Beats Vinyl New Releases - News

The ambient/cross-genres record label Concentric Records (Simone Merli / Soundwalk Collective & Luca Calo / Born In 1986) - launches Colliding Wind, the second compilation of its introductory release trilogy. Featuring music by Christina Vantzou, Echium, Etapp Kyle, Jana Winderen, Kareem Lotfy, Soundwalk Collective, Tragic Selector (Daisuke Tadokoro & Terre Thaemlitz), the album is composed of a wide spectrum of ambient, field recording-based and experimental works, exploring unexpected sonic spaces and evocative landscapes.

COLLIDING WIND is inspired by the powerful force that is produced when a minimum of two beings or elements are combined and acting together. Science explains us that a colliding-wind binary is a binary star system in which the two members are massive stars that emit powerful, radiatively-driven stellar winds. The location where these two winds collide produces a strong shock. As we reference the state of world chaos today, a colliding-wind is a reassuring reminder of the inspiring thought that the act of coming together as one produces exponentially powerful results.

The opening track is SOUNDWALK COLLECTIVE’s ‘Running On Emptiness’. Commissioned by Sasha Waltz for her 3-hour epic choreography ‘EΞΟΔΟΣ I Exodos’, the piece is composed out of moving architectural structures and their echoing resonances. Back in 2012, the Collective has placed 147 contact sensors on all surfaces inside and outside of the Berghain club: concrete walls, steel staircases, water pipes, ventilation tunnels, air ducts, metal frames, ... mapping out the whole structure and progressively recording the entire movement of the building under the impact of the music, with the intention of exposing the silent voice of the building. This composition reflects the sense of a space that is left behind in between the margins.

Raised in a small town in western Ukraine, ETAPP KYLE was trained as a classical musician before his first teenage club permanently changed his musical trajectory. Over the past few years, his cavernous and often hallucinatory techno has dovetailed into an obsession with spatial qualities of sound. “10K was originally recorded in 2017 as a simple piano-leading ambient track during a home studio session. It was developed further only in 2020 after Simone & Luca invited me to contribute to the project. A sudden burst of inspiration came during a mix-down session when I tried to re-record the original timbre of the piano. Eventually, while experimenting, it went a completely different direction and the track turned into its present form. Thanks to Simone for an encouraging word while I was working on the track.” - Etapp Kyle

TRAGIC SELECTOR is the duo comprised of Daisuke Tadokoro and Terre Thaemlitz. “This piano piece was originally composed for an event with the Japanese Butoh dance ensemble Dairakudakan. The focus of Butoh seems to be stopping and holding the body in place. Globally speaking, from classical ballet to dance parties, most forms of dance emphasize movement. Perhaps the core of Butoh is more akin to learning to sit in a chair. In that sense, there are similarities to some forms of Western contemporary dance. But most contemporary dance still emphasizes movement. Butoh has a lot of stillness. In order to be still - to stop the body - a dialogue with gravity becomes necessary, which is how this piece gets its title. Pianos create sound by hitting strings with hammers. The hammers of a grand piano strike in conversation with gravity. The vertical hammers of an upright piano resist speaking with gravity. The high- grade electric piano used for this particular recording has a hammerlike mechanism. Whether or not it is in dialogue with gravity, I am uncertain." - Daisuke Tadokoro

KAREEM LOTFY (Arabic: كريم لطفي) is an electronic music producer, graphic designer and visual artist from Egypt, who lives and works in Cairo. Lofty’s work engages critically with current political and social issues. Influenced by Internet culture, he is fascinated by the intercultural mix in his native Egypt. ‘Molten Tactics’ offers a palpable departure from his usually lush and visceral ambiance, notably heard on Kelela’s AQUAPHORIA mixtape and PAN’s mono no aware compilation (the latter was sampled in Kanye West’s ‘I Thought About Killing You’). The track’s obscured granular synthesis creates a vacuum of feeling, leaving remnants of field recordings to guide the rest of the composition. It teases Lofty’s classically soulful and foreboding style – but only for a second before trailing off into the abyss.

