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Composed, produced, and arranged by Eartheater alone, Phoenix: Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin draws a path back to the primordial lava lake from which she first emerged, as it also testifies to the reincarnating resurrections the project has undergone over its first full decade of existence. While the album renews her focus on guitar performance and legible structure, Eartheater balances the unabashed prettiness of acoustic harmonic songs with the dissonant gestural embroidery of oblique instrumentals. Having fallen back in love with the idioms that first captivated her, she worked to crack open the techniques that had fossilized inside of her, while still seeking to apply the electro-alchemical knowledge she picked up along her journey. The result of a laborious revival in fire, Phoenix recontextualizes Eartheater’s combinatorial approach to production within her most confident abstractions, adjacent to some of her most direct songs to date.

Eartheater composed and workshopped most of Phoenix over a ten-week artist residency (FUGA) in Zaragoza, Spain, housed in a sprawling, cubic glass facility that looked out over wildflower-flecked mountains. Following an intensive period of recording and touring, the residency provided her with an unprecedented period of solitude in the small Spanish town. Her newfound sense of isolation ultimately became liberating, leading her to sidestep the crutches and steady grids inherent to electronic music, and to conceive pieces rooted in her guitar and her desire to perform with other players live.

Eartheater’s voice glows brighter than ever at the center of Phoenix’s arrangements — her familiar operatic highs are grounded by newly expanded velvety lows, leaping lucidly up and down octaves. Her intricate guitar work flits across baroque fingerpicked passages and latches into cyclical figures that meet her voice in lush harmonic progressions. From her own guitar parts, to the orchestral string arrangements she wrote for the Spanish conservatory group Ensemble de Camara, to the harp and violin lines performed by her close friends and collaborators Marilu Donovan and Adam Markiewicz of LEYA, Eartheater’s applications of acoustic instruments bring an extraordinary emotional emphasis to her compositions. Phoenix prepares for a future where electronic sound — or even electricity itself — isn’t guaranteed, but where her music could still come to life with a group of hands dexterously winding across instruments against the light of the fire. Eartheater drew inspiration for Phoenix from geological imagery, whose turbulence and potential for genesis mirror the trajectory of her own life and relationships. The album’s instrumental pieces directly reference these moments of upheaval, colliding audio of volcano and lightning storms with resplendent string and vocal arrangements. “Volcano” looks out over the album from its peak at the center, its tectonic plates colliding in towering melodies and layers of vocal harmonies, as piano accents crest and cascade down the mountainside. When Eartheater sings, “I’m still building mountains underground,” she is trying to reconcile the pinnacles of her ambition with the comforts of a simple existence buried beneath the surface. “Diamond in the Bedrock” finds her admiring the gemstone forming under intense pressure inside her, but rejecting the romantic promise that the diamond signifies, choosing instead to escape a relationship that has come to stifle her.

With the album’s subtitle, Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin, Eartheater imagines being tempered to a state of perfect equilibrium, suspended between melting and freezing, where fire could streak across her body and appear as a crystalline blush. This image captures the tension at the heart of the Eartheater project, as she decides how best to distill her passion and render it cool to the touch; to find beauty in simple pleasure, while keeping one eye fixed on the peaks that loom in the horizon. The album is mixed by Kiri Stensby and mastered by Heba Kadry, featuring photography by Daniel Sannwald.

Daniel Bortz, a staple among electronic music producers, returns with his new album "Stay". After "Patchwork Memories" on Suol from 2013, it's the second album for Berlin-born and Augsburg-rooted Daniel. From his early days of James Blake editing and riding the slow house wave, Daniel has perfected and diversived his production skills over the seven year course between the albums. His range spans euphoric techno, cinematic breakbeats, heart warming electronica and classic deep house, you can witness on his eps for Innervisions, Pastamusik (the infamous Bella Avgvsta trilogy) or even on the legendary DJ Kicks mix series from grandmaster Moodymann, who selected one of Bortz's tracks on his volume. After his three eps (one with his friend and long time collaborator Sascha Sibler and one under his DJ Hotel alias) on Permanent Vacation, Daniel takes the consequential step and releases his second full-length album with the Munich based label. With the 11 tracks on "Stay", Daniel Bortz evokes his teenage years and dreamwalks through his upbringing during the 90's. Musically he brings together what never should have been separated: House, Acid, Downbeat and Breakbeat all rooted in the sample aesthetic of Hip Hop, thereby capturing the full emotional spectrum of life and love. Music that came to stay.

One of the most quietly influential underground artists of recent times, Yamaneko returns with Spirals Heaven Wide, his fourth full-length album. Since breaking through in 2014 with his cult debut album Pixel Wave Embrace, Yamaneko has been one of the key artists re-contextualising ambient music for a new generation, crafting fragile compositions that draw as much from the angular shapes of grime, techno and keygen music as they do the soothing soundscapes of new age cassettes, ambient records and video game soundtracks. Written during Yamaneko’s last winter in London before relocating to Tokyo, Spirals Heaven Wide is his longest and largest-sounding release to date, combining some of his most evocative long-form pieces with the kind of haunting miniatures that made his early music so distinctive. The majority of the tracks were written after Yamaneko's first run of audio-visual shows at the end of 2018, and so are rooted in the same kind of live workflow and production methods that he explored with those sets. As with last year’s Afterglow EP, Spirals Heaven Wide is underpinned by a underlying influence of euphoric dance music, with distant trance and hardcore signifiers - both key influences on Yamaneko from an early age - visible through the album’s thick blankets of wind and fog. These influences come fully to the forefront on ‘This Spring of Love' and 'Fall Control’, two of the most outright spine-tingling tracks Yamaneko has released to date. Elsewhere, the album explores his love of emo music’s bittersweet melancholy, a fascination with constellations and the cosmos and an increasing love of writing extended, long-form compositions: a side of Yamaneko first explored on 2017’s Spa Commissions collection and continued on his contribution to respected ambient series Longform Editions.

House and techno mainstay Loco Dice is stepping out with En Couleur, a brand new label reserved exclusively for his own music.

The first offering opens with 'Don't Run,' a twisted piece of afterparty techno. Weird fx and alien sound designs squirm in and out of a firmly rooted, rolling groove and pressurised hi hats add to the tension as the kicks grow ever more powerful. 'Nasty Train' explores high quality stripped back house grooves that ooze a certain sense of funk. The timeless hi hats are straight from Chicago while the crisp boom-bap drums, frazzled pads and muffled voices all add details that keep you locked until things grow more wild and unhinged at the mid point. Last of all, 'Ya Free Just Move' is a manic and pulsating acid workout that will leave the club in a frenzy.

Unclassifiable percussionist and producer Chiminyo will be releasing his long-awaited debut album “I Am Panda” via London tastemaker label Gearbox Records on the 25th of September. The ten-track album is a foray into unexplored sonic territory, featuring a host of diverse guest musicians from London’s burgeoning music scene. Chiminyo's music may be rooted in the London jazz scene, but his music is transcendent of anything that could be defined as such. Whilst his joint use of analogue and digital technology meaningfully honours the manic city lights of London’s bustling scene, it remains ever-changing crossing over into hip-hop, future pop, experimental electronic and global spheres. Chiminyo's tech-heavy drum kit set-up, combines the raw, immediate live sound of percussion and the futuristic timbres of his electronic productions to create his own, daring soundscapes. Via laboriously self-coded software, each cymbal crash and drum hit triggers a synth or sample, allowing Chiminyo complete control and freeing him of all loops, click-tracks and backing tracks.However, it is important to note that Chiminyo's music is far more than just a technical feat. Whilst still highly innovative in it's composition, "I AM PANDA" is purely the result of a deep and tireless exploration of the music that Chiminyo truly resonates with to create a soulful, spiritual, and evocative record that feeds off the conflicting duality between technology and nature. Composed and arranged by Chiminyo and recorded at Konk Studios by Ricardo Damian (Jorja Smith, Sampha, Binker & Moses), the new album also features a host of talented guests including Kweku Sackey aka K.O.G, singer Dunja Botic, and spoken word artist Brother Portrait of Steam Down fame. The new album follows on from Chiminyo's 2019 debut EP "I Am Chiminyo", which served as a visceral introduction to his unique sound, and earned plaudits from the likes of Gilles Peterson, BBC 1Xtra, CLASH, Red Bull, Jazzwise, Jazz FM and more. As well as his own solo project, Chiminyo also performs and records with some of the leading figures of London’s music scene, including spiritual jazz-leaning outfit Maisha and psychedelic energy bomb Cykada. He has also previously collaborated and recorded with Gary Bartz, Nubya Garcia, Shabaka Hutchings, Theon Cross, and Zara McFarlane.

