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Ghost Box is very proud to present a new EP by Paul Weller. The eclecticism of his career goes without saying and in Ghost Box Weller finds the perfect home to explore his interest in experimental tape music and early electronics.

The four tracks here though are more than just experiments. Tape manipulation, field recordings and instrumental passages are artfully arranged to create a gently uncanny and psychedelic atmosphere.

During the final piece Rejoice the abstraction starts to resolve into a more conventional and joyful group sound. No sooner has the melody taken shape when it suddenly collapses, deepening the magic and mystery of the whole work.

In part this is musique concrète in the tradition of Pierre Schaeffer. The “sonic art” of Trevor Wishart being perhaps a closer parallel. Unlike the mid-century pioneers of avant garde music, Weller introduces subtle melodic elements and ghostly fragments of song. Pianos drift in from next-door rooms with an atmosphere not unlike the work of Virginia Astley. The resulting impression is melancholy and reflective with a dreamlike sense of loss.

Darkside Kuduro continuum styles from Lisbon’s PML Beatz, racking up the heaviest Angolan-Portuguese gear this side of Nazar on their debut for Príncipe Lobbed from their respective bases in Lisbon and Luxembourg (one of the countries Portuguese have traditionally sought a better life), the three tracks of ‘Pedra de 800 Kg’ hustle a strong introduction to siblings Lisandro and Ivan aka PML Beatz.

Drawing on a shared Cape Verdean and Angolan heritage, the duo started producing in their early teens back in 2010, but got distracted, as teenagers are prone to do, before returning to the software circa 2017 with a little help from their their former neighbour and mentor, DJ BeBeDeRa - whose grinding tarraxhos have been issued on 7” by Promesses - to finally produce this killer trio of club workouts.

Hypnotic and hard in a signature Príncipe style that firmly resonates with SA Gqom, strains of syncopated UK Bass and mutations seeping out of all corners of the internet, the EP kicks off with a mesmerising mix of New Beat-esque choral drones with synthetic Berimbau-like riffs and flinty rhythm in No Cubau’, before ‘Manganza’ doubles down the darkness with murderous bass drones and distorted drops recalling Durban taxi techno vibes, and ‘Pedra de 800 Kg’ - so titled after their father’s motivational expression “That’s easier to lift than a 500 Kg rock” - recklessly pushes the dance to a steely, uptempo frenzy.

‘’The Duel’’ is a sonic portrayal of the process of one coming to terms with a loss of a loved one. Each musical piece paints the emotions of such a processes. The ‘’Intro’’ shocks at a realisation of such a loss and immediate denial, which is portrayed by visceral and tightly searing sounds. Its questionable tone and thin layers of frequencies symbolise one’s own questioning for the reasons of such loss and the thin layer of security one feels without the presence of its loved one. The second track promotes the idea that denial cannot be continued due to the anger and self-blame within oneself as envisioned with deeper frequencies and more foreboding synthesizer soundscapes. ‘’Transition’’ lifts up the atmosphere by suggesting false hope of one somehow able to put off or delay the ordeal completely while ‘’Depression’’ hits back with heavier sounds confirming the reality of one’s loss of a loved one and subsequent quieting of the soul that follows the departure of a loved one.

The silence of the last pieces promote the space to think and feel in-depth which gradually evokes the feeling of acceptance of one’s loss. The sense of time limitations and realities of impermanence vibrate through in and out the release, forcing one dealing with such a loss to fight and duel oneself until a transformation pushes one to accept the loss, realise matters of life further and enrich one’s life by embracing life while it’s here and appreciating the life of others who are and were here for one another.

‘Elettroencefalogramma’ scans the full breadth of electronic composition by Italian musical mastermind Antonino Riccardo Luciani, who’s perhaps best known for his library records, but on the showing here had a strong, prescient line in mind-bending, fathoms-deep experimental and academic work with tape and early, pre-synth devices.

Awarded unprecedented access to polymath composer “Tony” Luciani’s archive of inter-disciplinary work, Finders Keepers’ Andy Votel follows his pressing of Maria Teresa Luciani’s ‘Sounds of The City’ with a first compilation survey of her sibling’s vast catalogue, newly issued via the Dead-Cert label he curates alongside Sean Canty and Doug Shipton.

The set falls deep within the label’s remit of reissued and previously unreleased work by overlooked and undocumented pioneers of 20th century sound, revealing a distinctive mix of material that nods to contemporary, tape music, neo-classical, jazz, electro-acoustic and counterpoint composition.

Drawn from original tapes recorded during the 1970s, ‘Elettroencefalogramma’ spans the heyday of Luciani’s work, before synth music was popularised. In this sense it’s worth noting Luciani’s links with Teresa Rampazzi and the pioneering electroacoustic group NPS - and namely Serenella “Serena” Marega - with whom he shares a strong affiliation toward embracing the possibilities of new music at the dawn of an unprecedented sonic epoch.

There’s a sense of being in transition between worlds and eras in the opening blend of melancholy strings and bubbling electronic rhythm ‘Battery Farm’, and likewise the cranky mixture of bestial growls and dissonance in ‘The Zoo’, while the rattly rhythm of ‘Offices’ uncannily recalls Trunk’s recent issue of ‘Mechanical Keyboard Sounds’ from the modern day.

But Luciani excels at quieter, introspective styles, as with the flute-led vision of ‘Desol 2’, and most remarkably in the stygian, primitive drum machine pulse and clammy string droens of ‘Forest of Chimneys’, which is surely crying out for imagery of Satanic mills, while the rupturing tape of ‘Bombardment’ sets him firmly in a lane of advanced Italian noise that connects him to Gruppo’s Roland Kayn and Maurizio
Bianchi.

