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White Shadows In The South Seas is the title of a book written in 1919 by Frederick O'Brien as part of a trilogy he wrote based on his experiences living in the Pacific islands in the early part of the 20th century. His book was taken as the starting point for a film to be directed, initially, by Robert Flaherty (famous at the time for his groundbreaking documentary / fiction film Nanook Of The North) with W.S.Van Dyke as his support. The film, ultimately, apart from the title, had little to do with O'Brien's book and Flaherty left the film after a few months leaving Van Dyke to finish it.

I purchased O'Brien's book, along with many others, from Basement Books, a secondhand bookstore in Melbourne/Australia. Part of my 'Islomania' and on going fascination with all things Pacific. When I discovered there was a 1929 silent film based on the book I sought it out and started to present it as part of my 'Live Music/Silent films' repertoire. Tabu by Frederick Murnau, which coincidently also had Flaherty as co-director originally, was the first film I ever wrote / improvised a score for and presented as a live film/music performance. My repertoire extends to over 23 films now.

My eclectic and diverse musical and artistic interests extend into 'Hawaiian', 'Exotica', 'Ambient' and 'Electronic' Music. I have produced several volumes of so called 'Electronic, Ambient, Exotica' on CD and Vinyl, including Kiribati, Globe Notes, Rayon Hula ( on Vinyl, CD and digital format ) and most recently, New Globe Note on Vinyl and White Shadows In The South Seas on CD.
White Shadows In The South Seas features some of the music presented in my live screenings of the 1929 silent film.

The film is the story of Dr. Matthew Lloyd, an alcoholic doctor who is disgusted by the exploitation by white people of the natives on a Polynesian island. The natives dive for pearls, however, numerous accidents occur and one diver dies. In anger, Dr. Lloyd punches Sebastian, the employer. As revenge and to prevent further interruption of his activities, he tricks Dr. Lloyd onto a ship with a diseased crew (thinking they are ill) and his men rough him up and send the ship off into a storm. Dr. Lloyd survives and is washed ashore on an island where none of the natives have ever seen a white man before. Lloyd is rescued and ultimately falls in love with the chief's daughter, who is Taboo, hence Lloyd is prevented from pursuing his love for her. An incident occurs and a young boy is thought to have drowned but Lloyd is able to revive him, earning him points and permission with the chief's daughter. Lloyd begins to realise that the local islanders have no sense of the value of the black pearls which grow in abundance around their island and he starts to dive for them and collect them. One morning the white man Sebastian unexpectedly turns up on a scooner and starts to offer the islanders trade for their pearls. Llloyd tries to interrupt the encounter and is shot and dies. His wife and the islanders morn for his dead body and, symbolically, the passing of a way of life.

Mike Cooper plays - Electric and acoustic lap steel guitars / electronics / Zoom Sampletrack / Kaos Pad / Casio SK1 / Korg Drum Machine / Self Made Instruments.

It also features field recordings made on Pulau Ubin by Mike Cooper during a month as Artist In Residence for The Artist Village / Singapore.

I would like to acknowledge and thank Lawrence English (Room40 Records) for his assistance and encouragement with the original recordings and the CD version of White Shadows In The South Seas.

All music written and played by Mike Cooper PRS/MCPS - except Po Mahina (trad. Arr. Cooper) and Hilo Hanakahi (trad. Arr. Cooper)

Recorded and Mixed at the Steelworks in Rome 2012/2013.

A White Shadow In The South Seas
In February 2014 'A White Shadow In The South Seas' was the title of an audio-visual installation I made at the Teatro In Scatola in Rome, Italy, presented as part of a series of sound installations titled 'Visitazioni' produced by Proposte Sonore.

The essay below, as well as our collection of Hawaiian shirts, Exotica and Hawaiian vinyl records, was an inspiration for this installation.

'..the transformation and reconstitution of the souvenir commodity as an indigenous ethnic art form and a scarce relic of Hawai'i's romanticized past...' from - Clothing and Textile Reasearch Journal - From Kitsch to Chic by Marcia A. Morgado.

And....
Michael Thompson's Rubbish Theory (1979)
' ...a critical aspect of Western culture is the pre-disposition to see objects in terms of two overt categories: the transient and the durable. Objects identified as transient have finite life spans and lose value over time, whereas those identified as durable have infinite lives and over time increae in value....category assignments are arbitrary, but once assigned a category membership determines relative value. Fashion apparel-by defenition-is assigned to the transient category; paintings commonly are designated durables....how is it that transient objects.. ( e.g. Hawaiian shirts and vinyl records ) ..sometimes become durables.

Objects assigned to the rubbish category are largely invisible, have no value and, ideally, no life span. Fashion for example, no longer worn and relegated to the back of the wardrobe has fallen into the covert rubbish category. But rubbish can be rescued and transformed. Thompson says ' What I believe happens is a transient object gradually declining in value and in expected life span may slide across into rubbish. Here it exists in a timeless and valueless limbo where it has a chance to be re-discovered and be successfully transformed to a durable. Such transferes are radical: objects gradually slide from transcience to rubbish, but the transformation from rubbish to durable involves an all-or-nothing leap across two boundaries, that separating the worthless from the valuable and that between the covert and the overt. Things drift into obscurity but they leap into prominence.

The delightful consequence of this hypothesis is that in order to study the social control of value we must study rubbish.

The rubbish-to-durable transformation is accompanied by the development of highly specialized knowledge derived from the discovery of subtle variations and complex details that went unnoticed in the objects transient stage. The discoveries initiate renewed interest in the object and its market value begins to climb. As prices soar beyond the reach of ordinary people, the object becomes available only in high priced collectors' markets. Furthermore, as market values rise, the aesthetic value of the object undergoes a reassessment as well, and it becomes increasingly apparent that the objects intrinsic beauty has been overlooked. Ultimately the object is re -assigned as a durable and becomes recognized as a timeless classic.

Exotica, Ambience and Pacificism - A dialogue with Mike Cooper & Professor Philip Hayward Deputy Pro Vice Chancellor of Research Southern Cross University, Lismore, Australia.

2018 played host to a bumper crop of sounds from some of Philly's grittiest, including Great Circles mainstays M//R and Chaperone. To close out the year that was, we are pleased to present Heckadecimal's 'Murder Tape.'

A Minneapolis-based producer and acid auteur, Heckadecimal has been a fixture within the vibrant Midwestern electronic music community for nearly 20 years. Founder of the legendary 'Anti-human' events and co-curator of the ever-prolific Always Human Tapes imprint - alongside Ryan Wurst and Peter Lansky - Heckadecimal's reputation is one of unrelenting creativity and tireless advocacy for sonic experimentation. His work has found its way to light via a slew of pseudonyms and stage monikers, including The Worm, noface and Wonder Sirens.

In short - Heckadecimal lives and breathes the sonic matter that he leaves pouring out of studio monitors, busted bar systems and finely tuned rave stacks, wherever his travels take him.
Live performance lies at the core of Heckadecimal's practice. When he stormed through Inciting HQ in Philly earlier this summer, he took command over an arsenal of hardware that reminded us of how Octave One or Shawn Rudiman might show up. These were machines that he had lived with; touched with custom modifications, hand-drawn stickers and pockmarks incurred in battle, one got the sense that the gear was a personal extension of the artist.

Perhaps it's a bit maudlin, but we feel a certain kinship with this project. Indeed, these tracks at times feel very much of a piece with the gnarled tonalities in which our stable typically traffics; all low-slung riddims that reach at equal lengths towards mutated IDM aesthetics and post-Packard Plant techno extrusions. These are future perfect grooves that glide along under the vast Midwestern sky, providing a fertile communication conduit with the City of Brotherly Love.

Give thanks for acid. Great Circles will see you in the New Year..

The story of Seattle's rise to global rock supremacy in the late 80s and early 90s begins with Green River. Made up of Jeff Ament (bass), Mark Arm (guitar/vocals), Bruce Fairweather (guitar), Stone Gossard (guitar) and Alex Shumway (drums), the
quintet put out three 12's and a 7' single during its brief existence.
Green River's influence on Seattle's music scene spread far and wide thanks to the members' dispersion into bands including Pearl Jam, Mudhoney and Love Battery, as well as the punk glam sludge rock songs they left behind. 'By '83, '84, there was
definitely a movement that was happening within hardcore, like Black Flag slowing down for My War,' says Arm. 'The Replacements and Butthole Surfers were rearing
their heads, and they're very different bands, but they're not hardcore - the Replacements are pretty much straight-up rock, and Butthole Surfers were God knows what. Sonic Youth's Bad Moon Rising was around, and a lot of really
interesting post-hardcore things were happening.'
Green River, formed in 1984, were part of that evolution, with a sound that straddled a lot of different genres - blues, punk, bloozy straight-ahead rock. The mini-LP 'Dry As A Bone' - which came out in 1987 - and the band's lone full-length
'Rehab Doll' - which came out in 1988 - were released as a single CD with a few bonus cuts, including their sneering cover of David Bowie's 'Queen Bitch' and their marauding version of Dead Boys' 'Ain't Nothin' to Do', in 1990 - but they've been
unavailable on vinyl for years.
Now, these slices of Seattle music history are not only back in print, they're accompanied by items from the vaults that had been forgotten about for decades.
'Dry As A Bone' was recorded at Jack Endino's Reciprocal Recording in 1986 and it shows the band in furious form, with Arm's yowl battling Fairweather and Gossard's
ferocious guitar playing on 'This Town' and 'Unwind' opening as a slow bluesy grind then jump-starting itself into a hyperactive chase. The deluxe edition includes Green
River's cuts from the crucial Seattle-scene compilation 'Deep Six', as well as long-lost songs that were recorded to the now-archaic format Betamax.
'Rehab Doll', recorded largely at Seattle's Steve Lawson Studios., bridges the gap between the taut, punky energy of 'Dry As A Bone' and the bigger drums and thicker
riffs that were coming to dominate rock in the late 80s. This new edition of 'Rehab Doll' includes a version of 'Swallow My Pride' recorded to 8-track at Endino's Reciprocal Recording, which features a more accurate depiction of how the band
sounded when they played live. 'When I listen to these mixes, I think, 'This is how we actually sounded - this is the kind of energy we had,'' says Shumway.
Green River's place in American music history is without question but these recordings paint a more complete picture of the band - and of rock in the mid to late 80s, when punk's faster-and-louder ideals had begun shape-shifting into other ideas.
CDs in digipack with 12-page booklet. 2LP formats in gatefold jacket with custom dust sleeve and digital download code.

