Beats Новости

"Rare, super limited 003 from SATURATE! Records 7'' single series, featuring the bigger than life artists heRobust from Atlanta and Pixelord from Moscow. Silky and crunchy."

Rudolf Abramov is taking a step in a different direction from his last release on Höga Nord Rekords. This 7” contains the works of deep mining in an old hard drive during the introversion of the pandemic quarantine. These two gems have been going under a bit of tasteful polishing before reaching the point of release and the result is a punk meets Stoner rock experience propelled by hard sequencers and drum machines.

This record is as English/Irish as you find em: straight forward instrumentation and lyrical performance presented with a dirty and rough production. The beats are stripped with an edgy punch and the synthesisers are overdriven, giving them guitar like qualities.

The Paracetamol/Clonex 7” is a release of covid demons, and the sound of spitting out the bitter taste of isolation, or to use his own words: “On this 7" you will find absurd and desperate lyrics accompanied by heavy English and Irish accents, driven robotic drum machines, dirty synths, crunching bass, and as unpolished as your dad's old Angle grinder. All that served alongside your favourite cheese and onion crisps”

The man behind this mix once made a joke about me being an extremist in my opinions . So to confirm his opinion, let’s start with a bold statement:

Tendency is the most unique and challenging DJ in Portugal. For more than a decade, he's been developing a very liquid form of mixing, not only technically but most importantly, sonically, while creating a very melting, weird sounding mix of organic, sub-heavy frequencies, together with the high pitch aggressions of the early rave influenced computer music in the line of Florian Hecker and alike. While in some larger European cities other DJs and producers were developing this approach conceptually, Tendency (Solution back then) refined this utopic, post-digital, aesthetics in the packed dancefloors of a small, musically conservative local club culture, not very tolerant to anything but catchy, melodic, dancefloor friendly, sets. It all sounded very futuristic, alien... It also sounded inevitable - like if the mix of genres and influences he was creating were logical, and yet most would never think of mixing them together.

Carlos Milhazes (Matéria Prima)

* Villem returns to Spearhead Records with his second solo EP for the label following on from last years ‘One Track Mind EP’.
* The heavily dub influenced Chalice kicks things off with a groove that reminisces of early Calibre.
* Sunbeams & Love Rays both have the classic Villem liquid roller style that has seem him in huge demand as a DJ.
* Moving On wraps up with EP nicely with Villem writing and performing the majority of live instrumentation and vocals himself.
* This EP is already being hailed as Villem’s best work to date by the likes of Etherwood, DJ Marky, London Elektricity & BCee.

Giulia Fournier-Mercadante aka GiGi FM debuts on Bambounou’s Bambe label with an EP of spiritually-charged techno mantras.

Magnetite EP marks the first signed EP for GiGi FM following the self-released Kiwi Synthesis Diary 21k mini-album from December 2021. These releases build on her strong presence as an adventurous DJ imbuing the art of techno selection with a hypnotic, ancient charm. It’s no surprise to discover common aesthetic ground between Fournier-Mercadante and Bambounou, whose own tendencies towards polyrhythmic incantations are a snug fit within this vaguely defined field of transcendental techno.

In every aspect of her work Fournier-Mercadante presents an alternative vision of electronic dance music steeped in astrology, philosophy, metaphysical science and ritual. As a trained, accomplished dancer, her music is intrinsically linked to physical movement, made explicit in the visual accompaniments to her pieces, and in the creative process of this release.

Amongst the four tracks on this record is ‘Senstronaut (MYO)’, the first Fournier-Mercadante has made entirely using an MYO motion sensor. All parts were created as progressive layers using arm gestures, affording her an immediate connection between her dance performance and music production.

Kinesiology – the study of human movement – forms one of the underlying themes of the EP. By extension, Fournier-Mercandata draws inspiration from dancing as an ancient custom responding to the atomic vibrations of the universe, and considers the material which allows us and all living things to sense the kinetic force of Earth’s electromagnetic field, the mineral magnetite.

“By connecting with the electromagnetic field of the Earth, we can tap into a hidden and forgotten power,” she explains. “We can connect to the lost wisdom that is buried in each rock, flower or tree, and sonic frequencies that surround us.”

Considered as ritual aids or as advanced techno exercises, this concerted expression from GiGi FM builds on Bambe’s hard to predict but consistently fascinating arc of exploration within music and design, unbound by formula and driven only by sincere creativity and Bambounou’s impeccable ear.

Liege-based Gravitational Effect heralds in Reposition's 3rd release with a dazzling electro EP.

The 4-tracker pays tribute to electro's intergalactic appeal, whilst simultaneously espousing a fresh take on euphoric and mind-bending dancefloor music.

Across the 3 original tracks, ever-evolving synth patterns and playful melodies meet cosmic tones and finely-programmed drum patterns.

For such a release, Radioactive Man fit the bill perfectly to jump on remix duties, especially considering how much the legendary producer has inspired GE's musical outlook. His take on Base Control (the most hard-hitting original on the EP) experiments cleverly with the central synth pattern, pitching this down alongside more spaced-out production throughout, to create a 7-min masterpiece of psychedelic and engaging electro.

The virgin idealist bedroom producer is buried, now make way for the 4.0 romantic sound designer! After some appearances on various artists, xl.iks unearths his long-time working debut EP and is ready to win the he@rts all around the world with a stunning piece of corrosive-but-sentimental IDM. Entitled "eoseubnida", this record is the result of all the contradictory passions the Grenoble based producer is crossed by. His bad boy tastes for dark, harsh and noisy stuff coexist in harmony with his emo soul interested in flowers, love and birds. In 5 tracks xl.iks expresses this inner duality : tortured beats are enlightened by mellow synths, outdated video games references are bundled up in HD sound design and the whole piece describes the thin line between reality and virtual world. xl.iks definitely belongs to our hypermodern era except the fact that, facing our uncertain future, he prefers to unsheathe the final fantasy sword of poetry rather than the cyberpunk cynism.

Next up from Renegade Hardware's 'From the Vaults' rerelease series we have an EP that might have just celebrated its twentieth anniversary, but still sounds as future-proofed as ever. This is the 'Street Level EP'.
First, a bit of background. By 2001, Q Project and Spinback – or Total Science as they're known in combination – were already well-established pillars of the junglist community. Between the pair of them, they'd delivered anthems like the perennial 'Champion Sound', released on labels as disparate as Reinforced, Good Looking, Hardleaders and Metalheadz, and even dropped a full-length album, 'Advance', on their own CIA imprint.
As we journey from 'Street Level' to 'Rebel Soul' onwards to 'Room Service', we hear the influence of Total Science's junglistic roots, a sound that has remained steadfastly relevant across the generations. Breaks and samples are sliced,
twisted and manipulated into heart-palpitating arrangements, with an expert's ear for rhythm programming keeping us just the right side of insanity.
The EP is closed out with Source Direct's remix of 'Out of Touch', reconfiguring Total Science's break and bass workout into an evolving old skool-tinged surrealist landscape. So, we're shown yet another facet of drum 'n' bass music's possibilities drawn out by Hardware's roster.
And again, Renegade Hardware's 'From the Vaults' series delivers. Many current junglists are actually younger than this EP, which is why it's huge that this music has become available for them in an accessible form. Clearly, this era of stylistic meldings as jungle influence combined with drum 'n' bass technique should be a cornerstone of their musical education.

Sound is basically physics, but it could also be biology. During the whole stomaching process, our body is the host of an astonishing living concerto and becomes a true rehearsal studio for our organic musicians.

Borborygmus, deglution sounds, hydrochloric acid disintegrating food are some of the natural activities that produce the most interesting soundwaves we can witness as a one man crowd.

That's exactly what Vina Konda tried to explore in his third solo EP "Osseus Labyrinth". After many years of research, the Palin Gen laboratories scientist presents a staggering sonic exploration into the human digestive system that aims to musically reproduce what he theorized as a "galastrointestinal journey" where "gastric" and "galactic" merge into

the same word. This nano-molecular adventure through our inner cosmos finds its way in an experimental bass music and techno interpretation where powerful rythmics are surrounded by swarming biological organisms and magnified by a breathtaking internal body reverb.

The first track named " (-C-O-(O)P(O)-O-C-) " is a 120bpm futuristic electro trip picturing a tracheal fall, signing the begining of our anatomic expedition.

"Melting E. Coli" is opening by a sword sound followed by a warrior cry, recalling here a fictive battlefield where bacteria are

colonizing gastrointestinal walls at the rhythm of a 150 bpm banger.

"SNC Modulation" is a scientific term about the exchange of informations between brain and guts which takes the form of a technoid

experimentation divided into two parts which are symbolizing the neural information moving forward and then backward.

Our travel through the ventral meanders ends with the beautiful " >0> ", a smooth and nice "bellyaric" ballad picturing the body exit of our vehicle.

Vina Konda's science knowledge and creative narration make "Osseus Labyrinth"

a pure Sci-Fi piece of art in which the musical medium was prefered toexpress his ideas rather than words or images.

Cosmos 2043 is a wild, science fiction-themed library LP by French synthesizer wizard Bernard Fèvre. Released in 1977, Fèvre imagines a far future populated by space-age electronics and lush, vivid melody. This edition has also been treated to a remaster from the original tapes by Fèvre.

