Cerca:into it over it

La Matta Records proudly presents the official reissue of the first 7-inch by Rita and the Danger, an Italian Disco-Funk masterpiece originally released in 1980 on the Flop Record label. This rare and sought-after track ( “Io e lui al lago Nassua” ) recorded in Bari, finally comes out after more than 40 years, carefully restored directly from its original tape on a 16-track Ampex MM 1100 machine, was a pioneer of the 1980s Italo-disco genre. It features melodic overtones that flow into synthesized sequences of early electronic pop. In 1980, the B-side track “Io e Lui al Lago Nassua”, arranged by Cavaros (Rosa Cavalieri), reached the top of the national charts, invading dancefloors and radio stations all over Italy. It also helped Rita and The Danger connect with an audience that extended well beyond their native Puglia region. The group’s youthful charm resonates loud and clear 40 years after its first release, and this sound, which was born in the analog age and is still relevant in the digital age, is now being brought back to life with a new and extended version of the original 7-inch 45 rpm single.

The vinyl edition of Klein's 2022 album: »STAR IN THE HOOD« plays like a cracked, tarnished mirror of contemporary numbing music, replacing long-form expression with tighter, more explosive and sometimes completely freeform transmissions that will wake you up from your overly comfortable environmental music slumber. Opening with cycling ghost drones, dialog and piano motifs that blur into heartfelt noise, »black star« is all loping, looping piano and chthonic vocals spiked with cheese-grater noise and chipmunked chirps. It’s Klein’s delirious vocal runs that push the album to the next level though; like her style-defining »Lagata« and the Hyperdub-released »Tommy,« she subverts the raw material that makes up R&B, turning memorable hooks into blurry impressions that will glue to your mind like a diva moment on a Suburban Bass cut.

She keels into longform on »schooled,« fogging organ drones into hazed clouds that gust into imposing shapes over a 10-minute duration, rekindling the dialog between contemporary noise and gospel music. Grandiose classical sounds receive a similar treatment on ‘Friend in the Mirror’, pulled into disorienting shapes that dispel any notions of class gatekeeping; in the final third, Klein’s voice interrupts the mood, before machine-gun percussion reminds us not to get too comfortable. If yr in search of beauty, »postcode wars« finds Klein fuzzing euphoric chords into an afterparty woosh of half-heard voices and dribbling synths. She simultaneously channels rapture and wrath, poignantly torching the contemporary societal skeleton without losing her near-at-hand community in the process.

Midway through the album there’s a thematic pivot signalled by the brief »shorty alert,« a trilling mass of carnivalesque vocal quirks that sound like spiders spitting DMT into yr eardrums. From here, things get darker and more unsettling: there’s doomed subterranean ambience on »signed and delivered«, Disney-esque piano motifs, blown-out lo-fi outsider rawk on »Swerve,« and speaker garbling free eccentric soul on »brand new day,« each struck through with that unmistakable high-vs-low culture posturing. It all brings us to the album’s unsettling one-two punch of ‘haha hehe business’, maybe the foamiest track we’ve heard from her this year, and the zonked »winter« - a piece that’s as crystal clear as Klein gets, an unprocessed heartstring-tugging vocal performance over acoustic guitar twangs.

EVOLV is a visionary window into the mind of Dubfire, the journey of the ‘hybrid’ being and its evolution. Last year in October, an 11-track debut album was released on his long-standing SCI+TEC imprint. And now, just over a year later, Grammy award winning producer Dubfire returns to that sonic discourse, drafting in an impressive array of names to re-interpret the material, and accompanied by Dubfire's new audio-visual EVOLV show which picked up where the critically acclaimed electronic performance experience HYBRID had left off.

The eclectic package will include such notables as Glaskin, Arjun Vagale, Nadia Struiwigh, Mathimidori (dub alias of Mathias Kaden), Maral, Decka, Carl Craig, Truncate, Drumcell, Chris Liebing, Radio Slave and Luke Slater who have all given the original music in their own unique style.

With a career spanning over 3 decades, Dubfire has achieved global success as an artist with relentless drive, talent, and intuition. Pioneering commercial notoriety came initially as one half of the Grammy Award-winning (2001) duo Deep Dish, before embarking on a truly groundbreaking solo career in 2007. A career filled with timeless tracks include his early works, ‘RibCage’ (2007), ‘Emissions' (2007), ‘Roadkill’ (2007) and the highly acclaimed ‘Grindhouse’ (2009) remix from Radio Slave which led to a host of other notable projects over the years.
Collaborative work highlights include projects with Miss Kitten, Luke Slater, Flug, and Oliver Huntemann, as well as co-producing two songs on Underworld’s Barking album. A true artist, he has always been heavily invested in exploring performance technology, unveiled to wide praise with his HYBRID live show. A two-year world tour commenced in 2015 and was followed by his retrospective album, A Decade Of Dubfire (2017), a celebration of his immense output during the first 10 years of solo artist stardom. EVOLV is Dubfire’s debut solo artist album.

