Cerca:trance wave 5

Zenwerk is an eclectic tech trancethusiast from Belarus, though based in Warsaw, Poland, where he has already established himself as a leading artist and party promoter.

Ne Quid Nimis:
Ne Quid Nimis is Latin for "nothing in excess" – the track is a perfectly balanced subaquatic blend of peaceful yet progressive trance and muffled bloopy sonics. Inspired by the mountains hikes, this tribal trip into the rainforest creates a drifting atmosphere of a celestial and dynamic ride meant to pass a healing power of nature alongside joyful turbulence and inspiration. Ethereal vibrations & deep sound textures create a dreamy universe of wonder and bright hopes for the future.

A2 ‘Dew Kissed Silk’ is a 4x4 walk in trance delirium across predator footprints which becomes satisfactory – silk is being kissed by dew, though not soaked with. This contemporary vanguard trance/breakbeat hybrid creates a perfect mental equilibrium.

Rising Bristol star JOELY brings 2 hot B side tracks which show how hot a talent he is at such a young age. Hive Mind creates a playful grit which will get a dance floor moving in the early hours of a set, providing a steady rhythm which never wavers. Jungle Walk takes us down a darker, ethereal path which will make any soundsystem wobble with the thick wonky textures that JOELY expertly weaves in. Mind this gap.

With THEE CHURCH OV ACID HOUSE's third EP, the miracle is now complete, the trinity has come full circle, the triptych is complete, the church has fully handed over the Holy Spirit to its disciples. For this celebration, apostles such as Glow, Tyson and Elektra, as well as the church leaders of THEE CHURCH OV ACID HOUSE themselves, come together again to celebrate a Dionysian Bachanal.

It starts with Glow's ‘Acid House Planet’, an epic-ambient call to the gods at the foot of the Acid House Olympus.

And the next track on the EP, ‘Coming Home’, a no less epic house tune that calls the children of faith home to the church with the vocoder voice of the gods, shows that they listen to their disciples.

‘Mitzubishi’ by Tyson celebrates the holy sacrament of acid painting in chords that melt on the tongue like a lollipop over a ritual beat.

This is followed by Elektra, which has already provided highlights on the previous EPs. And this time too, her hypnotic acid anthem worms its way deep into the ear canals and brains of the trance-listening worshippers.

Shortly before the end, the church leaders return to deliver an abstract breakbeat hymn with ‘Waves Ov Power’, which, surrounded by numerous sample memories of house history, sings of the pure power of the acid ecstasy techno religion.

Finally, THEE CHURCH OV ACID HOUSE disciples are dismissed from the service with a powerful hymn of distorted bass drums, namely Random Noise Generator's ‘SM 58’ in the T.C.O.A.H. Schranz remix - a track that will give the inspired followers of the CHURCH OV ACID HOUSE enough strength to spread the happy acid message throughout the land.
Amen.

Smutty Edits is the brainchild of Jeroen Van der Smut, a music aficionado who after indulging himself in kilos of Gouda Cheese, Fritjes with Mayo and Ban-cakes, left Amsterdam over 30 years ago for Anjuna Beach in India. Jeroen quickly got into Raving in the world of Goa Trance and electronic music. However, his love for Disco, Synth-Pop, and New Wave, where his musical journey began, brought him back to his roots. This passion led to the creation of Smutty Edits, as he decided to release carefully chosen edits from some of the most talented artists in the industry.

This first 12” features contributions from renowned artists who have left an indelible mark on the music scene. These collaborations ensure that each edit is of the highest quality, maintaining the integrity and spirit of the original tracks while adding a fresh perspective.

With occasional trips to Europe to reconnect with family and old friends, Jeroen remains deeply rooted in his heritage while continually seeking out new musical inspirations. Smutty Edits is set to release a series of records, each showcasing the label’s dedication to quality and innovation in Italo, Proto-House, Synth-Pop etc

Legendary and genre-defining Detroit label Metroplex Records is keeping on with its run of carefully selected releases from its classic-studded catalogue. The remastering and recut was done with uttermost care, using the newest mastering and audio-restoration technologies. These Techno and Electro benchmarks, taken from original sources, have never sounded better. Originally released in 1994 'Sonic Sunset' runs at over 50 minutes over five tracks that explore ambient electronica, techno and even trance. It includes the long versions of 'Neptune' and 'I Wanna Be There' two bonafide Model 500 classics. Recorded in Berlin and engineered by Maurice Von Oswald.

repressed !

Oxia's classic 'Domino' gets reworked for it's ten year anniversary - in 2 vinyl parts. A decade after initially seeing the light, Oxia's now classic 'Domino' get's reworked to celebrate it's anniversary. The new release features a new cut by Oxia himself as well as several remixes by none other than Frankey & Sandrino, Robag Wruhme and Matador. The EP will be released through Agoria's newly found record label Sapiens on February 24th.

Ten years ago the track made waves in the international dance music circuit, striking up chords with techno, trance and house DJs alike to quickly become an all-time classic. Having never expected the track to reach the status that it his, it's a very dear project to Oxia and he needed quite some persuading to give in and let Agoria and his team create something that was worthy of the original.

The set of tracks are the first officially commissioned remixes by Oxia ever. "Finding remixers took some time, the amazing Frankey & Sandrino who's track 'Acamar' is my absolute favourite of 2015, Matador that just launched his Rukus label as well is the multi-talented ex label mate at Kompakt Robag Wruhme. They are all incredibly gifted and fortunately patient enough to wait for this EP" - OXIA

DJ Support: Marco Faraone, Victor Ruiz, Marco Carola, Cristian Varela, Joseph Capriati, Mauro Picotto, Ilario Alicante, Wehbba, Konrad, Anna Tur, Joris Voorn, Anna Reusch, ANELA

Indira Paganotto and her ARTCORE imprint stand out from the crowd with an exponential sense of uniqueness, front-running pioneers of the new Psy-influenced techno boom. Indira’s upcoming release ‘Gypsy Queen’ is another perfect example of how she has garnered so much love and support for her unique vibe and ethos to date.

Title track ‘Gipsy Queen’ begins in eccentric fashion. A gentle strumming of flamenco guitar lines, a distorted chorus of castanets and an enchanting vocal open the track to remain a key feature throughout waves of razor-sharp synths and hurtling drums sequences. The dips in pace are beautifully accompanied by the stirring vocals but before long the flamenco influences are overrun by the trance-tinged techno Indira is famous for. The out of body like energy summoned by the strings and haunting effects of ‘Vendetta’ offer a different audio experience to that offered by the EP’s title track. With a visceral intensity that becomes more acute following each drop there are several curious effects and tones at play to make for a somewhat dramatic techno heavy melody.

Opening the flip side is ‘Heaven Is For Warriors’ , this comes in hot with thumping drum grooves and crisp percussive drive, supplemented by ominously celestial undertones and rave-inspired musicality throughout-a sinister tirade of punchy electronic grit, marching to a racy tempo built for peak-time sets. The release closes on ‘Requiem’, further playing on the darkened divine theme throughout the EP. Beyond its atmospheric intro, you’re greeted with a marauding flurry of watertight Techno goodness layered with synths, sirens, pads and much more.

There’s no denying Indira’s oneness when considering groundbreaking techno talents; This EP serves as a solid reminder of her commitment to trailblazing a path into the genre’s new and exciting age.

Amazingblaze returns to home label KNTXT with an exhilarating new release that shows another subtle evolution in his style. His Touch The Sky EP features four standout new tracks that are sure to make a global impact.

Amazingblaze emerged as a pivotal tastemaker in the new school scene, marking his debut on KNTXT in 2022 with his Venture EP. Last year, he further solidified his presence on the label, with the release of two EPs and a remix of Charlotte de Witte’s single ‘High Street’. He has been obsessed with music since a young age and that shows in his productions which blend the inspirations of his youth with plenty of fresh contemporary style. His releases consistently aim to leave a significant mark on the club scene, and this latest EP is no exception. With powerful grooves and emotive synths, it sets the stage for another impactful experience.

Amazingblaze on his new EP: "Touch The Sky is a blend of emotions of early trance with the shape of a modern look. From start to finish it's catching you with pleasant pressure and doesn't let you go. Really proud of this one!"

Charlotte de Witte adds: “Amazingblaze is back and I'm just obsessed with these four tracks. They're all masterpieces, representing his very unique and distinctive sound. I'm very proud to be able to welcome him again on the label and continue to be a place he can call home.”

Opener Touch The Sky is a high speed and fresh techno sound that is laced with euphoric trance synths and a heartfelt vocal. It is sure to get hands in the air and dance floors locked into its spell. Kaleidoscope ups the ante further with more scintillating hard techno drums and flashes of synth that will chime perfectly with strobe-lit clubs. A spine-tinging breakdown features angelic vocals before the drums kick in and power things to the next level. Thank You, God Always is more straight up with hard edge drums and synths that spray about the mix with bright rave energy and futuristic soul and last of all is Habits, an urgent and high speed wave of lush trance techno with a classic vocal stab and more celestial voices drifting up to hypnotic effect.

This is another big release from Amazingblaze that shows he has plenty of new tricks up his sleeve.

2024 repress

Music From Memory is excited to announce a special compilation that they’ve been working on for some time now; MFM053 – VA – Heisei No Oto – Japanese Left-field Pop From The CD Age (1989-1996). Compiled by long-time friends of the label, Eiji Taniguchi and Norio Sato, Heisei No Oto delves into a world of music released almost exclusively on CD and brings together a fascinating selection of discoveries from a little known and overlooked part of Japan’s musical history.

The last ten or so years have seen a global wave of interest in Japanese music encompassing ambient, jazz, new wave and pop records from the 1980s, some of which is increasingly considered the most innovative and visionary music of that time. Although some music from this period, in the form of ‘City Pop’ or ‘rare groove’ records, had been coveted by collectors and DJs for a number of years, most Japanese music from the time was little known outside and often even within Japan.

Sometime around the mid 2000s, two Osaka record store owners, Eiji Taniguchi of Revelation Time and Norio Sato of Rare Groove, along with a handful of deep Japanese diggers such as Chee Shimizu of Organic Music records in Tokyo, began to explore beyond the typical ‘grooves’ or ‘breaks’. Much like their counterparts in Europe and the US, they began delving into home-grown ambient, jazz, new wave and pop records, discovering visionary music, often driven by synthesizers or drum computers, that broke beyond the typical confines of their genres.

Spending tireless hours in local record stores and embarking on digging trips across the country, Eiji Taniguchi and Norio Sato, much like Chee Shimizu, have been at the forefront of unearthing and introducing many of the very Japanese records now loved and sought after around the world. Yet as YouTube algorithms and vinyl reissues would transport such music into the global consciousness and demand and therefore scarcity intensified for such records, so Eiji and Norio have recently begun to turn their attention to CDs.

The title of the compilation Heisei No Oto refers to the sound of the Heisei era, which began in 1989 and corresponds to the reign of Emperor Akihito until his abdication in 2019. Marking the culmination of one of the most rapid economic growths in Japanese history, 1989 also coincided with the music industry’s final shift away from vinyl in favour of CDs. And, although compact discs were first introduced seven years earlier it wasn’t until late into the ‘80s that, beyond dance music labels, CDs became the exclusive format for major and independent labels in Japan and throughout the world.

This however didn’t signal the end of the innovation in Japan. Many of those same musicians who have become known for their work in the ‘80s would continue to produce outstanding music well into the mid ‘90s, as greater innovation and advances in musical equipment allowed Japanese musicians and producers to refine and explore new sounds. While musicians such as the seminal Haruomi Hosono, whose productions feature on a number of tracks, would continue to push the boundaries of these new technologies, these technological advances also meant less established musicians were able to make use of increasingly affordable but state-of-the-art equipment.

Including music by Haruomi Hosono as well as Yasuaki Shimizu, Toshifumi Hinata and Ichiko Hashimoto who have become known and loved around the world in recent years, Hesei No Oto also features Japanese pop star Yosui Inoue, producers Jun Sato and Keisuke Kikuchi in aaddition to less established artists from the contemporary, jazz, new wave, pop and dance music scenes. Bringing together a selection of tracks that seem to define these specific genres and in fact move fluidly between a number of them, the music on the compilation is again underscored by experimentations with synthesizers and drum computers though with something of a gentle Pop sensibility. Reimagined here then under the encompassing term ‘Left-field Pop’, this is an exciting chapter in Japanese musical history that has only just begun to be fully explored.

VA - Heisei No Oto - Japanese Left-field Pop From The CD Age (1989-1996) is a 2xLP/2xCD that includes liner notes by Chee Shimizu and artwork by Hagihara Takuya and is released on February 28th.

"Direct heir to the fusions of Maloya rhythms from Réunion Island, like Alain Peters, Danyel Waro, René Lacaille... Bonbon Vodou is the sweet and sour confectionery concocted by Oriane Lacaille and JereM Boucris. Bathed in the sweetness of clear voices and carried by a devastating groove, Bonbon Vodou distills joy and propagates a trance wave.

Bonbon Vodou renews in French and Reunion Creole the melodic-fantastic marriage of grouple (couple group) Areski B./B. Fountain.

On her unique mini-drums, Oriane makes bodies shake to the pulsations of the Island of Meeting. JereM, with his oil can body guitar and North African reminiscences, hybridizes these rhythms of heady melodies.

The creoleness of Bonbon Vodou is expressed in a bonfire, which summons Brassens in choir as well as the explosive ternary of the Indian Ocean. To make this fire crackle a little more, the duo joins in a fantasized “side band”: the Piment Piment, three captivating musicians for an enhanced Bonbon Vodou formula. Roland Seilhes: the pied-noir blanc-bec at the hips (sax, clarinets and flute) Juliette Minvielle: the aerial wildness of Béarn (string drum, keyboards and percussion) Yann-Lou Bertrand: Panam ivory (bass, flute, trumpet, percussion)

Bonbon Vodou as a quintet explores even more deeply maloya and the mosaic of swaying and telluric rhythms gleaned from the four cardinal points.

If the duo adopted the Creole spelling of AFRODIZIAK it is because it extends the very real dream of their African roots.

Singing about the beauty of crossbreeding and the harshness of metic life.

The quest for hidden treasure, the lives of migrations and island lives are imbued with it.

“Bonbon Vodou sides with the practices of enchantment” Vinciane Despret "

* The title Afrodisiak quotes “We love life as much as possible” by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish

Introducing "Uprising Volume 2" by Zaratustra, the Highly Anticipated Second Installment of the Acclaimed Series on Skylax Records. Following the Groundbreaking Success of "Uprising Volume 1" in the Indie Dance Scene, Zaratustra Returns With a Collection of Tracks That Push the Boundaries of Genres, Inspired by Indie Dance, Italo Disco, Ebm, New Beat, Acid, and Ethnic Music. Prepare to Be Captivated by the Infectious Energy of "Uprising Volume 2." the Ep Opens With the Mesmerizing "Dark Clouds" (Club Mix), Reminiscent of the Futuristic Vibes of I-F's "Space Invaders Are Smoking Grass" and the Early 2000s Brilliance of Tiga. the Instrumental Version of "Amours Electroniques" Takes You on a Nostalgic Journey, Evoking the Spirit of Miss Kittin & the Hacker's Iconic Sound. Emilio Van Rijsel Delivers an Astounding Acid Trance Techno Remix of "Dark Clouds," Surpassing Expectations and Becoming an Undeniable Highlight of the Ep. for an Extra Treat, Those Who Purchase the Vinyl on Our Bandcamp Will Receive the Full Instrumental Version of "Dark Clouds," the Vocal Version of "Amours Electroniques" (Feat. Angst for Greta), and the Vocal Version of Naranja's Remix. Speaking of Naranja, the Ep Features a Dynamic and Uptempo Remix of "Amours Electroniques" (Instrumental) by the Talented Producer. Naranja's Remix Infuses the Track With a Pulsating Rhythm and Compelling Grooves, Elevating the Energy to New Heights While Maintaining the Essence of the Original. It's a Captivating Reinterpretation That Will Ignite Dancefloors and Leave Listeners Craving More. "Uprising Volume 2" Is a Powerful Testament to Zaratustra's Ability to Revive the Spirit of the Early 2000s New Wave and Electroclash Era. Each Track Encapsulates the Essence of That Time, Infusing It With a Modern Touch That Will Leave Listeners Craving More. Join the Uprising and Immerse Yourself in the Electrifying Soundscapes of Zaratustra. This Vinyl Release Is a Must-Have for Any Music Enthusiast Seeking a Sonic Adventure That Defies Genres and Rekindles the Spirit of a Bygone Era. Grab Your Copy of "Uprising Volume 2" and Witness the Evolution of Zaratustra's Artistic Prowess, as He Continues to Shape the Future of Electronic Music....