2LP Over the past decade, SUED co-founder SW. has arranged the building blocks of dreamy rave and techno music-billowing pads, undulating sub-bass and adroit, nuanced drum programming-into and novel dance floor structures. TRUElipS, SW.’s first full album since 2016 and his first for Avenue 66, is a beguiling, fully-realised statement. The 12-track LP is rooted in the storied ’90s era when the spirit of orbital raves and free parties was channeled into massive leaps forward in the studio. A combination of house and drum & bass looms large, as does the much-referenced intelligent techno era, but if you’ve listened to an SW. record, you already know TRUElipS is the work of a singular auteur. Breakbeats, rave stabs and major chords permeate the album, motoring along on a chassis of sine-wave bass lines and SW’s widescreen percussive vision. Forays into downtempo and sweeping ambience keep the listener’s head in the clouds, while the superb melodic techno constructions that comprise the album’s core are at once contemplative and liable to bring on a giddy head rush. TRUElipS brims with the optimistic, escapist spirit that fueled dance music’s original triumph, a throwback to bright, imagined futures.

Over the years, the sonic world of Heist has grown into a place where energetic house, live instruments and worldly electronics move together in the most natural way. We're very proud of the fact that we can showcase artists that cross boundaries or simply create their own universe, while keeping a strong connection with the identity of the label.

Our next release, the 'Exposures EP' by Teleseen, fits perfectly into this aesthetic. Teleseen is the main project of nomadic DJ, producer and multi-instrumentalist Gabriel Cyr and draws influence from deep house, afro house, samba, batucada as well as the experimentalism and sound system cultures of his home town NYC. His sound leans heavily on polyrhythmic programming and he's nothing short of a synth wizard. His 'Exposures EP' features 3 originals, and a remix by Berlin based Italian house guru Black Loops.

The record features a number of collaborators and recordings of various instruments, ranging from percussive sections to synths and guitar. This live approach to electronic music is one that is deeply rooted into Gabriel's work. His upcoming release on Soundway as 'Thaba' is another good example of this approach and also shows how diverse his sounds really is.

The title track is a thrilling synth affair with tribal-like chants running through a vocoder. The combination of handclaps, crunchy synths and steady drums make for a thrilling afro house track that hints towards early motor city electronics.

Black Loops is known for his deep grooves and built his fame with his releases on Freerange, Pets and Shall not Fade. His take on 'Exposures' sees him upping the tempo to a pacey 130 bpm, where an introvert vibe of reverbed hits and bleeps take you into full dream mode. He expertly chops up the original into a contemporary track that fits somewhere between high tempo tech-house and minimalistic deephouse.

On the flip we get to hear more of the sonic world Teleseen has to offer. 'Dekalb' is a track that seems impossible to box into a genre. Its mood is set by a lovely section of free-flowing Rhodes chords and the chopped vocals and open synth- bass give the track a whole new feel. It is that ballsy electronic edge combined with dreamy textures and live rhythms that give 'Dekalb' its unique vibe.

The final track of the EP -'Transfer'- takes us down to a mid-tempo percussive workout with a balearic twist. The steady electronic groove and the free flowing guitar take you to yet another corner of Teleseen's beautifully crafted universe.

Enjoy the music and play it loud!

Yours Sincerely,
Lars & Maarten

Prolific American artist Jon Hester returns to Rekids for the first instalment of his new album, ‘Converge’, this September.

Jon Hester grew up in the Midwest US, living in Chicago and Minneapolis while taking musical cues from Detroit. Initially he was a dancer, and later transitioned to the decks with a refined understanding of what it takes to move a club. He progressed to hosting his own events, holding residencies, and working at a record shop, and now brings his physical rhythms and adventurous drums to his productions, with output on respected labels such as Transmat, Deeply Rooted, Dystopian, Klockworks, and LET Recordings, not to mention multiple appearances on Rekids.

Continuing to show fine form on his debut album, Hester now serves up eight of his signature house and techno fusions with plenty of his trademark directness across four sides of vinyl. The superb 'Sending Signals' opens the album with scene-setting synth modulations full of sci-fi atmosphere. It's the calm before the storm as 'Metropolitan' then immediately sets off on a cantering groove that is eventually run through with busy, jazzy piano keys that bring the soul.

'Haze' has excellently taught kick drums with hypnotic synth tones adding colour, and features Hester on saxophone. When 'Rain' comes, things grow darker and more menacing, with shakers and urgent stabs keeping you moving at a slick pace.

The second half of this compelling record features the loopy punches and pulses of the super smooth 'Dreamstate', beautifully cosmic and widescreen techno of 'Free' and pensive but urgent deep electro of standout cut 'Flex.' Last of all, 'Equinox' is lit up with distant chords which bring a far-sighted gaze to the rolling, robust kicks.

Having previously brought together world-renowned Theremin soloist Carolina Eyck and electronic producer Eversines for a specially commissioned collaborative mini album, yeyeh founder Pieter Jansen has now conjured up another unlikely but inspired joint album, this time featuring award-winning free-jazz vocalist Greetje Bijma and leftfield house, techno and ambient producer Oceanic.

The project has its roots in a chance meeting between Jansen and Bijma, a legendary figure on the Dutch jazz scene who in 1990 became the first woman to win the country’s top jazz accolade, the VPRO/Boy Edgar award. Apart from having previously worked with the likes of Anna Homler (aka Breadwoman), Jasper van ’t Hof, Han Bennink, Louis Andriessen and Willem Breuker and her own solo projects, she’s in a league of her own.

Jansen is a big fan of Bijma’s 1996 heavily electronic collaboration with Jasper van’t Hof and Pierre Favre, Freezing Screens, and was with the friend who first introduced him to it when he bumped into Bijma.
Excited to meet someone who had made one of his favourite records, Jansen took the opportunity to ask Bijma if she would be interested in working with young electronic music producers. To Jansen’s delight, Bijma quickly agreed.

Weeks later, Bijma stepped into the studio with Oceanic, a rising star of the Dutch electronic underground whose releases as Oceanic for Nous’klaer Audio and BAKK Plafond revolve around mechanical rhythms, opaque ambient textures, minimalist melodic movements and effervescent electronics. The pair quickly connected on an emotional and musical level, with Bijma taking her cues from Oceanic’s electronic sounds and rhythms, and Oceanic drawing inspiration from Bijma’s dexterous, mind- bending and otherworldly vocalizations.

After two hugely productive days, the cross-generational duo had completed a couple of mesmerizing songs – breathlessly haunting album opener “Swallow a Party” and chilly ambient closer “A Window Drifting” – and recorded several hours or improvisations that Oceanic later edited, layered-up and re-modelled.

The results are little less than spellbinding. The range and versatility of Bijma’s vocalizations is breathtaking, while Oceanic’s music – which cleverly incorporates the free-jazz singer’s vocal notes, tones and proclamations – swings between becalmed beauty and breathless intensity.

Some of the set’s most striking moments are those where Oceanic re-contextualizes Bijma’s varied vocal sounds with the dancefloor in mind. On the pulsating “Technicolour Memories”, up-tempo “Step Snakes” and hypnotic “Never Done”, Bijma’s scat outbursts not only ride Oceanic’s rhythms, but also form part of the densely layered percussion tracks beneath.

Like the release’s more downtempo and ethereal moments, these hybrid organic- synthetic compositions defy easy categorization, offering a unique brand of alien electronic/acoustic musical fusion that lingers long in the memory.