DGTL Records hits close to home with their latest release 'Dancing Glass Figures' by De Sluwe Vos. The dj/producer has been affiliated with DGTL since the beginning, as he played at numerous of their festivals from day one. So it was only a matter of time for De Sluwe Vos to release his music on DGTL's label. With Dancing Glass Figures he delivers a strong 4-tracker that is truly hard to resist. De Sluwe Vos has been making waves lately, not only with his steady sets but also with his own label Patron Records, which has seen a string of well-supported releases since its launch. Never Know, the first track of the EP, takes no prisoners, as this straight-up banger with the hard-hitting synth line keeps you captivated throughout the entire track. The repetitive vocoder vocals give the track a spacey touch, especially during the break. De Sluwe Vos teamed-up with fellow Amsterdammer Sjamsoedin, who's known for his exceptional synth knowledge and hard-hitting live-sets. Together they produced a strong lead track that you will definitely get to hear a lot on the dance floor.

Fast rolling drums and a dreamy warm synth lure you into the title track Dancing Glass Figures. But don't get too comfortable, halfway into the track you will get a sturdy surprise, which only makes the track more interesting, while taking you back to where it all started at the end of it all.

Moving on to the B-side. Sophisticated Topless Raver is mesmerizing, with an intriguing and hypnotizing melody that comes and goes throughout the track. Bringing in some hard claps and an eerie laughing vocal, this track for sure is one for the later hours.

Bambounou has the honour to close-off the EP with a remix of Sophisticated Topless Raver. The French dj/producer, who's been on everybody's radar this past year, slowed down the original version and added a sleazy bassline, synth stabs and extra percussion, while keeping the melody and the vocal. Making the track just as enticing as De Sluwe Vos' version.

You might know Peter Matson as the founder, frontman, and guitarist of NYC-based breakout band Underground System, who recently released a debut album of otherworldly global-dance anthems (on Soul Clap's self titled imprint) and have been touring their live show at venues around the US. Matson's roots, while nestled in worldly live sounds, also firmly grip deeper dance music styles, though they manage to still pack a refreshingly eclectic energy.

His debut EP 'Short Trips' for Brooklyn's Bastard Jazz connects the dots between his time moving bodies in the club as a DJ, as well as in his group as a guitarist and producer, though this record is better suited for a woozy club floor. "Roma Norte" kicks off the wax with its soulful cocktail of latin-house styles and hypnotic basslines that would elevate the opening hours of any club night. Deep house legend and Freerange Records boss Jimpster provides an ethereal, creative remix that delves into afro-house territory. "3AM to Sete" is a warm and bubbly deep house tune that sounds like something you might hear late-night in a South London nightclub—it's all warm bass vibrations and subtle synth explorations. Matson's seasoned instrumental skills shine on "126," another breezy synth jam with just enough punch to make you move, eyes closed, of course. 'Short Trips' sounds like the work of someone not interested in where one scene ends and the other begins, but instead, where they connect.

Jac Berrocal, David Fenech and Vincent Epplay return with Ice Exposure, their second album for Blackest Ever Black. A sequel and companion piece of sorts to 2015's Antigravity, its title couldn't be more apt: sonically it is both colder, and more exposed - in the sense of rawer, more volatile, more vulnerable - than its predecessor, capturing the combustible energy and barely suppressed violence of the trio's celebrated live performances with aspects of noir jazz, musique concrète, no wave art-rock, sound poetry and spectral electronics all interpenetrating in unpredictable and exhilarating ways. While there are moments of great sensitivity and even a cautious romanticism, the prevailing mood is one of anxiety, paranoia, and mounting psychodrama: close your eyes and Ice Exposure feels like a dissociative Hörspiel broadcasting from the seedy backstreets of your own troubled mind. Before he picks up an instrument or opens his mouth, Berrocal's unique and compelling presence can be felt: a combination of studied, glacial cool and anarchic, in-the-moment intensity that has served him well over a long and storied career. It was honed during his time as a theatre and film actor, and in the 70s Paris improv scene, it powered his influential Catalogue group in the 1970s, numerous seminal, sui generis solo sides, and far-sighted collaborations with the likes of Nurse With Wound, Lol Coxhill, Pascal Comelade and James Chance which have seen him come to be valorised by two generations of avant-garde agitators and eccentrics. Now in his eighth decade, it comes with an added gravitas, perhaps, but no less energy or vitality. On Ice Exposure, his lyrical, instantly recognisable trumpet playing is a key feature - see especially the ghostly, dubwise take on Ornette's 'Lonely Woman', the dissolute exotica of 'Salta Girls', and the sublime echo-chamber soliloquy 'Opportunity'. But more often it's his voice that commands centre-stage, whether casually discharging surreal poetic monologues or moaning in animal despair - a vocal tour de force that transcends language and culminates in the Dionysian frenzy of 'Why', Berrocal's half-spoken, half-howled exclamations jostling with David Fenech's slashes of dissonant guitar, over Badalamenti-ish, panther-stalk drums. Fenech's origins are in the mail-art scene of the early '90s, when he led the Peu Importe collective in Grenoble, and since then, in addition to his own recordings he has worked as a software developer at IRCAM and played with Jad Fair, Rhys Chatham and many others. Together with Vincent Epplay he is responsible for Ice Exposure's inspired arrangements and vivid, vertiginous sound design. Epplay is a visual artist and composer with particular interest in aleatory composition, concrete, and the reappropriation of vintage sound and film material. He and Fenech fashion a remarkable mise-en-scene for Berrocal to inhabit, one that embraces cutting-edge electronics while also paying homage to the best traditions of outlaw jazz and libidinous rock'n'roll ('Soundcheck' invokes the brutish spirit of Berrocal's hero Vince 'Rock N Roll Station' Taylor). On 'Blanche de Blanc', Berrocal's voice is framed by a groaning, ghoulish orchestra of industrial drones, while 'Equivoque' evokes the most humid and hostile Fourth World landscapes and 'Panic In Surabaya' lives up to its name, a hectic, pulse-quickening concrète collage that leaves you gasping for air. This is a searching and singular trio operating at the absolute peak of their powers, with an interplay that transcends studio and stage and occurs at an almost telepathic level. Ice Exposure is a triumph of that group mind, an underworld dérive as life-affirming as it is unnerving and psychologically precarious.













Panic In Surabaya

Lance Ferguson's Raregroove Spectrum is a collection of newly recorded versions of classic funk, soul, jazz and latin vinyl rarities, which features some of Melbourne's finest musicians across the album, including past and present members of The Bamboos, The Putbacks and Hiatus Kaiyote.

As the man at the helm of many musical projects over the years including Cookin' On 3 Burners, Menagerie & his solo project Lanu, Lance is no stranger to the art of imaginative musical re-interpretation, be the material soul, funk and jazz based or the works of James Blake, Roxy Music and Prefab Sprout.

For Raregroove Spectrum, Lance explains that much of the inspiration for the re-works comes from his experience as a DJ, "Some of these versions can almost be looked at as DJ re-edits, sometimes we're extending what may be a really short track into something longer, or teasing out the elements in a song that really make it work on a dance-floor. It's essentially what someone does with a club re-edit, except we went the extra step and re-recorded the whole thing with a live band".

In other cases, top-shelf classics have been re-imagined in different guises: James Mason's 'Sweet Power, Your Embrace' as a sun-drenched Samba, or Anderson Paak's sure shot tune 'Am I Wrong' given an 1980's style Boogie/Jazz Funk makeover. Stir into this musical gumbo stew the raw Deep Funk of 'Egg Roll', the swinging Mod R&B of Googie Rene's 'Smoky Joe's La La' to the epic, widescreen Jazz-Funk of Pleasure's 'Joyous' - Rare Groove Spectrum provides new perspectives on the obscure to the well-loved, from old-school to new sounds - this is rare grooves re-grooved... beautifully.

Domestic Exile are proud to present the devastatingly deplorable and malevolent recordings (that are sure to corrode yet electrify your ears) by Glasgow's very own KLEFT.

