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When Upset The Rhythm released Normil Hawaiians’ lost album ‘Return Of The Ranters’ back in 2015, the band members got back in touch with each other after a 30 year break and starting playing music together again. Out of this the group played a launch show for the album and followed that up with more concerts, including an appearance at Supernormal, a residency at the Edinburgh Festival, gigs at Cafe OTO and supporting Richard Dawson in London too. They even recently toured Greece in support of having all three of their renowned exploratory post-punk albums finally back in print.

Throughout this time, Normil Hawaiians revisited their original songs for these live performances. However for a group always so interested in evolving their sound and seeking nuance, it comes as no surprise that they shirked the idea of a faithful retread of old material in favour of reimagining their songs. The group experimented by pushing their songs into new inventive dimensions, still progressive at heart, but now imbued with a cosmic uncanny. A cinematic, even pastoral approach that was always quietly present has come to the fore. The quaint weirdness of folk song, the humanity of communal practice and the group’s ecological mindedness have all found a place in Normil Hawaiians’ current sound world. With this conducive atmosphere brewing, the band’s first new songs in decades started to emerge.
Being far-flung across the UK, the Family Hawaii encamped to Tayinloan, a small village on the west coast of the Kintyre peninsula in Scotland with the intention of recording new music. They set up their own studio in an isolated, windswept house overlooking the sea and started the tape rolling. Noel Blanden from the band explains how the spirit of the location was such an inspiration to the group during this initial recording session: “Our time immersed in the place and the unique energy it generated in us allowed us to write ‘In The Stone’. It goes right back to our first album, this need to document experience before it passes over and eludes us. We were grabbing at the musical ether and letting it shape itself through the band.” From loose, improvised sessions and reflective periods of listening in Tayinloan, Normil Hawaiians captured the moment. ‘In The Stone’ is a motorik thrill of distorted guitars, locked rhythms and morphic resonance. Guy Smith is joined by Zinta Egle on vocals, skilfully sharing lyrics informed by Alan Garner and Nigel Kneale’s ideas around recurring events being linked to place and historical artefact;  a kind of residual haunting known as ‘Stone Tape’ theory. In keeping with the context of the song, sounds from several previous live recordings of the track were woven into its present being. Flipside ‘Where is Living?’ is a decidedly more delicate affair of questioning lyrics and eerie traces, droning strings and impressions smudged. This resultant 7” is a tantalising glimpse of Normil Hawaiians now, an echo from the past, an echo from the future.

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.

DJ Lily returns to LILIES this August with the label's sixth release, featuring a collaboration with label partner Sailor Juul and remixes from Inhalt der Nacht and The Mountain Range.

DJ Lily launched the LILIES imprint in 2018 as a Techno focused sub-label of his BROR imprint and has since gone on to release five 12" releases of material from himself, Svagila, Sandra Mosh and Jor-El. Here the label continues with more material from Lily and introduces the debut collaborative material with Sailor Juul, who has now joined ship to run both Bror and Lilies alongside DJ Lily, the fellow Swedish artist features on the lead track here while more productions from the pair will follow soon on the label later this year.

"Bequem ft. Sailor Juul" leads, a high-octane 140BPM cut driven by menacing bass pulsations, dynamic drums, tension building resonance and murky vocal chants. Lebendig label boss and Monnom Black artist Inhalt der Nacht delivers his twist on "Bequem ft. Sailor Juul" next, bringing crunchy percussion, distorted synth sequences and airy pads into focus for a typically upfront workout from the Berlin-based artist.

DJ Lily's solo track "Safeword Tegnell" opens the flip side, fusing bubbling percussion, bumpy drums and 8-bit synth chimes throughout. Christoffer Berg returns under his The Mountain Range (Aniara Recordings) guise next to complete the package, the artist who is part of Robyn's band and was the synth programmer for Depeche Mode on the album Delta machine amongst other things delivers a truly unique take on "Safeword Tegnell", amusingly described by a friend as "Scooter meets Dopplereffekt at Tresor". Berg twists the original elements with psychedelic sound design, ever unfolding drum patterns and a mind-altering feel across its six-minute duration.

These two pivotal figures, who have stood at the forefront of drum & bass for over two decades, have now teamed up with an array of globally respected producers including Calibre, Roni Size, Nu:Tone, S.P.Y, DJ Zinc, Chimpo and DJ Marky, to create an uncharted 16-track LP. Following on from the success of the pair's first single 'Fix It All (feat. London Elektricity)', sit back and get ready to embark on the lyrical journey of a lifetime.

DRS first came across Dynamite during his time in Roni Size's Bristol collective Reprazent, the winners of the 1997 Mercury Prize 'Album Of The Year', now showing full circle movements in 2020. 'Playing In The Dark' pays respect to this collaboration and the combination of styles which is signalled so clearly throughout DRS and Dynamite's sound. As Dynamite explains that "the producers brought their pallets" for himself and DRS "to paint on", the duo were able to convey their message, history and wisdom in one of the most boundary pushing
projects that drum & bass has seen.

Duñe and Crayon have been working together for a few years now. Crayon, discovered by Kitsuné is a close relative of FKJ and Kartell. Duñe, on the other hand, has evolved with the duo Saje.

It was within the Roche Musique family that they met and naturally started working on a joint-EP in 2016, soberly entitled Duñe x Crayon. Both self-taught producers, Crayon and Duñe, former inhabitants of Parisian suburbs located at opposite positions, yet quickly found each other.

