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Where To Now? Records present the debut release from Akiko Haruna. Akiko’s world is one where cacophonic distress lingers, shuffling itself over scapes of percussive damage and driven groove. Akiko presents a fresh take on the current Technoid function through her use of emotive and intentionally disruptive vocal chops and a dizzying ‘wall of sound’ approach to the dancefloor, consuming all yet somehow keeping vibes alive.

Akiko’s artistic background is primarily in Dance, and undoubtedly this performance led background has had an acute impact on her approach to melodic detail & storytelling. Akiko’s tracks rapidly shift & morph states, always restless and searching with fluidity and intent. From the ever present Micro Electronic details to sweeping swathes of Bass flutter the notion of progressive movement remains at the forefront of her sound, minute elements of detail become briefly isolated, intentionally directing the listener to their subtle presence.

‘Delusions’ Leads with ‘A Mother’s Love’ and begins a theme of resentment and dissonance. The Japanase vocal cuts throughout the track roughly translate to “you should die”, here obviously flipping assumed and supposed relationship rules and roles and exposing an inner turmoil, reflected through a continuous anxiety ridden, almost panicked siren detail which pulses over Akiko’s heads down, deep and uniform forward march.

‘Husband Established’ and the opens with the emotive vocal line “I just hate your Voice”. This is the sound of a poisonous & damaging relationship hurtling towards combustion, where Akiko’s elements gather momentum and impact as layer upon layer of detail pummel and puncture this heightened state, pausing and spiralling to evoke a standoff of aggression and imminent outburst. ‘Husband Established’ stands as a frankly stunning piece of sound design, which manages to capture a raw human emotion, and provide release for the associated junk, stress, and occasional banality of Relationship angst.

‘Hetero’ picks up where ‘Husband Established’ finished, further exploring societal character types and submissive gender tropes that are thrust into our sub consciousness from day to day. The concept of Hyperreality and its themes are continuously explored within Akiko’s practice and It would perhaps be fair to say that these themic explorations within her Music are Akiko’s own outlet for traversing human relationships within a complex, heightened, & layered reality, and it is certainly Akiko’s intention for her audience to feel some kind of relief and release within her sound world. Sonically ‘Hetero’ is a much sparser, subtler affair, where swathes of sampled voice & machine swing in and out of focus, against a weightless backdrop of affecting isolated electronics.

The EP closes with ‘Ripehus Alley’, seemingly void of any deeper meaning or message this serves more as a dreamlike parting song to what is otherwise a highly charged collection. Floating itself away from a frantic & incomprehensible world into a calmer space for final thought and reflection. ‘Delusions’ is a complex, exploratory trip, one which fans of Logos, Fis, Alva Noto, Jlin, Jesse Osborne-Lanthier etc will relish exploring.

U Know Me Records proudly presents a special album showcasing Polish drumming scene - each track was produced by a different drummer - these are their portraits.

official video promo: https://youtu.be/qxuTYjMRUMM

In the 21st century drummers imperceptibly switched from the background to the front line, despite popular music not exactly pandering to them. In the early days of rock culture this joke made the rounds "What's the last thing a drummer says in a band?" "Perhaps we could play one of my songs…?"
In popular music the drummer became the first to compete with machines. They were the first band members that consequently began disappearing, however, as contemporary electronic music took hold, they were also the first to return. First they were incorporated into compositions but gradually - took centre stage. Thanks partly to the ubiquitous culture of Hip Hop recognising the drummer's role as key in any recording, alongside the eclecticism of new music, which demanded fluid transitions between musical forms, a drummer's adaptive skills – as a trained multi instrumentalist – became truly impressive. This new generation of drummers seen on Polish stages today are exceptional even against the backdrop of today's unusually creative and well-educated music scene which rejects narrow minded or genre-centric views.

This album exhibits portraits from the cream of today's Polish drummers. Kovalevo Tone Bank by Michał Bryndal tags the 1980's, the era which began stealing drummers' bread. Incidentally, the heavy groove laid down by the artist references a hit by Wham!, the same hit in which the group decided to cut the drummer's part because he was late and replace him with a LinnDrumm machine. Hubert Zemler in The Life and Death of Ben Bekele and Łukasz Moskal in Father Sparrow show they've found themselves perfectly in close cooperation with electronic instruments.
Multifaceted improvisors - Qba Janicki (Kabina projekcyjna) and Jan Młynarski (Roj) - transform their drums kits into multifunctional devices capable of delivering wildly diverse palettes of sound. Rafał Dutkiewicz (Displaced) showcases drums as the lead instrument on a club track. Marcin Rak (Alpaka) does the same, but with the conventions of Funk and Hip Hop, whereas Krzysztof Dziedzic (Vagabonde) gravitates towards the edges of jazz. Each of them here is a leader and… plays one of their songs.

Bartek Chaciński
(translation: Sean Palmer)

For the second release on the Galaxiid imprint, a label of electronic music archeology and quality, we are transported to the strange sonic world of an elusive 90s pioneer. Solar X's 1997 album X-Rated will be released for the first time on vinyl, as well as reissued digitally, with new artwork by the Japanese artist Keiichi Tanaami. Two worlds connecting sonically, visually and culturally.

Solar X enjoyed a burgeoning career in post-Perestroika Moscow making playful, low-tech electronica from Soviet analogue instruments, which he masterfully configured to forge animated compositions and dancefloor rarities. Fascinated by chaos and complexity, his music explores the ways in which our minds can be manipulated by structure - an endeavour quite plausibly linked to his other career as a lecturer and researcher of AI, information theory and cognitive science, his interest in which was in turn triggered by his young experiments in computer music.

Solar X gained international attention at a time when Russia was (quite unfairly) seen as a vacuum for electronic music, but was exploding in the period of piracy, poverty and freedom following the collapse of the USSR. Young Russians had benefited from the soviet education system and there was a strong DIY computer programming and music scene, fuelled by hackers, gear freaks and party animals. Viewed from today, the album is reborn at a time of further political and social strife, which many see as fuelling the huge creativity and radical thinking of modern Russia's young creatives.

X-Rated treats tempo and form as fluid concepts, administering sudden changes to its sonic landscape with disorienting effect, underlain with a subtle dose of humour and experimentation. Downtempo trip-hop sits alongside frenetic IDM and blistering electro, all bound together by peculiar melodic inflections and lively distortions. Warm, trippy harmonies and robotic synths are offset with angular drums, shifting erratically through moods and genres with cunning intent. Much like his contemporaries from the era, it's his ability to breathe life into a humble production setup that makes his music so compelling some twenty one years later.

The track titles are from a book of call girl cards in London phone booths, that reached the artist in Moscow in 1995. "I liked the titles from these cards, which were self-promoting and offering pleasure (e.g. "Mistress awaits you"). So, I thought since my tracks also offered some kind of pleasure, they might as well advertise this through their titles.'

Label head Nina Kraviz was introduced to the work of the 83 year old sensei Keiichi Tanaami by Ukawa Naoshiro, founder of Dommune in Tokyo, one of the brightest figureheads for the arts in Japan, responsible for the graphic design of the cover. In September 2017 Nina played for the opening of Tanaami-san's first exhibition in Moscow at Gary Tatintsian Gallery. Nina performed a live sound palette, to accompany the looping 7 minute animation, of experimental music from the Soviet Union, Russian pioneers of electronic music like Species Of Fishes and SolarX, Soviet-time pioneer Lev Termen, Kuryochin, avant-guard rock mixed with some Stockhausen and just pure abstract sounds, as well as treasured artists like Biogen.

Tanaami's illustrative work has strong sexual elements, so out of the five art pieces Nina selected and commissioned for Galaxiid, the first fits perfectly for 'X-rated'. The vertical line of text on the left is the traditional form for Japanese covers of foreign releases. The cover, together with the accompanying poster and sticker, are printed in Japan to ensure the highest print quality and purity of the colours.

The Nova Grooves for this release features an EP of the Dessen Duo titled "Break Of Day" which includes 2 remixes. The first remix of "Break Of Day" by Funk D'Void resumes the deep sounds of the late 90s with a fluid and classy song. The second remix "Daf" performed by Todd Gardner gave a touch of quality and topicality to the original that is a song with underground sounds.

Tallinn's Rando Arand joins up with LIITHELI to release four deep cuts entitled 'Alles' EP.

Rando Arand is an electronic music producer from Tallinn, Estonia with a background in sound design and experimentation. Arand released his first record on Asphalt Soliloquies back in 2017 and has since gone on to perform live at clubs and festivals around the Baltics sharing stages with likes of Dorian Concept, Gerry Read and King Midas Sound.

His 'Alles' EP sees him join Ali Asker's LIITHELI imprint who focus on supporting local artists from Estonia's capital following the likes of Mava & Nebukat, 1212a and the label boss himself, in addition to remixers from across the globe like Vakula and SH2000.

'Maandub' gets things rolling with dubbed-out aesthetics fusing hypnotic low end, meditative chords and eccentric synth stabs before 'Moondub' delivers soulful keys, deep riding bass grooves and fluid percussion.

'Joondub' maintains the breezy atmospherics as it delicately layers alleviating pads, organic pulsations and floaty modulations before 'Avardub' finishes things off with emotive melodies, fast-pitched, natural drums and melancholy tones throughout. Rando Arand 'Alles' EP drops on LIITHELI on 1st May 2019.

Shape-shifting left
coast producer Sage Caswell likens his latest full-length to a surrealist
architectural space: "I walk up to a building and Evil Twin is playing. A copy of
me is at the door and I let myself in. Inside the house is inside my head; each
room is a different song and emotion." A distinct dream sequence logic threads
together these nine nuanced tracks, which swerve from vaporous melancholy to
ecstatic motion to nocturnal wanderlust, alternately lucid and opaque.

Last year's relocation
from his beloved home base of Los Angeles to Madison, Wisconsin certainly played
a role, as pulling up roots inevitably does: "I love L.A. more than I can
properly articulate, but I saw an opportunity to leave so I took it." The
experience prompted an exploratory set of recordings inspired by notions of separation,
vulnerability, and "how it feels to identify the things in your life that don't
feel like you." Evil Twin captures
Caswell at his most fluid and dualistic, mapping a multi-hued maze of twisted rhythms
and refracted textures, fluctuating between beatific expanse and amniotic
bangers.
Previous releases for
Spring Theory and Far Away showcased Caswell's capacity for innerspace club
voyaging but here his vision skews even more vividly elusive, immersive and
immaterial, lost and found. The record's contradictions were deliberate and,
most importantly, therapeutic: "Evil Twin was intended to be as much a visual idea
as a soundtrack to feeling out of control. I didn't really want to talk about
it, so I made this album."

Honey...rich And Flavorful, Hitting The Deepest Sweet Spot.

Drivetrain (detroit, Usa) - Inside You
Label Founder, Derrick Thompson Sets It Off With A Primetime Floor Filler.
The Gravitational Pull Of The Bass Riff Encapsulates The Vocal Hook As The Keyboard Refrain Perfectly Aligns With An Aggressive Percussion Track.

Rennie Foster (vancouver, Canada) - Detroit City
Demonstrating A Much Deeper Persona, The Sultry Piano Sets A Moody Atmosphere. Luxuriant Strings And Expressive Bell Tones Conjugate As The Vocal Signature Pays Homage To The City Of Inspiration.

Melodymann (ghent, Belgium) - Nobody Else
Explicitly Designed For Maximum Body Movement, A Solid Percussion Theme Is Immediately Established. Soon An Animated Chord Progression Is Introduced,
Then Showered With Kinetic Vocal Samples For Amalgamated Electricity.

Mark Ryal (sitges, Spain) - Imperfect Perfection
This Elegantly Fluid Soiree Debut Parades A Sphere Of Warm Pads Throughout.
Articulated Harmonies, Elastically Weave A Blissful Sonic Terrain Atop An Unyielding Groove Framework.

As part of their 20th Anniversary celebrations, Strut present the first new volume in their pioneering 'Nigeria 70' series for over 8 years, bringing together rare highlife, Afro-funk and juju from the '70s and early '80s. Compiled by collector and DJ Duncan Brooker, this new selection of tracks is receiving its first international release outside of Nigeria.

The compilation returns to a fertile heyday in Nigerian music when established styles like highlife and juju became infused with elements of Western jazz, soul and funk and musicians brought a proud new message post-independence. Brooker places the spotlight particularly on some of the incredible Ukwuani musicians from the Delta State region as guitarist Rogana Ottah and Steady Arobby's International Brothers Band forged their own fluid brand of highlife and soulman Don Bruce drew on the US R&B greats for a series of great albums and explosive stage shows at his residency at Hilton Hotel in Abuja.

Elsewhere, the album explores the close connection between Nigeria and Benin's music, most famously through Sir Victor Uwaifo, appearing here with a killer mid'80s ekassa jam, as well as highlife hitmaker Osayamore Joseph on 'Obonogbozu' (Joseph made headlines in Nigeria for very different reasons in 2017, surviving a one month kidnapping ordeal).

