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Huerco S.’ West Mineral Ltd. yield a split LP from Exael and Ben Bondy floating ambient ideas about augmented reality and technology powered by organic matter, or Biotech, following up the assymetric lines of Serwed’s debut and the frayed interzones explored by Pontiac Streator and Ulla Strauss Marking Exael’s return to the label after 2018’s ‘collex’ album, ‘Aphelion Lash’ brings the sympathetic soul of Ben Bondy into the fold for a sensitively dreamy album oscillating the pair’s work in solo and collaborative forms. Using barely-there, liminal traces of electronics arranged in laminal flows, the pair arrive at illusive conclusions across eight tracks comparable to a more worn-out take on Torsten Pröfrock’s T++/Dynamo/Traktor mechanics, or indeed the fleeting, thizzing timbres of Ghostride The Drift, aka the trio helmed by Exael with Huerco S. And uon.
Operating at a point of dematerialised compositional control where the layers of desiccated rhythm and pads appear to operate interdependent of each other, the album blooms and wilts in cycles of etheric harmony and scratchy, amorphous rhythms that unfold with only the slightest presence of human input.
Like the Serwed album of generative oddities before it, the sound of ‘Aphelion Lash’ craftily emulates a posthuman sort of nature, but like all the material on West Mineral Ltd., that elusive pathos or ghost in the machine spirit is key to the album’s appeal, and by the end of its course it’s practically impossible to tell who is behind each cut, as the artists dissolve into ambient compounds on its collaborative highlights, the dreamily diffracted slosh of ‘Aphelion Lash’, and the supremely blunted, Spectre-style illbient ‘90s hip hop crush of ’Six Steppa’.

6 new songs by industrial tribalism / minimal wave duo DAME AREA. Inspired by Coil, Suicide, Franco Battiato, Gary Numan and Dino Buzzati. Dame Area surges from Barcelona's fertile underground scene and revisits the post-industrial aesthetic with a dissident and a free spirit approach through tribal rhythms, hypnotic keyboards, oneiric sounds and eerie vocals. When 20 year old Silvia Konstance came back from a year living in Turkey and integrated on Barcelonas label and collective Magia Roja she didnt expect that her bedroom project Dame Area would be joined by the collective honcho Viktor L. Crux (aka Futuro de Hierro, ex-Qaa, ex-Ordre Etern, collaborator of Nurse With Wound, Jochen Arbeit and various Gnod-heads) and together would be releasing records not much later. Now Dame Area has released several records and found its way into sets from some of the current bravest Djs like Vladimir Ivkovic, Lena Willikens, Yamatsuka Eye (Boredoms), Identified Patient, Rivet or Mr TC, between many others. Edition of 300 copies.

Thomas Park is an artist committed to music but in a very different way than most artists, with a much deeper bond, with an extensive and very interesting career, connected in its beginnings with fractal music, a discipline that links composition with mathematical patterns, so that the recursive and experimental music had a great impact already in his first steps as a producer.

His artistic legacy is incredibly broad. In 2005 he founded Treetrunk, a record label that operates as a netlabel and that to date has more than 500 releases, most of them published by Thomas Park himself. Only in the last few months the number of albums he has released is extraordinary, up to 5 LPs in a week, and each one with a different concept.

TheGodsOfFission is a live double-track album in which Thomas Park shows not only enormous creative skill but also a great talent for combining countless sound sources. In this album, field recordings converge with different rhythms and other sound elements that add depth and, in a few occasions, break minimally with his urban aesthetics.

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A MELODIOUS JOURNEY THROUGHOUT THE UNIVERSAL HISTORY Founded by Safak Ozkutle, Oceanvs Orientalis is a one-man formation which aims to challenge the aesthetic perception in electronic music. It blends itself with the archaic tunes of mankind’s cumulative musical history and in this very context believes that “everything comes from the east”. He uses electronic music to carry the old vibes he grew up with to the dance floor, transforming irregular local rhythms into 4/4 electronic beats. Since 2011 he has been making both DJ sets and live performances, and since 2015 he focused to perform mostly as live shows Ex Nihilo (Latin “out of nothing”) It’s and immersive experience where digital art and music collides. A melodic Story told by Safak Ozkutle aka Oceanvs Orientalis through his first thematic album which tells 10 different stories of 10 breaking points of the Universal history, from the Planetary scale to the Human dimensions. Beginning right from the first point of creation, the big bang in title track ‘Ex Nihilo’, Oceanvs travels through the timeline that in turn saw the evolution of our planet and universe as it is today, whilst touching briefly on where we may end in the future. SONG OF THE CREATIONPERFORMANCE The Ex Nihilo Show is planned to be performed by a 17-piece small orchestra. This orchestra will be consisted of strings, brass, a small choir and percussions, and will be led by a conductor.

