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Following last year's evolution from solo Ishmael to the expanded Ensemble, the Severn Songs series marks the most full-bodied and ambitious project yet from Pete Cunningham.

The collection of 7's will branch out like tributaries from the main concept across the year, as Cunningham pays loving tribute to his hometown of Bristol and the surrounding region.

'Severn Songs 01' kicks off the run with two rich cuts that sound quintessentially Ishmaelian, but simultaneously an expansion of his palette.

'The Chapel' starts as a glimmer on the horizon, yet develops to a war cry, a clarion call of grace and impact. Cosmic synth gurgles fill the initially sparse atmosphere, before being subsumed by overlapping sax lines; by the end, only a ghostly imprint of squall lingers in the air. On the flip, 'Full Circle' brings us down from the sky to the earth. Busy, clipped drums are encircled by synthetic flurries, culminating in a climatic release. As a whole, the release keeps these two divergent approaches to jazzwise electronica rotating in tandem. It's an approach that is due to be explored with more collaborators on later instalments. 'The Chapel' comes with a video by Amie Nowlan - who also took the aesthetic lead for Ishmael's live Boiler Room performance in 2016 - which matches the colour and fluidity of the Ensemble's playing. With Nowlan's involvement, the assembling of a crack team of talented friends to flesh out the vision on record, a nostalgic name, and even sleeve art provided by his father, Severn Songs is a new path for Cunningham - but one that ultimately loops back home

Confused Machines' are excited to release an E.P by the composer and producer Ishai Adar (aka Oosh). Adar started his musical journey in the mid 80's as the keyboard player of the legendary Israeli post-punk band 'Nosei Hamigbaat', together with his high school friend Ohad Fishof.After his withdrawal from the band, he released 'Her': An innovative, experimental, electronic dance album, rare in the Israeli music scene of the late 90's. In this album, he fused 80's synth-pop influences ('Depeche Mode', etc.) with a cutting edge techno sound, which still sounds up to date. This album influenced the local underground electronic music scene of the late 90's.Following the album 'Her', Adar became a prominent composer and created soundtracks for motion pictures such as: 'Year Zero' (2004), Oscar-nominated 'Beaufort' (2007), 'A Film Unfinished' (2010), 'Bethlehem' (2013) and 'Mr. Gaga' (2015).In his current project '12', Adar revisits the synth-pop sounds which shaped his musical taste. He infuses profoundness and character to musical genres such as new-wave, Italo-disco, Euro-pop and contemporary dance music forming - multi-layered, euphoric and romantic melodies. A killer acid-techno remix of the track 12 by the legendary Rude 66 is included in the E.P.

Nearing a decade old and with a discography reaching deep into double figures across several different labels (Mexican Summer, INSERT others), David Loca's work under the Part Time moniker really shouldn't require any introduction. Nonetheless, the release of what is officially his sixth album, fittingly titled Spell #6, does signal something of a re-birth and provides a compelling entry point for anyone new to Loca's prolific output. Whereas previous albums were notable for a charming lo-fi production, Spell #6 takes Part Time uptown. "I describe this album as 'my studio album', because it was entirely re-recorded at my drummer Walter Byer's studio, unlike most of my past releases being bedroom experimental pop recordings." Loca produced the record himself, impressively appropriating a classic 80s pop sound that recalls some of the more grand productions of that era - think Stephen Street's expressive production on 'Last Night I Dreamt Somebody Loved Me', Crowded House and The Church's widescreen interpolation of Paisley Underground jangle, and there's even traces Gerard McMann's grandiose 'Cry Little Sister'. In that sense, the record stands as an outlier in Loca's catalogue, and in doing so sheds the sometimes limiting trappings of bedroom recording. Though it is Loca's project, Spell #6 sees him joined by a consistent supporting cast of fellow writers and performers who add a poise and deftness to his vision, most notably Ariel Pink, who makes a guest appearance on lead single, 'I Can Treat You Better'. Reflecting on the song, Loca states, "I decided to take it lyrically to a place as if i were a man noticing an unhappy lady in her relationship and I'm telling her that he isn't good for her." A lead single for its obvious earworm qualities, it also functions as an ideal snapshot of the lyrical themes that run through the entire record: romantic gestures and unrequited love, bad decisions on hot nights/hot decisions on bad nights, and unpinning it all, LA. For this is evidently a West Coast record, like a 2018 take on To Live and Die in LA: expansive, grand, and not a little crazy (in love) from the heat.

