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On Miniatures, Swiss composer and producer Samuel Reinhard looks to indeterminate techniques of mid-century experimental composers to produce a sonic path forward that’s as refined as it is evocative. While Miniatures is built from recordings of short piano gestures decaying towards silence, amid the four movements that comprise the suite, something else grows. Notes cycle, collide, and wash away within boundaries the artist has set, but in their wake new processual textures develop. A hiss blankets the harmonic material, and clicks that once marked sharp cuts between repetitions become a percussive undercurrent.

Working with digital tools, Reinhard conjures the interior of an animate environment and extends an invitation to notice the small stuff that swells when we settle in with duration.

Ital Tek (a.k.a. Alan Myson) returns to Planet Mu with his sixth album ‘Outland‘. The album was written during a period of new beginnings following a move out of the city to a quieter space and the birth of his first child. During this time of self-imposed isolation Alan recorded a huge amount of source material and spent weeks and months sitting up at night with his newborn, listening back and making notes on how the new record should take form, focusing and developing ideas to shape this lean ten-track album.

Alan talks of the record being a collaboration between two parts of himself, something that definitely comes across as the album unfolds. Textures are something Alan excels at and on his last album, the largely beatless ‘Bodied’, it felt as if he was building a new sound-world. On ‘Outland’ he expands upon this. The album brings together the extremes of Alan's sound, contrasting roughened bass and beats with starker more detailed atmospheres and emotions.

The most beat-driven song here is ‘Deadhead’, with its gnarled bouncing bass, angular distorted melodies and cavernous textures. On tracks like ‘Bladed Terrain’ the contrasts are even more defined with buzzing drones and razor sharp drums plunging into a grainy fog, giving the track a dramatic 3D feel.

Then there are the stop-start pauses of ‘Leaving The Grid’, where the song evaporates into space before reemerging with shuddering rhythms and ghostly textures. Melodies crawl around these tracks as if they’re just waking up, as heard on the atmospheric ‘Angel In Ruin’.

The sleep-deprived fraying of the senses became Alan’s routine and one which he says gave him a renewed creative energy; half-asleep, working through the night, and then into the daytime super-focused but exhausted. Prone to audio hallucinations whilst writing the album, he aimed to capture these distortions in his perception of pitch and time, and you can hear these effects interpreted on tracks like ‘Endless’ and ‘Open Heart’ as melodies phase and slip out of time like an emotional Doppler effect.

This is also true of the soaring atonal synths at the peak of ‘Diamond Child’, which feel like the aural equivalent of eye floaters. These intuitive feelings and functions are a difficult thing to capture in sound, but Alan manages it beautifully and always makes the result feel warm and adventurous, heartfelt and epic.

Kicking off the new decade, Control Freak co-founder Customer Service makes his production debut with five tracks of adventurous outsider electronics.

On the A-side, ‘Dance First, Think Later’ is a bass-heavy dancefloor destroyer guaranteed to send the club west. It's followed with the ethereal sound design and off-kilter rhythms of ‘Recalcitrance’.

On the flip, ‘Betty’s Audition’ takes the pace down a notch with rolling, hypnotic drum programming and plenty of low end punch, whilst ‘B1SM’ deploys a skeletal breakbeat - one for the early hours. Rounding things off, ‘Exquisite Corpse’ locks into a rigid 4/4 groove combining acid with delicate, textured pads.

Control Freak Recordings is the sister label of London-based party Cabin Fever. They are next at The Cause on 20th March with Inga Mauer and Dark Entries. In April they head to Corsica Studios with Anthony Linell and Barker.

The two inimitable long tracks from George Thompson AKA Black Merlin have reached Offen on 13.11.2019, and Offen said: let there be 013! Featuring words by Alexandra Grübler on „Textured Land“. Artwork by Patrick Keuthen, mastered by Enrico Mercaldi at Time Tools Mastering.

"BRUK" is a new platform for fresh variations on the soundsystem ethic, in particular where high-end sound design intersects with formidable bassweight. It's an artist-focused endeavour geared towards producers with range, depth and ingenuity in their sound.

