quête:boundary

DJ Durbin is back with his second release on Row Records.
Four boundary-pushing tracks for your inner journey to
unknown spheres and a (¦ngers crossed) better future.

Conjunto Papa Upa returns with “Todo Parao” (“Total Shutdown”), another boundary pushing tropical smasher. Bringing you the ultimate (humourous) hymn to the pandemic over an exquisite blend of highly danceable Caribbean rhythms (zouk, cadence, kompás, guaracha) and classic synths. Backed by a deep sea dub on the flip, complete with resplendent cowbell(!), timbales and Wurlitzer solos. Another stepping stone that showcases yet another angle of the unique and radical production style of Alex Figueira. Drop this 45 at your next virtual party and watch everybody leave their computers in a desperate search of a dancing partner.

Conjunto Papa Upa is the Afro Caribbean centered solo project of Figueira, backed live bysome of the best musicians from Amsterdam’s Latin and free jazz scenes. Their debut LP was recently released on legendary American indie label Names You Can Trust. Figueira is also known for his percussive work on tropical psych power trio Fumaça Preta or his regular live incursions with Amsterdam’s turkish psych folk powerhouse, Altin Gun.

Having spent the whole night working on the melodic structure of the song, Figueira took a break to take advantage of the different time zones and check on his dad in Venezuela, and ask how the pandemic was unfolding there. His answer: “Todo Parao” (“Total Shutdown”). The same two words he had used multiple times before, this time pronounced in a hilarious Rum-infused way, giving Alex an unexpected flush of inspiration in the form of an instant infectious chorus. He excused himself and immediately got locked back in the studio. The result is this incredibly catchy tune, displaying the optimistic approach of a boyfriend to the chaos, uncertainty and worrying of his girlfriend about the pandemic, presenting her with his own lascivious lockdown plan for the two, declaring at a certain moment: “while everyone is lamenting, you and I are going to enjoy”.

In the musical side, rhythms from Haiti, Guadaloupe, Martinique, Puerto Rico and Cuba are unscrupulously mixed with the most diverse and strikking elements: strident cowbells that evoke the toughest salsa of 70's New York, harmonized guitars evidencing the inconfesable influence of 80’s heavy metal, a delicate Wurlitzer piano reminiscent of Black America’s greatest Soul ballads, Casio keyboards rescued from a child’s toy cabinet and a whole plethora of half-broken classic Synths, to create an equally irresistible and unclassifiable hybrid.

On the flip side, Part 2 opens with a prominent dose of the lead guitar that appeared briefly on the A side, working as a preamble to an instrumentalist frenzy that is not concerned about displaying technique. Its mere intention is to tell you the rest of the story without using words. A few bars into the song, the first gear shifts with a monumental solo given by the least probable of all “soloist” instruments: the cowbell (!). After it, a crispy Timbal crashes the party, making a statement out of its only appearance in the entire recording. Finally, the longed-for turn of the melodious Wurlitzer, who left everybody craving for more on the other side of the record, giving the modest keyboard skills of Figueira an imposing pentatonic virtue.

The Diabolical Liberties release their debut album "High Protection & The Sportswear Mystics" via the boundary breaking On The Corner Records label - a bastion of oddball jazz and electronics from the worldwide underground. Comprising Rob Gallagher (vocals, guitar, bass) and Alex Patchwork (head of squarepushing), the duo's debut longplayer is a rough, unpolished gem of a record that falls clumsily in the gaps between post-punk, electronica and jazz. Lead single 'Sliders' embodies this identity crisis, simultaneously honouring and deriding the ubiquity of said footwear over resonant breakbeats, plonking cowbell and the screeching horn of Ignacio Salvadores (King Krule / Gal Go). Elsewhere, the brilliant Emma Jean Thackray sprinkles 'High Protection' with cosmic dust, 'Bigger Than You' is a ramshackle (but no less respectful) homage to the 70s Ghanaian disco/fusion purveyed by legends like Ebo Taylor and Pat Thomas. All produced and recorded in a shed, on train platforms, trains, tubes and occasionally Caffè Nero in Cheam when it was quieter than home.

East London-born music legend and all round boundary-breaking innovator, Dizzee Rascal, today announces the release of his 7th studio album, entitled ‘E3 AF’ and new single ‘L.L.L.L (Love Life Live Large)’, out via Island Records.