CHRISTINA VANTZOU’s ‘Dvorjacked’ is a rework of Dvořák's "American" Quartet - Movement II (Lento). “It’s a fragment of the piece, one phrase really, and it's just old enough to be in the public domain which is of interest to me. I used a modular synthesizer called the Morphagene to loop and process the recording. I wanted to work with a piece of existing chamber music and I was especially looking for something that sounded like a love song. The process I used to decompose and recompose is modelled after mid 20th Century tape experiments so the piece points to early sound sculpting. The vague familiarity of the work is an important element. All of my work deals in some way with deconstructing existing musical forms and re-thinking them while considering how memory operates and how the brain deals with familiarity and abstraction.” - Christina Vantzou

JANA WINDEREN is an artist who currently lives and works in Norway. Her practice pays particular attention to audio environments and to creatures which are hard for humans to access, both physically and aurally – deep under water, inside ice or in frequency ranges inaudible to the human ear. ‘The Listener’ is a sound composition created from hydrophones and Sound Field recordings in and by the River Orne in Normandy. Freshwater biologists count underwater insects and use this data as an indicator of the water's health. If one identifies the sound of the specific underwater insects with their varying ability to survive forms of pollution, one can possibly, through focused listening, reach an understanding of the health of the river. «The Listener» (6 channel audio installation) was part of the exhibition Second Nature and the project Nature and Renaturation: A Sensory Overview of a History of Changing Watercourses. A three-year-long project which started in 2014 by Thierry Weyd, Esam Caen-Cherbourg (Art Academy) and Camille Prunet, Research Coordinator chez École Supérieure d’Arts et Médias Caen/Cherbourg

As part of the next wave of artists innovating within dub techno and experimental ambient zones, ECHIUM looks to loosen up its strictures while playing deep within its unfathomable dimensions, literally urging a dematerialisation of mindsets and musical structures with literal titles such as ‘Collapsed Senses’ and ‘Glacial Rust’ matched by meticulous sound design that connotes and evokes their meaning in the most elusively abstract, lushly sensorial terms. The result is the creation of imaginary spaces that smudge the listener’s perceptions of artificial and organic texture, tone and spatial dynamics. ‘Compulsions of Reality’, explores the emotions built into daily existence. A divergent semblance, exhaled through the sonic process. Locking sections of minute particulars, in time. This personally represents a gateway to the symbiotic understanding of how I no longer depend nor want, and why I had to stop, to become.” - Echium

The Initiation has been made. An oath has been taken. Now we see the return of AKOV to Bad Taste for the end of 2019. This time The Syndicate stands beside him, with members Maztek, Billain, Exposure, Mean Teeth, Zombie Cats and Vegas forming the inner circle. These varied personalities banded together to forge a joined creation and imprint their thoughts upon time itself. ... The last piece of the puzzle is you. Will you become part of The Syndicate?

While 2020 has been a pretty bleak year, the Utopia Music family has come back and this time it’s a really meaningful release for the crew. The 25th instalment to their back catalogue features collaborations between the late Andy Skopes alongside Madcap. Here are a few words from the people responsible for making it happen:

Elliot (Madcap): “Recording with Andy was always a pleasure. We had worked on a few tracks in the past & my first vinyl release back in the early 2000’s was a collaboration with him. We’ve developed a great friendship over the years & talked about getting back in the studio. ‘Tap The Bottle’ included in this EP was the first one we completed out of about 8 tracks. All recorded, finished & signed before his deeply sad passing. This 12” is one of the most emotional projects I’ve been involved in & of course I miss Andy a great deal. I’m pleased to finally have a release on Utopia & want to express my appreciation to Mako for believing in the music & letting us do our thing. Peace x”

Stephen (Mako): “This release means a lot to me in many ways. Elliot and Andy were originally penned to have the first release on Utopia so to get a 12" with them after 11 years is a dream for me. The music stays true to what both of them have held so dear for so long, this 90's vibe of 808 sub bass, breaks and sick samples. Andy is missed every day and I see releasing their music as a celebration of his life rather than a mourning of his death. I must send shout outs to Madcap for being an absolute badman, I have huge respect for you brother x”

Each track of the three picked for this release has all the soul, organic beats and vibes people have come to love Utopia for.

