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Paris player Le Loup and Pura launch their new label Shadow Play with a four-track collection of avant-garde house music delivered boxfresh from the studio. As a solo artist, and one half of Hold Youth, Le Loup has cultivated a nuanced sound that is steeped in soulful jazzy influences, with a nod to the future and plenty of soul. On this first EP we're presented with a showcase of this sound, and a hint at what's to come on the brand new label... To get things rolling we have the very first track 'The Ancient Ways', which is quite laid back and minimal in its composition. There's breathing space for the beats and bass, with an eerie atmosphere pervading throughout. 'Ygam' is next up with a wobbly bassline, cosmic death rays and sinister effects lurking in the background - it feels like the soundtrack to a deep space thriller.

On the B-side things get ravey with 'Acid Surface'. Retro breakbeats and stuttered toms support a dangerously alluring symphony of effects and pads. At the heart of the track is a deep subby bassline, transmitting an ancient, yet cosmic vibe.

Returning with another debut release, Second Circle's eighth record to date comes this time from young Viennese musician Giuseppe Leonardi. Performed on an array of synthesizers and experimenting with spoken word and vocals from various local singers, Giuseppe's 'TBC' EP take us on a dance through the catacombs and out through the jungle floor with ritualistic rhythm and haunting song... Whilst at other moments Giuseppe's horizontal ambient pieces leave us gazing out on the shores of a distant half-remembered planet.

Spinning Plates is back for another long overdue release, and this time it comes in the form of a split EP featuring returning artist Andy Rantzen and Laccy with two tracks each. The vinyl only release comes with very special screen-printed silkscreen artwork and is pressed on meaty 180g vinyl for an extra warm and deep sound. Andy Rantzen is a Sydney based artist who appeared on this label's superb second release. The '98%' track from it was used by Sonja Moonear in her Cocoon Mix CD shared with Carl Craig, and Andy is also well-known as part of the duo Itch-E and Scratch-E along with Paul Mac. He assumes that alias here for a remix of 'The Dial'. Laccy aka Pascal Sturmer is a young but talented artist who regularly finds himself behind the decks at cult clubs like Berlin's Club de Visionaire and the Spaced parties in London. A friend of label A&R Bruno Schmidt, he just released on Francesco del Garda's label Timeless, is a real underground head with a bottomless well of knowledge when it comes to cult sounds and scenes and is signed to the top Crisalida agency.

Returning with another debut release, Second Circle's eighth record to date comes this time from young Viennese musician Giuseppe Leonardi. Performed on an array of synthesizers and experimenting with spoken word and vocals from various local singers; Giuseppe's 'TBC' EP take us on a dance through the catacombs and out through the jungle floor with ritualistic rhythm and haunting song... Whilst at other moments Giuseppe's horizontal ambient pieces leave us gazing out on the shores of a distant half-remembered planet.

The Spinning Plates imprint returns this October with Club Winston’s ‘Guzzle’ EP, comprised of four gritty club workouts from the London artist.

The UK’s Club Winston has been steadily unveiling a series of tripped-out club ready cuts via his own UKGEORGE label over the past few years along with remixes from the likes of D.Tiffany and Tim Reaper. Here though we see him join the roster of Spinning Plates with his latest collection of works, an imprint that’s played host to material from the likes of SHKN, Neksha, Andy Rantzen, DJ Spider and Bruno Schmidt since its inception in 2015.

Title-track ‘Guzzle’ leads, laid out across five minutes with a menacing arpeggio bass lead, howling atmospherics and crunchy analogue drums. ‘Hell’ follows and tips the focus over to heavy doses of sub bass, intricately dynamic, modulating drums and intense swells of processed synths throughout.

Opening the flip-side is ‘Chart’, upping the energy levels with a pacey 4/4 drum groove while twitchy resonant synth lines, low-end pulsations and cavernous reverberations ebb and flow throughout. ‘Partook’ then rounds out the release, a cinematic ambient composition which lays focus on swirling, textural pads, glitched out resonant bleeps and fluttering low end hits.