Other tracks include 'Sickness' a 1979 lament on how all countries share troubles by Prince Nico Mbarga, the Nigerian / Camerounian star behind the smash hit 'Sweet Mother'; reggae singer Felixson Ngasia switches to funk and disco for a heavy workout with potent lyrics around black identity; another major highlife great Etubom Rex Williams unleashes a punchy psych funk gem with 'Psychedelic Shoes' and Africa 70 member Pax Nicholas vocals a simmering Afrobeat groove from Jacob Lee's Saxon Lee & The Shadows International Band.

'Nigeria 70: No Wahala' iis released on 29th March 2019 on CD, 2LP and digital. All tracks have been restored by See Why Audio and mastered by The Carvery. The package features comprehensive sleeve notes including exclusive interviews with some of the original artists.

Rian Treanor will release his anticipated debut album 'ATAXIA' on Planet Mu this March. The striking full-length follows singles for The Death Of Rave and Warp's Arcola imprint as well as live sets at Boilerroom x Genelec, Nyege Nyege festival, tours in India and various high profile EU shows.

The title 'ATAXIA' means 'the loss of full control of bodily movements' and relates to Rian's music which is 'intended to make people's bodies move in unpredictable ways.' He adds 'the angles in the letters, the phonetics seem to mirror the geometry and idiosyncratic patterns in the music.' Rian explains that components of the tracks were made by generating a series of irregular events and re-structuring them, or by destabilising a pattern that is constant.

When asked how the album compares with his previous releases, he says 'My earlier EPs share a similar interest in angular and asymmetrical rhythms that are designed for club sound systems,' adding 'they were more improvised, focusing on sequencing and pattern modulation, using standard drum sounds and synthesiser patches. ATAXIA is more focused and stricter, it's more co-ordinated in terms of the track selection and the rhythmic structures. I spent more time refining the synthesis and sound design, pushing it further than the previous releases.' He expresses an interest in exploring opposites in his music: 'fluidity and syncopation,' 'systematic and unpredictability,' 'reduction and extremity,' 'irregular symmetry,' 'easy listening and brutal'.
There's clear a conceptual backdrop, but the music itself is not overthought. There's an immediate joy to much of the album - check out ATAXIA_D3 with its wonderful cut-ups and modulations of the phrase 'people don't understand people.'

The roots of Rian's playful sound are directly linked to his love of the music he grew up with. Coming from Sheffield, you can hear elements of industrial, synth-pop, bleep, extreme computer music and speed garage at play. From Cabaret Voltaire to Warp and beyond; the sound of his city has been, and is, an integral part of his musical development and is still a direct influence.

Last year, he noted in an interview that "I'm not a computer programmer, I'm not an articulate person in that kind of way. I'm a visual artist." Now he elaborates 'I meant more that I'm a visual thinker.' Drawing and visual art have been a fundamental part of his life 'since I was a child. I got really into graffiti as a teenager and around the same time I got into mixing and these both developed together.' You can sense the mind of a visual artist at work in his music which is also reflected in the artwork he created for this project.

As well as his visual art, installations and multichannel sound works he is involved in numerous collaborations such as with composer Nakul Krishnamurthy exploring the common ground between Indian classical music and electronic music and his work with improv saxophonist Karl D'Silva, plus his time studying with Lupo at Dubplates and Mastering in Berlin (who taught him the 'importance of reduction') have all helped shape and push his sound into other unique and adventurous zones. Treanor is developing on different levels and in different forms all at the same time, re-imagining the intersection of club culture, experimental art and computer music, presenting an insightful and compelling musical world of fractured and interlocking components.

This was Charles Tolliver's first album as a leader. The setting is unique only because his second Freedom-Black Lion album 'The Ringer' and all of his subsequent albums on Strata-East featured his quartet Music Inc. with pianist Stanley Cowell. Here he is surrounded in quartet and quintet formats with a truly stellar cast of the leading players on the New York jazz scene.

Charles plays the role of leader, composer and trumpeter. But it is surely that last role that deserves the most attention. The trumpet is a brass instrument that leans toward a hard sound and staccato phrasing. Yet Tolliver is the quintessence of fluidity. While it may be undeniable that he has learned from his musical heritage and past trumpet masters, a trumpeter of such flow, tone, control, lyricism and creativity is, by definition, a major musician.

Charles Tolliver first came to the professional jazz scene in the mid-sixties, when he first met Jackie McLean. Under McLean's leadership, he played on a number of Blue Note record sessions, some of which have yet to be released. He contributed original tunes to many of those sessions.

Within a couple of years, Tolliver was a well known figure in New York circles, playing and/or recording with Booker Ervin, Archie Shepp, Andrew Hill, Roy Ayers, Art Blakey, Sonny Rollins, Willie Bobo, Gerald Wilson, McCoy Tyner, Hank Mobley, and many others. His compositions were getting recorded by many artists. He gained his greatest recognition during a two year stint with the Max Roach quintet that also included Gary Bartz and Stanley Cowell.

There is also a previously unreleased bonus track of the song, "Repetition", recorded by Charles for this LP which will be included on this new release of the album. This song was originally made famous by Charlie Parker's LP With Strings.

This album is certainly an important and lasting document in light of the musicians involved and in light of its unique context for Charles Tolliver. But basically, it is just a great album to listen to. Michael Cuscuna

'For the 9th Marionette, Kilchhofer and Anklin release their collaboration record Moto Perpetuo. Michael Anklin is a drummer and percussionist based in Switzerland. He's involved in various bands, collaborations and interdisciplinary projects. Anklin has previously appeared on a few recordings from Kilchhofer's Album The Book Room. Kilchhofer uses his main instrument - the modular synth - in a more electroacoustic manner, where he derives and processes voltages from Anklin's playing.

The album title describes the fascinating idea (yet impossible reality) of a perpetual motion - where no energy is lost yet energy is constantly being created, an endless music, yet far away from generic ambient or minimal music. Anklin's live drumming influences delicate feedback patches on Kilchhofer's synth, where dry and transient heavy percussion and synthesizer sounds erupt into a feral electroacoustic instrument.

A fluid concept of time where the Rhythmic Pulse constantly shifts is at the heart of the record. The idea was to create an instrument where acoustics and electronics are interconnected and dependent on each other. The smallest disturbance could sway the entire system out of order. This idea of a circular motion was at the center of the recording process and is also reflected in the artwork which resembles a topographical view of a closed natural habitat.

Kilchhofer and Anklin draw inspiration mainly from their rural surroundings and mountain landscapes where natural overtones and stumbling rhythms navigate through high plateaus and velds to stony ravines and wooden trails - on a never ending quest for an "ur-klang'; a primordial, ancestral music.'

Just before Maceo Plex's Ellum Audio label reaches its half century, the influential outlet serves up a standout EP from fast rising talent Fred Lenix.

Iago Frederici is a young Brazilian music producer who merges new era electronic melodies with his unique perspective of Latin American and Turkish cultures. Always expressing himself well, he is a regular face in Sao Paolo who is driving the thriving local scene forwards, and this new EP is sure to win him plenty of new fans across Europe.

It kicks off with 'The Rails', a bristling tech track that is run through with wiry synths and frosty filters. It's cold and austere and perfect to shake up a big warehouse space with a real sense of futuristic drama.

Next comes 'Manipulated Dead', an excellent electro tinged number that builds the suspense with some edgy drum work and rumbling synths. A sense of cosmic ambiance lights up the background and make this a track with real feeling.

The slick electro bomb 'Manipulated Living' closes things out with excellent drum programming and taught kicks. The slippery synths bring real fluidity to the grooves and some distant pads enrich the whole thing with a sense of real serenity.

These are three fantastic tracks from a producer who is all set to blow up.

Johnny Clarke & King Tubby & Dillinger & Prince Jazzbo feat. Tommy McCook & The legendary Aggrovators & The Mighty Diamonds - Soul Jazz Records presents Bunny Lee: Dreads Enter the Gates with Praise - The Mighty Striker Shoots the Hits!

Soul Jazz Records presents this new collection featuring the heavy 70s roots reggae of Bunny
Lee - a living legend, one of the last of the great Jamaican record producers who helped shape
and define reggae music in the 1970s from a small island sound into an internationally
successful musical genre.
From teenage fan to young record plugger for Duke Reid, Sir Coxsone and other early
pioneering Jamaican musical entrepreneurs, Lee has spent his whole professional life inside the
Kingston music industry. In the 1970s he rose up to become one of the major record producers
in Jamaica alongside Lee 'Scratch' Perry and the other 'small axe' producers who broke the
dominance of the 'big tree' producers that had ruled Jamaican music in the 1960s.
Featuring some of the heaviest Jamaican artists, including Johnny Clarke, King Tubby, Dillinger,
Prince Jazzbo, Tommy McCook, The legendary Aggrovators (featuring Sly and Robbie), The
Mighty Diamonds and more, the album is a rollercoaster ride of rare, deep and classic 1970s
roots, dub and DJ sounds.
During this era, 'flying cymbals', crashing reverbs, dark echoing thunderclap gunshots and
other 'implements of sound' filled his record productions as Bunny Lee explored the outer limits
of dub with his friend King Tubby in the mix on wild versions that accompanied any 45. A
Bunny Lee record provides a creative and mysterious hidden guide to reggae music itself, a
double-sided three-minute intangible history lesson etched in wax.
Bunny Lee was one of the first Jamaican producers to travel to England in the late 1960s, at
the beginning of the nascent British reggae music industry as record companies such as
Trojan, Pama and others began licensing Jamaican music in the UK to supply the expanding
West Indian communities living up and down England. Lee encouraged other Jamaican
producers to do the same, including Lee Perry, Harry J and Niney The Observer and also
became a conduit between the British music industry and numerous younger Island-based
producers - a frequent flyer reggae ambassador, a musical courier exchanging tapes for
royalties.
Bunny Lee's first recordings in the late 1960s were mainly rock steady but as the 70s
approached the music soon began to mutate and slow down into 'reggae' as the sound became
heavier, more rootsy and the sound itself began to change with the explosion of dub.
Lee was at the forefront to this dramatic musical shift into roots reggae and by this time had
become a major producer, capable of working with whoever he chose as world-famous singers,
DJs and musicians lined up to work with the charismatic man. Lee also employed a fluid but
stable set of crack session musicians who he named The Aggrovators.
Most of the recordings featured here come from the mid 70s, a time when Bunny Lee was
definitely in the zone, releasing heavyweight singles at an almost unstoppable rate. Bunny
Lee's career stretches over five decades and he has upwards of 2,000 production credits on
vinyl.
This album comes with extensive sleevenotes, an interview with Bunny Lee and exclusive
photography. The album is available as a CD pack with 24-page booklet, massive triple LP vinyl
with digital download code, house inner and full notes, as well as digital album.

Galvanised by a passion for soul, jazz, funk, folk, and Brazilian samba, Judith Ravitz's Bolerio (in Hebrew, Yehudit Ravitz - ) brilliantly reimagines the music of the Brazilian legend Jorge Ben. Increasingly sought-after, housing as it does her seminal take on 'Dia De Indio' - often re-edited and sampled, bootlegged but never bettered - it's a uniquely thrilling LP in its own right. The year is 1983, and Ravitz discovered that Jorge Ben was touring Israel with his crack backing band A Banda Do Zé Pretinho. After joining her in the studio, the ensemble reinvented a selection of Ben's killer tracks that the band regularly performed. On Bolerio - 'come to Rio' - Ravitz handed them equal billing as they aided a recontextualization of Ben's music for an audience that was barely aware of him. These versions are by no means straight re-treads. Far from it. The highlights are many and memorable. The aforementioned 'Dia De Indio', a strutting, electronic samba-funk with stabbing bass and fluid arrangements, sounds so current and fresh that it's hard to believe it's now 35 years old. Its vibrant ambience has been likened to the wiry dubbiness of King Sunny Ade's Synchro System and it's easy to see why. Indeed, the electro elements add a futuristic feel that the original could never comfortably possess. Undeniably rocking more furiously than Ben's versions, the album begins with a throbbing take on 'Boiadeiro', the opener from Ben's Salve Simpatia.

D-Leria returns to the scene more than a year after debuting on Berlin-based label Delirio, releasing a collection of work produced between 2014 and 2018; ten tracks which mark a new beginning for this young Italian producer, sweeping between heavy ambient excursions to hypnotic/ tribal techno, modernized and polished off in his own way.'Driving to Nowhere' is the summation of an extended journey; a year-long hiatus due to unforeseen health concerns allowed time to meditate and consider his past experiences in Italy's various underground electronic music scenes, and the potential directions inspired by thriving Berlin.
From 2014 to 2017 he released several EP's, each developing upon this new style, until joining the young label Delirio as both a musician and a manager. With Delirio he has hosted artists such as Stanislav Tolkackev, Roberto Bosco, Plaster, Retina.it and more, with a unique agenda to record precisely produced music live, instead of laboring in the studio to achieve over-polished audio. His first album inaugurates the beginning of the new DLP catalog, which will be dedicated to LPs, albums and other projects released on 12-inch vinyl. Through these 10 tracks D-Leria experiments with various production methods, as in 'Makumba' where he precisely combines the kick drum with a tight bass line in a 12-step sequence, making the track fluid and never predictable. 'Reborn' is an even more ambitious undertaking, initially recorded on tape before being sent back to the mixer via Hi Fi stereo, D-Leria modulated the cassette coil with a bic pen to create a unique 'detune' effect. 'From the Ground' and 'Driving to Nowhere', both made through the same setup, combine tribal voices and moans, combining an ethereal ambience with drums and analog percussion, connecting the rhythm directly to the soul. The opening track 'Libero' is dedicated to himself, while 'Her Smile' and 'Uragano' are both dedicated to the person that was closest to him in his last period of stop and realization of the album, where he expresses his most deep moments in the first, and more difficult in the second.
Just like in most of the EP already released on Delirio, Giuseppe Tillieci aka Neel took care of the mastering of the tracks, while the artist has taken care of the smallest details from the production, to the mixing, to the graphics and also to the titles of the tracks, which refer to personal thoughts and events that happened during this long journey to nowhere.