Brand new release from Turbo Guidance Entertainment! We deliver a compilation with 4 versatile dubs cooked by our wizards ! Pablo Bozzi (half of Imperial Black Unit and half of Infravision) signed "Sangria Sound System N°1", a slow burner italo-disco track. Perfect to close a cosmic set in the afternoon drinking pepper-mint lemonades! Cowbells everywhere and powerful arpeggiator. Watch out the guy, this year is going to his year! In the second position we have a reggae-disco remix from the man Androo; part of NS Kroo and also well known on the label Music From Memory. He totally switched the
original dub techno track of Babe Roots into something sweet and bouncy. Lobster for you ears. You can even ear autotune on the vocal! Awesome! Coming at the third place, here come Komodo from Indonesia! "Funky Buzz" is a perfect blend of tribal and dub rhythms with a repetitive bassline. Big delays and full effects to rock iguanas. Komodo is a rising star of South Asia, look at the sky to see him shining like a Telsa soon ! And last but not least, we serve you a sweet downtempo riddim from Mali-I aka Z Lovecraft (Rhythm Section). He built a hip-hop influenced track with aerial chords. Perfect music if you want to take the mic and try to toast like a real badboy. Only 400 copies for the world. Sleeve visual is gently printed in risography 3 colors at Shift Studio (Tunisia) - DIY each and everytime.

Adeen Records 006 Introduces Bari born by way of Italy producer Nico Lahs. The South Italy producer delved deeper into his roots and returned using an array of vintage analog and digital hardwares, to give life in total freedom (as the name suggests) to his own sound and trademark.
The 2xLP album is the result of an unceasing and steadily research of one of the Italian music innovators, who doesn't just make house, but he's just as adept making hip-hop, downtempo, technoish and ethereal stuff deeply rooted into Chicago and Detroit history that starts with mellow atmospheres to then go up and down, skillfully juggling among samples, hardwares and artistry, showing his abilities with the sole purpose of calling out all the music heads, regardless of their taste, and unite 'em under one only message. Simply something for everyone!

Repress

Techno Letfield legend. Peder Mannerfelt returns, this time in original format, with the second version of a track called The B. The first version probably never existed. As you will hope that this one never existed too while your brain is melting in a Swedish oven spiced with hoovers and sub bass.

Hard to deny the back and forward energy between the Copenhagen scene and KAOS. Repro is back in the show. The moment of impact is a heavy trip on high energy mode. Please wear your helmets.

Dirty Rocking Bassline is most probably one of my (and SPFDJ) top 3 most played tracks ever. That would be a reason to be more than excited to welcome directly from Devon (UK) to Darc Marc. But you wanted more: Running With The Devil has been another sure hit in your TRACK ID?? requests in the last months. Free-party rooted, hyperdrive, sexy, dark, fast... And now you believe.

The hardcore-IDMish dystopia from Uncrat closes poetically this new issue, giving more meaning than ever to that mighty quote that once a wise friend of mine said at an after and that I take now as life motto.

#TOOMUCHISTHEMINIMUM

2020 reboot for Detroit's legendary Metroplex.

The Label Say "Cologne based producer Bas Grossfeldt has crafted an outstanding release perfectly aligned with Juan Atkin’s brilliant Metroplex aesthetic. As a relatively new name in the scene, Bas Grossfeldt’s music sounds as if it were the results of decades of focused experience in the studio.

With a background in installation, choreography and performance art, Bas Grossfeldt is the artists alias to focus on the musical side of things. His deeply rooted interest in the relation of space and body is also translated into his music. The fusion of spaced-out textures, rhythmical distortions, cold waves of synthesis, and enough modern production prowess ensures a release saturated with innovation and abundant imagination. A rare release for the seminal Detroit label, which also represents Juan Atkins’ interest in the arts world and new, different approaches.

The exchange between the label head and the artist, initially came to life because internationally renown conceptual artist Mischa Kuball, knowing Juan from a joint project, sent him the demo of Bas Grossfeldt. Especially intrigued by the track „Lost In Translation“, Juan and Bas started exchanging, approaching the record as an „art project“ and a classical EP at the same time, for example leading into the cover being made by Bas Grossfeldt/Søren Siebel himself and including numerous hidden references to the sound.

Each track embraces an incredible array of sounds and styles, from soundscapes to mind-bending Techno – all equally as effective for the brain as the dancefloor.

“Lost In Translation” opens the release with a cinematic piece of electronica permeating with frozen emotion and melancholic soul. The beautiful track captures a foggy morning’s haze, the first chill of winter with only a gentle kick-drum keeping the cold from completely taking over. It is also accompanied with a hypnotizing abstract video by film-artist Svenja Voß.

Continuing in a dubby, winter haze is “Lost In Sensation” which floats alongside a sharp, metallic rhythmic arrangement and a gentle, ever-present kick drum. Deep, heavily saturated atmospheric textures sleep underneath the sounds while lucid melodies float in and out.

“Your Orbit” rounds out the release with the most club-ready production. Disorienting melodies and gritty synths capture a dreamlike perception while a tough kick drum and clattering percussion drives the music deeper into undiscovered dancing territories just left of center. "

Belgian techno wizard Cri Du Coeur is back with a new 2-part vinyl release on his label Arkham Audio titled 'Erickson' & 'Erickson on Acid', which features remixes exclusively from French artists. Jerome D., the man behind the Cri Du Coeur alias, is prized in the industry for giving platforms to Belgian and French artists throughout his career, so it comes as no surprise that he is showing his francophile roots by having a solely French lineup for the remixes on this release. Following the recent release of his EPs 'Diaphragm' and 'Warning', and now bringing us the inebriating 'Erickson' & 'Erickson on Acid', Cri Du Coeur has established that his new alias and freshly-founded but tenacious Arkham Audio label are a force to be reckoned with. The entrancing yet adrenalizing sound that he has adopted shows that his approach to industrial electronic music knows no boundaries or compromises.

The first part of this release features the original mix of 'Erickson' by Cri Du Coeur and remixes of the track by Electric Rescue, Wex 10 , and Trunkline. The second part 'Erickson on Acid' puts a squelching acid twist on things and features remixes by Roman Poncet, Umwelt, and Zadig.

The original mix of 'Erickson' leads with a strong beat and a mixture of industrial sounds that makes for a sublime dark dancefloor track. Electric Rescue follows on with a remix that engages the listener with a terrorising yet intoxicating heavy baseline. Next up is Wex 10 who enchants us with a bouncy laserbeam rhythm and muffled looping vocals. Last but not least on the 'Erickson' lineup is Trunkline's remix which delivers an addictive hazy melody and a deep and dirty mechanical synth horn.

Cri Du Coeur plays with tensions in 'Erickson (on Acid)', putting the listener into a state of hypnosis with squelching sounds that give the song a raunchy character. We are implored to dance as Roman Poncet's remix bears layers of lively percussion beats with twangy synth melodies. The mood intensifies once more as Umwelt's remix features a dark and fuzzy baseline that contrasts with a screeching siren sound creating an ultimate thrilling experience for the listener. Zadig closes off this immense concoction of remixes with a relentless distorted base and scintillating machinelike background noises.

Cri Du Coeur has outdone himself by bringing together such a well-suited selection of artists to create a visceral and magnetizing collection of tracks that showcases his competence in making industrial techno.

Belgian techno wizard Cri Du Coeur is back with a new 2-part vinyl release on his label Arkham Audio titled 'Erickson' & 'Erickson on Acid', which features remixes exclusively from French artists. Jerome D., the man behind the Cri Du Coeur alias, is prized in the industry for giving platforms to Belgian and French artists throughout his career, so it comes as no surprise that he is showing his francophile roots by having a solely French lineup for the remixes on this release. Following the recent release of his EPs 'Diaphragm' and 'Warning', and now bringing us the inebriating 'Erickson' & 'Erickson on Acid', Cri Du Coeur has established that his new alias and freshly-founded but tenacious Arkham Audio label are a force to be reckoned with. The entrancing yet adrenalizing sound that he has adopted shows that his approach to industrial electronic music knows no boundaries or compromises.

The first part of this release features the original mix of 'Erickson' by Cri Du Coeur and remixes of the track by Electric Rescue, Wex 10 , and Trunkline. The second part 'Erickson on Acid' puts a squelching acid twist on things and features remixes by Roman Poncet, Umwelt, and Zadig.

