Search:hard noise

**400 ONLY REPRESS PHOTOLUMINESCENT COLOUR VINYL///!! 200 FOR EUROPE** “I was guzzling wine at my favorite bar in San Francisco, the Rite Spot, and the entertainment that night was some local opera singers singing along with a big video screen showing a collage of various operatic moments with subtitles. One particular subtitle, ‘Ah!-(etc)’ made me laugh, I thought it was a perfect description of life - the joy of existence against the etcetera of it all, the struggle. With a heavy head of rose’ it seemed like ecstatic poetry! I scribbled it on a napkin and thought it might make a good title for something” And so the mystery behind the title of Kelley Stoltz new record is solved. Less of a mystery is the quality contained therein… after 12 self-titled releases and a several more under pseudonyms, Stoltz is the word for “one-man-band-home-recording-pop-songs of idiosyncratic character.” A quick follow up to his more power pop and pub rock LP only “Hard Feelings” offering in the summer, “Ah-(etc)” finds Stoltz returning to his sweet spot, writing songs that never were, but should have been in the 60’s and 80’s.

As with other LPs Stoltz makes virtually every noise on the album which was written and recorded in 2019 at his Electric Duck Studio in. San Francisco. A few friends popped in to play along… Stoltz former bandmate, Echo & the Bunnymen’s Will Sergeant adds electric guitar to “The Quiet Ones” a sort of Scott Walker lyrical take on strangers and neighbors. Karina Denike formerly of Dance Hall Crashers adds gorgeous vocals on the bossanova groover “Moon Shy”, where Sergeant pops up again in a spoken word role on the outro. Allyson Baker of SF’s Dirty Ghosts sings on “She Like Noise”, a song Stoltz wrote for her in celebration of her love of seeing live bands.

The album was mastered by Mikey Young in Australia.

Conjuring up lush minimal soundscapes intertwined with noise elements and hard as nails riff rock, reminiscent of some kind of weird mixture between a Mondriaan and Pollock painting, H A S T is mind-blowing, ear-blowing and heart-blowing, exploring extreme dynamics, pure simplicity and everything in between.

H A S T, founded by alto saxophone player Rob Banken, is an instrumental band rooted in jazz, heavy rock and improvisation. Their signature sound can best be described as not shying away from exploratory intellect while still maintaining passages of stunning simplicity, rock riffs and free improvisation.

Ubi Sunt (Where are... they?), is part of the Latin question "Ubi sunt qui ante nos fuerunt?". (Where are those who were before us?'). This kind of questioning evolved into a stylistic figure in medieval poetry, which was mainly used in the then popular elegies (a reference to 'Elegy', the debut album of H A S T).

Originally an expression of a sense of nostalgia, it became more and more a reflection on transience and mortality. The music on 'Ubi Sunt' was written and recorded in the middle of a the coronacrisis. Ubi Sunt: "Que sont mes amis devenus. Que j'avais de si pres tenus. Et tant ames? ..." (Rutebeuf).

Recorded, produced & mixed by Koen Gisen (Nordmann, De Beren Gieren, Flying Horseman, Dans Dans, SCHNTZL, ...) at Studio La Patrie, Ghent, BE.
Mastered by Karel De Backer.

Schranzy hartek-core, psychedekic noise tekno bangher at the hardcore frontier !

DOWNFALL is the first album under the name SAITO created by Lena Saito, aka Galcid, and produced by accomplished analog synthesizer guru, Hisashi Saito, aka Lena’s husband. Having descended from a long line of Japanese sword-smiths, the industrial sound of smashing steel is embedded in Lena’s DNA and reflected in her music, however there are also refined, hypnotic tones showing a side with more finesse. The music itself is not scored and is predominantly improvised. Words and vocals are ad libbed as well. Sometimes the machines respond as if through telekinesis, altogether emitting a sound which can be categorized somewhere in the range between modern experimental dance music and something possibly making more sense to enlightened minds a thousand years in the future.




There is a new addition to the forge of talents of Mille Plateaux, a Japanese musician by the name of Saito whose album has been released on the label under the title of Downfall. After a whole series of releases under the signature tag clicks & cuts, there comes out a work, much more suited for a dance hall, that is different in terms of the genre from everything that has been published so far.
Like a bucket of ice-cold water poured over the head, erratic agressive hardcore rhythms pour all over the audience in the first track, interrupted only by grinding noises and minimalistic technogenic clicks.
Downfall won't fail to infect even the most experienced music connaisseur with its out-of-control energy, while offering a wide range of techniques: at times, robotic voices, one second long fragments of looped melodies and many other audio gimmicks.
Lena Saito (that is the author's name) is not afraid of conducting experiments in her chemical laboratory, freely mixing sound reagents without taking any precautions. It feels like, this new chemical substance, that she has been working on so thoroughly, contains quite a long list of ingredients, although its main component is the various rhythm breaks.
The synthesizer part of Red Hammer sounds in the best traditions of the acid style, and the rhythm section is akin to African tribal dances of the future. Downfall is absolutely unrelenting in its concept.
The melody of the composition Nucleosome is a little bit like the melancholic IDM of the 00s, finding itself secondary to the dominating, yet again convoluted rhythmical web meticulously woven by Saito.
This album can be definitely named as a big contender aspiring to start a new golden era of Mille Plateaux, and Saito as the hidden treasure of the label that can challenge even the veterans for the right to be the headliner.

‘Evolve’ is the first full length album from composer, music producer and violinist Vito Gatto, a concept album that guides the listener on a one-way journey through the various phases of an imaginary evolutionary process. Gatto graduated in Violin from the Milan Conservatory of Music, his research starts from the unconventional application of a classical background into both making music in the studio, and live performances. For this work, Vito decided to put himself in a restricted composing and technical environment; all the arpeggiated sounds on the album are made from one single violin note that Vito sampled. He transforms the same note throughout the entire album, using the different treatment of this micro sample and the arpeggiator programming as the construction of a mutating and evolving structure. The album is Instinctively executed, almost improvised, and elements like distorted bass lines, hardcore inspired percussions, whistles and alienating string melodies represent unexpected alterations. Vito decided to keep these instinctive additions clean from excessive control as a representation of the beauty of the unpredictable. The album track list is an expression of evolutionary phases. From the minimalistic piano piece ‘Decomposition’ to ‘Quiete’ which expresses the state of calm after a shift has occurred, ‘Nostalgia’ and ‘Stasi’ represent a hazy trance like state. Vito challenges the listener to ask questions like ’am I in the right place? Is this who I set out to become? Do I have to keep evolving, or should I try to regress?’ ‘Evolve’ creates continuous connections between traditional and experimental music, creating dialogue between classical instruments and industrial techno, ambient, noise and de-constructed sounds. The Album will be released in both digital and vinyl formats via NeMu, a fresh new label founded by Vito Gatto himself. The label will focus on experimental projects based on the exchange between acoustic, concrete and electronic sources. The Artwork is part of ‘Jewels’, a series of ceramic sculptures by Benni Bosetto, courtesy of the artist and ADA Project, Rome

- 180 GRAM AUDIOPHILE VINYL
- GATEFOLD SLEEVE
- ALBUM FEAT. SKRILLEX, EXCISION, DATSIK, NOISIA,
KILL THE NOISE, AND 12TH PLANET
- FIRST TIME ON VINYL
- LIMITED FIRST PRESSING OF 2.500 INDIVIDUALLY
NUMBERED COPIES ON COLOURED (SILVER AND
BLACK MIXED) VINYL

The Path of Totality is the tenth studio album by American nu metal band Korn. Originally released in 2011, the album finds Korn shifting gears and exploring new territory.

