quête:avant garde

Ulrich Troyer has been producing music now solidly for over twenty years within a largely genre free framework, but whilst navigating forms such as avant-garde, techno, leftfield, field recording, electronica, glitch and ambient it is the aesthetics of dub that guide his creative direction. Not really recognisable in an orthodox form as remixed versions of roots reggae songs but in the way sonics are manipulated with space, the application and layering of delay, reverb and echo that fixes his output well within the scope of what might be called futurist dub.

The nearest comparisons to his new album TRANSIT TRIBE can only be established by a synthesis of some of the more adventurous explorations in modern music such as African Head Charge, Jon Hassell, Pole (Stefan Betke), Bill Laswell or even Miles Davis; featuring a diverse selection of artists and friends not only from Vienna and environs but also from around the world, sounds are not so much fused but allowed to float along the continuous flowing tide of warm waves of bass.

Rather than to allow the names of Ulrich Troyer's collaborators be merely listed in the album credits, what they bring to this joyful affair needs to be outlined, albeit briefly: Co-producer credits go to Osman Murat Ertel from Istanbul, who employed a variation on the old foolproof Nick Lowe method for checking out the impact quality of his own sound productions by playing tracks through his car sound system speakers!

Murat is a member of the electro-psych-folk group Baba Zula where he plays electric saz, oscillators and theremin and played a key part in the creative development of the album. Mamadou Diabate, the balafon master originally from Burkina Faso and now resident in Vienna, has developed his own unique technique of playing solos that replicate the sound of three instruments playing in unison; however the multi-talented Mamadou is engaged here on singing and playing the talking drum. From South Tyrol Reinhilde Gamper is a member of the experimental trio Greifer who are bringing the sound of the zither into the twenty-first century using new playing techniques and electronic gadgets. Susanna Gartmayer is an Austrian composer and bass clarinetist specialising in improv and multimedia sound research. Diggory Kenrick has been engaged with creating new dub fusions and also re-energising classic rocksteady and roots reggae classics, renowned for his interventions on flute. Didi Kern is an electronic dance musician and drummer from Vienna with a focus on free improvised music. Hamidou Koita, a singer and multi-instrumentalist, is from a traditional Griot family in Burkina Faso but now resident in Vienna and a regular musical partner of Mamadou Diabate playing drums and calabash. Austrian Lukas Lauermann is both a studio and live musician playing cello, also working on electronic sound design and writing string arrangements. He has recorded extensively and appeared on stage with both Mark Lanegan and Hans-Joachim Roedelius. Martin Mallaun is a Tyrol-born specialist in both the development of the zither in modern music and also as a researcher in the effects of climate change on the vegetation of Alpine ecosystems. After studying classical percussion Flip Philipp is now a jazz vibraphone player and member of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Wolfgang Pfistermüller is a member of the Vienna Trombone Quartet and the developer of the incredible bass-trombone Aurora with its uniquely warm and resonant sound. Roger Robinson is a renowned British poet, winner of many contemporary poetry prizes and member of the experimental music group King Midas Sound. Kwame Yeboah is a Ghanaian born UK based keyboard wizard who tours regularly with Yusuf / Cat Stevens, Ms. Dynamite and Pat Thomas.

So contained on the album is an astonishing mix of musicians and instruments: sounds of cowbells recorded in the South Tyrolean alps processed by modular synthesizers and heavy analogue bass synths combined with instruments such as zither, bass-zither, electro saz, flute, talking drum, trombone, cello, marimba, djembe, contra-alto clarinet, Farfisa - all bound together by organic live-drums and dub effects.

This minimal electro remix of Raga Bhairav reinvents the avant-garde essence of Charanjit Singh, enhanced by the raw pulse of the TB-303.

On this vinyl, Traumer & Anton (as Antraum), Lowris, Jakub, and Bassam push the original sound towards new horizons: breaking away from its origins, each of them shapes a unique perspective, transforming the raga's imprint into an electronic journey that is timeless and resolutely contemporary.

Artwork by Azyz Kabada

Since its founding back in 2014, Blume has carved a unique place in cultural landscape, issuing free-standing works, spanning the historical and contemporary, that represent singular gestures of creativity within the field of experimental sound. Joining their broad efforts in building networks of context and understanding that already includes the works by Werner Durand, Sarah Hennies, Bruce Nauman, John Butcher, Jocy de Oliveira, Mary Jane Leach, Valentina Magaletti, Alvin Curran, Julius Eastman, Alvin Lucier, and others, Blume return with the first ever vinyl release to attend to James Tenney’s legendary “Postal Pieces”, Marking the first ever appearance of five of the suite’s works - “Maximusic, for Max Neuhaus” (1965), “Having Never Written a Note for Percussion, for John Bergamo” (1971), “FFor Percussion Perhaps, or... Night, for Harold Budd” (1971), “Cellogram, for Joel Krosnick” (1971), and “Beast, for Buell Neidlinger” (1971) - on vinyl, drawing upon recordings made in 2003, by the Amsterdam based ensemble, The Barton Workshop, under the direction of James Fulkerson. Among the most important and highly regarded efforts in Tenney’s canon of compositions, as well as within the history of 20th Century music, these five pieces represent a crucial bridge between Fluxus-oriented conceptualism, minimalism, and the microtonal complexities that would emerge in their wakes. Issued in a highly limited vinyl edition of 300 copies, it includes exact replicas of the original postcard graphic scores, and features newly commissioned liner notes by Bradford Bailey, Blume’s brand new edition takes great steps to centring Tenney at the eye the storm during some of experimental music’s most important years.

A student of composition under Carl Ruggles, John Cage, Harry Partch, and Edgard Varèse - remaining close to all of them, and later performing in both Cage and Partch’s ensembles - as well as acoustics, information theory, and tape music composition under Lejaren Hiller, James Tenney carved a wide path within the contexts of experimental and avant-garde music during the second half of the 20th Century. Not only was he a tangible bridge between the generations of composer’s who laid much of the groundwork and the later movements of Fluxus, Minimalism, and the broader practices of experimental music, but Tenney is credited as having contributed one of the earliest applications of gestalt theory and cognitive science to music in 1961, before helping to pioneer the field of computer music at Bell Labs, during the following years.

