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A contemporary dance score for award winning British choreographer Wayne McGregor inspired by Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev (1872-1929). 'My composer for Dyad, Icelandic musician ?lafur Arnalds, is coming in next week to finish work on the score. It's an amazing piece of music ? it's melancholic and spatial then cuts to extreme rhythmic violence - it's hauntingly inspiring' ? Wayne McGregor (Random Dance) 2009 has already proved quite a year for Iceland's neo-classical export ?lafur Arnalds. Still high on the success of his 7-song series 'Found Songs' ? recording a song a day for 7 days and instantly making each track available via Twitter; ?lafur was approached by the world renowned and critically acclaimed choreographer Wayne McGregor to create a 30-minute score for his ambitious new work 'Dyad 1909'. The dance piece, inspired and created 'In The Spirit of Diaghilev' premiered at the Sadler's Wells theatre this October and became an unpredictable and much talked about 5-nights of live music, dance and visuals. This 'fascinating collaboration' (Guardian) will go on a EU-wide tour this autumn with Arnalds included in an impressive creative line-up alongside visual artists and filmmakers Jane and Louise Wilson. In December ?lafur's 'evocative and lyrical score' (The Times) will see a 10" vinyl, CD and digital release via Erased Tapes ? the label behind his previous releases as well as Peter Broderick's recent and much noted dance score release 'Music For Falling From Trees'. Born in 1987, ?lafur hails from the suburban Icelandic town, Mosfellsb?r, just a few kilometres outside of Reykjav?k. He has immersed himself completely in a world of delicate symphonic compositions generating near weightless orchestral pieces. Arnalds explores the crossover from classical to pop by mixing chamber strings and piano with discreet electronics which makes him a perfect fit for cinematic pop label Erased Tapes. His motivations are clear: "The classical scene is kind of closed to people who haven't been studying music all their lives. I would like to bring my classical influence to the people who don't usually listen to this kind of music?open people's minds." This young artist is steadily gaining recognition worldwide since his 2007 debut 'Eulogy for Evolution' and the 2008 follow-up EP 'Variations of Static'. In April 2009 online experiment 'Found Songs' received more than 200,000 downloads via foundsongs.erasedtapes and the physical edition released this August has instantly become a best seller, demonstrating that music in its physical format still attains a particular charm. ?lafur conceived 'Found Songs' as a way to collate several lost and found musical sketches and ideas in a 'very challenging, but fun' series. The experiment offers its listeners an intimate insight into ?lafur Arnalds' creative world with artwork contributions from fans via Flickr. With the next full-length release due in 2010, 'Found Songs' hasn't just inspired 2-D work. Esteban Di?cono ? a young motion graphic artist from Buenos Aires, Argentina ? created an astonishing animation video for 'Lj?si?', which found its way into the heart of UK illusionist Darren Brown among over 400,000 others within 4 weeks via Vimeo and YouTube. The music video is now available for download via iTunes. ?lafur is currently in the studio with Bardi Johannsson (Bang Gang) who will be co-producing his upcoming and highly anticipated second full-length album.

Only 21 years of age when this was recorded, Olafur hails from the suburban Icelandic town, Mosfellsb?r, just a few kilometres outside Reykjav?k. He as immersed himself completely in the world of delicate symphonic compositions in a near weightless orchestral undertaking. Mixing strings and piano with loops, ambiance, electronics and beats, his music fits into the Erased Tapes catalogue like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle. Debut album 'Eulogy for Evolution' took the listener on a journey, representing different periods in life, from birth to death. The first pressing of the follow-up EP 'Variations of Static' sold out on his winter tour already and will now be available in stores. While keeping the classical foundations of his debut album, here Arnalds incorporates crackling electronics and the dead voice of a machine; like vague memories of tradition lost within the digital age we all live in. It comes with a voucher for a free digital copy of the 'Erased Tapes Collection I' compilation to celebrate the label's 1st anniversary. The 10" is a super limited clear vinyl issue, we are getting 100 copies only.

Evitative Records ist ein junges Techno-Label aus Deutschland und präsentiert technologische Tanzmusik, sorgfältig ausgewählt, mit Stil und in vielfältigen Variationen. Neben digitalen Veröffentlichungen werden ausgewählte Tracks in einem Album vereint und auf Platte gepresst. Die neue Vinylpressung "Timeless" (EVITA 02-05) besteht aus vier melodische Techno Tracks von den deutschen Artists "Art und Weise", "Red Apple" und "Maurice Burgbacher". Kraftvolle Stücke mit klaren Linien, die Geschichten erzählen und neue Geschichten schreiben.

Evitative Records is a young techno label from Germany and presents technological dance music, carefully selected, with style and in many variations. Besides digital releases, selected tracks are combined in one album and pressed on record. The new vinyl pressing "Timeless" (EVITA 02-05) consists of four melodic techno tracks by the German artists "Weise", "Red Apple" and "Maurice Burgbacher". Powerful tracks with clear lines that tell stories and write new stories.

'Visions in Black and White' is a collection of rare jazz and improvised themes by one of the greatest Russian film composers Mikael Tariverdiev (1931-1996). Transferred from the original tapes and beautifully remastered, these recordings manage to retain their original ambience and capture a master at work. Originally composed for cinema and TV movies of the 1960s and 1970s, it centres on Mikael playing at the piano and keyboard. Many of the compositions can be described as jazz, a genre whose troubled story in the Soviet Union meant they probably would not have existed outside the context of a film score. But, as Vera Tariverdieva, Mikael's wife, tells, it is probably more in accordance with his vision to hear them in the context of his life-long love of improvisation. "Astoundingly, he said more than once that he wasn't fond of jazz. This perplexed me, as he'd always been great at improvisation. Imagine my amazement then when I rummaged through one of our old closets and found a crumbling old tape. It was the score for the 1964 film 'Until Tomorrow'. I played it. And the realisation came: not only had Mikael had been fond of jazz - no, he'd been an amazing jazz musician." Vera Tariverdieva The pieces here are an introduction to Mikael's musical world. The tonality of individual tracks varies - they were transferred from original tapes of different eras and conditions that are kept in the Tariverdiev apartment in Moscow where Vera still lives and works.

On LP for the very first time, the vivid musical cues that American jazz
pianist and composer Vince Guaraldi wrote for the cast of Peanuts characters, adding new dimensions to beloved regulars like Peppermint Patty, Schroeder, Sally, and, of course, Charlie Brown.
In addition to nine songs performed by Guaraldi, the album also includes two classic Peanuts tunes recorded by pianist George Winston. Eight of the selections on Peanuts Portraits (including Winston renditions of “Linus And Lucy” and “Masked Marvel”) make their vinyl debut.

