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Italian, French-speaking and blessed with a Belgian accent Christophe Clébard brings a coherence that prevails both for his person and for his music: a wobbly mound, which sometimes resembles a series of explosions, sometimes a pile of layers cut by a flood of words from which parts can be distinguished. Relying on the amplified intonation of a saturated microphone, a pounding rhythm box and a synthesizer, his performances absorb the hearing to spit it out in a universe where nothing has any meaning, except "we're going to die". A punchline that he chants far from the cliché darkness of the dark wave, since for him death is jubilant and colorful, with the grim reaper as the owner of the nightclub. A nightclub well anchored in his head, without a future, with the upcoming emptiness and the hazy memory of his Christian upbringing.

All tracks composed and recorded by Christophe Clébard at les ateliers claus. The album was recorded during a residency at Les Ateliers Claus during the month of April 2021, mixed by Piccolo Bruno and Christophe Clebard, mastered by Elvin Vanzeebroeck at Rare Sound Studio. Photos and Cover projects by Jonas Meier.

Volker Bertelmann and Hildur Guðnadóttir hardly need an introduction - their distinct styles have graced the speakers of pretty much anyone enamored with experimental music in the last decade, and between them the two have chalked up an enviable canon of successes. Bertelmann, under the Hauschka moniker has explored the extremities of prepared piano improvisation, and Guðnadóttir has taken cinematic, explorative cello music into a new era of depth and passion, so to hear them both together is a rare and unexpected treat. Rare is putting it lightly even - „Pan Tone“ is a recording of a single concert which the duo performed on the 26th of February 2010 as part of Arctic Circle - Bubbly Blue and Green festival at Kings Place in London, and documents an event that would truly never be repeated. Sure, they could attempt to re-create the event, but the spontaneity and glorious serendipity in this particular recording is a pleasure to behold.

Bertelmann and Guðnadóttir decided to create a set of compositions which based on the idea of the ocean, and took a book of Pantones to extract exact references to the specific colors of the sea. These watery tones form the backbone of the performance and inform the direction of the collaboration, guiding us through rich blues, glassy greens and frothy whites. In listening to the music it seems incredibly appropriate that the artists should choose blue as the middle ground in their work; the ineffable lightness that Bertelmann brings to the table is a stark contrast to Guðnadóttir's sinking darkness, and as the two styles collide we witness a plethora of tones, shades and hues. It sounds as if the two artists have been playing together for decades, and their sound is so perfectly matched you might wonder why it's taken them this long to collaborate. All that's left for us to do is to soak in the tidal beauty of this very exclusive body of music, to listen to it sing, bubble and crash through its duration before settling in total silence. When the record reaches its conclusion there is an unsettling calm, a sense that you have witnessed something very special indeed, and that is a feeling to prize amongst all else.

Detroit based producer & DJ 2lanes is happy to announce the evolution of his digital label ‘AUTO SHOP’ into the physical world with its first release; a new alias called OVERTONE SERIES. A collaborative project between 2lanes and fellow Detroiter Jonah Baseball, recorded over many sessions during early lockdown.

The "Shuffle Shack EP" has 4 tracks that span psychedelic deep house, dance floor stomping soul, and rejuvenating sunrise downtempo moments. The record also features performances from Jonah’s father David Gray, Los Angeles based singer Jia Pet and Ji Hoon - who was featured on the B-side “Impish Desires” on 2lanes breakthrough record on Portage Garage Sounds.

Kings Bell, first made available to the world on CD and digital on November 1, 2011, is now being released on a 12" vinyl courtesy of Before Zero Records. This LP joined the best of St Croix with the best of Jamaica: an amazing lineup of players spearheaded by the venerable Jamaican production maestro Andrew "Bassie" Campbell. The result of this collaboration is Kings Bell – a modern roots masterpiece. As Vaughn Benjamin's first-ever full-length collaboration with a Jamaican producer, Kings Bell was a historic release and features some of the greatest musicians the genre has ever seen including Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace, Earl "Chinna" Smith, Squidley Cole, Mikey "Boo" Richards and Sticky Thompson.

The driving musical force behind the album, producer and bassist Andrew "Bassie" Campbell has crafted beautiful rhythms that truly compliment the deep lyrics of Vaughn Benjamin. The power and authenticity of Andrew Bassie's productions stand out from the mass of slickly-produced modern roots coming out of Jamaica today. Much of the music was recorded organically in Jamaica at Tuff Gong Studio, with additional overdubs, vocal recording and mixing completed at I Grade's studio in St. Croix. The result is a collection of songs that capture not only the essence of classic roots from the hands and minds of some of the individuals who have literally helped build the genre, but also the urgency and innovation of the present time. In more than seventy albums and in over twenty years of Midnite music nothing like this cross-fertilization of Jamaican classic roots tradition mixed with St. Croix's own deep roots tradition has ever happened, making "Kings Bell" a glowing highlight in the expansive catalogue of Vaughn Benjamin. A catalogue born from a non-stop movement in pursuit of progressing his craft and delivering his message to the world. One of Benjamin's most fruitful stops along his journey was with I Grade Records, headed by producer/engineer/multi-instrumentalist Laurent "Tippy I" Alfred, regarded by many as some of the finest work of his career.

Continuing the succesful V.38 here you have the Vol.2, 27 special cuts and tracks of the most influence Rapper of all the times, DR DRE, helped for the more importants stars of Hip Hop like 50 CENT, SNOOP DOG, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z... This is a special and powerful weapon for all the Hip Hop creators and DJ's.

Repress!

For the latest instalment in Phonica's Special Edition series, we present a stunning reinterpretation of Tomaga's 'Intimate Immensity' by Floating Points and Marta Salogni.

They collaborate again on the B-side 'A Call From The Eaves'.

Mixed and produced by Floating Points and Marta Salogni.
Mastered and cut by Matt Colton.
Artwork by Icinori.

Social Joy Records presents Natural Lateral's new album "Tapestry of life", a superb excursion in fusion jazz with a wonderful blend of electronics and subtle elements of spiritual Jazz.

Undeniably on the rise after the success of their first album, "Cogito Ergo Jam", which received support from the British Jazz scene and was featured on Gilles Peterson's BB6 broadcast,the North London Based collective goes a step further this time by carefully crafting a new release of a tapestry of music stemming from rich jam sessions at the Lazy Robot Studio and representing the band's phenomenal musical canvas. Echoing jazz legends like Azymuth, Roy Ayers, Alice Coltrane and Miles Davis by paying tribute to those who paved the way but always searching for new musical territories, this six-track LP is moving, thought-provoking and engaging. It is a musical questing where each band member searches for meaning through sounds and rhythms - giving a new life to Jazz music and dropping the full spectrum of a vibrant tapestry of life into the listener's ears.