Over the course of his career, Tenney produced music of such complexity and sophistication - paying little mind to the seductions of taste or dominant tropes of its own moment - that his work and legacy have largely remained under-recognised by the broader publics that have attended to most of his peers. Perhaps more pertinently, the body of work he produced can be perceived as too varied and complex to fit neatly within standard creative histories or critical frameworks, comprising harmonically complex works for acoustic instrumentation, musique concrète, the groundbreaking 1961 “plunderphonic” composition, “Collage No.1 (Blue Suede) (for tape)” - sampling and manipulating a recording of Elvis Presley - as well as algorithmic and computer synthesized music. Even here, within this single decade, a clear image of Tenney’s endeavours remains elusive. In addition to penning important theoretical texts, he collaborated and / or played with Max Neuhaus, La Monte Young, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Michael Snow, Terry Riley, and numerous others; was an active member of Fluxus; starred in and composed music for Stan Brackage’s films; regularly worked with the Judson Dance Theater; co-founded and played in the ensemble, Tone Roads, with Malcolm Goldstein and Philip Corner; was a vocal advocate of the works of Conlon Nancarrow and Charles Ives, playing a significant part in the revival of both of their legacies; and regularly collaborated as a composer, musician, and actor with his then-partner, the artist Carolee Schneemann, notably co-starring in her film, “Fuses” (1965) and her legendary 1964 performance, “Meat Joy”, as well as creating sound collages for her films “Viet Flakes” (1965) and “Snows” (1970). Curiously, for a relatively absent figure in the historical and critical narratives, Tenney seems to have been the thread that bound multiple generations and disciplines of avant-garde practice in New York during this period.

Tenney was deeply invested in the quality and perception of sound. By 1970, this led him back to composing exclusively for acoustic instrumentation (though sometimes processed with tape delay) - in most cases utilising non-well tempered tuning systems to explore harmonic perception - a practice that he would remain steadfast to for the remainder of his life. This development roughly corresponded with his relocation to California, at the outset of the 1970s, following an invitation to teach at the newly founded music department at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in Valencia. Finding himself in regular contact with the harpist Susan Allen and the artist Allison Knowles, as well as at a great distance from many of his friends, in 1971 he completed (with the assistance of Knowles and Marie McRoy) “The Postal Pieces”, a project he had begun in 1965.

A suite of eleven compositions, “The Postal Pieces”, stands among Tenney’s well known and celebrated compositions, and illuminates the dualities embraced by the composer, notably his use of sound to develop consciousness in and of others, and his willingness to draw on elements and observations of everyday life; citing his strong dislike of writing letters as being the primary inspiration for their inception. In lieu, he conceived to send his friends - John Bergamo, Allison Knowles, Pauline Oliveros, La Monte Young, Harold Budd, Philip Corner, Joel Krosnick, Buell Neidlinger, Susan Allen, Max Neuhaus, and Malcolm Goldstein - short scores on the back of postcards. The suite is composed around three themes: Tenney’s concept of swell form (utilizing repetition and progressing through a structurally symmetrical arch), intonation, and the desire to produce “meditative perceptual states”.

A hugely important addition to Blume’s ever expanding efforts in context building and networks of creative practice, James Tenney’s “Post Pieces” is issued in a highly limited vinyl edition of 300 copies, which includes a exact replicas of the original postcard graphic scores, and features newly commissioned liner notes by Bradford Bailey.

We’re teaming up with ELUCID and Fat Possum for a limited edition of 300 copies of a Rush Hour black ice coloured edition.

E L U C I D, one half of the illustrious duo Armand Hammer, is here with the full-length follow-up to 'I Told Bessie'. Further experiments in the sonic, expanding on the 'live' side of music paired with the embracing of chaos. Something you haven't heard, or not so for a very long time. E L U C I D is here to reveal the bleakness of reality.



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''There is never time in the future in which we will work out our salvation. The challenge is in the moment; the time is always now.''
James Baldwin

A raw, crackling urgency runs through rapper-producer ELUCID’s new album REVELATOR like an underground power line. There is no space here for sepia-toned reminiscences or indulgent self-mythologizing. Intellectual rabbit holes have been filled in with concrete and rebar ; there is nowhere to hide and no off ramp from the audio Autobahn that ELUCID has fashioned—a renegade Robert Moses with gold fronts, bulldozing the homes of the powerful and the complicit. REVELATOR brims with the energy of now, with a refusal to look away. Carpe diem in a murder one mask.

Born in Jamaica, Queens, ELUCID has been on the cutting edge of New York’s underground scene since the mid-2000s. From the beginning, he has defied both convention and expectation. He ran with Okayplayer darlings Tanya Morgan, but his own music eschewed their throwback charm for glitchy noise experiments and bass-swamped culture jamming. His 2016 debut studio project Save Yourself (re-released in a deluxe edition last year) announced him in earnest. But in recent years, his Armand Hammer releases with partner-in-crime billy woods have received significant attention and acclaim. Serving as a followup to his last solo album—2022’s comparatively balmy I Told Bessie—ELUCID hoped to “re-distinguish” himself with REVELATOR, setting himself apart amidst the increasing attention around the music he and his friends are making together.

For ELUCID, this meant setting bold new challenges for himself. One of these was diving further into live instrumentation than ever before—”getting my Quincy Jones on,” as he puts it. The testing ground for this approach was Armand Hammer’s most recent project, 2023’s We Buy Diabetic Test Strips’ Möbius strip soundscapes, warmed with instrumental flourishes and skin-shedding beat progressions. With REVELATOR, though, ELUCID strove to create an atmosphere of chaos, embracing experimental electronics and atonal sample bursts. He worked on much of the album with co-producer Jon Nellen, who comes from a background in avant-garde and Indian classical music. “I wanted to get as freaky as I could at this moment. I wanted people to hear things, maybe for the first time, or in a way they haven’t for a long while,” the rapper explains.

ELUCID arrived at the studio with a collection of noise sources: non-referential samples, glitches and noises. Together he, Nellen, and others created forms out of them and, as ELUCID recalls, “just started playing drums with it.” Their fried, distorted sound was directly inspired by Miles Davis at his most uncompromising—specifically, the tone-clustering funk track “Rated X” from his 1974 double LP Get Up With It. At times, the pairing of rap with avant-fusion sounds also brings Emergency! from The Tony Williams Lifetime to mind, perhaps in an alternate timeline where the late drummer was listening to Ice Cube’s AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted.

“The World is Dog,” REVELATOR’s lead single, functions as the album’s aesthetic thesis statement. Like the Davis track, the textures are punishing, the tonality is in free-fall, and the driving breakbeat of a groove cuts in and out unceremoniously. Avant-jazz bassist Luke Stewart, who appears throughout the record, holds the whole thing together just long enough for ELUCID to tightwalk over the beat. This tension is exactly where REVELATOR sets itself apart; in a time of drumless loops, and safe soul samples, this is a high-wire act with no safety net. Similarly, the song announces the themes of the album within just a few phrases, evoking the way societies accept and adjust to new levels of debasement and brutality while suffocating under the weight of history: “Can’t clock the kill, all a mystery/Forced past will eating everyone eventually/The world is dog.”

