ATIC Records proudly presents ‘Electric Union’, the all-new album from Niko.
Produced by Aim. Limited edition vinyl release of 200 units. Gloss laminated, 420g heavy card outer sleeve. Matt black poly-lined inner. Transparent / purple splatter wax. Shrink-wrapped. File under : Electronic, Synth, Dance, Chill
Schneider TM is the multidimensional music project of Dirk Dresselhaus which has been operating since the mid 90's. His latest opus is also his first for release for Editions Mego.
With an extensive catalogue under his belt, one may wonder where this one takes us? The 8 of Space orbits the realm of "pop" more overtly than the project has done for 14 years, residing in the line of works that temporarily ended with "Skoda Mluvit" from 2006. In the age of scattered streaming listening habits The 8 Of Space champions the classic album format with connected tracks that act like chapters adding up to what could be framed as an 'audio-movie'. The 'plot' revolves around a post-dystopian landscape which posits the make up of reality in the future.
The vessel is electronic pop music but one which takes inspiration from the spirit of a multitude of musical forms absorbed into a trans human sound world where biological & technological elements complement each other (We are NOT The Robots!). The music unifies the analog world of acoustic and electric instruments with electronic & digital possibilities that range from heavily processed acoustic & electric guitars and bass, tube organ, analog modular synth units, acoustic drums and percussion, analog & digital drum machines & effect units, hardware and software processing. Experimental & extended musical techniques build a world of musical elements that is sometimes upside down and mirrored. Electric guitar becomes rhythm machine & modular system, voice becomes sound object & synthesizer, effects are used as instruments, acoustic guitars are being modulated by voices etc. Reality and illusion are getting mixed up. One can hear short moments of longer recordings in the tracks which are snapshots of bigger musical pictures that lurk behind what's actually audible. Generative music, audio spirals like clockworks create ever changing musical combinations; thrown-in sounds, polyrhythms & cascades based on the concept of chance attributed to the service of the SONG.
The lyrics are a key component. Holistic, associative poetry acts as interactive trigger points for the mechanisms of existence in times of a paradigm shift that are open to the listeners discretion. Autobiographical elements combine with science fiction and dreams, protagonists shift where the 'I' or 'me' is not necessarily the voice of the artist, nor even the same person. Alongside a more naturalised voice another protagonist appears represented by a processed voice. This character, named iBot, evolved around the start of the millennium and has appeared on some previous Schneider TM recordings. It can be seen as a post-human, or even a trans-human character, a combination of human & technology, uncertain of the future, which lends iBot it's melancholic tone.
In the opening song "Light & Grace" iBot appears in an advanced form of AI, which managed to hack & hijack a commercial space travel program (eg, Virgin Galactic) to invite those rich, who profited most from the destruction of planet earth, for a holiday trip into space to unknowingly fly them directly into the middle of the sun. In this episode it seems to have developed higher ethics than humanity itself with ambition to save the planet with as much of its cooperative life as possible."Light & Grace" serves as an intro / opener for this album to be followed by 7 other tracks featuring different windows of consciousness represented by diverse characters & protagonists.
All the elements on The 8 of Space, the music, sounds, vocals and artwork fit together as a whole, creating a dazzling electro pop future questioning it's own certainty. This is experimental electroacoustic pop music featuring glorious melodies dancing along human/machine voices, each track is a small universe that triggers the physical mind and tickles the subconsciousness.
Lift-top box including the first 10 numbered records and objects, with a 60-page exhibition style book, plus a bonus 12” single and 2CDs of unheard Joy Division interviews. Strictly limited and numbered to 4000 units WW.
Use Hearing Protection: Factory Records 1978-1979 contains facsimile editions of the first 10 numbered Factory items: 4 vinyl records, 3 posters, a short film, Factory stationery and an egg-timer design. The early history of the label is traced in a 60 page book with text by James Nice, photos by Kevin Cummins and archival interviews with Tony Wilson, Rob Gretton, Joy Division and more.
All 3 original Factory posters are contained in the box as well as the first 4 records: The Factory Sample EP (Fac 2), including the Fac2 stickers, All Night Party by A Certain Ratio (Fac 5), Electricity by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (Fac 6) and classic album Unknown Pleasures by Joy Division (Fact 10).
