Suche:the automatic

If you’re looking for a raw, sugary blast of distorted pop, look no further than
‘Weird Nightmare’. The debut album from METZ guitarist and vocalist Alex
Edkins contains all of his main band’s bite with an unexpected, yet totally
satisfying, sweetness. Imagine The Amps covering Big Star, or the gloriously
hissy miniature epics of classic-era Guided by Voices combined with the
bombast of ‘Copper Blue’- era Sugar - just tons of red-line distortion cut with the
type of tunecraft that thrills the moment it hits your ears.
 These ten songs showcase a new side of Edkins’ already-established
songwriting, but even though the bulk of ‘Weird Nightmare’ was recorded during
the COVID-19 pandemic, some of its tunes date back to 2013 in demo form.
“Hooks and melody have always been a big part of my writing, but they really
became the main focus this time” he explains. “It was about doing what felt
natural.”
 To be clear: Weird Nightmare is not a ‘pandemic album’, but an album - some of
which had been gestating for quite a while - that just so happened to be recorded
during the pandemic. “I had always planned on finishing these songs, but being
unable to tour with METZ, and forced to lock down, really gave me a push.” After
days spent homeschooling his son, Edkins would drive to the METZ rehearsal
room and tinker deep into the night on these songs’ deceptively simple structures
and rich, static-laden textures. “It was a godsend for me,” he states about the
creative process. “The hours would disappear and I would get lost in the music
and record. It was a beautiful escape.”
 ‘Weird Nightmare’ is, in its own way, a study in extremes: Edkins’ melodic
instincts and penchant for dissonance are both turned up to the max throughout,
the latter reflecting not only the barn-burning tendencies of METZ, but Alex’s own
sonic predilections. “It doesn’t sound right to my ears until it’s pushed over the
edge.” He also cites other artists who are masterful at mixing the sublime and the
punishing - Kim Deal and Scout Niblett among them - as influences on his own
songwriting. “My favorite songs are the simple ones,” he explains. “I’ve never
been attracted to virtuosity or technicality. Certain songs have the power to lift
your spirits like nothing else can. I wanted to create that type of song.”
 A few guests pitch in on Weird Nightmare: Canadian alt-pop genius Chad
VanGaalen adds his unmistakable touch to the ever-escalating ‘Oh No’, while
Alicia Bognanno of Bully lends her distinctive pipes to the thrashing ‘Wrecked’, a
collaboration that effectively saved the song. “I almost didn’t put it on the album
because I thought it was missing something,” Edkins explains. “I sent it to Alicia
and she lifted it way up.”
 And taking risks and reaching out of Edkins’ comfort zone was the name of the
game when it came to making ‘Weird Nightmare’. “I found myself doing new
things I didn’t have the guts to do before, recording everything by myself and
trusting all of my musical instincts,” he states. “I think when music manifests
quickly, a certain amount of honesty automatically comes along with it. When it is
a purely instinctual creation, there is no opportunity to obscure the truth.”
 Loser Edition LP pressed on Coke Bottle Green transparent vinyl.

