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The second volume of Nothing Is Real’s self-titled compilation builds on their towering reputation as leading lights within the global electronic music community. As the label’s first release distributed by the respected Dutch record label and store Bordello A Parigi, the collection is set to further establish their international presence and spread their eclectic sound far and wide.

Bringing together diverse influences from across the spectrum of electronica and into new wave and ambient music, Nothing Is Real stand at the forefront of modern dance music as sonic innovators that continue to push boundaries with each offering.

Curated by Alberto Iovine and Alessandro Fumagalli, also known under the stage name Modular Project, this four-track collection takes listeners on a journey through the outer atmosphere of techno, expanding and evolving the genre into new forms along the way.

Cantor’s opening track kicks things off with a hypnotic, driving groove built on acidic synths before Niv Ast & Roe Deers bring a human touch to the proceedings with a vocal-led heater that recalls classic ‘80s sounds. Dharma pairs shuffling rhythms with extraterrestrial soundscapes that recall Squarepusher and Aphex Twin, before Argia closes the record with force and momentum, surrounding voltaic synthesizers and tribal drums with expressive atmospherics.

The notorious London White vinyl only project returns with more original Rave material!

Selected by Gareth Wild this cut through VA sees excellent additions to the series via standout material from JK Flesh, 7XINS, Keikari and Voicedrone.

Tried and tested, dance floor killers!

All tracks written and produced by the artists.
Mastered by Simon at The Exchange.
Graphics design by Grade A.

Absolute Unity' is the new Dance Music project from Ryan Grieve, a cofounder of Hole In The Sky Records. Ryan has produced as one half of bands Canyons, Fred Cherry and Heart People, among others, with releases on labels DFA Records, Modular Recordings, Universal Music, Warner Music, Hole in the Sky & I'm A Cliche.

Returning from the haze of major record label obscurity and confusion, Absolute Unity is a return to roots with a focus on simple, raw sounds aimed for DJs to play to dance floors.

Optimo Music presents “Vanessa 77” the debut album from New Zealander Vanessa Worm. Originally due in May it was rescheduled due to the lockdown but we couldn’t wait any longer to get it out into the world, so here it is, on vinyl and digital.

After entrusting us to release 3 much loved singles it seemed right to let Vanessa stretch out across an album and show the world what she is about and how talented she is. Vanessa is exactly the kind of artist Optimo Music dreams of finding; her music fits in with no genre and no scene – it is its own genre and its own scene. Musically free and anarchic, Vanessa conforms to nobody’s dogma. Before lockdown Vanessa played a series of Southern Hemisphere live shows that entranced all who saw them. Hopefully next year she can come and do the same in the Northern Hemisphere.

We asked her for a few thoughts about her album. Vanessa says – “Vanessa 77, like most creative endeavours is a journey of self discovery. Mentally, emotionally and creatively. I spent most of my time alone in winter 2019 – focused solely on personal development & self realisation via the creation of this album. It was a way for me to put my mental state onto a plate – the joys, the fears, the epiphanies, and so on. I so desperately wanted to share what I was learning with the world too – I intended for Vanessa 77 to help others to heal, self-realise and alchemise. It was a 9 month process of death and a re-birth from the old into the new. Much like the world is experiencing now entering 2020, I hope this album can provide some form of healing, soothing, celebration and act as a sub-conscious guide for us as we enter into this New Earth. Thank you to all who listens, enjoy!”

Decha’s Hielo Boca LP was released in early 2019 and quickly was embraced by many as an exceptional experi- mental yet very personal and soulful piece of art. Artist Viktoria Wehrmeister (half of renowned duo Toresch along- side fellow Düsseldorfian Tolouse Low Trax) is already working constantly on her sophomore album for Malka Tuti that will come some time in the near future. In the meantime, longtime fans of Viktoria, many friends of the label asked to participate in the remix project that fol- lowed Hielo Boca. On this record we will present 4 remixes that are as imag- intive, inspirational and clever as the original composition. Tapan, Eva Geist, Khidja & Philipp Otterbach took upon themselves to reconstruct Viktoria’s ideas in very surpris- ing, intriguing and “out of the box” ways.

Limited edition 180gram premium vinyl pressing and 3 bonus tracks. Released in June 1958, this album (originally issued under the title Little Girl Blue on Bethlehem BCP-6028) was Nina Simone’s first studio recording ever.

Made when she was 25-years old, the album was a huge success and led to a tremendous career that would yield over 80 studio sessions. It was originally issued on the Bethlehem label and features the singer/pianist backed by bassist Jimmy Bond (who had been a member of the Chet Baker Quartet among other groups) and drummer Albert “Tootie” Heath (one of the celebrated Heath brothers, along with saxophonist Jimmy Heath, and bassist Percy Heath). Many of the tracks from this LP would become true classics, among them her perennial versions of “My Baby Just Cares for Me” and “I Loves You, Porgy”. Simone’s piano is well featured throughout the LP, but “Central Park Blues” and “Good Bait” are the only purely instrumental tracks.

Phil Collins revisits a career that can boast over 100 million sales and numerous worldwide #1 albums. Both Sides will be remastered by Nick Davis, who earned a Grammy nomination for Best Surround Sound album for his work on the Genesis '1970-1975' box set. Davis has also worked on all of the Genesis retrospective reissues.

Entirely curated and compiled by Collins himself, his idea for this release is to examine how his songs have evolved over time, with the majority of the additional content throughout these releases focused on live versions of the tracks. By contrasting the original studio versions of the material with later performances, the series demonstrates how Collins' songs take on a life of their own once they're freed from the confines of the studio.

Originally released in December 1989, '...But Seriously' features many of Collins' biggest hits and was one of its era's biggest selling albums. In the UK, it spent a total of 15 weeks at #1 during an extended run of almost a year in the Top 10 en route to becoming the biggest selling album of 1990. The album campaign culminated with his fourth and fifth BRIT Awards for British Single ('Another Day in Paradise') and British Male.

LTD LP+MP3+Signed Art Print

Midnight Resistance ist das 4. Album von The Toxic Avenger. Und zweifellos das außergewöhnlichste, bei dem seine musikalische Handschrift am besten zur Geltung kommt. Das Album gleicht einer Symbiose aus unterschiedlichen Einflüssen und Elementen, von energiegeladenem Elektro bis zu Popavancen, vom klassischen Song bis packenden House der 90er Jahre, vom neoklassischen Piano Revisited bis zum aktuellen Synth-Pop. Ein Album, bei dem der Fokus klar und direkt auf Emotionen und Gefühlen ausgerichtet wird und die Technik bewusst einen Schritt zurück tritt. Keine Frage - es ist auch sicherlich das Genre durchbrechendste und dabei offenste aller seiner Alben, bestückt mit echten Pop-Singles, wie die berauschende "Lies" (feat. Look Mum No Computer), die nostalgische Ballade "Mandala" aus den 80er Jahren (feat. Ornette) oder der packende Popsong "Rent Boy" (feat. Jay-Jay Johanson). Ein besonderes Highlight des Albums ist die Zusammenarbeit mit Maxence Cyrin bei dem sehr ausdrucksstarken und emotionalen Titel "On My own". Die wohl größte Überraschung dieses Al- bums besteht darin, dass Toxic Avenger bei "Les Heures" das erst Mal selbst singt und der Platte eine ganz besondere Note schenkt. Zum Abschluss beglückt Toxic Avenger mit zwei besonderen Gäste. Diese runden die Platte mit der luftigen und hedonistischen Teilnahme von Simone bei "Falling Appart" und dem Spoken Word und immer ungewöhnlichen Flow von Diamond Deuklo auf dem treffend benannten "L'Avenir d'Avant" genussvoll ab. Über zwei Jahre beschäftigte sich Toxic Avenger intensiv mit modularen Synthesizern – aus seiner leidenschaftlichen Klangforschung ist nun ein neuer Sound entstanden, der die Seele der Synthesizer "lebendiger" und organischer erscheinen lässt. Hier ist ein beeindruckendes Werk eines "Klangchirurgen" entstanden, dem es gelingt Stimmen im Detail zu sezieren und ihnen eine magische Aura zu verleihen und dabei ebenso eine intensive Reise in die Tiefen von Melodie und Klangwelten unternimmt, ohne den Fokus auf die Songs selbst zu verlieren. Dieses Album wird zu einer Zeit besonderer Aufmerksamkeit und Sichtbarkeit für The Toxic Avenger veröffentlicht, der gerade die Musik für Hugo Boss Parfum kreiert hat: (Europa/LateinamerikaKampagne für TV/Kino und Web for the World, für zwei Jahre sowie die Musik für die nächsten Web-Werbung von Armani und Yves Saint Laurent unterschrieben hat

Originally recorded direct to disc and released by Incus in 1978, this new edition from Treader is pressed from the original stampers. Hand-finished sleeve.

‘Parker uses rapid tonguing techniques and circular breathing to create a sound all his own, marked by the simultaneous intonation of multiple notes. One hears a note as well as all the residual tones around it; each breath ends up sounding like a battle between the different registers of the horn. At various times, Parker’s saxophone sounds like dolphin speech, electronic tape squeals, or human murmurs; namely, anything but what it actually is. His language on the instrument is essential listening for anyone interested in acoustic experimental music’ (AllMusic).

‘Eight years after Topography Of The Lungs, and two years after his Saxophone Solos, Monoceros was the most muscular statement of Evan Parker’s solo saxophone muse. Superbly recorded, it seemed to place the listener within the chaotic air flows of the saxophone’s own tubing. Philip Clark said: ‘Parker’s dialogue with the saxophone throws up so much that is unexpected, and indeed unknowable, that the problem he faces is how to keep pace with his own invention’’ (The Wire, Best Albums Of The Year).

"On this seven track album we hear MinaeMinae (alias Bastian Epple) playfully scurry through his dense soundscapes on a tightrope. The sounds lying somewhere on the crossroads of psychedelic trance, exotica, ambient and melodic dance music – veering further off orbit with nontypical rhythms and dystopian percussive patterns.

