quête:after work

They Say: “A selection of suspense underscores and drama blackcloths which vary in intensity and cover a wide range of suspense and drama situations”.

We say: A breaky, funky library great masquerading as a horror score. Oh, and the cover art is amazing.

Breath Of Danger was originally released in 1974, and rounded up a killer ensemble cast of library legends including Alan Hawkshaw, Brian Bennett, Alan Parker, David Lindup, Kenny Salmon, Barry Morgan and Ray Cooper.

Lindup’s opener “Cold Sweat” sounds like hip-hop-friendly mode Axelrod and, indeed, was brilliantly sampled by Kool Keith for his Dr. Dooom project. Alan Hawkshaw and Brian Bennett’s “The Manipulator” sounds like it arrived straight out of the same sessions as their legendary Synthesizer & Percussion LP from the same year.

Over on the B-side Alan Parker’s “Psychosis” is a moving and beautifully restrained funk-guitar/cello/harp workout. Stunning. Kenny Salmon’s “Flying Squad” is a sleazy, flute-enhanced gem and the album closes with “Voodoo”, a seventy second riot of sound and colour from the dynamic drumming-percussion duo of Barry Morgan and Ray Cooper.

Sonically, there’s a widescreen vitality in all these tracks thanks to the driving rhythms, vibrant horn sections and blazing guitar work. It renders Breath Of Danger - 45 years old - truly ageless. The Themes series is known for having particularly striking sleeves, which was unusual for library records at the time, and Breath Of Danger’s scraps of comic-book crazy make for one of the most eye-catching.

As with all of our other Themes re-issues, the audio for Breath Of Danger comes from the original analogue tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis. We’ve taken the same care with the sleeves, handing the reproduction duties over to Richard Robinson, the current custodian of KPM’s brand identity.

2024 Backstock

After having released several solo works of both artists, Dauw announce the first collaborative full album by The Humble Bee & Benoît Pioulard; 'I suppose I'm your future'.

Both artists hold a very special place in the history of the label. The Humble Bee was already present from the very beginning and, in hindsight, definitely has put an important mark on the musical aesthetics we've been developing throughout the years. On the other hand, we crossed paths with Benoît Pioulard several years ago through our ongoing Living Room Concert Series in which he offered one of the most magical evenings to date. Given their mutual love for the tape medium and melancholic compositions, we only had to connect the dots as we were pretty sure that some magic was up in the air.

It goes without saying that we were uttermost happy when they both accepted our invitation to work on a collab album. Even though we didn't know where their efforts would end, it already felt like a victory that we, as a label, were able to link these artists. Above all, the art of curating can be considered as an essential feature of running a label but for us it is also the most wonderful part about it. Linking artists to each other, like we also did in our Dialog Tapes or Illuminine Reworks series, even goes a step further as it makes new connections, pushes boundaries and ultimately can result in an unexpected enrichment of the musical field.

"I always look forward to the Dauw collaboration releases. Most of the creativity for these lays within their curation: it brings together artists that, although arc in the same orbit but somehow never cross paths. The beauty of collaborating is that we learn from having to give space to another creative force, working alone we fall back on what we know and what we have already done. Although I wasn't paired with Tom for earlier projects, the guys at Dauw thought (and rightly so) that it was about time we crossed our musical paths for an lp." (The Humble Bee)

"The first series comprises six related movements, usually organised in pairs, electronic sounds with instrumental and more rarely, concrete sounds: Incidences/resonances brings into play controlled resonances akin to sounds of concrete origin in a process that helps to expand the variable electronic sound sources.

Here, 'incidents' are opposed to one-off 'accidents' in the second movement: Accidents/Harmoniques (Accidents/Harmonics). In the second movement, very short events of instrumental origin change the harmonic tone of the continuum they interrupt or overlap.

Moreover, the high notes are underplayed, which stimulates the attention given to other phenomena generally hidden by the melodic form applied to the instrumental play. Géologie sonore (Sound Geology) is similar to a flight over an area where different 'sound' layers come to the surface one after the other.

When seen from high above, instrumental and electronic sounds seem to fuse ... Dynamique de la resonance (Dynamics of Resonance) is a microphonic exploration of a single sound resonating through different forms of percussion. L'Etude élastique (Elastic Study) places together various sounds produced by 'touching' elastic or instrumental skins (baloons, doumbeks) or vibrating strings and a number of instrumental gestures close to this 'touch', using electronic processes to generate white noise.

Conjugaison du timbre (Conjugated Tone), the last movement in the series, uses the same substance to apply rhythmic forms onto a perpetually varying tone continuum. "The second series of movements draws its inspiration from concrete and electronic sources rather than instrumental ones. Incidences/battements (Incidences/Beatings) is a reminder of the first movement in the first series which then quickly moves into Natures éphémères (Ephemeral Natures): ephemeral play on instrumental and electronic sounds, singled out by their internal trajectory rather than by the material itself. Matières induites (Induced Matters): just as molecular effervescence triggers a changes of state, it seems that the different states of these sound materials can be generated by each other or through induction processes.

In Ondes croisées (Crossed Waves), the pizz vibrations interfere with somehow 'visible' water drops on the surface of a similar material. Pleins et déliés (Downstrokes and Upstrokes) can be listened to as the energies absorbed in the motion of bouncing bodies, while hollow 'bubbles' and points bring together some people's gravity and others' downwards movements. The work finishes with Points contre champs (Reverse Angle Points).

Here, the notion of perspective of the different sound threads weaving a kind of network, or field, traps the occasional iterative elements in the foreground and progressively absorbs them, giving more space for the angle - and the chanted sound - to grow." (B.P.).

Following a string of releases via his own bbbbbb recors, along with bodies of work on трип Recordings, February 2019 saw Bjarki debut on !K7 Records with the ‘Happy Earthday’ album.

With the album considered to be the Icelandic producers first full debut LP, ‘Happy Earthday’ offered a conceptual collection of music which Bjarki thought he would never release. Influenced by his home country of Iceland as well as the planet’s environmental issues, the album received support across the board from the likes of The Quietus, DJ Mag, Pitchfork, XLR8R, FACT and CLASH Music, along with being crowned Mixmag’s ‘Album of The Month’.

As part of the limited edition 200 copy box set version of ‘Happy Earthday’, a secret album of original music was available to hear unbeknown to listeners. Now receiving a full release this December on double vinyl and digital platforms, Bjarki will release his second full album of the year via !K7 Records. ‘Psychotic_Window’ is a further extension of the experimental artists creative vision whilst continuing to address environmental themes and nature.

Combining influences from techno, breakbeat, IDM, electronica and more across all of his studio output, ‘Psychotic_Window’ is Bjarki’s final signoff for 2019. The new 14-track album follows in line with one of his most significant years to date, highlighted by performances at major events including Dekmantel and DGTL Festival, along with pioneering eclectic new sounds via his bbbbbb recors label.

“After ‘Happy Earthday’, people have been asking me about the secret tracks and it made me feel that they deserve a proper release. Each track means a lot to me as I made them during a depressing phase in my life; I was pretty broke, working many shit jobs and also just being super lazy, uninterested in leaving my apartment.

Before I started touring, I had these periods where I could write so much music without thinking, pouring my heart out to comfort my thoughts and feelings without trying. I doubt that this kind of window will come back to me anytime soon, my way of music making has changed a lot after going on tour. At that time, I was listening to a lot of Coil, Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti. I think every struggling artist goes through these phases of being sleep deprived, staying up and making music all night. This was my psychotic window.” -
Bjarki

RAVE026 is a double hammer of blitzkrieg gabber and seething acid trance/schranz from Service
Animal (Vereker) and Crime Unit, featuring material previously issued on impossible-to-find
tapes by the cult, DIY label; Live Adult Entertainment
The punkish reputation of Live Adult Entertainment precedes them as one of the underground’s
keenest yet elusive operations to emerge in recent years. Based in Thessaloniki, a port city in
northern Greece, they’ve released some 28 tapes, CDR’s and lathe cut vinyl of musick ranging from
psy-trance to industrial noise and concrète since 2017, and always in editions ranging from zero
to 20 tops, leading to feverish and frustrated reactions from those listeners who’ve chanced upon
their YouTube videos before they get taken down. Finally, this 12” features the first readily available
and properly mastered LAE material on a physical format.
On the A-side, Endangered Species label boss Oliver Vereker adopts his gabber alias Service
Animal for his first outing proper since appearing as Renoir on his label’s 2017 CD, ‘Death Always
Follows’. Revolving material originally available on tape in edition of 20 copies, it boots off with
the 12-hp hoof and dive-bombing drones of ‘Core Of Reality’ next to the evil Arcardipane styles of
‘F.T.W’, which are both produced with the same, powerful conviction in charred black metal, noise
and hardcore techno that made his 2015 releases as Restraint and Grace so vital, only with added
acceleration and syncopation.
The B-side follows with a pair of seething workouts from the ‘Cyber Afterbirth Vol.1’ mix by
LAE co-owner, Crime Unit. Hearkening back to a sound that was ubiquitous between Hackney
Warehouses and small-town UK/European techno clubs in the late ’90s/early ‘00s, they are
ravenous examples of the LAE aesthetic, applying scuzzy DIY principles to gnashing German
schranz and adrenalising acid trance with ruthlessly direct results that pack one of the meanest
breakdowns you’ll hear this year. Trust they will mercilessly sort the dancers from the posers.