Bonus items include a white label 12” single by The Tiller Boys (originally intended as FAC3 but ultimately not released), and a lengthy audio interview with Joy Division, Tony Wilson and Rob Gretton, conducted in August 1979 by journalist Mary Harron, never before heard and now restored across two CDs. Also newly restored, and seldom seen since 1979, is evocative 8mm short No City Fun (Fac 9), featuring music by Joy Division.
In Your Mind Bryan Ferry’s fourth solo outing and his first of all original songs. Critically applauded In Your Mind “remains the secret highlight of Ferry’s musical career, an energetic album that would have received far more attention had it been a full Roxy release. In Your Mind was peaked at No’5 in the UK album charts certified Gold selling more than 100,000 units. Lovingly Re-Mastered from the original tapes by Frank Arkwright at Abbey Road Studios. London. Featuring artwork that has been faithfully restored to reflect its original first press “In Your Mind” is presented on 180g heavy weight vinyl and is one of those classic albums that would not look out of place in any record collection.
Debut album, duo from Detroit which includes Chris Samuels of Ritual Howls 350 Units of limited cloudy clear/Bronze splatter colored vinyl Electronic, Industrial, Experimental music for Fans of Ritual Howls, Throbbing Gristle, Coil, The Legendary Pink Dots, Drew McDowall, Suicide, Cabaret Voltaire // Mission to the Sun synthesizes ambient, post-industrial landscapes with expansive arrangements and haunting vocals. Comprised of Christopher Samuels (synths, samples, programming) of Ritual Howls and Kirill Slavin (vocals), the Detroit-based duo creates an atmosphere of lamentation for a world left behind. Fragments of industrial noise and hypnotic synths fill Samuels' foreboding, alien terrain, and it's in this vastness that Slavin's voice mourns the drudgery of everyday life and the loss of universal consciousness. The duo's debut album, Cleansed by Fire, takes the listener on a journey home to the inferno of the sun, navigating memories of a life lived, dissolved into time. A wind of desolation opens "Take Me Back," with Slavin mourning for a return home to a distant reality. The song uses repetition to build a somber ambience while maintaining a spaciousness sparsely accented by noise with care and precision. Slavin's lyrics examine the conflict and paradoxes that riddle the human condition with Samuel's instrumentation providing a fitting backdrop. "The Unbroken Sea" illustrates this symbiotic reflection with a propulsive bass line contradicted by ethereal synths that swell and contract, only to be finally engulfed by a pulsating crescendo of rhythmic noise at the end. The dystopian title track "Cleansed by Fire" marches steadily along to a creeping darkwave rhythm. The basic elements of dance music are there, yet the song remains devoid of danceability. Punctuated by lyrics inspired by J.G. Ballard and technological isolation, a glimmer of pop sensibility can be found beneath the haze of the track's potent mood. Mission to the Sun beautifully captures an alien feeling: one ripe with despair and longing, one that doesn't quite belong to this world or time. A slow, satisfying burn, Cleansed by Fire traverses the dystopian past and present, while moving toward the future.
Yellow Splatter Vinyl
The mind behind Fundamental Records and Electro Records release his first EP after the his last Electric Eclectics and CPU releases. Pure analog machinery, triggered sequencers by old drum machines. Very limited units on colored vinyl, packed in a really nice way as we have come to know by the Fundamental crew.
First pressing of 400 units comes as yellow vinyl! "I was guzzling wine at my favorite bar in San Francisco, the Rite Spot, and the entertainment that night was some local opera singers singing along with a big video screen showing a collage of various operatic moments with subtitles. One particular subtitle, 'Ah!-(etc)' made me laugh, I thought it was a perfect description of life - the joy of existence against the etcetera of it all, the struggle. With a heavy head of rose' it seemed like ecstatic poetry! I scribbled it on a napkin and thought it might make a good title for something" And so the mystery behind the title of Kelley Stoltz new record is solved. Less of a mystery is the quality contained therein_ after 12 self-titled releases and a several more under pseudonyms, Stoltz is the word for "one-man-band-home-recording-pop-songs of idiosyncratic character." A quick follow up to his more power pop and pub rock LP only "Hard Feelings" offering in the summer, "Ah-(etc)" finds Stoltz returning to his sweet spot, writing songs that never were, but should have been in the 60's and 80's. As with other LPs Stoltz makes virtually every noise on the album which was written and recorded in 2019 at his Electric Duck Studio in. San Francisco. A few friends popped in to play along_ Stoltz former bandmate, Echo & the Bunnymen's Will Sergeant adds electric guitar to "The Quiet Ones" a sort of Scott Walker lyrical take on strangers and neighbors. Karina Denike formerly of Dance Hall Crashers adds gorgeous vocals on the bossanova groover "Moon Shy", where Sergeant pops up again in a spoken word role on the outro. Allyson Baker of SF's Dirty Ghosts sings on "She Like Noise", a song Stoltz wrote for her in celebration of her love of seeing live bands. The album was mastered by Mikey Young in Australia.