If you’re looking for a raw, sugary blast of distorted pop, look no further than
‘Weird Nightmare’. The debut album from METZ guitarist and vocalist Alex
Edkins contains all of his main band’s bite with an unexpected, yet totally
satisfying, sweetness. Imagine The Amps covering Big Star, or the gloriously
hissy miniature epics of classic-era Guided by Voices combined with the
bombast of ‘Copper Blue’- era Sugar - just tons of red-line distortion cut with the
type of tunecraft that thrills the moment it hits your ears.
 These ten songs showcase a new side of Edkins’ already-established
songwriting, but even though the bulk of ‘Weird Nightmare’ was recorded during
the COVID-19 pandemic, some of its tunes date back to 2013 in demo form.
“Hooks and melody have always been a big part of my writing, but they really
became the main focus this time” he explains. “It was about doing what felt
natural.”
 To be clear: Weird Nightmare is not a ‘pandemic album’, but an album - some of
which had been gestating for quite a while - that just so happened to be recorded
during the pandemic. “I had always planned on finishing these songs, but being
unable to tour with METZ, and forced to lock down, really gave me a push.” After
days spent homeschooling his son, Edkins would drive to the METZ rehearsal
room and tinker deep into the night on these songs’ deceptively simple structures
and rich, static-laden textures. “It was a godsend for me,” he states about the
creative process. “The hours would disappear and I would get lost in the music
and record. It was a beautiful escape.”
 ‘Weird Nightmare’ is, in its own way, a study in extremes: Edkins’ melodic
instincts and penchant for dissonance are both turned up to the max throughout,
the latter reflecting not only the barn-burning tendencies of METZ, but Alex’s own
sonic predilections. “It doesn’t sound right to my ears until it’s pushed over the
edge.” He also cites other artists who are masterful at mixing the sublime and the
punishing - Kim Deal and Scout Niblett among them - as influences on his own
songwriting. “My favorite songs are the simple ones,” he explains. “I’ve never
been attracted to virtuosity or technicality. Certain songs have the power to lift
your spirits like nothing else can. I wanted to create that type of song.”
 A few guests pitch in on Weird Nightmare: Canadian alt-pop genius Chad
VanGaalen adds his unmistakable touch to the ever-escalating ‘Oh No’, while
Alicia Bognanno of Bully lends her distinctive pipes to the thrashing ‘Wrecked’, a
collaboration that effectively saved the song. “I almost didn’t put it on the album
because I thought it was missing something,” Edkins explains. “I sent it to Alicia
and she lifted it way up.”
 And taking risks and reaching out of Edkins’ comfort zone was the name of the
game when it came to making ‘Weird Nightmare’. “I found myself doing new
things I didn’t have the guts to do before, recording everything by myself and
trusting all of my musical instincts,” he states. “I think when music manifests
quickly, a certain amount of honesty automatically comes along with it. When it is
a purely instinctual creation, there is no opportunity to obscure the truth.”
 Loser Edition LP pressed on Coke Bottle Green transparent vinyl.

Spencer Miles Abraham Allen, wie er mit vollen Namen heißt, stammt aus Rochester im State New York. Schon mit seinem Mittelnamen Miles, natürlich angelehnt an den großen Miles Davis, gaben seine Eltern ihm eine Musikkarriere gleich mit in die Wiege. Während die künstlerische Laufbahn langsam ins Laufen kam, blieben diese dennoch skeptisch. Als Spencer. das College nämlich für die Musik verließ, um an seiner Karriere zu arbeiten, waren seine Eltern alles andere als glücklich darüber. Er gab ihnen das Versprechen, wenn es mit der Musik nicht klappen sollte, binnen eines Jahres zurück im Hörsaal zu sein. Zu diesem Zeitpunkt hatte er dann aber ein paar Millionen Streams bei Spotify und einen Plattenvertrag bei 4AD in der Tasche - sein Platz im College bleibt wohl vorerst leer und auch seine Eltern können wieder ruhig schlafen. Von Fader und Pitchfork als einer der Acts für 2021 proklamiert, kann Spencer. selbstbewusst vorausschauen. Mit seiner Single "Automatic" hatte er 2019 bereits einen kleinen Underground-Hit gelandet…

On their third album »Constant Connection«, West Australian-based Erasers create hypnotic compositions of synth, guitar and voice, evoking the vast expanse of their native landscape and the shrouded emotions behind the senses. Comprising of vocalist, synth player Rebecca Orchard and Rupert Thomas on guitar and synths, Erasers have developed their earthly kosmische music into an open language based on drone, variation in repetition and minimal song structures. Based in Perth, regarded one of the most isolated cities in the world, Orchard and Thomas’s music has brewed in the city’s vibrant DIY/Outsider community and evolved into a meditation on landscape, power, the shadow-world of human emotions and stream of consciousness. »Constant Connection«, with its waves of sound and chant-like vocals evokes a trance that suggests an infinity just beyond the senses.

