Search:mental language

Wasteland is a record that is unafraid to plunge into the darkness of the modern world and embrace the weirder, edgier and more unnerving moments that come from doing so. It is an album that captures all the enormity of life from the micro to the macro, zooming in on the personal as well reflecting on broader societal issues.

“Wasteland is about the idea of a place once known or familiar that is now broken down and unrecognisable,” says Ghedi. “It’s about exploring the process of watching someone’s surroundings and environment collapse.” And within that you have a lot going on. “It also explores death, personal loss, grief, mental health and how the natural world provides solace and meaning for that loss and how these worlds blur into one another.”
Ghedi has always been an artist that in many ways perfectly encompasses folk music in its purest form but he is also someone that frequently pushes the boundaries of that label and no more so is that apparent than on this record. As like previous albums, such as 2018’s A Hymn for Ancient Land and 2021’s In the Furrows of Common Place, Ghedi uses traditional folk songs as a means to explore contemporary issues via modern and experimentally-leaning music. “With the traditional material on this album I wanted to find songs with content that resonated with me,” says Ghedi. “But also that were based roughly around the north of England.” This is a central underlying theme to the album for Ghedi. The feelings of loss, erosion, and degradation are often most pronounced in working class communities and this was something he wanted to weave in. “It was important to voice and choose material that represented or expressed issues that correlated with things going on around me.”

However, as remarkable as some of the traditional material is, some of the most arresting work on the album is Ghedi’s entirely original compositions. Lead single ‘Wasteland’ is a stunning piece of work that while rooted in an environment being corrupted and broken – “there’s violence on these hills” Ghedi sorrowfully sings, before claiming this is no longer somewhere that can be called home – it is also a stirringly beautiful composition that soars and glides as it opens up, as sweeping strings swoop and in and out of Ghedi’s twangy electric guitar.

The decision to incorporate more fuller sounds, such as electric guitar and huge drums, results in a notable shift and evolution in tone for Ghedi. “The lyrical content needed something more band-driven and loud to deliver them,” he explains. “Incorporating the electric guitar in my songwriting was also a big part of opening the sound up, using drop tunings pushed me to use my voice in a wider range, which forced me to use falsetto a lot which I haven’t previously done before. That then opened the sound up and gave me creative ideas for bigger arrangements and to sonically really push things.”

What Ghedi has done in creating his masterpiece is construct a remarkable space where deeply intimate and personal feelings coexist with reflections on environment, place and society, while also interweaving historical context via traditional songs. Wasteland is as much of a world to explore and exist in as much as it is an album, with Ghedi carving out his distinctly unique sonic language and voice to explore that singular environment.

Wasteland is a record that is unafraid to plunge into the darkness of the modern world and embrace the weirder, edgier and more unnerving moments that come from doing so. It is an album that captures all the enormity of life from the micro to the macro, zooming in on the personal as well reflecting on broader societal issues.

“Wasteland is about the idea of a place once known or familiar that is now broken down and unrecognisable,” says Ghedi. “It’s about exploring the process of watching someone’s surroundings and environment collapse.” And within that you have a lot going on. “It also explores death, personal loss, grief, mental health and how the natural world provides solace and meaning for that loss and how these worlds blur into one another.”
Ghedi has always been an artist that in many ways perfectly encompasses folk music in its purest form but he is also someone that frequently pushes the boundaries of that label and no more so is that apparent than on this record. As like previous albums, such as 2018’s A Hymn for Ancient Land and 2021’s In the Furrows of Common Place, Ghedi uses traditional folk songs as a means to explore contemporary issues via modern and experimentally-leaning music. “With the traditional material on this album I wanted to find songs with content that resonated with me,” says Ghedi. “But also that were based roughly around the north of England.” This is a central underlying theme to the album for Ghedi. The feelings of loss, erosion, and degradation are often most pronounced in working class communities and this was something he wanted to weave in. “It was important to voice and choose material that represented or expressed issues that correlated with things going on around me.”

However, as remarkable as some of the traditional material is, some of the most arresting work on the album is Ghedi’s entirely original compositions. Lead single ‘Wasteland’ is a stunning piece of work that while rooted in an environment being corrupted and broken – “there’s violence on these hills” Ghedi sorrowfully sings, before claiming this is no longer somewhere that can be called home – it is also a stirringly beautiful composition that soars and glides as it opens up, as sweeping strings swoop and in and out of Ghedi’s twangy electric guitar.

