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Beautiful Full Cover Art, Limited to 300 - Lumière Noire - The new label by Chloé!

Il Est Vilaine aren't from Brittany, but they sure are tricksters. The Francophiles among you might have caught on to the corny pun in their name (beating a certain presidential candidate to the punch all while turning the name of the pastoral Ile-et-Vilaine region into, literally, 'he's a nasty woman") but the real takeaway is that these born-and-bred Parisians don't take themselves too seriously - especially in an era in which there is much too much of that happening. It was in 2014 (and on Dialect Recordings) that Florent and Simon tossed their debut 12 into the ring, the rightfully named Scandale - a tight little bombshell released that roused the electronic music scene out of its complacent little catnap.So there we had it, two outcasts refusing to eat at the same table as the tech-house scene queens, serving up three whiplash-on-the-dancefloor cuts drenched in sweaty hedonistic disco and wrapped in a battered motorcycle jacket (with a gooey post-punk-pop core for good measure.) A clear mission statement right out of the gates, watermarked with mystical incantations and throbbing with rock 'n' roll's primitive drive. Everything and the kitchen sink, and a bag of chips - an invitation to just let lose that's even better than the sum of its parts. Moving on to this new platter. We set the scene: motorcycles blazing from the airport strip to the strip joint, our heroes traded their Oberkampf stomping grounds for a sleepless weekend of Spanish groupies, discount bikinis, whiskey and bukkake. And a creative spurt that left us with a mutant of a record, the sound of rock and techno crashing through a drum kit mid-coitus, interrupted by La French Chanson

Farron continues the course of Shaw Cuts with his 'Legend Of The Bat' EP, following in the footsteps of Chu Liu Hsiang: the journey to Bat Island.
The voyage begins with 'C.I.T.G', its relentless break-beat fundament combined with coarse synth lunacy to wipe out the first dark shapes - moonlit slaughter.
Joining forces with rivals, Chu Liu Hsiang is no longer alone as he advances on Bat Island. 'Semi-Final Thoughts' accompanies the newly-formed crew to the mysterious ground - a melody of warm synth and light churned by industrious oldschool drums. But who to trust
The fleeting harmony ends when several combatants unveil their guise and true motives. Loyalties revealed, massacre ensues. 'Unlimited Mind' pulsates, its bassline and sharp percussions decapitating those who dare to deceive.
'Derby' epitomizes the tension of the final showdown with low rolling tones, echoing chords and heavy percussion weaving the air like the rival in pursuit. With teamed forces and clever combat the traitor is annihilated from head to toe - bloodbath and game over...

Robin De Wolf is a man of many talents (and identities). Almost two years ago, he co-produced a groundbreaking debut EP on our label, as one half of SHIN. At the moment, he's making a name for himself as 'Phara' with uncompromising hard techno on labels such as Black Sun and Stockholm LTD. And now he delivered us three solid tracks under his new alter ego 'Robert D'. While 'Un Ni Yo is a house track with a wavy sound and affective synths, the second A-sided track 'Dommel' is a banger that begins with a smooth intro that changes over into hard kicks and raw bass chords. On the B-side, you can find a more melancholic uptempo track that goes by the name of White's Wisdom. Interstellar Funk' tops it all off with a remix of 'Un Ni Yo' that combines the wavy sound of the original with synth-heavy electronics. An absolutly killer EP!

A new year will come and we begin the first strike next year '17 with the tech whizkids Federico Molinari and Alexis Cabrera..!!

Federico was very diligent in 2016 with his releases "Tran-C" on point of view(002), "Nais on Ice" on Melisma Ltd. (005)
and with "Congo Toys" Apollonia label (021).

Alexis was also busy with his releases "Bike Seat EP" on point of view (003), "Mivi EP" on Fun Records (002)

And finally they will come up to Epilog with the next bomb...."Disco Sauer".
That's why we are very happy to annouce them on Epilog, the boys give us much love and respect with that incredible record!
Very honored that Disco Sauer will be their first collaborative release together since 2015's La Vueltica on raum...musik. what hit the ground...!!

Sometimes in life you find yourselves at a point where you need to walk away and leave something behind if you ever want to go back to it. Other paths must be walked, other experiences learnt from to give you a fresh view of where you've come from. In that sense going back to the roots, rediscovering their past with fresh eyes, is the concept behind Richard Dorfmeister & Rupert Huber's new Tosca album, 'Going Going Going'.For over two decades and several albums Tosca has served as a vehicle for Richard and Rupert to express their personal moods and impressions, each release holding up a mirror to their inner lives. Now though after ten albums the journey has come full circle and once again they've returned to the kind of instrumental tracks, full of deep beats and dubbed out textures that made Tosca's name. The result is 'Going Going Going', an album that Tosca fans will immediately recognize and yet one that doesn't just trade on former glories. Hitting the ground running opening track 'Import Export' sounds like a Lee Scratch Perry version of a Ennio Morricone soundtrack, a motif reoccurs throughout the album, most notably on 'Dr Dings', their reinterpretation of America's classic 'Horse With No Name'.

Fans donated €25,000 to Emika for the project
Fans paid for the album before hearing any music
Electronic & Neo Classical. Fits 2 genres / Cross over
The composition is inspired by electronic music
Emika hired double the amount of bass players in a normal orchestra
Emika created a new seating plan for the orchestra, to sound more like a wide stereo pop album
Echo concepts (electronic music)
Romantic piece, lyrical piece, universal themes of love and sadness, huge beautiful melodies
50 piece symphony orchestra
Silver-toned soprano Michaela Srumova
Composed in Berlin
Recorded in Prague at Czech Radio Studios.