The lost LP from 1977, rebuilt from original tapes by the creator of BLACK DEVIL DISCO CLUB - Bernard Fèvre

The French electronic music pioneer behind Black Devil Disco Club released three seminal library albums in the seventies: Suspense (1975), Cosmos 2043 (1977) and The Strange World of Bernard Fèvre (1977)


**A fourth album called Orbit Ceremony, produced just a few months after, remained in his home studio and never saw the light, sentenced to almost 40 years in the Devil's vault.

By chance, while working on the re-issues, Bernard recently found the original lost tapes of Orbit Ceremony, including the multi-tracks, which he remixed and remastered himself.

Spacy moogs, weird clavinet, and cosmic analogue drum machines: it's all here. The quirky, cosmic library music found on this long-deleted 70's science-fiction-themed album is full of burbling synths and off-kilter melodies.

For an understanding of the past, you have to look to the future – or was it the other way round? No matter how you want to put it, some things are an aesthetic choice, and the meaning of style does not necessarily go hand in hand with the latest fashion fad or an incurable retromania. Chinaski’s debut (album under that name) on Running Back seems predestined to resume these discussions. Drenched in sepia colors and faded VHS tapes memories, fed by a science-fiction that never became a fact, essentially made with the ultramodern instruments of yesteryear (see back cover for further reference) that became redundant through their own relatives and a need to ensure efficiency (time, space, money), it’s either concept art, an ode to Disco Piu, a post card from the early days of Frankfurt’s Dorian Gray or the search and itch for a time machine.

All of the debate above is rendered useless by the title though: No Pop, No Fun! And those are the main musical reference points here: instrumental pop that you can dance to, pastel melodies that stick with you and fun frequencies. Downtempo ballads for video game characters in love meet cabriolet anthems and scooter songs. Perfectly composed and carefully made.

If John Hughes would have ever aspired to make a high school movie set in a post-apocalyptic Italy: this is what the score would probably sound like.

The album, which features some incredibly exciting and varied names including neo soul up-and-comer Greentea Peng, American jazz & soul vocalist Lady Blackbird (on ‘Sunlight’) and British blues vocalist Natalie Duncan, shows off both the rich history and calibre of Goldie and James Davidson’s individually but also how they can create something together that’s so cohesive and forward thinking. The sound the duo have been able to create is also partly due to their geographical locations over the past 18 months, bouncing ideas between Davidson’s studio in Bournemouth on the south coast and Goldie’s house in Phuket, Thailand; showing two songwriters and producers at the top of their game responding to a year and a half in very different atmospheres but similar trying circumstances.
Lead single from the album ‘Dassai Menace’ (released with double A-side ‘Fathoms’) was picked up by Virgil Abloh who used it to soundtrack his Louis Vuitton SS22 fashion film ‘Amen Break’ (watch here), with Goldie walking in the accompanying catwalk show. Goldie will also be in residence throughout the month of February 2022 on BBC Radio 1 alongside the likes of world renown DJ’s Sama' Abdulhadi, Folamour, Or:la, LCY and Scratcha DVA.

Black Truffle is pleased to present Landscape and Voice, a radical new work (and rare vinyl release) from major Japanese sound artist Toshiya Tsunoda. Undoubtedly one of the most influential artists working with location recordings since the 1990s, Tsunoda’s work possesses a rigorously searching quality that sets him apart from his contemporaries. Tsunoda is known to many listeners for the subtle atmospheric poetry of his early Extract from Field Recording Archive series, which focussed on vibrations recorded in various indoor and outdoor environments in his native Miura Peninsula, often inside pipes, bottles and other vessels. In more recent years, his work has explored the implications of his claim that field recording should be seen as ‘depiction’ rather than ‘documentation’. He has explored disorienting editing and processing in his works with Taku Unami, and, perhaps most radically, represented Maguchi Bay as a kind of kinetic sculpture for shaking speakers by removing all but the inaudible low frequencies from a field recording (Low Frequency Observed at Maguchi Bay).

One of the recurrent concerns of Tsunoda’s recent work, as he explains in the crystalline liner notes accompanying this release, is ‘exploring how I can establish a subjective relationship with an environment, rather than seeing it merely as an object to be recorded’. This has taken various forms, from documenting simultaneously an outdoor environment and the blood flowing through the listener/recorder’s body (captured with a stethoscope) on The Temple Recordings, to representing his own experience of the landscape as made up of ‘grains of space and time’ by inserting looped fragments into field recordings in Grains of Spring.

On Landscape and Voice, this meeting between subject and object becomes an almost mystical union between the natural and the human. As with all of Tsunoda’s work, a relatively simple concept leads to compelling, thought-provoking results. Landscape and Voice combines vowel sounds spoken by six voices with short, looped fragments of field recordings, their noise character suggesting consonants: voice and landscape thus join together in something like words. The record consists of three pieces, each using a different, richly evocative field recording, which periodically freezes, catching on a looped fragment to which is synchronised an abruptly looped spoken vowel sound. The lengths between these interruptions vary, as do the tempi of the loops. The interruption of these lushly immersive recordings of the world – bristling with bird song, rushing water, distant traffic, and clinking metal – only serves to intensify them, as if the depicted environment itself had been returned to the listener each time it abruptly reappears. At the same time, the constant interruption creates an uncannily frozen effect, as if the recorded environment were an object rather than a stretch of recorded time. When combined with the bare human presence of the vowel sounds, the result is both austere and magical. Pressed on 45RPM for maximum fidelity, in a gorgeous sleeve designed by Lasse Marhaug with liner notes from the composer, Landscape and Voice is a radical proposition from one of the deepest thinkers in contemporary sound.

Lunatic Harness, µ-Ziq's rare and sought-after fourth album, was originally released in July 1997 on Virgin's Hut Recordings label. It is generally considered to be Mike Paradinas's best work of the nineties. An Apple Music review describes Lunatic Harness as "the prettiest album to come out of the mid-'90s "drill'n'bass movement", noting that Paradinas eschewed the abrasiveness of similar works by Squarepusher and Aphex Twin in favour of "atmospheres of ethereal color and shimmering melody", bringing the album "closer to pop music than anything Paradinas had previously attempted". Planet Mu has compiled a special 256th anniversary edition 4xLP boxset bringing together the My Little Beautiful EP, the Lunatic Harness album and May 1998's Brace Yourself EP (released by USA's Astralwerks label) with the addition of four rare tracks. Discs one and two of the vinyl are the original Lunatic Harness album, disc three compiles the My Little Beautiful b-sides with three unreleased cuts from the period and a remix of Mr.Angry from 1997's Mealtime compilation, while disc four is the 8-track Brace Yourself EP which hasn't been re-issued since 1998. This all comes in individual printed sleeves housed in a rigid box with an insert collage of some of the press Mike received at the time. There is also a 2xCD edition with the same tracklisting.

Clear Vinyl

Arthur Mine is a keyboardist and electronic musician from Kyiv, Ukraine. An ex-member of several live bands from punk to indie and experimental. In 2017 Nikolaienko's collaborator on the Nostalgia Por Mesozoica 7” single.

For the collectors of New Age cassettes to put somewhere between Sven Grünberg and Vangelis.

INIT is Benedikt Frey & Nadia D`Alo. We are delighted to present their long delayed vinyl and digital album, NRGY.

Born out of various art performances and installations, INIT states a logical outcome of Berlin based duo Nadia D`Alo and Benedikt Frey. With heavy use of analogue synthesis and drum-machines, INIT rethinks its genre's sonic approach, unfolding a unique and organic, yet alienating sound, somewhere in the mysterious midst of Acid, Techno, Ambient and Kraut-Rock.

This is INIT's third album, following two releases on Hivern Discs, and performances at clubs such as Berghain, Robert Johnson and Pudel Club.

INIT say -

Module, NRGY, and Time were reverse extracted out of our live set and re-recorded and re-arranged after we realised how well they work in clubs. It is the first time we worked this way as we tend not to play our compositions live, like we produced them. Mostly we just extract loops out of our production to mess around with in a loose live project.

Snowglobe, Holes In My CV and N.O.D. were more built up from a studio jam plus a bulletproof-ish arrangement afterwards.

Tried and tested on dance floors this is a surefire hit album on the dancefloor, and at home. NRGY!

Homemade ambient synth songs that will lead you to a state between deep relaxation and pleasant chemical high. Subtle, sincere, but also strange, Leoni Leoni's music has a powerful attraction and a unique bewitching force. The synthesizers sizzle, the drum machine moves forward sometimes throbbing. Upon it, the Bernese musician and producer sings about life, about love, in their banality and magnificence. With 4 homemade cassettes released since 2019, Leoni Leoni has established herself as a major figure of the Swiss underground. With dozens of concerts across Switzerland and France, she distills to perfection her music in the weirdest places, the craziest parties. A bit of magic, the scent of drugs, the caress of a summer white night... let yourself be carried away.

Best Effort is honoured to issue the debut recordings of Nutcase & Papachubba on vinyl for the first time. The duo of dub technician Anthony Maher (best known as Sheriff Lindo) and prolific Perth transplant Andrew Armstrong (a.k.a. Friendly) were one of the first Drum’n’Bass acts in Australia, at a time when the genre was only just beginning to expand beyond British shores. Self-released on Andrew’s own Gulp Communications label, the duo carved out a creative niche for themselves in the staunchly partitioned dance scenes in Australia, blending a bevy of shared influences in an original style. The experimentation that yielded this EP still sounds inspired, and we are delighted to present it to a new audience and highlight Australia’s breakbeat history beyond nosebleed hardcore.