The original mix of 'Erickson' leads with a strong beat and a mixture of industrial sounds that makes for a sublime dark dancefloor track. Electric Rescue follows on with a remix that engages the listener with a terrorising yet intoxicating heavy baseline. Next up is Wex 10 who enchants us with a bouncy laserbeam rhythm and muffled looping vocals. Last but not least on the 'Erickson' lineup is Trunkline's remix which delivers an addictive hazy melody and a deep and dirty mechanical synth horn.

Cri Du Coeur plays with tensions in 'Erickson (on Acid)', putting the listener into a state of hypnosis with squelching sounds that give the song a raunchy character. We are implored to dance as Roman Poncet's remix bears layers of lively percussion beats with twangy synth melodies. The mood intensifies once more as Umwelt's remix features a dark and fuzzy baseline that contrasts with a screeching siren sound creating an ultimate thrilling experience for the listener. Zadig closes off this immense concoction of remixes with a relentless distorted base and scintillating machinelike background noises.

Cri Du Coeur has outdone himself by bringing together such a well-suited selection of artists to create a visceral and magnetizing collection of tracks that showcases his competence in making industrial techno

DJ Support and positive Feedback by the likes of
Laurent Garnier, Dixon, Ame, Adriatique, Ian Pooley, Timo Maas, Trikk, Frankey & Sandrino, Sacha, The Drifter, Severino (Horse Meet Disco), Alex Dallas (Zukunft Zürich),
Yør Kultura, Lehar, Denis Horvat, BOG, Echonomist, Fred Everything, Luca Bachetti, Karotte, Roberto Rodriguez…

We're happy to announce the fourth chapter of our sought-after Outbound series which also marks Lossless' second release in 2020. After two extended chapters of Outbound, fully showcasing our labels artist roster, Outbound.4 is a crisp double A-Side affair - featuring two killer Techno workouts courtesy of our French stalwart Anthony George Patrice followed up by two Deep/Dub House delights delivered by Son Dos.

Without a doubt, Berlin based frenchman Anthony George Patrice steadily adjusted and developed his sound to a higher level over the last years. His contribution on Side A - "DBZU (Eine Brücke Zum Übermenschen)" and "Crowned Eagle" exposing new artistic shades and Anthony's ability to take you on a sonic journey and soak you into his rich and driving deeper Techno soundscapes.

Side AA belongs to Son Dos - a creative power plant by two Sweden born men: Barcelona based Marco Gegenheimer and Tapia J. Arriagada living in Malta. The duo already caused a stir with their debut "Children Of Almost" on Outcast Oddity. Marco also released some great music on Studio Barnhus as one half of MLiR!
On our Outbound.4 the guys showcase two amazing cuts originated from fruitful studio jams.

The beautiful "Cala" is hypnotizing us in deep, meditative balearic territories while her powerful brother "Maffio" might have had a little testosterone injection along the way and moves us straight onto the dancefloor. Both tunes are capable to unveil their power outdoors just as much as they will in a sweaty basement!

Son Dos quoting on Anthony George Patrice's tracks:
"These songs sound like a Movie score to us, a soundtrack taking you further and further into an unexplored forest: ...you are on a mission ... chugging drums, haunting strings and rolling percussion guide you... your heartbeat intensifies, with each step that you take...
all of a sudden, the floor underneath you turns into flowing geometrical patterns and you start falling...
a voice tells you "Happiness Is A Miisunderstanding", and the fear you had leaves your mind...you connect yourself with a higher power and realise why you started this mission in the first place"

Anthony George Patrice quoting on Son Dos tracks:
"Lovely balearic yet powerful atmosphere on "Cala"… Head flies and shoes get used. All that you wish for!" ...
"Hands in the air for "Maffio"! Here comes the peaktime booming system. Simple, efficient yet super interesting and deeply rooted dance floor killer. This is ace!

Italian producer Clap! Clap! returns to Bristol's Black Acre with his third album, ‘Liquid Portraits’. Born and bred in Florence, Cristiano
Crisci’s musical career extends back to the mid-90s where he started out as a rapper, before picking up a saxophone and exploring
both jazz and jazz/punk fusion with Trio Cane, and then returning to his electronic roots with A Smile For Timbuctu project - a
collaborative effort that released four albums and performed across Europe. By 2008, Crisci decided to strike it out on his own as Digi
G’Alessio, channeling the same hip-hop meets electronic music energies as those animating the nascent Los Angeles beat scene for a
string of EPs and albums. Soon Crisci hit upon a new formula when he started combining samples from the African continent with
energetic drum programming. The results led to the birth of Clap! Clap! in 2013, which has since been recognised and supported by the
likes of Paul Simon and Gilles Peterson. The stripped-back, high-energy yet inventive sound caught the attention of Black Acre with
whom Crisci has been working with ever since, including his first and second albums ‘Tayi Bebba’ and ‘A Thousand Skies’. Returning
to Black Acre, Clap! Clap!’s third album once again deploys his inimitable technique in fine style, however with new eyes as this new
project signifies a definite shift in his work having spent the last few years learning the art of mixing which has lead to some
breakthroughs: “In recent years I’ve spent a lot of time studying essential mixing techniques. I then built an acoustic-treated room and
set up my new studio. I started to convert digital into analogue and vice versa with good converters and achieved sounds that I’ve
never heard before from my speakers. This had a huge positive impact on my mixes and result on my music.” Entitled ‘Liquid Portraits’, the album - as the name suggests - is a collection of sonic paintings, an attempt at capturing furtive, subconscious memories through sound. The tracks reference trips Crisci took and people he met – from southern Italy to Hokkaido via the Kif Mountains of Morocco – as well as more abstract ideas of loss, calmness, and childhood. Having been approached by Paul Simon to work on his 2016 album ‘Stranger To Stranger’ after Simon discovered ‘Tayi Bebba’ through his son, Clap! Clap! is no stranger to collaborations and this album features a small cast of talents, such as south Italy percussionist Domenico Candellori (‘Southern Dub’), Belgian artist Martha Da’ro (‘Moving On’) and harpist Kety Fusco (‘Rising Fire’)

Tropical psych outfit, Lola’s Dice, return with an exhilarating double AA side 45 on “Cacri 'e Playa” b/w “Señor Cartujo” . Venezuelan strains of Caribbean rhythms blend with South American grit and humour; aided and abetted by studio maverick and renown bandleader Alex Figueira ( Fumaça Preta, Conjunto Papa Upa).

Lola’s Dice, an ensemble born and battle-tested by years of punk and hard rock before fusing into its current form, a consolidated tropical-psych quartet. The band’s evolution has resulted in music that is a pure body-moving delight — a fuzzy blend of guitars, synths and musical sabor that is very much rooted in the percussive sounds of Latin America, where all band members hail from, yet still comfortable in its punk-ethos.

One such fusion of sounds took place at the Barracão Sound studio in Amsterdam where they first asked rhythm sensei Alex Figueira (who currently joins them on stage whenever his agenda allows him) to help them twist their sound and bring it into the incendiary tropical realm his production work was known for.

Together they vandalized all sorts of rhythmic traditions. The resulting 4-track EP, “Viaje al Centro de Ritmo”, was a perfect match of genre-defying psychedelic madness and Caribbean cool and was duly signed and released by on-the-pulse NY based Names You Can Trust label.

After two years and a plethora of stages Lola’s Dice returned to Figueira's Barracão Sound for another dose of experimentation, diving deeper into their Caribbean roots and twisting them even further. The first fruits are now offered for release jointly by Names You Can Trust (later this year) and Figueira’s own Music With Soul.

The African Caribbean vibrations of “Cacri 'e Playa” tell a story of a stray dog whose sole habitat consists of the beach. A common phenomenon all across the Caribbean coastline shared by Venezuela and Colombia. Wonky synths and surf guitars interplay over a stomping extra syncopated drum beat. All things collide towards the end into a 1970’s style Salsa street party, the relentless cowbell driving everyone forward.

On the flip, “Señor Cartujo” contains a humorous tale about the most popular brand of anise liquor in Venezuela ("Cartujo") and a shameless ode to the glory days of "Techno Merengue", when Latino rappers in the US started making Dominican Merengue with hip hop influenced vocals and house production techniques and equipment. Lola’s Dice, however, take a more psychedelic approach to this merengue, oozing with funky guitars and percussion.