Ike Yard remain a legendary band of early '80s New York City – at once immensely influential, yet obscured by a far-too-brief initial phase. Their debut EP, the dark and absorbing Night After Night, sounds almost like a different group, so rapidly would Ike Yard evolve towards the calmly menacing electro throb of their self-titled LP.

Originally released on Factory in 1982, the album put Ike Yard's indelible mark on the synth-driven experimental rock scene then emerging all over the planet. While historical analogues would be Cabaret Voltaire's Red Mecca or Front 242's Geography, opening track "M. Kurtz" makes starkly clear that Ike Yard is a far heavier proposition.

With a thick porridge of bass, ringing guitar and strangled/stunted layers of voice, these six pieces are densely packed and perversely danceable. "Loss" sounds like a minimal techno track that could have been made last week, while "Kino" combines Soviet-era imagery with sparse soundscapes à la African Head Charge's Environmental Studies.

Ike Yard somehow pull off the toughest trick in modern music: making repetition hypnotically compelling through subtle variation. The effect of Ike Yard's first LP can be heard in many genres – from industrial dance labels like Wax Trax to electro-punk bands and innumerable European groups (Lucrate Milk, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, etc.).

The fact that the cover artwork does not include any photos of the band, but rather features the original catalogue number (FACT A SECOND) only further illustrates the release's importance and Ike Yard's timeless mystique.

mesmerizing, tripping techno visions. comes with download code.

The music has gotten thick, guys give me tunes and they’re full of chords” declared Miles Davis interviewed on The Jazz Review in 1958, and added: “I can’t play them...I think a movement in jazz is beginning away from the conventional string of chords, and a return to emphasis on melodic rather than harmonic variation. There will be fewer chords but infinite possibilities as to what to do withthem.”
Miles proved his assertion to be true on Kind of Blue (Columbia, 1959), an album that remains one of the most iconic and influential jazz albums of all time.


• LIMITED EDITION CLASSIC LP
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THE BEST-SELLING JAZZ ALBUM EVER AND THE MOST IMPORTANT MODERN JAZZ LP!

"Secretsundaze continue their quest to uncover amazing new music with the signing of exciting young Dominican artist Boundary. At just 19 years old Boundary aka Josue Suero makes music that is brimming full of ideas and influences that belie his young age. The 'Interlazados' EP is his debut release for a UK label.

Taking cues from his fascination with video game music, his first real gateway to electronic music, the four track EP showcases Boundary's melodic sensibilities and ear for a killer rhythm.ALead track 'Opticamente Avanzando' unwinds over 12 minutes of deep, mesmeric melodic, contemplative electronica with hints of 90's UK rave influences.ACheck the grins when the killer bassline drops half way through!A

The glossy melodies, jazzy motifs and hip-tugging bass of 'OP.AV' and the breakbeat house of 'Interlazados' channel more lo-fi, ambient house influences but all sent through that unique Boundary filter. Finally, the brain-warming, hypnagogic, tempo-changing rhythms of 'Planos de Ausencia Casualidad' could be the EP highlight and recalls the work of Lone and Actress.

You could listen to these tracks and be mistaken for thinking this is an artist who has maybe been lost in the throws of extended Villalobos DJ set or the deep pads of old Sun Electric records, but as an artist who is an outsider to the European dance scene, his inspiration comes from closer to home, as Boundary explains:

"For this EP I was interested to see if i could hit close to the feelings i have when I listen to certain video game music, how I could convey the amazing and deep storytelling in these songs. I really wanted them to feel like a ride/adventure. 'Opticamente Avanzando' ('Optically Advancing' in English) for me is like a venture into a machine that analyses a bunch of electronic music genres and it outputs as many different variations of these genres it can, each with their own little quirk/details, creating something unique in the process."

With previous releases on LA based label, Point Records, and Paris' Third Try label (Axel Boman, SFV Acid) Boundary's emergence represents a promising prospect for the electronic music world and 'Interlazados' another essential release on Secretsundaze."

Notes From The Forest Floor was originally premiered in a different form in July 2015 at The ICA as part of an evenings event dedicated to the work of Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi. Played in almost pitch dark the hour long piece was played prior to a concert of work by and inspired by Scelsi. Chris responded to Scelsi's microtonal works using recording of insects and other wildlife/environmental sounds from La Selva tropical rain forest reserve in Costa Rica. An edited shorter piece from this installation was on the Scelsi Ep titled Invertebrate Harmonics which gathered great reviews from the Quietus to the Vinyl Factory. Whilst working with Chris again this year having had the stereo ICA installation version sitting on his hard drive for 5 years Adrian Corker asked Chris if he would be interested in releasing it.Chris was soon after heading back to Costa Rica working with David Attenborough and offered to make new recordings and develop the original piece.

Georgia Rodgers Line Of Parts was originally premiered at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in 2019 as part of the Huddersfield Professional Development Programme for Female Composers of Electronic Music project. Originally having trained a an acoustician Rodgers work is concerned with" timbral detail". She has had work performed by ensembles such as Apartment House and The Riot Ensemble but for Line of Parts worked with the Huddersfield Immersive Sound System(HISS) using its network of 48 channels and 66 speakers.The piece and stereo mix down of this work is composed of field recordings made in the Cairngorms and North London, sine waves and voice.

Faitiche presents a new album by Frank Bretschneider. abtasten_halten was made as part of the raster.labor installation first presented at CTM Festival in 2019. It is perhaps the most radical work in Bretschneider’s distinctive oeuvre: abtasten_halten is a self-generating composition for synthesizer modules whose sole sound source is the movement of two VU meter needles. The resulting percussive sounds coalesce into rhythmic combinations – all random, without repetition. The album resembles a meditation on infinite rhythmic variation. abtasten_halten is Frank Bretschneider’s first release on Faitiche.

One sound can give birth to thousands of tones through self-fertilization. Pierre Henry, 1982

Frank Bretschneider on abtasten_halten:
abtasten_halten (sample_hold) is a largely self-generating composition for a modular synthesizer system. Self-generating here means that as soon as a current flows, the various modules interact, but within limits set by the composer via the connections between the modules (patches): timing, tempo, timbres, dynamics. These conditions are kept variable to a certain extent or left to chance, so that the composition created is always similar but never the same. On the one hand, the use of random generators opens up possibilities that would not otherwise have been considered. On the other, it offers the fascination of the unfinished and the unique: totally unexpected musical events that you might hear only once.

abtasten_halten combines my preferences for percussive music in general and electronic music in particular. Largely avoiding repetitive structures, the piece is more like a free improvisation, quiet and diffuse, but also extremely dense, in ever-changing contrasts and transformations.

