Beats Vinyl New Releases - News

Very sought after early Cignol productions which were only previously released on CD. TIP!

Delsin continues to celebrate the overlooked brilliance of Simon Walley's exquisite electronica works as CiM with a deluxe reissue of his 2000 debut album Reference. Spanning 24 beautifully crafted miniatures, this is one of the definitive overviews of Walley's intimate, introspective electro-techno sound. From the crunch of bit-crushed drums to dreamy, swooning pads, everything in the CiM soundworld feels positively considered and elegant. His music has attracted a devoted following from those immersed in the world of deep techno and electronica. The concise run times of his musical ideas ensures there's not an inch of plastic wasted on elongated intros or endless repetition. That said, fitting the whole of Reference onto one disc for the original deFocus pressing was something of a squeeze, with some tracks reserved for the CD only. With this newly mastered pressing, all 24 tracks are present across two 12"s, giving Walley's peerless sound more room to breathe. Delsin and sister label Ann Aimee have a relationship with Walley that reaches back to the late 90s, and they picked the thread of communication up last year with timely reissues of the Service Pack and Series Two EPs. Earlier in 2021, Delsin also released Unselected ProTracker Mods, a collection of previously unreleased archival works from a furtive but undoubtedly prolific artist.

Our Starry Universe returns with it’s first release of 2022, the mesmerizing Mother Oak from Dan Wainwright & Elle Redding. The album is out on 12” vinyl and digital 22nd April.

An Acid House/Cosmic concept album featuring Elle’s spoken word on Dan’s production, Mother Oak is about the life cycle of an oak tree from the perspective of the tree. “As we dreamed up a rough outline of the story, the music was created to personify the seasons and the emotions that were to come through Elle’s words.” Says Dan.

It’s a deep listening experience. The kind of record one should listen to in one sitting on vinyl while you are staring at the lyrics on the back cover. “…it all just fell perfectly into place as Elle typed the story. It all came to life really quickly and was an emotional experience for me to enjoy something so beautiful as her creativity and it’s an honour to have that combined with mine.” Says Dan.

He continues… “We made an album that carries meaning and wisdom and at the same time conveys our wonder, awe and joy that we both experience by being in nature and feeling connected to the forever changing cycles of our planet.”

Dan Wainwright is a prolific producer in the underground with releases on Night Noise, Tici Taci, & Sprechen as well as a seemingly constant slate of releases on his own imprint Oddball Recordings.

Probably the ultimate detroit's filthiest record on casa voyager. A1s Only.

Counterchange celebrates its 25th release with a special 12’’ by much loved Berlin techno-sound-artist and Berghain resident Efdemin aka Phillip Sollmann, featuring two brand new productions, plus remixes of ‘Sequence 100’ (taken from Stream State, COUNTER014), by DJ Skull and Johanna Knutsson.

‘Mono’ steers an organic, runaway synth line (courtesy of the classic Korg Monopoly), along a sleek, 136 bpm set of modernist rails. In contrast, ‘Subconscious Dub’ bows to a dusty lo-fi house alter, while bouncing to a funky, techno-centric and contemporary pulse.

Chicago’s DJ Skull is a revered member of techno and house history who continues to provide slinky bangers that joyfully evade pigeon-holing. Skull’s mix of ‘Sequence 100’ reshapes the cascading polyrhythms into an effervescent, summery deep-house stomper.

In beguiling contrast, Malmö-based Johanna Knutsson channels sensitive storytelling and blissful tonal formations, ushering Efdemin’s original through a verdant forest of post-club ambience and subtle harmonics.

FUMU finally unveils the new album for YOUTH following last year’s 'Almost, Never, Nearly Where?’ collection of sawn-off oddballs, presenting a throbbing pouch of productions that run the gamut from Bunker-style red-liners to ruffkut dancehall, sore electronics and a couple of brilliantly fucked vocal cuts that are prob the finest screwed-pop drills to have emerged from this city in years.

A longtime spar of Turinn (Modern Love) and Richard Harris (Sockethead) as part of the Return to Zero gang, FUMU has been teasing skills for the last half-decade or so on a couple of deadly CD’s and one destroyed bashment 45 inspired as much by manc dancefloor undercurrents as the Bladerunneresque landscape of his formative Teesside stomping grounds. 'Enter The Anima’ is his debut vinyl longplayer, and delivers on keenest expectations in wild style, looking back at formative and fractious asphalt-grained dance music archetypes while pacing toward a new in-between mode that fizzes with too much energy to stay in one place for more than a minute.