Bob Balch from FU MANCHU here. The idea for the SLOWER project started around four years ago. I was teaching a student how to play "South Of Heaven" by SLAYER but she was a beginner so we slowed it down. I thought that sounded cool so I tuned down to B standard and tried it. I added some drums and thought "someone in the doom community should do this and name it SLOWER." A few years later I befriended Steven "Thee Slayer Hippy" Hanford, best known for his work as the drummer in the influential Oregon punk band Poison Idea. He was backstage at a FU MANCHU show. Oddly enough I was wearing a POISON IDEA shirt and he told me that my shirt sucks. I asked who he was and why he was in our backstage. He told me and I felt stupid. We started drinking whiskey and talking about music. We stayed in touch over the next year or so and during Covid I told him about my SLOWER idea. He asked me to send him tracks. I waited too long because the day I sent the tracks he passed away. Totally tragic. I'm glad I got to know him even for a few years. He was a monster musician with a giant heart. He will be greatly missed. I shelved the project for a while after that. One day Esben from MONOLORD posted about musical collaborations. I love MONOLORD so I thought what the hell. I sent him some tracks and he killed it on drums. So I sent more. Then more. Shortly after that we started reaching out other musicians to get them involved. That's how we ended up with this lineup. Everyone that contributed completely knocked it out of the park and I can't thank them enough. This project has been a long time coming and I'm beyond stoked on how it turned out. Without all of the players involved, Steven Hanford and my baritone Reverend guitar it wouldn't have happened. Thanks to everyone involved and I hope you dig it! I'm a giant SLAYER fan so it's been a treat to dig into these classic songs. Hopefully we can do another record in the near future. Look out for shows because they will happen! Esben Willems - When Bob first approached me with the idea and I heard his scratch guitars, my first thought was "This is genius". Those iconic tracks we all know by heart suddenly unveiled an unexpected dimension. I'm really proud of how this turned out. Peder Bergstrand - "This might be blasphemous considering the circumstances, but when Bob reached out and asked if I'd want to play bass on sludged-out Slayer covers, I had to admit some of these tracks were brand new to me. That made the experience even more special though, hearing and playing on the Slower version first, and then comparing to the original. Bob has really transformed these songs into something totally their own, and on a personal level I feel the rest of the band's insane performances pushed me to my most inspired playing to date. So incredibly stoked for people to hear this album."

Neon Green Vinyl, limited to 500 copies. Bob Balch from FU MANCHU here. The idea for the SLOWER project started around four years ago. I was teaching a student how to play "South Of Heaven" by SLAYER but she was a beginner so we slowed it down. I thought that sounded cool so I tuned down to B standard and tried it. I added some drums and thought "someone in the doom community should do this and name it SLOWER." A few years later I befriended Steven "Thee Slayer Hippy" Hanford, best known for his work as the drummer in the influential Oregon punk band Poison Idea. He was backstage at a FU MANCHU show. Oddly enough I was wearing a POISON IDEA shirt and he told me that my shirt sucks. I asked who he was and why he was in our backstage. He told me and I felt stupid. We started drinking whiskey and talking about music. We stayed in touch over the next year or so and during Covid I told him about my SLOWER idea. He asked me to send him tracks. I waited too long because the day I sent the tracks he passed away. Totally tragic. I'm glad I got to know him even for a few years. He was a monster musician with a giant heart. He will be greatly missed. I shelved the project for a while after that. One day Esben from MONOLORD posted about musical collaborations. I love MONOLORD so I thought what the hell. I sent him some tracks and he killed it on drums. So I sent more. Then more. Shortly after that we started reaching out other musicians to get them involved. That's how we ended up with this lineup. Everyone that contributed completely knocked it out of the park and I can't thank them enough. This project has been a long time coming and I'm beyond stoked on how it turned out. Without all of the players involved, Steven Hanford and my baritone Reverend guitar it wouldn't have happened. Thanks to everyone involved and I hope you dig it! I'm a giant SLAYER fan so it's been a treat to dig into these classic songs. Hopefully we can do another record in the near future. Look out for shows because they will happen! Esben Willems - When Bob first approached me with the idea and I heard his scratch guitars, my first thought was "This is genius". Those iconic tracks we all know by heart suddenly unveiled an unexpected dimension. I'm really proud of how this turned out. Peder Bergstrand - "This might be blasphemous considering the circumstances, but when Bob reached out and asked if I'd want to play bass on sludged-out Slayer covers, I had to admit some of these tracks were brand new to me. That made the experience even more special though, hearing and playing on the Slower version first, and then comparing to the original. Bob has really transformed these songs into something totally their own, and on a personal level I feel the rest of the band's insane performances pushed me to my most inspired playing to date. So incredibly stoked for people to hear this album."

