raymond fled to Portland and me subsequently to New York City—but in founding the ESP Institute years later, there was always a recurring mental note; we must make Raymond’s pedal steel album. I had managed to wrangle his blessed performance on a remix for Project Club’s El Mar Y La Luna, but it took almost a decade until I once again wore the producer hat and we began working on The Lost Art Of Wandering, a title borrowed from Sam Shepard’s Stories. Spiritually candid, expansive yet enveloping, this is the strung-out, visceral country music that simply radiates from Raymond. Each song is his set of coordinates in a vast open terrain, holding a sentimental familiarity, a truthful longing for the simple comforts that diffuse life’s complications, a place to get lost. –Lovefingers

Tyyni is the third album by Finnish-born sound artist and musician Cucina Povera aka Maria Rossi. The second album recorded using a more studio-based scenario – as opposed to last year’s Zoom, a collection of in-situ, spontaneous recordings – Tyyni feels like a slowly unfurling mediation on the clash between nature and mechanical living, a rumination on the complexities of modern life that begin to unveil more about the inner landscape of the artist as it progresses. A Finnish word referring to still, serene weather, the title belies a new note of turmoil in Cucina Povera’s soundworld. Tyyni represents a more detailed focus on the sculpting of sounds that curl around Rossi’s hymnal vocal performances. It’s a more adventurous work than Rossi’s previous output that goes further into noise elements and vocal abstraction while maintaining the balance and ecclesiastical ecstasy of her debut Hilja.

While tension at the core of Cucina Povera is always prevalent, previously it was organic sounds that were used to counterpoint Rossi’s singing but on Tyyni these are often replaced with aggressive synths and distortion, profane clashes with the seemingly sacred hymns. Whether close mic’d and intoning in a loop or in full flight, Maria Rossi’s voice remains in the foreground, set here against a more synthetic backdrop. This development builds new worlds for Cucina Povera, a digital environment which brings in a sense of the alien for Rossi’s vocal to duel. The effect is often dazzling. On Salvia Salvatrix, an ode to the medicinal plant used to ward off evil spirits, Rossi’s invocation is encircled by a distorted synth sound tearing at the fabric of the composition. It’s an inspired juxtaposition, leaving the listener to appreciate both sounds as separate and as a duet. Anarkian kuvajainen embraces a sense of chaos, an accidental transmitting mobile phone’s pulse is swept up gently with looped synth swells as Rossi’s prayer-like vocal rhythmically teases the composition into loops that embrace and then drift apart. Teerenpeli flirts with a minimal beat rendered by sampler and processed, layered field recordings of capercaillies, while Side A ends with one of Rossi’s most beautiful, simple tracks yet recorded. Varjokuvatanssi is an a cappela recording built on top of a wordless glossolalia, a shadowy interplay which foregrounds the solo vocal.

Pölytön nurkka is the most melodic song yet recorded by Cucina Povera. While it still maintains an off-the-cuff performance style, the synthesized chimes and 4/4 beat are smothered by a distorted synthesizer which almost replicates the bravado of an electric guitar feedbacking into the night. Rossi’s subject matter talks of trying to start anew, getting rid of extraneous material, perhaps still feeling powerless to affect positive change. On Haaksirikkoutunut, the protagonist vocal is lost, a vessel rudderless on the ocean, buffeted by waves metaphorical or real, digital, atonal chords gurgling and splashing against the bow, a storm forever brewing on the horizon. Saniaiset recalls Coil in its eldritch, nocturnal tone and digital-bell like synth, Rossi’s half-spoken/half-sung voice attaining a creepy tone before flipping into flight. Album closer Jolkottelureitti uses an escalating, sequenced synth that splinters into both abrasive tones and harmonising chords creating a kosmische effect, reminding the listener of Kluster or synth-era Popol Vuh, all the while elevated by Rossi’s searching vocalising.

For an artist with such a singularly unique musical language, Cucina Povera is continually teasing new strands and emotive tones from an evolving palette. Most importantly, Tyyni appears to be pulling back the veil to uncover an artist finding a synergy between her own emotional inner world and practice. As such, on her third album, Maria Rossi has found a third way between abstraction and extraneous emotion, personal experience turned inside out to reveal more about the listener.

hree years on from their debut collaborative album “Passive Aggressive“, Jonny Nash and Suzanne Kraft return with "Knife", the lead single from their forthcoming album, “A Heart So White”.

The single comes with an exclusive bonus digital track, "Processing The Negative", which will not appear on the full album.

“A Heart So White” represents a continuation of the working philosophy adopted during the recording of their debut; immersion in an unfamiliar recording environment with a limited set of tools and the goal of exploring the possibilities that lie within these limitations.

The album was written and recorded in the Willem Twee Concertzaal, a converted synagogue in Den Bosch, Holland. Whilst “Passive Agressive” explored virtual instruments and environments, “A Heart So White” shifts the focus to acoustic instrumentation, breath, air and physical space. Using the hall’s mechanical drawer organ and Steinway piano, the pair craft a delicately balanced suite of compositions, stripping things back to reveal the bare essence of their shared musical language.

The minimal imprint from Chicago is back with it’s second vinyl only release featuring 2 heavy hitting producers Nima Gorji and Christian Burkhardt.

Side A: 2 original tracks by Nima Gorji inspired from the early 2000s. Dusty drums and blissful arp sequences, everything you need to feel good.

Side B: remix by Christian Burkhardt bringing things back to 2020 and beyond with heavy low ends, percolating drums, and eerie effects.

Support: John Acquaviva, Enzo Siragusa, Halo Varga, Primarie, Faster, Dubphone

Repress

Leading lights of the neo ambient rhizome alongside Huerco S’ West Mineral label, Experiences Ltd has already amassed a cult following after just one release - ULLA’s ‘Tumbling Towards A Wall’, now returning to relay a sublime, probing debut of crackling, cross-continental communications from mdo, Ultrafog, and Nikolay Kozlov, aka Folder.
Weft from dematerialised ambient tropes spooled between their respective bases in Kansas City, Tokyo, and Samara in Russia, ‘New Path’ slots fuzzily into an expanding prism of contemporary ambient music which echoes the purpose and effect of the original thing via traces of ‘90s/‘00s experimental techno and minimalist rhythms. Their sound effectively recalls K. Leimer’s systems music as much as the Pole’s eerie dub malfunctions; running a lushly frayed and decentralised style that embraces a gently psychedelic sort of chaos and lysergic, hallucinatory vision in an up-to-the-moment way shared by the likes of Huerco. S and uon.
If original ambient was analogous to THC and LSD, and in the ‘90s MDMA, then the effect of Folder’s music, and that of their peers, adds the putative, lushly dissociative effect and non-linearity of Ketamine and psilocybin to that formula. As such ‘New Path’ attempts to follow new routes through your neurons, sparking at new junctures of style and form that better reflect and counter a current psychic state of stasis and anxious anticipation.
Coming from the label behind those cult ‘bblisss’ volumes of 2016-2018, listeners can trust their needs for relaxation and otherworldly curiosity will be sated by ’New Path’, as it courses from iridescent ambient noise in the titular opener, to the laminal diffractions of ‘Plasma’, and soothing textural abstraction of ‘Reset’, shoring up in ‘Node’ as though oceanic ambient currents have individually lead them to this bobbing buoy inthe middle of a noumenal ocean.

Following on from the recent and well received half-speed masters of
‘Amplified Heart’ and ‘Walking Wounded’, Buzzin’ Fly are proud to release EBTG’s 1999 album ‘Temperamental’. The album is a follow on from the global success of Walking Wounded in 1996 and features a myriad of rhythmic pop styles, including deep house grooves, fierce drum & bass and hip-hop infused funk. It contains the singles Five Fathoms, Blame and the title track Temperamental. The original vinyl was released on a limited edition ‘DJ friendly’ vinyl which is now a collectable item. The artwork for this new edition has been re-created
from the original source material to bring it in line with the original CD version. Like the previous two releases, it has been Mastered and Cut at half-speed by Miles Showell at London’s Abbey Road Studios.

Active since the late 1990s, Brussels-based Frenchman Sylvain Chauuveau is an unsung pioneer of a now burgeoning scene and was making elegant post-classical compositions years ahead of celebrated current peers like Max Richter, Nils Frahm, Olafur Arnalds, Dustin O’Halloran and Hauschka.

Now reissued in a remastered, first-ever vinyl edition, ‘Simple’ was originally released in 2012 as a CD collection of Sylvain’s works for cinema - a set of out-of-print, rare, and unreleased tracks composed between 1998-2010 that span stark / minimal electronic drones, processed guitar explorations, chamber pieces, solo piano and two 40-piece string orchestra recordings.

Chauveau’s work here sounds as fresh and relevant today as it did back then and its author is long overdue some recognition / reappraisal of his role in helping prepare the ground for today’s scene. His music has been praised by numerous peers - Ryuichi Sakamoto listed ‘Nocturne Impalpable’ as one of his Top 5 records; Hauschka and Peter Broderick have admitted his influence and Jóhann Jóhannsson, Adam Wiltzie (A Winged Victory / Stars Of The Lid) and Fennesz have also praised his work.

“Occupies the twilit area where downbeat, muted experimental electronic music melts into downbeat, muted chamber music” - Pitchfork “One of the most brilliant minds of French Music” - Les
InRocks

For fans of Max Richter, Olafur Arnalds, Nils Frahm, Johann Johannsson, Erik Satie, Arvo Pärt, Labradford, Mogwai, Peter Broderick and Hauschka.

If you’ve visited Ibiza in the last few years, there’s a fair chance you’ll have encountered DJ Pippi and Willie Graff. The experienced duo has been DJing together on the White Isle for years, finding time between sundown sets to make music together in Italian veteran Pippi’s home studio. The pair’s first collaborative EP dropped on Drumpoet Community way back in 2007, with the belated follow-up appearing a decade later on Compost Disco. Here they make their bow on Leng with the “Lunares EP”, a typically warm and woozy collection of cuts named after the Spanish word for “polka dots” (a fashionable item in Spain and the Balearic islands throughout the 1980s).

They begin with the slow-burn sunrise bliss of “Lunares”, a shuffling and glassy-eyed affair in which evocative, emotion-rich strings, heady vocal samples, echoing sitars and lilting guitars slowly rise above a thickset backing track rich in dubby bass, swelling pads, starry electronics and snappy drums. Capable of tugging at the heartstrings, it’s a sublime slab of mood-enhancing bliss perfect for both weary dancing and sofa-bound relaxation. “Saxolicious” lives up to the premise of the title, with Pippi and Willie wrapping snaking, effects-laden saxophone solos around a languid, slow motion groove bristling with hazy intent. Expect chiming electric piano chords, dreamy pads, rolling grooves and another fine bassline that will worm its way into your subconscious, spark up a spliff and stay there for days.

The EP’s final musical moment is, if anything, even more spaced-out and intoxicating. Employing extra-slow beats and a prominent jazzy bass guitar part, the pair invites us to get locked in to a chuggy rhythm. Throw in druggy synth lines, tactile electric piano stabs and some suitably cosmic effects and you have a hallucinatory treat that would no doubt have gained the approval of the late, great Andrew Weatherall.

PH001 Slave To Society – Path Of Self Destruction EP Incl. Perc Remix.

Berlin’s PURE HATE launches in style with ‘Slave To Society’ aka Andrew Bowen one half of AnD providing the debut ep on this exciting new label by STRISC.

The ‘Path Of Self Destruction EP’ consists of 4 original tracks which provide the perfect blueprint for the labels debut release. Expect industrial, bleeding edge, razor sharp, metallic, experimental, raw, stomping, broken beats and dramatic soundscapes throughout the EP, cementing everything Slave To Society and PURE HATE stand for.