The decision to incorporate more fuller sounds, such as electric guitar and huge drums, results in a notable shift and evolution in tone for Ghedi. “The lyrical content needed something more band-driven and loud to deliver them,” he explains. “Incorporating the electric guitar in my songwriting was also a big part of opening the sound up, using drop tunings pushed me to use my voice in a wider range, which forced me to use falsetto a lot which I haven’t previously done before. That then opened the sound up and gave me creative ideas for bigger arrangements and to sonically really push things.”

What Ghedi has done in creating his masterpiece is construct a remarkable space where deeply intimate and personal feelings coexist with reflections on environment, place and society, while also interweaving historical context via traditional songs. Wasteland is as much of a world to explore and exist in as much as it is an album, with Ghedi carving out his distinctly unique sonic language and voice to explore that singular environment.

This second album by Bitsy Knox and Roger 3000 is an intimate and unsettling journey through mental, geographical, and emotional landscapes. Blending spoken word, ambient layers, and minimalist electronic textures, each track unfolds like a fragment of poetic autofiction—a tentative mapping of the invisible. The introspective texts probe solitude, desire, language, and time, in a chiaroscuro of tension and digression.

Prolific beat pharmacist par excellence Brendon Moeller continues his hot streak with a return to Samurai to serve up the exquisite craftsmanship of Shadow Language. Across 15 fresh productions the seasoned house and techno producer demonstrates yet more variations on his rejuvenated sound since pivoting towards 160 tempo zones. Heavyweight dub techno pulses collide with D&B pressure and dubstep snarl, delivered with devastating restraint and mediative warmth.

Moeller's dub-informed, high-grade production hit a hot streak as he started to experiment with faster tempos and more broken rhythms, reaching into thrilling new sound fields where fast-slow rhythmic intrigue meets with spatial subtlety and constantly evolving synth voices. The past year has seen him release a swathe of albums, from Further on Samurai to outings on Constellation Tatsu, ESP Institute and Quiet Details that all burst with inspiration, each distinct from the last and offering an original perspective on this rich seam of crossover electronics.

Shadow Language shows Moeller burrowing even deeper into this new era of his work, continuing the hypnotic approach set out on Further while edging more forthright ingredients into the mix. From the outset 'Division By Zero' hits with immediacy even as it dips into a dubwise breakdown, with snatches of vocal and even the iconic loom bird making the slightest of appearances. 'Feral Hymn' finds a curious kind of uplift in the synth chord that twists in and out of the mental techno murmurations of the rhythm section. 'Impermanence' has some snarling bass that belongs in the gnarliest tech-step, while the nagging hats ticking through 'Junkyard Syntax' hint at a shockout without resorting to brute force. The majestic dub techno chords of 'Driftform' create a through-line across Moeller's extensive catalogue, but here they dominate the mix above a spongy bed of sub bass throb and framed by the tiniest slithers of percussion.

Throughout the album, it's the implications Moeller suggests with the tools at his disposal that create a powerful energy. Restraint governs the delivery, guiding the listener in deeper until they find a maximal experience from each elegantly understated roller. The weight and presence is abundant across every track, fuelled by the invigorating power of each tone and frequency while avoiding the clutter of overloaded arrangements.

Finding the notes in between and half-hidden rhythms, Moeller himself perfectly summed up his latest opus as he continues to develop his own compelling Shadow Language.

"Trauma and the shock effect of it - the leftover residue of harsh reality so impactful that it shapes the way you imagine, envision and calculate your position in regard to everything and everyone around you.
A new type of psychological radius evolves. Boundaries are reinforced. Relationships are recessed. A damaged brief system float aimlessly. Vulnerable to and for anything reminiscent of a worthy cause. The truth about facts became satirical monologue, dead end expressions that have no critical arrangement. We all know someone that either has been or will be"

- Jeff Mills


The Eyewitness reveals a habitual pattern in the way it symbolizes a mirror reflection of mankind in our most vulnerable moments. It is the forthcoming album of Jeff Mills and it is composed from the perspective of an unknowingly complicit bystander and it is at the very least, psychologically pathological in nature. What this release is essentially proposing is an admission to the diagnosis that no one is immune to shock and trauma. Not the accuser or the accused. And this abnormality s culturally and generally transmittable - handed down and passed over to one another disguised as righteous theatre.