Nearing a decade old and with a discography reaching deep into double figures across several different labels (Mexican Summer, INSERT others), David Loca's work under the Part Time moniker really shouldn't require any introduction. Nonetheless, the release of what is officially his sixth album, fittingly titled Spell #6, does signal something of a re-birth and provides a compelling entry point for anyone new to Loca's prolific output.

Whereas previous albums were notable for a charming lo-fi production, Spell #6 takes Part Time uptown. "I describe this album as 'my studio album', because it was entirely re-recorded at my drummer Walter Byer's studio, unlike most of my past releases being bedroom experimental pop recordings."
Loca produced the record himself, impressively appropriating a classic 80s pop sound that recalls some of the more grand productions of that era - think Stephen Street's expressive production on 'Last Night I Dreamt Somebody Loved Me', Crowded House and The Church's widescreen interpolation of Paisley Underground jangle, and there's even traces Gerard McMann's grandiose 'Cry Little Sister'. In that sense, the record stands as an outlier in Loca's catalogue, and in doing so sheds the sometimes limiting trappings of bedroom recording

Though it is Loca's project, Spell #6 sees him joined by a consistent supporting cast of fellow writers and performers who add a poise and deftness to his vision, most notably Ariel Pink, who makes a guest appearance on lead single, 'I Can Treat You Better'.
Reflecting on the song, Loca states, "I decided to take it lyrically to a place as if i were a man noticing an unhappy lady in her relationship and I'm telling her that he isn't good for her."

A lead single for its obvious earworm qualities, it also functions as an ideal snapshot of the lyrical themes that run through the entire record: romantic gestures and unrequited love, bad decisions on hot nights/hot decisions on bad nights, and unpinning it all, LA. For this is evidently a West Coast record, like a 2018 take on To Live and Die in LA: expansive, grand, and not a little crazy (in love) from the heat.

Recorded in the spring of 2017 over three evenings. These raw, unedited, live recordings were fueled by laughter, and Azawad gunpowder tea.

Mdou Moctar is one of the leading lights of electrified Tuareg music, whose rise to popularity was enabled by trading of tracks via cellphones in the Sahel region. He first came under scrutiny in the west when he appeard on Sahel Sounds' legendary compilation Music from Saharan Cellphones: Volume 1. He has since released three LPs for Sahel Sounds, and been touring constantly.

Like Basinski's tape loops morphing over time, appropriation loops are recurrent, fluctuant feedback loops in popular and unpopular culture. Rae Sremmund talks about how they're the new black rock stars with guitars in 2016's 'Black Beatles', but The Beatles appropriated black American rhythm and blues music from the American South to begin with. Kraftwerk's mechanic interpretation of Motown hits of 60s and 70s Detroit was later echoed by Detroit techno producers who subsequently put the funk back in it and made it more minimal. Detroit techno, for one, could never have been without the device of appropriation...but the device is often misused. People want to know where their chicken comes from (free range ,grass fed, no antibiotics ) but they don't want to know where their music comes from. Where does it come from Trace the appropriation loops to find out...

After their stunning debut on ART, electro purveyors LONDON MODULAR ALLIANCE return as they keep up their unstoppable momentum on the contemporary electronic scene. With a slew of high profile live shows behind and in front of them - LMA go from strength to strength as evidenced by this 5 track EP spanning deep, emotive ambience all the way to heavy wobble electro bass. Unmissable!!

Progressive industrial to cinematic ambient, via new beat synth explorations.

Benny Divine's impressive musical CV includes quantities such as The Gary Wrong Group, Wizzard Sleeve and Nashville's prolific purveyor's of Foghat-pop, Natural Child, but it was just a short year ago that Goner gave wide release to the Bênní debut album, I & II, which launched the new sub-genre we now know as 'Hi-NRG New Age' and had its creator casually glancing over his shoulder for the rumored mobs of outraged Skyfax, Mannheim Steamroller and Windham Hill Records loyalists that could never quite catch up to his live performances, as they were not listed in back issues of TV Guide and Reader's Digest: Large Print Editions.

Whereas I & II was, as its title explicitly implicates, the combination of two previously-released cassettes, The Return is a nine-track song-cycle composed for the full-length format. Imagine this album as an alternative historical narrative: not as a source of soundtrack afterthought, but rather the initial spark of inspiration for an entire '70s sub-genre of gritty crime and science fiction films. Additionally, the fuzzy electro-pop chops are just as impressive as the spacey burps and gurgles that made his debut so gripping.

Glasgow's Wheelman provides the tenth iteration of DBA's Dubs series, following a series of high profile releases on Huntleys & Palmers, Studio Barnhus, and his own Stereotone label. Signal is Wheelman's most ambitious effort to date, its searing amen stabs and deep sub bass guaranteed to wreck any club, while floating pads and crystalline strings add a bittersweet moment of rave nostalgia to the breakdown.