The tone generators are two modified VU meters whose needles, driven by trigger impulses, create a simple one-bar pattern by hitting against a metal spring that is connected to a piezo element (thanks to Gijs Gieskes / Gieskes.NL). The tempo is continuously varied over a period of about ten minutes by several mutually modulating LFOs, ranging from about 0.06 Hz up to the lower audio range of about 18Hz.
The percussive sounds thus obtained are then passed through low-pass filters with moderate resonance and random frequency modulation to additionally colour the sound. Further processing is then executed by an echo module whose tempo and repetitions are again determined by random parameters. Finally the audio signal is occasionally enriched with reverb to add more spaciousness to the sound.

The concept for the installation raster.labor was developed by Olaf Bender, Frank Bretschneider and David Letellier. Many thanks to raster - artistic platform.

On Frank Bretschneider:

Frank Bretschneider works as a musician, composer and video artist in Berlin, making mainly electronic work based on complex rhythmic structures and interlocking textures, whose many-layered sound is inspired by the experimental set-ups of modern physics, often supplemented by perfectly synchronized computer-generated visualizations. In 1986, he founded AG Geige, one of the most influential underground bands in East Germany. In 1996, he co-founded the label raster-noton and has since released many solo albums.

Parisian label Chuwanaga curated by Clémentine & Saint-James is back in the production game with fresh music from Ishkero, maybe the hottest Jazz-Fusion band of the capital city. Going from Jazz-Funk to Afrobeat through Prog and Psychedelic influences, Brume infuses together killer grooves, irresistible melodies and excellent musicianship. The 12inch, coming with its beautiful illustration, reveals a uniformly good yet diverse musical journey. Behind Ishkero, you’ll find five young and gifted musicians with strong jazz knowledge: Tao Ehrlich (drums), Adrien « Dridri » Duterte (flute & percussion), Antoine Vidal (bass), Victor Gasq (guitar) and Arnaud Forestier (keys). With its strong evocation power fuelled by their youthful energy and creativity, Ishkero’s music is a one-of-a-kind variation on the Jazz genre. Fusion at its best potential! Expect intense rhythmic sections, virtuoso solos, lush FX sections and robust arrangements. Used to play a lot live, the musicians developed a vigorous connection that really shines on stage and during studio sessions. Collectively with Saint-James as their co-producer, they recorded Brume in summer 2019 at Studio Delta (Paris) with sound engineer David Cukier aka Greita (Disques Flegon). The first track, "Triple B", is an ode to 70’s jazz-funk carried by Jeff Mercadié’s Sax performance. "Tonik Gin"’s mighty jazz-rock groove which comes afterwards brings the genre to its emotional climax. B side starts with the main track "Brume", bringing together long-tailed reverberated guitars and Mizell-like piano chords for a very warm and hazy effect. As the last track, "Gare De l’Ouest" is a nice jazz variation on the Afrobeat genre, again with Jeff Mercadié on Saxophone.

THE KILIMANJARO DARKJAZZ ENSEMBLE are a project which has always been tied to films. Films are luxurious because they dispose of all these boring, unimportant, and trivial parts of our lives. This allows them to fully control our sensations, to put us in a very specific mood. Joy and sadness are occasionally OK, endless joy or endless sadness are clinical. But there is one sensation which can be persistent and unconditionally bearable at the same time. In the absence of a better alternative, let's call it "the mood". The mood is what TKDE are aiming at. The mood.

The mood is infinite and illimitable, but not uniform and unique. On "From The Stairwell", TKDE deliver eight new incarnations of the mood. Stairwells have always been intriguing. They appear to unavoidably lead you to your destination, but they only disclose the path bit by bit. What lies far ahead of you and far beyond you is hidden in the shadows. The stairwell could just as well be infinite. You climb up this murky stairwell, passing by many doors. Every door contains a variation of the mood, a short film, a song. You open the first one, "All Is One". The evaporating mist discloses a large and empty room with a barstool in the middle. On the barstool, a chanteuse from the roaring twenties. Her voice starts to trigger vibrations of the ground, the walls start spiralling around her, but she remains untouched in the eye of the storm. Second room, "Giallo". Sly guy, telling smile, nice suit. Walking down the streets in the dusk. The ambience starts to get out of phase, the guy stumbles in horror while blending with the surrounding to a brown soup. Fourth room. "Cocaine". Naked people with pig heads crawl on the floor, on the walls, on the ceiling. They try to hopelessly suck up the white dust which covers every single piece of this room and is constantly spit out by tubes coming out of the walls. Dissonant sounds accompany the work of this desperate hive. As the people manage to counteract the tubes, fragile melodies start to overpower the dissonances. Sixth room, "Cotard Delusion". Baby morphing into a black fluid morphing into an old man which turns his eyes inwards and finds his inside to be completely empty. The journey up the stairwell, down the stairwell, continues. The pictures fill your head and make you forget where you wanted to go in the first place.

"From The Stairwell" is a surprise and a logical step at the same time. It is a surprise because the songs are far less beat-driven in comparison to TKDE's earlier works, and even contain a few hopeful tints here and there. It is a logical step because in the end each song turns to have a very diverse dramaturgic flow. This could raise the conjecture that TKDE, initially started out to make music for existing and non-existing films, wanted to incorporate the audiovisual impression completely into songs, making the films superfluous. At times, "From The Stairwell" makes you think of 60's soundtracks, but the organic feeling of those is always interwoven with mechanical elements. Altogether, every single of the numerous details present in TKDE's new songs feels to be at the right place and you can either just dive into the mood or pick one of the many aspects and enjoy it on its own - be it Gideon Kiers' beats & fx, Jason Köhnen's bass & piano, Hilary Jeffery's trombone, Charlotte Cegarra's voice & piano, Eelco Bosman's guitar, Nina Hitz' cello, Sarah Anderson's violin, or - appearing as guest musicians - Eiríkur Óli Ólafsson's trumpet and Coen Kaldeway's saxophone & bass clarinet.

Sydney Joe Qualls is a Southern born soul singer who was heavily influenced by Al Green and Sam Dees but had a sound and quality of his own. He signed to Dakar Records to release his debut album with a variation on the spelling of his first name. ‘So Sexy’ is one of the great soul albums released in 1979 on Chi-Sound recordings, where he masterfully sings 8 soul numbers including the cult classic ‘I Don’t Do This’. Reissued on 140g classic black vinyl with original artwork and printed inner sleeve.

