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Group Rhoda is the solo electronic music project of Mara Barenbaum, based out of Oakland, California. The project started around 2009 with a debut album 'Out of Time, Out of Touch' in 2012 on Night School Records and '12th House' in 2013 on Not Not Fun. She is also one half of Max and Mara who released the album 'Less Ness' in 2013 on Dark Entries Records. She is committed to live performance, situated within the analog synthesizer and drum machine medium.

'Wilderless' is Group Rhoda's third full length and first for Dark Entries Records. Each of the these 7 songs draw forth tones of tropical darkwave and soft industrial, while negating the sound of conformity and control. The album explore themes of societal and spiritual displacement, contemporary serfdom, the depths of empathy, regeneration through destruction, and the tyranny of claiming recognition and power. Lyrics are poetically expressed through allegory and explore archetypes rooted more in abstract observation rather than hard line experience. Through transgression and imagination, Group Rhoda explores the arc of songwriting interwoven into stark electronic environments, and creates a bridge between the corporeal and the dream worlds.

Each song was mixed by Mark Pistel at Room 5 in San Francisco and mastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. Each LP is packaged in a jacket featuring a colorful custom made collage by Hugo Barros and includes a full color sticker and digital download card.

Spiritual jazz heavyweight and Kendrick Lamar collaborator Kamasi Washington's new EP Harmony of Difference, the first new music from Washington since his universally acclaimed 2015 debut album The Epic, is out September 29 via Young Turks.
Harmony of Difference premiered as part of the Whitney Museum of American Art 2017 Biennial alongside a film by A.G. Rojas and also featuring artwork by Kamasi Washington's sister, Amani Washington. The new music is an original six part suite that explores the philosophical possibilities of the musical technique known as 'counterpoint,' which Washington defines as 'the art of balancing similarity and difference to create harmony between separate melodies.' Beyond the artistic impulse to expand the possibilities within counterpoint, Washington wanted to create something that opened people's minds to the gift of diversity.
Each of the first five movements is its own unique composition. 'Truth,' the sixth movement, fuses all five compositions into one simultaneous performance. Echoing this fusion, Amani created five paintings focused on raw shapes and colors, each inspired by one of the first five movements of the suite. Amani then combined these paintings to create a sixth: an abstract depiction of a human face.
The film, directed by A.G. Rojas, brings the metaphoric ideas found in both the music and paintings to life. While still quite abstract, it focuses on the harmony found in people from South Central and East Los Angeles and shows the beauty in their differences.
'My hope is that witnessing the beautiful harmony created by merging different musical melodies will help people realize the beauty in our own differ

REPRESS !
Opening the EP, 'A Matter Of Time' sets the things up with a phlegmatic tempo centered around a feverish acid line. A soft mist of organic snares, dub percussions and jazz hi-hats slip over a spacious spread of synthesizers.'Abduction' steps into a more intense dimension, bringing distorted, shamanic, high-energy drumming intended to put the listener into a trance state. The momentum is reached as a deep organ covers the whole structure and releases twirls of acid onto its mediative canvas.Closing the side, 'Harmony Of Spheres' brings the pace down again, condensing all the acid material into a drowned mechanical piece that finally breathes when pads comes in at half-course.The B-side opens with 'Alternative Currents' a gasping piece of electronic jazz centred around a play of tribal percussions and dissonant pads. 'Parsec City' continues the story with its amazing free jazz rhythm investigation, showing once again the expertise of Marini in complex patterns. Closing the EP, the shorter 'Seven Transmutation' plays with sharp acid stripes and immersed organs chords on a frame of abstract drum sequences.

Excise Records' 2nd vinyl release is a celebration of both Northern and Southern Californian techno. Oakland's Milkplant has been making heady dancefloor bombs for 2 decades, and Los Angeles icon Developer jumps in with a beautiful retro-hypnotic remix of Far Star. Milkplant's Dust Cloud is a 10 minute epic build with dreamy synth work shattered complex metallic percussion and anchored by a shockingly weighty bassline. The original Far Star is a wild romp with psyched out synth arps and relentless spit-fire hi hats.

Artist biography:

US based artist, Milkplant (real name Justin William Pennell) is originally from Milwaukee,Wisconsin; but has resided in Oakland, California since 2010. He relocated to the West Coast in 2004, lived in Seattle for six years, and started the internationally recognized Techno label and artist collective, From 0-1; with fellow artist, Sone. Schooled in the Midwest and developed on the West Coast, his work encompasses over 30 years of combined DJ/production experience, and 9 years of record label operations.

In autumn 2014 he released 'Time Dilation', a four track 12" EP on From 0-1. Charted by Gary Beck, Paul Mac, and Ben Sims at #2, #1, and #26 in their November 2014 Juno charts, this was a turning point for him. Since then he has released on Planet Rhythm, Wall Music, Dark Net, Etichetta Nera, From 0-1, and Excise. His productions have drawn critical acclaim from many notable artists; showing up in mixes and charts by Ben Sims, Jerome Sydenham, Bryan Zentz, Joachim Spieth, Tommy Four Seven, Submerge, Tadeo, Mattias Fridell, Mr. Jones, Electric Indigo, David Meiser, Samuli Kemppi, Arnaud Le Texier, Abstract Division, DJ T-1000, and many others.

As a DJ he can be found playing a combination of vinyl and CDJs. He has played in various cities across the US, most notably in Detroit at the Blank Code - Droid Interface/Scene party for Movement 2016. His mixes have been featured on Droid's D-Node podcast, the Warsaw Torture Boyz podcast, Blank Code podcast, Drone podcast, and Error Sessions. Regarding upcoming releases: 'The Distance' vinyl EP arrives autumn 2017 on San Francisco based label, Excise; his remix of Sone's 'Australis' arrives on vinyl late 2017 via From 0-1.