Born in Beirut, Lebanon, Rami Gabriel has been a motive force in rock n' roll, jazz, Arabic, and experimental music communities across North America for over twenty years. In that time, he has released numerous projects across genres and under many names. On his debut LP for Sooper Records, Rami trips all the breakers. In his own name and voice for the first time, That's what I been sayin' is not so much a debut as a conflagration in Rami Gabriel's worldly underground. Drawing on Punk, Krautrock, Dub, No Wave, and lo- fi, the territory occupied by That's what I been sayin' is astringent, minimal, and buzzing with the sound of machines dancing in the wind. "I'm used to putting out records based on genre," says Rami of his multiple endeavors. "I was listening to one of the `70s Brian Eno records where he took his experimental work and his songs and put it all together, and I was thinking, `Why don't I try to put all the different ways I've been working for the last couple years onto one record?'" That's what I been sayin' ignites this vision with an album that ranges from the motorik-driven krautrock of "Like a monk" to the unexpected trance-like pairing of "Buzuq synth." That's what I been sayin' is a furnace of Rami's insuppressible impulses, where he undertakes to ask and answer: what is left of punk but making do with what is at hand? At times direct and scorching, at others meditative and wandering, That's what I been sayin' compresses Rami's understanding as a composer, musician, and singer into a restless, 11-track love letter to the underground. For Fans of The Fall, Haruomi Hosono, Brian Eno, and Scientist.

Our 20th celebration year continues with a very special comeback! It’s exactly ten years now since the last Ben La Desh release on our label, his sublime “Stellar Talk EP” hit big waves and together with the “Midnight Rendez-Vous EP” from 2012 he cemented himself in the lo-fi deep space house scene as an artist to look out for, no one produced deep house like he did back then. After a longer break from releasing music he is back and we think stronger as ever, with analogue gear and well curated sampling and live field recording we present you his “Fine Rise EP”.

The opener “Heel Goed” is an amazing track with that distinctive 909 beat and DX bass driven “La Desh” flavour and a truly wonderful vocal sample from a 90s TV commercial, hilariously funny and brilliant at the same time! We can’t wait to see the faces of people, especially on the Dutch dancefloors, when they try to figure out and discover what the ladies are talking about! Second A side track is the super funky “Lift Adrift” that flanges itself to outer space, etherical with chopped break beats and various percussive and rhythmic Pearl Syncussion layers running through effect pedals, Lift Adrift!

On the other side we start out with the deep title track “Fine Rise”. Here Ben treats us again to his trademark spaced out effects driven sound and on top a killer bass line and synth lead melody, reminiscent of the golden age of (good) trance music. Followed by the break beat gem that is “Asanti”, cautiously cut up breaks and layered machine drums with bubbly Syncussion sounds, rain drops falling down on different surfaces recorded in a garden in the French Drôme and processed African Kalimba. Did we already say Etherical? It is!
Closing out this great new record is the ambient piece “Expanding Signal”, an analogue tune that consists of field recordings and deep dubby chords, a building Juno pulse, swooshes and again a profound DX bassline, think of “Sun Electric” or “The Orb”.

Enjoy this one and play it loud on the dance floors or silently in your bedroom, it works everywhere as far as we are concerned!

All tracks mastered by Salz Mastering in Cologne. Photography & Art by Break 3000.

Originally released on tape by SicSic in 2014, Aprilnacht commemorates a decade of music from Brannten Schnüre and marked the spring in a tetralogy of albums about the four seasons when it came out. Back then the Würzburg-based project consisted solely of Christian Schoppik, who later welcomed Katie Rich to take over the vocals. He used to perform as Agnes Beil, but dropped the name when, while making this album realized his music was becoming "much gentler and more fragile". Aprilnacht already captured the particular musical ideas that Schoppik would thoroughly keep exploring, delving deeper and deeper into the use and manipulation of samplers from sources so diverging as to wander between the five continents to post-war German family television and cult cinema. Heir of the ritualistic intensity of Coil, of the intricate sampler assemblies of Ghédalia Tazartès', and of the dusty, dismal old ballads from around the world, Brannten Schnüre manages to make these paths cross in a territory that is as inherent as it is uncanny; sieged by the past and intimate as a hearth. An organic approach to folk, ambient, and sound collage, where ethereal yet thoroughly textured pieces coalesce in enthralling, delicate, and innermost musical rituals.

The album cover paintings reveal the temper: dreary old towns where shadows come to dim the slow passage of crepuscular colors, a soft area of reanimation where wind and light come close and foresee the night of spring. Aprilnacht was inspired by the stories of German philosopher and writer Friedrich Alfred Schmid Noerr, whose work exhaustively examines the conflict between paganism and Christianity, safeguarding myth in a way that Schoppik describes as boldly modern, humorous and unpredictable in its variations of the Germanic folklore motifs. "I wanted to do the same with the music," he states, and the music here could as well be suitable for a night when household deities welcome wandering will-o'-the-wisps, water nymphs, and gyrovagues to discuss Perchta's leadership of The Wild Hunt, but this album is not a folk tale, it's not an elegy to worlds already gone, hidden in years; it's an intersection of routes that open mysteriously before our ears like a congregation of vapors. Aprilnacht is a gathering of voices; "There are too many children, and none of them keeps quiet," reads the last verse of «Requiem für eine Ringelnatter.»

Sensuality drips over the music to celebrate both the voluptuousness and tragic quality of nature; "It's raining on me, urine from your flowers," Schoppik sings in «Urin deiner Blüten» and later on, faced with a snake's erotic features, as if he wanted to be embraced by it: "Your quick, sharp tongue and your warm venom; that's what the pond is missing." Orality is where this profusion of contents thrives. When the voices get closer and condense, the words reveal the saliva employed to pronounce them; we feel the mouth and the tongue, but when breath envelops them in sorrow and softens their edges, they sound distant, diffused in the atmosphere, letting go of the body that held them. These two vocal facets oscillate permanently and interact naturally with the fertile assembly of samplers and instruments that develop throughout the album, which condense and disperse impersonating each other, interweaving to search for a specific syntax. Tangled whisperings of enigmatic phrases, timid voices that stick out to check the scene but hide away quickly, shivering trance chants and monastic ambiances, distant screams and clamors in between chaos and warfare swirl until bursting into subtle songs where even Mother Mary comes forth softly. Soothed by foggy atmospheres and crackling punctuations, these voices shape a vulnerable crowd, an occasion of fragility. Along this swarm of songs thrown into thin air, accordions sound like heavy-breathing lungs; clarinets sigh like curtains shaking; violin solos wander around like bees; Gjallarhorns cries distend like fleeing cattle; glockenspiels evoke remote music boxes and inherited toys; backward emanations emerge like slender waves retreating. On the banks of stretching loops and ember textures is where the songs slowly nest, collecting the words to find their tone.

A poem by Jorge Teillier says, "To talk with the dead you have to choose words that they recognize as easily as their hands recognized the fur of their dogs in the dark. To talk with the dead you have to know how to wait: they are fearful like the first steps of a child. But if we are patient one day they will answer us with a flame that suddenly revives in the fireplace." This may be Brannten Schnüre's main purpose: To find the voice to speak to those of whom we were a vision. Not in mourning, but acknowledging the obscure and volatile nature of spring's regenerative force, searching for the treasure of balance, as evidenced in the lyrics of «Requiem für ein Schwalbennest,» "Its nest was destroyed so many times before it was finished, and despite that, the shallow builds as if it is infatuated." The same idea is here in the words of Schmid Noerr, who made poetry an act of resistance to the horror of Nazism; "Since having seen the ability of a brilliant spirit to die, with a calm mouth that everyone saw, health is true again and we affirm it, even if rivers of blood flow." And as we call for the dusk's kindness, waiting to return home and eat with our kin by the stove, our ears become used to the games of the night. We feel like we're rowing on wetlands, while the "moon musick" keeps us vigilant against the slightest movement of water or sweet moan because eeriness here is imperative for survival. Do not succumb to the insipid howl of death, for nothing may last but mutability. You see, the rock has moved a little during the night; the rest is just wind fleeing from the void.

Skylax Records Is Proud to Introduce You to the Sound of RotorMotor With Their Astounding "Dream Beams" Ep That Encapsulates the Essence of Early '90s Trance, Italo Disco, and Ebm, While Evoking the Nostalgic Sound of Kompakt From 2004 to 2007. Hailing From Ljubljana, Slovenia, RotorMotor Is a Dynamic Duo Whose Tracks Have Gained Popularity Through Their Association With Lesyeuxorange, Feinstoff, Sexy Dinosaur From Outer Space, and Esteemed Remix Luminaries Like Neurotiker. Prepare to Be Transported Into an Audio Realm Where Pulsating Beats and Infectious Melodies Collide. the Ep Kicks Off With "Size of a Photon," a Track That Encapsulates the Signature Sound of Kompakt in Its Purest Form. "Feel My Pulse" Follows Suit, Immersing Listeners in a Rhythmic Journey That Resonates Deep Within. One of the Ep's Standout Moments Is the Remarkable Remix by Italian Producer Amarcord, Recently Acclaimed for His Releases on Ombra International, Eskimo Recordings, and Curses' Excellent Compilation "Next Wave Acid Punx". Amarcord's Remix of "Flashblinded" Flawlessly Blends Breakbeat and Trance Elements, Resulting in an Elegantly Treated Sonic Masterpiece. on the Flipside, RotorMotor Collaborates With Pholia on "Flashblinded," Delivering Both an Instrumental and a Vocal Version. the Vocal Rendition Adds a Post-Apocalyptic Touch as Pholia's Robotic Voice Sings in Slovenian, Creating an Atmospheric and Haunting Experience. "Dream Beams" Is a Demonstration to RotorMotor's Ability to Fuse Influences From the Past With a Contemporary Twist, Creating a Sonic Landscape That Captivates the Senses. With Their Relentless Energy and Creative Vision, RotorMotor Never Ceases to Amaze. This Vinyl Release Is a Must-Have for Any Enthusiast of Electronic Music Seeking an Extraordinary Sonic Adventure. Grab Your Copy and Experience the Hypnotic Power of RotorMotor....

Reissued for the first time on vinyl "Wadada Magic", Suns Of Arqa's majestic second album. The wicked world of Michael Wadada is well represented here: an ever-changing kaleidoscope of tribal dub, early electronics , proto-wave and global beat. Special guests on vocals Prince Far I and Prince Hammer, while on bass the true genius of Lizard from Creation Rebel / Singer & Players



[c] A3 Hasheesh; Percussion – J. J. Slater*; Reeds [Chinese Shawm] – John Scott (13)





[i] B4 The Heat; Performer [Rhythm Section] – The Legendary Lepards; Vocals – Prince Hammer

"Jolifanto" takes its name from the first verse of "Karawane", a seminal Dadaist phonetic poem by Hugo Ball. When Ball first recited it in 1916 at the Cabaret Voltaire, both the author and the audience embraced a trance that left Ball exhausted, requiring assistance off the stage as the audience claimed the spotlight.

Over a century later, by a series of fortuitous events, "Jolifanto" is also the title of an album featuring two powerful musical entities. Artists stemming from diverse backgrounds converge with a shared experimental spirit, curiosity and passion for exploration in their music.

"Jolifanto" is an unexpected explosion propelled by (poly)rhythm, expanding into seemingly distant territories under the influence of flamenco. The Dadaist spirit permeates the work, where a constant tension between the improvised and the meticulously planned is evident. ZA! and Perrate together form an organism traveling from the roots to the rave, with nothing sounding out of place because the place is yet to be defined.

Perrate witnessed ZA!'s concert in a festival he attended as part of the audience. The Catalans surprised him with a proposal that he found radical and unclassifiable. Later, after being invited to prepare a collaboration for the Música y Museos season in Seville, Perrate decided to move off the beaten path, approaching ZA!, who quickly embraced the proposal. Exchanges of ideas and audio tracks ensued in a short time and they quickly  found out that they were in the same wavelength. A week before the concert, they met in the same physical space for the first time, dedicating a couple of days to composition and preparing the gig at La Mina Studios in Seville. The concert took place, hailed as "the best concert most attendees had experienced in a long time", as reported by the Diario de Sevilla. That energy needed to be captured, and so it was, at the Happy Place studio in Seville, where the album was recorded between March 6th and 9th, 2023.

The Catalan duo ZA!, "the duo that mash up terrace-chant mayhem with... everything else" (The Wire #384), has operated independently and self-managed since their inception in 2004. They overlap genres and amalgamate sounds that move, with intensity, between wild jazz, post-rock and avant-garde electronics, among other influences. In their acclaimed latest work, they have revived the Phoenician language, exploring Mediterranean sounds alongside MegaCobla and Tarta Relena.

Perrate, active since the late 90s, explores the outer edges of flamenco without forsaking its profound essence rooted in lineage and tradition, evident in every note of his voice. His latest work, "Tres golpes" (Lovemonk/El Volcán, 2022), named flamenco album of the year by Babelia/El País, and one of the albums of the year for BBC3's Late Junction, reflects an innate curiosity, possibly the seed of all the fortuitous events leading to this album.

The encounter between Perrate and ZA! is the result of serendipitous events interwoven with the narrative of artists dedicated to experimentation and radicalism in all its forms.

This is it. Poly dance theatre 006 arrives. Fresh arrival. For the 6th POLY DANCE THEATRE release, androo has decided to release exclusive dubplates from NS Kroo sound system (androo & baba). Yes. 2 tracks from the smoky, always intense and sometimes very special sessions of the NS Kroo sound system over the last 10 years. Exxxperienceee. Wave Dub style is a blend of synth wave, dub stepper and club elements. A side: Fast Dub, tribute to Kitachi, (Iration steppas). Indeed, NS Kroo didn't wait for the recent re-issues to play Kitachi tracks, and has been inspired by this vibe from the outset. Club meets Dub! Fast Dub is trance, it's raw, it's sporty, it's for the legs, it's good support (aducteurs), it's for nimble feet, it's a book whose last sentence ends on the first, it's repetition, it's different style, it's dance, it's wild, it's club rhythm, it's baba operator, it's androo selector, it's sound system vibes, it's NS Kroo in 2019, it's a discreet, slightly punkish non-chalance, it's distortion, it's "we don't give a fuck about codes", it's that and lots of other things... B side: Wave Dub Style Is Back. It's all in the title. This track is probably from 2014? Wave dub... A mix of new wave/synth pop and dub, with a club mix feel. Again, trance music, the kind you play when the night never ends to end, an epic end-of-session odyssey. Soft and strange synth with strong 808 rhythm. 2 mixes. 1st mix: pop synth experience. 2nd mix: raw trance club mix. Wave Dub Style Is Back was remastered by androo in 2023 with the support of poly dance theatre compagnie.

F8 . Liam Melly - Energy
F9 . Armin Van Buuren - Space Case
F10 . The Obsessed - Free Yourself
F11 . Ie Shuuk & B Stylezz - Konje
F12 . Armin Van Buuren - Lose This Feeling (Maddix remix)
F13 . Armin Van Buuren - Lose This Feeling (Dimension remix)
F14 . Armin Van Buuren - AI Vs Humanity (A State Of Trance Year mix 2023 outro)

The Body & Dis Fig are a natural pair. Each has pioneered instantly recognizable worlds of sound all their own that defy any traditional categorizations or boundaries. The Body, Lee Buford and Chip King, continually challenge any conventional conception of metal, collaborating with myriad artists and from the folk-leanings of their work with BIG|BRAVE to their groundbreaking work with the Assembly of Light Choir to the intensity of their collaborations with OAA or Thou. Dis Fig, aka Felicia Chen, pushes electronic music into dark extremes, from warped DJ sets to avant production, from being a member of Tianzhuo Chen’s performance-art series TRANCE to being the vocalist with The Bug. The Body and Dis Fig find kinship in reimagining what it means to make “heavy music”. Their debut Orchards of a Futile Heaven is the perfect synthesis of two forces, twisting melodicism and intoxicating rhythms, layering a dense miasma of distortion with intense beats and a soaring voice clawing its way towards absolution.

Orchards of a Futile Heaven’s walls of sputtering texture and tectonic booms are soaked in the reverence and melancholy of sacred spaces brought to life by palpable intensity by Chen’s voice. Crafted during a time of personal fragility, the album’s devastating force lies beyond any of the expected noise and abrasive textures typically associated with both The Body & Dis Fig. Suffused with a raw vulnerability and a longing for catharsis, Chen’s voice searches for escape in the midst of oppressive atmospheres as if determined to find relief from guilt. “Eternal Hours” patiently unfurls waves of surprising sounds, whispered undulations that are punctuated by sudden crashes, all beneath Chen’s haunting harmonies. “Dissent, Shame” evokes grief and shame with a minimalist drone dirge that gradually builds to an enchanting choral passage. King’s guitar on “Holy Lance” matches the uncanny drone of Chen’s accordion in an all-consuming blast, Chen’s voice transforming the moment from anguish to defiance and empowerment. The album’s arc finishes with “Coils of Kaa” acting as a kind of propulsive exorcism, breaking through a suffocating air before the funeral procession of “Back to the Water” lays the album to rest.

