Beats News

cLOUDDEAD's debut album, compiling six 10" EPs that appeared between 2000-2001, is aurally dense and obscured. A sprawling mass of miniature beat-suites and Dadaist lyrics, this strange and beautiful 3xLP would influence a myriad of sub-genres (cloud rap, hauntology, lo-fi hip-hop, etc.) in the two decades since its initial release.

Only the three members of cLOUDDEAD – Why?, Doseone and Odd Nosdam – can speak to the group's origins, but in the context of underground hip-hop towards the end of the 20th century, their arrival makes perfect sense. Cincinnati had a vital scene; home to Scribble Jam, an annual confluence of MCs, DJs, B-boys and graffiti artists. While the trio soon relocated to the Bay Area where they co-founded the Anticon collective, their Midwestern roots – in ramshackle basements of off-campus hovels, as the "cerberus of Southern Ohio" – would remain the atomic heart of their early recordings.

As Chris Martins writes in the liner notes, "The only reason we know their names today is because of how loudly and curiously they aired their insularity. They rewrote the entire world as they knew it through their own fucked perspective, and when those mysterious 10-inches started popping up in record shops, it wasn't just a puzzle to investigate: there seemed to be a whole cosmology hidden in those grooves."

Each side of the album represents one of those elusive 10-inches, each embodying a universe unto itself. Opening salvo "Apt. A" and "And All You Can Do Is Laugh" are perhaps most emblematic of the cLOUDDEAD experience. Why? and Dose create a new language through boundless non-sequiturs, sing-song non-choruses and call-and-response hooks, while Nosdam's dexterous production shifts from crackling ambience of Flying Saucer Attack to tight Ohio Players drum breaks and oblique film samples.

Taken all together, cLOUDDEAD is an original interpretation of hip-hop in the surreal Y2K glow – a bizarre meeting point between William Basinski's Disintegration Loops and MF DOOM's Operation: Doomsday. All it took was a Dr. Sample SP-202, Tascam cassette eight-track and cheap RadioShack mic. There's truly nothing like it.

This edition has been faithfully restored by Nosdam. European exclusive version comes on clear vinyl, incl. fold-out poster and liner notes insert.

Flying Lotus has scheduled the release of 'Until The Quiet Comes', the long awaited follow-up to 2010's Cosmogramma and his third on Warp Records, for a worldwide release on October 1st.
Composed, according to Flying Lotus, as 'a collage of mystical states, dreams, sleep and lullabies', Until the Quiet Comes has the distinct feel of this nocturnal trip. From the twitching descent into a subconscious state and the out-of-focus time-ether of the journey that follows, the sound is an unhinged, yet elegant evolution of the melodic and rhythmic interplay that is woven into the DNA of Flying Lotus' aural personae.

Packed Rich's Warp Fields LP depicts the journey of an individual traveling through a field of energy that connects different locations in space. Through the course of this journey the individual experiences a metamorphosis through different stages of physical existence and spiritual consciousness in order to overcome the borders of space and time.

The question remains if the individual will still maintain the same sense of consciousness and distinction of self that originally made up its personality.

Temple is proud to present a new full-length album from Polish musician and visual artist Wojciech Bakowski.

Following up on his more experimental-leaning album Jazz Duo on Dunno Recordings, Voyager is an intimate record in the artist’s signature spoken-word style, loosely touching on stripped-down hip hop, RnB, dub, and pop.

All records come with a booklet of the artist’s drawings and song lyrics in Polish and English.

OKO DJ’s first mixtape, landing on Accidental Meetings. 90 minutes of head banging rock & metal, screwed up saxophone & weirdo dub.

Every side has 45 minutes of playable music.

Never Sleep welcome Scottish duo 'Alia' into the fold with the CIRCA 90 EP.

Liam Robertson (Clouds) and Andy Graham (Sei A) join forces for devastating effect and blowing the doors wide open on that beautiful middle ground between club and ambient.

A mesmerising body of work that spans electronic genres effortlessly and compounds a cinematic quality to every avenue of sound design.

'SunLight' leads the effervescent charge with driving percussion and explosive dynamics whilst 'Circa90' breaks the deconstructed barrier with tones of rave, full bodied bass and pulsive symbiotic breakdowns.

A hybrid sound from a contemporary duo that are continuously hitting the right notes. Neil Landstrumm and Stina Nordenstam field record outdoor Fairlight CMI in the Allean Forest.