Indonesia’s Gabber Modus Operandi’s debut album for Shanghai’s maverick Sbvkvlt kru despatches eight hooligan alloys of heavy metal, militant Dutch kick drums and native styles of gamelan and Dangdut Koplo - local folk-pop - for a totally unique proposition no matter what angle you’re coming from. It’s a seethingly up-for-it and puckishly immediate sound, lending a thrilling new spin to well-trampled tropes in a way symptomatic of the current wave of rave goods.
Working a sound bound to unite scallies from Sunderland to Rotterdam and Jakarta, ‘Hoxxya’ toggles the pressure between mixtures of industrial panel beating and BM atmospheres in ‘Genderuwo’ to the hypnotic meld of pealing horns and bonehead stamp in ‘Sangkakala III’, getting the heart rate up with the adrenalised stepper ‘Semeton 10 Ton’, along with the scudding swagger of ‘Kon’, nodding south to the Bloody Fist crew and their apocryphal Pyongyang Hardcore Resistance in ‘Tekyan’, while ‘Trance Adiluhunxxx’ gives a stinging shot of melodic energy, and the hyper percussion of ‘Calon Arang’ and ‘Padang Galaxxx’ get us gurning like a hellish tribal mask.
Radge.

Paddy Kingsland was the first Radiophonic composer to see a solo release of his compositions, although he is not credited on the sleeve. “Fourth Dimension”, first released in 1973, showcased Kingsland’s theme tunes for television and radio while at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. The recordings feature a rock-style backing band and synthesisers including the VCS 3 and “Delaware” Synthi 100, and the track “Reg” from the album was also released as the B side to the 1973 single release of the iconic Doctor Who theme tune.

Kingsland remained at the workshop for 21 years, leaving in 1981, during which time he composed music for much loved TV shows The Changes, Doctor Who and The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy among others.

Peter Howell joined the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in 1974, coming from a career in various psychedelic folk bands, which saw him record five albums with fellow musician John Ferdinando. He composed his first Doctor Who output in ’75 in the form of some incidental music for “Revenge of the Cybermen” and special sound for “Planet of Evil”. In 1980, he was asked by the programme’s then new producer, John Nathan-Turner, to update the iconic Doctor Who theme. The new arrangement appeared on that year’s “The Leisure Hive”, continuing to be used through Tom Baker’s remaining series as the Doctor and throughout Peter Davison’s. It was replaced during Colin Baker’s tenure in 1986 with a new version by Dominic Glynn.
“Through A Glass Darkly” was released in 1978 as a standalone studio album by Howell in collaboration with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. The six original instrumental compositions (one of which is 19 minutes long) flaunt a prog rock influence as well as the distinctive electronic sound of the RWS. “The Astronauts” (track 5, side 2) appeared again as a B side to the 1980 single release of his version of the Doctor Who theme.

Kicking off 2020 – Great Circles takes a step away from the dance floor with the release of the monolithic new work from Philadelphia-based artist Radere, ‘I Do Not Want What I Have.’ This long-in-gestation set of slow burning electronics and shadowy drones is part of the label’s growing selection of releases dedicated to deep listening, following on from the 2017 Prefix Moniker LP.

Radere is the ongoing project of Carl Ritger, who has worked under the nom de plume since 2009 and has deep ties to the Great Circles family. He played some of his earliest shows at Inciting HQ, the recently shuttered, label-affiliated venue, and invited Justin Gibbon AKA Westov Temple and Great Circles label founder to contribute to some of his earlier recordings. While he started out as a more straightforward ambient guitarist, Ritger’s work developed into more experimental textures as he explored modular synthesis and processed found sounds.

Ritger’s releases from his time spent living in Denver, CO c. 2011-2018 are marked by a particular strain of east coast nihilism and an angular aesthetic that keeps the listener off balance. Now back in his native Philadelphia, the two long-form pieces that comprise ‘I Do Not Want What I Have’ represent a perhaps more nuanced meditation on pain and loss. “Spitty Kisses,” the 15-minute album opener, takes aim at the listener with a brutal salvo. It is almost sadistic in its sonic intentions – acerbic modular sound and abrupt stuttering in the material leave a listener personally affected. “You’ve Been A Ghost Your Whole Life,” on the flip, delivers a salve for the A-side’s wounds and resolves its masochistic tones.

Written through a period of intense personal trauma as a means to seek comfort and solace through creative action, it’s clear that the puerile humor of nihilism is gone and grown out of in Ritger’s work.

FFO: taking long walks off of short piers, the legend of the monk Kelpius living among the trees of the Wissahickon, traditional creation and destruction stories in polytheistic faiths, and John Coltrane.

The record is accompanied by a digital-only series of remixes by friends of the artist and regular collaborators, including new works from Borne and Shivers, as well as Great Circles alums Westov Temple, Chaperone, and WOLF DEM.

‘Mystic Familiar’, Dan Deacon’s new album, is the result of years of obsessive work, play and selfdiscovery. It’s at once his most emotionally open record and his most transcendent, 11 kaleidoscopic
tracks of majestic synth-pop that exceptionally expand his sound with unfettered imagination and newfound vulnerability. Since 2015’s ‘Gliss Riffer’, Deacon has branched out into an array of collaborative projects including film scores to Rat Film, HBO’s Well Groomed,
ESPN’s 30 for 30: Subject to Review; collaborating with the NYC Ballet’s resident choreographer Justin Peck, LAPhil and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

Following two releases on Public House Records, Jon Michaelides returns with the third DALHAM album - "HEAT DEATH".

