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Formed by Swiss post-metal veterans from Knut and Abraham, strom|morts' goal is to compose music inspired by their Alpine environment and its weather, which glides over impassive mountains, evolving with the seasons. Such a landscape encourages deep listening – minimalist musics whose subtle evolutions reveal themselves over several minutes, disturbing the perception of time passing or even provoking, through deep and sustained concentration, a meditative state.

strom|morts write: "Clock Resistance is all about time and chaos, reflecting the behaviour of nature around us, embodying the cycles of life and death. The sinister yin yang of strom|morts symbolising the source and the end of everything we have known so far. Two drones were composed as an embodiment of this concept. This record was mainly made with modular synths for their flexibility, but you can hear here and there the ghost of a Moog Voyager. One drone is totally synced, the other one is free. One side's got a guitar, the other one is synths only. Achieving symmetry, the two drones have the same timing." –strom|morts, Conthey, Switzerland, 19 May 2020.

Gabie Strong is the founder of Crystalline Morphologies community imprint, dedicated to releasing experimental sound works by historically underserved Los Angeles women, queer and non-binary artists. She has been working in experimental music since the early 90s. The recordings on this cassette document a series of live performances from 2017-2019 in which the Los Angeles artist Gabie Strong asks, "What does the body sound like when it is making its own music?" A hard-of-hearing interdisciplinary artist, Strong asks us to consider that hearing is subjective, based on how the brain translates the reception of sound. Each track documents a performative questioning in which Strong suggests that being deaf is not living in silence, but rather it is navigating a highly complex and nuanced soundscape of noise that is audible only to the deaf body. For Strong, deafness comes from her own skull working against her, closing off external sounds and sending scrambled messages back to her consciousness. Captured at Ende Tymes 9 Festival of Noise and Experimental Liberation, Land and Sea Oakland, Volume at Coaxial and the Sagehen Creek Field Station Experimental Forest, Strong layers the kinetic sound of contact mics running over her body and through her hair, ambiguous vocal utterances and amplified guitar feedback to create a visceral soundscape of her body.

"This tape gathers a series of demos and live recordings of a short-lived Portuguese band from the 1980s: Os Senhores (1985-87, briefly resurrected in 1990).

Portugal was just beginning to open up to the international cultural scene back then; for a younger generation of creatives, this meant a visceral rejection of tradition ("Fado??? The past!"), and a thirsty embracing of whichever echoes made it from abroad, often in the shape of expensive import vinyl or hissy third or fourth-generation cassette dubs: from post-punk to post-modern, we all wanted to break from the old paradigm. And yet we were painfully blind to the fact that we were largely replicating another paradigm: we simply lacked the broader conceptual and contextual milieu in order to push things further beyond the peripheral or derivative.

A venue in Lisbon, Rock Rendez Vous, was congregating this younger generation through a series of rock marathons and competitions. We dutifully applied and stepped on stage for the first time ever in March 1986; track three of this tape begins with the first few seconds of such gig. A handful of gigs followed, and we recorded various sets of demos at Luís Carlos' Studio X in Porto.

Paradoxically, our objective lack of formal musical training and relative scarcity of musical skills provided us with a potential degree of freedom. And oh, we were free to be our vicarious selves: the female singer was a Siouxsie devotee, the male singer was heavily into Krautrock, the guitar player wanted to play the blues, the drummer just wanted to hit stuff. The bass player and the keyboard player held it together somehow. This seemingly impossible mix of aesthetics could have produced something special; instead, we tended to cancel each other out. We were just too often caught between the dilemma of pursuing said freedom (and risk illegibility, even to ourselves), and the desire to prove our worth within the familiar canons.

As a consequence, there is little of musical or aesthetic interest in these recordings: their value is essentially documentary, more of a snapshot of a given era. Yet their release provided us with an opportunity to revisit the source material and have a go at reconfiguring it into something else that, while remaining faithful to its original references, would make a somewhat better statement in itself.

We tried quite a few approaches, to no avail… some worked sonically but distanced themselves too much from the original, thus losing the plot; other attempts just seemed dragged down by the linearity of the original compositions.

In the end, we opted for a more straightforward approach in the re-working of the original sources: we had various recordings play simultaneously, without further tweaking. Whatever fell on top of whatever else, so it stayed.

In this way were able to preserve the original sonic, structural and contextual aspects of each recording, while somehow amplifying the tightrope of chaos/ineptitude we traversed throughout those two years. And just as decisively, through this process of superimposing, we were able to reveal a few odd juxtapositions that, had we had the vision back then, could have been infinitely more promising than the elusive post-something format we obsessively kept hunting down.

