Originally self-released in 2007 under the moniker Monarch, Wye Oak’s debut If Children was given a proper introduction to the world the following spring on Merge Records. Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack take their minimalist setup to maximalist ends, pairing gentle campfire folk with bombastic hazy shoegaze, sometimes within the same song. Their assured mission statement makes its vinyl debut, on red and white splatter, no less, exclusively for RSD 2022
"Queen Of Nowhere" is the result of the photographic works by Kourtney Roy and the musician Dayve Samek (Trance Farmers) initiated by IIKKI, between November 2021 and March 2022.
The man behind the name Trance Farmers is Dayve Samek, a wanderer from Los Angeles to Louisiana, and his music has picked up just about every influence it can along the way. He has recorded his first album in 2014 on Leaving Records (Stones Throw Records). Not sure how to classify his music ranges, but something between sweaty, garage-born ballads brush shoulders with drifter anthems and gasoline drenched doo wop with at some points some beats close from the past Anticon works should make the point.
The Canadian photographer Kourtney Roy was born in Northern Ontario in 1981. Intrigued by the possibility of creating a tragic mythology of the self, she conjures an intimate universe pervaded by both wonder and mystery. Her photographer’s eye is drawn to places and settings whose lyrical qualities underscore the sublime banality of everyday life.
Roy’s studies in photography, at Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver and later at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, inspired her to develop her finicky aesthetic, which lends itself particularly well to both glossy paper and film. Roy works extensively as an independent photographer/filmmaker in the art world. Instilled with a dark sense of humor, taking their clues as much from the grotesque nature of seemingly placid settings as from the tensions simmering just under the surface, her photographs have garnered many prizes, including the Prix Picto in 2007, The Emily Award in Canada in 2012 and the Prix Carte Blanche PMU/Le Bal in 2013 and the Pernod Ricard Carte Blanche in 2018.
"Queen Of Nowhere" is the result of the photographic works by Kourtney Roy and the musician Dayve Samek (Trance Farmers) initiated by IIKKI, between November 2021 and March 2022.
The man behind the name Trance Farmers is Dayve Samek, a wanderer from Los Angeles to Louisiana, and his music has picked up just about every influence it can along the way. He has recorded his first album in 2014 on Leaving Records (Stones Throw Records). Not sure how to classify his music ranges, but something between sweaty, garage-born ballads brush shoulders with drifter anthems and gasoline drenched doo wop with at some points some beats close from the past Anticon works should make the point.
The Canadian photographer Kourtney Roy was born in Northern Ontario in 1981. Intrigued by the possibility of creating a tragic mythology of the self, she conjures an intimate universe pervaded by both wonder and mystery. Her photographer’s eye is drawn to places and settings whose lyrical qualities underscore the sublime banality of everyday life.
Roy’s studies in photography, at Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver and later at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, inspired her to develop her finicky aesthetic, which lends itself particularly well to both glossy paper and film. Roy works extensively as an independent photographer/filmmaker in the art world. Instilled with a dark sense of humor, taking their clues as much from the grotesque nature of seemingly placid settings as from the tensions simmering just under the surface, her photographs have garnered many prizes, including the Prix Picto in 2007, The Emily Award in Canada in 2012 and the Prix Carte Blanche PMU/Le Bal in 2013 and the Pernod Ricard Carte Blanche in 2018.