To complete the EP UK Industrial Techno pioneer Ali Wells aka Perc stepped up to remix lead track Path Of Self Destruction in the style that he has become renown for and seen him and his label Perc Trax at the forefront of the UK and worldwide scene for over a decade.



c b1 Path Of Self Destruction Perc Remix

Compositions and lyrics by Conny Fornbäck. Eurorack, LYRA-8, speech synthesis and vocals by Conny Fornbäck. Additional drums on Geosmin by Zeke. Produced, recorded and mixed at Grappling Hook Studios, Stockholm, Sweden. Mastered by Rude 66. Curation and executive production by Mika Hallbäck Vuorenpää. Artwork by Titta Kallio and Fredrik Möller. Photograph: “Attentive gaze - Painful attention” (detail) by Guillaume-Benjamin-Amand Duchenne de Boulogne.

Kamasi Washington's wide-reaching double album Heaven & Earth arrives on Young Turks. Much like his previous releases, Heaven & Earth once again finds Kamasi setting out to expand the minds and horizons of all who encounter his music. Recorded as a double album, this expanded canvas gives his trademark tones the opportunity to offer a wider than ever before selection of fully immersive, freestyling psychedelic jazz that carries a distinctly spiritual edge.In an instant, Heaven and Earth really burrows deeper into the external cosmos that we were left circling around the edge of with his debut long-player, The Epic (released in 2015 via Flying Lotus's Brainfeeder label), yet it also carries us further into the distance of the deeply cinematic overtones that his debut Young Turks EP, Harmony of Difference pointed us in the direction of. While it is both instantly recognisable as a Kamasi Washington recording, Heaven and Earth's luxurious running time matched with a searching narrative sees Kamasi breaking out of any sounds or scenes he may be associated with, smoothly transcending into new, dynamic and sonically experimental levels and counterpoints of his now widely praised signature sound.
Washington convened his band, The Next Step, as well as members of the long running collective The West Coast Get Down at Henson Studios in Los Angeles to record the 16 tracks on Heaven & Earth. The music was composed, written and arranged by Washington, with new arrangements of jazz and bebop legend Freddie Hubbard's 'Hubtones' and iconic kung fu film theme 'Fists of Fury,' as well as one song by bandmate Ryan Porter. Thundercat, Terrace Martin, Ronald Bruner, Jr., Cameron Graves, Brandon Coleman, Miles Mosley, Patrice Quinn, Tony Austin and many more contribute to the album.Stretching out at two and a half hours of entirely newly recorded music, Kamasi Washington paints a vision of Heaven and Earth that is spread across two sections with eight movements apiece. It sees him wrestling with and attempting to make sense of the meaning of both Heaven and Earth within his mind and his place within the wider universe as a whole, with the Heaven side representing the world Kamasi sees inwardly, the world that is a part of him, while the Earth side represents the world he sees outwardly, the world that he is a part of. An existential experiment with saxophones that's set to take you on a journey that is as widely thrilling as it is deeply searching.

Das wohl wichtigste britische Duo dieser Zeit kehrt in den zwischenzeitlich verlassenen Heimathafen Rough Trade Records zurück und bittet nach dem Appetithäppchen English Tapas ohne Umschweife ans Buffet! Denn mit dem am 15. Mai erscheinenden All That Glue tischen Jason Williamson und Andrew Robert Lindsay Fearn ein wütendes Potpourri an Songs aus den letzten 7 Jahren ihres Schaffens auf - und halten damit wieder mal der gehobenen britischen Gesellschaft sowohl den Spiegel als auch den Mittelfinger entgegen. We call it: 22 Banger für ein Halleluja! Genauer: Langjährige Favoriten, B-Seiten, unveröffentlichte Tracks und Raritäten - alles natürlich handverlesen von der Band! Willkommen zurück Jungs und wohl bekomm's! Das Album erscheint als CD und LP. Außerdem gibt es eine limitierte deluxe Vinylausgabe in weiß mit extra ausführlichem Booklet.

The Current Inside”, Marja Ahti's sophomore album for Hallow Ground, plays with the theme of currents - connecting and animating movements in the form of air, water and electricity. It approaches sound as a poetic medium, focusing both on the experience of sound as form and energy and on a loosely narrative arc, suggesting a riddle on the relations between the sounds. It implements alternative as well as intuitive tunings, analog and digital synthesis, recordings of sonorous spaces and vessels, electromagnetic fields transduced into audio, acoustic close-ups of elements in motion and other field recordings. Fluently connecting quite diverse sound sources, Ahti's music lingers in a zone between abstract sonorities and vaguely familiar acoustic environments.

The first half of the album consists of ”The Altitudes”, a piece commissioned by Ina GRM for Présences Électronique and Sonic Acts. It was inspired by descriptions of the layers of Earth's atmosphere. Imagining a movement through layers of air, the piece unfolds with a slow intensity, interweaving concrete sounds and closely tuned electronic sonorities. Traversing the altitudes, a landscape of entangled elements, masses and currents emerges. The air around us has weight and it presses against everything it touches. As gravity pulls it to Earth, it is sensed as pressure. The rotation of the planet, the angle of the sun at any new moment sets the elements in motion in a chain reaction.

The other side consists of four shorter pieces. ”The Currents” opens with a dance of trembling charged movements. ”Lost Lake” extracts resonant tones from a trail of close-up recordings of winter environments, while ”Fluctuating Streams” channels streaming air in different forms. The closing track, ”Sundial”, could be construed as the steady turning of the planetary angle towards the sun, unfolding through fragments of everyday activity against the backdrop of piercing, slowly twisting, suspended tone.

Marja Ahti (b. 1981) is a musician and composer based in Turku, Finland. Originally from Sweden, Ahti has been a part of the Finnish experimental music scene for more than ten years in different constellations. She is currently active in the duo Ahti & Ahti with her partner and as a member of the Himera artist/organizer collective. Her critically acclaimed 2019 solo debut, Vegetal Negatives, explored a new formal language and sonic palette inspired by a short text by René Daumal.

Village Of The Sun is the new collaboration between London jazz trailblazers Binker & Moses and Simon Ratcliffe, one-half of legendary UK Electronic pioneers Basement Jaxx Evocative of Ratcliffe’s inspirations such as Alice Coltrane alongside Masters at Work, the track ‘Village Of The Sun’ itself is awash with atmospheric vibes, a future Balearic classic ‘TED’ is enormously catchy, uplifting and feel-good. And classy as you like. Written around an extraordinary chord porgression by Ted Moses from the tune ‘Dreamship’, it compels you to dance with a smile on your face Initial pressing comes in a special edition die-cut sleeve

Slow, excruciating, hard techno cuts by a mysterious group of 3, called GLMG.

First album in 8 years from legendary Dearborn duo . Windy and Carl have been crafting inner space electric guitar and bass vistas for nearly three decades now, but their latest feels as vital and vaporous as any peak opus in their vast catalog. Written and recorded across six years, the songs swirl between shoegaze minimalism and stargaze drift, over which Windy Weber whispers veiled poetic narratives of transformation, isolation, and escape. Allegiance and Conviction is their first album since 2012's We Will Always Be. The six compositions are something of outlier in their catalog, shorter in nature than most on their previous releases. All of the tracks are saturated with Hultgren's signature guitar work, intimate constructions of murmurs, drones and his trademark layered filigree, gently amassed into alternately lighter and heavier than air atmospheres. Despite being their first full-length in more than half a decade,the album fully belongs to the bewitching galaxy of sound Windy and Carl innovated and within which they remain the sole occupants: music of thresholds and peripheries and eternities. Allegiance and Conviction is the multifaceted, contemporary take on their sound.

"Halfie" is compiled of eight tracks and a bonus track, which have been written and produced in 2020 by Anushka Chkheidze, 22 years old up and rising Georgian female electronic music producer. Despite her young age , her music is well though and intelligent. Her work includes music for film and theater. Anushka is one of the participants of "Sleepers Poets Scientists". "Halfie" is her debut album where she feels her new, completely different side is born.

The photograph of artwork of the vinyl, is taken by George Zatiashvili, resembles the concept of the music nonetheless.

"A Western Circular" is Will Archer’s debut under his new nom-de-plume, following early EP's- and an Album under the now-retired Slime moniker. Within ‘A Western Circular’ lies an exciting- and varied crew of guest artists including MF DOOM,Samuel T. Herring (Future Islands), Sudan Archives & Laura Groves, all contributing vocals to his rich, dexterous compositions!

An Album that’s been in the works for the past half-decade, ‘A Western Circular’ is a bold, reflective piece that directly relates to Archer’s personal experiences of life and death, centred on one particular week where they breathed with equal intensity. Ostensibly, it’s a poignant reflection on the duality of the human condition.

Ital Tek (a.k.a. Alan Myson) returns to Planet Mu with his sixth album ‘Outland‘. The album was written during a period of new beginnings following a move out of the city to a quieter space and the birth of his first child. During this time of self-imposed isolation Alan recorded a huge amount of source material and spent weeks and months sitting up at night with his newborn, listening back and making notes on how the new record should take form, focusing and developing ideas to shape this lean ten-track album.

Alan talks of the record being a collaboration between two parts of himself, something that definitely comes across as the album unfolds. Textures are something Alan excels at and on his last album, the largely beatless ‘Bodied’, it felt as if he was building a new sound-world. On ‘Outland’ he expands upon this. The album brings together the extremes of Alan's sound, contrasting roughened bass and beats with starker more detailed atmospheres and emotions.

The most beat-driven song here is ‘Deadhead’, with its gnarled bouncing bass, angular distorted melodies and cavernous textures. On tracks like ‘Bladed Terrain’ the contrasts are even more defined with buzzing drones and razor sharp drums plunging into a grainy fog, giving the track a dramatic 3D feel.

Then there are the stop-start pauses of ‘Leaving The Grid’, where the song evaporates into space before reemerging with shuddering rhythms and ghostly textures. Melodies crawl around these tracks as if they’re just waking up, as heard on the atmospheric ‘Angel In Ruin’.

The sleep-deprived fraying of the senses became Alan’s routine and one which he says gave him a renewed creative energy; half-asleep, working through the night, and then into the daytime super-focused but exhausted. Prone to audio hallucinations whilst writing the album, he aimed to capture these distortions in his perception of pitch and time, and you can hear these effects interpreted on tracks like ‘Endless’ and ‘Open Heart’ as melodies phase and slip out of time like an emotional Doppler effect.

This is also true of the soaring atonal synths at the peak of ‘Diamond Child’, which feel like the aural equivalent of eye floaters. These intuitive feelings and functions are a difficult thing to capture in sound, but Alan manages it beautifully and always makes the result feel warm and adventurous, heartfelt and epic.

Portuguese- Italian Producer "Vhycepicks" up where he left off,
once again teaming up with the talentedvocalistYves Paqueton Kraak & Smaak's very own Boogie Angst imprint.

He's already got an impressive list of top DJ fans in the shape of
Pete Tong, Claptone, Gorgon CityandSatin Jackets, and it's no surprise given his clean, pop aesthetics and catchy dancefloor sensibilities.Indeed it has led to releases on some of today's most respected dance labels like Kitsune, Future Disco and Casablanca Sunset.

As well as collaborating on their previous single 'Duran Duran' together, Brazilian born soulful vocalist Yves Paquethas previously collaborated with the likes of Aeroplane,and scored #1 in the Belgian dance charts with The Subs. He provides the perfect foil to Vhyce'sbeats with just the tonic – a melodic toplineall about the good times, having a drink and getting high…

In addition to the original mix there's another special treat as stepping up to provide a stellar remix is none other than PrinsThomas, a true pioneer of 'space disco' and regular bandmate of nu disco royaltyLindstrømin their imaginatively titled project 'Lindstrom & PrinsThomas'.

Yes, he takes his arpsynth lines out for a spin and serves up a prime cut of good time, ethereal, dancefloor fire. With all the hallmarks of his crisp and upbeat spacey productions it's not one to miss out on.

For those who are all about the beats, fear not we got you covered as there's an instrumental safely stowed in there too …

You have reached the Infolines. Tonight, you will be given links to preview a reverence to the venues that helped shape an industry and generations of musical technological wizardry. ‘Packard’ features a compilation of cuts fitting to the experiences by those who once frequented the halls of Detroit’s urban decay.
Bendersnatch, kicks things off with a ‘Homage’ fitting of the mainstay venue paying reverence to the classic Detroit Techno sound. ADMN’s Machine 8 shows a lust for a bass grind synonymous with the engines machined in the halls of its urban decay. Remote Viewing Party’s minimal break ‘fuxwiddit’ whistles echo to us through the warehouse former machine shops. Maxlow makes sure you ‘heard’ what they must say pushing air from the subs ensuring you feel the room.
Keep an eye on this space and be sure to call in for the waypoint to the party.