Following January’s acclaimed vinyl debut from Exterior and summer’s much-loved Kota Motomura EP, Edinburgh’s Hobbes Music label ends 2019 with its first album release, also a debut, from GAMING, a fresh new braindance electronica project straight outta Glasgow.

GAMING is a new solo outing that brings together a lifelong love of music and technology and creating left field, rhythmic electronica. It’s the sound of IDM, nineties techno and mensch maschine computer music that is as spontaneous as it is programmed. It's a bit of a grower and may take time to get under your skin....

“Scenes From A Deserted City is a collection of tracks that started as a set of riffs, loops, rhythms and grooves and unfurled around a sense of growing unease about the future of the urban environment around me.

It’s an album that started out as sound…and ended up as a way of telling stories about the age of anxiety we live in, how our world is changing, and how we find a way through that.

This is DIY electronica from Glasgow – it was made on a growing collection of digital and analogue synths and FX units, including a bunch of modular racks, each with its own idiosyncrasies and character that belies the assumption of the binary.

The studio where it was recorded – an abandoned, and often very cold, school building reclaimed by the community some twenty years ago – offered up stories of resilience, even when all seems lost. (I’m not sure what the mice contributed but they definitely climbed in and out of some synths).

This album is ultimately about my changing relationship with Glasgow, a city I’ve lived in for more than 25 years. It’s about how I feel now about the increasing sense of urban decay and how the city can be a very isolating place. It’s about how I reflect on my younger creative self trying to find a direction but mainly feeling a sense of dislocation and not fitting in. And it’s about the questions I have about how that relationship is changing, how it will be forced to move forward.
The result is a soundtrack for walking home on your own, in that headphone bubble when it’s just you focusing on that music that makes sense to you alone. It’s for early in the morning, after the night before, or going to work with the memories of that slipping and sliding inside your head. It’s about how it feels to be both elated and lonely, to be lost in the familiar, despairingly hopeful.”

When it comes to underground New York Disco, Donna McGhee's highly sought-after 1978 LP, "Make It Last Forever," ranks among the best in the genre, thanks to Donna’s singing and the production skills of legendary producers Greg Carmichael and Patrick Adams.

Featuring five songs penned by the producing pair, it's got their quintessential Disco sound of the late 70s topped by Donna McGhee's superb vocals. These have also blessed recordings by The Fatback Band, Phreek, Bumblebee Unlimited and The Universal Robot Band around the same time.

The album has been an elusive affair since it first came out in 1978 and this is one the first times in decades it is widely available in its original form with newly remastered audio. Donna McGhee has been one of the key female singers of the New York disco scene, gracing several cult albums with her superb singing. The Brooklyn native began her career singing Gospel in her grandmother's choir from an early age, honing her skills and making a name for herself locally as a talented singer.
Her first break in the industry came when she was spotted by bass player Johnny Flippin, who invited her to join his band.
The group was none other than The Fatback Band led by drummer Bill Curtis. This was 1975 and the album was "Raising Hell."

McGhee's vocals can be heard throughout the album including the dancefloor classic "(Are You Ready) Do The Bus Stop" and after this initial collaboration, she stayed with the group for a another few years recording “Night Fever” in 1976 and touring with them all around the country. Following an encounter with producer Greg Carmichael, Donna McGhee jumped ship and started working with the prolific producer and his partner Patrick Adams.
A string of collaborations followed with singles and albums that have become the stuff of legend over the years: Donna can indeed be heard singing with Bumblebee Unlimited, Universal robot Band and on Phreek's classic self-titled album from 1978, singing on the track "May My Love Be With You."
In 1978, After Greg Carmichael set up his own label, Red Greg Records, he and Adams decided to get McGhee in the recording studio and produce her first solo album. With the pair playing most of the instruments, they got five tracks out of the session. The result, "Make It Last Forever" is an all-time Adams/Carmichael classic: funky disco arrangements with a touch of synths over a pulsating groove magnified by McGhee's superb sexy singing.

All five tracks have become classics in their own right.

After stand out releases this year on Version and Wisdom Teeth Piezo returns to Ansia with a new 2 track EP Art Attack Gone Wrong / perccssszzzz. As has been evident with past records Piezo has always had a strong ear for using interesting sounds which have been expertly sculpted to create a unique sound universe.While releasing on other labels has allowed him to work closely with his peers the freedom of having his own label allows for him to explore his influences from the Italian rave scenes in a more direct manner. For ANSIA004 these influences are streamlined into a techno orientated sound palette with traditional four-on-the-floor beat patterns but with an approach more related to the sounds of Diagonal than Berghain.With 'Art Attack Gone Wrong' the milanese producer merges dancefloor efficiency with a playful approach to distortion, melody and sound design, while on the flip you will find 'perccssszzz', a no-frills heavy-swinged drum workout which, as the names suggests, refuses to include pretty much anything else than percussive elements. This time Ansia goes dark for the vinyl edition with white-ink stamped Tweetie on black label - and last but not least, 180gr vinyl cut deep and loud!

Yes, at last! Kinky keyboard porn! Whisper porn! Vinyl Porn! And all at the same time.! And what an ASMR treat we have for you here.
Recordings of 12 incredible bespoke mechanical keyboards made and recorded by the master of this modern art, Taeha Types. Yes, this is actual typing sounds on amazing future/retro/cutting edge keyboards. Every track different. Every keyboard different. Listen and weep - Or sleep - Or something ... An INCREDIBLE & UNIQUE listening experience. The first mechanical keyboard album EVER !!!

For the last few years a small scene has been growing. The mechanical keyboard scene. It’s now quite a big scene actually.
It makes total sense as most of us use keyboards everyday, so why not have an amazing keyboard to use instead of the total crap one you have. I mean just look down. It’s shit isn’t it. So, some people worked out that things could be improved - A lot. - So they started to make incredible, kinky keyboards, using both old and new tech: and the possibilities and options in construction are endless.

There are key cap options (GMK ABS, PBT etc etc), spring options (Cherry MX, Pandas, Alps etc etc) and even backplate options (steel, aluminum, copper etc etc), and of course case options too. And all these options make a big or little difference. And once made these keyboards are carefully lubricated spring by spring to give them that little extra smoothness and “ping”.

The results are beautiful, fetishistic, futuristic in an odd retro style, and they sound AMAZING when they are typed on. This is classic ASMR / whisper porn, the gentle click and rattle of carefully lubed springy keyboards make the hairs on the back of your neck rise. Either that or they gently woo you into a peaceful, sublime state. This is a classic and groundbreaking new Trunk album for our modern stressful times.

The recordings on this album are the first ever release of mechanical keyboard sounds. They are from a selection of (enhanced) keyboards from the 80s, 90s and now. They were recorded by the master maker of the modern mechanical keyboard, Nathan from Taeha Types.
He has a large following on Instagram, YouTube (videos of his hands typing on his keyboards hit 10K in just a couple of days after upload), and he now has over half a million views on his Twitch channel where he constructs keyboards live.

Sleevenotes on the album have been put together by Jonny Trunk and Stu London (AKA Futurecrime) from the London mechanical Keyboard scene. He knows what the fuck he is talking about. And you might not understand it, but you can catch up real quick - like I did.

- Album mastered by Jon Brooks, who also really understand these
sounds. And if you don’t, don’t worry - lots of others will.

With its latest release Matasuna Records continues to explore contemporary Afrobeat from different countries. After the last trip to the Swiss Mittelland, this time the journey goes across the English Channel to discover more new & authentic Afrobeat and serve it on a tasty vinyl single.