So what do you know: the first release by Os Senhores, over three decades after we split (and not very amicably, as rock and roll would have it). Hey, it took us slightly longer than originally expected. And we are all now back in touch: old age has its perks." – Heitor Alvelos, Porto, 16 March 2020

tehran born, stockholm, sweden based(now berlin) dj and producer aril brikha is no newcomer to the global electronic music scene.

since the late 1990ees his genre meltdown between techno and house seduces club music enthusiasts around the world. influenced by all sorts of electronic music - ranging from depeche mode, front 242 and jean-michel jarre to robert hood and underground resistance – his sounds always wind between straight up club tracks and more deep unwound moving arrangements.

as one of the most prolific producers around he released ep’s on labels like kompakt, poker flat, his own company art of vengeance as well as an album for derrick may’s transmat imprint and a long-player for legendary peacefrog records. after mesmerizing ep’s for mule musiq in early 2019, he now drops a quieter album on the tokyo based enterprise, showing his love for slow trance influenced compositions, that are perfect for meditative moments and thoughtful party situations.

his new productions listen to dreamy names like “a cautious gaze” or “everything was here first” and get constantly enlarged with melodies, sounds and harmonies that go beyond the usual characteristics of a dance album.

the overall touch is ambientish, partly discreet rolling bass-lines call for a physical movement while spherical synthlines drift across deep floating trance territory.

an album for dreamers, that love to get lost in a contemporary un-nostalgic musical journey without the dictation to dance. a record that explores an infinite space of sound with a heartfelt human touch delivered in eight slow grooving tracks mixed in perfection.

all hand out a moving story arc full of fluid in-the-moment moods who dance around subliminal bass shapes and dreamfully synth pads. you can call it ambient. you can call it trance. whatever you name it, the laidback enthusiasm of “dance of a trillion stars” brings an auditory experience that haunts deeply, gives space for the tones between the tones and prepares all aril brikha fans peacefully for his upcoming adventures for the dancefloor.

Long term friends of Geddes Chris Wood & Meat deliver four stomping cuts for nofitstate's white series

Picture Vinyl

This is a limited 180grams Golden Picture Disc Vinyl from the legendary DJ Krust from Bristol's Full Cycle Records & Reprazent (Mercury prize winner)* NO PICTURE DISC REPRESS, JUST ONE ORIGINAL PRESSING 600 LTD COPIES!

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. This second release on Tempo Records' legends Picture Disc series: SPEED is by the Bristolian living legendary Jungle originator, inspirator and experimentalist: DJ KRUST. In DJ Krust's own words: "It became time to push again. Sitting in a dark room looking at my wall of power, a lifetime spent traveling the world was reimagined in front of me. Where had i been? Making art had become a journey inward towards or to somewhere unknown un-lived. Here i was looking for a new opening when out of the blue and blackness i could feel it. I stopped looking for inspiration so digging in the metal creates had its own angle, over time the roots of this adventure will be heard in a new way. That's when i noticed it, like a bright, out of the space mix between thought and the unknown. It was clear now what was happening a Fundamentalist with Another Story" Collectors please check: This release comes as a strictly limited handnumbered 180gram Golden Picture Disc Vinyl pressing with a high quality polybag sleeve (including a handnumbered qty stamped golden sticker on polybag corner) + all tracks mastered by Stuart Hawkes of Metropolis Mastering London. First come, first served! Note: The sound quality on a picture disc may be less good as on a regular standard vinyl as this is a special golden vinyl pressing! For the full sound experience, you may buy a full digital wav or flac quality download.

Beautiful 1 Lp Edition 140g Vinyl, Heavy 350gsm Sleeve, Sticker

- Official Reissue Of Hard-to-find Favorite L'univers De La Mer By Dominique Guiot, Considered By Some The Greatest Library Album Ever Recorded. Available On Vinyl For The First Time Since 1978 And For The First Time Ever On Vinyl And Digital.
- For Fans Of Synthesizers, Library Music, Prog-rock, Experimental, Ambient, Folk, Medieval, Movie Soundtracks, Sci-fi, Schicke Führs Fröhling (sff), Tangerine Dream, Mike Oldfield, King Crimson, Didier Bonin, Claude Perraudin, Jacques Wyrs, Oceanic Vibes And Giant Squids.