Kristian Craig Robinson, aka Capitol K, is a multi-instrumentalist and record producer with a long history in London’s most interesting under-the-radar music places and spaces. With a musical story like his, you can expect side streams. New record ‘Birdtrapper’ is “the sound of an initiation rave in a utopian hidden village”, and his latest exploration of Mediterranean audio mythos following from ’Goatherder’ (2018). The six track mini-album was similarly formed from ritualistic improvisations performed in Malta (where Capitol K was born), using home-made flutes, reed pipe, bamboo percussion, drum machine, bass guitar, but this time features a wider use of synthesizers, with the alternative dance floor in mind. Where ‘Goatherder’ was an awakening of genetic primitivism, ‘Birdtrapper’ is an evocation of sonic bird callers, proto-rave abandon, ambient resonance and an ecstatic captive state, along with the previous work's visions of hunters, temples and scrub land music
‘Goatherder’ caused a quiet kind of quake and was beloved by The Quietus, BBCR3 and 6Music. Vinyl Factory described it as “like a series of manipulated field recordings that have an ancient, ritualistic quality … Goatherder shimmers with Balearic strangeness, rooted in an earthy outer-national dance music tradition”. For the last seven years K has been behind the consoles at the heavily influential Total Refreshment Centre, recording and mixing records with the likes of Trash Kit, The Comet Is Coming, Rozi Plain, Alabaster DePlume, Dry Cleaning, Flamingods Cykada, Ibibio Sound Machine, BAS JAN and John Johanna. It’s not just recording. He’s also become an influential if understated mentor to a new wave of producers and bands. His experience in studio environments is long and storied, including stints at Studio Plateaux on an island in the middle of the Thames and in the Royal Symphonia’s squatted rehearsal rooms. Capitol K has released seven albums and the 'Birdtapper EP' follows a legacy of influential releases on early 2000s electronica labels including Planet Mu and XL. Aside this he also runs the record label Faith & Industry. It’s a friends and family, love not money affair and he has released music by Champagne Dub, John Johanna, Super Best Friends Club, Blue House & Clémentine March.

This double 10" vinyl features some absolutely enormous remixes that are not to be missed! Hamilton (Dj Ham) steps up to the plate and delivers a blisteringly dark remix of an already dark tune. Tough and rough, this one has a bassline that shakes the speakers to death and is built to last in his customary RAM records style.
Abyss gives us a glorious old skool drum and bass remix, in line with the 1994 sound, full on amen cuts, heavy sines and deep atmospherics.
Lowercase and Psycangle move the whole track into early 90's Ruffneck Records / Malice territory, with a furious old skool gabber remix, hard as nails and noisy as hell.
But perhaps the best is saved for last, because Sunny & Deck Hussy do the near impossible and take a dark tune and flip it on its head, making it euphoric and deep without losing the essential character of the original.

Club / DJ Support
Shimon, Andy C, Randall, Ray Keith, Chase 7 Status, Zinc, Jack Frost, Billy Bunter, the Fat Controller, Glowkid, Slipmatt, Dj Jedi, Dj Luna-C, Dj Brisk, Clayfighter, Jimni Cricket, Bustin, Sc@r, Doughboy, Saiyan, Dave Skywalker, Liquid, Hyper On Experience, Ant To Be, Ponder and many others

Bristol's Ido Plumes debuts for Livity Sound's Reverse series with a stunning three track EP of aquatic textures and UK style grooves.

The 'Away From The Reign' EP is the first glimpse into the sonic world of Ido Plumes, ranging from the nimble dub mechanics of 'Noise Water' to the 2002 schooled Sub-low echoes of 'Which Way is Up'.

Livity Sound is a label set up by Peverelist in 2011 as a vehicle for a raw and exploratory strain of UK techno, rooted in the heritage of UK dance music and sound system culture. It has since become one of the UK's foremost protagonists for cutting edge underground music.

Asturian Jheal Bashta draws inspiration from one of the most energetic episodes of his region’s recent history, that of the mining protests, to conceptualize his new EP, a work entitled Shot To Diginity.

“Broken agreements and an uncertain future, this was the trigger that made the miners rise up again and return to the barricades,” explains the press release of this work that they describe as “root techno for discontented people.

It was released through Traces Records, becoming their second reference,

repressed !

The fifth record on New York Trax IMPORTS was produced by Le Talium who is a legend to any connoisseur of the obscure fringes of hard French electronics. “Inalterable” EP, as profound as it is abrasive, is a journey from otherworldly glitchy soundscapes all the way to a relentless hardcore maelstrom.

Lucas Croon half of Bar and also known for his work with Duesseldorf projects like Stabil Elite and our uncle Themes For Great Cities delivers a four track EP full of downtempo synth and rhythm excursions. It's starting slow with a travel through the human spinal chord shaking it at a Suzuka Grandprix After Party in 1984 where you were praying on your knees in front of the Spiritus Sanctus because of too much champaign. You got me All tracks recorded at Pferdestrken Studio Dsseldorf. Cover artwork by Holger Kurt Jaeger, Layout by Jannes Becherer.

