quête:sen

Miami-based producer and co-owner of the label Zosimos, Feph has been making moves amongst the techno community with her deeply psychedelic modular based techno for the last couple years. Invited to Palinoia based on the few releases I had heard from her, I pestered Feph to send me demo after demo, working our way up to the four tracks that comprise the tenth release on my label, "Kinetics EP". All four tracks are mind-bending short stories - dark and brooding, yet playfully buoyant, tunneling through your brain and taking you on a vivid journey.

Love Is Yes is the first album by Sander van der Toorn and Dax Niesten, an audio-visual duo de force of the same name.

This heady debut is rooted equally in the worlds of fine art and experimental music. Sound and image meld wonderfully across 10 tracks, with shifting movements of music accompanied by a wealth of paintings and animations.

Niesten's work summons the likes of Philip Guston and Maurice Sendak - with its crestfallen, cartoonish voids and cockle-warming grotesquery. Serenely contorted creatures are rendered on large canvases, and brought to fuzzy, maudlin life through a full-length animation that can be viewed alongside the record.

Musically, the pair cite influences ranging from Vashti Bunyan to Morton Feldman. There is an ornate fragility, smeared by zero gravity focus shifts. Some glimpses suggest a corroded grail of Boards of Canada samples; motorik guitar, whispered messages, euphoric vistas and tangled memories all bathing in atomic glow.

Marry Waterson – an essential part of the fabric of folk history in England – and Adrian Crowley– one of Ireland’s most acclaimed talents – collaborate for the first time on ‘Cuckoo Storm,’ a distinctive and powerfully lyrical album of 11 original songs produced with Jim Barr (Portishead).

The ‘Cuckoo Storm’ might never have been, were it not for a social media post Crowley wrote on a wintery late-night walk in a quiet neighbourhood of Dublin during lockdown. Struck by Waterson’s previous album ‘Death Had Quicker Wings Than Love’ (co-written with David A Jaycock), he wanted to mark the moment and pressed ‘send’ into the ether with no way of knowing what would follow. Drawn to his voice and seeing a kindred spirit in his poetic lyrics, Waterson was touched by his message and responded by asking if he would be interested in working together. His answer was a resounding ‘yes.’

‘Cuckoo Storm’ is a deeply compelling album. A serendipitous collaboration that has resulted in a collection of 11 beautifully crafted songs, sung by two voices that are a powerful match. Waterson’s brilliantly distinctive voice is underpinned by Crowley’s rich baritone and together it’s an intoxicating mix.

Joining Marry Waterson (vocals) and Adrian Crowley (vocals, piano, electric guitar, mellotron, harmonium, music box clarinet, marxophone, synth) on Cuckoo Storm are Jim Barr (Portishead) bass, lap-steel guitar;Pete Judge (Get The Blessing) trumpet, flugelhorn; Jake McMurchie (Get The Blessing) sax; James Gow, cello; Seán Mac Erlaine bass clarinet; Lisa Dowdall viola d’amore and Rob Pemberton on drums.

Marry Waterson – an essential part of the fabric of folk history in England – and Adrian Crowley– one of Ireland’s most acclaimed talents – collaborate for the first time on ‘Cuckoo Storm,’ a distinctive and powerfully lyrical album of 11 original songs produced with Jim Barr (Portishead).

The ‘Cuckoo Storm’ might never have been, were it not for a social media post Crowley wrote on a wintery late-night walk in a quiet neighbourhood of Dublin during lockdown. Struck by Waterson’s previous album ‘Death Had Quicker Wings Than Love’ (co-written with David A Jaycock), he wanted to mark the moment and pressed ‘send’ into the ether with no way of knowing what would follow. Drawn to his voice and seeing a kindred spirit in his poetic lyrics, Waterson was touched by his message and responded by asking if he would be interested in working together. His answer was a resounding ‘yes.’