Fine Art Book, Ltd. to 700 copies:
Hardcover book printed on Arctic G-Snow 150g/m2 // 132 pages, 24cm x 22cm, 95 photos // Logo, slot and circle embossed // Hand-numbered, hand-stamped
With a signature sound signified by lockstep rhythms & a deep grasp of soul and funk, Orgone has built a reputation over the past 2 decades as being one of the tightest, fieriest live bands in the country & a top notch crew in the studio. On their new album Lost Knights, Orgone offer up a collection of heavy-duty psychedelic funk-rock anthems created to be played loud and raucously. The release features lead vocal contributions from Orgone's ever expanding extended family of some the finest soulful singers on the West Coast - Terin Ector, Jamie Allensworth, Phil Diamond, with special appearances from Jesse Wagner (The Aggrolites) and Kelly Finnigan (Monophonics). A first of sorts, for the band, in featuring an all male fronted lineup on an album.The tough, punchy, & hard hitting production highlights a body of work both "head banging"-ly satisfying and eminently groovy. Opener "Working for Love" rolls out the gate with a crunchy drum break and slams into a heavy guitar and bass riff behind Ector's call to loving arms & irresistible singalong chorus. The rest of the album thunders on with Funkadelic-style guitar and gloriously gritty hammond organ percolating through timely songs of protest, brotherhood, unity, reverence & loss. Instrumentals "Samson" and "Crusader" round out the record, highlighting the trademark Orgone sound; instantly classic & dusty, at times chunky, at times sprawling; always on point. Lost Knights is ultimately a fun record- an expansion of a profound part of the band's DNA, their exploration of the cosmic haze between early Westbound catalog, 70s garage rock, skateboards, & the muscular power of a metallic crimson `68 Chevy Camaro. With racing stripes...
With a signature sound signified by lockstep rhythms & a deep grasp of soul and funk, Orgone has built a reputation over the past 2 decades as being one of the tightest, fieriest live bands in the country & a top notch crew in the studio. On their new album Lost Knights, Orgone offer up a collection of heavy-duty psychedelic funk-rock anthems created to be played loud and raucously. The release features lead vocal contributions from Orgone's ever expanding extended family of some the finest soulful singers on the West Coast - Terin Ector, Jamie Allensworth, Phil Diamond, with special appearances from Jesse Wagner (The Aggrolites) and Kelly Finnigan (Monophonics). A first of sorts, for the band, in featuring an all male fronted lineup on an album.The tough, punchy, & hard hitting production highlights a body of work both "head banging"-ly satisfying and eminently groovy. Opener "Working for Love" rolls out the gate with a crunchy drum break and slams into a heavy guitar and bass riff behind Ector's call to loving arms & irresistible singalong chorus. The rest of the album thunders on with Funkadelic-style guitar and gloriously gritty hammond organ percolating through timely songs of protest, brotherhood, unity, reverence & loss. Instrumentals "Samson" and "Crusader" round out the record, highlighting the trademark Orgone sound; instantly classic & dusty, at times chunky, at times sprawling; always on point. Lost Knights is ultimately a fun record- an expansion of a profound part of the band's DNA, their exploration of the cosmic haze between early Westbound catalog, 70s garage rock, skateboards, & the muscular power of a metallic crimson `68 Chevy Camaro. With racing stripes...
Pauline Oliveros' The Wanderer is available on LP for the first time since it was originally released in 1984. Cut at Golden and pressed at RTI for maximum fidelity.
An utterly essential document of early American minimalism from this Pauline Oliveros. The Wanderer is the sister record to Accordion & Voice, also available on LP from Important Records.
The Wanderer is based on a single modal scale (B C# D D# E F# G#) and rhythmic modes based on a meter consisting of ¾ and ⅜. Part I, Song, is intended to explore the unique resonant qualities of accordion reeds through long sounds. Subtle variations come about from differences in tuning and air pressure. Part II, Dance, demonstrates the sharp accenting power of the accordion bellows in a mixture of cross-rhythms characteristic of jigs, reels, batucadas, Bulgars, klezmer forms, Cajun dances, and music of other diverse cultures.
The Wanderer was composed in November, 1982 especially for the Springfield Accordion Orchestra, directed by Sam Falcetti. This recording documents The Wanderer's world premiere, as it was performed 27 January, 1983 at Marymount Manhattan Theatre. The orchestra consists of twenty accordions, two bass accordions, and five percussionists, with Pauline Oliveros as soloist, Sam Falcetti conducting.
Horse Sings From Cloud, written in 1975, is one of Oliveros' best known works. Like most of her Sonic Meditations, it can be performed vocally and/or instrumentally, solo or in collaboration. A solo version of Horse Sings From Cloud has been recorded on Accordion & Voice. An early version of the score reads, “Sustain a tone or sound until any desire to change it disappears. When there is no longer any desire to change the tone or sound, then change it.” This time, Horse Sings From Cloud is performed in ensemble. Joining Pauline Oliveros on bandoneon are Heloise Gold on Harmonium, Julia Haines on accordion, and Linda Montano on concertina. This quartet version incorporates the microtonal differences in tuning of the selected instruments, creating shimmering reed sounds somewhat similar to the shimmering of a Balinese gamelan.