At the heart of each Erasers composition is the interplay between the instrumentation, played with stoic restraint and recorded directly with minimal effects and the transcendental states induced in the listener. It’s a magic that is performed in plain sight and all the more powerful for it. The recognisable vibrato of Fender Rhodes keyboards and simple drum machine loops, the subtle strands of analog synth melodies that snake in and out of the ear, above all the towering encantations of Rebecca Orchard’s undeniably Australian-accented hymns; all of this is presented with minimal ostentation and yet it instantly engenders a dream state, hints at an infinity beyond the material.

Shades of John Cale’s 70s work with Nico, early 70s German synthesists Kluster and even fellow Australians Fabulous Diamonds can be seen as stylistic touchstones for Constant Connection. Where Nico hinted at the macabre and gothic, Rebecca Orchard’s similarly gliding vocal is more zoned in to a kind of oceanic openness, with words becoming chants and spells that suggested themselves to the singer during recording sessions. It’s this hidden hand of improvisatory, automatic writing that lends a sense of expanse to the music. On opener I Understand, while the lyrics might hint at discontent the emotional spectrum it opens up is far more rich and complex, as layered as the waves of droning chords that are the bedrock of each Erasers track. The title track talks of flow, continuum and balance, the protagonist in the song seemingly weightless, gently pulled through a walking reality that borders on dream. In Erasers’ world, it seems, the borders between reality and dream, consciousness and sub-consciousness are blurred and eroded.

On Constant Connection, Erasers’ music might be deeply evocative of landscape but it’s never clear which one. The vast, open terrain that surrounds Perth is dusty, burned by the sun into desert and Constant Connection feels like the product of the heat and relative isolation, the altered states these elements can create. But it’s these altered states of mind that appear to be the real landscape described by Erasers. It’s a landscape that’s hazy, in-and-out of focus, with emotional undertows pushing and pulling you into a weightlessness. On album closer Easy To See the band dispense with percussion all together, field recordings of the water at the edge of their native city ushering in two duetting synths. Orchard’s vocal undulates with the flow, viewing both the geographical and psychological landscape from the perspective of a consciousness not bound by bodies and from a timescale measured in millennia. The album ends as it begins, with field recordings of the real world that the music seeps out from, temporarily, before regressing back into the other realm it feels like it belongs to.

Between these two recorded hints of reality, Erasers manifest a deeply sensual dreamscape that constantly feels like it’s dissolving at its seams. A desert psychedelia emanating from a real world that might not be that real in the first place.

A harrowing classic, Billie Holiday's personal favorite among her '50s albums captures the singer 17 months before her death, her once honeyed voice, scarred and weakened from punishing life, its ravages highlighted by the 1958 session's crisp sonics and the contrasting "satin" of Ray Ellis' sleek string arrangements. Yet it is that very contrast that explains the power of these performances: In revisiting its torchy standards, Holiday reduces them to their core of pain and longing, transforming "I'm a Fool to Want You," "You Don't Know What Love Is," and "You've Changed" into naked declarations as mesmerizing and unsettling as a horrific accident. Any postrocker that presumes pop standards and string sections automatically translate to "easy listening" hasn't listened to this. This 1997 version adds unreleased takes and a beautiful 20-bit digital transfer to extract every shivering pang of Holiday's music. --Sam Sutherland

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The landmark hundredth single on Phantasy, Erol Alkan’s ‘Automatic’ accompanied with two remixes that further take the London DJ and producer’s psychedelic club vision in distinct directions. The original 12" pressing, limited to 100 and hand-numbered, sold out in less than an hour.

Palms Trax builds on the sensual reverie of Alkan’s production with an electrifying rework full of touches both French and personal. Throwing out a gloriously chic bassline, the Berlin-based producer sprinkles carefully considered sweeps, stabs and filters on a trip to timeless house euphoria.

Mirroring the first ever artist to release on Phantasy in 2007 where Alkan remixed 'Engine', LA Priest proves a perfect candidate to reconstruct the label’s centenary single, a task he approaches with typically esoteric nous. Coaxing a heavenly aura from the original’s glorious loops, Sam Eastgate’s collection of reengineered and self-made analogue equipment soon progresses to melt Automatic’s rhythm into sticky cosmic bliss.