* The crossover between electronic music and classical composition has never been in more vibrant and dynamic health. Multifarious musician Emika explores this fertile ground on her ambitious new opus 'Melanfonie': her first orchestral composition, some four years in the making.

* Funded by a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign that exceeded its target by an impressive €25,000.
* While many rebel from their classical training never to return to it explicitly, Emika has always been attracted to the potential and freedoms offered by the symphony form.

* As well as taking inspiration from her electronic music background in composing the music itself, Emika also applied some of production and playback principles from that realm to create a piece whose every element has been carefully considered.

* Emika is on a quest to try and change what we mean when we talk about 'classical music'. For her, the magic of the 'genre' is about the instruments themselves and more importantly the people who play them; not the restricting traditions and conventions of the classical world itself.

* I want to change the face of classical music and give it a more honest and real image. It is time we had something other than pomp and circumstance and avant-garde squeaks and pops..

Supported by
Chilly Gonzales, Zola Jezus, Ellen Alien, Nina Kraviz, Mala, Christian Kellersmann, The Barbican, Francesco Tristano.

Awa Poulo is a singer of Peulh origin from Dilly commune, Mali, near the border with Mauritania. Largely pastoral and often nomadic, Peulh- (or Fula-)speaking peoples are found from Senegal to Ethiopia but predominate in the Sahel region of West Africa. Awesome Tapes From Africa is proud to release Poulo's newest recording of highly virtuosic folk-pop, fresh from the studio, broadcasting her vision of Peulh music beyond the grazing grounds and central markets of her remote home region in southwestern Mali. It's not very common to find a female singer performing publicly among the Peulh. But Poulo's mother's co-wife is Inna Baba Coulibaly, who is a celebrated singer most Malian music fans know. Coulibaly herself was brought into music by forces outside her control when a regional music contest required an entry from her village and she was chosen to be a singer. So, set in motion by a surprising series of events, young Poulo's entree into the music world was auspic ious as she gained popularity across the region. After several locally released tapes and CDs, this record is Poulo's first internationally-distributed record. On Poulo Warali, she and her band combine the hallmarks of Peulh music—warm flute floating over cross-rhythmic n'goni (lute) riffs and resonant calabash gourd hand percussion—with broader Malian sounds like lightly-distorted guitar and a heavier, rollicking inertia. Shapeshifting layers of rhythm and woody overtones match Poulo's commanding voice in a jocular yet deliberate dance. This is a relatively rare example of Malian Peulh music played in a modern, cosmopolitan context, reflecting the mixed society of Dilly, where Bambara, Soninke and Peulh-speaking people live among each other. Poulo's conscious lyrics about community concerns speak to the distinctive identity of her broadly-flung people. While Peulh represents less than 10% of Mali's melting pot of languages, the dynamic music here powerfully resonates well beyond the linguistic borders.

Again shooting for the altitudes reached on MANHIGH's first journey, Henning Baer's second operation returns to the endeavour with a newly diversified mission. 'Operator' finds us already at the furthest edge of the atmosphere, pulsating waves of distorted electronics and distant, disembodied voices floating in the void. 'Pittsburgh Left' is the fall back to earth, the unrelenting metallic rhythm slowly gaining momentum, momentary shifts in perspective and detail flashing by as the decent accelerates inexorably. The contemplation before leaving the ground, 'AIIM' slowly anticipates the ascent and examines the cosmos before lift-off. Surely the launch phase 'Canadian Suit' is both reflective and onrushing, trapped between tense, contrasting moments before being flung into the unknown. Displaying both Henning Baer's typically acute feeling for talent and Kangding Ray's restless ear, the remix of 'AIIM' is a complete reinterpretation, setting grinding triplet rhythms in an industrial soundscape that suggests travels more fearful than those that surround it.

Words: Albert Freeman

POP AMBIENT - our longest-running compilation series after Total - sees a new instalment for 2017, featuring exclusive material from acclaimed genre veterans and series newcomers JENS-UWE BEYER, YUI ONODERA & SCANNER, MAX WÜRDEN, LEANDRO FRESCO, THORE PFEIFFER, KENNETH JAMES GIBSON and SOULSAVERS remixed by WOLFGANG VOIGT.
Following his own cues from preceding entries, Pop Ambient chief curator Voigt again strikes a perfect ratio of established producers and debuting guests: our complete Pop Ambient solo album crew makes an appearance, from JENS-UWE BEYERs atmospheric soundscapes on the tracks FINAL 9.1 and FINAL 10, to THORE PFEIFFERs glitch romance GOOD LIFE, LEANDRO FRESCOs beatific drone fests SONIDO ESPAÑOL and EL ABISMO, as well as KENNETH JAMES GIBSONs melancholic epic HER FLOOD KNOCKED ME TO THE GROUND (BUT I WAS ALREADY THERE. Other returning artists include ANTON KUBIKOV of SCSI-9 fame (with electronic reverie DEKKA) and Cologne soundsmith MAX WÜRDEN, who was last seen releasing wonderfully immersive albums on BineMusic and Wolfgang Voigt's very own Exponate series. His guitar-infused, dubbed-out cut FERNFELD and the mysterious electronic mantra 186.000 MILES PER SECOND are particularly striking renditions of the rich sonic narratives possible in Pop Ambient.
For the 2017 release, we welcome Tokyo-based Pop Ambient novice YUI ONODERA with his tracks CROMO1 and CROMO2, which both serve as opener: a trained musician and architectural acoustic designer by trade, Onodera embeds diverse influences from traditional sound design, film scores, contemporary composition and electro-acoustic experimentation in his work, resulting in intricate drone sculptures and sound skylines. This skill set gels naturally with the sonic sensibilities of iconic experimental composer SCANNER who teams up with Onodera for the cut LOCUS SOLUS - it's an incredible honour to have such a towering figure in advanced electronic music on board. Wolfgang Voigt himself makes an appearance as remixer, turning the track HAL from electronic-rock-gospel duo SOULSAVERS' 2015 album "Kubrick" into a voluptuous and immersive sound journey. It's the cherry on top of a particularly fluffy cake that will prove irresistible to any connoisseur of ambient music.

