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Videosphere, the debut album by Kompakt’s latest signing, the London-based artist Lake Turner (aka Andrew Halford), swoons into focus with “The Sunbird”, a teasing drift of lilting, ambient tones, riding out a submerged piston-pulse rhythm. Across its brief 109 seconds, it manages to traverse evocative terrain – something mythopoetic, something both humble and grandiose, a glimpse of the other behind the sky’s curtain. “I wanted to conjure up something resembling an ancient ceremony or death procession,” Turner nods. “Like a hymn to the surroundings of a faraway hill.” It’s both sky-bound and earthen, a ritual incantation to call in the music of the spheres.

Turner was introduced to the Kompakt family by his sometime collaborator Yannis Philippakis of Foals. He’d previously made music in post-punk and indie groups Great Eskimo Hoax and Trophy Wife, but Videosphere is the first time he’s fully articulated his own vision of electronic music, aside from one limited lathe-cut 12”, 2018’s Prime Mover EP, on Algebra. The lush ambient-disco-techno dreams of Videosphere were constructed and completed in his London studio and at his parents’ arable and sheep farm in Worcestershire, which might help explain the hazy, unhurried pastoralism of the album.

“There was a slight bittersweetness in finishing the record (in Worcestershire) as my parents were in the middle of selling my childhood home,” he sighs, before quipping, “on the plus, I ended up shearing a lot of sheep over the summer.” A student of archaeology and ancient history, Turner is no doubt carefully attuned to the twisting cogs of history and memory, and it’s no surprise that Videosphere has a nostalgic, melancholic cast; much of its beauty rests in the way it tugs, gently, at the heart strings – see the tear-stained cheeks of the lush, dappled “Honeycomb”, or the sweetly sad electro-roundelay of “No Way Back Forever.”

It’s not all drift-dream hypnosis, though – Videosphere is very much grounded in the now. ““No Way Back Forever” is a nod to the linear nature of time,” Turner explains by way of example, “and the tipping point of the world climate crisis that scientists have now declared.” Jayne Powell’s vocals are sent spinning through the song, wound like candyfloss; she takes centre stage on the techno hymnal title track, too. Throughout, there’s a sense of forward movement, despite the life stasis we find ourselves collectively bound by in mid-2020; there’s also a yearning for the communal, for community, that’s captured in the album title, a nod to an object Turner encountered at London’s Geoffrey Museum, “a television set in the shape of a spaceman’s helmet from the 1970s.”

“The vision I loosely had was to make an electronic record that had a communal warmth and almost ceremonial or ritual feel. I wanted to examine the relationship of our archaic minds in the trappings of the modern world,” Turner concludes. “What the Videosphere also symbolizes for me is the oneness of humanity and community, prevailing.”
Eröffnet wird "Videosphere", das Debütalbum von Kompakts jüngstem Signing, dem in London ansässigen Künstler Lake Turner (alias Andrew Halford), mit "The Sunbird" - einem herausfordernden Strom aus Ambient Sounds, die zu schweben scheinen, um sich dann in einen subtilen, maschinellen Rhythmus zu verwandeln. In gerade mal 109 Sekunden gelingt es dem Stück, ein gewaltiges Terrain abzuschreiten - etwas Mythopoetisches, bescheiden und grandios zugleich, gibt uns eine Ahnung davon, was sich hinter dem Himmel verbirgt. "Ich wollte etwas heraufbeschwören, das einer alten Zeremonie oder Totenprozession ähnelt", sagt Turner, "wie eine Hymne an die Umgebung eines weit entfernten Hügels." Himmlisch und irdisch zugleich, eine rituelle Beschwörung von Sphärenmusik.

Der Kompakt Label-Familie wurde Turner von dessen zeitweiligen Mitarbeiter Yannis Philippakis (Foals) vorgestellt. Zuvor hatte er in den Post Punk- und Indie-Bands Great Eskimo Hoax und Trophy Wife gespielt. Bis auf eine limitierte lathe-cut 12", der "Prime Mover EP" auf Algebra von 2018, artikuliert Turner mit "Videosphere" zum ersten Mal seine eigene Vision von elektronischer Musik.

Die üppigen Ambient-Disco-Techno-Träume von "Videosphere" hat Turner in seinem Londoner Studio und auf der Schaffarm seiner Eltern in Worcestershire produziert, was den nebulösen, gemächlichen und beinahe pastoralen Charakter des Albums erklären könnte.