On The Path of Totality band collaborated with some of the leading dubstep and electronic producers in the world, including Skrillex, Excision, Datsik, Noisia, Kill the Noise, and 12th Planet. This resulted in something completely new, yet utterly and definitively Korn.

The title The Path of Totality refers to the fact that in order to see the sun in a full solar eclipse, you must be in the exact right place in the exact right time,' Korn frontman Jonathan Davis explained.

The album includes the singles Get Up!', Narcissistic Cannibal', Way Too Far' and Chaos Lives In Everything'.

The Path of Totality won Album of the Year at the 2012 Revolver Golden Gods Awards. This was Korn's first victory at the Golden Gods Awards, a ceremony that celebrates the best in hard rock and heavy metal music. Korn was also inducted into the Kerrang! Hall of Fame during the 2011 Kerrang! Awards.

Available on vinyl for the first time, the first 2500 individually numbered copies are pressed on coloured (silver and black mixed) vinyl! Strictly limited!

Industrial pityless hardcore at the noize frontier... A bloody shouting sound from someone coming back from hell... to bring you there !

7"
(This is...) one of Sascha Müller's weirdest, most experimental musical ideas brought to life as a limited, hand-numbered edition of 100 gold vinyl 7"es. Following the concept of recording crackling run-out grooves from various classic Pop albums and glueing them together into one crackly mess of a megamix this one is a collectors novelty piece for those searching for the most extreme, unusual vinyl releases they can get hold of. Expect looped crackles, pops, surface noise and all the good stuff related to listening to vinyl on a regular but do not expect any kind of structure or user friendly listening experience at all. This is for the die-hard collectors and vinyl freaks only.

Four years after launching his last EP, Lugo-based artist, Synth Alien, makes a comeback to lead the fourth release of Noise To Meet You. Six Electro tracks, under the wings of a 100% hardware set up that has allowed his sound to reach a step up.

After the success of the 2 Late 4 Love EP, Roy Of The Ravers returns to Emotional Response with a double LP with a deeper perspective, experimenting in ambient and drone textures, lucid techno travails and acid interludes.

Recorded between 1997 and 2017, the album was pieced together over the last six months after Roy's archives were first feared lost and then found. Approached by the label to release a follow up with something more introspective and personal, it was discovered that a recent move to a new studio had led to over 20 years of music being misplaced after it was believed they were mistakenly dropped at a local charity store. However, deep in a box of what were thought to be patch cables were in fact the decades worth of hard drives and here presented, is a sample of those lost recordings.

The nature of the music is introspection, eschewing the acid beats and white noise for a personal encounter between man and machine. The orchestral opening of the title track gives way to the submarine beats, pulsing TB303 and gliding hats of Robinson College 10 to set the outlook to come. Even with the scattering A Dim And Distant Past waking lulled senses, the melodies and feel all lead to a pause and reflect rather than jump and shout.

This is continued with the haunting drives of Bounce Erec and Oriental X0X-Press; the twisted, warped jams of The Weber Traum Boat Pt.3, Ichi and Roland Corp Labs 05; and the beautiful, heartfelt odes in Sade Lost Theme, The Clock House Pt.2 and closer, Nemesis '01. The album's melodic nature hums and shines as CS (6x8) appears as much a centre piece as a alternative consideration to the acid tinged, club bangs of Roy's releases to date.
A surprise package maybe, but in the rolling, word of mouth phenomena that was Emotinium II, all this and more was sensed and so White Sunrise Music II, spreading across 12 songs of contrasting moods, is a further affirmation that there is something good and worthy of exploration.

Kidbug is a love story, one which emerged through a fateful connection when Netherlands-based Marina Tadic (Eerie Wanda) and Australian transplant Adam Harding (Dumb Numbers) met at Joyful Noise Recordings' annual holiday gathering. After enlisting their friends Thor Harris (Swans), Bobb Bruno (Best Coast), and Dale Crover (Melvins), Kidbug emerges fully-formed to present their self-titled debut, 11 songs of beautiful, fuzzed out shoegaze dream pop. Recommended If You Like: My Bloody Valentine, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Breeders, Pixies, Pavement, Sonic Youth, Stereolab, and/or, Eerie Wanda, Dumb Numbers.

The globe-trotting Robert Millis returns to Helen Scarsdale for this beautifully fragile album of dissolved glass rendered as a collage of recontextualized minimalism. To astute listeners, Millis should be a household name due to his work in the unpredictably diverse Climax Golden Twins as well as his impeccable curations for Sublime Frequencies (collections include the Deben Bhattacharya: Men and Music on the Desert Road and Indian Talking Machine books). Hie previous solo work include Relief (released here on The Helen Scarsdale Agency in 2013) and The Lonesome High for the Sun City Girls’ Abduction Records in 2016. His scholarship into the hidden corners of music across the world has also earned him Guggenheim and Fulbright fellowships.

Related Ephemera is an album composed mostly from the hiss, the crackle, the surface noise of 78rpm shellacs and wax cylinders. “Horrifying,” Millis explains “is the concept to record collectors that vinyl degrades and can be easily damaged. however, initially records were considered ephemeral, especially 78rpm records. They were novelties. Fleeting. Entertainment.” Millis intends for the album to be a feedback loop whereby the patina of handling, playing, living with the record will circle back to the original source material. Furthering that metaphor, Millis amplifies and dilates feedback tones generated from his collection of vintage gramophones.

That said, Millis does cite the intrusion of exactly one field recording, a broken toy, and a few notes from a cello. But the construction of these rarified tones, crispy textures, ghostly rattles, and fluid resonance that ripples through all of Related Ephemera has its origins in the tactile nature of the vinyl medium. It’s hardly the stuff of sentimental nostalgia though. Related Ephemera is more an act of time travel, slipping backwards and forwards with the scratch of a needle (Watch out! What pre-recorded needle jump sound is not your turntable going haywire!). The emotional core to the album is that of a resigned melancholy, almost Bergman-esque in its starkness but not without a brief moment of dark humor.