Heroes of Limbo is a new studio project from long-time collaborators, producer and multi-instrumentalist Glenn Fallows (The Impellers, Disposable Breaks, Andres y Xavi) and trombonist/arranger Gram 'Canyon' Treldavs.

Reimagining classic and contemporary pop as authentic 70's Afrobeat and Highlife from Nigeria and Ghana, this first release asks you to fire up your time machine in your mind and wonder what would the Happy Mondays sound like if they'd played at Fela Kuti's Afrika Shrine, rather than Manchester's legendary Hacienda Club? What if Disclosure were not a Mercury Prize-nominated electronica duo, but a Highlife Orchestra based in Accra, Ghana?

Madchester Woman takes Ebo Taylor's African Woman and uses it as a chassis for a cut 'n shut reworking of Happy Mondays' 1990 classic 'Loose Fit' - a hot and explosive mixture as you can easily hear!

White Noise, featuring vocals from Clair Fallows (The Impellers, Soul Grenades), re-works Disclosure & Aluna George's electro-house anthem into an uplifting slice of afro-disco dancefloor shuffle.

In the fall of 1978, after working with a series of bands, New York-based musician and composer NickWest became interested in experimenting with minimalism, collaborating with guitarist and songwriter Ramona Jan and Lyn Byrd. They decided to play pure pop but to substitute a primitive electronic beatbox for a human drummer. The result was Comateens, becoming one of the first groups to discard the traditional sounds and line-ups used by everyone else in New York City’s downtown music scene of
the late 1970s. In 1980 Nick’s brother Oliver joined them as guitarist, and after going on to release three major label albums (Comateens, Pictures On A String, and Deal With It), and with some
successful tours and dance-club hits behind them, the band split up following the terribly untimely death of Oliver in June 1987.
However in 1988 Virgin Records issued another LP entitled West & Byrd, recorded by Nick and Lyn as a duo, and in 1991 released a retrospective compilation called ‘One By One: Best Of Comateens’, now a rare and much sought-after record among collectors of new wave music. Acclaimed by Etienne Daho, the band has made a name for itself with the singles “Late Night City“, “Get Off My Case“ and “Don't Come Back“.

My Music is a stellar spiritual soul / jazz-funk gem, recorded by keyboardist-singer Samuel Jonathan Johnson in 1978. The epitome of a cult classic, it didn't do much upon its release but steadily found an audience over the decades that followed. It eventually worked its way into the culture, and latterly the wantlists, of wave after wave of soul aficionados.

This is music that shares the jazzy R&B DNA of contemporaries like Roy Ayers and is an intoxicating blend of mellow moments and more groove-heavy tracks. Spacey keys and lush production give it a luxurious, enveloping warmth.

My Music opens with the gorgeous title track: an indulgent slow jam opus. Introducing us to Johnson’s compelling musical vision, it features a rich mélange of production techniques. Dripping in strings, horns, backing singers, popping funk bass lines and swooshing synth waves, it’s an unusually structured cosmic two stepper that has an irrepressible groove. Accordingly, it’s been a favourite with the diggers and it was sampled by The Alchemist for Jadakiss’s “We Gonna Make It” (and it was also used on Ras Kass’s “Home Sweet Home”… but that’s a story for another time).

The up-tempo “Sweet Love” bubbles over with joy, its uplifting lyrics backed by infectious bass and jazzy Fender Rhodes lines. It follows a cover of “What the World Need’s Now Is Love”, taken at a funereal pace that transforms it into a heartfelt plea for love and understanding. Essential in these dark days.

After a full-minute-long opening of lush cinematic strings and horns, “Because I Love You” makes space for Samuel’s voice, accompanied by some keys and just a sprinkle of guitar. It builds back up and then mellows its way out to a jazz lounge finish (in all the right ways). The feel-good ebullience of the Stevie Wonder-esque “It Ain’t Easy” closes out the LP’s first side.

The second side bursts open with the heavy bounce and disco-funk basslines of “You”, a slightly off-beat string-laden dancer with insistent horns and a piano-assisted groove. Next up is “Just Us”, a legendary steppers track that could be heard oozing out of deep soul radios and funk sound systems back in the late 80s.

“Yesterdays and Tomorrow” is a moving original ballad that is followed by an exquisite high-stepping paean to mom in the form of “Thank You Mother Dear”. The thumping easy-glide of “Reason For The Reason” brings the album to a close.

Respectfully mastered by Simon Francis and cut by the master Pete Norman, this reissue of Samuel Jonathan Johnson’s sole LP sounds as sumptuous as that scarlet gown on the front cover. The sleeve artwork was lovingly restored by the Be With team. My Music is a luxurious and rare collection of songs that now has an opportunity to reach beyond its cult audience.

Franck Collin, a.k.a. Fleck E.S.C, brings some excellent winter-time electro to the London-based label untitled (recs) for their third u(r)blue record. The French-born, Tokyo-based producer has received praise from the likes of Jensen Interceptor, Dave Clarke, Laurent Garnier, and Helena Hauff. This record takes cues from several sci-fi soundtracks, and taps into Fleck's wider thoughts on cinema. After having studied film and worked in movie production for several years, he believes that movies need to be a kind of fairy tale usually a poisonous one. Likewise, u(r)blue003 delivers a capacious blend of texturesiat times delicate and expansive (e.g. 'Shelters', 'Skins & Scales'), at others assertive and grinding (e.g. 'KVFM, 'Roundup'). Together, this strikes a balance between deep club cuts and listening session tracks. Thanks to the mastering of Aphex Twin-collaborator Beau Thomas, these textures really stand out. Listen loud!

THE WRAITH's Gloom Ballet delivers twelve infectious tracks drenched in the band's '80s UK post-punk (Death Cult, Killing Joke, Sisters Of Mercy) and SoCal deathrock (T.S.O.L., Samhain) influences.

THE WRAITH was founded by imposing frontman Davey Bales, formerly of Virginia peace-punks Lost Tribe, and Kaz Alvis shortly after they separately washed up in Los Angeles. Their irresistibly distinctive sound - skeletal basslines and tribal beats propelling Alvis' textured swathes beneath Bales' poetic, anguished bark - immediately gained a following, with homemade demo Comatic Romance racking-up thousands of YouTube views.
 
Convulsive, chaotic West Coast shows honed the songs that became THE WRAITH's lauded 2017 EP, Shadow Flag. A couple of videos and line-up changes later - the band is now completed by Belgian drummer Jef Pauly and Brit bassist Paul Rogers - their evocative songwriting and pure-punk authenticity earned the ear of Mat Mitchell, who has worked with Love And Rockets, The Flaming Lips, Meat Puppets, King Crimson, and more. Mitchell recorded the band's debut LP, Gloom Ballet, and earlier this year, the band signed to Southern Lord Recordings for the worldwide release of the album.

Recorded by Pucifer guitarist/producer Mat Mitchell, Gloom Ballet was mastered at Audiosiege by Brad Boatright (From Ashes Rise, Tragedy, Alaric) and the artwork was handled by Rebecca Sauve.

Skyf Connection (pronounced skAyf) was a short lived project by long time friends Anthony Mthembu and Enoch Nondala. At the time they were working for Annic Music, an independent label run by married couple Anne and Nic Blignaut. Although the label was known mostly for Zulu, Sotho, Tsonga and other traditional styles, they had a few Disco releases on the label including groups like Keith Hutchinson’s Focus and Enoch’s discovery Lena, who went on to have huge success under the name Ebony a few years later.

In 1984, when an artist didn’t show up for a booked session they decided to make use of the studio time and began working on a demo. At the time Anthony and Enoch had been playing for a year at a new club called Gamsho, located on a farm on the outskirts of Kliptown Soweto. Along with Blackie Sibisi, Sepate Mokoena and Elijah “chippa” Khumalo they made up the resident house band. Due to cultural boycotts and American artists refusing to perform in the country, locals took it upon themselves to fill the market with the American sound the crowds demanded. The demo they recorded at Blue Tree Studios was going to be their product they could use to promote their brand of the American sound. They then took the demo to Universal Studios where their friend and trusted engineer Jan “fast fingers” Smit was working. It would be here that they would polish their demo into something they could take to their bosses and have pressed. Equipped with a DX 7, Linn Drum and some Juno synthesizers they were on their way. Jan lived up to his name and programmed the drums, it is rumoured he could program in almost real time, a skill that translated to the local arcade where he held high scores on many machines. Enoch would be singing and playing guitar while Anthony would do all the Bass and Keyboards. The result was 4 funky party anthems with synth work like no other recording at the time. Their take on what they believed the crowd would want to hear at the beloved club they called home.