MinaeMinae understands musical material similar to documentary footage which he would cut up, repitch, and rearrange freely. Most of his tracks are a mix of analog, synthetic sounds and recordings of ethnic percussion and guitar. Recently Bastian began experimenting with modular synthesis and self made tape echoes - seeking a more reduced and minimal composition style compared to his earlier quite whimsical tunes.

Growing up in a small village in southern Germany, Bastian was never interested in kitschy folk sounds that everyone would mindlessly clap and sing along to, rather he took solace in the time he would spend delving into patterns and repetitions that pleased him. His guitar strumming and what sounded to his mother like a young Philip Glass on a cheap Casio keyboard encouraged little Epple to continue on this self-taught path of developing his musical language. He then started to experiment with a tape recorder and layering sounds with non-musical samples, which his former village friends found too weird – then to eventually working with a small freeware DAW. Bastian went on to study Media Art at the Center for Art and Media (ZKM) in Karlsruhe – initially enrolled in music but the frustration and doubt of not being able to produce the music he wanted led him into film and documentary media. During his studies, Bastian was living with Florian Meyers (Don’t DJ) for several years where they would philosophize life and music into the wee hours – he encouraged Bastian to start sharing what he’s been quietly working on all these years and slowly emerge from this anonymity which eventually led to his first release on Human Pitch last fall.

Disproportionate forms, color changes, backdrops weaved into the foreground, all lay the dense earth for Gestrüpp through Benjamin Kilchhofer’s artwork."

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.

Leoparden dive into the summer with the warm, lovely space anthem "hoyt oppe" and the dancing synth-disco groove "Lopebass" on the B side.

The second EP from Stark on Salford's Ourtime label.
It's a 4 tracker with an epic 15 minute odyssey on the A side.
Cosmic transmissions straight from the basement.
All tracks recorded 2018/2019.

RIVAL CONSOLES IS 21-YEAR OLD ELECTRO ACID-SMITH RYAN LEE WEST FROM LEICESTER. INFLUENCED BY IMPRESSIONISTS LIKE CLAUDE DEBUSSY AND MODERN ELECTRONIC ARTISTS SUCH AS AUTECHRE AND SQUAREPUSHER, HE CREATED HIS UNIQUE SIGNATURE. A PLAYFUL AND BRUTAL MIX OF IDM ACID BEATS AND WARM, EMOTIVE SYNTH STRING ARRANGEMENTS. IN FEBRUARY HE RELEASED AND TOURED THE MORE QUIRKY "VEMEER EP" UNDER HIS SECOND MUSICAL ALIAS APARATEC, WHICH SOLD LIKE HOT CAKES AND EARNED HIM A LOT OF FANS. RYAN RECENTLY REPRESENTED ERASED TAPES RECORDS AT THE BRITISH MUSIC WEEK 2007 IN COLOGNE, GERMANY AND CRAFTED REMIXES FOR UPCOMING LABEL COMRADE AND PRODUCER JUSTIN LOCKEY (YOURCODENAMEIS:MILO). "THE DECADENT EP" WILL HIT THE UK SHOPS AS A FUSION OF TRADITIONAL AND CONTEMPORARY FORMATS - A 10" VINYL RECORD WITH A DOWNLOAD CODE, THAT ALLOWS THE PURCHASER TO BE ABLE TO GET THE ENTIRE EP PLUS BONUS TRACK DIGITALLY FOR NO EXTRA COST.

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.

We all go through phases. We don’t always feel the way we felt yesterday. Despite all these phases, we’re always drawn to music. It accompanies, touches and feeds us. This debut album is the story of Austrian Apparel and their journey up to this day. “AAplus” stands for inclusion - it takes paths into the openness of sound. It shows two sides. light and dark. While the light side features tracks outside of the four-to-the-floor realm, the dark side showcases their club oriented material. Never leaving behind their signature sound forged from their expertise on stage and in the studio. In coherence with their previous work, Austrian Apparel continue to explore an unconventional approach with their audio equipment, departing from a habitual studio process and emerging with a carefully condensed sonic episode of their journey.

With this collection of deeply personal tracks, I wanted to reconnect to my inner emotions and to my love of melody, showing my most introspective and passionate side. Locking myself away in my studio, surrounded by vintage analog machines and acoustic instruments, my desire was to create a late night journey of contemplative experiences in music.

Drifting away from the harder, dancefloor oriented sound, this concept album reveals a thoughtful observation on the state of our world today and on these times of turmoil and uncertainty, ending with a positive message of hope and peacefulness".

Luar Domatrix (Rudi Brito) is perhaps more recognizable as half of the artsy-duo Yong Yong that emerged in 2012. After a long season spent in Glasgow, and with editions by Naivety (Naive’s sublabel of Inês Coutinho aka Violet) , Sucata Tapes (Discrepant) and with a track inserted in a VA from 12th Isle, comes back to Lisbon (his hometown) clearly soaked by the sounds of the Scottish industrial center.

“Baía Stamina”, produced in Glasgow, is strongly inspired by the local club scene and evokes the utopia of a heavenly bay somewhere in Italy. Although always looking to bend the barriers of that “squarish” side of dance music, “Baía Stamina” is a dance record. It starts with “Bo Teias”, a track full of percussive elements and unusual sound effects that presents itself as a hymn of the “Baía Stamina” - pure boilling energy. “Take” is the least functional theme on the record. Metal percussion layers are overlapped over a string, creating a certain unrest and discomfort. A vocal incites consumption ("Take, Take, Take") to the point that a pad clears the way for liberation creating a more relaxing and dreamy ambience.

Closing the A side “Bo Teias” gets a remix from the Glasgow duo General Ludd, with whom Rudi used to live. In this version, and as the name implies, “Bo Teias (Gen Ludd Disco Problem Remix)” moves the focus away from the dance floor, ands transforms itself into a rhythmic exploration over the void, punctuated by some recognizable elements. “Outra Face” is a track made to blow up soundsystems! Anchored in distortion and in a broken beat led by the kick of the infamous TR-808 there is an almost epic vibe to it, that shows the confidence that Rudi Brito has acquired in his relaxed production style. “Heavven” closes the record in a completely British tone. The soulful vocal reminiscent of some garage tracks, echoes Bristol production and a time when dubstep producers decided to lower their bpms to something closer to the house. Without ever rushing the theme moves through different sonic landscapes and electronic glitches until a Portuguese voice announces “Acabou-se a brincadeira” (“Playtime is over”). This is peaktime; it's time to go dancing.

Welcome to the funky zone of Boogie Butt, the label that brings you the bass with some musical flavor and boogie synthesizers. On this 4 tracks EP cooked by Lord Funk, you’ll find on A side “Blow Your Mind” featuring Djazzafonk on guitar & jam synths and “Knock Me Out” a killer P-Funk. On B side, you’ll have between the dope boogie of “Luv Girl” or, last but not least, “Do It (If U Like)” for the hypest dancefloors. Don’t miss it!

Tetrode Music head honcho and Sound Signature affiliate, Specter, lines up the next Second Hand Records NYC release and it’s that deep, soulful goodness you need in your life.

'Peace of Mind' hits right from the needle drop. Made for the dancers! Listen to this on a real sound system for that enhanced feeling.

'Front & Center' keeps the energy flowing, mixing deep chords over dark warehouse bass lines. Big leagues tune!

'Cold Sweat' would fit snuggly against any Larry Heard record, or maybe its just that Chi-town flavor soul music we love! Byron The Aquarius adds another layer of flavor to this already killer cut. Deeeeeeep!

DJ Support:
DJ Spinna, Kai Alce, Ash Lauren, Byron The Aquarius, Stefan Ringer, Hugo LX

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.

Finland’s Luke Lund is one of the most inspiring modern dub aesthetes. Using odd number time signatures, warped bottom end, and proper experimental murk, HOPIUM creates fiendishly innovative electronic groove and atmosphere. Existing in a far away land tucked north of techno, dub, and noise where all blend and connect, HOPIUM is a wise encoding of fear, frustration, anxiety, and false hope. Luke Lund’s sound is unquestionable sincerity of exploration, equally inspired by Finnish electronic masters such as Mika Vainio and Ilpo Väisäinen, as well the legends Justin K Broadrick and Mick Harris – as such, absolutely at home on our label. Releasing on labels such as Youth, Co-Depedent, Totes Format, as well his own encyclopedic Terranean Recordings, Luke’s catalog of work continues to expand as does his global profile – assisted by touring Europe and playing at venues from Berlin to London to Helsinki. All tracks produced and recorded at Solace, April 2018 – June 2019. Mastered by Daniele Antezza at Dadub Mastering Studio. Design by Luke Lund. Executive producer Kurt Gluck.

Beggars Arkive is excited to announce the reissue of Between 10th and 11th, the second album by The Charlatans, originally released in 1992.
Available on double clear vinyl and double CD, the reissue contains the original album plus remastered tracks from the oft-bootlegged live show from Chicago in 1991, known as Isolation 21.2.91, a holy grail amongst fans.

Between 10th and 11th was originally released in 1992 and feature the UK Top 20 hit (and biggest US single) “Weirdo”, as well as singles “Tremolo Song” and “I Don’t Want To See The Sights”



“A certifiable classic” - PopMatters

The funky, atmospheric, evocative and sometimes downright weird output of companies such as DeWolfe, Cavendish, Burton and the ubiquitous KPM have always been a guiding inspiration for ATA Records, as evidenced in the spooky soundtrack works of The Sorcerers, the big band brass of The Yorkshire Film & Television Orchestra and even in the soul-jazz of The Lewis Express ('Theme From The Watcher).