The first transmission comes from "FFT", the latest alias from accomplished producer Josh Thompson. Thompson established the Super Hexagon label with long time friends J. Wiltshire and Arthur Scott-Geddes and he's also released on heritage label R&S (as Alma Construct) and the excellent offbeat techno upstarts Power Vacuum, and more recently developed the FFT moniker via essential drops on The Trilogy Tapes as well as Super Hexagon.Thompson helps launch BRUK with a two-pronged attack that shows off the breadth of his artistic scope.

The lead 12" is a dynamic club release that pivots between razor-sharp drum programming, hyphy synth acrobatics, breakbeat science and dub-loaded atmospheres. If there's one constant that runs through all Thompson's work, it's a resounding confidence with melody, and that comes through even in the rowdy chops of "Month" – a track that exudes hope even in its gnarliest bars. From the dreadweight minimalism of "Fask" to the expansive electronica shock out of "Sacrifice (The Truth Mix)", this is a head-twisting release that feeds into the vital new energyreverberating around the 150+ axis.

Accompanying that 12" is a cassette album which provides that polar opposite side to FFT – a collection of compelling beatless ruminations under the banner of Total Self-Fulfilment. Gliding from low frequency industrial textures to expressive synth modulation, this is far from static music, even as it moves without the aid of a traditional rhythm section.

It's a strong first chapter for BRUK, with future releases lined up from artists similarly poking at the fabric of contemporary club music to find their own unique spaces for expression.

Telfort’s seductive sound returns with three new cruise missiles from the faultless producer. Deep house done with a dazzling expanse, his imaginative and charismatic influence on the genre have previously piqued the attention of the more creative DJs and diggers who’ve dug the producer’s umami-esque palette: intangibly savoury, hard to define but unequivocally tasty.

On his fourth release via the sporadic yet impactful TLFT imprint, the producer retains his playful touch as he delivers three bright, optimistic dancefloor vistas that shimmer and shine like sunbeams off a dappled ocean. “As Though It Were” immediately injects energy and light into our minds and bodies with its candescent bass riff and catchy three note melodies. Synth-strings are arranged with perfection, hinting at a brave New World full of compassion, love and unity; while its driving and buoyant beats urge us into a hips’ n ’shoulders workout comparable to a high-octane gym session.

“It’s A Phase” is as finely crafted a piece of Telfortian house as one can hope for. With a direct and rugged B-line, peppered with light perx and decorated beautifully by one of Telfort’s trademark, textural synth patches. It’s further garnished by a dreamy, weaving lead solo that should draw heartfelt feelings of desire and nostalgia out of all who experience it.

“MSR Dub” completes the session and deep bass plumes and breathy flute melodies give us Big feelings as we floor the speedboat’s accelerator and splash across the rollers and swells at max speed. Achieving a tranquil and calming terminal velocity, time appears to stand still as gorgeous scenery rushes past our eyes. It’s a picturesque and evocative end to the trip which should etch itself into one’s memory hole, full of jubilant and joyous sentiments and overwhelming positivity throughout.

Evoking ambrosial notes and feels throughout, reminiscent of spending life affirming time with top friends in exotic locations and holiday house music splashing in corals. You only live once; ensure it’s spent enjoying tunes like these loaded with carefree abandon. Telfort’s In A Good Place right now…

On a collision course with earth from the furthest reaches of the universe, The Colours That Rise announce their debut album “Grey Doubt’ on the inimitable Rhythm Section International. Comprised of producer duo Simeon Jones and Nathanael Williams, The Colours That Rise have previously turned heads with 2017’s “2020” EP released on Breaker Breaker (the label credited with breaking Ross From Friends).
Returning with their most accomplished offering to date, “Grey Doubt” features acclaimed guests such as Yazmin Lacey, Yussef Dayes and Andrew Ashong, each respectively complementing the incredible musicianship on display here, capturing the true zeitgeist of present day UK. Combining live instrumentation and analogue synths, intricate, intertwining textures and melodies run deep throughout this beautifully crafted afrofuturist voyage, exploring the darkest recesses of the galaxy, through weatherbeaten and asteroid damaged synth waves and broken drum patterns reverberating out into the vastness of space.
Pre-announcement single ‘Home Time’ has picked up steam with support across BBC 6 Music and 1Xtra through the likes of Benji B, Tom Ravenscroft, Jamz Supernova and Mary Anne Hobbs, who awarded it as her ‘Near Future’ track. The duo are also set for a live performance at Rhythm Section’s showcase at SXSW 2020.

