Suche:airy

Butterbandz returns with another absolute BANGER of an EP ‘King Heroin’. This is his second EP on the 7 Days Entertainment imprint and he is serving up some DOPE tracks. From start to finish you’ll be sure to find a groove you’ll enjoy. ‘Prometheus’ starts off the EP with an energetic techno track. It’s got a punchy synth over a sub bass with dreamy synth chords and some rockin’ drum programming. The second track ‘Get Down’ is simple yet effective. It’s got that Detroit feel that we all love and enjoy. Not really structured, kind of just flowing. The drums are knocking and the hi- hats are keeping up that energy. It’s a got a rough rugged bass paired with a synth that carries feelings of deep rage and clarity. Tying it all together is the vocal sample. For the title track ‘King Heroin’ Butterbandz teams with his older brother Generation Next to create this gem. It’s got some deep emotion but it will make you move nonetheless. Excellent high energy drum programming, distance reverbed synth pad, catchy piano pattern, in your face lead synth, and a off putting sub bass. These two artists make a dynamic duo. Lastly is ‘OD Soundtrack’ tying together a hard hitting EP with a little laid back tune to take you to a higher more peaceful place. The synth pad carries that smooth calm sound and then the kick is in your face out the gate. It’s got some airy flutes and grooving lead synth. This EP is going to be a staple in the growing legend of Butterbandz.

LP+Buch

Limited Edition Deluxe Version comes with 50 page children's book inspired by the album. Written by Francine Prose and illustrated by Omar "El Oms" Juarez. The colored vinyl is red. Fresh off of their 2020 offering Adult Themes, El Michels Affair is back with a new full-length release. Titled Yeti Season, this newest album has everything we've come to expect from EMA's patented cinematic style of instrumental soul music. Where Adult Themes inspired a soundtrack to an imaginary film, Yeti Season brings us to a different place in time_with new inspirations. Taken with Turkish-styled funk and an almost Mumbai-esque take on soul, El Michels Affair offers us a different kind of drama and imagination with Yeti Season. If you've been following along, this shouldn't be viewed as too far a departure for El Michels Affair. The first single off of Yeti Season showed their hand back in 2018. A double-sided banger, that release brought the musical textures to the fore that dominate this record. The first song, titled "Unathi," is fully realized with the beautifully haunting-yet-hopeful vocals of Piya Malik, formally of 79.5_another Big Crown artist. Singing in Hindi, Piya's ethereal voice is telling us to work and strive together toward progress. Even if you don't understand her language, you can still hear the urgency of purpose, creating a lasting vibe that sits on top of it all. Leon Michels explains that Piya had a vital influence on this record: "When Piya started singing in Hindi, she had a different voice, a different tone. I knew we had to do something together." And so Piya appears on three other songs on Yeti Season: "Zaharila," "Murkit Gem," and "Dhuaan." Each providing particular signatures to the album. "Zaharila" is a building and changing love song punctuated by blaring trumpets, driving drums, and Piya's pleading lyrics. While the more upbeat "Murkit Gem" opens with a fuzzed out, Wu-Tang-esque baseline that buoys Piya's stylings. The psychedelic guitar and Piya's changing tones and textures singing about an all-consuming love are what pushed "Dhuaan" on to the second single from Yeti Season. There is also a vocal appearance from Shannon Wise of The Shacks, yet another Big Crown artist. Her song called "Sha Na Na," lies more in the familiar EMA vein: melodic, hypnotic, soulfully visual. But between Shannon's airy singing, the jumpy baseline, moody vibes, the active drum lines, it sounds like a pensive walk home after a strangely dramatic night. So what is Yeti Season? It could be more of a feeling than an actual place or time of year. It's a heavy album_as evidenced by the signature musicianship and dramatic vocal expressions. But it's also a hopeful record, with phrasings, textures, and chord changes that hint at something better_or fuller_coming our way. You hear it in songs like "Ala Vida," with its stabby, pulsing chords laying a bedrock for EMA's bright, atmospheric horn lines. Or even in "Fazed Out," which leaves you with a feeling of determination, a striving for resolution even though the driving, march-like song structure should accompany some conquering army. This persistence has to come from the fact that Leon Michels and company finished this record during the lockdown. It was a tough and troublesome time. But look at what has come of it: Yeti Season_a record of high and heavy drama, but also one of hope and promise. It may take a year like 2020 behind us to find hope in a winter big footed creature like a Yeti, but that's where we are.

Time fortifies the bonds between us. Since emerging in 2018, Light The Torch have grown stronger in lockstep together as a band and as friends. Through this growth, the Los Angeles, CA trio—Howard Jones vocals, Francesco Artusato [guitar], and Ryan Wombacher [bass]—only enhanced every aspect of their signature sound. Upheld by head-spinning seven-string virtuosity, yet also anchored to skyscraping melodies, the group crafted twelve no-nonsense and no-holds-barred metallic anthems on their 2021 second full-length album, You Will Be The Death of Me [Nuclear Blast].
“The past few years have helped me to become much more personal in my writing,” explains Howard. “Even though I’m kind of a loner, this band became real family. My experiences with Ryan and Fran inside and outside of the band truly bonded us. I think it shows in this album, it truly represents who we are as a group.”

“Every second on this record was thought-out,” adds Fran. “Howard’s performance gives me chills, because it feels so alive. There’s so much emotion in it. I know the guy very well at this point, and our friendship is a big part of Light The Torch.”That friendship cemented over the course of the past three years. The group shot out of the gate as a contender on their full-length debut, Revival. It bowed at #4 on the Billboard US Independent Albums Chart and at #10 on the Hard Rock Albums Chart in addition to receiving acclaim from Revolver, Outburn, and many more. “Calm Before the Storm” racked up a staggering 14.5 million Spotify streams, while “The Safety of Disbelief” remains one of SiriusXM Octane’s all-time most requested songs. They also crisscrossed North America and Europe on tour with the likes of Trivium, Avatar, In Flames, Ice Nine Kills, Killswitch Engage and August Burns Red to name a few.

In late 2019, an idea for the title track “Death of Me” kickstarted the creative process. The guys returned to Sparrow Sound in Glendale, CA to once again work with the production team of Josh Gilbert and Joseph McQueen [Bullet for My Valentine, As I Lay Dying, Suicide Silence].This time around, they also welcomed Whitechapel’s Alex Rudinger on drums. “He’s incredible,” says Fran. “He was exactly what we needed.”Now, they kick down the door for You Will Be The Death of Me with the single “Wilting In The Light.” Howard’s instantly recognizable vocals soar over a sweeping riff and rolling beat before culminating on a massive luminous hook, “Over and over again we struggle. We’re wilting in the light, and we stumble in the dark.”“It has a different vibe and a very interesting riff,” observes Howard. “I love it when listeners can take what they want from a song. This was a special one for us.”

“More Than Dreaming” opens up the record with gut-punching guitar and another knockout hook. Elsewhere, airy keys wrap around chugging distortion on the title track “Death Of Me.” Regarding the latter, the frontman goes on, “Most people have some source of grief in their lives. It’s relatable, and it was appropriate for the song.”After the melodic melancholia of “Come Back To The Quicksand,” Light The Torch recharge the 1987 Terence Trent D’Arby classic “Sign Your Name” as the record’s climax. Shimmering keys bleed into an overpowering verse before it snaps into the immortal chorus beefed up with thick distortion. “Howard stayed at my house with me and my wife for the entire recording of the album,” recalls Fran. “I like to cook, and one night during the first week of pre-production I made everyone dinner. A compilation with ‘Sign Your Name’ started playing, and I thought, ‘I can do a version that would sound awesome!’ Howard knew and loved the song too. For as crazy as it sounded, it worked so well.”
In the end, the bond between Light The Torch burns brighter than ever in the music as they deliver a definitive statement with You Will Be The Death Of Me.

“We wanted to make a fully listenable and fun album that doesn’t let up,” Howard leaves off. “At the same time, we’re showing some heart, passion, and connection. It’s what we’ve always intended to do with this band.”

Proximity is a 12-track album of richly textured and 100% analog electronic music that will appeal to fans of Daniel Avery, Andy Stott, Jon Hopkins and Max Cooper. Whilst the debut release from DEFSET - the producer has spent many years experimenting with electronic music & equipment and the album demonstrates a mastery in using modular synthesizers and outboard gear to create a pallet of evolving melodies over syncopated, glitched out rhythms - resulting in a deeply accomplished sonic blend of immersive techno and atmospheric electronic music.

The album features singles including 'Deadlines' - a dark & brooding pitched down slice of menacing techno; the airy and light 'Shira2', a piece of dreamy electronica that dances over a shuffling backbeat; 'Bathtime' - a unique piece of slo-mo dub-techno featuring live bass and instrumentation inter-woven with trance-like vocals and the tough & atmospheric 'HoneySwede'.