Everything released on ATA is written and guided by the label heads Neil Innes and Pete Williams, who frequently dip their toes in the Library pond while working on other projects. These occasional one-off tracks have accumulated over the past few years and have now found a home on the first volume of an ongoing series : The Library Archive

Ranging from heavy big band brass (Whack, Slap & Blow, Kaye Okay) to evocative thriller soundtrack (Midnight Heist, Wiretap, The Needlenose) via introspective ethereal soundscapes (Nuclear Wind, Siren's Sea) these 11 tracks faithfully recreate the feel of the Library music catalogues of the 60s and 70s.

Black Ark Vol. 2 is another piece of Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry’s limitless musical puzzle. It’s a bedrock of deep and heavy rhythms recorded around Jamaica =just before the demise of Perry’s famed Black Ark Studio. Black Ark Vol. 2 is the follow up album to the acclaimed Black Ark In Dub that unsurprisingly for an Upsetter release, took a different path. More vocal oriented, the album features extended dubwise cuts of (former wife and co-producer) Carol Cole’s ‘Ethiopia’, The Originals ‘Got To Be Irie’, Junior Byles ‘Mumbling & Grumbling and The Inamans remake of the Bee Gees hit ‘How Deep Is your Love’, along with an alternate take of the Silvertones roots classic ‘Give Thanks’ with flute overdub and a couple of solid covers from Third World lead vocalist Bunny Rugs. Originally released in 1981 the hard to find Black Ark Vol. 2 remains a frozen sonic timepiece, captured at the beginning of the end of one era and poised at the start of another.

CHIWAX presents Nu-Cleo "Total Control EP"
Well....what should we say...? This release is simply amazing - no words needed!

Following a high-pressure drop on Sneaker Social Club in 2019, bass-toting instigator Low End Activist steps up with his most expansive release yet.

His sound is a perfect amalgam of elements from the hardcore continuum – at times a dark and malevolent brainstorm of grubby drums dragged through crusty samplers, future-weary textural scrapes, moody splashes of pads and of course bucketloads of crushing subs, lows and low mids all designed to rock you from the waist down. You'll hear spectres of culture past lurking in the shadows – a trip hop skit from a gaunt figure here, a riotous brawl of grime MCs there – and feel the decades of soundsystem absorption seeping off the platters. It's like the LEA reached capacity and these productions were what happened when the sponge got squeezed.

One voice cuts a more prominent figure up front though – the peerless Flowdan, lending some powerful bars to Game Theory. What needs to be said about the Pay As You Go / Roll Deep mastermind you don't already know? His flow is mightier than any sword you care to step with.

Speaking of platters, this particular release marks the first vinyl pressing for Seagrave since the BOA 12" Warp Purpose Vol. 1 back in 2015 (slated for a repress – don't sleep!). It's an occasion worth toasting, building on a powerful and varied catalogue of sub-heavy sonics operating well outside the mainstream in service to naught but the sound, all packaged in a full-colour sleeve. As an expansive double pack of seven sure shots, it's also a fitting document of a subversive operative bringing some devastating angles to the hardcore tradition.

- Oli Warwick.

On The Corner Records is delighted to announce the release of Dialectic Soul, the debut album from one of Cape Town's most cuttingedge, visionary artists and musicians, the drummer Asher Gamedze. This is Jazz at its most spiritual, most progressive and most appealing form. As Asher himself says: Dialectic Soul is about motion and a refusal to remain static or stay still. It's the commitment to be continually moving'. Recorded live over two days at the Sound and Motion Studios in Cape Town with renowned musicians (Thembinkosi Mavimbela (bass), Buddy Wells (tenor sax), Robin Fassie-Kock (trumpet) Nono Nkoane (voc)), Dialectic Soul is breathtaking in its musical vitality and expression of soul seeking truth. By incorporating the concept of the Total Art for this project, it fits perfectly within On The Corner's aesthetic of music, art and vision for creative innovation. Label art director Victoria Topping created the sleeve design working with Asher's drawings and concept.

Silver Vinyl repress

The debut of Hamburg-based Quadratschulz on Clone Dub Recordings. A mini album with tracks ranging from a poppy version of Rephlex style braindance to melodies reminisching a modern day John Carpenter soundtrack to almost old Viewlexx style electro. A versatile album where Quadratschulz showcases his broad range of influences all very firmly rooted in the 90's rave.

Seven years after its inception, Eaux is proud to announce the first solo release by an artist other than Rrose. As a member of the Sandwell District collective, David Sumner aka Function was instrumental incultivating the Rrose project. After releasing the first three EPs and album by Rrose between 2012 and 2013, Sandwell District terminated their mission abruptly, prompting Rrose to start a new label (Eaux) for solo projects andcollaborations. This EP brings history full circle.



Following closely on the heels of Function's mammoth 3LP/17 track album "Existenz" for Tresor Records, this EP takes similar themes as a departure point, but moves into more mysterious, yet also heavily dancefloor-focused terrain. "Binaural" encapsulates the timeless essence of the Function sound with menacing bleeps, cavernous stabs, and a sense that it could go on forever without losing its grip on the listener. "Desire and Memory" is a broken beat track drenched in modulated drones that feels like an infinite spiral, moving simultaneously forward and backward in time. Function's early Sandwell District records defined the "hypnotic" techno sound that has influenced countless artists (including Rrose), and this release plants those roots in new, fertile ground.



Recorded at Inanimate Objects, Berlin

Mixed by Tobias Freund at Non-Standard Studios

Mastered by Beau at Ten Eight Seven

Like the Grass documents and reimagines a warm summer's evening in Basel, Switzerland, in June 2018. Four musicians convened: Johannesburg composer and bow expert Cara Stacey, South African violinist and composer Galina Juritz, German harp player Antonia Ravens and Swiss guitarist and sonic explorer Beat Keller.

Together they improvised using a graphic score titled "Luhlata njengetjani" ("Green like the grass" in the southern African Siswati language), inspired by the rivers of eSwatini, blackbirds in the parks of Basel and the evocative, red-flowered umcinci or erythrina tree. The South African umrhubhe mouthbow's dense harmonics folded around skittering, fractal violin loops; temperate swells of guitar were punctuated by agitated harp pings and the hearty thuds of Ugandan and Mozambican lamellophones.

This joyous, unfettered outpouring criss-crossed between southern Africa and Europe, forwards and backwards, for the following two years. The fruits were unpicked and rewoven into new mosaics by Cara, Galina, and two of our favourite recording artists, Object Agency and Hello Skinny.

Recorded as part of Cara Stacey's studio residency in Basel, Switzerland, supported by ProHelvetia Johannesburg.

For their sophomore album, Chemical Reaction, Galaxians have stripped back the music and pumped up the vocals. Emma Mason's unstoppable voice elevates the group to a fully-formed musical act. This new LP is all about her voice.

Mason's powerhouse vocal on the West End Records-inspired Chemical Reaction beckons you onto the dancefloor. Jed Skinner's bright and breezy synth melodies allow the song to really breathe, whilst Sam Bell's front-and-centre conga groove (straight out of Double Exposure's My Love Is Free) and Matt Woodward's intricate rolls ramp up the track's energy and momentum. The shorter Mama Ghetto Vogue Edit is brought to life by Darren Pritchard, vogue dancer and mother of Manchester's House of Ghetto, who meets a neon wonderland in the electrifying video.

Elsewhere on the album, Heartbreaker champions female empowerment and personal freedom over a pounding boogie groove. It's a tight arrangement which drops into a delay-drenched Levanesque drum break before crescendoing back into a final chorus via one of Skinner's trademark JX-3P synth solos.

On the proto-house funk of Fight For Love, where Emma flexes her vocal chords to jaw-dropping effect, a failing relationship is thrust into the spotlight over a punchy Linn Drum groove. On the silky shuffle of after-hours jam Work It Out, which brings to mind the classic Sly & Robbie Compass Point productions, Emma croons about a lover, her voice cast in a softer, more subdued glow. Heat of the City sizzles with the essence of an urban summer, and is peppered with heart-stopping hand claps.

Third single Horizon sees the band in more reflective low-key mode, and could be their minor hit of the summer. There's some neat drum programming here, intertwined with Woodward's intricate fills and hi-hat playing.

On Not The Money, Mason's vocal shifts to a lower register in the mid-section, bringing to mind Grace Jones at her most commanding.

All in all it's a life-affirming experience, one born out of a sense of community and collaboration. Seven years on from their early explorations Chemical Reaction sees Galaxians retain sight of the principles that make their output, and dance music as a whole, so vital - commonality of experience, singular moments shared by a crowd, and rhythm as the best medicine.

Of course, Dubblestandart have been keeping a version of the dub flame alive for the last two decades. Formed in 1988 as a reaction to the stagnant Austrian pop scene, the group was heavily inspired by the Black Ark, On-U Sound and Jah Shaka, infusing such dub influences within their heady blend of hardcore reggae and new wave, which soon brought them into the European public's consciousness and as a kind of "European" version of the famous DUB SYNDICATE. Soon, they were so in demand as to be backing Lee Scratch Perry, dub poet Lilian Allen, Dillinger, Ari Up, Ken Boothe, Marcia Griffiths, Chezere and orthers. Well, Austria's / Viennas's finest moments in dub working and collaborating with the new technological dimension of modern dub : Paolo Baldini from Italy. Baldini's stunning excursion into deep dub, chilling dub and dubble-tough dub will reach the DubFiles into perfection @ DUB ME CRAZY. Paolo Baldini's handling of this mission has been exemplary: his production and remixing skills are pleasingly individualistic, retaining plenty of originality and professionalism without seeming stoic, dull or contrived. His collaborations with Mellow Mood, Hempress Sativa, Dub Fx and others are showing faith of what DUB is living for. Since 2007 Paolo Baldini works under the top level name "Alambic Conspiracy" and became world class dub extraordinary performer, bass player, mixologist, producer and provocateur!

