Nouveautés et Sorties Vinyles Beats - News

Second installment on OK SPIRIT goes deep into the digital dub fantasies of Employee. Echo reflections on nine-to-five dilemmas with a dizzy remix by DJ Neewt.

Over the years, American composer Rafael Anton Irisarrihas become ubiquitous within the spheres of ambient, drone and electronic music. Whether it’s through Irisarri’scelestial long-form albums or his lauded audio engineering credentials for countless artists and labels, Irisarri’s consistent dedication to his craft never wavers from the forefront.

While Irisarri’s compositions typically field an array of modern ambient overtones threaded through oceanic symphonies with tape loops, bowed electric guitar and vast washes of overdriven sound, his recent debut album for Dais Records, Peripeteia, portray these common themes giving way to metal and classical influences that emphasizes Irisarri’s melancholic tendencies. These unique overtures, coupled with his signature layering of distortion and bleached-out textures, fabricate an audible environment that would seemingly be at oddswith, yet gracefullycomplementeach other. In Irisarri’s own words, “My previous works internalize any exterior forces or circumstances, while trying to make sense of the world. Peripeteia reverses that approach, focusing on the personal in order to tell a wider human story.”

The emotional depth found throughout Peripeteia is impeccably on display with the track, Mellified. A collaboration with Spanish composer Yamila, the choral arrangements bring to mind the sacred music of Arvo Pärt, while her voice combines the Andalusian “Cante jondo” style with medieval modes, almost drowning in layers of octave fuzz distortion and dystopian synths patterns. On Arduous Clarity, the bright arpeggiating melody that churns throughout, offers the initial glimmer of optimism in an otherwise decaying tale of personal turmoil. This encouraging glimpse is short lived however, as the song Refuge/Refuseseemingly plummets into the mourning depths of somber despair. A chorus of voices steadily crawls from its desolate terrain –a sea of broken spirits, eternally resigned to strain and bellow their final lament. Fright and Control, a piece which is equally soul churning, seems to possess a satisfying resolve, as if after years of searching, one’s very salvation has been laid to rest through the acceptance of mortality and the enlightenment in death. Irisarri’s complexity is utilized to a forcible success, slowly pulsing throughout the foreground of his audience, further emphasizing the impending dread of resolve.

Artist statement: "Peripeteia is about the last few years, sudden reversals in fortune, illness, and comforting mortality. These sudden changes in personal life mirrors the sociopolitical transformations happening at a larger global scale in countries all over the world. Previous Irisarri works internalize exterior forces/circumstances while trying to make sense of the world. Peripeteia reverses that narrative, focusing on the personal to tell a wider human story."

A new sub-label of the longstanding Canadian electro imprint Suction Records, Ice Machine — focusing on old-school wave/post-punk sounds — is thrilled to present a new, deluxe reissue of “Pow Wow”, the debut 1982 solo LP from Cabaret Voltaire’s Stephen Mallinder. Now expanded to a double-LP, and also released on CD/digital, it’s a definitive reissue which now includes Mallinder’s early solo discography in its entirety. This collection of mutant dub/funk/postpunk sounds just as fresh and contemporary in 2020 as it did in 1982 (note Autechre’s inclusion of standout cut “Del Sol” in a mix earlier this year), and highlights Mallinder’s crucial contributions to Cabaret Voltaire.

Some words from Mr.Mallinder on the scene and era from which “Pow Wow” was born: “It was an interesting, and inspiring, time. The primal caterwaul of punk was dying and lots of really significant things were emerging from the fires. Much looser vibes were in the air and there was a much more exploratory feel. Punk had championed a visceral, anti-intellectual approach but in truth the real characters brought so much more to the table, and what began to happen - from people like The Pop Group to Throbbing Gristle, and emerging scenes from No New York to Factory Records - is we began to embrace the art of it all. There was acknowledgement of the importance of books, films, graphic art, and experimentation with all those mediums. We were just as interested in turning over rocks to see what lay beneath, as throwing them. There was a sense of new magik emerging.”

“Pow Wow” was commissioned by the Fetish Records label, and recorded at the Cabs’ Western Works studio, where Mallinder would spend his days recording with Cabaret Voltaire, and continue on alone into night recording his debut solo material. “I slept very little in those days,” he adds, continuing: “It was done on 8 track and very multi-tracked, so lots of recording, then bouncing, and overdubbing, to get the integrated feel of the tracks. I became very adept at pressing record then jumping onto equipment to play it - it was actually a very 'live' record in that sense. I've always seen rhythm at the core of what I do so I loved the layering of counter rhythms. The sequence/arpeggiator parts were all drum machine triggers that were played live. It was about creating a distinct groove so arrangements came from weaving in and out of those linear grooves. It was fun to play everything from drums, guitars, keys, trumpet, percussion, tapes… and record and produce it all. Prince got it from me!”

Surprisingly, Mallinder’s first solo LP would also prove to be his last - that is, until last year’s critically-acclaimed solo return “Um Dada”, on Dais.

This new edition of “Pow Wow” contains 14 songs, and is housed in a recreation of the original, iconic Neville Brody jacket, painstakingly recreated using scans of Brody’s original artwork elements. The 2LP vinyl edition is in a reverse board, thick-spine jacket, and adds a 12”x24” folded poster/insert, featuring unused elements from Brody’s original designs, sketches, and instructions for the LP. The CD edition comes in a reverse board, 6-panel digipack.


