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The two original cuts on the B side from Jheal Bashta are exploited as raw material by Aiken and Exium to create two outstanding remixes, which are a faithful and genuine reflection of a bygone era. We’re thrilled to welcome Aiken and Exium to Traces Records.

The four Spaniards ready their hydraulic hammers to shake the ground with four cuts of classic 90s techno, melancholic electro and touches of IDM.

Next to this ore body, there is a digi-only track with a suffocating atmosphere and coal-ripping bass line, called “Seismicity”.

Over the course of the pandemic Overmono have undoubtedly risen to become the most sought-after dance act of 2021. Shows at festivals like Greenman, We Out Here, Field Day and Gala were all hailed as highlights, as was their sold out, packed-out headline show at Village Underground earlier this month. Their track ‘So U Kno’ is the anthem of the summer and their ‘Fabric Presents Overmono’ compilation and mix is being hailed as one of the best the revered London institution has released.

Soft Armour is Christian Hougaard, a Danish producer. 'Multi Terrain' is his debut full length, after two ep's. The album is a mesmerizing marriage between ambient and IDM, loaded with soundscapes, field recordings, bass lines and dynamic electronic percussion. That being said, don't expect typical techno, drum & bass or dubstep beats. The ones on this album seem to breathe their own air, go their own way and drag you into an immersive audio adventure. Think Autechre, µ-Ziq or Squarepusher, that will get you closer to the sounds on this album.

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I met Thomas Roussel in 2017 at a Pigalle fashion show in Paris. As always with Stéphane Ashpool, the designer of Pigalle, casting is perfect and the clothes are modern and groundbreaking. But my eyes and ears were intrigued by this retro-futuristic instrument next to me, the Cristal Baschet. French composer and conductor Thomas Roussel wrote the soundtrack of the show.
He add this magnificent instrument in his "not very classical" orchestra, this is what I immediately loved with him!
He invited us into his world of classical music with a fresh twist, simplicity and audacity.
At the same time I was scratching my head to find something different to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Ed Banger records.
For a long time I had this idea of mixing both electronic and classical music together. Exactly like my heroes Metallica did in 1999 with the Symphonic orchestra of San Francisco! Thomas Roussel seems the perfect man for this crazy idea. We did Ed Banger 15 together and we became friends.
Thomas Roussel grew up in Dijon, spent his days at the conservatory and his nights at L’An-Fer, one of the most respected Techno club in France. Probably the reason why he ended up working with Jeff Mills, on two projects mixing Jeff’s 909 and a classical orchestra.
By experimenting new ways of using an orchestra, by creating state-of-the-art scenography and producing more ambitious music he quickly became the man in charge of everything "classica". The list of his collaborations is too long and will ruin this little introduction.
It could sounds like this : Chanel, Apple, Cartier, Kenzo, Nike, Dior…
Performing from Paris to Macau, from Monte Carlo to Dubai and from New York to Beijing!
In 2017 Thomas Roussel released his first album as Prequell with Universal Music.
A successful collaboration that really allows Thomas Roussel to become an artist.
In 2022 Ed Banger records is proud to release Thomas Roussel "LATE METAL" a 3 tracks EP.
Where uplifting orchestration and electronic music composing collide. The perfect soundtrack of a block buster movie mixing George Lucas & Christopher Nolan generations. It’s also a marker of our time, music boundaries are explosing. It’s time to hear the London Symphony Orchestra’s strings battling with a Drum’n’Bass beat, a way to DEIFIED classical music.
It’s also a record for your eyes. Art director Andy Picci created an algorthym and gave life to a mercury abstract form. This collaboration
marks the need for Thomas Roussel to always push the boundaries and take his project to another LEVEL.

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"October Language" is the debut album by New Orleans based duo Belong, comprised of Turk Dietrich and Mike Jones.

Since it's release in early 2006, Belongs debut masterpiece has accumulated a dedicated cult following, with comparisons to the work of Tim Hecker and Gas, with some claims that it plays like My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless" sans the songs. While these comparisons are useful for filing this album into a particular bin in the record shop, time has proven that "October Language" is a unique album which remains unmatched by its contemporaries.

Despite the warm and welcome accolades of the albums arrival, there was no vinyl pressing until 2009, of which a limited one-time pressing vanished immediately. Spectrum Spools is pleased to present a pristine vinyl cut to go with reimagined album art for the definitive edition of this legendary classic.

Physical copies include a download card with extra tracks from the impossibly rare Tour EP from the same era. These tracks are exclusive to the vinyl purchase and are not available through digital outlets.