Both noted for strikingly forward-thinking bodies of solo work dating back to the 1990s, the duo of Andrew Pekler & Giuseppe Ielasi - collaborators for the better part of a decade - reemerge with 'Palimpsests’, their first outing with Shelter Press. Built from deconstructed layers of texture, tone, and arrhythmic percussiveness, the album’s 2 sides distill 6 years of work into 9 splintered, airy reimaginings of minimalism - each surprising, creatively rigorous, and startlingly beautiful - that rest at the outer reaches of contemporary electroacoustic practice and musique concrète.

Based in Berlin and Milan respectively, Andrew Pekler and Giuseppe Ielasi have individually carved singular paths across numerous disciplines within experimental music for more than 20 years, each deploying sampling, synthesis, and acoustic sources to weave their own, distinct worlds of sonorous abstraction. Brought together by years of friendship and a shared devotion to layered texture and complex, fractured structure, the pair first joined their creative energies in 2013, a collaboration that culminated as the LP, ‘Holiday For Sampler’, issued by Planam.

'Palimpsests’, the duo’s second outing, draws its material from a series of improvisations made by the Pekler and Ielasi in Milan during 2015. Over the ensuing six years, those recordings would undergo various transformations - cut, reworked, sampled, and added to by each artist, working at geographic distance between Berlin, Kyoto and Monza - before culminating, like the album’s title suggests, as a unique manifestation of musical palimpsest; “an object reused and altered, while still bearing visible traces of its earlier form”.

With each of the album’s compositions nodding toward a city with which Pekler and Ielasi hold biographical connections, 'Palimpsests’ constructs sound as poetic metaphor; a series of ghosts - traces of memory, image, and action - cut and reassembled, in cycling permutations, before been set into action at a glacial pace with layered, transparent forms.

Defined by remarkable restraint and pointillistic precision, across the album’s two sides Pekler and Ielasi weave the fractured remnants of their sessions - reduced to glitches and warbling fragments of texture and tonality - into pulsing expanses of spatial ambiance that defy imagism, blur the boundaries between the synthetic and organic - reducing their sources to a series of unknowns - recast the boundaries of electroacoustic practice on markedly singular terms.

Shelter Press is thrilled to present 'Palimpsests’, another brilliant outing from the duo of Andrew Pekler and Giuseppe Ielasi. Issued in a limited edition of 500 copies on black vinyl, with artworks on printed inner and outer sleeves by Traianos Pakioufakis.

Lucid Express is five young dreamers who create a stunning airy blend of shoegaze and indie pop amongst the skyscrapers, mountains, and packed alleyways of Hong Kong. The name itself a modest mission statement of the band's intent: lucid in the poetic sense of something bright and radiant. The group formed as teens in the winter of 2014 in the turbulent weeks just prior to the Umbrella Movement. Vocalist/synth player Kim says "at that time it felt like we have a need to hold on to something more beautiful than before. Like close friendships, the band, our creation." Listening to their blissful, dreamy compositions, it may come as no surprise that these songs carry the mood of their times of inception. With all members of the band working late-night shifts, this led to a rehearsal and recording schedule that found the band playing between midnight and 4am and then crashing together on the studio floor before returning to work early in the AM. Debut album Lucid Express was given an extra sparkle thanks to the creative mixing of Max Bloom (Yuck), operates as the service to take the listener on a journey through the band's color-soaked sounds.

* New from Innerground Records (co-founded by DJ Marky), also the home of Calibre, BassBrothers, Random Movement and Blade, comes the highly anticipated double vinyl LP from DJ Marky & others, ‘100’. Drawing inspiration from the past 18 years of Innerground’s vast history and impact on the Drum & Bass movement, and the signature latin influences of DJ Marky that have brought excitement and vitality to stages around the globe. This special collaboration between one of the most important figures in the genre, and a collection of some of the most highly respected producers and artists in the scene, creates a ground-breaking LP that marks the 100th release from Innerground Records.

* It should come as no surprise that the double LP packs a punch, when looking at the combined experience of its contributors. ‘100’ begins as a bold statement from the main man DJ Marky, laying down the foundations of what’s yet to come from this veteran D’nB lineup. We’re taken on a ride through morphing tempos and enchanting vocals that hammer home what this immense centennial is all about - a special milestone in the genre that will be remembered in years to come.

TRACKLIST:

A1 : DJ Marky Feat. Lorna King – Changing Moods (LEAD SINGLE (SPECIALIST RADIO PLUGGING BY LISTEN UP)
The album launches with the warm Brazilian sunshine D&B that Innerground’s main man Marky is known for. Lorna King’s uplifting harmonies intertwine with playful melodies to shape not only a guaranteed party starter, but a track that will put a smile on your face. Shades of his legendary ‘LK’??!

A2 : Data 3 – String Theory
After the Brazilian sunshine comes the rain… We’re taken on a detour through a dark valley as spiralling synths ascend to a glitch filled break. Ominous chords reverberate around the onslaught of rattling hats and deep choral vocals.

B1 : Random Movement – Patty Melt
The American D&B veteran returns to Innerground, bringing a funky fast guitar filled banger. Rapid drums and airy synths balance over happy vocals and undulating groovy bass guitar to create a track you can’t help but move to. Potential (slow-burner) track of, ’Innerground : 100’, the album?

B2 : Melinki & D'Cypher - Listen To Everything
A dark bopper with swaying hats chiming over aggressive basslines. Vocal samples provide a short-lived breather from this menacing track’s all-consuming energy. This isn’t the first time Melinki & D’Cypher have linked up and we look forward to many more from these two!

C1 : Saikon - Guilty Pleasures
Anticipative strings and a steady break lead to snappy vocal chops, crescendos at a break that unfolds in to house-led bouncey stabs. You wouldn’t expect anything less from Saikon!

C2 : Carlito - About You
Fans know that this is far from Carlito’s first Innerground rodeo – he’s back with a track that balances male and female vocals over enchanting pads. Synths twinkle amongst racing breaks to make for a certified club heater.





D1: Collette Warren, DJ Marky & Tyler Daley - One Exception (Pola & Bryson Remix)
As the album draws towards its close, cinematic piano and vocals to make your hair stand on end craft a beautiful contemplation between Tyler Daley and Collette Warren. D&B household names Pola & Bryson show their take on the track originally produced by DJ Marky. If this song doesn’t move you, you’re made of stone!


D2: Fluidity & Loz Contreras - Back To You
The LP finishes with a bang. Fluidity & Loz Contreras pair up to transport us back to the sunshine that Marky initiated. Oceanic pads and wispy vocals merge seamlessly to craft a warm and groovy finale that will leave you craving more Innerground energy, as this incredible centennial LP boldly forges its place.

Tiptoes joins the SlothBoogie roster this October with the ‘Good Times Incoming’ EP, comprised of four originals from the Scottish artist.

Hailing from Glasgow, Scotland, Tiptoes is a time-served DJ/Producer who has been in the game for over 15 years and has performed at a variety of venues worldwide. As a DJ, Tiptoes sound traverses from Jazz to Jungle through Detroit, Disco, Techno, Garage, Broken Beat, Deep House and everything in between, always finding that balance between energy and soul which crosses over into his productions also.

Up first on the package is ‘Born Slippery’, a filter house workout fuelled by an amalgamation of funk infused bass, guitar and brass licks alongside swinging drums and dynamic filter work. ‘Green Room’ follows next and lays down soulful strings, stuttering vocal cuts and plucked bass atop an organic drum groove.

Opening the flip-side is ‘Right Here’, stripping things back to robust drums, jazzy keys and processed vocal chants before ‘Alright’ rounds out the release via airy keys, moog like synth licks and crunchy lo-fi percussion.

For Andy and Edwin White, the brothers behind Orlando’s Tonstartssbandht, a song is a living, breathing thing. Through constant touring, the Whites’ songs both take shape and change shape, becoming something a little different every night as they explore the possibilities inherent within them. With time, attention, and intention, these songs—long, languid, full of open musical questions and temporary answers—become distinct objects, and the process begins again. On Petunia, Tonstartssbandht’s 18th album and second for Mexican Summer, they bring us to the earliest moments of this process, showing off a barn full of hatchlings already decked with splendid plumage. Using little more than a 12-string guitar and a drum kit, Andy and Edwin weave together the gentle headiness of Laurel Canyon and the sweaty pacing of Cologne; like a gyroscope, its constant motion produces the illusion of stillness—and that stillness gives it a sense of intimacy and introspection, something that’s further illuminated by the new emphasis placed on the brothers’ vocals. It allows the quiet wisdom of the lyrics—what Andy self-deprecatingly calls “generic broad platitudes that I still think resonate when I say them”—to slip in almost unnoticed, delivering their emotional truths while preparing a feather bed for you to collapse into. “All roads will lead to the heart of town, when you’ve been running too long,” he sings in the album’s opening moments. “Being at peace only slows you down, but you’ve been running so long now.” If Petunia feels like a journey in the direction of peace, that, too, is a reflection of how it was made—the entire thing was written and recorded in Orlando in 2020, rather than pieced together in spurts over the years. This is an album built on level ground that shows what can happen when the artistic environment is stable, even while the world’s environment is anything but. Petunia is not Tonstartssbandht’s definitive statement on these songs, because how could it be? But it is a portrait of Andy and Edwin White at home in Florida, an artfully staged landscape rich in detail, its winding passages and airy environment waiting to be explored.