Here is an album that aligns itself aesthetically with Nurse With Wound’s Soliloquy For Lilith, Philip Jeck’s more languid collages, and even some of Harry Bertoia’s sculptural atmospherics.

The vinyl was mastered and cut by Helmut Ehler at D&M Berlin, whose expertise was necessary given that part of the original compositions from Millis’ reworked surface noise were exceedingly problematic to cut. The D&M cut does temper the composition into a mysterious, diaphanous cloud; where the digital-only mastering provides a cascade of insects gnawing within your inner ear. Two facets. One piece of music.

»Efia,« the sophomore album by Rosaceae, picks up where the Hamburg-based sound artist’s 2019 debut on Neoprimitive left off, further exploring the topics that had already informed »Nadia’s Es- cape«. From its confrontative front cover to the eight tracks on the album, »Efia« is fully dedicated to the motif of resistance, but does not exhaust itself in polemics. Rather, it masterfully translates the complexities of its underlying central themes into a visceral narrative.
»Efia« was originally conceived as a commissioned work for the 2019 edition of Hamburg’s Noise- xistance festival and departed from a sentence uttered in the British 1980s TV show »Sapphire & Steel« which inspired cultural theorist Mark Fisher in his analysis of what he had coined »hauntolo-gy,« a term originally coined by the Algerian-French philosopher Jacques Derrida in the early 1990s: »There is no time here, not anymore.«
The album again showcases Rosaceae’s knack for combining abstract experimental sound art with a form of storytelling that had already been at the centre of »Nadia’s Escape« and which relies on both verbal and musical means of giving a voice to the voiceless. The disembodied voice of - amongst others - Jesseline Preach and manipulated vocal samples blend in with dense soundscapes, elements of Neue Musik and occasional pure harsh noise. It’s a mix that deliberately puts different artistic tradi-tions into a dialogue with each other: the hallmarks of European salon culture are con- fronted with Kurdish wedding music and the unnerving loop of someone demanding a »Zugabe« (»encore«).
Thus, »Efia« not only blurs the lines between cultural and regional traditions, but also conjures up the ghosts of a past, ghosts that are more than ready to haunt the timeless present trying so hard to repress the atrocities happening at its fringes. As a whole, this makes »Efia« both a chilling work of sound art and a vibrant political statement fuelled by burning hot energy.

Celebrating live music and record store culture.

After having completed the first run of shows for their recent album "2066" through UK, France and Germany, the Mighty Mocambos did an intimate performance at world-renowned Groove City Record Store in their hometown Hamburg.
Not content with just playing stripped down versions of existing material, the band wanted to step up a notch from the "tiny desk" type concert idea and decided to record unreleased tunes for a vinyl single capturing the live energy and crowd atmosphere with analog studio techniques. After having warmed up with a couple of songs from "2066", a cheerful crowd in the packed shop witnessed the band tracking magic takes of unheard songs directly to tape.
"St. Pauli Second Line", an instrumental live favourite with simple but irresistant swamp funk ostinatoes turned into a frenetic call and response chant workout midway of the song. Singer Nichola Richards' tune "Keep It Movin'", a mainstay of the band's live repertoire for years, was cut with great energy, finally finding its way onto wax. "Something's Missing" is a brand new tune with a raw sister funk vibe - written and arranged for the occasion, rehearsed once and performed live for the first time in the version you hear on this record.
While many live recordings a are mere mix of crowd noise and neglectable renditions of well-worn tunes that are unusable for DJs and hardly appealing to the dedicated listener, THE MIGHTY MOCAMBOS - Live At Groove City au contraire is a treat for turntableists and a testimony of the spark that a well-attuned live band can light up, combining the vibes of a concert with the no-nonsense analog sound of their well-loved studio recordings.

Sludge machine music slapped through the infinite mixing desk by SRS - the combined mind of Sunun and Robin Stewart. At any pointData Fossil'sgiddy industrial riddims could collapse under their own weight. There are Sunun inputs and there are Robin Stewart inputs - but everything is offered up to their machines gladly for an output of nu-human-beat. Voices drift through the mix in hushed Italian and Robin's gruff roboticized drawl, floating dub chords left hanging for cavernous subs and rattled bones, distant harps and arps, a sudden blast of trills. 'Spit Fossil' itself is a clipped noise-pop wonder - the aural equivalent of a lights-on Avon dancefloor with only the weirdest left standing.



Recorded on the rooftop of a housing project called Camelot in 2018, the two Bristol locals debuted the live / unplanned collaboration in an inflatable arena called 'Toldo' in the Brunswick Club ballroom (RIP). Then again at Young Echo at the Cube Microplex - a night where it's said anything is possible (Sunun even dubbed Guest's live human heartbeat there recently….). IfData Fossilis hard to describe - it's just the sound of the musical freedom of a city that will never run dry.



It's a high Bokeh honour to welcome Sunun back after we helped release her 2018 debut,Ooid EP. Her live show continues to be the most inspiring re-use of dub principles we've witnessed (again and again). Time only grows her music outwards causing the Young Echo collective to demand she join them. SinceOoid,she's released a 12" of MPC wonders with close Bristol pals Cold Light.


Recently bearing his dub-side to all that didn't know on Trilogy Tapes'Time Travel EP, Robin Stewart is half of world conquering techno-cult Giant Swan. Also a veteran of Rwdfwd stable of imprints (Fuckpunk and NoCorner) - his music DNA is equal parts shoegaze and steppas. In 2020 he was officially recognised for having the largest collection of Bokeh t shirts.

When the world slipped into madness last month, the ESP Institute put most releases on the back-burner to await brighter days, but then we thought again; why not approach these odd circumstances the way we do most realities, positively and head-on? We’re committed to a community that builds new worlds — this is fundamental to our creative and spiritual relationship with Osaka-born, cosmos-straggling artist, Ground — and while temporarily we can’t physically congregate to uplift each other, its our responsibility as an institution to maintain a platform for prolific creative pioneers, our cherished cartographers of cognitive escape. 'Wakusei' is wonderfully confusing and disorienting music, a follow-up EP to 2018’s critically acclaimed album 'Sunizm', not created specifically for life under lockdown, but nonetheless aptly suited to help release angst, guide meditation, and assist in making this moment in history more interesting if not transcendental. Whereas 'Sunizm' relied on field recordings gathered from rainforests, percussions learned from imaginary ancient civilizations, and the somehow organic freneticism of a mission control meltdown, the aesthetic of 'Wakusei' reduces this abstract instrumentation one step further to a more base-level array of gurgling synth scraps, accelerating engine friction and static-bound phonetic mistakes, all scrubbed into dust by a Brillo pad of white noise. The cliché of “great art is born out of hard times” is not lost upon us — of course the world will look back to this turmoil and its residual contributions to culture — but we see today's art as an immediate coping mechanism, and artists like Ground helping to unlock and navigate internal utopias. We’re already indoors, let’s delve inside.