On the flip, in line with the DBA Dubs concept of pairing a house track from an up and coming UK producer with a remix by an established techno name from across the pond, Detroit In Effect provide a cold, bleep-drenched take which raises the tempo of Wheelman's original to an almost breakneck speed. D.I.E, also known as Cybonix, were prolific throughout the late 90s and early 00s on their own M.A.P. label and more recently on Rotterdam's Clone.

To coincide with the release of the tenth edition in the DBA Dubs series the label are also making all ten original tracks available as a digital package, while all ten of the remixes from the series get their own bundle, with Wheelman and Basic Soul Unit providing a megamix of each edition respectively.

We are happy to announce Andre Bratten's 12' trilogy! Each 12' edition of 300, no re-press. First out is Un and Pax Americana.

The aesthetics of this EP is related to the universe electro / idm early 90's by a choice of very precise synthesizer. P6, Sh- 101, Tb-303, Tr-808 and to coordinate the whole an RS7000 which comes to rhythm this refusal of modernity. Foreign sequence digs into the techniques of the past to find the answers, he shows his know-how here and uses it to express a multitude of emotions between nostalgia and optimism.

Identified Patient & Sophie Du Palais / Randstad / Mitchell Goor / Stevie Whisper.
Amsterdam / London / Rotterdam / Beograd
A untitled tale of feminism, broken hearts and futurism.

Sixth EP on FireScope Records the new sub label of the legendary B12 Records. This release is by B12 Ft Yonii, UK techno fused with wonderful pure and beautiful vocals.

B12 Established early 90's with a multitude of releases appearing on Warp Records UK, B12 Records, Soma Records, Delsin Records, FireScope Records, ART , Buzz, De:Tuned

The EP entitled In Vain is the first EP featuring B12 and the wonderful singer songwriter Yonii. These are real songs, with real meanings and are the the result of a pure and wonderful collaboration. The tracks tell a story, and with open ears and heart they will deliver the message clearly
'Sympathy' A very acoustic sounding drum and percussion arrangement held together with glorious B12 esq Pads is the opener here. The vocals elevate this track to another level, with a dangerous equilibrium of vulnerability and distain.
'Shotgun' Straight in with a heavy synth baseline and lyrics. A menacing track featuring a vocal that floats effortlessly on a downtempo B12 vibe. An exposed interplay of rhythmic melodies and dark imagery.
'Moth' A busy beat and synth driven backdrop provide the platform for Yonii to tell her story of love and pain. Is it all in Vain Why must we gravitate towards the flame that ultimately extinguishes us....
'Sympathy (Beatz)' & 'Moth (Beatz)' Just the Beatz of the main tracks :-)
Finished in glorious white and green splatter vinyl with exclusive full colour artwork by the wonderful Catherine Prendergast AKA Cellar Door

Going Good's 13th release is finally upon us and we are quietly confident that it is indeed a truly special one. This is London duo Weird Weather's second sonic offering and already their stepping left-field sounds are pricking up all the right ears. Contained within are some heavyweight signals transmitted live and direct from the capitol's infamous MAP Studios, giving us a heady blend of Shaka inspired sound-system meditations, early 90's FAX reflections and spirit invoking downtempo meanderings. Weight for the bass.

Beverly Glenn-Copeland is already known amongst collectors and music heads for two sought after albums of folky jazz in the key of Joni.It was this album, originally self-released on cassette in 1986 that caught the label's attention. The album, entirely recorded on DX-7 and TR-707, lies somewhere between digital new-age and (accidentally) early Detroit techno experiments. The inimitable style of BGC here is both peaceful and meditative while simultaneously rhythmic and bass heavy. The album was recorded in the northern Canadian town of Huntsville where BGC was living at the time and is a beautiful fusion of personal vision, technology and place. Issued here for the first time on vinyl, with a full restoration and re-master.

