quête:mono records

DJ Die Soon is a local legend and ongoing inspiration in the Berlin underground electronic music scene. Remaining largely unknown outside the city, with only a handful of releases and appearances to date, the man behind the mask delivers truly freakish beats built from chaos driven crushed drums and eerie horror style basslines.

KAPPA SLAP wrenches the Morphine catalog by the neck, takes it off it’s feet and slams it back unsteadily in front of the fans who loved the Container, Metasplice and Hieroglyphic Being output of the label. DJ Die Soon delivers extreme work here. The album is a mixture of instrumental pieces and vocal tracks featuring the talents of five contrasting MC's. Three Ugandan lyricists feature: there’s MC Yallah, with whom he worked during a residency for the Nyege Nyege Festival , Lord Spikeheart from the Duma hardcore pressure band, and the mighty ECKO BAZZ. Long time friend and collaborator Infinite Livez (Ninja Tunes) appears on the cosmic & eccentric Ranthworth, and finally there’s Japan’s MA, who recently dropped the incredible AMA album on the label. Incidentally, the pair (both Japanese) decided to collaborate after acclaimed performance at the Morphine Showcase Berlin’s Berghain in 2019.

KAPPA SLAP contains a lot of our favorite sounds all in one album. Stunningly, DJ Die Soon manages to paint the Morphine picture in one hard stroke.

Artwork courtesy of Lorenzo Mason Studio

2020 Split release with contributions by ELEH and NYZ.

ELEH: This side is possibly the artist's most complicated electronic composition. It navigates myriad timbral, tuning and temporal processes while winding itself to completion. It was composed/constructed over a period of months in early 2019.

NYZ: Two crunchy microtonal drone meditations in mono, using techniques of digital FM and hybrid analogue/digital modular synthesis. FM60P::fbk1#03 is from a number of sessions recorded on my very battered SY99 recorded from 2013 to 2014. As the name suggests, this particular session revolved around using feedback in the FM algorithm. EML DRNPi was recorded as part of the 2015 Plum Island Sessions where I had a host of synths on loan from John Brien at Important Records. For this recording I used the EML ElectroComp 101 and my own 4 voice digital microtonal oscillator running a Lambdoma Matrix to make a hybrid analogue/digital system.

This split release between ELEH and NYZ (David Burraston) is packaged in a heavy duty sleeve printed on both sides of the packaging and utilizing metallic inks. This is a first edition of 500 copies and a brand new full length from NYZ is being released at the same time via Important Records.

First single from Monophonics' new album "It's Only Us".
This is the first new material from the group since their 2015 album "Sound Of Sinning" and they're picking up right where they left off, blending authentic soul with hints and leans of psychedelic elements as well. And on the heels of Kelly Finnigan's debut solo record, the group just continues to get stronger and stronger with regard to production and songwriting. This 45 of "Chances" hits stores on February, 21th and their new album will be out on March, 13th.

At the turn of the 80's, a new generation of musicians appeared who saw synthesisers not as dehumanizing machines but as musical instruments that could be coaxed into creating modern, beautiful and decidedly emotional music. It was almost as if the musicians were intentionally creating this music to prove the doubters wrong. 

Compiled by Saint Etienne’s Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs, “The Tears Of Technology” celebrates this brief period when scruffy synth duos from the provinces broke through and took over British pop. Like mellotrons before them, synths could project a strange and deep emotion; listen to OMD’s ‘Sealand’, or the Human League’s ‘WXJL Tonight’, and it was clear that something in the wiring had an inherent melancholy.

In the 60's and 70's, the synthesiser had mostly been regarded as either a novelty or a threat. Tomorrow’s World warned us that the cold, heartless synth would soon make orchestras redundant. But by 1980, Korgs, Moogs and Rolands were becoming affordable for all, and post-punk had created a safe place for new groups to experiment with these new toys.

The influence of Kraftwerk – who had made a landmark appearance on Tomorrow’s World in 1975 – is all over this collection. Big names rub shoulders with obscurities by Turquoise Days, Electronic Circus and Illustration, all highly prized recordings among ‘cold wave’ and ‘minimal synth’ afficionados. There are pioneers like John Foxx and Thomas Leer, alongside unexpected synth sadness from Simple Minds and the Teardrop Explodes.