KLEFT aka Vickie McDonald is rooted in and has actively propagated the underground DIY radical queer punk and feminist movement here in Glasgow. Their projects have included the skull crushing sludge doom of Cartilage, the unflinching and infamous multi- membered hard core stars that were DIVORCE and the sacrificial, druid drone glitch of MOURN. Alongside these projects they have uncompromisingly disrupted, motivated and facilitated collective endeavors to take down the capital power structure of the dominant system of patriarchal club venues and abhorrent fuckers in this town.

For this record 'H+ Sexualis', KLEFT explores the neo-modern space where flesh is left behind. Negotiating, analyzing and tearing to shreds the relationship and balance between flesh and technology. KLEFT's expansive and palpable sonic offerings delve into themes of transhumanism and body hacking and seep into our collective skin begging the question; can flesh ever be created digitally. Does a lack of physicality alienate human experience in a post transhumanism society Are we all destined to be skinless yet digitally connected Will the body become superfluous Toward "the utopian dream of the hope for a monstrous world without gender," as stated on Donna Haraway's essay ''A Cyborg Manifesto.'

From the opening track 'Ossein' the listener grasps a foreboding lethargic build up, lurking out of the spatial ritualistic shadows into a sea of suffocating nothingness. A void where there is no gravity. Skeletal and brittle shattering rhythms which echo DMZ / Skull Disco dubstep alongside the more frozen, glacial ominous explorations of grime are often felt proving KLEFT is an artist whose inspirations run deep and wide and generally exist in the darkest recesses of our subconscious. These fearful, disjointed rhythms are set against weightless atmospheric oscillated synths, as if roaming through bleakly opaque, claustrophobic narrow corridors on a first person survival horror video game such as Resident Evil.

Moving through to 'CMBR', KLEFT's dissonant, degrading soundscape ferociously ascends. The resilient kick drum is propulsive and pulverizing akin to 'ardcore tekno - or intense gabba if you have the guts to adjust the tempo up to +8 - aesthetics that overwhelm and agitate finally revealing it's grotesque biological / amorphous bio structure. Elevating the repetitive 4/4 kick to a destructive, distorted banger of a track as layers of converging atonal noise and sound design simultaneously further enhances the sense of imminent radioactive contamination.

Next is 'Writhe, Squirm, Broken' continuing the convulsive, nauseating permutations of the prior track but reconfigured like a mangled, gruesome Cronenberg-esque parasite that has infiltrated an open wound, excruciatingly feeding off of the inner anatomy of it's hosts body from within. Repulsively reformulating the shape and dimension. The intro is akin to a panic stricken bouncy ball contracting and expanding, the spring reverb building momentum and traveling further away in distance and speed.

'Hackfleisch Deluxe' is a muuurrderous stomper and is one of the more grime / bass orientated tracks that deconstructs and disrupts the tempo familiar to sub-low producers on Black Ops / Jon E Cash / DJ Dread D. The crawling, plummeting frequency of the synth is a nauseating rush of coagulating blood to the heed; a deep throbbing sensory depravation in sharp, paradoxical contrast with the driving harmony layered on top which proves to be infectiously addictive. Furthermore are splintering programmed vocal samples that gives a sense of artificial disorientation, mind over matter, a possible hint at our evolving sentient cognition within a nightmarish simulated, augmented reality

Second to last we have 'Keratin' which is filled with the near fatal dissolving thud of Djax-Up acid that gives the impression that you're a biologist peering through a microscope into a petrie dish and witnessing the rapid and furious genetic cellular replication of bacterial and viral organisms.

Culminating in 'Bruised and Bleeding Hands' where the squashed density of a deflated and depressurized helium filled balloon and elastic umbilical cords, barbed wire and copper wires grind n' coil around the lens of a zooming camera. Taking no prisoners, this is a punishing grime weapon. A phat, surgical kick drum bulldozes its way thru causing carnage, syncopated punching snares after every rave stab and dizzying third beat. It won't be long until ye hear this on Silver Drizzle's youtube channel in the near future.

This record transports us to the hyperkinetic mutation scene on the cult cyberpunk film Tetsuo The Iron Man where the organic flesh / mechanical rust of the Iron Man metamorphoses with the Metal Fetishist during the rebirth sequence and we say 'LONG LIVE THE NEW FLESH!''.

A comprehensive overview of the Violent Femmes 30+ year career, features
17 of the band's biggest hits including 'Blister In The Sun', 'Add It Up',
'Nightmares' and 'American Music'.
The double LP is being pressed on Coke-botle clear vinyl and limited to 3,000
copies. Cumulatve worldwide sales of the Violent Femmes are in excess of 10
million copies.

Techno Thriller joins the Unknown Precept fam with a brand new mini-album. The first following the release of their eponymous full-length album a couple of months ago. Based in Brussels, although now relocating themselves in Marseille, France, the four-handed formation has steadily been crafting cybernated Gothic music over the past years. Recorded a few months back while drawing its inspiration from dark dungeons and occult folklore, not without evocative titles, Enfant de Sodome feels as muscular and thrilling as their live performances usually imply. Compelling murky synthpunk and industrial machinery colliding in fervor and howls. Free falling tumultuous bass lines lacerated by ominous muffled groans. Bone-bending primitive techno music catapulted over the walls in the most urgent fashion. At the end, it very much feels like trying to dance on some sort of cryptic electronic body music in a heavy chain-mail.

Welcome to the strange musical world of Tolley & Dara, an experimental duo whose incredible music held a marginal yet vital position on the fringe of the Australian music industry during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Consisting of jazz bassist and synthesist David Tolley and percussionist Dure Dara, their union was a relationship of romance and intense creativity, a deep spiritual bond consecrated amidst banks of modular synthesizers and racks of exotic percussion instruments.

Recorded over a series of live performances in the spring of 1979, the music featured on Cutheart was edited and assembled from eight improvised pieces recorded at the Universal Theatre Melbourne. Comprised of analogue synthesizers and a vast array of tuned and non-tuned percussion, Tolley and Dara sculpted a cluster of electronic abstractions and organic splashes of Gamelan-influenced percussion; a dense otherworldly soundscape coloured with trance-like vocal scatting and deranged muttering.

Known for his bass playing on the classic Australian jazz-rock album Carlton Streets by The Brian Brown Quintet and also as a member of EX-, (the collaborative project with Daevid Allen from Soft Machine/Gong), Cutheart sees Tolley explore the outer realms of heady improvised electronic music.
While the music of Tolley & Dara exists in a sonic universe all of it's own, similarities could easily be drawn to another likeminded musical partnership, the American husband and wife duo Annette Peacock and Paul Bley. Cutheart is a pioneering recording of extended synthesiser and percussion technique from the Australian experimental underground.

A doctor by day and a musician by night, Leon x Leon has been producing songs in his
Parisian home studio since 2013, where house, italo-disco and boogie are mixing. When he
was younger, he was immersed in music by taking jazz drum lessons at the conservatory,
and especially by seeing his father, a sound engineer, who had been building his own
synthesizers since the 1970s. As a tribute, he used one of these unique synthesizers on a
title of the disc.
After a remarkable remix of Cerrone's "Funk Makossa" and several tracks on various from
'Red Laser Disco', he released his project My Solar Brass on the same English label in
2017. Organizer of many Parisian parties, he also participated in the founding of the
publishing label 'Good Plus". With the release of Rokanbo on Cracki Records, Leon x
Leon signs a mature EP with the influence of different styles.
The first eponymous title is a manifesto mixing Acid, House and Zouk. As soon as we
launch the track, the pop & acid 80's sounds takes us to another world... A UFO from the
Islands! The other parts of the EP don't leave us in the lurch! 'Formant Sweep' delivers a
soft and groovy bass that responds to an endless, spatial synthetic takeoff. On 'Red
Footpath', the harder kick cleverly blends with an atmospheric blanket and a bright, lively
flute solo straight from an abandoned piece of bamboo on a deserted beach. After that,
'Jungle Juice' lets a crazy keyboard solo resonate in the middle of tropical fauna and flora,
and finally on 'Horizon', the EP ends in beauty with an airy atmosphere. This last piece
sounds like a beautiful sunset at the end of a long summer day.
Through all these tracks, Rokanbo EP offers us a clever contrast between synthetic notes
and the warmth of tropical groove, and places our gaze towards the horizon, seeking the
groove to disturb its line on the infinite sea.

Obituary's death metal debut album Slowly We Rot was a ground-breaking release at the end of the 1980s. As one of the pioneers of this genre they created a heavy album where everything was monstrous. From their down-tuned guitar riffs, deep growls and moans and distinct tempo changes. The songs are often slowing down to a doomy tempo, a revolutionary thing at the time of release. Slowly We Rot is inspired brilliance, where the meaning of the title is illustrated in the music and lyrics. Overall, you're in for one hell of a package with this album, as this is the true classic from the death metal.

The Floridian death metal band Obituary is one of the most successful death metal bands of all time. With the exception of their 1997-2003 split, they continue to perform live around the world.

Obituary is available as a limited edition of 2000 individually numbered copies on coloured (solid yellow & transparent green mixed) vinyl.

