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With a celestial voice that's been streamed over 3 million times thanks to acclaimed features with The Kite String Tangle, Golden Vessel and label mate Sampology, Brisbane-based artist Tiana Khasi (Kah-see) shares her debut EP, 'MEGHALAYA', out 29 March via Soul Has No Tempo.

The Sampology-produced debut is a rich tapestry of styles and influence, with inspiration drawing from themes of self-empowerment, family and heritage, collaborating with contemporary musicians while studying jazz. ''Meghalaya' is both geographic and spiritual. It's a place I creatively resort to seeking affirmation of my identity and for true holistic inspiration. I wanted to create a body of work that honestly showed where I was at musically and personally. I felt the growing pains of being a young woman, mixed race/Australian born and studying jazz. I was neither here nor there.'

'Nuketown', the first single from the forthcoming release, is out now following global premieres with Complex UK & London's Worldwide FM. Upon hearing early mixes, Gilles Peterson handpicked the track to feature on his most recent compilation, Brownswood Bubblers Thirteen, via Brownswood Recordings. Touted by local tastemakers and HypeMachine blog Purple Sneakers as "the debut single we didn't know we needed", 'Nuketown' has found airplay with national stations triple j & Double J, placement in Spotify's Just Chill playlist, rotation with Sydney's FBi Radio, and enthusiastic support from community radio and online media around the country and beyond.

"A flawless example of the kind of music we can expect from Tiana going forward. [Nuketown] creates something completely original, drawing elements from jazz but never chasing a particular sound or vibe. Everything comes naturally, taking you on a journey with the instrumentation matching the ebbs and flows of Tiana Khasi's sweet vocals. It serves as an exemplary debut for the young artist, and can only mean better things are on the horizon." - Complex UK

A keystone artist in her hometown whose live reputation precedes her via her work fronting local jazz/hip-hop collective Astro Travellers, Tiana Khasi's voice has been praised as "elegant" (Life Without Andy), "most dope" (Audiosteez) and "as venomous as it is honey-sweet" (Happy). A trained jazz vocalist, Tiana's unique sound is heavily influenced by her Samoan and Indian heritage, and has seen her support Jamaican-American "TrapHouseJazz" sensation Masego, Swedish soul artist Fatima and acclaimed Australian collective 30/70.

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.

This album is the result of some musings on what drives us in life and how we come to terms with our place in the world. I wrote it around the time I was finishing my philosophy degree. I had also come to a point where I wanted to make music that was more personal, emotional and conceptual than before.

We are deficient creatures. Powerless and ignorant of reality as a whole, and unfortunately our characteristic existence makes us painfully aware of that. Reality is fundamentally hostile (or indifferent rather) and we are not well 'fit' to live in it. We try to deal with this through emotional means. We seek comfort for our deficiencies, a sense of purpose and belonging...

Second elease on newly minted Souk Records (Discrepant), coming swiftly after the mind blowing Palestinian beat LP Muqata'a Inkanakuntu (SOUK01).

For the second release we chose someone who is already part of our Discrepant family - the Colombian tropical masters Romperayo aka Pedro Ojeda.

Back in 2015 we released their self titled debut and now it's time for the follow up, 'Que Jue', ten up-tempo bangers filled with the unique sounds of psychedelic 1970s Cumbia.

Whilst the first Romperayo LP united several musicians around Pedro Ojeda's frantic drum style, Que Jue sees him take the reigns solo armed with instruments, samplers and his trusted drum skills!

'Que Jue' is a fever rhythm joy, an intense voyage to the diverse landscape of Colombian folklore and psychedelic scene. It's also a combination of old and new, an exploration of sample techniques that throwback to classic cumbia but with an electronic minimal vibe that seeks the intense repetition of some dance music produced recently.
All for the sake of pleasure, Romperayo's music is magnetic, impulsive and addictive. The repetitive patterns are mixed astutely and sweaty percussion changes the rhythm whenever it's needed: you don't know that, but they do, and they deliver it frequently with awe. Tropical fusion, new cumbia or salsa on acids You decide.

Tradition and experimentation are two familiar
territories that C'mon Tigre, a duo who find
their identity by working with musicians from
all over the world, can balance between very
well. As they did for their debut album (2014),
they have put together a multicolored collective
for their second record 'Racines', out on
February 15, 2019 for BDC/K7.
The title is a French word that means "roots",
referring to the musical roots in which C'mon
Tigre's feet, head and heart are immersed, and
from which their contaminated tracks sprout to
create unusual and original sound environments. In their new album the sounds of the
Mediterranean - the sea of their land -
intersect, intertwine and overlap with a
kaleidoscope of other sounds and a new
approach based - they explain - "on the type of
work we had done when we rearranged the first
album for live shows, by emphasizing the
synthetic part of our tracks". This time around
they did it from the very beginning: "The
composition of the pieces immediately included
the use of machines and synthesizers as a
basis for acoustic instruments. The goal was to
reprocess the terrain of Mediterranean
influences that was undoubtedly our starting
point".
Imagine a work in progress where bass and
guitars interact with woodwind, synths, percussions, vibraphones, dipping the listener into a
sensual and hypnotic musical journey. Sailing
from the Mediterranean basin and being guided
by the fascination for Africa and the Middle
East, C'mon Tigre give rise to a personal
language, made up of mixtures with jazz,
afrojazz, the rhythmics of hip hop, funk, 70s
disco. All without ever confining their songs to
one style, but pushing the exploration as much
as possible, into a dimension that every journey
worthy of this name should encompass. "With
the musicians we work with the exchange and
experimentation continue till the end, the
songs can take different directions at any time'.
The result is a mixed, cosmopolitan record,
which escapes from any label for the affirmation of a free attitude. The attitude that led
C'mon Tigre to seek a connection with dancefloor culture, even if considered only as an
evocation to revisit in an absolutely personal
way

Liška, the Czechoslovakian word for fox. Beguiling in its beauty, cunning in it's charm. Said to be one of the most intelligent animals on the planet its global family consists of thirty-seven varieties; all of them recognised, respected and feared for their persuasive, creative, resourceful and elusive nature. The Liška we will talk about today is no exception to these hereditary rules and within the grooves of this record Finders Keepers present an 'elusive' musical artefact that best exemplifies every facet of this composer's animal namesake.

