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The second chapter after “neverlost”, “closer” blends samplebased production with classic songwriting – like a sonic mosaic of warmth and groove. Lyrically “hippiesque,” Sepalot explores natural beauty, unity, equality, and self-determination. Guest features shine: Blu delivers sharp lyricism, and Illa J surprises
with soulful vocals on “My Own Way.” For fans of The Avalanches, Caribou, and Madlib – Closer is lush, human, and unforgettable.

Sepalot is one of those rare artists whose sonic palette refuses to be boxed in. His music exists in the fertile space between multi-layered sophistication and playful unpredictability – a quality rooted in his eclectic upbringing. From skate-punk beginnings to soul all-nighters, from obsessive vinyl digging to
deep immersion in hip-hop’s golden era, Sepalot has carried the art of sampling like a badge of honor. His beats are mosaics – meticulously pieced together fragments of sound forming an intricate whole. Beyond the studio, he’s explored these influences as DJ, producer, and live performer, leading the
Sepalot Quartet across Europe’s jazz festivals, and more recently with his experimental band Tikhet alongside Angela Aux

With “closer”, the upcoming second chapter following his 2023 album “neverlost”, Sepalot distills his broad musical world into a sample-based yet song-driven statement. The production feels warm and tactile – think needle-on-vinyl crackle meeting modern songwriting clarity. Lyrically, it’s “hippiesque” in the best
way: themes of natural beauty, unity, democratic awareness, equality, and spiritual introspection weave through the tracklist.

The guest list is just as inspired: legendary wordsmith Blu delivers razor-sharp verses, while Illa J – brother of the late J Dilla – steps away from his signature rap to surprise with soulful vocals on “My Own Way.” Together, they amplify the album’s humanist core, balancing groove-heavy production with
lyrical depth.

Fans of artists like The Avalanches, Caribou, DJ Shadow, or Madlib will find plenty to love here, but Closer carries its own unique fingerprint – a testament to Sepalot’s ability to merge hip-hop grit with songwriting grace. If “Neverlost” was a map, “Closer” is the destination: lush, thoughtful, and deeply human.
Highly recommended for anyone ready to hold hands, open their mind, and let the beat guide them.

Alpenglühen starts 2026 with two close friends working together in the 11th one
Atàvic is the collaborative project between Estrato Aurora and Absis, merging two distinct yet complementary approaches to electronic music. The project is rooted in texture, atmosphere, and subtle narrative, allowing sound to evolve organically and without excess.
They together bring a refined sense of space and detail, working with ambient layers, restrained rhythms, and melodic fragments that unfold slowly. Here is a 4 track release with a more tactile and material approach, focusing on timbre, resonance, and sonic density, blurring the line between abstraction and structure.
The alignment between Atàvic and the label lies in a shared appreciation for subtlety, patience, and sonic storytelling, where each release is conceived as a complete and meaningful statement.
With this reference, Atàvic contributes a work that resonates with alpenglühen’s aesthetic ethos while reinforcing the collaborative project’s own identity: music that invites close listening and reveals its nuances slowly.
If you’re looking for a peak-time, dancefloor-driven banger to keep you moving until sunrise, this is not that record.
But if you’re after a mind-blowing experience that challenges and expands your listening (and dancings), this one’s for you. Don’t overthink it.

A shared studio session in Detroit led to this focused techno collaboration between heavyweight talents Luke Hess and Thor. Recorded over several intense days inside the DeepLabs studio, the EP reflects a meeting of two distinct approaches. Hess brings the warm, soulful pulse long associated with Detroit techno, while Thor contributes a stripped-back minimal sensibility shaped by his Icelandic roots. Analogue machines and rare samples give the music a tactile edge and form the crisp but deep drive of 'Induction' to the subtly uplift and smoky soul of 'Samruni'. This is a restrained yet powerful record.

10” EP, 50 COPIES LIMITED EDITION, (25 BLACK, 25 TRANSPARENT)

Dubblack closes its 2025 vinyl series with DBB010, a rare 10” edition limited to only 50 copies — 25 black, 25 transparent.

The release introduces eoobe, the Amsterdam-based duo of Elina Tapio and Marco Segato, known for their immersive sound design and instinctive approach to rhythm. Across two downtempo analog compositions, they explore the intersection of ritual and circuitry, sound as both matter and movement.

Recorded live with analog synths, stomp boxes and drum machines, DBB010 unfolds through tactile tension and subtle repetition. On the B-side, Louis Bataille (Low Bat, Trystero, AnDerMole, Jean-Luc) joins with his voice, adding a spectral presence that drifts through the mix like a forgotten transmission.

Marking the final chapter of the 2025 vinyl series, DBB010 distills the raw and introspective spirit of Dubblack, deep, reduced, and emotionally resonant.

It's rare to hear a debut 12' single that really blows you away. That's hardly a controversial statement; in truth, most producers take time to find their feet, developing a distinct style over a period of years, rather than months.
Magnesii, then, is something special. Currently based in Amsterdam. The previously unheard of producer has delivered a stunning debut 12' for Tom Trago's Voyage
Direct label. R Raw, fuzzy and in turns melancholic, spellbinding and intense, its' three tracks bubble and hiss to the distinct sound of vintage analogue hardware.

You see, the young Dutch producer tends to avoid modern computers. 'I often feel like those screens suck my soul away,' he says. Instead, he jams out tunes on a tasteful selection of analogue gear, sequencing with either the Alesis MMT-8 or the Akai MPC2000 - a favourite toy of many of the Netherlands' best electronic producers - and adding basslines, beats, acid lines and melodies on obscure synths and drumcomputers'. His creations are then bounced down straight to 1/4" tape or cassette.

Some of these resultant jams, as showcased on this impressive debut, are nothing less than inspired. Acid lines rise and fall, machine drums rattle, and distinctive synth
lines weave in and out of the mix. These are raw tracks for the dancefloor blessed with all the colour and warmth associated with vintage hardware.

'RZTB Tantra' sets the tone, layering bubbling acid lines and dreamy chords over a relentlessly nagging bassline and punchy, scattergun drum machine percussion. 'Lava Jam' is decidedly deeper, with woozy, emotive melodies and alien electronics tumbling over a dusty rhythm pattern and tactile acid bass.

Magnesii completes a sterling debut with 'Van Dyke Island Jam', whose squidgy bassline and long, drawn-out M1 chords work in complete harmony with the crispy rhythm track and densely building percussion hits. Like its' predecessor, it too seems to be tinged with sadness, as if Magnesii's machines are shedding a tear for glories past.

Clearly, Magnesii is a name to look out for in future. For the time being, we'll have to make do with one of the most impressive debut 12' singles of 2014 to date.