The music here has a strong affinity with contemporaneous UK drum’n’bass in it’s sprawling, progressive style; there are particularly strong parallels with Goldie’s epoch-making “Timeless”. The duo worked with vocalists much in the same way. Peta lends gorgeous vocals on three highlights here - the serene “Floating Inside” and it’s darkside inverse, the ragga jungle ruffness of “Falling Inside”, as well as the downtempo “Track 8”. “Floating Inside” is classic atmospheric Jungle, wistful pads & subbass pressure overlaid with Peta’s weightless singing. Conversely “Falling Inside” is boisterous; Apache-cut-up and a fierce descending bassline with Ragga samples to strike DREAD into any sound bwoy.

The vocals are chopped up and interpolated amongst the guitar pluck of “Track 8”, drenching them in FX and panning it across the rollicking digi-dub bassline in the EP’s most lysergic moment. The duo embrace a Liquid sound on “Diminished” - the aqueous sound design and rolling drums wouldn’t have sounded out of place on Intelligent stalwarts Good Looking. The titular “Flex” with its frenetic drum programming, does exactly what it says in the title. There’s a palpable excitement to the track, you can hear the real-time experimentation as they stretch the elasticity of the break into amen-pointillism, in a time before codified production methods and dry clinicism.

All of these tracks are replete with the creativity of a fresh perspective at an incredible time before the bifurcation of Drum’n’Bass into umpteen subgenres. Incredible material that will shake today’s bass bins as it did in the 90s

Imagine!’ by Overlords of the UFO was a US progressive trance hit globally at the time of its original release in 1994, holding the number one spot on many underground dance charts for several weeks. Mixmag dubbed it “wicked” and other relevant magazines also gave it the highest accolades, e.g. XLR8R “deserving of the highest praise”. Overlords of the UFO ‘Imagine!’ is a collaboration between Anthony Barker and Lynn Serafinn, both trained musicians and analogue synth aficionados. Side A ‘Whirling Thru Time & Space Mix’ was inspired by a poem of 60’s cult sci-fi author Fredric Brown, and ‘UFO Mix’ is a faster tempo remix of the former. Side B ‘Deeply Hypnotic Mix’ is a downtempo remix incorporating some world music elements, and ‘Surfin’ UFO’ was a very limited licensed track that Billboard Magazine described positively and humorously as “campy and kitschy”.

Pan Daijing's exhibition-performance Tissues premiered in the Tanks at the Tate Modern in autumn 2019. A five-act immersion in performance, sound, movement, space, and most of all emotion in its most distilled and conflicted states, Tissues engaged with the conventions of opera and tragedy to present a searing representation of the embattled human psyche in space and time. While the ambitious multi-sensory artwork made use of the range of Daijing's artistic capabilities, music, particularly the voice, was at its formal and emotional core. The vinyl and digital release of Tissues on PAN serves as a record of that work, in the form of an hour-long audio excerpt: an invaluable archival document from Daijing's expansive live practice. Tissues is both a solitary work and a formal study in relation. Composed, directed, designed, written, and performed by Daijing (alongside a cast of twelve dancers and opera singers), the work_its libretto written in a mixture of old and modern Chinese_lingers inside a single human perspective. Daijing conjures states that are by turns delicate and severe, the tension between opposing modes animating the work as it unfolds. And yet, for all its interiority, Tissues foregrounds an intimate relationship with its audience through details like its engulfing visual landscape and its rattling, confrontational narrative arcs. Daijing uses the opera form as a prism through which to question the boundaries of music itself: perhaps, she proposes, music is much more than simply what is heard. It is in the relationship between voice and electronics that this limit is most clearly breached. Across the four acts gathered in this documentation, a counter-tenor, a soprano, a mezzo-soprano, and the artist herself voice a mixture of stunning laments and cries over an instrumental landscape, built out from industrial texture. Meant to be heard in a single listen, rather than track by track, the work unfolds through tender hollows and agitated peaks. At its crescendo, the operatic vocals melt away and the synthesizers themselves seem to howl with grief. Daijing uncovers an essential, sometimes painful, music in all that surrounds us, inviting something like catharsis but also a greater understanding of the thing she and her cast conjure and draw close. A tissue, after all, is both a disposable object one uses to wipe away a tear, and the building block of our fleshy human forms. Daijing reaches and excavates the roiling core of what it is to be alive and full of feeling. Music from Tissues, an opera of five acts at Tate Modern, London on Oct 2nd, 4th and 5th, 2019 Composed, written, produced and directed by Pan Daijing. Performed by Anna Davidson, soprano ; Marie Gailey, mezzo soprano, Steve Katona, countertenor and Pan Daijing, additional vocals. The recording is mixed by James Ginzburg , Jan Urbiks and Pan Daijing, mastered by Rashad Becker. *2xLP comes in a gatefold cover, and includes an obi strip and a booklet containing images from the performance & liner notes, as well as a postcard granting access to exclusive video documentation*

Following his debut on the label in 2019 - ‘Mind Dweller’ (COUNTER013) - Frankfurt’s Stefan Alexis is back with his next chapter of four atypical, undulating club tracks.

The EP features ‘Eratosthene’, a shimmering up-tempo weapon in collaboration with label founder Inland, alongside three other diverse cuts highlighting some of the Macedonian psychotherapist’s favourite modes of play: filter-funk, acid, broken-beats, sampling.

This release comes on 180g 12’’ vinyl and digital, featuring artwork by Berlin-based Norweigan painter Tyra Tingleff.

Søulless returns to Industrial Complexx with I Am Abomination, his second album on this label, on which he has also released two more releases with Agent 15, a project born in this new pandemic era and formed by Francesco Rachele and Felipe Novoa, and with Moral Excerpt, a duo he forms with his compatriot Davide Pappalardo, also a contributor to our reviews section.

Søulless, and the different projects of Francesco Presotto, base their sound on the roots of industrial music, with massive rhythms, degraded structures and a deep respect for the origins of this musical genre. However, the interpretation of Søulless is completely open, as it feeds on different influences and techniques more typical of other experimental styles.

I Am Abomination shows the creative skills of Søulless with six tracks in which the author recreates six chaotic and perverse scenarios, in which the attitude of a human being with great self-esteem problems is denigrated. This concept is perfectly transferred to a sound environment, each cut shows different moods, in which psychopathies, fears and degenerative mental problems appear.

Diapason Rex is the second LP by Oakland-based producer Brogan Bentley on Leaving Records. Picking up right where Bentley’s 2014 LP The Snake left off, Diapason Rex’s songs evoke the geography and spiritual energy of the west coast while showcasing the producer’s growing confidence in both carefully crafted dance productions and expansive sonic arrangements. Bentley states, “It’s been brewing for a long, long time and it holds so much information. This is the crowning burst of harmonious song for me, my opus, my cosmic regal song.”

Haunting, swelling album-opener “Ecstasy” sets the record’s tone, where a bed of meditative pads are confronted by a driving breakbeat, heavy layers of soulful vocals and hard-edged synths. Almost defying categorization, the sound of Diapason Rex is bracingly personal. Bentley states, “I’m so particular in so many aspects, and I’m so certain of what I want things to sound like, that I’ll go after it with everything I’ve got. Between the two places of pure experimentation and total intention, is where this album was born from… I really feel like every single song is a crystal.”

Club-ready tracks like the stuttering, sample-slicing “Work” and the elegant yet pained “Phantom” highlight Diapason Rex’s production value. Bentley’s attention to sonic detail is deep-seated; according to the producer, “For me, music is my teacher, and specifically bass.… This stuff is really supposed to acclimate the energy centers in your body.

Diapason Rex is thematically heavy, with late album cut “The Keeper” occupying a special place for Bentley. He states, “’The next day I found out that my friend had gotten hit and killed by a drunk driver. I think it was my friend showing me stuff from the other side about where we go… I sat with this piece of music for a year and a half, writing and producing it. I recorded that the day after my grandma died - I can hear the tears in my eyes from when I was recording those vocals. . It’s stuff like that. For that song to have such a connection to the afterlife, I couldn’t have imagined that going into it. I wasn’t thinking, ‘I’m going to make this song that describes being guided into some eternal space by some all-knowing hand,’ but that’s kind of what comes through when I hear this stuff now, because I’m just a human. We’re stuck down here on this mortal plane, but through music, something spiritual and sacred and timeless is transmitted.”

Emily Cardwell on Never Ending / Trust Yourself
Stunny on The Work
Uppy on Diapason Rex
Mixed by Ken Gilmore
Mastered by Jake Viator
Artwork by Erik Wilson
Lettering by Ramona Stoianova

D'Cruze, the legendary DnB producer synonymous with some of Suburban Base's biggest tracks such as 'Lonely' and 'Watch Out' now sees some of his unreleased productions finally getting a much sought-after release.

The Hidden Trax EP's theme comes from concept that the D'Cruze limited US only edition album contained tracks that were only discovered if you allowed that album to play on beyond what was supposed to be the last song, after a gap of silence no track ID and not listed on the track titles. This is where you’d find 'Bittersweet' pt 2 as a hidden track on the CD. This was Bittersweet’s only ever appearance having never been released in the UK and never released on vinyl or digitally worldwide.