Universal Beings is jazz drummer / producer Makaya McCraven's new album - his most ambitous, elegant and refned work yet.
Recorded at 2 intmate live sessions and 2 pop-up 'studio' sessions across the 'new' jazz hotbed cites of New York, Chicago, London, and Los Angeles, Makaya collaborated with an all-star cast of improvisers (15 musicians in total,
including Shabaka Hutchings, Nubya Garcia, Je Parker, Miguel AtwoodFerguson,Tomeka Reid, Brandee Younger and Carlos Nino) to create source material for the signature style of 'organic beat music' producton he debuted on the groundbreaking 2015 release In The Moment.
The result is this epic, 2xLP/CD set that represents another breakthrough in Makaya's career as a recording artst, as well as a defnitve new work of the excitng global groundswell of next-generaton, Black musicians re-vivifying and
re-artculatng 'jazz' in 2018.

iPM is proud to announce its very first vinyl, fruit of the inspiration of iPM's label heads A-Kintero and Mateo Holguin. NYC based Dj/Producer PJay has performed Live at many of the old school New York City Clubs. He is a Teacher of analog sound and modular synthesis and he is behind iPM's very first vinyl. With two tracks, one ambient and one Techno mix, both are characterized for their immersive and profound analog sound. "Crawl" is a laid back relaxed track which takes us on a journey of atmospheric synthesizers and deep bass lines with consistent drums that are sure to delight us, perfect for openings and closings. Brendon Moeller needs no introduction and he's on remix duties with "Space Jam", taking this track on a groovy happy vibe. This is definitely one to get people moving on the dance floor. "Space Jam" complements this Ep with a funky vibe where the cosmic synths takes the roll along with a moving and bouncing bass playing in sync with the consistency of the drums.

'BAPTISMA is 55 years old, lives in Nagoya and runs an art space and concert venue called Spacio Rita. He has never before released any music.

In the hot and humid Japanese summer of 2016 YPY and I played a show at Sapcio Rita, Shintaro was DJing and BAPTISMA played a short show, too. It was impulsive and driving while somewhat earthy and dark, buzzing with dense energy like a jungle yet spacious like the hall of the mountain king.

BAPTISMA's powerful sound creates strange places - as inviting as shady.
I was captivated. BAPTISMA liked the idea of a release and we embarked on that long journey that finally led to DISK16. Along the trip we proudly welcomed HODGE from Bristol as a stowaway. His unexpected remix well rounding this square project. Finally MARIA MENDES from Lisboa served as our beacon, providing a simple and beautiful jacket for this neat release!'

11 never-heard tracks from Synthzerland pioneer Bruno Spoerri, released for the first time on vinyl, with liner notes by the artist. WRWTFWW Records is very delighted to announce the release of Rare & Unreleased 1971-1998, a collection of never-heard and hard-to-find works by Swiss music pioneer and synth super wizard Bruno Spoerri. The album is sourced from original masters and available on a vinyl LP cut at Emil Berliner Studios (formerly the in-house recording department of Deutsche Grammophon), housed in a 350g sleeve with a superb artwork by Nicolas Eigenheer, and packed with track-by-track liner notes by Mr. Spoerri. Rare & Unreleased 1971-1998 gives a fascinating glimpse into Bruno Spoerri's incredibly inventive repertoire, collecting tracks from projects as diverse as commissioned music for trade fairs, the Swiss railroads, or the union of Swiss cheese makers(!), soundtracks for TV shows about ecology, live synth improvisations at Montreux Jazz Festival, and sound installations for art exhibitions. Always the adventurer, Spoerri records a pneumatic drill for the irresistible electronic bossa of 'Konzert für SIG-Pressluftwerkzeuge", mixes train sounds and the EMS Synthi-100 for the joyful lo-fi funk of 'Rollin'", lets overheating synthesizers take a life of their own to create the sci-fi ambient of 'Waves of Montreux", and works with bees, pigs and various birds for the environmental music bliss of 'Rhythm'n bees' and 'Birds of Cochin". Synthzerland rejoice, it's time for another captivating journey of sound exploration on Planet Spoerri! Bruno Spoerri celebrated his 83th birthday in August this year. He is still experimenting, recording, customizing audio gear, improvising on stage and in the studio, collaborating (Julian Sartorius, Franz Treichler of Young Gods, Marco Repetto of Grauzone, Roger Girod...), inventing new sounds and finding new creative outlets.

Drama were the Canadian duo of Eric Simpson (Vocals, Bass Guitar, Guitar) and Don Stagg (Keyboards). Formed in in Mississauga, Ontario in 1978, the pair had previously played together in progressive psych bands Majik and VIIth Temple. Almost every Saturday, Eric and Don would record one song on a TEAC 4 track tape recorder after a couple of takes with very little over dubbing. The pair were influenced by what was playing on the radio during the recording sessions. Everyone else at that time was in a rock or pop band yet Drama were making electronic music. The pair released their debut LP 'Loneliness' on Psycho Records in 1979. There were 500 albums made and about 200 ended up in the garbage as band members shuffled from apartment to apartment. This was followed by a 4-track 7' later that year featuring live drums and additional guitar.
Seance Centre says it best, 'On Loneliness, the pair traded in their velvet and chord charts for thin ties and a cheap drum-machine. The LP still carries a whiff of patchouli, but the sound stings of solder and electricity, and inhabits a nascent zone somewhere between krautrock and new-wave. The vocal cuts are all clustered on the A-side, starting with an ode to the inefficiency of the Toronto Transit Commission - some things never change! The dystopian sci-fi themes are par for the League, and highlights are the love ballad 'Anna King' and the charming 'Feable'. The instrumentals on the B-side feel decidedly more Teutonic, and have a certain CBC charm that sounds like JP Decerf recording for Parry Music. It even opens with a slinky stoned Pink Panther.' For this first time vinyl reissue we've expanded to a double LP with a bonus album of the 4 songs from Old Hollywood 7' and 9 previously unreleased tracks and demo versions. All songs are remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. The vinyl comes housed in a jacket with original photo by Don Stagg taken from his apartment rooftop overlooking Toronto of a young teenager sniffing glue and includes an insert with photos and liner notes by Drama.

*Landing on Alchemy Dubs is our third release on 12' format, a very special collaboration between Ojah, Fikir Amlak, Don Fe and Nik Torp.

The A side contains the track 'On my mind', a vocal version of Ojah's 'Mind' riddim that features beautiful vocals and harmonies by Fikir Amlak paired with inspiring and emotional lyrics. The second cut is a vocal dub version mixed in analog live by Ojah.

On the B side we find Don Fe's excellent flute version 'Remind' that takes the riddim to a different dimension with its deep and meditational melodies. The second cut on this side is a haunted flute dub version, also mixed live by Ojah in classic fashion.
The Hammond and melodica featured on both sides have been played by Nik Torp (keyboard player from The Specials) and masterfully recorded through an MCI desk that used to belong to Island Records (hundreds of seminal records where recorded through it, including for example Bob Marley's Exodus).

Also available complementing this release is ALDBS7007, a 7' that contains an additional Hammond & melodica solo version and an additional dub.

Limited edition of 600 copies, 180g heavyweight vinyl, hand-numbered, served in a thick custom sleeve with amazing artwork by Victor Castro.

Produced by Ojah, recorded at Alchemy Dubs Studio, London, UK
Hammond & melodica by Nikolaj Torp Larsen 'Nik Torp', recorded by George Murphy at Eastcote Studio 1, London, UK
Vocals on A1 by Fikir Amlak, recorded by Manuel Guerra Rubio at Arkchant Studio, Barcelona, Spain
Flute on B1 by Don Fe, recorded by Don Fe at Don Fe Studio, Murcia, Spain
Mixed & mastered by Oscar Pablos 'Ojah" at Alchemy Dubs Studio, London, UK
Graphic design by Victor Castro

Limited edition release of 500 in a black sleeve, each with a unique, experimental numbered screen print, 30 cm x 60 cm, in collaboration with Studio Heretic.

In support of the release Daniel Avery will be playing Drone's take over of Tresor on December the 1st, joined by Richard Fearless, Errorbeauty and Drowned performing live.

PSSU are Richard Fearless and Daniel Avery. Long time friends, they first formed their relationship whilst working out of Andrew Weatherall's legendary 'Rotters Golf Club' where Fearless made 'Trans-Love Energies' and Avery did a lot of Drone Logic. The two are now studio neighbours in Leamouth on the River Thames. They were drawn to the collaboration by a mutual appreciation of the other's music.

'307309' is pure electro soul and, with 'Fabricated from Steel', PSSU deliver a techno monster. Both tracks were forged at the Metal Box, Drone's studio in East London

Verbos Electronics, Xaoc Devices, Noise Engineering, Metasonix, Folktek and Trogotronic might not be familiar names to many but modular enthusiasts will surely pounce. Moto Music, home for experimental and alternative dance music, turns its head towards the tiny island of Malta for a new project titled Parallaks; a project formed by duo Owen Jay (Gauss/Metrolux) & Ed Blank and themed around the concept of Nuclear Power Plants. While both artists have been involved in modular synthesis since the late 90's, they recently teamed up with the scope of performing a few live gigs at their locals events and the live recording from 'Klang@Liquid Club' caught the attention of Moto Music which lead to a debut EP of pure, raw & crunchy deep techno with Detroit & Chicago influences.