Chasing up Good Morning Tapes’ standout EPs by HTRK’s Jonnine Standish and UK synthesist, XVARR, the ’All Welcome’ 12” pairs three previously tape-only tracks with a trio of exclusives on a killer compilation from the promising French labelSupplying a varied and engaging experience ranging from Tapes’ classical Indian invocations to Eszaid’s gutted D&B and Kiki Kudo’s fizzy electro-dub, ‘All Welcome’ renders the label’s aesthetic wide open with a wonderfully shine-eyed appeal to mutual, empathetic ambient souls and lovers
of electronic magick.

Tapes, aka South London enigma Jackson Bailey, coaxes the EP into action with the woozy title tune of his 2018 tape ’Silence Please’, meshing electronic tanpura drone with mysterious winds and sloshing tabla drums in a respectful tradition of English artists including Robert Wyatt and Shackleton, before Eddie Ruscha’s Only Thingz spies Eno via The Orb and Vangelis in the glyding
synth pads and smeared brass tone of ‘All Eyes Open’, and Berlin-based Brazilian artist INNSYTER follows a deliciously groggy ambient hunch in ‘Morning Blend’.

The label then play it closer to home with an eviscerated D&B dub by Eszaid, co-owner of the Paris-based Collapsing Market label, with ‘The Most Sacred Syllable’ primed for fans of Andy Stott or Demdike Stare, and Anthony Naples takes it to NYC with an extended mix of his scudding piano house workout ‘Goodness’ off the ‘Take Me With You’ tape (not found on the LP released by ANS!), and Kiki Kudo keeps it stateside with the palpitating electro-dub fizz of ‘Hala Dub’ in a style relatable to E.M.M.A. or Jay Glass Dubs.

Arandel's new opus, 'InBach', released 24th January 2020 by French label InFiné, pays a poetic, infinitely respectful and innovative homage to Bach's sacred workings.

Arandel was granted limitless access to the galerie of (sometime rare and ancient) instruments, as a well as a countless recordings of the prestigious Musée de la Musique in Paris with a view to sounddesign his brand new creation. He performed a few months after at Philharmonie Paris a hybrid live performance/DJ set 'Switched on Bach', named in acknowledgement to the legendary 1968 by American composer Wendy Carlos (Tron, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining).

From candles to LEDs, from DJ sets to museums, from historical instruments to machines, from Bach's themes that have entered the collective unconscious and inspired contemporary flesh and blood musicians… 'InBach' was a foregone conclusion.

In the immensity of Bach's oeuvre, in the company of his fellow wanderers, within the constraints of his-torical instruments, emboldened by the delightful, sometimes technically dangerous friction between acoustics and electronics: Without a net, Arandel walks a tightrope without a faux pas.

Vital Sales Points:

- Strong French environment including institutional support from Philharmonie / Musée de la Musique in Paris with a big shows' scheduled.
- A hybrid album with a mix of rare instrument sounds, synthesizers and innovative creative bias.

A profoundly original record steeped in millennia of pre-Islamic (pagan) and Islamic theology and Arabic tradition, ‘Dhil-un Taht Shajarat Al-Zaqum’ translates into “a patch of shade under the zaqum tree” and sees Myslma convey an ancient sense of existential angst via the contemporary prism of electronic music in his singular style of emo-R&B and weightless grime expression.

Although entirely sung in a form of classical Arabic that even modern day speakers may not comprehend, Msylma’s impassioned delivery and intonation conveys the gravity of the album’s themes in no uncertain terms, meaning that native and non-Arabic speakers alike will be absorbed by the album’s emotional pull.

Turning cues from a rich knowledge of pre-Islamic and Quranic poetry into a work of subversive literary fiction, Msylma charts a transition from a romanticised childhood, thru the rising self-awareness of adolescence, to problems with parents and the sardonic cynicism of adulthood, before looping back to childhood, and resolving with a burned-out, sore conclusion in an eternal here and now; effectivey mulling ontological and existential themes that surely resonate with a lived human experience wherever you’re listening from.

Whether channelling a pained sort of R&B/soul spirit in the aching delivery and floating chords of opener ‘Inqirad (Rihab-U Dhakir)’, singing from the midst of a weightless grime skirmish in ‘Min Bab AlKamal-i w AlDawam’, or scaling the lofty heights of ‘Astaqi AlGhamam’, no knowledge of the lyrics’ meaning is required in order to immerse in and empathise with Myslma’s music.

But if you’re the inquisitive type, we’re sure that a quick Google translate of the track titles will offer more concrete pointers to each song’s meaning and, in turn, open listeners to a world that’s familiar yet beyond their immediate conception.

This is an album that will stick in the mind long after the music stops playing, opening windows into parallel dimensions as fascinating and dramatic as the visions of Scott Walker, as haunting as Omar Souleyman’s lamenting mawwals, or futuristic as Fatima Al Qadiri.

Blue Vinyl The Caretaker despatches the final scene of a 20 year-long act that has uncannily lurked in the shadows of so many of our listening lives. Clad for the last time in Ivan Seal's specially comissioned artwork, this final stage sees The Caretaker mirroring the ultimate descent into dementia and oblivion, again using a patented prism of sound to connote a final, irreversible transition into the haunted ballroom of the mind that he first stepped into in 1999.

The project really took on new dimensions in 2005 with the 72-track, 6CD boxset 'Theoretically Pure Anterograde Amnesia', which was accompanied by an insightful unpackaging of it's ideas by cultural critic Mark Fisher aka K-Punk; a stalwart of the project who identified it (alongside music from Burial and Broadcast) among the most vital, emergent works of Hauntological art, a form of music often preoccupied with ideas about memory and nostalgia (but one distinct from pastiche), and the way that they possibly overwhelm, occlude, or even define our sense of being.

By using fusty samples from an obsolete analog format, and by doing so in the 2nd decayd of the 2nd millennium, The Caretaker perfectly and perversely bent ideas of anticipation/expectation with his arrangements, playing with notions of convention and repetition.
The project crystallised as a real gesamtkunstwerk for these times, and one arguably defined by a stubborn and intractably chronic drive against the grain of modern popular culture, or even a refusal of it.