For its fifth release, Amsterdam's Taped Artifact offers up a various artists EP that features four tracks including one from the boss, Kevin Arnemann, as well as Hiver, Elmer and Physical Therapy. It is a moody and atmospheric deep techno offering that fits in with the label's ever more singular aesthetic. Up first is Physical Therapy, a producer who since 2012 has put out some fine EPs and LPs on labels like 1080p, Unknown to the Unknown and Liberation Technologies. It is a roomy affair with corrugated mid tempo drums down low and haunting pads up top. Building in intensity with some icy hi hats, it ends up as a ghoulish number that adds real theatre to the floor. Next up is Elmer, key part of Brussels' Bepotel Records crew. Melting techno, wave and dub into raw and expressive new forms, this new cut 'Simple Models' makes great use of analog machinery. Again deep and horizonless, a rippling lead synth line plays off an industrial bass riff as paddy drums roll on below. It's humid and heady stuff, to be sure. Then comes the boss who offers a more dubbed out and bumpy dub­techno track with expansive chords rolling off into the distance and light and airy hi hats dancing in the mid ground. It's one to get floors moving before the Hiver duo of Giuseppe Albrizio and Sergio Caio from labels like Curle and Vidab close things out with the dusty old breakbeats and woozy spaced out synths of 'Intersect.' This is a subtle but impactful EP full of sensitive underground sounds that pack a real punch. Vital Sales Points: - 5th release on Taped Artifact - First Various Artists compilation on Taped Artifact - Custom made artwork by photographer Merel Kemp - Artwork

The debut vinyl release of Detroit underground mainstay Sterling Toles features tracks produced between 1998 and 2006, recently unearthed by Sector 7-G Recordings. Sterling emerges from a scene of producers that prided themselves on sampling distressed vinyl and lo-fi analog production as a reflection of the mental and physical environment of the post-industrial city. Sterling carries that sonic dialect with him as he nomadically incorporates the language of other genres, variously exploring soul, ambient, Detroit techno, and folk sensibilities. From the ambient/folk impressions of "grace, i will now let go..." to "inga 135" sounding like 90's jazz-inspired hip-hop having a ghettotech dream, "Archival Arteries" is grounded in the sonic palette associated with Detroit's ethereal and minimalist boom bap hip-hop style. These tracks hold the imprints of Detroit's expansive musical institutions such as The Electrifying Mojo, The New Dance Show, and CBC radio's Brave New Waves. Created with just an Ensonic EPS sampler and a VS 1880, this EP captures the fluid musings of this indelible artist

Following the excellently received Dilation LP on FILM, the duo return to the Berlin based imprint for a remix package featuring FaltyDL, Grand Optimist, Djrum & Portable Sunsets. Erol Sarp & Lukas Vogel's ingenious use of the grand piano has won them many plaudits over the years. Working solely with the sounds of the grand piano and a set of 20 self-built hammers hitting the piano on different parts - filtered & warped in an extraordinary fashion, the pair craft dense, rousing music - kept fresh & current with nods to IDM, ambient & techno. As such, the original recordings are fertile ground for remix opportunities, and the FILM label call on a who's who of left-field electronica to reimagine the work. NYC native FaltyDL takes on Newtons Cradle, flipping the original and turning in a stepping, psychedelic slice of half time proto-Footwork while both Phillip Otterbach, operating under his Grand Optimist alias, and 2nd Drop's Djrum offer tripping, ambient reinterpretations. 1080p's Portable Sunsets reimagines key LP cut Neon as fuzzy beach house jam, reseting the original & eeking out a wholly different energy with driven drum machine hits & a soothing vox line.

THE ASSISTENZ is the culmination of a four year creative hot streak as vivid as any part of CRISTAN VOGEL's long career. The trio of dance oor-oriented records formed by 2012's The Inertials, 2014's Polyphonic Beings and now THE ASSISTENZ are sensual pleasures rst and foremost: a lifetime of study of frequencies and rhythms on the frontline of the world's clubs has been put into the creation of sounds that interface with the nervous system and emotional re- sponses with extraordinary immediacy. But there's much more too: together with the more ab- stracted album Eselsbru¨cke, these form an enticing sonic narrative, encoded themes running through them, each part revealing more about the whole. THE ASSISTENZ, then, is many things: a personal document, a tribute to Copenhagen where it was recorded and after whose famous cemetery it is named - but also the nal piece in this bigger puzzle, which unlocks untold secrets from the previous three records.

There's a deeper history, of course. CRISTIAN's productions going back to the start of the 1990s have woven their way into the fabric of underground culture. His own recent remasters of his early albums, and the Sub Rosa Classics 1993-1998 collections have shown just how potent his early work remains. But his new work exists in a very different world to those past works, and is far removed from the recent electronic generations who he has in uenced too. In fact, as you listen to THE ASSISTENZ, you realise that there's no point making comparisons with other elec- tronic producers at all. While you will certainly hear some of the most fundamental and enduring vectors of underground music - dub, electro, acid, funk - owing through the tracks, even those things are rebuilt from the molecular level, created completely afresh with new, precise, but some- what skewed vision.

