Cerca:land of echo

Javier Jiménez Rolo surprises with Saint Malo, a project that explores the intersections of neoclassicism, folk, ambient and electronic textures.

That Saint-Malo is a town in Brittany is the least of it. Even the fact that it exists is unimportant. Javier has never been there. Similarly, his album takes us to remote or not so remote places without moving from where we are. Javier composed these twelve songs between 2019 and 2021 from his room: "One of the problems with recording at home rather than in a studio is that when you move, your recording space changes too. In the case of this album, I was involved in three moves during its whole process. Trying to see the positive side of this situation, I realised that, as well as a collection of songs, it was a testimonial to the different places where I had lived during those years and their respective views: 'Promenade' is an imagined walk from an interior flat; 'Picture In A Frame' is a sunny afternoon in a park in Ciudad Lineal, Madrid, and 'Bells Of Nowhere' is a stroll through the neighbourhood that was once my grandparents' and is now mine."

It's an eminently evocative album but also powerfully narrative, which moves through different emotional states. Along the way, references as heterogeneous as Javier's own tastes come up. From the inevitable Arvo Pärt, Max Richter and Steve Reich to the more unsuspected Thom Yorke, Burial, Caribou, Vulfpeck or even Dua Lipa. Stéphane Grappelli, Andrew Bird, Nils Frahm, Olafur Arnalds or Rene Aubry are other names Javier mentions when he talks about something similar to influences.

The journey, during which the songs miraculously fit with magical precision to the landscapes we are travelling through, begins with the promising 'Beware Of The Dogs' and 'Maltravieso'. It is followed by the obsessive arpeggios of 'Le Havre' that give way to the luminous 'Fields Of Gold', the emotion of 'Cais do Sodré' and the passionate 'Le pont roulant', reminiscent of a restrained Alexandre Desplat. Along the way, dogs will bark, rain will fall on the 'Promenade' and the sun will come out with the perfectly playful 'Dolce Far Niente' ("a mix between elevator music and a song announcing the arrival of summer" according to Javier) in which echoes of Isao Tomita and Raymond Scott resound.

The result of this captivating, unexpected and suggestive mixture is Saint Malo, Javier Jiménez's first album and the empirical demonstration that he does not have, despite his classical training, any red lines. "I've always flirted with jazz, with swing... Then I moved on to messing around with loops, to doing more ambient and experimental things. I also had my folkie phase with the klezmer group Barrunto Bellota Band..."

In Saint Malo the melodies grow, become small, return and intertwine with loops and improbable aromas, to form an album that describes a journey through emotions. From melancholy to joy and the surprise of first discoveries.

Javier Jiménez Rolo surprises with Saint Malo, a project that explores the intersections of neoclassicism, folk, ambient and electronic textures.

That Saint-Malo is a town in Brittany is the least of it. Even the fact that it exists is unimportant. Javier has never been there. Similarly, his album takes us to remote or not so remote places without moving from where we are. Javier composed these twelve songs between 2019 and 2021 from his room: "One of the problems with recording at home rather than in a studio is that when you move, your recording space changes too. In the case of this album, I was involved in three moves during its whole process. Trying to see the positive side of this situation, I realised that, as well as a collection of songs, it was a testimonial to the different places where I had lived during those years and their respective views: 'Promenade' is an imagined walk from an interior flat; 'Picture In A Frame' is a sunny afternoon in a park in Ciudad Lineal, Madrid, and 'Bells Of Nowhere' is a stroll through the neighbourhood that was once my grandparents' and is now mine."

It's an eminently evocative album but also powerfully narrative, which moves through different emotional states. Along the way, references as heterogeneous as Javier's own tastes come up. From the inevitable Arvo Pärt, Max Richter and Steve Reich to the more unsuspected Thom Yorke, Burial, Caribou, Vulfpeck or even Dua Lipa. Stéphane Grappelli, Andrew Bird, Nils Frahm, Olafur Arnalds or Rene Aubry are other names Javier mentions when he talks about something similar to influences.

The journey, during which the songs miraculously fit with magical precision to the landscapes we are travelling through, begins with the promising 'Beware Of The Dogs' and 'Maltravieso'. It is followed by the obsessive arpeggios of 'Le Havre' that give way to the luminous 'Fields Of Gold', the emotion of 'Cais do Sodré' and the passionate 'Le pont roulant', reminiscent of a restrained Alexandre Desplat. Along the way, dogs will bark, rain will fall on the 'Promenade' and the sun will come out with the perfectly playful 'Dolce Far Niente' ("a mix between elevator music and a song announcing the arrival of summer" according to Javier) in which echoes of Isao Tomita and Raymond Scott resound.

The result of this captivating, unexpected and suggestive mixture is Saint Malo, Javier Jiménez's first album and the empirical demonstration that he does not have, despite his classical training, any red lines. "I've always flirted with jazz, with swing... Then I moved on to messing around with loops, to doing more ambient and experimental things. I also had my folkie phase with the klezmer group Barrunto Bellota Band..."

In Saint Malo the melodies grow, become small, return and intertwine with loops and improbable aromas, to form an album that describes a journey through emotions. From melancholy to joy and the surprise of first discoveries.

Circular patterns morphing through time, loop and ritual form the fabric of Proserpine, the latest work by Leeds-based musician, Teresa Winter. Recorded from a summer to a winter through 2021 and 2022, Proserpine is Winter's most cohesive, focused music to date: confidently revelling in space, fixating on isolated sounds and giving way to satisfying, swirling waves of vocal and electronic buzz. Proserpine is Teresa Winter's debut recording for Glasgow-based label, Night School.

On Proserpine, musical patterns revolve and intersect with each other, transmogrifying the music's narrative. Over-arching themes emerge: continual change, elusiveness. Insubstantiality emerges into concrete reality in the form of recognisable field recordings: the purring of a pet cat, the hum of a live cable. The loops and patterns are sometimes just out of sight, the click and whirl on Child Of Nature is the backdrop to hymnal vocalisations by Winter, who intones spell-like text in conversation with herself. On opener Circles, Winter's vocal is pre-linguistic, detached syllables falling into flowing streams, before Plume's field recordings seem to juxtapose nocturnal and diurnal wildlife. "You said I was a Flower Of The Mountain" sings Winter, as James Joyce's Molly Bloom does but the carpe diem desire in Ulysses is dissipated here, spread out by gauzy, droning organs. Here desire is blown up and out, changed into something undefinable but no less powerful.

Change is at the heart of the album. The Roman goddess Proserpine, herself a reimagined version of the earlier Greek goddess Persephone, is always between: between summer and winter, the land of the living and the underworld, constantly emerging into new states of being. It's a fitting metaphor for Winter's work. Like an Apple feels like it soundtracks this in-between state, long, trailing reverb smudging synth keys and Winter's achingly beautiful vocal performance. The effect is stirring but flitting in and out of perception, sometimes Winter's presence feels of this world, of musical instruments and practises and at others it feels like the music is about to phase into a different plane, a different universe.

While Proserpine references the myths and cults of the classical, pre-Christian era, Winter's restless preoccupation with the mechanics of religion informs the album in other ways. Ritual is present through out, either in the mantra-like vocalisations or even the private rituals we are invited to witness: on Fireworks the listener eave drops into the protagonist's private bonfire. On the stunning Lamento, layers of Choral vocal interlock in celestial patterns that recall catholic mass: it's an overt effect that simulates the ecstasy of religious fervour and also reminds the listener of the use of vocal that runs through Proserpine. Winter's vocals often echo with the euphoria of obliteration, of disintegrating in an awful bliss. It's an effect achieved with finality by the closer New Water as the piece begins with voice before burning up in the atmosphere of elegiac violins and enveloping undertows of whirring synth patterns and ghostly pads. Proserpine is forever turning, changing, always elusive and quietly revelatory.

ONE LEVEL is delighted to announce its latest release, the captivating 'Big Tal's Elements' EP by French DJ/Producer, ALEQS NOTAL.

Following the resounding success of One Level's debut release, the awe-inspiring Afro-futurism of Hagan's 'Forward Focus' EP - a production that ignited a dynamic and fruitful chapter for the London-based artist - the label has been meticulously crafting its return. One Level prides itself on championing quality over quantity, and this ethos is beautifully demonstrated in its second release...

Aleqs Notal, the former scratch champion and consistently evolving producer, joins the label family with a collection of four remarkable tracks. Despite his years of experience, Aleqs admits that he's still in the process of refining his own sound and with 'Big Tal's Elements’, a nickname affectionately bestowed by longtime friend and fellow artist Manaré, his four carefully curated house joints encapsulate a wealth of influences, all beautifully combining to create a modern and innovative soundtrack.

Following his early years of turntable virtuosity, and having embarked on a new creative chapter in the studio, it was 2014 and as a founding member of the innovative ClekClekBoom collective - a group of young French talents who spearheaded a groundbreaking movement that reshaped the Parisian electronic landscape - that saw Notal continue to cultivate his own sound, one rooted in the sounds of Detroit and Chicago. He became a respected DJ on the cities’ club circuit, and has gone on to to feature his music on esteemed labels including Phonogramme, Salon Recordings, Release Sustain and Patrice Scott's Sistrum Recordings.

The EP opens with 'Untwisted Delight', a homage to the timeless sound of the Motor City. A bass-driven DJ tool, pulsating with the resonance of the 808, evoking echoes of Pittman, and igniting a powerful dancefloor energy.

‘Save Ya’ is an ode to determination and self-preservation. A track with its roots deeply embedded in the dancefloor and featuring an archive sound-bank vocal alongside glorious hi-hats, it is a firm favourite of Notals. “I think its from my scratch background. I always work with the hi-hats. For me, when I hear the hats its as though I hear somebody singing." Fully road-tested at Fabric London, Save Ya is now set to rescue many a night.

'Come Get It' channels the spirit of early Chicago house. A fusion of spirited 606 and 808 drum patterns, coupled with the enchanting allure of resounding hi-hats, it offers a heartfelt homage to the revolutionary sounds that defined an era and continue to influence so much of today’s music.

Concluding the EP is 'Hymn Of Passion', a track inspired by Ron Trent's Future Vision imprint. Drawing on a diverse palette of Nigerian percussive elements and samples garnered from past projects, Aleqs weaves a sonic mosaic. Crafted in a single jam session, the track elegantly melds a rhythmic finesse with resonant congas, intertwining with the emotive Rhodes piano, to craft an unforgettable finale.

With a diverse array of influences seamlessly interwoven, Aleqs Notal’s ‘Big Tal's Elements’ EP is a journey through sound that fully captivates the listener.

“A piece of music never truly comes to An end. Revisiting a theme illustrates this idea that life goes on.” These are the words of Wayne Shorter, uttered in 2018 upon the release of Emanon, his final opus. On this record, the octogenarian uses dusky hues to shade in the passions of his youth - drawing and science-fiction, as well as the causes he has defended all his life - the fight against ecological upheaval and structural racism. This sentiment did not fail to resonate with Julien Lourau, who has reached a stage in life where he has begun to look back over certain pages written by the man he has always considered one of the masters of his trade. Five years later, this Parisian native has also chosen to revisit his glory days, offering reworked versions of specific tracks composed by his titular elder throughout the 80s. “When I play this music, I find myself back in my teenage bedroom. These are my standards, and they remind me of autumn in Rambouillet.” At that time, after practising his scales, Julien would also play Dungeons & dragons, and immerse himself in SF as well as heroic fantasy - epic influences which are not without a certain connection to the dreamworlds Shorter conjured up, as another fan of landscapes beyond the grasp of reality.

This album features four themes taken from Atlantis, which came out in 1985, and two from Joy Ryder, released three years later. To these, he has added a composition penned at around the same time for Sportin’ Life, the penultimate LP by Weather Report. This is rounded off by a tune taken

from Native Dancer, the record which, ten years earlier, in 1975, brought together this saxophonist who learnt his trade alongside Art Blakey, before joining Miles’ second quintet, and Brazilian Milton Nascimento.

“Between Native Dancer and Atlantis, Shorter did not release anything under his own name, but he took the time and care to really perfect his writing. Upon his return, he injected a very Brazilian form of subtlety into his compositions, especially rhythmically. And from a harmonic point of view, these themes are extremely sophisticated, and reveal truly singular colours. In fact, he decided to display the score as if it constituted the liner notes of Atlantis.”

Julien Lourau is a fan of every Wayne Shorter era, from his Blue Note days, where Mr Gone defined the bases of a truly unique repertoire, all the way to his final quartet - a reference like no other. He decided to focus on this “highly electric” period, which is not necessarily Shorter’s best known, nor his most widely appreciated - despite being a unanimous reference, Shorter has nonetheless never had a direct descendent. In Lourau’s line of sight there lies a desire to focus on typically South American tonic accents which characterise this repertoire, twinned with the ambition to switch up their actual sound “by attempting to open up onto a production highly influenced by eighties fusion". However, he admits that modifying the structures of these most unique of worlds constituted a fresh challenge. “There’s this labyrinthine harmonic system where you’ve no idea how it holds together, but where it’s actually impossible to touch the slightest element without the whole edifice wavering. It is in fact a very difficult thing to achieve!”

In order to successfully transcribe all this creativity free of obstacles, Julien Lourau once again called upon the help of Mathieu Debordes. From January 2023 onwards, Mathieu endeavoured to break down all the musical elements, on paper, before creating any actual music. The record was therefore constructed on the faith of these scores, without necessarily transiting through a creative residency - just two live gigs, to make sure the setup worked. Besides Mathieu Debordes and his synthesisers, Julien Lourau has assembled an ad hoc team by his side. On the bass, according to the track, we can hear erstwhile companion Sylvain Daniel or a new acolyte on the fretless bass, Joan Eche Puig.

Stéphane Edouard, on percussion, even dives headfirst into an unlikely proto-rap of sorts, on Pearl On The Half Shell (where, on the original version, Bobby McFerrin adjusted his interventions in a rather madcap style). Aesthete and drummer Jim Hart as well as pianist Leo Jassef also figure on this release - both were present on previous project devoted to label

CTI. “At sixteen, I wanted to sound like Michael Brecker rather than Ben Webster - that was equated with modernity in those days”, adds Julien with a smile, as for him, all this rings out a little like a logical next step, a joyful immersion into the fountain of youth. And if, for this record, he plays the soprano more than ever, the saxophone Shorter set in his sights on, he never tries to replicate an unattainable ideal note by note. What would be the point?

“Wayne Shorter is not just a saxophonist’s saxophonist. In fact, I don’t know a single person who has risen to challenge of his solos. I have not done it myself either, but on the other hand, I have retained a lot of his phraseology. His way of approaching the instrument reveals a more evanescent language, a work on colour and shape. Keeping this in mind has allowed me to gravitate towards certain elements, that in hindsight, I find echoes of in my work, even in Groove Gang.” Shorter etches out these phrases, creating a groove within which Lourau had traced subtle punctuation, managing, from a highly written base, to create fresh apertures, promises of a great escape. Emblematic of this standpoint, his regal version of Ponte de Areia, originally a wonderful dialogue between Milton Nascimento and Wayne Shorter. Here, the Frenchman takes liberties with the original melodies, without ever growing distant from the original spirit, extending one section with delicacy, offering a rubato development and then a groove “like a little suite”. Julien Lourau also renews with an accomplice from last century, Magic Malik, who lends his high-pitched vocals to the track. Though they had not recorded together for more than twenty years, the two of them got on as if they had only ceased collaborating yesterday, everything flowed naturally. The track was wrapped up in just one take, much like other themes, such as opener Who Goes There where the flautist deploys smooth, enchanted and smoky wisps.

Fundamentally, reflecting of the sleeve which features a child playing with a ball, image that could symbolise the sun just as much as the moon, Julien Lourau manages to translate the ambiguous candour which characterizes Shorter’s work - solar and crepuscular at the same time, that of a visionary and poet definitively situated outside of all chronology, but with whom Julien shares surprising and ‘timely’ coincidences. Shorter was born August 25, 1933, the same day as Julien’s father, “if we take time zones into account”, and who died on Lourau’s birthday, March 2, 2023. Should we take this as a random fact? Or could we not see here the sign of a destiny connecting the agnostic Frenchman to the man who, as a fervent Buddhist, believed in the transmission of his spiritual flow ?

I want to introduce this work ‘Halos of Perception’ to you in the way Lisa introduced me to it, through the sharing of experiences.

Lisa and I met for a walk near South Yarra station to talk about this work, when inclement weather made it too wet to visit the tunnels. Moving almost seamlessly from a world of leisurewear, infinite milk alternatives and blaring neons to stretches of green by the water that brimmed with sounds and life, we saw a few people climbing the Burnley bouldering wall, butterflies suspended in the hot wind and lots of plants I wish I knew the names of. Overhead the cars rumbled like a ceaseless animal as we talked about hidden ecosystems, imagined spaces and networks of care.

Stemming from a serendipitous encounter with an original Cave Clan member that led to many underground adventures, this work explores the worlds that exist outside of our perceptions. By the river, I leafed through a selection of tunnel photos Lisa had printed off at Officeworks, revealing alien textures, tunnels that stretch on into abysses of their own, underground flowing streams. Light is sparse and delicate, something reflected by the flickering and wavering in Lisa’s piano compositions.

As we walked, we noticed the ways in which infrastructure is often designed to keep people out—cut doors into fencing and clipped wires show an active and ongoing defiance of this. We spoke about how her Cave Clan friend used to go down to this painted room and read in solitude, using candles for light. The way sound exists underground, encased in these hollow cement tunnels, a painted room with its own deep hum. How people used to hold underground shows, how there were rules for safety (no exploring after rain, never alone) that was shared with each other. This warmth and absorption of other’s experiences is present in Lisa’s work—it’s immersive, like wading in water.

We paused on the walk to eat berries and talk about how The Caretaker creates transitory worlds with recorded sound, how this technology captures memory, and the exploratory pursuits of Pauline Oliveros’ Deep Listening Band. These citations of memory and deep listening inform Lisa’s use of analogue and classical instruments, playback artefacts and acoustic feedback in her own world-building. When speaking about ‘Halos of Perception’, she describes it as a fascination with timbre and acoustic artefacts.

Ideas of networks and enmeshment are felt deeply in Lisa’s compositions, motifs overlaid over each other evoking the image of many hands interlinking playfully, tenderly, softly. The way her compositions delve into refraction and echo makes me think about the tunnels and the way they splinter off into many possibilities. Manipulated textures reminiscent of the chalky, earthy, moss air that perfumes the tunnels’ subterranean air. Tactile details that gesture towards close attention, verging on obsession.