The band's work ethic is based on a sense of freedom in the studio filled with live jam sessions where it's all about "catching a moment" and letting the inspiration flow. "We just want to feel a sense of freedom and connection through playing. In the studio, it's the music which connects us all, and we just want to allow that process to unfold".

limited 500 copies

Bootsy Collins' latest album 'Power of the One' was a real doozy and now it gets picked apart for some special 7"s on Japan's P-Vine. 'Hip-Hop Lollipop' (feat. Fantaazma) sees Bootsy doing what he does best, grooving, funking and bring some big fun to the funk. It is a remake of 'Club Funkateers' from the album with German Fantaazma that was first dropped on streaming services to mark Black History Month earlier this year. On the flip is 'Bewise' (FredWreck Remix) which was a Japan-exclusive CD bonus track when the album first dropped. It's a tight funk offering with West-coast production.

Soft Raw is a new label from Danielle – a natural extension of the Bristol-based DJ’s expansive tastes within contemporary club music. Over the past few years the NTS resident has become a leading light in the multifaceted world of modernist techno abstractions, ably balancing soundsystem pressure and propulsive rhythmic intensity with experimental textures and explorative energy variations. Soft Raw seeks to continue that mission with releases which will progress stylistically from one approach to another, taking in exciting, emergent producers unique in their approach but bound together by the idiosyncratic curation of Danielle – a faithful reflection of her proven skill as a selector.

The label launches with a six-track drop from Slacker. Sam Black has been winding up a potent strain of needlepoint techno which leans towards jungle and half-time D&B in its tempo and structure. Across a selection of various releases, Black’s sound has evolved into an accomplished and detailed style which draws on moody atmospheres and advanced engineering in the grand tradition of UK soundsystem music. Across this EP the Slacker sound matches up to the spirit of Soft Raw, balancing fierce kinetic energy with delicacy and finesse and leaving some space for outright ambience. At times he locks into a half-step warm-up mode, while elsewhere the amens creep in for a more pronounced jungle rinse-out.

It’s a strong opening statement for this new label, but crucially this doesn’t spell out the future in absolute terms. True to Danielle’s broad outlook, subsequent releases are set to take in everything from straight up 4/4 and acid to footwork and electro, with a narrative binding each release together according to her internal logic and the tension between soft and raw qualities explored across consistently cutting-edge tracks.

Paryìa label head Marie Montexier announces the third installment on her imprint.

After kicking off the label with records by a.b.u.3.0.3. and Small Crab, Marie is having the Vancouver based acidic specialist Overland, who delivers three cutting-edge dance floor tracks that showcase her rich and versatile fusion of classic acid techno patterns and distinctive bass music rhythms.

Rounding off the record is a remix from the Chicago based up-and-comers Purelink. In contrast to Overland’s dark, fast, and bassy sound, Purelink re-arranged a trippy downtempo version of ‘Paloma’, resolving in the delicate, yet deliberate, chillout ecstasy, they are best known for.

100% GALCHER was by all accounts a game-changer when it landed in 2013 as an hour of original music from a relatively unknown producer ushered in by the beloved mix series Blowing Up The Workshop. Galcher Lustwerk's signature sound — a smoky stream-of-consciousness baritone shadow-boxing with beats, informed by funk, rap, rhythm, and blues — felt like an epiphany, impossibly hypnotic and complete. Resident Advisor writes, "100% GALCHER laid out a louche, lysergic and resolutely black take on deep house." Pitchfork remembers the music's immediate impact: "It's the sort of gem you felt inclined to pass around” — and by year-end list time, word-of-mouth intensified. It was Resident Advisor and Juno's mix of the year, and earned a top-ten placement in FACT Magazine's albums list, as well as Philip Sherburne's personal rundown for Spin." Since then, select songs from 100% GALCHER have seen small-run pressings, while the album has lived primarily on SoundCloud and YouTube as a low-key cult legend. The gateway into Lustwerk's now well-established catalog, known for its reliability as a late-night listen and its prophetic vision for the near future of underground dance music. RA would later name it a mix of the decade, citing its influence and imagination: “Original in every sense — unknown, unheard and unbelievably good.” In late 2022, marking ten years since he first recorded the material, Lustwerk returns to Ghostly International to release 100% GALCHER as a remastered limited-edition double LP.

Lustwerk is a product of the Midwest. Growing up in Cleveland, he'd tape over his parents’ cassettes and spend hours at his family computer recording loops and designing artwork for the jewel cases of burned CDs. In high school, he turned to Ableton Live and absorbed every electronic music magazine he could find at the local Borders Books store. In excerpts from the 100% GALCHER liner notes, Lustwerk looks back: "My dad drove me to this shop on the westside Bent Crayon, where I would get anything the blogs told you to get + whatever the clerk recommended. CDs stayed in their packaging, there was always an overflow of vinyl stacked on the floor. I was too shy to listen to anything before buying."

As a college student at RISD, he played in noise bands, plugged into Providence's DIY scene via Myspace, and started DJing weeknights at bars downtown. There he connected with Young Male and DJ Richard, who would go on to found White Material Records and offer their third release to Galcher Lustwerk, an alias realized via CAPTCHA test, a perfect artifact of its internet age. By 2012, Lustwerk had drifted to New York City and settled into a graphic design job, quickly growing disenfranchised by office culture. "Some days I felt like a token, other days I felt invisible." At night, he and his friends were carving out their own space

"Music gives us the illusion that time is not time, but space. It is then that the music transforms from process to object, which I find a very interesting thought; a materialisation of the sound process. Sound is matter." - Noémi Büchi

Noémi Büchi's debut album 'Matter' captures the tension between growth and decay, consonance and dissonance, mirroring Büchi's own catharsis through music. Her most personal material to date, 'Matter' is an opus of refined, sculpted beauty, one that aims to blur the distinction between ephemerality and physicality. Inspired by late romantic classical music and early 20th century contemporary music, 'Matter' is driven by the compositional methodologies of Igor Stravinsky, Alexander Skrjabin, Gustav Mahler and György Ligeti to modern sound forms, adapting and expanding upon their ideas in an awe-inspiring exploration of cutting-edge potency and tactility.

Büchi structures the electronic works that constitute 'Matter' in movements, stratifying myriad instrumental parts like the constituent sections of an orchestra. During her work on the album, Büchi engaged in extensive research, obsessively studying specific chords and progressions, and searching for transcendent intonations with resonant properties; complexions of sound with the ability to connect with the listener's body. Transforming our inner worlds into zones of suspension and levitation, Büchi exposes the listener to intoxicating slipstreams of sound. Prominent voices ascend, tectonic disturbances threaten the foundations, perception and sensation becomes subject to elemental countercurrents and inversions. 'Matter' illustrates the fraught pursuit of momentary equilibrium, and makes the fragility of euphoria tangible.

Composer & sound artist Noémi Büchi creates electronic, symphonic maximalism. Her music is defined by delicate electronic-orchestral forms and textural rhythms. She strives for a combination of harmonic and dissonant sonorities, to evoke both intellectual and emotional euphoria. Büchi has appeared on the Light of Other Days and Visible Dinner labels, and is now an affiliate of -OUS, releasing 'Hyle' her debut EP on the label in spring 2022. As well as her solo output, Noémi Büchi is currently working with Feldermelder on their collaborative project Musique Infinie. Their debut album will also be released via -OUS in the near future.

