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Presenting Cuckoo Live Life Like Cuckoo, the eighth album from the London/Somerset eight-piece, Hey Colossus. Now in their 10th year, the band have been gathering plaudits and accumulating new fans with every release, and after playing to thousands at Supersonic Festival, things are accelerating at an even faster pace. As with each album release, Hey Colossus continue to mutate and for their eighth album they have enlisted the support of a new drummer, Part Chimp guitar/vox man, Tim Cedar, who has undoubtedly brought a whole new kind of energy that has reinvigorated the band. When the rhythm section takes a shot to the bow it's only natural for the game to change. But long-term supporters need not worry, they're still heavy, still got the same vibe, only now they are focused in a fresh way. Cuckoo Live Life Like Cuckoo was recorded live to tape throughout 2012 in Dropout Studios, South London, by Mr. Westminster Brown, mastered by James Plotkin. For this recording, Hey Colossus opt for a hefty hi-fi sound when previously they were drenched in lo-fi fuzz. Now there is room to breathe, when before they were utterly unrelenting. Tape loops and walls of noise created by bass and drum, rhythmic klang, dual vocals, and three guitars are supplemented by a variety of instruments including the baglama saz, turntables and synths -- adding a whole new dynamic to their sound. These are signs of a band who are playing with their ears open and it's all systems go.

The second of May's brace of new Polytechnic Youth 45s represents a visit to some previously long lost recordings from Berlin, early 1980s. From the KEHRSCHLIEFE estate:

''Kehrschleife' was Wolfgang Tilner-Barlow (1949 - 1984).

The Kehrschleife recordings originated from the Mauer park fleamarket in Berlin about 3 years ago, (bought by Allan Murphy of Midwich Youth Club, and cleaned up from the original cassettes by him), they appear to be back-ups of the original Kehrschleife studio master tapes. The tapes are labelled (in German) NDR TV/SFB TV/Radio Bremen themes and Idents and in each cassette case is an A4 sheet detailing the track title/recording date/intended broadcast recipient, with a Kehrschleife/Wolfgang Tilner-Barlow Logo letterhead.

According to the stall holder, the tapes were bought as part of a job lot of 1970's studio equipment from in the Uhlenhorst area, in the 1980's and passed on to him by a relative of the original job lot buyer. Little is known about Tilner-Barlow although the stall owner remembered the name 'Kehrschleife' as being a band from the late 70's Hamburg Neu Deutsche Welle scene. Murphy's research has turned up scant information such as Tilner-Barlow's name on the end credits of a few different 1970's German TV shows and a Rest in Peace notice at the end of an 'Arbeit Heute' show from 1984 on YouTube as well as the music appearing on a home video recording of Berlin in the 1970's (with apparently numbers stations recordings embedded)"

A fabulous 8 track EP, playing at 45rpm in Polytechnic Youth house bags and sure to fly out super quick. The label may revisit these tapes for a further EP later in the year.

Kuba Kapsa is a Polish pianist and composer being the leader of the avant-jazz combo Contemporary Noise Sextet (2006-2014). Beyond that he is a renowned composer for film and theater plays. His latest venture is the first of a sophisticated series of projects of modern classical music bearing the common title "Vantdraught".

The first part of the "Vantdraught" series was called "Vantdraught 10 · Vol. 1" and featured ten classical instruments - 4 violins, 2 violas, cello, vibraphone, marimba and piano. The now appearing second part is "Vantdraught 4", a quartet album written for violin, clarinet/bass clarinet, trombone and piano. The minimalistic style of Vantdraught 10 is preserved although the music is less repetitive and much more intimate. Instinct and intuition is the main force behind the writing process, usually avoiding typical chord progressions and the classical cadential technique. In contrast to "Vantdraught 10 · Vol. 1", the rhythm domain is also less important, thus allowing the melody and harmony to come to the fore. The pieces of "Vantdraught 4" are mainly tonal music but Kapsa also makes use of atonal and polytonal harmonies which requires the listener to put more effort into listening to these parts. The unusual set of instruments is what makes this quartet album unique and fresh sounding. "Vantdraught 4" is certainly linked to classical and minimal music in general but one can find other influences such as jazz and "new music".

Much like its predecessor, "Vantdraught 4" features an astonishing artwork based on "The Reluctant Conscript" by the seminal artist duo Kahn & Selesnick.

