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Gentle waves lap the soft white sand. The limitless ocean fills the view as the sun slowly sinks below the horizon. As the day ends in blue and orange tones, the heat begins to subside, a sure sign that the slow evening migration from the beach will soon begin. A pleasant, yet formidable music comes from the radio tuned into a frequency transmitted from Paris. Maybe it was written and recorded in the 70s, or maybe it has simply soaked in that aesthetic all the way down to the pauses. It doesn't really matter. Delving deep to explore the roots of Brazil’s musical tradition, the Camarão Orkestra has tapped into Candomblé and its rhythms. Born on the drums of enslaved Africans in a ritual that invokes numerous deities, they lay the foundation for this new album, Nação África. The eleven musicians, guided by Amanda Roldan’s silky voice and guest appearance by Anthony Joseph (“Canto De Bahia”), explore and embrace the murmuring polyrhythm of Brazilian percussion instruments, vibrating berimbau and squeaking cuícas, pouring their tightlywound funk bass into the groove and letting their jazz fly free, together and solo. The seven nonchalant tracks get your hips swaying, whether you’re in a comfortable armchair or surrounded by other dancers. They take your mind far away, on a journey paved by analog synths with Fender Rhodes crystals to the horizon where the sun’s last glimmer has finally faded away. The brass section’s shiny bells, valves and keys reflect the images and ambiance of the soft Brazilian night air.

Kristian Craig Robinson, aka Capitol K, is a multi-instrumentalist and record producer with a long history in London’s most interesting under-the-radar music places and spaces. With a musical story like his, you can expect side streams. New record ‘Birdtrapper’ is “the sound of an initiation rave in a utopian hidden village”, and his latest exploration of Mediterranean audio mythos following from ’Goatherder’ (2018). The six track mini-album was similarly formed from ritualistic improvisations performed in Malta (where Capitol K was born), using home-made flutes, reed pipe, bamboo percussion, drum machine, bass guitar, but this time features a wider use of synthesizers, with the alternative dance floor in mind. Where ‘Goatherder’ was an awakening of genetic primitivism, ‘Birdtrapper’ is an evocation of sonic bird callers, proto-rave abandon, ambient resonance and an ecstatic captive state, along with the previous work's visions of hunters, temples and scrub land music
‘Goatherder’ caused a quiet kind of quake and was beloved by The Quietus, BBCR3 and 6Music. Vinyl Factory described it as “like a series of manipulated field recordings that have an ancient, ritualistic quality … Goatherder shimmers with Balearic strangeness, rooted in an earthy outer-national dance music tradition”. For the last seven years K has been behind the consoles at the heavily influential Total Refreshment Centre, recording and mixing records with the likes of Trash Kit, The Comet Is Coming, Rozi Plain, Alabaster DePlume, Dry Cleaning, Flamingods Cykada, Ibibio Sound Machine, BAS JAN and John Johanna. It’s not just recording. He’s also become an influential if understated mentor to a new wave of producers and bands. His experience in studio environments is long and storied, including stints at Studio Plateaux on an island in the middle of the Thames and in the Royal Symphonia’s squatted rehearsal rooms. Capitol K has released seven albums and the 'Birdtapper EP' follows a legacy of influential releases on early 2000s electronica labels including Planet Mu and XL. Aside this he also runs the record label Faith & Industry. It’s a friends and family, love not money affair and he has released music by Champagne Dub, John Johanna, Super Best Friends Club, Blue House & Clémentine March.

In the deepest hour of nightfall, an explosion occurs on the horizon. An explosion so bright that daylight shows, just for a moment.

For the brief second, the landscape is exposed, vulnerable, like the alb of a high priest. 4 figures stand on a stand of gold leaf, staring out into a slow sea of crude oil. Invoke a violence from the sea, they say. The light goes out, and stays out. She Luv It carries in them an energy similar to a ritual of violence that can be heard in the music of Northern Europe as well.

The recording quality is bright with vocals that chug through an almost cassette-like sound. Bent notes harken back to Northern European scenery of "woods" and "darkness", but where they waded into shit politics rather than better music, She Luv It begins on a sturdy foundation of technical skill and intentional sound. Invoke the violence in yourself, stare into the black sea, and scream until your throat bleeds. This is 'She Luv It'.

Dark industrial ritual doom techno sound... Intercontinental darknesses.

► One half of duo Lumisokea and persistent sonic explorer ANDREA TAEGGI (Opal Tapes, SM-LL, Type, Präsens Editionen) debuts on OOH-sounds with a new solo album under-the-influence of mushrooms.

► Recorded at Willem-Twee synthesis studios in Holland, Mycorrhiza is a lucid excursion into a new form of 'ritual-computer-music' — gamelan from the future.

►Master + Cut by Helmut Erler, D&M Berlin. Limited Edition of 200, 12" black vinyl housed in gold cardboard sleeve with 'ad-hoc' fluo sticker.

Of course this is not the first album born under-the-influence of mushrooms, but apparentlyTaeggi doesn't take them here as he rather observes the cognitive and intelligent behavior of mycorrhizal fungal roots—one of the great mysteries inhabiting the forest soil, and from which a network of beneficial underground relationships with plants sprouts. Known as Mycelium, this fascinating wood-wide-web very much resembles the intricacy of the human neural system—transporting carbon, water and nutrients from one tree to another. A mutualistic symbiosis that Taeggi similarly establishes with the rather rare arsenal of sound machineries he had access to at Willem-Twee synthesis studios in Holland—a center for experimentation inspired by Berio and Maderna's Studio di Fonologia RAI in 1950s Milan.

In the process of tweaking and feeding electric impulses and sound signals into instruments of the likes of the iconic ARP 2500/2600 and a number of testing/measuring units from the 50/60s—originallynot conceived as musical instruments—Taeggi engages into an exchange of nutrients and information, while abruptly sabotaging un-welcome elements, hence accelerating the sound superhighway towards spectral psychedelic tension—a process he seems to be extremely in control of. Taking a step aside from his usual minimal approach to address more complex structures and augmented mind-sets, Mycorrhiza sounds at times like gamelan from the future: a lucid excursion into a form of "ritual-computer-music" with a conspicuous penchant for detail,alluding to a continuitybetween pseudo-cerimonial and laboratory-like computer music, steering clear from any reference to a specific creed or religion—imagine Stockhausen drinking the Amazonian sacred brew Ayahuasca..

The swarming micro-movements of "Cuttleburrs" multiply in a series of crescendos marked by sudden falls, saturated drums incursions and tense sonic clusters, introducing the more explicit gamelan percussive tones and compositional forms of "Kodama" and "Icaro". Recorded on the ARP 2500, "Mycorrhiza" uses white noise generators, resonant bass and spring reverb to conjure up a magical fungal diorama, which expands into the spooky shadows of skeletons and demons of "Phantasmagoria" and the spectral mystics of "Oculus Cordis"—the Eye of the Spirit — in which Taeggi grapples with the same sine-wave generators that Stockhausen used in his seminal "Studie I" and "Studie II".

Played by Francois X, Marcel Dettmann, Norman Nodge, Charlotte De Witte, Regal, Dax J, Slam, Arnaud Le Texier, Luke Slater, Ben Sims, Raffaele Attanasio...

The assembly line was a game-changing invention and introduced the monoton rhythm of machines. Its influence on Techno music is more than obvious and gave the opening track of this record its name.

Transistor was recorded during a LIVE show of Florian Meindl in Hannover Germany 2019.

The B-side features the epic track "Incal" named after a comic of Moebius.

"Who Sent You?" by Irreversible Entanglements is an entire holistic jam of "infinite possibilities coming back around," a sprawling meditation for afro-cosmonauts, a reminder of the forms and traumas of the past, and the shape and vision of Afrotopian sounds to come. Stay on it! This is the future! This is the spectral dreaming, the reshaped soundwaves of post-Katrina, post-Osage Avenue, post-Obamacare that we borrow from to do this work, so stay on it. Who Sent You? they said from their liquid cryo-chamber, from a low-light induction field cobbled together with lithium rods, with melted down Romare Bearden and Howardena Pindell paintings, stitched with chaos fibers and placed in the center of the carrion husk of a burnt out shanty town. They took time to scrape ashen samples of what was, their souls the residue thick and caked on, that still climbs those new high-rise condominiums like moss - the only evidence that they were once there, that they were baked into the fabric of this planet - they were there fixing elevators and tossing wrenches into quantum fields until they were stopped! frisked! and turned into weird, 100-foot martyr murals on the backside, the north side, of supermarket walls-Who Sent You? is how the matrix modulation works. Dig it: Who Sent You? is the punk-rocking of jazz and the mystification of the avant-garde, a sci-fi sound from that out-soul-fire jazz quintet Irreversible Entanglements.

Fade to Zaire Records returns. Cottam opens the emotive and percussive floodgates, twisting and weaving ritual sitar sounds, signature percussion and subconscious bass lines.

ELLES' deconstructed dance therapy rmx is finally out after melting minds all Summer at the forest raves and warehouses of Walthamstow marshes and beyond.

New asset on the granted Future Me Records: up-to-date hostile trio project, nomads from the unknown suburb. 4 grungy ritualistic tunes building up a hedonistic code for the dancefloor.
Spectral fog on “Tuxedo” opening the EP, increasing the voodoo environment with “Lebabon”. It falls to the slow-erosion beat “Ancient Prog” to shut the A side. 

An obscure timbre marks the B side: it’s the stabbed rough track “Torpedo”!
Ending with the very radical Kluentah’s imprint assaulting “Torpedo” — crafting a nasty remix which whips out the deranged flesh of the original track.

Nantes-based Australian drummer and percussionist Will Guthrie returns to Black Truffle with Nist-Nah. Like his previous solo record on the label, the abrasive hip-hop concrète of People Pleaser 'BT027', Nist-Nah finds Guthrie branching out in a new direction, this time in a suite of six percussion pieces primarily using the metallaphones, hand drums and gongs of the Gamelan ensembles of Indonesia.

The music presented here is grounded in Guthrie’s travels in Indonesia and study of various forms of Gamelan music, from the stately suspended temporality of the courtly Javanese Gamelan Sekatan, to the delirious, thuggish repetition that accompanies the Javanese trance ritual Jathilan, to the shimmering acoustic glitch of contemporary Balinese composer Dewa Alit and his Gamelan Salukat.

However, far from an exercise in exoticism, Nist-Nah develops out of Guthrie’s extensive work with metal percussion in recent years (as heard, for example, on his 2015 LP for 'IDEAL', Sacrée Obsession), where gongs, singing bowls and cymbals are used to build up walls of hovering tones and sizzling details.

Though Guthrie is broadening his palette to explore Gamelan instrumentation and pay tribute to his love of this sophisticated yet elemental percussion music, the pieces presented here are equally informed by Guthrie’s interests in free jazz, electro-acoustic music and diverse experimental music practices, exploring long tones, extended techniques, and non-metered pulse.
'Nist-Nah' presents a variety of approaches across its six pieces, from the crisp, precise rhythmic complexity of the opening title track to the droning textures of ‘Catlike’ and ‘Elders’.

On the epic closing ‘Kebogiro Glendeng’, Guthrie offers an extended, layered rendition of a Javanese piece belonging to a repertoire primarily used for warmups, beginner’s groups and children first learning Gamelan, elegantly gesturing to his own amateur status while using the piece’s insistently repeated melody as an extended exploration of the hypnotic effects of repetition, falling in and out of time with himself to create woozy, narcotic effects until the piece eventually dissolves into a wavering fog.

Venus Volcanism is the musician and electronic artist Rena Rasouli. She presents her first solo mini-album “Rizitiko’ on Optimo’s sub-label, Weaponise Your Sound, using traditional folk songs of her native island Crete as a basis for this work.

‘Rizitiko’ evolved from Rasouli’s thesis titled “the music performances based in traditional dialect focuses on the healing ability of sound”. The songs were created and sung by folk troubadours. Expanding on these oeuvres, Rasouli seized on the idea that the melodic use of voice is the oldest form of therapy in human culture. This primary and ritualistic material was intertwined with electronic and natural ambient soundscapes. The resulting compositions express the omnipresent sensations and emotions that play a key role in the healing process whilst communicating an intense connection to the collective unconscious. Traditionally sung by men there are numerous reasons to believe that many of the songs were initially created by women. To sing them in a female voice projects a different approach to the traditional rendition – one closer to that of a lullaby.

Welcoming, 'Come Together' - a five track various artists EP drawn from our network of associates locally and internationally. With artists hailing from Japan, Italy, the USA and Australia the 12" features the sounds that bring our families together on dance floors around the globe.Italy's Matisa opens the record with a designer italo-house trip "Garbadine", armed with punchy drums, a warped guitar loop and hypnotic bass line. Melbourne group Polito's "Wallis Axiom" juxtaposes this with a guttural, gurgling outsider-techno piece. Frenetic percs and crunchy distortion collide with alien FX and bleepy modular synthesis for a dark journey.On the flip, New York City master producer Physical Therapy jumps into the deep end with "10000% Pure Love", a raw, hard hitting club weapon. The Allergy Season boss distils the pure, unbridled energy of a sweaty dance floor through a woozy bassline and manic cowbell action. Slowing the pace slightly, Berlin via Japan producer Yuzo Iwata delivers "Acid House" a rugged, growling beast which trips and chugs along as a monstrous 303 weaves in an out of the penetrating vocals "ACID HOUSE". The mysterious Serpent finishes you off with "In The Garden" a syncopated drum workout imbued with a ritualist, primitive energy by the heavily layered percussion and flickering synths.

