Cerca:together

* "Of all the dubplates in my bag from this last few years, the ones I've selected most often have Walton's name scribbled on the sleeve. 'Black Lotus' is a unique creative statement; I'm very proud to release it on Tectonic and to support Walton, who I believe is a true talent." Pinch

* On July 6th Tectonic recordings presents the game-changing second album by 26 year old Mancunian Sam Walton, better known as simply Walton.
* 'Black Lotus' follows his inclusion on Tectonic's landmark 100th release - Riko Dan's 'Hard Food' EP, plus the 'Praying Mantis'/ 'Koto Riddim' 12' (also on Tectonic) and the 'Taiko' EP on Kaizen - the latter two of which hinted at the album's sound, but didn't fully prepare us for the brilliance to come.

* Abstract electronics, grime, dubstep and new styles that don't even have a name yet coalesce perfectly on this classic in the making. It finds Walton at peak power, reaching just as far (if not more so) than anything on the Pan, Different Circles, Boxed or Tectonic catalogues for pure futurism and new-terrain-traversing brilliance.

* Spacious and modern sounding, with just the right amount of grit, on 'Black Lotus' Walton has taken things the next level - setting an impressive new high bar. This is the best music to take inspiration from far eastern culture since Photek's seminal 'Ni - Ten - Ichi - Ryu' and 'The Water Margin'.

* Cinematic may be a term bandied about too often, but on this record it unquestionably applies, with the whole thing playing out like an epic movie, full of highs, lows, action, reflection and changing scenes.

* The album kicks off with 'Black Lotus', which makes it quickly evident that this isn't just another generic longplayer; a weightless/sino style intro segues into a mystical kalimba line, which is then is enveloped by huge waves of synthesized, pitched-down brass.

* 'Point Blank' offers locked, harsh mechanical funk, full of aggravated excitement, before sleek, spacious grime and disguised pop garage achieve twisted anthem status, on the hugely satisfying 'Koto Riddim'.

* 'No Mercy''s Yakuza crime riff is perfect for Riko Dan's threatening menace, especially at the point his voice gets distorted into a guttral and unsettling, demon-like wretch.

* 'Mad Zapper' is abstract, comprised of simple yet challenging beats, tones and stutters, whilst 'Angry Drummer''s taiko/kumi-daiko style percussion has a rousing, heavy thump.

* 'Pan' sounds equally enthralling whether soundtracking a dark movie scene of impending danger, or carying enratptured ravers on a danceflor journey, especially one suited to the synapse-prodding drama of a high production, lazer-heavy festival set.

* Choppy drums and bouncy bass tones are laced with the georgeos melody of 'Ehru', and 'Vectors' is sleek 'n' deep breakbeat-garage-meets-IDM.

* Although already known for elements of musicality, Walton raises his game even higher with the beautiful closing track 'White Lotus', which has a wow factor akin to hearing Aphex's Twin's 'Jynweythek Ylow' for the first time.

* 'The title came from the idea that I wanted it to be sweet and melodic in areas, but dark and grimey at the same time', recalls Walton. 'I never really listened to much Japanese and Chinese music before working on this, and that element originally came from listening to a lot of Sino grime stuff. It wasn't until I was deep into the process of making the album that I started listening to loads of traditional stuff on YouTube for melodic ideas, which changed how it turned out. The whole dubstep techno crossover thing was also a big influence.'
* 'I'm really happy to have Riko Dan & Wen on there', he adds. 'I've done a few remixes of Riko tunes which have had a great response, so it's been wicked to get some original material done together. The track with Wen was first started a while back, so I'm glad it was finally finished and will see a release.'
* Walton has been steadily gaining serious clout through releases since 2011 on Hyperdub, Keysound, Tectonic and Kaizen, with supporters including Mumdance, Logos, Slimzee, Laurel Halo, Wen, Hodge, Mary Anne Hobbs, Giles Peterson, Paleman, Teki Latex, Commodo, Loefah and Kode9. Key club, festival and radio shows include FWD at Plastic People, Fabric, Outlook, NTS, Rinse and BBC 1xtra.

The first of two wonderful new full lengths for Polytechnic Youth for the first week in July. This is a debut release on vinyl for Spanish based Jordi Navarra whose musical oeuvre stretches between 'Surf, Hippie / Space Rock and crude electronic music' often different yet coated in tons of reverb and echo for 'it's final catalepsy'! 'Micromundos,' needless to say for PY devotees, concentrates on his cruder electronic soundscapes; incredible often ambient, drone themed pieces that on one hand dip their toes into the revered works of Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius, and the sky back catalogue whilst equally conjuring up a collision of Spacemen 3 psych meets Wire, early Cabs or Magazine darker more atmospheric, post punk industrial / experimental workouts. Eight abstract, kosmische fuelled pieces that act as an interesting sister release to the label's other July offering, the more overtly 'in-yr-face' synth pop themed Mitra Mitra LP. Two beautiful releases expected to sell out pretty swiftly, and released together first week of July.

One man's vision of Soul music's evolving potential' ROLLING STONE

The Bamboos are one of the highest profile soul / funk acts in Australia, and have been recognised worldwide as masters of reinventing the genre with modern songwriting within classic arrangements & production over the past 10 years. They've clocked up some impressive Spotify hits numbers on along the way: " Wilhelm Scream" (3.5 M), 'On The Sly' (2.8 M), 'Helpless Blues' (1.8 M)"
Mainstay members Lance Ferguson and vocalist Kylie Auldist are also the creative forces behind one of 2016's biggest singles, 'This Girl' by Kungs Vs Cookin' On 3 Burners. Ferguson played on and co-wrote the song (incl that infectious guitar riff and lyrics) which along with Auldist's powerhouse vocals. The remix went on to hit #1 in France, Germany, #2 in the UK, top 20 in Australia and the US and top 30 in 35 countries. It's edging close to half a billion Spotify plays and 300 million Youtube hits.
Having previously collaborated with the likes of Aloe Blacc and Alice Russell, their latest offering 'Night Time People' see's the band call to mind everyone from Martha Reeves to Sharon Jones, The Bamboos deliver two catchy singles that draw together the raw drive of their earliest LPs and their more recent progressive experimentations in the studio. It's a fresh approach that finds the band wholly reenergised.

Jordan Magee brings together the best of Blighty and Berlin into a tightly-sprung package for Lisbon label Helena. The drive and determination of his new German hometown can always benefit from a little Northern swagger, and there's no shortage of it on 'Liberties' and 'Process'. Balance this with some late-night levity and early-morning nostalgia on 'Eksil' and 'Kilo Culture' and you've got yourself an all-rounder ready for any dancefloor.

Phil Gerus is a natural musical talent who oozes sound from every pore. Fusing together cassette pop, disco, soul, r&b and funk, his sounds are effortless but hugely emotive and have come out on labels like Sonar Kolkektiv, ManMakeMusic (George Fitzgerald's label), Futureboogie and True Romance. Growing up in Moscow, Phil studied classical piano and was heavily influenced by his parents' music tastes, including jazz records of Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, and Keith Jarrett, it is these classy vibes that permeate his own creations. Phil has played around the world at leading clubs like Japan's Dommune, Studio 80 (Amsterdam), Mojo Club (Hamburg) and various hotspots in Europe and Russia. Phil is also a regular guest on radio shows around the planet and is considered as an artist on the rise.

Betty Harris' The Lost Queen of New Orleans Soul collects together the steady stream of amazing soul and funk singles issued by Betty Harris from 1964 to 1969, under the musical guidance of legendary composer, musician and producer extraordinaire Allen Toussaint, a collection which truly captures the heart and soul of the city of New Orleans during this era.
Betty Harris's powerful, fiery soulful vocals found a perfect accompaniment with the New Orleans' players that Toussaint put together to back her, which by the time of her funk classic 'There's A Break In The Road' were the legendary super-tight, super-funk New Orleans group The Meters.
With the extraordinary song-writing skills of Allen Toussaint alongside the powerful, soaring, confident and emotive singer and the groove of The Meters, you have an unbeatable combination. That Harris never in fact lived in New Orleans (she flew in from Florida for all her sessions with Toussaint's local in-house players) seems almost an irrelevance, a geographical aside to the defining New Orleans sound captured on the recordings featured here.
All of these singles featured here were released on Allen Toussaint and his business partner Marshal Sehorn's local New Orleans label Sansu, widely distributed in the southern city but in only limited quantities elsewhere. As a consequence, Betty Harris' music failed to achieve the commercial success of other New Orleans artists such as Lee Dorsey (who she recorded with) and The Meters (who backed her). And so at the end of the decade she stopped recording, retired from the music business to raise her family in Florida.
This is no reflection of the stunning musical quality of all these songs which encompass everything from southern soul, heavy funk, deep soul ballads and northern soul. Betty Harris has been a cornerstone of Soul Jazz Records' New Orleans Funk and New Orleans Soul compilations. Always soulful and always funky, Betty Harris' music contains the essence of New Orleans music. She is the Lost Soul Queen of New Orleans.
This collection is released on CD, heavyweight gatefold double LP vinyl (+ download code) and digital and comes complete with full biography, original label artwork.

When Michaela Meise performed at WestGermany at Kottbusser Tor in Berlin-Kreuzberg on March 20, 2015, accompanying herself on the accordion, I was perplexed. I knew her first album from 2010, which was about hymns (»Preis dem Todesüberwinder«, originally released on Clouds Hill, available as a download and stream through my label from July 2018 on), but what she was playing weren't spiritual songs! I wanted to put this music out on my label: the songs sounded sad, aloof and wistful but also proud, determined and unerring.

The album title »I am Greek« is a tribute to Melina Mercouri's album »Je Suis Grecque!«, which was released in 1971 when Mercouri was deprived of citizenship by the Greek military junta. Mercouri lived - like Mikis Theodorakis and many other cultural workers - in exile. Meise's album is dedicated to the chanson scene of post-war Europe, whose songs were popularly folksy, but also political. Some talk about the experience of war, the Shoah and labor migration. Michaela Meise has translated the Greek, French and Romanian songs into German (with the help of Aliki Marini and Carmen Gheorghe) so that the lyrics are understandable to a German audience, a gesture that was also common in the European chanson scene. More than half of the songs are by Mikis Theodorakis. He knows the translations and new recordings, gave his blessing and just noted a wrong tone ... The other pieces on the album are by the French artists Barbara and George Moustaki and the German musician Alexandra. There is also a Romanian folk song.

The album was recorded by Michaela Meise together with members of the group Isolation Berlin as well as the guest singers Carmen Gheorge and Dirk von Lowtzow (Tocotronic). The producer was David Specht (Isolation Berlin).

Michaela Meise and me both have intimate relations with Greece - Michaela has innumerable holiday memories with parents and brother, I have a friend who lives in Athens and whom I have been visiting regularly for about ten years now. This friend, the graphic designer Vasilis Marmatakis, styled Meise's album using an impressive, scary photograph taken in May 1985 during the occupation of Polytechnio Athens. Together, we opted for an elaborate packaging made by a bookbinder, a so-called Japanese tip-on-gatefold cover. The packaging reminds us of the records that were made in Greece for export and taken by German tourists as a souvenir back home.

Parrish Smith makes his Dekmantel debut on the label's sister-techno imprint, UFO, with a blend of avant garde electronics and industrial.
.
With the 'Sex, Suicide & Speed Metal EP', Dutch producer Parrish Smith works outside of the realm of genres and tempos, creating his own unique template of saturated, electronic post-punk, having won accolades from the likes of Nina Kraviz, and Ron Morelli along the way. An analogue purist at heart, Parrish Smith has already amassed a cult following with regular appearances on Red Light Radio, in which the anarcho-experimentalist broadcasts sessions of heavy industrialism, breakbeats and body music.

Parrish Smith's music brings together classic analogue gear and a love for the fusion of aggressive industrial sounds. With title track 'Sex, Suicide & Speed Metal', Parrish Smith channels his inner Alan Vega, with some screaming guitars, and 65bpm machine-crunching body beats, lurching into a sultry space of slick wave music. 'Mute' jacks up the feeling of tempo, rife with energetic drum machines, pulsing synths and retro-fitted vocals, similar to the sound of something Daniel Miller might have released himself back in the early 80s. 'SKINS', delves further into the mechanical, with a grinding bass that bleeds through the track's entirety, while 'Fall into sin' sees him explore the world of deconstructed, gothic-pop yet further. Parrish Smith will be DJing, and performing live as Volition Immanent at this year's Dekmantel Festival, to fulfil the festival's charter of provocative, and intoxicating, energetic beat-filled music.

Tiago's wonderful INTERZONA13 deliver another duo of mesmerising, psychedelic club jams from STELLAR OM SOURCE
A message from Tiago...I met C ages ago when both of us were traveling Europe with our separate experimental music units.
Fast forward to today and we got together again to put out this amazing rocket showcasing her latest work.
Recorded at club Lux in Lisbon in a Interzona13 effort on putting together the city's finest to wrap it with much talent in music engineering, design and poetry in one single object.

The tenth release on Miles Sagnia's AER, marking the tenth year since the labels inception. This time round, a more hypnotic dancefloor sound encapsulates the artists mindset. With previous releases on Applied Rhythmic Technology (ART), Aesthetic Audio, Ornate Music, Common Dreams, amongst others. Together we glide into the pacier textures, where moments of intensity meet serenity......

HESITATION is the culmination of a slow-burning penpal friendship between Reckno founder Chris Catlin (aka Yaaard), and Kit Records honcho Richard Greenan (sometimes Devon Loch). Meeting in London in 2016, the pair recorded a woozy slab of improvs, using a battered organ, guitars, a saxophone and whatever else came to hand. These takes were then stitched together into a seven track LP over the following two years.

Veering from shoegaze to crystal clear electronics and fuzzed out jazz, the results pull two ways: slow and fast, meditative and exuberant. Here is a place where time bends and bubbles, drunk synthetic choirs follow an endless skywards pulse, and plaited melodies hover in warm air like motes of dust.