Formed in Essen, Germany in 1984, Kreator are arguably the most influential and successful European thrash metal band ever, like many of their European speed metal brethren, Kreator fused Metallica's thrash innovations with Venom's proto-black metal imagery. Often credited with helping pioneer death metal and black metal by containing several elements of what was to become those genres. The band has achieved worldwide sales of over two million units for combined sales of all their albums, making them one of the best-selling German thrash metal bands of all time. The band’s style has changed several times over the years, from a Venom-inspired speed metal sound, later moving in to thrash metal, and including a period of transitioning from thrash to industrial metal and gothic metal throughout the 1990s. In the early 2000s, Kreator returned to their classic thrash sound, which has continued to the present. Their last studio album ‘Gods Of Violence’ charted top twenty in ten countries, including a number one slot in their home country of Germany.
First-ever vinyl release of "Because I'm Awesome" by The Dollyrots. This will be limited to 1K units.
The album was intended as an experiment using musical styles Brubeck discovered abroad while on a United States Department of State sponsored tour of Eurasia, such as when he observed in Turkey a group of street musicians performing a traditional Turkish folk song that was played in 9/8 time, a rare meter for Western music. Columbia president Goddard Lieberson took a chance to underwrite and release Time Out. It received negative reviews by critics upon its release, but despite this, it became one of the best-known and biggest-selling jazz albums, charting highly on the popular albums chart when 50,000 units sold for a jazz album was impressive. It consequently produced a Top 40 hit single in "Take Five", composed by Paul Desmond, and the one track not written by Dave Brubeck. The cover art is just as important as the LP itself featuring specific artwork created by S. Neil Fujita best known for his covers for CBS Records, which introduced abstract art to jazz LP packaging.
Following the 2020 release of RoundAgain, Nonesuch reissues on vinyl Joshua Redman's first album with his own band — pianist Brad Mehldau, bassist Christian McBride, and drummer Brian Blade — originally released in 1994. MoodSwing was Redman’s third recording as a band leader and his first featuring all-original compositions. The young saxophonist sought to change what he believed to be the public perception of jazz — a largely academic and overly intellectualized form of music devoid of the emotional themes that drive many other genres. As he explains in the original liner notes, jazz was seen as, “an elite art form, reserved for a sophisticated intelligentsia who rendezvous in secret.” With MoodSwing, Redman makes the case that jazz can be an accessible musical medium that could evoke basic and visceral emotional reactions.
From the playfully coy ‘Chill’ to the urgent energy of ‘Rejoice’, Redman offers up a communicative and inspired record ofemotional diversity. Joining him in this task was a young band of his peers, all of whom have since become established and esteemed figures in jazz. MoodSwing was one of the first exposures the jazz community had to young pianist Brad Mehldau, then beginning his career in Redman’s quartet. Mehldau anchors these compositions behind Redman’s lyrical playing, occasionally stepping out front to show his talents in ‘The Oneness of Two (In Three)’ and ‘Past in the Present’. The band’s rhythm section has since been recognized as one of jazz’s best, with Christian McBride on bass, and then little-known Brian Blade on the drums.
As the follow-up to his breakout Wish, MoodSwing was universally praised by critics and enjoyed commercial success, selling over 300,000 units worldwide. Entertainment Weekly wrote, ‘saxist Redman finds ingenious ways of creating a modeof acoustic jazz that is both entertaining and enlightening.’ This record continues to provide a cornerstone for Redman’s currentcareer; many of these compositions are still featured in the saxophonist’s live sets today.
Redman’s previously announced European summer 2020 tour dates with Mehldau, McBride and Blade have been rescheduled for 2021, including London’s Barbican, now on July 11.