While sampling has long been essential to each, The Body & Dis Fig deftly meld their differing approaches to sampling and creating extreme sounds until the boundaries are entirely blurred. The two found kinship in their desire to find new avenues to make heavy music that looked beyond tropes of metal and electronic music by merging the two. “I always wanted the heavier stuff but I also didn’t really like heavier guitar music,” says Buford. “None of it really felt quite heavy enough to me. A human can’t be as heavy as a machine.” Chen counters, “I love the balance. You could never connect to just a machine as well as you could a human. Which is why the combination is so potent for me. I don’t want to hide. I think nothing connects you more empathetically than another human's voice.”

Orchards of a Futile Heaven affirms The Body & Dis Fig as skilled sound sculptors who have an exceptional ability to make deeply affecting music, bracing as it is touching, harrowing as it is awe-inspiring. Together, the two have harnessed their expansive artistry to make music that is profoundly emotional, and staggering in its beauty.

Dean McPhee’s fifth full length album 'Astral Gold' sees the Yorkshire-based electric guitarist's music continue to evolve beyond the spacious folk-inspired fingerpicking that typified his earlier releases into a heavier sound combining deep bass, textured reverbs and waves of saturated delay. 'Astral Gold' brings together several now out-of-print tracks that were originally released on the Reverb Worship and Folklore Tapes labels, along with two brand new pieces – all recorded live in single takes. There is a cosmic theme throughout, including a track based on the local lore of The Ilkley Alien (The Second Message), a trance-inducing drone piece inspired by the orbit of the 'doomed moon' Triton (Neptune) and a meditation on lunar volcanism combining baroque melodies, EBow bass and found recordings of a crackling fire played through guitar pickups (Lunar Fire). Throughout this intricately layered and beautifully crafted album McPhee draws on a wide range of influences from Kosmische Muzik and Dub to Stoner/Doom Rock, British Folk and underground electronic music, and the result is both intoxicatingly atmospheric and sonically inventive. ‘Astral Gold’ was mastered and cut by Anne Taegert at Dubplates & Mastering in Berlin and is pressed on 180g heavyweight vinyl. ‘Astral Gold’ follows Dean McPhee’s recent appearances this year on several well received compilation albums ‘I Thought I Told You: A Yorkshire Tribute to Michael Chapman’ on the Tompkins Square label, ‘Ballads of Seduction, Fertility & Ritual Slaughter’ released by Wasistdas, and Folklore Tapes’ limited edition cassette ‘A Web of Braided Willow (The Folklore of the Wickerman)’. "His take on the late folk guitarist’s ‘Caddo Lake’ could have you believing the pinch of callous on string was birdsong – a meditative gem" (Noel Gardner, The Quietus) "Magpahi's synth-drizzled Maypole, Dean McPhee's Sunset and Meg Baird's Willow's Song are particularly gorgeous" (Jude Rogers. The Guardian) "An excellent new single from UK guitarist Dean McPhee...the A-side is an echo-laden slice of smoldering instrumental guitar, pulling at the mind like taffy and living up to its cosmic title" (Raven Sings the Blues) "Absolutely lovely stuff; shimmering, gorgeous, delicate electric guitar playing of the very highest quality

The fourth release from Cartulis Music's sublabel, ALT, is brought to you by the freshly formed French duo known as AV1. This will be the first record of a 2-part series by the newly formed duo under ALT.

AV1 is a project helmed by the seasoned producer and DJ, Chris Carrier, who has been making waves in the music scene since the late '90s. Accompanied by Le Loup, another stalwart of the Parisian music scene, this dynamic duo shares a profound passion for acid and classicist house/techno grooves.

The EP kicks off with "Light Gate," a mesmerizing, steady techno journey infused with subtle trance elements and harmonious pads that captivate both the mind and the body. The A side follows with "Origins," an effortlessly flowing breakbeat composition adorned with just the right touch of acid, crafting an enigmatic yet inviting ambiance.

On the B side, we go deeper with "98% Safe," a dynamic track that seamlessly transitions from euphoric synths and bursts of color to mind-bending acid grooves and ominous undertones. This sonic tapestry is expertly woven together through innovative sampling techniques and a sense of fluidity. Bringing the record to a sublime close is "8 OG," a dreamy electro piece perfectly suited for a multitude of settings, it’s a sonic journey that beckons us to join in and experience it firsthand.

Nach den ersten geheimnisvollen, ohne viele Informationen gestreuten Songs „leichter//kälter“ und „Die
Sonne in deinem Zimmer“ dürfte man Edwin Rosen inzwischen auf dem Schirm haben. Diesen anfangzwanzigjährigen Ausnahmekünstler, dessen Songs sich mit ihren stoisch-sehnsüchtigen Eigenproduktionen, psychedelischen Soundscapes und sonorem Gesang gekonnt zwischen New- und Dark-Wave, Post-Punk
und Synth-Pop bewegt. Dass nicht nur Edwin Rosen selbst diese musikalische Melange als neueneuedeutschewelle,
die mittlerweile eine ganze Generation junger Musiker:innen beeinflusst hat, umschreibt, ist dabei nur konsequent. Seine erste Single „leichter//kälter“ schafft es bis auf Platz 6 der Single-Trendcharts und im
November 2023 spielte er seine ausverkaufte Headline Tour.

Negative Time! The new 12" vinyl EP of Xenomorph has a name that suits our global crisis. The best way to face these dark times is through the therapeutic powers of music. This 3-track 12" EP is the harbinger for the upcoming album "Netherverse" in early 2024. Fans of Mark Petrick know what to expect for sure. Goa-trance with a darker twist, but still filled with powerful melodies, unique kicks and psychedelic effects

The opening track, Negative Time, is a musical interpretation of zero point energy creation and quantum physics. Cutting, yet melodic goa-riffs take the listener on a journey backward in time through a mix of darkness leading to a positively melodic final. Danger on the High Seas is a deeper, more straightforward technoish track where light and dark are doing a wonderful mating dance between the crests of the high waves. The song was inspired by the mysterious vanishing of flight-19 in the bermuda triangle. The last track, Lost In An Old Junkyard, is known to the people that bought the Carpe Noctem compilation on Suntrip. But now it is available on vinyl as well as a different mix: the Tow Hook Mix! This track is the most classic Xenomorph track. Alienated tearing effects, mixed with exalted melodies.

Attention Banger Alert! Parissior Is a Spanish Dj Producer Who Has Been Producing Countless Tracks for Many Years Now. His Style Could Be Described as a Mix of Dark Disco, Indie Dance, Italo, Trance but Personally We Think It Goes Much Further. He Has a Total Mastery of the Art of Production (Something We Have Rarely Seen), It Looks More Like Sound Design It Sounds So Huge. His Tracks Are Not Just Dj Tools to Be Played but Bangers to Send in Pick Time. It Is Extremely Powerful, We Have Already Verified This During Our Recent Skylax Evenings (Especially for Our Event &Ldquo;série Noire”) and We Can Tell You That the Effect Is Devastating. for Us, He Managed the Perfect Ep, the One That All the Italian Indie Dance Producers, Even the Biggest Names in the Genre, Failed to Create. There's Nothing Cheesy About It, We've Been Listening to His Music Non-Stop Since We Received It, No Weariness in Sight. This Guy Is Monstrous. the 12 Inch Begins With the Brilliant Antennae, Which Is the Perfect Mix of Italo New Wave & Trance, Followed by Canes Venatici Which Could Have Been Created by Daft Punk if They Had Chosen to Be Less Commercial and Put Their Balls on the Table Instead of Hiding Behind Masks. Ceres and Alpha Apodis Follow the Same Line. We Miss Words So Much This Maxi Is Gigantic. a F%c$ing Masterpiece. to Add a Final Touch, Just Note That Many of His Recent Productions Have Been Recently Played a Lot by Pablo Bozzi & Soft Crash at Hör Berlin....

There are two versions of the vinyl - classic black and triple-color limited Indie Shop edition.

Both have special insert inside with the bands bio and photos.

Generacja JAZZ is a project showing a fragment of the new wave of Polish jazz, treading its own path, creating, touring and jamming across Europe. Borders don't exist - especially musical - the new generation is engaging with nightclubs, festivals and playlists. The time has now come to show its broader perspective. We created a project which involves a handful of groups that have already racked up debut albums and festival wins, as they set out on their musical odyssey. The groups also have other things in common, like their passion, originality and, for the needs of the project, age - all the artists during the recording of this album were under 30 years old. This is the new generation - the Jazz Generation.

For the Jazz Generation record we invited five bands who had already released debut albums: Immortal Onion, Klawo, Rejoin, Twoosty Mayonez and USO 9001. We also reserved two spots on the compilation for the winners of our open call competition, whereby on the basis of the jury's choice (jury: Monika Borzym, Paulina Przybysz, Envee, Wojtek Mazolewski i Marcin Groh Grośkiewicz) we met the winning bands: Kosmos and quietet.

The sleeve artist is Kornelia Nowak, who won our open call for young designers and graphic artists. Here once again we could rely on the opinion of a prestigious jury comprised of: Beata Śliwińska Barrakuz, Bovska, Maciej Animisiewasz Grochot, Grzegorz Forin Piwnicki i Marcin Groh Grośkiewicz.

Generacja JAZZ LP is also a start of the new imprint - U JAZZ ME, which will be focused on jazz from Poland.

And here are the bands from the album:

1. Immortal Onion - A band from the Tri-City playing a broad spectrum of instrumental music.

Band members: Wojtek Warmijak (percussion), Tomir Śpiołek (piano, synths), Ziemowit Klimek (Upright Bass, synths).

The band Immortal Onion has already established itself as one of the most interesting projects of the new wave of Polish jazz, and is consistently being labelled as such abroad. After two well received albums ("Ocelot of Salvation" (2017) and"XD Experience Design" (2020) U Know Me Records) they released their third album "Screens" in 2022, which was recorded with the well known Tri-City composer and saxophonist - Michał Jan Ciesielski.

The inspiration behind the band's formation were such artists as: Esbjörn Svensson, Hiromi Uehara, Tigran Hamasyan and Tosin Abasi.

The group's guiding principle from the very beginning was the fusion of often disparate musical styles, which bore "post instrumental aggressive gay pop". Despite the stylistic discrepancies, between which they swim, the group has forged its own identifiable language, characterised by complicated rhythmical structures, energetic riffs and trance beats with lyrical melodies.

The trio has performed its original material at many venues and festivals around Europe and Asia.

2. Klawo - seven adventurous adventurers from Gdańsk, who were brought together by their love for music, halvah and throwing Frisbee. Their self-named début album, released in 2022 on the local label Coastline Northern Cuts, is an amalgam of the inspirations of each of the team members and played backwards contains tips on how to reach the Kashubian pyramids. After a win at the international competition Jazz in the Park, held in Cluj-Napoca in Romania, the band began work on their second album. Meanwhile, they were also travelling the length and breadth of Poland on a mission to infect people with the idea of Baltic Funk.

3. Kosmos is a Łódż based jazz quintet. It was formed in 2020 by Pianist Stanisław Szmigero, Saxophonist Iwo Tylman and Trumpeter Jan Ostalski. However, it wasn't until 2022 that Kosmos found its true form when Kamil Gużniczak (Upright bass) and Kacper Kuta (Percussion) joined the line-up.

Their compositions are influenced by Polish yass bands, electronic music and hip-hop. Kosmos music is a mix of lyricism, space, intensity and elements of experiment.

The band members are all eccentric characters possessing different means of musical expression - looking at them, one could even argue they are a group of oddballs. Despite this, for reasons unbeknownst to themselves, the members of Kosmos complement each other on stage and form a unified artistic vision of the world around them.

Kosmos officially released their début single "Ja" in June 2023. They regularly play concerts across Poland and recently were selected as distinguished artists at JAZZiNSPIRACJE (JAZZiNSPIRATION) - a competition held during the 13th Lublin Jazz Festival.

4. Quietet (formed at the beginning of 2023) is the result of meetings between five talented musicians with a deep passion for musical creation. Its sound is a unique blend of Jazz and classical music with a hint of hard rock. The band is inspired by the Scandinavian approach to making music, which brings a characteristic atmosphere and melodies to their work. Their music captivates listeners with its originality, refined improvisations and flawless technique. Both classical and modern musical trends feed their inspiration when creating passionate and emotional compositions.

Their works are full of sound experimentation, which equally surprise and expose new musical horizons. Through their compositions, "Quietet" aims to share their emotions evoked during performances, creating a musical journey that affects and inspires.

5. Connecting jazz with electronic music in fresh interpretations, six young musicians make up the group Rejoin. The group re-formed in 2020 after a four-year break, playing their debut concert at Lotos Jazz Festival Bielska Zadymka Jazzowa. The musicians in Rejoin have performed alongside such artists as: Urszula Dudziak, Krystyna Prońko, Marcin Masecki, Szczyl, Kuba Więcek and Paulina Przybysz.

Most of the members of Rejoin are students from the Katowice Music Academy, where they also develop their own projects. Rejoin was a recipient of the Fabryki Norblin Music Masterclass Foundation scholarship.

6. Twoosty Mayonez is something your grandad would listen to with his younger sister. The non-standard approach to jazz alongside a pursuit of strange sounds, culminated in the conceptual album entitled "Carmin". The material was created by Bartosz Wolerta (percussion) and Dominik Kaniewski (bass guitar/synths). "Triceradiplodocus" tells the story of a mechanical dinosaur that lives on the yet undiscovered planet Carmin.

RA is back! Eight years after their first release, we are proud to present the second full album of the Norwegian duo Christer Borge-Lunde (Ex Dimension 5, Electron Wave) and Lars Wedde Lind.

"9th" is a concentrate of eastern melodies, deep soundscapes and fantastic positive climaxes... Starting where "To Sirius" left off, "9th" upgrades the RA experience to an all-allegoric story, ranging from soft Ambient and downtempo Goa Trance to uplifting morning monsters!

Octagon and Expand Consciousness embody dreamlike acceleration/deceleration phases aside the Ambient maestrias of the Intro and Light Receiver.
Ultima Energica, Spirit Complex and the massive Time Current are melodic stompers designed for the dancefloor, twirling layers over mind-melting rythmics!
Other Self, Transcendant and Predator are real athems to the Sun, the very definition of RA's so special music, full of psychedelic highs and soundscape travelling. Story-telling at its best...

Led by the legendary pianist and composer Chick Corea - the venerated 27-time Grammy winner and National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master - The Elektric Band stormed onto the jazz scene in the mid-1980s, making an immediate and lasting impact on the genre. With their electrifying performances and innovative blend of jazz fusion, the group produced a series of albums that set the bar for excellence in contemporary jazz. Featuring a core lineup of virtuosic musicians - John Patitucci on bass, Dave Weckl on drums, Eric Marienthal on saxophone and Frank Gambale on guitar - the group created a dynamic and electrifying sound that came to define the jazz fusion style. Their collective musicianship was on full display on each album, as they seamlessly blended complex compositions with captivating improvisations. With each outing, the band explored new sonic territories, incorporating elements of funk, Latin and Afro music, and pop sensibilities. Their 5-album studio discography is a masterful tapestry of multi-layered music, showcasing their creativity, innovation, and musicianship. A restlessly creative, eternally youthful and uncommonly generous spirit, Armando Anthony “Chick” Corea left behind an incredibly rich legacy of recorded music when he passed away on February 9, 2021. The music of the Elektric Band continues to inspire and influence musicians to this day, cementing their legacy as one of the most important and iconic jazz fusion bands of all time

The forever exploring electronical entity of a band, Gusgus, has opened yet a new era in their unique sonic multiverse. With their 12th album, the course is set to a strange mysterious place called DanceOrama. A Rave-Mall in a nostalgic future, DanceOrama is the place to be, where you can experience infinite freedom, genre and gender free. Moving from the pulsating new-wave influenced techno pop of the last album “Mobile Home” (2019), Gusgus emits the vibe of DanceOrama on their new album as an arousing, melody-rich hybrid of 80s/90s parties and raves. The 9- track album is slated for a November 10th release. The release is evenly split up in euphoric fusioned pop anthems and genre-free instrumental journeys.

Gusgus‘ last album “Mobile Home” was the later of twin albums that found the band exploring early 80’s new wave influences and reviving them in the iconic Gusgus soundscape. The highlight on the album was a pulsating techno reggae track called “Higher” that introduced a new member into the band, Margrét Rán, the lead singer of “VÖK”.

