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Berlin based trio Keller Crackers collective likes to shape haunting esoteric sounds, in which self-built instruments dance with ritualistic synthesised rhythms, field recordings, psychoacoustic drones and poetical spoken silhouettes.

After a self-released MC and a mesmerising tune called “Anem” out in February 2019 on the custom-made Kashual Plastik 007 double-vinyl compilation, now they give birth to their own debut record “KC”, a four track EP resulting from various improvisational studio sessions, a bag full of spontaneous visionary DIY sound fashion that melts meandering serialism, foggy ‘Chris & Cosey’-ness, exoticism and freely expressed emotions. Some pieces are given time to evolve, being dragged through long arrangements and slow transitions, while others are playful and short. To close up the magic circle, the release includes a tripping Tolouse Low Trax signature remix.

The opening tune “Specialised” swings on a trance-like hypnotic bass line, while a self-made kalimba played through a tape delay and overtones from a DIY circuit bended device inject dynamics and colour to the composition. Out of the sonic depth, the spoken words of Sylvana Wickman emerge enchanting and unreal, naming a series of technical terms, assembling a deep notion on the specialised society we live in.

“Cow Tongue” follows, a fleeting composition of crackling electronic clicks jumping off a micro-modular device. They got overdubbed again by Sylvana’s voice, delightfully reciting phrases from a recipe of regional delicacies.

The A side of KC`s first strike finishes with a spaced-out synth bass and the lo-fi beats of a Yamaha RX15 drum machine. They are the gripping foundation of “Aithouses Anamonis“, which means “Waiting Rooms”. It describes the scene of a man sitting in a waiting room observing the consumerist behaviour by the folks around him.

The B-side opens with a Tolouse Low Trax remix of “Specialised”, elevating the original with the bass line of “Aithouses Anamonis“, while melting the all into a dark nebulous Tolouse Low Trax signature stripped down funk for endless nights in neon lights.

For their final track “Colours”, Keller Crackers invited a steady free member of their live shows to record with them: free jazz musician Robert Würz. He tuned his flute enthralling over a suspenseful bass line formed in a whirlwind of synth-sounds. The whole frenzy gets divine through sliding chords that rise from a self-built guitar.

A musical bouquet for open spirits, that value charming minimal wave zones, undefinable post-industrial psychedelics and hallucinogenic poetry reflections on the current state of our mechanical times.

Idiosyncratic producer DMX Krew offers up four playful acid-tinged tracks for the Malekko Phase Mod EP, released through eclectic Spanish label/club night/promotion agency, Fanzine Records. The vinyl-only release is the first output of 2019 for the Coruna based imprint currently celebrating their 10th anniversary and is the follow up to C44's bizarro-techno Res Publica Populi Romani EP, and Dijuma's dubby and atmospheric Cold Tracks EP.

For DMX Krew's first Fanzine release the eccentric producer adopts a much lighter and brighter sound, in line with his recent records on Hypercolour and his classic output on Aphex Twin's Rephlex Records. The EP also comes hot on the heels of the prolific producer's latest album, Glad To Be Sad - twelve wavey cuts of vigorous electronic funk released in March through Hypercolour.

Kicking off the A-side with "Maleko Phase Mod", DMX Krew immediately conjures an effortlessly enjoyable mood. From the opening bars, a bouncing synth line is met with a classic acid house beat - prominently featuring the requisite skipping snares, rustic rimshots and phasing percussion that gives this track its distinctly Chicago feel. Meanwhile, shimmering chords fill the track with sunny warmth and enthusiastic energy.

Next up, "Smoke Stack" matches a groovy acid bassline with vintage drums, clusters of claps and a mischievous marimba-esque lead. Don't let the whimsy fool you, however, DMX Krew is a master craftsman at sequencing intricate synth lines and programming complex drum patterns.

On the flip, "Low Star" imbues DMX Krew's familiar elements bubbling bass, sparkling synths, and a pumping groove with a twisted 80s lo-fi essence. Crunchy claps, distorted hats, and tumbling toms keep the track bouncing at a frenetic pace, while a glossy lead contrasts with solemn pads to create a mood at once exuberant and earnest.

Closing track "Suspicion Ruff Mix" once again finds the producer riding a classic jacking 80s house beat, filling any gaps in the groove with crashing cymbals, rolling snares, and cascading claps. With his squelchy bass, vibrant lead, and oddball melody, DMX Krew concludes the Malekko Phase Mod EP with a sense of effervescent joy undeniably his own.

In her varied career that would combine art gallery installations, major film soundtrackings and commissions for Atari, Suzanne Ciani’s earliest experiments remain some of her most challenging, beguiling and timeless... Flowers Of Evil ticks all the above boxes and flicks switches that would power-up a new uncharted universe of her own musical modernité. Finders Keepers present the first-ever release of these vital archive recordings.

As a genuine vanguard of electronic music composition at the forefront of the modular synthesiser revolution in the late 1960s, Suzanne Ciani’s forward-thinking approach to new music would rarely look to the past for inspiration, which makes this unheard composition from 1969 a rare exception to the collective futurist vision of Ciani and synthesiser designer Don Buchla. In choosing to adapt the controversial prose of French poet Charles Baudelaire, Suzanne would join the ranks of ongoing generations of pioneering musicians like Olivier Messiaen, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Serge Gainsbourg, Etron Fou Leloublan, Celtic Frost and Marc Almond (not forgetting Star Trek’s William Shatner!), all equally inspired by the 19th century writer’s works of “modernité” (modernity), a self-coined term dedicated to capturing the fleeting, ephemeral experience of life in an urban metropolis, best exemplified in his symbolic, erotic and macabre ode to Parisian industrialisation, Les Fleurs du mal (Flowers Of Evil).

In her varied career that would combine art gallery installations, major film soundtrackings and commissions for Atari, Suzanne Ciani’s earliest experiments remain some of her most challenging, beguiling and timeless... Flowers Of Evil ticks all the above boxes and flicks switches that would power-up a new uncharted universe of her own musical modernité. For the many enthusiasts that have already drawn the parallels between Baudelaire’s writings and experimental/electronic music (a relationship rivalled only by the likes of J. G. Ballard and Aldous
Huxley) some might instantly recognise an unconscious sistership between this recording and another 1969 electronic adaptation of Flowers Of Evil by celebrated female electronic composer Ruth White. An interesting distinction of White’s excellent version of Flowers Of Evil (released via Limelight records, home to the likes of Fifty Foot Hose and Paul Bley) is that its dark tone generation and vocal manipulation was created with a Moog synthesiser, the commercially triumphant
rival to Suzanne and Don’s Buchla Systems (Buchla and Moog’s historic, simultaneous, neck-and-neck synth developments are well documented.) The fact that Ciani’s version was never intended for commercial release (not unlike her 1975 Buchla concerts, which could easily have taken Morton Subotnick’s Bull by the horns!) is also poetically reflective of the nature of Ciani and Buchla’s alternative perspective. The choice to present this extract from Flowers Of Evil in its intended French language further distances Ciani’s faithful reaction from some of its better-known variations. Having attempted to voice the poem herself, the multilingual Italian-American composer’s French accent did not meet her own standards, resulting in the request for a fellow unnamed French student who lived on campus at Mills College in Oakland to accurately verbalise the section of Baudelaire’s collection entitled Élévation.

Vanishing Twin is songwriter, singer and multi-instrumentalist Cathy Lucas, drummer Valentina Magaletti, bassist Susumu Mukai, synth/guitar player Phil MFU and visual artist/film maker Elliott Arndt on flute and percussion; and on this album they have made their first artistic statement for the ages.

Some of its great power comes from liberation. The album was produced by Lucas in a number of non-standard, non-studio settings. 'KRK (At Home In Strange Places)' summons up the spirit of Sun Ra's Lanquidity and Broadcast And The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio was simply recorded on an iPhone during a live set which crackled with psychic connectivity on the Croatian island of Krk.
The magical Morricone-esque lounge of 'You Are Not an Island', the blissed-out Jean-Claude Vannier style arrangement of 'Invisible World' and burbling sci fi funk ode to a 1972 cult French animation, 'Plane`te Sauvage', were all recorded in nighttime sessions in an abandoned mill in Sudbury. The only two outsiders to work on the recording were '6th member' and engineer Syd Kemp and trusted friend Malcolm Catto, band leader of the spiritual jazz/future funk outfit The Heliocentrics, who mixed seven of the tracks (with Lucas taking care of the other three).

Vanishing Twin formed in 2015 - their first LP, Choose Your Own Adventure, which came out on Soundway in 2016; followed by the darker, more abstract, mostly instrumental Dream By Numbers EP in 2017. The band explored their more experimental tendencies on the Magic And Machines tape released by Blank Editions in 2018, an improvised session recorded in the dead of night, offering a glimpse into their practice of deep listening, near band telepathy, and ritually improvised sound making. These sessions formed the basis of The Age Of Immunology.

Purveyors of contemporary electronic music Anagram return with their second remix EP that calls upon some of the scene's most compelling and uncompromising names. Coalescence, the next chapter from the label, will unfold as a series of remix EP's reinforcing the labels core values of community, togetherness and growth. The first instalment reflects on their previous three releases reimagining four titles under the controls of Drugstore resident Tiljana T, Ostgut Ton legend Ryan Elliot, Klockworks artist Newa and the Tel Aviv based Yotam Avni. Orchestrating the rework of Elad Magdasi's 'Liquid Dreams' is Serbian talent Tiljana T who runs with the cinematic ideas behind the original but uses snapping hits, ebullient bass notes and plenty delay to fuel the cut with a new lease of life. The accompanying A-side sees Ryan Elliott do what Ryan Elliot does best by keeping things straight up four to the floor transforming 'Sound of the Siren' by Barbara Ford into pulsating peak hour material. On the flip side are two remixes taken from label co-founder Sinfol's latest solo EP 'Pull Back'. First up, Newa gets the blood rushing injecting breaking beats and furious energy into 'Life Of Measure' resulting in a high tempo no-nonsense techno affair that embodies the sound of the bustling Tbilisi scene. Tying together Coalescence Vol. I is arguably the most dynamic choice of the four remixes in Yotam Avni's 'Final Push' Remix. With a meticulous assortment of intricately crafted synth lines and sequences, he manages to deconstruct Sinfol's title cut of its acid workouts and replenish it with an equally rivalled amount of energy. Four artists, four remixes, Coalescence Vol. I!

The Growing Bin may have taken a hiatus for AW18, but don‘t be fooled into thinking this is a deciduous operation; after all the most powerful plantlife grows from below. Moving through the mulch, Basso traces the mycellium network from Hamburg‘s forests to the gentle slopes of Hasenheide, reconnecting with James Booth for the officially first Growing Bin release of 2019, or the first ever Glowing Pin Release.

Emerging from the green house with a heroic dose of wavy caps, the Mancunian export unleashes A-side sizzler ‚Space Echo Track‘, a little post-minimal magic for the peak time shamans. Built around the polyrhythmic patter of organic percussion, a touch of UK shuffle and the occasional blast of soundsystem bass, the track rolls and rattles from start to finish, tailor made for mid-set hypnosis. And while neon leadlines dance with disorienting sampler vox and papaya whistles summon the ethno-flute melodies, Booth brings us to a new level of future primitive consciousness, unlocking the Stargate once and for all. Onto the B-side and we‘re hurtling through galaxies, submerged in the entheogenic frequencies of‚ Locus of Control‘. Shimmering swathes of angelic synth vox and dreamlike pads drift freely, forming a
perfect counterbalance to the warp factor thrust and rasping resonance of the wormhole sequences. Beatless in space, ‚Locus‘ balances ambient techno and acid gurgle, cleansing your synapses like a Sven Vath warm down circa ‚94. This is music for the microdosers...

Repress

In 1981, Alexei Borisov, a history student at the Moscow State University, formed his first band "Prospekt (Avenue)", drawing inspiration from kitchen table talks and new wave music coming from the West. They broke up in 1984 and a year later Borisov joined forces with Ivan Sokolovsky, an electronic music enthusiast and a connaisseur of rare synthesizers, to introduce the new and "updated" version of the band. By becoming Notchnoi Prospekt (Night Avenue), Borisov and Sokolovsky started moving towards industrial music and viscous, psychedelic synth pop.

In 1986, after a few conceptual, revolutionary albums as Notchnoi Prospekt, various solo projects and collaborations, the duo reunited in the studio to record their only instrumental album "Kurorty Kavkaza" (Resorts of the Caucasus). Built around the hypnotic meshing of afro-caribbean drum machine percussion and vintage Soviet and Italian synthesizers' vivid sonic palette, the resulting record was something that was absolutely different from Borisov and Sokolovsky's dark signature sound and wasn't well received both by the public and underground scene.

