Suche:the analog music project

Very limited 12" (200 copies worldwide).

In a perfect world one would expect to find the music of Klaus Waldeck in the genre of electronic music. With his new project "The Waldeck Sextet" he leaves this stereotype behind and surprises us with a very pleasant acoustic experiment.

It all began with an analogue recording session in Vienna´s legendary supersense studios.And although it is hardly a perquisite to form a new project for these kind of recording ventures, Waldeck - quite obviously enthused by the idea of this analogue adventure - founded his new project "The Waldeck Sextet". Such was his excitement that he lost track of the number of musicians and thus founded the worlds first sextet that consists of 10 members, including his main vocalist Patrizia Ferrara.

In der Pause' (During the Pause) was the title of the last track on the b-side of , the first album by Die Tödliche Doris. In der Pause' was pause music, as well as the announcement of the interval between their debut album, released in 1982, and the box format project 'Chöre und Soli' that followed in 1983. The original sounds of In der Pause' survived on a single audio tape dating from 1981.Now, about 35 years later, Chris Dreier and Wolfgang Müller have used the material recorded on the audio tape as the source for five new tracks of pause music. The material on the original audio tape has was reworked using Moog analogue effect modules and Ableton Live. It has been supplemented with archived announcement interludes from radio and television stations, including German stations WDR, NDR and HR, Radio Italy IBF and Radio Kamerun.Sprechpause' was recorded in 1981 — 1982 by Chris Dreier, Nikolaus Utermöhlen and Wolfgang Müller and reworked by Wolfgang Müller and Chris Dreier in 2017.

A record to be enjoyed to its very last second AM Jazz is set to place this songwriter where he just might, finally, receive the recognition he deserves; from unsung hero to a truly worthy candidate for being called up to join the City of Manchester’s ranks of great musical icons. Whether you prefer to know him as Mr. Roberts or simply call him Al, it’s time to become acquainted with the real Jim Noir.

Tossing his bowler onto the hat stand and sliding on his slippers, AM Jazz sees ‘Jim’ putting his feet up whilst Alan Roberts takes the lead. A creative masterpiece for the record player and the mantlepiece, it’s a multi-layered album that features close friends including those dearly departed, and is his truest record to date, by a songwriter painting his own hypnotic Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

“I haven’t 'felt' like Jim Noir for a long time. I’m not sure I ever did; it was a construct of other people’s imaginations,” reveals Al. “AM Jazz is definitely the kind of music I make generally. It harks back to when I started making music years ago and didn’t worry about capturing a particular style. It will be nice to show people more of that.

It's the best album I've written; real hypnotic minimalism, the good stuff!” 15 years since he recorded the first ever 'Jim Noir' EP, AM
Jazz is the record all Noirheads won’t be surprised Al had inside him.

Letting the Beatlesesque stylings of his most recent album Finnish Line be (5 years ago no less), AM Jazz suits the Noir repertoire of his catalogue so far and is another homegrown offering which sees the Daveyhulme composer tinkering in his suburban Manchester studio once more, with the magic of his computer work sorcery, analog and tape recordings.

“For this I went back to the slightly more haphazard way I wrote my first album, Tower Of Love, wherein I’d use things in front of me, or a bit wrong like headphones for a microphone, to make the most Hi-Fi Lo-fi album ever.”

Whilst a brief disappearance of Jim’s online persona may have provoked bleak theories as to his whereabouts, Al had little time for digital distraction. Whilst writing and creating with friends, he has worked on electronic pet project, FAX with former Alfie guitarist, Ian Smith, and the vintage analogue house meets electro sound of his own solo EP Granada Personnel Recovery, as well as producing local band, Shaking Chainsor, and helping long-time musical colleague, Aidan Smith with his long-awaited 'The Planets' project; “I’ve been writing in dribs and drabs when I feel like it,” Al says. “I used to write all day everyday but it’s a lot harder now I’m (feeling) over 100 years old.” Never not sonically exploring or being inspired by the sounds around him, there was even a red-carpet moment when he appeared as a film premier guest after a couple of his songs were selected for the OST of director Jason Wingard’s film Eaten By Lions.