And so to the project's final goodbye. With the outside world muted, and only the timbral residue remaining like smoke, everything moves as slow as a Lynchian dream sequence, until a conclusion so ineffably sublime occurs that we can't mention it for fear of waking up.

With his departure, we'll just take respite in the fact that The Caretaker was always there, inverting our world and supplying space and time and theory for thought, prompting us to dwell on the realest and darkest matters via the prism of the surreal and the unreal in a way that, in the long-run, can prove to be more effective at grasping the immediate state of cultural amnesia and the world's increasingly tight feedback loops, and arguably bring us to the realisation that it's
all a hyper-complex mess beyond anyone's conception, but we must at least attempt to try and understand, no matter how futile it seems.

The new album by Robert Piotrowicz does not fit any category. What this multicoloured electronic instrumentation aims to channel is the acoustic experience and energy of the performing musician. As a result of a wide range of creative means used, the narrative language of the compositions bursts withtension and mystery.

The album includes slow hypnotic passages of stone electronics (“To Fleh”), vigorous tempos and circular repetitions (“Euzo Found Gitar”), sprawling artificial soundscapes, back-to-origins ethnicity (ethnical subsoil and elements) liberated from any geographical identity (“Ocarina Wars”), as well as dreamlike minimalism with unpretentious cinematographic traits (“Flares Et Wasser Hole”). Some of these unusual melodic patterns may resemble the corporality of the animal throat rather than any human-created instrument (“Electros Spong”).

Although Euzebio was recorded with synths, the final shape of individual tracks and the album’s overall acoustic image go far beyond any electronic genre. The instruments have not become a goal in itself. They were merely a building block, a tool that helped achieve the album’s extended structure - a diverse whole with rich spatial features.

All sounds performed and recorded by Robert Piotrowicz on Buchla and Serge synthesizers at EMS Elektronmusikstudion in
Stockholm 2013/2014. composed, mixed and premastered by Robert Piotrowicz artwork and photos: Robert Piotrowicz design
and layout: Lasse Marhaug special thanks: Ocarina Jones and Tomasz Gil mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M Berlin
Produced by Musica Genera

In the last years, Asfast (aka Leon Leder) has established himself between Deconstructed Club Music and Dark Ambient. Originally socialized in the Breakcore scene, which also had a strong Metal impact, Leon Leder merges his diverse influences in order to create a new level of aesthetic entity called „The Prime Same“. He almost skips musical measures while using a slow narrative linked to oddly rough and intrusive rhythm passages. These noteworthy characteristics emphasize the idiosyncratic sound world of Asfast. While „Altar“ (Amen Records, 2018) already revealed moments of mysticism and symbolism, „The Prime Same“ sets out to deepen these impacts by deconstructing genre boundaries. Asfast celebrates a ritual, which faces the conflict of accessibility and confrontation without losing its inherence and particular focus.

Focus in restraint
Ascend and descend
Disembodied rituals through wordless narratives
Something opens and closes in slow motions
The inner becomes the outer, drawing paths and lines that eventually,
somewhere, cross each other again
In the end, these puzzles might solve themselves

In 2018 Asfast released his latest single "Drag Shift" in cooperation with SOAP & SKIN and EVELYN PLASCHG. His new album „The Prime Same" is the first one for denovali.

Danish musician/composer Mads Emil Nielsen continues his Framework series; a collection of open, hand-drawn graphic scores and recordings. The series includes Nielsen’s own subjective translations of the visual material and sound pieces accompanied by visual notations, and collaborations – in this case with Andrea Neumann, Jan Jelinek and Hideki Umezawa. Framework 2 consists of printed scores and recordings, released on 2 x 10” vinyl + DL.

Circles (Disc1: side A) is a dense, 03:45 collage of synthesizer recordings made during a residency at EMS (Elektronmusikstudion), Stockholm. The first graphic score is an illustration in three parts, based on sketches and drawings made intuitively while listening during and after the recording process.

Framework Fragments (Disc1: side B) created in collaboration with Andrea Neumann is derived from live recordings made with electronics and inside piano, and is based on the second score. The piece was made by the two musicians improvising from the seven graphic score fragments, sequenced using individual timecodes and then edited by Nielsen into a more complex collage, following closely the structure of the original recording. Originally a 4-channel composition, Framework Fragments was presented as part of the two artists’ “Creepage Current” sound installation in Berlin, Copenhagen and Milan, 2018 & 2019.

Nielsen then invited two artists to interpret the notation & score – electronic musician Jan Jelinek and sound artist Hideki Umezawa. These recordings are included on Disc 2 (on transparent vinyl). Jelinek chose to focus on the second part of the Circles score – following its structure / timeline and translating the elements into three separated loops blending in and out, one after another, surrounded by additional sounds and random textures.

Umezawa interpreted the Framework Fragments score. Various recordings based on his improvisations made with the Serge synthesizer – once again during a residency at EMS (2019) – were organised to ensure the sound material correspond to each element / score fragment. Finally, the material was re-arranged in detail and edited into the 9 min. composition.

Circles written & produced by Mads Emil Nielsen, Stockholm / Copenhagen, 2015 / 2017. Made for “Sichten 1” compilation curated by Frank Bretschneider (raster-media 2018). Framework Fragments (4-channel piece) mixed & completed by Andrea Neumann and Mads Emil Nielsen, Berlin 2017 / 2018. Circles – 2 written & produced by Jan Jelinek, 2019. Framework Fragments – 2 written & produced by Hideki Umezawa, 2019.

Tunisian leftfield experimentalist Deena Abdelwahed returns with an EP that takes her message back to the dancefloor. Straying away from personal identification, these tracks focus in on the sonic influences of her home region, be it in terms of rhythmic structure, sampling or other local sources. A highly versatile package for any forward-thinking DJ and further proof of this producer 's unique ability to fuse Arabic music references with club music.