Nils Frahm, born in 1982, had an early introduction to music. During his childhood he was taught to play piano by Nahum Brodski a student of the last scholar of Tschaikowski. It was through this that Nils began to immerse himself in the styles of the classical pianists before him as well as contemporary composers. Today Nils Frahm works as an accomplished composer and producer in Berlin. In early 2008 he founded Durton Studio, where he has worked with Peter Broderick and Dustin O' Halloran amongst other fellow musicians.

The three instrumentals, which make up his debut release 'Wintermusik' are piano led pieces, coloured with occasional celeste and reed organ parts. The record's equal measures of sorrowful refrains and uplifting passages, combined with a real intimacy that makes for an album you'll want to return to again and again.

The songs were originally intended as a Christmas present for friends and family, hence its winter release via London-based cinematic music label Erased Tapes. As the curator of the Swedish boutique label Kning Disk's Piano Series, Peter Broderick invited Nils to record a new Nils Frahm, born in 1982, had an early introduction to music.

During his childhood he was taught to play piano by Nahum Brodski a student of the last scholar of Tschaikowski. It was through this that Nils began to immerse himself in the styles of the classical pianists before him as well as contemporary composers. Today Nils Frahm works as an accomplished composer and producer in Berlin. In early 2008 he founded Durton Studio, where he has worked with Peter Broderick and Dustin O' Halloran amongst other fellow musicians.

The three instrumentals, which make up his debut release 'Wintermusik' are piano led pieces, coloured with occasional celeste and reed organ parts. The record's equal measures of sorrowful refrains and uplifting passages, combined with a real intimacy that makes for an album you'll want to return to again and again. The songs were originally intended as a Christmas present for friends and family, hence its winter release via London-based cinematic music label Erased Tapes.

As the curator of the Swedish boutique label Kning Disk's Piano Series, Peter Broderick invited Nils to record a new album of piano improvisations the result is 'The Bells', which will now be released on Erased Tapes in the UK, Ireland and North America. Perhaps the most stunning aspect of what on the surface appears to be an entirely pre-planned and composed body of work comes with the discovery that these pieces were in fact improvised.

These two friends share a common affinity in that they both possess an absolute mastery of melody, composition and performance able to deliver with devastating effect. The modest Mr. Broderick states 'I remember thinking to myself as I lay there stunned, that I could spend ten years trying to write an amazing piece of piano music, and still it would never be half as good as these improvisations!'

Recorded in a rented, beautiful old church in the heart of Berlin over two nights, Nils 'just played' with the occasional instruction from Peter 'I spouted "Make a song using only the notes C, E, and G", or "Make a song that you could imagine me rapping over the top of" (Track 8 'My Things'). At one point I was even inside the piano, laying on the strings, asking him to make a song called 'Peter Is Dead In The Piano'. The resultant work 'The Bells' shares the same excitement and air of playfulness.

For a musician this early in his career, Frahm displays an incredibly developed sense of control and restraint in his work. As the recognition continues to grow for both, 'Wintermusik' and 'The Bells', we are pleased to announce that 2010 will also see his next album release on Erased Tapes.

Returning to the label's dance floor roots, BODYCLOCK is a natural extension of Darker Than Wax's DNA - a foray into the late night club sounds that defined their sound. The freshly minted series represents the Singaporean label's primary outlet for dance floor burners and machine soul, shedding light on a new school of producers from around the globe and at the same time paying homage to the pioneers who laid the foundations for us. A celebration of afro-futurism that is ever-present in the consciousness of dance, BODYCLOCK is built for the nocturnal beings and discerning selectors that push this timeless tradition forward. This first volume brings together five producers across four continents - Teymori from Australia, NYC's Malik Hendricks, label mainstay Ricky Razu from Belgium, as well as Darker Than Wax co-founder Kaye and up-and-comer Halal Sol from Singapore. Establishing both facets of the BODYCLOCK sound, Side A features two vocal-led soulful excursions, while the flip brings three unabashedly jacking cuts to light the floor on fire. This is only the beginning - BODYCLOCK is coming with an onslaught of twelve inches and EPs, distilling our sonic outlook and looking to the future.

Der in Berlin lebende Komponist und Produzent Ben Lukas Boysen meldet sich mit seinem bislang progressivsten Album zurück: Mirage ist ein wahrer Formwandler. Zuvor unter dem Alias Hecq bekannt, handelt es sich bei Mirage um den mit Spannung erwarteten dritten Longplayer, den Boysen unter seinem eigenen Namen veröffentlicht, und Nachfolger zu den Alben Gravity (2013) und Spells (2016). Letzteres bescherte ihm nicht nur sehr viel Kritikerlob, sondern begeisterte auch die Fans und viele seiner Kollegen: Es gab u.a. Remixe von Max Cooper und Tim Hecker, während Jon Hopkins einen Titel von Spells zum Eröffnungstrack seiner Late Night Tales-Compilation machte. Wie schon auf seinen Alben Gravity und Spells, wird Ben im Verlauf von Mirage von mehreren Gästen unterstützt: Mit dabei sind unter anderem die Cellistin und Komponistin Anne Müller sowie der australische Saxofonist/Komponist Daniel Thorne. Beide sind auf dem ersten Vorboten "Medela" zu hören, der die Zuhörer*innen auf eine Reise durch kaleidoskopische Klangräume führt, in denen verschiedene Genres ganz spielerisch ineinander übergehen. Das geht so weit, dass man hinterher kaum noch sagen kann, was man da eigentlich gerade gehört hat: "Ich wollte experimentieren und versuchen, diese Aufnahmen mit 100% künstlichen Elementen zu verbinden. Dabei ging ich oftmals so weit, dass ein Instrument zu einer Abstraktion seiner selbst wurde, dass sich der Beitrag eines Musikers an einem Song eher wie ein zentraler DNA-Strang des Stücks anfühlt, aber nicht mehr wie eine deutlich erkennbare Spur." Insgesamt fühlt sich Mirage, wie im Titel bereits angedeutet, wie eine klangliche Illusion, eine vertonte Luftspiegelung an: Jedes Stück vereint Klänge und Techniken, die dermaßen bearbeitet und verändert wurden, dass sie wie überbelichtet wirken. Das allzu filzig wirkende Klavier von "Clarion" etwa, Daniel Thornes Saxofon auf "Medela", die einzelne Gesangsnote von Lisa Morgenstern, die sich im Verlauf von "Empyrean" in unterschiedliche Akkorde aufspaltet. Man kann diese Elemente durchaus erfassen, kann sie aber auch ohne weiteres übersehen - wie auch die beiden Klaviere von "Kenotaph", die man für ein einziges Instrument halten könnte. Genau genommen sind es zwei Instrumente, die sich in unterschiedlichen Räumen, ja sogar in unterschiedlichen Ländern befanden. Eins ist digital, das andere akustisch.

On his new record "Companionship", London-based Soft-Rock, Soul and Disco artist Joel Sarakula keeps the mood easy and the grooves deep. Ten new songs see Sarakula develop a deeper, more introspective lyrical style from his previous works as he celebrates and laments friendships, love and loneliness. Interspersed with a few standout up-tempo tracks to keep the ship sailing, "Companionship" is a chill-out album and listening experience of the highest order.

"Companionship" opens with "Midnight Driver", a driving soft-rock fantasy where the narrator laments his partner's nocturnal habits: 'When she's coming up, it gets me down'. The Californian sun-kissed guitars, vocal stylings and percussion all help to set a cinematic mood which unsurprisingly also makes it a great driving song. On the introspective "King Of Clowns", Sarakula creates a pop song that calls to mind the craftmanship of Hall & Oates and Elvis Costello. Both an admission of guilt and an unapologetic statement of intent, his low vocal careens in the dangerous divide between self-pity and self-parody: "My bad decisions worked out for a while, I'd do my dance tried to make you smile, I'll never wise up it's just the way I am". These confessions all occur over a down-tempo funk groove complete with some vintage synthesizer musings that makes the track ready to be sampled for a hip-hop record.

"Sunshine Makes Me" steps straight out of its mid-1970s swimming pool, heavily dripping in jazz fusion to dry off in the cold light of today's sunshine. The chorus is a mantra of desire, needs and reality that sees Sarakula sing 'Sunshine makes me lose my mind, thirty degrees and my eyes get so wide. Dreaming big and living slow, don't you know that time is on our side". On "Companionship", Joel Sarakula, prolific writer, producer, performer and multi-instrumentalist finally unleashes his chill-out pretensions. In this follow up to the critically acclaimed "Love Club" (2018) he develops a deeper and more mature compositions and production style. His love of all things vintage extends to a devotion to analog synthesizers and on "Companionship" you can hear a genuine love of synthesis that at moments is reminiscent of 70s synth production pioneers Todd Rundgren and George Duke.

Joel Sarakula will tour "Companionship" through Europe and the UK this Spring and Summer 2020 with his musical companions. Born in Sydney, based in London and a true internationalist, Sarakula tours with pickup bands sourced from each territory he plays in: a Barcelona band for Spain, a Berlin band for Germany and so forth. This cross-cultural exchange is a sly nod to the golden era of the 1960s and 1970s when travelling US pop, soul and blues artists would do the same.

► One half of duo Lumisokea and persistent sonic explorer ANDREA TAEGGI (Opal Tapes, SM-LL, Type, Präsens Editionen) debuts on OOH-sounds with a new solo album under-the-influence of mushrooms.

► Recorded at Willem-Twee synthesis studios in Holland, Mycorrhiza is a lucid excursion into a new form of 'ritual-computer-music' — gamelan from the future.

►Master + Cut by Helmut Erler, D&M Berlin. Limited Edition of 200, 12" black vinyl housed in gold cardboard sleeve with 'ad-hoc' fluo sticker.

Of course this is not the first album born under-the-influence of mushrooms, but apparentlyTaeggi doesn't take them here as he rather observes the cognitive and intelligent behavior of mycorrhizal fungal roots—one of the great mysteries inhabiting the forest soil, and from which a network of beneficial underground relationships with plants sprouts. Known as Mycelium, this fascinating wood-wide-web very much resembles the intricacy of the human neural system—transporting carbon, water and nutrients from one tree to another. A mutualistic symbiosis that Taeggi similarly establishes with the rather rare arsenal of sound machineries he had access to at Willem-Twee synthesis studios in Holland—a center for experimentation inspired by Berio and Maderna's Studio di Fonologia RAI in 1950s Milan.

In the process of tweaking and feeding electric impulses and sound signals into instruments of the likes of the iconic ARP 2500/2600 and a number of testing/measuring units from the 50/60s—originallynot conceived as musical instruments—Taeggi engages into an exchange of nutrients and information, while abruptly sabotaging un-welcome elements, hence accelerating the sound superhighway towards spectral psychedelic tension—a process he seems to be extremely in control of. Taking a step aside from his usual minimal approach to address more complex structures and augmented mind-sets, Mycorrhiza sounds at times like gamelan from the future: a lucid excursion into a form of "ritual-computer-music" with a conspicuous penchant for detail,alluding to a continuitybetween pseudo-cerimonial and laboratory-like computer music, steering clear from any reference to a specific creed or religion—imagine Stockhausen drinking the Amazonian sacred brew Ayahuasca..

The swarming micro-movements of "Cuttleburrs" multiply in a series of crescendos marked by sudden falls, saturated drums incursions and tense sonic clusters, introducing the more explicit gamelan percussive tones and compositional forms of "Kodama" and "Icaro". Recorded on the ARP 2500, "Mycorrhiza" uses white noise generators, resonant bass and spring reverb to conjure up a magical fungal diorama, which expands into the spooky shadows of skeletons and demons of "Phantasmagoria" and the spectral mystics of "Oculus Cordis"—the Eye of the Spirit — in which Taeggi grapples with the same sine-wave generators that Stockhausen used in his seminal "Studie I" and "Studie II".