Harpist Mary Lattimore and guitar / synthesizer player Jeff Zeigler present their score to French director Philippe Garrel's 1968 silent film 'Le Révélateur'. The duo blend ancient classical traditions with modern improvisation and electronic performance. Lattimore and Zeigler's score powerfully conveys isolation, despair and awakening, amplifying sentiments portrayed in the film. Le révélateur - the processor of images - in the film is a small boy who is given voice through the rhythmic and inventive harp performance and through emotive melodica lines, eerie synth and guitar. Together, the duo create a soundscape that perfectly matches the film's progression as it follows the boy's journey from a family's dysfunctional home life into a godless post-apocalyptic landscape. The LP only release is pressed on virgin vinyl with a printed inner sleeve and free download card. (Initial copies pressed on white vinyl.) The album artwork features stills from the film (used with the permission of the director). The score has also been approved by Garrel. Lattimore and Zeigler have performed their score to 'Le Révélateur' in front of sold out crowds at Ballroom Marfa, Constellation Chicago and The Getty Museum in Los Angeles. They will continue to perform the score with the film throughout 2016 and 2017. Lattimore has recorded and performed previously with Kurt Vile, Thurston Moore, Meg Baird, Jarvis Cocker, Wrekmeister Harmonies, Steve Gunn and Sharon Van Etten. Zeigler has recorded albums by Kurt Vile, War On Drugs, Nothing and Purling Hiss and has played with members of Chris Forsyth's Solar Motel Band, War On Drugs and A Sunny Day In Glasgow in his group Arc In Round.

A musical foray deep inside the Noyzelab mainframe. Emotive, sample-heavy textures reflecting today's society with pertinent commentary on first world problems. Sometimes brutal, always captivating, David has built an album which evokes memories of honest labour, B&W films and heavy-duty woollen suits.

According to one reviewer of David's previous musical output he "gleefully disrupts just about every standard convention of musical form you could think of, including those of so-called experimental musics." Other reviewers have written that: "His music is a bizarre, yet compelling journey investigating the outer realms of music generated on ancient & contemporary machines." "It's strikingly original audio that doesn't really sound like anything else I can think of." "Utterly sublime. So there you go, a life-affirming slab of mind-altering sound to reawaken you to the terrifying possibilities of creation."

"absolutely wreaks havoc" wrote Keith Fullerton Whitman on reviewing David's T. H. Cycle cassette on Important Records/Cassauna.

* 150g vinyl in full colour, direct-to-board jacket with gloss varnish finish; designed by Joe Gilmore and Cameron Shafii

* US Import; Limited edition of 300 copies; contains one 1.8 locked grooves at conclusion of Side B

* CoH is a Russian sound artist, based in Sweden, whose works explore texture, atmosphere and tone. He has collaborated with Cosey Fanni Tutti, Coil, and Richard Chartier, among others.

* The final track on CoH's forthcoming Editions Mego release, Music VOL. is titled 'Return to Mechanics', connecting the two but this EP contains a set of bouncy, slouchy robotic grooves, full of tweeps and pneumatic, rubberised squelches that were too energetic to be contained on the Editions Mego title. Return to Mechanics also includes a reimagining of Donna Summer's classic track 'I Feel Love'.

* Digital version contains alternate versions of the vinyl tracks and remixes by Brandon Nickell and Cameron Shafii

* Each track on the EP is a free-time computer based composition; mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, Berlin

* Artist biography as written by Ge-stell: http://www.ge-stell.net/ge-stell-05

* Press / Promotion: In house campaign from Ge-stell. Premiered in The Wire and Resident Advisor

Sote is the moniker of Tehran-based producer Ata Ebtekar, who in the past twenty years has released productions for various labels including Warp, Sub Rosa and Rabih Beani's Morphine label.

* His Ge-stell EP titled Hyper-urban 20 30 aligns hardcore techno with computer music tropes, displacing form and convention while reimagining the in-between spaces between East and West, present and future.

His pieces in Hyper-urban 20 30 are sonic tales which synchronously decode and regenerate customary patterns of thought - electroacoustic designs of crisis and harmony orchestrating an artificial saga.

Global cultural exposure through transmigration is a significant stimulant for his aesthetics. For Hyper-urban 20 30, rules and formulas are deconstructed - synthetic soundscapes appear fresh and futuristic, lively and vivacious.

* Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, Berlin

Zwei Tracks aus dem anstehenden Debütalbum des Wahlberliner DJs/Produzenten JR Seaton (aka Call Super) auf einer streng limitierten 7" Vinyl mit breitem Mittelloch (Dinked Vinyl). Düster-knarzende Techno-Electronica der Berliner Berghain-Schule.

On clear vinyl!!

Anything can happen and often does. This is John Cage. A seminal example of indeterminate music from an icon on experimental sounds.
It could be argued that there is no more controversial figure in music history as avant-garde electronic composer John Cage. Perhaps best known for his composition "4'33,"" which consisted of Cage sitting at a piano for four-plus minutes of total silence, Cage was both loved and loathed in the 60s and 70s as a leading light in avant-garde music and as an entertainingly weird guy who used radios, televisions, live dancers and his own Adam's apple as instruments in his live performances. Cage's music blurred the line between music, performance art and visual art in a way that no other composer has before or since.
Cage's performances were often wild one-of-a-kind happenings, and the shows that make up the recording of Variations IV are no different. The fourth in a series of concerts that stretched the boundaries of what music was, IV was designed for a group of performers playing literally anything they could get their hands on. They were also encouraged, if they got bored playing, to do "other activities" in addition to the music. The score consisted of two circles and seven points on a transparent sheet, to be interpreted however the performers saw fit. The end result: a wild album of music-concrete that should sound familiar to fans of the Beatles' "Revolution 9" -- no question Cage's composition influenced Lennon and Ono's experiments.
Modern Harmonic brings you this gorgeous reissue of Cage's masterpiece, pressed on clear vinyl and wrapped in restored artwork that captures the unique and strange beauty of this headphone classic. Join the avant-garde!