A tape with the rather factual title “Rosa Beton – Demo 83” gained currency in 1983, albeit among an inner circle, or as it says in a lexical note on the band: Rosa Beton “achieved beyond-regional fame in and around Berlin”. Unlike some other bands that were merely rumoured to exist, this name was widely recognized in the East Berlin punk scene and the demo tape was received with some delight. It had been made in the suburb of Hönow, or more precisely in music enthusiast Thomas Wagner’s childhood bedroom. The band was less a classic combo than a short-lived pro- ject run, for a brief underground season, by 16-yearold Wagner and Ronald Mausolf, who was known as “Mausi” and had just come of age. An old clunker of a four-track machine served as an impor- tant nutritional supplement for the duo, allowing bass and vocals to be overdubbed separately. For a project without a professional background, especially for an illegal punk band in the East, this conventional procedure was clearly exceptional. Punk bands would usually record vocals and instruments simultaneously and on a cassette recorder. Recording gear was not readily available in the GDR, and it was disproportionately or prohibitively expensive. The adversities that had to be overcome in starting up a punk band were certainly challenging for teenagers. Rooms for rehearsals were few and far between despite wide- spread vacancies, and public space was taboo thanks to the state. Concerts, whether in flats and studios or under the protection of the Protestant church, remained rare events and, moreover, risky; starting with the party-loyal neighbour alerting the People’s Police as if there were a war on, to the ever-present “digging activity” of the Stasi. The only planned appearance by Rosa Beton never materi- alised. Whether it was the goddesses of fate who averted a show or the Stasi who prevented it can no longer be reconstructed. In any case, Rosa Beton never played live and thus joined a long list of GDR punk bands that, in the early 1980s, did not make it out of illegality into a public sphere, not even into a conspiratorial one. ausi compensated for the band’s lack of live performances by at least distributing a few copies of the demo tape. Among others, at the Kult, the Kulturpark Plänterwald, which provided an initiation field for the Berlin punk scene and a hotspot with a pull beyond it. The punks adapted the Kulturpark to their understanding of an amusement park.
They would thrash about to Schlager music and pogo to third-rate Ostrock bands, make fun of overwhelmed provincials, hang out and exchange half-baked ideas as superior knowledge. In between, the punks liked to ride the chain carousel, there was a certain liking for chains. The Kulturpark management made quite a fuss about the riot the punks put on. Initially they were banned from the chain carousel, then, when the punks switched to bumper cars, they were banned from the bumper cars, then from the roller coaster, and finally from the ghost

MRG223LP is black vinyl in a jacket + printed sleeve + printed insert for full album download. File Under: Alternative. In 2003, everything broke open for Ward with the release of Transfiguration of Vincent. Critically lauded and long beloved, Pitchfork hailed it as an album that “broadcasts timelessness and defies genre constraints,” and Slant placed it on their list of the best albums of the 2000s.

On Transfiguration of Vincent, Ward’s elegant fingerpicking, evocative croon, and heartrending lyricism came into full bloom, casting a spell so powerful that even a song as universal as David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” felt not only new but irrevocably his.

One of the most cherished albums in the Merge catalog, Transfiguration of Vin- cent is both a great place to begin your love affair with M. Ward and a deep, stunningly realized work that listeners have returned to over and over again for 20 years. Tracklisting: SIDE A. 1 Transfiguration No. 1 2. Vincent O’Brien 3. Sad, Sad Song 4. Undertaker 5. Duet for Guitars No. 3 6. Outta My Head 7. Involuntary. SIDE B. 8. Helicopter 9. Poor Boy, Minor Key 10. Fool Says 11. Get to the Table on Time 12. A Voice at the End of the Line 13. Dead Man 14. Let’s Dance 15. Transfiguration No. 2