Amsterdam might be susceptible to grey skies and rain as any other, but cup your ear to the music flowing out of the Dutch capital, and another story emerges. The Mauskovic Dance Band are a prime example of an act who have been dialing up the sunshine over the river Amstel in recent years.On Shadance Hall, their first release of 2020, they concoct a tantalising brew of no-wave, psych rock, cumbia, power dub and numerous other colourful shades of global grooves.

No stranger to Dekmantel as one of half of electro-grouping Bruxas, Nicola Mauskovic leads his percussive troupe through a heavy, trippy, disco fiesta with this, their first debut on Dekmantel Records.
The Mauskovic Dance Band’s epic sonic journey on Shadance Hall began deep in the Welsh valleys. Partnering dusty drum machines alongside phat layers of congas, assorted bric-a-brac of percussive tools, and distortion-soaked guitars, Mauskovic’s ensemble suspend the tempo and turn up the grooves. on this soundsystem-inspired, post-punk odyssey. The resulting soundsystem-inspired concoctions are a mixture of 130bpmbeats (‘Ventura Phase’), Jah Wobble-influenced bass rhythms (‘Squeeze Dogs’) and Carnival-ready soca-jams (‘Theorie Amerikaan’).

Taken back to Amsterdam’s famed Electric Monkey Studio (a favourite for Ghanian great Ebo Taylor and Dutch youngbloods Jungle By Night alike, Mauskovic teamed up with engineer Kasper Frenkel to mix down the record. Here the two acted as Mad Professors, experimenting with the recordings and making multiple versions of each track by creating tape loops, bouncing the audio back and forth and layering the resulting recordings in waves of reverb and echo. In classic dub style, the band ended up with dub edits, rich in space echo, reverb, crush, and dub-goodness, completing the second half of Shadance Hall like a funky palindrome. It rounds off an expressive EP steeped in musical history, bursting with inventiveness, projected at the listener as a maze of influences to get lost within.

Thembisa’s Hot Soul Singers were formed in 1975 by promoter and producer Sam “Jiza Jiza” Mthembu. In the early years the trio was called the Thembisa Happy Queens and consisted of sisters Ntombifuthi and Nombuso Mabaso and Lindiwe Ndlovu. The trio would start out playing Jive, Zulu Disco and other popular sounds of the 70s . In 1979 they became the Hot Soul Singers and would begin a career in the emerging Disco scene which their group name was now more fitting for.

Their first single under the new name was a tribute to their producer Sam, and their first album “Together” would come 2 years later in 1981. It contained their Lamont Dozier rip off from a year earlier, and biggest hit to date “ Give Me My Love Back” which was playing in jukeboxes across the country. At this time the Hot Soul Singers were also gaining popularity due to their demand as an opening act for American groups. Sam’s ongoing pursuit to be a successful promoter also helped to ensure they were always in the headlines and playing shows. It would be in 1983 that the group would temporarily step away from a major label and go onto record their first Maxi single with the independent Raintree Records new Lyncell Imprint.

Like most places in the world the early 80s was a fast changing time in music for South Africa. Although the Maxi had a disco standard for years in other parts of the world it had only recently been popularized in South Africa. Thanks to the Brenda and the Big Dudes smash, Weekend Special, the maxi took over as the preferred format for pop music, replacing the cheaper but time restricting 7” single. Singles were being pushed to the limits in the early 80’s with running times of 4+ minutes a sides by some labels. The Maxi allowed for groups to extend their grooves onto a full side and later album art containing smiling musicians infant of cheesy backdrops became the norm. Synthesizers had been used in pop music for years already but the DX7 wouldn’t land in the country for another year. Drum machines were being used but had yet to fully replace live drummers like would happen in the years to come. The recording of this new single would require a full band resulting in it being one of the gems of the crossover period before the complete midi takeover. Durban’s Graham Handley was recording some of the best upcoming Disco sounds for labels like Heads Music and groups like Kabasa and Masike Mohapi and was tasked as engineer. Other known musicians in the session would be Jimmy Mgwandi from the group Image, who’s signature bass playing can be heard on both songs. A young Daniel Phakoe aka “sox” was also present and took care of the male parts of the vocal line. Both musicians have writing credits along with lead singer Nombuso. Other possibilities of musicians would be Thami Mduli aka Professor Rhythm who had been with the group since their early days as well as a young Chicco who was best friends with Jimmy at the time.

The single, which was packaged in a customized but simple company disco sleeve, went on to do quite well. Less than a year later they would feature on a track with Sunset which would lead to them singing with Sounds of Soweto records label. The group would enjoy the growing fame when tragedy struck in 1984. On their way to a show in Mpumalanga they were involved in a car accident which took the life of Nombuso and left her husband Sam with a leg injury he limps with to this day. Upon recovering Sam would organize a tribute concert at Soweto’s Jabulani Amphitheatre. Even though the tragedy left the group broken and without a member the band went back to work to record their second full length album. They worked with Mac Mathunjwa who had written Nombuso’s favourite song “Going Crazy”. This album would be released with two different names and covers. One took the former singer’s favourite song as the album name and used a photo consisting of all three girls where the other released under the name “ A Tribute” and would only have the remaining members on the cover.

Although the tragedy never halted the group, moving forward the trio of singers would see a few members change. Lindiwe would leave to join Freeway and then become Linda “Babe” Majika so by the time they were ready to record in1986, now with Teal records, the only original member was Ntombifuthi. She would also shortly leave the group and provide backing vocals to other artists including her old band mate Linda. The Hot Soul Singers would be kept alive by Jiza Jiza and go on to record 5 more albums before calling it quits in 1990 after a successful 15 year career. Today the only core member left is Sam Mthembu who still lives in Thembisa and is occasionally promoting live events. Even though he did produce a handful of artists back in the 70s, his most significant additions to the music industry were the Hot Soul Singers and his event promotions, which is what he is best known for and will most likely be the legacy of his career.

Pilo returns to BNR in 2020 with the “A.R.E.A.” EP. Since his first release for the label in 2013 at a very young age, each subsequent record could be seen as a milestone of growth - the “A.R.E.A. EP” feels confident, produced with consummate skill, focusing on the LA-producers strongest themes and devices. This is not, however, the sort of “maturity” that sees things get boring, more restrained. Pilo’s drum is the beat of LA’s unhinged underground techno scene - they don’t do boring - and this drum is always banging.

A-side examples: “Acid by Mouth.” A stuttered kick and a gated, uncanny valley voice form the backbone for increasing layers of texture and percussion. It’s a rollercoaster, as viscerally satisfying on the way up as on the way down. Pilo’s production journey has been increasingly cinematic, and you can see the songs here - “Acid by Mouth” is suited for a Gaspar Noe nightclub scene, and you love to hear it as long as no one gets murdered. “Ruhig” is tribal, made for spaces with 4 story high ceilings and sparse but blinding flashes of light. You can hear steel beams buckling under pressure, a breath too close behind you. The workers of the factory in fit of madness started raving to the sounds of their own machines. They’ve been dancing, without pause, for years now.

The B-side opens with “Exit the Artificial.” Headbanging broken beat kick, aggressive Skinny Puppy snares, ghost voices in hallucinatory bursts too short to confirm to be real. The draw-distance of the stereo spread seems infinite - listen at the very edges and a whole other (ominous) world is taking place. The ghosts mock you in gated laughs by the end. “Adapt Tactics” leads you out - low tempo, hissy percussion, haunted again at the fringe. Things break down, reduced to grain - brain short-circuits, “will I feel like this forever?” It’s a warning - turn back, there’s nothing for you out there. You embrace the madness, and start Pilo’s “A.R.E.A.” EP again from the beginning.

Coastlines is the self-titled long player from the new Japanese production unit of DJ and producer Masanori Ikeda and solo artist, session musician and Cro-Magnon keyboard player Takumi Kaneko.

Masanori and Takumi have been part of the Japanese dance music scene for years and Coastlines was born out of their working together on soundtracks for video projects. The pair wanted to make laid-back listening music for now, laying Takumi’s playful keys over Masanori’s widescreen balearic jazz-fusion to conjure beautiful and breathtaking “coastlines”.

A couple of two-track 7"s put out in late 2018 and early 2019 on Japanese house music label Flower Records soon sold out. Those four tracks were expanded to a full album of music, “a joyous, relaxing, summery soundtrack for everyone’s after hours wind down” that was released just in time for summer. It soundtracked many a Be With BBQ in 2019.

The album opens in the horizontal with the sophisticated, cocktails-by-the-pool groove of “Sunset Reflection”. A lush, beatless wonder. Their re-imagining of Ralph MacDonald’s “East Dry River” removes all the original’s bells and whistles (quite literally) and re-gears it with a subtle balearic chug. The result is a percussive gem.

“Coastline” is a beach-jazz noodle. “Drifting Ice” is as chilled and glacial as its title would suggest, yet Masanori’s head-nod slo-mo house beats throb not far below the surface. “My Fire” is another soft killer, all swelling, swirling organ over muted kicks and snares. An elegant boom-bap.

A pair of insistent tunes of the deeply balearic variety raise the tempo, but not by too much of course. On “Woods And My Guitar” a half-heard vocal refrain breathes life into the synthetic xylophone and guitar. Deft piano-work turns “Half Moon Shadow” into lounge-house for the sophisticated beach bum. A classy duo.

The self-assured re-work of Azymuth’s “Last Summer In Rio” is arguably the album’s centrepiece. Ten minutes of casually propulsive slapped bass, steel pans and slick 80s soul beats. Cue the steel drum interlude of “Maracas Bay” before album closer “Down Town” transitions us one with a shuffling, string-hinted hit of ethereal, euphoric piano bliss. Gentle disco for the new decade.

As former Test Pressing scribe Dr. Rob observed on his ever-reliable Ban Ban Ton Ton blog, the Coastlines fusion is very much in conversation with their 80s counterparts, both at home and along the coastlines of different continents. So among the nods to revered Japanese artists like Hiroshi Sato, Sakamoto and Casiopea, there are also hints of Marcos Valle and Mtume, of the aforementioned Azymuth. “The production though is very much now, not then. Not retro, just proper”. We couldn’t put it better ourselves.

Coastlines was originally a CD release only available in Japan, with HMV putting out a super-limited vinyl version a few months later for Japanese Record Store Day. But this music is just too good, so when Be With was asked via Ken Hidaka to take care of a vinyl version for the rest of the world it wasn’t a tough decision.

Mastered by Simon Francis and cut by Pete Norman, just 500 copies of this double LP have been pressed by the good people at Record Industry.

We’ve worked with Ian Willson to reissue his insanely good, self-released West Coast classic “Straight From The Heart”. Privately pressed and originally released in 1985, this is the only album Ian ever put out. A magical blend of AOR/sophisticated funk/synth-boogie/spiritual jazz and modern soul, it’s a spellbinding record of many colours.

You might already know “Straight From The Heart” for the dubby-disco paranoid-balearic anthem “Four In The Morning”, and it’s easy to assume this is probably just another one of those one-track LPs. But trust us when we say it’s definitely not. This is an impressively slick record from start to finish, just ask those modern soul DJs and AOR collectors who’ve managed to find a rare copy in the last 35 years. It could’ve (should’ve?) been number 1 all over the world back in 1985.

Album opener “Think About It” is all sorts of right. It’s emotional. It’s tops-off. It’s funk in its purest form. And take the proto-modern-funk of the title track (half Dâm-Funk / half Dâd-Funk).

The shimmering, spiritual Bossa-Jazz of “If I Were You” serves as the album’s soaring centrepiece. A gorgeous suite of Cosmic vibes to get Gilles frothing, it sounds like nothing else on the record which makes sense given that it was recorded a couple of years earlier, and is the only track on the LP that wasn’t recorded in Ian’s own studio.