It is with great honour that Emotional Rescue comes back to the music of Jaki Whitren & John Cartwright for a special 7" of two previously unreleased songs on to vinyl for the first time in That Will Be That and This Time. Originally part of the International Times reissue project (ERC004) in 2013, the songs have previously only been available on CD and digital formats as 'out-takes'. However, all that time the plan was to release the songs as a stand-alone vinyl release at some point.
Discussion with John continued over the years and the plan was for a release as part of the label's fifth anniversary, until sadly the project was put on hold due to the untimely loss of both Jaki and John in late 2016. The recent repress of their masterpiece that is their privately pressed album, International Times, led to these songs being revisited for the first time since and so here at last are both available together, as much in homage to these two wonderful musicians. More than studio-plus recordings, That Will Be That actually appeared in rerecorded form on the couple's Rhythm Hymn album of 1983. Here though is the original (and superior) version, with all the hallmarks of classic Whitren and Cartwright song writing craft, musicianship and production skill. Again remastered by their son (and at the time, teenage drummer) Joby Baker, the song drips with a confidence of masters of their instruments, full heartfelt, righteous and as relevant today as then lyrics, all backed with some deep white funk and enough soul to move mountains. This is accompanied by one of their greatest compositions in the spine-tingling This Time. Only ever known on this live recording from Glastonbury Hall, Jaki's vocals and light accompaniment from John's keys let the song shine. If the sheer power of her voice and words don't move you, then something is missing in life. A pure, sad, joyous way to thank and remember this wonderful music and people.

The Copenhagen Duo Wilma (lower Case W) Aka. Jeppe Willumsen & Dan Madsen Formed In 2014 And Soon Got Off To A Hectic Start. Despite Their Varied Backgrounds The Two Quickly Bonded Around Their Common Love Of Early Dance Music. The Resulting Output Was Picked Up By Then Panorama Bar Resident Prosumer. He Used Their Tune Fabio On His Fabric 79 Mix Cd And Released A Four Track Ep With Wilma On His New, But Unfortunately Short Lived, Potion Imprint. Fast Forward A Few Years And The Duo Behind The Multiplex Reboot Have Just Gotten A Distribution Deal, When They Receive A Couple Of Tracks From Wilma - It Was Love At First Listen.

Known for a broad swath of genre-obliterating club tracks on crucial labels including Critical, Exit, and 50Weapons, Sam Binga approached us earlier this year with a radically different kind of project, a collaboration with Welfare, true junglist and label boss at D&B bastion Rua Sound. The result of their team-up is Conamara Fieldworks. Its unique inspiration and patient process are best described by the duo themselves:

"In early November 2016, we set off through the bleakness of an Irish November into the wilderness that is Conamara, County Galway, Ireland, with about half an idea of what we wanted to do. Our friend Laney had been kind enough to allow us the use of a 300 year old cottage overlooking the sea, itself belonging to her family through generations which she was bit by bit restoring to its former glory. The isolation was perfect - very little in the way of creature comforts, no network coverage, but plenty of turf for the stove and Guinness for the belly.

Our routine for the next few days consisted of trudging the length of the rugged coastline in search of interesting sounds we could potentially process into usable elements for some kind of dub/dub techno-inspired composition...This took us inside tidal caves and abandoned ruins, across sheep fields, up and down mountains and winding country lanes, in and out of the odd pub, under upturned boats and (carefully) across huge washes of seaweed-covered shoreline. Using our handheld recorder (shouts Danny Scrilla for the lend) we assembled a palette of varied noises, constantly battling with the peaking and distortion created by the incessant Atlantic gusts.

Each evening, following some intense huddling around the stove and vital Irish home cuisine and stout, we'd examine and dissect what we had collected that day, sometimes discovering the most interesting material firmly planted in the background of the soundscapes. A certain amount of (but not too much) processing later we had the bones of a few short loops of each sound which made some kind of musical sense when played alongside each other.

Binga suggested staying true to the craft and keeping the rawness to the foreground by attempting to develop the loops into full compositions via live desk mixing, arrangement and effects. We said our goodbyes to Conamara and a month or two later said our hellos to the Dubkasm shedio. Following a crash course from the dynamic duo, we set to work for the day, learning as we went along and enjoying to the full the unpredictability, intuition and sheer vibes a dubbing session can bring, particularly in a studio kitted out with some fine analogue gear which undoubtedly helped us to keep that damp, saturated feeling that Conamara had sown."

The resulting collection of music speaks for itself, and does so in its own language. It is meditative, deeply textural, and richly saturated, with awesome sound design, generous bass weight, and dubwise finesse. Referencing ambient, concrete, and dub techno while never letting any genre dictate its path, Conamara Fieldworks is a deeply rewarding and intensely involving listen. A restrained yet transporting remix from the one Ossia completes the set.

On her deeply moving debut album At Weddings, Sarah Beth Tomberlin writes with the clarity and wisdom of an artist well beyond her years. Immeasurable space circulates within the album's ten songs, which set Tomberlin's searching voice against lush backdrops of piano and guitar. Like Julien Baker and Sufjan Stevens, she has a knack for transforming the personal into parable. Like Grouper, she has a feel for the transcendent within the ordinary.

Born in Jacksonville, Florida, and now based in Louisville, Kentucky, Tomberlin wrote most of At Weddings while living with her family in southern Illinois during her late teens and early twenties. At 16, she finished her homeschooling curriculum and went to college at a private Christian school she describes, only half-jokingly, as a "cult." By 17, she had dropped out of school, returned home, and begun to face a period of difficult transition in her life. The daughter of a Baptist pastor, Tomberlin found herself questioning not only her faith, but her identity, her purpose, and her place in the world.

"I was working, going to school, and experiencing heavy isolation," Tomberlin says of the time when she first began writing the songs on At Weddings. "It felt monotonous, like endless nothingness. It was a means to get through to the next step of life." In songwriting, Tomberlin found relief and lucidity she had trouble articulating otherwise. When she was 19, she wrote "Tornado" on her parents' piano, and began to develop confidence in her music. A year later, she had written enough songs to fill an album.

Throughout At Weddings, Tomberlin's lyrics yearn for stability and belonging, a near-universal desire among young people learning to define themselves on their own terms for the first time. "I am a tornado with big green eyes and a heartbeat," she sings on "Tornado," her voice stretching to the top of her range. Rich, idiosyncratic imagery — a fly killed with a self-help book, brown paper bags slashed violently open, clouds that weep over a lost love — sidle up to profound realizations about learning to be alive in this world. "To be a woman is to be in pain," Tomberlin notes on "I'm Not Scared." On "A Video Game," she muses, "I wish I was a hero with something beautiful to say."

Tomberlin cites the hymns she grew up singing in church as her greatest musical influence, and while At Weddings in many ways documents the unlearning of her childhood faith, it's easy to hear the reverential quality of sacred music in her songs. "A lot of hymns talk about really crazy stuff — being saved from the depths and the mire, judgment. When you actually realize what you're singing, it becomes really overwhelming," Tomberlin says. "I grew up singing in church. I was still helping to lead worship when I started coming to terms with the realization that I didn't know if I believed. I felt nauseous and shaky reading these words I was singing and feeling their intensity. If I did believe this, how could I sing these words without being scared out of my mind That's what's influenced how I write."

At Weddings is laden with reverence for music itself, for the power it has to heal others and help people navigate their lives. It is a record about learning to love oneself and others without reservation, from a place of deep sincerity — a lifelong challenge whose tribulations Tomberlin articulates beautifully. "My number one goal with my music is for honesty and transparency that helps other people find ways to exist," she says. With At Weddings, this remarkable young songwriter offers up comfort and wonder in equal measure.

a1 | Any Other Way
a2 | Untitled 1
a3 | Tornado
a4 | You Are Here
a5 | A Video Game
b1 | I'm Not Scared
b2 | Seventeen
b3 | Self Help
b4 | Untitled 2
b5 | February

One thing The Vryll Society aren't short of is admirers, Lauded at just about every turn by press and public alike, the release of their debut LP for Deltasonic Records is hotly anticipated thanks to the promise this band have shown through their live sets and recent single releases.

Discovered and nurtured by the late and much missed Deltasonic founder Alan Wills, they fitted the type for him perfectly. He instantly saw in them similar attributes he'd previously found in the early days of The Coral and The Zutons. The confident swagger, the solid union formed by their band-of-brothers gang mentality, their willingness to stand outside the conventional and often stifling jangly Liverpool scene, and the work ethic. Always the work ethic.

Wills instilled in The Vryll Society something which has become over the ensuing years a key element of what they are, what they've become, and of the music they produce. He gave them belief. A belief that hard work and determination will bring them to the place they wanted to reach.

'Alan taught us that all you need to conquer the world is a rehearsal room, your instruments, a good work ethic and a positive attitude and you'll get there. He kind of taught us the rules and the attributes that you need to have to be successful so we've just continued on that path' says frontman Mike Ellis.

Ellis has stated that it was that attitude and that work ethic which got them through the subsequent tragic loss of their friend and manager in 2014, driving them forward through those times, propelling them to harder work, and bonding them even closer together as a unit.

That unit have spent the intervening time creating and honing their own brand new-psych sound, and building up a fanbase with their superlative live shows. Drawing from an eclectic palette of influence from deep funk to Krautrock, electronica and prog, they've created a heady, intoxicating, pin sharp, and tightly wound mellifluous groove, washed over with cyclical motifs, acres of effects laden guitar hooks, and shimmering, textural technicolour soundscapes. It is at once blissful, dizzying and madly infectious. It's that eclecticism, that kaleidoscopic swirl of influences which brings together hip hop flavours, with the prog stylings of names such as Aphrodite's Child and The Verve - pre Urban Hymns - when the drugs were still working. The dynamic leaps and folds through all these influences is where you find The Vryll Society's own brand perfect pop. Its all there in the loops, in the hooks, the drive and the vibe of this unique band. But this isn't frippery, these aren't throwaway cheap thrills for our disposable times. No, this is heavier. This is music too feed your head.