Many of the songs on REVELATOR grapple obliquely with dissolution and disenfranchisement in America and across the world—the grim realities of our domestic sociopolitical climate and our involvement in foreign conflicts. “Much of my artistic and political sensibility comes from the Black arts movement here in New York,” ELUCID explains. “Recognizing the interconnected global struggles against oppression, artists and thinkers created works and actions in solidarity with freedom movements in South Africa and Palestine.” ELUCID cites intellectuals like Amiri Baraka, Kwame Nkrumah, Audre Lorde, Sonia Sanchez, and Nikki Giovanni among his heroes. (One track on the album is specifically inspired by Lorde’s work, “SKP,” citing the scholar’s paper “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic As Power.”) Songs like REVELATOR’s insistent closer “ZIGZAGZIG,” find ELUCID applying up-to-the-minute messaging, making explicit reference to the conflict in Gaza: “Feed a war machine…from river to sea, in lieu of peace.”

Despite ELUCID’s preference for cacophonous system overload here, the rapper also provides moments of respite. Recorded at The Alchemist’s Los Angeles studio, the laid-back, wheezing “INSTANT TRANSFER” is a collaboration with billy woods, which crystallizes their shared sense of creative determination. “With much momentum behind us and even more on the horizon, I knew a purpose, and that every step was ordered to that purpose,” ELUCID said of the experience. Meanwhile, the jittery “HUSHPUPPIES” is a playful anomaly on the track list, providing a snapshot of ELUCID watching his grandparents in the kitchen while preparing for Friday night fish fry dinners.

“Love still rules over on this side,” ELUCID says. ”I’m raising a family. We are making meaning and finding joy in the midst of all the fucked up-ness of everything around us because the alternative is cowardice and slow death. We remain rooted. We celebrate our people and our wins. Struggle is necessary.”

“IKEBANA” is one of ELUCID’s strongest statements of purpose on the record, blending the record’s heaviest themes with its most hopeful sentiments. supported by a shoutalong refrain and an urgent prog-funk groove. Breaking away from images of dissolution and crumbling societal systems that populate REVELATOR, ELUCID notes that the only way to navigate life’s bleakest landscapes is to cling to love and believe in those around you—to look forward toward something better that may or may not be possible. For the rapper, one of the album’s most trenchant lines comes during a centerpiece of a beat drop: “Being alive/I must look up.”

“The lyric ‘being alive I must look up’ is important especially in the context of this album. Much of the album imagery is harsh and reflects the actual doom some of us experience. But still I/we exist,” ELUCID explains.

Every artist is, in one way or another, the product of their time, bound by life’s leaden gravity to operate within the space of that which is already known. But there are some who are able to shake free of these ties, to shape the culture as it unfolds, to make the present their own.
Revelation, as a concept, points to the scales falling from people’s eyes—something that has been hiding in plain sight becoming clear. “The revelator relates to things that have been talked about, things that have been forecasted,” ELUCID adds. “And now they’re really here, and everyone sees it. And there’s no escaping.” REVELATOR plays out with the unmitigated power of those storms, laying waste to any genre conventions in pursuit of a certain physicality. Here, ELUCID develops a wholly distinctive musical language to explore our fractured modernity.

REVELATOR's packaging was designed by longtime Armand Hammer / Backwoodz art director, Alexander Richter.

ROD MODELL : MUSIC FOR BUS STATIONS

MUSIC FOR BUS STATIONS is an astonishing work that pours into the soul of those allowing themselves to be transported in a dimension where sound turns into background noise. Sound becomes part of us, of our movements, our thoughts, our looks and our silences. There is no reason for resistance. Let's be silent. The noise around us is quite good.

"Generative sonic backdrop for bus stations. Designed to enhance space and portray a mod of progressiveness, grandeur, and ethereal calm. A slowly shifting static backdrop designed to enhance modern architecture, rather than compete with it. Sounding as if the structure itself was resonanting. Hovering sound-fields that utilizes sonic phenomena proven to induce states of calm. Can be presented as a multichannel, polyrhythmic installation with different components of the composition emanating form different areas within the structure, and elements constantly shifting in relationship to other elements, creating an organic sonic-tapestry that never repeats the same way. In essence, the soundscape becoming a living organism with unpredictable behavior. Inspired by avant-garde bus station designs such as Domitianus Arquitectura's station in Rio Maior, Portugal; Bluck & Morgen's Busbahnhof Poppenbuttel in Hamburg, Germany; and Metaraum Architect's bus station in Pzorzheim, Germany."
Rod Modell, January 2024

ROD MODELL (Deepchord): MUSIC FOR BUS STATIONS BS (Part 2/2)

MUSIC FOR BUS STATIONS is an astonishing work that pours into the soul of those allowing themselves to be transported in a dimension where sound turns into background noise. Sound becomes part of us, of our movements, our thoughts, our looks and our silences. There is no reason for resistance. Let's be silent. The noise around us is quite good.

"Generative sonic backdrop for bus stations. Designed to enhance space and portray a mod of progressiveness, grandeur, and ethereal calm. A slowly shifting static backdrop designed to enhance modern architecture, rather than compete with it. Sounding as if the structure itself was resonanting. Hovering sound-fields that utilizes sonic phenomena proven to induce states of calm. Can be presented as a multichannel, polyrhythmic installation with different components of the composition emanating form different areas within the structure, and elements constantly shifting in relationship to other elements, creating an organic sonic-tapestry that never repeats the same way. In essence, the soundscape becoming a living organism with unpredictable behavior. Inspired by avant-garde bus station designs such as Domitianus Arquitectura's station in Rio Maior, Portugal; Bluck & Morgen's Busbahnhof Poppenbuttel in Hamburg, Germany; and Metaraum Architect's bus station in Pzorzheim, Germany."
Rod Modell, January 2024

Throughout their lifetime and a handful of releases, the trio have carefully fostered and perfected a style of music that is technical and beautiful but doesn’t shy away from any avant-garde, noisy, or punishing moments.
While you’re able to discern sounds brought from noise rock of the 80s and 90s, post-hardcore of the 90s and early aughts, as well as multiple waves of emo and screamo, Abandoncy’s affinity for abstract structure, strange time, and dramatic pause gives them a style all their own.
At its end it is breathtaking, addictive, and harrowing to experience.
On their third full-length, Assailable Agonism, you find the band pushing even further. All six songs boil over with masterful instrumentation and crushing composition.
Clocking in at just under 19 minutes, it feels like a brief but brutal haunting of all of your personal spaces.
Paranoid, blistering, and all-consuming, coated with the grime of drying riverbeds and dust storms. Through its juxtaposition of melodic and noisy elements, it has a presence that will draw in fans of all different styles of music.
"Assailable Agonism" is released by Vina Records (Italy), The Ghost Is Clear (USA), Learning Curve (USA).

2024 Repress

Berlin techno talent Regent is next up on Mutual Rytm as he returns with a compelling new five-track 12" titled 'Coral Knife', plus a digital bonus cut.