Repress

In 1981, Alexei Borisov, a history student at the Moscow State University, formed his first band "Prospekt (Avenue)", drawing inspiration from kitchen table talks and new wave music coming from the West. They broke up in 1984 and a year later Borisov joined forces with Ivan Sokolovsky, an electronic music enthusiast and a connaisseur of rare synthesizers, to introduce the new and "updated" version of the band. By becoming Notchnoi Prospekt (Night Avenue), Borisov and Sokolovsky started moving towards industrial music and viscous, psychedelic synth pop.

In 1986, after a few conceptual, revolutionary albums as Notchnoi Prospekt, various solo projects and collaborations, the duo reunited in the studio to record their only instrumental album "Kurorty Kavkaza" (Resorts of the Caucasus). Built around the hypnotic meshing of afro-caribbean drum machine percussion and vintage Soviet and Italian synthesizers' vivid sonic palette, the resulting record was something that was absolutely different from Borisov and Sokolovsky's dark signature sound and wasn't well received both by the public and underground scene.

Until now, these tracks were never released and Notchnoi Prospekt never performed them live. Shortly after the recording session the duo focused on a return to their industrial roots that resulted in a number of monumental albums including "Kisloty" that became an instant underground classic.

"Kurorty Kavkaza" lay dormant and forgotten decades, and thirty three years after its recording, it gets the deserved official release.

unning Back Incantations present Yogtze!
A joint venture of Daniel Helmer - musician, producer (Mantra Mantra, Gudrun von Laxenburg)and filmmaker from Vienna and Daniel Meuzard - (Feater, Skymax, Vallay) and a headstrong trip deep into the tune-in-turn-on-drop-out-mentality of European minds outside of their natural environment. Helmer and Meuzard met around 2005 in Peru where they both participated in an ayahuasca ceremony.
After this experience they decided to travel and discover South America together for some weeks. During that journey, the idea of a musical project (Yogtze) was born.
Two years and many miles later, Helmer and Meuzard saw Alejandro Jodorowsky’s „Montana Sacra“ at a small film festival in Paris. The movie inspired them to create a musical composition that reflects its spirit and atmosphere. In order to do so, they decided to travel Morocco and record music on a small 8-track tape machine at a friend’s home studio in Essaouira. "The artistic process felt very natural. All we had to do was to open up to the cosmos and let the music flow through our bodies“, said Meuzard. Neither Meuzard nor Helmers intented to release those recordings, since the sessions were more of a personal nature and meant to create a musical experience for themselves.
A decade later, their moroccan friend, who stumbled upon the tapes while cleaning his storage, urged them to release their recordings so everyone could experience the same musical journey as they had back in 2007. "It would be a grand act of selfishness not to share this work of art with others“ he told them. Luckily for thew world, Helmer and Meuzard decided to finally edit, mix and master the rest of the material in 2018/2019 and named their project „YOGTZE“. Expect a record full of wondrous soundscapes, haunting melodies and capturing themes that would fit in many categories or definitions and none at the same time. Music from and for memories, tangerine dreams and chessboards.

4x12"

A massive influence on Prurient and Hospital Productions, Incapacitants’ seminal Japanese noise onslaught ‘Stupid Is Stupid’ reissued on vinyl for the first time since the 1993 double-cassette releaseSpawned by Osaka-based bank clerk Toshiji Mikawa as a solo offshoot from pioneering improv/noise unit Hijokaidan, Incapacitants initially revolved Mikawa and his self-titled feedback
instrument for three albums during the ‘80s, before he was joined by civil servant Fumio Kosakai (C.C.C.C.) circa 1991, and the pair have wreaked havoc ever since. ‘Stupid Is Stupid’ features some of their earliest and fiercest “pure noise” recordings from 1991 and was issued by legendary french noise label Sounds For Consciousness Rape (Anne Gillis, Con-Dom, Smell & Quim), and became a
cult staple of J-noise, hailed by everyone from Russell Haswell to Prurient, who now picks it up for this lovingly pieced-together vinyl edition, painstakingly restored by Kris Lapke (Alberich), and encased in sleeve art that mimics the original tape’s wire-mesh enclosure.
Selt-mantled as the “King of Noise”, Mikawa lives up to his lofty standards alongside Kokosai to the fullest across the 2 hour breadth of ‘Stupid Is Stupid’. Working hard within their style of “pure noise”, and with no concession to boring old musicality, the results are utterly febrile and seething with apocalyptic, spirit-wrenching drama; gushing torrents of high frequency squall that absorbs and spits out all that’s ferocious and effective from their influences such as Whitehouse, The New Blockaders, Borbetomagus and M.B., with a white hot sense of ecstasy that simply does not let up.
Thrilling in its sensory evisceration, the results push right up to the definition of their name, leaving listeners petrified and dealing with their own fight or flight responses to the sounds ultra violence sadism. But, as many lovers of the most effective noise might tell you, Incapacitants’ radical levels of panicked data overload are possibly, conversely meditative when you get into it.
Either way, this stuff is rarely surpassed in terms of sheer menace, and the fact that it comes from a pair of guys who wear suits to their day jobs only makes it that bit more potent and emphasises its necessary, cathartic nature.

Vinyl premiere of Masonna’s bona fide 1990 J-noise classic; a tortuous and shrieking example of Osaka’s most feared performer at an early crest of his powers.
A combustible force of nature working at the crossroads of alternative rock, death metal, and psychedelic synth music, Masonna’s music came to blisteringly define the “harshtronic” sound of Japanese noise as it lurched into the ‘90s. Following his 1989 debut ‘Open Your C*nt’ and a sick job on Bananarama (yep, them!), ‘Shinsen na Clitoris’ was issued in 1990 as the 3rd Masonna album
and it has since been staked in the annals as unmissable entry point to his savage and forbidding catalogue.
Maso Yamazaki aka Masonna would go on found prog-noise group Flying Testicle with close affiliate Merzbow in 1992, but in the years before he established a mean reputation for bringing unhinged human behaviour to his powerful live performances, known to last only a few seconds.
We can surely feel that energy unleashed and channelled into ‘Shinsen na Clitoris’, one of his best loved and notorious slabs. Gut-wrenched shrieks trigger torrents of hurtling distortion, limpid whimpers become barrages of face-melting abrasion, and collapsing tonnes of junk metal transmute into Tetuzi Akiyama-style guitar primitivism, always keeping recipients on the edge of their seat either out of exhilaration or a genuine fear for their own safety.
This is exactly the kind of stuff that has gassed the likes of Russell Haswell and Dominick Fernow (Prurient/Vatican Shadow) for decades now, galvanizing some of their strongest work with the feral nature that Japanese Noise is so widely praised for.

