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Kicking off proceedings on new label, Scene Unseen is Yorkshire’s finest, Jinjé a.k.a. Lee J Malcolm.

Scene Unseen will focus on exploring and showcasing scenes from around the world (some seen or some maybe unseen), as well as releasing music from artists who incorporate sounds from across the globe within a music style that's closer to home. This is where Jinjé steps in, delivering an EP of Afro-funk and Afro-tech. He draws upon his usual duties as a fine Techno, House and Electronica producer and combines them with rhythms inspired by African and Indian music, using instruments (played and recorded live by Jinjé) and field recordings from both regions.

Jinjé (Lee J Malcolm) has released on labels such as Messrs. Kicks & Drums, EPM Music, Mesh and Ostgut Ton. He was also a founding member and mainstay in the Leeds band, Vessels (Different Recordings), until leaving a couple of years ago to concentrate on solo projects.

The track names tell all, as Jinjé gives a clear nod to the Africanism is his music. First track, 'Ngoma' is a name used across Africa to describe certain drums and percussive instruments, which can be heard here, like Djembes from the Conga region, as well as live and acoustic components, blended with modular and other electronic sounds.

'Burkina Faso' takes us west and hits the ground running with a vocal sample of Tribal women from the area, singing praise and joy to engineers who have come to provide fresh water to the village: "Praise God for they have come to build us a well." The progression of the track is based around this joy and develops nicely alongside some intense bass and drums.

'Dusk' is inspired by thoughts of the Serengeti planes at night fall, all built around Jinjé's live M'bira plugged into a modular synth, grouped with live flute and field recordings from India which provide additional percussion.

'Ya Maji' is a collection of high energy rhythms from a Moroccan frame drum, congas, clapping, live bass, distorted marimba and the mighty Korg Ms20 playing the lead synth lines.

Last up is 'Jara', a nod to Steve Reich and his six marimbas, as well as drawing inspiration from Fela Kuti. Vocal samples bring in more of the field recordings Jinjé made in India, as well as the clapping elements. Acoustic and electronic sounds intertwine to great effect and sum up the EP as a whole.

Look out for more from Jinjé in this musical direction as he seeks to bring these tracks and future ones to a live band setup.

YUNG DUMB Records and Model Future present Wade Galaxy. A collaboration between Toronto-based AZARI, Butr, and vocalist Jeremy Glenn. The trifecta comes forward with an EP that will bring you through a modular soundscape of love, lust, and distrust inside the hypercube. The A-Side is a hazy fusion of R&B and slowed electro, accompanied by Jeremy Glenn's ethereal vocals. The B-Side provides a room shaking cerebral 2-step remix of 'Phaze' by James Bangura of Black Rave Culture via Washington, DC

(Emmanuel Top, Tom Hades, Kony Donales + original remastered) Zolex heads up our next Bonzai Classics vinyl release with his 1993 cut, Time Modulator. New remixes come from Emmanuel Top, Tome Hades and Kony Donales who add their own unique twists to a techno classic.

Zolex heads up our next Bonzai Classics vinyl release with his 1993 cut, Time Modulator. New remixes come from Emmanuel Top, Tome Hades and Kony Donales who add their own unique twists to a techno classic. Back in the mid-nineties, Frank Struyf was churning out top club hits on Dance Opera, Circus, Frank’s own Zolex Records and our very own XTC and Bonzai Records imprints. Despite his busy DJ schedule Frank still found the time to produce his own sounds. Many years of producing quality records followed and he is still twiddling the knobs and spinning sets to this day.

The Original Mix graces the A1 slot, with its dark drums and rolling techno vibe hitting the spot. Moody and twisty, the groove becomes infectious and hypnotic thanks to a combination of blippy, bleepy sounds and relentless strings. The energy levels rise after the break, causing chaotic scenes on the floor, an absolute stomper. French DJ and producer Emmanuel Top takes up the A2 slot, delivering a fine remix with his instantly recognisable signature sound. Responsible for so many acid laden moments throughout his career, Emmanuel Top remains an inspiration to many. On the remix here, the tension mounts as 303 lines fade up alongside a hybrid drum construction and hypnotic FX. The acid effect takes hold, dominating the groove, the perfect set builder to whip up the crowd. Over on the flip, Belgian artist Tom Hades offers up his interpretation, turning the original into a slamming slice of techno for the modern dancefloor. Undoubtedly, Tom is responsible for some of the best techno joints released in recent years. Here, he employs his skills to great effect, using banging beats and minimalistic sounds that drive a solid, dark room techno vibe. This one is a must have, no doubt. To complete the vinyl, we have French artist Kony Donales on remix duties. Kony is the owner of Cayden Records which has churned out top techno tracks since 2011. He is known for his minimal style and he definitely knows how to work a track. The remix here brings the essence of Time Modulator into the 21st century with a strong contemporary groove. Nice pounding kicks and crispy percussions set the rhythm loose as metallic hits join raucous percussions and FX. Top-notch stuff once again.

* Over the past six years, Dimensions has become a leading name in the underground, with its festival, International Series, DJ Directory and Dimensions Soundsystem. Now, Dimensions extends its influence with the start of its label - Dimensions Recordings. The label launches with a 12-track compilation across three separate discs. 'An Introduction' makes a huge statement in setting out the label's intent and breadth. With artists established and new stepping up to present 12 exclusive tracks.

* Dimensions Recordings explores its darker side on An Introduction Part 3 with intergalactic oddities and twisted techno constructions, the release is definitely ones for the late hours. 'Crosstalk' from gear heads London Modular Alliance opens; a squelching, electro, hardware excursion demonstrating a small snippet of what's to come from the talented trio. Next, French artist, Upwellings steps up to demonstrate his purist approach as he unites elements of dub and techno to create the beautifully spacey 'Soft Shadows'. The third offering comes courtesy of Fachwerk label boss and prolific techno artist, Mike Dehnert; who presents raw but melodic track in 'Tokio,'which maintains his minimal and stripped back aesthetic beautifully. Chicago's Steven Tang in his Obsolete Music Technology rounds off the release with 'Comb Freq,' a devastatingly powerful mix of acidic, bleeping dance floor energy!

"Prime Sequences" is the latest album by dj and electronic music producer GummiHz, real name Alexander Tsotsos. Alex has an ear for what he describes as elastic frequencies, thus gummi-hertz! In other words, low bass lines, airy synth phrases and shuffle rhythms, playfully arranged within loose forms. A philosophy that comes across throughout this long player. Elements fall in and out of order, time swings back and forth, all together in perfect harmony! Pushing the boundaries of what has become his signature sound, a fusion of house and techno all the way from Berlin to Detroit! This package features underground music coming straight from the heart, or the Hertz more appropriately! The story unfolds within no less than nine tracks showcasing Alex's versatility in making waves!