The latest project by belgo-moroccan producer Reda Senhaji, alias Cheb Runner, focuses on breeding a new style of music between electronics and Gnawa. Taking inspiration from New Beat to Techno, Acid House and Gabber, the grooves are relentless, stiff and club oriented, relying heavily on analog synths and drum-machines. The sound is darker, more experimental and mature than his previous Gan Gah project.

Cheb Runner digs into the acoustic sounds of his youth, for an organic feeling of warmth and celebration. The syncopation of the classic Gnawa percussions, the “Tagnawit”, its groove is undeniable. Featuring two traditional Gnawa singers based in Brussels, Mâalem Driss and Mâalem Hicham, the EP is a reunion for the belgian Gnawa scene, keeping the vibe alive.

In a world of dematerialized culture, we tend to forget where we come from : by putting Gnawa music at the center of his production, Cheb Runner creates a bridge with the past. The young producer is a son of Gnawa himself, this is the music he grew up with and played as a kid.
Now he brings it to the club scene; Cheb Runner’s first EP is experimental, brutal, innovative. Getting past definitions and genres, it opens new horizons for North-African producers, showing them how to use their roots to make new beats. It encourages both tradition and modernity in Music. In 2019, Gnawa music, dance and culture was added to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural
Heritage list, demonstrating both the relevance of the genre and the necessity to preserve it.
of the genre and the necessity to preserve it.

Cheb, the Arabic word for “young boy”, is traditionally used to describe the young generation of Raï singers – like Cheb Hasni, Cheb Mami or Cheb Khaled. It means the new generation is here, to create something new with something old. The reference to the Ridley Scott movie Blade Runner is just that: while the Cheb comes from the bled, a moroccan village in the Agadir region, the beats come from the club scene of an industrial city, like Berlin, Detroit or Molenbeek/Brussels.

Cheb Runner takes you on a trip through space and time, as well as to pass on ancient rhythms to inspire the next generations.

‘Reality Tunnels’ is a concept that was originally introduced by Robert Anton Wilson in his 1983 book ‘Prometheus Rising’. In essence, the concept of a reality tunnel relates to an idea on how we create our own perspective – the subjective filter that we each apply to the world around us; the things we perceive and what our consciousness deems worthy of attention, IE what we see and hear is entirely relative to what we do not.

At points angular and uncompromising with levels in the red, frequencies pushed out and EQ curves stretched into strange new shapes, Pinch mixes both low and hi fi on this boldly distinct sonic statement. It sees him flexing years of production skills – but unconventionally so – knowing well that safe predictability and rounded polish don’t get the most interesting results.
Dark trip hop Bristolia segues into blistering jungle on album opener ‘Entangled Particles’, before planet-hopping onto the spiky insidious grimestep of ‘All Man Got’, featuring the rugged rasp of OG warhorse Trim.
Beginning a triptych of future techno, ‘Accelerated Culture’ offers the album’s most relatively straightforward moment, albeit one of scorching, anthemic dancefloor heat. Delving deeper into the vortex is the synapse sparking wobbler ‘Returnity’, before ‘Finding Space’ reaches to the cosmos’ far-flung, glowing outlands.
Back to an urban reality is ‘Party’, where a subtly menacing sense of dread is ignited by Killa P’s incremental flow, which ramps-up and pairs-back the intensity in unexpected ways. Still moving freely between different realities, ‘Back To Beyond’ is beautiful gloaming ambience, executed with equal fine-tuned grace as the genre’s masters.


Jamaican vocalist Inezi lends sweet tones to the slow burning, roots-meets-modern-bass spiritual ‘Change Is A Must’, and on ‘Non-Terrestrial Forms’ an atmospheric, misty steppers intro segues stealthily into fiercely dystopian, amen-fuelled jungle tekno; marking one of several surprise attacks on the album, where a subtle-slight-of hand shoots the intensity level dynamically up.Closing as it begins, the album is bookended by a piece that recalls the dark, intricate soundscapes of Massive Attack’s ‘Mezzanine’ and Tricky’s ‘Maxinquaye’ – found here in ‘The Last One’s scorched, smoky rocker.

Hit the vinyl double pack for an exclusive and quite unique sounding 120bpm glitchy techno roller featuring man like Trim once again and live cello recordings.

‘Reality Tunnels’ is a concept that was originally introduced by Robert Anton Wilson in his 1983 book ‘Prometheus Rising’. In essence, the concept of a reality tunnel relates to an idea on how we create our own perspective – the subjective filter that we each apply to the world around us; the things we perceive and what our consciousness deems worthy of attention, IE what we see and hear is entirely relative to what we do not.

At points angular and uncompromising with levels in the red, frequencies pushed out and EQ curves stretched into strange new shapes, Pinch mixes both low and hi fi on this boldly distinct sonic statement. It sees him flexing years of production skills – but unconventionally so – knowing well that safe predictability and rounded polish don’t get the most interesting results.
Dark trip hop Bristolia segues into blistering jungle on album opener ‘Entangled Particles’, before planet-hopping onto the spiky insidious grimestep of ‘All Man Got’, featuring the rugged rasp of OG warhorse Trim.
Beginning a triptych of future techno, ‘Accelerated Culture’ offers the album’s most relatively straightforward moment, albeit one of scorching, anthemic dancefloor heat. Delving deeper into the vortex is the synapse sparking wobbler ‘Returnity’, before ‘Finding Space’ reaches to the cosmos’ far-flung, glowing outlands.
Back to an urban reality is ‘Party’, where a subtly menacing sense of dread is ignited by Killa P’s incremental flow, which ramps-up and pairs-back the intensity in unexpected ways. Still moving freely between different realities, ‘Back To Beyond’ is beautiful gloaming ambience, executed with equal fine-tuned grace as the genre’s masters.


Jamaican vocalist Inezi lends sweet tones to the slow burning, roots-meets-modern-bass spiritual ‘Change Is A Must’, and on ‘Non-Terrestrial Forms’ an atmospheric, misty steppers intro segues stealthily into fiercely dystopian, amen-fuelled jungle tekno; marking one of several surprise attacks on the album, where a subtle-slight-of hand shoots the intensity level dynamically up.Closing as it begins, the album is bookended by a piece that recalls the dark, intricate soundscapes of Massive Attack’s ‘Mezzanine’ and Tricky’s ‘Maxinquaye’ – found here in ‘The Last One’s scorched, smoky rocker.

Hit the vinyl double pack for an exclusive and quite unique sounding 120bpm glitchy techno roller featuring man like Trim once again and live cello recordings.

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since long, chilean/swiss producer and dj luciano is a prominent figure in the global electron-ic club music circle. already from a young age on he was exposed to music profoundly, as his father worked as a jukebox repairman and possessed a large record collection.

when he was twelve, his mother gifted him a guitar, that turned luciano shortly into a mem-ber of a school punk rock band. soon after, his passion for electronic music rose. infected by detroit techno and engaged by close friends like producer dandy jack, he started to play rec-ords in local santiago de chile dance clubs and became involved in the minimal techno scene around friends like ricardo villalobos.

when luciano moved back from chile to switzerland in 2000, he established a residency at weetamix club in geneva, started releasing his own productions on labels like mental groove and joining the cocoon team in ibiza to play at the famous monday night at club amnesia.

since then he is a regular on the balearic island, holding residencies at clubs like dc10 or, with his “vagabundos” serial, at ushuaïa. besides playing around the globe with the likes of carl craig, richie hawtin or loco dice, he is releasing groundbreaking minimal techno and house on his label cadenza since 2003, featuring music by artists like nsi, ricardo villalobos, pikaya, reboot, maayan nidam and himself.

his very own music, so far issued on three albums and countless eps, was always ambiguous. there is his club leaning creativity that can dance slightly into pop spheres while never for-getting the power of precise sliced rhythms and subtle bass sensations.

and then there is a calmer luciano, that displays his love for “music to listen at home, done for a spiritual travel, an inner universe and a moment paralyzed in ether”, as he describes it.

on his first ever mule musiq album release “luci neu house”, luciano now delivers meditative journey music full of repetitive patterns that slowly playing tricks on the listeners subcon-sciousness. “i love music that has a dimension more than music designed for the radio or tv format. mu-sic, that is designed to bring you a higher level of energy and creativity.

