St Leonard’s premier manipulator of drones, loops and echoes delivers his most buzzed out, kosmische and beat driven work to date in a deluxe white vinyl album release for Castles in Space.
Here, Kieran explains the genesis and production of his masterwork:
“Eternal Return was unusual for me in that I actually set out to make an album, rather than find myself with a set of tunes that evolved into a project.
The “Eternal Return” is a concept I have been inspired by before. However it clicked with me in a more profound way recently. Far from seeing the prospect of living life over, unknowingly, on an endless loop as depressing, I suddenly felt amazing comfort in the theory. The Stoic emperor Marcus Aurelius said, “Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.” Far from being trapped in the loop I am elated to feel that it's simply about living the best life you can. One that you wouldn't fear having to live again.
To place the album in context against this newly realised perception, I think of the Side One as the battle to get to that realisation and enlightenment and Side Two represents the acceptance and the decision on how to proceed. The turning point is from thinking about the things I love most and what I would want to experience over and over again. I hope it is an uplifting listening experience. As it happens, the album originally had a darker ending. I think I actually learned a bit about my point of view during the process. There are drums, which wouldn’t often feature in my music (there are in fact more drums on this LP than in my combined output over the last 8 years) and the pieces are noticeably shorter, more focussed and concise than my usual longer form work.
Musically this album is probably the least clearly influenced by anything I regularly listened to. The main outcome was wanting to challenge myself and to add whatever the pieces needed and go with that. I think I was also probably pushed on by the wealth of amazing music being made by my peers across Bandcamp and social media. 2020 was an incredible year in this particular sphere of electronic music. The album was made as I started to transition from a semi-modular to a modular synth set up. I think that this was a key driving force, since a lot of the time I didn’t know exactly what I was doing. It is nice to be surprised by what you’re creating.
Finally, whilst this is in no way a “lockdown album”, the period of time in which much of it was recorded definitely had a bearing on how it sounds. For one thing I spent a lot more time around my studio space when working from home. In keeping with the album's theme, the lockdown also helped consolidate my feelings on what is important in life and what isn’t. One piece was in fact sketched out as a first draft while I sat on mute during a Zoom meeting.
Cerca:push the feeling on
“The greatest thing about being a musician is experiencing it with other people,” says Ed Riman, the Brighton-based Eurasian singer, songwriter and sound-scapist who records as Hilang Child. “Whether that’s playing with others, creating together, sharing a vision, whatever, I just think in all aspects it’s a totally elevated experience when you’re not alone.” Proof rings out with force and feeling on Hilang Child’s superlative second album, ‘Every Mover’, released on Bella Union.
In 2018, Riman delivered a serene, textured debut album in ‘Years’, rich in sound and feeling. Lauren Laverne, Q, MOJO and others lavished praise but the “isolating process” of making the album left Riman hungry to find alternative ways of working. Meanwhile, the “lonely, pressured” aftermath of ‘Years’ found Riman grappling with “rough selfesteem and anxiety issues,” amplified in part by social media’s “fulfilment narratives.” Duly, he set out to navigate and overcome these mindsets, drawing deeply on his own insecurities and those he recognised in others.
These themes converge emphatically on ‘Every Mover’, an album steeped in everyday emotional states and crafted for cathartic, communal performance. Drawing on a rich spread of collaborators, sounds and themes, Riman uses his frustrations as the impetus to transform the brimming promise of ‘Years’ into upfront and expansive new shapes. “I wanted it to sound a bit gutsier than the first album,” he says, succinctly, “heavier and closer to the kind of stuff that hits me when I go to shows or blast music in the car. I started out in music as a drummer playing for pop or beat-driven artists and grew up listening to louder stuff, but a lot of the music I’ve made as Hilang Child has been more ethereal. I wanted to bring it back to a place that feels more ‘me’ and make more of a thing of having big hypnotic drums, aggressive bass, ripping distorted instruments and a general energy to it.”