‘Cuckoo Storm’ is a deeply compelling album. A serendipitous collaboration that has resulted in a collection of 11 beautifully crafted songs, sung by two voices that are a powerful match. Waterson’s brilliantly distinctive voice is underpinned by Crowley’s rich baritone and together it’s an intoxicating mix.

Joining Marry Waterson (vocals) and Adrian Crowley (vocals, piano, electric guitar, mellotron, harmonium, music box clarinet, marxophone, synth) on Cuckoo Storm are Jim Barr (Portishead) bass, lap-steel guitar;Pete Judge (Get The Blessing) trumpet, flugelhorn; Jake McMurchie (Get The Blessing) sax; James Gow, cello; Seán Mac Erlaine bass clarinet; Lisa Dowdall viola d’amore and Rob Pemberton on drums.

"All Quiet on the Western Front (Im Westen nichts Neues) is a 2022 German epic anti-war film based on the 1929 novel of the same name by Erich Maria Remarque. All Quiet on the Western Front received positive reviews from critics, with praise directed towards its tone and faithfulness to the source material's anti-war message. Set during World War I, it follows the life of an idealistic young German soldier named Paul Bäumer. After enlisting in the German Army with his friends, Bäumer finds himself exposed to the realities of war, shattering his early hopes of becoming a hero as he does his best to survive. The film adds a parallel storyline not found in the book, which follows the armistice negotiations to end the war. All Quiet on the Western Front received a leading 14 nominations at the 76th British Academy Film Awards (winning seven, including Best Film and Best Original Score) and 9 at the 95th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best International Feature, and Best Original Score. The score of All Quiet on the Western Front is available as a limited edition of 1000 individually numbered copies on flaming coloured vinyl. The package includes a 4-page booklet with movie stills."

All Quiet On The Western Front by Volker Bertelmann, released 8 March 2024, includes the following tracks: "Rain & Night ", "Burried & Found", "Ludwig ", "Search Party" and more.

This version of All Quiet On The Western Front comes as a 1xLP. This release comes with (a) Insert(s).

The vinyl is pressed as a flame red disc.

Mercurio is the debut album by Opuntia, the solo project of Mexico City producer Camila de Laborde. After three albums with her duo/band, Camila Fuchs (ATP/Felte, etc.), Camila decides to embark on a new path of musical and interpersonal exploration with Opuntia as her new alias, and with the album Mercurio as a statement of metamorphosis and creative process.

Broadly speaking, Mercurio is a direct impact of beautiful melodies, rhythms, and voices that traverse a leftfield electronic pop axis, sprinkled with elegant nods to experimental transitions. In Mercurio, you can sense the spaces, textures, and echoes, akin to a sort of retro Sci-Fi analogy. Bass hits or percussions carry a weight that bursts forth yet delicately dissolves instantly – perhaps another analogy, akin to liquid metal. From softness to fury across the ten songs, Opuntia proposes an artistic reinvention in constant movement. Speeds and spaces change, but the narrative remains consistent from beginning to end – finding a place, a resolved utopia. Mercurio is darkly joyful, with substantial doses of sophisticated pop.

On “The Adventures of Jefferson Keyes” , Cool Million member Frank Ryle goes solo, delivering a sumptuous debut album chock full of slick, Disco and Boogie influenced Soul and Jazz-Funk. He’s drawn on his bulging contacts book, roping in singers and musicians from Germany, Denmark, the UK and U.S.A. These include Soul man Kenny Thomas, Danish singer Gregers (who guests on the impeccable boogie jam “Busy Dreamin”) and Incognito member Sulene Fleming, whose confident vocals seemingly soar over the rich, organic Disco-Funk grooves of one of many album highlights “Lift Your Head Up” . These headline contributions are backed up by sensational playing and deft production of the one and only Boogie-Funk mastermind Rob Hardt, making “The Adventures of Jefferson Keyes” a revivalist Disco-Boogie treat.