This new release marks the genesis of a new era for Dizzee and is the first album wholly written, recorded and produced in the UK in over a decade. ‘E3 AF’ is a 10-track layered, purposeful statement of intent, rooted in Dizzee’s inedible ties to both east London and Black British music’s legacy. He sound is sharper, stronger and more self-assured than ever, and it is obvious that he has poured the creative energy of the past few years into ‘E3 AF’ as a body of work. First single, L.L.L.L (Love Life Live Large), features Tottenham born MC Chip and kicks open the door with the force of a steel toe capped boot. Chip, adds another thwack of bravado to the rumbling, Dizzee-produced beat. ‘E3 AF’ confirms Dizzee’s status as an artist still very much in his prime, sonically it draws on the infectious pace of grime and resolutely forward-thinking UK rap. From one song to the next, you are taken on a journey through Black British musical excellence. Ice-cold UK drill drips on Smoke Boys-featuring ‘Act Like You Know’ (produced by MK the Plug) and Eastside pulses with pure grime courtesy of Chubby Dreadz and Platinum 45. Self-produced opener ‘God Knows’ (featuring P Money) and high-octane ‘You Don’t Know’ pull from dubstep, grime and drum ‘n’ bass while threatening to wreak havoc with your speakers. By the time Alicai Harley’s warm up vocals float over sunny syths on the deeply personal ‘Energies + Powers’ (produced by Steel Banglez), the album practically radiates heat. Dizzee Rascal is a unique artist that has inspired many for multiple generations. From his 2003 debut album release, the Mercury Prize-winning ‘Boy In The Corner’ to date, Dizzee has continued to push expectations and boundaries. He is British musical royalty. Every album that followed stacked up another marker of success. Between 2004 and 2017 all album releases blasted firmly into the Top 10 Official album chart, won awards, critical acclaim and amassed Dizzee a huge following of devoted fans. ‘E3 AF’ is set to confirm Dizzee Rascal’s status as the master at the top of his game.

Steve Von Till has charted an extraordinary musical path over the last several decades, from his main duties as singer and guitarist of the boundary-breaking Neurosis to the psychedelic music of his Harvestman project and the gothic Americana he's released under his own name. But No Wilderness Deep Enough is truly like nothing you've ever heard from him before—an album that's devastatingly beautiful and overwhelming in its scope, reminiscent of the tragic ecstasy of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' recent work as well as the borderless ambient music pioneered by Brian Eno, late composer Jóhann Jóhannsson's glacial compositions, and the electronic mutations of Coil. 

FOR FANS OF : MARK LANEGAN/MICHAEL GIRA/NICK CAVE.

Over the course of recent time, an aching, growing void has developed where our normal way of life has resided. Uncertainty abounds, and Steve Von Till's No Wilderness Deep Enough provides a voice of existential wisdom and experience to offer comfort and perspective in an era of uncharted territory. These six pieces of music shape a hallucinatory landscape of sound that plumbs the depths of the natural world's mysteries and uncertainties—questions that have vexed humanity since the dawn of time asked anew amidst a backdrop that's as haunting as it is holistic.

Von Till’s fifth solo album is a swirling and iridescent blend of ambient, neo-classical, and gothic Americana that swan-dives into the darkness of modern life, with the resulting emergence a sonic document of rural psychedelia that transcends the physical world—towards a greater spiritual acceptance that connects naturalism, spiritualism, and the corporeal form.

With a foundation of simple melancholy piano chord progressions embellished with mellotron, cello, french horn and electronic treatments Von Till's scorched ache spreads across the terrain of No Wilderness Deep Enough like a brushfire, adding a tactile level to his sonic creation as well as an inviting level of friction to the burning beauty painted across the album's framework.

With a foundation of simple melancholy piano chord progressions that came to fruition during jetlagged nights in his wife’s childhood home in Germany, No Wilderness Deep Enough was further embellished with mellotron and electronic treatments in Von Till’s home studio in North Idaho.  Viewing the emerging result as an ambient instrumental album, he consulted friend and engineer Randall Dunn (Marissa Nadler, Earth) about adding live cello and french horn and piano in a proper studio.  After enlisting Brent Arnold on cello and Aaron Korn on french horn, he challenged Von Till to sing over the music and make it his next solo album—which is exactly what happened, with final work being completed at Tucker Martine’s (the Decemberists, Neko Case) Flora Recording and Playback in Portland.