Since the early 2000s, the work of Jon Mueller has examined various translations between ideas and rhythm. His records about spiritualist movements and impermanence consciousness were maximalist displays of bombastic trance signifying life--affirming energy, while his earlier focus on vibrating drumheads revealed the sonically electrical qualities of acoustic instruments; an unexpected current within dormant material.

Similarly, his new solo effort, Tongues, is an invigorating and ecstatic record of transference. Within it, voices of desperate meaning speak and howl in unknown languages, while vibrating skin, string, and metal transport them from their obscure origin. Together they project a kind of bodily singing of the world set to pummeling and relentless rhythms.

Arranged and performed by Mueller using various bass drums, percussion and his own voice, the record also features contributions from Cory Allen and William Ryan Fritch. Allen's harmonium, tanpura and ceremonial breath (learned from shamans in the Amazon rainforest) add a tonal depth and trance--like energy. Fritch, who many will recognize from Mueller's previous Death Blues Ensemble record, adds sarangi, played through a piano as a sort of resonant amplifier, creating a ghostly melodic sense that enriches the record's driving rhythms with a sense of timelessness.

VERY LIMITED VINYL REPRESS : 300 only

This was only the second archive release (and the first on vinyl!) of a Doctor Who soundtrack after the Doctor Who 2005 British TV comeback, featuring a collection of 'special sounds' by British electronic composer Brian Hodgson.

Doctor Who - The Krotons is a 4 episode Doctor Who serial first broadcast in weekly parts
from 28 December 1968 to 18 January 1969.

Brian Hodgson was a member of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and worked closely with Delia Derbyshire, the seminal figure of English electronic music. As the original sound effects creator for Doctor Who he was responsible for the chilling Dalek voices and the powerhouse sound of the Tardis lifting off.

Brian created The Tardis sound in 1963, running a back door key for his mother's house along the bass string of a dismembered piano and treating it electronically. The sound of The Tardis lift-off is still in use.

Brian comments: "I spent a long time in planning the Tardis sound, I wanted a sound that seemed to be travelling in two directions at once, coming and going at the same time."

The collection displays Brian's highly innovative techniques that, together with Delia Derbyshire's experiments in modes and tunings, became the staple of British electronica.

The comparable Piero Umiliani (under his mysterious Moggi moniker) weighs in with another AWOL library gem of 1979. Maestro goes resolutely left field and off track with an intra-personal exploration of the disturbed inner psyche within the human condition. Distressed electro beacons are unleashed as de-tuned predatory Carpenter-esque synth patterns come to the fore (check Clavinet Suspence for primal audio blastings to a lost unnamed 80's slasher movie). With the electric eighties buzzing on the horizon, Umiliani was quick to capitalise on this cultural shift utilising his Moog synthesisers to tap in to changing musical zeitgeists via cost cutting experimentations for TV, adverts and documentaries. Followers of the esoteric and strange can finally dig in here, lavishly created reissue featuring original artwork, master tape Laquer cutting and Umiliani's autograph notes on the project. Viva l'uomo!

The mid 70s presented mature, fertile grounding for maestro Piero Uimiliani's Sound Workshop Studio, exploring side ways explorations in to gravitational soundscapes and beyond.... Released in 1975 via his prolific Omicron imprint, Genti e Paesi Del Mondo ('Peoples and Countries of the World') is a return to the ethnic flavours so beloved of Umiliani's zeitgeist. Umiliani turns anti-clockwise launching a left field mental audio pad to uncharted territories. On Genti e Paesi Del Mondo sparse, eerie electronic confections spar in unison alongside moody transgressional vibes. Umiliani's mysterious pathways unlock a trinket box echoing the Germanic stylings of Wolperath's Plank Studio and Herzog era Popol Vuh. This loving reissue recreates the original artwork, master tape Laquer cutting and Umiliani's autograph notes on the project.

This record represents an important milestone in the development and progression of musique concrète, marking a crossroad for not only the genre itself but also in the paths of its originator Pierre Schaeffer and another of the genre's most important and respected protagonists Pierre Henry.

Undoubtedly one of the most influential experimental and electroacoustic musicians, Pierre Schaeffer is also credited as being the father of the theory of musique concrète as well as later coining the term itself.