so, there is no pretentious things in it ... more just sounds and dimension that will lead your head into the fall of jupiter” he reveals about the one-hour long composition “luci neu house”, whose esoteric deepness reminds on the intensely meditative class of his older pro-ductions like “behind my soul” from 2010.

an epic tune cut on vinyl into four 15-minute long pieces, who shift slowly, almost unper-ceived, whilst absorbing the mind of close observers into a micro-sliced world of moving gen-tleness.

maelstrom magnetism against the gravity of time, that also can be found on the additional mule musiq 257 12inch, which functions as a soothing footnote to luciano’s album.

the almost 13 minutes long trip “flags of himalaya” opens with restful percussions that unhur-riedly start to dance with soft string, piano and horn melodies. on the opposite, the nine-minute long “the evasion of the spiritual soldier” grooves laidback with jazzy rhythms and italo leaning melodies.

a perfect tune for slow dance sensations and endless sunset seaside drives. at a total length of almost 90 minutes, all new mule musiq music composed by luciano distributes a mesmer-izing healing spirit, that grounds organically, even if it is totally rooted in the digital, soft-ware driven world of composing music. “check your buddha” tunes, that somehow sound novel during each new listening circle.

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It’s taken Yotam Avni a little while to get to his debut album; almost a decade, really, since his debut 12”, “That’s What The World Needs”, on California’s Seasons Limited imprint. During that time, the Tel-Aviv based producer has refined his productions, tightening the groove and paring everything back to bare essentials; the power in an Avni cut is its combination of piston-pulse propulsion and a deep, but gently applied, musicality. This combination gives his techno productions added heft on the dance floor, but also a lyrical sensibility that places him squarely in a tradition of techno legends who somehow manage to make the four-to-the-floor a space of poetic intensity, of rigorous joy.

Avni’s been on Kompakt’s radar for a while, first appearing on the label last year, with his Speicher contribution, “Mañana Mañana”. (“Track For Agoria”, from that EP, also appeared on Total 19.) The connection immediately made sense – dance music that managed to feel both lush and streamlined across the same great gasp of late-night energy. But with Yotam Avni Was Here, he’s taken a huge leap. After a brief intro, Avni sets his stall with “Beyond The Dance”, which features slow-moving vocal melisma over sculptural, melting tonalities, a tintinnabulating, harpsichord-like two-note phrase pacing out the track. Then “It Was What It Was” comes into view, its strip-light textures suddenly placed into sharp relief by a muted trumpet figure that hangs in the air, melancholy and pensive.

It’s no surprise, at this point, to discover that Avni’s inspirations for Was Here took in the histories of both techno and jazz. “I wanted to try something more around Detroit Techno meets ECM,” he reflects, when explaining the motivating forces behind the album. “Carl Craig’s Just Another Day EP and Kenny Larkin’s Keys, Strings, Tambourines came out during my high school years and had huge impact on me.” Avni’s also appeared on Transmat compilations, and remixed artists like the Midwest’s Titonton Duvanté, and Orlando Voorn – the latter particularly important for the way he connected the Detroit and Amsterdam techno scenes – his career path is marked by ongoing connections, direct and indirect, to Detroit’s storied history.

“I always wanted to go back to those hi-tek soul roots on a full album,” he continues, and he’s definitely exploring that terrain here, with the sky-strafing brass on “Free Darius Now”, morse-code keys on “Vortex” and glitchy, microhouse tickles of “Know Hope” all contributing to an oblique narrative that seems to arc across Was Here – one fleshed out by guest musicians, who include dop and Gerog Levin on vocals, and trumpets by Greg Paulus (of Beirut and No Regular Play). The cover art makes the jazz connection explicit, riffing on the text-based, minimal design of The Modern Jazz Quartet’s 1955 album for Prestige, Concorde. But the way Avni has gathered around him both inspiring musicians and intriguing reference points makes me think of his broader career as well, the collectivism behind his AVADON nights in Tel-Aviv, his many and wide-ranging releases on labels like Innervisions, Hotflush and Stroboscopic Artefacts, and the openness of his productions, which seem to be all about the multiple, the possibilities of cross-pollination, of fusing this with that, of adding and subtracting, all under the pulsating thumbprint of techno.

Good things, after all, are worth waiting for.

new quartet by Samuel Rohrer, Max Loderbauer, Stian Westerhus & Tobias Freund In the present era of media saturation, the artist's dilemma has shifted away from the question whether to fuse disparate stylistic elements, towards the decision of which energies to draw upon: a situation most rewarding for those who listen to musicians navigating this limitless terrain. One such journey, the captivating full-length release from Samuel Rohrer's new Kave quartet coming out this May, is bringing together players who are equally well-versed in the quick-thinking mechanics of free group improvisation and the compositional strategies of contemplative / ‘ambient’ electronic music. With Rohrer acting as creative director and most of the quartet sharing synthesizer duties, there’s a strong sense of unified purpose to this set, and a narrative flow that never causes the listener to focus on one constituent part at the expense of the whole. At the same time, the players know all well that cohesion counts for little without those constituent parts being compelling in their own right. Rohrer and Loderbauer, for example, have previously crafted a unique techno-organic approach with the Ambiq trio, and the lessons learned from that partnership are put to inspired use within this new configuration. Stian Westerhus’ contributions on guitar and vocals, along with Tobias Freund’s electronic reinforcements - Freund also has worked since many years with Max Loderbauer as NSI - all conspire to make something that Rohrer aptly compares as “forest”-like. It’s a descriptor that will have vastly different meanings for each listener. For Rohrer, it refers to music that is confident in the “deep-rootedness” of its foundations and defined by a density and mystery easily confused with darkness, while nevertheless proving its bright vitRight away, on the introductory odyssey 'Cambium' the quartet sets out to make good on this metaphor, creating a hypnotic foundation for what is about to unfold during the next 42 minutes, with brooding, slow, 'searchlight in a fog,' synth washes and percussive stridulation. The twin 'Hibernation' tracks show all the unique elements beginning to coalesce: the emotional tenor is one of vulnerability that melts into the determination of 'staring into the void', a temperamental state challenging to represent authentically in music. The atmosphere of psychic challenge effort lessly gives way to the faintly nostalgic glimmers of 'Giant Peach' - a literary reference to the macabre whimsy of Roald Dahl.
The ultimate dissolution of barriers between organicism and synthesis is accomplished on the majestic 'Divided We Fall', a title referring to Westerhus’ smoky vocalization that winds into a double helix formed from electronic surges.
Again, the ease with which it all comes together is mesmerizing, and while there’s an aura of risk accompanying this walk through the woods, there’s a much more enduring impression of carefully orchestrated growth and change.