Milton Wright's perfect deep Soul classic "Keep It Up" has always been a top shelf record, everything about it is almost flawless! Whether it's Milton's silky vocal delivery, the incessant guitar driven back beat or the total space Funk vibe of his omnipresent ARP-2600 synthesizer this record has it all. Originally released on TK Disco's more Soul and Funk orientated Alston label which was home to many legendary artists and records, this 1975 sunshine classic never fails to make people move. A classic rare groove indeed. "The Silence That You Keep" takes up side-B, a jazzy, flute driven love song that again features Milton's perfect voice and some fantastic arrangement. A real gem of a record, with the original 45 changing hands for over £100 a time in used condition.

This is the first time "Keep It Up" has been re-issued in it's original 45 rpm format with the original Alston label artwork. It's been re-mastered, re-pressed and made available again with the permission of TK Disco / Alston Records, Miami Florida, USA.

Funnuvojere's latest instalment, Minority Resist, comes from Czech Republic and it's signed by Martin Ku?ka under his moniker Goodbye Mirage. Martin has been performing and producing ambient and synthy compositions under his real name for many years, releasing a few LPs for the US cassette labels Sacred Phrases and Origin Peoples, mostly influenced by writing, drawing and photography, as well as by the rhythms of village life.? Funnuvojere's new ethereal EP interweaves nostalgia for the past and reflections on the present. The EP is imbued with Martin's memories of discovering Berlin's Love Parade, the golden cradle of 90s trance and progressive house. Emotional tension and unexpected polymeters characterise the EP, with minimalistic notes rippling back from a distant future. Careful design produces a unique sound and grain that will blissfully envelop those lucky enough to hear it played.?

Suction Records welcomes Roger Semsroth back to the label - having previously released 2 full-length albums with us under his retired electro-pop alias, Skanfrom. “Grøndal” (suction051) is the debut vinyl release under a new alias, Nordvest.

These days, Semsroth is best-known for his stark and minimalist techno project, Sleeparchive. The material on Grøndal - icy, melodic, and mostly beatless - is comprised of tracks that were originally released digitally as Sleeparchive, via Bandcamp. The releases were met with general disinterest from Sleeparchive fans, prompting Semsroth to re-brand them as Nordvest, before removing them from Bandcamp altogether.

We’ve chosen 11 highlights from 3 of those digital albums, “Rooftops & Chaotic Streets”, “Scribbles”, and “Sleepless”, for a cohesive 11-track LP of austere, synthetic ambience. Think Tangerine Dream as reinterpreted by Incunabula-era Autechre, and you might be getting somewhere close. While “Rooftops & Chaotic Streets Seven” recalls Sleeparchive, and “Sleepless Six” could very well be a lost Skanfrom track, the rest of the LP clearly warrants a new alias - Nordvest is a new side of Semsroth that we haven’t heard before.

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.

Ju/Na is a collaborative project between Juri Corrado and Nathan Dawidowicz and was borne in Berlin where both of them live. It's a conjunction of free verse and analog soundscapes - which could be described as 'analog poetry'

This debut album 'Haiku' is an exploration of contemporary narcisism which unfolds against a backdrop of different facets of contemporary life in imaginary/imagined or concrete urban spaces. Each side of the record contains three tracks - reflecting the three phrases of Japanese Haiku poetry. With a surreal language and quotes from mythology, the opus potrays the dreamy delirium of the Ego, from Love to disenchantment.

Repress

MARA is the debutalbum of Munich-based jazz group FAZER. The young musicians combine African and Latin rhythms with dubby basslines and melancholic melodies. The unusual lineup with two drummers (Simon Popp, Sebastian Wolfgruber), bass (Martin Brugger), guitar (Paul Brändle) and trumpet (Matthias Lindermayr) leaves an open space for unfettered improvisation. Through the concept of repetition and finely measured dynamics, Fazer create a drawing energy that can be felt directly at their live shows and has been captured perfecty on this record.

Swiss jazz bliss! We Release Jazz is very, very, VERY happy to present its sixth release (following Ryo Fukui’s Scenery and Mellow Dream, Le Cercle Rouge’s soundtrack by Eric Demarsan, Stuff Combe 5 + Percussion, and Marc Moulin’s Placebo Live 1971) coming straight from its beloved hometown of Geneva. Boillat Thérace Quintet’s self-titled album is available for the first time since its original limited private pressing in 1974 and comes as a vinyl LP as well as a digipack CD* (with 3 never-heard bonus songs). Full of prolific and inspired local clusters and boosted by the recently launched Montreux Jazz Festival, the Swiss jazz scene was vibrant and inventive in the 1970s, notably in the region surrounding Lake Geneva. This is precisely where jazz activist and brilliant pianist Jean-François Boillat and wind instrument master Raymond Thérace formed their quintet whose dazzling debut album was recorded in 1974. An absolute Lemanic gem of the soul-jazz/modal kind, the self-titled album includes superb covers of Freddie Hubbard’s “Straight Life”, Keith Jarrett’s “In Your Quiet Place”, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s “Sweet Fire”, plus groovy original compositions from the Boillat-Thérace crew. Helvetian fun facts: the velvety “1224” is dedicated to Geneva’s public transport line Tram 12, and one exquisitely funky track on the album is named after the famed yet elusive (and locally legendary) Swiss Marmite: “Cenovis”! This is reissued in conjunction with Boillat Thérace Quintet’s My Greatest Love featuring Benny Bailey (1975), also available via We Release Jazz. *The CD version includes 3 bonus tracks (Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, and Claude Engel covers), never released before.

More Swiss jazz bliss! We Release Jazz (Ryo Fukui’s Scenery and Mellow Dream, Marc Moulin’s Placebo Live 1971…) is madly happy to unleash another reissue from Geneva’s very own Boillat Thérace Quintet. The My Greatest Love album features none other than bebop and hard-bop legend Benny Bailey and is available for the first time since 1975 on vinyl LP as well as digipack CD. Galvanized by the creation of the Montreux Jazz Festival in the late 60s and lively local scenes, jazz music was healthy and booming in Switzerland in the 1970s. One band that beautifully captured this energy was Jean-François Boillat and Raymond Thérace’s Boillat Thérace Quintet whose self-titled debut and impressive Montreux appearance set the tone for quality Helvetic jazz in 1974. Following this first excellent impression, the Boillat-Thérace ensemble connected with American trumpeter Benny Bailey and recorded the magnificent My Greatest Love in May and June of 1975. The modal, hard bop and soul-jazz gem includes first-class takes on Freddie Hubbard’s “Gibraltar”, Kenny Dorham’s “Blue Bossa”, and Jimmy Heath’s “Gemini”, plus deliciously funky originals from the Geneva crew, including the upbeat “Le Colin” and the swaying fan-favorite “Prompt” and its thrilling solos. Bailey is on trumpet and flugelhorn, Boillat on Fender Rhodes and piano, Thérace on saxophone and flute, Roger Vaucher on Fender bass, Eric Wespi on drums, and Rogelio Garcia on percussion and tenor saxophone…heavy sessions and deep vibes! This is reissued in conjunction with Boillat Thérace Quintet’s self-titled debut album (1974), also available via We Release Jazz.

All sounds recorded at various locations in Europe, South America and at EMS, Stockholm using the Buchla 200 modular synthesizer.

soar, all sounds recorded with Klara Lewis in Montreal 2018


Mastered by Russell Haswell. January 2020

Cut at Schnittstelle, Berlin by Andreas Kauffelt, January 2020


Image : Mark Hogben

Layout: Nik Void

The last two years have seen me maintaining an association with an unusual bedfellow, death. The loss of Mika Vainio, as well as three members of my own family, has had a profound effect on me and spurred a lengthy reflection on life, death, and everything in between.

Parallelly, while studying the philosophy of science, I came across shadow photons:


"Tangible photons are the ones we can see or detect with instruments whereas shadow photons are intangible (invisible) detectable only indirectly through the interference effects on the tangible photons.

There is no intrinsic difference between tangible and shadow photons: each photon is tangible in one universe and intangible in all the other parallel universes.

They travel at the speed of light, bounce off mirrors, are refracted by lenses, and are stopped by opaque barriers or filters of the wrong colour. Yet, they do not trigger even the most sensitive detectors. The only thing in the universe that a shadow photon can be observed to affect is the tangible photon that it accompanies. This is the phenomenon of interference.

Shadow photons would go entirely unnoticed, were it not for this phenomenon and the strange pattern of shadows by which we observe it.

Thus the existence of a seething, prodigiously complicated hidden world of shadow photons has been inferred."*


I have drawn a parallel between shadow photons and death. The interference phenomena, parallel universes, and how shadow photons affect tangible photons they accompany, offer, in my opinion, similarities, an unknown universe which is death and how we, remaining tangible human beings, are affected. This quest has led me to be more willing to accept chaos in my life and to conclude that Death is perfection, everything else is relative.

We are extremely happy to introduce you to Møzaika's first full-length record titled "Silver Tide". Its healing music has been a constant companion to us over the past two years. 2020 finally seems to be the right time to share it with the world. It is a wonderful album to be listened to as a whole - a continuous piece of music with many exciting turns showing the artist's close connection to nature as well as a deep knowledge of his musical ancestry.

A stunning 17-minute-drumming-trip from feathery spheres through bold grooves to a dense thundery finish by Simon Popp and Sebastian Wolfgruber, the two drummers known for channeling World Music, Afrobeat and Jazz drumming in solo projects and with Munich-based Jazz quintet Fazer.
The B-side holds a rework by fellow Munich producers Zenker Brothers. The Ilian Tape heads and notorious audiophiles put their drum machines aside and weaved the recordings with layers of mystic synths into a tingling organic IDM tune.

DRUMIRA features four heavyweight tracks by Stefan Schneider, ghanaian drummer Nicholas Addo Nettey and percussionist Sven Kacirek (Hamburg).

Nicholas Addo-Nettey was a former percussionist with Fela Kuti and his famous Africa 70 band during the most legendary years of his career. He has left band in 1979 in Berlin where he has been living ever since. His early solo album PAX NICHOLAS from 1971 has gained fame through a reissue in 2009.