The first-time teaming of Poland’s dynamic Marcin Wasilewski Trio and bigtoned US tenorist Joe Lovano brings forth special music of concentrated, deep feeling, in which lyricism and strength seem ideally balanced.

The alliance plays four new tunes by Marcin and one by Joe, as well as Carla Bley’s classic “Vashkar” (in two variations), plus collective improvisations with strong input from all four players; Slawomir Kurkiewicz’s bass skills are particularly well-deployed in the spontaneous piece “Arco”. Joe will be joining the Polish trio for a number of selected concerts in the autumn.

Arctic Riff was recorded at France’s Studio La Buissonne in August 2019, and produced by Manfred Eicher.

Personnel: Joe Lovano: tenor saxophone; Marcin Wasilewski: piano; Slawomir Kurkiewicz: double bass; Michal Miskiewicz: drums

REPRESSED ! Old school variation arount the sweet south tribe kicki. Nice one.

"BRUK" is a new platform for fresh variations on the soundsystem ethic, in particular where high-end sound design intersects with formidable bassweight. It's an artist-focused endeavour geared towards producers with range, depth and ingenuity in their sound.

The first transmission comes from "FFT", the latest alias from accomplished producer Josh Thompson. Thompson established the Super Hexagon label with long time friends J. Wiltshire and Arthur Scott-Geddes and he's also released on heritage label R&S (as Alma Construct) and the excellent offbeat techno upstarts Power Vacuum, and more recently developed the FFT moniker via essential drops on The Trilogy Tapes as well as Super Hexagon.Thompson helps launch BRUK with a two-pronged attack that shows off the breadth of his artistic scope.

The lead 12" is a dynamic club release that pivots between razor-sharp drum programming, hyphy synth acrobatics, breakbeat science and dub-loaded atmospheres. If there's one constant that runs through all Thompson's work, it's a resounding confidence with melody, and that comes through even in the rowdy chops of "Month" – a track that exudes hope even in its gnarliest bars. From the dreadweight minimalism of "Fask" to the expansive electronica shock out of "Sacrifice (The Truth Mix)", this is a head-twisting release that feeds into the vital new energyreverberating around the 150+ axis.

Accompanying that 12" is a cassette album which provides that polar opposite side to FFT – a collection of compelling beatless ruminations under the banner of Total Self-Fulfilment. Gliding from low frequency industrial textures to expressive synth modulation, this is far from static music, even as it moves without the aid of a traditional rhythm section.

It's a strong first chapter for BRUK, with future releases lined up from artists similarly poking at the fabric of contemporary club music to find their own unique spaces for expression.

Brave Wave’s first 3-LP vinyls colored (Red, Black and White) set , Samurai Shodown The Definitive Soundtrack will come in a box set featuring three LP sleeves decorated with artwork from the game, with the box set featuring the original iconic Japanese cover drawn by famed illustrator Shinkiro. Both 3LP and 2CD version includes booklet.

SNK and Brave Wave Productions are proud to reveal their fourth collaboration, Generation Series 010: Samurai Shodown for both CD and vinyl.

Known as Samurai Spirits in Japan and originally released for NEOGEO in 1993, Samurai Shodown is one of SNK’s most classic and timeless 2D fighting games, featuring fast-paced gameplay, beautiful graphics and catchy music.

The soundtrack, composed by Norio Tate, achieves the difficult task of producing traditional Japanese sound comprised of instruments such as the shamisen and shachihata while maintaining a distinct NEOGEO vibe. The result is a beloved soundtrack that is simultaneous timeless, yet historical.

There are two variations of the soundtrack: an AES version and a NEOGEO CD arranged version. Samurai Shodown The Definitive Soundtrack will include both versions, featuring the entirety of the original soundtracks remastered and restored to the highest possible quality, in collaboration and consultation with SNK.

The CD and vinyl editions will feature a booklet containing artwork from the SNK archives, in addition to in-depth liner notes written by some of the original creators of the game, including series creator Yasushi Adachi, as well as Tate. In addition, the booklet will feature an in-depth essay by Greg Kasavin of Supergiant Games on the impact of Samurai Shodown on video game culture and history.

We instantly fell in love with Razen the first time we saw them live in September 2018. It was during a unique Sunday morning mass at the Friedenskirche (which translates literally to mean ‘the church of peace’), as part of the Meakusma Festival. Slightly sleep deprived and still euphorically intoxicated from the night before, their performance in front of a full mass of devotees had a biblical aura to it from the first note they played. They delivered a stunning set which was somehow, paradoxically, both relaxing and formidably tense.

Two years later and the group are now bringing their talent for restraint and slow tension-building to the fore on “Robot Brujo”. Each of the six improvisations on this double LP is made up of the barest of materials, with the three musicians relying on a limited combination of tones. They lay their focus on small variations in timbre, timing, articulation and vibration, which creates a narrowing of consciousness, and feels something a bit like staring meditatively at the minute changes of leaves blowing in the wind.

Recorded over two sessions, in what Razen themselves refer to as their detached playing style, "Robot Brujo" stands as an auditory magnifying glass of concentration, in all its uncanny and minimal glory.

It is yet another new step up from the deep listening ensemble from Brussels, after 10 years exploring music together.

It's album release time for this Madrid-based soul/jazz organ trio who have been burning up stages and festivals throughout 2019 and who have already had a successful single out on Rocafort Records. Beat Bronco Organ Trio have not rewritten the Hammond musical handbook, but they do what it says on the tin rather splendidly – a Road Trip that grooves, swings and sashays around the familiar but much loved funky jazz theme.

Although it's impossible to listen to the album without summoning up the ghosts of Jimmies McGriff & Smith and the like, nearly all tracks here are originals and shout out personality, verve and respectful homage to the tradition. Featuring the usual leitmotifs: Shaftish film sountrack, lo-fi lounger, gospel-tinged toe-tapper, the hip shaker and much wah-wah frenesi, there's nothing not to like if the genre is your bag.

The steaming horn section on "Hard Play" thickens the sauce à la JBs and the Meters, aided along by a unique orchestra of handclaps. Vocalist and guitarist Alberto Palacios Anaut storms in with "Hey Hey", an old Dave Bartholomew classic from New Orleans, just to remind us where Fats Domino and Ray Charles got it all from. Chip Wickham makes two welcome appearances on flute, adding an extra jazzy touch to "Squirtly" and "Electro Pi" – the latter a fabulous trippy, spacious head-nodder that demands in our opinion some kind of a wigged out drum'n'bass remix. Every track is clearly dominated by variations on the vintage keyboard, be it Hammond, Clavinet or Minimoog; all roads lead to that sexy, sacred sound.