Das lauteste Rock/Fusion-Instrumental-Power-Trio der Welt beschert uns ihr erstes Konzeptalbum: In DUCK flieht der Protagonist, eine Ente, vor einem Pinguinpolizisten nach New York, wo Aufreger und Gefahren auf ihn warten. Die Aristocrats - Guthrie Govan/Gitarre, Bryan Beller/Bass, Marco Minnemann/Schlagzeug - haben ein kaleidoskopisches musikalisches Universum erschaffen, in dem sie sowohl typische Genre-Pastiches als auch einfallsreiche neue Arrangements erforschen - einige davon überraschend gefühlvoll und sensibel -, um die Geschichte zu ihrem rasanten Ende zu führen. Und während ihre offensichtliche Virtuosität und die ihr innewohnende Absurdität wie immer vorhanden sind, wird sie nun in der bisher ambitioniertesten kompositorischen und klanglichen Produktion der Band eingesetzt. Die abwechslungsreiche Musik begleitet den Protagonisten von der Ente in einem Großstadt-Tanzclub ("Aristoclub") über den gewaltsamen Rauswurf aus einer Spelunke ("Hey, Where's MY Drink Package") bis hin zum düsteren Thema für seinen Pinguin-Verfolger ("Sgt. Rockhopper") und endet schließlich mit dem actiongeladenen Balkan-Fusion-Finale "This Is Not Scrotum", bei dem der Geiger Rusanda Panfili (Hans Zimmer Live) als seltener Aristocrats-Album-Spezialgast auftritt. Duck ist das erste neue Studioalbum der Aristocrats seit fünf Jahren und wurde und mit einem Original-Artwork von Lance Myers (Space Jam) versehen. Und es ist klar, dass die ARISTOCRATS ihre kollektive Kunstfertigkeit auf ein völlig neues, wenn auch absurdes, Niveau gebracht haben. Als Standard CD, CD Deluxe Package in Box mit USB-Stick mit Stunden an Bonus-Material, Schlüsselanhänger und mehr sowie Dopple-Vinyl-LP erhältlich!

This collection assembles the range of sources that Robert Johnson heard and learned from including songs from his mentor Son House and from other Delta performers and from sources that show aspects of the musical world in which he lived. His tastes ranged far and wide and he had a gift for absorbing sounds of all kinds, including from tin pan alley to hillbilly songs. He was a brilliant creative musician who managed a stunningly effective fusion of his Delta roots and the smoother approach of the then prominent contemporary blues artists. As with any genius in any field he was able to produce great work only because he was standing on the shoulders of previous great artists. This collection provides an introduction to a number of them and gives a sense of how Johnson adapted and combined their styles. It presents music that can still excite and inspire us today just as it did to Robert Johnson back in the first golden age of the blues.

On ‘Fluorescent Standard,’ guitarist Anthony Vine and clarinetist Gareth Davis present two luminous and serene worlds of harmonic sound. The duo entwine sustained tones, glowing with the resonant hues of their instruments, into enveloping and expansive atmospheres. Clarinet sonorities, swelling guitar chords, and tumbling elegiac piano fragments drift quietly through time in elusive cycles that subtly change and expand with each return. Every vibration is interconnected, aligned and fused attentively, causing the instruments to dissolve into themselves and emit residual vibratory energies, like fluorescence. What emerges is a music that invites quiet contemplation and rewards deep listening. While Vine and Davis met through the world of modern classical music, ‘Fluorescent Standard’ finds itself in the realms of drone, ambient, and new age. The music is grounded in early minimalist aesthetics of composers like La Monte Young and Phill Niblock, but also shares the sensibilities of contemporary artists like Fennesz, Sarah Davachi, and Stars of the Lid.

"L'idée nous est venu lors d'une conversation un peu arrosée dans un pub du sud de Londres avec Philippe du label Tapeworm" dixit François Kirmann Gamaury alias Franz Kirmann alias Dj Salinger – producteur français établi à Londres depuis plus d'une vingtaine d'années.