CRISTIAN's understanding of music now is spectral. That is to say, with every step through his exploration of sound over the years, he has made more and more detailed analyses of the specif- ic frequencies that make up speci c sounds and produce speci c effects on the human mind and body. And as a result, his own sound synthesis - increasingly done via the Kyma programming platform - is more and more able to reach beyond the 'synthetic' and impact in uncanny and wonderful ways. The most obvious sense of this is the way his sounds touch on the human voice: not just in the chattering, shimmering, singing tones of THE ASSISTENZ's ghostly centrepiece 'Barefoot Agnete', in the alien radio signals of 'The Merman's Dream' or even in the subliminal 'aaah's hiding in the background of the noisy 'Vessels', but in the way any sound, anywhere in any track can sound peculiarly vocal, heard from the right angle.

And it's not just the boundary between human and non-human, or that between acoustic and synthetic, that get blurred to the point of non-existence. CRISTAN's creative methodology now is all about leaving you so uncertain about where anything came from, or what scale the sounds are operating on, that you have no choice but to let go of preconceptions and standardised criti- cal faculties and go with it. Sometimes that can take you to places where darkness and physical- ity close in on you as on 'Vessels' or 'Telemorphosis', or into haunted spaces on the edge of the void like those of 'Snowcrunch' and 'Barefoot Agnete', but even in those, there is euphoria. And in the voluptuousness of 'Hold' or the body-rocking funk of 'Cubic Haze', all the abstraction is grounded in the sheer pleasure of your own bodily responses to the sound.

So many of the science ction dreams of the 1990s are now (virtual) reality. We live in a time when social networks consciously manipulate our emotions, where data is money, where ma- chines learn, where images can't be trusted, and where the synthetic can feel more real than real. Over some 25 years, CRISTIAN's experiments have traced much of this weirdness and evolved with it, and his understanding of synthesis and algorithmic processes to create structure makes him one of the most important composers working today. But THE ASSISTENZ doesn't just ex- periment with the interfaces between mind, body and machine: it expresses those relationships in ways that are beautiful, troubling, moving and scary, and which even make you want to dance. Together with the preceding three albums it enacts a glorious, endlessly-explorable mapping of just what electronic music can do.

The seminal 1994 double album by the original PAINKILLER line-up BILL LASWELL, JOHN ZORN and MICK HARRIS on vinyl for the first time! Avant-jazz, grindcore, dub and ambient melt into eerie tracks of haunting atmospheres.

When PAINKILLER started in 1991, their first two albums "Guts Of A Virgin" and "Buried Secrets" (both released on extreme metal label Earache) were heavy attacks blending grindcore and free jazz that brought together the musical backgrounds of the three protagonists: drummer MICK HARRIS had just left grindcore legend NAPALM DEATH, JOHN ZORN explored new extremities with his NAKED CITY project while BILL LASWELL had as a member of roaring free jazz quartet LAST EXIT ( PETER BRÖTZMANN / SONNY SHARROCK / RONALD SHANNON JACKSON) proven that he was not only a visionary producer but also an accomplished bassist. But it is their 1994 double album "Execution Ground" that remains the opus magnum of the brilliant trio: ZORN's unmistakable shrieking saxophone, HARRIS' pounding drums and LASWELL's growling sub-bass lines were given heavy mixing desk treatment, resulting in extended tracks that are no less intense than their early works but display the full range of the musicians' skills. Soaked with reverb and delay, avant-jazz, grindcore, dub and ambient melt into eerie tracks of haunting atmospheres - even more so in the ambient versions of disc 2. Mastered and cut by RASHAD BECKER at D&M Berlin, "Execution Ground" is now available on vinyl for the very first time as 2x 180gr LP incl. a download code and insert in a limited edition of 500 items.

After a first EP released in 2013 at Because Music, Andrea has gained ground and comes back 26th February with Idealist", a first album that gathers the electronic aspect of Todd Terje, as well as the disco of West-African inspiration of William Onyeabor, or even Liquid Liquid's kind of rythms. He already has his media supporters. Idealist was in part inspired by a chance discovery of some music on a hard drive given to Andrea by Salvatore Principato, singer with seminal New York post-punks Liquid Liquid, after their paths had crossed in 2011 when Principato produced an EP for Andrea's previous band did. I was looking for something to inspire me,' he remembers. So I plugged it in and suddenly there were all these amazing sounds.

The Estonian master of dubstep and techno Margus Löve, who has operated so far under the monikers L-OW and 1DERL&, has changed his creative direction into curvier areas and is presenting his fresh act Exit Safe Mode as a proof. Cool and ghastly darkness is still hoofing at your heels and ominous concrete thunder brings the skeletal techno to a new fertile ground. Seeming coldness is concealing a hot-blooded pulse and a stealthily transporting psychedely. A dangerously alluring adventure has begun and it's calling for an exit from the numbing comfort zone.