A Letter from TreeTops is the debut album from Pneumatic Tubes, the solo project of multi-instrumentalist Jesse Chandler. Grounded here in his own bucolic makings, Chandler opens his imagination to the world with this very personal and contemplative album. It’s a kind of American Kosmiche Music, a paean to the wild landscapes of the Adirondacks and Catskills of Upstate New York where he grew up. (TreeTops is the name of a summer camp, fondly remembered by several generations of the Chandler family.)

The album came to Chandler almost as an automatic transmission. Shortly after the death of his father, he holed up alone in the old family home with a few synths, a couple of vintage keyboards, percussion instruments and of course his beloved flutes and clarinets - the “pneumatic tubes” of his nom de plume. Channelling raw memory and landscape, Chandler laid down most of the material for this mystical and elegiac suite of music in just a few days. He later called on some talented friends to flesh out the final recordings; Paul Alexander on bass, Bill Campbell on drums, Marissa Nadler backing vocals and Robert Gomez on electric guitar.

The result is a series of beautifully faded musical photographs. Gentle melodies are propelled along by synth arpeggiators or laidback sidestick and felt beater drums. Chandler’s wind instruments are woven throughout like wild vines binding the elements together. Towards the end of the album an underlying note of melancholy swells into grief during the very moving Witch Water, which is subtly underpinned with Marissa Nadler’s haunting voice. The clouds soon clear, the mountains reappear, and the wheel of the year and of the generations turns again as A Letter from TreeTops signs off with the same lilting melody on which it began.

Originally hailing from Woodstock, New York and now living in Denton, Texas, Jesse Chandler is the keyboard and woodwinds player for the bands Midlake and Mercury Rev. His particular warmth as a composer and improviser is informed by a childhood ensconced in the mystical Catskill mountains, where he absorbed the area’s rich musical history and developed a fascination with keyboard and woodwind instruments.

A Letter from TreeTops is not his first appearance on Ghost Box, he also contributed organ and flute on the Soundcarriers’ incredible Entropicalia album.

Evocative liner notes are provided by Justin Hopper, author of Old Weird Albion and writer of the Ghost Box spoken word album Chanctonbury Rings. By happy coincidence Hopper also grew up in New York State and has his own deep connection to the landscapes there.

Mimsy describes himself as someone with many interests and few skills, and sure, you can put it that way. But more precisely, he is a seeker and finder who has always felt more at home in the intermediary spaces. Since his first releases on Karaoke Kalk under the names Saucer, Motel and Wunder in 1997, he has mostly been active as Wechsel Garland, working with samples beyond recognition and thus blurring the lines between his own songwriting and the musical material he uses.

In 2011, he ended the project with the album »Dreams Become Things« and is now opening a new chapter as Mimsy with »Ormeology.« The album was ten years in the making and saw the producer work with sounds, voices and text fragments that were gathered over time. The twelve pieces—based on guitar pickings, looped textural sounds, rhythm boxes and shimmering organ sounds—install themselves in the unconscious through sound, melody and subtle rhythmic shifts to send the listener’s perception on a journey into the unknown.

The name Mimsy is a nonce word coined by Lewis Carroll in his famous nonsense poem »Jabberwocky,« a combination of »miserable« and »flimsy,« while the term »Ormeology« refers to the Italian film »Le Orme« (»Footprints on the Moon«), in which the main character is haunted by memories of a fictional film of the same name. While this alone creates a rich thematic frame of references for the album, it does not at all define its themes. Instead, the references are reflected in the methods with which the pieces on »Ormeology« were designed—sound and language orbit freely around one another, images within images are being layered, following their path unconsciously. In »Sans mobile apparent,« the lyrics get to the heart of this: »die Widersprüche aushalten / die Folien übereinanderlegen« (»enduring the contradictions / laying the foils on top of each other.«) Creative frictions emerge not out of binary decision-making patterns, but from additive layering.