In May 2020 Cocoon Recordings released the third album of Harald Björk. With the club scene on Covid-hold , tours canceled and all of our favorite DJ’s locked up at home… not the optimal conditions to release an album on a nr.1 world wide club empire as Cocoon. How ever we decided not to let a virus kill our beloved culture, as Mr. Sven Väth put it „I would like to share with you the album of Harald Björk… which has soothed me and I hope will also give you a soundtrack for these uneasy days“. It felt right to release it.

The release was shrinked from a thought of vinyl box to a digital release with future plans on vinyl. However covid decided to stay and time went. The queue at the vinyl factories didn’t make the process easier… But at one point the dream factory of Kranglan Broadcast decided, enough! , the world has to keep on dreaming. And what is a better way to embrace dreams then to release a vinyl full of of dreamers, groundbreaking in their corners of the electronic umberella. Dreamers doing their thing not even looking at the norm or what’s the recent hype.

Aditional info:
Houndtooth finest Throwing Snow who Harald met in New York 2013 during their term at RBMA brings a bassdriven rollercoaster with the arpeggios from Spektrum bouncing like rubberballs through an impressive broken drum work. The remix came delivered with a text saying „I like my drums slamming“ and so do we.

Ada takes the eteric pads of Waldmeister and place them in a auditive dreamstate, an emotional hybrid of space and vacuum. Large feelings, yet so close. It builds, stretches and builds until we are shown the enlighted truth in the end of the tunnel. Harald is a long time fan and colector of Adas music which he got to know through the lovely label of Areal and has continued to love through the Pampa era. First remix from Ada on Kranglan was the epic remake of Sabor Latino, Sabor de Ada! We are delighted to have her art on the label once again.

The pandemic 2020 took away the most fun of beeing in the club scene, sharing stages with brilliant interesting dreamers showing and exchanging visions performing music. Under these strange conditions Molø and Harald ended up sharing a physical stage at the stream festival United We Stream. One thing led to the other and Harald took a deep dive in to Molø‘s great melodic techno universe. Some times you find gold in your own hometown. Molø’s take on Waldmeister build on the mellow arpeggio from the original track and brings them to a perfect chilled out afterhours. Imagine watching the sunrise to this beauty.

Swedes are a people of high integracy but as loyal citizens we allways attend formal events by the state. Skudge and Harald met at the Swedish National Radio price anouncement, both nominated for „electronic act of the year 2011“. It was an akward event with radio interviews and canapés, not very techno, the signum of Skudge. How ever Skudge won it all leaving both Avicii and Swedish House Mafia empty handed. Landberg, the swing king of Skudge is the kind of person that will tell you why the TR-909 has to be master clock to get the right groove in a techno performance, if you ask… which you do ??! If you’re looking for techno with groove look no further, Skudge is king! In his take on Walking Path he display the power of minimalistic dirty grooves, a 909 and a 303 what else do we need?

The 12“ vinyl comes with a fresh re-master of album single Medan Du Sov and an unreleased bonus track, Drifting, a balearic sundazed love story.

This album, recorded live after the release of Bertrand Burgalat's first album (The Sssound of Mmmusic, 2000), is a unique testimony of a passionate encounter, of explosive concerts and an exceptional musical adventure, a mixture of soulful rhythms, oniric keyboards and songs with chiseled lyrics and harmonies.

Out of stock on vinyl for decades, it will be reissued and published in December 2022, with a text by Philippe Manœuvre. 21 years after its first publication, it has not aged a bit. It includes tribute covers ("Follow Me" by Amanda Lear, "Tears Of A Clown" by Smokey Robinson), and a version of "Easy Tiger", recorded at the same time for Depeche Mode.

"This album brings back the great psychedelic concerts that Bertrand gave at the time. For me, Aux Cyclades électronique is in the running for the title of most beautiful song in the world, I haven't changed my mind."
Philippe Manoeuvre, excerpt from the innersleeve note, April 2022

"A.S Dragon is arguably the best French rock band of today. Nearly an hour of psyche-magnetic madness, the spectacular collision of a Gainsbourg theorist playing his melodies to a Jefferson Airplane from Clignancourt charged with pushing all galactic limits."
Philippe Manoeuvre, Rock & Folk, October 2001

"Bertrand Burgalat meets A.S Dragon could satisfy both French Touch fans and Rock'n'Roll purists. It sounds like the resurrection of a sixties garage rock band, somewhere between Detroit and Combs-la-ville. Burgalat for charity."
Philippe Barbot, Télérama, November 2001

"This is a fantastic remix! It sounds a bit like 70's funk. Bertrand has taken the song and reworked it from top to bottom, re-recording people on every part. It sounds like a James Bond song. It's really one of the best remixes we've ever done. "
Martin Gore (Depeche Mode) on "Easy Tiger", Magic, May 2001

"I wish this song could last my whole life..."
Virginie Despentes, on "Aux Cyclades électronique", "Vernon Subutex

Boggiedown Base has been a producer and remixer since debuting as part of Die Reimbanditen in 1993. His CV includes productions for Die Coolen Säue/DCS, Albino, Chaoze One, and Die Deutsche Reimachse. In 2005 he met the Backspin-Magazine-DJ DJ 12 Finger Dan and the two formed a production duo. As Soulbrotha, the two produced mainly for and with American artists such as Sadat X from Brand Nubian, DJ Premier from Gangstarr, Large Professor, Big Shug, Blaq Poet, Masta Ace, Beneficience, Cella Dwellas, El Da Sensei, Kev Brown, Edo G and much more. The two came into contact with the producer Roccwell from Munich by chance. Through the common love for soul samples, hard drums, the clanking of the E-MU SP-1200, dope raps and spectacular cuts, the idea of a collabo-album came up.

"In Good Company" is a celebration of the classic boom bap sound and comes up with top-class feature guests. Among others, the New York cult rapper J-Live was won for the song "Real Reconize Real". Q Ball & Curt Cazal aka QnC from the legendary D&D Studios in New York show on "Classic Position" why they are still relevant after more than 20 years in the game and the Boston MC M-Dot proves on "Toil" why there is a hype around his person. But there are also other top artists on the guest list, such as DJ Eclipse, DJ Riz or KORE. "In Good Company" is to be understood as a homage to the many rap classics of the last three decades and sees itself in their tradition, but always remains modern thanks to the contributions of many young and talented artists such as Wildelux, Duo Pesci, Resolute or Empulse.

On in february, Isik Kural works like a photographer of sound, documenting the passing and returning of time as if material snapshots of life's temporality. Across the album's twelve songs, each composed from chance loops and cocooned within the soft container of Isik's memorable voice and melody play, time is held on to hopefully, impossibly, eternally.
Born in Istanbul, Isik studied music engineering at the University of Miami, alighted in New York City, and eventually settled in Glasgow, immersing in a sound design masters and audiovisual practice. While these paths guided him between different projects and cities, a voice was simultaneously growing inside the artist, informed by a vision of the world in its everyday luminosity. This voice was expressed in the lyrical and instrumental waves of 2019's As Flurries, a cassette collection for Italian label Almost Halloween Records.
Isik Kural's in february will be released on October 15, 2021 on vinyl, cassette, compact disc, and digital formats. On behalf of Isik, a portion of the proceeds from this release will benefit Turkiye Egitim Gonulluleri Vakfi, an organization that creates and conducts workshops, educational training programs and after school programs for children across Turkey.