The lush rolling workout of ‘Hardstep' is probably our most requested track that has never had a vinyl release having only briefly appeared on the very limited CD only ‘Subbase Sampler’, demand for a vinyl pressing of this has been called for since 1996.
Another beautiful hidden gem 'Sublime State' from 1995 wouldn’t be known to our UK audience as it’s an exclusive tune to the US only CD release that has never seen a UK or vinyl release.

Rounded off with the incredibly beautiful 'Meus Precious Filius', an unheard unreleased D’Cruze track that was considered a 'lost DAT' until recently surfaced. We are now able to bring this to the world as an epic slice of fresh music from D’Cruze.

The EP is presented on blue and black splattered vinyl making every single piece uniquely different. Original custom sleeve artwork is provided by Suburban Base legendary artist Dave Nodz in his iconic graffiti influenced style.

These are already high demand tracks all brought together for a fantastic value 4 track EP, so grab yourself a piece of future history now whilst we have these available for a limited time.

repress

Dame Area ended 2021 and has started 2022 acclaimed in the european stages with a live show praised for its power and darkness, made up of many new tracks.

Some of those have been gathered in this EP. Industrial music with a touch of EBM without ortodoxy nor cobwebs, with metallic percussions performing some atypical rhythms and Suicide's minimalist spirit overflying the scene.

Probably Dame Area's most dance-floor oriented record till the date, "Esto me pertenece" is not simply "dance music" but combat music instead. In fact it doesn't lose sight of the fact that what's most important are not the fat kicks, the unrelenting synths or the percussion, but the attitude. And in spite of the patent darkness of the record there is a clear call to arms to claim what belongs to us: the present.

Prompted by his heroes John Cale, Kate Bush, J Dilla, and Brian Eno, the esteemed Deantoni Parks presents the self-produced four-song studio EP "A Self", out July 14th 2021 on Leaving Records Genre.

"A collection of pieces about the discovery of sounds and sonic universes hidden in objects, places and within yourself." - Feldermelder & Julian Sartorius

Commissioned by the legendary concert venue Bad Bonn in Düdingen, Switzerland, and the KRAN project, 'Bonn Route' is a collaborative album by electronic musician Feldermelder and percussionist Julian Sartorius. A location- based sound walk that can be experienced both on-site in the village of Düdingen, and as a full-length album. The eleven tracks are a sonic homage to, and an artistic interpretation of, a small village in Switzerland's heartland.

Building on his practice of site-specific performances and percussive sound walks, Julian Sartorius captured sounds and patterns at eleven locations: the train station and cemetery, on the banks of a stream, on a bicycle path, and in an intimate cavern above the village's lake, amongst other locales. Sartorius documented the soundscape of the village in field recordings, recorded samples of objects and captured percussive patterns by playing on the architecture and vegetation found on-site.

Feldermelder then processed these recordings into eleven compositions, preserving the locations' acoustic identities, but expanding on Sartorius' material. Besides the bassline on 'Veloweg', Feldermelder used only sound reactive synthesis and resonators to create additional sounds, layers and tracks, thus multiplying the spectrum and rhythms of the original material. 'Bonn Route' is a musical journey rooted in the emittance of sound, and our resonation with the world around us.

Feldermelder is a Swiss musician, sound designer, producer and installation artist. He is co-founder of -OUS and part of the audiovisual collective Encor.studio. He has previously released several releases on -OUS, both solo and in collaboration with Sara Oswald.

Drummer, artist and percussionist Julian Sartorius' precise and multi-layered rhythmical patterns are keen excursions into the hidden tones of found objects and prepared instruments, bridging the gap between organic timbres and the vocabulary of (experimental) electronic music. He has previously released his album "Locked Grooves" on -OUS.

An ecletic musical representation of infamous Rotterdam Jazzclub BIRD with well-known and lesser-known Dutch artists from the black music spectrum, varying from Jazz, soul, hip-hop to electronic music. Compiled by BIRD musical curators Philip Powel and Guido van Dieren.

Habitat, an environmental music collaboration by Berlin-based composer Niklas Kramer and percussionist Joda Foerster, is inspired by the drawings of Italian architect Ettore Sottsass. Each of the eight tracks represents a room in an imaginary building. Habitat will be released April9th 2021 via Leaving Records.

In Habitat the duo layers, loops and merges sonic textures and patterns into fluid blocks without the restraint of statics. African log drum, Bolivian chajchas, vibraphone, kalimba and various other percussion instruments are processed, pitched, harmonised and filtered through modular synth and script based sample cutting to form a collage of asynchronous layers.

By using acoustic instruments and expanding their sound into abstract shapes, Habitat evokes a vague intimacy, a curious state of comfort in the unknown.

(Cassette Edition)

Habitat, an environmental music collaboration by Berlin-based composer Niklas Kramer and percussionist Joda Foerster, is inspired by the drawings of Italian architect Ettore Sottsass. Each of the eight tracks represents a room in an imaginary building. Habitat will be released April9th 2021 via Leaving Records.

In Habitat the duo layers, loops and merges sonic textures and patterns into fluid blocks without the restraint of statics. African log drum, Bolivian chajchas, vibraphone, kalimba and various other percussion instruments are processed, pitched, harmonised and filtered through modular synth and script based sample cutting to form a collage of asynchronous layers.

By using acoustic instruments and expanding their sound into abstract shapes, Habitat evokes a vague intimacy, a curious state of comfort in the unknown.

Kennedy again uses the power of machines to translate his late-night dreams and spaced-out thoughts into two tracks of borderless hi tech soul music. This second musical manifestation of dreams is the newest in a unique series of thoughts, sensations and sounds occurring from a person's mind, translated by machines.

These are sounds that are always playing somewhere in your deepest subconscious mind. They're like a portal into another dimension where predictable arrangements do not exist. Chords seep and bleed into one another. Melodies drop from above like the liquid colours of an acid trip. They have blurred edges. The cloudy focus of each track means you sink in deep and latch on to an astral synth line that takes you higher, or find yourself gazing in wonder at the sci-fi bleeps that gently drift by.

As we welcome Stephen Redmore aka Mako back to the label, it’s important to note that Death of a Romantic is not only the debut LP for Mako on Samurai Music, but it also puts Mako in a solo category, a historic first - the only artist to ever release an artist LP on both Metalheadz and Samurai Music.

Death of a Romantic aptly captures Mako’s ability to span different corners of Drum and Bass’ musical palette - a talent cultivated by a musical approach informed by full absorption in the history of this music as a building block, plus a dedication to perfecting the science of breaking down the essential elements needed to make any construction approach at this tempo achieve maximum efficacy.

Followers of Mako’s music have no doubt taken note of this versatile approach to writing music and his gifted ability with breaks and sub-bass. For Death Of A Romantic, a considered approach to strip the music back more in line with the Samurai Music sound was taken but the album retains the Mako flavour - deft, subtle hooks, beds of sub and ethereal ambience, pinned down by total rhythmic potency.

Highlights are many, but the first tunes that were written for the LP embody perfectly the musical environment Mako built specifically for this LP - ‘The Both Of Us’ with its sinister intro and tear out conclusion, and ‘Raisuma’ - a call and response rhythm that is almost dub-like in feel with peaks that pack a hefty punch.

Makos's signature lead hooks appear, albeit tempered, to compliment the build reduction on tracks like ‘Falter’ and LP closer ‘We Can Love All’ - both are clear cases of this interpolation of Makos's own breadth of style, pointedly refined to slot into the LPs sound and utilising space to increase their power.

The Death of a Romantic song titles all carry a consistent message, one that Mako puts to use in his own life and interactions with other humans, and one we could all benefit from reflecting on at this time - life brings us joy and pain and much more in between, but if we live with compassion and humility, we can truly love all.

This long out of print classic from the LoDubs catalog finally resurfaces, thanks to an accidental time capsuling. Mensah (AKA New York Transit Authority) from this release went the direction of many LoDubs premier artists, and on to other storied labels in the sound, sharing a path to Deep Medi with Egoless and Compa for example. Throughout the years this plate has remained a timeless near-secret weapon, for those who know.

The 3rd album by MEROPE with own compositions and Lithuanian folk melodies.

Naktes presents a world full of wonder, inspired by the atmosphere of the night.

Manchester’s Metrodome makes his debut on 1985 Music with his weird but wonderful ‘Manchester Since 1994 EP’. This 4 track collection celebrates the best of the UK rave sound and choppy beats.

“The making of this EP came from my obsession with old skool rave music!
I have been a record collector and DJ since I was 4 years old and I grew up around music, ravers and DJs.

My dad told me the only way to get me to sleep was to put on Marcus Intalex and Mark XTC's 'Da Intalex' show on Pirate Radio station Kiss 102 FM back around 1995/1996.

This EP is dedicated to 4 year old me who loved Photek, Tom & Jerry, Orbital and Aphex Twin.

Während Modeselektors Extended-Mixtape mit allen möglichen musikalischen Experimenten bevölkert ist, könnten selbst die eifrigsten Fans von Dating Is In China überrascht sein, der Kollaboration mit der argentinischen Künstlerin (und Monkeytown-Stammgast) Catnapp, gleichzeitig Titeltrack der dritten EP nach Mean Friend und Social Distancing. Es gibt etwas einzigartig Reines und Ehrliches an Catnapps Darbietung und dem Song, der mit seinem Herz-auf-dem-Arm-Pop eine Art Ausreisser im Modeselektor-Katalog ist. Modeselektor steuern zwei alternative Versionen bei (Speed Dating Version, Dated In China), weitere Remixe kommen von Jersey-Club-Queen UNIIQU3, dem schwedischen Duo Aasthma (aka Pär Grindvik & Peder Mannerfelt) sowie dem alten Bekannten TimTim.