Performing all AM Jazz’s instrumental parts himself but also, at the right moment, bringing in present and past pals along the way, sexy lounge song, ‘Hexagons’ features 'Phil Anderson' and Mark Williamson singing and playing “legendary OTT guitar solo” respectively. Meanwhile the orchestration of ‘Peppergone’ waltzes like a beautifully romantic ode to Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata – a tribute to dearly departed best friend 'Batfinks' who originally wrote the chords in his song 'Peppercorn.' “I hope he doesn’t think it’s shit,” Al jests. Listen closely and you may even find a few unsuspecting celebrity guest appearances as, perhaps, it could be the very first album to feature soundbites of podcasts sneaking onto the recordings. “I will have a podcast on if I’m recording; Adam Buxton, Athletico Mince, Frank Skinner or Richard Herring… I’m sure some mics will have picked them up, like in the old Tower of Love days,” he says referring to his breakout debut.

Culled from around 50 tunes AM Jazz moves like the time of the day, from dawn to night, stirring from the pop of ‘Good Mood’ and ‘Upside Down’s Beta Band groove. “As the album was playing, I imagined this smoky backstreet with all those neon signs outside clubs at about 4am,” Al says. Mellow ‘TOL Circle’ is like Percy Faith’s Theme From A Summer Place synthesized, capturing the style of TV library music or movie soundtrack obscurity that has always stirred Al’s curiosity, and the album plunges into a vast chasm of instrumental exploration with ‘Mystermoods,’ visiting Japan’s funky synth whiz duo Testpattern and Hakabashi Sakamoto. Darkening and deepening in intensity, ‘Eggshell’ is like an undiscovered gem from Angelo Badalamenti’s cutting room floor, the Panda Bear shimmer of ‘Lander’ is where blissful positivity and sadness meet, about another of his friends who left the world too young. “By the album’s close, its nearly time to let go and enter the ether,” he says of the album’s story. “Like one would do when they take their final sigh on this earth.”

'Destiny71z' returns with his second EP for Eglo Records, a further dark and jazzy exploration through an array of analog hardware, focusing on the Buchla music easel and a stacked modular set up. Raw and unpredictable the EP fizzes and pops across 4 tracks, drawing on the influences of House, Techno, 2-Step and Electro, synthesizing it into something much harder to pigeonhole.

The project is the alter-ego of multi instrumentalist, painter and producer Mathew Kirkis, who recently supported Floating Points on his solo UK/EU live tour. These four dance floor meditations express
a talent well beyond the conventions of traditional club music, it's as much music for the mind as it is for the body.

From the stuttering acid fried 2-Step Techno of 'Technique ZSL' and the shimmering space like odyssey of 'Suckmyskin' to the swirling House steppers 'Dimdraft' and 'OmegaTX', the EP surprises at every turn. Essential listening for fans of Legowelt, Floating Points, Pepe Bradock et al.

Following January’s acclaimed vinyl debut from Exterior and summer’s much-loved Kota Motomura EP, Edinburgh’s Hobbes Music label ends 2019 with its first album release, also a debut, from GAMING, a fresh new braindance electronica project straight outta Glasgow.

GAMING is a new solo outing that brings together a lifelong love of music and technology and creating left field, rhythmic electronica. It’s the sound of IDM, nineties techno and mensch maschine computer music that is as spontaneous as it is programmed. It's a bit of a grower and may take time to get under your skin....

“Scenes From A Deserted City is a collection of tracks that started as a set of riffs, loops, rhythms and grooves and unfurled around a sense of growing unease about the future of the urban environment around me.

It’s an album that started out as sound…and ended up as a way of telling stories about the age of anxiety we live in, how our world is changing, and how we find a way through that.