Next up on Fluid Electronics, Irish producer Derek Carr joins up the fold with his “Harvest Time EP”, featuring Dutch techno staple Deniro on remix duty. Carr’s style, stretching from low-slung techno to squelchy electro, via breaks and chiselled IDM, teleports us to a zero-G headspace where shape and substance merge into an effervescing and highly stimulating maelstrom of sound. The very idea of self-reflexive dance music.

Fusing sino-flavoured harmonics with a straight out hi-tech edge, the lead single “Harvest Time” is the perfect balance between body and soul music, as it elegantly bridges the gap between that sense of weightless vaporousness and a more tactile punch. Pace itself feels relative. In the hands of Deniro, the track hatches into an eerily haunting piece of cinematic electronics, stressing further on the contrasting batucada-esque rhythms and slo-scudding synth tapestry.

The Italo-indebted “Dust Yourself Down” takes Moroder on a ride by the seashore, all arps and heavily processed keys blazing. Dipped in acid, “Rhea” pulls out a cascade of pretty aggro snares, prismatic bleeps, bloops, and a healthy dose of post-trancey waves crashing against a glassy sound design.

When Leng Records founders Paul ‘Mudd’ Murphy and Simon Purnell marked the imprint’s 10th birthday, they did so via a celebratory compilation that mixed classic catalogue cuts, remixes and exclusives. Five years on, and with the label’s 15th birthday upon us, they’ve decided to look to the future via a compilation made up entirely of fresh productions from Leng’s roster of current and new artists. Presented on limited-edition gatefold double vinyl with a bonus 10” single, the collection offers an updated showcase of Leng’s much-loved trademark sound, a distinctive fusion of mid-tempo sleazy-disco, Balearica and chugging house interspersed with elements of electronic psychedelia and synth-powered space disco. Fittingly for a compilation that wholeheartedly looks to the future, you’ll find first contributions from a handful of label newcomers.

Fast-rising duo Flying Mojito Bros give their spin on ‘Smoke Signals’ by label debutants Joe HarveyWhyte and Bobby Lee, turning in a heady and inspired revision that sits somewhere between dusk-ready cosmic disco and flash-fried desert blues. There’s also an appearance from Swedish producer Bo Wosticz with the dreamy and ultra-deep nu-jazz of ‘Bs As’. Naturally, you’ll also find plenty of heat from those who have already proved their mettle through prior releases on Leng. Danish duo Liminal, who made their debut earlier this year with the much-played ‘Keep Coming Back To Me’, open proceedings with the tactile, slow-disco flex of ‘Tzatziki Bay’ where sweet synth melodies and a heady electric piano riff ride a warming groove.

Roberto Intrallazzi and Dario Piana from Italy’s original Afro-cosmic movement return with ‘Plutos’, a typically deep dubbed-out cosmic chugger. Then there’s Rose Robinson AKA Tigerbalm, whose ‘Mexicana’ featuring singer Joi N’Juno is presented across the package in two different forms. Pete Herbert, who contributed to some of the earliest Leng releases, drops a driving dub disco take on the main compilation, while Robinson’s original mix – a more organic, percussive and horn-heavy affair blessed with plenty of hallucinatory intent – opens the bonus 10”.

There’s a welcome return to Leng for the brilliant Payfone, whose ‘Dime Algo’ is a typically classy, analogue-rich affair in which attractive Rhodes riffs, atmospheric female vocals and pitched-down house pianos rise above shuffling drum machine beats and a slow-motion bassline. Long-serving label contributor Lex (Athens) delivers the loose-limbed nu-disco breeze of ‘Stolen Dance’, while the imprint’s San Francisco connection – the ever-brilliant 40 Thieves collective – drop the dubbed-out Bay Area brilliance of ‘Such A Great Trip’.

Then there are the contributions of the label’s most storied artist, Andrew Meecham AKA Emperor Machine with ‘Eumig’, a deliciously slow, synth-rich chugger full of colourful chords, bubbly electronic melodies and jaunty electronic bass. Then, to round off the bonus 10” single, Meecham joins forces with Paul Murphy (as Mudd) on ‘Road To Nikko’, an extended, Japanese musical culture-influenced slab of pitched-down alien-funk packed to the rafters with squelchy synth sounds, effects-laden percussion, chiming melodies and rubbery bass guitar.

In 2018, Rian Treanor left his home in Rotherham, UK, and headed to Kampala for a residency at Nyege Nyege's villa studio. The mind-expanding experience inspired his critically acclaimed 2020 full-length "File Under UK Metaplasm", but that wasn't the end of the story. Treanor also spent time working alongside Acholi fiddle player Ocen James, developing an improvisation-heavy collaboration that would push both musicians' idiosyncrasies into completely new places. Treanor wanted this collaboration to be as tactile and reactive as a live performance with traditional instruments, so he set about working on a digital process that would synchronize with James' approach. Using physical modeling techniques, Treanor created an instrument that explored the tunings and sounds of the a'dungu, an arched harp, and the nah or nag. With Ocen playing his rigi rigi, a single string violin, they intuitively experimented with the spectral properties of sound, using texture and acoustic contours as their structural framework. They were able to develop a sound together that was unconventionally rooted in traditional Ugandan culture, but shuttled into different dimensions of noise, computer music and radical UK rave. "Saccades" is the buffer between two vastly different sonic universes, united in respect and sprightly curiosity. Treanor's hyperactive computer-controlled rhythms are immediately identifiable on opening track 'Bunga Bule', but the sound palette is distinct: it's more flexible and less digital. James' expressionistic fiddle strokes are a revelation, contorted into hoarse squeals and rough vibrations that rub and flex off Treanor's tin can shuffle.

Aitcher Clark steps out from his work as one half of LOFN (Veyl, 2021) with a first solo long-player that draws a sharp line between the club and the cinema.
The 6-track LP moves with intent across ambient space, industrial techno frameworks, and restrained neoclassical harmony. It favors patience over peaks, detail over spectacle, and a narrative arc that rewards a
start-to-finish listen.
The campaign begins September 19th with the lead single “Improperly Planned Experience”, an industrialleaning cut driven by a relentless drum pattern and an eerie, immersive atmosphere. Stark and physical, it sets the tone for the album with its focus on tension, texture, and shadow rather than melody. On the same day, Clark will debut a new live and visual show at Lunchmeat Festival in Prague in collaboration with visual artist OXOO, translating the record into an immersive set where sound design and reactive visuals lock to the micro-gestures that run through the album. The performance is built around custom stems, live resampling, and dynamic lighting cues that mirror the music’s push and pull.
Across the LP, Clark threads field-recorded texture with precision drum programming and layered harmonies, avoiding predictable drops in favor of pressure that accumulates over time. The palette is cool and tactile: detuned pads, clipped low-end, and percussive details at the edge of audibility. Moments of clarity, strings, voice-like synths, negative space, arrive as structural markers rather than ornaments.
For Veyl, the album sits comfortably within a catalog that values forward motion and atmosphere, while opening a more composition-driven lane. For listeners who followed LOFN’s 2021 release, this solo debut widens the frame: less collaborative call-and-response, more solitary architecture, with the same focus on tension and timbre. The live show with OXOO extends that idea beyond the record, using visual rhythm and color to render the music’s internal logic in real time.