Whereas on “Mobile Home”, the concept was stationed in a rural environment of a dystopian side reality, Gusgus now moves to the city. In this city of strange discomforting future omens, DanceOrama stands out as the rave-mall of freedom. Leaving the new wave influences, this album is a strange hybrid of the 80’s and 90’s parties twisted into a genre-free blend of arousing experiences.

The album consists of 5 instrumental tracks and 4 vocal pop songs, ranging from 105-158 bpm and exploring various influences from the 80’s and 90’s and even the 70’s in a strange fusion of techno, trance, italo-disco, house and pop that emits the rawness and innocence of previous decades. The pop songs are quite strictly set as stories related to the mysteries and rumors of DanceOrama. One track in particular will be very exciting for our fans, as it has been a regular final track on our live show since the album “Arabian Horse” in 2011. This is the track “Breaking Down” that was recorded during the album “Mexico” in 2013 with “Earth” and “Högni” on vocals but, due to emotional turmoil, has never been released until now.

After a hiatus of quite some time, the Belgian duo composed by the world renowned model Kim Peers and post-metal band Amenra’s guitarist Mathieu Vandekerckhove, is finally back with a new full-length album.

Four years have passed since their debut Benevolence. Meanwhile Skemer took the time to let all sides of their personality grow and eventually explode. You remember their minimalist cold wave deconstructions equally made of brutal and erotic components. A duality deeply rooted in the band’s music as well as in their line-up and obviously their live shows, where romantic and ethereal atmospheres collide with the gothic side of electronic and techno music. This is even more present on their new LP Toasts & Sentiments.

Eleven new cuts where every side of Skemer’s nature gets its own share of expression only to leave you wrapped in one pitch black cloak. A few episodes in the duo’s native language Dutch, add even more mystery to the occult receipt.

Get in the introspective, tranche insistent riff on the opening track Eyelashes and get catapulted, quite literally, on the dark side of the moon. Keep on wandering the alien surface with Seen and its solemn gait. Pick up your pace with the pounding drums of Easy To Embrace and Kiss Me Kill Me. Go down the stairs to the dungeon of the club culture with lead singles Overgave and Out Of Favor claustrophobic electro. Remain bogged down in the darkness with New Born Babe, get slapped by Apocalypse’s industrial trance crescendo. Rest and collapse with the final track’s texture of ambient synths and reverberating guitars.

It may have taken four years for Skemer to present their new creation but it was definitely worth the wait. Walk the night with us.

A hidden gem of Uruguayan music, Los Terapeutas's second album, released in 1990, is an original take on candombe and its hypnotic groove, blending pop songcraft with expansive soundscapes, never losing their rhythmic pulse. Los Terapeutas is a band of songs, where new wave, candombe beat, funk and rock were mixed in a unique way, with a strange frontman who had traces of Eduardo Mateo, Damo Suzuki, Frank Zappa and David Byrne. "Candombe del no sé quien soy" is related to what the group did live at that time: looking for a state of hypnotic hanging with their songs. The playing of the candombe drums was obviously an inspiration to look for that trance state, as was the music of Mateo and that of Opa, but influences can also be traced from the rhythmic experiments of German band Can of the 70s. The album was released in the late 1990s, a complicated time for Uruguayan music. The album was released on vinyl, a format that was losing weight compared to the CD. They would not release an album together again until 1997. In the 2000s, Los Terapeutas slowly expanded their audience, while also leaning towards a more electric sound. The new generation of Uruguayan musicians recognized the pioneering work of the band and Alberto Wolf was seen as a kind of godfather by several of the rock groups that were beginning to become massive.

Second release of Berlin-based Shiver records.

DJ Seen takes you through a field of mesmerizing frequencies. The record's A-Side opens up for the waves of relaxation & dream. The title track Hypnotique lushes you into a continuous state of trance-induced easiness emphasised by a plain repeating chant.

Adam Collins’ remix takes you into a bubbling dreamworld underlined by a soft acid bed and a heavy deep neverending blanket of warmth.

The B-Side performs a natural switch, activating the brainwaves & inducing a woke state while trying to understand the sudden synth-explosions hailing through the tribalistic grooves of Bandicoot.

The trip ends with a burst of Insight at 6 am. A hymn to the frequencies of dance before it all settles down again.

It may have been 13 years since the last record, but Crime In Stereo are back with the announcement of its forthcoming album House & Trance, set for release on 27th October 2023 on Pure Noise Records. Lead single Hypernormalisation analyses the apathy of people in the face of their imminent demise,"The wildfires gathered themselves together, advancing enough petition signatures to force a vote on rerouting subterranean magma ducts directly into any east/west commuter corridors. Cities of water rushed in from the sea only to circle the neighbourhood for hours, stymied by alternate side parking." House & Trance feels like the natural next step for Crime In Stereo. It was entirely self-produced by the band (outside of it, both Romnes and Cioni are acclaimed and accomplished producers), and flows on so well from their past that it’s almost like the intervening decade and a bit hasn’t happened.

Through 35 hedonistic highlights stretched across three volumes, Music For The Radical Xenomaniac delivers the first ever deep dive into The Netherlands’ colourful house sound of the 90s and the under-celebrated producers and record labels whose music soundtracked a countrywide cultural movement.

Plenty of books and documentaries have celebrated the riotous raves, legendary clubs, high profile DJs and promoters who shaped The Netherlands’ hedonistic house scene throughout the 90s. Music For The Radical Xenomaniac dares to challenge these narratives by shining a light, for the first time, on those who created the scene’s kaleidoscopic, game-changing and globally influential soundtrack.

Leading the charge were a disparate group of key creators who not only forged links with their counterparts in Detroit, Chicago, New York, Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom, but also became celebrated figures on the worldwide electronic underground (Eric Nouhan, Aad De Mooy, Orlando Voorn, Stefan Robbers and Steve Rachmad). Alongside key underground imprints (Stealth Records, Basic Energy, ESP, Prime and Outland Records included) and lesser-known producers, these pioneers gave flavour to a radical musical movement via open-mindedness, unheard-of creativity and a genuinely futuristic ethos. All of these artists and labels are represented throughout the series.

So, what defined this hedonistic house sound from The Netherlands? Stylistically, it was varied – as the series so emphatically proves – but was defined by a set of distinctive sonic characteristics: emotive musical motifs, high-frequency synth sounds, mellow basslines, pulsating rhythms and more than a touch of hallucinatory intent.

Volume 3 is packed with in-demand tracks and hard-to-find gems, including a previously CD-only cut from Dutch techno originator Orlando Voorn (1999’s ‘Still’), a genuine rave classic from The Hague by hardcore DJ Charly Lownoise as Fluxland, and a killer cut from prolific producer – and genuinely influential pioneer – Aad De Mooy AKA D-Shake. He’s represented on this volume by Paradise 3001 cut ‘Surfin The Cuban Waves’, which first appeared on ESP Records in 1993.

Other highlights include Direct Movement’s ‘Natural Chemistry’, a sought-after slow house cut produced by Dennis Buné, who had an enormous impact on the Dutch house scene as Jaimy, and ‘Delphi (Rewaxed)’ by NYX, a highly regarded and hard to find single from former new wave and synth-pop producer Bart Barten, and occasional studio partner Hanz Meyer.

Packed full of forward-thinking 90s gems remastered for today’s dance floors by Alden Tyrell, Music For The Radical Xenomaniac Volume 3 is a life-affirming celebration of a distinctly Dutch musical movement, whose rich textures and melodies are still inspiring new generations of DJs and dancers today.

Fantastic Twins, the ongoing project of Julienne Dessagne, is a sonic exploration of dual characters born from one distinct perspective. A producer, songwriter, and acclaimed live performer, Dessagne has spent the last decade sculpting a unique world.

On an ambitious new album entitled ‘Two Is Not a Number’, Dessagne immerses herself more fully than ever in the concept that inspired her artist name, exploring the entwined lives and fates of her imaginary twins, their schizophrenic dreams, small dramas, and big tragedies - a metaphor for our own psyche, our inner conflicts, and our relationship to others and otherness. These musings on the psychological, emotional, biological, and metaphysical qualities of Twins are expressed with assured clarity, using a palate of icy deep techno, eerie atmospheric soundtracks, tranced-out dark wave, and synth pop-noir. Whether through airborne dancefloor ascension, diamond hard rhythms, electronic thundercracks, or empathy drenched vocals and the palpable sense of unease, this standout album brings Dessagne’s powerful, affecting art into sharp focus.

I Was First takes listeners to the Fantastic Twins’ origin, a vocal transmission from within a sonic womb, as our protagonists prepare to emerge. Sisters at Odds sees our siblings emerge incongruous and freshly awoken to life’s absurdities in slow-motion. Suspensefully, the percussive heartbeat of Land of Pleasure Hi Fi wrings tension from numerology, blossoming into a scorched industrial ballet, a mirage of multiplicity.

Following the gothic connection of Master & Disciple, Silver Moon Dial incants a trance-like state that captures the physical energy of Dessagne’s live show, as Fantastic Twins take advantage of ‘putting the moon on speed dial.’ Euphoria soon splinters into tragedy with Twins Can’t Love, extracting unexpected melody and melancholy in brittle, IDM tinged electronics, beautifully tangled with Dessagne’s longing intonations.

From Above sees Dessagne’s vocals once again shift into a new form for a haunting interpretation of something approaching a ballad, echoing around a chamber from which the Twins have seemingly disappeared. Ultimately All of This is Resolved, both in title and form, within this album’s cathartic yet uneasy conclusion. Dessagne sends the siblings home at last... But what will we find if we follow?

Omon Breaker aka Maksym Nazarov is a DJ and musician who grew up in Kyiv, Ukraine originally from Dnipro. Now he presents his first ever full EP, Compromat, that traverses from cyberpunk dancefloor techno to trance-like work outs and wave inflected anthems including a special appearance from labelhead Phase Fatale. In his early works, he delved into questions of electronic culture and its impact on his life. As a result of his musical development and his quest for forging his own sound image defined by breakbeats and grooves reminiscent of early 90s electronica combined with the edge of modern techno, he released his first vinyl split 12" with D.Dan on Standard Deviation - the label from the ? club in 2021. Meanwhile, he quickly established his DJ path in Ukraine as a skilled performer, even becoming a resident at Kyiv's first LGBTQ+ friendly club Crest. Following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Nazarov was forced to leave his home and relocate to Berlin. In this new city, he came under the wing of BITE where he debuted with his track 'Stinger' from their recent VA and played the label showcase at Berghain in April 2023. While acclimatising and reflecting on his intense life experiences, Omon Breaker began work on his EP in which he seeks to express his emotions brought on by the tragic situations in his life: the loss of home, loved ones, and love itself. Compromat is Nazarov's first solo vinyl release where he attempts to musically depict his inner world shaped by the tragedies in his life.

Founded by the visionary mind of Masedia, Lost In Sound ignited its vibrant inception in 2017 as an unparalleled recurring series of events pulsing through the veins of Stuttgart's underground scene in Southern Germany.

Now, Lost In Sound Recordings ascends to a new zenith, celebrating its very first release with a four-track EP crafted by renowned Italian DJ and producer Otis. Behold his Euphonia EP, a transcendent journey that weaves a tapestry of emotions and casts an indescribably radiant aura on hot nights. Prepare to surrender to the cascading waves of organic sounds that will unleash a flood of joyous hormones within you.

Otis' EP "Euphonia", a masterpiece of sonic fusion, seamlessly weaves powerful house bombs with captivating influences from electro, acid and trance. This sonic odyssey promises an unforgettable experience that defies categorization. Get ready for the upcoming arrival of LISR001.

Originally released in 1994, this re-issue bring new wind to "Lamento" with a compatriotic remix by Berlin based Italian producer Trent. Sitting somewhere between tribal and techno with early hints of progressive trancey elements, "Lamento" boasts an assertive underlaying beat coupled with playful percussive elements that get skillfully laced with a driving sawtooth wave synths. 4 mixes to choose from, peak time italian 90s early progressive sound brought back to your record bags with newly remastered care.

Brussels-based power trio Don Kapot are set to release their rousing new album 'I Love Tempo' on the 15th of September via W.E.R.F. Records - NEWS distribution.

A lifeboat of free jazz, afrobeat and krautpunk sailed by Giotis Damianidis (bass), Viktor Perdieus (baritone saxophone) and Jakob Warmenbol (drums), the album follows the release of their critically acclaimed 2022 album 'Un Peu Live' recorded with Dutch multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and composer Fulco Ottervanger, and described by Bandcamp Daily as a 'very fun mix of modern jazz and krautrock.'

Don Kapot strike hard with their fourth album, mixed and co-produced by Greg Saunier (Deerhoof). Using a wide range of instruments, they evolve their sound into a solid complex rhythmic wave, shaken by demented samples and punk attitude.

From the vibrant, pounding rhythms of opening track 'Me Pig' to the off-kilter, whimsical beats of 'Macarona' and 'Terryble,' Don Kapot integrate new instruments and sounds into their repertoire, including keyboards and sampling. The groove remains a central element to the sound as the trio deliver a palpable blend of high tension and joyous energy where genres are demolished.

Elsewhere, the funk-heavy 'Bernadette' allows the magical, freestyle sax work of Perdieus take centre stage while 'Don Be No' is an urgent, flippant blast of vigour and zest before the album title track 'I Love Tempo' is an exhilarating and hypnotic journey that combines the freedom and verve of free jazz with the trance-like zeal of artists such as Tony Allen, Fela Kuti and Kologbo

Releasing their self-titled debut album in 2018 via Mr. Nakayasi Records, in 2021 they signed to Flemish record label W.E.R.F. Records and have released three albums under the label and have performed sold-out shows across Belgium and the Netherlands.

The players in Don Kapot also extend their musical adventures to other projects. Damianidis leads Punk Kong and has performed with Akira Sakata, Sakis Papadimitriou, Oghene Kologbo, Tony Allen, Baba Ani, Balasz Pandi and Gonzalo Almeida among others. Warmenbol was a member of The Unrevealed Society, Robbing Millions and M(h)ysteria. He also performs with Ruth Tafebe & the Afrosoul Messengers (with Giotis), Under The Reefs Orchestra and Monolithe Noir. Perdieus performs in Punk Kong and with Pompelmoes and The Milk Factory and took part in Ifa y Xango, Laia Arkestra, Bolhaerd, Nest and VVolk. He has also recorded and played with Andrew Cyrille (Bambi Pang Pang).

"Life Plans and Parallel Side Tracks" by Ismael Zouaoui (aka Ish) is the highly anticipated album on Libertine Records. Spanning Electro, Drum 'n' Bass, Dark-Wave, and Ambient, Ish's versatile production shines. Inspired by diverse influences like Brave New World, Japanese Anime, and early Techno/Trance, the album's contemporary, textured sound captivates.

Raw Energy by JD Twitch showing Petersen's Trance (Not Trance) the way to the dancefloor.
Synths and sitars for eternal bliss on the flipside. Another pin glowing!

Back in 2017, Basso delved into his micro-press cassette collection to treat us to the first retrospective of kosmische wizard Trance. Spanning both the bucolic and galactic, ‚Tapes' (GBR010) suspended time and space, enveloping us in the nebulous beauty of Jürgen Petersen's misty ambience.

Among the appreciative audience for this mind expanding release was one JD Twitch aka Keith McIvor, one half of the mighty Optimo. Keith's vision of remixing Jurgen's ‚Purification' for the club was embraced by both the artist and the label guy with glowing eyes. Charting a course through progressive house, ambient techno and the weirder bits of the solar system, McIvor combines the celestial synthesis of the original with some tough and tracky drum programming, turning the intensity up to 11 in pursuit of early morning ascension. A sensitive arrangement allows space for Peterson's waveforms to work their magic, while laser fire and additional fx abuse unlock evolutionary abilities buried deep in your unconscious mind.
The previously unreleased, largely unheard ‚Contemplation' was originally intended to feature on the ‚Tapes' compilation, but fell off the edge of that flat Earth thanks to its maximal runtime. Too good to remain a secret, this crepuscular creation enjoys the entirety of the B-side, drifting through the eons via meditative electronics, delicate sitar and a touch of tapey flutter.
Embrace the almost 40 year old tape's flaws and imperfections that could not be restorated and dive into the immersive and unparalleled.
This is music for higher beings.

"Life Plans and Parallel Side Tracks" by Ismael Zouaoui (aka Ish) is the highly anticipated album on Libertine Records. Spanning Electro, Drum 'n' Bass, Dark-Wave, and Ambient, Ish's versatile production shines. Inspired by diverse influences like Brave New World, Japanese Anime, and early Techno/Trance, the album's contemporary, textured sound captivates.

For more than a decade, Freak Heat Waves have been steadily amassing a cult following and earning acclaim from both critics and underground aficionados alike. Their music is a heady cocktail that defies easy categorization, blending elements of post-punk, psych, dub, ambient, house, and techno.