From the moment of its release, Iñigo Vontier’s El Hijo del Maiz has become one of the most gripping albums of the moment. With South American and Middle Eastern sounds and his conception of music as ritual, the Mexican DJ keeps electronica in check as a valid mix of influences. The EP El Hijo Del Maiz (Remixes) marks the end of an episode which started, in good company, last autumn on the Lumière Noire label. The second track of his album, Bo Ni Ke, is distinguished by its original - almost implausible - universe, with a Japanese-inflected vocal filter and oriental flutes taking the beats into a crazy trance. Leaning on the 4/4 rhythm, Simple Symmetry’s remix of the track is also very playful (Iñigo Vontier recently remixed Nar for Simple Symmetry). The Moscow duo, noted in particular for the brilliant EP Plane Goes East released on Disco Halal (the Moscoman label which makes the link between east and west), pulls the track over to another - less terrestrial more psychedelic - universe, in their well identified ethno-underground style.

The remix of Bo Ni Ke by Nicola Cruz, French-born Ecuadorian producer, enlivens the track by playing on the sounds of voices and South American percussion. Also present in his fascinating album Siku released a year ago on the ZZK Records label, they overlap with the demonological whims of Iñigo Vontier but also those of Nicolas Jaar, who was revealed to him as he was starting out.

The inaugural track of the album Xu Xu (subject of the previous EP, only released as a digital version) has been remixed by Roman Flügel, allowing a vinyl release of this incredible track. You could pick out the science of this headliner in a million. Flügel has been on the electronic scene since the early days, learning the ropes under the aegis of prestigious labels Playhouse, Dial and Klang.
He has recently enhanced some emblematic tracks signed Daniel Avery, Koze, Âme, Radio Slave and C.A.R. and here once again the pioneer of techno is working miracles to create a more cerebral version of this track.

Concluding the EP with Thomass Jackson, his co-founder of the label Calypso Records, who we will soon be able to find on the compilation / family portrait of the label Lumière Noire From Above Vol. 2, Iñigo Vontier offers up a genre-busting version of the title Marijuana, like an ataxic play time, deliberately smoky for an explicitly licentious title.

Magic Bless EP has traditionally been a combination of shamanic rhythms, deep basslines and mystical Carpathian heats! Sounds of ritual Indian instruments and meditative songs that hypnotize and enter into a lingering trip.

· This compilation features the rarest and unknown instrumental tracks of that Funky Groove early sound.
· Light music along with wind section and keyboard ready to hit the dance-floor, that we call Spanish-Grooves.
· Composers, musicians & arrangers like Gregorio García Segura, Rafael Martínez, Antonio Barco, Antonio Latorre, Jaime Botey, etc.

During the 70's, an important number of orchestras and dance bands popped up in our country but not many of them released their own songs or covers on vinyl, so we can’t say that our music library has bulky volumes, rather it’s just the opposite.

You have to dig deep in the catalogue of obscure record labels to find some quality pieces, which we will usually attribute to Tinglado 13, Conjunto Nueva Onda, The Matches, Conjunto Don Pelegrin, Rafael Martínez, Carlos de Ros, Salgado y su Grupo, Mesié Bató, Pedro González, Jorge Enrique. Most orchestras played bossa nova, soul, some lounge and easy listening, and a usual mix of light music with wind section and keyboards, something like “spanish-soul” or “rhythm'n'blues-pasodoble”.

It was a time when the bands survived playing shows with a repertoire based, mostly, on Spanish popular songs and international hits.

Many artists recorded with nicknames, many others used licensed songs paying rights to the original authors and some orchestras changed their names when they pressed their records, in an attempt to appear modern or simply for pure commercial purposes, that's why it is difficult to trace accurately the musical path of many of these artists. This scene was especially intense in Aragon and Catalonia, where a bunch of labels emerged, often simply as platforms for bands to promote their own music.

This compilation aims to discover to a wider audience some of the most sought-after instrumental gems by discjokeys and disco music collectors, eager for soul, groove and hot sounds.

Tim Digby-Bell, Peter Kriek and Ariaan Olieroock are Cubicolor. In 2016 they released their debut album ‘Brainsugar’ via acclaimed independent label Anjunadeep. Accumulating over 40 million streams, the album won praise from Mixmag, Resident Advisor, Consequence of Sound and DJ Mag, who described it as “a startlingly accomplished debut” in their 9/10 review.

Originally an electronic duo comprised of Dutch producers Ariaan and Peter, Cubicolor became a three-piece band with the arrival of British singer-songwriter Tim in 2015, after collaborating on breakthrough single ‘Falling’.

A published poet and playwright, Tim’s musical upbringing was rooted in playing guitar and listening to Nick Drake. Combined with Ariaan’s encyclopedic knowledge of electronic music and Peter’s love of late romantic classical, created what Clash described as “a beautiful, haunting fusion of ideas.” In 2018 the band delivered, and then shelved, their second album…

“It had twelve tracks, a different name, all the artwork was done and a date was set for it to be released. We got home and listened to it, then called each other and decided to drop the whole thing. The next week we went back into the studio and started again.

We loved the record we made but for some reason, it didn't feel right, so we didn't keep anything, we shut ourselves on the boat in Amsterdam where we work and didn't stop until we'd written a new album.” A year after going back to the drawing board, the trio now presents ‘Hardly A Day, Hardly A Night’.

Inspired by the cycles of time, and the cyclical movements of the planets, the new 12 track record weaves together themes of loss, hope, and acceptance. “There were a lot of moments when we weren't sure we'd ever find what it was we were looking for. On the way, we lost friends, lost loves, battled health issues, lost an album, lost each other and came back together again.

It feels like a lifetime has passed but the world keeps spinning and I guess we knew we would eventually find our strength and make the album we wanted to make.” Showcasing their remarkable production techniques and textured sound design throughout the album, Cubicolor continues their unconventional rise to the upper ranks of the electronic music world.

The band will celebrate the album release with a listening event in London in February 2020, before taking their live show to festivals around the world in the summer.

Their 2016 debut album ‘Brainsugar’ picked up wide spread support including backing from BBC Radio 1's Annie Mac, Pete Tong and Phil Taggart, BBC 6 Music's Nemone and Tom Ravenscroft, Joris Voorn, and Kölsch and accumulated over 40M streams. 'Brainsugar' - Press pickup included Mixmag, RA, Thump, Consequence of Sound and the album was given a 9/10 review in DJ Mag.

Cubicolor are Amsterdam based producers Ariaan Olieroock and Peter Kriek, and British singer-songwriter Tim Digby-Bell. They made the album on Peter’s studio boat in Amsterdam. Ariaan built the custom modular synths, mixing desks and speakers that the band use in their studio - every Cubicolor sound is created from scratch.
They also DJ and release music as 16BL on Anjunadeep. one of the labels most loved and legendary acts, responsible for some of the biggest releases in the label's back catalogue.

Repress

Kali Malone presents a quietly subversive new album featuring almost two hours of concentrated, creeping organ pieces governed by a strict acoustic and compositional code. It’s a major new work with ultimately profound emotional resonance.
‘The Sacrificial Code’ takes a more detailed approach to ideas first sketched out on last year’s ‘Organ Dirges’, which featured canon exercises spontaneously captured without much prior technical planning. By contrast, the recording of ‘The Sacrificial Code’ involved the more careful micing up of several organs in such a way as to eliminate acoustic impurities as far as possible - essentially removing the large hall reverb so inextricably linked to the instrument. The pieces were then performed free of gestural adornments and without expressive impulse - an approach that
flows against the grain of the prevailing musical hegemony, where sound is so often manipulated,
and composition often steeped in self indulgence. The question posed; can this strict methodology still speak to the listener in meaningful terms?
The answer is both obvious and entirely surprising; with its slow, purified and seemingly austere qualities ‘The Sacrificial Code’ guides us through an almost trance-inducing process where we
become vulnerable receptors for every slight movement, where every miniature shift in sound becomes magnified through stillness.
As such, it’s a uniquely satisfying exercise in transcendence through self restraint - a stunning realisation of ideas borne out of academic and conceptual rigour which gradually reveals startling
personal dimensions. It has a perception-altering quality that encourages self exploration free of signposts and without a preordained endpoint - the antithesis to the language of colourless musical platitudes weíve become so accustomed to.

On The Corner favourites Penya kick off the new year with a collaborative EP with legendary gogo musician Msafiri Zawose. The collaboration began in September 2017 when Penya's Magnus P.I spent a week in Tanyania, East Africa, recording material at Zawosi's studio.
Penya are a genre defying quartet that embody the energised sound of a cosmopolitan UK. A host of traditional folkloric rhythms, club culture motifs and DIY electronics mark the band's distinct sound. Drums, horn and vocals evoke Penya's live performance from a world of euphoric ritual and visceral dance scapes, ancient and future.

Banging Industrial techno with some crazy new ideas like this long noizy acid break in the Slope Unit track or the noise industrial ambient long intro on the Duellist tune... FAT! Once again offering a wicked sleeve... limited edition! BIG Stuff!

Named lovingly after the venerable boozer from Only Fools and Horses, Interpret 'The Nag's Head' is the sonic moniker of Brighton artist Stephen Maskell. Combining on the fly recordings, kitchen sink instrumentation and addictively constructed beats, Maskell's music is as one customer puts it - at times moving, at time hilarious and sometimes just great dance music. Following a trilogy of tapes, 'ENTROPY NOODLE' is Maskell's first LP proper, and signals a maturation of sound - bending, twisting and manipulating synthesis to explore every microtonal corridor of the sonic spectrum.

Europe’s leading reggaeton experimenters DJ Clara! And Maoupa Mazzocchetti. exert a tripped-out spin on modern Latin dance and vintage Galician folk styles for Low Jack’s boundary-stepping club division of Editions Gravats. Following the duo’s 2018 debut EP
and Clara!’s ‘Meiga de Acero’ single in 2019 for Les Disques De La Bretagne, ‘Luna Nueva’ binds the duo’s astrological, spiritual and romantic dancefloor cues in a significant new take on Caribbean futurism.

Designed to make you sweat - and maybe check your head -
the album pairs Clara!’s effortlessly nimble vocals with lean and spacious co-production by Maoupa Mazzocchetti in a way that faithfully and daringly plays with reggaeton convention, and, by extension, offers a critique of global electronic dance music currents.

Based in Brussels, Belgium, but originally from northern Spain, Clara! brings a strong knowledge of reggaeton, perreo and trap absorbed from beach parties and clubs back home to a wickedly offset batch of productions by Maoupa, who’s arguably earned a mean reputation in recent years for his killer mixtapes with the PRR! PRR! gang, as well as a slew of 12”s for everyone from Unknown Precept and Mannequin to Arma since 2014.

Together they throw down eight distinctive vocal cuts on disc 1, while disc 2 is loaded with their singular instrumentals. Clara! dispatches ice cool but barbed bars in diverse flows, bewitching Maoupa’s rhythms with on point style in the dramatic ‘Badman’ - a bullet for the male gaze - while layering herself in choral cadence on a spellbinding cover of Faltiquera’s Galician folk song ’Sum Sum’ over unusual tablas and drones...

But while the finer details of Clara!’s pointed but humorous lyrics may be lost on non-Spanish speakers, her co-productions with Mauopa are bound to resonate regardless of tongue, with strong, dare-to-be-different highlights in the hard and psychedelic drive of ‘Gaviléan’ and the bolshy bashment grind of ‘Virgo’, along with straight up freaky gear such as ‘Baja Y Suda’, plus their cold fusion of reggaeton and Mahraganat influences in ‘Secreto Ritual’, and warped hypermodernism in ‘Clarividencia.’ No matter what angle or
language it’s approached from, ‘Luna Nueva’ cycles fresh and luminous with a steadfast yet experimental call to the ‘floor while the world collapses around them.

When acclaimed South African musician Guy Buttery first sought out Dr. Kanada Narahari in late 2016, it was as his patient.

“It was a dark time.” Buttery recalls, “I had been bedridden for months and had been suffering from debilitating bouts of fatigue which no diagnosis or medication could help me get to the bottom of. When I first met Kanada, I was at the stage where even picking up my guitar to make music had become a joyless and taxing exercise.”

As Buttery’s searched for a cure, a family member recommended he see Kanada an Ayurvedic doctor who had relocated to South Africa from India and set up a practice in Durban. It was during this consultation, that the musician first experienced how Narahari infused the healing properties of Indian Classical music into his practice. Rather than treating him with a smorgasbord of pharmaceuticals, Narahari played his sitar and set Buttery on a strict daily diet of Raga’s to fast track his recovery.

Buttery was not only struck by his doctor’s musical talents but by the powerful healing properties inherent in his sitar compositions. When he left Narahari’s doctors room that afternoon, he asserts he was feeling decidedly clearer, lighter and stronger.