This work is also about imagining ecosystems of potential. Lisa shared with me that during this project, she has been reimagining subterranean networks in dreams, thinking about oral traditions, and the way water moves—from the sky to the earth, through the ground, connecting all these spheres. Realised in collaboration with hyperreal video artist Tristan Jalleh, Lisa’s dream landscape melds waterfalls, leaks, flower graffiti, and hidden messages lit up by imagined light sources with existing subterranean networks. There’s a real sense of wonder in this world she has built, how the city can reveal itself to you with some patience and care, how the city and its secrets can find its way into your dreams.

— Panda Wong

"Fast Rate" blends echoes of nostalgia with futuristic innovation, crafting a sonic landscape. In the relentless rush of life's high-speed journey, it invites introspection, courageously urging listeners to delve into the intricate web of contemporary life.
This EP is inspired by deep reflections on the meaning of life in a fast-paced world filled with thoughts and emotions. It symbolizes a futuristic journey, mirroring the human struggle to gain an external perspective in our busy lives. Random Alias prompts users to contemplate their existence, offering a musical experience that transcends mere dance rhythms.
The 5 tracker showcases a wide array of sounds, from aggressive tones to captivating and atmospheric elements unveiling a new face of the label that keeps exploring the interconnection between human and technology.
The A side roars with high bpm and furious rhythms."Keep me high" express the need of escaping ordinary life, seeking something that keeps us "high" and allows to escape and reset.
Following up "Fast Rate" spans a variety of influences, blending the allure of old-school Detroit electro with futuristic sounds achieved through bold experimentation and advanced wave modeling. This fusion results in a diverse and innovative sonic aesthetic, ranging from nostalgic '80s/'90s vibes to experimental dimensions where tones morph and evolve.
"Solo in Space" and "Restless" on the filp side deliver direct, pulsating sounds and rhythms, embracing an impactful electro-techno vision. These tracks merge both worlds, combining the energy and drive of electro with the power and tension typical of techno, resulting in a sonic journey that blurs genre boundaries.
Completing the collection is a digital bonus track, "Galactic Power," which serves as a soulful embodiment of the EP's essence. With its otherworldly alien-style pitched vocals,The track intricately crafts a cosmic palette of bright pulses and ethereal FM synthesis.
This release represents a bold and progressive vision of electro, confirming and solidifying the eclectic direction and the concept of inter genre flexibility. Music can be an ever-evolving form of art, blending elements that transport listeners to distant cosmic realms.
Time shapes people, people shape technology, technology shapes music, music shapes time.

Originally released as a hand-numbered CD on New Year's Eve of 2004, Last Light captures Tor Lundvall 's hushed songcraft at its most ghostly and grayscale, stripped bare like branches bracing for winter. Initially conceived of as "a piano album with sparse electronics" (with the working title November), Lundvall's palette steadily expanded, incorporating synthesizer, samples, bass, metronomes, and his signature spectral vocals. A journal entry from the spring of 2002 proved formative to his evolving vision: "I remember watching the blueish-grey light shimmering outside and hearing distant sounds echoing far away, eventually sinking into silence and stillness." The album's 12 tracks are steeped in this sense of autumnal transience, of bearing witness to what fades. The music moves in whispered swells, between dirge, drift, and devotional. Synths chime like slow-tolling bells; percussion shuffles and shivers, icy and isolated; bass traces a low-lidded plod - it's a mode both austere and seductive, lulling the listener into its landscapes of deepening dusk. Lyrically, Lundvall's language skews observational and depressive ("through lace curtains / grey light falls / dark clouds gather / in my soul" ), with each song like a gauzy glimpse into a different tableau framing winter's descent: rust - colored leaves, frozen ponds, cold crescent moons. Lundvall has long considered Last Light a "personal favorite" in his discography, and it's easy to hear why. In texture, finesse, and pacing, it vividly evokes the rare mood of fragile, frosty pastoral noir depicted in his iconic oil paintings. His is an art of the half-seen and half-remembered, of fleeting figures, shapes and shadows, and gathering darkness. Of all that disappears, and the ghosts that never leave: "So I wait / as the years / slowly drain the magic and the light / and the girl / I never loved / haunts me through the dark roads of my life."

The Moon Also Rises gathers songs that Johnny and Robert have written together since finishing their first joint album, Lost In The Cedar Wood (2021). At its heart are the oldest themes of all: death and renewal, darkness and light. The first five tracks are songs of burial, shadows and memory, while the final four are songs of awakening, light and love. The album turns around a central song, ‘The Sun Also Rises’, which stands with a foot in both dark and light. * Johnny Flynn's sixth album, and the second co-written with his friend Robert Macfarlane. Out 10th November 2023 on Transgressive * Gathers songs that Johnny and Robert have written together since finishing their first joint album, Lost In The Cedar Wood (2021). At its heart are the oldest themes of all: death and renewal, darkness and light. The first five tracks are songs of burial, shadows and memory, while the final four are songs of awakening, light and love. The album turns around a central song, 'The Sun Also Rises', which stands with a foot in both dark and light * Fuses poetry, story, landscape, history, nature and myth into a series of rich, strange songlines that criss-cross time and place, joining winter to spring, ancient to present and birth to death. As the Sun sets, so the Moon rises as its echo; as one light dies, another, altogether different light is born * Partly recorded in an old Methodist chapel -now the home of Johnny and Rob's friends, Cosmo and Flora Sheldrake * Produced by Charlie Andrew (Alt-J, Marika Hackman)

"Rural" is the first long-play work of Carlos Asimbaya aka Kaifo, which sees a fully matured vision of Ecuadorian keyboard tradition catapulted into the future and rhythmically sustained by the "bomba" percussion; an Afroandean element that bears witness to the unique history of this country.

Trained in classical music composition and inspired by jazz, Kaifo's repertoire features haunting, extensive melodies and scales that inform listeners on the landscapes of Andean styles while delivering a postmodern dancefloor experience. " Carlos Asimbaya is a keyboardist, composer and producer hailing from the small town of Machachi, Cantón Mejía, Province of Pichincha Ecuador. In 2016 he began a process of personal research and exploration of various musical expressions of traditional music, collecting sonic resources from remote localities such as Aloag, Machachi, Chalguayacu, Cotacachi, Alausi, Borbon, Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas and more - customs that identify the history of Ecuador.

In June 2019, he finally published his first single "Desvío" - a warm fusion of bomba, albazo, dembow, global bass, etc. followed by other digital releases culminating in the EP "Curtido" as part of the 'Kipus' series of Eck Echo Records. With "Rural" Kaifo uplifts the Ecuadorian organ tradition inaugurated in the mid-1960s by the likes of Polibio Mayorga into futuristic clubbing arenas. "Tres Caminos" is a magnificent opener where psychedelia meets the soft snare elegance of the "albazo", the indigenous genre that defines the soul of this country. "Monte Espeso" introduces clubbers worldwide to the contagious grooves of "bomba", the trademark rhythm of Afroecuadorian communities. The raw keyboard melody strikes fast like a proverbial lightning. "Hecho Leña" sounds like the one-man orchestra that is Kaifo. Relentless timbales fills and an alcohol-fueled family vibe characterize this unique "chicha" track.

There's no denying Marcel Fengler's profound impact on the ever-changing techno landscape. A pioneer in his own right, Fengler's works have flooded dancefloors and set lists worldwide for decades, and that shows no sign of changing anytime soon. His latest work is an all-encompassing four-track EP titled "Unleashed", including a remix from sought-after Stuttgart duo SHDW & Obscure Shape.

Kicking off with the title track, "Unleashed" introduces the EP with high-octane rhythms, pulsating low frequency sonics and rave like harmonic layers. An unrelenting onslaught of fast paced thumping techno, built around long, sweeping notes, vocal injections and a piston-like bassline, this one was made for the height of the party. "Caution" is next to feature, presenting itself as a robust industrial number with harsh percussive drive and endless layers of cadence throughout the mix. Weighty yet groovy in a unique up-tempo way, its robotic vocal splashes make the perfect accomplice for its potent warehouse vibes.

"Cypher" pulls you into the second half of the EP with rattling rhythms and more gritty sweeping musicality. Exhibiting the depth in his production skills, Fengler loads up the mix with a kaleidoscope of percussive elements alongside thumping kicks, surging synths, and another haunting robotic vox before SHDW & Obscure Shape get their teeth into a signature remix. Taking it deeper and darker, the duo's emphasis on subtle progressions and increasing intensity throughout the mix with offbeat trickery and creative unpredictability make their remix of "Cypher" a certified peak-time bomb.

"It has been quite a journey with this EP, as I've been exceptionally discerning about the sound and the entire production process. My goal was to create a release tailored for the dance floor, with the right amount of energy for peak-time moments, while also ensuring a profound and well-structured sonic experience. After testing potential tracks in my DJ sets, I distilled what I believe captures the essence I want to share with the audience. Furthermore, I'm thrilled to have SHDW & Obscure Shape on board for a formidable remix. Their work carries echoes of the raw and forceful sonic textures from earlier times, which I hold in high regard. I'm genuinely delighted with how everything has come together, and I hope you enjoy it!" - Marcel Fengler
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James Blunt ist mit neuer Musik zurück: Sein kommendes Album "Who We Used To Be" erscheint am 27. Oktober bei Atlantic Records, inkl. der aktuellen Single "Beside You".
"Who We Used To Be" ist das erste neue Studioalbum seit der Veröffentlichung von "Once Upon A Mind" im Jahr 2019.

Mit dem Erfolgsalbum erreichte er die Top 10 der Albumcharts in Deutschland und schaffte es bis auf #3 in Großbritannien. Für die neue Platte arbeitete der Brite nun mit einer ganzen Reihe von Produzenten zusammen, darunter Jonny Coffer, Red Triangle, Jack & Coke und Steve Robson. Seine zuletzt veröffentlichte Greatest-Hits-Sammlung "The Stars Beneath My Feet" hat mittlerweile mit mehr als 100.000 verkauften Einheiten Goldstatus erreicht.

Blunts 2004 erschienenes Debütalbum "Back To Bedlam" brachte den weltweiten Hit "You're Beautiful" hervor und gehört zu den zehn meistverkauften Alben des zugehörigen Jahrzehnts. Es erreichte - neben einer Vielzahl von weiteren Ländern - auch hierzulande die Spitze der Charts. Im Laufe seiner Karriere wurde der Brite nicht zuletzt mit zwei Echos, zwei Brit Awards und zwei Ivor Novello Awards ausgezeichnet und fünf Mal für den Grammy nominiert.

Mr. K’s series of edits on Most Excellent Unlimited is nothing if not eclectic, and utilitarian — as befits a veteran DJ of Danny Krivit’s stature. For our latest, Krivit pulls two disparate gems out of his bag of tricks and fits them neatly on a single 7-inch piece of vinyl.

In 1972 Ralph Bakshi’s landmark underground animated film Fritz the Cat was released, featuring a soundtrack performed by an all-star cast of San Francisco area musicians associated with the Berkeley-based Fantasy label. Perhaps Fantasy’s biggest artist was the vibes player Cal Tjader, who debuted in 1955 and was still going strong when songs were gathered for the movie’s soundtrack nearly twenty years later. Rather than simply using one of his older, already-recorded tunes, Tjader laid down a completely new version of his earlier hit record “Mamblues.” This time however, he swapped his standard latin percussion accompaniment for a can’t-miss rhythm section of Bernard Purdie, Chuck Rainey, and Arthur Adams. The result was a searing funk workout that took the latin jazz classic to new heights. Mr. K subtly warms this one up by adding a hint of reverb and bringing the tempo down a notch, pushing things from frenetic to funky, and firmly into friendly mixing territory for the DJs.

For our flip side, we turn to an unsung jewel amongst Philadelphia’s many contributions to disco music. Executive Suite released a series of singles in ’74 and ’75 that were recorded at the famed Sigma Sound Studios and had ties to a number of better known disco luminaries, among them the holy trinity of Baker-Harris-Young and, on “You Believed In Me,” the mighty Patrick Adams. Along with his longtime associate Stan Lucas, Adams garnished the vocal quartet’s composition with a driving arrangement and epic, soaring strings. The combined effect produced a vibrant, uplifting club cut that echoes the positive spirit of Curtis Mayfield’s “Move On Up” while being altogether its own thing. For our latest release Mr. K focuses solely on Adams’s instrumental section, returning repeatedly to that addictive string riff and creating a propulsive rhythm track that just doesn’t quit. And we don’t want it to!

As always, these connoisseur’s choice cuts have been remastered and pressed to Most Excellent Unlimited’s standards, and are primed and ready on 7-inch for DJs and home listeners alike.

The first release from Microtonal Records, Residents of Aotearoa: Microtonal Showcase (ROAMS) EP, presents producers currently living in New Zealand and their interpretation of a warm, atmospheric and dark sound with a groove that provokes movement and thought.

Track A1: Astral Aura by Seb Selknam
A pure analog production from Seb Selknam - Astral Aura provides an instant groove from a warm bassline that sits in pure harmony with the kick to give structure to the melodic and atmospheric landscape you are led into. Minimal crisp percussion and echoing vocals add a familiar and human element to the journey as you slowly float through vista's unknown and aura's unseen. This is 08:22 of pure bliss.

Track A2: Bosun by HRZNTL
The last beat drops, the party ends, the taxi awaits. Bosun by HRZNTL is a reflective piece, the transition from pure adrenaline and the buzz of the rave into a lasting memory of a night spent with family and friends dancing at a castle in the hills of Barcelona. The track itself is built around a detuned dubby key which represents the emotions of ending an epic night, it is surrounded by dark and haunting stabs to add to the atmosphere and a bubbling synth which brings an optimistic reality that it's only day one at Sonar.

Track B1: Admiral Frick by Harvo x Patella
The first ever demo sent to Microtonal HQ, Admiral Frick by Harvo and Patella is pure energy. Taking elements of tribal percussion and combining it with acidic stabs, it is balanced perfectly with a wandering atmospheric pad. There are subtle shifts between four four and breakbeat, as it builds with syncopated snares and a beautiful unrecognisable monotonous vocal calling you deeper into mysteries of the jungle at night. Calmness descends to create space for a powerful sweeping drone like bass that drops you back into a hypnotic state of being. Your relationship with this track will be like an addiction, constantly seeking a hit.

Track B2: Introspection by Felipe Martinez
The epitome of a Microtonal Records track; warm, atmospheric, dark and with a groove. Introspection by Felipe Martinez is a microbreaks track that draws you in with a wide pulsating low end and irregular percussive stabs that float from left to right at the high end. A soft acid synth builds and explodes like a solar flare creating an outer planetary experience. The beautifully crafted breakdown gives you time to pause, observe and contemplate, creating space to process your mental state and explore your emotions from the past, present and future. Introspection; 10 minutes of self healing.

As a follow-up to the debut EP; Anaesthesia, Avilynn is back with another dynamic four track EP; Five Million Sunsets, which is accompanied by a remix from Ostgut Ton’s Answer Code Request.

‘Why So Serious’ opens the project and focuses on dynamically evolving and unfurling drums, plucked synths and modulating percussion while expansive reverberations and nuanced echoes further instil dynamism throughout. Answer Code Request steps up next, shifting the focus to an aesthetically industrial feel, twisting elements of the original’s synthesis and high-octane drums into an ominous, subtly unfolding take on things.

Opening the flip-side is title-cut ‘Five Million Sunsets’ which sees Avilynn explore a more textural landscape, dropping the tempo significantly and introducing circling dub chords, earthy sub tones and menacing bass swells throughout. Last up to round out the release is ‘Your Eye Was Bigger Than The Other One’, here Avilynn focuses her musical theme around “a trippy experience where the person has a distorted reality’’, the composition laid out across three and a half minutes melds together choppy broken drums, eerie tones and bubbling synths alongside gritty distorted moments and metallic chimes.

About the label:

Life experiences in macro and micro; daily reveries and introspections; byproducts of clubbing and city life…converted into sonic frequencies.

The focus of the label is on releasing physical products and the use of the cityscape as the primary interface between artist and music listener. Access to Avilynn’s music and multimedia output is made possible through stickers scattered about different cityscapes which feature personal quotes and QR codes. You can find sticker locations via insta’s highlights at instagram.

"Stratosphere", Dusters Debütalbum aus dem Jahr 1998, das man sich am besten schon im Mutterleib anhört, hat die erste Welle des Slow Core gleichzeitig beendet und neu erfunden. Eine vierspurige Traumlandschaft, die die Nachbarn aufweckt und sie dann wieder in den Schlaf wiegt. Trübe, arpeggierte Gitarren legen sich über einen bedächtigen Schlagzeuger, der keinen wirklichen Platz hat, während halb hörbare Vocals vor dem Unwohlsein der Jahrtausendwende warnen und den Hörer subtil ermutigen, "rock out, rock out, rock out, rock out." Diese foliengeprägte und nummerierte 25.Jubiläumsausgabe erscheint auf LP, CD und Kassette. Die LP-Editionen werden auf 180G-Vinyl gepresst und enthalten ein Textblatt und ein Poster. Die CD- und Kassette-Editionen kommen mit einem zusätzlichen Track, 'Echo Bravo'.

Slave To Society pays homage to the legendary cultural theorist and philosopher, Mark Fisher. Diving into some of the conceptual ideas of Fisher’s literature and philosophy, you'll feel like you're wandering through a post-apocalyptic landscape in the future with this hard hitting, haunting and atmospheric piece.

‘The Future That Never Arrived’ experience the paranoia and anxiety of the digital age with this gritty and dissonant track. Fisher's ideas about technology's impact on society come to life in a sonic onslaught.
‘Cyberspace’ exploration of desire and its endless repetition. The frenetic energy of this track mirrors the insatiable hunger of consumer culture.
’Is There No Alternative’ the title track offers a sense of reflection and departure. It echoes Fisher's thoughts on escaping the boundaries of the present moment.
‘Ghosts Of My Life’ this track encapsulates Fisher's critique of our modern capitalist society. The heavy beats mirror the relentless grind of capitalism, while the haunting melodies reflect the loss of authentic experiences.

Fantastic Twins, the ongoing project of Julienne Dessagne, is a sonic exploration of dual characters born from one distinct perspective. A producer, songwriter, and acclaimed live performer, Dessagne has spent the last decade sculpting a unique world.