Their eclectic sound has served as the soundtrack to countless DIY punk shows, outsider galleries and sleazy discos, establishing the duo as iconoclasts with a reputation for ignoring expectations and subverting genre conventions. While at times, the term ‘acquired taste’ may have seemed fitting, their latest release offers their most alluring output to date.

Mondo Tempo, the duo's fifth LP, released through Vancouver's Mood Hut, was primarily recorded at their home studios in Montreal and Victoria. Building upon the electronic explorations of their previous record, Zap The Planet (Telephone Explosion), they inject their signature sound with a smoother and sweeter blend of dance music. The album’s tracks feature midi smoothness, trance mantras, dancehall grooves, ambient textures and vocal samples, creating a world that is both captivating and immersive.

Notably, the lead single “In A Moment Divine” features a collaboration with Cindy Lee, resulting in a dance floor number that boldly ventures beyond the familiar wheelhouses of both acts. With Mondo Tempo Freak Heat Waves solidify their reputation as one of the most exciting and unpredictable acts around.

Deepriver is the recently formed intercontinental project of Cape Town-based Jason van Wyk and long time Stockholm-based collaborator Joni Ljungqvist.


Having worked previously in collaboration mining the more introspective side of trance, Deepriver’s inaugural aural statement, “Volume One”, finds the two experimenting with atmosphere and composition to maximal effect. Van Wyk's recent viscerally experimental direction seamlessly coalesces with Ljungqvist's conceptually reflective approach in a way that recalls the sounds and nostalgia of electronic music from decades past.

Orpheu the Wizard has a magic touch at finding records that fall between the gaps in music - oddities, curios, the weird, the wonderful. But that's just half the trick. It takes a sensitive and selective ear to construct a coherent, accessible narrative from them. So you get DJs who can play for the crowd and "selectors" adept at mining the black gold. In Orpheu, you've got yourself someone who can do both. On a festival main stage, he can keep it weird enough for the heads. In an audiophile setting, he'll keep the flow.

These skill sets come into play on the fifth The Sound of Love International compilation. Jumping between genres, decades, continents, the truly rare, and many B-side cuts that passed you by. But never eclecticism for its own sake; this collection makes sense. Orpheu never loses sight of the listener - he's a friendly and knowledgeable guide to the cosmic outer reaches.

He opens his account with the warm, psychedelic electronics of Drawing Future Life, with ‘1969’. Tucked away on the B-side of an LP of ambient/trance hailing from Fukuoka, this is a very pretty piece of music on a truly rare piece of wax. Then, leapfrogging a couple of decades and timezones, we have Rutuu Poiss' "IHATSIN." Off-kilter, experimental sounds with an endearing melodic hook, followed up by the with lethargic ambient breakbeat of Digital Distortion's "Mellow Bug".

On the B-side, things start to get lively. French Audacity featuring Valerie's "That Fine One" is Gallic garage that has simultaneously got it hugely wrong and mas­sively right. Owing as much to new wave as New York house, this is propulsive and quirky dance music at its finest. Next, we're on a ferry over the channel for DJ Spike and "Gaps In Space." Up-tempo electro with a fondness for sampled vocal cut-ups, like its predecessor.

lnterdance's "Kurz" (another B-side) is the perfect segway - house from 1990 with that sweet, slightly goofy naivete. Things move toward the gnarly with Bad Behaviour and "Living on Smoke," a lesser-known cut on the legendary Atmosphere records. The tempo edges upward on "Systematic Input" by Frequency, hectic hardcore techno that still retains a lightness of touch.

"Lushes" by Diffusion spins us off into space, filigree techno with an emotive trance edge. The chiming intro of "Blue to Be Happy" by MFA lulls us into a sense of false security before massively putting the boot in with a pounding kick drum, bassline, and arpeggiation. From there, it's a sharp left turn into the urban psychedelic dub of R.I.P's "E.O Pan" on cult label Digi Dub.

Sticking with UK sound system music but taking it down a notch, Orpheu closes proceedings with a leftfield reggae excursion from the master of the mixing desk, Mad Professor’s"Oh Hell".

It's a compilation as varied as the many moods and grooves of Love International itself - from sun-dappled olive groves to moments deep in the strobes. This is serious music for party freaks or party music for serious freaks. Tisno is calling.

Stroom pull out two majestic Techno / Trance burners from '93/'94.

Artwork by Lucien

This record is the third release of the label and the opening of a new series: Material Hotline.

The opus is consistent with the era of techno 90's wave that inspired certainly this first record of the series.

The four tracks that delivered the two artists Multivoq and Solah are resolutely Trance.

"The Devil Calls" open the record on its Techno side followed by an acidic track "The Horror Show". The other side makes its way between New Beat with "Last Chance" and finally trance with "Deep Jungle".

Tim Brown and Donna McKean's legendary lost album "Evolver" is lost no
more! Out for the first time on vinyl, sparklingly remastered with bonus
session tracks, this Twentieth Anniversary edition of a psychedelic
masterpiece fills a crucial hole in the Lunchbox oeuvre
Recorded in the couple's 1990s Oakland basement between stays in Berlin, tour
dates in London, and dreamy sojourns up the rugged Mendocino coastline,
"Evolver" fuses jangle and jungle, ambient and dub into a striking pop statement.
Marrying refined songcraft to the serendipitous magic hidden in half-broken reelto- reel tape decks and vintage synthesizers, the LP plants its pop flag on the
terrain of magic and mystery. Dreamy jangle pop gems emerge seamlessly out of
a sea of loops, drones, and dubbed- out horn fanfares, cascades of tape echo
feedback and whispers from outer space providing a trance-inducing backdrop to
the pop sensibility for which Lunchbox is well- known. Hook- filled and hypnotic,
"Evolver" is a sublime slice of post-pop psychedelia that you won't want to miss.

Italian techno sensation Alignment is back with a fifth EP Close Your Eyes on Charlotte de Witte’s KNTXT label out on Friday 31st March.

Close Your Eyes is four tracks of thrilling all-out industrial assault from the Barcelona-based artist.

Title track ‘Close Your Eyes’ rips into a slamming turbo-charged beat accompanied by metal textures and warehouse atmospherics. Next up, ‘Deep Space’ is pure evocative melodrama, riding on a wave of ghostly vocals and piercing synth stabs. ‘Dance For Me’ ups the ante with a trance-tinged roller underscored by slamming bass, before ‘Fight For A New World’ closes out the EP with an epic journey to euphoria.

“I really thought of the Close Your Eyes EP as a travel in my current dreams and maybe a bit of my nightmares as well.” Alignment explains. “For this EP, I tried to combine the “original” Alignment influences with a touch of the new hard techno sounds.”

Charlotte de Witte adds: “Alignment is back, and his 5th release on the label is an absolute killer! I’ve been playing these tracks all over the world for the past couple of months and they don’t disappoint. I’m very excited to finally put them out there and have Alignment on board again!”

Italian-born artist Alignment, whose real name is Francesco Pierfelici, has emerged as an unstoppable force in the techno world in recent years. He has had an outstanding array of vital productions - with four previous EPs on Charlotte de Witte’s KNTXT label, including 2022’s acclaimed Attack - and his sound helps carry forward the diversity and musical
identity the label stands for. Describing his style as “a journey to the dark corners of one’s inner self”, Alignment’s industrial techno is reminiscent of an endless post-apocalyptic warehouse rave.

‘Close Your Eyes’ is another exhilarating offering from the new school techno giant. An EP you won’t want to miss.

Constantly evolving and adapting his sound, Shackleton has releases
spanning labels such as Honest Jon’s, Perlon and his own imprints, Skull Disco (co-founded with Appleblim) and Woe to the Septic Heart!.
Shackleton now finds a home for a brand new project on the Barcelona-based, Modern Obscure Music.

Undoubtedly Shackleton, but taking the meditative aspects of his sound to a new plane, The Purge of Tomorrow, is an alias born to transmit a less dancefloor-orientated experience to whomever is ready to receive it.
‘The Other Side of Devastation’ is an investigation into a novel form of
deepness. Adverse to the reductive label of ‘Ambient’, these tracks are spawned from a live performance context. The essence was to create an immersive encounter where listeners are called on to actively unburden their mind of unnecessary thoughts. Staying true to the trance elements that Shackleton is renowned for, this EP is not dependent on traditional structures or a linear narrative.
‘Time Moving’ presents itself through a journey of disquieted moments and contemplative states. Hypnotic strings provided by Kathy Alberici construct pastoral phrases that mesh with the larger looming drones,
culminating to conjure a daydream-like energy. Following on, ‘Waves’
twists through various forms, awash with cascading vocal splices and
soothing murmurs contrasted with rousing sub pressure.
Reflective and sometimes provocative, as an artist who resents the
pigeon-holes of genre, The Purge of Tomorrow presents an exciting new direction for Shackleton. Bursting-at-the-seams with emotional
complexity as to echo the woes of the human condition, this EP is
steeped in feelings of forgone events doomed to be replicated.

Taking his cue from seminal mix albums of days gone by, Glenn Astro is back with a compilation of original productions from a cast of fictional artists on Nothing Is Real. Across 13 tracks, the Tartelet mainstay celebrates the thrill of discovery which came as standard listening to new entries in series’ like X-Mix and DJ Kicks, moving between head-nodding downtempo, ambient techno, broken beat and all manner of chill-out room delights. You might be left wishing artists such as DJ 1999, Mental Trance and Eye Soul8r had actual discographies to go and explore, but as Astro himself is keen to point out, “nothing is real.”

Astro has never been shy to embrace classic tropes and tones in his past albums for Tartelet, Apollo and Ninja Tune, but he’s drawing on a different set of influences for this album and embracing the flexibility afforded by using imagined aliases for varied production styles.

“I had the idea to do a mixtape, preferably with unknown dance tracks that also reflect that whole 90s/early 00s vibe,” Astro explains. “Instead of digging for some records that haven’t been sourced yet or trying to find those ‘forgotten’ treasures, I made the tracks myself. That way I had full control over BPMs, feel and the whole arrangement of tracks. I thought of a few alter egos and started producing the tracks in the order that I intended to play them in a mix. In the end a whole compilation of tracks emerged.”

While the concept might suggest you’re going to hear a lot of over- familiar sounds, don’t be fooled. Astro is inspired and inquisitive, channeling the experimental spirit of the 90s and early 00s when electronic music was still continually being redefined in all kinds of micro-scenes. In many cases, Astro’s productions slip into the cracks between genres rather than specifically mimicking a style.

Even if the reference points are detectable, the end result is a curious blend as indebted to ambiguity as the overall concept of the compilation. Like the spine-tingling sensation of hitting play and awaiting the waves of unknown sonics on one of those seminal mixes, you never know exactly what you’re going to get as you take the trip through Nothing Is Real.

11th album by the one-of-a-kind collective: psychedelia and free form jazz (not jazz) trigger a sophisticated excursion into weird textures with drastic turns. Dislocated dense music full of secret connections!

Kammerflimmer Kollektief – "Schemen"

Before reason prevails, invoked by those who want everything to remain as it is, Kammerflimmer Kollektief disrupts the established supply chains of sound. It seeks more interesting ways to assemble them. Trusting in this, because of the fact that every sound that still comes out of a guitar, a bass, a harmonium, drums and electronic devices has already been taken into the common mangle of meaning anyway. Enough of all that. Here, nothing is explained. Here we speak in schemes. Polished and jerky.

The images that Kammerflimmer Kollektief conjures up therefore happen not in the focus of consciousness, but rather in its outer realms. In those to which one does not give one's full attention at the moment, but which are nevertheless perceived. For example, when a leaf falls from the ground back up to the tree in the corner of your eye, and for an instant you think this is possible, before you realize it was a small bird flying into the tree; it is in just such irritating moments between perception and realization that the art of the Kollektief also unfolds. On "Schemen", familiar fragments float gently around their core – a Fender Rhodes tone, a bass figure, a guitar motif, a masterful drum shuffle, a moment of icy stasis borrowed from the harmonium playing of Christa 'Nico' Päffgen. Triggering brief associations, they slowly rush off in other directions through free jazz-informed editing work, whereupon such zones can also arise in which perception has a few tricks ready and earlier experience suddenly breaks into the now in a completely different way. Half suspected, half seen.

Half-music like Can from Cologne – also masters of improvised editing – sometimes produced a few decades ago in their in-between moments. The first minutes of "Future Days" for example, which fade in gently, sketch a barely graspable figure emerging from all directions of the room. Kammerflimmer Kollektief also engages in similarly open moments of development. Loosely, it eludes the first formative impressions, keeping itself ready for moments that do not follow any logic of appointment. This looseness in handling makes Kammerflimmer Kollektief so fluidly audible, even when dissonant peaks and free playing arise. What Karlheinz Stockhausen is to Can's understanding of composition, the recordings of The Cocoon are to Kammerflimmer Kollektief. The Cocoon, a meeting of garage psychedelics from the Hannover area with free jazzers from the Galaxie Dream Band, whose album "While The Recording Engineer Sleeps", recorded in 1985 in unguarded moments, operates in a very similar way with decentralized perceptual ambivalences and only appeared more or less secretly four years later on Wilhelm Reich Schallspeicher. Other traces of "Schemen" lead to the debut album of Quicksilver Messenger Service. The guitars of Gary Duncan and John Cipollina, which refer to themselves in an unforced manner, are instructions to let go. They don't want to be traced in every note as a solo, but they give their music a sense that the essential takes place off center, in the mutual and intuitive gift of loving attentions. Consciousness-free.

Loving turns like the little guitar phrase that, like a kind of leitmotif, is repeatedly ghosting more or less unchanged through all of the Kammerflimmer Kollektief albums. A Coricidin induced, very catchy slide idea filtered out of ancient Æther, which – who knows – maybe even centuries ago found its way from somewhere to America – the old, the eerie – and from there wafted on through the ages to southern Germany, to a smoky studio in the Upper Rhine lowlands. A memory of which even the memory no longer knows what it once reminded. Unsaid, then forgotten.

In Kammerflimmer Kollektief you will also find a friend of slowly building, unhurried music, which probably would have been appreciated by the old Franz Mesmer, who 200 years ago, after tranquilizing treatments, sometimes used to play for his patients ambient melodies on the enormous glass harmonica. However, in order not to surrender completely to the flow of one's own life energy, as Mesmer had in mind with his therapies, Kammerflimmer Kollektief occasionally adds hectic tensions, gently embraced by the droning of a sine wave generator, as if a trance could briefly refesh. This old analog sine wave generator is new in the Kammerflimmer assortment of sounds. So, the art of the Kollektief likes to dock occasionally in modern times, yet with the past in mind. Mental states begin to flicker between imagination and certainty, between culture-bound art expression and coincidences: A cawing and scraping can always just be a cawing and scraping with Kammerflimmer Kollektief, the way Andy Warhol's mushroom eater just eats a mushroom.

Heike Aumüller's cover works, which illustrate all the Kammerflimmer Kollektief albums, additionally act as amplifiers of unexplained refractions. Her style consists of eye-corner art that remains so, even when looked at directly. Her shots remain disquieting because they do not jolt themselves into a reassuring order, even in retrospect. Rather than evading the fear that arises when looking at them by trying to impose some irrational rhyme or reason, that fear must simply be endured. This strategy of endurance is equally applicable to the music. The trick is to let parts be parts without compulsively seeking delusional patterns that lull us into a false sense of security and in doing so, possibly delude ourselves. In this context, freedom means not having to anxiously attach a fantasized superior meaning to everything. "Schemen" has an conspiracy disintegrating effect.


b A2 Zweites Kapitel (ruckartig) [feat. Heike Aumüller]

I was dancing when I was out, I was dancing when I was in. Is it strange to dance so late? Is it strange to dance so soon? Cosmic dancers always ball. Dancing with themselves, dancing space away. Right into the smallest hole a human brain can create: the inner cosmos, a psychedelic region, where time gets space and space turns to haze.