Mimsy followed traces forth and back through time and space, collaborating for a few tracks with set designer and musician Lydia Schmidt and letting Wolfram Wire record various lyrics based on automatic writing that were gathered by Mimsy. Furthermore, he asked the photo blogger Lilia Katherine from Brazil and the Canada-based Andrea Hernandez to translate and record his lyrics in their own respective languages. Human global coincidences resulted in collaborations which are presented as discrete and thus make the album as a whole and even more complex meditation on the interplay of the concrete and the abstract. This is best exemplified by the song »Ginster,« throughout which Schmidt and Mimsy’s voices overlap more and more until they enter a sort of call and response pattern, although they never seem to address each other directly.

»Ormeology« is an album that whirrs and flickers, seeking to mediate between the tangible world and the intangible by blurring the boundaries between words and sounds and space. It is an archipelago that is in many ways connected to what surrounds it, while at the same time opening up a space of its own.

Mit Priorities (2012), Automatic (2015) und Technology (2018) hat das Quartett aus Bedford seinen eigenen Weg eingeschlagen, indem es heftige Riffs mit unwiderstehlichen Pop-Melodien auf Alben verband, die frech, aber beschwingt, wild, aber raffiniert sind und dabei ganz anders klingen als alle anderen. Offensichtlich war dies auch ein Erfolgsrezept, denn Technology erreichte Platz 5 der britischen Albumcharts.

Doch selbst bei einer Diskografie, die sich durch verwirrende Erwartungen auszeichnet, kann nichts die Hörer auf Amazing Things vorbereiten - mit seiner Fülle an Stilen, Emotionen und popkulturellen Anspielungen ist es das brennbarste Pulverfass einer Platte seit Limp Bizkits Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water. Es ist eines der besten Alben des Jahres, und zweifellos das exzentrischste.

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ZC-ELEC005 - The Earth Portal

"We all know what teenagers are like. Bratty little gobshites. Moody shits. Forever toeing the line between cocky arrogance and whiny self-doubt, and to hell with anyone who gets caught in the crossfire. And this old fucker should know; he was really good at all of the above (still keeping on top of the ‘gobshite’ part, you’ll notice). For some reason, the entirety of rock’n’roll is predicated on music made for and about these states of mind - well, I guess if you mix ‘em all together, they can make for one helluva sense of reckless abandon. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Melbourne quartet Mr Teenage sound exactly like their name suggests: chaotic, raw, emotionally volatile… and of course they bind all this together with their own brand of heroically melodic garage rock. Produced by Billy Gardener (of Ausmuteants, Smarts, Cereal Killer and god knows how many other vital Aus-punx), this debut EP snarls, spits and swaggers with all the glorious self-belief of a drunken 4am stumble to the petrol station to buy a pack of skins. And the songs are fucking great too. Title track ‘Automatic Love’ expertly showcases the combined sounds of their cited influences (Thin Lizzy, Dictators, Martha Reeves, etc), with frontman Nic Imfeld’s voice at times edging close to the sandpaper soul of their countryman Shogun (ex-Royal Headache). Meanwhile ‘Waste Of Time’ sees him blending their garage licks with Joey Ramone bubblegum, just as ‘The Loser’ fashions a delightfully adolescent chorus of ‘the loser says what?’ from an airy melody that either The Shangri-Las or Del Shannon would be proud of. They wrap things up with another slab of pure punk/pub rock genius called ‘Kids’ that’ll get the hairs on the back of your neck standing on end, as you fight the urge to crank-call your former school teachers and blame the kid who used to take your lunch money. Of course, singing about ‘kids these days’ marks Mr Teenage out as being older than their name suggests, and sure enough their name comes from an old wrestler rather than identifying with an age bracket they’ve outgrown. But with tunes like this… honestly, who gives a fuck what they’re called? This record is perfect." Will Fitzpatrick.

