Beats Vinyl New Releases - News

Previously unreleased, the three tracks on Pays Noir come from recording sessions held at the same time as those for the cult No Man's Land.Brimming with the same fervour as that LP, mainly on guitar and drums (but once again, not only...), Jean-Franc¸ois Pauvros and Gaby Bizien invent an amazing unbridled chaos of instinctive combinations. A kind of French no wave ahead of its time!

Holed away in Cosmic Resonance's basement studio/headquarters in Toronto, Jess (KTA) improvised freely over 8 straight early January days in 2018. The result was a free jazz, techno-addled synth orchestra too rich to know its own wealth of nuance. Slowly the layers began to be peeled away at KTA's home studio in Parkdale, Ontario, Canada. Glimmers of diamond-encrusted synth rays started to peak out from behind massive bass line clouds. Mountains, valleys, rivers, trees and a full landscape appeared. A world was discovered and it is MAHOGANI FOREST.Jessica Cho (KTA) has been creating buzz in Toronto's downtown dance music community with her live, improvised electronic music performances and multi medium DJ sets for nine years. A classically trained pianist with an intuition for improvisation and the sonic universe, KTA transcends the dancefloor into the astral floor. Her sound palette is vivid and technicolor, a timeless fusion of raw, fearless creativity and focus. Cho has proven her versatility in dozens of Toronto venues performing solo, and with former live house duo CHOBO. She has released a variety of tracks on labels such as Arachnidiscs, Architextures, Toy Tonics from Berlin, Secret Jams from Bulgaria, and her solo EP on Toronto's Mikita Skyy.

KRAMP is the solo project of Stijn Wybouw, a young artist involved in numerous visual and musical projects that often overlap and which share an unflinchingly honest approach, as well as penchant for crimson hues. As KRAMP, Wybouw assumes a red-faced identity to unleash raw machinations that take on ceremonial underpinnings through coarse compositions, murky drones, and warped vocalizations, all churned through the marshy fuzz of various tape recorders. After a slew of self-releases, KRAMP’s first wax outing
remains bound to a DIY ethos reminiscent of early 2000s noise and freakfolk undercurrents. On Nervous Rattles, the core is shaped by the original tapes themselves, their materiality evident through the process of flipping, tampering, layering and collaging, resulting in muddled interweaving textures that form a deranged tapestry of a near-ritualistic order. Chanting, breathing, moaning, howling and other bodily elements enter into a free-form dialogue with an indiscriminate array of instruments to create an open-ended, hypnotically shifting structure. A return to primordial zones, hearkening to the ungraspable eeriness of something both
familiar and mystifying.

Kusht surfaces with a playful release full of tottery synths, crisp percussions and mind-bending samples.
On this 6-track LP released on almost occult YNFND from Germany's ever rainy baltic coast, the Scottish producer easily blends bluesy guitar riffs
with wailing electronic pads. 
Shuffled backbeats melt with ominous samples into a sticky glue, trapping every listener into a bouncy dance.
Kusht can already look back on a vivid and versatile back-catalogue but still manages to top it off with a many-sided and thought-out work of art in his signature style. 
This 12" full of folkloristic beats has what it needs to become one of this year's secret weapons, with early support of some of Germany's acknowledged tastemakers.

As part of legendary groups such as Avarus, Hertta Lussu Ässä and Olimpia Splendid, Jonna Karanka has been a key player in the Finnish underground for most of this century. Through her Kuupuu alias, she dwells among an illustrious generation of Finn sound wizards which includes Tomuttontu/Jan Anderzen, Tsemba/Marja Ahti, Lau Nau et al. Through the collaging of warbled acoustic instruments and looped-up electronics, Kuupuu has long been carving out her own lines into this post-free folk/neo-psychedelia lore.