For the thirteenth release, we are pleased to invite the Argentinian prodigy Jonas Kopp. Following the path of his recent works on Tresor, « Cosmic Control Center Ep » starts with « Cognitive Process » and « Metaprogramming » which are more introspective and abstract whereas « Vortex » is the climax, the release of energy. To conclude « Human Bio Computer » adds something tragic, the final touch to the picture. Let's start the ride

2024 Repress

Hotel Record is the second release from the duo/couple of crys cole and Oren Ambarchi, following on from Sonja Henies Vei 31 (Planam, 2014). Where their debut recording presented a disquieting portrait of the erotic dimension of romantic intimacy, the follow-up continues to explore the pair's simultaneously musical and romantic relationship in a more subtle fashion, presenting four long-form pieces that touch on the variety of forms the life of this couple takes: as a musical duo, as a pair of travelers to exotic locations, as opponents in a game of cards...
Each of the double LP's four sides presents a distinct sound-world, yet each manages to attain the same suspended, half-sleeping feeling, outlining a space where improbable combinations of the electronic and the acoustic, of extreme closeness and amorphous distance, occur with the gentle insistence of a dream.
The opening Call Myself calmly unfolds a fabric of long tones from electronic organ and guitar, combining the sliding, aleatoric effects of classic David Behrman with a more hands-on feel. Over the top of this slowly shifting tonal bed, cole's voice mutters unintelligibly into a Buchla synth, teasing the listener by suggesting a meaning that remains always out of the ear's reach. Francis Debacle (Uno) builds on the foundations of a heavily amplified session of the titular card game, overlaying vocal murmurs and exhalations and mysterious room-sounds to create an impossible aural environment. On Burrata, a palette of vintage 1980s digital synthesizer sounds combined with guitars create an irregular texture of lush chords and bubbling melodic details, into which cole's voice processed by a vocoder, is interwoven, reading fragments of romantic correspondence. Finally, on Pad Phet Gob, field recordings made in Thailand become an ambiguously acoustic/electronic rainforest, eventually giving way to a mysterious, wavering electronic tone-field punctuated by sibilant, popping mouth-sounds.
Carving out an intimate and human sonic space across a diverse array of compositional approaches, sound sources, fidelities and textures, Hotel Record is the latest dispatch from the continuing explorations of a unique duo. Ambarchi and cole reimagine electro-acoustic music, not simply as 'abstract' sound, but as a diary, a love poem, a dream.
Deluxe gatefold sleeve with photography by crys cole and LP design via Stephen O'Malley
Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, Berlin February 2017

The 2nd release on Youth comes from London artist Shamos. With Lyster having met Shamos through NTS it wasn't long before they were DJ'ing together around parties in London and Shamos began sharing music with him. Shamos, who last released on Funkinevens Apron label, comes with a heavy 4 tracker bringing the punkier dregs of new wave, dreamy abstract house and tripped out hardware jams, on limited red vinyl.

Repress

Founder of Modern Obscure Music, Pedro Vian, drops his debut longer player 'Beautiful Things You Left Us For Memories'. Having previously released on well respected labels such as Hivern Discs and Mathematics Recordings, Vian brings things in-house, with 12 tracks that push beyond simple categorisation. Travelling through abstract, sonic labyrinths, taking in ambient, techno and even pop, this release is a kaleidoscopic work that demands the listeners undivided attention.

It s time for Lewis Fautzi to introduce his first album on Pole Group, a collection of ten tracks of cosmic techno, carefully crafted making a soundtrack of the future, deep, intense and scientific.

Psycho path is the intro, made of granular textures, subtle drones and ambiences, stepping into Entering, pulsating sub bass, continuous sinoidal sequences, pads and tension.

Subconscious starts with the beat, opaque bass drum, micro hi hats, atmospheres and monotonous sequences at a low bpm rate while Diffracted speeds the tempo a bit with electric synths, flanges and twists creating an hypnotic number. Rentless pain follows, with resonant bleeps starring until assymetrical sequences appear and the synth lines evolve in a hi pass filter galore.

Seasick is humid and liquid, gummy sounds, clean drum programming, spaced out sounds and a lot of room. Then we come into Furrow, aimed to the intelligent dancefloors out there, synthetic bubbles, rolling sub woofer action , bleeps and noises. Cyclic Human reminds to the best scifi techno with bell like sequences, digital clicks, jazz harmonies and abstract progression.

Number nine is Optic Chiasm a direct number based on an obscure drum workout and filled with hi pitched relentless sequences, intelligently arranged to create a mental feeling as well as inducing to dance. Album closes with The Brain Revolution, like an evolution of Entering, beatless but still preserving the tension and the movement.

A coherent and complete collection of precise, surgical and futuristic music to be enjoyed as a whole adventure..

Another Picture has the honour to welcome DJ Honesty to the label's crew! The Berlin mainstay keeps on delivering for two decades and counting. Now residing in sunny and meanwhile ultra-lively spot Lissabon/Portugal he shows up with two pieces of pure electronic groove with a dubby technoid flavour. Studio knowledge at work! Usually known for positive vibes with a still abstract feel now DJ Honesty reveals a darker shade of experience. Get involved with a tougher edge and face some deeper emotion and sonic consequence - see you on today's dancefloors.. DJ Honesty's releases come as various projects and collaborations: Honesty, Honeydrop, Slope (with Daniel Paul) and Suparaw (with Woody) on such labels as Cabinet, Sonar Kollektiv and Quality Vibe to name a few. He is part of the touring Cab Drivers live crew. Don't miss!

After starting out with EP's showcasing tracks by various artists, Invite's Choice is back with a 3 track EP by Drafted.

The EP is opened by Detached with it's dominating, repeating tom/percussive low-end sound. The frequential spectrum is filled up by other percussive elements and reverb-filled effects, which give the track a spacious feel. Oxidian starts out in your face with it's droning and repetitive synth. The track evolves into an abstract apogee with intense synthesis before it breaks down again, allowing for a smooth mix to be made. Sphere closes down this 3-track EP on the B-side and does so with lot's of fast changing hi-hat and ride patterns and one sharp sounding synthesizer, which makes it a perfect B-side closing track. Once again a great showcase of sustainable modern day electronic music by Invite's Choice!