Having found a job in 1936 at Radiodiffusion Française (later Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française or RTF) as an engineer, Schaeffer developed a newly found interest in music and with the blessing of his superiors made the most of his access to the Radiodiffusion Française studios, utilising his abilities as an engineer to experiment with sound whilst collaborating with musicians and composers that passed through the station's hallowed doors. In 1942 Schaeffer and influential theatre director, producer and actor Jacques Copeau founded the Studio d'Essai (renamed Club d'Essai in 1946) as part of RTF in order to experiment with radiophonic techniques. Drawing on the works of French filmmaker, critic and novelist Jean Epstein, Schaeffer would occupy his time and his mind with the manner in which sound recordings revealed what was hidden in the act of basic acoustic listening' and in 1948 formally set about his research in ernest - the results of which were presented as a series of studies known as 'Cinq études de bruits' ('Five Studies Of Noises') during a concert in Paris.

As part of his early research Schaeffer had previously collaborated with a young classically trained composer by the name of Pierre Henry. By adding a third prong to this sonic fork in the shape of sound engineer Jacques Poullin, Schaeffer was able to complete a powerhouse, which he renamed the Groupe de Musique Concrete, that would push his experiments further than he could have imagined. The studio went from strength to strength, attracting composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen and Edgard Varèse to collaborate and in that same year Schaeffer and Henry produced and premiered what is considered to be the first opera concrète, Orphèe 51.

As Schaeffer's notoriety grew he found himself increasingly called away from the studio during which time he would hand the keys to over to his colleagues - Pierre Henry wasted no time in pursuing projects closer to his own heart, working with experimental filmmakers and choreographers like Maurice Béjart (the two would later collaborate with Michel Colombier on the cult classic 'Les Jerks Électroniques De La Messe Pour Le Temps Présent Et Musiques Concrètes Pour Maurice Béjart'). In 1957, Schaeffer returned unhappy with the direction the studio / group had taken and tabled an idea to revitalise both their approach as well as personnel. As a result, Henry and several other key members left the group the following year leaving Schaeffer to lay the foundations in 1958 for a new collective called Groupe de Recherches Musicales - one of a number of theoretical and experimental groups overseen by Schaeffer's Service de la Reserche at RTF - and set about recruiting new members including Iannis Xenakis, Henri Sauguet, Luc Ferrari and Michel Philippot, as well as ushering in a new steady stream of eager musicians eager to study within what had rapidly become (and still is) a national institution - including a young Jean Michel Jarre.

Featuring the full versions of these seminal early works (abridged versions of which had previously appeared across two 7' singles on Disques BAM), the recordings presented here are the first fruits of this new alliance and served to lay the bedrock for the future of the Groupe de Recherches Musicales research which would later count the likes of Ivo Malec, Philippe Carson, Romuald Vandelle, Edgardo Canton and François Bayle (who went on to coin the term Acousmatic Music) amongst its members and cement its place in the annals of experimental, electroacoustic and early electronic music history.

Presented here are the unabridged versions of these seminal works beautifully remastered with the original liners notes, translated here for the first time.

Split 7" from Different Fountains and Horse MacGyver.

Gone beyond. That's what they say when an (astro) pilot crashes to earth and takes the journey into the big sky.

When Juan Trippe took that last flight little did he know that his re-incarnated self would be an electronic pioneer. In tandem with his co-pilot Guido Zen (his own father also a pilot) and Kyle Martin (from the Land Of Light) they formed Brain Machine and scaled the highest Peaks to bring back music both unearthly and intensely human.

Are we all not stardust anyway This music proves it, takes you out flips you over and rolls you in stardust. Don't try and think it through, make sense of it, grasp it - just wander in wonder and bask in beauty.
Get lost again.

Madteo backfires standardized club music with his first issue on own imprint M.A.D.T.E.O. RECORDS. With friction, tension and release - a teasing disco stomper cuts through the whole A-side. Flip it and the club aspect is juxtaposed with two deep atmospheric and sonically heavy pieces, all with Madteo's generously spac(e)ious unique texturized quality and rare production integrity. Both sides selected and edited for 12inch by DJ Sotofett.

Bad-mannered, f*cked up club trax from Melbourne's Nerve. Stomping, nocturnal techno backed with a Photek-meets-Sunn O))) terror stepper. For fans of Regis, Emptyset and Blackest Ever Black.

EnergyDream Ep is entirely based on vocal house samples, deprived of their frenzy soul and arranged into a new melancholic mood. The frosty vibrations generated from the textures produced and the ambient arrangements bring the listener into a dimensionwhich lives within a purist vision of the dance floor and anastral journey.

A typical approach which has been marking Dave's productions for a long time.