Few bands have burst quite so brilliantly onto the scene as Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Fewer still can say their debut album defined a scene, a time, and marked a paradigm shift in the music industry. But the then five-piece, fronted by the enigmatic Alec Ounsworth, managed all this and more; no wonder their self-titled record is still considered one the finest, and most influential, indie releases of the 2000s.A heady blend of left-field pop and melodic, exuberant indie rock, the record repurposed a number of classic new wave references for a new generation of music fans. Fun-loving and quirky, the band achieved that rare alchemy - synthesising a dizzying array of styles and influences into something wholly their own. And that something was utterly glorious, full of buzzing synths, trebly guitars, bustling drums, and lilting, wailing vocals. The record's raw, ramshackle sound was an integral part of its appeal; time has merely magnified that charm. In `The Skin Of My Yellow Country Teeth' and `Upon This Tidal Wave Of Young Blood' Ounsworth wrote two of the most uplifting, celebratory tracks of this millennium, obvious highlights on an album of consistent excellence, and one rightly lauded for re-writing the rules of what indie bands could be.

What I can say about TORRES is I think the music comes from a convicted place. Not convicted meaning a person is narrowly and foolishly committed to an ideal, or unshakably convinced of themselves, or a zealot, or stubborn. I mean dedicated, I mean: If TORRES' music gets weird, gets brainy, gets funny, gets defiant, provokes, deliberately scandalizes, employs the crass to undermine the austere, courts lofty philosophical truth-it's all done with the conviction of an artist with the (essential) belief in the worth of their task. I think you can hear it in the songs, someone reaching, leaning over the boundary between known and not, probing the almighty. After a decade and six studio albums and however many one-offs and tours and articles read and conversations had, the parts of this pursuit I've been able to observe are all marked by a dedication to creation that treats the act-ongoing-with as much preciousness as the evidence of the act that is left in a record. The modes of being are different: heartbroken, broke, furious (right- and unrighteously), awestruck by love, compelled by desire. sometimes resigned to death, sometimes fascinated by and reverent of the future. Sometimes viscerally present, other times suspended in heady awareness, poised on a fulcrum of observation and participation in the phenomenon that aliveness is. The tools are the same: instruments that growl and shriek and moan, a lyrical voice shouting, swooning, chuckling, snarling as the moment commands. TORRES' music-making is conducted in a melodic vocabulary unique to itself-methods, equipment, circumstances shifting around the impulse to affirm the self within the world, to make art that bears all these little artifacts of the divine and of the real and show it to people and know it is valuable. I think that's what Mackenzie's music does. And I think it's just incredibly good music to listen to. -Julien Baker TORRES is the pseudonym of Mackenzie Scott. She was born January 23, 1991, and lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her wife Jenna, stepson Silas, and puppy Sylvia. She has been releasing albums and performing as TORRES since 2013. What an enormous room is TORRES' sixth studio album (her third with Merge). It was recorded in September and October 2022 at Stadium Heights Sound in Durham, North Carolina. It was engineered by Ryan Pickett, produced by Mackenzie Scott and Sarah Jaffe, mixed by TJ Allen in Bristol, UK, and mastered by Heba Kadry in NYC. The album contains 10 songs. Mackenzie wrote all of them. Sarah played bass guitar, synths, drums, organ, and piano. Mackenzie sang vocals, played guitar, bass, synths, organ, piano, and programmed drums. Additional synth bass, tambourine, and shakers were played by TJ Allen.

What I can say about TORRES is I think the music comes from a convicted place. Not convicted meaning a person is narrowly and foolishly committed to an ideal, or unshakably convinced of themselves, or a zealot, or stubborn. I mean dedicated, I mean: If TORRES' music gets weird, gets brainy, gets funny, gets defiant, provokes, deliberately scandalizes, employs the crass to undermine the austere, courts lofty philosophical truth-it's all done with the conviction of an artist with the (essential) belief in the worth of their task. I think you can hear it in the songs, someone reaching, leaning over the boundary between known and not, probing the almighty. After a decade and six studio albums and however many one-offs and tours and articles read and conversations had, the parts of this pursuit I've been able to observe are all marked by a dedication to creation that treats the act-ongoing-with as much preciousness as the evidence of the act that is left in a record. The modes of being are different: heartbroken, broke, furious (right- and unrighteously), awestruck by love, compelled by desire. sometimes resigned to death, sometimes fascinated by and reverent of the future. Sometimes viscerally present, other times suspended in heady awareness, poised on a fulcrum of observation and participation in the phenomenon that aliveness is. The tools are the same: instruments that growl and shriek and moan, a lyrical voice shouting, swooning, chuckling, snarling as the moment commands. TORRES' music-making is conducted in a melodic vocabulary unique to itself-methods, equipment, circumstances shifting around the impulse to affirm the self within the world, to make art that bears all these little artifacts of the divine and of the real and show it to people and know it is valuable. I think that's what Mackenzie's music does. And I think it's just incredibly good music to listen to. -Julien Baker TORRES is the pseudonym of Mackenzie Scott. She was born January 23, 1991, and lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her wife Jenna, stepson Silas, and puppy Sylvia. She has been releasing albums and performing as TORRES since 2013. What an enormous room is TORRES' sixth studio album (her third with Merge). It was recorded in September and October 2022 at Stadium Heights Sound in Durham, North Carolina. It was engineered by Ryan Pickett, produced by Mackenzie Scott and Sarah Jaffe, mixed by TJ Allen in Bristol, UK, and mastered by Heba Kadry in NYC. The album contains 10 songs. Mackenzie wrote all of them. Sarah played bass guitar, synths, drums, organ, and piano. Mackenzie sang vocals, played guitar, bass, synths, organ, piano, and programmed drums. Additional synth bass, tambourine, and shakers were played by TJ Allen.