On an ambitious new album entitled ‘Two Is Not a Number’, Dessagne immerses herself more fully than ever in the concept that inspired her artist name, exploring the entwined lives and fates of her imaginary twins, their schizophrenic dreams, small dramas, and big tragedies - a metaphor for our own psyche, our inner conflicts, and our relationship to others and otherness. These musings on the psychological, emotional, biological, and metaphysical qualities of Twins are expressed with assured clarity, using a palate of icy deep techno, eerie atmospheric soundtracks, tranced-out dark wave, and synth pop-noir. Whether through airborne dancefloor ascension, diamond hard rhythms, electronic thundercracks, or empathy drenched vocals and the palpable sense of unease, this standout album brings Dessagne’s powerful, affecting art into sharp focus.

I Was First takes listeners to the Fantastic Twins’ origin, a vocal transmission from within a sonic womb, as our protagonists prepare to emerge. Sisters at Odds sees our siblings emerge incongruous and freshly awoken to life’s absurdities in slow-motion. Suspensefully, the percussive heartbeat of Land of Pleasure Hi Fi wrings tension from numerology, blossoming into a scorched industrial ballet, a mirage of multiplicity.

Following the gothic connection of Master & Disciple, Silver Moon Dial incants a trance-like state that captures the physical energy of Dessagne’s live show, as Fantastic Twins take advantage of ‘putting the moon on speed dial.’ Euphoria soon splinters into tragedy with Twins Can’t Love, extracting unexpected melody and melancholy in brittle, IDM tinged electronics, beautifully tangled with Dessagne’s longing intonations.

From Above sees Dessagne’s vocals once again shift into a new form for a haunting interpretation of something approaching a ballad, echoing around a chamber from which the Twins have seemingly disappeared. Ultimately All of This is Resolved, both in title and form, within this album’s cathartic yet uneasy conclusion. Dessagne sends the siblings home at last... But what will we find if we follow?

To coincide with The Courettes' first US tour, Damaged Goods put out this special compilation album. Boom! Dynamite includes singles, deep cuts from their studio albums, with B-sides and rarities thrown in for good measure! First pressing on orange vinyl is limited to 1000 copies only! The Courettes are two souls in love with each other and in love with rock 'n' roll. They've been touring nonstop throughout Europe since 2015, bringing their "perfect blend of garage rock, '60s Girl Group, Wall of Sound, surf music and doo wop" to the delight of any audience even remotely interested in rock 'n' roll. Expect excitement, danger, sweat, explosive performances, and most importantly, GREAT tunes! The "hardest working band in showbiz" now venture further away - After visiting the Land of the Rising Sun in 2022, The Courettes are thrilled to tour the USA for the first time in 2023. Described as "The Ronettes meet The Ramones at a wild party at Gold Star Studios echo chamber", The Courettes have released four fantastic albums on the legendary label Damaged Goods Records, each one praised by magazines such as MOJO and Shindig!, most notably the Back In Mono album in 2021, a true milestone in their career. This new compilation, Boom! Dynamite, released exclusively for the US market, guides you through their albums from the very beginning, from the early raw power garage rock onto their present Spector/Levine Wall of Sound Gold Star sound, made using complex recording techniques at StarrSound Studios in Denmark with top producer Soren Christensen and mixing genius Seiki Sato from Japan. Featuring Brazilian Flavia Couri on guitars and vocals, and Danish Martin Couri on drums, The Courettes were born international. For them there are no nations or borders. Their mission is to connect, cherish, and inspire rock 'n' roll souls around the world, including now, in the USA. The Courettes are pure dynamite! Turn up the volume and fuzz out! BOOM!

French label and promoter Much More recordings is proud to present the second vinyl of its collection. This vinyl features 6 tracks ranging from breaks to techno and passing electronica, designed for soundsystem and anchored in their proper original and analogic techno sound.

- In the cosmos of techno, a pear takes height,
As Hawking once mused, our past's pear-shaped light.
Evoking the essence of techno's design.
From acid's lemon embrace to bitter-sweet's delight,
Techno's past and future, in pear-shaped swirl.
Upon the tree stump, a glimpse of starlight,
A timeless journey, through cosmic embrace.
Techno's essence, expanding through space,
Techno's soulful evolution, a work of art. -

AudioKast joins, promoting sheer delight. Intelligent, smooth, with a touch of piano, A break-infused track, atmospheric glow. Falling Echoes, from France's southern land, Techno that lingers, both fresh and grand. Straight, mental, efficient, it ensnares, A captivating sound, with eternal affairs. Ricardo Garduno, Mexico's pride, Illegal Alien's head, his track provides heavy, straightforward, 4-to-the-floor, A dancefloor bomb, demanding much more. Johannes Astrup,
from Copenhagen's embrace, Smart-stepping techno, a timeless grace. Killing beats that reverberate and flow, Infinite rhythms, an everlasting show. Joton and Aicrag, a powerful duo, Break smart-stepping techno, boomy and true. Their collaboration, a vibrating spell, Moving bodies, a dancefloor's sweet swell. The Blackmailer, a friend tried and true, Driving, big room, a relentless beat, Techno's love, a symphony complete. Dear friends, in this cosmic dance we partake, Love and techno, our souls awake.We are back to the essence, and yet, much more.

The long-awaited repressing of THE WARRIORS. This deluxe double LP features the re-mastered 1979 original soundtrack, in addition to, the vinyl debut of the complete film score by Barry DeVorzon.

Directed by Walter Hill and based off the 1965 novel by Sol Yurick of the same name, THE WARRIORS is the absolute definition of an influential cult-classic film. THE WARRIORS has permeated the landscape of pop culture, music, film, fashion, comics, and video games.

Waxwork worked directly from the original master tapes of both the original 1979 soundtrack and film score to bring audiences a brand-new transfer of every musical cue heard in the movie, for the very first time on vinyl.

Features artwork by Marvel Comics artist Dave Rapoza, Double LP 180 gram “Warriors” red and rust vinyl, printed insert, and deluxe packaging.

"Stratosphere", Dusters Debütalbum aus dem Jahr 1998, das man sich am besten schon im Mutterleib anhört, hat die erste Welle des Slow Core gleichzeitig beendet und neu erfunden. Eine vierspurige Traumlandschaft, die die Nachbarn aufweckt und sie dann wieder in den Schlaf wiegt. Trübe, arpeggierte Gitarren legen sich über einen bedächtigen Schlagzeuger, der keinen wirklichen Platz hat, während halb hörbare Vocals vor dem Unwohlsein der Jahrtausendwende warnen und den Hörer subtil ermutigen, "rock out, rock out, rock out, rock out." Diese foliengeprägte und nummerierte 25.Jubiläumsausgabe erscheint auf LP, CD und Kassette. Die LP-Editionen werden auf 180G-Vinyl gepresst und enthalten ein Textblatt und ein Poster. Die CD- und Kassette-Editionen kommen mit einem zusätzlichen Track, 'Echo Bravo'.

"Stratosphere", Dusters Debütalbum aus dem Jahr 1998, das man sich am besten schon im Mutterleib anhört, hat die erste Welle des Slow Core gleichzeitig beendet und neu erfunden. Eine vierspurige Traumlandschaft, die die Nachbarn aufweckt und sie dann wieder in den Schlaf wiegt. Trübe, arpeggierte Gitarren legen sich über einen bedächtigen Schlagzeuger, der keinen wirklichen Platz hat, während halb hörbare Vocals vor dem Unwohlsein der Jahrtausendwende warnen und den Hörer subtil ermutigen, "rock out, rock out, rock out, rock out." Diese foliengeprägte und nummerierte 25.Jubiläumsausgabe erscheint auf LP, CD und Kassette. Die LP-Editionen werden auf 180G-Vinyl gepresst und enthalten ein Textblatt und ein Poster. Die CD- und Kassette-Editionen kommen mit einem zusätzlichen Track, 'Echo Bravo'.

Ted Milton and Graham Lewis return as Elegiac with their second release – a four track EP inch titled “Meet My Stalker”. The pair of idiosyncratic sonic stylists, bullish outsiders with a Dadaist's ear for unexpected rhythms and ear-catching turns of phrase return showcasing a new track – the title of the EP - along with three bass heavy dubbed out no wave versions of tracks from their self titled debut LP.

Ted Milton is a prolific poet, with several volumes under his belt, as well as an avant-garde puppeteer. Yet he's probably best known as vocalist/saxophonist with psycho-funk afro punk fake no-wave pogo jazz trio Blurt. Milton's group has produced an impressive string of albums, not to mention his numerous solo recordings.

Meanwhile, Edvard Graham Lewis has a history of strong solo releases, both under his own name and as He Said. And of course, as bassist, lyricist and sometime vocalist with post punk innovators Wire, he's been responsible for numerous landmark releases, from 1977's Pink Flag, to 2003's Send, to 2020's Mind Hive.

Arranged, like the album, by electronic composer and sound artist Sam Britton whose sure touch pieces all the elements together. Kicking off with a stripped down driving shortened version of “He Folds” with its eerie honking sax and kraut like pulsating bass the perfect complement to Milton’s chorus echoing throughout. “Boat” is another album track beefed up with Milton’s chants backed by layered percussive blasts and squawking sax. “Meet My Stalker” makes its first appearance here with its infectious snarling looped bassline and Milton’s refrain “It’s a wind up”. Closing out with another album highlight an elongated version of “Vancouver Slim” all synth bleeps and ricocheting grumbling sax and hypnotic vocals. Punchy, idiosyncratic, packed with melody and groove, this second release is the fascinating sound of an evolving Elegiac.

When South Korean balearic prodigy Mogwaa came to MM Discos with an idea for his rst full-length album, we were a bit surprised.
He said, ‘I want to do an album of bossa tracks with synths, a drum machine and my guitar’. We obviously had to take him up
on that deal.

Fresh from the recent Bandcamp feature on his own brand of danceoor-ready modern boogie, Seungyoung Lee (aka Mogwaa)
arrives back on MM Discos with his - and our - rst full length exercise. With six tracks per side of 80s inuenced synth and bossa
badness, ‘Hazy Dreams’ is an exercise in simplicity, and more proof of the ever-expanding musical horizons of one of the scene’s
most virtuosic instrumentalists.

Pairing a sensitivity to the construction of ambient, funk, bossa and cassette-tape 80s experiments with his own cinematic subtlety,
‘Hazy Dreams’ takes a gentle, minimalistic approach, crafting its own escapist world that oers a welcome diversion from the
steady ow of busy balearica and downtempo.

Opening track ‘Full Bloom’ paints a picture of midsummer at dawn, some clear-skied island where lush vegetation climbs through
hibiscus gardens. ‘Nacimiento’ is an AOR/bossa crossover evoking West Coast yachting in full afternoon, and A3, ‘Soothing’, adds
a touch of wistfulness with reverb-doused guitars over meandering bass motifs.
The easy kick-and-snare combo of ‘Levitation’ sets the scene for a drum machine love aair, unrequited love on the rocks, and
‘Flashback’ plays with short delay trails and o-kilter melodic sequences, where you feel the soft presence of the nebula approaching
at the break of day. Closing out the A-side, ‘Dispatching’ reaches out even further into the imagined cosmos of Mogwaa’s
picture-perfect world, portraying an ambience at dusk, observing, calmy, as pued-up pink clouds melt into the evening canvas.
On the other side, Mogwaa explores quiet corners with ‘Illusions’, a slow meditation on the nature of simple presence, and ‘Echoes
of You’, a stream of subdued brush strokes that crescendo into higher frequencies on gently undulating pads. B3, ‘Moondance’,
ups the tempo and recalls classic Mogwaa with its sideways shue and starry melodic refrain, pivoting through folk-dance
moods and surprising chord changes.
Nearing the end of the album, ‘Footprints’ wades through tall grass in search of altered states, innite and hypnotic, changing
course only to crouch down and study the landscape, and B5, ‘It always comes and goes’, pictures the to-and-fro of jetstreams and
comets in the blinding midday sky. Finally we have the closing credits of ‘Swingin’ that looks o into the horizon, jaunty and exalted,
a guitar-led tribute to an easy-going world, and ultimately mindful of the power of dreams.
We’re humbled to have such a special record for our rst full-length release on the label.

Stark, cavernous and politically critical dub-poetry lands next on FELT in a vital sign-of-the-times fashion. Where much new music in our scene seems to act as a conduit for escapism, usually via melodic mind-balm or, if vocal at all, lyrical surrealism and ambiguity, the collaborative works of ELDON & Withdrawn take the left turn. The sound design perfectly fits into the FELT jigsaw puzzle: cold, slightly glitch-inspired, echo/reverb minimalism etc, but things are kicked up a stratosphere with the half dancehall-toasting, half scathing analysis of modern Britain coming straight from the mouth of ELDON.

Processed, enveloping kalimba notes shatter off into the distance in the opening moments of 'reGenaRation' before we're plunged into the depths. Bleeding into the title track, the A-side is all claustrophobic commentary on trickle down economics, overdrafts, killer shark metaphors and empire. Adam & Eve? Rewind and there's Shango, god of thunder and lightning. 5 rewinds later - still going. The B-side continues with equal strength, amazing wordplay and broken, industrial rhythms for a broken United Kingdom.

IYA SHILLELAGH is ELDON & Withdrawn

Recorded at Zig Zag Zig Studios

A2 co-produced by How-du

B1 co-produced by Shifting Borders

Mastered by GENG PTP

Design by Fergus Jones

BOTANICA is the newly established Japanese label created by DJ/ Producer, Iori Wakasa. It was formed for him to utilize it as a foundation for the realization of his own unique, artistic expression.
And now, he has the pleasure to announce his label’s inaugural title with the release of his own BOTANICA EP.

Born in 1988 in a rural Japanese city surrounded by mountains and the sea with a mild climate, Iori grew up playing RPGs with a father who was a devoted game aficionado. And he was introduced to electronic music through game music from an early age and formed his musical sensibilities through playing the classical piano around the same time.

Influenced by the spirituality and idiosyncrasies of punk rock and ethnic and indigenous music in his youth, also gradually influenced by the Tokyo club scene and the music, it didn't take him long before
he made the choice to start DJing at the age of 17 and soon afterwards, started exploring the path of music production as a form of self-expression.

Iori set up Botanica to convey 2 main concepts of 'presenting music that provides each listener with their own viewpoint' and ‘to construct a fusion between 'nature' and 'man-made objects and human
activity’. Through the experience of traveling around Japan, Europe and Asia and connecting with people of different languages and cultures, he became to appreciate that music transcends all languages and grooves, and the framework in which he would like to shape his perspective and embody it as his way of life is what he envisions as the vital expression for BOTANICA, The two tracks and the artwork included in this first EP are the first steps towards hopefully chronicling the story of the vortex that he resides in now and the new forest that he plans to weave in the future with his label.

'The Pure Land' means in Japanese 'Gokuraku-Jodo (= a space where you can live in bliss)', but in English it is closer to 'utopia' or 'paradise'. However, 'The Pure Land' is a musical work that evokes a
hypnotic and pleasant euphoria through the gradual layering of multiple rhythms and soft particles of spatial sound design. It is also shaped with the aim of liberating the listener and guiding them towards their primal self.

In contrast, 'Lunar Down' expresses the changes that occur in the human state of mind during the extended period from moonrise to moonset especially when the moon sets from its zenith and is completed with a focus on maximum dance floor impact via an inner voice that resonates in the brain that echoes throughout a well-textured bass line and rhythm track.

The artwork for the front cover of this EP was created by SHINOZAKI HILOSHI, an illustrator who has been traveling and painting to express his true way of life that he learnt in the 10+ years of commuting between Tokyo (the end) and the Hawaii Islands (the beginning), and the graphic designer hiro, who stands by Iori`s side as his life partner and as the person who understands him the best. Iori`s first steps are complemented by the label design and art direction by graphic designer hiro, who stands by his side as his life partner and most understanding partner, and the proof is the physical cut, which is presented as the foundation for the future.

A.R. Kive collates the three most astonishing works from that most miraculous of duos - A.R. Kane - comprising the ‘Up Home’ EP from 1988 that signified the band’s dawning realisation of their own powers and possibilities, their legendary debut LP ‘sixty nine’ (1988) and its kaleidoscopic, prophetic double-LP follow up ‘i’ (1989).

In founder-member Rudy Tambala’s new remastering, the music on these pivotal transmissions from the birth of dream pop, have been reinvigorated and re-infused with a new power, a new depth and intimacy, a new height and immensity. Vivid, timeless and yet always timely whenever they’re recalled, these records still force any listener to realise that despite the habits of retrospective myth-making and the
safe neutering effects of ‘genre’, thirty years have in no way dimmed how resistant and dissident to critical habits of categorisation A.R. Kane always were. Never quite ‘avant-pop’ or ‘shoegaze’ or ‘post-rock’ or any of those sobriquets designed to file and categorise, A.R. Kive is a reminder that those genres had to be coined, had to be invented precisely to contain the astonishing sound of A.R. Kane, because
previous formulations couldn’t come close to their sui generis sound and suggestiveness. This is music that pointed towards futures which a whole generation of artists and sonic explorers would map out. Now beautifully repackaged, remastered and fleshed out with extensive sleeve notes and accompanying materials, ‘A.R. Kive’ reveals that 35 years on it’s still a struggle to defuse the revolutionary and inspirational possibility of A.R. Kane’s music.

A.R. Kane were formed in 1986 by Rudy Tambala and Alex Ayuli, two second-generation immigrants who grew up together in Stratford, East London. From the off the pair were outsiders in the culturally mixed (cockney/Irish/West Indian/Asian) milieu of the East End, with Alex and Rudy’s folks first generation immigrants from Nigeria and Malawi, respectively. The two of them quickly developed and fostered an innate and near-telepathic mutual understanding forged in musical, literary and artistic exploration. Like a lot of second-generation immigrants, they were ferocious autodidacts in all kinds of areas, especially around music and literature. Diving deep into the music of afro-futurist luminaries such as Sun Ra, Miles Davis, Lee Perry and
Hendrix, as well as devouring the explorations of lysergic noise and feedback from contemporaries like Sonic Youth and Butthole Surfers, they also thoroughly immersed themselves in the alternate literary realities of sci-fi and ancient history (the fascination with the arcane that gave the band their name), all to feed their voracious cultural thirsts and intellectual curiosity.