180g

Council Work returns with the next installment of their journey, this time with the Militant EP. Two original tracks from the label bosses Frankel & Harper, and keeping in theme with the previous releases, obtaining remixes from their favourite artists in the scene, they've enlisted 2 big remixers, this time from Salty Nuts boss and Cocoon regular Fabe, and Orbital London head honcho and rising UK star Jack Michael. The EP sticks to the signature Council Work sound, showcasing underground UK flavours with lots of garage and jungle influences, whilst showcasing more minimal and breaks textures and vibes

Pilo returns to BNR in 2020 with the “A.R.E.A.” EP. Since his first release for the label in 2013 at a very young age, each subsequent record could be seen as a milestone of growth - the “A.R.E.A. EP” feels confident, produced with consummate skill, focusing on the LA-producers strongest themes and devices. This is not, however, the sort of “maturity” that sees things get boring, more restrained. Pilo’s drum is the beat of LA’s unhinged underground techno scene - they don’t do boring - and this drum is always banging.

A-side examples: “Acid by Mouth.” A stuttered kick and a gated, uncanny valley voice form the backbone for increasing layers of texture and percussion. It’s a rollercoaster, as viscerally satisfying on the way up as on the way down. Pilo’s production journey has been increasingly cinematic, and you can see the songs here - “Acid by Mouth” is suited for a Gaspar Noe nightclub scene, and you love to hear it as long as no one gets murdered. “Ruhig” is tribal, made for spaces with 4 story high ceilings and sparse but blinding flashes of light. You can hear steel beams buckling under pressure, a breath too close behind you. The workers of the factory in fit of madness started raving to the sounds of their own machines. They’ve been dancing, without pause, for years now.

The B-side opens with “Exit the Artificial.” Headbanging broken beat kick, aggressive Skinny Puppy snares, ghost voices in hallucinatory bursts too short to confirm to be real. The draw-distance of the stereo spread seems infinite - listen at the very edges and a whole other (ominous) world is taking place. The ghosts mock you in gated laughs by the end. “Adapt Tactics” leads you out - low tempo, hissy percussion, haunted again at the fringe. Things break down, reduced to grain - brain short-circuits, “will I feel like this forever?” It’s a warning - turn back, there’s nothing for you out there. You embrace the madness, and start Pilo’s “A.R.E.A.” EP again from the beginning.

Jon Tye and Pete Fowler have been making music as Seahawks for a decade now. Given the sounds they’ve been exploring over those ten years it was a cosmic inevitability that they would be asked to contribute to the catalogue of the legendary library label KPM.

They replied with Island Visions, an exploration of sound for vision where they construct “audio micro-worlds to explore and inhabit”. A way to transport the listener away from the everyday without the bother of getting on an aeroplane. Mind travel is space travel after all, and much better for the environment.

Mostly recorded at The Centre Of Sound in Cornwall, with additional recording at Studio 34 in London, Jon and Pete’s travelling companions on this particular trip were boogie wunderkind Sven Atterton on fretless bass and keys, Nick Mackrory on percussion and the Seahawks live team of Dan Hillman and Alik Peters-Deacon.

From the grooves of Brian Bennett to the moog vibrations of Mike Vickers, the lush textures of Les Baxter to the experimental sounds of Delia Deryshire and David Vorhaus, this new music channels sounds and moods from across the KPM universe.

The spacious “Hot Sand Shuffle” opens the record with some of Seahawks’ familiar “deck-shoegaze”. The slinky digi-dub of “Sky Blue Sky” follows, gently encouraging us to lay back and relax. “Mystic Beach” is a refreshing ocean spray of a synthetic groove that clears the head, priming a pathway to receive “Crystal Forest”, a new age house groove of birds and flutes.

Dense, deep and dreamlike, “Distant Shore” is ambient rainforest house with a 90s vibe, its dense foliage clearing to let us bask in the shimmer and shine of “River Run”. Hang drum, electric gamelan, flute and loon close side A.

Side B bounces into being with “Catch A Wave”, an upbeat beach groover of synthetic guitar, effervescent synth and snappy drums. Equatorial bubbler “Paradise Bird Bath” soon glides in with marimba, crisp beats and fat synth bass. Fender rhodes, space echo and fretless bass make “Smooth Runnings” a laid-back poolside groove.