This exciting new collaboration between Cara Tolmie and Rian Treanor is a highly kinetic and playful endeavour. Body-centric vocal explorations merge with intricate rhythmic systems forming a deliciously disorientating, hypersurreal space of semantic modulations, concrete poetry, cut-up beats and mimicked samples. Their sound is singular and tactile: dissociative dance music that reassembles contorting vocal lines and knotting biomechanics in an explorative network of unstable forms. It's a blur of bodily fragility and ecstatic disruption, where swells of meaning rise and fall through clouds of synthetic buzz, fleeting breath, and stream-of-consciousness imagery.The duo first performed together when Counterflows Festival paired them for a new commission at the historic Arches venue in 2023. Glasgow-born, Stockholm-based vocalist and performance artist Cara Tolmie brought her hypnotic vocal technique, Internal Singing _ an intimate practice using breath, movement, and touch that explores the subtle binds between voice and body in an unsettling, engrossing sonic space. Treanor's richly innovative work provided a compounding counterpart: radical, rave-infused structures that bent and contorted around Tolmie's incantation.Growing out of a series of charged, improvisational performances, Body Lapse was recorded between Stockholm and Rotherham in 2024. Echoes of their live energy run throughout _ a voice shaking through the body, responding to touch and physical modulation, translating performance into something tactile and immediate. Body Lapse marks their debut release together, it conjures a sound of unsettling beauty and frictional intensity _ a playful, physical mesh of computer music, voice, and speculative storytelling. In this gnawing, dreamlike space, breath and body become sites of both connection and disruption, sparking thrilling encounters with the unexpected, the playful, and the decisively weird

For its second anniversary, Samba Jean-Baptiste’s 2023 LP, ‘Cardinal' arrives on vinyl and CD. Two years on from its original release on Samba’s own AM Radio imprint, this physical release via Scenic Route Records celebrates an album that’s quietly built a devoted following for its intimate songwriting, cinematic arrangements, and deeply human detail.

This edition features alternative artwork by Rafi Goudy and, for CD buyers, a 32-page lyric booklet featuring images captured by Samba himself.

An intimate, richly textured record that’s grown into a modern cult classic, ‘Cardinal’ stands as a deeply personal snapshot of a singular artist - now a tactile home experience.

Following Volume 1, this second instalment of Classic’s 30th Anniversary series dives even deeper into the label’s visionary, genre-bending catalogue—balancing pioneering remixes, cult favourites, and future classics.

Once again, this 2x12” release is beautifully presented in a raw reverse board sleeve, a tactile nod to Classic’s earliest releases. Inside, are deep teal and green GMUND card stock inner sleeves with embossed detailing elevate the package into a collector’s item worthy of the music it holds.

Record One opens with one of the most revered remixes in house history. Isolee’s ‘Beau Mot Plage’ (Freeform Reform Parts 1 & 2), originally licensed from Germany’s Playhouse and lovingly reworked by Freeform Five’s Anu Pillai with a live ensemble. It’s a sprawling, euphoric journey that helped define Classic’s international reach and is still widely regarded as one of the greatest house records ever pressed.

Up next is Greenskeepers’ off-kilter banger ‘Bang in Your Face?’, showcasing the quirky, ‘G-swing’ sound for which James Curd and his crew became known for during their long-standing relationship with the label.

On the flip, Pépé Bradock’s jaw-dropping rework of Iz & Diz’s ‘Mouth’ takes center stage—a remix composed entirely from human sounds, equal parts sensual and surreal. Universally praised, it’s a masterclass in sonic innovation and remains one of the most acclaimed house remixes of all time.

The side closes with Markus Nikolai’s beloved ‘Bushes’, The First Re-Creation (Version 1.2) by Classic co founder Derrick Carter—a distinctive and maximalist edit that draws out the Latin horns, strings, and quirky vocals, turning a cult hit into a distinctly ‘Classic’ anthem.

Record Two captures Classic’s renewed energy in the 2010s.

Folamour’s ‘Devoted To U’ from his Umami LP is a 10-minute odyssey in groove—warm, progressive, and cinematic, with soaring piano lines and narrative richness.

Then comes Crazy P’s ‘One True Light’, shimmering with spacey textures, cosmic energy, and the deep, effortless groove the band has perfected over decades.

On Side D, we have Girls of the Internet’s lush and emotionally rich ‘When U Go’, blending soulful vocals with clean, spacious production that balances melancholy with movement.

Closing out Volume 2 is Sophie Lloyd’s now iconic ‘Calling Out’, featuring the unstoppable vocal force of Dames Brown. A modern gospel-disco-house anthem, the track glows with raw energy, live instrumentation, and spiritual fire—cementing its place as one of Classic’s defining moments of the last decade.




d B2. Markus Nikolai - Bushes (Derrick Carter's First Re-Creation) Version 1.2




d B2. Markus Nikolai - Bushes (Derrick Carter's First Re-Creation) Version 1.2




d B2. Markus Nikolai - Bushes (Derrick Carter's First Re-Creation) Version 1.2




d B2. Markus Nikolai - Bushes (Derrick Carter's First Re-Creation) Version 1.2




d B2. Markus Nikolai - Bushes (Derrick Carter's First Re-Creation) Version 1.2

Enigmatic UK producer Dylan Henner announces new album of deeply considered and choral-laced experimental ambient music Star Dream FM, said to be taped from a mysterious radio broadcast that plays his favourite memories from adolescence.

Though (clearly) fictional, the backdrop to new album Star Dream FM represents a tactile canvas on which the record’s true meaning is painted. It is, through Henner’s now-characteristic employment of ambient-textured synthesis, marimba, digital choir, and processed voice, a study of late adolescence and the experience of being seventeen.

Little is known about Dylan Henner, who landed on the ambient scene in 2020 with cassette releases for Phantom Limb, Belgian label Dauw, and cult tastemakers AD93. He barely promotes himself publicly, instead choosing to communicate through disarmingly poetic song titles. His debut album “The Invention of the Human” (AD93, 2020 - a recipient of BBC 6Music’s Album of the Year honours) responds to a set of philosophical questions - what exactly makes us human? What good is civilisation when there’s so much misery attached to it? How will technology affect humanity in the long run? In 2022, he released follow-up You Always Will Be on AD93, which traced the course of a single life from birth, to childhood, to adolescence, adulthood, parenthood, middle-age, old-age, and demise. He has also covered Raymond Scott, Terry Riley, Aphex Twin, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Su Tissue among numerous further projects.