3xLP+CD Artbook
(en) - Nearly two decades after the last official GAS album release, Wolfgang Voigt returns to his iconic Ambient project with a brandnew full-length.
- NARKOPOP continues the classic GAS aesthetic of symphonic scope and subtle variation, taking the listener on an otherworldly journey to the depths of rapture and reverie.
- Available as luxurious hardcover CD incl. 24 pages booklet.

In the body of work of Cologne artist Wolfgang Voigt - who, like few others, has informed, shaped and influenced the world of electronic music with countless different projects since the early 1990s -, GAS stands out in particular as a saturnine sound cosmos based on heavily condensed classic sequences. Even after nearly 20 years, the sound of GAS doesn't seem to have lost any of its luster, as shown by the commanding success of Kompakt's fall 2016 re-release of the essential back catalogue as a 10xLP/4xCD box set.

The overwhelming feedback from a loyal international fan community and worldwide media outlets attests once again to the sheer timelessness of GAS. Which is why it will feel like hardly a day has passed since the release of the last official album 'Pop' nearly two decades ago, when Wolfgang Voigt resumes this specific creative path with the upcoming new full-length NARKOPOP.

Even in the here and now, the unmistakable vibe of GAS immediately hits home, taking the listener on an otherworldly journey with the very first sounds, drawing him or her into an impervious sonic thicket, down to the depths of rapture and reverie. From wafts of dense symphonic mist emerges a floating and whirling feeling of weightlessness, before the listener steps into an eerily beautiful forest of fantasy, pulled in by the allure of a narcotic bass drum.

While earlier GAS tracks were often based on the hypnotic effects of looping techniques, the 10 new pieces on NARKOPOP unfold their magic in a more entwined manner, sometimes with the sonic might of an entire philharmonic orchestra, sometimes as subtle and fragile as the most delicate branch of a tree with many. A main characteristic of Voigt's oeuvre, the coalescence of seemingly contradictory stylistic aspects such as harmonious and atonal, concrete and abstract, light and heavy, near and far is also a decisive feature of NARKOPOP.

In accordance with the transgressive spirit of his collective work, Voigt carries the aesthetic conceptions of his music over to the realm of the visual. Based on his abstract forest pictures, the GAS artwork addresses Voigt's artistic affinity to romanticism and the forest as a place of yearning. For the first time, a closer look at the cover of NARKOPOP reveals signs of architectural fragments which hint at another, maybe parallel world behind Voigt's forest. Truth is the prettiest illusion.
(de) - Fast zwei Jahrzehnte nach dem letzten offiziellen GAS-Albumrelease kehrt Wolfgang Voigt mit einem brandneuen Langspieler zu seinem legendären Ambientprojekt zurück.
- NARKOPOP setzt die klassische GAS-Ästhetik zwischen symphonischer Grösse und subtiler Variation fort, eine Reise zu den Untiefen von Rausch und Entrücktheit.
- Erhältlich als luxuriöse Hardcover CD- Erhältlich als luxuriöse Hardcover CD inkl. 24-seitigem Booklet.


Aus dem Gesamtwerk des Kölner Künstlers Wolfgang Voigt, der mit seinen unzähligen unterschiedlichen musikalischen Projekten seit den frühen 1990er Jahren wie kaum ein Zweiter die elektronische Musikwelt geprägt, gestaltet und beinflusst hat, ragt sein Projekt GAS, ein auf stark verdichteten Klassiksequenzen basierendes, düsteres Klangkunstwerk, in ganz besonderem Maße heraus. Dass der Sound von GAS auch nach fast 20 Jahren scheinbar nichts von seinem Zauber und seiner Kraft verloren hat, zeigte eindrucksvoll der große Erfolg des im Herbst 2016 als 10xVinyl/4xCD Box auf Kompakt wieder veröffentlichten Backkatalogs.
Die überwältigende Resonanz, sowohl seitens der treuen internationalen Fangemeinde als auch der weltweiten Presse, bezeugte einmal mehr die schiere Zeitlosigkeit von GAS. Daher fühlt es sich auch an, als sei kaum ein Tag vergangen, wenn Wolfgang Voigt nun mit NARKOPOP genau da den künstlerischen Faden wieder aufnimmt, wo das letzte offizielle Album »Pop« ihn vor fast zwei Jahrzehnten hat fallen lassen.


Auch hier und heute verfängt der unverwechselbare Geist von GAS unmittelbar und nimmt den Hörer bereits mit den ersten Tönen mit in eine andere Welt, zieht ihn hinein in ein undurchdringliches Dickicht aus Klang, hinunter in die Untiefen von Rausch und Entrücktheit.
Aus dichten sinfonischen Nebelschwaden entsteht ein Schweben und Taumeln, ein Gefühl der Schwerelosigkeit, bevor der Zuhörer von der Anziehungskraft einer narkotischen Bassdrum wieder hinunter in den schaurig-schönen Fantasie-Wald gelockt wird.

Während frühere GAS Tracks oft auf der hypnotischen Wirkung des Loops basierten, entfalten die 10 neuen Stücke auf NARKOPOP ihre Magie auf verschlungeneren Pfaden, mal mit der klanglichen Wucht eines ganzen Philharmonieorchesters, dann wieder so zart und zerbrechlich wie der feinste Ast eines weit verzweigten Baumes. Das für Voigts Arbeiten so typische Ineinanderfließen scheinbar widersprüchlicher stilistischer Aspekte wie harmonisch und atonal, konkret und abstrakt, leicht und schwer, nah und fern ist auch auf NARKOPOP essenziell.

Im Sinne seines grenzüberschreitenden Schaffens, überträgt Voigt die ästhetischen Konzeptionen seiner Musik auch auf die Ebene des Visuellen. Das auf seinen abstrakten Waldbildern basierende GAS Artwork thematisiert Voigts künstlerischen Nähe zur Romantik und dem Wald als Sehnsuchtsort. Wer einen genaueren Blick auf das Cover von NARKOPOP wirft, der wird erstmalig Andeutungen architektonischer Fragmente entdecken, die eine andere, vielleicht parallele Welt hinter dem voigt'schen Wald erahnen lassen. Wahrheit ist der schönste Schein.