2-11 from the Pow-Wow LP on Fetish Records, 1982.

13-14 from the Temperature Drop / Cool Down 12” on Fetish Records, 1981.

12 from the Fetish Records compilation The Last Testament, 1983.

1 edit from the Pow-Wow Plus LP on Fetish Records (Japanese pressing), 1984.

New technologies have affected the way we discover music. As much as I love crate digging, it was while browsing Bandcamp that I stumbled upon Baby Bye. The song caught my attention and as soon as I finished listening to it, I listened again and again, in what seemed to be an endless loop.
In my living room, images of a fireplace came to my mind, I was cozy while outside progressively turned into the landscape of Siberia. The unforgiving winter with its cold and darkness surrounded me, but I felt wrapped up in warmth and light.

I contacted Chikiss and invited her to play live at a STAUB. When I asked her if I could release her music, she offered to rerelease Baby Bye.
Being so in love with the song, I accepted instantly. When we started to work on the record, I realized I wanted to add something more, not just reissue a track. I feel sometimes we do not treat the things we love with enough respect. I feel fortunate to be given the chance to treat her music with the attention I thought she deserved in the first place.

That is why I asked Stanislav to remix the song. It may seem like an odd choice, but by doing so I brought together two of my favorite artists. This record means a lot to me and I sincerely hope you will appreciate it.

From the crystalline sources of the stony rivers through the waves of 5G networks to the blood stream of yellow plasma. Mustikoita ja kissankelloja is like a chaotic sonic sedimentation of new weird Finland music revitalised and flowing through different waste channels, protected habitats and clogged veins. You can scan the microview and listen to the pointillistic murmur on a petri dish or try to stalk the tectonic movements.

Do you remember the pure electronic ocean of the Pacific Tubular Waves created by Michel Redolfi in 1980? Take Redolfi's water music, pour it into the electron–positron collider, and use Olli Aarni's nanoscopic microphone. You'll find a frenetic mix of trembling static, singing bacteria, thermal bubbles, crinkling fossils, buzzing signals and crackling glaciers – all teeming on unseen wavelenghts.

The result is a living matter: soundscapes recorded in humid forests, endlessly mutating patterns, and warm ambient evaporating from various well-known electroacoustic studios.

PS: Disinfect your ears after each listening.

We are proud to present UNDERMEDVETENHETEN, a new live action role playing game developed alongside London games company Frand.

UNDERMEDVETENHETEN is a simple, science fantasy game for 1-12 players, with a focus on atmosphere, storytelling and player cooperation - perfect for newcomers to live action role playing. It takes 2 minutes to set up, lasts around 30 minutes, and no two games are ever the same.

Players take on the roles of humans aboard a vessel on an endless journey into the depths of space. They are not lost, but all hope is, as they hurtle stricken into the void. Your only access to the universe outside is through the ship's altruistic artificial intelligence, Mima.

As immersive chapter cards are revealed one by one, players must interact with Mima in order to shed light on the universe around them, indulge in fantasies of worlds past, or attempt to right the ship's blighted trajectory.

Can you make sense of the abyss?

UNDERMEDVETENHETEN comes complete with a soundtrack composed by John B McKenna. Together with our partners Lost Map Records and Foundation of the Teacherock, we have pressed this to a limited run of 300 records.

The joyful, tender, almost too tender, but at times extremely intense album entitled Televize was made by the inflamed, wholly focused, at times completely scattered, dissipated and organically chaotic ensemble called the Roman Radkovič Collective. It throws at the listener a threshold music and a poetic experience of the world.

If one record can mediate otherness, a music which can never be imagined without first-hand experience, it is the LP with the magical title Televize. It sounds like a gargantuan musical belly which can swallow anything, churn it, mix it and eject it back into the world in unexpected constructs. These are full of broken rhythms, dense layers of sound, disfigured melodies, chants, recitations, hectic yelps and urgent tidings, while showing occasional glimpses of precious lines of melody. Although it may seem that the main logic behind all the output of the Roman Radkovič Collective can be found in extensivity, a total surf on noise, free and grotesque pop-cultural soundscapes (we hear bits of classy Czech evergreens like Czech anthem, Zaľúbil sa chlapec, Yellow Submarine, Když jsem šel z Hradišťa, but also various confessions, laments, art brut poems, expressions of absolute spontaneity, imagination and boundlessness), after repeated listening the intensity of the protagonists shines through. Intensity in the sense of a measured deepening of the internal need to express oneself, to circle around the obsessively loved topics, texts, their heroes and loves.

But screw all the trajectories of relations and discursive constructs, there are no similar records in the world, maybe with the exception of Schlingensief’s project Freak Stars 3000 with its similarly excited and possessed big band. The motto is: prophecy, joy, noise, only good things to the good, everything to everything and, most importantly, density embodied. Density which is intoxicating like Koulelo se koulelo červené jablíčko. There must be much of everything and it must go all the way and never fall short.

This album is the funnel of the world. Televize will glut and mesmerize you. All power to imagination! Don’t search for idioms, wage death on virtuosity, let yourself be flooded by the breached dams of joy and consciousness. And you will love the album art.