Mister Water Wet returns to Soda Gong with "Things Gone and Things Here Still," an album that radically expands the project’s purview while preserving the homespun warmth and oblique tactility that have long defined Iggy Romeu’s work. Where earlier records tilted toward the dusty swing of sample-based beatcraft or spectral minimalist jazz, here Romeu opens the frame to a more ensemble-minded approach, inviting a stellar cast of supporting musicians, including SG alumni Memotone and K. Freund, into the fold.

The result is an album that feels both broader and more intimate, with live instrumentation such as piano, strings, and reeds woven into MWW’s signature lattice of hand percussion, production sleights, and slippery time signatures. Acoustic and electronic textures bend toward each other like plants angling for the same light: bowed strings blur into vaporous pads, brushed drums scatter under riffing guitars, a horn phrase lingers in the same space as a cracked cassette loop.

A tension between decay and presence - the “things gone” and the “things here still” - runs throughout the record. At times, the music evokes a chamber session refracted through waterlogged tape; at others, it recalls the afterimage of a hip-hop instrumental slowed into an oneiric haze. In the world of MWW, memory functions less as nostalgia and more as a living fabric - mutable and resonant. "Things Gone and Things Here Still" finds Iggy Romeu at his most expansive, offering up a generous record of open spaces and porous boundaries.

Harmony marches eastward with its 21st EP, reconnecting with its roots through a collaboration with Kohra and Monophonik. While firmly grounded in the label’s deep-techno foundations, this release leans into a sharper focus on functional, dance oriented grooves and basslines.

A-side is opening with weight and intent, shedding the EP’s melancholic hues for something darker and more forceful. The gently broken spirit of “Uyire” follows, gliding between drones and gated vocals, stitched together by tactile percussion and an underlying volatility.

“Wavefolding Dreams” lives up to its name—wickedly modulated waveforms rise from a slapping bassline that pour like upside-down rain, finally dissolving into soothing, dreamy pads.

“Eastern Timbers” starts B-side with a deep, driving momentum. Trancey basslines and swinging arpeggios ebb and flow with tidal pads, wrapping the EP in a hypnotic finish that pulses with forward energy.

Decompress with “Neuroresonance” situated on the inner ring of the B-side. Suspenseful sliding drones in a wide stereo field and a sustained chord that breathes nostalgia, covered by a playful filter in motion.

Do you remember Cush?
A nod to the enigmatic Danakil warrior from Corto Maltese — wise, fierce, and fiercely free. That spirit is back, and this time, it speaks through sound.

Welcome to Cush — a bold sonic territory where the elegance of myth meets the urgency of noise.

Across 14 tracks, this power trio delivers a raw, immersive journey that bends genre boundaries and stirs the imagination. A soundscape emerges, somewhere between dystopia and liberation: windswept grooves, fractured brass, buzzing machines, explosive drums. Think improvisation at its most daring, textures at their most tactile, and themes that haunt like echoes from the future.

Cush is a cry. A rebellion. A pulse.
It’s where musique concrète collides with free jazz and industrial atmospheres — and something new is born.

For listeners drawn to Pierre Henry’s audacity, Alain Damasio’s visions, industrial ASMR, or sonic voyages à la Corto: this is your next deep dive.

Unbuckle your seatbelts. You’re in Cush territory.
An album that demands to be heard — and experienced — live.

In the final month of 2024, Meitei arrived in Beppu, a city long steeped in vapor, myth, and mineral memory. Invited to create onsen ambient music commemorating Beppu’s 100th anniversary, he immersed himself in the city’s geothermal psychogeography, where sound rises from the ground and time clings to mist.

Known for his Lost Japan (Shitsu-nihon) works, which channel forgotten eras into flickering auditory relics, Meitei took residence in the warehouse of Yamada Bessou, a century-old inn perched by the bay. Over two weeks, he listened intently to steam, to stone, to the atmosphere itself. The resulting work, Sen’nyū, traces the inner spirit of onsen culture. Like water finding its path, the music emerged with quiet inevitability, shaped by Meitei’s synesthetic sensibility and deep attunement to place.

Equipped with a microphone, he wandered Beppu’s sacred sites: Takegawara Onsen, Bouzu Jigoku, Hebin-yu, and the private baths of Yamada Bessou. There, he captured the breath of the springs, bubbling mud, hissing vents, wind against bamboo, and the murmurs of daily visitors. These field recordings became the sonic bedrock of Sen’nyū, an act of deep listening that attempts to render even the rising mist and shifting heat into sound.

Unfolding as a single, continuous piece, Sen’nyū drifts like fog through sulfur and stone. It traverses the veiled madness of Bouzu Jigoku, the spectral resonance of Yamada Bessou’s inner bath, and the hushed voices of Takegawara Onsen. It is a gesture of quiet reverence, for water’s patience, the land’s memory, and the hands that have bathed here for generations.

Where Meitei’s earlier works conveyed his personal impression of a fading Japan, Sen’nyū is grounded in tactile presence, music not imagined but encountered. Here, his practice moves closer to the spirit of kankyō ongaku, environmental music born from place, shaped by it, and inseparable from it.

As part of the project, Meitei conceived a two-day public sound installation inside Takegawara Onsen, culminating in a live performance. Bathers soaked in mineral-rich waters while submerged in sound, an embodied ritual of place, body, and listening.

Sen’nyū marks Meitei’s first full-length work centered entirely on onsen and opens a new chapter of his Lost Japan project under the expanded title 失日本百景 (One Hundred Lost Views of Japan), a series exploring extant sites of longing still quietly breathing within contemporary life. The album will be accompanied by Meitei’s first photo book, a visual document of his time in Beppu. A new layer is added to the world he has, until now, built only through sound.

Sen’nyū continues Meitei’s devotion to Japan as subject, while opening new terrain: both ritual and remembrance, an immersion into the mineral soul of Beppu.

After the conceptual depth of "Parallel Traces of the Jewel Voice" (2021), dj sniff returns to Discrepant with a more direct and visceral document: Turntable Solos.

Composed from live recordings made during the latter half of 2024, Turntable Solos captures dj sniff’s improvised performances in their rawest form. At the core of his setup is Cut ’n’ Play, a software sampler he originally built in Max / MSP in 2007. Since then, he has continued developing custom tools and instruments that extend what Derek Bailey called the “instrumental impulse” — the tactile, responsive relationship between musician and machine that defines improvisation.

Following a summer 2024 tour of Japan with Gonçalo Cardoso, sniff was encouraged to document and release a selection of his live sets. Not long after, a performance at 20α (Alpha) in Hong Kong would become the emotional and conceptual anchor for the project.