Rising Amsterdam-based star Esther Duijn leads the charge with a hypnotic, understated slice of dub techno that grooves in all the right places. Label boss Brothers' Vibe then steps up with a sharp-edged, percussion led workout that blooms into a fulsome, acidic jam laced with techno futurism and pure machine soul. German production duo youANDme are regular collaborators with Brothers' Vibe, and here they join forces for the tough, drum-pounding Playing With Toys. Rodriguez also takes the opportunity to unveil the Silent Rodgerz alias, championing the Toad Red vision with a daring, experimental trip through abstractmodular-synthesizer processes that build towards a jacking rhythmic throw-down.

Bartellow has long been associated with the ESP Institute though Tambien, a trio formed alongside Bavarian cohorts Marvin and Valentino, who have released seminal dancefloor material over recent years. With his debut album Panokorama, we are invited into a completely different world of Bartellow's creation—a place where influences become a melting pot of mood, nuance and texture, and where instrumentation is abstracted from a variety of cultures, including those that exist solely within his imagination. Bartellow has found a way to merge Primitivism with Retrofuturism, identifying their point of intersection and reveling in their union across ten songs. While his academic background as a Jazz musician certainly informs both his progressive approach to composition and non-linear production, it is his obsession with electronics and synthesis that shape his current musical climate. The title Panokorama stems from Bartellow's visualization of the album, a surreal landscape with a foreign presence centrally embedded, a 'panorama' punctuated by a 'ko'—although a hybrid word that reads as nonsense, it somehow feels and sounds just right.

Visible Cloaks' Reassemblage is a collection of delicately rendered passages of silence and sound that invokes - and invites - consciousness. The foundation of the duo's second album is gently poured upon the ground their musical predecessors explored, using the materials of chance operations, MIDI translation,' and other generative principles that favor inclusive musical environments over the narrowly constrained.

In 2010, Spencer Doran, one part of Visible Cloaks alongside Ryan Carlile, prepared the first volume of Fairlights, Mallets, and Bamboo, a mixtape indicated by Doran as an investigation into fourth-world undercurrents in Japanese ambient and pop music, years 1980 - 1986.' These mixes contextualized the outré orbit of Yellow Magic Orchestra-related solo projects and their abstract, radiant forays as forever futuristic modes of music.

Reassemblage evokes similar musical futures celebrated on the Fairlights mixes, but does so observantly rather than reverently. The title Reassemblage, for example, is taken from a film essay by Trinh T. Minh-ha, which explores the impossibility of ascribing meaning to ethnographic images. The author aims to speak nearby' rather than speak about.' In other words, to embrace lapses of understanding, and realize that the impulse to map direct meaning across a cultural gap often results in further disconnect.

In an effort to speak nearby' rather than speak about,' Visible Cloaks filters and forms source material to become young again. Often the duo strip tonal elements of their specificity or randomize melodies so they become stirring and lucid. Essential patterns emerge, conscious experience heightens. In these moments, the musical language of Reassemblage finds unlimited resonance and presents a path to uninhabited realities.

The origin of this language could be described as translingual or polyglottal, working within the eastern / western feedback loop of influence, Fourth World ambiguity, and the universality of human emotion. Incorporating an international array of virtual instruments to advance the idea of panglobalism through digital simulation, tones and colors cohere into a living, breathing pool of sensorial experience in Visible Cloaks' environs.

Beyond embracing the fluidity of worldly musical influences, Visible Cloaks works fluently between mediums. The contribution of stalwart digital and installation artist Brenna Murphy's dream dimensions to Reassemblage's cover artwork and surrounding videos extends the album's exploration of global headspace into a visual, visceral reality.

We welcome our very own Kessell to Pole Group Recordings, being a pivotal part of the Spanish techno scene with his project Exium with Hector Sandoval, he runs his label Granulart curating the repertoire with the best producers out there. Now is time for his debut as a solo artist with this four tracker, including three original tracks and a Reeko remix.

First cut is Cloned motions, a relentless number made of an obsessive sequence that runs over a percussive sea of sharp elements that grow in space with reverberated washes and a continuous arrangement. A mental exercise.

Chains of abstraction goes more bleepy, with a low filtered start that soon is filled with cosmic sinoidal sequences running all over the track while drums mutate and take turns to add an alien groove to the overal feel.

B side track one is for Reeko, remixing Sensorium, opaque kick drums, subtle sequences and white noise drones combine their movements in a dense exercise that fills every possible frequencies in the sound spectrum.

The original mix of Sensorium is based on bell like fm synth lines, lots of reverb, noise crescendos and an hypnotic groove below to keep things movable.

A precission work from the hands of a veteran expert producer.

Stirred up from deep within, from an abstract spiral of sound and movement, from a sensation of time and space absolving and converging at once, the Black Flower musicians have molded a tangible matter: the album Artifacts. Their second full album sounds international and ageless. Eastern influences, Ethiodub and jazz effortlessly merge. Fantasy and reality seem to fuse. In a word: nourishment for body and soul.

"Psyche-delicious and accessible 20th century Ethiodubjazz. As if John Zorn put on Fela Kuti's shoes and imbibed Mulatu Astatke's whirls."

Piloted by saxophonist /flutist /composer Nathan Daems (Ragini Trio, Dijf Sanders, Antwerp Gipsy-Ska Orkestra), this instrumental band aims for originality. Fellow musicians and 'brothers down the road' are Jon Birdsong (dEUS, Beck, Calexico) on cornet, Simon Segers (Absynthe Minded, De Beren Gieren, Stadt) at the drums, Filip Vandebril (Lady Linn, The Valerie Solanas, Antwerp Gipsy-Ska Orkestra) at the bass and Wouter Haest (Los Callejeros, Voodoo Boogie) playing keys.

