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Valance Drakes and Kero team up for their first collaborative endeavor. The EP, Abstract Thought is an evident fusion of both artist’s unique styles, bringing together elements of glitch, Hip hop, Detroit techno, and a whole lot of space vibes.


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My hands float before my face, drifting in defiance of gravity, willfulness brought on by forces beyond my own. Things stop very abruptly with a crash the shakes my eyes in their very sockets, rattling reverberation pushing painfully through my skull.


One thousand days in space feels like nothing and everything all at once. Children grow, faces fill with wrinkles and I stay still.


Until my eyes begin to shake and everything turns to television static flashing somewhere inches behind vision. Is someone stepping on my throat?


I’ve crashed into something hard and barren. Is that electricity I see, clinging to my hands?


I spring across an earth or planet or meteorite that crumbles beneath my boots and sways in the air moving so swiftly about my body, dust flying up into the visor of the helmet that saves me, threatening cracks, ruckus.


I can hear my heartbeat in here. I wonder if this is what it sounds like in the womb. The rope connecting me to the ship is something like an umbilical cord. Is it not? Maybe it’s a vacuum. Maybe I’m not born yet after all.

The multi-media project Kraftwerk was started in Düsseldorf, Germany 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. They set up their electronic Kling Klang Studio where they conceived and produced all Kraftwerk albums.

Kraftwerk created the soundtrack for the digital age of the 21st century. AUTOBAHN 1974, RADIO-ACTIVITY 1975, TRANS EUROPE EXPRESS 1977, THE MAN-MACHINE 1978, COMPUTER WORLD 1981, TECHNO POP 1986, THE MIX 1991, TOUR DE FRANCE 2003. Their compositions, using innovative techniques, electronic sounds and synthetic voices combined with computerised rhythms, had a major musical influence on Electro, Hip Hop, Techno and Synth-Pop. 

Main Phase on Hardline. Say less.

‘Museum / Flow State’ is a collaboration between British nouveau junglist Tim Reaper and Antipodean producer Kloke; this union within the thrilling new generation of jungle artists culminates in a set of disparate yet compelling spheres of sound. These productions are a side consequence of back-and-forth sessions between the two for the acclaimed Meeting Of The Minds series housed on Tim Reaper's label, Future Retro London. The artists were spurred on by the myths and legends of 1990s London’s most celebrated epicentres from across the DnB continuum.

“Flow State” takes inspiration from Speed, Fabio and LTJ Bukem’s seminal club night in London’s West End, where the mid-’90s jungle blueprint iterated into soulful, jazzy liquid. As its name suggests, “Flow State” is beautifully rolling and detail oriented, layered and warmly spacious, as it generously serves desires that are both cerebral and bodily.

“Museum” is pure kinetic energy, from its suspenseful looped intro through its jagged edges. The track takes its cues from the iconoclastic Sunday night Metalheadz residency in London’s Hoxton, where the leading edge of drum & bass was carved out under the guidance of Goldie and Grooverider in close, sweaty proximity. “Museum” shapeshifts swiftly through soft-hard dynamics, pairing explosive drum programming and intricate sound design with seductive melodic breaks that hit you in the core, transporting the listener into the pitch of its deep junglist heritage.

Exit Planet Earth continues its exploration of the world of electro universe with an expansive, extended six track EP, featuring The Advent x Zein Ferreira, DeFeKT, London Modular Alliance, Konertymi and Zobol. The Advent, whose weekly Gardening Club residency in the mid-90s helped to drag electro out of the realms of the retro and back into the future, team up with Zein Ferreira for a Kraftwerk-on-speed extended mix of 'CarpeDiem', before London Modular Alliance's more moderately paced but still squiggle and bleep laced 'Lump of Coal' plus a 'beats' breakdown for the DJs. The B-side brings us the acid-powered 'Pulssi' by Konerytmi, the bouncy, breakdance-friendly 'Radar' by DeFeKT, and the relatively pure, optimistic sonics of Zobol's 'Data Wars'. Thumbs up all round.

WRWTFWW Records couldn't be happier to announce the release of Yutaka Hirose’s never-heard before 11-track collection TRACE: Sound Design Works 1986-1989, available on double LP and double CD, with liner notes from the artist.