In the liner notes, sniff reflects on the eerie parallels between recent footage of protestors in Los Angeles — assaulted by police using so-called “less-lethal” weapons, and civilians being abducted into detention centers — and the 2019 Hong Kong protests. A place once filled with personal nostalgia began to feel like a grim foreshadowing of what might unfold in Western societies.

In this turbulent context, 20α stands out as a space of resistance and renewal — a beacon for a new generation of experimental musicians, growing in defiance of increasing censorship and surveillance. "Turntable Solos" is both a personal statement and a public act of sonic resilience.

Stepping out of the shadows with refined precision, Saktu returns to Heisenberg with the Fucha EP – a sharp, hypnotic exploration of minimal groove. Sleek rhythms, tactile textures, and playful low-end pressure define this trio of deep, late-night rollers.

Balancing raw functionality with subtle artistry, the Fucha EP captures the essence of what makes Heisenberg a beacon in the modern minimal scene. Crafted for the floor, tested in the booth

Basel-based producer Tim Shatnyy made a welcome return to his home label, Resonance, with a massive and satisfyingly complex body of work. The media ecosystem of Beyond Dualism combines a game, an Instagram bot, generative radio, and a full-length album at the forefront of the high-concept universe. The rhizomatic blend of web development, sound engineering, and conceptual framework does not diminish the joyous energy of Tim Shatnyy's sonic adventures. Beyond Dualism's digi-charms coalesce into a dynamic tension of minimalist electronic music, funky glitch, club-ready heaviness, and a boundless, idiosyncratic approach of disorientating arrangements.
Beyond Dualism is the result of Shatnyy's deep, ongoing process of inner listening, constant change, and spiritual inquiry. It is a perfectly closed cycle of artistic creation, featuring hyper-realistic sound design and visionary manipulation on meta-levels of composition. Beyond Dualism offers the listener a continuous experience, revealing a nearly tactile and visual experience of a sound. Going beyond dualism is a journey. The way the artist has transformed his perception going through this path is reflected in the album's development and its structures.

Robot Says E is a meticulously assembled four-track compilation that connects the tactile groove of dub tech house with the lucid propulsion of contemporary techno. The release is divided over two contrasting but complementary sides, presenting an impressive palette for those who move purposefully and listen intently. Side A kicks off in an immersive warm atmosphere; A1. Tvardovsky – Eleven and A2. Spectral Model – Plasma both deliver deep low-end foundations, atmospheric dub textures, and clean dancefloor-ready production quality. The sound is fluid, minimalist, and very physical; perfectly complimentary to subtle intensity and groove-based hypnosis.



On the flip, the energy shifts. B1. Rene Lorenzo – Reflections and B2. Kirill Matveev – Code Redeemed push off in much faster, gliding, terrain – where flow and high-speed rhythms embrace their high velocity, and deep repetition creates a trance-like state. This is techno that feels both expressive and “summer-in-the-city” active and is meant to enhance your sensory plates and keep you energized. Easily executed, future forward designed and mood-blissfully transformative, WRSE1 VA –What Robot Says E is not just a VA, it's a sonically-derived blueprint for refined dance music going forward.

After a string of mesmerizing digital releases and steadily building momentum in Europe’s club circuit, Swiss DJ and producer Audrey Danza marks a major milestone: her debut vinyl EP, titled Laughing in 4D, out this July on .

A six-track excursion through shifting emotional states and tightly wound rhythmic explorations, Laughing in 4D captures Danza’s signature tension between restraint and release. Twisting basslines stretch, snap, and spiral through layers of percussion, driving textures, and off-axis melodies — a sonic palette that feels both introspective and deeply physical. Hints of Psy-Trance, Techno, and House swirl through elastic grooves — equally suited for deep listening or peak-time disorientation. Her tactile, percussive movement ripple with tension, curiosity, and sly humor — true to the artist’s reputation for weaving high-pressure rhythms with emotional nuance. Known for her distinct and dynamic presence behind the decks, Danza has quickly become a name to watch in the contemporary electronic music scene. This first physical release captures the same refined yet playful approach to a contemporary club sound that has defined her growing reputation as a DJ.

Modeight steps into 2025 with a thrilling entry from Vedana, the Leeds-born, New Zealand-based artist making waves in the underground scene. With a career shaped by years behind the decks and a newfound passion for production, Vedana distills his rich clubbing heritage into four cutting-edge tracks on Epiphany EP. The journey begins on A1 with "Epiphany". This groove-heavy minimal house piece is powered by rolling basslines and jagged modular sequences that ignite the dancefloor. Perfectly tuned for pre-parties and equally ready to take over peak-time sets, it's a versatile cut that balances tension and release in all the right places. Next up is A2's "Flawless Victory". As the name suggests, this track hits with triumphant energy. A massive beat locks in with deep, dynamic basslines, building a sense of pressure that commands attention. Add in trippy atmospheres and enveloping textures, and you've got a dancefloor weapon primed to elevate the vibe. Flipping to the B-side, "Onomatopoeia" lives up to its playful title. Short, synthetic stabs cut sharply across the soundstage, synchronized with a hypnotic groove that feels both meticulous and spontaneous. It's a standout piece, rich in personality and brimming with rhythmically charged creativity. Closing the record is B2's "Present in the Culture". An absolute heavyweight of a track, it delivers a mix of atmospheric swells and plucky, tactile sounds that pull listeners deep into a trippy sonic journey. With its driving force and immersive vibe, it's a fitting finale to a stellar EP.

Digital Finesse is proud to present Alex Barbu's Adolescence EP, a five-track vinyl that gives voice to a shy, introspective mind shaped by uncertainty. Oscillating between electro and techno, this record captures the raw essence of youth—where emotions are both unfiltered and deeply complex.

In June 2024, when we first listened to Alex Barbu’s tracks, we were immediately struck by their precision and sincerity. A bold minimalism, straight to the point, yet infused with intricate sound design and immersive atmospheres inspired by mountains and Mediterranean ambiances. Adolescence EP encapsulates that fleeting moment between innocence and self-awareness, between the effortless and loud grace of youth and the quiet nostalgia in the coldness of adulthood. As simple as the strong emotions of adolescence. As intricate as the places they transport you to.

To the three original tracks by Alex Barbu, we added two remixes that open new emotional dimensions. First, a never-stop-evolving rework by the Monolith, who fully JimmyBattified "Living Without Ego." Then comes Blinkduus Dischetto, closing the record with his signature raw sensuality, a tactile and almost cinematic reinterpretation that lingers long after the needle lifts. Each track tells a story. Each sound is a memory. Unique, like every life experience.
This is the kind of emotion Digital Finesse strives to bring to life.