Had he not been born in the small Bohemian town of Smecno in the early 1920s the story of The Fantastic Mr. Liška might have well taken a different course. Alternatively, fettered by the hampers of communism, this lifelong resident of Czechoslovakia would never quite find his seat at the same table as the likes of John Barry, Ennio Morricone, Michael Nyman and Stanley Myers, nor drop enough phonographic breadcrumbs to track his legacy. But having waited patiently behind the borders of the wider landscapes of international cinema, Liška's musical brood, spanning multiple stylistic decades and generations, has now started to walk proudly amongst his would-be, latter-day compeers. In an era where music lovers have almost become immune to adjectives like 'lost', 'rare' and 'unreleased' in a climate where previously lesser-known off-kilter master composers such as Vannier, Kirchin and Axelrod have become widely revered, it is perhaps the perfect time for discerning listeners to advance above the feeding trough and seek out this truly pioneering and revolutionary Eastern European composer. Rivalled only by the likes of Krzysztof Komeda and Andrzej Korzynski in Poland, alongside Alexandr Gradsky in Russia, and often splitting workloads with fellow Czech composers like Luboš Fišer, Zdenek Liska's filmography of over almost 300 fully formed movie scores virtually eclipses the achievements of these socialist era luminaries. Respected unanimously in both Czech and Slovakian by studio bosses, producers, directors and actors alike Liška is widely known for his ability to take the existing energy in a reel of film and literally change the polarity to suit his own interpretation while maintaining the full support from his 'client' who would in-turn end up working under this composer's creative direction. Not only was Liška a genius of emotive orchestral and coral composition, his grasp on small group arrangements and intimate, minimal scores set him above the competition. By utilising primitive sample techniques by 'looping' a films existing ambient noise, or rearranging found sounds and dialog into subtle melodic arrangements, Liška would independently develop his own techniques which had simultaneously become known in Paris as musique concre`te. It is a direct extension of these experiments that saw Liška also draw parallels with Walter Branchi (Ennio Morricone's main electronic sidekick) in Italy as well as Daphne Oram in the UK, making Liška a relatively untravelled pioneer of early electronic composition and sound design due to his unlikely global environment. Imprisoned, preserved or reserved; time has been kind to Liška's music.

Taken for the widely played and adored Lenny Williams Spark of Love Album, which was released during the Disco Era of 1976 and featured disco hits like, 'You got me Running', I still Reach and 'Midnight Girl' comes 'Changes.'

Edits and Overdubs Produced and Performed by Joaquin Joe Clausell; Changes is the tune that was mostly ignored from the extensive Lenny Williams music catalogue.
Similar to his past works where he chooses songs that are mostly un popular to the outside world but classics amongst himself and his siblings at home, Joaquin Joe Claussell takes this Jam that he used to groove to at home as a young teenager, lifts it out from obscurity and turns it into something that will sure be played by most DJ's who are into the Lenny Williams Sound, soulful disco and beyond.

Listed at a time length of (5:03) Joe cleverly up lifts this soulful disco composition and extends it to a time of (9:01). He achieves this, as usual, with respecting the original composition and with never anyself-masturbation. In the end, the results are a New Disco Classic that drives with relentless energy and enough soul for anyone who's seeking more soul that hailed mostly from the urban side of American disco music.
So, listen, dance and spin.

Lenny Williams - Changes Edits & Overdubs by Joaquin Joe Claussell will be the first single to come out from the forth coming Joaquin Joe Claussell Presents Edits & Overdubs PT 2 2XCD and Special Limited 7Inch.

Following a run of sought-after releases on cassette from artists including Anthony Naples, Xvarr and E Ruscha V, Good Morning Tapes switch to vinyl for their latest (and first with HJ).

By Mahbunzi Nahgo Pihndi ("All the Healing Green Leaves of the Forest') aka Brian Close, one half of New York avant-garde duo Georgia:

'This record is an extension of a foray into trance ritual music. It is structured as a companion for film, meditation, vision seeking & sound rest.

It is by nature a nature worship record, combining acoustic percussive improvisation, sensory foley, vocalized staccatos, and a specific brew of physical / metaphysical sound relations... mind hush / thought flush / spirit rush / sun rise.

Inspired by an initiation ceremony of the Bwiti / Fang people of Gabon. This collection relays a fragmented branch of timings of this ceremony and proposes other paths for the sacred (Mougongo) instrument.

Recoded + Restructured + Reflected as a time capsule, with fullest respect / blessings to breeze the Bwiti understandings through the current climate.

Proceeds of this record will be donated to Tata-Yo (Nganga), Ebando.'

Norwegian artist Tarjei Nyga°rd first touched on the ESP Institute spectrum in 2016 with a limited red flexidisc of Bleusa that accompanied issue 21 of New York City's acclaimed Love Injection fanzine, and since then, his poetic music has been a staple in our arsenal (especially during Summer), for its ability to effectively direct moods is second to none. Across the four tracks on this debut EP, Tarjei paints quite viscerally using the most fundamental of tools—melodic and rhythmic hooks—and as obvious as this may sound on paper, its his deliberate approach to songwriting that brings these productions to life. Bleusa is literally dripping with a sense fantasy and adventure—island pads, golden bent notes, even a cameo bird-call from the infamous Acid House loon—yet Tarjei exhibits a mature level of restraint, a highly sophisticated sleaze recognizable to refined pleasure-seekers. Forus Echo furthers this notion but expands into full-blown rapids of ecstasy, rolling over soft-thumping percussion that mimics the human heart while smothering the listener in euphoric waves of pads and delays. Side B shifts us from the melodic dynamic heard thus far over to a strong rhythmic palette, not acknowledging any specific reference point but loosely hearkening back to early-era turntablism, the demented title track Lost In Lindos is a aquatic beat thats both deep and buoyant, the type of liquid tool that works at any BPM. Øylie closes the EP with a signature ESP vibe that has us lying on our backs, drawing finger pictures in the opium smoke above, feeling the warm embrace of collective consciousness while telepathically harmonizing our plans for a bright utopian future.

Les Disques du Crepuscule presents Signals Into Space, a brand new studio album by acclaimed electronic duo Ultramarine. SIS is their seventh album, having debuted on Crepuscule back in 1990.
The new long player was conceived by Ian Cooper and Paul Hammond over a three year period and features four songs co-written with North American musician Anna Domino, a firm favourite of the group since her leftfield pop releases on Crepuscule and Factory in the 1980s. 'For this project we wanted to do something more ambitious and perhaps more accessible than our last album in 2013,' explains Paul. 'We were keen to start collaborating with other musicians again, as well as develop our method of performance-based writing and recording, which is partly improvised.'
 Signals Into Space also features contributions from saxophonist Iain Ballamy (ECM, Food, Loose Tubes) and percussionist & vibraphone player Ric Elsworth. It was recorded and mixed in London with Andy Ramsay (Stereolab) and mastered by Noel Summerville.
 'To some extent Signals Into Space is an escapist record,' reveals Ian. 'Our rehearsal space is a small windowless room on an industrial estate in Essex. Possibly as a result we ended up with a collection of visually suggestive tracks, conjuring mental images of cities, deserts and tropical islands, which gradually came into focus as Anna's lyrical ideas developed. So while the music might have been conceived in a closed space it's imbued with a positive spirit - looking outwards, seeking contact.'
 Cover art by Studio Heretic. Available on CD, digital and vinyl LP (vinyl format includes a free digital copy on MP3).