It goes without saying that the global metal scene would not be the same without Sepultura. For 35 years now, the Brazilian icons are not only a band revered worldwide; they have been, are and forever will be at the very forefront of Thrash Metal, trailblazing ever since they released their long-since legendary debut album “Morbid Visions” in 1986.
While quickly establishing themselves as leaders of the second wave of Thrash already in the late eighties, to this day they never came even close to stagnation. “Quadra”, their mighty new undertaking, is proof of a will unbroken, a thirst unquenched and a quality so staggeringly high it’s a wonder this band doesn’t implode. Now three albums deep into what may very well be their strongest incarnation yet – uniting the talents of old-school members Andreas Kisser (guitars, vocals) and Paulo Xisto Pinto Jr. (bass), vocal force of nature Derrick Leon Green (vocals) and drummer Eloy Casagrande – Sepultura are an unleashed power to be reckoned with, uniting bucketloads of experience and youthful vigour in a totally revived way.
“On ‘Quadra’, we felt the urge to revisit that old thrash feeling of ‘Beneath the Remains’ or ‘Arise“,’ only seen through the eyes of today,” Andreas Kisser utters the magic words. “Add to that the tribal percussion, the orchestral elements, the choirs, the melodies and the clean vocals and you get a thorough run-through of our entire career, backed by a very contemporary approach.” Fuelled by an energy almost uncanny for a band that has been active for so long, Sepultura storm through a contemporary thrash monument, backed by sublime melodies, a very eerie atmosphere and a fiendishly high level of technicality. Kisser is appreciating these compliments, still maintaining his very down to earth approach. “We don’t heed the past and we don’t try to be preoccupied by the future too much,” he shrugs. “We’re in the now, trying every day to make Sepultura a little bit better. That’s what keeping us strong.”
And that’s what they have been doing for the last 30+ years. Album after album, tour after tour, no gap in between records longer than three years. “Music is all we do,” Kisser states matter-of-factly. “If it wouldn’t be for Sepultura,” he laughs, “I would be a sad and lonely guy. Sepultura is what we are.” And “Quadra” is living testimony to that. The old Sepultura echo through the very fibre of the songs in all its raw and morbid splendour, but yet it’s the present, the experienced and refined beast that is Sepultura in 2020 that’s blasting out thrash metal anthems for a fucked-up age.
With now 15 albums under their belts, Sepultura are the work horses of the metal world, always ready to attack. In many ways, “Quadra” broadens the vision the Brazilian thrash troopers had on “Machine Messiah” (2017), again relying on the impeccable talent of Swedish producing giant Jens Bogren and his Fascination Street Studios. “He is so full of passion, it’s unbelievable, man,” Kisser raves. “He’s really there, he really cares about the projects he’s doing. For Sepultura, he’s like the fifth member of the band. The chemistry was so amazing, 99 percent of what we were trying do to actually worked. That was insane!” Even after more than 30 years at the forefront of international thrash, guitarist Kisser sounds positively baffled by working with Bogren. “We felt like we were in our rehearsal room.”
Bringing together a monumental grandeur and a wild, untamed ferocity, Sepultura stepped up their game musically – and conceptually as well. “We were possessed by the number four, by the numerology of it”, Kisser starts to explain. “I divided the album into four parts as if we were doing a double vinyl. Side one is the pure and raw thrash side. Side two brings in the rhythms and percussion from our ‘Roots’ era. Three is getting a bit experimental and four brings forth the melodies and the acoustic guitars.” With John North’s book “Quadrivium” as a further source of inspiration, Sepultura dive deep into a mystical world full of hidden meanings. “You have four seasons and twelve month in a year just to pick one example. A lot of stuff in our culture is divided like that.”
Plus, Quadra also is the Portuguese word for ‘sport court’ that by definition is a limited area of land, with regulatory demarcations, where according to a set of rules the game takes place,” he adds. “We all come from different Quadras. The countries, all nations with their borders and traditions; culture, religions, laws, education and a set of rules where life takes place.” In the Quadra of thrash, however, we all are the same. And we bow our heads in unison to the mighty leader that is Sepultura.

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Having made initial waves on Cold Recordings and Osiris, Eric Baldwin returns now to Tectonic to release his eponymous album ’Cocktail Party Effect’, bringing his South London roots to Berlin for an all-weekender, under strobe lights.

Drawn by his appetite for powerful rhythmical forms and inspired by the likes of Daphne Oram, The Residents and Captain Beefheart - Eric takes uses background in sound design, knowledge of hacking VST software and adapted spring reverbs and other hardware, to create a truly unique vision of contemporary electronic music. It sits somewhere between Jeff Mills, Aphex Twin & Squarepusher - held together by a connective UK Bass Music spinal chord. A weird but intriguing beast.

We open the track with Japanese cocktail recipes, before moving into the only vocal track of the album, ‘Talking To Bricks’ featuring Bristol vocalist Redders on fine form - charged with disjointed energy and run ragged across a technologically charged dancehall style beat. The LP progresses through the rolling breaks and bleeps of ‘For The Memory Exchange’, into an IDM side-step in the shape of ‘Brutalism’, moving into the gentle, beautiful flickering glitches of ‘PDA’, before we get to the hyperactive twitching alien charge of ‘War On Codex’.

Taking a leap in another direction, we reach ‘Cause For Bad Shelving’, which sounds a bit like Squarepusher when he was on late 90s, immaculate form - taking the tempo up a few notches, while building melancholy. ‘Lack Of Wrong Format’ then gives us a moment to breathe, before diving into ‘Deerhorn’ which brings us right back to the dancefloor. Things are then turned inside out with the jittery wonder of ‘I Get It (Lost Banknote)’, redirected via the industrial clangs of ‘Low_Rise’, before rounding off our sonic adventure with the ponderous tones of ‘Loner’ - which leave you glowing and drifting off into space.

A bold album that’s just brim with a strong sense of originality, direction and grand narrative. From international dancefloors to post-clubbing ear-worms, Cocktail Party Effect is just getting started and you’ll be hearing his name more and more now.

New imprint Ernest’s Way delivers its first offering with a debut release from Australian based artist Featherstone! The A-Side of this four-track EP offers two highly effective dancefloor cuts that ride the line between many diverse influences of electronic music ranging from acidic electro to the early roots of techno.
The B-Side follows up with two deeper, heavily emotive tracks that drift into an uplifting, euphoric and dreamy atmosphere whilst remaining complimentary to the driving rhythms that open the EP.

Hendrik Weber aka Pantha Du Prince (‘a fantasy character...a poetic transporter for the concept behind the music’) has carved a niche for a style of techno he calls, ‘layered and cinematographic.’ He released the Diamond Daze (2004) and This Bliss (2007) albums on Berlin dance label Dial before signing to Rough Trade and widening his audience with Black Noise (2010) and The Element of Light (2013).

On “Conference of Trees”, Pantha Du Prince explores the communication of trees and creates a sound concept based on it. What we experience here is a break through recording of experimental music, visual poetry, club culture and speculative science.

Frustrated with UK club music's current fixation with tempo, London based artist Kouslin's '2020 Vision' EP delivers four cutting edge, high energy clubs tracks that hover around the 100bpm mark. Drawing on both dancehall influences and the productions of artists such as Harmonic 313 / Mark Pritchard and The Bug, Kouslin carves his own vision for a new decade in UK club music where fine tuned low frequencies and a slower pace can deliver maximum impact.

When he's not working at London's Phonica Records, Kouslin runs the Le Chatroom record label and has a regular slot on London's Balamii radio.

This 12” vinyl release comes with full colour artwork reverse board sleeve with artwork from Tess Redburn.

Livity Sound is a label set up by Peverelist in 2011 as a vehicle for a raw and exploratory strain of UK techno, rooted in the heritage of UK dance music and sound system culture. It has since become one of the UK's foremost protagonists for cutting edge underground music.

Substance, the second album by producer Moisture, sets out to deliver an immersive tech-noir fantasy of emotional and physical deconstruction. Inspired in part by William S. Burroughs 1959 novel Naked Lunch, the conceptual narrative of the album follows a humanoid subject through an urban landscape and the exploration of its depravations.

Sampling and filtering sounds from other music, movies and own field recordings, the tapestry of Substance is a three-dimensional world of hard industrial spaces and fluid organic matter. While it's conception is rooted equally in literature and film as well as music, one can draw comparisons in particular to Barry Adamsons 1989 album Moss Side Story, in that it also works as a chronological narrative; the tracks aligning to make a world of its own.

And while Adamson was aiming to create an imaginary soundscape of his native Manchester, the geography of Substance is based on the city of Malmö. Using field recordings from it's city streets, the album paints a rain soaked, neon-clad portrait of the city's hedonistic nightlife.

On the opening "The Marketplace" we are teleported to Bergsgatan at night (the track title a subtle nod towards Eden Ahbez 1960 song of the same name).

This introduction is similar in line with the experience Burroughs once had in 1957 upon entering Malmö for the first and only time, which he details briefly in Naked Lunch: "averted eyes and the cemetery in the middle of town (every town in Sweden seems to be built around a cemetery), and nothing to do in the afternoon (...)"

This image of Malmö portrayed with dread and loathing holds a longstanding narrative tradition over the cultural geography of the town. Yet it is often paired with an image of great promise and bohemian splendor, seemingly a paradox but often perversely intertwined. This duality has always been a vital mindset in the underground music scene of the town and its illegal after hours clubs. Substance is a work steeped in the grayscale prism of techno and its post-industrial fetischism. Yet in picking it apart, one can find elements of everything from post-punk, drum & bass, trip hop and new age.