FUJI||||||||||TA, real name FUJITA Yosuke, is a Japanese sound artist. After countless performances in different contexts either solo or along artists such as Yamantaka Eye of Boredoms and the legendary avant-gardist SUZUKI Akio as well as a slew of solo releases, his LP »iki« (»breath«) for the Swiss-based Hallow Ground label is his first in nine years. On these four pieces, Fujita explores the idiosyncratic sound qualities of the pipe organ he has built all by himself in 2009. This - quite literally unique - instrument features only eleven pipes, an air pump called »fuigo« which was modelled after a traditional blacksmith’s one and has no keyboard. Inspired by traditional gagaku, it was designed to evoke rich landscapes rather function as just another musical instrument. While his previous records saw FUJI||||||||||TA explore various modes of abstraction, »iki« is a highly emotive yet meditative album, musically restrained but full of imagination.

»keshiki« immediately sets the mood for this record with a long sustained note that is punctuated by the soft clicking of Fujita’s air pump. Once Fujita carefully starts bringing melodies into play, the interplay of the drone and the discrete rhythmic element gives way to a fuller harmonic whole. »keshiki« is an intimate piece that perfectly displays the artist’s knack for painting a rich sonic picture with only a reduced palette. »nNami« juxtaposes the sounds of two pipes that are out of tune with each other, creating a hypnotic sensation of ebb and flow (»nami« translates to »wave«) that is full of subtle friction. It’s a staggering artistic interpretation of the instrument’s material characteristics. Clocking in at ten minutes, »osoi« (»slow«) is an overall melancholic piece that explores the relationship between different tone colours through minute changes in pace. Finally, »sukima« (»blank space«) is the shortest and the most rhythmic piece of the four. Composed of only staccati, it is a masterful exploration of the harmonic qualities Fujita’s stunning pipe organ has to offer.

Recorded between September and December of 2019, »iki« marks the culmination of FUJI||||||||||TA’s ten-year-long work with the instrument that he had built without any prior knowledge and started to teach himself to play without a manual in sight. It is, in other words, the unique result of a unique musical mind paying his dues to the uniqueness of his own creation; introspective and welcoming at once.

»KAMILHAN; il y a péril en la demeure« is the conclusion of a 5-part cycle of works by artist Grischa Lichtenberger which was initiated with the album »LA DEMEURE; il y a péril en la demeure« in 2015 and continued with the triple EP release »Spielraum, Allgegenwart, Strahlung« in 2016. In addition to the concept of „demeure“, ones residence as a symbol for the joy and artistic possibilities one can find in isolation, Lichtenberger places a further emphasis on the expression of the voice, represented by the word „Kamilhan“. „Kamilhan“ is a non-existent word, an expression that Ernst Bloch once mentioned in an anecdote about his childhood. Fascinated by its sound but without knowing its meaning, it remained vivid in his memory in its purely „material“ form. Lichtenberger also refers to this childish perception of language. Words that we do not know, but repeat in our thoughts until they become insignificant. Lyrics in a foreign language that we do not understand and still sing along and imitate. With computer-generated voices, Lichtenberger tries to reproduce these experiences. In his tracks we hear syllables and phrases that are similar to words and that seem familiar to us, but whose meaning remains a secret. As on the previous album, the tracks on »KAMILHAN« are constantly torn apart and reassembled. Borrowings from hip-hop and even pop are unmistakable, desired, and yet delusive. Rhythms that are repeatedly broken in order to re-organize themselves into new temporal patterns. Melodies that are pierced by precisely these intricate rhythms. Voices that lack any empathy due to their artificiality. Lichtenberger himself describes these tracks as „crooked ballads“, which, by deliberately following classic pop song structures, try to sell us the absurd as the normal, and in turn smuggle some hope of recognition into the absurd. »KAMILHAN; il y a péril en la demeure« will be released on May 08, 2020 on CD and as a limited double vinyl edition including a handmade and signed silkscreen print.

clear orange vinyl Limited

The missed seed of cryptobotany music. Jani Hirvonen (Uton) and Johannes Schebler (Baldruin) reconstruct the mesmerizing world of the Grykë Pyje swamp tribe. Vinyl in your hands is a ceremonial sonification of the sacred herbarium, painted myths of the animal kingdom and voices behind the thicket.

A return to the time when the forests, tree crowns, soil, thickets and heaven were full of continuous murmur. Or, on the contrary, a vision of a future in which the chaos of natural noises will reign. Slimy earthworms and phosphorescent bugs crawl out of the holes and gaze toward the sky. Brightly colored birds pick juicy fruits and there is no silence, because it is absorbed by the buzz of a virgin ecosystem. In the caves, marshes and hollows of trees, the most important questions are decided. A polyrhythmic rain falls from the sky and washes the prehistoric mud from mammalian hair. Somewhere to see human footprints, but those who have left them are long hidden under giant leaves. The light, reflected from the vibrant structure of life itself, dances for all, in full color. The feast of photosynthesis. Nothing to see from the top. Plants, moss and mushrooms grow at a tremendous rate. They climb each other to break through the lush green blanket. And above all, the orange disc shines pleasantly.

