Cerca:the syn

Keplar re-issues the fourth album 'Chessa' by Dan Abrams' project Shuttle358 on vinyl for the first time. The double LP edition includes 3 previously unreleased tracks from the same recording sessions back in 2004, as well as an extended artwork with unseen photographs by Dan Abrams.

While undoubtedly associated with the microsound and 'clicks & cuts' movement around the turn of the millennium, on 'Chessa' Shuttle358 left behind the classical rhythmic patterns of the genre and shifted further towards warmer territories, meandering between modern digital minimalism and the soft tones of ambient music. Counter to his microsound synthesis approach on Frame (2000), Abrams created Chessa by writing software that manipulated samples from his unreleased songs, guitar pieces, and vintage japanese films sampled from video tape. In particular, a special granulating technique was written and performed at intentionally low sample rates that gave the uniquely fragile, yet dense sound to the album. Over fourteen tracks Abrams arranges slowly evolving sonic entities of unfading elegance. Strayed and hazy melodies pulse and cascade, elongated but brittle harmonies shimmer and disappear, echoing far-off in the rounded corners of the mind. The patient and detailed way Abrams combines the broken with the beautiful in creating organic collages of sound that retain the euphonic essence of a song, makes this piece of work so powerful and timeless, sounding just as relevant today, as it did 17 years ago.

Under modern scrutiny in Abrams latest studio, he refocused the original recordings to emphasize the elements most important to the original vision. The final mastering and vinyl preparation was done in collaboration with Stephan Mathieu, vinyl was cut by LUPO.

From the original press release in 2004 by Taylor Deupree:

Without a doubt Shuttle358 has become one of the most admired artists to emerge from modern electronic music’s sea of musicians. From the humble beginnings of a demo CD in 12k’s mailbox to 4 critically acclaimed CDs, Dan Abrams is, to some, the one credited for bringing a warmth and human touch back into what has often been considered a very cold, sterile genre. It began with 1999’s Optimal.lp (12k1005), a groundbreaking debut release that immediately defined the Shuttle358 sound; a hybridization of the then-emerging “microsound” genre with Eno’s true ambient explorations. In 2000 Abrams outdid himself with Frame (12k1011) by honing his sound design and exploring production techniques at rates that made his “now” quite brief and creating what was to become one of the most sought-after CDs in the 12k catalog.

Chessa is the third release from Abrams’ Shuttle358 moniker on 12k and he continues to do what he does best: attempt to move microsound away from the world of theory and towards absolute real life. Like his photographs, Chessa is music about, and to be listened to in, unexpected places. It is a narrative, a simple slice of life that plays out through the incidental photography of the cover artwork. To achieve this Abrams fuses irregular granular sound particles, like the movements of everyday life, with a deliberate melodic base that captures emotion and simplicity.

Working his mellow magic on the Growing Bin, Sorcerer entertains your inner child with eight tracks of instrumental west coast pop suitable for dancing, dreaming and surfing a wave or two.
While Basso sat in a Teutonic treehouse, feeding his head with the sounds of the woodland, Dan Judd danced on the sands of San Francisco's Baker Beach. Stretching between them, like the world's longest tin can radio, was the Dream Chimney. This legendary forum, run by Ryan Bishop, better known as The Beat Broker, helped to launch a thousand labels, and the Growing Bin is one of them - all hail the Chim!
Here, Dan, naturally mystic in his Sorcerer guise, satisfies all our sensory needs with a Kinder Surprise of sweet melodies, coastal cool and playful rhythms inspired by his children's earliest responses to music. Following his feelings and avoiding overthinking, he creates open, enticing and accessible cuts; each living and breathing that mellow magic you only get on the West Coast.
'Kids World' kicks into gear with the spheric bass of '2000 Studio', a bouncy embodiment of that spacious San Francisco sound. There's a nod to nu disco but the dreamy dubiness takes the track much deeper, especially as those surf guitars start to detune in the summer heat. The breezy fretwork continues on 'Disco Drums', topping a wriggling groove tailor made for the terrace. Shades of rave refract through a healing crystal at the midpoint, encouraging al fresco dancing from sunrise to sunset. The A3 sees Sorcerer get into the groove of 'Bahia Brothers', rolling that rubberised B-line out of his own Paradise Garage before putting the top down for the carefree Balearic pop of 'Spray Paint.'
The B-side glides into being via the night dubbing grooves of 'Fire Feel', a reverb laden journey though glassy tones, off beat perx and gorgeous chord progressions. Next up, the new wave inspired 'Crunchy' translates Sheffield's daring synth pop into a wide eyed blast of psychedelic house, boosting our mana ahead of the loose limbed and light footed 'First Wave'. Ringing guitars reference Ghanaian highlife, shimmering in the heat haze as Dan funks up the drum kit ready for the broken beat and blissed out energy of sundowning set closer 'Escape Route'.

Emerging from the Toronto warehouse scene, Tush is a rising electronic music act powered by Kamilah Apong and Jamie Kidd. Taking inspiration from electro funk, early disco, post-punk and '90s house; their debut album 'Fantast' embodies the rawness, vulnerability, and intimacy of the dancefloor.

'Fantast' kicks off with the slow burning 'Wavy Baby', an invitation to get close, get intimate and submit to the groove: "Vulnerability is the key to us getting to that next step of intimacy". Up next is lead single 'Chrysalis', a high octane ride through a technicolour fantasy world of heady synths and driving rhythms that propel Kamilah's voice into an erotic stratosphere.

'Don't Be Afraid' is about having the courage to love defiantly, urgently, and with intention. Driven by Jamie's infectious bass lines and FX blasts, it smoothly transforms into an uplifting gospel-infused track.

Two high points of the album, 'Jessica F***' and 'Marathons', highlight Tush doing what they do best. These tracks are the sound of the warehouse scene that birthed the project in the first place and the late night jam sessions that were full of possibility pre-pandemic. Here, Tush really stretch their improvisational muscles - the interplay of raw soulful vocals, hypnotic basslines, synth pads, and heavy disco rhythms is at the core of what makes them so invigorating.

'Fantast' closes with the uplifting sunrise energy of 'My Joy', the light at the end of the tunnel. "This song is enchanted by the backing vocals of my friends and chosen family, who are my cornerstones to working through the wonderful mess that I am". Kamilah adds "The track gives me this feeling that - no matter how hard the world tries to beat it out of me - I can and I have had to work hard to cultivate my own happiness in my own sacred spaces - one of those being Tush. Ultimately, this is all I really need".

In My Sleep is the debut vinyl release from French producer Margee. Having gained a loyal following last summer with a remix for Tommy Guerrero, released on Music For Dreams, this EP showcases his natural ability at creating low-slung, densely layered productions, perfectly aimed at the dancefloor.

The release also features two heavyweight remixes. The first of these comes courtesy of underground House legend DJ Nature, who takes the title track and gives it a completely new twist with his inimitable ‘ruff disco’ stylings. Hailing from Bristol (via New York), recent years have seen Nature release on Futureboogie, Golf Channel and Jazzy Sport.

The second remix on the release comes from Hardway Bros (AKA Sean Johnson). Having been an early champion of Margee’s work on his regular ALFOS streaming marathons, Sean took the second track on the release, Wrong Dream, and went into heavy-dub mode. The resulting remix clocks in at just over 11 minutes and is everything you’d expect from him, and more…

Margee said of the release ‘In My Sleep started while taking a shower. The bassline popped up in my mind and I ran out as quickly as possible to record it. From there, I got pulled into a deep emotional trip with groovy tones and dirty sounds. Wrong Dream is actually a lost project that I had to start over again. It turned out to be more fierce than the first one, experimenting with arps and fuzzy synths, while keeping a certain groove that was easier to reproduce.’

In My Sleep is the second release from London based label Other Goodness, following on from Bawrut’s ‘Divergent Emotions’ EP last year, which quickly became a mainstay of the live-streams and a DJs favourite.

DEEWEE ‘s new releases now worked with Because Music. Formed in 2012, Asa Moto purvey non-standard body music from their Ghent outpost, Studio Martino. Closely affiliated with famed Soulwax imprint, DEEWEE, the Belgian duo’s recorded offerings carefully juxtapose expert synth-work with aesthetic imperfection. Charming melodies and throbbing rhythms come courtesy of archaic tone generators and acoustic instrumentation alike, landing Asa Moto in a zone of confident sonic idiosyncrasy. Their studio prowess has hardly gone unnoticed and during their breakout year of 2018, Resident Advisor, Redbull and the BBC were quick to take note of the group’s steady ascent. Via their ever-changing live performances, Asa Moto have become regular fixtures on the European touring circuit, touching down for club nights and festival appearances across the continent. As astute selectors, they operate a bi-monthly radio show in Brussels, digging into their sprawling collection, ranging from obscure jazz records to contemporary electronic cuts. Asa Moto have re-adapted their unmistakable strain of body music into a live show, which premiered on the Mainstage of the Lokerse Feesten 2019 and at the 40th anniversary of Ancienne Belgique in Brussels. In 2020, they co-produced and mixed the Turkish band, Altin Gün album 'Yol' marking the first time that the band has collaborated with outsiders.

Dublin rising star Sputnik One lands on Facta and K-LONE’s Wisdom Teeth with his most accomplished record yet: a flawless four-tracker of mutant dancefloor gear that draws on broken UK techno, psychedelic tribal, footwork and ravey post-hardcore. Fans of his standout outing on Well Street Recordsearlier this year will have a good idea of what to expect here: uniquely voiced and refreshingly forward-thinking bass-heavy club tracks at a range of tempos, all unified by a distinct sonic palette that pits glossy digital synths against raw organic samples and found sounds. There are echoes of Shackleton and Olof Dreijer in ‘Love From Above’ and ‘Michael Cera’, whilst ‘Microbead’ and ‘Powder’ offer refreshed and refined takes on modern post-dubstep / post-hardcore club styles. Across the record the tempo creeps from 130 to 150, keeping all bases covered as late summer ravers migrate towards darker autumn dancefloors.

Audiophile 180glp pressing includes eight 12"x12" art print reproductions of analog film stills by renowned experimental filmmaker Daïchi Saïto. The first purely solo record by Jason Sharp - where every sound is created by his saxophone, breath, heartbeat & modular synthesis rig. Sharp's customized electroacoustic biofeedback system utilizes a heart monitor to turn his pulse into signal & tempo responsively synthesized in real time during peformance & recording. Produced by Radwan Ghazi Moumneh (MATANA ROBERTS, SUUNS, BIG | BRAVE, ERIC CHENAUX, JERUSALEM IN MY HEART). For Fans of Fennesz, Christina Vantzou, Tim Hecker, Klaus Schulze, Ben Frost, Gas, Windy & Carl, Colin Stetson. Montréal saxophonist and electroacoustic composer Jason Sharp presents his third album on Constellation. The Turning Centre Of A Still World is Sharp's first purely solo record and his most lucid, poignant, integral work to date. Following two acclaimed albums composed around particular collaborators and guest players, Sharp conceived his third as an interplay strictly bounded by his own body, his acoustic instrument, and his evolving bespoke electronic system. The Turning Centre... is a singular sonic exploration of human machine calibration, interaction, expression and biofeedback. Using saxophones, foot-controlled bass pedals, and his own pulse - patched through a heart monitor routed to variegated signal paths that trigger modular synthesizers and samplers - Sharp paints with organic waves of glistening synthesis, pink noise and digitalia. Melodic strokes and harmonic shapes ripple and crest across ever-shifting seas, through an inclement cycle from dawn to dusk. The album's six main movements navigate a world where placid surfaces are always roiled and disquieted by a deeper inexorable gyre: the gravitational pull and tidal perpetuity of our bodies made of water, buffeted by terrestrial atmospheric pressures, wrung out by emotions, coursing with blood, sustained by breath, inescapably yearning for and returning to ground again and again. Sharp's heartbeat literally courses through these compositions - while only occasionally surfacing as a clearly audible pulse or rhythm, it physically feeds into a spectrum of generative synthetic processes that help constitute and conduct the music.

The magnificent and incomparable Muddy Waters performed 3 legendary concerts at the Montreux Jazz Festival throughout the 1970s. Each of these historic concerts were recorded. Muddy Waters name is synonymous with the authenticity, excellence and individuality of the festival and this collection is a celebration of his unique talent.

The Montreux Years collection will bring together for the first time, some of the finest moments from Muddy Waters’ celebrated performances alongside rare material, unheard since the original recording.

Expertly curated by the Montreux Jazz Festival and BMG, restored and remastered in superlative HD audio; The Montreux Years is released on superior audiophile heavy weight vinyl, MQA quality CD and in HD digital.


Montreux Media Ventures (MMV) in partnership with BMG are working together to produce and release a premium series of albums and activities, curated from the unique Montreux Jazz festival archive; one of the finest music collections in the world.

As part of this exciting new joint venture MMV and BMG have commenced work to establish a new series of deluxe artist collections under the new official Montreux Jazz records imprint. These initial collections; The Montreux Years will bring together the most iconic performances from the most significant artists to perform in the festival’s impressive five decade history.

The collaboration is an unprecedented curation project. The most extensive exploration of the official archive in the festival’s history. Expertly curated by the MJF and BMG teams and overseen by Claude Nobs’ partner and president of the Claude Nobs foundation, Thierry Amsallem, who will act as executive producer across the series.

The Montreux Years series is a celebration of Claude’s love of the artists and passion for the festival and are a fitting tribute to his legacy.

The BMG and Montreux Jazz music festival design teams will work in partnership to produce new and authentic creative, faithful to the festival’s reputation for iconic artwork.

The magnificent and incomparable Marianne Faithfull has performed five legendary concerts at the Montreux Jazz Festival between 1995 and 2009. Each of these historic concerts were recorded.
Marianne Faithfull’s name is synonymous with the authenticity, artistry and individuality of the festival and this collection is a celebration of her unique talent.

The Montreux Years collection will bring together, for the first time, some of the finest moments from Marianne’s most celebrated performances.

Expertly curated by the Montreux Jazz Festival and BMG, restored and remastered in superlative HD audio; The Montreux Years is released on superior audiophile heavy weight vinyl, MQA quality CD and in HD digital.


Montreux Media Ventures (MMV) in partnership with BMG are working together to produce and release a premium series of albums and activities, curated from the unique Montreux Jazz festival archive; one of the finest music collections in the world. As part of this exciting new joint venture MMV and BMG have commenced work to establish a new series of deluxe artist collections under the new official Montreux Jazz records imprint. These initial collections; The Montreux Years will bring together the most iconic performances from the most significant artists to perform in the festival’s impressive five decade history.

The collaboration is an unprecedented curation project. The most extensive exploration of the official archive in the festival’s history. Expertly curated by the MJF and BMG teams and overseen by Claude Nobs’ partner and president of the Claude Nobs foundation, Thierry Amsallem, who will act as executive producer across the series.

The Montreux Years series is a celebration of Claude’s love of the artists and passion for the festival and are a fitting tribute to his legacy.