Until now, these tracks were never released and Notchnoi Prospekt never performed them live. Shortly after the recording session the duo focused on a return to their industrial roots that resulted in a number of monumental albums including "Kisloty" that became an instant underground classic.

"Kurorty Kavkaza" lay dormant and forgotten decades, and thirty three years after its recording, it gets the deserved official release.

Over the years, Claremont 56 has played host to some memorable collaborative
projects, most notably Bison, an unlikely super-group whose members included
Holgar Czukay, Ursula Kloss, Liquid Liquid’s Sal Principato, Ben Smith and label
boss Paul ‘Mudd’ Murphy. Now Murphy is at the helm of another collaborative
outft, Hillside, whose seductive debut single contains two deliciously pie eyed
instrumental workouts.
Hillside is very much a family affair, with Murphy joining forces with two old
friends: bassist/guitarist Alex Searle and percussionist Patrick Dawes. The trio
has a collaborative history that stretches right back to Murphy’s time in Akwaaba
in the mid nineties. For their debut outing, Hillside has also welcomed a very
special guest musician: award-winning jazz violinist and long-time Bert Jasch
collaborator Mike Piggott.
As opening gambits go, “Hidden Port” is an emphatic statement of intent. The
audio equivalent of sailing slowly around a cluster of sun-baked islands in
search of shelter from an approaching storm, the track sees Searle wrap bluesy,
Peter Green style guitar passages around a shuffing, Latin-tinged groove rich
in Dawes’ distinctive percussion patterns and Murphy’s languid electric piano
and synthesizer lines. As the track progresses, Piggott steps up to make his
mark, with his undulating electric violin lines complimenting Hillside’s impeccable
instrumentation while adding extra emotional weight to proceedings. It’s a
stunning beginning to the Hillside story.
Piggott also makes a big impression on accompanying cut “The King’s Tun”,
delivering fuid and energy-packed solos that weave in and out of a bright
and breezy instrumental track rich in jangling acoustic guitars, subtly spacey
electronics, freside-warm bass and more sparse-but-intricate percussion
courtesy of the effervescent Dawes. Searle’s eyes-closed, rock style guitar solos
cap another memorable excursion from Claremont 56’s latest in-house band.

Low Distance is Deaf Center´s third full-length studio album and perhaps the most focused effort by the Norwegian duo to date. After their last record Owl Splinters (2011) was quite an eclectic endeavor, Erik K Skodvin & Otto A Totland draw their sound back into something more quiet and minimal.

The record starts with a piece of sweeping analougue electronics. It´s a spacious, yet dynamic opener that leads directly into the static tones and piano motivs of Entity Voice, which balances a new sense of abstractation with the classic Deaf Center sound. It´s warm and close while sounding like it´s set in the outer horizon. Overall Low Distance feels both alien and familiar with its atonal synths, close pianos and drowned out noises.

After meeting in studio for the first time since 2011, the recordings came out of a 3 day session in 2017. It was then mixed at both EMS Stockholm and at Erik´s home studio over a longer period to create a blend of deeply layered as well as stripped down pieces. Both Erik & Otto have been active individually since their last meeting as Deaf Center: Otto released 2 solo piano albums, while Erik has furthered his descent into musical abstractation both under his own name and as Svarte Greiner. It´s long overdue to hear them connect their personalities into something new. Low Distance is a welcome return replete with beauty, mystery and uncertainty.

Pale Bloom finds Sarah Davachi coming full circle. After abandoning the piano studies of her youth for a series of albums utilizing everything from pipe and reed organs to analog synthesizers, this prolific Los Angeles-based composer returns to her first instrument for a radiant work of quiet minimalism and poetic rumination.

Recorded at Berkeley, California's famed Fantasy Studios, Pale Bloom is comprised of two delicately-arranged sides. The first – a three-part suite where Davachi's piano acts as conjurer, beckoning Hammond organ and stirring countertenor into a patiently unfolding congress – recalls Eduard Artemiev's majestic soundtrack for Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris. "Perfumes I-III" employs the harmonically rich music of Bach as a springboard for abstract, solemn pieces that sound as haunted as they are dreamlike.

While the first half of Pale Bloom showcases Davachi's latent Romanticism, the sidelong "If It Pleased Me To Appear To You Wrapped In This Drapery" reveals the Mills College graduate's affinity for the work of avant-garde composers La Monte Young and Eliane Radigue. Softly vibrating strings rise and fall like complementary exhalations of breath. As the fluctuating pitches create overtones that pitter and pulse, the piece slowly and subtly evolves – suggesting a well-tempered stillness, yet without stasis.

Pale Bloom finds Sarah Davachi coming full circle. After abandoning the piano studies of her youth for a series of albums utilizing everything from pipe and reed organs to analog synthesizers, this prolific Los Angeles-based composer returns to her first instrument for a radiant work of quiet minimalism and poetic rumination.

Recorded at Berkeley, California's famed Fantasy Studios, Pale Bloom is comprised of two delicately-arranged sides. The first – a three-part suite where Davachi's piano acts as conjurer, beckoning Hammond organ and stirring countertenor into a patiently unfolding congress – recalls Eduard Artemiev's majestic soundtrack for Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris. "Perfumes I-III" employs the harmonically rich music of Bach as a springboard for abstract, solemn pieces that sound as haunted as they are dreamlike.

While the first half of Pale Bloom showcases Davachi's latent Romanticism, the sidelong "If It Pleased Me To Appear To You Wrapped In This Drapery" reveals the Mills College graduate's affinity for the work of avant-garde composers La Monte Young and Eliane Radigue. Softly vibrating strings rise and fall like complementary exhalations of breath. As the fluctuating pitches create overtones that pitter and pulse, the piece slowly and subtly evolves – suggesting a well-tempered stillness, yet without stasis.

7 track EP/mini album by L/F/D/M 's Richard Smith - ‘Dream Bleeds’ overflows with body jerking industrial, raw acid/techno, and hints of the warehouse sound of the late ‘90s and the caustic spirit of EBM.

Richard Smith says about ‘Dream Bleeds’, “attaching meaning to songs is often arbitrary but when the visceral feeling of music, particularly instrumental body music, is laid bare, the interaction is immediate and physical. These tracks thread together; each starting point completely open, each new step informed by the last. I find it interesting that the process is the same but the outcome somewhat unexpected; shaped by emotion, inspiration or even constraints of time, they evolve as they do in that time. They reach a different end point due to that evolution of circumstance.”

JakoJako makes her debut on Leisure System with Aequilibration, an EP of diverse, experimental tracks aimed at the dancefloor.

In F22.0, waves of paranoia break over driving, asymmetric rhythms, offset by soothing, whispered vocals. Kogn. Dissonanz maintains the tension, making clever use of polyrhythms and blasts of machine gun fire. The B-side takes a more hopeful turn with Resilienz, where warm oscillations cluster around a simple but effective groove, and the restrained cries of Katharsis close the EP with powerful intimacy.

Self-taught and primarily a live performer, JakoJako makes extensive use of modular synthesis in her productions and on stage. ”Depending on how you configure your system, you can design a completely different instrument every time. I love when it’s surprising me.” When not in the studio, her expertise is put to use advising well-established artists on their own systems at Berlin’s synth-mecca SchneidersLaden.

We’ve got something a bit different from usual for our next release: Meeting of Waters by Josiah Steinbrick.

Back in 2017 the unassuming Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist and producer released his first collection of solo pieces and we’ve been listening to it compulsively since then. Given that its initial release was only in North America, both on cassette with Leaving records and in an extremely limited vinyl self-release via BANANA editions, we felt that this meticulously crafted, essential work righteously deserved to get a proper spin in Europe too!

The album is composed of what you could call nine sculptural environments, each a mixture of organic sketches and improvisations, recorded rapidly and more or less free of any processing. Each piece is based on up to five simple elements - electronic and/or (tonal) percussions - used to create subtle evolving patterns and harmonies. The sounds explore the wilderness of jazz in a concrete setting, devotional in nature, creating a timeless cartography.

With such a raft of quality music coming across the Summer from NuNorthern Soul, we thought we would put together an EP of some of the tracks featuring across the upcoming months...

We have taken our favourite tracks from various digital releases and present them on one vinyl 12" EP On the A side we take Nick J Smith's 'Waves Take Hold' from the Waves Take Control EP'
'Waves Take Hold', is a kaleidoscopic, life-affirming exercise in late 1980's style Italian Dream House, that's so warm and rush-inducing that it's likely to get the hairs on the back of your neck standing to attention.
Full of ricocheting drum machine hits, sun-bright lead lines, elongated chords and rich bass, it sounds like it was tailor-made to soundtrack sunrise in Rimini...

Bonnie & Klein 'Ocean Leap' taken from the Ocean Leap EP
There's a deeper and dreamier feel to the 'Ocean Leap' track, whose bubbly melodic motifs and synthesizer panpipe flourishes offer subtle nods towards 1980's Greek new age electronic composers such as Vangelis Katsoulis amd Dimitris Petsatakis.
Bonnie & Klein's synthesizer-heavy melodiousness comes accompanied by dub disco strength bass and undulating, off-kilter drums, but retains the rush-inducing bliss associated with the pioneering work of their Greek predecessors.

AA is given up to the 10 minute + track from Mirage: 'Endless Ocean' taken from their Reflections of the Sun EP.

'Endless Ocean' is a slowly building masterpiece. After a hushed, atmospheric opening, the track bubbles away on waves of hazy bongo beats, lapping water sounds and seductive chords before rushing skywards in a swarming swirl of trance-style synthesizer lead lines, echoing electronics and picturesque piano motifs.

"A manner or style, a frame of mind, thought or existence" (Mode).
"Intelligence quotient, the use of perception or awareness." (IQ).

Mode I/Q, the self-proclaimed unknown band, was a richly textured, bold project starting life in 1979 out the embers of punk and new wave resulting in a hypnotic convergence of love, the future, life and art.

Lucian and Nicolas, two creative spirits who viewed the world through their own prism, augmented by a moving cast of friends and acolytes, were together compelled to make great music. This was a concept from the heart, with transformativelive performances, channelling spaces into art "Mode" events orchestrated to bring about a full integration of site and sound.

Psychedelic, punk overtones. A funky electronic hybrid, mixing Kraftwerk with black music. Guitars delayed and twisted through echo boxes and micro synths. Casio and Commodores delivering the machine funk. CBGBs, Max's Kansas City and Danceteria - Mode I/Q played and much, much more.

Just 3 releases deep, 1984's mini LP Mind/Soul captures the band at their best. 6 songs to immerse, dance and shake the mind.

For its first release of 2019, Sol Power Sound is pleased to welcome back Nenor -- formally Obas Nenor-- to the label family. Since his now-classic Color Soul EP on Sol Power Sound back in 2015, Nenor has gone on to release a string of hugely successful EPs on Heist, Whiskey Disco, and on his own imprint, Nenorion Music.

With the Future Ancestor EP, Nenor revisits the African-inspired textures that made the Color Soul EP unforgettable, but ventures further into the subterranean reaches. On "Tike Ye Ya Kende", Nenor teams up with Congolese-born vocalist Natalie Wamba for a rousing dancefloor heat-rock, with pulsing marimbas and hazy synths.

"Nova Man" is a straight-up banger with huge chugging bass, dubby vocal samples, and thrilling atmospherics.

"Ibe" dives head-first into the deep with tripped-out arpeggios, complex, layered percussion, and more of those gritty signature Nenor synths.

"Knwo" speeds ahead on a bruk-n-bass trajectory as a frenetic stomper that will inspire late-night dancers to throw crazy shapes.

With early support from Simbad, Soul Clap, Jacques Renault and more, the Future Ancestor EP is sure to be another staple in ever-growing Nenor and Sol Power Sound catalogs and will keep dark rooms ablaze all summer long.

180gr vinyl. Recorded in 1987 and now released for the first time ever with artwork by Sarah Yu Zeebroek.In 1987 Gerry Vergult (Aroma Di Amore ) and Gerrit Valckenaers (Adult Fantasies) created an abstract universe where minimal post-punk basslines blend together with dub, tropical vibes, jazz, and dreamy electronica.
Most of the october nights in 1987 you could find Gerry Vergult (Aroma Di Amore / Fred A. / Adult Fantasies) and Gerrit Valckenaers (Adult Fantasies /The Colorist Orchestra / multi-instrumentalist) in a desolated Top studio in Gent. At that time and place they sneakily crafted and shaped this Nasca record while they were supposed to finish a new Fred A. record. They created an abstract universe where minimal post-punk basslines blend together with radio sounds in 'Nothing Toulouse', tropical tribal vibes oscillates between futuristic nostalgia and hunted dreams in 'Ketama' and 'Ritz', a sampled heartbeat slowly mutates in mesmerising midnight jazz and a drugged out dub groove of 'Kamayacha' transforms into the inner city blues of 'Josaphat'.