"Es gab einen bittersüßen Moment als ich mit der Platte (in Worcestershire) fertig geworden war, da meine Eltern gerade dabei waren, das Haus meiner Kindheit zu verkaufen", seufzt er, bevor er witzelt, "das Positive war, dass ich im Laufe des Sommers eine Menge Schafe geschoren habe". Als Student der Archäologie und der Geschichte des Altertums ist Turner zweifellos mit den sich unaufhörlich drehenden Rädern der Geschichte und der daran geknüpften Erinnerungen vertraut, und es ist keine Überraschung, dass "Videosphere" einen nostalgischen, melancholischen Einschlag hat; viel von seiner Schönheit liegt in der Art und Weise, wie es einem sanft ans Herz geht - die Tränen benetzten Wangen von "Honeycomb" oder der ambivalente Elektro-Reigen von "No Way Back Forever".

Trotz allem hypnotischen Driften und Träumen - Videosphere ist sehr stark im Jetzt verankert. "`No Way Back Forever`ist eine Anspielung auf die lineare Natur der Zeit", erklärt Turner beispielhaft, "und auf den Wendepunkt der globalen Klimakrise, den Wissenschaftler gerade ausgerufen haben". Jayne Powells Gesang wirbelt dabei wie Zuckerwatte durch den Song und steht auch im Mittelpunkt des technoid hymnischen Titelstücks. Überall ist ein Gefühl der Vorwärtsbewegung zu spüren, trotz der Stagnation, in der wir uns Mitte 2020 kollektiv befinden; trotzdem existiert eine Sehnsucht nach dem Gemeinsamen, nach Gemeinschaft, die im Albumtitel eingefangen ist - eine Referenz an ein Objekt, dem Turner im Londoner Geoffrey-Museum begegnete, "ein Fernsehgerät in Form eines Raumfahrerhelms aus den 1970er Jahren".

„Die lose Vision, die ich hatte, bestand darin, eine elektronische Platte zu machen, die eine soziale Wärme und eine fast zeremonielle oder rituelle Atmosphäre ausstrahlt. Ich wollte die Beziehung unseres archaischen Geistes in den Fallstricken der modernen Welt untersuchen", so Turner abschließend. "Was `Videosphere` für mich auch symbolisiert, ist die Einheit von Menschlichkeit und Gemeinschaft, die am Ende obsiegt".

Traditionally the liner notes of an album take on a kind of third-party address, where a writer is delivering their thoughts about how an album makes them feel without breaching that space where they are representing themselves or the moment in time directly to the reader. The goal is typically a kind of timelessness, but as we live in unprecedented times, unconventional methods take on new life, and hopefully importance. In the spirit of that idea... man, is this the kind of album we all need right now. So many of us feel like we're constantly walking a tightrope, are feeling like we can't unwind, are in genuine need of a few moments of respite. Every so often an album emerges from an artist that most likely did not realize when they were composing how timely the results would be, and Lofi Dimensions is exactly that kind of record. It doesn't really matter why it's coming when it is, what's important is that it's here, offering peace to the perturbed and inspiration for the downcast. The American Dollar have long been one of those artists operating in a kind of middle ground, a band with a long history of creating moving instrumental rock that has somehow avoided ever becoming synonymous with modern American post-rock acts. They retain a sort of autonomy in a valued position just outside the boundaries of classification. Blending electronic textures with moving guitar and keyboard melodies, their music has always traveled somewhere in the spaces between trip-hop, electronic, post-rock and ambient, and this inability to be defined is ultimately what sets them apart from the trappings of genre, allowing them to be whatever they want The American Dollar to be in a given moment, always on their terms.

What does a contemporary album mean to us? Marc Pinol and Hugo Capablanca asked themselves this question when faced with the challenge of recording their first C.P.I. LP. To find the answer they went back to some of the most important records in their lives and listened to them from start to finish. At a time when the whole concept of an album might be at its lowest ebb for decades, they wanted to return to the old way of telling stories, recreating the notion of a narrative "journey" but doing so in their own original manner. 'Alianza' displays a wide range of emotions through only a few elements. There are no structures, barely any drums. It's a puzzling journey that moves through darkness and light, happiness and despair, hope and menace, as it unveils its own mysterious universe. Every track is a world in its own, yet all of them are linked by an invisible energy that reflects a coherent constellation. To achieve this, Hugo and Marc used a broad array of vocal timbres, including their own drone-treated voices, digitized vocals from an old vector synth, and those of several contributors. Most of the sounds on the album come from digital devices, as they wanted to "prove themselves" in the studio "by doing something as warm as we could while trying to avoid analogue if possible? The major part of 'Alianza' was recorded during the spring of 2018 in Barcelona, with further takes and additions recorded in Berlin, New York, Los Angeles and Switzerland. It features contributions from Spacemen 3's Will Carruthers, Tanja Siren, Veronica Vasicka, Anna Homler, Demetrio Martini and Pablo Sanchez. The album was mastered by Gordon Pohl in Dusseldorf. The artwork is by Dominic Brucia and features a picture by Tanja Siren. The album was created with the support of The Richard Thomas Foundation.