The BMG and Montreux Jazz music festival design teams will work in partnership to produce new and authentic creative, faithful to the festival’s reputation for iconic artwork.

Repress


Nina Kraviz launches her (pronounced 'trip') label with a double-EP compilation entitled 'The Deviant Octopus', featuring a pair of brand new productions from Kraviz alongside material from Terrence Dixon, emerging talent Parrish Smith & Bjarki, and veteran producers Exos & Steve Stoll.

The idea for has been gestating for some time with Nina Kraviz, an avid crate-digger and frequenter of numerous second-hand record stores, who has long wanted to begin a label of her own which would build on some of the principles of her beloved 90s techno labels in terms of attitude and aesthetics, whilst looking for forward-thinking modern productions that reflect her core tastes for idiosyncratic electronic music.

The art and title of 'The Deviant Octopus' comes from a single-sentence scenario dreamt up by Kraviz: 'Without a moment's notice an Octopus appeared and devoured everyone in sight'. Supplied with this scenario, artist Tombo rendered his own unique visualization for the artwork that adorns the release sleeve. It's Kraviz's own nod to the labels that inspire her and grab her attention while digging through second hand records, the best of which were imbued with the unique personality of the people behind them. This extends to the sound Kraviz intends for : dusky, divergent and trippy music to stimulate brains, dreams and fantasies.

In this respect 'The Deviant Octopus' is a perfect introduction: Kraviz herself is represented on the tracklist by two new tracks that take up the mantle of last year's Mr Jones EP by returning to the vocal-flecked hypnotic techno that marked out that release. Complimenting those are two new cuts from a true master of hallucinatory off-kilter techno, Terrence Dixon in his Population One guise.

Joining them will be a pair of names from the techno pantheon who have been huge influences on Kraviz: with a career that's taken in releases on Synewave, Trax, Novamute and Richie Hawtin's early-90s Probe Records, Steve Stoll has been mining his own variant on techno and acid minimalism for over twenty years, heading up the Proper NYC label and releasing under various pseudonyms, such as Cobalt, of which Kraviz has been a long-term fan. His counterintuitively titled 'Pop Song' sits alongside a 13-minute 90s techno excursion from Reykjavik's Exos - the only previously-released cut (originally appearing on Thule Records sub-label Plast Trax in 1998) - together illustrating that will also live up to its name in the geographical sense: showcasing great music from historically vibrant electronic music scenes outside of the usual Detroit-Berlin axis.

With Kraviz looking to build a small repertory of talent around , this first release also makes room for two newer names: Bjarki is an Icelandic talent to keep a firm eye on, who drew Kraviz's attention in a chance meeting after a gig at Copenhagen's Culturebox club, after which he passed her a collection of mind-bendingly odd demos; while Parrish Smith is a talented Netherlands-based producer whose short yet impactful sketch '1.0 / 8.0 Afrika Genocide' brings the second 12' to a bewitching close.

“One of the vital pieces in the jigsaw puzzle of ’90s British rock music.” Pat Gilbert, Mojo magazine While his own name has yet to grace an album front cover, for more than a twenty years Gem Archer has been a key contributor to some of the UK’s highest profile guitar bands, beginning with Oasis in 2000, Beady Eye in 2009 and the touring version of Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds since 2015.
Before all that there was Heavy Stereo, caught up in the mid ‘90s music maelstrom where their only album ‘Déjà Voodoo’ took its place alongside Paul Weller’s ‘Stanley Road’, The Charlatans’ ‘Telling Stories’, Super Furry Animals’ ‘Fuzzy Logic’, Supergrass’s ‘I Should Coco’, The Boo Radley’s ‘Giant Steps’, Ride’s ‘Carnival Of Light’ – and, of course, ‘Definitely Maybe’ and ‘(What’s The Story) Morning Glory?’ by Oasis. It is easy to understand why any album could get overlooked in such exalted company. ‘Déjà Voodoo’ and the four singles – ‘Sleep Freak’, ‘Smiler’, ‘Chinese Burn’ and ‘Mouse In A Hole’ – all display Gem’s deeply held affection for old-school rock’n’roll values. In 1994/95, the outside world came into sync with his fondness for The Jam, Sly Stone, Hendrix, The Beatles, the Stones, The Small Faces, Motown, Stax, glam rock, punk rock and all other points on the compass of rock’n’roll cool, which coalesced into what became known as Britpop. And while those influences are in ‘Déjà Voodoo’ for all to hear, the album is far from derivative; this is a collection of well-constructed pop songs that still retain their swagger and zest.
Unavailable since it was first released on Creation Records in 1996, this new 25th anniversary 180g clear vinyl edition is a faithful recreation of the original 12-track LP.

Runnner's Always Repeating yearns for a sense of place. The project of the now LA-based songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Noah Weinman, Runnner's poignant reflections on the isolation and anxiety caused by a sense of rootlessness radiate with wit and charm. Self-produced and recorded wherever he called home at the time, Always Repeating documents this cycle of looking back and moving forward, of alienation changing to reconciliation. For Weinman, Runnner is primarily a solo endeavor with an ever - expanding musical community of musicians collaborating on his albums and shows, which at times have been known to feature up to a 7-piece live band (he also has a burgeoning career as a producer, notably working on Skullcrusher's critically-acclaimed debut EP for Secretly Canadian). Weinman completed Always Repeating last fall in Western Massachusetts and Woodstock using a mobile studio set-up. He played the majority of the instruments himself, including guitar, bass, trumpet, banjo, piano and synth. The goal was to create the perfect balance of intimate and melancholy songwriting through the lens of hi-fi/lo-fi dynamics, inspired by his favorite artists like Bon Iver, the Microphones, and Julien Baker. The 10-track collection is composed of five re-recorded versions of songs that appeared on Runnner's 2017 debut, Awash, and 2020's One of One EP. Although the songs were written over the course of three years, all find Weinman grappling with the same thing: feelings of uncertainty about his life. Always Repeating ultimately tells the start of Weinman's journey as Runnner, and his cyclical feelings of being connected and then disconnected from the world over and over again.

Runnner’s Always Repeating yearns for a sense of place. The project of the now LA-based songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Noah Weinman, Runnner’s poignant reflections on the isolation and anxiety caused by a sense of rootlessness radiate with wit and charm. Self-produced and recorded wherever he called home at the time, Always Repeating documents this cycle of looking back and moving forward, of alienation changing to reconciliation.

For Weinman, Runnner is primarily a solo endeavor with an ever-expanding musical community of musicians collaborating on his albums and shows, which at times have been known to feature up to a 7-piece live band (he also has a burgeoning career as a

producer, notably working on Skullcrusher’s critically-acclaimed debut EP for Secretly Canadian). Weinman completed Always Repeating last fall in Western Massachusetts and Woodstock using a mobile studio set-up. He played the majority of the instruments himself, including guitar, bass, trumpet, banjo, piano and synth. The goal was to create the perfect balance of intimate and melancholy songwriting through the lens of hi-fi/lo-fi dynamics, inspired by his favorite artists like Bon Iver, the Microphones, and Julien Baker.

The 10-track collection is composed of five re-recorded versions of songs that appeared on Runnner’s 2017 debut, Awash, and 2020’s One of One EP. Although the songs were written over the course of three years, all find Weinman grappling with the same thing: feelings of uncertainty about his life. Always Repeating ultimately tells the start of Weinman’s journey as Runnner, and his cyclical feelings of being connected and then disconnected from the world over and over again.

Through their relentless hard work, non-stop touring and critically acclaimed/chart-topping releases gaining them over 250 million cross-platform streams/views – JINJER are inarguably one of modern metal's hottest and most exciting bands active today. The band has become synonymous with doing things their own way and breaking every rule in the heavy metal handbook, which is keenly evident on their highly anticipated fourth studio album and follow up to the groundbreaking Macro album, Wallflowers. The new album not only presents a methodical and premeditated next step in the band's already imposing career, but moreover, it mirrors the personal adversities they’ve faced due to the worldwide events over the last year. Wallflowers is not only an upgrade to the progressive groove metal sound that all JINJER fans crave, but also a sonic pressure cooker of technical musicianship, emotional fury and an intense soundtrack befitting the harrowing state of the world today. Hailing from the conflict-ridden Ukrainian region of Donetsk but now calling Kiev their home base, JINJER truly do not mince words – or riffs – on Wallflowers. Their exceptional precision of modern metal paired with tough as nails attitude has earned them a fiercely loyal, rabid fanbase and massive critical acclaim, making JINJER one of the most talked about bands today and garnering them many sold out performances across the globe. With nearly all of JINJER’s releases composed between vans, backstage rooms and constant touring, Wallflowers continues where its predecessor Macro left off, only this time with less distraction and more time to focus on songwriting.

From the cosmos of Stretford on the outer realms of Manchester comes the kaleidoscope view of the world according to Psychederek and it's an explosive trip of shoe gaze soaked balearica.

Lead track Screamadereka heads straight into orbit from the get go with a stop off to thank the likes of The Cocteau Twins & Death In Vegas for their influence along the way. Huge drums, spaced out synths, warped guitars & a fully charged love in style vocal all wrapped up in a mushroom flavoured microdot with a pretty empowering finale.

I'm Alright steps up the ante a bit more and goes all Tomorrow Never Knows on us but with added warehouse acid squelch & rasps throbbing out from a beat that is broken (but not break beat!) whilst still retaining the psychedelic tendencies of its predecessor.

Sean Johnston steps off the ALFOS rocket ship and joins forces with Duncan Gray for their Hardway Bros Meet Monkton Disco Dub take of Screamadereka and the result is a hive of cosmic mutant disco brilliance whilst Manchester's finest 6 piece See Thru Hands turn I'm Alright into bombastic focused UKG style wig out duet complete with new vocal takes by DNCN for seriously wonky floors & like minded souls.


Includes beautiful insert artwork by Emma Evans

Bouquet Records features Olive T. for their sixth EP release on vinyl to infuse their 2021 roster with the desired verve and energy that dormant club kids are thirsting for.

Releasing in early summer, the energetic dance tracks herald a return to the dance floor, uplifted by soul-stirring synthesiser orchestral strings.
The native New Yorker and scene fixture was influenced by 90's house, inspired by Raze, Deee-lite, Green Velvet, and smooth disco flows.
The ascension sensation of 'Goin' Up' builds on familiar house grooves with digital synths and a thoughtful utilisation of today's technology.

Known to play a range spanning hip hop to club, jazz to funk, disco to garage, and more, Olive T has DJ'd countless venues and over international airwaves.
An early exposure to house and techno, combined with a wide span of diverse musical taste, shaped her unique style. In 2020 she started her own 2 hour radio show on The Lot Radio.

Olive T worked with Tiro! due to her admiration of his use of traditional sounds of the 90's era, sensing he also listened prolifically to 90's house and techno. Tiro!'s remix of 'This Is A Bop' adds organic flare to the original.
A long-time fan of Matt Karmil, she invited him to remix 'Opaque' - He flips the track upside down to reveal a different, but still vibrant interpretation, with his technical approach to remixing.

Olive T has released singles and remixes on Nervous records, 2MR, and on her own. The four track record 'Goin' Up' marks Olive T's first label-released EP, and first release on San Diego-based Bouquet Records.

Cole Pulice is a saxophone player from Minneapolis. An improviser of Ambient Jazz who earned his merits touring with Bon Iver, working with Godspeed You! Black Emperor and releasing wonderful electroacoustic gems with the groups Iceblink (Moon Glyph) and LCM (Orange Milk). With Gloam - his solo debut - Cole Pulice offers us six spacious audio holograms, one-take recordings of his saxophone entangled with live electronic hardware. We hear undulating pitch shifters, ring modulations and spectrally rich harmonizers. Cole applies all signal processing live, augmenting the calm, serene melodies Cole plays on his saxophone. The electronics never serve as a mere effect here. Instead, Cole’s fine-tuned setup functions as one whole instrument with which he effortlessly morphs shapes and colors, like fractals within a kaleidoscope or fragments of stained glass in a rock tumbler. Cole mentions the Synchromism visual art movement as an influence for this record, an American avantgarde style of the early 20th century in which colour and sound were treated as equivalents. It’s a spot-on analogy for these musical gems which serve to immerse us in imaginatory prisms. Cole’s sessions conjoin artificial processes with the vibrations of his breath to create electro-acoustic lullabies which reveal ever more timbral layers with each listen. Gloam was released on tape by the Moon Glyph imprint from Portland during the first lockdown in 2020 and has been licensed to Pingipung for this vinyl edition.

German DJ and producer Marc Brauner returns to the Killer Cuts series which he kicked off for Shall Not Fade back in February, sharing five tracks of hard pumping house to lose yourself in.

Patience EP starts as it means to go on with "Your Heart"; a hot cut of anthemic earworm organ house that doesn't hold back on the summertime rave nostalgia. Brauner explores 2-step on searing A2 "Optimist" which is riddled with deep house energy and a syncopated bassline that'll put a swing in your step.

"Be Patient" channels how we have all been feeling this past year waiting for the return of the dance; it carries Strictly Rhythm influence and a prescient vocal motif. The record closes but doesn't fade away, ending with "Faster", where momentous uplifting synth stable tumble forwards to great effect. The digital bonus track is "In Love", another playful, hypnotic bassline complimenting the consistent feel good vibes.

In the early months of 2020, when the COVID-19 outbreak ravaged his home country of Italy, prolific composer Bruno Bavota did what we all would eventually do: isolated and waited. What followed was a year of fear, anxiety, and dread. Eventually, fear gave way to fatigue, and the anxiety metamorphosized into nervous energy. The compulsion to create became more powerful than the compression and weight. And so were born Apartment Songs and Apartment Loops. Representing two separate but intersecting paths of Bavota's creative journey, Apartment Songs is a suite of sparse solo acoustic piano works, while Apartment Loops are expansive explorations for synthesizers and outboard effects processors. Though in theory the two sets should sound disconnected and unrelated - given their disparate creative approaches and instrumentation - it's Bavota's uncanny sense of melody and space that easily unites them as two halves of a singular vision.

A modern and powerful interpretation of traditional Italian Pizzica.
The Pugliese group Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino is known for its powerful
rhythms, vocal harmonies and constant groove. Canzoniere has a knack for
bringing together all their references, ancient and contemporary, into a coherent narrative, both hybrid and fluid.
Their new album Meridiana (Italian for “sundial”) contains twelve tracks like
the twelve hours of the sundial and tells the story of each of the seven band
members’ relationship with time. It is co-produced by guitarist Justin Adams,
long-time collaborator of Robert Plant, and producer of some of Tinariwen and
Rachid Taha’s cult albums.
The production and instrumentation, combining synth, electric bass and loops
with traditional folk instruments, give a modern and powerful reading to this
age-old music.