Wrwtfww Records Is Honored To Announce The Official Reissue Of Super Rare And Fabled Prog-rock/library/synth Album L'univers De La Mer By French Composer Dominique Guiot. The Full Length Release Is Sourced From Original Masters, Available On Vinyl Lp For The First Time Since 1978 And Housed In A 350g Sleeve With A Spellbinding Artwork By Surrealist Sci-fi Artist Jacques Wyrs. It It Also Available On Cd And Digital Formats For The First Time Ever.

Written, Composed And Played By Dominique Guiot With His Mellotron, Minimoog, Clavinet, Organ, And Guitar, L'univers De La Mer Draws Its Inspiration From Deep Sea Exploration, Oceanic Creatures, And Underwater Kingdoms. The 12-track Album Navigates Organically Through Diverse Mutations Of The Prog-rock And Synth Kind, From Scenic Meditation Pieces ("wind Surf Ballad"), To Medieval Electronica ("une Ballade Pour Une Goélette"), Spacey Smooth Jazz ("les Deux Poissons"), Funked Out Fantasy Folk ("l'univers De La Mer"), Or Even Incredible Sega Mega-cd Vibes ("la Danse Des Méduses") - Altogether Painting A Fascinating World Of Eerie Magic And Subaquatic Sensuality. It's Escapism At Its Best With Subtle Overtones Of Schicke Führs Fröhling, Mike Oldfield, And Claude Perraudin.

The Sound Of The Album Is Brilliantly Captured By Its Surreal Cover Art, The Work Of Legendary Artist Jacques Wyrs, Whose Memorable Record Sleeves Include Klaus Schulze's Picture Music, Eloy's Floating, Ange's Le Cimetière Des Arlequins, And The 1974 Reissue Of Larry Coryell's Spaces.

A “Not So Kind” release by “Frederik The Curious Frog” from the land where the sun never shines and kindness is a way of living – especially from behind.

The story of how Transatlantyk came to be is, in many ways, one typical of our times. We've grown accustomed to being isolated, even stranded, in recent months, and Technology has become our means of overcoming these aspects of quarantine.

For Lübeck-based producer David Hanke, a.k.a. Keno, and Los Angeles-based musician Tristan de Liège, their intercontinental relationship began long before the days of lockdowns and social distancing. The pair 'met' on-line through mutual friends back in 2018 and quickly realised they were, in a musical sense, kindred spirits. Their shared tastes meant that what started out as a single track quickly morphed into an EP, and finally the full length album that you're enjoying right now.

Tristan's experience as a neo-classical musician was the ideal foil for Hanke's skills with a sample and production expertise. Both shared a love of the more lush and cinematic end of instrumental Hip-Hop and Downtempo music. This sound partnership is evident throughout the album, but particularly on tracks like Nkosi, and the title track, where luscious string sections dance playfully with fractured, programmed beats; or the melancholic opener, Kouyou, where more laid back drums underpin muted horns and joyous harps.

The pair's perfectly formed fusion isn't the end of the story though, as French chanteuse Elodie Rama is on hand to provide not only some impeccable vocals, but also irresistible melodies to this already mellifluous long-player. Speak The Language sees this brilliant vocalist drift seamlessly between euphonious song and spoken word whilst delivering one of the ariose moments of the whole album. Elsewhere, on Dancing In The Dark, Elodie gives a slightly more sombre performance, combining with lavish strings and driving rhythms to a tee; and on To Find A Way offers up an even more emotional and almost heart-breaking performance, aided by wistful and forlorn instrumentation.

Transatlantyk is a body of work from an amalgamation of rare talents who combine beautifully to take us through myriad emotions; from the urgent and compelling Off The Mark via the pensive Forever We Were, and finally find their Way Across thanks to a shared love of graceful and refined musicality and a good song.

To this day the three have never actually met in person, but here's a last hopeful thought that one day soon, as we emerge out of the darkness, they can finally join together in a physical, as well as a musical, embrace.

This first album proper from Polish composer/violinist Olga Wojciechowska was originally released on CD only by Time Released Sound, and has been out of print for some years. We are very pleased to be bringing you this long overdue vinyl re-press, in an edition of only 200 copies, each of which comes in a beautiful 24pt heavyweight jacket, with translucent 180gm disc.

Maps and Mazes is a stunning collection of 10 pieces that were originally written for various international theater and dance productions, and their overall feel reflects this performative nature. These electronically treated, modern-classical beauties are somewhat dark and moody at times, and with their elegiac violin and haunting horns are both elegant and absorbing, and the ultimately lingering effect is one of series of spine tingling, late night serenades.