Side B opens with the propulsive ode to love that is “Two Is Better Than One”. Wonderfully sparse when it needs to be, it’s also richly percussive and that special kind of California-warm. Frenetic, speaker smashing synth and horn workout “Funk Invasion” dares you not to dance and “A Game Called Love” is heavily indebted to Prince with its lush, deep funk stylings. The sweeping sax-drenched instrumental “Song For Katelyn” is head-nod, beat-heavy AOR for that melancholic magic hour we spend our days longing for. It all adds up to the ultimate BBQ record.

Almost all of “Straight From The Heart” was recorded over a few months between 1983 and 1984 on Ian’s brand new Otari 8 track in the Oakland, California studio he built just the year before. Only “If I Were You” was recorded elsewhere, at Bay Sound in 1982.

A “full time poor musician” at the time (and he says he still is), Ian produced the album himself and played all of the instruments, except for guitar. That’s Peter Fujii you can hear, his good friend from growing up together.

Tower Of Power, Average White Band, Earth Wind & Fire and Stevie Wonder was the list of influences Ian gave us when we asked. No wonder the record’s just so easy on the ears.

And why did he put the record out himself? Simple, he had no idea how to go about getting a record deal.

When we first got in touch with Ian he had no idea that “Straight From The Heart” had become something of a cult record, let alone that there were those of us out there that thought the album deserved to be pressed again. The original tapes have long since been lost so this re-issue was only made possible by remastering Ian’s one and only pristine copy of the finished LP.

The end results have been worth the work, including reproducing the original’s unmistakeable sleeve. Ian Willson’s “Straight From The Heart” is yet another Be With release that will find an easy home on the shelves of those of you who up to now have only dreamt of finding a copy and also those of you who who never knew it even existed.

Something is stirring in downtown Tucson. That's no great surprise perhaps: Calexico have been sending out missives from the desert for 20 years now, Giant Sand for even longer than that, and the Green on Red revival is surely overdue. Let us remind ourselves that this isn't a big city in the American sense, but that its hinterland is indeed as big as it gets. For an hour south, Mexico starts. And this is where things get interesting.

Born in Nogales, Arizona, raised in Nogales, Sonora, multi-instrumentalist and band-leader Sergio Mendoza grew up listening to the Mexican regional styles jostling for headspace in a young, music-mad mind - cumbia mainly, but mambo, rancheras and mariachi too. The border is always a fierce arena of exchange, both commercial and cultural, and so there was American music too. At one point 'rock and roll, the classics', as Mendoza himself deadpans, seemed to win out and he stopped playing those 'Latin styles' for a good decade and a half.

The return to those sounds was a strong one in 2012's Mambo Mexicano, co-produced by Mendoza and Joey Burns of Calexico - a band for which Mendoza has become an increasingly integral touring and recording member. While that record had a studied air, tentative in parts (as befits the renewal of an old love affair), ¡Vamos A Guarachar! is another beast entirely: by turns raucous ('Cumbia Volcadora', featuring Mexican electronic pioneer Camilo Lara), tender ('Misterio', surely Salvador Duran's finest moment with the band so far) and plain serious fun, as in 'Contra La Marea' and 'Mapache', it also bears a robust electronic edge, a keen pop sensibility and all the hallmarks of Mendoza's love of 60s rock, with the closing track, 'Shadows of the Mind', sure to be included if anyone decides to update the Nuggets collection for the 21st century. This is roundabout way of saying that it appears to have everything, but never too much of anything. Focused, fierce and beautifully executed by a superbly drilled set of musicians, it is a record that fully matches the band's explosive live performances.

You could, of course, take the trip to Tucson yourself, to the home of this essential set of field recordings. The scene hangs out together, so ... if the stars align and their frantic tour schedules permit, you might see any number of folks from Calexico, Giant Sand or up-and-coming cumbia rockers Xixa deep in conversation somewhere in town with a quiet young man in black. That's Sergio. Right now, in this endless game of Tucson tag, Orkesta Mendoza are IT.

Brooklyn-based cellist Clarice Jensen’s gorgeous
sophomore album and first for FatCat’s pioneering
130701 imprint, ‘The experience of repetition as death’
was recorded and mixed by Francesco Donadello at
Vox-Ton studios in Berlin in late 2018 and mastered by
Rafael Anton Irisarri.
 Following up her hugely impressive 2018 debut, ‘For
This From That Will Be Filled’, which included
collaborations with Jóhann Jóhannsson and Michael
Harrison, all of the material on this new album was
written and performed by Clarice alone and all of the
sounds on it were created with a cello through a
variety of effects and effects pedals.
 Clarice has recorded and performed for a host of
stellar artists including Jóhann Jóhannsson, Max
Richter, Björk, Arcade Fire, Nick Cave, Jónsi, Stars of
the Lid, Dustin O’Halloran, Joanna Newsom, Nico
Muhly, Dirty Projectors, Frightened Rabbit and Beirut.
 Receiving glowing critical acclaim, both her previous
releases made it into Pitchfork’s End Of Year charts.
 For fans of Jóhann Jóhannsson, Hildur Gudnadottir,
Stars of the Lid, Max Richter, Pauline Oliveros, Harold
Budd, A Winged Victory For The Sullen, Sarah
Davachi, Resina, Maria W Horn, Ellen Arkbro, Kali
Malone, Christina Vantzou, Abul Mogard, Galya
Bisengalieva, Richard Skelton, GAS, Steve Reich.

Heralded by both mainstream and indie press on it's release as an instant British classic, this seminal album rocketed from the underground to five-star acclaim right across the board.

A tense yet energetic journey through the highs and lows of living in the British counterculture of the time, it effortlessly mixed the old and the new, rock and roll and electronica, the past and the future- and brought this eclectic sound to a global fanbase. Now available as a 15th Anniversary Remastered Edition.

2026 Repress

Four standout remixes to celebrate the 20th anniversary of iconic Australian duo Madison Avenue’s classic, ‘Don’t Call Me Baby’ from Patrick Topping, Spencer Parker, Mousse T and Super Disco Club. Be prepared as one of the world’s most prominent vocal tracks just got bigger.

Australia’s Madison Avenue continue to celebrate their 20th anniversary of ‘Don’t Call Me Baby’ a certified UK, European and US Billboard hit that returned late 2019 to cement no.1 positions across Aria Charts, Beatport and Traxsource. Now Patrick Topping, Spencer Parker, Mousse T and Super Disco Club take it to a higher level that’ll see it dominating clubs for many years to come!

A tale of two halves the A side see’s man of the moment Patrick Topping and veteran of the scene Spencer Parker provide two tech-y interpretations, the former an acid tweaked destructive whirlwind and the later a looped-up dub stomper. On the flip it’s nu disco at its best with a pair of remixes from Mousse T and Super Disco Club.

On Patrick Topping / Spencer Parker remixes:

Ben UFO - Very Nice Acid Mix
Danny Howard (BBC Radio 1) - Absolutely ripped it to shreds and turned into an absolute club weapon for 2020 (Patrick Topping’s Remix)
Annie Nightingale BBC R1 - Great reworks!
Black Madonna - Nice! | Change Underground - Premiere
Hannah Wants - Both bangaaaaaaaas. nice packageeeeeee

Dimi is the new solo project and label of (Dimitrios Ploumpidis) one half of techno duo, AnD.

The Dimi label will be an exploration in sound, pushing techno, rave and dance floor sounds with a raw and powerful attitude.

DIMI001 kicks off with "Time Travel". Pulsating kick drums and vocal cuts interweave, creating groove with the snappy snare and lashing hi hats. When the huge synth stab and melody drop to take us straight to a hedonistic past put looking clearly into the future.

"Bang Your Face" enters the room with a tight, hard-hitting kick and serrated rave sirens building an infectious groove before being banged in the face with the old school euphoric synth line that drops in and out of the mix creating tension and dramatic shifts in the track.

"Groove Away" a throbbing bass and kick drum drop with a sinister stab for this funky techno monster. Hard in dynamics but with a maximum amount of groove this track thumps and slams while the spaced out synth line and rave stabs help keep this funky banger grooving all the way to outer space as the alien melodies propel us for take off.

"All In" syncopated delayed synth stabs build in this track with tight rhythmic percussion and distorted kick drum. The snare enters like a punch to the face but only solidifying the swing while the main synth line opens building tension ready to destroy everything in its path. This is Dimi showcasing his direct and unique take on techno music.

The story of 'Get Tragic' can be traced way back to the relentless gigging off the back of their 2014 self-produced and self-titled record, when the heels finally fell off of Blood Red Shoes at the end of that same year. A near-decade of incessant road time and a non-stop pace of life finally took its toll, with the band stopping only to quickly hammer out 'another ten songs' to release as their next record, before ploughing straight back into touring. The pair exhausted themselves to the point of collapse. 'We didn't, at any point, have a breather,' says Steven Ansel (drums and vocals), 'We probably didn't see each other for about 10 days a year, tops, for six or seven years.' Understandably, such incessant close proximity led to implosion. 'We got the to the end of the fourth record and were like, 'F**k you, I never want to see you again','Steven adds, half-laughing, half-sighing.

BEHOLD! The inaugural long player from Wick Records - The Mystery Lights! In an era when the city kvetches that there are no good NYC bands, when half of the music scene has split for sunny California, the Mystery Lights are an anomaly. Not only did these bold young men reverse the direction - optimistically migrating east against the tide from the west coast, but they also immersed themselves in the action and diversity of New York City. Organically unfolding over the nights, months and years, the Lights' sound has evolved into a fuzz-fueled, hopped-up 21st Century take on '60s garage pebbles, and artful '70s punk, that is all their own.

If you've ever seen the Mystery Lights live, then you've experienced the otherworldly energy and conviction they exude on stage, compelling their rabid fans to emphatically entwine themselves into an electrified mob. This album is a testament to that. Recorded at The Daptone House Of Soul by (Grammy Award winning) engineer, Wayne Gordon - shortly after their debut single sold out - it marries the Lights' youthful, visceral energy with seasoned song-craft and musicianship far beyond their years.

The Mystery Lights are living proof that vital contemporary music, in this case real-deal rock 'n roll, can still be dreamed, constructed, and thankfully recorded in the Empire City.

Milio is one half of the duo Tunnelvisions. His solo debut EP is the result of experimenting with sequencers, tape machines and wires. The four tracks meander in the deep house and melodic techno genres. The last bits of the mix and recordings are done at the prestigious W2 studios that host producers from all over the world.

Ohm Resistance founder Submerged returns to pure drum & bass, bringing the most cutting edge producers in the game to the forefront on his new EP. “The Eradication of Untruth" charges at the dance floor and covers it from all angles - epic, hardcore, modern, and the punk as f*@# style that Ohm Resistance has trademarked since 1999. 'Transformation' is an epic duet with Estonia’s Ajamari, a melodic journey, with the classic Submerged reese making your eyes roll into the back of your head. 'Cell' is a serious bruiser, with hardcore 4/4 action courtesy of Hungary’s Savage. The B side places you into Surrealistic Dystopian Nightmares, with the distinctive strings of Masamune paired against the crushing weight of Submerged amens. Finally, you reach the Abyss - a punk tribute to Prodigy created with Latvia’s Molecular at the time of Keith Flint’s passing - shouted vocals over a searing halftime ending keep this record memorable to the last drop.

Bastard Jazz is proud to present the sophmore solo album by one of the gems of the New Zealand underground soul scene, Isaac Aesili. Woven through electronic soul, with threads of jazz, funk, R&B and house music, Isaac's 'Hidden Truths' is the stylistic unification of all his previous projects (Karl Marx, Funkommunity, Sorceress) into a dazzling and diverse body of work. Three years in the making, its depth is clear from the first listen, and is peppered with some of New Zealand's finest soul and jazz musical talent, including two stunning female feature vocalists from New Zealand; Ladi6 and Rachel Fraser.