'Deutsche Krimi passionnel' oder 'Ostalgie fuer begeisterte Kranken'? Well, this album may very well have been the perfect soundtrack of some very obscured 5-year-planned and very mentally disturbing, for truly some very fucked-up alienating D.D.R. / East German Democratic People's Republic remake of Tarkovski's old sci-fi classic 'Stalker' and that somehow, thank God, never made it to the Elevated Socialist Working Masses, for otherwise that 'Berliner Mauer' would have collapsed much earlier and certainly with a hell lot of more drastic damage! I mean, ''Mein Selbstmord! Im Monschein hinter dem Baum!'', now, what psychotic poetry of Goethean-Nietzschean 'Faustian' 'Sturm und Drang Tragoedie' and Romantic Mass-Industrial 'Todestrieb' Mantra is that? 'Das Ewig Weibliche (oder gibt's vielleicht auch Das Ewig Maennliche?) des alten Werthers Leiden in Teutobuerger Schwarz-und-buchenwaldklinik?' For this dark synth-guided croonin' could have turned into the ultimate 'Alan Vega Suicide' Project of the Soviet Bloc, its bloody very last Collective Act! Mastered by Guy Tavares.

Limited 7inch vinyl with a risograph hand-printed poster. Be sure to get in
fast as these will sell out. Gatefold jacket.
Death Racer is the first single from Auckland via Berlin cyborg rockers,
Data Animal.
The latest signing to Oliver Ackermann’s (A Place to Bury Strangers / Death by
Audio) new label, Dedstrange, Data Animal’s sound is said to be a mix of the
harsher sides of No-Wave, industrial and techno but in rock n roll format.
Taking sonic influence from groups like Suicide, Throbbing Gristle, Spaceman 3
and Boris, Death Racer deals with themes of nihilism, narcissism and the death
drive within a digital context.
Analogue rock is turned into full out digital and chemical annihilation as kick
drums slam up giant detuned synths and walls of fuzz. Mastered by NYC noise
legend Oliver Ackermann, Death Racer is Data Animal’s algorithm bug seeking
to destroy.

After 2 years of hard work, 23 recorded tracks, 2 albums, 2 cinematic
seasons and more than 20 released episodes, Smash Into Pieces bring the
ARCADIA era to its end!
On Aug 27th the international multi-award winning alternative rock group will
release their sixth studio album, A NEW HORIZON! Smash Into Pieces are recognised for syncing their music with their cinematic video episodes pushing
them past 375 Million Streams & Views combined across all platforms.

Music From Memory are excited to introduce another new group for 2021, this time presenting the self-titled debut album from Loveshadow.

Currently based in San Francisco, the duo of Anya and Izaak initially met whilst working in an Oakland cafe in 2016. The two Californians quickly bonded over a track by the ’80s disco band Aurra which was playing over the radio and almost immediately their separate journeys in music became interwoven. They soon began to write music and creating their own work would become a way for the pair to get closer to the sound they were searching for, as well as enabling them to discover the healing power of making and listening to music.

‘Loveshadow’ was recorded predominantly in the Bay Area between 2017-2020 as well as whilst traveling to NYC, Chicago and around Portland. Having released previously as the outfit ‘S Transporter’ alongside Detroit friend Ryan Spencer, Loveshadow is formed of Anya as singer and song writer alongside Izaak on synthesizers, bass and percussion. This eight track album is the duo’s first release; exploring emotive Pop and DIY Funk leanings it stands as a joyful homage to the music they bond over, as well as an ode to their own love and friendship.

Yellow Vinyl

Next up on Just Jack Recordings mul.apin provides us with 3 contrasting tracks, the rolling infectious beats of 'A moment in Between' take the synths to another level whilst the bass screams 'BIG SYSTEM!!!!' at the top of it voice. A2 ‘From Earth’ is a darker more brooding affair, trippy and with a late night tribal feel but with the dance floor fairly in its sights. One for the more twisted among you!

Finally on the B mul.apin goes deep and techy with some beautiful synth work and his good friend Youandewan smashes the remix out the park as he jacks things up another level for the dancefloor.

Kevin Martins erstes Solo-Album unter dem Namen The Bug seit sieben Jahren könnte zeitlich nicht besser passen: „Fire“ - der dritte, berauschende Teil eines urbanen Triptychons, das mit dem explosiven „London Zoo“ von 2008 begann und mit dem bewusstseinsverändernden „Angels & Devils“ von 2014 fortgesetzt wurde - besteht aus vierzehn Tracks, die die Synapsen zum Schmelzen bringen, die den Körper durcheinanderwirbeln und die Hörerinnen und Hörer auf cineastische Weise von der Beschwörung einer düsteren, abgeriegelten Stadtlandschaft bis hin zu schwindelerregenden, tiefenscharfen Nahaufnahmen der Psyche von Martin, die ihn und seine Kollaborateur*innen an die Belastungsgrenze führen.

Die Aggression, die Attitüde, der beeindruckende Umfang und die destabilisierende, beunruhigende Raserei des Bug-Sounds ist durchweg perfekt umgesetzt, aber „Fire“ ist keine bloße Wiederbelebung der Vergangenheit - für Martin ist das Album sowohl eine Antwort auf die einzigartigen Umstände des vergangenen Jahres als auch eine Chance, seine eigene Reise vom zurückgezogenen Sound-Besessenen zum Familienvater zu reflektieren, und seinen Durst zu stillen - in einer Zeit erzwungener hermetischer Isolation - nach Kontakt, nach dem Chaos, das nur zwischen Menschen, Lärm und Bässen stattfinden kann, die Irritation der Sinne, die stets Bugs Methode und Weg waren, seit er in den späten 90ern aus den tiefsten Ecken Londons herauskroch.

Es ist das bisher beste Album von The Bug, möglicherweise die wildeste und bewegendste Musik, die Martin je gemacht hat, und es berührt immer noch die anfänglichen Sehnsüchte und Impulse, die „London Zoo“ wie eine Rohrbombe durch den Briefkasten in Ihre Welt katapultiert haben. Es ist eine hungrige Platte, in jeder Hinsicht.

Die MCs, die auf dem Album zu hören sind - einerseits langjährige Weggefährt*innen wie Flowdan, Roger Robinson, Moor Mother, Manga Saint Hilare, Irah & Daddy Freddy, andererseits relativ neue Namen im Bug-Stall wie Logan, Nazamba und FFSYTHO - reflektieren unweigerlich den äußeren Wahnsinn einer auf den Kopf gestellten Welt, graben aber auch tief in sich selbst, um nachdenkliche, erbarmungslos ehrliche Darstellungen der Wut, des Widerstands und der Resignation zu schaffen, die das letzte Jahr in uns allen hervorgerufen hat.

Ellen Allien bietet euch mit We Are Not Alone eine beeindruckende Compilation-Reihe in 3 Teilen mit jeweils 11 Tracks. Brandneue Musik von Künstler*innen, die entweder schon bei der legendären BPitch-Veranstaltungsreihe gespielt haben oder auf zukünftigen Partys auftreten werden. Das ist der neue Berliner Underground, macht euch auf etwas gefasst…

Ellen Allien - XTC - Knallhart, hypnotisch, trance-induzierend... reine Ekstase
Introversion - Force Majeure - Industrial mit kosmischer Interferenz
Insolate - Retrograde Motion - Tight und rollend, voll dichter Intensität
DJ T-1000 - Frequency Kill – Lasst euch durch diese manische Energie ins Chaos führen
Nocow - Let Em Fall - Let the beats set you free
Alpha Tracks & Blue Hour - Lessons With Bob – Kräftiger, bewegender Elektro aus dem Jahr 3000
Cadency & Hadone- Crash It Here - Bring the noiiiiissse!
Yan Cook - Lullaby - No sleep til Monday...
Lady Starlight - RE-15 – In diesem Universum werdet ihr Glückseligkeit finden
P.Leone - Bay Head – Crispy Beats und schwerer Bass mit erregender Atmosphäre
Keith Carnal - Jerk Off – Himmlische Synth-Klänge für die wahren Sünder*innen

incl Downloadcode

Nach seinem gefeierten Langspieler - The Predicting Machine
(KOMPAKT 267 CD 102) und einer Reihe von Pop-geprägten 12" -
Singles - - We Can Pretend (KOMPAKT 286) und - Somewhere
(KOMPAKT 264) - kehrt LAs Synth-Mastermind JOHN TEJADA mit dem neuen Album SIGNS UNDER TEST ins Rampenlicht zurück: 11 träumerische Tracks enthüllen die Ergebnisse der neuesten Tiefensoundbohrungen des Studiomagiers - Material, welches ohneweiteres zum Besten gezählt werden kann, was der Mann bisher veröffentlicht hat.Bereits zum Startschuss präsentiert sich SIGNS UNDER TEST als völligneues Programm, noch tiefer in JOHN TEJADAs kurzgeschlossene Synthie-Maschinerie hinabsteigend und das ohnehin bereits beeindruckende Ausmaß seiner Musikalität einmal mehr zum Bersten bringend.

Over the last 3 years, original 90’s D&B imprint Odysee has been steadily building its profile, both through its ‘Remix/Remaster’ series as well as a growing number of new releases. Label Partner Andy Odysee continues to develop his own unique sound with this third solo E.P. All three tracks work together as a triptych, whilst simultaneously maintaining their own unique identity.

Ruthless (In Purpose): Insidious (In Design) immediately establishes an ominous mood of brooding menace with its creeping bass stabs. As the drums enter, the track builds towards a drop of deep subs and driving breakbeat fury, punctuated by the ripped synth basses and curling drum edits that are fast becoming characteristic of Andy’s productions. There are subtle nods to the later Hokusai releases such as Sculptures Hide and even Black Domina; with eerie chiff-flute phrases, and those signature Mirage-style film-noire and dark avant-garde Jazz sounds nestling amongst the tapestry of beats and basslines.

As a contrast, Provocateur has a sweeter, almost sexier feel. A dreamy oscillating pad soon gives way to razor-sharp curling Jazz breaks and deep subs. The vocals border on the ‘saucy’ with their tantalising suggestions of ‘who thinks the technique is to make love to me’ and ‘the sexiest thing about me is my a**!’ There is a subtle darkness nonetheless to this track, with its plethora of dark film-noire samples. Although the framework of breaks & bass is strident enough for the dance floor, it is also the kind of track that is loaded with all those little production details that will reveal something fresh with each hearing.

The third track Status Anxiety is a frenetic, tense piece of music. Underpinned by a relentless bass synth stab that slips and slides throughout the track, the drum patterns are more elaborate, cutting between several different breaks, with abrupt stops to expose dark string sweeps, hammered Rhodes strikes and shimmering china cymbals. Again there is a subtle reference to the Hokusai releases, but with a fresh twist on that darker Jazz-infused style of Breakbeat D&B.

DJ Support
Source Direct, Law & Ben Repertoire, Mister Shifter, Basic Rhythm, Voodoo & Sensenet

Incl Daniel Avery Remix

A pivotal figure amid London’s queer club continuum, Joshua James follows up an iconic trilogy of releases on Phantasy with a powerful swerve into pure techno with ‘Amber Rush’, complete with a remix by close friend and Phantasy labelmate, Daniel Avery.

Crackling with energy, its pendulous drums reminiscent of The Chemical Brothers in their Battle Weapon mode, ‘Amber Rush’ matches the thunder-dome ready scope of a big-room anthem with waves of psychedelic texture. The result is guaranteed rapid-fire synapse tickling within even the best (or worst) adjusted of dedicated rave brains.

Avery’s metallic-tinted reimagining subtly shifts the aesthetic of ‘Amber Rush’, gliding out of the strobe and into the fog. Wisely following the course of undulating euphoria mapped out by James, Avery transforms acid tension into graceful heights and somehow deeper plunges, ultimately settling on a killer groove.

Coming off a strong 2020 for the label with releases from Big Strick, Gnext, and Butterbandz, 7 Days follows up with an EP featuring all 3. This trio (or TRINITY) put on a fantastic showcasing of talent. The EP starts off with a sweeping dance tune from Big Strick titled Balance. The catchy piano keys lift your spirits as the drum programming moves your feet. The very animated baseline is a strong force in this song as well. Somebody's Watching shows us Gnext's deep side once again. Hard hitting drums, delayed hi-hats, warm synth pad, aggressive yet friendly bass line, and some acid sprinkled on top. What's not to like? Lastly we get to see more of what to expect from ButterBandz. Another classic in the making for the rising producer on the 7 Days imprint. Ultra Instinct also has a deep underground feel. He brings a thundering, in your face, base line on top of a systematic drum program and airy synth pad. The heat is turning up for 7 Days and this is just a taste of things to come.

Manchester UK's Space Afrika make music of what they term "overlapping moments" - oblique mosaics of dialogue, rhythm, texture, and shadow, half-heard through a bus window on a rainy night. Honest Labour, the group's first full-length since 2020's landmark hybtwibt? (have you been through what i've been through?) mixtape, expands the project's palette with classical strings, shimmering guitar, and visionary vocal cameos, leaning further into their enigmatic fusion of ambient unrest and cosmic downtempo. It's a sound both fogged and fragmented, at the axis of song craft and sound design, born from and for the yearning solitudes of life under lockdown. The album title is tiered, alluding to a legendary patriarch from co-founder Joshua Inyang's Nigerian family tree (who was lovingly called "Honest Labour" for his loyalty and resilience) as well as the nature of self-designated work, such as Space Afrika's music - a "labor of love" in its truest sense. With fellow co-founder Joshua Reid recently relocated to Berlin, the pair began sharing files last fall, piecing together poetic vignettes of looping haze and found sound, inspired by the notion of "records that leave an impression, and help the listener deal with their life." As the isolation of Covid compounded with the worsening winter, the songs skewed increasingly introspective and emotive, reflecting a mood of dissipating futures and the infinite nocturnal unknown. The artists cite two core motivations for Honest Labour: to transcend the sum of their influences, and "to show what we're capable of." Both ambitions are entirely realized. The collection's 19 tracks flow with a synergy and sophistication as rare as they are radical, untethered to the dusty dub-techno templates of Space Afrika's early years. These are interstitial anthems, expressionistic and open-ended, delirious but deliberate, attuned to the drift and dreamstate of the present moment: "Ultimately this is an homage to U.K. energy, and an album about love and loss."