Les Graciés is a collaboration in the truest sense between Paris-based sound artist Gaël Segalen and Deepblak co-founder Afrikan Sciences. Segalen's experiments in electroacoustic sound met the wider world this year via a debut LP for Erratum, an arresting work that showcases her ability to merge hypnotic murk ala Angus MacLise with the hard concréte of Parmegiani & Reibel. Segalen's IHearU imprint / organisation is a platform for her various doings, including psychogeographical audio works and multi-media collaborations, as well as servicing as a reference point for other contemporary female artists working across various mediums. Eric Douglas Porter aka African Sciences has been deconstructing and re-building forms of contemporary Black music since the mid-2000's, through releases on Deepblak (the label he co-runs with Aybee) and PAN. His musical universe is one of warping cadences and celestial melody, referencing the bold work of percussionists like Milford Graves & Art Jenkins, the dissonant chords of Motor City Techno and stripped back essence of early Chicago House matched with broken Hard Bop sentiments: all tied together with an aesthetic that sits somewhere between Sun Ra's omniverse, Jean Giraud Mœbius and Dogon cosmology. Together as Le Graciés, Segalen and Porter make a wholly unclassifiable strain of music that, while containing recognisable elements of each individual's work, also creates a third entity in the process, which can be heard to stunning effect on their forthcoming debut LP 'Low Doses' for Firecracker Recordings.

'Serendipity' - defined as making discoveries or happy accidents - is the debut EP by Liam van Ryn. It's a fitting description for the richly textured and cinematic four track collection that was the result of intensive and prolonged sessions 'goofing around' on analogue gear. Strictly limited 12' pressing - this is a hell of a debut - one to watch for the future! 'The title track is the most immediately wonderful cut here, with choked arpeggios, clouds of caustic static and found scrapes as percussion.'
DJ Mag (8/10 EP Review)
Early support from:
Nathan Fake - 'Interesting lush sounds'
Lanark Artefax - 'Sounds great and is really coherent for a debut EP'
Tessela - 'This is wicked man, really like that Pitch1!'

Based in Hull, van Ryn makes richly textured and layered, cinematic music that is both experimental and (mostly) electronic.

'I was interested in the way I could make the music sound slightly unnatural, or like it couldn't be played by a real musician, even though that was often the starting point,' he explains.
An alumnus of Gilles Peterson's Future Bubblers project (a grassroots talent discovery and development programme), he was commissioned in 2017 by Hull City of Culture to write and perform a tribute to the pioneering work of local hero Basil Kirchin - an outsider musician, free-thinker and pioneer of sound manipulation.

Sheffield born production prodigy Lloyd SB has long been a secret weapon of the underground instrumental grime scene. His assertive club tracks have been staples in radio sets from the likes of Murlo, Scratcha DVA, Slackk and more, with his dominance over the more hard-edged side of grime production looking set to continue with his inaugural outing for Gobstopper Records, '8ths, 16ths/Princess Anna'. Opening to a cacophony of warped snares, the release's A-side swells early on with a glistening soundscape, providing the perfect build thanks to buried mechanised percussion before pushing its rhythmic elements to the forefront. Using full frontal percussive artillery as its main focus, '8ths, 16ths' almost completely removes any trace of melody in favour of unrelenting kicks, twisted snares and glass shatter sounds - providing a destructive take on the modern club blueprint. The release's second track exhibits a more melodic if no less frenetic side to Lloyd SB's production. Set to a pummelling bed of laser-esque bass sounds, 'Princess Anna' is a chaotic blend of 8 bit bursts, rapid-fire arpeggios and affected cymbals. Finding rhythm in the track's space, 'Princess Anna''s beat becomes more and more sparse as it progresses, utilising dizzying panning and hints of vocal chops as the sole human element in an instrumental that's as hard-edged and cold as they come. As an artist that's widely considered amongst his contemporaries to be one step ahead of the game, Lloyd SB's debut release for Gobstopper is a disorientating but focused example of forward-thinking club music. Both tracks embody the sound of a master of their craft, experimenting with their genre to push it into more devastating, and above all else, original places.