As an artist, what Mills is notoriously known for is the perspectives and paths he chooses to approach hefty, complex, and sometimes, awkward subjects. The best way to recognize the narratives of his mostrecent album works such as "The Clairvoyant", an eerie transcending album that plays through like a Seance for creating a bridge to reach another dimension or "Mind Power Mind Control", a cautionary warning about the consequences of supporting deceit, mind control and mass mental persuasion is to start by first taking a moment to look at yourself in a mirror. He's suggesting sound as a reflection and what we might be able to see in ourselves. Proposing that we might be the problem and a solution. In the same vicinity of his recent solo albums, the direction, scope or target of The Eyewitness is first about us, then about it.

More than the few previous albums he's released lately, this one has a unique relationship in terms of imagery and visual treatments that represent the concept. The front cover shows Mills, neatly dressed in a black suit that appears to be caught in the act of doing something methodically as he cohorts to supportwith a bright white type of surgical light towards the viewer. Stark and in the act of.......something offensive - it could be some type of hypnotic machine at work. Other photos show him in darkened spaces. Remote and deep in thought.

Other clues are the titles of the tracks such as "Sacred Iridescent Mirror (The Pledge)": this refers to the act of installing value and credit to something ambiguous and "Menticide" which means the systematic effort to undermine and destroy a person's values and beliefs. In the opening track, "in A Traumatized World" we hear the narration spoken by Mills. In a language he specifically created for this album. It's a dialect that is designed to be undistinguishable, but spoken with a compassion that it could be sympathized with. In the latter part of the track, it reaches a climatic point. Meaning, "it" has happened. And the album is the evidence.

On extra note:

In this day and age,it's comforting to see a musician like Jeff Mills administer music conceptually without any conditions attached. The artistry and craft of using sound and rhythm to bring forth a concern, a warning or the result of a diagnosis to the listener.

Red Vinyl

Time has come for Futurepast to release a long format album: Alarm Phase Red - catalogue number FPLP01 - will be the first full-length work from Futurepast founder Davy Vandegaer, appearing here under a new name: Brainwashed Today.

Rooted in a conceptual approach of electronic music, this double LP ranges from industrial ambient to experimental techno. Like an antidote to a twisted reality of controlled screens and mental isolation, Alarm Phase Red uses the raw language of electricity
to reach the core of the machine and sabotage it, reverse its effects by mirroring them. Fighting fire with fire, deflecting the pressure and strain of a world driven by fear and anger, the music of Brainwashed Today acts like a cathartic escape from technological enslavement.

With the purchase of the vinyl comes a batch of three digital bonus tracks pursuing further the sound research of the album.

Repress!

KNTXT signs hotly-tipped techno artist Indira Paganotto for a new EP that showcases her unique sound across four compelling tracks.

Indira's father was a DJ in the iconic Goa scene in India in the 90s, so she grew up surrounded by colourful, emotive techno and psytrance. She has brought that to her own DJ sets and productions ever since she moved to Madrid to pursue her career. Now Indira is coming out with her best EP to date.

“I got to know Indira Paganotto when we opened up for demo submissions earlier this year,'' says KNTXT label boss Charlotte de Witte. “She immediately caught my attention with her unique take on psy/techno music. It feels very good to have her on board and I'm curious to see what the future holds for her.”

Indira adds, "I understand music as a state of trance where each track develops a journey and a story. Himalaya EP is the reflection of everything I learned since my childhood until today, the heritage and passion for Psytrance, the experiences in India, the connection with nature, as well as the feeling of freedom and strength like the gallop of a horse, the synths of Goa music, the love and the truth, which is what fills my life. Thank you Charlotte for understanding my language in such a true way. Ours is a real connection in such a sincere mental embrace, and I am proud to be part of your KNTXT family and to be able to show everyone who I am."