"October Language" is the debut album by New Orleans based duo Belong, comprised of Turk Dietrich and Mike Jones.

Since it's release in early 2006, Belongs debut masterpiece has accumulated a dedicated cult following, with comparisons to the work of Tim Hecker and Gas, with some claims that it plays like My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless" sans the songs. While these comparisons are useful for filing this album into a particular bin in the record shop, time has proven that "October Language" is a unique album which remains unmatched by its contemporaries.

Despite the warm and welcome accolades of the albums arrival, there was no vinyl pressing until 2009, of which a limited one-time pressing vanished immediately. Spectrum Spools is pleased to present a pristine vinyl cut to go with reimagined album art for the definitive edition of this legendary classic.

Physical copies include a download card with extra tracks from the impossibly rare Tour EP from the same era. These tracks are exclusive to the vinyl purchase and are not available through digital outlets.

Big Hands teams up with trumpeter Abraham Parker on Trule with a trio of deep, dubbed out percussion jams. Layers of drums and sparse synth work overlaid with Abrahams jazz inflected trumpet parts, all run through with dubwise echoes.

Al Wootton provides a minimal techno dub remix on the B-side.

It's out 1st of July and comes with a 14-page full colour comic illustrated by the legendary Hip Hop artist, Dan Lish (ego Strip). Also including Beats by Japanese beat maker Bugseed as well as Demoh Beatmaker and Keina.

Spin the dope new beats by Bugseed, Demoh Beat maker & MRHD and Keina while you read the story and look at Dan's glorious artwork.

*Repress*

V1 (Descent) is sculpted around the voice of the group's drummer, Lasse Bækby Buch, as dark and feverish savannahs of both organic and synthetic sounds.
With peculiar reminiscences to a jazzy and abstract musical, Buch's vocals inhabit the boyish tenderness of a young Chet Baker, carrying the listener through a voyage of catchy but fractured melodies and soundscapes that are always evolving.

A revelatory collection of recordings from Japanese free-sound quintet Gu-N. Formed in 1994 by Fumio Kosakai (Incapacitants, Hijokaidan, C.C.C.C.) and Hidenobu Kaneda (Yuragi), alongside Ikuro Takahashi (Fushitsusha, Kousokuya, LSD March), Ryuichi Nagakubo (C.C.C.C., Yuragi), and Morihide Sawada (Yura Yura Teikoku, Marble Sheep), Gu-N played regularly at Plan-B in Tokyo, but released little during their relatively short time together. Hazy and hypnotic, their laminar improvisations, four of which appear on this untitled album, are compelling, oneiric visions for the ear.

In his liner notes for the album, Michel Henritzi writes that these Gu-N recordings situate the group within a broader trajectory of free improvisation and collective sound within Japan – Taj Mahal Travellers, East Bionic Symphonia, Marginal Consort, each of whom sprung, in many ways, from the radical vision and creativity of Takehisa Kosugi. But there’s a unique spirit here that aligns Gu-N with these predecessors, while also marking out singular territory.

Kosakai’s background in noise, via his participation in Hijokaidan and Incapacitants, can be heard in the unrelenting oscillations and heavyweight drones that purr throughout each of these four tracks. Both Kosakai and Nagakubo were members of C.C.C.C., perhaps the clearest precursors to Gu-N in their psychedelic density, though Gu-N trade in C.C.C.C.’s volcanic energy for a more tempered, sensuous exploration of tone and time.

There’s also a brutish element to Gu-N’s improvisations – see the saturated spectrum, rumbling and phasing throughout the album, and the crushing, almost Amon Düül-esque drum tattoos that Takahashi pounds out on the second track (recorded in 1998), punctuating the music from deep inside its hallucinatory murk. Elsewhere, as on the third track (one of three recorded in 1994), Kosakai’s cello scrapes out armfuls of buzz-tone as Sawada’s bouzouki trills out, elastic and vibrant, across spindrift electronics and lung-spun winds.

What’s most impressive here, though, is the way each player, formidable musicians in their own right, defers to the might of the communal and the collective. The quintet broke up in 1998, leaving behind scant recorded evidence – just one, self-titled CD, on Pataphysique, released in 1995. This LP is a most welcome addition to the small but blissful body of recorded work made public by this mysterious quintet of spirit channelers.

Repress

Surely one of the finest Calibre remixes. Sublime from start to finish, Jaheim's soulful vocals are weave around Calibre's deft D&B beats. The bass line drop is so sweet and the piano line ties this together beautifully. 14 years old and sounding better than ever, fall in love with both Jaheim and Calibre all over again.

