Buscar:sound b

"...while I like to think that creations are a 'moment in time', this, for me, is much more than just a moment."

Truenoys 2020

"Depression is not just for those with painful traumas but it can lurk in everyone who is willing to live in truth... this album can be a cure or a helping hand...soundwise and lyrically."

Amos 2020

A/T/O/S, pronounced 'A Taste Of Struggle' is a project by Amos & Truenoys.

Introduced by a mutual friend, A/T/O/S started creating music together. Their first creation, 'A Taste Of Struggle' was quickly picked up by dubstep pioneer Mala, who signed them to his label DEEP MEDi. Their debut release received an early spin by BBC 6 Music's Mary Anne Hobbs and impressive remixes by Skream and Commodo.

Their upcoming album 'waterman', is the 3rd on DEEP MEDi, following their self-titled debut 'A/T/O/S' and the follow-up 'Outboxed'.

'waterman' once again sees A/T/O/S exploring new territories with their formula of exciting beats and powerful vocals, accompanied by Michiel De Malsche (@MIDM) on the keys as their 'secret, not so secret' member in the studio & on stage.

Mort Garson’s road to cool cultural caché and the sublimity of Plantasia meant a decades’ long journey through an underworld of sophisticated, international, string-laced dreck (i.e., your great-grandparents’ record collection) to arrive at Music from Patch Cord Productions, this set of queasy-listening you now hold.

Music from Patch Cord Productions shows that Garson’s knack was to exist in both worlds, super-commercial and waaay out. He cut delirious minute-long blasts for commercials (as to whether or not they were actually ever aired remains unknown) and spacecraft-hovering études. Were there really account managers out there in the early ’70s that gave the greenlight to these commercial compositions which seemed to anticipate everyone from John Carpenter to Suicide? What were these campaigns actually for, Soylent Green? Regardless, Mort’s jingle work laid the groundwork for the future. As Robert Moog himself noted: “The jingles were important because they domesticated the sound.” Via Garson’s wizardry, the synthesizer transcended novelty to ubiquity and dominance.

Other curios and questions abound. How did Garson’s arrangement work for Arthur Prysock’s satiny body worship album This Is My Beloved transmogrify into the body-snatcher pulses of “This is My Beloved”? Are the two pieces even related? What is the IATA code for the airport of “Realizations of an Aeropolis”? What denomination is the “Cathedral of Pleasure”? If “Son of Blob” sounds like a hallucinatory melted ice cream truck theme, what on earth does Blob’s father sound like? Every sound wrangled out of that Moog by Garson pushes things further and further out.

Of course, these are all questions that may never get answers, as Garson wasn’t the most organized modern day composer, busy as he was conjuring strange new realms with his circuit boards and synths. He worked and wrote right up until his death in 2008, his daughter and Sacred Bones still going through all of the material left behind. He wouldn’t live to see it, but his renaissance was just around the corner, the seeds that had been scattered in record bins around the world suddenly coming to bear fruit. Take a bite!

Ocean Moon is a solo project from Jon Tye of Seahawks. A long time explorer of the sounds of spaciousness, having released the ambient classic LP iO in 1994 as MLO, Crystal Harmonics is a document of Jon’s latest discoveries. An ambient/new age/modern classical library suite for KPM, this is inter-dimensional music for mind, body and spirit.

Island Visions, the recent collection of music from Seahawks for KPM, touched on the deeper, more spatial side of music and led to Jon exploring this territory in greater depth, again for KPM, under his Ocean Moon alter ego. This time he brought along some of today’s most visionary musicians: Jon Brooks (The Advisory Circle / Ghostbox) for his intuitive melodic mastery, Seaming To (Graham Massey’s Toolshed) for her extraordinary vocal talents, Steve Moore (Zombi) for his sophisticated and inventive rhythmic sensibility and Richard Norris (The Grid) for his sensitive and deeply resonant ambience. The initial recordings were made at The Centre Of Sound in Cornwall, with the collaborators various contributions coming from London, Derbyshire and the US.

The supremely serene electronic flute and bells of “Crystal Drift” ease us into our journey and we take our next steps with “Rainbow Ripples” as it gently folds space with arpeggiated synth swells and delicate machine beats. Light vocal tones, bells and breath FX on “And Breathe” keep us going, accompanied by synth drones and billows of electric piano.

We travel through the synth-space-surf haze of “Lost Oceans”, with soft bass and warm ambience, to reach the “New Infinity” of revolving melody, spacious pads and light electronic beats. The celestial tone floats of “White Mirror” close out the first side.

Temple bells ring out to running water flowing together with deep resonant vocal tones as the second side opens with “Peace Bells”. “Revolving and Evolving” follows, a tranquil electronic meadow of lush pastoral synth tones where we rest for a while for “Mountain Dreaming”, a light rhythmic dance of zither and birdsong.

The undulating “Forest Motion” ripples with synth arpeggios, dreamy Solina strings and percussive modular electronics before allowing the crackling ambience and Cantonese whispers of “Sleep Golden” to wash over us. Finally we find ourselves on “The Long Path”, its warm temple ambience of drones and chants guiding us home.

Crystal Harmonics is inspired by four particular albums from KPM’s catalogue. There’s The Electronic Light Orchestra by Adrian Wagner from 1975 and then Temple Of The Stars, Breath Of Life and finally Keith Mansfield’s Circles, these last three coming from KPM’s mid-1980s run of modern classical/New Age gems. For Jon, “making library music can be very liberating. I really enjoyed the additional focus it brought to the music working on different facets of composition with each collaborator”.

But Crystal Harmonics is no mere exercise in vulger pastiche. As the past, present and future sound of paradise, this fresh exploration of mid-90s ambient and original New Age sounds exists outside of our linear experience of time.

The cover started as a collage Jon made a couple of years ago, a different expression of the same impulses that guided the music. As a nod to the records that provided seeds of inspiration, the collage was framed by KPM’s house style of the 1980s for the finished sleeve by Richard Robinson.

Mastered for vinyl by Be With’s sonic shaman Simon Francis, cut by the legendary Pete Norman and pressed in the Netherlands by Record Industry, Ocean Moon’s Crystal Harmonics is the tranquil balm for these turbulent times.

FREEDOM/FICTION REMIXES is a compilation of six experimental dance tracks featuring an international mix of well known and upcoming artists. Opening with a hybrid rhythmic statement by Berlin based multimedia artist Zoë Mc Pherson (founder of SFX-Label), to be followed by L.A.'s performance duo Pacoima Techno, who bring track 9 – Apparatus – of L Twills' recently released debut album Freedom/Fiction to the Drexciyan dancefloors of their self-proclaimed genre Casa Teka, Xiu Xiu ends side A with a disturbing but electrifyingly lynchian noise interpretation of Freedom/Fiction. Side B takes the Album's tunes to another night's sight: Automatic Subject gets a new coat by John Tejada's well known and intriguing techno-sound, Montreal based Tobias Rochman (one part of Pelada) turns M.A.S.T.E.R.S. into a techno-drum'n'bass version, whilst upcoming Berlin based producer and Dj Nomi Elektra finalizes the spectrum with an acid-house interpretation of L.A. Automatic Subject pt.2. Releasing on the 16thof October, the compilation is a limited edition of 300 12” Vinyls and can be ordered through Word&Sound. The Cover shows “Autoportrait”, a painting by Mexican artist Frieda Toranzo Jäger.






Automatic Subject pt2. Remix Nomi Elektra

So here we are with another first – the next vinyl debut on Cheezy Crust Records as well as thefirst ever release for the two-piece project that is CVSO which is their „Basic Cuts EP“.
Comprised of Mainz / Germany-based producers Mint Huus who made his solo debut on Cheezy Crust in 2019 and Get In Touch head honcho Willberg their joint venture project CVSO caters a total of four tracks on limited to 200 copies 12“ vinyl, all aptly named after their individual
placement and position on the actual record itself.
Mastered by electronic music legend and pioneer Thomas P. Heckmann the trademark sound of CVSO presented on this EP is informed by classic early to mid-90s Techno and Intelligent Techno vibes with its ever evolving flow and stripped down aesthetic which fuses subtle harmonic changes, spatial meanderings within the stereo field as well as a hypnotic, time-dissolving attitude for heavy dancefloor abuse.
This said, CVSO are aiming for nothing less than their introduction to the ivy league of Techno with these „Basic Cuts“, providing classy, absolutely timeless and expertly assembled DJ tools which are aiming to perfectly blend in with and match the vibe of all those now classic tunes that have never left a DJs bag for a quarter of a century or more, even though CVSO are tackling their sound design and production approach with a modern contemporary twist.

A stunning new production by the Rhythm And Sound ace, drawn from his recording sessions with some of Senegal’s greatest musicians — a griot clan of Sabar drummers from Kaolack in Senegal, led by Bakane Seck, with guest players and vocalists, including many mainstays of the bands of Baaba Maal, Youssou N’Dour and company.
Jeri-Jeri’s style of Mbalax is swingeingly masterful — heady and hard-grooving, with highly complex, fiercely succinct poly-rhythms — an ancient-futuristic music, mesmeric but sharp as nails, super-charged with drama. Featuring the lovelorn vocals of guest Mbene Diatta Seck, Sabar traditions are fused with furious Afro-Cubanismo, hard funk-rock, and shards of high-life.

Ernestus’ nasty, hypnotic, stripped dub — an Mbalax first — edges in the bass, profiles the talmbat and tungun drums, and scoops the semantics out of the singing.

Composed, produced, and arranged by Eartheater alone, Phoenix: Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin draws a path back to the primordial lava lake from which she first emerged, as it also testifies to the reincarnating resurrections the project has undergone over its first full decade of existence. While the album renews her focus on guitar performance and legible structure, Eartheater balances the unabashed prettiness of acoustic harmonic songs with the dissonant gestural embroidery of oblique instrumentals. Having fallen back in love with the idioms that first captivated her, she worked to crack open the techniques that had fossilized inside of her, while still seeking to apply the electro-alchemical knowledge she picked up along her journey. The result of a laborious revival in fire, Phoenix recontextualizes Eartheater’s combinatorial approach to production within her most confident abstractions, adjacent to some of her most direct songs to date.

Eartheater composed and workshopped most of Phoenix over a ten-week artist residency (FUGA) in Zaragoza, Spain, housed in a sprawling, cubic glass facility that looked out over wildflower-flecked mountains. Following an intensive period of recording and touring, the residency provided her with an unprecedented period of solitude in the small Spanish town. Her newfound sense of isolation ultimately became liberating, leading her to sidestep the crutches and steady grids inherent to electronic music, and to conceive pieces rooted in her guitar and her desire to perform with other players live.

Eartheater’s voice glows brighter than ever at the center of Phoenix’s arrangements — her familiar operatic highs are grounded by newly expanded velvety lows, leaping lucidly up and down octaves. Her intricate guitar work flits across baroque fingerpicked passages and latches into cyclical figures that meet her voice in lush harmonic progressions. From her own guitar parts, to the orchestral string arrangements she wrote for the Spanish conservatory group Ensemble de Camara, to the harp and violin lines performed by her close friends and collaborators Marilu Donovan and Adam Markiewicz of LEYA, Eartheater’s applications of acoustic instruments bring an extraordinary emotional emphasis to her compositions. Phoenix prepares for a future where electronic sound — or even electricity itself — isn’t guaranteed, but where her music could still come to life with a group of hands dexterously winding across instruments against the light of the fire. Eartheater drew inspiration for Phoenix from geological imagery, whose turbulence and potential for genesis mirror the trajectory of her own life and relationships. The album’s instrumental pieces directly reference these moments of upheaval, colliding audio of volcano and lightning storms with resplendent string and vocal arrangements. “Volcano” looks out over the album from its peak at the center, its tectonic plates colliding in towering melodies and layers of vocal harmonies, as piano accents crest and cascade down the mountainside. When Eartheater sings, “I’m still building mountains underground,” she is trying to reconcile the pinnacles of her ambition with the comforts of a simple existence buried beneath the surface. “Diamond in the Bedrock” finds her admiring the gemstone forming under intense pressure inside her, but rejecting the romantic promise that the diamond signifies, choosing instead to escape a relationship that has come to stifle her.

With the album’s subtitle, Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin, Eartheater imagines being tempered to a state of perfect equilibrium, suspended between melting and freezing, where fire could streak across her body and appear as a crystalline blush. This image captures the tension at the heart of the Eartheater project, as she decides how best to distill her passion and render it cool to the touch; to find beauty in simple pleasure, while keeping one eye fixed on the peaks that loom in the horizon. The album is mixed by Kiri Stensby and mastered by Heba Kadry, featuring photography by Daniel Sannwald.