Coming off a strong 2020 for the label with releases from Big Strick, Gnext, and Butterbandz, 7 Days follows up with an EP featuring all 3. This trio (or TRINITY) put on a fantastic showcasing of talent. The EP starts off with a sweeping dance tune from Big Strick titled Balance. The catchy piano keys lift your spirits as the drum programming moves your feet. The very animated baseline is a strong force in this song as well. Somebody's Watching shows us Gnext's deep side once again. Hard hitting drums, delayed hi-hats, warm synth pad, aggressive yet friendly bass line, and some acid sprinkled on top. What's not to like? Lastly we get to see more of what to expect from ButterBandz. Another classic in the making for the rising producer on the 7 Days imprint. Ultra Instinct also has a deep underground feel. He brings a thundering, in your face, base line on top of a systematic drum program and airy synth pad. The heat is turning up for 7 Days and this is just a taste of things to come.

B2 Recordings founder Bengoa returns to the label this July with his ‘Sun Dub’ EP, comprised of three originals from the Greek producer and DJ.

The past year has been Bengoa unveil an array of material on his B2 Recordings imprint, ranging through a variety of style under the umbrella of House, from deep and intricate sounds by Peter Grummich, twitchy acid from fellow Greek artist Zak, Disco tinged material from Lex and of course dubbed out sounds from Bengoa himself.

Here, the head honcho returns again with a fresh three-tracker, opening with title-track ‘Sun Dub’, a high octane house workout fuelled by swinging drums, choppy bass stabs, airy dub chords and a classic Hammond organ hook line. ‘Negligence’ then opens the b-side, stripping things back to cavernous low-end pulsations and swirling stabs atop a robust drum machine jam. ‘Physique’ then wraps up the release on a deeper tip, bringing shimmering bell tones, a stab-led bass sequences and murky vocal chants into the forefront, while skippy drum hits and modulating hats carry the subtly nuanced, hypnotic groove.

The second compilation EP to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the establishment of Sound Of Speed!

A-1, by UK Kieron Ifill K15 (WILD OATS, EGLO, APRON) with an impressive sophisticated electric jazzy track that symbolizes the label.

The debut work "Wait" from DISTANT HAWAII is a cult hit, and also from RHYTHM SECTION INTERNATIONAL and MOODS & GROOVES.

A-2 by HIDDEN SPHERES from Manchester, who has release experience and has an impressive unique rhythm composition and airy synth usage.

The Japanese twin duo SATOSHI & MAKOTO, whose two albums released from YOUNG MARCO's label attracted a lot of attention.

Sapporo's KUNIYUKI participated in the music of his brother SATOSHI as percussion, a 90's synth riff reminiscent of the dawn of Detroit techno.

KUNIYUKI from Sapporo, who has live experience on the world stage, participated in the percussion with an ambient feeling that delicate keyboard

work is folded in multiple layers.B-1, which weaves a groove in a quiet humor, a masterpiece electric jazz world that draws you in from the beginning

of the song and gets caught up in the world view in a blink of an eye

Includes 4 songs including KUNIYUKI TAKAHASHI's new song B-2, which has been developed and acclaimed by DJ Sprinkles. KUNIYUKI is in charge of mastering.

Unveiled Nuance is the newly founded imprint by Manchester’s Means&3rd, a platform solely for his own productions. The Eastern Bloc Records staff member inaugurates his debut vinyl release with 3
tracks covering a balance between hypnotic and driving techno, in keeping with his adopted style of recent years.

‘Thought contortion’ opens the EP with a thunderous low end, propulsive rhythms and immersive sweeps of sound design, teamed with modulated synth patterns that assist the unfolding of its persistent structure. ‘Fragility of perception’ follows with its elastic 3 step synth groove and reverb rich textures which provide the bed while the percussion provides an airy dynamic. ‘Aural Dissociative’ closes the EP with an all together headier affair, a dynamic drone providing the backdrop while flickers of rhythm supplement its evolution and heavily modulated lead lines take the focus.

Pressed on 140g Black Vinyl, reverse board full colour print sleeve with poly-lined inner sleeve

‘Medieval Femme’, Fatima Al Qadiri’s new ten track suite inspired by the classical poems of Arab women, invokes a daydream through the metaphor of an Islamic garden, at the border between depression and desire, where the present temporarily dissolves, leaving only past and future. Mixing neon drones and the faint outlines of Arabesque melody, ‘Medieval Femme’ reveals a fully-realised, dreamlike setting, shaded with colour and subtle friction. Conveying a thematic state of melancholic longing, Fatima seeks to transport the listener to a place of reverie and desolation, to question the line between two seemingly opposite states and rejoice in celestial sorrow. ‘Medieval Femme’ takes instrumentation from music of the Middle Ages, recast in a futuristic setting; soft-synth lutes, organs and pipes reverberate in space while gauzy pulses ripple in response. Fatima's vocals of repeated, mantra-like phrases are sometimes pitched and altered, drawing out increasingly intense peaks, angelic choruses and yearning incantations. On ‘Tasakuba’, Kaltham Jassim’s recitation of a couplet from the 7th century poet Al-Khansa', the sorrow of her words are given a turbulent, hallucinatory setting, before the album resolves on the final song, the limpid, airy ‘Zandaq’.

Romantic Images, Molly Burch’s third album, marks a distinct evolution for Burch, both emotionally and sonically. Recorded in Denver with Ten - nis’ Alaina Moore and Pat Riley producing, the collection celebrates the timeless delights of a well-crafted pop song, flirting with Blondie, Madonna, and even Mariah Carey as it forges a joyful soundtrack to liberation and self-discovery.

Burch deliberately worked with more women collaborators than ever before on the album, and the results are transcendent, reveling in the passion and the power of the divine feminine. The collection prioritizes ecstasy and escape, and Burch’s commitment to collective catharsis in her lifted, airy delivery manages to exude both thoughtful introspection and carefree abandon all at once. The shadow still lurks on the album, to be sure, but the light ultimately wins, and the result is an intoxicating collection all about coming into our truest selves.

Berlin’s Philipp Priebe delivers the ‘Ectoplasmatic Friends’ EP via his Stólar imprint early December.
Since the launch of Philipp Priebe’s Stólar in March 2020, the label has set the tone for its sonic palette which leans towards emotive deep house, dubbed out techno and hypnotic electronica. So far the labels has stood as a platform for Priebe’s own material while welcoming remixes from the likes of Just Another Beat artists Kim Brown and
Osaka, Japan’s Metome. Here the story continues with a fresh EP pencilled for 12’’ release in December, again showcasing more of Priebe’s work with accompanying remixes courtesy of Tilman and Lifestyles.
The original mix of ‘Dial 7 For Ghost’ is up first, featuring a robust drum groove, swirling resonant licks and chanting voices before the latter stages ease in a warm, atmospheric chord sequences to carry out the composition. Fine regular Tilman follows next with his take on ‘Dial 7 For Ghosts’, taking things down a typically soul laden house direction from the German artist as he merges the original’s airy atmosphere and bumpy drums with vocal stabs and a classic house bass line.
Lifestyles interpretation of ‘Dial 7 For Ghosts’ follows on the b-side, employing amen breaks, tripped-out warbling effects on the original pad line and a dynamic feel. The second original, ‘An Image Slowly Fades’, then wraps up the EP with cinematic, melancholic synth textures, low-pitched ghostly vocals and low slung drums.

Made during summer 2020, Loraine James’ second Hyperdub album, ‘Reflection’, is a turbulent expression of inner-space, laid out in unflinching honesty, offering gentle empathy and bitter-sweet hope. ‘Reflection’ further develops a unique pop sensibility realised on last year’s ‘Nothing EP’, while tones of Drill and R&B seep through into this collection too. In contrast to the brash splashes of 2019’s ‘For You And I’ LP and the grimey anger of ‘Nothing’, ‘Reflection’ is pared-down and confident, taking the listener through how last year felt as a young black queer woman in a world that has suddenly stopped moving, the arc of the album peppered with Loraine's diaristic confessions. Starting positively with the gentle pop-trap of ‘Built To Last’ ft Xzavier Stone, into the bumpy instrumental of ‘Let's Go’, the album switches tone with ‘Simple Stuff’, followed by regular collaborator Le3 bLACK amplifying Loraine's vulnerability on the downcast drill of ‘Black Ting’, then ‘Insecure Behaviour And Fuckery’ is a techno glide which pairs Nova's confrontational plea for respect, delivered in monotone autotune, against deep Drexciyan chords. With Baths on vocals, the weightlessness of ‘On The Lake Outside’ soothes numb feelings, and Eden Samara explores the shadow world of anxious dreams on the airy R&B of ‘Running Like That’. Closing track ‘We're Building Something New’ with Manchester rapper Iceboy Violet brings the album together, confidently suggesting a new world is in reach. ‘Reflection’ is a brave step forward for a unique and creative 21st century musician.

