Beats Vinyl New Releases - News

Oliver Torr is about to release his first full length solo album. The album features many moods and colours, with Oliver exploring the use of his voice and lyrics as a new form of his expression. Successfully mixing electronic avant-garde/experimental forms with pop-like harmonic structures is the main theme of the record.

The idea of recontextualisation and themes of observation are mainly inspired by the philosophical literature and ideas of John Berger, Marshall McLuhan, and many others was a driving force during the creation of the album. The lyrical and sound design content is mainly inspired by panic attacks and depression, and serves as a therapeutic tool to aid in personal psychological healing.

Tracks make use of creative sound design by utilising field recordings and various experimental instruments and sources of sound, such as the Radical Chip, designed by John Richards (one of Oliver's mentors) and Max Wainwright. Tracks like 'Deià' which create a chaotic sonic palette are the author's representation of his mind under the siege of an intense panic attack, experienced in the seaside town of the same name that is located on the island of Mallorca.

Oliver feels like the album has been writing itself for the past 5 years, and in the past few months it has decided to finally show its form. With the help of Aid Kid, who is mixing the album and providing additional production, Oliver has put together a 14-track rollercoaster record, with the help of some special guests. Guests on vocals include Chrysalism, BCAA's Bilej Kluk, and sci fi RnB newcomer LVCIFER. Other sonic collaborators include Sunnbrella (guitars on two tracks), Bastl Instruments' David Strobach (distorted samples in intro), Peter Kutin, and Radio Laude's DeSteffan and R.A. (distorted samples/vocal on one track).

The record's sonics are a combination of Oliver's conscious influences, including experimental music, classical avant-garde, shoegaze, IDM, EBM, electronica, hints of modern club music, as well as PC music influences.

Oliver Torr is known as a composer, music producer, performer and installation artist. Outside of his solo projects, he has worked with many prominent musicians and creative companies/film makers worldwide. He is the founder of XYZ project, a music label concentrating on electronic music and audiovisual art (xyzproject.bandcamp), and a member of the noise.kitchen crew (a music and synth shop run by Bastl Instruments in Prague). Oliver is also a part of the 2020 SHAPE Platform roster (shapeplatform.eu), and the 2021 Gravity Network roster (gravitynetwork).

Oliver releases the album prior to the release of his 'Trans Europe Postal Express' project (supported and arranged in collaboration with SHAPE Platform) and gallery exhibition at MeetFactory art space Prague, that will take place in March, and will further the sonic palette of the album.

The album's artwork is directed and designed by Kristyna Kulikova and photographed by Lukas Havlena (VICE, National Gallery of Prague).

The album's pre-release sees a teaser trailer shot and directed by Tereza Halamova and Filip Kettner that will be released 1st of February. A short movie music video with the same crew is scheduled a month after the album's digital release.

A remixed version with reworks from established European electronic musicians (including Peter Kutin, Fausto Mercier, Wim Dehaen, Natalie Plevakova, Evil Medved, NobodyListen, David Herzig, Ancestral Vision and Trauma), will be coming in the next few months after the release.

Tape

With the re-release of Phillip Sollmann’s “something is missing”, Dial Records presents a true milestone in it’s 20 years history. Finally available for digital download and streaming along with a limited tape edition, it is the frst conceptual album by the artist, originally released on Compact Disc in 2006. Phillip Sollmann recorded the fve pieces (“room one – fve”) over two years, inspired by a new thinking of sound in space, while studying computer music at the Viennese University. Besides countless releases under his Techno moniker Efdemin on Naif, Ostgut Ton and Dial Records, Phillip Sollmann dedicates large parts of his artistic life to contemporary and experimental music. Afer appearances on several Eps, such as “Te Pyramid Drif” (Dial Records, 2009), collaborations with John Gürtler (“Gegen Die Zeit, Sky Walking, 2015”), Konrad Sprenger and Oren Ambarchi (“Panama / Suez”, 2018) and his solo project “Monophonie” (2017-2020), Phillip Sollmann currently works on the Modular Organ System. Here again he improves a very specifc approach to drone composition, a practice that started with the cyclical & shimmering tones of “something is missing”.

"This EP is something special. The title tune was created together in Los Angeles right before we headed off to Shambhala and then Outlook Festival... two of our most favourite events of the year, so we were able to test it out when it was brand new and fresh.