Recommended if you like the heart-on-sleeve whistle alongs of Tenniscoats, Zappa's foggier guitar serpents or the creeping black magic of early Sebadoh. HESITATION is a joint release between Kit Records, Reckno and videogamemusic.

As naturally as X-Altera came to be, the music itself is a unique refraction of styles and bold, contradictory approaches. But it all blends together uncannily well—maybe because of the decades of production experience that went into it, or the holistic mindset Mullinix took from the beginning. The name itself reflects as much. "X-Altera references two things. It comes from Latin—ex altera—which means 'from or of the other side.' Which could be a metaphysical thing, or you could say it's jungle ethics brought into the techno world. And I spelled it this way as a reference to X-101 and X-102, the Underground Resistance project of Je- Mills, Mike Banks, and Robert Hood." Detroit meets London, deep techno meets drum & bass, old meets new—X-Altera unites these threads in order to take them in unknown directions.A fresh debut from one of the most vital electronic producers of the last 20 years, Tadd Mullinix (Dabrye, JTC, Charles Manier), who looks to the past of techno and jungle to find a new ways forward.

LOYOTO are the East-Berlin born Eva Be and Cle from the western part of the formerly dived city. Both started their DJ and producer career almost at the same time in the heart of the then developing scene, the very center of Berlin, just after the wall came down. Originally rooted in very different styles of music, they encountered for the first time DJing together in 2011, finding common ground in more than just music - a gig, that should lead to more: They decided to combine their talents and knowledge and build a studio together. Here, and during legendary back2back DJ sets, they finally united their different musical backgrounds - dub/reggae and underground house music - and defined their very own sound.

After three major releases by Tell, Nachtbraker and S3A, its time for debuting Italian artist Verner to close our beloved Trophy Quartet. This Milanese key virtuoso is ready to blow your mind with this eccentric yet humble ep, taking you on an emotional journey. Long stretched pads, playful chord progressions, organic percussion all produced with analogue 70's and 80's vintage synthesizers and drum computers in Verner's studio reminding us a bit of Harvey Sutherland and Nu Guinea's style. We're talking groove, funk, jazz but also house and soundtrack style compositions which together form a very complete record carefully A&R'd by Nachtbraker.

Drop the needle on the A side and you'll start off with L'inizio, a majestic piece of synthwork. Hurdling through different emotions and vibes, this could easily be the intro of one of your favourite 80's tv series. Upset takes you on a happy groovy tour whilst Crash of the Web Era and The Motion Pictures take us on a trippy and ambient voyage that is hard to wake up from. When flipping the record to the B side, Verner is stepping back into the groove and funk with Tecladista, arguably the dance floor hit of this debut EP. Starting of with again a majestic synth intro Area drops into a festive funk and jazz bomb with some intricate synth work treating us with some lovely solos. Closing this versatile EP is Late Night Job, a deep, deep tune with a thriving baseline and mesmerizing synths.

We suggest to don't sleep on this one and have a listen to this piece of art by the very talented Verner.

We present you the third release in our very successful collaboration series with "Roar Groove" and "The Revenge'.
Straight after his new brilliant album "When the Thrill Comes" that was release in May this year Graeme Clark is back
on Dirt Crew with four new gems.

The opening, funky and twisting, "Times Get Tough" is a deep rolling down tempo Disco/ House stomper that builds into this
ecstatic groove we got to love so much from his previous outings. Pure good times and hands in the air action promised on this one!
"Subconcious" is that darker and meaner side of House track with a slammin' Chicago beat he delivers this old school jackin' feel.
Big bass lines and soulful vocal samples tied together by "on the fly" drum patterns.

The B-side of this new EP opens with an hypnotic jam that builds and builds till those sweet synths start soaring in.
All carried by this ultra phat bass line, we can only imagine how this one will sound on a massive sound system!
"Searchlight" is def a highlight of this release. Can we go even deeper and darker oh yes! With "Come Down" we get
a proper come down to close this EP. Deep sub basses with floating tops and again that classic Jack House beat.
Certainly a late night track made for those sweaty and long dj sets.

Summer is here and "The Revenge" has the perfect soundtrack for hot and steamy nights, inside or on the open field!

2025 Repress

After a wildly successful collaboration on Thatmanmonkz's 'Turn It Out' from the LP, Columbus-ing, Dave Aju suggested they should continue their production streak for a new percussive tracks project. At the same time, Aju had finally kept his word to legendary Bay Area club/underground MC and personality, Foxxee aka Foxxee Brown aka Lawrence Petty, to work on a track together as well. Petty being a core part of the infamous Ya Mama's House radio show on 106 KMEL alongside Pete Avila and David Harness that introduced legions of young Bay Area DJs to real House Music, includ-ing Aju, in the early 90s. While Aju & Monkz had originally been working on more of a slick club romance narrative angle over some robust tumbling drums, some very tragic news had struck their hometown - at an under-ground event in Oakland California, more than 30 people including many dear friends and stalwarts of the local dance music community had been trapped inside a building and killed in a fire that broke out while doing what they love, in the now-infamous Ghost Ship. Lawrence and Aju immediately acknowledged and agreed that the track should serve as a tribute to the event and the loved ones affected by it. But decidedly, rather than it being a solemn requiem of sorts, it should reflect the communal power, strength and uplifting spirit of the underground scene they all helped build and knew so well. At first entitled They Sleep We Live, a representative reference to the iconic arm tattoo of the late Jonny Igaz aka Nacht, one of the more well-known and active DJs whose life was lost that tragic evening, and a lyrical direction idea for Lawrence for a direct tribute to the SF Bay Area scene,

Official Mr Bongo reissue of the ultra-rare album by 'Super Elcados'. A fusion of heavyweight Nigerian funk, soul & disco, originally released by EMI Nigeria in 1976. The 'Super Elcados' (and 'Elcados' on other recordings) recorded three albums in the mid and late-70's, this is their first. It was followed by 'This World Is Full Of Injustice' and 'What Ever You Need'. Licensed from Geoffrey Johnson (Elcados), courtesy of PMG, with special thanks to Dave Hill for his help.

In 1982, a group of friends deep into post-punk, jazz and dub got together in Mad Professor's studio and lay down their youthful interpretation of a NYC disco cut. Their unique take included trombone, vibraphone, piano, and an ital dose of tape delay. They called the song Trouble and released two versions (vocal and dub) on their friend Tony McDermott's !Drum! label with artwork inspired by Russian Constructivism. TIP!
.
The group, comprised of Justin Langlands, Chrysta Jones, John Schofield, Tom Dixon, and Dave Killen, decided to call themselves A-Team, having no idea that Mr.T and Co. would make them almost totally ungoogle-able 30 years later. The result of their adolescent studio idealism sounds akin to otherdisco misfits like Arthur Russell, Maximum Joy, Talking Drums and wouldn't sound out of place on legendary NYC label 99 Records. Remastered with an extended Club Dub formaximum dance-floor action.

Word Of Advice To Funk Lovers, There Is Not A Minute To Lose. Get On Board Of The Big Hustle's Spaceship. Before We Take Off, Let's Do A Little History. The Band Was Founded In 2014 By Bass Player And Composer Sébastien Levanneur And Its Aim Is To Bring Together 70's Old School Funk With The Hippest Actual Sound Laced With Influences Spanning From Steely Dan And Headhunters, To Snarky Puppy And Soulive. With Mighty Horn Players, A Rock And Funky Rhythm Section, The Big Hustle's Music Has A Very Large Variety Of Soundscapes.

The First Destination Takes Us To The Washington, D.c. Area With turn Up'. The Groove Is Clearly Go-go Music Flavored With The Trademark Sound Of Cowbells And Of Course It Reminds Us Of Zapp By The Use Of The Talk Box On Lead Vocals, Performed Here By Saad El Garrab. And Don't Miss Out Shaun Martin (snarky Puppy, Erykah Badu, Kirk Franklin Amongst Others) As A Very Special Guest Performing The Talk Box Solo! Second Stop Is a Curse, A Blessing'. It's An Instrumental Very Much In The Freddie Hubbard Vein During His Cti Years. The Last Leg Of The A Side Ends With An Instrumental Interlude Titled flying Donut'. Double Tribute To Jay Dee And Flying Lotus, The Music Is A Simple Hip Hop Loop Based On Samples.

The B Side Takes Us Back Into The Past With Two Brilliant Covers, Involving Rod Temperton The Late Great British Songwriter Who Scored Some Of Michael Jackson's Biggest Hits. Now The Idea For This B Side Is To Do The Opposite Approach From The A Side. Taking 70's And 80's Original Music And Make Them Travel Into Time To 2018. We First Land With A Heatwave Song Named the Star Of A Story' From Their 1976 Central Heating Album. Track 2 Is A Herbie Hancock Song Named gettin' To The Good Part' From His 1982 Lite Me Up Lp. This Time Traveler Ep Journey Ends With An Interlude. Called gimme Dat', The Song Deals With The Need Of New Music, New Sound.

Again, This Blend Of Deep Rooted Funk Laced With A Contemporary Edge Is To Be Consumed Without Moderation. And Do Not Forget That E.p. Also Stands For Extended Pleasure.

Smoove & Turrell's second single outing from their album 'Mount Pleasant' is a double helping of up-tempo dancers for those that like to shake it...

Never one's to stop experimenting and pushing their musical boundaries, this single is a perfect example of exactly that, featuring two tracks with massively contrasting styles but with a quality of song writing and production that these guys have got down to a fine art in their years together.

'I Feel Alive' is a tasty electro disco cut inspired by a hedonistic night in Paris. It's the perfect blend of Smoove's trademark groovy productions with Turrell's sweet tones and honest relatable lyricism. Keys man - Mike Porter gets a chance to engage the arpeggiator function on his synth collection as he and the rest of the band create a host of spacey sounds to form the backdrop of this catchy number.

On the B side is 'Mr Hyde' - a beast of a track that opens with energetic live drums and a memorable guitar riff that form the backbone of a rocking tune that sees John Turrell manically singing through a distortion effect delivering the lines "I'm Jekyll and baby you need to hide" in a suitably menacing style...

Fusing garage rock, psyche, northern soul and pop sensibilities it's a Frankenstein's monster of a track that works on multiple levels with the lyrical subject matter.

Dilated Pupils is a collective group of likeminded friends home-based in the Netherlands. When forces are joined in one of their many studios each individual brings his own influences and styles to the table. Together they share a distinct flavor in productions and raw one-take jam sessions created with the use of analogue machines and often recorded on tape. Each of them have their own solo productions as well as other collaborations, but when united as Dilated Pupils they prefer to be known jointly as one entity with their own unique and distinguished sound. Since 2014 the group has developed an interesting and widespread discography with releases on labels such as Fear of Flying, Sol Asylum, Mode of Expression, Tabla, Music is Art, Dorcas, Make Sense and Mayak.

As a Dutch label, we're proud supporters of the homegrown sounds of guys like Nachtbraker, Frits Wentink and Fouk. Adding another Dutchie to our list of exquisite producers, we present you 'Pitto' with his debut on Heist Recordings. Pitto is a musically omnipotent creature, venturing into deep house with the underground hit 'Richklap' on Wolfskuil back in 2012 and dreamy electronic pop with his album 'Breaking up the Static' on Sonar Kollektiv and Virgin. He has also moved beyond producing his own music, running 'Studio Stekker'; a Dutch music festival that focused on freeform creative interactions between musicians where the artists performing on the festival locked themselves up a week in advance in Kytopia (Colin Benders' synth paradise) to make new music together. Through this, he's worked with people like Kyteman, Matthew Johnson, Sebastian Mullaert and Colin de la Plante, better known as 'The Mole', who is also present on Pitto's Heist debut with a remix.

The 'Late night studio moves' ep is one of varied styles, where Pitto's inspiration from African music, jazzy and soulful samples becomes evident. He finds his 'funk' in repetition, clever sample combinations and combining electronic and live elements in the most organic way.

'Late night studio moves' finds its basic groove in an African percussive loop. Over the 9:26 minutes, the track slowly adds elements, chopped African chants and piercing synth hits. It's all really dreamy and energetic at the same time, but it is when the bass and main keys kick in, that you really feel the euphoric vibe of the track. The Mole chose to remix this track and he turned it completely upside down, both in vibe and tempo. His version is an atmospheric and mesmerizing downtempo track, where the percussion works in an intoxicating way and bells, birds and chants move in and out of the spotlight.
Pitto's second original track on the ep is the mesmerizing 'Treat me like a fool'. 16th hi-hats, claps on the hats, and a chopped piano loop set the mood here, but it's the vocal that steals the show. A mantra like 'You love me' builds up and breaks down into 'you love me like an angel, but you treat me like a fool'. Each time, the track builds and builds, never quite giving in to a massive drop, but instead, focuses on the stripped back soul that is the heart of the track.

'Jazz kids' evolves around a jazzy bass loop and a set of quirky African percussive elements that you could imagine Henrik Schwarz making if he were in a more leftfield mood. A syncopated synth melody filters in and out throughout the track and a basic kick and hi-hat combo keeps the energy going strong on this on.

We're proud to bring you this deep, dreamy and provocative EP by Pitto and hope you'll enjoy it as much as we do.

In the studio Prototype 909 was a group that rarely agreed on a clear idea of exactly what they were trying to accomplish. The entire project was an experiment, and every time they hit record there was nothing better for them to do than to just try stuff.

Whenever it came time to put together an album they would go through what they had recently done and nd the tracks that seemed to fit together well, or that at least sounded like they were made by the same group. That left on the cutting room foor some really amazing worst that somehow just didn't 'fit" their goals at the time. At Schmer, we remember. P-909 leftovers have Schmer written all over them...

These four tracks were all recorded live in the studio in between their three studio albums 93-97. Brenecki ( half of Ontal ) provided his remix inspired by one of them.