RAINDANCE ALERT! Do you know what RTR means? Just RTR.

Spooky Bizzle presents the Haunted Joyride Version Excursion with four of the bestMC’s about over the biggest Grime tune. Riko Dan, Mez, Nasty Jack & PK join Spooky on this killer record.

SUMMER OF SEVENTEEN are MONIKA KHOT (NORDRA, ZEN MOTHER), WILLIAM FOWLER COLLINS, DANIEL MENCHE, FAITH COLOCCIA (MAMIFFER), and AARON TURNER. (SUMAC, SPLIT CRANIUM).

Wildfires plagued Washington state during the summer of 2017, their smoke drifting westward toward the Seattle area and toxifying the air. Shortly before that trauma, MONIKA KHOT, WILLIAM FOWLER COLLINS, DANIEL MENCHE, FAITH COLOCCIA, and AARON TURNER had gathered at the latter two musicians' House Of Low Culture studio on idyllic Vashon Island with revered producer RANDALL DUNN. There they cut eight songs that capture the makeshift band's feelings of what COLOCCIA calls "a kind of doomsday lurking in the background." It's as if these highly attuned players had a premonition.

"Summer Of Seventeen" -which was edited and arranged by MONIKA KHOT, who records apocalyptic music solo as NORDRA and plays in the avant-rock band ZEN MOTHER—is a nuanced admixture of these musicians' sounds and a culmination of all of their previous collaborations. COLOCCIA and TURNER have created eldritch folk and chamber rock for over a decade in MAMIFFER while engaging in various solo and group projects that explore their profound spirituality in sound. MENCHE has been a fixture on the abstract composition scene for 31 years and COLLINS is a savvy explorer of drone and ambient forms. Their ephemeral summit meeting has yielded a masterwork for the ages.

A heaven/hell and beauty/beastliness dichotomy pervades the album—as if a titanic struggle was transpiring in that small studio. The fearsome trumpet fanfare that starts "Chorus Of The Innocents" heralds a baleful fate. With a subliminal industrial rhythm bristling beneath the eerie exhalations, the song submerges us in a slow-motion maelstrom, a horror-film facsimile of MILES DAVIS' "Bitches Brew". "Perceived Slight" threads death-metal screams through a stark, suspenseful atmosphere, with austere glints of guitar and beats like fists on a casket lid intensifying the dread.

Angelic chants and celestial drones perfume the air in several of the songs on "Summer Of Seventeen", countered with muted blast beats, serrated hums, jagged glitches, simulacra of grinding gears and lightning. It's as if no good deed goes unpunished. "Spirits Of Redeemer" could be an elegy for the human race while "Cultural Orphan" sounds like a symphony for a malfunctioning factory. The album ends with "Theatre Needs An Audience," a harrowing ballad somewhere between EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN and MERZBOW; it's a savage rent in the space-time continuum.

"Thinking about this record now," COLOCCIA recalls, "it seems like we were all sort of anticipating something like this current pandemic happening, although we were thinking about it as fire in the hands of man (literal fire, and also gunfire) that would overturn the normal running of things and reveal the current false beliefs systems holding up most of America."

That grave aura infiltrates "Summer Of Seventeen", However, a hopefulness bubbles beneath the foreboding architecture of sound and noise summoned here. The bunker is the new penthouse.

-Dave Segal, April 2020

Post lockdown does not mean we need to fall back into the same patterns like we did before. This EP contains a smooth transition to a new reality. ULTRATERRENO is TAGLIABUE`s (@josephtagliabue) newest EP on the Berlin and Zurich based micro Label Lustpoderosa.
The celestial sounds from the italian producer Tagliabue is a healing process of well tempered analog synthesizers. The cure is in the mix of pre dancefoor and ambient tracks inlcuding a slow trancy chug from well known and apreciated selector @AnatolianWeapons.
Tagliabue is not just inspired by the afro cosmic heritage of Beppe Loda and Daniele Baldelli, but also from post-folk, rock, prog and kraut infuences of 70’s and early 80’s, passing through New Wave and Synth Pop ofGaznevada or The Stupid Set and not to forget italians rave culture of the 90s with Franceso Farfa and MarcoDionigi just to mention a few.
This very intimate EP is a meditative and transcendental journey to another world. Literally

Nice Girl returns to Public Possession with her second EP “Whistling Thorn”.
Organic, psychedelic, percussive music with hints to early forms of communication that involved chants and rhythmic movements.
Naturally these activities were strongly connected to earth, taking place under the open sky often involving plants to enhance spiritual transmission.
Repetitive rituals creating a sense of community & togetherness.