We’re extremely proud to present Leaving Time, a new EP by Christoph de Babalon. The EP has all the menace and grit that the Hamburg-born, Berlin-based producer is known for, but packs a potent, dance-ready punch that breaks new ground.

Leaving Time begins with the snarling subs ‘The Upper Hand’, and momentum builds through the panoramic breakbeats of ‘I Trusted You’ and dubwise groove of ‘Steps Into Solitude’ to reach the symphonic release of ‘Got to Let Go’.

This record encapsulates everything we love about Christoph’s music – it’s doom-laden, introspective and crafted with intent.

In short, it’s CDB on a 140 / fwd tip - fuck the chairs!

About Christoph de Babalon:

Christoph de Bablon first became known for his work on Alec Empire’s Digital Hardcore Recordings in the early 1990s and has championed a misanthropic take on drum and bass that has stood the test of time.

A punk-influenced fusion of jungle, breakbeat and dark soundscapes, his signature sound has become the stuff of legend – Thom Yorke once said Christoph’s pioneering debut album 'If You’re Into It, I’m Out Of It’ was the “most menacing record” in his collection.

After a brief hiatus composing music for theatre (we’d like to hear what that sounded like), recent releases on labels such as A Colourful Storm, V I S and AD93 have sparked renewed interest in the German producer, and with much excitement from his loyal following of die-hard supporters.

Dubbed out disco edits made with love, drenched in summer spice and slapped straight on the grill to waft out across the hazy breeze!

From the Latin infused sax power of ‘Doin’ It’, to the Italo tinged synth pop nugget, ‘Pop Lock’ and back round to the sensual boogie gem ‘Right Now’, it’s another must have set of edits from the Labor of Love crew.

Hui Terra. The dreamlike shape of the half-heard word, abstracts with faint impressions of bucolic landscape, or handfuls of translucent and brightly-colored gemstones that hold odd, elusive, asymmetrical form. This enchanting, gently surreal debut album from Alex Cobb's Etelin project explores the power and playfulness of impulsive action diffused through electro-acoustic and ambient sound.

This music was created with digital synthesizers and a sampler in the four months immediately following the birth of his first child, a hazy period marked by a lack of regular sleep and a diet of INA-GRM, Nuno Canavarro's "Plux Quba", and Microstoria's "Init Ding" - records that appeared to produce both stimulating and soothing effects on a newborn's nascent consciousness. Recorded and arranged at all hours, this is an album that reflects on moments of tumult and fragility. Cobb sews small sharpnesses and surprises into its movements to uncover different aspects of each sound source, doubling as hypnic starts cast to advance and variate the narrative in subtle and unexpected ways. Sound and atmosphere manifest in eccentric, alchemical fashion, as though forming in processes of sublimation - solids dissipating into vapor - and deposition - clouds resolving and dropping to the ground in piles - to an obscure and domestic rhythm. There's the purveying sense of moving within the boundaries of small, hermetic ecosystem. This is underscored and doused by a slow, blooming sense of warmth; growing joy without bombast. Even the more startling textures conceal this same truth and emphasis, such as the alien, sour salt-butter electronic babble in "Little Rig", largely sampled from Cobb's son's voice at just a week old. It is emotional music - devoted, affectionate, and playful.

Kaspi & Stride is a new project from Justin Tripp, best known as one half of the Georgia equation. Leanings has its origins in rigorous yet laid back studio sessions, dual personal practice sensibilities that seem to get at Tripp’s creative ethos as well as any descriptors might. The material here was born out of collaborative studio sessions with multi-instrumentalist Jimy Seitang (Conga Square/Stygian Stride) - the “Stride” of K&S. The music from these sessions has been reworked and recontextualized by Tripp to form the eight tracks found on the record. These compositions are heady and diverse, anchored by infectious drum patterns and intricate electronics, capably occupying a somewhat hard to define space between “club ready” and “home listening.”