'One of the most lauded (not to mention brilliant) trumpet players in the history of jazz, Clifford Brown adds to his luster on this varied program of nine engaging tunes. The 1955 line-up of the Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet – one of the premiere early hard bop units – included tenor saxophonist Harold Land, pianist Richie Powell, and bassist George Morrow.
Chris Stapleton veröffentlicht sein brandneues Studioalbum ”Starting Over”. Es beinhaltet 14 Titel und wird Chris’ erstes neues Studioalbum seit seiner letzten Veröffentlichung im Jahr 2017 sein. Die erste Single ist der Track ”Starting Over”. Er hat bisher 5 Grammy Awards, 7-ACM Awards, 10-CMA Awards und 5-Billboard Music Awards erhalten. Mit seinen ersten drei Alben hat er bis heute über 8 Millionen Units verkauft, darunter sein Debütalbum ”Traveller”, das sich bis heute über 4 Millionen Mal verkaufte.
Sein gemeinsamer Song mit Justin Timberlake ”Say Something” war auf Platz 1 der deutschen Radiohits.
Electro Transmissions 003, nothing to say about this assassin called Electro Nation that you don't already know. This EP contains four tracks produced during the lockdown, each track is full of analog synths, drum machines and vocoder. Very limited units, this time on splatter colored vinyl, packed in a really nice way as we have come to know by the Fundamental crew!
Ltd Edition 100 units
Black 140g vinyl in heavyweight grey carton sleeves. One time pressing, limited to 800 units.
Black 140g vinyl in heavyweight grey carton sleeves. One time pressing, limited to 800 units
Smooth acid injected edgy house cuts on this new Klasse Wrecks! For the last 3 years SJ Tequilla (Naota Matsuda) and Aaty Matoba have been a regular but hidden fixture in Berlin's underground music scene. You may have caught them at their regular spot in a dark tunnel next to the sprawling Ostkreuz station in Kreuzberg, lucky to sneak a quick listen before the cops came in and shut things down yet again. Armed only with an electrical generator, a 606, 303 and various dub echo delay units the pair have slowly been refining their Teknobusker project into quite a special thing. Proving that creativity blooms best when using a limited set of tools, the SJ Teknobuskers music is gritty and dark but also retains an important sense of humour. WRECKS029 was recorded between the years 2018-2019 and does a deft job in capturing a flavour of the rhythms, tones and squelches that echoed down the tunnels during Berlin's endless summers.
The Cranberries – Dreams
The Cranberries – Dolores O’Riordan, Noel Hogan, Michael Hogan and Fergal Lawler – quietly became one of the world’s most successful bands in the 1990's. With O’Riordan’s remarkable voice and their unforgettable melodies, the group scored a string of UK and US Top 10 albums and singles. This stunning collection brings together 11 of their best-known tracks, including their unforgettable calling cards, Linger and Zombie.
This compilation brings to vinyl the incredibly successful CD title which has so far sold over 100k units in the UK alone.
Limited to 300 units.
Project founded in Mallorca circa 2015 releasing 'Four Seasons' by the end of that year, it was a digital and musical tribute to nature itself.
Then based in Barcelona on december 2017 came out an EP/Anti titled 'Continental', 41 minutes of pure melancholic weird dreams with crunchy beats.
On may 2019 Diürn presents 'Una Història Hologràfica', one hour of experimental electronic music that expands through downtempo, techno and ambient. The album pushes the sound boundaries further by exploring the consciousness of the unknown.
► One half of duo Lumisokea and persistent sonic explorer ANDREA TAEGGI (Opal Tapes, SM-LL, Type, Präsens Editionen) debuts on OOH-sounds with a new solo album under-the-influence of mushrooms.
► Recorded at Willem-Twee synthesis studios in Holland, Mycorrhiza is a lucid excursion into a new form of 'ritual-computer-music' — gamelan from the future.
►Master + Cut by Helmut Erler, D&M Berlin. Limited Edition of 200, 12" black vinyl housed in gold cardboard sleeve with 'ad-hoc' fluo sticker.
