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Mesh-Key is thrilled to present this mind-bending solo album of electronics and vocals from legendary Japanese musician Phew. Phew's career began in the late 1970s as lead singer of Osaka punk group Aunt Sally (whose only full-length was released by Vanity Records in 1979). Ryuichi Sakamoto produced her debut solo release in 1980, a two-song single, and in 1981 Pass Records released her debut album, a bonafide masterpiece recorded with original Can members Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebezeit at Conny Plank's studio in Germany. She has forged a singular path over the past thirty-plus years, collaborating with folks like Anton Fier, Bill Laswell, and Seichi Yamamoto (Boredoms). It's borderline sacrilegious to compare an artist as unique as Phew with anyone else, but for those unfamiliar with her work, 'Light Sleep' might be described as a more animated Nico singing (in Japanese) for early Suicide. Prepare to be floored.

Jerome Meyer AKA Von D is a master craftsman, well-known for releasing dubstep and bass music since 2009. On an increasingly prolific trajectory since last year, recent 12's on Infernal Sounds, Trojan Audio and Scotch Bonnet have signaled his renewed focus on dubwise productions. We are proud to say that Von D's Khaliphonic debut sees him fully committing to reggae and dub - in his words, going back to my musical roots.'

Politricks' is a masterwork, cut from the same living rock as the classic Cuss Cuss riddim, a simply huge bass and drum workout that is truly one for the ages. Politricks is an anthem for now, a call to avoid the dead-end of politics-as-usual and a warning to beware of the lies politicians tell to keep themselves in power - full of promises but changing nothing. Von D says that working with Don Cotti was very natural,' and their easy relationship is audible - the tune fits the vocal like a glove, and Cotti's instantly-recognizable singjay style gives even more gravitas to an already heavy track. The dub version spools out Von D's signature saturated echoes even further, and opens up spectral chambers of reverb that shimmer and glow.

The B side Ygrec' is an equally massive tune, just as compelling if more meditative and mysterious, coming in both one drop and power-steppers mixes for maximum versatility and vibes. Both tunes and their versions feature an incredibly robust, warm, human sound - one that simply can't come from machines alone - live drums, bass, and kete drum among other instruments maintain the tradition of live musicians in dub - to say nothing of expert desk-based mixing and deployment of live analog effects the way the elders intended. Both tunes dial in at 140 making them perfect for roots and dubstep selectors alike.

Von D got his start as a drummer and engineer outside Paris, in the heady days of original jungle. Early releases on Disfigured Dubz, Hench, Boka, Black Acre and the seminal V Recordings, as well as his reggae-oriented Liquid Wicked project, cemented his reputation. Don Cotti is a prolific producer, DJ and MC with releases stretching back to 2006 on labels as varied as Bass Face, Studio Rockers, and Soul Jazz.

Mastered by Lewis at Stardelta. Art & design by Polygon Press.

Big remix package on this 12" for three songs of MOP MOP's latest album "Lunar Love". KALBATA, NICOLA CRUZ, DJ KHALAB and sUb_modU don't disappoint with their treatments on this single and deliver great new versions of the originals.

The third release on Ascorbite's own Corseque Records is not for the faint-hearted. Advance the flight and Inadequate Demeanor are clearly twins, delivered from the darkest corners of Ascorbite's mind. The bold, pounding quality of the EP brings Adam X or Grovskopa to mind but Ascorbite has a dystopian touch that's entirely his own. Advance the flight is like a battle track for an intergalactic armada being attacked by an infinite horde of swarming space ants. Inadequate Demeanor, on the other hand, is a grim steampunk fantasy of a black, shining locomotive plainly out of control, raging on red hot rails towards the end of the line. However, while both tracks are rough and unforgiving, Ascorbite manages to invigorate them by the use of subtle melancholic atmospheres - like rainy skies over a concrete desert. A balance between brutalism and vitality. A trademark of Ascorbite and Corseque Records.

Florian Meindl kick starts 2017 with a special four-track vinyl only release 'Colorful Cage'. Released on his own imprint FLASH Recordings, the title track is taken from his forthcoming album 'Time Illusion'.