Heartbeat Hartcore music... Asmatik gently silk and knife, surprising you but not too mutch. Fast and clear, hard and sweet... Opposites meltdown to create a large scale of ambience... the Ep even offer a kind of Noise Ambient

Another win for the Glowing Pin as Müller & Wandt drop a fresh new age groover on a killer club dub tip. Elsewhere Phazer Boys, Suzanne Kraft, Philipp Otterbach and River Yarra remix the pscht out of their favourite tracks from ‘Instrumentalmusik..’. Expect Goan hits, cosmic trips, loved up rave and chilled out wave on this flawless five tracker.

Growing Bin becomes Glowing Pin for the most anticipated rematch of the century. Back at the beginning of 2018, Wolf Müller and Niklas Wandt went head to head for a box office smash, throwing a high school percussion tray, wall of hardware and voodoo skull into the ring for the tribal trip of ‘Instrumentalmusik Von Der Mitte Der World’. Now the multi-instrumental duo face off once again, but this time it’s a royal rumble with Phazer Boys, Suzanne Kraft, Phillip Otterbach and River Yarra all bringing the noise to the Glowing Pin.

Müller and Wandt dominate the action on the A1, playing loose with sampler vox, serene pads and future primitive rhythms on the unreleased ‘Fun Dub’ of the also unreleased ‘Dub Dub’. Imagine Ferris Bueller’s trampoline tumble trading Chicago to the Weissenhof and you’ll sense the mood of this New Age groove. Germany’s number one party dudes, those freaky Phazer Boys take a break from dropping killer Candomblé cuts to reach for the lasers on the A2, taking ‘Ahu’ to another dimension. Dripping in neon body paint and armed with fire poi, the Düsseldorf duo power up progressive house sequences, didgeridoo bass and thumping tribal house percussion for a wall-shaking, speaker-breaking remix.

The B1 belongs to synth whiz Suzanne Kraft who revels in glistening, gliding glory on an expansive remix of ‘Auflösung’. Sleek, serene and futuristic, the track shimmers like Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, free from inequality and rendered with the 5D(ub?) majesty of a DMT breakthrough.
B2 hears Salon associate and serious talent Philipp Otterbach take over on a stripped back and psychedelic post punk dub of ‘Expedition’. Angular bass by Süne Große and a stuttering rhythm underpin astral flourishes and the hazy vocals of Lucas Croon before the African elements begin to move to the forefront.
Last man standing is Australian outlier River Yarra, who leads us into the Krautback with a chugging dub of ‘Weltraumsandalen’. Lent a lysergic sparkle by a percolating one-note bassline, this slow motion stunner masters perpetual motion amid the eerie echoes of the bush, organic percussion and electronic animal cries fading into the night. Let the pins glow again.

Patrick Ryder

Bringing glitch aesthetic into the new decade, Aaron Spectre (aka Drumcorps) gives us Computorr, a look into digital dystopia through eyes of jungle, punk, noise, & rapid-fire sampling. This energetic EP features Aaron's signature cut-up yet concise beats, and unites several subcultures at their roots.

Artwork for this record was also made by Aaron, using analog video synthesizers & old CRT televisions, for the medium is the message. Vinyl is top quality and hits hard, its clear highs and powerful bass mastered and cut by Keith Tenniswood, and comes in several different color varieties.

Germany's JAHMONI are on release and distribution duties via Rubadub UK, hot on the tails of their diverse multi-genre releases by DJ Marcelle, BELP, and Summer of Delete.

Emerging this January with a duo of debut EPs, Black (Vegan Tinder Lord) and White (Hexxex) , Ϟᑢrəən ϟHAᗌ/W blends pummelling techno, industrial grit and experimental noise for a mood-spanning sound inspired by everything from Google Street View to visiting the dentist.

The Black EP gleans from the heavier end of the club music spectrum, plunging into a hardcore well of nosebleed kicks and synapse-frying synths that bang with raw dancefloor energy. The White EP pauses for reflection, transforming Screen Shadow's spiky reveries into tightly-woven technicolour dreamscapes.

Track highlights include the humour-spiced, pitch-shifted "Vegan Tinder Lord"—immortalised by its disembodied, Amnesia Scanner-esque voice—and the percussive, hardstyle-tinged assault course of "Scanna Hex".

On it's white counterpart ,"Hexxex" builds on a Drexciyan beat, while "Corridor" explores the sort of glitchy experimentalism that gets under your skin."Vaxuum" and "Time Orphans" mine deep ambient soundscapes, with the former constructed from a grainy loop and the latter built from rich orchestral tones.

Artwork and music go hand in hand, with logo designer Number III (Paul Nicholson, Aphex Twin logo designer ) cooking up the striking black and white imagery.

Emerging this January with a duo of debut EPs, Black (Vegan Tinder Lord) and White (Hexxex) , Ϟᑢrəən ϟHAᗌ/W blends pummelling techno, industrial grit and experimental noise for a mood-spanning sound inspired by everything from Google Street View to visiting the dentist.

The Black EP gleans from the heavier end of the club music spectrum, plunging into a hardcore well of nosebleed kicks and synapse-frying synths that bang with raw dancefloor energy. The White EP pauses for reflection, transforming Screen Shadow's spiky reveries into tightly-woven technicolour dreamscapes.

Track highlights include the humour-spiced, pitch-shifted "Vegan Tinder Lord"— immortalised by its disembodied, Amnesia Scanner-esque voice — and the percussive, hardstyle-tinged assault course of "Scanna Hex". Inspired by the unpleasant act of a dentist drilling a tooth cavity, "Bodies" burrows deep into your brain, while the glitchy experimentalism of "Corridor" gets under your skin.

Across the two EPs, vocals are processed and reshaped into other sounds using the sculpture-primed Nord modulars. These '90s instruments have since been discontinued, but remain a staple in the Screen Shadow studio and the upcoming live setup.

Artwork and music go hand in hand, with logo designer Number III (Paul Nicholson, Aphex Twin logo designer ) cooking up the striking black and white imagery.

“Media Burn” is the debut EP by TOTEM – 4 succinct slabs of industrial electronics and rhythmic noise forged in the spirit of hardcore punk. The project is loosely based on themes of media consumption, symbolism, illusions, and control. The artist embraces an austere process born of limited means: samples mangled beyond recognition and rearranged according to some obscure logic.

The results are self-described as “industrial skronk” – sculptures made entirely from audio debris that had another life, now twisted and repurposed by an unseen hand into something new and unfamiliar.

