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A vinyl-only regression session of modal chopped & screwed trance and ambient dance music from Alexis Le Tan and Joakim’s super collectable Full Circle project, newly minted by Good Morning Tapes.

A febrile, downtempo melange of screwed classics and original productions, ‘From Back There Again’ is Full Circle’s 5th full-length session in this fertile zone of dance music’s imagination. Serving the spiritual need for slower, more sensual movements in light of the contemporary BPM arms race, Full Circle look back to go forward - or, more pertinently - perpendicular to the dance music continuum; corkscrewing classic early ‘90s trance and cosmic Italian disco models along lines of inspiration from Middle Eastern and Subcontinental musics to open dancers’ third eyes and weave their chakras into sexier shapes.

In the foggiest recesses of our memory, this kind of lark used to be so much more commonplace in the backrooms of clubs during the ‘90s and even into the early ‘00s, but has become lost-in- translation with successive waves of ravers expecting full throttle from start to finish, or at least a sort of escalating narrative arc. Full Circle stand for a sort of romantic counter-cultural aspect of dance music that feels more necessary now than ever.

‘From Back There Again’ is just the medicine; a bounty of sun-dazed goodness, balancing spangled bodies and minds between the plush synth dub sway of ‘Closed Eyes Open’ to super slinky Goa beatdown on ‘Percussive Silence’, the trance on 33-not-45 bliss of ‘Infernal Heaven’, beside the pill- belly lift of ’Shapeless Square’, piquant drug chug tang of ‘Human Alien’ and the unmistakeable edit of ‘Future Memories’, transporting us straight back to Autechre’s 4am-6am Disengage sessions on Kiss FM

“This is my 1st solo rocket.
Tracks presented here were matured at the museum for few years and actually some of them came to
me at my very first attempt on solo music, being myself only involved with bands till then.
Everything was recorded at home exposed to machines i didn't know, using older and newer gear. At
some point midi samples were also used, taking advantage of my computer promises #anythingoes.
Turns out that cold meat lights no fire so attached to this music are ghosts of my life transcribing their
emotions into techno. First half of this rocket is more on a negative tip, the second half is more
positive, like we all should take it. Either way you should listen to both sides cause they complement
each other, so try to relax and enjoy the ride, or get off your ass and jam…"
Tiago’s (LUX/DFA) seminal solo album.

Limited edition milky clear with blue and purple splatter + HQ download.


The follow-up to last year's return-to-form collection, Cloudwalker. Sonic Poetry is a refined group of works showcasing Gimmik's adeptness at fusing experimental electronic music minutia with overarching melodicism.
Those that have followed Gimmik's carrier–and subsequent return–will take pleasure in Sonic Poetry's veracity and bolstered production. Leftfield/IDM, Breaks, Downtempo, Electro, and Ambient get dissected and reformed to create a truly authentic album in which it is evident that there is no coincidence in that the opening track is named "Here I am."

South-east Turkey born DJ, sound artist and producer Banu uses music as a political tool. For her, the strong message carried through sound is a vehicle to express emotions as well as a means of fighting against oppression. Using participation, social design, ecology, feminist and queer theory to create multimedia installations with sound as a main element, Banu‘s practice is closer to contemporary art and activist spaces than the club realm.

Banu‘s debut album TransSoundScapes is an exercise in female solidarity between her as a migrant woman and her sisters from the trans community, where an artist from one marginalised group is showing support towards her trans sisters, using her platform to help them amplify their voices and building a bridge towards a mutual understanding of femininity.

Conceptually, TransSoundScapes comes in continuation of Banu‘s previous research-based work, using music as a positive tool for change while working with various marginalised communities. The album originated from the very real experience of being confronted with verbal harassment in Berlin on a daily basis, particularly aimed at her transfeminine friends and companions. As a queer woman of Turkish and Kurdish origin, Banu did not only observe the verbal aggression directed at her friends, but also understood most of the insults shouted in languages such as Arabic. Seeing how she got signifi cantly more verbal violence directed at them when in company of trans people made a lasting impression on her, so she wanted to try and use her relative privilege to amplify transfeminine voices through her music.

Coming from a very conservative family, making music has been her lifelong dream. It was the moment she had the opportunity to work with the iconic Arp 2600 synthesiser (a younger sibling to Eliane Radigue‘s infamous 2500 machine) that all her disparate interests came into place to create an empowering soundscape with the aid of analogue drum machines. TransSoundScapes has a very full, porous sound, where every element that comes into play sounds soft yet clear. Across the 7 tracks, Banu conjures pounding subterraneous bassy techno („Surgery“), slithering tentacular EBM („First Time“) and pulsating cavernous soundscapes („Harem“), where oversized dancefl oor elements are woven with poetic spoken word passages, resulting in sensusous yet political anthems. Banu artfully merges loosely related genres such as techno, electro, dub and sound poems into a sound that is at once deeply personal and extremely compelling.