“Diving into Kanada’s music was definitely one of the reasons I'm still here today.” he admits. “The consistent tonal centre at the heart of Indian Classical Music, literally became my support pillar over this period. A central core of sorts in which to fall back on, strengthen and discover.”

Narahari as it turned out, was not only a prominent music therapist (and one of the only Ayurvedic doctors practicing in South Africa) but like Buttery, a highly accomplished musician with a devoted following back in his homeland.

Born in a small village along the Western Ghats in Karnataka, India, Narahari, at the age of nine, had enrolled to study Carnatic classical vocal and developed an interest in Hindustani Classical music with a particular passion for the sitar. While Buttery had secured his reputation as one of South Africa’s musical treasures, a multi-instrumentalist who commands sold-out performances both locally and internationally and more recently had been awarded the prestigious 2018 Standard Bank Young Artist for Music.
From this consultation, a friendship developed between the two musicians with Buttery soon inviting Narahari to join him in his studio. But it wasn’t all plain sailing in the beginning. While Buttery and Narahari’s sensibilities were very much aligned, there were a range of cultural and musical influences, nuances and inflections that first needed to be navigated and understood.
“I suppose we had to find a common ground.” Buttery says, before adding, “Which in the end turned out to be pretty "uncommon ground" for the both of us.”
It was after a few intensive sessions together that something exhilarating began to emerge. What began as a few idle improvisations soon evolved into feverish and lengthier jams. Whenever time permitted, the musicians would meet, descending deeper into the emerging sounds, while reimagining the realms that existed between their African and Indian heritages.
Over the next few months, the duo would rack up over fifteen hours of recordings in studio, and it was up to Buttery to shape the material into an album which they collectively titled Nāḍī, which Narahari translates from the Sanskrit as "The Channel" or "An Internal River".

During this period, Narahari bestowed upon Buttery, the moniker Guruji while Guy would refer to him, in affectionate return, as Panditji. Each time the musicians would meet, the studio space would be cleared by an impromptu ritual, with Guruji burning African Imphepho while Panditji would chant a Sanskrit mantra dusting Indian Agarbatti clouds over their instruments.

Once the room had been made hazy with this aromatic alchemy (with the ancestors welcomed in) the musicians would pick up their instruments and plunge into shimmering tides of sound. Reflecting on these sessions, Narahari recalls the immense creative freedom he felt throughout: “Guy and I tried to wander as much as possible, without any speculative, preoccupied ideologies or limitations. Love remained at the forefront of our journey together.”

“Those evenings we spent together in the studio” adds Buttery, “felt incredibly rich with purpose and a profound sense of freedom. While improvising, anything could happen and mostly did.”

On a first listen, the tracks on Nāḍī emerge as salty, humid invocations to the inscrutable depths and misty myths of the Indian ocean-- that vast body of water that stretches between, and laps the shorelines, of the artists’ respective homelands.

When asked to describe the sound him and Narahari refined, Buttery prefers to relay a series of evocative images.

“For me” he explains, “Nāḍī is a lighthouse, a beacon that resides at the bottom of the ocean.” As Buttery envisions it, “what once offered light to guide ships to safety, has been submerged and re-purposed by marine life as a coral-reef temple. Similarly, this sunken lighthouse exists as a concealed cenotaph, memorializing the ancient sea-routes and passages that once connected the two distant lands.”

On paper this may sound obscure but listening to the songs, it serves as an apt metaphor.

Across each meditative movement, listeners are able to relive the journey, immersing themselves in a series of incantations, replete with high dynamics, delicate African-Indian inflections and virtuoso string playing of an entirely new order. Further complimenting the fusion of musical dialects are a range of guest artists including Shane Cooper on bass, Thandi Ntuli on vocals, Chris Letcher on organ, Ronan Skillen on tabla and percussion and Julian Redpath on guitar, synth and backing vocals.

Now like the submerged lighthouse, the recordings stand as a monument, a marker and snapshot of this fortuitous meeting, a tribute to the healing gifts of Guruji and Panditji in performance. It’s a process that already, both musicians look back on with reverence and nostalgia.

Buttery ruminates in closing, that when he first met Kanada his illness correlated with the biggest drought South Africa had experienced in many years “…for whatever reason, whenever we would connect and make music together, the sky would tend to open. Even if it was just a few drops. This went on for months, until finally the drought dissipated and my health had been restored.”

By the time the heavens did open across the East Coast, a deep friendship had been forged and with it abundant musical offerings poured down. A treasured sample of which we able to share in every time we press play and immerse ourselves in the sacrosanct musical universe that is Nāḍī.

One of the original catalysts of Latinx music in New York City, MAKU Soundsystem has been the connective tissue for several creative projects, bands and community roots for over a decade. As a group with a rotating membership, they've recorded multiple albums both DIY and for worldwide labels. Throughout their various iterations, the heart and mission of the ensemble has consistently built bridges, rather than tearing them down, remaining a remarkable beacon of positivity in a consistently competitive environment. The inspiring atmosphere has nurtured several notable musicians and acts over the years, including members of Combo Chimbita, Dilemastronauta, Bulla en el Barrio, Leon Brothers and Prince of Queens. Now down to a core group of three musicians, alongside percussionist Moris Cañate, MAKU and Names You Can Trust have finally teamed up for a vinyl edition after many years of collaborative shows and connections.

Perhaps their rawest and darkest recordings to date, this stripped down quartet is an ode to the creative source of their core members, lead singer & bassist Juan Ospina, drummer Andres Jimenez and guitarist Camilo Rodriguez. The A-side, "Culebra Coral" is a snakebitten taste ofla cumbia, played with an experience and restraint that only enhances the end result. It's a free driven approach born from familiar experimentation, rather than modern day trends — a singular jam, refined from years of playing together. Part psych, part cumbia, total MAKU. The B-side, "Contra Tambor," is emblematic of the group's roots in the traditional sounds of thetambora, a drum-forward percussive arrangement that follows Jimenez and Cañate on a free-driven approach to the ritualistic movements of the drums, this time drowned with an antidote of analog FX, synthesized glitches and atmospheric coros.

Hot off the heels of Aluxes, his 2018 Lumière Noire debut EP, young Mexican DJ/producer Iñigo
Vontier is inviting Chloé's label on a trip to the far corners of the body & mind with an album of
demented grooves, psychedelic take-offs and imaginary comic strips of mystical rituals. A
bewitching debut full-length. Mexicans may never possess the sonic science of the Germans,
the hedonistic madness of the English or the gift for synthesis of the French, but, as proven by
Iñigo Vontier's first full-length for Lumière Noire, their universe is much more exciting than
anyone would have ever thought.
The DJ/producer fully asserts his origins by brandishing the album’s title "El Hijo del Maiz" ("the
son of the corn") almost as an emblem: "in Mexico, corn is eaten daily. It has long been defined
as 'the gold of America', and I consider all Mexicans as children of corn". A spiritual and
embodied vision Iñigo's first Lumière Noire release, the four-track Aluxes, set the tone of the
young talent's distinctive interpretation of dark disco, which creeps up on the dancefloor from its
iconoclastic side. The two tracks and two remixes (one by Flügel, the other by Inigo himself)
featured on the 12" for lead single "Xu Xu" (featuring Red Axes-affiliate Xen's irrelevant vocals)
was a full-bodied confirmation that Vontier sees the dancefloor as an arena for the occult –
whether from the peoples of the equatorial jungle, the Middle East or, even from indocile
machines. But, while the spiritual element seems part and parcel of the Jalisco native’s output, it
is in no way the only ingredient of this first long-player: "this album best reflects my own vision
and spirituality, and the way I feel it" he says.
Whether contemplative or frenetic, the collection of tracks that make up “El Hijo Del Maiz” takes
the kitchen sink and throws it out the window: languid rhythms, haunted vocals, and mysterious
percussion fuel a discombobulated house set that scrambles the listener's five senses, leaving
one disoriented and exposed to the vagaries of vertigo. Following the demented, dystopian “Xu
Xu” EP, which explored an imaginary jungle that harbored Mayan and Egyptian pyramids,
Middle Eastern accents are once more present in the off-kilter “Bo Ni Ke” and its Japaneseinfluenced vocal trickery, which Moroccan flutes à la Jajouka transform into a feverish trance.
With the following three tracks, Iñigo Vontier raises himself to the same level of excellence as
the Pachanga duo (of which pride of the Mexican scene Rebolledo, is also known as a prolific
artisan of deconstruction): “Awaken”'s slumbering voice, heard as through the veil of hypnosis,
slowly introduces a techno beat which, as in follow-up “Time”, literally brings the listener to a
levitative state. In a housier vein, yet continuing in the same psychedelic, 90s-infused spirit,
“Don’t Go Back” disrupts the genre’s usual signatures with an out-of-tune keyboard that is
becoming the artist's trademark, destabilizing the listener into a drunken vertigo, with a good
helping of sexiness: "I think the sexy dimension definitely brings a kind of magic to music," says
Vontier. “I'm sure I felt this magic during my DJ sets, and I like to think that sorcerers use this
element in their practices. I might consider myself a bit of a sorcerer when I take over the DJ
booth, by the way." A mood and sound that can once again be found – in a quieter, more
bucolic version – on “Chiquitita” (feat. the flute stylings of pioneer DJ Rocca, now a partner of
cosmic disco legend Daniele Baldelli). The more cinematic, fast-paced and dreamy beat of the
no less captivating “Little Monster” might evoke the mischievous spirit of the Mayas' minor
mythological creatures, while ode to the magical herb Marijuana (feat Thomass Jackson)
proudly tramples into the debate that such a provocative title inevitably provokes: "psychedelic
drugs are powerful tools to reach a higher level of consciousness about what surrounds us, but
we must learn how to complete this psychic journey by ourselves, notably through meditation
and love.
In the end, El Hijo del Maiz is an album-length confirmation of Iñigo Vontier's uniqueness, and
his adherence to Lumière Noire's policy of letting artists fully express their vision – while letting
their passions guide their idiosyncrasies and explorations of innovative electronic signatures

With their debut, MME dUO send us across an impulsive sound collage omniverse of enigmatic Dada - long live imperfection! Formerly working together as Sculptress of Sound, Cologne based Patricia Koellges and Tamara Lorenz make use of a variety of instruments and devices: DIY electroacoustics, small synths, loopers, tuning forks, electric bass, percussion and voice are thrown into the game and shape a sound that’s as diverse as it is striking. The four sides of the record are the four seasons of the year. The cover artwork depicts an oddly shaped honey locust situated just outside MME dUO’s rehearsal room; homebase for a year of recordings for awholerunboom. From spring to winter the album opens up a wayward palette of experimental music. Sweet Cold Night could be a soundtrack for a movie scene of ourselves trudging through a swamp. CutCut somehow sounds as if caught in a loop early in the morning after an extensive club night. RZCK, a deliberately stumbling forward percussion piece is the longest of the 21 tracks. Several video clips go along with awholerunboom, one of which features the artists going through some kind of a ritual exercise inside of a two person costume, trying to put things straight it seems. The track itself Isn’t It Isn’t functions by way of permutations of spoken phrases and it might actually make you wonder if Gertrude Stein had gone electric. Mixed and mastered by Volker Hennes. Cover artwork by MME dUO. Edition of 300.

2LP Gatefold Sleeve.

Lost Ethnography of the Miscanthus Ocean” contains six of their earlier works from 2013 to early 2014. The original release was on cassette from Guruguru Brain which was sold out less than a month. There is a new added D2. Miscanthus Ocean only for the LP version. The album is dedicated to Grass Mountain and the incredibly hot, humid summertime in Taipei. This is also the echo of their instrumental trio period before they moved on to digital composing.

Band Info:
Formed in Taipei, Taiwan in 2013, comprised of member Lu Li-‑Yang and Lu Jiachi, Scattered Purgatory is a name
derived from a Taoist ritual which expiates the souls of the innocent from a state in between life and death and then at last, release.
Growing up in Taipei, where two wheeled transportations are popular, the basin city of such population density and humidity had
inspired their sound distinctively differentiates from the US west coast desert drone. If we use Taiwan new cinema wave in 80s as
the analogy, the massive use of longshots of those films expressed a different halo from the Western Spaghetti; Scattered
Purgatoryʼ’s sound expresses soundscape to the world by using a familiar approach ‒– but with an oriental narration geographically
and spiritually.

MA comes from the Tokyo rap & hiphop scene, and throughout the years he evolved into a more noisy and experimental beat making. He blends ritualistic ancient Japanese lyrics and vocal methods, on music that he creates using also his voice or field recordings. The result is alienating, weird and haunting but at the same time fascinating and futuristic. MA's Beehayden is being remixed by Sugai Ken, another outstanding artist and performer from Japan. MA made his first short live performance at Dommune Tokyo in may 2019, revealing his craft and performative side.

Adapted Vinyl was a UK based techno label active in the late 90’s that picked up regular DJ support from taste makers of the time ranging from Jeff Mills to Mr C.

This, the label’s 7th record disappeared before a public release when the Integrale Muzique distribution company went out of business in 2008, but now gets its first official release date after years of very limited availability

Label founder Suade is the artist behind this release and these days he is best known as a highly-sought-after mastering engineer working for artists like Dense & Pika, Paranoid London, Jamie Jones and Vitalic.