All tracks composed, arranged and performed by Gerry Vergult & Gerrit Valckenaers

Gerrit Valckenaers: piano, saxophone, clarinet, synths, samples, electronics

Gerry Vergult: guitar, bass, synths, samples, electronics

Produced by Koen Van Regenmortel

For people who like Jah Wobble, Jon Hassell, Brian Eno & David Byrne, dub, world, jazz, and dreamy electronica

Recorded in 1987 and now released for the first time ever with artwork by Sarah Yu Zeebroek.

Poté returns to Benji B’s Deviation Music following the release of his acclaimed debut album 'Spiral, My Love' last year. 'Waters of Praslin' is the first in of a run of club-focused 12"s from the artist entitled the Versiclub series.

St. Lucia born and London-raised, Poté (real name Sylvern Mathurin) has always been drawn to African diasporic futuristic beats from baile funk to kuduro and gqom. Before Benji stepped in to release his debut record Poté put out multiple EPs for Enchufada, the independent record label founded by his spiritual forbearers in Lisbon, Buraka Son Sistema.

The Brazilian influence is definitely evident in opening track 'Jacquot (Waters of Praslin)', with its afro-samba rhythm laced with the metallic synth work of UK bass. Track 2, 'Sirens' feels like a future dance floor favourite that channels UK funky, dub step and of course the power of the siren in the dance.

"Waters of Praslin is my homage to the people and spirit of my hometown, Praslin in St.Lucia. These are the waters which gave us life, stories, joy and memories” says Poté “these waters saw many of us grow and and eventually pass."

“Style” can be defined as that special ability to watermark every track with an instantly-recognizable identity. Local Suicide, aka Munich’s Brax Moody and Greek-born Vamparela, has it in spades. And following releases on labels such as Bordello, My Favorite Robot, Multi Culti, Roam, Duro and OMBRA, it only made sense that the duo would eventually find its way to Lumière Noire. After all, “black light” (as per the meaning of Chloé’s label’s name) could describe the way Local Suicide’s music flirts with the more troubling zones of the listener’s psyche, where danger roams and aural comfort is no longer a guarantee. The EP’s two tracks set a dark, shifty sonic tableau, in which German-American multidisciplinary artist - and a unique personality of the Berlin underground - Nicki Fehr comes to blend his voice with Vamparela’s. With its swerving bass slithering over a slow tempo, Leopard Gum is the perfect slow burner, a slice of comatose disco that will find its way to the darkest corners of nightlife - and haunt its DJ sets. The synths that come crashing across the track’s Smagghe & Cross remix add their saturated signature that provide a different kind of hook through its breathless nine-minute run. The same measured tempo is found once more on the more ethereal Already There, where Local Suicide affirm their adherence to the more captivating signatures of new wave and post disco. Permanent Vacation stalwarth Lauer adds a surprizing electro pop shimmer to the track. With Leopard Gum’s opaque and impenetrable atmosphere, Local Suicide have released one of their strongest efforts to date.

Sound design masters Benjamin Brunn and Dave Wheels of the Workshop fame team up with the iconic Berlin based Sushitech for a beautiful double 12" LP release.

"2000" is an electronic masterpiece, lush melodies, dubby rhythms and some mesmerising synth lines that we can all recognise from previous milestone Benjamin Brunn releases such as Song From The Beehive that was already released a decade ago together with Move D.

This 2x12" with 8 full length tracks packed in a gatefold sleeve makes a beautiful pack that is a simply must have for any serious vinyl collector - BIG!

DJ Varsovie's new EP takes place in September 2045, in a futuristic end of summer before we have to leave earth. The journey is supported by remixes from Anetha, Minimum Syndicat and Stephanie Sykes, each one gives a different perspective on this dystopic love story. Septemper EP is a double vinyl edition with a colored sleeve and the record is printed on 180 grams vinyl, some of the tracks are also in 45 RPM for maximum quality.

A year after Floyd Lavine & David Mayer served up the afro house bomb ‘Sondela’ from the EP of the same name, it now gets remixed by a carefully selected list of names including Jimpster, Auntie Flo, Tunnelvisions and Kususa. First up is deep house master and Freerange label boss Jimpster, who serves up the sort of quality you would expect on his remix. His cool and immersive journey brings new soul and feeling to the original with timeless melodies that have a lasting effect. Dutch duo Tunnelvisions are an act on the rise and always bring plenty of Afro, Latin and Caribbean vibes to their sounds. Here they masterfully flip the track ‘Xi’ from the Sondela EP into a percussive groove with psychedelic warmth and melodic bass that goes deep. Kususa are also rising stars of the South African scene who have Black Coffee supporting their work and have mixed the upcoming Africa Gets Physical vol.2 album. Here they pump up the beats: their percussion, arps and big synths will get hands in the air and as the bassline envelops you in warmth you cannot help but feel it deep inside. Highlife artist and recent album man Auntie Flo brings his authentic understanding of worldly groove to a fantastic remix that oozes beauty and quality. It is understated and stripped back with delicate hand percussion and an otherworldly aura that brings real mystery to the EP. An acapella version is also included as an exclusive addition to the vinyl release.

Cosmo Vitelli hasn’t slept since 1973. Instead, he’s replaced slumber with the tireless exploration of electronic music, sharing his finds as an accomplished DJ and label manager as well as an esteemed producer, with heaps of records, remixes and edits under his belt. With his upcoming two-part LP on Malka Tuti, Cosmo brings forward his more diverse and somehow mature musical side, combining elements of post-punk, krautrock, electronica and pop on this first of 2 four-track records. The songs on the LP transcend style and genre. They manage to hold and playfully sustain an idea that echoes throughout them all - a musical “saying” as well as a personal life experience, and they reflect Cosmo’s prolific studio work of the past 2 years since he moved to Berlin. On the opening song A Brand New City he collaborates with longtime friend Julienne Dessagne (aka Fantastic Twins). Dessagne's vocals cut through the quirky and addictive percussion groove and synth sequence, leading to a a strong emotional melancholic melodic catharsis. On the following two songs Groupe Surdose & Die Alraune we find Cosmo collaborating with Sebastian Lee Philipp (of Die Wilde Jagd fame) to show his more post-rock/krautrock side. Groupe Surdose is an instant classic slow burning dance floor Krautrock tune while in Die Alruane we find poetic German lyrics sung by Lee-Philipp on top of organic grooves, guitars and an epic Saxophone line that together create a distinctive highlight for the record. The closing track Kuldip is the curve ball of them all, sealing the first part of his album with a Mediterranean mid tempo dance tune for the selectors and the middle-eastern inspired electro aficionados.

'When you put on the first track on the album 'Antisocial Background 2017 - 2019 by Mythologen your likely to think: 'this is THAT kind of an album', and fell happy with that. But Mythologen aka Alexander Palmestal is not 'THAT' kind of an artist and this album reflects his broad musical background. It spans from Japan to USA, from the 70s to the 00s and from cold concrete floors to fluffy cotton clouds. Palmestal, with a background in bands such as Pistol Disco and Iberia now releases his second full-length album on Hoga Nord Rekords

The album is a play with emotions and genres, with unexpected meetings between major and minor keys and is a collection of tracks where Jungle, Electro, House, Synth and Big Beat are deconstructed and put together as relevant contemporary dance music. The production on 'Antisocial background' sometimes sound like a more electronic version of Boredoms but most of the time it puts the listener on the British isles and in the 90's. Palmestal pays respect to his masters but he is not in any way too careful with their legacy and let, just as on his debut album, influences from the 1970's and 80's Nigeria and Soweto.'

The second Keep on Wankin EP continues Hell Yeah label boss Marco's on going quest for the perfect remixes. This time out he serves up the most Balearic Gabba influenced material yet and takes you on a trip to the clouds with Bjorn Torske and Fango both stepping up.

First up is Bjorn Torske's take on everybody's favourite Luminodisco tune 'Oh Mary.' It's an impossibly adventurous 11 minute epic with buoyant chords dancing over trilling guitars. Lush, multi-layered and brimming with musicality, this is the sort of dubbed out yet percussively lively masterpiece that will mark the high point of any set as it washes over you time and time again.

Then it's to Fango's chunky and spaced out take on Somerville & Wilson's 'Yantar.' It's been the final track of all recent Fango sets around the world for a while now and that won't change any time on thanks to the slow build to a colourful dub disco peak. It takes you ever higher on wandering lead synths as the fat drums pump away below. Essential stuff.

Press:
Resident Advisor New Tracks Review

"This unhurried, euphoric bit of cosmic disco will bowl over a daytime festival crowd in just about any country"

DJ Support:
Andrew Weatherall (A Love From Outer Space), Kolsch, DJ Tennis, Tim Sweeney (Beats In Space), Benjamin Frolich, Front De Caseaux, Gerd Janson...

Booming and banging, crashing and smashing, wriggling and writhing: the 'Black Snake Whip' cracks and out come the bats. INDEX:005 is a continuum of electrical fields that will psychologically ensnare and physically coerce you. Feel the tension from your ears to your toes; only dance will set you free.

This is a body of music, made for your body. Its Influences have been cultivating in the minds of industrial space enthusiasts and warehouse ravers for years. The sound of peaky synth leads and trebly harsh drums will make you grit your teeth as you succumb to the urge to move.
Take a whiff of this sonic bouquet from Black Snake Whip.

Yotam Avni has been a long fixture of the Tel-Aviv nightlife scene, well known internationally thanks to releases on Ovum, Innervisions and Hotflush. We welcome him to our SPEICHER series with three unlikely cuts that you would expect from him (or us).

“Mañana Mañana” swells with a mid-90’s prowess that echo the earliest of Kompakt’s days in the best of ways. “Track For Agoria” thrives from the method of true minimal techno but abstractedly brought into harmony with bells and tweaking synths. Finally, “Heavy Lifting” is righteously led by a soaring synth that envelops itself into snap dragon snares and washed out hi-hats. He saves the best for last as the track opens into classic rave synths - guaranteed to open dance floors to all of eternity.

Listen! Lord Jabu synthesises 64-bit dream-ware with solid-state trap in his crystalline 3-track release, ‘Yagoda’. In ‘Folklore’, colourful cubist polygons dance beneath festival-drunk Hyrule twilight. ‘Threehead’ goes grim, watching purple-skinned ogres bang distorted djembes in the lost woods. ‘Yagoda’ burrows deep, plucking the melodic soul of an abandoned young hero with no way home. Electrifying the murky, the lost and the lonely, Lord Jabu’s debut on Albion Collective opens the dancefloor up to a full-scale adventure.

"Mattheis and Amandra collaborate for Ahrpe on their Ventriloquist Chant EP. While the Nous'klaer affiliated artist is commonly known for his tension building synth lines and rich atmospheres, the Ahrpe co-founder has turned his percussion and complex bass line programming into its very own distinctive art form. Their debut EP consists of four tracks, exploring the spectrum of their approach on synths and percussions, and displaying the result of a collaboration between two established artists that yet sound like they were meant to cross each other's paths.

Soft Machine is a surreal wander through the mystical sonic forest. A vision curated and designed by Chicago native Justin Aulis Long. A Cyclopian point of view while gazing through a wide lensed scope, which exists in the liminal spaces where light meets dark and angelic forces bath in the sludge and stardust of unfiltered eroticism.

Eye of the Minotaur - collage 001 is a collection of artists working in varying musical practices that are channeling the solitude of mutantness, strolling through the familiar yet unfamiliar halls of the uncanny, refusing ordinary structures of the mundane, grasping the cold humor of cynicism, basking in the dichotomy of cosmos and chaos, and invoking the energies of Eris and Eros.

Setting the ground is Ciarra Black, a Berlin based New Yorker who makes no apologies for her bare knuckled soundscapes. DuPont Street is a ritualistic unification of discordant entities that summons visions of Pazuzu (lord of the demons) and Inanna (goddess of love) fornicating beneath The Tree of Life. Razor edged synthesizers slice through the atmosphere with the precision of an avenging angel’s flaming sword, while a psychedelic drum code activates ritual movement of the body.

