Black Truffle is thrilled to present a Song for two Mothers / Occam IX the first ever solo release from Laetitia Sonami. Born in France in 1957, Sonami studied with Éliane Radigue in Paris before moving to California in 1978 to study electronic music at Mills College, going on to make important innovations in the field of live electronics interfaces and multi-media performance. Sonami is perhaps most closely associated with one of her inventions, the Lady’s Glove, an arm-length tailored glove fitted with movement sensors allowing the performer fluidly to control digital sound parameters and processing, as well as motors, lights and video playback. Having performed with the Lady’s Glove for 25 years, Sonami retired it in 2016, turning her attention to the interface/instrument heard and pictured here, the Spring Sprye.
In Sonami’s own description, “The Spring Spyre is composed of three thin springs that are attached to reverb tank pickups, mounted on a metal ring. The audio generated when the springs are touched, rubbed or struck is analyzed in Max/MSP. The extracted features are then used to train machine learning models in Wekinator and Rapidmax and control the audio synthesis in real time. We never actually hear the springs.” After decades of aversion to documenting her work on recordings, a Song for two Mothers / Occam IX treats listeners to two side-long performances with the Spring Spyre: the very first piece developed for the instrument and the most recent, the two contrasting remarkably in sound palette, energy and form. A Song for two Mothers (2023) spins an intricate web of rippling synthetic burbles, rapid sweeps and fizzing textures. Performed in real time with the sensitive and partly uncontrollable Spring Sprye ("a bit tyrannical," Sonami calls it), the music is delicate yet chaotic. Abrupt gestures hover against a backdrop of silence, "devoid of spatial or temporal direction". After several minutes, the sound-world becomes metallic and percussive, tapping and ticking in pointillistic flurries before a wavering harmonic cloud emerges, sprinkled with resonant drips and pops.
Occam IX is a radically different proposition. At the outset of Sonami’s exploration of the Spring Sprye, she asked her former teacher Éliane Radigue to compose a piece for it—and her: like all of Radigue’s work since she ceased working with analogue electronics at the beginning of the 21st century, Occam IX is written not only for an instrument but also for a particular performer. These scores are developed verbally, through meetings and conversations between performer and composer; each is grounded in an image (usually kept from listeners, to avoid influencing their experience); all magnify the subtlest acoustic phenomena and require great commitment and patience from the performer. Sonami’s is one of the few Occam pieces to make use of electronics, bringing it closer to Radigue’s famous longform pieces for ARP 2500. Beginning from a rumbling low tone, the listener is gradually immersed in slowly lapping waves of synthetic tones, eventually thinning out into delicate bell-like pings against a background of white noise, reminiscent of one of the most beautiful sections of Kyema from the Trilogie de la Morte.
Accompanied by notes from Sonami, her longtime collaborator Paul DeMarinis, and Radigue, and illustrated with scores, photographs and images of the Spring Spyre, a Song for two Mothers / Occam IX is an essential document celebrating an under-recognised pioneer of electronic music and performance.
Cerca:the models
UNSURPASSED SPACIOUSNESS, IMAGING, AND TRANSPARENCY: MASTERED FROM THE ORIGINAL TAPES, MUSIC EMERGES WITH NEW DETAILS AND TONES
1/2" / 30 IPS analogue master - Plangent Processed - to DXD to analogue console to lathe
Love Over Gold is all about contrast, tension, and crafty composition. Dire Straits' fourth album finds the band continuing to evolve by welcoming increasingly bold arrangements and exploring moody variations. Parts edgy and sharp, and part seductive and relaxed, the five lengthy songs on Love Over Gold sprawl out like a long, winding road cutting through a pastoral landscape. The addition of a new rhythm guitarist, Hal Lindes, encourages deeper atmospheric interplay while the presence of engineer Neil Dorfsman – his first appearance in what would be a long string of collaborations with Mark Knopfler – ensures stunning sonic properties that now come to life like never before.
Mastered from the original master tapes and pressed at RTI, Mobile Fidelity's 180g 45RPM 2LP version of Love Over Gold teems with superb balances, front-to-back soundstages, and crystalline purity. The dead-quiet surfaces and extra-wide grooves bring forward previously obscured details, extra information, and mastering-studio-quality transients. The distinctive textures of a host of instruments – marimbas, acoustic and electric guitars, vibes, synthesizers – further enhance the ambitiousness of the 1982 album.
On this audiophile pressing, everything Knopfler does seemingly turn to gold. Gearheads will hear the unique characteristics afforded by his use of a Mesa Boogie Mark II guitar amplifier (soon again employed on Brothers in Arms) and carefully chosen selection of Schecter Stratocasters, 1937 National steel guitar, and Ovation six- and twelve-string models. Reference-level separation and lifelike imaging place Knopfler and company in your room, while tube-like warmth, spaciousness, and airiness causes the music to breathe anew. This LP will be in your rotation for months.
It doesn't take long to realize Love Over Gold is like no other Dire Straits album – and a staunch proclamation of independence from a band that continued to take longer creative strides with each successive project. Fearlessly extending over metaphoric hills, valleys, and plains for nearly 14-and-a-half minutes, the opening "Telegraph Road" is a guitar hero's dream and exhilarating showcase for Lindes' give-and-take capabilities. In tandem with keyboardist Alan Clark, Lindes provides the ideal foil for not only Knopfler but the long-time rhythm section of bassist John Illsley and drummer Pick Withers.
Taking its time to arrive at destinations, the quintet paints evocative musical and lyrical portraits steeped in patience, drama, and, often times, sadness. Desolate emotions colour the sweeping "Telegraph Road" and barren "Private Investigations," which finds Knopfler in the role of a tired private eye contemplating the emptiness and scars of his profession. Vocally, the Dire Straits leader remains in top form throughout, his whiskey-coated rasp conveying romantic ache, ongoing frustration, and what Rolling Stone beautifully deemed "wracking schizophrenia between the heart and the heartless, the loving and the pain."