TRACE is a collection of 11 unreleased tracks produced by Yutaka Hirose between 1986 and 1989, during the Sound Process Design sessions, right after the release of his classic Soundscape series album Nova. Sound Process Design was Satoshi Ashikawa's label, home of the Wave Notation trilogy (Hiroshi Yoshimura’s Music For Nine Postcards, Satsuki Shibano's Erik Satie 1866-1925 and Satoshi Ashikawa's Still Way). Following Wave Notation, Sound Process Design worked with museums, cafes and bars to create site-specific soundscapes, starting with the sound design of the Kushiro Museum. Yutaka Hirose was called to work on these projects.

Rather than simply providing pre-recorded compositions, Hirose sought to create a "sound scenery". To achieve this, he participated in the conception of the space and paid particular attention to the accidental combination of sounds by placing the speakers, using a multi-sound source, and following the concept of "sculpturing time through sound".

The composer explains: "sculpturing time through sound means that time, the space itself, the sound played in it, and the audience all become one sculpture. It is close to the idea of a Japanese tea ceremony where you use all of your 5 (or 6) senses to taste the tea."

TRACE: Sound Design Works 1986-1989 is divided into two parts. The Reflection segment is based on an ambient soundscape. It narrates "a sleep that starts with the sound of water droplets at dawn and slowly disappears into darkness" and feels like a natural and soothing progression of Nova. It was played in entrance halls, at events, in cafes and bars. The Voice from Past Technology segment expresses the dream world born out of that sleep and is based on what Yukata Hirose calls hardcore ambient, environmental music with a noise approach. It was played in museums and science centers.

All in all, TRACE is a crucial addition to every Japanese environmental music fan’s collection, alongside Midori Takada’s Through The Looking Glass, Hiroshi Yoshimura’s Green, Satoshi Ashikawa’s Still Way, Motohiko Hamase’s Notes of Forestry, Inoyamaland’s Danzindan-Pojidon, and Yutaka Hirose’s very own Nova.

Originally released 2020 on cassette and digitally.

Forged alone in a cave on the island of Java, and recorded in a fortress in Poland, Antonina Nowacka’s “Lamunan” is an intimate exploration of a mysterious darkness and the earliest of musical forms. Nowacka has co-created raw electronics and audiovisuals as half of WIDT and the enigmatic Mentos Gulgendo, but her solo practice focuses solely on the voice’s inherent connection to mental states, its ability to speak wordlessly, and the apparatus of speech itself – leading her to a six-month trip to study traditional music in Indonesia.

A day trip to visit a Javanese volcano turned into days of exploring, Nowacka eventually stumbling across a cave. “Rarely does anyone come there because Indonesians are afraid of the dark and the cave is poorly lit,” explains Nowacka. “I could sit there and sing for hours without feeling the passage of time.”

Hours spent in the dizzying darkness and echoes of Seplawan Cave produced a series of unaccompanied vocal motifs. Moans, chants, hums, and wordless cries met with the multi-million year-old facades of the stone walls. The freely flowing compositions seem forged from the same natural material as that stone, carved into shape by nothing but water, time, and solitude.

Upon returning to Poland, Nowacka recorded with Rafal Smoliński in the cave-like sonic conditions of the Modlin Fortress some 50km north of Warsaw. The intimate and surreal sound of the cave is recreated, Nowacka overlapping multiple vocal lines to create delicately interwoven chamber choral pieces, musically minimalist and emotionally maximalist. The album’s title – "Lamunan" – comes from the Indonesian word for ‘dreaming’ or ‘fantasy’.

Picture Vinyl "A balance between things that you know people will like and things that you think people will like" is what John Peel had to say on his BBC homepage about Apparat's music programming concept. Apparat then appeared at the Peel Session in May of 2004 substituting like with die for in JP's statement. Indeed, it's sad but true: John Peel passed away a few months later to a heart attack while vacationing in Peru. Apparat could only find a more fitting farewell mood with the rerecording of his session: a sonic dedication to the huge mentor John Peel from Shitkatapult and their people.

Apparat is known as a fluctuating mood-maker by way of his computer companion. In this case he leaves his garb behind. Apparat swings the composer's stick with emotion to give yearning its segway by conducting pieces of lonely melancholic beauty with godly discretion. New strings are thanks to the violin and cello of Kathrin Pfänder and Lisa Stepf aka Complexácord, whose soul-drenched expression lets your mind sway.

The trio harmonizes with dream-like perfection. It reminds one once again of the experimental modus operandi combining classical instruments with electronic music. Singer Raz Ohara and clarinet/sax player Hormel Eastwood find their chosen virtuous and emotional space on this promising cloud. What remains are warm dark drops of elegiac pop the pour down the back of your heart.