For their first album, they lock themselves in their studio day and night, until they choke. It would take them several years - interspersed with a few solo projects - for the two artists to give birth to Hundred Fifty Roses. An album through which they expose themselves, both in production and in writing but also in interpretation. On rhythms sometimes inspired by Anglo-Saxon sensuality, but with a production that is indie enough to infuse more warmth. A groove with a soft pop feel to which Thomas Clairice, former bass player of HER, also contributes. To accompany Duñe, bright voices were invited on six of the album's thirteen tracks : We hear French singer and rapper Ichon‘s velvet voice (whom Crayon also produces) on "Pointless"; Gracy Hopkins brings his soul on "Your fruit". Ph Trigano - another artist who produces Ichon - participates in "PS" along with Swing.
Lossapardo - with whom Crayon had already recorded on his solo projects - close the album with "Slowdiving". On the English side, we discover Jadu Heart, a duet signed on Anchor Point, Mura Masa's label, giving the replica on "Invisible". More than perfection, Hundred Fifty Roses resolutely seeks emotion. The album is the musical result of an open discussion in an intimate context, halfway between the live experience and the digital exercise.

Antonin Appaix's project draws its inspiration from the depths of the waves, under the Latin sun. Passionate about fishing and diving, cradled in the Mediterranean culture, the aquatic universe has always been an integral part of his life. It was by chance in a Marseille cove that Antonin Appaix and Cracki Records met for the first time.

At the cinema university and then at the Beaux-Arts in Lyon, Cergy and Mexico City, Antonin tried out the caps of photographers, video artists, tried poetry, played rock and thought he was a mechanic. Already grew in him the nostalgia for the first baths, first kisses, the city and adolescence.

Graduated in 2016, he converted his plastic and literary research into a minimalist and romantic pop universe. For his first EP "Aquaplaning", composed between Paris and Marseille, he invites us to join him underwater, where he feels best.

Invoking Souchon as well as Retro X, Lucio Battisti or Brigitte Fontaine

2020 Re-issue of Keith Kenniff's debut album under his Helios moniker. Originally only released on CD in 2004 via Miami based Merck Records, this album of hazy ambient electronica is now presented as a vinyl edition for the first time.

AllMusic Review by Joshua Glazer:

"Those who mistake ambient music for an endless tapestry of unwavering atmosphere, pleasant yet indistinguishable, should be handed as an argument to the contrary this album by a recent signee to Merck's rapidly expanding roster. Through 13 tracks of inarguably pretty music, Keith Kenniff displays the musical equivalent of a genius screen actor, able to send a million moods and messages with the most subtle of facial gestures. The opening pair of songs, "Velius" and "Cullin Hill," point to a blissful treat which sits on just the right side of new age symmetry (particularly given the former's live glistening piano treatment). But only eight beats into "Nine Black Alps," the sensation is irreversibly altered by a single, mournful bass note which rumbles like Hades against the bucolic tone that lead up to it. Unshackled, Kenniff continues to roam, drifting into circular beats on "Two Mark" before wandering off into weightless asphyxiation on "Samsara." He even allows for the organic sound of faint acoustic guitar and piano to join his endless travels, giving a moment of real world clarity at the eye of this hallucinogenic work. Few could get away with a singular ghostly voice transmission without implying a stretch for ideas, but by the time he reaches the song, "Suns That Circling Go," Kenniff is so recognized as an explorer that you cannot be surprised by where he may arrive next."

Legendary labels Decca Records and Blue Note have joined forces for Blue Note Re:imagined; a brand new collection of classic Blue Note tracks brought together for the first time, reworked and newly recorded by a selection of the jazz scene’s most exciting young talents today. Representing a bridge between the ground-breaking label’s past and future, the project will feature contributions from a rollcall of internationally acclaimed jazz, soul and R&B acts-Shabaka Hutchings, Ezra Collective, Nubya Garcia, Mr Jukes, Steam Down, Skinny Pelembe, Emma-Jean Thackray, Poppy Ajudha, Jordan Rakei, Fieh, Ishmael Ensemble, Blue Lab Beats, Melt Yourself Down, Yazmin Lacey, Alfa Mist, and Brit Award-winning Jorja Smith.

This is the next 7’’ singles installments with Steam Down’s version of Wayne Shorter’s Etcetera (ft. Afronaut Zu) and Yazmin Lacey’s version of Dodo Greene’s - I’ll Never Stop Loving You.

Sublime, unique, sexy and peculiar unreleased scores by electronic and jazz pioneer Ron Geesin, made for the sublime, unique, sexy and peculiar films by maverick director Stephen Dwoskin. There. we’ve said it. And if you have not heard of one or either of these two dudes it doesn’t really matter. Geesin made great music and worked with Pink Floyd. Dwoskin made odd films, most of them are in the BFI permanent collection. They are great and a bit strange.
These superb unreleased soundtracks come from a fascinating, progressive and important period in British film history. They represent an intriguing collaboration between the lively Ron Geesin from Scotland and the American Stephen Dwoskin, who both met in London.
Musically they are minimal, charismatic and quite groundbreaking. Here is the story…
HISTORY:
Steve Dwoskin arrived in London in 1964, aged 25, with several 16mm films in his trunk, shot in the cold-water flats of Greenwich Village. He had been on the fringe of the Factory scene, and some of his films starred Beverly Grant, ‘the queen of the underground’. But they had scarcely been seen, and they didn’t have soundtracks. For almost a year they stayed in the trunk, and stayed silent. Then he met Ron Geesin, somewhere around Portobello Road.
‘Slept last night, completely dressed after working over 12 hours on sound tracks at Ron’s,’ wrote Dwoskin in his diary for 29 July 1965. ‘My films are not anywhere near being anything. I need more energy, more concise and positive ideas and less inhibition. And of course space, money and people.’ Dwoskin, who taught and practised graphic design by day, had recently decided to stay in London beyond the term of the Fulbright scholarship that had brought him there.
Ron, living with Frankie in a basement flat in Elgin Crescent – they would marry the next year, with Dwoskin as best man – was about to leave the Original Downtown Syncopators, the trad jazz band he had joined aged seventeen-and-a-half, and was trying to go solo. On stage he would make vigorous use of piano and banjo; at home Frankie had bought him a new kind of instrument – a tape recorder. ‘Soon I had one tape recorder, two tape recorders, three tape recorders.’