‘Good To Be Young’ serves swift notice of this leap, its banked synths and twinkling sound clusters leading to an assertion of fresh force when the main beat lands and a congregation of friends - AK Patterson, Paul Thomas Saunders, Dog in the Snow, Ellen Murphy, members of Penelope Isles - unite for the gang-vocal refrains. “It’s all iridescent colour I’m on,” Riman exults, a claim lived up to on the full-flush folktronica of ‘Shenley’.
A reflection on spiralling insecurity, ‘Seen The Boreal’ ups the ante again with its monkish chorales, looping samples, spectral woodwinds (from multi-instrumentalist John ‘Rittipo’ Moore, of Public Service Broadcasting and Bastille previous) and ecstatic chorus, Riman transforming a meditation on hindsight’s limiting effects into a spur to look forwards. And surge forwards he does with the glittering synths, spacey guitars and Krautrock propulsion of ‘King Quail’, developed in jam sessions with dream-pop wonder Zoe Mead (Wyldest) in her basement studio.
Brought to a sublime close with ‘Steppe’, the resulting album projects its own epiphanic force. Thankfully, most of the main parts were recorded pre-lockdown between East London, Gateshead, Brighton, Wandsworth and elsewhere, before mixing proceeded remotely. Meanwhile, alongside indie-pop trio OUTLYA’s Will Bloomfield (percussion/coproduction on ‘Play ’Til Evening’), visual design collective Tough Honey (accompanying videos) and other collaborators, Riman’s bond with co-producer JMAC (Troye Sivan, Haux, Lucy Rose) proved crucial. “It felt freeing to work collaboratively and have that push-andpull of ideas,” says Riman. “Even the moments where we didn’t see eye-to-eye made it feel like I wasn’t alone, with someone else working just as passionately on the project.”
LP pressed on red transparent vinyl.
decade into its ongoing experimentation that has pushed the sonic fusion between science andtechnology, SCI+TEC remains at the very forefront of electronic music. From day one Dubfire’s label has
continuously forged its own path, with its feet firmly on the dance floor and its sights set on the future.
SCI+TEC has consistently championed and encouraged new and unsung talent from around the world,amplifying legions of rising names; Carlo Lio, Paul Ritch, SHADED, Reset Robot, The Junkies, Alex Mine, Basti Grub, Habischman and countless more include SCI+TEC releases in their rich histories.
Next up on SCI+TEC is this two-tracker by Romanian DJ and producer Faster. His interest in music began at the age of 16, when he started producing underground hip-hop music. This passion for music soon led him to electronic music, where he quickly learned how to take over the decks and became a sought after DJ in Romania and later, playing at famous clubs and underground parties world wide for more than 10 years.
It was time for the creative label-owner to have his SCI+TEC debut release.
‘Butter Twisted Cables’ delivers two unique tracks, each with a unifying energy. The A-Side opens with ‘Twisted Cable’, a stand-out energetic groove, providing a warm feeling of satisfaction. ‘Butter’
on the flipside is the stand out track melting into your ears with an eclectic housy vibe.
- A1: Idealism – Somehow
- A2: Wun Two – Blue Avocado
- A3: Matt Mcwaters – Keep Her
- A4: Pastels – Looking Back
- A5: Swum – Aqua
- A6: Ta-Ku – Remember Me
- A7: Vhvl – Cght
- B1: Eevee – Serenity
- B2: Chief. – Merlot
- B3: Laguna – Lone Rider
- B3: Kerri – Parc
- B4: Saltyyyy V – Miss U
- B5: Peachy! – Stroll
- B6: Jinsang – Staring Off
Vol. 2[20,63 €]
After the very successful EP releases of quickly, quickly’s “Over Skies” in mid 2018 (27m spotify-streams) and Please Wait’s “Black & White” in late 2019 (6,4m spotify-streams to this day) Jakarta Records and Ta-ku take their joint label to the next level presenting 823’s very 1st longplayer - a compilation feat. an international line-up of already established as well as up & coming Lo-Fi producers, handpicked and curated by none other than 823 label-head Ta-ku himself.