Domenico Rosa's prolific electronic label, Propersound Italy presents the first of two repressings from the vivid electronic vision of Reedale Rise; this time, the highly sought after- The Searching EP.

4 tracks of dynamic variation from Electrosoul and Electrofunk, to Lush Techno pressed on high quality vinyl, and includes color artwork. Limited copies pressed!

Wislov returns from his EPs on Knitebreed with a stunning EP on Kniteforce. Featuring 4 amazing tracks, Wislov has upped the game and redefines what has made him one of the greatest new artists in the new old skool scene. This EP would be unmissable as a white label, or as a Knitebreed, but it needed a full sleeve with excellent artwork by Heavy Systems Inc to add icing to the icing to the icing on the cake. BOOM!

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

Sunquake is the first ever vinyl compilation of work by Désaccord Majeur, the alter ego of French artist Jérôme Mauduit who played a crucial role in Europe's post-industrial/ethno-ambient scene. Linking with figureheads Muslimgauze, O Yuki Conjugate and Rapoon (Zoviet France) via cassette compilations and seminal label Staalplaat, his music is played today by the likes of Vladimir Ivkovic, Elena Colombi and Interstellar Funk. Three carefully chosen cuts by the A Colourful Storm crew, properly cut and mastered at 45 rpm and housed in full-colour printed sleeve. with liner notes by Vladimir Ivkovic.

Neil Landstrumm new form as a sexless gas was taken in response to the decline of need for physical form in the facebook era of humanity. Brain Rays facilitated this transformation at his Bizarre Rituals event that he holds in the South West of the Brexshit UK in 2017. From this alchemic fusion of sexless gas and thermal energy was born the Dark Magus project of 1980s 12-bit spell casting and is now manifest in this mini-LP relaunching the Scandinavia label on 1990s techno based fame. Alternatively Landstrumm and Brain Rays can be found on a capitalist-disaster product market stall in Totnes most Tuesdays renting out knives and forks and tents to post-Brexit Tory victims.

The genie of Wadi Rum, found by Brain Rays and held captive in a small perfume bottle found on the streets of Salisbury to be freed only once returned to his native desert in Jordan by the mythical Hans of Pllazoor. This 12' is their communication to attract and seek Hans of Pllazoor and form a trilogy of cunts to make the epic journey by ancient Landcruiser to the valleys of Wadi Rum to the source of Dark Magus itself. Answers will be found as to why people STILL vote Tory in Britain and why a racist curse was placed over the moist islands in 2016.


What do/did you want to express with this record

How it feels to be a sexless gas in post_Brexshit Britain on a mission to release the genie of Wadi Rum with the help of Hans of Pllazoor. The mood was alchemic 12-bit spell-casting from deep inside the fantasy portal and the state of mind was careless panic.

How did you record it / technique / material

Brain Rays invited Neil Landstrumm to contribute tracks via the fantasy portal . Unfortunately lacking fingers, the sexless gas of Neil Landstrumm (ghost of the 90s) simply vaporised the material and breathed it through a hollow tube towards the portal. Brain Rays, who has fingers, simply gathered the gas and boom!, the vapour was mixed into a perfect holofane file.


Which influences / scenes did you want to represent

Brain Rays and Landstrumm wanted to represent disaster based capitalism and promote their weekly Brexshit market stall renting knives and forks and tents to Tory victims in the lovely town of Totnes in Devon. We exorcise evil Brexshit spirits. Influence was also taken from the 'Powder Exhibition' and several packs of Beef Rings. We represent 'Tales of Immoral Spell Casting' in 2019.

The Future -

We don't have any gigs as dancing social media expert DJs with USB sticks take them all these days from actual proper real record producers.

"transform Colláge" Is The Industrial-rhythmic Project Of Sven Bussler, An Electronic German Musician Active Since 1993. 
After Almost Twenty Years Of Silence With This Project, The Artist Returns On The Infidel Bodies' Cassettes Presenting An Album Composed Of 12 Tracks, 
Side A Was Recorded Between 2017 And 2018 Exclusively For Infidel Bodies And Side B Was Recorded In 1996 At Noise Research Laboratories. 

Transform Colláge Plays Harsh Electronic Music With Arpeggios And Synthesizers In An Ebm/electro Key With Heavy Techno/post-industrial Drums And Neo-classical Melodies Typical Of The Dark Age Accompanied By His Distorted Voice.