Focusing his energies into family life and the fine tuning of other peoples music it’s rare to see Suade’s own music on a new release, but this hasn’t stopped him from collaborating on original tracks with the likes of Magda and Radioactive Man in recent years.

The EP has four contrasting tracks all with different moods and tempos all blended with Techno’s classic motoric drive.

With it’s absence from the usual music marketplaces creating something of a mystery this record ended up receiving a new, unofficial name on Discogs - The Citadel EP which is a title taken from the broken-beat second track on the B side of the record.

The Citadel is just one of the highlights on this eclectic EP, as it’s a Latronic Notron sequencer workout that patiently deploys layered synths in ever-shifting cross-rhythms for a languid 5 minutes before its deep, underpinning bass arrives evoking desert travel and arrival.

Baikal, named after the huge freshwater lake in Russia, is another stretched out meditation on tone and harmony acting as a foil to the delicate and vibrant Latin American percussion that filters in and out through a massive stereo Moog Modular system creating an energetic yet static, ritualistic atmosphere.

Trajan - the most driving track on the EP, gives a nod to the Probe era Richie Hawtin sound with a touch of Drexciyan melodics with shuffled percussion and bleeps over a snaking TB303 shaped bassline where the classic Acid box is given the role of control sequencer only commanding the thick, dirty oscillators of the big Moog.

A1 track Felix is a contrast yet again. A big room melodic Techno piece with another massive bassline and an almost orchestral level of layering, building to nine counter-melodies in total before letting rip with a classic TB303 acid line that builds from the heart of the track.

Edition of 100 copies only.

Side A: 'Vodou'. Head priest: Gran Sèvitè Jean-Daniel Lafontant. Vodou priests: Oungan Eddy Saint-Jean and Anperè Jean Céus. Vodou priestesses: Manbo Françoise Célestin, Manbo Christine Lamour, Manbo Marie-Marthe Similien and Manbo Jacqueline Thélus. Other participants: Ounsi and members of Sosyete Na-Ri-VéH. Percussionists: Ountògi and the drummers of The Sacred Temple Na-Ri-VéH 777. Side B: 'Rara'. All-female rara band: Forever Rara Fanm of Belair.

Grand Rue recordings made by AMé in front of the Atis Rezistans, Port-au-Prince on 21 December 2015, 4:54pm to 5:18pm. Vodou ceremony and all-female rara band recorded by AMé at Temple Na-Ri-VéH 777 in Port-au-Prince, 16 December 2015, 9pm to 1am. Edited by Philip Marshall with AMé in Cologne, 16 May 2016. Mastered by Zachary James Watkins at Stank House, 3 August 2016. Artwork by Stefan Fähler. AD&D by Don Wyrm.

With thanks to: Ghetto Biennale, Leah Gordon, Atis Rezistans, Gabriel Toso, the priests and priestesses, the members of the all-female rara band, the percussionists, Clocktower Radio and all the Haitian People.

An introduction to Vodou music and Rara, by Gabriel Toso:

"Tanbou prete pa janm fè bon dans" ("A borrowed drum never makes good dancing")

"Music is to Vodou what water is to our bodies or fire to our hearts: all embracing, all inflaming. The spirits of Vodou are called upon and energised by the inexhaustible rhythms of Africa. Brought by the slaves to the New World, and merged with indigenous and European traditions, their magical power is the soundtrack of Vodou itself, its life-force.

Dancing, singing, praying are all fundamental aspects of Vodou; but above all it is the drumming that plays a major role during the ceremonies, an invitation to the lwas (gods) to join and partake in the rituals. Like the heartbeat of an infant in its mother's womb or the vibrations of our planet, the percussions of the tanbou (drum) are at once instrument and creator. Different batteries of drums correspond to different rites, countless rhythms to a multitude of nations of laws. The drum is not only a musical instrument but a sacred object, an expression of the divine. Its sound guides the initiates to their appointment with the spirit world.

Rara festivals are yearly celebrations that begin following Carnival during the Catholic Lent season, when the activity of the Vodou temples is at its quietest. During those six weeks Rara bands parade for miles playing music, dancing, and performing rituals for Afro-Haitian laws, while wearing specific costumes and using a variety of musical instruments. Probably originated in Haiti during the colonial period, Rara bands and their vast repertoire of songs are both politically and socially engaging while keeping an amusing, irreverent, and at times risqué personality. Traditionally connected with a Vodou temple, Rara bands leave the ceremonial spaces to interact in the public sphere through parading, thus reminding both participants and spectators of the physical presence of the lwas." – Gabriel Toso, London, 3 November.

Rooted in the São Paulo contemporary art scene, Laima Leyton’s credentials in the world of music are firmly established as one-half of Mixhell alongside her husband Iggor Cavalera (Sepultura, Cavalera Conspiracy) and for her work with Soulwax.
Now the producer, musician, activist, artist, mother and teacher unites her multifaceted talents with her ambitious double-vinyl debut album ‘Home’. It will be pressed and distributed by The Vinyl Factory and released by Deewee on November 8th. Featuring two records that are designed to be played simultaneously: Laima’s vocal and synth tracks on the ‘TONAL’ disc alongside Iggor’s beats on the ‘RHYTHMICAL’ record. Syncing two records offers an unconventional way to experience the music.
Rather than passively hearing the music, the listener’s need to ritualistically sync both records makes for an immersive experience. There are two key elements that make ‘Home’ such a distinctive project. Thematically it explores how the two core contrasts that inform Laima’s life can coexist. On one hand it’s about domesticity – her love for her family and her frustration with domestic routine. Yet on the other, it’s about her creativity – her desire to express herself artistically while still tending to her role as a mother and a housewife. “It’s almost like a family photo album in another format,” says Laima. “I needed to find the balance in this dichotomy, to feel good with myself in both roles, and be aware of things that really mattered to me. To be a woman, a mum and a female producer: all of these feelings were in the music.”

Rites Of Passage' traditionally refer to rituals distinguishing movements from one period of life to the next. Solitary Dancer's debut LP evokes a retrospective of these experiences, organized into four acts: coming into being, detachment, liminality, and re-incorporation of the self. This narrative calls for a self-exploration of moral corruption, loss of innocence, social rebellion, and societal disillusionment.

After several apparitions of the modern electronic scene, Warzou strikes again, here on the Lyon based Mystery Booms Records for a détour dub called "J'irai dormir chez Mouss"! Tripping to a digi-dub exercice with two silent and ritual songs, from aerian flutes to pop arrangements composed with cheap instruments, including an MPC 2000, keyboard Casio VZ-1, Digital Delay and Mother Reverb. Tribute to the old way with this futil contemporary feeling! Expected red eyes' soundboys tunes to play them loud on your system!

Red eyes sound boys from Lyon strike again with this second record from Warzou. After several apparitions on the modern electronic scene, the local producer plays a digi-dub exercice for a detour dub called "J'irai dormir chez Mouss ». Tripping on two quiet and ritual songs, composed with MPC 2000, keyboard Casio VZ-1, digital delay and spring reverb, as the tradition! To play loud on your system!

A Winged Victory For The Sullen veröffentlichen auf Ninja Tune ihr neues Album, das musikalisch zwischen Neo-Klassik, Ambient und Electronic angesiedelt ist!

A Winged Victory For The Sullen, Spezialisten auf ihrem Gebiet der zeitgenössischen und elektronisch inspirierten Ambient-Musik, kehren auf dem neuen Album, „The Undivided Five“, mit einem mutigen Schritt zurück. Das Duo, bestehend aus Dustin O'Halloran und Adam Wiltzie, hat ikonische Filmmusik und zukunftsweisende Ambient-Projekte geschaffen und eine Reihe von Platten für Erased Tapes und Kranky veröffentlicht. Auf „The Undivided Five“ beleben sie ihre einzigartige Partnerschaft für nur ihr zweites Stück Originalmusik außerhalb von Film-, Fernseh- und Bühnen-aufträgen und kreieren ein Album, das Ritual, höhere Kräfte und ungekannte kreative Energien kanalisiert. Mit ihrer fünften Veröffentlichung (nach ihrem Debütalbum, zwei Film-Scores und einer EP) visieren sie konkret die Rolle der Nummer fünf an, inspiriert von der Künstlerin Hilma af Klint und der steten Wiederholung des perfekten fünften Akkords.

Auf diesem Album kreieren sie mutige neue Arbeiten, die auf ihren Fundamenten in Ambient und neoklassischer Musik aufbauen. Seit ihrem selbstbetitelten Debüt im Jahr 2011 ist das Duo Teil einer viel gelobten Szene mit Kollegen wie Max Richter, Nils Frahm, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Tim Hecker und Fennesz.

LTD Edition!

A Winged Victory For The Sullen veröffentlichen auf Ninja Tune ihr neues Album, das musikalisch zwischen Neo-Klassik, Ambient und Electronic angesiedelt ist!

A Winged Victory For The Sullen, Spezialisten auf ihrem Gebiet der zeitgenössischen und elektronisch inspirierten Ambient-Musik, kehren auf dem neuen Album, „The Undivided Five“, mit einem mutigen Schritt zurück. Das Duo, bestehend aus Dustin O'Halloran und Adam Wiltzie, hat ikonische Filmmusik und zukunftsweisende Ambient-Projekte geschaffen und eine Reihe von Platten für Erased Tapes und Kranky veröffentlicht. Auf „The Undivided Five“ beleben sie ihre einzigartige Partnerschaft für nur ihr zweites Stück Originalmusik außerhalb von Film-, Fernseh- und Bühnen-aufträgen und kreieren ein Album, das Ritual, höhere Kräfte und ungekannte kreative Energien kanalisiert. Mit ihrer fünften Veröffentlichung (nach ihrem Debütalbum, zwei Film-Scores und einer EP) visieren sie konkret die Rolle der Nummer fünf an, inspiriert von der Künstlerin Hilma af Klint und der steten Wiederholung des perfekten fünften Akkords.

Auf diesem Album kreieren sie mutige neue Arbeiten, die auf ihren Fundamenten in Ambient und neoklassischer Musik aufbauen. Seit ihrem selbstbetitelten Debüt im Jahr 2011 ist das Duo Teil einer viel gelobten Szene mit Kollegen wie Max Richter, Nils Frahm, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Tim Hecker und Fennesz.

Maroma was there long before the Moors. The Moors were there long before man landed on the moon half a century ago. Drum machines meant you didn’t have to take Ginger Baker our for a drink. Life takes on sublime logic. In retrospect, everything takes on a new meaning from a different perspective. The past is the future. From Glasgow to Edinburgh to Andalucia. This music is about a small journey, an aural triptych of sounds

Captivity is the next highly anticipated extended EP by Kush Arora aka Only Now, following a triptych of self-released output in 2019. Continuing the project’s ever evolving engagement with themes of time and existence, Captivity encompasses versatile synthesis, mutant kuduro, widescreen sound design, turbulent cold fronts of power ambient and melodic undertones of black metal.

The product of a two-year period in which Arora was contending with transitional shifts in his personal life, Captivity is a culmination of what the project has explored both in a prolific run of recent material and as a whole, across several years of time dilating, mind altering music.
 
Although shaped by adversity and corresponding sentiments of angst and insignificance, Captivity is pitched at total transcendence. Adopting a meticulous approach to production, a methodology which opens up almost every element to transformation and deconstruction, Arora generates forms which possess a sense of pointillist precision, as well as a keen psychedelic potency.
 
Despite consistency with his earlier output as Only Now, Captivity is nevertheless an indication of Arora’s ability to challenge internal and external assumptions. The introduction of new hardware – namely, the Nord Drum 3P synthesizer – as well as the incorporation of far-flung atmospherics – closing track ‘Clock Lust’ features field recordings from a trip to Kyoto – delivers fresh enterprise and experimentation, contributing to the expansion of a sound signature which remains as unpredictable and compelling as ever.
 
With the eponymous opener, Arora combines fathomless underworlds and riotous breakbeats. On ‘Mutants’ a hyper-kinetic onslaught of percussion, low-end and stray cut-ups of noise break out, building to a panorama of thunderous industrial firmaments. ‘Perpetual Slaughter’ maintains momentum with icy, ricocheting FX and concussive, tribal drums, and then unexpectedly shifts into a poignant outro which brings to the fore the enduring influence of black metal on the project. ‘Bound 2’ is cut with relentless sub-bass and rapid syncopation, resembling an abstracted form of juke music, something that could feasibly have been masterminded by Autechre. With the LP’s finale, ‘Clock Lust’, Arora presents a finale of transfixing 3D ritualism, the lone toll of a bell ringing out into a mesmeric emptiness.
 
Together these form a complete statement from Arora, illustrating the fertile and open-ended territories the Only Now project has arrived at after promising outings on Infinite Machine and Discrepant imprint Sucata Tapes. With Captivity Arora delivers a substantial highpoint and a profound voyage into the world of Only Now.