"Hyperdrive" and "Datafash" were recorded shortly after Acid Technology was released in 93. They come from the "lets make Acid Technology Vol 2 approach'. That would have made a really cool record had they done it but they decided on making Transistor Rhythm instead. "ANOISE-NYC" aka "The Tracs that Dietrich Hates" is what you get when you let Jason go nuts on a Doepfer MAQ-16
( they never made that mistake again ). "Bobo" is possibly the most prototypical P-909 tracks ever: it took three guys making their own tracks simultaneously almost ignoring what the others

were doing but somehow mixing them into a flow to make this one, but it all comes together nicely in the end. Its amazing that they never released it before.

You've enjoyed the wait, now enjoy your "new" Prototype 909 while it still is new!

Elektroliza is a series of club events formed by a group of dedicated electronic music enthusiasts in 2006. It is hosted by Ljubljana's Channel Zero, a legendary club that is part of the autonomous social centre Metelkova which used to be the Slovenian headquarters of the Yugoslav National Army.Filling a void in Slovenia's electronic dance scene, the night was a hit from the start and quickly grew into a diverse and successful series focusing on new and exciting electro, acid and dark techno.Elektroliza hosted many memorable DJ and live acts by performers/producers/pioneers coming out of international music incubators in Gothenburg, The Hague, Berlin and as far as Detroit. Even more importantly, it brought together producers and crews from the former Yugoslav republics of Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia. Inside the former Yugoslavian military barracks DJs and producers from Skopje to Ljubljana began bonding again through music, forming new friendships, starting new collaborations and dancing the night away... in 'Electro City Ljubljana'.This first double vinyl compilation of the Balkan Elektroliza family is a collection of our shared memories and visions of the future to come.

Chapter four in the line of vinyl releases on Cue Line Records is also the beginning of something new. 'Elements Part 1' is the first piece in the Various Artists series on the label called 'Elements'. Driven by an urge to explore how elements can form something greater together, and the other way around, how anything can be broken into its elements, every single track on the V/A is by multiple artists. 100% collaborative content. RDG x Cessman, Gaze ill x 3WA, Binary x Zygos, Murk x Shiva ft. Rob. Nine minds, four tracks, one piece.

This 3 Track Ep From The Legendary Lee Perry Brings Together New And Unreleased Tracks Recorded At Mad Professor's Ariwa Studio In South London. The Ep Kicks Of With 'this Is The Upsetter', Which Sees Lee Chanting And Philosophising Over A Rollicking Bass, Underpinned By Understated Guitar And Perfectly Placed Hats, And Continues To The Straight Up Dub, 'lion Share Dub'. And On The Flipside Is The Title Track, 'game Of The Throne', With Brass Section And Backing Vocals Belting Out Soul Fire, With Lee Offering His Words To Selassie. Mastered By The Legendary Noel Summerville, Artwork By Henry Dubroot Alderson And G.s-l Studio.

WHITE RING mark a triumphant return with a brand new full-length Gate Of Grief, due out on Rocket Girl on 22 June 2018. Their debut album arrives a full eight years since their benchmark EP, Black Earth That Made Me, which sold out almost instantly, making their records some of the most highly sought after on the underground scene and earning them a cult following across the globe. Swerving from aggressively abrasive to beautifully ethereal, musically they draw from varied and challenging palette, whilst tackling themes of loss and acceptance due to struggles with drug addiction and existential dread on a broader scope.

WHITE RING were originally formed by Bryan Kurkimilis and Kendra Malia, before they were joined by Adina Viarengo, with Bryan and Adina currently touring as a duo. One of the most acclaimed proponents of the "Witch House" movement, WHITE RING blend heavy, distorted electronics with eerie, unsettling vocals. However, their new material, created over the course of seven years, pushes the boundaries further, subverting genre ideas and mashing them all together, with industrial, metal, rave, chopped and screwed, rap, grunge, neo folk, post punk and new wave all in the mix. As Bryan Kurkimilis explains; 'We treat our influences like tools to create a certain feeling. We are interested in covering more ground than sticking to a certain formula.'
Bryan and Kendra originally met on Myspace in 2006. At the time Bryan lived in New Orleans and Kendra was in New York, and they didn't even meet face-to-face until 2008 after they had already released a few singles. In 2010 they released the EP Black Earth That Made Me, which was a collection of songs that they mostly recorded before they met in person. The record confounded expectations by selling out immediately on pre-order, making it very rare and highly sought after, with copies going on Ebay for large sums. It was reissued by Rocket Girl in 2011 and still continues to sell in voluminous amounts.

They started playing live in 2009 and rapidly grew a reputation for their captivating performances, usually bringing their own lighting equipment and putting on a spectacular laser show. They have played for large crowds in their hometown of NYC and toured the UK in 2010 in support of their sold out split 7" with oOoOO, playing InTheCity and SWN festivals - which were their first shows outside of New York. They have since shared the stage with the likes of Cold Cave, araabMUZIK, Liturgy, Blank Dogs, Gatekeeper, Blondes, oOoOO, Clams Casino, and others.  
They started recording Gate Of Grief in 2010, with the hope of exploring new musical territory, however they took a while to find their path. Bryan and Kendra had some tough personal battles to fight, a sense that pervades the whole album. Thematically it delves in to some pretty dark places whilst exploring the concept of time and what it does to people, relationships and society. As Bryan explains; 'There is a lot of tragedy in this album but there is also hope at the end of it.'
By 2016 pressure was building to finish recording, however due to Kendra's ill health, they needed to bring in someone new to assist with vocals. Fortunately they found Adina Viarengo, who had played in various bands and gave them the impetus needed to complete the album. Shortly after meeting in Brooklyn, Bryan and Adina moved to Joshua Tree, California to finish recording the album, before settling in Massachusetts. Her vocal style fitted in seamlessly with what Kendra had been doing, and although she sang on half the songs, it's almost impossible to tell who is singing on which track, thus making her the perfect addition to the band.
Gate of Grief can be considered the second part of Black Earth That Made Me, or rather, they are the first two chapters in an overarching trilogy about evolution. As Bryan explains; 'First you are born but then you realize what you are and what is against you and it's a flood of emotion that you can only hope to hold on for and let it pass.'
The album title, Gate of Grief, refers to the real gate between Africa and Saudi Arabia that is believed to be the spot where the first humans migrated out of Africa and went on to populate the rest of the world. The album art ties in with this concept, with an image depicting a group of settlers in the USA in early 1900 during a parade. They were actually from a cult in the early 1900s in Bryan's hometown of Fort Myers, Florida.













M 13) Burn It Down

Who Do You Go To For Your Very First Session When You Have Just Been Gifted Your Very Own Top-flight 'stradivarius Of Synth Based Studios' Enter 'the Grid' ...mr David Ball: One Man Band Of Pioneering Electro-pop Distorters Soft Cell, Part Time Psychic Tv Personality, Film Soundtrack Composer And All Round Synth Afficionado & Richard Norris: Eclectic Beat-meister & Ambient Dj, Record Producer, Commited Psychedelicist From 'beyond The Wizard's Sleeve'. The 1990's Saw Worldwide Commercial Success As The Grid Scored 10 Uk Chart Hits, Many A Euro Hit Including 1994's International Mega-hit 'swamp Thing' Featuring A Twisted Use Of Sampled Banjos Lifted From The 1970's Okie Shocker Movie 'providence. In 1996 The Grid Went On A Holiday And They Didn't Return Till 2005. In The Initial Week Of The Moog Sound-lab In Early 2015 As The Studio Was Literally Put Together Around Them, Our Abiding Memory Was Their Absolutely Delighted Grins As Each Moog Unit Was Added To The Lab. Dave & Richard Created This Benchmark Album Of Deluxe 'tronic Trax That Showcased Their Prarie Wide Knowledge Of Electronica & Their Ocean Deep Skills As Both Technicians & Original Soundscapers - Kraftwerk-ian Werk-outs, Space Noise Jams, And Slinky Grooves With Subtle Pop-tones.

* With a number of high profile releases already behind him for labels including the legendary XL Recordings and Dusky's 17 Steps imprint, Hugo Massien has carved a sound for himself that sees him bring together elements from house, techno, dubstep and hardcore, all combining force to produce this killer 4-track EP, running at the techno-friendly tempos of around 128bpm.

* 'Advanced Aerial Threat' kicks things off with a fractured half-step rhythm that gives more than a nod to his formative years as a fan of the early UK dubstep movement. Stark, deadly and meticulously constructed, the rhythm taps a pace as wild bass stabs rip across a theatre of sound.

* Next up is the delightful melancholy of 'Ursa Minor' which takes a rolling breakbeat as its backbone before a Reese-like bassline emerges from beneath, rising and empowering. An intimate piano line comes in, providing an introspective element, balancing the otherwise rave-savvy ingredients in place.

* 'Candy Flip' takes things into a more electro direction, providing a reliable work out for the dance floor as the tightly tuned drums and bass hold down the spooky synth stabs.

* Last up, closing the EP is 'Divisions From The Start' where once again we see Hugo's intuitive sense of soundscape grandure, creating a kaleidoscope of moods all strung together with precision drum programming and heavyweight sub work.

* DJ Support from: Shed, Loefah, Pinch & many more.

After their Butterfunk EP from last year, Fouk are back again with their new offering 'Mating Call EP'.
As the name suggests, this three track EP is made for the hot & heavy moments while dancing away, during those infinite summer days. The title track 'Mating Call' is a funky beast, driven by a very infectious bassline and live instrumentation, edging the line between disco and house, as has we have come to expect from the duo. The next track on the flip furthers the fact that this release is all about the groove. Housey vibes with a classic hint, Rhodes floating on a solid rolling funk bass. 'Just Feel Good' Yup! Finally we come to 'Down Below'.
You might wonder "what's down below". Well, there you can find a dreamy thumper, driven by the compact kick, repeating drone and deep bassline, while the synth pads in the middle tie it all together.

The sun does not move. The sun has never seen a shadow. - Leonardo da Vinci
Paul and Alessio of Possible Futures believe that some essential fractions in the history of music need to be transmitted in new ways to budding generations. As we seek to bring together a new educational system around contemporary music, we urge anyone with homologous intentions to get in touch.
Over the last 15 years, Possible Futures have been witnesses to the wildest fauna and flora the great nocturnal jungle has to o er.
Possible Futures source their inspiration from the many shades of color that co-exist between black and white on the great designer's palette.
It is through their open and eclectic selections that Possible Futures turn the dancefloor into spaces of self-discovery and musical trance-en-dance.
Possible Futures believe that the eternal act of dancing is one of the most active form of contemplation. Facing our own selves in the mirror of movement, we realize that we indeed are reflections of one another at all times. Compassion forms and in turns gives way to kindness and love.
For this third record, Argentinean expert producer Leonel returns with two long pieces of poetry. Releasing on June 15th, this third edition in the Possible Futures catalog bridge spring into summer in a most gracious manner.
We Cherish Harmony, PF

'Middle of the Road Less Travelled' is not only the debut release by Michal Turtle on Light of Other Days, it is also his first new material released since the amazing reissues put out by Music From Memory in recent years. The three tracks on this EP were written and produced by Michal in 2017 with additional production and guitar playing by Light of Other Days' very own HOVE.

The two met back in 2016 when HOVE contacted Michal after he heard the 12' «Are you Psychic» and was blown away. As it turned out Michal was living in Basel which is only a short train ride away by train from the Light of Other Days home base in Zurich. The two started meeting and playing music together. Soon after, they put together a live-show for Michal's music which had its debut show at Phono Festival in Denmark in 2017. During this time, they started working on new music together as well. The result is this EP.

The music on 'Middle of the Road Less Travelled' is a continuation of Michal's musical exploration into other-worldly territory. Michal is a master in building hypnotic textures from repetitive rhythms that collide with trippy and atmospheric synthesizers. The delayed and dubby guitar lines by HOVE were recorded during rehearsal sessions in Michal's living room in Basel and the last track of the EP 'Agallo (Real)' ends with vocals performed by Lucianne Lassalle. Besides playing in local bands with Michal back in the 80s, Lucianne also performed and co- wrote early Michal Turtle tracks like 'Phantoms of Dreamland' or 'Village Voice' from his first record 'Music from the Living Room'.

Fresh off the back of the languorous poolside disco and tropical pop of their debut album 'Shapes On Shapes' released last November, LA based duo Wild & Free return with a collection of essential remixes from label mates and influences alike by revisiting the heady disco of recent single 'Ferns and Stuff'.
Both multi-instrumentalists, singers and producers in their own right, Wild & Free duo Drew Kramer and George Cochrane came together in 2015 and have spent the past 2 years crafting a series of acclaimed EPs and remixes (for the likes of Joe Goddard (Hot Chip), Panama, Gigamesh, RAC and Ben Browning of Cut/Copy) that saw them tipped by the likes of Spin, XLR8R, Indie Shuffle, Clash Magazine, Data Transmission and many more and take their live show on the road playing alongside the likes of Brooklyn's Body Language.After releasing a few solid ep's and two full lengths album's Xinobi has gained real recognition among established and well-known artists and opinion-makers, and his underground cult has amplified. What has followed is remixes, edits and reworks for artists such as Sbtrkt, The Avener, John Grant, Toro Y Moi, Nicolas Jaar, Agnes Obel, Kris Menace and Tensnake.Along with Moullinex and Mr. Mitsuhirato he gave birth to the still-growing-influent Discotexas who here lend their label mates their expert musical arrangement skills with 'Discotexas Club Mix' thrown in for good measure. And it doesn't stop there, with legendary New Yorker Justin Strauss, who has produced and mixed records and remixes for the likes of LCD Soundsystem, Beyonce, La Roux and Goldfrapp contributing a 'Whatever/Whatever' mix as part of the slick and hugely influential production duo he formed with Bryan Mette.
Already noticed for his remixes and array of collaborators and with several releases under his belt (including a track on the 'Bonjour Colette' compilation), Tokyo-based Yuki Abe AKA producer/DJ Boys Get Hurt gets his inspiration from the melancholic feelings the end of summer inevitably brings about, a personal and evocative sensibility in tune with the land of the rising sun's delicate culture. Yuki expertly crafts bouncy disco-house music with sprinklings of electronica, indie, ambient, hip-hop and R&B. Here he adds a mix with a loose and joyful feel that fits the sentiments of what Wild and Free represent perfectly.