The opening track titled "Berlinopolis" is a sonic portrait of the city of Berlin, where Alex lives since more than a decade. A smooth soundscape produced by combining abstract melodies with field recordings of the city's ambience. "'Second Wave" follows airy jazz chords and drum parts to launch the listener into trajectory. It feels like the sort of track that would probably make it into Herbie Hancock's deep house collection! The title track "Prime sequence" is a Detroit brewed piece with some Berlin minimalism rawness in the rhythm section! Combining a mixture of drama, suspense and shaking drums to dominate the dance floor. Next up comes "Submerge", a tight and hypnotic affair carrying the right amount of subtle release. It locks in right from the start and doesn't let go! "Prime Dub" dives deeper into the frequency spectrum. Rhythm and sound stimulate the brain waves as a heavy chord phrase cycles to infinity. "Proto Sequence" follows a simple still infectious groove laced with various modulations. This track has party written all over it! Inspired by proto-house motifs pioneered by artists like Chi-town's Ron Hardy. "Metafunk" reaches out to Berlin's club culture at its core. That is, the youth and street culture! The phrase on repeat signifies the urge to reclaim the streets, while endlessly flowing within finely tuned electronics. "Mindloop" is a track written for the after hours looping state of mind. Another minimal house cut with a fair dose of psychedelic sound design. Lastly, "Descension" relaxes the mood through deep pulsating rhythms and playful arpeggios. Pushing towards a meditative state by stimulating mind, body and soul!?

"Prime Sequences" covers a wide range of styles like ambient electronics, peak time house and techno, as well as seriously effed up after hour minimalism! Made for both djs and music lovers, this is the second long player by GummiHz to come out on vinyl after his debut album "Sleepless Nights" back in 2009! While it succeeds his latest EP, "Groove is in the Hertz". What makes it even more special is that it comes out on brainchild Claap, giving the artist total freedom of expression.

Stefan Schwanders Repeat Orchestra presents “Infamous Lost Tracks”, an album appearing out of the blue, coming from spheres where time, space and Zeitgeist are nothing more than words.
With the Repeat Orchestra Schwander (who of course also is Harmonious Thelonious, A Rocket In Dub, Antonelli and a lot more) found a unique way of channeling deep House Music, a minimalistic setup and an idea of creating enjoyable music into amazing tracks that sound so effortless and natural. From first track "Call And Response" on it’s obvious that the main thing that this album is about is the groove, sometimes euphoric, sometimes quite unobtrusive but always irresistible, build from massive basslines, complex rhythms and the masterfully performed interplay of repetition and modulation. Warm harmonies, multilayered (at times quite unusual ("Nightdubbing")) melodies and subtle arrangements complete these Infamous Lost Tracks and their very own formular between Düsseldorf, Chicago and Lagos. There’s nothing harsh in this music, no aggression, still it’s far from being tame or tranquil: The pumping energy of "A Means To An End" or the sublime liquid shuffle of "Less Sensational" show the swing and kick inside these works that are made for delight but not to please.

And “Monks In A Club” is the most brilliant example of dancefloor understatement that you’ll ever hear in your life. Reduction, elegance and the right kind of mania concentrated into some minutes of pure club heaven. Handclaps, nonchalance & madness. An essential singularity and the swan song to the Repeat Orchestra, there will be no more of it. Get It And Smile.

New album by the Berlin-based musician, composer and producer MIDORI HIRANO aka MIMICOF, entirely recorded using the EMS SYNTHI100 at Electronic Studio Radio Belgrade during an artist residency: contemporary electronic music / ambient for the advanced listener.

Midori Hirano is a Japanese musician, composer and producer based in Berlin. She started learning the piano as a child and later studied classical piano at university. Therefore the music she releases under her own name is based on the use of piano, but yet experimental and an eclectic mixture of modern digital sounds with subtle electronic processing and field recordings. So far, Hirano released 7 solo albums under her civilian name on labels such as Sonic Pieces and DAUW.

Under the moniker MimiCof she explores the realm of more experimental music and detailed rhythmic patterns, combined with an idea of drawing melodic shapes and harmonies. As MimiCof she performed at prestigious festivals and events such as CTM, Heroines of Sound Festival, Boiler Room Berlin and L.E.V. Festival, and was selected by Frank Bretschneider for the first volume of the "Sichten" compilation series on his raster label.

Besides producing her own works, Hirano has composed music for dance performances, video installations and films which have been screened at Berlin International Film Festival, Krakow Film Festival, SXSW Film Festival and HongKong International Film Festival (among others) and remixed tracks by artists including Rival Consoles, Foam And Sand aka Robot Koch, Liars and Pascal Schumacher.

While the last MimiCof album "Moon Synch" (2017, Alien Transistor) was recorded on the Buchla analogue modular Synthesizer at EMS Elektronmusikstudion in Stockholm, her latest effort "Distant Symphony" (the 4th as MimiCof) was created on a different synthesizer: the EMS SYNTHI 100 Synthesizer at Radio Belgrade. All sounds from this instrument were recorded as single sound samples at first, then mixed and modified into three long pieces of music, so that the audience can experience the machine's uniqueness and versatility of sound. Hirano understands this work as a gesture of respect for the SYNTHI 100's character: though a vintage instrument, it has never lost the beauty of its modern sound.

Delivering their signature no-nonsense EBM infused techno, Fractions return to Monnom Black with their 2nd highly anticipated EP of uncompromised club music that crosses the boundaries of sonic analogue sound design with innovative results. The ep is the sublimation of experimental overtones and modular beats, to make for a diverse approach that challenges the existing order in electronic music.

"Our Daytona EP is the result of an evolution of our sound, thanks to a new hardware-centric production featuring various machines and a new modular rack" - Fractions

Repress

Brainwaltzera's debut LP 'Poly-ana' follows quickly on the heels of the producer's Aescoba EP - also released this year via FILM. Across thirteen tracks of both previously released material and fresh excursions into the artist's world, Brainwaltzera explores sounds ranging from luscious, downtempo grooves and expertly reduced braindance cuts with nods to early 90's experimental IDM to harder, more caustic outings - all bound together by a recurring theme of otherworldly ambience. Taking its name from a variety of sources dear to the artist, including polyphonic analogue synthesizers and the Pol-lyanna Principle itself - a theory that suggests individuals recall pleasurable experience more acutely than displeasing ones - the title represents a meeting point in the artistic process between creative method and conceptual choices. Production techniques range from more traditional hardware synthesis to the incorporation of a modified dot matrix printer acting as a modulation source for MIDI parameters. Sample sources include VHS material from the produ-cer's own childhood and ambient Bullet Train samples from an on-the-fly production session traveling from Tokyo to Kyoto. According to the enigmatic producer, memory and its fundamental role in the human experience is one of the central themes of the record. While the artist's own experiences shaped the sound of the record, there is no attempt to impose them on the listener through blatant exposition.

Who controls the mind controls the body. After three years of experimentation in isolation, Dopplereffekt have emerged with Neurotelepathy, an oracular narrative of cerebral entanglement and advancement. The sleek mathematical models of 2017’s Cellular Automata have evolved into these synaptic interpretations, transferences and modifications, rejecting binary expectations to meditate on the possibilities and pitfalls of what’s to come. With their second LP and fifth release in total on Leisure System, the duo of Rudolf Klorzeiger and To-Nhan have themselves achieved a near-telepathic capacity for collaborative thought and mechanical construction. They continue to use live appearances to present experimental trials of theoretical models, and that effort is heard in the sizzle and swing of the percussive highlights here, programmed with a serious depth and wriggle that reflect both an extension of and return to form. Considerations of the machine-human interface, neurological realities and physical probabilities dominate. But these tracks are economical and precise, glittering with emotional depth and cinematic effects. The album's core, a three-act movement of symphonic uncertainty and revelation, marks one of the pair's most evocative compositions in a career full of them. Territory is monitored, traced and scanned, resulting in unexpected modulations. Underlying systems are questioned, competing mindsets animated and mutated: brain-to-brain, brain-to-machine and beyond. Neurotelepathy processes these transformative mental, psychological and transgenerational states both traumatic and triumphant.