OG deep Miami deep house from 1990 on the repress tip - Essential purchase!
This one should need no intro - it's up there with the all-timers. Moody, sexy, emotive, epic - just some of the words you could use to describe 'Outta Limits'. Never out of style, existing in its own lane and a solid gold classic from day one, 'Outta Limits' takes us on a spiralling bassline journey into our own consciousness with its hypnotic spoken word samples and sultry female vox . Mission Control is Aldo Hernandez & Ralph Falcon, 2 members of the extended Murk / DSR crew out of Miami. They've been responsible for numerous underground and club classics since the very early 90's and their sound continues to be a huge influence on producers and DJs today. Featured here, you have the 2 original slamming mixes of the track, both of which bring a different flavour to the dancefloor. Both essential and still utterly fresh today.
Buy on sight!
As boundless as their music, WHORSES debut
with a double album, like it’s the most natural thing
do to. But is it?
For sure for these four noise cowboys: their
nameless first brainchild pulls together a fat
number of eighteen tracks, and although there
might be some signs of schizophrenia showing,
this true pièce de resistance breaths honesty and
pure expression through every pore.
Hitting hard and moving deep in one and the same
creation: yeah, you’re in for a ride.
WHORSES are a band of extremes, bringing out
the roughest and softest in themselves and in
everyone who dares to dive into that pool of blunt,
deep cutting, ever evolving and limitless sounds.
Vector Music by Suren Seneviratne is a true homage to the Yamaha TG33, a synth that he was hoping to keep forever, or at least a very long time until Covid-19 struck.
During the early months of 2020, Suren, like many other artists, went without work and was forced to sell surplus belongings to help subsidise food, rent and other necessities. Some sneakers and clothes went first but he avoided considering his music gear for as long as possible. As the pandemic continued to cause havoc throughout the year, selling gear was inevitable. The rare Yamaha TG-33 programmable synthesizer module was next.
By bittersweet chance, this was the perfect opportunity to make use of this unsung synthesizer one last time, and to make it count. The synth sold via Twitter and Suren suddenly had a deadline in which to make the most of it in the two days before it would be gone forever and so he decided to record a body of work using only the TG33, to shine a spotlight on its quirks and idiosyncrasies and give it the attention it deserved. This ultimatum proved to be really fruitful and resulted in the recordings that form the eight tracks on this album “Vector Music”; a raw and intimate portrayal of a forgotten digital instrument from the 1990s. The broader collective sentiment of loss, anxiety and seasonal depression during the thick of the pandemic mixed with feelings of uncertainty, distress and fear binded throughout the recording process and became sewn into the very fabric of the music.
The song titles are taken from various stages of sleep: the once instinctive process which, since 2020, was radically altered and experienced a new for millions of people around the globe due to the phenomena known as Pandemic Dreams.
Composed and produced by Suren Seneviratne
Mastered by Luca Sammartin
Original artwork and layout by Marco Ciceri
Am 27. Mai werden mit dem Album „The Original Recordings“ zum ersten Mal seit über 20 Jahren 20 Aufnahmen der Sex Pistols aus den Jahren 1976 bis 1978 gesammelt veröffentlicht, um die Geschichte
einer der einflussreichsten und außergewöhnlichsten Bands der Welt zu erzählen.
„The Original Recordings“ dokumentiert eine historische Periode, in der die Band kaum aus den Nachrichten oder den Charts wegzudenken war. Die Sammlung enthält die entscheidenden Singles ”Anarchy In The UK”, ”God Save The Queen”, ”Pretty Vacant” und ”Holidays In The Sun”, wichtige Titel von ”Never Mind The Bollocks”, weitere Originale und Covers vom Soundtrack-Album ”The Great Rock & Roll Swindle” sowie einige bedeutende B-Seiten wie ”I Wanna Be Me”, “Satellite” und ’Did You No Wrong’.