Caroline True Records are very happy, by public demand (honestly!) to release, on limited wax, a true dancefloor gem-a track that has been described as a “Sax-Banger” of the very highest order.

A remix that’s hard to pigeonhole-but one that has been featured heavily by DJ luminaries such Ben UFO (Hessle Audio) & Job Jobse at Dekmantel where the track ruled the evening back in 2017 & again this year. It’s grown in popularity totally organically across Europe’s more discerning dancefloors & has many admirers..

Direct from the Midwest CLEAR is proud to present four tenacious hardware workouts from Juzer.

In theory the 12” starts slowly, with the 100 bpm rattle of Old Reliable, although it’s fitful energy is anything but, while the following track September coils itself into a tightly wound circuit freak-out. Busy Bees and We Work Hard We Play Hard are the buildup and climax of the record’s machinedriven anxiety, fit for a chase scene in a post apocalyptic megacity thriller.

Juzer is the joint project of two artists central to the underground musicscene in Chicago, Beau Wanzer and Dan Jugle. The work of both straddles the fault-lines between, noise, techno, industrial, EBM, and the more frenzied shades of house. In addition to a prolific number of solo releases, Wanzer is a member of Mutant Beat Dance with Traxx and Steve Summers, Civil Duty with Shawn O’Sullivan, and many more. Like Wanzer, Jugle was a habitual collaborator and his untimely passing last year shocked Chicago’s electronic music community. Jugle was a natural collaborator, the sort of person for whom creating music was a daily act, and even better with friends. In addition to Juzer he was also a member of Dar Embarks, Chandeliers, and Ghost Arcade. Previous Juzer material was issued on The Corner and Dog In The Night.

• B Boy Records was a significant player in the development of hip-
hop in the 1980s, but a very short lived label shrouded in mystery.
• This double LP selects the best of the independent label, from the
beginning of the label to including past icons and future legends,
hard-hitting drum programming, synthesize and sampled beats
overlaid with fierce battle rap swagger. This is a snapshot of hip-hop
history.
• The label is best known for issuing the hugely influential Boogie
Down Productions LP Criminal Minded, which is included twice on
this release with ‘The Bridge Is Over’ and ‘South Brox’
• Other highlights include JVC Force’s enduring classic ‘Strong
Island’, DJ Scott La Rock (founding member of BDP) & D-Nic and all-
female rap Sparky D, 5 Star Moet.

RAVE026 is a double hammer of blitzkrieg gabber and seething acid trance/schranz from Service
Animal (Vereker) and Crime Unit, featuring material previously issued on impossible-to-find
tapes by the cult, DIY label; Live Adult Entertainment
The punkish reputation of Live Adult Entertainment precedes them as one of the underground’s
keenest yet elusive operations to emerge in recent years. Based in Thessaloniki, a port city in
northern Greece, they’ve released some 28 tapes, CDR’s and lathe cut vinyl of musick ranging from
psy-trance to industrial noise and concrète since 2017, and always in editions ranging from zero
to 20 tops, leading to feverish and frustrated reactions from those listeners who’ve chanced upon
their YouTube videos before they get taken down. Finally, this 12” features the first readily available
and properly mastered LAE material on a physical format.
On the A-side, Endangered Species label boss Oliver Vereker adopts his gabber alias Service
Animal for his first outing proper since appearing as Renoir on his label’s 2017 CD, ‘Death Always
Follows’. Revolving material originally available on tape in edition of 20 copies, it boots off with
the 12-hp hoof and dive-bombing drones of ‘Core Of Reality’ next to the evil Arcardipane styles of
‘F.T.W’, which are both produced with the same, powerful conviction in charred black metal, noise
and hardcore techno that made his 2015 releases as Restraint and Grace so vital, only with added
acceleration and syncopation.
The B-side follows with a pair of seething workouts from the ‘Cyber Afterbirth Vol.1’ mix by
LAE co-owner, Crime Unit. Hearkening back to a sound that was ubiquitous between Hackney
Warehouses and small-town UK/European techno clubs in the late ’90s/early ‘00s, they are
ravenous examples of the LAE aesthetic, applying scuzzy DIY principles to gnashing German
schranz and adrenalising acid trance with ruthlessly direct results that pack one of the meanest
breakdowns you’ll hear this year. Trust they will mercilessly sort the dancers from the posers.

The new album 'Aesthesis' from Shapednoise aka Sicilian artist Nino Pedone is out in November 2019 on Numbers.
Over the nine tracks and thirty seven minutes, there’s a controlled collision of noise and metal with rave and hardcore. Pedone’s penchant for the peak energies of gritty techno and modern rap/trap bleed through, with earth-shattering blocks of bass and beats conveyed within his practice of sonic sculpture. ‘Aesthesis’ melts these sounds down, evolving them into something new of his own - a complex, hybrid being designed to be played loud. The first listen, CRx Aureal, is one of the most arresting cuts from the record: a nightmarish thrill embracing a sense of constant movement, with intense shards of sound ricocheting and morphing, forged together through a series of metallic refrains. This flirtation with the extremes of sound has engulfed Shapednoise’s entire creative output and lifestyle - from his albums and EPs over the last decade, to his two labels Cosmo Rhythmatic and REPITCH, having recently dropped critically acclaimed releases by King Midas Sound, Shackleton & VTSS. Pedone describes ‘Aesthesis’ as “informed by a set of key elements that intwine all the tracks together, like steps in a long research process. It is intended as a sensory experience where the senses act as an interface, sound as space.” His experimentation with unorthodox rhythmic structures and radical cinematic design reveals actions grounded in direct experience, but “inspired by a kind of speculative realism”. In seeking to master the wild heights of noise and the weight of subsonic frequencies, Shapednoise aims to “generate a sense of unreal-yet-tangible space and time, where the physicality of the music builds up a place that exists between people and objects, rather than the other way around.”

A series of artistic collaborations are heard throughout the album - from the caustic R&B of album opener 'Intriguing (In The End)' which features vocals from multimedia artist E. Jane's alter ego MHYSA (of NON & Halcyon Veil), to Justin K Broadrick (founding member of Godflesh and ZONAL) on 'Blaze', and album closer 'Moby Dick'; a collaboration with Scottish legend Drew McDowall (ex-Coil and Psychic TV member), and Rabit (founder of Halcyon Veil).

NecareDiskoEP is the debut original release from, Thomaas Banks and also the first release on his own imprint, Sinahti.

The 4 track EP delves into his love for EBM & the slower side of Techno. NecareDisko rocks with low slung future vibes. Gnarly metallic synths and apocalyptic Vatican orchestration meld with a rolling beat to provide a sleek burner with plenty of grind and glimmer.

VitalClaret ups the tempo with a rousing trip to the chasm edge. Ring modulated arpeggiated leads clash with insistent embers of modular rebellion.