R+R=NOW is a collective of like-minded boundary-breakers featuring Robert Glasper, Terrace Martin, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, Derrick Hodge, Taylor McFerrin & Justin Tyson. The 'R+R' in the band's name stands for Reflect+Respond, and was inspired by Nina Simone who said an artist's duty is to reflect the times.
With Collagically Speaking the band presents an urgent musical hybrid that is distinctly of the now. As Glasper says, R+R=NOW tells 'our story from our point of view... It's a very honest, fluid sound that rings of hip-hop, EDM, jazz, at times - hell - reggae... a bunch of cats that respect each other so much that we always pass the ball.' The album features guest spots by Omari Hardwick, Terry Crews, Stalley, Amanda Seales, Amber Navran, Goapele, Jahi Sundance and Yasiin bey.

Exactly one year after Lorenz's debut EP on Dirt Crew he is back with a super funky follow up. With the recent
'Marakuja' track on our 'Deep Love 2018' compilation he already set the tone to a much more fluid and organic live approach to his sound recording.

The opening title track 'Belair' is a heavy 'wurly' organ jam he developed mainly by playing live and afterwards finalizing it in his Cologne studio. After his recent tour and shows as part of the Detroit Swindle live outfit he really got into improvising and composing his tunes on the fly. The Funk is all over this one and it is a great uplifting 'sunny' jam to play out. Following this one is the slower and deeper 'Jubilee' that's adding even more soul to the 'Rhode' funk with an irresistible bass line and melody and when the clavinet break sets in it's nothing but Good Times on the dance floor! A certain rewind for us and favorite track off this new EP.

On the flip we added two remixes from his previous high in demand tracks 'On Top' and 'And I Said'. Lorenz has been working a lot on various projects with his good friends Strip Steve and Tensnake and both had their go on these tracks from last year. Strip Steve took the parts of 'On Top' and turned them into a deep Detroit flavored House Jam with stabby beats and beautiful strings added. Last but not least Tensnake fires up a high octane remix of 'And I Said' that leans much towards old school New York house rhythms and the additional 'Sax' topping gives it a groovy 90s feel to it. For sure bringing back that great happy and funky flow of the original.

We hope you dig this funk and soul laden EP by Lorenz Rhode as much as we do! Enjoy!

Strut announce the signing of one of the best of the UK's new generation of soulful genre-fluid artists, Nubiyan Twist, with a superb new single, 'Tell It To Me Slowly', released on 16th November. Voiced by the band's saxophonist Nick Richards, the song is an instant soul-jazz winner, with lyrics speaking about inner turmoil and a search for the truth. On the flip, 'Sugar Cane' features the unmistakeable vocals of Nubiya Brandon singing of harsh life lessons over an increasingly chaotic groove. The tracks are taken from the band's forthcoming album, 'Jungle Run' which effortlessly weaves together elements of jazz, soul, hip hop, African styles, Latin, dub, hip hop and electronics in a flow of thought-provoking and life-affirming music. The single and album mark another important chapter for a band that has been consistently developing and evolving their sound since their formation in 2015 at Leeds College Of Music. Nubiyan Twist's 'Tell It To Me Slowly' b/w 'Sugar Cane' is released on 7' single, digital and streaming on 16th November. The band also head out for a series of European dates from next month:

No one had been through those doors in years. Unchanged, seemingly untouched, just a Guard watching over it, one wondered whether the place would ever see the light of day again. Built in the 70s by Scotch, there were only twenty such places in the entire world. Twenty studios, all identical. Most had undergone a digital makeover in the 80s, but not this one; situated in Lomé, this studio had stayed true to its original form. Silent and uninhabited but waiting for one thing, and one thing only: for the sacred fire to be lit once again. That of the Togolese Recording Office, is studio OTODI for those in the know. Through thick layers of dust, the console was vibrating still, impatient to be turned on and spurt out the sound so unique to analog. That sound is what Peter Solo and his band Vaudou Game came to seek out.

The original vibrations of Lomé's sound, resonating within the studio space, an undercurrent pulsing within the walls, the floor, and the entire atmosphere. A presence at once electrical and mystical sourced through the amps that had never really gone cold, despite the deep sleep that they had been forced into. In taking over the studio's 3000 square feet, enough to house a full orchestra, Vaudou Game had the space necessary to conjure the spirits of voodoo, those very spirits who watch over men and nature, and with whom Peter converses every day.

For the most authentic of frequencies to fully imbibe this third album, Peter Solo entrusted the rhythmic section to a Togolese bass and drum duo, putting the groove in the expert hands of those versed in feeling and a type of musicianship that you can't learn in any school. This was also a way to put OTODI on the path of a more heavily hued funk sound, the backbone of which maintains flexibility and agility when moving over to highlife, straightens out when enhanced with frequent guest Roger Damawuzan's James Brown type screams, and softens when making the way for strings. Snaking and undulating when a chorus of Togolese women takes over, guiding it towards a slow, hypnotic trance. Up until now, Vaudou Game had maintained their connection to Togo from their base in France. This time, recording the entire album in Lomé at OTODI with local musicians, Peter Solo drew the voodoo fluid directly from the source, once again using only Togolese scales to make his guitar sing, his strings acting as channels between listeners and deities...

'Breathe The Machine' is the first installment of Dojostudio and presents a musical world rich in harmonics, low frequency and melodic impact, yet with enough space in between to allow that perfect breathing room essential for powerful dance cuts. 'Breathe The Machine' portrays a world that initially feels robotic, yet instills an organic fluidity known only to come from humanoid beings, breathing life into a system littered with code and coldness. Billy Dalessandro presents 3 original cuts, plus a rendition of the title track by Mike Shannon.

Both for 'Breathe The Machine' and 'Tractor Beam' the Waldorf Microwave XT 2 and the Jomox 888 were the primary sound sources. For 'Breathe The Machine' the 888 was processed through a Jomox T-Resonator, which added harmonic distortion, and also spread the stereo spectrum out a bit offering the drums a more washed-out feel. The XT was layered track by track by performing patterns live into an editor until the desired ideas were properly recorded. Mike Shannon was brought on board to offer a contrasting expression of 'Breathe The Machine' and when asked how the process went he stated:

"I took the source sounds, edited them and processed them to work with a groove I had written for this remix. I mainly used the pad, lead synth and synth effects from the original. The rest of the gold I engineered."

On 'Tractor Beam', subtle use shows that ample space in between ideas make things seem larger than life. By allowing a more minimal approach in the production process the sounds can easily co-exist, allowing for that 'big room' sound without overwhelming the overall experience.

The digital exclusive 'Deliverance' was created using NI's Maschine for the drums, and FM8 and Reaktor were the sources of the synths. Drum patterns were created in Maschine and then recorded in realtime back into the DAW as it played, with real-time tweaking of the hi-hat to create the desired impact, especially at the break. The synth and pad patterns were recorded as MIDI into the editor, and then automation of the synths' VCF rounded out the expression needed to complete the emotional process.

All in all, DOJ001 is mostly an all-hardware showdown, with 'Deliverance' being the only 'virtual' attempt. Life is in nature, not in machines, yet the culmination of the two worlds can be beautiful, if only properly tamed and understood. Lest we beware! Stay tuned... and thanks for listening!

- Beautiful 1 LP Edition 140g Vinyl, Heavy 350gsm Sleeve, Sticker WRWTFWW Records is extremely excited to present the official reissue of cult album Lingua Franca-1 (originally released in 1983) by groundbreaking Kyoto band EP-4, available on vinyl housed in heavy 350gsm sleeve and digipack CD. Straight from the delirious minds of unconventional geniuses Kaoru Sato (who had previously released an album as R.N.A. Organism on legendary Osaka label Vanity Records) and Yuji 'Banana' Kawashima, Lingua Franca-1 is a seamless voyage of spellbinding mutant funk grooves, joyful post-punk explorations, synth fantasies, sexy distortions, and fluid cool-no-sweat vocals. Constantly mutating in an almost biological way (similarly to Colored Music's self-titled album), always mysterious and seductive, sometimes reminiscing of a freaky cross between PiL, Liquid Liquid, Bowie and Yello, EP-4's debut is hard to label, although 'Debonair Wave' could be a legitimate way to describe this Japan's best-kept-secret of an album. Defying the rules wasn't limited to sonic experimentations for band leader Kaoru Sato. To promote Lingua Franca-1, he and his crew plastered gigantic (illegal) billboards all over Shibuya and Harajuku, announcing performances in four different cities on odd hours of the same day (May 5th 1983). Other of his notable antics included originally sub-titling the album Death to the Emperor Showa causing a controversy (which led to censorship and a title-change), trying to release two albums on the same day without the concerned labels being aware of the plan or, in the R.N.A. Organism days, fooling Vanity Records into believing the demo he sent them came from a foreign band (it worked). Unique personality, unique music!

Tallinn duo MAVA & NEBUKAT deliver four tranquil cuts on Estonia's LIITHELI, featuring remixes by Leleka founder VAKULA and 1212a alongside label boss ALI ASKER.
Mava and Nebukat have been an important part of the Estonian underground scene for some time, promoting parties and DJing in and around the capital. Their grafting has seen them join up with Green Village producer Ali Asker, who launched LIITHELI in 2016 to focus on local talent with early offerings from himself and fellow Estonian N1MA.
First up, 'Polymer' immediately grips us with rising tension - progressive synth-lines and fluttering percussion becomes the main focus here. 'Ambient Track' provides synthetic luscious melodies harmonising delightfully with the broken-beat drums.
1212a and Ali Asker's remix of 'Polymer' offers a captivating dubbed-out theme throughout, balancing delicate minimalism, with breezy atmospheres. Ukrainian producer Vakula presents a heavenly six-minute healer through precise, fluid pulsations and intriguing, melodic sound design.

Phonogramme, the house subdivision of parent label and integral Parisian record shop Syncrophone dedicates itself directly to the French music scene, with previous releases from the likes of Professor Inc, John Jastszebski, Aleqs Notal and a handful of other local heads. Phonogramme continues to keep things close-to-home through the labels next edition presented by Gibs, who's most notably known for works on his own imprint, 'An.Art Records' - a family run label with music shared by himself and his two brothers.

'Find an Oasis' kicks off the release with rolling organic percussion before progressing elegantly into layered emotive lead synths and mellow bass stabs. 'Jarkarta' is a subdued deeper house cut, filled with an uplifting, undulating melody and raw lo-fi elements collectively creating a luscious calming effect. Last up, 'Der Germain' offers up a fluid, groove filled number balanced with charming, jazzy flutters and tender keys providing a warm, breezy atmosphere to the end the release.

Italian sound artist GIULIO ALDINUCCI drops his 2nd album on Karl: "Disappearing In A Mirror" is again a truly masterfully composed and sound-designed ambient masterpiece and a more than worthy follow-up to the critically acclaimed "Borders And Ruins" which made it onto several year's best lists for 2017.

Over the course of four solo albums on labels like DRONARIVM plus EPs and collaborative albums (a.o. with IAN HAWGOOD), GIULIO ALDINUCCI successively has been refining his skills as composer and sound designer. His elegant style which blends ambient and field recordings came to full impact on his 2017 album "Borders And Ruins" which gained the Italian sound artist a lot of critical praise and made it onto several year's best lists, a.o. ALDINUCCI's latest effort is again not only a musical masterpiece ofsublime beauty and sacral majesty, it also deals with philosophical concerns. Where "Borders ..." was areflection on the instability of borders - borders as an extreme attempt to discriminate and rationalize that turnsinto a source of chaos and cultural ruins on both sides - and their impact on the relationship between people and territory, "Disappearing In A Mirror" raises the very personal question of identity. In the words of ALDINUCCI himself:

" 'Disappearing In A Mirror' focuses on the fluidity of the identity concept, highlighting the harmonious coexistence of contradictory elements and the transitional features that characterize every transformation. It is a reflection on the current situation of change and disruption and at the same time it is a gaze into the human timeless soul and its inner soundscapes."

Almost three decades after he put out his first record as one half of Tummy Touch twosome Tutto Matto, Paulo Guigliemino continues to produce effortlessly brilliant music that joins the dots between vintage disco, boogie, proto-house and sun-kissed Balearica. For proof, just check the heavyweight dancefloor sunshine that is 'Bella Topa', his first release on Leng Records.