“Heat Death” is a scorched earth set of pieces with a broad narrative - a concept album with follows the arc of a lifeform from its incipience, through to the peak of its developmental activities and onwards to the representation of the lifeform's inevitable decay. Says Jon, "The music is intended to sound scorched or sandblasted, exploring the sometimes violent aspects of creation and existence, whilst still allowing the light to shine through.” It’s a wonderful electronic record which whilst being incredibly accessible, has an unsettling anxiety at its core.

Jon explains “For this album, literature and art are just as strong an influence as any other music, and it was reading the likes of Stanislaw Lem, Aldous Huxley or viewing the reimagined worlds of Simon Stalenhåg that inspired some of the concepts and feelings behind "Heat Death". It’s an attempt to convey something about a plane beyond our immediate experience and perception.”

Jon grew up in the Suffolk countryside, but currently resides in London. A pianist since a young age, he started to produce electronic music following the aquistion of a relatively cheap synth bought on impulse. These first steps developed into an addiction to the “inspiring and rewarding” sound vistas available to him as an electronic musician and as the collection of equipment grew, so the Dalham project developed into a fully formed concern about three years ago. “Heat Death” is his most complete work to date and the one where he feels he is closest to achieving what DALHAM should be.

“A monument to the endless possibilities afforded by an improvisational spirit, but more importantly it highlights Yoshimi and
her band’s tireless and ever-evolving voice.” - Pitchfork “In the seemingly impenetrable, fantastic murkiness of Japanese experimental psych pop, more often than not, Yoshimi has been a beacon.” - FADER (cover story) OOIOO is a name that should be familiar to anyone who’s waded into the world of rock - and so should their leader YoshimiO’s. Percussionist and founding member for the Boredoms and Saicobab and a longtime collaborator of Kim Gordon (of Sonic Youth), Susie Ibarra and Robert Lowe, among others. It’s no surprise that each OOIOO record has been as energizing and enthralling as the last, which might be the most consistent thing about their eight records - each focus on and offer listeners something new. ‘Nijimusi’ was mainly recorded using a conventional rock ensemble of two guitars, bass and drums but often feels more than that, the phrasing and rhythms becoming something new slowly and then all at once. It’s rock but hard to pin down exactly; psychedelic, shimmering distortion, shouts and tight instrumentation giving way to a controlled burn of instrumental breakdowns. Founded in 1995, OOIOO continue to wow. After six years without releasing new music internationally they’ve created a new album that goes back to the roots of being a four-piece band. OOIOO’s members came together as musicians who move freely between the audible and inaudible, rhythm and non-rhythm, noise and silence. ‘Nijimusi’ can be considered music but it is also a work of art that stimulates the sense of touch and smell, while being atmospheric and ethereal at the same time. Pressed on crystal clear vinyl in deluxe gatefold package designed by Qotaroo using artwork by Ooido Syoujou. Also available on CD and black vinyl. LP formats include digital download code.

2020 Split release with contributions by ELEH and NYZ.

ELEH: This side is possibly the artist's most complicated electronic composition. It navigates myriad timbral, tuning and temporal processes while winding itself to completion. It was composed/constructed over a period of months in early 2019.

NYZ: Two crunchy microtonal drone meditations in mono, using techniques of digital FM and hybrid analogue/digital modular synthesis. FM60P::fbk1#03 is from a number of sessions recorded on my very battered SY99 recorded from 2013 to 2014. As the name suggests, this particular session revolved around using feedback in the FM algorithm. EML DRNPi was recorded as part of the 2015 Plum Island Sessions where I had a host of synths on loan from John Brien at Important Records. For this recording I used the EML ElectroComp 101 and my own 4 voice digital microtonal oscillator running a Lambdoma Matrix to make a hybrid analogue/digital system.

This split release between ELEH and NYZ (David Burraston) is packaged in a heavy duty sleeve printed on both sides of the packaging and utilizing metallic inks. This is a first edition of 500 copies and a brand new full length from NYZ is being released at the same time via Important Records.

Matière Mémoire presents the MMXX Series: In anticipation of the year 2020, Matière Mémoire asked 20 experimental/electronic artists to create an original 20 minutes piece and an artwork. Throughout this year, each quarter will see the release of 5 new vinyls.

Each record is limited to 500 copies and comes as a crystal clear vinyl featuring an original track of 20 minutes on one side, and a laser engraved artwork on the other. Each 12" is housed in a transparent sleeve printed with the MMXX logo, coming with a print of the artist artwork.

Participate in this series:
Franck Vigroux, John Duncan, Phill Niblock, Jim O’Rourke, Reinier Van Houdt, Stephen O’Malley, CM Von Hausswolff, Hampus Lindwall, Oren Ambarchi, Kevin Drumm, Bérangère Maximin, Kassel Jaeger, Daniel Menche, Charlemagne Palestine, Giueseppe Ielasi, Carlos Casas, Susanna Santos Silva, Joachim Nordwall, Karbé Dinel, Mauro Lanza

There are still so many treasures to be discovered out there, but once you find a gem like this you can definitely put the research on hold for a little while and give it a deep listen. Recorded at Fono Roma in 1971, Eroina is a series of haunting improvisations - each one inspired by the effects of a different drug - made of whirling electronic glitches, skronky horns, pounded piano, funky drums and weird tape experiments delivering the best drone/spaced/drugged out free jazz performed by the legendary ensemble of Ennio Morricone, Mario Bertoncini, Egisto Macchi, Battisti D'Amario, Franco Evangelisti and Walter Bianchi. A timeless masterpiece.