This Apparat John Peel Session was remastered by Bo Kondren at Calyx Studios in February 2019 incl. the digital bonus track - Komponent as Telefon Tel Aviv Remix.
The physical appears as picture disc featuring the wonderful original design by Hanna Zeckau & Carsten Aermes on vinyl.
The original release from 2005 (Strike 153) also contained more Remixes by Bus, Rechenzentrum and Apparat himself.

»Tides« marked a radical change in direction for Arovane. After Uwe Zahn had made a name for himself with cutting-edge IDM rhythms and slick ambient textures on a slew of releases, his sophomore album saw the prolific producer opt for a sample-based approach that resulted in a more organic sound and laid-back downbeat grooves. Having reissued Arovane’s seminal »Atol-Scrap« as a double LP in 2021, the Berlin-based Keplar label now makes »Tides« available on vinyl for the first time since its original release in 2000 through the legendary City Centre Offices. The new version has been remastered by Kassian Troyer at Dubplates & Mastering and comes with a brand new cover artwork. It shines a new light on a release for which Zahn quite literally ventured into previously unknown territory — »Tides« is an album that emits a timeless, quiet calm and nonetheless stays constantly in motion.

»The idea for the album came to me after a vacation in France«, says Zahn. Inspired by the landscape, especially the coastline and the sea, he made field recordings throughout his trip that were also used on the record, giving it its sensual feel. The foundation of the album however, the loose yet gripping grooves at the heart of every track, result from Zahn working extensively with samples. »I wanted to make use of drum sounds and small excerpts from old jazz vinyl records«, he explains. He maintained the unique sound signatures and rhythmic flutter of the source material while building intricate beats with them. Most of the material was culled from the record collection of Christian Kleine, whose spontaneous guitar improvisations over the first musical sketches were recorded and edited by Zahn and can be heard on four tracks. Also employing the occasional cembalo or spinet sound, he worked with a hardware sequencer and a delay to integrate the different, discrete elements into nine tracks that feel both dense and light at once.

What’s astonishing still 22 years later is how spacious »Tides« sounds. This is due to the fact that Zahn not only paid close attention to the sonic idiosyncrasies of his source material, but also to what happened in between those sounds. »Mark Hollis’s solo album was a huge inspiration at that time«, says Zahn. »What I find fascinating about it until this day is how silence and the subtle hiss of the mixing boards were being used on that record.« Silence was also an important stylistic element on »Tides« and adds greatly to the overall atmosphere of an album that with the appropriately named »Theme« immediately sets the mood with intricate spinet melodies: Zahn opens a door for his listeners and invites them to follow him to see a specific part of the world through his very own lens.

As a whole, the album mirrors Zahn’s trip that took him along the steep cliffs on a foggy day (»Seaside«), to an abandoned house in which he found old maps (»A Secret«), along the coastline during a long car ride (»Deauville«), to a sleepy village and the slowly moving sea (»Tides«) and finally back home to his native Germany where he started reflecting upon his experiences, ultimately deciding to translate them into music (»Epilogue«). »Whenever I listen to this album now, the images and memories it evokes are incredibly vivid and vibrant«, he says. It’s not hard to see — or rather hear — why. »Tides« may have been a deeply personal project, but it effortlessly evokes universal feelings by (re-)building an entire world in the course of only a few pieces of music.

Johannes Schebler's musical output is all about establishing a dreamlike territory where sonic settlements can spread at ease. While Grykë Pyje (Johannes Schebler's duo with Jani Hirvonen) presents musical landscapes as open and clear spaces, Baldruin's miniature pieces tend to narrow them down, zooming into domestic sceneries that shift like malleable rooms inside a magic building. These are the quarters where the inhabitants of Schebler's musical world are configured.

Rendered in a tender manner, the tunes in Kleine Freuden (in English: small joys) unfold like a collection of fairy tales and bedtime stories. Fables and lullabies performed in whispering tones seem to carry us through a child's dream where images blend into each other. Compact, yet gauzy and free flowing melodies gather up revealing an ensemble of households where fanciful entities play care freely, leading us along their musical maze. The music is placid, childlike and playful. It wanders around in unwavering estrangement, organizing an unprecedented and intimate space as seen from a bird's eye view.