“The Tears Of Technology” celebrates an era of electronic melancholia, synthesized intimacies and insights – even Tomorrow’s World didn’t see that coming.

Led by some of Senegal's most famous singers, like Youssou N'Dour and Laba Sosseh, Star Band achieved the perfect gumbo of Cuban and Senegalese sounds. Changüí, Guajira, Salsa, and Son mingled with cosmic Mbalax guitars, Sabar rhythms, Afro-Latin horns, and Spanish vocals spiced with a Senegalese twang.

With just two microphones and a four-track Revox tape recorder, Ibrahim Kassé, Star Band's founder and owner of Le Miami nightclub, recorded their entire catalog in his venue. Each album contained one stand-out Afro-Cuban tune, often covers of Cuban classics or original compositions using the deep, layered sound that had evolved over centuries from the roundtrip journey across the Atlantic. Six of Star Band's most psychedelic Afro-Cuban tracks, an ode to their finest hour, are selected here.

Remastered in the original mono, and accompanied by 12-page booklet containing an essay on Cubanismo in Senegal, a rare interview with Star Band guitarist Yakhya Fall and vintage photos from his personal collection, this album is the soundtrack to a time when Cuban music was the future for 1970's Senegal and commemorates the anniversary when another way — the Cuban way — was possible.

ZONAL, the brainchild of Justin Broadrick (Godflesh/Jesu/JK Flesh) and Kevin Martin (The Bug/King Midas Sound) present their monumental Relapse Records debut, Wrecked. ZONAL continues where their previous collaboration Techno Animal left off, and combines a brutal ongoing obsession with beats, bass, dub, drone, noise and riff.

Under their new guise, the enigmatic duo push the parameters and atmospheres that have earned them critical acclaim further and deeper; ZONAL's sound has become ever more corrupted, corroded, slower and lower; with the theme of exploring inner/outer space acts as the gelling agent for this shockingly monolithic sound.

Anyone who witnessed their sonic destruction and lyrical detonation c/o MOOR MOTHER at both ROADBURN and UNSOUND festivals will not be disappointed by the slo-mo meltdown.

'Moira', the new album by Monolithe Noir opens it's doors to the voices of a few fellow artists who can easily be described as "peers" - 'ROZI PLAIN' on the spellbinding 'Blinded Folded'.
'PETER BRODERICK' on the intimate 'By Twos' and Belgian Elsie dx on the haunting 'Valslava' - who are fuelled by the same drive not to settle for a single colour or tone.

Unpredictable by nature, surprising by choice, Monolithe Noir's music escapes all the over-used adjectives that divide our record collections but cheerfully digs into clearly distinct repertoires: from prog to ambient segueing into electronica and folk with a dip into the hidden gems of the Italian music library.

... It never hides behind a screen of fake complexity, clearly it speaks straight to us! Hope, you enjoy.

They Say: “Documentary and industrial underlays for current themes of modern life”.

We say: Mind-blowing, percussion-heavy, Afro-tinged, cosmic-disco library bomb.

This is the one. An absolutely outstanding record from 1983 and definitely one of the hardest to find on the collectable German library label, Coloursound. The Now Generation (Percussive Underscores) is comfortably one of the very best library records full stop.

The record comes galloping out the gate with a pair of rapid synthy-eurodisco bombs - the title-track and “Panama” - before slowing down to a woozy pace on “Inorganic Matter”. “African Nightclub” sounds like it reads, and is a particular favourite of Prins Thomas. Indeed, it was used to great effect on his seminal Cosmo Galactic Prism mix for Eskimo back in 2007. It’s followed by the dark, druggy, slow motion industrial groove of “Grease Plant” before “Southerly” lifts the tempo to close out side A with its Latin funk strut of bells and melancholic keys.