Slow, sensual and blessed with all manner of delay-laden drum machine percussion hits, the track fixes the producer's usual colourful, boogie-era synth flourishes and ear-pleasing instrumentation (think fluid electric pianos, fluttering flutes, eyes-closed jazz guitar solos, lilting saxophones and spacey electronic chords) to a chugging, head-in-the-clouds groove reminiscent of Lindstrom and Prins Thomas's early collaborative work. 'Bella Topa' cleverly shifts shape several times throughout, utilising jazzier rhythms and bolder melodies to light up key moments.

Remixes come from Guigliemino's old pal Federico Marton, a producer best known for being one half of sometime Get Physical, Superfiction and Snatch Recordings artists Italoboyz. He lays down two distinctive revisions, starting with a 'Slow' club reconstruction that adds additional percussive heaviness and sparkling electronics to Super Paolo's twinkling, sun-baked original.

His other version, a 'Fast' club reconstruction, drags Guigliemino's track towards peak-time dancefloors kicking and screaming. Making the most of his friend's killer groove and finding sufficient time and space for each life-affirming musical element to sparkle, his mix bobs, weaves and eventually soars for 12 mesmerizing minutes. The mix, like his slow version, makes use of additional percussion and wisely gives more prominence to the A-side's spacey electronics and boogie-influenced synthesizer flourishes. The results are little less than breathtaking.

Autre fell asleep in a gondola and awoke in the Krankenhaus. This is his first offering for the ESP Institute. Side A's Everybody In The Past is sharp techno aimed for the alleys of your mind — gritty, driving, and melodic combinations of blown-out drums and classic electro riffs that relentlessly sprint for a good 4 minutes before a squelching arpeggio and angelic solo kick in — tugging the heartstrings and lighting a beacon for those noble morning dancers lost at the front left speaker, channeling from the deep. On Side B, Frigo completely dismantles any expectations you might have after listening to its predecessor. An undoubtedly seductive Samba rhythm comprised of distant snares, rim shots and cowbells holds together an aggressively active bassline, a steel drum harmony and synth solo that crawl all over like a funky worm. This track is truly something special, a gift for the prodigious selector — when dropped in the deserved context, it has the potential to unlock unprecedented levels of euphoria. These two songs are as fluid as a paintbrush yet precise as a scalpel.

Brendon Moeller offers up his 'Set In Motion' EP on Echocord sub-label Echo Echo this September, comprising three originals from the Dub Techno veteran. South Africa, New York based producer and DJ Brendon Moeller aka Beat Pharmacy/Echologist has long been respected as one of the pioneering figures in ethereal, dubbed-out Techno with regular appearances at global hot spots like fabric, Berghain and Cielo as well as releases on labels like Third Ear, Kimochi, Neovinyl and Echocord. Here though we see Moeller joining the roster of the latter's sublabel Echo Echo, marking its fourth release. Title-track 'Set In Motion' leads with Brendon's signature murky synth textures at its core whilst lumpy low-end tones, shuffled hats and spiraling dub echoes fluidly undulate amongst one another throughout. 'Eastern Beach' follows, and as the name would suggest, nods towards brighter sounds with airy pads, soft bell chime synths and pulsating subs driving the composition alongside swinging, heavily reverberated percussion. 'Economy' then closes the package, stripping things back to gritty dub stabs, dusty 4/4 drums and billowing noise sweeps.

June 2018, Amsterdam, Nl: 12 Months Ago We Concluded A Series Of Experiments With A Test Subject Named Ben Penn. A Year On, We Decided To Repeat This Experiment At His Tilburg Base. Once Again, The Results Were Starting.
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After Being Provided With A Sizeable Dose Of An Enhanced And Notably Stronger Derivative Of 4-ho Met (codenamed St011), Penn Not Only Reported Intense Hallucinations But Also Enhanced Music Production Capabilities. With The Aid Of Electronic Instruments And Hardware, He Worked Quickly, Producing Both His Trademark higher Level Inter-dimensional Funk' And Compositions That Defied Our Previous Expectations.

During The Early Stages Of His St011 Experience, Penn Completely Ignored The Provided Rhythm Composer And Instead Crafted A Colourful, Humid, Jazzy And Beat-free Track Entitled nix', Which Boasted Loose And Fluid Synthesizer Motifs. As His Hallucinatory Experience Intensified, Penn Giddily Tapped Out Tropical Rhythms On The Provided Beat-making Device, Smothering Them In Alien Electronics And Sticky Melodies. When We Asked What This Devilishly Good Cut Was Called, He Simply Replied: not Important'.

As The Test Went On And The Most Intense Symptoms Died Down, Penn Was Much Like His Old Self. Before The St011 Wore Off Completely, He Was Able To Finish Two Examples Of His Trademark inter-dimensional Funk': The Skewed, Introspective, Bassline-driven Wooziness Of ben' And The Mazy, Kaleidoscopic Goodness Of people'. The Latter Composition Was Particularly Potent And Ear Pleasing, Suggesting That His St011 Experience Had Finished On An Intense High.

Crazy 12 Track Library Music Style Album On This Ace Italian Label. All Based Around Bumping Live Rhythms Triggering An Obscure Japanese Drum Synth Module..recorded In 2017.
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It Was November 2017 When I Received A Call From An Old Friend, "hi Fabrizio, I Found A Rare Japanese Drum Machine, You Should Come And See It Before I Put This On Ebay." I Went To Check It Out And Immediately Realized It Had More Potential Than Just Drum Sounds Generation, It Was Able To Produce Quirky And Creepy Sounds If Triggered By Any Sound Source. So I Bought It And Brought In The Studio, Where Me And Alex Were Laying Down New Beats And Ideas. It Took Just Three Days Of Jams To Get The Skeleton Of This Record Done: I Programmed The Module To Receive Alex's Drum Hits And The Device Started Creating Synth Lines, Almost As It Was Speaking Its Own Language.i've Found A Soul In This Machine, And I Wanted To Bring It To Life In These Tracks, A Mix Of Arranged Compositions And Improvised Jams. No Root Keys, No Grids, No Clicks, Everything Came Out In An Instinctive And Natural Way

As Far As We Know It's The First Time This Synthesizer/drum Machine Is Been Used In This "improper" And New Way.

5 catchy tracks by eighties bristol outfit Umo Vogue Umo Vogue formed in Bristol by Stig Manley, Russ Crook and Neil Deamer who were in Bath based ska rock outfit 'The AT's', along with Bristol based singer Debbie Marlow. Neil's Brother Clive joined the band bringing a fantastic new dynamic to the band on drums, percussion and heavy artillery. The band name is a deliberate misspelling of the ultra-chic Italian fashion magazine 'L'Uomo Vogue'. After winning the Bristol 'Battle of the Bands' in 1982 they were signed to Phonogram and dropped a few months later. They then signed to EMI in '83 and released their first single 'Just My Love' released in early 1984. The second single was 'Make It Real' and was never released as the band were culled from the EMI roster in late '84. For this reissue of their debut single we've added 3 bonus tracks, a demo of 'Just My Love', the unreleased follow single 'Make It Real' and a bedroom demo 'Erotica.'

Each song displays ridiculously catchy melodies and innovative electronic rhythms. The drum tracks, a combination of rhythm machines and hand percussion, were mixed down from the 4-track tape used as backing on stage, with the rich slap bass and Roland SH09 synths weaves fluid lead lines in between the harmony vocals. All songs have been remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios. The record is housed in an exact replica of the original jacket and includes an 8-page booklet with photos, notes and press clippings from the band's archive. 'We're synthetic but not antiseptic. We are interested in the naivety and spontaneity of music.' - Umo Vogue

Brooklyn trio Forma's latest LP continues their mission to 'broaden the idea of what an electronic music ensemble can sound like.' Semblance emerged from exploratory sessions at The Schoolhouse, the Bushwick loft where members Mark Dwinell and John Also Bennett live, then was tracked at Gary's Electric studios, where their previous album Physicalist was also recorded.
Inspired by polyrhythmic composition, the human voice, and conceptual improvisation strategies, the songs are striking in their textural detail and emotional nuance, alternately synthetic and sentient, futuristic and intuitive. Incorporating flute, piano, guitar, saxophone, acoustic drums and cymbals alongside an array of synthesizers, the record persuasively demonstrates the group's unique playing abilities and fluid chemistry - attributes they credit to 'techniques we've developed to trick our electronic machines into mimicking the spontaneous character of live instruments.'
Members George and John Also Bennett also cite as an influence their recent stint in minimalist composer Jon Gibson's ensemble, performing his 1973 proto-ambient masterwork Visitations. The long- form modal piece requires restraint and deep listening to execute, qualities especially apparent in the more muted moments of Semblance, such as 'Rebreather' and 'New City.'
The group states the intent of the new album as 'to be more direct and exacting', which it is. Over half a decade spent writing and recording together has distilled Forma's hybrid electro-acoustic interplay into an attuned and astounding language, capable of articulating impossible symmetries and reflective states.
The stunning visuals of the artwork are by frequent collaborator of the group Peter Burr.

Here it is !

The long-awaited new LP from former Dubtribe Soundsystem shaman Sunshine Jones

Far from basking in Bay Area bliss, Sunshine has been busy redefining his organic approach to music making and sound synthesis into a rich and textured fresh take on the House blueprint - best realised in his elaborate & ever-evolving live shows.

Assembling these improvised pieces into a cohesive whole, that might well just be the best vinyl based representation off a full night out you're likely to hear this year.
From the emotive opener to last year's anthemic 'Fall In Love, Not In Line' closer, Home represents the fluid but refined garden of sound that's grown from Dubtribe's rich 90's foundation.

The artwork on this splendidly presented gatefold LP is a photograph of Sunshine performing live at the Garden Party in San Francisco by The Holy Mountain, the collage is done by Sunshine and the design is by Fernando_Graphicos. Accompanied by detailed track notes, with all equipment used to make the record alongside sonic schematic. Man and machine aligned for total transcendence !


SINGLE GATEFOLD LP

"Things take a psychedelic turn for SchleiBen 7 with a welcome to the label of arch exponents of mind expansion in NYC's Georgia and the unlikely but no less diverse inclusion of Balearic stalwarts A Man Called Adam. Having Georgia in the series might not now be a surprise, however discussions with this open, genuine duo started during a visit to New York over 3 years ago and so here, finally realised in this fluid journey of confident pace and harmony, is the best of their freeform evocations. A duo in the everyday sense, Brian Close and Justin Tripp are video / music production teamsters of unnatural talent. Having gained a status of their own that has seen them release for the likes of Palto Flats and FTD, the five pieces that form their contribution drip with psychedelic intent. Culled from archives, the interest is how the tracks - made over different years, locations and situations in life - meld in to something poetic simply by being placed within a specific format. Avant-chimes ebb to rhythmic pulses and erudite teachings before dark percussion and Eastern melodies reach a clattering, but gentle finale. With an upcoming collaborative album with Secret Circuit due on the label later in 2018, as well as recent works with RVNG Intl's Matt Werth and recordings for Sacred Summits' brethren Firecracker Recordings, it's a warm, effusive glow of a welcome. In contrast, the inclusion of A Man Called Adam in the series may indeed surprise but is a false comprehension. The "Sketches" included here show AMCA away from their Balearic pop incarnation of the last thirty years and towards the academia that both members Sally Rodgers and Steve Jones have pursued in the last decade. With both completing PHDs, Sally ('The Diachronic Impact of Technology-Led Abstraction in Oral, Written and Music-based Poetries') is a senior lecturer at Leeds College Of Music, while Steve ('Mobilise: The Carry Principle, Sound and Mobile Media') is based out of de Montfort University, now is the perfect time to highlight the diverse sound environments they have been working in. The music that makes up these recordings are drawn from sound works and audio experiments completed in recent years. From sound toys and apps to home made glass organs and electro-acoustic sound, custom patches to spoken word manipulations, the sketches are excerpts - some evolved from commissions for the National Science Museum, BBC Radio 4 and live performances with the world renowned video artist Milosh JL - fused especially for this release. Bringing these generated pieces in to an audible "mix" creates a discourse of their work in performance, interactions and visual media. An intellectualised album therefore, but still in the premise of the series to allow artists to present something new, unique, discrete, hidden even, all with the aim of giving the recipient the chance to sit back and (un)listen. "

Presenting 'Envelope'. Album written, produced & mixed by Milan W. and pressed on 180g vinyl, by Ekster. Coming out on the 6th of June 2018, with foil-stamped cover-drawing by Gerard Herman. Mastered & cut by Helmut Erler at Dubplates & Mastering.
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Milan W (AKA Milan Warmoeskerken) is an Antwerp-based musician. In 2015 he released the Slo Mo cassette, on local label JJ Funhouse. The Intact LP a year later. Compositions constructed from gentle, yet persistent, rhythms. Intricately textured downtempo echoes. Brain-dancing, rather than four-to-the-floor raving. 2017`s split with Ekolalis, for The Hague`s BAKK, made clear the direction Milan`s headed in. His contribution being a seventeen minute float. The kick largely removed. The textures cut-up, expanded and magnified. Envelope, for Ekster, builds on this work.