Panelák. Fenced square garden at the entrance. Tree limbs, dried skin of snake, snails with cracked shells. Once upon a time there were plants. Soaked orange peel in front of the door. Buzzing of door bells. Elevator drone. You count the floors while you follow the picture instructions. Capacity and weight of three-dimensional space. You are entering the apartment. Horseshoe above the door. A wooden mask next to a whistling kettle. Seashells in plastic box. Phantom signal. Sheep fur on the couch. You straighten out all the folds. Mute TV. Documentary program- wolves, octopus, worms and a shark. Clock metronome. One minute, two minutes, twenty-seven minutes. 60% polyester pyjamas. Brain-shaped smog behind the window. Smoke, dust or just fog. You put wax in one ear, cotton in the other. I love this city and its outlying lands. My romantic landscape.

Sarah Hughes’ multidisciplinary arts practice, comprising composition, performance, curating and installation, revolves around the relationship between social and environmental systems of cooperation. The work draws from various contexts including ecology, feminist politics, alternative economies, land use, and protest in order to explore speculative systems of organisation and collaboration as the ground for social change.

Hughes’s work has been exhibited and performed internationally, including at South London Gallery, Punt WG Amsterdam, Cass Sculpture Foundation, Supplement, and Modern Art Oxford. Her compositions have been performed by various ensembles and at various festivals including London Contemporary Music Festival, Music We'd Like To Hear, and Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. Realisations of her compositions have been published by Another Timbre, Suppedaneum, Melange Editions, and Consumer Waste, and broadcast on the BBC.

Tape / Cassette

It is raw material rather than tool. Polished metal body or beslavered tube. Just tenor sax at the end of its pilgrimage. It is sculptural object - assemblage without original function rather than a museum artefact of musical viruosity. Heavy metals flowing through the sewer from the concert hall. Small scrap dried by sunlights. Bubbling, squealing and rustling. Circular breathing - as if you have been blowing glass. Objects shaped by breath. Sébastien Branche as a sculptor and a bricolier.

Sébastien plays soprano, tenor and C-melody saxophones. He got started with improvisation through workshops with musicians coming from contemporary jazz or improvised music.
Interested in perceptive phenomenons, he works mainly with sound as a material, describing himself as a “sound crafter”. His interests also extends to body and space, as he regularly confronts his practice to contemporary dance, soundart, through collaborations mainly with photographer Diane Martinot and music and technology, through the use of programming language Supercollider. Based in Leipzig, Germany since 2015, he is an active member of the blooming local scene.

In just a few years and with a handful of releases, the Canadian producer better known as Yves Malone has earned himself a reputation. In The Beginning of Nothing he continues working with many layers of analog synths and a keen sense of drum machines to create atmospheres and textures extracted from late twentieth-century collective fears of a dystopian future. Created as a sort of score to an internal elegy, Yves Malone creates soundtracks of the daily fear, regret, and resignation that is his waking life, an effort to isolate and negate this anxiety, which is a constant and unwanted companion. Sequenced on mostly working vintage gear, The Beginning of Nothing tries to extricate a bit of beauty from a rapidly darkening landscape.

Transversales Disques present a reissue of Bernard Baschet and Michel Deneuve's 4 Espaces Sonores, originally released in 1982. Rare 1979 recording of Bernard Baschet performing on his Sound Sculptures.The Baschet brothers are known worldwide as creators of Sound Sculptures, fantastic shapes of moulded metal and glass, which combine the visual arts with music.François Baschet had always been fascinated by acoustics, by the relationships between the shape and material of an intrument and the beauty of its sound.Bernard Baschet was passionately interested in contemporary music and firmly believed that such instruments were the proper tools for modern music, for they offered to the artist and performer a personal means of expression denied by electronic devices.Together the brothers began to design and produce Sound Sculptures, which could also be regarded as musical instruments.Circa 1965, Bernard worked alongside Pierre Schaeffer as a member of the GRM (Musical Research Group) on the elaboration of what was to become Schaeffer's "Traité des objets musicaux" (Treatise on Musical Objects).The Baschet brothers also created structures and instruments of all sizes, including bell towers, windmills and fountains, using the natural elements of wind and water to make music. Bernard Baschet was especially proud of his pedagogical work amongst deprived and handicapped children, with the instrumentaium made up of fourteen pieces.

DJ Die Soon is a local legend and ongoing inspiration in the Berlin underground electronic music scene. Remaining largely unknown outside the city, with only a handful of releases and appearances to date, the man behind the mask delivers truly freakish beats built from chaos driven crushed drums and eerie horror style basslines.

KAPPA SLAP wrenches the Morphine catalog by the neck, takes it off it’s feet and slams it back unsteadily in front of the fans who loved the Container, Metasplice and Hieroglyphic Being output of the label. DJ Die Soon delivers extreme work here. The album is a mixture of instrumental pieces and vocal tracks featuring the talents of five contrasting MC's. Three Ugandan lyricists feature: there’s MC Yallah, with whom he worked during a residency for the Nyege Nyege Festival , Lord Spikeheart from the Duma hardcore pressure band, and the mighty ECKO BAZZ. Long time friend and collaborator Infinite Livez (Ninja Tunes) appears on the cosmic & eccentric Ranthworth, and finally there’s Japan’s MA, who recently dropped the incredible AMA album on the label. Incidentally, the pair (both Japanese) decided to collaborate after acclaimed performance at the Morphine Showcase Berlin’s Berghain in 2019.