The palette is prob gonna be familiar to anyone who caught any of those previous bullets, but where it deviates is where FUMU has us most gripped, starting at the end of the line with the mad ‘Kiss Down' - easily the most progressive and brilliant thing here, framing Zula’s incredible vox around angular, slowed down madness that feels like a dismantled antithesis to hyperpop, deployed at a 70bpm crawl for ultimate unease, ending abruptly before it’s properly even begun. 'Forge Tides Of Fire Inside’ also plays with the form, this time re-imagining a booty flex spun off-centre, sort of miami bass via the nastiest Bomb 20 DHR missile, before "I Was Sunk Up To My Neck” frames a heads-down skank with classic manc-synths like some hidden cut off that 0161 comp.

And actually that’s not a bad frame of reference for the album generally, a sort of wildly shredded update on signature manc electronic/club styles, except endlessly more fractious and moody.

Big vinyl debut for Geneve based Hermeth at Berlin's Jupiter4 imprint. A side showcase Hermeth's acid breakbeat trademark while B side goes to new and savage grounds and navigates the essential bass music darkest corners.

Regardless if you immediately associate the term metamorphosis with any kind of evolutionary adjustment, with shapeshifting, the complex transformation of music or if you simply think about the distinctive mark the last two years have left on basically each and everyone of us, it’s easy to agree that “Metamorphose“ is just the perfect title for JakoJako’s debut album for Bigamo.

While others fell into a state of shock, JakoJako has made perfect use of the compulsory extra studio time regulated by the pandemic, developing and specifying a sound she instantly attracted attention with, as soon as she entered the scene in 2019 with her release on Leisure System.

“Metamorphose“ is one of those albums that can easily quiet a bustling room in an instant, regardless if you’re a connoisseur of this kind of music or not. It’s a compelling and highly absorbing collection of tracks, a surprisingly immersive experience designed for nocturnal listening (and beyond) that is difficult to not lose yourself within.

"His music filled me with the urge to connect with the world," Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith says of Emile Mosseri. She first heard his work while watching the 2019 film The Last Black Man In San Francisco; just minutes in, she paused it to look up who did the score and wrote to him immediately. "I love Emile's ability to create melodies that feel magically scenic and familiar like they are reminding you of the innocence of loving life." Those talents saw recognition in 2020 with an Oscar nomination for Mosseri's original score to the film Minari. He was already a fan of Smith's and became increasingly intrigued by her impressionistic process as they started to talk. "The music feels so spiritual and alive and made from the earth," Mosseri says. "I think of her as the great conductor, summoning musical poetry from her orchestra of machines." I Could Be Your Dog / I Could Be Your Moon, their two-part collaborative album, introduces an uncanny fusion of their sonics. Constructed using synthesizer, piano, electronics, and voice, this soft-focus dream world is lush, evocative, and fleeting. It finds two composers tuning their respective styles inward as an ode to mutual inspiration, a celebration of the human spirit and its will to surrender to the currents of life. As a full album set, I Could Be Your Dog / I Could Be Your Moon moves fluidly from track to track, panning through textural vignettes. Two roughly 17-minute halves, the set evokes the bittersweet sense of something too bright or rare to last, a short-lived glimpse into a golden hour. There is a dreamy, elemental intention to this music, which Smith and Mosseri say came naturally, as they both embraced intuitive interplay throughout their creative back-and-forth. The stylistic threads of each composer are recognizable yet become more ambiguous as the album progresses, sewn into a singular vision.

A sequel to the 2001 series Blue Planet, it took 4 years to complete this seven part new exploration of the underwater worlds, with 125 expeditions across 39 countries and 6000 hours of underwater filming. The series was broadcast on BBC One on 29 October 2017 with viewing figures exceeding 10m and its exposure of plastic pollution in our oceans has started a global conversation about reducing plastic waste.

With over 120 soundtracks to his credit which have grossed 24 billion dollars at the box office, Hans Zimmer has been honoured with many accolades: an Academy Award, two Golden Globes, three Grammys, an American Music Award, a Tony Award and The Henry Mancini Award for Lifetime Achievement. His Academy Award nomination for Interstellar marked his 10th Oscar nomination.