All of the tracks are collaborative efforts, Banu seeing the process as an exchange of care and shared experiences, while integrating research into her writing process. The lyrics in „Transition (part 1+2)‘‘ are an adaptation of Sara Ahmed’s “Living a Feminist Life”, while „Surgery“ was born out of series of interviews with trans people, channeling the metallic sounds of a surgery room to refer to society‘s perception of transness as a medical condition. Tracks like „First Time feat. Patricia“, „Harem feat. Prince Emrah“ or „We feat. Aérea Negrot“ document her encounters with various trans women, centering their life experiences while also developing a deep dialogue through the process of making music together.

The darkest and perhaps the most emblematic track is ‚‘Bianka (In Memory Of)‘‘, dedicated to the late Bianka Shigurova, a 22-year old Georgian actress found dead in her apartment. It was her Tbilisi photographer friend George Nebriedze who told her Bianka‘s tragic story, whose death is suspected to be an assasination due to transphobia. Banu chose one of Nebriedze‘s analogue photos of Bianka as the album‘s cover art.

Limited to 300 physical copies

Our label is back and it’s back with a bang! For the first time ever featuring 6 tracks on one release, we’re delighted to present Azemad’s “Afriki“ EP. Showcasing his broad scope of influences and massive talent for melodic arrangements, the Berlin-based Egyptian producer and vocalist offers a record that is as wide ranging in style as it is evocative and emotionally intelligent.

Festive tribal drums meet moody rap verses, fat bouncy bass lines and dubbed out chords on this wonderful musical melting pot on wax. Whether you’re in a Mahragan or Mawal spirit, Azemad caters for all needs and occasions, last but not least with the friendly help and assistance of J.Wiltshire’s beautiful, aquatic bubbler of a remix on the flip.

AWK004 intends to surface on September 16th 2022, so keep your eyes and ears peeled. Thanks and much luv for the support as always!

Los Angeles' Zen 2000 returns with its third release, the third and final chapter in its kick-off string of 7-inches. For this episode, we once again dip into the deep and diverse well of local talent for a single from Tim Jones, a.k.a. Ex.Pontoon.

“Coming Back” is a slinky, off-kilter slow burn, a slinky vocal groove snaking through SoCal G-funk refashioned into a crackly reggae dub wobble. The other side is a delirious and psychedelic trip into the desert, the fiery sun scorching the earth below. Icy guitars and a cavernous arrangement turn the sonic horizon into a shimmering mirage. For the digital bonus, an instrumental version of the B-side, further revealing the nuanced and delicate composition of the piece.

Unwashed acid house and disco through a broken South London filter - from "70s New York bathhouses to "80s Chicago nightclubs via the Brixton Windmill. Bring a towel. Decius are brothers Liam and Luke May, founders of Trashmouth Records, together with Quinn Whalley (Paranoid London/Warmduscher) and Fat White Family frontman Lias Saoudi. Those with an ear to the ground will have picked up on a string of self-released 12"s over the last few years, supported by the likes of Daniel Avery, Honey Dijon, Ivan Smagghe, Mike Servito, 2 Many DJs, Moxie and Erol Alkan. Decius Vol. I is a lean entry point to their sordid world - dark, uncut, unrefined and unrepentant.

Cawd Slaydaz is a clear shift for Frigio Records. Yet, this debutant also marks a return of sorts. The album brings together Hugo de Naranja, co-founder of former Red Light Radio, and Max Abysmal. The link that connects the two? Their love for Colombia and the rich musical melting pot of this diverse nation. Nothing is stable on this eleven track LP, recorded in Bogotá Colombia with 10 different local guest artists. Rhythms are cross pollinated, cold and stark city thump collides with rich and lively organic flows. The style pursued is anything but singular, like the messages. Social exclusion and brutality in the poetic Perreo “Dejen Bailar” is mirrored in the Cumbia food ode “Potato Trip”. Dark Electronics, Experimental Bass & Trap are the genre tags that most will attempt to label this record with. This ignores the Leftfield Funk of “El Gorila Del Desierto”, the Stoner Ambient of “Uffff” or the Synth-Punk rage of “Razones”. An audio snapshot of a country: TOTÁL.