Belgian electro sensation Borokov Borokov unleashes Electrifying Album 'POTATO,' a unique mix of Outsider Electro, Punk, and Acid.

Known for their fearless experimentation and unapologetic attitude, Borokov Borokov has garnered a devoted following that transcends borders. 'POTATO' embodies the essence of Borokov Borokov's artistic vision and their unrelenting dedication to pushing musical boundaries.

This album is a wild and thrilling ride, seamlessly fusing the infectious energy of punk, electrifying electro, and mind-altering twists of acid.

2022 Repress

14 years since it was originally released on Rephlex Records, Dopplereffekt's Calabi Yau Space (2007) finally gets a reissue on vinyl thanks to WeMe Records (following on their amazing reissue of Linear Accelerator). This album sees Dopplereffekt move even further out into their very own exploratory realm, where music and quantum physics meet. Eight tracks that when first released seemed challenging but with repeated exposure a strange almost supernatural event occurred as these new sounds and patterns gradually revealed a beauty and even simplicity about them. This is a brave album, epic in vision. An essential record for all fans of Techno in the sense that the term was originally intended.

“Composed during one of London's endless dark and locked down winters, Fever Dreams is a fantastical, speculative take on high density living. From dark, mouldy rooms, subterranean depths, symbiosis and multi-species entanglements, it cloaks itself in the claustrophobia, excitement and despair of living in a metropolis. It is a work which both celebrates and fears the weeds, spores, vermin and grime of London. The dark fantasies, frustrations, and utopian aspirations of its urban survivors. Frozen plastic bags, cramped living quarters, the kindness of strangers, the desperate unfairness of who gets what and when. Almost getting there but not quite. Being overcome by emotion for no reason. Unexpectedly moved, inexplicably destroyed. The never still, forever unfolding moments which comprise living on top of each other. Sinking and swimming; together/apart.” - Kate Carr


A smouldering, sunken sound from Kate Carr on her album for Mana, exploring a latent and inward pressure from a mix of field recordings; gongs; underwater reverberations; flickers of static and electricity; found reel-to-reel choral recordings, played forward and backward. The result is a gothic dub and dark ambience that hangs heavily in the air, a narrative of middle spaces and dense environments where noise and muffled secrets bleed through the thin plasterboard from the next room over.

Texturally and emotionally it's a potent mix of insulated hope and gritty reality, holding a microphone to space and sound that the mind might otherwise blot out. Multi-species, metal, organic, and digital, dirty, self-built gathering ground, with towering verticals, deep subterranean depths, and gritty layers of lived-in grime, watery and terrestrial, human and non-human pressed together.

Raw Culture indulges one of its trusted crazy horses for a second time. Artistically born in some seedy basement in Livorno and raised on bread, voice and DIY, Anna Funk Damage presents his album Church of the Poisoned Minds.

8 sonic artifacts resulting from the combination of a well-established Italian talent and the alternating current running through the circuits of his synths (and probably to the curses on her bills). Post-punk attitude spanning wacky grids and wild bpm’s.

“Gordon’s debut EP is a brand of hyper-skewed whimsical speedcore in which too many percussive elements jostle against some warbly flutes and knackered casios”
- Cafe OTO

Brunnera is the exciting debut record by Glasgow artist Gordon Bruce - hand-picked for joint release by Matthew Herbert’s NX Records (an offshoot of his Accidental imprint), and Kit Records (London label and NTS Radio stalwarts.)

Brunnera unfolds over seven tracks of genre-defying dance music. Frenetic, kitchen sink percussion and granite sub bass will chatter bones on the dancefloor. But it’s the trail of mossy melodies - that coil and linger like mythical glow worms - which hints to something more arcane.

Woozy and analogue, the widescreen dreams of Near Stoic make their fuzzy debut on Gated.

This is an EP that drifts into your consciousness and anchors its hooks there, like a nagging memory you can't quite touch.
Following an outstanding cassette-only album for UK label Third Kind, Skander Ben Yahia's Metamorphosis EP for Gated builds on the Parisian's already impressive palette of sound. This is music for late night city walks, for mornings after the night before, for drifting to the edge of sleep. Powerful, emotive, and deeply resonant, this is electronica for the heads.

Who runs the Pigeon Post of Knossos? What exactly these birds carry and to whom? How Prometheus rocks his rock of torture and who really wants to punish Klaus Kinski with the whip?

Veslemes’ follow up album to Invisible Inc's Apoltihoma is a sonic excursion to the primordial routes of rhythm filtered by his speculations about the kinky habits of everyday life back in ancient Greek. Relics of the subculture of the 70s and the 80s are also evident here through his adoration for sci-fi l, obscure lost films and vaporish dance music.