The EP ́s opening track, 'Takeshi', is a slick techno roller that is rippled with psychedelic melodies and bright acid lines. They bleep and squeak up top to create a hypnotic effect as the drums march on. 'Sultans Of Mountains' contains intense psychedelic synths waning about the mix. The drums are stripped back and urgent, and crashing hits and smart filters bring real tension as this one unfolds in an arresting fashion. On the other hand, 'Himalaya' has a deep and sleek techno atmosphere where astral pads and heavenly vocal coos make for a cinematic sound that will cast a real spell on the crowd. Last, but certainly not least we have the edgy and heavily textured 'Cobra' with its unrelenting drums, slapping hits and futuristic, psytrance-tinged melodies all designed to mess with your mind.

This is an EP packed with fresh techno, straight from the breakout star Indira Paganotto.

Black Vinyl

Time has come for Futurepast to release a long format album: Alarm Phase Red - catalogue number FPLP01 - will be the first full-length work from Futurepast founder Davy Vandegaer, appearing here under a new name: Brainwashed Today.

Rooted in a conceptual approach of electronic music, this double LP ranges from industrial ambient to experimental techno. Like an antidote to a twisted reality of controlled screens and mental isolation, Alarm Phase Red uses the raw language of electricity
to reach the core of the machine and sabotage it, reverse its effects by mirroring them. Fighting fire with fire, deflecting the pressure and strain of a world driven by fear and anger, the music of Brainwashed Today acts like a cathartic escape from technological enslavement.

With the purchase of the vinyl comes a batch of three digital bonus tracks pursuing further the sound research of the album.

As Selofan's fifth studio album, Vitrioli, from 2018, is a testament to the tragedy of life. The Greek duo, Joanna Pavlidou and Dimitris Pavlidis, who recorded the album in the Fabrika Records home studio, continue on in their poetic, but heartbreaking, music set to a dance beat. Between languages (Greek, English, German, and Spanish), Selofan feels on the brink of mania with Vitroli. However, the madness is controlled, the songs are restrained hysterics that culminate into the alchemic perfection of the band's specific moody sound.
From synthpop to synthpunk elements, the twelve-track LP leads listeners through dark corridors and into haunted, empty beds. There is a resignation to a doomed destiny with Vitroli—a trait that connects all Selofan releases—as a bitter pain and loneliness that cannot, or will not, subside.

The album begins with "Give Me a Reason" whose lyrics feel universal in this day and age: Give me a reason, to get out of bed / I could just watch the ceiling instead. Its heartbreak is profound as bells and voice pads echo under Joanna's voice. The adjacent music video for the song was directed by Dimitris Chaz Lee, and the band describes the video as "depicting the fragile nature, conflicts, emotional demands, and vulnerability of each person in a relationship."
"Billie Was a Vampire" is a story about an undead creature who works at a nightclub followed by the urgency of "Black Box." Brass sounds moan against the fast beat and suggest a frenzied need to escape.

"I'm Addicted" became the second single for the LP. I am addicted, you are mine, Joanna demands of the lover. The music video, also directed by Dimitris Chaz Lee, depicts a clean, white photoshoot primed for the most beautiful creatures of the Athenian wave scene. Alex Macharias, from the legendary Greek band In Trance 95, acts as the photographer for the session, as the models pose and flail under the bright bulbs. The director states: "Addiction is a mental state, something inside all of us. It altered our perception and created a parallel world of avant-garde beings and flashy lights making us part of this everlasting bond."

As Selofan's fifth studio album, Vitrioli, from 2018, is a testament to the tragedy of life. The Greek duo, Joanna Pavlidou and Dimitris Pavlidis, who recorded the album in the Fabrika Records home studio, continue on in their poetic, but heartbreaking, music set to a dance beat. Between languages (Greek, English, German, and Spanish), Selofan feels on the brink of mania with Vitroli. However, the madness is controlled, the songs are restrained hysterics that culminate into the alchemic perfection of the band's specific moody sound.
From synthpop to synthpunk elements, the twelve-track LP leads listeners through dark corridors and into haunted, empty beds. There is a resignation to a doomed destiny with Vitroli—a trait that connects all Selofan releases—as a bitter pain and loneliness that cannot, or will not, subside.