Regent emerged only in 2020, but has fired out quality tunes on Planet Rhythm Records, Arts Collective and Warg Records since then. His already extensive catalogue of standout releases combines tough and rapid grooves with cerebral qualities and a real depth of writing and sound design, resulting in timeless yet avant-garde material optimised for the dance floor. For that reason, he is one of the new forces emerging from the German capital and why his next EP, 'Coral Knife', sees him find a perfect home on SHDW's Mutual Rytm imprint as he returns with his first 12" on the label following his appearance on the 'Federation Of Rhythm II' compilation earlier this year.

The tight and funky 'Brickyard' opens with a high-speed groove and a taught synth riff darting about the mix to seductive effect, before 'Driftage' gets more raw with rickety percussion over bulky drums. The synths are dubby and liquid as they get smeared about the mix to bring dynamism to the groove. There is then darkness and heaviness to 'Nocta' with weighty kicks and alluring vocal sounds drifting through the late-night airwaves.
Title track 'Coral Knife' cannot fail to sweep dancers off their feet with its fizzing synths and smooth drum loops overlaid with icy hi-hats that get you into a meditative state, while 'Encoder' layers up bleeps and squeaks over a signature linear groove that is detailed with muffled vocals and distant cosmic stars.

As always with Mutual Rytm, the package rounded out with an impressive digital bonus in the form of 'Multiversa' - a driving and thunderous techno cut that closes the show emphatically.

Ten years after his first full-length effort ‘Man Is Deaf’ landed him firmly in the runnings for DJ Mag’s album of the year, prodigal son Michael Anthony Wright AKA Brassica returns to Civil Music with a deeply accomplished, painstakingly whittled LP of hydraulic electro slickness, rich synthscapes, and hooky, peak-time tearjerkers for the most discerning front-left lifers. ‘Tribeless Gathering’ is a barnstorming testament to Brassica’s stylistic and timbral deftness, touching down in the elusive epicentre of the club/home listening venn diagram with ease.

From the elastic, neon acid pointillism of opener ‘Hop Kweng’ to the mardy, miasmic plod of closing chugger ‘Changa Hill’, Brassica seamlessly segues between avenues of influence, his notoriously omnivorous musical knowledge roadmapping each turn. Raised on a diet of everything from early rave standards to metal, and schooled in avant garde sonics as a student of sound design at LCC, Brassica does a peerless job of sublimating his countless influences into a record of refined, heterogeneous, and most crucially, catchy, club moods.

Less spartan than his more recent oeuvre on Feel My Bicep, and less baroque than his technicolour experiments in postmodern synth pop with vocalist Stuart Warwick, Tribeless Gathering represents Brassica’s triumphant return to the main room, replete with rushy hooks primed for the planet’s finest soundsystems, and passages of heads-down tension bound to draw listeners right to the edge of their seats. Overall it is a concise and refined testament to Wright’s command of spectral sonics and effortless ability to pressurise a dancefloor. It is no surprise that he has also worked as a prolific mastering engineer, tuning music from a plethora of dance disciplines for maximum club impact. This work extends to his own projects (including this one), cementing them as rare expressions of complete artistry from studio to turntable.

As we delve deeper into the record, we are ushered through a series of accomplished and varied club moods, each channelling a unique cocktail of influences, but retaining a warm, ebullient analogue sensibility unique to Brassica’s work. This playful scope of influence calls to mind James T Cotton or Machinedrum’s experiments in dance music form, but Wright manages it all under one roof, wrangling everything from sashaying wub-laden two step to snarling Dillinja-esque FM damage into something inherently his.

Choice cut ‘Change Yourself’ layers an almost Cerrone-like piano refrain over radiant surges of saturated bass, dubby, strobing chords and a jagged, driving break, building to a jaw-clenching apex of dancefloor elation, while the rude, playful half-step of ‘Elevation’ breaks down the vintage speed garage formula into linear fragments, utilising a tight palette of resonant bass slugs, infectious synth leads and Papua New Guinea-style vocal strobes. The aptly named ‘Hold Tight’ fuses heart-in-mouth UK ‘ardkore pads with glissando acid disturbance and surgical snare fills in a formula which recalls the ethereal grit of Nubian Mindz’ 00s experiments in big-smoke break science, while the questing melodic arcs and arpeggiated squarewaves of ‘Pinball Marinara’ could easily have soundtracked an 80s sci-fi epic, beset with sparkling, bare-bones drum programming and hazy beds of sub sediment.

With ‘Tribeless Gathering’, Brassica both irreverently fuses and pays homage to the many unique and weird permutations of UK dance music. The short lived gathering of junglists, ravers and house hotsteppas of a similar name may have long since dissipated, along with the tribes themselves, but across these 11 tracks, he lays a blueprint for a new sound of togetherness.

Having plied his trade around the world for more than three decades, German guitarist, bandleader and musical explorer Jan Whitefield has always instilled in his craft a natural aesthetic of authenticity, a key component which has seen him amass a sizeable and varied catalogue of material which has remained timeless where some of his contemporaries have faded away.

In the early 90s, as various UK bands were signed up by sizeable labels and enjoyed even mainstream chart success in the Acid Jazz and rare groove boom, Jan and his brother Max formed the Poets Of Rhythm, self-releasing their own uncompromisingly hard-edged take on 70s street funk on the then completely unfashionable 7" single format, forerunning the Deep Funk scene by almost a decade. 30 years on, in spite of a legion of retro-focused bands having followed in their wake, few have yet to come close to matching the energy and spirit of those early Poets 45s.

Since then, Jan has applied himself to all manner of new incarnations and innovative side-projects, releasing further funk surveys as the Whitefield Brothers before leading his own band under the pseudonym Karl Hector, with releases on labels such as Stones Throw, Daptone, Ninja Tune, Mo'Wax, Strut and more. An avid music lover, explorer and record collector extraordinaire, Whitefield's music has effortlessly absorbed his expanding interests along the way, particularly drawing influence from Ethiopian Jazz and West African funk and highlife, as well as Kraut-rock and ambient via his Rodinia alter-ego.

More recently, Whitefield has begun to venture into the astral planes of what's now commonly referred to as 'spiritual jazz', and this is very much where we find him manifesting on 'The Infinity Of Nothingness'. A set of mature, delicate and meditative orchestrations, like much of Whitefield's best work the album is studiously true to its key influences - and in this instance the twin figureheads of Sun Ra and Pharoah Sanders are particularly preeminent - but also completely avoids falling into a trap of mere tribute or facsimile. With subtle yet diverse accents of Hip Hop, Library and the Avant Garde appearing wholly unobtrusively, the album is unified by a marked trance-like feel, beginning with the sparse, processional opener 'Nothingness' through to the 3 part 'Infinity Suite' of 'Time', 'Space' and 'Energy'.