This is DIY electronica from Glasgow – it was made on a growing collection of digital and analogue synths and FX units, including a bunch of modular racks, each with its own idiosyncrasies and character that belies the assumption of the binary.

The studio where it was recorded – an abandoned, and often very cold, school building reclaimed by the community some twenty years ago – offered up stories of resilience, even when all seems lost. (I’m not sure what the mice contributed but they definitely climbed in and out of some synths).

This album is ultimately about my changing relationship with Glasgow, a city I’ve lived in for more than 25 years. It’s about how I feel now about the increasing sense of urban decay and how the city can be a very isolating place. It’s about how I reflect on my younger creative self trying to find a direction but mainly feeling a sense of dislocation and not fitting in. And it’s about the questions I have about how that relationship is changing, how it will be forced to move forward.
The result is a soundtrack for walking home on your own, in that headphone bubble when it’s just you focusing on that music that makes sense to you alone. It’s for early in the morning, after the night before, or going to work with the memories of that slipping and sliding inside your head. It’s about how it feels to be both elated and lonely, to be lost in the familiar, despairingly hopeful.”

One of the original catalysts of Latinx music in New York City, MAKU Soundsystem has been the connective tissue for several creative projects, bands and community roots for over a decade. As a group with a rotating membership, they've recorded multiple albums both DIY and for worldwide labels. Throughout their various iterations, the heart and mission of the ensemble has consistently built bridges, rather than tearing them down, remaining a remarkable beacon of positivity in a consistently competitive environment. The inspiring atmosphere has nurtured several notable musicians and acts over the years, including members of Combo Chimbita, Dilemastronauta, Bulla en el Barrio, Leon Brothers and Prince of Queens. Now down to a core group of three musicians, alongside percussionist Moris Cañate, MAKU and Names You Can Trust have finally teamed up for a vinyl edition after many years of collaborative shows and connections.

Perhaps their rawest and darkest recordings to date, this stripped down quartet is an ode to the creative source of their core members, lead singer & bassist Juan Ospina, drummer Andres Jimenez and guitarist Camilo Rodriguez. The A-side, "Culebra Coral" is a snakebitten taste ofla cumbia, played with an experience and restraint that only enhances the end result. It's a free driven approach born from familiar experimentation, rather than modern day trends — a singular jam, refined from years of playing together. Part psych, part cumbia, total MAKU. The B-side, "Contra Tambor," is emblematic of the group's roots in the traditional sounds of thetambora, a drum-forward percussive arrangement that follows Jimenez and Cañate on a free-driven approach to the ritualistic movements of the drums, this time drowned with an antidote of analog FX, synthesized glitches and atmospheric coros.

Shasta Cults is the musical project of Canadian electronics technician Richard Smith. For almost two decades, Smith was the official Buchla & Associates go-to repair person for studios, collectors, and musicians around the world, having worked with artists like Aphex Twin, Suzanne Ciani, Mort Subotnick and institutions like NYU, The Library of Congress and Mills College in Oakland, Ca.

Recording demonstrations of the rare equipment that found its way on to his workbench is how Smith describes the origins of Shasta Cults. Although sounds have been trickling out for decades via Soundcloud and other outlets, it wasn’t until 2017 that Smith recorded his first album using one of these rare instruments – the Buchla 700. Configurations, released this past September by Important Records, features eight tracks of heavily-modulated, wave-shaped explorations drenched in effects, and was the catalyst for his latest releases.

Recorded over the span of 3 months in the fall of 2018, this album was programmed solely on the only fully-functional Buchla Touché. Developed in the early 1980s with hardware by Don Buchla and software programmed by musician David Rosenboom, the Touché features waveforms generated internally by twenty-four digital oscillators using frequency modulation and sophisticated digital and analog signal processing for timbre and output assignment, all of this controlled via a six-octave black and white keyboard, unusual for a Buchla instrument.

This LP is a continuation on themes first heard on Configurations, with more consideration given to the generation and capturing of the pieces. This album is less dark than previous releases, showcasing the incredible fidelity of the hardware used and Smiths evolution as an audio engineer. Put on some headphones, find a comfortable chair, and let this LP transport you to the mystifying southern cascades of Siskiyou County.