Manchester UK's Space Afrika make music of what they term "overlapping moments" - oblique mosaics of dialogue, rhythm, texture, and shadow, half-heard through a bus window on a rainy night. Honest Labour, the group's first full-length since 2020's landmark hybtwibt? (have you been through what i've been through?) mixtape, expands the project's palette with classical strings, shimmering guitar, and visionary vocal cameos, leaning further into their enigmatic fusion of ambient unrest and cosmic downtempo. It's a sound both fogged and fragmented, at the axis of song craft and sound design, born from and for the yearning solitudes of life under lockdown. The album title is tiered, alluding to a legendary patriarch from co-founder Joshua Inyang's Nigerian family tree (who was lovingly called "Honest Labour" for his loyalty and resilience) as well as the nature of self-designated work, such as Space Afrika's music - a "labor of love" in its truest sense. With fellow co-founder Joshua Reid recently relocated to Berlin, the pair began sharing files last fall, piecing together poetic vignettes of looping haze and found sound, inspired by the notion of "records that leave an impression, and help the listener deal with their life." As the isolation of Covid compounded with the worsening winter, the songs skewed increasingly introspective and emotive, reflecting a mood of dissipating futures and the infinite nocturnal unknown. The artists cite two core motivations for Honest Labour: to transcend the sum of their influences, and "to show what we're capable of." Both ambitions are entirely realized. The collection's 19 tracks flow with a synergy and sophistication as rare as they are radical, untethered to the dusty dub-techno templates of Space Afrika's early years. These are interstitial anthems, expressionistic and open-ended, delirious but deliberate, attuned to the drift and dreamstate of the present moment: "Ultimately this is an homage to U.K. energy, and an album about love and loss."

Francesco Cavaliere and Tomoko Sauvage embody a tactile audio visual display, radiating the color green into sounds and painting meditative music. By transforming collected objects into invented instruments and scenography, each motif becomes a dedication to a specific situation, an anecdote or a symbol, sometimes real and other times absurd, that the artists have encountered through their travels and conversations: the Chinese myth about a man wearing a green hat, naming convention of Japanese traffic lights, or even the imaginary chants of frolicking twin dolphins. This inspired the duo’s personal research on experimenting with raw and synthesized idiophones, stage landscape design, spontaneous field recording and organized improvisation.

For their installation and performance, Cavaliere and Sauvage assemble a green cabinet of curiosities - instrumentarium combining water, glass, clay, bamboo xylophones, metallophones and synthesizers. Tomoko describes in an interview: “When you are actually surrounded by green musical instruments, it has a calming effect as if you were looking at a forest or mountain.” Surrounding themselves with amulets and fluorescent fluids, the duo transcend into a musical imagination that connects scores, choreography and sculpture. Motions like crisscrossing the stage, feeling the presence of a perfectly plump leaf as it strikes a glass bowl, minerals slipping through fingers, all resonate to the soothing sounds of splashing water. There’s an intuitive yet methodical nature to this conceptual approach to composition reminiscent of the fluxus art movement. The pair’s initial motif was to play Henning Christiansen’s Green Music, whose score turned to be nonexistent. By then, their green dream was already flourishing in their mind, retracing the path of so-called environmental music from Walter Tilgner, Knud Viktor, to the likes of Kankyo-Ongaku and Hiroshi Yoshimura.

Since there is a strong visual element to their work, witnessing this captivating site specific performance may be imperative in understanding the range and influence of the color green and the impact on the sounds they create together. On ‘Viridescens’, the first release by Cavaliere and Sauvage, we are invited to experience these recordings in a more musical context. Acting like an intermediary, the duo transport us to their special planet, enlivened by animal voices, wind, and aquatic creatures dancing across a luminous aurora.

The new school meets the old school. Riding those crystal-clear waves off the back of their standout EP for WOLF Music, New Zealand duo Manuel Darquart double down with this 10-inch remix package containing a classic reworking from the master of dream house, Don Carlos and a sleazed up street soul workout from themselves.

No introduction is needed when you see Don Carlos’ name in the mix. A legend of the Italian dream house movement that has influenced so much of what we’ve heard since, not least the productions of the Manuel Darquart guys. A dream (house) matchup some might say.

Step one, Carlos sprinkles his magic on ‘Keep It DXy’ switching up the drum programming and adding those Balearic flurries that add a considered dose of dreaminess to whatever he touches, think summery sweeping strings and echoing synth stabs.

On the flip the Manuel D guys go full sleaze, weak at the knees for their ‘Sleazy Sunday Mix’. Imagine a street soul, Balearic lovechild and you’re on the right track. Start suppin’ a margarita and you’re getting closer. Sun-lounger on the sand, Adriatic in front of you, last night’s euphoria still a buzz in the brain and you’ve hit the spot.

The man with the funky plan is back! Known for his groovy disco edits, Todh Teri is back with Deep In India Vol. 9. This all new record features another fellow sampler and old time record digger - Kone Kone.

The album starts off with Sampadan 30 where Kone Kone works his magic to bring out delicious crossover disco beats that characterise the charming 80s flowing into the alluring 90s of the Indian cinescape, with the old school glam of electric guitars and synths. This thumping track is followed by Sampadan 31 which is reminiscent of Chicago house but with Todh Teri’s classic Indian touch. Next up is Sampadan 32, with a simple yet funky bassline and juicy vocals that make you travel back in time to a golden era, making it quite an enticing vibe. Find solace with Sampadan 33, the final track on the record, a quintessential dub version of another classic that will make your head bob and drift you off to a safe & happy place.All in all, this record is wholesome as it has something for each and every listener with a brilliant illustration by Costanza Chandra in collaboration with Masala
Movement

Horse Meat Disco deliver the latest single from their acclaimed debut album ‘Love & Dancing’, this time made in collaboration with NYC group The Phenomenal Handclap Band. ‘Sanctuary’ sees the quartet at their disco dancefloor-ready best, as The Phenomenal Handclap Band provide a dose of deliciously cool nonchalance. Fuelled by hefty analogue muscle, funky guitar riffs, 70s synthesizers and glowy vocals ‘Sanctuary’ makes for an irresistible modern disco number. Ray Mang makes an appropriate remixer for the package, his amalgamative style of boogie, disco, dub and house a perfect fit for Horse Meat Disco and The Phenomenal Handclap Band’s collaboration, providing both a remix and Dubstrumental for the package. ‘Sanctuary’ is an unmissable release for any modern day, discerning disco listener that you’ll want to hear again and again.

Bonander is the shorthand for Ellinor Sterner Bonander. Sporting the role
of musician, arranger and producer, the native Swede is a woman
unchained, injecting darkness into the vein of candied pop with her tropes
of existentialism and feminist revolt.
Following the arc of ‘Backseat’ and ‘Martha’, Bonander’s latest single, ‘Gone
In The Wind’ leads the way for the album with its emotional outpour of lost
sisterhood. Tribal thrashes of drums, pipe organ and soaring vocals combine to
manifest the pain and frustration at the heart of the song.
She says, “The song is about abandonment of a person who’s been like a sister
to you, someone you admire and cherish... The pipe organ and strings are the
most emotional instrumentation I can think of. They represent that suppressed
feeling of anger and frustration, that later in the song is set free.”
The album tells the stories of women both from history and her personal life
whose contributions have previously been overlooked.
“The idea for the album is to create a musical, cinematic and dramatic journey
full of contrast between intimate string sections and huge synth landscapes,
between mechanical rhythms and flowing tempos.
The lyrics will together speak of the identities and emotional life of different
women, both through private and historical perspectives. All of the songs discuss subjects concerning women that ought to be talked about more, but sadly
are not...” // Bonander

After a period of spending time in nature living in the Spanish coastal town of Dexo - producer Roi speaks of his experience of returning to city life on his second EP for Fanzine Records on Crunia EP. Set to drop this summer, Roi shares two tightly honed original tracks inviting Carl Finlow and The Exaltics to remix.

The EP is a counterpoint to Deixo EP - his 2019 EP on Fanzine that speaks from his opposite perspective of the self-knowledge born out of his isolation when he first moved to the coast out of the city. Crunia marks his time preparing the return to the jungle of the asphalt.

It's a new chapter moving from an introverted to extroverted existence and between nature and man's constructs in the city. Opening the EP Maianca works in deep breakbeats with shimmering synths with a jumping and uplifting feel. Carl Finlow's remix builds it into an ultra-funky electro boogie number that perfectly speaks of the carefree existence of living in nature.


Crunia takes the EP into a more frantic corner of urban life - to light up dark corners gritty warehouse dance floors. For their remix The Exaltics take's Roi's heavy handed lead and brings a heavily kicking version of Crunia to the mix ready to pump the city's sound systems.

Fanzine Records is part of Fanzine Project - promoters and educators based in A Coruna, Spain. They focus on developing and supporting local artists through Fanzine Records, Fanzine Fest and Fanzine School.

This is incredibly Trees Speak's third album on Soul Jazz Records to be released in the space of one year - and it's amazing! Trees Speak's new album 'PostHuman' once again blends 1970s German electronic and 'motorik' Krautrock instrumentals (think Harmonia, Can, Cluster, Popul Vuh, Neu!), haunting and powerful 1960s & 1970s soundtracks (think Italian prog-rock Goblin and John Carpenter horror movies, Morricone and existential John Barry spy movies), together with a New York no wave electronic synth and guitar analogue DIY-ness (think Suicide, anything on Soul Jazz's New York Noise series or Eno's New York No Wave)! Drawing further upon German krautrock high-concept albums from the likes of Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze from the 1970s, Trees Speak create their own powerful new landscapes of sound that manage to be at once contemporary as well as both timeless and with a sense of science-fiction futurism. Trees Speak' segue together all these elements into 'PostHuman,' which follows on from their criticallyacclaimed debut LP 'Ohms', and 'Shadow Forms' released on Soul Jazz Records less than six months ago. This powerful new album is a high-concept collage of retro-futurist science-fiction music, fantastically illustrated by the artist Eric Lee, a dramatic vision of life after humanity. Trees Speak are Daniel Martin Diaz and Damian Diaz from Tucson, Arizona and their music often draws on the cosmic night-time magic of Arizona's natural desert landscapes. 'Trees Speak' relates to the idea of future technologies storing information and data in trees and plants - using them as hard drives - and the idea that Trees communicate collectively. The album includes an exclusive bonus 45 single 'Machine Vision' and 'Seventh Mirror' that will only be available with the first order of the vinyl edition of this amazing and ground-breaking new album. With 'PostHuman,' Trees Speak once again manages to take the listener deep into their unique musical world of unknown visions of the past and the future.

"King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have always greeted creative boundaries with the same respect bulldozers visit upon anything foolish enough to stray into their path. Over 11 years and across their 17 studio albums to date, the sui generis sextet have turned their many hands to luminous acid-rock daydreams (I’m In Your Mind Fuzz), gritty western horse operas (Eyes Like The Sky), never-ending science-fiction song cycles (Nonagon Infinity), dystopian death-metal epics (Infest The Rat’s Nest) and winningly mellifluous jazz-folk (Sketches Of Brunswick East). They’ve even invented their own musical instrument – a hybrid electric guitar sharing much of its DNA with the traditional Turkish bağlama – to explore the notes between the notes (a mission that’s yielded three albums thus far: Flying Microtonal Banana, K.G. and L.W.).
But their 18th album, Butterfly 3000, might be their most fearless leap into the unknown yet: a suite of ten songs that all began life as arpeggiated loops composed on modular synthesisers, before being fashioned into addictive, optimistic and utterly seductive dream-pop by the six-piece. The album sounds simultaneously like nothing they’ve ever done before, and thoroughly, unmistakeably Gizz, down to its climactic neon psych-a-tronic flourish. "

Far Out Recordings proudly presents two previously unreleased tracks of glorious Brazilian sunshine music. Written and recorded in 1978 by pianist, composer, sound engineer, studio owner and former amateur skateboarding champion Ricardo Bomba, ‘Eu Sei’ and ‘Flutuando’ were almost doomed to total obscurity when the master tapes were binned following a ruthless studio clear out. Luckily Bomba kept a cassette tape copy from which Far Out has remastered the release for 7” vinyl/ digital.

Throughout a varied career, which included a four year stint as bandleader of Jorge Ben’s live show (78-82), Ricardo Bomba had a string of idiosyncratic, underground pop hits throughout the 80s, including ‘Você Vai Se Lembrar’ which recently featured on Soundway’s Onda De Amor (Synthesized Brazilian Hits That Never Were 1984-94) compilation, as well as his then award-winning, now obscure solo album Ultralight (1988).

With the stunning vocals of Mariana Couto (the first wife of Chicago percussionist Laudir de Oliveira), legendary drummer Peninha who has recorded with the likes of Jorge Ben, Quarteto Em Cy, Lincoln Olivetti, Tony Bizarro and Gal Costa, and Brazilian guitarist Blimba Buarque, “Eu Sei” and “Flutuando” truly are lost gems of the late ‘70s Rio de Janeiro MPB scene.

*Disclaimer! This release was mastered from cassette tape, so the sound quality may differ from other releases on Far Out Recordings. We advise listening to sound clips before buying where possible... The music was simply too good to not release!

Blind Delon & DJ Varsovie collaboration "ETE 97" is a retro synth-wave project with an electro remix from VOIRON. With nostalgic and dark lyrics, this release will take you back on the last day of the summer.

Comes in full color sleeve.

Spaven x Sandunes is a collaboration of musical worlds, where London meets Mumbai, the new project from Richard Spaven and Sanaya Ardeshir is a mix of forward-thinking drum language and intricate synthwork weaving together a moody electro acoustic tapestry. Originally released digitally in September 2020 to critical acclaim, seeing support from Benji B (BBCR1), Giles Peterson (BBC 6Music) and Jamz Supernova (1Xtra), this exclusive vinyl edition includes an additional track featuring MC Altaf.

For this release Ellende was a core of three original members plus a guest musician. The album was recorded between May to August 2020 in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Tokyo, and London. The release contains a twelve page booklet with artwork by Richard Hart. The autobiographical text in English and Afrikaans is of a trip taken to Cape Town in the mid 1970’s where two teenage cousins are confronted with the consequences of their shared family history.
The music can be described as ambient; the sounds are multilayered, often a bit dusty and slow moving. Some of the tracks sound like they have been recorded on old tapes giving the whole album a nostalgic atmosphere. Often a piano acts as the leitmotif, there is plenty of droning and throughout the tracks bits of texts from old French movies float in and out. Most of the music is made with vintage analogue synthesisers such as the Arp Solina, Prophet 5, ARP Solus, Juno 6. Most of the piano’s, Rhodes and Wurlizters are from the late 70’s as well. All the tracks have been recorded on tape, often played back on half speed. Mastering again was done by Rafael Irissari, whose own ambient work we greatly admire.

Unintentional Consequences is the second part of a trilogy of which Ellende’s previous release the double 10” album Odyssey, A Sentimental Journey from 2019 was part one.

Concentric Records presents Radiant, the third compilation of its introductory release trilogy. Featuring music by ASWA, HOLOVR, Max Loderbauer, Petre Inspirescu, Supply, The Waves, William Selman, the album evokes luminous, iridescent and ethereal sonic spaces - a journey that overcomes struggles, spinning upward towards the light.

The album opens with calm, bright and assertive tonalities, evoking mental spaces prone to exploration and wondering. Molecular textures and real-world sounds bring us closer to an intimate and physical sphere, a voice. Ultimately everything dissolves into a synthetic domain of acid-like washes, in a cinematic sense of departure.