For A Long Time, Electronic Music Has Been Understood In Terms Of Sounds Rooted In Particular Places: The Styles Of House And Techno Inextricably Wedded To Detroit, Or The Early '90s Jungle Sound Which Carries Echoes Of London. But That's Something Which Is Changing - In Latin America More Than Anywhere Else. A New Project, Led By Gilles Peterson And Rum Maker Havana Club (that Created The Havana Cultura Platform In 2007 To Promote The Island's Contemporary Culture), Shines A Light On Cuba's Fast-mutating, Rhythmically-adventurous Underground. It's A Scene Where Old Ideas Are Transplanted Into New Contexts, And Like-minded Scenes Are Brought Together In New Dialogues.

Havana Cultura: ¡su´belo, Cuba! Showcases An Extended Network Of Like-minded, Forward-thinking Musicians Driving Cuba's Music Forward. Following Repeated Trips To Connect With Venues, Collectives And Djs, Peterson And Will Lv - One Half Of Lv, Who've Released On Hyperdub And Keysound Amongst Others - Linked Up With Dj Jigu¨e, A Much-respected Producer And Dj, Whose Guampara Label Has Charted New Directions For Cuban Music. He's Been Profiled By The Fader And Vice, And The Album Features His Extended Network Of Collaborators, Connecting Afro-cuban Traditions With Contemporary Movements And Ideas.

The Album Provides A Snapshot Of A Unique Club Culture That's Fast Evolving. On The One Hand, It's Indebted To Cuba's Unique Characteristics, Where Regularly-practised Traditions Are Coloured By Intermittently-experienced Cultures From Outside. On The Other, It's Part Of A Global Shift Toward De-centred Club Music, With Homegrown, Influence-grabbing Dance Cultures Tilting Attention From Club Culture's Traditional Epicentres. It Offers A New Side To Havana That's Firmly Rooted In Its Past.

The world has barely recovered from the previous sting of the Scorpio Man, when he lands in another dose. "Cold Turkey Time" from Ernie Hawks' debut album gets a single treatment here arriving back to back with the 45 only track "Tracking Down". The latter should make the b-boys move even if heard in the relaxing steams of a Turkish bath, where its breezy melodies eventually point at.

"Cold Turkey Time" is a serious slab of jazzy funk that shares many of the exotica qualities of its partnering side. It might sound nice, while driving a fine European sports mobile down on a spiraling mountain road, preferably in a 60's dandy state of mind. The eerie wordless vocals at the end tie the package together so nicely that Dario Argento could have made a scene out of it.

The continental vibes emanating from this vinyl single are bound to appeal to rare groove fanatics and secret agents alike. Ernie Hawks and his merry bunch of professionals are on a mean streak here, so keep listening.

to Me, Sounds Have Always Been More Interesting Than Words,' Says Agnes Obel. i Love It When The Voice Becomes An Instrument And You Almost Forget It's A Human Voice.' Never Is This More Apt Than On This Beautifully Programmed And Bewitching Selection Of Music.

Agnes' 2010 Debut Album Philharmonics Went Platinum In France And Belgium And, Unsurprisingly, Quintuple Platinum In Her Native Denmark, Where She Also Won Five Danish Music Awards (equivalent To The Brits) In 2011. The Follow-up Aventine, Released In Late 2013, Was Imbued With The Same Measured Calmness As Her Debut. It Went Platinum In Belgium And Gold In Denmark And France.

For The Mix You Have In Your Hands It Feels Almost As If Agnes Has Scoured The World Looking For Kindred Spirits - Or Kindred Songs. There's A Quietude About It All, The Antithesis Of A Rush Hour, Like A Frozen Lake On A Sunday Morning. This Is Aided By A Veritable Cornucopia Of New Obel Material, Including A Haunting Reading Of Danish Song 'glemmer Du', Inger Christensen's 'poem About Death' Set To Original Music, And An Agnes Original, 'bee Dance'.

Among Them, There's The Enigmatic Jamaican Singer Nora Dean Who Weighs In With The Hypnotic And Slinky Duke Reid Production, 'ay Ay Ay Ay (angie-lala)' And The Sparse, Sardonic 'party Girl' By Michelle Gurevich, So Good It Inspired The Eponymous French Movie. There Are The Plangent Voices, The Bulgarian Folklore Choir, Nina Simone, Ray Davies And Agnes Herself, Ringing True. Somehow, Ms Obel Makes Even Makes The Electronic Tracks Bow To Her Needs As With Yello Whose 'great Mission' Is More Martin Denny Than Underworld And Cult Greek Composer Lena Platonos' 'bloody Shadows From A Distance' Pulses Gently Rather Than Throbs And Can's Recently Rediscovered 'obscura Primavera', Unusually Hushed.

"i Was Surprised At How Much Time I Ended Up Spending On This. I Collected All The Songs Together With My Partner Alex And We Just Spent Time Listening To Records, Trying To See What Would Fit Together. Some Of The Music I've Included Here Is On Mixtapes We Made When We Were Just Friends As Teenagers. Each One Of The Tracks Produces Stories In My Head." - Agnes Obel, February 2018

The fifth release on the Animals Dancing label is a special one. Sourced from recordings of a live set from 2014, Animals Dancing famiglia Jonny Nash & Suzanne Kraft (Diego Herrera) originally created these tracks in L.A. ahead of a series of live performances together. After some finishing touches made in Jonny's studio in Bali in 2016, Animals Dancing are very excited to finally launch these two to the club.

Za Talent will see you now.

Way back in 1967, an animated superhero cartoon was released into the world. It was created by Grantray-Lawrence Animation and was based on a web-spinning, crime fighting blue and red dressed character that had originated in1962, in Marvel Comics by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. This amazing series (that we're not allowed to mention the name of for legal reasons) ran on ABC TV in the USA, then Canada, then a few years later started to spread its web further, running here in the UK throughout summer holidays, after school and possibly early mornings at weekends in the late 1970s. The series then got released on VHS video (and probably Betamax too) in the mid 1980s and still continues to spin its animated magic around the world through further broadcasts, YouTube and DVDs.

The series was notoriously low budget, with animated errors everywhere and numerous scenes, sequences and backgrounds being re-used all the time, often across the same episode. Even a certain spider logo on a costume would appear with six legs, then eight legs later on, then back to six again in the same show.

Series One opened with a newly written spider theme, a classic, hooky song all about doing whatever spiders can, and had, as Big George (RIP) once pointed out to me, a set of session singers falling slightly out of time with the backing track after the first verse. Series One also featured background music by jobbing composers Bob Harris and Ray Ellis but these cues and master tapes are now believed to be lost.

After Series One the company Grantray-Lawrence went bankrupt, so the amazing spider series (that we're not allowed to mention for legal reasons) was taken on by producer Steve Krantz. He brought in new talent, including animation director Ralph Bakshi who later went on to turn a Robert Crumb strip cartoon into the feature Fritz The Cat. Krantz also slashed the already cripplingly small spider budget, and brought in the idea of using economic library music. Here, thanks possibly to an independent sync agent (it has been suggested that a company called Music Sound Track Services may have been the one) production turned to the KPM catalogue. This was one of the few really established library catalogues around at the time with a modern edge, it was full of fabulous, modern dramatic music tracks - often all on the same LP. But more importantly all the tracks were far longer than the one minute musical cuts that many of the fledgling USA library companies were issuing at the time. Not only would this KPM music be efficient, affordable and very easy to use, it would also mean syndication worldwide would not be held up by any future musical issues. Krantz produced two amazing spider series (that we're not allowed to mention for legal reasons), and both were smothered with KPM music. In fact barely a spider second goes by without music playing in either the background or foreground.

For many years I - and many nostalgic others - have been thinking about putting this vinyl album together. For many enthusiasts this really is formative music - a junior foray into hip swinging crime jazz and esoteric musical grooviness. I've also read on line accounts by DJs from WFMU on the trail of original spider master tapes, and there's even a whole forum dedicated to Spidey-Jazz'. Then recently I was looking at an old spider tracklist and realized that several of my favourite KPM cues were there including Syd Dale's Hell Raisers' and Walk And Talk', both from one of the most elusive and desirable KPM albums of all time (yes, you just try and find yourself a copy of KPM 1002 right now), so I decided to push on and get the album made.

So, what features on this Spider-Jazz Lp Well it's music from the amazing TV series we are not allowed to mention for legal reasons, BUT, not music from Series One. No, but it is all from Series Two and Series Three. From looking at archival cue sheets, over 50 tracks from various early KPM 1000 series albums were used across episodes. I've distilled this down into one exciting and enthralling LP, and if this works a further Spider Jazz album may well swing in to production. If you're interested (and I'm sure you may well be) cues here came from KPM1001, KPM1002, KPM1015, KPM1017, KPM1018 and KPM1043 and were composed by master library composers of the era - Dale, Hawkshaw, Hawksworth, Mansfield etc.

And if you are listening over there in the USA, you may well recognize many of the cues here not just from the amazing TV series (that we're not allowed to mention for legal reasons) but also from classic 1960s and 1970s NFL highlight shows that we are allowed to mention.

It's been over 10 years since the release of Gui Boratto's breakthrough full length debut 'Chromophobia'. As to what its title suggests, he shook up the techno game with a contrast of lushly coloured minimal grooves and melody, whilst many will recall that the album included the highlight single Beautiful Life' which became a dance floor anthem for that era. Four albums in and countless EPs and remixes under his belt, the Brazilian producer's unique savoir-faire in carving out a functional album out of diversely routed singles and features is back at it on his fifth studio LP, 'Pentagram'. Here Gui Boratto lays down a nuanced 12-track narrative that reinvigorates his signature sound into a refreshingly different perspective that feels all too familiar - including the return of Beautiful Life' vocalist (and Gui Boratto's wife) Luciana Villanova on the single "Overload".

Through his signature kaleidoscopic approach, Boratto delivers an album built as a far-reaching hub-and-spoke system, broadly inclusive as can be. From the opening cut, 'The Walker' - hot on the trail of Tears For Fears 'Elemental' (one of Boratto's "favourite 80's bands") - to the hi-NRG euphoria of 'Forgotten' and its pounding tech alter ego 'Forgive Me'. "I was going into 2 different directions", Boratto says, "the typical indie- electronic-rock' Boratto kind of production like It's Majik' or Like You' and a much more techno approach." He goes on, "I decided to split them into two twin sister songs. When I play live I always put these two songs together."

The Brazilian Producer further embraces the pop-friendly essence of his past work on tracks like 'The Phoenix', featuring vocalist Nathan Berger, and 'Overload', both melding acidulous synthlines with laser-precise breaks, vox hooks and drops calibrated for extended radio and club use, although sieved through his distinctive rainbow-hued musical prism. For the symbolists out there, the album's pared-down closer '618' duration accidentally happens to equate the proportions of the said pentagram. "Coincidence" Boratto questions, and capsulises, "not so ufanista and supporter of Brazilian neo-concretism, but I guess the brazilian sculptor Lygia Clark also inspired me a lot. Not the meaning of her sculptures, but the shape of the hinge of most of her work. I've wanted to transmit the scientific pentagram's point of view. It's not a religious kind of thing."

Whereas 'Spur' (a field-tested 808 and 909-heavy "purist track", "very, very old school" Boratto insists) and 'Alcazar' are sheer smooth-edged four-to- the-floor epics, the album also shares its lot of startling moments, such as with the John Barry'esque 'Scene 2' (with a hint of Amon Tobin, 'Easy Muffin' style, throw in) and its refined string-laden buildup, 100% fitted for a 007 opening credit sequence, or with 'Hallucination' (feat B.T.) and the further James Holden-ish title-track 'Pentagram' (think 'The Idiots Are Winning'), "one of those exercises I did when I got my Buchla modular synth" Boratto analyses, "I think I've used more then 30 different snares, with different delays and reverbs. The whole song is alive". And so is 'Pentagram' in its entirety: alive and definitely just as manifold and hopeful as its architectonics are the stuff of science and dreams all at once.

Es ist zehn Jahre her seit der Veröffentlichung von Gui Borattos bahnbrechendem Debütalbum - Chromophobia . So wie der Titel vermuten ließ, war das Album mit seinen kontrastreichen Minimalgrooves und den üppig gefärbten Melodien ein Schocker im besten Sinne. Ihr erinnert euch sicher noch an die Hit-Single - Beautiful Life , eine Dancefloor-Hymne aus dieser Zeit. Nach vier Alben und unzähligen EPs und Remixen ist das einmalige Savoir-faire des brasilianischen Produzenten, aus vielfältigen Singles und Features stimmige Alben zu schaffen, auch auf seinem fünften Studioalbum - Pentagram zu hören. Hier legt Gui Boratto ein Zwölf-Track-Narrativ vor, das seine Handschrift auf erquickende Weise wiederbelebt. Wiederbelebt wird auch die Stimme von - Beautiful Life (die der Frau Gui Borattos gehört) auf dem Stück - Overload .

Durch seinen charakteristisch kaleidoskopischen Ansatz liefert Boratto ein Album, das gebaut ist wie die Speichen deines Fahrrads, von dem Opener - The Walker - direkt auf der Spur von Tears For Fears - Elemental (einer von Borattos - favourite 80's bands ) - zur Hi-NRG-Euphorie von - Forgotten und seinem stampfenden Counterpart - Forgive Me . - Ich bin in zwei unterschiedlichen Richtungen gegangen , sagt Boratto: - den typischen ,Indie-Electronic-Rock'-Weg wie in - It's Majik oder - Like You und den Techno-Weg. Er fügt hinzu: - Ich hab mich entschieden jedem Track seinen Zwillings-Track an die Seite zu stellen. Immer wenn ich live spiele lege ich die zwei Stücke zusammen.