Glasgow-based musician and producer Lo Kindre is at the heart of his local electronic music scene. He has previously released on Optimo Music and is a serial collaborator with MR TC, most recently launching the Phase Group label together. He’s played on Red Light Radio, LYL Radio, supported the legendary Adrian Sherwood, and put out records with the widely lauded Austrian label Neubau as well as Glasgow's 12th Isle.

Private Worlds is Lo Kindre’s most thoughtful and introspective release yet, seeing him reach once again for the spaced out dubby recesses of electronic music, adding-in a ladleful of drone and some choice samples to create something that sounds fresh and new.

"Logos leaves the weightless sound for a minute and cooks up a stew with ingredients as tasty as the Bloom era Aardvarck white labels, Shed as Panamax Project and Wormhole era Ed Rush & Optical sound design. Ossia delivers one of the heaviest remixes of the year, taking the ice cold grime sensibilities of Eska and infusing them with the militant sound of early Aba Shanti I on that Jah Lightning album. Soundsystem music at its best."

Butterflies is Lord Tang's second full length release. It is a warm descent into a dub fueled frenzy of color and light. It is a sound dredged from the depths of Jamaican dub and spun into a new form that incorporates the many influences on Lord Tang's creator, Dominic Cramp: soundtracks, library music, vintage science fiction, broken beats, dirty electronics, modular electronic music, abstract tone clouds. Lord Tang follows its own path through the thicket of modern electronic music. There is a certain level of physical alchemy to the process. The record was made in Cramp's former studio in an old cabinet making factory in Oakland, California. You hear this in the sound! Beats in particular are processed several times through various hardware pedal chains, as can be heard on "Winged Paulsy" giving it a grittier, heavy density. Cramp also utilizes a lot of found sounds and field recordings such as the processed grab of the BART transit band radio on "Don't Tell Me What to Do" or the Oakland Flea Market vendor at the beginning of "Sparkle Toast". Mixing these elements with his arsenal of old analog outboard gear: spring reverbs, tape delays, reel to reel, analog filters; gives the whole record a tangible sonic depth with organic glue that keeps you in Tang's warm and dirty world!

Artikal Music UK is pleased to announce the return of LSN with their second release for the label entitled AUTOMATION.

Due for release on 24th January 2020, the 4 track EP covers all aspects of the 140/Dubstep scene from the garage tinges of 'A.I', the deep tribal creeper 'Spirit Dub' to the futuristic tone of 'Machine' and closing with purple vibe of 'Breakin'

Already a renowned live band on the London gig circuit, Lunch Money Life make apocalypse music, impossible to categorise, rich in texture, immersing the listener in a world of disgust and yearning. Their debut album 'Immersion Chamber' is the perfect embodiment of that. Full of foreboding energy, restless beats and agitated noise: it's mardy electronics married with tense jazz-tinged and combative drumming.

Lunch Money Life are Stewart Hughes (drums) Sean Keating (guitar) Luke Mills-Pettigrew (bass) Jack Martin (electronics/trombone) Spencer Martin (electronics/saxophone). A few years ago, Spencer wrote to 50 churches in East London looking for a job as an organist - one responded, All Saints Haggerston, where he still plays every Sunday. In a city where traditional rehearsal is near unaffordable, this was a lifeline for the band during its early, experimental period. It is the results of this period that make up 'Immersion Chamber'.

The band initially featured 10 members, a loose collective now (somewhat) sharpened ahead of album release, as documented in an electric Boiler Room set at the end of 2019.

Bubbling on the fringes of the London music scene for years, between them creating & sculpting Church of Sound, Total Refreshment Centre, Touching Bass & Tiff’s Joints. In the wake of 2018’s sold-out collaboration with Jamaican outfit Equiknoxx - Living3000 EP - the group has released lunchmoneylife STYLES™, a label compilation in the form of a cereal box, and Unlimited Ice Cream Palace EP on Kaya Kaya Records, featuring remixes by King Knut and Captain Terence McDonagh.