Blue Vinyl

Autoerotochrist’s Anjilla dons his Moonbeam Terror alias for a crushing solo debut with Hospital Productions. Laying rubble to your ears, ‘Comfort Knife’ blends teasing sampled dialogue and stark atmospheres with sheets of blistering hot noise for the faithful and types who prize their tinnitus.
“a startling and confrontational document of sheer noise textures from the immortal corpse or the corpse you can’t get rid of. the unstable and disturbing currents of riverbed noise clattering across the rocks of silt cliffs bubble up before receding again down the reverse side of the waterfall.
super crushing heavy electronics - ophelia has risen from the creek and will bring shame to her admirers. be sure not to miss moonbeam terror this year at hospital fest 12/7 in nyc! mastered by r.
mason (autoerotichrist/enemy soil).”

Red Vinyl 2x12"

Torrents of harsh filth from Black Leather Jesus man Richard Ramirez, recorded in 1999 and now sequestered by Hospital Production
“’amplified tactics’ collects 4 segments of live performances from texas and mexico in 1999, rolling back to an era when live noise shows were isolated mysterious affairs or opportunities to infiltrate mundane society via bars, tea shops, art galleries, youth centers and goth clubs. richard ramirez, who is one of the first and last standing harsh noise originators from the texan deserts
and humid turf that would spawn me of the most influential and dirtiest units to ever grace the xeroxed pages of zines ranging from industrial to grindcore. having touched all the most essential noise imprints of his time (tesco organization, praxis dr. bearmann, release, membrum debile propaganda, msbr, self abuse records, mother savage, etc.) continues to define ‘fetish’ in noise.
since the application of live recordings was a cornerstone of the artist’s studio process these live sessions are as wide ranging, fluid and climactic as any proper ‘studio’ releases from the vast library of sm noise that mr. ramirez has explored on the eve of 30 years of existence. if you’re looking for a entry point to probe the inner working of ramirez’s most iconic visions of noise - ‘amplified tactics’ is essential with its saturated ripping and wild envelopes, edited from the original 2xcdr originally released in an edition of 50.”

2x12"

A fetid Yorkshire noise classic resurfaces on Hospital Productions like something that died down your drainpipes in the ‘90s.
Smell & Quim curled out ‘Cosmic Bondage’ back in 1995 and it’s remained a firm favourite of Prurient’s domineering label since then. Helmed by Milovan Srdenovic and Jack Shit, Smell & Quim dwell in the gutter of culture and their music is suitably obsessed with themes of porn, fetishism, alcoholism, necrophilia and basically anything that gets the Daily Fail clutching their handbags.
They’re notorious for mutilating and burning a pig’s head live on stage, before being promptly ejected from the venue (run check the clips on YouTube!), and have an abject, black sense of humour that’s totally germane to UK noise and freakish noise offshoots such as Goregrind. They’re fucking off it, basically.
‘Cosmic Bondage’ is one of S&Q’s earliest and most revered outings. Newly clad in cover photo of the hirsute Barbie doll trussed with rope that came with the original tape released by Stinky Horse Fuck, the music is just awful in the best way, ranging from blitzed anal hardcore to gut wrench soreness and a final work of freeform squall starring Hakim Tubitz and Ibrahim Ibrahim on North
African lung pipes.

Chicago-based contemporary electronic musician Steve Hauschildt has composed panoramas of synthesized sound for over a decade. First within his former band, Emeralds, an American touchstone of 2000s home-recorded psychedelic noise music, and later across a steady and critically-acclaimed stream of solo releases spanning ambient techno, arpeggiated electronica and post-kosmische styles utilizing synthesizers, computers, and digital processing. In 2018, he extended a collection of rich, visceral tracks titled Dissolvi, his first release on Ghostly International and his most collaborative work to date. Just a year later, Hauschildt returns with Nonlin, an album that's freer, leaner, and looser, both structurally and conceptually; less linear compared to its predecessor, but still captivating. Developed and recorded in several studios during and around the edges of tour - Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Tbilisi, and Brussels - this material emulates an alienating encounter with a smattering of places, a replicant of culture shock, a solitary and stark experience with uncanny environments, melody and dissonance as oblique locales. Nonlin finds Hauschildt evolving his palette of tools, integrating modular and granular synthesis. The improvisatory and generative nature of modular systems, when paired with his signature grid-oriented and hand-played techniques, guides these compositions slightly out of line to hypnotic effect. Opener "Cloudloss" permeates the mix with an unsettling smog, which reappears and all but engulfs "A Planet Left Behind." On cuts like "Attractor B" and "Subtractive Skies," pockets of air rest between sequenced pulses, whose crumpling and flattening folds build into a restrained rapture of crisp frequencies and milky reverb-swallowed coruscations. The album's title track and centerpiece logs on to a foreign network, a fractured percussion signal that modulates and stutters into static amidst curious melodic sparkling in the hazy bandwidth. "Reverse Culture Music" casts an elegant and brooding stream of strings, pizzicato and churning bow from Chicago cellist Lia Kohl, against chiming minimalist synth frameworks. A surprising pattern emerges in the taciturn systems at work. Hauschildt continues to expand his already horizon-wide repertoire, here exploring the effects of corrupting coordinates; a flight subject to the collapsable abilities of time in remote spaces, a smearing of the axis to elegiac ends.