"Voyage voyage voyage" est une mixtape. Mais pas dans le sens traditionnelle du terme. Kirmann l'appelle une mixtape subjective, où les morceaux ne sont pas joués tels quels mais présentés tels qu'ils sont ressentis par l'artiste.

Un peu comme le DJ Vladimir Ivkovic qui ralentit certain morceaux sur ses platines pour en révéler un autre aspect, Kirmann zoom dans l'étoffe même des enregistrements, étire les notes et les sons à l'infini, pour en mettre à jour un sens caché, altérer notre perception de ces chansons qui peuvent parfois sembler un peu désuètes. Ici elles sont transformées en nappes fantomatiques et envoutantes qui évoquent un souvenir d'une période de sa vie, une trace sonore d'une époque un peu naive, qui revient aujourd'hui sous forme d'echo, une musique nostalgique trempée dans la reverb et la distortion.

Kirmann a grandit au Sénégal pendant les années 80 et il se souvient des étés de son enfance passé chez ses grand parents, les chansons à la radio, dans le bus du centre aéré, dans un Prisunic en Dordogne, où une fête de camping en Alsace: Catherine Lara, Elsa, Veronique Jeannot et bien sûr Desireless et son fameux tube "Voyage voyage".

Les chansons sélectionnées pour la cassette ont toutes en commun une incitation au départ, une recherche de l'ailleurs, un amour perdu, un souvenir, les thèmes de predilection d'une certaine pop française que l'on nommait variété.

Ces idées d'évasion sont accentuées ici par le traitement sonore qui leur est appliqué. Les chansons sont paralysés dans le temps, figées dans le son, comme si l'on avait souligné certain passages dans un roman pour les détacher du texte intégral.

Distortion, écho, réverbération et autres effets sont appliqués et donnent à la musique et au son une qualité rêveuse et distante. Certains passages reconnaissables se dévoilent et sortent de la brume sonore, ils se révèlent plus net, d'autres sont noyés dans un brouillard imprécis, une musique proche de l'ambient qui enveloppe l'auditeur.

Kirmann: "Chaque track est basé sur une chanson de variété française des années 80, je voulais re-créer une impression de distance, quelque chose de lointain. Les morceaux deviennent des sortes de tapisseries sonores mais dont l'essence de la chanson originelle est toujours présente. Il y'a un roman de Patrick Modiano où les personnages lancent des avis de recherche pour la France à partir d'une station de radio d'un pays lointain. Le son est brouillé, les voix étouffées. J'avais un peu cette idée en tête de faire quelque chose de similaire, comme si les chansons étaient entendus sur un vieux poste de radio mais émises d'une station lointaine et d'un autre temps."

Le résultat est un voyage nostalgique, une musique ambient et nébuleuse façonnée à partir de tubes synthétiques 80's. Imaginez Fennesz ou My Bloody Valentine jouant des reprises de Laurent Voulzy et vous y êtes presque…

Loveless non, Desireless oui!

DJ Salinger. Voyage Voyage Voyage – Disponible en cassette uniquement. 100 exemplaires sur le label Tapeworm.

—

Franz Kirmann is a French music producer living in London. He has made albums for various labels including Denovali, Bytes, Mercury KX. He also writes music for film and TV and is a lecturer in music production at Point Blank Music school.

Post-Punk (Originally Called New Musick) Is A Broad Musical Genre That Emerged In 1977 In The Wake Of Punk Rock. Post-Punk Musicians Moved Away From Punk's Traditional Elements And Raw Simplicity, Adopting Instead A Broader, More Experimental Approach That Included A Variety Of Avant-Garde Sensibilities And Non-Rock Influences. Inspired By Punk's Energy And DIY Ethos, But Determined To Break With Rock Clichés, Artists Experimented With Styles Such As Funk, Electronic Music, Jazz And Dance Music; Dub And Disco Production Techniques; And Ideas From Art And Politics, Including Critical Theory, Modernist Art, Film And Literature.