As he did as a schoolboy with the Poets of Rhythm, with 'The Infinity Of Nothingness' Whitefield achieves that exceptionally rare feat of creating music that is not only worthy of sitting alongside that of his overarching influences, but will also stand up with it against the tests of time.

To be released on Ransom Note Records and marking the debut album of Wave Arising project , "(The) Rooted Sky" is an invitation to an initiatory journey where intuitions are channeled into grooves and otherworldly sonic landscapes . A sound where intense rhythms meet circular expansions .

From various improvisations, the experienced & avant-garde musician Sebastian Vaughan decided to take a fresh look and avoid the use of sampling third parties by crafting compositions. An approach to music as a spiritual path driven all the way long by psychedelic dubby vibes , acidic frequencies & hypnotic repetitions coming from his sound-system culture heritage .

While the tracks "It Comes and Goes" , "Ronde Cinétique" , "Electric Shrine" and "Golden Black" draw contemporary almost cinematic ambiences with vibrant and spacious feelings , "Monin Yiri" , "Sound Loves Dance" & "Grow with the Flow" represent a series of energetic deconstructed leftfields , with the omnipresence of a singular tribalism that emphases the african side of Wave Arising .

On its own "Music without chains" is , as the title underlines , a joyful jam free from any boxes or attempts at confinement .

Finally "Subconscience" arrives like a probe , a dreamlike piece full of endless reverbs from Kynsie's voice ; generating mysterious environments and resonating directly with "Soul Whispers" .

Taking on the challenge of fusion , "(The) Rooted Sky" asks the listener to open up through a collection of progressive tracks reflecting the core of Wave Arising’s spirit : Music & Body as a portal . Through this consciously chosen wide range of dynamics , the producer shows his musical ability to create an unique sonic palette yet staying true to his own personality .

Regarding the cover, the outside is a minimalist yet symbolic photograph of the duo’s hands. As for the interior, Wave Arising is very grateful to welcome primitive artworks by the talented artist Rapoon , one of the founder members of the legendary group Zoviet*France . Continuing with this global vision of intertwined arts, the videos accompanying this record are created by Wave Arising .

Ultimately , the recurrent animistic vibes of "(The) Rooted Sky" give to the album a spiritual ethos directly driven by the book of Nature reminding us that, we are all connected to the Source .

Whatever the "Source" means for each one . . .

Coming from a diverse background of equal amounts hip hop and rock, the producer behind the alias of nrl:ndr got into dance music late in his musical career. After playing in kraut-oriented bands like So Many Mammals, parts of that group reformed into the live techno outfit Tren Né, with the goal of fusing techno elements with live drums. Playing for illegal raves with a punk-like energy, nrl:ndr has cemented his relationship with his machines in service of the dance floor.

But his solo debut on blundar is quite far removed from that scene. To understand this music, one should be aware of the conditions under which it was manufactured. Reluctant to consider himself an artist in the traditional sense, nrl:ndr makes his music free of anticipation and without apparent goals. To glean into this outré musical space is like putting one's ear to the boarded up windows of the photograph that adorn the front sleeve.

The album makes extensive use of the Roland JV-2080, a sample-based synth rack from 1996 with a distinctly clean sound. Our producer dives deep into the expansion cards (labeled after genres like “Hip Hop” and “World”) for curious and sometimes cheesy samples. But he also forces the JV-2080 to do things which are not its forte, like the arduous task of programming decent kick drums.

Another technique that is testament to his experimental view on music making, is the idea of using sketches of unfinished tracks with different time signatures, and mash them together into something new - of which the results of one of these experiments can be heard on the closing track and its bilingual conversation between ambient and tribal.

Full of stunted rhythms and eerie melodies, the unclassifiable nature of the music of nrl:ndr lies somewhere in the vicinity of IDM, classical avant garde and private press synth. From the epic opening track - echoing the post-kraut drumming style of Michael Shrieve - to juggling with chopped up vocal samples and treading into almost trap-like territories on A4, he crosses into a multitude of genres without getting his hands too dirty with nostalgia.

Hailing from Kaliningrad x Berlin, new vinyl only label Garderobe, heralded by Malish, launches the first EP release. Limited to 250x copies

Keeping things edgy, deep, and minimal this 3 track release from Bilalov colors darker shades of house and techno for dancers and party people who are seemingly never ready to go home.

Also included in this release is a remix from prolific minimalist dj and producer Alci who delivers a superb remix that keeps the groove within respectable norms of avant-garde minimal for the audiophiles and chin strokers alike.

A genuine gem for any dj’s record bag or crate diggers collection. Honest, pure, and full of integrity this first release sets the tone for things to come and is sure to hit all the right spots during different hours of the party!

Monty Luke release ‘Nightdubbing’ LP on Rekids.The Black Catalogue bosses' second album explores dub-infused dance music and, following the recent two EP drops on Rekids, will be released on Radio Slave’s imprint on 29 March. Succeeding part two of Monty Luke’s ‘Nightdubbing’ series on Rekids, the US-via-Berlin artist unveils an album of the same name on Radio Slave’s lauded Rekids imprint. ‘Nightdubbing’ encompasses the first two instalments and adds five more tracks of intricate sonic material, completing this gorgeous work of art already supported by Fred P, nd_baumecker, Louise Chen, and Laurent Garnier. Luke’s ‘Nightdubbing’ album starts in the club, with the rave-primed ‘40 Acres And A Terabyte’ utilising the rich melodies of deep house alongside the crushing weight of subs. It is followed by the title track, with ‘Nightdubbing’ taking a more traditional house route, its soothing sounds enveloping the listener while honing in on that reverb sweet spot. Black Catalogue boss and former Planet-E label manager Monty Luke’s timeless ‘Nightdubbing’ effortlessly traverses deep house and techno rife with bass-rattling low-end and experimental rhythms. It is no surprise, then, that the album is heavily inspired by ‘70s and mid-80s dub reggae, seeing Luke incorporate and modernise the genre’s iconic rhythms, spoken word poetry, and spacious bursts of harmony across the LP. ‘Bob Molly’ picks up pace with nods to Caribbean dem bow-like rhythms of old, Monty Luke filling the space between its infectious beat with tumbling percussion and echoing plucks. Tracks like ‘Supernova’, ‘New World / Old Future’ and ‘Starstorms’ return to the modern-day traditions of club music while ‘Future Mystic’ and ‘Avant Garde Dance Hall ‘, again find room in between the dancefloor and sound system listening sessions. Monty Luke spent ten formative years in Detroit, where the city's unique musical spirit influenced him immensely. He has since distilled this experience into the music he has released on labels like Rekids, Planet-E, Hypercolour, and his own Black Catalogue. His raw, dub-infused sound comes with plenty of futuristic designs, and this final complete iteration of ‘Nightdubbing’ continues to push the boundaries of his music.