KAPPA SLAP contains a lot of our favorite sounds all in one album. Stunningly, DJ Die Soon manages to paint the Morphine picture in one hard stroke.

Artwork courtesy of Lorenzo Mason Studio

One of the all-time fantastic masterpieces of tribal ambient, an absolute must-own for any fan of the genre. Peyote is a musical trip well worth taking.

Originally released in 1991 on cd and now released on vinyl for the first time.

O Yuki Conjugate (OYC) are an English post-industrial/ambient musical group founded in 1982 in Nottingham by Roger Horberry and Andrew Hulme and still - intermittently - active today. Originally inspired by the spirit and sound of post-punk, they soon started pioneering their own brand of ambient at a time (early 80s) when few people were interested in such a low-key approach. Their music has been variously described as 'ambient', 'fourth world', 'ethnic', 'tribal' and 'dark wave'; the band prefer to call it 'dirty ambient'.

Remastered Vinyl-erstveröffentlichung Der Debüt-ep Der Frankophonen, Kanadischen Künstlerin Marie Davidson Aus Montreal, Die 2012 Nur Digital Und Als Limitiertes Tape Im Eigenvertrieb Erschien Und Zu Einem Synth-pop-kultrelease Avancierte. Marie Davidson, Eine Hälfte Des Dfa-duos Essaie Pas, Ist Bekannt Für Eine Kalte Und Düstere Synth-ästhetik Mit Sinnlichem Sprechgesang. Die Ep Erscheint Auf Dem Electronic-indielabel Holodeck Aus Austin, Texas, Das Ausschliesslich Auf Vinyl, Tape Und Digital Veröffentlicht. Pinkfarbenes Vinyl.

Tape / Cassette

Comforting Katharina, the solo debut of Swiss musician Remo Helfenstein, finds a tender melancholy in the small gestures in the search for atonement. Helfenstein’s music does not pursue a sublime but rather dwells in immanence and intimacy. Even in its most rapturous moments, as in his take on the gospel hymn “What a Friend”, Comforting Katharina unfolds as a question and not as a creed. The five songs might be understood as a form of devotional music; but in the sense that it subjects itself primarily to the whims of an outdated media technology.
Helfenstein recorded the majority of the material on Comforting Katharina on cassette using a four-track recorder. He then replayed those recordings, let them overlap, and manipulated them with effects while singing live, recording this process once more in one take. Resisting the regime of precision and control of digital music production, Comforting Katharina thus obtains a momentous, precarious and contingent quality.  
Comforting Katharina combines atmospheric pop, gospel, and Americana with harsh electroacoustic and dark ambient touches.

Amsterdam-based duo Wanderwelle presents their fourth full-length album titled A State Of Decrepitude. Inspired by the many aspects of impermanence and facets of decay, the duo composed their most intrinsic and detailed production yet.

After two successful albums on Silent Season and a recent collaboration album with Bandhagens Musikforening on Semantica, Phil van Dulm & Alexander Bartels have applied their talents to create a mysterious soundtrack focussed on the countless faces of deterioration. Recorded in 2018, Wanderwelle's first electroacoustic album is an anthological approach to a theme that is inseparable from our current global crises.

2x12"

Finn’s 2 B Real bootyque drop his killer 82 min vinyl edit of Tom Boogizm’s prized live introduction to mysterious G, Michael J Blood, originally broadcast on NTS, issued on sold-out tape, and now newly cut on 2LP with track markers for DJ navigation and primed for smoky lockdown bopping - think Manny’s answer to Moodyman, Urban Tribe or Theo Parrish!
Meticulously distilled by Finn from the original cult NTS show and its sought-after tape edition, it’s as much a showcase for Michael J. Blood’s rudely soulful production and his circle as the deadly DJ tekkers of Tom Boogizm and Finn’s edit chops. Since the origi9nal 2017 broadcast the mix has been coveted for its bounty of unreleased cuts - a mixture of rude ghettotech and smoky soul-sampling jams - and the way it was stitched together, on-the-fly by Wigan’s funkiest son Boogizm - whose recent Shotta Tapes editions have sold out in minutes.
Now prepped by Demdike’s Miles Whittaker and cut to vinyl at D&M, the project enters a rare sub-subgenre of mixtapes on vinyl, packing 20 mins per side, with track marks highlighting Blood’s most in demand numbers, and all juggled in a classic Chicago and Detroit-via-Manchester style ideal for settee slomping or lockdown house-party function.
Trimmed to 80 mins of lean, it toggles the vibe back ’n forth between red-eyed studio abstraction, slompy Dilla-esque beats, synth-funk vamps and mutant ghetto-tech/Jit/juke with a charming, CDJazz loucheness, and keeps the gauge ticking up with a ruder feminine pressure recalling Finn’s own productions, and crucially includes some proper nifty, hands-on the 2000s chops by the Boogizm that sound like RP Boo, Slackk or DJ Rashad’s footwork flips of classic funk or even Actress’ classic Thriller edits, crisply framed and hewn for DJ use.
Trust it’s the lick. Do not sleep on this!