C.Y.M. is the collaboration between British producer and DJ Mike Greene (otherwise known as Fort Romeau) and LA-based American musician Chris Baio, who releases music as Baio in addition to playing bass in the acclaimed band Vampire Weekend. Their debut, self-titled EP arrives on Phantasy as an elegant pean to the infinite possibilities of kosmische music, driven by a motorik strain of psychedelia. The foundations of a wider project, C.Y.M. speaks not for analogue nostalgia, but a subtle and modern update on imagined futures that are still open to interpretation.
‘Capra’ immediately establishes the duo’s masterful if unsurprising grip on rhythm, a man-machine stomp that persists as the track takes myriad turns, from post-punk guitar licks and processed vocals, through bubbling modular synthesis and culminating in a soaring, cathartic melody. On ‘Far Gone’ C.Y.M. turn their studio inward for a more brooding and intimate interpretation of their sound, a balearic amalgam of intriguing vocals, feedback soaked riffs and no-wave inspired movement. The bliss beneath the waves of noise that crash across C.Y.M’s music emerges fully on the driving conclusion, ‘Super-Cannes’. A hypnotic tempo and blistering drums intertwine with whirling organs, and shimmering keys, providing a wistful and warm finale.

After a three year absence, Kasper Bjørke returns to hfn music with a sublime new double EP entitled
“Nothing Gold Can Stay”. Having followed a deeply personal ambient music path that last year led to
the release of “Kasper Bjørke Quartet: The Fifty Eleven Project” on Kompakt Records, (named 5th
Best Contemporary Album 2018 in The Guardian), Kasper has found his way back to producing some
of his signature leftfield danceable beats, which “the past decade has seen Bjørke steadily rising amongst the ranks of artful, eclectic electronic producers…” (XLR8R).The Double EP “Nothing Gold Can Stay” explores both the analogue and organic side of his production work on Side A - while Side B reflects on sounds that he would play today, in one of his nightclub DJ sets. Side A contains four collaborations with four friends from LA, New York and Copenhagen. “Water” feat. Toby Ernest, the slow mo opener to the EP, revives the partnership with Toby that was last seen on 2014’s After Forever album (on the single “Rush”). Toby also provides the vocals on the cover version of Alessi Brothers’ 1975 classic “Seabird” - a track that came about through Kasper’s friendship and musical synergy with DJ and vinyl digger Christian d’Or, who is lead crooning while Toby delivers his signature falsetto. The “Seabird” cover adds a distinct contemporary feeling to the original version while staying true and respectful to the delivery and mood of the songs core. The 2nd half of the release, Side B, is directly aimed at the floor. Having stepped away from releasing club jams for a few years, Kasper is clearly enjoying getting back to the business of making people move. Side B of Nothing Gold Can Stay is both a testament to Kasper’s versatility as a producer and an all-out dancefloor assault, made with precision and sensitivity.

Neurot Recordings are proud to reissue the landmark collaboration Neurosis & Jarboe, which was originally released in 2003. This latest version is fully remastered and with entirely new artwork from Aaron Turner.

Very limited silver metallic and black swirl 2LP - Non-Returnable

Steve Von Till explains the idea behind the remastering; "Bob Weston (Chicago Mastering Service, and member of Shellac) worked closely with Noah on making these new versions sound as good as the possibly can. Noah has the most trained critical ear for fidelity out of all of us being an engineer himself. We recorded this ourselves with consumer level Pro Tools back then, in order to be able to experiment at home in getting different sounds and writing spontaneously.  The technology has come a long way since then and we thought we could run it through better digital to analog conversion and trusted Bob Weston to be able to bring out the best in it....This new mastered version is a bit more open, with a better stereo image, and better final eq treatment."