From start to finish the 4 tracks portray what would have been a standard night at the Gamshu. Although the club would open earlier and the standard hours of most clubs was 6 to 6 , the band would start playing at 10pm. With their standard set time and Anthony and Enoch unique view on what a Disco should be, they chose the motto Ten to Ten as the album title because those were the hours when they were the stars and Disco ruled the dance floor. To get to the club was a bit difficult, you needed to drive along an empty road where thieves waited for any patrons trying their luck walking after dark. Since there was no transport during the night, the safest way to get home was to wait till the next morning to walk home. Even though in the summer months of Johannesburg light begins to peek in just after 4am, crowds refused to leave and stayed enjoying good music and company until 10am. The lead off track “Let’s Freak Together” has powerful lyrics encouraging people to let go of their worries, put aside any differences and let the music bring everyone to freak and dance together. The whole album is about the joy we can all feel when we share the same moments and how music can bring people together in a unique way, a philosophy shared with the original nightclubs of 70s New York. This approach to music is where the name Skyf Connection comes from, translating from slang to mean the connection we create through sharing, in this case Music and good times.

Skyf Connection would go on to play at Gamsho till the club’s closure in 1986. In those years their popularity lead to being booked for private events like weddings and birthday parties, as well as gigs in some other venues like Mofolo Hall. They would share the stage with many artists through the years learning artist’s songs and providing support as a backing band. After the club closed Anthony would go on to join the house band at The Pelican, another famous club located in Orlando East, as well as dabbling with songwriting for artists like Phumi Maduna and helping Enoch on many projects through the years. Enoch would ditch live music altogether and immerse himself in studio work, starting full time as a house producer and A&R for the recently formed Ream Music. He would go on to produce hit albums for pop artists like Percy Kay and Makwerhu but made his mark discovering countless artists that would become stars in the traditional market. They would remain friends until Anthony’s passing in 2016 and although Anthony is no longer with us his spirit lives in the grooves he left on this one of a kind record. His wife Vinolia will be accepting his portion of the profits on his behalf.

PINK VINYL WITH PINK SLEEVE.

Kungens Män hail from Stockholm, Sweden and have been around as a musical unit since 2012. Their inspiration comes from the drone, the rattle of the loose screw, the circuit failure of the effects, the phatness of the moog and from the very diverse wiring of a bunch of middle aged Swedish freaks. Kungens Män never plan the next musical move - it presents itself.
 
Nine months after their acclaimed album 'Chef' (also released on Riot Season) the band return with 'Hårt Som Ben’, a stunning follow up with a debut UK tour to coincide.
 
Echoes And Dust on ‘Chef’: “From pure psychedelic freak out, to exploratory ramblings, and all imbued with a sense of communal priority to create together a work of immense intelligence, Chef is an album which begs for continued listens and deep immersion. That it is so accessible too, makes that genius shine through even more so. Superb.”
 
At the end of May 2019 Kungens Män packed a couple of cars full of instruments and life supporting essentials and drove into the woods of Värmland to spend three days in the legendary Silence Studio. It has hosted recordings by bands and musicians like Bo Hansson, Motorpsycho, The Hellacopters, Bob Hund and Union Carbide Productions, the presence felt and seen all over the place. In between watching VHS tapes with Twin Peaks, Miles Davis and Roskilde Festival 92, cooking pasta, sleeping in bunk beds, Bruce Bannering shirts and chilling in the sun, Kungens Män managed to record about 13 hours of music. Some of it will never reach your ears, but here’s the first slab made public – Hårt som ben – Hard As Bone. Not very hard, that is.
 

SIS003 welcomes Boston's deadliest modern wave duo Dead Husband to the SISTERS family across the murky waters of the Northern Atlantic for a host of dance-floor focused workouts.

A mixture of syncopated drum work and reverb drenched arpeggiators define Dead Husbands debut on the label across a capricious collection of tracks/music.

Doug Lee gives Facial Recognition the usual An-i treatment drawing out a monologue of emotion through the sub bass and sweet undulating use of distortion which constantly helps the track and the low end move forward, whilst electro aficionado Privacy offers up his take on the track with a rolling 4x4 composition true to his unique modus operandi, slowed down powerful.

And a remix debut for Papers, 5 years after down tooling from their white label series, they round off the record bridging the Atlantic gap with their distinctly steezey techno sound.

‘Portuguese electronic alchemist Bruno Silva aka Ondness aka Serpente lands his first ever vinyl release as Ondness on the ever-evolving SOUK imprint. The last year couldn’t have been better for Bruno Silva. Two major releases under his moniker Serpente, “A Noiva” (Tormenta Eléctrica) and “Parada” (Ecstatic) and a Ondness tape, “Not Really Now Not Any More” (Holuzam). “O Meio Que Sumiu” is the first vinyl release by Ondness, following more than a dozen releases on tape, CDRs and digital. He’s also graduating to vinyl on the Discrepant family, after his 2018 tape “Celas Death Squad” combining Serpente and Ondness works as a split.

“Meio Que Sumiu” can be translated as the “community that disappeared” and it alludes to the disappearance of outdoors communities and how it affects the music we listen (and how we listen to it). Ondness wanted to release an album less about himself and his inspirations and more about his aspirations about how dance music could be in an era of constant interactivity and information.

But also, how it fails to be that aspiration. Once again, like in “Not Really Now Not Any More”, Bruno works in the territory of science fiction. Investigating the present and future with nostalgia about how things could be and could evolve.
It’s music in the realm of non- existing, instead of raving nostalgia about dance music from the 1990s, Bruno explores the idea of possible futures with different approaches to dance/electronic music in each song.

In “Meio Que Sumiu” it’s obvious his music has matured and found its listenes. Bruno is no longer a bedroom musician. (He never was, but he sure worked on that idea. And very well, we might say). The dancefloor is now his, with music that explores the deeper immersion of ourselves. Communities may be changing, but the principles of dance music are always the same. Even with motion sickness for future nostalgia, like the music in “Meio Que Sumiu”.

'Esoteric, modal and deep jazz from the undergound, 1968-77'

Jazzman Records presents the sound of the unsung musicians who – in the midst of the Vietnam War and the fallout of the Civil Rights struggle – created some of the most beautiful Spiritual and meditative music of the era. Sometimes funky, sometimes mellow, but always trying to say something about the world in which we live.
Existing completely under the critical radar and largely ignored or unknown by music fans and critics alike, most of the musicians featured in this album won't be familiar to even the most seasoned aficionado. Their records, frequently turned down by distributors and record stores, saw little attention when first released - and have seen even less since. But in this era of musical apathy, where so many music junkies look to the past for their musical fix, we have re-discovered hidden, obscure and esoteric jazz musicians who looked to the four corners of the earth - and beyond - for inspiration. Here we evaluate Spiritual Jazz – music that is a snapshot of the era after Coltrane, a time which saw the evolution of an underground jazz that spoke about the reform of the soul, the reform of the spirit, and the reform of society: a music which was local and international at once, which was a personal journey and a political statement, and which was religious and secular in one non-contradictory breath.
The music on this album reflects the social and historical forces at work during the closedown of the '60s dream; music made by close-knit collectives and individual visionaries, by prisoners and eccentrics, by mystics and political radicals. It includes music by acknowledged masters, and moments of brilliance by unsung figures known to us from just one or two recordings. It is the jazz music of America in the age of civil rights, brutal repression, political assassination and war; a music that would guarantee the survival of the spiritual dimension in a society that was angry and traumatized, but nevertheless had seen hope of better days to come.

With their debut, MME dUO send us across an impulsive sound collage omniverse of enigmatic Dada - long live imperfection! Formerly working together as Sculptress of Sound, Cologne based Patricia Koellges and Tamara Lorenz make use of a variety of instruments and devices: DIY electroacoustics, small synths, loopers, tuning forks, electric bass, percussion and voice are thrown into the game and shape a sound that’s as diverse as it is striking. The four sides of the record are the four seasons of the year. The cover artwork depicts an oddly shaped honey locust situated just outside MME dUO’s rehearsal room; homebase for a year of recordings for awholerunboom. From spring to winter the album opens up a wayward palette of experimental music. Sweet Cold Night could be a soundtrack for a movie scene of ourselves trudging through a swamp. CutCut somehow sounds as if caught in a loop early in the morning after an extensive club night. RZCK, a deliberately stumbling forward percussion piece is the longest of the 21 tracks. Several video clips go along with awholerunboom, one of which features the artists going through some kind of a ritual exercise inside of a two person costume, trying to put things straight it seems. The track itself Isn’t It Isn’t functions by way of permutations of spoken phrases and it might actually make you wonder if Gertrude Stein had gone electric. Mixed and mastered by Volker Hennes. Cover artwork by MME dUO. Edition of 300.