“Vishing” throbs with a wide-eyed intensity, infused with the type of deceptively rudimentary synth stabs and bass swells that wouldn’t be out of place on an early Hype Williams record. With contributions from Mary Lattimore and Jon Leland, “Kaptoxa” charts a more ethereal, if no less dizzying, course. Indeed, this is an album that navigates dense, tactile passages and airy, celestial planes with aplomb, making a case for Tripp’s prowess as both composer and arranger with equal priority. The most important thing is to keep moving.

Soda Gong presents a razor sharp collection of rigorous and imaginative new music from Moscow-by-way-of-St.Petersburg-based musician and producer Flaty. "Generic TARGZ" places Flaty's precipitously complex drum programming and keen ear for atmosphere and space at the forefront, offering up a dynamic array of techno, ambient, generative footwork, and other tougher to pigeonhole rhythmic experiments. It is a dizzying and cohesive document in which ethereal productions, such as "Praaai" wherein a bewitching vocal pad hovers over delicate, pin-prick percussion, sit comfortably alongside tightly controlled chaos, as with the synapse-knotting "Thread" and heavy-hitting "Horn of Plenty".

Over the past few years, Flaty has released a wealth of diverse and uniformly excellent music under monikers such as AEM Rhythm Cascade, Dada Ques, and Wrong Water. He is most closely associated with the influential GOST ZVUK label, but his work has also appeared on imprints such as 12th Isle, Muscut, and his own ANWO Records. Although Flaty serves as his primary alias, "Generic TARGZ" is only the artist's second full-length under the moniker, following 2016's "New Suggestions", a high-water mark in the impeccable GOST ZVUK catalog. Mastered by Rashad Becker at D&M. Artwork and design by Alex McCullough and Niall Wynne Lewis.

Soda Gong presents “Support Surfaces,” the new record by Alexi Baris, a musician hailing from Vancouver, British Columbia. Baris’ methods are patient and deceptively rigorous, trading in sonics that are at once organized and organic. Synthetic and acoustic elements are presented in sonorous states of perpetual flux, carefully amalgamated into structures of fertile ambiguity. His is a diligent and painterly approach to sound design and arrangement, in which tiny events are magnified and brought up close, and expansive gestures are repurposed and shifted in scale. There is an abiding quality to these compositions, sounds that have been hung in the air with remarkable restraint and left to float there, defined by texture, tone, and their own entrancing spatiality.

All music by Alexi Baris.
Mastered by Kassian Troyer at D&M.
Artwork and Design by Alex McCullough.

“Trash Can Lamb” is a new solo album from Akron, OH-based multi instrumentalist Keith Freund. For the better part of twenty years, Freund has been producing intimate, shape-shifting music on his own and as part of collaborative projects such as Trouble Books, Lemon Quartet, and Aqueduct Ensemble. Here, he concocts a heady, homespun broth of analog synthesis, bit-reduced sampling, piano, standup bass, saxophone, and location recordings, arriving at a loose and evocative set of songs. Throughout the album, we hear 8-bit experimental delays mangling airy acoustic materials, denaturalizing them into primitive loop structures while retaining their golden-hued, melodic cores. The sputters, hisses, and croaks of handmade electronics nuzzle up to wistful piano and saxophone ruminations; the pure pandemonium of chaotic triangle wave patching and filtered noise settles into the serenity of a backyard dusk full of spring peepers (or maybe they’re crickets…). It’s in the space between the ragtag and rough-hewn and the romantic and yearning that Freund situates these compositions; it’s a peek inside a workshop that sits atop the trees, branches scraping on the windows, bluejays who just won’t knock it off, a table fan spinning slower and slower, its cheap blades covered in dust.

All music by Keith Freund, with contributions by Linda Lejsovka, G.S. Schray, Steve Clements, and Corey Farrow.
Mastered by Kassian Troyer at D&M.
Art/design by Alex McCullough and Felix Luke.