As the needle passes beyond the next threshold it is met by a towering totem, bristling with the illuminated light of the sonic astral plane. Erected from the foundational matter that birthed the Detroit electro punk sound, Eyes Up continues to add to the narrative that is drenched in deranged electronics intuitively mangled in a post punk tradition. Dystopian percussive rhythms generate an unorthodox domain where muffled utterances present an aural Rorschach test. Could this be the riddle of the Sphinx, or an ancient spectral being that possesses secret knowledge? Only its creator, Stallone the Reducer, holds the key.

Fixed at the axis of the journey, Perfect Headache Forever, a mystic operating within the DIY spaces of Chicago, levitates on a transcendental mass that is equally melancholic and optimistic. Her voice hosts a strength equal to a pantheon of titans. Armed with a magical electronic musical box, she weaves narratives that are prophetic. Itself Ecstatic is a voyage through a misty soundscape that begins at one point, but ends in a distant other, in accordance with a system of divination.

Gazing into the murky waters of the oracle’s cauldron, Circling Vultures, (a collaborative effort by Justin Aulis Long and Kenneth Zawacki) channel and evoke the spirits of Antonin Artaud and Geroges Bataille. The poet’s voice, engaged in an act of mutilation and self cannibalization, howls while projecting visions of sacred conspiracies, sensations of vertigo while peaking over the edge of the abyss, and the looming weight acquired from the solitude of the Minotaur alone, sitting silently at the center of the labyrinth. Accompanying the mystical bard’s verbal declaration is a triggered mechanized synth that roars with the vitality of Cold War era Wave music, which is then juxtaposed against applications of loose keyboard playing. The artist’s hand is revealed against the calculated actions of machines.

Bringing the document to its finale, Libby Del Barrio, a multi disciplinary artist based in San Antonio, performs a closing ritual in a manner that only she knows. Setting fire to the Elysium Fields while personified as Moze Pray, Del Barrio rejects plastic narratives that aim to pacify. No Tears, is an unapologetic account of life’s feedback loop around the Wheel of Fortune. Sacrificial actions through ceremonial performance reveals a gateway founded on truth and torment. Moze Pray’s ability to combine musical production, poetic vocalization and ritualistic body performance is charged by chaos and amalgamates into a product of pure expression that defies the rose colored filters aiming to conceal harsh realities.

Eno Williams, frontwoman of Ibibio Sound Machine, uses both English and the Nigerian language from which her band's name is derived for the dazzling new album Doko Mien. Long lauded for jubilant, explosive live shows, Ibibio Sound Machine fully capture that energy on Doko Mien, the followup to their Merge debut Uyai.
In a glowing piece in the New York Times, those songs were praised for following 'in the tradition of much African music, [making] themselves the conscience of a community.' By pulsing the mystic shapes of Williams' lines through further inventive, glittering collages of genre, Ibibio Sound Machine crack apart the horizon separating cultures, between nature and technology, between joy and pain, between tradition and future. That propensity for duality and paradox seems common in people whose lives span continents.

Williams was born in the UK, but grew up in Nigeria, always steeped in her family heritage. She obsessed over West African electronic music, highlife, and the like, but was equally empowered by Western genres such as post-punk, disco, and funk. The London octet have enveloped themselves in that maximalist quilt proudly since their 2013 formation. Though it can often bring with it news of stress and uncertainty, the modern world further brings all these disparate traditions into connection.
'Everyone has everything now,' says multi-instrumentalist Max Grunhard. 'Everyone has immediate access to every genre, picking things up from everywhere—like magpies.' And while they haven't suddenly left their African roots behind, Doko Mien does find increased representation of English lyrics in the ratio. By sharing more directly with more universal lyrics, the record feels more anthemic, reaching for grander heights.
'We wanted to give people a reason to sing along, to find their soundtrack every day,' Williams says. 'We wanted everyone to feel as if they're part of the music as well.'

Late album highlight 'Guess We Found a Way' addresses the change with a coy smile. 'Guess we found a way to speak to you/ Guess we found a way to say what's true/ To say what's real,' Williams coos over glistening chains of reverberant synth and diamond dust percussion, before returning to Ibibio in the chorus. Perhaps the best example of the group's ability to convey meaning across language and tradition, to blend past and future into a singular present comes on 'She Work Very Hard'. The traditional Ibibio folk tale bobs over the waves of tuned percussion, chunky synth, and pinprick highlife-esque guitar, while Jose Joyette's drums and Derrick McIntyre's bass funk groove bring everyone to the dance floor. 'These stories won't be forgotten. Feel the music: it speaks to everybody,' Williams says. 'We can travel back in time together, while convening on a futuristic, present tense. We hope that we can give people that reason to wake up, that one song to sing and dance and be happy.'

Doko Mien: Tell me everything. On their new album, Ibibio Sound Machine provide the perfect companion, ready to digest as much as possible and then further unfurl beauty and hope. They remember and honor the past and charge forward toward the future, all while intensely expanding the present.

Led by Saxophonist Rob Mitchell, Abstract Orchestra have been a consistent presence on the u.k. music scene, touring constantly in the promotion of their debut LP "Dilla" and follow up 45 "New Day feat. Illa J", steadily building a loyal and supportive fanbase. Inspired by the legendary live performances of The Roots with Jay-Z and the 40 piece orchestral arrangements by Miguel-Atwood Ferguson of the work of J Dilla, classic arranging techniques underpin modern loop-based structures, breathing new life into familiar material.

The band itself is based on the classic jazz big band instrumentation of saxes, trumpets, and trombones and features the cream of the north of England's jazz scene who collectively have played with Jamiroquai, Corinne Bailey Rae, Mark Ronson, Martha Reeves, John Legend & the Roots, Roots Manuva and Amy Winehouse.

"Madvillain Vol. 2" follows on from the 2018 release "Madvillain vol. 1" and further explores the jazz, TV soundtrack and film score aspect of the original work, combining it with classic big band writing and a focus on improvisation. As with vol 1. there is a strong influence of Quincy Jones, Lalo Schifrin and David Shire(Composer of the soundtrack to The Taking of Pelham 123) on the album, and the arranger Rob Mitchell crafts his own sound that inhabits the space between Madlib's production and Quincy Jones' writing.

As a bonus track to the album, Abstract reworks Dabrye's 'Air' and have included the original vocal of MF DOOM. Dabrye's original is heavily soaked in synths and drum machines, with an almost sci-fi, Blade Runner or Tron-esque sound . Mitchell explores this further and is influenced by Bob Brookmeyer's late work 'Electricity', which explores synths and jazz orchestration.

Madvillain Vol. 2 will build on the success of vol. 1 which received enormous support from Gilles Peterson & Huey Morgan on BBC6 Music as well as numerous airplay on Worlwide FM and Jazz FM, and reviews from soulbag in France and ukvibe, qwest.tv, and vinyl district online.

This new set of compositions retreats towards a quieter and more contemplative zone, weaving together the soft accents of field-recordings, microscopic sound fragments and modular synthesis. The result is a hypnotic mesh of musique concrète, drone, prepared sounds and shimmering electronic synthesis. The pieces fluctuate between the machine-like and the organic, and sometimes combine the two to create a beguiling sonic ecology. It's with a kind of forensic precision that Prudence has reconstructed from his palette these unexpected chance encounters of sound. Modular rhythmic collages are grafted onto subtle melodic phrases, stuttering percussive structures are held in orbit by elliptical sinusoidal drones. Prudence talks about these compositions as being audio-visual experiences without the visual part. The tracks create a sense of motion in space, kinetic activity and the existence of teeming entities.

Moonshoe Records has bowled over first listeners by presenting this new side of their sphere - Air Space Ark’s debut, “All Rivers Lead” charts the course of divergent streams of contemporary ambient music, downtempo rhythms, and electroacoustic experimentation, arriving at a calming confluence of these sources. Across the 6 songs on these two sides, they evoke a calming and contemplative headspace

333 is an exquisite study in balance - the intermingling of bird song water sounds that could equally be field recordings or synthesized foley - the ambiguity adding a delightful trompe l'oreille effect - and crystalline keys ; these airy sounds weighted by washes of subbass.

BLANK PAGE is almost like a version of the previous track, retaining the nimble birdsongs and heavy sub, but foregrounding a lolling, stumbling hip-hop beat and placing more emphasis on the effects wizardry as abstract sounds careen across the track in wipes and wisps, before stripping down to a beautiful coda of birdsong, piano plinks and a textured backdrop.

The celestial keys, flute-like thrums and gentle chimes of WORDS BETWEEN SELF evoke the golden age of spiritual jazz, but the hazy ambiance and shuffling beats transmute the other elements around them into something more introspective and personal than jubilant praise. Lyrics aside, the subtle funk coupled with the pensive, meditative air channels the spirit of Stanley Cowell’s classic TRAVELLIN’ MAN.

LOFT IN 7 Is the most “out” moment here. It has echoes, literally, of jazz. Like decaying tape reels disintegrating in real time, we feel the tape buckling and warping under the weight of time as the sounds of a synthetic band warp and shift against electronic impulses and glitches, eventually leaving just a lingering, ghostly imprint. .

DUST SONG veers the closest towards a straightforward instrumental hip hop cut - a submerged sounding breakbeat coupled with a tender piano melody - but is buoyed by drifting pads and a dense, hallucinatory bed of effects.

CONCRETE closes proceedings. Charged with a crepuscular energy, it’s all-together as mercurial and magical as the transition from day to night. Different elements swirl and coalesce, honing in on dense, textural moments across a horizontal drift. The end effect is hypnotic yet captivating, so much so that when the track eventually blooms into silence at the end you’re struck by the brevity of the whole experience. Thankfully you can listen to it again!

Following on from big recent releases from Neue Grafik & Oliver Night, CoOp Presents Sivey, with an all-new double-header of heat, 'Nobody Else' and 'Somebody Samebody'.

For those that don't know, Manchester-based Sivey became a player in the future beats scene a couple years back, releasing music with the LA-based collective Soulection, as a solo artist and via collaborations with Evil Needle, which came to fruition after a series of online beat battles, as well as releases and remixes with labels like Astral Black and Ninja Tune.

His last wave of output was greeted with enthusiasm by fans of soulful beats championed by artist collectives such as HW&W and Darker Than Wax, and saw Sivey subsequently spinning at events across the UK, and perform shows as far afield as Los Angeles and Tokyo.

Rooted in hip hop production, Sivey's largely instrumental tracks have brought together elements of millennial R&B, neo-soul, UK garage, jazz and 80s funk. In the few years since his previous releases, Sivey has continued to experiment with new ways of exploiting his diverse influences in his productions. As his listening habits became increasingly orientated around jazz and obscure 70s fusion records, his own productions began to reflect the shift.

The recent resurgence of the broken beat movement was something that also inspired him, admiring the balance between musicality and danceability of the genre. He made his first experiments with bruk in 2017 and found that it mixed perfectly with what he'd already been creating. Eager to share the results with the world, it made perfect sense for his first offerings of this ilk to find a home here with us at CoOp Presents.

These two tracks exemplify the ever-evolving progression of Sivey's sonics; the familiar deep keys and synth sounds of his previous productions are there, but nestled alongside more uptempo grooves, and the lush rhythmic complexity of bruk. Tied in with his love for jazz fusion, 'Somebody Samebody' sees Sivey reinterpret a late 70's track by Japanese guitarist, Kazumi Watanabe; this one also enlisting the help of Trian Kayhatu on keys. As well as the original tracks, prolific Selectors Assemble crew member Danvers adds in his own tasty heads-down version of 'Nobody Else', and label co-founder IG Culture (who recently received a Worldwide Award for 'lifetime achievement'!) provides a dope bruk-funk flip of 'Somebody Samebody' to close out the set.

Two years ago, Ferdi Schuster was a young multi-instrumentalist and producer
daydreaming of releasing his music on Claremont 56, one of his favourite labels.
Now he’s set to release his stunning debut album, “All One”, on Paul Murphy’s
long-running imprint.
It’s been a long time between drinks for the German producer, who last graced
C56 with his superb double A-side single, “Little River/Befreit”, in the autumn of
2017. Fittingly, it’s “Little River” – a babbling brook of audio bliss rich in samba
influenced drums, soothing acoustic guitars and spacey synthesizer licks – that
kicks off “All One”, a seductive set in which every drumbeat, piano note, guitar
riff, synthesizer flourish and freside-warm bassline was played by the man
himself.
Throughout, it’s easy to see why Murphy decided to snap up Schuster and
push the producer to record a debut album. Check, for example, the dubbed
out shuffle of “Thinking of You”, where ghostly chords, soft-focus guitar solos
and ethereal vocals drift across the soundscape, and the slowly unfurling bliss
of “The Good Fight”, an effortlessly Balearic workout rich in sun-kissed guitars,
bubbly synth lines and chords so snugly they could probably be used as a
comfort blanket.
Schuster’s greatest strength is undoubtedly the evocative and enveloping nature
of his instrumental music, which draws on a variety of complimentary influences
but never sounds anything less than original and fresh. Some listeners may be
enchanted by the loose and languid pulse of “Fading Away” or the lo-f reggae
jazz of dusty closing cut “Night Talk”, though others may prefer the stoned funk
shuffle of “Interaction” or the spacey vibrations of “Pulsa”, where intergalactic
synthesizer lines wind their way around heady bass guitar and sparse, off-kilter
deep electro drums.
“All One” is that kind of set; an atmospheric and musically accomplished
collection of cuts capable of muting the mundane and distracting from the stress
of 21st century life. As debut albums go, it’s something of a stunner

Temporary linearity in a lysergic world.