Originally composed by Maggi Payne between 1984-1987 for the performance group Technological Feets. Formed by video artist Ed Tennenbaum in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1981, the group combines dance, live video processing and music.

Ahh-Ahh was first released in 2012 on Root Strata. Composed on an Apple II computer & various early sampling devices, Payne's compositions are a vibrant response to the call from the moving body. Populated with buoyant pulses, graceful analogue swells, dense fog-like drones and cascading rhythms that shift in space, AHH-AHH is a vital document of not only these early collaborations, but of computer based music as well. She studied with many greats in the field, including Gordon Mumma, Robert Ashley & David Berhman.

We instantly fell in love with Razen the first time we saw them live in September 2018. It was during a unique Sunday morning mass at the Friedenskirche (which translates literally to mean ‘the church of peace’), as part of the Meakusma Festival. Slightly sleep deprived and still euphorically intoxicated from the night before, their performance in front of a full mass of devotees had a biblical aura to it from the first note they played. They delivered a stunning set which was somehow, paradoxically, both relaxing and formidably tense.

Two years later and the group are now bringing their talent for restraint and slow tension-building to the fore on “Robot Brujo”. Each of the six improvisations on this double LP is made up of the barest of materials, with the three musicians relying on a limited combination of tones. They lay their focus on small variations in timbre, timing, articulation and vibration, which creates a narrowing of consciousness, and feels something a bit like staring meditatively at the minute changes of leaves blowing in the wind.

Recorded over two sessions, in what Razen themselves refer to as their detached playing style, "Robot Brujo" stands as an auditory magnifying glass of concentration, in all its uncanny and minimal glory.

It is yet another new step up from the deep listening ensemble from Brussels, after 10 years exploring music together.

Originally released in 1979, Iceland is Richard Pinhas' third solo album and his first following the breakup of Heldon. While moving away from the maximalism of his old band, paring down Heldon's hybrid of otherworldly sci-fi imagery and pummeling psych-prog riffs, the journey through Iceland is decidedly more inward.

Consisting of longer, brooding synth-based pieces as well as short proto-industrial études and interstitial sketches, Iceland features Pinhas' delay-ridden electric guitar, pulsating machine rhythms and analog synthesizer washes - all vivid in texture and timbre, notwithstanding an undeniably chilling ambience.

This first-time vinyl reissue includes "Wintermusic," an immersive 25-minute bonus track recorded in 1983 and appearing here on vinyl for the first time. Pinhas' excursions channel the season's stillness and sublimity, its majesty and its threat. Without a doubt, one his finest moments.

Recommended for fans of Cluster, Mica Levi and Fripp & Eno.

"Small Worlds" (2004) a is 42-minute composition for improvising sextet by Austrian double bassist, composer and improviser Werner Dafeldecker. The score is written for any instrument and divides the players into two virtual trios whose constellations change every 3 minutes. No restrictions are made regarding material or playing techniques, the only specification is that in each 3-minute trio, one player has the role of the "dynamic leader" which means that no other player within the trio should play louder than the one on that leading position. Apart from that, the only other restriction concerns how pauses are to be made when two players interchange their positions within the trios.

According to Dafeldecker, the object of the piece is to provide a structure that doesn't curtail the qualities of the musicians, yet forces them to listen very closely to each other and make focused decisions about parameters that are often overlooked in completely free improvisation. Especially, the given structure avoids the emergence of certain clichés that are often present in Free Improvisation, while retaining a very high level of openness with regard to how the piece is performed.

The first published recording of "Small Worlds", by Australian ensemble Quiver, was released in 2017 on CDr by Tone List. This LP contains a recording made in 2004 at Taktlos Festival in Basel, Switzerland, that features the line-up that Dafeldecker originally had in mind when he wrote the piece: Burkhard Beins (percussion), Martin Brandlmayr (percussion), Werner Dafeldecker (double bass), Klaus Lang (organ), Michael Moser (cello), and John Tilbury (piano). Partly, this constellation later also played together in the long-running avant-garde group Polwechsel.

Edition of 300 in regular sleeve with three inserts: two featuring an extensive conversation between Werner Dafeldecker and Matthias Haenisch discussing "Small Worlds", Polwechsel and Free Improvisation in general (German and English), the third reproducing the score of the piece.

The artist from Utrecht, called Solotust, makes his debut on the Soil records label with a 6 song mini Lp. All of them are loaded with dark melodies that move between minimal synth, dark krautrock and synth pop. Harmonic voices linked with synth lines that will make you transport yourself to the space directly.