The harlequin turns the handle. The contraption sucks in air, and breathes. Blows out tone poems. Wordless ballads that soundtrack enchanted scenarios. Issues forth magic. A sorcerer`s apprentice casting its spell. Animating the inanimate. To everything a life. Sets the frozen fluttering. Pirouetting in red shoes. Illuminates what was dark. Astma sings a Gamelan lullaby. Summons comforting angels to a post-Industrial landscape. Glaasjes has Jazz ghosts inhabit an empty bar room. Spirits stealing excuse-me`s under its deserted spot. In Limbo amplifies their whispers. Lead soldiers court jewellery-box ballerinas behind shuttered shop fronts. On Heraldic Snippets, a tin infantry marches. Ten thousand men up to the top, and back down again. Keys make-believing that they are massed brass and fife.

The bellows pump, and the pipes all the while wheezing. An automaton philharmonic at the bidding of a steam-punk master. Analogue and digital. Clockwork and glitch. Malady finds sounds isolated, extrapolated, mutated. Orchestral`s organ-grinder moves with urgency, and alchemy. Spinning straw into gold. Snare rolls become bubbling mercury. Metallic, yet fluid. Racing at the speed of flight and escape. Slope is the music of water chasing through crystal caves. Slow Runner, a funeral crawl. Shoved into motion by a drama of strings remembered.
Like the charismatic Rat-Catcher of Hamelin, the harlequin turns the handle, and we bang the cup.

For the last decade, Argentina has become the epicenter of a musical explosion that characteristically blends folk music from the surrounding Andes and electronic beats. The artist arguably responsible for its emergence on a global platform is one named Chancha Via Circuito- a Buenos Aires native named Pedro Canale whose first album Rodante (2008) opened the floodgates by pushing the borders of Cumbia listeners weren't even aware existed. He's gone on to release other highly acclaimed albums such as Rio Arriba (2010), which Resident Advisor described as 'aural magical realism', and Amansara (2014), which catapulted him onto acclaimed international stages and received praises from Pitchfork to the New York Times.

Four years later, in the midst of some very notable global turbulence, Chancha Via Circuito brings us his highly anticipated new album Bienaventuranza- a word that essentially means bliss. Replete with his signature touches of Andean instruments (think lots of flute and charango), the folkloric elements on this album blend fluidly with danceable and digestible electronic beats. He's been cooking this record slowly, with unprecedented amounts of care and in a much more collaborative manner than his past albums.

Appearing on the album are heavy hitters in the digital cumbia scene, including Mateo Kingman, Kaleema, and Lido Pimienta, all of whom contribute their highly distinguishable sounds to the natural flow of the album. Most of these collaborations came about almost effortlessly. La Victoria is a track that blends cumbia, dancehall, and a bit of mysticism- carried by Lido Pimienta's luminous voice, Colombian Dancehall wizard Manu Ranks happened to be in town and slipped into the song naturally. Kawa Kawa came from an improv jam during rehearsal one day with Kaleema (Heidi Lewandowski) and Federico Estevez (percussionist in Chancha Via Circuito). Niño Hermoso, which is lyrically a fable, sounds the way it does because Pedro saw a video of Gianluz (Gianluca Zonzini), who he knows from dance classes, singing a Pocahontas song on Youtube.

As dancefloor-friendly as it is mystical, Bienaventuranza is as Chancha as it gets- with elements from Cumbia to Dancehall to Andean Folk to Global house, crystal clear production, and collaborations that are evidently natural and genuine, the record holds true to the sound that Canale has played such a huge part in creating. Since the release of his last album, the digital folk scene has also grown exponentially. From a new generation of producers to more listeners in unassuming parts of the globe, Pedro has been humbled to see the sound develop- and proves with this album that he's grown swiftly alongside it.

From deep inside of Berlin's 24/7 darkrooms, here comes DJ City's debut maxi single. Two house trax made out of body fluids, pain and laughter after, to accompanize the teenage sex drive that want never ever fade away.

The Safe Trip Organisation Has Been Broadcasting Their Musical Version Of A Traditional "numbers Station" On The Frequency 5079. Human Intelligence Suggests The Agent Behind Four Regular, Ear-pleasing Transmissions Is The Safe Trip Associate "artis".
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Using A Specially Modified "one-time Pad", We Were Able To Decipher These Undercover Operatives. The Ethereal, Dreamy, Arpeggio-driven Throb Of "panthera Pardus", With Its Poignant Tone And Undulating Lead Lines, Was Clearly Meant As A Warning.. The Same Could Be Said Of "cetacea", Where Melancholic Synthesizer Sounds And Meandering Electronics Gently Wind Their Way Around Hybrid Electronic/acoustic Percussion.

Panic Set In Once We Deciphered "giganthopithecus", A Composition Littered With Frequent Increases In Percussive Intensity And A Mind-altering Melodic Refrain. Our Hunch That Artis Was Ordering Immediate Action By Agents Was Confirmed By "delphinae", Whose Colourful Melodic Fluidity, Futurist New Age Construction And Layered Wooden Drum Hits Deeply Affected Our Researchers. We Ordered Our Own Agents To Raid The Station, But Artis Had Long Since Scuttled Off Into The Hazy Morning Sunshine.

Bergen is the next, and natural step in the expanding career of Dutch producer Tom Trago. The acclaimed producer behind Voyage Direct will release his fourth LP, with the label and crew he's built a close relationship with over the past ten years - Dekmantel. With a new studio and approach to music, Bergen is Trago sounding at his very finest, returning to his roots with a focussed, and dedicated production ethos.
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'If you change your environment, your music will also change with you,' Trago reflects on the new album. A staple in the Amsterdam club scene, Tom Trago has been a familiar face at the Dekmantel events for over ten years. 'I was even playing Dekmantel parties, before they were even called Dekmantel,' he states. Tom Trago's collaboration with Dekmantel has allowed him the space to grow and finish his most accomplished, and honest album to date. Bergen is an LP that connects his legacy, family, and commitment to dance music in one resplendent package.


Having relocated from Amsterdam, Tom Trago set up his new studio in the coastal town of Bergen, located in the northern Netherlands. Recorded in his family house, with the sea at one side, and the countryside to the other, the resultant record is a craftful piece of art, full of space, and the classic machine-driven, house music aesthetic that has come to represent Trago's sound. Bergen was made with the aim of re-creating a global-music sound, along with the music that has influenced him throughout his life, with a new approach influenced by Trago's immediate natural environment. 'I would take long walks in-between tracks,' explains Tom about the music making process, "and the creative ideas would happen in the forest."

The spacey-passively-paced LP intro 'Bergen' was the first to be picked up by Dekmantel's Casper Tielrooij, who upon hearing the track stated - 'now we are talking album business'. Yet it was the electro- orientated 'Zeeweg' that became the template for the rest of the record. 'The LP was built around this track,' Trago states. The b-boy electro vibe, with its melodramatic synth melody was influenced by the road that leads to his scenic retreat - with slow, steady curves, and a gentle, upward trajectory, Zeeweg and its album namesake, twist and turn in fluid synchronicity. 'The Creation of Lalibela' plays on this world music vibe, with ethereal and fun key patterns, influenced by the work of Mulatu Astatke. 'Always be with you' is one of the LP's standout tracks, epitomising the new album's country settings, and featuring his girlfriend on vocals; it swings at a steady, up-beat pace, rich with harmony, colour and melody. Elsewhere on the album, Trago sticks to his dance floor roots, 'Faith Belongs to Us' is moulded in a Chicago-to- Amsterdam house style, while album closer 'Working Machines' plays with resonance and atmospherics, creating a moody, pulsing yet stylish rhythm.

Having been raised in a musically-driven, and open-spirited household in which the producer grew up learning the piano, it didn't take long for Tom Trago to be indoctrinated into the new school of Amsterdam producers. Studying at a private jazz school while still a teenager, Trago would eventually come to cross paths with the hip-hop loving Dutch duo Rednose Distrikt, who left a permanent imprint on his approach to music. 'They showed me a world of music making using the MPC,' Trago says. 15 years later, the Dutch producer still sticks to this template. Looking to recreate this production approach that influenced him from the very beginning, Trago stripped down his studio to a simple setup with just a few, key 'weapons of choice'. Removing the computer from the setup, the MPC 2000 XL once again became the heart of the music making process. Bergen's analogue tools lend to its organic sound, one honed and crafted by its natural surroundings, and matured approach by one of the Netherland's most accomplished producers.

Wicked 4 tracker of
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Old Shady Grady & The Neighbourhood Character (OSGATNC for short) is the result of a chance meeting in Berlin the fall of 2013 between Eric Douglas Porter a.k.a. Afrikan Sciences, one of the most expansive and intensive musical torch bearers of modern experimental electronics and jazz, and Ari Robey-Lawrence, producer, vocalist, and DJ a.k.a. The Neighborhood Character, who began as a jazz guitarist and drummer. They quickly found a mutual bond and a musical partnership emerged soon thereafter, and debuted on Uzuri's The Wilderness Sessions with their EP, Tales from Caturday'.

Via their collaboration, Porter and Robey-Lawrence explore the intersections of diverse musical and emotional territories through improvisational, long format jam sessions-- experimenting both with a wide range of sampled sounds and expressive original vocals, sustained by pronounced, yet fluid rhythmic backbones.

Jordan GCZ says: I walked into their sound check at freerotation festival last year and was blown away. I feel privileged to be a part of putting this music out there'

Hopeton Brown, better known as Scientist, has been a pioneering figure in the world of dub for nearly 40 years. His early love of electronics proved fruitful when (still a teenager) he was hired at King Tubby's studio in Kingston. Brown quickly ascended the ranks and became heir to Tubby's throne, producing imaginative and technically impressive mixes that solidified his forward-looking nickname.

Introducing Scientist - The Best Dub Album In The World, his 1980 debut LP, lives up to its boastful title. Recorded with Sly & Robbie at Channel One Studio and mixed at King Tubby's, the album features hypnotic basslines, reverb-drenched keyboards, and fluid, start-stop rhythms. Opening track "Steppers," with its well-balanced phrasing and organic contours, shows Scientist's mastery of the studio-as-instrument concept. On "Scientific," the effects-laden guitars are stretched to their outer limit to create magnificent, spaced-out textures and muted tension. Introducing Scientist displays the talents of a man obsessed with every element of production, drawing out the very best of the dub form.

Ilija Rudman presents Andre Espeut 'Tears To Sound'
featuring Ron Trent Mix
Over the last decade and a half, Ilija Rudman has been responsible for many high quality releases, delivering distinctly warm, sun-kissed, analogue-rich material on labels including Bearfunk, Instruments Of Rapture, Compost , 20/20 Vision, Electric Minds, Is It Balearic Recordings, Rong Music , Classic Music Company and of course, his own Red Music imprint.
Even so, the Croatian has rarely made anything quite as deep and sensual as the material showcased on this first full EP for NuNorthern Soul. Top billing must go to the "Aquapella" version of "Tears To Sound", a spellbinding acapella cut that puts the enchanting vocals of storied soul man Andre Espeut front and centre.When Rudman sent the track to old friend Phil Cooper, the NuNorthern Soul boss thought it sounded like something he'd hear from US deep house legend Ron Trent. So, he approached the Prescription co-founder to see if he fancied remixing it. As you might expect, the results are astonishingly good.
Rich in rising and falling new age melodies, darting synthesizer motifs, languid piano flourishes and heavy analogue bass, Trent's wonderfully ultra-deep interpretation naturally gives pride of place to Espeut's seductive vocal. Even by the Chicagoan's infamously high standards, his epic Vocal Mix is incredibly special.
All versions of the single also feature two other original Rudman productions, both of which are wonderfully deep and dreamy. "Distant Feelings" is fluid, deep and yearning, with twinkling electric piano motifs and dreamy chords reclining over sizzling drum machine cymbals, no-nonsense beats and a gently pulsing analogue bassline. Those who enjoy the Balearic side of Rudman's work should also check out "Deep Sensation", a jazzy and breezy fusion of tumbling, vibraphone style melodies, rolling electric piano riffs and rubbery boogie bass. Both tracks are every bit as magical in their own way as the producer's thrilling Andre Espeut collaboration.

Fernando Pulichino is no stranger to Leng Records. The bass guitar-wielding Argentine made his first appearance on the label five years ago via the cosmic disco/psychedelic rock fusion of Blue Impala, returning two years later with the similarly inclined brilliance of Giant Desert. Pulichino then resurfaced on Leng late last year with a superb, digital-only three-tracker called Natural 77.

Now he's back on wax, buoyed by the success of the acclaimed Shining EP on Is It Balearic
Recordings. This time round he's in Search of Indigo, shaping hazy, sun-baked soundscapes around his distinctive basslines, echo-laden synthesizers, meandering Fender Rhodes solos,
gentle dub vibrations and glistening, early morning jazz guitars. This is music for the heads, hips and feet, soaked in Fernet and left in the afternoon sun to slowly ripen.

Arguably the most arresting of the four cuts is the title track, a head-in-the-clouds vocal number rich in bubbly electronic riffs, laidback electro beats, ricocheting percussion hits, swirling wind
effects and rubbery funk-rock bass.