Thaba is a collaboration between South African singer/
songwriter Khusi Seremane and American producer/musician
Gabriel Cyr. Tragically in July 2020, while the two were
working with Soundway to prepare the release of their first
record, Seremane died a few days past his 41st birthday, after
battling health issues for several years.
The particular Thaba sound reflects a sonic duality drawing
on a double pop heritage of Mbaqanga and Bubblegum artists
like The Soul Brothers, Paul Ndlovu and Pat Shange alongside
traces of Roxy Music, Grace Jones, Sade, and Talk Talk that’s
wrapped up in a modern, electronic, layered, introspective
and at times jazz-tinged production style.
Brought together by a shared love of kwaito, 90’s R&B and
classic downtempo, Seremane and Cyr collaborated for a
decade after meeting online in the halcyon days of Myspace
Music. While the pair initially planned for Seremane to guest
on a Teleseen track, their ideas eventually evolved into an
entire record. Their debut, Eyes Rest Their Feet, was created
remotely over the course of several years, with the core
recorded during a 2016 studio session in Cape Town.
After returning to New York, Cyr honed these recordings with
several Brooklyn-based musicians, calling upon members
of Antibalas, Underground System, Midnight Magic, Loboko
and others. Eyes Rest Their Feet spans genres as well as
geography, touching on elements of soul, reggae, synth-pop
and beyond, with lyrical themes that explore loneliness and
the challenges of human relationships.
Eyes Rest Their Feet not only represents the apex of
Seremane’s work as an artist but also a meditation on the
transformative power of love and the impermanence of all
things.

The second volume brings sublime crossings of gospel with the soul, funk and jazz of the Black Power era. Twenty rapturous cuts dot dazzlingly between Muscle Shoals soul, screwed breakbeat, Mizells-style fusion, disco and proto-house. Triumphant re-workings of Sly Stone, Donny Hathaway and Herbie Hancock’s Head Hunters will have listeners throwing their pew cushions into the air.

Full-size booklet; beautifully designed, with stunning, rare photographs and original Savoy artwork.

Posthuman makes his Food Music debut with the infectious “You’re Mine”.

The Frank DeWulf-esque stabs and swagger from this tune have already had many "ID?” requests from people since airing on Rinse FM and a DJmag social media video over the last few weeks and months. Posthuman has taken his sound to a fresh area which is complimented by remixes by none other than Luke Vibert, with an ice-cool swung-groove, Black Girl/White Girl with a full on pounding Techno workout and on the digital package, newcomers Mac & Ward do the big room House thing to perfection! In addition we’ve included “Find Me On The Edge of Town”.. an acid-kissed piece of Techno which sits the cherry ontop of an awesome release for us on Food.

The specially designed game and accompanying music video pertains to the overall theme of the EP, which shows an absurd society obsessed with social media descending into a dystopian world. It is a paranoid graphic vision, set in Brussels, Strapontin’s hometown, that puts you in control of a role playing game as you march round the city collecting social points with scant regard for others.

Besides being a dancer, performer and on-and-off “Madame pipi”, French-born, Brussels-based Strapontin is also a DJ and producer who mixes up slow and rough techno with thrilling soundtracks and groove driven disco. He has released on Nein and I’m Single amongst others and marks this 10th Hard Fist release in fine style.

Opening up the EP is ‘Nervous Days’, a gallivanting techno-disco groove with rugged loops and jumbled percussion that sounds like a rampage through a cityscape, as per the video. Then comes ‘But The Nice One!’, a stomping and rough and ready ride on lumpy drums and bass that is dark but playful. The quality continues on ‘Miss Mickey the Dumbs’, with some brilliantly heavy and reverberating drums making you jerk your body while sci-fi effects float and drift about up top.

Blindetonation label regular and esteemed modern disco man Thomass Jackson remixes ‘But The Nice One!’ In his capable hands it becomes a melon twisting workout with spangled synth lines, psyched-out synths and percolating drums that are finished with a vulnerable and eerie vocal. Last of all is a Damon Jee remix of ‘Miss Mickey the Dumbs’, His music can be heard on the underground’s most sought-after labels including Roam, Hafendisko, Suara and Sincopat to name just a few. His version is a more direct affair, with searching laser synths and a hypnotic space-techno vibe that carries you off to the stars at increasingly high speeds.

This is a fittingly brilliant EP from the vital Strapontin on ever-excellent Hard Fist.

Peaceful, percussive and idyllic new age from Japanese composer and student of gamelan music, Yas-Kaz. This seminal album is a cornerstone to understand the Japanese ambient and environmental movement. He rose to musical prominence composing for the dance troupe led by one of the founders of Butoh, Tatsumi Hijikata. The album features a wide range of entirely acoustic instruments and field recordings and was made for stage performance by Sankai Juku Butoh Group at Theatre de la Ville, Paris.

Yas-Kaz has influenced quite a few important artist (Ryuichi Sakamoto, Midori Takada, Geino Yamashiro-Gumi) over 4 decades. However, he remains somewhat "unsung": Glossy Mistakes unveils his art throughout this special edition. His composition/music is not focused on any specific genre/style of music either. Especially in his work for dance theatre he often delivers bare abstract sound/resonance which might not be recognized as "musical" from the Western perspective. He lived in Bali, Indonesia in the 70s introducing the gamelan Balinese sounds and culture to Ryuichi Sakamoto (collaborated in the album "Esperanto), Midori Takada, Shoji Yamashiro (leader of Geino Yamashiro-gumi who later created the soundtrack for "Akira”) among others.

A unique and unseen masterpiece unveiled again throughout a remastered edition.

When Yiğit Bülbül knocked on our door and put his debut album on the table, Fever took our hearts in a storm. The Turkish born, London based musician and producer knows how to craft his own contemporary avant-garde pop projections with a rich musical heritage shining through from the 1980s and 90s. His style erupts into silly, absurd moments of synth blurps, percussive extravaganza and psyched horns, It’s always colourful and trippy, but in a light way. It’s exactly what we want to release in a year of distress. The album is framed by two contemplative tracks, which are reminiscent of Holger Czukay’s oeuvre. The saxophone in the opening track "The Heath" undulates like an introvert leading voice in a meditation. The long and meticulously crafted ambient outro "Txalaparta" features a spoken word sample by the Basque folk musician Txomin Artola from 1978. The four tracks at the heart of the album are beat driven, percussion-heavy, loaded with synths and random horn samples. "Alo?" sounds like Snakefinger tries to get on a Skype call with Serge Gainsbourg. "Cacti All Over My Head" could well be a Ween instrumental with long arching synth lines over a slowed down bossa nova beat. Fever is a frivolous album which bursts with exalted charm and guest musicians. This is not another greetings-from-the-lockdown album, but with the obvious reference in the title it’s almost a tongue-in-cheek name about creative obsessions of our times. It's the debut album by the multi-instrumentalist Y Bülbül who has learned his trade working with various interesting artists and bands in London in the past 10 years. He is also a passionate crate digger and DJ. His own radio show is unerringly titled "Bülbül's Gemüsement Park", which airs on Netil Radio, a community broadcasting station in Hackney. Bonus fact, Bülbül is the Turkish name for a brown-eared passerine bird, one that's into singing.

Demon Records presents the first ever vinyl pressing of The Durutti Column’s 2009 studio album “Love In The Time Of Recession”.

Formed in Manchester in 1978, The Durutti Column were one of the first acts signed to the iconic Factory Records by Tony Wilson. Primarily the project of guitarist and vocalist Vini Reilly, the group have a cult following with notable fans including Brian Eno and John Frusciante.

“Love In The Time Of Recession” finds Reilly and co continuing to explore genre-blending sounds. Highlights include the fuzzy guitar filled ‘In Memory Of Anthony’ (a tribute to the late Factory Records founder), and ‘More Rainbows’, an instrumental conversation between Vini Reilly’s soaring guitar and girlfriend Poppy Morgan’s dreamy electric piano.

Pressed on two 140g translucent amber vinyl, housed in printed inner sleeves.

Demon Records presents the first ever vinyl pressing of The Durutti Column’s 2003 studio album “Someone Else’s Party”.

Formed in Manchester in 1978, The Durutti Column were one of the first acts signed to the iconic Factory Records by Tony Wilson. Primarily the project of guitarist and vocalist Vini Reilly, the group have a cult following with notable fans including Brian Eno and John Frusciante.

Recorded after the passing of Reilly’s mother, the melancholic “Someone Else’s Party” explores themes of loss and reflection. Highlights include the trip-hop influenced ‘Vigil’, and ‘Spanish Lament’ which weaves together Reilly’s signature shimmering guitar sounds with a sample from David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive.

Pressed on two 140g clear vinyl, housed in printed inner sleeves.

In the late-1970s Athens, Georgia was buzzing with a raw but sophisticated music scene. Traditional Southern rock had been the Georgia musical export for years before but the turn of the decade began producing new sounds from bands like the B-52’s, REM and Alt Rock luminaires Pylon.
 Before they were a band, Pylon were art-school students at the University of Georgia: four kids invigorated by big ideas about art and creativity and society. However, Pylon were less of a band and more of an art project, which meant they had very specific goals in mind, as well as an expiration date.
 While their time together as a band was short lived (1979-1983), Pylon had a lasting influence on the history of rock and roll. Throughout their brief history, they were able to create influential work that would help foster the post-punk and art-rock scene of the early 80s. Artists like R.E.M., Gang of Four, Sonic Youth, Sleater-Kinney, Interpol, Deerhunter and many more claim inspiration from the band.
 Their 1979 single ‘Cool’ / ‘Dub’ reached legendary status, with Rolling Stone titling it one of the 100 Greatest Debut Singles Of All Time.
 In 1980 the band released their first record, ‘Gyrate’, and began touring across the country in support of the release. The band would soon develop a following across the country and specifically in the bustling music scene in New York City. One of their earliest gigs was opening for the Gang of Four in the Big Apple.
 Following the critical acclaim of their debut release, Pylon went back into the studio. They gleefully pulled their songs apart and put them back together in new shapes, revealing a band of self proclaimed nonmusicians who had transformed gradually but noticeably into real musicians. The resulting album, ‘Chomp’, was barely off the press when Pylon were booked to open a run of dates for a hot new Irish band called U2 (after previously playing two arena shows with them in the month leading to the album release). Most bands would have jumped at the opportunity but Pylon were sceptical. At a critical point in the life of Pylon, they opted to become a cult band rather than stretch their defining philosophy too far.
 “We fully intended Pylon to be an almost seasonal thing that we were gonna do for a minute and then get on with our lives,” says Curtis Crowe, drummer for the band. “But it just never went away. It still doesn’t go away. There’s a new subterranean class of kids that are coming into this kind of music, and they’re just now discovering Pylon. That blows my mind. We didn’t see that coming.”
 New West Records are proud to partner with Pylon to reissue ‘Chomp’ and ‘Gyrate’ back into the masses. Beautifully remastered from the original audio sources and pressed on vinyl (140g) for the first time in over 30 years.
 New West Records also present ‘Pylon Box’, a comprehensive look at the band that features the remastered studio LPs ‘Gyrate’ and ‘Chomp’, the 11-song collection ‘Extra’ - which includes rarities and previously unreleased studio and live recordings - and ‘Razz Tape’, Pylon’s first ever recording: a 13-song unreleased session that pre-dates the band’s seminal ‘Cool’ / ‘Dub’ debut.
 ‘Pylon Box’ also includes a hardbound 200-page full colour book featuring pieces written by the members of R.E.M., Gang of Four, Steve Albini, Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney, Sonic Youth, Interpol, B-52’s, Bradford Cox of Deerhunter, Mission of Burma, Calvin Johnson of Beat Happening and K Records, Anthony DeCurtis, Chris Stamey of the dB’s, Steve Wynn of the Dream Syndicate and many more. Features an extensive essay chronicling the band’s history, with interviews with the surviving members of the band as well as members of R.E.M., B-52’s, Gang of Four, Method Actors and more. It also features never before seen images and artifacts from both the band’s personal archives as well as items now housed at the Special Collections Library at the University of Georgia and the Georgia Museum of Art, UGA.

"...The most beautiful thing about my burrow is the stillness. Of course, that is deceptive. At any moment it may be shattered and then all will be over. For the time being, however, the silence is with me." - Franz Kafka

In early 2019, at the Sonic Pieces 10 year anniversary in Berlin, label head Monique Recknagel hand-picked three duos from the imprint to perform live together for the first time. One of the collaborations was between Deaf Center's Erik K Skodvin and electronic composer Jasmine Guffond. The performance went so well that Monique commissioned the duo to record a full-length together.

Six months later, Guffond and Skodvin headed to Berlin's VOX-TON studio and recorded for two days, joined by Finnish musician Merja Kokkonen (Islaja), who improvised wordless vocals. With Guffond on laptop and a cymbal and Skodvin using piano, feedback, farfisa organ and percussion, the two composed an album of deep, enveloping sound that slithers through genre, absorbing Kokkonen's unique voice into five intricate and evolving pieces.

"The Burrow" takes its name from Franz Kafka's unfinished short story that was written only six months before his death. The tale, published posthumously in 1931, centres around a small creature who builds a burrow that's anxiously fortified in an attempt to protect against perceived attacks. This sense of fear of the outside world feels even more focused in 2020. Each track is named after animals that are either extinct or almost extinct, adding a sense of loss that hangs in the air, punctuated by screams and deep reverberating piano hits. As the world we thought we knew quickly retreats from view and the idea of safety shifts rapidly, Skodvin and Guffond explore the impulse to protect what we know with an emotionally charged sound that provides a foil with cautious, haunting spaces in between.

Multi Natural is a new example of Christina’s organic chamber music. We enter nine composed chambers. Nine rooms to inhabit, constructed out of elements that are slowly fusing. The album is a string of semi constant metamorphosis. A gesture appears, is elaborated upon—or is halted and replaced by a new gesture. Multi Natural has multi focal points, quite dissimilar to Christina’s other works that tend to have a more linear path.

Within this album lives a composer who is not afraid to let the content take over. In this, obviously composed work, there is still a large space for all those sounds to act freely. It is almost like Christina is waiting for the music to compose itself. This technique speaks of respect and trust for the listener, since it gives thelistener freedom to personally connect the lines.