These Communities Have Produced Independent Record Labels, Visual Art, Multimedia Performances And Fanzines. These Three Compilations Are By No Means 'Best Of' Or Collections Of Chart Hits. They Are Compilations That Endeavour (And We Think They Do Well) To Take A Wide-Ranging Look At The UK And American Post-Punk Scene In The Years From 1978 To 1984, But Here Almost Everything Stops In 1981, Giving Space To Bands And Artists That Almost Always Didn't Make It Beyond The 45 Rpm Mark. A Representation Of The True 'Outside Of Everything' Of The Era.

Original Son del Barrio, from Monterrey; presenting their first album Tropical Gueto. A trip through different neighbourhoods, with a collection of sounds ranging from Digital Cumbia and Hip-hop to Reggae and Tropical bass. Created as a collaboration between Mexico and Germany (featuring founding member and singer Angel Perez, and Dj and producer Andres Digital), this tropical experiment begins with a series of concerts in Rome, Amsterdam and Paris. Plans are laid for the co-production of Tropical Gueto in said tour; and the resulting efforts saw the participation of Indepe Roots, Bianca Ciocca, Moska Hernandez, Joyce Musicolor and Feo Feo Records; as well as Gran Om, on art duties. Tropical Gueto sets the bar high for Digital Cumbia, setting a clear benchmark for the genre. Angel Perez (aka Son del Barrio) lends his voice to the streets and the “barrio” culture of Monterrey, in the expressive language of his own lyrics and compositions; through the sensitivity and technical ingenuity of producer and Dj Andres Digital (aka Jaky Tuff).

Standard black vinyl is limited to 500 copies. Digipack CD. It’s two years since CONNECTIVITY (2021) smashed into the top 40 and debuted at #1 in the UK download chart, propelling the fiercely independent voice of GRACE PETRIE from critics’ choice to the main stages of major festivals across The UK and Ireland, Australia and Canada. For a seasoned road dog who spent almost 15 years clocking up tours with the likes of Billy Bragg, Frank Turner and Hannah Gadsby, the COVID lockdowns were like a cage for Petrie and when restrictions lifted, she hit the road harder than ever, armed with her most searing and successful record to date, and determined to make up for lost time. Sell-out headline tours across the UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand followed, with audiences from Melbourne to Toronto mesmerised by the ferocity of her socially urgent lyricism and the barnstorming power of her live show. But travelling the globe hasn’t diminished her laser focus on the political issues plaguing the UK, with two more Prime Ministers, endless blunders and evermore division seen since she last swapped microphone for pen and paper. Now the songwriter is back - stronger, older and a whole lot angrier than ever before. As right wing ideologues trade in suspicion and cynicism, tearing communities apart against a backdrop of crumbling public services, the ordinary folk of Britain continue to suffer the consequences of corruption and individualism. From within this maelstrom of despair comes BUILD SOMETHING BETTER - the new, uncontainable album from Grace Petrie. Recorded raw and unflinchingly with folk-punk legend Frank Turner in the producer’s seat, BUILD SOMETHING BETTER is a return to blistering protest form for Britain’s most relevant political songwriter, a decade after being hailed as “a powerful new voice”, (The Guardian) and “a millennial’s Billy Bragg” (Huffington Post). In a world that seems to make less sense than ever, these are songs made to both holler along to from the crowd barrier and to tear up with on a lonely late night train. A record for everyone whose broken heart beats for, and whose boots stomp in time with, the hope a brighter tomorrow. “An effervescent charm-bomb of a performer” - The New Yorker. Headline Tour: 21st Feb Belfast - Oh Yeah Centre 22nd Dublin - Whelan’s, 24th Manchester - Academy 2, 28th Kendal - Brewery Arts 29th Edinburgh – Summerhall 1st March Gateshead – Glasshouse 6th Birmingham - Glee Club 7th Leeds - Brudenell Social Club 8th Nottingham - Rescue Rooms 9th Liverpool – Philharmonic 13th Oxford - The Bullingdon 14th London - Islington Assembly Hall 15th Brighton - Concorde 2 16th Norwich - Norwich Arts Centre 20th Cambridge - The Junction 21st Portsmouth - Wedgewood Rooms 22nd Exeter – Phoenix 23rd Bristol - Trinity Centre