Regener 8! Altern 8 mark the 25th anniversary of their klaxon and samples driven debut as the rave scene's Vick's loving masked marauders with the release of a deluxe remastered edition of their iconic Full On Mask Hysteria album.It comes as a limited edition triple heavyweight release.And in true Altern 8 style there are 2 separate individually numbered editions - 001 to 808 and 001 to 303.Cut super loud to allow DJ support for tracks that were cut too quietly on the original 1992 LP for club plays, the album also features exclusive tracks. MMEMOR-8I'm tellin' ya - sometimes words aren't enough. You had to be there.John McCready,one time legendary Network rabble rouser publicist,sums it up best. Talking about the current lengthy dissertations on how dance music has gone on to conquer the world, he points out: "The writers do not even scrape the surface of understanding just how iconoclastically funny this music and its' intrepid architects could be. A music - some of it over 30 years old now - which has a life of its own, and an inner core still burning long after its creation"
We were in fact very serious about the music, but we never stopped smiling. And Mark Archer and Chris Peat had us grinning more than anyone else.
Network became the UK's best selling independent single label in 1992. PWL were not impressed. The same year, we released the "Full On Mask Hysteria" album which music industry experts pompously told us would not sell, as Altern 8 were by definition a singles only act'. It got to No 3. We were workaholics, it seemed like we were connected to the mains some days, and had lots of success,But to be clear, there was no master plan.Yes ,the emotions were electric. but the direction was often dsyslexic. We were surfing a manic Techno / Acid House/ Rave Generation wave and we were desperate not to fall off and drown. It was time of (to quote McCready again) "deranged plans, impossible schemes and wild conceits" and of course our masked marauders Mark and Chris were slap bang in the centre of it.

The credible thing to say would be that I met Mark on the dancefloor at The Hacienda. In fact it was at a small club, No 7's in Burntwood, near Cannock Chase in Staffordshire. On Thursday nights No 7's was taken over for an Acid House session, where my mate Pat Ward would be joined by Neil Macey on the decks. I lived nearby, and at the time was managing Derrick May, Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, and Inner City ,as well as partnering Dave Barker with the Kool Kat and Network labels. So, when not having the time of my life in Detroit pretending to be a techno version of Brian Epstein,I would rock up at No 7's with my latest collection of one-off acetates of brand new recordings. They would be duly handed over to Macey to be given their first play in Europe. Surreal does not even begin to describe it.

Anyway, Mark and I bumped into each there, and he seemed most impressed that Derrick and Kevin had both actually been to Burntwood. We arranged for a meeting with him, and his Nexus 21 partner Chris Peat, at Network's Tudor building HQ in Sparkbrook, Birmingham,and soon after they were duly signed to recording and publishing contracts. The plan was to make perfect Techno records with not an air horn in sight. Mark and Chris were both inquisitive and bright, and they fitted well together because they were polar opposites. Mark the dance music fanatic contrasting with Chris the ace musican. I liked them a lot. Nowadays Mark gets the recognition because of all the other things he has done since Altern 8, and is still very active as a DJ and producer, but Chris was a vital component in what became the Altern 8 success story.

Kevin came up with a corker when we sent him the parts of Nexus 21's "Still Life (Keeps Moving)' to remix, supplying astonishing remoulds not just from himself, but also by then unknowns MK and Carl Craig. Soon after, the awesome new Nexus 21 recordings "Self Hypnosis" and "Bio-Rhythms" proved just how on top of their game Mark and Chris were, and led to Network financing a trip to Detroit where they had the time of their lives making music and talking Techno at Kevin's KMS Studio with MK, Anthony Shakir, and Jay Denham, plus vocalist Donna Black. The results had us flying back over the Atlantic thinking we had cracked it. Nexus 21 were about to become Techno Royalty.

Then it went... insane. A month before, purely as a sideline, the always inventive pair had come up with eight tracks of demented helium rave pastiches: all air horns, speaker destroying bass blasts, and naggingly catchy samples. We didn't quite know what to do with them.We agreed, as it was an alternative to Nexus 21,to release all the tracks on one 12" (the kind of things our pals at Nu Groove In New York were doing) and call the project Altern 8, rather than a proposed suggestion of Alternate.That (accidental) eureka moment let the genie out of the bottle. Nexus 21 was shelved, as the value for money vinyl 8 track 12" was released and sold, and sold and would not stop selling. It was swiftly followed by a proper single, the crackling energy rammed Infiltrate 202" which charted... Network's first Top 40 hit. The next single Activ-8 went to number 3. The follow up Frequency could, in the zeitgeist of the moment, have gone to No 1 if we had not (for some quixotic reason) limited the release to 9009 copies.

