Beats News

Hammershøi is a French Synth duo born out of confinement and human-machine communication. Their musical style is based on music from the 80’s (Minimal Synth, EBM, French Wave, Synth Wave) and some artistic influences such as german expressionism, word art, and painting.

Die drei energiegeladenen Synth-Disco Tracks von Clavis‘ Rocket Dial EP entstanden aus mehr oder weniger spontanen Studio-Live-Jams mit Vintage Hardware-Kisten, wie Roland TR-808 und SH-09, aufpoliert mit modernen Drums und Gitarren-Overdubs. Miami Vice is calling…

Clavis ist das beeindruckende Production Duo bestehend aus Manuel Tur und Adrian Hoffmann (a.k.a. Urban Absolutes). Nach ihrem Abschluss dauerte es eine weitere Dekade, bis die beiden langjährigen Schulfreunde 2015 ihre erste gemeinsame EP auf Freerange Records veröffentlichten.
Seitdem bauten sie ihre Diskographie nach dem „eine EP pro Jahr“ – Prinzip stetig aus, gespickt mit Remixes für Künstler wie Ane Brun oder Andhim. Neben Clavis sind sie auch bei der Produktion diverser anderer Projekte involviert, wie Amberoom, welcher just Aufsehen erregte mit Remixen von Dixon und Isolée. Clavis leben und arbeiten in Essen.

Nach ausverkaufter Welttour und Festivalauftritten bringen Mount Kimbie ihr von den Kritikern gefeiertes Album "The Sunset Violent" in neuer limitierter Jahresendausgabe auf Petrol Blue Transparent-Vinyl heraus. Das Album zeigt das Duo in ihrer gewagtesten und aufregendsten Form und featuret ihren langjährigen Kollaborateur King Krule auf mehreren Tracks.

- "Auch weil sie endlich wieder zueinander gefunden haben, schaffen es Mount Kimbie mit "The Sunset Violent" jetzt schon auf die Jahresbestenliste." - Kulturnews 14/24

WE ARE BEYOND EXCITED TO BE CELEBRATING OUR 5TH ANNIVERSARY.

THE PAST TWO YEARS HAVE KEPT US FROM FULLY EXPRESSING WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE DO AS A COLLECTIVE. THANKFULLY, WE HAVEN’T LOST OUR PASSIONS AND INTERESTS.
SO, THERE SHOULD BE NOTHING STOPPING US FROM HAVING THIS CELEBRATION - A FIRST STEP YET A VERY IMPORTANT ACHIEVEMENT!

5-TO-HYPERSPACE IS A SPECIAL PROJECT EMBODYING AN 8
TRACK COMPILATION AND A COLLABORATION WITH OUR DEAR FRIEND AND GRAPHIC DESIGNER YURI KABAN, WHO HAS FRAMED OUR INFAMOUS CATHODE-RAY TUBE AESTHETIC IN A T-SHIRT DESIGN.
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• 8-TRACK COMPILATION
• 12” VINYL 300 LIMITED COPIES

WE’VE GATHERED A CREW OF NEW AND GOOD OLD FRIENDS WHO EMBODY WHAT WE’VE ACCOMPLISHED DURING OUR JOURNEY SO FAR, POWERED OFC BY OUR SOUND DIVISION FUNCLAB RECORDS.
THIS PROJECT COMES TO LIFE THROUGH THE EVER GROWING AND EVOLVING SOUND-VISION AND VISUAL RESEARCH OF OUR COLLECTIVE.
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• TRACKLIST A/B

1. FUNKYCAN - ILLUSION OF LOVE
Berlin based producer and DJ, aka Am Kinem. He’s Max Graef’s live-set associate and sonic ambassador of Tax Free Records. — DREAMY AND HYPNOTIC HOUSE

2. MINIMONO - INVISIBLE DAY
Fabio della Torre & Ennio Colaci (Bosconi Records) Minimono was born in Florence in 1997 as a multimedia project involving experimentation through music installations, graphic design and theater performances. — HARD-DRIVEN MOODY BREAKBEAT

3. UFFE - U-DOLLAR
Blending dusty-sounding samples and live instrumentation into jazz and downtempo-inflected house music, Amsterdam-based Danish producer Uffe Christensen began making music when he was ten years old. He resisted going to his piano lessons but loved experimenting with samples and music- making apps on his father’s computer. — JANGLING DUB TECHNO

4. KID SUBLIME - THE MUSIC
Growing up in Amsterdam, Jacob Otten, aka Kid Sublime, started to play drums and piano at the early age of five. As a teenager he founded his first band with schoolmates, dedicated to hardcore punk, and short after was heavily attracted to skateboarding and hip hop. — MELLOW LOUNGING DEEP HOUSE