Standard black vinyl is limited to 500 copies. Digipack CD. It’s two years since CONNECTIVITY (2021) smashed into the top 40 and debuted at #1 in the UK download chart, propelling the fiercely independent voice of GRACE PETRIE from critics’ choice to the main stages of major festivals across The UK and Ireland, Australia and Canada. For a seasoned road dog who spent almost 15 years clocking up tours with the likes of Billy Bragg, Frank Turner and Hannah Gadsby, the COVID lockdowns were like a cage for Petrie and when restrictions lifted, she hit the road harder than ever, armed with her most searing and successful record to date, and determined to make up for lost time. Sell-out headline tours across the UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand followed, with audiences from Melbourne to Toronto mesmerised by the ferocity of her socially urgent lyricism and the barnstorming power of her live show. But travelling the globe hasn’t diminished her laser focus on the political issues plaguing the UK, with two more Prime Ministers, endless blunders and evermore division seen since she last swapped microphone for pen and paper. Now the songwriter is back - stronger, older and a whole lot angrier than ever before. As right wing ideologues trade in suspicion and cynicism, tearing communities apart against a backdrop of crumbling public services, the ordinary folk of Britain continue to suffer the consequences of corruption and individualism. From within this maelstrom of despair comes BUILD SOMETHING BETTER - the new, uncontainable album from Grace Petrie. Recorded raw and unflinchingly with folk-punk legend Frank Turner in the producer’s seat, BUILD SOMETHING BETTER is a return to blistering protest form for Britain’s most relevant political songwriter, a decade after being hailed as “a powerful new voice”, (The Guardian) and “a millennial’s Billy Bragg” (Huffington Post). In a world that seems to make less sense than ever, these are songs made to both holler along to from the crowd barrier and to tear up with on a lonely late night train. A record for everyone whose broken heart beats for, and whose boots stomp in time with, the hope a brighter tomorrow. “An effervescent charm-bomb of a performer” - The New Yorker. Headline Tour: 21st Feb Belfast - Oh Yeah Centre 22nd Dublin - Whelan’s, 24th Manchester - Academy 2, 28th Kendal - Brewery Arts 29th Edinburgh – Summerhall 1st March Gateshead – Glasshouse 6th Birmingham - Glee Club 7th Leeds - Brudenell Social Club 8th Nottingham - Rescue Rooms 9th Liverpool – Philharmonic 13th Oxford - The Bullingdon 14th London - Islington Assembly Hall 15th Brighton - Concorde 2 16th Norwich - Norwich Arts Centre 20th Cambridge - The Junction 21st Portsmouth - Wedgewood Rooms 22nd Exeter – Phoenix 23rd Bristol - Trinity Centre

In July of 2022, just one month before jaimie branch"s death sent shockwaves around the world, the trumpet player and composer was in Chicago at International Anthem (IARC) studios putting finishing touches on an album. It was a suite of music she had composed and then recorded with her flagship ensemble, Fly or Die, over the course of a residency at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha, Nebraska. In her wake, the album was near complete, with only mixing tweaks, final titles, and artwork to be fully realized. In the months following, her family (led by sister Kate Branch), her band (Jason Ajemian, Lester St. Louis, and Chad Taylor), and her collaborators at IARC (engineers Dave Vettraino and David Allen, comrades Alejandro Ayala and Scott McNiece) banded together to gather memories, texts, emails, photographs, artwork and fragments belonging to jaimie to light the path forward. The goal was always to do what jaimie would have done. Packaged in stunning artwork by John Herndon, Damon Locks, and branch herself, Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war)) is jaimie"s final album with the quartet.