Orlando Voorn, the famed Dutch DJ/producer that embraced the Detroit electronic sound from the early nineties, has graced us with three OG sounding tracks that we are proud to offer! As a tribute of respect and thanks to Mr. Voorn, we aptly titled this EP - Legendary (limited run 300 copies, special thanks to Small Black Dots, Analogcut, and R.A.N.D. Muzik).

This release has a mood for any part of the night.

Whassup! is an upbeat banger, somewhat reminiscent of a ghetto tech track, with its repetitive morphed vocal; Inner Self is a foray into the deeper side of dance music - both quite dancefloor friendly. Sparkles is a beautiful techno ambient dreamland, perfect for an intro or a reset.This EP is rounded out by a sick avant garde remix of Inner Self by Abstracta Audio's co-founder, Loner.9 of Detroit Techno Militia.

Nous'klaer Audio and Sound & Vision's RE:VIVE initiative have teamed up for the third and final LP in their film scoring trilogy. Capping off with a soundtrack made for a progressive, angular take on a color-soaked, geometric educational archival film. Combined with a soundtrack for a film that is a personal intensifier to the city of Rotterdam, which is the home of Nous'klaer Audio. The collaboration invites two musicians to compose for these archival films from the collection of Sound & Vision, the national media archive of the Netherlands. This final instalment features through and through Rotterdammer, Kems Kriol and the Amsterdam based Turkish composer, pianist and DJ Loradeniz. Kems Kriol accompanies the amateur documentary collage film "Rotterdam in de Jaren 90", a dark period of strife, economic and social crisis for the now booming metropolis, with the compassion and empathy of someone who experienced those years first-hand but with enough time removed to reflect with heart. Loradeniz angularly and precisely moves her way through the delicate film "Tegenlicht", a surprisingly colorful and fluid educational film about painting, a bold juxtaposition that propels the film into the 2020s. Extended info: Side A, Tegenlicht (English: back lit) is a 1969 education film by Ton Gramsbergen. The short meditative film, follows stained glass artist Leo Hofman through his entire workflow to create beautifully abstract stained glass window panes. Loradeniz?angularly and precisely moves her way through the delicate Tegenlicht creating a bold juxtaposition that propels the film into the 2020s. Employing processed vocal work, deep dry kicks, and jarring percussion-- reminiscent of scratching glass-- Loradeniz's haunting modernization suits the cinema and the club equally, a testament to the rising composer's fluid versatility and creative prowess as a musical pantomath. Side B, Rotterdam in de Jaren 90 directly contrasts the zoomed in artistry of Tegenlicht. The amateur documentary Super 8 footage captures Rotterdam in one of its most tumultuous times from police brutality, poverty, drugs, violence, racism and the city's ongoing architectural modernization. Kems Kriol, who lived in Rotterdam during this time period, brings a deeply emotional weight to the Ed Millecam amateur documentation, as an artist with the compassion and empathy of who experienced those years first-hand but with enough time removed to reflect with heart. Kems Kriol's influences from modern and avant garde composers, jazz, acid bass lines and field recording Kems Kriol made at different locations featured in the film equate to a musical collage wholly comparable to the city's diverse population. The prior installments in this series featured Nous'klaer Audio staples, Ranie Ribeiro, Mattheis, Thessa Torsing (upsamy) and Tammo Hesselink.

Reverse board tip on with silver pantone print. The first ever reissue of Dorothy Carter's 1978 folk/psych/drone masterpiece. A truly unique album in Dorothy's catalog of otherwise traditional psaltery folk music, Waillee Waillee's essence sits in the confluence of Dorothy's mastery of the dulcimer; its shimmering notes fully enmeshed with the tremulous, cavernous drones of Bob Rutman's bowed steel cello. The core of this album, Dorothy's only with a full band, lies in the contradiction of traditional psych-folk idioms and the minimal avant-garde, referencing Henry Flynt and Laraaji as much as Karen Dalton. This LP version includes 12 page booklet with unpublished manuscripts, drawings, photographs, and songbooks of the songs from the album, as well as extended liner notes from friends and family of Dorothy Carter, including notable musicians such as Laraaji, Bob Rutman, and Alexander Hacke (of Einstürzende Neubauten). Drops soon - a joint release between Palto Flats & Putojefe Records.

Dorothy Carter was many things - a virtuoso player, storyteller, historian of Celtic and Appalachian folk music, avid lifelong busker, avant-garde musician, and itinerant troubadour, laying a framework for music that existed both within and outside of standard folk idioms - never better represented than on her 1978 masterwork, Waillee Waillee. Underscored by Bob Rutman’s cavernous bowing of the steel cello, the richness of Waillee Waillee’s sound produces an album unlike any other in her discography. In particular, its two side-ending pieces, “Summer Rhapsody” and “Tree of Life,’’ glide with the shimmering filigree of hammered dulcimer and Dorothy Carter’s ephemeral voice floating over Rutman’s droning buzz of the steel cello. The elements of these two tracks suggest something akin to a transcendental Appalachian raga or whirling cosmic folk music, an effortless combination that serves to add additional substance to the remaining tracks on the album.

The title track is one of her most enduring compositions, often performed in stripped down versions throughout her career, and one of her sole recordings featuring a full band, with the contrapuntal interplay of tremulous flute, vibrating steel cello, bass and drums. Lyrically and tonally, her voice would never sound as stirring and refi ned as on this, her most outwardly accessible song.

She counted musical colleagues as diverse as Constance Demby, Einstürzende Neubauten and Laraaji, as well as her lifelong artistic partner and friend Bob Rutman, whose imprint is felt throughout the grooves of this record. The master tapes for this recording were fortuitously discovered in Rutman’s Berlin studio, many, many years later. As recounted in Laraaji’s contribution to the liner notes, Dorothy was “someone who really influenced my early zither exploration and vocabulary and inspired my shift toward hammered zither performance and recording,” after encountering him busking on the sidewalk one day in the 1970s. Later, when living in Berlin in the early 1990s, Dorothy would begin work on manuscripts detailing the history of the dulcimer family and providing extensive sheet music, selected material of which is reproduced in the twelve page booklet included with this release. Dorothy would find later success touring and performing in the late 90s with the ensemble Mediæval Bæbes, which she led with British musician Katherine Blake, playing a prominent role on their first four albums.

Korean artist and musician Jin Won Lee (이진원), otherwise known as Gazaebal, began his career in New York. Working as a sound engineer, alongside such illustrious artists as the Wu-Tang Clan and Janet Jackson, led him to develop a keen ear for dexterous audio design, melodic flair and catchy rhythm. But his true interest lay in uncovering the unique textures and synthetic qualities of electronic music. From the late 1990s to the early 2000s, Gazaebal focused on developing himself as a producer, synergising a uniquely potent take on club music, releasing three albums and appearing on numerous collaborations.