Berlin based producer TM Solver is such a kind of cosmic dancer. He has danced late. And so soon. Since 2008 he released yearly one, sometimes two albums via the German Berlin School dedicated label Syngate and its experimental subdivision Luna. Intensely meandering synthesizer journey music, that is pirouetting on inner universes, genuinely crafted in the tradition of Berlin School and Krautrock. You can catch the unearthly nuances of Can and the spaciously swinging psychedelic corners of Amon Dül, Embryo, Tangerine Dream, or Klaus Schulze. As TM Solver has been a lover of analog synthesizers for almost 30 years, all pulsates on analogue sound orbs under the zigzagging guidance of machines like Moog Prodegy, Korg MS20 and GRP A4, as well as state-of-the-art systems as ASM Hydrasynth and Korg Wavestate. When he got in touch with the Berlin club scene and all its propelling grooves in 2006, a new rhythmic universe joined his vast musical space of sound latitudes. “Tinkering around with sound structures is my thing. Leading the listener into a combination of music and sound spaces.“ he reveals on his emotive musical art. How affecting it works, is now displayed with four epic compositions for R.i.O., Berlin Wedding’s label of novel ways for caved rhythmic patterns. Grooving between 90 to 240 BPM, they offer a vast variety of emotional landscapes, slowing down, rolling up, drifting into genuinely layered tonality magic. Headspace music for vigilant wanderers. Utterly psychedelic and yet so clear. His R.i.O. debut “Subtraktiv Additiv“ comes with five additional remixes, fashioned by R.i.O. conspirator Benedikt Frey, Amsterdam based DJ and producer Mayo, “Die Orakel” magician O-Wells from Frankfurt, Siamese Twin Records co-runner Sunju Hargun, and the versatile club and beyond production duo Red Axes. They all respect TM Solver’s analogue zones and pitch them into the 115 to 130 BPM districts, while transcending his absorbing synth compositions into the world of nervous acid-laden ambient, slow-mo techno, industrial bass, post-trance, and all that hallucinogenic echo house. Nine subtle energy vibrations, epic and full of countless facets, shaped to turn on, tune in, and drop out.

On April 7th electronic luminary Nathan Fake presents the new longplayer ‘Crystal Vision’ on his own Cambria Instruments imprint, which features collaborations with Clark and Wizard Apprentice.

This is music for music’s sake – recorded without angles, agendas and themes – so Fake was free to simply continue honing his craft and express himself non-literally. Aptly titled, there’s a clarity of execution and ambition, and a peak effectiveness to the record that just sounds right.

Continuing to set a personal bar higher and topping his own best, the mark of master craftsperson is everywhere, but that doesn’t mean it’s polished; There’s plenty of rawness evident, with spiky sonics keeping ears on high alert – full of endorphin-flooded rave energy.

Following a short, scene-setting ‘Arrival’ – a simple major chord arpeggio played on a Jupiter 6 which sounds like curtains opening at dawn, things begin apace with ‘The Grass’, which hurtles like a precision-tuned bullet train through Arctic tundra. The undulating effect of compression is emphasised by the classic techno trope where 2 rhythms jar yet interlock, creating an exquisitely disorientating strobe-like flutter. On the track’s guest, Fake comments, “I fell in love with Wizard Apprentice's ‘I Am Invisible’ and felt our musical styles were similar. Their vocals are smooth and clear and sharp at the same time. They’re like a calm within the storm.”

Inspired by Italo disco but sounding wholly alien and futuristic, ‘Vimana’’s fizzing buzzsaw arpeggiated bassline, popping snares and bright whirling melody are equally an electro trance melange, with an effervescent major chord Arp that kicks in midway.

Reminiscent of what used to be called ‘funky techno’ but with sparklier sounds, ‘Boss Core’ blinds like sunshine bouncing off ice. Using his trusty Boss DR550 drum machine, and inspired by Autechre's ‘Vose In’, the track peaks by reaching that melancholic/euphoric axis for which he is loved.

With chugging slow breakbeats not a million miles from Board Of Canada or trip hop, ‘Crystal Vision’ rolls along, with the melody opening up, revealing more hidden notes as it progresses, building into a fractal, kaleidoscopic mosaic.

An emotional outpouring with serotonin surging through the circuitry, classic breakbeats and layers of lazers, ‘Bibled’ has all the hallmarks of a classic. This is a bonafide festival-set closing, hugging-your-mates, moment – or, with its guitar solo, “a power ballad” – as Nathan calls it.

A minimalistic moment of calm midway through the album, ‘CMD’’s gently comforting dreamscape is conjured with FM stacked and detuned sine waves which are left to breathe, whilst the chunky Chicagoan house jack of ‘Hawk’ brings to mind classic Relief records, but even more detuned and wibbly, and laden with synths.

As the title suggests, ‘Amen 96’ is in Fake’s own words, “me having a go at jungle. I grew up listening to it, and I remember as a teenager it sounded like the most intense and otherworldly music ever. It still does. This track is an experiment to see how my melodic style works against amen breaks”. Closer to the braindance end of the spectrum than ‘proper’ jungle (and all the more interesting for it), Fake channels the spirit of Squarepusher but makes it his own, brimming with melodious twinkle.

A collaboration with Nathan’s close friend and genuine musical hero Clark. ‘Outsider’ finds this dream team alchemising pure gold that’s bigger than the sum of their parts. Skittering, intense, far-reaching end epic, the pair close proceedings on a grandly dramatic note. In 2020 Nathan released the album ‘Blizzards’, which was described by The Quietus as “his best work”, and “his best LP yet” yet by Resident Advisor. The equally well received ‘Blizzards Remixes’ EP which featured Afrodeutsche and Irene Dresel followed in 2021, as did a nationwide UK tour.

An in-demand remixer, Fake has added his magic to tracks by Radiohead, Clark, Perc, Jon Hopkins, GoGo Penguin, Dominik Eulberg, Christian Löffler and Damian Lazarus, working for labels including Ninja Tune, Domino, Warp, Blue Note and Kompakt.

London based imprint High Praise are proud to announce the last addition to their roster. Having released a slew of heralded 12”s on Capitol K’s Faith And Industry Records, Darker Than Wax & XVI Records, London based producer & sound designer Dampé prepares to release his expansive and head-spinning new 12” ‘Glow’. With previous support coming from the likes of Tom Ravenscroft, Dummy, Bandcamp, Boiler Room, Mixmag, DJ Mag and Keep Hush, Dampé showcases why he’s making a name for himself as one to watch in the UK’s vibrant Electronic music scene.

Opening with the hypnotic arpeggio of title track ‘Glow’, the EP launches headfirst into a spinning world of driving rhythms and grainy synth textures. ‘Ravey Emo Tool (Like Me)’ provides a welcome moment of cloud parting serenity. ‘Twenty Two Savanna’ utilizes twisting, contorted breakbeats colliding against trance-like euphoria inducing synth patterns and shuttered vocals. On the flip, second single ‘Clay’ brings a dose of 2-step bounce to the proceedings, with an off-kilter but rock-steady groove. Atmosphere builds steadily as the gated notes and industrial effects of ‘Through The C10’ spill out of the speakers, before ‘King Tide’ brings the 12” to a powerful close with its rippling keys and avalanching waves of low end pressure. A truly impressive offering with incredible attention to detail.

Emotional Response is delighted to present elsewhere LVI. The 4th of soFa's compilation series, this double LP takes us to the darker side of the elsewhere ouvre, via another 12 artist / 12 track travelogue.

With certain future-retro feelings, this is club music for the open minded. An album that roams from dreamy ambient territories to rhythmic patterns - internationalism for the adventurous DJ.

Rusty slow-mo bangers and post-industrial synth-wave kidnap the listener to a dystopic and shady wasteland. Elements of ethnic folk, vintage vocoders and Gamelan samples all united on one homogeneous selection.

With artists now known to welcoming new brethren, this is an audio trip to leave reality behind. Exotic, hypnotic, tactile, trance-inducing meditations, washed down with a spoonful of magick.

Infinite Machine is proving again it's a label that refuses to sonically sit still. Having released everything from code-based compositions to bass-heavy techno in 2022, the imprint is readying the release of the black metal-tinged Ehkta by BOLT RUIN later this month. A musician whose work has been described as 'apocalyptic' more than once, on this new mini-album, the Belgian producer blends field recordings, twisted samples and rave signifiers with an eerie tonality born out of his nocturnal production sessions and time spent absorbing the silence of his studio garden.

Bridging the gap from his previous record to this one, 'Sktone' is a cinematic opener that unfolds like a bad dream in slow motion. Warped samples of Bulgarian choirs glide over synths wired in closed-circuit loops which feed back on themselves, degrading for infinity. Texture and space is added via field recordings of waves crashing over the ruins of Brighton West Pier. This track exemplifies the unexpected influence BOLT RUIN took from the wildlife he witnessed in the garden of his urban studio when working on Ehkta. Adapting to the material at their disposal, weasels and blackbirds create nests from organic waste and human trash - an astute metaphor for the Belgian producer's compositional approach.

Next up, BOLT RUIN drives up the tempo with the rave-ready 'Nehng', where a frenzy of trance arpeggios and frantic drum programming builds and intensifies over its 5-minute duration. Inspired by Yves Klein's 'Leap Into a Void', 'Nehng' definitely evokes that bodily rush of freefalling into the unknown. 'Nehng''s driving rhythm is switched out for the brooding 'Tzarhk' - an ode to the soundtracks of B-movies composed on a vintage Roland SH-2 (a prominent character of the Stranger Things soundtrack). BOLT RUIN runs thick, syrupy synth slabs and punishing drum patterns through a rain-soaked limiter the producer found lying on the street by chance.

Another master-class in self-destructive arrangements comes in the form of 'Rfohmdrá' as delicate pianos and synth tones atrophy through daisy chained pedals which erode the signal. Valgeir Sigurðsson's mastering skills shines through here, taking BOLT RUIN's sci-fi-meets-metal sonics and amping them up to a scale on par with the Björk or Ben Frost records he's previously worked on.

Conceived of as the mirror reflection of the LP's opener, 'Maevr' pushes the approach of 'Sktone' to an even more nightmarish extreme. Embracing chance, the clattering layers of beats are sampled of a knocked mic on a window as BOLT RUIN attempted to capture a recording of rain from his studio. A happy and very effective accident for the foreboding mood of the track!

BOLT RUIN rounds off Ehkta with 'Ekztamnh'; an ode to that specific sensation of entering through a corridor to a rave and hearing the rumble of a soundsystem from afar. Snarling melodies are run through a reverse granular delay effect which fragments the signal, reverses it and plays them back in irregular order; much like the shattered memories of a late night in a warehouse.

A musical magpie who finds inspiration in the most unlikely of sources, Ehkta is a restless exploration of salvage-punk aesthetics where doom-laden black metal melodies, amen breaks and an experimental approach to sound design sit in an irregular and uneven musical apocalypse. For fans of Blanck Mass or Caterina Barbieri - this is a must-listen material from a fresh producer establishing himself with a singular musical voice.

For this uniquely personal retrospective spread over twelve vinyl discs, Sven Väth takes us back to the early days of his DJ career. On What I Used To Play we meet great pioneers of electronic music, gifted percussionists, obscure wave bands, and innovative producers of a bygone 'new electronic' era. Rough beats and irresistible grooves from the identification stage of house, techno, and acid remind us not just how far electronic music has evolved over the past four decades, but how great it was to dance to EBM, techno, and house for the very first time.

If there is one protagonist of the electronic music scene who has remained curious, innovative and at the very cutting edge of music for over four decades, it's Sven Väth. His multi-layered artist albums and Sound of the Season mix compilations have been defining the genre for over two decades, and even today, he is constantly on the lookout for the next top tune to add to the highlights of his next set. At least, that's the case when he's not producing them himself as an artist or remixer. "Actually, it's always been part of my DNA to think ahead," and nothing had been further from his mind than looking back at his past, but when in spring of 2020 the international DJ circuit had to be scaled down to virtually zero, the 'restless traveler' suddenly had time. Time to stop and reflect on "how it actually was back then, at the very beginning of my career..."

"It was a great trip and with every track, beautiful memories came flooding back".
In the London apartment, he had just moved into, Sven has set up a "little music room", where he cocooned himself for several days, "to look way back for the first time and review my musical journey through the eighties, so to speak."

The interim result was six thematically oriented playlists with a grand total of 120 tracks from 'early 80s' to 'Balearic late 80s', together with excursions into afrobeat, European new wave, and EBM sounds and a few epochal techno/house tracks from the USA in between. From these 'Best of Sven Väth's favorites', the project What I Used To Play crystallized. Sven remembers how the Cocoon team reacted to his proposal: "They found the idea of making a compilation out of it MEGA from the beginning and everyone said 'Sven, go for it', but then, of course, the work really started, namely, to clear the rights and to get clean sounding masters of the up to 40-year-old tracks. There was also disappointment, of course. We couldn't clear certain titles because the rights holders in the USA had fallen out with each other or simply disappeared from the scene. In short, it wasn't easy, but now I can safely say we got the most important tracks."

Finally, after two years of research, curation, design, and administrative fine-tuning, the "little retrospective" from 1981 to 1990 is available. The exquisitely packaged, and three-kilo heavy box set is not only physically impressive, WIUTP is also the definitive record of Sven Väth's musical development. On each of the twenty-four sides of vinyl, you can trace track by track, what influenced him during which phase, and how he took off as a DJ from his parents' Queen's Pub straight into the spotlight at Dorian Gray. There and at Vogue (later OMEN), Sven became the style-defining player in the DJ booth that he still is today.




1981 - 1990: Future Sounds of Now

In the early eighties, the crowd in clubs like Vogue and Dorian Gray danced to what nowadays we call 'dance classics' - mainly disco, funk, soul, and chart pop. It was up to a new generation of DJs, including Sven Väth, the youngest protagonist in the Rhine-Main area at the time, to create their own club-ready music mix. Good new tracks and potential floor-fillers were rarities that had to be sought out and found, in order to prove oneself worthy.
Without MP3s, internet streaming, or other digital download possibilities, music didn't just gravitate to the DJ, instead, it had to be tracked down. In well-stocked record stores in Frankfurt and Wiesbaden or even in Amsterdam, London, or New York, Sven and friends sourced the material for countless magical nights. On WIUTP we can follow Sven's very personal journey through this wild, innovative era in which synth-pop, funk, hip-hop, and disco were successively replaced as 'club music' by house, techno, acid, and breakbeat. By the end of the decade, it was clear to see that these once exotic 'fringe' phenomena would soon become 'mass' phenomena.



Early 80s

Dirty Talk by the Italian-American duo Klein & M.B.O. represents the most innovative phase of the Italo-disco genre in the early eighties like no other track. Mario Boncaldo (I) and Tony Carrasco relied entirely on the original synthetic drum and percussion sounds of the Roland TR-808, coupled with the raunchy vocals of Rossana Casale and guitar accents of Davide Piatto. Of course, other tracks from this period were also influential in style, most notably Unit by Logic System, which worked as the perfect soundtrack to the laser lighting system at the legendary Dorian Gray club. With stomping beats and robotic rap interludes, Bostich by Yello also belongs on Sven's eternal playlist - after all, it caught the attention of Afrikaa Bambaataa, who invited the Swiss duo to perform at the Roxy in New York in 1983.



EBM Wave - Mid 80s

From today's point of view, the almost ten-minute-long, downtempo track Giant by Matt Johnson's band project The The, would probably not be considered an obvious club classic. However, a closer (re)listen reveals the rhythmic intricacies of the percussion overdubs by JG Thirlwell (aka Foetus) on Johnson's composition, and it becomes clear why this exceptional piece of music is one of Sven's absolute favorites. Other classics from this phase include Kaw-Liga by the mysterious The Residents, the hypnotic-synthetic Our Darkness by Anne Clark (and David Harrow), and last but not least, the somber, monotonous anthem Where Are You? by 16Bit, one of Sven Väth's projects together with Michael Münzing, Luca Anzilotti from 1986.



US House - Late 80s

You certainly can't talk about Chicago house without mentioning Frankie Knuckles. The resident DJ at the Warehouse not only gave the name to an entire genre, but also produced epochal floor fillers on the Trax label like the timeless Your Love, sung (and moaned) by Jamie Principle. Acid house protagonists Phuture also hail from Chicago, and on We Are Phuture (also released on Trax) we hear the chirping acid sounds of the legendary Roland TB-303 in full effect. Another featured classic is No UFO's by Detroit's Model 500 aka Juan Atkins, who is rightly considered the 'Godfather of Techno' even if the genre-defining track from 1985 still breathes with the spirit of hip-hop and electro from the first breakdance era.





Afrobeat

Le Serpent, by Algerian-born Abdelmadjid Guemguem, is a track that sounds completely different from everything else on WIUTP. Made in 1978, it's a monumental, rousing groove created without bass or synths, just with five congas! Even though Guem sadly passed away in 2021, his immortal, acoustic beats are understood all over the world and will continue to enrich many thousands of DJ sets for years to come. Another classic that not only Sven appreciates beyond measure is Hugh Masekela's Don't Go Lose it, Baby. In addition to being one of the most important jazz pioneers, the trumpeter and freedom fighter from Johannesburg was very experimental, integrating electronic sounds into his music in later years, in a similar vein to Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock. Dutch jazz pianist Jasper van't Hof's afrobeat project Pili Pili has also aged well. The trance-like, almost sixteen-minute-long track of the same name, manages to fill a whole side on the seventh of twelve vinyl discs in the WIUTP box.