For many of us, the Ethiopian aspect once made known to the world by Mulatu Astatke will stand out. Still, Black Flower further adds oriental scales, Afrobeat à la Fela Kuti, jazz in a John Zorn way and varied western music traditions such as rock and dub. The resulting melting pot is undoubtedly inspired by Nathan's distant travels and the multifariously colorful city of Brussels.

...Pretty legit if you ask me - LeFto, Studio Brussel

After their well-received debut album Abyssinia Afterlife (2014, W.E.R.F. / Zephyrus Records) that created an atmosphere of mythical figures and psychedelia, Black Flower now reflects on ancient and modern cultures. The album title Artifacts refers to centuries-old fragile objects or tools that empowered the development of human culture. The world today would look entirely different without those artifacts. The seemingly brittle suddenly becomes a powerful welding cornerstone. Add the musicians' personal musical backgrounds and the result is an album with an ageless mystique. Artifacts is the synthesis of different cultures, of the past and present, and personal and collective memories. It is the soundtrack to modern reality, based on the elements that connect us.

Brilliant - Gilles Peterson, BBC Radio 6

One of Belgium's Best Bands of these past years (...) Black Flower does not simply play a tune, they always groove! - Kurt Overbergh, Ancienne Belgique

Uncomplicated originality, plenty of space for fantasy and an organic tone: those are the ingredients for Black Flower to lay claim to an age-old human ritual: dancing! Still, Black Flower also stands out in various other settings. Their audience at a jazz club will have felt exalted, their audience at a late-night show will not have resisted dancing. The band wields influence over their surroundings in a way only heart-and-soul musicians can. This mastery has repeatedly taken them to United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands and Germany.

Kool Keith, is an American rapper from The Bronx known for his surreal, abstract and often profane or incomprehensible lyrics. Kool Keith has recorded prolifically both as a solo artist and in group collaborations. After being part of the legendary hip hop formation Ultramagnetic MC's he debuted in 1996 as a profound solo artist. He is generally considered to be one of hip-hop's most eccentric and unusual personalities.

By the big audience Kool Keith is mostly known as the voice of the number Smack My Bitch Up' by the Prodigy, a fragment used without his consent.

Black Elvis/Lost in Space is the fourth studio album by mc Kool Keith, but recorded under the alias of Black Elvis. This is the first album performed under this alias.

Kool Keith uses very complex rhymes on various subject matters from Black Elvis' viewpoint on half of the album and on the other half elaborates on space travel and being lost in space. This is the first album for which Keith handled all of the production, although drum programming was done by Kutmasta Kurt and Marc Live.

Dance floor taskmaster REINHARD VOIGT is at it again,

dropping a new set of raw, willful techno cuts that follow his much-acclaimed solo release REISEN & SPEISEN (KOMPAKT 338) and a stirring split EP effort with Michael Mayer on TIME IS RUNNING (KOMPAKT 328). He even found time in his busy Kompakt schedule to throw in a rare remix for El_Txef_A on rising underground imprint Forbidden Colours. Voigt's latest outing KONTRASTE fits snugly in the artist's tradition of powerful, minimalistic techno with a headbanging twist: oscillating between pure movement,

and monolithic, abstract riff, the a side's THE SINGING SAW interweaves several rugged synth motives around a stoic, empowering bassdrum, while b side jam TRUST takes the scenic route, building its simple, yet highly effective lead sounds up into a towering grinder with a touch of silkiness. As we've grown to expect from REINHARD VOIGT, the whole is always greater than the sums of its parts, with these new recordings again proving his mastery of all things banging.

Alek S offers up another dose of pensive techno vibes in his "Paradise Lost" EP. Side A opens up with "Bold", a slice of laid back while still pounding techno, boasting zippy synths with an unmistakable analog flavour. It's closely followed by Andres Zacco's rework of "Honey Wheat", an apt reconstruction of the original that's aimed squarely at the dancefloor. The Argentinian producer and recent Ilian Tape alumni dives in with a powerful groove, cutting its way through a suspended atmosphere full of spaced out sounds.
Over on the B-side we're greeted with "Paradise Lost", a slow-paced melody that gradually shifts into a dreamy groove filled with spaced out drums and abstract delays.
Last but not least, the original version of "Honey Wheat" is a somewhat atmospheric, yet functional floor warmer that fits a resigned groove.

Jam Money is the shared musical vision of Kevin Cormack and Mathew Fowler. Mathew (Bons) and Kevin (Half Cousin, Harry Deerness) first began collaborating as part of the Blank Tape Spillage Fete, an ongoing collective project of art and music which focuses on the creation and perpetuation of small DIY exhibitions, related events and limited releases that celebrates the hobbyist nature of home recording.

Jam Money revolves around a passion for the simple and sometimes restrictive nature of four-track cassette recording. Using old half-broken guitars, clarinets, charity shop keyboards, toys, family heirlooms, zithers, home-made percussion, and household objects a shared dialogue appears, involving both mark making and musical mishaps, allowing the makers to be carried along as the music finds its own way.

Genre definitions melt away in Jam Money's music as ambient dissolves into lo-fi rock, noise into fragile naive classroom melodies. Creativity beyond easy categorisation.The first recordings titled 'Blowing Stones' were self-released in 2014. The cover and insert artwork for this record featured abstract paintings by the artist Aimée Henderson whose work and process is a great influence on their music. Having played gigs alongside kindred spirits National Bedtime and Plinth, the tail end of 2015 saw the the band travel to Germany to play with the Notwist and Le Millipede for a series of 'Alien Disko' nights organised by Alien Transistor, a label with a shared kinship of both the weird and wonderful.

'A Gathering Kind' is the second album by Jam Money: a journey of sound and colour, subliminal images and narrative. The roots of this collection found Fowler and Cormack using an earthier, more instinctive language, making it a rougher-edged sibling to their other recordings, with parallels to the home-spun worlds of Flaming Tunes, Pumice, Maher Shalal Hash Baz and World Standard. Aimée's artwork features again, both paintings and music forming a collective language of dream-like adventure.

"Poignant and exploratory. Melting together acoustic and electronic elements, the narrative throughout is one of a ghostly world heading for winter. A firm fan favourite Stephen Pastel (The Pastels & Monorail Music) on Blowing Stones.