After a three year absence, Kasper Bjørke returns to hfn music with a sublime new double EP entitled
“Nothing Gold Can Stay”. Having followed a deeply personal ambient music path that last year led to
the release of “Kasper Bjørke Quartet: The Fifty Eleven Project” on Kompakt Records, (named 5th
Best Contemporary Album 2018 in The Guardian), Kasper has found his way back to producing some
of his signature leftfield danceable beats, which “the past decade has seen Bjørke steadily rising amongst the ranks of artful, eclectic electronic producers…” (XLR8R).The Double EP “Nothing Gold Can Stay” explores both the analogue and organic side of his production work on Side A - while Side B reflects on sounds that he would play today, in one of his nightclub DJ sets. Side A contains four collaborations with four friends from LA, New York and Copenhagen. “Water” feat. Toby Ernest, the slow mo opener to the EP, revives the partnership with Toby that was last seen on 2014’s After Forever album (on the single “Rush”). Toby also provides the vocals on the cover version of Alessi Brothers’ 1975 classic “Seabird” - a track that came about through Kasper’s friendship and musical synergy with DJ and vinyl digger Christian d’Or, who is lead crooning while Toby delivers his signature falsetto. The “Seabird” cover adds a distinct contemporary feeling to the original version while staying true and respectful to the delivery and mood of the songs core. The 2nd half of the release, Side B, is directly aimed at the floor. Having stepped away from releasing club jams for a few years, Kasper is clearly enjoying getting back to the business of making people move. Side B of Nothing Gold Can Stay is both a testament to Kasper’s versatility as a producer and an all-out dancefloor assault, made with precision and sensitivity.

WRWTFWW Records is insanely happy to announce the first ever vinyl reissue for both volumes of Yoshio Ojima's superb environmental music project Une Collection des Chaînons I and II: Music For Spiral, originally released in 1988 on CD only. Each volume is sourced from original masters and comes as a double vinyl LP with liner notes in English and Japanese . This marks the inaugural release from the ESPLANADE SERIES by WRWTFWW Records which focuses on the works of Yoshio Ojima and friends.

Une Collection des Chaînons II (along with its complementary predecessor Une Collection des Chaînons I) gathers selected music pieces conceptualized and produced for sound-designing the Wacoal Art Center in Aoyama (Tokyo) also known as Spiral, a hub for a wide range of sophisticated cultural proposals spanning visual arts, theatre, music, design, fashion, and lifestyle.

Named after its superb curled-shaped structures laid in a vast atrium, Spiral is a monumental work of architecture by Fumihiko Maki, designed according to the principles of Metabolism, a movement advocating the fusion of the notions of megastructures and organic biological growth - in essence, evolving designs and constructions, adapting to human needs naturally.

Evolving, organic, adapting, these are notions that perfectly describe Yoshio Ojima's divinely designed brand of environmental music. Continuing, embellishing and bringing the Collection des Chaînons (which translates as collection of links) full circle, this second volume approaches sound design in relation to various contexts, sizes, and shapes. The nanoscopic neoclassical lullaby "Les Trois Grâces" brings attention to the importance of small details, "Pulse at Soothe" starts with the minimalism of a Satoshi Ashikawa piece and slowly drifts into mystical landscapes and cavernous echoes, "Entomology" and its melancholic artificial forest feels like a Twin Peaks mirage, and "Atrium" literally feels like a floating visit of a gigantic open space structure. With each timbre selected with extreme precision, each element placed in space with the utmost care, and textures worked to allow a wide canvas of emotion for the listeners, Yoshio Ojima's music is the constantly transforming connecting point between humanity and architecture.

Sitting alongside Midori Takada's Through The Looking Glass, Satoshi Ashikawa's Still Way, Hiroshi Yoshimura's Green, or Yutaka Hirose's NOVA, Une Collection des Chaînons is a pivotal work of Japanese environnmental/ambient/minimalist music.

A note from Yoshio Ojima: "Please listen to this album at around the same volume as daily life sounds such as air conditioners and refrigerators."

The modern, avant synth/dance-pop frolics of ‘Moi’ catch Steven Warwick (Heatsick) at his impish but droll best for PAN. Returning to PAN six years after his standout Re-Engineering album,
Warwick returns to similar zones of enquiry as 2016’s ‘Nadir’ - the first release under his birth name. With ‘Moi’ (which we definitely hear enunciated with a playful pucker), Warwick further emphasises the personal, playful nature of his work with 10 melodic, danceable and pop-tart arrangements accompanied by a range of vocal personas; from his naturally droll singing voice to more alien and leaned-out styles, plus a guest platitude by Turner Prize nominee, Jo Pryde.
Bubbling up with the pickled 2-step and Lolina-esque lilt of ‘Open Fire Hydrant’, Warwick clearly draws upon a UK dance music heritage - and its Afro-Caribbean and US inspirations - with the
freshest, exceptional style that percolates throughout the album, strongly informing its biggest dancefloor highlights such as the warped trancehall bumps of ‘Salvation’ and the crooked crankshaft of ‘Kaleidoscope’, along with the the brittle boned shimmy of ‘Rush’ and the hard but elegant drive of ’Silhouette.’
But they’re only half the story, which really comes together with contrasts in the fizzy downstroke of ‘Kind of Blue’, on the Black Zone Myth Chant-like psychedelic daze and blunted vocals in
‘Consolatio’, and the album’s standout ‘Danke’, which revolves around Jo Pryde’s gentle utterance of the title weft into ominous ambient clag, connoting a sort of humility that knowingly becomes
both less and more meaningful with each reiteration

ATT Series is proud to present Greenbeam & Leon's first album, The Haze Of Dust.

The inspiration of this album comes from the experience of many years of work in their natural city, Tbilisi.

Sadness, fear, hostility, happiness, gratitude, hope,are some feelings obtained that have fructified in an idea after a beloved long hard work in the studio.

If one thing can be said, this work gives off essence, pure essence Greenbeam & Leon that bring you to another dimension. An extended variety of genres and references featured on this album, bringing a lot of influences and different compositions together, sometimes dark, sometimes deep, sometimes raw, sometimes melancholic, but all with essence.

A complete soundtrack that will not leave anyone indifferent.

Club Internacional dig deep to launch their new global reissue series in style with two long lost cuts from Rio-based label Top Tape. First up is Jose da Silva aka Zeca Do Trombone.
A massively respected instrumentalist, he has worked his trade over the years with many of Brazil's leading artists such as Tim Maia, Milton Nascimento, Elizeth Cardoso, Beth Carvalo, Martino Da Vila, Gonzaguinha and Carlos Dafe amongst others.
He also produced a very much sought after LP in 1976 alongside Roberto Sax which was finally re-released this year on Mad About Records. Tema Do Brisa dates from a few years later in 1978 and is Zeca's only solo 45 single. Never released on digital and never reissued on vinyl before, it is with great pleasure that Club Internacional re-launch this psychedelic jazz and heavily funk influenced gem with its still stunningly fresh sounding drum patterns to a new generation of listeners. Fans of jazz, funk, rare groove and Brazilian music in general will appreciate the strong vibes of this original track and be delighted to finally have this record in their hands. The track represents a unique moment in the career of a great musician fully in control of his instrument and more than willing to test its musical boundaries. Zeca continues to play out as an artist regularly in Brasil right up to the present time.
On the flip side, Sambacanas, or Os Sambacanas as they were sometimes also known, were a group of Samba musicians recorded by the Sao Paulo based producer Julio Nagib.
Although they were mostly known for a samba covers LP entitled 'Sucessos Da Juventude Em Tempo De Samba' (re-released in the UK under the title 'Fly Me To Brazil'), this song, Panga, Danga, Panga, was the A side of their only 45 single release for Top Tape which came out in 1976. Again this track has never been re-released before in its 45 single version, and has not been made available digitally. A beautiful example of raw and simple Batucada-style Brazilian samba music infused with Latin funk vibes, it features excellent vocals and percussion including the berimbau and cuica. Club Internacional hopes you enjoy this journey back to rediscover these very different, but wonderful, long lost sounds of Brazil on this limited edition vinyl 45 pressing to add to your record collection. Each Club Internacional edition may take some time, but it will be worth the wait!