He continues about the original artwork..."Aaron felt he could create something that would unify the energy of both Jarboe and Neurosis in an elegant manner.  We let him do his thing and I think it definitely adds to mystery of the album and sets it apart from the rest of our catalog."

When two independent and distinct spheres overlap, the resulting ellipse tends to emphasise the most striking and powerful characteristics of each body. Such is the case with this particular collaboration between heavy music pioneers Neurosis and the multi-faceted performer Jarboe (who performed in Swans and who has collaborated with an array of people from Blixa Bargeld, J.G. Thirlwell, Attila Csihar, Bill Laswell, Merzbow, Justin K. Broadrick, Helen Money, Father Murphy, the list goes on...) The musicians pull from one another some of the most harrowing and unusual sounds ever heard from either artist at the time - a sentiment which also rings true to some 15 years later.

Neurosis & Jarboe opens with a high-pitched whirring sound winding up as Jason Roeder's ominous tom-drum beat and Noah Landis' slinking synth line writhe in unison until Jarboe drops in, drawling in her characteristic, corrupted Southern belle voice, "I tell ya, if God wants to take me, He will." From there on in, the album is a series of abrupt shifts and cleverly juxtaposed themes that flows in a rhythm of its own. The sinister and ethereal sounds, vocal coos and electro-pulses of "His Last Words" seem like the perfect soundtrack to a David Lynch film. On "Erase," song parts are dissected and grafted one atop the other, continually building tension as Jarboe wails and yelps with Banshee fervor.

The project began with the artists working in seclusion, recording the elements that would best highlight their own characteristic integrity and personality, rather than either attempting to mimic one another's familiar elements. As recorded ideas were passed back and forth, the collaboration proved to bring out the most unhinged and urgent talents of all those involved.

Throughout the album, that signature "Neurosis note" - the sound of something simultaneously recoiling and erupting, the apocalyptic tone announcing the birth of a new world - reaches its apex and becomes evermore icy and eviscerating. Guitarists Steve Von Till and Scott Kelly trim their tones for cleaner, chorus-drenched effects layered between the thunderous distortion blasts of bassist Dave Edwardson. Likewise, Jarboe's operatic wail and other vocal contortions sound perfectly suited to the eruptive emotional fray of the music.

The collaboration is a deeply textured mosaic that is a culmination of merged aesthetics from two major influences on free-thinking sounds. It unlocked the hidden potential of electronic music as a new force in heavy rock. At a time when groups like Oneida, Wolf Eyes and Black Dice were beginning to experiment with technology in making mind-numbing leaden electro-drone freed from any essence of "dance music," Neurosis & Jarboe redefined all notions of their past - and outlined the course of heavy music to come. It's interesting to look back through the lens of this release, and think about these ideas and concepts in the present.

Neurosis & Jarboe remains the meeting point of all art that takes us beyond ourselves.

Luc Kheradmand, under his “nom de plume” Voiski, has created a gem of a record for ara, named At e Speed Of Love His highly distinctive sound is distilled into 5 stunning tracks which feel both analog and futuristic. Diverse yet coherent, the record is a fantastic blend of positive energies, unfolding and revealing its different faces as it progresses ; ecstatic at times, and moving at others. is is music with enough depth to project your own meaning and emotions.

Limited 12” Vinyl : Numbered edition of 500 . Handmade with love in Berlin

Each vinyl sleeve is individually painted with highly-pigmented acrylic, using a single-movement brush technic, on grey cardboard sleeves, protected by a high grade transparent outer sleeve Since releasing physical records is increasingly becoming an irrational choice, each ARA record is irrationally produced as an hand-made work of art.

Editions are individually numbered, recognisable as a part of a whole, while being slightly different by nature.

Half of the dark synthwave duo THE HUNT ,Herbert West is a French electronic producer heavily influenced by 70’s and 80’s horror soundtracks. This artist tends to use vintage, analog and modular synths and It ́s important to point out that he has released with the Hunt two albums through the well-known labels Giallo Disco (2014) and Bordello a Parigi (2018).