Finnogun’s Wake is the delightful portmanteau of a band fronted by Shogun (vocalist of Royal Headache, and later Shogun and the Sheets) and newcomer Finn Berzin. Decades apart in age but united in tutelage and outlook, they have mitigated the Joycean tome of What To Do Now, and crafted the four debut songs of the Stay Young EP from the inside out, sharing the spotlight for a riveting, deafening smear of melodic pop and buzzsaw guitars.

Mourning the departure of his best mate to a life overseas, Shogun started hanging out with his friend’s younger brother, Finn. The two of them started spending their free time together, one having seen a fair chunk of the world through music, the other just starting to figure it all out. They went through the essential lessons that could be gleaned from Definitely Maybe and Hüsker Dü, Finn got himself a guitar, and the songs simply fell out of both of them, with this initial batch as the result. Shogun sings on “Blue Skies” and “Strawberry Avalanche,” and Finn takes the lead on “So Nice” and “Lovers All,” and while there’s no mistaking Shogun’s striking delivery and fatalistic lyrics, Finn proves himself as a carousing foil, holding his ground like the natural he’s become.

Taking into account the fevered, quick-burning success of Royal Headache, this group is the most likely candidate to do it all again, giving the sense that some people can write bounding guitar leads that stick to you like burrs from the brush, and sing so effortlessly you’re embarrassed and a little mad about how great it all sounds. Backed on these recordings by keyboardist Gabrielle De Giorgio (a longtime collaborator of Shogun’s from back in the Sheets era), bassist Campbell Troy (who was in Shogun’s first hardcore band Nintendo Police back in the mid ‘90s), and DMA’s drummer Liam Hoskins (on some COVID-enforced boredom with no tour-dom), Finn and Shogun stare down a changed world from two very distinct poles, and aim to fill it with glorious songs just like these.

Karl-Marx-Stadt (now Chemnitz) was one of the GDR’s subcultural hubs in the late 1970s and 80s. The industrial city in Saxony produced an impressively wide informal cultural programme beyond state structures. Bands such as Die Gehirne, Knut Baltz Formation, Die Arroganten Sorben, Kartoffelschälmaschine, AG Geige or the projects of cassette label klangFarBe created a complex artistic environment, in which Tropenkoller ran its spiritual exercises from 1986 to 1989. The “introverted experiment” remained distinct yet was exemplary of a KarlMarx-Stadt sound that considered dissonance a non-ideological form of harmonics. A first and only tape appeared in 1988. The extravagant packaging illustrated the edition’s exclusive nature; no more than twenty-five copies were released by Tropenkoller into the limited coterie of its open circle. tapetopia is a series of vinyl releases based on cassettes from East Germany’s 80s underground, particularly from the East Berlin "Mauerstadt" music scene, featuring original layouts and track lists. For over 30 years after their initial “release” the music on these tapes was neither available on vinyl nor CD, but they were important statements in the canon of the GDR subculture. Contrary to the small print runs of the time, many of the bands were considered cult in the underground,but suspect in the higher floors.