Having been part of the family for quite some time now, Lauren Bush aka re:ni joins the Timedance roster with an incredibly potent quartet of Techno infused bass-bin weaponry.

« BeautySick » sees re:ni plunging into a world of intoxicating serpentine grooves. Spectral vocal slabs chime like echoes of a distant hallucinatory trance, while industrial drumworks find a mesmerizing counterpoint in eerie dubwise atmospheres.

These four compositions not only showcase re:ni's sonic evolution but also explore the transient moments where darkness converges with light. They stand as a testament to the sonic prowess of one or favorite dancefloor sorceress.

Picture Hakime Sorayama’s ‘Sexy Robot’ in front of an unreasonably large stack of speakers at a dimly lit sound-system dance; this is the soundtrack.

Press + Tour highlights :
DJ Mag, Resident Advisor, XLR8R, BBC6 Music (Sweatbox Mix for Sherelle), First Floor, The Quietus, Phonographe Corp + more TBA

Upcoming tour dates for Q1-Q2:UK, Switzerland, Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Belgium, Slovenia, Ireland, Australia, Croatia, USA

Here is another mystery from the universe comming straight out from London! Popping up from nowhere, don’t expect any infos about the person behind, it’s a very well kept secret… actually Tutu Ta reached us by telepathy to propose this sensationnal album for Macadam Mambo.

A concentrate of punkish dubby tunes combining ruffness, deepness, darkness, light, humour and serious vocals on very heavy beats and supa loud basslines. It’s raw but so gracefull in the meantime, 12 tracks, 47 min of pure bliss that won’t leave you on your knees, grab it fast it’s high demands style of music 

Following their first album in 2016, The Pilotwings are back – having gone from two to three members - with the LP « Les Charismatiques » on the infamous Brothers From Different Mothers label.

As witty and sparkling as ever, the trio’s given birth to a 2020 millesime that dares to oscillate from synth-pop to digit dub, psych-rock and new-age ; combining acoustic sounds with traditional music, all tainted with an 80s summer-hit influence…

As whacky as it may sound at first listen through its melting-pot of personal anecdotes and dated corporate speeches, the album does succeed in avoiding the totally-offbeat ; by adjusting sensibilities and altering the way one listens to music these days, these tracks transcend and fly. Guided by anti-conformist synth-sounds, « Les Charismatiques » embarks on the path towards the gilded light of remission and spiritual rebirth !

New collaborations have also emerged on this album from long-lasting friendships but also impromptu meetings, with HAJJ firstly, the Dawn Records’ boss who needs no introduction, but also with their Lyon friend Amélie Arcuri alias Bigoudi, half of Schmilblick ; or more surprising, with the cult underground figure of Robert Lapassenkoff, crooner and singer from the 80s band of the same name who’s been recently re-issued on vinyle before joining the Pilotwings on tour.

5 years later the Pilotwings are back on BFDM with an album that seems ripe for tasting, like a fine wine with a mouthful of flavors.

The album was created in two versions - a limited "color in color", of which 100 numbered pieces were produced, and a classic version with black wax, of which 200 pieces were produced.

After 10 years, Kixnare returns to U Know Me Records with his fourth original album. "Asteria" is a step towards even more experimental and abstract corners of electronic music. Each of the seven songs on the album reveals a fascination with completely different musical areas - from dark ambient ("Plaga"), through oriental ("Mystic Journeyman") / dubbing downtempo ("Impass") to stronger acid ("Mutacja") and techno ( "Omnis"). What connects everything is a constant atmosphere of anxiety - a reflection of the times we live in. Despite a completely different musical climate, "Asteria" refers in its character to Kixnare's last album "Rotations" from 2014, continuing the concept of inter-genre collage. All this comes together in the weekly radio show "Rotations", in which Kixnare presents his recommendations from the world of underground and experimental electronics on Radio Kraków.

"Asteria" is an album consisting of seven songs - almost 38 minutes of an amazing journey, the sound of which was worked on by the legendary Stefan Betke from Berlin (mastering author). The cover is the work of the flawless Animisiewasz.

Celebrated new wave compilation from Japan reissued for the first time on Glossy Mistakes.

A much-cherished gem from the 1980s underground Japanese music scene returns as Soft Selection 84 is reissued by Glossy Mistakes for its 40th anniversary. Originally released on DIY label Soft, the compilation sees 13 tracks from nine acts spanning minimal, ambient, zolo and more for a beguiling listen.