The “Under Frustration” project takes stock of the contemporary Arab electronic scene, and highlights its astonishing diversity, by deconstructing Western clichés that are still fantasizing about a culturally homogenous Arab world.
In a context of post-revolutionary disillusion, this ambitious trilogy sets itself as a manifesto of a new, futuristic, underground wave that aims to uplift the Arab voice, once again. With this new release, Arabstazy allows the listener to walk among Shiite, Shaabi or Stambali lands - revealing new mystical sounds, reserved for trance ceremonies and ancestral rituals; all vivid in the eyes of the collective members, musicians, producers, videographers and photographers, nowadays, scattered between the United States, Tunisia, Germany, France, Sweden, Irak, Lebanon and Poland.
Vol2 includes unreleased tracks of Dj Haram, Praed, Hello Psychaleppo, Okydoki and many more.
Curated by Arabstazy, produced by Shouka, published by InFiné.

2023 Backstock

MW present a repress of their thirteenth release, Linear Movement's ‘On The Screen’ LP (2008), a collection of songs originally slated for release in 1983. Linear Movement is Belgian mastermind Peter Bonne (A Split-Second, Twilight Ritual, Autumn) joined by Peter Koutstaal, and Lieve Van Steerteghem on vocals. Some tracks appear on the exquisite Pulse Music cassette (released by the Micrart Group) while the rest are previously unreleased.

Linear Movement was featured on The Lost Tapes LP compilation in 2006 with their highly acclaimed “The Game,” described as an “unstoppable pop song”. Due to so much interest in this song and this record as a whole, we decided a full LP needed to be released and so we present it to you: a hand-numbered, limited re-press on 180 gram vinyl, accompanied by a large glossy postcard collage of the band playing live.

The Force Dimension was formed in the late 80’s by René Van Dijck and Tycho de Groot. After some demos and appearances on compilations, the band signed a contract with the Belgian label KK Records. Their self-titled debut was released in 1989 curiously on two different versions, one produced by Luc Van Acker (Revolting Cocks) and the other co-produced by Dirk Ivens (Klinik, Dive). The duo continued developing a very unique sound mixing EBM, industrial and different electronic influences. In 1990 they finished what is considered their definitive work, “Deus Ex Machina”, followed by the mega club-hit “Algorythm”. The band released another single next year, “New Funk”, and after a couple of compilations stopped to work together in 1997. During the next years there were some failed attempts to reunite but it wasn’t until 2013 when The Force Dimension was resurrected by René Van Dijck.
“Deus Ex Machina” is being now re-released on an expanded edition with all original tracks plus some bonus including remixes of “Algorythm”, some rare tracks from old compilations and new versions of the unreleased songs “Fatal Erection” and “Scanners”. Limited edition of 500 copies on double vinyl and gatefold sleeve.

Alexey Volkov, Terence Fixmer (with an unreleased track from 2005!), VTSS and label bannermen Empire
State join Neud Photo (Return to Disorder) and The Sixteen Steps (Cititrax) on the third and final chapter of
Veyl’s ‘Previously Undisclosed Rituals’ series.

Jatinder Singh Durhailay and David Edren released Tea Notes as a cassette back in April of 2018. London-based Jatinder Singh Durhailay is a painter and student of Indian Classical music. He has trained in both the sitar and the Hindi singing technique, Dhrupad. He also plays two traditional Sikh instruments; the bowed, stringed Dilruba and Taus. Poetic Pastel Press issued his solo debut, The Last Ballad Of Mardana, in 2017. David Edren`s expertise lies with machines and modular synthesis. His Kosmische and New Age-Inspired electronics have featured on numerous cassettes, and compilations, produced for imprints from the current Belgian underground, such as Jj Funhouse, Social Harmony, and Ultra Eczema. These recordings appearing, since the turn of the millennium, either under his own name, or the moniker DSR Lines. Jatinder and David’s collaboration, Tea Notes, is a celebration, a meditation, on both the beverage, and the communal time shared imbibing. The coming together to partake in its ritual. Each of the six tracks represents a different infusion. The opening piece is a tribute to semi-oxidised Oolong, from China`s Wuyi Mountains, with hammered dulcimer-like glissando. Gongs shimmering, gently crashing, as if signaling a change in the weather. A calm of thin, stretched synths and Ai angels introduces Tulsi from India. The Holy Basil of Hinduism, used in the worship of Vishnu, Krishna, and Rama. A traditional herb of Ayurveda and Siddha medicine. Automated arpeggiated sequences raising a vibrating wall of hallucinatory sound. Pairing swooning strings with a racing robot heart. Ceylon is a modern twist on the classical raga. Serving to tell the story of a tea smuggled into Sri Lanka in the 19th century. Plants stolen from South West China, where the brew had been enjoyed since the days of the Shang Dynasty (1766 to 1122 BC). The contraband founding fresh industry in its new home when the indigenous coffee crops failed. Muted organ and sleepy, treated sine wave microtones describe Kava, the Polynesian fireweed root, whose extract serves as both sedative and euphoriant.Shincha are the first young leaves of the season. Picked in Southern Japan and steamed to prevent oxidization, retain their flavour and green / gold colour. Their musical counterpart finds Edren establishing an ecclesiastical drone, while Durhailay`s strings chart an ancient romantic ache. Sonic stars shine. Singing out to the infinite, the universe, before dissolving into knots of Radiophonic Workshop noise.Melodies treated with subtle sustain and delay denote Pu-Ehr, from the Yunnan province. The only truly fermented black tea - made distinctive by the action of bacteria, moulds, and yeasts. Its musical themes hovering in the vapour trails, the atmospheres, they themselves create. Spiraling, soaring, reaching for the heavens, while pretty music box glitches - tiny chimes turned in on themselves. Catching, reflecting, like light at play on fresh running water. (words: Robert Harris)

Razen celebrate their 10 yr anniversary with “Ayîk Adhîsta Adhîsta Ayîk”, an album that takes a paragraph from CG Jung’s Memories, Dreams, Reflections as a reference point to set off a journey that goes from light to dark, from day to night, from life to death, and back.

As much a reflection of primal imagery and rituals of knowledge as a way of coming to terms with anxieties about the chaos of the night, the album concerns itself with the question: who - or what - are we in the moments before (re-)birth, before waking up, in the state inbetween darkness and light?
On “Ayîk Adhîsta Adhîsta Ayîk”, the wind instruments and organ stabs of band leaders Kim Delcour and Brecht Ameel are expanded with Pieter Lenaerts’ five string double bass and sarangi, Jean-Philippe Poncin’s bass clarinet and chalumeau, and Paul Garriau’s hurdy gurdy.

The album sees the group explore new straight-to-the-gut emotional territory, while simultaneously showcasing Razen’s intuitive, continuous investigation of the acoustic properties and resonant possibilities of churches and chapels in the countryside around Brussels; after “Remote Hologram” (2014) and “ The Xvoto Reels” (2017), this time the St Agatha Church (St.-Agatha-Berchem) functions as the conduit for Razen’s acoustic sound jolts.

With the past ten years entirely devoted to the search for archetypical timbres and connotations by improvising on Early Music instruments, it’s no wonder that the world of Razen would one day collide with the world of CG Jung and take his writing as an inspiration.

A sonic hex tour de force from this unique ensemble, “Ayîk Adhîsta Adhîsta Ayîk” is a present-day, nocturnal emitter of the Coleridge quote that opens Jung’s Memories:
‘He looked at his own soul with a Telescope. What seemed all irregular he saw and shewed to be beautiful Constellations and he added to the Consciousness hidden worlds within worlds’.

Free Love, the artists formerly known as Happy Meals return to Optimo Music with ‘Extreme Dance Anthems’ a phantasmic mini album from their hearts to yours.

They say – “We recorded EXTREME DANCE ANTHEMS in our recently moved studio, ‘Full Ashram Celestial Garden’ which is now situated in a building that holds both a church below us and a sex club next door. Most of the tracks were formed from late-night sessions that we started to kind of ritualistically hold inspired from a particular thought or idea that we later cut down and did a live mixdown of. The music is about physicality and the metaphysical – it is about a recontextualisation of the ineffable as a centre point of existence which in turn influences how we engage with everything around us. A celebration of the unquantifiable, unspeakable, indivisible EXPERIENCE as the throne from which all ideas are derived. Even though the world is fucked- we are here.

On the face of it – I realise that this description might just seem like apolitical hippy bullshit but fuck that – as a deliberate result of the modern political landscape, our societies’ individual and collective disengagement with the metaphysical has led us to treat other humans, animals and our environment like resourceful statistics rather than something that actually holds any inherent value. An Inner Revolution of the foundations of our reality in a way that reintroduces the essence of existence, and not merely its describable derivatives, into the conversation of how we should live our lives INFORMS our perception of the world in a way that demands us to ACT. The record is about a kind of gradual awakening between the two of us – a reconnection with the magic around us.

The ineffable is not without moments of illumination- mostly in the form of immediate absurdity: ONE DAY WE WILL ALL BE DEAD BUT HERE WE ARE ALIVE INSTEAD.

The record is called EXTREME DANCE ANTHEMS because it made us both laugh”.

Long overdue, here comes AIR LQD’s first full-length player, Repeat Itself, making up for the direct follow-up of his acclaimed vinyl debut released on the label in 2016. Mixing science fiction, social criticism and punk ethics in the most cryptic fashion, the latest entry in the discography of the taciturn Belgian groove-maker sees him pushing further his electronic experimentation. Delving into the meanders of the human consciousness through hazy and abrasive rituals, brainpowered by robotics, artificial intelligence and urban metamorphism. The weird looping echo of a man-machine drifting through a vortex of feral scratches and overworked machinery. Slowly moving towards the event horizon of a supermassive black hole, leading to unexpected aural aberrations full of hidden, past and new meanings. Giving a last disillusioned glance at our human condition facing technological progress and the toxicity of the outside world.

Illusions is the new work by DOTHEDU made of 5 sexy bumping tracks EP which explore over the fields of house music and detroit techno vibes with gentle acid splashes and charming ladies voices.

As per ritual all covers have been individually treated, crafted, handprinted and assembled by DOTHEDU.

Please note: “comes in different individually treated covers, we cannot guarantee which one you will receive”

The visionary singer, songwriter and composer returns to her Havana roots
A sun-baked, vibrant record backed by a killer band of fellow Cubans The new album from Daymé Arocena is a vivid return to her Havana roots. Backed once again by a killer band of fellow Cuban musicians, the visionary singer, composer and songwriter has stripped everything back to the core. Holding sessions in a simple, repurposed artist’s studio in Havana, Daymé produced the record herself, taking the reins to make “Sonocardiogram” her most raw and arresting outing yet.

A jazz-tipped record rooted in the rhythms of rumba, she draws on the island’s intertwined rituals of family, music and religion. Ringing with echoes of the greats, songs nod to the likes of Tito Puente and La Lupe, inspirations which carry the sound of Cuba’s sun-baked, vibrant daily existence. Odes to Santería deities are underscored by the sacred frequencies of the batá drum, translated to be played on a Western drum kit. It’s an intoxicating window into a singular artist’s worldview. An important voice in Latin music, Daymé has collaborated with influential peers in Cuban music, like Roberto Fonseca, and US heavyweights like Dexter Story and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson. From a recent appearance at Primavera Festival, to sold out tours across Japan and the US, her spectacular live show continues to draw crowds around the world.

The latest addition to Furanum's discography arrives as an EP entitled "White Cold Skin" that simultaneously marks the emergence onto the scene of Beuthen OS. In keeping with the central ethos of the label, the figure behind the guise interrogates and ably materializes the industrial aesthetics of raw power and dystopic bleakness within the confines four diverse yet thematically coherent compositions.

The exploration of said dichotomy is cogently on display within the eponymous track, where an immediately evident presence of inordinate subsonic force is gradually complemented by the imposing throes of harsh yet carefully crafted analog cyclicality. Linearly hurtling toward its final destination, it relentlessly batters the listener with exhilaratory waves of cold sweat in its wake.

In contrast, "J131" and "Porobieni" present far more dispersed and unorthodox rhythmical structures as they maintain the omnipresent sense of part thrilling, part foreboding unease that permeates the record. Propelled by a pervasive pendulatory sway, the former radiates barely repressed power as it exerts its existential narrative, while the latter seems to speak to the ritualistic submission of willing bodies continually broken on the rhythmic wheel of a self-perpetuating cycle of sonic gratification.

Finally, recorded live and serving as an apt epilogue, a beatless yet by no means any less compelling droning rendition closes out the record. Whereas overt melodic content was hitherto eschewed in favor of rhythmic complexity, the piece more than delivers on this front, thrusting the audience into an ever encompassing and vividly visceral collage of throbbing textures as it progresses towards the revelatory unconcealment of a recondite core.

Mastered & cut by Kassian Troyer at Berlin's Dubplates & Mastering,

'INFORMA014' brings the birth of a new project between artists of Deepbass and !nertia.

"Celestial Rituals" blends the feelings of both projects with the spacey hypnotic sounds of Deepbass and ethereal tribalistic sounds of !nertia in a dynamic fusion between the earth and the stars.

Information about this LP: Includes a stunning remix from 'Ness'.
Hope, you enjoy.

'There's a lot of serendipity involved in wrestling grooves out of these awkward machines', says Richards about the process behind the record. 'A large part of the composition is making the machines and the patches. They define the limitations of the pieces coming together. Then the performances are happy accidents - found using intuition and practice.'