(part 2/3 featuring Sept, Raven, Frazi.er & Trym) Amelie Lens' EXHALE Records continues to deliver fiercely dynamic techno from the underground's most promising, rising and established artists with its second VA compilation.


Amelie Lens' EXHALE Records continues to deliver fiercely dynamic techno from the underground's most promising, rising and established artists with its second VA compilation.

Following EXHALE's first VA release in 2020, the party series turned label once again welcomes existing members, flourishing producers and blossoming new artists to the EXHALE family for its second various artists compilation.

Opening the second EXH002 vinyl is 'Bóg Jest w Techno' event boss Sept, who presents us with a stripped back cut layered with piercing synth keys and gentle electro elements in 'Beyond The Veil'. Acid stabs and a female voice echo the track title in Raven's trippy cut 'Metal On Metal', with light airy synths to close out that simulate euphoria. We're taken on a dark and weighteir expedition with Frazi.er in 'Systematic Ignorance' - a brooding bass drives the sound, with acid melodies adding texture throughout. Keeping up pace is 'Kendall' by Trym, a cinematic composition that utilises cymbals, hi-hats and synth notes to create a brighter melody over its dark percussion.

Shifted offers the latest distillation of his trademark sound.

Following on from the recent release of “The Dirt On Our Hands” – Guy Brewer’s fourth studio album and the first to arrive on his own Avian imprint, “Constant Blue Light” – another full length, explores new avenues in caustic minimalism.

Eschewing the booming effervescence of his own more plosive dance floor material – Shifted takes a no less nuanced, but decidedly more introspective angle on this new LP. At the centre of Brewer’s practice as an artist, there has always been a sense of dedication to the refinement of a singular idea. In some ways “Constant Blue Light” represents a move closer to the apex of this approach.

Opener “Slowly Counting Backwards” creates the framework for the record – reduced and meditative, owing somewhat to previous work, but still crisper and more precise. “Natural Elevation” riffs on airy patches that hiss and bend while “The Weight of It” transmits an unsettling hysteria with flanging leads and untethered rhythmic components. On the B side, the ominous dirge of “Soft Palate” brings a kind of uncanny energy to proceedings before “Into Your Ocean” utilises exquisite FM tones to create a captivating sonic montage. “Several Instances” hinges on dense low end and scattering white noise, before giving way to the machinations of “Clotting Time”. Closing piece “This I Know” offers a stunning, crystalline finish to the LP – upping the ante in its final minutes before giving way to a hiss of delay trails.

A continued exploration from a focused and diligent artist that provides yet another fully formed and beautifully articulated component to his own discography and that of the Avian label.

Germany’s Tilman inaugurates his new imprint Pleasant
Systems this June with the ‘Adventures’ EP, featuring
collaborations with Will Buck and Rhode & Brown. Mainz,
Germany based producer and DJ Tilman has been dropping
his twist on contemporary house over the past decade on
labels such as Shall Not Fade, Life Is For Living and Quality
Vibes as well as his own Fine imprint, run in collaboration
with Johannes Albert. Here though, Tilman marks a new
beginning with the launch of Pleasant Systems, a new
imprint designed to shine a light on vintage inspired house
sounds from both himself and friends. Up ¦rst is ‘What’s
Mine Is Mine’, a collaboration with Brooklyn’s Will Buck which
lays down an amalgamation of airy synth pads, choppy bass
stabs, bright piano lines and enchanting §ute like melodies
atop a swinging drum groove. ‘Strawberry Fields’ follows,
stripping things back to shu©ed percussion, billowing
ethereal textures and wandering sub bass tones while
§uttering brass tones and resonant leads ebb and §ow
within. ‘Velvet Park’ opens the §ip side, this time joining
forces with Rhode & Brown, embracing a classic sound with
raw crunchy drums, delayed piano chords, bumpy bass
stabs, cinematic strings and brass hooks throughout. ‘Lovin'’
then rounds out the release, dropping the tempo, featuring
the voice of Tilman himself and laying focus on off-kilter
organic percussion, twinkling resonant tones, eighties tinged

For fans of AMON DÜÜL, CAN, FAUST, NEUBAUTEN, BRIAN ENO, CLUSTER, CULT OF LUNA, NINE INCH NAILS, MASSIVE ATTACK OR - Norwegian for "dizzy, confusing" - is the third album from Italian avant-rock trio OSLO TAPES, and the album keeps what the word promises: a dizzying ride through a feverish dreamscape of imaginary Norwegian highlands painted in cubistic shapes. Hypnotic basslines, repetitive drum patterns, new wave synths and psychedelic guitar textures covering the full width of the stereo room, all seamlessly woven into a gloomy Kraut - tapestry which sounds refreshingly_ modern, while paying tribute to the aged genre. Marco Campitelli, born and raised in Lanciano on the Southern Adriatic coast of Italy, founded OSLO TAPES in the early 2010s after a trip to the Norwegian Capital left him deeply impressed. Under the influence of this infatuation, he composed and produced OSLO TAPES' first record "OT (un cuore in pasto a pesci con teste di cane)" within a week in 2013. Supervised and supported by friend Amaury Cambuzat (faUSt / Ulan Bator), Campitelli's first attempt to capture the mystical vibe of Norway was released on DeAmbula Records (Ulan Bator, The Marigold, 7C). In 2015 he was joined by Mauro Spada and Federico Sergente (Zippo) and together they recorded OSLO TAPES' sophomore album "Tango Kalashnikov", also released on DeAmbula Records. "OR" is a much more collaborative effort for OSLO TAPES than the first two records. Next to Campitelli, the album was co-produced by Amaury Cambuzat (Ulan Bator) and James Aparicio (house engineer for Mute Records and mixing and mastering engineer for Depeche Mode, Mogwai, Nick Cave). During production, Campitelli became friends with Emil Nikolaisen of Serena Maneesh w h o guided him "through the Norwegian imagination". As a result, the record's title is also courtesy of Nikolaisen. During this journey spanning over eight songs, OSLO TAPES, completed by Mauro Spada (bass) and Davide Di Virgilio (drums and percussions) construct a dense and ever so dark atmosphere that is captivating, brooding and imaginative. After a spiraling takeoff with "Space is the place", we find ourselves floating weightlessly above the nocturnal Norwegian highlands through "Zenith" and "Kosmik Feels", an airy circulation of jazzy drums, pulsating bass lines and shimmering guitar clouds. We saddle up, gallop across the sky on "Bodo Dakar" and drift back into the night on "Cosmonaut". The trifecta of "Norwegian Dream", "Exotic Dreams" and "Obession Is The Mother of All" conclude this agitated fever dream journey. There is a sense of solitude in OSLO TAPES' compositions which makes it easy to imagine them as interstellar jam sessions between cosmonauts, each in their own isolated space capsule. Every spin of "OR" brings new discoveries: sometimes it is a noise that we did not notice before, sometimes a slight change in the drum groove, sometimes just a piece of the lyrics, meandering through our mental space. "OR" is a vertiginious journey to be remembered - and repeated. "The focus of Oslo Tapes is to harmonize the noise" says Marco Campitelli.

Davide disanto is an amazing Italian producer born in bari, after multiple releases on excellent labels such as Let's play house, Politics of dancing or even Theory of swing, he delivers us a fabulous 12 inch which borrows as much from the heyday of the purest New-York City 90s deep house as well as the purest techno made in detroit. The 1st track from this EP seems to have come straight from an imaginary collaboration between Boo williams & Ron trent, the violence of the rhythm is counterbalanced by some airy & ultra deep pads, the aptly named Atmosfear. A banger as we rarely hear today. C'Mon, Let Me See on A2 sounds like a modern take on the awesome Jerzzey boy. On the B side, Da Love Feeling (Main Mix) & le (4am Underground Dub) revisits the 90s once again for our greatest pleasure, particularly the latter seems to have come straight out of a lost mix of the great danny tenaglia. And to end this ep in style, davide allows himself the luxury of summoning the spirit of MBG and all the best Italian deep house from the early 90s on the superb Lungomare (Ambient Reprise). ESSENTIAL ITEM !