‘U.S. Velvet’ is the debut release from the LAbased duo of the same name, made up of Zahara
Jaime and Collin Davis.
 Their debut single is a raw, post-punk mission
statement about the anxieties of living in the 21st
Century.
 The 12” single includes an instrumental version
(exclusive to the 12”) and a dub version by ATOsigned artist, Pachyman.
 Collin is currently an engineer and producer at
Stones Throw Studios in Los Angeles and Zahara
is a touring musician with The Simps and
Eyedress. Zahara and Collin both create solo
music as Zzzahara and Ynes Mon respectively.
 The duo will release a video to accompany their
‘U.S. Velvet’ single, which features a cameo from
Stones Throw’s founder Peanut Butter Wolf’s alter
ego, Folerio.
 Dub version of the single by Pachyman, who just
released his new album ‘The Return of…’ with ATO
Records and opened two shows for Khruangbin.
 For fans of Automatic, Anika, Beak>, Snapped
Ankles, Crack Cloud, Girl Band, Slaves, Yves
Tumor, Wu-Lu, Wire.

Marshall McLuhan’s famous edict ‘the medium is the message’ has never been more apt than with regard to modern remix culture. Although the idea of the remix goes way back to the Jamaican dub pioneers and New York disco remixers of the 1970s, the form didn’t truly come into its own until the acid house explosion of the 1980s, when remixers’ credentials often subsumed — and sometimes surpassed — the original source material. Some, among them our lost friend Andrew Weatherall, used remixing as a springboard into multiple other directions, and became auteurs in their own right.

Forged in the white-hot heat of post-acid house Britain, these Heavenly remixes are perfectly weighted with respect and irreverence, the remixer in each case carefully chosen to add heft to the song (as on Al Breadwinner’s dubwise reworking of Mattiel’s ’Guns of Brixton’— the pairing more a game of chess than a best-of-three arm wrestle).

Although Heavenly was founded in the wake of huge upheavals in electronic music, it was still imbued with its own curious parallel life. I’ve always thought of Heavenly as one of the UK’s alt-pop labels; a place where brilliant pop bands live and record, if the general public would only realise. Some of them have ended up in the real, actual charts (Saint Etienne, Doves), but that’s missing the point about Heavenly, who are, like Factory and Fast Product before them, pop music’s conscience.

There is no sense of order to this compilation and we make no apologies. It’s the Heavenly way. Think of it as a present from Loki, the Norse god of mischief. You’ll find a smattering of older tracks: album openers Saint Etienne are taken on a Poseidon Adventure with Underworld, who inject ‘Cool Kids of Death’ with typically manic energy. Elsewhere, ’90s Brum duo Mother add dancefloor pzazz to Espiritu’s innate glamour on an all-funked-up reworking of ‘Los Americanos’, and Mark Lusardi’s remix of Moonflowers’ ‘Get Higher’ is an early Heavenly classic.

On ‘Terracotta Warrior’, a perfect, psyched-out, Mancunian union is created betwixt Jimi Goodwin and Andy Votel, whilst Goodwin cohort Simon Aldred, in his Cherry Ghost guise, receives a proper Tamla-Motowning from Richard Norris (aka Time & Space Machine) on an inspired cover of Cece Peniston’s glam-house hit, ‘Finally’.

There are several of Heavenly’s current darlings here too. One of the most exciting young British prospects, Yorkshire’s Working Men’s Club, effectively remix themselves, as Minsky Rock — WMC’s Syd Minsky-Sargeant and producer Ross Orton — cleave ‘X’ into a riotous industrial racket. Jagwar Ma’s Jono Ma takes the Kraftwerkian leitmotif on ‘Automatic’ and drives the Australian jazz-funkers Mildlife down an electro-convulsive psychedelic tunnel (thankfully no-one was harmed during the making of this remix); Sheffield’s DJ Parrot and Jarvis Cocker deliver one of the outstanding remixes of 2018, turning Baxter Dury’s ‘Miami’ into a lovelorn minor opera; and, making its first appearance on vinyl, David Holmes’ Unloved project is taken on a panoramic Welsh waltz thanks to Gwenno.