The album opens with an ominous instrumental 'Mirror' setting a dark a tone for the album the start, shimmering with shades of Dilla swing snapping over metallic chords and a graceful trumpet solo that enters midway through. Wild feat. Ladi6' is a heavy downbeat future soul joint with stratospheric synths layered over driving beats that build alongside the elegant vocal weavings of New Zealand's first lady of soul, Ladi6, while 'Player' sees Isaac's unique vocals tell a tale of dangerous seduction within a synth funk-driven dancehall cum house music that feels like the Gap Band on a tropical vacation. 'Jungles' is a deep, native and ocean-like soundscape that begins with syncopated synths and beats that collide dramatically into a frantic, sweeping synth outro, followed up by'Realms' , an intricately crafted song that has sonic elements from techno-house that are other-worldly accompanied by live drums that flip after the breakdown into a swinging conclusion of the album's first half.

'Run Every Way' is an epic percussion-driven electronic blues that begins with a vocal chorus from Isaac that could just as easily be interpreted lyrically as a warning about climate change as it could an expression of the inner-self, while "Refugee" is also a heavily percussion orientated joint that fuses romantic classical strings with otherworldly synth stabs and Isaac's haunting vocals moving climactically into a tender coda conclusion. "Rain Gods" feat. Rachel Fraser is a heavenly pathway into Rachel's luxurious vocals with clever lyrics merging the soaring synths and looped bassline into a short yet memorable chorus'and 'Steps' is classic Isaac Aesili production including deep Rhodes chord changes, a knocking beat with layers of percussion, synths and horns providing a warm emotive accompaniment to Isaac's vocals. 'Last Minute' is a simple yet sophisticated jewel of space and time that concludes the vocal tracks of the album in a proper soulful style, and 'Maureen' rounds out the album as an expressive instrumental outrolude that features Isaac's trumpet.

Isaac Aesili is an Internationally acclaimed solo artist and the producer and creative force behind Funkommunity, Sorceress and Karlmarx. Isaac's original productions have been supported internationally by DJs such as Gilles Peterson (BBC Radio 6 Music), Benji B (BBC 1), and Lefto (Belgium, Worldwide FM). His trumpet playing features on many collaborations including 'Layer' by Julien Dyne (Wonderful Noise/BBE) and 'Midnight in Peckham' by Chaos in the CBD (Rhythm Section). A world-renowned musician on both trumpet and percussion, Isaac is a member of the Lord Echo band. His music fuses Soul, Funk, Jazz, Afro and Latin styles with R&B, Hip Hop and Electronic music. Isaac's much anticipated sophomore solo album "Hidden Truths" is out on Bastard Jazz (NYC) in 2020.

Sugar were the US alternative rock trio fronted by ex-Hüsker Dü vocalist / guitarist Bob Mould. First released in 1995, Besides is a collection of B-sides, remixes and live versions. Highlights include a live rendition of ‘JC Auto’, the rare studio recording of ‘Clownmaster’ and a cover of the Who’s ‘Armenia City in the Sky’. Issued on heavyweight 180g clear vinyl for the first time.

Detroit blue-eyed soul from The Flaming Ember, a band who signed to the then newly created Hot Wax Records (founded by the prolific hit making Motown team Holland Dozier Holland) Sunshine is the bands third Hot Wax LP with highlights including ‘I’m Not My Brothers Keeper’ to ‘1200 Miles From Heave’. Recognised for their contribution to music and inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in 1999
This 1971 album is reissued with original artwork presented in a gatefold sleeve and preseed on 180g heavyweight black vinyl with printed inner sleeve

Sugar were the US alternative rock trio fronted by ex-Hüsker Dü vocalist / guitarist Bob Mould. Recorded at the legendary First Avenue in Minneapolis, November 1994, The Joke Is Always On Us, Sometimes captures Sugar during their ‘File Under: Easy Listening’ tour. Includes live renditions of classic tracks including ‘If I Can’t Change Your Mind’, ‘Hoover Dam’ and ‘The Slim’. For the first time, the album is presented on heavyweight 180g clear vinyl.

The independent UK label Six Nine Records Ltd, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, proudly presents the third outing on the label for no one less than Randy Hall. The stunning new song “A New Way Of Love” quickly reached the top of several radio charts and is a sure-shot winner with its hard-hitting bassline, infectious melodies and the unmistakable voice of Mr. Hall! Definitely not to be missed as it is a limited UK press with small hole and full colour printed picture cover!

To coincide with the announcement, the pair have shared a video for the album’s title track directed by Sam Davis and Tom Andrew, who has previously received two UK Music Video Awards nominations for his work with Avery. Speaking about the video, Andrew explains, “We were keen to capture a visual representation of the tempo and atmospheric emotion of the track and make a video exploring the notion of collaboration. A super-motion approach allowed us to explore details of motion shared between two people, in tactile actions of aiding and supporting.” Cortini adds, “The video embodies the volatility and hidden nature of the music’s subject and meaning. A meaning that is ultimately personal and unique the listener/spectator.” Watch the clip .



Beginning as a collaborative experiment before the pair had even met, Avery and Cortini then worked remotely and free of concept or deadline over several years. The result, finally completed when both artists were touring with Nine Inch Nails in 2018, is a quietly powerful album rooted in trust, process and experimentation. The first fruits of their labour were unveiled last year when ‘Water’ and ‘Sun’ appeared online, subsequently released as a very limited 7” run that was sold at FYF Festival and Mount Analog in Los Angeles, and Phonica Records in London. Both tracks are included on the album.



“It was very much a shared process”, notes Avery. “I would like to credit Alessandro with his belief that music has a life of its own, as well as the importance he places on the first take... That even something that may be considered out-of-step by some should be respected. Some of the tracks were borne simply out of a tiny synth part, or a bit of tape hiss that we had recorded. And that approach taught me a lot. It’s a record that’s been worked on hard, but not laboured over.”



“I was a big fan of Daniel’s, and his work always spoke to me in a certain way,’’ explains Cortini. “Then, when we started working together, it just clicked. It’s very hard to explain, but I can always hear the love in his work, and that is true on this record. After our first collaboration, we just kept sending each other music and maintaining that dialogue. Next thing you know, we’re sitting in a hotel room in New York and had finished the record in three hours.”



The collaborative album follows Avery’s second record Song For Alpha, released in early 2018, and last year’s expanded edition B-sides & Remixes. Mixmag called the sophomore LP “A beautiful maturation of Avery’s work as a producer,” while The Guardian hailed its “Majestic, cavernous techno” and Loud & Quiet praised Avery as “A producer fast approaching the peak of his powers,” “This album cements Daniel Avery as one of the best,” wrote DIY. The London-based producer will perform at BBC Radio 3’s Unclassified Live on April 3rd, a new series of concerts in the Southbank Centre's Queen Elizabeth Hall presented by Unclassified host and presenter Elizabeth Alker and conducted by André de Ridder – tickets are available here. Avery has also just been announced in the first wave of acts for London festivals Re-Textured and the inaugural Wide Awake, taking place in April and June respectively.



Cortini released his most recent solo album Volume Massimo on Mute in July 2019, following Fine, the Italian artist’s final album under his SONOIO alias, which came out the previous year. The Quietus called the former “an album that showcases just how much Cortini‘s aesthetic has developed since his early days,” while Exclaim! hailed it “a melodic exploration of textures and layers … an instrumental masterpiece that adds to an already incredible body of work by the gifted and skilled composer.”

With the collective generosity of all those involved along the way, from mastering, manufacturing, affiliated record stores and PR to the artists themselves and PDD, all profits from this special one-sided Artwork remix of Mildlife ‘Zwango Zop’ will be donated to two charities combatting the bushfire emergency in Australia via Prime Direct Distribution; Wildlife Victoria and the Australian Red Cross.

Their indispensable efforts continue to assist the emergency response, rebuilding homes and habitats, supporting rescued animals and the shelters that house them, alongside aiding the evacuation centres and recovery hubs created in many communities and implementing recovery plans for those who have been devastatingly affected by the bushfires.

Certified man of the people, king of the content and all-round good guy Artwork has been there, everywhere, and done it all - in more guises than many would even know about. From Magnetic Man to Grain, D’N’D to Artwork he’s a master producer, well versed at knowing what dancefloors want and more importantly need.

Now take Mildlife, the boundary pushing, critically acclaimed Melbourne-based space jazz four-piece, who’ve managed to seamlessly blend jazz, funk and disco into one multi-coloured, multi-layered melting pot of auditory excitement. A band whose hype is certainly lived up to, with the likes of DJ Harvey heavily championing them to the point of including ‘Magnificent Moon’ on his ‘The Sound Of Mercury Rising’ VA LP.

A wash with improvisation, soaring synths, stratospheric bass riffs, and a fluidity of grooves, ‘Zwango Zop’, taken from Midlife’s debut album ‘Phase’, is kaleidoscopic cosmic gold. For this special non-profit release, Artwork extracts that undeniable funk energy and turns into a 10-and-a-half-minute, highly hypnotic, instantly addictive creation that it is as psychedelic as it is slamming.

Just one of many examples of the dance music community coming together as a power of good to raise funds for those affected by the emergency in Australia. Support the cause, through the medium of music.

Back in 2018, Lumière Noire celebrated its first anniversary with a compilation featuring thirteen exclusive tracks by an eclectic group of electronic musicians – a family portrait of sorts. A few months later, a second volume of From Above, compiled by the label's artistic director (and DJ) Chloé, once more brings thirteen established acts together with promising upstarts. The first compilation was the embodiment of the label policy advocating for both artistic excellence and a widening of electronic aesthetics – bopping from deviant house music to adventurous IDM and to the rigor of dancefloor techno, among other electronic explorations. Some of the artists featured are now closely associated with Lumière Noire, while others were more established performers such as Benedikt Frey, Lauer, Jonathan Fitoussi, Il Est Vilaine, Dave e Brun (half of Swayzak) and Frank Agrario, as well as upcoming artists such as C O N T R A (a side project by none other than Iñigo Vontier), Sutja Gutierrez, Théo Muller, Markus Gibb, Bajram Bili, and a sprinkling of UFOs circling the genre (Suuns' Ben Shemie, Drvg Cvltvre, and electro-acoustic combo Lumi). This group photo laid down a number of paths for a label in perpetual evolution.

Since then, the Parisian entity has continued to grow within the international electronic scene, releasing Local Suicide's Leopard Gum EP, Iñigo Vontier's first LP, and planning another slew of releases for 2020. The lineup for this second volume of From Above is once again equally intriguing, offering a crescendo-like track listing over a double LP format, which is a feat of sorts for a "Various Artists" compilation.

Marc Mélias' fascinating, unsettling Permanent Waves gets the proceedings going with a contemplative track that provides a serene opening to the odyssey on which From Above will be taking the listener. Pletnev continues on with the playful, hooky Marco O’Polo, a fundamentally techno track built over a seductive 90s-inspired breakbeat. Douglas Greed (whom Chloé remixed on BPitch a few years back, and had himself remixed track from her album Endless Revisions featuring Ben Shemie’s vocals), supplies Vancouver, a slice of ambiance à la Boards of Canada, supported by a gripping breakbeat. The rhythmic arpeggio of Israeli producer's Middle Sky Bloom makes his contribution a hypnotic, disconcerting slice of dark disco. Thomass Jackson, a safe bet in the new wave of the Latin-American electronic music blowing its sometimes hot, sometimes cold wind, proposes Mithra, a dancefloor incantation to the Antiquity's bull god. With Bells, Goldmoon delivers a track that is both melodic and nostalgic, tinged with rhythmic samples, Moog basses and solar backgrounds. Longtime friend of Chloé, Krikor, who has released two albums on L.I.E.S. Records (Pacific Alley and Saudi), offers a moment of respite with Sally Hardesty (a nod to fans of horror movies), a heavenly and bewitching track that, paradoxically, hints at the highly energetic second half of the compilation. Discovered with Confidences EP released on Lumière Noire, the young French producer Morgan Blanc asserts himself here with Werde Der Du Bist ("Become who you are"), a song with luminous chords and midtempo rhythms to start the second half of the compilation by raising the tension. Galician producer, DJ and designer Cora Novoa continues the rollercoaster's ascent with her Virtual Aesthetics, which once again brings those acid tones – this time without the vertigo. Equally corrosive, but tenser and more percussive, the uncategorizable NSDOS' AL-G attempts to give order to a chaotic electronic world full of violence and danger. Rebeka Warrior (half of the duo Kompromat alongside compatriot Vitalic), takes on a more nostalgic vibe with Ich Komme Zurück, a French/German techno chant evoking a secret dream of a track from a bygone era. Three years after the release by Lumière Noire of Moderna and Theus Mago's stroboscopic Dog Is Calling You, Theus Mago makes a solo comeback with Idealistic Stone, a most acid of club tracks, rattled by the modulations of the inevitable TB 303. French electro-rock saltwarth Yan Wagner's dancefloor alter ego The Populists' Prehistoric Lemurs gives an almost Orientalizing twist to Kraftwerk's techno-pop. To close things off, the collection's last track, the appropriately-named Instant Track by impromptu encounter between Hervé Carvalho (Acid Arab), Jacques Bon (Smallville) and Demian (Kompakt) Acid Love Triangle, releases the pressure with a long, bittersweet reverie that leaves the listener, at the end of these thirteen musical adventures, to rest languorously on an artificial and welcoming shore.