Spain is already prominent on the modern-day Funk map thanks to groups like The Sweet Vandals, Speak Low and Mighty Vamp – and it comes as no surprise that our hero trio featured at various times in all these bands. Gabri Casanova (keys), Lucas de Mulder (guitar, percussion) and Antonio "Pax" Alvarez (drums, percussion) have been busy reviving the funk gospel for some time now. Road Trip is an elegant culmination of their efforts in keeping alive a revered and timeless tradition that still today serves as a reference to where all the good stuff came from: The Church!

Scottish trumpeter Malcolm Strachan is a founder member of top UK funk/jazz-funk band The Haggis Horns as well as being one of the busiest session musicians in the UK today. In a professional career spanning 20 years, he's recorded with the likes of Mark Ronson, Amy WineHouse, Corinne Bailey Rae, Jamiroquai, Martha Reeves and The Vandellas, Jesse Glynne, The Craig Charles Fantasy Funk Band, Black Honey, The New Mastersounds and Blue Note saxophone legend Lou Donaldson. Now he's finally releasing his first solo album, aptly titled "About Time", on Haggis Records and he's going back to his original roots... Jazz.

The album is a collection of original compositions, all written and arranged by Malcolm, which are firmly rooted in the classic acoustic modern jazz style typified by the great 60's and 70's recordings on the legendary Blue Note Records label. A nice variation of themes and tempos feature throughout the album. From full-on latin vibes to beautiful ballads, soul jazz grooves to cinematic soundtrack flavours, all woven together by a great group of experienced musicians.

Malcolm's core quartet is himself on trumpet/flugelhorn, fellow Haggis Horns members George Cooper (piano) and Erroll Rollins (drums), plus Courtny Tomas on double bass. Featured guests are Atholl Ransome on tenor sax (The Haggis Horns), Rob Mitchell on baritone sax (Abstract Orchestra) and Danny Barley on Trombone. Strings are courtesy of Richard Curran and the percussionist is one of the finest session players in Europe, Karl Vanden Bossche (Incognito, Robert Palmer, Joss Stone, The Gorillaz, Sade, Blur - He and Malcolm met while touring with Mark Ronson)

Malcolm's love of jazz comes from his parents. Aged 7, his jazz musician father gave him a trumpet. From then on, jazz was his life. His musical education came via music teachers, youth jazz orchestras and jazz summer schools but mostly from his dad's record collection listening to Art Blakey and Dizzy Gillespie records and learning to improvise and solo by ear. At 18, he enrolled at Leeds College of Music and quickly immersed himself in the city's vibrant acid jazz, funk and soul scene and from making his recording debut in 1999 with The New Mastersounds, jazz was his musical passion but took a back seat to funk/soul/pop which were the day job. Until now.

Jazz is back. The wait is over. It really is "About Time" for Malcolm Strachan.

Mike 'Agent X' Clark is a true hero of the Detroit scene, but he rarely gets the props he deserves, making any outing of his a cause for celebration. El Provost's No Speakers label knows what's up, and they've drafted in Clark for his killer jam "The Heat." The name is no foil, this track will set any party ablaze with its distinctive speech sample and saucy rhythm section. Alongside the original, there is a strong cast of remixers on hand to serve up deadly variations, from the label boss' skipping, psyched-out groover to Ben Sims' appropriately thumping techno workout. Peter Rocket especially impresses with a crafty breaks version that should slot in nicely with the resurgent electro scene.

Yokohama-based producer Foodman - aka 食品まつり or Shokuhin Matsuri - continues his expansive sonic voyage with his new EP Dokutsu, out on 6th March 2020. It follows his 2019 release ODOODO, which was issued on Diplo’s Mad Decent label. Dokutsu is the first release on Highball, a brand new label exporting forward-thinking music from Japan.

Foodman emerged from Japan’s nascent footwork scene, using the genre as a springboard for an escapist exploration into a dazzling array of sounds. He’s since earned the respect of influential fans including Diplo, Benny Blanco, Cashmere Cat and HOMESHAKE, while Pitchfork, Noisey, FACT and Tiny Mix Tapes have included his releases in various ‘best of the year’ lists since 2016.

Opening track Kazunoko sets the tone for what will follow. Its woozy rhythm is evocative of the off-kilter playfulness that’s become a hallmark of Foodman’s uncategorizable artistry. It’s also a sign of his inventiveness that he constantly adds fresh layers to the track without losing sight of its light-hearted, spacious feel.

Another of Foodman’s unorthodox traits is his ability to meld the frenetic with the soothing. Hirake Tobira is a case in point. Its production is hypnotic, while its central motif - endless twists and variations on a vocal sample - is sufficiently insistent to demand attention. Kachikachi reverses the trick with a thrilling rush, stuttering otherwise unobtrusive sounds.

Elsewhere the EP plays on sonics which have echoes of the familiar while remaining alien: the boss fight soundtrack of Oshiro, the clattering percussion that dominates Imo Hori, and the ambient psychedelia of Konomi.

Based in Yokohama, an hour south of Tokyo, Foodman’s multifaceted skills also encompass DJing and painting. His press image, shown above, is a self-portrait. From the stripped-back sketches of his 2012 set Shokuhin (released on Giant Claw’s Orange Milk label) to the richer textures of ODOODO, Foodman has subverted everything from Okinawan folk to J-Pop to D&B/classical fusion into his own otherworldly inventions.

A member of popular techno trio Agents of Time, Italian artist Fedele goes solo AF on his Turbo debut, No Mercy for Beginners. Against the backdrop of a nightmare international tour experience, Fedele channeled his negative feelings away from people and into creating darkly euromotional dancefloor catharsis. Try it sometime.

Sharp-eared lovers of listening may notice that lead track “Riot Revolte” purloins the loin jewels (the street-tough vocals) from Tiga’s 2004 classic, “Pleasure from the Bass.” DJ Hell noticed the shit out of this, introducing a mutant variation on the PFTB baseline into his lurid after-hours remix. Moreover, the entire EP recalls the legendary run of killer electro records that kicked off what many, many people refer to as Turbo’s Silver Age in the early-mid 2000s. This may be utterly meaningless, or it may herald the coming era of compressed cyclical time that will dictate dance music taste in the 2020s with the sort of mathematical precision rarely found outside pie chart software. Either way, you heard it here first.

10"

* Dilo Variations EP (not released previously before on vinyl) will come as part of the Emika Records 5 year anniversary releases during Spring 2020.

* 10’’ vinyl with new artwork just for this release.

* Completes the vinyl series of Emika’s Klavirni Dilo piano solos.

* Following on from the hugely popular ‘Klavirni’ (Emika’s first solo piano album in 2015).