When you put the needle on this record, everything turns to stone. The music flows and nurtures. Sounds that come from various realities—molded into a mutual understanding. With each spin, new events catch the ears. Like looking at alandscape, perceiving new details close and far with every gaze.

When Christina warps both time and space for you, it comes to you as a gift.

The Fall is a deconstruction of November by Dennis Johnson.

Written for solo piano in 1959, November is the first example of minimalist music composition and was the inspiration for La Monte Young's The Well-Tuned Piano (1964). The 66 minute piece is a collaboration between legendary artist Lustmord and renowned classical pianist Nicolas Horvath, in which they reduces Johnson's original November to its core element and place it in a landscape of complimentary sound. The Fall echo's November but with further resonance.

Recorded in May-June 2019 in Los Angeles, and Misy-sur-Yonne, France.

Lustmord
Active since 1980, born of the original 'industrial' scene of the period. With its own distinctive approach, blurring the line between music and sound design Lustmord's work has featured in 45 motion pictures including The Crow and Underworld and also in video games, television and commercials. Recently Lustmord scored the music for Paul Schrader's movie First Reformed. While Lustmord is often credited for creating the 'dark ambient' genre there is much more nuance to its work than what that label implies. The music is not dark, but is a light that shines into and upon the darkness. Notable collaborations amongst many include Tool, Melvins, Jarboe, John Balance of Coil, Clock DVA, Chris & Cosey, Paul Haslinger, Karin Park and Robert Rich.

Nicolas Horvath
An unusual artist with an unconventional résumé, pianist and electroacoustic composer Nicolas Horvath is known for his boundariesless musical explorations. Horvath is both an enthusiastic promoter of contemporary music - he has commissioned numerous works (including no fewer than 120 as part of his Homages to Philip Glass project in 2014) and collaborated with leading contemporary composers from around the world, including Alvin Lucier, Mamoru Fujieda, Jaan Rääts, Alvin Curran and Valentyn Silvestrov - and a rediscoverer of forgotten or neglected composers such as Moondog, Nobuo Uematsu, Germaine Tailleferre, François-Adrien Boieldieu, Hélène de Montgeroult, Jean Catoire, Karl August Hermann.

After releases on Distinkkt, Blue Park, Woob.le Recordings
and a stream of free downloads and self releases Ali
Whitticase joins Motoring with an ear catching approach to
stripped back house music. The Birmingham based artist
has carved a distinctive sound pairing in§uences from
Europe’s minimalist expressions along with bold basslines
heard shaking Midlands dance §oors. Detective Sandy kicks
off the EP with crisp percussion, and a signature Whitticase
low end. Elements trail off into endless directions, subtly
teasing a hypnotic listen with a multitude of quirky sounds
held together by a seriously grooving bassline. Birmingham’s
Jordan Masters joins that side with a stripped back remix of
the title track, nimble hi-hats, shimmering percussive work
and §avours of minimal garage can be heard throughout, a
bouncing bassline delivers a rapid groove for a great balance
between ear engrosser and dance §oor mover. Jos of
EYA/Lonewolf records delivers his twist on Detective Sandy
for B1, a 90s inspired synth reigns through the entire
composition, sultry vocals, a darker rolling bassline and
sharp percussive elements all build into a suspenseful break,
where the listener is dropped back into the hypnotic twists
and commanding low end. (Premiered on Halycon Wax
08/10/2020) Saucy Thoughts rounds this EP off a Warm
and familiar atmosphere is paired with sublime skipping hi
hats which draw the ear. While Saucy Thoughts is more
chilled affair it still hits in all the right places, another bold
bassline builds throughout the track with deep accents
providing a bouncing groove before the track splits boldly
back into the §oating atmosphere. (Premiered on Rayzeh
02/10/2020)

Infernal Sounds welcomes Cluekid back to the fray, returning to release two of his most sought after dubs in 'Electric Avenue' & 'Horizontal'. The legendary producer throws you right back to the '08 days on the A side, taking you in with straight junglist sampling and a low-end wobble of a freshly set blamanche. 'Horizontal' displays the same sort of traits, but gives you an added dub-flex through the backdrop melody, and a low-end you'll feel right down in your stomach. It's an ultimate double XL.

Hell Yeah call upon their merry crew of grown up groove makers to revisit key tracks from Quiroga's widely acclaimed Passages album, with Whodamanny, Jazz N Palms, A Vision of Panorama and My Friend Dario all stepping up.

The original album was noted as Piccadilly Records' Best Balearic Album of 2019 and a year on is still providing solace for us in these strange times. First to add his own spin to it is Periodica associate Whodamanny from Naples, whose magical take on 'Martinica Feelings' made it onto the excellent recent Buena Onda compilation, which is out now. It is a big hearted vocal reinterpretation filled with stomping kicks and twisted synths that bring the funk next to withering sci-fi effects and happy piano chords.

Then, up steps man of the moment Jazz N Palms, a resident at the cult Ibiza venue Pikes and regular at London's Ronnie Scotts. He has recently started his own self titled label and here offers a mad Latin jazz take on 'Africa Addio' that brims with energy and sunshines. The busy percussion will make you move your ass and the whole thing has a sexy 70s vibe.

Saint Petersbourg's very own balearic legend A Vision of Panorama is hailed as the king of the modern balearic sound thanks to EPs on labels like Omena. He takes care of 'The Zoist' with sentimental melodies and sunset grooves to die for. His arching pads speak to the soul and melt the heart.

Last of all, Hell Yeah's very own discovery My Friend Dario (who soon has an EP coming on NuNorthern Soul, recently remixed Calm and Gallo) tackles 'Chiaia Sunset'. The result is a laidback and cathartic track that slowly unfolds on tumbling drums and wooden hits as synths leave vapour trails high up in the clear blue sky above.

These are four more high class remixes that will keep the summer vibes alive long into Autumn.

Grammy nominated & Defected Records signing Michael Gray is a hugely respected and established British DJ and music producer, and is also one half of the dance music production and remixing duo ‘Full Intention’ who have been at the forefront of Dance music since the early 90s. He’s also known for his solo hits ’The Weekend’ & ‘Borderline’ and recently ‘the Sun’. #2 Soul /Funk /Disco Artist by Traxsource in 2019. Currently his latest remixes include Louie Vega produced Anane - ‘Get on the Funk Train’ (Michael Gray & Mark Knight Remix) which has recently gone to No. 1 on the overall traxsource chart, Serious Intention - 'You don’t know’, Raze - Break for Love, Sylvester - You make me feel (mighty real) Records) and his Sultra Remix of his single ’The Weekend’ (First played by Pete Tong on Radio 1) He has played for nights such as Glitterbox at The Ministry of Sound, Hi Ibiza, Fabric, Downtown Disco and recently for The Glitterbox Virtual festival.

Kelli Sae is a New York born and bred Performer, Singer, Songwriter, Actress, Composer, Comedian and Playwright. Born of Puerto Rican and African descent, her music is a masala of sounds, cultures and influences that drive her instincts.

Kelli has worked with Tina Turner, Paul Simon, Seal, Chaka Kahn, Gladys Knight, Lionel Richie and many more. Kelli is also a Principal Vocalist Monday night’s on ABC’s hit Reality Television Show Dancing With The Stars. Other Television shows she’s worked on are I Can See Your Voice, Rising Star and The Singing Bee.

What were the skies like when you were young? These days, asking that question likely conjures disappointment in its answer. Dreams of possibility hardened by certainty. Hopes and prayers jet-cooled to brittle acquiescence. A lingering feeling that this is not what we asked for, not what we worked towards. Promises of the future replaced by sins of the father. It is in this particular light that the latest work, "Moscels," by Iranian artist and musician Ata Ebtekar, also known as Sote, arrives on Opal Tapes, British label for the sonically curious and aurally disaffected. Contrary to potential expectation, it features no rhythmic exhortations, no colloidal outbursts, and no acoustic instrumentation of any kind. Synthesized entirely from physical models and oscillators, whose union gives the record its name, "Moscels" is a haunting, beautiful, and auspicious listen. None of Ebtekar's work comes necessarily easy to the listener, but "Moscels" is suffused with a sense of wonder almost childlike in quality, and so it beckons kindly. In acertain sense, electronic music is a kind of magic, isn't it? And this is the sound of a magician at work. Dive into the sound of an otherworld, so close yet so far, where dreaming is less sweet than being, and where all that is possible remains still at hand.

O$VMV$M the Bristol based production duo of Amos Childs (Jabu) and Sam Barrett (Kahn & Neek) have traditionally dealt in hazy, smoked out vignettes - seen across release for Idle Hands, No Corner and most recently providing music for the Manonmars LP.

Where the duos previous work has explored ideas in short bursts which capture you then fades away; IDLE063 takes their sound into unexplored directions and shows an evolution in their output. By extending their ideas into long form tracks within the traditional lineage of bristol soundsystem culture and combining it with their unique ear for sampling Phase 4 / Witch brings O$VMV$M's into a territory which shows how wide their sound can truly reach

The successful Canadian singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette released her seventh studio album Flavors Of Entanglement in 2008. She wrote and recorded the album with the British composer Guy Sigsworth (Björk, Madonna etc.). The album was written during a very challenging time in her personal life (break-up with actor Ryan Reynolds). It is the reason that she combines a lot of different musical genres in the sound of the album, including hip-hop, electronic and alternative rock. The album is hailed by critic as a longstanding masterpiece, fully understandable when you listen to the depth and structured layers of the songs. She shows her personal feelings in the tracks of heartbreak, regret and anger.

The first track on the album, “Citizen Of The Planet” focuses on her new sound, while the first single “Underneath” is about difficulties in communication.

Worldwide Award winners First Word Records are pleased to welcome back Souleance; a duo that have been releasing music with us for a decade now, and triumphantly returning to the fold with some brand new music for 2020.

This vinyl / digital EP, 'Les Mouches', is their first release for First Word since the acclaimed beat-tape 'French Cassette' from early last year.

Expanding on the original Normand-Parisian super-duo of Fulgeance and Soulist, the Souleance crew now includes Vincent Choquet on synths and Guillaume Rossel on drums as part of their live outfit. Whilst sonically their style remains unchanged, the formation into a full band sees the Souleance sound become bigger, more realised and more formidable than ever.

The title track 'Les Mouches' sets off the EP in a playful disco manner - a chugging bassline, assorted synthesisers, disco claps and a four-to-the-floor drum track, inspired by the likes of Larry Levan and Candido. Meaning "flies", Les Mouches was a legendary Manhattan club that existed around the era of Studio 54, and was infamously a hangout spot for Imelda Marcos. The club itself was named after a play by Jean-Paul Sartre.

Next up is the single 'Aquarelle' (meaning watercolours), which contains more layers than a Bob Ross painting. With its various elements splayed across its aural canvas, sprinkled with some subtle scratches, it's four minutes of funk presented in Souleance's inimitable way.

'The Bounce' follows and enters a more soulful side of the dance, dropping the tempo a touch and inviting in a huge bassline, squelchy keys and intermittent vocal hooks.

'Mont Maudit' takes more of a latin jazz direction with big drums and cymbals rocking throughout, whilst an infectious piano hook cruises throughout, and an ethereal gospel choir switches up the proceedings mid-way.

Things get deeper still with the epic broken beat-esque 'Maneuevers'. Crunchy rhodes dominate this slightly tweaked-out rhythm, a delectable piece of heads-down nujazz fused with Souleance's unmistakable funk once again.

'L'Opuleance' closes out this EP with some more traditional Souleance fare - the tempo a little more head-nod, this one is comprised of some deliciously wobbly bass, chopped samples and hefty breaks.

This EP is essentially a set of grooves marinated in nostalgia whilst managing to sound entirely current. Analogue synths, live bass, sleek cuts and intoxicating drums. This is another round of sure-shot dancefloor fire from our favourite French family.

Previous support has come from OkayPlayer, Bill Brewster, BBC 6 Music's Gilles Peterson, Tom Ravenscroft & Huey Morgan, and various DJs on Worldwide FM, NTS & Le Mellotron,

Slick jungle, low-slung broken beat and even a deep house banger, 'Interlocked' assembles 8 tracks of some of the purest old-school vibes by a veteran of the scene under a brand new alias for a frustrated and precarious (post)-lockdown summer. Tapping the drama and energy of the largely pre-generic party days of '91-94 - a halcyon time of transition in which Drumskull himself, as a life-long skater otherwise stoked on the the raw energy of 80s skate video soundtracks - to Black Flag, JFA, Minor Threat, Stupids et al, to Primus, Gang Starr and Meat Beat Manifesto, made the passage into syncopated machine funk, to sub bass, time-stretched breaks and automated beat production.

Physically drumming in a couple of skate punk bands in the early 90s, exposure to hardcore and early jungle tapes in '93 by DJ Dimension and DJ Rob (Leeds Orbit, UK), amongst countless others, inspired an archetypal move to sell his drum kit so as to land a set of Technics 1210s. Spinning techno and jungle on the local free party scene and clubs as part of a DJ collective from '94-96, crafting early tunes on Amiga ProTracker software, and shortly after running club nights in mid-90s London with Mo' Wax and Ninja Tune artists, Drumskull expresses the eclecticism of the era across 8 big tracks of previously unreleased material. Evoking all the energy and excitement of being involved in those early years of dance culture, 'Interlocked' powerfully yet playfully connects then to now, reveling in a sense of timelessness, mutation and hybridity.