A doctor by day and a musician by night, Leon x Leon has been producing songs in his
Parisian home studio since 2013, where house, italo-disco and boogie are mixing. When he
was younger, he was immersed in music by taking jazz drum lessons at the conservatory,
and especially by seeing his father, a sound engineer, who had been building his own
synthesizers since the 1970s. As a tribute, he used one of these unique synthesizers on a
title of the disc.
After a remarkable remix of Cerrone's "Funk Makossa" and several tracks on various from
'Red Laser Disco', he released his project My Solar Brass on the same English label in
2017. Organizer of many Parisian parties, he also participated in the founding of the
publishing label 'Good Plus". With the release of Rokanbo on Cracki Records, Leon x
Leon signs a mature EP with the influence of different styles.
The first eponymous title is a manifesto mixing Acid, House and Zouk. As soon as we
launch the track, the pop & acid 80's sounds takes us to another world... A UFO from the
Islands! The other parts of the EP don't leave us in the lurch! 'Formant Sweep' delivers a
soft and groovy bass that responds to an endless, spatial synthetic takeoff. On 'Red
Footpath', the harder kick cleverly blends with an atmospheric blanket and a bright, lively
flute solo straight from an abandoned piece of bamboo on a deserted beach. After that,
'Jungle Juice' lets a crazy keyboard solo resonate in the middle of tropical fauna and flora,
and finally on 'Horizon', the EP ends in beauty with an airy atmosphere. This last piece
sounds like a beautiful sunset at the end of a long summer day.
Through all these tracks, Rokanbo EP offers us a clever contrast between synthetic notes
and the warmth of tropical groove, and places our gaze towards the horizon, seeking the
groove to disturb its line on the infinite sea.

Soundwalk Collective is a multi-disciplinary audio-visual collective founded by Stephan Crasneanscki, including members Simone Merli and Kamran Sadeghi.

The Collective's approach to composition combines anthropology, ethnography, non- linear narrative, psycho-geography, the observation of nature, and explorations in recording and synthesis. The source material of their works is always linked to specific locations, natural or artificial, and requires long periods of investigative travel and field work.

Their recent projects include a collaboration with Patti Smith and reworking the archive of recordings on Jean-Luc Godard's film set.

For the 8th Marionette publication, Soundwalk Collective present 'Death Must Die'. A sound piece that began in 2004 and ended up as a composition for the PS1 radio in NY. For this New release the Collective has revisited the piece in a more musical way.

'Death Must Die' is based on Stephan Crasneanscki's multiple visits to the sacred Indian city of Varanasi, originally known as Kashi and Banares. Sacred texts maintain that Varanasi isn't even a city, but rather a lingam of celestial light, the subtle and cosmic form of Lord Shiva which manifested itself as a city for the sake of seekers of liberation. To bathe in the holy Ganga is to be purified of your sins. To die in Varanasi, is to attain liberation and to bring an end to the cycle of rebirth known as transmigration. Determined to capture the elusive reality of this ancient city, Stephan has day by day recorded and re-imagined his understanding of how to perceive the continuously moving stream of the holy Ganga; performing a simple form of sadhana, which request is to be very alert but also to allow your mind to be quiet, making it easier to slip into the streams, and into the current that both the city and the river are offering.

'Death Must Die' begins before the rising of the sun and reproduces the cycle of a day in Varanasi, going down the river that is believed to be the divinity descended to this Earth in the form of water. She grants us happiness and salvation. The composition attempts to emulate the vibration of Kashi that encourages the kind of interiority that enables a person to get a better perspective on reality than one might have, while constantly being in the current of human life. A vibration dedicated to eliminating the distinction between human and non-human, between alive and dead, between light and dark.

Lost Futures is a new label that explores experimental and often radical approaches to dance music from the past. In a musical landscape that increasingly claims to seek and reward new forms and ideas, Lost Futures delves into the recent past to revisit forward-thinking, optimistic projects that, owing to the social, musical or outright political climate, perhaps struggled to find an audience. Allowing only time to re-contextualise these leftfield, sometimes misunderstood and ultimately human bodies of work, Lost Futures taps into the inherent idealism of rave.

LF001 trips back until the early nineties to revisit the alternative scene emerging from the Dutch city of Utrecht. Here, three young men - DJ Zero One (Sander Friedeman), TJ Tape TV (Arno Peeters) and DJ White Delight (Richard van der Giessen) - joined forces to form 'The Awax Foundation'. Inspired by the transcendent and revolutionary electronic music arriving on their shores imported from Chicago and Detroit, combining their knowledge, gear and ever-expanding vinyl collection allowed additional freedom in paying sincere tribute to these intoxicating sounds, while also developing their tastes in a more personal, eclectic direction.

The musical flavours of Awax initially leaned toward acid house and the roots of techno. However, with three different mindsets in the mix, their tastes were rarely fixed. One thing each shared in common was a devotion to collecting rare sounds, specifically more adventurous and international samples than those emanating from the increasingly-hard, masculine dance music emerging from the Netherlands during the period. Inspired by the cross-over global sound of bands like Suns of Arqa, or 'World Music', as it was perhaps patronisingly termed at the time, the trio became interested in the idea of making techno with 'ethnic instruments'.

Of course, this being 1992, none of The Awax Foundation had access to such instruments, instead, they had a vast, collective library of samples from all over the world. There were no collaborations and no clear plan. Instead, they set to work using a Yamaha TX16W sampler, the legendary Atari 1040ST computer, a cheap mixing desk and a couple of low-end synths and FX machines. When Richard mentioned the project to his friend, Akin Fernandez, the London DJ and owner of cult label Irdial Discs, Fernandez was intrigued enough to invite the trio to record a one-hour show for his 'Monster Music Radio' series on London's then-burgeoning Kiss FM.

Forced to come up with a name, 'CultureClash' seemed like the obvious choice, even if the members of Awax were only creatively sparring among themselves. Along with the term 'ethno-techno', slightly dubious to a hopefully more conscious Western audience in 2017, these were the only guiding principles to the quietly ambitious project that soon combined cutting-edge machine rhythms with samples sourced from everywhere from Bolivia to Togo, and inspired by everything from Ravi Shankar's epic soundtrack to the Oscar-winning movie Ghandi, to the technical limits of their own setup requiring a dazzling degree of cut-and-paste work. Some tracks even emerged out of academic studies within the ethnomusicology department at The University of Amsterdam.

The show aired on October 2nd, 1992, recorded in one blistering take and without any rehearsals, traversing a huge variety of tempos and styles. If the performance wasn't seamless, it was undeniably thrilling, fresh and ambitious. As such, several labels, including Fernandez's aforementioned Irdial Discs expressed an interesting in commercially releasing CultureClash, while another imprint proposed a series of twelve-inches and an album. But the sheer complexity of the project meant that it never saw the light of day, while the trio embarked on different journeys ahead, both creative and personal.

Twenty five years later, and the original CultureClash lineup and founding members of The Awax Foundation provide the sound of the first release from Lost Futures. An otherworldly, ambitious and optimistic compilation, accompanied by extensive sleeve notes from the trio, CultureClash is a timeless ode to experimentation in dance music's ever-overlapping culture.

Black Helicopters is Agnarkea (Keaton Transue); a 20 year old producer from Richmond, Virginia, whose debut album is forthcoming on Manchester-based label, Natural Sciences.