Of course this is not the first album born under-the-influence of mushrooms, but apparentlyTaeggi doesn't take them here as he rather observes the cognitive and intelligent behavior of mycorrhizal fungal roots—one of the great mysteries inhabiting the forest soil, and from which a network of beneficial underground relationships with plants sprouts. Known as Mycelium, this fascinating wood-wide-web very much resembles the intricacy of the human neural system—transporting carbon, water and nutrients from one tree to another. A mutualistic symbiosis that Taeggi similarly establishes with the rather rare arsenal of sound machineries he had access to at Willem-Twee synthesis studios in Holland—a center for experimentation inspired by Berio and Maderna's Studio di Fonologia RAI in 1950s Milan.
In the process of tweaking and feeding electric impulses and sound signals into instruments of the likes of the iconic ARP 2500/2600 and a number of testing/measuring units from the 50/60s—originallynot conceived as musical instruments—Taeggi engages into an exchange of nutrients and information, while abruptly sabotaging un-welcome elements, hence accelerating the sound superhighway towards spectral psychedelic tension—a process he seems to be extremely in control of. Taking a step aside from his usual minimal approach to address more complex structures and augmented mind-sets, Mycorrhiza sounds at times like gamelan from the future: a lucid excursion into a form of "ritual-computer-music" with a conspicuous penchant for detail,alluding to a continuitybetween pseudo-cerimonial and laboratory-like computer music, steering clear from any reference to a specific creed or religion—imagine Stockhausen drinking the Amazonian sacred brew Ayahuasca..
The swarming micro-movements of "Cuttleburrs" multiply in a series of crescendos marked by sudden falls, saturated drums incursions and tense sonic clusters, introducing the more explicit gamelan percussive tones and compositional forms of "Kodama" and "Icaro". Recorded on the ARP 2500, "Mycorrhiza" uses white noise generators, resonant bass and spring reverb to conjure up a magical fungal diorama, which expands into the spooky shadows of skeletons and demons of "Phantasmagoria" and the spectral mystics of "Oculus Cordis"—the Eye of the Spirit — in which Taeggi grapples with the same sine-wave generators that Stockhausen used in his seminal "Studie I" and "Studie II".
New stateside label that does what it says on the tin. Big drum breaks that work in their own right in instrumental form for these massive dancefloor classics with this debut release for both tracks in the dj friendly 7 inch format. Only 200 units pressed. Don't sleep on this!
"QUINZE" -"fifteen" in Catalan- is the title of the new release from Barcelona’s Lapsus Records. Lapsus celebrates its fifteenth anniversary with the launch of a new compilation comprised of today’s most compelling, experimental and ground-breaking electronic music. Fifteen unreleased songs from artists that best define the Lapsus sound: Attraktta, Chevel, Gábor Lázár, Gacha Bakradze, Johanna Knutsson, Karen Gwyer, Leif, Machine Woman, Patricia, Pye Corner Audio, RRUCCULLA, Steve Hauschildt, Telefon Tel Aviv, The Belgium and Ylia. "QUINZE" will be released in late February and two different versions will be available: A standard double LP edition; and a collector's edition LP packaged inside a bespoke cement case of which only fifteen units will be manufactured.
Vermonische Melodien is a collection of compositions by DJ-producer M.RUX, made with old VERMONA machines from Eastern Germany. The nine Electronica tracks can’t conceal their influences from Exotica records of the 1960s as well as their fondness for vintage music technology. We hear voices singing lullabies (“Magische Time”), mumbling chopped up syllables (“Seelnatrax”) or reciting a Shakespeare quote (“Bakelit”) - are they real? Yes! But they are mostly generated by the world’s first speech synthesis hardware, the IBM 704 from 1954, and processed into off-key melodic beauty with vocoders. "I’ve always been curious about musical visions from the 1970s", says M.RUX about his inspiration for Vermonische Melodien. "Those nifty Vermona machines can today be seen as future machines from the 1970s. They seem almost mystical to me. Like relics from an epoch long ago… and I wanted to find out how music from that time could have sounded." On the album M.RUX uses, above all, equipment by Vermona, a brand from Eastern Germany manufacturing electronic musical instruments until 1990. The drum machine VERMONA ER-9 (1976) was the first instrument M.RUX ever possessed. It forms the rhythmical backbone of his studio on this record. The melodies on the other hand have mainly been played on a Vermona Formation-1, a suitcase synthesizer from 1980. Although these two machines are joined by countless other instruments and effect units, their particular soft sound is present in every single moment of this soothing album. "I also take a deep bow to the late Reinhard ‘Lacky’ Lakomy", M.RUX adds. "His releases were the first electronic instrumental records on the Amiga label which has been a huge influence for my work in general and this record in particular." M.RUX has appeared as a solo producer with his “In the Hold“ EP (2016) on his own YNFND imprint. Before that he had become famous for his edits which gently transform songs by Nina Simone, Townes Van Zandt, Tom Zé and many more into slow, dancefloor-ready gems. Pingipung is proud to present this first full-length album by M.RUX. He is not only a talented multiinstrumentalist and original producer but also a skillful remixer - as he has shown twice to the Pingipung audience in the last two years with his touches on Umeko Ando’s Ainu folklore songs
Mr. Confuse returns with a new funky 7" on the afrofunk tip.