SKYLAX RECORDS 4 EVER

Germany’s Peter Grummich has been releasing his twist on House and Techno over the past two decades via the likes of Shitkatapult, Kompakt, Spectral Sound, Mule Musiq and of course his very own Innerbird. Here though we see Peter deliver his latest works via Bengoa’s fledgling B2 Recordings, which sees him experimenting with some outboard classics like the classic Casio RZ-1 drum machine and the Roland JX8P synthesizer to create a raw, old school feel.

Opening the package is title-cut ‘Onions’ the ‘Lee Anderson Endless Summer Mix’, laid out over eight minutes with hazy stab sequences, dusty drums and a chugging low-end drive while squelching acid licks subtly work their way into the latter stages of the for composition. ‘Hello Rave’ follows next on the flip-side, bringing airy dub chords, metallic stabs and gritty analogue percussion into the limelight for a groove-driven workout. ‘Basement Memories’ then rounds things out, this time bringing dynamically evolving, intricate drum patterns, resonant bleeps into focus atop and an underlying dubbed out aesthetic.

Mother Freedom Band’s Cutting The Chord is a funky modern soul classic. It’s both a criminally under-appreciated album and a hard-to-find record so we’re delighted to be giving this sweet disco-funk groover the reissue treatment it deserves.

Produced by the great Al Goodman from The Moments and originally released in 1977, Cutting The Chord seems to be one of the lesser known releases on the curious, and often great “All Platinum” label. Other than a 7" of a couple of these tracks, the only thing that the band seem to have released is this album, and what an album it is. Unbeatable soul-funk of the highest quality.

The album bursts open with “Love Will Stay In Your Corner”. It’s a soulful dancer that reliably slays any funk set you care to drop it in. It’s followed by the lithe disco funk “Flick Of The Wrist” that’s all bubbling baselines and elegant horns. The groovy, horn-enhanced sweet soul of “Gotta Get It Back” is equal parts heartbreaker/hip-shaker and the acidic organs on “Mr Brother” are an experiment in synth soul.

Perhaps the group’s best known track, “Beautiful Summer’s Day” might well be worth the price of an original copy alone. It’s pure piano-driven paradise soul. A tropical birdsong intro sets the scene of a warm, perfect sunshine day and the lead vocal soars over the lush, clean production. The tempo oscillates between contemplative and stomping. Essential.

The brilliantly-named “(Assistants Rag) When You’re Hot, You’re Hot” opens side two. Another huge highlight, its title refrain repeated over this laid-back, power-funk workout. It still sounds incredibly modern, like something off the last D’Angelo record, and if Public Enemy and Diamond D both sampled it you know it knocks hard.

The horn-heavy, clav-stabbing-stomper “We Like To Boogie” keeps things fast and funky before the airy, heavenly harmony soul of “Come On Home” mellows us all out. Things pick up again with “Touch Me”, and you might recognise its addictive elements sampled in Jay-Z’s Kanye West-produced “A Star Was Born”. The magical, reggae-tinged, gospel-influenced “Sweet Love” closes out this assured, classy set.

We dare to say that Cutting The Chord is a rare example of a funk-soul LP which is killer from start-to-finish. Sure, there are the stand-out bombs, but the whole thing is a complete and varied album of feel-good vibes held together by its fluid horns, tight, tight rhythm section and beautiful vocals.

Mastered for vinyl from the original analogue tapes by Simon Francis, cut by Pete Norman and artwork restored at Be With HQ, this new edition should hopefully stop this album slipping any further into obscurity. It’s just too good to be forgotten.

Dalhous end the 5-year silence with the long awaited follow up to 2016's House Number 44, presenting the second volume of The Composite Moods Collection. "Point Blank Range" reinterprets the established narrative with an inverse look at the proceedings. Taking the “point of view of the disease", the perspective is now turned inside out, revealing an alternate account from the eyes of the photographed subject of House Number 44. If Vol.1 was a documented presentation of another person's condition, Vol.2 takes the listener behind the facade.

From the outset, the album offers a narratively uncooperative stance, weaving together layers of anxiety and painful specificity that often overtly manifests the psychotic protagonist's stormy interior state. A clearly subjective assault, which is made evident right from opening track 'Transceivers' through to the imploding nature of 'Intramuscular Administration’, to the vulnerable, psychedelic mania of 'Open As A Glade Unfolding'. Continuing to work within the framework of a soundtrack-like structure, Dalhous ramps things up to provide the aural equivalent of sound and picture, manifesting an almost quasi-visual experience.

The entire record can be listened to as a continuous piece, each track seamlessly linked together as though part of an interconnecting nervous system. Where House Number 44 offered airy, widescreen soundscapes of detached detail, Point Blank Range presents an altogether different form. Creating airtight vacuums of agitated twitching feeling, tracks are pulled to the forefront of the stereo field, continually mutating their densely painted neurochemical hallucinations with a breadth of sound previously unheard on previous releases.

Listeners will be able to decipher nods to long standing soundtrack influences from composers such as Fabio Frizzi, with his use of strikingly bold and haunting melodies, to Tangerine Dream’s distinctively foggy atmospheres of The Keep. There are moments that evoke the nihilistic drones of Brian Gascoigne’s soundtrack to Phase IV, and the more horrific passages of metal clanging ambience from the likes of Chu Ishikawa with his scores for Shinya Tsukamoto.

After their former record label Blackest Ever Black disbanded, Dalhous found themselves out on a limb. It took 5 years to find a new home with Denovali. Given the unusually extended period between records, Dalhous had the time to dive deeper into the material, rendering a level of experimentation previously unavailable to them. Over 4 hours of material was created, a total of 1TB of data. Countless revisions to the track listing ensued with some of the unused material being reutilised in the making of the final chapter in the trilogy to form a direct companion piece.

Making Covid-19-references when writing about popular culture can feel tiresome, living in the midst of it but let “Taken From A Fixed Point” by In Fields console you in this age of pandemic. This album pierces through you like sunbeams through the blinders of your quarantine-ridden apartments’ windows.

This isn’t In Fields first appearance on the label. In 2019 the artist released a collaboration with Golden bug and the exiting dynamics of that album resounds in this one. Though a little easier on the disco influences and a turn towards ambient, In Fields’ music is still “tension and release” dance music produced to perfection. In Fields characteristic sound contain contrasting elements where soft airy synth pads meet more frightening sounds dug up from somewhere deep and dark like in “Ghostnights”.

The tracks are dynamic where growing crescendos fast and suddenly fades out and you realize your mind have been focusing on a completely different part of the sound. Underneath those surprising elements sits a skeleton of well-sounding bones keeping the songs together tight and steady.

“Taken From A Fixed Point” is dance music for a dance floor in your head and triggers the muscle memory in quarantinenauts tired of hard lock-down. Though produced in a dark place, this album gives a somewhat positive vision of the future and life on the other side.

Lothian Buses’ is an EP of genre collisions with Proc Fiskal amalgamating his twinkling, caffeinated grime sound with the rhythms and sounds of other genres, without ever overthinking it. To kick off, ‘Thurs Jung Yout’ is a kind of shoegaze drill with strings and gentle tones swelling and dissipating against busy drill beats. ‘Baguettes’ is a more classic Proc sound, a galloping rhythm against a sparse melody that was a quick fix up for a show that turned out well. ‘Choco Frito (Calamari)’ was influenced by the good life, DJing in Portugal in the sunshine and hearing Kuduro played out. The latticing drum patterns nod to the style, dropping into a sunny accordion chorus with a plucked guitar line. ‘Scarab Aloph’ is Proc's style compressed, full of micro-glitches, tight drum fills and incidental drop-outs across a pretty melody, while ‘HopeTak2’ is his percussive, breezy take on funky house with smiley melodic stabs. Finally, ‘Mullit Madollock’ takes the sonics of airy Bukem-style atmospheric jungle, an instantly recognisable inspiration that's not been as foregrounded in Proc’s work before, refitted and updated with grime-inspired melodic bass kicks.