It was seeing the Cocteau Twins performing on Channel 4 show the Tube that spurred A.R. Kane into being - “They had no drummer. They used tapes and technology and Liz Fraser looked completely otherworldly with those big eyes. And the noise coming out of Robin’s guitar! That was the ‘Fuck! We could do that! We could express ourselves like that!’ moment”, recalls Tambala - and through a mix of
confidence, chutzpah, ad hoc almost-mythical live shows and sheer innocent will the duo debuted with the astonishing ‘When You’re Sad’ single for One Little Indian in 1986. Immediately dubbed a ‘black Jesus & Mary Chain’ by a press unsure of WHERE to put a black band clearly immersed in feedback and noise, what was immediately apparent for listeners was just how much more was going on here - a
tapping of dub’s stealth and guile, a resonant umbilicus back to fusion and jazz, the music less a conjuration of past highs than a re-summoning of lost spirits.
The run of singles and EPs that followed picked up increasingly rapt reviews in the press, but it was the ‘Up Home EP’ released in 1988 on their new home, Rough Trade that really suggested something immense was about to break. Simon Reynolds noted the EP was: Their most concentrated slab of iridescent awesomeness and a true pinnacle of an era that abounded with astounding landmarks of guitar-reinvention, A.R. Kane at their most elixir-like.

If anything, the remastered ‘Up Home’ that forms the first part of ‘A.R. Kive’ is even more dazzling, even more startling than it was when it first emerged, and listening now you again wonder not just about how many bands christened ‘shoegaze’ tried to emulate it, but how all of them fell so far short of its lambent, pellucid wonder. This remains intrinsically experimental music but with none of the frowning orthodoxy those words imply. A.R. Kane, thanks to that second generation auto-didacticism were always supremely aware about the interstices of music and magic, but at the same time gloriously free in the way they explored that connection within their own sound, fascinated always with the creation of ‘perfect mistakes’ and the possibilities inherent in informed play.

‘sixty nine’ the group’s debut LP that emerged in 1988 had
critics and listeners struggling to fit language around A.R. Kane’s sound. As a title it was telling - the year of ‘Bitches Brew’, the year of ‘In A Silent Way’, the erotic möbius between two lovers - and as originally coined by the band themselves, ‘dream pop’ (before it became a free-floating signifier of vague import) was entirely apposite for the music A.R. Kane were making. Crafted in a dark small basement studio in which Tambala recalls the duo had “complete freedom - We wanted to go as far out as we could, and in doing so we discovered the point where it stops being music”. There was an irresistibly dreamy, somnambulant, sensual and almost surreal flow to ‘sixty nine’s sound, but also real darkness/dankness, the ruptures of the primordial and the reverberations of the subconscious, within the grooves of remarkable songs like ‘Dizzy’ and ‘Crazy Blue’. Alex’s plangent vocals floated and surged amidst exquisite peals of refracted feedback but crucially there was BASS here, lugubrious and funky and full of dread, sonic pleasure and sonic disturbance crushed together to make music with a center so deep it felt subcutaneous, music constructed from both the accidental and the deliberate, generous enough to dance with both serendipity and chaos. ‘sixty nine’ remains - especially in this remastered iteration - ravishing, revolutionary.

The final part of this ‘A.R. Kive’ contains 1989’s astonishing double-LP ‘i’ which followed up on ‘sixty nine’s promise and saw the duo fully unleash their experimental pop sensibilities over 26 tracks, plunging the A.R. Kane sound into a dazzlingly kaleidoscopic vision of pop experiment and play. Suffused with new digital technologies and combining searingly sweet and danceable pop with perhaps the duo’s strangest and boundary-pushing compositions, the album did exactly what a great double-set should do - indulge the artists sprawling pursuit of their own imaginations but always with a concision and an ear for those moments where pop both transcends and toys with the listeners expectations. Jason Ankeny has noted that “In retrospect, ‘i’ now seems like a crystal ball prophesying virtually every major musical development of the 1990s; from the shimmering techno of ‘A Love from Outer Space’ to the liquid dub of ‘What’s All This Then?’, from the alien drone-pop of ‘Conundrum’ to the sinister shoegazer miasma of ‘Supervixens’ — it’s all here, an underground road map for countless bands to follow.” Perhaps the most overwhelmingly all-encompassing transmission from A.R. Kane, ‘i’ bookended a three year period in which the duo had made some of the most prophetic and revelatory music of the entire decade.

After ‘i’ the duo’s output became more sporadic with Tambala and Ayuli moving in different directions both geographically and musically, with only 1994’s ‘New Clear Child’ a crystalline re-fraction of future and past echoes of jazz, folk and soul, before the duo went their separate ways. Since then, A.R. Kane’s music has endured, not thanks to the usual sepia’d false memories that seem to maintain interest in so much of the musical past, but because those who hear A.R. Kane music and are changed irrevocably, have to share that universe which A.R. Kane opened up, with anyone else who will listen. Far more than other lauded documents of the late 80s it still sounds astonishingly fresh, astonishingly livid and vivid and necessary and NOW.

Black Truffle is pleased to announce The Leisure Principle, a new solo LP from London-based bassist and sound artist Otto Willberg. A key player in the London underground, Willberg is often heard on acoustic and electric bass in free improv settings and bands with Laurie Tompkins (Yes Indeed) and Charles Hayward (Abstract Concrete), as well as the fractured No Wave unit Historically Fucked. His previous solo releases have ranged from extended technique double bass to explorations of the acoustics of a 19th century artillery fort. But nothing Willberg has committed to wax so far prepares a listener for The Leisure Principle, six unashamedly melodic improvisational workouts created almost entirely with heavily filtered bass harmonica and electric bass. On the opening ‘Reap What Thou Sow’, a single-note bass harmonica loop pulses along underneath a roaming bass solo, the side-chained envelope filtering (where the dynamic behaviour of the bass determines the filter for both bass and harmonica) fusing the two instruments into a single stream of burbling shifts in resonance. After several minutes of patient exploration of this low-end landscape, the music suddenly opens up in widescreen with the entrance of Sam Andreae’s graceful melodica chords, spreading out across the stereo field. From this epic opener, each of the remaining pieces goes on to explore a slightly different aspect of the terrain. On ‘Shadow Came into the Eyes as Earth Turned on its Axis’, a similarly buoyant harmonica bass line provides the foundation, but this time playing a soulful descending riff, its almost R&B feel abstracted and half-obscured by the filtering. On ‘Mollusk’, echoed bass arpeggios skitter between elegiac chords somewhat reminiscent of the opening of John Abercrombie’s ‘Timeless’, before settling into a hypnotic groove. On the record’s second half, Willberg pushes further into the possibilities of his idiosyncratic instrumentation. On ‘Wetter’, bass and harmonica come together into a monstrous, growling jaw harp; on ‘Had we but world enough and more time’, the subtly shifting pulsating patterns start to feel almost like a kind of evaporated, drum-less dub techno until an eruption of wheezing bass harmonica gives the piece a comically folkish turn. Willberg’s melodically inventive and virtuosic bass performance calls to mind any number of fusion touchstones, from Jaco Pastorius to Mark Egan’s singing tone in the early Pat Metheny Group—even Anthony Jackson’s work with Steve Kahn. But with its radically reduced instrumentation, The Leisure Principle is also an exercise in minimalism, and the absence of percussion gives even its funkiest moments a strangely abstracted quality. At times, its uncanny blend of the abstruse and the immediate suggests the fried pop experiments of David Rosenboom or the skewed but deeply musical DIY of 80s underground groups like De Fabriek. Both easy on the ear and profoundly strange, The Leisure Principle proudly takes its place among the most eccentric offerings on the Black Truffle menu.

Das selbstbetitelte Saccades-Debüt 2017 bedeutete für Nicholas Wood eine Abkehr von der düsteren Atmosphäre und den monumentalen Klanglandschaften von The KVB hin zu einem reduzierten, psychedelischen Gitarrensound. Der Nachfolger 'Flowing Fades' (2021) überzeugte mit Synths und Einflüssen wie J.G. Ballard, Serge Gainsbourg, 80er-Dream-Pop und Yacht-Rock. 'Land Of The Hearth', benannt nach einer Jonathon Meades-Passage, steht für den Übergang von den nächtlichen Klanglandschaften und Industrial-Beats von The KVB hin zu einer balearischen Sensibilität. Das neue Album hat eine sonnenverwöhnte, traumhafte Qualität und erinnert gelegentlich an die erhebende Stimmung der House-Musik.

Coke Bottle Clear Vinyl. High Vis were formed in 2016 from the ashes of some of the UK's best hardcore bands. Gild-toothed frontman Graham Sayle's anguished lyrics about life in working class Britain were familiar to fans of Tremors' full-throttle thrash, but alongside his former bandmate Edward `Ski' Harper and veterans of Dirty Money, DiE and The Smear, High Vis sought to transform that energy and intensity into something entirely new.Like scene-mates Chubby and the Gang did by pulling in unlikely source material from classic doo-wop or Micromoon have by combining everything from psychedelia and metal into their high potency mix, High Vis' 2019 debut album, No Sense No Feeling showed the band were never going to be constrained by any sense of genre rules or regulations. Its claustrophobic rattle bore traces of Joy Division, Bauhaus, Crisis, The Cure and Gang Of Four lurking in the shadows. 2020's synth-driven EP, Society Exists, was further evidence of the band's restless creative MO.High Vis' second album Blending sees them open their viewfinder wider than ever before. Alongside longstanding favourites such as Fugazi and Echo and The Bunnymen; Ride and even Flock Of Seagulls were shared reference points as the band worked on the album together.From the anthemic sweep of opener "Talk For Hours", through the title track's psychedelic swirl and "Fever Dream"'s baggy groove, it sees High Vis' sound blossoming into something with an unlimited richness. The hazy drift of "Shame" or the melodic jangle of "Trauma Bonds" may take them until uncharted waters, but they still have all the power and bite that made No Sense No Feeling so remarkable.Lyrically, the album represents another leap forward too. Talking frankly about poverty, class politics, and the challenges of everyday life, Sayle's lyrics have always addressed the downtrodden and discarded communities across Britain slipping below the waterline. This time around, Sayle's lost not of that social consciousness, but he's looked at himself and his own emotional landscape, and in the process created something that feels more universal, that reaches a hand-out to people and ultimately gives a message of hope."To me, the lyrics are less selfish," reflects Sayle. "In the past, I couldn't see past whatever was going on with me. It's about accepting things and being open to conversations and learning to talk to people rather than just thinking that we're all doomed."The song "Talk for Hours" is a prime example of that. Born out of an afternoon meeting up with an old group of mates "repeating the same thing and not actually learning anything about each other" it offers to actually break the cycle and to listen and speak frankly about shared feelings and experiences. "Trauma Bonds", meanwhile, traces the broken lines of those living in lost communities, but ultimately realises that despite our shared scars, there's still hope to move on to a better future."The message of the album is you're not who you're told you are," Sayle summarises. "You're not your class background. Whatever it is, you're not that. Don't resign yourself to thinking you can't be this and you can't be that."It's a vitally important message right now, and one that could be the motto for not only Blending, but for High Vis themselves.

2023 repress !

After his debut on PoleGroup last year with a track 'Hate' selected for the compilation release Unknown Landscapes - EP 1, Kwartz makes a proper return to the label with Form and Void EP. Hailing from Madrid, DJ and producer Kwartz started his career in 2011 and within fairly a short time he has developed and refined his own hypnotic, dark and enveloping techno. Amongst notable releases to date is his first vinyl EP Fenomen (2013), a joint release with Pole Group artist Exium on their Nheoma imprint.

Form and Void EP features two strong originals and two equally powerful remix supports from the label mates and core members of Pole Group, Reeko and Exium. The title track 'Form and Void' kicks off with straight forward 4/4 rhythmic groove that gradually builds up layer by layer in to the darker shade to meet the mysterious break, followed by heavy brooding bass tones slashing through the kick drums, deepening the atmosphere with the hollowing echoes. Reeko's remix elevates the dark mood of original while pumping in even more energy with rolling kick/hat combo and psychedelic swirling chaos of synth that intensifies throughout the entire length of the track.

'Breakage' on the flip side possess much more hardened groove, pounding out the drums packed with blinding force. Exium's remix takes the tension-filled doomsday feel of original to another level and gives a new dimension to the heavy merciless percussion by adding haunting howling echoes that growls like that of ghosts combined with more muted drums and subtle layers of stabs of kicks and effects.

Kwartz holds nothing back with Form and Void EP, delving in to the darkest and deepest realm of subterranean pulses that fit perfectly for the dance floor with dimmed light and big sound system.

'BATSUMI’s 1974 classic. Repressed at Pallas in Germany on 180g black vinyl. Cover printed on reverse board and includes printed inner sleeve with liner notes from Francis Gooding. Initial copies shipped with exclusive 30cm x 30cm print of Batsumi performing in 1974.

Batsumi is a masterpiece of spiritualised afro-jazz, and a prodigious singularity in the South African jazz canon. There is nothing else on record from the period that has the deep, resonant urgency of the Batsumi sound, a reverb-drenched, formidably focused pulse, underpinned by the tight-locked interplay of traditional and trap drums, and pushed on by the throb of Zulu Bidi’s mesmeric bass figures. The warm notes of Johnny Mothopeng’s guitar complete a soundscape that is at once closely packed with sonic texture and simultaneously vibrating with open space, and in whose shimmer and haze Themba Koyana and Tom Masemola soar. A sonorous echo emanating from an ancient well, reverberant with jazz ghosts and warmed by the heat of soul and pop, Batsumi is nothing short of revelatory.

Many groups from this period did not issue recordings at all, and Batsumi are unusual in even having left an official recorded legacy. Out of print since the 1970s, and never issued outside of South African in its entirety, Batsumi is a landmark South African jazz recording, and a key musical document of its time.'

OUTLANDERS ist ein Projekt der finnischen Sopranlegende Tarja Turunen und dem EDM Pionier Torsten Stenzel. Über 10 Jahre haben die beiden an dem Album gearbeitet und hatten dabei Unterstützung von einigen der einflussreichsten Gitarristen unserer Zeit. Bei jedem Song wirkt ein besonderer Gitarrist als Gast mit: u.a. Al Di Meola, Trevor Rabin, Joe Satriani, Jennifer Batten, Steve Rothery, Mike
Oldfield, Walter Giardino, Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal, Vernon Reid und Marty Friedman. 7 Tracks wurden bereits digital vorab veröffentlicht und nun erscheint das langersehnte gleichnamige Album am 23. Juni auf CD-Digipak und Ltd. Blue Curacao 2LP.

A1 - Dreamcatcher

A gentle kickoff to the EP sees ASC flex the ethereal side of his compositional range with Dreamcatcher. Bleeps and subtle bongos intro the track before a cymbal-heavy beat rolls into play, urged along by warm 808 basslines. Several samples will trigger the scene veteran's nostalgia glands, and as the Arthur O'Shaughnessy quote proclaims: "We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams", you cannot help but smile.

A2 - Tranquility

Filtered breakbeats with emphasised kicks begin our journey through Tranquility; a calming piece enriched with luscious synths, glorious pads and echoing vocal samples. ASC takes the listener through a crash course in DJ-friendly classic atmospheric drum & bass, inviting the crowd to take a step back from the chaos of the world and bask in the tranquility of the moment in true Spatial style.

AA1 - Drifting Thru

Remember Demon's Theme? For many it was their introduction to a new world of amen breaks in a birthing jungle / drum & bass landscape, and here ASC pays homage to that break - as well as a certain iconic classic on the Deejay catalog - rewritten impressively with a pure, intensely driven atmosphere and a thumping sub bass to boot as the eerie melody allows this incredible break to take center stage - as it should.

AA2 - Flotation

Closing the EP is Flotation, a building track which fuzes classic breakbeats chopped and punctuated with a slow-burning, gradually intensifying atmosphere. The interplay between breaks, bassline, pads and washing vocals is a delightful experience to behold, the bassline never relenting. Flotation is curiously catchy and will stay long in the memory.

Words by Chris Hayes (Spatial / Red Mist)

The 4th Pumpkin Witch album released by Deathbomb Arc, and their first non-reissue for the label. Nothing can keep the Pumpkin Witch dead for long. The Witch is back! And her web of evil is larger than ever, her vile plans call for nothing short of world domination... The Three Dark Figures have conjured up 11 new tracks of creepy cackles and crazed cacophony that create an audiological kaleidoscope of terror. An emphasis on percussion and an evident influence from goth club music blends with the horror soundtrack-fueled dark ambience of albums past, making this perfect listening for any unholy ritual or cemetery soiree. You can lock your doors, board up your windows, and say your prayers but nothing can protect you from "The Return of the Pumpkin Witch"!

Much anticipated debut album from this Leeds-based electronic duo, following high-profile UK festival slots, and shows alongside luminaries The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Warmduscher, Sea Power, Moonlandingz, The KVB, with multiple plays across BBC6/BBC Introducing and Amazing Radio, jellyskin are finally ready to unleash ‘In Brine’, their first full length release. The result of four years spent writing, recording, and refining the album between Leeds, Liverpool, Bristol, Palamos, and Berlin, ‘In Brine’ showcases the many talents of Will Ainsley and Zia Larty-Healy in a work straddling iridescent electronica, tungsten-tipped techno, art pop, and queasy, brown acid folk. The songs are pieced together with themes of longing, misadventure by the sea, desire and aquatic apparitions that showcase Larty-Healy’s warm but urgent vocal range, as at home around the campfire as it is in the club. The pair’s meticulous arrangement and rearrangement, sculpting, recording, and mixing was a glacially slow process of adaptation, mutation, cooperation, growth, and, yes, natural selection. First single ‘Bringer of Brine’ thumps from the speaker anthemically and forcefully, pitched somewhere beautiful and uncanny; Larty-Healy’s vocals soar and skim off the production like a smooth stone across choppy waves. The radio-ready pop electronica of ‘I Was The First Tetrapod’ bursts into the world with an urgency in line with the lyrics. An aquatic tale of crawling onto land for the first time, desperate to make new life forms, it’s also a positive, joyful rebuke to the despair of the world around us. “Growing my legs...”. The fuzzed-out psychedelic keys and forward-moving, Knife-like structure echo throughout while beautiful lyrics detail visions of where this would all lead life as we know it-“I can run freely, white horse behind me. Flexing my bones and artery twine, find human tone and reach for the vine.” ‘Fox Again’ opens with chopped alarm clocks segueing into a lurching rhythm, before exploding into skittering beats and a soaring chorus. The effect is like waking up drowsily, going over to the window in your room and yanking open the curtains to be blasted by searing sunshine. The pair brought in Berlin based co-producer, mixer and masterer Lewis D-t to help finesse the tracks into fat-free hunks of ecstasy and sonic exploration, their rich depths marking ‘In Brine’ as an album everyone should be talking about this summer and beyond-all nine tracks will have feet moving and hearts swelling in equal measure. As opening track ‘Lift (Come In)’ positively opines “Going up!/Just want to keep going up!”. It’s time to get in on the ground floor

Carla Durisch unveils her debut EP ‘I Just Wanna Dance’ on Crosstown Rebels, with long-standing label favourite and close friend Seth Troxler on remix duties.