The composition is completed by Jacob Shea and David Fleming from Emmy and BAFTA nominated Bleeding Fingers Music. Bleeding Fingers has created original music for productions including the Fox’s The Simpsons, BBC’s Planet Earth II, National Geographic’s Princess Diana In Her Own Words, NBC’s hit Little Big Shots, Sony’s Snatch (TV), Amazon’s American Playboy, AMC’s The Making Of The Mob, Netflix original Roman Empire and History Channel’s Mountain Men.

First Word Records is very pleased to welcome back Quiet Dawn with a brand new EP entitled 'Movements'.

Parisian multi-instrumentalist Will Galland has been with First Word since late 2014, providing several releases for us over the years, from his acclaimed debut album 'The First Day' to his last EP release, the organic opus 'Human Being - The Short Story Of The Reed'. Collaborations have included Makaya McCraven, Oddisee, Miles Bonny and First Word crew such as Eric Lau, Bastien Keb and Sarah Williams White, who he teamed up with on his classic remix of the track 'Hum' and most recently on the track 'One By One' which appeared on the compilation EP 'A Family Affair' at the start of 2021.

For his latest project, 'Movements' sits firmly in the realms of broken beat, after being heavily inspired at First Word's infamous 14th birthday party at Total Refreshment Centre, where he played alongside label-mates such as Kaidi Tatham and Children of Zeus. This delectable six-track EP encompasses a series of deeply percussive grooves and squelchy synths. This is a predominantly instrumental affair, though does feature the supremely soulful vocals of Oliver Night on the track 'Change Must Come', following on from Oliver's work with the CoOp Presents crew amongst others.

Quiet Dawn says "after the birth of my son, I took the time to get back to making new music.

And when I started to work on new tracks, I wanted to compose something without concept, unlike my previous records, just because time is precious and I wanted to find pleasure again when I composeand not be fixed to a concept, or a story.



These new tracks are instinctive; made with my main instruments, rhodes & piano, synths, percussions, vocals, bass and guitars. They are naturally oriented towards my big musical crush, BRUK, along with different rhythms, vibes and grooves. For me, it's definitely a record for the dancers. For this reason, the new EP is called 'Movements'. Aside from the dancer's element, the title relates to everything that is happening in the world at the moment, working on this record over the pandemic. Affecting people in all countries, friendship, mutual aid, solidarity and movements in many instances are very important to me, my family and my musical family, First Word.'



The influences on this particular EP come largely from the West London music scene; DKD, Bugz, Neon Phusion, 2000Black, Domu, IG Culture, Jazztronik, MdCL, the First Word fam and many many more artists. There are also heavy vibes inspired by 70's jazz, funk, disco, latin & african music."

'Movements' by Quiet Dawn is released on First Word Records on vinyl & digital in late 2021.

Route 1 is the name of Roland Schappert's debut album, on which he has compactly consolidated long-standing experiences and current realisations for the first time. He uses a broad electronic spectrum that seems to meander between different styles and defies all expectations of club causalities or a drift into esoteric corners. All pieces were created June to October 2021. It is Roland Schappert's personal path of sounds that fuses contours from electronic music, pop and classical structures.

On his new EP Three Colours for Couldn’t Care More the ever-searching RVDS (Golden Pudel Club, Bureau B, It's) keeps his senses wide open and comes up with three amazing tracks as diverse as coherent:

While Clicks in Pink House is enthusiastic warm House Music with a big bassline, Blue Signals in Space' flow of hypnotic meditation has a strange tension underneath that effortlessly connects with the delicate elegance of Purple Dreams in March’s playful piano chords. Three quite different colours that make a beautiful whole.

Massive debut release for UK producer Social Rhythm on new blockchain art collective Oblivious Transfer! + spot varnish sleeve and poster insert by London street artist The Real Dill, with digital download card included. The record highlights rave and sampling culture, whilst paying homage to previous innovators across multiple genres. Hot tip for the 90's Intelligent Drum & Bass enthusiast!

Nothing is explained in the mysteries around us, but some art touches their soul: last year, Justin Tripp, one half of the US-American impro electronic duo Georgia and London-based electronic artist Zaheer Gulamhusein man behind projects like Waswaas and XVARR -joined forces as STRING. Together they went on a virtual vacation and never came back. As the virtual is fully real due to its virtuality, they created a truly authentic aural hardware journey, hauntingly adventurous, calm, and surprising.