Called Dire Straits' prog-rock statement, Love Over Gold is a classic that defies labelling and avoids ageing.
4-channel rotary mixer with 3-band frequency isolator and filter section for DJs
OMNITRONIC TRM-422: THE ROTARY MIXER ON A NEW LEVEL
The desired child
Omnitronic's popular TRM series has been expanded: the TRM-422 combines all the proven features of the previous models, but additionally offers functions that numerous fans had wished for. During the development of the mixer, the focus was on the demands and suggestions of the community.
FULL CONTROL
Each of the 4 input channels has 2 line inputs, one of which can become a phono input at the touch of a button. The channels are each equipped with a volume as well as a gain control. In addition to the master isolator (bass, mid & high), the DJ has the option to activate a filter with HPF, BPF, LPF, resonance and sweep controls in each of the 4 input channels.
The master output is available to the DJ in both XLR and RCA versions.
EFFECT WAYS
The use of external effect devices is possible through an FX-In and FX-Out via 6.3 mm jack. The mixer's master insert is also equipped with a send & return (unbalanced) path. This allows additional external effects to be looped into the mixer.
DVS INTEGRATION
The mixer's timecode outputs allow easy integration of a DVS system (Digital Vinyl System) such as Traktor or Serato.
MONITOR SECTION
The booth output of the TRM-422 is provided with one XLR and one RCA connector. The signal of the booth output can be easily adjusted to the conditions in the DJ booth with the help of an EQ (High & Low).
MICROPHONE INPUTS
The TRM-422 offers 2 microphone inputs. The first mic input gives the DJ the ability to modify the mic signal with EQ (high & low).
BACKUP SOURCE
With the help of the AUX input on the front panel, players such as smartphones, tablets or MP3 players can easily be connected via mini-jack (3.5 mm) and thus serve as a backup solution.
ACTIVATABLE CROSSFADER
If you don't want to do without a crossfader during your DJ set, you have the option to assign each of the 4 channels to the integrated crossfader. If the crossfader is not used, it can easily be switched off.
SET RECORDING
The RCA record-out makes it easy to record your own DJ set.
FEATURES
4-channel rotary mixer with 3-band frequency isolator and filter section for DJs
3-band master frequency isolator with vintage ALPS potentiometers (Blue Velvet RK27)
Kill cut feature allows DJs to completely remove low, mid and high frequencies for amazing mixing
Filter section with HPF, BPF, LPF, resonance and sweep control for creative sound shaping
4 stereo input channels with gain control, clip LED, 3-way equalizer and phono/line switching
2 microphone input channels with gain control, 2-way equalizer on air switch
High-grade components ensure long life and excellent sound quality
16-digit stereo LED level meter, switchable between master and booth outputs
Booth output with separate 2-way equalizer and level control
PFL section with 16-digit stereo LED level meter, level control, PFL/master mix control and cue mix/split option
Fully assignable VCA crossfader with adjustable curve
2 effects send/return paths
4 direct outputs for Timecode applications
Inputs: 8 x line and 4 x phono (RCA L/R), 1 x front aux (mini jack)
Outputs: master and booth (XLR/RCA L/R), record (RCA L/R), master insert send/return (RCA L/R), FX in/out (stereo jack)
483 mm rack installation possible with supplied mounting brackets
Desktop console housing
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
Power supply: 100-240 V AC, 50/60 Hz
Power consumption: 24 W
Protection class: Class I
Power connection: Mains input IEC connector (M) mounting version Power supply cord with safety plug (provided)
Frequency range: Microphone 20 - 20000 Hz
Line 20 - 20000 Hz
Phono 40 - 18000 Hz
S/N ratio: >97,2 dB line
>91,7 dB Microphone
THD: Line -68 dB
Control elements: Power switch, source selector, Crossfader, Crossfader selector switch, Crossfade curve switch; Cue mix split function, EQ controls
Status LED: Power, master level meter, clip, CUE
Connections: Input: 4 x line via stereo RCA
Input: 4 x line/phono via stereo RCA
Input: 2 x Microphone via 3-pin XLR
Output: 1 x headphones via 6.3 mm jack socket (stereo) mounting version
Output: 1 x headphones via 3.5 mm jack (stereo) mounting version
Output: 1 x rec. via stereo RCA
Output: 2 x booth via 3-pin XLR
Output: 1 x booth via stereo RCA
Output: 2 x master via 3-pin XLR
Output: 1 x master via stereo RCA
Output: 1 x AUX sends via 6.3 mm jack socket (stereo) mounting version
Output: 1 x AUX returns via 6.3 mm jack socket (stereo) mounting version
Chanals: Input chanel: 4 x stereo with Line-Line/Phono switch via RCA, channel control via Rotary, 3-band tone control EQ, source selector, gain control, CUE switch, FX routing switch, Crossfader selector switch,
Microphon chanal: 2 x mono via XLR, channel control via Rotary dial, ON AIR switch,
Master output: 2 x stereo via XLR, channel control via Rotary
Booth output: 2 x stereo via XLR, channel control via Rotary
Rec. output: 1 x stereo via RCA
Headphones output: 1 x stereo via Plug 6,3mm/3,5mm (Jack), channel control via Rotary dial, Cue mix split function,
Max. level: Output: +18 dBu
Material: Metal
Housing design: Desktop console housing
Dimensions: Width: 41 cm
Depth: 28,5 cm
Height: 10,5 cm
Weight: 5,74 kg
