Beats Vinyl New Releases - News

Best Effort is honoured to issue the debut recordings of Nutcase & Papachubba on vinyl for the first time. The duo of dub technician Anthony Maher (best known as Sheriff Lindo) and prolific Perth transplant Andrew Armstrong (a.k.a. Friendly) were one of the first Drum’n’Bass acts in Australia, at a time when the genre was only just beginning to expand beyond British shores. Self-released on Andrew’s own Gulp Communications label, the duo carved out a creative niche for themselves in the staunchly partitioned dance scenes in Australia, blending a bevy of shared influences in an original style. The experimentation that yielded this EP still sounds inspired, and we are delighted to present it to a new audience and highlight Australia’s breakbeat history beyond nosebleed hardcore.

The music here has a strong affinity with contemporaneous UK drum’n’bass in it’s sprawling, progressive style; there are particularly strong parallels with Goldie’s epoch-making “Timeless”. The duo worked with vocalists much in the same way. Peta lends gorgeous vocals on three highlights here - the serene “Floating Inside” and it’s darkside inverse, the ragga jungle ruffness of “Falling Inside”, as well as the downtempo “Track 8”. “Floating Inside” is classic atmospheric Jungle, wistful pads & subbass pressure overlaid with Peta’s weightless singing. Conversely “Falling Inside” is boisterous; Apache-cut-up and a fierce descending bassline with Ragga samples to strike DREAD into any sound bwoy.

The vocals are chopped up and interpolated amongst the guitar pluck of “Track 8”, drenching them in FX and panning it across the rollicking digi-dub bassline in the EP’s most lysergic moment. The duo embrace a Liquid sound on “Diminished” - the aqueous sound design and rolling drums wouldn’t have sounded out of place on Intelligent stalwarts Good Looking. The titular “Flex” with its frenetic drum programming, does exactly what it says in the title. There’s a palpable excitement to the track, you can hear the real-time experimentation as they stretch the elasticity of the break into amen-pointillism, in a time before codified production methods and dry clinicism.

All of these tracks are replete with the creativity of a fresh perspective at an incredible time before the bifurcation of Drum’n’Bass into umpteen subgenres. Incredible material that will shake today’s bass bins as it did in the 90s

Imagine!’ by Overlords of the UFO was a US progressive trance hit globally at the time of its original release in 1994, holding the number one spot on many underground dance charts for several weeks. Mixmag dubbed it “wicked” and other relevant magazines also gave it the highest accolades, e.g. XLR8R “deserving of the highest praise”. Overlords of the UFO ‘Imagine!’ is a collaboration between Anthony Barker and Lynn Serafinn, both trained musicians and analogue synth aficionados. Side A ‘Whirling Thru Time & Space Mix’ was inspired by a poem of 60’s cult sci-fi author Fredric Brown, and ‘UFO Mix’ is a faster tempo remix of the former. Side B ‘Deeply Hypnotic Mix’ is a downtempo remix incorporating some world music elements, and ‘Surfin’ UFO’ was a very limited licensed track that Billboard Magazine described positively and humorously as “campy and kitschy”.

Pan Daijing's exhibition-performance Tissues premiered in the Tanks at the Tate Modern in autumn 2019. A five-act immersion in performance, sound, movement, space, and most of all emotion in its most distilled and conflicted states, Tissues engaged with the conventions of opera and tragedy to present a searing representation of the embattled human psyche in space and time. While the ambitious multi-sensory artwork made use of the range of Daijing's artistic capabilities, music, particularly the voice, was at its formal and emotional core. The vinyl and digital release of Tissues on PAN serves as a record of that work, in the form of an hour-long audio excerpt: an invaluable archival document from Daijing's expansive live practice. Tissues is both a solitary work and a formal study in relation. Composed, directed, designed, written, and performed by Daijing (alongside a cast of twelve dancers and opera singers), the work_its libretto written in a mixture of old and modern Chinese_lingers inside a single human perspective. Daijing conjures states that are by turns delicate and severe, the tension between opposing modes animating the work as it unfolds. And yet, for all its interiority, Tissues foregrounds an intimate relationship with its audience through details like its engulfing visual landscape and its rattling, confrontational narrative arcs. Daijing uses the opera form as a prism through which to question the boundaries of music itself: perhaps, she proposes, music is much more than simply what is heard. It is in the relationship between voice and electronics that this limit is most clearly breached. Across the four acts gathered in this documentation, a counter-tenor, a soprano, a mezzo-soprano, and the artist herself voice a mixture of stunning laments and cries over an instrumental landscape, built out from industrial texture. Meant to be heard in a single listen, rather than track by track, the work unfolds through tender hollows and agitated peaks. At its crescendo, the operatic vocals melt away and the synthesizers themselves seem to howl with grief. Daijing uncovers an essential, sometimes painful, music in all that surrounds us, inviting something like catharsis but also a greater understanding of the thing she and her cast conjure and draw close. A tissue, after all, is both a disposable object one uses to wipe away a tear, and the building block of our fleshy human forms. Daijing reaches and excavates the roiling core of what it is to be alive and full of feeling. Music from Tissues, an opera of five acts at Tate Modern, London on Oct 2nd, 4th and 5th, 2019 Composed, written, produced and directed by Pan Daijing. Performed by Anna Davidson, soprano ; Marie Gailey, mezzo soprano, Steve Katona, countertenor and Pan Daijing, additional vocals. The recording is mixed by James Ginzburg , Jan Urbiks and Pan Daijing, mastered by Rashad Becker. *2xLP comes in a gatefold cover, and includes an obi strip and a booklet containing images from the performance & liner notes, as well as a postcard granting access to exclusive video documentation*