Ron, wrote Dwoskin in his unpublished autobiography, ‘loved to record, and to cut and splice the quarter-inch recording tape to make new sounds. This triggered in me the idea of getting back to my films and finishing them’. Soon he was living in a dank basement in Denbigh Road, a few minutes’ walk from Elgin Crescent. Ron’s soundtracks for Dwoskin’ films, recorded in the Geesins’ flat, encompassed Ron’s very eclectic range of styles – madcap piano and fretted banjo as well as tape manipulation.
Aside from Ron’s soundtracks, some of which belong to films that no longer exist (including Pot Boiler), Frankie would act in one of the films that Dwoskin either lost or never finished during these years. He was disabled, having contracted polio as a child, and Ron and Frankie were both carers and collaborators; Ron had met him when he was struggling into his car.
There was no London equivalent to the underground film scene that Dwoskin had known in New York, and his films remained unseen until such a scene began to come into being, in the autumn of 1966. Some of them made their debut at the Mercury Theatre, near Notting Hill Gate, that September. Dwoskin wrote that Alone, starring Zelda Nelson (from Ron Rice’s Chumlum), and Chinese Checkers, with Beverly Grant and Dwoskin’s friend Joan Adler, went over best.
Soon both Dwoskin and Geesin became involved in the nascent London Film-Makers’ Co-op, which put on screenings in Better Books on Charing Cross Road – ‘if you can call them screenings,’ Ron recalls; ‘I’d call it fifteen blokes in various stages of disarray, peering through the smoke’. One or more of the films had been ‘striped’ with magnetic audiotape; with others ‘we had no means of direct syncing to the picture, so he started the film and I started the tape recorder’.
In the same autumn, Dwoskin moved into a flat almost opposite the Geesins on Elgin Crescent. More collaborations followed, including Naissant, on which Gavin Bryars, whom Geesin had met during a stint on the northern club circuit with novelty act Dr Crock and His Crackpots, played double bass.
Around the end of 1967 Geesin released his first solo LP, A Raise of Eyebrows, and Dwoskin won recognition the Fourth Experimental Film Competition, aka EXPRMNTL 4, an occasional film festival staged at Knokke-le-Zoute in Belgium. By now the films had optical soundtracks.
It was only after this that Dwoskin completed his first ‘British’ films, including Me Myself and I, with Barbara Gladstone, an American dancer who had appeared in Barbara Rubin’s Christmas on Earth, and with whom Dwoskin and Geesin had at one point devised a stage show, never produced. For Moment, a single-shot film, Geesin provided his most experimental score yet. At the time of its debut in 1970, Dwoskin and the Geesins were sharing a house in Ladbroke Grove.
By then, Ron was working with Pink Floyd, and soon afterwards he and Frankie moved out to the country, to be replaced by Bryars both in the house and as Dwoskin’s principal collaborator.
Until now these scores have remained part of the Geesin Archive and have never been issued.

Chilean prog band Embrujo began as El Embrujo Ques Besa or Kissing Spell, formed by the guitarist, singer and drummer Carlos Fernandez with chief songwriter Juan Carlos “Tato” Gomez on bass and vocals and Ernesto “Kiko” Murillo on lead guitar, with organist/ flautist Ernesto Aracena and pianist/flautist Guillermo Olivares joining later. Signing to Camilo Fernandez’s Arena Producciones in 1970, debut LP 'Los Pajaros' was issued under the Kissing Spell moniker, but Chile’s unstable political climate, subject to CIA meddling, saw them renamed Embrujo for their coveted second album, the self-titled disc mixing subtle Latin elements within their beautifully-delivered songs of quietly contemplative psychedelic rock.

A must-have for all South American psych fans out there, limited to 500 copies only.

Denise Rabe has quickly attracted attention with her distinctive approach to techno: powerful percussive force, detailed sound design, and slowly modulating compositions crafted to induce dancefloor hypnosis. Following acclaimed releases on Arts Collective, Stroboscopic Artefacts, and her own Rabe label, Denise joins Blacklabel Distillery with a new 12” that digs deep into the hypnotic dimensions of her sound. “Brilliance” is a shimmering monolith, serpentine sounds woven through head-nodding beats. “Outta Body” delivers on its promise of transcendence with slowly evolving drones unfolding over a driving rhythm. Perc brings things back down to earth with a relentless remix that conjures images of malfunctioning, mutating machinery, while Sverca freezes “Brilliance” into suspended animation, captivating with just a few layers of sound. The digital tracks highlight Rabe’s exceptional compositional skills, exploring subtly shifting alien soundscapes on “Spacetrouble” and mesmerizing with the massive cosmic sounds of “Fully In”. Track list 12″ A – Outa Body AA – Brilliance B – Outa Body (Perc remix) BB – Brilliance (Svreca remix)

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. "

Berlin based producer and sound designer BLUSH_RESPONSE presents VOID IN, his first full length for MEGASTRUCTURE_.

VOID IN features 10 tracks of meticulously crafted sound sculpture that transmit the listener into a deep atmospheric liquid metal world. Blush’s signature synthetics create an ever changing sound palette that ebbs and flows through the album. Generative granular textures meld with echoing voices and rolling, distorted beats to create realities that contract and expand like gravitons spiraling through a black hole.

This album is a showcase of Blush’s prowess as a producer and sound designer, and presents yet another chapter in the ever evolving world of BLUSH_RESPONSE. Having contributed recent design work to companies such as Arturia and Elektron, Blush follows through on his commitment to personal timbral evolution. Join in once again for his annual report from the sonic dimension.

It takes one to know one. Which is why jazz drummers have always
been ready to join the queue when assessing Art Blakey's influence,
not only in the field of percussion but in the shaping of his chosen
genre. Max Roach described him as "An original - the only drummer
whose time I recognise immediately. When I first met him on 52nd
Street in 1944, he already had the polyrhythmic thing down. He was
doing it before anybody else." Thelonious Monk Jr concurred: "When
I became a drummer, I learned how to swing from Art Blakey. What
he did with the hi-hat and his roll got pressed into my soul. He had a
primal approach to drums." All of which warmed the ears of Blakey,
who admitted that his aim was to be one of the greatest drummers in
the world- an ambition which he undoubtedly achieved

Re-release of the record originally released on 2016-02-05!

Remastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M Berlin and presented in an exact replica sleeve of the original 1966 release by Stephen O'Malley.

sales information: Black Truffle is honoured to present the first vinyl reissue of the classic debut album from AMM, AMMMusic. Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of its recording in 1966, this reissue makes one of the cornerstones of the experimental music tradition available again in its original form, replete with Keith Rowe's beautiful pop art cover and the terse aphorisms by the group that served as its original liner notes. A testament to the interaction between the experimental avant-garde and the countercultural underground, the album was originally released on Elektra, recorded by Jac Holzman (the label's founder, responsible for signing The Doors, Love, and The Stooges) and produced by DNA, a group that included Pink Floyd's first manager Peter Jenner. (Pink Floyd paid tribute to AMM's influence on their improvisational sensibility with the track 'Flaming' on their debut album, named after the piece that occupies AMMMusic's first side, 'Later During a Flaming Riviera Sunset').

Formed in 1965 by three players from the emerging British jazz avant-garde - Keith Rowe and Lou Gare had played with the great progressive big band leader Mike Westbrook and Eddie Prévost played in a post-bop group with Gare - AMM quickly evolved from a free jazz group into something decidedly more difficult to categorise. By the time these recordings were made, two more members had joined the group: another Westbrook associate, Lawrence Sheaf, and the radical composer Cornelius Cardew. Then at work on his masterpiece of graphic notation Treatise, Cardew brought with him extensive experience of the post-serialist and Cageian currents in contemporary composition. Using a combination of conventional instruments and unconventional methods of sound production (most famously Keith Rowe's prepared tabletop guitar, but also prepared piano and transistor radio), the group performed improvised pieces often running for over two hours and ranging from extended periods of silence to terrifying cacophonies.

Evan Parker famously described the improvisational logic of AMM's music as 'laminal', in contrast to the 'atomistic' approach more common among the generation of British improvisers (Bailey, Rutherford, Stevens and co.) to which he himself belonged. AMM improvised in layers: layers of sound subtly rising and falling or abruptly starting and stopping without being propelled by the implied pulse of free jazz improvisation. Rather than a pulse, AMM's music began with the sound of the room in which it was played, the Cageian anarchy of silence. By embracing the non-synchronous simultaneity of layered sound, AMM was able to create a musical container into which nearly anything could be incorporated at any moment: on AMMMusic, long tones sit next to abrasive thuds, the howl of uncontrolled feedback accompanies Cardew's purposeful piano chords, radios beam in snatches of orchestral music (and, on the LP's second side, an extended fragment of 'Mockingbird').

AMM's clearest break with jazz-based improvisation concerned the idea of individuality. Where improvised music has tended to foster the development of idiosyncratic stylists who move freely from one group to another, AMM, initially through an engagement with eastern philosophy and mysticism and later though a politicized communitarianism, sought to develop a collective sonic identity in which individual contributions could barely be discerned. In the performances captured on AMMMusic

the use of numerous auxiliary instruments and devices, including radios played by three members of the group, contribute to the sensation that the music is composed as a single monolithic object with multiple facets, rather than as an interaction between five distinct voices.

- Francis Plagne

Purple Vinyl

Opening with "Absolut Bond (Sascha Müller My Name Is Acid Mix)" the pairs first collaboration effort weighs in a deep, hypnotic take on spiralling Acid music for strobe-lit underground raves whereas their second conjunctional joint "What I Mean (Great Evening Mix)" brings forth a darker, more pumping and minimalist approach whilst employing a creepy little motif that gets under your skin like the main theme from your favorite horror flic. On the flip we see Sascha Müller going on a double solo tip with "Work My 303", another masterly crafted Acid piece harking back to the finest twisted clubbing moments of the 90s, before the final cut "Generator Man" explores grinding, distorted Broken Techno / Wonky Techno realms, sucking each and every listener into a cold dystopian, post-apocalyptic future within seconds. Get this.

Finally being back on his Exhibition imprint, Rico Puestel - without any detours - delivers some intensively uplifting moods within two melodic exhibits that have been circulating here and there over two years now. After ongoing requests about those tracks, these two ultimately join forces and go public on a hand-painted flip design, making this record a wholesome experience again.

Side A discovers the emotional magnitude, circulating and growing around the beauty of redundancy throughout a deeply immersive flute loop, nestled into a bouncing, analogue, almost archaic drum computer setting. Slowly building up over the course of half the track, Exhibit 3.1 emerges into a sphere of multi-layered synth harmonies and an oldschool bass arpeggio.

On the flipside, things suddenly become clear that Side A has just been the build-up to something even larger and stronger: A mechanical marrow-and-bone drum groove (one might not hear everyday) stomps away to spread the bed for one of Rico's possibly most captivating and flourishing synth melodies, spreading some blurry mysteries and clear sun-drenched bliss at the same time.

A vast scenery, unfurling in front of your ears and eyes, almost like smelling blossoms and fresh air

Widely and rightly regarded as one of the best ever soul and funk bands, the now legendary Average White Band tore-up the rule book and conquered the US, UK & International charts with a series of soul and disco hits between 1974 and 1980. AWB’s repertoire has been a source of inspiration and influence for many R&B acts and they are one of the most sampled bands in history, remaining relevant today, continuing to reach new generations of younger audiences. Snoop Dogg, Fatboy Slim, Ice Cube, Puff Daddy, TLC, Rick Ross, will.i.am and Mark Ronson amongst countless others, have all borrowed sections of their grooves. ‘Benny And Us’ is the 6th album by AWB, who were joined by Soul/R&B legend, Ben E. King and originally
released in 1977. The album reached #33 in the USA. ‘Benny And Us’ includes the singles ‘Get It Up For Love’ (later covered by Tata Vega), ‘The Message’, a new version of ‘Keepin’ It To Myself’ and the classic ‘A Star In The Ghetto’. It was produced by Atlantic’s legendary producer, Arif Mardin and Jerry Greenberg

Newcomer Hekla releases her uniquely beautiful debut album for solo theremin and voice Á through Phantom Limb Records - run and curated by former FatCat Records, Thrill Jockey and Royal Albert Hall execs James Vella, Ken Li and Mark Pearse.