'Spinning Around' kicks off with heavy funk drums, afro horn stabs and a driving mean Farfisa organ that really keeps you moving till the end. On the flipside 'Against All Odds' offers a driving bass line, raging brass and clever breaks – a breakdance sure shot! Make sure you check out the music video of 'Spinning Around' and don't miss this release on Confunktion Records as the 7inch vinyl version is limited to a 150 Units. ... Be quick on this one!
Since relocating from Amsterdam to Bergen on the Netherlands’ north west coast, Tom Trago has gone back to basics. Every day he jams out tracks in his home studio using a small selection of electronic instruments, drum computers and effects units, a process that allows him to quickly capture ideas, emotions and the intense moments he experiences while making music.
It’s these diverse and sometimes surprising musical moments that will be showcased on Trago’s new DIY record label, Jong Nederland. The imprint is named after the building where he now lives and works, an historic and storied place that has been home to artists of all descriptions since the 1960s. Each vinyl release will feature tracks made by Trago using his improvised, straight-to-tape technique, packaged in handcrafted sleeves illustrated by internationally renowned Dutch artist – and fellow Bergen resident – Pieter Bijwaard.
The Jong Nederland story begins with two tracks of undulating, slowly shifting dancefloor voodoo rich in crunchy drum machine hits, lilting electronic melodies and instinctive dancefloor warmth. On the A-side you’ll find “Whisper”, a hypnotic but fluid affair where hushed melodies tumble down over off-kilter polyrhythmic machine drums, spaced out effects and bubbly, ever-changing analogue electronics.
B-side “Belltower” sees Trago up the tempo a little and bounce us towards the farthest reaches of the galaxy. Utilizing a rubbery rhythm track full of sturdy but supple kick-drums and hissing cymbals, Trago layers up fizzing synthesizer lines, poignant minor key chords, wiggling acid-style motifs and starburst electronics to fire the synapses and stir the senses. Like its’ A-side companion, “Belltower” gently twists and turns throughout, reflecting the real time, hands-on changes made by its creator during the spontaneous sessions that led to its creation.
Originally slated for release in 1993 by Super Doppler Communications. It was primitively programed on 8-track sequencer then recorded on a 4-track tape machine in Hani's spare bedroom studio in Denver, Colorado. 26 years later, now Hani's name became internationally known & till this day he continues to produce & remix under many aliases while running his own label Soterios Records. In 2017 Hani started receiving several purchase requests from seekers of this nameless track from Jeep Warehouse Beats Vol:1 on B-side called 'Vector Selector'. During the search for the master DAT, Hani found this extended version now available for the first time on Jeep Warehouse Beats Vol:1.5. Included on the B-side is a track never before released from the same year 1993 that was slated for a single release. We are happy to make both tracks available with some help from Synchrophon in France.
Limited Edition 200 units with Unreleased Veggi Grooves from 90's & Extended Version of Vector Selector. Be quick !
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Following January’s acclaimed vinyl debut from Exterior and summer’s much-loved Kota Motomura EP, Edinburgh’s Hobbes Music label ends 2019 with its first album release, also a debut, from GAMING, a fresh new braindance electronica project straight outta Glasgow.
GAMING is a new solo outing that brings together a lifelong love of music and technology and creating left field, rhythmic electronica. It’s the sound of IDM, nineties techno and mensch maschine computer music that is as spontaneous as it is programmed. It's a bit of a grower and may take time to get under your skin....