Mark and Chris took to turning up at Network having driven down the M6 motorway from Stafford to Brum in their dayglo dust masks and nuclear warfare suits, revving up their mini and doing wheelies,outside our office and revelling in the craziness. Now fully fledged pop stars, they gleefully joined in with the plots for our (budget and less pretentious) take on KLF type activities. As fast as they came up with new tracks,John and myself would compete with each other to conjure up more and more scams to a very gullible Dance Music and Red Top tabloid press: Hot air balloons flying over Stafford dropping disco-biscuit Christmas cakes to grateful pensioners, purchasing rave tanks, setting up an Altern 8 chip shop in Ann Arbor, Michigan, picking up a stranded Elton John on the motorway...Mark and Chris happily picked up the baton on all of them, with photos of the duo looking like deranged Budgies in the hazmat suits appearing here, there and everywhere. The hype was well and truly on.Dave Barker kept things ticking over for the label while we indulged ourselves.

Later on Chris stood for election to Parliament in the General Election against Tory grandee Bill Cash on a Rave ticket. If I remember correctly he did not finish last, proving that there were some people around even less in touch reality than we were. My 5 year-old daughter was turned into MC Crazy Clair intoning "Top One, Nice One, Get Sorted" on Activ 8. Maybe someone should have notified Esther Rantzen...but if they had, no doubt Mark and Chris (not ones to miss a trick) would have simply have sampled her outrage on the next single.

Some of the stuff became legendary. The film of mad-eyed young ravers dancing on top of the cars in Shelley's Car Park, at an impromptu open-air gig (we needed shots for a video) after the club closed is now iconic. We had no permission to do it, and I had a very irate club owner after my blood.

Yes, we were contriving events, , but to be candid nobody with an iota of common sense believed the nonsense they were printing. It was all a game, and in reality a kind of innocence surrounded the whole Altern 8 adventure. Back then,The Sun would run front page headlines about Evil Acid House barons destroying the country. However, Archer and Peat, the duo who personified this alleged threat to the nation's youth, would be more likely to be having a refreshing cup of tea at home in Stafford, than recognise,never mind get involved in,any E's Are Good activities. Their modus operandi was more like The Chuckle Brothers than some of The Kray Twins type characters controlling the less wholesome parts of Rave Culture at the time.

It's easy now, for the cynical, to sneer and characterise Altern 8 as simply cartoon rave, and claim they were not as "vital" as some enigmatic myth maker who never smiled (and only sold a few records, mainly because they weren't that good anyway). But just step back and listen to this album: It's anthemic and iconic, and as John put it, - has an inner core still burning long after it was created.
.
You ask about credibility One Saturday night, I went with Mike Banks of Underground Resistance, the Techno god who was legendary for his hatred of the commerce that had become part of dance music's landscape, to a huge Rave somewhere in London, and Mike spent ages taking photos of Altern 8 on stage, basically ignoring everything else going on. I asked him why he was interested in our hit makers,surely they stood for everything he detested . "Are you kidding. I love those guys!" Mike replied...

Like I said you had to be there.

Lots of the above bits are (inevitably) sampled from McCready, a lesson learnt from Altern 8. Dedicated to Mark and Chris, Dave Barker and John McCready - watch yer bass bins, I'm telling ya!

Neil Rushton

If you want to know what Gabe Gurnsey's debut album
'Physical' sounds like, the first thing you should do is forget all
about Factory Floor, the group he co-founded 13 years ago.
Gone are the cold, lengthy, stripped back deconstructions of no
wave electronica and industrial techno, abandoned in favour of
something altogether warmer, torrid and succinct.
'It's a real departure from Factory Floor,' he explains. 'Yeah,
that was the intention. There's only one track over six minutes
long! There's only one crossover point on the song 'Night
Track', which is 6'33' - that's probably as close to Factory Floor
as it gets. What I wanted to get into with 'Physical' had more to
do with exploring songwriting and structure. The album is very
escapist in one sense even though I don't want to escape from
Factory Floor but what I do on my own has to be separate and
it has to explore new avenues.' Gurnsey started writing tracks in his downtime from the group early 2017 and by the start of that Summer he had 30 demos ready for work. He admits he worked very quickly initially but then gave the tracks 12 months to develop fully into a new sound.
And that new sound - a 21st Century take on muscular electro,
Balearic synth pop, EBM, proto-Hacienda militant funk, early
Chicago house and minimal, Neptunes-referencing beats - can
be experienced in full on 'Physical' the album released on Erol
Alkan's Phantasy label. The album features additional production from Erol Alkan, who also mixed the record.
Double LP format includes printed inner sleeves and digital
download code. Press - Reviews in Q, Loud & Quiet, The Quietus, Record Collector, Uncut.
Features in Loud & Quiet, Electronic Sound, Q, Clash, The Quietus, Gigwise, Silver Soundz.








[]I C2 | I Get
[]J C3 | Version

The second release from Antimatter, a new project by Bule and F-on dedicated to Slow drone techno with field recordings and other 4x4 experiments. Thumping low end smothered in grinding drones and tape hiss.