Fresh off of their 2020 offering Adult Themes, El Michels Affair is back with a new full-length release. Titled Yeti Season, this newest album has everything we've come to expect from EMA's patented cinematic style of instrumental soul music. Where Adult Themes inspired a soundtrack to an imaginary film, Yeti Season brings us to a different place in time_with new inspirations. Taken with Turkish-styled funk and an almost Mumbai-esque take on soul, El Michels Affair offers us a different kind of drama and imagination with Yeti Season. If you've been following along, this shouldn't be viewed as too far a departure for El Michels Affair. The first single off of Yeti Season showed their hand back in 2018. A double-sided banger, that release brought the musical textures to the fore that dominate this record. The first song, titled "Unathi," is fully realized with the beautifully haunting-yet-hopeful vocals of Piya Malik, formally of 79.5_another Big Crown artist. Singing in Hindi, Piya's ethereal voice is telling us to work and strive together toward progress. Even if you don't understand her language, you can still hear the urgency of purpose, creating a lasting vibe that sits on top of it all. Leon Michels explains that Piya had a vital influence on this record: "When Piya started singing in Hindi, she had a different voice, a different tone. I knew we had to do something together." And so Piya appears on three other songs on Yeti Season: "Zaharila," "Murkit Gem," and "Dhuaan." Each providing particular signatures to the album. "Zaharila" is a building and changing love song punctuated by blaring trumpets, driving drums, and Piya's pleading lyrics. While the more upbeat "Murkit Gem" opens with a fuzzed out, Wu-Tang-esque baseline that buoys Piya's stylings. The psychedelic guitar and Piya's changing tones and textures singing about an all-consuming love are what pushed "Dhuaan" on to the second single from Yeti Season. There is also a vocal appearance from Shannon Wise of The Shacks, yet another Big Crown artist. Her song called "Sha Na Na," lies more in the familiar EMA vein: melodic, hypnotic, soulfully visual. But between Shannon's airy singing, the jumpy baseline, moody vibes, the active drum lines, it sounds like a pensive walk home after a strangely dramatic night. So what is Yeti Season? It could be more of a feeling than an actual place or time of year. It's a heavy album_as evidenced by the signature musicianship and dramatic vocal expressions. But it's also a hopeful record, with phrasings, textures, and chord changes that hint at something better_or fuller_coming our way. You hear it in songs like "Ala Vida," with its stabby, pulsing chords laying a bedrock for EMA's bright, atmospheric horn lines. Or even in "Fazed Out," which leaves you with a feeling of determination, a striving for resolution even though the driving, march-like song structure should accompany some conquering army. This persistence has to come from the fact that Leon Michels and company finished this record during the lockdown. It was a tough and troublesome time. But look at what has come of it: Yeti Season_a record of high and heavy drama, but also one of hope and promise. It may take a year like 2020 behind us to find hope in a winter big footed creature like a Yeti, but that's where we are.

“It was my wish to cool things down a bit,” says David Helbock. The
Austrian-born pianist has formed a new trio with guitarist Arne
Jansen and trumpeter Sebastian Studnitzky and it is clear when he
talks about it how far he has already moved on since his previous
group: “In the Random Control Trio we had a lot of instruments on
the stage, there was a lot of changing from one instrument to
another… and a lot of notes.” And the new group? “It is more about
emotions. And emotions are the most important thing in music.”
There are other differences too. Whereas Helbock’s previous groups
have consisted of musicians from his native Austria, he has now lived
in Berlin for five years, and ‘The New Cool’ presents his first group
formed with players who have also adopted Berlin as their home city.
With Arne Jansen, originally from Kiel, what appeals to Helbock is
that “he is such an unselfish player, very centred and very calm - and
subtle too. With him it’s all about the music.” Studnitzky is originally
from the Black Forest and Helbock liked “his style of playing with that
very airy sound” and the fact the range of timbres and moods he
creates with just one effects device. And how does it work in the
trio? “All three of us are melody players, but we are all capable of
holding back and giving space to the others.”
It would be wrong, however, to see the elegiac feel of much of this
album as a response to the pandemic. Helbock and producer Siggi
Loch were having “a productive and fruitful discussion” about these
ideas a full year before the recording sessions took place at the Emil
Berliner studios in August 2020. Loch has a fascination for the way
cool jazz “turned the wheel around” to connect with a wide audience
and references and connections with the cool jazz movement are
scattered throughout this album. It is also the very first time that
Helbock has included a tune by his teacher for over a decade,
American pianist Peter Madsen, who toured extensively with Stan
Getz and also taught Maria Schneider.
Helbock has been inspired by the innovations and concepts of Lennie
Tristano and his sense of affinity with the Chicago-born genius runs
deep. Tristano once decreed that “the jazz musician’s function is to
feel.” Helbock, Jansen and Studnitzky have taken that maxim to their
hearts.
LP pressed on 180g vinyl with digital download included.

The “Hôtel Costes Presents” series returns this March with "Hardcore Lounge", the new album by Greek duo Glacial, comprise of eight original tracks and a special collaboration with the well-know star singer Giorgos Mazonakis.

Glacial is the joint project of renowned Greek techno/house producer Lemos and saxophonist/experimental artist Ilan Manouach. The duo released their debut album back in 2012 via the former “Costes Presente” series, picking up support along the way from Ricardo Villalobos who called it “the album of his dreams”. With this new album, the band is back together for a release on the new “Hotel Costes Presents” series, once again delivering their inimitable twist on jazz infused electronic music.

The focal point from the album comes in the shape of "Den Ime Ego", which sees Glacial collaborating with one of Greece’s most infamous pop singers, Giorgos Mazonakis, to create a cinematic composition driven by emotive strings, jazzy drums and airy sax tones alongside Mazonakis haunting vocals.

LTD. CLEAR BLUE VINYL

Fresh off of their 2020 offering Adult Themes, El Michels Affair is back with a new full-length release. Titled Yeti Season, this newest album has everything we've come to expect from EMA's patented cinematic style of instrumental soul music. Where Adult Themes inspired a soundtrack to an imaginary film, Yeti Season brings us to a different place in time_with new inspirations. Taken with Turkish-styled funk and an almost Mumbai-esque take on soul, El Michels Affair offers us a different kind of drama and imagination with Yeti Season. If you've been following along, this shouldn't be viewed as too far a departure for El Michels Affair. The first single off of Yeti Season showed their hand back in 2018. A double-sided banger, that release brought the musical textures to the fore that dominate this record. The first song, titled "Unathi," is fully realized with the beautifully haunting-yet-hopeful vocals of Piya Malik, formally of 79.5_another Big Crown artist. Singing in Hindi, Piya's ethereal voice is telling us to work and strive together toward progress. Even if you don't understand her language, you can still hear the urgency of purpose, creating a lasting vibe that sits on top of it all. Leon Michels explains that Piya had a vital influence on this record: "When Piya started singing in Hindi, she had a different voice, a different tone. I knew we had to do something together." And so Piya appears on three other songs on Yeti Season: "Zaharila," "Murkit Gem," and "Dhuaan." Each providing particular signatures to the album. "Zaharila" is a building and changing love song punctuated by blaring trumpets, driving drums, and Piya's pleading lyrics. While the more upbeat "Murkit Gem" opens with a fuzzed out, Wu-Tang-esque baseline that buoys Piya's stylings. The psychedelic guitar and Piya's changing tones and textures singing about an all-consuming love are what pushed "Dhuaan" on to the second single from Yeti Season. There is also a vocal appearance from Shannon Wise of The Shacks, yet another Big Crown artist. Her song called "Sha Na Na," lies more in the familiar EMA vein: melodic, hypnotic, soulfully visual. But between Shannon's airy singing, the jumpy baseline, moody vibes, the active drum lines, it sounds like a pensive walk home after a strangely dramatic night. So what is Yeti Season? It could be more of a feeling than an actual place or time of year. It's a heavy album_as evidenced by the signature musicianship and dramatic vocal expressions. But it's also a hopeful record, with phrasings, textures, and chord changes that hint at something better_or fuller_coming our way. You hear it in songs like "Ala Vida," with its stabby, pulsing chords laying a bedrock for EMA's bright, atmospheric horn lines. Or even in "Fazed Out," which leaves you with a feeling of determination, a striving for resolution even though the driving, march-like song structure should accompany some conquering army. This persistence has to come from the fact that Leon Michels and company finished this record during the lockdown. It was a tough and troublesome time. But look at what has come of it: Yeti Season_a record of high and heavy drama, but also one of hope and promise. It may take a year like 2020 behind us to find hope in a winter big footed creature like a Yeti, but that's where we are.

In the American midwest, the two weeks or so in mid-Spring that brings the year's most vibrant crop of edible mushrooms coincides with the busiest season for a few of it's most deceptively poisonous fungi: the false morels. Bearing a pale stalk and a halo of cerebral folds, they look like a lot of similar mushrooms, but if you can't identify them for what they are, and treat them the right way, consuming even small quantities can cause vertigo, vomiting, and organ failure.

Lemon Quartet probably weren't thinking about mushrooms when they made their debut album Crestless, but the false morels still provide a window into understanding their music. When you catch their intricately arranged instrumentals at a glance, you can see flashes of other airy artists — they trade in compositional ruffles that may feel familiar to followers of Gigi Masin or any number of releases on Valley of the Sun — but there's this deep, dark something hiding in the record's shadowy corners.

It's not poison though, just a mycelial complexity that begs that you take each piece and study its contours as you take and eat. The work that you put in makes it feel all the more nourishing.