Labi Siffre’s third album was the first to be produced by Labi himself, who declares it to be “the one where it all
came together… singing some of my best songs”.
• Issued in 1972, it features the beautiful original version of “It Must Be Love”, a # 14 hit for Labi nine years
before Madness took it to the top. Also featured is “My Song”, as sampled by Kanye West for “I Wonder”, and
the # 11 hit title song, also covered by Rod Stewart and Olivia Newton-John.
• This new edition has been expertly cut by Barry Grint at AIR Mastering from the original stereo tapes using
precision half-speed mastering.
• Half-speed mastering is a vinyl cutting technique that improves groove accuracy and transient information
creating an incredibly detailed stereo image with a natural high frequency response.
• Presented in its original gatefold sleeve, pressed on180 gram heavyweight vinyl, featuring an obi strip and
housed in a poly-lined inner sleeve, with all the lyrics on the 4 page insert.

WRWTFWW Records is proud to announce the worldwide reissue of Midori Takada’s solo album from 1999, Tree of Life, available on vinyl for the first time ever in a new audiophile mix by the Japanese percussionist herself, and in full half-speed-mastered glory. The 180g LP comes in a heavy sleeve with a beautiful design by Kohei Sugiura. Tree of Life is also available in CD (digipack) and digital formats.

Originally recorded in September 1998 at legendary Ginza (Tokyo) studio Onkio Haus (founded in 1974 and where Ryuichi Sakamoto’s "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" and many more were recorded) and released on CD only for the Japan market in 1999, Tree of Life is Midori Takada’s best kept secret, a lost gem of minimalism and percussive ambient. The album is separated in two parts, the first one finds Takada exploring her trademark environmental soundscapes with precise mastery of marimba, drums, and bells, notably on the magnificent fan-favorite "Love Song Of Urfa". The second half is a collaboration with Chinese virtuoso Erhu player Jiang Jian Hua, allowing Midori Takada to unveil new layers of her artistic mind with a slightly more theatrical approach and a beautiful crystallization of complex simplicity.

The entire album was given a fresh new audiophile mix by Midori Takada herself and was mastered at Emil Berliner Studios, with half speed cutting for the vinyl version, to ensure an audio presentation aligned with the Japanese pioneer’s vision.

This Tree of Life reissue follows two newly recorded Midori Takada albums, Cutting Branches For A Temporary Shelter and You Who Are Leaving To Nirvana, both available on WRWTFWW Records, along with her 1983 masterpiece, Through The Looking Glass.

Tuhka, like its titular cinder or ash symbolises new beginnings, fertile ground and creativity after a long lapse. In the same vein, the tracks on this edition were created after a long fallow period.

Tuhka was created out of archival snippets and new vocal loops created on the sunny top floor of Merlijnstraat in early 2022. Late lockdown there was spent writing on the balcony and walking or playing in nearby parks. This creative but relaxed time is embodied in the feeling on ’Tuhka,’ a release wrapping itself around the core of two long-form tracks:

Kärpässieni is a soft, pensive number, with an archival cheap synth track and a chopped-up mystery field recording mingling with a simple subdued vocal loop. There is a titular reference to amanita mushrooms, a fungi encompassing the mystery and the melancholy bitterness present in the track. The feeling is akin to a frosty morning spent on a walk to the Mercatorplein library and feeling your toes start numbing.

Varisevalehti means ’shudderingleaf’ and it consists of an airy, optimistic voice loop that progresses and winds around the length of the track. Alongside it, at times you can hear tape-manipulated samples from a ’learn Italian’ record I used to own. The feeling is more of a wander around Westerpark when the blossoms have started come loose and fly around in the air, forming soft pink deposits in the corners of streets.

Thanks to Haron Aumaj for enduring support and for the copious quantities of Banjaan borani.

A NEED FOR SPEED, A NEED FOR ACTION.
ANFS BECOMES BOY TZORTZ.
A NECESSARY CHANGE IN A TIME THAT THE WORLD CHANGED AROUND US.
UNEXPECTEDLY. WITH FORCE.
RIOT OF LIFE.
A YOUNG PRINCE IN HIS ARMA THAT IS RIDING WITH DEVASTATING SPEED TOWARDS THE ETERNITY.
FOLLOWING THE PATH TO HIS DESTINY.
AND THROUGH CHAOS HE BRINGS ORDER.
THIS IS HIS KARMA.

4 SINISTER CUTS OF PURE MEGACITY ENERGY FROM ONE OF THE BEST IN THE GAME.
ENOUGH SAID.

2022 Repress

Mancunian maestro Setaoc Mass returns for his second outing on Soma with the Fortnight EP. Drenched in his typical hard hitting, meticulously produced style, Sam's latest Soma 12" has him at the top of his game with 4 top quality tracks + a special bonus track for the digital EP.

"Time" opens the EP with a particularly hypnotic sound and a definite driving pace as swelling and pulsing background atmospheres give this a quite aggressive backbone. "Bluebells" is yet another dance floor rocking track that hits the ground running right from the start. Razor sharp poly-rhythmic structures keep the track interesting while intense percussive workouts provide the power. Title track "Fortnight" delves deeper whilst still remaining true to Sam's direct and tough sound; don't let this deeper side fool you, all the hallmarks of a proper banger remain intact! "Chaos" closes out things with a more groove laden and emotive tone as shuffling percussive elements funk things up before subtle synths work their way in giving the track a more melodic feel than the previous. Digital Bonus, "Necessary Evil", is a straight up, no nonsense dance floor workout.

Ernest Hood’s Neighborhoods was released some two decades after the Portland, Oregon born and raised musician’s first forays into field recordings. These very recordings, and those captured over intervening years, define the universal sound and aural images of childhood, a theme memorialized by Hood’s privatelypressed opus of 1975.

Sprawling through a haze of zither, synthesizer melodies, and foraged pedestrian sound, Neighborhoods is both a score and documentary composed and directed by Hood to offer, in his words, joy in reminiscence. Hood’s nostalgic impulse ran parallel to the developments of other artists, writers, and filmmakers of the 1970s who were looking back to the 1950s to convey a collective memory of childhood. Unlike some of the widely embraced work of this nature, the music of Neighborhoods eschews irony or detachment for lucidity, striving above all for a dream-like return to the details of sensory memory.

Born into a musical lineage, Hood’s early, promising career as a guitarist in a globetrotting jazz outfit was cut short when he contracted polio in his late twenties. Moving from guitar to less physically-demanding stringed instruments in the late 1940s, Hood first began implementing field recordings in his jazz ensemble collaborations as early as 1956. In 1961, Hood and trumpeter Jim Smith collaborated on a local Portland television program, with their large, tight ensemble providing breakneck contemporary jazz for an action painting by famed West Coast modernist painter Louis Bunce. Hood incorporated his own field-recorded sounds of birds in the performance – an element that would resurface in Neighborhoods with great abundance among other found sounds.