Am 11.08.2023, passend zum Jubiläum von 50 Jahre Hip-Hop, erscheint ”Hochkultur 2”, das neue Album vom Samy Deluxe. Mit der Single ”Roter Velour” hat Samy nicht nur einen sensationellen Auftakt in die Kampagne hingelegt sondern auch einen vielversprechenden Vorgeschmack auf ”Hochkultur 2” gegeben.

Passend zum Albumrelease findet am 13.08. die Blockparty Deluxe statt, in Samys hometown Hamburg.

Die Blockparty Deluxe wird die einzige Gelegenheit sein Samy 2023 live zu sehen und hat alles von Rap, Graffti, DJing bis zu Breakdance zu bieten.

By the turn of the 80s, the impact of David Bowie’s ground- breaking Berlin recordings – the synths, the alienation, the drily futuristic production – was being felt on music across Europe. What’s more, the records being made were reflecting back and influencing Bowie’s own work – 1979’s Lodger and 1980’s Scary Monsters owed a debt to strands of German kosmische (Holger Czukay), new electronica (Patrick Cowley, Harald Grosskopf), and the latest works from old friends and rivals like Robert Fripp, Peter Gabriel and Scott Walker, all of whom had been re-energised by the fizz of 1977.

Compiled by Saint Etienne’s Bob Stanley and the BFI’s Jason Wood, Fantastic Voyage is the companion album to their hugely successful Café Exil collection, which imagined the soundtrack to David Bowie and Iggy Pop’s trans-European train journeys in the mid-to-late seventies. “Fantastic Voyage” is what happened next.

Bowie’s influences and Bowie’s own influence were rebounding off each other as the 70s ended and the 80s began, notably in the emergent synthpop and new romantic scenes as well as through the music of enigmatic acts like the Associates and post-punk pioneers such as Cabaret Voltaire.

Like Low and Heroes, some of the tracks on Fantastic Voyage are spiked with tension (Grauzone’s ‘Eisbär’) while some share those albums’ sense of travel (Simple Minds’ ‘Theme for Great Cities’, Ryuichi Sakamoto’s ‘Riot in Lagos’) and others find common ground with “Lodger’s” dark, subtle humour (Thomas Leer’s ‘Tight as a Drum’, Fripp’s ‘Exposure’).

This is the thrilling, adventurous sound of European music before the watershed moment when Bowie would abandon art- pop for America and the emerging world of MTV with “Let’s Dance” in 1983. Fantastic Voyage soundtracks the few brief years when the echo chamber of Bowie, his inspirations, and his followers created an exciting, borderless music that was ready to challenge Anglo American influences.

Hot wiring dancefloors with their immersive orchestration of uplifting sonic waves, Soft Crash sets out to soundtrack the unified, euphoric heartbeat of the crowds they foster with their mechanical yet fantastical, Italo Body Music. Presenting their highly anticipated EP ‘NRG’, the Berlin-based collaborative project of Berghain resident and BITE label head Hayden Payne (aka Phase Fatale) and French prolific producer Pablo Bozzi works to forge Soft Crash’s unique vocabulary of post-humanist production with the harmonic grandeur of their rhythmic, machine-made anthems.

Fresh off the back of their 2022 debut album ‘Your Last Everything’, Soft Crash present their latest 4 track EP ‘NRG’, chronicling their synonymous surrealist visuals infused with the contagious punch of Italo and Synth-wave. Geared towards the dancefloor from a fresh perspective, Bozzi and Payne pull from their respective wheelhouses to curate a sound additionally influenced by Wave-Pop, Acid House and Post-Punk sensibilities.

Procuring their cerebral yet zealous indentation of dance music, the EP features sanguine vocals from Kyiv-based singer and musician Ready in LED on the first single ‘Free Yourself’. She comments about the track “I became captivated instantly with the idea of the track that Hayden and Pablo sent me. At that moment, I was a bit tired of carefree disco and wanted to reveal my dark side in music. The demo sounded very daring. This track demands attention to itself from the first seconds. My sources of inspiration were glam rock and grunge. I had a blast in the studio, and I hope the people on the dance floors will feel that energy too.”