For us, though, it’s all about the opener to side B: “Mechanical Heart”. Seven minutes of building, mid-tempo disco-funk joy, deceptively explosive, club-ready gear for body and soul. The back cover dryly describes the track as “Guitar and percussion, light industrial underlay”. Hmmm. How about, “after finally emerging from a particularly heavy week jamming in a sunless, lawless German warehouse, Chic warily press record on a wayward, illicit instrumental for basement gatherings”. Just wait for those drums at the 3 minute mark…

The beatless ambience and menacing stabs of the proto-electro “Chemical Threat” follows, before the open drums and incredible fills of the metronomic “Steady Going” and fantastically monotonous funk breaks of “Nepal Trek” round out this sensational set.

This is a library masterpiece in no uncertain terms, full of synth funk, afro beats, exotica, leftfield madness, dance floor dynamite and all-around greatness.

As with our KPM and Themes re-issues, the audio for The Now Generation comes from the original analogue tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis. Richard Robinson has brought the original Coloursound sleeve back to life in all its metalic silver glory.

Reissue (originally released 1980 on SKY records)Music for the apocalyptic eighties Deutschland state of mind. When Serge Blenner left his native France for Hamburg, West Germany, neither he nor anyone else could have guessed that he would inadvertently compose a soundtrack for the Cold War. But his dark, monotone synthesizer album La Vogue (1980) turned out to be just that.

Proville Records are proud to present New Zealands reggae-soul heavyweights 'The Black Seeds' acclaimed third album, Into The Dojo on 2LP black vinyl repress.

Originally released in New Zealand 2006, the album reached triple platinum sales status at home and was then successfully released worldwide by German label Sonar Kollektiv in 2007.

The album includes the popular singles 'The Answer', infectious reggae gem 'Cool Me Down', and 'One By One', which was written by ex-band member and one half of Flight Of the Conchords, Bret McKenzie, and featured in the hit U.S. TV show Breaking Bad.

After 10 years of vinyl pressings on Lapsus Records it's now time for our first ever "vocal" release!

Many of our Lapsus Radio (Radio 3) followers may already be aware of our fondness for synth-pop, however as a label we have never dabbled with this often unfairly maligned genre, until now...

From the moment we first heard the material from British artist Circa 2000 something magical transpired. William Wiffen's production blueprint signals a new twist in this forty-year old genre. ‘Thoughts In Vias’ –the album released in 2017 on Computer Club, the sub-label of influential Sheffield label Central Processing Unit– offered the first opportunity for us to witness the work of Circa 2000, the UK producer and composer residing in the costal city of Brighton. After his debut, in 2018 William released the ‘The Sun To The Waxing Moon’ EP on the multifaceted Chilean platform Infinito Audio, in which he delved into his more experimental production side.

Circa 2000 now joins Lapsus Records to present ‘Faith Healer’, his most personal work to date and a palpable tribute to the work of Scottish composer Alex Harvey, during his time leading The Sensational Alex Harvey Band. ‘Faith Healer’ is a seven-track album that revisits the nascent days of new wave and synth. It is an exercise in raw and analogue electronics that transports us back to the golden era of synthetic electronica, in which bands like Deux, Victrola and Monoton redefined minimalism and underground pop.

‘Faith Healer’ will be released in July and available on limited edition vinyl and all digital formats. As always, the Basora studio has once again provided us with stunning artwork for this release.

In the early eighties, Edmond Mondésir, professor of philosophy and Léon Bertide, trade unionist, founded the Bèlènou group. They were actors of the great agricultural strike of 1974, which resulted in the death of two workers (Ilmany and Marie-Louise) and left many wounded. Activists of the patriotic movement Asé Pléré An Nou Lité (Stop crying, Fight), they were part of the identity and the cultural affirmation la revendication identitaire et culturelle of the time. Like the Guadeloupean musician Gérard Lockel and his work on the Gwo Ka, they put the Bèlè, in its traditional form, back in the spotlight during Swaré Bèlè (Bèlè nights).Minimalist and spiritual, a true rural ancestral art from Martinique, the Bèlè combines dance and music from responsorial monodies, which is a choir that responds to the lead singer (Respondè / La vwa dèyè), on codified drum rhythms and ti-bwa (2 sticks that hit the back of the drum or a piece of bamboo). It comes in a series of collective choreographies, working up into the trance. The texts are simple, short and tell the story of everyday life and struggle. While preserving the emotion and the drum’s central place, the fundamental contribution of Bèlènou is to keep the traditional form of Bèlè while adding a modern instrumentation: bass, guitar, saxophone, drums...
Emosyon Tambou-a (Emotion of the Drum) was released in 1990. This third opus of the band expands the musical spectrum in harmonies, arrangements and influences to create a contemporary music anchored in the Bèlè matrix, while keeping the beat, the energy and ancestral roots of music. Bèlènou adapts some classic rhythms: Bélya, Gran Bèlè, Bèlè Pitjé or Ting-Bang rewritten here for an orchestra.With the appearance of long couplets and a complex harmonization of the choruses, Bèlènou's music brings a form of modernity, it opens notably to jazz territory as well as to other forms of music and grooves. Also, Bèlènou leaves the musicians with space for improvisation: not only on the saxophone or the guitar, but also with the drums (cleverly adaptating traditional rhythms to the drums).