2022 Repress

Modern Obscure Music has been making links with the Far East since label boss Pedro Vian visited Japan and this is their first 12” release from a Japanese artist. Albino Sound is Hirotaka Umetani from Osaka and here he presents Black Lagoon. This is an exciting EP of experimental soundcapes and left of centre dancefloor escapades with an extra special remix from German producer DJ Normal 4. Black Lagoon opens the EP with live percussion and mysterious sounds and is followed by the mesmerising tones of Plum Valley. Transparent Colony is an open-armed ambient cut and the EP finishes with two versions on Dried Seeds. The original is an energetic mover and DJ Normal 4's Vibe Strike Remix is an eastern synth inspired mission.

* The 7” A side, ‘My Homeland’, is a Sax/Hornz instrumental track and features top Jamaican Hornzman, Alvin Davis. The B side has a heavyweight Dub from Alien Dread.

Alvin is also well known ref Jazz and other musical areas, as well as Reggae and has worked with many Jazz, Soul and mainstream artists including: Andy Hamilton, Rose Royce, Prince, Edwin Starr, The Foundations, Neville Staples (Specials & Fun Boy Three), Jackie Graham, Nigel Kennedy and Reggae-wise, Alton Ellis, Macka B, Maxi Priest and David Hinds (Steel Pulse) and many others.

An alternate version of A side track will be featured on the forthcoming Alvin Davis & Alien Dread album: Dreadland (Iron Sound).

Dread Recordings is very excited to present the Limited Edition USB of the forthcoming album from Dark Soldier 'Stand Up'.

Not due for full release until the end of 2022 this USB edition contains 20 TRACKS, including 5 EXCLUSIVES that will never be available anywhere else.

This USB is available on a first come first served basis and once sold out, will not be made available again!

An Appointment with Mr Yeats sees the words of W B Yeats, one of Ireland's greatest literary sons, merged with the music of The Waterboys, one of Britain and Ireland's greatest rock bands, in a truly unique and ambitious musical undertaking. The album was originally released in 2011, and has been fully remastered for re-issue, and now contains 6 previously unreleased bonus tracks. The Waterboys vocalist Mike Scott, first delivered a new dimension to Yeats' poetry in 1988, when he wrote a musical accompaniment for the classic poem The Stolen Child, during the making of the Waterboys seminal album 'Fisherman's Blues'. Five years later he set another Yeats poem to music, Love and Death, which appeared on their 'Dream Harder' album. Over the years, Scott had been quietly crafting a wealth of material similarly based on the writings of Yeats. A number of these were performed by him at the Abbey Theatre during the Yeats International Festival in 1991, but most had remained in Scott's private songbook awaiting the right vehicle. An Appointment with Mr. Yeats was that long-awaited context. Scott's love of literature is firmly embedded throughout the work of The Waterboys. He has also put the writings of Robert Burns, James Stephens, Kenneth Grahame and George MacDonald to song. Speaking on his literary influences and loves, Scott explained: "I grew up in a house full of books so literature - and language - have always been important to me. Working with other peoples' words is something that comes as natural to me as working with my own. In a way it's even more immediate; I've always found writing music an easier process than the writing of lyrics, and setting words of the quality of Yeats' to music is an enormous privilege and treat." An Appointment with Mr. Yeats is a unique and memorable opportunity for lovers of great music and great literature to celebrate the union of song and word in one spectacular record.

25TH ANNIVERSARY in Yellow Vinyl

The eighth Studio Album by the Band, released on April 22, 1997. It was produced by Roger Moutenot and recorded at House of David in Nashville The Album expands the guitar-based pop of its predecessor Electr-O-Pura to encompass a variety of other music genres, including Bossa Nova, Krautrock and Electronic Music. Most of the Songs on the Album deal with melancholy emotions and range from short and fragile Ballads to long and open-ended dissonance.

Die Musik von Surprise Chef basiert auf dem Hervorrufen von Stimmungen; ihre lebendigen Arrangements nutzen Zeit und Raum, um Klanglandschaften zu schaffen, die den Zuhörer in ihre Welt einladen. Der unverwechselbare Sound des Quintetts speist sich aus der Filmmusik der 70er Jahre, der funkigeren Seite des Jazz und den Samples, die die Grundlage des Hip-Hop bilden. Sie verschieben die Grenzen des instrumentalen Soul und Funk mit ihrem eigenen Ansatz, der durch unzählige Stunden im Studio, das Studium der Meister und - vielleicht am wichtigsten - durch die "Tyrannei der Distanz", die ihrer Musik eine einzigartige Perspektive diktiert, verfeinert wurde. Mit ihren ersten beiden Alben All News Is Good News und Daylight Savings haben sich die aus der Nähe von Melbourne, Australien, stammenden Musiker eine eingefleischte Fangemeinde erspielt und ihren Sound von ihrem Heimstudio aus in alle Ecken der Welt gebracht. Die Band ist nun bei Big Crown Records unter Vertrag und reiht sich damit in eine Reihe zeitgenössischer und klassischer Sounds ein, die die Musik von Surprise Chef seit ihrer Gründung im Jahr 2017 beeinflusst haben. Surprise Chef besteht aus Lachlan Stuckey (Gitarre), Jethro Curtin (Keyboards), Carl Lindeberg (Bass), Andrew Congues (Schlagzeug) und Hudson Whitlock - das jüngste Mitglied, das von der Percussion über das Komponieren bis zum Produzieren alles macht. Die selbsternannten "moody shades of instrumental jazz-funk" haben von allem etwas: druckvolle Drums, mitreißende Keys, eine Rhythmusgitarre, die man auf einer Studio One-Platte hören könnte, und Flötenlinien, die von einer Blue Note-Session stammen könnten. Aber wenn man einen Schritt zurücktritt und sich die Gesamtheit ihres Sounds und ihrer Herangehensweise anschaut, dann hört und sieht man eine Gruppe, die mehr ist als die Summe ihrer Teile. In vielerlei Hinsicht verkörpert Surprise Chef die Redewendung "the benefits of limits". Ihre Möglichkeiten waren insofern begrenzt, als es in Südost-Australien nicht viele Leute gab, die instrumentalen Jazz/Soul/Funk machten oder darüber sprachen, geschweige denn Platten herausbrachten. So mussten sie ihren Sound und ihre Herangehensweise in einer Art kreativer Isolation entwickeln, in der sich ein kleiner Kreis von Freunden und gleichgesinnten Musikern gegenseitig befruchtete. "Da wir in Australien so weit weg sind, bekommen wir nur flüchtige Einblicke in die Ursprünge dieser Musik", sagt Stuckey. "Aber als wir ein Label wie Big Crown hörten, wurde uns zum ersten Mal bewusst, dass man frische, neue Soulmusik machen kann, die nicht super retro oder einfach nur nostalgisch ist." Dieser Ansatz ist auf ihrem neuen Album Education & Recreation deutlich zu hören. Tracks wie "Velodrome" verbinden klobige Drums mit einer ohrwurmverdächtigen Synthie-Linie, die so klingt, als würde sie auf einer Ultimate Breaks & Beats-Compilation zu finden sein, während Nummern wie "Iconoclasts" zeigen, dass sie ein Händchen für die geschmackvolle Nutzung von Raum haben. Vom erdrückenden Intro von "Suburban Breeze" bis zum schwebenden, sanften Bop von "Spring's Theme" haben Surprise Chef ein Album zusammengestellt, das dich durch Höhen und Tiefen der Emotionen führt. Ein lebendiger, die Fantasie beflügelnder Sound! Dem weiten Spektrum dieser Instrumentalmusiksparte wird mit diesem neuen Album ein modernen Klassiker hinzugefügt.