These two pivotal figures, who have stood at the forefront of drum & bass for over two decades, have now teamed up with an array of globally respected producers including Calibre, Roni Size, Nu:Tone, S.P.Y, DJ Zinc, Chimpo and DJ Marky, to create an uncharted 16-track LP. Following on from the success of the pair's first single 'Fix It All (feat. London Elektricity)', sit back and get ready to embark on the lyrical journey of a lifetime.

DRS first came across Dynamite during his time in Roni Size's Bristol collective Reprazent, the winners of the 1997 Mercury Prize 'Album Of The Year', now showing full circle movements in 2020. 'Playing In The Dark' pays respect to this collaboration and the combination of styles which is signalled so clearly throughout DRS and Dynamite's sound. As Dynamite explains that "the producers brought their pallets" for himself and DRS "to paint on", the duo were able to convey their message, history and wisdom in one of the most boundary pushing
projects that drum & bass has seen.

'Resonate,' Lettuce's seventh studio album, is a sonic continuation of the acclaimed sextet's 2019 GRAMMY Award-nominated album 'Elevate,' which earned Lettuce their first collective nomination in the category of Best Contemporary Instrumental Album. The new, critically-acclaimed 11-track collection, featuring the singles "House of Lett," "Checker Wrecker" featuring DC go-go music legends Big Tony Fisher of Trouble Funk and Tyrone"Jungle Boogie" Williams of Rare Essence, and "NDUGU," plays like a master class in funk sub-genres. On 'Resonate,' Lettuce continue to be celebrated boundary-pushing innovators nearly three decades into their lauded career, blurring the lines and smashing it up with jazz chords, psychedelic passages, big horns, strains of soul and go-go, hip-hop elements and a joyful, uplifting improvisational sound all their own.

The globetrotting beat maestro is back, with a truckload of tropical vibes and the irresistibly danceable soundtrack to your Summer! 3 years after releasing his groundbreaking collaborative album with singer Chico Mann (which landed him live sets on Boiler Room & KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic as well as a feature on NYTimes "Best Songs Of The Week") DJ/producer Captain Planet returns with NO VISA, set to drop June 26th on Bastard Jazz Recordings. In his trademark "Gumbo Funk" sound, the album mixes rhythms and musical styles from the Caribbean, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, over highly danceable electronic beats, all firmly rooted in the hip hop, dancehall and house music that the Captain grew up playing as a DJ. Seamlessly bouncing from Brazilian Baile Funk, to Afrobeat, to Roots Reggae and Latin House, the entire record delivers the uplifting feel of one of the Captain's legendary boundary-crossing DJ sets. Building on these traditions he draws from, the Captain has created something fully original and unique.

NO VISA, the 5th full-length album from producer Charlie Wilder (aka Captain Planet), is both a return to form and a launchpad into the future. With 13 songs that feature vocalists from around the world, long-time fans will recognize several previous collaborators as well as the global influences that have always been central to Captain Planet's music. New friends, like prolific Zimbabwean-American singer Shungudzo (who has recent hits with Oliver Heldens & Rudimental), and Jamaican reggae star Jesse Royal, bring powerful subversive messages to the music as well. Showcasing the Captain's production chops and songwriting talents equally, the album unveils a unique musical landscape, a place where our political boundaries and cultural hierarchies begin to dissolve, where foreign languages mingle together and deep rooted traditions dance with the future.

With NO VISA, Captain Planet unveils a fully matured and truly unique form of electronic music- one that bridges gaps between worldwide cultural diasporas as well as contemporary dance music sub-genres (house, hip hop, dancehall & global bass). Throughout every Captain Planet song, it's clear to hear his inspired appreciation for breaking the boundaries between genres and bridging continents through rhythm.

Beijing-based duo Zaliva-D returns with a second installment on Knekelhuis. After last year’s great EP, released on Shanghai label SVBKVLT, Zaliva-D unleashes a new record in these unreal pandemic times. At its core is a concept of data’s capacity to overcome any boundary, whether that’s physical, digital or mental.
The material at hand, created after the second European tour, pushes heavily through walls, with bombastically accentuated kicks. Blended with joyous, psychedelic songwriting, it is a testament to the power of music to unite despite involuntary confinement.
Artwork by Fenna Fiction. Mastering by Brandenburg.