There is an exclusive vinyl edit of Florian's previously released foreboding techno track 'Nix Charon' and completing the EP are two further unique tracks 'Controlled Pressure' and 'Wild Sequence 3'.

As a DJ, live performer, studio producer and sound designer, Florian has over the years established an impressive producing base for himself in his Berlin based Riverside Studio complex with an exciting hardware set up including Modular Systems, an analog mixing desk as well as classic machines like Roland 909.
In anticipation for the LP release in early April, Florian has prepared a unique live set featuring a Modular System, the KORG Minilogue, effect boxes and a 909 drum machine which were used in the creation of the album which he will be touring throughout 2017.

Brazil 45, number 57: 'Zózoio - Como É Que É' also known as 'Zozoi' is an uptempo samba-jazz-MPB workout with a catchy chorus hook, guitars, subtle driving percussion and big horns. The song was written by Joyce's husband Nelson Angelo. The track appears on Celia's first self-titled LP that was released on Continental in 1971 and remains hard to find. We are also big fans of France Gall's more well-known version, which was reissued by Jazzman several years ago. Featuring slightly different lyrics, in French, by her husband Robert Gall. 'Para Lennon e McCartney' comes from the same Celia LP - a soaring anthem with big horns, vocals and tough funk drums underneath. Written by Márcio & Lô Borges and Fernando Brant.

We welcome Ricardo Tobar for his debut label release. It's an honour; Correspondant is the latest in an elite line of select labels that the cosmic Frenchman has worked with over the years such as Cocoon or Border Community.

Consistent in all compositions, it's another pristine trip into the interstellar unknown. Each track measured, weighted and laced with Ricardo's signature creeping dynamic. Unhurried, elements gradually make themselves known and envelop your senses without you realizing. Deep, mystic and singular; the perfect debut.

To begin the year with, Antinote summoned Panoptique and JC Satan's Paula to release a badass two-tracker, paying a pared-down tribute to a very overlooked period in recent musical history: the accursed electroclash-era.
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At a time when 'Balearic' has become the new musical gospel, the holiest adjective one can use to describe one's music (and therefore, electroclash has become the musical antichrist - to keep going with the biblical comparison)... while everyone seems to glorify stuff like Ibiza's 'endless sunsets', the duo happily kicks over the anthill with a song, a record and a band soberly called Succhiamo (first person plural of 'to suck' in Italian). The title-track straightforwardly announces what the main elements of Succhiamo's music are: over-saturated simple patterns of drum machines and EBM-infused lines of synths backing overtly sexual vocals in Italian. Nothing more, nothing less.

On the flip side, Succhiamo deals with the same formula in depth, engaging this time in detailing a meaningless list of products available in the 'supermercato'. The song conveys a nihilist - but fun - attitude, and it just sounds as if the band was crashing a car in a commercial zone in high spirits... As a kind of inheritor to Ich Bin, Succhiamo offers to bring some stupidity in the club and gives serious dance music producers the finger, like some irreverent Franco-Italian Beavis & Butthead.

Phonograph Music is back with a 4 tracker by Anthropous Anonymous. Four cuts that embody a poetic approach to dance music, trough deep house, balearic and tribal. A few months ago, in the time and space of a few impromptu sessions, an EP was conceived and produced. Not much was planned, but the voice and the keyboard notes our dear Brazilian friend Roberto Coelho hit, gave the whole thing its not so but quite ambiguous form and meaning. Soon after that, the music just flowed...