A song is a song until it isn't, until it's pushed to its limits and beyond to become harder, faster and more dissonant. The music on Oneida's 17th full-length album, Expensive Air, all started as tightly structured, melodic rock songs _ very much in line with the non-stop bangers of Success from 2022 _ but along the way, they changed. Bobby Matador sketched the structures of these songs from his home base in Boston, then sent the demos to Oneida's New York contingent: Kid Millions, Hanoi Jane, Shahin Motia and Barry London. "We were working out the songs in New York without Bobby. We would start out riding the riffs, and then Shahin and Jane would add wild, out-of-tune licks," said Kid Millions. "It seemed so perfect." Oneida has long straddled gray-area boundaries between the NYC punk/psych/rock world and the art/experimental world, playing at gritty rock clubs and elevated cultural institutions, including the Guggenheim, MoMA PS1, ICA London, MassMOCA and the Knoxville Museum of Art. The band has been known for extended live improvisational performances, collaborating onstage with Mike Watt, members of Flaming Lips, Portishead, Boredoms, Yo La Tengo, Dead C, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and many others. Oneida's members juggle a wide variety of other music projects. Drummer Kid Millions has played with Spiritualized, Royal Trux and Boredoms and releases solo compositions under his own name and as Man Forever. Shahin Motia founded noise - punk's Ex-Models and currently plays in Knyfe Hits. Kid and Fat Bobby perform and release music as People of the North, and Bobby's outside projects New Pope and Nurse & Soldier each released new albums in 2023. Oneida's previous album, Success, came after a four-year hiatus, unleashing the band's pent up creative energy in a set of catchy, accessible, nearly poppy songs. Song structure remained important in the run up towards Expensive Air, but so was the instinctual, improvisatory interplay that has always been a part of Oneida's process. The band had been playing live together for two years, sharpening its attack and pushing its songs to go harder, faster and wilder. Oneida recorded Expensive Air in three sessions scattered across 2023, convening at Colin Marston's Menegroth The Thousand Caves studio in Woodhaven, Queens, whenever they had a few songs ready. Marston and the band mixed the album in February 2024 at Menegroth. The new album expands on what Oneida achieved with Success, but also pushes past it, laying down irresistible song structures then blowing them to psychedelic bits. "I found myself thinking about this record as a darker, looser, louder, counterpart to Success," Bobby explains. "Both records charge forward from the jump and mix the elliptical with the blunt, and longing with self-mockery. But Success is like laughing in a car gunning carelessly through an ice storm, and Expensive Air is how you laugh at yourself as the car spins into the ditch, or a tree. Same trip, but a little closer to the bone."
- A1: This Version Of You
- A2: Behind The Sun
- A3: All We Need (Odesza Vip Remix)
- A4: Love Letter (Odesza Vip Remix)
- A5: Say My Name X Late Night
- B1: In The Rain
- B2: One Day They'll Know (Odesza Vip Remix)
- B3: Wide Awake (Feat. Charlie Houston)
- B4: Bloom (Odesza Vip Remix)
- B5: Equal X Boy
- C1: All My Life
- C2: Better Now (Feat. Maro)
- C3: Line Of Sight (Feat. Mansionair & Naomi Wild)
- C4: Forgive Me (Feat. Izzy Bizu) (Odesza Vip Remix)
- C5: La Ciudad (Odesza Vip Remix)
- D1: Selfish Soul (Feat. Sudan Archives) (Odesza Vip Remix)
- D2: Tense
- D3: Keep Moving
- D4: Sun Models (Odesza Vip Remix)
- D5: Hopeful
- E1: Across The Room X Falls (Odesza Vip Remix)
- E2: Loyal
- E3: Don't Stop (Odesza Vip Remix)
- E4: Just A Memory (Interlude)
- F3: The Last Goodbye
- F1: Higher Ground (Feat. Naomi Wild)
- F2: A Moment Apart (Odesza Vip Remix)
Zum ersten Mal in ihrer Karriere werden ODESZA Live-Versionen ihrer Songs als ein zusammenhängendes Album veröffentlichen, das die fast unbeschreibliche Magie ihrer ausgedehnten und eindringlichen Konzerterfahrung zum Leben erweckt. Das Album wird auf 3LP Ghostly Clear Vinyl in einem maßgeschneiderten Trifold-Sleeve mit einer Ausstanzung in der Mitte erscheinen. Das Paket enthält drei austauschbare, matt lackierte Innenhüllen, die es den Fans ermöglichen, ihr eigenes Cover zu wählen. Vorbestellungen sind ab sofort im ODESZA-Store möglich. Produziert von ODESZA (bestehend aus Harrison Mills und Clayton Knight), wurde „The Last Goodbye Tour Live“ während ihrer monumentalen „The Last Goodbye Tour“ 2022 und '23 aufgenommen, der ersten Amphitheater-Tournee, die jemals von einer elektronischen Band unternommen wurde. Fast jeder Song wurde für die Live-Show überarbeitet und neu arrangiert, und die Kreativität und der Einfallsreichtum von ODESZA sind auf dem Album deutlich zu hören. „The Last Goodbye Tour Live“ ist komplett mit der bekannten ODESZA-Drumline, zwei Bläser:innen und einer wechselnden Besetzung von Sänger:innen wie Naomi Wild, Sudan Archives, Izzy Bizu, MARO, Mansionair und Charlie Houston. Das kommende Live-Album wird zeigen, warum ODESZA zu einem Live-Musik-Muss geworden sind, da sie in den letzten Jahren als Headliner bei fast jedem großen US-Musikfestival aufgetreten sind (einschließlich Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, Outside Lands, Austin City Limits, Electric Forest, Governors Ball Music Festival und anderen). Das Live-Album wird vor der großen „The Last Goodbye Tour“-Finale von ODESZA erscheinen, das diesen Sommer stattfindet und das unglaubliche aktuelle Kapitel ihrer Karriere mit einem großen Höhepunkt beenden, mit zahlreichen Terminen, von denen viele ausverkauft sind, in kultigen Venues wie Madison Square Garden, The Greek Theatre Berkeley, BMO Stadium, The Gorge und Folsom Field.