It is interesting to note that DRUMIRA was first released anonymously in 2011 in a minuscule private pressing edition which only had a Spiegelmotiv hand stamp on the sleeve. Due to legal issues in 2009 with some of the mapstation releases, Stefan Schneider decided to put his project on hold until things got cleared. After nine years the record finally finds a place in the mapstation catalogue and gives full credit to all musicians involved. The EP comes with a luxurious hand assembled sleeve in a small edition.

Music-wise this EP is most distinguished by the combination of slow paced dark electronics and inimitable percussion patterns by Nicholas Addo-Nettey.

Nicholas Addo-Nettey: Percussion
Stefan Schneider: Electronics
Sven Kacirek: additional percussion

Hanagasumi - hazy curtain of flowers, cherry blossoms appearing from a far like a white mist - this phenomenon can be seen during the sakura blossom in Japan. The mysterious musician Shine Grooves inspired by Japanese culture is launching a label of the same name. Shine Grooves owns the underground Quadrat label, his tracks were released on the labels such as Kimochi, Rough House Rosie, Udacha, etc. Hanagasumi's first release is a mix of abstract rhythms with an influence of ambient tracks of the 90s. Each track is filled with magical synth chords with a cozy mood. Compositions with a smooth, atmospheric rhythm prevail on the first side of the vinyl, while the tracks on the second side will make you to get lost in zero gravity.

All tracks written and produced by Andrey Kurokhtin at 2019.
Mastered by Shine Grooves.
Limited 12" hand stamped vinyl, 150 copies, vinyl only.

The Humans were Toyah, her musical director Chris Wong and multi-instrumentalist the late Bill Rieflin (drummer for King Crimson and latter-day REM, as well as Ministry, the Revolting Cocks, Lard, KMFDM, Pigface, Swans, Chris Connelly, and Nine Inch Nails) as well as Guest Human on this album, Robert Fripp.
Originally released in 2011 and issued on vinyl for the first time, this second album features “Sea Of Size” and “Small Town Psychopath”

Soundsmith and technology rebel Katatonic Silentio back now on a solo LP one year after her first personal release.
Bass missiles, encompassing atmospheres & killer fast focused drums shouts, everything is intently encased in an emancipation act, an insurgent statute against our own oppressions.

Seven tracks pathway leading to a final act of awareness and deliverance from ourselves, without any aversion to go far away, beyond all flags, all frontiers, all countries, all barriers, all beliefs.

Re-Release

Black Truffle is honoured to present the premier recordings of two recent works by legendary American experimental composer Alvin Lucier. A friend and contemporary of pioneers like Robert Ashley, David Behrman, Gordon Mumma, and Christian Wolff, Lucier has been crafting elegant explorations of the behavior of sound in physical space since the 1960s. Lucier is perhaps best known for I Am Sitting in a Room (1970), in which he repeatedly re-recorded his own speaking voice being played back into a room until the room's resonant frequencies entirely obscure the spoken text. Beginning in the early 1970s, he has written a remarkable catalogue of instrumental works that focus on phenomena produced by the interference between closely tuned pitches, such as audible beating, often using pure electronic tones produced by oscillators in combination with single instruments.

Demonstrating the restless creative drive of an artist now in his 80s, the two recent works presented here both feature the electric guitar, an instrument Lucier has just recently begun to explore. In Criss-Cross, Lucier's first composition for electric guitars, two guitarists using e-bows sweep slowly up and down a single semitone, beginning at opposite ends of the pitch range. The piece is a model of simplicity, exemplifying Lucier's desire not to 'compose' in the conventional sense, but rather to eliminate everything that 'distracts from the acoustical unfolding of the idea'. In this immaculately controlled performance of Criss-Cross by Oren Ambarchi and Stephen O'Malley, (for whom the piece was written in 2013), a seemingly simple idea creates a rich array of sonic effects - not simply beating patterns, which gradually slow down as the two tones reach unison and accelerate as they move further apart, but also the remarkable phenomenon of sound waves spinning in elliptical patterns through space between the two guitar amps.

In the comparatively lush Hanover, Lucier draws inspiration from the beautiful photograph that provides the LP with its cover, an image of the Dartmouth Jazz Band taken in 1918 featuring Lucier's father on violin. Using the instrumentation present in the photograph, Lucier creates an unearthly sound world of sliding tones from violin, alto and tenor saxophones, piano, vibraphone (bowed) and three electric guitars (which take the place of the banjos present in the photograph). Waves of slow glissandi create thick, complex beating patterns, gently punctuated by repeated single notes from the piano. The result is a piece that, like much of Lucier's instrumental music, is simultaneously both unperturbably calm and constantly in motion.
Stunning LP design by Stephen O'Malley including an inner sleeve with a portrait of Alvin Lucier by Kris Serafin.
Criss-Cross' recorded at Studios Ina GRM, Paris by Francois Bonnet and mixed by Alvin Lucier. Hanover' recorded in Zurich and mixed by Alvin Lucier.
Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M Belin.
Criss-Cross' recorded at Studios Ina GRM, Paris by Francois Bonnet and mixed by Alvin Lucier. Hanover' recorded in Zurich and mixed by Alvin Lucier.
Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M Berlin.

Kenton Slash Demon return to Tartelet Records with Zstring + remixes by Urulu and Kasper Marott + 12' comes in vintage Tartelet sleeves circa 2009-2010. Limited Edition 400 copies. It's been ten years since Kenton Slash Demon landed on Tartelet with their debut EP Khattabi followed by the much-celebrated The Schwarzschild Trilogy singles - Sun, Matter and Daemon all released 2009-2011.Ten years have passed since our first release on Tartelet and with this record it feels like we've gone full circle. It's a beautiful thing.'Zstring marks their return to Tartelet - but it's also a precursor for things to come within the next year. With talks of a full-length album, the KSD project is now being given the attention it deserves.
Kenton Slash Demon have always had an affinity for uplifting melancholic tunes - and Zstring cements their ability to create just that. The track oozes with dance-floor euphoria, offering up a distorted arpeggio bassline, lush pads and layered melodies, all built around a tight and ever- changing groove. There are clear references to Italo disco, early techno and trance, but it's hard to pin down the exact style - if that even matters.On remix duties, man of the moment and label collaborator, Urulu, delivers a fresh take in his signature early 90s style, while local hero and close friend Kasper Marott of Monkeytown fame comes through with an obscure melodic techno workout of the finest sorts.
To further advance the concept of 'full circle,' the 12' comes in vintage Tartelet sleeves circa 2009-2010, salvaged from three different releases - which have been in storage since being produced.Zstring will be available April 12 th 2019 on vinyl and April 26th on all digital platforms.

Repressed in 2023, limited!


Hull/Leeds based five-piece bdrmm release their much anticipated debut Bedroom on July 3, via Sonic Cathedral. The 10-track album was recorded late last year at The Nave studio in Leeds by Alex Greaves (Working Mens Club, Bo Ningen) and mastered in Brooklyn by Heba Kadry (Slowdive, Beach House). It's a hugely accomplished debut and a real step up both sonically and lyrically from their early singles, which were rounded up on last year's If Not, When? EP. Musically, there are nods to The Cure's Disintegration, Deerhunter and DIIV, while the band reference RIDE and Radiohead. There are also echoes of krautrock and post-punk, from The Chameleons to Protomartyr, plus the proto shoegaze of the Pale Saints' The Comforts Of Madness, not least in the cross fading of some tracks, meaning the album is an almost seamless listen. As a result, Bedroom becomes an unexpected and unintentional concept album, running through the different stages of a break-up set against the backdrop of the ups and downs of your early twenties. "The subject matter spans mental health, alcohol abuse, unplanned pregnancy, drugs_ basically every cliché topic that you could think of," reveals frontman Ryan Smith. "But that doesn't mean they ever stop being relevant. It's a fucker growing up, but I'm lucky enough to have been able to project my feelings in the form of this band, surrounded by four of the best people I've ever met." And that band name, in case it needs explaining, is pronounced the same way as the album title. "I never thought I'd get to the stage where I would have to explain it so much," says Ryan. "We have been pronounced as Boredom, Bdum and my old boss thought we were a ska band called Bad Riddim. We're all sarcastic cunts, so Bedroom spelt correctly seemed like the perfect title." He's right. The perfect title for the perfect debut album.

The Humans were Toyah, her musical director Chris Wong and multi-instrumentalist the late Bill Rieflin (drummer for King Crimson and latter-day REM, as well as Ministry, the Revolting Cocks, Lard, KMFDM, Pigface, Swans, Chris Connelly, and Nine Inch Nails).
Recorded in 2010 at London’s Scala theatre, and issued in its entirety for the first time, the concert features Guest Human throughout, Robert Fripp. The set list includes Humans favourites “Labyrinth”, “Sugar Rush” and “Demigod”, as well the two encore tunes, covers
of Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’” and Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze”.

heat-seeking cuts, rattled with adrenaline and gnawing feedback, set Nikki Nair's "Singular Vectors" on course for pure obliterated electro. Incubated in a time similar to the lab sessions of Singular Values (TP009.5), "Vectors" continues on that raw-live energy, topped off with a thermal rave remix by Jensen Interceptor.

Our first vinyl will go with a big bang!

Early support from Mano Le Tough, Dave DK, Maceo Plex, John Digweed, Gardens of God, Ame, Silicone Soul, Hunter/Game, Kevin De Vries, Massimiliano Pagliara, Fideles, Paul Ritch, Shall Ocin, Raxon, Mind Against, Ae:ther, Ilija Djokovic, Jeremy Olander, Frank Maurel, Alexi Delano & more

Barcelona based producer Adwer returns to his Bolygo Records imprint in 2020 with five alluring cuts entitled "Our Genome" EP with remixes from Amandra and Marc Pinol. Adwer has left his mark on the overall electronic music scene in the last few years through his melodic leaning productions that've picked up support from the likes of Sasha, John Digweed, Joris Voorn and Laurent Garnier. Adwer aims to capture emotion within his music with his synth focused tracks and euphoric vibrations that continue to solidify his reputation of being a purveyor of innovative sound design and gentle sonics.