JON SPENCER, THE BLUES EXPLOSION MAN who put the BELLBOTTOMS on BABY DRIVER! The Top Cat who spread the
Secret Sauce in BOSS HOG! The Rockabilly Right-Hook from Heavyweight Outlaws HEAVY TRASH! The Swank-Fucking Master of PUSSY GALORE!

Jon Spencer is back! Often imitated, never duplicated, the original NYC underground-rock legend returns from the wilderness with twelve red-hot hits, each more powerful than the last!

This is Garage Punk for Now People! A wizard’s brew of rhythm & blues and subversive dance grooves, weaponized with sci-fi skronk and industrial attitude, calibrated for the Revolution, a Molotov cocktail of sound guaranteed to destroy any post-modern hangover!

Pulsing with energy, clanging with excitement, and dripping with radioactive soul and raw emotion, Jon Spencer opens up his heart like never before, exploring man’s modern condition with caustic guitars and outerworld crooning, asking and answering the musical question, “Is it possible to torch the cut-throat world of fake news and pre-fab, plastic-coated teen rebellion with the power of rock’n’roll?”

THE ANSWER IS YES! SPENCER SINGS THE HITS!

This is the truth serum America has been craving, the beginning of a rock’n’roll rebellion that takes no prisoners and puts the squares on ice!

Recorded and mixed with Bill Skibbe at the Key Club in Benton Harbor, MI. Featuring the talents of Sam Coomes (Quasi, Heatmeiser) and M. Sord (M. Sord). On tour in the Europe in Autumn 2018!

Mit "Front View" legt die Filmemacherin und Musikerin Helena Ratka alias Pose Dia ihre erste Solo-LP vor. Neben ihrer Tätigkeit als Soundtrack- und Theaterkomponistin sowie als Resident DJ im Hamburger Golden Pudel Club, machte Ratka auch als Teil des Duos Shari Vari (gemeinsam mit Sophia Kennedy) auf sich aufmerksam. All diese verschiedenen künstlerischen Wege und Abzweigungen münden nun in dem neu geborenen Projekt Pose Dia und einem Album, das zu einem beeindruckend vielschichtigen und eigenwilligen Debütwerk geraten ist.

At the heart of Christian Stadsgaard's solo project Vanity Productions is a voracious emotive charge that's forever tempered by an austere and self-disciplined approach to composition. His new album for Posh Isolation, the label and project that he authors with Loke Rahbek, is the most thoroughgoing realisation of the tendencies and processes captured in the guise of Vanity Productions to date. Entitled 'But All Spiked,' the album presents a suite of five pieces that veer surely yet subtly through a complimentary range of acousmatic environments. Of his recent works its perhaps 'Only The Stars Come Out At Night' that most resembles a preliminary route in to the arena of his new album. Sometimes overtly, though often with a cryptic veneer, he modulates a central refrain across each piece that comes to engulf the stereo field with different intentions. Citing the influence of American minimalist composers, Stadsgaard has refigured some of the compositional practices towards his particular context and oeuvre. A medley of strings and electronics waver in and out of place on the opening piece, 'White Ribbons On The Ceiling,' introducing the careful preparation and treatment of sound as a means of articulating a profound though compassionate melancholy. The album is drenched in sorrow and seeks its expression with great economy. And it's around this detail that there's perhaps some slight indication of the album's turbulent personal context and the major life changes that underpin it. Stadsgaard's restraint proposes a wealth of wistful invocations. This control, once combined with the subdued presence of his penchant for glaring noise, is what organises 'But All Spiked' into the meditative and dynamic work that it is.

Five years after his critically acclaimed debut album Throwback, Glenn Astro returns with his deeply personal album Homespun.

Marking a change in course from his first release on Tartelet Records, Glenn Astro is set to showcase his sophomore album Homespun, a testament to a visionary artist who has come into his own. Made up of ten tracks spanning 45 minutes, the record twists and turns between electronic meditations, soulful vocals by Ajnascnet, and futuristic electro, carving out a world of spacey eclecticism that is as nostalgic as it is experimental.

“This album is in all facets different from the first one, which was a deliberate decision. No vintage sounds and references, no sampling, combined with futuristic sound design and song structures.I tried to keep it as current and intuitive as possible,” he says.

Known for his chunky beats and fuzzy textures, Glenn Astro has released on labels such as Ninja Tune and Apollo, leaving a distinctive signature on everything he touches.

But Glenn Astro has quietly been crafting a new sound for himself. Sometimes taking detours – morphing into his dark alter ego and experimenting with artist collaborations.

The sound of Homespun is a culmination of several years of reflection and artistic development – however, the album itself was produced in less than three months. “I set myself an ultimatum to finish the album within three months. If I didn’t make it, I’d
have to rethink my career path and keep music as a hobby, he says.