Tui is a collaboration with NZ Legend Tiki Taane, who plays a bunch of traditional pacific instruments on the track. Shadow Samurai is creepy, dark and melodic, and it's got the funk. Releasing music with DEEP MEDi is like returning home."
Tristan, Truth 2020

Real Real World is the first collaborative effort from Nantes-based Australian drummer/percussionist Will Guthrie and Australian keyboardist/composer James Rushford. Primarily recorded in a fluid, spontaneous studio session in Nantes, with overdubs added later in Melbourne and Nantes, Real Real World presents five spacious, unhurried pieces that inhabit a unique sound world characterised by wheezing, half-voiced organ chords, chiming metal percussion, and eruptions of small sounds. Beginning with the eerily beautiful, shakuhachi-esque sound of Rushford performing on detuned portative organ, the opening title track is abruptly transformed by the entry of Guthrie’s sizzling cymbals, deep gong strikes, and rustling hand percussion. On the epic ‘Lumbering’, which occupies the majority of the record’s first side, organ chords define a space in which a kaleidoscopic succession of amplified thuds, chiming bells, rustled and dragged objects, and abruptly silenced clusters advance and recede in an oneiric blur, eventually making way for a passage of Guthrie’s virtuosic polyrhythms, itself unexpectedly overtaken by waves of melting fairground organ. The record reaches an energetic climax mid-way through the second side with the stunning ‘Slakes’, where lugubrious chords in the organ’s lowest register are joined by Guthrie’s skittering rhythms, which somehow manage to call to mind both the most chaotic moments of Balinese Gamelan and the stochastic breakbeats of late-90s Autechre. On this piece, Guthrie and Rushford are joined by Melbourne saxophone maverick Scott McConnachie, who contributes an alto sax solo of burning precision, working with a single-minded palette of piercing long tones and wild intervallic leaps. Though it makes extensive use of overdubbing, Real Real World retains a strong sense of having been performed, rather than constructed: while at times the fleeting succession of events can recall electroacoustic music, its primarily acoustic nature and unhurried pace is also reminiscent of the music of AACM affiliates or Marion Brown’s classic Afternoon of a Georgia Faun. Immediately engaging while also hiding countless details in the folds of its polychrome fabric, Real Real World is a relaxed and joyous document of collaborative musical invention.

Artwork by Patrizia Bach. Layout by Lasse Marhaug. Mixed and mastered by Joe Talia at Good Mixture, Berlin.

An Exact Science is a fantasy of long time ASC fans have had for many years (ourselves included) come to life with results that surpass our imagined results.

LIMITED 10” / HAND-STAMPED / NUMBERED / NO REPRESS

Banoffee Pies Records Black Label Series continues with the next Various Artist compilation - 4 low slung mood tracks for early AM riding the lines between Tech-House and 2 Step.

Monika Ross opens the selection with "Cut Strategy" on the A1, a dark winter spookyness set around 2 step glitches and delay. Tom Frankel takes over on the A2 with an ode to Green via "Terp Flavours". UKG inspired micro house - lockdown business. On the flip Mariiin drops her debut release entitled "Elif" on the B1 - a head down mover setting the tone for her future sound. The release then comes to a classy finish with deep mesmerizing rhythmic melodies on N-GYNN's "Yazdah" which fades away through another swinging vocal hook. Black Label Minimal. Much love. BP x

Mastered: Optimum Mastering

Avont is a music project by Amsterdam based artist Arjan Timmermans The music on Avont's #1 EP was mainly created with the use of a four-track tape machine, guitar, hardware synths and a eurorack modular synthesizer. Avont juxtaposes the element of chance and the glitches that are inherent in the use of tape loops, with meticulous sound design and synthesizer programming.

Genres that influenced this collection of recordings range from krautrock and noise to jazz and ambient. This resulted in combining atmospheric tape loops with the lush Rhodes piano improvisations of Onno Beukenhorst on "Camtas", while the ambient of "Even" is based on a classic jazz chord progression. Arjan Timmermans studied music at London's Middlesex University, has been a successful sound designer for creative brands such as Van Gogh Museum and Bas Kosters and gained notoriety with new wave and electro infused solo performances in European clubs in the early 00's. For the music on this EP, he was equally influenced by electronic acts like Bitchin Bajas, the krautrock of Harmonia and jazz artists such as Jakob Bro and The Necks.

Unobvious Creative Studio created the concept & design for the cover. They asked Amsterdam based collage artist Dewy Karouw to create artwork. Dewy combined fragments of black and white photo's from vintage adult magazines. By omitting the genitals of the original photos, she prevents an explicit sexual image, in favour of sensual, organic shapes. By adding geometric shapes and colour to these images, Unobvious found a way to underpin the contrast of organic and artificial sounds found in the music.