Phono Ghosts (Skam, Fonolith) is a project from experimental electronic artist Neil Scrivin. Under his given hame he's made house, IDM and electro across a number of albums in the last decade. This record dips into dub, acid and downtempo - and that's just the first track. Second cut 'Red Star Horizons' is even slower, with far-sighted chords sounding Balearic and cosmic at the same time. 'A Distance Of Gold' brings eights vocals and shiny synths to a slow motion groove that is delightfully drawn out and sensuous. It's the same story on 'Crack The Great White Colour', with blissed out, cast-adrift-at-sea vibes on 'Lakeland Opal' and subtle jazz funk on 'Solid Beige.' A brilliantly varied EP.

A new album of all original music and the first release by Steve Moore (Zombi, Lovelock, etc.) on Pittsburgh Tracks.

A new addition to the label’s extended family, Tracey arrives on Dial with his debut LP, Biostar. Following previous releases on Aus Music, Voyage Direct and Intergraded, ‘Biostar’ pushes the technical and emotional craft of this vital young producer in exciting new directions, submerging listeners in thirteen tracks of sublime electro, ambient experimentation and warm, tonal techno. Based in the Netherlands, Tracey’s music is undoubtedly indebted to a legacy of emotive electronic music, the sort whose stark futurist vision cannot be equalled. Instead he strives and succeeds to create something personal and charismatic from a perhaps familiar palette of sounds. Somewhere between experimentation and understated songwriting, ‘Biostar’ is a worthy edition to Dial’s legacy of unique, artist-led albums. In the tradition of established Dial artists such as Lawrence, Roman Flugel and Efdemin, Tracey’s immediately apparent strength is an almost supernatural ability to conjure affecting and memorable melodies with minimalist intent, often just utilising the raw textures of his machines. From album-opener ‘THRRVL’, Tracey tracks the initially gentle undulations of his studio seemingly waking to life, plotting a neat melodic shuffle on ‘TRR’ and then, by, ‘CCLRT’, something dense, trippy and yearning. From hereon in, ‘Biostar’ plots an intriguing course through hypnotic, clockwork crunch (‘THWRD’), to Drexciyan submersion (‘HDRCSTCS’) and rhythmic experimentation on ‘PHTCPHRK’. Some of the more affecting moments on ‘Biostar’ emerge from it’s more obtuse sections; ‘DTFNK’ deciphers a surprisingly catchy melody among waves of scrambled signals, while the initially skittish ‘DRMRBT’ blossoms into an electro lullaby at 126bpm. By the arrival of wistful closing track ‘CLSTLBNG’, listeners are likely to emerge content from the deepest exploration yet of Tracey’s unique analogue ecosystem.

Valentina Goncharova's fundamental conceptual musical work released in full uncut form as part of Hidden Harmony Lost Tapes series (HHLTS01). Restored and mastered from the original 6.3 mm analog tapes. A large-scale work comprising eleven parts of varied, brooding, mystical reflection in which the author alters the instrumentation to fit both programmatic and musical character of each section.
Includes a 12-page booklet, which detailly explains the album's conceptual basis, background and creation context, and provides insights into unique sound recording and technical solutions adapted during the album recording in 1988. Created and written with direct involvement of V. Goncharova and I. Zubkov.

From the Liner notes:

"My task is to allow the listener to penetrate deeper into the music. The music is wholly improvisational. It has no concept in the rational sense of the word. It’s concept is purely intuitive. It presumes The Law of Analogies: “As above so below. Man is the same as the Universe. The Universe is the same as Man.” ("Emerald Tablet” by Hermes Trismegistus"). This intuition is a kind of rephrased logic which uses many more symbols which contain not only philosophical but also imaginative meanings/ visionary interpretations.

This music is a stream of consciousness in its purest form: not an imitation of a stream, as in the ‘suggestive poetry’ of the 20th century, but a stream where one flow is superimposed on another (a multilateral passage of recording). And, if we think this flow of music will be better understood under the influence of a verbal flow, then the verbal flow should also be more intuitive and associative, as objective for this short write-up you are currently reading.

Ocean did not appear within the coordinate system of logical scientific thinking of the last four centuries. It can be said that it is based on an intuitive concept of representations of the world which are captured in music figuratively. Similar to how myths were created in time immemorial with only partial support from verbal associations. Ocean is an experience of passing the Human Soul and Mind through the different states of the material world: birth, development, and achievement of perfection, transformation at the points of The Way and Silence, the manifestation of the harmony of the world (Om), which until then had remained in a latent state. It is averse to both mainstream contemporary physics and fringe scientific research. It exists outside their explanatory power.