MAX LODERBAUER has been an active engineer, producer, and musician across four decades. He first came to notice in the late ‘80s as a member of Fischerman’s Friend. Known then as Daimler Max, Loderbauer’s associates included Stephan Fischer and Tom Thiel, as well as producer Thomas Fehlmann. Once the group went dormant, Loderbauer and Thiel established Sun Electric; one of the leading sources of entrancing downtempo and ambient techno through the ‘90s. During the 2000s and 2010s, Loderbauer collaborated in numerous settings, including NSI with Tobias Freund, Chica & the Folder with Paula Schopf, and Moritz von Oswald Trio with Vladislav Delay and Moritz von Oswald. Loderbauer was partly responsible for some of the most progressive and experimental electronic music released during these years. In 2011, he and contemporary Ricardo Villalobos assembled Re: ECM, a project that involved radical transformations of ECM label recordings by the likes of Bennie Maupin, Christian Wallumrød, John Abercrombie, and Arvo Pärt. More recently he consolidated the collaboration with Ricardo Villalobos via the Vilod project, and with Samuel Rohrer and Claudio Puntin as Ambiq - both described as ‘a fertile patch of inspiration, shaking up the principles of minimal techno with the loose, expressive qualities of jazz’. The album opening track - ‘Harmonic’ - feels like a glowing dream. Composed of stunning electronics in a polychromatic, blinding and shimmering light; harmonious interwoven melodies calmly wind down invoking a serene mental state and grounding peace.

WILLIAM SELMAN was the very first artist ever approached by Concentric Records prior to the label’s birth, back in 2018, following his defining release ‘Musica Enterrada’. A musician and multimedia artist currently based in Portland, Oregon, his work employs analogue and digital synthesis techniques, live percussion and instrumentation, and his own rich field recordings to create compositions and sound art focused on the ideas of place and environment. Selman's recent works have been released on Mysteries of the Deep and Hausu Mountain.

PETRE INSPIRESCU is an extremely versatile composer. As co-founder of the legendary RPR Soundsystem together with Rhadoo and Raresh, he mostly produced club-ready, heavily textured takes on tech-house and minimal techno. In 2015 he released his first album on Mule Musiq, considered a significant departure from his previous work, scoring piano, strings and woodwind instruments for the first time, resulting in a set that sat somewhere between ambient and neo-classical. Since then, he continued to explore further sonic territories, adding in vintage synthesizers and occasional nods to dub techno, resulting in melodious sequences of musical movements that relate to the work of classical composers, American minimalists and ambient legends. ‘The Garden’ is a dreamy, intimate and nature inspired composition, recorded in his home studio in Ibiza sometime in the Summer.

DJ and producer SUPPLY (youngest so far on the label) was born and raised in Gießen, within sight of the skyscrapers of Frankfurt am Main, and has been living in Berlin since 2017. Musically socialised through hip hop, he found his connection to electronic music produced in Chicago and Detroit in the 90s by moving to FFM in 2013. For almost 6 years he has hosted his own events in his hometown. His productions connect the dots between hip hop, retro futuristic movie soundtracks and techno, he recently released on YAY Recordings. ‘Inhale / Exhale’ was created during a time of stress and mental tension, partly self-inflicted, partly result of my surroundings, as it turned out in retrospect. The track tries to capture a moment of taking a deep breath by releasing that tension for a moment. I came up with the first sketch one night around 4am, the final arrangement found its way onto a C60 Chromoxid Cassette - inhale - exhale.’ - Supply

THE WAVES is a post-punk and synthwave-inspired project led by Maayan Nidam, that places her vocals at its front and centre. As a musician obsessed with sound and the technology behind its creation, her workflow places a strong focus on the studio environment. Triggering chain reactions between guitar pedals, drum machines, modular synths and acoustic instruments, generating sounds in unpredictable ways. Drum machines keep a steady groove as to give support to an array of guitars and synthesisers, all topped with The Waves own, mostly unmasked, lyrics and voice. ‘Hold On’ was written by Maayan during the 2020 pandemic as she dived deeply in studio work in Berlin. Her lyrics are featured as part of the art print insert, and have became a central statement to the LP and its narrative - the power to hold on and break through.

Jimmy Billingham's HOLOVR project has racked up various releases on some of the most forward-thinking electronic music labels over the past few years, including Firecracker Recordings, Likemind, Further Records, Opal Tapes and his own Indole Records. Though best known for melodic, drifting acid techno and electronica, he's equally at home crafting textured ambient soundscapes. HOLOVR's deeply emotional synth passages and pads will take you on a journey into the outer. 'Melancholy of Time came out of a period exploring ways of producing and recording outside of the grid-based structures that I was previously working with. I wanted to strip it back to what I often find to be the emotional core of a piece of electronic music - ebbing and flowing synth pads - but to push and pull it a bit to create a slight disjointedness, unpredictability and shop-worn texture, as if it's coming apart and fraying, yet retaining a sonic clarity. I recorded it live using looped and layered synth phrases, underpinned by a layer of hiss and pin-prick textures. I find reflections on time and its passing to be a recurrent feature of my work, both in a more straightforward way of harking back to music of a certain period or pieces of equipment but also in a more abstract sense of creating a feeling where time doesn't matter - a deep feeling of now; that escape that you find in music and other ecstatic experiences. Though of course we’re always in - and running out of - time, and hence the melancholy.’ - Jimmy Billingham

Hailing from the German underground scene, ASWA aka Attila Fidan has an intricate, hypnotic style of electro, techno and ambient. Coming from visual arts and not primarily a trained musician, Attila produces under various and multiple monikers: ‘I never really start out knowing which moniker the track will be made under’. Since 2017 he runs a boutique Berlin label named ‘Tape Archive’. ‘Dust Palace’ is a synthetic piece that resonates with a cinematic vastness, closing the LP in an uplifting tone that evokes new departures and new beginnings.

’Angelo lost his shit over it. Aaliyah’s 3rd favourite track of all time is on it. David Bowie rocked up with it to a TV interview, declaring it “the most exciting sound of contemporary soul music”.

In 1996, Lewis Taylor released his self-titled masterpiece. A true modern classic, it’s an album that was years ahead of its time. Forget 25 years ago, it could easily have been made in 2021. An effortless blend of neo-soul, sophisticated pop, smart grooves and laid-back white funk, it enjoyed rapturous reviews from critics and music legends alike. But the album never managed to make an impact and given what was likely a token vinyl release at the time, the original records have long since been near-impossible to find. Lewis Taylor’s Lewis Taylor remains a holy relic for some and criminally unknown to most.

Lewis Taylor’s impeccable influences created a dazzling sonic palette: the LP as a whole suggests the visionary brilliance of Prince; the vocal stylings evoke the yearning power of Marvin Gaye; the effortless guitar playing shares the virtuosity of Jimi Hendrix; the haunting tones conjure Tricky; the innovative production and engineering invite comparisons to studio mavericks like Todd Rundgren and Brian Eno; the multi-layered, complex harmonies flash on Pet Sounds-era Brian Wilson; the dark, drama is reminiscent of both Scott Walker and Stevie Wonder; the complex arrangements create textures and moods with the feel of Shuggie Otis on Inspiration Information; the bold experimentation is akin to progressive artists like Faust and Tangerine Dream; the atmosphere is in conversation with Jeff Buckley’s Grace… and we could go on. That might all sound like marketing hyperbole, but not as far as Be With is concerned. It is a genuine wonder how an album this good could’ve passed so many people by.

But despite all the reference points, the similarities are really only skin-deep because the album sounds truly original. It occupies its own distinct, strange universe that feels dark and brooding one moment, bright and joyous the next. Ultimately, Taylor sounds like Taylor.

Although you wouldn’t know it from the credits, the album wasn’t the work of Lewis alone. Sabina Smyth gets an executive producer credit on the original sleeve, but in fact she worked with Lewis on the production and arrangements, did a lot of the backing vocals and she co-wrote Track, Song, Lucky and Damn with Lewis.

Lewis clarified all this in a Soul Jones interview with Dan Dodds in 2016. He explains how not giving Sabina the credit she was due at the time was an unfortunate consequence of where his head was at and he’s now trying to set the record straight.

Together they created an exquisite and sensually-charged record, with a freshness to the writing that makes the songs catchy, melodic-yet-deep and sometimes even funky. The music is predominantly guitar-led and a mixture of organs and synths, live drum loops and electronic percussion make for a sort of modern soul backing orchestra.

On the surface the album is gorgeously laidback, but beneath the lush, sometimes slick, production there’s a murkiness in the seriously gritty funk/hip-hop instrumentation. Lewis Taylor can be a claustrophobic listen. Even its one-word, often seemingly throw-away track titles add to the sense of unease. In its most positive moments, there’s still a sense that things aren’t quite right. The magic comes from this compelling tension.

The languid, strutting “Lucky” is a sensational opening statement. Sinuous electric guitar winds around the shaking percussion with a killer bass line rattling your bones, and Lewis’s voice is sublime. Its six-and-a-half unhurried minutes manage to distill the work of Marvin, Al Green and Bobby Womack because yes, it’s *that* good. Up next is the tough, dusty drum and jazzy, unsettling psych-guitar workout of “Bittersweet”. Aaliyah described it the “perfect song”, which says it all. By turns loping and soaring, tightly coiled and blasting free, 25 years on its discordant, swaggering majesty still sounds like future R&B.

The swinging, blue-eyed funk of “Whoever” oozes sophisticated sunshine soul for hazy days before “Track” sweeps in. The music tries to lift us up, beyond the reach of the vocals trying to drag us back down as Taylor sings “my mood is black as the darkest cloud”. The spare, dubby electro-soul of “Song” closes out the first half of the album with barely contained dread as it creeps towards the lush, synth-heavy coda.

The smouldering “Betterlove” eases us into the second half, coming on like a languorous response to the call of “Brown Sugar”, before sliding into the shuffling, softly-rocking “How”. Somehow the remarkable “Right” manages to both warm things up and smooth things out even more. Taut yet luxurious, it’s definitely not wrong.

“Damn” was to have been the album’s title track and you might also be able to hear its influence on D’Angelo’s Voodoo, maybe most obviously in the chaotic closing moments of “Untitled (How Does It Feel)”. Building to a screeching wall of noise that suddenly cuts dead, “Damn” sounds like the natural end to the album, with the celestial a cappella “Spirit” serving as a heavenly reprise.

When it came to the sleeve, art director Cally Callomon heard Taylor’s music as “sideways off-camera glances at a plethora of influences he had” and wanted to interpret that visually: “I went off into night-time London to see if I could find his song titles in off-beam low-fidelity photographs. I even found a shop called Lewis Taylor”. With a slide for each of the album’s ten tracks, nine of them are on the inner sleeve and the slide for “Damn” makes the front cover. It should’ve been the album’s title, but concerns over distribution in the US scuppered this.

One of UK soul’s most fascinating artists, Andrew Lewis Taylor is an enigmatic figure and a hugely under-appreciated talent. A prodigious multi-instrumentalist who got his start touring with heavy blues/psych outfit the Edgar Broughton Band, he released two albums of psychedelic-rock as Sheriff Jack before Island signed him on the strength of a demo alone. But Taylor was destined to be one of those artists unable (or unwilling) to be pigeonholed and despite the best efforts of Island’s publicity department the music never sold in the quantities it needed to or deserved to. Island eventually let him go in the early 2000s and in June 2006, Lewis Taylor retired from music.

Typical for the mid-90s, this CD-length album was squeezed onto a single LP for its original vinyl release. Simon Francis’s fresh vinyl mastering now spreads out the ten tracks over a double LP so nothing is compromised. And as usual, the records have been cut by Pete Norman and pressed at Record Industry. The original artwork has been restored at Be With HQ and subtly re-worked to work as a double.

This sprawling psychedelic soul opus really is a forgotten should-be-classic. We know that there are those of you who know, and as for the rest of you, we’re a bit jealous that you’re getting to hear Lewis Taylor for the first time.

This summer, multidisciplinary producer, designer and 3D artist Raynor de Groot serves up Future Static, his debut full-length on Atomnation as Coloray. More than simply a collection of music, the record will be presented in an all-new virtual space where each track is a portal to a different world.

Dutchman de Groot has proven himself as an accomplished conceptual artist who draws together many different creative fields. He has released everything from lush synth-pop to deep techno, and has real songwriting ability. 2019's 'Can't Stop' in collaboration with Eagles & Butterflies proved that as it crossed over multiple scenes and became one of the year's standout tracks thanks to support from heavy hitters as diverse as Hunee and Four Tet. Âme & Dixon have also regularly supported Coloray's music and asked him to release 'Gazing Eyes' on their Innervisions label.

Two years after his Real Life Cinema EP on Atomnation, Future Static finds de Groot open a new chapter that explores a more conceptual sound. The album "translates the concept of man and computer creating a new reality where logic and emotion seems to be at odds with one another." Its 12 tracks have club-ready grooves, but also exquisite synth designs that are edgy and uptempo. They will be translated to a live show and interactive music experience in VR, on your phone and desktop. In the show, online visitors will be able to get lost inside the mind of an AI and watch and interact with a Coloray performance.

Presented with an artfully designed gatefold sleeve, Future Static is a groundbreaking project from Coloray that pushes creative boundaries while offering an immersive listening experience.

Schneider TM is the multidimensional music project of Dirk Dresselhaus which has been operating since the mid 90's. His latest opus is also his first for release for Editions Mego.

With an extensive catalogue under his belt, one may wonder where this one takes us? The 8 of Space orbits the realm of "pop" more overtly than the project has done for 14 years, residing in the line of works that temporarily ended with "Skoda Mluvit" from 2006. In the age of scattered streaming listening habits The 8 Of Space champions the classic album format with connected tracks that act like chapters adding up to what could be framed as an 'audio-movie'. The 'plot' revolves around a post-dystopian landscape which posits the make up of reality in the future.

The vessel is electronic pop music but one which takes inspiration from the spirit of a multitude of musical forms absorbed into a trans human sound world where biological & technological elements complement each other (We are NOT The Robots!). The music unifies the analog world of acoustic and electric instruments with electronic & digital possibilities that range from heavily processed acoustic & electric guitars and bass, tube organ, analog modular synth units, acoustic drums and percussion, analog & digital drum machines & effect units, hardware and software processing. Experimental & extended musical techniques build a world of musical elements that is sometimes upside down and mirrored. Electric guitar becomes rhythm machine & modular system, voice becomes sound object & synthesizer, effects are used as instruments, acoustic guitars are being modulated by voices etc. Reality and illusion are getting mixed up. One can hear short moments of longer recordings in the tracks which are snapshots of bigger musical pictures that lurk behind what's actually audible. Generative music, audio spirals like clockworks create ever changing musical combinations; thrown-in sounds, polyrhythms & cascades based on the concept of chance attributed to the service of the SONG.