Reissue of this 1976 LP from Zambia. Deep minimal African music, lovely compositions over scarce drum machines and (fuzzy) guitars.. Beautiful music with a deeper message in the lyrics which is explained better in the long review below. Some words from the label. There is music that falls right into place, a perfectly articulated expression of a few distinct influences. Then, there is another kind of median music, something more mysterious, the result of time, place, technology, and alchemy. Zambian writer and musician Smokey Haangala’s Aunka Ma Kwacha (The Money is Gone) released in 1976 is an example of this more mystical metallurgy, falling somewhere between psychedelic Zamrock, US folk, Kalindula, and Sundown Beat (music played after dark) from Tongaland. The unique mix of languages on the album (Bemba, Tonga, Lozi, and English) also suggest this complex cultural crossroads. Underlying the whole album is the insistent beat of a simple drum machine, which was totally unheard of in Zambia at the time, and parallels pioneering experiments by Francis Bebey, Sly Stone, and Shuggie Otis, utilizing a technology which would later come to define dance music. Then there’s the album’s original artwork by Peter Kependa, done in style similar to the infamous Jamaican dancehall illustrator Wilfred Limonious, interpreting the album’s title and primary theme; the burden of financial inequality.

In this sense the album is political, but the theme is extrapolated and explored through its impact on personal life; love, marriage, social status, and diet. The album is full of cautionary tales, folklore and references to magic, aspects of Zambian culture simultaneously mystifying and alluring to outsiders, part of what attracted Western readers to Nigerian writer Amos Tutuola’s hallucinatory Yoruba folktales. After becoming a household name in Zambia for his music, writing, and television appearances, Smokey Haangala died at the age of 38, the very week his book The Black Eye was published, abruptly ending his brilliant and ascending career. We are lucky to have his inimitable work to remember him by, Aunka Ma Kwacha resting comfortably in the pantheon of re-visionary works by Rodriguez, Kissoon Ramasar, TJ Hustler, and William Onyeabor.

Following the Stardancer EP and his remix for All I Need To Get High by Damian Lazarus & The Ancient Moons, Ae:ther unveils his most accomplished and daring work yet on the highly anticipated debut album Me released on Crosstown Rebels. Blazing a trail with his natural aptitude for crafting emotive, captivating compositions that have landed him releases on Crosstown Rebels Afterlife and Fabric, Ae:ther presents his debut LP. The album is a painstakingly produced collection of haunting melodies and narcotic rhythms that display his love and inspiration for ambient electronica, deep underground music and introspective atmospheres, culminating in dreamlike soundscapes programmed with taut percussion. The album begins on Stardancer, setting the tone with gentle keys and space influenced licks that portray a cosmonaut ascending into the stratosphere. This moves into the glistening, atmospheric Finferli, where synths depict aliens conversing in a distant, just-discovered world. Sub-aquatic ambient fills We’ll be Together, boosts of energy and intricate melodies weave in and out of the vocal, locked to the dubby groove. Ice cold subtlety and the otherworldly electronics of Costes drip slowly like water down a pane of glass. A mood of relaxation and weightlessness continues on Tina, a tender beat combined with pattering echoed chimes. N.62, a special ethereal piece, features warm chords and reduced percussion, gradually developing like the morning sun rising. Mysterious, playful charm unfurls on Elf, progressive harmony teases towards a crescendo before dropping back into the hypnotic beat. Clark is light and airy, funky melody constructing an interplanetary anthem. Stimulating a brooding mood, fuzzy clicks and glitches dance on the deep bass of Spektre II, conveying dust spraying off the surface of a moon landing. The shimmering ripples of electronica on title track Me fuse with delicate human vocals creating a heart-warming, personal account of Ae:ther’s relationship with his instruments. Trademark bleeps and blips wash over natural broken beats in one last final call to his utopia in the album outro.

Analog Fluids of Sonic Black Holes is a new full-length by Philadelphiabased artist, poet, and musician, Camae Ayewa, who performs under the name Moor Mother.
A sonic black hole is a place where fluid moves so fast that it traps all sound.
To be entangled in its gravity is to feel the pressure of an unjust system -- corruption so powerful that it drowns out whatever you throw at it. Analog fluids are resistance -- individuals who work to create and preserve community in the face of immense darkness and cosmic pressure.
Begun in 2017 as a sonic counterpart to Ayewa’s art show at New York performance space, The Kitchen, Analog Fluids was refined through exhaustive touring. It tracks Ayewa’s emergence into an expanded artistic ecosystem, with contributions from a distinctive set of friends and collaborators like Justin Broadrick (Godflesh, Zonal), King Britt, Saul Williams, Giant Swan, and Bookworms

“Experimental trio Giraffe crystalize time on ‘Desert Haze’, their new LP on Marionette. Giraffe is the musical project of Sascha Demand (guitar), Jürgen Hall (keys), and Charly Schöppner (percussion). Sascha Demand is a composer that comes from a contemporary and improvised musical background, collaborating with the likes of Ensemble Integrales and Vinko Globokar. Jürgen Hall works in electroacoustic experimental projects, theatre and film scores, with releases on Staubgold and Edition Stora. Charly Schöppner is known for his popular music releases such as Boytronic on major production companies in the 1980´s and composes for theatre, dance, and film scores. With only a couple of releases to date on the wonderful Meakusma imprint as well as an EP on Marmo, little is known about Giraffe. After letting go of other artistic projects, the trio now focuses solely on Giraffe by continuously searching for and finding their own unique language.

Sascha, Jürgen and Charly have quite diverse musical backgrounds, though morphing into Giraffe they tower into one single composer. Their music is a critical statement, not in a political sense but rather an artistic one. Being mindful about what it means to create and how to position themselves as artists nowadays (without the constant hassle of being en vogue and short-lived trends) shaped their rather rare and stoic artistic stance. It is refreshingly honest to see their expression develop so naturally.

On Desert Haze, they’ve created a vibrant and minimalistic tribal sound that feels inspired by the Saharan traditional music of the Tuareg, Jazz, and German psychedelic krautrock. Giraffe themselves also list the radical music of the Viennese School (Schoenberg along with his pupils Berg and Webern) as well as the Köln School with its early electronic experiments as their main influence and inspiration. More precisely the composition process and the organization of musical material within space and time, where a conceptual and intellectual approach melds with an experimental yet expressive sound searching method.

Side A focuses on the trios studio work; it is built around tone color and pitch analysis of resonating prepared guitar sounds. Through a unique mixture of free improvisation and a serialism "rule set”, they develop instrumental layers and structures to form their tracks. Side B sees Giraffe playing more freely with a reduced setup - representative of what you may hear when listening to them live.
Desert Haze, along with its track-titles, showcases an almost mimetic approach to art. The haptic music grabs the listener not as a passive recipient but as an active resonant body to vibrate through. One can almost feel the Elements, pressure and heat forming a diamond, hypnotic overtones ringing through windy caves, shamanistic rhythms conjuring up mysterious and ancient landscapes - where the constant cycle of sedimentation and erosion reveals structures of fragile beauty - always gentle to the hand’s touch and the mind’s eye.”

Repress

Powerful EBM tinged Techno cuts by Betek who's becoming one of the labels mainstay's. Junior Flutuante is opening up the vaults of Bernardo's harder and rougher work. After his succesor in 2018 with 'Discipline' ep we gladly welcome Bernardo back.

Thousand Knives Of Ryuichi Sakamoto's Landmark First Solo Album From 1978 Issued On The Better Days Label And Featuring The Synth Classics "plastic Bamboo," "end Of Asia" & "thousand Knives" Is Reissued Outside Of Japan For The First Time In Decades.