The album is coming out via Scenic Route. A label that started in October 2019 after beginning life as a regular south London party. Previous releases include Desert Sound Colony: expect more releases, parties and, in their own words, "there'll be a melancholic and introspective thread running through everything we release".

Stewart Hughes - drums
Sean Keating - guitar
Luke Mills-Pettigrew - bass
Jack Martin - electronics / trombone
Spencer Martin - electronics / saxophone

Mixed by Danalogue the Conqueror
Mastered by Frank Merritt
Artwork by Aurelie Michaud

Rutger Zuydervelt aka Machinefabriek needs no introduction - a hugely prolific electronic experimenter who has recorded for labels such as Type, Digitalis, Dekorder, Western Vinyl, and many many more, Where To Now Records are truly humbled to handle his latest collaborative work ‘Oehoe’. Produced in collaboration with viola / violinist Anne Bakker, a classically trained solo artist in her own right, and currently performing strings as part of Agnes Obel’s band, Machinefabriek here has sown a landscape of Anne’s raw violin, viola, and vocal improvisations into a stirring body of work which merges tradition, experimentation, and whimsical curiosity to create a distinctively unique album which is both deeply moving and playfully dissonant in equal measure.

Given that Anne’s improvised vocals are wordless throughout, it is to Rutger’s absolute credit that he has assembled and transcended these intonations to often devastating emotional effect. Anne’s vocal experiments exude a classical polyphonic antiquity, they lushly hover above her own Reichian minimalist string arrangements, and Machinefabriek’s deeply brooding, cacophonic synthesized soundscapes. Across these 10 pieces we delve into a world which seamlessly moves between a state of harmonious contentment; or a very murky calm, to moments of lively ecstasy, and deep deep down to a vast and brooding melancholy.

Meatbingo returns after a lengthy gap following his 2013 Skam album 'Trendy Robots' with a brand-new LP of his trademark precise micro-edited cutup-funk on Fonolith. 'The Error of My WAVs' contains eight fresh tracks of tightly-wound, laser-focused disco chaos. Like a dizzying hit of a future dancefloor drug administered digitally into your avatar's holographic brain. Augmenting his intensive sample-mashing approach with bass guitar playing and scrambled up elements of his own back catalogue, 'WAVs' sees producer Neil Scrivin further evolving and expanding the limits of the Meatbingo sound.

With the Shibboleth EP, Osaka based artist Metome delivers a fierce sonic collage: experimental to its core, it presents a vibrant embroidery of sound where the spaces in between are as important as the stitches themselves. Arrangements composed of fluoro synth leads, Rhodes chords, tumbling bass, chopped vocals, pitch modulation salvos, and nuances that evade definition fester and rub up against one another. These intensely tactile and flexible elements are rendered through an intricate filter shaped by pop music, grime as well as nu-jazz into punctured grooves that aim to knock the listener askew. Although they brook no dissent and no compromise, they evidence that polish and power are not mutually exclusive. As striking as all the fragments are in isolation, at the heart a solid sense of harmony remains. The sections that make up the tracks are compressed into terse blasts, lined up one after another, lending the record a distilled character. Transitory nodes supply balance as much as they suggest the imminence of acceleration or collapse. The EP was envisioned as the soundtrack to a fantastic aerial dance: an interplay between movement and reticence, levity and weight, and attraction and rejection is indeed overall. With an ambient iteration as curtain call, a moment of composure does eventually arrive. Although a sensation of peril never quite leaves, it provides space for exhalation.The Shibboleth EP is the first release on supərpawərz, a Brussels based contemporary electronic music platform. Mastering by Jeremy Cox. Art and design by Oliver van der Lugt.

Anthems for misty trottoirs and empty clubs.

Milan W's new lp is here and it sounds like a comedown-classic which is way too funky to be an ambient record and has the power to cut as deep as any decent delta blues album.