“Spirits Have Flown” conjures a hazy vibe with marimba, sax, synth funk bass and chilled beats before “Rolling Deep” serves up a light cocktail of sultry rhythms, refreshing textures, cooling sax and fretless bass. Almost-title track “Island Blues” brings the horizontal poolside feels with melodic chimes, oboe and more fretless bass for maximum vibrations. The marina drone of modular electronics, celestial trumpet and jungle ambience pay the album’s final respects to the cosmos on “Sun Salute”.

Like many KPM suites, this is a record of two distinct sides. The sunrise of side A brings a deep meditation, a journey within to renew the jaded self. Side B refreshes with cocktails by the pool and a chance to groove away the evening at some sunset beach party before dancing under the stars in the house of dreams.

Pete’s front cover for the LP is part map, part postcard: “the record has five different sections and I wanted to reference those in the worlds they created, musically and physically. From beach campfire, to poolside hanging and nighttime dancing. A kind of portal to those places and the pictures they inspired in my mind. All places we’d like to be in this turbulent year”. The track descriptions on the back help guide the way.

2020 marks 10 years since Ocean Trippin’, the first Seahawks release, and Island Visions is the perfect distillation of the sounds, sights, textures and moods that Jon and Pete have been exploring over the last decade. Sunrise to sunset condensed to two sides of an LP. The normal rules of space and time don’t apply here.

This is the first time Be With has worked with Seahawks, but individually Jon and Pete have been members of the extended Be With family since forever (Pete did those posters for our Ned Doheny tour and we worked with Jon on the vinyl version of Hatchback’s Colors Of The Sun). Of course we were going to put this out on vinyl.

Mastered by balearic engineer of choice (and Be With’s regular audio co-pilot) Simon Francis, cut by the legendary Pete Norman and pressed in the Netherlands by Record Industry, the sonic frequencies of these Island Visions have been precision tuned and encoded for optimum travelling conditions. Take the trip.

Japanese artist Kosei Fukuda is back with his new series from his own platform. compilation of tracks with different approach towards experimental field in texture of sounds and beats. 5/5

Originally released in 1979, Iceland is Richard Pinhas' third solo album and his first following the breakup of Heldon. While moving away from the maximalism of his old band, paring down Heldon's hybrid of otherworldly sci-fi imagery and pummeling psych-prog riffs, the journey through Iceland is decidedly more inward.

Consisting of longer, brooding synth-based pieces as well as short proto-industrial études and interstitial sketches, Iceland features Pinhas' delay-ridden electric guitar, pulsating machine rhythms and analog synthesizer washes - all vivid in texture and timbre, notwithstanding an undeniably chilling ambience.

This first-time vinyl reissue includes "Wintermusic," an immersive 25-minute bonus track recorded in 1983 and appearing here on vinyl for the first time. Pinhas' excursions channel the season's stillness and sublimity, its majesty and its threat. Without a doubt, one his finest moments.

Recommended for fans of Cluster, Mica Levi and Fripp & Eno.

After the successful first volume of their split collection, Lucretio
and Marieu a.k.a. The Analogue Cops come back on Memento with a
breathtaking four tracks E.P..
Lucretio delivers two cuts written and produced with the extraordinary
Kyma workstation: “Ghetto Stab” is an heavy DanceMania influenced
party banger while “Any Idea” is a deep techno journey into the realms of spectral manipulation.
Marieu brings in all the hardware horsepower romanticism with “Tab and Rub” and “The Restored Text”; the first being acid excursion into the memories of the earl From days, the second interpolating massive kick drums and saturated harmonics with frantic vocal samples.
A record not to be missed!

Supported by: Rhadoo, Ame (Kristian), Dj Ralf, Marco Faraone, Arnaud Le Texier, Ilario Alicante, The Wasp, Shlomi Aber, Richie Hawtin, Joseph Capriati, Maceo Plex, Marco Carola, Francesco Farfa..

Apollo are delighted to welcome Steve Legget & Mark Hand to the fold with their lush new single ‘If You Cannot Try’ featuring the dulcet vocals of Greg Blackman. Originally released as an uplifting bumping house track on Ramrock Records Blackman sent the stems of the release to longtime collaborator Steve Legget for a rework. Legget tore the original to pieces, deconstructing it into a much more ambiguous form. ”I’ve never been a fan of a chorus in a song,” Legget muses. "I like songs that are not direct that leave room for your imagination - Mark and I ended up building a new song around the texture of the original.”