AM006 is by Berlin's ML, titled 'Life always breaks your heart'. Two 30-minute pieces were written, constructed, collaged and fixed together by himself. It's an important story, so there's a copy from ML below and also ours was written by Bokeh Version Industrial to do it justice.

Hallucinated Brazilian poetry read by text to voice engines, supernatural thrillers ripped from Youtube, the clang of cutlery and distant canteen conversation, that noise wire fencing makes when you rake it with a stick, crickets chirping over odd dance emotions, a sample you think your recognise but can’t name…..

The trivial is cosmically important, the cosmically important is trivial. ‘It’s about the product’ - all of life’s a sample. You contain universes.

Alice in Wonderland, late night sessions with kosmische guitar legends, ethnographic chants from an unknown land, “There’s no monopoly of knowledge / there’s no monopoly of power”: forecasts from global political trends, China will be important they say, someone’s whistling a tune that doesn’t exist, I’m thinking of times long before I was born . . .

Growing naturally like a beautiful montage from his field recordings (a rich library of personal psychoacoustic details) and his 150 Session on NTS, ML's Life Always Breaks Your Heart is mixtape-concrète:

Gamelan of the soul, Bio-Curry-Wurst in Kreuzberg, zither overlays the booms of the squatter’s homegrade grenades…

Mark Leckey vs. Alvin Curran, Gustav Flaubert vs Cabaret Voltaire, free association flashbacks with the timestamps mixed up, with added bass guitar, OP-1, Ableton, distinguishing the ‘real’ instruments becomes unimportant….they’re absorbed by memory foam….

No country, no flag – outernational without a cause!

There is no purpose, there is only reverie.

ML -

"A useless ruin, things are falling apart, even in our deepest, we long for harmony. A hypothetical path, for obscure reasons, fades into transparency. The mediocrity of Western culture, sicken by P.R., life offers a chance, a place for enthusiasm. The texture of the world, them can read it in your eyes. In the heart of schizo-culture, distance, suddenly shortened, forms characters as symbols. Deafen by mass media, embittered by unsettled chemistry, the willing body, forever in transition. The pre-invented existence, owned by language, creates a passage towards chaos. Paragraphs of currents, amplify the feelings, while silence leaks into the new luxury of time. Gentrification of sentiments, beneath our palms, all these memoirs. A modern consciousness, stretching over years in narcissistic differentiation. In touch with another human spirit, blowing backwards, beneath dark waters. We put our hands on your body, onto a new landscape, employed by metaphysical mutations. At the edge of the cosmos, prairies and mountains hide the truth in tactical silence. Apparently so, a number of months ago, above our head, a landscape of journals. Mystical content, statistically insignificant. A new patio, them crawled through the walls."

The Institute is happy to present a newcomer in its ranks: Lasha Chkhaidze, one of the 13 members of collective "If Strangers." Georgia is home to melancholia and many exciting musicians, something we have shown in many of our previous releases. Lasha’s first album is part of this theme.

These six tracks gently pull you into a subtle and immersive journey. Listen and soon you find yourself pulled into the beauty of sadness - surrounded by these carefully crafted soundscapes which offer a perfect opportunity for a moment of introspection. The young Georgian delivers ambient and piano at its finest on this first LP.

As the legend says, Agartha is a lost kingdom, located in the earth’s core.
Only the bravest found courage to go to the journey to find it.
As you go deeper, the road gets darker, scarier… The journey to Agartha symbolizes the journey to the untraveled parts of human consciousness, which often frightens us, but as we observe and heal our dark parts we no longer need to compress and hide them. Facing our main fears will make our road mor adventurous, and one day the whole journey will become a tale. Tale of a man who found the lost kingdom of Agartha.

Back In Stock

Charlotte Leclerc talks loud and fast, she’s at full speed, at a heat of 10,000 degrees and gives off a very pleasant warmth - if you stay at the right distance. She’s like the sun: if you get too close, you’ll burn up straight away. Speaking of which, Charlotte has distanced herself, and not on purpose either. When coming home at night, instead of getting into the role of laboring musician, she chose instead to make music a bit like you’d smoke one last cigarette before bed. The story of this album began when I asked her if she made music by herself. I knew she played regularly with other people in bands, but nothing about any potential solo musical activity. She replied, “When I get home late at night, before going to bed, I like to switch on my old Vermona drum machine and my synths. I record stuff that isn’t songs, that I forget all about and don’t listen to again because it must be garbage.” It didn’t take more than that for me to really want to listen to it. After several months of enquiring, she accepted to send me all these “bits of music” as she calls them. I loved them straight away. Very loose and free tracks, a music made for no one in particular. No format, no structures, just creation sprinkled over daily life. Moments like these are often forgotten, lost in your head, which is overcrowded with day-to-day stuff. But in this case, she managed to save them, preserving them in time thanks to the record button. Style-wise, I’m not sure what Charlotte Leclerc’s “bits of music” are. Avant-exotica? Ambient-funk? Maybe. However, if you’re wondering if there’s any emotion in there, I’d answer as she would, “Yeah, loaaaads.”