"Aporia" is a New Age album from Sufjan Stevens and his step-father and record label co-owner, Lowell Brams. In the spirit of the New Age composers who sanded off the edges of their synths' sawtooth waves, "Aporia" approximates a rich soundtrack from an imagined sci-fi epic brimming with moody, hooky, gauzy synthesizer soundscapes. The album may suggest the progeny of a John Carpenter, Wendy Carlos, and Mike Oldfield marriage, but it stands apart from these touchstones and generates a meditative universe all its own. This is no mere curio in the Sufjan Stevens catalog - but a fully realized collaborative musical piece. Stevens and Brams recorded "Aporia" over the course of the last several years during Brams' visits to Stevens' home in New York with the help of several frequent Asthmatic Kitty collaborators, including Thomas Bartlett (Doveman), D.M. Stith, Nick Berry (Dots Will Echo), John Ringhofer (Half-handed Cloud) drummer and longtime collaborator James McAlister, keyboardist and trombonist Steve Moore (Sunn O)))), guitarist Yuuki Matthews (The Shins) and vocalist Cat Martino.

"Available again for the first time since original release in 1974, Outernational Sounds proudly presents one of the deepest custom press jazz recordings of all – Jaman’s spiritualised and funky Sweet Heritage.

The history of jazz is often told as though it was principally a history of releases and recordings. On those terms, it’s easy to mistake a small recorded footprint for obscurity or silence. But that is to put the cart before the horse, for the true history of the jazz is the story of the music as it was played night after night in the clubs, bars, concert halls and backrooms of cities and towns across America and the world. Only a tiny fraction of this living tradition ever makes it onto a recording. The far greater part is embodied in the musicians and their music as they play it and live it. And even though 1974’s Sweet Heritage is James Edward Manuel’s only release, the pianist and educator better known as Jaman has undoubtedly lived it.

Brought up in Buffalo, New York, Jaman studied classical piano before beginning formal jazz studies under greats including Earl Bostic and Horace Parlan. Quickly becoming a respected regular on the club scene in Buffalo, Jaman held down innumerable residencies and worked with top local musicians – one of his early trios included the renowned bassist John Heard and drummer Clarence Becton, both of whom were poached one night by a visiting Jon Hendricks; sometime Sun Ra Arkestra bassist Juini Booth and regular Ahmad Jamal sideman Sabu Adeyola (also of Kamal & The Brothers) have graced his groups too. At famous night spots all over Buffalo’s East Side and on excursions to Manhattan’s storied jazz clubs, Jaman has shared the stage with some of the most illustrious names in jazz and blues: Big Joe Turner, Muddy Waters, Joe Henderson, Ruth Brown, Frank Morgan, Woody Shaw, Sonny Stitt, and too many others to mention. His eponymous group, Jaman, was formed in 1970; they toured the US and Canada steadily in the years that followed. He became, in short, one of Buffalo’s true jazz stalwarts, and so he remains.

But despite a life lived deep within the music, Jaman only recorded a single LP, 1974’s Sweet Heritage. Pressed in tiny quantities by the Mark Records custom service, and issued with a stock landscape cover, Sweet Heritage featured the regular Jaman group playing a mixture of covers and originals. The whole LP showcases an ensemble in compete control, and with the flying, spiritual sound of ‘Free Will’ and the upful, Latin-tinged ‘In The Fall of The Year’ – both Jaman originals – the album has since become a legendary collector’s classic. Unavailable since its original issue, Outernational Sounds is proud to present Jaman’s Sweet Heritage – the soulful and spiritualised sounds of a master at work."

buffering juju, the title of dumama + kechou's debut album, relates to the process of "excavating spiritually charged content from within". The duo's textural sound, driven by cyclical song structures and chant making, not only captures the angst of the modern world but mines this state of affairs for regenerative potential.
dumama (vocalist and uhadi player) + kechou (multiinstrumentalist with a focus on indigenous African instruments and handmade instruments) met in Cape Town in 2017. There was an instinctive pulse to the initial clutch of shows they played together, blowing open vast sonic and conceptual possibilities. "I guess we were in similar places with our music processes in trying to push healing music to the edges and be more experimental with it," says dumama. The narrative of the album unravels as a piece of magical realism informed by South African folklore and reality, detailing a woman's liberation story where the characters shift shape and traverse multiple realms, deploying various iterations of their power or lack thereof. "It has an organic, natural, cyber and modern kind of energy - all rooted in African aesthetics of sound and storytelling," says kechou. All of this sits on a bed of the duo's unique musical language, one that, although applied electronically in the form of looping and soundscaping, is founded on approaches to string, vocal and percussion tones that reflect a merger between Northern and Southern African heritage.
Recorded primarily in Cape Town and Johannesburg over the first quarter of 2019, buffering juju is a conduit to a past we were not necessarily present for, and a future where threatened indigenous technologies thrive in an increasingly digitised world.

7"

we are all leaving’

Absolute Drum & Bass master Current Value with a super fun dancefloor smasher. Introducing Atlanta’s grimiest halftime with Masamune’s vinyl debut.

every insane animal gutting each to the core over grains of sand.

Halftime Drum & Bass’ hottest commodity vs. NYC Breakcore Pioneer on this plate. Amen flavored slow stepper, then onto a 168 jungle odyssey.

Dom Trojga bounces into 2020 with an EP beautifully crafted by one of Warsaw's finest young talents - 2shy. Best known for his work as one half of the burgeoning duo Private Press (of Indigo Area & REKIDS fame), Night Conclusion is his long-awaited solo debut. Citing late 90s US house luminaries and Polish underground hiphop as some of his main influences (WSP's deep classic Faktem Jest was an actual reference during mixing), 2shy combines deep sensibility, great skill and genuine vehemence across the four tracks, telling a story that blends right into the greater narrative of house music, while adding to it its very own emotional touch. To use other words, Night Conclusion is a tender slammer, and does it good for DJs, dancers, lovers and night-time dreamers alike. The label art is an acrylic painting by Micha? Ratajczak, whose work we admire greatly. We've only just begun - look out for more Dom Trojga!

"Blue transparent Vinyl"
Bastian Balders presents his 2nd release on his own imprint and delivers deep and hypnotic sounds with a melodic Alexander Kowalski Remix.

Taylor Swift, seven-time GRAMMY award winner, and the
youngest recipient in history of the music industry's highest
honor, the GRAMMY Award for Album of the Year. She is the
#1 digital music artist of all-time and is the first artist since the
Beatles (and the only female artist in history) to log six or more
weeks at #1 with three consecutive studio albums. Taylor has
an album on Rolling Stone's prestigious The 50 Greatest
Albums of All Time (by women) list, Time magazine has named
her one the of the100 Most Influential People in the world, and
she is Billboard's youngest-ever Woman of the Year. Taylor
has career record sales in excess of 30 million albums and 75
million song downloads worldwide, and has had singles top both
the pop and country radio charts around the globe.
LONDON, 18th August 2014 - Taylor Swift, announced her new
album 1989 and it is available immediately for pre-buy on
TaylorSwiftand iTunes. In addition, Taylor released Shake
It Off, the first single and video from her fifth studio album.
1989 is a touchstone - Taylor's songwriting and sonic evolution
surprises us more than ever before. Heavily keyboard and beat
driven, the pop sensibilities that have always been the hallmark
of Taylor's music now move front and centre on 1989. "I spent
two years making 1989. Two years gives you enough time to
grow and change and let things inspire you. I was listening to a
lot of late 80's pop music and how bold those songs were and
how that time period was a time of limitless possibilities. In
thinking about that, this album is a rebirth for me. This is my
very first documented, official pop album. 1989 is the most
sonically cohesive album I have ever made and my favourite
album I have ever made," said Taylor.

La Sabbia is a group of friends who share the passion for music. In the last five years we succeeded in building and developing our own studio, where nine people are working and researching. We see music as a universal language to connect people, telling stories and creating new life shapes and patterns accessible to everybody, without boundaries of any kind.

Voltage Controlled Fingerz is Alessandro Paolone's first album, the synthesis of his trip in the various forms of electronic music. From the obsession for the Yamaha DX7's and Roland 707's raw sounds, through the complexity of jungle drums and poly-rhythm, to an almost maniacal analysis of the '70s progressive rock scene, you will taste these classic ingredients mixed in the new recipe of Doc Pavlonium.

Yokohama-based producer Foodman - aka 食品まつり or Shokuhin Matsuri - continues his expansive sonic voyage with his new EP Dokutsu, out on 6th March 2020. It follows his 2019 release ODOODO, which was issued on Diplo’s Mad Decent label. Dokutsu is the first release on Highball, a brand new label exporting forward-thinking music from Japan.

Foodman emerged from Japan’s nascent footwork scene, using the genre as a springboard for an escapist exploration into a dazzling array of sounds. He’s since earned the respect of influential fans including Diplo, Benny Blanco, Cashmere Cat and HOMESHAKE, while Pitchfork, Noisey, FACT and Tiny Mix Tapes have included his releases in various ‘best of the year’ lists since 2016.

Opening track Kazunoko sets the tone for what will follow. Its woozy rhythm is evocative of the off-kilter playfulness that’s become a hallmark of Foodman’s uncategorizable artistry. It’s also a sign of his inventiveness that he constantly adds fresh layers to the track without losing sight of its light-hearted, spacious feel.

Another of Foodman’s unorthodox traits is his ability to meld the frenetic with the soothing. Hirake Tobira is a case in point. Its production is hypnotic, while its central motif - endless twists and variations on a vocal sample - is sufficiently insistent to demand attention. Kachikachi reverses the trick with a thrilling rush, stuttering otherwise unobtrusive sounds.

Elsewhere the EP plays on sonics which have echoes of the familiar while remaining alien: the boss fight soundtrack of Oshiro, the clattering percussion that dominates Imo Hori, and the ambient psychedelia of Konomi.

Based in Yokohama, an hour south of Tokyo, Foodman’s multifaceted skills also encompass DJing and painting. His press image, shown above, is a self-portrait. From the stripped-back sketches of his 2012 set Shokuhin (released on Giant Claw’s Orange Milk label) to the richer textures of ODOODO, Foodman has subverted everything from Okinawan folk to J-Pop to D&B/classical fusion into his own otherworldly inventions.

What about to blend the best talents and skills of ebm totems (such as Front 242 or Armageddon Dildos) with some recent industrial funk influences (such as Valis or High- Functioning Flesh) and then add the energy & the rage of being 20 years old nowadays ... ?
THAT’S CHROME CORPSE (Seattle/USA).

Extracted from their first album “ANYTHING THAT MOVES”, “DETECTING MOVEMENT” represents their vinyl debut and for sure the beginning of a very succesful professional career.

All tracks have been specially remastered for LONG CUT vinyl by Daniel Hallhuber at Young and Cold Studios (Germany).

"ALEATORY CHAOS" is coming back with the third chapter, a very special edition because it will include the unreleased 1984 original version of “No Words” by 'XYMOX' , a very awaited “truly wet dream” for any early post-punk vinyl collector.