On the introspective first single and album title track “Homespun,” Ajnascent’s vocals lend a sincerity to the melancholic production. “It’s about the regret of not taking chances and giving in too much, but also about taking responsibility and being honest with yourself. Homespun is a nod to nostalgia and a desire for simplicity and prudence, being equally the culprit and the cure,” elaborates Ajnascent.

On “The Yancey,” an homage to J Dilla, Glenn Astro paints his vision of contemporary dance music with shimmering melodies, deep ambient soundscapes, and advanced drum programming. “Moreira” and “Look at You” feel like spaced-out electronic funk hybrids, while “Taking Care of Business” goes back to the future with Glenn Astro’s take on jungle. Other tracks such as “Mezzanine,” “Slow Poke Flange,” and “Viktor’s Meditation” provide the finest dubby electronics.

The music has gotten thick, guys give me tunes and they’re full of chords” declared Miles Davis interviewed on The Jazz Review in 1958, and added: “I can’t play them...I think a movement in jazz is beginning away from the conventional string of chords, and a return to emphasis on melodic rather than harmonic variation. There will be fewer chords but infinite possibilities as to what to do withthem.”
Miles proved his assertion to be true on Kind of Blue (Columbia, 1959), an album that remains one of the most iconic and influential jazz albums of all time.


• LIMITED EDITION CLASSIC LP
• HIGH-DEFINITION PREMIUM VINYL PRESSING
• 180 GRAM VINYL-AUDIOPHILE PRESSING
• INCLUDES 1 BONUS TRACK

THE BEST-SELLING JAZZ ALBUM EVER AND THE MOST IMPORTANT MODERN JAZZ LP!

Two years in the making, Future Ruins, TOM And His Computer’s debut album, will be released on Trentemøller’s In My Room label in October 20th. As a 20 year veteran of the Copenhagen music scene, Thomas Bertelsen has been releasing music under the sobriquet of TOM And His Computer for five years, merging the newest technologies with the old, while squeezing fresh sounds out of equipment that’s not only obsolete, sometimes it’s barely functioning at all. “I switch back and forth between the digital and the analog worlds. I’ll utilize old guitar pedals as well as the newest software,” says Thomas Bertelsen, producer behind TOM And His Computer. “It’s never about the gear, though, but rather finding that one little sound that can trigger an idea for an entire track.” Future Ruins was also co-produced and mixed by Trentemøller. While previous offerings have taken listeners to the outer boundaries of what can be considered “electronic music,” including nods to dark wave, dream pop, krautrock and modern psych rock, Future Ruins presents those influences in a new way and represents a great leap forward for the Copenhagen based producer.
The result is a genre-less collection of songs showcasing TOM’s obsession with propelling sounds of the past into the present, and future, combining noise and edginess with his “commitment to fresh ideas with a clear sense of melodies,” according to Clash Magazine. “My tastes are eclectic and I like to flirt with many different sub genres,” says TOM. “The aim was to combine various styles while trying to maintain a common denominator,” which committing to a full-length offered as an opportunity.

The show business is dead, long live the show business. Where have you been? We missed you.
It was easy for them to take a break, it is even easier to come back. BIRTHDAY have returned.
A pop duo, the kings of cool. Their new record is extraordinary. What is left to say?
There is no business like show business.

GES: Anthology of American Pop Music

Six great pop standards remembered: five pop songs are dissected by sampler, stretched, compressed, and re-collaged. In this way, their identity is lost. What remains is a vague concreteness: flashes of déjà vu and remote echoes that evoke the original.
GES (Gesellschaft zur Emanzipation des Samples)
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Active members: Helmut Schmidt, Jan Jelinek
Founded: 2009
Headquarters: Federal Court of Justice, Karlsruhe, Germany
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GES Glossary

Acoustic Surveillance Series

A 7-inch vinyl record series curated by GES focussing on historical methods of acoustic surveillance. Each record introduces a surveillance system from the past. Starting with Uguisubari in 2017, the series will continue with the release of Orecchio di Dionisio in 2021. GES is open to further suggestions on this subject.

Bundesgerichtshof (German Federal Court of Justice), Karlsruhe

“The use of audio samples as artistic practice may justify the infringement of copyright and intellectual property rights.” (ruling of the German Federal Court of Justice pertaining to Metall auf Metall II, 2016). The court is also the official headquarters of GES.
Circulations

What happens to copyright claims when music from a passing car is captured in a street recording? Is it legal to use this recording freely or is it necessary to obtain licensing rights? Circulations re-enacts this recording situation: audio players are placed in public spaces, where they reproduce the desired sample material. The acoustically choreographed space is then recorded, creating a field recording in which everyday noises circulate together with seemingly incidental music.