NY Graffiti’s imlookin4thedoor is a gritty, dubby, angst-ridden exercise in dance. The inaugural release by Peace Anthem Records features four tracks by the artist. On the A side, two tripped-up, smoke-laden tracks move the needle in hypnotic and hallucinatory fashion. On the B Side, Arco, inspired in equal parts by UK hardcore and the sight of Paolo Soleri’s utopian architecture, moves at a glacial pace, scribing a path along the liminal edge of futures past.

Descended two sets of stairs
Warm humid air
Sweaty that
Loaded ground
filled with sound
and faces all
that have left the ground
I’m looking 4 the door
But I haven’t found it yet
four hours more
or eight plus that
After that
I’ll be at peace
I’m looking 4 the door
But I haven’t found it yet

The illustrious memotone debuts on Accidental Meetings, with a sublime & wonderful thirteen-track LP... Huge tip

The next installment for the AM imprint is headed up by the critically acclaimed artist, memotone. Following previous work for entities such as Black Acre, Disktopia & Termina. Not to mention supplying instrumentation for Batu's debut album, and scoring works for Palace Skateboards.

The multi-instrumentalist showcases his entire repertoire within Clever Dog, thirteen emotive and ambitious tracks traversing between back-alley jazz, low-slung experimental & blissful ambient oddities.

memotone's discography is vast, however, this release truly stands out as a masterpiece. Enough words - dive in.

Japanese born Shoko Igarashi's debut album Simple Sentences is a record that, not unlike a piece of luggage checking in from city to city, has managed to absorb vital influences from each place it has landed. Shoko grew up in rural Japan, she studied in the US and is currently
living in the most quintessential European city, Brussels.

Shining in its diversity, Simple Sentences carries elements from each one of those stops in her life.

The influences from Far East are more than evident and funnily enough, even unconscious, which makes them integrate in a beguiling childish and naive way that adds even more to the originality of the sound. Take for Example the lead track ’AppleBanana’ - Echoes of Chiemi Manabe, Hosono and even overtones of Akiko Yano are all seamlessly there. 'Sand Dungeon' is a little gem reminiscent of Yellow Magic Orchestra at the heights of their powers and the aptly titled 'Anime Song' could be an unreleased track from Testpattern’s infamous and sought after LP. 'Lovely Song' in its electronic pastoral vibe could have been produced by Seigen Ono, but is entirely the work of Shoko's expansive creative world.
'CASH OK' harks back to New York’s 90’s Jazz Street scene, paying tribute to her Brooklyn live gigs, and album closer 'Tsuki No Yama' goes back to her roots with a meditative folk sound quite different from the rounded pop edges that the rest of her album carries.

Simple Sentences is like its title implies: straightforward in its brilliance and simplicity, yet carefully measured with a maturity that almost makes us wonder - how did Shoko manage to absorb all these influences and bring them together into a vibrant sound collage which ultimately is fresh and timeless.

Back in stock soon

Acid Jazz presents the long-awaited reissue of The Aloof’s cult classic final LP ‘This Constant Chase For Thrills’.

 Formed in 1990, The Aloof were a pioneering electronic act, playing and touring with the likes of Massive Attack and Leftfield. After three albums with the Warner EastWest, they forged their own path, releasing ‘This Constant Chase For Thrills’ on their own Screaming Target label.

 Despite highlights ‘Doing It For Money’ and ‘Painted Face’, as well as ‘So Good’, which featured in the US version of ‘Queer As Folk’, the album didn’t get the coverage it deserved upon release.

 Within a dark and moody atmosphere, there is definite Ibiza and Balearic feel to the record, showing a band with a positive DIY spirit.