In the landscape of a bedroom where the night lamp is the sun, we take part in a lively journey, as wonder is warrant and keeper of a warm and pristine environment. Perspective shifts as we rise from bed sheet folds that turn into fragile mountain ranges. We crawl behind furniture and take shelter in secret hideouts while dust falls upon us like a blizzard. Transfiguring notions of scale and time, we are left wondering how long have we been here, wondering if music is the only true measurement of time.

SA Recordings present a new EP and sample library from the acclaimed experimental cellist and composer, Mabe Fratti and multidisciplinary experimental artist and musician Concepción Huerta. SA are pleased to announce the first single from their upcoming release, Estática, a four track EP which effortlessly transposes between light and heavy, electronic and biotic sounds. The first single, Estática is a heart-wrenching cello heavy meandering composition classic to the styles of Fratti and Huerta. This will be followed by the full release in early December 2021. The release follows Fratti’s critically acclaimed Será Que Ahora Podremos Entendernos described by Pitchfork as blooming with ecstatic synth riffs and spirited cello, the record captures the sound of a mind abuzz. Huerta and Fratti, promising and ambitious artists in their own right, come together in Estática to combine their deeply experimental and progressive practices.

green marbled vinyl

Aural Imbalance manages to fuze his trademark smooth, dreamy atmospheric backdrops with weighty amen breaks creating an exceptional dance-floor-friendly rhythm for Particle Force to kick off the EP in style.

Hi-hats and pads lead in the elegant, crisp break work of Cosmic Voices driving the track along at a firm yet gentle pace with plinky strings and tones, this composition is a treat for the ears.

Hypnosis is an apt title for the next track - we open with muffled beats before a beautifully simple ear worm melody enters and stays with you long after the drums and synths have played their part.

An incredible blanket of ambient atmosphere punctuates Cassiopeia's Dream, whisping and swishing continually throughout with delicate breakbeats and valerian levels of calm.

Words by Chris Hayes (Red Mist/Spatial)

"Meat. The story needs meat. (And blood ... coagulated blood (Gore)). The substance we are seeking here lies beyond the bare bones of fact, thewhen and the where (founded in 1988, Mülheim an der Ruhr) or personneland instruments (a trio since 2016, built around keyboards, saxophone, bass & drums). The story is more than the sum of its facts. Mysteries may very well lurk here or there along the way. What keeps the final two foundermembers going after all this time Do Morten Gass and Robin Rodenberg have skeletons locked in their closets How dearly we would we love to know the answer to that one, alas the most beautiful puzzles tend to remain unsolved.Including their debut Gore Motel' (1994), BOHREN & DER CLUB OF GORE have amassed an impressive eight longplayers. Four album titles allude to the night - their debut was followed by Midnight Radio' (1995), Sunset Mission' (2000), and Black Earth' (2002), whilst the most recent instalment carried the name Piano Nights' (2014). The nocturnal quartet was punctuated by Geisterfaust' (2005), Dolores' (2008) and a mini-album entitled Beileid' (2011), adding rather eerie overtones to the after hours ambience. The BOHREN & DER CLUB OF GORE legend has grown stronger both at home and abroad with every record they have released and every show they have played. Strange as it may seem, there is a uniform consistency to their reception. Whatever the band does, critiques are unfailingly positive, yet repetitious. References, links and associations recur almost word for word. Consider the arrival of Christoph Clöser in 1997, by way of illustration. When he joined the group, his saxophone replaced the departing Reiner Henseleit's guitar as one of the defining instruments in the band. This was arguably the sharpest break in their sound to this day and a significant marker in terms of the band's reverence for Dutch instrumentalists GORE (the clue is in the name), whose repetitive riffs paved the way for how the guitar would be deployed in a post-everything future. Nevertheless, this fissure in the BOHREN continuum has barely merits a mention in the greater scheme of things. Similarly conspicious by their absence in the BOHREN chronicles are the numerous instruments which they added to the mix - vibraphone, organ, tuba, bass trombone to name just a few. The introduction of choirs at least had a clear visual impact. Since Thorsten Benning left at the end of 2015, the band has continued as a trio, sharing shifts on the drums (although they have equipped themselves with mechanical brushes). A decrease in personnel was conversely accompanied by quantum leaps forward in the group's musical development - or more precisely, minor adjustments triggered major effects. Such changes may not get any easier to spot in the future, such is the intensity of internal imagery sparked by the music, a maelstrom of distractions so powerful that its promises are too sweet and too dangerous in equal measure. The music of BOHREN & DER CLUB OF GORE opens up remarkable rooms of association, from a warm burrow to a pristine secret lodge, from a
dusky woodland tavern to a smoky quayside dive. Individual and collective floods of images rush forth irresistibly. Loneliness is not at all problematic: empty multi-storey car parks, nighttime drives, remote bridges to nowhere. All in your mind. This is the temptation, a sweet, guilt-free addiction. It's all in your mind - and only there. These sinister crackling songs are invitations to secrete oneself in darkness. With track titles such as 'Maximum Black', 'Zombies Never Die' or 'Dandys Lungern Durch Die Nacht', the mind wanders inexorably into filmic spaces.
Echoing the masters of midnight cinema, stories evolve all by themselves. As the American Film Noir Foundation observed so smartly: 'the vivid co-mingling of lost innocence, doomed romanticism, hard-edged cynicism, desperate desire, and shadowy sexuality.' Their definition of Film Noir serves just as well as an appraisal of the group, 'Bohren For Beginners'.
Which says it all really, doesn't it A final word of warning! Sources close to the band describe the double CD
released in October 2016 as a gateway drug to the Bohren universe. Enter at your own risk, some have never found their way out again."(by Lars Brinkmann)