His early nineties exotica creeps up on you in a good way. These sounds let your melted brain walk towards every light you can find in that dark tunnel. Every jam on this lp is well constructed and a bit more complex then usual. No worries, tracks are moving with their own elegant logic. Excess is trimmed away and the crispy rhythm programming is pulling you deeper and deeper into the melodic fog of heavenly layered synths. A certain songlike chemistry is never far away in these jams.

Sweet memories of early Warp-classics and Rephlex good old freshness come to mind (think early Autechre, Bochum Welt,...). The feel is less krauty and much more UK but definitely Milan’s. Digesting the old into something completely fresh. Ghosts of new beat are lingering on. Slowly but clearly Milan W slips away from the bar towards the floor. The groove is more uptempo and these tracks are built to make you move in both ways. You can definitely start smelling the club in here. Smooth but raw and pretty far from any big room stylistics. Ocean-dwelling atmosphere included.

Minais B delivers a very mature offering on "As The River At Its Source", a highly emotional endeavor in contemporary ambient music, touching on the complex nature of human connection.

RYSUNKU is proud to present it's newest signing, esteemed producer Noble Drew Ali aka Morell Maison. The artist will be launching the new signing with his debut EP 'Natasha'.
Though the artists own music production has hardly yet revealed itself, his presence within the industry has been far from unnoticeable. NTS Radio monthly resident and renowned as a substantial contributor to the artistic development of contemporary electronic music.With his debut EP, 'Natasha' , audiences will finally be able to experience the more personal outcomes of Noble's musical approach so far. Here we hear Noble Drew Ali exploring a sonic architecture of sweeping yet poignant baselines and fragmented percussion. The first listening experience to have evolved from Noble's cultivating musical journey. Lovingly pressed on an extremely limited run of 300. Five stunning tracks on 180g black vinyl featuring artwork by Gareth Horner. Rysunku is truly honoured to be releasing this music.

For Our first DEXT EP of 2019 we welcome Otik to step up for his follow up release to “Deep Red EP” that dropped on DEXT early 2017 , since then Otik has had solid release’s on labels such as Keysound recordings & Midlands Intergraded.

This EP see’s the London based Bristolian on the usual rugged form we have come to expect, with grimey broken beats lots off bottom end sub action and cascading synths. On The B – Side we welcome Bruce who reworks the lead track “Dioxide” into a wonky bassline roller guaranteed to cause maximum damage on the dancefloors in the early hours.

“Berceuse Heroique is very proud to announce that one of our biggest heroes is going to be our next release for this year. Pinch, one of the seminal members of the Bristol scene, is kickstarting a trilogy of 12"s that we call "an ode to sound system culture", trying to invoke the long lost spirits of pure, heavyweight, hardcore hedonism that stems from a lot of sub genres of British dance music culture. Border Control fuses the industrial aesthetics of Birmingham techno and the jungle techno pressure of the early 90's and in the end it sounds like a fight anthem against Brexit. Fortune Teller will test any soundsystem with that Dillinja-esque bassline and Loose Cables could easily be the younger brother of one of Pinch's most underrated tunes, The Attack Of The Killer Robot Spiders. Pinch runs the voodoo down one more time and he sounds pissed off and more fresh than ever.”

British producer Portrait next on Aura LTD! The label head returns to Aura Dinamica for Environments One. The project pairs paintings produced by the artist, with music inspired by the creative overlap between the two processes. Working back and forth between the two mediums, the artist builds up a conversation that looks at depth, texture and dynamism in both spaces.

"Rendezvous is an EP comprised of tracks that are a departure from what I normally do," says Postepski. "The tracks didn't quite work on the album (Progress) but I felt they shared a weird Krauty EDM vibe. The artwork was done by Faye and Gina in Paris. I love the concept they tied in with the single, Rendezvous: a meeting with someone that is arranged for a particular time and place and that is often secret."

Hello Moon is a unique collaboration between Professor Tim O Brien from Jodrell Bank and Stargazing Live and music producers Jim Spencer and Dave Tolan who have worked with New Order, The Charlatans and Echo & The Bunnymen. The idea was simple - to make the sound archive of Jodrell Bank into a hit single/dancefloor smash using sounds from the big band to the present day, from sounds sent to earth from all over the universe.