Album photography by Amir Zaki from his book with legendary Skateboarder Tony Hawk and author Peter Zellner 'California Concrete: A Landscape of Skateparks (2019). Graffiti lettering by original UK stylemaster and beatmaker REQ TDK.

Two little-known tracks of clean and clinical yet emotive, UK sounding Electro (even though they're from Belgium). A staple of Andy Weatherall and Keith Tenniswood's sets in the very early 00s and now lovingly re-mastered by Keith himself.

There is definitely something "afro" inspired about this latest EP from Puma & The Dolphin, certainly in comparison to pretty much everything else I've ever heard from him, which includes a great EP on Canadian imprint Chambre Noir and some stellar inclusions on every one of Dj soFa's highly respected "Elsewhere" compilations.

I'm told that while immersed in domestic life during lockdown in Sofia, Bulgaria, the music evolved to take in what was happening at home and saw the inclusion of toy instruments, his own drum playing, the voices of his children playing and even the family parrots whistling and squawking in the background. These random ambient insertions when seen in the context of the hypnotic and percussive rhythms and timbres throughout are oddly reminiscent of the late, great Francis Bebey who, although culturally and physically a million miles removed, was also known for recording much of his work at home and who also featured the voices of his children playing.

In fact, it is as much the music's playfulness and simplicity that give the pieces their distinctive character, at times echoing the repetition and mesmerism of Raymond Scott's "Soothing Sounds For Baby" series. Yet, childrens' music this is not. There is a mysticism and depth on one hand and a willingness to experiment on the other that reminds me of pioneering experimentalist K. Leimer's early Eno-inspired tape outings as well (see "Supermarket" for example).

I asked Puma & The Dolphin's Nikko Names if he could share the story behind how these six tracks came together. He had this to say:

"This collection of pieces were created during a monotone period of my life which I have overlaid with colour: a time in which I surrender to the beauty of home life - watching my kids play, feeding the birds - entwining these sounds of my surroundings amongst the rhythmic layers of these pieces. Playing the drums to remind us of the next circle dance for four. There is something mystic to travel only in your head; a shamanic trip inside the body with no concepts and answers."


"Good stuff ... digging Am Am Am and Supermarket in particular" JD Twitch Optimo Music / Blackest Ever Black / Strut / On-U Sound

"Cool stuff" DJ SoFa Pingipung / Emotional Response / Kalahari Oyster Cult

East London record shop World of Echo debuts on the other side of the counter with a reissue of Two Wishes, the solitary 12" by Anglo-German collective, Mutabor!. Seemingly lost to time, Mutabor! were first brought to World of Echo's attention when drummer/singer, Gary Asquith, played at the shop's first birthday celebrations while promoting one of his other bands, Rema Rema. And so the story goes...

Mutabor! emerged wraith-like from the monochromatic grit of Berlin's art punk underground late in 1981 when Asquith left London to set up temporary residence in the city following a chance meeting with Malaria's Bettina Koster backstage at a Birthday Party gig at the Lyceum earlier that year. Beguiled by the possibilities of collaboration, musical and otherwise, he was soon to make his own contributions to what was an already fecund scene. Partnering with Koster, and Gudrun Gut and Manon Duursma also of Malaria!, Mutabor! were publicly birthed via an impromptu performance at punk rock polestar the Risiko. Asquith found himself playing percussion in what would be a first, while the rest of the band ossified in front of him in typically idealistic post-punk democracy. Little documentation of the performance survives beyond that which exists in the memories of those playing - that itself shaky enough - though there was clearly sufficient encouragement for them to commit to a recording session.

Later that winter, the four booked time at Music Lab, the studio operated by Harris Johns, for what would ultimately be their only studio visit. Two songs were laid to tape, and soon after a photoshoot was to take place at Koster's flat, resulting in a handful of images that, along with the music, comprise the sum total evidence of the band's existence. 1001 Nights and Treats both found their way to Peter Kent, a co-founder of 4AD who had recently left the label with the ambition of starting his own imprint. Entitled Two Wishes, the two track 12" was to be the first and only release on Loaded. It seems that Mutabor! were to represent a series of firsts and lasts, a trend that continues now as they open the World of Echo imprint.

It's fitting to think of Mutabor! in these prescient terms given how they sounded. Berlin at that time shared a spiritual axis with New York, the conceptual & aesthetic discordance of no wave and a nascent off-beat dance culture underpinning much of the respective creative activity. There are shared signifiers, but even in that context, Two Wishes sounds oddly out of step, moving to its own unusual rhythm. 1001 Nights stutters along on a tribal beat that seems to run independent of skronking sax, spidery guitar lines and deadpan vocal incantations, the ghosts of two songs meeting in some kind of incompatible voodoo union. On the reverse, Treats slows down and dims the lights further, as Asquith sardonically recites desirous threats as an increasingly malevolent sax and guitar grinds behind him. No surprise the darkness within the music given the parent bands and the backdrop of a crepuscular early 80s Berlin, though there remains a complex compositional element to these songs that suggests a broader spectrum of emotion - desire, romance, and ultimately, infinite possibility.

Recut and mastered, Two Wishes is now presented with the original front cover artwork alongside additional imagery, including a 16 page booklet, all culled from Asquith's own archive. A brief bolt of energy at a crucial juncture in music history, Mutabor!'s story is emblematic of the mutli-verse of post-punk and the creativity its ideology necessitated.

Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) is the award winning drama film adaptation of the novel of the same name, produced by (a.o.) Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment. The original score and songs were composed and conducted by John Williams (the Star Wars & Indiana Jones trilogies, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and many more). The album won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score, BAFTA Award for Best Film Music and the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media. It was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score.
Directed by Rob Marshall, the film stars Zhang Ziyi and Ken Watanabe, amongst others. The story revolves around a young girl who is sold by her family to an okiya, a geisha house. Her new family then sends her off to school to become a geisha. The story focuses on her struggle as a geisha to find love, while in the process making a lot of enemies. The film was nominated for and won numerous awards, including nominations for six Academy Awards, and eventually won three: Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design.

Available as a 15th anniversary edition of 1000 individually numbered copies on white vinyl. The package includes an insert and the D-side contains an etch.

Gitkin's music exists somewhere between primal, rootsy memory and distant exotic yearning — A dusty bordertown where the familiar blends imperceptibly into the enchantingly foreign.

After a long and fruitful run as a bandleader with relentlessly touring party-rockers Pimps Of Joytime and a Grammy-nominated country blues collaboration with Cedric Burnside, multi-instrumentalist Brian J set out to "explore tonalities I'd never messed with," as he puts it. It was a release from "having to write lyrics or involve my voice," he notes, and so the (mostly) instrumental sound of Gitkin came into being.

Reviews of Gitkin's first LP grappled with descriptors, tagging it vaguely as "cinematic" and comparing it favorably with Khruangbin. True, the music is largely wordless, emotionally evocative, and guitar driven. But it possesses an alluring alchemy all its own.

Gitkin's first release, 2018's well-received Five Star Motel, amply demonstrated his ease with earthy funk and comfortably-cut rhythm. On his new full-length release Safe Passage, the itinerant guitar slinger broadens his already rich palette with melodies informed by Greek and Middle Eastern modalities, Peruvian Chicha and Tuareg Saharan guitar styles. No gimmick, this juxtaposition of gut-bucket blues and funk low-end with unexpectedly twisting lead phrases highlights the intense flavors found in each savory ingredient.

Recorded at his home studio in New Orleans, Safe Passage showcases a new batch of immediately engaging, repeatedly satisfying cuts, ranging from surf exotica ("Cat Nip") to raunchy roadhouse stompers ("Fools Gold" and "The Drive") to dreamy vocal cuts "Foot Steps" and "Hold On" to the floating finale of "Safe Passage."

Gitkin's production radiates character and warmth, leaning on soft-focus vintage mics, dubby spring reverbs and the quirks of a tape console. Further enhancing the intimate vibe are guests like veteran Chauncey Yearwood (congas) and New Orleans local "Spug" Smith, who provides a sousaphone low-end on the cumbia-not-cumbia "Spug Life." Carol C lends her striking voice to three tracks, including the strutting single "De La."

Safe Passage will be released by Wonderwheel on September 18th, 2020 and will be available on vinyl, CD and digitally.

MD Records, a small independent label started in 2018, are pleased to present the debut single from “Lost in Rio” on the new MD Gold series imprint.
Their debut single which will be out in August, ‘Little Piece of Heaven’ is a festival summer feel good slice of Latin pop featuring energetic musicianship and the vocals talents of Highland based Miss T.It is also something the guys are, rightly, very proud of.
The vinyl release of this single is presented as a double A side as both sides are phenomenal, with the remix bringing a NYC disco mix, designed purely for dancefloors with thumping bass, chic style guitars and soaring strings, think Studio 54 and the heady crossover soul of Philly meeting the early disco of New York.
Early plays by several funk and soul radio stations (Totally Wired Radio and FACE radio) has attracted interest from DJs keen to feedback with so many positive vibes and offers to collaborate on future songs.
Who Are Lost In Rio:
The band herald from the Highlands of Scotland. Inverness provides the base for a collection of musicians that have made their home here, whether they originated from Manchester, Melbourne, Malaysia or indeed the Highlands! The band has taken the funk and soul sound from their former incarnation, The Leonard Jones Potential (LJP) who were BBC6 Craig Charles Funk & Soul Show favourites with whom they undertook several live interviews on the show with Craig and also a popular live session as well as a number of joint live dates at Kendal Calling Festival, Inverness and Aberdeen. The guys were also asked to undertake some prestigious live work with world renowned DJ Carl Cox, on the bill at his personal request and alongside other acts such as Brand New Heavies, Danny Rampling, Gilles Peterson and of course, Carl himself.
The songwriting team behind all this - Anthony, Andy, Neil and Ruairi quickly set up Lost in Rio upon the demise of The LJP and began collaborating with a number of singers and a rapper (MC Butterscotch). They developed their sound into a smaller, tighter, groove based soul vibe.
From 2017 the grouped honed their sound with a number of live appearances across the Highlands including festivals and supporting acts such as Smoove and Turrell. Utilising guitars, bass, drums, Hammond and percussion, the guys set about leaning on key influences - Acid Jazz Corduroy and Brand New Heavies, dynamite disco guys Chic, Northern Soul, rare soul and a whole plethora of funky hip hop acts - The Allergies, The Herbaliser and Tribe called Quest to write a lot of new tunes. Latin influence comes to the fore in much of the groups new sound, particularly highlighting the impressive skills of Aussie percussionist Andy Pearce.
Live, the band have a good reputation and have been much sought after by promoters. Audiences have loved the tight rhythmic groove that these guys produce, meaning gigs are full of dancing and long encores. Recently the guys have been concentrating on driving up the already high standard of songwriting and production. This hard working band has plenty of material they are eager to share with those ears who are partial to quality funk, soul and pop and are looking for the right partners to work with and spread the message. Future releases will seek to exploit the wordsmith alacrity of MC Butterscotch who as well as Lost in Rio, also features as part of Scottish award winning hip hop act, Spring Break.
MD Records specialise in Unreleased soul and funk on its Yellow Series, contemporary soul and funk artists on the Gold Series, re-issue soul and funk on the Black Series and Missouri Soul and Blues via its Blue Lotus UK imprint.

‘Borderline’ is the debut single from hotly-tipped Jamaican-Canadian artist and musician, SeeMeNot. Released on 18 September, 2020 and accompanied by a remix from Roman Flügel, ‘Borderline’ is available via SeeMeNot’s own imprint, Brainstream. Her debut will be followed by the release of ‘Invisible Me’ produced by Peace Division’s Justin Drake, and ‘Chez Renee’, remixed by Joe Goddard, all in the coming months. A 21 st century house anthem, ‘Borderline’ is a stunning debut that shows the power of both SeeMeNot’s voice and her lyrics, and has been championed so far by Skream, Anja Schneider, Solomun, Adriatique, TSHA, Erol Alkan, Adana Twins, Monika Kruse, Andhim, Tim Sweeney, Chloé, Marco Carola, Digitalism, and many more.

‘Borderline’ was sampled on SeeMeNot’s July 2020 debut mixtape ‘Long Overdue: The Sound Of A Revolution’ along with an excerpt of the powerful speech by Tamika Mallory in the wake of the death of George Floyd.

Reclaiming house music as a form of protest, ‘Long Overdue: The Sound Of A Revolution’ was SeeMeNot’s first creative work. Released via her Soundcloud page, ‘Long Overdue’ featured SeeMeNot singing a cappella over a mix from DJ Oliver Baptiste. The 30 minutes of music is the sound of a Black female artist detailing the journey of Black people from Fight to Flight, channeling the pain she’s experiencing – and experienced – into something beautiful that pays respect to her ancestors but serves as a contemporary reinterpretation of traditional healing through singing and music. Influences from country music to gospel are joined through a shared history of hymnals as both protest and healing music. SeeMeNot recently released a PSA on her YouTube featuring an acapella from the mixtape – “a childhood cover” of the late Ray Charles – paying homage to Black Lives Matter.