Lotus Eater is a duo consisting of Luca Mortellaro (Lucy) and Seth Horvitz (Rrose), techno artists just as comfortable operating in the uncharted area of experimental music who have gained a cult following, both influencing and challenging the direction of contemporary electronic music.

Eschewing the typical instrumentation of techno but still inhabiting its archetypes, Lotus Eater uses synthesised sound and feedback as fundamental sources to generate both textural and percussive elements. A sense of tension and weight emerge from sources that cannot be easily pinpointed. Each release forms a complex narrative from a paradoxically simple and restrained set of sound sources.
Officially formed in 2017, Lotus Eater came to life through several collaborations over a number of years, and finally blossomed with the release of its critically acclaimed debut album "Desatura," which Lotus Eater toured live in 2018 - 2019.

2022 sees the release of the second Lotus Eater album "Plasma" and a new audiovisual live project to accompany it. "Plasma" unfolds with exacting precision by exhibiting a point of focus and expanding on it. It uses a single, throbbing pulse to generate a constellation of sounds and rhythms that form around it like a volcanic eruption in slow motion. Playing with our sense of time and weight, "Plasma" feels simultaneously slow and urgent, spacious and immense. Lotus Eater zooms into the infinite abyss and finds not just light, but fire at the end of the tunnel. Will we be saved, or will we burn?

(2022 REMASTER)

Murcof"s first three albums are to be reissued on vinyl to mark the 20th anniversary of the release of his seminal debut album, Martes. Out of print for many years, these albums have been hugely influential in the worlds of minimal and ambient electronic music in their use of modern classical instrumentation, and are significant landmarks in the history of The Leaf Label. Each of the reissues is presented in a new gatefold sleeve featuring updated artwork, with Remembranza and Cosmos featuring fully remastered audio, and Cosmos including a previously unreleased bonus track.

B FROM E on BSP Bispebjerg.
Main Phase on Remix duty.
This one is for the ravers.

2022 Repress

kue asazaki is a veteran japanese traditional music singer and yoisura bushi is a traditional music in amami oshima(small southern island). i think yoisura bushi is most emotional music which i have listened in my life. there are not the word to describe how beautiful.... kuniyuki remix is simply amazing,i think it's his best work.

E2-E8 continues to put new local talent under the spotlight. This time it's the Orphic duo, made up of Kieran Jandu and Babak Faraji.

Shelter EP is perhaps the release with the clearest, most identifiable sound that we've put out so far. ACSXD and Macoubea are firmly rooted in deep techno that wouldn't sound out of place on labels such as Delsin, Hypnus, or Semantica. Ména is geared for peak-time with its relentless beat and vocal snippets. Half Ten is angular, articulate and colourful.

If all this wasn't enough, Marco Shuttle steps in with an atmospheric, almost beatless remix of ACSXD which reminds us of some glorious Aphex Twin moments. We can't thank him enough for contributing with such a delightful piece.

Early support comes from Sunju Hargun, Sybil, Pyramid Of Knowledge, Marco Shuttle.