* Dilo 7 from the first album has been streamed more than 15 million times on Spotify and playlisted in the ‘Peaceful Piano’ playlist.

* Dilo 7 (Variation) was playlisted in the Apple Music ‘Piano Chill’ playlist 380k+ streams.

* A truly personal affair all the Dilo’s were recorded improvisations by the composer on her home piano in Berlin.

* This release marks the 5 year anniversary of Emika Records, celebrating 5 years of independence since her first two albums with Ninja Tune.

* This is also the final release in her Emika Records catalog before starting a new venture in 2020 with more details to follow later in the year.

Samuel Rohrer CONTINUAL DECENTERING
With his Arjunamusic label and a growing catalog of categorydefying releases, Samuel Rohrer continues to quietly, yet confidently, make a name for himself as a genuinely unique Gigure within the European electronic music realm. In the current era, talk of blurring boundaries between musical genres and attitudes is more the rule than the exception, but not always something done with any degree of success. Rohrer is one of those rare alchemical explorers to have truly created a hybrid which is all his own, one that does not just exist to melt distinctions for its own sake, but is a natural result of years of experimentation with both the determination of electronic music and the ludic spirit of ‘free improvisation.’ On his newest offering, Continual Decentering, this vision is applied to a set of mostly in real time (live) performed explorations. 
In keeping with his many years’ worth of fruitful collaborations, the tonal palette on this new record is one that is expectedly rich for those familiar with his work, yet still surprising in terms of how exactly the differing tonal colors come together. Representative tracks like Spondee and The Fringe are brimming with dub pulses, noir shivers and blooming timbral variations that are in many places carefully isolated / focused and in other places blended together in vivid fusions. In terms of the emotional atmosphere created here, the pensive and questioning tone hearkens back to the ‘wide open’ state of electronic music in the mid-late 1990s, yet with a greater clarity and maturity of vision that makes this music feel like a possible answer to aesthetic questions being raised at that time. As with Rohrer’s most recent solo work, like the Range of Regularity LP, Continual Decentering showcases the artist’s skill in turning the drum kit into a lead instrument. While the term “lead instrument” denotes a kind of exuberant “Glash,” or a clear separation from the rest of the voices in an ensemble, we can take the term to mean something different throughout this listening program of 13 short vignettes: that is to say, everything else within the audible environment exists to complement the character of the percussive playing rather than to stand apart from it. It helps that Rohrer has, in fact, developed a unique and complex hybrid system in which drum hits trigger modular synthesizer processes, the use of which makes for an incredibly fluid response time between distinct sonic events. In contrast to the previous Range... LP, this new offering is propelled less by interlacing threads of intensity and more by a shared sense of deep listening. As displayed on pieces like All Too Human, there is a profound sense of attention to silences or thoughtful pauses that maybe hints at another crucial aspect of Rohrer’s style: over the course of this program, we tend to hear the player not only playing but listening, an activity which makes perfect sense given the sense of instrumental dialogue already mentioned. All of the above come together to give Continual Decentering a “live”-ness that will easily translate from recorded document to dynamic performance.

When Air’s Nicolas Godin released his debut solo album, Contrepoint (2015), he channelled the influence of Bach into a rich, resonant and hugely rewarding spread of musical explorations. One soundtrack (A Very Secret Service) later, Godin builds on equally fertile conceptual foundations for the follow-up. Released through Because Music on 24th January, Concrete and Glass is an exquisitely crafted set of variations on architectural reference points: mounted with minimalist precision and delivered with an abundance of pop warmth, it finds Godin in his element, working seductive wonders with poise and style to spare.

For Godin, the album circles back to his formative work as half of ground-breaking French electronic group Air. Revered modern architect Le Corbusier was an influence on the young architecture graduate’s music, notably on his 1997 debut “Modular Mix”. Twenty-plus years later, Le Corbusier featured on a list of modernist architects Godin was invited to compose tributes for, tributes intended to be heard as the soundtrack to site-specific installations around the world.

In its soft ambient pulse and melting minimalism, lead track “The Border” is a perfect entry-point to Godin’s hymns to buildings, arranged and co-produced with Pierre Rousseau. Its levitating synths, vocoder vocals and scudding bass hove into view with understated elegance, all the better to accommodate the discreet slow-build of delicate details within. As with Air, Godin makes gorgeously light work of every angle: this is music that seems entirely unperturbed by gravity, occupying an elevated atmosphere of its own.

Elsewhere, the title-track’s clean synth lines, crisply apportioned arrangements and tender timpani offer another inviting entry-point, sculpted with architectural clarity. While Godin’s vocoder vocals also hark back to Air’s early work, the album accommodates a diverse spread of guest vocalists elsewhere. Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor guests on the falsetto-soul dream-pop of “Catch Yourself Falling”, one of Godin’s sweetest melodies yet. Oxnard singer/activist Cola Boyy brings soul to the righteously engaged “The Foundation”; the squelchy synths and buoyant grooves burn slow, allowing the stealthy arrangements and message room to resonate. Psychedelic soul singer Kadhja Bonet sings with measured serenity over tremulous synths on “We Forgot Love”, while Russian experi-pop artist Kate NV brings a gracefully aching romanticism to the blissful swoon-pop of “Back to Your Heart”.

Additionally, Australian conceptual provocateur Kirin J Callinan contributes a vocal of restrained drama to “Time on My Hands”, a midnight-drift soft-pop ballad with a silky allure. One of the quickest tracks to record for the album, it emerged in collaborations between Los Angeles (”During some lively sessions in Mac DeMarco’s studio,” notes Godin) and Paris. After he missed his flight home, Callinan stayed in France for a day as the guitar solos were recorded, complementing the song's air of sleek luxuriousness.

Between its title-track and the sultry, smoky jazz stylings of closer “Cité Radieuse”, Concrete and Glass is an album that truly travels, in tune with its global pitch. For Godin, it marks another milestone in a musical journey that began when Air’s 1998 debut album, Moon Safari, became the sublimely weightless soundtrack of its time. For Concrete and Glass, Godin builds on his storied past with tremendous finesse, charm and fluency, opening fresh windows of perspective at every lovingly executed turn.