Beautifully Designed 1LP, 180g Vinyl Press kit: Following his Extended Play EP on Other People last year, Jream House is the turbulent and spiritual debut LP of Mark Hurst aka A Pleasure. Blending mathematical composition with an unrestrained studio experimentalism, the sound of A Pleasure charts a space where formative influences confront the most immediate performative impulse. Using a process of numerical transposition, the names of personally significant bands and composers are converted into drum patterns. He then lets loose, improvising around these structures with a variety of traditional and unorthodox instruments: bass and guitar, bowed cymbals, drum machines juggled like turntables, blowtorch on aluminium, to name but a few. With his influences as start-points, he builds rhythmic structures literally in their namesake, blasting their hulls with walls of noise, monolithic basslines and any other jam-yielded shrapnel. Despite the chaos and complexity of the process, the results sound neither clinical, nor garbled. The tracks always find their way to an emotive melody or strong groove. Lush guitar strums and yearning keys ride the high-speed beat of Slow Channel", which seems to soar through cloud-cover as one snaking mass. The Order of Things' folds a cosmic guitar-part into a backdrop of heavily side-chained noise. Arthur Russell' features a neck-snapping rim-shot and crushed snare that splash up the bits of an elegiac vocal part. Through violent and idyllic atmospheres, Jream House jettisons its inspirations like landing shuttles, always in search of new ground. These are songs, not just experiments.

There is a purpose behind ambient music: it is utility music. Brian Eno made that clear. If we go by Eno's definition, the music on T.RAUMSCHMIERE's new album is not ambient. Although - or in fact, because - each individual track on this album immediately and effortlessly generates atmospheres, it is impossible not to be drawn in. T.RAUMSCHMIERE sucks the listener into the perceptible endlessness of his pulsating sounds, even though the music does not actually expect anything from the listener. It is not demanding, it does not sound lofty or ethereal. It is in constant movement and evolution while sounding grounded at the same time. The tracks are not weightless; they have body.

Vinyl Only!
Anyone who followed the development of house music made in the usa in the last decade will certainly have met the art of Fred Peterkin aka Fred P aka Black Jazz Consortium.

His musical set phrase isn't following new trends. Fred is often simply melting shuffling percussions with elementary melodies. but he does it in a sense that the heavy used and abused phrase "deepness" finally gets a fresh truthfully new meaning.

This new project is directed by Miho in collaboration with Robert Drewek, the owner of respected label RAWAX. It is a special edition 'RAWAX - AIRA EP vinyl series".

Concept and mission will always be, to connect and invite great musicians who produce and create "essence of the real music', not following the trend but let the music speak itself with groove, melody, vibe, energy and soul....

Roland has made evolution in dance music all over the world in 80's, Music needed those machines, and machines needed those creators of music. AIRA are not rehashing of the legendary original TR or TB, But respecting those great machines from the past, AIRA continues to evolve toward into the future simultaneously, newly developed, new generations tools to keep the music alive and to bring more possibilities for the future.We seeks out this exciting movement of dance music history, as the music lover who has actual experience the flow of this evolution, and connections between musicians and machines to make their musical pieces on this project to inspire listeners and to challenge the genres they represent by each series.

* Emerging from the shadows are the thrills and chills of Royalston's new album the People on the Ground' LP out 30th October on Med School - the experimental sister label of drum & bass empire Hospital Records. For his second album, Sydney-based DJ and producer has ripped apart the rulebook with fifteen eccentric and exciting electronic tracks.
* The People on the Ground' LP explores through the obscure yet brilliant sounds of one of Sydney's most talented exports for a haunting and hypnotic take on drum & bass. Title track features the captivating vocals of Hannah Joy and moves through melodic, piano foundations before catapulting into a euphoric whirlwind of sounds and styles making way for mania to come.
* There are the sudden, schizophrenic switch-ups of Give Me the World' and I Saw the Face of a Person' that highlight Royalston's unpredictable style. His game of guesswork keeps things exciting and exhilarating throughout with influences of techno, house and trance all enticingly tangled into dirty drums and deep bass. The Wrath of Mr Sparkles' and Don't Give Me Up' are not to be taken lightly, unrelenting and unrestricted to any musical parameters.
* Royalston has also enlisted a number of artists to join in the fun and games. Welcoming back Victoria, from pop group MA, cousin and fellow drum & bass producer Pearse Hawkins, Sydney-based singer Emily Harkness and emerging UK hip-hop artist Lyflyk.
* When he's not writing drum & bass Royalston pursues his other passion of illustration, which he's made full use of in this project, with the intricate detail in his music replicated in the artwork he solely designed.
* The "People on the Ground" LP accelerates Royalston from his previous album "OCD", whilst keeping to his unorthodox approach to production mashing and merging genres into one crazed counterpart.

Jel Ford returns to Drumcode after his highly anticipated remix of Alan Fitzpatrick's For An Endless Night.
Ford laces his three electrifying, new original tracks with a high energy that are guaranteed to get any dance floor rocking.
Heavily featuring on Adam Beyer's Drumcode radio both Red Mist and Overcast have gained heavy support from DJ's and fans alike. Ode To Basement' is an end of night smasher that will make everyone melt into the ground as it is caressed out of the sound system.

Finale Sessions is really pleased to launch new series Finale Sessions Limited with Berlin up and coming act Arcarsenal. Duo comprised of Alan Mathias and Etienne Dauta, both founders of Bass Cadet Records and its dedicated vinyl store located in the heart of the german capital, they are also active members of the large Underground Quality family. Arcarsenal have already started to establish themselves as proponent of a crossover sound, mixing many influences from jazz, house, ambient to dub and techno. They are always giving a prominence to jam, improvisation and textures work in their studio routine. This EP called « Dark Skies & Wetlands », even if slightly grittier than usual, is no stranger to the rules of the duo. The opening track « Different Planet » is an epic dark deep house cut which develops itself over a course of 8:40. Starting with a stamping ground bassline and hazy atmosphere, the track opens up with synth attacks, dub echoes and slowly brings in a blissful melody that ends up linking all the elements. « Substance Of Arjuna », the following track on the A-side, is a-contrario a short but intense ambient work. Shot in one take, this subtle cut showcases the kind experimentations that Mathias and Dauta can end up doing late at night in front of their machines. The b-side of the EP leaves all the space to « Racoons », one of the weirdest and yet most powerful work of the duo to date. Tribal techno could be a short try to define what they achieved here, but the track goes far more than this. Built on a gritty mental acidic bass and a huge drum kick, the frenchmen bring over aggressive synth work that could sound like an orchestra on rehearsal, pachydermic screams or an overdriven guitar larsen. Underlined by a complex percussion pattern recorded live in their nest and chopped up to the best effect, the track ends up in a looping transe from which the listener might not leave in a normal state.