The results have been made into a moon shaped picture disc with Professor Tim running through the origin of all the sounds on the B-side. Billions of years in the making

ptwiggs brings the surrealist violence for brand spanking Sydney imprint Deep Seeded. Taking an erratic hairpin turn after DSR001's off-piste techno, PURGE comes off like a tragicomic thriller, swerving between saccharine sensitivity and brutal ultra-violence in the blink of an eye.

Shit is rough in ptwiggs towers, dishing out relentless Tyson jabs to the head on 'Day Of Wrath' with Holly Herndon's inverted poltergeist drifting about between the blows, while 'Lara Dies' seems to execute your favourite video game character a trillion times per second just for laffs. But it's not all blood and guts rendered in vivid HD. Coil-axis twinning of demonic and angelic energies course through 'YYYY' and drift below the surface of the more berserk pieces. Not for the faint of heart but life's probs beaten the feeling out of you at this point anyway.

Crystalline, surging IDM with a modern UK techno sensibility', upcoming Brighton-based producer qgb presents his debut LP 'Hornets' via his own Present Tense imprint.Produced over a two-year period, the album glides with lucidity between eight tracks of shimmering ambience and crisp polyrhythmic glitches. The title itself referring to poetic connections between the micro-world of insects and the intricate sound design/aesthetic of qgb's music. Throughout the record a crossbreed of UK techno influences emerge, blending approaches from 90's stalwarts (Autechre, Cristian Vogel and Mosquito Records) with the stylistic-leanings of more contemporary labels (e.g. Hessle Audio and Livity Sound). Aoki Takamasa, Alva Noto and Team Doyobi are also cited as inspirations. In adherence with the album concept, it takes form in a limited run of 100 custom-built USB sticks frozen in synthetic amber designed by designer Samuel Illife.

For the second installation of the limited catalogue GODCUTS, we are happy to present 5 original Quicksails' tracks with 3 remixes by Brett Naucke, Khaki Blazer and Austin favourite Shit&Shine.

Ben Billington aka Quicksails is a polyedric musician very active in the Chicago scene, with a stringful of releases on different labels, among them the mighty "Mayville Dream" on Spectrum Spools.

On side A he explores the world existing between electronic and acoustic, with very unique and interesting results, not actually comparable to other stuff we've already heard. Check the clips to listen to what we're talking about.

On side B his Spectrum Spools colleague Brett Naucke transforms "My Moon" in a cybernetic dream, while Khaki Blazer goes on a different direction, moving toward a 4-legs transgenic footwork.

Closing the ep is the remix version of Craig Clouse, who puts the original version in his special washing machine for a heavy laundry that gives you back everything way more dirty.

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Available in a non-specified number of copies, these releases are hand-cut on vinyl by the label itself.

Vinyls are all transparent, without the paper center label but with a white silk screen design + hand stamped cat. number.

They will also come with a brand new series of cover artworks designed by Airbag studio, realised with white silk-screen print on black paperboard.

On the inside, an internal sleeve with another artwork + all the info about the release.

Due to this, the final price will be higher than the standard GOD catalogue and every shop is asked to take no more than 5 copies, in order to let everyone have them.

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Excavated from a now lost cassette, 'CRG77' is a series of improvisations conceived of little sleep and minimal natural light. Perhaps best described as the sonic equivalent of a strong indica, contorted dance music under the influence of a forty year old echo pedal. Hidden Village is a new London based label with no agenda and no direction. Created by R.ess 048, a pseudonym for members of a well known South London crew who wish to remain nameless and were behind one of last year's most forward thinking underground releases. 'CRG77' is an after hours excursion into the deepest depths of the weed-box. Comes with ultra-Lo-Fi A4 b&w insert designed by one of the crew. Punk as fuck. Mining the same dusted plains as fellow travellers SVN, Madteo, Sex Tags, Regelbau etc etc

Analha was one of the first approaches I had with the design of analog basses and drums, to understand the way in which we can involve so many sounds and transform them to our own liking, to give it its own narrative, a sense, an identity in which it can be navigated about different styles without problem.