The lyrics are a key component. Holistic, associative poetry acts as interactive trigger points for the mechanisms of existence in times of a paradigm shift that are open to the listeners discretion. Autobiographical elements combine with science fiction and dreams, protagonists shift where the 'I' or 'me' is not necessarily the voice of the artist, nor even the same person. Alongside a more naturalised voice another protagonist appears represented by a processed voice. This character, named iBot, evolved around the start of the millennium and has appeared on some previous Schneider TM recordings. It can be seen as a post-human, or even a trans-human character, a combination of human & technology, uncertain of the future, which lends iBot it's melancholic tone.

In the opening song "Light & Grace" iBot appears in an advanced form of AI, which managed to hack & hijack a commercial space travel program (eg, Virgin Galactic) to invite those rich, who profited most from the destruction of planet earth, for a holiday trip into space to unknowingly fly them directly into the middle of the sun. In this episode it seems to have developed higher ethics than humanity itself with ambition to save the planet with as much of its cooperative life as possible."Light & Grace" serves as an intro / opener for this album to be followed by 7 other tracks featuring different windows of consciousness represented by diverse characters & protagonists.

All the elements on The 8 of Space, the music, sounds, vocals and artwork fit together as a whole, creating a dazzling electro pop future questioning it's own certainty. This is experimental electroacoustic pop music featuring glorious melodies dancing along human/machine voices, each track is a small universe that triggers the physical mind and tickles the subconsciousness.

Repress

Tiga's drops BUGATTI. Another irresistible one-liner on the dance-floor that can't be missed or forgotten.

So much sex and attitude, so few elements. A staccato kick-snare rhythm, a robo-funk synth line, a futuristic pad, a detuned ride, a cheeky vocal hook and a one-note acid line that brings it all together. That's it. All you need if you know what you're doing and have an experienced pair of Canadian Electro-godfather balls intact. Tiga has made a career out of being catchy: from Sunglasses to Mind Dimension, from Plush to Pleasure From the Bass, from You Gonna Want Me to Let's Go Dancing. How does he do it

It's his ability to drop a clever turn of phrase that separates him from the pack, but the strength and character of his production choices keep things clear of kitsch and make him a perennially hot-tipped cool-commodity everywhere from the great American EDM stage to the hallowed-haus of Panorama's deep underground credibility. His career is like a Veyron - stable AND insane.

So listen to it, get it stuck in your head. This track is crazy dope, it doesn't sound like anyone else, and it's the most hip-hop thing all you house DJs are likely to fit into your sets this weekend so go on, get loose and take it for a ride.

This is what Tiga had to say about the Vinyl-Only remixes 12" :

For this, my most personal record, i hand selected remixers of the highest order. Cliff Lothar, absolute legend, and current king of the enigma groove, delivers an absolute masterpiece. It's seriously a 10 on 10, and I never say that. Vinyl only bitches. Perth Drug Legend, somebody else who I kinda know and yet totally don't know (or I guess I just thought I knew) slams the 'gatti with raw tribal funk: again suitable for a warehouse or a particularly forward-thinking car dealership. Rebolledo, one of the few men i actually trust, comes in with a slightly electrofied extended party mix. God I'm happy. Full disclosure: there were a few people who did remixes that were rejected. I will reveal their names publicly in good time. Good day. T.

CHORUSING ist das Projekt des in Raleigh im US-Bundesstaat North Carolina, ansässigen Songwriters/Produzenten Matthew O'Connell. Auf seinem Debüt "Half Mirror" überlagert O'Connell warme analoge Synthesizer mit "confessional folk". Ein laut Eigenbeschreibung gleichzeitig kosmisches wir irdisches Unterfangen. Aufgenommen wurde "Half Mirror" zu Hause in den Bergen von North Carolina mit einem Vintage-Tape-Delay, einer E-Gitarre und einem selbstgebauten Synthesizer, den O'Connell Balsam taufte. Das Album ist in gleichen Teilen ein einsames Hin- und Herschieben von Elektronik, die durch Folk-Elemente vermenschlicht wird, und Folk-Musik, die durch elektronische Verzierungen verfremdet wird. Die an einem Tag geschriebene und aufgenommene hypnotische Lead-Single "Watching The Beams" ist ein guter Einstieg in den Ambient- Klangkosmos von CHORUSING.

Multinational industrial black metal rising force Decoherence join Sentient Ruin again to bring you "System I", a 12" vinyl, digital and cassette tape full-length album/compilation of all the band's recent digital only singles and EPs, remastered to their final and ultimate form along with a glorious and previously unreleased cover rendition of Killing Joke's classic cut "The Wait". While these tracks were previously already digitally (self)released, don't be fooled or misled to think you're hearing any "b-sides" or otherwise "left over" material, rather, consider "System I" not only the righteous third official full-length album from the band, but also by far Decoherence's most visionary, cohesive, and imposing songs to date. Awe-inducing and ghastly in its enveloping immensity, the tracks on "System I" see the enigmatic multinational black metal band morph into their most defiant and commanding form yet, as they construct an impenetrable mechanized swarm of liquefying industrial hallucinations and swirling dissonance that eradicates the listener from their corporeal and terrestrial self to cast them at the edge of a light-devouring void. Stylistically "System I" sees Decoherence's sound still thrive and evolve within the familiar synthetic black metal deconstructionist framework of progenitors like Blut Aus Nord and Darkspace, but as the Killing Joke cover included unmistakably hints at, these tracks also reveal a marked shift for the band toward a more unintelligible, unpredictable, and ominous immateriality, as elements incorporated from post-punk and experimental industrial assume stronger delineations adding ulterior dimensions and identities to the band's already alien and otherworldly sound.

Brock Van Wey returns as Earth House Hold and his third full album under the alias, continuing to explore the furthest influences of Ambient-infused, deconstructed Deep House in all its varying elements.

“...from the second I descended those stairs, lived it for myself, and the events that followed, I knew my life had changed forever. A life that brought with it a beauty as infinite as its pain”.

Daybreak Basements and Broken Hearts explores a new aspect of Brock’s early Deep House influences, one that meticulous followers of this guise would have been patiently trying to guess since his last outing in 2018. If Brock’s debut Earth House Hold album (When Love Lived, 2012) took the grooves and danceability from Deep House, and his second, (Never Forget Us, 2018), highlighted the powerful progression of vocals and melodies, then Daybreak Basements and Broken Hearts continues to build on the many aspects and inspirations of the Deep House genre, with a raw, dirty and somehow deeper take on the sound that Brock grew up with many years ago.

Brock’s signature vocals once again provide the narration and backbone to an album that is designed to progress; from its patient and spacious beginnings to its energetic and emotional closing chapters. Reverberating synths fill cavernous spaces as basslines rumble, bringing a darker, more abstract, early-morning vibe to an album born from a place of both reflection, and personal experiences.

“This is a house album in the purest sense of the word - just as much as the furthest thing from one that ever existed. As much a deconstruction of what deep house means as an attempt to reconstruct a time, and a life, it built.”

Polish alt-pop superstar Brodka announces new
album ‘BRUT’; a powerful examination of gender,
self-image and society.
Hot on the heels of her Speedy Wunderground 7”
‘Wrong Party’, ‘BRUT’ was recorded with Boxed
In’s Oli Bayston (Kelly Lee Owens, Loyle Carner)
and finds Brodka blurring the boundaries between
natural and synthetic sounds - post-punk riffs, icy
synths and the serrated, heavily-processed guitar
sounds that slice through glittering electro-pop to
bring an industrial edge to the brutalism-inspired
vision.
LP pressed on marbled vinyl.

Since its inception in 2019, Beartrax’s Melodize imprint has consistently pushed deep, musical house and techno with contributions from John Tejada, Fort Romeau, Carl Finlow, and many more standing alongside Beartrax’s original productions throughout the label’s back catalogue.

Leading the sixth release, ‘Phantom Night’ sees haunted atmospherics nestled amongst ethereal synth licks, before a cinematic violin takes centre stage. Johannes Albert’s remix peppers elements of the original with slick acid lines and punchy drums, re-imagining the dramatic violin for a fresh and highly entertaining take.

On the flip, the uplifting ‘Valor’ runs through a series of modulating basslines, glistening pads, and sizzling drums, topped off with a majestic cello performance throughout.

Rounding out the release, Lauer adds rubbery low end, floating keys, and hands-in-the air piano stabs to ‘Valor’ for a high-energy end to another stellar EP from Melodize.

After a year of silence, UK-based band Trash Boat
returned in February with their new single, ‘He’s So
Good’, a song about familial ties being destroyed
by people not being able to accept LGBTQ
members of their family.
The song set the stage for Trash Boat’s new
album, ‘Don’t You Feel Amazing?’, which was
produced by Grammy Award-winning producer
Jason Perry (Molotov, Don Broco, McBusted).
The album tackles more serious issues (sexuality,
drugs, hate) than their previous two releases and
sonically expands from their pop punk roots,
bringing in influences that range from metal to hiphop.
For fans of Don Broco, Boston Manor, Trophy
Eyes.

The second compilation EP to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the establishment of Sound Of Speed!

A-1, by UK Kieron Ifill K15 (WILD OATS, EGLO, APRON) with an impressive sophisticated electric jazzy track that symbolizes the label.

The debut work "Wait" from DISTANT HAWAII is a cult hit, and also from RHYTHM SECTION INTERNATIONAL and MOODS & GROOVES.

A-2 by HIDDEN SPHERES from Manchester, who has release experience and has an impressive unique rhythm composition and airy synth usage.

The Japanese twin duo SATOSHI & MAKOTO, whose two albums released from YOUNG MARCO's label attracted a lot of attention.

Sapporo's KUNIYUKI participated in the music of his brother SATOSHI as percussion, a 90's synth riff reminiscent of the dawn of Detroit techno.

KUNIYUKI from Sapporo, who has live experience on the world stage, participated in the percussion with an ambient feeling that delicate keyboard

work is folded in multiple layers.B-1, which weaves a groove in a quiet humor, a masterpiece electric jazz world that draws you in from the beginning

of the song and gets caught up in the world view in a blink of an eye

Includes 4 songs including KUNIYUKI TAKAHASHI's new song B-2, which has been developed and acclaimed by DJ Sprinkles. KUNIYUKI is in charge of mastering.

Glenn Astro returns to Tartelet Records with Purple, a four-tracker of minimal slow burners and futuristic dance music, marking the label’s 50th 12-inch release.

Since releasing his second album Homespun in late 2020, Glenn Astro has been quietly channeling his funky instincts towards new production approaches. Purple, a four-piece compilation of mutant future-boogie daubed in Rogers-Nelson hues, comes through with emotional heft. It also marks the 50th 12" release for Tartelet Records.

“Following up on Homespun, I wanted to try out some more dancefloor- oriented tracks again,” says Glenn Astro. “Keeping it simple and practical, while not being too predictable. I incorporated a lot of modular synth bits and experiments, with ‘Flux’ being an almost exclusively modular-based jam.”

Incorporating tricky sound design and fluid structures, Astro’s new lines of enquiry never come at the expense of the groove. From the opening thump of ‘Penduloop’ onwards it’s apparent that his rugged rhythmic kinks are present and correct to hook in the dancers, while the melodic drops later in the track edge in a little melancholic flavour to take the mind somewhere else entirely. On this opening track, the artist explores new territory with his version of early naughties minimal house – a welcome
slow burner.

The EP title track ‘Purple’ slaps with purpose, not least in the Linn-esque drums and melodic bassline, but it’s a positively dreamy piece which skips on crooked beat formations and floats upwards via a multi-timbral tapestry of yearning synth shapes and robotic vocals. On ‘Out Of Office’ Glenn Astro provides a generous dose of electro nostalgia when he amps up the heavy-hearted feeling with aching string pads and electro-informed machine logic. The track becomes alive with its deep un-synced rhythms and dark bass notes, pushing further into the abyss. ‘Flux’, with its tooly
feel, takes the electronic mantra further and sheds light on the source of much of Astro’s new sound palette.

Crucially, even in its techiest moments, an irrepressible humanity shines through across Purple. Glenn Astro’s soul is the binding agent which links his early, sample-heavy house to his more explorative new angles, and it comes through in abundance on this fully-formed release.

The Disco Express rolls into town once again with this four track EP of disco and house delights.

First stop, 'Sugar Rush', a buoyant, synth track tipping its hat to 90’s house identities. Featuring powerful diva vocals, rolling drums and a fun bouncing bass line, Sugar Rush is exactly what it says on the tin, a sudden rush of energy full of drive and sweetness.

Next up, 'Marble City' is a thumping house track packed with catchy guitars, grooving live bass and gorgeous synth hooks. Altogether they create a ready made, dance floor banger, full of urgency and enthusiasm.

On the B side, featuring the stunning vocals of Venessa Jackson and 'Special K' on guitar, 'Blue Diamond' is a concoction of disco, house and gospel; an original dance music experience, made with gusto.

Neatly tying together the Iridescence EP is 'Kobala'. A breakbeat number full of chilled percussive grooves, a jaw-dropping sub bass and spine tingling strings.

Today, beloved DJ, producer and songwriter Lauren Flax announces her forthcoming EP, Out Of Reality out August 6 via 2MR. Much of Out Of Reality’s cohesion comes from Flax’s expansive production, using simple elements to craft intricate backdrops for the questions posed by her songs. On the EP’s titular track, Alejandra Deheza (School of Seven Bells)’s crystalline vocals are woven against a delicate tapestry of arpeggiated keys, sparse percussion and haunting cello. Watch “Out of Reality” here.

Detachment isn’t always detrimental; sometimes you have to step outside to get a better view. Lauren Flax knows this - as a DJ, producer and songwriter, her discography is notoriously genre-defiant, consisting of an impressive array of solo tracks, collaborations, and remixes. The most recent of these – her mesmerizing take on Pale Blue’s “Breathe” - saw her experimenting with a new style of writing. “I wanted to explore that sound more,” Flax explains, “more of a synth exploration, textures with less beats.” The pared-down songwriting approach lent itself to thematic considerations as well: she’d been thinking about the repetitive nature of the life cycle - the Indian concept of Samsara - and felt a general disappointment at humanity’s lack of progress. On her new EP Out Of Reality, she washes that disappointment in lush sonic hues, stepping outside the quotidien for a new perspective.

Though its themes span beyond the scope of our current socio-political moment, Out Of Reality feels, right now, like an especially tantalizing proposition. Pandemic-driven escapism has bred a new crop of otherworldly music designed to transport the listener somewhere better. But Flax isn’t interested in escapism for its own sake - there’s still work to be done here on Earth, after all. Instead, through a combination of live instrumentation and ethereal synths, Out Of Reality grants us a respite from the real so we can return to it with a clear head.

Bastard Jazz is happy to give a first look at mainstay Japanese producers Aru-2 & Kzyboost's full length album "Hot Pants" (August 13) with a special 7" showcasing a couple of favorites from the album. On the A side is "Shooby Dooby", a slice of future funk with a bubbling analog synth bassline and Aru-2's signature talkbox vocals, while on the B-Side "Boost Step" takes things a little more downtempo into instrumental hip-hop territory, still rife with funk vibes, and synth solos.