Introverted Dancefloor is Bevan Smith, a New Zealander who has released music under names like Signer and Aspen, and who has played in the Ruby Suns and Skallander throughout the last decade. His prior output has been spread over many international labels and has touched on sundry genres (like techno, IDM, folk, ambient) while featuring restraint and sophistication as compositional hallmarks.

As Introverted Dancefloor, Smith has kept those features as guiding principles while allowing a more propulsive low end to dominate the construction of this music, winding up with understated but energetic dance tracks. Gestation, too, is a prominent attribute of this music, though not necessarily an obvious one. Smith started these songs with hundreds of layers, which he then pared down to a few core elements before rebuilding again.

For Introverted Dancefloor, Smith limited himself to the use of two synthesizers, one mic, one filter, and one effects processer. This constraint is not obvious upon listening as the album works across the idioms of electro, Detroit techno, pop house, and leftfield disco, playing with the line between fluid melody and drum machine programming. Each track has a playlist as its scaffolding, Smith's goal being to filter a certain set of varied influences through just a couple of instruments. Metro Area's Miura' (Original Mix) turned into Introverted Dancefloor's Happiness is such a mess/Pipedream.' If there can be such a thing as a subtle banger, then Smith may have earned that distinction here. Take it high' seems to be a constant ascent with its climbing bass and layers of chords, relying on no hackneyed drops or releases for its crescendo. Smith's layering practices show their precision on tracks like Even if you try' and Tiger bones,' in which disparate elements contribute to pointed melodies, an unidentifiable percussive part entering the same expressive plane as a sung line.

One of the record's most striking features is Smith's inclusion of certain elements of a song in a neighboring one (vocals from Pipedream' in Happiness is such a mess,' a synth line from Even if you try' in Always turn your head') to lend a phantasmagorical effect to the procession, blurring the distinction between a track and its reprise. The result is a song cycle wrought from painstaking labor, while nonetheless retaining core values of amorphousness and motion.

Need you back is a collaboration piece between the anonymous Mystep character and vocalist Frank H. Carter III. The original track and vocal laid the grounds for remix work by label regular Jamie Trench, and a most experimental remix by our new friend Dudley Strangeways. This release also commemorates 3 years of Made Fresh Daily, it's been a hell of a lot of fun and learning so far. Here is to another 3, MFD forever.

Gatupreto, enigmatic duo, hiding their identity while exploring the common ground between an idealized African feeling and the classic references of the dance movement from the 80's and 90's. The art Gatupreto generates is simple, unpretentious and sincere, it owes to the classic rave vibe as much as to the rawness of hip hop.. as much to the sunset of Cape Verde as to the sunrise of the Lisbon riverside.
Gatupreto is a binomial entity that refers to itself as one, it was rescued from anonymity by TINK! Music, newly founded label split between Amsterdam and Lisbon. To the extend of most people's knowledge, Gatupreto comes from a colorful Lisbon suburb where they inhabit a luxurious house, on an isolated hill where music is made every day.
Those who have seen them perform live say they are frenetic and deep in their sound. At night all cats are black.

Incredible collaboration by Israel Vines and Kit Geary on this banging EP for Horizontal Ground. Manipulated breakbeats mixed with straight techno. Includes a killer remix by Talker.

Revered Belgian DJ and producer Mugwump proudly presents his longawaited debut album on his Subfield imprint. An impeccable nine track LP, informed by two decades as a globe-trotting DJ, producing tracks that have inspired everyone from Andrew Weatherall to Mr. Scruff. A mainstay from the Belgian club scene, on the ground in Ibiza in the early 90's, behind the cult Food Club in the late 90's, now running his own Leftorium clubnight in Brussels, with releases on the highly influential Kompakt label but also on R&S, Gigolo, Cocoon, Gigolo, Eskimo, Permanent Vacation or Throne of Blood... Mugwump has the CV to deliver one of the year's most eclectic and inventive studio albums, a timeless excursion into modern-day, leftfield dance-pop and mutant disco with heavy New-Beat influences. Produced with his partner Olivier Grégoire, it also gathers a solid list of collaborators : Circlesquare's Jeremy Shaw (!K7/Output), Brussels guitar wizard Raphael Lee (aka Spookhuisje), Luke Jenner (ex-The Rapture), Norway 's cosmic disco lords Päl Nyhus of Mungolian Jet Set and Tore Gjedrem from Ost & Kjex, Belgian multi-instrumentalist Stephan Fedele, Philip Janzen (frontman of Cologne's Krautrock-Disco band Von Spar) and Sami « Morpheus » Birnbach from 80's cult punkfunk/new-wave band Minimal Compact.