Samuel Rohrer CONTINUAL DECENTERING
With his Arjunamusic label and a growing catalog of categorydefying releases, Samuel Rohrer continues to quietly, yet confidently, make a name for himself as a genuinely unique Gigure within the European electronic music realm. In the current era, talk of blurring boundaries between musical genres and attitudes is more the rule than the exception, but not always something done with any degree of success. Rohrer is one of those rare alchemical explorers to have truly created a hybrid which is all his own, one that does not just exist to melt distinctions for its own sake, but is a natural result of years of experimentation with both the determination of electronic music and the ludic spirit of ‘free improvisation.’ On his newest offering, Continual Decentering, this vision is applied to a set of mostly in real time (live) performed explorations. 
In keeping with his many years’ worth of fruitful collaborations, the tonal palette on this new record is one that is expectedly rich for those familiar with his work, yet still surprising in terms of how exactly the differing tonal colors come together. Representative tracks like Spondee and The Fringe are brimming with dub pulses, noir shivers and blooming timbral variations that are in many places carefully isolated / focused and in other places blended together in vivid fusions. In terms of the emotional atmosphere created here, the pensive and questioning tone hearkens back to the ‘wide open’ state of electronic music in the mid-late 1990s, yet with a greater clarity and maturity of vision that makes this music feel like a possible answer to aesthetic questions being raised at that time. As with Rohrer’s most recent solo work, like the Range of Regularity LP, Continual Decentering showcases the artist’s skill in turning the drum kit into a lead instrument. While the term “lead instrument” denotes a kind of exuberant “Glash,” or a clear separation from the rest of the voices in an ensemble, we can take the term to mean something different throughout this listening program of 13 short vignettes: that is to say, everything else within the audible environment exists to complement the character of the percussive playing rather than to stand apart from it. It helps that Rohrer has, in fact, developed a unique and complex hybrid system in which drum hits trigger modular synthesizer processes, the use of which makes for an incredibly fluid response time between distinct sonic events. In contrast to the previous Range... LP, this new offering is propelled less by interlacing threads of intensity and more by a shared sense of deep listening. As displayed on pieces like All Too Human, there is a profound sense of attention to silences or thoughtful pauses that maybe hints at another crucial aspect of Rohrer’s style: over the course of this program, we tend to hear the player not only playing but listening, an activity which makes perfect sense given the sense of instrumental dialogue already mentioned. All of the above come together to give Continual Decentering a “live”-ness that will easily translate from recorded document to dynamic performance.

Independent labels have always been risky ventures, marred by uncertainty; you never know how long they'll last for.

Yet, for more than 15 years, Cosmo Vitelli has kept I'm a Cliché going. During this time, his label, its releases, and the artists behind them have found their place in the musical landscape, standing proudly and defiantly in the margins, a place where music is always more interesting and fluid than right in the middle of the spotlight.

After countless EPs, several albums and a compilation, a new chapter in I’m a Cliché’s story begins, one with a greatly reduced release schedule. To mark this turning point, the label releases Bongo Beats & Bankruptcy, its second compilation ever.

Aesthetically coherent and simultaneously diverse in its expressions, Bongo Beats & Bankruptcy is a celebration of the label (and the label manager’s) quirks and eccentricities and a tongue-in-cheek snapshot that brilliantly captures the label’s DNA, featuring friends and allies along with newer faces on 13 exclusive tracks scattered over 3 LPs.

Whether they are downtempo, uptempo or ambient like Orestt's contribution, each tune on this compilation distills in its own idiosyncratic way I’m a Cliché’s essence: electronic music influenced by club culture but in no way constrained to the dancefloor. Ivan Smagghe & Marc Collin’s analog synth track by their acclaimed Volga Select project, June’s dreamy tune at the crossroads between wave and kraut influences, Coy’s mutant synth arpeggios, and an old-school wave cut by Oliver Decrow mixed by Dunkeltier are all tracks boldly standing on the dancefloor's margins.

For those looking for club-ready tracks that with I’m a Cliché’s one-of-a-kind atmosphere will surely find what they are after in an downtempo edit of Awkward Corners, a bouncy and melodic IDM not IDM number by Rouge Mécanique, a bleeps & pan-pipes affair by Benoît B, an esoteric dance-rock number with stated Lynch influences by Fantastic Twins, a freaky electro cut by Linja, a melancholic 707 driven banger by Krikor and finally an anxious and forward-thinking half-stepper by label head Cosmo Vitelli.

En Transito is a document of the evolution of the Ambien Baby collaboration between D Tiffany and NAP. An ode to friendship and creative symbiosis. The tracks on this record showcase the project from its beginnings in 2015 to present day.

Mostly piano, vocals, efx and unconscious arrangements make up Laila Sakini’s “Vivienne” on Total Stasis. It asks, what if things were different? Tender symbols – flowers, butterflies, potion – portray an idealised life. But within a scene of ennui, waiting, in-between feelings are held, release comes with a sigh.

In this ever-shifting landscape, these sentiments are imbued within Laila’s oneiric compositions to form a fittingly hypnotising embrace.
Unfettered and reflective, Laila etches this fantasy with a reality more interested in the delicate and impromptu specifics of time than compositional rigour.

On Miniatures, Swiss composer and producer Samuel Reinhard looks to indeterminate techniques of mid-century experimental composers to produce a sonic path forward that’s as refined as it is evocative. While Miniatures is built from recordings of short piano gestures decaying towards silence, amid the four movements that comprise the suite, something else grows. Notes cycle, collide, and wash away within boundaries the artist has set, but in their wake new processual textures develop. A hiss blankets the harmonic material, and clicks that once marked sharp cuts between repetitions become a percussive undercurrent.