Can’t go over it. Can’t go under it. Gotta go through it. And somewhere out there in the Pitch black beyond all darkness lies Peace & Purpose. The horizon you never quite crest until the inevitable end. Breathe deep — this fearful moment is the most alive you’re ever gonna feel. For the last decade, Crack Cloud’s vision has grown ever more expansive, more cinematic. Last go around, they dropped from The Heavens and then performed with their bare backs to an endless darkening desert. Now they’ve crammed all that life into some metallic and strange object called Peace & Purpose. All the terror of living. All the helplessness. All the raw human will. All glued and screwed and locked into this impossible tactile shape of dungeon dub; sour milk vox; Avant-protest music. Music arm wrestling itself to the ground. Far afield of beauty. The discordant symphony of factory farming and grim timber of the meat processing plant. The grinding din of the cogs. And yet, never giving up in spite of all good sense. Even in death, we are a coterie of survivors. Look now: There’s Terry Fox on his one-legged Marathon of Hope across The Great White North while cancer spreads through his lungs. A self-annihilating drive to feel alive. Rage against the dying of the light, they say. Well, how ‘bout it then!??! Peace & Purpose is not in any way some art project meditation on Punk Rock. It is Punk Rock. Terrifying, inspiring, vital, invigorating and most importantly, utterly unexpected. Every goddamn stupid day is a sublime slice of fresh hell. That’s the point. Gotta go through it. Wishing you Peace & Purpose — if only in that last big breath.

Danza Tribale opens a new chapter in 2025 with MAITAKE - ??, the debut EP from Italian sound explorer Lo.Sai. Rooted in sonic tactility and movement, the project draws from both ancestral rhythms and experimental structures to create something intimate, immersive, and future-facing.

Named after the "dancing mushroom" from Japanese folklore, MAITAKE is inspired by the interconnected growth of mycelial networks and the emotional ecology of shared experience. Developed in collaboration with choreographer Maria Combi, the EP is a meditation on collective motion - where dance, rhythm, and ritual coalesce.

Across five tracks, Lo.Sai weaves together broken percussion, deep bass, fieldrecordings, and global rhythmic language. Fragments of flamenco, muezzin prayer, and Central African everyday rhythms float through the record - artefacts gathered by the artist's close-knit creative circle in Lunigiana. What emerges is not just a club record, but a living, breathing sonic organism.

2025 Repress

Words by Costanza Acernese
MOVING PRESSURE 04 / Obscur
With its fourth release, Moving Pressure welcomes its first external artist: young Slovenian producer Obscur. With a signature sound that is driving and subtly psychedelic, his debut on the label doesn't stray from the core tenets of its sonic ethos. Obscur delivers minimalism with purpose-dynamic, intentional, and wholly physical.
'F135' opens the A-side with a sinister tilt-rubbery squeaks stretch and coil around a flickering, synthetic voice. It's tactile and strange, without losing movement. 'Soul Eater' follows with a slow-burn crescendo, nestling psychedelic inflections into a warm low-end. On the flip, 'Stockholm Syndrome' pares things back. Dry, stripped rhythms carry an atmospheric tension-it's austere yet playful, leaving space for darker hues to linger without fully settling. A precise, heads-down statement. 'Blasphemy' follows with a tighter percussive grip and Feral-esque, panning modulations. Highs slice through a foundation of finely textured grooves-functional at its core, but laced with enough detail to give the track a sharper, more intricate edge. The digital bonus, 'Diamond City', stretches the sonic palette even further. Not through layers, but through tone: steel blues and deep violets bounce off metallic bleeps with cinematic restraint, closing the EP on a reflective note.

For customers of the Rush Hour shop, this item ships for its may 23rd release date. Any items ordered along with this will ship then also

After five years spent largely confined to the United States, Ron Trent is set to return to global touring in 2025. To mark the occasion, he’s partnered with Rush Hour to release Lift Off, a brand-new album of music recorded at different points over the last decade.

Arriving almost 35 years since he wowed the world with his game-changing debut, the Afterlife EP, Lift Off was inspired by Trent’s desire to ‘let the imagination speak for itself’ while exploring the diverse influences that have shaped his unique musical perspective. A departure from his previous album, 2022’s downtempo masterpiece as Warm, What Do The Stars Say To You, the 10-track set features a mixture of epic instrumentals, inspired collaborations and vocal cuts whose music was written with certain singers in mind.

While it features music that ripples with the experienced producer’s familiar aural trademarks – rich rhythms, warm chords, impeccable instrumentation, inspired arrangements, and lashings of heady hand percussion – it also consciously explores a variety of sounds and tempos, in the process blurring the lines between dance music’s past, present and future. It’s a vision, in his words, of what dance music can become.

For proof, check the five impeccable cuts on part one. There’s the tactile, Wally Badarou-inspired wonder ‘Hot Ice’, the mind-soothing chords, lilting synth-strings and samba-soaked percussion of ‘Woman of Color’, the warming deep house jazziness of ‘Jazz Funk’ and the restless, far-sighted brilliance of ‘Sexstrology’, where relaxed electric piano solos dance atop an infectious, locked-in dancefloor groove.

Best of all though is Leroy Burgess collaboration ‘Let Me See You Shining’ – an inspired musical meeting of minds that cannily fuses Trent’s signature deep house sound with the soulful, vocal-driven brilliance of the New Yorker’s iconic boogie-era work. Even by the two artists’ dizzyingly high standards, it’s a very special song.

2025 Repress

Searchlight Moonbeam is the new narrative compilation from Time Is Away (Jack Rollo and Elaine Tierney) whose eponymous monthly NTS Radio shows, tinctured fusions of fugitive sounds and reverie-inducing archival speech, have won them an ardent following. It follows from the London-based duo’s Ballads, a remarkable driftwerk released on A Colourful Storm in 2022.


Searchlight Moonbeam is an autumnal dreamscape, intimate and vespertine, pensive and irresolute. An imagined community where differences drop off and resonances emerge – between Maher Shalal Hash Baz affiliates Kasumi Trio, Taiwanese score composer Chen Ming Chang whose ‘Rainwater’ (written for Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s 1986 film Dust In The Wind) is exquisitely heartbroken, and the plangent improvisations of self-taught French pianist Delphine Dora.


Revelations are frequent: the bedsit isolationism of Bo Harwood and John Cassavetes’ ‘No One Around to Hear It’ (from The Killing of a Chinese Bookie); the narked minimalism of Klang (an early 2000s band formed by ex-Elastica guitarist and featuring prize-winning experimental novelist Isabel Waidner on bass); the etude-grooves and echoic wobble of below-the-radar French avant-gardists Omertà ; the beautiful, plaintively dubby ‘Is It You?’ by Slapp Happy; a psych-tinged reimagining of PiL’s ‘Poptones’ by Simon Fisher Turner (one half of Deux Filles, and here, recording for él as The King of Luxembourg) that's as perverse as the cover of Throbbing Gristle’s 20 Jazz Funk Greats.