Warning: don't pull off the fluorescent sticker! Enjoy!

*Repress*

With the subsequent, planet-sized addition in its musical orbit, Sentry welcomes another critically acclaimed bass music veteran to its coveted artist roster. SP:MC, a multi-faceted producer and vocalist, who cemented his status as a highly talented producer with outstanding releases through Tempa and System among others. Apart from his long-standing residency for the legendary Fabric night club, he's a regular on the microphone for some of the world's most distinguished Drum & Bass and Dubstep events, living and breathing sound system culture. For the eleventh release of Youngsta's imprint, SP:MC takes us all back into a golden age, captivating the charm of old school sonics with riveting minimalism and skank-inducing swing, and extending the iconic flavours of 2-Step, Garage and Breaks into the 21st century - clocking in at 135 BPM.

Conveying hazy and tape-ridden notions, 'Vintage' sets us off on a groove-inducing flow with tempered chord, lush echoes, and intimate vocal fragments. Murderous break-beat rhythms are laid out with unequivocal finesse as the UK-based prodigy delivers heritage sounds in contemporary attire. Classic foley samples interweaved with modern sound design - engineered for the heads. 'Slugfest' commands a more aggressive tone, introducing itself with slick, hallowed percussion and haunting ambience. With the doomsday bassline promptly kicking in, a super-charged groove armada unfolds - heavyweight business. Hypnotic drums hook into your motor cortex as every last cell of your body intermingles with the vibrant low-frequency surges, blasting from the sound system. Scrupulously switching up the push-and-pull dynamics throughout the arrangement, every sound component working at full capacity and in a supremely refined style. Bass music connoisseurs all over, rejoice! These breaks are for you.

Welcoming back Monty with his F4DE EP. This is his 6th EP on the label, and truly showcases his signature style and sound. Monty is not not constrained by tempo or genre, as is evident in this EP with the dubstep track “Righteous”. Monty goes between hard and melodic, and has collaborated with dnb veteran Icicle on the track SVP. Out on 2nd April on vinyl and digital.

"Mmmmhhh suuprra" - He/she/it said while unpacking a fresh 180gr. copy of SRP001

New label based in Munich to release the works of friends and family. Vinyl only release. Produced with love.

The Last Ronin returns to AKO10 with 2 more beauts that bring the soul to that AKO sound.

Fly Away starts with some mysterious pads that complement the amen break and build before the drop. The energy of the drum edits and heavy 808 keeps you wanting more. Don’t Love rolls and has a true AKO vibe about it, Loads of sounds and a vocal that complement each other with the breaks. We hope you enjoy the new addition to the series.

Superb Gatefold delux editioon of a magic ambient to ambient-core sound... Ritch and conceptual music... Out from the fields and upper than any montaign... this is This tale is written inside the gatefold : The Bandiagara Escarpement unravels for more than 400.000 hectares, multitude of sandstone cliffs and plateaus, ravines and caverns. A West African area of unique and exceptional beauty also known as the Land of Dogon.


Summer night is fading away when the Hogon Kalapodis stands up abruptly after days completely motionless staring at the stars through the openings of the Kukulu Kommo Cave. Time has come. The heliacal rising of Sirius is getting nearer. Aware of the power of the word to bring everything into existence by naming, the Hogon reaches with a resolute pace the Polio Kommo Plain where his ancestors wrote in stone the past and future of mankind. There he finds the Awa fully deployed in two lines, the oldest standing and the others sitting before them. Dressed with braids of dyed fibers and embroidered with cowry shells, figures of mythological beings, humans, animals hold the painted wooden masks tightly between their teeth. Behind them, the whole tribe stood around the rock ark in the kanaga position : legs well planted in the sandstone, arms waving to the lightening sky.
Just a nod and Nogod, the most skilled percussionist, starts a solo on his Gom Boy. First he keeps on repeating over and over the same obsessive pattern and then, squeezing the leather chords of the talking drum with arm and body, he modulates the frequency produced with the beats originating from the rest of the tribe. The last Dama has just begun.

The end of the mourning ritual is now looming over the cliff. Hundreds of Boy Na and Boy Tolo and Gom Boys jam together with bells and bullroarers and all the singers. The masked crews jump and dance quickly in sonic belligerence and the faster they cross one another, the more the rhythm accelerates.
Drumming gets supersonic. No longer possible to detect a percussive sound, only a single powerful Black Drone. Super fast music becomes super slow.