5. RADIUS - BUILDING A STAR
Radius aspires to inspire, heal and bridge community by any means necessary Many influences with nature in the forefront Improvisational Aesthetics South Chicago B-boy Live PA/electronics Founder of Etc Records, with releases on
D81, Mathemathics Recordings, The Secret Life of Sound, Beyond Luck Music. — SOULFUL BROKEN BEAT

6. OHBLIV - FLOWING WITH TIME
Oddly hypnotic, mesmeric visions of a musical utopia where hip hop flirts with RnB, makes love to Jazz, and travels with ambient. Timeless, ethereal. Traditional but not purist. Sometimes experimental, these healing tones are cosmic sound therapy for generations. — DUSTY AND SYNCOPATED SWEET BEAT

7. PSYCHEDELIC ENSEMBLE. - BOOM!!!
Psychedelic ensemble is a London based beat wizard! See also Psyche Nah! — KNOCKING DRUMS AND DEEP SYNTHS

8. DELPHI - CAT PARADE
Valerio Del Prete aka Delphi - his Hip Hop moniker - is a DJ and producer from Rome. Also member of the eclectic House duo Tiger & Woods, together with Marco Passarani, a veteran in the Italian Dance scene. — CHILLED OUT LO-FI HIP HOP

Public Possession turns 10. What holds it all together?
Comedy & Rhythm. Find us in between the sun and the moon. Onward, forward, don’t step backward.
The source is everywhere.
• Where (Who) Am I? An angel with an UFO.
• Toot, Toot, Beep, Beep....
• Maintain a child’s mind
• Listen, talk, see
• Archeaology (dig it)
• WOW (curiosity)
• Easy & Diffifficult
• Mix It Up
• Soft Education
• Love Unlimited
We are not doing this alone.
The biggest thank you goes to the P.P. Team & all label artists.
To many more years!!

Third release from Mahres sister, with a second apparence of ghost Sektor, U-Died Mare's new alias, 22Recordings boss C.ru.z and new Corsican talent Human_Aventura !
Limited 200 copies

Limited Edition Picture Disc. Including Silver/Chrome Obi Sticker and Silver Postcard with album titles and info in English and Bengali. Housed in PVC sleeve.

ICCHĀ is an international collaboration project that originated in 2023 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The work "Chant For Hope" was realized by Miet Warlop and created on site with local performers while Micha Volders composed the musical context. The performance acts as a monumental living sculpture, in which the physical process of casting hundreds of Bengali words in plaster becomes the driving force to create a playing field between performers, public space, and participation. Woven through this performative context are more complex relationships that explore the tension between humans and language. As the words become so visible and tangible, an image of their inner bearing and our dealings with them emerges.

The recordings of this performance have been adapted and enhanced to create an album that reflects the energy and expands upon the sound created in Dhaka. ICCHĀ is the Bengali wording of "desire," and reflects the eagerness and urgency felt within the process of this collaboration. In conjunction with the seven performers, a sonic adventure emerges that thrives on the energetic rendering of the Bangla language through transient patterns and snappy melodic figures. The album will be released on 24.05.24 as vinyl picture disc and digital, and will be available as a pre-order online and in local selected record shops.

Ivy Chalice unveils their spellbinding album 'Nachtmahr'. Drawing inspiration from the duality of dreams and nightmares, Ivy Chalice crafts an auditory journey that beckons listeners to embrace the allure of the unknown.

The album's title itself is a nod to the intricate interplay of darkness and fascination that resides within our deepest thoughts. Just as there are dreams we yearn to awaken from, there are those we secretly long to fall back into, and 'Nachtmahr' embodies the latter, seamlessly blending retrodelic musical affinities with contemporary soundscapes, resulting in an experience that feels both nostalgic and cutting-edge.

Chase Smith aka the W.T. Records and Apartment associate and documentary filmmaker Christa Majoras are back as brainwave research center with their second full length, Mosaic. Once again the sonically inquisitive pair mix up analogue synths with electro-acoustic experiments, epic and adventurous soundscapes and plenty of raw texture, hooky pop melodies and innocent rhythms. Along the way the duo take influence from their heroes including Ennio Morricone, John Carpenter and Kraftwerk on a record that was laid down in the back of Smith's synthesizer repair shop. It's an absorbing listen once more from this increasingly vital pair.

Luca Venezia aka CURSES is a magician that turns everything into gold. His influences are deeply rooted in the original Valencia sound and that could be perfectly noticed not only in his past discography but also in his Dj sets, that always include some classics of that cultural movement. In “No Mercy EP” he present his unique vision of that amazing scene with brutal arpeggios, punchy and poppy drums and his usual darky and profound vocals.