Searchlight Moonbeam is the musical analog of an Italo Calvino novel or a medieval fable. Associative, intuitive, borderless. Emotional and mysterious. Endowed with the tactility of Braille. A private language that is both unknowable and understood. It is a record of the seasons, for the seasons.

2023 marks the tenth anniversary of Time Is Away’s first broadcast. Featuring an evocative essay by writer Jeremy Atherton Lin and disarming cover art by Penny Davenport, Searchlight Moonbeam showcases Rollo and Tierney’s still-unrivalled talent for gloaming melodies, disques du crépuscule, ensorcelled storytelling.

Special thanks to Joern Wilkens for his didgeridoo performance on Yarra.

A scorched expanse, the air thick, sand shifting in slow waves. Didgeridoo rises from the dust, circling in dry spirals. The earth cracks open, voices calling from below. Drums roll, electric currents move like eels. Sunlight bleeds through the haze.
From arid to humid, SDM006 unfolds in four movements-ritualistic, tactile, lost between fire and flood. Percussive, club-ready heat.

The record captures an expansive performance in Poitiers, France in November 2023. First working together in an unpredictable trio with minimalist legend and eccentric extraordinaire Charlemagne Palestine, Ambarchi and Thielemans quickly established a remarkable musical chemistry that led to an ongoing series of duo concerts, including the performance documented on their LP Double Consciousness (Matière Mémorie, 2023).

Kind Regards finds the duo refining their shared language while continuing to take risks, allowing the music’s gravitational pull to lead them from meditative calm to unexpectedly expressive passages of melodic invention and rhythmic drive.

Recorded in sparkling fidelity and carefully mixed by Ambarchi’s longtime collaborator Joe Talia, the LP contains a single unbroken performance, stretching out for over 45 minutes. Guitar and drums weave together into a symbiotic whole that nevertheless affords us ample opportunity to marvel at the highly personal approaches these two musicians have developed to their chosen instruments through decades of diverse collaboration and prolific performance. The set begins with Thielemans’ hypnotic tom patterns, around which Ambarchi’s wavering, shimmering guitar tones—achieved with the help of the rotating speaker of a Leslie cabinet—flurry and swirl. Thielemans’ drums play subtle tricks with time and perception, adding and dropping beats within repeated patterns to create an effect at once rhythmically insistent and liquified. Growing at first into a rapidly pulsing texture of brushed drums and flickering harmonics, the music builds momentum into an irregular groove over which Ambarchi’s guitar is transformed into haunting, monumental electric organ chords, strikingly recalling the Wurlitzer work of Alice Coltrane, before settling into a section of gentle portamento melody embedded into the tactile clicks and clangs of Thielemans’ percussion.

When Thielemans adopts a more traditional jazz approach to the kit in some of the set’s second half, the results are stunning, demonstrating a feel for shifting accents and sensibility to the touch of the stick on the drum or cymbal that recalls greats like Jack DeJohnette or Billy Hart (one of Thielemans’ mentors). And when Ambarchi turns up the heat, he does so in an unexpected and delightful way, letting loose a swarm of jittering delayed tones straight out of Henry Kaiser’s classic It’s a Wonderful Life, with a more active use of the guitar’s fretboard than his usual approach to the instrument allows. As the performance draws to a close after a climactic episode of distorted harmonic groans and crashing cymbals that manages to be at once thunderous and carefully attuned to detail, it is clearer than ever that, for these two serial collaborators, this is a very special pairing.

Kind Regards shows us the kind of magic that can happen when two masters who have dedicated decades to reimagining their instruments simply begin to play, following the music wherever it goes.

While they’ve been active for more than two decades, it’s only been in recent years that the Berlin and New York based contemporary sonic arts platform, Soundwalk Collective, has begun to gather the accolades and attention that they rightfully deserve. Firmly rooted within a multi-disciplinary practice that engages the narrative potential of sound within the contexts of visual art, dance, music and film, as well as tapping anthropological, ethnographic, and psycho-geographic research, they’ve gained great note for collaborations with Jean-Luc Goddard, Nan Goldin, Sasha Waltz, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and numerous others.

Building on the back of 2023’s brilliant “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed”, Soundwalk Collective now returns with “Khandroma”, one of their most fascinating and singular endeavours to date, which re-engages their enduring creative partnerships with Patti Smith. Issued by Ubi Kū, a brand new imprint founded by the Italian Buddhist Union dedicated to the relationships between Buddhist cultures, music, and sound, across the album’s stunning two sides this incredible ensemble draws inspiration from and conjures Tibetan deities, the Himalayan Plateau, the valleys of Nepal and the highest peaks where the most ancient Buddhist temples reside, culminating as a sprawling sonic tapestry like little else. Issued as a beautifully produced, limited edition vinyl LP and CD, mixed and mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi, complete with a booklet featuring liner note essays penned by Chiara Bellini and Filippo Lunardo, and images by Stephan Crasneanscki, it’s hands down among our favourite releases by Soundwalk Collective to date and not to be missed!

An international experimental sound art collective founded in 2001 by the artists Stephan Crasneanscki, who was joined in 2008 by producer Simone Merli, Soundwalk Collective is a contemporary sonic arts platform, featuring a rotating constellation of artists and musicians, that, in vastly varied number of ways, has continuously explored the remarkable potential of sound within the contexts of visual art, dance, music and film, offering particular emphasis to anthropological, ethnographic, and psycho-geographic research, examining conceptual, literary or artistic themes. In addition to their many collaborations and accolades that attend to an increased ambitious catalog of releases, they scored Laura Poitras’ film, “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed”, which won the Golden Lion at the 2022 Venice Film Festival, as well performed and exhibited at Berghain, CTM Festival, documenta, Manifesta, New Museum, and Centre Pompidou, where they notably opened “Evidence”, a exhibition with Patti Smith comprising an audio-visual journey from the work of French poets Arthur Rimbaud, Antonin Artaud and René Daumal. While Soundwalk Collective’s output and use of sonority - sometimes original composition and others manipulated archival recordings - and context is varied, the project’s endeavours are unified by a focus on sound as material that is both tactile and poetic, pursuing layered narratives that address ideas of memory, time, love and loss. Their latest, “Khandroma”, enlisting Patti Smith’s contribution on one of its tracks, stands among the most exciting and rich of these explorations yet.

Perhaps the best way of approaching “Khandroma” is through Soundwalk Collective’s longstanding focus on the discipline of psycho-geography - a practice that interrogates the impact of an environment’s embedded histories and meanings on the psychology of the present - as well as the group’s integration of observations of nature, and uses of non-linear narrative, as a vehicle for recording and the synthesis of meaning. Like previous projects that have encountered them traveling extensively across the world, occupying diverse environments for long periods of investigation and fieldwork, during which they source materials for subsequent works, the material roots of “Khandroma” are a body of field recordings made by Crasneanscki, Francisco López, and Merli at altitudes between 2,760 and 4,500 meters, in varying locations across Upper Mustang during 2016.