“Scenes From A Deserted City is a collection of tracks that started as a set of riffs, loops, rhythms and grooves and unfurled around a sense of growing unease about the future of the urban environment around me.
It’s an album that started out as sound…and ended up as a way of telling stories about the age of anxiety we live in, how our world is changing, and how we find a way through that.
This is DIY electronica from Glasgow – it was made on a growing collection of digital and analogue synths and FX units, including a bunch of modular racks, each with its own idiosyncrasies and character that belies the assumption of the binary.
The studio where it was recorded – an abandoned, and often very cold, school building reclaimed by the community some twenty years ago – offered up stories of resilience, even when all seems lost. (I’m not sure what the mice contributed but they definitely climbed in and out of some synths).
This album is ultimately about my changing relationship with Glasgow, a city I’ve lived in for more than 25 years. It’s about how I feel now about the increasing sense of urban decay and how the city can be a very isolating place. It’s about how I reflect on my younger creative self trying to find a direction but mainly feeling a sense of dislocation and not fitting in. And it’s about the questions I have about how that relationship is changing, how it will be forced to move forward.
The result is a soundtrack for walking home on your own, in that headphone bubble when it’s just you focusing on that music that makes sense to you alone. It’s for early in the morning, after the night before, or going to work with the memories of that slipping and sliding inside your head. It’s about how it feels to be both elated and lonely, to be lost in the familiar, despairingly hopeful.”
UB40 have a catalogue of poignant original material and era-defining cover versions that make the band so loved. This collection brings together some of their undisputed highlights and deeper album cuts alongside all their of their UK No.1s – ‘Red Red Wine’, ‘I Got You Babe’ and ‘(I Can’t Help) Falling In Love With You’. It is a fine, unmistakeable body of work that has been part of the fabric of the UK music scene for over four decades. This collection brings onto LP the highlights from the CD version of this title which to date has sold over 300k units in the UK. DL code included.
Following on from the deranged machine mulch of the Cru Servers we proudly announce the second record on the label to emerge from our native south side of Glasgow. Lo Kindre is the solo project of Irish/Luxembourgish bedroom producer, amateur footballer and award-winning bartender Daniel Magee. Crawling out from the undergrowth at the speed of a snail with dreadlocks this six track EP builds upon his previous venture for Optimo Music and manages to enchant in many of the same ways. Chlorophytum ticks all of the right boxes, sitting somewhere between a budding sci-fi homage, drum machine escapism and a fascination with the motorik styles of West Germany and the wider On-U continuum. Lo Kindre's sound has recently developed by way of countless hours spent twiddling with delay units alongside vintage Italian football commentary and murky casks of Tennents, and has culminated here in the following six tracks. The seventh 12th Isle now ecstatically morphs from our galaxy into yours.
This record contains two stone cold classics from the rave era. If you bought any tape packs or went to any raves in 1992, these are the two staple tracks most DJs would draw upon to keep the energy levels high.
On top of that, they are written by the rave overlord – Ellis Dee. Basically, the go to guy for any promoter that wanted their rave to be up there in the top tier.
These tracks sound as fresh and as the day they were released. And that is why we have decided it needed to have another short run repress as its been 4 years since we first pressed this record. But to make them even more special we have pressed 120 units on heavyweight 180g marbled grey vinyl. And as with every Vinyl Fanatiks release it comes presented in a black paper inner sleeve within a heavyboard Vinyl Fanatiks housebag.
This is a short run so get your orders in whilst they are in stock.
Fantazia… are you ready???
A very warm welcome aboard to the splendid AMERICAN STANDARD label !!
Critical & hedonistic acclaim have already been lavished on this Charleston based sonic excavator of considerable note, so we won't bore you with an exhaustive biog, mainly because there isn't one.
The music is most definitely left to do the talking as this one man 'Folly Beach Psychemagik' fills the record boxes of the world's most discerning diggers with treasure beyond measure.
So, for this latest 3 piece for American Standard we're firmly in the FM synthesis musical district of early 80's planet earth.
70's session players still strung out from the previous decades' debauchery tried their hand at piloting these electricity powered units to wildly varying degrees of success.
Luckily for you, Jaz has been kind enough to find and reload three of the finest, more esoteric, obscure but eminently playable moments from this fertile era for some primo 'back to the future' frugging...