Live too, The Vryll Society are a formidable force. That gang mentality binds them together over the ideas formed by spending long hours together in the rehearsal every day. Hotwiring these ideas into the heads of the crowd through extended psych jams and deep solid grooves gives a different show every time, and with each and every set, the offer gets better. Recent travels have seen them take SXSW 2017 by storm as guests of BBC Introducing as well as major festivals such as Glastonbury and Leeds/Reading.

The songs that fill the delicious grooves of Course Of The Satellite weren't so much written as devised or developed, brought together organically over months in the band's underground lair, or over weeks in Liverpool's Parr Street Studios. Working closely with producers, Wills' right hand man and Deltasonic brother-in-arms Joe Fearon and Tom Longworth, the album took shape organically, biding its time and finding its way. The result is a work of impressive confidence and stature. It's a record that believes in itself, and for all the right reasons. This is an effortlessly cool album, the sort of record that makes friends easily. The world is ready, willing and more than able to take The Vryll Society even deeper to their heart. The path Alan Wills showed them awaits. It's a path that leads to greatness.

a1 | Course Of The Satellite
a2 | A Perfect Rhythm
a3 | Andrei Rublev
a4 | Glows And Spheres
a5 | Tears We Cry
a6 | When The Air Is Hot
b1 | The Light At The Edge Of The World
b2 | Shadow Of A Wave
b3 | Soft Glue
b4 | Inner Life
b5 | Give In To Me

2018 played host to a bumper crop of sounds from some of Philly's grittiest, including Great Circles mainstays M//R and Chaperone. To close out the year that was, we are pleased to present Heckadecimal's 'Murder Tape.'

A Minneapolis-based producer and acid auteur, Heckadecimal has been a fixture within the vibrant Midwestern electronic music community for nearly 20 years. Founder of the legendary 'Anti-human' events and co-curator of the ever-prolific Always Human Tapes imprint - alongside Ryan Wurst and Peter Lansky - Heckadecimal's reputation is one of unrelenting creativity and tireless advocacy for sonic experimentation. His work has found its way to light via a slew of pseudonyms and stage monikers, including The Worm, noface and Wonder Sirens.

In short - Heckadecimal lives and breathes the sonic matter that he leaves pouring out of studio monitors, busted bar systems and finely tuned rave stacks, wherever his travels take him.

Live performance lies at the core of Heckadecimal's practice. When he stormed through Inciting HQ in Philly earlier this summer, he took command over an arsenal of hardware that reminded us of how Octave One or Shawn Rudiman might show up. These were machines that he had lived with; touched with custom modifications, hand-drawn stickers and pockmarks incurred in battle, one got the sense that the gear was a personal extension of the artist.

Perhaps it's a bit maudlin, but we feel a certain kinship with this project. Indeed, these tracks at times feel very much of a piece with the gnarled tonalities in which our stable typically traffics; all low-slung riddims that reach at equal lengths towards mutated IDM aesthetics and post-Packard Plant techno extrusions. These are future perfect grooves that glide along under the vast Midwestern sky, providing a fertile communication conduit with the City of Brotherly Love.

Give thanks for acid. Great Circles will see you in the New Year..

The body never lies. Every dance is a graph of the heart. Nothing is more revealing than movement.

These are the words of Martha Graham, one of the greatest American dancers and choreographers of the 20th century. Massimiliano Pagliara might as well have them tattooed on his chest, close to his heart, being an accomplished dancer, too. He has studied contemporary dance in Milan and Berlin, and went on to dedicate his life to transforming experience into movement, be it musical, physical, or spiritual. Massimilano's message is clear: Don't stand still. Don't keep looking back. Know where you are coming from, but don't remain petrified by the past. Take a chance at Endless Change, instead. Move on! Just like Massimilano did.

Stemming from Lecce province, an area at the south-eastern-most tip of Italy, Massimilano has been based in Berlin for several years where he's been one of the main forces behind recombining the city's hardboiled techno scene with an often overlooked sensibility for the soft and the tender. Call it underground disco passion. Massimilano's last and sophomore album, With One Another, released in 2014, was about celebrating the joy of human encounters and in parts seemed like a big get-together with like-minded artists and friends (among them nd_baumecker, Lee Douglas, and Credit 00). The record quickly hit the number one spot in Groove magazine's album chart - and its creator hit the road.

Besides his busy DJ schedule and far from the usual club circuit routines, Massimilano dedicated himself to intense travelling and exploring the world anew. 'I felt like I have lived more than ever,' he states. 'Getting to discover all these beautiful places around the world and meeting so many lovely interesting people, has inspired me in many different ways. I feel enriched.'

The result of these experiences is Feel Live, Massimiliano's third full-length endeavour. It was recorded in several intimate, sometimes improvised studio settings between Los Angeles, Portland, and Massimiliano's homebase in Berlin as well as at airports and on intercontinental flights high up in the sky. Featuring vocals by Private Agenda, Peaking Lights, Kim Anh and instrumental contributions by Fort Romeau, Tim K, and Jules Etienne, Feel Live is Massimilano's most playful and imaginative work to date. It's as emotional as sensual, as vibrant as the first ray of light after a thunderstorm has cleared the air.

Is it awkward or odd to call this record jazzy Presumptuous to pinpoint its spacial, almost orchestral qualities Unfair on the ruling Cosmic powers to highlight its aspirations of founding a new land of Balearic Harmonia and getting down at a huge fertility rite with electro enthusiasts and house lovers Not one bit. Feel Live is pure grandeur and elegance. It feels like an eternal movement.

Martha Graham has dedicated her whole life to dancing. 'It's permitting life to use you in a very intense way,' she said. 'Sometimes it is not pleasant. Sometimes it is fearful. But nevertheless it is inevitable.' Massimilano couldn't agree more. His advice when facing the inevitable: 'Live what you are feeling, feel what you are experiencing, good or bad, it is an experience.'

The demons of night are out again: Seoul's one-stop shop creative collective Byul.org returns this fall with its third international album, entitled Nobody's Gold, out via Alien Transistor (worldwide) and the group's own Club Bidanbaem imprint (South Korea). Comprising 14 new songs, it's a dizzying, haunting affair that channels the group's manifold influences and references points (from post-punk to Stockhausen and back via club culture) and yet sounds intriguingly coherent.

Moving in and out of the shadows, Nobody's Gold breaks forth as pure sonic landscape - a universe of its own, folding and unfolding into both more experimental patterns, yet also with occasional hooks and dark catchy structures, gracious build-ups flickering among the hazy roar and thunder. After the screak and squeal of 'Lamb with a Wolf Mask,' the foreboding sounds of 'The Museum of The Two of Us' segue into a synthesized party tune about a missing friend being chased by police ('Nari Yuko Yin'), one of several vocal tracks with a sinister edge. Taking things up another notch, 'Friendly Enemies' is probably the closest this group will ever get to creating a stadium-ready anthem. On the other end of the spectrum, 'The Place Where Designers Go To Die' is a magnificent void with an immense and irresistible undertow...

Never too jolly (not even while 'Day Drinking at a Seaside Town' or during takeoff via epic pop tune 'Bats We Are'), Nobody's Gold compiles soundscapes with a very tangible, corporeal presence - iridescent sonic sculptures placed in unlikely settings (e.g. outer space, see: 'Dirty Dirtiness'), born at the fringes where night blends into day and vice versa.

Inspired by everyday life, half-remembered drug/club experiences, Pascal Quignard's disturbing La haine de la musique, Stockhausen and Bill Evans, the new LP sees the collective remain true to its DIY foundations while repeatedly questioning our listening habits and 'the exaggerated love for the concept of love,' as they put it.

Founded around the dawn of the millennium as a group of poetry-loving friends who'd occasionally meet for drinks, Byul.org has long become an extremely prolific and versatile collective within Seoul's scene: Main song-writer TaeSang Cho and his mates Yu Hur, Jowall, YunYi Yi, SuhnJoo YI, HyunJung Suh, and SoYoon Hwang went from publishing to recording, from releasing tunes to design, art direction and more. Although their list of clients includes Atelier Herme`s and the Venice Biennale (they did the Korean Pavilion twice), the group still remains a drinking circle of close friends at its core: Pals who simply like to create and carouse and dream and live and perform and play tunes together.