Drawing the album’s title from the Tibetan feminine deity who reigns the skies, the album’s two compositions weave a stunning sonic tapestry from collaged sounds of nature, bells, drones, unplaceable tones and vocals, and in the case of its second piece, “Chasing the Demon”, the voice of Patti Smith, culminating as a deeply emotive and imagistic expanse that taps something far more profound than any of its single parts. As the collective states: “the album traces the continuous morphing of the wind into sound expressions. The Himalayan Plateau seems designed to amplify and echo the encounter of the breaths, the prayers, and the chants emerging from around and within those temples; amid the sounding of bells, the turning of prayer wheels, and the billowing of flags. A resonant musical body that we recorded so as to capture its boundless mutations; an unstoppable force that cries, whispers, and blows through and over stones, wood, empty halls and monastic robes, etching an ever-changing sonic landscape onto the surfaces it encounters.”

Immersive, stunningly beautiful, and haunting, “Khandroma” draws the ancient and distant into the consciousness of the present, close to home, bordering on the profound. Issued by Ubi Kū as a beautifully produced, limited edition vinyl LP and CD, mixed and mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi, complete with a booklet featuring liner note essays penned by Chiara Bellini and Filippo Lunardo, and images by Stephan Crasneanscki, we can’t recommend it enough.

Ephemera is the debut album by Fergus Jones, the artist formerly known as Perko, an Edinburgh-born, Copenhagen-based producer, DJ, and founder of the FELT record label. The nine-track release is out on Numbers on 18 October 2024.

Ephemera was developed with collaborative energy as the creative priority, produced by Jones alongside an extensive list of like-minded musicians, lyricists and vocalists including Huerco S, James K, Koreless, Birthmark, ELDON and Withdrawn of Bristol’s Cold Light crew, Laila Sakini and Lia T. The album embodies Jones’ inner journey as he ranges further than ever sonically and emotionally, emphasising instinct, intensity, tactility and rapture.

“Heima” was written and produced with Huerco S and James K between Iceland, Copenhagen and the United States’ East Coast. Developed during and named after the same Icelandic artist residency that birthed Perko & Huerco S’ debut collaboration “Prang,” “Heima” is a shimmering piece of fortified trip-pop featuring vocals from James K, appearing here following solo releases for AD 93 and collaborations with Yves Tumor. “Tight Knit” aligns Jones’ graceful production with the raw emotions thundering from the performances of Birthmark, ELDON and Withdrawn of Cold Light, the shadowy Bristolian collective channelling the city’s deep sonic history into an equally rich future.

In his own words, Jones says “This album was made over the last five years in various studio and outdoor locations around the world, reflecting my ongoing emphasis on natural collaboration as a creative ideal. It’s my most personal record yet, written with experimentation and an open attitude as guiding lights.”

The album makes a distinctive impact that reverberates and glows long after its runtime. Analogue audio sculpting, adaptive processes and imaginative approaches to creating sound are at the forefront – whether resulting from an endless exchange of iterative stems with Huerco S, or hydrophone recordings with Koreless. Evocative vocal performances and songwriting combine with weighty sound design, gliding easily between the organic and synthetic to reflect and expand the thin spaces of transcendence in each.

Whisper it quietly, but Andrew Meecham’s ninth album as The Emperor Machine, Island Boogie, may well be the long-serving producer’s strongest set to date. Of course, all his albums ripple with vintage synth sounds, colourful lead lines, dub-flecked electronic disco grooves and lashings of cosmic intent, but this one just feels a little more special. Island Boogie is certainly special. Meecham’s “most personal” full-length to date, it was inspired by his experiences at the Rotation Garden Party – a beloved micro-festival promoted by a group of friends (including sometime Bizarre Inc and Chicken Lips partner Dean Meredith), renowned for the quality of its custom-built Klipschorn soundsystem. “The album’s title sums up the vibe that you get from Rotation,” he explains. “It may be held in a landlocked venue but it gives a wonderful sense of isolation – it is an audiophile paradise.”

Meecham road-tested rough versions of the album’s eight tracks at Rotation 2023, with the feedback and dancefloor reaction guiding the sound and arrangement of the final mixes. Fittingly, Meecham will return to the event to showcase the album at Rotation 2024 this July. Given the inspiration he’s drawn from previous editions of the festival, that will be a very special occasion. Musically, Island Boogie offers the most fully functioning and expertly constructed expression of The Emperor Machine sound yet, a style Meecham describes as “electronic cosmic disco-boogie”. It’s a sound that takes cues from early ‘80s NYC punk-funk and dub disco, vintage electro, proto-house and left-of-centre synth-boogie, but one that’s instantly recognisable to those who have followed Meecham’s career over the last three decades.

Island Boogie also sees Meecham continue his blossoming working relationship with Severine Mouletin, whose stylish and distinctive vocals previously graced his popular ‘Dance Por Amor’ and ‘Your Own Style’ singles. Here Mouletin features on four tracks: the acid-flecked retro-futurist wave-boogie of ‘La Cassette’ (featuring additional percussion by Rupert Brown); the infectious, bleep-sporting headiness of recent single ‘Devoilez-Vous’; and the squelchy analogue synth-funk of ‘Wanna Pop With You’ and ‘Vas-y-Le Chat’. Meecham also finds space for a cover of Fox’s 1976 pop-rock classic ‘S-s-s-single Bed’, one of the Stafford-based artist’s all-time favourites. His version, featuring headline-grabbing lead vocals by Michelle Bee and guitar from Dave Atherton, re-imagines the track as a subtly Chic-influenced slab of infectious electro-pop rich in kaleidoscopic synth sounds, sing-along choruses and shuffling drums.

The instrumental foundations of the classic Emperor Machine sound come to the fore on the album’s three other cuts. There’s the jazz-funk-flecked warmth of the LP-opening title track; the sparse squelches, bleeps, TB-303 style bass and brightly coloured electronics of ‘Walk The Dog’; and the exotic, slow-motion cosmic electronica of ‘Cha Murrah Etem’, a warm but poignant affair dedicated to his late father. Heady and intoxicating, with hints of Balearica and digital reggae, it offers a fittingly beautiful and tactile conclusion to Meecham’s most expressive and accessible album yet.

TKP 003 Promo textTeakup continues his white label series with some goofy, wobbly, glitchy 4x4 techno tracks. Here the focus is on driving grooves and shifting drum work. Pillar of Light has bright splashes of tactile synth. Interpreter features vocals by Lofila that have been processed into the nonsensical. Plasma is meandering, explorative, but weighty. Various Round Shapes closes the set with some funky percussion, rolling synth, and a fluffy pad.