1st single to be released on 21st of August is „Serenity“ by prolific 27 year old producer eevee (1,5m monthly listeners) from the Netherlands aka „the queen of Lo-Fi“ delivering a loopy and very hypnotic tune w/ quite jazzy horns feeling like watching the sunset on a desert planet like Dune - from outer space.
2nd single will be a double-single, coming on September 11th w/ finnish indie-producer Idealism (2,5m monthly listeners) and his tune “Somehow” – a steady and softened beat w/ colorfull and chilled piano chords – on the one side and Ta-ku’s “Remember Me” - another powerful Lo-Fi anthem by the Australian allrounder and 823 patron - on the flipside.
The compilation’s 3rd drop will be a double-single as well featuring 19 year old, US-based self made producer Peachy! (2,6m monthly listeners), delivering his Shanghai inspired, very spheric walk-by tune “Stroll” on one side while Laguna contributes his slowly uplifting but very keen “Lone Rider” on the flipside, catching that specific moment when switching from boredom to euphoria right away.
All singles off the compilation will be accompanied by customized visuals from different filmmakers catching the songs’ very own vibes. The compilation’s artwork comes along in its very own and unique 823-style.
Worldwide web promotion for this release will be handled and taken care of by Jonathan Kim.
_____
Ta-ku’s 823 label represents the appreciation for the people, ideas and places that inspire and push their protagonists forward. The artwork is shot by the artists themselves and each release has an accompanying photo zine that acts as a visual story to compliment the music being showcased. 823 is also the numerical representation of the phrase 'Thinking Of You'.
“823 celebrates the simple beauty of everyday life and the people in it that inspire us. In that spirit we are proud to present our very first compilation featuring artists we love. All Things Considered Vol.1” (Regan Matthews aka Ta-ku)
One of dance music’s most enigmatic figures returns home to Anjunabeats. GRAMMY-nominated producer Mat Zo is back with a brand new artist album set for release in October: ‘Illusion Of Depth’. At the age of 30, this is the London-born, L.A.-based producer’s third artist LP. He broke onto the scene in 2008 and has been causing an uproar ever since. In the early naughties, he penned Anjunabeats classics like ‘The Lost’ and ‘Synapse Dynamics’ which were far ahead of their time. They were followed by the likes of ‘Superman’, ‘The Sky’ and ‘Rebound’ (with Arty). He pushed the Anjunabeats sound to the mainstage, racking up spins from Pete Tong, Axwell and Armin van Buuren. It was his GRAMMY-nominated debut album ‘Damage Control’ that fully showcased Mat’s avant-garde approach in 2013. Featuring break-out hit ‘Easy’ with close friend Porter Robinson, the track took Mat mainstream: a Radio 1 A-List addition, Sirius XM BPM listing, a #1 Billboard Heatseeking record, an Essential Mix of the year nomination and, ultimately, a GRAMMY nod for best dance and electronic recording. Since then, Mat has grown his own stable. Self-releasing his second LP in 2016, ‘Self Assemble’, via Mad Zoo, Mat’s imprint nurtured a new generation of eclectic, genre-agnostic creators.
Coming off a late summer 2020 release on Washington DC’s 1432 R label, Jackson Ryland keeps the momentum flowing with a 4-track self-release 12” entitled Acting Careless. The tracks were recorded between 2018 and spring 2019, intent on embodying a DJ’s record that could be thrown on at different moments and emotions during a set. The freeflowing, laidback and freewheeling feeling behind the house & warehouse party sound of DC inspired the recording process. Borrowing from the past few years’ experience recording at high speeds with the Rush Plus project, Acting Careless continues that same rhythmic intensity with a more uplifting and spiritually cleansing angle. A happy push-pull balance between fierce and sweetness.