For their next release Kontrapunkt goes deeper into the realm of experimentation. It reaches from neo
trance techno tracks to some spiritual influenced tribal tracks. There will be discoveries in the breaks
area as well. And in the end it is all about how rough techno can sound today

Coppice Movements is an addendum to 'Carolina', an album released by Polar Seas Recordings. These five arrangements follow a similar formula as its predecessor; suffused with manipulated field recordings and persistent drones that gently flow. Mastered at Schwebung Mastering (Germany) by Stephan Mathieu, Coppice Movements is a continuation of solemn yet jovial paean to seclusion and quiet moments of self-reflection, bathed in shimmering reflections and a profound sense of stillness and serenity.

originally released in 1990-with Liz Lamere - Never released on vinyl-

Born in Brooklyn, Alan Vega was reared on the rock 'n' roll sound of Elvis Presley and Roy Orbison, but originally struck out on a career as a visual artist and light sculptor, making pieces out of electronic debris. But on the occasion of seeing Iggy Pop fronting the Stooges at The Stooges at the New York State Pavilion in 1969 was an epiphany for Vega. It showed me you didn't have to do static artworks, you could create situations,' he said. That show was the first time in my life the audience and the stage merged into one." It was that eradication of barriers between the two that Vega took to heart.

Their first two albums, 1977's Suicide and their 1980 follow-up, remain two of the era's greatest touchstones, beacons for others seeking to transform their worlds with sound. And even during the group's hiatus through the 1980s, Vega continued to pursue his singular vision across an individualistic solo output. From his 1980 self-titled debut and rockabilly-infused albums like Saturn Strip, through bracing albums like Power On to Zero Hour and IT, Vega forged his own singular path.

For all the darkness and despair that encompasses this moment in our world - and despite his work being depicted as bleak and nihilistic - for Vega there was always a sense of hope and a place for dreams to become reality. People have always told me that my music is angry,' he said. To me, it was always just an energy. It was the way I perceived the world. The key Suicide song was 'Dream Baby Dream,' which was about the need to keep our dreams alive. I knew back then that something poisonous was encroaching on our lives, on all our freedoms.' He fought to his very last breath for that freedom.

Building On Over A Decade Of Work, Drums & Drones Ii Follows Master Drummer And Composer Brian Chase (yeah Yeah Yeahs) Into Unchartered Sonic Realms. All Of The Pieces Are Based On The Acoustic Resonance Of A Single Drum With Each Track Designed To Emphasize A Different Method Of Sonic Investigation.

The Project Draws Inspiration From Brian's Time Working At La Monte Young And Marian Zazeela's Dream House In Tribeca, Nyc. As He Spent More Time Immersed Within The Installation, Its Complexity And Beauty Started To Reveal Itself In Its Magnitude. On The Technical Side, This Was Partly Due To The Distinct Tuning System - Just Intonation - That Was Used To Create The Sound And The Way It 'plays With' The Listening Process. Brian Grew Intent On Finding Ways To Adapt This Approach To His Primary Instruments Of Drums And Percussion.

The Album Was Recorded Over A Four Week Period As Artist-in-residence At Headlands Center For The Arts In Northern California. Spending Day And Night In A Secluded Barn At The Top Of A Hill, The Residency Provided The Opportunity To Live And Work Immersed In The Creative Process. This Focus Very Much Relates To The Way In Which The Music Functions: As The Listener Tunes Into The Sonic Characteristics And Pace Of Each Track, Its Meditative Properties Are Gradually Revealed.

New myths; remember downstream, the truth and sacred geometry. Unlikely and bright, it weighs waves like an anchor through pinch unconscious - unread and still. We are understanding - process born from fact. The rope is taut, calm, made of ritual and leading us back - but in telling it transforms; pre-linguistic, stamped, fully dynamic, the start refracts into new versions and inwards we fold. It remains rhythm in absence, but grows as we watch. Next thread drawn from the Mirror Zone, this one built by Vector Trancer. Our plate reads panoptic; dark dub and ambient loaded with psychoactive EBM. See further; MSB's vital experiments powered by half-speed Beat Box; distant Objets D'Art channelling through Namlook's Fax; pared down FSoL at the hands of Autocreation. Celestial fringe echoes, viridis mantra, and guttural/ceremony trudge. Direct knowledge, heavy and charged.

Medical Records is elated to reissue a very special vinyl collection consisting of a hand picked selection of vocoder and synth tracks by the one and only Zeus B. Held. Zeus is a well-known and acclaimed German musician and producer also made famous for producing Gina X Performance (also reissued by Medical Records). Zeus first began his musical career in the mid 1970's with the German prog rock group "Birth Control". Subsequently, he recorded three solo albums: "Zeus' Amusement (1978), "Europium" (1980) and "Attack Time" (1981). He performed a number of interesting live shows supporting the albums all over Europe using a number instruments such as Fender Rhodes, Hohner Clavinet, Hammond Organ, Poly and Minimoog, ARP sequencers and most importantly, a Sennheiser Vocoder VSM 201 among other various instruments. His musical influences ranged from Rick Wakeman and Keith Emerson to Kraftwerk and Steve Reich. Zeus also was involved in a very diverse roster of collaborations with such important artists as Guru Guru, members of Can as well as French space rock groups ("Les Rockets" and "Visitors"). The tracks that make up this compilation were selected from the aforementioned solo records. Ranging from straight out cosmic disco to propulsive proggy funk to the unclassifiable, this collection is a perfect representation of his solo work. Standout tracks include the cosmic burner "Held It", the total vocoder/space jam "Musik, Music, Musique" and the amazing interpretation of Beatle's "Drive My Car" complete with vocal by Gina Kikoine herself (Gina X). This collection will appeal to fans of the synth/vocoder work and unmistakable razor sharp production of Gina X Performance as well as fans of left-field synth heavy prog and disco (a more rock based Moroder if you will). Specially remastered for this vinyl reissue. Presented on high-quality 180gram colored vinyl.