Following his debut on the label in 2019 - ‘Mind Dweller’ (COUNTER013) - Frankfurt’s Stefan Alexis is back with his next chapter of four atypical, undulating club tracks.

The EP features ‘Eratosthene’, a shimmering up-tempo weapon in collaboration with label founder Inland, alongside three other diverse cuts highlighting some of the Macedonian psychotherapist’s favourite modes of play: filter-funk, acid, broken-beats, sampling.

This release comes on 180g 12’’ vinyl and digital, featuring artwork by Berlin-based Norweigan painter Tyra Tingleff.

Søulless returns to Industrial Complexx with I Am Abomination, his second album on this label, on which he has also released two more releases with Agent 15, a project born in this new pandemic era and formed by Francesco Rachele and Felipe Novoa, and with Moral Excerpt, a duo he forms with his compatriot Davide Pappalardo, also a contributor to our reviews section.

Søulless, and the different projects of Francesco Presotto, base their sound on the roots of industrial music, with massive rhythms, degraded structures and a deep respect for the origins of this musical genre. However, the interpretation of Søulless is completely open, as it feeds on different influences and techniques more typical of other experimental styles.

I Am Abomination shows the creative skills of Søulless with six tracks in which the author recreates six chaotic and perverse scenarios, in which the attitude of a human being with great self-esteem problems is denigrated. This concept is perfectly transferred to a sound environment, each cut shows different moods, in which psychopathies, fears and degenerative mental problems appear.

Diapason Rex is the second LP by Oakland-based producer Brogan Bentley on Leaving Records. Picking up right where Bentley’s 2014 LP The Snake left off, Diapason Rex’s songs evoke the geography and spiritual energy of the west coast while showcasing the producer’s growing confidence in both carefully crafted dance productions and expansive sonic arrangements. Bentley states, “It’s been brewing for a long, long time and it holds so much information. This is the crowning burst of harmonious song for me, my opus, my cosmic regal song.”

Haunting, swelling album-opener “Ecstasy” sets the record’s tone, where a bed of meditative pads are confronted by a driving breakbeat, heavy layers of soulful vocals and hard-edged synths. Almost defying categorization, the sound of Diapason Rex is bracingly personal. Bentley states, “I’m so particular in so many aspects, and I’m so certain of what I want things to sound like, that I’ll go after it with everything I’ve got. Between the two places of pure experimentation and total intention, is where this album was born from… I really feel like every single song is a crystal.”

Club-ready tracks like the stuttering, sample-slicing “Work” and the elegant yet pained “Phantom” highlight Diapason Rex’s production value. Bentley’s attention to sonic detail is deep-seated; according to the producer, “For me, music is my teacher, and specifically bass.… This stuff is really supposed to acclimate the energy centers in your body.