Low Jack's unpredictable Editions Gravats twist out gruff, grooving Extraits of texturhythmic sound art from Jean-François Plomb's JiFlure installation, making up the french artist/plastician's idiosyncratic début release.
These are tightly coiled yet wickedly chaotic creations, gleaned from a jerry-rigged set-up of three compressed cardboard suitcases containing 4 x mechanical sanzas (Mbiras a.k.a. thumb pianos) built from circular saw blades and brochette spikes (metal skewers), all powered and excited by windscreen wiper motors and an array of homemade vibrators, mechanical drums,
metronome and harmonica.The workshopped results are inarguably congo-ruous with what you'll find outta Düsseldorf's Diskant label, and also bear a striking resemblance with the ferric tang of Konono No.1's thumb piano techno, yet they hail from a rather different artistic process altogether, which possibly shares more in common with Jeff Keen's self-built sound blatz or Pierre Bastien's mechanical instrument compositions.
However, they all share a ruggedly rhythmic charge between them, one that relishes in the grit and infidelity of hypnotically repetitive, moiré-like pattern, and the friction of gear-grinding texture:
something universally understood by DJs and dancers looking for ruder, unique styles to move mind and body.

Documenting the prescient, early work of Gavin Russom upon moving from Providence to New York City in the late '90s, this compilation reflects the visceral and overwhelming experience of an artist getting familiar with the data overload of a megatropolis and all its 24 hour thrills and poly-cultural topography. As Russom explains: Arriving in New York City I found myself surrounded by an incredibly intense field of stuff to take in, late night radio mixes which featured distinctly New York sounds like freestyle and hip hop, clubs where house, techno and jungle played to drugged-out and/or completely sober sweaty crowds and beard scratchers alike, no wave, new wave, disco, afro-carribean, art rock and experimental music records I would pick up at thrift shops or used record stores, abstract turntablism, video toasting, japanese noise imports, house parties and basement dance caves, drag clubs, DIY theater productions, underground warehouse art and music events that would last days and feature vivid sound and visual excursions as well as breakfasts and conversation areas, squatter punk noise and drumming freakouts, high brow new music' events and installations, video booths, burning buildings, car accidents, abandoned buildings, late nights, early mornings, Coney Island In effect, these tracks are a series of snapshots or graffiti-like doodles and sketches of the feelings and and textures absorbed during late night dérives from his loft on 31st St. and around the Williamsburg locale, all channelled thru a rugged set-up including: Sony TC-155 and TC-102 reel-to-reel tape machines a Silvertone guitar, ATUS AM100 mixer, Boss Harmonizer, a tiny Radio Shack mic, a Radio Shack Realistic Electronic Reverb, Casio MT-40, Univox Compac 2 and Casio SA-41.
Imagery of policemen and truck drivers picking up prostitutes, along with the whistling signals of crack buyers and sellers on the corner, for example, become transcribed into screeching scrabble and blow-out paroxysms of noise, interspersed with passages of bittersweet, rudimentary melody and swaggering, drugged-up rhythms, recalling a prickly and often uncomfortable experience as sticky, fucked-up and phantasmagoric as finding yourself in a new city can be.

Diagonal pull a blinder with remixes of Russell Haswell by Autechre, DJ Stingray and Powell capping a golden year for the label - recently rated highly in Fact Magazine's labels-of-the-year 2015 list.

Juicing Haswell's dancefloor-generous album As Sure As Night Follows Day, the stellar cast of time-served usurpers and outsiders flip his n0!sy muzzle in their own image with deadly results.

Autechre's Conformity Version of Heavy Handed Sunset effectively dubs Russell into submission by way of water-boarding smothers and accentuated pressure points - precisely choking, kneading, kicking and distending the original like its some sorta Stretch Armstrong plaything.

Not to be outshone, Powell pays dues to his mentor with a cork-popping COV Megamix ov Hardwax Flashback littered with samples of Russell doing Russell for RBMA, making for his most DJ-tempered tools to date, whilst DJ Stingray puts a lid on it with hollow-skulled clank and darkside descent of Gas Attack in a grimacing Atropine Mix.

Totally stunning record from the elusive Tongues of Light, drawing cosmic, primordial vectors between glossolalia, sound poetry and improvised music via the nebulæ of Youtube for Demdike Stare & Andy Votel's Pre-Cert Home Entertainment.
Arguably the label's most striking, even transcendent release, Channelled Messages at the end of History started life as a gift for a friend following long conversations about the nature of improvisation, spontaneity and musical mediumship and subsequently dawned as a remarkable document of occult praxis in the digital age.
Tongues of Light acts as a sort of psychopomp or liminal interpreter for a wide range of belief systems, all rooted in the common conviction that they are channelling sounds from some 'other' or 'higher' entity or dimension, much in the same way that Sun Ra believed he was channelling celestial bodies thru his music or the Dogon people of subsaharan Africa believed they received alien codes describing humanity's heritage.
The record unfurls as a seamlessly sequenced compilation of samples - all framed by plasmic drones and synth pads which connect and highlight the links between seemingly disparate elements. By the record's end the effect is really quite uncanny; compounding disparate new age coordinates on a common plane, and thereby revealing their underlying, subconscious metaphysics.
It's great to hear Pre-Cert Home Entertainment connecting the dots between generations of new age thought and practice, and we reckon this slab will standout as one of their defining releases for time to come.