Bald erscheint auf Disney+, die Serie „Pistol“ über den legendären Sex Pistols Gitarristen Steve Jones unter der Regie von Academy Award Preisträger Danny Boyle. „The Original Recordings“ erscheint als 1CD und 2LP.
Cuba: Music and Revolution: Culture Clash in Havana: Experiments in Latin Music 1975-85 Vol. 2 is the new album compiled by Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker (Soul Jazz Records) that takes off in exactly the same vein as the much-acclaimed Vol. 1 – exploring the many styles that came out of Cuba in the 1970s as Latin and Salsa mixed with heavy doses of Jazz, Funk, and Disco to create some of the most dancefloor-friendly music ever made!
The album comes as a heavyweight 3xLP and deluxe 2xCD set, complete with extensive sleeve notes, and is jam-packed with heavy bass lines, synth and Wah-Wah guitar funk combined with the heavyweight percussion, powerful brass lines and the all-encompassing Latin rhythms of Cuban music known
throughout the world.
Much of the music on this album is featured in the deluxe large format book ‘Cuba: Music and Revolution: Original Cover Art of Cuban Music: Record Sleeve Designs of Revolutionary Cuba 1959-90’, released by Soul Jazz Books and also compiled by Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker (Soul Jazz Records),
featuring the music and record designs of Cuba, made in the 30-year period following the Cuban Revolution.
The music on this new album features a host of rarities from legendary Cuban artists such as Los Van Van, alongside Grupo De Experimentación, Farah Maria, Ricardo Eddy Martinez, Juan Pablo Torres, Grupo Sintesis and Orquesta Riverside, most of whose names remain largely unknown outside of Cuba but have long been favourite club tracks and secret-weapons in Gilles Peterson’s record boxes!
The music on this album reflects the most cutting-edge of Cuban groups that were recording in Cuba in the 1970s and 1980s – all searching for a new Cuban identity and new musical forms reflecting both the Afro-Cuban cultural heritage of a nation that gave birth to Latin music and its new position as a socialist state. Most of the music featured on this album has never been heard outside of Cuba.
Both Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker have been involved in Cuban music for more than two decades – Gilles Peterson with his many Havana Cultura projects for his Brownswood label and Stuart Baker with a number of Soul Jazz Records albums recorded in Cuba. This Soul Jazz Records album is released in conjunction with Egrem, the Cuban state record company, and has been put together after the many crate-digging trips that both compilers have made on the streets of Havana and beyond in Cuba stretching over a 20-year period, searching out rare and elusive original Cuban vinyl records
CircoLoco Records is proud to present the Monday Dreamin’ Vinyl Box Set, a 5-LP collection releasing on May 20, 2022.
Featuring heavy-hitting releases from visionaries of every era of CircoLoco’s 20-year party history, including Carl Craig, tINI, Kerri Chandler, Rampa, Sama' Abdulhadi, and other icons, the acclaimed debut compilation album from CircoLoco Records is presented in matte full color sleeves with box artwork designed by TOILETPAPER.
With support from DJ’s worldwide and accolades including back-to-back Essential New Tune awards from BBC Radio 1’s Pete Tong for Seth Troxler’s “Lumartes,” and DJ Tennis’ “Atlanta,” Monday Dreamin’ has already carved out a unique place in the world of dance music having been featured in the digital world of Los Santos in Rockstar Games’ blockbuster Grand Theft Auto Online: Los Santos Tuners which also featured Monday Dreamin’ artist Moodymann as a new character in the world.
Monday Dreamin’ is the first project from the pioneering partnership between global club culture icons CircoLoco and the creators of some of the world’s most popular and critically acclaimed video games, Rockstar Games, a partnership aimed at elevating and supporting dance music through the collective power of the two entertainment brands.
Brasil Novo is a compilation made up of eight contemporary Afro-Brazillian tracks disseminating the rich and percussive heritage of Brasil and Samba De Coco. The compilation was compiled by Sao Paolo’s DJ Tahira and London’s Tim Garcia and flits between Samba, Candomble, Batuques, Jazz, Folk and beyond, all selected with the dancefloor in mind.