DOWNFALL is the first album under the name SAITO created by Lena Saito, aka Galcid, and produced by accomplished analog synthesizer guru, Hisashi Saito, aka Lena’s husband. Having descended from a long line of Japanese sword-smiths, the industrial sound of smashing steel is embedded in Lena’s DNA and reflected in her music, however there are also refined, hypnotic tones showing a side with more finesse. The music itself is not scored and is predominantly improvised. Words and vocals are ad libbed as well. Sometimes the machines respond as if through telekinesis, altogether emitting a sound which can be categorized somewhere in the range between modern experimental dance music and something possibly making more sense to enlightened minds a thousand years in the future.




There is a new addition to the forge of talents of Mille Plateaux, a Japanese musician by the name of Saito whose album has been released on the label under the title of Downfall. After a whole series of releases under the signature tag clicks & cuts, there comes out a work, much more suited for a dance hall, that is different in terms of the genre from everything that has been published so far.
Like a bucket of ice-cold water poured over the head, erratic agressive hardcore rhythms pour all over the audience in the first track, interrupted only by grinding noises and minimalistic technogenic clicks.
Downfall won't fail to infect even the most experienced music connaisseur with its out-of-control energy, while offering a wide range of techniques: at times, robotic voices, one second long fragments of looped melodies and many other audio gimmicks.
Lena Saito (that is the author's name) is not afraid of conducting experiments in her chemical laboratory, freely mixing sound reagents without taking any precautions. It feels like, this new chemical substance, that she has been working on so thoroughly, contains quite a long list of ingredients, although its main component is the various rhythm breaks.
The synthesizer part of Red Hammer sounds in the best traditions of the acid style, and the rhythm section is akin to African tribal dances of the future. Downfall is absolutely unrelenting in its concept.
The melody of the composition Nucleosome is a little bit like the melancholic IDM of the 00s, finding itself secondary to the dominating, yet again convoluted rhythmical web meticulously woven by Saito.
This album can be definitely named as a big contender aspiring to start a new golden era of Mille Plateaux, and Saito as the hidden treasure of the label that can challenge even the veterans for the right to be the headliner.

Tape / Cassette

Ferdinand Domes is an all-round electronic music producer with a current focus on sound design and ambient tracks. Horror Childs Orient is a collection of live drum machine and syntheziser jams that were created live in Ferdinand’s studio. All tracks are a result of a flow in the moment, creating a sonic scene rather than an arranged track. The result is a collection of atmospheric rhythms, grooves and ambience. The focus is on the individual sounds and the characters of the different machines in Ferdinand’s collection; such as drum sounds from the MFB522 and TR626, synth lines from the Kawai 1M, Yamaha PSS380 and Mikrokorg. All run through tape decks and tweeked with Portastudio and guitar pedals creating a raw and warm analog sound.

2020 Repress!

After two self released EPs, Eterna joins the Modern Obscure Music family. In another musical life, Eterna is a drummer and a sound engineer. Here the Barcelona based artist presents a varied EP that features beautiful melodies backed by distinctive instrumentation and percussive arrangements. Remix duties fall to the wonderful LA based experimentalist DNTEL, aka Jimmy Tamborello. Regatta features choppy textured beats, a bold keyed melody and a smooth bassline groove. The “Jimmy Tamborello” Remix from DNTEL is composed of competing parts that fit together surprisingly well. A menacing bass, powerful stop start beats and spacey synths meet on this remix. 277 is the deepest cut, with emotional strings, almost steel drum sounding keys and layered percussion. A Day In The Life rounds off the EP with walking paced sturdy beats, modulating synths and a springy bassline. This is a truly versatile EP from Eterna.

East London-born music legend and all round boundary-breaking innovator, Dizzee Rascal, today announces the release of his 7th studio album, entitled ‘E3 AF’ and new single ‘L.L.L.L (Love Life Live Large)’, out via Island Records.

This new release marks the genesis of a new era for Dizzee and is the first album wholly written, recorded and produced in the UK in over a decade. ‘E3 AF’ is a 10-track layered, purposeful statement of intent, rooted in Dizzee’s inedible ties to both east London and Black British music’s legacy. He sound is sharper, stronger and more self-assured than ever, and it is obvious that he has poured the creative energy of the past few years into ‘E3 AF’ as a body of work. First single, L.L.L.L (Love Life Live Large), features Tottenham born MC Chip and kicks open the door with the force of a steel toe capped boot. Chip, adds another thwack of bravado to the rumbling, Dizzee-produced beat. ‘E3 AF’ confirms Dizzee’s status as an artist still very much in his prime, sonically it draws on the infectious pace of grime and resolutely forward-thinking UK rap. From one song to the next, you are taken on a journey through Black British musical excellence. Ice-cold UK drill drips on Smoke Boys-featuring ‘Act Like You Know’ (produced by MK the Plug) and Eastside pulses with pure grime courtesy of Chubby Dreadz and Platinum 45. Self-produced opener ‘God Knows’ (featuring P Money) and high-octane ‘You Don’t Know’ pull from dubstep, grime and drum ‘n’ bass while threatening to wreak havoc with your speakers. By the time Alicai Harley’s warm up vocals float over sunny syths on the deeply personal ‘Energies + Powers’ (produced by Steel Banglez), the album practically radiates heat. Dizzee Rascal is a unique artist that has inspired many for multiple generations. From his 2003 debut album release, the Mercury Prize-winning ‘Boy In The Corner’ to date, Dizzee has continued to push expectations and boundaries. He is British musical royalty. Every album that followed stacked up another marker of success. Between 2004 and 2017 all album releases blasted firmly into the Top 10 Official album chart, won awards, critical acclaim and amassed Dizzee a huge following of devoted fans. ‘E3 AF’ is set to confirm Dizzee Rascal’s status as the master at the top of his game.

Today internationally renowned composer, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and visual artist Tim Koh announces the release of his debut solo album ‘In Your Dreams’, set for release on 18 September via Tim Burgess’ O Genesis Recordings. The announce follows the release of recent single ‘Fall Into Your Dream’ in May.

In Your Dreams is Tim’s most straightforward and accessible release to date, and an exciting addition to his body of solo work, which hitherto can broadly be described as experimental noise. The poignant song collection tackles core themes of life’s calamities, broken love, and transitory relationships, yet counterbalances its essential melancholy with a whimsical, upbeat, and playful spirit throughout. While not strictly autobiographical, the songs draw from Tim’s recent personal experiences during his two-year isolation from friends and family, and create a compelling narrative of alienation, loss, and love.

Tim wrote In Your Dreams in Amsterdam, L.A., and London in-between his time touring with Ariel Pink, and subsequently recorded the songs at home in Amsterdam while recovering from a near-fatal 2018 accident. The recurring hospitalizations that Tim has endured in recent years subtly find their way into the album through phone recordings from Tim’s actual hospital stints, underscoring the album’s themes on this highly personal work. In Your Dreams deftly juxtaposes lush, densely layered sounds with stark simplicity through a series of quick turnarounds, creating the captivating feeling of tension and release that characterizes this remarkable song collection.

Guest musicians on In Your Dreams include Chris Cohen on guitar, and drum help from Jay Watson (Tame Impala, Gum) and Josh da Costa (CMON). Adding to the family feel of the album, longtime Ariel Pink and Tim Koh collaborator Jorge Elbrecht performed mixing duties along with mastering by Heba Kadry.

In the album's music we find vintage influences, recalling the faded charm of 70s erotica, warm tones also rooted in psychedelia, disco, yéyé, and French chanson. The Montreal trio Le Couleur, created by Laurence Giroux-Do (vocals), Patrick Gosselin (bass), and Steeven Chouinard (drums), delivers rich and irresistibly danceable performances. Le Couleur polished their sound until it shined as bright as the late Studio 54's spotlights with EPs Voyage Love (2013) and Dolce Désir (2015), and then P.O.P. (2016), their critically acclaimed debut album. Thanks to precious advice from Giorgio Moroder, with whom the band had the opportunity of sharing the stage, Le Couleur recorded their new album adopting a completely different approach. Concorde takes its name from the legendary Franco-British airplane from 1965, nicknamed the "beautiful white bird" for its sleek and modern design. This avant-garde project that ended in tragedy has always held a certain fascination for Laurence Giroux-Do ; a deadly "crash" that inspired in her a sense of macabre sensuality. In the album's music we find vintage influences, recalling the faded charm of 70s erotica, warm tones also rooted in psychedelia, disco, yéyé, and French chanson.

For her latest release Roberta once again dives deep to deliver more of her funk-inspired sultry & soulful sound.

Harsh Puri, aka Reformed Society, is not new to the club scene. Since 2015 the London based artist has been releasing numerous records for various labels, including Berlin's vinyl only Superb Recordings and Marco Faraone's Uncage, as well as running his own club night Play at The Waiting Room, and its downtempo version, Downplay at Brilliant Corners. Characterized by raw textures and hypnotic arrangements, Harsh's sound uniquely crosses the boundaries of house and techno, resulting in effective and genre bending compositions. Funnuvojere is pleased to present Cosmic Perspective, which reveals, as the title suggests, Reformed Society's mastery of synthy harmonic layering. Appreciated by the late Andrew Weatherall, to whom Harsh had the pleasure of playing the first arrangements, Cosmic Perspective will never leave the record bag of downtempo aficionados. This record is a collection of emotional grooves made for receptive ears.

The Great Dismal, NOTHING’s new full-length album explores existentialist themes of isolation, extinction, and human behavior in the face of 2020’s vast wasteland. Closing in on the band’s ten-year mark, frontman Domenic Palermo finds himself stringing together songs of misanthropic tales of Philadelphia with a refined and refreshed take on NOTHING's classic sound. “The Great Dismal refers to a swamp, a brilliant natural trap where survival is custom fit to its inhabitants,” Palermo states. “The nature of its beautiful, but taxing environment and harsh conditions can’t ever really be shaken or forgotten too easily.” The ever progressive NOTHING keep true to their chaotic outlook on life, keeping a keen eye to avoid repetition. With a radical cast of talented contributors such as harpist Mary Lattimore, classical musician Shelley Weiss, and singer/songwriter/producer Alex G., The Great Dismal showcases yet another essential side of the band’s trademark American Post-Shoegaze.

>>>>Cryovac Recordings is a loose collective of collaborators bound by a strong personal view of the techno sound. The outfit assembled to create this installment of Cryovac are diverse in approach and unified in spirit. They are the maintainers of their style, and leaders of their movements. Cryovac is based in Detroit and is a platform brought to life by the efforts of a vinyl community of craftsmen and artists. Cryovac endures to shine light on a path less traveled .

>>>> The E.P. starts with Jason Garcia’s “down like”a crispy 4/4 slide back rocker groove intermittently intersected by urgent synth, earsplitting climaxes, and compulsive samples that form rhythm. Body Mechanic follows up with a couple swigs of old school tec- funk surrounded by a dreaming synth lost in the memories of the fat boys. Flip to the backside where Garcia & Kretsch deliver “LA80s” a theme that is story told with dramatic synth, driving kick and bass, and triumphant rises and falls tying and dying together. Isaac Prieto’s “Searching” takes us out with a smooth minimal animal that shifts an easy melody and turns sleekly through a gauntlet of hi-hat , clap, and twisted sharp detunes.

Coming off a late summer 2020 release on Washington DC’s 1432 R label, Jackson Ryland keeps the momentum flowing with a 4-track self-release 12” entitled Acting Careless. The tracks were recorded between 2018 and spring 2019, intent on embodying a DJ’s record that could be thrown on at different moments and emotions during a set. The freeflowing, laidback and freewheeling feeling behind the house & warehouse party sound of DC inspired the recording process. Borrowing from the past few years’ experience recording at high speeds with the Rush Plus project, Acting Careless continues that same rhythmic intensity with a more uplifting and spiritually cleansing angle. A happy push-pull balance between fierce and sweetness.

Landscapes of dystopian worlds, both emotive and driving,
unveil new forms of life here as Nightdrive’s “Miracles” LP
travels through the far east regions of house and techno with
this 10-track release. As this marks “Rough Cuts 02” for Too
Rough 4 Radio, “Miracles” is as much a transcendent force
of ethereal tunes as it is effective for any dance§oor. What
you’ll uncover across this release from this St. Petersburg
based producer is a traversing blend through IDM, Deep
House, DnB, and Techno through the lens of lush,
atmospheric soundscapes

In ancient Rome, Consuls held two strategic roles: exercising authority over all the public affairs of the city and accompanying the legions in their military campaigns.

Lykos Records gave this role to Artist Laertes, born Gianluca Meloni. Ambassador of the sound of Rome, Laertes has been one of the pioneers of the deep-techno genre. After establishing in Italy as producer, live performer and mastering engineer, he exported his aesthetics all around the world.

"Titanomachia" is the title of Laertes' new work inspired by Hesiod's Theogony. The artist tells through aggressive and groovy sounds one of the bloodiest wars in Greek mythology, Zeus leading the Olympian gods versus Chronos and the Titans.

"Chaos" throws us into the swirl of battle. The repetitive sound of the synth bass sequence alludes to the sound of spears broken on shields, while pads and strings charge the entire track with tension. The narration continues in a daring succession of loops and hypnotic rhythms, with the second track "The Immortal". Strident bleeps and incessant percussions and rhythmic patterns characterize the progressive crescendo.

The description of the battle changes with Worg, who proposes his version of "Chaos". The story of the battle is entrusted to the evolution of lashing metallic effects that recall the lightning of the father of all Gods.