The Aside bring us that classic old school ukg sound with the choppy vocals & smooth chords in 'Round This Town' to the huge drums & massive bass switch in 'That Day' written by Peaky & Papa Nugs. Then the Bside goes down a darker, faster route with "Show Yourself" a track to make anyone move & 'Naboo' with that bassbin destroying sub. Written at the PBR studio in Leeds UK over Summer 2021.

Pleasure of frequency vibration from start to the end. Pure analog sound waves by Porn Sword Tobacco. In addition, possibility of mixing up together with anything Deeeejay friendly.

Picking up on the launch of Marie Montexier’s Paryìa label with a trippy EP by a.b.u.3.0.3., the second release comes from the Dublin based shooting star Small Crab.

The Skin & Blister founding member delivers three percussive breaky tracks that highlight a wide range of her musical influences. Combining smooth textures with tribal rhythms the ’Flowing with Honey’ EP perfectly rounds off with a bass heavy remix by London based producer Talik, who recently gained attention through highly acclaimed releases on 3024 and Intercept.

In the beginning, woman was the sun, and then the monster put its hand in the fire.
Knowing without knowing.
Nature versus Nurture.

repress coming...

Highly limited edition two track 10" from Joy O. Be quick!

" On "pinky ring" London artist, producer and DJ Peter O’Grady aka Joy Orbison delivers one of his most dancefloor-focused tracks in recent times. While his hugely acclaimed 2021 mixtape still slipping vol. 1(named Album of the Yearat the 2021 DJ Mag Awards) brilliantly explored Joy Orbison'swide-ranging sounds and influences away from the dancefloor, "pinky ring" is inspired by the energy he’s felt since returning to DJing. It's a track created with the dancefloor firmly in mind, A companion to 2021’s “red velve7” single, “pinky ring” is already a key peak time track in Joy Orbison and Overmono DJ sets. "

“24” is Minuit Machine’s 4th LP. Electronic masterpiece, subtle mix of dark wave, techno and electropop, “24” is both surprising and seductive. Authentic, emotional and powerful, “24” is a real immersion into Minuit machine’s dark, dystopian and futuristic world. Through this LP, Hélène and Amandine are facing all obstacles and disappointments life brings on their way. Each track is a self-affirmation, a rallying cry and an urge to live. The instrumental part is clearly marked and contributes to create the band’s unique sound. The strong beats are a call to dance while the synths, stabbing and emotional, will definitely move you. Finally, the deep basses give the tracks an “EBM” touch. Vocal lines are more pop, with less reverb. They are meant to obsess and stay in your head all day long. They were thought of as a 90's dance music chorus, but with feelings. As usual, the lyrics are very personal and describe several states of mind. Since their creation, Hélène and Amandine kept on reinventing themselves in order to translate their inner questioning and emotions into music. From this point of view, “24” could be Minuit Machine’s most accomplished work since each track sounds like a confession.

The third and final part of a trilogy of EPs from Al Wootton of deep, textural, off kilter techno, influenced by the forest. Sparse, rolling, minimal percussive tracks, dubbed out and primed for soundsystems.

25 damn years. That’s a quarter of a bloody century. That’s how long the men that are Total Science have been furnishing the world of Drum & Bass with some of the finest music known to men. And that’s cos they’re G’s. And also it’s for everyone. Cos that’s what you do when you’re a G. And not a twit. You know?

It’s been 5 long years since the CIA 20 album. Which isn’t that long really. But the man with the hair, and the man without the hair are so amazed that they’re still going, still here, still bloody doing it, and doing it with such aplomb, that they thought another album of great music from some of their favourite people was due. And so here it is.

And obviously, cos they’re such G’s, they’ve got hot new music from some of the best people in D&B, cos everybody loves them, obviously. It’s a veritable who’s who of who’s good. Proper music for proper people. It’s what you need in this day and age. And it’s what they’ve been doing for 25 years. So here it is. 25 Years Of CIA Records. Have a go on that!

Great Minds Think Alike, would be a good argument to define the merger of the two minds behind Immaterial, the eleventh release by HC Records, signed by Siarem, a producer from Albacete who previously starred in the label's third release, and Estrato Aurora, legendary Valencian musician former member of Lontano, Pajaro Dune and Mini Service. Both have found a complicity and joint impulse that have brought their creative character together in this fruitful union.