"Our Genome" EP sees him deliver the first release of the new decade on his Bolygo label where he invites remixes from the Ahrpe Records label boss and French producer Amandra and Spain's Marc Pinol who is renowned for releases on John Talabot's Hivern Discs imprint.

"Messing with the DNA" begins proceedings with thudding kicks, growling bass rolls and dreamy oscillations fluttering underneath before "Recombinant" deploys undulating euphoria through tranquil tones, deep vibrations and progressing synth notes that unravel escapist intentions.

Amandra's remix of "Recombinant" lays focus on raw, crunchy percussion, lo-fi experiments and murky pads that keep you locked throughout whereas Marc Pinol's remix of "Messing with the DNA" offers up electro-styled grooves, cosmic waves and acid-tinged oscillations that carry outer space feels.

"Our Genome" then rounds things off with meandering, 80s styled synths, ethereal, revolving modulations and rumbling bass frequencies to finish.

Carceres Records, an emerging label in the French techno music scene since 2017, has finally decided to release its first vinyl. The two co-founders, Brulee and Deevai have invited Hephaistos and Sluhg for this release.Four video clips produced by Vladimir DMDJ will be part of this new project. The visuals will immerse us into the intimacy of the individual's relationship with himself, admiring his relationship with his body or perhaps testifying to his encounter with the other.

Black Truffle’s documentation of the prolific recent work of legendary American composer Alvin Lucier continues with Works for the Ever Present Orchestra. This is a very special release for the composer, as it presents pieces written for the thirteen-member Ever Present Orchestra, formed in 2016 exclusively to perform Lucier’s works. At the heart of the ensemble are four electric guitars, an instrument Lucier began composing for in 2013 with Criss-Cross (recorded by two core members of the Ever Present Orchestra, Oren Ambarchi and Stephen O’Malley, for whom it was composed, on Black Truffle 033). Through the use of e-bows, the guitars take on a role akin to the slow sweep pure wave oscillators heard in many of Lucier’s works since the early 1980s, but with added harmonic richness. Like much of Lucier’s instrumental music, the pieces recorded here focus on acoustic phenomena, especially beating patterns, produced by the interference between closely tuned pitches. The work presented here is some of the richest and most inviting that Lucier has composed. Though all of the pieces clearly belong to the same continuing exploration of the behaviour of sound in physical space and make use of related compositional devices, each takes on a strikingly different character. Titled Arc, for the full ensemble of four guitars, four saxophones, four violins, piano and bowed glockenspiel inhabits a world of sliding, uneasy tones, punctuated by a single piano note. Where Double Helix, for four guitars, rests on a pillow of warm, low hum, EPO-5, for two guitars, saxophone, violin, and glockenspiel possess a limpid, crystalline quality. Accompanying the four new compositions are two adaptations of existing pieces for radically different instrumentation, demonstrating Lucier’s excitement about the new possibilities suggested by this dedicated ensemble. Works for the Ever Present Orchestra is an essential document of the current state of Lucier’s continuing exploration, as well as offering a seductive entry-point for anyone who might yet be unacquainted with his singular body of work.

Presented in a deluxe gatefold sleeve with cover artwork and liner notes from Alvin Lucier. Includes a download code featuring hi-res vesions of the LP material. The download code also includes the bonus Adaptions for the Ever Present Orchestra featuring two pieces (“Two Circles” and “Braid”) that are not included on the LP version. Mastered by Rashad Becker. Design by Lasse Marhaug.

Mono Han are brothers Alessandro and Davide, who collectively have a deep and long understanding of electronic music. Davide is a co-founder of N.O.I.A, one of Italy’s first electronic live acts to perform and record with drum machines and synths as early as 1978. He was also behind seminal Italo outfit Klein + M.B.O and proto-house hit “Dirty Talk”. Alessandro, following in his brother’s footsteps was inevitable and he too became hooked on the incredible new sound palette emanating from the early electronic machines.

Since then they have released under an array of aliases, have clocked up numerous club hits and this project brings them back to their 80’s roots.

The release of Rising Son in 1986 on Greensleeves began a new era for Augustus Pablo edging his Rockers revolution into the digital age. In his own words Rising uon “mix-up the vibes a little more” from steppers like ‘Pipers of Zion’, revival reggae ‘African Frontline’ and the deep and heavy ‘The Day Before The Riot’. Recorded at Channel One, Tuff Gong, Dynamic & HC&F and engineered by Phillip Smart and Scientist.

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.

Das italienische Acid Duo ist zu unserer Freude mit der „Vax Of Love“ EP zurück bei BPitch, die beiden veröffentlichten hier 2019 die „909 Therapy“ EP und davor schon das erfolgreiche „Drops In Heaven“, damals ihr Debut bei BPitch. Sie setzen ihre Experimente mit industriellem Sound und der quirligen, zeitlosen Roland TR-303 fort. Was wir hier hören ist der Sound Turins einer der italienischen „Motor Cities“, der Geist verlassener Fabriken ist in jedem Beat und jeder Bass- und Acid-line präsent.

On Sunset features ten classic yet modern Paul Weller songs. On Sunset is a soul album. At the same time it’s also an electronic album, an orchestral album, an album packed with masterly pop songs and heart-tugging ballads, and an album filled with touches of experimentalism. It’s also an album that sees Weller taking a rare glance into the rear-view mirror as he speeds into the 2020s. Most of the album sees Weller multi-tasking on various instruments with accompaniment from his regular band - Ben Gordelier appears on all tracks and Andy Crofts on most whilst Steve Cradock pops up with his guitar on 4 songs. An eclectic and sometimes surprising gathering of guests appear on On Sunset including Slade’s Jim Lea contributing violin to the Bonzos-esque “Equanimity”, and Paul’s old Style Council chum Mick Talbot adds his signature Hammond Organ sound to 3 tracks. The beautifully lush “More” features a verse sung by French singer Julie Gros, from the band Le Superhomard (whose album Meadow Lane Park was one of Weller’s favourites of 2019) as well as the return of The Strype’s guitarist Josh McClorey. English folk trio The Staves contribute backing vocals for 3 tracks. Once again Hannah Peel sprinkles her magic over the album with string arrangements and The Paraorchestra were invited to add their expertise to 4 tracks. Formats include Black double Gatefold Heavyweight LP, a CD Mintpack and a Deluxe Hardback CD version with additional tracks.

IZIPHO SOUL are ecstatic to collaborate with Marlin McNichol’s Angel Dove Global.

Legendary 70s funk band Ripple return with their two original members - Curtis “Kazoo” Reynolds & Keith “Doc” Samuels - as RIPPLE 2.20.

For the first project, we present a brand new version of John Edwards’ ‘Exercise My Love’, this is no ordinary cover, check out the slick production and Doc Samuels’ incredible vocals!

On the flip we’ve gone as funky as we’ve ever dared to venture. A remix of Ripple’s signature song, with a fresh modern twist, that will ignite your record rooms now and dance floors soon!
Limited edition of 300 copies

IZIPHO SOUL are extremely proud to release, on a 7” single, the track dubbed as the ‘Soul soundtrack to the summer of 2020’

This two step vibe has everything going on: warm vocals, wah wah electric piano, strings, funky bass, rhythmic drums and congas.
Bonus 1: On the flip you get the previously unreleased IN THE NAME OF LOVE - a mesmerising SOS Band / Fatback styled groove.
Bonus 2: A FREE 'SOUND OF SUPERBAD BEER MAT' with every order in replica label design!

Limited edition of 300 copies

New release by one of Berlin’s most unique and long standing producers. Patrick Stottrop’s activities are at the heart and foundation of Berlin’s Techno sound, active since 1996 and founder of Zhark Recordings, he’s been pushing and challenging the definition of dance music since it’s inception.
On this release we find the title track “Legeia” as well as the tracks “Die Erwartung” and “Richmond”, taken from The Garden of Time LP recoding session from 2019. These 3 tracks set the prevailing mood for 2 subsequent cuts, “Horus” and “Sorcerer”. While Richmond follows a more andante direction “Legeia” presents a unique combination of drones engulfed in a wild & hectic Technoid percussive Inferno. “Die Erwartung” on the other hand might resemble in its overall mood the Rheingold Prelude (in a higher register) with its drone like strings layer build up. wHILE “Horus” and “Sorcere” are recent tracks form KAREEMs current live set and were recently arranged to fit into the EP format. Both tracks build on static percussive hostility and climax towards their middle parts to an overall acoustic orgy of reverberating string strikes and high-pitched drone oscillations. An over all grand addition to his continuously growing and ecstatic catalog.

The #1 Best Selling Track for 2019 in Electronica / Downtempo genre on Beatport, Namito - 'Stone Flower' sees a new vinyl release featuring a previously unreleased, and vinyl only, remix by Satori. It also serves as a teaser for Satori's upcoming full length album on Sol Selectas Records.

Iranian artist Namito, who has made quite a name for himself over the years in the Techno scene of Berlin, diverges from this tip for 'Stone Flower', putting a new twist on a Persian classic. Creating a hypnotic deep house groove, with ethereal uplifting lyrics, listeners and dancers alike are taken on a journey to a time when Persian culture was at its peak of creativity and freedom.

Namito heard this traditional song at a family gathering in Iran, sung by his 2 sisters Mojgan and Marjan, and was instantly moved by its beauty. He invited his sisters into the studio the very next day to record their vocals, and the result is 'Stone Flower', which pays homage to the Persian tradition, while embracing the modern edge of electronic music at the same time.

For this special vinyl only remix, Satori winds his way deeper down into the electronic abyss, with a reinterpretation that maintains the original Persian vocals, but also blends in elements of an old Afghan interpretation of the same classic song, creating a tougher, club-leaning version.

The artwork by Helia Jamali, also of Persian decent, takes us into the mystical world of ancient scared geometry and displays the beauty of her home country Iran.