Without defining the scope, STRING tumbled through a dark musical zone that stretched to the horizon, letting the sound shape itself while falling discreet into an appealing abstract space. Hovering clockwise shortly above the ground, they formed impossible geometric musical figures - weightless, fluid clouds, made up of relations between asymmetrical elements. Like in nature, their collaborative work avoids identical characteristics. In an expression of respectful admiration, they softly celebrate the irregularities between their specific genetic musical fingerprints, creating eight light binding clouds of dawn. A meditative musical voyage that transports cosmic particles of idealistic Berlin school ambient right into the heart of their electronic machines. All tunes swing calm but constitutive, dancing around synthesized surfaces that form obsessed flaming orbs of fear and hope, of matter and antimatter.

A shared love for hardware and the ethos of improvisation guided STRING into an experimentation, in which each party aligns closely to the core ideas of co-operative, in-the-moment electronic music, tied across the eight tracks in a sequence.

Finding a home with the highly esteemed Hamburg based label V I S, STRING’s debut “Last Index Of...“ will enter the earth in double vinyl and cassette format, plus tripping on at the digital platforms.

In 2015 Tanz Mein Herz welcome a new arrival among its ever-evolving roster of musicians, the self-taught hurdy-gurdy wizard Alexis Degrenier.
With a tour already in the works, the musicians settle on a set consisting of old material (Magical Stones and Shiny Mud) as well as new themes such as Spiegel Haus, both built around the new instrumentation.
The selection presented on Dosses is taken from the very first rehearsals around these themes, as the musicians strive and wander about freely in search of new musical vistas and promising friendship. With Ernest Bergez, Pierre Bujeau, Alexis Degrenier, Pierre-Vincent Fortunier, Guilhem Lacroux, Jeremie Sauvage and Mathieu Tilly.
credits

First one for 030303 by Daniel Pringle aka The Jaffa Kid. Over the course of six tracks, the Newcastle based producer smoothly blends Detroit and UK informed techno with breakbeat vibes. Highlights include Noon - a deep melancholic techno cut with a subtle optimistic melody line keeping it all together, Zap Ting II - a rich ambient take on deconstructed jungle and acid and Izire Baes, where fast paced breaks are oddly slowed down by deep sonic drones. It's definitely a journey into another world, this one and a big recommendation for anyone keen to escape reality.

The term 'tourbillon' has two meanings - it is the French word for "whirlwind" and also a device used in watchmaking to improve the accuracy of a timepiece. Both definitions feel apt when listening to Tourbillon, the latest release on Central Processing Unit from Australian producer Tim Koch. Following on from Koch's CPU debut Spinifex back in 2018 - an album that initially emerged via minidisc - Tourbillon is a four-track EP which dazzles with its perpetual-motion post-IDM productions.

These tracks draw you into their webs by forming dense interlocking sonic patterns over the course of several minutes. While the rhythmic programming and lattice of alien percussion tones can appear discombobulating at first, Koch also bewitches the listener with the slyly melodic synth work that he laces throughout Tourbillon.

Opening track 'Estranger' is a fine example of this combination. The first section here is a blend of blown-out drum sounds which comes off like an industrial electro tune run through a meat grinder. However, the track soon blossoms with the introduction of some amazingly atmospheric synth pads, and the two contrasting elements come together for a strange and rather beautiful whole.

'Estranger' finds a mirror-image in Tourbillon's final cut 'Hankert', a track in which more of those gurgling percussive tones play off the rich chord progressions that chirrup away in the background. Between 'Estranger' and 'Hankert' we get two propulsive grooves in the form of 'Disfugue' and 'Dreitark'.

How, then, to contextualize such unique material? Calum Gunn's recent outing for CPU is a good point of comparison, and the electronics here bang and whirr in a manner which nods to the post-IDM innovations of artists like μ-Ziq. One can also see Tourbillon as descended from acts like Cabaret Voltaire, the industrial electronics innovators from CPU's home city of Sheffield. However, Tourbillon is ultimately an EP which exists in its own lane, an open-minded and open-hearted set which runs with the futurist spirit of CPU and Koch's previous home of Merck Records.

Australian producer Tim Koch returns to Sheffield's Central Processing Unit with Tourbillon, an EP of otherworldly post-IDM productions.