An exciting name who looks set for a breakout year in 2023, DJ/producer Carla Durisch is an artist whose passion and deep- rooted understanding of electronic music led to her being marked as a talent to keep an eye on. An integral part of the Swiss electronic and club landscape through residencies at the likes of Nordstern (Basel), plus both Hive and Zukunft (Zurich), her recent explorations within the studio have seen her deep and groove-led style translate into her own productions. These explorations are on display for the very first time as she debuts on Damian Lazarus’ renowned Crosstown Rebels imprint, following appearances at Get Lost in Miami and Watergate Berlin, plus forthcoming Ibiza sets alongside the label boss this summer at Hï.

Led by the captivating words of Nanghiti and Carla’s own vocals ‘I Just Wanna Dance’ is a warping and colourful ride through rich synths, refined drums and bright stabs as it builds and descends across an engrossing near-seven-minute journey. Next, ‘Be The Thing is a stripped-back, hypnotic house effort as snaking percussion merges with sharp lead melodies and further vocal interjections.

Needing little introduction, Seth Troxler’s remix of the title cut is an example of the American at his best, fusing bubbling acid-dipped bass patterns with skittering percussion and surging synth lines for a trippy, late-night take. To close, ‘4AM’ picks up those early hours sonics as crisp claps, echoed vox snippets and dubby grooves take a hold.

Laura Poitras’ Oscar-nominated film »All the Beauty and the Bloodshed« is an epic, emotional and interconnected story about internationally renowned artist and activist Nan Goldin. Told through intimate interviews, photography, and footage, central to the story is her personal fight to hold the Sackler family accountable for the opioid crisis. The film cuts to the bone with its incandescent celebration of life and condemnation of those who threaten it. Art and activism are one and the same.

Helping to interweave Goldin’s past and present, multi-disciplinary duo Soundwalk Collective soundtrack her personal and political struggles to sublime effect. The contemporary sonic arts platform of founder and artist Stephan Crasneanscki and producer Simone Merli, the pair work with a rotating constellation of artists and musicians, developing site-and-context-specific sound projects through which to examine conceptual, literary, or artistic themes. And for all the beauty and the bloodshed on show here, the duo strike the balance just right; their compositions in collaboration with Zacharias Falkenberg and Johannes Malfatti producing a trance that oscillates between grace and madness.

Within the score, Crasneanscki draws connections with the life and work of German poet Friedrich Hölderlin, who was removed from society through confinement in institutions. In his last poems, written as fragments while he was plagued by mental illness, Hölderlin renders nature, in all its fragility and ephemerality. Similar themes merge in Laura's portrait of Goldin and serve as an inspiration for the composition of the choral songs and cantus within the soundtrack. Through the repetition of words and the layering of voices, the lyric scansion operates like a language possessed, echoing various styles from sacred music to modern minimalist techniques. The music is characterised by quivering strings and swells, de-tuning and lingering, shifting around the surreal, and creating a spectrum of musical experience. Exerts of Nan’s narration are featured in two of the tracks, her powerful narration offering a more direct approach to the storytelling.

In »All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,« Poitras shows protest is really Goldin’s great artwork: Her entire life had been leading to this moment of passionate expression, an inspired situationist gesture which fused the personal and the political. Art can change the world, which Poitras and Goldin tell us with powerful results. While there are multiple threads in this remarkable portrait which could have carried entire films, the soundtrack provides a sonic identity that helps keep track of proceedings. Utterly unique in their approach, Soundwalk Collective have delivered a gripping and thoughtful score, helping turn Goldin’s personal pain into culture-rattling impact.

Wirski’s debut on MISBHV Recordings offers a nuanced narrative operating in its own genre of Eastern European rough-edged club melancholy.

MISBHV004 opens with Inside The Dark Echo – a claustrophobic, stifling, relentless, sensual dance with desire. Darkroom complexity with heavy surface tension built on an EBM undercurrent flirt with subtle psychedelia and traces of acid that slowly firm up their multi-layered grip through its running time of six and a half minutes.

Warszawa paints a stripped-back, tantalizing picture. Opening with a brutalist, militant drum programming and surprisingly spacious, warm bassline, its rigid rhythm, tightened up by a repetitive, cold breath mantra eventually opens up to bright, shimmering synth flickers evoking olibanum – the sacred scent of altar candles. Warszawa is looking at the multilayered melody of its landscape – from eerie Soc-realist blockhouses, through neon-lit, seedy strip clubs of the 90s to opulent sacral architecture.

Warm Waters Of Eternity subtly weave a cinematic, Carpenteresque soundscape with a sense of overpowering, ecstatic innocent euphoria that invokes a dream of an early 1990s rave deep in the dark woods of Poland.

repress !

After Space Ghost’s first album Endless Light took to international airwaves and echoed out of cities from London to Los Angeles, his forthcoming release Aquarium Nightclub brings back his signature lo-fi aesthetics with a fresh hit of inspiration from the natural world.

Melding irresistible vintage synths with a meditative groove, Aquarium Nightclub is a journey of sorts. Taking listeners on a tropical tour through 80s house drums, lush synth landscapes, and deep bass melodies, the thirteen-track LP is as adventurous as it is restrained.

Growing up in a small town a few hours from California’s East Bay area, Space Ghost (Sudi Wachspress) moved to Oakland ten years ago to study at the California College of the Arts. In a city known for its vibrant cultural fabric and its experimental music scene, Space Ghost represents a new generation of young artists. His DJ collective Late Feelings, launched in 2013, has allowed him to find his own groove amongst monthly all-vinyl dance parties, where he plucks influences from various corners of the world.

More complex than last year’s release, Aquarium Nightclub shows off Space Ghost’s artistic hunger and unique sonic signature.

Kicking off with “Sea Snake Island,” a track that is best described as late 80s house melancholia is a beautiful dance of shimmering keys, drum machines, and sounds of the jungle. The single “Sim City” ft. Morgan is a classic Chicago house beast; dark but uplifting with heavy bass undertones, fuzzy drum pulse, and plenty of mysterious synth melodies. Other tracks like “Ocean Odyssey,” “Night Dive” and “Aquarium Nightclub” plunge into an ambient world of slow 80s funk, though always rooted in the Bay Area sound.

A product of record-collecting and dance party hosting, Aquarium Nightclub is a glittering postcard from Atlantis. Profound yet undeniably groovy, its mesmerizing tropical undertones promise a safe journey back to the endless days of summer.

In the days before “landfill” indie, and in rebellion against a developing Britpop orthodoxy, there were some weird but melodic bands coming of age outside London that drew inspiration from the US underground and the sparkly retro-futurism of Japan. Primitive guitar noise with art rock leanings, post punk DIY and fanzine culture. The best known of these bands was maybe Urusei Yatsura; “noisy stars”, named in honour of Rumiko Takahashi, legendary manga creator.

Back in 1996, after several increasingly well-received 7’s, the band travelled to Leamington Spa to record their debut album with John Rivers, producer of Swell Maps and Glasgow scene godparents, The Pastels. The resulting album won the group legions of new fans and gained them their first Independent #1 chart placing, alongside peers Ash and Super Furry Animals.

“These were fertile years in Glasgow, a scene with no name, no single sound, where the magic thread tying everyone together was words and works so personal, they couldn’t be mistaken for anyone else’s. ‘We Are Urusei Yatsura’ is a cascade of ‘why not?’ thinking. The way ‘Phasers on Stun’ spirals into ‘Sola Kola’; the sunburned 23-second improv at the end of ‘Pachinko’; the slack-echoing strings of the outro to ‘Road Song’ sprayed with the shrapnel of toy electronics. Pure pop magic, Ren & Stimpy on upstairs, ray-guns, Ian’s homemade walkie-talkie speaker, a beatbox, all sealed with a “Talking Tina” doll’s emphatic endorsement: “I love it”” – Nick Soulsby

Drop a needle on Psyché's debut album and you'll see visions, or rather Mediterranean visions, be they of waves of heat shimmering above dunes of sand, or of women dancing around a bonfire on a rocky plain, or of bushy cliffs overlooking emerald-green and turquoise sea. The name Psyché is of course ancient Greek for 'soul' or 'mind', signifying the band's love of psychedelic funk, but also the wide range of Mediterranean influences – from Southern Europe to the Balkan Peninsula, and from Anatolia to the Maghreb – that provide an endless source of inspiration for their hypnotic sound and minimalist style.

Psyché members Marcello Giannini (Guru, Nu Genea, Slivovitz), Andrea De Fazio (Parbleu, Nu Genea, Funkin Machine) and Paolo Petrella (Nu Genea) have been active in the Naples music scene for almost two decades, most notably during the first wave of the new Neapolitan Power movement (Slivovitz, Revenaz Quartet). Over the years they have often crossed paths and collaborated on side projects in various genres (math-rock duo Arduo and, more recently, synth-pop duo Fratelli Malibu), before working together as the rhythm section of Nu Genea's live band. Following their first tour with Nu Genea in 2018, they started Psyché with the intent of exploring more minimalist styles and making music with just a few elements.

A unique combination of psychedelia, groove and improvisation, the music of Psyché goes back to the roots of our future; it evokes visions of a mythical past, blending centuries-old music traditions and mixing them with modern genres. Like a warm Mediterranean breeze, it travels across lands, seas and eras, distilling essential rhythms and cosmic pulsations.

The album's opener "Kuma" (titled after the first ancient Greek colony on the Italian mainland, now an archeological site near Naples) is like a vibrant, magical wave. With its deliberately simple harmony and sharp guitar riffs, it travels across the Mediterranean from Italy to North Africa, first lapping gently on Greek and Turkish shores – with some compositional elements reminiscent of Italian pop legend Lucio Battisti – and then speeding up and landing on the driving, syncopated rhythms of afrobeat. While listening to it your eyes fill with images of small white houses shining in the sun, of fig trees heavy with fruit, of spice bazaars and colourful medinas, and you can almost feel the desert wind blowing in your hair.

The journey continues with two examples of Psyché's bold and elegant approach to contemporary afrobeat and cumbia fusion: "Cumbia Mahàre" and "Amma". The former combines minimal synths and exhilarating rhythmic patterns of drums, percussion, guitar and bass, drawing us into the movements of an imaginary ritual dance (the term mahàre was used in Southern Italian dialects to indicate witches). Next is the cinematic and mysterious ambiance of "Angizia" (a snake goddess worshipped by the Marsi in ancient Italy), another fascinating mixture of different sonic traditions and cultures where hip-hop/funk drums are blended with Maghreb influences, Balkan echoes, and hypnotic, Theremin-like synths that have sort of a sci-fi movie quality to them.

The title track "Psyché", with its uptempo afro-rhythms, ethereal vocalizations and refined percussion, is almost a manifesto of the band's style and confirms the freshness of their minimalism, which is not afraid of taking in the sun of lands confined between the sea and the desert. The following "Manea" (named after the Roman-Etruscan goddess of the dead) is an afro-funk number with smooth and introspective dreamy jazz touches, and with an arrangement dominated by a guitar that, dripping notes like drops of water, creates a delicate, cinematic sound. Next, we come to "Hekate" (the Greek goddess of magic, witchcraft and crossroads), a track that fuses psychedelia, spacious Latin guitars and a fast, tight groove. The album comes to a close with the exquisite melodic ballad "Kelebek", which seamlessly combines hip-hop drums and dreamy guitars, and whose warm, flowing sonorities and evocative atmospheres conjure the image of a butterfly (which is what kelebek means, in Turkish) floating over the Mediterranean and, from there, the world.

Hania Rani announces "On Giacometti" a tender meditation on the life and art of Alberto Giacometti and family. "On Giacometti" is a collection of beautiful recordings inspired by the renowned artist and family and features some of Rani's most profoundly delicate compositions to date. Invited by film director Susanna Fanzun, to score her forthcoming documentary on the legendary artist Alberto Giacometti, Hania Rani took herself to the Swiss mountains to compose in blissful isolation. As Rani explains eloquently below the compositions are based on improvised melodies, simple harmonies and structures and inspired by the silence of the mountains as Rani returns to her main instrument, the piano. The results are beguilingly reminiscent of her beloved debut album Esja, but with subtle extra layers of synthesiser, and on two tracks cello from friend and long-running collaborator Dobrawa Czocher.

'On Giacometti' is presented as a limited edition LP with bespoke packaging featuring Les Naturals - Chocolat (Gmund) sustainable recycled paperboard made from 100 % recovered paper with Foil Artwork by Łukasz Pałczyński. Plus Double sided printed insert and download code inside.

Hania Rani "On Giacometti":
‘When I was asked to compose a soundtrack for a movie about the family of Giacometti I didn't think twice.

Alberto Giacometti, a Swiss artist, who worked mainly as painter and sculptor has been one of my favourite artists for a long time. His individual style, aesthetics and the character of his creative process is still fascinating to me on many levels, so being able to dive even deeper into his universe, getting to know not only him but also his family was an opportunity that I couldn't miss. Little did I know how far this "yes" will take me - not only mentally and on a creative level but also physically. Thanks to the director of the documentary - Susanna Fanzun and by a stroke of luck and a couple of extra questions I decided to move for a couple of months to the Swiss mountains, not far away from the place where Giacometti was born and where the place he called home was, although he didn't live there. Susanna showed me a place close to her hometown where I could rent a studio and work on the soundtrack but also for my other projects. It was the middle of a winter, the area was full of ice and snow, just like only it can happen still in the mountains. The residency house was located in a valley surrounded by high mountains and the sun in the winter season was not coming up for too long during the day. I remember she told me about it and added "that not everyone is feeling well there, but I hope you will". I did.

Being almost separated from reality, the city and its entertainments, people rushing and everything that usually takes my attention I could fully concentrate on the music and soundtrack, spending most of the day with my own thoughts and having enough space to experiment and be free in a creative process. This soundtrack would probably be a very different thing if composed in a place that I am usually living in. I took this a chance to explore something new about myself as a composer and human being, taking the opposite direction that I would usually choose for myself.

The album "On Giacometti" includes the excerpts from the soundtrack, the most representative tracks and those which became a strong voice itself. Based a lot on improvised melodies, simple harmonies, structures and silence it reminds me of my debut album "Esja" which was partly composed and recorded in another chilly place - Iceland. All these components, both mental and physical, guided me back to my main instrument - piano, which I tried to redefine again with a language of the space that I was working in. The space is usually the key element that gives me the answer about the arrangement or character of the project. Space seems to be the first to appear and music is the invisible power which is changing its angels.’ Living surrounded by mountains makes you change the perspective and understanding of scale as Alberto Giacometti once famously wrote in a letter: It gives an impression that things that are actually far away, like mountains, are close and the other ones that are not so far away, like people, seem small, watched from a distance. You feel like touching the mountain top with your finger could be as easy as touching the tip of your nose. The snow additionally protects the whole area from the noise, each sound lands softly on the ground accompanied by echoes of immeasurable space. Each scratch or whisper is becoming an autonomic entity, opening the gate to the world of ghosts and lost spirits. It's easy to think that time stands still there, while nothing is moving and changing at the first sight. But the ubiquitous ice and snow reveal the passage of time, transforming frozen paysage into the wild stream of water - each day, hour and second. Melting and vanishing, clearing the space from white powder and noise consuming surface. Invisible process for a one night traveller, becomes painfully real for longer time settlers. Time flows with each new wave of sound coming through the river, reminding us that we are part of the cycle, which endlessly repeats itself.

Svart Records unveils “Sutra”, the new album from grand master avant-garde overlords Yakuza. An genre crushing album of forward thinking metal for the modern age, “Sutra” is a powerhouse of unlimited expression and molten riffs. Formed in 1999, Chicago based heavy hybridizers Yakuza, are in a genre all of their own, which Pitchfork describe as a “a specialized and strange alloy”. So eclectic and hard to pigeon-hole, their music has been described over the years as everything from avant-garde metal, progressive metal, alternative metal to experimental rock, jazz metal, art metal and post-metal. Incorporating psychedelic rock jams that sprawl into heavy, sludging Doom with jazz influences, while also incorporating breakneck grind riffs and grooves, makes Yakuza’s new album “Sutra” a long awaited and insanely enjoyable feast of frequencies. From their break-out debut album “Amount to Nothing” in 2000, which was met with critical acclaim, Yakuza have been a phenomenon in the world of heavy music, hot on the tongues of those who know. Their second album “Way of the Dead” in 2002 landed Yakuza a deal with Century Media and worldwide notoriety, securing them live slots with like-minded progressive heavyweights like Candira, Opeth, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Lacuna Coil and Mastodon.

Svart Records unveils “Sutra”, the new album from grand master avant-garde overlords Yakuza. An genre crushing album of forward thinking metal for the modern age, “Sutra” is a powerhouse of unlimited expression and molten riffs. Formed in 1999, Chicago based heavy hybridizers Yakuza, are in a genre all of their own, which Pitchfork describe as a “a specialized and strange alloy”. So eclectic and hard to pigeon-hole, their music has been described over the years as everything from avant-garde metal, progressive metal, alternative metal to experimental rock, jazz metal, art metal and post-metal. Incorporating psychedelic rock jams that sprawl into heavy, sludging Doom with jazz influences, while also incorporating breakneck grind riffs and grooves, makes Yakuza’s new album “Sutra” a long awaited and insanely enjoyable feast of frequencies. From their break-out debut album “Amount to Nothing” in 2000, which was met with critical acclaim, Yakuza have been a phenomenon in the world of heavy music, hot on the tongues of those who know. Their second album “Way of the Dead” in 2002 landed Yakuza a deal with Century Media and worldwide notoriety, securing them live slots with like-minded progressive heavyweights like Candira, Opeth, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Lacuna Coil and Mastodon.