Some of the tracks have never before been released on vinyl like Dona Celia Coquista’s ‘O Bar’ and the live version of Toró Instrumentals ‘Dunas’, and the release also features tracks from Grupo Bongar, Renata Rosa and women’s Afro Bloco, Ilú Obá De Min.
The compilation has so far been supported by the likes of Gilles Peterson and Jamz Supernova (BBC 6 Music) Lopa Kothari (BBC Radio 3) and Zakia (NTS) and many more.
Sam Gendel and Antonia Cytrynowicz didn't set out to make a record – it just happened. LIVE A LITTLE, a collection of songs resulting from one late summer afternoon in Gendel's Los Angeles home, is less an album and more a moment. The ten tracks here were recorded mostly in one sitting, fully improvised, in the order in which they appear. It was the first and last time the songs have been played – a snapshot of an idea, an artifact of inspiration, at once both a beginning and an end. At the time of recording, Cytrynowicz was only eleven years old. The younger sister of Gendel's significant other and creative partner Marcella, Cytrynowicz is an artist in her own way. She has no formal musical training, but is the product of a creative family and is someone who makes art the way many kids do – in the purest way, simply because they are moved to. On LIVE A LITTLE, she spontaneously crafted all the melodies and lyrics on the spot as Gendel played alongside her. Cytrynowicz's musicality is sophisticated, strange, and other-worldly, and the resulting record is experimental jazz colliding with some sort of fantasy universe. Because of that, LIVE A LITTLE is a stand-out amidst Gendel's extensive and varied catalog. Over the years, the multi-instrumentalist has been known for his prolific musical output as both a sought-after collaborator and as a solo artist. During 2021 alone he collaborated with Vampire Weekend, Maggie Rogers, Moses Sumney, Laurie Anderson, and Mach Hommy, as well as released Notes With Attachments with Blake Mills & legendary bassist Pino Palladino. In the same year he also released the 52-track Fresh Bread, as well as the follow-up to the acclaimed Music for Saxophone & Bass Guitar with Sam Wilkes. Then Mouthfeel / Serene, AE-30, Valley Fever Original Score, and singles "Isfahan" and "Neon Blue." LIVE A LITTLE, though, exists on its own island. For one, the majority of Gendel's work under his own name skews instrumental, but here the playfulness of his saxophone and nylon-string guitar work alongside the twinkle of Cytrynowicz's voice. It’s the sound of unapologetic imagination running amok – and really, more than anything, the sound of having fun. Cytrynowicz is the ideal collaborator for Gendel, who throughout his career has remained largely unconcerned with the pageantry and presentation of the music business, instead focused solely on the music-making itself. Here, he found the purest sort of writing partner – he admires Cytrynowicz' "supreme openness," explaining: "Whatever is happening, she's there with you. We really meet right where we are. She's all ears, I'm all ears. I don't even know how to explain what it is. It just works out somehow." LIVE A LITTLE is a series of "what ifs" cascading into one another, off-kilter and experimental, a kaleidoscope of spontaneity and imagination. It's a sweet distillation of the musical present, of daring to follow through on an impulse – what happens when a project is helmed by someone who doesn't have time for second thoughts or self-doubt. The moment is the thing, and LIVE A LITTLE just happens to capture it.
“As a human being it’s really important to feel and express
emotions whether happy or sad,” says Hiro Amamiya, the
Teleman drummer whose solo guise is Hiro Ama. “I sometimes
struggle to and so these are a collection of songs that explore
different emotions. I want people to feel something through my
music so I called this EP ‘Animal Emotions’.”
Amamiya follows up on swiftly on 2020’s field recording-heavy
EP ‘Uncertainty’ with a record made in his bedroom and during
a time of introspection to create something even more personal.
“On ‘Uncertainty’ I was using sounds from everywhere and
whatever sounded good,” he says. “But for ‘Animal Emotions’ I
stuck with fewer instruments so the EP feels much more united.
I also used more acoustic instruments as I sometimes feel
electronic music in general lacks some organic and human
elements so I tried to make this EP as organic as possible.”