While full throttle vitality and booming grooves on the title track ‘NRG’ showcase Soft Crash’s take on 90’s sample-filled techno. Closing the extended play with an updated cut of the bewitching ‘Your Last Everything’, featuring Canadian musician and producer Marie Davidson, Soft Crash breathe a new life into the namesake track from their preceding album, concluding with an additional remix of the track by cult favourite producer Alen Skanner. The intrinsic dance floor vigour emulated in NRG further fleshes-out the pair’s recognisable DNA of nurturing a revitalised techno sound, cementing them as pioneers of the Italo Body genre.

Written and produced by Hayden Payne & Pablo Bozzi
Mastered by Conor Dalton at Glowcast Mastering

Italian hard techno DJ-producer MAIKE DEPAS announces EP "Rave the Planet" (out 29 February) ahead of MAIKE DEPAS 2.0 audio-visual makeover

"Depas strikes a fine balance between raw energy and subtle melodic hooks." (DMY)

"Throughout the pounding track Midnight Ride, the Italian beatsmith expertly blends lush synths with intricate rhythmic components and gritty bass." (EDM com)

"Depas' approach to techno is a veritable melting pot of influences, blending sounds from the 80s and 90s with contemporary symphonic and cinematic elements." (Magnetic Mag)

Upon the return from the dark and dreamy regions of his previous EP "Euphoria", Milanese hard techno DJ-producer MAIKE DEPAS (Michelangelo De Pasquale) announces new EP "Rave the Planet", out 29 February via The Innovation Studio, ahead of MAIKE DEPAS 2.0 audio-visual makeover. Sending tremors through the electronic underground scene, Depas joins Kobosil and In Verruf in carrying the torch of uncompromising Berlin techno while keeping his feet firmly planted in the melodic 1990s trance of Push, Jam & Spoon, and Cygnus X.

Introducing his new heavy-duty fusion of face-melting techno and trance carrying "Go Hard or Go Home" warning sign, Depas makes the crowd grind their teeth with a behemoth of an opener "Heartbreaker" only to fill the dancefloor with dread on the shiver-inducing "Vortex", a power move designed to set the scene for the title track"s fervent rave sermon delivered in a cyborg voice by Depas, followed by the erotic undertones of throbbing closer "Float Together" including the blistering remix by the Italian DJ Amstra.

"Rave the planet / Stay together / In techno we trust / Rave the planet" - MAIKE DEPAS, Rave the Planet

At its core, "Rave the Planet" is Depas" personal paean to the true spirit of the original rave culture as represented by Lukas Havlik"s (Ludenworks) Luis Royo-esque artwork of a pulsating cybernetic planet of complex, interconnected nerve fibres wrapped around the Depas globe logo. “As a raver, you feel this sense of unity with community and it"s similar to a religion we"ve had for thousands and thousands of years,” Depas compares. “We are the planet, we are the culture, so both are the reflection of ourselves in the wider world.” For Depas, the concept of solidarity runs deep within techno culture. Coming right from the heart, Depas is driven by the opportunity to bring people together for one thing and one thing only: “Just for the love of techno and to celebrate the music in a club.”

"As a raver, you feel this sense of unity with a community similar to a religion we"ve had for thousands and thousands of years." - MAIKE DEPAS

"Rave the Planet" is released in conjunction with MAIKE DEPAS 2.0, a tectonic audio-visual shift that entails a wide array of digital content as varied as DJ sets live streamed from Berlin"s Teufelsberg and other dystopian locations around Europe as well as enhanced PR-photos featuring cyberpunk-inspired outfits designed by Demobaza, a cyberpunk-inspired casual couture brand best known for their sustainable Dune X Demobaza collection. Over the course of upcoming metamorphosis from a flesh-and-blood individual into a mysterious CGI character, Depas is another step closer to revolutionising the dance music scene through the metaverse.