Since relocating to Brazil some years back, Needs Music co-founder Lars Bartkuhn has returned to his long-held love of musical improvisation. Although it’s a product of his jazz roots and classical training, the German producer has constantly found new ways to apply it to his work in the sphere of electronic music.

‘Dystopia’, his first solo album for almost nine years, was born out of two interlinked ideas: a desire to create improvised music without the aid of computer sequencers or an electronic drum set, and a deeply held love of storytelling through sound. Bartkuhn set to work improvising with modular synthesizers, acoustic instruments and hand percussion, later adding light-touch overdubs to a handful of pieces. When he listened back to the recordings, an aural narrative emerged, and you’ll hear it if you listen to the album from start to finish, as is intended.

As you’d expect from a musician and composer of Bartkuhn’s undoubted ability, ‘Dystopia’ is a stunning album – an undulating, expansive ambient journey packed with emotional resonance. While Bartkuhn naturally sees it as a logical progression of his previous ambient-leaning work with Kabuki as The First Minute of a New Day (and particularly their self-titled 2020 album Séance Centre), ‘Dystopia’ also features subtle nods to many of his long-held musical loves, including John Hassell’s ‘fourth world’ recordings, the impossible-to-pigeonhole 1970s catalogue of deep jazz imprint ECM, and the far-sighted American minimalism of Terry Riley and Steve Reich.

The album’s emotional depth is evident early on, with the slow-burn title track – all bubbling electronics, billowing chords, clarinet-style notes and gently strummed guitars offering the most melancholic and bittersweet of openings. The becalmed ‘A Drop Of Water In The Ocean’ follows, with discordant aural textures and hand percussion mimicking the rolling ocean, before ‘Largo (Calm Before The Storm)’ hints at unsettling times ahead.

‘Water and Warm Air’, the only track on the album whose starting point was not Bartkuhn’s cherished modular set-up, bleeps and bubbles across the sound space, adding a starry and otherworldly slant to proceedings, while ‘Disembodied Journey (Parts 1, 2 and 3)’ is a sublime, slowly unfurling journey in three movements – all Tangerine Dream style synthesizer motifs, Pat Metheny-esque guitars and jazz-fusion instrumentation.

So the album continues, with the poignant warmth and looped motifs of ‘Still Existing’ and the sparse, dubbed-out minimalism of ‘Do You Know How To Get Out?’ – a kind of 21st century jazz-fusionist’s take on sparse electronic hypnotism – giving wat to closing cut ‘Into The Waves’, a gentle combination of undulating electronic arpeggios and echoing instrumentation that offers a hopeful and undeniably picturesque conclusion.

Fittingly, the album cover features a painting by the late Dutch artist Franz Deckwitz (1934-94), whose images of alien landscapes were used by Phillips on a series of music concrete compilations. The image featured on the cover of ‘Dystopia’, depicting a deep blue ocean and shoreline, was painted by Deckwitz in Amsterdam in the late 1970s and inspired by a trip to the island of Ponza, Italy.

Matt Anniss

Essential UK experimental composer Richard Skelton returns to Phantom Limb for new album selenodesy, interweaving his newfound love of electronics and synthesis with mastery of gritty organic texture.

Skelton’s music has always been rooted in landscape, in the loam and grit of the earth: from his 2009 Pennine Moors-inspired modern classic Landings to his more recent Moraine Sequence of geological excavations, his work has been bound inexorably with the stark and untended wilderness of northern landscapes. With this new album, however, Skelton shifts his gaze skyward — in part the result of a move in 2017 to the countryside near the Kielder Observatory, and to a so-called ‘dark sky’ region of the UK. In this remote landscape, light pollution is minimal, allowing the austere majesty of the night sky to be seen with greater clarity.

The resulting album, selenodesy, reveals a new, reverberant spaciousness to Skelton’s use of electronics. It marries the twin worlds of his previous Phantom Limb release - 2020’s These Charms May Be Sung Over A Wound, and its abandoned-factory threnody - with the landscape-revering arcana of his earlier work, which saw him bury instruments in the soil to return months later to recover and record with them, newly imbued with the land they occupied. selenodesy was prefigured by a period of insomnia and the relief found

in stargazing, during which Skelton tried to transcribe his hypnagogic visions: “much of this music came to me in the early hours, in that nowhere state between dreaming and waking. I’d look out the window and the night sky would be swirling with stars. Mars or Venus would be hovering in the corner of the room. I’d lie there and watch the Aurora Borealis dance across the ceiling.”

In selenodesy, we find the lingering, distorted sine waves of album opener “Albedo” that thrum and fizz with an icy, foreboding moonlight, rays of subtle movement that illuminate and darken alternately. Next follows lead single “The Plot of Lunar Phases”, whose passive shrieks echo about a cold, yawning space, reaching an ecstatic crescendo of hissing sonics and swirling celestial drone. Its dynamic range acts like the light of a lunar passage, from utmost darkness to radiant luminosity. Elsewhere, the pulsing, precessional bass of “Faint Ray Systems” gradually opens to reveal mournful, elegiac synthesis that reaches high into the night sky with an unearthly beauty. It is as if, during those long months of lockdown in the Scottish countryside, Skelton tapped into a series of sidereal electromagnetic transmissions, and transposed them into musical form.

Over a decade since its inception, Wave Temples continues to refine and refract the project’s visionary mythopoetic exotica. Panama Shift presents a 20-track kaleidoscopic star map inspired by “the euphoric cults, both then and now, that come and go in the vast ritual of night.” Bleached keys, devotional synth, and driftwood percussion align in minimalist vignettes shaded by tape hiss and field recordings of streams, waves, wind, and birds.
Dedicated to the late Japanese-born American anthropologist Yosihiko H. Sinoto (whose portrait graces the cover), famed for his excavations throughout the Pacific and French Polynesia, the album embodies a similarly voyaging spirit: “chasing ancient mysteries… and rekindling with the esoteric journey of the human spirit.” This is music of forgotten shores, sea air, and saltwater shrines, echoing in shells scattered across the altars of Atlantis.

Recital presents »As Above, So Below, a new album from French multi-instrumentalist Delphine Dora. Over the past decade, from poetry reading, chansons, organ performances, tape compositions and so on, each album in Dora’s lush discography feels like a feather from a different bird. A keen ability to defy any singular “sound,” always diving to different depths.

»As Above, So Below« centers around mystic piano and voice recordings. In a distinct gothic landscape, each of the nine tracks float into one another. From verdant piano works that revolve like beautifully stretched out miniatures, expanding and bending like shadows across the floor, to foggy vocal arrangements hovering above beds of rural field recordings. Quiet synthesizers crawl in the backdrops, never disturbing the spirit of the piano motions.

On the track »Cantique spirituel,« Dora, from a cloud of her phantasmal caroling, recites a poem by German author Novalis (1772-1801). »Blindly we strayed in night’s confusion…« This poetic essence is found throughout the album… »gladness and grief alike consume.«

»As Above, So Below« was produced and mixed by the brilliant British musician Andrew Chalk, whose presence tints the air throughout Dora’s album. Chalk ornaments the pieces with additional instrumentation, along with Jean Noël Rebilly playing clarinet.

Puce Moment is part of the French contemporary music scene. Their music is climatic, often inhabited by a strong emotional power. A procession of harmonic structures organized in a ritual way, sometimes close to trance. It can be written or improvised, vocal or instrumental. The electronic and electroacoustic arrangements summon new spaces and abstract landscapes, which can go from the purest sound to the most raw distortions. Vast, slower, deeper - distant echoes of half-faded things - and when we are lost, voices appear. Voices whose only reference would be the timeless SeeFeel.

Nicolas Devos and Pénélope Michel are visual and sound artists, one trained at the Beaux-Arts and the Fresnoy studio national des arts contemporains and the other a classically trained cellist, singer and multiinstrumentalist. They created Puce Moment, envisaged as a sound research laboratory open to experimentation, to multi-disciplinary encounters and to decompartmentalization. Their work is akin to a fictional ethnology expressed through protean projects and mutant visual, sound and musical creations.

»Epic Ellipses« is their 4th album.

They have composed the original soundtracks of more than a dozen dance performance, fiction or documentary films, virtual reality in variable formats (Christian Rizzo, Mylène Benoit, Vania Vaneau, Benjamin Nuel, Laurent Pernot, Carolina Gonçalves). Or in the form of film-concerts including David Lynch's cult film 'Eraserhead' with which they have toured intensively since 2012 in France and Europe, and since 2019 »Koyaanisqatsi«, the cult experimental documentary by Godfrey Reggio.

I was dancing when I was out, I was dancing when I was in. Is it strange to dance so late? Is it strange to dance so soon? Cosmic dancers always ball. Dancing with themselves, dancing space away. Right into the smallest hole a human brain can create: the inner cosmos, a psychedelic region, where time gets space and space turns to haze.

Berlin based producer TM Solver is such a kind of cosmic dancer. He has danced late. And so soon. Since 2008 he released yearly one, sometimes two albums via the German Berlin School dedicated label Syngate and its experimental subdivision Luna. Intensely meandering synthesizer journey music, that is pirouetting on inner universes, genuinely crafted in the tradition of Berlin School and Krautrock. You can catch the unearthly nuances of Can and the spaciously swinging psychedelic corners of Amon Dül, Embryo, Tangerine Dream, or Klaus Schulze. As TM Solver has been a lover of analog synthesizers for almost 30 years, all pulsates on analogue sound orbs under the zigzagging guidance of machines like Moog Prodegy, Korg MS20 and GRP A4, as well as state-of-the-art systems as ASM Hydrasynth and Korg Wavestate. When he got in touch with the Berlin club scene and all its propelling grooves in 2006, a new rhythmic universe joined his vast musical space of sound latitudes. “Tinkering around with sound structures is my thing. Leading the listener into a combination of music and sound spaces.“ he reveals on his emotive musical art. How affecting it works, is now displayed with four epic compositions for R.i.O., Berlin Wedding’s label of novel ways for caved rhythmic patterns. Grooving between 90 to 240 BPM, they offer a vast variety of emotional landscapes, slowing down, rolling up, drifting into genuinely layered tonality magic. Headspace music for vigilant wanderers. Utterly psychedelic and yet so clear. His R.i.O. debut “Subtraktiv Additiv“ comes with five additional remixes, fashioned by R.i.O. conspirator Benedikt Frey, Amsterdam based DJ and producer Mayo, “Die Orakel” magician O-Wells from Frankfurt, Siamese Twin Records co-runner Sunju Hargun, and the versatile club and beyond production duo Red Axes. They all respect TM Solver’s analogue zones and pitch them into the 115 to 130 BPM districts, while transcending his absorbing synth compositions into the world of nervous acid-laden ambient, slow-mo techno, industrial bass, post-trance, and all that hallucinogenic echo house. Nine subtle energy vibrations, epic and full of countless facets, shaped to turn on, tune in, and drop out.

DYL lands on Nous'klaer with Fjord: A deep dive that starts out soothing and gets deceptively heavy and hypnotic as you swim further of shore - filled with immense echoes that feel eerie and comforting all at once.

Over the course of a 19-year career, Marshall Watson has released all manner of musical treats for a similarly wide array of labels, yet it’s the effortless beauty of his downtempo works – and particularly his ambient and Balearic excursions – that have often left a lasting impression.

It certainly caught the attention of NuNorthern Soul founder Phil Cooper, who brought the West Coast producer to the label in the summer of 2021. That EP, Sunsets on Larkin Parts 1 & 2, was undeniably special. The same can be said about his belated return to the label, Foothills, an EP packed to the rafters with slow-burn melodies, sustained chords, becalmed textures and gently unwinding grooves.

Watson’s distinctive take on Balearic naturally comes to the fore on EP opener ‘High Desert’, a soft-focus delight where languid electric guitars, starry electric piano lines, echoing chords and gently pulsing electronics stretch out across a shuffling groove. While tailor-made for watching the sun set off his beloved Pacific Coast – and over the Mediterranean Sea – ‘High Desert’ offers a dose of hazy sonic sunshine that can brighten up even the greyest of days.

Fittingly, the accompanying remix comes from long-time friends of the label Seahawks, whose textured, layered and atmospheric productions similarly blur boundaries between Balearic, ambient, pitched-down dancefloor grooves and glassy-eyed psychedelia. Employing opaque, shape-shifting pads, effects-laden guitars, subtle spoken word snippets and yearning, almost melancholic chords – all atop a crunchy, head-nodding beat and toasty bassline – the duo deliver a remix that’s as emotive and sonically stunning as Watson’s original mix.

The EP’s three other tracks amply demonstrate the subtle variety within Watson’s downtempo output. Vocalist Julie Childe makes her mark on ‘Sweet Sounds’, a brilliant blend of warming deep house and laidback Balearic nu-disco that sports subtle hints to his work as one half of synthwave duo Causeway, while ‘Open Sky’ brilliantly wraps undulating TB-303 acid lines and echoing Spanish guitars around a hypnotic, locked-in dancefloor groove.

Then there’s ‘The Landscape’, a deliciously saucer-eyed slab of breakbeat-powered, TB-303-sporting genius that evokes the immersive, early morning waviness of the ambient house era, the beach party psychedelia of San Francisco’s free party movement, and the bleeping wonder of turn-of-the-90s UK dance music. Like the rest of the EP, it’s an enveloping, head-soothing and mind-expanding treat.





e B2 High Desert Seahawks High Sky Remix

Exceptionally talented keyboardist, DJ and producer Moon Boots (Peter Dougherty) has revealed his third studio album ‘Ride Away’. The ten-track LP will land on March 17th on Anjunadeep. The first single, ‘Hot Minute’ featuring Black Gatsby, is out today. Written and produced over a nearly two-year period beginning in early 2021, ‘Ride Away’ contains themes of love, companionship, and personal exploration. Hauling in a crate’s worth of musical influences, Moon Boots has imbued ‘Ride Away’ with his characteristic blend of soul, disco, and house music, whilst also introducing the sounds of synthpop, breakbeats, and psychedelica. Marrying these eclectic styles is part and parcel of Moon Boots idiosyncratic sensibility, honed through years of living and DJing in Chicago, the birthplace of house music, and in the musical melting pot of Brooklyn. ‘Hot Minute’ is the first single and features the vocals of longtime collaborator Black Gatsby. With a sassy chorus that echoes Anderson Paak and Sylvester with a gospel-inflected breakdown, ‘Hot Minute’ shows off the full range of Black Gatsby’s talents and his unique musical rapport with Moon Boots. This bop is a tantalising taste of what Dougherty has been up to in the studio. ‘Hot Minute’ follows the recent release of ‘Come Back Around’ which featured indie darling Cherry Glazerr. The summer anthem was supported by the likes of KCRW, Triple J, and SiriusXM. ‘Ride Away’ follows in the footsteps of Moon Boots’s debut ‘First Landing’ (2017) and sophomore album ‘Bimini Road’ (2019). With an impressive catalogue atypical of the dance world, Dougherty’s third album represents both his tenacity and evolution as a producer and songwriter.

Featuring a swathe of colourful vocalists including the likes of Cherry Glazerr, Dope Earth Alien, and Nic Hanson, ‘Ride Away’ celebrates Dougherty’s longstanding affinity for collaboration, fun effervescent songwriting, and dance-focused production. Other international artists on the album include French singer Praa and Norwegian band Ora The Molecule, whilst longtime collaborators Ross Clark (St. Lucia) and Steven Klavier feature as writers and instrumentalists on the record, rounding out a global ensemble of incredible talent. Having accrued well over 100 million streams on Spotify alone, and having been championed by the likes of Annie Mac, Diplo, Danny Howard, and The Blessed Madonna, Moon Boots has established himself as a trailblazer of R&B-infused dance music.

lack Marble Vinyl! High Vis were formed in 2016 from the ashes of some of the UK's best hardcore bands. Gild-toothed frontman Graham Sayle's anguished lyrics about life in working class Britain were familiar to fans of Tremors' full-throttle thrash, but alongside his former bandmate Edward `Ski' Harper and veterans of Dirty Money, DiE and The Smear, High Vis sought to transform that energy and intensity into something entirely new.Like scene-mates Chubby and the Gang did by pulling in unlikely source material from classic doo-wop or Micromoon have by combining everything from psychedelia and metal into their high potency mix, High Vis' 2019 debut album, No Sense No Feeling showed the band were never going to be constrained by any sense of genre rules or regulations. Its claustrophobic rattle bore traces of Joy Division, Bauhaus, Crisis, The Cure and Gang Of Four lurking in the shadows. 2020's synth-driven EP, Society Exists, was further evidence of the band's restless creative MO.High Vis' second album Blending sees them open their viewfinder wider than ever before.

Alongside longstanding favourites such as Fugazi and Echo and The Bunnymen; Ride and even Flock Of Seagulls were shared reference points as the band worked on the album together.From the anthemic sweep of opener "Talk For Hours", through the title track's psychedelic swirl and "Fever Dream"'s baggy groove, it sees High Vis' sound blossoming into something with an unlimited richness. The hazy drift of "Shame" or the melodic jangle of "Trauma Bonds" may take them until uncharted waters, but they still have all the power and bite that made No Sense No Feeling so remarkable.Lyrically, the album represents another leap forward too. Talking frankly about poverty, class politics, and the challenges of everyday life, Sayle's lyrics have always addressed the downtrodden and discarded communities across Britain slipping below the waterline. This time around, Sayle's lost not of that social consciousness, but he's looked at himself and his own emotional landscape, and in the process created something that feels more universal, that reaches a hand-out to people and ultimately gives a message of hope."To me, the lyrics are less selfish," reflects Sayle. "In the past, I couldn't see past whatever was going on with me.

It's about accepting things and being open to conversations and learning to talk to people rather than just thinking that we're all doomed."The song "Talk for Hours" is a prime example of that. Born out of an afternoon meeting up with an old group of mates "repeating the same thing and not actually learning anything about each other" it offers to actually break the cycle and to listen and speak frankly about shared feelings and experiences. "Trauma Bonds", meanwhile, traces the broken lines of those living in lost communities, but ultimately realises that despite our shared scars, there's still hope to move on to a better future."The message of the album is you're not who you're told you are," Sayle summarises. "You're not your class background. Whatever it is, you're not that. Don't resign yourself to thinking you can't be this and you can't be that."It's a vitally important message right now, and one that could be the motto for not only Blending, but for High Vis themselves.