Ever since Onom Agemo & The Disco Jumpers broke the dreaded curse of the difficult second album by releasing "Liquid Love", a cocktail so spicy and delectable that it could warm the cockles of the grumpiest man alive's heart, even in the most Arctic conditions, everybody wondered how the Onom crew could top that one. But now you have an opportunity to whip out your "Magic Polaroid" as proof that this wasn't an impossible Project. Never before has the band so successfully captured their full-on live sound as they do here, thanks to three days of recording frenzy at Daniel Nentwig and Sebastian Maschat's Butterama studio, a haven of analog hardware hidden in a remote part of Berlin's Neukölln district. The exploding kaleidoscope of styles that make up this album, perfectly reflected by the stunning cover artwork from Nick Henderson and photography by Christoph Rothmeier, means that they can no longer be confined to their early description as an "Afro-Funk Quintet" or merely described as a lively tribute to the artists which have influenced them: their sound is 100 per cent pure uncut Onom Agemo, even though every track feels like a new beginning. The presence of a charismatic in-house vocalist who brought her own lyrics along has also boosted their confidence considerably and provided a further knock-out punch to their onstage performances.
And no one will be disappointed as soon as the first bars of "The Trumpets Of Denmark" stomp on stage like a boisterous fanfare, with Johannes Schleiermacher's impressive wall of sound production making the musicians sound like a much bigger band than what their line-up suggests (with Maria Schneider from Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra adding some extra percussive clout) and just the right amount of dizzying cross-rhythms to steer it away from potential bombast. When Onom Agemo's powerhouse vocalist Natalie Greffel starts chanting what at first sounds like a string of Onomatopoeia, it soon becomes clear that she's laying down her manifesto for a nostalgic Space-Age yet to come, with a few key words serving as Mantra (Focus, patience, tears and creation): an invitation to drive off the Information Superhighway and its endless litany of polite noises, to redirect our gaze inside ourselves and learn to understand and sometimes question how others perceive us.

We are excited to release a 6-track EP from San Francisco based DJ, producer, and remixer Sepehr Alimagham. The San Jose native has been a fixture in the Bay Area house and techno scene for quite awhile now — on the dance-floor, behind the decks, in the studio, or all of the above. Early influences like Boards of Canada, Aphex Twin and post-hardcore bands later in high school started his affinity for off-kilter, underground music. In 2017 he began performing live PA sets, utilizing his immense production backlog to perform vivid and electric sets, from potent dance music to psychedelic and esoteric soundscapes.

"Body Mechanics" is six tracks of acid drenched dance music that ebb and flow from floor filling club thumpers to more cerebral soundscapes. Inspired by the new wave of the acid sound as well as nostalgia from his formative years in the San Francisco music scene, 'Body Mechanics' takes a functional, yet psychedelic approach to 303 styled techno and electronica. Attention demanding basslines, indiosyncratic structures and hallucinatory atmospheres provide an effective framework for Sepehr's vision. The themes of the track titles take root from a series of dreams Sepehr had with a common atmosphere of strange characters and textures, akin to scenes from David Lynch's 'Twin Peaks'. All songs have been mastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. The vinyl comes housed in a jacket featuring a dark and inviting cyborg hand holding a rose designed by Nicole Ginelli.

Digging 80s pop obscurities has long been part of Emotional Rescue's mission statement and the unearthing of this cover of the Talking Heads classic by the little known, Italian new wave band Politrio for a limited 7" press is a worthy addition.
Formed by guitarist, songwriter and producer Giorgio Canali alongside Massimo Sbaragli and Roberto Zoli for the short-lived project. With just one album released of new wave, pop rock, it was their contribution to an Amnesty International benefit LP that spawned this excellent version of Byrne, Franz and Weymouth penned classic. Coming out of the CBGBs scene of post-punk downtown NYC, the song, released on their aptly titled 1977 "77" debut album, has gone on to become one of the defining songs of it's time. Further enhanced with their mesmeric performance in the 1984 Stop Making Sense film and album, it has been ripe for reinterpretation. Politrio's version keeps and captures much of the original, but with their own swing, rhythm, Italian-English vocal delivery, rock guitar, bells and keys. While remaining instantly recognizable, this is a unique version, with the straightened drumming giving it some added punch and kick.
This is backed by a systematically cool, delicate but additional re-edit by the Berlin based Italian duo Dama and Budino aka Double Wave. Rising names in the Berlin scene they are part of the Oscillator collective, label and parties and can be heard at some of the best parties right now.
Letting the instrumental interplay of funky, slap bass and rock guitar have more time to shine, the edit builds and drops, dubs and builds again to the vocals and lyrics known so well, offering an alternative sing-a-long for the more wonky DJs and dancers out there.

Boum Boum Boum! 25 years of KOMPAKT. When a record label still thrives after a quarter of a century thanks to a focus of what was expected to be a short lived music phenomenon called TECHNO, then it stands to prove two things; that it techno has taken its place amongst serious, multilayered musical genres like rock'n'roll, pop and folk music. And that KOMPAKT has never been only for techno, but KOMPAKT stands as a broad-minded, genre-defying entity that has set out to cross-pollinate all kinds of musical inventions within the realm of electronic music. Through its course, KOMPAKT has sent 'Around The World', all kinds of sub-genres, concept series and crossover adventures based on the non- negotiable 4/4 beat. And back again.

Without a doubt, the 100% kickdrum-free POP AMBIENT series is the most endearing and enduring concept that I have had the pleasure to curate. From the start, I felt there was a strong need to add a certain pop- elegance - ensouled by discourse as much as hedonism - to a sound that was recognized as 'Chill Out' music that could be heard in seedy techno club back rooms and forgotten festival areas. Over the years, I like to imagine that POP AMBIENT has crystallized into a highly recognizable trademark sound and a multi-facetted musical universe of its own.

So once again, I had the pleasure to put together this year's edition by plowing through an ocean of sonic jewelry that had been submitted from all over the world by new and old friends. The task was clear: for this special edition, I must create a homogenous listening experience that would both appeal to our trusting followers, to continue our tradition while integrating new micro facets , variations and influences from neighboring musical universes as possible. Obligatory while being innovative. Conspirative while being cosmopolitan. Albeit the headline 'Ambient' might sound a little too humble for a compilation that encompasses aspects of neo classic, atonal music and the most beautiful aural kitsch imaginable, it still helps as a necessary means of orientation in the best possible sense. Same goes for another dear tradition: Veronika Unland's abstract-floral cover design that keeps on pleasing our sore eyes year after year.

Although each and every POP AMBIENT edition doesn't shy away from diving into the relevant question of 'What is contemporary discourse music' - in the end it all boils down to that elevated moment where all theory dissolves into ambient air, into a higher state of cosmic bliss. POP AMBIENT is sacral music for non-believers.

Wolfgang Voigt Cologne, October 2018

Bum Bum Bum. 25 Jahre KOMPAKT. Wenn ein Musiklabel, das seine inhaltliche Ausrichtung im Wesentlichen auf den anfangs als schnelllebig und vor allem kurzlebig apostrophierten - hype' Techno setzt, nach 25 Jahren in jeder Beziehung immer noch voll im Saft steht, dann zeigt das zwei Dinge: Das erstens mittlerweile jeder bemerkt haben du¨rfte, dass Techno eben kein kurzftristiger hype ist, sondern vielmehr ein vielschichtiges, ernstzunehmendes Genre, das sich ebenso wie Rock'n'Roll oder Schlager fest in der Musikgeschichte etabliert hat.

Und zweitens, dass KOMPAKT nie nur ein reines Technolabel war und ist, sondern ein nach vielen Seiten aufgeschlossenes Experimentierfeld, das sich von Anfang an der Grenzu¨berschreitung und dem musikalischen Erfindungsreichtum verschrieben hat. U¨ber die Jahre wurden unter dem KOMPAKT-Signet etliche Subgenres, Konzeptreihen und Crossoverwagnisse auf Basis der unverhandelbaren geraden Bassdrum - around the world' und wieder zuru¨ck geschickt.

Eine der wohl scho¨nsten und nachhaltigsten Konzeptreihen du¨rfte wohl die bassdrumfreie POP AMBIENT-Serie sein, die ich als KOMPAKT-- Altvorderer' nach wie vor die ja¨hrliche Freude habe, zu kompilieren. Dabei hat sich u¨ber die Jahre aus dem anfa¨nglichen Bedu¨rfnis der seit den fru¨hen 90er Jahren in den sogenannten - Chilloutrooms ' grossra¨umiger Technoclubs, - Lounges' und - Muzakkneipen' entstandenen - Entspannungsmusik' etwas entgegenzusetzen, eine eher von Pop-Eleganz, Diskurs und Hedonismus beseelte, eigene Spielart ambienter Musik, eine vielschichtige programmatische Musik mit hohem Widererkennungswert entwickelt.

So hatte ich auch im Jubila¨umsjahr einmal mehr die Qual der Wahl, aus den aus aller Welt kommenden, grossartigen Klangpreziosen guter alter sowie neuer Freunde die subjektiv besten zu einem homogenen Ho¨rerlebnis zusammenzufu¨hren. Dabei ist mir immer sehr wichtig, einerseits den Erwartungen der treuen Ho¨rerschaft im Bezug auf Traditionsverpflichtung gerecht zu werden und andererseits auch immer mo¨glichst viele Mikrofacetten, Varianten und Einflu¨sse angrenzender Stile und Universen aufzugreifen. Innovativ und verbindlich. Konspirativ und weltoffen. Auch wenn der U¨berbegriff Ambient, fu¨r eine Kompilation die sowohl Aspekte von Neuer Klassik, Atonalita¨t und Kunstmusik mit den allerscho¨nsten Seelenkitschklangwelten zu vereinen sucht, zu eng gefasst ist, so hilft er doch bei der notwendigen Orientierung im besten Sinne. Ebenso wie die Tradition gewordenen, wunderscho¨n abstrakt-floralen Kunstblumenwelten der von Veronika Unland gestalteten Cover, die ein ums andere Jahr auch die Augen in Verzu¨ckung versetzten.