The theme of depravation that soaks through Burroughs Naked Lunch seems oddly befitting to this side of Malmö (one wonders what the author would have made of it had he stayed longer) Through rhythmic excursions and the exploration of repetition, the tracks of Substance are arranged to convey this self-destructive longing for depravity. Michel Foucault's ideas on limit experiences serves as context for this peculiar form of endeavour, as he puts it: "the point of life which lies as close as possible to the impossibility of living, which lies at the limit or the extreme."

It is truly a family affair over at 7 Days Entertainment. Butterbandz, the youngest son of 7 Days Entertainment label head Big Strick, gives us his debut EP titled Legacy. This freshman EP of the youngest of the Strickland clan is nothing short of what you would expect from a family member deeply rooted in dance music from Detroit. The first song off of the EP is a vocal track from BBZ with help from the artist Marc, who is a rising vocal talent from Detroit associated with the 7 Days imprint. If You Don’t Dance is slated to be an anthem among the scene for years to come. It evokes you to get out there and move your body. It brings the energy from start to finish with excited high hats, a grumpy bass and an admirable synth pattern. Things slow down for a more relaxed groove on Free Roaming, a laid back chiller with a smooth synth and a mellow bass of pure delight. Its reverbed synths take you on a never-ending journey through your own mind. Hellraiser is a straight high-octane pure adrenaline rush. It has the soul of true Detroit techno. The unforgiving drum and percussion pattern shines brightly over an acid bass line and catchy synth keys. The last song on the debut EP, Monkey See, closes the project out with a bang. An offset drum knocks on top of an offset synth and warm pianos. The flute is complementary and the percussion ties it all together nicely. Butterbandz shows unparalleled promise for more top-notch projects in the future

The consistently innovative Catch Recordings is back with a new EP from Leipzig based producer U+00C5. As always with this label, the music is right from the cutting electronic edge and finds this stylish producer blur the boundaries between ambient, dub and techno in evocative new ways.

Cult favourite U+00C5 is focussed on new musical forms, on modern sounds and redefining the European techno sound. He consistently pushes forwards and is a master of the interplay between hypnotic repetition and otherworldly abstractionism, all while drawing on dark ambient and drone. Once again here the producer who also works as Åmethyst is in fine form across all five tracks.

Atmospheric opener 'Blutdruck' is a deep techno roller that fizzes with a sense of post-industrial dystopia. The shadowy grooves are eventually backlit by subtle chords that bring real warmth and soul. The excellent 'Empfinden' is more high tempo but just as cavernous and absorbing thanks to the rolling rubber drums, distant synth drones and sci-fi motifs that add the all important details which keep your head as engaged as your heel.

The beautiful 'Taumel' is another slice of hypnotic and tunnelling techno embellished with gorgeous ambiance from the outer edges of our galaxy. 'Nichts Ist Wahr' closes things out with suspensory pads giving you the feeling that you are floating in space before the firmly rooted drums rumble on and take you into the next dimension.

This is another fascinating EP of club ready but seriously heady sounds from Catch Recordings.

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.”

Clear Vinyl

Detroit Underground label head Kero returns to his sonic roots with the first of the Detroit Map Series originally featured on the limited DUTT-181 Series functional record player designed by Neubau Berlin. As a kick-start, Kero reveals Highways—a 5-track extended player of (abstract) electronics that is cleverly pulled together with a downbeat flow and tracks aptly sub-titled as major freeway arteries of the Motor City.


"Davison" commutes through glitch bits, bobbles, and broken beats flickering back and forth as it eventually opens midway through the traffic jam and hopscotched potholes with a synthesized melodic stream. Fisher displays its minimized techno flurry and rumbling low-end growl tempered by subtle blips'n bleeps and clinical precision. Southfield busts apart with modular maneuvering and heavy percussion showcasing an opportunity for Kero to cruise in the passing lane as the piece gradually mutates into a crunchy experimental electro epic. Lodge ebbs and flows with The Detroit Escalator Company-styled minimalism felt many miles away from its source. Chrysler expands and contracts with its 7-minute acid-electronic sprawl—here we see Kero carefully downshift to allow an ambient undercurrent to traverse a moonlit sky in the late night hours creating perhaps the finest soundtrack to (minimal) Detroit-inspired techno of yesteryear with a thumping heartbeat. ~PDS

3 tracks from the "Let it go " album from Michel de Hey. Soulful techno and house tracks influenced by Michel his 90"s musical Rotterdam roots.

UNCAGE label is back with a bang thanks to a various artists release featuring Stojche, Luca La Rocca, Eric Axelsson, Vincenzo Maurice and Module One.

Macedonian rebel Stojche is first up with his pummelling drum programming and sleek synths peeling off a high tempo groove.
It is dubbed out and propulsive techno of the highest order.
Luca La Rocca - Focus is darker and more stripped back, an eerie final cut that packs a real punch, then Eric Axelsson offers a deep atmosphere with icy electronics dancing above rooted kicks that get you in a trance.

After a twitchy acid banger from Vincenzo Maurice is a digital only cut from Module One that is cavernous, mysterious and hypnotic. This is another high impact techno Ep from the ever reliable 'UNCAGE'.

New year, new you, new crew! Another rising star from France, Marina Trench, joins the WOLF Music family, following up an inaugural EP on DJ Deep's highly acclaimed Deeply Rooted with this accomplished and diverse four tracker of house goodness.

Absorbed by house music from an early age Marina Trench is already proving herself to be a humble, yet highly talented, force to be reckoned with. Waterside EP is case in point. The title track is summertime ecstasy through and through. Undeniably catchy and packed with a club-ready punch, Trench sets off at pace, revolving the track around a pinging techy bassline as layers of percussion, echoing pads and delicate vocal refrains from Marina herself glide on through. Peak time, earworm business that bangs.

Get up, ‘Get In’. Moving through the downright ethereal to some tough, dancefloor darkness. Sweeping pads and glitching arps ease you in before the breakdown leads to an unleashing of brooding bass chords and reverberating top end counterparts that marry with a mean acid bassline. Tough, tactile and firmly focused on the club.

On the flip, ‘Train Call’ is a chopped jazzy deep house roller. Heavyweight piano stabs intertwine with deft twinkles as crisp hats dance around thumping kicks before ‘Straight’ eases you off into the depths of the night. A sumptuous little slice of deepness - meditative, trance-like calls from the ocean and pensive pianos provide a perfect soundtrack for the early hours.

British DJ and producer Inland (Ed Davenport) has compiled and mixed 'Stream State', his biggest project to date, bringing together over 20 artists in a DJ-ready compilation of colourful, diverse modern techno on his label Counterchange.

Complete with a 90 minute continuous mix by Inland himself, the project celebrates over 15 years behind the decks and cements Davenport's reputation not only as a tireless force in the studio, but as a trusted selector and curator of contemporary club music. Spanning deep idm-rooted studies, lush chord-driven euphoria, powerful modernist workouts and tough house-groove jackers, Davenport weaves an addictive mix full of character and his precision mixing style.

From veterans and heroes like DJ Skull, Efdemin, Joel Mull, Boddika, Peter Van Hoesen, and Mark Broom (alongside Discrete Circuit), to a new echelon of up-and-coming talent like Rhyw, Sophia Saze, Jamaica Suk, Johanna Knutsson, Aiken, DJ Sodeyama, Perm and Felix Fleer, there's an underlying thread of shimmering production values and close attention to detail in every track. Inland also selected debuts from Berlin based artists Fred Mann and Arbitrage, and welcomes back BNJMN, P. Lopez and Distant Echoes to the label, now in its 7th year of operation.

'Stream State' is Inland's celebration of the DJ mix / compilation format. Enamoured with UK dance music culture in the mid 90s, the burning, illicit energy of early rave mixtapes left a huge impression. Mystical bootlegs recorded at mass gatherings in fields or late night Radio One transmissions captured on cassette - their eternal spirit was absorbed and cherished. Now more than 2 decades later, Davenport has channeled that fascination into this weighty collector's item and a captivating continuous mix.

All 22 tracks included are new and original productions made by some of Inland's favourite artists and colleagues. A network and a community - complied and presented by an artist who continues to demonstrate his longevity and unique voice in the scene.