"Created in question and answer form, their songs exist like little sculptures - wayward and peaceful, sometimes whirring into automatic life under the pair's combined attention."

First full EP from the enigmatic Osch! Straight from the Norrkˆping underground, this live techno master drops three solid tracks. Two stripped down, beat-driven techno tools are accompanied by one more abstract track to show that this versatile producer is far from a newcomer to the scene.

"Pasiilgau" marks Desroi's first release on his own eponymous imprint.
After his debut release earlier this year on the label total black, he took his experimental approach further into a more club-oriented direction.
With his background having studied composition, desroi tries to blur the boundaries between contemporary, experimental music and straight forward techno with a clear focus to the dance-floor. Thus desroi001 resulted in a deep and abstract, yet driving and energetic techno debut EP.

Berlin based Adam Marshall and Christian Andersen collaborate as Graze. In the latest installment of our UFO series, the Dekmantel Records offshoot dedicated to experimental and futuristic electronic music, the Canadian veteran producers serve up a 50/50 lethal/dreamy drum trax package. Many have applauded the versatility of Graze, and their Xup EP is yet more proof of their original minds.Xup' is an abstract 4/4 jugular, beating out devious percussive patterns and rattling hi-hats over a grizzled and arpeggiated synth mortar-fire. 'Vast' on the other hand is an esoteric slow-burner, a hallucinatory trip to the depths of analog synth paradise and a perfect intro, outro or home listening gem. On the flip, the hyper-lean gearshift of 'Tryptch' pumps energy through off-kilter and plunderphonic basslines, while 'Shadow Play' is a classic piece of breakbeat bliss including a celestial synth arrangement that makes a perfect soundtrack for slow-speed sci-fi rides.

Amongst the first bunch of this new label releases, we couldn't miss a tribute to one of the greatest masters of libraries recordings, Alessandro Alessandroni, born in 1925. In his long career Alessandroni has published lots of soundtracks - and we mean lots of - and for this he's considered a real star of Italian music. As a friend, and close collaborator of Ennio Morricone, he's remembered as "the whistle man" for his fundamental contribution to the immortal scores of Sergio Leone's movies. His class allowed him to range between genres and atmospheres, from beat to avant-garde, from funky to abstract compositions, always reaching and keeping the highest quality. This is immediately clear in "Il Tempo Dello Spirito", originally published in 1971 for the meritorious Flirt label. It's an album full of sacred music, gospel and spiritual, yet capable of personal flashes that make it interesting, particular and unique. Simple church songs In some cases it may seems so - titles as Ave Maria, Gloria In Excelsis Deo, Pellegrinaggio or Messa Solenne do not leave much room for doubt and interpretations - but Alessandroni is able to astonish even in extreme cases like this.

Vakant comes back with a very special release from an unknown group of creative entities. Three cuts of tribal space techno weaponry aimed at the dancefloor. We have received a message from entities lost in between the stars in the vacuum of interstellar space. The transmission was encrypted in an ancient code we were able to translated into frequencies understandable to earthlings. A psychic telegram has been sent to us, activating the body and the mind, divided into aggregations of codes that form three tracks of straight in your face, high-octane fueled, acidic tribal techno, riding on solid bass lines, trippy synths, shiny percussions and abstract ambiences.

EMEX is the emergent techno act of Athenian producers George Apergis and
Alex Retsis, owners of Modular Expansion Records. The renowned EMEX live performances are based on analog synthesizers and hardware equipment. EMEX have performed live at legendary clubs such as Berghain and Tresor in Berlin.
The brand new EMEX EP "Z80A" includes two original tracks "Z80A" and "Source Code". The tracks go beyond a healthy mix of noisy techno beats, minimal acid synth-lines and dub chords. Modularz Records label boss Developer, remixes "Z80A" into a minimal acid banger with nods to rave, while George Apergis transforms "Source Code" into an epic minimal club tool.
Early Support by Chris Liebing, Luke Slater, Marcel Dettmann, Slam, Jeroen Search, Audio Injection - Truncate, Alexander Kowalski, Ilario Alicante, Subjected, Black Strobe, Mikael Jonasson, 2000 And One, Shlomi Aber, Johannes Volk, Philippe Petit, Axel Karakasis, Marcel Heese, Thomas Hessler, Liss C, Abstract Division and many more.

When LA label Acid Test decided to start the leftfield imprint, Avenue 66, they looked to New Jersey house mystic Joey Anderson for an opening salvo. He delivered the modern psych-dance masterpiece Above The Cherry Moon.' Now Anderson's back again with more of his beguiling dreamlogic. On If One Cares, They Act Different' Anderson works with a lead that could score an unsettling '80s horror flick, eventually introducing his signature quicksilver synths and abstract, jacking drum patterns. Peace There' starts with the square-wave basslines and raspy hats Taking us to a psychedelic far away place. On The Vase", Anderson reins things in, but even his bittersweet, relatively straight-head deep house tracks present an odd paradox. His music so alien and human all at once.

Black Truffle is pleased to present Speak To Me, the sixth full-length release from 3/4HadBeenEliminated, the Italian trio of Stefano Pilia, Claudio Rocchetti and Valerio Tricoli. Based on source material recorded in Bologna and Berlin over the course of several years, the album is made up of two side-long pieces meticulously constructed in post-production by Tricoli in his singularly dense and unpredictable style. Although their live performances have always been entirely improvised, in their recorded work the group focuses on using improvised recordings as source material for compositions built up through layering, editing and analogue manipulation, extending the practices of Teo Macero, Faust and This Heat. Melancholic instrumental ruminations sit alongside cracked electronics, concrete sounds and Tricoli's whispered vocals, drawn together into dense assemblages animated by gradual transformations and sudden jump cuts.
Beginning from the abstractions of their self-titled debut release in 2004, the group embarked on a trajectory that saw them move toward near-song structures, Tricoli's voice becoming a dominant element amid an increasingly dense and layered production style. On Speak To Me, however, the listener feels confronted by the ghost of music, sonic memories echoing across a psychedelic expanse. Evacuated of any clear structure, the music becomes a reverb-saturated morass, from which crystalline details momentarily emerge: shimmering echoed guitar, bowed double bass, tactile hand percussion, skittering electronics. Suffused with a darkly pensive atmosphere, Speak To Me is an elegant summation of the distinctive blend of electroacoustic techniques, instrumental improvisation and contemporary psychedelia pioneered by 3/4HadBeenEliminated over the last decade.