Label favourites Balearic Ensemble return to the fore following last summer's spectacular 'Cachonda' EP, this time with a 12" treasury of wonderful, eclectic dancing music of the highest balearic order. They're joined by Das Komplex, notable for recent excursions on DJ Harvey's Mercury Rising, to round out their five-track excursion for the label: this is the Mediterráneo EP.

Opener 'Pitiusas First' sets the tone with dizzy, downbeat percussions as a bass guitar skates and glissades underfoot; soaring, starry-eyed synth work and Latin organ stabs in concerto. This homage to the islands and islets of Ibiza comes with a note of melancholy, or nostalgia: waking up to find that your best years might have evaded you - and celebrating the fact. It's a maturing of the Residentes sound in a way we haven't heard before; a gorgeous moonlight serenade, the last tango on Formentera, and a tip for orange-tinted sunsets all summer long.

Second track 'Almendros y Drones' takes us deeper into the throes of that distinctive Mediterranean sound with dizzying arpeggios and analogue bass over teetering hihats and fizzing synths; it's an eruptive, volcanic beast of a track that will take liberties with your dancefloor. Over-the-top filter action and driving piano perforations, crashing snares and resonant howls, Almendros, Drones.

The third offering is 'Mojada', taking cues from classic deep house with its deep-set bassline and modular squeaks. It's a slow burner, an aquaplane on Eivissa, cueing 303 squelches and 90s drum machine riffing before its eventual, explosive peak.

After Mojada we enter the chugging, gritty realm of Das Komplex's remixes. He refashions the heady throes of 'Mojada' into a driving, churning unit; percussions, distorted into infinity; basslines bent and buckled into submission; slabs of piano lathered with space echo delay. Wonky late-nite dancing music at its very best.

Extra treat: Das Komplex also left us his 'Pineapple Bonus Mix' of Mojada, which is a more sunset-suited affair altogether. This special mix lasers in on that exuberant piano part, then plays with percussions and dynamics to create a full-on dub version of the original track.

The project "Records Without Conception" shows toğrul's process of finding his sound. The album is not based on a concept, a statement or an overriding mood. The tracks are rather to be understood as portraits from protracted explorations of basic patterns in electronic genres and modular sound synthesis. The results are a not self- contained body of work, but rather discussions of various demands on sound and music that were experienced by the artist himself between the years 2018 and 2021. With his debut album, the German and Azerbaijan based producer wants to capture the process of this artistic searching and finding.
Surreal constructions of contrasting sounds evolve between the grids of genres. An experimental style and contemporary references across Contemporary RnB, Electro, Glitch and IDM form a sound logic of its own, which is additionally grounded by the singers Alice Dlugosch & Mariama Ceesay in two independent tracks.

"When Aniruddha Das (DSPSSSSD) and Gary ""Roy"" Stewart (Dubmorphology) met at Nottingham Trent Polytechnic in the mid-80s, they started on a life-long friendship and musical collaborative partnership that continues today.

While Das went on to acclaim as part of Asian Dub Foundation, Stewart is an artist and experimental sonic musician, producing projects featuring sound design and immersive works, for the likes of Tate Museum.

Together they perform as Dubnoiz Coalition, exploring the outer limits of improvised bass, noise and distortion, which has seen them perform across the globe.

In 1990 they took their first steps in a recording studio, mixing the early influences of Acid House with their interest in drone and sound effects, to create two pieces, Tilt and Fari 116.

Recorded as improvisational jams and dubbed live to the mixing desk, they were pressed as very limited white labels. Here Tilt is all bubbling acid and taut percussion, recorded to a 2” 16 track. Using samplers, drum machines, Roland TB303 and sync box, Ani arranged the drum and bass lines, as well as programming the 'counter melodies' with the TB303, with acid modulations and sometimes in odd time signatures, while Roy looked after the samples and drones.

Archival testaments but set apart from the burgeoning acid house scene and simply great music, here remastered and reissued some 30 years later by Platform 23.
"

Clear Vinyl

One of the most sought-after italo-disco release, the combined effort of Giovanotti Mondani Meccanici and Alexander Robotnick saw the light of the day in 1986 on Fuzz Dance, Materiali Sonori sub-label ran by the wizard Giampiero Bigazzi. Florence born producer and musician Maurizio Dami, created a mysterious character, a so-called “modular structure born out of a soviet calculator and promptly runaway”. His classic “Problemes D’amour” was featured on the influential Strut compilation Disco Not Disco 2. GMM was an even more enigmatic character, one of the most unclassifiable audiovisual experiences to emerge from Italy in the 1980s. Maurizio Dami itself was responsible for the group’s music output, while the unit was founded in 1984 by Antonio Glessi and Andrea Zingoni as an art collective whose production represents the quintessential expression of postmodern transmedia hybridity.

Greg Dowling and Shane Johnson return to the Go Deep label for their third album, ‘This Bit of Earth’. Beginning work in the relative normality of 2019 and finishing over the strange summer of 2020, the resulting music mirrors the thoughts that such upheaval brings out - our world and our place in it - while also functioning as a kind of travelogue of journeys past and planned, real and imaginary.

Mixing samples with modular synths, programmed drums with jazz loops, and quirky plugins with outboard gear, the album ranges far and wide while retaining a warm, natural core sound.

The title track opens proceedings on an ambiguous note. A simple double bass motif weaves around a misheard vocal sample, layers of piano and vibraphone take up the call, and the whole thing gradually spins off axis to a distorted, disjointed finish. ‘Suburban Key’ follows on a groove of busy drum work and deep sub bass, the stately piano and strings setting the stage for an undulating synth solo.

Further in, ‘Alice on Jupiter’ takes a deep breath and blends field recordings, gently swelling pads, modular bursts and a recurring picked melody.

‘Back Trace Dub’ strolls the imagined streets of Irish author Kevin Barry’s ‘City of Bohane’, noting the “taint of badness” in the air and revelling in the tense, dub-noir atmosphere. Later on, the spoken word intro of ‘I Could See’ expresses the dread of confinement and the relief and ecstasy of release, a theme the music reflects as it steadily builds to a joyful climax.

And closing the album on an optimistic note, the languid, emotional Culatra Ferry remembers better, beautiful days in the sun and looks hopefully forward to more.