Originating out of the WaistDeep Clique (a cell of emerging hip-hop crews operating out of the Southern United States) and recorded on budget equipment, across it's near two hours and extended 23 tracks, the project seeks to un-package homegrown 'conspiracy theories' (MK Ultra, Black Helicopters, The Deep State, Black Sun, Waco Texas) and use this web of extended source material to make sense of day-to-day life in Trump's America, police oppression of black neighbourhoods and the systematic suppression of mind-enhancing drugs.

Deep'a & Biri curate a bevy of much-respected underground techno specialists to further unravel and reimagine the vital and sophisticated sounds of 'Dominance', their full-length LP released earlier in 2018.

Midnight Operator, the collaborative project of Mathew and Nathan Johnson, begin the set with their trippy and transcendent take on 'False Memories'. A rare remix from the pair, their return has been worth the wait; an expertly executed techno excursion, it simultaneously burrows deeper into the psychedelic textures of the original, while providing a club-centred kick.

Further blending the experimental and the physical, Peter Van Hoesen provides a typically complex and compelling take on Voltage, deconstructing the original and expanding each element in myriad, rave-specific directions.

Deep'a & Biri enlist rising Dutch DJ-producer Deniro contributes a rolling, hypnotic version of Dominance's spectral centrepiece, 'Alpha Cephei', while Z.I.P.P.O. charges down a tense, big-room industrial tunnel for his interpretation of 'Seeking Solace', hitting on a cathartic groove after a passage of uncompromising noise.

Concluding the EP, Steinlac'h Records founder Wice reimagines 'Theories of Loneliness' in dubby but propulsive fashion.

Last February, We Had The Delightful Surprise To See Dominique Dalcan On The Victoires De La Musique Stage (main French Musical Award). The Elegant Singer Received The Award For The Best Electronic Album For His Project Temperance, An Album In English Full Of Reliefs, Dense And Splendid. We Are Delighted To See Today That Dominique Publishes A Second Volume Of Temperance. The First Albums Of Dominique Dalcan Came Out In The Early 90's, Especially On The Belgian Label Crammed Discs. He Is Considered One Of The Ambassadors Of The New French Pop, Combining Electronic And Orchestral Arrangements. At The Same Time, Under The Name Of Snooze, He Immerses Himself In Electronic Music And Creates Soundtracks For Cinema And Contemporary Art. In 2013, He Switched To The English Language And Adopted A New Artistic Identity: Temperance.

The Project Moves Away Freely From The Format Of The Song To Dive Into A Vast Electronic Palette. In Temperance 2, We Hear Contemporary R & B Ballads Full Of Artificial Strings, Collisions Of Textures, Even Balinese Sounds But Nothing That Never Steals The Show With Dominique's Voice And Lyrics. The Temperance Repertoire Addresses The Confusion Of The Human World And A Wild Nature. There Is Also A Question Of Fusional Love With Pop And Soul Songs. This Gives An Album That Rushes Against Each Other Joy, Fury, Despair, Desire Or Pleasure, Without Them Ever Contradicting Each Other, And That Moderates With Art And Temperance, In Short.

Composer, Synthesist And Producer Matt Robertson Is Set To Release His New Album 'entology' Via Tape Club Records On 16th November 2018. It Follows His Warmly Received 2016 Album 'in Echelon', Described By Mojo As "nils Frahm's Modern Classical Meets Jon Hopkins' Grainy Techno", "an Album Of Symphonic Electronica And Leftfield Techno Thats Cinematic In Scale" In Mixmag And "magnificent Wild Sound" By The Line Of Best Fit.

As Musical Director For Björk, Cinematic Orchestra And Anohni As Well As Working With Lamb, Emiliana Torrini And Bat For Lashes, Matt Has A Wealth Of Experience Collaborating With Some Of The Most Exciting Artists In The World. Working With A Collection Of Vintage, Modern And Diy Synths, And Combining Electronic Music Production With Classical Composition And Cinematic Soundscapes - Artists, Producers And Film Composers Alike Seek His Enveloping And Distinct Sound.

"i Love The Idea That Not So Very Long Ago, The Idea That A Species Could Become Extinct At All Was Laughed At. In The 17th Century, Fossils Were Believed To Be From Mythical Creatures Like Dragons. In 1796, George Cuvier Presented The Idea That A Species Could Have Existed And Now No Longer Existed, And He Was Laughed At By Scientists. Darwin Then Suggested That Evolution Did Not Need Catastrophic Events To Explain Extinction - More That It Was Due To Perpetual Competition In An Overcrowded World.

I'm Adopting The Word "entology" To Be An Awareness Of Our Current Period Of Geological Time Being An Extinction Period, Where An Extinction Period Is Defined As A Time When A Significant Proportion Of Species Die In A Geologically Insignificant Amount Of Time. I Was Trying To Imagine The Obvious Desolate Spaces Of A Post Apocalyptic World, But Also The Slightly More Opaque Vision Of The Fact That So Many Things Are Becoming Extinct Around Us Without Us Noticing, Or Even Being Aware Of Their Existence In The First Place.

The Idea Is Of Desolation But, Because Of The Awareness, Also Of Hope."

- Matt Robertson

No one had been through those doors in years. Unchanged, seemingly untouched, just a Guard watching over it, one wondered whether the place would ever see the light of day again. Built in the 70s by Scotch, there were only twenty such places in the entire world. Twenty studios, all identical. Most had undergone a digital makeover in the 80s, but not this one; situated in Lomé, this studio had stayed true to its original form. Silent and uninhabited but waiting for one thing, and one thing only: for the sacred fire to be lit once again. That of the Togolese Recording Office, is studio OTODI for those in the know. Through thick layers of dust, the console was vibrating still, impatient to be turned on and spurt out the sound so unique to analog. That sound is what Peter Solo and his band Vaudou Game came to seek out.

The original vibrations of Lomé's sound, resonating within the studio space, an undercurrent pulsing within the walls, the floor, and the entire atmosphere. A presence at once electrical and mystical sourced through the amps that had never really gone cold, despite the deep sleep that they had been forced into. In taking over the studio's 3000 square feet, enough to house a full orchestra, Vaudou Game had the space necessary to conjure the spirits of voodoo, those very spirits who watch over men and nature, and with whom Peter converses every day.

For the most authentic of frequencies to fully imbibe this third album, Peter Solo entrusted the rhythmic section to a Togolese bass and drum duo, putting the groove in the expert hands of those versed in feeling and a type of musicianship that you can't learn in any school. This was also a way to put OTODI on the path of a more heavily hued funk sound, the backbone of which maintains flexibility and agility when moving over to highlife, straightens out when enhanced with frequent guest Roger Damawuzan's James Brown type screams, and softens when making the way for strings. Snaking and undulating when a chorus of Togolese women takes over, guiding it towards a slow, hypnotic trance. Up until now, Vaudou Game had maintained their connection to Togo from their base in France. This time, recording the entire album in Lomé at OTODI with local musicians, Peter Solo drew the voodoo fluid directly from the source, once again using only Togolese scales to make his guitar sing, his strings acting as channels between listeners and deities...