VENT looks inwards to its core and delivers seven meditations from label curator and manager Tolga Baklacioglu. A series of questions on the same subject: Who dictates what is a transgression - what is a sin'. The journey inwards is propelled by Tolga's drilling enquiries. On this record you will find nameless tools and a man in the moon pulling his levers, but no answers

We have seen Jorge Velez's at his most adventurous when working with L.I.E.S. Here he's at again with a set of hypnotic tripping arrangements.. TIP!
From 2012's "Hassan" lp to his "Territories" record from a couple years back we now hear Velez taking his sound into new realms on this five track effort. In what can be called a foray into animal -themed electronic experimentation - recorded using only Fairlight CMI samples and a Microbrute synthesizer - we hear a melodic side to his sound previously not present in other works. Hints of Musique Concrete as well as Eastern influences creep about in a teasing manner bringing the listener into a dream world of digi-nature, electronic bird chips and 8-bit waterfalls.. A welcome and refreshingly unique listen.

Special one dug out by Tokyo's Chee Shimizu on his own 17853. Oxygen tanks at the ready - this is a deep dive. Immerse yourself in the synths, sisters! TIP! SYNTH SISTERS are a synthesizer duo comprising of Rie Lambdoll and MAYUKo (also known as CROSSBRED) and based in Osaka, Japan. SYNTH SISTERS debut album "aube" was released privately by the group on a limited CD in 2014. MAYUKo passed a copy to 17853 label boss, Shimuzu, and he was knocked sideways by their unique music - hence this vinyl issue was born.
Mysterious melodies and reiterated sequences occupy an expanded meditative space - going there with ease. Like a female Tangerine Dream A womanly twin incarnation of Terry Riley The duo create deep psychedelic synth drone, recorded live, totally free and improvised using five synthesizers, their own voices and effects. Underground go-to engineeer, KABAMIX, is on remastering duty - giving it a strong re-EQ for the album's first vinyl issue. The project is dedicated to deceased noise artist Akifumi Nakajima a.k.a. "AUBE", who past away in 2013.

Vincent Koreman's experimental techno label returns with four new tracks from AAAA & Tin Man, Meze, Baz Reznik & Ben R. Brown, plus a download code for two exclusive tracks from Drvg Cvltvre. 300 copies only.

Early pioneers of the German New Wave music scene, Din A Testbild were formed in 1978 by Mark Eins and Gudrun Gut (former member of Einstürzende Neubauten, Mania D. and Malaria!). Din A Testbild played a significant role in defining the avant-garde music of Berlin. Legendary is their partecipation at the Festival Genialer Dilletanten" in 1981.
'Programm 2' is their second album mixed and produced by Klaus Schulze on his own record label Innovative Communication in 1980, Programm 2' was a favourite in the playlists of the Italian cosmic dj heroes Daniele Baldelli and Dj Mozart.

Bopside's first release for 2016 comes from label owner Tadd Mullinix, releasing under his birth name for the first time since 2002's 'Panes' on Ghostly International. This album is comprised of 3 long form experimental electro-acoustic compositions, 2 of which clock in around the 15 minute mark, and another clocking in around 9 minutes, taking you fully into the imagination of an artist who is constantly experimenting and redefining the sonic landscape. Recorded on a variety of equipment and instruments, these 3 recordings capture a human side and sense of playfulness, while at the same time taking you into the heart of darkness.

Taylor Deupree and Marcus Fischer created their expansive debut In A Place Of Such Graceful Shapes (12k2021, 2011) over four days in a frigid, snow-covered New York only a few short months after they met. Since then they have toured together, photographed, and written music together keeping the collaborative, creative energy up at every opportunity, wherever they find themselves. During a visit to the west coast in the summer of 2015, and after a long day in the studio creating, searching and ready to retire for the night, the two sat in tired silence contemplating the next day's approach. Playing quietly in the background was a tape loop Fischer had made earlier, filling the sonic cracks in the dark room. After fifteen or twenty minutes went by, with the sound of this loop having transfixed them, the two looked at the each other and said "This is it." From there they formed a very focused conceptual process: Two artists, two mono tape loops and four acoustic instruments, nothing more. Creating one loop each of different lengths and recording the outputs of the reel-to-reel machines' built-in speakers with microphones in the room, Deupree and Fischer started to craft their most restrained work yet, focusing on the raw beauty of such a limited system of creation. The title Twine comes from the idea of the two tape loops as knots, as physical media, combining to form a single, more complex, piece. The seven tracks on the album are highly repetitive yet constantly shifting due to the asynchrony of the loops. All of the warm, tactile and dusty quality of the tape and vintage players is captured in the recordings and the listener can easily get lost in the slow, enveloping cycles. The instrumentation on Twine is simple - electric piano, bells, stringed instruments... With careful and deliberate physical manipulations the sounds is subtlely abstracted, as can be heard on "Buoy," where the tape machine mechanics themselves join in the recording to create a piece suggestive of the abandoned dock the two photographed in Iceland a couple of years earlier as it quietly knocked against the cold winter shore. Imagery like this abounds through the tracks. Slow, haunting melodies under a layer of warm tape hiss and accidental physical sounds give the listener plenty of room for imagination, reflection and the stirring up of lost memories. The intimacy of the tape loops combined with the loneliness of the sounds gives Twine a complexity beyond its simple form. Deupree and Fischer have created a intensely focused new work that draws upon all of their creative interactions since their 2010 debut.