C-60 Tape Pro-dubbed, Jcard Printed 2 Sides, Download Card.
Cassette Comes In Deluxe Gatefold Box With Stickers.
Limited To 70 Copies

"“Als das Kind Kind war, wusste es nicht dass es Kind war” the opening words of “Himmel über Berlin (Wings of Desire)” by Wim Wenders are so incredibly simple and innocent that they strike you down like the most murderous thunderbolt: “When the child was a child, it didn’t realize it was a child”. Are these words the fantasies of an adult or are these words the adult cogitations of a child’s brain?

Birthportal's fourth installment comes courtesy of an enigmatic artist donning a novel alias. Noted as a versed producer and musician in their own right, and forming part of a certain well-established Austin-based electronic duo for the last 15 plus years-in this experimental EP they veer into more outright agressive dance floor territory using their production expertise to craft sonic projectiles that are as textured and nuanced as they are accurate and efficient for their context. This is a vinyl-only release, limited to 100 copies.

Vitamin D returns with its second release “Dubs & Grooves Vol. 1” from Bristol’s D&G. Label mainstay Wilfy D teams up with selector Simon G to give you 4 vocal driven classic UK Garage cuts in true VITD style. A1. “Al’s Groove” blends organ bass and R&B vocals for a no nonsense summer garage slammer while “Request Line” and “Cherry Rover'' provide soulful classy garage house cuts. The B2. Leigh Delamare gets a bit naughty, a certified 2-step club roller. Does what it says in the tin - club dubs and vocal groovers!

The far west has long been known as hollowed ground for Dub Reflective arts, from the birth of Reggae and subsequent Jamaican diaspora to the more recently developments that ultimately informed Dubstep. Many key figures have emerged on the left coast of the USA throughout these developments in Culture and Roots-centric Dubstep, with key among them being the surfacing of LoDubs, and its rise near the advent of the sound in 2006 serving to inform and cement Dub's true DNA at a time when the field of those carrying the torch throughout the region could be counted on a single hand.

Wrapping up the DUPLOC SELECTS compilation series with a 2x12" release featuring the best two tracks from each of the four chapters.

Green Vinyl Repress

Enjoy delivers with two absolute bangers which are a perfect fit for the AKO10 series. Crush and Don’t You Know are beautifully produced tracks that take you o a journey. Mesmerizing pads, vocal, drums We know once you close your eyes and listen, you will have this on repeat.

MASSIVE IN DEMAND 5 track EP from the one and only Floating Points, to be released on gatefold double vinyl, with spot varnish.

As well as brand new material the EP also features some of Floating Points oldest surviving tracks. This EP is part of a collaborative project between FP & long term friend Will Hurt who has created a Max/Msp patch which studies drum machine & synthesizer activity to generate visuals in real-time.

2020 Re-issue of Keith Kenniff's debut under his Goldmund moniker. Originally only released on CD in 2005 via John Twells' Type Recordings, this album of rare and unusual minimalist beauty is now presented as a vinyl edition for the first time.

Multi-instrumentalist Keith Kenniff is a busy man. He has appeared as Helios on a number of acclaimed releases, including Deaf Center’s ‘Neon City EP’, and released a debut album ‘Unomia’ on Merck records which has appeared on many best of 2004 lists. All this while studying at the prestigious Berklee College of Music, and playing drums, guitar or contributing production to a host of amazing musicians. Kenniff lives and breathes music, something that is very obvious when hearing tracks under any of his pseudonyms.

As Goldmund, Kenniff has disregarded the electronic elements of his music almost entirely in favour of just a piano, a microphone and occasionally a guitar. ‘Corduroy Road’ is thirteen tracks of pure recording, the sound of the piano being opened and the feet on the pedals, the sound of fingers pressing lovingly onto the keys. This is a record of rare and unusual beauty, so shocking and yet unpretentious in its simplicity. When the guitar does emerge from beside the delicately touched piano, it serves as a balancing point for the record. Weaving in and out of the melodies, it adds another layer to what is already incredibly moving music.

‘Corduroy Road’ is rooted in Kenniff’s love of folk music from the American Civil War. We can hear this directly from his rendition of Civil War era classic ‘Marching Through Georgia’, but the influence carries throughout the record. There is an unheard voice which propels each track through history, maybe the ghosts of dying soldiers whispering in a long forgotten bar. Every haunting note drifts deep into the psyche and is lost in the ether of nostalgia. In this way it is a concept recording of sorts, it certainly has a narrative and has to be listened to in sequence. The story has clear themes; loss, history, friendship, camaraderie, forgiveness and hope, all clearly marked out by musical segments. It is no surprise that Kenniff’s passion for cinema shines through so strongly.