Not Waving takes 2017 by the scruff with his Populist EP, consolidating the myriad stripes of his acclaimed Animals album in four extended peaktime hammers forged for darkrooms, basements and warehouses alike.
If last year's LP saw you thru from day-into-night, or vice-versa, this one is aimed squarely at the gurny hours of abandon in between, with ferocious acid lines and jabbing drums stripped down and strapped up to prompt reckless behaviour on the 'floor.
Containing his first material written in the wake of Animals, the Populist EP is Alessio Natalizia a.k.a. Not Waving's strongest dancefloor statement since the one-sided Get Serious (2015) bullet.
It finds him taking the opportunity to make straight-up bangers, rather than 'songs', which were thoroughly tried and tested over successive tours of the USA and ountless shows in Europe too in
the last 9 months.
Too Many Freaks is an anthem in waiting, harnessing a barely-hinged sense of chaos between its careening synth lead, acid squabble and velvet-clad kicks, before the dry-rutting jag and plaintive vox of Vibe Killer takes a dog-grip like This Heat meeting Tuning Circuits.
Top marks go to the check-your-stylus intro for Control Myself on the B-side, which holds its fizzy line into a fetid crevice of what sounds Russell Haswell ramping with Powell, whereas the
crooked clampjaw groove of Ur Lucky Ur Still Alive pivots around a sample a lone raver at Atonal, Berlin 'who had no idea how she got there and what she did the night before'. A ruddy good night
all-round, then
Not Waving co-owns the Ecstatic label alongside Sam Willis. Not Waving is widely regarded a connoisseur of Italian new wave and post-punk music - he compiled the Mutazione (Italian
Electronic & New Wave Underground 1980-1988) set for Strut - and has issued a series of acclaimed, sought-after, playfully anachronistic twists on that sound since 2013.

Stirred up from deep within, from an abstract spiral of sound and movement, from a sensation of time and space absolving and converging at once, the Black Flower musicians have molded a tangible matter: the album Artifacts. Their second full album sounds international and ageless. Eastern influences, Ethiodub and jazz effortlessly merge. Fantasy and reality seem to fuse. In a word: nourishment for body and soul.

"Psyche-delicious and accessible 20th century Ethiodubjazz. As if John Zorn put on Fela Kuti's shoes and imbibed Mulatu Astatke's whirls."

Piloted by saxophonist /flutist /composer Nathan Daems (Ragini Trio, Dijf Sanders, Antwerp Gipsy-Ska Orkestra), this instrumental band aims for originality. Fellow musicians and 'brothers down the road' are Jon Birdsong (dEUS, Beck, Calexico) on cornet, Simon Segers (Absynthe Minded, De Beren Gieren, Stadt) at the drums, Filip Vandebril (Lady Linn, The Valerie Solanas, Antwerp Gipsy-Ska Orkestra) at the bass and Wouter Haest (Los Callejeros, Voodoo Boogie) playing keys.

For many of us, the Ethiopian aspect once made known to the world by Mulatu Astatke will stand out. Still, Black Flower further adds oriental scales, Afrobeat à la Fela Kuti, jazz in a John Zorn way and varied western music traditions such as rock and dub. The resulting melting pot is undoubtedly inspired by Nathan's distant travels and the multifariously colorful city of Brussels.

...Pretty legit if you ask me - LeFto, Studio Brussel

After their well-received debut album Abyssinia Afterlife (2014, W.E.R.F. / Zephyrus Records) that created an atmosphere of mythical figures and psychedelia, Black Flower now reflects on ancient and modern cultures. The album title Artifacts refers to centuries-old fragile objects or tools that empowered the development of human culture. The world today would look entirely different without those artifacts. The seemingly brittle suddenly becomes a powerful welding cornerstone. Add the musicians' personal musical backgrounds and the result is an album with an ageless mystique. Artifacts is the synthesis of different cultures, of the past and present, and personal and collective memories. It is the soundtrack to modern reality, based on the elements that connect us.

Brilliant - Gilles Peterson, BBC Radio 6

One of Belgium's Best Bands of these past years (...) Black Flower does not simply play a tune, they always groove! - Kurt Overbergh, Ancienne Belgique

Uncomplicated originality, plenty of space for fantasy and an organic tone: those are the ingredients for Black Flower to lay claim to an age-old human ritual: dancing! Still, Black Flower also stands out in various other settings. Their audience at a jazz club will have felt exalted, their audience at a late-night show will not have resisted dancing. The band wields influence over their surroundings in a way only heart-and-soul musicians can. This mastery has repeatedly taken them to United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands and Germany.