Loraine James follows up 2019's acclaimed 'For You And I' album with a new four track EP, `Nothing'. Her chosen collaborators empathetically extend the feeling in her music with their own unique energies; Uruguayan singer and producer Lila Tirdo a Violeta, Farsi language rapper Tardast, and HTRK front-woman Jonnine Standish. The arc of the EP starts with Lila Tirdo's numb, repeated vocal on the title track. On `Marg', meaning "death" in Farsi, the tense drama of Tardast's despairing poetry describes the hopelessness of refugee experience, cold chords rolling sympathetically around his words. Jonnine shifts the mood with `Don't You See It?', recounting a moment of clarity which allowed her to leave a destructive relationship, Final track `The Starting Point` finds Loraine solo, with punched in bass and chaotic drums pushed through fxs that settle into a plaintive piano melody, the first and only instrument she says she's able to play "properly".
From Mille Plateaux to Leaf, Staubgold and Raster-Noton, ~scape, or on his own label Ripatti, the Finnish artist Sasu Ripatti aka Vladislav Delay has been exploring various iterations of the dub culture vs. electronica, since 1997. His sonic crafts and unique signature sound has been sought after by an eclectic range of bands and artists, ranging from Massive Attack, Hauschka, Black Dice, Autopoieses, Animal Collective or AGF.
Somewhere between the old-school electronica culture, the soundscaping, the experimental paths of Lee Perry and Adrian Sherwood, ghostly clubbing anthems, minimalism, pop, jazz, without being, influenced, Vladislav Delay is building a drifting and coherent sound enigma.
Vladislav Delay met Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare (the most prolific Jamaican rhythm section and production duo) thanks to a series of jam sessions. Trumpet player Nils-Petter Molvaer had been asked by the Jamaicans to join them and he invited Delay alongside guitar player Eivind Aarset to tag along, which eventually turned into the Nordub project.
The result of these jam sessions turned into an album, mixed and mostly produced by Vladislav Delay, released on the label Okeh. It was also followed by an extensive series of live dates. This one-shot reunion was the beginning of another story: a trio composed by Delay, Dunbar and Shakespeare.
In January 2019, Vladislav Delay went to Kingston and spent some days at The Anchor studios, to record drums and bass with S&R, some voice takes and a series of atmospheric field recordings. Back to Finland, Delay started to experiment with this precious material, mixing and overdubbing, in the comfort and quiet of his studio, based on the island of Hailuoto, Baltic Sea, Northern Finland, giving another feeling to the Jamaican trip.
This became a tribute to the 'dub spirit', but in a very personal way, far beyond any influence or "the obvious". 500-PUSH-UP is two worlds collapsing, merging, also showing some intriguing approach of the Jamaican groove, used as a filigree, like the echo or the ghost of reggae, converging and conversing with a post-industrial and experimental approach. To file beside experiments - for instance - such as Lee Perry's 'Scientist Rids The World Of The Evil Curse Of The Vampires' or the On U-Sound productions.
Bing & Ruth, the ever-evolving project helmed by New York composer David Moore, has announced details of a new album, scheduled for release this summer. Entitled Species, the 7-track, 49-min record will be released via 4AD.
While on a surface level, Species is an exploration of the sonic possibilities of the Farfisa organ, aided only
by a clarinet and double bass (played respectively by
founding members Jeremy Viner and Jeff Ratner), the
title Species is a nod to both humanity and humility –
a devotion to the godly intuition with which we are all
endowed, and the humbleness required of us to
perceive it. It’s also about suspended time and trance;
not just a steady movement from A to B, but as
something that flows, meanders and eddies, like
water.