Black Truffle is thrilled to present the first vinyl reissue of David Rosenboom’s unique Future Travel, originally released on the short-lived Detroit label Street Records in 1981 and here presented in an expanded edition with an additional LP of wild, previously unheard live and studio material from the same period.
Future Travel emerged from the confluence of two important streams in Rosenboom’s work at this time. First, his exploration of ‘propositional music’, defined as ‘complete cognitive models of music’ that start from the radical question, ‘What is music?’ In this case, the music belongs to the universe of Rosenboom’s In the Beginning (1978-1981), in which proportional relationships determine the material available to the composer in all musical parameters (harmonic relationships, melodic shapes, rhythmic subdivisions, dynamics, and so on). Second, the work documents a key moment in Rosenboom’s long collaboration with synthesizer pioneer Don Buchla. Having played a role in developing concepts for some of the modules of the Buchla 300 Series Electric Music Box (an innovative analogue modular system controlled by micro-processors), Rosenboom went on to write the software for Buchla’s hybrid analogue-digital keyboard synthesiser, the Touché, the instrument heard most prominently here.
In a way that no purely analogue synthesizer could, the 300 Series and Touché allowed Rosenboom to work with the In the Beginning algorithms in real time, the synthesizers becoming ‘intelligent instruments’ that actively collaborate with the performer. Developing the open structures of the electronic pieces from In the Beginning, Future Travel explored the possibilities of simply ‘playing the system’, recording live at Francis Ford Coppola’s Zoetrope studio in San Francisco. Working from loose sketches, Rosenboom added acoustic instruments to the electronic sounds and, on some pieces, the processed voice of Jacqueline Humbert. Like Rosenboom’s collaboration with Humbert on the abstracted synth-chanson of Daytime Viewing, this music set out deliberately to challenge the ‘stratified and illusorily coagulated identities in the musical culture of the time,’ refusing distinctions between ‘serious’ and popular music. But where Daytime Viewing achieves this in part through genre references, Future Travel is bracingly sui generis, existing in a unique universe where radical formalisation à la Xenakis spontaneously gives rise to expressive jazz harmonies and old-timey folk melodies.
The crystalline quality of many of the Touché sounds gives Future Travel a sparkling, immediately enticing surface, its layers of shifting ostinato patterns pulsating outside conventional meter, rippling like waves on the surface of water. On opener ‘Station Oaxaca’, ping-ponging synth arpeggios and hand percussion accompany a sentimental violin melody, abruptly overtaken by layered keyboard runs, before the entry of tinkling marimba-like sounds reframe the scene as sci-fi Martin Denny exotica. ‘Time Arroyo’ begins as an austere study in staccato synth sounds in multiple overlapping tempi, reminiscent of Ligeti’s famous ‘clock’ rhythmic effects. Before long, it opens up into a melodic passage with the gentle heroism of classic Roedelius, which proves to be only a brief interlude before the layers of rhythmically distinct synthesiser patterns begin to build and accelerate into an increasingly dense cacophony. The wildest twists and turns are saved for the epic closer ‘Nova Wind’, where the arrangement focuses on Rosenboom’s virtuoso piano playing, perfectly embodying the project’s radical disregard of stylistic orthodoxies as he moves from hyperactive pointillistic flurries to a kind of space-age gospel.
At several points throughout the record, the distinctive voice of Jacqueline Humbert is heard reading passages from the text component of In the Beginning, a dialogue between The Double (an embodiment of humanity’s timeless desire to replicate itself in spiritual and technological copies) and two Spirit Characters. Fittingly, as all are conceived as embodiments of a future form of techno-human collective consciousness, distinctions between the three characters are not immediately evident in Humbert’s delivery, just as the music blurs the boundaries between intelligent computing and human spontaneity. Adorned with a striking retro-futurist cover (and here accompanied by extensive new liner notes and archival images), Future Travel is a time capsule of radical imaginings at the birth of our digital age, reminding us of utopian possibilities of which our own present seems so often to fall short.
Rare debut LP by the eccentric Peruvian singer Jean Paul "El Troglodita", known for his wild performances and extreme way of life. Enrique Roberto Tellería made his Peruvian television debut in 1965 under the stage name Jean Paul El Troglodita and wearing an imitation leopard skin suit. He would switch from melodic calm to shouting wildly or suddenly drop to the floor on his knees and smash the furniture like crazy. At the age of 19, DisPerú signed him to the label on the strength of these early performances. His first single included a freely translated version of 'Secret Agent Man' in Spanish. He began to work on the eleven cover versions that would feature on his first LP immediately, writing all his own lyrics and accompanied by the beat band Los Steivos. Despite the predominance of English beat music in Peru, the album only included three songs directly related to the British invasion: 'Bus Stop' by The Hollies, also played in raga rock style; 'Paint it Black' by The Rolling Stones; and 'The House of the Rising Sun', which follows the arrangement recorded by The Animals. So most songs come the American songbook. Apart from 'Tema de El Troglodita' (a versión of 'Secret Agent' by The Challengers), we find the bluesy 'Mustang Sally' (Sir Mack Rice). Two other US numbers, originally performed with orchestral accompaniment, were adapted to fit the rock band format: 'Poor Side of Town' (Johnny Rivers) and 'Take Me to the Moon' (Kaye Ballard). 'El verdadero amor' ('True Love'), an uncredited version is in a similar vein. The Spanish song 'Negro es negro' (Los Bravos) and the Brazilian track 'Que todo se vaya al infierno' (Roberto Carlos) also feature on the LP. El Troglodita's association with the so-called nueva ola, indicated on the back cover, needs clarification. In Peru, nueva ola was a mixed bag rather than a specific musical style and encompassed slow rock, twist, bossa nova and all the styles that the record industry produced to tame the wild rock 'n' roll impulses of teenagers in the early sixties. The Peruvian artists that performed these inoffensive Spanish adaptations of Paul Anka, Neil Sedaka or Frankie Avalon, were presented as successful models of youth culture. This was until 1964, when the Beatles with their mop-top haircuts hit the charts, vindicating rock 'n' roll and imposing the group format over the soloist model. Meanwhile the press continued to call any youth music recorded during the rest of the decade nueva ola. Jean Paul noted these distinctions early on and distanced himself from it in several statements. He saw his performance more in a style as a solo artist as following in the footsteps of e.g. Los Saicos. His 'hippie' lifestyle got him arrested by the new de facto military government in 1968, who accused him of promoting drug consumption and corrupting the Peruvian youth. The charges were soon dropped but his reputation was tarnished, and he ended up emigrating to Central America. The album includes Spanish sung versions of British beat songs and covers of the American songbook as well as various international hits.