The mysterious Cecil Moses & The S.G.'s (Oliver Klomp - drums, Colin Higgins - guitar, Bob Heinemann - bass, and Marc Hager - keys) unite with deep funk pioneer Lucky Brown to interpret Lucky's original "Mesquite Suite," a collection of spiritual folk/jazz modal melodies fused with earthy and arcane rhythms composed in the summer of 2015 in an ashram in the Texas Hill Country.

The S.G.'s, who specialize in their own brand of great quartet instrumental soul ala Booker T. & The M.G.'s and The Meters, adapted quickly to Lucky's experimental, rudimentary, vernacular, and minimalist approach. One thing you will notice in these tunes is that the vast space created by the musicians and the composition is what allows the FEEL to filter through, and for Lucky Brown, FEEL is what it is all about.

This first single presents the themesong of their collection, a deep tribal shuffle, "Mesquite Beat," upon which Jason Cressey - trombone, and Thomas Deakin - sax, offer their own explorations. The flip is an upbeat and minimal pentatonic anthem entitled "Justice," featuring Lucky Brown himself on funk flute.

With this release, we are proud to introduce the first installment of the "Mesquite Suite" collection on Tramp's own special limited imprint: "Tramp Tapes," a suite of original, raw deep funk inspired as much by Mulatu Astatke as it is James Brown.

The first BleeD release of 2017 welcomes another new artist to the fold. A seriously respected NYC based studio aficionado and close contemporary/collaborator of the BleeD-released DJ Spider, Phil Moffa is also known for working alongside Anthony Parasole and Seth Troxler as well as releasing solo EPs on The Corner, Most Excellent Unlimited and Plan B Recordings.

The 'Mass Action' EP features three original peak-time techno tracks, 'Psychohistory', 'Dodecahedron' and 'Decimation', with a remix of the latter by label boss Volte-Face, all primed for peak-time club play.

Marc Antona has been always in the pursuit of new expressions within music as he has continually demonstrated with his work. Following the jazz-infused adventures of the Rattle Snaps EP, he finally returns to his own turf to lay down another crucial exploration of beat science. "Hanging Gardens" is a masterclass in immersive programming, fusing the natural feel of live drums with crisp electronic tones that hover in a spacious mix. It's the perfect angle at which to appreciate the subtlety of sound design that goes into every inch of Marc Antona's productions, teasing elements in and out of the mix so gracefully, it's hard to tell where the joints are. The haunting touches of chords and lingering pad are deployed with poise, the intricate percussion progressively rising and falling throughout to create a truly immersive sonic journey. Where the A side deals with angular rhythms and a shape-shifting atmosphere, "Unrestricted" takes the sound palette of organic and electronic elements and feeds them into a rolling, techno-minded focus. The tribal thrum of the beat fills out an 'in-the room-ambience' while the psychoactive synth flurries speak out the pulse of the machines. It's a combination that makes "Unrestricted" as intimate as it is exotic. In combining these disparate feelings within his tracks, Antona once again brings a human feel to the technology, pushing the music into exciting new realms in the process.

The xx today announce details of their highly anticipated third album. Titled I See You, the ten song album will be released on 13th January 2017 via Young Turks. I See You is the follow up to The xx's two previous albums - xx and Coexist - which have sold over 3 million copies between them, winning a host of accolades along the way.I See You marks a new era for the London trio of Romy Madley Croft, Oliver Sim and Jamie Smith, both sonically and in terms of process. For while xx and Coexist were both made in relative isolation in London, I See You was recorded between March 2014 and August 2016 in New York, Marfa TX, Reykjavik, Los Angeles and London, and is characterised by a more outward-looking, open and expansive approach. Produced by Jamie Smith and Rodaidh McDonald, I See You is The xx at their boldest yet, performing with more clarity and ambition than ever before.I See You will be available on CD and LP, with each physical format featuring a debossed mirri board sleeve.
Two vinyl versions of the album, with full product descriptions as follows - Standard Vinyl: 10 tracks, in a debossed mirror board sleeve with a download + CD copy of the album - Deluxe Box Set: Silver mirri board debossed box containing the album on 180g heavyweight vinyl, with an extra 12' including 3 bonus tracks, album CD, enhanced CD featuring a live video of bonus track 'Brave For You (Marfa Demo)' and 3 exclusive prints by Alasdair McLellan.