Made up of two studio sessions and one live recording, PINK NOTHING reflects the unusual space Richards inhabits musically. It's partly informed by his background as a PhD student at Goldsmiths, where he re-imagined and built the Mini Oramics machine – a 'drawn sound' instrument first conceived by electronic music pioneer Daphne Oram, and finally realised by Richards in 2016.

But Richards is also an autodidact beat-maker, and much of the structures and sounds on PINK NOTHING derive from dance music, while his influences also include ritual trance, Ghanaian drum choir music, and the cellular rhythms of Steve Reich. 'It's polyrhythmic abstract electronica' – and he emphasises – 'listening music'.credits

On 28th June 2019, drummer / producer / composer Myele Manzanza will release his eagerly anticipated third album 'A Love Requited' on First Word Records (winner of Worldwide Awards 'Label of the Year' 2019).

Produced with award winning Australian bassist & long time musical collaborator Ross McHenry and featuring a plethora of New Zealand and Australia's finest young instrumentalists, 'A Love Requited' is as much a musical journey as it is an attempt to process, work through and come to terms with the life around him.

"The music on this record was written often as a place of psychological refuge from the tensions of an ultimately failed relationship at home, as well as an attempt to come to grips with thought patterns and personal history that caused an often problematic relationship to music itself. Meditating on themes of love, fear, family, anger, death, ego and acceptance has helped create a narrative arc that grounds the album as well as a mode of therapy to begin working through these issues for myself.

'A Love Requited' is easily my most personal work to date and my hope is that beyond the music itself it may be of help to others, if only to say that your not alone in your struggle to make sense of the world".

This album also features the stellar talents of APRA award winning NYC based pianist Matthew Sheens (John Pattitucci, Cecil McBee, Ross McHenry Trio), alto saxophonist Jake Baxendale (Antipodes, The Jac), trumpeter Ben Harrison (Dave Douglas, Horns Of Leroy), trombonist James Macaulay (The Lagerphones, Epic Brass), multi-reedist Jason McMahon (The Shaolin Afronauts), flautist Adam Page (NZSO, John Psathas, Noel Gallagher), guitarist Django Rowe (Wizard Tone Records) as well as additional keyboard contributions by longtime collaborator Mark de Clive-Lowe (Ropeadope Records, Mashibeats), Brenton Foster and Jack Strempel.

Where Manzanza's debut album 'One' presented his ability as a producer / beatmaker, and his sophomore album 'OnePointOne' showcased his live performance and band leader prowess, 'A Love Requited' puts Manzanza's skills as a composer to the fore.

"Over the last few years I've really enjoyed the process of getting away from music software tools and just sitting at a piano with some manuscript paper and a cup of coffee and seeing what comes of it. I'm a very amateur pianist and my music theory knowledge is fairly limited, but in some ways that's an advantage as I'd be starting with a basic barometer of "does this sound good to me?", without too much consideration for formal rules and structure. From there, developing the arrangements to present to musicians forced me to get a better understanding of melody, harmony and orchestration and to really hone in on refining my ideas to a point where I now feel as much satisfaction and confidence putting myself out on the world stage as a composer as I do playing the drums."

'A Love Requited' will be available on vinyl & digital from the 28th June 2019.

Surit is better known as one half of NX1 and Nexe Records co-owner. Although he has previously presented solo works and collaborations for different labels, this is his first proper solo release featuring three original tracks from the man himself and a remix from the Greek artist ANFS.

The A side opens with “Line Of Masks”, a straight techno track with an hypnotic touch given by the voices evocating ancient rituals, a low bass synth pulling the track, trapping you from the very first beat. Next, “Neurodomination” is a harsher, heavier piece, with rude and hard-hitting percussions and a squeezed synth is taking control. On the B side, the EP homonym track “Bureaucracy Against The Joy Population”, a non-compromised broken hard techno track…

At the end of last year we quite enjoyed the little spat when Simon Cowell's chosen one, Joe... Something or other had his Christmas number one spot whipped away from under his nose by Rage Against The Machine. Still whilst we enjoyed the sight of the X Factor being given a bloody nose as much as anyone else, there was also an undercurrent of the ridiculous prejudice that ROCK = GOOD & MEANINGFULL whilst POP = CRAP & DISPOSABLE to the whole thing that we found less agreeable.

Here at Hot Pockets we have no truck with such orthodoxy, no, what we need is suite simply better pop music, made with all the passion and spirit of your finest indie troubadour but filtered through the prism of a 3 minute teenage symphony. Listen back to the likes of Roxy Music or Pet Shop Boys and you have music that is as equally up to the task of inspiring as it is of soundtracking a quick fumble on the dancefloor, that is the beauty of great pop music.

Thankfully for those of us that do like smart, clever pop that doesn't come hurtling off a production line but instead is crafted with much love and precision :Kinema: have arrived with their debut release a classic double A-side of pop perfection, Recreation/My Girls.

First up we have Recreation, a slow burning slice of South coast electro-soul inspired by an insatiable thirst for fun and those who would pass judgement on our basic human need for intoxication and ecstatic night time rituals. All in all a bonafide late night disco classic. Flip the virtual release over and you'll find the band's stunning cover version of Animal Collective's My Girls, a live favourite the track has already been the subject of a blogging frenzy when a demo leaked back in December. Finally available the whole world can now enjoy this smooth, autotuned refix of the indie classic.

The new pop revolution starts here

A group discovers a community of outsiders engaged in a ritual that invokes an inexplicable celestial event.

Mastered by Beau Thomas at Teneightseven.

Munich. 1994. A group buck current trends with a ground-breaking release. Tikitaka by Tamburá left aside the techno of the time to focus on a the lesser known styles of afrobeat and tribal music. The result was three tracks that sail and soar on a primal energy, three works that whisk listeners away to exotic lands of wooden wind instruments, ritualistic vocals and, even, bag pipe majesty. For twenty five years this record has been an unattainable mystery, until now that is. Kalahari Oyster Cult have lovingly restored all three of the trailblazing original tracks alongside two very special remixes. Melbourne’s Tornado Wallace adds new layers of intensity as he cuts and reshapes melodies and beats to set any floor alight with this visionary remake. Dazion offers a very different interpretation. Focusing on vocals, this new talent accentuates the shamanic-like chants of Tikitaka, using them as a base from which throbbing synth lines grow as new depths are explored. An EP every bit as daring in 2019 as it was in 1994.

Formerly clandestine, today manifest, both sacred but also profane, sometimes meditated, very often improvised, the Kabar transpires in the daily Reunion, getting rid with insolence of any label that dares to impose. The Kabar is a fleeting but bubbling manifestation of an identity and a local culture that is still difficult to define. A moment of life and sharing where handcrafted instruments, neighborhood meetings, ritual dances and lyrical demands are mixed. A meeting.

Born from the musical union of maloya and electronic music, Digital Kabar is a compilation at the crossroads of cultures, porous to all sound experiences. It's also the result of a friendship that drives InFiné at Les Electropicales festival, from the fascination of a small team dedicated to the independent musical cause for a musical scene and its diversity.

Digital Kabar features tracks & reworks from Jako Maron, InFiné affiliate Labelle, Alex Barck, Christine Salem, Boogzbrown, Loya, Sheitan Brothers,Ti Fock, Force Indigène, Agnesca, Zong, Psychorigid, J-ZeuS, and Kwalud.

After a brief appearance on the first edition of ‚Previously Undisclosed Rituals‘, Exhausted Modern is back
on the label with ‘Moral Discourse’. 5 tracks of twisted, heavyweight, slow-motion electro filled to the brim
with the producers’ trademark riffs.

The 6th release is a split EP between Elad Magdasi, a front left raver in his core, and Sinfol - the talented producer from the label Anagram for his debut on Front Left. They each showcase an original tune, with a remix of their own to each other's tunes.

Elad Magdasi - Silent Thrust: focusing on the groove, a pushing forward bassline, this tune will make you get up and dance! That's the goal.
Sinfol - Drum Spirit: a ritualistic journey with lots of detail on the percussion, an acidic lead and a hypnotic vocal sample, joined together to a massive bomb.
Elad Magdasi - Silent Thrust (Sinfol Remix): full of soul and funk, this Detroit influenced remix is an amazing interpretation of the original, with beautiful uplifting stabs and sneaky pads.
Sinfol - Drum Spirit (Elad Magdasi Remix): a driving & energetic beat, with an underwater vibe, together with fun stabs and a heavy kick.

Vanishing Twin is songwriter, singer and multi-instrumentalist Cathy Lucas, drummer Valentina Magaletti, bassist Susumu Mukai, synth/guitar player Phil MFU and visual artist/film maker Elliott Arndt on flute and percussion; and on this album they have made their first artistic statement for the ages.

Some of its great power comes from liberation. The album was produced by Lucas in a number of non-standard, non-studio settings. 'KRK (At Home In Strange Places)' summons up the spirit of Sun Ra's Lanquidity and Broadcast And The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio was simply recorded on an iPhone during a live set which crackled with psychic connectivity on the Croatian island of Krk.
The magical Morricone-esque lounge of 'You Are Not an Island', the blissed-out Jean-Claude Vannier style arrangement of 'Invisible World' and burbling sci fi funk ode to a 1972 cult French animation, 'Plane`te Sauvage', were all recorded in nighttime sessions in an abandoned mill in Sudbury. The only two outsiders to work on the recording were '6th member' and engineer Syd Kemp and trusted friend Malcolm Catto, band leader of the spiritual jazz/future funk outfit The Heliocentrics, who mixed seven of the tracks (with Lucas taking care of the other three).

Vanishing Twin formed in 2015 - their first LP, Choose Your Own Adventure, which came out on Soundway in 2016; followed by the darker, more abstract, mostly instrumental Dream By Numbers EP in 2017. The band explored their more experimental tendencies on the Magic And Machines tape released by Blank Editions in 2018, an improvised session recorded in the dead of night, offering a glimpse into their practice of deep listening, near band telepathy, and ritually improvised sound making. These sessions formed the basis of The Age Of Immunology.

Berlin based trio Keller Crackers collective likes to shape haunting esoteric sounds, in which self-built instruments dance with ritualistic synthesised rhythms, field recordings, psychoacoustic drones and poetical spoken silhouettes.

After a self-released MC and a mesmerising tune called “Anem” out in February 2019 on the custom-made Kashual Plastik 007 double-vinyl compilation, now they give birth to their own debut record “KC”, a four track EP resulting from various improvisational studio sessions, a bag full of spontaneous visionary DIY sound fashion that melts meandering serialism, foggy ‘Chris & Cosey’-ness, exoticism and freely expressed emotions. Some pieces are given time to evolve, being dragged through long arrangements and slow transitions, while others are playful and short. To close up the magic circle, the release includes a tripping Tolouse Low Trax signature remix.

The opening tune “Specialised” swings on a trance-like hypnotic bass line, while a self-made kalimba played through a tape delay and overtones from a DIY circuit bended device inject dynamics and colour to the composition. Out of the sonic depth, the spoken words of Sylvana Wickman emerge enchanting and unreal, naming a series of technical terms, assembling a deep notion on the specialised society we live in.

“Cow Tongue” follows, a fleeting composition of crackling electronic clicks jumping off a micro-modular device. They got overdubbed again by Sylvana’s voice, delightfully reciting phrases from a recipe of regional delicacies.

The A side of KC`s first strike finishes with a spaced-out synth bass and the lo-fi beats of a Yamaha RX15 drum machine. They are the gripping foundation of “Aithouses Anamonis“, which means “Waiting Rooms”. It describes the scene of a man sitting in a waiting room observing the consumerist behaviour by the folks around him.

The B-side opens with a Tolouse Low Trax remix of “Specialised”, elevating the original with the bass line of “Aithouses Anamonis“, while melting the all into a dark nebulous Tolouse Low Trax signature stripped down funk for endless nights in neon lights.

For their final track “Colours”, Keller Crackers invited a steady free member of their live shows to record with them: free jazz musician Robert Würz. He tuned his flute enthralling over a suspenseful bass line formed in a whirlwind of synth-sounds. The whole frenzy gets divine through sliding chords that rise from a self-built guitar.

A musical bouquet for open spirits, that value charming minimal wave zones, undefinable post-industrial psychedelics and hallucinogenic poetry reflections on the current state of our mechanical times.

Influenced by the social and political climate of the modern
world, MOTSA’s debut album, ‘Perspectives’, is inspired by his
acute awareness of modern society’s dependence on
technology and the social media bubble also responsible for
the civic polarisation seen globally. The 11 track album takes
the listener on an emotional journey with dark, yet hopeful,
detailed compositions, each representing their own personal
story. The title “Perspectives” refers to a problem we all face:
differing perspectives of the same situation, which in turn
leads to conflict, be it in personal relationships, families and
even political discussions globally. With individuals and
groups often losing perspective in disagreements, MOTSA’s
debut LP calls for more empathy, highlighting our current
trajectory of an ego-driven society. Encouraging listeners to
spend less time behind computer screens and more time
outside in nature to broaden our horizons and reflect on
human decisions, many of the album’s samples were recorded
from MOTSA’s own environment. Using the sounds of children playing in the sand on a Balearic beach, crickets in the grass,
or the ambient soundscapes of bells recorded from his
father’s apartment in Moscow, the producer also recorded and
sampled his own voice to create distant, choir-like melodies in
many of the tracks. The artist’s signature sound – a soulful yet
driven harmonic blend – continues to propel the multi-talented
artist to the highest acclaim into 2019 and beyond.