In hugo, there’s a central question that Loyle Carner keeps coming back to: “I’m young, Black, successful and have a platform - but where do I go next?” The answer is explored in this epic scream of a third album. With urgent delivery and gloriously widescreen production, Carner confronts both the deeply personal (“You can’t hate the roots of a tree, and not hate the tree. So how can I hate my father without hating me?) and the highly political (“I told the black man he didn’t understand I reached the white man he wouldn’t take my hand”). Cinematic in scale and scope, hugo is both a rallying war cry for a generation forged in fire and a study of the personal internal conflict that drives the rest of the album - as a mixed-race Black man, as an artist, as a father and as a son. With Mercury and Brits nominations, NME Awards and appearances in global brand campaigns (Nike, YSL, Timberland), Carner has undoubtedly had a meteoric rise to the top, culminating with his second album Not Waving, But Drowning charting at number 3 in the UK albums chart in 2019. However, hugo sees Carner taking a sharp detour from his previous work, putting it down to lockdown and the “hedonistic side of career being stripped away. There were no shows, no backstage, no festivals, no photoshoots”. By continuing to write in these tumultuous times with a renewed clarity and sense of artistic freedom, Carner reached deeper beneath the surface than he ever had before. The result is his most cathartic and ambitious record yet, a coruscating journey into the heart of what it means to be alive in these tumultuous times, and one which looks set to neatly cement his position as one of the most potent and vital young talents around today. Working alongside renowned producer kwes. (Solange, Kelela, Nao), Carner leaves no stone unturned on this album, in both its sound and its stories. In a 10-track album that moves from gorgeous neo-soul moments to thundering hip hop, with immediate, infectious bangers and sampled interludes from non musicians (mixed-race Guyanese poet John Agard and youth activist and politician Athian Akec) Carner shifts seamlessly from micro to macro, confronting everything from strained relationships with family to the societal tears caused by class stratification. It also lays bare bruises in his personal life that he has never revealed before – often in painful, deeply uncomfortable ways, focusing on Carner's experience of becoming a father in the context of growing up without contact with his biological father. With the song “Polyfilla”, against the backdrop of a warm melodic beat, Carner explores his desire to “break the chains in the cycle” of dysfunctional Black fatherhood, commenting on the narrative of fatherhood in the genre, and saying a key part of the process was realising that his father “grew up in a world where nobody showed him how to love or nurture”. The follow up track “A Lasting Place” is an exploration of the MC’s failure and inability to be perfect in this mission. The album closer is a powerful statement of love and forgiveness; with his signature lyrical dexterity, Carner declares his relentless commitment to his son and sees forgiving his father as a key part of this. The song closes with an emotional ending of Carner telling his dad “still I’m lucky yo that we talk”. There’s a striking duality of hugo’s bold, multilayered tracks and its often starkly intimate and tender lyricism, and that dichotomy is deliberate - it is a message for young Black men, but really, anyone, who is listening. Cognizant of the immense pain and fear and confusion that we are faced with everyday, Carner has thrown down the gauntlet, defying us not to rise above the fray, wake up each day and be ambitious. Ambitious in building strong personal relationships. Ambitious in our pursuit of our goals. Ambitious in never refusing to back down against injustice. Rejecting the title of leader, Loyle Carner sees himself “as holding up a mirror”, and that clearly translates into the album's universal messages.

incl. dl code

Patås premieres his new label LEK with 4 tracks toying around in the Techno/broken beat spectrum. "Måsans dødsleie" (Måsans deathbed) starts the EP following the last journey of Måsan, a character that everybody knows; the one guy in every group of friends that just cant stop partying, the re-uper to re-up them all.

Glitchy percussion, freaky synthriffs, and a heart monitor guides him all the way to the great beyond. Ethereal "Atlantic Potion" (made in collaboration with Canadian Jamie Cox) closes the side out with its cold lushness. On the other side the theme music from Final Fantasy 6 gets reharmonized and redrummed in "Hommage a Uematsu", for some guaranteed nerd chills to all you JRPG clubbers.

Last track "TMA 4ever (Patås remix)" turns Kim Dürbecks epic ambient tune into a broken beat journey with accompanying bird sounds and hectic percussion.

Copenhagen-based HVAD releases a new solo album entitled YUG, an electro-acoustic shrine. The double LP also serves as the second release on HVAD's newly founded, self-owned label ULLLU. The album YUG consists of nine separate tracks but breathes as one unified piece, presenting something for the brain, something for the body and something for the soul in alternating measures throughout the one hour long release. YUG is Hindi for era or an age of time, framing the musical material by HVAD made over the last few years. The album reflects a continuum of creating a personal, musical language; building a new home by drawing upon classical Indian instrumentation as well as electronics, in total making for an expression that has been the foundation of HVAD's practice for more than a decade. The cover of YUG portrays HVAD's grandmother and her two sisters, bringing to the foreground family roots as a cornerstone of the album, ancestral ghosts running through the music. As a prerequisite of eerie emotion, this weaves together material across a broad musical spectrum with both determination and sensibility. Some tracks are in steadfast 4/4 while others are stretched out in free form with each their pulse or ambience, always seeking ahead towards some place that is even more free than the last.