Navigating the dunes of the planet Arrakis has never been so delightful, since Peace, the track with which the record begins, takes us to dreamlike landscapes of infinite horizons in which a deep intimacy develops along the way. A warm broken rhythm, relying on a hypnotic and thick bass, leads the development while being wrapped in multiple sound layers in which velvety pads, melancholic synths and pulsating keys caress our ears like raindrops, thus recreating a mysterious atmosphere typical of unexplored universes, advancing towards the second part of the song, where a second group of harmonies answer and complement the main ones generating a genuine electronic ode.

The second part of our dreamy journey reaches with Teleonomia, an exercise in sound synaesthesia that projects a golden and brilliant musical landscape in which a succession of harmonic sound layers and robust bass lines intertwine with surgical precision around a broken rhythm with a firm and surrounding impact.

The B-side of the vinyl takes us out of our reverie with the pure, and at the same time evolved, EBM by Siarem, a concept that Deeper Side exudes. This one is a track that reminds us of the best B-sides of the pioneers of the Belgian sound but with the sharpness and definition of the 21st century. Rugged basses and gritty voices encouraging urban combat. This track was chosen by Techno Baron Dave Clarke on his White Noise show to kick off 2021.

The influence of the American sounds that arrived in Valencia at the end of the 80's leave their mark on La base Medi, much more than the typical dj-tool with which to wreak havoc in the dance floor. A forceful bass drum in line with unsyncopated cadences, a dominant bass and a multitude of percussions of different nature in almost six minutes of infectious hypnotic dance.

In My Dreams gives the finishing touch to this release by delving into the helical gliding compositions inspired by 70's psychedelia, inducing the listener into a complex trance state close to nirvana.

400 ppm is the first of the digital bonus tracks that accompany the vinyl, an exercise in hypnotism and rhythmic meditation built on the basis of enveloping frequencies and a marked and devastating broken rhythm. The second and last broadside in digital format arrives with Vectors, a sidereal trip to the beat of crystalline electro charged with emotion and reflection. Quite a potential anthem.

The graphic aspect of the album has been the responsibility of Dani Requeni, who has focused on the vaporous and evanescent aspects of the work.

Finally, and as usual since the first release, the album master was conducted at Black Monolith Studios London by Steve Voidloss.

The Colombian techno phenomenon Gotshell debuts on the Planet X label with two bangers – and features remixes from two of the most inspiring techno producers at the moment.

Their first release - a super dubbed out ‘Mulah 2’ & massive broken beat workout ‘Uhuru mash-up’ has now gone down in clubbing folklore, a rare gem of a release that’s now trading hands for triple figure sums - as sampled on Nas and Ziggy Marley’s ‘As We Enter’ 32 Million spotify play and counting!

Innaghetto, picks up the batten where it was dropped, and shapes a killer broken heavy dance floor bomb from Trinidad and Tobago! ‘You think it sorf’ innaghetto?’- flipside is a lush Live Drum north african dope baseline drop ‘king of kings’ Ozymandias.

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Transparent vinyl in full gatefold sleeve. Professionally manufactured, packaged and shrinkwrapped with numbered certificate of authenticity and download card. CD in eco-friendly vinyl-style gatefold wallet. Professionally manufactured and packaged in clear re-sealable eco-bag. Fifteen years ago, prolific UK innovator Justin K Broadrick — who rose to fame as guitarist for Napalm Death and founder of seminal industrial group Godflesh — began once again doing what he does best: experimenting. Originally intending to create sketches for his project Jesu, Broadrick realized his new form of beguiling and hypnotic compositions didn’t fit Jesu’s signature guitar-noise assault. This was something entirely new. Thus, Pale Sketcher was born. Written and recorded primarily between 2009-2013, Golden Skin was originally slated for release on Richard D. James’ (Aphex Twin) Rephlex Records prior to it shuttering, and it evokes fond memories of the height of experimentation in IDM/braindance while still resonating heavily with the here and now. Unearthed and completed by Broadrick specifically for its unveiling on GIVE/TAKE, the full-length album reveals itself as a devastatingly beautiful and essential new entry in the artist’s repertoire. Dripping with smart style, shimmering electronics, and complex dream-like vocal sampling, Golden Skin propels the listener through a truly heavy, affecting experience, bordering on ecstatic, from the LP’s melancholy, yet hyper-breaks driven opener “Today,” to the minimal and dusty trip-hop-laden finale “Hymn for Light.” The first Pale Sketcher output in years, Justin K Broadrick’s lost treasure Golden Skin is now available for pre-order.