They are two pieces that make up totally different break paths where "Mi ama Dic K no" A1 is my own exploration and vision of the break beat, three melodies written in F # that count the subtlety, while the bass contrasts in an aggressive idea to the beat of many changing rhythms in the drums, which sorfs between a Mpc, 808, Dsm & V Modular ; Classic trip hop voices samples that guide the way this own idea progresses on the breaks and pads that generate a more complete environment with a very energetic atmosphere that is constantly on the rise in the active and natural development of the track.

Towards the B side "Run mami run" B1 is composed by a classic intro of acid cut while some seconds of drums interpose which are accompanied by a radio narration of a chase, a return change is present with a vinyl spin between voices from GTA & WU TANG CLAN which make an intro for an infusion of breaks fully aligned to the beginnings of oldskool drum and bass which are accompanied by voices recorded, treated and edited to connect more directly between the spaces interrupted by the glitch acid chords.

Among contrary structures "Analha" contains hidden but marked criticisms, it is a project that comes from 2018 and ended at the beginning of 2019 which made him think about how to involve more than music within his own sound narrative.

The sonorous identity of rachiid today is different, he understands his environment but does not believe in adapting, he tells us that each exploration and discovery during these years have led him to think how this first release was born until now but is not connected at all with what nowadays, describes his sonority today as changeable, essential and highly with IDM, experimental and breaks.

RITES OF PASSAGE is an obscure artist from Moscow delivering the first release on new imprint BORE HOLE with some very personal lo-fi recordings showcasing his raw minimalistic style with trippy tribal sound excursions!

So Robbie M says he's retired, but that's just the day job.. now with new gear acquired and the studio set up in the family room, it's time for RAM music productions to become a household name (spoken only through a vocoder.)

Another brilliant set of pop-meets-pop rodgerings by De Murcia of no mercy, this time riding East for inspiration, following his notable Wasted House EP from last year. Five sharp and discombobulating detournements: funny, flatulent, sexual, knockabout, unpretentious and danceable. Ace.

Boomerang, like echoes, always returns. No feedback loops, only neo breaks. BOO001 aka The sound of a disc spinning as a whole new standard.

A composition of treatments for adapted piano harp and electric guitar.

In 2016, I managed to salvage a piano that belonged to my brother and had spent four years sitting in a garage. Getting it home nearly killed my van. The first objective was to strip the harp and mount surface transducers to it with the hope of being able to excite the strings and ultimately explore a tuneable sympathetic reverb. After a lot of trial and error, workable results were produced which became the foundations for Relief Tours.

The album was recorded over six months or so with tracks typically centering around one or two objects - some kind of treatment for the piano and improvisations on electric guitar. Experimenting with the objects is never something I've been particularly scientific about by any means, nothing more than the basic sequence of continuing to develop the best results that had emerged from the previous experiment. Concepts were typically very simple e.g. getting percussive overtones from the piano strings. My usual approach is to sketch some possible methods then just begin, so in this case it was tugging winds of horse hair and then settling on an angle of about 30°. This produced the deep bell like sound that can be heard on Benthic Salvage.

Certain sounds would often dictate the course of things. For example, the juddering of a rubber ball being dragged down a smooth surface would, in turn, result in trying to recreate the same percussive movement on the piano harp with a car spring and some big magnets, which then went on to provoke something else and so on. The results would influence the next decision and eventually a track would begin to take shape. Each track hosts a small group of related ideas like this with the tonal work often being the last stage - improvised reactions to the textural parts.

The physicality and movement of the sounds, and the instrument-like properties that came from experimenting with objects, both sonically and tangibly, were really the driving force behind the record.

Green Vinyl Repress -

Serum returns to Critical with his first ever solo single for the label. Raw beats and bass, serious sounds with tongue firmly in cheek.