Wewantsounds is proud to announce the release of Ryuichi Sakamoto's first solo album originally released in 1978 on the soughtafter Better Days label. Sakamoto was a member of Yellow Magic Orchestra at the time but the group hadn't released their first album yet. Featuring Sakamoto on a wide range of synthesizers and keyboards programmed by Hideki Matsutake, and accompanied by a few musicians including Haruomi Hosono and Pecker, "Thousand Knives" was a blueprint for the YMO sound and includes cult classics that were to become live favourites. Save for a small-scale release in 1982, this is the first time the album is being released on vinyl outside of Japan. Remastered from the original tapes by renowned producer and engineer Seigen Ono, the LP edition comes with original artwork including OBI and 4p insert with new introduction by Paul Bowler. 1978 was a key year for Japanese music. Haruomi Hosono, one of the country's most innovative musicians had just formed Yellow Magic Orchestra pursuing the sonic experimentation he had started with his solo album "Paraiso." The album, credited to "Harry Hosono and The Yellow Magic Band," had been recorded between December 77 and January 78 and featured both Ryuichi Sakamoto and Yukihiro Takahashi. Hosono quickly invited both musicians to form YMO but before the group could release their first album, Sakamoto entered the Nippon Columbia studios in April 1978 with a plan. Sakamoto had become an in-demand session musician after studying composition at the Tokyo University of Art and had played in many key albums of the time: Taeko Ohnuki's "Sunshower" and Tatsuro Yamashita "Spacy" to name just two famous albums. This led to an invitation by Hosono to feature on "Paraiso". A penchant for avant-garde and improvisation had gotten Sakamoto interested in Electronic Music early on and with “Thousand Knives”, he decided to get Hideki Matsutake on board as he had mastered the art of synth programming following a stint with Electronic Music pioneer Isao Tomita. “Thousand Knives” took several months to record as Sakamoto would be busy during the day with his session work and would only record at night. Named after Belgian-born poet Henri Michaux’s description of a mescaline experience, the album is a reflection on how synthesizer technology might come to change the face of music. The first side conceived as a long suite opens with the title track and a recitation of the Mao Zedong poem "Jinggang Mountain" filtered through a vocoder, before morphing into a mid-tempo synthpop instrumental. It is followed by "Island Of Woods", a ten minute track buzzing with insect-like synth sounds reminiscent of the tropical exotica of "Femme Fatale" on “Paraiso” (also featuring Sakamoto). Side one ends with "Grasshoppers," a beautiful acoustic piano melody underlined by a subtle synthesizer soundscape. Side two opens with "Das Neue Japanische Elektronische Volkslied," acknowledging the influence of the German sound spearheaded by Kraftwerk. The track features a mid-tempo metronomic beat skilfully intertwined with a Japanese folk sounding melody. The album ends with two catchy uptempo synthpop tunes in the form of "Plastic Bamboo" and "The End Of Asia," which both became staples of YMO’s and Sakamoto's live shows. Although "Thousand Knives" sold modestly upon release, it was hugely influential in setting the agenda for what was to follow. YMO's sound included various influences from its three members but there is no denying “Thousand Knives” paved the way for the group's Computer Music sound. Thousand Knives remains a fascinating insight into the making of a music revolution.

12" + 7"

In 2009 Mocky made a radical decision: after having become one of the cult figures of the leftfield Berlin electronic music scene of the early 2000s, Mocky retired his sampler and travelled to Paris to embark on an all acoustic journey with the producer Renaud Letang in the vintage Studio Ferber, previously inhabited by the likes of Nina Simone and Serge Gainsbourg.

Named after a song he made up when he was 7, using imaginary words, "Saskamodie" was an instant new future/retro classic: a return to pure musical expression by a cutting edge artist who was no longer bound by the electronic music scene. "Saskamodie" was a brave step into unchartered waters, the sound of a musician exploring where his talent can take him with rare confidence and authority. At different points you could hear a vintage soundtrack suite, a debonair jazz record (minus the solos) or a golden era '60s soul ballad recording ... yet, as if all these charming stylistic sorties weren't loveable enough, cut "Saskamodie" through the middle and you'll find that sweet, inescapably infectious melody is the lifeblood trickling through its core.

Mocky is listed as playing drums, bass, rhodes, piano, guitar, percussion, bells, recorder, vocals, whistle, organ and toys as well as writing string arrangements. Taylor Savvy, Gonzales, Jamie Lidell and Feist contribute additional instrumental and backing vocal performances that make this record sound more like a live performance than a studio creation.

"Saskamodie" has definitely stood the test of time and Mocky still successfully follows the path he started with this recording - be it on his series of digital Moxtapes, his album "Key Change", his recent "recorded-in-one-day" jazz album "A Day At United", his score for the japanese Netflix anime "Carole & Tuesday" or his writing and production work for the likes of Feist or Kelela.

Originally only released as CD/Digital Download, this 10 years anniversary limited vinyl edition brings us "Saskamodie" in it's original form, re-mastered for deluxe 180g vinyl and accompanied by an exclusive bonus 7" with a new single edit of the album's hit "Birds Of A Feather", a solo piano version of "Guiding Light" by Chilly Gonzales, the recent coverversion of "Birds Of A Feather" by LA's underground funk sensation Vulfpeck and a remix featuring a collaboration with noone less than the Wu Tang's GZA.

"An exceptionally musical album – there’s no other word for it – that could fail to seduce only the hardest of hearing, or the hardest of hearts" (Pitchfork, 8.0 review)

"An amazing record…a big hit for me" (Gilles Peterson)

"If Saskamodie was a film, it would undoubtedly be The Science of Sleep by Michel Gondry. Please take that as a wholehearted endorsement" (BBC)

This split release unites two female underground acts, both of whom have recently become pivotal parts of the contemporary electronic musical landscape in Japan. Hot on the heels of the acclaimed PAREDO EP compilation (TAL12), which has been released in May 2019 (and also includes contributions from Lena Willikens and Miki Yui), the SUPER MILD split album is the second outing by KOPY and TENTENKO on TAL. Their newest works punctuate their highly individual approaches to contemporary experimental dance music.

TENTENKO is a Tokyo-based electronic music producer. Her career began in 2013 when she joined the mainstream idol group BIS. Immediately after her departure from BIS in 2014 she commenced work on her solo project under her artist name TENTENKO. Since then she has radically reinvented her music away from glossy J-POP towards weird and industrial rooted dancefloor. TENTENKO first made a name for herself on the alternative Japanese music scene with a steady flow of live performances as well as collaborations with members of the legendary Japanese noise band HIJOKAIDAN.

For a few years now KOPY has been an unpredictable and charismatic part of the vital electronic music scene of Osaka. She has quickly garnered a reputation for creating her live sets exclusively with borrowed electronic equipment. Her name KOPY very much originates from this "concept". Apart from a few performances at Düsseldorfs famous nightspot SALON DES AMATEURS, she has been invited by LENA WILLIKENS to her showcase at the MEAKUSMA FESTIVAL in 2018. Her sinister dancefloor mystique is heavily steeped in the free spirited noise and rhythm cultures of her hometown.

‘Green & Gold’ is the second collaborative release from Mr Key & Greenwood Sharps, the long awaited follow up to their
critically acclaimed 2015 album ‘Yesterday’s Futures’. The record was written and recorded between Greenwood Sharps’
cottage in the verdant English countryside and the off grid Finca in the foothills of the Andalusian Sierra Nevada, Spain where
Key is based.
The title has multiple meanings none of which are anything to do with weed or money. First and foremost, green and gold are
the colours which synesthete (a person who sees sound) Greenwood Sharps, composed the record in. It also alludes to the
dialogue between the green of the UK and the dusty gold of Andalucia which created the project. Finally green and gold speaks
of the dynamic between the sun and photosynthesising organisms, the driving force of life on earth.
‘Yesterday’s Futures’ took the listener on a meandering journey through a vast landscape of moods, sounds and ideas,
leading ultimately to redemption and the possibility of resolution. Thematically, ‘Green & Gold’ picks up where ‘Yesterday’s
Futures’ left off, but structurally it takes the opposite tack; an extended exploration of a single ubiquitous idea: universal love for
all things and all people and the challenge of maintaining these shiny ideals in day to day life, as our cynical side reasserts itself.
Key’s first output after an extended hiatus from releasing music makes it obvious that during this time he continued honing his
craft. The unique perspectives and disarming honesty which set him apart from his peers remain, but his technical prowess and
capacity to convey sentiment are notably enhanced. The same applies to Greenwood Sharps, who’s masterful production has
risen to new heights yet still maintains the rich and subtle sonic palette he has become known for.
Dropping alongside the EP is a short film featuring the works of long time collaborator Jamie Johnson, the man behind the
artwork for both ‘Green & Gold’ & ‘Yesterday’s Futures’. The short film is the visual counterpart to the EP and serves as the
perfect introduction to the world of ‘Green & Gold’ as it visually explores all the themes present in the music & provides a snap
shot of the incredible tracks on offer.
In a troubled and busy world, marred with anxieties and uncertainties, ‘Green & Gold’ comes as a breath of fresh air and offers some valuable food for thought for those searching for real heart felt substance rather than the sanitised, individualised &
commodified norm we have all become accustomed to.