A Berlin-residing Icelander, Hekla's sparse, delicate, fractal music exists within these two worlds: dark and magical as Iceland's permanight folklore; and (though beatless) as deeply sonic and intense as Berlin's electronic scene. A long-term scholar of solo theremin, Hekla (shortened from her own name Hekla Magnúsdóttir) uses her instrument as an otherworldly and highly evocative Siren-call. A spectral, wailing, howling, lamenting yearning second-voice that underpins a soft vocal delivery, as if her studio had been haunted with a chorus of ghostly backing singers.

While a handful of reference points share a similar ground to Á - Colleen's interplay of voice and instrumentation; the richly immersive filmscore work of sadly passed fellow Icelander Jóhann Jóhannsson's; 'grandmother of theremin' Clara Rockmore's close relationship with such a singular instrument; Julia Holter's intelligent and classically-aligned songwriting - Hekla's music still exists singularly. A one-off talent, emerging from no particular scene, ascribing to no particular rules.

As a creative tool, the theremin - bizarre, unique, rarely heard - can be expressive, intuitive and highly adaptable. In Hekla's hands, her instrument covers an enormous range, from skittering birdsong of high frequency chirrups and chirps, to grinding, tectonic sub-bass. We are given the throbbing, apocalyptic dread of 'Muddle' and the baroque beauty of traditional Icelandic hymn 'Heyr Himna Smiur' in sequential tracks on the album's a-side. Appropriately, she also writes that the album title - Á - is similarly multifaceted in her native Icelandic: 'a river is an á and also it means ouch like when you hurt yourself, and also when you put something on top of something you put it á (on) something.'

The album was written and self-recorded by Hekla in her home studio in Berlin around her son's daycare schedule. Icelandic super-musician Mr Silla (a part-time múm member) guests on a number of tracks. Tallinn-based engineer Jose Diogo Neves - a stalwart of Icelandic and Portuguese music - mixed and mastered Á.

James Vella formed Phantom Limb in June 2017 after eight years in A&R for FatCat Records. Mark Pearse (formerly head of contemporary music programming at the Royal Albert Hall) and Ken Li (formerly of Thrill Jockey, now of Nettwerk) joined the team shortly after.

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.

Like many electronic artists, Ryan Lee West aka Rival Consoles spent his early years experimenting with IDM, glitch and dance, but one consistent element in his musical journey has been his desire to create a more organic, humanised sound. Through these experimentations he has found a process of producing electronic music that feels close to this urge. Restricting himself to a small selection of analogue equipment, West engages his hands directly with instruments and is very selective about what he then records into the computer. He reduces musical parts even further, leaving enough space around the sound for it to breath.

‘Odyssey’ is a reflection of West’s quest to create atmosphere and space from minimal arrangements. ‘I don’t like music to sound overly laboured, so I restrict how much is going on. I’m kind of obsessed with the idea of reduction.’ The new 5-track EP was mastered by Naweed and will be released worldwide on October 21 in the form of a 12" Vinyl and Download via Erased Tapes.

‘Odyssey’ and ‘Voyager’ are both incredibly stripped down and have a great sense of space throughout them. It's all about using the right ingredients at the right points in time. A lot of these ingredients are short recordings, such as ice cracking, mechanical clicks, clicks from synth errors, sounds of debris, guitar plucks etc., which interact with the simple arrangements and create little hints of rhythm. I also love the technique of swelling in music, but I realised that hardly anyone has done that in electronic music. So when I first got the synth to swell in and out with the opening chords of ‘Philip’, it was a great moment. Because it creates a human mood in a matter of seconds, which is very difficult to do with electronic sounds. That track is very important to me, and I think it will influence how I make music in the future.’ – Ryan Lee West

West will perform alongside his contemporary composer mates Ólafur Arnalds and Nils Frahm for a special electronic Erased Tapes night as part of London’s The Hydra series on October 18. The same day will also see a special in-store event at Phonica Records, where West will showcase the ‘Odyssey’ EP amongst other tracks on his beloved analogue gear, joined by South London artist Supermundane creating a live art piece in the shop window.

Ragoo Records celebrates its debut on wax with an highquality record, “Break It Down”. The release features an
original cut from Astratto & Brine plus three stunning
remixes from the best young talents in the Italian house
scene. Recorded and fully composed on the first day they
met in the studio, the Original Mix is a dusty deep house
jam perfect for the club or for chillin’ wherever you want
to. For Astratto, Ragoo Records co-founder, this
represents his first official vinyl release. Brine has
delivered hot tracks through the infamous Irma and has
recently appeared on Boogie Cafè Records and Trend
Records. On the A2 Sam Ruffillo offers an impressive
remix that merges the Original to the land of jazzy vibes
with some smooth Rhodes and an extra groovy bassline.
Over the last years Sam Ruffillo has been releasing great
EPs via Irma Records and the Bristol-based Boogie Cafè.
DJ Rou’s remix occupies the flip side with a real classic
deep house joint full of warm pads and rolling drums. Chief of L'Archivio record store in Bologna, charismatic DJ and
outstanding producer, DJ Rou has released his music
through labels such as Bosconi Records, Cognitiva, Red
Rooster and Daphian Prod. The B2 remix is produced by
D’Arabia, Red Rooster founder and House of Disco
affiliated artist, who accomplishes an hot groove
explosion, with a special Jamiroquain feeling, perfect for
burnin’ the dancefloor. This EP is intended to be a
snapshot of Bologna’s house music scene. All artists
featured on it are based in the city and contribute to its
musical landscape.