Diapason Rex is thematically heavy, with late album cut “The Keeper” occupying a special place for Bentley. He states, “’The next day I found out that my friend had gotten hit and killed by a drunk driver. I think it was my friend showing me stuff from the other side about where we go… I sat with this piece of music for a year and a half, writing and producing it. I recorded that the day after my grandma died - I can hear the tears in my eyes from when I was recording those vocals. . It’s stuff like that. For that song to have such a connection to the afterlife, I couldn’t have imagined that going into it. I wasn’t thinking, ‘I’m going to make this song that describes being guided into some eternal space by some all-knowing hand,’ but that’s kind of what comes through when I hear this stuff now, because I’m just a human. We’re stuck down here on this mortal plane, but through music, something spiritual and sacred and timeless is transmitted.”

Emily Cardwell on Never Ending / Trust Yourself
Stunny on The Work
Uppy on Diapason Rex
Mixed by Ken Gilmore
Mastered by Jake Viator
Artwork by Erik Wilson
Lettering by Ramona Stoianova

D'Cruze, the legendary DnB producer synonymous with some of Suburban Base's biggest tracks such as 'Lonely' and 'Watch Out' now sees some of his unreleased productions finally getting a much sought-after release.

The Hidden Trax EP's theme comes from concept that the D'Cruze limited US only edition album contained tracks that were only discovered if you allowed that album to play on beyond what was supposed to be the last song, after a gap of silence no track ID and not listed on the track titles. This is where you’d find 'Bittersweet' pt 2 as a hidden track on the CD. This was Bittersweet’s only ever appearance having never been released in the UK and never released on vinyl or digitally worldwide.

The lush rolling workout of ‘Hardstep' is probably our most requested track that has never had a vinyl release having only briefly appeared on the very limited CD only ‘Subbase Sampler’, demand for a vinyl pressing of this has been called for since 1996.
Another beautiful hidden gem 'Sublime State' from 1995 wouldn’t be known to our UK audience as it’s an exclusive tune to the US only CD release that has never seen a UK or vinyl release.

Rounded off with the incredibly beautiful 'Meus Precious Filius', an unheard unreleased D’Cruze track that was considered a 'lost DAT' until recently surfaced. We are now able to bring this to the world as an epic slice of fresh music from D’Cruze.

The EP is presented on blue and black splattered vinyl making every single piece uniquely different. Original custom sleeve artwork is provided by Suburban Base legendary artist Dave Nodz in his iconic graffiti influenced style.

These are already high demand tracks all brought together for a fantastic value 4 track EP, so grab yourself a piece of future history now whilst we have these available for a limited time.

repress

Dame Area ended 2021 and has started 2022 acclaimed in the european stages with a live show praised for its power and darkness, made up of many new tracks.

Some of those have been gathered in this EP. Industrial music with a touch of EBM without ortodoxy nor cobwebs, with metallic percussions performing some atypical rhythms and Suicide's minimalist spirit overflying the scene.

Probably Dame Area's most dance-floor oriented record till the date, "Esto me pertenece" is not simply "dance music" but combat music instead. In fact it doesn't lose sight of the fact that what's most important are not the fat kicks, the unrelenting synths or the percussion, but the attitude. And in spite of the patent darkness of the record there is a clear call to arms to claim what belongs to us: the present.

Prompted by his heroes John Cale, Kate Bush, J Dilla, and Brian Eno, the esteemed Deantoni Parks presents the self-produced four-song studio EP "A Self", out July 14th 2021 on Leaving Records Genre.

"A collection of pieces about the discovery of sounds and sonic universes hidden in objects, places and within yourself." - Feldermelder & Julian Sartorius

Commissioned by the legendary concert venue Bad Bonn in Düdingen, Switzerland, and the KRAN project, 'Bonn Route' is a collaborative album by electronic musician Feldermelder and percussionist Julian Sartorius. A location- based sound walk that can be experienced both on-site in the village of Düdingen, and as a full-length album. The eleven tracks are a sonic homage to, and an artistic interpretation of, a small village in Switzerland's heartland.

Building on his practice of site-specific performances and percussive sound walks, Julian Sartorius captured sounds and patterns at eleven locations: the train station and cemetery, on the banks of a stream, on a bicycle path, and in an intimate cavern above the village's lake, amongst other locales. Sartorius documented the soundscape of the village in field recordings, recorded samples of objects and captured percussive patterns by playing on the architecture and vegetation found on-site.

Feldermelder then processed these recordings into eleven compositions, preserving the locations' acoustic identities, but expanding on Sartorius' material. Besides the bassline on 'Veloweg', Feldermelder used only sound reactive synthesis and resonators to create additional sounds, layers and tracks, thus multiplying the spectrum and rhythms of the original material. 'Bonn Route' is a musical journey rooted in the emittance of sound, and our resonation with the world around us.