Species, and the transcendental state it embodies,
was inspired by two recent loves of Moore’s: the
desert and long-distance running. Briefly relocating
from his New York base to Point Dume, between the
Pacific Ocean and the desert, Moore was able to
indulge in both passions, which in turn provided
stimulus for new work. He says, “I’d found myself in
places unfamiliar enough that I could easily lose all
sense of direction, size and, more than anything, all
sense of time. The music I was making became a kind
of reflection of these intentional detachments - and a
place to mirror that feeling of trance that had pushed
them out in the first place.”
Repressed in 2023, limited!
Hull/Leeds based five-piece bdrmm release their much anticipated debut Bedroom on July 3, via Sonic Cathedral. The 10-track album was recorded late last year at The Nave studio in Leeds by Alex Greaves (Working Mens Club, Bo Ningen) and mastered in Brooklyn by Heba Kadry (Slowdive, Beach House). It's a hugely accomplished debut and a real step up both sonically and lyrically from their early singles, which were rounded up on last year's If Not, When? EP. Musically, there are nods to The Cure's Disintegration, Deerhunter and DIIV, while the band reference RIDE and Radiohead. There are also echoes of krautrock and post-punk, from The Chameleons to Protomartyr, plus the proto shoegaze of the Pale Saints' The Comforts Of Madness, not least in the cross fading of some tracks, meaning the album is an almost seamless listen. As a result, Bedroom becomes an unexpected and unintentional concept album, running through the different stages of a break-up set against the backdrop of the ups and downs of your early twenties. "The subject matter spans mental health, alcohol abuse, unplanned pregnancy, drugs_ basically every cliché topic that you could think of," reveals frontman Ryan Smith. "But that doesn't mean they ever stop being relevant. It's a fucker growing up, but I'm lucky enough to have been able to project my feelings in the form of this band, surrounded by four of the best people I've ever met." And that band name, in case it needs explaining, is pronounced the same way as the album title. "I never thought I'd get to the stage where I would have to explain it so much," says Ryan. "We have been pronounced as Boredom, Bdum and my old boss thought we were a ska band called Bad Riddim. We're all sarcastic cunts, so Bedroom spelt correctly seemed like the perfect title." He's right. The perfect title for the perfect debut album.
- A1: Dissolving Clouds
- A2: Birds Fly By Flapping Their Wings
- A3: Warmed By The Drift
- A4: In Triple Time
- B1: From A Solid To A Liquid
- B2: Arafura
- B3: Fall In Fall Out
- C1: Daphnis 26
- C2: Altostratus
- C3: Sherbrooke
- D1: People Are Friends
- D2: In The Shape Of A Flute
- D3: Fair Winds For Escort
- E1: Windscale Piles
- E2: Insolate
- E3: La Caldera
- F1: Birds Fly By Flapping Their Wings
- F2: Warmed By The Drift
- F3: Lost Horizon
Dropsonde was originally released by Touch (UK) in 2006. This is a reissue with seven previously unreleased recordings.
Widely regarded as one of Norwegian electronic music's most important artists, Biosphere's Geir Jenssen career spans nearly two decades, several albums, lots of remixes, various sound installations, commissions, soundtracks and even the odd Himalayan summit.
You may recognise his work without knowing it, so frequently does it crop up on TV trailers and idents. In the early 1990s he was a pioneer of so-called 'Ambient Techno', but since then, he has refined his sound into something more magnetic and enduring.
Dropsonde' isn't a soundtrack like the interwoven 'Substrata' nor an episodic journey in the way that 'Autour de la Lune' is. Here Geir Jenssen is pushing new directions towards the jazz colours of Miles Davis and Jon Hassell, whilst re-invigorating the pulse and projection of his signature sound: a hypnotic combination of pleasure and dread.
The spatial aspects some have dubbed "Arctic sound" but it summons strong feelings, or as Exclaim from Canada put it, "in order to climb higher, you must first go deeper". Jon Savage adds: "As with all of the Biosphere albums, the music draws you in and makes you want to listen and feel. Jenssen's work acts on a very emotional level, one that encourages you to drift away into a haze of images and scenes brought to you by the music, where spectacular beauty hides unseen danger. Intense and moving, but comforting and soothing at the same time."