It would be hard to draw comparisons to music so rooted in folk traditions, but the music evokes traces of Ryuichi Sakamoto, Mark Hollis, Keith Jarret or even Eno’s more piano based compositions. Yet influence seems unimportant when listening to this deeply personal work. Just let it sink in and drift into the psyche.

2020 Re-issue of Keith Kenniff's debut album under his Helios moniker. Originally only released on CD in 2004 via Miami based Merck Records, this album of hazy ambient electronica is now presented as a vinyl edition for the first time.

AllMusic Review by Joshua Glazer:

"Those who mistake ambient music for an endless tapestry of unwavering atmosphere, pleasant yet indistinguishable, should be handed as an argument to the contrary this album by a recent signee to Merck's rapidly expanding roster. Through 13 tracks of inarguably pretty music, Keith Kenniff displays the musical equivalent of a genius screen actor, able to send a million moods and messages with the most subtle of facial gestures. The opening pair of songs, "Velius" and "Cullin Hill," point to a blissful treat which sits on just the right side of new age symmetry (particularly given the former's live glistening piano treatment). But only eight beats into "Nine Black Alps," the sensation is irreversibly altered by a single, mournful bass note which rumbles like Hades against the bucolic tone that lead up to it. Unshackled, Kenniff continues to roam, drifting into circular beats on "Two Mark" before wandering off into weightless asphyxiation on "Samsara." He even allows for the organic sound of faint acoustic guitar and piano to join his endless travels, giving a moment of real world clarity at the eye of this hallucinogenic work. Few could get away with a singular ghostly voice transmission without implying a stretch for ideas, but by the time he reaches the song, "Suns That Circling Go," Kenniff is so recognized as an explorer that you cannot be surprised by where he may arrive next."

The next release on Hi Tek Sounds sees the inimitable JEB1 bring his distinctive sound to the label.

The A side, ‘Guyana’, is a mournful, melancholy affair full of lush melodies and choral arrangements, accentuated only by a pared down percussive rhythm track and growling bass line. The title connects the contemporary sound of inner city London back to JEB1’s ancestral heritage.

East Man steps up for the remix on the B side, stripping the track back even further, reducing it to a bouncing tin pan percussion and driving rhythms, and alternating between a warm low sub bass and a gritty growling bass lead to cut straight to the dance floor.

Portland and Beirut rub shoulders again as Beacon Sound and Ruptured reveal their second co-release, the new album by Lebanese ensemble Kinematik entitled Murur al-Kiram. Kinematik hails from the mountain village of Reyfoun. Formed in the summer of 2014, they recorded their debut album Ala' in the spring of 2017 and released it on Ruptured (RPTD 017CD/LP). The band is known for the elaborate visual setup of its live shows and has collaborated with a variety of different artists over the years in an effort to carefully craft each of its performances. Kinematik has toured extensively in Lebanon and Europe, re-scored Carl Theodor Dreyer's 1930's classic film Vampyr for the the 23rd European Film Festival in Beirut, and contributed soundtrack pieces for Lebanese filmmakers Ghassan Salhab's Une Rose Ouverte (2019) and Sarah Kaskas' Underdown. Murur al-Kiram uses electronics, intricate double-drumming, guitar, and bass to construct ambient soundscapes and hypnotic, propulsive rhythms -- conjuring the ghosts of a diminishing future as well as an unresolved past. Subtle in both angst and joy, the album celebrates small victories in the face of great defeats, echoing the band's conflicted mindset towards life in their country and community.

The record was recorded over a period of two months, and features Teddy Tawil joining the band as second drummer. Whereas Ala' saw Kinematik's four core musicians confining themselves to one instrument and/or role within the overall sonic construct of the band, these new compositions see each musician playing and equally at ease with several instruments, adding intensity, cohesiveness, and a sense of fluidity to the proceedings. The intent was to make a record that would sound like a single traveling shot, beginning with the musicians' childhood in their hometown, through their adult lives weighted down by the corruption and theft endemic to the Lebanese political system, until they are buried back in their place of birth. The salutary presence of Sary (newborn son of synth player Rudy Ghafari) that became the "raison d'être" of the record. Murur al-Kiram is the story of an important chapter in the band's history, one marked by uncertainty and hesitation, yet solid and vibrant in spite of the latter. With the recent mass protests against dire, still unresolved social conditions, a vision of a democratic and post-sectarian Lebanon has come into view. Recorded by Fadi Tabbal at Tunefork Studios in Beirut.