If Galaxy Lane’s first EP didn’t send the portals of time and space upside down, then the second EP will throw you down a vortex of hypnotic grooves juxtaposed with eerily erratic rhythms built in outer space.
The first of two EP’s to be trusted in the hands of Lone Romantic, ‘Night’ and ‘Later That Night’ will explore the concept of capturing moments in time.
Maybe Galaxy Lane can best summarise…

“I want people to really feel the mistakes in this music, the dirt, the rough and raw approach, the ‘sitting on the floor surrounded by wires at 3am messing with synths’ approach. That to me is the magic of this music, the interaction of man and machine, to hear the nuances, the tweaking of knobs and pushes of faders. I think we have lost that somewhat with digital technology, and have lost a lot of feeling in the process”

‘Night’ will propel the listener into ethereal textures layered over rough and raw beats, as outlined on opening track ‘Deep Space Nine’. If that sets you up for thinking this will be a dreamy ride, ‘Communication’ hits hard at the rear of the spaceship, coming at you with intergalactic bleeps, zaps and back cracking rhythms made for getting down.

Side 2 sets off on an exploration of wild eyed boundary flexing in the shape of ‘Enter The Light’. Pushing the machines to near breaking point whilst just hanging on, it’s a track that shows what can be done when the spaceship is left to drive itself, you can do nothing more than go with it and and see what happens.
‘Snow Day’ is perhaps the perfect way to round us back in. A more calmer, smoother ride, it’s unmistakable polyrhythms soothing the soul and setting us up for the next chapter…

If Galaxy Lane’s first EP didn’t send the portals of time and space upside down, then the second EP will throw you down a vortex of hypnotic grooves juxtaposed with eerily erratic rhythms built in outer space.
The first of two EP’s to be trusted in the hands of Lone Romantic, ‘Night’ and ‘Later That Night’ will explore the concept of capturing moments in time.
Maybe Galaxy Lane can best summarise…

“I want people to really feel the mistakes in this music, the dirt, the rough and raw approach, the ‘sitting on the floor surrounded by wires at 3am messing with synths’ approach. That to me is the magic of this music, the interaction of man and machine, to hear the nuances, the tweaking of knobs and pushes of faders. I think we have lost that somewhat with digital technology, and have lost a lot of feeling in the process”

‘Night’ will propel the listener into ethereal textures layered over rough and raw beats, as outlined on opening track ‘Deep Space Nine’. If that sets you up for thinking this will be a dreamy ride, ‘Communication’ hits hard at the rear of the spaceship, coming at you with intergalactic bleeps, zaps and back cracking rhythms made for getting down.

Side 2 sets off on an exploration of wild eyed boundary flexing in the shape of ‘Enter The Light’. Pushing the machines to near breaking point whilst just hanging on, it’s a track that shows what can be done when the spaceship is left to drive itself, you can do nothing more than go with it and and see what happens.
‘Snow Day’ is perhaps the perfect way to round us back in. A more calmer, smoother ride, it’s unmistakable polyrhythms soothing the soul and setting us up for the next chapter…

Hot on the heels of its debut release, Montreal’s Chambre Noire is back with its second record: an EP by Québecois artist Vromb, a veteran producer around since the mid-90s, known in particular for his releases on Ant-Zen. Over the course of five tracks on vinyl (six in the digital version), the artist’s sounds seem to take on physical shapes, like living origami: constantly mutating as they open, close and transform into something else. With attention to movement and boundary-challenging textures, this EP is ready to ensnare listeners in a variety of contexts, from club environments to more contemplative environments.

With the collective generosity of all those involved along the way, from mastering, manufacturing, affiliated record stores and PR to the artists themselves and PDD, all profits from this special one-sided Artwork remix of Mildlife ‘Zwango Zop’ will be donated to two charities combatting the bushfire emergency in Australia via Prime Direct Distribution; Wildlife Victoria and the Australian Red Cross.

Their indispensable efforts continue to assist the emergency response, rebuilding homes and habitats, supporting rescued animals and the shelters that house them, alongside aiding the evacuation centres and recovery hubs created in many communities and implementing recovery plans for those who have been devastatingly affected by the bushfires.

Certified man of the people, king of the content and all-round good guy Artwork has been there, everywhere, and done it all - in more guises than many would even know about. From Magnetic Man to Grain, D’N’D to Artwork he’s a master producer, well versed at knowing what dancefloors want and more importantly need.

Now take Mildlife, the boundary pushing, critically acclaimed Melbourne-based space jazz four-piece, who’ve managed to seamlessly blend jazz, funk and disco into one multi-coloured, multi-layered melting pot of auditory excitement. A band whose hype is certainly lived up to, with the likes of DJ Harvey heavily championing them to the point of including ‘Magnificent Moon’ on his ‘The Sound Of Mercury Rising’ VA LP.