Gliptolito sees Frigio return to its beginnings whilst making a bold statement of future intent. This time in collaboration with Seti Recordings for a split release by the heads of both labels. Juanpablo shares the platter with ArD2, the team of Ekis and Penélope Martín (of NSRB-11 and Zwischenwelt.) Label boss Juanpablo opens with his ever evolving sound. Rasping beats and subtle key changes are warmed by basslines in the cerebral 'Ica'. 'There is a Silence' comes from a similarly esoteric place, gentle chords shimmering against glitchy undercurrents and clean drums. ArD2 follow up their 2010 appearance on Frigio with two tracks of complex machine funk. Sidelined is their trademark electro sound as the pair lean towards electronica and broken percussion for 'Winter.' Colder tones arrive with 'Utopia', sublime string work warming them through to bring 'Gliptolito' to a close.

BAKK extends it's mind-altering quest with Plafond 2 with two tracks averaging 17 minutes. From Antwerp's depths Milan W. brings a stunning track (consisting of three parts) of ambient exotica. The flipside carries synth wizzard Ekolali, who resides on a barn in Sweden, with a rhythmic jam to sink into. Comes again in a special screen printed outer sleeve and tasteful Obi strip made by the BAKK Deep Dream Department.

Paradise Valley's debut 'Deep Probe' EP could well be a case study on how to make an unforgettable electronic music record. Take an incredible, psychedelic collection of ideas that have been drenched in emotional content and heart ache and then infused with optimism and inspirational, healing emotions, shake it with visions of outer space, and the production level 99, put that into a track that will be the defining moment of any dj set: you just got 'Deep Probe'.

Broken TV techno and panorama noise compilation that looks to expand people's perceptions of what can open up a dimly lit space.

Enduring ambient and soundtrack specialist John Beltran has finished another full length album for Delsin Records. Entitled Espais, it lands in summer 2015 and features 17 beautiful tracks that range from dreamy and heavenly to more meaning and moving. Emotional from start to finish, it once again finds Beltran using moderns tools and techniques with classical musical values. Part synthetic and machine made, part organic and natural, it is another fine opus from the Michigan man. Barcode: 8718754951111.

Five tracks of darkside slither from somewhere under London. Sidereal downers for all hardcore ravers. The dread energy of grime and bleep techno distilled into pungent electro-acoustic ooze. Paranoid street music meets the cosmic disturbances of musique concrete, the spine-freeze of isolationism and England's Hidden Reverse. Staccato string stabs, murmured voices, black holes of reverb and pulverising, body-numbing bass. Drums optional. Unwanted side-effects include nosebleeds, earaches, stomach cramps, and nausea. Just say naaahhh.

It was Vladimir Ivkovic who introduced me to the world of Rex Ilusivii. A world where the spirit of a genius holds sway. I remember spending an entire night at Vladimir's house in Germany, listening to all those recovered pieces, and feeling like I had entered another space-time.

Mitar tragically left us, one November night in 1999 in Brazil, leaving behind an extensive body of work consisting of more than 500 pieces, for the most part never released. Being submerged in such a unique universe, so singular, brought me happiness. It also filled me with hope, because I tell myself that today there must be many other outstanding musicians who produce in the shadow of the traditional circuit, just for the pleasure of making music.

Listening to the music of Mitar Subotic makes you part of his world. He did not stop producing from 1983 to 1999, in different styles, but with an instantly recognizable touch.His music also marries the evolution of recording techniques with new instruments that have appeared over this time, from the TR808 to the digital samplers. It took me more than two years to select the music for this record, as each time I listened to the material it revealed other details and other possibilities.

I am extremely happy and honored to present this record to you, in which I try to do justice to the different, "versatile" facets of Suba.

Repress from space-disco LP from 1983/1984 by Argentinian group led by keyboardist Bruno Carlos Musso.

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Carefully remastered by Fabrizio Martina (Jolly Mare), who also produced the bonus track (a disco-club oriented remix).

Skinny Pelembe has corralled together a cast of talented friends for his new EP. It's the second release from the Doncaster-raised, multi-talented producer-cum-bandleader since signing to Gilles Peterson's Brownswood label in February. This one's a group effort, with each of its tracks featuring a different artist, each of them an act he's met through music or through linking with Brownswood's talent development programme Future Bubblers two years ago.