Sarah Davachi presents her masterpiece, Gave In Rest. Her most fully studio-recorded album ever, she collaborates with Montreal heavyweights to create an album that uses both modern minimalism and early church music as departure points.

Sarah Davachi has quickly risen in prominence since her first release five years ago, and Gave In Rest represents her highest artistic achievement. By infusing her compositional style within a predilection for medieval and Renaissance music, Davachi unearths a new realm of musical reverence, creating works both contemplative and beatific, eerie yet essentially human. Gave In Rest is a modern reading of early music, reforming sacred and secular sentiments to fit her purview and provide an exciting new way to hear the sounds that exist around us.

Between January and September of 2017, Sarah Davachi lived in flux; storing her belongings in Vancouver, she spent the summer in Europe, occasionally performing in churches and lapidariums and seeking respite from her transitional state while surrounded by such storied history. This latest album echoes that emotional state of solitude and ephemerality, reaching towards familiar musical landscapes but from oblique perspectives.

'I named each track after a particular time of day as a way of expressing my experiencing different moments of quietude, how morning and night are both independent and interconnected entities in this regard,' she says. Her titles evoke canonical phrases referring to morning or evening prayers, as well as Latin and German phrasings for metaphors about the time of day. 'From my perspective, there is a lot of loneliness on this record, and I think it is as much about beginnings as endings,' she continues. 'In a way, it's about the prospect of the unknown as it manifests alongside a very inward form of grieving—really the essence of what constitutes a period of transition.

Davachi has mined a bottomless landscape where listeners can witness music's participation in their solitudes. Gave In Rest lends a voice to her personal exploration with a firm, intuitive stance.

Tracklisting

Quest, transit, chaos, mutation, transfiguration, ascension and illumination. These are some of the steps followed in the journey of life that are embodied on each track of the album Adonai. The solo debut of the multi-instrumentalist composer Marco Paul condenses a career of more than ten years, in which, the search for the truth of oneself and authentic sound has traveled and nurtured from different genres and cultures. Adonai is an odyssey that combines sounds and images of the earthly and oneiric worlds: an audiovisual work that opens several windows to the different perceptions of the facts that make up the life of the human being.

After 9 years of constant international touring, 6 albums and more than 400 live performances with the bands Sour Soul, Ratbot and Funk My Jesus, as well as the conception and musicalization of the award-winning short films "Undermine" and "24K All You Need Is Gold", Marco Paul decided to retire to an island in the Caribbean, where he found and refined his sound. Thus, between 2014 and 2016 he created the music for Adonai, a work produced by Aitor Etxebarria under the label of Forbidden Colours.

The recording includes guest musicians from different countries such as Aitor Etxebarria (synthesizer, electronic magic) and Hibai Etxebarria (double bass) from the Basque Country; Michael Alan Hams (drums and percussion) and Joe D'Etienne (trumpet) from the United States; and Fatima Gozlan from Hungary (Ney and Derbake).

The consummation of the work is a mid length film created in 2018. It consists of 5 chapters directed by 5 different directors.

The audiovisual journey begins with the conception of the philosophical "Filius", an alchemical symbol that represents the inner child, which transforms the experiences of life into the soul's gold. Later, in "Sylvian" (title that refers to the brain fissure that contains the auditory cortex), by listening to the subtle message that surrounds us, our consciousness and perception expand. Then, in "Tiamat", the pristine chaos that gave birth to the gods, embodies chaos, the confusion generated by the multiple voices: on one hand the moral and imposed precepts, on the other hand, the inner voice that seeks the liberation of the infinite possibilities. In "Hawa", through the recognition of the power of solitude and introspection self-reflective awareness is reached. Finally "Adonai" is the ascension to enlightenment: the further connection with the absolute. As an encore (only available in vinyl) "Teurári" is a gift: a tiny flower where all the points of the universe merge.

righteous expensive: motohiko hamase's 1986 album "reminiscence" scores a decent prize at online vinyl selling platforms and it is worth each coin!

it's a perfect "refuge from nasty reality", as the glorious british 20jazzfunkgreats blog once said. and it comes from a man that knows his trade: bass play - an artisan on which he also already wrote many theoretical books in his more than four decades long career.

in the 1970's hamase was no stranger to tokyo's vibrant jazz scene. together with jazz pianist tsuyoshi yamamoto and jazz-rock guitar-ist kazumi watanabe he played in the isao suzuki sextet and was part of their classic landmark jazz-funk album "ako's dream" from 1976.

in the following years he also participated on records like mikio masuda's latin-funk-jazz gem "moon stone" or japanese female jazz singer, actress, and essayist minami yasuda's last album "moritato". in the early 1980ees his work shifted from pure jazz to electronic and ambient spheres and he started to compose his own music around his deeply emotional bass play.

from 1985 to 1993, hamase released five solo albums. just recently studio mule dropped his first one, "intaglio", in a new recording that sounds as stunning as the original release from 1986.

now the previously mentioned "reminiscence", his second work for the celebrated defunct japanese new age record label shi zen, follows in a fresh shape on studio mule.

as the original, it features deeply touching moments of sheer pristine perfection and distributes hamase's inner emotional landscape with a bewitching bass performance. a soothingly beauty of an album, that reflects hamase's search for spaces of melancholy.

a rhizome of soundscapes that capture, settle and sound elusive while simultaneously being awe-inspiring. as for "intaglio", the 66-years old artist gathered again some befriended musicians, rented a studio, staged his gear and recorded most of the original "reminis-cence" material new, while keeping the moving musical story arc of the original album alive in a fresh wrapping.

the result is a dazzling, blue mood seething, strongly hypnotic longplayer, full of personality and hybrid ambient electronic jazz spheres that open doors to unheard sound universes and that perfectly work for all those stress-relieved souls that love the disclosure of the mind and seek for a "refuge from nasty reality".

The spiritual and uplifting music of Clifford White is highlighted with two of his most sought after songs, taken from his 1989 album The Lifespring, and presented here in a special extended 12" for the first time. Starting in music production at just 15, White could be described as a protegee, however his take is that they were part of a music journey that continues today. With a centre found in electronic music and spirituality, his progress, from simple home use 4-track stereo to working in professional 16-tracks studios was swift, but matched by a deeper appreciation, greater confidence and wider palette of music styles. Utilising his love of early samplers, his first use of the Akai S612 to accompany and expand his keyboard recordings saw continued development from his debut album at just 17 with Ascension (1985), to the follow up Spring Fantasy (1987) and on to The Lifespring (1989). A small review in the local paper literally led to a knock at the door and offer of a deal from the Start (State Of The Art ) label to record his next album. With a subsequent advance, professional studio equipment was hired and out of these sessions his sound expanded to include ambient, orchestral, synth pop and even ballads. From this both Lifestream and Rain Trek emerged. With a love of Jean Michel Jarre's Oxygene in mind, Lifestream's smooth beginning soon gives way to the pulse of an arpeggio driven groove. Aiming for "relaxation with an edge", the track has become a secret play for the more Balearic minded DJ in the decades since and now sees the LP trade for dizzying sums. However, the original is achingly brief, gracefully fading as part of the album's journey. Here though, with DJs and collectors in mind, White returns to the song to craft a specially extended version that completes the song and will be appreciated at sunsets across the globe. Seeking to take the music and listener to another place, Rain Trek took White's interest in Sci-Fi and the mystic powers of water to a rightful conclusion. The healing nature of his music is apparent, the mystery, yearning and travelling, all emotions evident, but with a kick that will grace the more enlightened dance.