UK-US-Euro - Late 80s

Time for a change of scene, in the truest sense of the word, and from a musical perspective, this section is like landing on another planet. First up is Andrew Weatherall's classic remix of Primal Scream's Loaded, featuring the iconic Peter Fonda sample (lifted from the 1966 biker film Wild Angels) that came to personify the mood triggered by the British Second Summer of Love in the late eighties: "We wanna be free to do what we wanna do, and we wanna get loaded...". This period also saw the emergence of M/A/R/R/S whose only single, 1987's Pump Up The Volume, became a club classic with support from DJ legend CJ Mackintosh. In this most eclectic of sections, we also encounter New York house and reggae producer Bobby Konders and his seminal Nervous Acid.



Balearic - Late 80s

Those who know him, know that Sven had already lost his heart to the 'magic island' of Ibiza as a teenager, so with that in mind, the WIUTP project couldn't end without a Balearic chapter. Inspired by Manuel Göttsching's E2-E4, the immortal, eponymously titled Sueño Latino belongs in there without question. Equally popular on the island was, and still is Break 4 Love by Raze, which thinking about it, would also fit perfectly into the house chapter. Last, but not least, there's an overdue reunion with Sven Väth himself, in his role as frontman of the successful Frankfurt trio OFF. Together with Michael Münzing and Luca Anzilotti (later of Snap!) this 'Organization For Fun' created the off-the-wall club hit Electric Salsa in 1986 which incidentally turned into an international chart smash, putting Sven in the enviable position of having to decide between pop stardom and a DJ career. Well, we all know how that decision turned out and the rest, as they say, is history. A not insignificant part of his story is What I Used To Play. Enjoy!

«I am the bridge between the day and the night that never ends, I am the acid drop that beads on your dancing body, I am the metallic breakthrough that crosses your being when I catch your wet hands, I am the brutal wave that grazes your dark gaze and your tired eyes, I am the titanium and the cyprin, I am the adrenaline, I am that being that invents, desires and revolts, I am that jolt of desire that tears me when it is dark, I am a psychoactive substance diluted in honey, I am the back that you caress, I am our first and last dance, I am the one who seduces you, I am the one who obsesses you, I am the solitary dance that bewitched me the first time we met, I am the cry muffled by our restless bodies, I am the movement that pierces and unfolds as if it were the last. I am solid and liquid, mechanical and organic, I am your first and last time, I am Baraka.»

French duo Baraka present their first eponymous EP.
Dive into their cathartic universe in which they celebrate their love for club culture using powerful TR8s, incisive break beats, synthetic layers inspired by trance and trip-hop as well as cavernous female voices.

This alliance of electronic music, 90’ aesthetics and dreamy undulations intertwine like the yin and yang and promise a mystical universe with futuristic imagery.

Warped vision; the time spill is source of our distortia, in recognition we recalibrate. It neither predicts an age nor remembers an era, the function is the flow - not parallel but actual. The set points swim in a fever dream, a pink mist which echoes both signal and version. Detangled, decrypted, explained - it could be primal truth, except for endless reality...New message from the Mirror Zone, signals here cast by DJ Ungel who summons mystic breakbeat and shamanic acid from deep fractal wells of pan-consciousness. Charged mantras echo and gate amongst pulsating Megadog trance, whilst waves of ERP and Stinsonian electro roll into the ambient dub of Higher Intelligence Agency, Universal Egg, and other Artificial Intelligence like Banco De Gaia and Sandoz

Light Became Light is the debut album from Puppies in the Sun, a project composed of Alberto Cendra (synthesizers) and Cristóbal Pereira (drums), both originally from Peru and currently based in Rotterdam. Friends since childhood, they crossed paths again in Barcelona by sheer coincidence. This spontaneous pulse is also what dictated the beginnings of the project's characteristic sound: lengthy improvisational and sound exploratory sessions which are summed up in the project's first two EP's (Unheard EP and The Church of Puppies in the Sun, 2018). Like other well-known duos, Puppies in the Sun maximizes their compact instrumentation to establish themselves as a (noise) rock band without the presence of guitars or bass guitars. Far from being a limitation, this has provided them with great freedom. The lower end of the album's soundscape is triggered on Cendra's synthesizer scheme by Pereira's drums. This being one of the characteristics that emerge from the organic, minimal and spontaneous style of the band. As if it was a rocket, Light Became Light takes off in search of a sound and a space that pays tribute to cosmic rock and synthesizer music without leaving the melodic rawness of noise rock or even black metal behind. Some might also perceive an atmosphere that owes its existence to techno parties and a slight wink towards folk imagery. If there is anything that makes their sound iconic is the call for constructing wild and festive ambiances, state of trance and agitation. Light Became Light was recorded and mixed by Oscar Moreno at El Purgatorio (Madrid, Spain). In the middle of an intense heat wave, Puppies in the Sun locked themselves through the course of two weeks to record and process various analog and digital synthesizers, pianos, drums and vocals, to later mix Light Became Light in a classic analog console. Light Became Light is being published by Buh Records on 12" Vinyl in a limited edition of 300 copies. The artwork was done by the band itself and designed by Fernanda Binvignat.

Creative offspring of Tushen Rai and Cornelius Doctor’s musical fantasies, Hard Fist has been a non-profit project encompassing producers, graphic designers, djs and dreamy party worshippers since its inception in 2017.

“We would never have thought that this collective story would bring us this far, that it would take such a place in our lives and that it would bring us so many beautiful encounters. It was only possible to celebrate our 5th anniversary with the unreasonable idea of making something out of the ordinary.

So we thought big, a digger’s dream: a double vinyl in limited edition with 20 artists from 17 countries gathered around exceptional collaborations: producers who have marked the history of the label these last 5 years, friends, but also peers, people who inspired us and gave us the desire to create Hard Fist.

In this Unidentified Noisy Object (U.N.O), you can expect borderless music flirting with Nu-Rave and No Wave, Cosmic Dub and Post-Punk, a slice of Psychedelic Electronica, a lot of Acid and a bit of Slow Goa Trance. As well as some beats of Krautrock played with an Afrobeat groove and a few Darkwave’s synths. But not only that. It’s never only that. But what is it then? Just a label without label, to dance and to explore.

repress!

ØEN Records is back with a special two track EP from up and coming Copenhagen based producer Fruit. Originally from Iceland, but based in Denmark Fruit has been making waves in the Copenhagen club scene with his eloquent DJ and live-sets. Following up his acclaimed 2019 Drømmeland EP for Coastal Haze he is finally back with two epic, fast-paced and euphoric tracks to light up the summer dance floors.

Drawing inspiration from myths and legends and particularly the Epic of Gilgamesh – a 4000 year old poem from ancient Mesopotamia – “Gilgamesh” is a hypnotic and trancey trip destined for the peak hours of the post-corona parties.

Created during the peak of the pandemic on an old half broken borrowed MacBook, the two distinct but kindred tracks are testament to Fruits unique production style, effortlessly navigating between euphoric fast-paced house, ambient soundcapes, hypnotic percussion and haunting atmospheres. Skillfully crafted and executed “Gilgamesh” is primed for both floor and mind.

Herbert Bodzin's "Revival II" is the next exciting vinyl highlight on our young label. It features completely unreleased electronic music which was recorded between 1979 and 1982. On the album we can hear the sounds of legendary analogue machines like the ARP 2600, the Korg PS-3300, the Roland System-700 Modular synthesizer, the PPG Waveterm and the PPG Wave 2.2 as well as classic synths like the Roland Jupiter-8, the Polymoog and the Prophet-5. The album additionally features Bernd Hollendiek, as well as Bodzin's two sons, Stephan and Oliver Bodzin. Most of the music they performed was completely synthesizer based while Oliver Bodzin played drums on a few tracks. The songs are a mixture of mostly ambient, deep, psychedelic, yet experimental and futuristic sounds as well as more vibrant recordings that featured the complete band. One of these vibrant tracks is "Lifting Blue" which qualifies as a unique version of space rock. On other tracks like "Voices of the Mind" we hear deep melodies topped with dreamy vocoder voices. "Against the Wall" sounds like it could be taken off of an Italian horror movie soundtrack while the mid-tempo "Orbital" pre-dates the sounds of techno and trance. As a side note, the album may also show early musical influences of Stephan Bodzin, who became world famous in the 1990s as one of the leading techno producers. Without any doubt, "Revival II" should be an exciting lost masterpiece of German electronic (rock) music and a must have for synth music lovers - revived and finally alive!

DJ Scriby - Izingoma zeGqomu / DJ MARIIO - ZULU MAN / DJ Skothan – Nevegation. Highlighting the continuing evolution of Durban's globally influential gqom sound, this special trilogy of releases showcases three separate artists from South Africa's fertile musical landscape. The set captures a fresh wave of gqom innovation from veteran producer DJ Skothan/DJ Scoturn, DJ Scriby, and 20-year-old DJ MaRiiO. DJ Skothan/DJ Scoturn has been a key figure in Durban's underground scene for many years, producing alongside Phelimuncasi, Bhejani, Tweeyking, Lafaristo, MaRiiO and DJ MP3. His gqom and house tracks have quietly provided a rumbling engine for the city's scene, and "Nevegation" is his debut full-length, providing a complex diagram of his dancefloor versatility. This isn't the gqom you might expect to hear: immediately on opener 'The Gringo' familiar sounds - shovel kicks, chopped vocals, sampled gasps, horror movie strings - are shuffled into atypical patterns, creating jerky soundscapes rather than the expected four-on-the-floor bump. 'Salut to DJ Lag' pays respect to Durban's Beyoncé-approved pioneer, but twists the template into a propulsive new form, adding rolling and evolving percussion that teases fractal shapes each bar. But the album's most unexpected and forward-thinking moment arrives with the aptly titled 'The King of Gqom', a track that simmers the genre's percussive sounds into limber sci-fi club futurism, tweaking the bass sounds into patterns that nod to dubstep, Jersey club and ballroom. 25-year-old DJ Scriby has been working behind the scenes since 2013, assisting the first wave of gqom innovators promote their sound both inside Durban and beyond. In 2017 he joined London's Trax Couture to release "The Clermont EP", and here he introduces his long-awaited follow-up "Izingoma zeGqomu". Scriby's approach to gqom is well-studied and self-aware, which gives him the ability to stretch the sound's scope across the diaspora: just peep the Atlanta trap synths on the dynamic 'Friday 13th', or the absorption of tight grime snares on opening track 'Goi'. Scriby's engineering skill pushes his productions to the next level, lending slithering downtempo tracks like 'Ouuu1' and 'Igqom Libuye' a widescreen, big-room punch without losing the genre's undulating funk. And the producer even eyes the EDM mainstage with 'Qumqum!!', balancing saccharine synths with jerky kicks, claps and rolling toms. The youngest artist featured in the collection, DJ MaRiiO started producing when he was just 12 years old, watching YouTube production videos. "No one told me how to use FL Studio," he admits, "and no one helped me doing different genres." This might be why his music sounds so completely unique; the basic structure of gqom is still present, but MaRiiO augments these elements with youthful energy and carefree use of unusual sounds and production methods. "Zulu Man" opener 'GQom NyeGe' manages to mash together trance synths, DMZ bass and a driving woodblock rhythm that reminds you of its Durban roots, while the bizarre 'Ngom ya Phesh', featuring MaRiiO's regular collaborator Hot Chicks on vocals, pushes the gqom template into the red, with overdriven kicks and disorienting environmental sounds. All three records provide a 360 degree view of Durban's contemporary underground, nodding to the past, present and future of gqom. It's a genre that's constantly in flux as it moves from South Africa's bedrooms and basements to main stages and movie screens across the globe.

Shabaka Hutchings am Saxofon, Danalogue (Dan Leavers) an Percussion, Roland SH−09, Roland Juno−60, Roland SH−101 und Moog Sub Phatty, und Betamax (Max Hallett) an Drums, Percussion, Roland TR−808 und JHS Pro-Rhythm, haben mit ihrer Mischung aus Synthesizer-Sounds der 80er, Saxofon und Schlagzeug, gespickt mit Punkrock, Jazz-Blasts und Dancefloor-Trance schon reichlich Fans gewonnen.

Für sein viertes Album ging das Trio THE COMET IS COMING diesmal in Peter Gabriels Real-WorldStudio, zusammen mit ihrem langjährigen Toningenieur Kristian Craig Robinson unterzogen sie sich einem
viertägigen Aufnahme-Marathon, angetrieben von Intuition, Können und Improvisation.

Temples is a tempting invitation into another world, full of light and movement. From the second the synth comes in this track has got us deep in its pocket. Shotter manages something that is hard to achieve - he has us floating completely, yet steadily carried by tip-toeing metallic rhythm elements and the relentless swells of bright synths. The game changer in the second half is a new, gritty bass quality, which couldn't roll in any more fiercely. At its fullest the track has us in an uncompromising trance, a relentless movement that we don't ever want to escape from. Breaking back down to pleasantly gentle hi-hat reverb-tails and inducing synth patterns Temples lets us down easy, with the unspoken promise to return.

Ueno claims the room to itself completely and immediately. The rise and fall of melodic synth lines lead us through a labyrinth at first, leaving plenty of space for imagination. Before we notice playful call-and-response rhythms are teasing our ears, until the track surrenders itself to an ever-growing wave of synth patterns and their behind-the-beat-delay. It climaxes into a haunting silence with tenuous high-pitched sounds and a clear outer space feel. Finally, all elements lock into a comforting groove, driving us forward, not too fast, not too slow - exactly right.

The track starts off with a blissfully nostalgic vintage-feel - slightly muffled, like the humbling quality you get from an old Technics playing your favourite LP. But don't be fooled, Cube March is bold. And unexpected. Stomping rhythms take over quickly and full-blown gritty synth-stabs cut the air effortlessly, like blades. An unapologetic and careless pumping bass line makes us want to move with every cell in our body. Shotter demonstrates his fearlessness in experimenting with heavy contrasts and elements from different genres here. A break with tastefully placed repetitive rhythm elements is complemented by the constant ebb and flow of melody lines. Both in volume and presence they fluctuate, one handing over the spotlight to the other seamlessly, keeping us hooked until the very end.

This remix lures you away from reality in a matter of seconds, with Definition's signature heavy hitting bass dominating. He expertly weaves shimmery fills into buoyant synth lines and brings us a skilful mix of dark minimal techno, breaks and infectious monster synth lines. Every so often, he adds a new layer, increasing the depth of the track, before letting it all crumble in a breakdown where time stops and tension grows, as we impatiently await the next rise to carry us away. The lengthy build-ups give this remix the energy to fill any room, easily. It is subtle, yet propulsive, too - a lane that Definition seems to manage regularly.

Middle Eastern psych-rock collective Al-Qasar"s debut album is an explosive mix of heavy Arabian grooves, global psychedelia and North African trance music. The band calls it "Arabian fuzz." Brazenly electric yet deeply connected to their roots, guests include Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth), Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedys) and Alsarah (Alsarah & The Nubatones). Mixed by Alain Johannes (Queens of the Stone Age, PJ Harvey). Al-Qasar was born in the Barbès neighbourhood of Paris," explains band leader Thomas Attar Bellier. "I"ve lived in Los Angeles, Paris, New York, Lisbon... I wanted to start a project that was in tune with the daily life of people living in these international cities, something diverse, radically colourful, with a fresh, contemporary outlook on what societies really look like today". The musicians came together from France, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, and the United States. Shows followed, first in France, then in Europe and the Middle East. They put out an EP, the widely-lauded Miraj, recorded in Cairo. In the same time frame, Attar Bellier collaborated with the likes of Emel Mathlouthi and Dina El Wedidi, two of the most exciting names in contemporary Arab music. Drawing on years of experience working in Los Angeles studios, Attar Bellier produced the album. Who Are We? translates the sound that inhabited his head into something physical that stirs spirit, heart and feet. It is relentless and insistent, like a psychedelic celebration on the dancefloor, bristling with the kind of deep energy that makes Al-Qasar sound like the world"s most dangerous wedding band. During those years spent behind the control board, Attar Bellier made some good friends in the US, and they"ve been eager to help out on the project. Alain Johannes (Queens of the Stone Age, PJ Harvey) mixed the record, and Grammy-winner Dave Collins mastered it. The Dead Kennedys" Jello Biafra was a natural addition to "Ya Malak," his inimitable voice reciting a translation of Egyptian revolutionary poet Ahmed Fouad Negm, elevating the record"s social critique while showcasing the first-ever English recording of Negm"s work. Jello Biafra is not the only punk hero to appear on Who Are We? Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth layers textured, brooding guitar over the first two cuts, "Awtar Al Sharq" and "Awal." The sweeping drones embrace the Moroccan bendir groove to magical results. "Lee sent me upwards of eighteen guitar tracks," says Attar Bellier in amazement. "It was enough for an entire EP, and all so good. The hard part was deciding what not to use. Lee"s vibe just fit perfectly with what I was trying to do with the track." Who Are We? is an exhilarating album. Its intensity never wavers, music that pulls from the hypnotic roots of North African trance and threads it into a fabric with the elaborate beauty of Arabic scales and the shock and thrill of rock"n"roll. It is modern folklore, a reflection of the cross-cultural societies we"ve become.