RIYL: μ-Ziq, Calum Gunn, Proswell, Modeselektor

"When you cut into the present, the future leaks out" William S. Burroughs. Third Ear are proud and excited to release a new Brendon Moeller project exclusive to Third Ear... Ultra Random Analog Orchestra. The project kicks off with 13 tracks released on vinyl over 3 individually released 12" and a digital album with 16 tracks. The music ranges from deep, wide-screen Techno to Ambient and beatless, that pushes the limits of the sonic palette. Artwork by The Designers Republic. Brendon says, "The ability to sculpt an audio collage in realtime employing techniques of randomness is one of my favorite pursuits using a eurorack modular system.

Cognitiva and ANMA Records present ‘Outlines’, a snapshot of a new generation of exciting producers from across Europe, collaborating and mixing jazz, broken beat & house in exciting new ways. 10 tracks split into two parts on vinyl, featuring ones-to-watch artists Contours, Werkha, Footshooter, Allysha Joy, Karmasound, Domenico Sanna and more. ANMA and Cognitiva have not only curated the featured artists but also some of the collaborations featured.

When it comes to the pantheon of hip-hop movies, ‘Wild Style’ is number one. While the actual plot carries about as much weight as ‘Beat Street’ or even the Fat Boys vehicle ‘Disorderlies’ – and the acting is also nothing to write home about – the soundtrack is an indelible classic.

What the film and its soundtrack caught was a moment in time and some key performances from genuine pioneers instrumental in the nascent hip-hop scene. And the influence has passed down through the ages, with rhyming couplets from the ‘Wild Style’ album still cited today, and Nas drawing on a snippet of the film for the opening track of his one true classic album, ‘Illmatic’.

What’s unusual about the soundtrack – and evidenced on the tracks showcased here, available for the time on 7” since a 1983 Japanese release – is that it didn’t draw on the tried-and-tested breakbeats that many of the artists featured on it would have cut their chops on. Charlie Chase, whose slithery scratches adorn both sides of this record, would have been used to going back to back on the records captured later on the ‘Ultimate Breaks & Beats’ compilations.

Instead, the music is produced by Chris Stein of Blondie in collaboration with Fab 5 Freddy, drawing inspiration from those earlier breakbeats, with drums provided by one Lenny Ferrari. Here, Grandmaster Caz of the legendary Cold Crush Brothers is at ease over both sides, the music evoking the sound he would have rhymed over at the block parties where he built his reputation. It’s a moment trapped in amber – you can’t listen to this 7” without imagining a graffiti strewn subway car in New York.

Limited copies.

Brittany’s fabled Frenchtek rave scene is subject to a long overdue retrospective, spanning 10 frazzled hardcore techno oddities produced by key players Yann Dub & Explore Toi plus pals, made in the ‘90s and into the ’00s - Massive RIYL La Peste, Nomex, Praxis!

The sound of choice for spangled refuseniks in north western France; Frenchcore is the hardcore techno subgenus notorious for soundtracking 100,000+ crowds at Teknivals - Europe’s answer to the UK’s free parties - as well as scuzzier, smaller raves in the region since the ‘90s. ‘Nation De La Boue’, or ‘Nation of Mud’, is among the first excavations for this pivotal era of contemporary French counterculture. Focussed on the work of two wayward players in the late, great Yann Dub and spar Explore Toi, their uncompromisingly weird and psychoactive rave music is held up as emblematic of French traditions of protestation and celebratory expression, and resonates heavily with Editions Gravats’ remit to highlight vital undercurrents of French music to the wider world.

Yann de Kéroullas, pseudonymously known as Yann Dub, was a french sound engineer, founder of Reverse-Primecut mastering studio, and leading proponent of frenchtek’s weirdest sounds. He passed away in 2013, but not before driving myriad minds to delirium with his experimental strains of speedcore for long over a decade via his Reverse Records label. Yann’s work accounts for about half of ‘Nation De La Boue’ - a worthy posthumous testament to his wayward style, characterised by its raw concrète-mechanical textures and the kind of pelting kick drums that drive K’d out ravers to trample puddles in the mud. His wickedly unyielding ‘Untitled’ is a case in point, while ‘Bruit Blanc’ shares a more psychoactive sound design with his peer, La Peste, and the radioactive abstraction ‘Brest sa plage son port industrial et sa base atomique’ channels the region’s mix of rugged beauty and industry into pure noise grot. But if you want the full frontal experience, we’d advise downing a bucket of cheap red wine and rail a line of K the size of your middle finger before submitting to the 10 minutes of his ‘Untitled (Bonus)’ for optimal frenchtek effect.