Freshly based in London, Cabasa mixes up his own UK influences with what his dad has been listening to at home since he's a kid (electronica, jungle, acid-house...). What comes up is a subtle fusion between ambient soundscapes and percussive sounds, from 90 to 180 BPM. He seeks for boundaries between beatless and rhythmic compositions.

The first vinyl appearance of 'I Came I Saw' from 90s steppas legends the Bush Chemists (which appears as a bonus track on some CD editions of the now-classic Light Up Your Spliff LP).

Comes with a typically screwed jungle refix from Bokeh staples Seekersinternational + a ragga noise deconstruction from Bristol's industrial terracorps Bad Tracking (FuckPunck / Mechanical Reproductions).

For the newest L/F/D/M drop and his first for Beat Concern, Richard Smith serves up a plate full of his deepest, sizzling cuts that bring dance floor heavy workouts and run the field between acerbic Electro, off-kilter dark room EBM and woozy bass workouts.

After muscular releases on Optimo, Clandestine Traxx and Ecstatic plus regular collabs with Dom from Factory Floor as Green Gums / Bronze Teeth on Diagonal and Opal Tapes, 'Tea Ceremony' opener 'Fang' moves the L/F/D/M project forward by throwing the listener straight into the eerie fairground feels, laid over metallic acid baselines, microscopic hats and pounding kicks that seek to overwhelm as well as inform. The giddy aggression of 'Gold Foil' folds crunching distortion into 120 bpm jacking Chicago territory before closing Side A with the tight ethno-percussive jammer of 'Cylinders Vari II'.

The second side carves a path that starts at the minimal bouncing bass and hardcore of 'Ox' via heavy acid euphoria of 'Skin Slips' that needs to find itself in the golden 3-4am slot on a sticky dance floor this summer, before winding down into the Industrial machine funk of 'STR8 Thick' that clips and clangs all the way.

French by way of Berlin DJ/producer La Fraicheur finally delivers with a first 9-track album, 'Self-Fulfilling Prophecy', her first release on the InFiné label. This remarkably dense, dancefloor-oriented album oscillates

between techno, ambient and electronic music, a mesmeric yet pounding effort that gets the body and the mind moving.

For over a decade now, first in Paris, then Montreal and now in Berlin, La Fraicheur has been brewing her own blend of Deep House & Techno beats, making a name for herself with her signature sound of emotionally charged

Techno sets. Marathon DJ, she is a resident in Berlin's renowned Wilde Renate and part of the Female:Pressure network. She can go on for countless hours, running the gamut from classics to new songs released only two hours earlier.

Expanding her craft by producing her own music ranging from ravy epic Tech-House to dark pumping Electro, spacious open air Deep House to melancholic Electronica, she spent the summer of 2017 doing an artist residency with the Berlin-Detroit Connection (organisation founded by Mike Banks (UR) and Dimitri Hegemann (Tresor) at the Underground Resistance HQ in Detroit, working on her first solo album. 'I want to use moments of dancing to stimulate a bit of political awakening' she says, and, speaking of her album in particular, (on which are scattered various samples of politically explicit content (for example, excerpts from aninterview with Angela Davis). While 'Self Fulfilling Prophecy' clearly aspires to raise awareness, it does so subtly, without ever relegating music to the second class. This is neither 'ready-to-think' or 'ready-to-dance', but an assembly of sophisticated rhythms, sounds and words that it are up to each listener to interpret in their own way. La Fraicheur does not seek to deliver a message, or impose a discourse, but to distil an idea and suggest a relationship to the world - a report to the world based on the affirmation of self and acceptance of others in all their differences.

incl. download card]
There is something to be majestic about stalwarts of a certain flock coming together to be creative. The harder side of Drum & Bass didn't have it's own power formation until today. It's as of this day that Czech producer Forbidden Society, formed an alliance with two of his most respected peers to create 3RDKND. Donny, Katharsys and FS all have a strong lean to rhythmic textures, tough drum cuts and experimental FX works. Just in time for the European festival season, the thunderous first effort has arrived; and it's going to turn some heads.

Purge EP is a work of experience, seeking for the outer bounderies of whats sonically possible. The title track is an electronic behemoth which revolves around boundary pushing drum programming and pure unfiltered energy. 'The Artifact' is a straight up dancefloor anthem which uses an ominous vocal of cinematic proportions to build up to the halftime body of heavy hitting drums. 'Fire And Blood' is an experimental work of the rhythmic endurance. The final track is a 3RDKND remix of an original track by Donny and FS. This is the final showcasing of the trinity's sonical excellence. 'Purge EP' will be released through Forbidden Society's self titled label

The first of two wonderful new full lengths for Polytechnic Youth for the first week in July. This is a debut release on vinyl for Spanish based Jordi Navarra whose musical oeuvre stretches between 'Surf, Hippie / Space Rock and crude electronic music' often different yet coated in tons of reverb and echo for 'it's final catalepsy'! 'Micromundos,' needless to say for PY devotees, concentrates on his cruder electronic soundscapes; incredible often ambient, drone themed pieces that on one hand dip their toes into the revered works of Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius, and the sky back catalogue whilst equally conjuring up a collision of Spacemen 3 psych meets Wire, early Cabs or Magazine darker more atmospheric, post punk industrial / experimental workouts. Eight abstract, kosmische fuelled pieces that act as an interesting sister release to the label's other July offering, the more overtly 'in-yr-face' synth pop themed Mitra Mitra LP. Two beautiful releases expected to sell out pretty swiftly, and released together first week of July.

The second release on WERK is signed by J. Manuel. The young producer has been polishing his sound ever since he first started experimenting with electronic music gear as a child. His commitment to following his own instincts rather than conforming to what was being played around him resulted in a very different aesthetic to the one commonly associated with Berlin techno.

Drive Fiction EP stands proof of that. All 3 tracks push boundaries in their own style, that being perhaps the strongest link between them. The title track 'Drive Fiction' presents old-school leads over broken beats and electro inspired pads while the A2 'Falling in Sine Circulation' is arguably the most dance floor oriented track, with a pounding 4×4 kick drum and an alarming 3/4 sine wave slaying the high frequencies. Closing the EP is B-side 'Softer', a melodic track with long, undulating pads that is nonetheless driven by a powerful rave-inspired beat.