Imagination and reality, science and humanity: SPIME.IM weave their audiovisual tales from the ethereal textures that shape our worlds. Their album "Exaland" synthesizes reality by combining human expression with technological potentialities in an infinitely changeable virtual world. The seven tracks are defined by razor-like sounds, crystal textures and digital overload, captured in those weightless seconds on a parabolic flight. Just as SPIME.IM's live performances, this album is a temporarily linear journey through a narrative space shaped by psychedelic landscapes, synthetic colors, mutating objects and transient life-forms.

SPIME.IM was born as a word pun between the concept theorized by Bruce Sterling - the spime for the note, an object that can be traced through space and time for the duration of its existence - and the contraction of English "I am". If the Being is therefore the object of the intertwining between the real and the virtual, then it becomes possible to create new imaginaries that turn into immersive environments and narrative spaces in which artificial and natural, science and humanity, imagination and reality interpenetrate, giving life to new boundaries to be explored, to experience the own consciousness and what, while invisible to our eyes, surrounds and influences us.

Affirming digital reality, the Turin-based media art collective SPIME.IM explores the boundaries and possibilities of identity and perception in a world where virtual doppelgängers take on an all-encompassing position. SPIME.IM use technology, 3D art and electronic music to weave immersive audio-video experiences.

After numerous features and collaborations Obenewa, Kaidi Tatham and dego combine together to form Blacks & Blues.Three song based dance tracks to fill the void of underground vocal club music.

'Spin' is flavoured with S.A house & afrobeatz whilst Obenewa sings about the wonder that is love. 'You Know The Feeling' moves towards the funk that is synonymous with 2000Black and 'Don't Know Why (chant for love)' is purely the marriage between reggae and jazz.

* MIRAGES is the brainchild of Jean-Benoît Dunckel(AIR) and Jonathan Fitoussi.
* Spawning from Xavier Veilhan’s Studio Venezia at the 57th Venice Biennale and completing in Jean-Benoit’s studio in Paris.
* Collaboration between Jean-Benoit (AIR) and Jonathan Fitoussi.
* 12″ 180g heavyweight clear vinyl
* White printed artwork by Jean-Philippe Talaga
* Photos by Diane Arques
* Ltd Ed. of 500

“Synthesizers amassed through the years, which on this album, conceived with precision and care over the course of one year, reveal their essence –and more importantly, their soul, going from very cinematographic parts to very direct others. Between start and finish, a singular floating and inventive pop music unfolds. An upgraded form of instrumental electronic music, that takes the listener very far, and very high, perfectly mixing both musicians world, like fruitful pictures arisen from a desert that forgot to be arid. Their mirages are inventive, their mirages are fertile.” Joseph Ghosn

Berlin’s Answer Code Request and Marcel Fengler remix two cuts from AVION’s ‘Untrod’ album on his Crossing Imprint.

Established in 2013, Crossing has become a home for the majority of VAION’s releases including his debut album that picked up support from the likes of Darko Esser, Cosmin Trg, Anastasia Kristensen, Steve Bicknell and many more.

For this compelling remix package, AVION invites Answer Code Request and Marcel Fengler two legendary Berghain residents known for releasing on Ostgut Ton and their own eponymous imprints, who together have been honing a musical hybrid that stands apart from some of the more uniform forms of techno.

Answer Code Request’s ‘Evasion’ kicks off proceedings with an ethereal ambience balancing a tough syncopated drum sequence, resonant pads and atmospheric synth keys floating underneath. On the flip, Marcel Fengler’s remix of ‘Streetlights’ rounds off proceedings with menacing breaks-tinged percussion,

murmuring oscillations graciously fused with Emika’s delicate vocals and resilient modulations throughout.

Following the release of their short film 'The Awakening' and its accompanying single, Lost Souls Of Saturn share the first remix in 9 years by revered musician James Holden. Over thirteen minutes of crisp, stratospheric elegance, Holden’s rework is both slightly mad and simultaneously blissful – like a trance-state reached through frenzied, spiritual ritual.

“I believe in serendipity: if the universe presents you with something that seems right, you should go with it”, says Holden. “When this record hit my desk was one of those moments. Recently I'd been thinking a lot about rave utopias, the pan-global fantasy painted by the early days of Future Sound Of London etc, and listening to LSOS's Jodorowskian ceremonials I felt like they'd caught the same winds. And so, although I thought I'd finished doing remixes for this lifetime, here it is; some kind of dream of a memory of a rave, the spookiness of the original slightly eclipsed by my warm feelings about Seth's good energy!”

The original version of ‘The Awakening’ begins as a serene ambient spacecast, before an ancient alien rite of tribal frenzy starts to emerge through the phosphorescent stardust – sonically somewhere between Demdike Stare and classic Orb, by way of Don Cherry.
Primarily LSOS are Seth Troxler and Phil Moffa, plus further opaque participants congregating to combine music, imagery and storytelling into an inextricably linked whole, all wrapped-up in a philosophy of their own making.
Attempting something creatively that’s above-and-beyond, LSOS explore new ways to open doors of perception and challenge the reality vs. simulation paradigm, whilst capturing the spirit of Philip K. Dick, Sun Ra and the KLF within their music, live experiences and films.
These spiritual, psychoactive aural vibrations resonate for a long distance, all the way back to something deeper and more enchanting than the prosaicism of modern life:
“We have been sent synchronistic signs from a metaphysical plane. We are the glitch-seekers, exposing the Holes In The Holoverse. We are Lost Souls Of Saturn.”

'Boomerang' was first recorded in 1979, when the Broomfield Corporate Jam leader was attempting to plot a solo career. It was the first cut Aaron Broomfield recorded under his own name - Initially, at the family band's home studio, Kilimanjaro, and later at professional studios in L.A and Miami - but it was never released.

'I always wanted to be able to share 'Boomerang' with my fans some day - I didn't release it back then because I thought the time wasn't right,' Broomfield explains. 'It was so different to what was considered commercial then and felt ahead of its time.'

Before deciding against releasing it, Broomfield had two test pressings made. It was the accidental discovery of the
one remaining record by digger Arun Brown (the other perished when Broomfield's Kilimanjaro studio was damaged by a fire in 1996) that set in motion the chain of events that finally led to its release.

The jacket boasts a written essay by Broomfield himself, telling the remarkable story behind the song. The wax
features the two versions of Boomerang, of which both were meticulously restored and re-mastered by celebrated
Australian sound engineer, Dan Elleson.

Head to side A for the 'test press' version, a cosmic, starry-eyed chunk of elastic Miami disco-funk where the
Broomfield family's killer instrumentation - all rubbery bass, deep space synths and crunchy Clavinet motifs - arcs
around the sound space like a boomerang in flight. The vocal arrangement, in which Aaron Broomfield's conscious
lyrics come through loud and clear, brings it home. On the flipside, you'll hear how dynamic the band was through the

'Demo Version' - a relaxed, loose and spacey groover that sounds as ahead of its time in 2018 as it would have when it was recorded in 1979.

Koryu Budo Records is a new techno label based in Madrid. This is their second release, as for the first release, it will only be released on vinyl (300 copies).

This EP named ‘The Last Gift’ has been written and produced by HD Substance, the Spanish producer, DJ, journalist, owner of SUBtl recordings and teacher at The Bass Valley. 2018 marks his 30 year anniversary in electronic music and he keeps on playing techno all over the world, releasing techno in a constant basis, teaching techno at The Bass Valley, writing techno for Beatburguer, Clubbingspain, Pole Group or Falling Ethics and releasing other people’s techno in his own label SUBtl.

The EP opens with "No Body Cares", a complex and timeless track, an orgy of analog psychedelia, the sequences that seem extracted from old clocks are mixed together to offer a hypnotic and enveloping sensation.

In second place, we find "Red Lady", pure and raw techno that is nourished with a devilish bass line, that immerses us in a sinister and dark universe. Direct simplicity.

"Red Lady_Sarcoma version" follows the line of the original track, though the main bass line disappears and in its replaced by syncopated sounds that take away some of the aggressiveness of the track but nourish it with more groove.

A work of great maturity, which shows this producer as one of the great names of techno.

Terence Fixmer returns to NovaMute with a new EP, The Swarm out on vinyl on 24 May 2019. Terence Fixmer’s career has spanned two decades with releases on many acclaimed labels, most recently releasing his sixth solo album Through The Cortex, on Ostgut Ton. His sound deftly avoids repetition by developing soundscapes which maintain musical depth and integrity and he above all preserves an original style, an increasingly experimental, simultaneously ruthless and instantly recognizable aesthetic. “The title track ‘The Swarm’, I made with the full Roland System 100 [1970s’s vintage semi-modular analogue synth]. I had been collecting all the individual parts of the System 100 and was happy to finally find the sequencer System 100-104. This was the first full track I created with it.”

LA’s Cromie joins Detroit imprint Clave House to release four mesmerizing cuts entitled ‘Root Bulb’.

A familiar face in the Los Angeles house scene, Nikola Hlady aka Cromie has established himself through his talents and graft in the studio showcasing his distinctive deep house rhythms, clever chord progressions and focus on charismatic sound design. His previous releases on Material Image, Amadeus Records and These Things Take Time join hypnotically driven atmospheres with captivating rhythms creating forward- thinking yet classically-minded sonics. His ‘Root Bulb’ EP sees the LA producer join the Clave House family accompanying artists such as Ali Berger, Pascäal, 外神 deepspace, Appian, Gerald Norton, Segv and Berndt.

Cromie's ‘Root Bulb’ EP picks up where his 2018 releases left off, taking inspiration from the Southern California landscape that surrounds him, with its juxtaposition of endless expanses of concrete amidst its staggeringly diverse flora and famous sunshine.
‘Root Bulb’ kicks things off with absorbing pads layered over rough and raw percussion with angelic textures in the distance before ‘Lilac’ delivers breaks-tinged drums, a catchy, buried sample, infectious synth notes and warming melodies inviting the listener’s focus.

‘Aristocrat Motel’ maintains the enrapturing ambience by fusing pulsating bass shoots, alleviating tones and charming, earworm keys offering a club-focussed yet introspective track until ‘Root Bulb (Grove Mix)’ rounds off proceedings with downtempo broken-beat grooves, tantalising vibrations and undulating, cosmic elements.

Kalita's obligatory Record Store Day offering is something rather special: synth-funk visionary couple Emerson and Leora Sandidge's mythical unreleased album finally sees the light of day, following Emerson's sole private press seven-inch single release way back in 1988. Those two tunes ("Sending All My Love Out" and "Why Are You So Cold?") make the cut on this belated debut set, alongside six other previously unreleased recordings from the same sessions. Their take on electrofunk, boogie and '80s soul is colourful, soulful and synth-heavy, with the included tracks veering from up-tempo club workouts (see "Raw Deal Cocaine Kills") and fizzing dancefloor pop workouts, to sugary ballads and seductive slow jams. In other words, it's a more than tidy selection of rare and unheard gems.

Under the alias Ciel, Xi'an-born/Toronto-based producer, pianist, DJ, and Discwoman affiliate Cindy Li embodies the social conscience of progressive electronic music. She is at once a local and global artist, having flourished at the fringe of cutting-edge club culture since 2015, firmly rooted in her adopted city while reaching increasingly outward, her sets echoing from Berlin’s Berghain to Chicago’s Smartbar to Lisbon’s Lux Fragil. Back in Toronto, she co-runs the label Parallel Minds and event initiative Work In Progress, an extension of her radio show in both name and M.O. to improve female representation in the scene. She’s helped write safe space policies, hosted DJ workshops, and applied activist pressure on promoters through varying methods with a single-minded resolve. Those efforts have evoked responses, which Li has spent time reckoning with over the past two years. Now, manifesting as a self-guided reaction to her experiences as an artist and activist is Ciel’s Spectral Sound debut, Why Me?, a deeply personal and physical work.