Explore Toi accounts for the other half of madness here. The wind-tunnel triplet coefficients of his ‘Kilos d’Huitres SVP Madame’ jam with Yann speaks to their shared, unhinged sidespin on hardcore techno, while the welting pulses of ‘Flamings Terminal’ gives a more personalised take on frenchtek standards, and the blasted 909 of his ‘Urban Groove’ follows a more psychedelic hunch to tonal paintings such as ‘Face Ambiance (Outro)’ and the monotonic structure of ‘Motherf#cker’s And Fatherf#cker’s (Bonus)’ that hail his background as a visual artist.

’Nation De La Boue’ renders a definitive cross-section of France’s alternative rave scene, one effectively light years away from more popularised strains of French touch filter house and electro-rock that paralleled the years covered inside. It’s an intriguing snapshot of a largely undocumented scene and a vitally unhinged - and largely forgotten - cog in the rave continuum.

Hello World, Wheel of fate forced me to lose a tiny life before I understood its meanings. Thus I needed to be a chaos swallower for the unnamed. Damn it, demon. Y.

Lack celebrates 20 releases by welcoming newest member Actefy, who's debuting in style with a 4-tracker packed to the brim with grooves.

After the self-titled album on Tokyo-based label Diskotopia, Beats Unlimited (Doc Sleep & Hypno Discs) follow up with two dubbed out, bass-heavy companions for the Hypno Discs label. Heavy on the low-end, easy on the wallet.

Digital renaissance & romantic ambient by ccctyyy with contributions by isangyi. Reoccurring payment reminder

Back by popular demand is DJ Crisps with his third solo contribution to the Time Is Now catalogue: the fierce 4-tracker which explores the many flavours of garage and justifies the Rotterdam producer's ever-growing ubiquity in today's UKG circuit.

Kicking off proceedings is "Keep It Up" - a high-octane speed garage banger, prepped with intervals of slamming reverse sweeps which carry their own rhythm. After "Alright's" unique blend of old skool grime samples and diva-esque vocals which play in dialogue beneath a sharp two-step beat, "Today" strips things back a little with a modest bassline melody and ragga vocals. Finally, with pitched-up, syrup smooth vocal licks "Bounce" captures UKG at its most soulful.

Steady rockin bass/electronica tracks with those melancholic Rephlex hints.

From deep Electro to Downtempo, Cheap Records is back with a new release by legendary Austrian producer Erdem Tunakan who runs Cheap Records together with his buddy Patrick Pulsinger. Being there from the early '90s these guys are front runners in the European techno scene and built a label with classic releases by Pulsinger, Robert Hood, Sluts Strings & 909, Potuznik, Louie Austin, and many others always pushing the boundaries and finding the right balance between the dancefloor, the livingroom and the laboratory!

Purple Vinyl

(English below) Verstop vlug uw vinyl van de soundtrack van de succesvolle fictiepodcast?Gothrecht?van de VPRO, daar komt het management stampvoetend aangestormd! Alle twaalf liedjes uit de serie geproduceerd door Stippenlift en geschreven door Stippenlift en Faberyayo, oppassen met koffievlekken dus. Het werk bedraagt vocale gastbijdragen van niemand meer of minder van o.a. Georgina Verbaan, Annet Malherbe en Firoza. En bovendien een selectie van de originele score door Betonkust in de vorm van interludes. Een muzikale samenvatting van de eigenzinnige podcast en haar unieke karakters, nu voor het eerst op vinyl! Ideaal voor wie zich al thuiswerkend op een spannend kantoor te wagen, te zaam zingen wij de negen-tot-vijf heimwee blues.

Soundtrack of the radio play Gothrecht. Twelve songs produced by Stippenlift and written by Faberyayo and Stippenlift. Featuring vocals by Georgina Verbaan, Annet Malherbe and Firoza, as well a wide selection of the original score by Betonkust.