THE ASSISTENZ is the culmination of a four year creative hot streak as vivid as any part of CRISTAN VOGEL's long career. The trio of dance oor-oriented records formed by 2012's The Inertials, 2014's Polyphonic Beings and now THE ASSISTENZ are sensual pleasures rst and foremost: a lifetime of study of frequencies and rhythms on the frontline of the world's clubs has been put into the creation of sounds that interface with the nervous system and emotional re- sponses with extraordinary immediacy. But there's much more too: together with the more ab- stracted album Eselsbru¨cke, these form an enticing sonic narrative, encoded themes running through them, each part revealing more about the whole. THE ASSISTENZ, then, is many things: a personal document, a tribute to Copenhagen where it was recorded and after whose famous cemetery it is named - but also the nal piece in this bigger puzzle, which unlocks untold secrets from the previous three records.

There's a deeper history, of course. CRISTIAN's productions going back to the start of the 1990s have woven their way into the fabric of underground culture. His own recent remasters of his early albums, and the Sub Rosa Classics 1993-1998 collections have shown just how potent his early work remains. But his new work exists in a very different world to those past works, and is far removed from the recent electronic generations who he has in uenced too. In fact, as you listen to THE ASSISTENZ, you realise that there's no point making comparisons with other elec- tronic producers at all. While you will certainly hear some of the most fundamental and enduring vectors of underground music - dub, electro, acid, funk - owing through the tracks, even those things are rebuilt from the molecular level, created completely afresh with new, precise, but some- what skewed vision.

CRISTIAN's understanding of music now is spectral. That is to say, with every step through his exploration of sound over the years, he has made more and more detailed analyses of the specif- ic frequencies that make up speci c sounds and produce speci c effects on the human mind and body. And as a result, his own sound synthesis - increasingly done via the Kyma programming platform - is more and more able to reach beyond the 'synthetic' and impact in uncanny and wonderful ways. The most obvious sense of this is the way his sounds touch on the human voice: not just in the chattering, shimmering, singing tones of THE ASSISTENZ's ghostly centrepiece 'Barefoot Agnete', in the alien radio signals of 'The Merman's Dream' or even in the subliminal 'aaah's hiding in the background of the noisy 'Vessels', but in the way any sound, anywhere in any track can sound peculiarly vocal, heard from the right angle.

And it's not just the boundary between human and non-human, or that between acoustic and synthetic, that get blurred to the point of non-existence. CRISTAN's creative methodology now is all about leaving you so uncertain about where anything came from, or what scale the sounds are operating on, that you have no choice but to let go of preconceptions and standardised criti- cal faculties and go with it. Sometimes that can take you to places where darkness and physical- ity close in on you as on 'Vessels' or 'Telemorphosis', or into haunted spaces on the edge of the void like those of 'Snowcrunch' and 'Barefoot Agnete', but even in those, there is euphoria. And in the voluptuousness of 'Hold' or the body-rocking funk of 'Cubic Haze', all the abstraction is grounded in the sheer pleasure of your own bodily responses to the sound.

So many of the science ction dreams of the 1990s are now (virtual) reality. We live in a time when social networks consciously manipulate our emotions, where data is money, where ma- chines learn, where images can't be trusted, and where the synthetic can feel more real than real. Over some 25 years, CRISTIAN's experiments have traced much of this weirdness and evolved with it, and his understanding of synthesis and algorithmic processes to create structure makes him one of the most important composers working today. But THE ASSISTENZ doesn't just ex- periment with the interfaces between mind, body and machine: it expresses those relationships in ways that are beautiful, troubling, moving and scary, and which even make you want to dance. Together with the preceding three albums it enacts a glorious, endlessly-explorable mapping of just what electronic music can do.

Alleviated Records is proud to present the first edition of ''Underground Files''. We hope to introduce you to new Artists/Producers/Technicians with this series. This first edition includes selections by 2 Memphis-based dj/technicians/producers, Adam Arthur and Michael Kuntzman. Side A features Arkansas native Adam Arthur starting off with ''Rogue Intent''. If you're looking for radical-pumping house, look no further to get your crowd going crazy on the dancefloor. Next, we change the flavor a bit with ''Flamenco'' for when you need some downtempo warm seductiveness. Side B features 2 selections from Memphis dj/producer Michael Kuntzman. First up is ''Shutter'' with a bumping sci-fi-house flavor. Then we have ''Mondane'' with a pumping abstract-tribal-surreal tone. We hope you enjoy these for many years to come! Musically yours!

ORYX 9 has built a synthetic complex universe, in a 70s Druillet pscychedelic Sci-Fi similar vein, mixing up a handicraft and exhaustive sound treatment through ancient machinery, and proper mind-bending literature. Abstraction trail', a conceptual whole sheaf, is the result itself and the fourth 30drop ExoPlanets reference. The evocative Subatomic Uprising in Cassiopea''s retrofuturism meets the lisergic onirism of Ethereal Aquadome'. Bassdrum goes harder on the delayed hipnotism of Magma-45 Decaying Path', a planetary decadence tale. And finally, Ultraviolet (Light of Tsih)', a cosmic endless melody from a dead constellation, winds up the EP. And continuing our 30drop Records Mix Tapes series, ORYX 9 presents this current second chapter with an exclusive DJ set, recorded live at the Simmetry Box in April 2016, that introduces its artistic proposal as a sound manifesto.