Feldermelder is a Swiss musician, sound designer, producer and installation artist. He is co-founder of -OUS and part of the audiovisual collective Encor.studio. He has previously released several releases on -OUS, both solo and in collaboration with Sara Oswald.

Drummer, artist and percussionist Julian Sartorius' precise and multi-layered rhythmical patterns are keen excursions into the hidden tones of found objects and prepared instruments, bridging the gap between organic timbres and the vocabulary of (experimental) electronic music. He has previously released his album "Locked Grooves" on -OUS.

An ecletic musical representation of infamous Rotterdam Jazzclub BIRD with well-known and lesser-known Dutch artists from the black music spectrum, varying from Jazz, soul, hip-hop to electronic music. Compiled by BIRD musical curators Philip Powel and Guido van Dieren.

Habitat, an environmental music collaboration by Berlin-based composer Niklas Kramer and percussionist Joda Foerster, is inspired by the drawings of Italian architect Ettore Sottsass. Each of the eight tracks represents a room in an imaginary building. Habitat will be released April9th 2021 via Leaving Records.

In Habitat the duo layers, loops and merges sonic textures and patterns into fluid blocks without the restraint of statics. African log drum, Bolivian chajchas, vibraphone, kalimba and various other percussion instruments are processed, pitched, harmonised and filtered through modular synth and script based sample cutting to form a collage of asynchronous layers.

By using acoustic instruments and expanding their sound into abstract shapes, Habitat evokes a vague intimacy, a curious state of comfort in the unknown.

(Cassette Edition)

Habitat, an environmental music collaboration by Berlin-based composer Niklas Kramer and percussionist Joda Foerster, is inspired by the drawings of Italian architect Ettore Sottsass. Each of the eight tracks represents a room in an imaginary building. Habitat will be released April9th 2021 via Leaving Records.

In Habitat the duo layers, loops and merges sonic textures and patterns into fluid blocks without the restraint of statics. African log drum, Bolivian chajchas, vibraphone, kalimba and various other percussion instruments are processed, pitched, harmonised and filtered through modular synth and script based sample cutting to form a collage of asynchronous layers.

By using acoustic instruments and expanding their sound into abstract shapes, Habitat evokes a vague intimacy, a curious state of comfort in the unknown.

Kennedy again uses the power of machines to translate his late-night dreams and spaced-out thoughts into two tracks of borderless hi tech soul music. This second musical manifestation of dreams is the newest in a unique series of thoughts, sensations and sounds occurring from a person's mind, translated by machines.

These are sounds that are always playing somewhere in your deepest subconscious mind. They're like a portal into another dimension where predictable arrangements do not exist. Chords seep and bleed into one another. Melodies drop from above like the liquid colours of an acid trip. They have blurred edges. The cloudy focus of each track means you sink in deep and latch on to an astral synth line that takes you higher, or find yourself gazing in wonder at the sci-fi bleeps that gently drift by.

As we welcome Stephen Redmore aka Mako back to the label, it’s important to note that Death of a Romantic is not only the debut LP for Mako on Samurai Music, but it also puts Mako in a solo category, a historic first - the only artist to ever release an artist LP on both Metalheadz and Samurai Music.

Death of a Romantic aptly captures Mako’s ability to span different corners of Drum and Bass’ musical palette - a talent cultivated by a musical approach informed by full absorption in the history of this music as a building block, plus a dedication to perfecting the science of breaking down the essential elements needed to make any construction approach at this tempo achieve maximum efficacy.

Followers of Mako’s music have no doubt taken note of this versatile approach to writing music and his gifted ability with breaks and sub-bass. For Death Of A Romantic, a considered approach to strip the music back more in line with the Samurai Music sound was taken but the album retains the Mako flavour - deft, subtle hooks, beds of sub and ethereal ambience, pinned down by total rhythmic potency.

Highlights are many, but the first tunes that were written for the LP embody perfectly the musical environment Mako built specifically for this LP - ‘The Both Of Us’ with its sinister intro and tear out conclusion, and ‘Raisuma’ - a call and response rhythm that is almost dub-like in feel with peaks that pack a hefty punch.

Makos's signature lead hooks appear, albeit tempered, to compliment the build reduction on tracks like ‘Falter’ and LP closer ‘We Can Love All’ - both are clear cases of this interpolation of Makos's own breadth of style, pointedly refined to slot into the LPs sound and utilising space to increase their power.