Villalegre Recordings is back with his second release after an acclaimed debut ep, which is already found in some 'real deejays' " vinyl cases, namely Dj Garth, Stevie Kotey, Timm Sure, Richard Sen and Massimiliano Pagliara.Discómanos ep consists of 4 edits of unknown gems, masterly revisited by collectors and artists as big as Mike Burns, Rayko , the great Sagittarius and Christian Beetz aka Frwctrl. Once again, Jorge Moreira and Crew dig deep down into many underground scenes around the world, to come up with an ep you'll always want to have in your case.
Listen carefully to Jose Rico's mastering work! A unique sound, which brings back reminiscences of Tom Moulton, Larry Levan, Dany Krivit or the very own Ron Hardy's reel to reel edits. Exotic love (Frwctrl mix) The trip starts with a Christian Beetz opus, which edits and extends a wonderful and unknown antique Spanish disco-funk track, with chorus voices flying like eagles to drive the dance floor to a unique climax. Sweat and pleasure lead by a smashing funky guitar, synths which drive you from the beach to the darkest, most hedonist dance floor. For your Love (Rayko edit)
Rayko is an edit master; he has presented his productions on the biggest disco dance floors on the planet, and this work reconfirms him. 'For your Love' tastes like Paradise Garage and nights of freedom and love. An original track with first class drums and a bass guitar, that reaches straight to the heart. The message comes with violins, which create the perfect emotion to wrap up a disco music masterwork that later becomes house. I want your body (Mike Burns Edit)The original track is a treasure that's hard to get, edited by Mike Burns, one of the strongest artists in the European underground disco scene. Mike selects this cut with a killer bass line, crazy synth effects and organs to turn the original track into an extended cut, which not only shakes the dance floor, but also the cloakroom and toilets. Programa Sintético (Sagittarius 1983 Tribute Edit)Sagittarius edits in a sublime way a mysterious track, loaded with energy, synths and effects. A production work, which transforms the original track into a technoid cut with a frequency in tune with Ron Hardy's proto-techno edits and progressive European music.

Little labelshowcase on the newest Lossless record Outbound.1
And again they show us why we have so much hope in them. Neil Flynn, SBTH and Anthony Georges Patrice are definitely a team for the future.

Again shooting for the altitudes reached on MANHIGH's first journey, Henning Baer's second operation returns to the endeavour with a newly diversified mission. 'Operator' finds us already at the furthest edge of the atmosphere, pulsating waves of distorted electronics and distant, disembodied voices floating in the void. 'Pittsburgh Left' is the fall back to earth, the unrelenting metallic rhythm slowly gaining momentum, momentary shifts in perspective and detail flashing by as the decent accelerates inexorably. The contemplation before leaving the ground, 'AIIM' slowly anticipates the ascent and examines the cosmos before lift-off. Surely the launch phase 'Canadian Suit' is both reflective and onrushing, trapped between tense, contrasting moments before being flung into the unknown. Displaying both Henning Baer's typically acute feeling for talent and Kangding Ray's restless ear, the remix of 'AIIM' is a complete reinterpretation, setting grinding triplet rhythms in an industrial soundscape that suggests travels more fearful than those that surround it.

Words: Albert Freeman

Moving across the dynamics of feelings and rythms of matter, Oltrarno Recordings presents 'Observing Organic Structures', a mini LP produced from the duo Raccoglimento Parziale.
The breath of analog machines tarnishes the infinite mirrors of possibilities. Our duo wants us to absorb their work not only with the ears, but through all our pores. Attention becomes our antenna.
To refine this package, long time friend of the duo Spacetravel, who just released his debut double-EP on Perlon, elaborates his personal view with a full galloping remix.


Raccoglimento Parziale is a project by Stefano Meucci and Andrea Giachetti
Written and recorded in Pausenraum, Berlin, 2015.
Mastered by Stephan Betke at Scape, Berlin.
Artwork by Juana Anzellini, von der Serie "Anonyme", 2015.