The result is a charming time capsule of eclectic creativity in which nothing sounds dated. Take La Sellrose Can Can, whose two party jams predate Kero Kero Bonito's hyperpop by decades. In addition, an impeccable remastering from the original master tapes adds to the "could have been recorded yesterday" feel of the collection.

Soft Selection 84 also includes the eccentric Picky Picnic. One of the few featured artists with recordings beyond the anthology, the trio is an essential act for those curious about Japanese art pop of the era. There is also new wave introspection from Name, whose "Do We All Need Love" plays out as a sensual nod to John Lennon. In a similar vein is Clä-Sick, the recording name of Goro Some, the compilation's original producer and founder of Soft.

The record's rerelease comes with Some's blessing, along with his original artwork and photography. Ultimately, the listener is left tantalised by his selection and its bold excursions into no wave, synth pop, radioplay and bizzaro house. Most of the artists on this release would fade into obscurity, but the transient nature of the potential showcased has helped cement the compilation's reputation over the years.

Soft Selection will be released on vinyl LP by Glossy Mistakes on March 2024, with a remastering from the original master tapes.

Perseus Traxx makes his debut on Hissman's Hardmoon London imprint with a unique set of acid-free sonic experiments.

Isoviha was recorded four years ago, inspired by ideas that Sasu Ripatti (aka Vladislav Delay) had been reflecting on for a long time. This album is a counterpart to his two Rakka albums which were a personal reflection on the nature and sound-world of the northern Arctic wilderness, 1000 kilometres north of where he lives on the Finnish island of Hailuoto. It's an area he loves to explore, trekking out alone to enjoy its rugged power. However the sound world of Isoviha is a return to man-made civilization. Musically Isoviha presents a more complicated world than Rakka; overloaded and unpredictable, audio archaeology that layers and juxtaposes everyday sounds into intense sculptures of noise and drone. As a musical observation internally and externally, it's influenced by the heightened anxious intensity Sasu feels when returning from the empty wilderness. The ratcheting up of urban noise on Isoviha is built with insistent loops that seem to malfunction the faster they spiral and the dangerous overwhelming potential of ordinary objects and events: shimmering, hammering, crowds, radio distortion, ancient backfiring engines. It's hypermodern musique concrète, married to a jazz drummer's intuitive sense of rhythm. Going back even further in time but still tethered to the local, Isoviha also means 'the great wrath' and refers to a time in Finland under Russian occupation in the 1700s. A time when all the Islanders of Hailuoto were killed, apart from a single couple who were left to bury the dead. As if time is non-linear, the response to toxicity and madness that drives the album feels even more appropriate now than when it was written four years ago and confirmation that the horrors of the past still darken the present.

Coming from a diverse background of equal amounts hip hop and rock, the producer behind the alias of nrl:ndr got into dance music late in his musical career. After playing in kraut-oriented bands like So Many Mammals, parts of that group reformed into the live techno outfit Tren Né, with the goal of fusing techno elements with live drums. Playing for illegal raves with a punk-like energy, nrl:ndr has cemented his relationship with his machines in service of the dance floor.

But his solo debut on blundar is quite far removed from that scene. To understand this music, one should be aware of the conditions under which it was manufactured. Reluctant to consider himself an artist in the traditional sense, nrl:ndr makes his music free of anticipation and without apparent goals. To glean into this outré musical space is like putting one's ear to the boarded up windows of the photograph that adorn the front sleeve.

The album makes extensive use of the Roland JV-2080, a sample-based synth rack from 1996 with a distinctly clean sound. Our producer dives deep into the expansion cards (labeled after genres like “Hip Hop” and “World”) for curious and sometimes cheesy samples. But he also forces the JV-2080 to do things which are not its forte, like the arduous task of programming decent kick drums.

Another technique that is testament to his experimental view on music making, is the idea of using sketches of unfinished tracks with different time signatures, and mash them together into something new - of which the results of one of these experiments can be heard on the closing track and its bilingual conversation between ambient and tribal.

Full of stunted rhythms and eerie melodies, the unclassifiable nature of the music of nrl:ndr lies somewhere in the vicinity of IDM, classical avant garde and private press synth. From the epic opening track - echoing the post-kraut drumming style of Michael Shrieve - to juggling with chopped up vocal samples and treading into almost trap-like territories on A4, he crosses into a multitude of genres without getting his hands too dirty with nostalgia.