The Death of a Romantic song titles all carry a consistent message, one that Mako puts to use in his own life and interactions with other humans, and one we could all benefit from reflecting on at this time - life brings us joy and pain and much more in between, but if we live with compassion and humility, we can truly love all.

This long out of print classic from the LoDubs catalog finally resurfaces, thanks to an accidental time capsuling. Mensah (AKA New York Transit Authority) from this release went the direction of many LoDubs premier artists, and on to other storied labels in the sound, sharing a path to Deep Medi with Egoless and Compa for example. Throughout the years this plate has remained a timeless near-secret weapon, for those who know.

The 3rd album by MEROPE with own compositions and Lithuanian folk melodies.

Naktes presents a world full of wonder, inspired by the atmosphere of the night.

Manchester’s Metrodome makes his debut on 1985 Music with his weird but wonderful ‘Manchester Since 1994 EP’. This 4 track collection celebrates the best of the UK rave sound and choppy beats.

“The making of this EP came from my obsession with old skool rave music!
I have been a record collector and DJ since I was 4 years old and I grew up around music, ravers and DJs.

My dad told me the only way to get me to sleep was to put on Marcus Intalex and Mark XTC's 'Da Intalex' show on Pirate Radio station Kiss 102 FM back around 1995/1996.

This EP is dedicated to 4 year old me who loved Photek, Tom & Jerry, Orbital and Aphex Twin.

Während Modeselektors Extended-Mixtape mit allen möglichen musikalischen Experimenten bevölkert ist, könnten selbst die eifrigsten Fans von Dating Is In China überrascht sein, der Kollaboration mit der argentinischen Künstlerin (und Monkeytown-Stammgast) Catnapp, gleichzeitig Titeltrack der dritten EP nach Mean Friend und Social Distancing. Es gibt etwas einzigartig Reines und Ehrliches an Catnapps Darbietung und dem Song, der mit seinem Herz-auf-dem-Arm-Pop eine Art Ausreisser im Modeselektor-Katalog ist. Modeselektor steuern zwei alternative Versionen bei (Speed Dating Version, Dated In China), weitere Remixe kommen von Jersey-Club-Queen UNIIQU3, dem schwedischen Duo Aasthma (aka Pär Grindvik & Peder Mannerfelt) sowie dem alten Bekannten TimTim.

Oceanic Alpha Axis, is, Julio Tornero, prolific producer who presents his new aka, focused on minimalist compositions, close to ambient and its symbiotic relationship with synthesizers and machines.

Long landscapes meditated in a very characteristic way, full of incisive melodies that will make your imagination fly.

Harmonies and dissonances converge in this LP tape in the form of 11 precious songs that will only deepen your mind so that you will not stop thinking about what will be the next move that Sonic Meditations will make in your neurons.

Once I Died was born as a solo project of Gianluca Rimei, an Italian musician and producer former member of the techno-industrial duo Calle Quevedo. Once I Died wants to give vent to obscure and experimental sounds without a predefined direction, creating repetitive atmospheres and noisy sound environments.

Wiederveröffentlichung des ALL TIME CLASSIC ALBUMS: Das dritte Studioalbum "Shine" ist endlich zum ersten Mal auf Double Vinyl erhältlich! Inklusive des unveröffentlichten Bonustracks "Stan Getz Singt". "Shine" beinhaltet Kooperationen mit Kristina Lindberg, Gabriella Hänninen und Luke, neben den Singles "Love Pt 1" und "Shine feat. Lilja Bloom". Das Album ist jazzig mit viel Soul, aber es gibt auch andere Zutaten. Abgerundet wird die Doppel-LP durch einen bisher unveröffentlichten Track, der von Parov Stelar zum Zeitpunkt der Veröffentlichung von "Shine" produziert wurde - ein echter Schatz in jeder LP-Sammlung.

Plastician debuts on GD4YA with his finest dark garage cut 'Dreading'

Remixes from El-B & Karma

Deepart, vétéran de la Techno bizarre Londonienne des années 90 et l’artiste inaugural du label Rush Hour, rencontra Remer Cier, debutant sur YOUTH, à Plastic People, lors de la soirée séminale CDR, un set improvisé de nouvelle musique électronique. Après presque 20
ans de dialogue erudite, de performances et expositions au Chelsea College of Art et au Royal College of Art, nous présentons leur collection d’improvisations afrofuturistes, enregistrée au Beaconsfield Gallery, Vauxhall, Londres en 2021.