Over the last decade, we’ve come accustomed to Jason Letkiewicz releasing material under a dizzying array of aliases, each utilized to explore a different side of his multi-faceted musical persona. Now, some 14 years after he made his recording debut alongside Ari Goldman as Manhunter, Letkiewicz has joined forces with Into The Light Records to release his first album under his real name.
The Reflecting Pool sees Letkiewicz exploring the uncomplicated and uncluttered in the pursuit of pure aural beauty. While his recent album as Opposing Currents was dense, dark, urban and industrial, The Reflecting Pool is stripped back, quiet and melodious. The contrast between the two projects is marked, with The Reflecting Pool drawing more on Letkiewicz’s love of crystalline ambient, slow burn synthesizer soundscapes, early ’80s library music and the kind of obscure electronic new age music that has been a hallmark of Into The Light’s releases to date.
The set’s 12 tracks gently ebb and flow, with Letkiewicz making great use of dusty old drum machines, effects units and a range of vintage analogue and digital synthesizers. It’s a set-up that results in a range of complimentary mood pieces and interludes, from the delay-laden military drums and lilting lead lines of “Out of Body Experiences”, to the drowsy, sunrise bliss of “Sunspot”, the bubbling Tangerine Dream style shuffle of “Mind Awake Body Asleep” and the outer-space atmosphere of “The Kill Fee”.
Throughout, Letkiewicz showcases his seemingly intrinsic grasp of mood, atmosphere and melody. It can be heard within the glacial guitar motifs, occasional beats and elongated chords of “The Reflecting Pool”, the rhythmic bustle of “Numb Drums”, the glassy-eyed melancholia of “Arhythmia” and the cinematic paranoia of “Burning Off The Morning Fog”. It’s also evident amongst the classically beat-less ambient of closing cut “Weightless”, whose alien electronics, effects-laden pulses and opaque chords recall established masters of the genre.
With The Reflecting Pool, Letkiewicz has provided us with a much-needed dose of stress-free musical escapism, at the same time offering hope that in these troubling times, love may still save the day.
Ready for an adventure running parallel to their lives in common units, the quartet boarded a starship
to set off on an astral expedition. The mission began perfectly, according to plan. From the very first
measures, the travellers were released from the Earth's gravity. Very quickly, their home planet
appeared tiny and distant, before disappearing completely. Comets and novae lit the way through the
fathomless depths of interstellar space. Their preliminary, in-depth studies of seventies jazz-funk
were a great source of inspiration. Very early on, they knew that this sonic esthetic would allow them
to travel even farther, navigating only with organic instruments and no digital backing or
enhancements.
Commander Virgile Raffaëlli's bass lines guided their journey, offering a calm, yet vibrant foundation
for the smoother phases and turning up the power to bring them through turbulence and meteor
showers safe and sound. Like a compass, the bass indicated the direction and traced a groove that
the loyal, valued crew could follow as their travels continued. Mathieu Edouard's drums solidly
locked down the rhythm to avoid any sudden jolts, working in tandem with Erwan Loeffel's jetpropelled percussion. On the keyboards, Florian Pellissier drew harmonies and riffs from the
synthesizers and electric pianos to oil the machinery and lighten the load when the ensemble needed
to rise a few feet. The crew's almost telepathic cohesion was key to their success, allowing them to
express interior emotions with just a few notes.
Here is the last transmission we received:
"We have landed on an unknown planet and are depressurizing the airlock with help from subtle
horns and ethereal choruses so we can discover the new horizon. It definitely meets our
expectations! The desert before us holds the promise of new life. The warm yet fresh air is easy to
breathe. A vague psychedelic scent floats through the atmosphere, as if ready to spring from the first
flower to bloom. Dreamlike, mysterious, enigmatic yet familiar, we will call it Aldorande."
Pantene was a live performance art-pop group that existed in Berlin, Germany in 2015. Its four core band members; Marijn Degenaar, Molly Dyson, Olle Holmberg, and Rahel Tierbach took a DIY approach to instrumentation and arrangement, where intergenerational low-fidelity samples collide with subversive and pithy lyrics. Using laptops, MIDI, samplers and effects units to deliver re-contextualised pieces of music, Pantene explored issues surrounding cultural constructions of power, identity and sexuality with effortless aplomb.