“A rather gorgeous and engrossing collection, that borrows stealthily from a rich history of sound effect and soundtrack to build a tender poem to the night time.” - CLASH
“The plan was to make twenty 90-second tracks designed as TV themes,” says Arab Strap’s Aidan Moffat, of the initial thought behind his new instrumental album as Nyx Nótt “But it wasn't a satisfying listen, it was too gimmicky and silly.”
So instead, Moffat decided to stretch the idea out, plunge deeper, and expand the music into full tracks, “making some of them quite long and dramatic, with the odd swift turn here and there.” In fleshing these tracks out into more fully realised songs he began sourcing samples from professional TV and film music libraries. “The focus then turned to making a proper album out of these modern library sounds,” he says. “I decided to stick with the Themes From title and named the tracks after the sorts of shows they made me think of when I listened back.”
The result is a record that explores genre themes such as: ‘Thriller, ‘Porno’, ‘Caper’ and Swashbuckler’, and acts as an audio equivalent of channel hopping through a unique TV station programmed by Moffat. “I still wasn't sure about all this until I did the album cover, which brought it all together,” he says, of the artwork that places an old smashed TV unit front and centre with a woman perched on top. “It has echoes of old TV compilations but is pretty cheeky and slightly sexy in that old 70s compilation style. I wanted this one to look a bit more fun than the last one, as well as hopefully sound a bit more fun too.”
Aside from being a fun experience, it is also a stirring and immersive listen, one that allows the listener to imagine their own accompanying visual scenarios to each musical theme. The opening ‘Docudrama’ marries a gently creeping beat with strings that glide from tense to sweeping, while ‘Porno’ is all seedy smoky jazz that feels plucked right out of Travis Bickle’s late night trips to porn cinemas in Taxi Driver.
Touches of jazz pop up in other places too, on ‘Hardboiled’ this merges with subtle pulses and gargles of electronics that build to a rousing crescendo of horns and bleeps, and on ‘Caper’ there’s a vivacious full jazz band skip to the lively swinging rhythms. “There's a few more jazzy elements here,” Moffat says. “Although I'm not quite sure where that came from. Although, like everyone else, I've had plenty of time to be introspective recently, so I decided the next Nyx Nótt album should be more upbeat and encourage some occasional foot-tapping.”
However, what becomes apparent, the longer you spend in the world of Themes From, is how singular and unique the tone of each composition is. “Each track has its own individual feel,” says Moffat. “The idea was to sound like a different composer and band throughout.” It’s a stylistic leap that continues Nyx Nótt’s trajectory as one that shares no direct link to Moffat’s other projects. “I approach them in completely different ways and with a different purpose in mind,” says Moffat. “I don't think Nyx has ever heard of Arab Strap, and certainly doesn't own any of their albums.” It’s also a notable shift from the debut album under this moniker, and suitably given the theme, Moffat has created a visual comparison between these two sonic worlds. “If the first Nyx Nótt album was like looking out on dark prairies before dawn, this is more like a walk through a neon Soho after a few cocktails.”

Well we are going back to Dayton yet again for some more of that 1980's Boogie Funk!!!
PLATYPUS IS: Jerry Johnstone (Lead and Rhythm Guitar), Lloyd “Rok” Jones (Bass Guitar and all Bass), Kerry “Bogart” Rutledge (Vocals/Guitar), Arthur “Hakim” Stokes(Vocals/Percussion), and Curtis Sanford (Drums & Percussion) all from Dayton, Ohio!
Special shout out to former PLATYPUS members Dana Meyers Vocals/Autoharp), since those days, Solar Records, Songwriter, Producer for The Whispers, Shalamar and The Spinners, Floyd “Spoon” Weatherspoon (Vocals), since those days performing with “The Motown Sounds Of TOUCH” and Larry Hines (Lead and Rhythm Guitar extraordinaire) Deceased.

PLATYPUS RELEASED 2 albums for Casablanca Records – “Platypus” (1979) and “Cherry” (1980) and recorded more wonderful unreleased music. Super Disco Edits is proud to be releasing previously Unreleased song Side A “I LIKE YOUR LOVIN” Lead vocals Kerry “Bogart” Rutledge, with Guest Vocals Keith Harrison (Of Faze O and Dazz BandFame), Side B “I NEVER KNEW LOVE (Could Feel This Way)” Lead Vocal Arthur“Hakim” Stokes, written By Dana Meyers, along with Belinda Lipscomb and Jeffrey Cooper (Of Midnight Star Fame)

Strut present 3 separate reissues of the 1970s album trilogy from Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids. As students at Antioch college, Ohio, alto saxophonist Idris Ackamoor, flautist Margaux Simmons and bass player Kimathi Asante created three lasting monuments in sound — Lalibela, King of Kings, and Birth / Speed / Merging, a trio of albums produced without any label backing or distribution between 1972 and 1976. Their music is unique among the varied canon of avant-garde and experimental music of 1970s America: high intensity African-styled percussion topped with songs, chants, and horns, laced with African instruments and arranged into long, flowing suites that surge and roll.

The debut album by the Pyramids was inspired by the group's visit to the Lalibela monastery in Egypt, and was recorded in Yellow Springs Ohio in early 1973. Drawing on the teachings of Cecil Taylor and the influence of John Coltrane, combined with a barrage of intense percussion, the album evolves over several long-form pieces, Initially only 500 copies were pressed and sold to friends and followers in the local area.

If you've been in the club scene for many years like David Dorad, you will one day face the big, essential, serious questions that each of us will ask ourselves sooner or later:

Are marmots pack animals?
Can marmots sign language?
Do marmots plan their lives according to European or Chinese zodiac signs?
Do marmots need a special passport, after all they don't have a thumb to turn the pages?
What happens when a marmot eats Coke and Mentos at the same time?

And with all those questions whistling, hissing and muttering in his head, David grabbed piano, baton and BioBassline to crochet his new EP.
This is called "Marble" and offers 6 different approaches to solve these big questions.
As a source of ideas, he has competent partners at his side in Roman Flügel, Mira, Christopher Schwarzwälder, Canson and Sascha Cawa.


A1 -
Murmeli - original
The marmot tribe awakens. Get up to brush your teeth. Gets your toes tapping. Makes you snap your fingers. Dare to roll your hips. Later rhythmically to turn. To look elegant at the same time. Eyes closed - eyes open.
Murmeli, the regular leader, sits at the piano.
Everyone is dancing, toothpaste in the corners of their mouths and a smile that takes the toothpaste by the hand.
A normal morning in marmot houses.

B1 -
Murmeli - Mira & Christoph Schwarzwald RMX
Mira and Christoph Schwarzwalder take over from Murmeli. They vary, combine and subtract. The first marmots raise their thumbless fists in the air - showing their passports, ready to take off.

B2 -
Murmeli - Canson RMX
Canson also sits next to Murmeli. Caress the theme, tickle the groove.
Murmeli has the best ideas early on: "Boy, let's try Mentos with Cola, we'll definitely take off."
Canon is in!


C1 -
Murmelot - Original
The sun goes down in Murmelhausen too. Then Murmelot is ready. Gives his advanced Pilates class, which the whole tribe takes. The village wants to remain mobile.
Murmelot's motto is "Why not stretch while walking?"
And so shall it be. He sets the rhythm on his wooden Fairtrade 303 and our furry friends shave shaky and obscene messages down each other's backs while impatiently hopping for the drop.

D1 -
Murmelot - Roman Flügel Remix
Roman Flügel and Murmelot are old buddies. Struck while carving the 303.
Roman happily takes over the Pilates class, the dancing crowd. Enchanted until the razor's batteries are empty and only dancing remains, only dancing is important.

D2 -
Murmelot - Sascha Cawa RMX
Sascha Cawa takes his trunk by the hand, wants to motivate her again shortly before the second sunset of the day. Whispers little obscene Pilates positions in their ears. That motivates. Murmelot switched from piano to percussion.
The marmots' sweat feeds the golden orchids in the clearing for the next six months.