Dédié à Søren Holm et tous amis absents

Merci à Joviale, collaboratice au dessin

DOWNFALL is the first album under the name SAITO created by Lena Saito, aka Galcid, and produced by accomplished analog synthesizer guru, Hisashi Saito, aka Lena’s husband. Having descended from a long line of Japanese sword-smiths, the industrial sound of smashing steel is embedded in Lena’s DNA and reflected in her music, however there are also refined, hypnotic tones showing a side with more finesse. The music itself is not scored and is predominantly improvised. Words and vocals are ad libbed as well. Sometimes the machines respond as if through telekinesis, altogether emitting a sound which can be categorized somewhere in the range between modern experimental dance music and something possibly making more sense to enlightened minds a thousand years in the future.




There is a new addition to the forge of talents of Mille Plateaux, a Japanese musician by the name of Saito whose album has been released on the label under the title of Downfall. After a whole series of releases under the signature tag clicks & cuts, there comes out a work, much more suited for a dance hall, that is different in terms of the genre from everything that has been published so far.
Like a bucket of ice-cold water poured over the head, erratic agressive hardcore rhythms pour all over the audience in the first track, interrupted only by grinding noises and minimalistic technogenic clicks.
Downfall won't fail to infect even the most experienced music connaisseur with its out-of-control energy, while offering a wide range of techniques: at times, robotic voices, one second long fragments of looped melodies and many other audio gimmicks.
Lena Saito (that is the author's name) is not afraid of conducting experiments in her chemical laboratory, freely mixing sound reagents without taking any precautions. It feels like, this new chemical substance, that she has been working on so thoroughly, contains quite a long list of ingredients, although its main component is the various rhythm breaks.
The synthesizer part of Red Hammer sounds in the best traditions of the acid style, and the rhythm section is akin to African tribal dances of the future. Downfall is absolutely unrelenting in its concept.
The melody of the composition Nucleosome is a little bit like the melancholic IDM of the 00s, finding itself secondary to the dominating, yet again convoluted rhythmical web meticulously woven by Saito.
This album can be definitely named as a big contender aspiring to start a new golden era of Mille Plateaux, and Saito as the hidden treasure of the label that can challenge even the veterans for the right to be the headliner.

The two tracks on this release ‘Take Me To Your Leader’ and ‘Bodyrock’ were made in Stu J’s living room at the Polygon in Southampton. His studio partner Don had a Roland W30 work station that he would bring over, which was an all in one sampler and sequencer. “I think this is also what The Prodigy used at the time” Stu tells me.

There was also an Akai 950, a 24 track Allen & Heath desk and a Quadraverb which Stu owned. “I think that was it, that’s all we had to make these tracks. It was such a great time that you could make music with such limited gear. It was like things were better if you had minimal gear to work with.” When the tracks were completed Stu used a company called Perpetual for all the cutting and pressing as he didn’t have any links directly, so a one stop shop was the best course of action to get his releases out there.

“It was a crazy experience. As we had limited sample time, big sections of the track are mixed in live from another record on the decks. Don had the sequencer, so he knew what he was doing on that side of things, far more than me. I was the DJ and knew how a tune should be structured. Don was an amazing engineer. He was so much more than an engineer though.

This track is a seminal tune for any raver on the South Coast of the UK as Stu would be playing Madisons, Remix, Adrenalin parties as well as Fantazia at Matchams. But this release went far beyond the south, it was a national treasure that take those who listen back to 1991, the year this release was first pressed. Now available remastered and repressed on heavyweight green vinyl.

Wokrs from 1993-2004. Compilation of Taras Bulba, a German studio group that could be labelled Tribal? Trance? Pop? Folk? Ambient? ... or something else.

We repeat our experience with Unknown Pleasures Records, collaborating again with the Honoris series of releases, this time paying tribute to Bauhaus. Several bands and musicians create versions of different tracks by this legendary English band that conditioned post-punk to take a sonic trajectory based on what they later called gothic rock.

Industrial Complexx resorts to the same formula again with this special release combining the album in double cassette format and a biographical book about Bauhaus . Unknown Pleasures Records releases this compilation on CD and Soil Records on vinyl.