Ciel’s stylistic pocket as a producer remains that of “soft-touch slammers,” but fans will note the material on Why Me? hits harder. “I wanted to write something that was heavy,” she says of the title track, the result of processing the noise leveled at her specifically after she amassed a database of female and nonbinary talents to highlight the lack of bookings amongst a subset of clubs in the community. “I was dealing with a lot... anger, despair, paranoia, feeling unjustly targeted.” She channeled these antiphons into her art. The cut’s namesake is sourced from the foregrounded sample, a snippet of dialogue from an old film about a man who believes he’s been abducted by aliens. Pulsing metallic drum patterns steer through the hypnotic passage; permeating beneath the beats are lush pads, washing the rattled urgency with unease.

Hardware-built tracks “Go Fish” and “Uri’s Song” came together over studio time with friend and occasional collaborator Colin Sims aka Wiretapping. Ciel brought her sampler to the sessions, with Sims contributing additional drums, which she’d arrange further at home, adding synth parts and basslines and effects, distilling it all down to its most potent core. The latter track — an effervescent minimal techno exercise both tender and tough — expresses Li’s reflections on today’s cyclical conditions for activism, dissension, and, ultimately, optimism. “These are harsher sounds but they also have elements that are really beautiful about them. I wanted to communicate that nothing is permanent, that there’s always hope for understanding and resolution.”

The story of TodoTodo is one of the most incomprehensible and surprising in the history of Spanish electronic music. Without doubt it is, sadly, also one of the most ephemeral. The curse that has haunted them since their forming in 1980 and during their short year and half of life is already legendary. Domestica Records did justice to the group in 2012 with a comprehensive compilation and this EP joins this initial tribute as it reimagines some of these trailblazers most representative productions: Digital Dancer and Autoga´s.
Almost forty years later, Frigio is bringing some of their music to a fresh audience. Juanpablo with his extended edit of 'Digital Dancer.' A steady kick tethers a tripping mechanical melody, a melody that bubbles and simmers as toms, horns and daring funk collide for this seven minute odyssey into the world of Iberian underground synth. The original version from 81 closes the A, a brief and brilliant piece of proto-techno. The flip is introduced by Catalan Dj, journalist and author of ¡Bacalao! Historia Oral de la Mu´sica de Baile en Valencia, Luis Costa. Costa re-imagines 'Autogas' with his Tool Edit, reshaping the off-kilter keys and future highways and byways of the original. The finale is a true treasure from the annals of time. A live version of 'Autogas' from the legendary Rock'Ola club in Madrid, an unreleased work that is as audacious and bold as it was when it was first performed in 1981.

'Benjamin Lew was an enlightened amateur, in the noble and almost Renaissance-like sense of the word: he dabbled with equal grace in photography, writing, visual arts ... and worked part-time as a cocktail mixer in a tropical bar which was one of the favourite watering holes of Brussels' thriving artistic community of the early '80s. Tuxedomoon had just moved to Brussels, and Steven Brown was among the many musicians, designers & artists who patronized the bar. Benjamin had a secret passion: he wasn't a musician, but had acquired a small analog computer, with which he had started creating these strange mysterious little pieces. Benjamin played them to Steven and asked him if he'd agree to record with him. Steven was taken with them and accepted. The Douzième Journée was largely created in the studio by both protagonists, with the help of Gilles Martin and myself, in the spring of '82. Listening to his albums (he went on to record four more with Crammed) is like embarking on a dream journey to the Sahara or the Far East. You'd think that some of the pieces feature non-European musicians or samples but: no... this is just Benjamin's imagination, his synths, and his friends...'

Marc Hollander, Feb. 2019

READ CAREFULLY Blistering hardcore punk meets visceral drum and bass. Blastbeats, breakbeats, amen beats and kickdrums. A pure and perfect clash of styles and cultures, born from the same fiercely DIY, anti-authoritarian spirit that has shaped extreme music throughout the decades. This one goes from faster-than-the-speed-of-light-drums with screeching, feedbacking guitars to stomping 220 bpm dancefloor smashers on the flip of a coin.

Five tracks, two guitars, one bass guitar, one drumset, a fuckload of beats and synths. If this sounds too good to be true, that's because it is. We don't know what to tell you, this has never been done before.

For fans of: Minor Threat, Negative Approach, oldschool Amen infused Drum & Bass

Slagmann is the new collaboration between producer Talismann and music ensemble Slagwerk Den Haag. Their first album 'Krysalis' is an adventurous synthesis of hypnotizing rhythm patterns, organic soundscapes and captivating scenography - or, as the artists themselves like to call it, a "ritualistic experience." Sometimes dreamy and dark, euphoric and explosive at other times. This mesmerizing cross-pollination between ritualistic percussion and drum machines will lure you into the murkiest depths of electronica and classical minimal music. For the visual identity of 'Krysalis' Slagmann works together with visual artist Heleen Blanken. Who is responsible for the scenography of the live show and capturing the cover image.

A1: Damn – deez be some underwater dwellers. Hittin that snare like dem old boys – Lee Scratch or Mad Professor; This stuff is on fire, and not for Fyre; Works on real floors, can’t #Hashtag that shit.
A2: Mr. Max takes us down the Cavelerra highway; Starting with a solid and sparse veneer, turns into a wicked acid-filled warehouse jack. Throw in a strobe and some smoke and away we go.
B1: Old school maestro goes into stormy moody mode. Applying the simple counterpunch with a long and winding synth line, Edgar sneaks in a menacing acid line – teleporting you into the deepest corners of dystopian space. Definitely some shamanic tendencies going on here.
B2: The Anarchy Skyalkers. Nomen est omen. B-boy beats, 90ties rave; Boats and Hoes; Acid in da House; Repeat after me.

Italo-disco inspired house music, IN MY DREAMS is the latest single from New York/Moscow duo IPF aka INTERNETPOWERLIFTINGFEDERATION. A warm, galloping bass line fuses with razor-sharp synth stabs, creamy pads and late-80’s house drums. A dual-vocal exchange explores self-delusion, obsession and a single-sided relationship between girl and the boy who lives in her head. Melancholic yet pop-y, IN MY DREAMS wouldn’t be out of place in club run by Erasure, Depeche Mode or Human League at their most soulful and dancefloor-ready. In the spirit of classic 80’s dance music traditions, the original mix gets three additional reworks: a classic Electro version, a “big room” friendly HI-NRG version and stripped down version. This is the first release from New York city based label Daddy Issues, limited pressing 150 copies only.

Exactly two years after their latest Front Teeth LP, the Zürich-based duo VEIL OF LIGHT is back with a new album called Inflict which will be out May 10 on Avant! Records. This is their fourth full-length and their industrial-tinged synth-based post-punk keeps on getting better, making Inflict their strongest release to date. In these eight new cuts you'll hear how their sound has gotten heavier, bulkier, even more beat-driven. Tracks like So Hard and Holy Wars display drums pounding like noises from a rusty machinery, synths on You Done Me Wrong and Fact2019 they’re so sharp they can slice through your skin, Europe and Animal Instinct feature melodies from the abandoned industrial district of your ghost town. We could go on but you are probably aware of what these two Swiss are all about, and if you don’t you'll know the Veil Of Light when you face it. Artwork by Basel-based visual artist and photographer Samuel Trümpy. Limited edition LP on orange vinyl!

Melody (vocals, synth), Casey (vocals, synth), Bill (bass), Scott (guitar) and Marcus (drums) united through a shared post-punk sensibility and began experimenting with some angular drum and guitar give-and-take, layered with duelling synth refrains.

Over this Melody and Casey worked-up their vocal harmonies through impulse, developing an interplay reminiscent of The Go Go's at both their most serene and severe. The pairs vocals drift through each track, punctuating the profound and guiding us through each song's uncanny terrain.After a busy year of local shows and bouts of instinct-first songwriting, Red Channel chose a number of their most resonant songs to record with Andrew Schubert at Golden Beat. These were subsequently mixed by Eric Carlson and then mastered by John Hannon for this debut 7' EP on Upset The Rhythm entitled 'Crazy Diamonds'.

The title track launches the listener through a stratosphere of cascading notes, swoonsome lyrical turns and tack-sharp pivots in rhythmic practice. 'Crazy Diamonds' is an exhilarating rush of a song, both wistful and defiant. Melody explains that it is 'about the forever fluctuating reality that weaves in and out of ecstasy, loneliness, yearning and destruction. It's about women being free from a superficial beauty, it's about the cessation of ideals and power worship.'  'Giver' is a similarly sprightly yet pointedly questioning track, 'alone in your room, alone with your thoughts, of sleepless shadows, but what do I get' sing Casey and Melody in spooked unison.

'Demons' swirls with minimalist pop moves, a trailing backing vocal and a tumbling bass motif, whilst a dream-like quality pervades the guitar and keyboard lines. Melody then peppers the song with references to extinguished lights, evil forces, bags of sugar, floods and heaven on earth, drawing us so close that we enter the vision too. 'Slowness', which brings this debut EP is a close, is another triumph of illusory lyrical association and punchy gesture. In fact the band sound 'caught in a fragment, non-corporeal' throughout all the four tracks. Opalescent passages freewheel into splintered eruptions, there's a duality constantly in play, 'somebody dies, somebody's born'.

The songs collected here are manifestly catchy, conjured in cyclical patterns that are distorted by a desire that tends towards stream of consciousness. It's this willingness to wake-up in the unreal and see each moment reflected in the mirror which really sets apart Red Channel's first record.

'Buntús Rince' translates from Irish as 'basic rhythms', and this new compilation explores how Irish musicians were influenced by strands of different genres of music from around the world, merging them to create their own unique sounds. The compilation features some of the most innovative and talented figures in the history of Irish music and includes rare Irish jazz, fusion and folk outliers from the 1970s and early 1980s from musicians relatively unknown outside of Ireland.

Often regarded as a musical backwater, the 1970s finally saw Ireland begin to make its mark on international music. The nature of this feat is all the more commendable, considering how isolated and conservative the country still was in the middle of the last century. The emergence of acts like Skid Row, Thin Lizzy and Van Morrison instilled in budding young Irish musicians the belief to dream big.

Unlike many other European countries, Ireland had not benefited from the cultural impact of immigration. Pioneering Irish musicians did not have access to the type of vibrant music scenes ubiquitous to most European cities at that time. With no talented players or even in some cases recordings of the music, they had to cultivate and invent their own small scenes.

A jazz scene had begun to blossom in Dublin in the late 1950s. Self-taught players like Noel Kelehan and Louis Stewart emerged as the Irish standard-bearers. Their level of musicianship saw them play with some of the world's most renowned artists. The 1960s would see the emergence of the 'beat' scene in Ireland, with groups like Granny's Intentions, Taste and Eire Apparent finally challenging the hegemony of Irish Showbands. Change was in the air.
The late 1960s also saw many Irish emigrants returning home, bringing with them inspiration from the new styles and sounds of London and further afield. The arrival in the late 1960s of pirate radio stations like Radio Caroline, new music magazines and the availability of music on vinyl meant that different genres were now becoming more accessible. The musical landscape of the country began to transform and evolve, influencing a new generation of musicians in the process.
The 1970s saw advancements in studio technology. 8-track studios began appearing in Dublin, offering more opportunities for groups to record singles and albums. Synthesizers and other instruments were also becoming easier to acquire as the younger generation turned to electric jazz and fusion music.
While the level of musicianship was high, the levels of opportunities in Ireland were still very limited. Many groups and solo musicians had to emigrate to try and succeed.
Thankfully for those who remained, this new emerging scene didn't go totally unnoticed and local labels began to take a chance on more obscure Irish groups. Labels like Mulligan and also producers like John D'Ardis and Terri Hooley championed and documented music from the Irish underground of the 1970s.

Their valuable work is a common thread which connects many of the tracks on this compilation. From the soaring flute playing of Brian Dunning, to the swinging piano of Noel Kelehan and the sonic force of Jolyon Jackson's synthesizers; 'Buntús Rince' lifts the lid on a vastly underappreciated period of Irish music history.
One for the collectors.