Ocean is the source of all forms that can receive their life within time and space. Here it is. It has everything: beautiful and terrible, good and evil, self-sacrifice and betrayal. Boundless love and inspired creativity. But contact does not happen immediately. The memory of a bygone civilization is still fresh, and of the dearest things left with it."

Written, performed and produced by Valentina Goncharova
Composition A1 to C4 recorded in Kose subdistrict, Tallinn, Estonia (Recording period August-October 1988)
Composition D1 recorded in artist´s home studio in Lasnamäe subdistrict, Tallinn, Estonia (Recording period May 2021)

Planet Mu presents ‘ADDLE’ – Bogdan Raczynski’s first album of new music in 15 years. Marking a change from the high-octane jungle tekno braindance for which he is most commonly known, here we find the Polish American musician in a more melodic and zen-like place of peace, which is ergonomic and decluttered, whilst also bittersweet and tinged with melancholy. ‘ADDLE’ is closest in spirit to 2001’s tender ‘myloveilove’, or the light-hearted ditties of this year’s ‘BANANS’ EP, but is also a markedly new milestone. A robust and bottom-heavy rhythm section juxtaposes with sad electronic tear jerkers, at points laced with the soft cooing wail of his vocals, which are loaded with a haunting, heavy and almost wounded emotion. Bogdan comments “Calm is great. You need to take a breather in the eye of the storm now and then. But the real growth happens in turbulence, when your feelings oscillate in and out of sync. It’s not dry land you’re after. You’re trying to build a new island while on a piddly raft. Beleaguered and weary you lay the foundation with your bare hands while the rain lashes your back; a new place for you and yours to moor yourself to until the next storm hits. ‘ADDLE’ is about that storm, its adjacent periphery, and what you look like, in and out, when you set foot. As space and time push against you, that process of adapting becomes an anchor. Among that state of being addled, out of flow, seemingly untethered, there is beauty.”

Although less unhinged and riotous than some of his previous work, ‘ADDLE’ is no less impactful. Lean, punchy and purposeful, this seemingly simple combination of beats and melody belies a razor sharp skill, which bursts with verve and virtuosity. Across its eight unique and moving tracks the listener experiences tenderness, feelings somewhere between unease and comfort, and a sense of reflection, with Bogdan seemingly gazing at twinkling stars, but with his view distorted by welling-up. Sonically, spaces range from razor-sharp choppage, juddering heavyweight head-nodders, bit-crushed siren squall and something akin to Philip Glass’ ‘Candyman’ score played through a high-tech-fairy-tale music box. There’s also a warming, life-affirming moment as close to deep house as Bogdan will ever comfortably get, neck-snapping metallic percussion, Casiotone on steroids and reverberant warehouse throb. Booming drum machines are a prominent factor too – reminiscent of early hip hop instrumentals – but spirited off somewhere, lost in purgatory. Bogdan Raczynski (born 1977) is a Polish-American electronic musician. Raczynski’s work draws inspiration from the chaotic breakbeats of jungle and hardcore rave as well as traditional Polish music and other sources. He has collaborated with Bjork, remixed Autechre, CLPNG and Jonsi from Sigur Ross, and toured with Aphex Twin, who commented how “his records are so underrated.” Bogdan was also a roster mainstay of Richard James’s seminal Rephlex label, with additional releases on Warp, Ghostly, Disciples and Unknown to the Unknown. A keen proponent of tech, he created a sample pack using pollution and recently collaborated with Polyend on a custom made banana-themed tracker.

Since breaking through with the colossal 'Anybody From London' on Hotline Recordings five years ago, Boris English AKA Borai has proved to be one of British dance music's more cultured hardcore and jungle revivalists. He's at it again here, too, filling his Vivid label debut with a quartet of sub-heavy, breakbeat-driven bangers dripping in saucer-eyed, rave-style samples. He begins with the sharp riffs, pitched down Amen breaks and booming bass of 'In My Life', before upping the tempo on bustling breaks roller 'Dead Drop'. English doffs his cap to spacey early drum & bass on loose-limbed flipside opener 'Keep Steppin', while closing cut 'C'Mon' is an insanely weighty, pitched-down hardcore bomb.

London-based keyboardist/producer Dan Nicholls (of Y-OTIS) introduces a new album project 'Mattering And Meaning' to be released by We Jazz Records on August 13th. Nicholls' music uses acoustic piano as its key element, transporting the instrument into new territories that sound remarkably natural and organic, whilst displaying a strong kinship with the world of abstract electronic music. The music utilises piano loops and field recordings as its key elements, forming what might be described on the surface as a fascinating ambient jazz record – but at the same time there's so much more at play here on deeper levels. Dan's music sounds at once otherworldly and immensely inviting.