Presented in a one-off truly limited edition of 300 copies, lacquered pressed on 180gr. high quality solid GREEN vinyl. All tracks have been specially restored and remastered for long cut vinyl by Daniel Hallhuber at Young and Cold Studios.

Nervous Gender’s legendary synthpunk LP Music From Hell burbles up from infernal depths to resurface on Dark Entries. Confrontational, unhinged, and unabashedly queer, Music from Hell is an unholy grail for fans of the strangest underbellies of post-punk, minimal synth, and early industrial music, and is presented here newly remastered and on expanded double LP.

Nervous Gender (de)formed in LA in 1978 at the hands of Phranc, Gerardo Velaquez, Edward Stapleton, and Michael Ochoa. Phranc, the androgynous embodiment of the band’s name, left in 1980. Following her departure, a wide cast of LA freaks would find themselves drawn into the band’s orbit, including Alice Bag of the Bags, Paul Roessler of the Screamers, the Germs’ Don Bolles, and an 8-year old drummer named Sven Pfeiffer. In 1980, Nervous Gender appeared on the seminal Live at Target compilation alongside Factrix, uns, and Flipper. With the band’s notoriety cemented, Music from Hell followed in 1981 on Subterranean Records (as no LA label would touch this material).

Side A, dubbed “Martyr Complex”, presents a more punk-forward sound with live drum salvos and slabs of aggressive synth. These twitchy, unsettling shockers ooze with the kind of snotty misanthropy that will endear them to fans of the Screamers or Crass.

Side B, known as “Beelzebub Youth”, is a live performance the band labeled "an electronic bruto-canto dissertation on the banality of spiritual transcendence." Mutant melodies cede way to synthesized clangs, whirs, bleeps, manipulated tapes, and howls of despair.

In addition to all the material from the original LP, we’re treated to a full disc of the band’s demos, the material from the Live at Target compilation, and early live recordings. Included are unrecognizable covers of Carly Simon and Lou Reed, and the Sex Pistols that are so despairingly skewed they fall into the void. This reissue of Music From Hell includes a 36 page lyric booklet, foldout poster, and gatefold sleeve with photos, flyers, and news-clippings designed by Eloise Leigh. Tackling taboo issues like sexual kinks, mental illness, drug use, and childhood molestation, Music From Hell is still surprising – even shocking - over 40 years after the album’s release. Nervous Gender stand as one of the most genuinely anti-establishment outfits in underground music, a colossal fuck you to social norms from religious strictures to gender essentialism.

Andi Otto’s Bangalore Whispers gets finally repressed. The psychedelic track which he recorded together with the Indian singer MD Pallavi in 2016 has become a hit in the downtempo scene around the globe (“Saaaa - resa nisa”). Pingipung press a new edition of the much sought after single on the occasion of their 20th label anniversary. In this 2022 edition the original track is paired with the Peter Power remix which has not seen the light of day on vinyl before.The Brazil-based producer slows the track down a notch and adds even more space. A perfect tune both for the dancefloor or meditation.

Ambassade’s 2019 ‘Duistre Kamers’ album was a huge favourite here at Optimo Music towers so we jumped at the chance to release the follow up; ‘The Fool’.

Following hot in the heels of the acclaimed ‘Young Birds / Palette’ 12” on Optimo Music, ‘The Fool’ is destined to be another Cold Wave, Synth, New Industrial, Experimental …whatever you want to call it …classic. We asked Ambassade to tell us a bit about the album – Born from several years of research and contemplation on the human mind ‘The Fool’ can be understood as a reflection to the dark energies – natural, political, human and otherwise – that are released when it comes to religion, greed and power.

Historically, some rulers have used religion to legitimise their power. We were also inspired by wanting to examine what negative impact religion can have from the fact that it’s always dominated by men.

This was pursued by exploring a wide range of diverse and unusual types of instruments that took on a new approach of tonal expression, with the use of detuned choral and voice samples, droned tape loops and DIY metal and found percussion. It’s from these diverse sources that the process of creativity keeps persistently mutating. This process was focused through the enigmatic electronic and percussion composition from the band which alternates between foreground and background for the haunting vocal performances.

An edit-reissue of this gargantuan double cassette released back in 2014 under the Typhonian Highlife moniker, 'H.R. Giger's Studiolo' finds netherworld voyagerSpencer Clark at a particularlybeguiling conjunction of his labyrinthine-esque soundworld. With complete disregard for linear timelines and trajectories, 'H.R. Giger's Studiolo' finds both inspiration in the swiss master's vision and the Cenobite iconographypreviously exploredby Clark on Fourth World Magazine's 'Pinhead in Fantasia'. The CD Head Cenobite picture adorning the cover makes the connection more than apparent.