Oceanic Alpha Axis, is, Julio Tornero, prolific producer who presents his new aka, focused on minimalist compositions, close to ambient and its symbiotic relationship with synthesizers and machines.

Long landscapes meditated in a very characteristic way, full of incisive melodies that will make your imagination fly.

Harmonies and dissonances converge in this LP tape in the form of 11 precious songs that will only deepen your mind so that you will not stop thinking about what will be the next move that Sonic Meditations will make in your neurons.

Once I Died was born as a solo project of Gianluca Rimei, an Italian musician and producer former member of the techno-industrial duo Calle Quevedo. Once I Died wants to give vent to obscure and experimental sounds without a predefined direction, creating repetitive atmospheres and noisy sound environments.

Wiederveröffentlichung des ALL TIME CLASSIC ALBUMS: Das dritte Studioalbum "Shine" ist endlich zum ersten Mal auf Double Vinyl erhältlich! Inklusive des unveröffentlichten Bonustracks "Stan Getz Singt". "Shine" beinhaltet Kooperationen mit Kristina Lindberg, Gabriella Hänninen und Luke, neben den Singles "Love Pt 1" und "Shine feat. Lilja Bloom". Das Album ist jazzig mit viel Soul, aber es gibt auch andere Zutaten. Abgerundet wird die Doppel-LP durch einen bisher unveröffentlichten Track, der von Parov Stelar zum Zeitpunkt der Veröffentlichung von "Shine" produziert wurde - ein echter Schatz in jeder LP-Sammlung.

Plastician debuts on GD4YA with his finest dark garage cut 'Dreading'

Remixes from El-B & Karma

Deepart, vétéran de la Techno bizarre Londonienne des années 90 et l’artiste inaugural du label Rush Hour, rencontra Remer Cier, debutant sur YOUTH, à Plastic People, lors de la soirée séminale CDR, un set improvisé de nouvelle musique électronique. Après presque 20
ans de dialogue erudite, de performances et expositions au Chelsea College of Art et au Royal College of Art, nous présentons leur collection d’improvisations afrofuturistes, enregistrée au Beaconsfield Gallery, Vauxhall, Londres en 2021.

Dédié à Søren Holm et tous amis absents

Merci à Joviale, collaboratice au dessin

DOWNFALL is the first album under the name SAITO created by Lena Saito, aka Galcid, and produced by accomplished analog synthesizer guru, Hisashi Saito, aka Lena’s husband. Having descended from a long line of Japanese sword-smiths, the industrial sound of smashing steel is embedded in Lena’s DNA and reflected in her music, however there are also refined, hypnotic tones showing a side with more finesse. The music itself is not scored and is predominantly improvised. Words and vocals are ad libbed as well. Sometimes the machines respond as if through telekinesis, altogether emitting a sound which can be categorized somewhere in the range between modern experimental dance music and something possibly making more sense to enlightened minds a thousand years in the future.




There is a new addition to the forge of talents of Mille Plateaux, a Japanese musician by the name of Saito whose album has been released on the label under the title of Downfall. After a whole series of releases under the signature tag clicks & cuts, there comes out a work, much more suited for a dance hall, that is different in terms of the genre from everything that has been published so far.
Like a bucket of ice-cold water poured over the head, erratic agressive hardcore rhythms pour all over the audience in the first track, interrupted only by grinding noises and minimalistic technogenic clicks.
Downfall won't fail to infect even the most experienced music connaisseur with its out-of-control energy, while offering a wide range of techniques: at times, robotic voices, one second long fragments of looped melodies and many other audio gimmicks.
Lena Saito (that is the author's name) is not afraid of conducting experiments in her chemical laboratory, freely mixing sound reagents without taking any precautions. It feels like, this new chemical substance, that she has been working on so thoroughly, contains quite a long list of ingredients, although its main component is the various rhythm breaks.
The synthesizer part of Red Hammer sounds in the best traditions of the acid style, and the rhythm section is akin to African tribal dances of the future. Downfall is absolutely unrelenting in its concept.
The melody of the composition Nucleosome is a little bit like the melancholic IDM of the 00s, finding itself secondary to the dominating, yet again convoluted rhythmical web meticulously woven by Saito.
This album can be definitely named as a big contender aspiring to start a new golden era of Mille Plateaux, and Saito as the hidden treasure of the label that can challenge even the veterans for the right to be the headliner.

The two tracks on this release ‘Take Me To Your Leader’ and ‘Bodyrock’ were made in Stu J’s living room at the Polygon in Southampton. His studio partner Don had a Roland W30 work station that he would bring over, which was an all in one sampler and sequencer. “I think this is also what The Prodigy used at the time” Stu tells me.

There was also an Akai 950, a 24 track Allen & Heath desk and a Quadraverb which Stu owned. “I think that was it, that’s all we had to make these tracks. It was such a great time that you could make music with such limited gear. It was like things were better if you had minimal gear to work with.” When the tracks were completed Stu used a company called Perpetual for all the cutting and pressing as he didn’t have any links directly, so a one stop shop was the best course of action to get his releases out there.

“It was a crazy experience. As we had limited sample time, big sections of the track are mixed in live from another record on the decks. Don had the sequencer, so he knew what he was doing on that side of things, far more than me. I was the DJ and knew how a tune should be structured. Don was an amazing engineer. He was so much more than an engineer though.

This track is a seminal tune for any raver on the South Coast of the UK as Stu would be playing Madisons, Remix, Adrenalin parties as well as Fantazia at Matchams. But this release went far beyond the south, it was a national treasure that take those who listen back to 1991, the year this release was first pressed. Now available remastered and repressed on heavyweight green vinyl.

Wokrs from 1993-2004. Compilation of Taras Bulba, a German studio group that could be labelled Tribal? Trance? Pop? Folk? Ambient? ... or something else.

We repeat our experience with Unknown Pleasures Records, collaborating again with the Honoris series of releases, this time paying tribute to Bauhaus. Several bands and musicians create versions of different tracks by this legendary English band that conditioned post-punk to take a sonic trajectory based on what they later called gothic rock.

Industrial Complexx resorts to the same formula again with this special release combining the album in double cassette format and a biographical book about Bauhaus . Unknown Pleasures Records releases this compilation on CD and Soil Records on vinyl.

Nantes-based Australian drummer and percussionist Will Guthrie returns to Black Truffle with Nist-Nah. Like his previous solo record on the label, the abrasive hip-hop concrète of People Pleaser 'BT027', Nist-Nah finds Guthrie branching out in a new direction, this time in a suite of six percussion pieces primarily using the metallaphones, hand drums and gongs of the Gamelan ensembles of Indonesia.

The music presented here is grounded in Guthrie’s travels in Indonesia and study of various forms of Gamelan music, from the stately suspended temporality of the courtly Javanese Gamelan Sekatan, to the delirious, thuggish repetition that accompanies the Javanese trance ritual Jathilan, to the shimmering acoustic glitch of contemporary Balinese composer Dewa Alit and his Gamelan Salukat.

However, far from an exercise in exoticism, Nist-Nah develops out of Guthrie’s extensive work with metal percussion in recent years (as heard, for example, on his 2015 LP for 'IDEAL', Sacrée Obsession), where gongs, singing bowls and cymbals are used to build up walls of hovering tones and sizzling details.

Though Guthrie is broadening his palette to explore Gamelan instrumentation and pay tribute to his love of this sophisticated yet elemental percussion music, the pieces presented here are equally informed by Guthrie’s interests in free jazz, electro-acoustic music and diverse experimental music practices, exploring long tones, extended techniques, and non-metered pulse.
'Nist-Nah' presents a variety of approaches across its six pieces, from the crisp, precise rhythmic complexity of the opening title track to the droning textures of ‘Catlike’ and ‘Elders’.

On the epic closing ‘Kebogiro Glendeng’, Guthrie offers an extended, layered rendition of a Javanese piece belonging to a repertoire primarily used for warmups, beginner’s groups and children first learning Gamelan, elegantly gesturing to his own amateur status while using the piece’s insistently repeated melody as an extended exploration of the hypnotic effects of repetition, falling in and out of time with himself to create woozy, narcotic effects until the piece eventually dissolves into a wavering fog.

Emerging DJ and producer Yemi brings the soulful groovers to the Time Is Now white label series.

Having already received support from the likes of UKG mainstays Sammy Virji, Conducta and Smokey Bubblin' B during his relatively youthful career, Yemi is certainly an artist to watch. For justification, look no further than the vibrant, uplifting 6-track EP which combines luscious vocals and blissful piano chords to create a sound which is at once nostalgic and fiercely forward-facing.

Its two opening tracks get things off to a buoyant start, with a bouncing 4x4 rhythm and the syrup-smooth vocals of emerging artist and long-time friend, Bria Keely. Pair these with rattling bongos on "Never Let You Go" and the gleeful trumpets of "Smooth Talkin" and you have two tracks which make it impossible to keep still.

"My Heart" welcomes a change in mood with a loose two-step swing and moody vocals: a track made for the feels. But before you get too self-indulgent, the deep bass grooves of "Soul Food" bring the energy right back and "Tension"'s euphoric piano chords leave things on an ecstatic high.