KEY POINTS
-Mugwump's SF001 and SF002 releases have been supported by Pachanga Boys, Ivan Smagghe, Horse Meat Disco, A Love from Outer Space, Huxley, Jack Savidge (Friendly Fires), Sasha, Ben Pearce, Groove Armada, Andrew Weatherall, Erol Alkan and featured in Mixmag, Clash, Ransom Note, Resident Advisor, DJ Mag, Phuturelabs, Insomniac and repeatedly in France's prime-time news show Le Petit Journal (Canal +)

-This album will be supported by a 4/5 piece live band, with SF002 collaborator DC Salas plus Raphael Lee (Spookhuisje), Stephan Fedele and Mugwump, plus a live drummer when possible. Early tryout dates already scheduled in Brussels (23.01 Maison du Peuple/20.02 Central)

-Freeman PR will be handling the full album UK campaign targeting all the major blogs, webzines, specialist and mainstream print medias with also tba UK plugger targeting radios. Two original videos are being finished right now.

-Mugwump co-runs and resides at the highly-rated Leftorium clubnight in Brussels and has a weekly radio show on FM Brussel, running for 10 years now.

Hitting the ground running in 2015, Huntleys + Palmers returns with a new DrumTalk release.

Following on from the success of his MASSIVE 'Time' release in 2014, DrumTalk is back with a 4 track EP of serious belters.

From slow-burners, to straight up peak time anthems, our favourite changes every time we hear them and we're sure you'll find your own one to treasure. Not much needs to be said really. Enjoy.

Prolific Seattle producer Jon McMillion returns to Nuearth Kitchen with another crucial chapter in his epic tale of haunted house-music subversions. This EP offers four variations on a bizarre and engrossing theme. Don't It Make You (edit 1)' is a work of extremes: By some miracle of aural physics, it's at once one of McMillion's strangest tracks and one of his most accessible. He sets into motion a staunch, relentless house rhythm bolstered with congas, massed claps, synth-bass raspberries, and a badass male singer intoning, Don't it make you feel good, if you wanna get down/Just say it, say it again,' over which a miasma of enigmatic tones bubbles and swirls. Like Bohannon's disco-funk classics from the '70s, Don't It Make You' seems like a tease, even at 10 minutes duration, you wish it would roll on for at least 30. On Don't It Make You (edit 2),' McMillion strips things down to dance-floor essentials and erases some of the free-floating background weirdness.

The two remixes are revelatory. New York house icon Fred P. (aka Black Jazz Consortium) slides the track into a tighter pair of pants, but that just makes it swivel harder and slyer. He emphasizes Don't It Make You''s mysterious drones and then loops a female vocalist singing He keeps me' while dropping in some echoed male chatter to gently disorient. What a dreamy, soulful trip Fred P. conjures here. And rising German wunderkind Orson Wells layers and pitches up the original's cascades of bleeps, which becomes the dominant motif, and then subtly modulates said bleeps over the tune's seven minutes, while keeping that irrepressible rhythm strutting. McMillion's raw materials prove to be fertile ground for these two maverick remixers to flaunt their own fascinating quirks while maintaining the original cut's club-darkening and ass-moving functionality.

New York City-based DJ, producer and The Corner label owner Anthony Parasole makes his debut on Ostgut Ton with three new percussive-heavy Techno tracks on the My Block EP.

"Percussive music, that's my ground, my foundation but I am missing the feeling of tribalism in Techno today. I've been using a lot of different drum techniques over the past years, implementing them to Techno. The record 'Quickstrike', that I've released on my own label The Corner, was an edit record of an old sample-based house release. To me this was a test if people would gravitate to this sound and it was the biggest record on The Corner so far. From there I knew I could do this and two tracks off my new EP on Ostgut Ton work like this: 'Typhoon' features bongos, congas and all kinds of skin percussion, 'My Block' uses a different kind of percussive color.

HipHop in general and the Cut-up technique in particular have also heavily inspired me as a producer. During the 1990s music seemed really profound - a little bit tougher too. I listened to a lot of HipHop when I was writing the music for this new release and applied its methods to my own music. Many producers at that time were very forward-thinking. Wu-Tang Clan's RZA uses a sixteenth note technique that made me realize that I wanted this kind of hypnotizing sound to work in a Techno format. Another big influence were late 1970s Horror movie trailers. I was watching them while I was working on 'Bizarre' in the studio, I was inspired to capture the eerie tones and textures of those short clips in 'Bizarre'.

At the end of the day I work within certain parameters. Everytime I make a sample, I drop it into my personal folder - so all my music has a similarity of up to 50 or 60%. Maybe I'll use the same drumkit or kickdrum. I apply limitations to myself, but doing this also gives me my own voice. When I was learning how to produce, Levon Vincent taught me to make my own drum kit, to make my own synth kit and to work within this. Sample-based music is inspiring, and creating something out of found sound is very interesting to me. I think a sound signature is something that will always refine ones sonic pallet and skill set."

- Anthony Parasole, Berlin, September 2014 -

After releasing his stunning debut "Diamond Days" on Traum and the follow up "Nothingness EP" Egokind told us he had the idea for an album already sitting in the back of his head.
To be able to convert all of his ideas he asked his long time friend and collaborator Ozean to work with him. For both of them "Transition" is their debut album, but both artists can draw on a lot of experience recording music from multiple genres.

The A1 track "Mega" is a track which illustrates Egokind & Ozean's approach to touch many grounds resulting in something gigantic. The track itself begins rather acoustic inviting you to the private world of Egokind & Ozean, before it becomes a joyous balearic tune that despite its wealth keeps slight dissonances coming and going.

"Every Time You Smile" is an energetic piece of warped music which swells and and then in the next moment is diminished to small islands of voices that turn like mad creating a new cosmos almost comical at times, but always very kind and gentle as well.