In the light of dawn, looking at the horizon, Sigui Sirius A Tolo is now rising. Also its dark companion Po Sirius B Tolo is over there and far away a new New form is taking shape. Nogod standing right at the middle of the vibing tribe, whispers sweetly something but somehow in all that rumble everybody hears clearly the name : S………I………R………I………U………S………C

AL presents the first musical collaboration between Hamburg based Asmus Tietchens and Japanese artist Miki Yui, operating out of Düsseldorf for almost 20 years now. Highly respected and hugely influential artist Asmus Tietchens first made his mark on the electronic music scene in the late 1970s, whereas Miki Yui debuted her sonic settings in1999.

Their first joint album NEUES BOOT envelops the listener with a poetic sound sensibility and a conceptual clarity which was processed and passed back and forth between their individual studios in Hamburg and Düsseldorf.

Asmus Tietchens: After Stefan Schneider suggested to release a Yui-Tietchens album on his TAL imprint Miki and I quickly developed some ideas towards our eventual collaboration. We agreed upon an ongoing mutual exchange of material. We have both been very familiar with each other's music for a long time and we found our individual approach towards sound design to be uniquely compatible. We do not use our electronic tools in order to merely achieve the maximum of technical possibilities, but to illustrate aesthetic necessities. This entails a deliberate reduction and refined perception of the sonic characteristics of the material. Only this approach enabled us to fully realise the complete spectrum of the sounds and noises we were working with in order to construct this New Boat. Each and everyone of my treatments is e x c l u s i v e l y based on a track supplied by Miki. I added no new sound sources. Naturally the spatial and temporal dimensions of the source material were thus altered. These transformations are exactly what makes our collaboration special and unique. Very early on we had agreed on New Boat as a working title and a guiding light . Of course in the beginning we had no idea where this New Boat might take us. Now we do know. After several months of ship-building the boat has now set sails for new sonic horizons. Ahoi!

Miki Yui: The title of the album as well as the individual tracks have been inspired by conversations with Asmus. When we had a chat after one of his concerts, he told me about Kōdō, the Art or the Way of the Scent. It is a 8th century Japanese incense ceremony. Very frequently the names of Japanese incense sticks are derived from natural themes, e.g. Bairin is the plum grove, the scent of the first blossom heralding the end of winter. This poetry, the ephemeral nature of the world reminded me of Kigo, words from a Haiku (a form of Japanese poetry), which reference a particular season or a natural phenomenon. So I chose the names of the individual pieces from Kigo as if The Boat was exploring nature whilst sailing through the seasons. Only in retrospect I realised that the titles combined create this poem:

Early spring a hazy view in the night (Oboro)
Plum groves (Bairin)
Over a Dayfly (Kagerou)
A Milkyway (Amanogawa)
Dawn (Akatsuki)
Art of fragrance (Kōdō)
On fragile thin ice (Usurai)

Composed by Auvinen

Mastered by Denis Blackham at Skye Mastering, June 2020

Cut by Andreas Kauffelt at Schnitstelle, Berlin, June 2020

Johannes Auvinen has been a one man acid king for over a decade producing a wealth of acid and acid house under the moniker Tin Man. For this new release on Editions Mego he navigates an entirely different zone. Drawing on the history of electronic musik Akkosaari is a transcendental journey far from the sensual frenzy of sweaty acid drenched dancefloors we are accustomed to with his work. Akkosaari lies in the middle of the kosmic komische of Ash Ra Temple's Jenseits, the weightless transcendentalism of Eliane Radigue's Trilogie De Morts and the more glacial output of the Sähkö catalogue. The pace is gentle as the listener is drawn further into a world unlike the one we inhabit, these machines are more second life than one's emulating real life. The fantastic potential for audio induced visions are at play in this adventure in music as mind travel. On Kyläläiset Tanssii a measured pulse acts as a means of navigation before Susi spirals out clouds of sound. By the time we get to Kelluminen we are deeply within an unfamiliar state prior to landing in the heavenly plateau of Akkosaari. Throughout Akkosaari we are bathed in enrapturing and enveloping mists of psychedelic haze which take the listener on a vivid mental journey. This is intoxicating head music unfolding like an astral ascension and like any trip warrants repeat visitation.

A bit of tenderness in this brutal world... Dub Ambient pearl !