A background hum rises throughout to reach a punishing crescendo. TYVYT-IYTYIon the first remix of the EP’s title track and he pushes the swamp funk button for a syncopated noise workout, with a hot as hell detuned noir melody around the halfway mark. Magma!

The EP closes with a loose open electro remix of Necare Disko from Hymns. Open and lighter than the rest of the EP, nevertheless it still has a taut, Germanic vibe with distorted bass funk dueling
hard towards the end.

The two collaborators, known separately for contemporary electronic music & free clarinet experimentations team up to create the delirious trip, Footfalls.

Two scenes are presented here, seemingly taken from different sides of the same desolated seaside setting, loosly inspired by poet and novalist T.S Elliot and Samuel Becket. In Towards the Door, Gareth Davis´ bass clarinet breathes slow, wave-like tones that merge with the oft-rythmic electronic textures from his counterpart. A third of the way in, Robin Rimbaud´s synth erupts into a Blade Runner-esque epic harmonic section that disappears as suddenly as it arrives - leaving ripples of oscillation in its wake, slowly unfolding into the sound of waves, as it arrives back where it begun : as a full circle, drawn in echo´s of sound.

Smokefall begins with the words „Invisible choirs“, subtly spoken by a woman’s voice among a blurred distant conversation, as textural sound effects creep forwards to the point where a slow progressing but steady LFO rhythm enters. Water, metal & smoke are absorbed into a creeping tribal passage, acompanied by long clarinet tones. The piece expands further and further into a state of ecstatic harmonic noise that fulfills all parts of your body – if played loud. Both artists from here on move into full on crushing electronics, all while Rimbaud´s Kilpatrick Phenol synth drives the background with its pulses and repetative bassline. The piece has an ellipse like rotation that makes one feel a sort of blissful vertigo that reverberates in your mind after the piece has ended.

Footfalls is an euphoric trip from two artists that – although prolific - manages to arrive at the perfect meeting point to deliver two hard to shake pieces of dizzying electro-acoustic perfection.

Schmer Records is proud to announce the upcoming EP from Liquid Asset. It is an entire rave on a 12 inch disk and has something for every stage. From the acid in your face of Wambulance to the bliss of Moon Beams ON Your Face. When not In Laboratory cooking up amazing tracks Liquid Asset is bringing them directly to your party. This EP also has the amazing Isabella providing an entire rave in a single remix. We're sure you'll enjoy playing it as much as we do releasing it.

Liquid Asset is the hardware techno project of Alene Marie, a Philadelphia-born,North Carolina-based producer with releases on New York Trax, Summer Isle, Primitive Languages, Jacktone, Acid Etch and now Schmer. A self-described nerd who started building electronics in 2010, she brings a scrappy, DIY sensibility honed in the noise / hardcore scene and hacker-spaces of Philly. Her punchy, loop-based and heavily rave-oriented mutations of classic dance cannon sounds, beamed out of a self-built rig of modified 303s, 909s, and 808s, have earned enthusiastic support from North American dance music underground institutions including Bossa Nova Civic Club, Hot Mass, and Sustain-Release.

Captivity is the next highly anticipated extended EP by Kush Arora aka Only Now, following a triptych of self-released output in 2019. Continuing the project’s ever evolving engagement with themes of time and existence, Captivity encompasses versatile synthesis, mutant kuduro, widescreen sound design, turbulent cold fronts of power ambient and melodic undertones of black metal.

The product of a two-year period in which Arora was contending with transitional shifts in his personal life, Captivity is a culmination of what the project has explored both in a prolific run of recent material and as a whole, across several years of time dilating, mind altering music.
 
Although shaped by adversity and corresponding sentiments of angst and insignificance, Captivity is pitched at total transcendence. Adopting a meticulous approach to production, a methodology which opens up almost every element to transformation and deconstruction, Arora generates forms which possess a sense of pointillist precision, as well as a keen psychedelic potency.
 
Despite consistency with his earlier output as Only Now, Captivity is nevertheless an indication of Arora’s ability to challenge internal and external assumptions. The introduction of new hardware – namely, the Nord Drum 3P synthesizer – as well as the incorporation of far-flung atmospherics – closing track ‘Clock Lust’ features field recordings from a trip to Kyoto – delivers fresh enterprise and experimentation, contributing to the expansion of a sound signature which remains as unpredictable and compelling as ever.
 
With the eponymous opener, Arora combines fathomless underworlds and riotous breakbeats. On ‘Mutants’ a hyper-kinetic onslaught of percussion, low-end and stray cut-ups of noise break out, building to a panorama of thunderous industrial firmaments. ‘Perpetual Slaughter’ maintains momentum with icy, ricocheting FX and concussive, tribal drums, and then unexpectedly shifts into a poignant outro which brings to the fore the enduring influence of black metal on the project. ‘Bound 2’ is cut with relentless sub-bass and rapid syncopation, resembling an abstracted form of juke music, something that could feasibly have been masterminded by Autechre. With the LP’s finale, ‘Clock Lust’, Arora presents a finale of transfixing 3D ritualism, the lone toll of a bell ringing out into a mesmeric emptiness.
 
Together these form a complete statement from Arora, illustrating the fertile and open-ended territories the Only Now project has arrived at after promising outings on Infinite Machine and Discrepant imprint Sucata Tapes. With Captivity Arora delivers a substantial highpoint and a profound voyage into the world of Only Now.

Inc. Pfirter Remix

M. R. E. U. X. Is back with a new project which incorporates the elegance and quality of old school techno. The track “pulsation” is extremely psychedelic and creates a rollercoaster of emotions and positive vibes. Furthermore Pulsation will get you on the dance floor in no time and you simply won’t be able to stop dancing. The next track “noise dream” gets you in a magical atmosphere right from the first notes. The feeling will be overwhelming...close your eyes and get carried away by the outwardly beats and let your mind take over cause this also happens to be M. R. E. U. X. ‘S favorite tune. To complete this amazing new venture comes producer Pfirter gifting us with a banging remix of Pulsation reconfirming his quality contribution to all things techno. Be sure to look out for this track cause it will stick with any techno hardcore lover. Bottom line is that Blumoog music label is once again reconfirming themself as one of the best techno labels in the world. Stay tuned for new adventures.

This 4 track EP comes out of Ibiza Records archive vault's called Archives Vol 5 produced by Low Block Noise in 1991 & EOAD in 1993. Each of these tracks represents hardcore and merging of jungle breaks starting to come through in the early 90s.