TASTATURSTUECKE VOL 1 introduces 9 outstanding new compositions for church organ, harpsichord and self programmed software. The album comprises the first collaborational recordings of Brian Parks (Atlanta) and Phillip Schulze (Düsseldorf). The two musicians first met in the early 2000s at the famous Wesleyan University, Connecticut, where they regularly attended seminars of their teachers Alvin Lucier and Anthony Braxton.

Through extended preparations for a series of live performances in Europe in 2019 (e.g. at the APPROXIMATION Festival, Düsseldorf) Parks and Schulze developed and refined a unique approach towards composition, highlighting their interest in the correlation of the invariable flawlessness of a computer versus the human performer on church organ or harpsichord.

Largely written for church organ and harpsichord all pieces also correspond perfectly with the physical spaces the recordings have taken place at. The album was recorded in three different churches in Düsseldorf which have been chosen for the different qualities of their specific room acoustics. Treating slight differences in pitch, phasing, overtones and rhythm all compositions on TASTATURSTUECKE VOL 1 offer an evocative density and flexibility that imbue the music with an organic feel.

The nine pieces range in shape and form from concise and sharp clarity such as Ranking Studies 1-3 to the extended, exquisitely paced radiance of the 8 minutes of Partials Chrorale. Mensuring Canon for 8 voices is obsessively restated in constantly changing permutations whereas the metronomic Reliefs for Ecclesial Space sounds urgent, deep and explosive.

The last piece, Activated Progression, in particular reverses the roles between computer and the human musician. The software never messes up the phase. The human would do his best to gradually change from one state to another. Once decisions are made regarding registration and finger assignment, the human should behave like a well-fabricated wind-up toy. The two hands remain offset the entire time, and at the fastest possible speed, enact patterns of three notes (left hand) and four notes (right hand). The computer meanwhile, moves from Euclidean rhythm to Euclidean rhythm over leisurely time periods.

With “Mirage Mirage“, avant-pop quintet Spirit Fest gifts their listeners with their richest, deepest record to date. It’s no surprise when you consider the group’s membership: Saya and Ueno, aka the duo Tenniscoats; Markus Acher, best known as singer of The Notwist; Mat Fowler, who plays with Jam Money and Bons; and Cico Beck, who’s making music with Joasinho, Aloa Input & The Notwist. If that feels like a heavyweight line-up, that’s because it is – yet the overarching mood of Spirit Fest is one of lightness and joy, of experiment and pure pop pleasure.

Sessions for the the album were split between the Tenniscoats’ Tokyo home studio in November 2018, and a small apartment studio in Munich in June 2019. Saya, Ueno and Markus pitched in songs, but sometimes, as with “Fish With Arms”, beguiling moments grew from group improvisations, often kicked off by Cico and Mat. All members stretched their instrumental limbs, too: “I was curious to explore how my home recording methods might work within the studio,” Mat reflects, and you can hear that curiosity in the aforementioned song, which folds in a recording of “a young boy showing his father a painting he'd made of a fish with arms shortly before disappearing between the sliding doors of a lift.”

That’s a lovely metaphor for what Spirit Fest do here. There’s a sincere, child-like generosity to the music, and a playfulness with an everyday surrealism you can hear in some of the experimental interjections across the album. Its final sound is the rolling click-clacking of a bicycle wheel. The bike was key to one of Mat’s explorations of the Tenniscoats’ Tokyo neighbourhood, on “an autumnal cycle ride to a local park. The bicycle had a basket, in which I carried two paintings I had found on the street.” Stumbling across art amongst the everyday; that’s also core to Spirit Fest, particularly after reflecting upon Markus’s description of their music-making practices: “Most of it develops by playing and trying, and decisions are made fast and intuitive.”

There’s more here than just avant-pop: see the pronounced folksy lilt to “The Snow Falls On Everyone”; or “Mohikone”, a gorgeous instrumental, droplets of piano pattering amongst a plangent acoustic guitar. The seven-minute “Zenbu Honto (Every Thing Is Everything)” is a spiralling psychedelic pop mantra, with field recordings and slithering electronics tracing a path under the scrub-growth of guitar, piano and drums. There are guest appearances from Micha Acher (The Notwist, Tied & Tickled Trio) on trumpet, and Aiko Okamoto, who takes part in the choral rounds of the album’s closing tune, “Saigo Song”.

Whichever way you approach it, though, the guiding force of Spirit Fest is friendship and collaboration, giving life to collective dreaming. Summing things up, Markus says, “This record is a lot about relationships, from different perspectives, about wondrous things that happen to everybody sometimes, about shared experiences (like the snow falling on everyone). I think of summer when I listen to it, because we recorded in summer, but more like a long sleepless summer night with lots of talking and music… A psychedelic feeling.” The creative dynamic that makes for those spirited nights of talking and sharing is all there in a story that Mat tells about first meeting Markus, “outside a Paul Klee exhibition we then went on to visit. One painting always sticks with me, ‘The Adventure Ship’. I still feel an affinity between this painting and our own travels on the good ship Spirit Fest. All aboard!”