Pulichino's penchant for intergalactic disco shufflers once again comes to the fore on killer Sundown Visions', a saucer-eyed chugger that simultaneously throbs, pulses and sparkles
thanks to sparring synthesizer motifs and eyes-closed space rock guitars. We suspect Daniele Baldelli and Andrew Weatherall would approve.

Elsewhere, Pulichino indulges his passion for sofa-surfing jazz-funk on solo-laden EP closer Frontera', a relaxed and undulating jam rich in cascading electric guitars, fluid electric piano, delay-laden flourishes and deep space synthesizers. You won't know whether to lie down, dance enthusiastically or wearily shuffle, either way, play at sunrise or sundown for maximum
enjoyment.

The EP also boasts a first vinyl outing for the title track of last year's digital-only EP, Natural '77'. Seemingly partly inspired by legendary West Coast funkateers Steely Dan, it's a lazy, low-
slung affair full of languid guitar solos, freestyle vocal improvisations, bongo-laden drums and one of his most inspired and elastic basslines to date.

Villa Åbo in the alternative solo project of Swedish musician and Villa Åbo in the alternative solo project of Swedish musician and producer Jan Svensson, who has been making electronic music for the better part of 30 years as the artist behind such aliases as Frak, Studio SS and Alvars Orkestra. Svensson also runs legendary Swedish dance and experimental music label Börft, the product of a mutual appreciation for Severed Heads and Terse Tapes. As Villa Åbo he released two records in 1997 on Börft and remained inactive for 17 years until the Dutch label Bio Rhythm coaxed him into revisiting the project and released a double 12 in 2014. Jan has since followed with a steady stream of 12' singles for Kontra-Musik, Noise In My Head and Radio Lundberg. 'Magnetic Moves' is Villa Åbo's debut album, originally released inan limited edition of 65 hand-numbered cassettes by Funeral Fog in 2016. Clocking in at over 46 minutes, this first-ever vinyl edition spreads the 8 ragged techno tracks across four sides for maximum loudness. Some songs are aggressively potent, with cyclical synth riffs and razor-sharp acid lines riding a heavy, funk-fuelled techno groove. Others tracks are more fluid, vintage Underground Resistance or Derrick May with killer drum machine workouts that come in handy as DJ tools. All songs have been remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. The record is housed in a custom made jacket designed by Eloise Leigh, featuring a photograph of Jan's mother's house, the meaning behind 'Villa Åbo'. Each copy includes a double-sided postcard with notes.producer Jan Svensson, who has been making electronic music for the better part of 30 years as the artist behind such aliases as Frak, Studio SS and Alvars Orkestra. Svensson also runs legendary Swedish dance and experimental music label Börft, the product of a mutual appreciation for Severed Heads and Terse Tapes. As Villa Åbo he released two records in 1997 on Börft and remained inactive for 17 years until the Dutch label Bio Rhythm coaxed him into revisiting the project and released a double 12 in 2014. Jan has since followed with a steady stream of 12' singles for Kontra-Musik, Noise In My Head and Radio Lundberg.'Magnetic Moves' is Villa Åbo's debut album, originally released in an limited edition of 65 hand-numbered cassettes by Funeral Fog in 2016. Clocking in atover 46 minutes, this first-ever vinyl edition spreads the 8 rgged techno tracks across four sides for maximum loudness. Soe songs are aggressively potent, with cyclical synth riffs and razor-harp acid lines riding a heavy, funk-fuelled techno groove. Others tracks are more fluid, vintage Underground Resistance or Derrick May with killer drum machine workouts that come in handy as DJ tools. All songs have been remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. The record is housed in a custom made jacket designed by Eloise Leigh, featuring a photograph of Jan's mother's house, the meaning behind 'Villa Åbo'. Each copy includes a double-sided postcard with notes.

Visible Cloaks' Lex proposes a utopian dream language and its accompanying sound, a limitless, delicate space developed by fluid musical techniques and subconscious voices. The six pieces comprising Lex simulate a more peaceful future, their mysteries telling a new tale in an unknown but imaginable melodic language. Visible Cloaks are the Portland-based musicians Spencer Doran and Ryan Carlile. Utilizing software-based composition rooted in randomization, MIDI-translation and chance operations, the duo has established an improbable humanist mode of music from esoteric processes. Following their self-titled debut album, Visible Cloaks offered Reassemblage, an album simultaneously honoring the post-Yellow Magic Orchestra school of avant musical adventure and diverging from it. Veering from the paths cleared by Japanese and Italian electronic pop and ambient artists of the mid-80s / early-90s, Reassemblage established Visible Cloaks' own camp in a forest of deep sound canopied by trees grown from synthetic seeds.The sound represented on Lex is webbed with sculptural arrangements and interpolated by the sounds of alien speech. These strange and serene utterances were created by Doran feeding a chain of multiple dialects and accents through a language translation software to create an auditory poetry of an evolved place and time.

Lex features both the final version of this process and earlier, simplified experiments with it ( Keys'). The idea - building on 'fourth world' or 'global village' type concepts - was to create a projected language that was a fusion of many,' Doran explains. The result was a very disorienting form of non-language that amplifies the lapses in meaning that occur with the inaccuracy of auto-translation software.'

Permutate Lex, a companion short film to Lex made by Visible Cloaks in collaboration with artist Brenna Murphy (who also created the artwork for Reassemblage and several virtualist videos for the album), is an integral counterpart, both visualizing an aesthetic alive with human form and guiding the sonic experience of the first five pieces: Wheel,' Frame,' Transient,' Keys,' and title track Lex.' World,' the longest piece presented on Lex, is redrawn from a generative composition originally produced for an installation Doran made with Murphy.

The original work incorporates LFOs and randomized MIDI-information, and was intended to variate indefinitely. In this 'fixed' version, World' provides a more conclusive view into the impossible musical environments Visible Cloaks make real. Longer than any track on
Reassemblage, World' expresses the deepening, patient intimations suggested by Lex.

Doran says the Lex attempts to communicate the essence of a world distant enough that it can't be captured or comprehended from the present, appearing only surreal and inscrutable.' The statement reveals a broader musical philosophy fueling this new moment, an awakened voice woven through complex melodic shapes and phrases establishes communication between listeners and the unknown, here presented by Visible Cloaks as sounds coloring the very edge of the envisionable.

After nearly a decade in the making, Zomby finally dispatches Mercury's Rainbow, his astonishing and uniquely formulated dedication to Wiley's series of Eskibeat releases, a.k.a. the cornerstone of grime.
Originally recorded over an intense couple of weeks while suffering from circadian dysrhythmia,
Mercury's Rainbow documents Zomby riffing on intricately hand-programmed arpeggios, using theories of colour and its relation to the sonic chromatic spectrum - the circle of fifths - to place an expressively avant spin on the Wiley Kat's slyding Triton squares and frozen, post-garage drum patterns.
Rather than simply imitating Wiley's foundational unit of grime currency, Zomby innovates with a structure of bewildering, modal styles, refracting 16 diamond-cut permutations according to a colour-sound spectrum of tonalities. In the process he effectively loosens up and liquifies the Eski riddim, rendering its bones and sinew in varying states of reactive, physical deliquescence or GIF-like micro-organisms.
For dancers and DJs, the fluid contours and viscous, displaced rhythmic anticipation of Mercury's Rainbow suggests myriad geometries for movement in-the-mix, and serves to single-handedly put to sleep a whole genre of also-ran, prosaic 'future grime' thru its methodical, inventively ground-up construction.
While it's difficult to say with certainty, if Mercury's Rainbow was issued at the same time it was created, it may have arguably altered the course of UK grime instrumentals in much the same way
Wiley's original template coined a whole new genre, essentially making it the last word in grime futurism, proper.

Bursting through the vapour trails of previous Solar Phenomena pilot Antonio Ruscito, London's Roberto is invited to the take the controls of the forward-thrusting new label's third adventure.

With turbine pads raising hairs at 20 paces, opening track 'Into The Blue' is an alluring statement. Adorned with breathing atmospherics and stately kicks, it builds perfectly on Roberto's previous work both on his own highly respected label Fossil Archives and other eminent imprints such as Emmanuel's Arts and Dehnert's Fachwerk as a fusion of contrasts and shades.

'DX Waves' takes us up a gear as it heads nose-first into a techno vortex. Relentless, driving and hypnotic, there's a pneumatic funk to the drums while the riff ripples and stimulates with a warmth and fluidity that instantly recalls the legacy of Motor City while remaining plotted to a path of its own.

This sense of unbridled drive and energy continues on Roberto's final original of the EP: 'Chord Recall'. Here the drums take more of a central position on the stage as the warped, melting tones and textures wrap themselves around the punctuated kicks and occasional deep-splash cymbals. Laced with a deep sense of space and a bewildering sensation of an unknown destination, it s another innovative voyage for Solar Phenomena that's brought home with an exciting revision conclusion from the one and only Peverelist.

A Bristol beat explorer who needs no introduction, Peverelist's take on 'Chord Recall' takes off where his recent album 'Tessellations' left us at the start of the summer. With his loose broken drum signature, Peverelist provides space for Roberto's original textured elements to take place at the centre of the stage and roam and evolve freely and hypnotically. A fitting end to another exceptional and innovative exploration, both Roberto's originals and Peverelist's remix set us up eagerly for the next Solar Phenomena chapter

Brewing another supremely heavy release on the horizon, Moonshine Recordings is stealing the spotlight once again. Proudly presenting Violinbwoy's first solo album, unadulterated sound system pressure at its finest. Slavic chants and drum rhythms meet the unrivaled power of Violinbwoy's eccentric take on modern bass music 'Fyetisov' kicks off the stellar 3x12" release with a high-powered Stepper emission. Setting the tone with a rumbling bassline and supremely energetic lead instrumentation, full force sound system music down to its core. Shining in a different light, 'Moonspell' reveals its melancholic nature gradually intensifying through otherworldly percussion and anthemic vocal sample placements. Stripped down to its bare bones,'Dubplate' unleashes its detuned, percussive shackles for a massive onslaught of four-to-the-floor, while keeping true to Jamaica's music roots. Warbling tape echo spheres and excellence in emotive expression Violinbwoy's collaboration with singer Marina P turns out to be an anthem by itself enthralling, whoever gets caught into the midst of this hymn of a track. Not backing down one step from the established level of quality, 'Sound System' featuring Junior Dread excels once more in a crystal-clear demonstration of modern roots music mandatory repeat listening. Rejoicing in simplicity, 'Rig Alert' holds true to what the name suggests - cinematic bass meditation, fluidly scaling with the size of its speaker counterpart. Moving on to Dan s vocal skills in 'Wanted': Rastafarian wisdom chanting along a skanking rhythm and orchestral atmosphere. Ethereal bells being submerged in moving air and scattered white noise, 'Run & Hide' demonstrates a more experimental side within the LP exhibiting Downtempo/Ambient inclinations in a magnificent combination with Dub characteristics, only increasing in energy to the call of the dub siren. Ready for more, the title track 'dod' captures us within the expressive, introductory playing of the violin, deserting it for echoes and sub oscillations alike. Calling upon the prowess of Rider Shafique, his harmonic toasting is being escorted by a forward-minded halftime groove in 'Find The Way'. Topping the LP off with Sis' excellence in telling a story through song on a hypnotic instrumental. The nature of last tunes is often powerful, serving to concede with an explosion, appropriate of the session as is the case with 'Surfacing' closing off the monumental EP with visceral lead movements, setting the tone alongside driving drums and one more murderous bassline, sure of receiving countless rewinds in the near future. Encompassing a plethora of current Roots- Dub- and Steppa- influenced styles, Moonshine's next LP installment is sure to be received for what it is: a definitive, quality expedition of what's firing up dance floors around the globe.