Nantes-based Australian drummer and percussionist Will Guthrie returns to Black Truffle with Nist-Nah. Like his previous solo record on the label, the abrasive hip-hop concrète of People Pleaser 'BT027', Nist-Nah finds Guthrie branching out in a new direction, this time in a suite of six percussion pieces primarily using the metallaphones, hand drums and gongs of the Gamelan ensembles of Indonesia.

The music presented here is grounded in Guthrie’s travels in Indonesia and study of various forms of Gamelan music, from the stately suspended temporality of the courtly Javanese Gamelan Sekatan, to the delirious, thuggish repetition that accompanies the Javanese trance ritual Jathilan, to the shimmering acoustic glitch of contemporary Balinese composer Dewa Alit and his Gamelan Salukat.

However, far from an exercise in exoticism, Nist-Nah develops out of Guthrie’s extensive work with metal percussion in recent years (as heard, for example, on his 2015 LP for 'IDEAL', Sacrée Obsession), where gongs, singing bowls and cymbals are used to build up walls of hovering tones and sizzling details.

Though Guthrie is broadening his palette to explore Gamelan instrumentation and pay tribute to his love of this sophisticated yet elemental percussion music, the pieces presented here are equally informed by Guthrie’s interests in free jazz, electro-acoustic music and diverse experimental music practices, exploring long tones, extended techniques, and non-metered pulse.
'Nist-Nah' presents a variety of approaches across its six pieces, from the crisp, precise rhythmic complexity of the opening title track to the droning textures of ‘Catlike’ and ‘Elders’.

On the epic closing ‘Kebogiro Glendeng’, Guthrie offers an extended, layered rendition of a Javanese piece belonging to a repertoire primarily used for warmups, beginner’s groups and children first learning Gamelan, elegantly gesturing to his own amateur status while using the piece’s insistently repeated melody as an extended exploration of the hypnotic effects of repetition, falling in and out of time with himself to create woozy, narcotic effects until the piece eventually dissolves into a wavering fog.

Emerging DJ and producer Yemi brings the soulful groovers to the Time Is Now white label series.

Having already received support from the likes of UKG mainstays Sammy Virji, Conducta and Smokey Bubblin' B during his relatively youthful career, Yemi is certainly an artist to watch. For justification, look no further than the vibrant, uplifting 6-track EP which combines luscious vocals and blissful piano chords to create a sound which is at once nostalgic and fiercely forward-facing.

Its two opening tracks get things off to a buoyant start, with a bouncing 4x4 rhythm and the syrup-smooth vocals of emerging artist and long-time friend, Bria Keely. Pair these with rattling bongos on "Never Let You Go" and the gleeful trumpets of "Smooth Talkin" and you have two tracks which make it impossible to keep still.

"My Heart" welcomes a change in mood with a loose two-step swing and moody vocals: a track made for the feels. But before you get too self-indulgent, the deep bass grooves of "Soul Food" bring the energy right back and "Tension"'s euphoric piano chords leave things on an ecstatic high.

Reissue on Burnt Orange Marbled Vinyl

Blockhead is New York producer Tony Simon, a revered talent who has put out a wealth of crucial albums. They are all getting reissue treatment now as some are almost 20 years old, but they have weathered that time well. Music By Cavelight is another of his masterful takes on broken beat and nu-jazz and this one comes on nice orange-marbled wax. It peaked at number 43 on the UK Independent Albums Chart back in 2004 when it first landed and it only came to be on Nina Tune after its original label stopped answering the artist's calls.

Causa returns to Infernal Sounds for his debut solo release, after his previous two outings in collaboration with Shu (IFS003) and as part of the VA Crimson LP (IFS025). This time he presents two standout tracks, and a strong message to go alongside. With the world requiring more sustainability and less waste, this record has been created with the most measures possible to create a greener record - The 12" are made in a completely climate-neutral way, the material having been recycled, all unavoidable Co2 emissions have been offset, the cardboard/centre labels are either FSG approved or via recycled means, and even the artwork has been made with all of this in mind, using minimal ink work and a restricted colour pallet to limit the amount of waste throughout.

Not only that, but the two tracks on the 12" absolutely slap, radiating that trademark Causa swampy-sound. 'Haiy' kicks off the proceedings with a reverberating lead before plunging you into a frenzy of mid-range madness, and bass-curdling pressure. 'Untitled R V3 C' has been a long sought after dubplate, having done the rounds for a few years. It's a proper groovy, swinger, providing you with pure invigoration.