Aru-2 and Kzyboost are both Tokyo-based producers, known for their work in the Japanese underground hip hop scene. Aru-2 got his start producing for prominent J-hip hop artists like ISSUGI, SENNINSHO, Tamaki Roy, and KID FRESINO. His first EP, "Arµ-2," arrived in 2013, and was featured in OkayPlayer, while the collaborative album "TANHÂ," with Lee (asano+ryuhei) came out in 2014 and was critically acclaimed by Pitchfork. Kzyboost specialises in the talk-box and is one of the best known talk-box artists in Japan. He's released two studio albums, "Callin' U" (2019), and "Keep Smoovin'" (2020, fusing West Coast hip hop, and 90s R&B and soul. The two artists bonded over their shared love of music through sessions at Aru-2's home studio, resulting in the upcoming collaboration.

"Shooby Dooby / Boost Step" is due out on Brooklyn's Bastard Jazz Recordings in July, ahead of the duo's debut LP "Hot Pants" in August.

After featuring on the label with a contribution to Erell Ranson’s “Hand In Hand” Remix EP in 2018, SUED co-operator SW. punches back in on KOC with a hectic six-track sonic journey by way of inaugural transmission.

Crest-surfing the margins betwixt abstract beat-making, hardware experimentation and further explosive club-ready wares, the German producer breaks the trip in with the tropical hot "ariaJA" - reeling out a savvy mashup of animalian field recording, spaced-out FXs and loopy elastic bounce.

Cranking up the heat, a notch further, "moonNEWsoon" pulls out a hot mix of muscle-aching breaks, jackin' n’ smackin' toms and iridescent synth stabs, all coated with a thick sauce of mind-boggling machine stunts. Trading its gridlocked intro for an aqueously luxuriant design throughout, gOiOsee has us deep-diving in an all-blue scenario where each element finds itself draped in richly-hued envelopes.

Flip sides and here comes the further shape-shifting, non-formulaic "mASsLESS", which invites us to see straight through glassy cascades of skittish snares, gummy synth arpeggios and futuristic chimes as an Eden of AI-rendered birdsongs and forgotten melodies come to life before our eyes.

Back to a more dynamic mindset, “justMUST4y brings lush flights of altered piano chords and pop-informed harmonics face to face with a gritty, metronomic drum work to weave another singularly off-kilter epic SW. holds the secret of, right before "VFXpeaksTWIN" wraps it all up in a soul-invigorating, Twin Peaks-scented and horizon-broadening ambient finale.

Fake Laugh & Tarquin first became acquainted a very long time ago, before they were either Fake Laugh or Tarquin. Two humans in their late teens with a keen interest in sound, they would indulge each other in whatever conversation they could muster while loitering in the corridors of their sixth-form college. Their place of learning existed in a sleepy Sussex town where once a year, the skies are filled with explosions, while burning effigies are carried through the cobbled streets by inebriated locals. The two did not suspect that much would become of their light friendship - but in good time that would all change…

In the years that followed, the two young artists moved to London and embarked upon their own totally distinct musical journeys - Fake Laugh was playing in venues with ‘rock bands’, while Tarquin was carving out a niche for himself in the bubbling, lava-like instrumental grime scene, which brought a new kind of heat to the clubs of the city. His vibrant, unapologetically obtuse (and at times absurd) brand of club-music delighted the ears of listeners, the feet of dance-floor dwellers and the brains of music theorists - all in one fell swoop. Having released with Mr. Mitch’s crucial Gobstopper imprint as well as big-guns Rinse, Tarquin has become a household name in the homes of those that know. All the while, Fake Laugh was in his bedroom writing scores of songs and occasionally releasing collections of the strongest cuts on a variety of indie labels who believed in his talent for timeless melody, focussed through his own rose-misted, yet modern lens.

It wasn’t until the fabled summer of 2019 that Fake Laugh & Tarquin would make music together in the same room. The first session resulted in album opener Slow, a song which for the previous two years, lay dormant in an acoustic form on a dusty Fake Laugh hard-drive. Fake Laugh had the idea that perhaps the song could be transformed into something far bigger and better in the hands of Tarquin - a theory which was proven correct.

Throughout Fake Laugh & Tarquin the pair continuously confound the listener, fusing sharp and glacial synthetic elements with warm organic tones and heartfelt vocal performances. Money was written at the start of the global pandemic, a time in which people had more financial concerns than usual. Rejecting total doom and gloom, Fake Laugh & Tarquin turn this dystopian angst on its head and create a one-of-a-kind club mover that pulls inspiration from the super-slick grooves of early noughties stalwarts Moloko and Groove Armada. The album twists, turns, morphs and mutates until it’s peaceful conclusion in the form of existential piano-ballad Meaningless Thin

Based on the book by the same name, Minamata follows war photographer Eugene Smith as he travels Japan documenting the devastating effect of mercury poisoning among coastal communities. His efforts to publicize the suffering caused by corporate malfeasance soon draw the attention of the world to Minamata, the city where the effects of the toxin are most pronounced.

The score is composed by Ryuichi Sakamoto composer, electro-pop pioneer, buddy to David Bowie, and synthesizer legend. His work since the late 1970s has taken him from the top of the charts. Sakamoto’s music has consistently exuded a profound empathy. Whether leading Yellow Magic Orchestra’s cheeky pop, collaborating with cranial ambient artists, or, more recently, confronting his own mortality, Sakamoto’s music expresses in a few elegant gestures the haunting richness of life.

Oneknowing is the debut artist album by acclaimed composer and producer Lena Raine, most recently known for her multiple award-winning soundtrack for the video game Celeste. Based in Seattle, Raine has been composing soundtracks for games and media for 12 years, her breakout momentcoming with her work on the classic PC game Guild Wars 2. Her most celebrated work, however, has come in the form of 2018’s Celeste soundtrack. A game based around themes of anxiety, self-examination and more, Celeste is considered by many to be the key indie game of 2018, and has won multiple awards for both game and soundtrack – something which Raine painstakingly developed in tandem with the game’s design since its first steps. A flagship year for Raine was capped off in December, where she performed live with soundtrack legend Hans Zimmer at The Game Awards, the video game industry’s flagship annual award show (Celeste was nominated for fourawards, and won two). Although she’s released several nonsoundtrack releases, both under her real name and her Kuraine alias, Raine considers Oneknowing her debut artist album - a 10 track set that ranges from distorted paranoia to ambient pop, brought together by the shimmering melodies that make her soundtracks so memorable. An album that draws from “personal experiences, important places, dreams and the lack of dreams”, Oneknowing’s tracks are also threaded together by Raine’s own vocals, sung in a language unique to the album and manipulated by the software Vocaloid. In Raine’s words, “I have nostalgia for my voice as it sounded when I was younger. I can't de-age my voice, but I was able to use software and tweak its settings to a point that it has a similar quality to my voice from backthen”. At times (‘Tsukuyomi’, ‘Light Rail’) her vocals lean towards traditional pop structures, while on tracks such as ‘Wake Up’, they’re repeated, chant-like, to create a hypnotic effect. As well as vocals and software, Raine plays rhodes piano, zither and various hardware synthesizers on Oneknowing, while Michaela Nachtigall contributes violin and viola to various tracks. A succinct but expansive record full of detail, Oneknowing represents Raine’s most personal and realised original material yet, while showing a different side to one of the most unique and accomplished composers of the modern era.

A seamless mix of the organic and inorganic, the recent past and distant future, and the possible and impossible, Japanese multi-media artist Masumi Hara's sophomore album arrived like a fish on the moon in 1984. An album filled with contradiction and purpose, 4 X A Dream is both balearic acid folk and damaged steel drum dub, hi-tech new wave balladry and ambient synth pop. Classical and neoimpressionist vibes haunt and entrance. Quite possibly the most unique LP you'll ever add to your collection.

A seamless mix of the organic and inorganic, the recent past and distant future, and the possible and impossible, Japanese multi-media artist Masumi Hara's sophomore album arrived like a fish on the moon in 1984. An album filled with contradiction and purpose, 4 X A Dream is both balearic acid folk and damaged steel drum dub, hi-tech new wave balladry and ambient synth pop. Classical and neoimpressionist vibes haunt and entrance. Quite possibly the most unique LP you'll ever add to your collection.

For number 90 in the Brazil45 series, we share a couple of lesser-known discoveries that have become recent favourites here at Bongo HQ. First up we head to the north of Brazil with funky Forr / boogie hybrid monster, ‘Vendedor De Mangaios’ by Josan. Originally released in 1981 on the album ‘Rio De Renova es’ on Copacabana Records. This addictive dancefloor gem is still relatively under the radar, but it has become a firm favourite at Bristol’s Worm Disco Club parties and amongst the DJ’s and collectors of Brazil’s underground dance music scene. Taken from the illustrious singer Bart Galeno’s self-titled 1977 album on Tapecar Records, ‘Vou Tirar Voc Daqui’ is an unusual one. Not easily pigeon-holed, he song sits somewhere between MPB / funk and rock, yet isn’t really any of them. Backed with a big orchestrated sound and tripped-out synths, the track has a truly unique feel. We hope you dig these finds. Another testament to the diversity and depth of Brazil’s rich musical heritage.

- Next installment in BRAZIL45 Series.
- Two lesser-known discoveries

Since 2017 FSOL have released whats called Calendar albums, which are digitally delivered monthly tracks that form a twelve track album by the end of the year.

This release picks the best tracks from the last 4 years and brings them together in a seamlessly mixed fifty minute journey - eleven songs from FSOL, Humanoid and Synth-a



Engineered and mixed by Yage at FSOL's 9Lwest Studios.

Repress

Remastered reissue of Francesco Messina's seminal LP from 1983 produced by electronic Italian pioneer Franco Battiato.
Messina and Battiato are considered central figures within the Italian avant-garde. Part of a generation of artists who contributed to a radical rethinking of musical practices and composition, they reveal Minimalism as it's rarely known: delicate melodies, subtle harmonic interplay, incorporating diverse creative traditions and slowly giving way to an ever-expanding open space. This album was recorded at the legendary Polygram Studios in Milan and using the most powerful electronic music synthesizers for that times like the CMI Fairlight and the EMU Emulator.

Joshua is the follow-up album to Olympic. While the second album, typically, often shows what critics call “maturity”, here Simon has released instead an album of adolescence. The musician opened up his own memory box to contemplate his childhood souvenirs, and dust them off of all nostalgia. At that time, he would VHS-record movies from TV and tape record soundtracks directly from the TV speaker, so he could listen to them in his bedroom. This is when he “discovered the power of music, the way it makes you enter another world, far from reality. I wanted to pay tribute to the era I shaped myself in – the ’80s and ’90s”. Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk and Soft Machine. Logically, these are the sonic signatures that seem to haunt the album. The timeless pioneers of synthetic music constitute the sound references, without any established chronological timeline, that blend with the atmosphere of typically “French Touch” movie soundtracks – long before the term was even coined. “I use a musical palette that acts as a flashback to my favourite teenage movies: the synth sounds of Close Encounters of the Third Kind; the synth pads in Jean-Jacques Cousteau’s fascinating documentaries about the sea world; the melodies in the manner of François De Roubaix; the themes that evoke the soundtracks of late-night TV sessions (those by Verneuil, those with Belmondo, Depardieu, etc.); and the sci-fi ambiences like in Blade Runner.” In short, an aesthetic was decided on by Simon very early on: French analog synths instead of North American symphonic orchestras.

The name Joshua has two meanings for French 79: one is linked to the idea of nostalgia, the other to adventure. On the one hand, the computer in the 1983 movie Wargames, and on the other, the boat of French sailor Bernard Moitessier.

The track titled Joshua synthesizes the spirit of the album – an odyssey, a neverending crossing of the world in search of oneself, a spontaneous escape into the future, under the benevolent eye of the past. This epic invites everyone of us to a specific place in our imagination, which is also the source of an indescribable pleasure for French 79: a gust of wind, a sailboat ride, a skateboarding trick, the smell of freshly fallen snow, or the dull roar of an impatient audience.

The same aesthetic preferences are found in the videos that illustrate Joshua’s first tracks: for Hold On, the skateboarder chose to recall the cult ’90s skate videos that he would watch on repeat as a teenager, while Hometown hints at Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Although he now calls Marseille home, Simon continuously draws with passion from the anachronic contemporaneity of his childhood in the Eastern French region.

“I need escape to be able to create. A two or three-day sailing trip gives me enough inspiration to lock myself in the studio for a week when I’m back on dry land.” His boat takes him far away from everything, far from the Old Port where she moors, the rest of the time Simon would escape by walking the streets of his city or climbing the Alpine mountains.

Not only does the new version French 79 reveal a few biographical pieces of Simon henner's history, but it also inaugurates the first vocal track for the musician. One feels a guilty pleasure when hearing him take the lead on the first track, The Remedy. The electronic fugue that opens the album sets the tone: Simon has found the cure for his inner turmoil and wants us to discover our own treatment too. Hold On is a sonic explosion that celebrates the feeling of freedom - what's more of a teenage dream than this feeling - and it eventually command one to feel the same way too. Echoing Olympic, the electronic argonaut invites his muse again, singer Sarah Rebecca. On By Your Side and Touch The Stars, the native of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, now based in Paris, hoisted the mainsail of dream pop. First, though a dialogue that surfaced their unfailing attachment to the bonds of friendship, then through the light hearted atmosphere that leaves us with no choice but to believe in our own dreams and do anything possible to fulfill them. The quest for peace in the midst of the daily din is heard in both Code Zero and the title track Joshua, two majestic journeys in search of hedonism, combined with introspection.

After the exploration of snowy mountains of Alpestres, released on Hands in the Dark in 2018, French composer Matthias Puech ventures into new territories, sketching a cartography of the invisible where the journey, in chiaroscuro, is announced as a rite of passage. A Geography of Absence, as introspective as unpredictable, immerses the listener into a unique sensory whirlwind where organic matter becomes almost palpable. A researcher in theoretical computer science and an engineer at GRM, Matthias Puech constructs a dialog between synthetic music and field recording, capturing sounds that surround him and creating his own sonic language with the help of synthesizers he designs and develops; notably the Oscillator Ensemble and the Tapographic Delay, made by the American company 4ms.

Composed during a moment marked by ordeal and mourning, A Geography of Absence retraces an inner journey where the physicality of sound leads the listener into an initiatory tunnel filled with apparitions, ghosts, visions. With sound oscillations as a navigational map, we progress, step by step, through the meanders of an unknown world, dazzled by the prospect of a new synthetic horizon, an electronic biotope teeming with life and incarnations. Playing with time, space and matter in an approach similar to that of musique concrète, Matthias Puech combines ambient and noise, floating sounds and electroacoustic experimentations, thus shaking up our listening perspective, which finds itself walking through a parallel universe, strata after strata, sequence after sequence.