Saturday Night is the debut LP by old friends and collaborators Alex Twomey, Matthew Sullivan, and Sean McCann. Recorded over numerous evenings at the artists’ homes, and completed just before the birth of Matthew’s daughter, Flora. The album became an excuse to spend time with one another as well as perform. As the trio ordered take-out, drank scotch, smoked on patios, laughing off the weight of reality–they stumbled into moments of musical focus.

This album has a prism of fidelities. High and low resolutions press together as the environment blows through the instruments. The woozy, side-long titular track of hesitant cello and pianos opens the record. Quiet music with blemishes and inebriated pauses, breathing an alleviated air. Phrases with failing propellers, teetering between melodic and apathetic. The true speed of their Saturday nights.

Side two opens with “London On My Mind.” Reflecting the other pole, manic cassette treatments duel over Twomey’s placid keyboard, ultimately breaking into a little joke on the piano. “Collection” features guitar by Sullivan, remembered for his thick fog of work under the alias Earn. With Sullivan’s return to the instrument, he is joined by Twomey on upright piano and McCann processing the room in real-time. The brief final work, “Bird,” recalls the style of the group's private press cassettes, The Bird and Charlotte’s Office: poorly-played pleasant-hearted music.

Each edition of the record includes a 20-page photo booklet of stills documenting the recording process.

R.A. The Rugged Man and Atmosphere are two of the most important names in underground hip-hop history. Among the original architects of the independent hip-hop revolution, both of these iconic artists have defied the odds to thrive for decades in the ever-changing rap landscape.

Now, R.A. The Rugged Man and Slug of Atmosphere are joining forces for the first time ever to bring some much-needed joy to listeners during these trying times. Featuring a hook by famed singer Eamon, the historic collaboration "Golden Oldies" is a feel-good trip down memory lane taken from R.A. The Rugged Man's new album All My Heroes Are Dead".

This Ltd. Edition 7" Single gives fans the opportunity to experience the nostalgic anthem in all it's old-school glory.

Two guitar legends - Eric Clapton and B.B. King - first performed together in NYC in 1967. Over 30 years later, in 1999, the two longtime friends joined forces to create a collection of all new studio recordings of blues classics and contemporary songs. The resulting album Riding with the King would be released in June 2000 and go onto sell over 4 million copies globally and win a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of this classic album, two additional previously unreleased tracks have been added: The blues standard “Rollin’ and Tumblin’” and a cover of Willie Dixon’s “Let Me Love You Baby.” Both tracks were recorded during the original sessions and were produced and mixed especially for this release by Simon Climie, who produced the original album with Clapton. The original tapes have been remastered by Bob Ludwig for release on 26th June via Rhino Records.

The 14-track collection will be available on 180-gram black double vinyl package and was mastered (vinyl) by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering in Los Angeles.

The album features four B.B. King originals, plus a selection of covers from writers as diverse as Isaac Hayes & David Porter (“Hold On I’m Coming”), Johnny Mercer & Harold Arlen (“Come Rain Or Come Shine”) and William Broonzy & Charles Seger (“Key To The Highway”). John Hiatt wrote the album’s title track.

Michal Jablonski strikes back on Binary Cells. Almost two years have passed since his last appearance and his banging remix of Casual Treatment's - 99 Reasons. This time the Warsaw based producer is back with his unique touch and we gladly present "Higgs", a flawless stomper 12".

A1 "Rain" is the intro track with a cinematic movie thriller approach driving us in a cold an uncertain atmosphere leading to "Higgs", a post-apocalyptic atmosphere gem combining mesmerizing and mechanic cuts clearly designed for dancefloors. The third gem of this side is "Fragile", an obscure story full of dark energies and shrill noises, transporting the audience into an obscure journey.

VSK and Kwartz decided to join their forces, showing their finest cuts on the B-side "Higgs" has been totally reinterpreted by VSK in a UK approach making it a stomping and flammable gem. Kwartz also added his vision to "Fragile", transforming it in a pure dark ritual.

Josh Wink joins Ellum Audio for a stellar new single backed with a remix from DJ Seinfeld.

Josh Wink needs little introduction to fans, or even occasional listeners to dance music. The American DJ and producer has been one of the most enduring figures in the scene with a catalogue of music on labels like R&S, Strictly Rhythm, Nervous, Pokerflat, MNus and of course his own long standing Ovum Recordings imprint. As a DJ, he has travelled the globe since the mid-nineties, headlining festivals and clubs wherever he goes. What he has never done in his almost 30-year career is ever lose touch with the roots of underground dance music, something he demonstrates once again here with a standout new single for Maceo Plex’s label.

As Josh says, “Eric and I have known each other since the 90’s, when I would come to Dj in Houston Texas, and now so many years later, I’m excited to have my music released on his mighty Ellum imprint, including a great remix from Dj Sienfield”.

‘Feel’ is classic Josh Wink, near eight minutes of spacey, hypnotic dancefloor wonderment fuelled by syncopated percussion and arpeggiated bass which builds the tension before a spacious drop and meditative, spoken word vocal take the reins. Timeless and heartfelt this is a gem from the Philadelphia legend.

Remix duties fall to Sweden’s DJ Seinfeld, the lo-fi house pioneer and Young Ethics label boss who chops things up with a warped bassline, wonky FX and dancing synth lines to bring a brilliant alternative to the table.

Last summer Liam Gallagher joined the list of all-time greats (Paul McCartney, Page and Plant, Nirvana and many more) who have filmed a prestigious MTV Unplugged session. Having missed Oasis’s 1996 session through illness, the show at Hull’s City Hall found Liam fulfilling some unfinished business entirely on his own terms.

Now Liam is set to release the ‘MTV Unplugged’ live album of the show on April 24th.

The show’s electrifying atmosphere is palpable from the very beginning with a phenomenal reaction as Liam takes to the stage with ‘Wall of Glass’. Material from Liam’s solo career such as his personal favourite ‘Once’ and the joyous ‘Now That I’ve Found You’ resonates in this stripped-back format, with his vocal shining alongside a trio of backing singers and string arrangements performed by the 24-piece Urban Soul Orchestra.