MILK GREY VINYL

100% GALCHER was by all accounts a game-changer when it landed in 2013 as an hour of original music from a relatively unknown producer ushered in by the beloved mix series Blowing Up The Workshop. Galcher Lustwerk's signature sound _ a smoky stream-of-consciousness baritone shadow-boxing with beats, informed by funk, rap, rhythm, and blues _ felt like an epiphany, impossibly hypnotic and complete. Resident Advisor writes, "100% GALCHER laid out a louche, lysergic and resolutely black take on deep house." Pitchfork remembers the music's immediate impact: "It's the sort of gem you felt inclined to pass around" _ and by year-end list time, word-of-mouth intensified. It was Resident Advisor and Juno's mix of the year, and earned a top-ten placement in FACT Magazine's albums list, as well as Philip Sherburne's personal rundown for Spin." Since then, select songs from 100% GALCHER have seen small-run pressings, while the album has lived primarily on SoundCloud and YouTube as a low-key cult legend. The gateway into Lustwerk's now well-established catalog, known for its reliability as a late-night listen and its prophetic vision for the near future of underground dance music. RA would later name it a mix of the decade, citing its influence and imagination: "Original in every sense _ unknown, unheard and unbelievably good." In late 2022, marking ten years since he first recorded the material, Lustwerk returns to Ghostly International to release 100% GALCHER as a remastered limited-edition double LP. Lustwerk is a product of the Midwest. Growing up in Cleveland, he'd tape over his parents' cassettes and spend hours at his family computer recording loops and designing artwork for the jewel cases of burned CDs. In high school, he turned to Ableton Live and absorbed every electronic music magazine he could find at the local Borders Books store. As a college student at RISD, he played in noise bands, plugged into Providence's DIY scene via Myspace, and started DJing weeknights at bars downtown. There he connected with Young Male and DJ Richard, who would go on to found White Material Records and offer their third release to Galcher Lustwerk, an alias realized via CAPTCHA test, a perfect artifact of its internet age. By 2012, Lustwerk had drifted to New York City and settled into a graphic design job, quickly growing disenfranchised by office culture. "Some days I felt like a token, other days I felt invisible." At night, he and his friends were carving out their own space, throwing parties in small basements, office buildings, and off-beat karaoke bars in Manhattan, influenced by series such as Mr. Sunday in Gowanus and The Bunker at Public Assembly. The lifestyle started to bleed into Lustwerk's musical vision. He remembers the night it clicked in Providence, partying and listening to tunes with Morgan Louis and Alvin Aronson. He went back to New York and pieced together his bedroom setup: a Dave Smith Tempest drum machine, a Waldorf Blofeld synthesizer, and a TEAC cassette recorder. Early snippets went straight to SoundCloud, where Lustwerk tested the crowd. Comments and messages offered instant feedback. One DM proved to be the greenlight: from Matthew Kent, an invitation to his burgeoning mix series Blowing Up The Workshop. 100% GALCHER traveled fast and far. A phenomenon he could only enjoy for a short period before discovering that nearly all the masters of the tracks got wiped by water damage to his computer. "The only copies were now on the 192kbs mp3 mix I sent Matt." Until now, after Lustwerk revived the lost tracks and handed them to Josh Bonati for remastering. "The original mix was never mastered so I hope older fans can find something new here." Hearing the enhanced set for the first time delineated by tracklist reveals this was a proper album all along. Sly synth interludes (all titled "Stem") clear the air for raspy house anthems like "Fifty" and "Parlay," the set's original breakout. Themes present across Lustwerk's catalog first materialize in this iconic run _ the link between the meditative state of Midwest driving and the solitary comedowns of nightlife. Lust- werk, the narrator, is an elusive character, a secret agent of the club, embodied by the hooks: "One minute I'm on / next minute I'm gone," he reminds us on cult-favor- ite "Put On." These narcotic, one-line refrains stick with you; look no further than the original YouTube upload of "Kaint" to know that fans can't let these phrases go. While recorded alone, 100% GALCHER was a collective moment. A decade later, Lustwerk sees the legacy as shared: "Making music can be an alienating experience, especially for DJs who travel a lot, it's all super isolating. It's easy to express lone- liness in the music itself, but when it comes down to getting things done, putting music out, you def should go on that journey w other people, friends, or maybe just a group of people online, build things with your friends then they can build to help you."

The elusive SW. returns to Avenue 66 with okALGORYTHM. His third LP for the label is a semi-opaque wandering through the shadowy byways of memory, driven by tough-yet-supple production and his unmistakable, unerringly original voice. Inspired by all night electronic radio shows of the '90s, okALGORYTHM pulses with rich imagination and a sense of purposeful meandering. Speaking in cryptic fragments, the artist hints at elusive reminiscences "back then on the autobahn, to Berlin, with friends" while also noting that some recollections are "of things that didn't happen that way."

To this end, the album drifts from the knotty synth spirals of opener "WHAtADAY" through the tense, technoid tropics of "stepCLASSixMOtor," the brightly melancholic Larry Heard-isms of "TROPyCALLhytsrIA" to the stately skronk of closer "What endingENDs." The rhythmic undergirding never lets up, suggesting a limitless night drive tinted in deep greens and refracted reds. Each of the album's ten tracks comes alive with warm, analog finesse and a palpable atmosphere, though they play out by turns urgent or unhurried, coaxing or inscrutable. Yet throughout, there's a consistently hypnotic quality which draws the listener deeper into the album's unique balancing act.

If listeners are trained to expect throwback anthems every time the '90s are referenced, here they might find a more apt touchstone in the wilder, left-of-center corners of Chicago's foundational epoch. Throughout the album, the spirit of jacking house is absorbed, metabolized and transmuted. Drawing on lineages of taut, nervy synth-and-drum machine workouts, SW. manipulates his hardware with the delicate, considered touch of a painter. Perhaps the memory that lingers longest from that bygone era is the sense of profound possibility that dawns before forms become rigidly calificed and commodified. Either way, adventurous listeners will find that okALGORYTHM blooms with a uniquely affecting grace and SW.'s inimitably obscure loveliness, infused with a somber glow and marked by shimmering, untraceable contours.

Sami Yaffa hat eine lange und Karriere als Musiker hinter sich. Als Gründungsmitglied der Hanoi Rocks (1980-85) nahm er mit der Band fünf Alben auf und tourte ausgiebig durch die Welt. Hanoi Rocks wurde ein großer Einfluss auf viele Bands wie z.B. Guns N`Roses. Nach der Auflösung von Hanoi Rocks spielte Yaffa u.a. mit Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, den späteren New York Dolls oder Jerusalem Slim (mit Michael Monroe und Steve Stevens). Und natürlich immer wieder mit Ex-Hanoi Rocks-Frontman Michael Monroe.
Das erste Soloalbum hat Einflüsse mit einem ziemlich breiten Spektrum, aber es überrascht kaum diejenigen, die Yaffas Karriere verfolgt haben, denn ab 2014 moderierte Yaffa eine musikbezogene Reisefernsehserie in der er Musik und Kultur in verschiedenen Teilen der Welt erforschte. Die zweite Staffel wurde 2015 ausgestrahlt, und die Serie wurde im August 2016 auf Netflix verfügbar.
Drummer Janne Haavisto, mit dem Sami schon als Teenager spielte, sowie Rich Jones, der zusammen mit Sami einen Großteil der Songs geschrieben hat. Auch der Stone Sour-Gitarrist Christian Martucci und Smack-Gitarrist Rane spielten eine wichtige Rolle bei der Entstehung des Albums.
Eine kleine Vinyl-Auflage ist nun nach dem CD-Release 2021 erhältlich.