There may well be no rhyme, nor reason, to how these compilations have been put together, beyond the fact that they are assembled with love, an innate understanding of the power of great pop music, and a skilled marriage of song and remixer — but does one really need anything more than that for an album to make sense? I’d suggest not.

What do you get when you blend a reverential take on the diverse canon of popular Caribbean music with an all-star cast of seasoned studio musicians from the heart of Brooklyn? The answer lies in Combo Lulo's much anticipated debut studio long-player, Neotropic Dream. The group takes its influence from the deep musical heritage of New York's cultural pedigree, especially the heyday of the city's Caribbean record distribution industry — a culture of music that still bubbles today in the crevices of the city's independent neighborhoods and record communities.

Despite the general scope of the muse, it's hard to precisely pin down this fantastic re-imagining. In some ways, that's why the title for the band's debut album is Neotropic Dream, a nod to the biogeographic region that encompasses the countries along the Afro-Caribbean diaspora, a region intensely diverse in its climate, fauna and flora. This theme manifests musically as you journey through Combo Lulo's original compositions and cleverly chosen covers. More than anything, it's a dreamy storm of styles and musical moments born anew. And just as weather swiftly travels and transforms the Caribbean, so the varied musical styles carry the listener from the album's start to finish. Not just a talented band's showcase of styles, but rather a sumptuous feast of savory and sweet ingredients on display, together. A musical curry roux, if you will, that fits together so harmoniously, it's no wonder the band engenders automatic appreciation both in their studio recordings and in their uproarious live shows.

Whether it's cumbia gone rock steady, or reggae gone chicha, or vocal vs. version, there's a little something for everybody on here, depending on where you drop the needle. With splendid original compositions and horn arrangements from band leader Mike Sarason and saxophonist Anant Pradhan, respectively, Combo Lulo is quickly proving themselves to be a powerhouse of the highest caliber.

Electronic musician Xopher Davidson will release ‘Lux Perpetua’ this year via Daydream Library Series. A noted protége of Maryanne Amacher, Xopher recorded these two tracks in 2020 utilizing vintage synths within the beloved music studios of Mills College in Oakland, California. Xopher builds his experiments in electronic sound from a basis in painting, photography, and film, and through an interest in electronic circuits going back to building radios and homemade circuits as a kid. He has built and explored the sound world of a homebrew modular synthesizer comprised of surplus laboratory equipment: various oscillators, pulse generators, filters and an 'analog computer. He has released 4 albums as ANTIMATTER : ‘Transfixion’, ‘Antimatter Vs. Antimatter’, ‘Our Lady of the Skies’, and ‘Reset’. As an audio engineer, Davidson has worked on projects composed / performed by: the League of Automatic Composers, John Cage, Marcel Duchamp, Subtropic, Diamanda Galas, Kid 606, DJ Rupture, Darwin's Bitch, Once 11, Mix MasterMike, Hans Grusel, Phoenecia, Jonah Sharp, We, Zbigniew Karkowski, and Iannis Xenakis

Channeling her innermost depths, Oshana reveals her widest body of work to date, “Disciples of Dystopia;” a multi-faceted expression of the emotions, influences, and sounds that have guided her on her musical journey. The album aptly marks the fourth release on her very own, Psionic label, and is the first double 12” in the catalogue.

As you lift into orbit, “Disciples Of Dystopia”, seduces your senses with an ominous vocal of what lies ahead. The opening track simmers gently with a progressively rising atmosphere as the down tempo vibe flows inside you-Automatic connection. “Mind Over Matter” is a futuristic breaks experience, familiar nostalgic hip hop scratches flash in and out, winding into a spiraled synth labyrinth that introduces you to dimensions unknown. Slowing the pace down a notch is “Labor Of Love;” emotional chords and floaty melodies work their way around the steady and pitched down body of the track.

As we coast into the B side, “Embrace The Wave” offers some italo energy; clean disco kicks meld into retro synths; this one cruises on a loose, irresistible, and unrelenting groove. “Take Me Away” sweeps you right off your feet and includes a feature from long time collaborative partner, Anthea. Anthea’s transcending vocals set the tone for a harmonious quest, enriched with positive and imaginative energy; the type you want to absorb as the night concludes. However, the night is far from over.