"Cross My Heart" is a tribute to the harmonica player and singer James Cotton, one of Boney Fields" heroes and companions on the road, is certainly the most representative track of this thrilling groove mood that authentic blues musicians know how to infuse. Boney Fields possesses that almost funk tone matured enough to tickle our ears and make us tap our feet. By revitalizing, for example, "The Thrill Is Gone" in the spirit of its original author (Roy Hawkins), Boney Fields perpetuates the tradition of spirited orchestras of yesteryears without compromising the modernity of its irresistible tempo. Much more personal than all his previous albums, "Just Give Me Some Mo" is also the expression of introspection, that of a man who remembers without drowning in dark nostalgia. He thinks of the courage of his mother bravely facing obstacles in an unequal America. "Back in the Day" is not a sad song. It makes one stronger and nurtures faith in the future. This melody is certainly the most touching of the six compositions written by Boney Fields. From "Control of you" to "Something" holding me" or "I know yes I Know" he invites us into his intimate biography, the story of a large family shaken by inevitable upheavals that must be faced, the destiny of a combative musician who resists adversity. Boney Fields chose to let his soul speak. This effort of truth had to be supported by the artistic direction of a master. By enlisting Sebastian Danchin for the production of this album, Boney Fields turns to a historian of African-American culture whose keen ear has already won over Little Milton, Mighty Mo Rodgers, Toni Green, and Jean-Jacques Milteau, among others... Their exchanges uncovered a perfect understanding of "Chicago Blues" the brassy vigor of which they experienced firsthand 40 years ago. Surrounding oneself with the right people is quite a challenge. Fortunately, Boney Fields knows how to spot true talents. He was convinced that the Senegalese guitarist Hervé Samb would also be a good musical director. Hadn"t he been the first to highlight the expressive power of this luminous composer and arranger? The enduring vitality of the blues, when narrated with precision and insight, always manages to find its legitimacy. The months of reflection, of questioning, will not have been in vain. They have given substance and depth to this thrilling record which, we wager, will be a milestone. Boney Fields has waited long enough. Does he want more? We will give him more! "Just Give Me Some Mo" will now be a shared leitmotif, that of an insatiable conductor and that of enlightened admirers.

Analogical Force is kicking off 2024 with a stellar "all things Electronix" album from well known producer Vertical67 (who also runs the Vortex Traks label)! It's hard not to have heard of Thomas Pahl in the electro underwater depths after multiple appearances over the course of more than a decade and under a ton of aliases. With the illuminating title of 'Changes', Thomas gets rid of corsets and presents an entrancing voyage into post-euphoria, displaying a radiant and emotive side which the artist's new discordant sound emerges. A defiant cry in the face of existential angst. Navigating between breaks, dreamy melodies and reflective landscapes 'Changes' could be defined as a deep introspective journey into the machines. Cop while u can.

Trystero comprises Scottish/Luxembourgish producer Thomas Lea Clarke (aka MR TC) and Low Bat, otherwise known as one half of the formidable duo Jean-Luc. Their debut album, Sfumare e Vedere, was conceived over three days aboard Urban Boat, a 1960s barge transformed into an arts and performance space. Moored along the river just outside of Paris, the duo embarked on a joint residency, discovering their complementary creative energies and a mutual passion for all things strange and psychedelic.

As frontman, Low Bat is a fire-powered poet, his unparalleled stage presence resonating through Trystero's music. The French native and fluent German speaker has a natural flair for languages. For this project, he sings in a combination of Italian and English about love, loss, and class struggle, constructing surreal wordplay about pelicans and puttanesca. Meanwhile, Clarke's drone-lead electronic accompaniment takes its cues from sizzling acid, 1990s snap rhythms, post-punk, krautrock and shoegaze. Firmly rooted in these tripped-out genres, Trystero journeys to entirely new cosmic dimensions.

The concept of naught (Ø) has challenged Salvatore Mercatante throughout his musical career, specifically, trying to understand how the idea of ‘nothing’ fits into the realm of sound, and at the same time, exist in a world of influence at every turn. In the absence of everything, are we able to create something truly free?
As a lifelong New York-based musician, Mercatante’s influences and productions run a wide spectrum. Just as happy producing 80s-inspired horror soundtracks as he is refining acute drum patterns over and over again, Salvatore is the first to ask himself, where next? When a musician’s output can be influenced today by so much, and there is no self-defined or perceived artistic goal in mind, how do you start from a place of nothingness, again and again?
This approach has born many minimal and experimental albums of note in the past, but with Ø, Salvatore ended up with an almost controlled maximalist approach. Beginning with open spaces and allowing sonic textures to live and evolve past where you may expect, Ø allows the space between notes to become equally as important as the notes themselves. Walls of noise, soaring soundtracks, dense techno, glittering IDM, and minimal glitch, sit side-by-side to present an all-encompassing palette of sonic possibility.
Often, even without any intent, what can be born from nothing will somehow transpire back into something more recognizable. It’s human nature after all. A subtle fingerprint, as a sequence, melody, pattern, or drum kick. Whether Salvatore intended for this record to represent his defining sound or not, only time will tell.
Mastered by Giuseppe Tillieci @Enisslab, Rome, Italy.
Artwork by Brandon Locher
Written and produced by Salvatore Mercatante

Featuring four of Peaceville’s current death metal artists, ‘Peace Till Death’ presents eight tracks of brutality from Autopsy, Cancer, Morta Skuld and Static Abyss.