A. Rave in the Bedroom - This track produced by L.N.B made in 1991 has some great piano stabs and had a sample taken from 'The Young Ones' bbc2 sitcom as back then it was all about the big samples being used.
AA. Its Not Big & Its Not Clever - This track from L.B.N made in 1992 and has a classic sample taken from Robin Williams 'Good Morning Vietnam' film. The track has strong jungle breaks that were now a dominating presence at that time in the scene.
AAA. Love The Feeling - This track produced by E.O.A.D made in 1993 is more hardcore with the piano stabs offering a ravey anthem feel representing the warehouse scene. Which was dying out and Jungle was becoming the more dominant force.
AAAA. This track produced by E.O.A.D also made in 1993 and is a remix of the original with the hardcore elements offering a more raving anthem feel representing the warehouse scene back then.

FPO (onesheet currently in development):

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The digitally remastered release of JAK3's Moonlight Radiation is a menagerie of cyberpunk mutations arising out of the Memphis revival rap movement. The album's big, blown-out sound might have seemed an incidental result of an analog recording process in its original cassette release. Now, rendered in digital clarity, listeners can better perceive how JAK3 sculpts varying degrees of panic, aggression and resolve very intentionally through the hard mix of industrial noise, inventive beats, flush synths and recordings from a slew of rappers including Freddie Dredd (Toronto), Apoc Krysis (Memphis), and fellow Waistdeep Clique members Agnarkea and Calsutmoran.

The short format of Moonlight Radiation's 16 tracks allows JAK3 to cover a lot of ground, and even within a single track he keeps one guessing. Track 2, "2FAKE," goes from an atmospheric burn, to a slow drive with the snappy flow of Moistbread, and then abruptly crashes back into an oozing vortex of synths. The penultimate interlude "Return from Hyperspace" sounds like one is being forced through a hellish modem, only to land in a haunted and abandoned transmitter for the closing track, "This Night Will Never End."

Between, those tracks, one gets a tour of the wild possibilities that could come next from this producer and the sounds emerging from the Memphis chopped-and-screwed scene. In a milieu that is retreading the past, the mutants of Moonlight Radiation may seem to be arriving a little prematurely. But you can't stop evolution when the field is so wide, and young producers like JAK3 are moving fast.

Tenesha the Wordsmith, who came to the fore on On The Corner's 2018 release 'Black Noise 2084', has delivered a hard-cutting, gut-wrenching, and extremely moving spoken word album produced by Khalab that brings together different lines of black music - folkloric, jazz, and electronic dance - into an afro-futurist narrative with thunderous results.
Originally from Oakland, California, "a place where revolutionaries are born, Tenesha the Wordsmith originally began to fuse hip hop and poetry while living in Albany, New York, where she created her first collection 'Body Of Work'. Her early influences have returned with features from beatboxers and vocalists that give the album a distinctly urban hip hop vibe.

After a two year break, due to the birth of the sub-label Rhythm Control Barcelona, End Of Dayz returns with a new "All Stars". This time with 4 tracks in the vinyl version, plus a bonus track in the digi version.

On the A-side, the Argentinian, now based in Barcelona, Julixo brings us his song "1990 B i t c h" very much in tune with the EP he published in ARTS under his Awdha alias, hard groove techno with 90's house pads and a cool sample. Kaiser serves us a Millsian school mental bomb direct to the dance floor: "Still Life".

On the B-side we first have "The Crown" by Spaniard Pushmann, that has already been played by Dave Clarke on his White Noise Radio Show and on his set at the Awakenings Festival 2019. To finish the vinyl, the Man From Tucuman and the Barcelona's "Depressive House" king, Fede Zerdan, with his "Soc Pell".

This year, First Word Records celebrates its fifteenth year in the game. The year commenced triumphantly with First Word being named "record label of the year" at Gilles Peterson's Worldwide Awards 2019. Over the past six months, we've seen new music from 14KT, Souleance, Myele Manzanza, Teotima, Don Leisure, Children of Zeus and a range of artists across Europe, on the 'Music! Musik! Musique!' compilation.

To commemorate the 15th anniversary, First Word has a series of releases in the works for the second half of the year which see collaborations by artists from the label's current roster. To kick off, we have this special double-AA sided 7" single featuring Darkhouse Family, Kaidi Tatham & Tyler Daley.

Darkhouse Family consists of two Cardiff beatmakers & musicians, Earl Jeffers - founder of Melange Records and producer of 'A Library Excursion' from 2018, and Don Leisure, who recently provided us with 'Halal Cool J', the beat-tape sequel to 2017's 'Shaboo'. Over the years they've had releases, solo & individually, on Fat City, Metalheadz & Earnest Endeavors to name a few, bridging the gaps between various strains of dance music, beats and hip hop, with the organics of jazz and funk. Recently making noise across the UK with their new live band, and production work for the likes of Kamaal Williams, this is their first new release since their highly-acclaimed 2017 debut album 'The Offering' & subsequent remix project which also featured DJ Spinna, and one Kaidi Tatham.

Kaidi Tatham is one of the most revered multi-instrumentalists in the game. His endless contributions have included Bugz In The Attic, Amy Winehouse, Slum Village, Mulatu Astatke, Soul II Soul, Moonchild, Leroy Burgess, Amp Fiddler and loads more. Dubbed by Benji B last year as "the UK's Herbie Hancock", his versatility as a musician is actually more akin to Prince. He can play most things, and play them well. Providing flute duties on this track, he also graces the flipside with a full "flutestrumental" version. Aside from numerous other projects, Kaidi released three EPs on First Word to date, 'Changing Times', 'Hard Times' and 'Serious Times', and an album last year, entitled 'It's A World Before You', which featured daddy of 2000 Black, Dego, son of Jazzy Jeff, Uhmeer and Children of Zeus, Konny Kon & Tyler Daley.

Tyler Daley hails from Manchester, alongside son of Zeus, MC / DJ / beatmaker, Konny Kon. Somewhat of a veteran in the game, Tyler is currently one of the most-recognisable talents in the British soul scene, also lending his talents to dance music royalty along the way, including the likes of Goldie, Zed Bias, DJ Marky & Lenzman. With Children of Zeus, the duo have had a whirlwind 12 months since the release of their debut album 'Travel Light', performing shows across the globe & gaining new fans daily. The record was named "album of the year" by Complex magazine and BBC 6 Music's Huey Morgan, amongst a number of other notable tastemakers & selectors. Hot on the heels of the 'Excess Baggage' EP, Tyler laces this one with his inimitable brand of bars and soul.

A veritable super-group amongst the First Word stable, this low-slung slinky joint sees the guys work up a unique blend of jazz, soul, beats and hip hop - guaranteed to go 'All The Way'…

'All The Way' is released on First Word Records on July 26th 2019, limited 7" vinyl & digital.