After years of unlearning and unravelling the knots of a music college education – moving from a career in jazz, via electronic music, to a heartfelt embrace with rave culture and the feminist and queer theories which have so challenged perspectives across many disciplines on the objectified world and the values of capitalism – Dan Nicholls has spontaneously reimagined his relationship to the piano, that edifice of the decaying foundations of european classical music.

Here the emphasis shifts from the Work (as object) to the work (as activity). Recorded with only a mobile phone voice recorder, eschewing the gloss of high fidelity audio to embrace the problematic cyborg appendage of the i-Fone VI-$, these lucidly dreamed tracks, like notes in a journal, find their depth and form through quick experimentation and distillation – layering, stretching and collaging in ways that treat the piano as a textural element in the daily soundscape, spilling into, and going along with, regular activities with no ceremony or established system to the process.

For Dan, this is as much a documentation as a therapeutic process, casting aside the dogma and seriousness of much artistic practice whilst embracing joy and improvisation in order to search for deeper narratives. The speculative imaginings of three revolutionary thinkers, Donna Haraway, Ursula K. Le Guin and Karen Barad, have profoundly shaped the conception of this album, which also emerged from a deep interest in human relationships to ecstatic practices and communalities which have been so eroded by imperialist/patriarchal/capitalist forces. The title, "Mattering and Meaning", is a meditation on the crumbling habitual delineation and separation of both objects and definitions, including our (ironically) self-destructive human thinking patterns which position us as objective observers, above and over the world rather than inside it, apparently separate from nature and from each other.

Like the melodies and themes which permeate these nine sonic tales, inextricable but nevertheless present, our world and our species prove to be more enmeshed, interconnected and interdependent than the dominant rationalism would lead us to believe. This album is a humble gift to the listener, a proposition for inclusion in their own ongoing soundscape, the perpetual activity of listening and awareness.

The latest from Burnski's Vivid label is a three way split, six track affair with Oldboy, Xander and Longeez each dispatching a pair of tunes in the label's trademark roughneck breakbeat style. - Oldboy kicks off proceedings with the speedy junglisms of 'Blackbird' before the chunkier, funkier and a little more traditionally paced breaks heft of 'Walrus Party'. Xander's 'If I Tell EM' and 'Get To The Point' both plays off two step rhythmic twists and menacing bass against dreamy synths and more breakbeaty flourishes, before Longeez closes proceedings with the slightly sparser 'Evermore' - super sharp hi hats and echoing rasta dialogue - and the appropriately spinback-peppered 'Wheel Up'.

For their first outing of the year, Accidental Meetings deliver the goods once again. This time calling upon Baroque Sunburst's co-founder, Soreab. He's served up three contrasting club tools and finishes it off with a low-slung, bass-heavy drifter. It's a deeper look into Soreab's repertoire and one we have not seen yet, the release demonstrates his multiple styles with Soreab effortlessly weaving between tempos and tones.

The record starts with Drunken Ballad, clocking in close to 100bpm with a mutant dembow beat, its rattling percs switching up the techno/dancehall crossover with some squelchy sound design added in for good measure.

Maranza Percussion Ensemble takes it up a notch, with dubbed-out rhythmic percussion the theme and a surging sub throughout. Smidges of eerie echos and delayed vocals sprinkled from open to close.

The B side takes another turn, with Done Everything getting flipped on its head by the MC, Logan. Maximum energy on all accounts with Soreab at the controls throughout.

The Sphere closes out this slab of wax, low-slung and moody. A pulsating beat from the start, matched with ghostly drones & sirens. A perfect close to a contrasting and diverse release.

Stalactite is a collaborative recording project by renown Japanese artist and multi-instrumentalist Susumu Mukai AKA Zongamin and producer Drew Brown, whose discography ranges from his own group Off World to a variety of integral productions for artists such as Blonde Redhead and Beck. Their self-titled debut for the ESP Institute is a grand gesture, a broad stroke that illustrates both singular focus and vast complexity, which is no easy feat considering the almost oppressive immediacy and availability of tools at the disposal of contemporary artists. There’s a level of creative confidence and discipline needed to work so fundamentally, and whether or not the listener has an appetite refined enough to process the tasteful subtleties throughout this production, these same subtleties accumulate regardless and land that listener in a highly considered and developed space. The deceptively naive melodic approach consistent across these nine tracks can feel transparent, familiar to a point the listener can anticipate its path, but when listening with acute focus we find a variable range of texture, temperature, depth and negative space. As alumni of the Minimal, Cold Wave, Synth Pop era, Susumu and Drew successfully personify a motley crew of synthesizers to work in concert, reduced to their core personalities and presented as their most honest selves — austere, shy, cinematic, percolating, bulbous, glistening, cantankerous, rubberized, clumsy and animated. Each masterfully paired with complimentary counterparts, these players assemble into a sound-stage we typically find in live recordings, enveloping and inviting us to the center of an acoustic cavern to wade through sonic impressions of monolithic stalactites.