After the Bend is the second album from Louisville based Flanger Magazine, and the follow up to FM’s 2018 debut, Breslin. Whereas Breslin was the solo creation of Christopher Bush, an album noted for “an astute synthesis of ‘library music’ and solo acoustic guitar,” and “a seamless blend into the uncluttered and airier side of classic 1970’s giallo,” After the Bend is an ensemble affair. An ecosystem, a perfect mutualism bodies forth—of strings, outdoor recordings, electronics, reeds, and percussion—featuring new FM players Anna Krippenstapel (Frekons (Freakwater + Mekons), The Other Years), Jim Marlowe (Equipment Pointed Ankh, Tropical Trash, Sapat), Eric Lanham and Benjamin Zoeller (both from Caboladies). The various combos perform with both a distinguished efficacy and unhurried Sunday drift—charged and beautiful, pulsating and pleasing. The production is subtle and tasteful. Mutating past the old saws of bounded individualism, a strange form of tentacular life accrues, cyborgian-fungral-tangles of the more-than-human variety.

Robert Beatty’s cover art of otherworldly and interconnected river-scape gradients, coupled with song titles like “Reservoir,” “Falls Fountain Removed,” and “Sympathies for the River,” cue and clue the listener toward a river as a singular multitude analogue for the album. Interstitial gaps, clearings and openings give rise and merge into an accumulated flow from the tributaries of spirited improvisational performance, palimpsestic song cycles, and high fidelity studio production. The composite sound-image of After the Bend refuses to put both oars down into any one of the eddies of the folk, sound, chamber, electronic, or jazz idioms, and instead glides along the currents found within the slipstreams between.

Gathering samples, a River Doctor Limnologist inspecting the properties of After the Bend might note the specter of Leroy Jenkin’s free-violin heat-light deepin the water’s thermal stratification. Or mortgage the late-Maestro’s time with Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza to pay down the growing river heat budget. Or take one’s dirty buckets to the banks of the 19th laundromat where Walt Dickerson plays his vibraphone parts from Divine Gemini with dowsing rods. Or excavate the bedrock in the drainage basin, noting skeletal remains of a Shostakovich string quartet attempting to tune up a Kentucky Fiddle’s subsequent influence on the chemical composition of the water. Or consult the historical revisionist reenactment troupe’s episode of Fishing with John (Fahey) in which Codona, The Sea Ensemble and Nuno Canavarro guest host as their fleet of paddle boats churn river water into a regal lager, and all the fish get drunk in their quest for the leaner enamel Hosianna Mantra GPS coordinates of the Fattened Herb.

Bush and Marlowe recorded and produced the album at End of an Ear Studios, located in the Portland neighborhood, in the west end of the city of Louisville, bordering the Ohio River, between Kentucky’s Upper South and the Indiana’s Midwest, during the first year of the global pandemic, amidst the planet’s sixth great extinction event. As good a time to be alive as any other. (by Kris Abplanalp)

Giordano arrives on Savy Records with one of his strongest EPs to date - an emotional four tracker carrying on the label's theme from its sold-out first release. 'Into Your Mind' sees the producer combining analog and digital tools to create raw hybrid energy consisting of energetic drums that sit in a perfect balance with rich modular pads. The EP neatly weaves together ambient, techno and UK breaks, with dynamics that make the Berlin-based Italian producer stand out from the crowd.

Rave material with hardcore DNA from Vancouver's most prolific bass music ambassadors.

Haron's Taxa EP dips into a world of fizzing electronics and draws from it four potent club mutations. Having explored spacious ambient on 2018's well-received Wandelaar, the Dutch producer shifts his attention to full-body rhythms. These newly prepared compositions, the first club release on Queeste, are dappled with synthesised colour and unexpected timbral shifts, aligning the producer with global bass permutations while maintaining his own playful course. The skittering dancefloor percussion of opening track 'Drosera' immediately signals this shift in direction, leading effortlessly into the tightly coiled drums of 'Benthos' whose name is taken from the community of organisms that dwell on the seabed. In a nod to Wandelaar's serene tones, the track ends with weightless ambience alongside snippets of human voices, a single moment of stillness on a release elsewhere defined by movement. 'Pantala' is pristine computerised dancehall teeming with disembodied samples and impressionistic swirls of noise before Taxa ends with 'Pincertail' whose bustling syncopations recall UK funky at its nimblest. No less evocative than his beatless work, on this release Haron has crafted his own idiosyncratic abstraction of club music, one imbued with joyful melodies and a giddy, pleasingly destabilising sensibility.

Spazio Disponibile hits release number 13 in style with a collaborative effort between label co-founder Donato Dozzy and longtime friends Retina.it. It is a typically experimental release that features five weird and wonderful tracks, seeing the label taking yet another dip into the more leftfield areas of electronic music.