At this moment, Global Bass music is an intimate circuit in the electronic music landscape. Airplane tickets and the internet serve to connect producers and artists in every imaginable combination. Spanning across Africa, Europe, India, the Caribbean, and the Americas, allowing for the birth of new forms of collaboration. At the nexus of the Tropical music monsoon is producer Thor Partridge, aka Thornato. Born in Sweden, Thor grew up in a household filled with traditional Greek, African, and Carribbean music. Moving in early childhood to Queens, New York, the borough's diversity further influenced his style and taste. Thor added to his rich musical palette by studying classical piano, jazz guitar, and bluegrass banjo. A passion for electronic music production, remixing, and music of the entire globe soon developed. Thor's debut EP "Things Will Change" is an amalgamation of his global influence, coupled with strong roots in dance music culture. His music is not a product of samples downloaded from the internet, but from his driving wanderlust and ability to hand select musicians to work with on location in the countries where they are from. By recording in the field with a mobile studio, Thor captures the real essence and soul of the music and where it's coming from. The EP kicks off with "Chapinero", a bass heavy joint with an infectious Colombian Gaita melody. Handclaps and chopped vocal samples make for a booming floor rocker. "Deux a Duex" turns towards the African dancefloor incorporating infectious guitars and beautiful vocal harmonies courtesy of Kongo Electro from Cape Town. "Koz Kazah" heads to the Middle East with it's violin melodies, thick sub-bass, and Arabic vocals courtesy of Karen Be. Finally, "Tera Dewana" lands us in the Indian subcontinent with it's driving beat, tablas, and Hindi vocals from Vasanth S & AKS. Thornato's "Things Will Change" EP shows that while indeed the music does change, the soul and the heart of sounds from all over the world remain consistent, and that dancefloor music is universal - no matter where in the world you are!

Lovely record. An intimate, unshowy, reaching blend of British folk and minimalism in the tradition of Robert Wyatt solo, quietly co-mingling Henry Flynt and Ivor Cutler, Eastern outernationalism and Radio art. Beautifully presented, too, in a die-cut, inside-out sleeve, with a poster. Check it out!

Cosmic Visions Of A Latin American Earth - Venezuelan Experimental Rock in the 1970s


Soul Jazz Records' new Venezuela 70 is the first-ever album of its kind to take a look at the groundbreaking experimental rock music made in Venezuela and created in the 1970s - during a time when the country was both a modern cultural and economic powerhouse in Latin America on account of wealth from its vast oil supplies. Venezuela lies at the northern part of South America, with neighbouring Colombia to its west and Brazil to its south. The north coast borders the Caribbean. 
Whilst much of 1960s Venezuelan rock music emulated British and USA styles, the 1970s saw the evolution of a new generation of creative artists such as Vytas Brenner, Angel Rada, Pablo Schneider and Miguel Angel Fuster, who all explored the possibilities of mixing together rock with elements of electronica, funk, jazz, latin rhythms simultaneously exploring their links with Venezuelan roots music, creating a new sound which blended a multitude of new and old world influences, uniquely Venezuelan.
These Venezuelan artists looked to the future while exploring their country's own musical heritage to create a new cultural identity. Similarities can be drawn with then contemporary movements around the world such as the Trópicalia and post-Trópicalia 1970s scene in Brazil of Os Mutantes, Novos Baianos, Secos e Molhados (all of which feature on Soul Jazz Records' earlier Brazil 70). 
A similar parallel can be made in Europe with the experimental German groups of the 1970s (Can, Amon Duul, Harmonia, Neu all featured on Soul Jazz Records' Deutsche Elektronische Musik) who deconstructed and reconstructed the links between rock music and electronics to define a new German cultural identity.
Most of these artists featured on Venezuela 70 remain practically unknown outside of Venezuela's borders and yet their progressive forward-thinking music is some of the most sophisticated in the world - a stunning 'melting pot' mix of underground rock, synthetic electronics, funk, jazz and Latin American rhythms all of which explored new sounds and broke down musical boundaries to create a distinct and unique Venezuelan music and cultural identity.