Vortice Mortale is his new project in which he mixes space disco and dark synth music.It is clear as water that Herbert West loves Italian horror movies and French disco music of the past decade considering that this work “Memento Mori” is perhaps a perfect combination of powerful beats, enigmatic passages and wicked catchy melodies.

“Requiem” is the name of the new Cold Beats Records release. The reference number 14 of the catalan label is written by L´Avenir, the cold synth side project of veteran electronic musician and sound artist Jason Sloan. Known throughout the space and ambient music scenes for his contemplative electronic soundscape work for close to two decades; Sloan founded L’Avenir in 2012 to explore his long time love of synthnpop and dark minimal wave music created purely from analog and vintage equipment. While still retaining the atmosphere of his solo records, the music of L’Avenir is rooted in the tradition of the minimal, analog, synthesizer music of the late 70′s and 80′s ( Fad Gadget, Depeche, Click Click, Chicago’s Wax Trax Records scene etc…). Growing up through the original scene while it was happening, it’s no suprise that Sloan’s music would eventually move in this direction. While releasing over a dozen solo albums and E.P.’s under his own name, Sloan has played live all over the US, Canada and Europe including the influential Live Constructions radio program at Columbia University, STEIM in Amsterdam and Philadelphia’s The Gatherings concert series, one of the country’s oldest continuing ambient and electronic music series. Sloan is a Professor teaching full-time in the Interactive Arts department along with being the founder and program coordinator for the Sound Art concentration at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland. L’Avenir returns with Requiem, the fourth, full-length album for Barcelona’s Cold Beats Records. Requiem finds L’Avenir visiting themes of postmodernity, alienation and spiritualism while expanding the sonic palette far beyond his minimal synth beginnings. The music of L’Avenir has, at times, been compared to 4AD era Clan of Xymox or mid-period Depeche Mode. But while echoes of the former can be heard, L’Avenir brings a uniquely fresh perspective unheard in other bands of the genre. Requiem features eight new songs and is available on limited edition blood red vinyl. Requiem is L’Avenir’s sixth release was written and recorded between February 2018 and January 2019 in a Minimal Space, (Baltimore). Limited edition of 300 copies lacquered pressed on 140 gr. high quality red vinyl and digital album.

Limited pressings of analog techno and electronic music .

The project highlights the personal outlook of Gaffarel’s underground sound.

known as Gaffy on his previous singular productions, percussive DJ sets and stupendous live acts, this imprint is a new platform for the Parisian artist to introduce his solo work, collaborations and remixes.

He has skillfully blended forthcoming EP’s with a mix of complex mental grooves, meticulous frequencies, conspicuous themes and textures, capturing a musical universe with remarkable knowledge.

Around the year, the sturdy red brick walls of an old Cable Factory stand there like a mountain, facing weathers of all kinds rising from the Gulf of Finland. It might be freezing winter winds whipping the whole shore line into submission, fog heavy as concrete, or the relentless sun of the summer months, softening the asphalt to a boiling point. Whatever the weather may be, the narrow courtyard of the old factory embraces those musicians, who are looking to get down. They gather from all directions, making their way towards a pair of doors that lead towards a flight of stairs, again through a few doors all the way to the last portal, where an open padlock and a loosely hangin crossbar signal that Cold Diamond & Mink are inside, locked in a groove.

Who could it be with them this time, perhaps the jazz prophet Jimi Tenor beaming out of his space ship, maybe it's the golden voiced knight of soul Tuomo "Pratt" Prättälä, the number one trumpet wielding dandy Jukka Eskola or the saxman Pope Puolitaival, who loses nothing in coolness compared to the former? The reel to reel is always there in the monitoring room, catching each analog layer of sound, even the silences and banter between takes. Seppo lays down the guitar and tries to catch the riff on organ instead, Jukka throws a rare tune on the turntable, hoping to guide their unit through that wobbly chorus, Sami waits there bass in hand, maybe already thinking about the next production.