With Autopsy’s latest masterwork ‘Ashes, Organs, Blood & Crypts’ just released to rave reviews, the legendary lords of gore supply two alternate versions of album tracks prepared especially for this limited release. This is followed by original UK greats Cancer presenting a brand new and exclusive track in the form of ‘Enter the Gates’, a malicious dose of old school metal in Cancer’s distinguishable fashion, leading on to a brand new 2023 “re-dip” cover version of the classic ‘Into the Acid’ from the band’s debut, ‘To the Gory End’.

Next up is long-standing US death masters Morta Skuld, presenting a new track taster in demo form from their upcoming album due for release March 2024 plus, highlighting 30 years since the release of debut ‘Dying Remains’, this release also includes a new rendition of the title track itself. Rounding out the release is Static Abyss, the recently formed act from Greg Wilkinson and Chris Reifert of Autopsy, with two exclusive alternate versions of tracks from their recently released second opus of eerie & monumental death, ‘Aborted from Reality’.

This CD edition of ‘Peace Till Death’ also includes a bonus disc featuring an expansive look at Peaceville’s close association with the genre spanning over three decades, including early masters of the scene such as Paradise Lost, Autopsy, Cancer and Darkthrone, through other influential acts such as At the Gates, Vital Remains plus more progressive death from Opeth and Barren Earth, as well as a whole selection of masters of darkness such as Bloodbath, Behemoth and Napalm Death. Artwork appears courtesy of Mark Riddick, and includes a 20 page booklet.

Sasu Ripatti's complete "Dancefloor Classics" series. Music for imaginary dancefloors, released on Ripatti's own label Rajaton.

”Look up, into the light” she said, while the camera shutter clicked. ”Like this? Does it look holy?” His neck felt stiff. Her reply: ”Yes, just like that. What do you mean holy? Like religious? ”No, more like trying to look very far, somewhere beyond what we can see.” ”Okay, stand still, I’m going to come close to you now. The light hits your face great.” click, click, click.
He noticed her fingernails. They were not polished. Natural. Even somewhat rugged, as if something wore out the fingers slightly. What had these hands held besides the camera? What made the edges of her fingernails drift off?
He thought it’s weird to look straight into the camera. The photographer had closed her left eye, the one not looking into the lens. Then it opened, she looked up, perusing the surroundings, then she closed her eye again, then looked up, closed, looking up, very quickly. It all seemed very professional. Maybe she calculated the light, making sure it’s close to perfect. ”What will these photos look like?” – the thought popped into his head briefly. It was liberating to think it wouldn’t matter.
”What’s that song playing?” he asked. ”Wait a sec, Ol’ Dirty Bastard?” she replied. ”Oh yeah, right. But the sample?” ”Hey, could you look up again, like that. No, lower.”
New directions: ”Look out from the window, turn left.” ”My left or yours?” ”Yours, I always try to think from the direction of my model.” How professional! This is a good shoot, so natural. Should I worry about how the photos look like? No, I don’t want to. His thoughts bounced around. What would the story be like? It’s a big newspaper, everyone will read it. Maybe someone drinks coffee and eats a stroopwafel while they do it. Will they place the waffle on top of the mug for a brief while, so that it gets hot and the syrup melts a little? Then it feels wet, and you can bend the cookie.
She broke his train of thought off midway through: ”Now turn right, but look left, and slightly up, but don’t turn your face right.” ”Umm, like this? Sounds like a set of pilates instructions.” she laughed ”You do pilates?” ”Yeah, it’s hard sometimes. Have you tried?” ”No”, she said. ”I’m not good for sports that are done in groups.” ”Yeah, but in pilates you can just be inside your mind, drowning in your private thoughts.”
”What are you thinking in pilates?” she asked, taking more photos. ”Well, mostly just which way is right. And which left.” click, click.

Q&A with Sasu Ripatti:

1) Tell us something about the EP series ”Dancefloor Classics”, what’s the idea and what can we expect?

I’ve been slowly writing these sort of dance music pieces and finally curated them together for a conceptual release. I like to create music for a dancefloor that exists only in my imagination and doesn’t try to suck up to the standardized reality.

2) Your vinyl format is 10” which is quite special (as opposed to LP / 12”). Why did you choose it?

It’s my favourite format, absolutely. The size is perfect, and you can make it sound really good @ 45 rpm. And you still can make great artwork.

3) You seem interested in sampling/repurposing, what does it mean to you as an artist to approach something already existing from a new angle? How does the source material inform you about the approach to take?