The texts sung in Creole are of a social nature, appealing to the solidarity and self-denial of the people (Bélya pou péyi-a, Tout pèp-la sanblé), to the struggle for political emancipation towards a new democracy (Wi ny ké rivé, Ni dé jou, Démokrasi); land protection (Sové tè-a); finally, to the vitality of the Bèlè culture ... (Emosyon Tambou-a, Dansé Ting-Bang)...Culture participates, according to the expression of Aimé Césaire, as "Miraculous Weapons". Bèlènou sings a project of a new and united society. A precursor group, experimental in the its early years, Bèlènou reconciles with talent tradition, modernity and cultural identity.

Lovely crafted tip-on sleeve. Remastered. 700 copies

“True Lies” was originally released in 1999 on Daft Records and showed Dirk Ivens (The Klinik, Absolute Body Control) once again changing the game to create another refreshing and groundbreaking album. Suggestive industrial with distorted vocals, metallic rhythms and noises perfectly balanced with up tempo dance beats and technoid rhythms.

Production on this work is shared with the talent of Ivan Iusco (Minus Habens Records, Nightmare Lodge) and Eric Van Wonterghem (Insekt, Monolith).

"True Lies" is available for the first time on vinyl record with all original songs plus extra tracks from the singles "Two Faced Man" and "Broken Meat", some old compilations and a bunch of cover versions to classics by Suicide, The Normal and The Klinik. Limited edition of 550 copies on double blue colour vinyl with gatefold sleeve, printed inner sleeves and numbered card.

Moustache Records 039 is made by a Moustache brother from the first hour "El Cubano" Danny Daze. This obscure techno acid electro EP contains 4 dark Club bangers for the floor. A1 Trumpet track ft. Johnny Superglu is the EP action starter. Crazy Loud Kick drums, a distorted trumpet played by the notorious Johnny Superglu on Acid. Retard synths, a dark vocoder shout and topped off with razor sharp snares. A2 track is called "Late night snack" a song about a boy on its way to the nightstore to get a coca cola. There he lost his way on LSD around the corner of his own house, a pure club banger with weird kiddo lunatic samples. B1 "Wandering aimlessly in NY for 4 hours" 4x4 monotonous building up acid tune. Do you remember that waiting before that new space journey? B2 is the EP tittle track "El Cubano" pure raw oldskool bunker strobo acid with robot vocoder voices and rolling drum section. Mentalism is not a crime!

An LP of tracks, taken from various cassette releases, by Belgian synthwave luminaries The Misz (Jan Van den Broeke and Dries Dekocker)! 600 copies on 180 grams vinyl.

The Misz formed in Gent in 1983 by Jan Van den Broeke and Dries Dekocker at a time when they had both just relocated from the country. They lived on the same street and collaborated freely with the limited equipment they had, which always centered around the Fostex 250 4-track tape recorder. They used an unknown monophonic synthesizer, casio synths, roland drum machines, hand drums and guitars through effects pedals, improvising with their voices and often and included friends for additional voices and sounds. They captured these sonic experiments and sometimes released them on cassette in editions of 100-200. They were also included on numerous cassette compilations throughout the 1980s on labels like Mad In Belgium, The Cassette Factory, 3RIO Tapes, Minimart production, Fraction Studio, Cauchy Productions, Home Product, R.R. products, ZNS Tapes, and Body Records. They described themselves as young, immature and bit strange yet totally bold and fearless. They sang about what surrounded them from world politics and environmental catastrophes to love and lust. The songs on The Lonely Crowd span from various cassette releases and have been remastered from their original reel to reel tapes.