An established figure in the realm of contemporary art, Jin Won Lee is well-known for his hybrid, highly technological practice. In 2008, together with Jang Jaeho, he formed The Tacit Group, a collective for computer-coded art. Presenting works that manipulate audio and visuals in real-time through programming, the group has performed at the FAMS Choice selection, Lincoln Center in New York, at the Seoul branch of the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, among many others. As a solo practitioner, he initiated in 2023, a project that examines sound as abstracted vibration. brings together Jin Won Lee’s decades long investigations into sonic experimentation and the physicality of noise.

Outside the avant-garde, Gazaebal has enjoyed mainstream success, collaborating with Big Hit Productions founder and BTS songwriter Mr. "Hitman" Bang on remixes and arrangements for K-POP albums. They also formed the two-man group Banana Girl, with Gazaebal focusing on composition while Bang handled vocals, achieving a big hit with their 2000s track ‘Butt.’

Another crucial figure in Gazaebal’s life is his wife Nine who operates as his agent and business partner. Initially released in 1999 on Nine’s independent imprint dmstrax, the titular track ‘Talk’ first appeared on techno@kr, a compilation CD of Korean electronica. Together, they co-founded G Records, which was partly absorbed into Bighit Entertainment in 2005. Appearing as the inaugural record on Bighit, the original version of 'And So On' – featuring Bang’s vocal production – was not available for re-release due to licensing difficulties. But thankfully the multitrack was well preserved. Utilising these components, Nawon Ha (AKA Korean-but-Amsterdam-based artist Naone) re-imagines the song for Betonska Records.

A combination of un- and self-released material, Talk is an album that firmly belongs to the millennium while sounding utterly outside of space and time. A cosmic trance trip that draws on rock’s steely drive, wiggy acid basslines and warbling dub, the record is presented as a mix-friendly mini-album, with the 6 tracks ideally tailored to DJ-level quality and loudness. As much suited to the psychedelic rave scene of yesteryear as they are to present-day dancefloors, Gazaebal’s productions are defined by his idiosyncrasies. Melding the sheen of tight production and pop sensibilities with a flagrant DIY spirit, his music assuages the high-commercialism of the 2000s, resulting in a style that’s as definitely punchy as it is precise

After five years from "Cash On The Line" Admiral returns with some hot served distillate of his sweet psychedelic bliss. Admiral takes us on an acid soaked journey through the many realms of consciousness offering a unique and alluring soundscape that defies traditional boundaries."Do You Want To Sit On The Green" sounds like library music coming from a parallel universe where the familiar and the surreal seamlessly blend to create a musical tapestry that is both nostalgic and avant-garde.

Following the successful release of their inaugural collaboration, "Die Zeit," esteemed artists Timo Maas and Marc Romboy now present their second installment in their creative series. This latest offering delves into the realm of "Der Rhythmus," exploring the intricate nature of rhythm, as expounded upon by the introspective musings of vocalist Fadila.

The original composition emerges as a contemporary electro opus, meticulously crafted to infuse an exhilarating energy into moments calling for broken beats. With its innovative sonic palette, "Der Rhythmus" serves as a dynamic auditory experience, promising to captivate listeners seeking an electrifying sonic journey.

In addition to the original, the release features a transformative reimagining by none other than Dense & Pika. Their remix propels the track into a futuristic soundscape that seems to beckon from the year 2030. Immerse yourself in a riveting odyssey that transports you to a science-fiction world, where visionary sounds harmoniously merge with avant-garde techno rhythms. Dense & Pika's rendition embodies forward-thinking musical craftsmanship, inviting enthusiasts to explore new dimensions of electronic music.

"Der Rhythmus" emerges as a testament to the boundless creativity and collaborative prowess of Timo Maas, Marc Romboy, and Fadila, as well as the innovative remix artistry of Dense & Pika. This release is poised to leave an indelible mark on the ever-evolving landscape of electronic music.

Following up last year’s Acrobatic Thoughts album, Panoram delves even deeper into his own musical universe with Keep Looking Where The Light Comes From. We find the producer in confident form, exploring the fuzzy fringes of beauty and chaos. The result is an album that sounds even more like himself and yet surprising at each turn.


Opening track Feathers sounds like only Panoram can, buzzy arpeggiated distortion takes flight somewhere in the direction of a distant multiverse where Animal Collective and Boards of Canada soundtracked Koyaanisqatsi. But the psychedelic drift is all Panoram’s own, conjuring a stark sense of the uncanny with the repeated phrases. The digital guitar and vocal loops of I Can Only Repeat Your Love are practically on the brink of collapsing in on themselves, to the point where the structure begins to shift like a collapsing monument. Flat Stones nods towards ASMR, as flute and woodwind tones caress the ears and a whispered voice teases out an altered state.


It’s this dreamlike mood that pervades the whole album, a maximal effect that’s wrung from minimalist compositions. The Wide House picks up the baton from Laurie Anderson to trip gently through different states of awareness, while the piano patterns of Blank Sheep float through the synth ambience like ideas entering an empty dream. There Is A Hole Here is another mutant loop that unravels as it proceeds - the rhythms turn into a pulse, and despite what the lyrics say, it does indeed mess around with your brain.


Panoram balances dance tropes, classical composition, ambient drones and a washed out, fuzzy twist on avant garde pop, and manages to transform it all into a uniform whole that fits all those puzzle pieces together. Yet such is the assuredness of Panoram’s production that it sounds effortless. At this point, the music is more like a midwife, manifesting your future self‘s enlightened consciousness with surreal effect.

Mr Beatnick & Richard Greenan present their debut full length collaboration, "??????". Brought together by their twin residencies on NTS Radio, the duo have forged distinct paths in respective scenes over the last decade - as producers, DJs and label heads of imprints Mythstery and Kit Records.

The strength of their partnership is built on contrasting styles; Mr Beatnick's sound orbits the woozier fringes of house and hip-hop, while Richard Greenan has settled in the cracks between ambient, textural experimentation and the avant-garde. Here, these approaches coalesce in unexpected ways - with violin, harp, guitar and saxophone finding themselves serrated by volleys of percussion and punchily melodic bass.

With much of the music recorded during the pair's residency in Margate, the album documents a weekend toasted and skewed progressively sideways. The opening salvo of cascading synth muscle ("Goodnight Mush") and fragmented acoustic stepper ("Superb Crafty Gardens") could evoke Devo and Pete Rock breaking fried toast over a dirty fry up. Side A's pop sensibilities peak on the lucidly string-laden "Harbour Arms", complete with pristine guest vocal by bb sway.