I guess i could flip it around and just say I’ve outgrown synths or electronic sounds to a great extend, and having gotten rid off all my synths already good while ago I’ve used samples as my main source material a lot. It’s obvious on this series that i’ve sampled existing music, but I also sample instruments and things in the studio and resample my own library that I have built over the years, it’s quite large. To me the end result matters, not so much how I get there. Once I have something on my keyboard and play around, it’s all an instrument, though with sampling other music it becomes a really interesting and complex one as you’re possibly playing rhythm, but also harmonic content and maybe hooks or whatever, all at once.
I never sample premeditadedly, like listening to records and looking for that mindblowing 3 sec part. I just throw the cards in the air and see what lands where, just full intuition and hopefully zero mind involved, playing tons of stuff, trying things, just recording hours of stuff. Then comes the interesting part to listen to hours of mostly crazy stuff and finding that mindblowing 3 sec part.

4) What is your relationship with the dancefloor (conceptually and/or in experiences / as a performer)?

Very complicated. I have never really felt comfortable on a dancefloor but have always wanted to. There’s something in club music, in theory, that really speaks to me. It has never really materialized for me – speaking mainly from a performer’s point of view who goes to check on a dancefloor for a moment after a concert. I never have DJ’d or felt much interest towards it. But again, I love the idea and concept of DJing. As well as producing music for imaginary DJs. Lately, as in the past 10+ years, I haven’t even performed in any sort of club spaces. So my relationship to the dancefloor is quite removed and reduced, but there’s quite a bit of passion and interest left.

All tracks composed and produced by Sasu Ripatti.
Artwork & photography by Marc Hohmann.
Mastering by Stephan Mathieu for Schwebung Mastering.
Vinyl cut by SST Brueggemann.
Publishing by WARP Music Ltd.

Soliton maximizes the compact format by further illuminating lesser-traveled paths. Contemplation and exploration weave harmoniously through five mysterious tracks. Influenced by a wide range of styles and sounds, such as Japanese ambient, the muted dissonance of Pharoah Sanders, and the chilly dub of the Scape catalog, Soliton evokes visions of lonely night drives punctuated by bright moments of bliss. The Calque EP from January 2023 saw them pursuing the minimal electronic side of their work even further. The opening track, "Kottbusser Tor,” showcases a conspicuous absence of the processed guitars that characterize most of their work, and instead explores sequenced filters, tape delays and analog synth patterns for eight minutes. On "Ammosel", they dive directly into dubby soundscapes, with crackling electronics and deep basslines, while "Kiyosumi" and "Fade Into Air" pay a visit to more familiar ambient territory. A darker undercurrent pervades on this EP, but one that goes particularly well with the coldest of seasons and its frosty air. The duo, consisting of Jason Kolb (Michigan, US) and Jonas Munk (Denmark) started working together in 2006, sending each other tracks across the Atlantic, eventually resulting in a full-length release on Felte in 2012. What started out as a side project to their respective main projects (Auburn Lull and Manual) have slowly become the main activity for both artists, now with a total of four full-lengths under their belt. Their music has also evolved and matured over the years, reaching a level of perfection that’s only granted producers who've been in the game for decades. Billow Observatory have by now established themselves as purveyors of highly refined ambient music and the Soliton EP sees them elegantly blend new and old, electronic and organic, into a gently drifting, enveloping whole. “.. mind drenching sunrises, glittering constellations, and sailing clouds, richly furnishing the familiar sense of hovering over vast natural orders that you're also inside. – Pitchfork // “So the world it inhabits is essentially that one between states, simulating a quietly vibrant ecology of sub-aquatic bass rumbles, washed out expanses of mid-range swirl and keening top end whose elusive colours seem to fade and coruscate in the low light. Lovely

Into the void hits from second one. Strong beats lead the way into this dreamlike soundscape, where metallic drum elements and effortless reverb tails take us on a journey. We get lost in a slow build and an unassuming bass-line drives us home, until the track collapses just to hit twice as hard coming back in. Dreamy vocals float over dirty synth lines, melodies that feel familiar guide the way to continuous build ups, where we can’t help but move our bodies to the gritty, thumping bass-line pushing us forward relentlessly.

Tempest is all about the beat. Simple, yet endearing, it reels us in and guides us on an endless rise where fragile synth swells and powerful percussion elements tease our ears. High-pitched glimmers dance across the soundscape with ease. A track that rises again and again, yet never quite implodes in-between. Instead it builds, in the most natural way, skilfully and exquisitely, whilst sirens add a well-rounded urgency, that’s hard to resist.