Reissue on Burnt Orange Marbled Vinyl

Blockhead is New York producer Tony Simon, a revered talent who has put out a wealth of crucial albums. They are all getting reissue treatment now as some are almost 20 years old, but they have weathered that time well. Music By Cavelight is another of his masterful takes on broken beat and nu-jazz and this one comes on nice orange-marbled wax. It peaked at number 43 on the UK Independent Albums Chart back in 2004 when it first landed and it only came to be on Nina Tune after its original label stopped answering the artist's calls.

Causa returns to Infernal Sounds for his debut solo release, after his previous two outings in collaboration with Shu (IFS003) and as part of the VA Crimson LP (IFS025). This time he presents two standout tracks, and a strong message to go alongside. With the world requiring more sustainability and less waste, this record has been created with the most measures possible to create a greener record - The 12" are made in a completely climate-neutral way, the material having been recycled, all unavoidable Co2 emissions have been offset, the cardboard/centre labels are either FSG approved or via recycled means, and even the artwork has been made with all of this in mind, using minimal ink work and a restricted colour pallet to limit the amount of waste throughout.

Not only that, but the two tracks on the 12" absolutely slap, radiating that trademark Causa swampy-sound. 'Haiy' kicks off the proceedings with a reverberating lead before plunging you into a frenzy of mid-range madness, and bass-curdling pressure. 'Untitled R V3 C' has been a long sought after dubplate, having done the rounds for a few years. It's a proper groovy, swinger, providing you with pure invigoration.

Repress

Pau Encinas also known as Cauto returns after several years of ¨apparent ¨ inactivity. His previous EP, 35/8, was published in 2011 via Disboot. Since then until now, he has worked on several collaborations and remixes. One of the reasons for Disboots existence is to promote and release young and local talent. Cauto, without exception, is an essential one of these.

From his first release on Dj Rupture ´s Dutty Artz in 2008, Pau has been developing his skills as a producer and talented musician rooted in his background in Catalan folk music. The culmination of his musical evolution is the crystallisation of his new Lp.

"Prova A Veure Si Ets Capac De Menjar Pedres" (Try to see if you can eat stones) is his latest work and first Lp where each word in the title is the name of a track, and each of these must be understood as an aqueous sequence rather than a kind of feature sound. In each of its 9 songs deep bass, jungle rhythms and organic textures abound which have little to do with
the barrenness of its title.

"Prova A Veure Si Ets Capac De Menjar Pedres" materializes two years of work created between Berlin, Barcelona and his hometown Banyoles. This beautiful Lp was recently presented live at Sónar 2016 in an all-hardware liveset where Cauto was accompanied by Dani Guijarro (Headbirds) long time friend and collaborator in other projects such as C156.

Ellis Dee is basically the godfather of rave music and rave events. I think its official to say that a rave wasn’t a rave unless he was gracing the decks! He has was there at the inception of the movement and is still out there now pushing the sound and smashing up DJ sets.

And this is kind of how this release came about. Ellis Dee was booked for an Australian tour and one of the events was in Perth. Without his knowledge, two producers had decided to remake two of his classic tracks and surprise him by playing them at the same event, as they were performing on the same bill. Unfortunately the event was cancelled due to covid and the tour didn’t take place.

So Boykz and Chapman contacted Vinyl Fanatiks as they knew Ellis Dee worked with the label, explained the story and shared the tracks. The remixes were incredible, two respectful revamps, with original samples sourced, but a fresh interpretation that still harked as though it was made 30 years ago.

We couldn’t let these tracks vanish into history and decided to release them on Amen Brother. If you missed out on the originals being repressed on Vinyl Fanatiks a few years ago, don’t sleep on these badbwoys as they will bring any party back into 1992!

Should you find yourself taking a Thames-side stroll in the shadow of the City of London, keep an eye out for the headphone-clad figure of Ilan Pdahtzur. While be-suited bankers and frustrated office workers scurry home to their families, Ilan can frequently be found casting admiring glances towards the blinking lights of towering skyscrapers while filling his ears with the synthesizer-driven sounds of lesser-known 1980s dance music.

Ilan, an avid but little-known record collector best known for sharing the artwork of obscure and under-appreciated early-to-mid ’80s club cuts on his popular Instagram feed, has been digging for vibrant, kaleidoscopic records since his teens. Now, thanks to Spacetalk, he’s been given a chance to offer a glimpse into his neon-lit nocturnal musical world.

The result is Night City Life, a killer collection of 1980s synthesizer songs inspired by Ilan’s admiration for the glow of London’s late night skyline. Over the course of 13 essential tunes, Ilan escorts us on a vibrant sprint through rare Italo-disco, steamy South African synth-boogie, fizzing American freestyle, oddball Austrian electrofunk and so much more.

There are naturally a fair few sought-after cuts present, but also a fine selection of under-appreciated gems that for one reason or other have been all but ignored since they were released three and a half decades ago. In fact, some selections are so obscure that barely any information exists about them online.

Check for example Preludio’s “Mysterious Nights”, an evocative fusion of slow electronic grooves, dreamy chords and twinkling piano motifs previously buried on a lesser-known album of unremarkable German synth-pop, or the dollar-bin brilliance of Fragile’s sweet synth-pop gem “We’ve Got Tonight, Boy”, a cut that Ilan says is capable of “wrapping itself like tendrils around your soul”. He’s not wrong.

At the other end of the scale you’ll find the ultra-rare Italo-disco breeziness of Friend of Mine’s incredible “Just Your Pride” and Mac & Monica’s soulful 1986 South African synth-boogie cut “You’re So Good To Me”, copies of which regularly change hands for hundreds of pounds online. Ilan originally reached out to the men behind the record last year to tell them how one of their other forgotten gems had been played on a Boiler Room session; naturally, they were thrilled.

There’s plenty to admire elsewhere on the compilation, too, from the waves of analogue synths, bubbly melodies and bobbing beats of the instrumental dub version of Brian Tatcher’s “Hot Love” – a cold-war era cut inspired by the idea of love blossoming in the midst of a nuclear meltdown – to the Bobby Orlando-esque freestyle bustle of Janelle’s “Don’t Be Shy (Dub)” and the sparkling post-boogie brilliance of Jarmaz’s “Night City Life (Disco Remix)”, a track Ilan has listened to countless times while admiring the midnight skyline of his home city.

Visages continue on their trajectory with this multi-tempo EP. Featuring lead single 'Lunar Eclipse' with see's Manchester's Strategy bounce his lyrics from 174 to 140, making it a DJ's favourite weapon. Title track 'Hagakure' calls on the help of fellow label mate Drone while Monty also joins in and adds his touch on 'Familiarity.'

Having worked together for several years on the project 'Zeitgeist Freedom Energy Exchange' Zeitgeist and Tucceri come together here in a very intimate and vulnerable setting. This recording offers a place of reflection and healing amongst an ever imposing and disposable pop culture. In a time where we fight for each others attention in 10 second social media grabs. The duo offer something of the opposite. An opportunity to tap out of the technological bombardment and allow the listener the place to reflect, to ponder, to imagine.

This repress is probably one of the most requested from the Hectic back catalogue. Mystic & Fire – True Love (Remix) is a next level hardcore track that has so much going on but never feels over busy. It has a lovely blend of dark and light that few releases balance as well as this! A true classic for the ages. Then we have Eye On Life – Pumpin’ It Up, which is a DJ’s delight. The intro is made for mixing but also it has an amazing build up to the crescendo of the piano and vocal, which take this masterpiece in a different direction than you might have expected. The vibe and the year, all captured in one track.

Club / DJ Support
Jay Cunning, Billy Bunter, the Fat Controller, Liquid, Hyper On Experience, Glowkid, Slipmatt, Dj Jedi, Dj Luna-C, Dj Brisk, Paul Bradley, Jimni Cricket, Bustin, Jimmy J, Doughboy, Lowercase, Dave Skywalker, Ponder and many others

Sonar's Ghost feat. Static Imprints 12''

Limitierte, farbige Neuauflage des DJ Cam-Albums, das 2008 auf seinem Label Inflamable als Hommage an den Meilenstein 'Birth Of The Cool' (1957) von Miles Davis erschien und in fast perfekter Art und Weise zwischen Hip-Hop und Jazz oszilliert. Purple Vinyl.

With 2022 comes some much needed green shoots of positivity and recovery for creative folk all around the world. For us, in spite of the constant hovering in pandemic purgatory, neither here nor there, the tides appear to be turning in our favour. The added spare time of being in a state of clopen, combined with the healing twinkle in our artists’ eyes, has meant that we’ve worked on some of our favourite projects yet, and this next one – our 7th foray into the vinyl medium – is no exception. As you’ve probably noticed, here at CV, we like to reserve physical releases for when the artist is ready to present something truly special; a magnum opus of sorts. A divine fusion of old-skool and new-school breaks, acid, trance, and techno, Beyond The Forest is exactly that. One of our oldest friends, initially releasing on the label in 2016 under his now retired alias Sire, Selected Dream Memories (real name Côme Arthur) presents his most energetic, well-executed body of work to date. Slingshotting through celestial fields and bounding over flickering, emotion-drenched melodic elements; driven by zigzagging breakbeat percussion and an explosive low end, Arthur perfectly deepens our impression of his sonic niche. As always with Arthur’s productions, whether it be on the dance floor or beyond, each four of the releases’ tracks are sure to electrify, daze, enthral, captivate, and inspire. Remixing the spine-tingling acid track Sector 4, we have Sydney’s emerging authority on breaks, bass, and more: Mincy. She elevates the track from a more reserved and rhythm-based one to a feel good closer that’ll make the floor absolutely erupt in a breakbeat frenzy. Limited run vinyl, pressed by RAND Musik Leipzig and distributed by Inch by Inch.