On the flipside "Light Realms" flows into "Silverbird" with no pause: "Silverbird" then opens the curtain and lets the sun fill out the whole room with yellow golden rays. Egokind & Ozean then unfold a garage house track which makes small turns but stay very organic and warm.

And "Everybody Dance Now" by its title makes things very clear. Egokind & Ozean have crammed all their skills here into an hi-energy dance track, still keeping one big surprise to come halftime, when they decide to leave the trail of club culture by introducing a fantastic acoustic intermezzo, juggling and bending their sounds to the max.  

As Pathway Traxx finds itself embarking on a dawn of maturity the now familiar colourful label welcomes in its 4th vinyl only release.
This bright yellow vinyl 4th installment welcomes on board relative newcomer on the house scene, Amir Maglajlija a.k.a. Espada. Originating from Bosnia & Herzegovina, Espada only began producing in early 2011 but as you will hear on this release his production skills far out weigh his years of experience. Amir delivers a truly sublime A-side with sprinkles of jazz influenced house and funk. He effortlessly intertwines melodic keys with jazzy horns whilst keeping things moving along nicely through his infectious drums and percussion.
The B-side of the EP see's Pathway Traxx return to more familiar ground with a stripped back deep rework by Mannheim native, ManooZ. Having released on the likes of Tomorrow is Now Kid, Swink and ALIVE Recordings to name but a few, its clear to see Manooz is a force to be reckoned with, and a name well-known for quality house productions.
And last, but by certainly no means last, in typical Pathway Traxx style, they've saved the heavy weight banger for the last track on the B-side. This out and out club ripper is delivered by close label friend and well renowned groove maker, Kezla. Expect nothing more and nothing less than Stripped back drums and a bone-shaking baseline!

In what will certainly be ranked as one of his most intriguing releases so far, Kompakt staple MATIAS AGUAYO not only takes a quick breather from his commitment to Cómeme, but also opens up fresh and exciting paths for him to explore with his music: LEGENDE is both the continuation and alteration of Matias' well-established aesthetic canon, drawing from all stages in his production career und ultimately synthesizing various sonic strains into a wholly new listening experience.

Having established a firm artistic presence in the annals of electronic music through iconic collaborations like Closer Musik or his genre-defying solo work, MATIAS AGUAYO is an artist well known for his deep investment with innovation in club sounds and a keen sense of the varying social context that informs them. This led to the inception of Cómeme, internationally acclaimed label by day, breeding ground for the revolution by night, sonically and otherwise. One can safely assume that - besides constant performing and travelling - this makes for a pretty busy schedule.

Infrastructure is proud to introduce the debut record from Campbell Irvine, the 23 year-old outsider talent who hails from Australia and has recently re-located to Berlin. Part industrial mantra, part musique concrète, this immersive and captivating debut continues Infrastructure's re-launch, bringing genuine new talent to the table.

Traversing with an understated technical assuredness, the ambitious shapes of Steely Dan, the popping lounge funk of McDonald era Doobie Brothers, the sweet mourning of the Stylistics and Delfonics, and the exquisite song-craft and flawless harmonising of CSNY, Daniel Collas (The Phenomenal Handclap Band), Bart Davenport and Quinn Luke aka Bing Ji Ling have recorded an absolute darling of an album under the name Incarnations. They are three friends with enough musical guises, side-projects, collaborations and production jobs to fill the annual itinerary of your average musician twice over. When three CVs like these get together on a regular basis, it's only logical they speculate and hypothecate on the possibility of an album together. But, how to make those congested diaries synchronise? Bart lives in Oakland and Quinn and Daniel are in New York, all three of them are on tour for the better part of the year. One sunny day in Madrid, Spain, a plan was hatched and a proposal was made. Lovemonk, a small, eclectic and affable Spanish label, dangled the carrot that clinched the deal; 'find two weeks between gigs/productions/recordings and head down to this little place we know in Tarifa, Southern Spain'. A family-run studio, in a house 5 minutes from a wild beach and a short ferry ride from the coast of Africa; the perfect ambience for the fleeting melody and sultry grooves of the Incarnations debut album, "With All Due Respect". Arriving with bits and bobs of half-songs, grooves and melodies, Daniel, Quinn and Bart, sketched and improvised their way to the most intensely evocative songs you'll hear this year. Punctuated by a day trip across the water to Tangiers, all 9 songs were written and recorded inside a fortnight in October 2009 and laid to rest while our protagonists jetted off to their respective diary appointments. Whether it was the beach, the soft weather, the fact that you can smell Africa from the studio, the home cooked Spanish food or the relaxed environment of the recording room, when the band returned to the songs at a New York studio earlier this year, they found an album as fresh and resonant as the moment it came into being. Quickly mixed down with no over-dubs or re-records, "With All Due Respect" captures the combined gifts of Tarifa and the three very talented friends that paid a visit. Incarnations are: Daniel Collas: DJ, drummer, organist, and one half of production team Embassy Sound Productions, the minds behind The Phenomenal Handclap Band. Plays - drums, percussion, organ and synthesizers. Bart Davenport: Collaborator with Greyboy, General Elektriks and The Phenomenal Handclap Band; Singer-songwriter with The Loved Ones, The Kinetics and Honeycut, and most recently a touring member of the Kings Of Convenience. Plays - guitar, bass and vocals. Quinn Luke a.ka. Bing Ji Ling: Part of The Phenomenal Handclap Band, one half of DFA recording artists Q&A and long time member of Tommy Guerrero's band; Solo artist on labels Ubiquity and Lovemonk among others. Plays - guitars, keyboards, vocals The band are named after Encarnacion "Nini" Sagrista, owner of the recording studio in Tarifa, who housed and fed them during their stay.