Aria Rostami and Daniel Blomquist's debut album "Wandering Eye" was recorded over the span of a year and a half. "Dome A" and "Dome B" were recorded inside of a planetarium dome to no audience and it was the second time Rostami and Blomquist played together. "Ridge A" is the latest song recorded and it was performed live in Blomquist's basement. These live tracks use source material ranging from samples from the internet, to live field recordings, to synthesizers. "Dome C" and "Dome F" were compiled by sending material back and forth over and over again and then rearranged into coherent songs. These studio recordings mostly consist of processed piano originally recorded by Rostami. "Ridge B" originated as a cover of the Persian pop song "Do Panjereh" by Googoosh that Rostami had created but was manipulated and distorted in the process of sending the material back and forth. The song titles come from a paper published by Saunders et al. titled "Where is the best site on Earth" which highlights the best places to observe space from the Antarctic Plateau. Antarctica is the coldest, driest and calmest place on earth. The astronomical sights there yield images of the heavens that are sharper and have more clarity than any other sight on earth. It is a gateway to observe other worlds.

Aria Rostami and Daniel Blomquist are from San Francisco, CA. Rostami and Blomquist's work occurs at two stages, the gathering/preparation of source material and the live performance. Primarily, Rostami and Blomquist's source material focuses on, digital information and the exchange of that information, repetition and decay, and non-involvement or surrendering aspects of creative control. Some of the piano recordings were created by answering a simple questionnaire Rostami made that uses letters, colors, numbers, major verse minor, and picking between flat, natural and sharp to create a framework for a composition. After the framework is created, Rostami creates a song on the piano, records and sends it to Blomquist who in turn manipulates it. In some cases, Rostami recorded the material using the audio recording option for the app Viber. Rostami used Viber to communicate with a friend who was visiting Iran. Since he had asked her to fill out the survey through the app, he also recorded the material through the low quality recording interface. Sometimes this material is thrown back and forth and sometimes it's processed only once or barely touched. The recording is then turned into a loop and recorded to tape. This system was developed to surrender control and allow the origin of the composition to come from somewhere else much like field recordings or sampling does (two other ways Rostami and Blomquist gather source material.) Time, entropy, and decay are central factors in Rostami and Blomquist's work. For live performances Blomquist works with samples gathered and manipulated digitally and then dubbed to analog tape, reconstituting the quality and predictability of the digital source material. By using loops, Blomquist can take a short audio clip and concentrate on processing it live and allow for improvised changes to that recording over long periods of time. Rostami adds in an extra layer of drones, fuzz, melodic ambience and crescendos with his synthesizer. Their compositions explore dynamic relations between digital and analog sound creating quiet transitions and soaring peaks.

4 ethereal house cuts from Vancouver's master analogue chef, coining the unique sound of Vancouver's underground to perfection with the laid back title track and the heavy dancefloor cuts "20% Deeper," 'Spanaeur" and 'Q1." Custom jacket.

Peripheral Records is proud to announce: a re-issue of the ultra-rare collaboration between JFK and the Grey Wolves, originally recorded and released on cassette in 1988 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination. The music is a reflection not just on the event itself, but also on its implications and ramifications: the collective trauma and psychosis, the invasive cold war paranoia, rumours of shadow governments and the implied presence of the hidden, alien hand that guides and shapes human affairs to who-knows-what end."

Following Golf Channel's release of Orange Cloud Nine', a retrospective by enigmatic Dutch musician Spike Wolters, whose four privately pressed LP's from the 80's are the stuff of legend, comes a remix album featuring some of Golf Channel's finest, including Juju &Jordash, Mark E, Abel Nagengast, Chris Munoz aka Sexican, DJ Nature and Mind Fair.

An album of 80's avant-garde gold that brims with an otherworldly charm, Golf Channel lovingly compiled the four LPs of the greatly eccentric and elusive Spike Wolters and brought it to a new generation of music fans with the 16-track album in 2013. A fiercely political outsider who sued his government for lifetime rights to the dole, he dropped out of society and during the 80's produced a string of LP's which he pressed and sold himself. These sank without trace but were happened upon a few years ago by Red Light Records' ardent digger Abel Nagengast. Abel managed to track down Spike himself, and Spike finally agreed to reissue his music after meeting Golf Channel Recordings label boss Phil South and taking an instant shine to him on account of the holes in his socks.

This new release sees Spike's beloved pop songs remixed by expertly skilled and likeminded talents who also call South's esteemed label home. JuJu&Jordash bring the dark and brooding heat for a deeply immersive remix that creates a meditative energy. Birmingham's fated patron of lush, slow-mo disco Mark E turns in an epic slow burner, whilst Sexican (responsible for Heroes of the Galleon Trade) and Abel tap into Spike's core duality, where strains of Balearic drenched pop rub elbows with post-punk - to deliver taut workouts wrapped in upbeat sleaze. NY's legend DJ Nature cranks things up a notch for a deep and rhythmic edit that walks the line between disco and house, whilst Mind Fair rounds things up with a remix that's alive with playfulness and grace, mixing disco and new wave with Spike's ethereal folk.