Emancipation of Sampling

Fuelled by its criminalization, the act of sampling existing recordings forfeited some of its artistic prestige (see Sampling). GES wishes to rehabilitate and re-emancipate the practice of sampling as a form of art in its own right. Strategy: 1. Name samples and sources explicitly. 2. Choose samples that are as popular and as recognizable as possible (Beatles, Carpenters, etc.). 3. The editing and manipulation of the sample must not compromise its recognizability (negotiable). 4. Use as many samples as possible. 5. Always name more sample sources than were actually used in the composition.

Field Recording

A compositional practice widely used in sound art and ethnomusicology that involves the recording of natural acoustical phenomena. Two additional requirements are usually imposed: The recording process should take place outside a studio environment, i.e. outdoors. And the person recording does not generate any of the acoustic material him/herself. GES expands this definition by introducing the concept of choreographed public space (see Circulations).

Gambling

An acoustic event favoured by GES, already used in numerous sound collages (must take place in public). The most popular option is thimblerig, a cup and ball gambling game commonly played in the street. Compositional instruction by GES: Place an audio playback device in the proximity of a thimblerigger. Play works for orchestra (by Debussy or Mahler). Move slowly towards the gamblers with a microphone.

Helmut Schmidt

Multiple identity and fictional character devised by GES. Figures variously within the semiotic system of GES as member, guest artist or public representative. Following the historical example of Subcommandante Marcos (EZLN).

Kraftwerk

The German band founded by electropop musicians Florian Schneider-Esleben and Ralf Hütter (a.k.a. Die Prozessoren) is the natural enemy of GES. Protected by computer-generated avatars, Kraftwerk operates a quote-hostile cultural hegemony. Their strategy: Install a special brand in the collective consciousness by means of a sophisticated system of quotations and references that may in turn not be quoted by anyone else. Other bands with such delusions of omnipotence: U2, Metallica.

Marcel Duchamp

As the inventor of the readymade, Duchamp may be viewed as a precursor to the art of sampling. However, the artist is appreciated above all for his sonorous qualities, as his vocal silence has often been sampled and processed. It was the inspiration for Jelinek's radio play Zwischen.

Orecchio di Dionisio

This 65-meter-deep limestone cave in the Sicilian town of Syracuse, carved out of a hillside in ancient times, has exceptional acoustics: A person standing at the cave entrance can hear every word whispered deep down inside it. The painter Michelangelo da Caravaggio gave it its name (The Ear of Dionysius) in 1608. The cave indeed resembles an ear and – according to Caravaggio – had a specific function: The tyrant Dionysius I imprisoned his political prisoners in the cave in order to spy on them. Orecchio di Dionisio will be featured in the Acoustic Surveillance Series in the near future.

Sampling

Compositional practice whereby recorded music is fragmented, turned into sound collages and transferred into different contexts of meaning. Since the advent of affordable sampling technology in the 1990s, the music industry has been trying to criminalize and/or promote the practice. Both strategies are driven by the same principle: Profit.

Uguisubari

Sound-making floorboards in Japanese temple and castle complexes, featured in the Acoustic Surveillance Series in 2017. In the Edo period, the “nightingale floor” (literal translation of uguisubari) was a popular acoustic warning system. The principle was straightforward: When someone stepped onto the boards, nails would rub against metal clamps beneath the floor, creating a tell-tale squeaky sound that was said to resemble the chirping of the Japanese nightingale.

Wind

A generator of acoustic events and an amplifier/transmitter of existing sounds. A meteorological form of energy appreciated by the GES on account of its unpredictability. A series about wind as an acoustic phenomenon is planned. Working title: Hotel Corridors.

Zwischen (Between)

Radio play by GES member Jan Jelinek based on recordings of various public interview situations. From the speech of the interviewees (all of them eloquent personalities) the pauses between coherent utterances were extracted and assembled. What we hear is an archaic body language: modes of breathing, word particles and onomatopoeic turmoil. A key question for GES: Which comes first, personal rights or artistic freedom? For Zwischen, Jelinek used only recordings by public figures that were already available to the public.

RICO PUESTEL debuts on his TIME IN THE SPECIAL PRACTICE OF RELATIVITY label with a mind-boggling journey of 41 minutes — split in two parts to fit on vinyl! HEPTAKAIDEKA is what it won't be and will be what it never was: Something from in-between worlds, a place beyond far beyond, where time dissolves into relativity...

Every modern electronic music presenter should be able to find joyful, elevated, convulsing or simply useful moments within the extent of this track that is designed to have its inherent connecting factors and starting points in place for every DJ set — letting it be just a few minutes, well-placed groove looping or bigger amounts of its entirety for diving into a long night, bringing it to an end or making it standing out in-between.

Starting off with a hazy half-grasp hint of what's to come, a mysteriously pervasive bionic loop emerges, slowly coalescing with a bone-dry groove on the rise. Taking up a first quadrant of the track, already gnawing into the long-term memory, it manages to gradually establish itself along the pathway while the "rhythmatics" endure some subtle layer-shifting with occult-like strings come sliding in from somewhere unknown like an admonitory subtext.