- 2022 repress -

purple marbled vinyl

A spellbinding tribute from one multi-faceted artist to another. New York-based artist Aki Onda (b. 1967) conjured a transduction to the Korean multi-media pioneer Nam June Paik (1932-2006). Aki himself describes the project:

“Nam June’s Spirit Was Speaking to Me occurred purely by chance. In 2010, I was spending four days at Nam June Paik Art Center in South Korea for a series of performances and had plenty of free time to wander. The building was packed with Paik’s artwork and related material. I have always felt a close kinship with him as an artist, and so it was a great opportunity to immerse myself in his works and ephemera.

It was that night I made the first contact, via a hand-held radio in a hotel room in Seoul. It was literally out of the blue. Scanning through the stations, I stumbled upon what sounded like a submerged voice and I began to record it in fascination. I concluded this was Paik’s spirit reaching out to me.

The project continued to grow organically as I kept channeling Paik’s spirit over long distance and receiving cryptic broadcasts/messages. The series of séances, conducted in different cities across the globe, began in Seoul in 2010, and continued in Köln, Germany in 2012, Wrocław, Poland in 2013, and Lewisburg, USA in 2014. The original recordings were captured by the same radio which has a tape recorder, with almost no editing, save for some minimal slicing and mastering.

Paik is known for his association with shamanism, a practice that constantly surfaces in his works all through his career. In an interview, he stated “In Korea, diverse forms of shamanism are strongly remained. Even though I have created my work unconsciously, the most inspiring thing in my work came from Korean female shaman Mudang.” Paik himself was a master shaman and vividly used shaman rituals and symbols for staging his performances and installations.

These recordings also became a way for me to explore the mythic form of radio—a medium which is full of mysteries. The transmissions captured may be “secret broadcasts” on anonymous radio stations. There are in fact hundreds of those stations around the world, although the numbers dwindle as clandestine messages can now be sent via encrypted digital channels. Some of these stations were likely for military use or espionage or relics of the Cold War. But many others continue without apparent explanation. These are just some of the questions that remain unanswered.”

Commissioned in 2017 by documenta 14's radio program “Every Time A Ear di Soun,” these recordings were continually broadcast on eight radios stations around the world that year. Nam June’s Spirit is a beautifully formed homage, I cannot think of any other like it. An intimate, flickering language discovered through the air. The LP comes replete with a booklet of photographs of Paik on the set of Michael Snow’s unreleased film Rameau’s Nephew (1974).

Sean McCann, 2020
Aki Onda, 2017

20-page art booklet including rare photographs of Nam June Paik from the set of Michael Snow’s film Rameau’s Nephew (1974), two essays on radio-wave phenomenon (by Onda and Marcus Gammel), and a remembrance of Paik by Yuji Agematsu

Tape

New recordings by Spanish director and visual artist Carlos Casas. Sound and Radio Frequencies captured in location in Mont Aigu. Part of Fieldworks#26.

Between producing landmark albums with the likes of Azymuth, Marcos Valle, and Sabrina Malheiros, recent years have seen Daniel Maunick flourishing as a solo artist with acclaimed releases on Eglo Records, Mother Tongue, Visions, AKO Beatz (under his Dokta Venom alias), and of course, Far Out Recordings. His sophomore solo album Persistence is an exemplary culmination of the momentum Maunick has built since his 2019 debut Macumba Quebrada, which earned support from Moodymann, Benji B, Gilles Peterson, Ron Trent, Palms Trax, Derrick Carter and Moxie to name just a few.

Since collaborating with Shy FX for his first ever release at the age of fifteen (a now impossible to find single sided jungle acetate), Maunick has remained embedded in the fabric of the culture, from early work for the legendary Talkin’ Loud label to notching credits with Terry Caliier, Paul Weller, Ski Oakenfull, Brenda Russell, and his father’s legendary brit-funk outfit Incognito. And for almost two decades he’s served as producer for a long string of classic and future-classic Far Out albums, most recently Alex Malheiros' Tempos Futuros.

As on his previous Far Out opuses (most recently the Musica Encantada EP), Persistence sees Maunick continue to playfully use foundations of traditional afro-brazilian rhythms, heard in the sultry samba swing of 'Arraiá', the pulsating batucada enveloping the bassy synth stabs in “Remnants of Joy”, and spectral cuicas throughout the blissfully bumping ‘Illusions’. But going beyond his trademark nods to Brazil, he reflects on his junglist roots with the emotionally charged ‘Love Is Gone’, and flexes his deep house muscles with the late night magic of ‘Just Deserts’ and ‘Addicted’.

The sheer variety on show is testament to the wide scope of influences and experiences Maunick has accumulated and absorbed in his career to date. It’s also evident that after years spent with jazz funk masters like Azymuth and Incognito, as well as hitmakers like Marcos Valle, Maunick has reached a new calibre with his compositional prowess alongside his astoundingly accomplished studio skills. Persistence is a modern classic by a veteran at the peak of their powers.

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Collaboration by Italian composer Giovanni Di Domenico (Die Schachtel, Superpang) & Japanese drummer Tatsuhisa Yamamoto (Black Truffle, Superpang).

Recorded at Hoshi To Niji studio, Kobuchizawa, Japan
& studio W and The Nest Cellar, Brussels, Belgium in 2021
Cello on A Murder by Emmanuel Cremer

IDE003 contains 4 remixes from the release IDE002 (Jiska Huizing & Rudi Valdersnes, 2019, Ideophone Records) by well known artists rRoxymore, Yhdessa, Nkisi and newcomer JIJU. Each artist has really managed to make the original tracks their own and their unique sounds and styles really shine in this very diverse collection of remixes, which ranges from leftfield techno to experimental electronics and ambient.

Rarely do two types of music meet on a level where they threaten to cancel each other out - let alone create something even more meaningful in their mutual vanishing. But the music created within the seminal Murder Ballads (Drift) by Martyn Bates (Eyeless in Gaza, & parallel solo career) and Mick Harris (Napalm Death, Lull, Painkiller, Scorn) creates just such a world. Murder Ballads (Drift) evolves Martyn Bates vocalisations / storytelling song-voices, by turns expressed as labyrinthine layers, calls and responses, muted and distant echoes, sung whispers and counter-melodies, ultimately resulting in a mesmeric conversation of musical inferences and correspondences. Murder Ballads (Drift) created the post-isolationist frame of reference, innovating and extemporising into a truly original dazzlingly unique form.

Mick Harris traffics in the isolationist ambience of Lull, while Martyn Bates is the emotive voice of literate cult-pop duo Eyeless in Gaza. The unlikely pair - one given to terminally frigid drone, the other to impassioned, bittersweet voicings - finds common ground in folk music's most macabre tradition, the murder ballad. These ghoulish parables are awash in blood and tears, the strands of love, hate, birth, death, sin, and salvation entwined within like the roots of an ancient tree. Mothers callously kill their children; suitors slay their maidens without remorse; and fate exacts its cruel price from all.

The archaic murder ballads that leak from Bates' vocal cords are intensely sad and carnal. They tend to leap off cliffs of hollow effects or drone darkly, offering neither a robust delivery nor an element of irony to take the edge off. The archetypal characters that live and die in them give life's full tragedy back to Harris' electronically numbed "post-isolationist" dreaming.

Passages (originally released in 1997) plays out an unbreakable and timeless cycle of bloody folklore (people) and hypnotic soundscapes (the god who watches). The effect is chilling yet engrossing. Where most ambient music has barely enough courage to ring the doorbell and run, Murder Ballads slips through the cracks of the unconscious and does its work with remarkable ease.

Orange Vinyl

Superb Ragga Jungle tune from Krak In Dub, remixing the famous OBF title "Mandela" sang by Mr Williams

first part of the tune brings the remix and second part brings the instrumental.

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The trio Susana Santos Silva / Torbjörn Zetterberg / Hampus Lindwall emerged in 2015 with their first album, which was received with critical acclaim. The unique conceptual approach to composition & improvisation rooted in both free jazz and contemporary classical music was described as “guaranteed a unique listening experience” (JazzIn), “It is art!” (Gapplegate Music Review) and “unique sound and style” (New York City Jazz Record). On their new album »Hi, who are you?«, they have taken the musical creation a step further by adding live electronics for real time sound treatment. Different techniques from experimental electronic music is juxtaposed with simple use of electric guitar effects to obtain tight and highly emotional sound.

Susana Santos Silva - trumpet Torbjörn Zetterberg - double bass, and electric noise on track 5 and 10 Hampus Lindwall - pipe organ and live electronics

Ulla’s productions reveal a discerning process of stripping tracks to their essence, letting space, silence, simplicity and repetition be her guide. They lend a magic touch to a difficult and minimal style of music, creating an album that is comforting and tranquil, yet hypnotizing and transportive. Most evidently, UIla’s music is inspired, by emotions and experiences unknown to us, but perhaps best represented in her own words:

“keeping pictures on a wall left there by someone else.

day dreaming about something not real.

hearing a friend walk through the front door.

letting a plant die.

the silence of a room when the box fan is turned off."

Madre Means Mother is an experimental conceptual album with 10 tracks in which he especially rewards his elaborate diversity and the heterogeneity of all his works, which despite the plurality of textures is consolidated as an inherent block.