‘Galdre Visions’ is Leaving Records supergroup Galdre Visions’s debut release. Inspired by Celtic mysticism, outer space and New Age both classical and modern, ‘Galdre Visions’ is a document of the exploratory, healing power of music.
Galdre Visions are comprised of Olive Ardizoni (Green-House), South Asian-American sitarist Ami Dang, Diva Dompé of Yialmelic Frequencies and harpist Nailah Hunter. These four artists were drawn together during the pandemic to remotely create collaborative music reflecting global uncertainty.
‘Galdre Visions’ is a reflective, ambient journey with airy vocal harmonies and layers of field recordings, harps and slow-burning ambient chords.
The record is housed in a tip-on jacket with microtene inner sleeves and played at 45 RPM.
For fans of Laraaji, Mort Garson, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Huerco S., Emily A. Sprague, Ana Roxanne, Christina Vantzou.

Lost Horizons release their new album ‘In Quiet Moments’ via Bella Union. The album features a stellar array of musical guests including John Grant, C Duncan, Marissa Nadler, Porridge Radio, Penelope Isles, Karen Peris (the innocence mission), Tim Smith (Midlake), Ren Harvieu and many more.
In 2017, Simon Raymonde and Richie Thomas had both abstained from making music for 20 years until they united as Lost Horizons and released a stunning debut album, ‘Ojalá’ - the Spanish word for ‘hopefully’ or ‘God willing.’
“These days, we need hope more than ever, for a better world.” Thomas said at the time. “And this album has given me a lot of hope. To reconnect with music.... And the hope for another Lost Horizons record!” Thomas’ hopes had a mixed response.
On the plus side, the new Lost Horizons album ‘In Quiet Moments’ is an even stronger successor to ‘Ojalá’ with another distinguished cast of guest singers and a handful of supporting instrumentalists embellishing the core duo’s gorgeously freeflowing and loose-limbed blueprint that one writer astutely labelled, “melancholydelia.”
On the minus side, any hope for a better world, as Earth continues to freefall toward political and social meltdown. Then, to make matters worse, as Raymonde and Thomas buckled down to create the improvised bedrock that Lost Horizons is built on, the former’s mother died. At least Raymonde had a way to channel his grief.
“The way improvisation works,” he says, “it’s just what’s going on with your body at the time, to let it out.”
Raymonde (bass, guitar, keyboards, production) and Thomas (drums, occasional keys and guitar) forged ahead, creating 16 instrumental tracks to send to prospective guests. When he did, Raymonde suggested a guiding theme for their lyrics: “death and rebirth. Of loved ones, of ideals, at an age when many artists that have inspired us are also dead, and the planet isn’t far behind. But I also said, ‘The most important part is to just do your own thing, and have fun.’”
Lost Horizons’ melancholy-delia also feels buoyed aloft by airy currents, informed in part by Raymonde and Thomas’ former respective bands: the legendary Cocteau Twins and Dif Juz. Their former bands were labelmates on 4AD in the mid-80s, which is how they first met.
“I think ‘In Quiet Moments’ is more in the direction of where we’re going,” Thomas concludes. “People have retreated into their lives and, in those quiet moments, reflected on the world, how we fit in and who we and trust. Maybe the next album will be about rebellion! But the road is long and winding. We just need to express ourselves in how we feel at the time.”
Coloured vinyl 2LP (disc one green, disc two blue) in PVC outer sleeve with printed text, 350gsm wide spined sleeve on uncoated/reverse board, 16pg booklet on standard paper with contributions from all featured artists and digital download code.

"Do you feel what I feel too?" Brijean Murphy floats the question at the start of Feelings, the full-length Ghostly International debut from Brijean, her collaborative project with Doug Stuart. Guided by a lush mix of charismatic keyboard chords, grooving bass lines, and radiant bongo-driven rhythms, the "Day Dreaming" lyric doubles as an invitation and a statement of intention. Brijean want you to move, physically, mentally, dimensionally; this is dance music for the mind, body, and soul. With Feelings, they've manifested a gentle collective space for respite, for self-reflection, for self-care, for uninhibited imagination and new possibilities. The album cultivates a specific vibe, a softness Murphy has come to call "romancing the psyche." Growing up in a family immersed in jazz, Latin and soul music, Murphy would become an accomplished DJ, session and live player in Oakland's diverse music scene and one of indie's most in-demand percussionists (Poolside, Toro Y Moi, U.S. Girls). In 2018, she began recording songs with multi-instrumentalist and producer Doug Stuart, who shares a background in jazz and pop in bands such as Bells Atlas, Meernaa, and Luke Temple. Following their first sessions, which resulted in the mini-album Walkie Talkie (released in 2019 on Native Cat Recordings), the duo continued freeform hangs in Oakland, inviting friends Chaz Bear, Tony Peppers, and Hamir Atwal. "We improvised on different feels for hours," says Murphy. "Nothing quite developed at first but we had seeds. We re-opened the sessions a couple months later, after returning from tours, and spent a month developing the songs in a little 400 square foot cottage." Aforementioned album opener "Day Dreaming" is a dynamic celebration of newness: the excitement in finding deeper understandings of yourself as you get to know someone, something, or somewhere new. "Wifi Beach" drops a pin in pure psych-pop exotica. With Atwal on drums, Stuart on bass, Peppers on keys, and Bear engineering, the group improvised the track's intro sequence based on the vision of a lavish 1970s pool party. Establishing the scene is a mid-frequency drum kit disco shuffle augmented by tight congas and timbale effect, as Murphy sings in spurts: "I want to be / Deep in love / I want to be / Say you love me too / I want to be / Honey." The stanzas cut between "reflective moments of wants and being overwhelmed by feelings of the present," she explains. "A lot of the `love songs' I write are to my psyche, self-reflections on how to encourage tender perspectives and make more time for the sweet stuff." Though there is a loose, dance-oriented motif throughout, the material gives way to somnolent turns. On "Ocean," Brijean's anodyne lyrics, reminiscent of Astrud Gilberto's airy croon, float atop a brushed drum pattern, sparkling rhodes lines, and pittering and softly funky woodblock bops. The opening line sets up the rest, "In this gentle space we lay" _ among the album's propensity for movement, tracks like "Ocean" stand out by leaning back for momentary sways of blissful introspection. Murphy calls the charming "Hey Boy" a "psychedelic guide _ the exploration of finding what feels good _ through sorrow, anxiety, apathy." This mentality applies to Feelings on the whole: in these nebulous and verdant worlds of hazy melodies, feathery hooks, and percussive details, the songs simply want us to feel alive. They radiate in wonderful abandon and with a sense of devotion to the self. RIYL: Stereolab, Astrud Gilberto, Air, Little Dragon, Broadcast, Khruangbin, Poolside.

LTD. BLUE & PINK SWIRL VINYL

"Do you feel what I feel too?" Brijean Murphy floats the question at the start of Feelings, the full-length Ghostly International debut from Brijean, her collaborative project with Doug Stuart. Guided by a lush mix of charismatic keyboard chords, grooving bass lines, and radiant bongo-driven rhythms, the "Day Dreaming" lyric doubles as an invitation and a statement of intention. Brijean want you to move, physically, mentally, dimensionally; this is dance music for the mind, body, and soul. With Feelings, they've manifested a gentle collective space for respite, for self-reflection, for self-care, for uninhibited imagination and new possibilities. The album cultivates a specific vibe, a softness Murphy has come to call "romancing the psyche." Growing up in a family immersed in jazz, Latin and soul music, Murphy would become an accomplished DJ, session and live player in Oakland's diverse music scene and one of indie's most in-demand percussionists (Poolside, Toro Y Moi, U.S. Girls). In 2018, she began recording songs with multi-instrumentalist and producer Doug Stuart, who shares a background in jazz and pop in bands such as Bells Atlas, Meernaa, and Luke Temple. Following their first sessions, which resulted in the mini-album Walkie Talkie (released in 2019 on Native Cat Recordings), the duo continued freeform hangs in Oakland, inviting friends Chaz Bear, Tony Peppers, and Hamir Atwal. "We improvised on different feels for hours," says Murphy. "Nothing quite developed at first but we had seeds. We re-opened the sessions a couple months later, after returning from tours, and spent a month developing the songs in a little 400 square foot cottage." Aforementioned album opener "Day Dreaming" is a dynamic celebration of newness: the excitement in finding deeper understandings of yourself as you get to know someone, something, or somewhere new. "Wifi Beach" drops a pin in pure psych-pop exotica. With Atwal on drums, Stuart on bass, Peppers on keys, and Bear engineering, the group improvised the track's intro sequence based on the vision of a lavish 1970s pool party. Establishing the scene is a mid-frequency drum kit disco shuffle augmented by tight congas and timbale effect, as Murphy sings in spurts: "I want to be / Deep in love / I want to be / Say you love me too / I want to be / Honey." The stanzas cut between "reflective moments of wants and being overwhelmed by feelings of the present," she explains. "A lot of the `love songs' I write are to my psyche, self-reflections on how to encourage tender perspectives and make more time for the sweet stuff." Though there is a loose, dance-oriented motif throughout, the material gives way to somnolent turns. On "Ocean," Brijean's anodyne lyrics, reminiscent of Astrud Gilberto's airy croon, float atop a brushed drum pattern, sparkling rhodes lines, and pittering and softly funky woodblock bops. The opening line sets up the rest, "In this gentle space we lay" _ among the album's propensity for movement, tracks like "Ocean" stand out by leaning back for momentary sways of blissful introspection. Murphy calls the charming "Hey Boy" a "psychedelic guide _ the exploration of finding what feels good _ through sorrow, anxiety, apathy." This mentality applies to Feelings on the whole: in these nebulous and verdant worlds of hazy melodies, feathery hooks, and percussive details, the songs simply want us to feel alive. They radiate in wonderful abandon and with a sense of devotion to the self. RIYL: Stereolab, Astrud Gilberto, Air, Little Dragon, Broadcast, Khruangbin, Poolside.