The trip begins with “Hollow”, as if on board a night train travelling at full speed through ghost towns. Or is it a spaceship? Removed from their original habitat, sounds – picked up during walks or moduled by synths – are free to be interpreted differently by everyone, according to the memories that shape us. Granular and metallic, this first piece takes us to an elsewhere in orbit. "Work Song" is built around the pulsation of the void, of space, where strange creatures and liquid emanations abound. We become fetus, cocoon coiled in the placenta, heart beating to the rhythm of the gooey choreography of the human body. "Chrysalis" awakens the racket that lies dormant in us, when the skin changes, when the transition takes place. One seems to recognize certain sounds stemming from nature but they could also be mirages, imitating reality to render the barely perceptible engulfing. “Tunnel Vision” brings out a herd of haunted bells, slowly swelling in a pastoral maelstrom, ending in a deafening buzz. Further on, the chirping of an animatronic bird mixes with the hooting of an owl: "A Faint Beacon" invokes a nocturnal vigil that mixes the crackling of a fire and icy gusts of wind blowing everything away. Like an epic, sucking the listener into the breach of a black hole in the center of the Milky Way, it's up to "Homeostasis" to conclude in the high spheres and contemplative vapors, where the balance of dawn announces a rebirth.

A Geography of Absence is a meticulous and sensitive piece that constructs a delicate symphony of extremes, between introspection and desire for the unknown. Accompanied by the ink work of the artist Léa Neuville, whose folds of prints sketch this imaginary atlas, Matthias Puech becomes a narrator of mental adventures. And succeeds once again in transcending reality to dig a path to the unspeakable.

2023 Repress

Black Truffle is pleased to announce the first-ever vinyl reissue of Alvin Curran’s classic Fiori Chiari, Fiori Oscuri, originally issued in 1978 on Ananda, the cooperative label run by Curran, Roberto Laneri, and Giacinto Scelsi. Fiori Chiari, Fiori Oscuri (Light Flowers Dark Flowers) – its title inspired by an intersection in Milan – is the second in the series of four solo recordings Alvin Curran issued in the 1970s and early 1980s, preceded by Songs and Views from the Magnetic Garden (1975), followed by The Works (1980) and Canti Illuminati (1982).

Each of these solo works combines field recordings with performances on synthesiser, various acoustic instruments, and voice, arranged in languorously paced, dreamy sequences. Far from the bracing pointillism of much musique concrete, the elements encountered on the meandering course followed by Fiori Chiari, Fiori Oscuri – whether a frenetic piano improvisation, dense layers of Serge synthesiser and ocarina, or a monologue from Frederic Rzewski’s five-year old son, Alexis – often occupy the foreground of our attention for minutes at a time. As Curran explains, his approach is like that of a filmmaker in the editing process, working with “whole blocks of recorded time”. The purring of a cat, toy piano, a child counting, plaintive synthesiser tones, the cacophony of exotic birds at the London Zoo – each disappears into the next, until, on the LP’s second side, a solo piano performance takes centre stage, moving unexpectedly from percussive minimalist permutations to a halting rendition of Georgia on My Mind. A subtle yet stunning work that more than forty years on still seems charged with possibility, Fiori Chiari, Fiori Oscuri arrives in a loving reproduction of the original sleeve, featuring Edith Schloss’ beautiful cover painting, remastered audio and with new liner notes by Alvin Curran and Francis Plagne.

Unveiled Nuance is the newly founded imprint by Manchester’s Means&3rd, a platform solely for his own productions. The Eastern Bloc Records staff member inaugurates his debut vinyl release with 3
tracks covering a balance between hypnotic and driving techno, in keeping with his adopted style of recent years.

‘Thought contortion’ opens the EP with a thunderous low end, propulsive rhythms and immersive sweeps of sound design, teamed with modulated synth patterns that assist the unfolding of its persistent structure. ‘Fragility of perception’ follows with its elastic 3 step synth groove and reverb rich textures which provide the bed while the percussion provides an airy dynamic. ‘Aural Dissociative’ closes the EP with an all together headier affair, a dynamic drone providing the backdrop while flickers of rhythm supplement its evolution and heavily modulated lead lines take the focus.

Pressed on 140g Black Vinyl, reverse board full colour print sleeve with poly-lined inner sleeve

Welcome valued share-holder, great to have you on board! This musical soundtrack by Running Out Of Time is a digital epic consisting of federally approved 99,9% original material carbon-dated to the last previous 12-24 lunar cycles. For 50 minutes, sit back and let our R.O.O.T. executive branch provide an experience like no other - neuro-programmed especially for your individual cerebral make-up. Choose from a selection of premium Terraform Realities, ranging from cyborgs battling human rebels through synthetic jungles and swamplands, to alien organisms escaping through intricate water tank systems. As you can see in diagram 2.1 in our presentation, each territory is mapped out in complete dimensional fidelity. For example, the water tank causeways also lead to a long-forgotten underwater world full of hidden creatures. Embrace your inner subaquatic explorer, as you search for artefacts and alien embryos that could be exploited for the corporation. Just remember - our trademark Quantum Parallel Reality Experience is guaranteed to feel as authentic as the real thing!* As a top tier investor, you will also have early bird access to our Platinum Realities selection - including our award-winning Apocalypse Cityscapes. With fully-rendered city centers that once bustled with 21st century traders, these abandoned heritage sites are now home to the lost souls of a free market economy that collapsed eons ago under its own weight. But beware! Some of the spirits will help you, and some will lead you into deadly traps - so choose wisely. Your investment portfolio depends on it! We are excited to have you join the team and look forward to sharing many more experiences together. *Tax Free corp accepts no liability for cognitive dissociation or neural dysfunction as a result of any Quantum Parallel Reality Experience.

Last autumn Leng Records welcomed a new name to the roster, Greek DJ/producer Lex, via some warming and colourful tracks on the label’s 10th Anniversary LP and sampler EP. Now the Athenian has returned with his first full release for Paul Murphy and Simon Purnell’s popular imprint.



Real name Alex Andrikopoulos, Lex first rose to prominence in his home city of Athens when he ran the Radical Soundz record shop during the first decade of the millennium. More recently his reputation has spread worldwide thanks to his association with Leng, a recent 12” on B2 Recordings and DJ sets that frequently join the dots between disco, house and techno.



His first full EP for Leng is arguably his most musically expansive collection of tracks to date, with a swathe of guest players – keyboardist Artis Boriss and drummer/percussionist Harold Perez most prominently – swinging by to help bring Lex’s vivid musical visions to life.



For proof, check out lead cut ‘Punta Allen’, an eight-minute chunk of organic dancefloor goodness in which Lex and his musical associates layer steel pan style melodies, spacey synthesizer flourishes, eyes-closed electric piano solos, warming chords and jangling guitars atop a heady bass guitar line, unfussy drums and sweaty pots-and-pans percussion. The track’s effortless evolution, which slowly unfurls before rising towards a gorgeous and joyous conclusion, is testament to the Greek producer’s dancefloor instincts.



You’ll find more low-slung, dub disco-influenced bass on the exotic ‘The Jamail Pass’, where mazy and feverish organ solos and rolling hand percussion provide a platform for Paqua member Alex Searle’s Nile Rodgers style guitar sounds. The track’s inherent funk – emphasized by occasional bass guitar solos and fills, as well as some tumbling synth sounds – is apparent throughout the track, something that only adds to its smile-inducing allure.



Closing out a very impressive first EP on Leng is ‘Angels of Rhythm’, a hazier, faster and more intergalactic excursion that cannily combines the low-slung bass of dub disco with the intoxicating vibes and warming dreaminess of deep house. The track’s intoxicating late-night feel is partly due to an undecidedly cosmic spoken word vocal from sassy singer Harrier Summer, though Artis Boriss’ pitch-bend-sporting synth solos and fizzing electronic noises certainly help. Driving but also deep and groovy, ‘Angels of Rhythm’ offers a memorable conclusion to a very impressive EP.

The original Rio beach boy returns in style, with a new record of unabashedly feel-good Brazilian party music. Featuring Azymuth bassist Alex Malheiros (responsible for some of Brazil’s all-time funkiest low-end licks), a horn section including Valle’s go-to high-trumpeter Jesse Sadoc, and percussion master Armando Marcal, Sempre has all the masterful composition, exceptional musicality, and forward-thinking ideas you’d expect from the Brazilian titan, and it’s fresher than a fruity caipirinha in the Copacabana sunshine.

Updating Marcos Valle’s seminal boogie-era sound, Sempre spans ecstatic disco, cosmic samba, and late-night jazz-funk, drawing obvious comparisons to some of Valle’s late-seventies and early-eighties output. ‘Estrelar’ (1983), for example, an ode to the joy of exercise, has become one of the biggest Brazilian disco hits of all time. But lyrically the new album is more closely reminiscent of Valle’s progressive early seventies’ releases. Heralding love, tolerance and living in the present, while satirising political corruption, the new release recalls a time in which Valle, together with his brother Paulo Sergio, was writing subtly subversive lyrics in order to bypass the censorship imposed by the military dictatorship, which ruled over Brazil between 1964 and 1985.
The album marries compositional genius with pure pop perfection. From the blistering brass arrangements on up-tempo disco hit ‘Olha Quem ta Chegando’ and the infinitely classy ‘Vou Amanhã Saber’, to the nine-minute synth heavy instrumental funk stepper ‘Odisséia’, which gradually morphs into an interplanetary samba jam, the songs are tightened and given an extra coat of gloss, by London based producer Daniel Maunick (son of Incognito frontman Bluey). More moments of boogie delight come in the form of ‘Minha Roma’ (a musical nod to the famed ‘Estrelar’), and the sunshine anthem title-track ‘Sempre’.

Translating as ‘Ever’, Sempre is a testament to the continual drive for development and reinvention that has defined Marcos Valle’s astounding six-decade career. Ever changing, ever moving forward, he began as one of the second-wave of early bossa nova composers in the sixties, writing the world famous bossa standard ‘Summer Samba (So Nice)’ for his sophomore album ‘Samba 68’. After a brief stint in the States, Valle returned to Brazil, and the early ’70s saw the release of four ground-breaking Valle albums which incorporated progressive rock, psychedelic influences, pop, jazz, soul and cinematic arrangements. These albums would see Valle work alongside a number of hugely influential Brazilian bands, including Milton Nascimento’s backing band Som Imaginaro, the prog-rock band O Terco and jazz funk legends Azymuth. Returning back to the US in ‘75, Valle resided in LA, writing music for the likes of Eumir Deodato, Airto Moreira, Chicago, Sarah Vaughn and Leon Ware, before returning to Brazil once more, where after releasing a handful of hit pop records, he took a hiatus from recording.

Since the mid-nineties, Marcos Valle has been experiencing a renaissance with London based label Far Out Recordings, where his approach to music has remained, as always; decidedly open to new influences, possibilities and technologies. Sempre is Marcos Valle’s fifth album for the label, following 2010’s critically acclaimed Estatica.

Just in time for summer, Sempre is out on Vinyl LP/ CD on 28th June 2019 on Far Out Recordings, and Marcos Valle and band will be touring Europe in May /June (see below for dates).

Adam Cook aka Tommy Rawson returns to Bergerac with another killer EP of uplifting, tropical deep house, broken beat and Brit funk vibes. Following on from 2018s Gilles Peterson hammered 'Deep Blue' EP, he returns to Red Rack'ems Bergerac label with an absolutely killer 3 tracker which showcases the Watford, England based producers world class musical chops. Surely a contender for THE summer record with a sun kissed Brit funk A side which is tailor made for the WWFM and We Out Here crew. A tropical house and broken beat burner make up an equally strong flip. We are very happy (and relieved) to be presenting to you an absolutely belting EP of UK soulful dance music.

It's nothing short of a miracle that the A side track 'Illusions' has ever made it on to vinyl. Jonna from City Fly remembers 'Adam had this on a CDR at Southport in 2008 and it became our official track of the festival as we all partied together the whole weekend it got played again and again back at our Chalet parties'. But then as these things often sadly go, the funk diamond was lost for a few years in the digital ether. Fast forward to 2014 and Danny Berman aka Red Rack'em is playing a 320 of 'Illusions' everywhere but alas it's just a demo and Adam can't locate the arrangement to complete the track as it's on a broken computer in his Mums attic.

Then finally this year, after many pleading emails and plenty of gentle cajoling, there's some amazing news! Adam has located the broken computer and after a day of digital open heart surgery, and then a re-edit over Zoom (no really) we finally had the killer, classic UK soulful anthem you're listening to today. A voice over from a disco documentary cleverly introduces each instrument on the intro before Tommy pushes the button marked 'biggest bassline of the year' and takes us into boogie heaven.

'Sound Crazy' on the flip is another one of those classic Afrobeat tinged Tommy rollers. Big room vibes but with a lot of soul. Rolling broken drums and a huge bassline combine with plenty of spicy, tropical atmosphere on top. The trademark Rawson uplifting chords begin after an anticipatory vibe filled breakdown, taking you to the stratosphere.

'Ads Mood' is the most 'classical' broken beat track on the record, but they are all playable in multiple environments and transcend mere genres. Heavy bass and extra funky syncopated beats climax into a beautiful almost orchestral feel to close off an exemplary EP of higher quality moods and emotions. Don't sleep.

The Forbidden Dance label is marking their first year of existence and with already top-notch names (Vick Lavender, Alton Miller, The Mechanical Man) with the first three releases, they are celebrating the one year mark with another global gem, disco and house finest - Ilija Rudman!
Where Wild Horses Go is conveying an unquestionable sense of 80's electro and synth boogie filled with smooth and heavily reverberated rhythmics drenched in strong snares. Aligned with catchy and spaced-out disco pads, the album is riddled with ever strong analogue elements processed in a light, quirky and summerish way but with enough groove in some tracks easily applicable on the dancefloors in the late hours.
Dead Horse Gang is a brainchild music band/brand by Ilija Rudman dedicated to cinematic dance concept laying on the Los Angeles funk attitude, Art Of Noise perception of sound and raw 12-bit grooves making a statement of mid 80's culture with surf vibe of California summer.
"Dead Horse Gang Music is more than music, it's a way of life, a way of thinking, a path to a maximum freedom of the one, who can accept it."
-Ilija Rudman

Adam Beyer invites the legendary DJ Rush to make his Drumcode debut, as the pair link for a stirring maiden collaboration, ‘Restore My Soul’.

The DC boss holds a deep respect for the iconic Chicago artist, the relationship stretching back 25+ years to their time touring the German techno circuit in the 90s.

The title track builds dramatic tension via elastic synths that oscillate alongside Rush’s vocal, taking things to heady levels. ‘Control’ is a thick wedge of industrial-edged rhythms, with Rush’s famous vocal providing a commanding presence throughout.

On the B side, ‘Take Me There’ is stirring in composition, transitioning from crushing percussive loops to deep techno funk, before working towards a teased out crescendo as Rush’s hypnotic refrain echoes in the air. A deliciously pumping DJ Rush remix of ‘Restore My Soul’ rounds out the package.