Working with digital tools, Reinhard conjures the interior of an animate environment and extends an invitation to notice the small stuff that swells when we settle in with duration.

Simian Mobile Disco’s Jas Shaw and new talent Bas Grossfeldt present ‘Klavier’ – an album of haunted elegance, graceful poise and cerebral depth, which is centred around the Yamaha Disklavier.

Combining the prepared piano minimalism of Hauschka with Basic Channel style dub techno, the pairing is mirrored in the duo, where Shaw’s formidable dance music experience synergises with Grossfeldt’s arts-based appreciation of contemporary composition.

Nach einer fünfjährigen Auszeit, in der er sich ganz unterschiedlichen Musikprojekten widmete, kündigt Squarepusher sein nächstes Studioalbum "Be Up A Hello" an. Für das neue Album setzte Tom Jenkinson nach vielen Jahren erstmals wieder auf dieselbe digitale und analoge Hardware, mit der er in den frühen 1990ern seinen Trademark-Sound definierte. Die Verwendung der Vintage-Synthesizer und -Effekte (inkl. eines Commodore Vic-20) markiert eine radikale Kehrtwende für den Briten, der auf dem Vorgänger "Damogen Furies" noch komplett auf moderne Tools und die neueste Software setzte, von ihm selbst im Laufe von 15 Jahren programmiert und optimiert. Das Ergebnis klingt vor allem ausgelassen, wenn Tom astreine Breakbeat-Tunes wie "Nervelevers" und "Terminal Slam" – klassisches Dancefloor-Material – vom Stapel lässt. Düstere Tracks wie "Vortrack" und "Mekrev Bass" belegen derweil, dass er nach wie vor ein Faible für perfekt ausbalancierten Psycho-Overload hat. Insgesamt verweist "Be Up A Hello" auf die Ära der DIY-Raves in Essex, deren Ekstase, Ausgelassenheit und Hemmungslosigkeit die ganze Herangehensweise von Tom nachhaltig prägen sollten.

Der in Berlin lebende Komponist und Produzent Ben Lukas Boysen meldet sich mit seinem bislang progressivsten Album zurück: Mirage ist ein wahrer Formwandler. Zuvor unter dem Alias Hecq bekannt, handelt es sich bei Mirage um den mit Spannung erwarteten dritten Longplayer, den Boysen unter seinem eigenen Namen veröffentlicht, und Nachfolger zu den Alben Gravity (2013) und Spells (2016). Letzteres bescherte ihm nicht nur sehr viel Kritikerlob, sondern begeisterte auch die Fans und viele seiner Kollegen: Es gab u.a. Remixe von Max Cooper und Tim Hecker, während Jon Hopkins einen Titel von Spells zum Eröffnungstrack seiner Late Night Tales-Compilation machte. Wie schon auf seinen Alben Gravity und Spells, wird Ben im Verlauf von Mirage von mehreren Gästen unterstützt: Mit dabei sind unter anderem die Cellistin und Komponistin Anne Müller sowie der australische Saxofonist/Komponist Daniel Thorne. Beide sind auf dem ersten Vorboten "Medela" zu hören, der die Zuhörer*innen auf eine Reise durch kaleidoskopische Klangräume führt, in denen verschiedene Genres ganz spielerisch ineinander übergehen. Das geht so weit, dass man hinterher kaum noch sagen kann, was man da eigentlich gerade gehört hat: "Ich wollte experimentieren und versuchen, diese Aufnahmen mit 100% künstlichen Elementen zu verbinden. Dabei ging ich oftmals so weit, dass ein Instrument zu einer Abstraktion seiner selbst wurde, dass sich der Beitrag eines Musikers an einem Song eher wie ein zentraler DNA-Strang des Stücks anfühlt, aber nicht mehr wie eine deutlich erkennbare Spur." Insgesamt fühlt sich Mirage, wie im Titel bereits angedeutet, wie eine klangliche Illusion, eine vertonte Luftspiegelung an: Jedes Stück vereint Klänge und Techniken, die dermaßen bearbeitet und verändert wurden, dass sie wie überbelichtet wirken. Das allzu filzig wirkende Klavier von "Clarion" etwa, Daniel Thornes Saxofon auf "Medela", die einzelne Gesangsnote von Lisa Morgenstern, die sich im Verlauf von "Empyrean" in unterschiedliche Akkorde aufspaltet. Man kann diese Elemente durchaus erfassen, kann sie aber auch ohne weiteres übersehen - wie auch die beiden Klaviere von "Kenotaph", die man für ein einziges Instrument halten könnte. Genau genommen sind es zwei Instrumente, die sich in unterschiedlichen Räumen, ja sogar in unterschiedlichen Ländern befanden. Eins ist digital, das andere akustisch.

Nathan rouses his Cambria Instruments label for his first album since 2017s ‘Providence’. ‘Blizzards’ is a returns to a clubbier sound, whilst keeping the melodic depth and rewarding narratives that have entranced his fans worldwide since his early records on Border Community and his seminal track ‘The Sky Was Pink’. Using a similar setup to his slamming live show, the album’s track were mostly recorded in one take with a deliberately limited hardware selection.