FIRELP232 is the 12' black vinyl LP, download card included. ESG's fusion of sweet soul and punk attitude with an intuitive understanding of dance music remains.' The Guardian This is still funk with an alien otherworldliness the likes of which George Clinton never envisioned, stripped to its barest essentials for maximum impact.' All Music ESG are as cool as ever.' The Guardian Pumping their way out of the South Bronx of New York in the early 80s, this rhythm and dance-punk outfit made unforgettable funk that was also unusually rooted in post-punk. This powerhouse of raw and cutting edge music ultimately made them ahead of their time. ESG enjoyed success sharing stages with PiL and Gang Of Four and have been heavily sampled as many musicians including TLC, Wu-Tang Clan, Beastie Boys and Liars. A band-approved reissue of 'Step Off' will be released the same day with artwork from award nominated illustrator Hannah Alice, who recently gained critical praise for her work on the Bert Jansch reissue of Avocet'.

Deluxe Edition / LP+Poster

Back in 2017, Moderat announced that they’d be taking an extended break following a final concert in front of 17.000 people in their hometown of Berlin. And now they return. MORE D4TA, the group’s fourth album, arrives more than six years after its predecessor (2016’s III). Created largely during a time when touring (and most traveling) was off the table, MORE D4TA is an album that wrestles with feelings of isolation and information overload—issues that have become particularly pronounced over the past two years. The ten songs on MORE D4TA are rooted in collaboration, but long before any of its tracks were laid down, Moderat spent months hanging out and getting musically reacquainted, indulging in extended bouts of experimentation and slowly fleshing out ideas as they dove into modular composition, field recordings and other sonic oddities.
But no matter how far the band ventures into music’s outer realms, they always wind up back in their own unique soundworld, a place where emotive pop and fluttering electronic soundscapes walk hand in hand. Many of its lyrics are rooted in Ring’s frequent trips to Berlin’s Gemäldegalerie museum (often with his infant daughter in tow), where he’d seek refuge in the great paintings of the past while worrying about the future.
What they make isn’t necessarily dance music, but it is something that shines brightest in the dark of night, the group’s rich melodies and Ring’s ethereal vocals emitting a warm, almost bioluminescent glow. After spending the better part of two decades making music together, they’ve carved out a sound and aesthetic that are all their own, and MORE D4TA showcases a group that’s creatively recharged and fully dedicated to its craft.

Red Vinyl

That we live in a world changed is beyond question. Since 2015's Zenith, Berlin-based songwriter Molly Nilsson has surrendered to the world, traveling from Mexico to Glasgow, observing the changing socio-political landscape and imagining a better world. For an artist who has so successfully created her own environment and gradually let others in, her 8th studio album Imaginations sees Nilsson directly engaging with her surroundings, engendering change and allowing love in. Imaginations dreams big, recasting storming, stadium-sized pop into the internal language of the solo auteur. Imaginations is not escapism, it's a kaleidoscope and an alternative view, an agent of change.Opener Tender Surrender encapsulates Imaginations, a tango on the ruins of the past, like many of Nilsson's best songs a collision between the political and personal. Though potentially a love song, there's a glowing anger in the lines I want your ruin, I want destruction, I won't be through until we mend this...' this is rapturous transformation, order and chaos. Molly has built an almost 10 year career on perfectly summing up how we feel and this is no different... Who else could write a song about privilege (Let's Talk About Privileges) and make a heart-rending chorus of It's never being afraid of the police, it's expecting every thank you, every please.' The artist's vision on this album is perhaps more forceful than the emotionally fragile moments of previous album Zenith, at times exemplified on songs like Memory Foam, a bright, driving pop song that belies themes of nostalgia and the past, reminding us that Molly alone can make us feel so welcome in loneliness. If there's overt anger in songs like Money Never Sleeps, an anthem for a post-capitalist utopia if ever there was one, there's also seams of optimism sewn into the album's genetic code. Any revolutionary will tell you that anger alone achieves nothing - Nilsson's mission on Imaginations is to offer some alternatives we can hold close. Not Today Satan is a song about accepting love as the agent of change, Don't be sad, but do get mad at all the small men who act so tall, in the end they always fall, there ain't no sin in giving in to love, that's just how we're winning the fight.' Love can be visceral, a weapon with which to fight the power.On Imaginations Molly is recasting her interior monologue as a prism through which to see the world, a means to live differently and to reject the status quo. We can Think Pink, change our destiny together. This is an optimism about the future when we need it the most. New boys, new girls.. give me your smile and I'll give you mine' Clearly, we are living through a transformation but with alchemists like Molly Nilsson, we're never alone in the process.

Ace leftfield House excursion combining extended field recording based Ambient explorations - Tip!