After a whole lot of playing instruments, arranging and taking care of business, after the moon has travelled around the old industrial building for some rotations, Carlton Jumel Smith comes waltzing through those same doors. There's a handful of unnamed tracks waiting for him. He sits there listening and then starts writing, maybe echoes of soul classics from his own record collection in New York projecting inside his mind. Then the tape is rolling again. Starting with a short intro rap Carlton lets it out, singing on the edge of shouting "Woman you made me...". After the vocals are in the can, Carlton ascends out of the basement and heads out to entertain an audience somewhere. Some months later, after the mix is said and done, there's the question of the instrumentals. It seems they're pretty good as they are. And here they are.




d 4 Help Me (Save Me From Myself) [Instrumental]

Music by Davide Luciani (guitar, organ, synth and electronics). Recorded and mixed in Berlin in between 2017-2018 by Davide Luciani. Mastered by Simon Scott at SPS Mastering. Illustration by Anna von Hausswolff.

Biography:

Davide Luciani is an Italian electronic music composer and media designer, based in Berlin since 2011. He has a background in the Italian noise-rock scene with projects dating back to 2005. "Calming Counts" is Luciani's first solo release.

His solo practice places acoustic instrumentation into analogue/digital synthesis to create works that bridge the territories of noise, drone rock and minimal music. His approach to electroacoustic music – which he voices with guitar, piano, strings, accordion, synthesisers, VST sorcery and loopers – has a distinct harmonic hue, with layered repetitive patterns and instrumental polyphonies.

As sound and visual designer he has directed and curated a wide variety of projects from soundtracks to space design. His collaborations have been hosted at highly regarded institutions and venues such as Venice Biennial, Berlin Atonal, Ström Festival, Bayreuth Festspiele, Museum Omero, Tresor and MUSMA.

Luciani was a member of the label/platform Dromoscope and has collaborated as visual artist with Grün (Daniele de Santis) and Claudio Rocchetti. In 2014, together with sound artist Fabio Perletta, he co-founded Mote, a multidisciplinary design studio whose practice addresses arts and music.

Ophir Kutiel AKA Kutiman is a multi-instrumentalist from Tel Aviv, a “psychedelic space funk architect” to quote Straight No Chaser. When we were approached by his label Siyal about recruiting ZamZam/Khaliphonic artists for a remix project, we loved the idea right away - dub without borders or boundaries is our passion, and getting our hands on Kutiman’s freeform analog explorations felt like an amazing opportunity to push that passion further. All four remixes revel in the freedom of the original tunes, and each, while anchored in dubwise techniques, are totally unhindered by tempo or other genre constraints.

Alter Echo & E3 open with a remix of “Unknown,” the set’s only 140 tune, full up with a bubbling cauldron of bassline and flutes, esoteric vinyl archaeology, spring reverb shocks, and swung percussion.

J:Kenzo, known for 140 and 160 bpm sound system bangers, here takes the chance to stay deep - but in a chill mode - unfurling a beautiful journey of syncopated drum work and slapping percussion framing the lush, meandering melodies of the original “Behind The Noise."

Gulls’ rework of “Mineral” rocks with an offbeat feel, technically in four, but swaying like it’s in three. Plucked guitar figures recall the African roots of contemporary bass music, and tape hiss buffets the listener back and forth through a sonic hall of portals and passages.

Perhaps the most surprising of all four four versions is Headland’s closing “Lucid Dream” remix, which sets course for dub techno country and never looks back. Combining the best of the producer’s masterful sound design and sense of build-and-drop dynamics with the idiom’s 4/4 pulse and focus on immersive space, Headland closes a set as inspired as the album it was based on.

As with the first SchleiBen series, Emotional Response follows the success of the second set of split releases with a stand-alone album by one of the highlights, in Neil Tolliday.

Recorded over a 17-year period, the ambient, drone and noise pieces collected here offer a glimpse in to the depth of a supremely talented, thoughtful and at times, troubled musical mind.