Adapted Vinyl was a UK based techno label active in the late 90’s that picked up regular DJ support from taste makers of the time ranging from Jeff Mills to Mr C.

This, the label’s 7th record disappeared before a public release when the Integrale Muzique distribution company went out of business in 2008, but now gets its first official release date after years of very limited availability

Label founder Suade is the artist behind this release and these days he is best known as a highly-sought-after mastering engineer working for artists like Dense & Pika, Paranoid London, Jamie Jones and Vitalic.

Focusing his energies into family life and the fine tuning of other peoples music it’s rare to see Suade’s own music on a new release, but this hasn’t stopped him from collaborating on original tracks with the likes of Magda and Radioactive Man in recent years.

The EP has four contrasting tracks all with different moods and tempos all blended with Techno’s classic motoric drive.

With it’s absence from the usual music marketplaces creating something of a mystery this record ended up receiving a new, unofficial name on Discogs - The Citadel EP which is a title taken from the broken-beat second track on the B side of the record.

The Citadel is just one of the highlights on this eclectic EP, as it’s a Latronic Notron sequencer workout that patiently deploys layered synths in ever-shifting cross-rhythms for a languid 5 minutes before its deep, underpinning bass arrives evoking desert travel and arrival.

Baikal, named after the huge freshwater lake in Russia, is another stretched out meditation on tone and harmony acting as a foil to the delicate and vibrant Latin American percussion that filters in and out through a massive stereo Moog Modular system creating an energetic yet static, ritualistic atmosphere.

Trajan - the most driving track on the EP, gives a nod to the Probe era Richie Hawtin sound with a touch of Drexciyan melodics with shuffled percussion and bleeps over a snaking TB303 shaped bassline where the classic Acid box is given the role of control sequencer only commanding the thick, dirty oscillators of the big Moog.

A1 track Felix is a contrast yet again. A big room melodic Techno piece with another massive bassline and an almost orchestral level of layering, building to nine counter-melodies in total before letting rip with a classic TB303 acid line that builds from the heart of the track.

Mecanica Popular is back 9 years after their LP “Neguentropia” and 4 years after Dead Cert reissued their first LP “”Que Sucede Con El Tiempo”

Mecánica Popular is ’s an experimental and industrial band formed in the late 70s by Luis Delgado (Finis Africae, Ishinohana...) and Eugenio Muñoz (Randomize), who rapidly gained cult status between the genre fans. The band experienced a renovated international success after their record "Que Sucede Con El Tiempo" (1984) was repressed in 2015 in Andy Votel and Demdike Stare's Dead Cert imprint.

Arriving 9 years after “Neguentropia”, “Estridentismo” is the group’s fourth record and the product of new material that was developed over the last 3 years.

“Estridentismo” is based on the avant-garde movement of the same name that was born in Mexico during the early 1920s (known as Stridentism in English). Each track uses this lens to explore a different thematic concept, from “Jouer Avec Schaeffer,” based on musical pioneer Pierre Schaefer, to “Mikado,” which draws inspiration from the sounds of Mikado steam locomotives.

Following the sound of their previous releases while also introducing elements that reflect their continued evolution, “Estridentismo” is a record that owes as much to the Industrial movement as it does to the work of early electronic pioneers.

Mecánica’s inventive style, and their blending of older techniques like tape manipulation with newer digital technology, allows the record to incorporate Industrial and experimental aesthetics to create a sound that plays with categories and ultimately creates its own.

The record has received praise from the press and artist alike, and it has been played by the likes of JASSS, Demdike Stare, Cera Khin and Ossia.

“Estridentismo” comes in a luxury vinyl edition with a printed inner sleeve full of text and pictures.

"A work of searching, and in many moments, finding"

Maggie Thornton as Sky Civilian is set to release her second EP this November on Atomnation: At the Seams. It's a stepping stone, from the lyrical, gentle, genre-agnostic electronica of Open Door, to Maggie’s own rounded and angelic take on acid-house.

Maggie’s cinematic, synth-heavy style emerged after a decade of orchestral French horn playing and classical studies. She combines this brass-inspired, synth-forward approach with her weightless, almost-whispered vocals, and dance-floor ready beats. The melding of influences present in her work make Maggie a fresh and promising new artist in the electronic music scene, an artist we hope to hear more from for many years to come.

A-Future presents a fierce electro-charged production debut for EON Records.
After a solid summer of gigs at IICON Glastonbury, Inner City Electronic Leeds, Gottwood and Boiler Room, A-Future now shares a progression for his DJ project which has been impressing crowds across the UK with its range of left field beats and punchy up-tempo tracks.
Deploying tricks learned from his weighty record collection, the Birmingham based producer works in hardcore breakbeat flares, deep electro basslines and headsy IDM synths into original track No Era for what is a high-grade first showing.
Censor records head and long time friend Alex Jann and Berlin’s mysterious electronica producer Secret Universe provide a remix each. Jann comes in deep with a gritty bass line that drives his version with a solid flow primed for 140bpm dance floors. Secret Universe then sets etherial moments beside to belting syncopated jungle beat programming for a headsy and heavy take on No Era.
This is the second release on A-Future’s EON Records label which launched in March 2019 with Sepehr’s Cybernetic EP featuring Stratowerx and A-Future remixes.

Having returned from a 4-year break in August with its latest release from GW & Henry, A&R Edits follows up with a debut for Moplen.
With a recent remix of Frankie Knuckles ft. Jamie Principle and a Salsoul Reworks EP, Luca Moplen has been gaining new traction of late, so it felt fitting to release two of his evergreen edits on vinyl for the first time. Moplen’s edit of Tavares’ classic disco stomper ‘It Only Takes A Minute’ coupled with Greg Wilson’s edit of Moplen’s edit of Larry Levan’s mix of David Joseph’s ‘You Can’t Hide (Your Love From Me)’, if you can follow all that!

An all brother group hailing from Providence, Rhode Island, Tavares were a band that evolved with the disco sound, hitting their peak in 1976 when both ‘Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel’ and ‘Don’t Take Away The Music’ became huge club favourites. They scored their first R&B #1 in ‘1974 with a cover of Hall & Oates ‘She’s Gone’ and in 1975 they returned to the top of the R&B chart whilst going top 10 pop and scoring a #2 Disco hit with ‘It Only Takes A Minute’.

In 1992 a cover by boy band Take That would gift them their first top 10 entry, many people unaware that this track had first been recorded 17 years earlier. Rising to prominence in Brit-funk band Hi-Tension, David Joseph soon found his footing as a solo artist after they’d split, with his first release being ‘You Can’t Hide (Your Love From Me)’ in February 1983.

That same month, Greg Wilson appeared on The Tube, mixing between two copies of this very record – the first time mixing had been demonstrated on British TV. It would subsequently enter the UK chart, climbing into the top 20. The track would then be remixed by legendary Paradise Garage DJ Larry Levan, resulting in a #2 placing on the Billboard Dance chart.

Upon hearing Moplen’s extended dub edit, Greg worked further into it reintroducing the song – given his history with the track it was unthinkable that he’d play it without the vocal. The result is a unique version where Moplen’s dub sets the vibe during the first half of the edit before the song is finally introduced.

Ross Ferraro is a seasoned producer from Australia that has been making waves as 1/2th of The Posse, - after a Posse remix on the Pulp side of things, Ross Ferraro now presents his first outing as Rosario on the Saft mothership. "Keep On EP" contains three originals and a remix by Adam Feingold's under his Ex-T moniker.

The title track is a breezy affair that combines crazed synth swirls with oddball disco FX and a tight section of drums which serves as the perfect opening track for this overall outgoing record.

"Ex-T's Phunqy Mix" starts off in a more timid way, but as the name suggests - quickly gets more extrovert and freakish. Vocals and experimental sounding blips and blops take over and cleverly come together in an original fashion.

"Lo" revolves around an tribal sounding chant, chord hits and an array of fx, and quickly becomes - while remaining quite stripped down - the most euphoric track in this collection. The chords sit beautifully with the bouncy drums and evolving arpeggiator that floats on top.

"Follow Me" is a silky smooth work with a soothing vocal and piano sample that work as the main sounds. Rosario is constantly altering the bass sound throughout this cut and creating a modern boogie ambience. The trance inducing synths suggest a relaxing evening atmosphere and cause for "Follow Me" to be the perfect farewell cut.