A product of the transformative power of dance music, Ede moved Berlin after he experienced something magical while dancing to Ame at
Berghain. So enchanted was he by the pivotal moment that he set his sights on making music to be released by Innervisions… And that happened
three years later when his track ‘Jenny’ made it into the label’s ‘Secret Weapons 11’ compilation. Ede’s dark, new wave style has also
piqued the interest of Jennifer Cardini, who signed his music to a V/A on her Correspondant Music label recently. Now the producer joins the
TAU family for a full EP, featuring four original cuts.
‘Raum’ jumpstarts the collection with menacing allure. Whirring analogue forms the core of this deadly track, keeping it tight in the low end
while various layers of synth fizz and snarl. An urgent riff joins the fray, adding depth and energy. Across almost 10 minutes Ede showcases his
ability to create a dark atmosphere and imbue his music with spinetingling theatrics. Fans of the riff will be pleased to find a beatless version of
‘Raum’, which will be useful for creating dramatic moments during DJ sets no doubt.
On side B, ‘Zeit’ brings the pace down slightly. A melancholy synth line evokes feelings of sorrow, while the beat pumps along. Ede uses the full
8 minutes of this track to really build the tension, finally unleashing it halfway through. This could easily be used on the soundtrack for a cyborg
action movie set in the future.
Last up, ‘Unendlichkeit’ is a further demonstration of Ede’s love of futurism, new wave and film noir circa 2080. Here he tells a story with the
machines, each one adding their contribution to the narrative which gets more and more chaotic as the tune progresses.
A very impressive EP, and we’re sure you’ll agree it’s something quite special.

Following the success of Vol 2 the bearded man in disguise returns with another powerful 4 tracker for the labels 3rd release. Vol 3 keeps the energy levels in the red with catchy bass stabs, sexy vocals and feel good synths. All pieces of course carry the signature Soul in diguise dressed with lashings of Frazer's signature shuffling 909 drums. A perfect record for the peak time dance session.

Initially a duo formed in Berlin, FITH have since multiplied and expanded to become a revolving collective of musicians and poets spread out across a Paris/Manchester/Berlin axis. The project, currently comprised of members Dice Miller, Enir Da, Rachel Margetts, ChrIs Lmx, & Arnaud Mathé gesture towards notions of the literary salon, expanded cinema happenings, and the ancient traditions of Greek oratory and religious sermons. Driven by the spell of the spoken word, minimal percussive refrains, oneiric textures & deep melodic synths, FITH channel cinematic imagery, enigmatic narratives & spiritual frenzy.

Their self-titled debut 12' album was released via their collectively run imprint Wanda Portal in November 2016, a 'quietly alluring debut of post punk tempered avant-pop songs' (Boomkat) that laid out the project's foreboding mystique and intoxicating dream sequences with a lurking, devastating sense of purpose and (mis)direction. Other outings have included myriad solo collections of poetry, a two-track release of lurid dissonance and elegiac elevation (Signs / Cornerstone, December 2016) and an extraordinary reinterpretation of the soundtrack for cult film & iconic document of modern alienation Wanda (1971, dir. By Barbara Loden)

With Swamp, their sequel to this activity and their first appearance on Outer Reaches, FITH become a refined force, on a record where all their compelling pluralities and attributes are honed and augmented; everything dilated to delirium. The atmosphere here is one of veiled dread and psychic disturbance, a haunting and macabre psychedelia strewn with echo and dub FX, fragmentary fever dream poetics, elemental drum patterns and volatile synthetic interference. Although the collective conserve the raw crux of their earlier material their execution is, in this special instance, heightened by an intent to broaden and prolong their unique strain of intensity.

Emphatically sinister openers like Forest and Pound present sidereal sequences before building to barrelling, corrosively processed percussion, paroxysmal free jazz and a baleful, concrète-inflected score of electronics, while Swamp introduces phasing currents and a vocal evocative of a chorale from some forgotten giallo film. Elsewhere l'au delà (the beyond) presents a stunning, sombre passage to another state entirely, like some desolate new inflection on Coil's Going Up, before Bialystok shifts into a finale of transportive and meditative evaporation. Together these tracks make for an incredibly immersive and congruous conception; an utterly complete and mesmerising document.

In Swamp's various dimensions perhaps there's comparisons to be drawn with the ritualistic krautrock of Conny Plank and Holger Czukay's Les Vampyrettes, with the hallucinatory, tribal rhythm cycles of Shackleton & Anika's Behind The Glass collaboration, with the primeval drone of Jeremie Sauvage, Mathieu Tilly and Yann Gourdon's France project, with the echoic, disquieting chamber intimacies of Tuxedomoon's Pink Narcissus material and with Lucrecia Dalt's eerie free verse abstractions. But really, we've not heard anything like this before.

Discussing their own inspirations and touchstones the collective cites Franz Kafka, Dario Argento, Lucrecia Martel's La Ciénaga (The Swamp - the film the record is named after) and Yiddish ghost theatre as figures, works and artforms that were prominently drawn upon during the making of Swamp. Yet whilst their imprints could be traced by some, they resemble more of a covert presence within a nuanced whole rather than obvious aspects which moor this record to any familiar setting.

Instead, the acutely unsettling yet poignant spoken word of Miller and the mercurial nocturnes and visitations produced by Margetts, Lmx, Mathé and Da make for a record of strange, novel and striking energies. In revealing the remarkable location and period in which Swamp was recorded Margetts and Miller give a vivid indication as to how these energies are so potently invoked:

'The record was mostly recorded in a caretaker's wing of a 17th century castle in Normandy. It was early March 2018, and our first encounter with the Spring. We had no idea how everything would unfold. There was a lot of tension. Some of us felt compelled to get out the attic room where we had set up our makeshift recording studio and just walk and walk down the vast flat meadows and explore the relics of the wartime barracks, others wanted to keep recording. The outside was serene and inviting, and even though we had been cooped up indoors recording for long stretches of time, we could see from the corner of our eyes, the branches of the trees quivering; an impersonal energy blew through us and then things just happened.'

Repress available in early May.

Faitiche releases a new collaboration between the Japanese sound artist ASUNA and Jan Jelinek: the album Signals Bulletin brings together joint improvisations and compositions made over a period of three years in Berlin, Kyoto and Kanazawa. ASUNA’s meandering organ drones merge with Jelinek’s pulsating synthesizer and field recording loops to create dense superclusters that span broad harmonic arcs.

"Watching the Japanese sound artist ASUNA playing the organ, some people might be surprised. ASUNA is no virtuoso flying over the keyboard in a rage. Instead, with the calm gestures of an office worker, he cuts strips of adhesive tape to the correct length before sticking them onto the keys of his instrument. In this way, large clusters of keys are held down, creating a dense and sustained range of frequencies, while the sound artist continually prepares further sets of keys or removes tape again. I have rarely seen a more convincing performance concept, with such a power to fascinate.

I first met ASUNA when we both gave a concert at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, his home city. He performed the organ drones as described above and I immediately knew I wanted to collaborate with him. Six years and five meetings later, we completed Signals Bulletin. The album includes both joint improvisations and compositions, recorded in Berlin, Kanazawa and Kyoto.

Whether using prepared organ, Casio keyboards or mechanical plastic toys, ASUNA creates rich textures of sound that barely change over long stretches of time. It is a music without breaks. For a while, I was unsure how my loops made using modular synthesizers and live sampling fitted here – until I realized the role I had to take in this duet: I would provide the rhythmically pulsating foundation over which his dense continuums could unfold.

The result is harmonically drifting superclusters that put us into a meditation-like state. It can perhaps be compared to Automatic Writing – a mode of creative expression floating somewhere between concentration and distraction. Both the structure of our pieces and our approach to our instruments allow a similar “absence”: we let the machines play and repeat themselves – while we, in a mild form of trance, adopt the role of observers, intervening only occasionally.

It is no coincidence that ASUNA owns a collection of Doodle Art – drawings jotted down during conversations or while talking on the phone. It is said that works made like this point to the unconscious and reveal pet motifs – because a doodler always inadvertently returns to his or her favourite themes. The artwork for Signals Bulletin features pictures from the collection, in this case sheets of paper from the pads provided in stationery shops to test out pens. The special quality of such doodles is that the jumble of drawings is the work of a collective whose individual members do not know each other. Layer by layer is added, by someone different each time – until it becomes a dense cluster of lines and symbols ..."

Jan Jelinek, Berlin 2018

Until now Tape only New Age Dance masterpiece Visions reshaped including unearthed tracks from the archives produced in that time frame now for a long time overdue Vinyl release ! Young, the percussionist and marimba player in the seminal New York art-wave group, recorded a series of cassette-only releases in the '80s after Liquid Liquid disbanded. A couple of these were picked up at the time for Korean release, which is where Daehan Electronics, a South Korea-based label dedicated to tracing the history of electronic music in the land of the morning calm, comes in. After the market fail of the biorithmically-aligned New Age serie planned by the label Visions could never see life on Vinyl and felt forgotten due to the limited tape run released at first. DE has worked with Young to restore and remaster the original masters for this new release, bringing out the full warmth of the analog synthesizers used to create it. It is the third in a series of collaborations with Young, which will delve deeply into both the scarce cassette issues and other, unreleased material newly discovered on tapes. Liner notes outline the history of the record and include Young's own pathway

The meditative New Age album Sojourn reshaped including unearthed tracks from the archives produced in that time frame now for a long time overdue worldwide release ! Young, the percussionist and marimba player in the seminal New York art-wave group, recorded a series of cassette-only releases in the '80s after Liquid Liquid disbanded. A couple of these were picked up at the time for Korean release, which is where Daehan Electronics, a South Korea-based label dedicated to tracing the history of electronic music in the land of the morning calm, comes in. Sojourn was one of these albums, part of a biorithmically-aligned New Age serie, each one meant to be heard on specific days of the week. DE has worked with Young to restore and remaster the original masters for this new release, bringing out the full warmth of the analog synthesizers used to create it. It is the second in a series of collaborations with Young, which will delve deeply into both the scarce cassette issues and other, unreleased material newly discovered on tapes. Liner notes outline the history of the record and include Young's own pathway

An LP of tracks, taken from various cassette releases, by Belgian synthwave luminaries The Misz (Jan Van den Broeke and Dries Dekocker)! 600 copies on 180 grams vinyl.

The Misz formed in Gent in 1983 by Jan Van den Broeke and Dries Dekocker at a time when they had both just relocated from the country. They lived on the same street and collaborated freely with the limited equipment they had, which always centered around the Fostex 250 4-track tape recorder. They used an unknown monophonic synthesizer, casio synths, roland drum machines, hand drums and guitars through effects pedals, improvising with their voices and often and included friends for additional voices and sounds. They captured these sonic experiments and sometimes released them on cassette in editions of 100-200. They were also included on numerous cassette compilations throughout the 1980s on labels like Mad In Belgium, The Cassette Factory, 3RIO Tapes, Minimart production, Fraction Studio, Cauchy Productions, Home Product, R.R. products, ZNS Tapes, and Body Records. They described themselves as young, immature and bit strange yet totally bold and fearless. They sang about what surrounded them from world politics and environmental catastrophes to love and lust. The songs on The Lonely Crowd span from various cassette releases and have been remastered from their original reel to reel tapes.

Spread out over two 12"vinyls - this is the result from a two day recording session in Brussels by the duo of Beau Wanzer & Maoupa Mazzocchetti. 25 minutes of dance floor perversions that tackle an array of rhythmic forms. Sludgy synths, serrated percussion and viscous distortion goops over leviathan rhythms

Beau says, “We hooked everything up and just pushed play. We didn’t really discuss much about the process….it was very ‘spur of the moment’.” The equipment set up included a Roland TR-808, TR-606, SH-101, CR-78, CR-8000, two Syncussions and effects. Each EP contains 25 minutes of dance floor perversions that tackle an array of rhythmic forms. Sludgy synths, serrated percussion and viscous distortion goops over leviathan rhythms

nigo Kennedy & Samuli Kemppi present Catalogue Of Errors (Blacklabel Distillery, BLD002)

Inigo Kennedy and Samuli Kemppi combine their innovative powers as Catalog Of Errors to produce Blacklabel Distillery’s second release.
“404” leads the EP, and is a perfect example of what Catalog Of Errors’ sound is essentially about: Kennedy-esque melodies melt into Kemppi’s rhythmic patterns.
“Kernel Panic” on A2 is an undeniable dance floor banger with its EBM –influenced, straight-up cut.
Taking things to the next level, “Buffer Overflow” is a peak time guarantee with its broken rhythm, sinister melodies, and haunting soundscapes.
To complete the trip, “BSOD” explores the rather experimental territories with the raw, distorted low ends, yet soft and lush synth leads.

Schmer Schmer has been looking for the next Prototype 909 since 1995. While they may never be found, we have instead found a few artists that with the same spirit of adventure have taken electronic music to new frontiers of unimaginable creativity. Primary among them is Lena aka Galcid aka Lenacid.

Lena's electrifying live performances utilizing eurorack modular synths with vintage and modern machines follow three simple 3 rules:

NO PCs, NO Presets, NO Preparation!

She has been called Jeanne d'Arc of modular because her style her appearance and her fearlessness.

For Schmer, Lena has created an EP made for the melting of your mind, if it doesn't first melt your speakers.