With its second release, WERK comes to confirm the Path it seeks to travel through both parties and releases: that of the sounds less rigid. Gritty, wild and presenting a wide range of rhythmic patterns, Drive Fiction EP is a defying record. Challenge accepted

A Site-specific Recording Sporting A Straightforward Approach That I've Grown To Love In The Works Of Gonçalo Cardoso. An Album Of Modern Day Exotica, A Genre I Usually Pretty Much Dislike, Yet Cardoso Steers His Vehicle Easily Aside The Trapdoors And Potholes.

Combining Found Sounds, Sparse Playing And Field Recordings He Creates A World That Both Invokes Treasure Island, And An Essay On Exoticism. Indeed Questions Are Raised. But Especially Beautiful Emotions Are Shared. Cardoso Acts Both Like The Journalist And The Aesthetic. Sometimes He Just Registers, As Being The Observer At The Sideline, Sometimes He Alters And Collages The Material Into New Worlds.

The Isle Of Unguja Is The Great Scene Of This Album. We Hear The Sound Of Water, Suddenly Interrupted By Beautiful Chorals Or The Strumming Of String Instruments, A Drum Beat. We Hear The Local Fisherman Talk While The Shortwave Radio Becomes The Symbol Of The White Man Seeking Truth And Direction In The Tropics. Its Dial As A Tool To Reflect. This Album Invokes A Certain Nostalgia For Age-old Enthnographies, Like A Romantic Letter From The Tropics. A Hymn Of Solitude, In Awe Of The Nonhuman And Human Elements. Like Photography, Through Various Compositions - Stills From A Moment - To Shed Light Upon The Unique - Universal Process Of A Place.

"all The Recordings Were Made During Our Month Long Stay In A Beach Hut In The Main Island Of The Zanzibar Archipelago, Unguja Aka Zanzibar Island. Unlike Other Beach/island Locations The Scenery There Was Very Dynamic And Ever Changing. The Colours Would Change With Every Tide Creating A New Washed Out Landscape Everyday.
There Are A Lot Of Recordings Of Tides (they Have 3km Tides Everyday!), Of Walking Around In Low Tide, Of The Tidal Waves Banging Against Our Hut At Night, Of Sailing In Wooden Dhows, Fishermen Talking And Sand Washing Their Dhows, Of Walking At Night In The Village As Well As Some Fm/am Radio Improvs. A Lot Of What You Hear Was Done On The Spot With Some Minor Adjustments Done Later. (g F Cardoso)"

Gonçalo Cardoso Is The Man Behind The Prolific Discrepant Recordlabel And Composes Under His Own Name And The Moniker Gonzo. He Recently Traveled In Middle And Southern America.

Austin Based Experimental Collective Thousand Foot Whale Claw Is Back With The New Cosmic Full Length black Hole Party, Out June 29, 2018. Featuring Members Of S U R V I V E, Troller, Single Lash And Future Museums, This Is The Supergroup's Second Lp And Their Most Accomplished Work To Date. Inspired By Progressive 70's German Kraut-rock, Thousand Foot Whale Claw Maintains A Classic Style While Establishing An Original Voice. With Album Art By Renowned Contemporary Sci-fi/fantasy Illustrator Kilian Ang, black Hole Party's Aesthetic Is Cohesively Curated Throughout Its Dense, Multi-layered Track List, Ranging From Serene Sound Baths To Driving Dance Beats.

Tfwc Was Founded In San Marcos, Tx By A Core Group Of College Friends Who Bonded Over Loose Collaborative Jams Of Effects Driven Improvisations. Eventually These Unstructured Practices Evolved Into Refined Studio Sessions And Intense Live Performances, Leading To A Rich Discography And Enthusiastic Fanbase. Balancing Repetition With The Unexpected, Tfwc's Sustained Motifs Slowly Reveal The Band's Signature Free-form Experimentation. Known For Heavy Walls Of Guitar And Electronic Drones, Tfwc Spirals Into Circular Rhythms And Looping Riffs Stacked With Shredding Guitar Solos And Ambient Soundscapes. Explorations Spurring From A Central Theme Is The Basis For The Band's Compositional Approach, Always Seeking New Instruments, Sound Sources And Production Techniques For Each Piece. Recorded And Engineered At Stassney Studios In Austin, Tx With Producer/artist Dylan Cameron, black Hole Party Has Become The Band's Most Defining Body Of Work Thus Far.  

On black Hole Party, The Polished Structure And Acute Development Of All Six Tracks Is Distinct And Tangible, Making This Record More Composed Than Any Of Their Previous Releases.  Propulsive Songs Such As deridium Rail' And The Album's Title Track Are Driven By Four-on-the-floor Dance Beats And Arpeggiated Synthesizers, Contrasting Songs Like genesis Effect' That Predominantly Features The Natural Tones Of 12-string Acoustic Guitar And Harmonium. The Wide Variety Of Sonic Flavors Is Reflective Of Tfwc's Vast Musical Tastes, Refusing To Settle On One Approach And Allowing The Band's Idiosyncrasies To Shine Regardless Of Genre. To Classify Tfwc As An Instrumental Psych Band Is Only Partially Accurate, However There Are A Lack Of Proper Terms To Fully Encapsulate The Band's Broad Scope. Black Hole Party Is The Latest And Brightest Collection Of Songs From Thousand Foot Whale Claw, Meant To Be Enjoyed In A Multitude Of Environments For All Fans Of Expansive Listening. 

Smoove and Turrell are back with a stunning fifth studio album, 'Mount Pleasant', released June 29th on Jalapeno Records.

The sun does not move. The sun has never seen a shadow. - Leonardo da Vinci
Paul and Alessio of Possible Futures believe that some essential fractions in the history of music need to be transmitted in new ways to budding generations. As we seek to bring together a new educational system around contemporary music, we urge anyone with homologous intentions to get in touch.
Over the last 15 years, Possible Futures have been witnesses to the wildest fauna and flora the great nocturnal jungle has to o er.
Possible Futures source their inspiration from the many shades of color that co-exist between black and white on the great designer's palette.
It is through their open and eclectic selections that Possible Futures turn the dancefloor into spaces of self-discovery and musical trance-en-dance.
Possible Futures believe that the eternal act of dancing is one of the most active form of contemplation. Facing our own selves in the mirror of movement, we realize that we indeed are reflections of one another at all times. Compassion forms and in turns gives way to kindness and love.
For this third record, Argentinean expert producer Leonel returns with two long pieces of poetry. Releasing on June 15th, this third edition in the Possible Futures catalog bridge spring into summer in a most gracious manner.
We Cherish Harmony, PF

For his inaugural EP under new guise 'Yem Gel', NTS Manchester resident and visual artist Alecs Pierce comes through with a four-track cacophony of sounds for Dave Maclean (Django Django) run label Kick + Clap.
From previous experimental outings as Obsidian Pond, gristed petunia and, Handi Dogh he returns with this new project based solely on electronic compositions, giving the multi-instrumentalist artist a chance to further explore his electronic leanings. Operating with a clear mission statement, Yem Gel moniker seeks to live up to its name's reference to malleable 'fictional future plastics' by offering a set of genre-spanning compositions, drawing from multiple influences from ambient, drum 'n' bass or grime and leaving us wondering where he might take us next.

originally released in 1990-with Liz Lamere - Never released on vinyl-

Born in Brooklyn, Alan Vega was reared on the rock 'n' roll sound of Elvis Presley and Roy Orbison, but originally struck out on a career as a visual artist and light sculptor, making pieces out of electronic debris. But on the occasion of seeing Iggy Pop fronting the Stooges at The Stooges at the New York State Pavilion in 1969 was an epiphany for Vega. It showed me you didn't have to do static artworks, you could create situations,' he said. That show was the first time in my life the audience and the stage merged into one." It was that eradication of barriers between the two that Vega took to heart.