Hooversound have steadily been growing since they dropped their debut release from Hyroglifics and Sinistarr back in March. SHERELLE and NAINA haven’t let 2020 interfere with their plans to continue to share gems the label have been sitting on for a while. Since then, the Hoover duo have followed up in June to deliver a powerful EP from Deft, alongside releasing an experimental dubstep record from emerging producer HØST back at the end of August, which included a rowdy re-work from Om Unit. Next up on unstoppable Hooversound, the ladies have combined two of their favourite artists on a split EP, bringing together two individual tracks from Private Caller and Mani Festo for the first time on one four track project, on “Hooversound Presents”.

Hailing from the Midlands, Nottingham based DJ and producer Private Caller has turned a lot of heads recently. He takes his inspiration from Jungle, Grime, Hardcore and heavy Techno. Known for the way he uses old Jungle Breaks and 90’s Rave music, Private Caller brings a new and refreshing take on underground Dance, which has led him to work with Tumble Audio, One Puf and Hardcore Energy to name a few. Enter Mani Festo, a producer and DJ based in London, with roots deep in Hardcore and Jungle and has had ongoing support and plays from several established radio DJs here in the UK. Mani Festo is known for his heavyweight breakbeat sound and his collective/ label (alongside Denham Audio, Borai, LMajor) ‘Club Glow’, who have been making a lot of noise this year with their resurgence of rave and breakbeat crossovers alongside captivating visuals. The
roducer hasn’t gone unnoticed having released on iconic labels such as Rupture, E-Beamz, Warehouse Rave and Swamp 81.

What makes HOO04 so unique, is the combination of both these artists on one project. Both Mani Festo and Private Caller deliver their signature styles on their individual tracks, making the entire project an explosive yet nostalgic blend of breaks and rave. Each track is a standalone anthem, but together, the four tracks combined are a nostalgic acid trip, that belongs in any club or radio set. Having already had support from LCY, NAINA, and Nastia, it also gained a lot of attention in SHERELLES recent Dekmantel mix.

Debut release from the Moroccan Record Label Astrofever Records.

For the first release from Astrofever Records, Moroccan Producer and label head Mohcine Zouitina known as Polyswitch delivers four cuts combining dreamy synth lines, ethereal sonics and solid jazz-infused grooves. Thriving on eclecticism this release is a hybrid of both new and old school, conceived for day and night it can be cleverly used in a club situation as well as for home listening.

Repressed

VIBEZ93003 is regular pressed & designed as a Clear, Transparent "Coloured Vinyl" and shipping to You, first, in a Uni Cover with printed Logo of the Label "VIBEZ'93" and second, also in a transparent Sleeve.

The Death To Digital series comes to a (perhaps temporary) end with volume 5. And what a way to end, with four slamming tracks that maintain the original concept of diversity in style while staying true to the Kniteforce ethos of, well diversity and style!”. Sunny & Deck Hussy drop a traditional styles beakbeat piano anthem, while Shadowplay brings something that is not quite everything. Abyss shocks us all by making something a little happier than usual while retaining the heaviest of beats and bass, and Idealz brings a rolling, thoughtful d’n’b tinges lick to close the series. Big stuff.

Club / DJ Support
Billy Bunter, the Fat Controller, Glowkid, Slipmatt, Dj Jedi, Dj Luna-C, Dj Brisk, Clayfighter, Jimni Cricket, Bustin, Sc@r, Doughboy, Saiyan, Dave Skywalker, Ponder and many others

This double LP brings to light the music of Robert ÆOLUS Myers, featuring recordings from 1982 to 2006 that were previously available only on cassette or CD.
The music within A Retrospective tells the story of a man whose music elevates its listeners to a place of inspiration and enlightenment. Often ethereal, ÆOLUS' music is driven by synthesizers, melodic flutes, sweeping patterns, and subtle rhythms to seed inspiration from deep within the listener.

One might assume that ÆOLUS carved a new path for electronic music in Hawai'i, but the islands never quite fully embraced the burgeoning New Age scene that ÆOLUS found himself a part of during the 1980s and the early 1990s.

Few artists in Hawaii have produced a body of work, let alone embarked on a musical journey, such as the one that ÆOLUS has created.

For Aloha Got Soul, this release marks a new chapter of bringing rare and relatively unknown music of Hawai'i to the surface.

Melbourne producer Adam McCoy, aka Citizen Maze, returns to Analogue Attic after his widely acclaimed 'Serenity in the Woods' from 2018.

The signature depth and versatility of McCoy's productions is again at the forefront in 'Northern Angelique', with 5 musically rich compositions that lend themselves to a broad range of listening occasions.
The first 3 tracks are contemplative and psychedelic, before the record takes on a deeper and darker tone for the remaining 2. Each track feels connected through a sense of simultaneous intensity and gentleness.
McCoy says it was the angelic nature of a vox synth, reflections from long beach walks in solitude and the thought of a flight to central Australia that inspired the release. Field recordings from coastal Southeast Asia feature throughout.
Hamish Mackay features on guitar..