“Highlights are the stunning sonics of Suburban Key, with its dusty groove and fast paced drums, stately piano, and cinematic strings reminiscent of a Four Hero orchestral masterpiece. High As Scaffold is full of warmth and soul and is yet another example of Fish Go Deep going even deeper into the dark blue waters of their brilliant musical minds.” Ban Ban Ton Ton review, Japan

“So good. Real beauty” Laurent Garnier, Radio FG, France

“Really liking this, would love to support on radio” Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy, WorldwideFM, UK

“Lovely album” Osunlade, Yoruba Soul, US

“Very very nice album...love the new directions here” Charles Webster, Openlab, SA

“Absolutely beautiful piece of work” Darimont, RWAV, Germany

“A lovely LP of eclectic sounds” Jimpster, Freerange Records, UK

“Delightful album this. Very much appreciate the musicianship and we need that in the world right now as the commercial music world starts to fire up its nonsense for the new beginning” Vince Watson, Yoruba, Netherlands

“Such a fucking great body of work, and on par with ANY of the great albums I've listened to recently” Billy Scurry, Ireland

“There’s some REAL magic here. Possibly the deepest year from this duo” Charles Levine, Soul Clap, US

“A fabulous surprise. I'm sure if he were still alive Jose Padilla would have hailed this as his number one album of the year, it certainly is mine” Steve Miller, Afterlife, UK

“Great album... will play in next shows” Franck Roger, Real Tone, France

“Beautifully produced and great atmospherics” Ashley Beedle, Black Science Orchestra, UK

Radio and DJ support from Ron Trent, Hector Romero, Ame, Cian Ó Cíobháin, Bill Brewster, DJ Sprinkles, Harri, Honey Soundsystem, Alexkid, Moodymanc, Hifi Sean, Kassian, Freddie Garcia, 6th Borough Project, Stuart Patterson, Lars Behrenroth, Fred Everything, Mark Roberts, Cut n Shut, Will McGiven, Stefano Tucci, Tristan Jong, Matthias Schober, Trevor Fung, Ben Davis, Max P and more.

12“ TRANSPARENT BLUE VINYL + POSTER + DOWNLOAD

Continuing its tradition of genre bending output, Veyl comes forth with one of its most innovative releases to date. 'Still III' is a collaboration between Supreme Low (Jerome Tcherneyan of Years of Denial) and New York-based MC, Sensational, who has been pushing hip hop’s boundaries for over 30 years. Tcherneyan first saw Sensational in France in 1999 while meeting in New York in 2001. The two quickly connected and kept in touch throughout the years when they finally got the chance to record material together in London in
2016.
With beats created mainly using an SP1200 (a sampler associated with hip hop golden's age and raw Techno), Fuzz/Distortion pedals and dub units like Echoes/Spring Reverb, psychedelic modulations such as Chorus/Flanger/Phaser and a modular synth, Sensational’s rhymes were totally improvised on the spot in a 3 a.m. studio session under heavy influence. The result is a powerful fusion of sound and style that shatters all expectations and delivers an audio vehicle bridging past, present and future.
While not lending itself to categorisation, 'Still III' packs Narcotic beats, llbient, Dub, Noise Rap, Bass terrorist, Freak Style, Raw poetry and more into an 8 track release which is unlike anything out right now.
Joining on the release are Tcherneyan collaborators Broken English Club, who appears on the ominous opener, 'Doomed' as well as Years of Denial co-conspirator Barkosina, who, as always, mystifies with her
vocal presence on 'The World'. Also appearing, Meanad Veyl remixing 'Everybody Ready' and Belgian pioneer hypnsokull finishes off the release in perfect fashion with a remix of 'Raw Shit'.

The 5th anniversary of Bravers was marked by a vinyl release and the start of a distinctive label. These European artists have done a lot for the electronic scene and are gathered under the auspices of the Bravers in this debut. They have been welcome guests at their parties and have opened up boundaries to new sounds.

The A1 is the combined work of Kovyzain D and Alexander. In ‘Modularity’ they've united shades of Belgium new-beat and EBM and have added rhythmic and futuristic synths. The result - a perfect closing track for a journey through the industrial and cosmic layers of electronic music.

A2 ‘Proven Witch Psalm’ is done by British sound producer Antoni Maiovvi. The track was written upon his arrival to the US and was designed to be a relentless funk of machine abuse and futurist analog arpeggios.

B side starts with the track ‘Espace’ done by Marselle’s musician Millimetric. He decided to explore the theme of space conquest, the fears and difficulties of interstellar voyages. This is captured through the use of a futuristic mixture of sturdy bassline and electronic anxious sirens.

B2 track ‘Vardi’ by Moscow DJ and Bravers founder Anton Levdikov is a mixture of arpeggiator roaring bass and Industrial stabs. The sound is complemented by a new-beat and Italo’s sound legacy.

Apt E returns with a pair of lengthy kraut transmissions from Seattle-based electronic outfit, Tape.

A - Escape Your Shape wades through swampy guitars and modulated jitters before entering a boundless collage of stretchy, acid-bound funk wahs and spacy rhythms launched toward the horizon. Along the way, shifting shapes, dancing chords and washed out motifs swirl around until they’re released into the ether, only to elegantly reenter orbit before dematerializing once more. The jam rebounds one final time, wringing out the final traces of euphoria, landing gently after the nearly 12 minute long trip.

B - Flip Your Trip hits the ground running; relentless drums take off in tandem with deep analog modulations as higher frequencies slowly creep onto the canvas. Frenzied electronics emerge from underneath blankets of delay while sweeping atmospherics expand and contract with the heavy tides of guitar and droning bass. The vortex erodes to a sticky whirl before drifting back to the surface, entering and exiting a mosaic of cosmic passages until finally being abducted by an arpeggio vacuum and fully melting down after 14 flipped-out minutes.

It started, as it so often does, with two old friends hanging out.

John Shima and C P Smith were joking around one evening in their home city of Sheffield. At some point, Smith challenged Shima that, if the latter could produce a record using nothing more than a small modular synth setup, then Smith would release it on his Central Processing Unit label. As heads will know, while Shima has drops on imprints like FireScope and Subwax Excursions to his name, he had never previously released anything via CPU. Shima accepted, and thus we now have his CPU debut, the four-track EP CPU Modular 1.

The specific setup that Shima worked with for these tracks was Smith's Doepfer A-100P6 Suitcase, a small but mighty combination of modules and programmers. It's no surprise that Shima was able to familiarise himself with the equipment in double-quick time - after all, Shima was an early adopter of the Eurorack modular format back in the day. What emerged from the CPU Modular 1 sessions was a quartet of devastatingly effective DJ tools, mid-set rollers which will get the dance moving something crazy.

Opener '003' kicks the EP off as it means to go on. There's something at once stiff-necked and buoyant about the rhythms here, all thwacking Roland tones and snares which crack like someone whipping a length of sheet metal. While the beat barrels unyieldingly onwards, the programming in the tuned modulars is more exploratory and even trippy, full of delay-laced bleeps and flighty rhythmic motifs. It comes together for a cracking mix in the vein of artists like Jerome Hill and London Modular Alliance. Second A-side cut '010' is no different, the street-beat groove and grumbling low-ends underpinning all manner of modular wizardry.

CPU Modular 1 is really timeless stuff, a set of percussion-heavy, future-focussed beats which recalls Smith's own CPU drop 'DJ Tools Vol.1 - 808 Tracks'. '011' kicks of CPU Modular 1's second-half with a dose of Drexciyan dystopia, playing an atonal loop off of an insistent bass wiggle and neurotic hi-hats. Even when Shima tightens or slackens the modulars here, '011' remains unyielding, a dose of pure 'Wip3out' energy that you could happily groove to all day long. The EP closes out with '005', a gnarled, gurgling production which still retains the dancefloor punch of the rest of the record.

For his Central Processing Unit debut, John Shima was tasked to produce four tracks using a single small modular setup. Unsurprisingly given the pedigree of this seasoned machine-funk pro, Shima aced the assignment.