R.I.O. welcomes Pieter Kock aka DJ Peacock, one of the guiding souls behind the Berlin based bar/micro club O Tannenbaum. Musically active since 1986 as singer, guitarist, drummer and noisemaker, Peter already released a string of albums under different aliases like Billie and Ballie, The Hitmachine and Taladu. Since the early 1990s he narrates haunting sonic stories as a DJ, playing a vast palette of styles - from cosmic and leftfield techno to tape experiments, sound-art, wave, world, jazz, punk, industrial, and all that weird pop music.

Eagerly awaited yet patiently bubbling under the surface, UwU dust bath emerges with its primal offering; a deeply generous and authentic sonic array from low-key prolifics Purelink. Pure, unadulterated aural alchemy. Everything has a perfect place. An evolving trademark of Purelink’s delicate, yet deliberate, chillout ecstasy.

UwU 001 is rooted in the group’s most sincere and early jams; exuding an innocent magic almost impossible to recreate, tranquil effervescence of the highest nature. An immersive sense of bliss exudes from even the initial vibrations of the A side. Each track is thoughtfully paired with a complimenting remix on the B side, preserving and echoing the ethereal essence while adding a personally inspired touch, nurturing fresh existence and perspective.

Three otherworldly originals harmoniously colluding with an intercontinental all-star cast of remixers. xphresh (special guest DJ & Ben Bondy), Low Flung and Nice Girl – each respectfully contributing to the synonymous mutual (& virtual) affiliation, kindredship and vision entrenched in the UwU ethos.

The synergy throughout this entire release reveals an unspoken affinity and divine love language between the label and artists that can translate to how we feel and absorb music, its sound and a subconscious sense of intimacy and connection.

Martina Topley Bird’s new studio album ‘Forever I Wait’, features collaborations and arrangements from Robert Del Naja of Massive Attack, Euan Dickenson, Rich Morel, Christoffer Berg, Benjamin Boeldt and Tiadiad.

'Forever I Wait' is Topley-Bird’s fourth long awaited studio album and her very first self-produced and curated piece of work to date. The album, set for a digital release on September 10th, with a vinyl LP available to pre-order now, captures an extensive journey confronting, exploring, analysing and reflecting on the devastating fragilities of life as it ultimately seeks to make peace with what life is.

A sentient and sensual presence framed Tricky’s trip-hop pioneering white label debut release, Aftermath. Hauntingly unique and immediately recognisable, that voice became the defining timbre of a new music movement. Behind this voice was mysteriously soft-spoken, London-born Martina Topley-Bird, whose exquisite voice came to inspire and infuse other pioneering artists across all genres.

“It’s a trip through different emotional states and frequencies, mostly dark, from insecurity and desire, all the way through to serenity and acceptance with themes that resonate from my young teens all the way through till today. Things that I’ve seen and things I’ve felt and worked through, although sometimes I sense them trying to return”

“Forever I Wait”, as the title alludes, was written and re-written over a long period of time.

“I had to change my way of relating to music and the music industry in order to make the record I wanted to make.…and that took time. And I took the time I needed. I started in London, moved and lived in America for the first time in my life, then briefly moved back to London and finished the record in Spain.”

“After trying to work on a new record for a couple of years, I came to a realisation that in order to move forward I had to separate the concept and vision I had for this record from me as a person. I had to shift my perspective. That was a big personal win and the beginning of “Forever I Wait.”

'Forever I Wait' leans on a multitude of tense sounds, dubby atmospherics and natural instrumentation to demand the listeners attention leading to over two decades of observations, experiences and musical sacrifices. It is a bi-product of the new perspective featuring carefully selected and tailored supporting arrangements from a handful of collaborators including Robert del Naja (Massive Attack), Rich Morel (Deep Dish), Christoffer Berg (Fever Ray) and Benjamin Boeldt (Adventure).

A truthful expression of desire and heartache “Forever I Wait “Is Topley Bird’s most precise and accurate album to date.

'Following his compelling comment on the modern-day culture of call centres, Disruptive Muzak - awarded Album of the Year 2016 by Boomkat - Sam Kidel turns his analytical artistry towards the ominous gatekeepers of online communication with a rave-inspired rebel spirit to match his scientific methodology.

'Chamber music meets free-party-scene warehouse-invasion'

First exhibited at EBM(T) in Tokyo, Live @ Google Data Center trespasses in Google's data centre in Council Bluffs, Iowa to perform electronic music amongst the humming banks of servers and endless cable runs, without actually breaking in. In a process he describes as 'mimetic hacking,' Kidel used architectural plans based on photos of the data centre to acoustically model the sonic qualities of the space.