The album begins with "Give Me a Reason" whose lyrics feel universal in this day and age: Give me a reason, to get out of bed / I could just watch the ceiling instead. Its heartbreak is profound as bells and voice pads echo under Joanna's voice. The adjacent music video for the song was directed by Dimitris Chaz Lee, and the band describes the video as "depicting the fragile nature, conflicts, emotional demands, and vulnerability of each person in a relationship."
"Billie Was a Vampire" is a story about an undead creature who works at a nightclub followed by the urgency of "Black Box." Brass sounds moan against the fast beat and suggest a frenzied need to escape.

"I'm Addicted" became the second single for the LP. I am addicted, you are mine, Joanna demands of the lover. The music video, also directed by Dimitris Chaz Lee, depicts a clean, white photoshoot primed for the most beautiful creatures of the Athenian wave scene. Alex Macharias, from the legendary Greek band In Trance 95, acts as the photographer for the session, as the models pose and flail under the bright bulbs. The director states: "Addiction is a mental state, something inside all of us. It altered our perception and created a parallel world of avant-garde beings and flashy lights making us part of this everlasting bond."

For years, L.A.’s David Jasso and the UK’s Mike Vest walked separate but parallel routes through psychedelic noise rock—two genre outsiders pulling the music toward raw instinct, intensity, and sonic extremity. Their paths kept echoing each other, from their own projects and collaborations—most notably through their work with key artists in the Japanese psych underground—both speaking the same volatile language of improvisation and avant-garde abrasion. A collision wasn’t just likely—it was inevitable.
This ethos and commitment to raw, volume-overdosed psych rock led to this new collaboration. Rather than deliver the expected heavy psych freakout, they opted for something more direct and confrontational.
The result is Non Violence and the album “Lifted Curse,” a six-track blast of noise rock focused not on mysticism and psych tropes, but on psychological depth. The album rips through raw male emotion: fraternity, loss, carnal impulses, mental states. Jasso’s lyrics read like an unfiltered journal mid-burnout; Vest’s swirling, savant-garde guitars create tension with Jasso’s own guitars; and Sned’s rocksteady grooves form a fistfight of harmony and dissonance.
Together, this new power trio carves out a new sonic language—heaviness rooted not in posturing, but in realness and weight: fragility, weakness, and the human efforts forged to break out from it. Non Violence is noise rock with an unironic violent aim in the physical dimension—a new conversation in a familiar space, where vulnerability hits harder than distortion and conviction outweighs myth.
David Jasso — Guitars, Bass & Vocals
Mike Vest — Guitars, Bass & Mix
Dave Sneddon — Drums

Although humans possess language as a means of communication, We sometimes hurt each other simply by intending to. In war, bullets kill people. If we consider words to be like bullets, they can be violent and cause mental suffering. However, when communication causes problems, the only way to solve them is through more communication. I thought: wouldn't it be wonderful if those bullets could turn int flowers instead? In everyday life, when we talk, laugh and share moments with friends and family, Those moments can be transformed into flowers. Keeping this in mind, I created this album. (Hidetoshi Koizumi aka Hybrid Leisureland)

Rivet’s new album for Editions Mego is an uplifting and joyous affair coming in the wake of tragedy and disenchantment. It is yet another rebirth from an artist willing to take a step back and reprise the current situation he is in. Mika Hallbäck has a long credible history in the Swedish underground. First recognised for his industrial techno works under the Grovskopa moniker he worked privately on more experimental works that eventually came out as On Feather and Wire, an album released on Editions Mego in 2020. After much acclaim for this bold new direction that blended electronic abstraction, pop and industrial forms into a heavy synthetic trip two tragedies struck. One was the passing of label boss Peter Rehberg and then the passing of his dog Lilo, who was as close as a companion one could have. These events led to the release of the more unsettling follow up L+P-2 (Lilo and Pita minus two) on Midnight Shift Records in 2023. Peck Glamour sees Rivet return to the reawakened Editions Mego with an album of optimism inspired by reconciliation with loss and further explorations of new mental/sonic realms.

Hallbäck defines his approach as not being married to any particular machine, instrument, process or genre. However he holds a particular affinity to sampling, of which, he says, provides the dirt and grit amongst what would otherwise be pristine, generic machine music. The contemporary crate digging method of scouring obscure download music bogs for unique sounds was his preferred research practice.