Tape / Cassette

Everyone's favorite synth acid genius, J. Mono from Lajosmizse is back on Dalmata Daniel with the double album Redate I & II tape release, an emotionally filled journey of 24 songs, all showing deep thoughtfulness of composition, mastering soundwaves and harmonies.

This cassette is limited and numbered to 60 copies with risograph printed J-card sleeve in hard case. Every tape comes with unique label sticker for this release and download code.

After a reinterpretation of Jennifer Lopez and Mylène Farmer themes’ on the piano, Joseph Schiano di Lombo releases his first personal music pieces, designed for Human's best friend, whether they are pet, sheep dog, guide dog or rescue dog. His first record "Musique de Niche" is composed with malice, mannerism and a particular flair. It is a broad public love song to doggies but also to their bipedal companions, made with a keyboard - no piano this time. Instead, a whole lot of warm-hearted timbres, playful and melancholic, partly fine ambient and partly old-fashioned TV movies soundtracks paying tribute to those masters of tenderness. Different stages of a dog's life are told : puppies dreams, those never-ending hikes in North American forests, long afternoon napping in empty houses, and not to forget (as they are still needed), a short advertising for low price dog food.

Experimental meltdown of bass musicians exploring all kind of evolutions inna unapropriatte form that finally apperas to be apropriate... A masterpiece of msuci to dig future beats... Again !

Alkisah REMIXED is the album curated by Les Ateliers Claus and Kiosk radio (both based in Brussels) and is created with the stems of the Alkisah album by Indonesian duo Senyawa. Alkisah is co-released by a multitude of independent record labels from all over the globe each and to extend this collaboration we decided to involve our musical family.

Six artists were invited to tell ‘Alkisah’ stories into different possibilities and produce unique speculative works. This remix LP brings a variety of musical genres and shines a different and surprising light on Senyawa’s compositional works. Going from a musique-concrète approach, towards dub and dance floor bangers highlighting the timelessness of Senyawa their music.

Remixes are delivered by Sugai Ken (jap), Celine Gillain (b), Sagat (b), Tolouse Low Trax (ger), Dntel (usa), Front de Cadeaux (it/b)

Total Output oldschool Hardcore.
The Outcast Clan creator is back 25 years after for a full EP.

Helas only 150 copies avaible.

Hurry up !

The Texan-native, multi-instrumentalist and producer - Joe Corrales Jr – AKA Yppah has long been considered a top-tier artist by the industry and fans alike, owing to his releases on the iconic and respected independent labels Ninja Tune and Counter Records. His work has been used in high profile TV syncs such as ‘CSI’ and ‘House’ as well as video games such as ‘Alone In The Dark’.

Self-styled ‘house husband, record producer’, DMX Krew, continues his effortless stretch of releases that date back to the early 90s, with a new album for Hypercolour.

His deft melodies and mechanical, electro-tinged beats have made for some classic albums in his repertoire, from his incredible run of albums for Rephlex Records, up to 2020’s ’Ghost Bubbles’ long player for Terrestrial Funk. And so ‘Loose Gears’ marks DMX Krew’s fourth album for British stalwarts, Hypercolour, and fans will not be disappointed.

Armed with an arsenal of hardware, and a head full of futuristic visions, ‘Loose Gears’ collects eleven tracks of the customary quality we have come to expect from DMX Krew.

From the funk laden ‘Solar Transit’ to bleepy chugger ‘Dejected Ambient Twerp’, the vibrant synths and spongy rhythms of ‘Torpedo Tube’ to the beatless wiggle of ‘Xpansion 2’, there’s much in store to be savoured on ‘Loose Gears’, as DMX Krew serves up another fine selection of electronic goodies.

Doktor Normal, the latest addition to Estonia's small yet buzzing funk scene backs its nerd hop/novelty rap with MPC beats and synths. The first compositions date back to 2008, original inspiration lies in the TV series Garth Marenghi's Darkplace. Without any prior knowledge of producing hip-hop, the starting point was humor. After a 10-year hiatus, Doktor Normal got around the record an album.

"World of Ham" is Doktor Normal's début LP released on vinyl (250 copies) and digitally. The 10-track album serves as a fine example of contemporary retro-hop and electro funk with an unusual additude. Child-like creativity, pure and unfiltered flow is further exemplified by the LP cover image, and texts filled purposely with grammatic errors. The essential mantra of Doktor Normal is: make your own rules!