CTHI Records is back again after a little pause given by the development of the Jaxx Madicine project started initially by the label founder Parker Madicine and Turbojazz. Through out this time the label has productively been joined by Veezo, italian pianist and producer, for the making of their Distant Classic album and various EP’s and remixes published on many different international labels as Local Talk, Visions Rec, Dirt Crew and Eureka. CTHI is now ready , after the recent Japanese tour as Jaxx Madicine Trio, to be again the front stream for the debut EP of Veezo ‘Monolith’. An 8 tracks EP playing the essential “manifesto" and inspiring heritage of the artist. Raw and dirty grooves made in 12bit res, tape delays and acid Ms20 arps on top of which you’ll appreciate afro elements, warm rhodes and pad chords allowing you to perceive the whole Veezo musical ambient creativity. Two singing tracks - unique featurings by David Shorty and the Technoir Duo - are providing deep house/boogie atmospheres and jazzy spiritual moods. There are various musicians participating into this project leading through bass, flutes and drums that will surely provide you the feeling of an orchestral setting guided and directed by a solo person inducting all those elements through an Akai taperecorder. The result: close to a mid 90’s forbidden cartoon enriched by the cover of the Japanese artist Tokio Aoyama.

French modern-classical quartet astrïd return on May 10th with the first part of a new release entitled A Porthole.

Conceptually the two records work in unison, focusing on portholes into the abyss, with part one delving into the depths of the deep sea. The tracks are named after various strains of seaweed, the artwork depicting dark waves and uncertainty. Part two will follow in a years time and will turn its attention to the night sky and constellations.

A Porthole continues astrïd’s signature style of billowing guitars, strings and woodwind. Each element intertwined with another, linked perfectly together through restrained jazz-tinged percussion. 2017’s highly-acclaimed release ‘Through the Sparkle’ with renowned pianist Rachel Grimes (of Rachels) set the bar extremely high for this release but astrïd have matched the depth, melody and quality of that record here.

Part one of this journey features some sublime compositions with Cyril Secq’s expressive and bold guitar playing carrying the pieces into chamber music territory, joined seamlessly by a variety of other instruments that swell and soar and fit perfectly into the story being told. Everything seems to have its place, nothing is overplayed or out of step here, there is an organic nature to the way this quartet plays and interacts with one another as melodies circle back and fade away in the same beautiful breath.

A Porthole is a deeply charming record, exercising glorious, nuanced refrain and offering a sort of hope rarely found in music these days.

• Aqua blue vinyl - limited to 300 copies w/ download code

• The album was mastered by Harris Newman (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Tindersticks etc)

• The artwork is extracted from an original one of a kind monotype print by Gizeh overlord Richard Knox.

Alien Transistor and Tokyo-based label Afterhours release a vinyl-version of tenniscoats' masterpiece "music exists", which consists of 4 LPs in total.

Disc 3 reunites the couple with their old friends and collegues, the swedish musicians from Tape, they concentrate once more on their very own language of making music, and give us another collection of essential tenniscoats-songs.

With the forth LP, there will be a strictly limited box available, either for putting your already purchased other 3 records in, or as the whole glorious 4-LP-package.

Tenniscoats have devoted followers allover the world, but their releases were always hard to find outside of Japan. Except for their album "Tokinouta", which saw a very limited run on vinyl, and the seminal "Two Sunsets", their collaboration with the Pastels (and a small handfull of 7"s), there were never any vinyl-releases, and also the CDs were hard to get for any-one, who doesn't speak or read japanese.

So, this is the chance to dive deep into the beautiful, unique world of the tenniscoats and their opus magnum "music exists".

"It may even be their greatest ever music, essential plus" Monorail Music, Glasgow

"Whatever's ailing you, Tokyo's Tenniscoats have got something for that" Boomkat, Manchester