The reference opens with Mother, a track that fundamentally honours the cause of this extensive work in which a harmonic line stands out that initially represents the sentimentalism and security of a mother, and that during its evolution is diluted in confused stages until restoring in its final cycle the tranquillity of the first steps. Sadre is of a transgressive nature, from the first second he is awarded a rigid temperament that increases even more in the middle of the track. Cadre's mix of elements to accompany and crunch a harmless melodic motif is particularly striking. Ladre is a course of uniform cadence in which everything that revolves around the industrial rhythm is masterfully twisted. Radre is a degraded melody that travels over a bubbling background.

Badre is simply an arpeggio accompanied by a marked bass drum and a small set of percussive elements that gradually incorporates new organisms into its structure until it completely modifies the work to transform it into an entire ecosystem. Nadre is more categorical, deep and futuristic, his main quality is inorganic. Tadre sounds from the entrails, as a perfect harmony of the underworld, and with Fadre returns to sanity after a few first steps that give continuity to the previous track, quickly snatching the bad vibrations with long chords that raise serenity. Fadre prepares the end of the journey with solemnity. Father is the tenth and last track of the album, and with it a more stable mood is consolidated in which he denotes a firm step and confidence.

Repress!!

Darius is among those young arti sts who make you realize how much the electronic music scene has entered a new era. Having started off with Roche Musique, and now signed on Animal63, Darius uses his machines like others once played their instrument to express their time and their emotions. His first album 'Utopia' is enti rely electronic, but reminds us of great soul or psychedelic records as much as it does electro music.

This perhaps is due to the fact that the man behind it does not think in terms of genre and technological innovati on, but simply wants to invigorate his generati on despite the darkness of our time. Utopia, with its minimal sound palett e and striking coherence, is an album you listen to in one breath. Vocalists E^ST, Max Jury and Wayne Snow joined Darius for the project, giving the whole project a powerful vocal breath. Without ever following these rules to the lett er, Darius' album is both sober and ample, generous. It fl utt ers along patt erns and moods, and only obeys one rule: that of a musical private diary.

Sergii Galan, the Ukrainian producer also known as Haze, makes his debut on the Kyiv-based Rhythm Buro imprint. The artist who released his first ever EP just two years ago (the excellent "Somewhere In Time" EP on Anagram Records) is now joining the roster of the label affiliated with the event series of the same name. While the Rhythm Buro events are best known for keeping the Ukrainian capital's dance floors busy, the Rhythm Buro label is set to hit its fifth release with Haze's RB005. As is evident with the EP's artwork, RB005 marks the beginning of a new era for the label, breaking the ties with what was previously its signature visual mark.

The record's opening tune is the heaviest on the EP, good reason as to why it was chosen as the title track. "Aimless" is bottom-heavy and bass-rich, done in the true "acid eiffel" face-melting fashion. However, its successor on A2, "Inner Voice", takes a completely different route sound-wise, referencing timeless old-school breaks and vocal samples, which showcase the diversity of Haze's palate. To further confirm this notion, "Prism" on A3 appears as the EP's "slow burner", the acidic-psychedelic-downtempo tune you wouldn't often come across on a record filed under "techno" in 2019.

In line with Rhythm Buro tradition of sorts, the B-side of the record is dedicated to the deeper tunes, which blur the lines between techno and house. "Majula Sunset" on B1 is both trippy and melodic; with a groovy rolling bass line only a quality sound system could handle properly. Closing the record is Ben Buitendijk's remix and combination of two of Haze's tracks from the EP: "Prism" and "Aimless". As indicated by the title, this track "Natura" is not only a rework of Haze's tunes, but also homage to one of Rhythm Buro's most original events of the same name, which Buitendijk has played, an event which is held in the forest outside Kyiv every summer.

Humanoid strikes back on De:tuned with a remastered version of the pioneering 1988 crossover UK number 1 Dance Single "Stakker Humanoid". This major influential UK acid house cut has been breaking down UK culture barriers since its original release. Humanoid's music was also used in Stakker "Eurotechno", now housed in The Museum of Modern Art located in New York. De:tuned have invited personal favourites Autechre, Luke Vibert and Mike Dred to rework the new and uncompromising update "sT8818r" (previously released on DE:10.08) to complement the classic original. Prepare to have your mind blown once more!

The impeccable Ian Anderson at The Designers Republic created all the graphic work. Mastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis and pressed on 180 gr vinyl. Stay tuned!

clear magenta vinyl
Humanoid strikes back on De:tuned with a remastered version of the pioneering 1988 crossover UK number 1 Dance Single "Stakker Humanoid". This major influential UK acid house cut has been breaking down UK culture barriers since its original release. Humanoid's music was also used in Stakker "Eurotechno", now housed in The Museum of Modern Art located in New York. De:tuned have invited personal favourites Autechre, Luke Vibert and Mike Dred to rework the new and uncompromising update "sT8818r" (previously released on DE:10.08) to complement the classic original. Prepare to have your mind blown once more!

The impeccable Ian Anderson at The Designers Republic created all the graphic work. Mastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis and pressed on 180 gr vinyl. Stay tuned!

Fokuz Recordings, founded early 1999 by Dreazz and Drum Origins, has been through a lot over a long, winding road. Thanks to the boundless dedication of our talented artists and the loving fans, we can now celebrate our 15th anniversary! Expect six 12'' records and a double CD packed with tracks by some of the most upfront names in present day drum & bass. This is 15 Years Of Fokuz - Episode 2.3.

In this last part of the 15 Year vinyl series we find drum & bass all star Lynx remixing 'Midnight Runaway' by Intelligent Manners & Enei. Fresh sounds all over, we're very happy to have him as a part of this project. On the flip Amaning and Dramatic deliver the goodness with Moods! Superb rolling sounds that are perfect for sunny, chilled days. Better get both tunes for the full effect!

After more than two decades flexing his muscles on the local underground scene and gaining a legendary cult status on his Tenerife home turf, the island’s most famous postman, as he’s affectionately known by his consorts, Tomás de la Rosa aka Postman breaks radio silence to bulldoze his way through the canyons surrounding his hometown of Santa Cruz into an unknown and unsuspecting world. We present thus, Postman’s first ever album of original bangers, micro chopped two steppers and rage induced breakbeat anthems.

Constructed over the course of global confinement, Seeds of Light marks a return to creative activity from the man who regularly delivers your post (its not just a random artist name). Postman aka Tomás de la Rosa has taken his time, compiling sketches and unfinished songs, rummaging through the deep ends of his hardrive, stitching early production sketches with recent compositions, revising, reediting and rebuilding with a more mature and concise attitude, eventually completing, almost unintentionally, the perfect self referential retrospective album. Far from being just a compilation album, Tomás managed to create an explosive document, suspended in time, in which styles are intertwined regardless of fashions and fads – letting go of the ‘modern’ or ‘up to date’ burden - so common these days in electronic music.

It is not an easy album, like many of his previous work it demands extra attention to experience the full crystallization of his complex sound structures. We find ourselves in front of a truly surgically precise work of art whose result comes as a waterproof war machine, refined and incisive, resonating deep with soul and groove.

Postman develops his sound palette throughout the album from very basic sound snippets into a concrete dance world of synthetic sounds eventually creating a parallel reality where J. Dilla could be living in Chemnitz instead of Detroit and releasing records for a label called Raster-Throw. Glitch sampladelics!

Incursions into Grime are also abundant with nods to the ineffable East Man, reunions with his beloved Funkstörung or many other stimulating revisions of lifelong genres and breaks populate this multidimensional sound space, see soul, dancehall, breakbeat, two step and the UK hardcore continuum.

Special mention to the magnificent fluid artwork by the very talented Catalan visual artist Alba de Corral. A still photo from one of her kinetic AI systems programmed directly in code, which matches perfectly the essence of Postman's brutalist alien sound.

Vinyl limited to 200 copies

What is Randolph & Mortimer? A folk duo, a pair of accountants, a techno act…a law firm? What started off as an ‘art project’, influenced by 80s Industrial, 90s rave music and inspired by the documentaries of Adam Curtis, has morphed into a full on New Beat / Body Music dance-floor moving machine. Their studio releases have gained support from some of the biggest underground DJ’s in the world like Ancient Methods and gone on to top various genre sales charts on Bandcamp. Whilst the R&M live shows have seen them share bills with Godflesh, Youth Code, PIG and 3Teeth.

In 2019 it was time for R&M to throw a marker down and so came “Manifesto For A Modern World”, the debut album comprised of tracks from the “$ocial £utures”, “Hope Tragedy Myths” and “Citizens” EP’s plus some additional songs. This album is basically a greatest hits of Randolph & Mortimer. A statement of intent. All killer and no filler. The original limited edition CDs and tapes sold out and it had some incredible reviews. A Model Of Control called it “An absolutely outstanding release” and super cool New York DJ Andi Harriman (Synthicide) made it one her of top 10 albums of 2019 on Post-Punk

So here we are in 2020 and the Randolph & Mortimer story has seriously stepped up a gear with this double vinyl version of the album featuring all Manifesto tracks plus the acid styled dance-floor favourite “Apply Yourself” and four brand new tracks (“Crystal Peaks”, “Stateless”, “What Are You?”, “Fantasy Land”) which make up a whole new EP.

Limited edition of 400 copies with folded poster/insert and sticker.