A wash with improvisation, soaring synths, stratospheric bass riffs, and a fluidity of grooves, ‘Zwango Zop’, taken from Midlife’s debut album ‘Phase’, is kaleidoscopic cosmic gold. For this special non-profit release, Artwork extracts that undeniable funk energy and turns into a 10-and-a-half-minute, highly hypnotic, instantly addictive creation that it is as psychedelic as it is slamming.

Just one of many examples of the dance music community coming together as a power of good to raise funds for those affected by the emergency in Australia. Support the cause, through the medium of music.

First released on digital formats back in 2016, and here now given a richly deserved full vinyl release, 'Holy Science', the debut outing from Amirtha Kidambi and her New York based quartet The Elder Ones, is a work of dazzling singularity. Delicately yet unashamedly divulging its complex network of influences at every turn, 'Holy Science' simultaneously disperses of boundary and limitation, emerging as an album steeped in tradition yet located firmly in the futuristic present.

Amirtha Kidambi, the Elder Ones' leader, composer and vocalist, was a child of South Indian heritage, and she grew up immersed in the tradition of devotional singing, joining in with free-form, improvised Bhajans on regular Sundays. She began simultaneously accompanying her voice with the harmonium from the age of three.

These formative experiences continued to instruct and merge with her ongoing musical explorations as she went on to study Classical music, all the while ingesting the Punk, R&B and Rap that surrounded her. A particularly significant discovery was that of free and avant jazz, and in particular the music of Alice and John Coltrane, in whom Kidambi found clear echoes and parallels with those Bhajans and Ragas of her earliest musical awakenings.

All these influences collide on 'Holy Science', at times as explosive blasts of sky-opening thunder, at others as moments of soothing, meditative bliss. These holy bursts are enacted by Kidambi's assembled musicians and are given permission to explore the science of spiritual alchemy, plundering their individual and collective soul for the sake of musical expression, and all of the unpredictable and profound revelations such an approach might yield.

'Holy Science' is a work underpinned by traditions, be they the Bhajan spirituals, or the Jazz and Classical avant gardes, that are in their own manner, archetypal. But perhaps most importantly, all of these forms contain an inbuilt capacity for discovery and progression.

Amirtha Kidambi's musical pathway has been defined by a studied determination to occupy this specific space, the unbounded realm of improvisation and exploration, summoning the acquired instruments of experience, knowledge, culture and tradition to unlock secrets of the past, present and future. The most cherished music is often remarked upon as having a timeless quality – ancient, modern and futuristic, all at once. And so it is with 'Holy Science'.

WE JAZZ RECORDS presents ' Pu: ', the boundary-breaking solo debut of bass player Ville Herrala, to be released on 21 February 2020. Utilising only the double bass but looking at the instrument from various different perspectives. The end result is an inspired set of 14 miniatures, each pushing the concept forward in a highly personal way.

The first single "Pu: 12" presents a rhythmic approach with echoes of from the world of minimal classical music and electronic music. Bowed tracks such as "Pu: 2" offer another perspective, as does the second single "Pu: 10", going back to the essence of the instrument and opening new doors while doing so. Each of the tracks is a compact musical adventure unto it's own.

Ville Herrala (b. 1979) is one of the most higly-regarded bass players working in the Finnish scene. He's known from the ranks of such top ensembles as PLOP, Jukka Perko Jazztet, U-Street All Stars, Jukka Eskola Orquesta Bossa and UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra, to name but a few.

White Vinyl 10"