Soft Machine is a surreal wander through the mystical sonic forest. A vision curated and designed by Chicago native Justin Aulis Long. A Cyclopian point of view while gazing through a wide lensed scope, which exists in the liminal spaces where light meets dark and angelic forces bath in the sludge and stardust of unfiltered eroticism.

Eye of the Minotaur - collage 001 is a collection of artists working in varying musical practices that are channeling the solitude of mutantness, strolling through the familiar yet unfamiliar halls of the uncanny, refusing ordinary structures of the mundane, grasping the cold humor of cynicism, basking in the dichotomy of cosmos and chaos, and invoking the energies of Eris and Eros.

Setting the ground is Ciarra Black, a Berlin based New Yorker who makes no apologies for her bare knuckled soundscapes. DuPont Street is a ritualistic unification of discordant entities that summons visions of Pazuzu (lord of the demons) and Inanna (goddess of love) fornicating beneath The Tree of Life. Razor edged synthesizers slice through the atmosphere with the precision of an avenging angel’s flaming sword, while a psychedelic drum code activates ritual movement of the body.

As the needle passes beyond the next threshold it is met by a towering totem, bristling with the illuminated light of the sonic astral plane. Erected from the foundational matter that birthed the Detroit electro punk sound, Eyes Up continues to add to the narrative that is drenched in deranged electronics intuitively mangled in a post punk tradition. Dystopian percussive rhythms generate an unorthodox domain where muffled utterances present an aural Rorschach test. Could this be the riddle of the Sphinx, or an ancient spectral being that possesses secret knowledge? Only its creator, Stallone the Reducer, holds the key.

Fixed at the axis of the journey, Perfect Headache Forever, a mystic operating within the DIY spaces of Chicago, levitates on a transcendental mass that is equally melancholic and optimistic. Her voice hosts a strength equal to a pantheon of titans. Armed with a magical electronic musical box, she weaves narratives that are prophetic. Itself Ecstatic is a voyage through a misty soundscape that begins at one point, but ends in a distant other, in accordance with a system of divination.

Gazing into the murky waters of the oracle’s cauldron, Circling Vultures, (a collaborative effort by Justin Aulis Long and Kenneth Zawacki) channel and evoke the spirits of Antonin Artaud and Geroges Bataille. The poet’s voice, engaged in an act of mutilation and self cannibalization, howls while projecting visions of sacred conspiracies, sensations of vertigo while peaking over the edge of the abyss, and the looming weight acquired from the solitude of the Minotaur alone, sitting silently at the center of the labyrinth. Accompanying the mystical bard’s verbal declaration is a triggered mechanized synth that roars with the vitality of Cold War era Wave music, which is then juxtaposed against applications of loose keyboard playing. The artist’s hand is revealed against the calculated actions of machines.

Bringing the document to its finale, Libby Del Barrio, a multi disciplinary artist based in San Antonio, performs a closing ritual in a manner that only she knows. Setting fire to the Elysium Fields while personified as Moze Pray, Del Barrio rejects plastic narratives that aim to pacify. No Tears, is an unapologetic account of life’s feedback loop around the Wheel of Fortune. Sacrificial actions through ceremonial performance reveals a gateway founded on truth and torment. Moze Pray’s ability to combine musical production, poetic vocalization and ritualistic body performance is charged by chaos and amalgamates into a product of pure expression that defies the rose colored filters aiming to conceal harsh realities.

Cochemea Gastelum is coming home to connect with his roots. After nearly 15 years of touring the world with Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings, the saxophonist offers a deeply personal album of jazz and indigenous-influenced rhythms. All My Relations¸ out February 22 on Daptone Records, is 10 tracks of mesmerizing and spiritually ascendant instrumentation. The first single 'All My Relations' is available now.

'All My Relations is a way for me to explore my roots through music. Some of it is a memory that is imagined from a time and place I've never been ('Sonora') or a musical impression of ritual ('Mitote'),' Cochemea says. 'I felt compelled to add the way I feel when I go to ceremony, when I feel connected with my ancestors, to the musical narrative.'

A California native with Yaqui and Mescalero Apache Indian ancestry, Cochemea grew up surrounded by music but without knowing much about his heritage. Both his parents were musicians, and they gave their son a heavy name meaning 'they were all killed asleep.' Cochemea has spent much of his diverse musical career - as a soloist, musical director, composer and ensemble player - exploring and iterating on roots music, and All My Relations is a capstone meditation on his own ancestry.

Originally conceived during Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings' final year of touring, Cochemea and Daptone's Gabe Roth cast a varied but familial set of New York musicians to bring All My Relations to life. A large portion of the album was created through improvisation and collective writing, where its 10 musicians created a melodic, percussive conversation. 'It was a beautiful experience - people would start playing and we'd work up these arrangements on the spot, then record it.'

'In a sense, this record is a prayer for unity, love and the recognition that we are all part of a web, and everything we do effects everything else,' Cochemea says. 'These days there's so many lines being drawn, I wanted to focus on what unites us.'

Cochemea has a long history of uniting multiple genres with his powerful polyrhythmic sensibilities. His roots in jazz, Latin, funk and rock led to multiple tours with funk-jazz organist Robert Walter's 20th Congress, and connected him with Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings for their 2005 Naturally tour. Cochemea also played tenor sax with The Budos Band and Antibalas, and Baritone sax on the Amy Winehouse sessions, before becoming a full-time Dap-King in 2009.

In between marathon tours, Cochemea recorded a critically acclaimed solo album of soul, funk, and afro-Latin jazz, The Electric Sound of Johnny Arrow, all while doing session work for the likes of Mark Ronson, Rick Rubin and Quincy Jones. He's performed alongside Archie Shepp, Beck, David Byrne, Public Enemy and The Roots. Cochemea was also a featured soloist in the award-winning Broadway play Fela!, which led to historic performances in Lagos, Nigeria.

Following the release of their short film 'The Awakening' and its accompanying single, Lost Souls Of Saturn share the first remix in 9 years by revered musician James Holden. Over thirteen minutes of crisp, stratospheric elegance, Holden’s rework is both slightly mad and simultaneously blissful – like a trance-state reached through frenzied, spiritual ritual.

“I believe in serendipity: if the universe presents you with something that seems right, you should go with it”, says Holden. “When this record hit my desk was one of those moments. Recently I'd been thinking a lot about rave utopias, the pan-global fantasy painted by the early days of Future Sound Of London etc, and listening to LSOS's Jodorowskian ceremonials I felt like they'd caught the same winds. And so, although I thought I'd finished doing remixes for this lifetime, here it is; some kind of dream of a memory of a rave, the spookiness of the original slightly eclipsed by my warm feelings about Seth's good energy!”

The original version of ‘The Awakening’ begins as a serene ambient spacecast, before an ancient alien rite of tribal frenzy starts to emerge through the phosphorescent stardust – sonically somewhere between Demdike Stare and classic Orb, by way of Don Cherry.
Primarily LSOS are Seth Troxler and Phil Moffa, plus further opaque participants congregating to combine music, imagery and storytelling into an inextricably linked whole, all wrapped-up in a philosophy of their own making.
Attempting something creatively that’s above-and-beyond, LSOS explore new ways to open doors of perception and challenge the reality vs. simulation paradigm, whilst capturing the spirit of Philip K. Dick, Sun Ra and the KLF within their music, live experiences and films.
These spiritual, psychoactive aural vibrations resonate for a long distance, all the way back to something deeper and more enchanting than the prosaicism of modern life:
“We have been sent synchronistic signs from a metaphysical plane. We are the glitch-seekers, exposing the Holes In The Holoverse. We are Lost Souls Of Saturn.”

Slagmann is the new collaboration between producer Talismann and music ensemble Slagwerk Den Haag. Their first album 'Krysalis' is an adventurous synthesis of hypnotizing rhythm patterns, organic soundscapes and captivating scenography - or, as the artists themselves like to call it, a "ritualistic experience." Sometimes dreamy and dark, euphoric and explosive at other times. This mesmerizing cross-pollination between ritualistic percussion and drum machines will lure you into the murkiest depths of electronica and classical minimal music. For the visual identity of 'Krysalis' Slagmann works together with visual artist Heleen Blanken. Who is responsible for the scenography of the live show and capturing the cover image.

Minimal Wave presents a full length album by Dutch electro pioneer, Das Ding. Das Ding is Danny Bosten, who was active in the early 1980s releasing his music and friends’ music via his own cassette label called Tear Apart Tapes. While studying graphic design in art school, he designed all the tape covers himself. Meanwhile, he re­corded his own music as Das Ding. Powerful dark electro, some tracks are quite addictive and danceable while others are more for at home listening enjoyment. The dancefloor killer is somewhere between Reassurance Ritual and H.S.T.A. The record is pressed on 180 gram vinyl and comes in a printed innersleeve featuring artwork by Danny Bosten, and heavyweight outer jacket with photographs by Dima Belush. Definitely one of this year’s favorites

Initially a duo formed in Berlin, FITH have since multiplied and expanded to become a revolving collective of musicians and poets spread out across a Paris/Manchester/Berlin axis. The project, currently comprised of members Dice Miller, Enir Da, Rachel Margetts, ChrIs Lmx, & Arnaud Mathé gesture towards notions of the literary salon, expanded cinema happenings, and the ancient traditions of Greek oratory and religious sermons. Driven by the spell of the spoken word, minimal percussive refrains, oneiric textures & deep melodic synths, FITH channel cinematic imagery, enigmatic narratives & spiritual frenzy.

Their self-titled debut 12' album was released via their collectively run imprint Wanda Portal in November 2016, a 'quietly alluring debut of post punk tempered avant-pop songs' (Boomkat) that laid out the project's foreboding mystique and intoxicating dream sequences with a lurking, devastating sense of purpose and (mis)direction. Other outings have included myriad solo collections of poetry, a two-track release of lurid dissonance and elegiac elevation (Signs / Cornerstone, December 2016) and an extraordinary reinterpretation of the soundtrack for cult film & iconic document of modern alienation Wanda (1971, dir. By Barbara Loden)

With Swamp, their sequel to this activity and their first appearance on Outer Reaches, FITH become a refined force, on a record where all their compelling pluralities and attributes are honed and augmented; everything dilated to delirium. The atmosphere here is one of veiled dread and psychic disturbance, a haunting and macabre psychedelia strewn with echo and dub FX, fragmentary fever dream poetics, elemental drum patterns and volatile synthetic interference. Although the collective conserve the raw crux of their earlier material their execution is, in this special instance, heightened by an intent to broaden and prolong their unique strain of intensity.

Emphatically sinister openers like Forest and Pound present sidereal sequences before building to barrelling, corrosively processed percussion, paroxysmal free jazz and a baleful, concrète-inflected score of electronics, while Swamp introduces phasing currents and a vocal evocative of a chorale from some forgotten giallo film. Elsewhere l'au delà (the beyond) presents a stunning, sombre passage to another state entirely, like some desolate new inflection on Coil's Going Up, before Bialystok shifts into a finale of transportive and meditative evaporation. Together these tracks make for an incredibly immersive and congruous conception; an utterly complete and mesmerising document.

In Swamp's various dimensions perhaps there's comparisons to be drawn with the ritualistic krautrock of Conny Plank and Holger Czukay's Les Vampyrettes, with the hallucinatory, tribal rhythm cycles of Shackleton & Anika's Behind The Glass collaboration, with the primeval drone of Jeremie Sauvage, Mathieu Tilly and Yann Gourdon's France project, with the echoic, disquieting chamber intimacies of Tuxedomoon's Pink Narcissus material and with Lucrecia Dalt's eerie free verse abstractions. But really, we've not heard anything like this before.

Discussing their own inspirations and touchstones the collective cites Franz Kafka, Dario Argento, Lucrecia Martel's La Ciénaga (The Swamp - the film the record is named after) and Yiddish ghost theatre as figures, works and artforms that were prominently drawn upon during the making of Swamp. Yet whilst their imprints could be traced by some, they resemble more of a covert presence within a nuanced whole rather than obvious aspects which moor this record to any familiar setting.

Instead, the acutely unsettling yet poignant spoken word of Miller and the mercurial nocturnes and visitations produced by Margetts, Lmx, Mathé and Da make for a record of strange, novel and striking energies. In revealing the remarkable location and period in which Swamp was recorded Margetts and Miller give a vivid indication as to how these energies are so potently invoked:

'The record was mostly recorded in a caretaker's wing of a 17th century castle in Normandy. It was early March 2018, and our first encounter with the Spring. We had no idea how everything would unfold. There was a lot of tension. Some of us felt compelled to get out the attic room where we had set up our makeshift recording studio and just walk and walk down the vast flat meadows and explore the relics of the wartime barracks, others wanted to keep recording. The outside was serene and inviting, and even though we had been cooped up indoors recording for long stretches of time, we could see from the corner of our eyes, the branches of the trees quivering; an impersonal energy blew through us and then things just happened.'