Peck Glamour is an album full of tracks brimming with the excitement of exploration. It's the results of a mind informed by punk, industrial, techno, dancefloor, disappointment, trauma and rebirth. Here the synthetic and authentic is viewed simply as the same means of human rationale and expression.

The opening, ‘Catch Up to Light’, sets the scene with ecstatic and odd fluorescent vocals sliding amongst crystalline likembe whilst synths swirl amongst the external festivities. ‘Orbiting Empty Cocoon’ is somewhat a homage to the alien sound worlds of The Orb, one which takes the listener deeper into a mind melting array of teased potential as visual elements are executed in a mask of audio wizardry and euphoric staccato rhythms, the later being a nod to Singeli music. ‘Patitur Butcher’ is more dance frontal utilising the Ghatam drum and a YouTube rip of a Chinese language lesson. ‘Plastic Bag Putain’ was made during the beginning of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and should be clear of its intent. ‘All that Heaven Allows’ is a marimba cover of an imaginary Love Parade anthem. 'Kyrie Geire’ potentially briefly fills the void left by the demise of Coil. The entire trip of Peck Glamour is sewn up with ‘We left before we came’ whereby extraneous recordings of double bass player Gregory Vartian-Foss (tuning/strumming/moving the bass) are superimposed with local field recordings to create a gorgeous bed of sounds acting as an exciting exit music to this sharp collection of cinematic ear excursions.

Hildur Gudnadóttir reunites with director Todd Phillips for the score to Joker: Folie à Deux, following their acclaimed work on 2019's Joker, which earned Gudnadóttir an Academy Award, GRAMMY, BAFTA and Golden Globe. Phillips describes her music as 'basically the second biggest character in the first film', and her return was never in question.

For Folie à Deux, Gudnadóttir pushed her sonic language further, inventing a new instrument to reflect Arthur's internal split. Inspired by his mental confinement, she worked with Icelandic builders to create a 'string prison' - long strings stretched through space and played with a trench cello - to evoke both euphoria and claustrophobia.

Night Keeper is a collaborative album by New York City-based artist Aaron Landsman and former Swans guitarist Norman Westberg that is based on the former's eponymous play. Westberg recorded it together with performer Jehan O. Young for the Swiss Hallow Ground label, with Landsman serving as the record’s producer. The original piece was first performed in the Spring of 2023 at The Chocolate Factory Theater in Queens and filled the stark industrial space with spoken text, choreography, projections, and music in dim light and, occasionally, complete darkness. Westberg and Young afterwards brought it to the studio to record it as a two-part
album in whose course his textural sounds, based on loops and samples, set the stage for her soothing, sonorous vocal performance. »Night Keeper« is a performance inspired by sleeplessness and the wanderings of the human mind at night—about time and memory.
Westberg and Young elegantly capture its essence in these roughly 44 minutes with a somnambulic album, letting sound and meaning flow into each other. The initial spark for Night Keeper was a run of almost sleepless nights in different neighbourhoods of a city that is perpetually insomniac. Instead of trying to force himself to go back to sleep by any means necessary, Landsman started writing down his thoughts. As he explains in the liner notes—accompanying the music along with drawings made by audience members during the performances—he started listening to the particular way in which the voice in his head navigates time and language. Accordingly, the texts that Young reads on the record form a diverse collection of specific moments, imagining different speakers and evoking different
situations. Westberg complements, accentuates, and juxtaposes these with different means. Ominous drones, soaring melodies, rhythmic bass sounds: the guitarist, whose latest release for Hallow Ground was 2021’s First Man In The Moon with Polish double bassist Jacek Mazurkiewicz, conjures up distinct sound worlds in which Young can let Landsman’s scenes unfold to gripping effect.
Landsman makes it clear that »Night Keeper« was intended as an invitation to »stay up, look out the window, let what’s happening outside spark reveries or predictions« or even take it on a stroll through the neighbourhood—at night, of course. Much like the original piece, this album is then one dedicated to wandering around, both mentally and physically.