A new release this winter marks a landmark moment in an important musical story. Way back in little 2009, the label hfn music was born in Hamburg, and made its introduction to the world with the release of the Trentemøller compilation Harbour Boat Trips: 01 Copenhagen.
Founder Tobias Lampe wanted to start a label that was more broad in scope than his previous, more electronic-focused projects, and the compilation provided the perfect opportunity to launch one. In the 10 years since then, the label has survived the whirlpool waters of the early 21st century’s constantly changing music industry, and released everything from pop to art-punk, with artists ranging from New York to the Faroe Islands.
Now, they’re about to put out their 100th release. Fittingly, given the label’s focus on new and innovative music, and the historic aspect of the release, hfn100 sees one of hfn’s best songs of 2019 put into the hands of the man it all started with, Anders Trentemøller. His Danish compatriots Blaue Blume’s new album Bell Of Wool is one of hfn’s standout releases this year, and so hfn100 sees Trentemøller remix one of that record’s standout tracks, the fragile, but soaring “Lovable”.
In Blaue Blume’s original, “Lovable” is an airy, tormented song, a gossamer-delicate composition that carefully stitches together layers and layers of shining synths that gradually build up and up into a peak, before crashing into a subtle beat, a musical journey that mirrors vocalist Jonas Smith’s trip from anguish to numbness. Whereas the original’s music sounds woven together from light, Trentemøller takes it into darker territory. He hooks the song to a harsh, sparse beat leaving Smith’s vocals bare and isolated in the burnt-out, dystopic musical landscape he creates.
Trentemøller mirrors the original’s careful building up, adding new elements to fill in the song’s sound, before it collapses into a tough, noir disco groove. It’s a perfectly realised remix – Trentemøller keeps the original song’s skeleton and soul, but fills in the space with sonic touches that could be no one else’s but his.Ultimately, it’s a fitting song for hfn’s hundredth release. For a label that’s always been a platform for its boundary-pushing artists, a collaboration between two of them, that sees an already innovative song pushed into a bold new shape is the perfect way for hfn to step into the next 100 releases..

Europe’s leading reggaeton experimenters DJ Clara! And Maoupa Mazzocchetti. exert a tripped-out spin on modern Latin dance and vintage Galician folk styles for Low Jack’s boundary-stepping club division of Editions Gravats. Following the duo’s 2018 debut EP
and Clara!’s ‘Meiga de Acero’ single in 2019 for Les Disques De La Bretagne, ‘Luna Nueva’ binds the duo’s astrological, spiritual and romantic dancefloor cues in a significant new take on Caribbean futurism.

Designed to make you sweat - and maybe check your head -
the album pairs Clara!’s effortlessly nimble vocals with lean and spacious co-production by Maoupa Mazzocchetti in a way that faithfully and daringly plays with reggaeton convention, and, by extension, offers a critique of global electronic dance music currents.

Based in Brussels, Belgium, but originally from northern Spain, Clara! brings a strong knowledge of reggaeton, perreo and trap absorbed from beach parties and clubs back home to a wickedly offset batch of productions by Maoupa, who’s arguably earned a mean reputation in recent years for his killer mixtapes with the PRR! PRR! gang, as well as a slew of 12”s for everyone from Unknown Precept and Mannequin to Arma since 2014.

Together they throw down eight distinctive vocal cuts on disc 1, while disc 2 is loaded with their singular instrumentals. Clara! dispatches ice cool but barbed bars in diverse flows, bewitching Maoupa’s rhythms with on point style in the dramatic ‘Badman’ - a bullet for the male gaze - while layering herself in choral cadence on a spellbinding cover of Faltiquera’s Galician folk song ’Sum Sum’ over unusual tablas and drones...

But while the finer details of Clara!’s pointed but humorous lyrics may be lost on non-Spanish speakers, her co-productions with Mauopa are bound to resonate regardless of tongue, with strong, dare-to-be-different highlights in the hard and psychedelic drive of ‘Gaviléan’ and the bolshy bashment grind of ‘Virgo’, along with straight up freaky gear such as ‘Baja Y Suda’, plus their cold fusion of reggaeton and Mahraganat influences in ‘Secreto Ritual’, and warped hypermodernism in ‘Clarividencia.’ No matter what angle or
language it’s approached from, ‘Luna Nueva’ cycles fresh and luminous with a steadfast yet experimental call to the ‘floor while the world collapses around them.

Elkka - the London based DJ, producer and founder of record label and DIY art collective femme culture - has announced her latest EP ‘Every Body Is Welcome’ on her imprint, following a very strong year constallated of live perfromances and DJ sets throughout Europe, and a growing radio presence in London and beyond.

‘Every Body Is Welcome’ will be released on 22nd of November. Smudging the boundaries between eras and styles, Elkka’s free-wheeling dance tracks float between club beats, earthy sounds, full of warmth, soft edges and lovely instrumentation which all lead to a completely captivating and blissful listen. The infectious new five-track EP looks set to further solidify her status as one of the artists changing the shape of dance music in 2019.

The EP kicks off with an acid-sounding dance thumper that elegantly moves along the piano melody, for a beautiful house start to the whole project. In typical Elkka style, the EP moves from the atmospheric, sun-soaked rhythms of ‘Compromise for What’ and ‘LVURSLF’ Interlude, to the more club-oriented, 4am nightscapes of ‘Avant Garde’ - ending with ‘Breathe’, the perfect union to these two different sides of her artistry in one elegant, thumping, soulful track.