Consisting Neither Of One Lone Woman, Nor Hailing From Either The Eurasian Country Or The North American State, This Georgia Is In Fact Comprised Of Two Human Males Working Out Of China Town, N.y.c., Namely Brian Close And Justin Tripp. Together They Form A Creative Partnership Responsible For Not Just A Slew Of Output Upon Such Highly Regarded Imprints As Meakusma, Palto Flats And Emotional Response, But Also For A Kaleidoscopic Variety Of Multimedia Work With A Whole Host Of Clients, From The Corporate To The Counter Cultural. With An All Embracing, Freeform And In Some Ways Contradictory Approach To Production, Their Sound Is At Turns Stimulating, Terrifying, Comforting And Confounding. Separated From Any Visual Representation, The Audio On Its Own Becomes A Soundtrack For The Listeners' Own Intense Internal Projection Screen.

With 'time', Georgia's Vision Is Especially Well Realised As Here, In Collaboration With Fellow Intuitionists Firecracker Recordings, They Release Into This World An Album Which, With Any Luck, Shall Help You Unlock Your Inner Portals - Should They Need Assistance In That Regard Anyway. Unquantisable Polyrhythms Knock Against One Another In An Uncannily Externalised, Conflicting Collage Of Half Remembered Dance Ritual Memories. Fragmented Melodies, Disembodied Vocal Snippets, A Hint Of Ethnomusicality In Places All Give Deep Nods Simultaneously To Ancient Experience And To Post Human Intelligence, Condensing Past Present And Future Into One Eternal Instant.

'time' The Album Asks Us: What Happens When One Removes Ones Expectations Of Where In Time A Piece Of Music Or Art Must Sit And What Of Time Itself As A Construct, Now That We Have Myriad Ways Of Measuring It, Even At The Atomic Level; But Still Its Passing Is Completely Relative According To The Observer, And Indeed May All Be In Our Minds Anyway Equally, You Can Always Just Put It On - Again, And Again - Empty Your Mind Of Such Thoughts Completely, And Allow All Of Your Particles To Move Around Freely To This Joyful Noise... After All, That's The Point, Isn't It We're Gonna Have To Stop Asking Questions Eventually.

Edit Select 49 clearly showcases what the label's all about. A strong V/A with deep, reverberating techno with contributions by Mark Broom, Edit Select, Refracted, and Mod21.

The KBCS are:

Lucas Kochbeck - Drums

Nicolas Börger - Keyboards

Lars Coelln - Guitars

Daniel Stritzke - Bass

The KBCS were born in the northern hemisphere under the zodiac sign of snowman. They sound like Föhr and nicely topped pizza, tight as thinly folded pizza boxes and with drums dry as flour that would nearly make you cough. But hotter. Laughing is part of their ritual to get into the zone. Even though some of them prefer Ph without coriander, they still won't order it online because of plastic waste.

The moon shone happily while they recorded their spiced up cinematic, funky & atmospheric lowdown grooves album.And since the polar star was missing, they headed for Venus instead. Luckily, they didn't keep it four-dimensional but had old friend and funk head Mr Flo Mega himself on keys and good vibes - things got really wicked from there. Few people were present and those who were are not entirely sure how it all happened or where it began. Some people say it was Roy, others blame it on the sauna. Fact is that the session took its own course and most people were smiling during the recordings.

Nobody knew then about the flamingo on the cover or why the bird at least looks like one. Hailing from Hamburg, Germany the KBCS not only love to record but also play around Europe. Be sure to welcome them with a Ph in your city and they will surely return the favor by taking you on a ride utilizing a special horse: the (space) funk lama.

Sublunar Records, the label run by Sciahri and Dagdrom, starts 2019 with his tenth re- lease.

'Corpora' is a new trilogy project whose elements will see the light throughout the year.

Part I involves Nuel, known for his collaboration with Donato Dozzy on the Aquaplano project and author of for two genre defining album on Further Records.
His contribution 'Intarsia' is a polyrhythmic mixture of ascending synth spirals where every element is tuned for maximum clarity and impact.
Then Sam KDC, an integral part of ASC's cutting edge Auxiliary label and regular on Geoff Presha's Samurai and Samurai Horo, comes in with 'Skirmish', a ritualistic experience where a memorable melodic figure is surrounded by delicate drum patterns. On the B side co-founder Sciahri releases all the tension with 'Linfa', pushing his signature sound into heavy atmospheric disturbances where distorted grooves bounce among skittering bits of percussion.

Turning Jewels Into Water Is A Live Electronic Duo Led By Indian-born Drummer/producer Ravish Momin With Haitian Electronic Musican Val Jeanty, Who Blend Futuristic Turntables, Ritual Chants, Polyrhythmic Percussion, And Synth Melodies With Global Dance Rhythms. 'map Of Absences' Is A Reflection On The Regressive State Of Human Rights, Refugee Crises And The Worsening Impacts Of Climate Change.

After a brief wander 'round the garden, Chilean-born Ricardo Tobar returns to the ESP Institute bearing earthly delights. With 2017's Liturgia, he introduced his creative point-of-view—instantly substantiating a sense of rhythm that was deliberately complex yet slightly rough around the edges, while touching upon his musical origins from the guitar-driven corners of psychedelia— however with his debut 2xLP Continuidad, he leaves us gobsmacked and seeking shelter as he leaps from dancefloor comforts and descends into absolute chaos (in more ways than one). Emotionally, the artist has crossed all previously self-imposed and subconscious thresholds, putting his true imagination on display and exposing an unwavering attraction to all things loud, orgasmic and transcendent. He's not subtly hinting at a fetish, but opening his arms wide with conviction, abandoning genre taboos and personally inviting everyone to join his enchanted caravan. Sonically, his appetite for intensity is clear throughout—epic chord changes, ascending peaks in arrangement, accumulating layers of grit that build into impenetrable blankets of distortion and feedback—a kind of aural hedonism that translates visually into the potent video abstractions our Mario Hugo has summoned for the album's packaging. This might all sound like a warning for Hurricane Ricardo, but fear not, listeners will still find some security in the album's rhythmic underpinnings, and although this foray into primitive, ritualistic bang-the-drum percussion is significantly more dangerous than his previous programming, its the imperfection in his passionate studio performances that imbue Continuidad with something remarkably human.

Part two of the Tunnelvisions remixes include four artists: Fort Romeau, David Mayer, Yor Kultura and Bawrut. Fort Romeau's remix is a typical track you will hear back in clubs such as Robert Johnson, Bawrut's remix is a big-room beast and David Mayer shows his typical tribal sound. Yor Kultura finishes this remix EP and Tunnelvisions' Celestial Ritual project with a downtempo version of Umai's Dance. The Remixes are out March 22nd on Atomnation.

As An Undisputed Heavyweight And One Of The Leading Figures Within The Electronic Music Scene, Icicle's Recognized As A Highly Respected Producer - Among Other Ventures Through Steaming Releases Via Hospital Records, Critical Music And Shogun Audio. Propelling His Technically Advanced Production Style Into The 140 Bpm Spectrum, It's A Sight To Behold As Dj Youngsta Reveals The Next Ace Up His Sleeve. The Uk-based Veteran Conveys His Awe-inspiring Take On Dubstep With Four Tracks On A Twelve-inch Platter - Vehemently Battle-tested As A Dubplate And Ready To Off At A Dance Floor Near You.

We Are Immersed In Dense, Granular Fog. 'raising The Dead' Begins The Ritual With Hypnotism And Anxious Unrest. Eerie Lead Melodies Lure Listeners Onwards As Relentless Percussion Takes Hold. Rigorously Increasing The Intensity With Mesmeric Style To The Ruthless Beat Of The Drums - Fragmented Vocals Flicker Through The Mist. As Ethereal Spheres Seem To Vacate, A Disturbed Melody Guides A Path Into The Low-frequency Behemoth That Is 'nt'. Driven By Its Intense Groove And Sonorous Sub-bass Emissions, The Erratic Lead Staccato Does The Rest To Keep Us Fiercely Bouncing To Icicle's Percussive Pulse.

As If It Could Get Any Hotter, We Flip To A Promising B-side Only To Be Proven Wrong Twice. Initiating The Ceremony With 'shout Me' - Haunting Female Choirs Entrance Amidst The Thunderous Sense Of Anticipation. Evolving From Intricate Breaks To Straight Shut-down Maneuvers Without Skipping A Beat. In A Final, Fulminant Outburst, 'noughties Riddim' Goes On To Wrap Up The Masterpiece In A Most Mischievous Fashion. Cutting Through The Noise, Profoundly Satisfying Mid-range Distortion Surges Flare Up In The Distance, While Continuous Pressure Continues To Evoke Cries For Rewinds.

PAUL LABRECQUE (SUNBURNED HAND OF THE MAN) and GHAZI BARAKAT (PHAROAH CHROMIUM) present two epic cosmic, dystopian tracks where guitars, synths and traditional instruments blend into an anarchic sound system.

After excessive years in rock bands like THE GOLDEN SHOWERS or his solo project BOY FROM BRAZIL, time had come for the German-Palestinian artist GHAZI BARAKAT to develop a new aesthetic - the birth of his alias PHAROAH CHROMIUM where BARAKAT creates "meta-music for meta-people in a meta-world", or in other words:a mutoid blend of post-krautrock, psychedelism, free jazz, ancient rituals, science fiction and electronics. So far the Berlin based sonic performer released a couple of solo albums on labels like GRAUTAG or TAPEWORM and a triple LP with krautrock legend GÜNTER SCHICKERT. For his latest output he decided to simply use his civilian name BARAKAT, as does PAUL LaBRECQUE (SUNBURNED HAND OF THE MAN) who contributesguitar and synthesizer to the two side-long tracks. "Jajouka Pipe Dream" is a clear reference to the MASTER MUSICIANS OF JAJOUKA, with lots of flutes and percussion, a very rhythmical, ritualistic track, while "Planet R-101" turns out a spacey trip with elements of krautrock and Kosmische Musik / Berliner Schule.

What may sound contradictionary on paper functions perfectly on LP - freeform / free-floating music, absorbing and integrating a wide range of influences and inspirations, sounds and styles - and highly psychedelic!

Credits:

Ghazi Barakat: guembri, moog synthesizer, beats, Rauschpfeife

Paul LaBrecque: guitar, synthesizer

Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, Berlin

Artwork + photography: Nicolas Moulin

R&S Records present the first key transmission from the Lost Souls Of Saturn's multidisciplinary conceptual project. The title track of the LSOS debut EP is revealed immediately, with the full 'Holes In The Holoverse' EP to follow on the 1st March.

Primarily LSOS are Seth Troxler and Phil Moffa, with opaque additional participants congregating to combine music, imagery, storytelling and communion into an inextricably linked whole, all wrapped-up in a philosophy of their own making.

Check the launch visual for 'Holes In The Holoverse' here:

The EP follows their performance debut as part of the 'GaiaMotherTree' installation with artist Ernesto Neto at Zurich Main Train Station, and a second show at Houghton Festival. Following these site-specific ambient renditions, the full LSOS live experience will be unveiled at the Village Undergound in London on the 18th April 2019, with further live performances to follow (including Field Day) and to be announced.

The classic-R&S-style groover 'Holes In The Holoverse' propels ever starwards, whilst the acid techno of 'World of the Wars' evokes a probe motoring through the cosmos. Further solar system surfing comes from world-renowned, Turner prize winning artist and photographer Wolfgang Tillmans. For his first ever remix, Tillmans tweaks the frequencies, adds extra percussion and his own 'va va voom' vocals.

Attempting something creatively that's above-and-beyond, LSOS explore new ways to open doors of perception and challenge the presumed reality, whilst capturing the spirit of Alejandro Jodorowsky, HG Wells, Sun Ra and the KLF within their music, live experiences and forthcoming films.

These spiritual, psychoactive aural vibrations resonate for a long distance, all the way back to something deeper and more enchanting than the prosaicism of modern life:

'We're searching for signs from another dimension and channelling a higher consciousness. We want to explore the concepts of reality vs simulation/hologram, ancient knowledge and ritualistic experiences. We're inspired by art, film, literature, astrology, mysticism, cults, rituals, paganism, synchronicity, conspiracy, altered reality, virtual states, spiritualism, chaos, cosmology and science. Both sci-fi and real science especially interest us - from Philip K. Dick books, to NASA articles, to the hexagonal storm at Saturn's North Pole.'

Lost Souls Of Saturn are preparing their debut album for release in June 2019.

Bastet is the second album of LCC (Ana Quiroga and Uge Pañeda).

Bastet is a ritual study gliding the path from the rites of the ancient to the realm of the modern.

Bastet is the name of the ancient Egyptian goddess closely linked to music and female power who coerced humans to entertain her in order to keep her untamed animalistic side in check. Whilst absorbing this legend the second LCC release presents itself as a vast canvas of ritual, restraint and spacious sonorities. Stark and unnerving Bastet is not reliant on pure electronics as abstract theatre but rather utilises these tools to conjure a world circling the spheres and planes of symbolic human activity.

Recorded throughout 2016 among residencies at the legendary studios EMS of Stockholm, the Inter Arts Center of Malmö and their own studio in Gijón, Bastet is a rich experience: cryptic, visionary and utterly compelling. 8 tracks laying forth a deep listening journey into the netherworlds of human experience, movement, ritual and space.