- A1: Rainbow Crutch - Lookin` Back
- A2: The Black River Circus - A Ritual Melody
- A3: The Cherry Fogg - Nervous Conclusion
- A4: Timmy Sims - Corporation (Feat His Organ Combo)
- A5: The Tears - A Soulful Feeling
- B1: The Young Ones - Harbor Melon
- B2: Kurrt Watkins - Theme For Billy (Feat Soul Sister 7)
- B3: Ron Anthony - Just Funky (Feat Classiques)
- B4: Soul Brothers - Miss Delores Funk
- B5: The Group Solo - Beware Of The Dog
- B6: Earnie - Soul Shakin`(Feat The Soul Shakers)
The Hammond organ was first manufactured in 1935. In 1954, the now famous Hammond B3 model was introduced with additional harmonic percussion feature. When the company went out of business in 1985, around two million of various models of the Hammond organ have been produced.
The Hammond B3 was originally marketed to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ. It quickly became popular with professional jazz musicians in organ trios. Jimmy Smith's use of the Hammond B3 inspired a generation of organ players, and its use became more widespread in the 1960s and 1970s in rhythm and blues, rock, reggae, and progressive rock.
This collection is centered on the exciting and dynamic sounds of the Hammond B3 organ!
Rachika Nayar's fragments is a collection of sonic miniatures constructed from guitar loops and in the familiar comforts of her own bedroom. First released as a limited edition cassette by RVNG Intl's Commend THERE imprint in 2021, fragments (expanded) adds an entire new side of previously unreleased music to the collection, which has been newly mastered by Rafael Anton Irrisari. While growing up and developing a relationship with the instrument and her capabilities, using delay pedals to improvise layered guitar pieces evolved from a practice into a deep source of self-exploration and restoration for Nayar. On Our Hands Against the Dusk, Nayar's debut album released earlier this year, the guitar is present but processed, synthesizing with the surrounding instruments and often transforming beyond recognition. Like Our Hands, the form of fragments remains complex, informed by virtuosic, dexterous guitar playing, but the collection of sound retains a sense of primitivism, and represents a new experience for Nayar in sharing such an intimate part of her creative practice. Nayar views this practice as a constant companion. The cyclical, meditative quality of exploring loop-based expression is a means for Nayar to cleanse her creative space, and provide a psychological architecture in her home where she can "access my heart and cultivate some kind of internal movement in times of stasis." The pieces on fragments also pay homage to influences on Nayar's guitar technique, ranging from Pat Metheny's interpretations of Steve Reich's Electric Counterpoint to emotive Post/Math-Rock crossovers like Don Caballero and Toe. fragments is not only a document of Nayar's domesticity and the preliminary writing processes that evolve into song, but also a measurement of memory and spiritual realignment. Much like the metaphorical models of past homes through which Ted Kooser wanders in his essay Small Rooms in Time, Nayar uses fragments to preserve the moment, both fleeting and indelible, through its connection to place, in unchanging, raw detail. fragments provides an intimacy between Nayar and those listening in parallel spaces, activating our collective past and shared unconscious experience. Rachika Nayar's fragments (expanded) will be available in LP and digital formats from RVNG Intl. on April 7th, 2023.
Perc Trax hits 100 releases with Perc returning with his first album in seven years. 'The Cut Off' is Perc's fourth album following 'Wicker & Steel' (2011), 'The Power & The Glory' (2014) and Perc Trax's best ever selling release 'Bitter Music' (2017).
'The Cut Off' see's Perc deliver his most dance floor focused album to date, serving up enough energy to keep contemporary dance floors moving, whilst avoiding both the cliched 90's throwback hard techno formula that is dominant right now and the stuckist 'real techno' blueprints that are still endlessly regurgitated having been established over 30 years ago.
Across the album Perc's well established industrial credentials collide with giant sized synth riffs, driving acid lines (a first for a Perc album) and all manner of drones, choral performances, urban textures and even a dentist's drill (on 'Static'). Gliding arpeggios and slow moving melodic lines feature more on this album than ever before without dulling the sharp edges of Perc's music.
'The Cut Off' more than any previous Perc long player is an album that focuses on the club, the dancer and the dance floor. Yes, there are moments of respite between the classic Perc percussive workouts, but they are far outnumbered by the varied collection of club tracks that come at the listener from every angle.