‘Every Body Is Welcome’ was informed by Elkka’s own deeper understanding of who she is as an artist and what the dance floor means to her, claiming that “​Arriving in London in my early 20s I was a completely different person in every possible way and discovering club culture, the rave scene and queer spaces allowed me to explore myself fully as a woman and as queer person. For me, the dance floor has been a place where I have felt the most liberated, the most myself, unified with friends and strangers by the music and moment we are sharing. This EP is a celebration of those moments, of the dance floor, of dance music that has inspired me creatively and personally. Every Body Is Welcome symbolises what I hope the dance floor to be - a music utopia or haven, somewhere for everyone to feel safe to express themselves, to find themselves, to be whoever they want to be and feel part of a community of acceptance and tolerance. Idealistic? Yes but I think art should be a space to express idealism and where we hope to be.”

Her previous EP​ ‘​Full Circle​’​, released via femme culture, received acclaim and support from Annie Mac, Pete Tong, Tom Ravenscroft and Elkka was also named as one of the artists to watch in 2019 by ​Mixmag​. In addition, Elkka has garnered playlist and radio plays from acclaimed producers Four Tet, Floating Point’s and George Fitzgerald.

Elkka founded the femme culture label and collective in 2016 in response to the lack of support for womxn DJs, producer and artists, later teaming up with fellow DJ and creative Ludo who she now co-runs the platform with. Since then, the progressively minded collective have been swiftly gaining recognition with their boundary-free ethos that champions women, women-identifying, artists and the LGBTQ+ community whilst pushing forward-thinking music through their carefully, curated club nights and events.

Earlier this year they released their second label compilation ‘HeForShe x femme culture.’ Compiled in aid of the UN Women, the compilation featured fresh new sounds from the likes of Lone, Elkka herself, Martin Bootyspoon, India Jordan, Ouri, Nightwave and more - and earlier this summer they hosted their annual alternative Pride after-party ‘PROUD’, in which all the proceeds went to The Albert Kennedy Trust (a charity for homeless LGBTQ youthsworthy causes).

Wah Wah 45s are very proud to announce the release of Kalba, the first album from Ghanaian xylophone master Isaac Birituro and Leeds-based producer and singer- songwriter Sonny Johns AKA The Rail Abandon. The boundary crossing duo were introduced to the world via the first two singles released in early 2019, Yesu Yan Yan and Für Svenja, and the reactions to the project have been overwhelmingly warm.

There are many differences between Isaac and Sonny, but a powerful similarity -- which gives Kalba its element of relatability -- is that desire to hear the usual done unusually and play with the shared influence of the music from afar. Named after the town in North Ghana where Isaac resides, the album is a combination of differences; a magnifying glass over the Venn diagram of our lives, the unfathomable meeting of parallel lines.

“It was clear to me that, though he played a traditional instrument in a traditional way, Isaac was influenced by the Western tinged music that filled the streets of Accra - in fact his father, Edmund, introduced him with “He plays the modern way!” Partly dismissive, mostly proud,” said Sonny. “And as this Viking sat before him played the guitar, it sounded too much like the stringed instruments of Mali for it to be just a coincidence.”

There are so many stories behind each track on this album, but the common denominators are clearly the importance of community, of preserving and presenting local cultures, the ardent desire to contribute to changing the world around us, and, of course, the love and power of music created from a genuine place.

Repress

Berlin's Monnom Black is back again with the King of The Sewers EP; four cuts of pulsating techno from two of electronic music's most uncompromising young figures, DAX J & UVB. Already well-known for its more fundamentally rugged take on modern electronics, the label's 19th release is another intense transmission deep from the underworld.

The menacing tone of the EP hides the friendship that's developed between these adopted Berliners, two young men who met in the city and discovered a shared passion for raw analogue audio and electronic sounds that marry starkness with depth. Although they began DJing at the same warehouses since 2014, the duo have waited until the right moment to bring together their mutual love of unique mechanised noisescapes and the high-end production values they ve developed over years of experience and experimentation. The King of The Sewers is that record, a gritty soundtrack inspired by forgotten lives beneath eastern-bloc cities.