Psyk closes the chronicle of the epic battle with an adaptation of "The Immortal". The kick recalls war drums that galvanize the troops on battlefields. The artist evokes the heroic spirit with powerful and thunderous sounds.

Superb second release on this label, with a solid kick and blasting sound... Great stuff ! Enjoy the last tune : a masterpiece of a raving acid tribe sound !

White Vinyl Pressing!
Diffrent Music, So Far.. Speaks for itself really, this brand new vinyl series brings together a handful of carefully selected tracks that until now have been available only as digital downloads. This is the first offering, and a whole lot of love has gone into making this product a real milestone for the label.
The A side, titled "Foundations" brings together two of the original Diffrent Music artists, with their debut single's title tracks; Jekyll - "Drainpipe" slimy and clogged up with bass as you can imagine, now remastered and cut into the analogue realm, along with Arkaik's 2010 "Stress Relief" which has always been way ahead of its time. The flip-side, "Movements", carries two slightly newer productions, Dexta & Hyroglifics "Boxgroove" which caused a lot of damage earlier in 2014 now sounding double thick cut deep into the vinyl grooves, the last and by no means least track is Fearful's 2013 "Tongues" - Not only was this one of the most popular track's that'd ever seen the day of light, but it's also one of the most experimental yet dance-floor jams we have to offer. Everyone involved is truly proud of this record and we all hope you enjoy it as much as we have over the past 4 years or so!

What exactly happened in the Italian underground / post punk scene 30 years ago, is not entirely clear. Therefore, this collection of 13 incredible tunes helps track down the feeling and focuses on the blurry images of a period that was mixing influences from the UK/USA scenes with a more national' approach to new music developments. The damage began in 1977 when a series of urban / suburban musical agitators, whether skilled or complete amateurs, decided to embrace instruments as weapons for a war against sonic stereotypes. Here's the result: a multiform sonic attack that marks the history of a movement that may have remained local in most cases but whose echo reflected the amazing creativity of a generation.

As so many great schemes do, it started with a conversation in a pub. After several sporadic releases on Diffrent Music, including his renowned 2013 debut "Tongues", label boss Dexta wanted more music from Fearful. One thing led to another, and suddenly an album was in the works.

The result is "Interference"; a body of work that is reflective not only of the personal idiosyncrasies and aspirations of its London-based producer, but of an artist who has truly been set free of expectations.

Harnessing his own inbuilt need to defy convention, and looking to influences such as classical game soundtracks, experimental mastermind Amon Tobin, and the brooding tones of Akkord and Lorn, Fearful has crafted an album that's unpredictable yet cohesive, and definitive of his aim as an artist.

From the menacing ambient opener "Rocinante", through the glitchy techno of "The Traveler", skewed drum & bass of "Pulse 0" and "Through The Mist", to the roaring drone and pounding metal-inspired drumwork of closer "Gold To Dust", it's an album that demands full attention and repeat listening.

Nowhere is this free-roaming but pull-no-punches attitude summed up better than the title track. Building through eerie, twisted atmospherics - samples of electromagnetic interference, which can be found throughout the album - it clatters into a domineering breakbeat, before collapsing into a guttural, tribalist techno roller.

Where much of dance music draws on repetition, the concept of "Interference" is simple: progression. Whether that be changing motifs within tracks, switching genres within the album, or developing upon Fearful's own artistic strengths, it's an idea never more at home than on Diffrent Music, and we are very proud to present it.

Wonderful. „I wanted my first long form album to represent the joys of life, strength of positivity, the wonderfulness of nature, and celebrate how music plays an intricate part in sewing all of that together.“
From the subtle rhythmic brush strokes of South American music to the sounds of Bern’s underground scene. Mirabile Dictu pulls from those spheres of influence and more to succinctly capture the translation of Adriano’s surname perfectly.

Running the anything goes travelling warehouse rave "Fusion mes Couilles"
Emma DJ and Ishaq have created a unique situation with their party series in Paris. The two have been able to do what not many have, which is create a party environment strictly on their own terms, with no outside influence, no pandering to agents or the trends of the day and no outside money rearing its head trying to influence. This endeavor is no small feat considering the oversaturated and bland nitelife climate over the last years in the city. The result of their hard work, has been a large scale dedicated fanbase that trust them, hands down.

Over these years both Emma DJ and Ishaq had been working independently on their own productions as well, with Emma DJ recently releasing a slew of tapes in a hyperactive, machine gun manner, while Ishaq makes his first appearance on wax here.
On the "Fusion" split lp we get four tracks from Emma DJ on the a-side and four tracks from Ishaq on the b-side...both artists bring their unique takes on modern dance music on each side of the record from gnarled acid, to tweaked IDM, to broken techno, or ADD chopped guitar loop beats, this is a truly unique release documenting the sound of the top crew in the Paris underground.
Artwork licensed from NYC street photographer Richard Sandler

Selva Discos keeps broadening horizons. Its next release celebrates the start of a new series called Novaterra, this time focused on showcasing the music of contemporary Brazilian artists. First up is Zopelar, known not only for his work with the anarchic-techno-punk act Teto Preto but also for the project My Girlfriend and his solo LP, both on Apron Records.

Novaterra vol. 1 by Zopelar is a mini-LP featuring 6 tracks that range from the introversion to the extraversion. In one hand you have an A-side banger like "Be Together", with its addictive looped-sample, and in the other, you get the laidback interlude of "Modo Avião", which sounds like one of those MF Doom's instrumentals – and between both, you will find a whole spectrum of music where you can experience the duel between super crispy beats (a signature in Zopelar's work) and the richness of melodies and harmonies that he's able to knit stitch close to perfection.

The opener "Livre" has a great deep house vibe that makes you think of Prescription Records and Jazzanova, featuring a catchy bossa ad-lib. "NOX" is a Hammond-led tune with a groove bassline and lead that gets you going in no time as if Cesar Camargo Mariano and Larry Young toured together in the late 70's, like, a big, fat jazz-funk tune. "Dias Tensos" is a nervous drum workout led by an automat Tony Williams as if jamming in a 16-bit version of The Tony Williams Lifetime. And to wrap things up, "Boogie da Paz" is one of those perfect comedown tunes – a true tearjerker that works its melody line like a good pill works your serotonin, making it one of those tracks that you keep under your sleeve for those special 6 AM moments on a dancefloor.

The artwork is courtesy of Colletivo Design Studio in Sao Paulo.

Black Truffle is proud to announce the first vinyl reissue of Rafael Toral’s Aeriola Frequency, originally released by Perdition Plastics in 1998. Toral made his name in the world of mid-90’s experimental electronics with two releases, Sound Mind Sound Body (1994) and Wave Field (1995), both now recognised as classics and reissued on vinyl by Drag City, which saw him exploring the potential of electric guitar and pedals to immerse the listener in seemingly endless waves of sustained tones. On Wave Field, inspired by the striking resonance effects he experienced during a Buzzcocks gig with bad acoustics, he achieved a synthesis—often imitated but never bettered—of rock guitar, Ambient, and the acoustic exploration of Alvin Lucier, a kind of "liquid, abstract flux of rock sound".

On Aeriola Frequency, Toral continued the explorations of Wave Field but dropped the guitar, creating a series of extended pieces using only a simple feedback loop designed to work with pure electronic resonance. The result is far more delicate than Wave Field, a steady but unstable flow of filtered tones that continually reorder themselves into new forms. On both the LP’s sides, the tones, like growing plants, imperceptibly shift from drifting freely in ambient space to weaving strangely natural melodic patterns, as the loops unfold and the resonance gently outlines recurring rhythmic shapes.

The overall effect is strikingly organic, as David Toop noted in the liner notes included in the original release (and reprinted in this reissue): “A crystal garden, the sound grows in reeds and streams, blown like spider web strands, glittering and invisible, pulsing with translucent colour, bubbling and imploding, fraying and powdering.”
A classic of the non-academic approach to electronics that flourished in the 1990s— and a big influence at the time on Black Truffle head honcho Oren Ambarchi—Aeriola Frequency ushers listeners into an endlessly fascinating world of gliding tones and shifting details that they might never want to leave.

- Recorded at Noise Precision, Portugal, December 1997 and April 1998. Remastered by Rafael Toral in 2020.
- Liner notes by David Toop and Rafael Toral.

After his acclaimed debut EP « Cotonou » on Alma Negra’s record label, James Stewart comes back with his new EP Atlantic River Drive for Mawimbi Records, featuring two collaborations with Ghanaian kologo musician Ayuune Sule as well as two remixes from Simbad aka SMBD.

James Stewart met Ghanaian kologo musician Ayuune Sule, after booking several shows of kologo music star King Ayisoba in Lyon. Stewart was quick to witness the bluesy tone of Ayuune’s voice and his kindness as a musician, despite his impressive stature. Quite logically, Stewart invited Sule to record vocals on two of his ongoing demos at Bruno Patchworks’ recording studio (Voilaaa, Mr. President, Da Break), with the idea of making a rather unheard crossover between traditional kologo music and contemporary styles that would both appeal to Ghanaian crowds and a Western audience. Stewart then had a number of his arrangement ideas re-recorded by a talented cast of musicians, resulting in a brilliant mix of acoustic and electronic textures, sounding both vintage and modern.

Nodding to Eddie Palmieri’s landmark record “Harlem River Drive”, “Atlantic River Drive” is a stomping dancefloor track, drawing from the 6/8 feel of kologo music and the energy of contemporary club music. The track can be read as a tribute to the musical cross-pollinations between the African continent and its many diasporas, which Stewart has dedicated a long part of his life to, but also as a more intimate story about his life and family. All words were written by Stewart and then translated by Sule in his native Fra fra language from Northern Ghana.

“Where Are We Going?” is a two-part journey that reminds us that we should care about each other, about our communities while we don’t know what the future is made of. An important and much welcome message to navigate through these troubled, uncertain times. Referencing congolese N’dombolo tracks, the track has two parts and rich arrangements, with its first part going deep with syncopated clarinet hooks and playful percussion parts, and its second part moving to a four-on-the-floor pattern and an entrancing baritone saxophone solo.

The EP also features Worldwide FM and Brownswood maestro Simbad, who delivers two dancefloor-ready reworks of the track “Where Are We Going?” under his SMBD moniker, turning it into a spiritual, dubby journey, as well as an emotional house music track.

We met Franck Vigroux for the first time years ago at Berlin's Berghain during a soundcheck. At that time he performed with Mika Vainio, with whom Vigroux often worked together.

The first track on »Ballades sur lac gelé« dates back to that time. It was created under the impression of this collaboration and friendship with Mika Vainio. This album is dedicated to him.

Vainio's oeuvre is also significant in connection with the history of raster, so it was only logical and our wish to release this album by Franck Vigroux.

With the beginning of the corona pandemic, Franck Vigroux took up this early material again, he continued to formulate it and completed the present album »Ballades sur lac gelé«. The title already defines the theme of the ballad, a "song/poem with very minimal structures" (quote Vigroux).

"Ballade" is also a play on words with the French word "balade", in this sense a ramble, a ramble over a frozen lake. The reduced, cool structures reflect this. But at the same time, under the surface, the (often distorted) sound carpets steadily increase to immense power. Like ice that grows and tectonic forces that have to erupt, glacier-like.

Vigroux is very skilled at creating music in this minimalist setting. The intertwining of very few musical elements creates a kind of soundtrack that is multi-layered and at the same time universally intelligible.

»Ballades sur lac gelé« will be released on June 26th, 2020 as a digital pre-release exclusively on our sites. The physical formats, i.e. CD and vinyl, can be pre-ordered. The official worldwide release date will be announced at a later point in time.

A journey to far outlands: this is exactly what one can feel when listening to Béliz. Entitled Mémoires, the album from the band Béliz, explores new territories where the Guadeloupean musical tradition meets the harmonic universe of the harp. Béliz is the dialogue between the world of classical harpist Anne Bacqueyrisse, percussionist Olivier Maurières and multi-instrumentalist and singer Edmony Krater, fervent supporter of the Gwo Ka, the ancestral musical tradition coming from Guadeloupe. Founder of the band Zepiss, once a member of Robert Oumaou's collective Gwakasonné, Edmony Krater always had the will to open the Ka to other cultures and to incorporate new sounds. Indeed, with Ti Jan Pou Vélo, his tribute album in the memory of Marcel Lollia known as Vélo (one of the greatest drummers of Guadeloupe), released in 1987, Edmony Krater brilliantly mixed jazz-fusion, Occitan folklore, synthesizers with the distinctive Ka rhythms.

The meeting of Anne Bacqueyrisse, Olivier Maurières and Edmony Krater at the Music Academy of Montauban, gave birth to Béliz. In 2009 the group of three musicians-teachers, under the impulse of one of their pupils, decided to record in studio their project, Mémoires. Béliz, with its innovative and singular artistic approach, is a true invitation to travel. The title “Arawak É Karayib” is a vibrant tribute to the native West Indian people. “Gwadloup” - an acoustic version of the song already featured on the album Ti Jan Pou Vélo - is an ode to Edmony’s beloved island. “Natibel”, an hymn to Nature - another cover from the Zepiss band – makes sense here in a minimalist version.

A true fusional object, Béliz moves us to new horizons, both imaginary and poetic.

“Lucky Veil” is Al Pagoda’s first mini album to be released via Bigamo Musik, October 30th. Seven songs built out of layering luminous synth melodies that sound strong, iconic, like a childhood memory that’s long been dormant.