A 'dropsonde' is a weather reconnaissance device designed to be dropped from an airplane or similar craft at altitude to take telemetry as it falls to the ground. It typically relays information to a computer in the dropping airplane by radio. The fall may be slowed by a parachute. Information collected by a typical dropsonde may include wind speed, temperature, humidity, and atmospheric pressure.
If Galaxy Lane’s first EP didn’t send the portals of time and space upside down, then the second EP will throw you down a vortex of hypnotic grooves juxtaposed with eerily erratic rhythms built in outer space.
The first of two EP’s to be trusted in the hands of Lone Romantic, ‘Night’ and ‘Later That Night’ will explore the concept of capturing moments in time.
Maybe Galaxy Lane can best summarise…
“I want people to really feel the mistakes in this music, the dirt, the rough and raw approach, the ‘sitting on the floor surrounded by wires at 3am messing with synths’ approach. That to me is the magic of this music, the interaction of man and machine, to hear the nuances, the tweaking of knobs and pushes of faders. I think we have lost that somewhat with digital technology, and have lost a lot of feeling in the process”
‘Night’ will propel the listener into ethereal textures layered over rough and raw beats, as outlined on opening track ‘Deep Space Nine’. If that sets you up for thinking this will be a dreamy ride, ‘Communication’ hits hard at the rear of the spaceship, coming at you with intergalactic bleeps, zaps and back cracking rhythms made for getting down.
Side 2 sets off on an exploration of wild eyed boundary flexing in the shape of ‘Enter The Light’. Pushing the machines to near breaking point whilst just hanging on, it’s a track that shows what can be done when the spaceship is left to drive itself, you can do nothing more than go with it and and see what happens.
‘Snow Day’ is perhaps the perfect way to round us back in. A more calmer, smoother ride, it’s unmistakable polyrhythms soothing the soul and setting us up for the next chapter…
If Galaxy Lane’s first EP didn’t send the portals of time and space upside down, then the second EP will throw you down a vortex of hypnotic grooves juxtaposed with eerily erratic rhythms built in outer space.
The first of two EP’s to be trusted in the hands of Lone Romantic, ‘Night’ and ‘Later That Night’ will explore the concept of capturing moments in time.
Maybe Galaxy Lane can best summarise…
“I want people to really feel the mistakes in this music, the dirt, the rough and raw approach, the ‘sitting on the floor surrounded by wires at 3am messing with synths’ approach. That to me is the magic of this music, the interaction of man and machine, to hear the nuances, the tweaking of knobs and pushes of faders. I think we have lost that somewhat with digital technology, and have lost a lot of feeling in the process”
‘Night’ will propel the listener into ethereal textures layered over rough and raw beats, as outlined on opening track ‘Deep Space Nine’. If that sets you up for thinking this will be a dreamy ride, ‘Communication’ hits hard at the rear of the spaceship, coming at you with intergalactic bleeps, zaps and back cracking rhythms made for getting down.
Side 2 sets off on an exploration of wild eyed boundary flexing in the shape of ‘Enter The Light’. Pushing the machines to near breaking point whilst just hanging on, it’s a track that shows what can be done when the spaceship is left to drive itself, you can do nothing more than go with it and and see what happens.
‘Snow Day’ is perhaps the perfect way to round us back in. A more calmer, smoother ride, it’s unmistakable polyrhythms soothing the soul and setting us up for the next chapter…
‘Rock Sutra’ is the new space rock album from Sun Araw.
‘Roomboe’, the first track, illustrates this process.
Experience is elastic. Humans alive right now tend to think
there is some sort of ‘baseline’ experience of a thing, a
room, a person, a feeling, some version we all agree on.