Repress in green marbled vinyl

Extra Soul Perception is a collaboration and community music platform which started life between the UK, Kenya and Uganda, and continues to grow and connect independent musicians worldwide. In November 2019, eight artists from Kenya, Uganda and the UK spent a week in Nairobi together exploring new tangents in soul music, the result was their 2020 debut EP 'New Tangents In Kampala, London & Nairobi Vol. 1'.

The growing collective is made up of Faizal Mostrixx (UG), Hibotep (UG), K15 (UK), Karun (KE), Labdi (KE), Lex Amor (UK), Lynda Dawn (UK) and Maxwell Owen (UK). Now with the with the addition of Itsmdnyt (UG), XL Middleton (US), Xenia Menasseh (KE), Sola (UK) and Azu Tiwaline (TUN), the collective are preparing to release their album 'New Tangents in Kampala, London and Nairobi', released 25th March.

Three years in the making, work started on the album at a writing camp in Nairobi, and was completed remotely over the course of the worldwide lockdowns of 2020 and 2021. The album celebrates the potential of collaboration, both in a physical and digital sense.

Innovators in their own fields, each artist brings unique knowledge and musical culture to the project, collectively they represent a broad spectrum of sound. The album reflects this via an inspiring mixture of beautiful soul, glitchy beats, spoken word and bumping instrumentals. Embracing the same values of the writing camp but through virtual collaborations, seeing 'soul' as much in the spiritual sense as the musical one, expanding the sound into new territories.

Voilaaa is one of the many projects led and produced by Bruno “Patchworks Hovart, who’s proven over the past 15 years, his place amongst the finest producers of groove music in all genres. This time exploring the wide spectrum of the African and Tropical Disco scene, he received a massive international support for Voilaaa’s two first album, On te l’avait dit, and Des Promesses. Following to that success and pursuing the same direction combining of the festive, yet sometime futile nature of Disco, and the instinctive, deep, sometimes rough nature of African music, Voilaaa’s now presenting a new 4 tracks EP, which will be followed later this year by a new LP.
Another killer package where Patchworks teams up again with longtime partner Pat Kalla, but also with newcomers to the project, like here Ramatou Traore and Ayuune Sule, both bringing great African languages vocals to “Tu mens devant moi” and “Woman Can Do”.

Vivid does a fine line in breakbeat, techno and bass and has killer cuts from Borai and Tomashi in its discography. Now they look to Yosh who has two EPs ready for the label. This one kicks off with the rinsing old school jungle breaks of 'Bless', which is all dark energy and jerking rhythms. 'We Come In Pieces' is just as kinked with devastating drum programming, and 'Too Dread' gets a little more euphoric with its warm pads strewn over the top of the knotted bass and busy drums. Closer 'All Out' is another bit of pure dance floor bliss.

Kevin Martins erstes Solo-Album unter dem Namen The Bug seit sieben Jahren könnte zeitlich nicht besser passen: „Fire“ - der dritte, berauschende Teil eines urbanen Triptychons, das mit dem explosiven „London Zoo“ von 2008 begann und mit dem bewusstseinsverändernden „Angels & Devils“ von 2014 fortgesetzt wurde - besteht aus vierzehn Tracks, die die Synapsen zum Schmelzen bringen, die den Körper durcheinanderwirbeln und die Hörerinnen und Hörer auf cineastische Weise von der Beschwörung einer düsteren, abgeriegelten Stadtlandschaft bis hin zu schwindelerregenden, tiefenscharfen Nahaufnahmen der Psyche von Martin, die ihn und seine Kollaborateur*innen an die Belastungsgrenze führen.

Die Aggression, die Attitüde, der beeindruckende Umfang und die destabilisierende, beunruhigende Raserei des Bug-Sounds ist durchweg perfekt umgesetzt, aber „Fire“ ist keine bloße Wiederbelebung der Vergangenheit - für Martin ist das Album sowohl eine Antwort auf die einzigartigen Umstände des vergangenen Jahres als auch eine Chance, seine eigene Reise vom zurückgezogenen Sound-Besessenen zum Familienvater zu reflektieren, und seinen Durst zu stillen - in einer Zeit erzwungener hermetischer Isolation - nach Kontakt, nach dem Chaos, das nur zwischen Menschen, Lärm und Bässen stattfinden kann, die Irritation der Sinne, die stets Bugs Methode und Weg waren, seit er in den späten 90ern aus den tiefsten Ecken Londons herauskroch.