Highlighting the continuing evolution of Durban's globally influential gqom sound, this special trilogy of releases showcases three separate artists from South Africa's fertile musical landscape. The set captures a fresh wave of gqom innovation from veteran producer DJ Skothan/DJ Scoturn, DJ Scriby, and 20-year-old DJ MaRiiO. DJ Skothan/DJ Scoturn has been a key figure in Durban's underground scene for many years, producing alongside Phelimuncasi, Bhejani, Tweeyking, Lafaristo, MaRiiO and DJ MP3. His gqom and house tracks have quietly provided a rumbling engine for the city's scene, and "Nevegation" is his debut full-length, providing a complex diagram of his dancefloor versatility. This isn't the gqom you might expect to hear: immediately on opener 'The Gringo' familiar sounds - shovel kicks, chopped vocals, sampled gasps, horror movie strings - are shuffled into atypical patterns, creating jerky soundscapes rather than the expected four-on-the-floor bump. 'Salut to DJ Lag' pays respect to Durban's Beyoncé-approved pioneer, but twists the template into a propulsive new form, adding rolling and evolving percussion that teases fractal shapes each bar. But the album's most unexpected and forward-thinking moment arrives with the aptly titled 'The King of Gqom', a track that simmers the genre's percussive sounds into limber sci-fi club futurism, tweaking the bass sounds into patterns that nod to dubstep, Jersey club and ballroom. 25-year-old DJ Scriby has been working behind the scenes since 2013, assisting the first wave of gqom innovators promote their sound both inside Durban and beyond. In 2017 he joined London's Trax Couture to release "The Clermont EP", and here he introduces his long-awaited follow-up "Izingoma zeGqomu". Scriby's approach to gqom is well-studied and self-aware, which gives him the ability to stretch the sound's scope across the diaspora: just peep the Atlanta trap synths on the dynamic 'Friday 13th', or the absorption of tight grime snares on opening track 'Goi'. Scriby's engineering skill pushes his productions to the next level, lending slithering downtempo tracks like 'Ouuu1' and 'Igqom Libuye' a widescreen, big-room punch without losing the genre's undulating funk. And the producer even eyes the EDM mainstage with 'Qumqum!!', balancing saccharine synths with jerky kicks, claps and rolling toms. The youngest artist featured in the collection, DJ MaRiiO started producing when he was just 12 years old, watching YouTube production videos. "No one told me how to use FL Studio," he admits, "and no one helped me doing different genres." This might be why his music sounds so completely unique; the basic structure of gqom is still present, but MaRiiO augments these elements with youthful energy and carefree use of unusual sounds and production methods. "Zulu Man" opener 'GQom NyeGe' manages to mash together trance synths, DMZ bass and a driving woodblock rhythm that reminds you of its Durban roots, while the bizarre 'Ngom ya Phesh', featuring MaRiiO's regular collaborator Hot Chicks on vocals, pushes the gqom template into the red, with overdriven kicks and disorienting environmental sounds. All three records provide a 360 degree view of Durban's contemporary underground, nodding to the past, present and future of gqom. It's a genre that's constantly in flux as it moves from South Africa's bedrooms and basements to main stages and movie screens across the globe.

Compilation of singles recorded for Glass Records. Pressed on Yellow vinyl with orange & black splatter. Includes printed inner sleeve with posters and postcards
Religious Overdose formed in 1979 and alongside the likes of PIL, Joy Division and Bauhaus helped forge the sound that became to be known as post-punk. In just 2 years their experimental songs were pushing boundaries. From the hypnotizing drum machine led debut “25 minutes” and the krautrock influenced “I said go” to the synth infused new wave of “Blow The Back Off” and their final single. The sprawling 7 minute “The Girl With The Disappearing Head” This is a celebration of the much underrated and important Religious Overdose.
Formed in Barby (near Rugby) in 1979, original vocalist left, ALEX NOVAK joined in 1980, producing three singles for GLASS RECORDS. Initially used a rhythm generator then replaced by drummer PETE BROWNJOHN. Played with WHERES LISSE / FALL / EYELESS IN GAZA / TRANCE / MYSTERY GUESTS / BAUHAUS / DANCE CHAPTER / SKI PATROL /ENGLISH SUBTITLES / ATTRITION / THEATRE OF HATE... the last gig was in Northampton 1982, recorded and released as a tape by ADVENTURES IN REALITY label and fanzine from Coventry.
The Cast
ALEX NOVAK Vox before ISAWS after TEMPEST / ATTRITION now VENUS FLY TRAP , RICHARD FORMBY Guitar after JAZZ BUTCHER / IN EMBRACE / SPECTRUM, DAVE HYNES Keyboards, ADY TILLEY Bass before WHERES LISSE, PETE BROWNJOHN Drums before ISAWS , ALARIC NEVILLE Guitar, FILIPE FIGUERA Bass

Are you still here? Or are you still there? Berlin-based/Italian warehouse-rave warrior, Younger Than Me, and Italo-American romantic goth-wave prince, Curses are THERE. They're there where it's at!

It was the bond of bold friendship that brought these guys together - and of course a shared history of subgenre juxtaposition and meshing. Both grew up on Punk, Rap, and of course the early days of Techno. »Still There« is their first EP together and thus of course their first for Live At Robert Johnson. It's a venture into the euphoric, psychedelic power of early Trance and Breaks mixed with the attitude and energy of EBM and Electro.

Starting with the moody slow beats of the title tune »Still There«, Y2C takes you on a journey to a faraway chill-out room in some dark yet warm and cozy cellar. Or is this place to be found in synth heaven? It could well be if you listen to those dreamy melodies. Melodies as beguiling as the song of the Sirens that seduced good old Ulysses.

Y2C pick up on that dreamy vibe but throw in that slight and subtle Trance-factor, taking up speed with »Romantic Squat«, dragging you into their very own romantic squat.

Next up is »Love Your Enemy« - oh yes, shouldn't we all? Icey claps with lots of reverb and a bass line draw you onto the dry ice flooded aluminum floor and there's no way back - especially when that strange break with that crazy sound makes you stop for a second and think, why did I stop dancing? Get back on the floor y'all!

The last track »Lullapaluza« is indeed some kind of a lollapalooza ride, a very special ride. And no, it does not lull you to sleep because the beat created by Y2C here is a demanding one, a special which gets you going all over its eight and a half minutes. It's sheer bliss, you gotta believe it.

This is not a one-off novelty EP, it's a kinetic collaboration. Y2C is a force of nature, a force of RAVE/WAVE energy, with many more to come, a force to reckon with.

Cocoon Recordings presents: Cocoon Compilation T

Limited Vinyl Box Set including 6x blue vinyl & download code

Another year, another expertly curated compilation touches down courtesy of Cocoon Recordings. Somehow, the world keeps turning and with it the Cocoon universe keeps expanding, causing subtle yet persuasive shifts in the sonic soundscape that continue to
capture and captivate the imagination. In time-honored tradition the old guard and the new combine with devastating effect, to define the current state of play…
Veteran Techno producer Stephen Brown makes it clear the compilation series is back with a bang, opening things up in epic fashion with the lucid dreamscape ‘Level Steps’ - a true work of art. Another heavy-weight hitter steps straight up in the form of Claude von Stroke, who adds his own unique swagger to proceedings with those trademark shuffling beats and freaky, hypnotic bleeps scuffling for dominance on ‘Moody Fuse’. Denis Horvat then slows things down on ‘Monomono’, with post-raveNew Release Information
abstractions and disobedient synth-patches causing mayhem before the track finally unfolds in all its terrifying beauty.
Motoring on, the collection wastes no time reaching that familiar tipping point as we enter the techno phase of the journey. A very special appearance from Daniel Avery makes it all the more worthwhile amid a dense forest of chiming melodies and blistering electrical surges on ‘Your Future Looks Different In The Light’, before Jeroen Search’s aptly titled ‘Subversive Elements’ lead us deeper and
deeper, into the matrix.
Marco Bailey then kicks off a triptych of trance with some massive filtered piano action on ‘Kanai’ that’s destined to trigger a serotonin smile with everyone it touches. Revisiting the huge,
ever-growing pulsating brain of planet Orb, Damiano van Erckert continues the loved-up vibe on the gorgeously titled ‘500 People 500 Hearts 1 Love’, expertly complimenting the classic ambience with
some slick 909 snare and cymbal interplay. The melodic pull of ‘Vision99’ then signifies that the party is peaking at just the right moment as YOKTO concocts a glistening, psychedelic groove. The
emotional resonance climbs ever higher with brittle melodies endlessly circling a lush, throbbing bass drone to create the sense of something stirring out of reach.
Just when you think the acid sound is done and dusted, up pops a track like Jonathan Kaspar’s ‘CCC’ that somehow manages to offer an entirely new perspective. Riding in on a wave of expectant
arpeggios, the squelching bass and noise filter go toe to toe before Kaspar gets busy with a freaky tempo excursion that’ll be destroying dance floors all year long. ‘The Art of Electronics’ is, as the title
suggests, another superlative example of pure analogue fire, served up by UK legend, Andrew Meecham aka The Emperor Machine. The funk starts to flow as the bass drops, the machines cut loose and a swarm of cascading bleeps ride the trans-europa express to oblivion.
Electro overlord Carl Finlow, has come to define the UK take on the genre over the last couple of decades. Here, he makes his long overdue label debut, taking us into the closing straight with a
nervous sliver of dystopian futurism, complete with molten basslines and a fuzzy logic that underpins the tight, laser-guided groove on ‘Surface Control’. DeFeKT then draws this great adventure to a close
with the deliciously dark robo-disco overtones of ‘Terraform’ creating a dusky landscape that skillfully seduces the listener before the tension finally breaks in a wash of ecstatic chords.
All in all, it’s a supremely ambitious collection of tracks, generously featuring some of the most inspirational and durable artists of their respective generations. In fact, is this perhaps the best Cocoon
Compilation to date

Gudu Records continues a busy start to 2022 with Italian due Hiver’s debut for the label - a high-definition EP that draws on classic electro and techno, following the group’s acclaimed past releases for Curle Recordings, Bokhari and Deeplabs.

A record that both marks and celebrates Hiver’s 10 years of operation, ‘Wave Sliding’ wears its influences on its sleeve: lead track ‘The Initiative’ is a “tribute to Detroit’s Hi-Tech Funk of the early 2000s”, lead by the sort of ostinato bassline and legato strings that have become Hiver’s trademark. ‘Vapour’ and ‘Entangle’ continue the EP’s retro-futurist outlook, drawing on sci-fi imagery and themes of travel, while ‘Stateless’ looks to the “easy-trance” sounds of 90s dancefloors for inspiration. Together, the tracks mark a perfect summary of Hiver’s vision of the dancefloor - bound together by vibrant colours and a starry-eyed, utopian nature.

Lisbon’s Larry Quest joins the Pleasure of Love crew with an impressive sonic journey of all things house, balearic, and tribal.

After releases on Delusions of Grandeur and Log Records, Quest delivers his most refined EP yet, harnessing his knack for live/analog synthesis & soulful, hypnotic grooves.

'Blue Tide' leads off the EP with a wave of pads and deep sax soulfulness before giving way to a bubbly, modular groove. 'Hold Function' finds LQ exploring a tribal, almost trance-y take on Detroit techno/house foundation. And on the title track the producer eases into a throwback mid-90s house vibe with bursts of M1 organ and Rhodes stabs.

Limited 300 180g white vinyl LPs with printed inner Discobag and digital download.

500 CDs in gatefold digifile sleeve.

Each drum controls a virtual musical instrument (synthesizers, samplers, arpeggiators, etc.) within Ableton Live music software that, in combination with a custom step sequencer developed with MaxforLive app, allows Davide to perform real melodies/electronic orchestration without the use of any backing track. 100% live. In addition to that, he also uses a microphone set up in the middle of the drumkit to capture the dynamics of the acoustic drums and translate them through an 'envelope follower' into electronic parts in several ways. About ‘Perceive Reality’: Opener Belief bursts the record into life, as skittering arpeggios spin across a vast open plain of pad synths, before the ground splits beneath it with thrashing drums. On Conceived, Davide creates a simultaneously dark and euphoric wall of crystallised sound, a cacophony of pounding drum hits and icy electronic stabs, with an intensity that continues into Collide. With its shuddering, cut-out reverbed synth pads split in two by crashing cymbals and snares, the song spins itself into a transformative cycling trance, before slowly fading and washing away into silence, only to be broken by Conjectures’ sudden cymbal slams and transfixed toms that roll like thunder into a frenzy, before their final lightning strike. On Subjective, arpeggios twist around beating kick drums and toms, quickly scaling to a furious yet tightly wound sequence that envelops the listener, before Relief, where the album finally takes the shape of a huge wave of calm, glimmering hope and reflection. About the concept behind this latest album, Davide says, “Perceive Reality is a vivid exhortation to deepen the relationship with reality, avoiding simple and often illusory visions. In a historical context that fosters the proliferation of dual information and visions, individuals are increasingly exposed to the danger of perceiving less the complexity of events, thus losing the training to express complex and articulated opinions, the result of a reflection, whether individual or collective. Without having the presumption of resolving epochal issues, the project alerts to the fact that univocal answers do not exist and that only by developing a path of knowledge and giving ourselves the opportunity to examine things in depth, can we enter into the relationship with the existing.” Press highlights so far: Video premiere on Rumore.IT (Italy).

On their third album »Constant Connection«, West Australian-based Erasers create hypnotic compositions of synth, guitar and voice, evoking the vast expanse of their native landscape and the shrouded emotions behind the senses. Comprising of vocalist, synth player Rebecca Orchard and Rupert Thomas on guitar and synths, Erasers have developed their earthly kosmische music into an open language based on drone, variation in repetition and minimal song structures. Based in Perth, regarded one of the most isolated cities in the world, Orchard and Thomas’s music has brewed in the city’s vibrant DIY/Outsider community and evolved into a meditation on landscape, power, the shadow-world of human emotions and stream of consciousness. »Constant Connection«, with its waves of sound and chant-like vocals evokes a trance that suggests an infinity just beyond the senses.

At the heart of each Erasers composition is the interplay between the instrumentation, played with stoic restraint and recorded directly with minimal effects and the transcendental states induced in the listener. It’s a magic that is performed in plain sight and all the more powerful for it. The recognisable vibrato of Fender Rhodes keyboards and simple drum machine loops, the subtle strands of analog synth melodies that snake in and out of the ear, above all the towering encantations of Rebecca Orchard’s undeniably Australian-accented hymns; all of this is presented with minimal ostentation and yet it instantly engenders a dream state, hints at an infinity beyond the material.

Shades of John Cale’s 70s work with Nico, early 70s German synthesists Kluster and even fellow Australians Fabulous Diamonds can be seen as stylistic touchstones for Constant Connection. Where Nico hinted at the macabre and gothic, Rebecca Orchard’s similarly gliding vocal is more zoned in to a kind of oceanic openness, with words becoming chants and spells that suggested themselves to the singer during recording sessions. It’s this hidden hand of improvisatory, automatic writing that lends a sense of expanse to the music. On opener I Understand, while the lyrics might hint at discontent the emotional spectrum it opens up is far more rich and complex, as layered as the waves of droning chords that are the bedrock of each Erasers track. The title track talks of flow, continuum and balance, the protagonist in the song seemingly weightless, gently pulled through a walking reality that borders on dream. In Erasers’ world, it seems, the borders between reality and dream, consciousness and sub-consciousness are blurred and eroded.

On Constant Connection, Erasers’ music might be deeply evocative of landscape but it’s never clear which one. The vast, open terrain that surrounds Perth is dusty, burned by the sun into desert and Constant Connection feels like the product of the heat and relative isolation, the altered states these elements can create. But it’s these altered states of mind that appear to be the real landscape described by Erasers. It’s a landscape that’s hazy, in-and-out of focus, with emotional undertows pushing and pulling you into a weightlessness. On album closer Easy To See the band dispense with percussion all together, field recordings of the water at the edge of their native city ushering in two duetting synths. Orchard’s vocal undulates with the flow, viewing both the geographical and psychological landscape from the perspective of a consciousness not bound by bodies and from a timescale measured in millennia. The album ends as it begins, with field recordings of the real world that the music seeps out from, temporarily, before regressing back into the other realm it feels like it belongs to.

Between these two recorded hints of reality, Erasers manifest a deeply sensual dreamscape that constantly feels like it’s dissolving at its seams. A desert psychedelia emanating from a real world that might not be that real in the first place.