Coils is the latest offering from Santa Ana, CA native Evan Geesman. Fresh from the success of his previous digital-only release Lengua, with co-signs from Bandcamp's Head Curator Andrew Jervis and Osunlade, his new work finds him delving deeper into his production palette interspersed with his songwriter's aesthetic, resulting in a decidedly denser sonic soundscape than its predecessor.

Born and raised in Santa Ana, CA Evan Geesman has been writing and recording songs since his early teens. From folk songs recorded on a 4 track in his parents' garage to recent collaborations with local electronic beat collective GRN+GLD, Evan's unique and prolific musical output have established him as both a singer songwriter and electronic/new beat producer.

While Evan's previous material crossed several genres and had more of an experimental bent with influences varying from Aphex Twin, Wu-Tang, Mahavishnu Orchestra and world folk music, Coils represents a natural synthesis of his beat heavy electronic compositions and strong songwriting sensibilities. Many of the songs recorded over the last year began as guitar compositions, which were then painstakingly recreated electronically, building layers of arrangements consisting of electronic instruments, field recordings and his own vocals over an acoustic foundation. When asked to describe the album's underlying theme, he cites how suffocating life in the modern world can be with the internet, TV, technology and the increasingly overwhelming speed of communication. Using music as a medium to convey this accurate yet unfortunate depiction of living in modernity, Coils doesn't succumb to the dourness, it finds a way to remind those who listen that life can be softer.

From the moment of its release, Iñigo Vontier’s El Hijo del Maiz has become one of the most gripping albums of the moment. With South American and Middle Eastern sounds and his conception of music as ritual, the Mexican DJ keeps electronica in check as a valid mix of influences. The EP El Hijo Del Maiz (Remixes) marks the end of an episode which started, in good company, last autumn on the Lumière Noire label. The second track of his album, Bo Ni Ke, is distinguished by its original - almost implausible - universe, with a Japanese-inflected vocal filter and oriental flutes taking the beats into a crazy trance. Leaning on the 4/4 rhythm, Simple Symmetry’s remix of the track is also very playful (Iñigo Vontier recently remixed Nar for Simple Symmetry). The Moscow duo, noted in particular for the brilliant EP Plane Goes East released on Disco Halal (the Moscoman label which makes the link between east and west), pulls the track over to another - less terrestrial more psychedelic - universe, in their well identified ethno-underground style.

The remix of Bo Ni Ke by Nicola Cruz, French-born Ecuadorian producer, enlivens the track by playing on the sounds of voices and South American percussion. Also present in his fascinating album Siku released a year ago on the ZZK Records label, they overlap with the demonological whims of Iñigo Vontier but also those of Nicolas Jaar, who was revealed to him as he was starting out.

The inaugural track of the album Xu Xu (subject of the previous EP, only released as a digital version) has been remixed by Roman Flügel, allowing a vinyl release of this incredible track. You could pick out the science of this headliner in a million. Flügel has been on the electronic scene since the early days, learning the ropes under the aegis of prestigious labels Playhouse, Dial and Klang.
He has recently enhanced some emblematic tracks signed Daniel Avery, Koze, Âme, Radio Slave and C.A.R. and here once again the pioneer of techno is working miracles to create a more cerebral version of this track.

Concluding the EP with Thomass Jackson, his co-founder of the label Calypso Records, who we will soon be able to find on the compilation / family portrait of the label Lumière Noire From Above Vol. 2, Iñigo Vontier offers up a genre-busting version of the title Marijuana, like an ataxic play time, deliberately smoky for an explicitly licentious title.

Once upon a time, two operators stared at their screens. They sat silently for hours, their whole being dedicated to the task they had been assigned to. Days and nights passed in the same monotonous manner. Suddenly signals showed up on their monitors. Alarms started to ring. Both reacted at the same speed and did what they were supposed to do. Controls and commands were entered, as was protocol. After observing these waves for 61:01 minutes, everything became quiet again. What they had just witnessed made them wonder. For the first time they addressed each other. "The data is transferring through our system," announced the first. “Let us both check how this can be interpreted.” The second validated the response. Together, they looked at what had been recorded. Ideas raced through their complicated minds until they realized simultaneously: sounds! They listened. “Is this an unknown language?” one asked. “This is the first time this has been heard throughout our history,” the other answered. They listened again and again. “This electricity has been arranged to form a cohesive entity,” the first said. “Why would machines be used to create that?” the second mused. Something had awakened inside of them, an obsessive curiosity they had never experienced before. They did not understand and were blown away by the beauty of it. “Do you think it could have been left by humans before us?” one whispered. “If it was, these would be Major Signals,” the other concluded. As they processed these thoughts, the two artificial intelligences sat still.