Es ist das bisher beste Album von The Bug, möglicherweise die wildeste und bewegendste Musik, die Martin je gemacht hat, und es berührt immer noch die anfänglichen Sehnsüchte und Impulse, die „London Zoo“ wie eine Rohrbombe durch den Briefkasten in Ihre Welt katapultiert haben. Es ist eine hungrige Platte, in jeder Hinsicht.

Die MCs, die auf dem Album zu hören sind - einerseits langjährige Weggefährt*innen wie Flowdan, Roger Robinson, Moor Mother, Manga Saint Hilare, Irah & Daddy Freddy, andererseits relativ neue Namen im Bug-Stall wie Logan, Nazamba und FFSYTHO - reflektieren unweigerlich den äußeren Wahnsinn einer auf den Kopf gestellten Welt, graben aber auch tief in sich selbst, um nachdenkliche, erbarmungslos ehrliche Darstellungen der Wut, des Widerstands und der Resignation zu schaffen, die das letzte Jahr in uns allen hervorgerufen hat.

A message from the unknown.. limited to 200 copies

Alien Imprints is back with their second release which includes some well-respected artists along with rising talents showcasing their skills.

False prophets - Relpek A.K.A. Kepler is a DJ/producer who hails from the North of England. His offering is a crisp electro track that generates a calculated bass, analogue stabs and phrases with sweeping synths.
Spider Ink - Ollie Drummond, a respected DJ from London gives us a proper tech house number solid 4:4 beats, crafted basslines and pad effects that follow with acid riffs.

Thibo - Bronxy and ETRE from the Ukraine collaborate on this deep house affair, with soulful grooves, smooth deep bassline and "spacey vibe" pads create a cool hypnotic flow.

Clear Vinyl

New Tempo Records sublabel; TempOzone releases Brighton based producer Etch; who dives deep into the underworld of Breakbeat / Acid-Techno science with these five rugged 'n raw tracks. Etch is the most inventive break-experimentalist in operation right now. Cutting breaks is his modus operandi.

This beautiful crafted crystal clear vinyl limited edition 12" comes in a new designed Tempo Records high quality "Kraft" outer sleeve and a beautiful innersleeve. All tracks mastered by Stuart Hawkes of Metropolis Mastering, London.

AHO, the brainchild of Helsinki producer Matti Ahopelto is a talented composer and producer who makes a unique blend of classical and electronica. Naming the likes of Four Tet and Caribou among his fanbase and having landed huge syncs across advertising and film music including Calvin Klein and Netflix, AHO’s blend of ambient electronic textures with vivid classical instrumentation has seen him make a name for himself as one of the most exciting new artists in the contemporary classical sphere. Creating beautiful and at times experimental soundscapes across his new album ‘Odyssey’, AHO showcases some of his most stunning cinematic and expansive work to date. Combining electronic beauty with open-minded contemporary classical music akin to the likes of Ólafur Arnolds and Jon Hopkins, the new album is a perfect representation of the desire for adventure that AHO pursued while making the album – it’s an odyssey: a journey to where unexpected things happen. Featuring guest artists Karina and Spencer Krug (known from the band Wolf Parade), the album is a shamelessly beautiful and emotional collection of tracks.

Atomnation marks its 100th release with Peter, Barbara, Beth & Friends, the stunning debut album from Blomfelt & Narby. The immersive nine-track record arrives on August 26th and is a widescreen listen that fuses acoustic and electronic sounds with loose field recordings and tightly programmed drums.

Finnish-born Henrik Blomfelt grew up in Gaspar Narby's homeland of Switzerland, but the pair met on the dance floor of a pool club in Peckham while studying in London. Gaspar’s indie pop solo project was rewarded with a broad sweep of tastemaker tips from new music and electronica media alike, while Henrik had co-founded Resolution, an audio-visual collective and event series. The two eventually moved in together, but it's only a couple of years later, when Gaspar visited Henrik’s homeland of Finland, that they began making music together. They wrote half of the tracks that appear on the LP there, using an old piano, a cassette recorder found on location and their laptops. The second half was finished back in London.