Hand and Legget met in the early 90s at the Northern College of Art in Middlesbrough, and have collaborated at various times in the intervening years, through a shared love of Detroit techno, experimental electronic music, jazz and funk. Their creative process involves sending audio files back and forth - “The release was written in collaboration over the internet Greg in Colchester, Mark in Hartlepool, and me in St Albans."

Hand added spaced out textures and riffs from his collection of vintage Fender Rhodes and classic synths - taking the track into sunny space funk realms that comes on like a lost release from joe Claussell’s Spiritual Life label or Basic Channel jamming with Herbie Hancock.

Using their new version as the seed - Hand decided to try his own ’Teesside Techno’ version - "I wanted to give the track more of a 'machine funk' vibe with my rework” he explains. “I generally like to work by jamming with hardware - the bass line is generated by triggering the arp on my Juno 6..using triggers from a TR606 kick drum and hats replaced by a TR909.. the result being more of a jackin' electronic funk mutation!"

This continuing game of musical pass the parcel has indeed born some juicy fruit -

Lisbon pals Photonz and Shcuro are two of the city’s most active DJs and music makers, sharing a penchant for a moody yet electrifying brand of dance sonics. They’ve created Shermanworx together in the studio, recording machines live using an ethos of improvisation while relying on their fine-tuned dancefloor intuition. The Sherman Filterbank was the go-to piece of equipment, appearing in every track and eventually naming the EP. Tribal techno swirls menacingly backed by dark melodies in the opening track, a hypnotic yet vivid peak-time belter that could go on and on. A synth so textured you can almost touch it is the centrepiece of Sherman2, another driving club beast complete with modulated arpeggios and industrial-tinged percussions. The record comes to close with a dreamier exercise in Sherman3: a dubby electro beat conducts melodic mutant synth lines and pads to achieve a slow-burning, expansive euphoria.

Hot on the heels of its debut release, Montreal’s Chambre Noire is back with its second record: an EP by Québecois artist Vromb, a veteran producer around since the mid-90s, known in particular for his releases on Ant-Zen. Over the course of five tracks on vinyl (six in the digital version), the artist’s sounds seem to take on physical shapes, like living origami: constantly mutating as they open, close and transform into something else. With attention to movement and boundary-challenging textures, this EP is ready to ensnare listeners in a variety of contexts, from club environments to more contemplative environments.

Originally recorded in 1977, following a limited release in 1979, Ghédalia Tazartès debut album, Diasporas, introduced listeners to the surreal, mysterious and truly unclassifiable statement of Tazartès and his out-of-time place in the French avant-garde canon. Born in Paris in 1947 to Judaeo-Spanish parents of Greek descent, Tazartès spent his early career as an autodidact utilizing his knowledge of repetition and collage, coupled with his Ladino linguistic heritage, to create some of the most unique recordings of the late 20th century. Interest in the works of Tazartès truly sparked when artist Steve Stapleton included his follow up album, Tazartès' Transports, in his famed "Nurse With Wound List," thus adding endless curiosity to the folklore behind Tazartès and his mystical entrée.

From the onset of Diasporas, looping incantations seemingly pile up at the behest of Tazartès. In almost a prayer-like decree, Tazartès chants to the gods in an undefined whail that is both haunting and spiritually divine. Tazartès unique use of tape loops to capture the disappearing traditions of his family's past creates an atmospheric texture that unexpectedly complements his cut-up, manipulated vocal experiments. While contemporaries within the French avant-garde maneuvered academic theory and rigid tradition, Diasporas strays away from these boundaries, working in Tazartès' invented practice of 'impromuz', a method in which he endlessly records for hours and edits only the moments that display any sense of spontaneous enlightenment. Further emboldening the obtuse nature of Diasporas are the seemingly random recitation of poet Stéphane Mallarmé and the traditional 'Parisian-style' piano accompaniment of experimental composer Michel Chion.

Since its initial release over 40 years ago, both Dais Records and Alga Marghen have released reissues of Diasporas in various formats, all of which quickly fell out of print. Dais Records presents an official reissue, newly remastered by Josh Bonati, utilizing the original artwork of Diasporas in its sole album form, for the first time in over four decades.