Der brasilianische Produzent erschließt weiter die Pop-Essenz seiner vergangenen Arbeit auf Tracks wie - The Phoenix (feat. Nathan Berger) und - Overload . Beide kombinieren zwitschernde Synthi-Melodien mit lasergenauen Breaks, Hooklines, Drops und sind wie gemacht für die Rotation und den Club. Und für die Symbolisten da draußen: die Länge des reduzierten Closers - 618 beträgt zufälliger Weise genau die Proportionen des besagten Pentagramms. - Fügung , fragt Boratto und fasst zusammen: - Ich bin kein Anhänger des brasilianische Neo-Konkretismus , aber ich glaube die brasilianische Künstlerin Lygia Clark hat mich sehr inspiriert. Nicht die Bedeutung ihre Skulpturen aber die Form der meisten ihrer Arbeiten. Ich wollte den wissenschaftlichen Blickwinkel auf das Pentagramm übersetzen. Nicht im religiösen Sinne oder so."

Während - Spur (ein erprobter - purist track auf der Basis von 808 und 909, - sehr, sehr old school , wie Boratto betont) und - Alcazar glatte Vierviertel-Epen sind, hält das Album auch Überraschungsmomente bereit. Z.B. das John Barryschen - Scene 2 (auch eine Spur von Amon Tobins - Easy Muffin ist darin zu hören) und seinem Streicher-Aufbau, der hundertprozentig geeignet wär für eine Eröffnungssequenz in einem Bond-Film. Auch - Hallucination (feat. B.T.) oder der James-Holden-hafte Titeltrack - Pentagram (wir denken da an - The Idiots Are Winning ) wäre da zu nennen. - Einer dieser Übungen, die ich gemacht habe, als ich meinen Buchla-Modular-Synthesizer bekommen habe, war , erinnert sich Boratto, - mehr als 30 verschiedene Snares, Delays und Reverbs zu verwenden. Der ganze Song sollte am Leben sein. Und so ist - Pentagram im Ganzen: lebendig und sicher genau so vielfältig wie sein Bauplan, der auch der Wissenschaft und den Träumen zugrundeliegt.

With pure Nordic love, Thorgerdur & A:G break out with their first EP together, setting the mood for their concept Blossy with a blossy EP. Radiant opens up the ride with an electric and uplifting atmosphere, before Allure takes over with some tambourine-driven darker techno. On the flipside, the title track introduces a fairly epic theme on top of seductive rhythms with a strong bassline. Coming full circle, Tingling touches upon the more minimal side, providing trippy elements on top of low-swung 909 grooves, created with a good after in mind.

Closed Paradise brings his inimitably smooth ethos to Lovedancing. His sampladelic originals are a pastiche of sources, glued together for the booty and soul. At his request, none other than Whiskey Disco's own, Pontchartrain and The Silver Rider remix to round out and bring added funk and flex to the array.

Rebirth return for the second in their LTD series. Argy opens up the e.p. with an atmospheric arp laden stomper enriched by the magical vocals of Blue Jay. Acid Pauli then take on remixing Modular Project's 'Leaving', coupling glitchy vocal loops and pulsating synths together with a hypnotic groove to create a trippy minimal roller. Closing out the e.p. Tiger & Woods add their trademark touch to Lele Sacchi's 'Dreaming Won't Do', focusing the track around the exuberant piano melodies whilst manipulating the vocal sample into a percussive snare element to give a distinctive feel to the remix. Killer work as always from the Rebirth crew.

Pseudocode in a kind of free form minimal electronique concrete mood. There`s even the odd suggestion of a pop tune here and there, maybe even some danceable beats, if you`ve got one leg shorter than the other. While Xavier S. contributes most of the lyrics and vocals, Guy-Marc Hinant plays often the core melody on guitar or electric piano, Neffe's contributions are particularly noteworthy throughout, as he weaves together the bulk of the sonic cloth through overdubbing and mixing.one of his parts are remotely virtuosic (hence his self-identification as a non-musician), but they are always unexpected and perfect in and of themselves, emotionally and sonically, and in that sense they are deeply musical.This could be seen as the missing link between Slaughter In Tiny Place and Europa - third and final LP by Peudocode.All songs are unreleased. Recorded and mixed between 1980 and 1981.

Music and Poetry of the Kesh is the documentation of an invented Pacific Coast peoples from a far distant time, and the soundtrack of famed science fiction author, Ursula K. Le Guin's Always Coming Home In the novel, the story of Stone Telling, a young woman of the Kesh, is woven within a larger anthropological folklore and fantasy. The ways of the Kesh were originally presented in 1985 as a five hundred plus page book accompanied with illustrations of instruments and tools, maps, a glossary of terms, recipes, poems, an alphabet (Le Guin's conlang, so she could write non-English lyrics), and with early editions, a cassette of field recordings' and indigenous song. Le Guin wanted to hear the people she'd imagined, she embarked on an elaborate process with her friend Todd Barton to invoke their spirit and tradition.

For Music and Poetry of the Kesh, the words and lyrics are attributed to Le Guin as composed by Barton, an Oregon-based musician, composer and Buchla synthesist (the two worked together previously on public radio projects). But the cassette notes credit the sounds and voices to the world of the Kesh, making origins ambiguous. For instance, The River Song' description reads, The prominent rhythm instrument is the doubure binga, a set of nine brass bowls struck with cloth-covered wooden mallets, here played by Ready.' According to writer and long-time friend of LeGuin, Moe Bowstern (who pens the liners for the Freedom To Spend edition of Kesh), Barton built and then taught himself to play several instruments of Le Guin's design, among them the seven-foot horn known to the Kesh as the Houmbúta and the Wéosai Medoud Teyahi bone flute.' Barton's crafting of original instruments lends an other-worldly texture to the recordings of the Kesh, not unlike fellow builders Bobby Brown and Lonnie Holley. Bowstern notes, Other musician / makers have crafted their own Kesh instruments after encountering the earlier cassette recordings that accompanied some editions of the book.' Both Barton and Le Guin are sensitive to the sovereignty of indigenous Californians and were careful not to trample the traditions of the Tolowa people who lived in the valley long before the Kesh. You research deeply, and then you bring your own voice to the table,' said Barton. Within the Kesh culture, the numbers four and five shape the lives, society and rituals. Barton composed loosely around these numbers, patiently listening to the land of Napa Valley for signs and audio signals from the natural elements. Todd incorporated ambient sounds of the creek by Le Guin's house and a campfire they built together. The songs of Kesh are joyful, soothing and meditative, while the instrumental works drift far past the imaginary lands. Heron Dance' is an uplifting first track, featuring a Wéosai Medoud Teyahi (made from a deer or lamb thigh bone with a cattail reed) and the great Houmbúta (used for theatre and ceremony). A Music of the Eighth House' sends gossamer waves of the faintest sounds to float on the wind.' Like the languages invented in the vocal work of Anna Homler, Meredith Monk, and Elizabeth Fraser, the Kesh songs and poems play with the shape of voice.

The Music and Poetry of the Kesh cassette was meant to accompany and enhance the experience of reading Always Coming Home. Presented in this edition as a long-playing album, where only traces of the book linger (the jacket offers some of Le Guin's illustration, and a letterpressed bookmark featuring the the narrative modes of western civilization and the Kesh valley is included), the music alone breaking the silence of what might be. It can transport—offering a landscape for imagining a future homecoming. One in which we are balanced, peaceful, and tend to the earth and its creatures. A line from the Sun Dance poem reminds us, We are nothing much without one another.' Freedom To Spend gives new life to the recordings of the Kesh people in the first ever vinyl edition of Music and Poetry of the Kesh, out on LP, and digital formats on March 23, 2018. The LP will include a deluxe spot printed jacket with illustrations from Always Coming Home, a facsimile of the original lyric sheet, liner notes by Moe Bowstern, multi-format digital download code and a limited edition bookmark letter pressed by Stumptown Printers in Portland, OR.

This past Monday, January 22, Ursula passed from this realm to another leaving a life spent building and exploring other worlds while challenging social concepts of the real word she inhabited.

Freedom To Spend had been working under Ursula's enthusiastic endorsement and with Todd Barton, her musical collaborator on Kesh, to give the music that accompanied her 1985 epoch a new life. With the Le Guin family's encouragement to move forward with our planned release, we are humbled to play this small role in sharing Ursula's work.

As Pete Swanson, one third of Freedom To Spend, stated, Ursula's legacy is her work which transformed the world, and this is another piece of the universe that her imagination birthed becoming real.' Listen to A Teaching Poem / Heron Dance' below.

Dynamic composer Neil Cowley is set to release 'Spacebound Tapes' a four track EP featuring remixes of his Trio's 'Spacebound Apes' album ("A miss- this-at-your-peril release" Drowned In Sound 9/10) by Rival Consoles, Throwing Snow, Christian Löffler and Vessels

'Spacebound Apes' was written by Cowley for his trio and long-time bandmates drummer Evan Jenkins and bassist Rex Horan, with contributions from Brian Eno collaborator Leo Abrahams on guitars and FX. A bold exercise in atmosphere and emotion, the album was woven together with some of the most breathtaking, impassioned music that Neil has created. Originally inspired by Arthur C Clarke's 1956 sci-fi book 'The City and the Stars' the album was recorded at Cooper Hall, a studio and cinema set deep in the Somerset countryside with Stanley Kubrick's '2001 A Space Odyssey' running on permanent rotation.

The sci-fi aesthetic is firmly grasped by the four remixers, echoing the theme in their own reinterpretations. The reimagined tracks retain the inventiveness of the originals while exploring progressive but considerate paths. In his version of 'Weightless', Erased Tapes signed Rival Consoles feeds off of the electronic songwriter's critically lauded humanised techno, while rising German musician Christian Löffler brings new dimensions of space and scale to 'Death To Amygdala'. Houndstooth's Throwing Snow delights in deconstructing 'Duty To The Last' with pulsing energy and Vessels' take on 'Echo Nebula' applies machinic facets to the delicate sounds of the original.

For our next Excursion, we're off to the library. In search of library records that is - you know the type, the crazy rare records used for soundtracks and such and such. We have a sick selection of synthed-up beats and pieces chopped together by one Earl Jeffers, making the most out of his international library digging card* (*not a real thing).

For those that don't know, Cardiff's Earl Jeffers is one half of Darkhouse Family, regular family at our sister label, First Word, on which they released their debut album 'The Offering' late last year. Earl is a prolific producer in his own right, also releasing over the years under the aliases Chesus and Metabeats on labels like MCDE, Fat City and Local Talk, collaborating with artists like Byron The Aquarius, Action Bronson and Kamaal Williams / Henry Wu, turning his hand ably to house, hip hop, jungle, jazz and more. All this in addition to running his own label, Mélange Records.

A dedicated digger and record collector first and foremost, Earl has provided us with a quadruple set of heavyweight stuttery sci-fi boom bap. In Earl's words: "This record was mostly inspired by my penchant for the more electronic / synthesized jams, mostly replayed from the original compositions then thrust in to 2028 and beyond...."

t's time for magaritas. Dresden's master of the sampler Alexander Scharf chops up cheesy germanness for greater good and varying experiences: Schlager-upcycling it is. »Nur mit Dir« is a lovely summer day's theme, the anthem of freshly found or long lasting love, the hymn for the night with your loved one. »Ode an die Fröbbe« is the morning after. The morning after the morning of too much togetherness: Honestly weird and weirdly lovable. In the end »Grünalge Christian« keeps it all together. Thank you, Christian. Thank you, Schleander.

Fresh on Francis Harris' Kingdoms imprint comes Rasmus Juncker's 'Ophold' - six tracks of sublime atmospheres and textures. The Danish musician, sound composer and DJ fits perfectly with the label's aesthetic, joining the dots between ambient, leftfield electronica and modern classical.

Juncker has a background in studying jazz drumming and has been playing improvised music within the jazz domain for many years. He also started to DJ at the age of 14 and was introduced to the world of electronic music production at the same time.

When Rasmus started to think about his debut album he spent several months trying to find his own way to combine his favourite musical influences, improvisation, electronics and classical music. 'Almost a year later', Juncker says, "I went to a sensory deprivation floating tank in Copenhagen while researching for another performance and while I was lying there, floating in the water, deprived from most of my senses, I got the idea to do something drastic in my musical process. Philosophers like Immanuel Kant describe this deprived state as a mental 'Cesura', which became some sort of guideline for the album."

So Juncker decided to start working on the album by leaving the process as well as the final result completely open. 'I wanted to create sounds and music that I had no idea what they would sound like, but would feel like a mental 'Cesura', an 'Ophold' (in Danish)' he states.

He invited musicians, one after the other, to his studio. "I had an electronic musician to improvise patterns and new interesting sounds based on my experience in the deprivation tank. I chose some of the takes and some weeks later I invited a jazz guitarist to listen and improvise on top of what he heard. Then a classical string quartet and a double bass player came to my studio months later, and finally I recorded myself on percussion and drums.

Throughout the recording process I've been experimenting with special microphones in various setups, used noises from the recordings and the room became absolutely essential for the pieces." Juncker states.

"The material I used was all first take improvision which I arranged, layered and edited into compositions. The final pieces were mixed by Andreas Pallisgaard with the same improvised and experimental approach of the recording and the production. None of the musician met each other, but their sounds developed into something completely fantastic I think. The presence of the acoustic instruments and the depth and complexity of the synthesized layers gave some kind of an indescribable sounding music from another galaxy.

Track by track:

'Norddrum' starts proceedings - ethereal, grainy sounds merge and disassociate, as a distant rhythm gradually finds its way to the fore.

The second track, 'Sora' , clocking in at under 2 minutes, is an interlude full of strings, pads, and percussive hits, rich in feeling. This strong sense of sound design and seemingly disparate sounds woven together into a whole carries through into 'Eksotisk Tirsdag' - the strings, plucked instruments and electronics harking back to 4th world adventurers like Jon Hassel and Brian Eno.

'Cyklus' dives into drone textures, pulsing and modulating to create an unearthly soundtrack.

'Havekunst' is another 2 minutes interlude, this time bringing a fully charged rhythmic barrage to the front.

'Cesura', the final track is in essence the EP's centerpiece - a sprawling 8 minute journey that traverses tense, fibrous sections and on into pulsing modular passages, before opening up into glorious moments of wonder and brightness. It's a hugely bold yet fragile endeavour, in line with the whole release.