The EP touches on hip-hop, psych-rock and jazz-influenced sounds, continuing in the gloriously magpie-like approach of his earlier releases. Each of its songs started as a rough idea which was then fleshed out and re-imagined with his collaborators. He says that the title of the EP comes from some advice which he left for himself on an old notebook. The singer-guitarist-producer, born in Johannesburg and raised in Doncaster, signed to Brownswood earlier this year and debuted with the 'Spit / Swallow' single in March. It's seen support from Dazed, The Quietus and Huck. He's been invited as a guest onto Jamz Supernova on Radio 1xtra, as well as Tom Ravenscroft and Lauren Laverne on 6 Music. He recently featured as one of the guests chosen for 6 Music's showcase at The Great Escape. The single release will be followed by Skinny's first UK Tour in September.

For the second release on null+void Recordings I'm extremely happy to present four tracks from L-R, a collaborative project between Keith Tenniswood (Radioactive Man), Simon Lynch (London Modular Alliance) and Johnny Oakley (Monoak / Freerotation). Three friends and artists whose music I've enjoyed and admired for many years.

The group have been working together regularly in the beautifully equipped Curvepusher Studio (with the addition of Simon's modular elements) over the last 18 months and over these sessions worked up a sound that brings in a striking combination of elements from each producer's own distinct pallets. At times brutal and others sublime, this EP works out at the higher end of BPM covering electro and techno territories.

The California EP pays homage to Diplo's first full-length release, Florida, where he spent much of his youth. The sonics on California share a similar tone: slow, vibey, & melancholic, a bit of a departure from the sound he has been known for in recent years. The EP is much more than just a handful of tracks, it's an introspective body of work.

Following on from Angophora's beautiful long player, Ken Oath is back with another full length LP from Low Flung. Friends of the label will note that this is his third release for Ken Oath, and it's a fittingly mature and expansive statement for a debut LP. Perhaps mature is the wrong word here, as all his brilliant ideas are backed up by a sense of whimsy that betrays his playful side. The music strikes a balance between styles and spaces that could perfectly soundtrack moments at home, in the club, and in the liminal spaces between.

Danny's efforts at writing dance music still contain the idiosyncratic approaches of his ambient works: The deadly deep subs and endless echo spirals on "Rising Damp" sounds like someone trying to piece together a Drum & Bass track after an off-hand conversation about the genre. He's transmuted the propulsive energy of jungle into something no less dynamic, full of stops and starts and sonic pressure but flush with space. "Tarp Climber" is at heart a rollicking digi-dub.

The more ambient moments of the LP are equally captivating - the glassy tones of "Frozen Coat" sound like a space-age ensemble soundtracking a floating lounge on a suite of glass instruments, while "Ocean Grove" blends field recordings and dreamy synthesizer melodies to create an uncanny sense of place that unroots you from wherever you're listening.

There's a heavy emphasis on Danny's collaborators as well - the Cold Emotion duo is reprised on the spacey 'Hills Hoist'. Closer "Bacchus Marsh" is a collaboration with Prophets, a cross-state ensemble that defy any easy categorisation. The music here flirts with jazz and minimalism but with a dubwise production aesthetic to produce something that recalls Khan Jamal's visionary "Drum Dance to the Motherland" in spirit and practice, but this whole album sounds as otherworldly and one-of-a-kind as the aforementioned LP.

Following the release of critically acclaimed LP Wake in Fright, which had two songs featured in the new season of David Lynch's Twin Peaks, it was time for Uniform vocalist Michael Berdan and instrumentalist Ben Greenberg to return to the studio. The duo decided to up the ante and add a third member to help perfect their vicious post-industrial dystopian cyber-punk. After some deliberation, Greenberg called upon drummer Greg Fox (Liturgy, Zs) to help round out the sound they were looking for. Using a mix of triggered samples and real drums along with layered synths and good old electric guitar, the trio arrived at what would become The Long Walk after only a few short days in the studio. 

From the opening whirr of the title track, it's clear that the band is onto something special. Recorded in Strange Weather studios in the first part of 2018, The Long Walk is eight new tracks by the duo of Greenberg and Berdan, incorporating Fox's skills behind the drum kit to add an entirely new dimension to the signature Uniform sound. Ditching sequenced tracks, Greenberg opted for single takes to highlight the Frankenstein-like guitar-bass-synth hybrid that oozes throughout the recording. Meanwhile, crushing guitar thunder is punched up by Fox's masterful drumming while Berdan's cries from the nether feel more desperate and morose than ever.