This record on Kvitnu presents live recordings be PAN SONIC played in Kyiv, Ukraine on June 6th, 2009.
Oksastus – is a Finnish word for process of grafting or cultivating of plants.

"Pan Sonic, the Finnish noise duo who split in 2010, recorded this meticulous live effort in 2009 in Kyiv in the Ukraine. It's impossible to frame it without thinking about the impending meltdown of both band and country, cloaking Oksastus in an apocalyptic backdrop." Pitchfork, 2014 (7.1 rating)

Inspired by nature and emotion.

Recorded and mixed by Austin Cairns, march 2016 - august 2016 in san jose, CA.

Gear used - Korg Electribe 2, Audiothingies P6, Eurorack Modular (Mutable Instruments, Intellijel, Make Noise, Moog, Alright Devices, Doepfer, Qu-Bit, Vermona, Laurentide Synthworks, Mannequins, 4MS, Bastl, Manhattan Analog, Ladik, Pittsburgh Modular), Teenage Engineering OP-1, Bastl Microgranny, Ciat-Lonbarde Cocoquantus, Apple iPad, Tascam Portastudio

Initially released on tape and digital through the artist on September 15, 2016.

Forest drives, coastal cliffs, lost loves, aged memories like light gleaming through the trees.

Modular synthesizer, Novation Peak, and cassette tape loops recorded and mixed late 2017 at home in San Jose, CA. Additional field recordings from Big Sur, CA.

Initially released on tape and digital through Dauw on February 2, 2018.

A recurring dream. The frozen landscapes of isolation and loneliness. Fragmented memories lost at sea. Cold, sharp light. Glowing rays of hope in the morning. It was just a dream.

Modular synthesizer and guitar by Austin Cairns. Recorded and mixed Summer 2018 in Northern California.
Dedicated to Brian Young

Initially released on tape and digital through the artist on October 5, 2018.

"Content" is the 9th album of the US based producer Ricardo Donoso.

Terry Waite was taken hostage in Beirut in the late 1980s, before ISIS, before smartphones, before the Internet as we know it. He endured a mock execution during the first year of his five-year captivity, which was spent mostly in solitary confinement. Years later, during a Q&A session, he was asked to identify the main thing he had learned from his ordeal. The answer, came as a shock—it was not the excruciatingly hard-won appreciation for life and loved ones that one expects to hear. “Contemporary humanity,” declared Waite, “has lost the ability to engage in productive solitude.”

'Schmeichel' is back on Defrostatica with new tales from the 160 bpm footwork continent. Again he demostrates a deep understanding of the unity of body, mind and soul.

He's a beatsmith and electronic music producer from 'Leipzig' - his puzzling artist pseudonym (to schmooze someone) is nothing but purposely deceptive. In the last six years he was busy making and releasing music which never sounded quite like the same as before.
His diverse musical flex in abstract hip hop, drum and bass, broken beats, techno, acid and ragga too shows his ability to sweep away genre-expectations.
He is committed to fuse every style into an immediate but ever-exciting minimal music experience. As a dj he switches virtuosic between jazzy improvisation, stokey UK-rap, dark and spiritual dance redemption. Nothing really much beside his work is known about Schmeichel since he is not playing the social media game that much which forces attendes of his performance to listen and enjoy without any distraction.

... When he turns on the amp in his basement studio underneath one of Leipzig's record stores he leaves mundane matters behind. 'Schmeichel' loves being in the zone when he is exploring new sound territories - like a sculptor he carves out a vision of soul with a minimalistic blues vibe that is looking for an essence rather a presence.

While the title of his five track EP "Mana, Focus & NoBreakfast" sounds like a work spec it deflects humbly from the musical richness of his second release on Defrostatica. Once again, the whole is more than the sum of its parts: he is telling different stories in each track that belong to one carefully composed saga.

"Feel" in its intensity resembles the soundtrack of a remake of Scenes from a Marriage. "Sting" could be the melancholic story of a hip hop writer about his most epic stunt. Another hip hop reference and artist wisdom drops in "Judge Mee" almost prayerlike.
The b-side of the record opens with "G i o i", a powerful mantra of an unknown procession. "Yin Yang" marks the outerworldly coda to this EP as a soothing salvation.

Hope, you enjoy.

Limited to 200 copies in innocent white Vinyl ! Fantastic Burial Style, just listen - no more words necessary

James Clements (ASC) debuts his first full-length album under his Comit alias, titled Remote Viewing.

Born out of his love for music that was often classed as 'IDM' during the mid-to-late 90's, and labels such as Morr Music, City Centre Offices, Merck and Hobby Industries, Comit is a new avenue for James that builds upon his background in drum & bass, his ambient projects for the likes of Silent Season and his admiration for a more nostalgic electronic sound.

It was this appreciation for early IDM that became the impetus for James' infamous Deep Space mix series in the early 2000's and resulted in a brief output of inspired productions as both ASC and Intex Systems. But this sound never fully evolved until it became a devoted project. The first outing for the Comit alias came as a limited 7" on the Short Trips label in 2016 and is now finally presented in its realized form within Remote Viewing.

Broken, glitchy breakbeats weave amongst emotive and often melodic chord progressions, all stemming from James' expansive collection of analog synthesizers. It's a sound that feels distinct and very separate to James' music as ASC, whilst adding a new evolution to the genre we may have previously described as IDM.