Heinrich Dressel was an archaeologist, epigraphist and numismatist, creator of a table, still in use, for the cataloging of Roman amphorae. For over ten years, one of the founders of MinimalRome, Valerio Lombardozzi, has embraced the name of the German scholar, becoming both the guardian of a dense collection of sounds from the past and the creator of new brilliant electronic ones. “Completion Of The Amphoras Table”, originally released on cd by Legowelt's Strange Life Records, was the final chapter of the so-called 'Studium Amphorae Trilogy', a triptych of albums which tried to 'evoke' in notes not only the discoveries and the studies of Monte Testaccio's fragments made by the former pupil of Theodor Mommsen.
The first vinyl release of “Completion Of The Amphoras Table”, curated by Souterraine.org and Envlp_Imprint, fills not only a recording void, but also gives posterity a remarkable album to rediscover, worthy successor of “Mons Testaceum” (2007 ) and “Escape From The Hill” (2008),
which reconstructs one more time the ghostly atmosphere of a Rome at the dawn of the 20th century. Heinrich Dressel adopts the stylistic features of gloomy soundtracks and, above all, relies on a set of polyphonic synthesizers that, starting from the rare Elka Syntex, favor the composition of abstract textures, punctuated by some appropriate variations, and harmonies which, net of the
deep bass, make every single track even more magnetic.

Storming, drone infused techno visions. The label formerly, known as 'tau', operates now under the name: 't-variant' !!!
T-variant 02 follows tau_01.

Fresh from the release of their third album ‘Autonomy’ earlier this summer, comes Autonomy Variations: four brand new perspectives from four exciting, innovative kindred spirits of the avant-pop duo.

South London’s Medlar breaks the seal. Following a series of incredible live collaborations with Dele Sosimi (Fela Kuti), he’s has turned ‘Autonomy’ into a minimal, percolating house track. Swapping the acid spikes for analog bleeps, Medlar’s signature can be felt every step through this vivid energetic stomper.

Fabric resident Anna Wall follows with another beautiful subversion as ‘New Politik’ is given a smouldering take. Moody, intimate, downtempo; there’s some serious late night HTRK-esque vibes to Anna’s twist.

Further into the remix trip we glide to find Dischi Autunno, Ombra International affiliate Curses pulling ‘Electric Light’ into the fringes. Taking the upbeat, crystalline pop of Penelope and Stephen’s original and flipping it into a stark postpunk Bauhaus-inspired take, Curses’ live bass and driving new wave beat shine a whole new light on the original and write it a whole new chapter.

Finally, brand new act, Isolating have the honour of closing the EP with industrial modular apocalyptic take on ‘Infinity’. A vast playground of contrasts, at points it’s dirty and pounding. At others it’s quiet and menacing. File under ‘Dystopian Techno.’

Four extensions on one of the most interesting electronic albums released this year, if you haven’t treated yourself to ‘Autonomy’ yet, you’d be wise to. DJ Mag stated it’s The Golden Filter’s best work yet while Clash called a it a bruising return. These remixes follow with complete forward-thinking consistency. Enjoy…

2024 Repress

While during the 1990s - higher, faster, further! - the straight bass drum has been shooted around the globe, there arose a number of variations of more or less contemplative slow- and sacred music from all kinds of corners at the same time. In a sense, it’s the other side of the medal: Chillout, Lounge, Easy Listening, Trance, Muzak and elevator music, electronic music and intelligent techno… and of course and in particular: Ambient. In classical and new variations.

Beside the constant pushing forward of the so called „Sound Of Cologne“- Minimal Techno in the home of Kompakt, there was also a strong faible for ambient sounds. Not only because of the labels origin and its operator’s preference for the pop music of the 70s and 80s, there was evolving a variety of ambient music, that added the aspect of pop to the confusing diversity of genres during that time. Not pop in the sense of actual classic pop music: Pop in the sense of subculture, of Pop Art and, first and foremost, in the sense of pop as an attitude. This was how Pop Ambient was launched and the way it established its own authentic music with a high recognition value. Pop Ambient is indulging the beauty and the timelessness. Pop Ambient is a sonic cosmos of attitude for itself and has no fears of contact with adjoining genres nor with kitsch, art or carnival. It’s ambient if you do it nevertheless. ^

Während sich im Laufe der 1990er Jahre die gerade Bassdrum immer höher, schneller, weiter einmal um den gesamten Planeten geballert hatte, kamen parallel dazu etliche Spielarten mehr oder weniger kontemplativer Erbauungs- und Verlangsamungsmusik aus allen möglichen Ecken auf. Gewissermaßen die andere Seite der Medaille. Chillout, Lounge, Easy Listening, Trance, Muzak und Fahrstuhlmusik, Elektronika und Intelligent Techno… und natürlich und vor allem Ambient. In altbewährten und neuen Variationen.

Auch im Hause Kompakt gab es neben dem steten Vorantreiben des sogenannten „Sound Of Cologne“ - Minimal Techno ein starkes Faible für ambiente Klänge. Nicht zuletzt aufgrund ihrer popmusikalischen Herkunft und einer besonderen Vorliebe für die Popmusik der 70er und 80er Jahre, kristallisierte sich bei den Kompakt-Machern ab dem Jahr 2000 eine Spielart ambienter Musik heraus, die den vielschichtigen, unübersichtlichen Genres dieser Zeit den Aspekt des Pop hinzu fügte. Nicht Pop im Sinne eigentlicher, klassischer Popmusik. Pop im Sinne von Subkultur, von Pop-Art und vor allem von Pop als Haltung. So wurde „Pop Ambient“ aus der Taufe gehoben und etablierte eine genuine Musik mit hohem Wiedererkennungswert. Pop Ambient frönte hemmungslos dem Schönen und der Zeitlosigkeit. Pop Ambient ist ein Klang- und Haltungskosmos für sich, und hat dabei keinerlei Berührungsängste, weder mit angrenzenden Genres, noch mit Kitsch, Kunst oder Karneval. Ambient ist wenn man’s trotzdem macht.

Roche madame is happy to welcome long time friend Felipe Valenzuela for it’s next installment.

After 7 club-orientated releases that have found their way into a wide variation of record bags from Midland, Raresh, Ricardo Villalobos, Ryan Elliot, Craig Richards, to Patrick Topping, INSTINCT goes further into his sound over 10 tracks for the LP. Not to be missed.

Infinite Tape Loops Vol.1" immediately brings to mind the emotional and gorgeous series of Albums "The Disintegration Loops" by William Basinski.
The records revolve around a very short melodic loop of approximately N/A seconds, that plays through the whole pieces from the beginning to the end. Around them, strings and pad harmonization fill the gaps with a gentle tapestry of long diluted sounds becoming the primary element of the compositions.
Timbric variations are the push that gets these compositions to flow, amplitude automations and gradual filtering develop a certain movement and introduce changes in the background-figure relationship of the two main sound actors. This floating, a heavy sound is lightly elevating, into light sounds that become grounded in appearance and disappearances, underlining a static, eternal landscape that will never change its behavior.