Trancemission over; Transmission begins. Delta Rain Dance is an experimental artist and label project delving into contemplative, and melancholic states, with a record that blissfully glides between ambient, and delicate-percussive, electronic states. A hybrid puzzle of melodic cuts, DJ tools and drum tracks, that can be mixed together to create new amalgamations of the source material.

'Trancemission/Transmission' showcases a musical narrative that transcends genres and moods, switching between flashes of dubbed techno, abstract percussive electronica, and stark downtempo vibes.

'Trancemission/Transmission' is a record structured around progressions, heavy on sound design and imagination. It takes the listener into different astral planes, from tranquil moments of temperate melodies, to off-kilter periods of electro. Ghostly radio transmissions, dubbed out Rhodes, underwater frequencies, and broadcasts from beyond the digital ether. It is a modern take on 'Music for Airports', albeit written for a post-millennial audience, one that grew up on Dilla, Vatican Shadow, Grouper and Digital Mystikz. Drum tracks, locked grooves, and sparse sketches of melody and reverb soaked harmonies. Delta Rain Dance has produced a body of work that exists in two halves; the trancemissions operating as celestial, ambient skits; moments of dreamlike serenity, while on the flip, carefully programmed beats infer moments of Detroit, dubstep, and IDM, gently providing the framework to the album's intricate, grainy basslines, and saturated overtones. The two halves of the record can be mixed together, and like a puzzle that needs to be solved, tracks fit together perfectly, creating an interactive musical game, in which the DJ can create new sonic interpretations of the album.

Germany's rising newcomer DJ and producer Desroi will deliver his debut album on Semantica by early November. He has gained wide attention with his Dwell in Motion EP on Avian in 2018. Each artist has a special story to tell about their musicianship. Techno producer Desroi, who in every day life goes under the name Frederic Lindemann, has a relatively no-nonsense one. Observing from the outside, his production process seems to be one of tight structure and focus, holding great modernistic vision. Desroi studied Composition at Folkwang University of Arts - parallel to his already ongoing career as a DJ, producer and label owner - having graduated in 2018. His craftsmanship combined with a more theoretical academic view gives him a distinguished position on the scene. Desroi is curious about exploring the bridges between contemporary music and techno, and he recently said he is less interested in arrangement, melodies and harmony, and much rather focuses strongly on textures, rhythms and new sounds. Listening to his compositions these quotes makes nothing but sense; Desroi's techno is entrancing and layered but holds no unnecessary clutter.

Ltd repress

Rumour has it that in the mid 90’s NASA thought they intercepted the first recorded transmissions of alien life. It was believed to have come from a species far more advanced than humankind, and sounded like acid. Aliens on Acid. The origin of the sound was the production duo of Tony Pegas & Don Corrieri, AKA Alienage.

In a basement somewhere in Baltimore, circa 1995, the pair found themselves deep in an acid trip experimenting with synthesisers and drum machines. What followed over the next two years were seven records that warped bodies and minds, released through the iconic Gargoyle Records. The sound was directly informed by countless nights on the dance floor, showcasing trippy, hard-hitting breaks and rolling bass lines that have since rattled speakers for decades.

For the first part of their white labelled, ‘Editions’ series, AGT Records are putting out four tracks from this era, remastered and ready to blow. The A side features two unreleased tracks that perfectly sum up the unique Gargoyle brand of dance floor firepower, starting with “Mindreader” a killer rhythm assortment composed of signature Alienage elements, followed by “Funky Dreamz” where a proggy acid baseline takes over. On the flip side are two tracks which are nearly impossible to get your hands on, including “House Rhythm”, a collaboration between Don and DJ Who and the “Shitty Samples” remix from the legendary “Who’s Who” remix compilation put out by Defective Records in 1996. The music propels forwards, with acid lines that swirl around sharp breaks and pulsing baselines, each capable of igniting any modern day dance-floor.

All the tracks on this EP showcase the best of the Baltimore rave sound. 25 years later they have found their way back onto the turntable, all in good time.

Up next on Made Of Concrete is Gathaspar with his Gathsoland Ep .

With Straight sounds and dark beats, Gathaspar takes it down to the realm of shades. After the vocal-heavy intro of Gathsoland the subkick abducts you into areas of unknown soundscapes. Through the stormy pads of The Vision in cooperation with Echologist the EP is brought down to a round figure by the combination of traditional elements of techno and modern interfaces in the last track The Lover Of Ursa Major.