Collaborations include Sissel Wincent, a regular collaborator with Peder Mannerfelt. Perc remixed Peder & Sissel's 'Sissel &Bass' track to great effect in 2019 and now Sissel returns the favour appearing on 'Static', the album's only full vocal track. Also collaborating with Perc is EAS, one of America's fastest rising techno artists who delivers the raw acid lines that power album highlight 'Cold Snap'. Finally London based metal vocalist Leandro Bastos adds his abrasive vocal tones to 'Imperial Leather', the first single to be taken from 'The Cut Off'.
The 'Cut Off' was recorded in Perc's own studio and mixed by Perc at Map Studios in London. The album was mastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis Studios. Album design was handled by Lucas Grassmay, who previously worked on I Hate Models' debut album on Perc Trax in 2019. The album will be supported a run of dates around the world where Perc will be performing a special live set based around the album as well as his infamous DJ sets.
- A1: Ale Hop - Head Transplant
- A2: Daniela Huerta - Tza Tun Tzat
- A3: Debashis Sinha - For The Waters Ever Taste The Heavens Up Parts I-V
- B1: Hexorcismos - ¿Acaso De Veras Se Vive Con Raíz En La Tierra?
- B2: Hexorcismos & El Irreal Veintiuno - Interferencias
- B3: Jessika Khazrik - Gebera
- C1: Khyam Allami - Mix V6
- C2: Kloxii Li - Anhaga
- C3: Kmru - Hidden Options
- C4: Maf - What's Heard Once Entered (Nommo)
- D1: Portrait Xo - Mutualism_151122
- D2: Simina Oprescu - Granularities
- D3: Visions Of Lizard - Barranca Del Muerto
For the last seven years, sound artist, technologist, and electronic musician Moisés Horta Valenzuela (aka Hexorcismos) has been studying artificial intelligence and generative art, wondering how these new technologies might be augmented into his musical process. Born in Tijuana and currently based in Berlin, Hexorcismos has long attempted to break down the permeable borders between musical styles and expressions, using the spaces in between to reinforce his politics and worldview. And on 'MUTALISMX - becoming sonic network', he expands his vision, inviting artists from across the globe to collaborate on work that questions the biases inherent in AI models, offering a collective alternative that could serve as a blueprint for further research.
The majority of AI art at this stage works with "big data", taking ideas from the cultural canon and muddying them with our contemporary reality. But if we accept that mass culture is always politically biased, always swaying towards historical prejudices, then there must be a counter-narrative. Hexorcismos began to develop a bottom-up approach, using "small data" to interrogate his idiosyncratic approach to art; he built a tool called SEMILLA.AI based on neural audio synthesis that could not only mimic his sonic fingerprint but transform it into another. So when he offered the synth to his network of collaborators, he gave them the option of either using only their data or sharing the signatures of each other artist involved in the project, blurring their identities into a mutual voice.
The result is a compilation that unspools with the coherence and fluidity of a single-artist album or adventurous DJ mix, genreless and boundless but unified by a singular message. Hunanese-American artist Kloxii Li for example takes rugged percussion and tense, industrial ambience, smudging her soundscape into a swirling gust of ghostly dissonance. Hexorcismos himself contributes two compositions: the lengthy, hypnotic 'Acaso de veras se vive con raíz en la Tierra', an AI-powered scramble of his pointed tribal guarachero experiments; and 'Interferencias', a collaboration with Mexican club veteran Bryan Dálvez, aka El Irreal Veintiuno that drives intense dancefloor rhythms into a dense haze of frozen drones and radio static. Elsewhere, Berlin-based Lebanese artist and writer Jessika Khazrik dissolves her voice into a mesh of obscured rhythms and dissociated whirrs, blending the organic with the artificial but retaining an overpowering sense of humanity.
Some artists were drawn to the nebulous aspects of the technology, searching for truth in a soup of different sounds, while others, such as KMRU, used Hexorcismos's synthesizer the examine their output. On 'hidden options', the Kenyan sound artist fed his immense catalog into the neural net, bringing out his mannerisms and tendencies in the process. Each track is singular but myriad, prompting both mutual respect and a sonic becoming, a feedback process between the artist and the tool, the individual and the collective. Data sets are made by people, and by engaging directly with musicians, Hexorcismos suggests a new way of utilizing a technology demonized and glorified without careful examination. Each artist owns their AI model, and alongside the album Hexorcismos will release SEMILLA.AI to the public (with custom-made models to start the process), allowing anyone to access this revolutionary technology.
Even the album's artwork reflects the political message, conceptualized by Chilean duo hypereikon, who used AI processes to develop a visual reflection of the technology and its possibilities. Operating outside of academia and capitalist enterprises, MUTUALISMX proposes an alternative future - one without borders that's not beholden to the Western canon, where independent labor can be prioritized and celebrated, and where creativity can truly flourish.
Anything Can’t Happen is the long-awaited debut album from Dorothea Paas, one of Canada’s most beloved singer-songwriters. For over a decade, Paas has played her unique, prismatic style of folk songcraft for audiences across North America, and lent her talents as a guitarist and vocalist to artists like Jennifer Castle, U.S. Girls and Badge Epoque Ensemble. The songs on this album have been through a near-infinite number of forms – Paas has played them solo and with a full band, electric and acoustic, at house shows and in sold-out venues. they manage to fit inside each context, like water taking the shape of its container.
All of this makes Anything Can’t Happen feel far more mature and complex than a debut album. It’s a statement of purpose, a next step in a decade-long process of artistic growth and evolution, and a bridge between the DIY style of Paas’s previous cassette releases and a more refined studio sensibility. Recorded in studios in Hamilton and Toronto, and mixed by Max Turnbull of Badge Epoque and U.S. Girls and Steve Chahley, these songs bring a diverse range of musical influences into conversation: inflected with the layered reverberations of Grouper, shot through with the piercing harmonies of the Roches, electrified with the searing energy of Sonic Youth. You can hear Neil Young in the grittiness of the title track’s guitar; Joni Mitchell’s Hejira in the album’s lyrics, Fairport Convention in Paas’s voice. The influence of Stevie Wonder - one of Paas’s greatest musical role models - is present too, in the album’s conceptual foundations.