Florence Cats is a poet, visual artist, sound composer, performer and acupuncturist. Born in Vilvoorde (Belgium) in 1985, she is currently living and working where Brussels merges with the Sonian forest.

Florence Cats’ working process involves things about to appear or disappear, and echo one another : air, light, wind, tone, print, voice, water, color, dust, junk, rumor… She creates eclectic pieces related to travel, porosity, natural energies and celestial events. Each proposal is in tune to a context, a space, an environment.

Ys is a generous debut. Raw, courageous.

Sunken Cathedral is Florence interpreting Claude Debussy’s La Cathédrale Engloutie (trans. the Sunken Cathedral). The track reminds me of one of those fabled Charles Ives home recordings. Where he records himself on Speak-O-Phone - an old brand of recordable aluminium phonograph discs - while practicing and composing his music. But unlike Charles Ives treating these home recordings as personal sketches, Florence Cats shares her captured moments as compositions for the public.

Similar to the Speak-O-Phone recordings, we now meet the piano as a physical expression - not as an archetype. We are together with Florence in a room. The pedal. The keys. The hiss of the room. Learn, repeat.

Trough Florence’s hands and feet, La Cathédrale Engloutie is brought out of its pupa stage to become a presence. Instead of being grounded in luxurious concert halls or on high end recordings, the piece is now natural. Sunken Cathedral is a template, an affirmation for amateurs.

The piece was originally created for the group exhibition "Here Comes the Wave” at Project(ion) room, Brussels, February 2020.

In Fall Call, we find ourselves at QO2, a sound art initiative in Brussels. This piece was captured during a residency Florence took over the summer of 2022. We listen to the moment when a summer storm just washed the city.

Fall Call is a testament to Florence’s magical - humanistic way of playing her custom-made theremin. By pushing the controls of the instruments so high, her whole body starts to control the instrument - instead of just her hands. So when she walks around in the room, the instrument answers in full color.

And then, a phone-call. Giving it a bit of a Poulenc vibe.

For the last piece, Drop Out, we find ourselves in Florence’s apartment. When Florence opens the windows, the ambience of the surrounding Sonian Forest seeps in. This is an adorable moment. It predicts new beginnings. The smell of wet dirt and dripping leaves in the air. The poetry of rain.

Jon K and Elle Andrews’ MAL imprint returns with a new LP from one of the London experimental underground's best kept secrets, Rory Salter aka Malvern Brume. His music is rare, eccentric and mysterious - somewhere between Coil's bleak ritual magick and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop's most experimental, minimal fringes. 

Malvern Brume operates just beneath the radar, occasionally turning up at Café OTO lineups and on a smattering of releases for Low Company, Alter, Infant Tree and Kasual Plastik - but he’s never one to shout too loudly about his work. ‘Body Traffic’ is his most interesting set to date, laying bare a process melting found sounds, field recordings and spoken word into throbbing, pulsing rhythms. It’s an evocation of a fraught mindset during the early weeks of lockdown in 2020; sequestered in his flat next to a trainline, the infrasonic - and more audible - rumbles of rolling stock and a nagging sense of dread infecting his ambiguously discomfiting recordings.

Operating in a headspace that values world-building and vivid, visual emotionality, Salter’s careful melodies are familiar - the distant, weeping melancholia of 1970s British TV hangs off the recordings like net curtains, and his atmosphere loops into experiments that weave through bare traces of industrial music, blank-faced electro pop, and hedonistic Brummie techno, all reduced to a cinder. 

The mood is set on the bellyaching resonance and crawling walls of the title tune, while 'Through Beaked Fog Horns' is drowned beneath morning mists: lopsided synth drones choke and drift, percussion mutates into inebriated bubbles, and tape-f*cked environmental whirrs create an atmosphere that’s hard to decipher in one take. 

‘Moss Spines Clenched’ follows cryptic stains on peeling flocking, and the icy creep of ‘Tense Branches Waver’ quivers beyond a cracked windowpane. The artist’s voice appears from beneath a cardboard box fort in the imaginary world of ‘Cornered Into Sleat’ as a distant drum beats out a marching thud and traffic squeals are sculpted into chirpy whistles, before ‘Bri Dun’ resolves the eerie tension in an OOBE-like ascent above the dado-rail and across the tracks, watching himself fade into a dissociative bliss.

"All chatter falls quiet…” Salter murmurs thru saturation and white noise. It’s a sound that’s gonna stick with us for a while.