Repress

When I was 22 I managed to acquire Techno Animal’s Demonoid 12” at a local record store, Rocking Horse Records. I can still recall the intensities of sound that marked the first moments of listening to it. The sense of bass as a tactile surface, that rolling groove and the howling sine waves and dub sirens that scorched with a type of sonic burning sensation that to this day makes my hairs stand on end. A year later I heard Ice’s Bad Blood, from there I discovered The Bug through a release on Wordsound, a band called God, a sound movement called isolationism and much more; all of these projects had one nexus point - Kevin Richard Martin.

In 2015, Kevin and I book-ended a series of concerts at Berghain for CTM festival. For his performance, Kevin debuted a new work I’d heard very little about called ’Sirens’. I remember two things distinctly about the performance. The first thing is he opened the set with a blazing passage of bass and dub sirens that instantly transported me back to those initial moments of encountering his work. The second was the feeling of absolute, crushing bass. Not before, or since, have I felt a sense of sound pressure like this. Unlike his other work with The Bug for example, the consistent bass carrying in the space was literally breathtaking and there were moments when it seemed difficult to see clearly as my eye sockets were vibrating in a way I’d never experienced.

Sirens, which documents the intensities surrounding the delivery and early days of his first child, carries in it a sense of deep affect. The album, unlike the live work, traces out a dynamic sound world that is both tender and caustic. It charts the emotional rollercoaster that is the arrival of parenthood, heightened through the complex circumstances of his wife's emergency procedures during the birth and two further life threatening operations for his son, in the first month of the child's life. Within each piece, microcosms of sensation unfold, Kevin clearly and deftly manoeuvres us through the tumultuous journey. Seconds become hours, and hours become seconds; Sirens somehow creates a sense of time that is without anchor and is foggy in a way that is profoundly unique (and frankly pleasurable).

Kevin Richard Martin has remained a point of constant inspiration for me over several decades now. To have the opportunity to share his first ever solo recording, one that arguably opens an entirely new side of his practice, brings me the utmost pride. His work has impacted so very much on me at various points and I know I am not alone in this situation. His new work, Sirens is a life journey transposed into sound that is truly personal, but effortlessly universal. It is the start of a new chapter for Kevin and one that I know will only strengthen his place as one of the critical voices in contemporary electronic music.

- Lawrence English, March 2019

*Black and white repress*

Otherworldly and anomalous, hushed and hallucinatory, Pauline Anna Strom’s unique style of inner space music reaches across time to futures and pasts far from our own. Trans-Millenia Music compiles eighty minutes of Strom’s most evocative work, composed and recorded between 1982 and 1988, for the first authorized overview of the enigmatic Bay Area composer. Pauline Anna Strom introduced her music to the world in 1982 with Trans-Millenia Consort, a collection of transportive synthesizer music providing listeners a vessel to break beyond temporal limits into a world of pulsing, mercurial tonalities and charged, embryonic waveforms. Strom’s solicitation into the unknown continued through a half dozen more stellar releases during the decade, which, despite their singularity and mastery, slipped into the more obscure annals of want lists and bootleg editions. Though Strom’s work developed during the dawn of San Francisco’s influential new age and ambient scenes, her music remains non-programmatic, an adventurous tangent diverting from the era’s ideological tropes. The artist’s own path to creative maturation was atypical. Raised by her Catholic family in Louisiana and Kentucky, she was tragically deprived of sight due to complications from a premature birth. This impairment would sensitize her to listenable worlds with great acuity and creative engagement, the loss becoming a formative aspect of Strom’s spiritualist take on the power of music. Recalling her youth, Strom says she was “a loner and heretic.” Seeking solace and solidarity, she moved to the mecca of California’s counter culture with her husband, a G.I., who was assigned duty in the Bay Area during the decline of the Vietnam War. Having dabbled with piano as a teen, Pauline’s passion for music reignited when synthesizers became central to the serene scene of San Fran FM radio in the mid-70s. Inspired by the electronic music of the instrument’s early ambassadors (Klaus Schulze, Brian Eno, Tangerine Dream), Strom purchased a Tascam 4-track recorder and a small array of synths (Yamaha DX7, TX816, CS-10) to navigate her own universe of space music. As she gained confidence to share her creations beyond the walls of the apartment where she meticulously crafted under headphones day and night, Strom took on the artistic identity of the ‘consort,’ spiriting listeners through epochs described by her evocative musical passages. From this moment and represented within Trans-Millenia Music, Strom proves to be a delicate melodist and meticulous colorist, as well as a sound designer of great drama and inspired energy. The celestial sounds evoke the uncertainty of pre-physical and primordial elements, creating an impression of a world beyond access that Strom has always felt was hers. In the collection’s liner notes Strom recounts, “I have always been in touch with the past more than the present.” Apart from its mysteries, Strom’s curiosity for the non-present was also suffused with a social bent. She believed that humanity was confined by its inability to access the people of the future, therefore suffering in a kind of group solipsism. Designing a world of music that rooted itself in all times but the present, Strom’s alter ego, the Trans-Millenia Consort, became a musical activist for triggering this state of heightened consciousness. Exemplary passages highlighted in Trans-Millenia Music were selected from the three full-lengths originally issued on vinyl in addition to a group of four full-lengths self-released on cassette. This substantive body of work challenges the canonization of new age and ambient music as one-size-fits-all categories. Strom’s music induces a dynamic range of listening that captivates and intrigues, a cinematic experience rather than a meditation for passive listening. An open invitation to earlier worlds and a trans-temporal philosophy for living, Pauline Anna Strom’s Trans-Millenia Musicis available originally November 10, 2017 on double LP, Vinyl edition feature original artwork by visionary Karma Moffett, printed inner sleeves and booklet with extensive liner notes scribed by Britt Brown.