'Madrid Fue Una Ciudad Mundial' compiles four of the most important Spanish electronic projects from the 80's. A compilation released in cooperation with a show organised in Madrid last May, 18th where Aviador Dro, Flash Cero, Azul y Negro and Esplendor Geométrico played together for the very first time.Aviador Dro offers two unpublished early recordings from 1981. Flash Cero includes an unreleased song recorded back in 1987. Azul y Negro collaborates with a demo version of their cult classic 'La Torre de Madrid' from 1981. And Esplendor Geométrico give us a couple of live tracks recorded in 1989 for the first time available on vinyl

GROUND-BREAKING, CLASSIC BOOGIE & DISCO LP FROM 1979 NIGERIA, FEATURING 'AGBOJU LOGUN'
First official reissue of the extremely rare full-length album by Lagos-based bandleader Shina Williams. Clean copies of the original currently sell for up to £500.
The record was born in 1979 when Shina put Biddy Wright, Fred Fisher, Saliu Alabi, Prince Bola, Tutu Shoronmu, Tunde willimas and several other decorated Nigerian musicians - who played with the likes of Fela Kuti, SJOB Movement, Sonny Okoson, King Bucknor amongst others - together to record. The result is 'African Dances', a timeless fusion of afrobeat, electronics, boogie and disco.
Includes his most well-known song, 'Agboju Logun' that Williams knew was ground breaking - I want to show the whole wide world that Africa is alive with modern musicians to reckon with anywhere,'. This album version is a different mix to the two-track 12' that came out under on Earthworks, Rough Trade in 1984.
Official Mr Bongo reissue. Replica original artwork. Licensed direct from Shina Williams.

Blocaus series is proud to present 'Alpha Wave', their second various artists compilation includes 4 tracks of different varieties of great raw pounding techno that stretches from melodic / hypnotic trips to industrial bangers along with great grooves and soundscapes featuring the well respected Kangding Ray as well as some of the most talented producers from the new French generation ABSL, Raar and Rubarb. A strong team that brings the solid vibe together in the 5th record of the label.

Two Soul/funk Songs Now Here For The First Time Ever On Any Format.
Written By Rashaan Patterson And Produced By Howard Johnson Together With Khris Kellow For Two Sioux Music. From The New Uk Label Six Nine Records Ltd Based In Newcastle Upon Tyne And Wear. Limited Uk Press Of 500 Copies On Laquer Cut Vinyl With Small Hole And Full Colour Printed Picture Cover!

Brother And Sister Eric And Arrontette Mcclinton Had Been Recording For Many Years. Around 1976 They Did A 45 Release Together On Honey Records Called "where You Are" Under The Their Christian Names, Although Eric Was Spelled Eryke! The Single Didn't Have Much Success But Both Brother And Sister Still Went On To Be Amazing Backing Singers Working For Legendary Producers Mike Theodore And Dennis Coffey. Whilst They Were Under The Watchful Eye Of The Production Team They Recorded Some Material Again And A Duo For Theo/coff In A Bid To Get Them Another Record Deal And Show Their Capabilities. These Songs Never Got Releases. Eric Became And Prolific Song Writer And Also Joined The Group High Fashion .
We Are Super Pleased To Finally Release The Shelved Songs From 1978.
This In One Of Two Releases By The Duo.

"Soundboy A-Go Dead Tonight!"

SKRSINTL Crew load up their dub boxes deep and deliver a wide-ranging, rapid-fire display of their unique vision for musical murderation. Pulling the best from their clashes and world travels They weave together a bewildering barrage inna dance leaving a soundboy downright dazed and dusted. And yet within this deadly encounter, there is deliverance When the smoke settles, unscathed, only Life remains Sekkle urself in this Infinity; tune can't run out.

Face Time is the second release from the trio of Oren Ambarchi, Kassel Jaeger, and James Rushford, following on from their 2016 debut Pale Calling. Recorded at the GRM studios in Paris in June 2017, the record immediately returns to the idiosyncratic sound-world of the trio's first release, a simmering stew of electronic smears, pitched-down animal moans, and mysteriously emotive microtonal organ chords. But before long the record takes an unexpected turn, as sounds that initially enter as occasional percussive pitter-patter build to a halting rhythm. Equally reminiscent of Basic Channel-style dub techno and the sound of a microphone loose in a pocket, these stumbling rhythmic figures provide the framework for the remainder of the record's two sides, occasionally receding into the background to allow squelching electronics, chiming bells, distorted autoharp, inchoate grunts and the sound of a Cristal Baschet to take centre stage, but each time returning with the inevitability of a an idée fixe.

Eschewing any clear sense of form, the two side-long pieces move seamlessly through episodes with the organic flow of improvisation, embracing the happy accidents of events conjoined by chance and lingering on liminal moments. Gradually washing out into a cavernous roar, the record's final moments are suddenly enlivened by shimmering metallic percussion and a sequence of woozy synth chords, combining with the muted rhythms and a distant thunderstorm to become a sort of oneiric tribute to the work of Wally Badarou. Bringing together three of contemporary experimental music's most individual voices, Face Time is an essential slice of outsider electro-acoustics. Cover design by Stephen O'Malley. Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, Berlin.

Recorded in the Autumn of 2017 at their studio in Vancouver's Deep Blue, MVX / U41A' is the first new music from Minimal Violence to be released on Ninja Tune's Technicolor imprint and the first to be recorded outside their usual home production space. The result is a record that intends to reduce pop music to its emotive qualities and apply that abstract nostalgia back into dance tracks. Their penchant for the heavier and more aggressive side of dance music is most evident in its infiltration of the duo's often raw and disorientating live set. Formed in 2015 the duo, consisting of Ashlee Luk and Lida P, have a string of releases to date with labels such as Lobster Theremin, 1080p and Jungle Gym Records. Drawing on Luk's years of experience playing in punk bands, they combine hardware sequencers, drum machines and synths, to weave together acid tinged compositions that derive inspiration from early electronic and minimal synth through to heavier UK rave and hardcore.

Prairie is the project of multi-instrumentalist and producer Marc Jacobs, hailing from Brussels with roots in The Netherlands. He previously released an EP (I'm so in love I almost forgot I survived a Disaster - 2013) and an LP (Like a Pack of Hounds - 2015) on the Berlin imprint Shitkatapult. On stage, Prairie plays with two or three musicians and together they re-create a free association of musical ideas and atmospheres. Prairie has played in selected venues and festivals across Europe and toured with Apparat in 2016.If the apocalypse was painted in several layers of pastel gouache, its soundtrack might be PRAIRIE's Flash Flood. Listening to the album, we drift through a series of frozen landscapes that gesture at a post-apocalyptic ambience. This is a kind of blackened music that has been left to sediment, excavated from traces in ice core samples. Flash Flood showcases a deep sensitivity to narrative and rich cinematic textures as Marc Jacobs returns with palimpsestic sonic layers. It has been three years since PRAIRIE's last release—the 2015 Cormac McCarthy-inspired Like a Pack of Hounds—and it is clear that it has been several years of pensive reflection. Now, PRAIRIE takes the sentiment of his 2012 debut, I'm So In Love I Almost Forgot I Survived A Disaster, several steps further: it is after the apocalypse, and no one has survived. And yet with Flash Flood, we can hear the hum of this impossible future.

'After the Flash Flood' introduces the sonic ruins of distorted guitars, field recordings, drum programming and synths that create the textures of the entire album. The melancholic and subdued black metal churn of 'Raindeath' becomes the cold backdrop for unnerving, paranoiac speech. The third track, 'Sisters', foregrounds this coldness while slowly moving away toward alternate vistas where the acoustic timbres of the saz-driven 'A Permanent War Economy' take over. 'Underwater Body Hunting' and 'Rabid Ibrahim' are hard hitting beat-oriented tracks that insist on burning slow. There is a patience with PRAIRIE's FLASH FLOOD that is difficult to deny. The lamentation of 'Elephants Will Rise Again' perhaps signals that it is not only the human that is lost after catastrophe. The album closes with 'Hard Water: Cracked Ice' and 'Hayashi Clock'. The former is a beautiful coalescence of clean harmonious tones and softly overdriven drums, while the latter brings us back to a meditative state, drifting through the final pastel tapestry.

"... his cosmos is located somewhere between Bohren & der Club of Gore and Sunn O))), ambient is as familiar to him as brachial sounds, and he is as much acquainted with guitars as with synths and modern technology" (GROOVE)

"... Like Ben Frost, (Prairie) exudes a certain harshness while tempering his work with moments of sublime beauty. This isn't club material, it's music for the hammer in one's hand, the confrontation of the demon, the soul-shattering revelation." (A Closer Listen)

Smoove & Turrell return with the first new single from their forthcoming album 'Mount Pleasant' - a storming double-A side with disco cut - 'You're Gone' and the gorgeous and ironic 'A Deckham Love Song'.

From the moment John Turrell heard label mate Izo FitzRoy's debut album "Skyline" he knew they had to work together and started adapting a song he was working on "You're Gone" with her in mind.

The result is an absolute ear worm of uplifting chic style instrumentation combined with haunting lyrics - disco dynamite delivered with feeling as John & Izo's vocals perfectly encapsulate the balance of frustration, pride and vulnerability present in a lovers argument.

The flipside is the undeniably pretty 'A Deckham Love Song' - a smooth slice of sublime songwriting with a Richard Hawley-esque tongue-in-cheek look back at a childhood spent in Deckham. The beautiful and sentimental imagery conjured up in the lyrics and tasteful musical arrangement inspired by Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka, ironically offsets the subject matter of a childhood growing up on an estate in the North East of England.

A near-perfect record, White Magic was the lauded CD-only debut album by Sorcerer (Californian native Dan Judd, one half of Windsurf with Hatchback). Just in time for Spring/Summer, we present the first ever vinyl issue, released as a deluxe double LP.

Back in summer 2007, this majestic set gently nestled itself into the Balearic soundtrack-to-summer slot for many, making him a household name for Cosmic Disco heads alongside the likes of Lindstrom, Metro Area, Todd Terje, Mudd, Studio and Quiet Village. In the intervening years, exceptional producers have created vibrant variations on the dreamy, dubby, melodic nu-disco theme. Happily, the emergence of such luminaries as Jex Opolis, Harvey Sutherland, Suzanne Kraft, Tornado Wallace et al has only served to make the master - Sorcerer - sound ever more brilliant and vital.

Utilising his array of guitars, drum machines, synths, and trusty MPC, the loved-up Sorcerer sound inspires halcyon memories of warm days, endless sunsets and pure youthful abandon. Influenced by surf, 80s dance pop, acid-R&B, space jazz, krautrock, disco, dub, and am radio gold, his music maps a tour through a uniquely Californian lifestyle. Yet when music so vividly captures a vibe and a feeling, it can make writing about it appear almost redundant. Instead, to glean the full colour of what your turntable will soon gratefully radiate, we prescribe the generous soundclips presented here.

And, for a unique insight into the process behind the wonderful sounds conjured up, here's Sorcerer himself:

"White Magic is a reflection of personal freedom and discovery. Having been in bands for years, this was a chance to develop music that stood alone and for me to be in full control.

I was living alone and worked on jams whenever I could. I was highly inspired by a new openness to music as a pure inspiration, not being part of any scene. I tapped into the mixes I was hearing coming out the UK where deejays were playing "cosmic" sounds that were so strangely familiar.

I was picking up all kinds of $1 vinyl and throwing bits of it into my sampler almost randomly to see what would come out.

In my mind, I was making music to be played at my friend's Broker/Dealer Pop nights where they fused golden German techno sounds with the new disco emerging at the time. Also, I took vacations and reconnected with the Pacific Ocean where I spent so much time as a kid: it spilled out into the sounds.

Lastly, I forged a partnership with Hatchback (Sam Grawe) who was working on music in the same way. I learned so much about arrangement and the colors of music. We began recording together as Windsurf and released our own stuff. It all seems like a small glorious moment in time, so I am so excited to keep the legacy alive and I continue to work on my music with these spirits inside of me."

Lovingly remastered by the esteemed Simon Francis, cut reassuringly loud on to heavyweight double vinyl and presented in a deluxe gatefold jacket with freshly commissioned artwork throughout from original designer Rich Robinson, this limited edition of 500 copies is sure to fly.

As we enter the Summer months, Excursions welcomes back The Showfa, with A Gospel Excursion Volume Two. Four more dishes of hot spiritual gumbo for your mind, body & soul.

Once again The Showfa has expertly cut together a concoction of gospel, soul, disco, latin, jazz, funk, and spiritual rhythm & blues. The glorious disco rework of a track called 'Amazing' sets the tone with an infectious piano riff and powerfully uplifting vocal. 'Surely Surely' follows, with a more vigorous strut, a short, sweet slice of disco funk, no messing about. 'Praising' keeps the groove and tempo solidly in a delicious eighties boogie formation, slap bass and sax in tow. The set closes out with beautiful latin-jazz tinged vibrations sauntering through 'I'll Show You The Way', before switching to the sweetest sweet soul you ever did hear. Soul food of the highest calibre.

The previous volume was shown love last year by an assortment of selectors and tastemakers, including Tony Humphries, Horse Meat Disco, Gilles Peterson, Craig Charles, BBC 6Music, Mi-Soul, Rinse FM and Mixmag, and also saw The Showfa spinning on the airwaves on NTS with Charlie Bones, and for Wax Poetics.

Another joyously ethereal platter, and another one that will never leave the box.

Mike Huckaby, Bergqvist, DJ Sports, Raam and LNS remix 'Deep Soundscapes', Takecha's album recently released on Sweden's Love Potion.

Released in March, the album incorporates Takeshi Fukushima's work between 1990 to 2013 and affirms why the producer is such a respected figure within Japan's electronic music scene. Now his compositions have been remixed by some of house music's best, featuring renditions from Detroit's Mike Huckaby, Aniara's Henrik Bergqvist, the elusive Raam, Firecracker and Regelbau's DJ Sports, as well as Wania and Freakout Cult's LNS.