This isn't true at all: experience is completely dependent
on the quality of attention of the experiencer. There is a
granularity to experience that, when tuned up, reveals
deeper and deeper space inside of things. When you zoom
in (by pure observation: by not-articulating, not-thinking),
you create ‘room’, you make space. Just like that. For
instance, ‘Roomboe’ has an extremely limited tonal
framework; about 9 notes for the main guitar melody. As
the guitar pushes against these melodic limitations with
continually renewed attention and energy, it begins to
create space around itself. And all of the sudden (at about
4:57), out of this constriction, space balloons up from
everywhere simultaneously. ‘Roomboe’ is a clue about how
to open a portal outwards into free space.
‘78 Sutra’ is about orbital motion. ‘Catalina’ is about taking
a walk. ‘Arrambe’ is about a peculiar feeling you can get
when you zoom in far enough. The music is offered in a
spirit of generosity and adventure; it doesn’t stay put and
it keeps zooming in to reveal more and more.
The album was recorded live-to-midi with the band and
this is the first Sun Araw album recorded like that. That
band is Jon Leland on drums and percussion and Marc
Riordan on synthesizers and Cameron Stallones on
synthesizers and guitar and vocals.
The consistently innovative Catch Recordings is back with a new EP from Leipzig based producer U+00C5. As always with this label, the music is right from the cutting electronic edge and finds this stylish producer blur the boundaries between ambient, dub and techno in evocative new ways.
Cult favourite U+00C5 is focussed on new musical forms, on modern sounds and redefining the European techno sound. He consistently pushes forwards and is a master of the interplay between hypnotic repetition and otherworldly abstractionism, all while drawing on dark ambient and drone. Once again here the producer who also works as Åmethyst is in fine form across all five tracks.
Atmospheric opener 'Blutdruck' is a deep techno roller that fizzes with a sense of post-industrial dystopia. The shadowy grooves are eventually backlit by subtle chords that bring real warmth and soul. The excellent 'Empfinden' is more high tempo but just as cavernous and absorbing thanks to the rolling rubber drums, distant synth drones and sci-fi motifs that add the all important details which keep your head as engaged as your heel.
The beautiful 'Taumel' is another slice of hypnotic and tunnelling techno embellished with gorgeous ambiance from the outer edges of our galaxy. 'Nichts Ist Wahr' closes things out with suspensory pads giving you the feeling that you are floating in space before the firmly rooted drums rumble on and take you into the next dimension.
This is another fascinating EP of club ready but seriously heady sounds from Catch Recordings.
Dadub is a project synonymous with the deepest rhythms from the interior of the human psyche. Low-end mysticism. Tribalist periodic audio patterns. The Berlin-based Italian producers behind the project, now constructed of sonic warlock Daniele Antezza and performance artist Marco Donnarumma, supply an unmistakably unique vision of post-apocalyptic dub landscapes. Past, present, and future blend into one, backed by the supremely sublime BASS of creators who are light years ahead in their field. A Sun Called Moon is a superior first representation on Ohm Resistance, detailing their ongoing mission of creating bass-present music, regardless of dancefloor conformity. The Time You Killed opens as a psycho-acoustic audio film, depicting the unknown world from which the EP emanates. I Would Gladly Die… introduces the first heavy rhythmic patterns, completely alien to identified structures, while unmistakably pushing a groove that entrances hypnotically. Past Times Present Ruins lowers the tempo and continues extrapolating into new rhythmic territory – or is it ancient? It Was Too Soon follows with beat driven hednod, as influences from Scorn to Autechre are subsumed into the universal language that comprises Dadub. Feeling both familiar and foreign, both modern and eternal, Dadub’s first appearance on Ohm Resistance is a fascinating drama played out in 4 acts. Spliff recommended – subwoofer required. All tracks Written and Produced by Daniele Antezza and Marco Donnarumma Mixed by Daniele Antezza and Marco Donnarumma at Dadub Studio, Berlin Mastered by Xergio Cordoba @ Eternal Midnight Studio, Madrid Photography by Flora Schwartz Layout by MachineTM
Hailing from Cluj-Napoca, Heion is a producer, DJ, songwriter, music production teacher and label head of Redolent Records. Throughout a career spanning nearly a decade, he’s shared bills with the likes of David Morales, Ray Mang, Session Victim and Kraak & Smaak, performed with the Hungarian Opera Orchestra and always stayed committed to being a true dancefloor eclectic.