The Blowback is the new album by Emily Wolfe. Emily wrote or co-wrote most of the tracks with bassist Evan Nicholson. Produced by Emily Wolfe Engineered by Matt Gerhard (Spoon, Tennis, Future Islands) Mixed by Cian Riordan (St. Vincent, Sleater-Kinney, Paul McCartney, Lana Del Rey) Mastered by Chris Gehringer - Sterling Sound Emily Wolfe asserts her talent as a dynamic vocalist, sharp songwriter, and an accomplished guitarist and producer. She delivers a brand of rock ‘n’ roll that’s raw and relevant, anchored by emotionally charged lyrics and a powerhouse stage presence. This young and impassioned artist has amassed millions of streams and garnered widespread acclaim from The Wall Street Journal, MTV, Guitar Player, PASTE, American Songwriter as well as her hometown paper, the Austin-American Statesman and many others. Recognized as a force on the instrument, Emily has collaborated with Epiphone/Gibson Guitars on two signature Sheraton models which is a rarity for an artist that isn't yet selling out stadiums. After quietly emerging as a phenomenon, Emily projects her voice like never before on her third full-length album, which she produced
Dagerlöff & Galner is a French duo that seeks to create its own vision of modern music, including elements of futuristic synths, Japanese video games, progressive jazz or epic and textured soundtracks. Their sound has a progressive touch that can recall the works of Aphex Twin or Oneohtrix Point Never. To be given the opportunity to set this masterpiece to music, the first cinematic venture into the occult, was a real treat for them. Presented in the style of a lecture, Häxan: Witchcraft Through The Ages is a Swedish silent documentary - horror film directed by Benjamin Christensen which was originally released in 1922 (in Sweden) and deals with witchcraft from antiquity to the film's contemporary period. The movie was released in the US in 1968. Witchcraft is carefully portrayed through illustrations from medieval books and audio-visual reconstructions. From the witches' sabbath to the interrogations of the Inquisition, the classical images come to life in disturbing spectral visions using all the special effects available at the time: overprints, models, jump cuts, stop motion, make-up and prosthetics. The film's soundtrack is divided in three parts, including the one by Dagerlöff & Galner. The duo enhances the heretical character of the work through dark pieces with constant intensity. This work of digital synthesis (choirs, orchestra, organ, analog modulars and tapes) allowed them to draw lines between tradition and modernity, like a film whose purpose remains as strong and relevant almost a century later. The film was re-released in a restored Blu-ray version by Potemkine in 2021, in a limited edition of 1666copies(sold out).
Founded and curated by DJ and producer Samantha Togni, Boudica is a platform that aims to give visibility to women, trans* and non-binary artists. Since the platform was first launched in 2019, Boudica has evolved into a series of club events in London at venues like The Pickle Factory, Fold and E1, a radio show, a music conference and a record label.
Boudica's mission is to promote greater gender equality within the music industry. By showcasing diverse role models from marginalised communities across the music industry, they aim to engage and inspire young and upcoming artists to pursue music careers irrespective of their background and experience within the field.
In 2020, they launched the inaugural Boudica Music Conference at Freemasons' Hall. The full day included educational panels, workshops and live music designed to encourage more artists from marginalised genders to pursue careers in the music industry. In 2022, Boudica not only held London's edition of the conference at the same venue, but they also expanded to Europe. In partnership with Pioneer DJ, they held their first edition of the conference abroad in Bologna at the Museum of Modern Art. Boudica Music Conference is touring in Europe in 2023, featuring talks, workshops alongside Pioneer DJ and club nights.
Last year, they launched the Boudica label, to support and celebrate female, trans+ and non-binary producers. Supported by Arts Council England, the label features artists such as Feminyst, Nur Jaber, Wanton Witch, OCD, Infinity Dreams, Peachlyfe, Yazzus and founder Samantha Togni. Their previous releases have garnered support from major music publications such as RA and Mixmag, resulting in a third VA release.
The third vinyl, 'Dark As It Gets', is a reflection of Boudica's continual musical evolution. The release marks a first for the platform, as they issued a callout for trans+ producers across the world to send in a track to be included on the vinyl. 'Dark As It Gets' by MIIIA was selected, and the title not only encapsulates the EP's energy but also Boudica's drive to support upcoming artists in the electronic music space.
The third vinyl commences with Rotterdam-based duo Animistic Beliefs' 'Vu Sua La Gi?'. The atmospheric track begins with menacing synths that are soon after enmeshed with vogue, gqom and percussive vocal chops that build towards a rewarding, melodic breakbeat cadence at its close.
New York-based Jasmine Infiniti's 'Top Shop' is the second track on the release. Skittish breaks and warped vocals skip across brooding, muted chords that eventually dissipate to reveal a hypnotic synth melody.
The vinyl's B-side begins with Metaraph's 'Emotional Intelligence'. The track marries pummelling kick drums, heady chords and transcendent melodies, all of which serve to guide the listener from triplet hard bass to trance bliss.
Finally, the title track, 'Dark As It Gets', produced by competition winner MIIIA, delivers a powerful sonic ending to the vinyl. In her own words, the track's relentless momentum and intricate incorporation of sampling leads listeners on a 'hypnotic, sassy and intense' techno journey from beginning to end. The uncompromising track's fierce groove emblematizes Boudica's third vinyl commitment to forward-thinking, idiosyncratic production.