As we coast into part two, we’re introduced to “Odyssey,” a slow rising track that takes you from the intergalactic ocean all the way to the techno tides. As the track progresses, all of the mechanical cogs converse in absolute harmony. Who doesn’t enjoy a “Heated Moment?” Crisp and punchy drums drive the track as a trance bassline ripples throughout, making an impression on the most discerning of dancefloors.

Riding a squelchy, arpeggiated acid line from the start is “Astral Flight”, a psychedelic club room charmer that revolves around warm and direct bass. The closing track of the LP “Automated Beats,” is a raw, animated affair structured around chunky 808 arrangements and hip hop percussion; playful with a pinch of ghetto booty charm for good measure.

“Disciples Of Dystopia” is more than just an LP; each of the tracks feed off of the next, and Oshana’s never-ending creative energy shines as she bends through genres with effortless ease.

Dieses Jahr kommt die 25-jährige Jubiläumsausgabe des zehnten Studioalbums von R.E.M., New Adventures in Hi-Fi. Das 1996 erschienene Album war die letzte Studioaufnahme von R.E.M. mit Gründungsmitglied Bill Berry, der die Band im folgenden Jahr einvernehmlich verließ. Als fünfte Zusammenarbeit der
Band mit dem langjährigen Produzenten Scott Litt (Green, Out of Time, Automatic for the People und
Monster) experimentiert das Album mit neuen Klangtexturen, die von filmischen Bildern, dissonanten
Noten und eindringlichen Effekten geprägt sind. Der Platin-Seller enthält die Singles ”Electrolite”, ”E-Bow
the Letter” (mit Patti Smith) und ”Bittersweet Me” und ist mit einer Gesamtlaufzeit von 65 Minuten die
längste Studioveröffentlichung von R.E.M.. New Adventures in Hi-Fi erlangte Jahre nach seiner Veröffentlichung Kultstatus und wurde in mehreren Presserückblicken - und von den Bandmitgliedern selbst -
als eines der besten Alben im R.E.M.-Katalog eingestuft.

Atlanta’s The Masamune presents his debut 12″ release on Ohm Resistance – 4 absolute dancefloor controllers, with a special guest appearance from DJ Hidden on remix duties. This self-titled EP is aimed squarely at the next generation of Drum & Bass DJs and listeners, competing for the top step on the production podium. A direct representation of the storied Drum & Bass history of the label, The Masamune wires together his signature traditional symphonic strings and orchestral elements with the hardest hitting modern dancefloor sound. His beats range from half time punishers, in his signature Neuro-hop style, to running and rolling steppers, with a strong hip hop/b-boy influence appearing throughout his produdctions. According to The Masamune: “This project was made almost specifically to serve as a prelude to the full length LP I’m currently writing for Ohm Resistance.” The EP showcases the numerous talents of the artist, as well as crucial amplifications from his collaborators. Including Jakob Klug on artwork (previously work includes Black Sun Empire and The Outside Agency) and The Netherland’s legendary DJ Hidden, who has remixed the closing track – Doomslayer. The Masamune comments: “I consider DJ Hidden a pioneer and an early influence of mine. He was gracious enough to lend his talents on the remix of my 2018 track “Doomslayer”. The Masamune is a multi-genre producer, remixer, & live act from Atlanta, GA. A composer and sound designer known for his niche style of blending orchestral elements into the chaotic palettes of hard drums and heavy synths, his tracks explore dark themes and deliver punishing consistency. A top-flight production ethic combines with rich exploration of the dark side of Drum & Bass, his works are an automatic dancefloor uplifter in the hands of skilled DJs. He has released on Harder & Louder, Mindocracy, Smackdown Recordings, and was a participant in the Ohm Resistance 7″ series, as well as an annual contributor to the Perihelion compilation series.




d B2 Doomslayer DJ Hidden Remix