Al Pagoda, originally from Valencia, Spain, settled in Berlin in 2015, where he started working as a composer for movie soundtracks. During these years he experimented with new sounds and recording techniques. In 2018 a colleague of his, who had witnessed some of his free-form experimentation sessions, asked him to play at Loophole, a small club in Neukölln, Berlin. He accepted and came up with a few songs for the show. After this, the album would crystallise in no time.

Al Pagoda's cinematic approach can be felt throughout his music; his songs unfold like stories that take us to the crux of an inescapable revelation. Built from short snippets recorded in his phone over the years, Lucky Veil was put together during a winter in Berlin, in a room with no windows.

Electronica duo Echaskech have been part of the Balkan Vinyl family since the very first releases back in 2010, but this is their debut solo outing. A mini-album of deep space electronica and cosmic ambience. A soundtrack across our solar system and interstellar travel onwards for 27 million light years.

Available on a limited edition of 30 hand-numbered cassettes.


A1: Dawn Over The Red Planet
A2: Kuiper Belt Life Support
A3: Andromeda
A4: Oort Cloud
A5: Machine Code
B1: Into Eta Carinae
B2: Disorder
B3: Pluto At Night
B4: Onset Of Panic
B5: Escape From Tau Ceti
B6: Messier 63

A welcome reissue of the second Zion Train album, originally released on Universal Egg in 1993.

* Zion Train were at the forefront of the UK dub scene and took their sound worldwide from continent to continent and from festival to festival.

* `…Sporting Moments’ explores the outer limits of dub electronically and mind-bendingly with ample sub-bass to cause distress to your speakers.

Marian Himburg, the artist known as Causa, believes that less is more, both in his productions and his release schedule. With a lean and heavy catalogue built from releases on labels like Crucial Recordings, Infernal Sounds, and Artikal Music UK, Causa is as focused on producing quality dubplate ammo as he is with proper releases. His second chapter for ZamZam is exactly what you’d hope: heavy 140 wares for dark dances- soon may they return!!

"Hiss" is nothing if not cinematic: a queasy melody circling in a dying orbit until it crashes into its first monstrous drop. Led by a squelching, lumbering single-note bassline that crushes like an unstoppable beast freed from its chains, no-nonsense kick-snare power and a steadily rising hum increase our fight-or-flight response until the very end.

Causa says the tune was created after “re-listening to my very first couple of beats and getting inspired by how little I cared about certain placements and how I worked drums at that time… I didn’t follow any rules - because I didn’t know any back then."

“Palms” is the perfect companion, another 140 stormer with drums seemingly built from white noise and distortion, funked-up by syncopated brush hats & an utterly swarming bassline. Add paranoid textures and a bizarre monosyllabic vocal pitched this way and that, and you have another dystopian side to fall in love with in the bunker or the ball.

So..it's time to make some noise about this release! Rawax is happy to welcome Riccardo & Saverio Celestri to the RAWAX Family!

Her great collab on the A-side aka Planeters sounds like a fantastic journey thru time & space. The B. side belongs to Saverio who gave us 2 massive tracks on top

The planets align this October as the mighty Sun Ra Arkestra, under the direction of the maestro Marshall Allen, release their first studio album in over twenty years, 'Swirling'. Recorded at Rittenhouse Soundworks in Philadelphia, the new recording represents the continuation of a heartfelt rebirth of the Arkestra under Allen's guidance since Sun Ra left the planet in 1993, gaining new generations of followers from their regular touring across the globe. With a big band line-up featuring long-standing Arkestra members including Danny Ray Thompson (RIP), Michael Ray, Vincent Chancey, Knoel Scott, Cecil Brooks, Atakatune (RIP), Elson Nascimento and Tyler Mitchell, the album is a full-blooded celebration of Sun Ra's legacy. Tracks include brand new arrangements of Arkestra staples 'Angels And Demons At Play', 'Satellites Are Spinning', 'Door Of The Cosmos' and 'Rocket No. 9' alongside lesser known gems; the rousing blues 'Darkness' is recorded here for the first time, resurrected from the Ra archives by Marshall Allen. Other highlights include an epic version of 'Seductive Fantasy' (first recorded on Ra's 'On Jupiter' LP in 1979), the freeform sonic blast of 'Infinity / I'll Wait For You' and a first ever recording of the Marshall Allen swing composition, 'Swirling'. "We truly hope that this recording brings much joy to a planet which is so deeply in need of a spirit sound and vibration," states saxophonist Knoel Scott. "We hope it contributes to a change in the ominous direction of man's journey through the cosmos." "This new release is the Arkestra's love offering to the world," concludes Marshall Allen. "Beta music for a better world."

LTD GOLD COLOURED

The planets align this October as the mighty Sun Ra Arkestra, under the direction of the maestro Marshall Allen, release their first studio album in over twenty years, 'Swirling'. Recorded at Rittenhouse Soundworks in Philadelphia, the new recording represents the continuation of a heartfelt rebirth of the Arkestra under Allen's guidance since Sun Ra left the planet in 1993, gaining new generations of followers from their regular touring across the globe. With a big band line-up featuring long-standing Arkestra members including Danny Ray Thompson (RIP), Michael Ray, Vincent Chancey, Knoel Scott, Cecil Brooks, Atakatune (RIP), Elson Nascimento and Tyler Mitchell, the album is a full-blooded celebration of Sun Ra's legacy. Tracks include brand new arrangements of Arkestra staples 'Angels And Demons At Play', 'Satellites Are Spinning', 'Door Of The Cosmos' and 'Rocket No. 9' alongside lesser known gems; the rousing blues 'Darkness' is recorded here for the first time, resurrected from the Ra archives by Marshall Allen. Other highlights include an epic version of 'Seductive Fantasy' (first recorded on Ra's 'On Jupiter' LP in 1979), the freeform sonic blast of 'Infinity / I'll Wait For You' and a first ever recording of the Marshall Allen swing composition, 'Swirling'. "We truly hope that this recording brings much joy to a planet which is so deeply in need of a spirit sound and vibration," states saxophonist Knoel Scott. "We hope it contributes to a change in the ominous direction of man's journey through the cosmos." "This new release is the Arkestra's love offering to the world," concludes Marshall Allen. "Beta music for a better world."

It's been four years since Sweatbox Dynasty, the fourth solo LP from Pennsylvanian experimentalist TOBACCO. In that time, Tom Fec's project has toured with Nine Inch Nails, provided the theme song to HBO series Silicon Valley, and teamed with Aesop Rock for a collaborative album as Malibu Ken. He now returns to Ghostly International for Hot Wet & Sassy, a full-length album oozing with his most playful and approachable songs to date, which, conversely, express notions of antilove, self-hate, and disappointment in others. Pop impulses have always surged beneath the surface of his sound - blown-out bass, analog synths, drum machines, and Fec's unmistakable analog gurgle and hiss - here they've bubbled to the top. "I feel like it's the most I've been able to refine what I'm doing," says Fec. "For the past decade I've had this motherfxcker on my shoulder that makes me pick away at structure and melody. Purposely covering up moments because I can. That really came to a peak on Sweatbox. So I wanted the opposite this time. Write the songs without ripping them in half. I went from 'what would the Butthole Surfers do?' to 'what would Cyndi Lauper do?'" And what would Trent Reznor do? Fec found his answer straight from the source. Their collaborative track, "Babysitter," fuses their voices into one deranged presence: "I'm the new babysitter," they alert, before pivoting into a menacingly saccharine bridge. The track tumbles on a tom fill, then a punishing synth line rips into a cacophony of drums and feedback like a lawnmower gnawing through the living room carpet. "This was new for me, but I wanted to write a song that was everything I am and have been, and then like one notch further. Trent was the notch further," adds Fec. The collaboration is a work of alchemy seamlessly blending TOBACCO's trademarks with Reznor's industrial rust and sonic gore. Downcast, sincere, woozy, "Jinmenken" might be the closest Fec has come to a ballad. "Maybe you can find me down the line," his vocoded delivery bounces along the beat. "It's me trying to write a Jets song," says Fec. Album opener "Centaur Skin" presents the stylistic concoction that has been the TOBACCO MO from the beginning, crossing dreamy melodic shimmer with the sinister tones and slime. This has become easier to digest, but also far more potent. A motorik beat steadies the track's galloping arpeggio, acting as a springboard for Fec's dark ruminations as well as an uncharacteristically crystalline synth solo. "It's my feel good self hate anthem. Don't worry, I'm good. It was fun to write." TOBACCO hasn't been reinvented, but it has been refined and distilled. Brighter, sharper, and far more dangerous because of it. Hot Wet & Sassy is practically staring at the sun without shades and feeling those corneas roast. Everything looks good as your vision fades. The pop-forward structures exert their undeniable hooks with baneful precision, pulling listeners into their clutches; once there, sugary melody rewards submission.

Creole poetry, folk mysticism and heavy-grooving cosmic synths combine on this unprecedented survey of spiritual Martinique polymath Gratien Midonet's first four albums. For Midonet, pushing musical boundaries was less a choice than an extension of his spirit. A self-taught guitarist and composer, drawing on his childhood memories of bélé and beguine rhythms, Midonet's musical life developed in parallel to his academic and spiritual pursuits. Studying philosophy and psychopedagogy in France, it was his fascination with pan-Africanism and animism which fuelled the transcendent energy of his music. Although Midonet honed his sound in France, the four albums he released during the late '70s and '80s were heavily inspired by diasporic nostalgia, or what he describes as the "smells and colours... subliminal noises... fruity notes, the memories of funeral wakes, the bombastic organ of the cathedral and the gasps of the drums" of his childhood home on the Caribbean island of Martinique.

Hailing from Brussels, Bandler Ching is a creation of musical ideas from composer and saxophonist Ambroos De Schepper. Flawlessly blending contemporary jazz, electronics, hip-hop, noise and global beats, the sound is based around the freedom of expression and improvisation and performed with dazzling conviction.

Between Christmas 2000 and New Year 2001 producers Ekkehard Ehlers and Stephan Mathieu recorded an album of warm, soft, delicately crackling electronic music in the space of that week. It was christened with the ambivalent title "Heroin" and was released on CD via the label Brombron in 2001 and later in 2003 re-issued on Kit Clayton's Orthlorng Musork on double-LP with remixes the pair had commissioned as expansions.

17 years later Heroin sees its first vinyl release to include all 13 tracks from the original CD track-list on this LP + 12“ set. The centerpiece "Herz" finally receives its long deserved vinyl treatment (side C, at 45rpm) and on the flip side Thomas Brinkmann contributes a mirror in a magnificent remix of that very piece on side D.

Ehlers and Mathieu were both highly prolific solo artists during the period 2000-2004, and in just two years after the initial release of "Heroin" each had produced over half a dozen new solo recordings: among them the serial masterpiece Ehlers' "Plays" (Cornelius Cardew, Hurbert Fichte, John Cassavetes, Albert Ayler, Robert Johnson) released as 5 stunning LPs in a series on Staubgold, while Mathieu's 'Full Swing Edits' spread over five 10" records plus his album 'FrequencyLib' on Mille Plateaux, 'Die Entdeckung des Wetters' on Lucky Kitchen and ‘The Sad Mac’ on Atsushi Sasaki’s Headz label were greeted to critical acclaim.

Both artists were expanding their conceptual sonic approaches in the glow of developing laptop technologies which would to these times in 2020 seem quite primitive, but these two in that period used the state-of-the-art to aid and abet their conceptual visions, while at times the duo used unorthodox experimentation - yet always had a distinctively melodic and musical form at its heart and soul.

Ehlers can be seen as a conceptualist, as a meta-musician who interrogates the mediums and methods of sound production - reflecting on the conditions and possibilities of improvisation (e.g. "Plays Albert Ayler") and exploits ideas of mutation and distortion of popular aesthetics played out within a ghostly form of divine pop beauty in his project März.

Mathieu, originally a drummer and co-founder of what has come to be known as the Berlin 'Echtzeitmusik' scene. His approach could be similarly described as working a critical analyst and researcher: Subtly and precisely working in the realm of processing as a method of intervening in melodious/harmonic analog sound sources.

Ehlers and Mathieu may not think too much about their singular productions and publications outcomes, but instead concentrate on the process and musical personality that characterizes their gesture- style itself stays in the background - and they usher a music from small minimal sound sources coaching a patient music of slow intervention - much like a refraction of light than a concrete painting or a blurred photograph - beatus accident.

And indeed, "Heroin" is an album that embraces the happy accident being made up of reduced, often very catchy and very direct micro hooks which seem laser-guided into a space accepting obvious melodic beauty in what feels like an observation of musics unfolding and revealing it's DNA, embed with for a kind of yearning for innocence and naiveté - as if Satie were on the jukebox in "The Crying of Lot 49". Not to say the music is "reduced", but rather: 'restricted' and born from acceptance of limitations, and the artists allowing the sounds to just "be.." with some incremental degrees of coercion.

The album not only sounds like that of 2 producers who are both dreamers and scientists, but that Ehlers and Mathieu chose to work with these means in a dialogue together to reduce pop music to its musical/tonal core, it is not Pop music anymore, rather a ghostly pointilistic itteration of song. "Heroin" is located at this transition, around that point at which tracks, that were or could have become pop compositions, irrevocably slip into a static harmonic nirvana. We are invited to follow the arch of Heroin in a slow-motion morphine musical haze.