South African disco 12” originally released in 1983, the start of the country’s ‘bubblegum’ era. Adaye was a once-off studio project featuring members of Stimela, the SA supergroup formerly known as The Cannibals and at the time also recording under aliases like the Street Kids and Kumasi. As Adaye they roped in singer Al Etto and went into the studio with Heads Music boss Emil Zoghby, who shares songwriting credits with Ray Phiri on the only track they released: ‘Turn It Up’ - an eight-minute slice of guitar funk throbbing to a disco beat. Remastered from the original tapes and reissued on DJ Okapi’s Afrosynth Records.

The third release on Tempo Dischi is 'Keep On Dance' by Contact Music, a little gem that is part of the Italo Disco history, but has characteristics of the early Proto House sound.

Antonio Cucaro, the Italian musician, songwriter and producer behind this project recalls ‘I started playing guitar very early. I drew my inspirations from the echo of Woodstock that came through the ‘Bandiera Gialla’ show on Radio Rai: emotions that were equal to true revelations when listening to Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Cream, Jimmy Page, Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple), Joe Pass, Alvin Lee, George Benson. Stimulated by various musical contamination, which came from rock and Italian authorial music, I started immersing myself into searching new exciting sounds, applying composition to various directions while trying to produce something new without worrying about genres or people's judgements, all without a compromise. I would not have imagined that one evening in 1983, 'Keep on Dance' would be born. It was produced together with three DJs who wanted a sort of opening track for their sets, putting together some sequences recorded by myself using percussion, acoustic and electronic drums (Linn, Oberheim, Simmons). The fact that after almost forty years it has been revived and considered a Proto House pearl really honours me. Composing music is like breathing pure oxygen: you compose, record and realise that you are already thinking about the next step to keep breathing’.

Double sider 12" including the bubblegum club track ''Let's Make a Deal'' by Linda "Babe” Majika, which was originally released on the rare 'Don’t Treat Me So Bad' lp in South-Africa, 1988. On the flip, you’ll find the deep late-night saxophone driven tune ''Step Out Of My Life'' which includes Don Laka on the keyboard and is produced by Ray Phiri, who also founded the popular South African group 'Stimela'. The song was originally released in 1989 and finally sees a reissue, pressed as a loud DJ-friendly 12-inch.

Martin Haidinger has released music on Worm Interface and Toytronic Records as Gimmik and is one half of Abfahrt Hinwil.

Released initially on hand-numbered cassette on Martin's own Hidden Reality micro imprint in October 2019, Entre Les Chambres gets the remaster treatment by n5MD for release on vinyl in early summer of 2020.
Entre Les Chambres is a highly personal work for Haidinger. And is his first new publicly released Gimmik since he appeared on our MD8 compilation back in 2004. We are proud to bring you the album on limited edition silver with black and white splatter vinyl on June 12th, 2020.
Those familiar with Martin Haidinger's work as Gimmik might be surprised by an entirely beatless return from Haidinger. However, those that have followed his music know that his synth work is undoubtedly his signature, and Entre Les Chambres' two long-form works bring his trademark to the fore, free from the confines of the grid.

Startisha introduces Naeem as a restlessly creative artist with an impressionistic, genre-bending album. As a complete work, Startisha exemplifies artistic daring and emotional intelligence while exploring new ideas and sounds, and philosophically excavating the artist's histories. Startisha may be loaded with impressive collaborations and left-field sounds, but don't get it twisted_this music comes straight from Naeem's heart, representing the journey he's taken to get to this point as well as what lies in the future for him. Baltimore-hailing Naeem Juwan has spent much of the last decade stretching his creative legs in a variety of ways: he's hit the road with artists ranging from the Avalanches and Bon Iver to Big Red Machine and Mouse on Mars, took part in a 37d03d residency in Berlin, and was selected as the music resident in 2019 for New York's Pioneer Works space. Through it all, he's been building the songs that make up Startisha, a record a half-decade in the making that featured Juwan pulling from creative circles all across the U.S. to craft a truly unique document of sound. After studio sessions in Philadelphia and New York, Juwan decamped to Minneapolis and holed up in Justin Vernon's home studio, where Startisha continued to come together with contributions from Vernon, Ryan Olson (Gayngs, Polica), Swamp Dogg, Velvet Negroni, Francis and the Lights, and regular collaborators Amanda Blank and Micah James.

Jullian Gomes returns with the second single from his 'Slow Poison' album and this time he brings in the heavy weights of house!

‘Stay’ which features the incredible voice of ZAKI IBRAHIM is a smooth cut but don't let that fool you as this also works perfectly mid set. Usual bumpy grooves & lush backing delivers the original Jullian's unique touch.

Remix team... OSUNLADE / FRED EVERYTHING / DJ SPINNA. Yep, all three of them on one slice of plastic makes for a 12" you can keep in your box for all occasions. Top drawer work from all three remixers as you would expect.

While the ongoing global pandemic means our chances to gather and dance beneath deep blue skies are likely to be limited, there’s never been a greater need for warm, positive and life-affirming music. NuNorthern Soul has decided to do its bit by offering up a brand new 'Summer Selections' sampler that’s packed to the rafters with magical musical treats lifted from some of the label’s most potent forthcoming releases.

The EP begins with something rather special from Canadian producer Igor B: a gentle, sunrise-ready soundscape rich in languid hand percussion, bubbly synthesizer lines and glistening guitars. Entitled 'Deep Breath', the track is just one of the many highlights you’ll find on his forthcoming debut album, “Stranded Seaside”.

There’s a similarly tactile and immersive feel to 'Early Morning Ferry' by George Koutalieris, a Greek producer whose debut album 'Stop, Look, Listen' will be released by NuNorthern Soul later in the year. On his contribution to 'Summer Selections Two', Koutalieris wraps lilting, sun-soaked guitar solos and soft-touch electronics around a chunky groove that doffs a cap to the more laidback end of the 1970s West Coast rock spectrum.

Next up, long-time friend of the family Chris Coco delivers a stunning interpretation of 'Dinum', an overlooked neo-classical/ambient fusion track by Faroe Islands-based producer Kristian Blak’s Yggdrasil project. Coco’s simmering, string-drenched re-imagining is featured here as a teaser of NuNorthern Soul’s reissue of the 2014 track in the autumn, which will also feature a mind-blowing 10-minute rework by Mike Salta – an artist who is also featured on 'Summer Selections Two'.

This time round you’ll find Salta collaborating with Mortale on the starry, EP-ending ambient bliss of 'Bells of Burgibba', a deliciously drowsy mixture of twinkling electric piano motifs, chiming lead lines and woozy pads taken from the forthcoming “Celestial Hike EP”. It paddles in similar sonic waters to label boss Phil Cooper’s stretched-out, slo-mo Balearic dub of new signing Faint Waves’ 'Aphrodesia', a teaser of the artist’s “Islands In Time EP” which can be found elsewhere on 'Summer Selections Two'.

No NuNorthern Soul label sampler would be complete without a contribution from BJ Smith, an artist who has been with the imprint from its earliest days. Smith returns to the imprint with another reminder of his uncanny ability to deliver ear-catching cover versions that re-cast classic cuts as loved-up rays of Balearic sunshine. This time round Smith takes us on a huggable shuffle through Prefab Sprout’s 'All the World Loves Lovers', re-imagining it as a future Balearic anthem and a summer 2020 sing-along. It’s not only a sneak peak of what we can expect from 'Dedication to the Greats Volume 3', his first covers collection for nigh on six years, but also a life-affirming highlight of an EP that oozes musical positivity from start to finish.

A wicked triple gatefold album... anthologic of the underground hardstyle newslkool crossing the old school road and finally pushing a superb talented

Belgian psychedelic jazz collective Compro Oro are pleased to announce a new collaboration with Murat Ertel, co-founder and frontman of Istanbul's cult psychedelic folk band BaBa ZuLa and his singer partner Esma Ertel. Entitled 'Simurg', the album is set for release on the 19th June via Sdban Ultra and follows Compro Oro's critically acclaimed sophomore album 'Suburban Exotica', released last year.

Compro Oro's introduction to Turkish psychedelics came off the back of a live performance between guitarist Bart Vervaeck and Murat Ertel at Istanbul Express in 2016. Connecting both musically and spiritually, they headed into the studio and under the watchful eye of producer and multi-instrumentalist Dijf Sanders, Compro Oro and Murat recorded several tracks during an intense recording session that would make up 'Simurg'. "The new music is entirely based on improvisation. In contrast to 'Suburban Exotica', which is built more from song structures and where there was more overdubs," explains frontman Wim Segers.

The story of Simurg is a story of attraction, existential research, purification and rebirth. In a mysterious search for fulfilment, millions of birds embark on a journey, crossing several valleys, each representing a human characteristic. While some yield to the attractions of love, ego or grow ignorant and faithless, others remain curious and continue their expedition. Slowly but surely this murmuration of birds thins out and a selection of 30 birds reach Mountain Kaf and the nest of the Simurg. There and then they become one, they are reborn and reincarnated in an almighty and omniscient phoenix.

The strength of Simurg as a result of its power to resurrect from its own ashes reflects the resilience of every human being. We all have the power to strengthen and improve ourselves, not in the least in our contact with others, and this is exactly what this project is about: a spontaneous dialogue, a quest for new musical horizons, a gathering of liberal spirits to reach for the unknown. From the Anatolian rhythms and reverb-smothered funk rock of 'Ben', to the mystical atmospherics of 'Ignorance Is Bliss (Valley Of Ignorance)' and the dark, dub-infused grooves of 'Valley Of Disbelief', 'Simurg' is an allegory about the noise that you can create as a person.