After moving to California, he was introduced to the Serge Modular Synthesizer through Eliane Radigue and registered for classes in all the colleges of the Bay where there was an Electronic Music Department so that he could use their various electronic instruments. At first, he often plugged in his electric guitar into these monsters rather than use the rather rigid sequencers, but through tape recorders and the delay techniques used by Terry Riley, he was able to quickly combine these “sound producing devices” to create his own music.

He eventually released his first “official” album named simply Music by Xolotl in 1977. Originally issued only in cassette, Wah Wah offers the chance of listening to these works on vinyl format for the first time ever on an LP + bonus 7" edition to fit all the sounds from the cassette.

A strictly limited edition of only 500 and with new artwork featuring one of Xolotl's cosmic paintings and an insert with photos and liner notes.

Fractal head rearrangement from Keith Fullerton Whitman on his first vinyl release in what feels like years, here blessing Japan’s NAKID label with a new instalment in his forever-evolving Generators project, arcing from bleeping post-Kosmische sounds into completely unexpected drum mutations in footwork and grime modes. It’s properly head melting gear that links the algorithmic mind-fukkery of Laurie Spiegel with the floor-bending rhythmic experimentation of Mark Fell, Rian Treanor or Jana Rush, and the first in a three part series that offers some of the strongest gear we’ve heard from one of the very best in the game.

Modular synth scientist, critic and historian Keith Fullerton Whitman first debuted his »Generators« set in 2009, using a modular setup to create non-repeating melodic patterns that basically came close to generating themselves. Over the course of hundreds of live shows (and a handful of releases on Root Strata, Editions Mego and other labels), Whitman glacially honed his process and allowed the concept to slither down different avenues, mutating as it picked energy from the various venues it was situated in. His rigorous method meant ‘Generators’ was never played out the same way twice, veering from psychedelic Kosmische experimentation to obliterated, off-grid Techno.

In 2019, on the tenth anniversary of the project, Whitman was invited by the GRM in Paris to set up in Studio C, where he avoided the arsenal of pristine, museum-worthy modular synthesizers and instead reprogrammed his classic ‘Generators’ patch. Recorded in a single take using luxe analog- to-digital convertors, the result is a 45-minute durational piece, split into two distinct sides for this release.“Very little manual interaction happened,” Whitman explains. The music is, as its title suggests, generative, and at this point basically sounds as if it reached its most advanced, final form. The first few minutes of the opening side mine the original theme, with clocked LFO shapes triggering oscillator blips in mind-expanding non-looping patterns. Soon, percussion enters the matrix, at first wrong-footing us with a 4/4 fake-out - possibly nodding to the piece’s 2010 Root Strata iteration - before splitting into staccato polyrhythmic abstractions of the most loose- limbed and deadly variety.

General MIDI drums can sound almost hilariously boxed-in, but handled by Whitman they show off a plastic cultural sheen to piercing effect, deployed in a way that re-draws the rhythmic bass music of someone like Jlin while nodding to Mark Fell and Rian Treanor’s quasi-generative dance explorations. These comparisons take on even more weight on the second side, where Whitman opens up his filters to allow the synth bleeps to sing even more loudly, introducing that all- important clap/hat interplay that dialogues with Atlanta and Chicago simultaneously.

A Collection of Sounds from the Studio Eksperymentalne Polskiego Radia (1959-2001)
Art by Zofia Kulik

"Would it sound just as bad if you played it backwards?" assembles a collection of audio experiments created at the Polish Radio Experimental Studio (PRES) from 1959 to the beginning of the millennium. These exceptional works are presented alongside images from the Polish artist Zofia Kulik, whose career reached its apogee between the late 1960s and early 70s. While PRES and Kulik remain important artifacts in the recent history of the Polish avant-garde, presenting them together in one release may not seem like an obvious choice. There are, of course, some historical intersections-he most notable being a shared interest in Polish artist and architectOskar Hansen's Open Form theory. Open Form promoted a modular theory of architecture that became a tool adapted by its users and inhabitants to ??????????????..Hansen's ideas influenced Kulik's early works and also manifested in the PRES's iconic "black room", a music studio designed by Hansen, himself, which was equipped with moveable sound panels that absorbed or reflected sounds to promote a greater, creative freedom from its users. And yet, as it usually goes, the most obvious connections are usually the most deceitful. Whereas Kulik initially followed Open Form, she later turned away from it. And as for the black room-it mostly worked in theory but not in practice. What is it then that makes the two work together?

Polish Radio Experimental Studio - PRES (Polish: Studio Eksperymentalne Polskiego Radia) was an experimental music studio in Warsaw, where electronic and utility pieces were recorded. The establishment of the Polish Radio Experimental Studio was conceived by W?odzimierz Sokorski, head of the Radio and Television Committee. Between 1952 and 1956 he was a Minister of Culture, and as a strong supporter of socialist realism he fought against any manifestations of modernity in music. The Polish Radio Experimental Studio was founded on the 15th of November 1957,1 but only in the second half of the following year was it adapted for sound production.23 It operated until 2004.4
Until 1985, for 28 years the studio was headed by its founder - Józef Patkowski - musicologist, acoustician, and the chairman of the Polish Composers' Union. The second most important person in the Studio was Krzysztof Szlifirski, an electro-acoustics engineer. Before founding the studio Józef Patkowski visited similar hubs in Cologne, Paris, Gravesono and Milan.5 Though the studio was a place where autonomous electronic pieces were recorded, this wasn't its main purpose. It was launched as a space for the creation of independent compositions, sounds illustrations for radio dramas, and soundtracks for theatre, film and dance.

Awe Kid explores ideas of trans-humanism, evolution and digital immortality on Body Logic, a fantastically lush new album for Atomnation. The immersive 10 track record plays with organic, breathing textures punctuated by moments of digital unrealness to result in an album permeated with a dream-like quality. This contrast is mirrored by the artwork from Portugal's acclaimed The Royal Studio.

Awe Kid is an alias of Sine Language Records co-founder Rick Parsons. It is the product of years spent exploring a multitude of different music. From early days in post-hardcore groups and on to a love of 90s Warp, electronic jazz and more experimental niches, the multi-instrumentalist has now settled on his own unique fusion of breaks, ambient and left-field dance music. This deft studio wizard mixes up melodic nostalgia with forward-thinking sound design using whatever he can get his hands on, from analog and modular hardware, to samplers, field recordings to digital techniques.

Says Parsons, “I love working with digital processes because you get these unexpected moments where you dial something in, that somehow takes on a tangible, organic form in the real world. Searching for these sweet spots was the motivation for the album, contrasting natural textures against synthetic elements, and finding ways to create something that feels like it exists outside of the computer.”

While the album pays homage to dance music traditions, such as the broken beat of title track 'Body Logic', and full-throttle breaks of 'Zenith', these are assimilated and repurposed to create something that defies genre categorization. The listener's journey is perfectly paced, with broody but uplifting cuts of electronica giving way to shimmering, celestial melodies, and dusty breakbeats emerging from dense layers of atmosphere, only for the mood to be reset with soothing, suspenseful synths and haunting vocal samples. Elsewhere, devastatingly emotional ambient is followed by punchy grooves and propulsive melodies to make for a real ride.

Returning with a signature live approach, John Swing drops
the latest Warm Sounds 12" with infectious evolution and a reflection of the future.