Words by Jon Dale (Rose Hobart / Tristes Tropiques)

Vatican Shadow’s impossible to find early tapes finally arrive on vinyl, kicking off a completist
series of new D&M remasters with a first volume featuring: ‘Byzantine Private CIA’, ‘Mural of
Saddam’, and ‘Yemeni Commandos’
Arriving under a shroud of anonymity in 2010 with the four tracks of ‘Byzantine Private CIA’,
Vatican Shadow has since become one of the most vital projects manned by Dominick Fernow
(Prurient, Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement). Daring to grasp the nettle of US geopolitics at a time
when nobody else would (and that hasn’t really changed), Vatican Shadow hijacked imagery and
text from a plethora of news articles, books and government publications, and used them to adorn
and title his all-instrumental compositions, recontextualising U.S. foreign policy in a way that
recalls how original industrial, noise and post-punk mutants used their art and music to express
feelings towards the cold war and western socio-economics during the late ‘70s and thru the ‘80s
- with a particular, explicit thread of inspiration coming from Bryn Jones’ prolific Muslimgauze
catalogue.
The first LP ontains all four cuts from Vatican Shadow’s first release, ‘Byzantine Private CIA’, taking
in the cold thuds and clamouring background noise of ‘Deny Military Involvement’ alongside
highlights in the militant trample of ‘Cairo Sword Unsheathed’ and the sludgy industrial dirge of
‘Gunman With Silencer’. The second LP follows with three tracks off ‘Mural of Saddam’, including
the brittle, Muslimgauze-like stepper ‘Schwarzkopf Arc of Triumph’, and the furtive trip hop of
‘U.S. M1A1 Abrams Exhaust Rises Between The Hands Of Victory’, before concluding with some
the project’s most sublime work in the opiated lushness of ’Shadow War In Yemen’ and ‘Asymetric
Warfare Studies Group Double Game’ from the ‘Yemeni Commandos’ tape.
Sounding more compelling than ever, thanks to the remastering at D&M, and with original tapes
now impossible to find for love nor money, these vinyl pressings of early VS gear are practically
worth their weight in gold.

Coloured Vinyl

From Mille Plateaux to Leaf, Staubgold and Raster-Noton, ~scape, or on his own label Ripatti, the Finnish artist Sasu Ripatti aka Vladislav Delay has been exploring various iterations of the dub culture vs. electronica, since 1997. His sonic crafts and unique signature sound has been sought after by an eclectic range of bands and artists, ranging from Massive Attack, Hauschka, Black Dice, Autopoieses, Animal Collective or AGF.

Somewhere between the old-school electronica culture, the soundscaping, the experimental paths of Lee Perry and Adrian Sherwood, ghostly clubbing anthems, minimalism, pop, jazz, without being, influenced, Vladislav Delay is building a drifting and coherent sound enigma.

Vladislav Delay met Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare (the most prolific Jamaican rhythm section and production duo) thanks to a series of jam sessions. Trumpet player Nils-Petter Molvaer had been asked by the Jamaicans to join them and he invited Delay alongside guitar player Eivind Aarset to tag along, which eventually turned into the Nordub project.

The result of these jam sessions turned into an album, mixed and mostly produced by Vladislav Delay, released on the label Okeh. It was also followed by an extensive series of live dates. This one-shot reunion was the beginning of another story: a trio composed by Delay, Dunbar and Shakespeare.

In January 2019, Vladislav Delay went to Kingston and spent some days at The Anchor studios, to record drums and bass with S&R, some voice takes and a series of atmospheric field recordings. Back to Finland, Delay started to experiment with this precious material, mixing and overdubbing, in the comfort and quiet of his studio, based on the island of Hailuoto, Baltic Sea, Northern Finland, giving another feeling to the Jamaican trip.

This became a tribute to the 'dub spirit', but in a very personal way, far beyond any influence or "the obvious". 500-PUSH-UP is two worlds collapsing, merging, also showing some intriguing approach of the Jamaican groove, used as a filigree, like the echo or the ghost of reggae, converging and conversing with a post-industrial and experimental approach. To file beside experiments - for instance - such as Lee Perry's 'Scientist Rids The World Of The Evil Curse Of The Vampires' or the On U-Sound productions.

Color Vinyl

Studio Sessions At Les Ateliers Claus, 2013

Charlemagne Palestine: Piano, Voice & Organ
Mika Vainio: Electronics & Live Processing
Eric Thielemans: Drums & Percussion

Joke Lanz travels down memory lane! Two decks a mixer and a dozen of old Sudden Infant vinyls to spin, scratch, manoeuvre, loop and juggle into a narrative new composition. Recorded and mastered by Rashad Becker in Berlin, this album combines Joke Lanz' unique turntablism and intuition for mutant-body-dramas peppered with a great sense of humour from the rhythms of amplified faders and his own breath to spoken interjections of Bryan Lewis Saunders' dream lyrics. You can dance, you can cry, you can smile, you can die!

Mini album by Repeat Eater aka Julien Guillot with nine tracks. Electro acid and electro breaks made with analog modular synth and some electronic experiments inbetween. cold and cool sounding, would call it dry or minimal but with a fine reverb. individual colored screen printed covers, stamped and numbered whitelabel, just 300 copies.