Opaque Mango Colored Vinyl. RIYL: Black Milk, Kendrick Lamar, Kamasi Washington, Mos Def, Blood Orange, Milo, Pharcyde, Blackalicious, Anderson Paak. Richmond, Virginia-based artist McKinley Dixon has always used his music as a tool for healing, exploring, and unpacking the Black experience in order to create stories for others like him. For My Mama And Anyone Who Look Like Her, Dixon's debut album on Spacebomb, is the culmination of a journey where heartbreak and introspection challenged him to adapt new ways of communicating physically and mentally, as well as across time and space. The language accessibility aspect of this project draws right back to communication and connecting," Dixon explains. "I think about the messaging, and how this can be a way for another Black person, someone who looks like me, to listen to this and process the past. Everything I've learned about communication for this album culminates with this bigger question about time. Is time linear when you're still healing and processing? Westerners look at time travel as something to conquer or control - it's a colonizer mindset. That's ignoring how time travel can be done through stories and non-verbal communication, and doesn't acknowledge how close indigenous people are to the land and the connections groups have because they've existed somewhere for so long. Storytelling is time travel, it's taking the listener to that place. Quick time travel. Magic." Never relying solely on beats, Dixon taps into a hybrid of jazz and rap, pulling in an array of piercing strings, soulful horns, percussion, and angelic vocalists throughout the album-plus features by Micah James, Lord Jah-Monte Ogbon, Pink Siifu, and more. Jazz instrumentals add a level of uncertainty, with the sounds and shifts evoking a lot of emotion and vulnerability. It's an energy he describes as "Pre-Kendrick Lamar To Pimp A Butterfly," the era when rap adopted more live instrumentation. The best way to sum up this album is: I was sad, I was mad, and now I'm alive," Dixon explains. "These things I talk about on the record have had harmful and brilliant effects on my timeline, and have forced me to be cognizant of the fact that living is complex. Rap has allowed me the language to communicate, and be someone who can communicate with people from all over. Knowing how far I've come, I think people will find trust in the message I'm sending."

White Vinyl

Soon after the release in 2022 of a triple album dedicated to electronic language, Principles of Geometry continues their orbiting journey that began exactly 20 years ago with "Penta," a Maxi composed of five electro-geometric vignettes that confirm what we already knew: the discreet French duo pilots one of the most underestimated projects in European IDM.

By returning just one year after a massive fifth album (26 tracks), Principles of Geometry makes a clear artistic move: shifting from electronic language unfolded on ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ to gesture, as one would associate intellect with manual, actions with words. On "Penta," to be visualized as the five fingers of a hand sketching the immediate and spontaneous pleasure of a hand pressing a chord, Guillaume Grosso and Jeremy Duval thus combine two essential concepts of their electronic music: the need to make the listener dance with their brains, and to touch with their mental images.

With nods to the godfathers of the genre (Autechre and Boards of Canada) or crossing paths with Aphex Twin in a Michael Mann film, "Penta" is therefore a beauty of gesture first conceived with the fingers, and without the need for words to evoke either the romance or the violence of a chord on a Roland Juno 60.

Mastered by the legend Noel Summerville (Boards of Canada, Kraftwerk, My Bloody Valentine) and designed by Ian Anderson of The Designers Republic (responsible for the graphics of the cult WipEout and many collaborations with the Warp label), this Maxi is therefore listened to as much as a recreational return to the future of the 90s as it is a concise summary of the equilateral career of Principles of Geometry; equally distant between pure emotion and the need to ponder the notes played in this very special ship.

2024 Transparent Vinyl Repress

With seemingly effortless precision and a sense for the imperfect, Popp merges Ambient, Third Stream and Minimal Music on his debut album "Laya". The title derives from the Sanskrit language and signifies a place of rest and mental inactivity. In the spring of 2019 Popp created these 8 tracks from hours of improvisation in his own studio. The moments thus captured were then enriched with more sounds and effects to add layers and shed the manually played percussion of all its earthliness. The result is an album of concealed complexity and unadorned beauty.

Raised on an old farm in rural Bavaria, Simon Popp started playing the drums at the age of 9. During his studies at the Academy of Music and Theatre in Munich, he extensively studied African music from countries like Togo, Ghana and Benin where rhythm is central to culture. On his quest for this world's sounds, Popp collected and recorded a wide variety of drums and other instruments, adding to the placelessness of Laya.