After Où poser des yeux in 2009 and La paroi de ton ventre in 2013, Les Hommes-Boites are back with La copie d'un autre which will soon be released on Brussels' young and sparkling label Gnignignignigni. Composed of Carl Roosens, Emmanuel Coenen and Pascal Matthey, the band Les Hommes-Boites tells and sings funny stories of animals, look-alikes and dark rooms on happily haunting electronic, not to say pop-music. "On est toujours la copie d'un autre" ("We are always the copy of someone else").

Future Ethics’ first release is an eight-track compilation on a special USB stick with an accompanying zine. The label wanted to foster a spirit of collaboration with an unusual compilation-building structure. Artists gradually added to the compilation as it grew: each artist received the existing tracks and was asked to contribute or remix a track from the compilation. This took time, but resulted in a cohesive and beautiful compilation, rich in emotion, ranging from a vintage club rant from tati au miel; disoriented housy jams from Bergsonist, Beta Librae, and Violet; tense experimental compositions from Englesia and Odete; a 139 BPM banger from softcoresoft; to a dancefloor-melting System of a Down edit from Estoc & Bored Lord.
The zine features an interview from Discwoman’s Frankie Decaiza Hutchinson, writing on off-Facebook event organizing from Adwoa Afful, a beautiful cover from collage artist Fenna Fiction, and a guide to recognizing opioid overdoses and administering Naloxone from Liz Singh and Sara Martin in Toronto. It also features a comic from Berlin-based artist @juicycomics and a poem from Wafa Ktaech.

English aural terrorist Never Worse debuts on Strange Therapy with the 6-track cassette Gutter. Being true to its name, the work is a series of grinding assaults in which modern industrial/noise music with rhythmic tendencies becomes a template upon which brooding soundscapes are sculptured.

Bite The Concrete welcomes us with its haunting dark vibes, before it explodes in an industrial march made of mechanical movements and ominous lines. The rhythmic mantra uses pauses in order to convey a sense of dread. The listener will find himself crushed under the obsessive track. Dead Tooth presents grinding distortions and shrilling effects, evoking a factory-in-hell wherein an obscene ritual is consumed amidst the ever-functioning machines. An eerie atmosphere pervades the number, but the grittier side of the music is not forgotten. Cannibal is a dissonant tour de force with ritualistic noisescapes among which ghostly harsh vocals moves, preying on our fears. An ancient world made of prehistoric rules collides with the industrial setting, fusing past and present in an ominous mantra.

The Title Track is a dark dimension with grim landscapes and underlined tension, an affair full of grit and epochal visions. It slowly adds the usual ritualistic elements in a well crafted structure in which a suspended tension never find its climax, losing itself instead into nothingness. Misery is a dark ambient voyage exploding with considerable disturbances and droning effects. A crawling movement guides us toward ominous moments of silence, ready to be assaulted by obsessive marches. The last track is a remix of Bite The Concrete by experimental artist Oil Thief, who reworks the track into a more experimental take on noise music, full of shrilling effects and compulsive stomping attacks. Rhythmic noise innuendos enrich the palette here used, offering a hypnotizing repetition. But it doesn’t end here: the second half sees a different course dwelling in melancholic synth-lines, before returning to harsher territories.

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.

The newly founded label Yalanci brings you its first release from the series of deceptive music.

This debuting EP gracefully portrays a universe of atmospheric, bass-driven compositions, conveying a sense of spatial charm in its reverb-drenched sequences. Forming an alliance between dark and beautiful, the sinister vocals that are pronouncing poetry in Azerbaijani language, blend in a percussive conversation with the rustles, chirps and whispers that create a flavorsome sense of both gemlike lucidity and perpetual movement. The pensive hypnotic ambiance of some pieces in this EP is tastefully assembled together with machine-like percussive dynamics of others. This spiritually charged release allures into an exploration of darkness and light, emptiness and fullness; luring you forward but seeming to take you back. You don't know what you don't know.

Omochi’s debut single, Devil is an amorphous urban lysergic bass-pop expulsion. A motorbike ride through late night Tokyo, headlights and neon ooze across wind battered eyeballs. A sudden lurch takes the ramp up to the overpass, revealing the electrified vista. With a dime bag of psychoactive tweaks and bleeps, a foraging bassline - a Billy Cobham on K. Dial-ups cry out to connect, once the signal catches, it's moved out of view, as the organ mourns the hint of dawn on the horizon.

A Happy Moment: percussive spasm, bass once again lurches, unfolding. Omochi’s lyrical push-me-pull-you phased out vocal, the drum machine falls down the stairs, while church organ goes secular, concentrating on the notes outside - mind your pews and Qs.

Omochi, (honorific “O” before mochi - show some fucking respect) in daily parlance is actually a rice cake, a dense glutinous product suited to many recipes, be they sweet or savoury. Stick one under the grill, watch it burst open, wrap it in crisp seaweed and dip it in soya - a healthy snack, and a staple around Japanese New Year. Like everything, Omochi also has its dark side - each year it kills off a small section of the aged community, the gluey bolus a hard act to swallow - the unwary can quickly choke to death.

So maybe Omochi's music is best to sample in small chunks initially? Could be too much for the uninitiated? A 7” might be a safer initial taste of what Omochi is going to do to your brain - there's an album on the way - could be time to stock up on soft furnishings.

Omochi is in fact Tadaki Matsunaga, of early 2000s Tokyo three piece Femini Flyers. The Feminis were Tadaki (bass), Sachie (vocals) and Koji (drums). Their 7” single “Like You See” / “Masterbed” was an early Ethbo release - the most requested track from Japan Blues’ Boiler Room Collections video, since it was first aired, way back in 2014. Since that recording, Tadaki has built, and been working in, his home studio. Devil and Happy Moment are a hint of the album that Omochi has ready. Grill-ready - wanna bite?

Mastered by Kuratani, pressed at the only independent record pressing plant in Japan: Toyo Kasei. Housed in psychoactive sleeve and label artwork by Mishumaro Nakamura.