Mike Huckaby inaugurates the release with his sultry take on 'Low Sentiment', blending deep synths with murmuring vocals to forge a proper deep house cut. Bergqvist then remixes 'Rhodes Deep' creating a bouncy minimal cut incorporating the original's scintillating melody alongside meandering percussion and twisted effects, making way into DJ Sports' remix of 'Gradual Atmosphere' with its intricate breakbeat drums and dreamlike atmospherics. Raam then reinvents 'Calm Imagination' taking it into subterranean territories complete with infectious keys, until LNS ties it all together with her mesmerising beatless reimagining of 'Factory 141'.

One of the most unique albums on the Strata East label - and that's saying a heck of a lot, given the creative energies flowing through that legendary jazz outlet! Descendents Of Mike & Phoebe is a righteous little project put together by Spike Lee's father, Bill Lee, and his brothers and sisters (Cliff Lee, Grace Lee Mims, and Consuela Lee Moorhead) - working here in a group named after their slave ancestors, who are paid tribute in a beautifully flowing batch of tunes! Lee's round, warm bass tones are firmly at the head of the group on most numbers - recorded at a similar level to his excellent work with Clifford Jordan on Strata East during the same time - and other instrumentation includes piano from Consuela, flugelhorn from Cliff, and percussion from Sonny Brown and Billy Higgins - all used in a wonderfully evocative style that's even better than some of Lee's later soundtrack work. A few numbers feature vocals from Grace - singing wordlessly and with a really heavenly sort of quality - and together, the whole group have an undeniable sense of power and majesty, yet also one that's touched by a really personal sense of poetry too. Titles include a great version of Lee's "Coltrane", which was more famously recorded with Clifford Jordan.

By Drago Museveni

Danny McLewin (Psychemagik) and Jamie Cruisey have a new label of original signed artists called SPIRITS. The first release is from Mexican hotness 'Lokier' of She Made Monster and 'Jason Greer' aka 'The Machine', one of the Californian undergrounds best kept secrets. They met in 2015 at a festival in London and after spending a few days together, became musically obsessed with each other. That summer, as Jason bounced around Europe, he stayed with Lokier in Barcelona for some weeks and after long night walks, some tapas and absinthe bars they came up with their first EP together.

A1 "White Room's" slo-mo headnod film score, kick starts the EP, brooding synths buzzing with electric cocaine gloss, their oscillators fluttering like cyborg butterflies around the pulsating strobelight beat. Creepy.
A2 "Stained Glass" hits tough straight out the gate with subterranean bubbling acid bass and charges headlong into deep psychedelic territory with a goth-inspired guitar, reverb on 11, turning the track into a next-level robo-Giallo monster!

B1 "Pearly Hate" begins as if a menacing swarm of bionic rave bees is slowly surrounding you, the tension of their impending drone amping up steadily as your brain thinks: Do I run This midtempo Carpenter-esque jam is atmospheric putty in the hands of sleazoned DJ's and sounds like the beginning of a long, strange trip.
B2 "Red Floor" is a chugging, barely restrained dark disco beast, flagrantly wearing its Weatherall and Neu Beat-ing heart on its tattered sleeve, elliptical melodies keeping you from your sanity with a solid drop for the dancefloor - another one for DJ's who ride it rough.

Thus completes the first release for new label SPIRITS. Four tracks exploring another corner of otherworldly analogue hedonism for extra-dimensional travel. Keep your ear on "Red Floor", as its potential for dancefloor uplift is proven and Machine-ready! Stay jacked in for more missives soon...

Ivan Smagghe:
"When your best Mexican chola low-rider meets our favourite Californian mechanic, you get a proper slice of (Lokier and) Machine funk. This is grease electronics, black leather under the very dark sun of 'Pearly Hate' or in the bright isolation tank of 'White Room''

Re-mastering by: Ray Staff at Air Mastering, Lyndhurst Hall, London

This jazz recording is considered as the 'magnum opus' of master "drummer extraordinaire'', composer, arranger, producer, and leader Norman Connor's in a career that has spanned 4 decades. This recording is what many will consider the debut of the legendary vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater who has since gone on to a brilliant career. Connor's put together an all-star group with Herbie Hancock and Onaje Allan Gumbs on piano and Fender Rhodes, Dr. Eddie Henderson on trumpet/flugelhorn, Carlos Garnett on tenor/soprano saxes, Gary Bartz on alto/soprano saxes, Buster Williams on bass, drummer/vocalist Bill Summers and Kenneth Nash on percussion, and effective, crucial cameos by master flautist Hubert Laws. On the song, "Love From the Sun'", Connors added Nathan Rubin on violin and Terry Adams on cello.

The 'best of the best' begins with the exotic theme of Hancock's "Revelation", doubled wordlessly and beautifully by Ms. Bridgewater over Williams bouncing ostinato bass pattern with flights of fancy from Hubert Laws on flute, and superb, luminous solos from Henderson's exotic trumpet, Garnett on soprano, and Hancock on Fender Rhodes. Garnett's "Carlos II" is another great composition with remarkable solos. Connors' own "Drums Around The Worlds'" is influenced by African and latin rhythms with emotional vocals from Summers and a drum-only section that builds in intensity. One of the high points of the album is Dee Dee Bridgewater's awesome, glorious vocalizing on Richard Clay's lovely "Love From The Sun", in one of the greatest performances in her career, arranged by Gumbs. Elmer Gibson's "Kumakucha" (The Sun Has Risen) is a blazing display of uptempo musicianship by Connor's driving drums, the propulsive congas of Summers and Nash, and exciting solos from Bartz, Henderson on trumpet, and Hancock's furious piano solo. The set ends with a marvelous "Holy Waters" composed and arranged by Garnett in a scorching performance by Bridgewater on vocals, Garnett unleashing one of the greatest solos in his storied career, followed by Gumbs' astute solo.

My Highest Recommendation.

By John Braswell

London based artist Ben Vince is best known for his minimal & transcendent saxophone soundscapes. With 'Assimilation' we find Ben treading new ground with his recorded output, moving away from the limitations of solo Saxophone, instead embracing collaboration and communication to forge new paths. Whilst Vince's Sax work still undeniably holds 'Assimilation' together, the new territories explored by working with an artistically diverse range of collaborators allows new life and influence to flow through Ben's work. The album features collaborations with Micachu (Mica Levi), Rupert Clervaux, Merlin Nova, Valentina Magaletti, and Cam Deas. Ben Vince has also recently collaborated on a 12' with Joy O (forthcoming on Hessle Audio).

Apollo proudly presents the return of SW, joined by partner SVN for a sublime 6 track EP. SW's lush sound design and hypnotic arrangements of 2017's 'The Album' had hearts and minds swooning following it's license from SUED to Apollo.
It's balmy glory won over Pitchfork ('deeply expressive debut album' 8/10), Rolling Stone (best electronic albums 2017) and XLR8R (Best releases 2017) amongst many others.
One year later, SW and SVN have gone into the studio, together; 'to make some original music specifically for Apollo. The results are the 6 tracks on this EP,' they share in a typically taciturn statement.Taking inspiration from the iconic house and techno of the mid / late 90s - SW and SVN combine dreamy melodies and mesmeric grooves with unfussy, focussed minimalism, their beguiling, modern take on classic sounds and rhythms remains thrillingly unique and elusive. While SW and SVN are more comfortable out of the limelight, this 6 track EP for Apollo once again proves that they are rightly worthy of the hype that swirls around them.

Gifted Culture collective kicks off with Zinnigheddas Jam Berlin, first 12' of a series of three releases recorded exclusively during improvised jam sessions. Gifted Culture wants artists to breath and to represent in music the contemporaneity that surrounds us. Gifted Culture catches that very moment on tape. This is an itinerant music project, to highlight the context as influence on the artistic process.

During the first session Two Thou, Autre, Xinner and Demo gather together during a Sunday night in Kreuzberg with an electric bass and a bunch of synthesizers. There they start to tell us how they feel the 'now'.

Lord Tusk has associated with acts like Klein, John T. Gast, Dean Blunt, Yasiin Bey AKA Mos Def, and released on Jon Rust's Levels, Funkineven's Apron, Soul Jazz Records and Low Income $quad.

Communiqué is made of breathy, glossy Sci-Fi electro, bitcrushed drum samples and Minneapolitan funk feng shui, the hits and stabs of new jack swing and FM boogie, all pieced together with a one-take energy but a meticulous attention to detail. It's songwriting for a miscellaneous kind of soundsystem music, body music, flamboyant across tempo, from the yearning thump of Shyne Eyed Gal to the puffed-up strut of Champion Lovers (sounding like a home-taped Electrifying Mojo opener), the staggered slink of Beyond Limitation's unfiltered tones to the 4x4 uptempo skid of Don't Be Shy or the veering slap-bass groove of Elevation. It's a record that shoots around corners, conjuring lazy romances and smokey vistas, lit by the nocturnal shimmer of an electrified city, streaked with gargantuan, shrill, birdlike call-and-response riffs and visited by the astral bodies of Teddy Riley, Gerald Donald, Prince.

Discover Le Deltaplane, fifth album by Andre Solomko, and third produced on Favorite Recordings, pursuing a collaboration that started more than 5 years ago.

Born in Ukraine in 1965 and now based in Finland, Andre Solomko is primarily a rich and engaging personality, but above all, a brilliant saxophonist, composer and engineer, whose contagious passion cannot leave anyone indifferent. After beginning a meteoric career in USSR, fate led him to Finland, where he started the adventure Vinyl Jam, a label / studio / group. It resulted in two self-produced albums that will capture the attention of some international collectors, including Pascal Rioux (founder of Favorite Recordings). Between 2012 and 2014, they released 2 albums together, Où es-tu maintenant and Le Polaroid, hailed by many tastemakers and meeting notable success in Japan.

Following Le Premier Disco Sans Toi, an acclaimed single released earlier this year and unveiling two new compositions with Disco flavors, Andre Solomko and Favorite Recordings also proudly present Le Deltaplane. Fully composed and arranged by Andre Solomko, the 6 tracks of the album are deeply infused with his longtime passion for Jazz-Funk and Movie-Soundtracks, this time also injecting more influences from WestCoast and Modern-Soul music.

Andre's backed again by a team of great musicians, recording and producing the album in analog like he always did. As for vocals and lyrics, he teams up with Charlotta Kerbs, a young emerging and talented singer from Helsinki.

Andre Solomko, an artist who spreads love like in the good old days!

Here We Are Releasing The Second Album Of Cologne Born Producer Thyladomid Who Is Familiar To Many Through His Work On Hamburg Label Diynamic Which Has Lead Him To Perform Around The World, Together With Artists Such As: Adriatique, Solomun, Kollektiv Turmstraße, Hosh, David August, Stimming, And Many More. More Then 30 Minutes Playing Time, 6 Tracks And Artwork By Florian Kramer Offer A Lot To Discover. Thyladomid Is Famous For His Forward Thinking Deep Melodic Dance Music Which Earned Him Respect And Support From Many People Of The Scene And Evolved Also In Cooperations With Adriatique And The Singer Mahfoud. You Can Find Two Tracks Featuring Mahfoud On The Album. With His First Album "interstellar Destiny" In 2015 Thyladomid Has Already Changed Towards More Introspective Music And You Will Hear He Has Taken That A Step Further Here. In Comparison To His First Album, "places" Refers To Different Places Which Inspired Him To Write The Album And Offers A Higher Level Of Complexity In The Making Of Music Which Has Helped Thyladomid To Enhance The Moody Quality In A Dazzling Way Sometimes Even Spine Tingling When You Let Yourself Go To Explore The Abundance Of The Trax. As He Said In His Own Words: - the Albums Intention Was That Of An Organic Produced Album With Different Moods. Instruments Such As Piano And And Violin As Well As Field Recording Bring Alive A Special Quality. The Bouncing Of Stones On A Frozen Pond Recorded With Multiple Microphones Suggest For Example An Authentic Spacious Quality. The Self Recorded Percussion, Sometimes Quite Exotic Were Included In All Of The Tracks. The Combination Of Synthetic Sounds With Traditionally Instruments Was One Of The Big Challenges For Me. The Piano And Prophet 6 Und The Moog Sub37 Were The Main Instruments Used For The Album'. Thyladomid Started Working On The Album 2 1/2 Years Ago. His Classical Training On The Piano Helped To Quickly Come Up With A Musical Theme Which Is Based On Different Tonalities Which Were Then Linked To Each Other And Which Actually Helped To Structure The Whole Release. The Good Weather In Summer Was A Good Inspiration And Finally Led To The Idea To Dedicate Tracks To A Certain Place, A Place Which Means A Lot For Him. From That Idea The Title Of The Whole Album Derived: "places ". "a Little Church In Amsterdam" As He Says "is Such A Track Encouraged By The City Of Amsterdam I Love And Respects So Much And Actually Have Spend So Much Time In. It Is A Track I Played Outside In My Garden To Friends And Which Works Perfectly For Me.' "a Little Church In Amsterdam" Is A Track Where Melodies Bloom And Flourish. It Feels Like Zooming In On Nature Grasping A Time Lapse Symphony. "blossoming Limburg Ft Mahfoud" Was Born In The Capital Of Limburg Which Is Located In The South Of The Netherlands And Reflects The Summer Of 2017 And Was Recorded In A Warehouse. It Reflects The Intimacy And Synergetic Level Between Mahfoud And Thyladomid. The Fantastic Deep Vocal Track Is Spiced Up With Lots Of Acoustic Details Which All Happen In The Background But Effectively Surface To Pull The Listener Into His World. "night Owl" Is A Lyrical Dreamy Piano Piece With A Melancholic Note And An Ear For Details. Acoustic Finesse Presented On An Episodic Scale. We Guess The Track Was Influenced By The Works Of Four Tet Or Pantha Du Prince. "kollwitzplatz" Is A Small Park In Berlin's Prenzlauer Berg Which Was Thyladomid's Home For 2 Years . - the Cafes And Restaurants Laced By The Alleys Of The Kollwitz District Resemble A Piece Of Home For Me And Represents The Time Of My Stay In Berlin'. Musically "kollwitzplatz" Is Full Of Life. You Can Hear Children Talking While The Piano Attracts Sounds Like Moths Are Attracted To Light. The Track Offers This Richness Of Percussive Elements And Sound Sources Creating A Stunning Complexity Which Does Not Limiting Itself But Rather Creates This Free Flow Of Acoustic Signals. You Instantly Will Feel: There Is A Lot To Discover At "kollwitzplatz". "underwater Rhapsody", The Title Says It All: It Has That Episodic, Free-flowing Structure, Featuring A Range Of Highly Contrasted Moods, Color And Tonality. What It Actually Means To The Listener Is That Grande Chords Meet Dissonances Of Sound That Fly In Like Drones Cross The Big Time Melodies That Gain A Centrifugal Force At Times... And All This Leaves You Dizzy And Creates Another Big Listening Experience As The Whole Album Is Directed To Entertain You In A Smart And Distinguished Way.