The resulting acoustics on Live @ Google Data Center simulate the sound of Kidel's algorithmically-generated notes, rhythms and melodies reverberating through the space, as though a bold illegal party was being held in the maximum security location. Kidel's manipulation of his generative direction of the music, all inspired by images of the data centre.

'Music that deafens the silicon ear'

The generative audio patch Kidel used to make Voice Recognition DoS Attack seeks to disable the functionality of voice recognition software by triggering phonemes (the smallest units of language).

The project, first developed for the Eavesdropping series of events in Melbourne, exploits a weakness in voice recognition that cannot distinguish between individual voices. When you speak while the patch is playing, the cascading shards of human expression mask your speech and thus protect you from automated surveillance, questioning our vulnerability in the face of global data giants. In amongst these displaced sounds, Kidel fed additional musical elements into his patch to create the version of the project heard on this release.'

Alex the Fairy is an artist based in Berlin producing music with an emphasis on electronic and concrete methods. Alex the Fairy is also part of the 3Ddancer trio, a live act focusing on improvisation and expression using electronics.

Alex The Fairy writes: "I had sent The Tapeworm tracks before, but I was being difficult so was asked to send a new bunch, with a deadline. I sent the new bunch, a fairly odd collection expecting perhaps some of them to be combined with the older stuff but not seeing any coherence in them. I figured The Tapeworm would find at least something. To my surprise the suggestion that came back was exclusively the tracks I had sent the second time, and, re-listening through the tracks in this new order after returning from a Christmas dinner lying on the floor of my nephews bedroom gave them a completely new context. Despite them being quite varied in terms of age (one had been flung together a few days earlier on the train while another was approaching Schulreife) they seemed to meld together in such a way that I hardly recognised them…

Last year my grandmother died. My last grandparent. I had put off seeing her during corona, as I thought it best not to put her at risk and had almost left to visit her days before her death but had delayed my departure because of a medical appointment. My failure to her weighs heavy on my mind - fates grimacing grin: too little, too late. The approaching march of death, one generation closer was a confrontation I wasn't prepared for.

While clearing out her flat in the following weeks I had kept some of my grandfathers cassettes, live recordings of jazz greats, Pink Floyd, Sade and some classical among them, none originals, several presumably from the radio e.g. a church organ rendition of Bach. At the time I wasn't sure why I was hanging on to them, other than the urge to hoard, and that it felt wrong not at least to keep some. Half a year later, half way through mixing this cassette, suffering from my first bout of COVID, I had the insatiable urge to hook up the cassette player I had received from my grandfather after his death around nineteen years earlier and had been dragging along with me since. I stuck a cassette in only to immediately return to the safety of my covers. I began to work my way into what I had saved, hearing the fruits of my grandfathers labour decades before. It felt like quite an intimate interaction with someone I had long lost contact to/was long gone. Quite a wonderful thing, these time traveling cassettes.

I returned to the tracks to mix them shortly before my corona/cassette experience, with a new mixing console at hand. I had been looking for one for several years, but nothing had ever clicked, until I found this old broadcast desk 30 minutes from my place (it also coincided with a payment from a job the sum of which matched the price identically… fates return). Installing became a massive hassle and I doubted my decision continuously, but the further it was implemented the more it made sense. The first track I recorded with the mixer is on this cassette. Shortly before the mixing I was introduced to an Effektgerät by a friend, Rapha. Another good friend Art lent me their one, and I ended up using copious amounts of it throughout mixing, alongside my usual space creators. All the tracks on this release were mixed again on this mixer and are in a sense all a bit of a dub of the originals. I wouldn't have worked this way without the mixer, and the effect gave me a dimension I hadn't had before, so, from a technical perspective, the mixer and this effect define this release, giving it a coherence, at least for me. Emotionally of course the chaos and turbulence of the preceding year and my newfound appreciation for the medium give it a meaning I will struggle to formulate." – Alex The Fairy, Berlin, 9 May 2022

Once off collaboration between Drum Club’s Charlie Hall and Subsurfing’s Obi that threads a fine line between balearic and drum n’ bass.
The perfect chill out record from a once off collaboration between Drum Club’s Charlie Hall and Subsurfing’s Obi. It threads a fine line between balearic and drum n’ bass creating something remarkably unique. Originally released as an extremely limited run on Japanese label Paratone.