However, buried beneath the warm electronics, gently pulsing
grooves, infectious melodies and immersive soundscapes - that
veer from disco strut to IDM via jazz-laced ambient - you’ll still
find some field recordings. “You might not hear them as
obviously as on my previous EP but field recordings are there,”
he says. “I like them because it's very spontaneous and gives
some human feel. It also adds some air to a recording which I
quite like.” On the opener ‘Free Soul’ - which marries funk bass
with subtle electronics and squelchy grooves - you can hear a
voice sample of a woman from Southeast Asia singing a lullaby.
“I wanted to make an up-tempo and danceable song so I can
dance in my room during the lockdown. I got lost in Jazz music
the last couple of years and it really changed and opened up
the way I make music.” The moods, tones and emotions on the
EP shift as seamlessly as the genres, never quite settling into
one single place and constantly exploring and expanding into
new musical terrain. A process mirrored by Amamiya’s own
varied influences and tastes that were funnelled into the record,
from film soundtracks to IDM to spiritual jazz such as
‘November Cotton Flower’ by Marion Brown and ‘Harvest’ by
Pharoah Sanders.
hree years after the release of their self-titled debut LP, Shark Toys follow it up with ten more bursts of weirdo punk. Nine originals and cover of the Mekons classic, “Where Were You.” Ever since forming in 2008, the band has developed a reputation for sharp and choppy live sets, developing a loyal following around their home town of Los Angeles and around the US, from playing shows with bands like Ty Segall, Protomartyr, Parquet Courts, Terry Malts, the Urinals and many others. This batch of tunes were taken from the same session as the recent 7” single, a split with Florida’s UV-TV, on Emotional Response, earlier this year, recorded by Dave Fox of the Traditional Fools (who also recorded Fuzz, Scraper, Vial, and Wand). "A treble fueled look at Los Angeles that certain fans of Tyvek will consume lovingly. Usually the word shambolic would be thrown in for effect when describing bands attempting to transmit a Homosexuals/Tronics/Desperate Bicycles air, but this band does not have a shambling manner to these ears. They seem very propulsive and on target, with shards of errant guitar whipped into shape by the savagery of the rhythm. … They have a driving down highways at night nihilism that is hard to conjure … with ear slicing guitar “solos” somewhere between sneaker squeak and door creak. … Super catchy bedroom punk for people that clutch the Astral Glamour box set to their hearts and know all the words to Swell Maps B-sides …"— Maximum Rock N' Roll // “Much love for this synth-punk masterpiece, highly recommended by Strangeworld for members of Ausmuteants fan club.” - Strangeworld Records, Australia
2022 Repress
Third album (1981) by the Belgian band Univers Zero. The title alludes to the short story of the same name
by H.P. Lovecraft; the players read the story in studio, then proceeded to record the piece. A key release
for the band. Ceux du Dehors sometimes suggests a darker and more complex version of the motorik minimalism of classical music contemporaries Philip Glass and Steve Reich.
This album finds the group continuing to evolve and return to the more general and varied chamber music sound of their first release, except with more precision and skill. The tricky charts of percussionist Daniel Denis and new keyboardist Andy Kirk are executed with great panache. The labyrinth-like compositions are typically filled with unexpected twists and turns, and angular repetitions of jagged riffs that accelerate, decelerate and mutate in passages of acute tension or quiet but ominous dread.
Cat.no.: SR403
Format: LP
Tracklisting
Clear Vinyl
Bartosz Kruczynski - the sometimes-ambient producer also known by his more club-ready moniker, Earth Trax - returns to the Shall Not Fade catalogue with his third full-length album. The Sensual World LP draws from both the moody, industrial soundscape of the cold wave-inspired LP1; and the warmer, more ethereal undertones of its successor. Whilst lending stylistic aspects from both, his latest release maintains their mercuriality and textural complexity whilst at the same time resembling something distinctly new. This 13-tracker sees the Warsaw producer continue to prove himself as one of the most versatile and consistent producers in the game.