From a basement in New Jersey, Tommy Falcone remade himself into a DIY Phil Spector. From 1962 to 1970, he founded and ran Cleopatra Records, discovered and mentored young Garden State talent, wrote songs and produced wild studio effects, and quit his day job to promote it all himself. Trained as an accordionist, Falcone had a whirlwind imagination and an omnivorous approach to genre, expressed through acts like the Centuries, the Tabbys, Johnny Silvio, the Inmates, Bernadette Carroll, the Hallmarks, Vickie & the Van Dykes, the Shandillons, Eugene Viscione, the Shoestring, and more. Cleopatra became a time-capsule of every 1960s pop style imaginable—garage rock, psychedelia, surf, girl groups, soul, novelties, exotica, even a crooner—a kaleidoscope of sound in search of the ever-elusive hit record.

Ekin Fil continues her quietly complex dream-pop oeuvre on Maps. For many years now, this Istanbul musician has been writing mysterious and haunting songs, rich in heavy-reverb effects and an introspective torpor. With each successive album, her songwriting has blossomed through broader instrumentation and more intricate melodic phrasing, though the somber atmospherics and ghostly manifestations remain a judicious constant. Minor-key, tear-stained notes of piano, organ, and guitar veer along elliptical orbits as a soft-whisper lilt of Ekin's voice narrates more by emotive decree than by literary couplet.

Maps addresses the distance and dislocation of the self from the bustling center of Istanbul, where Ekin FIl (neé Ekin Üzeltüzenci) had once called her home. Having spent her first winter on a relatively quiet island in the Sea of Marmara (while still in the greater metropolitan umbrella of Istanbul), Maps is lonely, different, kind of isolated,' according to Ekin, who also noted that the island had 'too much silence around. There is no other choice but to concentrate, I guess.' Her poetics of silence on her previous recordings had been noted as an antidote or a dream capsule of sound in response to Istanbul's cauldron of politics, culture, and philosophy that has been boiling almost since the beginning of civilization. Maps bends that maritime silence into wind-swept smudges that complement her already spacious compositions.

The saddest songs of The Durutti Column excised of rhythm and those few plunges into sorrow by Harold Budd make for apt comparisons to Maps, in addition to the drone-on classics of Grouper, Slowdive, and Sarah Davachi.

Sub Rosa present a collection of Pauline Oliveros' early material, aptly titled Early Electronic Works 1959-66, released as a part of the label's Early Electronic series. Released in 2008 in CD, now finally on vinyl!

Oliveros was an important American composer, born in Houston, Texas on May 30, 1932; the music she produced in the latter part of her life is akin to the breath of life, notably, through her pieces for accordion (particularly those which she herself performed). In addition to her performances, she also made an impact in the world of contemporary composition through the creation of the Deep Listening Center, her approach to improvisation, and her numerous and varied collaborations including those with John Cage, Morton Subotnick, Terry Riley, Sonic Youth, Erold, and Andrew Deutsch. The music presented here is her early and definitive contribution to the tape and electronic music of the late 1950s and 1960s through her systematic exploration of electronic sounds, which was fundamental during this period.

"My work with electronic music began in 1959. My first tape piece was an ambitious four channel work called Time Perspectives (1959). The piece was made by recording small sounds from objects resonated on a wooden wall and changing the tape speed. I used cardboard tubes as filters by inserting the microphone into the tube and recording sources through the tubes. I used my bath tub as a reverberation chamber." - Pauline Oliveros

When a band calls itself Rhein it is a brave move. The superstructure is weighty and demands a dedication to art. Although the musicians Jürgen Krause, Johannes Rix and Peter Michael Witt claim to have chosen the name because of their residential locations in Cologne and Düsseldorf. This may be so simple, but it is perhaps only the obvious part of the story. Are not the kilometers of current between the cathedral city of Cologne and the Rhine metropolis Düsseldorf the Mississippi delta of electronic music That culturally fertile section of the river that first gave birth to Krautrock and then to the very music that was shaped into today's Techno and House in Detroit and Chicago Rhine is the primordial soup of electronic music.

The German name Rhein - the pun is permitted to the author of these lines - always resonates with the word "rein" (which means pure or clear). Audibly, the band Rhein cultivates the original, the primordial state. Their two "takes" are snapshots of music in statu nascendi: pure sound. There is no evoking of Schnitzler, nor Rother, nor Hütter/ Schneider. No melodies or rhythms that would give hints for an interpretation. When the layers, the pulsation of the synths in search of synergic elements and harmonies meet on guitar fragments, Rhein is in the flow: This trilogy oscillates from a flat rivulet to a profound, unbridled torrent. Like its name giver, Rhein is unpredictable. Rhein rises from the bed of digital listening behavior, giving sound the space it deserves, and astonishes the astute listener with a psychedelic experience of music. Rhein is beauty.