Oasis guitarist Bonehead features on performances of ‘Some Might Say’, ‘Stand By Me’, ‘Cast No Shadow’ and Liam’s first ever live vocal performance of the ‘Definitely Maybe’ bonus track ‘Sad Song’. The show concludes on a crowd-pleasing high with an emotive take on the classic ‘Champagne Supernova’.

Liam launches the ‘MTV Unplugged’ album by sharing the new version of ‘Gone’, which was one of the strongest performances of the night. Stripped of the force of the studio recording, ‘Gone’ instead reveals new-found bombastic dynamics and an evocative cinematic atmosphere.

Long-time collaborators, longer-time best friends, lifelong analog appreciators; the German duo Iron Curtis & Johannes Albert join cosmic forces once again for another LP mission 'Moon II', a heartfelt voyage through the sounds, movements, styles and machines that created this music in the first place.
Think late 80s New York, early 90s Sheffield and the perennial sounds of Italo and Detroit, 'Moon II' is a lunar safari that celebrates the deepest foundations of house, techno and electronic soul while resolutely refusing to get nostalgic. Written and recorded during an intense two-and-a-half month session in Berlin last autumn, there's a consistency and tangible narrative running throughout as the pair play inspiration ping-pong over the course of 10 tracks.
A little Drexcyian glacial nod here, a hazy Boards Of Canada wink there. The Other People Place, Kerrier District, Environ Records, the Hacienda, Sub Club, Heaven 17, classic electro… All these ingredients are constantly bubbling in the mix for both Curtis and Albert (as individuals and even more so as a duo) and the end result is an album that works as a proper album should. Peaks, troughs, dreamy departures and all beautiful things in between.
Taking off where their debut collaborative album 'Industrie & Zärtlichkeit' (soon to be retitled 'Moon I') left us three years ago, the opening modem sounds on the intro track 'Canggu Laundry Club' dial us into a special sense of time and space.
It's a space where anything feels possible; Visual-inspired acid lines on 'Tiger Trek', lino-spinning body pops and windmills to the street sounds electro style of 'The Ultimate Seduction', the club-focused, Traxx-style Cutie Schamuthie collaboration 'Hurting', the melancholy plucks and struts of 'Feingold', the provocative, slinky, smoky finale piece 'Nektar'… The list of intergenerational and cross-genre landmarks on this adventurous body of work go and on, each track complementing the last as they fuse to create a bigger collective picture. A picture that's charmed together through the consistent use of key classic studio machines.
They call it Introverted Electronic Body Music, we call it warm, free-spirited and ultimately timeless. Perfect for your sets, your afterhours or your headphones alike; it's time to let Iron Curtis and Johannes Albert take you to the Moon and back… Once again.

Marking their 20th year as a band, Maserati returns with their first new album in five years. Produced by the band and mixed by Grammy-winning producer, John Congleton (Explosions In The Sky, Swans, Angel Olsen), Enter The Mirror is Maserati's most compelling mélange of triumphant guitar hooks, abstract synth-pop, and Wax Trax-inspired noise anthems. The gated drums of Phil Collins and chorus-drenched guitars of INXS were prominent influences on Enter The Mirror, paired to magnificent effect with the increasingly dystopian lyrical themes (which, ironically, were also massive influences on popular music in the 1980s, and feel ever more relevant now). In addition to longtime members Coley Dennis, Matt Cherry, Chris McNeal, and Mike Albanese, Maserati are joined by friends and collaborators, Bill Berry (R.E.M.), Owen Lange, and Alfredo Lapuz Jr. Self-reflection and loss of control as both a positive and negative aspect of modern existence is at the heart of Enter The Mirror. It is Maserati's most efficient and cohesive album, and a monumental accomplishment for a band who have weathered many storms throughout their first two decades - and found the will to not just keep moving, but to move with style and chase.

The third release from Night Dreamer’s essential “Direct-to-Disc” sessions sees an incredible meeting between legendary US saxophonist Gary Bartz and leading UK spiritual jazz ensemble, Maisha, featuring two Bartz classics and three brand new joint songs written by both Bartz & Maisha in close collaboration. Having cut his teeth playing with the likes of Charles Mingus, Max Roach, Art Blakey and finally in 1970, Miles Davis at the peak of his electric period, Gary Bartz became a leading figure of the early-to-mid 70s spiritual jazz movement, releasing a string of ground-breaking albums on legendary NYC jazz label Prestige Records with his NTU Troop, featuring classics such as “Celestial Blues”, “Uhuru Dance” and “I’ve Known Rivers”, before collaborating on Blue Note Records with the Mizell Brothers on the anthemic jazz funk of “Music Is My Sanctuary”. An oeuvre much loved by soul jazzers and hip hop fans alike. Led by drummer Jake Long, Maisha have been central to the UK’s jazz explosion, and have fast become the UK’s most exciting and in-demand young spiritual jazz ensemble, from steller shows at Jazz re:freshed, Total Refreshment Centre & Church of Sound and supporting the Sun Ra Arkestra, to releasing their critically acclaimed debut LP, “There Is A Place” on Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings in 2018. Theirs is an organic & explosive sound that blends influences from afrobeat and broken beat to Persian music, with a deep love and understanding of jazz, particularly the heritage of spiritual jazz led by titans such as Pharoah Sanders, Alice Coltrane and of course, Gary Bartz. Which makes this collaboration even more special. Bartz was first invited to share a stage with Maisha by Gilles Peterson to headline the inaugural We Out Here festival. Their chemistry was rich and instantaneous, certainly a two-way street, with the young musicians reinvigorating the legend’s performance and wowing the intergenerational festival audience. A European tour followed, including a London Jazz Festival highlight at the Royal Festival Hall, celebrating the 50th anniversary of his album “Another Earth”, originally featuring fellow legends, Pharoah Sanders, Charles Tolliver, Stanley Cowell, and John Coltrane’s own bassist, Reggie Workman. Now the relationship has evolved into a special straight-to-disc recording for Night Dreamer Records, that captures the vitality of their collaboration. Whilst Bartz and Maisha reinvent classic Bartz compositions “Uhuru Sasa” and “Dr Follows Dance”, extending the pieces into long piece improvised grooves, their recording session gave birth to three brand new joint compositions, written the very same day. These include the propulsive “Leta’s Dance” that magically combines the Bartz’ soulful musical lyricism with Maisha’s African-jazz influences, and the organic jazz funk of “Harlem to Haarlem”, featuring a hot solo from guest trumpeter Axel Kaner-Lidstrom of Cykada & Levitation Orchestra fame. Like previous Night Dreamer efforts from afrobeat star Seun Kuti & Egypt 80, and the beautiful
collaboration between Brazilian stars Seu Jorge & Rogê, the album was recorded in Haarlem’s Artone Studio, a stones throw from Amsterdam, in just one-take, straight-to-disc, avoiding postproduction embellishments and retaining the purity of the performance lost in modern recording techniques. This record really is an event, in and of itself, a meeting of talents, minds, generations and zeitgeist moments, captured in a unique and pure manner. The music does not disappoint, as Maisha have been inspired to reach new heights whilst we find Bartz truly reinvigorated, and both artists in tune to the spirit of the other.