When a synth master like Steve Moore joins forces with the legendary KPM, magic must materialise. And so it does with Analog Sensitivity: cinematic, enigmatic synthscapes to both haunt and heal.

New York-based multi-instrumentalist/producer/film composer Steve Moore is probably best known for his synthesizer and bass guitar work as Zombi, together with Anthony Paterra. But he is also part of Miracle and Titan as well as being a prolific solo artist releasing music as Gianni Rossi, Lovelock and under his own name. Steve’s music has found a home across labels like Future Times, Mexican Summer, LIES, Static Caravan, Relapse, Kompakt, Spectrum Spools, Death Waltz and Ghost Box, and much of his recent work has been scoring films like The Guest and Cub. Prolific indeed.

The story of Analog Sensitivity starts with those soundtracks, or more specifically the time in between them. Rather than being commissioned by KPM, this LP comes from music Steve was recording sporadically and tinkering with for over three years during the downtime between his film projects. There were no ideas about what it was nor a plan for how it would be released, or even if it was going to be released at all.

However, after Jon Tye invited him to play on the Ocean Moon project for KPM Steve realised that the hallowed library label might be the perfect home for what he had been working on. The people at KPM agreed. Finishing production in late 2019 in Albany, NY, he came up with the track sequencing and suddenly, he had an album: Analog Sensitivity.

The LP opens with the dystopian electronic minimalism of “Eldborg”, its dark synth bass unfolding to ominous synth pads, shadowy sustains and glistening arpeggios. “At The Edge Of Perception” brings an unsettling retro-future of edgy analogue leads and desolate FX. The sound of a robotic core tears through the sparse textures of the enigmatic “Rose Of Charon”. A chilling breeze blows through a persistent, hypnotic synth sequence on “Time Freeze”. Title track “Analog Sensitivity” is a sparkling transcendental synthscape of melody, drones and celestial synth. The brooding “Behind The Waterfall” winds down the first side, building subtle strings and a desolate sound beneath its haunting organ.

“Mirror Mountain” ushers in side two, its woozy bass and arpeggio unfolding to envelop the muffled, muted echos of its organic leads. "Syzygy" emerges you in bubbling sequences, airiness and ambient electric guitar tones. It’s followed by the cinematic minimalism of “Pentagram Of Venus” and its trickling FX. The wind swirls through the otherworldly “Of Dust Thou Art” kicking up clouds of unsettling, plodding synth sequences leading to the uneasy atmosphere of “Message From The Beast” which builds to the echo of the last refrain of some choral incantation. Closing track “Urge Surfing” is as cool a climax as you’d hope from something so brilliantly titled, riding along hushed waves of brooding electronics.

With the clue right there in the title, Analog Sensitivity is built up from the quieter aspects of the sound Steve has been exploring and evolving for over 20 years. It’s a layering of ambivalently dense and airy, muffled and echoing sounds from his collection of synthesizers and other electronic music hardware. And whilst some of Steve’s other work uses this vintage equipment to conjure the past, that wasn’t his intention here. Steve explains “I wanted Analog Sensitivity to feel atemporal, as though it could have been released any time over the past 30 or 40 years. While not specifically in the spirit of any particular album, I’m really into old KPM artists like Alan Hawkshaw and Brian Bennett”.

Slinky and sassy, offbeat and sexy, “My Baby Just Cares For Me”, the new single by Lou Hayter, sneaks in on a cloud of off-kilter synths and airy vocals, just in time for the last few rays of this year’s Indian summer.

Already renowned as a DJ, musician in New Young Pony Club, writer and producer, London based Hayter now harnesses the full extent of her idiosyncratic pop prowess on her hotly anticipated forthcoming debut LP on Skint Records, from which “My Baby Just Cares For Me” is the first, tantalisting taste.

A glorious retro-futurist mélange of 80s Rn’B circa Jam and Lewis and starkly modern underground electronica, “My Baby Just Cares For Me” sounds quite unlike anything else out there, a delicious slice of sparkling electro-soul with a heaped teaspoon of astringent Gallic froideur, whose sweet exterior hides something darker, more melancholic within.

Just when you thought every loner folk genius had been outed/discovered, hyped, and pontificated about, a new/old challenger lurks in the murky depths of time...and Maine. Sure, you have your Skip Spences, Dave Bixbys, Stone Harbours, and Perry Leopolds already, but have you heard the lonesome sound of Bill Stone? Well, don't feel bad or "unkool", hardly anyone has--unless you lived in rural Maine in the early 70s and grabbed his barely-ever seen LP in the day. Titled simply Stone, Bill's mysterious album was pressed in the micro-est of quantities, covering wistful, airy psychedelia on par with the UK's Mark Fry's classic Dreaming of Alice, while still evoking the earthy, evening-hour melancholy of Leonard Cohen or Tom Rapp. Stone was also especially influenced by one Donny P. Leitch, one Robby Zimmerman, and much trad folk, while growing up in his hometown of Old Town, Maine. Stone started out playing in a few small folk ensembles while also moonlighting with occasional solo gigs, finally recording this lone platter in 1969 in a pottery studio (!?) on a 2-track Panasonic tape recorder in Boothbay, Maine (where he says, they competed with a cat in heat). The LP features Tom Blackwell/Bill Stone-guitars, Arthur Webster-bass, Bob Blackwell/Skip Smith-drums, Bill/Beth Waterhouse on vocals. It also seems cover artist Doug Bane went on to become an acclaimed cosmic painter--committing loads of animals, psychedelic scenes, and Native American portraits to canvas, who knew? But we digress--anyhow, seems Stone's solo career slowed down after marriage hit, and he transitioned to playing covers in bars for cash, but after acquiring a masters and doctorate in education, he moved into the teaching walk of life. Bill published books and articles on subjects as diverse as school counseling and chaos theory--but now retired, he's returned to music, even recording a new album of originals and traditional numbers, based on his experiences as a cab driver (another wrinkle in the Stone Saga we must hear more of someday - but for now check out). So with Bill back in action and the world slowly crawling out of a disillusioning haze, now seems like the perfect time for a first-time-ever reissue of this incredibly rare, happy-sad, gently delicate, Stone(d) classic of a downer song-cycle.

Unique composer duo Rebekka Karijord & Jon Ekstrand create compelling, hybrid score to intimate portrait of teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg `I Am Greta', the intimate Hulu documentary by Swedish director Nathan Gross-man, tells the story of teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg through compel-ling, never-before-seen-footage. Starting with her one-person school strike for cli-mate action outside the Swedish Parliament, Grossman follows Greta in her rise to prominence. The film culminates with the extraordinary wind-powered voyage across the Atlantic to speak at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York. To musically accompany Greta and the children of the Fridays for Future movement on their journey, composers Rebekka Karijord and Jon Ekstrand spent time searching for the right balance when it comes to how much emotional triggers the music should of-fer: "With the music for `I Am Greta' we aimed to find a sonic counterpoint to the friction between the shy, contemplative inner world of Greta, and the unbounded ener-gy of the natural world and climate change movement. From the start we found it useful to separate the score into three distinct voices: Greta's Voice, the voice of the natural world, and the voice of the climate change movement." "We choose to work with repetition and persistent musical patterns, often illustrated through energetic string arpeggios. This we felt helped underline the remarkable persistence and focus of Greta has on the climate issue, as well as that of the re-lentlessness of nature. Then we found a few places throughout the score, where more melodic aspects could be introduced and carry the story through its dramaturgical journey. It allowed the melodic aspects to shine through when they are introduced." "The score consists of a string octet, modular synthesisers and a voice instrument built by Rebekka of 25 unique singers sampled in their full range. Our soloist on the soundtrack is the cellist Linnea Olsson, whom has a very specific airy and organ-ic tone." "Rebekka and Jon's dynamic score to `I Am Greta' is huge and intimate, uplifting and melancholic, and manages to carry the emotional nuance of Greta's story. The score forms a musical parallel to Greta's journey and narrative voice throughout the film. It's energy, urgency and emotional depth reminds us that the time for climate action is now." - Nathan Grossman, director of `I Am Greta'