As his love for house music and the success of his Nail moniker grew and waned during the ascent 90s boom, there followed his somewhat surprising success as one half of Balearic-pop combo Bent, propelling Tolliday in to a world of indie-charts and endless touring. The eventual unhappiness of this 'music career' and increasing need for personal escapism led him start experiment new musical forms of expression.

A thinker and oft-over drinker, success was viewed with a deep suspicion and introspection, drug use and later, depression. As his other music projects slowly imploded, this new, personal music was for many years, made purely for Tolliday's own absorption and comedowns.

Taken from an initial 4 track recording in Nottingham in 2000, more pieces were subsequently recorded around the globe on numerous devices - old portable cassette recorders, hand held digital stereos and even mobile phones. These heavily manipulated samples were slowed down, reversed, smudged and stretched before analog and modular patching, Mellotron, editing, programming and post production were added to the melting pot.

With hundreds of tracks collated, in the last few years Tolliday began putting them out via Bandcamp using different aliases, on made up record labels, with no press or mention to anyone. This would happen every 6-9 months - a new label was created with logo, band/artist names and a few albums worth of music, leaving it there for a few weeks before then deleting the lot.

Here then is a snapshot of those recordings, chosen to represent the depth of music, while trying not to think too much about in to the emotions that were used in making them. With special hand painted artwork by Sam Purcell, commissioned from the artist's own photographs taken from a adjournment at Homerton hospital, the hope is to do justice to such wonderful music and present Neil Tolliday, finally an artist, shorn of pseudonyms, in a broader light.

Over the last decade, we’ve come accustomed to Jason Letkiewicz releasing material under a dizzying array of aliases, each utilized to explore a different side of his multi-faceted musical persona. Now, some 14 years after he made his recording debut alongside Ari Goldman as Manhunter, Letkiewicz has joined forces with Into The Light Records to release his first album under his real name.

The Reflecting Pool sees Letkiewicz exploring the uncomplicated and uncluttered in the pursuit of pure aural beauty. While his recent album as Opposing Currents was dense, dark, urban and industrial, The Reflecting Pool is stripped back, quiet and melodious. The contrast between the two projects is marked, with The Reflecting Pool drawing more on Letkiewicz’s love of crystalline ambient, slow burn synthesizer soundscapes, early ’80s library music and the kind of obscure electronic new age music that has been a hallmark of Into The Light’s releases to date.

The set’s 12 tracks gently ebb and flow, with Letkiewicz making great use of dusty old drum machines, effects units and a range of vintage analogue and digital synthesizers. It’s a set-up that results in a range of complimentary mood pieces and interludes, from the delay-laden military drums and lilting lead lines of “Out of Body Experiences”, to the drowsy, sunrise bliss of “Sunspot”, the bubbling Tangerine Dream style shuffle of “Mind Awake Body Asleep” and the outer-space atmosphere of “The Kill Fee”.

Throughout, Letkiewicz showcases his seemingly intrinsic grasp of mood, atmosphere and melody. It can be heard within the glacial guitar motifs, occasional beats and elongated chords of “The Reflecting Pool”, the rhythmic bustle of “Numb Drums”, the glassy-eyed melancholia of “Arhythmia” and the cinematic paranoia of “Burning Off The Morning Fog”. It’s also evident amongst the classically beat-less ambient of closing cut “Weightless”, whose alien electronics, effects-laden pulses and opaque chords recall established masters of the genre.

With The Reflecting Pool, Letkiewicz has provided us with a much-needed dose of stress-free musical escapism, at the same time offering hope that in these troubling times, love may still save the day.

Sagats & Madi Grein back from the space aboard vostok3 with the upcoming
groundbreaking sound of brenta. Let yourself be embraced by the flow of these guys,
they will set the dance floor on fire. Right after Mandala project with their mate jay green
& cami, the duo keeps on creating house music, like their colleagues the analogue cops,
steve murphy & dj octopus.. the sound of brenta is back. Highly Recommended!!