Heion’s latest release is Make Believe, an energetic four tracker on his own freshly launched imprint. It blends a variety of meandering synth solos and quirky analog licks, all wrapped up in the programmed yet deeply organic rhythms that have come to define Heion’s sound.
The release also marks the birth of Redolent Records, a label dedicated to being a true home for sonic excitement while pushing boundaries and inspiring deliberate, well-rounded creations. It aims to pay homage to artists that paved the way musically and to the ones that still inspire across soul, funk and disco.
Four synth-heavy jams explore everything from gratitude and creative doubt to the bittersweet joy of balancing out different influences. Solid grooves and chunky basslines drive each emotionally colorful tune forward, whether it’s heard during a starlit night drive or a thumping warm-up in a large, darkened room.
Heion has spent the past three years composing and recording in several studios, all the while exploring new instruments and gradually leaving his comfort zone behind; you can hear the fruits of this labor in a swirl of modern funk, soul and disco that leaves you feeling refreshed and optimistic.
Having released his last fantastic EP Melodius Hubbub a year previous, ED1999 is back with his newest project, named Moving Glow on Porpax records, illustrated by Graphic Designer Oliver SPERL, representing Belgiums best talent. Remaining serious in sentiment but developing his sound, ED1999 uses elements of light to contrast with the dark. As his previous EP followed the theme of interpreting pathways, this EP isn’t all too much different, as it captures the autonomous and excitable nature of light. Even though the speed of light is the fastest most constant definitive, ED1999 manages to bend, warp and interpret light itself through each track’s alternate paces and elements.
That makes it no surprise that Beam of Light starts us off with a full-body feeling of suspense. His classic momentous techno beat with a gratifying and anchoring kick drives the track the entire way through. Then, as the title foreshadows, the glimmers of light - in the form of synthesisers - manage to push their way through the cracks and eventually bleed out until they’re completed absorbed by the beats and become one.
Unknown Luminescence is nothing short of a fun, intense and gyrating episode; in true groovy techno fashion, it’s designed to get any listener’s shoulders swinging and body’s sweating. The repetition of the light ambient melody throughout gives the sense of a far off signal call, drawing in techno lovers from far and wide to enjoy the experience in synchronicity.
Darker again with more sinister undertones, Flamboyant Ray is an assertive approach to techno, yet cloaked in mystery thanks to its muffled kick drums and reverbs. As a more consistent track meant to maintain intensity, it’s style and confidence hardly alters throughout its duration.
The final track on the EP, Photonic Energy, embodies the environment of electrical currents swimming through dark and damp corridors; reacting and gurgling as electricity meets moisture. Distant murmurs give the effect that the space is alive and every inch of existence is thanks
Rory St John returns to Voitax with "Excommunication", a hyper-deep, futurist take on classic dub techno. Skillfully assembled, each of the four tracks hypnotically morph and evolve, forgoing the cheap tropes of today's 'rise and drop' techno for a more immersive listen - one gets the feeling that each and every sound is wielded with precision, and exists exactly where and for as long as it should. Reacting to the increasingly harder-edge sound that proliferates today's techno, Rory St John strove to push his sound in the opposite direction. The result is sombre and introspective - a slick, reverberating antidote to mainstream anthems. This release is markedly different to the abrasive stylings of his previous "Run Your Mouth" EP and reveals yet another side to the producer's sonic palette.
Early support by Dax J, Eomac, Etapp Kyle, Inigo Kenndy, Marcel Dettmann, Samuel Kerridge, Slam and many more....




