Produced & mixed by Darkhouse Family

Vocals by Tyler Daley (Children of Zeus)


b B1. All the Way (Flutestrumental) [feat. Tyler Daley & Kaidi Tatham]


[b] B1 | All the Way (Flutestrumental) [feat. Tyler Daley & Kaidi Tatham]


[b] B1 | All the Way (Flutestrumental) [feat. Tyler Daley & Kaidi Tatham]

Ibiza Records label was established back in 1989 and was one of the main contributors to the UK underground music scene. Those behind the label were the innovators of Hardcore Jungle, Jungle Techno and Jungle genres in the 90s stemming from Warehouses to clubs and now festivals. Ibiza Records Label returns today with some new releases and a back catalogue of gems for the real Junglists out there.

Another 3 track EP comes out of Ibiza Records archive vault's called Archives Vol 4 produced by Noise Factory. Each of these tracks represents 'The Original Jungle Sound' from back in the 90s.
This 3 track EP called Archives Vol 4 comes from out of Ibiza Records archive vault and produced by Noise Factory. Each of these tracks represents 'The Original London Jungle Sound' from back in the 90s.

A.JUNGLE MYSTIC - This track made back in 1999 produced by one of the member's of Noise Factory aka Drumpella Black. Keeping with the original sounds of Noise Factory and the elements of techno and hardcore the early developments of Jungle.
AA.CAN YOU FEEL IT - This track made back in 1999 produced by one of the member's of Noise Factory aka Drumpella Black feat. Tremma T on the vocals. Keeping with the original essense of jungle, piano stabs and hardcore flavours.
AAA.ROLL WITH ME - This track made back in 2000 produced by one of the member's of Noise Factory aka Drumpella Black feat. Jnr Dangerous on the vocals. Once again showcasing the true elements of jungle.

“Ta Da” is the debut full length from J. McFarlane Reality Guest, the collective name for the trio headed by the eponymous McFarlane. As a member of the group Twerps, McFarlane has traversed guitar-centric, melodic pop music for some years while honing a highly unique, personal musical language. Ta Da is the first recorded unveiling of McFarlane’s affecting, oblique songwriting panache. Originally released in her native Australia on Hobbies Galore, Ta Da will be released worldwide by Night School in June 2019.

Wheezing into view with a troubled reed instrument set against a s of whoozy synth lines, Human Tissue Act is a foggy curtain the listener is invited to peel back. The dissonant notes are left to dance entwined, with clarinet heralding a Harry Partch-esque mallet percussion interlude. It’s a mood. With no resolution in sight, an audience dragged closer into uncertainty is suddenly drenched with the light of inter-weaving wah wah synth and saxophone. I Am A Toy introduces us to McFarlane’s vocal, an effortless and matter-of-fact, accented statement that quietly takes the reins. While McFarlane’s previous work in Twerps might reference 80s UK and antipodean guitar pop, Ta Da showcases a different influences immersed in psychedelic music and synths. It’s a brilliant, deft concoction swimming in Young Marble Giants-type minimalism washed with bare pop and harmony similar to Kevin Ayers making sense of a Melbourne suburb full of faces half-recognised in the blanching sun.

What Has He Bought begins with a Casio-keyboard rhythm pattern, palm-muted guitars and immaculately enunciated vocal give way to a burnt melodica part that elevates the spirits. Simple patterns repeated, like a well-tempered pop song that does what it needs to do and no more, build into the sound of summer leaking orange juice. They’re moments of joy, layered on top of each other like a melting cake. Do You Like What I’m Sayin’ recalls Marine Girls covering a classic ‘66 Garage nugget, organ lines fighting funk with guitar chords played just behind the percussion. “In a talking world, meanings are the same. Words want to hold on to the people they contain. Do you like what I’m sayin’?” We’re in a Beckett play perhaps, obtuse absurdities rendered pretty. Alien Ceremony is a heart-melter, given a melancholic timbre by bowed double bass it’s a tragi-comic piece that almost reeks of Robert Wyatt at his mid-whimsical twisting a fugue completely out of shape. Beneath the layers of harmony and twinkling instrumentation you sense there’s a genuine sadness somewhere even if it remains veiled.

Through out Ta Da, McFarlane plays with counterpoint and contrast to sometimes delirious effect. On Your Torturer, a simple, upbeat chord progression is hard panned, underpinning a flute solo which seems out of place, hence making it completely in place on this warmly surreal album. My Enemy is a slowly swinging eulogy to a failed relationship punctuated by analogue synth burbles, with our protagonist simply asking, in the aftermath, “can we be nice?” Here McFarlane’s vocal is straight forward, lyrically conversational but still not completely in focus, a surreal kitchen sink drama filtered through a dream where everything is in the wrong place. It’s a fine precursor to Heartburn, which similarly borrows BBC Radiophonic Workshop-style noise synths and the use of space to carve up the simple “You Will Make My Heart Burn” line. At this point, the listener has been in such close proximity to McFarlane’s show, the reality guest in a performance where they’re the sole audience member, that when Where Are You My Love rises on the horizon as a sleepy, psychedelic send off it’s uplifting. The vocal drifts away into the sunset, simple and direct. It leaves the listener slightly confused, perhaps, but grateful for the gentle surprise.

Legendary artist Mick Harris (Napalm Death, Painkiller, Scorn…) kicks off his 2019 with this EP of tar-black, bass heavy sonic violence. This EP features 4 reworks of “Salford Priors”, one of the heaviest tracks from his return-to-form album “Over Depth”, the first by Mick Harris himself, and 3 more by his longtime collaborators in the production guises of Fausten, Stormfield, and Monster X. The EP begins with an apocalyptic, dubbed out violent rework by the man himself, creeping in with a cold, calm eerie drone that quickly goes from zero to 100%, blasting into a full force attack of artillery percussion and strafing, shrapnel textures atop the landmine subs and characteristic Harris snarling mono-bass.

Julien Caraz has caused much distress over the years with the sheer rage and precision sonic assaults of his Monster X project. Here he eschews his usual frenetic tempos for a solid 130BPM, a sleek techno destroyer built for giant spaces and huge soundsystems in mind. The Combat Recordings boss has worked audiovisually with Mick since the Scorn AV at Bangface Weekend in 2011, touring with Fret AV in 2018. Here he switches back into audio mode to rework Salford Priors into a hard electro assault for the Stormfield remix.

Fausten is the shadowy, twisted collaboration between Monster X and Stormfield.
Having released a staggeringly twisted album on the legendary Ad Noiseam, Fausten
went into hibernation as the pair pursued their own projects, with only a few sporadic tracks surfacing over the years. The pair have been putting together an album’s worth of new material for 2019, beginning with a powerful remix of Salford Priors. Taking Fret back into it’s aquatic, fathoms-deep sonic territory, this remix is a behemoth work that moves at quarter-step tempo, allowing for more physicality and dynamics, the profound pulse of each profoundly deep bassdrum like an underwater volcanic explosion, with skittering percussion the resonates in the stillness.