Fractal percussion locks 4 bass-minded grooves that blend techno and house with a hypnotic jazz industrialism recalling both
the modern and the ancient. Inter-modular paganism built
for primitive dance sessions.

The Magic Movement marks its twenty-fifth release this May with Coss & Luca Musto's 'Remind Me Tomorrow' EP, comprised of three originals from the Berlin-based pair and a remix from label boss Noema.

Coss has been a mainstay at Berlin's Kater Blau club for some time now and just recently delivered an EP on the club's in-house imprint Kiosk ID as well as an EP for his own metanoia.
Italian rooted but Germany-based Luca Musto returns to the Magic Movement here following his 2018 'Parabel' EP and has since gone on to release further material with Cologne's Feines Tier and Laut & Luise in recent years.

Here joining forces with the 'Remind Me Tomorrow' EP the two artists deliver more of their distinctive tripped-out, dropped tempo club sound.
'Broken Promises' leads the way via dreamy dubbed out textures, gnarly bass tones, twinkling chimes and airy arpeggios atop a bumpy drum groove.
Title cut 'Remind Me Tomorrow' follows and brings modulating resonant synth lines into the forefront alongside elongated subs, cinematic pads, and circling sequences while Luca also stirs in his own rap/spoken word hip house style vocals.

The third original 'Concept Zero' follows next and lays down psychedelic guitars, choppy stabs, murky bass swells and dynamic delays before Noema rounds out the release with his take on 'Remind Me Tomorrow', flipping the switch to raw, crunchy drums and spoken word vocal chants amongst the original's chuggy arps and dreamy melodic elements.

Ltd to 100 copies

Presented in a double vinyl gatefold edition with two beautiful paintings by Tenerife painter Sema Castro.

For fans of Sun Ra, Alice Coltrane and every single mystic brother and sister carrying the free spiritual jazz torch! Dive DEEP!

Spectacular mystical jazz infused psychedelics from Canary Islands’ cult band GAF.

Using a series of different add-ons to their (already obscure) band acronym GAF (Grifa Ambient Factory) such as Love Supreme Arkestra or GAF & La Estrela de la Muerte amongst a few, the Tenerife based band illustrate clearly what mutation or influence they’re feeding through (their mind) by the judicious use of these referential add-ons. Rotating around the vision of local lynchpin, Mladen Kurajica aka Bonni, Keroxen label head, festival organizer, producer and musician with numerous projects including helming the GAF outfit. The Love Supreme Arkestra variation here being the more Coltrane leaning (Alice rather than John) and Sun Ra- esque influenced thematic of the 6 piece band. Over a series of 7 huge sounding themes, we can hear twirling saxophones, trumpets, marimbas, modulars and rhythmic sections intertwining like flying spiral snakes over a burning sea of lava.

Recorded live and freely over a completely improvised jam session on a sunny afternoon in the mountainous region of La Esperanza in Tenerife, the band lets rip free of any previous albums particular sound choosing instead to purge into a world of musical liberation by embracing the aforementioned pioneers of the genre whilst unconsciously absorbing in their surroundings - as an additional inspiration for musical freedom.

The result really shines through its 74 mins of mind blowing adventurous music. A journey to the peaks of the Teide Volcano and down the green valleys, into the blue and black volcanic coasts of liberation!

RIYL: Guided by Voices, Pavement, The Clean, XTC, Flying Nun. The title of The Stroppies' newest LP, Levity, serves as a creative statement of intent and an acknowledgment of the dichotomy between the music they have made and the conditions in which they were produced. For a group that started over an initial idea to "create open ended music, quickly and haphazardly”, the logistical challenges of creating their second album in the midst of a pandemic, in a city that endured the longest lockdown in the world, created a need to redefine process. Levity, The Stroppies strongest creative statement to date, is the result of this new approach to creative process. Playful yet focused, but broader in scope and experimentation than previous efforts, the ten songs that comprise Levity continue the band's exploration of the pop song as both foil for experimentation and conduit for personal reflection. Whereas the group's debut LP Whoosh! demonstrated their ability to craft clean, concise jangle pop, Levity takes a different route by utilizing a darker pallet of sounds to create its impressionistic whole. Fuzz and distortion are employed to add weight to songs built on tape loops and Motorik drum patterns. Warbling synthesisers and modulated keys add new moods and dimensions to The Stroppies unique brand of pop classicism. Thematically, the band continues their exploration of the personal refracted through the lens of the absurd, though this time around the music feels a few shades darker, a somewhat inevitable consequence of the collective trauma of the past 24 months. While the narrative around the 'lockdown record' is increasingly commonplace, there are unavoidable realities involved in making creative decisions under such circumstances that can't be overlooked, especially for a band that thrives on collaboration. "The restrictions around COVID really informed the way we made the record', says Angus Lord, the band's co-founder and guitarist. "It meant that there was a lot less opportunity to meet and build ideas collaboratively, which is how we’ve worked in the past. Instead, ideas were developed in isolation, then shared digitally, developing slowly over correspondence and only bearing fruit when we were able to be in a room together. I think this had a big effect on the songwriting and execution.” This process even extended to the studio, where The Stroppies found a kindred spirit in John Lee of Phaedra Studios, who mixed the record in isolation, somehow managing to synthesise the band's pop sensibilities with their penchant for studio experimentation. Furthermore, the addition of new member Zoe Monk, known for playing in a diverse array of Melbourne acts (Eggy, Thibault, The Opals) contributed both synthesiser experimentation and rock solid rhythm guitar, a huge addition to the band's developing sound, an infectious combination of the off-kilter 90s US underground, British artpunk ala Wire and a more than generous love of classic Pop songwriting. The Stroppies have managed to craft a record of weight and substance. Through Levity the Stroppies have, at least temporarily, found their feet amongst the chaos

RIYL: Guided by Voices, Pavement, The Clean, XTC, Flying Nun. The title of The Stroppies' newest LP, Levity, serves as a creative statement of intent and an acknowledgment of the dichotomy between the music they have made and the conditions in which they were produced. Levity, The Stroppies strongest creative statement to date, is the result of this new approach to creative process. Playful yet focused, but broader in scope and experimentation than previous efforts, the ten songs that comprise Levity continue the band's exploration of the pop song as both foil for experimentation and conduit for personal reflection. Whereas the group's debut LP Whoosh! demonstrated their ability to craft clean, concise jangle pop, Levity takes a different route by utilizing a darker pallet of sounds to create its impressionistic whole. Fuzz and distortion are employed to add weight to songs built on tape loops and Motorik drum patterns. Warbling synthesisers and modulated keys add new moods and dimensions to The Stroppies unique brand of pop classicism. Thematically, the band continues their exploration of the personal refracted through the lens of the absurd, though this time around the music feels a few shades darker, a somewhat inevitable consequence of the collective trauma of the past 24 months. While the narrative around the 'lockdown record' is increasingly commonplace, there are unavoidable realities involved in making creative decisions under such circumstances that can't be overlooked, especially for a band that thrives on collaboration. "The restrictions around COVID really informed the way we made the record', says Angus Lord, the band's co-founder and guitarist. "It meant that there was a lot less opportunity to meet and build ideas collaboratively, which is how we've worked in the past. Instead, ideas were developed in isolation, then shared digitally, developing slowly over correspondence and only bearing fruit when we were able to be in a room together. I think this had a big effect on the songwriting and execution." This process even extended to the studio, where The Stroppies found a kindred spirit in John Lee of Phaedra Studios, who mixed the record in isolation, somehow managing to synthesise the band's pop sensibilities with their penchant for studio experimentation. Furthermore, the addition of new member Zoe Monk, known for playing in a diverse array of Melbourne acts (Eggy, Thibault, The Opals) contributed both synthesiser experimentation and rock solid rhythm guitar, a huge addition to the band's developing sound, an infectious combination of the off-kilter 90s US underground, British artpunk ala Wire and a more than generous love of classic Pop songwriting. The Stroppies have managed to craft a record of weight and substance. Through Levity the Stroppies have, at least temporarily, found their feet amongst the chaos.