With airpay support from Ben UFO, On The Wire (BBC),
Do!! You!!! (NTS) and Japan Blues (NTS).

Anoyo ('the world over there') draws from the same sessions with members of Tokyo Gakuso which led to the 2018 work Konoyo, but rendered starker, solemn, and stripped back, with more of a naturalist tint. Hecker's processing here moves in veiled ways, soft refractions and whispered shrouds woven within improvisational sessions of traditional gagaku interplay, evoking a sense of vaulted space, temples at dawn, shredded silk fluttering in the rafters.
This is boldly barren music, skeletal and sculptural, shaped from wood, wind, strings, and mist. Modern yet ancient, delicate and desolate, Anoyo inverts its predecessor to compellingly conjure a parallel world of illusion, solitude, and eternal return.

Control Voltage Project is a long running project of Alper Maral and Mert Topel; Alper Maral is one of the most significant sound discoverers around Turkey through auditory and academical researches he has made about experimental electronic music. Mert Topel is a versatile musician, one of the most important keyboardist for many artists in popular music in Turkey. He has released his first solo album “Serendipity” in 2017.

Control Voltage Project is named after the electric signals which are used for the interactions between various physical sound layers. Recordings of CVP -first album from the duo- was finished in 2005 and released in 2015 on “Müzik Hayvanı” as free download on web.

The album is making its roots through an endless sound pool that created by synthesizers, vocoders and tape recorders such as KORG MS 20, YAMAHA Motif 8, PROPHET 5 and TASCAM MS 16 which have characterized by different styles and times. The duo’s 12 track album is a complete adventure from abstract and fragile moments to groovy but spooky sounds. Control Voltage Project is finally released on vinyl via Müstesna Records.

The much anticipated debut album by Giant Swan, the brainchild of Robin Stewart & Harry Wright; an acerbic marriage of industrial percussion, abused guitar, hypnotic bass and liberal vocal manipulation.

Having built a formidable reputation for their hi-octane improvised performances, relentless international touring and a succession of acclaimed EPs on respected imprints such as Whities, Timedance and Mannequin. 'Giant Swan', on their own freshly minted Keck label, sees the pair stepping things up significantly.
A full-length musical statement that bristles with the galvanising energy for which they're known while introducing a fresh depth, range and sonic nuance to the equation. File under: techno-not-techno.

Named after a beloved track by screamo overlords the Blood Brothers, Giant Swan was originally conceived as a side project from the duos role as guitarists in the band The Naturals, with formative influences such as My Bloody Valentine and Lightning Bolt being distilled over time with inspiration from the varied and always vibrant local music scene in Bristol.

From dub soundsystem teachings at the Trinity Centre and Black Swan or the fiercely experimental early transmissions of friends in the Young Echo collective. Equally at home setting up their table of machines and pedals in the middle of the dancefloor at legendary clubs like Berghain and Tresor as they are playing the Glastonbury Festival, Supersonic or the Royal Albert Hall, Giant Swan have grown to take their place as one of the most singular and determined groups to emerge from the UK underground in many years.

PAN tout a real beauty with Stine Janvin’s scintillating vocal suite ‘Fake Synthetic Music’ - a transfixing and distinguished demonstration of the voice as a hugely flexible instrument, presented in a range of minimalist yet extreme, probing scenarios providing a radical new perspective on familiar sounds.
Conceived as a full-body physical and ambient live performance for theatres, clubs and galleries, ‘Fake Synthetic Space’ is an intently focussed and singular follow-up to Stine’s previous solo LP ‘In Labour’ Pica Disk, 2014 and her input to last year’s Native Instrument release ‘Camo’ for Shelter Press. Where both of those releases found her vocals combined with field recordings in myriad ways, the Norwegian artist’s latest side is stripped right back to vocals and FX, offering a visceral investigation of her full frequency range with results that explore the deeply uncanny auditory phenomena of otoacoustic emissions in melodic, minimal sequences referencing pop, techno, and trance.
Placed in a broad history of extended vocal investigation ranging from Dadaist poetry to the resonant acoustics of Alvin Lucier, the minimalist abstraction of Steve Reich, and the unearthly sonic spectrum covered by Maja Ratkje, ‘Fake Synthetic Music’ is anchored in the modern day by its use of clinically technoid pulses and repetition, and not least by its ambiguous title, especially in the age of fake news. Through the prism of the voice, Stine both literally and metaphorically reflects contemporary obsessions with authenticity and artifice, using trickery and illusion to strangely reinforce her own sense of self and likewise provide listeners with a life affirming experience.
Between the alien cadence of ‘Mood’, the playfully invasive sounds elicited from Glitch’, and most strikingly in the mesmerising stereo swing of ‘Like Right Now’, Stine presents genuinely shocking rearrangements of her voice quite unlike anything out there right now, and by the time the escalating pitches of ‘Tripple A’ and the whooping avant-jazz-techno of ‘Zen Garden’ have exerted
their effect, it’s becomes patently, piercingly clear that Stine’s sound art operates on a remarkably incisive plane of synaesthetic perception.

It's the third album by drøne for Pomperipossa Records - Anna von Hausswolff's label. drøne is called 'Mark Van Hoen' and 'Mike Harding' - and for 'The Stilling', guest musicians include Charlie Campagna (Player for Cello & double bass), Katt Newlon (Also Cello) & Zachary Paul (Player of Violin). With the trademark drøne sounds of static, radio voices, field recordings, modular synths and found sounds, recording chance sounds right up to the final mix add to the dynamism and energy of the album.

"Drugstore phones" is a double LP from Russian wizard Piper Spray. This enigmatic producer is a hidden gem of Russian electronic underground. The album is taking you on an unexpected trip in many ways - it's hard to define the genre but one can feel the author's willingness to experiment and explore new sounds. This sonic documentary of Piper's world is breathing and constantly changing, though it's the most balanced and mature work of the author. A spectacular opener for GOST ZVUK's gatefold LP series.