In August of 2016 Maria W Horn and Mats Erlandsson traveled to Balada in the Terres de I’Ebre region of Catalonia, Spain, for a two-week residency courtesy of the Eufonics festival in collaboration with EMS.

The geographical characteristics a visitor first encounters in the Terres de I’Ebre delta are defined by the development of industrial agriculture. Endless rice fields stretch through the flat landscape, framed by canals of water to sustain growth. Even the air is saturated with a vague scent of rice. This transmutation of the soil impacts the sonic environment, the buzzing of the irrigation system, the hypnotic constant chirping of crickets, the loud bang from the water pump that echoes through the delta at regular intervals.

Taking the opportunity to collaborate on a project specifically made within the context of the aural environment they found themselves in, and using the resources available to them, the pair decided to make
a musical work based entirely on field recorded material transformed through extensive digital editing and processing. Working quickly in the isolation offered by the residency they recorded found material at
night and spent the days shaping these recordings into four compositions that move on a dense continuum between drone, noise and generative music all imprinted with the textural characteristics of the immediate surroundings of that time and place.

Through the four compositions the work shows a sonic imprint of an environment shaped by human hands over an almost endless period of time, as heard through the ears of two transient visitors processing their sliver of time in the area as it was unfolding to them.

The resulting music was performed in concert during the Eufonics festival of 2016 and was originally released on cassette tape by XKatedral in 2017 under the moniker Dufwa. For this vinyl reissue in collaboration with Boomkat the material has been remixed by Erlandsson and Horn and remastered for vinyl by Daniel M Karlsson.

These run of releases on ‘Existence Is Resistance’ comes from the Legendary Proto Garage Record Label ‘Same People’, and see’s Persian & Long time musical partner DJ Texsta, repressing some of their most pioneering UKG E.P.s.

If you are passionate about local music scenes as much as we are you might already know about the current brood of great bands going on in Cardiff, Wales.
Chain Of Flowers were the first to hail from the Welsh capital, followed by related side projects such as Night Thoughts, more recently came Private World of which the two boys we’re about to introduce are also live members of.
A new wave/synth act from the same city called Plastic Estate is emerging this year.

The duo composed by Nicholas James and Stanley Fouracres have released a few digital singles in 2019 as they’ve opened for The Murder Capital at Sŵn Festival and played alongside the likes of M!R!M, Josiah Konder and The Love Coffin. This Place is their first physical release and it’s due on 7-inch vinyl and digital on June 19.

On the two songs that compose the single, Plastic Estate clearly draw influence from the best UK new wave and pop artists such as Dave Gahan, Paddy McAloon, Roddy Frame and yet there is a sophisticated casualness and an innate freshness in their songwriting that makes them not sounding dated at all.
Amazing composition skills for such a young band and a perfect balance between electronic dance elements and acoustic instruments allow them to pay homage to the above-mentioned masters and to be a perfectly contemporary group at once.

Although it’s possible to pick out some darker lyrics, the overall feel is up-beat and breezy. It’s a contrast that runs through a lot of their music – like a dichotomy between dark, melancholia and happier, brighter feelings.
Whether it’s a happy pop synth riff mixed with sombre lyrics or vice versa, the young Welsh duo is delivering the best 80’s-inspired modern pop craft.
RIYL: Echo & The Bunnymen, Prefab Sprout, Depeche Mode, Orange Juice, Wild Nothing.

Reissue of the fourth Skinshape LP ‘Filoxiny’.
Skinshape is the project of British musician, William Dorey. The sound has roots in many genres, but in particular 1960s-70s Funk, Soul, Reggae, Psychedelic Rock, Afrobeat and Folk. Skinshape grew out of a love for old music and the way it sounded. Initially Dorey experimented with samples (especially drum breaks) to create instrumental hip-hop/trip-hop tracks, but then later started to play around with tape machines as a means to create his own 'samples'. This process gave birth to Skinshape, with all elements being recorded by Dorey since the first self-titled album, released in 2014. He released his second album Oracolo in 2015, and in 2017 he released his third album 'Life & Love.' Aside from the Skinshape project, Dorey was bassist for the band Palace from 2014-2017, and also runs a reggae label called Horus Records, based in North London.