LNS and DJ Sotofett return to Tresor Records with The Reformer EP. This new record moves forward with a crystal clear, direct and controlled output, leaving their debut album "Sputters" as an end-mark of a sonic era. Here they evolve into a topography full of contrasts, where harsh digital artefacts, scanner sounds, and vocoder voices cast melodic colors across cold landscapes of club-ready electro.
"Reform" plunges deep into an electro sound splintered by binary bits and submerged pads that beckon a serene melody, which echoes and loops to entangle with mutant voices, noises and buzzes. "Plexistorm" leads with synthesized strings and arpeggiated acidic bleeps until a thick bass emerges, sounding almost like a long-lost Analord record. Heavily shapeshifting with eects processing, it proves primitive movements in dubbing are the perfect counterpart to this precise electro sound.
With "Electric Terraforming", the duo uncover charged energy sources required for life on another planet, as broad synth pads
and memorable vocoder harmonies draw this earworm to a close. Mighty washes of dub rule on "909 The Controller" as a skipping beat invites a slow, rippling melody and percolating reverberated synths.
The vinyl record has significantly dierent sonics to the digital release, and, exclusively, each side ends in a locked groove produced by DJ Sotofett.

The Schnitzelbeat goes on ..... und wir finden uns am Übergang zweier Jahrzehnte wieder. Woodstock hat gerade das offizielle Ende des Summer Of Love besiegelt, die Beatles befinden sich im Stadium des Zerfalls und The Stooges läuten mit unbarmherzigem Lärm ein neues Zeitalter ein. Zurück in Österreich ... die Stadt Wien dämmert weiterhin selig im bornierten Mief der Nachkriegszeit. Gelegentlich weht der Wind den Klang einer Ziehharmonika und eines Jodlers vom Land in Richtung Stephansdom. Die eingeweihten Hörer der Schnitzelbeat-Serie ahnen es allerdings bereits: da war noch etwas Anderes, etwas Wildes, Ungutes, ein dröhnender Faustschlag in die hornbebrillten Gesichter der Spießbürger. Doch wer hätte gedacht, dass die gelungenste Annäherung an den Proto-Punk der Blue Cheer oder MC5 ausgerechnet auf dem Volksmusiklabel Alpenton erscheint? (Albatross, "I am dead"). Da fährt schon ein Aufschrei des Entsetzens aus der Lederhose. Und ein Lächeln puren Glücks in die Gesichter aufgeklärter Fans obskurer Rockmusik. Auch The Seals erweisen sich 1969 als würdige Kämpfer im Krieg der Generationen: "You know nothing about the new generation / because you live in the U-Bahn-Station" stellen die Psychedelic-Punks aus Wien interessanterweise in ihrer Nummer "Stop this War" fest. Und auch sonst ist der Krieg ein geläufiges Thema: der 2. Weltkrieg (The Cop Stigh, "War History"); der Vietnamkrieg (Maybe Hair, "War"); der Krieg der Geschlechter (Young Society, "It's War"). Doch was wäre die Zeit der Hippies und Kommunarden ohne freie Liebe, Blumenarrangements und von allerlei Substanzen unterstützte Ausnahmezustände? "Nicht auf die Blumen in dem Haar, auf euer Herz kommt es an / denn Liebe nur allein alles ändern kann" singt die Casting-Boyband The Wallflowers, aufs trefflichste begleitet von einem Kinderchor, der leider nicht immer ganz textsicher ist. Die Aussage an sich würden aber sicher auch The V-Rangers unterschreiben ("Make Love"). Oder Hannes, Erich, Peter und Arno von der Salzburger Beatband Les Marquis, die einen Westcoast-Liebestraum an den Stränden des Salzkammerguts lebendig werden lassen ("Sand on the Shore"). Zur Halbzeit von Schnitzelbeat Vol. 3 wird ein unvergesslicher Höhepunkt gereicht. 1973 veröffentlicht Rocky F. Holicke die ultimative psychedelische Hymne aus heimischer Produktion: "Ready for Take Off" ist ein unbeschreibliches Monument eines Songs, eine wahrhaft überirdische Erfahrung musikalischer Transzendenz. Wenn es schon über die Wolken geht, dann bitte so, Herr Reinhard Mey. Und natürlich auf Holickes eigenem Label, Aero-Sound. Wo sonst? Während Hide & Seek auf den Spuren von Cream wandeln und ebenfalls von jeder Flugangst befreit durch den Orbit segeln ("I can fly"), blasen aus den Triebwerken von Karl Ratzers Gitarre längst sengend heiße "White Flames". Der legendäre Musiker und Frontmann der Charles Ryders Corporation ist nicht nur einer der besten Jazzgitarristen die Österreich je hatte - er nimmt es auch mit James Marshall Hendrix auf, wenn alle Effektpedale bis zum Bühnenboden durchgedrückt sind. Etwa zur selben Zeit findet sich eine oberösterreichische Ministrantenband - heimlich, nächtens - am Wochenende im Musikzimmer einer Mühlviertler Volksschule ein. Und nimmt dort eine brandgefährliche Granate hochexplosiven, psychedelischen Garagenpunks auf. Mit mehr Fuzz, Wah-Wah, Echo und Farfisa-Orgel als selbst der Leibhaftige persönlich erlaubt hat (The Hush, "Giny"). Und dies ist nicht die einzige weithin unbekannte Super-Rarität, die der Archivar, Subkulturforscher und Rare-Track-DJ Al Bird Sputnik und sein Team von den Trash Rock Archives zusammengetragen haben: die verschollene erste Single von Novaks Kapelle erscheint hier erstmals in einer komplett restaurierten Version, ohne Nadelhüpfen und mit relativ wenigen lästigen Nebengeräuschen ("Garbage Man"). Von den lediglich 10 angefertigten Exemplaren der einzigen Platte der Austrian Brothers ("Brother") konnte die einzige Kopie ohne Pressfehler aufgetrieben werden. Und um endlich der 7" von The Cop Stigh habhaft zu werden, musste sogar jemand sein letztes Hemd verkaufen und die Hose bis zu den Knöcheln runterlassen. Aber "All right", um es mit den Worten der steirischen Acid-Rocker Generation 2000 zu sagen: es hat sich ausgezahlt. Schnitzelbeat Vol. 3 fügt der vergessenen Frühgeschichte der österreichischen Rockmusik wieder zahlreiche faszinierende Kapitel hinzu. Begeben Sie sich mit Al Bird Sputnik und den Labels Konkord und Digatone auf eine weitere Reise in die Tiefen wohlsortierter Plattenkisten und pilgern Sie vor einem Himmel voller Schwedenbomben und Mannerschnitten über Gebirge verzerrter Gitarren in die entlegensten Regionen der österreichischen Popkultur. NOVAK

2023 Repress

His five years at the helm of IDO (Intercontinental Dance Organization) have provided Valentino Mora the outlet to explore his concept of "active meditation", through the lexicon of deep and organically-textured ambient house and techno. Now with the inking of sub-label imprint EDO (Exothermal Dance Organization) Mora's newest output finds direct, molecular inspiration from deep in the aquaverse. Taking its name from the chemical release of heat, EDO's exothermic first EP delivers four tracks of heady, transformative techno atmospheres. Charting Mora's evolution from multi-channel acoustic recordings, samples and digital-analog hybridity, Hydrosphere EP continues his production complexity yet arrives at this point via the singular expression of modular synthesis. "Erosion" opens as a cryptic transmission from submersed entities, with haunting tone tendrils emerging from within the indigo unknown. A subtle echo of reverb softens the edge of its propulsive kick drum, creating an entrancing, enticing and unsettling journey into the deep. The snaking minimalist shimmer of the title track "Hydrosphere" evokes a landscape of frozen tundra, with a backdrop of shifting, urgent techno precision. Bewitching through endless motion and slow deliberation, chimes and pings are stretched out and warped to mind-bending effect. "Doppler Shift" takes a forthright approach, leading with prominent looped bass tones, percussion and rhythmic sweeps. Rounded shapes move rapidly through the inkinesss, forming repetitions that only intensify in pace and energy. To complete the resynthesis, "Solarized" embodies the life-giving warmth of it's name, beaming irregular shafts of illumination into dark, bass-heavy, chugging terrain, forming melodic wisps of tonal condensation.

2023 REpress
A North American road trip of coming of age garage soul mapped by Ivan Liechti, Ghost Riders is Efficient Space’s latest narrative compilation, hovering in a liminal emotional ravine between moonlight melancholy, teenage heartache and unchecked, unrealised ambition. Across seventeen open hearted ballads recorded 1965-1974, the 2LP collects and connects dots between British Invasion fanatics, child prodigies, the loners and the luckless, in a kind of trans-continental survey of those swept up in rock’n’roll mania and buoyed by local newspaper ads promising fame and gold records.

From the tangerine dreams of 8th grade all-girl combo The Mod 4 to the tri-state jukebox aspiring echoes of The Tempters, The Yardley’s poetic Farfisa vamp and lilting folk pop, and The Landlords’ weepy break up b-side blues, these are mostly one shots by dreamers whose experience was brief before being checked back to the reality of suburban normality and realistic career options. Hailing from the regional backwaters of Illnois, Arkansas, Nevada, Massachussets, Ohio, Idaho, Texas and beyond, the licensed artists were scouted by way of local fire departments, spiritualist fellowships and animal welfare centres, often barely a stones throw from where their contributions were originally laid.

A barely teenage Dennis Harte's ‘Summer’s Over’ perhaps best taps the collection’s essence. A gut-wrenching lament of the passing of the season as if it was the last on earth. Flanked by players from The Left Banke, Harte, a now-piano tuner to the stars, is from the minor segment that found longevity in showbiz. Likewise with Michigan icon Lyn Nowicki who cast her ghostly voice over Beatles cover song chameleons The Common People and Jerry McGee, The Ventures member and conduit of Dr. John’s ‘Twilight Zone’.

Ghost Riders simmers with the scent of youthful summers, the pang of schoolyard romance, and the excitement (and disenchantment) of teenage naïveté, delivered via a deceptively simple and frequently wonky garage band set up. The vision of record collector and graphic designer Ivan Liechti, these eternal psych-folk howlers are further crystallised by Colin Young’s fastidious audio restoration, the original artwork of Elise Ganebin-de Bons and an aptly penned forward from Sonic Boom.

Remastered reissue of “We Are Urusei Yatsura” (originally released in 1996), with bonus vinyl of unreleased demos and B-sides

Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the founding of Glasgow “Geek Rock” band Urusei Yatsura
– Double Clear-Vinyl Reissue of 1996 Album
In the days before “landfill” indie, and in rebellion against a developing Britpop orthodoxy, there were some weird but melodic bands coming of age outside London that drew inspiration from the US underground and the sparkly retro-futurism of Japan. Primitive guitar noise with art rock leanings, post punk DIY and fanzine culture. The best known of these bands was maybe Urusei Yatsura; “noisy stars”, named in honour of Rumiko Takahashi, legendary manga creator.

Back in 1996, after several increasingly well-received 7’s, the band travelled to Leamington Spa to record their debut album with John Rivers, producer of Swell Maps and Glasgow scene godparents, The Pastels. The resulting album won the group legions of new fans and gained them their first Independent #1 chart placing, alongside peers Ash and Super Furry Animals.

“These were fertile years in Glasgow, a scene with no name, no single sound, where the magic thread tying everyone together was words and works so personal, they couldn’t be mistaken for anyone else’s. ‘We Are Urusei Yatsura’ is a cascade of ‘why not?’ thinking. The way ‘Phasers on Stun’ spirals into ‘Sola Kola’; the sunburned 23-second improv at the end of ‘Pachinko’; the slack-echoing strings of the outro to ‘Road Song’ sprayed with the shrapnel of toy electronics. Pure pop magic, Ren & Stimpy on upstairs, ray-guns, Ian’s homemade walkie-talkie speaker, a beatbox, all sealed with a “Talking Tina” doll’s emphatic endorsement: “I love it”” – Nick Soulsby

The vinyl-only double LP set comprises the original 1996 album recorded by John Rivers, accompanied with an extra disk of unreleased demos, rare singles and B-sides which have not been available since the 90’s. It documents the time leading up to the release of the LP and the singles that came from it, capturing the development, lost pop moments and essential experiments from the eccentric and joyful Glasgow band. The cover has been completely remixed using archive
photos and artwork from the time, with new interviews and extensive notes. The release marks 30 years since the official birthday of the band, 9/3/93.

“When I drove the transit van that took them down to Leamington Spa to record their first proper LP, there was a sense of quiet, assured anticipation. I couldn’t wait to hear it and when I came back a couple of weeks later to pick them back up, I remember so clearly when they played it from the van’s tape deck. Fergus and Graham were hunched over, focusing intently on what they wanted to change about the mix. The reverb wasn’t right or something. Maybe they didn’t like how high the vocals were in the mix. I said to them, you’re listening to the details, but missing what is most important–this is a fantastic record! It was. It is. It is a fantastic record. They were a brilliant live band and I am so lucky to have been able to have been there to see their formation.” – Alex Kapranos.

Antipodean Anomalies 2 is Left Ear Records' most ambitious project to date, a compilation that took over 4 years to license and includes 17 artists across a double LP. AA2 picks up where the first iteration left off, with co-compilers Chris Bonato and& Bridget Small continuing to dig through the music of the geographically isolating and maverick landscapes of Australia and& New Zealand.

As with the first iteration, Left Ear continues its to excavation ofe the music from these vast micro-scenes that evolved out of a number of small community-focused domains, creating their own unique reinterpretation of musical influences from near and far, spanning the years 1980 – 1992.

The compilation scopes an overlooked epoch from Adelaide, presenting acts such as the DNA Lounge, TCH & Will Kuiper. A close-knit community of like-minded mates that made distinctive electronic music together throughout the 80’s, all of which remained unreleased until now. Holbrook Buchanan capture the ambiance of Perth’s heat prodded afternoon’s perfectly with their track Hunger, a breezy 9-minute minimal-jazz jam that includes kalimba, water samples & conga. Furthermore, artists like David Watson & Colin Offord use samplers and handmade instruments to offer a more abrasive and experimental aesthetic.

To round out the compilation, artists such as Jane Stevenson, discovered a 7” at an op-shop and found the needle stuck on the word, ‘Aloha’. Using tape loops, she chose to highlight imperfections rather than hide them and in unison managed to cross boundaries of time; the 60s (album voice) and the 80s (my voice), of location; Hawaii and Australia, and of language; “Aloha and Hi”. This ethos echoes the compilation's vision, to champion artists that implement impromptu creativity, and who have a desire to create regardless of their surroundings and resources. AA2 signs off with the Back to Back Zithers, drawing inspiration from the haiku poems of Basho. To illustrate this, Kari set a Kacapi improvisation to the backdrop of the cicada chorus of summertime in outer Melbourne.

chant#11 is the first VA compilation by David August's imprint featuring KMRU, Yu Su, Kareem Lotfy, Hadj Sameer, Sara Berts and more. Including also two new projects by August himself, Aşa (with jazz-noise vocalist Cansu Tanrikulu) and Madrā (with Carnatic vocalist Sushma Soma).

Observing how the world is continuously transforming, an idea of motion comes to mind. Inspired by Plato's concept of movement ("Nothing ever is, everything is becoming"), 99CHANTS has invited artists to create an "imaginary landscape." What does tomorrow sound like?

With creativity an increasing part of our daily lives, we must consider how we navigate the changes this contemporary environment brings. This means thinking through our responsibilities as a label, but also the role of music at this particular moment in time. We believe creativity and looking within our interior worlds can set hope and action in motion. We are curious to further explore music's ability to create gateways to such inspiration. With humility and gratitude, we hope this compilation can be a small contribution to a larger picture.

Since we started 99C in 2018, the safeguarding of the environment has been paramount to our existence. Considering the possibilities of tangible impact, we thoughtfully considered the act of compensation and decided that all proceeds will go directly to the non-profit organisation ONETREEPLANTED. Founded in 2014, OTP works with partners around the globe to plant trees in areas affected by deforestation. With 10 million trees planted as of 2020, biodiversity has been stimulated, jobs have been created, and while multinational conglomerates and energy companies produce the vast majority of global CO2 emissions, areas destroyed in the name of profit can once again flourish with life.

Purple Vinyl

London’s abundant waterways and parks provide an oneiric muse for Cucina Povera and Ben Vince’s resounding debut full-length collaboration, an engrossing suite of weightless sax, synth and disklavier-bedded soundscapes that land somewhere between Grouper and Terry Riley.

As a newcomer to London, Rossi was caught up in a sort of wondrous reverie - a feeling that seeps through every movement of thia almost hour long album. Vince's plasmic echoes and Rossi's aerial delivery form a poetic union, twisting and painting each sound in pearlescent shades, finding a musical confluence between Rossi's words - fluid, dreamy, hazy ideations - and Vince's shadowy renditions.

Rossi's folk roots shine through like cracks of dawn sunlight on 'Sumu Puistossa' ("fog in the park"), reverberating over organ and dream-zone sax; her words tip into muted surrealism thanks to the controlled chaos of Vince's bleak treatments. His grasp of jazz is transfixing: bending sax motifs like ghostly memories of music from another timeline, smudging them into the soundfield. It’s most effective on the title tracx, where sickly, dissonant notes flicker like an almost-extinguished candle alongside motorised furniture music courtesy of a Disklavier.