The third vinyl concludes the initial Boudica trilogy, depicting members of the Boudica community as contemporary royalty, drawing inspiration from the queen herself.
The Esbjörn Svensson Trio, e.s.t. for short, are still
celebrated today as one of the most important and
influential European jazz bands of the last 20
years.
In 1999, the three Swedes achieved their
international breakthrough with ‘From Gagarin’s
Point Of View’. A star rose in the musical sky and a
unique world career followed. But sometimes stars
shine for much longer than one thinks. On ‘e.s.t.
Live 95’ there are recordings that prove that this
was also true for the Esbjörn Svensson Trio.
The band, founded in 1993, found their very
specific sound early on but it was not initially
noticed outside its home country. In 1995, when
the trio’s namesake still wore long hair and a
headband, these recordings were made at various
locations in Sweden. And whoever hears how the
trio played back then is left breathless.
Much of what distinguishes e.s.t. was already
strongly pronounced here: the coherence and
powerful grip of the playing; the catchy themes that
immediately jump out at the listener and yet do not
become clichéd; the fusion of the music of role
models like Thelonious Monk and Keith Jarrett into
a style of their own, always infected by the forward
thrust of rock. Magical moments were saved for
eternity by these recordings.
Now this e.s.t. early work is available on double
vinyl.
- A1: Vortex Count - Growthh
- A2: Translate - Nyquist
- A3: Pulso - Unexpected
- A4: Aural Research - <>
- B1: Droneghost - Cartographer
- B2: David Bowman - Ligo
- B3: Animatek - Black Cat
- C1: Hd Substance - Kormoran
- C2: Groof - Al Caer Sube
- D1: Dorian Gray - Arcadia
- D2: Andrey Detochkin - Brain Impulses
- E1: Pedro Pina - Peakoil
- E2: Victor Santana - The Feeling Of Never Giving Up
- F1: Hironori Takahashi - Velk
- F2: Subtraum - Binare Code Ii
- G1: Plural - Stowaway
- G2: Hanton - Astral Travel
- H1: Eleck & Alex Schultz - Engine Control
- H2: Lakej - Someone Lead The Way
Neurotwin is a Trilogy:
Part I
In the fight against Alzheimer's, epilepsy, schizophrenia and other diseases characterized by an imbalance in neuronal activity, there are chemical weapons, such as those that try to prevent the protein fragments known as beta-amyloid plaques from developing in the cerebral cortex , and physical, such as electrical stimulation that allow to restore the functionality of brain cells. This last resort, which has already been shown to be effective in modifying the activity of the cerebral cortex, is today a weapon of general intervention. Converting it to precision requires the development of individualized and predictive brain models that allow identifying where and how much to stimulate each patient. To achieve this, an international European team is working on the creation of virtual replicas of the most unknown organ in the body: the Neurotwin project.
According to recent research, the decrease in power in the neuronal oscillations of the gamma band of the cerebral cortex (a pattern whose frequency ranges between 20 and 50 Hertz) favors the development of protein fragments related to Alzheimer's.
Transcranial application of weak electrical currents has proven to be an effective and painless way to modulate brain activity without side effects.
The objective is to create complete computational models of the brain with real data of living beings (human patients) and that allow to anticipate and specify the effects of non-invasive stimulation techniques on neurological mechanisms.
"Never turn your back on a friend."
- Alfred Hitchcock
Part II
The Neurotwin project is the successor to an initiative that encompasses many projects called Virtual Physiological Human, which was based on the idea of creating a complete model of a human being on a computer, to perform non-invasive tests at the computational level. Now the concept has been derived to "Digital Twin", which seeks not only to have an equal computational model for everyone, but to create "twin" digital models of each patient in order to be able to make personalized medicine from the genome of each individual. Specifically, in our project, we have focused on digital twin brains, which would be representations of patient brains created from data extracted with current neuroimaging and brain activity monitoring techniques.
"Mirrors are used to see the face, Art to see the soul."
- George Bernard Shaw
Part III
A digital twin is a computer system programmed in such a way that, receiving the same inputs as the physical object or process it is a twin of, it provides the same outputs.
Characteristics of digital twin technology
1 Connectivity
2 Homogenization
3 Reprogrammable and intelligent
4 Digital traces
"There is no light without shadows and no fullness of mind without imperfections. Life requires for its realization, not perfection, but fullness. Without imperfection, there is no progress or growth."
- Carl Gustav Young
»Blank Vault / White Stains« is the new solo album by Franz Joseph Kaputt (DRNTTCKS, Otomatik Muziek, Hager/Kaputt). Under his S.U.V. alias, he presents nine highly personal, improvised synthesizer miniatures, accompanied by heavily delayed drum machines and enveloped in clouds of feedback. The music unveils a background rooted in years of noise exercises and ventures into the territories of dark, psychedelic folk, while showcasing a fondness for delicate synthesizer sounds and repetitive song structures. Layers of sound and rhythms collide and arrange themselves to create an idiosyncratic ambient/kraut music that explores the borders of when intimacy becomes toxic. It also delves into how relationships involving kink strategies can be used in a way that don‘t render one powerless or hurt, but ultimately leading to empowerment.
Side A is kind of an utopian dark room, filled with peculiar beats, drones, and dreamy synth arpeggios. Pleasure and joy are subversive acts that challenge and upend stereotypical role models. The pieces revolve around the mutual and consensual exploration of individual boundaries and the transformative states that emerge within these encounters – a unique entity, a »Body Of The Mind« if you will, is formed between individuals. Side B then represents the counterpart. Acid synths, distortion cascades and looped pianos evoke the regression from this playful and subversive approach on to sheer brutality and perverse destruction.




