Being halfway through (and all the way in), everything smoothly crumbles down to its basic framework, still shaking off its own reminiscences while foregone vestiges almost perilously try to reassemble themselves. All of that leading to a clearly unforeseen yet fortunate drift into a 1980's-like synth peak time section after about 27 minutes being in that track, finally cherishing an evolving emotional felicity and the climax of its own being that tends to feel like an overarching salvation.

As everything being eventually finite, the track starts to bring to mind where it came from by assuredly falling back into a story told before with the well-established bionic loop that once used to run free, sounding somehow different and more tamed now. Ending with dignity, the consistently resurfaced admonitory strings lead the way to its conclusion and possibly new beginnings, solely leaving behind the heartbeat-like booming that carried it all, now fading away...

Coming into existence during a series of multiple productions of exuberant proportions with Rico making the studio his citadel-like stronghold, this is an extensive story of desires, instincts, pride, fall, mirth, solicitude, tension, détente and basically life itself while subtly yet versatilely entertaining on a dodgy yet accessible level throughout the wingspread of Techno, House, Minimal, Dub, Electronica and Ambient influences.

The CD version not only brings you the title track in the guise of its non-split completeness but eminently churns out the extra drumming dub treat DEKAEPTA for a pleasurable groove-delight as well as the trippy bonus beauty VOSEM' that transits as a precious component of infinity.

Tape / Cassette

Maatsethe’s solo output is all about ambient and sound collage. Loads of processed guitars & samples meander between walls of sound, intimate harmonies and a kind of melancholic cinematic landscape. Stoic basslines are surrounded by soft and gentle spheres. A bit of post-rock feel every now and then, always wrapped up in a meditative monotony, slightly interrupted by small epic narratives to gaze up.

Maatsethe (Matthias Neuefeind, Berlin) curates the KeplarRev series with vinyl reissues of essential electronic albums from the 90’s and 00’s, he plays in the band Fonoda and is part of the project Washer, Zimmer & the Guitar People.

Tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 composed by Maatsethe
Tracks 5, 7 composed by Fonoda
All tracks recorded by Maatsethe
Mastering by Edgar Medina
Artwork by Daniel Castrejón

After being summoned from Ohio to London by Adrian Sherwood, Nick Riggio and Rebecca Magnetic have brought their Midwest musical experience to the South London electronic music scene with a unique creative vision. Fusing elements of techno, post-punk and psychedelic rock they explore spiritual connections and transcendence while Rebecca Magnetic's introspective vocals set against a tough backdrop of Detroit influenced rhythms and vibrations leave you in awe.

Their superb single 'My Future' is a brilliantly cosmic exploration of spaced out and spacious grooves. Crashing hits bring an edgy mood, while lurching drums drag you forwards.
Molten acid synths and the strained and pained vocals from Rebecca add further layers of intrigue to this most adventurous electronic trip.

First to remix is Oosh! man Dan Wainwright, and his version is laced up with sci-fi chords and echoing vocal sounds. The downtempo drum rotations are superbly heavy and trap you in a trance.
Next up, Retroforward is Al Mackenzie's solo remix/music project named after his successful Birmingham night.
Al is one half of Field Of Dreams. His 'No Future' remix is an airy and atmospheric remix that takes the track to the farthest edges of space on smooth, hypnotic grooves and beautifully astral melodies.

Lastly, Richard Sen has already been getting support for his remix from ALFOS man Sean Johnston, and he goes for a superbly rugged yet slow motion chugger that is dubbed out and expansive thanks to the arching guitar riffs that ring out to the heavens above fat-bottomed drums.

Whether experienced on the dance floor or in metaphysical states, this music is medicine for the mind and body.

Disco Bits are back with another party time 45.
Cannon & Mirrorball are in the edit suite once again re-touching and consensually grappling with funky old 70's grooves and late nite club accapellas to bring you the heat that your record box has been needing.

A - Hot Lovin' (Dont Stop Dont Quit)
On side A they they serve up some peaktime Studio 54 realness mixed with a bit of late 80's style hip house.
This is Cerrone meeting Sergio Mendes uptown, Saturday Night, whilst Chali 2na and his posse bumrush the show and grab the mic.

B - Shack Attack !
On the flipside the boys funk it up with some never fail drum breaks from the Disco Shack, vocal snatches of a houseparty classic and a swathe of brand new instrumentation.
The result is a jam is so dope you'll get a contact high by un-sleeving the wax.

Ain't no party like a Cannon & Mirrorball party, y'all !

Get 'em while you can.

Fragile X is an exciting new collaboration between vocalist Inga Schunn and producer Dylan Chase.