The record becomes just indispensable thanks to the contribution of actual proposals as Vacant Stares (Portland/USA), Oby Wolf (New York/USA) and Abu Nein (Malmö/SWEDEN). It's a delicious white wax.
All tracks have been specially remastered for 'LONG CUT' vinyl by Daniel Hallhuber at Young and Cold Studios (Germany).

No Bad Days is back with the weird and wonderful sounds of the Korean tropics for Closet Yi’s debut release ‘Tam Tam Land’. Opening with ‘Honeymoon Junction’ we are greeted by the signature floaty yet punchy sound that often comes with a No Bad Days record but then around the halfway mark, an almost abrupt eeriness ambience washes over the track, letting us know: this isn’t going to be quite what you expected. ‘Circle Dance’ is next on the A side which is more of a functional club track in its structure to it’s predecessor. Birds tweet and a female Korean voice creeps in and out of the mix, luring us deeper into the depths of the island.

Hopping over to the B side we arrive at the climax of ‘Tam Tam Land’ with the thumping ‘Basalt (玄武岩)’. Closet Yi flexes her skills in producing a peak time acid-tropische-prog-banger and doesn’t disappoint.

Christophe Chassol is reshuffling the deck. After making his name worldwide with three magnificent ultrascore compositions (Nola Che?rie in 2011, Indiamore in 2013 and Big Sun in 2015), working with Solange and Frank Ocean, and playing the most prestigious halls, he's taking his quest to arrange reality even further with Ludi, his new project that includes an album, film and show. It's play - an all-important word in music - that underscores this impressive, masterful construction freely inspired by Hermann Hesse's The Glass Bead Game. Everything is part of the melody: a playground or basketball players in the suburbs, an arcade in Tokyo, a roller coaster, singer Crystal Kay and rapper Kohh. Solo musicians were filmed in rehearsal, like flautist Jocelyn Mienniel and the composer's partner, drummer Mathieu Edward, who managed to reprise on stage

Chassol drew from the great German author's utopic book, where music, mathematics, aesthetics and spirituality intermingle, to create a passionate work produced by Bertrand Burgalat's label Tricatel that once again justifies his special place in the musical landscape.

With Ludi, Chassol directs his own round of Hermann Hesse's game, taking on the title of Magister Ludi, master of The Glass Bead Game. With this double album, Chassol realises his ambition: to compose unprecedented music that fills us with joy and prompts reflection.

Bristol-based multi-instrumentalist producer Memotone returns to Diskotopia for the stunning full-length LP Invisible Cities, undoubtedly his most accomplished work to date, effortlessly joining the dots between Martin Denny, Yasuaki Shimizu, Nurse With Wound, and Mark Isham…

Memotone is the principal alias for Bristol-based multi-instrumentalist, composer, and producer William Yates. As a solo artist, he has released on labels such as Black Acre, Bedouin, Project Mooncircle, and Brownswood either as Memotone or under his other alias Halfnelson. In addition to doing composition work for film and television, he works as a session musician for the likes of Dmitry Evgrafov, Connie Constance, and Phaeleh. He's also part of the Avon Terror Corps project helmed by Bokeh Versions, Giant Swan. Noods et al., and is a member of ATC-affiliated Pheasantry Society. His music has been championed on the radio, a key influential medium for Yates growing up, by the likes of Gilles Peterson, Mary Anne Hobbs, Tom Ravenscroft, Nick Luscombe, and more.

Drawing from Bristol's own sonic history, from the late 80s to the present, as well as the writing of Italo Calvino, Yates has put together 10 tracks on Invisible Cities that sit somewhere between neo-classical, ambient, fourth-world exotica, and post-krautrock. The mix of different timbres of live string and wind instruments, astute synthesizer touches, and skittish drum machine strokes creates an organic and ethereal energy deftly manipulated into a delicately interwoven narrative through Yates's production prowess. Already garnered support from the music press and radio DJs, the album will strongly appeal to a wide range of music lovers and fans of Ryuichi Sakamoto, Dorothy Ashby, Alberto Iglesias, Labradford, Delia Derbyshire, Peverelist, Toshifumi Hinata and more…

Following on from Myele Manzanza's acclaimed 2019 jazz album, 'A Love Requited', we have a 2020 addendum to that project; an EP of remixes by a set of diverse musicians from all corners of the globe.

Detroit legend Theo Parrish starts off the proceedings. Theo & Myele have previously worked together on various projects over the years, such as with live outfit, The Unit, whilst Myele's 'Surgery Session' of Theo's track 'Moonlight' was picked up by The Vinyl Factory last Summer as well. On his remix of 'Itaru's Phone Booth', Theo maintains the tempo & structure of the original track, whilst tempering the horns and adding some spaced-out keys & a little low end theory to the equation, making this a flip seasoned with Theo's unique flavour.

Mark de Clive-Lowe follows with the most uptempo track on the EP, a delightful bruk refix of 'Big Deal'. Fellow New Zealander, regular collaborator (notably on Manzanza's sophomore album 'OnePointOne') and hugely respected musician in his own right, MdCL delivers a hefty groove direct for the clubs; heavy drums & sci-fi synths lead the way atop of the original's powerhouse horns, switching up with some MAW-esque 4/4 tribal business to close out.

Cardiff's finest, Earl Jeffers & Don Leisure, aka First Word label-mates Darkhouse Family, kick off the flipside with their take on the appropriately titled 'Family Dynamics'. Fresh from their solo & combined projects (producing for Kamaal Williams, running house label Melange, and creating beat-tapes like Halal Cool J & Shaboo), the duo turn out some punchy boom-bap vibes which pulsate throughout the track, accompanied by some sweet vocal hooks, transposing the original into a plucky heads-down neo-soul tinged stomper.

Borrowed CS is another New Zealand artist that's been bubbling away in the underground NZ electronic scene for several years now, as a DJ and a musician. He ends this selection of remixes, taking the original jazz components of 'Pencarrow' and transforming it into a synth-boogie lead piece of brooding broken beat - a 'Clear Path Depiction' even.

Released on Worldwide Award-winning UK label, First Word Records, the original album was also co-produced by another antipodean label-mate, Ross McHenry, who released a new album recently.

The son of a Congolese master percussionist, Myele Manzanza's roots in jazz and African rhythm are well established. Adding his long-time influences of hip hop and dance music into the mix, this EP exemplifies his approach to fusion, and his persona as an ever-evolving artist, drummer & composer. Since his days as part of Electric Wire Hustle, he had his debut release on BBE, has released three solo albums, and done tours & collabs with folks like Jordan Rakei, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Recloose & Amp Fiddler. Since moving to London from New Zealand late last year, he has already shared stages with Hiatus Kaiyote, The Bad Plus & Alfa Mist, rocked The Jazz Cafe & Ronnie Scott's, and ably demonstrated his DJ side-hustle chops at stations like Soho Radio, Worldwide FM & NTS, as well as behind the decks in a few danceries across the capital, and behind his drum kit daily.

Already hard at work on brand new material, expect to catch Myele Manzanza live at various shows & festivals across the UK & Europe this coming Summer.

'A Love Requited - The Remixes' is available on 12" vinyl & all digital outlets from March 6th 2020.

Fabrizio Lapiana's Attic Music label reaches release number 20 on the main series with a new EP from the boss himself: Collective Chaos features remixes from fellow Italian techno luminaries Neel & Laertes.

Rome's Lapiana has been a vital voice in the global techno underground for more than 10 years now. His Attic Music label has played a key part in that, while his own evocative techno soundscapes have come on the likes of M_Rec ltd, Figure Jams, ARTS and Out-Er. This is his first outing of 2020 and is a superbly stylish techno trip.

Opener 'Crystal' is deep, drawn out techno with perfectly smooth and supple drum programming that soon gets you in a state of hypnosis. Subtle synth loops rise up through the mix as things grow more urgent, and once the percussion joins you're utterly locked. The title track is a more turbulent and edgy affair that sound tracks a dystopian urban wasteland - the synths are riddled with static, the hurried drums are punchy and there is an urgency in the molten synth lines that keeps you right on the edge of your seat.

Sound sculptor Neel runs Spazio Disponibile with collaborative partner Donato Dozzy and has an impeccable knack for sound design. Here he links with Laertes (half of Modern Heads with Dino Sabatini), a Mental Modern and Concrete Records associate who produces artful techno. Together, they remix 'Collective Chaos' into a dark and moody techno roller with glitchy textures and high speed synth lines that sweep you off your feet.

Closing out this terrific trip is 'Koyuk', a Millsian adventure into an intergalactic techno future, with polyphonic synths rippling above a rubbery drum line that is both propulsive and pensive.

This is high grade, perfectly distilled and meditative techno from some of Italy's finest exports.

It's with great pleasure that we announce the return of New York's synth wizard Steve Moore to KOMPAKT - pretty much exactly 10 years after his much lauded first appearance 'Bayern Kurve' on our SPEICHER series.

Steve Moore is widely recognized as one half of Italo Disco-tinged horror-prog project ZOMBI, his numerous thriller movie soundtrack works (The Guest, VFW, Mayhem, Bliss, The Mind's Eye) as well has his clubbier output on Ron Morelli's L.I.E.S. imprint.

The title track of this 4 track EP, "Frame Dragging" sees Moore in full spine tingling mode. In case you've ever stepped into a hot bath on a cold day (in case you haven't you should try it) you should be well familiar with the phenomenon of being incredibly cold and hot at once. That's exactly what 'Frame Digging' does to the dance floor. Goosebump massacre.

"Gamma Quadrant" combines emotive balearic elements with a rolling minimal house track that reminds us of early Playhouse glory. Or is it early Kompakt?

'Gravity Well' and 'Protostar' are both taking a more chilled out route. They perfectly bookend both sides of the record and showcase Moore's stunning ability of creating suspenseful, spaced out beauty.

Max D's latest LP is the first full length album on 1432 R. It's a milestone from the Future Times boss, who's been holding it down in his creative corner of electronic music for over a decade. The album opens fast and fierce with I Think Our Souls Are Other People, a storm of live percussion and widescreen drone. And then from track to track, it strips itself down, mellows itself out, and rides on hypnotic loops. Many Any Dolo Brush is something of a cameo from Max’s Dolo Percussion moniker, giving way to the first of three field recording miniatures that glue the album together and provide a sort of romantic center. Fly Around The Room is a true half-time float, with a melody that sits in your ear while drums zip past. Shoutout Seefeel, a 130 mind cleanser, is full of the namesake shoe gaze and thick hovering techno drums. Lullabiological features the keyboards of 1432 R's own Dawit Eklund, wandering off the deep end like some dream that can't be shaken. Cuz It's The Way rounds out the work with a groove made for the dance floor. Max D and 1432 R: we are always on some hopeful shit.

Nikolaienko's "The Sounds Of Pseudoscience" LP from 2015 (originally released by Muscut/ Graphical Recording) gets 5 Years Anniversary Limited Edition on cassettes. 30 copies only. Includes 10 never published before pseudoscience illustrations.

Royal Torrence aka ‘Little Royal’, was the half brother of the legendary James Brown as they reportedly shared the same father and were close bothers throughout their adult lives. Both singers shared a vocal talent that drew music lovers to them. Little Royal grew a following in soul music from the 60's and 70's and made waves with the hit ‘Jealous’ in 1972 reaching #15 in R&B chart. ‘Razor Blade’ is also another highlight that created a mini dance craze and has since been sampled by Ice-T and J Dilla.

The Detroit Reels Project, est. 2019.

We are proud to welcome to the world of Unissued Soul something we have been working on since almost a year. When Brad Hales from Peoples Records out of Gratiot, Detroit, invited us over to discuss the project I had no idea of what was going on.

Turns out a posse was coming together to handle a very relevant archive of reel tapes, mainly containing demo takes from a handful of recording Studios based in the area. After the discovery and the subsequent physical restoration of the reels (baking and transferring to a workable format), we at would play the role of complete/arrange and release those original recordings rolled up on a spindle since 50 years.

We have set up a little sister label called Cannonball Detroit with the not-so-easy task to handle the “artistic” side of this delicate plan. All releases within this program bear an arranged/finished version on Side A and original reel demo on Side B.