From the Terry Riley-esque transcendence of '∞' to the sacred incantation of long-form closer 'Pikku Muurahaiskeko' ("little anthill"), the pair expose a new layer of creativity with each turn, gradually zooming out from discreet, vulnerable beauty to encompass a gently orchestrated chaos of sustained, sublime tension


[b] 02. [_]

If naming is a form of claiming, of being claimed, how is one tethered to both the physical landscape that surrounds us, as well as our own internal emotional landscape_at times calm, at times turbulent, and ever changing? H.C. McEntire's new album Every Acre grapples with those themes_themes that encompass grief, loss, and links to land and loved ones. And naming_claiming land, claiming self, being claimed by ancestry and heritage_permeates the hauntingly beautiful landscape that is this poignant collection of songs. The songs straddle the line between music and poetry. In "New View," McEntire cites poets "Day, Ada, and Laux, Berry, and Olds"_fixtures in the world of writing, whose works are beacons of light over bleak horizons. The beginning of the song is backed by soft guitar plucks that fall on the downbeat and spangle like stars, and, throughout, guitar, bass, and drums swell together gently, mimicking ebbing and flowing tides under the moon. McEntire's voice (at once tender and fierce) intones the truth of both giving and taking, releasing and claiming: "Bend me, break me, split me right in two. Mend me, make me_I'll take more of you." Permeated by heartbeat-like drums, "Shadows" develops quiet ruminations on surrender and loss_reminiscing, moving on. This ponderous, dreamlike song asks the question of how "to make room." How does one make room, for self and for renewal and surrender, when it is so difficult to leave what you know behind? Playing with slivers of descending chromatics, along with the occasional downward-stepping bass, here McEntire yearns for home, and for nesting. Perhaps one of the more grief-stricken songs, "Rows of Clover" is a lamentation, one that touches on the loss of a "steadfast hound." The lone piano in the beginning of the song is rhythmically hymn-like. The stark verse arrangement gradually leads to a chorus that reads like a moody exhale, swollen with lush guitar strums and a Bill Withers-esque understated soul groove. But what stands out the most is an image of being "down on your knees, clawing at the garden"_the only explicit mention of a person in the song. "It ain't the easy kind of healing," sings McEntire, seemingly from further and further away as her voice echoes; and healing ta;kes time, time takes time_truths that linger painfully. "Dovetail" is a song that tells of various women. The song moves back and forth between solo piano and the addition of bass and drums under vocals. McEntire's gentle, trembling vibrato_harmonized in thirds in a celebratory manner_calls to mind a rejoicing psalm and shines through these images, leaving the listener cuttingly fraught with emotions_such as wonder, sadness, nostalgia_that can only arise with these juxtapositions. Gracious (and graceful) with its lilting melodies and lush harmonies, Every Acre ex - plores the acres of our physical and emotional homes. These songs are reaching for the kind of home that we all seek: one where we can rest and lay down (or tuck away) our burdens of loss. And maybe, moving through every acre of a world that often tries to tear our sense of identity and heritage down, McEntire sheds light on what it is to be human in this life_both stingy and gracious, both hurtful and kind.

Orange Viny

If naming is a form of claiming, of being claimed, how is one tethered to both the physical landscape that surrounds us, as well as our own internal emotional landscape_at times calm, at times turbulent, and ever changing? H.C. McEntire's new album Every Acre grapples with those themes_themes that encompass grief, loss, and links to land and loved ones. And naming_claiming land, claiming self, being claimed by ancestry and heritage_permeates the hauntingly beautiful landscape that is this poignant collection of songs. The songs straddle the line between music and poetry. In "New View," McEntire cites poets "Day, Ada, and Laux, Berry, and Olds"_fixtures in the world of writing, whose works are beacons of light over bleak horizons. The beginning of the song is backed by soft guitar plucks that fall on the downbeat and spangle like stars, and, throughout, guitar, bass, and drums swell together gently, mimicking ebbing and flowing tides under the moon. McEntire's voice (at once tender and fierce) intones the truth of both giving and taking, releasing and claiming: "Bend me, break me, split me right in two. Mend me, make me_I'll take more of you." Permeated by heartbeat-like drums, "Shadows" develops quiet ruminations on surrender and loss_reminiscing, moving on. This ponderous, dreamlike song asks the question of how "to make room." How does one make room, for self and for renewal and surrender, when it is so difficult to leave what you know behind? Playing with slivers of descending chromatics, along with the occasional downward-stepping bass, here McEntire yearns for home, and for nesting. Perhaps one of the more grief-stricken songs, "Rows of Clover" is a lamentation, one that touches on the loss of a "steadfast hound." The lone piano in the beginning of the song is rhythmically hymn-like. The stark verse arrangement gradually leads to a chorus that reads like a moody exhale, swollen with lush guitar strums and a Bill Withers-esque understated soul groove. But what stands out the most is an image of being "down on your knees, clawing at the garden"_the only explicit mention of a person in the song. "It ain't the easy kind of healing," sings McEntire, seemingly from further and further away as her voice echoes; and healing ta;kes time, time takes time_truths that linger painfully. "Dovetail" is a song that tells of various women. The song moves back and forth between solo piano and the addition of bass and drums under vocals. McEntire's gentle, trembling vibrato_harmonized in thirds in a celebratory manner_calls to mind a rejoicing psalm and shines through these images, leaving the listener cuttingly fraught with emotions_such as wonder, sadness, nostalgia_that can only arise with these juxtapositions. Gracious (and graceful) with its lilting melodies and lush harmonies, Every Acre ex - plores the acres of our physical and emotional homes. These songs are reaching for the kind of home that we all seek: one where we can rest and lay down (or tuck away) our burdens of loss. And maybe, moving through every acre of a world that often tries to tear our sense of identity and heritage down, McEntire sheds light on what it is to be human in this life_both stingy and gracious, both hurtful and kind.

If naming is a form of claiming, of being claimed, how is one tethered to both the physical landscape that surrounds us, as well as our own internal emotional landscape at times calm, at times turbulent, and ever changing? H.C. McEntire’s new album Every Acre grapples with those themes that encompass grief, loss, and links to land and loved ones. And naming claiming land, claiming self, being claimed by ancestry and heritage permeates the hauntingly beautiful landscape that is this poignant collection of songs. The songs straddle the line between music and poetry. In “New View,” McEntire cites poets “Day, Ada, and Laux, Berry, and Olds” fixtures in the world of writing, whose works are beacons of light over bleak horizons. The beginning of the song is backed by soft guitar plucks that fall on the downbeat and spangle like stars, and, throughout, guitar, bass, and drums swell together gently, mimicking ebbing and flowing tides under the moon. McEntire’s voice (at once tender and fierce) intones the truth of both giving and taking, releasing and claiming: “Bend me, break me, split me right in two. Mend me, make me I’ll take more of you.” Permeated by heartbeat-like drums, “Shadows” develops quiet ruminations on surrender and loss reminiscing, moving on. This ponderous, dreamlike song asks the question of how “to make room.” How does one make room, for self and for renewal and surrender, when it is so difficult to leave what you know behind? Playing with slivers of descending chromatics, along with the occasional downward-stepping bass, here McEntire yearns for home, and for nesting. Perhaps one of the more grief-stricken songs, “Rows of Clover” is a lamentation, one that touches on the loss of a “steadfast hound.” The lone piano in the beginning of the song is rhythmically hymn-like. The stark verse arrangement gradually leads to a chorus that reads like a moody exhale, swollen with lush guitar strums and a Bill Withers–esque understated soul groove. But what stands out the most is an image of being “down on your knees, clawing at the garden” the only explicit mention of a person in the song. “It ain’t the easy kind of healing,” sings McEntire, seemingly from further and further away as her voice echoes; and healing takes time, time takes time truths that linger painfully. “Dovetail” is a song that tells of various women. The song moves back and forth between solo piano and the addition of bass and drums under vocals. McEntire’s gentle, trembling vibrato harmonized in thirds in a celebratory manner calls to mind a rejoicing psalm and shines through these images, leaving the listener cuttingly fraught with emotions such as wonder, sadness, nostalgia that can only arise with these juxtapositions. Gracious (and graceful) with its lilting melodies and lush harmonies, Every Acre explores the acres of our physical and emotional homes. These songs are reaching for the kind of home that we all seek: one where we can rest and lay down (or tuck away) our burdens of loss. And maybe, moving through every acre of a world that often tries to tear our sense of identity and heritage down, McEntire sheds light on what it is to be human in this life both stingy and gracious, both hurtful and kind.

Philly’s own Chained Bliss set tongues a-waggin’ back in 2019 with their Stained Red cassette EP, gathering more than a few comparisons to the Wipers’ early racket in the process. Well, now they’re back with a debut album that seems to have skipped right ahead from Is This Real? to Over The Edge: this self-titled LP has all the gut-punching ramalama, knockabout guts’n’glory of that first tape, with added layers. Melodic guitar lines come perilously close to jangling over crunching power chords, while furiously yelped choruses give way to sumptuously put-together breakdown sections that catch you off guard and kick you in the shins before legging it down the street. Chained Bliss clearly love scrappy, skatey garage rock (echoes of Agent Orange’s Living In Darkness abound) as much as they love pushing that raucous clatter into something spacious - the meditative sections that flow effortlessly into absolute ripper Pillars Of Abuse are as unexpected as the thoughtful but head-spinningly energetic sections that bring Creative Seizure so thrillingly to life. Other times they’re just as happy to keep you careening towards the pit with two-minute bangers, but that’s the beauty of this record: it’s never smarter than when it’s playing dumb, and the rest of the time it’s just pretty damn smart. Here’s a challenge: can you listen to Ominous Life’s gnarly pop without raising those fists of yours skywards and landing a firm thump on the air? Or Drifter’s swaggering stomp? Or, or, or… ahhh hell, you get what I’m saying here. Every single cut slays, every single hook snags itself on your brain. You’ll come back for more, and more, and more. Are Chained Bliss your new favourite band? Well, gee, we’ve never met and I don’t know what you like and it’s not for me to say… but on the other hand, yes. Yes, they are. They’re heading straight for your heart and they ain’t budging. Will Fitzpatrick

A pure journey inward into the headspace of an artist, that reveals his gaze at the earth-ly zones he walks in: “Song for Joni”, the new album by Japanese musician Shunji Mori, brings pure natural music full of artificial nuances who create in conversation with ana-logue tones a new kind of musical nature, loaded with vibrant seasons, unknown to us, the unwise humans. moreover, the album is a fine continuation of Japan’s rich ambient leaning music traditions, carrying them into Lorren Connor’s like pending guitar galaxies.

In the 1990s Tokyo based Mori was part of the trip hop, nu-jazz, deep house, and down-tempo duo natural calamity, releasing a string of albums and EP’s on labels like legend-ary London based imprint Nuphonic, Japanese Idyllic Records or Down 2 Earth Record-ings.

In 2003 he launched the instrumental guitar duo Gabby & Lopez with his buddy Masayuki Ishii. Together they created three albums and performed live. Additionally, Mori plays improvisational concerts with Japanese musician, multi-instrumentalist, and stage direc-tor Daiho Soga and finds time to invent his very own, charismatic guitar music.

His solo work now finally gets introduced with a full-length album for Studio Mule, con-sisting of recent and a decade ago compositions, all merely recorded with the electric guitar, pedals, and field recordings.

In the center of “Song for Joni” is the guitar, spreading longing, drifting melodies. Free floating, yet deeply felt compositions, performed in an accurate journey music style. around the string notes, ambient landscapes soar and vanish.

In some moments, the guitar works like a slow-mo yacht rock lead, flying speed less over and under imaginative sonic clouds. Then, Mori’s music distributes psychedelic ef-fects in the tradition of krautrock legends like Günter Schickert, just without the echo fuzz.

Additionally, in warm vibrating seconds, his creations remind on the calm flashes in the musical work of English photographer, musician, and artist designer Steve Hiett, while Mori’s ambient spheres come close to the magic vibe of records like “Pier & Loft” by his fellow countryman Hiroshi Yoshimura.

A mixture, that transports considerate listeners into the meditative world of Shunji Mori, a calm island of bliss, made for all those that follow the heedful path of life.

The meeting of Alieu and Randomized Coffee gives light to this new project, in which the Roman duo tackles a production that skillfully links Mediterranean influence to ancestral Africa in a patchwork woven of typical African ethnic elements to those of house and electronica in a "groovy" body that enhances the classical side of the African country in a modern musical mood and rhythm.

The story tells about the day before an arranged marriage ceremony.

Masanneh is a handsome and well-known man in his village of the Mandinka Tribe, born and raised in the village of Kudang, near the river that flows through the entire country; the Gambia. Many in the village believe him to be charismatic and generous, others believe him to be a venal materialist devoted to money. Masanneh decides to consult Cherno Jallow, a wise Marabout, to figure out how to deal with his future. He therefore moves westward to the village of Bondali, in Foni, where before practicing his work as a skilled trader he talks to Landing Sawo, the district chief, from there he hears the sound of a Kora played by Jali, while across the road he sees a beautiful woman Mariama Gomez passing by.

BLACK VINYL REPRESS

NYC´s Superbloom debut LP Superbloom is Brooklyn’s latest entry into the alternative rock scene. Their debut album, “Pollen” is a 12-track love-letter to heavy alternative music that spans infectiously bouncy hard rock, instantly nostalgic acoustic songs, sing-along choruses and undeniable hooks. The album was mastered by Will Yip (Quicksand, Mannequin Pussy, Code Orange), mixed by Joe Reinhart (Remo Drive, Joyce Manor, Hop Along) and produced by Superbloom. The album’s two recent singles, “Whatever” and “Mary on a Chain” have both landed in several Spotify curated playlists including All New Rock, New Alt-Rock Mixtape, Noisy and Alternative Noise. While the album’s feedback-laced instrumentation is hard-hitting at every turn, the band’s sonic signature is embedded in the vocal performance that fills each track with complex layering, earworm melodies and lush harmonies that deliver discoveries of nuanced detail with each listen. Press Quotes: "Your next grunge revival obsession." -The Noise "...buzzing guitars that aren’t too far away from the ones that dominated DGC Records during their heyday... reminiscent of a bygone era when rock dominated the airways. Superbloom are most definitely a guitar band and they play their instruments loud and with the urgency of a ticking time bomb, it’s aggressive and in-your-face, but also catchy as hell." -The Alternative "The group's sonic approach is rooted in the fuzzy guitar atmospherics of bands like Hum and Amusement Parks on Fire. The hooks are plentiful, the arrangements lean and mean, and there's a bouncy rhythmic quality to much of their work so far." -No Echo

Dickie Landry & Lawrence Weiner's Having Been Built on Sand was conceived as a vinyl edition and released by the Rüdiger Schöttle gallery in Munich with sleeve design by Weiner. The piece consists of eight untitled tracks. Lawrence Weiner, Tina Girouard, and Britta Le Va recite text with Dickie Landry’s woodwinds, all recorded in the natural reverb of Robert Rauschenberg’s studio, a former mission and chapel in Lower Manhattan. Layering Girouard in English, Le Va in German, and Weiner in English and German blocks of related or physically proximal texts repeat, invert, and intersect with Landry’s music as a constant. The layers of text and sound have meanings that fluctuate in complexity and scope, and like much of Weiner’s work, beyond mere facts.

The first piece is a trio for Landry’s keening tenor, repeating winnowed but breathy lines that contrast with and buoy Le Va’s clear, husky phrases, building in intensity as Weiner, in English, offers statements that are caught just off mic. The third cut adds Girouard, and one can hear woven parallels in the two women’s voices, cadences, and pitches, with Weiner’s cutting inflection dancing amid them. Landry’s bass clarinet is rich in its warble, full and gentle with woody footfalls that demarcate shapes through the chorus. Vocal rhythmic cycles, wordless in nature, are the energy that courses through the fourth song, urgent and sweaty as Weiner recites statements of political position in the Middle Ages, Le Va declaiming alongside in German. On soprano saxophone for the fifth tune, Landry pierces and darts in a bright manner in a private dialogue with himself, echoing Steve Lacy as female voices nearly bury one

Angis Music invites you to listen to "Selva" the second release from the Padova duo composed of Stefano Cosi and Alberto Lincetto. The three songs featured represent the deep desire to communicate an evolution of sound and to tell a story that goes beyond traditional paradigms and genre labels. The “chiaroscuro”, lights and shadows, that characterize HUMA's music are once again the result of compositional and sound explorations that travel from jazz to 70’s funk, from deep house to electronic, with echoes of Brazil and film soundtracks. Side A opens with the misty and romantic landscape of "Free and Lost”, in which acoustic, electronic and deep bass sounds blend in a dark and spiritual atmosphere. The journey develops further into "An Ordinary Life” which sees the participation of Yeofi Andoh, aka A Race Of Angels, Los Angeles-based vocalist and co-author of the track, and of Amilcar Soto Rodriguez on classical guitar. It slowly emerges from the initial psychedelic sphere, landing on luminous harmonies and funk rhythms to reiterate a contrast that speaks of life cycles and the relationship between man and nature. This path ends with the title track "Selva" in which the synthetic percussive tangle keeps the listener in a meditative state of disorientation guided by the melodic lines of a dusty Fender Rhodes. It is the temporary epilogue of a story that has just begun..

*Ltd Coloured Vinyl on Transparent Blue Vinyl* London-based musician and producer Ryan Lee West, aka Rival Consoles, creates driving, experimental electronic music that makes synthesisers sound human. His consistent desire to create a more organic, living sound, sees him forming pieces that capture a sense of songwriting behind the machines.

‘Now Is’ marks a new chapter in an ongoing quest for refinement and evolution. More playful and melodic, the album draws from much experimentation in minimalist songwriting and seamlessly blends synthesisers and acoustic instruments. “There are some pieces that are influenced quite strongly by the isolation and anxiety of these times. There are also pieces which are more optimistic and vibrant, which I think is a consistent attitude of my records, as I want art to express many aspects of life.”

From the elevating arrangements of ‘Beginnings’ and motorik beats of ‘World Turns’, to the isolation of ‘Frontiers’, influenced by the barren landscapes of Iceland, Rival Consoles’ eighth studio album subtly morphs and evolves. “The title of the record ‘Now Is’ interests me because it is the beginning of a statement, but it is incomplete. I like art that is open and suggestive of ideas even if they are inspired by very specific things. With my previous record ‘Overflow’ being very dark, heavy and almost dystopian, I wanted to escape into a different world with this music and ended up creating a record which is a lot more colourful and euphoric.”

For the sonic ‘Vision of Self’, West looked to create the kind of movement and colour a string section in an orchestra would construct, but with synthesisers. “I think there’s a lot of synergy between the two worlds. I wanted to create a hypnotic journey, where the synths and sounds weave in and out of each other, so you get lost in the music and don’t know where one sound starts or another ends.” This “journey” West refers to is symbiotic of the way he has approached music throughout a progressive career – an ongoing project that is never static and always moving forward.

A sense of euphoria is reached with the pulsating title track which bursts into colour like the appearance of the summer sun, while ‘Echoes’ is a vivid exploration of rhythm and sound for summer nights. The track starts with a dense collage of modular synths, fragmented metallic tones, broken sounding drums and a downcast melodic synth line. “This is a piece where the main melody has been in my head for a long time and was just waiting to come out. I kind of think of it as the sonic equivalent to an impressionist painting in that I wanted to explore the sensation of lots of small layers of different colours and textures that are constantly moving around each other.”

Rival Consoles is set to appear at festivals across Europe this summer, with headline shows expected to follow in the autumn.