2x12"

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.

New member Kuno joins the gang with some forward thinking
trippy electro chin breaks!

Christoph de Babalon and Mark join forces for A Colourful Storm and contend for the collaboration of the year. Seductively rugged and ruffneck breaks by two of Berlin's most unique, complete with an out-of-nowhere moment of isolationist woodwind introspection. Perfect pairing and breakthrough release from a label on top of

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

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

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

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

The classic album of Germany's funk champions reissued on surf blue colour vinyl.

Original press release note from 2011:

After almost twenty 45's under various pseudonyms, their thrilling and hugely successful debut album with London-based singer Gizelle Smith and a tour with concerts throughout Europe, Germany's most prolific deep funk formation is ready to step further into the spotlight with their second longplayer.

The aptly titled THE FUTURE IS HERE sees the group explore new territories with features by hiphop legends Afrika Bambaataa and Charlie Funk, French singer Caroline Lacaze and German rare groove queen Su Kramer, while manifesting their unique raw funk sound and refining their unmistakable instrumental style that has long gained international reputation.

Producer legend Kenny Dope (Masters at Work, Bucketheads) picked up the Mighty Mocambos's re-interpretation of the Furious Five classic "The Message" (released under a pseudonym on an obscure phantasy label without proper distribution), remixed it and re-released it on his own imprint Kay Dee Records. This album includes the original version of the "Next Message" – a message that apparently got heard and answered.

Afrika Bambaataa (the Godfather of Hip-Hop) and Charlie Funk (aka Afrika Islam, Grammy- and Oscar-decorated producer of Ice-T and original member of the Zulu Nation) loved the Mocambo vibe and joined the group on stage and in the studio to record "Zulu Walk" and "Battle", two stunning tracks of organic Funk that take Hip-Hop "back to the roots where we started out" (as featured MC King Kamonzi rightfully says) and along the way, leads funk into the future.

Keeping up with the universal spirit and ignoring boundaries of language in favour of the global groove, the Mocambos recorded "Physique", a rousing dancefloor smash sung in French by Caroline Lacaze. "The Sun Shines Tonight" is a cheerful party-in-the-studio session with original German funk and disco queen Su Kramer (who played with Donna Summer in the original cast of "Hair" during the late 1960s) that documents the pure joy of playing and spontaneity of a Mocambo live situation.

The 12 titles on this album showcase the group's collective determination, unified versatility and creative wit. From the drum-heavy, afro-tinged "Calling The Shots", the anthemic "Struggle & Triumph", the romantic melancholy of "French Vanilla Skies", the somber and frantic "Transcendental Express", to songs with an almost cinematic quality like the moody "A Brighter Darkness" and the horroresque "Paranormals Theme", the album offers a broad spectrum of colours, all held together by the unity of a band that has been playing together for years - recorded live in a few takes with simple analog equipment to capture the energy, chemistry and blind faith between dedicated musicians.

The result, mixed and mastered by chief engineer Def Stef with a decidedly modern punch, is a far cry from nowadays vintage soul band replicas. It is a universal and timeless statement: with the knowledge of the past and present, right now, we look into the future - THE FUTURE IS HERE.

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

First collaboration ever between Japanese noise legend Merzbow and visionary/provocateur Kaoru Sato of R.N.A. Organism (Vanity Records) and EP-4 (WRWTFWW).

Side A: live recording of Merzbow and Kaoru Sato's first live collaboration ever. Recorded October 21st 2018 at Metro Club in Kyoto for a three-label showcase with avant-garde imprints Slowdown, Phonon and Kyoh Records.

Side B: Solo sessions by each artist that took place after the joint performance on the same night. Edited and mixed in their respective studios.

Zodiak Commune Records presents the sixth and last release of the White Cyclus series: Called ZC-KORE003 - White Cyclus VI EP. This time Zodiak Commune Records zooms in on Italian producer Acidevice. He started out in 2012, since 2016 as Acidevice. His style is a mix of Acid Techno, Hardcore Techno and lo-fi elements. All content is produced by Acidevice. For the third track he joined forces with JM23, a close friend from Spain.

Acidevice (IT) - Smile Land
Meet his style: banging, sinister thus painting the atmosphere. Smiling like a Dark Acid Clown hahaha!

Acidevice (IT) - Fire Walk with me
More poweracid. Acidevice takes you by the hand bringing Fire. Better watch out and don't get burnt.

Acidevice (IT) & JM23 (ES) - Dissection of a Smile
Mental Acid tale from this excellent team. We know you Love it!!

Acidevice (IT) - Bloody Hit
Tasty closing tune. Bang bang! Think you just took a Bloody Hit.