A sprawling, two and half hour excursion on the tape version, here properly edited down to the wax container, the first two volumes of 'H.R. Giger's Studiolo' are some of Clark's most mystifying recordings. A baroque odyssey through an hermetic maze of alien voices, warping sound effects, oneiric keyboards and a quasi-orchestral sense of space and dynamics, 'H.R. Giger's Studiolo' feels like an hallucinatory fever dream still unlike everything else, either from before or after. Time doesn't apply here, anyway.

Mastered by Rashad Becker
Artwork by Spencer Clark

Following up on last year’s first EP by Chris Mitchell, Feral Colony continues to bring grimey cuts. 5 tracks of gutter realness for adventurous DJs only.

A1 Sons of Traders-Anybody Sons of Traders have concocted a distorted jackin banger to leadoff the record. Distorted acid lines, samples and chaotic drums create a frenzy in the tradition of the Sons of Traders Sound .

A2-Chupacabras- Pattern 3/1 Chupacabras delivers a high tempo techno banger complete with blown out 808s that run through an array of patterns over a thick baseline, brutal.

B1- Chris Mitchell-GAF Here label boss Chris Mitchell delivers a slow banger with a tweaked out bit crushed sound over drums that sound like they have been run through sandpaper.

B2- Blackmoon77- Thrash Dance In My Head As the title suggests, this one is a mental trip of samples, percussion and heavy samples float over a booming sub. A very personal melancholic mindfuck.

B3- Benni DF - Freundlich Veteran DJ, Berlin’s Benji DF concocts a wild synth experiment. Rescued from an old cassette, this is a sometimes stuttering flurry of synths over a bouncy bass sequence. Perfect to close this unconventional record.

Kyiv (Ukraine) born Sasha Renkas, made music as Antenna for almost a decade, releasing many EP's and a full length album. Now he follows his urge to make a different kind of music. The result is a full length album with slow, intimate, nighttime music varying from abstract pop ballads to ambient movie score pieces. At times they sound like stripped down Kate Bush instrumentals, drenched in reverb, or introvert Roxy Music with a touch of dub and nineties trip-hop. "This time I wanted to compose music and then perform my instruments live making this album. I used mainly old synthesizers and other instruments and a heavy layer eighties reverb machines. Before moving to the Netherlands, I was growing up in the nineties in Kyiv, surrounded by economic turbulence and a weird mix of music from different decades that overflowed the country after years of isolation. Accompanied by the weird early Ukrainian visual culture I was mesmerized by the music videos I saw on TV and I wanted to belong there. I guess I never really grew up, still drifting like a cowboy through imaginary spaces, in a timeless vacuum, outside of real life. I decided to release this album as Sasha Renkas, because it felt very personal and pure, all coming from a spacious, misty place where everybody is still alive and safe."

Lee Stevens returns to Luv Shack Records for his first solo EP in over ten years, after exploring a more relaxed sound under his Rising Seed moniker.

The opening track “Right On” creates a sonic universe where Ennio Morricone and John Carpenter have joined forces to make synth heavy dance music.

„Maskaron“ sounds like a full homage to new wave and the obscure side of italo disco, topped with chanting reminiscent of 1970s western movies.

On "Trippin´ On Your Love" Lee Stevens taps into early proto-house and synth-dance, complete with arp bass and occasional breakbeats.

Track number four, "Ju Know," features Lee Stevens and long-time collaborator Simonlebon in a moody, upbeat jam with heavy low-end synths, bittersweet vocal samples, and 80s pop-style piano chords.

Finally, the closing track "Destruction" features tight 808 drums accompanying a dark bassline and eerie vocals, with uplifting synth chords reminding us there is still hope.

This could be easily the soundtrack for some bad ass retro game combining complex IDM synthetics with a wide range of different sounds and tempi. Listen close to this gems as they are unusual for your ears but a real mind pleaser.

The Normandy duo MAMAN KÜSTERS delivers one of the best electro-ebm sound we could find in planet earth, their fully analog sequences create an immediate kind of state of trance that only very few artists reach to delivery.

This EP, that comes out at the same time as their new albumb ” Le Petit Chaos De” released via our partners of UNKNOWN PLEASURES RECORDS, arrives with 2 mind-blowing remixes by GARETH JONES (renowned as Depeche Mode producer, among many other gigantic acts) and the techno producer INSIDER. If you like to make dance, buy this plastic immediately.

Comes presented in a one-off truly limited edition of 300 copies lacquered pressed on 180gr. high quality solid black vinyl.

All tracks have been specially remastered for long cut vinyl by Daniel Hallhuber at Young and Cold Studios.

The Jack Bregman LP was made consecutively in 10 days from July 7th-17th 2020. It was made in the same continuous manner from front to back that it’s listened to. It’s the first of many more advanced albums to come from Citra Lab.