Der Multi-Instrumentalist und Produzent hat sich mit fein strukturierten und enthusiastischen Kompositionen bereits einen Namen gemacht. Sein 2016 erschienenes Album „Forms“ zog mit seiner spielerischen Verwebung von Rhythmen und Samples die Aufmerk-samkeit der elektronischen Musikszene auf sich. In diesem Jahr veröffentlicht The Micronaut nun Olympia (Summer Games) – ein Album, das seinen sorgfältigen Produktionsstil weiterführt und dem Geist der Olympischen Sommerspiele gewidmet ist. Denn auch wenn diese abgesagt wurden, so sind die damit verbundenen Tugenden wie Durchhaltevermögen und Zusammenhalt zeitlos und gerade in diesen Wochen um so wichtiger. Solch grundlegende Prinzipien, die den Geist der Olympischen Spiele ausmachen, sind es auch, die The Micronaut umgetrieben haben. Und so war es kein Zufall, dass Summer Games entstanden ist: „Ich habe bisher immer Konzept-Alben veröffentlicht. Dieses Mal habe ich Olympia gewählt, weil es nicht nur Wettkampf, sondern auch eine Friedensbewegung ist, bei der es um die Menschen geht, ganz egal welcher Nation sie angehören.“ Diesen vielfältigen und stets vitalen, lebhaften Geist spiegelt das Album wider: Das verspielt-zarte Uneven Bars oder das träumerisch-sphärische Table Tennis, sie alle erzählen von den besonderen Momenten, von Siegen und Niederlagen und all den Facetten, die dem Sport innewohnen. Dadurch ist eine Reise entstanden, eine schwungvolle, aber auch turbulente Achterbahnfahrt, die den künstlerischen Anspruch The Micronauts abbildet: „Lebhaft, expressiv, dramatisch, manchmal ruhig, manchmal kraftvoll – ich versuche immer die Vibes von Wanderlust, Hoffnung und individuellen Momenten in meiner Musik einzufangen“ – erzählt der in Leipzig lebende Künstler. Und dieses Mal liegt das Spannungsfeld zwischen sportlichen Disziplinen – in dem sich The Micronaut musikalisch ausdrückt. Wobei seine Musik keinesfalls zum Sich-Messen anregt, vielmehr sind viele Tracks mit ihrem übermütigen, optimistischen Vibe für die Tanzflächen der Clubs geeignet, um sich die Anspannung der zuweilen olympischen Herausforderungen des Alltags von der Seele zu tanzen. Dazu hat The Micronaut anspruchsvolle Arrangements mit fließenden Melodien und unaufgeregtem Gesang kombiniert und den Weg für ein neues, collagenartiges musikalisches Genre geebnet. Bisweilen dreht Summer Games sogar in Richtung Elektro-Pop ab, dann wieder ist es inspiriert von old-schooligem Hip Hop and in anderen Momenten mündet und explodiert es förmlich in intelligent gesetzten musikalischen Hochsprüngen. Die Messlatte liegt hoch – doch bei allem Auf und Ab scheint immer durch, dass The Micronaut ein begeisterter Musikliebhaber ist, der Ideen und Inspirationen von überall her sammelt und sie unter Einsatz seines ganz eigenen emotionalen Prismas übersetzt.

Multidisciplinary NYC artist Gavilán Rayna Russom launches her own label Voluminous Arts, dedicated to highlight electronic and experimental artists whose work challenges fixed categories of genre and categorization. Her aim is to create a platform for multidisciplinary work and events. The inaugural release being her second solo album as Gavilán Rayna Russom 'Secret Passage', following up last years 'The Envoy, an homage to the East Side Rail Tunnel in Providence, Rhode Island, and the friendships she made there.

In Rayna’s words:
“I grew up in Providence, Rhode Island in the 1970’s and 80’s. The booming jewelry and textile industries of the previous decades had pulled out by that point. The Italian mob ran most details of the day to day operations of the city. As kids coming up in that environment, before the internet, me and the people I hung out with didn’t know anything else and we worked with what we had to entertain ourselves. We found places that had been forgotten by market interests and made them spaces of creative community building. One of the most special of these places was the East Side Rail Tunnel. Running for almost exactly one mile beneath the city’s streets, the tunnel and nearby Crook Point Bridge were unsupervised autonomous zones where I tasted the possibilities of a world without surveilance. The tunnel was particularly important in my creative development because not only was it a marginal zone apart from monetized spaces of creative consumption, but it also had specific experiential properties. It had a bend in it which meant that when you got to the middle of it you were in complete darkness, and I learned quickly that when you spend enough time in complete darkness you start to hallucinate, which I liked. The acoustics were also remarkable; long natural delays and harmonic-reinforcing reverberances. Making any sound in there added layers of acoustic effects which made noises physical and fluid and, combined with the complete darkness, absolutely dissolved boundaries between internal and external experience. I started hanging out there when I was 14 and continued to return there regularly until development, gentrification and policing eventually made it inaccessible. By the mid ‘90s it was sealed off with progressively more impenetrable barriers. Nowadays it looks very different. This music is about some of the significant experiences I had in this beautifully neglected place and the people I had them with.”

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

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

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

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

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

Classically trained experimentalist Aarp releases his compositionally expansive and pointedly political debut album via InFiné. ‘Propaganda’ is an album that rewards repeat listens and inspires research, pushing listeners to look for the truth beyond the headlines. The title ‘Propaganda’ is inspired in part by the death of a young man in Nantes who drowned following a police altercation at “Fête de la Musique” in 2019. Despite the fact that he was only dancing and there was clear evidence of negligence, the media campaign that followed cleared all involved and disinformation spread, distorting the truth and allowing French authorities to evade any consequence. This blatant and very recent example of press propaganda lead Aarp to explore a multitude of moments in history, each one informing a single track from his new record. Each song title is a direct quote taken from different examples of these moments, from George W. Bush to Margret Thatcher and French philosopher Gilles Deleuze to the infamous Oxycontin commercial by Purdue Pharma.

Part two in his trilogy of what seems like an aural romp through dance music’s key components, Luke Vibert follows up his ode to the ‘Amen break’ on the sumptuous ‘Luke Vibert presents Amen Andrews’, with a pretty damn thorough modelling of rave roots, in ‘Luke Vibert presents Modern Rave’.

When it comes to bashing out creative, highly complex, yet seemingly simplistic rave bangers, Luke Vibert certainly has the chops for delivering the goods in spades. As an innovator in the field for labels like Ninja Tune, Warp and Rephlex, Vibert digs deep into his floppy disc collection for a glorious ride through familiar samples and hooks, breakbeats and funky basslines and earworm melodies for an indispensable collection of feel good modern rave.

For the last 20 years London-based author and party organiser Tim Lawrence has dedicated himself to excavating the history of New York City party culture and bringing some of the most powerful aspects of that culture to London’s dance scene, from where it has ricocheted around the world.

Having conducted the first and set of major interviews with David Mancuso of the New York City Loft, Lawrence started to host Loft-style Lucky Cloud Sound System parties with David and friends in London in June 2003. In February 2004 he published the first of three published three pioneering histories that have excavated and championed the previously overlooked foundations of contemporary party culture: Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music (1970-79), Hold on to Your Dreams: Arthur Russell and the Downtown Music Scene (1973-92), and Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor (1980-83). Since 2018 Lawrence has hosted and DJed at the community audiophile party "All Our Friends. Paper Magazine describes him as the “reigning authority on the history of dance music in New York”.

With knowledge to share, and a readership as well as a dance floor to feed, Lawrence released Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor as the debut imprint on Reappearing Records. A year in the making, a compilation featuring rare and iconic tracks that appear in his much-loved and heavily-thumbed classic Love Saves the Day amounts to the follow-up. The collection features several tracks selected regularly by Mancuso, the party host who exerted a prophetic and unparalleled influence on New York City party culture, as charted by Lawrence. It also includes choice picks from groundbreaking DJs such as Michael Cappello, Steve D’Acquisto, Francis Grasso, Richie Kaczor, Larry Levan and Nicky Siano, whose expressive contributions are faithfully recorded in Love Saves the Day. The compilation traces how disco grew out of the record collections and intuitive sensibility of these and other DJs, offering a unique survey of the era’s expansive sonic palette.

Amnesia Scanner announces Tearless, the Berlin-based duo’s second LP. As Amnesia Scanner founders, Ville Haimala and Martti Kalliala watch their icy home country of Finland thaw, the staggering scale of political recalibration and the worldwide climate crisis to come blows open old norms. This album reflects what it feels to experience Earth at a time when collapse is emerging as the prevailing narrative.


The musical scope of the record is expansive, with guest vocalists—the Peruvian artist Lalita and the Brazillian DJ/producer LYZZA—descending into a vast uncanny valley of sound. Tearless follows the 2014 AS Live [][] mixtape, 2015 audio play Angels Rig Hook, two EP’s for Young Turks, and their 2018 debut album, Another Life (PAN).



“There’s a looming sense of radical change,” they note, connecting the present to a fin de siecle horror and curiosity regarding what new world is being ushered in. Someone called Tearless a “breakup album with the planet.” To which Amnesia Scanner responds, on the LP’s closing track: “Youwill be fine, if we can help you lose your mind.”


With the crossfader on Tearless sitting closer to pop than abstraction, so too does the audience for this record widen in scope. Listening through: Opener “AS Enter” sets a sombre tone until the fucking riffs of the second track(the titular, Lalita-helmed “Tearless”) make clear there’s plenty of roaring to come. A feature from metalcore band Code Orange on “AS Flat” follows, along with “AS Trouble” (feat. Oracle, the third, machinic ghost-member of Amnesia Scanner) and together they hit as black-metal-gaze dirges. At the album’s midpoint, Lalita returns for the beautiful, operatic breakdown of “AS Acá” (released as a single in 2019), before “Call of the Center” guides listeners through three club ready tracks—the grain-processed dembow of “AS Too Late” and “AS Going” with LYZZA, and then the ambientheadbanger “AS Labyrinth.” Closing “Tearless” is the sadboy grunge of “AS U Will Be Fine” with a clear statement of intent: doom, despair, insanity, absurdity, it’s all natural, all cathartic, and all OK. Refuse like the ‘90s and party like the ‘20s—if that seems senseless, you are doing it right.