After her stunning collaboration with Jim O’Rourke (Le Piano Englouti, BT055), Brunhild Ferrari returns to Black Truffle with Stürmische Ruhe, her first duo with Christoph Heemann. A legendary figure in underground music, Heemann has quietly produced a unique body of work since his beginnings with the absurdist cutups of H.N.A.S. in the mid-1980, including collaborations with Merzbow, Organum and Nurse With Wound, the eerie psychedelia of Mirror (with Andrew Chalk), In Camera (with Timo van Lujik) and Plastic Palace People (with Jim O’Rourke), and the precise cinema pour l’oreille constructions of his solo works. Created together in Ferrari’s Parisian studio (once shared with Luc) between 2011 and 2014, Stürmische Ruhe is a single half-hour piece that folds rain and storm recordings into a intricately woven fabric of haunted electronics, unexpected edits and disorienting processing. Banging with the jarring thump of a slamming door (an element that will reappear periodically throughout the piece as a kind of punctuation mark), it is immediately obvious that concrete sound is used here in a free, poetic way outside of the strict confines of documentary field recording. The wind captured by Ferrari’s microphone roars and whistles, accompanied by thick clusters of wavering tones whose unpredictable rises and falls in volumes are synchronised with the bumping and thudding of windows and doors. At some points the microphone sound melts into a wavering low-bit digital smear before fanning out into broad, atmospheric depths. The cinema for the ear constructed here suggests not linear narrative or documentary, but an organic flow of cross-fades, double-exposures and abrupt cuts, a free-associative dream in which wind and water take on mythical characteristics. Throughout the piece's second half, layers of synthetic floating tones and pinging upward glissandi negotiate a constantly shifting balance with wind-borne whispers and rustles, at times dropping to silence, at others rising up with elemental force. As Ferrari explains in her liner notes, Stürmische Ruhe is a meeting of ‘completely opposite sound worlds’ in which ‘almost-violence’ is joined with a ‘reconciling harmony’. Reaffirming the infinite possibilities of the musique concrète tradition while avoiding its academic tropes, Stürmische Ruhe is accompanied by tri-lingual liner notes from Brunhild Ferrari and arrives in a sleeve graced with the beautiful art informel paintings of her father, Wolfgang Meyer Tomin. Cut at 45rpm for maximum fidelity.

It's dark in the forest. Especially in the »northwest«. You have to adjust all your senses. But once you have, the forest will take you in his arms. The forest will protect you. Just like Daniel Herrmann's first album for Live At Robert Johnson will protect you.

Herrmann is far from being unknown in the world of music - let alone in the art or photography world. In the music field, he is probably much more known under his Flug 8 moniker where he released five albums on Disko B, Doxa Records, Ransom Note, and Acid Pauli's Smaul Recordings. Under his given name, Daniel Herrmann's relationship with LARJ's label boss Ata Macias goes way back. As an artist and photographer Herrmann was the only one allowed to take pictures inside Ata's ROBERT JOHNSON club, thus creating an iconic series of pictures of clubbers and club life in general. Herrmann’s pictures of the partying punters themselves were presented as wallpaper all over Robert Johnson back in 2002.

With »Enroute« Herrmann enters new territory: It is his most ambient work up to today. And yes, it is a piece of work created during the lockdown. Herrmann's studio is situated in the outskirts of Frankfurt, near the forest - a quite remote place already in-between the Taunus mountain range. Imagine life during the lockdown in such a place … This is where Herrmann set up his former basement studio in the large living room with a variety of instruments besides a cozy fireplace spending warm light and warmth. A warmth that despite its seemingly rather "cold" atmosphere can be heard all over »Enroute«. Once you soak in the sounds (or get soaked into the sounds) of the first tracks like album opener »northwest«, »Fly By Wire« or the 11min »Dark Trace« you might feel this warmth too. A cold warmth you could say, yet a warmth that only modular systems and synthesizers can create.

There is a change of mood with »Intercontinental« - literally as it seems that Herrmann indeed is on an intercontinental journey here despite the strolls and long walks in silence through the Taunus forest. This is also the place where Herrmann took many photographs of the forest and its trees (to be seen on his Instagram account) - and the picture on the cover: This spooky yet fragile high seat in the mist in front of those trees. Yet darkness alone is not dominating this album. Even during these dark days, there was a bit of light at the end of the tunnel. And it shows in the beauty of »Bouncing Rays«.

»Enroute« is done all alone and in total isolation. And one can hear it. But it also invites the listener to be a part of this lonely world. And we all know that being lonely is made easier with someone on your side - »Enroute« to a better place. A place that isn't lonely at all.

PS: For all digital music lovers we have included two bonus tracks: The GLOK remix of »Bouncing Rays« and Herrmann's clattering and creaking tune »Economy« - enjoy!