The 5th entry on the DDQ series continues to rake the kerbside muck of 'club music', presenting 2 disparate visions from 2 label heads.

KUMP's mastermind Gil.barte opens proceedings with the stuttering bodysludge of Guédé and Egareur. Two kleine nightmusiks to drag you out of meatspace, with the Kyuss-ala-PCP throb of Guédé especially sure to find favour on fog-bothering 8 AM+ floors worldwide.

Tempos pick up and lights turn down on the B-side, with Lostsoundbytes (Vastechoses label head), driving disintegrating delays and snares into 3 Belgiqué-nouveau tools, keeping the rhythm & textures bumping throughout.

Artwork by Thibaut de Wolf

Manchester club lynchpin Henzo smashes the debut platter on DJ Python’s Worldwide Unlimited with a bevy of dembow and garage-bred bangers that speak directly to the city’s transnational
dancehall links As the story goes, Henzo heard DJ Python plays his beats at the club he was managing in MCR’s hipster warzone - the NQ - and the pair soon hit it off, leading to Henzo now giving Python’s brand new label, Worldwide Unlimited, a killer starting point with ‘Not Like That, Not Like You’; four variations on a hyper-tropic sound that Henzo has been pushing for the last half decade and more with his Strange Riddims raves, whose upfront policy of dancehall modernism - from grime to reggaeton, hard drum and anything-goes Manc pressure - supremely informs his debut EP, proper.
Version for version Henzo confidently fires himself into the forward tier of Manchester producers, striking a heavy vein of mutant dembow-meets-Mahraganat pressure in the acidic bashment of the title tune, before stepping up the ghosted dub dynamic on a driving ‘Less Of That Mix’.
The other slow banger ‘For Your Consideration’ revolves a vocal snippet saying “speak to me” - one of Python’s often-used phrases - so was naturally elected to the EP, rolling out a bubbling,
sticky dembow-electro groove in the ‘Sauna Mix’, and a ruder UK-styled 2-stepper pivoting off woodblock snares in a screwfaced ‘Gym Mix’ Worldwide Unlimited is envisioned not only as a label, but a small gesture towards community uplift. 100% of label-side proceeds will be split between the artist and a local charity. Proceeds from WWUNLTD022 will go towards The Rec. Centre in Manchester,
org) a casual space in which artists, DJs, interviewers and teachers can create, record & hang out. Members of the BAME & LGBTQIA+ communities, as well as people on universal credit and/or benefits, are offered free usage of the space.

The 6th vinyl release on BTG sees a newcomer to the label and a relative newcomer to the scene taking the reins. In his short time on the electronic radar J-Shadow has already had releases on Nous Disques, Car Crash Set, PRIME, The Collection Artaud, eatmybeat, Dissident Sound and Dream Eater.

BTG006 sees a full showcase of his sonic array driven by rough bass, ghostly pads, acute percussion and influences from the entire electronic spectrum. Embers is a grimey monster that drives with purpose and energy from the very top, J-Shadows signature sounds instantly invade your ears as the track builds into a weapon capable of destroying any dance floor. The release then swoops down to a grizzly techno-esque stomper, with a slower build than title track “ Embers, The Awakening serves to show off this producers more subtle techniques that allow for an almost 7 minute journey into the belly of a Berlin beast. As if that wasn’t enough the final original on this EP “No Gravity”pays homage to the higher tempo sounds that BTG have been trail-blazing for some time now, a 160BPM pile-driver with murky bass, knifelike breaks and a wonky build that will keep the listener on their toes.

BTG006’s B-Side sticks to the remixing ethos of the label with two legends taking the helm. B1 is a Danny Scrilla flip of the title track Embers which needs no explanation, pure energy from the top and then Etch fly kicks The Awakening into a 123bpm air pumping foot stomping techno track designed to sub bass to destroy tower blocks.