Smalltown Supersound mint a highly promising new jazz label, Le Jazz Non Series with a mighty opening gambit by techno mutant Pavel Milyakov (Buttechno) and explorative sax player Bendik Giske.
Both strongly regarded in their respective scenes - Milyakov for his dare-to-be-different techno, and Giske for a remarkable debut LP ’Surrender’- the pairing here surpasses each of their respective repertoire to date with a burningly intense form of hybrid electro-jazz that feels vitally restless and searching.
Produced remotely over the course of 12 months between Berlin and Moscow,, the album’s seven pieces portray the duo at an early crest of their collaborative, creative powers, revelling in the thrill of invention and innovation with Giske’s physical, improvised prowess matched for fleeting unpredictability by Milyakov’s bespoke modular systems.
The results are tangibly brittle but in an immersive, world-building fashion that speaks to the openness and mutuality of their visions, removing any excess fat and never testing attention spans, they move in quick steps between searingly emotive bursts of energy and naggingly rhythmic jags, skipping from peaks of breathtaking flightiness to cavernous skronk and ghost-in-the-machine divinations with elemental logic and dexterity

Olive Vinyl

Newly remastered by Rashad Becker for this vinyl edition, ‘Everything Is Already There’ is an incredible feat - a sprawling, hour-long, 12 track album recorded in the space of a week in 2020 and now easily one of the most inspiring records we’ve heard during this now year-long pandemic-haze. It’s an intimate fever-dream made real, a summoning of rich and complex spirits that reminds us of Giuseppe Ielasi & Nicola Ratti’s Bellows, Dean Blunt x Hype Williams, Ry Cooder’s Paris Texas, Ulla (who plays saxophone on two tracks under the Foamy
alias), Grouper, Laurel Halo - a tapestry of suggestive, humid mood music for our time.
Beloved for her tapes and LPs with everyone from sferic to The Trilogy Tapes and Motion Ward, as well as her role running Radio.syg.ma, Perila’s productions and curatorial work have been central to the emergence of a new ambient rhizome in Berlin in recent years. The hushed but fractious patchwork of 12 cuts she deploys on
‘Everything Is Already There’, however, speaks to the breadth and sensuous subtleties of her style, embracing opiated shoegaze, queasy concréte, and blushing ambient soul in a waking-daydream of a session that revels in the pleasures of locating and nourishing the inner life.
Arriving not long since Perila’s action in Critical Amnesia’s ‘ambient supergroup’ with her pals, Exael, Huerco S., Ol, VTGNike, and uon, it contains some of the most detailed and textured work in her small but precious catalogue. She emerges like a ragged spirit from the viscous tronics of ‘Time Swamp’, and shapeshifts from urgent street-corner poetry in ‘Pocket Full Of Nothing’ to take in damaged ambient blues recalling Loren Connors on ‘Riot In A Cornfield’, with her descriptive sensitivities in lushest, illusive effect on the likes of ‘On A Roof’ and the gauzy aerial drift of ‘Reality Scan