#40 ON ROLLING STONE'S 500 GREATEST ALBUMS OF ALL TIME: ANTICIPATES LATE 1960S TURBULENCE VIA PROPHETIC SONGS AND DARK THEMES
1/4" / 15 IPS analogue master to DSD 256 to analogue console to lathe



Any discussion about the finest psychedelic rock record ever recorded is incomplete if it doesn't grant consideration to Love's Forever Changes. Ranked by Rolling Stone as the 40th greatest album ever made, and named by Mojo the second-greatest psychedelic set in history, the effort is an internationally recognized seminal work of art. Transcending language and convention, its magnitude and magnificence need to be heard again and again. For here is an effort whose mind-boggling acoustic complexities and kaleidoscopic nuances are tailored for high-fidelity playback.

Nearly unlimited headroom, vast instrumental separation, transparent clarity, artifact-free atmospherics, and faithful balances appear out of jet-black backgrounds. Turn it up as loud as you want; the sole limitation will be your system's potential.

Commercially ignored upon release in November 1967, Forever Changes confronts the alienation, paranoia, violence, and strife that would soon plague the countercultural movement and send the Summer of Love into a tailspin. Apart from its lyrical themes and prescient malaise, the record's enduring nature equally owes to intertwined arrangements sewn together with Latin guitar-picked lines, finessed folk harmonies, mariachi-inspired horn charts, and subdued strings.

The seemingly opposing combination – ominous, dark reflections situated amidst lush, light melodic beds – affords Forever Changes a distinguished tension of claustrophobia and openness, dourness and ecstasy, ugliness and elegance enjoyed by no other record in the rock canon. Much of the contrast owes to leader Arthur Lee's mental state and pertinent observations. Lee, whose suppressed romanticism often surfaces even amidst the blackest shadows and most cynical moments, believed he would soon die, and hence channeled everything from lasting hopes to acid-addled decay to the chilling testimony of a Vietnam veteran in his narratives.

Alternatively sad and beautiful, the album-opening and flamenco-inspired "Alone Again Or" establishes the mood for what follows. Vocals overlap and soar; tempos rise and fall; surrealism trades places with reality.Forever Changes thrives both because of and in spite of a surfeit of labyrinthine chords and difficult notes that never repeat. Its ambitious construction almost forced the already fractured band to cede responsibilities to session musicians, which appear on two tracks. The quintet's resolve to not only complete the album, but to do so with such poignancy and curiosity, further enhances Forever Changes' standing.

No wonder that, in the twilight of his troubled career, Lee performed the record in its entirely during concerts met with overwhelming critical acclaim. It was, and will always be, a personal manifesto of timeless relevance and appeal.

English: Melodies that stay in the ear, with at the same time merciless speed and brutality and always a clear political message – this is what the modern death metal band NECROTTED from Southern Germany stands for now more than 15 years! Founded back in 2008, the band from Abtsgmünd (Baden-Wuerttemberg) has since grown to become a notable force in the scene, constantly thrilling their growing fan base and the music press with both their musical releases and their energetic live shows. In the time of their existence, NECROTTED have already released four albums with ‘Anchors Apart’ (2012), ‘Utopia 2.0’ (2014), ‘Worldwide Warfare’ (2017) and ‘Operation: Mental Castration’ (2021) and two EPs with ‘Kingdom Of Hades’ (2010) and ‘Die For Something Worthwhile’ (2019). In addition, the quintet has played hundreds of live concerts over the years on smaller and bigger stages in various countries. Now, the new album ‘Imperium’ marks another milestone in the band’s history. The LP is once again designed as a concept album and consistently develops the elaborate storyline of its predecessor in a substantial as well as in a visual way. Also, NECROTTED continue to tread experimental parts in a musical way. Their proven recipe of melodic guitar riffs, thundering blast beats and oppressive slams is joined by more and more black metal elements. In the lyrics, which are basically written in English, there are also more and more text passages in the German native language, which are performed as usual in banefully deep growls and strident screams. ‘Imperium’ will be released in September 2023 via the label Reaper Entertainment Europe and will almost certainly leave a resounding echo in the field of contemporary, diversified death metal.