Ulla & Perila fluff up ambient pillows for your anxieties under their Log alias on a gorgeous debut outing with Experiences Ltd, following from standout additions to the Documenting Sound tape series - think Wolfgang Voigt’s Gas soundtracking the Log Lady’s more rested dreams ‘Log’ sees the pair building on a blossoming relationship formed over 2020 lockdown, which resulted in a pair of low-key trips for Portugal’s silence box, and now this fuller suite of wistful gestures inspired by rambles in the forest. An obvious reference point is Wolfgang Voigt’s Gas recordings transmuting the ambience of the Black Forest into ambient gold, but Ulla & Perila’s take on this timeless notion is detectably more fractured and frayed, textured like fruiting brambles that gently snag the ankles, and decayed with a beautifully deciduous tone ripened for autumnal immersion.
Weaving synthetic micro-fibres and burnished pads into 11 gauzy visions, they coax a palette of iridescent melodies, ephemeral oneiric vox and crackling organic rhythms into scenes that describe or suggest a sort of sleepwalking sojourn into the woods, or a simulacra thereof. Their patient approach is simply enchanting, allowing their synthesised, micro-fibrous forms to naturally grow and sprawl, but with careful hands pruning the results into bonsai-like vignettes that steeply absorb listeners into sweetly naif, swirling dioramas of the real thing, bringing the outdoors inside..

Astonishing rhythmic inventions from Mark Fell and percussionist Will Guthrie, messing with meter and space in a pair of ingenious, boundary-probing pieces arriving as Japan’s Nakid label’s debut release. ‘Infoldings’ combines synthesis and sinew in unpredictable, pointillist arrangements where Guthrie plays against patterns derived from Max MSP patches by Fell. The album’s two tracks are in this sense different to the man-machine concept of Fell’s acclaimed ‘Intra’ album, where he triggered performances by Portugal’s Drumming Grupo De Percussão to play a metallophone designed by Iannis Xenakis. Here, the pair find common/contrasting purpose in a probing of the rhythmic signatures of Gamelan and South Indian Carnatic musics, with groundbreaking, unusual results. Recorded at HFG, Karlsruhe (where Fell is guest professor), and finished later in respective isolation, the two pieces were edited from iterations of call-and-response between Fell’s rhythmic patterns and Guthrie’s overdubs. They effectively propose beguiling and convincing solutions to electronic music’s problems with grid-lock, using illusive generative processing that appears to make physical actions seem unfeasibly effortless, while melting the computer’s clock to a realtime, free-hand syncopation. On the taut, snapping structures of these two pieces they enact a form of quantum origami that sounds like an MIT-designed robot playing cubist jazz with a sense of mischief and complexity that recalls Fell’s studies of brownian motion on ‘Scale-Structure-Synthesis’ (2011), and strikingly builds on his creative relationship with Guthrie that started with their ‘Oglon Day’ (2019) album alongside Oren Ambarchi and Sam Shalabi. In all, it’s one of the most liquid, forward iterations of computer music you’ll likely hear this - or any other - year

Clear Vinyl

Mark Fell and Will Guthrie join forces for the second time this year with ‘Diffractions’, the 2nd in a two part series pushing deeper into percussive R&D informed/inspired by Gamelan and South Indian Carnatic musics. If you’re into anything from Autechre’s Confield-era abstractions to Milford Graves’ fluid drumming or even the insular soundworld of The Necks, this record fucking rules.
Rhythm has always been central to Fell’s work, from his icy, repetitive minimalist excursions with SND to his legendary run of unashamedly funked abstract house experiments as Sensate Focus. Here, he continues to excavate that rich seam with an ongoing collaboration with Aussie percussionist Will Guthrie; “Diffractions” pushing both artists’ interests into sharper detail, toying with polyrhythms and unusual tuning to uncover a suite of transformative fidget spins and sonic storm clouds.
“Diffractions” features another two lengthy pieces of future-facing percussive abstractions that blur the line between synthetic and organic. Taking the influence of gamelan and fusing it with the heaving computer music that Fell has obsessively picked-at over the last four decades, the duo here zoom into a sound that’s almost effortlessly engaging; each piece is almost twenty minutes in length but they shift and mutate into polyrhythmic outer-realms and eerie universes of microtonality that are hard to fathom in one sitting.
There are trace echoes of free jazz hanging from the rafters, the post-everything chatter of Humcrush and Food drummer Thomas Strønen’s mind-expanding solo material or even Autechre at their most confounding. The genius here is that just when you convince yourself that this music could only possibly have been generated by a computer, Guthrie’s unmistakably human flex edges into focus - playing with your perception - your expectations - in the most bold, innovative way imaginable.

Ten years on from its digital-only release, Utter presents the legendary third Mu album on vinyl for the first time! What can we say? This is possibly the most bonkers and 'out there' Maurice Fulton has gone production-wise, from sub-heavy Hip-Hop to Country (!) to Thrash-Metal (?!) alongside a sprinkling of his signature genius House/Disco magic thrown in for good measure... all with Mutsumi's infamous vocals over the top. Limited pressing with fluorescent pink sleeve & insert. Remastered & cut by Rashad Becker at D&M.