Their first two albums, 1977's Suicide and their 1980 follow-up, remain two of the era's greatest touchstones, beacons for others seeking to transform their worlds with sound. And even during the group's hiatus through the 1980s, Vega continued to pursue his singular vision across an individualistic solo output. From his 1980 self-titled debut and rockabilly-infused albums like Saturn Strip, through bracing albums like Power On to Zero Hour and IT, Vega forged his own singular path.

For all the darkness and despair that encompasses this moment in our world - and despite his work being depicted as bleak and nihilistic - for Vega there was always a sense of hope and a place for dreams to become reality. People have always told me that my music is angry,' he said. To me, it was always just an energy. It was the way I perceived the world. The key Suicide song was 'Dream Baby Dream,' which was about the need to keep our dreams alive. I knew back then that something poisonous was encroaching on our lives, on all our freedoms.' He fought to his very last breath for that freedom.

originally released in 1993 - with Ric Ocasek & Liz Lamere-Never released on vinyl-

Born in Brooklyn, Alan Vega was reared on the rock 'n' roll sound of Elvis Presley and Roy Orbison, but originally struck out on a career as a visual artist and light sculptor, making pieces out of electronic debris. But on the occasion of seeing Iggy Pop fronting the Stooges at The Stooges at the New York State Pavilion in 1969 was an epiphany for Vega. It showed me you didn't have to do static artworks, you could create situations,' he said. That show was the first time in my life the audience and the stage merged into one." It was that eradication of barriers between the two that Vega took to heart.

Their first two albums, 1977's Suicide and their 1980 follow-up, remain two of the era's greatest touchstones, beacons for others seeking to transform their worlds with sound. And even during the group's hiatus through the 1980s, Vega continued to pursue his singular vision across an individualistic solo output. From his 1980 self-titled debut and rockabilly-infused albums like Saturn Strip, through bracing albums like Power On to Zero Hour and IT, Vega forged his own singular path.

For all the darkness and despair that encompasses this moment in our world - and despite his work being depicted as bleak and nihilistic - for Vega there was always a sense of hope and a place for dreams to become reality. People have always told me that my music is angry,' he said. To me, it was always just an energy. It was the way I perceived the world. The key Suicide song was 'Dream Baby Dream,' which was about the need to keep our dreams alive. I knew back then that something poisonous was encroaching on our lives, on all our freedoms.' He fought to his very last breath for that freedom.

'Harnessed To Flesh' is the new release from Berlin based industrial project OPERANT (Instruments of Discipline's founder and sub, respectively, Luna Vassarotti & August Skipper). Since 2016's 'ZK-II' & 2017's 'Zero Knowledge' Operant have been consistently touring, enforcing their reputation as a live act, melding chaotic noise with a disturbed, euphoric techno.

With this new release Operant engage a sense of intimacy which encapsulates their live performance; there is the familiar sense of hypnotic rhythms and collaged sound seen in the earlier works but the duo's production and focus have evolved, opening up new spaces and textures to their sound.

The opening track, 'Also To The Inorganic World' reflects the more noise oriented moments of their live show, improvised fragments, contact mic's and metal sheets combine with soundtrack like synths that seek to bolster a sense of unreality and pervert lo-fi expectations, 'Be A Boy' is a slow build, punctuated by car-crash impacts with the most coherent, almost narrative driven vocal of the record, concluding with a jarring, rhythmic seizure. Side-A finishes with 'Chancellory', an underlying sense of being underwater pervades, choking vocal sounds straddle the line between disturbing and playful. The B-Side sees a more direct and aggressive approach, 'The Sacrifice of Meaning for Power' is a dance floor oriented storm of percussion and punishing snares, Luna's vocals violently penetrate at moments, creating a feeling of vertigo within the locked rhythm, 'Dead Realities VIII' closes the record, beginning with a gabber influenced, rhythmic groundwork that unravels into a dronescape where an already torn reality is utterly destroyed.

Criminal' is a confessional work. Through the stark lens of shame and guilt that has followed Luis Vasquez since a violent childhood growing up within the humming ambient sprawl of 80s Mojave Desert, here he documents the gut-wrenching sound of going to war with himself. Battling with his own sanity, self-hatred, insecurity, self-entitlement and grappling with the risk of these things transforming him into a person he despises, Vasquez has laid his feelings bare with this: his confession and most self-reflective work to date.    Guilt is my biggest demon and has been following me since childhood. Everything I do strengthens the narrative that I am guilty' Vasquez reflects. The concept of 'Criminal' is a desperate attempt to find relief by both confessing to my wrongdoings and by blaming others for their wrongdoings that have affected me.' 'Criminal' marks a striking and important chapter in his self-exploration, both artistically and emotionally. As a young musician living in Oakland, Vasquez began to try and process the narrative of his difficult upbringing veiled through musical exploration. Taking krautrock's motorik beats and Post-Punk deconstructions and honing them into a hushed percussive incantation, The Soft Moon's self-titled debut album took shape. The album was released in late 2010 by Captured Tracks and was praised by critics and emulated by contemporaries. In 2012 the apocalyptic conceptual work of 'Zeros' emerged, shortly followed by Vasquez moving to Venice, Italy in 2013, acting as a catalyst for 2014's release, 'Deeper'. While previous albums were primarily instrumental records, where Vasquez's voice was diffused amidst the music as another instrument, 'Deeper' marked the beginning of a new musical direction where vocals and lyrics became something more than a mere presence. 'Deeper' was a descent into the womb of childhood trauma, anxiety and fear, and although Vasquez survived this dark exploration of himself, he did not return alone. Working once more with Maurizio Baggio, who produced 'Deeper', at La Distilleria in Bassano Del Grappa, Italy, 'Criminal' sees Vasquez further explore putting his lyrics at the forefront and letting his raw emotions flow. The album is Vasquez's way of holding himself accountable and seeking redemption for the abuse he inflicts on himself and others, and acknowledges roots in the abuse which, inflicted upon him as a child, broke him.

You seek shelter in the dreams that would break your life if they were real. And because you cannot live your dreams, you dream of me, make me your phantasy. At some point, you will seek shelter back in reality because you cannot stand your dreams. And what you dreamt of last night will be today's bitter reality.
I am real and I can stand it.