Auch wenn jede Kompilation sich aufs Neue an den relevanten Fragen zeitgema¨sser Diskursmusik abarbeitet, so ist der erhabene Moment am Ende doch der, in dem sich alles zu Gunsten eines - ho¨heren, kosmischen' Ho¨rerlebnisses, im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes in ambiente Luft auflo¨st.

POP AMBIENT ist die sakrale Musik der Ungla¨ubigen.

Wolfgang Voigt / September 2018

This is the second release from the Parisian label Aperçu, which has uncovered European producers for this compilation featuring 4 titles.The story of this compilation came about gradually, with one thing leading to another as the artists involved met up all over Europe and their musical affinities became apparent. Two years after their EP Stara Zagora,Metshka and Roman Delore are issuing the second release of their label, Aperçu, promoting three producers well deserving of attention. Ben Kaczor, the resident DJ at the legendary, intimate Elysia Club in Basel, Switzerland has his own label, KCZ, and is an adept of dark, sharp-edged sounds such as in 'Navel,' which plays out like a hypnotic, melancholy adieu but with well-defined kicks.Temiri, a native of southern France having spent time in Berlin, now lives in Switzerland as well. With the Swiss mountains and Geneva's rave parties shaping his sensibility, he created 'Love Intentions' - a soft gift to the world. HiromaKeo, a Lisbon-based French producer, champions a wide-ranging, contemporary approach to electronic music. After three years spent comanaging the collective and label ESITU (between Lille and Brussels), he has started a new project in Portugal: Vilamar. In 'SonheiContigo' we find his signature precision and the Japanese influences he likes.
Last but not least, Metshkaand Roman Delorecontinue to appear at parties and events in Paris and to work on hybrid events through their Pauza collective. At the crossroads of techno, ambient and experimental music, here they give us 'Ocre,' a work of slow violence.

"In 1978, Nova performed for Obama. Well, kind of: Nova was the band for the Punahou School prom in Honolulu, Hawaii, and a young student named Barack (known then as 'Barry') was in attendance.

Backtrack to 1976, and Nova was the opening band for Donald Byrd at the nearby Blaisdell Arena. The day was Sunday, June 27. The following day, Isaac Hayes would perform on island for the admission price of $1.

Nova, led by singer Checo Tohomaso, was one of several go-to party bands during the golden era of Hawaii funk and soul music in the mid-1970s through early 1980s.

The band's infectious gospel-funk-disco can be heard on their sole release, a self-titled 1980 LP that feels like one big party recorded live in the studio. (Check out the Marvin Gaye-inspired 'I Feel Like Getting Down' on the 2016 'Aloha Got Soul' compilation on Strut Records).

The story is all too familiar, however: funk band releases LP, the music goes dormant in years to follow, and today original copies sell for hundreds online.

Not long after the album's 1980 release, Checo met Marvin Gaye, who was living on Maui (where George Benson also resided). Shortly after, Marvin invited Checo and his counterparts to join his multi-city tour across Europe. Videos of Checo rocking keyboards, percussion and singing background vocals for Marvin Gaye's last European tour can be found online.

Checo, born in Florida yet raised in lush Manoa Valley as well as Okinawa, Japan, now resides in Vancouver, Canada, where he leads the VOC Sweet Soul Gospel Choir and continues to deliver his signature sound: high energy, positive, 'sweet soul' music.

AGS-7010 features two non-stop groovers with a 7' edit by Roger Bong on the A-side. LP reissue in the works!"

Russian born and very gifted musician Aleceo is a new addition to the ongoing rooster of Copenhagen's prolific Music For Dreams label - Aleceo came to attention of label boss Kenneth Bager with the brilliant first Ep 'Clouds' - (all tracks included here.).
Aleceo has his own musical voice, he produces and composes music that is rich in harmonies and melodies - he sits somewhere between Balearic and Deep House - combining the past and moving forward and this double vinyl 'Teletrip' is an excellent taster of his many talents and a real body of work.

'Liebe Tanzen' is a sunny mood full of vintage Roland vocoders, imagine yourself in a Zeppelin watching the earth from the skies and hearing handclaps, acidic noodling and beautiful rhodes combined with a high-pitched soulful voice repeating 'Take My Love' and you have the mood of a modern soul track supported by the balearic brigade. 'Dipping Into You' is a deep house mood featuring the beautiful voice of Jelila- sounding like a late 80 ties Boy's Own track played in a barn just when the Sunrise appears.
One of the outstanding killer tunes and a real grower on the debut album by Aleceo is the single 'Whisper To the Wind' a track recorded with Canadian singer Wulf SoulFire - ten minutes of powerful Roland 909 drums, talking verses and a sublime chorus.
'Nevesomost' - a cinematic, melancholic acidic journey that was inspired by the old USSR Sci Fi movie 'Moscow - Cassiopeya' where a group of children was sent to Mars. 'Monotone' recorded in Bali and sung by guest singer Masha Verymaryland - a french song about a girl who loves to dance and sing with arpeggios, Xylophones that sets the mood for a dreamy French Riviera. 'Clouds' is first class ambience feat the Siberian multi-instrumentalist Sergi

Kampanella playing the Mandolla. The title track 'Teletrip' is tv samples mixed with 80 ties new wave drum machines. 'Priceless' is a downtempo documentary live recording Aleceo did with his American native friend Kita. 'Dome' full of accordions, balalaika, handclaps and melancholic keys tells the story of Dome of God - the place of peace and happiness and makes you wanna sit by the seaside.

'Know Him' is inspired by gospel from the Mississippi church. 'Mzi' wouldn't sound out of place in a Leo Mas warm up tape from Amnesia in Ibiza - middle 80ties with its obscure breakdown full of 30/40ties voices.

Bonus is the inclusion of Kenneth Bager's reprise of 'Dome'.

The album 'Teletrip' by Aleceo feels like a forgotten balearic album with a modern twist suddenly washed upon the shores on the White Isle.

Kami Is The Fourth Opus Of Foudre! - A Telluric Drone Quartet Composed Of Frédéric D. Oberland (oiseaux-tempête, Le Réveil Des Tropiques, The Rustle Of The Stars, Farewell Poetry), Romain Barbot (saåad), Grégory Buffier (saåad, Autrenoir) And Paul Régimbeau (mondkopf, Autrenoir, Extreme Precautions) Who Meet Punctually For Sessions Of Ritual Improvisation Where They Invoke Noise And Drone And The Deities Of Chaos. Improvised And Recorded Live At Le Rex De Toulouse Supporting The 10th Anniversary Of French Doom Metal Band Monarch!, Kami Extends The Cosmogony And The Sound Of The Band By Taking Excursions Into The Invisible And Ambiguous Side Of Nature. In This Orgiastic And Surprising Mix Of Sonic Textures And Rhythms, You May Hear Strange Phenomena, Summoning Of Animistic Spirits, Shamanic Calls, Siren Yellings And Growls. The Original Chemigram Artwork Was Created By French Artist Fanny Béguély By Painting With Chemicals On Light-sensitive Paper. Following The Sold-out Earth Soundtrack (gzh71, 2015), Kami Delivers An Immersive Soundscape For Abstract Clubbers, Where Kosmiche Electronic, Power Ambient And Industrial Punk Music Are Freely Invited To Commune. This Pagan Ceremonial Is An Ode To The Ever-changing Vortex Of Life - A Sonic Dream Machine For The Occurring Now.

300 Beer-coloured Vinyl With Black Inner, Poly-lined Paper Sleeve.

A trio of guitar, bass and drums, Elektro Guzzi overcome the boundary between analogue versus digital, performing techno live with the drive of a machine and the sonic detail of an instrument - without any computers or loopers. For their upcoming album Polybrass, Elektro Guzzi have drastically expanded their sonic repertoire: both in the studio and on stage, they are joined by an ensemble of three trombonists, opening up a whole new realm of possibilities. With Hilary Jeffrey, Daniel Riegler and Martin Ptak, the band are joined by three brass heavyweights, each of them well renowned for both their solo ventures as well as projects such as The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble, Sand and Zeitkratzer. By treating the three trombones not simply as a set of extra instruments but rather as one coherent body of sound on its own, Elektro Guzzi dissociate the brass instruments from their conventional use and repurpose them into something completely different: a modular synthesizer, with each trombone representing one oscillator. In doing so, Elektro Guzzi add new layers of depth to their music, emphasizing a more cinematic side of their music: like the soundtrack for a movie, Polybrass is bigger, darker, more dramatic, more intimate. Warm and fuzzy textures float weightlessly above fragile soundscapes and complex sonic fragments. At the same time, the band's signature sound runs distinctly through the entire album: solid percussive grooves, stripped down to the absolute minimum it takes to make your body move. Hypnotic repetition, building tension and suspense up to a point where the energy of the music gets so intense you feel like you can physically touch it with your hands, interlaced with organic patterns of sound, constantly changing and evolving, pulsating and oscillating. Vinyl: heavy sleeves + heavy printed inner sleeves, 180g vinyl with download code.

London based hardware specialist no data available joins the null+void family with a four track EP of rugged, playful and effective electro driven tracks for the rave - ending in a blissful introspective 7am moment with title track the night.

Acid fans will have already heard nda's work alongside Matt Whitehead on Jerome Hill's much respected Super Rhythm Trax imprint under various pseudonyms. It's his live sets that have been winning on the dancefloor though, as much as his studio work - 100% improvised and raucously executed - this year they've brought the fire at Berlin's Greissmuehle and London's Corsica Studios.