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.

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.

Having embraced the wide wired world of modular synthesis, Prince of Queens aka Felipe Quiroz has already proved fit and formidable in dialing in the necessary sonic component of his current stargazing outfit Combo Chimbita. His first two solo records on NYCT have only added to an already wide-ranging electronic fluency, yet have also brought a flare and understanding of dance music foundation that in combination is rarely matched.

For his next release, Prince of Queens teams up with the voice of El Julius, his Colombian countryman and New York neighbor. As a seasoned member of Names You Can Trust alumni, Bulla En El Barrio, El Julius helps to bridge the classic with the contemporary. "Rompe Cadenas" is a traditional arrangement with poignant lyrics, but it's still funneled through the unpredictability of POQ's machinery. It's a modern day reinterpretation of sound system cumbia at its heart, and just a further example of the breadth of POQ's production possibilities. Much of that potential is realized on the second track of this double-sided release, "Acidosa." Like his earlier releases, POQ's quintessential future leanings are on display here with all of his remarkable synthesis. It's worth the trip alone. Just imagine a wild and hypnotic meeting of cumbia and pitched-down acid and off we go.

In addition to having quite possibly the greatest beard in techno, Will Clarke has proven himself an unstoppable force in the genre. Will now returns to Factory 93 for his second release on the label, “Mirage.”

Will prompted a firestorm of “ID?” requests when he dropped it in his live-streamed Escape Halloween set last fall, and for good reason. “Mirage” brings together ferocious, chugging low-end and an instantly-memorable melody that modulates constantly throughout the arrangement, fine-tuning the energy to create an absolute bomb of a track.

“Mirage” will also mark Factory 93’s first vinyl release, with his first Factory 93 outing “Sometimes You Gotta Let It Go” gracing the B-side. Look out for it in a shop near you.

PUBLISHED: 25TH APRIL 2022

Proprietary rhythm: Vector Rituals sees techno polymath Stefan Goldmann constructing polymetric rites of percussion. Synthesized from the ground up, timbral characteristics, metric properties, dynamic expression and microrhythmic phrasing are shaped by the interactions of layered control voltage functions. The result is an assembly of abstract dances ranging from the intricate to the powerful.
Near-humanoid behaviour emerges from liquid patterns, laid out and brought to life by the freewheeling encounter of modular waveforms and snappy envelopes. Sounds evoke metallic textures
– ringing, scraping – and group into virtual shapes from tiny spikes to vast surfaces.
Some of the parametric relationships employed are as loose as to imply chance drifts. Others lock in with strict regularity as found in the 13 vs. 17 polymeter pattern of opening track 'Nayba'. By contrast,
in the strictly repetitive yet highly asymmetrical sequence of 'Yukagir' each metric step has its own uniquely irregular duration. The center piece of this collection is 'Ayon' with multiple autonomous and
highly agile timelines. Its constituent layers break away in radial fashion and fall back together at widely spaced points of congregation.
All compositions herein present powerful proof of the unlimited capacity of electronic music to yield new principles of organisation and to solidify their expression into clear-cut gestalt.

Tsampikos Fronas aka June takes a departure from his dance orientated earlier work. Recorded between 2018 and 2020, Window of Time sees the Berlin-based producer explore sparser arrangements than his previous releases.

The record unravels like a dystopian cyberpunk novel, something akin to William Gibson’s Neuromancer. Both the title track and ‘Stratagem / Predator’ create an increasing tension that builds through repetitive sequences. The arpeggiated synths on ‘Year 2092’ evoke images of sprawling metropolitan city scapes, while the claustrophobic mood of ‘The Master of Electricity’, the first track written for the album, wouldn’t go amiss on a soundtrack to a sci-fi thriller like Blade Runner.

Created using modular synthesizers, analog sequencers and analog polyphonic synths, Window of Time eschews melody in favour of cold, pulsating rhythms. Combined with haunting choral toplines and minimalistic flourishes, such as those on album closer ‘Elegy’, June invites the listener on a free dive into their subconscious; to navigate boundless, unexplored territories.

Linda Fredriksson (they/them) shares their debut solo album "Juniper" on We Jazz Records, 29 Oct 2021. Linda (of Mopo and Superposition) has been working on the compositions heard on the album for several years, composing them mostly on guitar, keys and by singing. Only later have they been arranged for the band heard on the album, including Fredriksson on saxes and various instruments, Tuomo Prättälä (of ilmiliekki Quartet) on rhodes, moog and piano, Minna Koivisto on modular synth, moog and OP, Olavi Louhivuori (of Superposition) on drums, and Mikael Saastamoinen (of OK:KO and Superposition) on bass, plus featuring the Swedish artist Matti Bye on piano.

At heart, "Juniper" is a "singer-songwriter album", performed by an instrumental jazz band. The end result is unique, personal, and as Linda themself puts it "quiet and introspective". The first single from the album is "Neon Light and the sky was trans", "a song from the shining streets – the beginning of something new", featuring field recordings of rain falling down behind the window of Linda's Helsinki working space.

It's a fitting introduction to an album full on wonders and carefully crafted secrets ready to be discovered. "Juniper" is a world unto itself, and Fredriksson describes the process as one of isolation and of learning slowly to do new things. After the demo stage, the songs were taken to the full band, but what's on the record often stays true to the minimal nature of the early demos. Linda credits their co-producer Minna Koivisto as a key ally in the process of maintaining the demo sessions' fragile beauty on the actual finished record.

With regards to instrumentation, those who have heard Linda Fredriksson in Mopo and Superposition are likely to be surprised by their credit listing including not only alto and baritone saxophones, plus bass clarinet, but also guitar, Rhythmic8 synths, ambience recordings and drum programming. Linda describes the way of finding new sounds through their beloved old guitar as follows: "It's an old acoustic guitar that has been hit by a car and is literally full of holes, but that makes the sound just perfect for this album and you can hear the instrument on 'Pinetree song' and 'Lempilauluni' (Finnish for 'My Loved Song')."

In fact, Linda began their music-making with guitar and vocals, and the debut of the hole-filled vintage acoustic guitar makes perfect sense here, while also describing the album's immediate sound perhaps better than any other individual instrument used. The influence list for the album name checks the likes of Feist, Neil Young, Susanne Sundfør, Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Eric Dolphy and Fever Ray, yet the number one inspiration for Fredriksson prior to making the album was "Carrie and Lowell", the 2017 album by Sufjan Stevens. Different as the albums are in terms of instrumentation and general scope, it's fascinating to draw parallels between them by listening to the quietness and immediacy of the music. "Nana – Tepalle" also relates to the world of "Carrie and Lowell" in being a dedication to a lost family member, Linda's grandmother (she is featured in the digital single artwork).