[E b2 | Places Ft. Mahfoud

Following the U.S. Army's liberation of Munich in May 1945, the world's first Amerikahaus was inaugurated there with a library, a magazine reading room, a children's library, a record and lm department, and lecture and seminar rooms, together with a concert hall and exhibition space. Up to 80,000 people a month utilized the offerings of Amerikahaus during its early years. Beginning in 1953, the United States Information Agency (USIA), an institution founded as an instrument of the Cold War, began to finance Amerikahaus. In addition to representing the U.S., its principal task in West Germany was to democratize and denazify the postwar population. After the beginning of the Cold War, many of these re-educative measures also served as propaganda in a programmatic linking of democratic and economic principles meant to strengthen transatlantic relations against the Communist Bloc. In 1997, the U.S. government concluded its work at Amerikahaus in Munich and shipped almost all its items back to the States. However, 1,630 long-playing vinyl records from the library were left behind in cardboard boxes in the basement. When Michaela Melián looked through this forgotten collection, one of the first things she came across was Don Gillis' 1940 tone poem »Portrait of a Frontier Town«, whose second movement is entitled »Where the West Begins«. Don Gillis, a composer and radio producer, used the musical styles and genres of that decade to create an explicitly American program music. Michaela Melián's »Music from a Frontier Town« is fueled by the diverse sonic material of this extensive record collection once considered as an instrument of cultural education. This record has been produced in addition to Melián's twenty-four hour performative music installation »Music from a Frontier Town« in the garage of what is now the Bavarian Center for Transatlantic Relations at Karolinenplatz, Munich (4-5 May 2018).

It's time for a fresh new release from the Apollonia stable, and this time around we unveil four groovy gems from Shonky and Tolga Fidan working together for the first time, giving us a winning combination and one which is sure to satisfy fans of both artists. The first track 'Dynamo' sets the tone for the EP; the bassline has a deadly groove, while playful effects dance around at the top end creating an immersive atmosphere. Intergalactic vibes. After that comes 'Bastille', which features a similarly jaunty rhythm with a variety of bleeps, chirps and twangs layered on top on each other to give the track its depth and character, while a menacing b-line does its dirty work in the low end.On the flip we get 'Micro-Ondes', a mysterious into the undiscovered lands of planet funk. You feel as though you've been transported to another world, where warped creatures lurk, calling out for your attention. As for the bass, its rhythm is utterly contagious. Finally 'Americana' completes the collection, maintaining the unusual use of sound prevalent throughout the EP it utilises a myriad distorted instruments. Support in the low end comes via a tough, punchy bass riff.

"It was the most beautiful summer of my life."

Memories — places, vacancies, allusions — are fundamental characters in Mary Lattimore's evocative craft. Inside her music, wordless narratives, indenite travelogues, and braided events skew into something enchantingly new. The Los Angeles-based harpist recorded her breakout 2016 album, At The Dam, during stops along a road trip across America, letting the serene landscapes of Joshua Tree and Marfa, Texas color her compositions. In 2017, she presented Collected Pieces, a tape compiling sounds from her past life in Philadelphia: odes to the east coast, burning motels, and beach town convenience stores. In 2018, from a restorative station — a redwood barn, nestled in the hills above San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge — emanates Hundreds of Days, her second full-length LP with Ghostly International. The record sojourns between silences and speech, between microcosmic daily scenes and macrocosmic universal understandings, between being alien in promising new places and feeling torn from old native havens. It's an expansive new chapter in Lattimore's story, and an expression of mystied gratitude. A study in how ordinary components helix together to create an extraordinary world.

Awarded a residency at the Headlands Center for the Arts, Lattimore spent two summer months living with 15 fellow artists — writers, playwrights, musicians, poets, painters, activists, curators — in a cluster of old Victorian military buildings on the Northern Pacic Coast. Days offered solitude, Lattimore set up in a spacious barn, able to arrange her instruments at will. Nights welcomed new perspectives. "Hanging out with a lot of accomplished artists with poetic ways of looking at the world was really inspiring. My heart was in a bit of a tangle after leaving Philadelphia. I was holding onto things instead of moving forward. My time there was a nostalgia detox, a way to press reset in a healthy way. Also breathing in the freshest air in America, straight off of the ocean, felt good."

Throughout the shifting locales there is one consistent companion Lattimore engages: a 47-string Lyon and Healy harp. The instrument wires directly into her psyche. Pitchfork's Marc Masters posits, "she can practically talk through it at this point, she's created a language." The space and stillness of the Headlands afforded Lattimore freedom to her expand her vocabulary, to stretch out and experiment with layers of keyboard, guitar, theremin, and grand piano. Lattimore's voice sweeps beneath the plucks and washes of opener It Feels Like Floating,' enraptured by the winding current, and reappearing in the second minute of the immense "Never Saw Him Again." The track elevates towards a shimmering apex of static and percussion before organ drone yields to signature halcyon utters. As with much of Lattimore's work, the track titles are telling, "Baltic Birch" is a somber windswept march that sways gracefully out of step, a remembrance of a recent trip to Latvia where she was struck by the abandoned resort towns along the Baltic Sea. Hello From The Edge of The Earth' is an earnest reection of Lattimore's love of the natural world, recognizing the thresholds of varying terrains.

The album's fth track borrows its name from Lattimore's favorite line in Denis Johnson's short story Emergency' from Jesus' Son. A character, lost in a blizzard, reassesses a disjointed universe, a clash between curtains of snow and angels descending out of a brilliant blue summer: it isn't an apocalypse, it is a drive-in movie, with stars hovering above the lot, off the screen, in the throes of the Midwestern storm. This mix-up is disorienting and existentially tragic, Lattimore's darkly strummed piece is a melancholic parallel, mimicking Johnson's elegant suture attaching two remarkably discontinuous spaces.

Micro-revelations, not quite as bright as torn skies but nonetheless enlightening, were everyday occurrences during Lattimore's residency. Living small days with small tasks — feeling little dramas within the arcadian universe of a national park — rendered her the sense that disjointed spaces can be interconnected no matter the enormity that divides them. It's in this elastic scale of perception that something as simultaneously simple and intricate as Hundreds of Days can ourish.

- Second solo album for Ghostly, past releases on Thrill Jockey
- Recently toured w/ Sharon Van Etten, Jarvis Cocker, Kurt Vile, Steve Gunn, Julia Holter, Iceage
- Mary Lattimore has been featured on Pitchfork, NPR, The Wire Magazine, and more

Combo Lulo is that rare possibility of true magic moments manifested. Embodying the classic sentiment of a New York supergroup with an ensemble of friends and like-minded musicians whose resume is too full of credits and accolades to grasp in one shot, the band is a testament to what can happen when locked together for a two-day session in a Brooklyn studio.

Drawing inspiration and direction from band leader, composer and multi-instrumentalist Mike Sarason, Combo Lulo moves side to side from effortless Jamaican foundation rhythms into the further reaches of Caribbean influence...incorporating a natural transition between Jamaican classics and the essence of Afro-Latin ritmo. It's a musical match made in heaven and, more importantly, it's carried out with the gentle and deft touch of veteran studio musicians with deep appreciation and nuanced understanding. Together with Names You Can Trust, it's a locked in groove that is a perfect slice of roots, collaboration & present day experimentation that is sure to have any listener feeling nice.

Mercury Music Prize album of the year 2014

Deluxe remastered gate-fold double-LP with three bonus tracks (black vinyl version).

Noted for their hypnotic melodies, visceral bass-lines and tidal rhythm, Manchester-based leftfield piano trio GoGo Penguin are pianist Chris Illingworth, bassist Nick Blacka and drummer Rob Turner. Their music has been described as acoustic-electronica but they draw equally on rock, jazz

and minimalism, game soundtracks and glitchy-electronica to create their unique music. They are now one of the most successful bands in contemporary music, topping the jazz charts globally and playingsold out shows around the world and have just announced their biggest tour yet including the Royal Albert Hall in London (Nov 12).

Originally released in March 2014, v2.0, was their breakthrough album and the first to feature the rebooted line-up with new bassist Nick Blacka, pianist Chris Illingworth and drummer Rob Turner. It was named a Mercury Prize album of the year 2014 alongside albums from Damon Albarn, Young Fathers and Jungle.

The extended version was first released on 2xLP for RSD 18 on clear vinyl. This version features the same extended tracklist on black vinyl.

Newly remastered for vinyl (by the original engineer)
2xLP deluxe gatefold edition.

v2.0 includes the hit singles, Hopopono, Garden Dog Barbecue and Kamaloka as well as the remarkable One Percent and live favourite To Drown in You. Included here for the first time is theincessant 'Break' featuring a killer groove that offers a notdto the one and only Squarepusher, 'Wash', a haunting slice of the band at their most ambient and the wonderful 'In Amber', the first track that the new line-up wrote completely together.

Rhyw is Alex Tsiridis aka one half of Cassegrain. On this, his solo debut for Arcing Seas, his smoul-dering alien techno sound manifesto continues to thrive over three unique tracks.

The morphing, deconstructed acid of 'Unpunishable' - a molten statement of lusty intent - strikes first in a heady, hazy pummelling of doom-funk. 'Vertisol' pushes crisp and dry snaking percussion through an anechoic chamber; the bass end neatly warming at first then burning hard through your mid section.
An icy cold shot of 'Aqua Velva' is the final offering - a pushing sub-level trip through Rhyw's private domain - where tingling rushes of bass and static charges wash over us leaving a sinful residue.

Label info:
Arcing Seas is an anagram of Cassegrain. It started out as a secret alias, releasing a couple EPs on Our Circula Sound. The secret was less well kept after the duo appeared at Berghain under this name. A year later, after deciding to start a label, it finally made sense to bring the two together.
CASSEGRAIN = Co S o S o G o R o N o A o E o A o I = ARCING SEAS

Grammy-nominated Ostinato Records presents "Abu Obaida Hassan & His Tambour: The Shaigiya Sound of Sudan" in a gatefold LP packaging with vintage photos and authentic Sudanese designs.
A complex blend of Arab melodies, Nubian rhythms, and signature Sudanese call and response by a legend of Shaigiya music from nothern Sudan.

Abu Obaida Hassan and the wonders of his five-string tambour remained largely a mystery. In the early 2000's, a prominent Sudanese newspaper declared him dead. Internet forums confirmed his passing. Many in Khartoum, Sudan's capital, said he had indeed died.
But rumors that he was still alive persisted.

What was always certain is Abu Obaida Hassan's mercurial talent.
His command of a modified tambour, backed by a chorus and two drummers, unleashed swirling melodies alongside complex Nubian rhythms and hypnotic Sudanese call and response. His bands roster constantly changed, but he remained at the helm, playing for sold out shows in cities across the country and capturing the dancefloors and youth of 1970's and 80's Sudan. This is a rich, raw example of the human experience with sound from northern Sudan, an ancient part of the world, and the birthplace of civilization. Music like this isn't mastered overnight.

The Ostinato team first came across Abu Obaida's recordings in 2011, finding scratchy bits and pieces along the years. We traveled to Sudan in 2016 to find the clues to piece together the Abu Obaida Hassan puzzle. Through some extensive detective work with our man in Khartoum, Ahmed Asysouti, and a generous dose of good fortune, we tracked Abu Obaida to the rural outskirts of Omdurman, the old capital just across the White Nile from Khartoum. Age has taken its toll, but he remains full of life and music, ready to jointly curate a selection of his eight best cuts. He has written over 100 songs, only 30 were recorded.

Abu Obaida comes from the Shaigiya people, whose culture is spread around the ancient city of Merowe, home of traditional Nubian culture, where pyramids older than those in Egypt still stand. They trace their entire lineage to one man, Shaig, who migrated from the Arabian peninsula in the 15th century. An endlessly rhythmic syncretism between Arab and Nubian styles, Abu Obaida's Shaigiya music was an in demand party affair in an era when a vibrant nightlife and roving sound systems were a staple of life in Sudan.

It was music for a modern era, and Abu Obaida, at just 19, rebelliously abandoned traditional Shaigiya music traditions, pioneering a new sound by adding an extra string to his tambour and electrifying an instrument adored across East Africa. The result was complexity in simplicity and a hyper-talented artist who mirrors the story of Sudan's highs and lows, from the leading tambour maestro of the hour to such obscurity on the fringes that he was believed dead. "They killed me!", he likes to joke.

Abu Obaida Hassan, his music and the musical traditions of the Shaigiya remain alive and kicking. A culmination of a 7-year journey — from first hearing Abu Obaida's distinct sound, found only in Sudan, to finding the man — has produced the first global release of Shaigiya music and is just the beginning of Ostinato's immersion into Sudan, with a full compilation of the lavish musical history of one the most diverse countries in Africa due later this year. All brought to you by the Grammy-nominated team behind last year's "Sweet As Broken Dates."

Nature always has all the answers, Alfredo Mazzilli join the label at the right time and the right moment, these four cuts are the definition of Precision, Power, and Elegance, the Artist knows very well how to define these 3 elements, and make them all work together like a charm and every situation needed.