2022 Repress

HQ Gatefold, 3x12 140g Vinyl, black innersleeve, download code
EXTRAWELT are back! Although in fairness, they were never gone. On the contrary, since their first release on James Holden's Border Community Label dropped in 2005, Arne Schaffhausen and Wayan Raabe have been responsible for a plethora of classics including "Schöne Neue Extrawelt" and "In Aufruhr", their two seminal albums on Cocoon Recordings. The duo are one of the most booked live acts worldwide, commanding a huge fan base. Their performances are the stuff of legend, making them the absolute highlight at every club and festival they play. So it's with great pride and respect, that we can announce the release of Extrawelt's third album for Cocoon Recordings. "Fear Of An Extra Planet" completes the Cocoon trilogy and the excitement growing among their fans represents a new high in the history of EXTRAWELT!
Musically, of course, there's enormous pressure on EXTRAWELT to deliver, but this is dismissed with a playful disregard and they are clearly focused on the job in hand. The album title "Fear Of An Extra Planet" sounds cinematic, like some art-house science fiction film, without giving too much away.
However, from the first seconds of the opening track "Superposition", the album title makes 100% sense and sets the scene for the rest of the trip. We are immersed in wide open spaces and invited to explore dark and dusky worlds that transport us back to their Border Community years. Timeless and elegant, "Superposition" perfectly captures the epic, dream like quality that made James Holden's label so influential.
New Release Information Second up, "Gott ist Schrott" takes a much more minimalist approach with its retro 80s drum programming, monster bass lurking in the breaks and playful Rhodes/synth riffs that span the divide between early German techno and deep Detroit electro with a distinctive film soundtrack aesthetic. "Oddification" continues this theme, adding extra spice reminiscent of the techno-synth vibe of Detroit with a punchy, almost Prodigy-style breakbeat complete with shredded vocal samples that gives us a taste of what's in store. "Gentle Venom" then takes the breakbeat motif to the next stage. The main focus here is the classy sprinter of a bassline, peppered with a flurry of intricate and subtle effects and modulations, that immediately trigger an intense, movie-like 'in pursuit' feeling.
With - Das Grosse Flimmern" we cautiously approach the album's high point. It's still in keeping with the soundtrack aesthetics, but faster and with more urgency. Almost hypnotically, Extrawelt invade us with an energy and impetus that always radiates from their music. Next in line is "Silly Idol" and here Arne Schaffhausen and Wayan Raabe opt again for a more minimal tack, focusing even more intensely on the dance floor to reveal a pulsing, twisted heart to the album.
"Punch The Dragon" is the hidden gem of the collection, utilising and melting together the most bombastic and playful elements. This one is totally off the hook, a sensory overload in an acoustic widescreen format! Then we have the title track "Fear Of An Extra Planet" which perfectly sums up the album concept. It opens up like a film score, with minimal passages following dark sequences that morph into dreamy melodies, all grounded by cool, constantly alternating analogue drum patterns. If you're not listening closely, you might get the impression that three or four different titles are mixed together; such is the effortless flow of the album.
As we near our destination, "The Friendly Coroner" really does honour its name. The morbid charm of the title is captured by a fluid bassline and melodic arrangements that border on the absurd, until the funky drum beat finally drops. In our mind's eye we see a cheerful medical doctor removing his bloody gloves, hanging his smock in the closet and vibing out in his neon drenched workspace. And there we sit, glued to our cinema seat, submerged in the different textures EXTRAWELT have conjured up on "Fear Of An Extra Planet". Over the course of the last title, the strings usher in the final acknowledgments as the credits roll. The dramatic end of "2084" leaves us transfixed in front of a black screen in a large, dark room safe in the knowledge that we've just witnessed a science fiction epic.

* Once again, providing a context for exciting new producers to release their debut 12', Cold Recordings is proud to now bring you 'Cocktail Party Effect'. Hailing from a musical family Eric Baldwin, the currently Berlin based but British pro- ducer, shows off his colours here with a diverse, rhythmical, experimental - but always dance floor savvy - EP of 4 killer cuts, all rolling out between 125-130bpm.

* The title track 'Battered' leads the EP , kicking things off with a glitching set of electronics , setting a curious mood ,be- fore dropping into a crazed rhythmical explosion, fidgety and erratic, but somehow glued together in a fluid, propelling motion. 'OOYFM' takes things into slightly more typical UK bass music territory, rolling out techno ingredients, a grimey UK bassline with broken-beat rhythmical dynamics that also hint at UK-Garage influences.

* Flip the vinyl for the second half of the EP and you'll find 'Intens' taking up a stance that sits somewhere between dancehall and techno, rolling and smashing its way as it goes along, while descending electronic motifs cascade in sympathy. Finally the EP closes with 'I Kno3' which pulls back on the instant gratification factors but hits out instead with a moody, bass driven and percussively expressive exit track.

This obscure and difficult to find LP is the Heath Brothers' debut album and is considered to be their best. 'Marchin'on' is unquestionably a masterpiece and is a much sought-after album. With its wealth of riffs, it is much appreciated by samplers and has been sampled by various contemporary artists. It was originally released in 1976 on Strata-East, a label at the time co-owned by Stanley Cowell. The album flows fluidly, meticulously in a warm rich blend with the four part 'smilin' Billy suite being a tour de force on its own. All suites have the same anchor in melody but each branches out to its own distinctive song varying from relaxed to light to dramatic and upbeat. The Heath Brothers was formed in 1975 by brothers Jimmy, Percy, Albert Heath and the much celebrated pianist Stanley Cowell in Philadelphia. The band later on continued with the brothers and alternate new members, with at one point the very talented 'Mtume' who is Jimmy Heath's son, joining. - Rachel Kinoti

Oberst & Buchner are next up on Freeride Millenium and the two Bavaria born, Vienna based producers deliver an EP that offers their interpretation of what 'modern summer togetherness sounds like.' The talented pair started making music together aged 15 and aim to cook up emotionally driven jams. They do so on labels like Heimlich, Underyourskin Records, Schönbrunner Perlen, Lokd, and always get the juices going, as they do once again here. Beginning with the brilliant 'Greg' we dive into a breakbeat bath of summery chords as playful claves dance on the horizon. It is a melodically rich track with spiritual feelings that really bliss you out. On the moodier 'Emile' night time arrives and warm chords mix with jangling, organic glass and percussive tinkles that reflect rays of light. It's a perfectly jazzy and loose number that really suspends you in a rueful place. Last but not least, 'Embrace' is a fluid intergalactic convention with sparse drum kicks weighed down by sombre synths. A skittish, dubstep style groove then comes in and elevates the track with gentle guitar licks and slithering synths adding colour, and overall it has the same zoned out feel as a thousand-yard stare. This is a brilliant mood EP that mixes up the synthetic with the organic, creating some fascinating grooves as a result. The release once again features original artwork from the ever talented Daniel Rajcsanyi. Thanks for purchasing a real copy!

Welcome to Mateo & Matos under their acronym of "Raw Elements". "Raw Basics" is the first of two re-issue which will be released on Flash Forward licensed from Final Cut Records ! Timeless classic deep house with strong bassline, with hypnotizing ghetto vibes & jackin fluids from the Yorker duo that fear no dancefloor !

Ekoplekz returns with his fourth album for Planet Mu, in the shape of 10-tracker "Bioprodukt". The unique lo-fi, woozy sound of Bristol's Nick Edwards stays intact while he veers towards the nineties for inspiration: the bleep and bass sound of the north of England is one touchpoint and the acid gurgles of the 303 are another. While the murky lo-fi production levels and evocative melodies remain, they are now bolstered by a more muscular rhythmic chassis. Snappier kicks and snares mingle with dense layers of percussion and deep undulating sub-basslines adding a funkier edge, as typified by opening track "Elevation" where playful beats interlock with breezy keyboard flourishes to create something uncharacteristically upbeat. Similarly, the gentle, fluid motion of "Slipstream" and "Calypzoid" represent some of the most appealingly chilled grooves in the Ekoplekz canon to date. But the darker-edged material remains. "Expedition" has a pensive, percussion-heavy feel whilst "Acrid Acid" is a dirt-encrusted slow-mo techno meltdown. "Transcience" displays the Ekoplekz trademark dub-fx in full flight over a driving lo-end, before "Descent" leads down to the final section, where the beats fade out, replaced by rippling layers of spectral ferric ambience on the epic "Low-X Over", before finishing with the radiant looped stasis of "Denier Daze". The albums shifting, mperfect patterns and muted colours are visually mirrored in the beautifully realised sleeve by the Print Project.

Cologne's electronic music community keeps on giving, drawing on a dense plethora of fresh talent ready to shake up our little big grassroots industry. The latest ace up the city's sleeve must be Tim Engelhardt, part of a new breed of incredibly versatile young producers that get their cues from all sorts of genres and listening situations, combining profound musical knowledge with intuitive playfulness and multiple perspectives on sound. In Tim's case, we're dealing with a solid pianist background - which becomes rather obvious in the great care he takes over harmonies and an expanded melodic structure. However, that's just one side of the story, as the organic fluidity and atmospheric dexterity of his music most certainly hark back to an upbringing among the rolling hills and sprawling forests of Germany's Westerwald - one of the country's best known mountain ranges that has already inspired artists such as Dominik Eulberg or Gabriel Ananda. Having released your first recordings at the tender age of 14 - as Tim did in 2012 - might put you in a 'wunderkind' category - a flattering, but ultimately risky proposition, finding many a prodigy overwhelmed with the dubious honour. Not so much our hero, who chose to put his skills to work: in only four years, he grew his portfolio with plenty outings on labels such as Traum Schallplatten, WIR, Babiczstyle, Amuse Gueule, Ostwind Records, Popart Music, Playmusic Productions, Parquet Recordings, Manual Music and more - but his breakthrough release was hands-down the 2015 EP 'Everything Is All You Have' on Steve Bug's iconic Poker Flat imprint, followed by 'Enigmatism' on the same label.

Conceived, as its predecessors, as the ideal musical accompaniment to a packed dance hall, "Blue Latin" reinterprets a musical genre - jazz, of course! - which even decades ago was considered the dance music 'par excellence', and delivers it, extremely modernized, to the present day, contaminated by Afro-Cuban, Brazilian and Latin-jazz elements, all made fluid, compelling and above all..., danceable! The almost-meditative "Incanto" combines spiritual jazz influences and African atmospheres.



[C} A3 | Mulata

Visible Cloaks' Reassemblage is a collection of delicately rendered passages of silence and sound that invokes - and invites - consciousness. The foundation of the duo's second album is gently poured upon the ground their musical predecessors explored, using the materials of chance operations, MIDI translation,' and other generative principles that favor inclusive musical environments over the narrowly constrained.

In 2010, Spencer Doran, one part of Visible Cloaks alongside Ryan Carlile, prepared the first volume of Fairlights, Mallets, and Bamboo, a mixtape indicated by Doran as an investigation into fourth-world undercurrents in Japanese ambient and pop music, years 1980 - 1986.' These mixes contextualized the outré orbit of Yellow Magic Orchestra-related solo projects and their abstract, radiant forays as forever futuristic modes of music.

Reassemblage evokes similar musical futures celebrated on the Fairlights mixes, but does so observantly rather than reverently. The title Reassemblage, for example, is taken from a film essay by Trinh T. Minh-ha, which explores the impossibility of ascribing meaning to ethnographic images. The author aims to speak nearby' rather than speak about.' In other words, to embrace lapses of understanding, and realize that the impulse to map direct meaning across a cultural gap often results in further disconnect.

In an effort to speak nearby' rather than speak about,' Visible Cloaks filters and forms source material to become young again. Often the duo strip tonal elements of their specificity or randomize melodies so they become stirring and lucid. Essential patterns emerge, conscious experience heightens. In these moments, the musical language of Reassemblage finds unlimited resonance and presents a path to uninhabited realities.

The origin of this language could be described as translingual or polyglottal, working within the eastern / western feedback loop of influence, Fourth World ambiguity, and the universality of human emotion. Incorporating an international array of virtual instruments to advance the idea of panglobalism through digital simulation, tones and colors cohere into a living, breathing pool of sensorial experience in Visible Cloaks' environs.

Beyond embracing the fluidity of worldly musical influences, Visible Cloaks works fluently between mediums. The contribution of stalwart digital and installation artist Brenna Murphy's dream dimensions to Reassemblage's cover artwork and surrounding videos extends the album's exploration of global headspace into a visual, visceral reality.

The debut vinyl release of Detroit underground mainstay Sterling Toles features tracks produced between 1998 and 2006, recently unearthed by Sector 7-G Recordings. Sterling emerges from a scene of producers that prided themselves on sampling distressed vinyl and lo-fi analog production as a reflection of the mental and physical environment of the post-industrial city. Sterling carries that sonic dialect with him as he nomadically incorporates the language of other genres, variously exploring soul, ambient, Detroit techno, and folk sensibilities. From the ambient/folk impressions of "grace, i will now let go..." to "inga 135" sounding like 90's jazz-inspired hip-hop having a ghettotech dream, "Archival Arteries" is grounded in the sonic palette associated with Detroit's ethereal and minimalist boom bap hip-hop style. These tracks hold the imprints of Detroit's expansive musical institutions such as The Electrifying Mojo, The New Dance Show, and CBC radio's Brave New Waves. Created with just an Ensonic EPS sampler and a VS 1880, this EP captures the fluid musings of this indelible artist

Remember how badly we wanted to join them and be part of those sea-faring adventures: Jack London’s The Sea-Wolf, classic TV shows based on his novel The Road, on Radu Toduran’s novels... back then, a couple decades ago, the titles of these shows alone were enough to trigger some strong gusts in our hearts, salty squalls perfect for imaginary downwind journeys we dreamed of with billowing sails. We wanted to cruise alongside albatrosses, seagulls, and fellow sailors. Floating high above a three-masted vessel, we watched our own adventures unfold far below, an imagined movie scene complete with a whole crew that worked the rigging, and all the rest. Cutting waves. Amidst the storm and stress of sounds hitting our eardrums far out in the ocean. Combined with the sounds of rotors, of tropics crossed, of marimbas and cabin wood pounded, of strange music spotted in the distance. And even though it was merely for an hour or two that we were rescued by that seal-hunting ship “Ghost,” as Jack London had it, plus, even worse, often found ourselves surrounded by villains: it was a great escape, for we’d successfully set sails – to new and exciting places.