Cheeky Rifts Intensity :P

in the labels 15th year history there only been a few reissues in the widely ramified discogra-phy. lydia lynch in 2006, hans-joachim roedelius in 2013, fumio itabashi ‎in 2018 and soon skymark ‎with his jazz album “primeiras impressões”.

the italian producer, composer, record collector and modern sun records label co-runner, that listens to the name marc friedli when he hands his tax report to the government, is no stranger to fans of modern brazil, disco, fusion, house, latin, jazz, funk, soul and all other organically swinging music that grooves classical and deep.

since 2007 he released a string of albums and ep’s on his own label as well as on imprints like neroli, mukatsuku records or rush hour, showing his impressive electric piano keyboard skills and unique communication on and with an array of vintage synthesizers like arp, proph-et, moog, roland or korg.

on his privately pressed, strictly limited to 150 copies album “primeiras impressões” he de-livered in 2013 nine gently jazzing tunes that process his experiences in the heat of the city of rio de janeiro.

they are intensely spiritual. they avoid ornamentation. and they bow before jazz history with a gentle respect, while adding an elegantly searching, thrillingly uplifting freshness to the genre with deep discreet minimal funk and light as a feather piano-melodies, as if the key-board were a saxophone.

Black-White Picture Disc

Tempo Records present SPEED, a new Tempo Records sublabel & project released on a limited collectors handnumbered 180gram coloured picture disc vinyl with original & legendary producers who helped shaping the Drum & Bass scene. After the DJ Trace & DJ Krust releases on Tempo's SPEED series here's the living legendary 'call & response' originator: Source Direct. On this release you'll find new Source Direct material with 'that' distinct trademark SD sound; superbly engineered breakbeats, the relentless sonic, rhythmic, tempo experimentation and haunting 'Blade' film-scape 'dark sounds from beyond' atmospheres accompanied with deep sub-aquatic resonant bass lines. If there's one production technique Source Direct applied it's the 'call & response' technique (the latter is also the track title of SD's contribution to 1998's Stephen Norrington's 'Blade' cult movie which starred Wesley Snipes). Vinyl collectors please check: This release comes as a strictly limited 600 copies handnumbered 180gram Picture Disc Vinyl pressing with a high quality polybag sleeve (including a handnumbered qty sticker on polybag corner) + all tracks mastered by Stuart Hawkes of Metropolis Mastering London. First come, first served, no picture disc repress!

Dedicated to the life and work of Robert Lax (1915-2000), the American poet who lived on Patmos, Greece, as a self-exiled hermit since the sixties. Jack Kerouac called Lax 'one of the great original voices of our times, a Pilgrim in search of beautiful innocence'.

The Chi Factory would like to give special thanks to his good Patmian friends Ulf Knaus and Nikos Eliou, who showed us his house on Patmos (everything is still the same since he left) and also his favourite old wooden door (see leaflet).

His great minimalistic poetry became a source of inspiration for the Mantra Recordings. His life on Patmos was far away from public attention - quiet and always surrounded by the skies, seas, cats and birds. Lax was a real dreamcatcher.

Shackleton’s Tunes Of Negation ensemble return for a ceremonious 2nd album trip into expansive psychedelic terrain following their acclaimed first chapter with a pineal payload where Gurdjieff meets Conrad Schnitzler in deep dub space.
Regrouping Sam Shacketon, Takumi Motokawa and Raphael Meinhart, with Heather Leigh guesting on album highlight ’Naked Shall I Return’, Shackleton’s open-ended project continues to soar across musical borders with growing confidence in their astral clinamen that suggests themes of impermanence, rebirth, and transcendence. It’s primed for gently getting out of your gourd and glyding the astral armchair highways in a way which has signified all Shackleton’s best work of late.
The six tracks are typically long enough to encourage full mind/body synchronisation and immersion, aligning your chakras in a slowly purposeful flow from the cascading organs and babbling drums of ‘Mountain and Waterfalls’, thru the spellbinding suspension of Heather Leigh’s possessed tongue in acres of Coil-esque synth plumes and militant snares on the outstanding centrepiece, ‘Naked Shall I Return’, with the rolling 15 minute epic ‘Impermanence’ illustrating Shackleton’s transition from dubstep pied piper to modern day shaman.
‘Like The Stars Forever And Ever’ is further evidence of mystic energy still out there in the ether between club music, the after-party-life, and lockdown bedrooms, and a sterling example of Shackleton’s vital role in the fabric of contemporary electronic music.

Four names you never heard of step up with four tracks that will smack you right in the kisser.