Heroin sounded timeless when originally released and proof is that it remains so, one wishes that Ehlers and Mathieu would convene again for a week, a month or an entire year to continue this process of slow rumination, picking affectionately over the sounds they both love - and then maybe when everything is condensed, evaporated they would write more songs with those sonic refractive elements that remain.

Pink Vinyl

Electronioca Hardtek papa !! One of the joyfull rare record offer a impossible melt of style... Well done !!!

From 1963 to 2014: "Peace Chant - raw deep and spiritual jazz" exhibits 51 years of music. A well matched anthology with sounds to dive into, hard rhythms to dance to and vocals to meditate on.

The Tramp Records crew has compiled 8 tracks in nice order and dramaturgy. Some tunes you might have never heard before unless you own one of the rare original vintage vinyl records. Peace Chant is released on two separate LPs with own catalogue numbers and on one CD. Some songs I can't get out of my mind.

These days Mabon Dawud Quintet from Ethiopia is on the trail of Mulatu Astatke. Tramp Records provides the first release of "Abeba" - a funky and stoic track in Amharic mother tongue sung by a high male lamenting voice.

Even more haunting is "Ain't Gonna Wait Too Long" by Thomas Meloncon. The self-taught guitar player recorded this protest song at the age of 20. Voice, guitar, congas and double bass are plenty enough for a heavily pushing song complaining that black man's slavery isn't gone after 400 years. Artist, poet and civil right activist Meloncon (alias Muntu Mwaminifu) wrote and directed theatre and radio plays. His works are collected at Texas Southern University in Houston. "Ain't gonna wait too long" probably is his earliest artistic outing, he just had left school in 1968.

The compilation concludes with a song by Now, a band no one outside Munich might know. "Easy Tune for Dancing" can be found on a record of cultural and concert location Feierwerk form 1990. It really was a surprise to hear the quintet of trumpeter Konstantin Kern and Klaus Pfister on sax playing Afro-Cuban jazz that easily and nonchalant. If Dizzy Gillespie turned up with his bent trumpet and Lalo Schifrin sat in like he did on "Gillespiana Suite" I wouldn't be astonished!

Svart Records is proud to present the original soundtrack to the supernatural thriller series Requiem! Debuted by BBC One in the UK and NETFLIX globally, psychological horror series Requiem became an instant hit, not least because of it’s haunting, spine-tingling score. Conjured by award-winning composers Dominik Scherrer (The Missing, Ripper Street & Marple), and Natasha Khan of Bat For Lashes, Requiem is an eerie landscape of sharp, scraping cello, soothing harps and tense string sections. From the urban uncanny to folk horror, there is a distinct atmosphere in the fresh collaborative dynamic between the British-Swiss decorated grandmaster of unique television series soundtracks Scherrer, and the rising enigma of alt-pop, twice Mercury Music Prize-nominated singer/songwriter Khan. Of their alchemical and otherworldly creative chemistry, composer Dominik Scherrer recalls: “Natasha Khan and I spent some weeks in my studio in Brick Lane, coming up with themes and recording outlandish vocals and terrifying sounds. There is a cheeky element to the show, as well as a genuinely scary one. Together with a pastoral spookiness of the cello and strings themes started to give Requiem its own unique atmosphere. We experimented with deviant playing techniques and unconventional recording approaches, to complete a moody air of retro horror and pastoral spook.” Available for the first time on CD and LP, this highly celebrated “spooksome” score harkens back to the 1970s lo-fi soundtracks from BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop or 1970s horror soundtracks. Winning an Ivor Novello award for the “Best TV Soundtrack” in 2019, Requiem is a one of a kind treasure, now rightfully preserved and beautifully presented on lush vinyl and CD format by Svart Records. “Requiem promises much, not least in way of sound. Nominally just another spooksome BBC tingler – old castle in Wales, birds flying into windows, locked room, pagan symbols, creepy locals – it is rendered a whole cut above by not having the heroine’s every move into peril foreshadowed by dissonant eek-eek string” (The Guardian)

Commodo is back with ‘Stakeout’ — a standout three-track follow-up to recent EP, ‘Loan Shark’.

Out October 23, ‘Stakeout’ picks up where ‘Loan Shark’ left off, tapping back into the conceptual, crime-ridden Wild West first imagined across tracks like ‘Contraband’ and ‘Hot Pursuit’; “If anyone is working on a 22nd century film noir at the moment, this would make the perfect soundtrack” wrote Bandcamp back in June.

This sentiment echoes across the ‘Stakeout’ tracklist, which again details tracks that marry precision bass-weight and deft, nimble sampling techniques with nuanced flashes of genius; Commodo is no ordinary producer. From the swirling unease and sharp crackle of the title-track to the oddball, industrial swing of ‘Transit’ and menacing, Batman-style lurch of EP closer ‘Crooked’ Law’, ‘Stakeout’ forms the fascinating concluding chapter of Commodo’s latest Black Acre odyssey.

After two years since her debut full-length release, Grand River presents her second album “Blink A Few Times To Clear Your Eyes” on Editions Mego. The 8 track LP shows an evolution towards a more experimental side of the Dutch-Italian composer which is here superbly combined with her ability of creating melodies previously heard on her 2xLP “Pineapple”, released on Spazio Disponibile in 2018.

“Blink A Few Times To Clear Your Eyes” expresses how acoustic instruments can be perfectly merged with electronic and analog synthesizers to become one new organic whole. The composer, whose birth-name is Aimée Portioli, brings the listener along on her personal explorational journey of expressions within a certain genre. The title of the album indicates the desire to explore what is new and see what is around us from different perspectives.

The album opens with the track “Side Lengths”, a complex and dreamy sequence made with one of her favorite synthesizers, the Yamaha DX-7. From there we are brought from extended panoramic sound design and cinematic ambiences, back and forth to synthetic melodies, field recordings, strings and for the first time ever, Aimée’s own modified voice in the closing track “All There Now”.

Recorded primarily at her home base in Berlin, Grand River’s music is pure, magnificent and elegant which documents a solemn atemporal story where her experiences are translated into another language.

German funk stalwarts The Mighty Mocambos unleash another sample of their explosive live energy, a 7" of two brand new tunes recorded straight to 8-track tapeduring JAM PDM! Breakdance Battle at Fabrik Potsdam on February 1st 2020.

"Arabesque Breakin' Suite" on side A is an original instrumental medley written for the occasion and delivers the raw, heavyweight sound that has made The Mighty Mocambos a staple of b-boy battles the world over. Side B is a cover of the Axel F Theme from Beverly Hills Cop, taking the tune from 80s synth-heavy electro-pop to soulful, tropical-flavored b-boy funk.

In these peculiar times without concerts, these live recordings are a real labor of love that capture the special vibes of a Mighty Mocambos performance while remaining suitable for DJ-use and enjoyable to the dedicated listener.

The 45 comes in a beautiful picture sleeve - a reproduction of the tape box used for the recording with a b/w photo from the event.

A kind of morning party music, free of public most wanted styles, and really for the people of the sound... Free domain supporting the electro tribe spirit with a good knowledge of the reality of it. THANK YOU !!! A side opens with Viper, from Kernel Panik... The flip opens with Frost from Trackerz and finally the label boss do it himself with Ed Veg from No System.

Eluize returns to Craigie Knowes to release her second album in the form of the beautifully eclectic 8-track 'Gone' LP. Experimental sounds feature alongside club-ready Techno and Electro - moving effortlessly and coherently across genre and influence. 'Gone' captures the full-spectrum of Eluize's mastery of songwriting, composition and production in all of its shimmering intricacy. Her take on synthesis, drum programming, mixing and original vocals and lyrics take you by the hand and lead you into a rich garden of colour and sound in what is likely her most accomplished work to date. The 12" version is accompanied by an A5 insert with a message from the artist and information on how to get your hands the digital files, including the final 2 tracks that complete the album.

Following up on their debut LP Kick Drunk Love for Marcel Vogel’s Intimate Friends imprint a few years back, we are proud to present the next installment in the sporadic KAMM legacy: Cookie Policies.

Far more sonically rich and musically adventurous than its predecessor, Cookie Policies sees the band make bold strides into new territories where classically hardwired categories such as jazz, indie rock, and electronica melt into one another with immaculate, timeless ease.

The band members’ positions are more clear cut as well this round, with Marc David Barrite (aka Dave Aju, who also did one of his coveted mix engineering jobs on the LP) on prominent lead vocals in many of the pieces, Alland Byallo on trumpet, Kenneth Scott on synth bass, and Marc Smith adding guitar sections while the others shared the arranging and programming duties. This makes for a deeper continuation of the otherworldly combination of their known individual production styles, as well as a musical whole truly greater than the sum of its parts.

The set starts off with “Bird Call”, whose opening ode to Morricone ok corral-meets-samurai showdown riffs flow into a loose and drifting psychedelic boom bap blip, building until a glorious change-up of key and energy brings the track to its peak and deconstructed back down. “Rachel, the Largest Bullfrog” then takes things in a sweeter, slightly more traditionally-structured direction where dusty indie-folk ballad vibes intersect with an array of twisted cosmic tones, bits of computer keyboard percussion, and deep rolling sub bass. “Buckle Down” then moves things back away from acoustic restraints into a beautiful synth-laden musing on potential regret, with an ultra-potent horn section from Byallo vs a nasty stacked Roland SH-101 finish.

“CCBPGC” cools things off for a few minutes with an ambient field recording slice-and-dice motif, which slowly but surely evolves into a slinking jazz noir groove from another dimension. The more traditional song structures return on the lovely “La Luna”, where Barrite’s pen and soulful voice take to nautical longing themes over apropos waves of sonic textures. The ebb and flow of the verse/chorus sections eventually rise and give way to an absolutely gorgeous denouement. “Shleem” then takes us into pure unadulterated soaring sci-fi soundtrack ambient blast-off bliss, while the epic closing track “The Soft Glow of Electric Sex” gives a hearty nod to early masters of sprawling psychedelic jam sessions, from Pink Floyd and Can to In A Silent Way-era Miles and Liquid Liquid, while bringing it clearly into futurist millennia. The gradual evolution of the piece into its grand finale is the stuff we true music-lovers live and die for. We hope you enjoy the ride as much as we do.

Birthed from a radio show and event series with iconic Los Angeles radio station DUBLAB, SOS MUSIC’s goal is to provide a platform for diverse and forward-thinking electronic music, with a keen emphasis on womxn talent from around the world. In conjunction with Berlin-based !K7, the label’s debut release, SOS MUSIC Vol. 1 is a 14-track eclectic compilation showcasing dance music from some of the best producers working at the moment including rRoxymore, Violet, Nightwave, Umfang, LCY & Minimal Violence - lovingly curated to uplift and celebrate the global electronic community in a time of deep uncertainty in the music industry. SOS MUSIC Vol. 1 is international to its core, drawing on in?uences from the artists’ respective backgrounds including the UK, US, Serbia, Spain, Japan, Slovenia, Portugal, Germany & Canada.

SOS MUSIC was founded in Los Angeles by Maddy Maia (UK) and Tottie (Spain via the UK). Maddy has a long history in independent music, and is currently VP A&R in the US for famed British indie label Ninja Tune. Tottie is director of events and special projects at DUBLAB, and curates music, art and cultural programming that re?ects the diverse landscape of the city and beyond.

A shared love of underground music and culture, Maia and Tottie’s bond started strong via throwing events and later with hosting a monthly radio show; The SOS Music imprint is a natural next step in the pair’s progression as curators and its goal will continue early principles the duo stuck to- to seek out diverse underground talent and amplify their voice or community, whilst championing diversity on all sides of the industry. Maddy and Tottie’s music in?uences and styles span wide across the spectrum of experimental dance music, ranging from left?eld house, orchestral ambient sounds, not forgetting a nod to their youth growing up in the UK rave scene.

New Finnish imprint VIENO, kicks off with 10 track compilation of Finnish ambient, electronica & experimental music. Selection draws an emotionally infused red line throughout.

Travelling starts with "Pumpuli". Beautiful soft opener for ears and other senses. However, more deeper agenda follows. For darker soul searching Roberto Rodriguez provides 80´s synth driven "Third Act" followed by techno producer Satoi´s melancholic journey "Unohda".
B-Side goes on with dubby triphop influnced "Heimo M" by Aleksi Myllykoski with Finnish saxosphone legend Tapani Rinne. Paving the way for young and gifted Sansibar´s spacey techno breathing "ISS". Last track of the compilation, ”Ukki”, is a very personal, intriguingly gloomy, yet unpolished piano composition dedicated for recently deceased great grandfather of the artist, Mierka.

”I was just asked what’s my reason to create VIENO and bring out this compilation just now? I’ve been exploring the Finnish urban music and club scene for more than two decades and I recognize the space and craving is now present. Now is the right time to recreate and bring life to this art of subtle melancholy we Finns have always carried deep in us. In a way i´m tryin´to awaken the emotional energy more than just to paint insipid and expectedly ear friendly, atmospheric soundscapes.” - Jaako Hurme

Maurizio one of the founding members of Concrete Records drops 2 original tracks that bring us into hypnotic landscapes full of deep groove and abstraction.

Ethereal and strong at the same time, this tracks are made for being played in the most disparate dj sets both as regular "dj tools" and as real killer tracks.

To confirm this, the two Tensal remixes lead the release to even more extreme territories, without however deforming the "mood" of the tracks.

A perfect match for a release that has a well-defined and very powerful sound.

Limited edition of 150 copies