Both around their own Weilheim shores and elsewhere, brothers Markus and Micha Acher have launched various musical vessels, bands and free-floating constellations over the past three decades – and yet: amid all these other speedboats and unlikely sonic barges, The Notwist has always remained the mother ship. This new album documents the latest live incarnation of this very band, which also features Andi Haberl, Max Punktezahl, Karl Ivar Refseth, and Cico Beck. Recorded on December 16, 2015 on the second of three consecutive, sold-out nights at UT Connewitz in Leipzig, Germany, "Superheroes, Ghost-Villains & Stuff" indeed feels like a first-hand live experience caught on triple vinyl. That’s why it’s the definitive album of The Notwist’s career.

Although there is one song that points to the early, “louder years” of The Notwist – “One Dark Love Poem” off the album Nook –, the rest of the night’s set sees the band perform all the major hits off Neon Golden, The Devil, You + Me, and Close To The Glass. However, these are different, organically enhanced versions, new interpretations and combinations that feel much more alive; thanks to Olaf Opal’s incredible mix, they sometimes even outshine the original studio recordings. Listening to "Superheroes, Ghost-Villains & Stuff" feels like watching these songs evolve and change, moving from one frame to the next, much like a baroque triptych.

What starts out like ‘wimmelbook’ imagery, the music soon folds and unfolds like a Moebius strip: Sans bottom or top, sans inside or outside, the inside becomes the outside and vice versa. It’s all about sonic interconnection, about music as entanglement, music as reconciliation. The rather majestic, cinematic (indie) pop and experimental, kraut- infused jazz, the spirit of the enlightenment and baroque playfulness, the traces of modernism and minimal music, dub leanings, hip-hop lessons, and even hints of house music: here is where they all come together, reconciled in a sound that’s both melancholy and romantic. And ultimately, the spirit of these songs is set free – and the band has released itself, is free at last.

As for the album title, it’s lifted from the song “Kong,” and encapsulates Markus Acher’s motto. Throughout the track, the water theme first appears as a dangerous threat: a force that’s strong enough to wash away an entire house; and yet the fluid state keeps transforming and eventually releases that sense of threat into something rather hopeful, a new musical beginning, a melodic departure that ultimately leads to euphoria and a renewed spirit of adventure. These are the strong gusts mentioned above, it’s the spirit of discovery, the urge to set sail together. The crew’s back at it, working the instruments, the rigging, with sails a- billow, launching the next voyage of discovery, assuming the East in the West and vice versa. And thus the adventure saga continues.

Pico Be (Das Weiße Pferd)

Our latest Looking for Mushrooms' EP comes to us from a collaboration between long time Dirt Crew resident Tigerskin and gifted jazz pianist and composer Grambow. We first heard from Grambow when his fluid key stylings featured on Tigerskin's Faint' in 2015. The title track is a suspenseful and moody journey, lead by live double bass from feature artist Das Eb". Building in intensity with Tigerskin's warm production and steady percussive instrumentation until Grambow's live lead on a gritty synth growls in over the top. A true modern electronic classic as far as we are concernred. Tsukiji' is a playful deep house groover. Balmy tuned percussion and shaken highs roll along under the light hearted piano which cruises along throughout the whole tropically touched endeavour. This track has Party' written all over it! Octocat' is a tougher italo disco tainted work out, tightly programmed live and analogue percussive elements push along, while wailing keys lick over a tenacious grunting bass. You can really taste and feel the long studio sessions the guys had to compose this great track. It is so much more than generic dance music. Red Fox' is a divine culmination of the pair's compositional prowess and dance music knowhow. A cinematic and spirited house track that glides and glistens via delicate piano, plucky percussive riffs, bright strings and woodwinds. We are very honoured to release this outstanding musical release by Tigerskin and Grambow.

It is certainly not a small feat to have an ambient compilation series running for over a decade and keep it fresh and interesting - especially when the core aesthetic idea is as well-defined as POP AMBIENT's. However, this didn't keep last year's instalment (KOMPAKT 315 CD 120) from finding a compelling balance between veteran contributors like JENS-UWE BEYER or LEANDRO FRESCO and new, idiosyncratic voices like MAX WÜRDEN or THORE PFEIFFER. They all return for POP AMBIENT 2016, joining a captivating cast that also includes heavy-weight soundsmiths, experimental composers and ambient confidants like THE ORB, ANTON KUBIKOV of SCSI-9 fame, MIKKEL METAL, GREGOR SCHWELLENBACH or STEPHAN MATHIEU.

Starting off with a surprise guest, POP AMBIENT 2016 presents electroacoustic composer and installation artist STEPHAN MATHIEU, whose highly textured opening drone APRIL IM OKTOBER bears all the hallmarks of a pop ambient classic, stealthily weaving in layers of sound and moving fluidly between territories. The man clearly knows what he's doing - after all, he has worked with luminaries like Taylor Dupree, Ekkehard Ehlers, Janek Schaefer or Sylvain Chauveau (see also Pop Ambient 2009). Meanwhile, THE ORB show off the full extent of their experience in the field and have their own little ambient collage opera going on in ALPINE DAWN - a slight detour from their beat-laden full-length MOONBUILDING 2703 AD (KOMPAKT 330 CD 124), but just on that same level of masterful sonic dexterity.

Moving forward, SCSI-9's ANTON KUBIKOV builds momentum with a sweet melody slowly evolving to the atmospheric backdrop of a light synth rain, while MAX WÜRDEN imagines a dreamy, yet twisted underwater world with lots of space to get lost in. He later returns for a collaboration with THORE PFEIFFER (not on vinyl), the other newcomer hero from Pop Ambient 2015, and the result is a fascinating amalgamation of both producer's distinct sonic sensibilities - the grittier, drone-based approach from Würden and Pfeiffer's penchant for roaming samples and skewed loops. Another dedicated collab comes from SICKER MAN & GREGOR SCHWELLENBACH who team up for string-infused, cinematic epic TURNS.

Longstanding Kompakt ally MIKKEL METAL presents the surging TITAN, followed by LEANDRO FRESCO's magistral rework of DAVE DK's VEIRA from his VAL MAIRA album (KOMPAKT 326 CD 121). A very special bonus adventure can be found in THORE PFEIFFER's "megamix" of WOLFGANG VOIGT's RÜCKVERZAUBERUNG (not on vinyl) - an entire concept series succesfully reimagined as one sweeping cut. JENS-UWE BEYER continues his expeditions into hypnotic, semi-acoustic soundscapes on THE BREMEN, transitioning into the windy mountaintops of LEANDRO FRESCO's mysterious, multi-layered CONFIGURACION DE ATAQUE (not on vinyl). THORE PFEIFFER has the honour to conclude POP AMBIENT 2016 with the appropriately titled IDYLL, a soothing, swirling synth study giving the listener ample opportunity to return to mundane reality at his own pace.

Introverted Dancefloor is Bevan Smith, a New Zealander who has released music under names like Signer and Aspen, and who has played in the Ruby Suns and Skallander throughout the last decade. His prior output has been spread over many international labels and has touched on sundry genres (like techno, IDM, folk, ambient) while featuring restraint and sophistication as compositional hallmarks.

As Introverted Dancefloor, Smith has kept those features as guiding principles while allowing a more propulsive low end to dominate the construction of this music, winding up with understated but energetic dance tracks. Gestation, too, is a prominent attribute of this music, though not necessarily an obvious one. Smith started these songs with hundreds of layers, which he then pared down to a few core elements before rebuilding again.

For Introverted Dancefloor, Smith limited himself to the use of two synthesizers, one mic, one filter, and one effects processer. This constraint is not obvious upon listening as the album works across the idioms of electro, Detroit techno, pop house, and leftfield disco, playing with the line between fluid melody and drum machine programming. Each track has a playlist as its scaffolding, Smith's goal being to filter a certain set of varied influences through just a couple of instruments. Metro Area's Miura' (Original Mix) turned into Introverted Dancefloor's Happiness is such a mess/Pipedream.' If there can be such a thing as a subtle banger, then Smith may have earned that distinction here. Take it high' seems to be a constant ascent with its climbing bass and layers of chords, relying on no hackneyed drops or releases for its crescendo. Smith's layering practices show their precision on tracks like Even if you try' and Tiger bones,' in which disparate elements contribute to pointed melodies, an unidentifiable percussive part entering the same expressive plane as a sung line.

One of the record's most striking features is Smith's inclusion of certain elements of a song in a neighboring one (vocals from Pipedream' in Happiness is such a mess,' a synth line from Even if you try' in Always turn your head') to lend a phantasmagorical effect to the procession, blurring the distinction between a track and its reprise. The result is a song cycle wrought from painstaking labor, while nonetheless retaining core values of amorphousness and motion.

Saxophonist Sean Khan is a multi-instrumentalist distinguished for his ability to fuse traditional jazz with contemporary styles. His involvement in the West London broken beat scene as band leader of the cult soul/ jazz outfit SK Radicals and as a collaborator with the likes of the Bugz in the Attic collective, have seen his unique breed of jazz put to full effect in London's clubs, at nights like the legendary bruk orientated 'CoOp'.

In anticipation of Sean Khan's second album on Far Out Recordings: 'Muriel', this four track 12' release features remixes from 4hero and Nicola Conte with father of British Neo-Soul, Omar on vocal duties. 'Don't Let The Sun Go Down' is uplifting and sophisticated dance-floor jazz. Dego and Marc Mac (4hero), two pioneers of broken beat, jungle and UK dance music as a whole, re-work the single from 'Muriel' into a delicately crafted downtempo number, which tames the original somewhat with club focused intentions, yet retains all of its fluidity and groove. Along with the eminence of rhythmic elements, Omar's instantly recognizable, thick and soulful vocals are sparsely and subtly layered to create beguiling, unconventional harmonies. Elevating the track to its peak, Sean Khan's exquisite alto sax solo demonstrates both his technical prowess and keen understanding of jazz's history, whilst working to carve out its future. The B side hosts Nicola Conte's remix of 'Things to Say'. Renowned for his input and influence in the lineage of acid jazz and fusion, as a producer, Dj and musician, Nicola Conte provides a deeper, darker take on Sean Khan's unique blend of jazz. A bouncy 4/4 house beat skips along beneath contemplative, whirring Rhodes, while the ghostly soulful vocals of Diana Martinez and samples of Sean Khan's expressive sax playing see the track taken to more introspective yet still clearly club focused territory. The final track is the intro to 'Sister Soul', previewing more material from Muriel, Sean Khan's forthcoming studio album on Far Out Recordings.

Building upon the foundations laid by his stunning debut single for the label, 'Theme Park / Off Topic', Blu Mar Ten Music is proud to
present the second single from prodigiously talented young producer Frederic Robinson's forthcoming album, 'Mixed Signals'. A
natural successor to the aforementioned single, the two tracks on offer here, 'Bloom' featuring Stray and 'Shore', give a further insight
into the depth and diversity of his work and what you can expect from his debut long player when it drops later this year.
On 'Bloom' Robinson teams up with experimental electronic producer and fellow BMTM alumnus Stray, for a characteristically
forward-thinking and unique exploration of 170bpm's outer possibilities. Built around a skittering tribal rhythm, lush synths and
acoustic instrumentation weave in and out of the track's skeleton over a deep b-line punctuated by elegantly cut ethereal vocals. With
the pair fluidly building and deconstructing layers as the track evolves and effortlessly shifts grooves, the track's nuances make it as
compelling for home listening as it is fresh on the dance floor.
This is paired with the delicate percussive timbres and rich ambience of down tempo offering 'Shore'. Here Robinson's off-kilter,
organic rhythms combine with a dense patchwork of piano, strings and natural textures to create a track that is as beautiful as it is
haunting, aided by the distant call of Robinson's own vocals.
Already receiving support from revered taste makers such as Giles Peterson, Mary Anne Hobbs and London Electricity, the depth and
quality of Robinson's music is quickly starting to make people stand up and take notice. Quickly proving himself to be an inimitable
talent, the new single is a worthy addition to his musical canon.

MCDE proudly presents the debut works of 22 year-old Canadian, Michael Gracioppo. Featuring a remix from Fred P (Mule / Underground Quality)..very limited edition.
The label's first 10-inch is headed by My So-Called Friends-the Montrealers deeply personal ode to an over-indulgent past lover.

The fluid drum work and violent bass line sit alongside the words of a punkesque inspired vocal sample. My So-Called Friends tells the story of a sincere and vulnerable young woman facing an inner battle between excessiveness and self-restraint. These drugs they are making me so sad I can't stop taking them.

A2 is a testament of Gracioppo's focus on maintaining a balance between songwriting and sound design.
Sailing unpredictably back and forth in tempo, A2 has been left untitled so as not to taint the piece.

Enlisted on remix duties, the always excellent Fred P flawlessly Reshapes Gracioppo's A1 into a hymn suited for the early morning comedowns.
Fred Ps vibrant pads resonate up and down in frequency and wrap the wavering vocal in warmth and comfort.

Two amazing tunes from a big collab from Von D & DJ Madd on the Parisian label Lutetia Dubz. Soothing deep grooves with low slung bass.
A Von D & DJ Madd - Cold Night
AA Von D & DJ Madd - Fluid