- Collab between Dais records co-founder Ryan Martin and polymath Joachim Nordwall - Dark post-industrial tape-works - Edition of 300 copies

Recorded in a Brooklyn basement during a couple of cold December days in 2014, the collaboration between Ryan Martin (DAIS Records, modular synth wizard) and Joachim Nordwall (iDEAL, analogue synth lover) became something very special, raw, intense and powerful.
For all the clamminess and cold, ceramic finish, there's soemthing hypnotically magnetic about the way in which the duo musically converse, neither trying to outdo the other, rather allowing the other room to manoeuvre within the frequency spectrum, from the sludgy gathering of energies in Exposing the Absurdity of Superstition to the ecstatic vocal charge which soon calves away to an oppressive, greying battery in of Retrace/ Reverse, before the elegant, sashaying repetitions of Ricochet Around The Triptych lure us into a deeply somnambulant headspace with only the slight hint of violence lurking bedside.
Thanks to engineering by Kyle Keays Hagerman and cold mastering job from Kris Lapke (Alberich), Martin & Nordwall's music is subtly petrified, pensile, frozen in place as a special document of that night in the basement..

Strata-Gemma's eponymous debut album is set to provide a soundtrack to 2018.

The trio hail from Modena, the Northern Italian motor city. As with the Ferrari and Maserati cars that are designed and manufactured in Modena, Strata-Gemma produce a music of beautiful symmetry.

Strata-Gemma create jazz for the head, the heart and the body. Their sound is shaped by the ambient adventures Miles Davis and Ron Carter engaged in alongside the electronic pulse Mo' Wax and Ninja Tune carved out of clubland. Add to this a touch of Nino Rota's Fellini film scores, employ a pinch of Balkan and klezmer brass arrangements, and you have an instrumental trio who create music so fresh it stimulates the senses.

Strata-Gemma are a collaboration between Billy Bogus, Luca Cacciatore and Andrea Moretti. The trio first took shape as a club jam between DJs and musicians. Their ability to create atmospheric music, pulsing with rhythm but never solely reliant on beats, music that breaks free and explores sonic possibilities, quickly won notice and lead to the trio playing their freeform music in clubs, music venues and festivals across Italy.

Strata-Gemma consist of producer Niccolò Bruni (aka Billy Bogus), horns player Luca Cacciatore, double bassist Andrea Moretti. Bruni is a DJ, producer and founder of Pizzico Records. Over the past two decades he has striven to mix jazz, beats, soundtracks and funk. Coming together with Luca and Andrea allowed Bruni to explore a vision of post-club jazz that is as rich as Modena's food and as elegant as Modena's cars. Strata-Gemma create a sensual sonic storm, music to be savoured and explored, the opposite of much of today's fast-food music.

Lorenzo Bandiera, the London-based Italian founder of Fly By Night Music, heard a Strata-Gemma demo via friends and was immediately impressed. "I thought 'this is great!", he says. "Music as strong as this can't be ignored. I'm excited about releasing Strata-Gemma."

Touched Music and Furthur Electronix two forward thinking labels have merged together to put out exclusive compilations. Putting some of the best music in the electronic genre in one place.

'The Mountain Has Fallen' starts with Systematic,' DJ Shadow and Nas' first-ever collaboration together. The song debuted during the season premiere of HBO's Silicon Valley in April. Horror Show' finds Shadow and Danny Brown collaborating for the first time over a jagged, haunting soundscape. Good News' is a brand new composition, reminiscent of some of Shadow's more free-form, fractured work found on 2016's 'The Mountain Will Fall' full-length.

The EP closes with Corridors,' a piece featuring Academy Award-winning composer Steven Price (who scored the 'Gravity' film). Shadow is a massive fan of his work, and Price wrote and programmed the string parts on the song.

Gothenburg-based artist Johan Zetterquist delivers his debut album for the excellent iDEAL label, unspooling three extended pieces shaped like sound sculptures.
It's a profound drone metal variant recorded on a Gibson SG, amplifier and effects, live with no overdubs, slowly unfolding to reveal blistered shards of sound that recall everything from Stephen O'Malley to Maryanne Amacher's seminal Sound Characters.
Zetterquist gets a huge amount of mileage out of the contrast between extremes produced on his limited set up, taking us from quiet contemplation to visceral and apocalyptic metallic drones and back again, providing natural catharsis without ever being burdened by elaborate sequencing.
This swell and hum offers many rewards to the attentive listener; aided by Boris Wilsdorf's excellent and detailed recording that lends itself to attentive, immersive listening.

07042016 (live at St.Paul's Anglican Church, Athens) is the debut album of Modal Analysis, brought by the Greek experimental band of MMMD (also known as Mohammad). Nikos Veliotis and Ilios are currently performing as the MMMD duo, with further focus on deep monolithic sounds, low frequencies, inter-modulations, dark textures, and distant folk nuances through custom made instruments (Cello & Electronic Bass) and software.
The release carries parts of the MMMD live performance at St.Paul's Anglican Church in Athens, recorded on the 7th of April 2016. The concert was hosted by Fasma Festival, on the opening day of its 2016 edition.