The group began in 2019 when Schunn posted an iPhone voice recording on Facebook in which she sang an acapella in her native German. Her friend Chase, who was recording and releasing at that time as Caffeine Worldwide, heard the 30-second clip and immediately asked Schunn, at that time only an acquaintance, if she might like to record something. Neither of them realised at the time that the first sessions would lead to a debut 4-track EP that capably references as many styles as most full-length albums from established artists, while also setting a blueprint for a project that could go anywhere from here.

The opening track alone, 'Lifetime', opens with a woozy blend of UKG rhythms and Royksopp synths, before giving way to Schunn's sedate rendition of Daniel Johnston's 'Some Things Last A Long Time'...basically the years 1990-2002 distilled into 5 furious minutes of 5am energy.

Across the whole release, Chase's productions show the same cinematic flair that made his previous releases on French Press Lounge, Third Try and Human Concrete Block must-haves for your late-night record bag.
A2 'Prix' with the kind of R&S attitude that would make forebears like LFO or Lone proud, could be the soundtrack for an illegal outback rave or a sunset drive over a Big Sur overpass.
The album closer, 'Fragile X Theme,” sounds something like if late 90's Bjork was commissioned to soundtrack the movie Hackers with Akai samplers on loan from the Hartnoll brothers.

The whole release may be overshadowed by the B1, 'Karaoke Girl', a track Schunn and Chase wrote in Mexico City in 2019 after a rough night at a Zona Rosa karaoke bar.
Opening with dripping synths as soft and inviting as the last drink before sunrise, Schunn tells a story of a woman who overstays her invite at an intimate birthday party between friends, taking the mic from the birthday girl and singing "Seal, Rush and Kate Bush" with a "death grip on the mic."
It's a bizarre, vivid song for such new artists to have come up with, and the lyrics are underpinned by Chase's equally adventurous combination of Nordic disco elements with heavily treated bursts of Japanese koto.
The Lifetime EP's title is a reference to the laborious process that it took to make the record, with multiple recording sessions across two countries followed by endless edits and a Covid 19 related vinyl slowdown bringing its release to a crawl.
The record itself is a fast-paced, dopamine rush debut that we are proud to share with you as both the culmination of a long process, and the beginning of a strange new story.

She Lost Kontrol is thrilled to announce the debut full length album by the collaboration between the Berlin based producer Unhuman and the performer – activist Petra Flurr .
The two artists return to the label after their single releases in the two volumes of Surviving in Europe and for Unhuman, after his mighty Aktion Mutante ep in collaboration with Violet Poison back in 2018.

Marking our 14th instalment on the label, ‘’Cause Of Chaos ‘’ comprises eight tracks filled of energy and steeped in to gothic nostalgia and electronic body music. The well-known artists create a mix of post-punk and synthesizer electronics shaped by their uncompromised textures, that glides through genres with ease and combines modern style with retro goodness. An abstract style of contamination seldom seen within the modern music spectrum.

The Deutsch Italo- Griechisch duo offers us an immersive, futuristic and solid sound, inspired by the music which the two artists grew up with, following a natural evolution to their roots in post-punk, electronic and guitar music. Absolutely an album that will find its space on the shelves of passionate collectors of DAF, Liaisons Dangereuses, Virgin Prunes and beyond.

Edition of 350 copies

Timeless periods of industrial rhythm: Diarmaid O Meara and Kucera collaborate to release ‘Shadowmen’ vinyl on Gobsmacked Records

Nightclubs around Europe are shut. Even in Berlin, the clubbing capital of the world, nightlife has been reduced to a simmer. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t have a good time and connect via timeless periods of electrifying and industrial rhythms”, said Irish producer and DJ Diarmaid O Meara. Together with long-time Gobsmacked techno stalwart Kucera, the two have dropped their latest vinyl ‘Shadowmen’.

The collaboration has derived from long sessions in the Gobsmacked cavern studios in Berlin. The result: A 12” that is laid out in the style of the perfect rave – with a breakbeat electronica entry that promotes procrastination, freakish, and intensely introverted thoughts created through pulsating rhythms and ghostly frequencies, industrial rave sounds for those moments of release.

Partying is a huge part of Berlin’s identity

By listening to the vinyl featuring a dark rhythm, it becomes obvious that the duo has been heavily influenced by underground techno nights in Berlin, and also regularly sharing the stage together at international events. With the pandemic-mandated closure of clubs stretching through the summer, however, playing gigs and festivals is no longer an option. Hence, illegal parties have sprung up to fill the gap and infuriated some public health officials and politicians, also in Berlin.

“Partying is still a huge part of the city’s identity”, continued Diarmaid O Meara who has been living in Berlin for over a decade and also organising parties all over the city. “Raves are a much-needed way to blow off steam after a period of isolation but we have to consider a more proactive approach, for instance district authorities making public spaces available to party organisers under conditions that ensure hygiene measures are maintained.”