We are proud to present a new addition to our artist roster.
STÄRKER have crafted an AURA of Uniqness in their compositions, it is rare to find such denseness and well crafted sound design says Label head kareem.
STÄRKER's 2nd ep "Scorched" delivers raw, pulsating rhythmic
progressions all masterfully connected to deep ambient drones.
The Berlin-Montreal based duo of Frederic Arbour (Cyclic Law) and Martin Dumais (AUN) deliver haunting industrial rhythms and brooding atmospherics, drawing from an austere palette of abstract sonorities

The Roundtable & Northside Records are pleased to offer this long awaited and special Record Store Day reissue of this highly collectible Australian rare groove LP.
If you can imagine the gathering of a group of Australian session musicians channelling the sounds of Herbie Hancock Headhunter's and Marc Moulin's Placebo, recording an album out of hours at a TV studio and then releasing a privately pressed hard hitting jazz funk record then what you have is Arena, one of Australia's most revered and scarce rare groove records.
This was the name given to a pick-up group of session players led by Ted White, a veteran of the British big band jazz scene (an associate of Ted Heath and Basil Kirchin) who had immigrated to Australia in the 1960s to work in the burgeoning television industry. This one-time studio project (recorded only to test out the facilities for a new studio) barely yet thankfully saw an LP release in 1975. Pressed in minute quantities only with limited distribution, the album was subsequently forgotten and obscured by time, only to be resurrected in the 90s by DJs and collectors seeking out lost and rare records.
The album has since become one of the country's most celebrated and collectible jazz funk recordings and has proved to be a pivotal point in Australian jazz, marking a shift from the modern jazz and R&B sounds of the previous decades to the cross pollinating electric jazz funk of the 70s. Characterized by the heavy use of electronically treated saxophone, psychedelic guitar, Moog and spacey Fender Rhodes, the album is a classic of the genre.
While acknowledging the often compiled and sampled breaks track, The Long One, the complete album offers much more, exemplified by its complicated and obsessive jazz rhythms, abstract and middle-eastern horn lines and pulsing electric funk.

Consider this a warning - tearing out of 2015 on the gale of our compilation with the legendary duo of Jeroen Search and Dimi Angeli´s carrying us on their winds into 2016, Chronicle steps into the eye of the hurricane for its second release this year, by the mighty Mike Storm. A xture in the Dutch techno scene since the late '90s, it was when Michael de Winde moved to hardware live sets that he found his true inspiration, continuing to this day
to use only analogue equipment in his restless search for techno perfection. Consistently released since 2012, initially on Subsist, a label notable for
early work of SHXCXCHCXSH and Stanislav Tolkachev, he then moved on
to respected underground sources such as Ars Mechanica, Orbis Records, and Belief System, where he released his 2014 album 'Pulsars'. Supported by Mills, A&S, Arnaud Le Texier, Tadeo, Antigone, and others, we are proud to give Mike Storm the twelfth entry in the series with 'Where the WolvesCome From'.

It begins 'At Certain Points', channeling the jazzy mid-2000s Mills of his most abstract era with subtle string swells, cosmic bleep patterns and equally subtle Detroit-style percussion lls. 'The Day We See' moves into morning, with its complex, melodic bass gures and shimmering strings taking
the nocturnal intro into morning following a tense lead line that enters.
Again referencing Detroit but falling closer to the dystopian feelings of contemporary Terrence Dixon, 'New Light' is an exercise in tension between taught drum lines, dissonant keyboards, and a metallic sequence pattern. Stripping down for the hunt, the title track stalks more aggressively, razor- sharp hats and growling bass accelerating as the predator closes in on its prey, an eerie forest wind bringing terror in its path until the final struggle.

Phoebe Killdeer & The Shift is the collaboration between newly Berliner Phoebe Killdeer (Nouvelle Vague, The Short Straws) with experimental musicians Thomas Mahmoud-Zahl (SFX, The Nest, Tannhäuser Sterben & das Tod, Von Spar) and Ole Wulfers (Kapaikos, Party Diktator), supported by actress and singer Maria de Medeiros (i. e. »The Saddest Music in the World«, »Pulp Fiction«).

»The Piano's Playing The Devils Tune« is »free music« in a most emphatic sense: The interplay between the abstract instrumentation on the one hand, equally recalling genres as diverse as noise rock, bass music and musique concre`te, as well as the intimate, concrete humanity of the sound on the other hand establishes a sprawling sonic space that gravitates around the haunting vocal passages of Killdeer and de Medeiros. »The Piano's Playing The Devils Tune« thereby succeeds in combining a decidedly experimental gesture with an urgent, uncanny familiarity and warmth; a precise sense of composition with an almost lavish casualness.

Phoebe Killdeer & The Shift do not resolve the numerous paradoxes that mark »The Piano's Playing The Devils Tune«: The result is an equally challenging and rewarding album that in fact — as played out as this predicate may be — truly defies categorization. Devils tunes.

Following Secret Chapter, Architectural's debut LP, and the release of Amour in 2015 with the Dutch imprint Wolfskuil, we are delighted to bring you release number 7 which continues a saga of EPs that are very effective on the dance floor without renouncing to their atmospheric and experimental roots. Presented in an elegant 10" transparent vinyl, its two tracks, 7.1 and 7.2, share the limelight and will both leave the dance floor in ruins.

In 7.1 Architectural goes back to his roots with marked low lead lines that star in a very intense episode. The resulting sound is dense and compact, and connects the American essence and feel to European abstract futurism. Many will define this track as pure Architectural.

7.2 is not suitable for heart patients. Its intense and rhythmical bassline can put the listener in a hypnotic state for several minutes waiting for something to happen. The repetitive rhythm from the start is so strong it becomes strongly addictive. The track evolves towards an end worthy of a terror movie, where the snare provides an aggressive beat complemented by striking atmospheres.

Both tracks are the perfect weapon for any DJ willing to put to the test the best sound equipments.

Fructose was part of the Styles Of The Abstract EP released back in 96 on Dj Hyperactive's CONTACT label. Diod a.k.a Kikoman is a michigan veteran and techno pioneer. Fructose proves that he was ahead of it's time. Featuring two remixes from Delaze.