Then, like the work of a pair of pissed beavers, things start to get pretty weird. Familiar structures ferment laterally, from the midi swamp-hop of "Bellows of the Earth", to the cooked techno-funk stylings of "Bronze Pears". "How to Draw Roger" offers a magma-like credits roll, the sun's purple yolk poached over a hoppy sea of amber.

Following on from the recent Elegiac release - a meeting of two mavericks Blurt's Ted Milton and Wire's Graham Lewis we have teamed up with Blurt for a double sided 45 featuring two new tracks "Cry" & "I'll Be There Now".

Milton is a poet, with several volumes under his belt, as well as an avant-garde puppeteer. Yet he's probably best known as vocalist/saxophonist with psycho-funk afro punk fake no-wave pogo jazz trio Blurt. Milton's group has produced an impressive string of albums, not to mention his numerous solo recordings. Brimming with the pogo punk energy the band are known for, the lead side "Cry" is a mesh of raw drums and piercing sax slowing down on the flip side to a head nodding pace with Milton's echoing refrains backed by the raw bounce of the band.

Multi Culti return with an expansive 8-track mini-LP showcase timed for summer solstice celebrations.

The a-side kicks off with the musically-gifted Mytron’s genre-defining title ‘Shisha House’, Italian Ayala teams up with Abrao on ‘Magia,’ Jamie Paton slices up the low-slung, serpentine ‘Sub Ritual,’ and Xanga & Zebulon deliver a literal love letter to the ‘Coca Leaf’.

B-side action begins with Ecuadorian newcomer Kunturi, whose ‘Eclosión’ portends a new wave of Nicola Cruz inspired, folkloric techno, Italian duo Future Island (Oltrefuturo teamed up with treasure island) rock an impressive slow-mo trance dub on ‘Wide Music II,’ Aiku debut out of Germany’s Harz mountains with ‘Fried Acid,’ while Argentine wizard Balam finishes the journey off with the incense and sitar laden ‘Caravana.’

While they may dabble in orientalist tropes, these are not mere Tulum-chasers out for shamanic DJ duty. This is avant-garde folk-Tronica that tows the limbo line and once again asserts cult supremacy in the great Psychonautical odyssey.

Intergenerational trio Dry Speed is one of the best-kept secrets of the Belgian free jazz and improvisation scene. Formed in the early 2000’s, trumpet player Joachim Devillé and saxophonist Thomas Olbrechts were in their twenties at that time, while drummer – their teacher at the art school in Brussels - Dirk Wauters was already in his fifties. Logically, twenty years later the first one are in their forties and the third one in his seventies. They only released a couple of CDs before “Indium” but never stopped to play, for themselves and for audiences, in concerts.

'Too often we describe music using classifications; genres like “jazz,” “experimental,” “avant- garde” are an easy shorthand to relay the rough parameters of the music to another person who may not have heard it. But these words are useful because they’re so vague, and they are most often used when the impression the music makes is equally vague. But when a group makes sounds that move the listener, these terms don’t hold up.

Dry Speed has released a record that is, at turns, futuristic and organic. It feels alien and new, like plastic or titanium, but at the same time as if it is shrouded in the natural, growing like moss or amplifying the sound of a great tree’s roots. ‘Indium’ gives the listener multiple entry points into the trio’s music: from a broad soundscape to a densely knitted series of minute and exacting musical gestures.'
- Nate Wooley

Nice Coordinated Outfit is a journey through history to a time before the internet and social media and before inner city gentrification, when Fitzroy was the beating heart of Australia's avant-garde music and culture. Musically, it showcases the band's incredible range from deep minimal dub to bizarre electronica with elements of shoegaze and experimental noise.

Back then, High Pass Filter were the kings of the Fitzroy underground. Dark, weird improvisers who aimed for something new each performance. Whilst electric guitars and rock n roll dominated Australian airwaves and stages, High Pass Filter were pioneering a sonic revolution in the shadows. The band's indefinable sound saw them sharing lineups with artists from hardcore and punk luminaries like Fugazi and The Boredoms and to dub heavyweights such as Lee Scratch Perry and The Mad Professor.

Twoonky, the brothers duo from Brescia (Italy) formed by Michele and Simone Bornati, is back on Macadam Mambo for a second album. After their brillantissimo ‘Dezzo’ from 2019, which was well noticed by the underground scene, the new opus ‘Ottico’ won’t leave you static. This is the kind of masterpiece that the more you listen, the more you love.

At the opposite of grandiloquent music that would have immediate effect, ‘Ottico’ is much more subtile, surfing on a cool wave of styles, a collage of vibes going from 70’s Kraut to 90’s Trip-Hop, where the analog sounds of guitars, synths, distorded voices, saxo, samples and electronics FX match so well, creating an ensemble in the unique mutant flow of the Twoonky’s that makes it so intemporal and so modern in the meanwile. It’s not about being curious, it’s about being open on crossing boundaries, like they are used to do with their unique place called Spettro in Brescia, where all the avant-garde of the electronic scene is coming to perform.

‘Ottico’ could be a kind of representation of the spirit of Spettro, and possibly one of the most interesting release of 2023. We don’t know why, but it’s true, Italians do it better 

Buckle up for Dubblack002, this time courtesy of Italian rising star TAGLIABUE. The Milanese DJ & producer is a an ideal ambassador of the label’s ethos, with his deep and mysterious electronic attitude. The opening track ‘Odissea’ lays the groundwork for the record to rise, with a cryptic intro which breaks out in a progressive detonation, referring to a late 90s/early00s sound but interpreting the scenario with a modern, actual twist.

‘Baraka Trance’ keeps the standard high and, as the title suggests, offers the artist’s POV on the Trance matter with a high-tempo, neatly arranged beat and a slightly acid bass-line, both creating a constantly evolving eight minutes-long acoustic journey. ‘A Oltranza’ slows the pulse but doesn’t decrease the pressure with captivating rhythmics perfectly blended with an avant-garde harmonic section; a complex but never baroque arrangement that constantly holds the listener on the rope. Three tracks with unique features, presenting a vast array of musical influences all merging to produce a cohesive, new and unheard record. Music written and composed by Tagliabue, project curated by GNMR.

"Le Disque De l'Art Gué" highlights in a 10-track compilation the avant-garde and dreamlike work of Fizzè, in between medieval ballad, acoustic industrial and psychedelic world music. It includes original tracks from "Kulu Hatha Mamnua" and "Manoeuvres d'Automne" albums released in 1987 + unreleased materials and remixes by Fizzè.

Compilation, concept and production by Fizzé, Orsett & Fischer

Analog mastering by Tim Stollenwerk

Drawings, obi strip and insert layout by Anne-Marie Gratton

The record cover represents the acrylic painting "Till" by Alex Rabus