Unreleased album from 1981, a collaborative project by David Behrman, Paul DeMarinis, Fern Friedman, Terri Hanlon and Anne Klingensmith recorded at Mills College in 1981.

Previously known only to cognoscenti through an obscure self-released three-track 7”, this is the first publication of the complete album, an outrageous confection that mixes art-song and theatrical monologue with live electronics. Starting life as a performance art piece described by the artists as ‘Western Performance Noir’, the record centres on a series of texts written by Friedman and Hanlon in which female narrators comically embody a series of iconic roles (The Recording Artist, The Former Movie Star, and The Rancher). Other lyrical themes include recurring references to the notorious cannibal pioneers, the Donner Party, an ironic take on Japanophilia, and the luscious “Archetypal Unitized Seminar,” a satirical poke at self-help culture, whose lyrics are rendered in Indian raga style to the accompaniment of electronic glissandi and toy noisemakers. Delivered by Friedman, Hanlon, Klingensmith and special guest Maggi Payne in forms ranging from spoken monologue to Country & Western waltz, the texts are accompanied by instrumental and electronic contributions by Behrman and DeMarinis. Musically, She’s More Wild is truly unique, demonstrating these two pioneers of live-electronic performance adapting their signature processes to something approaching a ‘pop’ format: we hear the gliding, frequency-sensitive electronics familiar from Behrman’s classic On the Other Ocean and the mutant hacked Speak n’ Spell heard on DeMarinis’ Songs Without Throats propelled by drum machines and twisted into song forms. Perhaps comparable only to the David Rosenboom and Jacqueline Humbert’s contemporaneous Daytime Viewing in its interweaving of performance art tactics, high-tech electronics and pop sensibilities, She’s More Wild is an essential document, both immediately gratifying and ultimately thought provoking.

Two years after the drop of his latest solo effort, 'Strangers', Budapest cross-dimensional vibes trader Imre Kiss clocks in on Dalmata Daniel with the eagerly awaited followup to his widescreen, sci-fi ready sonic adventures. Here again, the Hungarian producer - who's made a name for himself through discerning blends of kosmische-infused nostalgia and uplifting emotional apexes, takes us off to a world of sense-awakening wonders and hidden alien treasures, well supported in his quest by Den Haag's legend Intergalactic Gary, up on the flip with a heat-seeking belter of a remix.

Written during a tour across Japan, the title-track 'Oimachi' breaks things in on a punchy yet immersively emotional note, flexing out the blunt Casio arpeggios and muscular bass leads for what results in a soul-whelming, wildly enjoyable trip away from the gridlocked 4/4 paradigm. The further jagged and wonky 'Whipromance' extrudes a weirdo-friendly piece of stretchin' electronics from its squelchy gangue of acid subs and straightforward drumwork, all set against a refreshingly contemplative dawn of pastel-brushed pads and ample beat-free sequences that shall leave weary dancers in a daze.

Flip sides and here comes 'Soft Obsession' - a fine-tuned assembly of organic envelopes, plurally sourced sample library and that idiosyncratic sense of otherworldliness the name of Imre Kiss has become synonymous with. Opening the sunroof onto a luxuriantly arranged and incredibly deep forest of rhythmic folds and textures, this is the very kind of track to send you off to the zone on a one-way trip. Rounding off the journey in true Moebius-esque fashion, Intergalactic Gary lets his unmatched jockey know-how do the talk through a mind-expanding finisher that'll be sure to please both the lovers of stadium-sized epics and all-night-long chock-a-block sweatbox action.
/Baptiste Girou/

Sugar were the US alternative rock trio fronted by ex-Hüsker Dü vocalist / guitarist Bob Mould. Released in 1994, File Under: Easy Listening is the group’s second and final full length studio album. Includes the singles ‘Gee Angel’, ‘Your Favourite Thing’ and ‘Believe What You’re Saying’. Following on from their successful debut release Copper Blue and critically acclaimed EP Beaster, ‘FU:EL’ found the group continuing to experiment with dark textures and pop melodies.
The album became Sugar’s third top ten release in the UK album charts and continues to draw a cult following today. For the first time, the album is presented on heavyweight 180g clear vinyl.