Primarily Known As Codex Empire, Mahk Rumbae Slides His Antechamber Project Over To Horo For An Ep Of Crushing, Relentless Stagger-tech.

Following On From His S/t Antechamber Debut For Instruments Of Discipline, Rift Sees The Artists Minimalist Brutality Refined Into An Even More Dominant Language. From The Nightmare Grinds Of Dagger Complex And Rift To The Sinister Rhythm Of Repudiation And The Conjuring Ambience That Emanates From Arch Of Hysteria, The Rift Ep Offers An Intimidating Assemblage Of Doom Laden Sonics. The Limited Vinyl Edition Of This Release Is A 10" Cut Onto A 12" Plate.

Black Truffle announce the release of Le Piano Englouti (The Sunken Piano), the first collaboration between Brunhild Ferrari and Jim O’Rourke, offering up two side-long realisations of Ferrari’s tape compositions recorded in concert at Tokyo’s SuperDeluxe in 2014, revised and mixed by O’Rourke in 2019. The title piece weaves an immersive web of electronics, pre-recorded piano, and field-recorded sounds, including the raging Aegean sea, the tranquil atmospherics of a Japanese island, and the roar of a pachinko parlour. Far from a slice of audio vérité, these geographically distant sites intermingle in an unreal space where they often become indistinguishable. Shadowed by electronics and reverberant snatches of piano, the field recordings rise up and recede like ocean waves, creating a constantly shifting texture that is nonetheless warmly inviting. Chirping birds are confused with their electronic doubles; snatches of footsteps and voices are engulfed by ambience of unclear origin. Increasingly present throughout the piece, the piano rises up one last time before being swallowed up for good by the pachinko parlour. Tranquilles Impatiences (Quiet Impatiences) takes as its source material the electronic sounds produced by Luc Ferrari for his 1977 Exercises d’Improvisation, seven tapes intended to be heard alongside instrumental improvisation. Brunhild Ferrari’s piece layers Luc Ferrari’s sounds into a dense new work that emphasises the insistently pulsing rhythms of the source material. In this realisation with O’Rourke, the piece becomes a monumental sound-object, a slowly shifting mass of skittering electronic tones, shimmering reverb, and growling bass from which field-recorded events occasionally arise. At times, the placement of these fragments of real life in a pulsing, insistent musical landscape calls up Luc Ferrari’s classic Petit Symphonie; at other points, the swarming electronics bring to mind O’Rourke's Steamroom work or even the vast expanses of Roland Kayn.

Presented in a deluxe gatefold sleeve with liner notes from Brunhild Ferrari.

Silver Vinyl

Woe are King Midas Sound on ’Solitude’, their crushingly desolate new album, auspiciously cued for a Valentine’s Day release on Shapednoise’s Cosmo Rhythmatic label. A meditation on loss, narrated by Roger Robisnon and produced by Kevin Martin (The Bug), ’Solitude’ sees KMS gut out their sound following the bittersweet shoegaze-dub blooms of their ‘Edition1’ 2015 collaboration with Fennesz, resulting in a starkly noirish elegy to extinguished romance and love in the endtimes

Combining the grown-up, confessional vulnerability of Robinson’s lyrics and dreader-than-dread delivery with the most stripped back arrangements in Kevin Martin’s entire catalogue, the duo drill deep into emotional sufferation with simultaneously suffocating yet somehow beautiful results. Over the course of 12 songs, they glacially limn a coming-to-terms with a loss that has been enforced or unexpected, and ultimately arrive at the starkest conclusions with cinematic effect.

’Solitude’ pushes King Midas Sound’s pessimism to heart-rinsing degrees. Staging Robinson in a series of vantablack scenes veiled by smoky, minimal synth-lighting, the poet processes irrational and incessant feelings of rejection and loneliness. From the aching desolation of ‘You Disappear’ to the unflinching realisations of ‘X’, the ache imparted by Robinson’s lyrics is only amplified by his quiet stoicism, while Kevin Martin finds power in a sense of deferred gratification and his embrace of negative space.

The effect is nothing less than transfixing in the physicality of Robinson’s descriptions and the detached nature of Martin’s sferic electronics on ‘In The Night’, while pangs of lush optimism lend an exquisite contrast to the desiccated riddim and gloom of ‘Alone’, and the sylvan keys in their sensuous reverie, ’Her Body’.

‘Solitude’ is a more than worthy follow-up to King Midas Sound’s two albums for Hyperdub and their collaboration with Fennesz for Ninja Tune. It’s bound to reset what you know about KMS, and become a go-to album for anyone going thru conscious uncoupling, domestic strife, or meditating on love in the age of info overload.

Repress

Five years ago, the expression Russian electronic scene bore a tone of futurology and expectancies rather than a real state of affairs. It was possible to put together musicians of local and genre importance easily in general, but not of significance in national scale. With rise and further development of Gost Zvuk, Russian electronic music achieved power not only as cultural phenomenon within country s borders, but also fully proved to be a thing of international meaning. Starting operations in 2014, the label quickly defined its domains of authority and engagement and created full-bloody community of musicians, where everyone has a special view on his own work and unique sound. The projects presented on this compilation can be rightfully called the contemporary vanguard of Russian and global electronic music.

Each of resonant artists holds his own disparate creative field and impact. However, in this diversity the unity of creation of beauty and ingenuity is born, that distinguishes Russian independent electronica. All compiled tracks perfectly characterize the artists involved, sometimes from extremely striking sides; from HMOT s chaotic improvisations to kedr livansky s ethereal grooves, from unearthly landscapes of Gamayun to undistracted concisions by Ol or Buttechno. Both electric boffinry and club anthems merge into united vision, placed in graceful frame of Rashad Becker s mastering.

Maybe this compilation won t close the question What is the Russian Sound? , which has been arising for more than twenty years. Nevertheless, it is able to give an extensive view on the evolution of Russian electronica in the 2010s.

“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.