2024 Restock


LP gatefold. The vinyl LP has been discontinued and second-hand
copies of the original pressing are changing hands on Discogs for upwards of €700!

The fledgling Detach label continues to show it means business with a new 12" in a lovely screen-printed sleeve. Romanian artist Dyl is the one in charge and has been serving up consistently excellent and innovative sounds now for serval years. All of these cuts mix up great sound design with languid rhythms - the first is eerie, with watery droplets and glassy tinkles hanging in the air, while 'Glasshouse 2' has a percolating rhythm down low. 'Glasshouse 3' gets a little more dynamic with a shimmering low end and freaky abstract life forms and 'Glasshouse 4' layers in more intense and ever-shifting synth lines while the closer sounds like it's roaming through a deserted factory long after it shut down.

Originally released on Firstcask Records in 2003. A selection of my styles and ideas at the time, ranging from drum n bass, ambient, acid etc etc

Formerly known as exael, baemi channels a broad spectrum of influences on ‘Dust Devil’. Billed as a “whirlwind road movie”, it sums up naemi’s last few years as a central node in Berlin’s amorphous network of fringe producers, poets and artists. While the city might still be best known for its litany of cavernous, greyscale tourist dungeons, in the back rooms and all-night cafes there’s been a perceptible counter; a loose faction of like-minded outsiders who have furrowed out a space where hypnagogic sounds, muzzy ‘90s pop, trip-hop, bass music and analgesic rap have slowly morphed into something new. Sounds that felt previously anathema to the Berlin experience have coalesced into a warm wave of psychedelic, healing romance, a phenomenon that anchors ‘Dust Devil’.

The album opens with an untitled cut featuring none other than 4AD superstar Erika de Casier, who delivers a lovestruck vocal that smears into baemi’s humid ambience. The mood is distinctive, somewhere between Cocteau Twins and Harold Budd’s timeless ‘The Moon and the Melodies’ and the kind of vulnerable early ‘00s R&B that de Casier has made her own. baemi continues the thought on ‘CO (Sugar Hiccup)’, referencing the Cocteaus’ 1983 classic and granulating soft-hearted, shimmering guitars that rumble beneath a stark poem from artist, writer and DJ Yves B. Golden.

The expansive vista fully manifests on ‘Day Drifter’, layering sparse guitar riffs below Perila’s mercurial vocals - the most direct and powerful thing we’ve heard from her yet - in a sort of classic DIY pop mode that appears like a mirage wrung with almost-familiar earworms and esoteric turns. Pontiac Streator joins hands with naemi on ‘Thinking of Incky’, a delirious shimmer of ‘Head Over Heels’ guitars and itchy, dissociated rhythmic flutters, while Huerco S. and Arad Acid help aerate ‘Couch Angel’ into effervescent shoegaze/trip-hop floss, curving MBV-strength judders and gravelly breaks around hallucinatory, choral vocals. naemi leans further into the jazzy, downtempo mood on ‘Ambrosia’, connecting with NAP (aka Daniel Rincon) who mouths gentle words over naemi’s slow-mo drums and foggy electric piano. Then, on the title track, 3XL boss Shy (aka Special Guest DJ) supports naemi with a précis of everything we’ve heard, mangling eerie atmospherics with glistening, crepuscular guitars.

Yearning and painstakingly deliberate, ‘Dust Devil’ is a softly whispered rumination that freezes a moment in time and traps its knotted emotions in the aether. It’s an album that acknowledges its influences, but uses them to tarmac a fresh narrative, one that hasn’t been concluded quite yet, stretching endlessly into the open skyline.

Orthogonal Eigenstates is the title of the new full-length album by Quantum Collapse aka Eduardo de La Calle where the author definitively moves away from dance music and starts a new period of exploration strongly influenced by the English Glicht IDM trends from early 90's and styles that goes from Soundtrack to Experimental Jazz ,Cinematic Electronica or Abstract Hiphop

Especial Specials always deal in releases with a story often as interesting as the music itself. This time out they enlist DJ and producer Dreems for a fine collection of limited-edition 12"s. Angus Gruzman aka Dreems is the man behind the vital Multi Culti label and has dropped his own wares on the likes of Kompakt, Pinchy & Friends and Futureboogie but somehow remains rather in the shadows. This deep dive into his vaults should change that - these are edits and dubs that come doused in psychedelia as they trip through several genres. There is off-kilter dub, melon-twisting dub, intensely percussive and tribal dub, and more besides across the five fantastic tracks.