A band who have never stood still creatively, EBM is a breathlessly heavy step up and Editors’ most leftfield material yet – a thrilling, unrelenting thrust of full-bodied electro-industrial rock. The album title is an acronym of Editors and Blanck Mass, but also a knowing reference to Electronic Body Music, the potent sound that originated in the 1980s and which has hugely influenced Editors’ new material, where the synths of bands like Nitzer Ebb, Front 242 and DAF hammer darkly amongst smoke machines, strobe lights and the smell of leather.

IDE003 contains 4 remixes from the release IDE002 (Jiska Huizing & Rudi Valdersnes, 2019, Ideophone Records) by well known artists rRoxymore, Yhdessa, Nkisi and newcomer JIJU. Each artist has really managed to make the original tracks their own and their unique sounds and styles really shine in this very diverse collection of remixes, which ranges from leftfield techno to experimental electronics and ambient.

Inspired from Romanian cultural heritage, be it film, dance or musical instruments, Folclor Abstract is a glance back to the roots in search of a meaningful future.

The first track is inspired from the soundtrack composed by Cornelia Tăutu for the Romanian historical adventure film “Buzduganul cu trei peceți” (1977). The film presents a politicized version of the events that led in 1600 to the unification of the three Romanian countries, in the aftermath of a victorious battle against the Ottoman invasion (Călugăreni, 1595). Dance your way through as the story unfolds.

Dans cu balans is the result of a personal fascination for the cimbalom, an instrument of high versatility, frequently used in the Romanian fiddle music. In contrast to orchestral performances, which adhere to the composer’s notes to reproduce a work faithfully, fiddling is also open to improvisation and tends to produce rhythms that focus on dancing, with associated quick note changes.

Searching for inspiration within Romanian folklore, I found Ivan Braga who was on his own pursuit of cultural heritage, experimenting with a variety of traditional instruments and rhythms from different regions of the country. Doba lu’ Braga is Ivan’s modern take on Romanian drum patterns performed on a traditional Moldavian drum (dobă) with an uplifting twist and arrangement for the dancefloor experience.

Reverie is an expression of the creator’s state of mind. Lost in thought, stolen by imagination, haunted by memories, liberated by dreams

UCC Harlo and NY Graffiti team up for the second release on Peace Anthem Records. Alternating between bleary-eyed impressions and tightly articulated expression the artists forge a path laden with plangent sound, muted color, and circular forms. Ketamine-paced grooves, baroque miniatures, hazy-humid sonics, and dub inflections populate this domain. Each delivers one original and a remix of the other’s track.

Romanian composer and DJ, Ada Kaleh, reveals a more intricate and textured side to his compositional dexterity, releasing a new album ‘Nodus Tollens’ on the legendary ambient label, Apollo Records.

Composed and recorded between 2010 and 2020, ‘Nodus Tollens’ finds Ada Kaleh departing from the confines of minimal house and techno, and instead exploring the many facets of ambient electronica and minimalism. Drawing inspiration from minimalist artists such as Steve Reich and Terry Riley, four expansive compositions are offered up, each one transcending the boundaries of dance music dogma, and focusing on natural free-form rhythms; meditative and healing frequencies intertwine with special textures, resulting in soothing psychedelia.

Questioning the linear nature of time, each production guides the listener though whirling soundscapes, DMT realms and time loops, creating an aural safe space in which to explore. Propelled by a passion for 60’s & 70’s spiritual jazz, afro-beats and other psychedelic inducing textures, Ada Kaleh describes these musical endeavours as Quantum Techno.

Across two slabs of 12” vinyl, and four distinct passages and states of time (Future, Past, Present and Entropy), ‘Nodus Tollens’ is a seamless listening experience that heralds the development of the composer’s musical journey, which has to date afforded magnetic releases for labels like Dialogue, Rawax, R&S Records and his very own Ada Kaleh Romania imprint. Sleeve artwork on thew album comes courtesy of the super talented artist Anca Popa, now based in Cape Town after a move from her native Romania.

‘Nodus Tollens’ by Ada Kaleh is available on Apollo Records from 25th March 2022.

Ahead of the Meakusma Festival 2019 Don't DJ and NWAQ did an artist residency developing new music together from scratch. Their resulting performance at the festival was a mesmerising descent into the artistic perspectives of two singular artists active in off-kilter club music.Some of the eight tracks on this record were recorded live at the festival while others were recorded during the residency. All
dwell in distorted and eccentric bliss and play around with rhythmic arrhythmic and post-rhythmic tension.

Sophomore album from South London avant-groove collective Snorkel
Stop Machine
Dead Skin
Edgar's Hoover
Wet Tongue
Driller
Dark Star
Loophole
Jellyfish

tracks by add n to x, hairy butter, stereolab u. a.