Although there has been no shortage of digital music events either since the pandemic began, clubbing is more than just watching a DJ set. “Rather it’s about the unique space that’s created by artists and the crowd that are pulled together by music”, said Kucera who has been destroying dance floors across Europe with his live sets since 2004. “In times when people are still feeling more isolated than ever, our latest vinyl with the accompanying music video aims to bring a sense of connectedness and community during the lockdown.” The video imagery has been recorded live using Kuceras machine pattern triggering whilst performing the tracks live.

Unwavering dedication to the culture of counter-culture

The name ‘Shadowmen’ reflects the work both artists have contributed constantly and consistently to the scene over the past two decades with unwavering dedication to the culture of counter-culture. The artwork, in classic Gobsmacked style, comes with a tip of the cap to the global elite who have been successfully driving humanity off a cliff. “We’ve thrown a little apparent illuminati symbol in there for those who’ve been confined too long at home and on YouTube for the past 6 months”, said Diarmaid O Meara.

Both artists are working on a multitude of new tracks and events for the post-Covid era. Of particular interest is Kuceras live visual show for Gobsmacked, with visuals triggered from his machine live-set patterns. This is something he has been wanting to experiment with for a long time now and it started to take shape in the form of visual hallucinations of industrial areas and trains he had been filming while traveling across Europe before the world stopped functioning properly due to Covid-19. Diarmaid O Meara has quite a few tricks up his sleeve, including a new politically inspired alias, where both artists will take centre stage in some wacky antics.

Counterchange presents 'Eigenlicht' by Portuguese-German multi-instrumentalist, producer and award-winning film composer John Gürtler.

Gently teetering between krautrock-influenced synth mantras and saxophone improvisations, down-tempo electronica, sound design experiments and moments of rich ambience, 'Eigenlicht' is a diverse album of electro-acoustic music. The 11 tracks were recorded between two studios and on location at Berlin's infamous Teufelsberg, the abandoned Cold War era US spy-radio and radar outpost named 'Field Station Berlin', surrounded by forest to the west of the city.

A document of Gürtler's development, many of the pieces here were first laid down in his bunker-like former basement studios at Drontheimer Straße in north Berlin, before he eventually elevated above ground - both physically and musically - building his current Paradox Paradise studio and becoming an established film music composer. In 2019 John won the European Film Academy Award for Best Score, for his soundtrack for Nora Fingscheidt's debut feature 'Systemsprenger' (System Crasher).

In recent years John collaborated on a number of projects with acclaimed German producer and composer Phillip Sollmann aka Efdemin, performing live and releasing the 'Gegen Die Zeit' EP on Sky Walking, a subsidiary of Dial records where he also remixed Efdemin's 'Parallaxis' under the moniker The Borderland State.

In part an ode to the Macbeth Systems M5 modular synthesizer, with its three oscillators, much of the album features the towering instrument, whose uniquely rich tone and rumbling, pure bass end characterises tracks like 'Eigenlicht', 'M5', 'Synthetics' and 'Five Voice'.

"The M5's built in spring reverb and huge sliders and faders - as opposed to all the tiny knobs on Eurorack synths - make it as playable as any acoustic instrument."

John's primary background is in acoustic music, coming from woodwind and keyboard instruments, improvisation and composition. The leap into working with computers and electronic instruments found him exploring ways to make synths and samplers sound as organic as possible.

Roman Flügel presents: Sister Midnight!
What started as a party series that saw Roman inviting friends and favorites is turning into a full-fledged label adventure now. Shaped to be the vehicle for old and new Roman Flügel music alike, unreleased surprises and previously released sure shots from the archives, it’s the first time after his involvement in the seminal Playhouse and Klang label universe, that he tends to such an enterprise himself - with the help and support of Running Back records.
Now, the journey of Roman Flügel’s own Sister Midnight label starts with the valuable Tracks On Delivery series. Originally released on the third jewel in the Playhouse crown (Ongaku Musik) from 2000 to 2002, it’s a meditation on and contemplation of techno. Remastered, recut and repackaged as a triple vinyl edition with the addition of two previously unreleased „Patterns“. Pristine sound design, hypnotic wizardry and dry then architecture let all of them appear as if they haven’t aged a day.
Or as Roman says himself:
“I’ve always tried to push myself into new territories since I started music production. Those new territories can surely be achieved by the endless possibilities of inspiration, chaos and will power. At the time of the production of my Pattern series as under the name Tracks On Delivery I was highly inspired by some of Andrew Weatherall’s Techno sets while visiting London for some of his Blood Sugar Parties. Tracks On Delivery is unthinkable without the crude ‚germanic‘ mixture of Detroit labels like Jay Denham’s Black Nation and Weatherall’s own UK Techno imprints like Emissions Output. The Pattern Series, back then created for the Frankfurt based Ongaku Musik label, and now I am very happy to be able to release 15 original Patterns along two unreleased Patterns on my own Sister Midnight label.“