Blue Vinyl

Editions Mego is proud to present the latest addition to the compelling discography of Thomas Brinkmann. Throughout his career Brinkmann has focussed on the human operating amongst industry alongside rhythms that manifest as a result of technological advancement. With this new release Brinkmann makes a u-turn, looking back to the early industrial age. Comprised of recordings of various looms, Raupenbahn investigates the sonic properties and consequences of the first automatic loom as constructed by Jacques de Vaucanson in 1745. Thomas Brinkmann once again adheres to his tendency for clarity and simplicity whilst further investigating not only the sound and rhythms of the machines (looms) but also what role they serve in society and what consequences they have on the environment. Raupenbahn presents 21 tracks in total, 11 feature on the vinyl, the remaining 10 as digital bonus tracks. The majority of recordings were undertaken by Brinkmann in 2017 with a Neumann KM 184 stereo set. Additional recordings were sourced with permission from Monika W. recs. from 2014 Central Museum of Textiles Łódź, Poland. Each piece presents a diversity of material which borders on the breathtaking and beautiful in richness and complexity. The various looms unravel rhythms and patterns unexpected from machines of the early industrial age.

The loom holds a significant role in shaping our world being the catalyst for Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine which, alongside the subsequent work of Byron's daughter Ada Lovelace, paved the way for modern computing. There is a linage of the loom that fits succinctly in Brinkmann's overall argument. Here we encounter a parallel between machine driven economies and the music that rose from such places, consider the Sheffield steel industries, the Manchester weaving industry or the Rhineland / Düsseldorf loom and machine industry. Is it a coincidence that the practice of such machines in the environment gave rise to today's predilection for electronic dance music, in pop, soundtracks, etc.

Raupenbahn features no treatment or processing and explicitly displays varying tempo and timbres which ascertain a wide range of acoustic structures. The artwork features Ingrid Wiener, Rosemarie Trockel and Alexandra Bircken, three different generations who would with ideas of fabric weaving, loming and the like. This exceptional release works on a number of levels alongside it's striking sonic palette.


i 9 Günne (Irmscher) BO Möhnesee / D

It’s been a busy eight months since Dampé’s debut on Dirt Crew Recordings. That time has seen the producer hold down monthly slots on Rinse FM, contribute a downtempo electronica/jazz edit to the S3A ‘Pages Remixes” EP as well as open big rooms for the likes of Surgeon and Blawan.

The intervening months have also seen the producer set up camp in the Rhythm Section studio in South East London, and the result of new access to studio gear can be heard all across ‘Garden’. Compared to the debut ‘Peach Shuffle’ this is a far more machine-led and darker listening experience. Snatches of acoustic instruments and space remain, but it’s never long before the disembodied vocals and oversaturated classic drum kits return reminding you this is music best enjoyed in the club.

‘A Basement, 10 Years Ago’ started just there. A bass line dimly recalled from a long-lost 6am jam is sequenced on a weighty analogue keyboard, while syrupy R&B vocals dance around mbira and gangsa, all slowly building and building together. ‘727 and Arp Breaks’ is a love letter to two of the producer’s favourite instruments from the studio. A TR-727 and an Arp Odyssey collide across dubbed out stabs to form some very rolling breaks.
Sunday Night Machines’ sees Dampé tame the box-of-physics that is the Arp Odyssey again with a sprawling meditation on two repeating arpeggios.

‘Garden’ is the one for the dancers. Four variations play with the same melodic theme in distinct sections, with the second variation being the deepest and most floor-ready the whole record gets. ‘France’ is a warped dub-come-hip hop beat that manages to conjure both Lil Jon and Yusef Lateef. We approached Liverpool’s finest ASOK (Lobster Theremin, M>O>S Delsin) for remix duties and to close out the record with a twisted bang. He turned in a propelling weapon that brings a whole new texture to the track listing. It’s very 90’s, very ravey and very raw, in a true IDM style.

With this eclectic mix of sounds we are entering another chapter of the Dirt Crew story and we hope you dig it as much as we do!

15 years ago in a basement in the Bronx, I attended a bunch of sessions with my long time collaborator and friend, Ray West. Ray is a lifelong DJ and home producer, and only in 2012 did he begin to release music via his well-respected underground label, Red Apples 45. He had a main studio but also this much smaller room in the back which I dubbed “Studio B” in the tradition of any multi-room recording facility who would have a second “B” or third “C” room, and the name stuck. Despite the much lower-level quality equipment in that room, like a Yamaha MiniDisc board burning mixes realtime to CD-R, there was a certain vibe to it that inspired creativity, and a simplicity that encouraged faster working methods. One of the groups that worked there was called Results. Their philosophy was whatever happened in the moment was meant to be on tape and they didn’t spend hours perfecting it. This is rather opposite to how I work in the studio and especially on my own material, of which I can be thorough to the point of finishing less than I’d like. Through working there I realized the potential of having a smaller, simpler second setup, one that was not related to my work as an engineer, or my artist career as a performing electronic musician and techno producer.


Fast forward to 2016 and I would have both a professional studio outside of the home and enough spare gear to make a smaller studio based around a 4-track cassette recorder in my living room. This was a place where I could make whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, without the disturbances of clients, the chaos of 30th St., or any genre restrictions that I might place on myself in the big studio. I spent some time tracking down a functioning Akai MG614, the holy grail of 4-track recorders. It’s a large machine, making even the MPC3000 look small on the table next to it. With no computer, things were focused. I went through a couple of variations of the setup in my living room beginning with an MPC1000, DSI Evolver, Sonic Potions LXR, Bastl Microgranny, and a variety of classic effects that I didn’t keep in the rack at Butcha Sound like the Yamaha SPX90 and Ensoniq DP-4, plus a bunch of pedals and eventually a Korg Karma keyboard. Then I had the good sense to bring home the Emu SP1200 I was borrowing from The Martinez Brothers. Eventually I brought home the MPC3000 as well. Another thing I kept connected was a Zoom field recorder that captured sirens, street noises, and me playing the upright piano in my apartment live to tape. Results. These recordings were made in Hell’s Kitchen from July 2016 - May 2017 with the window open and the sounds of my Manhattan block inspiring the takes. — Phil Moffa 2019

DEAIK is SJ Tequilla’s third record on his own imprint Shot Of T.
A solo affair, where the Berlin based Japanese artist keeps on exploring a variation of different sounds on his new 12″. Thumping Acid, moody ambient, Acid house for a club night, and some more familiar mellow drum machine and melodic pieces.
SJ Tequilla’s most varied record to date. Also with an interesting approach to tempo, where each side shifts between 33-45 by preference of the listener. Essential Shot Of T!