Composed and produced during the 2020 pandemic, The Sensual World contemplates eco/environmental aesthetics and recontextualizes the genres that Kruczynski took as a springboard for the inception of his musical career. The aptly-named "Dream Pop" and "Fireflies" use arpeggiated melodies, vocal chops and luscious pads to capture the transportive allure by which early Earth Trax releases have been recognised; whilst later in the record, "Pearl" and "Splash" pair these tropes with those of industrial techno to create two pulsating dancefloor heaters. Elsewhere, the focus is on sound design and rhythmic complexity, with sharp, crystalline acid melodies ("Metal") and "Dreams Made Flesh's" broken drill beats and epic synths. Whilst other tracks see Kruczynski tap into the "bittersweet dance floor moments" for which he has become renowned over the course of his illustrious career ("Nowhere"), The Sensual World also offers its listeners sonic respite with some stripped-back, down-tempo slow burners "Nowhere" and "Everlong".
A protean producer who nonetheless has succeeded in helming a truly inimitable and idiosyncratic sound, The Sensual World LP sees Kruczynski cater for everyone - from the emotional ravers to the more hard-faced warehouse dwellers.
Justin K Broadrick (Godflesh, Jesu, JK Flesh) breathes new life into his FINAL project for an album on Helm’s ALTER label. Formed in 1984 out of an obsession with the industrial, noise & power electronics acts of the early eighties, FINAL made its public debut at the legendary Mermaid pub in Birmingham when Broadrick was just 14 years old. A string of cassette releases via his Post MortemRekordings label established the name within the underground noise scene of the time until increased activity with his various groups (Napalm Death, Head of David and later Godflesh) meant that FINAL naturally fell by the wayside before the end of the decade. Broadrick reactivated the project in 1993 during the British ambient “isolationism” period and FINAL's sound became focussed more on texture, producing beatless ambient work with a number of albums for labels like Sentrax, Utech, No Quarter and Neurot. ‘It Comes To Us All’ is the first FINAL album to appear on vinyl since 2015’s ‘Black Dollars’ on Downwards and continues to explore the textural nature of Broadrick’s ambient work - this time through a filter of blown-out harmonic noise that reconnects the project with its harsher roots. Rather than channelling the angst of early power-electronics, the noise here rumbles along blissfully through 8 untitled tracks, sombre in tone and at times beautiful. Melodies sampled from pop music are put through a process of decay, stripped of their form and worn down with a rusty, melancholic afterglow. Reducing all its parts to slow-motion shadows of their former selves, ‘It Comes To Us All’ is an exploration of the decay of all living things that we face collectively, day after day.
Awe Kid explores ideas of trans-humanism, evolution and digital immortality on Body Logic, a fantastically lush new album for Atomnation. The immersive 10 track record plays with organic, breathing textures punctuated by moments of digital unrealness to result in an album permeated with a dream-like quality. This contrast is mirrored by the artwork from Portugal's acclaimed The Royal Studio.
Awe Kid is an alias of Sine Language Records co-founder Rick Parsons. It is the product of years spent exploring a multitude of different music. From early days in post-hardcore groups and on to a love of 90s Warp, electronic jazz and more experimental niches, the multi-instrumentalist has now settled on his own unique fusion of breaks, ambient and left-field dance music. This deft studio wizard mixes up melodic nostalgia with forward-thinking sound design using whatever he can get his hands on, from analog and modular hardware, to samplers, field recordings to digital techniques.
Says Parsons, “I love working with digital processes because you get these unexpected moments where you dial something in, that somehow takes on a tangible, organic form in the real world. Searching for these sweet spots was the motivation for the album, contrasting natural textures against synthetic elements, and finding ways to create something that feels like it exists outside of the computer.”
While the album pays homage to dance music traditions, such as the broken beat of title track 'Body Logic', and full-throttle breaks of 'Zenith', these are assimilated and repurposed to create something that defies genre categorization. The listener's journey is perfectly paced, with broody but uplifting cuts of electronica giving way to shimmering, celestial melodies, and dusty breakbeats emerging from dense layers of atmosphere, only for the mood to be reset with soothing, suspenseful synths and haunting vocal samples. Elsewhere, devastatingly emotional ambient is followed by punchy grooves and propulsive melodies to make for a real ride.