Throughout the album, Linda plays their saxophones in a way that is serving music first and foremost. The musician's ego, so often at the forefront in jazz, takes a backseat, and the songs themselves remain. Linda thinks as a composer, utilising their instrument where and how necessary, not presenting "chops". "It's sometimes hard to play simple," they say, "but I tried to follow my instinct about what the songs need. The mood rules here, any solos or improvisations happen around that at all times."

"Juniper" can still be heard as a jazz album, but perhaps one reminding that the word doesn't need to mean any one thing in particular. At its best, jazz music is highly personal and "of the moment", both true on "Juniper". The album has been made in two different studios, three homes, two summer cottages and four working spaces. It was recorded with professional studio equipment but also with an iPhone and on a basic built-in laptop speaker. With that, "Juniper" stands as a remarkable musical diary of a creative musician and composer during the early 2020's.

Cerrot is a Puerto Rican artist that currently resides in Barcelona. "Iteritax" is his solo debut trip after appearances on Nina Kraviz's stream-turned-compilation Hot Steel series. He recorded the 11-track EP in 2020 after falling into a flow that saw him create several tracks a day. The Plasma distortion unit pedal is at the core of the EP's raw, harsh and undone style. "Iteritax" is defined by strong percussion and a variety of modular synth recordings. "What started out as daily jam sessions effortlessly transformed into tracks and ultimately this EP. This approach has allowed me to tap into an infinite source of inspiration. Once I started jamming I had so many routes to take and it all just flowed for me. This same sense of freedom is what I aim to bring out in people with these tracks." - Cerrot

Yosh returns with his fourth Time Is Now release. Following the success of UKG-focused 5-tracker, "The Warning" released at the end of last year, Modulate EP sees the London producer put his inimitable spin on breaks, translating into 4 tracks firmly rooted in the genre's antecedents yet offering something distinctly new.

"New Dawn" is a prime example of Yosh's priceless ability to create something which is at once hard-hitting and soulful with clattering breaks and luscious vocals which float blissfully above them. Next up, "Modulate" adds a thumping 4/4 beat into the equation, creating an assertive march with plenty of swing before "Snap Back" brings the ruffage with a sharp two-step rhythm and fierce bass womps. Finally, it's up to "Track 1" to close proceedings. A real heater, a syncopated triplet rhythm lends it its driving propulsion - almost resembling the club sounds native to northeastern regions of the US such as Jersey and Baltimore. Thudding assertively beneath the stylistic tropes of UKG, this makes for a truly unique sound and solidifies Yosh's status as a highly innovative and forward-facing producer.

After just over a year-long hiatus from the Earthly Tapes series – the 3rd Chapter is finally upon us. Offering more mind-altering tracks to the series, we welcome 6 new members to the Earthly Measures familia!

We kick things off with ‘Comets (part I & II)’, the first release by ORSO, the new musical project from Jean Dasso AKA Yeahman, stepping into club and drum music. Alongside faster rhythms, with influences of UK Break music, African dances and traditional instruments, we’re taken through a two-chapter journey led by modular melodic loops, old traditional voices samples and ORSO’s own recordings.

Up next is a trip to Argentina as we welcome Balam to the EM family, join him as he takes you on a daydream across the Latin-American rainforest where synthesizers and nature collide to create the perfect mix, guided by a voice from the deep jungle. ‘Ensueño’ is a dance-floor tool fitting for both the start and end of the night.

Japanese native Mamazu steps up the tempo for the third track ‘Tombi’. Transporting us to a hypnotic and hedonistic state as delightful aerophones sound with the exotic chant, delivering the feeling of a dry breeze from the unseen frontier. Another dance floor ripper!

The B-side starts with ‘Voces’, a track inspired by the music that Chilean artist DJ Raff’s mum listened to when he was a teenager making beats in his bedroom. He used to take her records and tapes to sample and make boom-bap beats. Voces is influenced by both Spanish and Chilean 70’s music, although deconstructed to make an amazingly catchy melody. .

Ditti takes us through an ever-twisting groove as we swim upstream, spot a wave and take off... welcome to ‘Poly Party’. The soundtrack to a carnivalesque funked out ballad on a Polynesian beach shifting between the rhythms of a guitar & riding the surf, cutting synths & dripping flows.

We wrap things up with ‘Small Town Rebellion’, a story told by Scottish producer Kusht – this downtempo chugger reflects the story of a young man in a dead-end town with no future. He needs to break his fate and carve his own path by revolting and manifesting his own destiny.

Alga Marghen proudly presents "Water Angels", an LP with previously unreleased tracks by Katalin Ladik, following the monumental "Phonopoetics" from 2019. "Water Angel", the title track, is a side-long work from 1989. It began its life containing a plice of "O Fortuna" from Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana" and was first staged in an artificial fog on a lake at the 1989 Spoleto Festival in Italy. The texts include fragments of her own lyrics mixed with parts from James Joyce and Lewis Carroll in a kind of sonic-textual collage of processed sounds superimposed to environmental field recordings. one can also hear the composer Erno Király, her first husband, playing his self-built instrument called "Zitherphone", a 58-stringed huge engine of sounds assembling five zithers in a single body, with pick-ups placed on some of the strings. The first part of "Water Angel" was used as a starting point for "Three Orphans", another composition juxtaposing electronically modified voice with recordings of folk songs, this time Hungarian. It's a kind of "adaptation of a Hungarian folk ballad", utilizing recordings done in Transylvania in 1940, registered with a wax cylinder phonograph and gathered by Radio Novi Sad. Thanks to the collaboration with Boris Kovac, the sound engineer for this project, the quality of Katalin Ladik's screams, whispers, chants, laughter, giggles is now significantly improved, and in some ways the subtle nuances of her virtuoso interpretation find here their most powerful rendition. Also presented on this record are three and never before issued works created by Katalin Ladik in collaboration with the composer Svetlana Marasch at the electronic studio of Radio Belgrade in 2019, "Electric Bird", "White Bird" and "Ice Bird". combining extended vocal techniques, processing and modular synthesis, these tracks confirm the artist's radical temperaments that helped to define her work during the 60s and 70s, while pushing it further into new territories thus revealing an artist with almost no peer in the experimental landscape today.

After 3 albums based purely on synthesizers, the danish duo take a leap by adding live drums & guitars to their latest album. A natural step, considering that Jakob Skott, one half of the duo, spends his time drumming in Causa Sui, as well as a slew of jazz-infused projects on El Paraiso. All basic tracks were recorded in an improv session at Jonas Munk's studio in Odense, capturing both synths and drums live. The expansion of drums adds a natural 70's groove, maintaining a spontaneous vibe that also soaks into the analogue synths of modular wizard Kristoffer Ovesen. The improvised sessions were later honed, edited & layered, bringing forth the best of both spontaneous ideas, as well a multi-dimensional approach bringing a new depth to Videodrones extensive cinematic undercurrent of sounds. With the addition of echo & reverb drenched guitars, the duo is tapping into sounds in new realms yet strangely familiar. After The Fall may conceptually nod it's head towards a gloomy state of affairs, but akin to the italian post-apocalyptic movies of the 80's, doomsday never felt this heady and funky before.