Lena uses her electronics in the most effective way possible. The classic acid machines are deployed to establish the themes the modular synths bring in sounds that take these tracks to another level. The eponymous track will hypnotize you into the state of focus necessary to allow you to go deep inside. Then the Acid Police show up! A funky drum machine rocker sure wake you out of your trance. Steel Vein has the intensity to rewire your modular mind. bpmf provides an hard driving aggressive take on Melting to help us turn on the switch.
Legendary DJ and producer Hisashi Saito has been making acid and techno since the early 90s. Using his unique
skills this EP has a rare clarity of sound not often heard on such ambitious recordings. Lenacid “Melting EP” opens up a new frontier for acid, for Schmer and for Lena that you are invited to explore with us this spring.

As Galcid, she has played alongside world renowned artists such as Nina Kraviz, Daniel Miller, Oval, DJ Nobu, Isao Tomita, Takkyu Ishino, Ken Ishii, G-man (LFO) among others. In 2016, she was invited by the Japan Media Art Festival to play at the special exhibition, held at the Eyemyth Media Arts Festival in Mumbai, India. Her 1st album “Hertz" received a worldwide release in digital format on the Detroit Underground label. The release attracted the attention of Karl Hyde (Underworld), Chris Carter (Throbbing Gristle) among other well-known musicians the world over. Shortly thereafter, Galcid played at "Boiler Room Tokyo". In July 2017, she embarked on her first EU tour playing shows in Barcelona, London, and Madrid, after she came back, she participated in Iron Island Festival and Mutek Japan garnering high praise in the media. In December 2017, she was invited to headline Future Mix's 20th Anniversary event and workshop in Shenzhen where she performed and held a talk with techno pioneer Mijk Van Dijk.

Compared by many people to Boy Harsher, the duo formed by Ana Schmidt and Kevin Czarnik is the new sensation in the californian synthwave scene; their unique soundscapes, their mesmerizing voice treatments and their punchy analog rhythms promises only but great sensations on the obscure dance temples. 4 tracks that has been selected from their recently released ABSENCE album + a remix by Synths Versus Me will be featured on their very awaited vinyl debut. All tracks have been specially remastered for LONG CUT vinyl by Eric Van Wonterghem at Prodam Berlin.

When John Selway brought his dancing hands to the keyboard to begin work on his first full EP on Serotonin Records since ‘Zoids Vol 2’ in 1998, he channelled cosmic soul to create the next generation of intergalactic funk. His EP ‘Light Language’ surfs the solar winds to the space between breaks and electro where his musical adventures are free to explore the frontiers of dance. ‘Light Language’ permeates with the angelic voices of our true selves. The voice is the primary and complete musical instrument. When John was not yet born his mother sang to him in utero. A musical soul so innate it resonates celestial tonalities. All captured here on this twelve inch disk delivered by the galaxian voyager and pressed for human kind by Serotonin Records.



John Selway became an indispensable element of the history of the New York sound by virtue of building an extensive catalog of high quality releases spanning almost three decades and multiple genres of electronic music. From his first success in the techno world as part of the seminal New York duo Disintegrator to the most successful of his collaborations, Smith & Selway, and his deep and minimal techno label CSM; from the intelligent electro-funk of Synapse and Serotonin Records to his darker explorations as Semblance Factor, Selway has created one of the richest bodies of work in the world of electronic music.

Be With have raided the KPM archives to re-issue another of our favourites from the KPM 1000 series. They say: A comprehensive collection of descriptive contemporary scores. We say: Just look at the track titles of The Road Forward and swoon: Strangelands, A Man Alone, Sheer Elegance, Mystique Voyage, Cruising. Don’t you just want to hear those? The maestro Alan Hawkshaw really spoils us on this, one of the most sought after KPM greensleeves. This collection from 1977 is a brilliantly varied blend of silky smooth synths, funk-fuelled clavichord grooves and soft focus space beats. Essential. As with all of our KPM re-issues, the audio for The Road Forward comes from the original analogue tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis. We’ve taken the same care with the sleeves, handing the reproduction duties over to Richard Robinson, the current custodian of KPM’s brand identity. And don’t worry! Those KPM stickers aren’t stuck directly on the sleeves!

Italian electronic music mastermind ABYSSY and the Marseille underground hero DONARRA, share for the ALLEY VERSION's 4th release the split E.P. "CLOSE".

ABYSSY aka Mayo Soulomon has, over the years, released records of great interest for Mathematics, New Interplanetary Melodies and many other labels, marked by Detroit and Chicago influences reworked in his personal complex cut.
DONARRA comes to ALLEY VERSION after two beautiful E.P. for Skylax Records and La Chinerie, and recently spotted with its synth-dark-industrial-punk moniker Cardinal & Nun, on L.I.E.S.

The opening ABYSSY's "Close To Me", an obscure rough track totally jacked with the legendary rhythm sampler E-MU SP1200, is an instant cult.
In the following "Lower Michigan Ave", a hypnotic dark plot of analog synthesizers runs on a leftfield rhythm cut, while a whiny female voice condenses the air.

First track of DONARRA's side, "Nostalgie Futuriste", is a surreal sound voyage where are merged Chicago House and Zen atmospheres.
In the culminating Detroit style banger "Rivières Lumineuses", the trippy movements of percussions and synthetic melodies are pure magic.

Exclusively on limited 12" vinyl.

Almost four decades since it’s domestic release, Karen Marks’ 1981 single Cold Café has finally reaped it’s deserved international credit to become one of Australia’s most recognised minimal wave recordings. Efficient Space now showcases the Melbourne artist’s brief but entire discography, including two previously unheard demos, all produced with experimental synthesist Ash Wednesday (The Metronomes, Modern Jazz, Thealonian Music). A rarity in the then male dominated industry, Marks found her footing in music, first through rock journalism and then in band management. Formally of Adelaide, newly arrived synth-punks JAB (Johnny Crash, Ash Wednesday and Bodhan X) approached her for representation, subsequently contributing tracks to seminal 1978 snapshot Lethal Weapons and playing the Crystal Ballroom’s opening night. Wednesday and Crash would soon dissolve JAB, enlisting Mark Ferry and Sean Kelly to create Models. Still under Mark’s management, Models became one of the fastest rising new bands of the punk movement, playing to full houses of dedicated and frenzied fans everywhere. Sadly, internal frictions forced Wednesday and Marks to leave after two years, with Crash following three months later. Her creative relationship with Wednesday fortified with the co-production of his 1980 machine-pop prank Love By Numbers, her swooning chorus uplifting his deadpan count to 100, before the two collaborated on Marks’ own recording persona. Immortalised by the icy Oz wave of Cold Café, her Astor issued 7″ also boasted the caffeinated flip Won’t Wear It For Long - a should be hit with guitar from future Icehouse member Robert Kretschmer.

Matthew Puffett, also known as Future Beat Alliance, launches a series of EPs on his new ‘Reward System’ imprint. The new label will explore and dive deep into the mind of Matthew Puffett’s eclectic and unpredictable musical archives. Showcasing everything from lost and found DAT tapes from the FBA vault to brand new productions. Releasing his music on labels such as Delsin, Tresor, Eevo Lute and Rush Hour before now, here you will hear his recognizable style with warm synths, uplifting bass heavy grooves and dusty break beat rhythms once more. The six track ‘Reward System.1′ EP features all of this and more and is another exciting chapter in the Future Beat Alliance catalogue.

Marvellous synth rhythms are the key-player on ZEIT008, Roman Debnar’s Dark Matter EP.

Anadol is a psychedelic synth folk project by Gözen Atila, a Turkish sound artist and photographer based in Berlin. Her third album Uzun Havalar is based on collective improvisations of middle eastern folk songs called „uzun hava“. They turn out as rich, atmospheric synth ballads. A diverse roster of improvising musicians creates their fascinating complexity. Anadol recorded them during extensive sessions in Istanbul. You can hear drummers laughing and playing guitars, composers howling, announcements in French and screams in no language, record collectors playing oscillators, and trumpets through spacious echoes. Anadol represents Gözen Atila’s liberation from a rather academic approach to electronic composition which she pursued during her music technology studies in Istanbul. She calls her education the „darkness of serious music“ where she first tried to belong, then to break free with the help of lo-fi synth pop. As a producer of radio plays and an expert field recording artist she has developed a distinct sense of timing, editing and sound design. Her Anadol project walks in the footsteps of lone synth experimentalists like Bruce Haack and The Space Lady with their childlike curiosity for electronic sounds, pushing the boundaries of minimal equipment. On Uzun Havalar she translates her experimental background into these floating folk ballads. The album was originally released on tape via Kinship in 2018.

The new Outplay release is by young and upcoming dj/producer Cleanfield, or 'Jelle' as his mom calls him.
Hailing from Arnhem, the Netherlands, it's always great to see another talent pop up in the Dutch scene!
He has made three super catchy tracks for us, perfect for the summer season!

First up is the title track 'Haute Cuisine', warm bouncy bass topped with a super infectious lead melody and percussion. If there is a track more suited for the festival season it's this one for sure!
'Hot Wheels' races on with a deep rolling groove, fuelled by wah wah rhythm guitars, warm synth chords and arpeggios.
'Conflict With Clayton' brings another solid groove to the table with scattered vocal samples and multiple synth layers. Scorcher!

So imagine dancing your ass off to this EP in the sun and feeling fantastic, we sure are!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

HIEROGLYPHIC BEING has materialized with the limited & stamped "A SYNTHETIC LOVE LIFE VOL 1" created a decade ago to cassette & sonically presented to higher plane listeners. Volume 1 of 9 for MATHEMATICS PLUS.

Five years after his track 'Mr. Croissant Taker' appeared on Soulwax's Grand Theft Auto V radio station, Belgian producer Transistorcake releases his official debut release, the 'Future Plans' EP on Eskimo Recordings. Featuring 4 tracks of hazy electronica that would sit neatly alongside early releases on Aphex Twin's Rephlex label or recent excursions by the likes of Palmbomen and Betonkust.

Opening tracks 'Future Plan I' and 'Future Plan II' sets out Transistorcake's stall nicely. Swirling synth melodies, an ever evolving bassline that leads you down a labyrinthine maze and diaphanous strings and pads all add up to create an ecstatic yet at the same time melancholic quality to the music that manages to sound both ancient and modern.

"Future Plans I and II are constantly changing routes of ideas, improvisations and coincidences," explains Transistorcake, "nothing is a constant in the two numbers, outside the pulse of the drums. You can see them as two possible versions of the future or as an old version of the future alongside its current variation."

Whilst cut from the same cloth as the previous tracks 'Ribbles' has more than a touch of the Nordics to it. Sparkling, playful melodies glitter like snowflakes caught in the flash of a strobe light before a pulsing disco beat rockets the track into the stratosphere. In his own words the track is "an ode to spontaneity and dancing without braking. I pictured it being played by a live band next to a pool at an LA cocktail party in the '80s."

Closing the EP we have 'Kluts', driven by a stuttering, head-nodding, rhythm that recalls that rapping sound of a woodpecker in the forest, the track is gently swaddled in a warm embrace of synthetic stings that gradually develops and asserts its dominance over the course of nine, all-too brief as it happens, minutes. For all its gauzy textures there's also an undeniable solidity to these tracks, an underlying organic quality and nostalgic warmth that permeates them.

Having previously studied jazz composition and played in several bands over the years, Transistorcake brings a sense of spontaneity to the often all-to-structured world of electronic music. This EP just capturing a snapshot in time of these songs that can be endlessly reworked and reimagined in his live set, where live bass and drums, are added to his collection of vintage synths to an endless back and forth between man and machine.

Alex Jann returns to Censor for the label’s second excursion into the unknown with three direct communications and a mix of the title track from Rotterdam’s Animistic Beliefs.

The EP’s title track Computoid.Transmission.X is a pulsating drum workout laced with dystopian pads, laser-cut leads, anxious bass lines and an evocative mutant vocal from an A.I. system gaining consciousness.

Animistic Beliefs create a darker texture in their Electric Eye Mix of the title track, sending the vocal and lead sound straight through the stratosphere via complex bass and arp phrases that filter and stalk around the lead bringing a deeper and more contrasting A2.

Firewall Culture comes as an intoxicating trip on the B1 with off-world FX, feral acid lines and a spacetime-defying style of vocal that haunt Alex’s work.

Jupiter Storms on the B2 ascends the EP to a higher plane with deep washes created from evolving pads adding space and movement to the final track of the release, all accented with glacial micro drops, syncopated beats and tight trickling synth sections. The release was mastered by Keith Tenniswood at Curve Pusher.