For Monnom Black this latest release continues a run of unmistakable techno records that challenge the mainstream with a non-conformist philosophy. The label's ethos is to push boundary-testing music by artists who are unafraid to explore a chaotic, divided world in the belief that distinctive music can still create moments of grace and community. This is music for the deepest, darkest parts of the night, breaking beyond the dancefloor and into the liminal spaces where analogue and digital, body and mind meet. The King of The Sewers EP represents another step forward in the development of a record label pressing at the borders of what contemporary techno can be.

An exploration of traditional Chadian music with an electronic twist...

Chad is in many ways a blind spot on the map of today's global musical conversation. Overlooked, misunderstood and misrepresented, outside observers rarely concede the country an autonomous voice over its past, present and future. N'Djamena, the dusty capital of Chad with its well-kept stories of boundary-breaking musical collaborations and thirst for experimentation is a city that reflects the country's diversity: the arid North, bordering the Sahara, where nomadic tribes revere the endless desert with their handcrafted instruments. The lush tropical South, where the frenetic drumming of local initiation ceremonies blends with sounds of neighboring Congo and Cameroon. Right in the middle: N'Djamena, a forgotten melting pot of cultures and peoples bursting with unrecorded stories of life at the margins of the world's attention.

Tackling this view is precisely one of the aims of Pulo NDJ. In May 2018, Nickodemus accepted an invitation from Hape Collective to travel to N'Djamena to teach a group of young adults DJ'ing and electronic music production, which resulted in the encounter between and a group of talented artists from Cameroon, Chad, Congo and Togo. After a weeklong series of listening to original songs & demos, the recordings continued in a pop-up studio created by DJ Buosis & Nickodemus which culimated in Desert To Douala, an album featuring 11 songs, all originally written and recorded in N'Djamena.

The project found its inspiration in the city's un-narrated diversity and seeks to explore the possibilities offered by technology to demonstrate how the country's rich heritage connects with existing musical conversations. It strives to create bridges in a world of walls. It has been a yearlong creative process that built friendships and fostered understanding among people united by a passion for music and creation.

GREY Area is the new album from Little Simz, her third to date following

mixtapes/EPs and two critically acclaimed albums.



Simbi Ajikawo, crowned Little Simz, lets her work do the talking - and her prolific releases and

boundary-breaking achievements clearly tell a story of a pioneering Hip Hop artist who leads the

way on her own terms. Giving lauded, energetic performances, critically acclaimed albums, sold-out

headline shows around the world, and international tours with the likes of Gorillaz, Anderson .Paak and

Ab-Soul, this visionary 24 year old woman from North London is living out her childhood dreams to heights of

excellence - and inspiring her generation to do the same.

Rebar, the duo behind the >made of CONCRETE Rebar Rebar Rebar 1< sees a versatile three piece assortment with a seemingly common theme. Field recordings make ample appearances in Rebar s work and this release makes no exception: a large part of the elements were recorded in and around train stations of a famous metropolis. Further info can be revealed on the flipside of the vinyl.

R+R=NOW is a collective of like-minded boundary-breakers featuring Robert Glasper, Terrace Martin, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, Derrick Hodge, Taylor McFerrin & Justin Tyson. The 'R+R' in the band's name stands for Reflect+Respond, and was inspired by Nina Simone who said an artist's duty is to reflect the times.
With Collagically Speaking the band presents an urgent musical hybrid that is distinctly of the now. As Glasper says, R+R=NOW tells 'our story from our point of view... It's a very honest, fluid sound that rings of hip-hop, EDM, jazz, at times - hell - reggae... a bunch of cats that respect each other so much that we always pass the ball.' The album features guest spots by Omari Hardwick, Terry Crews, Stalley, Amanda Seales, Amber Navran, Goapele, Jahi Sundance and Yasiin bey.

A trio of guitar, bass and drums, Elektro Guzzi overcome the boundary between analogue versus digital, performing techno live with the drive of a machine and the sonic detail of an instrument - without any computers or loopers. For their upcoming album Polybrass, Elektro Guzzi have drastically expanded their sonic repertoire: both in the studio and on stage, they are joined by an ensemble of three trombonists, opening up a whole new realm of possibilities. With Hilary Jeffrey, Daniel Riegler and Martin Ptak, the band are joined by three brass heavyweights, each of them well renowned for both their solo ventures as well as projects such as The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble, Sand and Zeitkratzer. By treating the three trombones not simply as a set of extra instruments but rather as one coherent body of sound on its own, Elektro Guzzi dissociate the brass instruments from their conventional use and repurpose them into something completely different: a modular synthesizer, with each trombone representing one oscillator. In doing so, Elektro Guzzi add new layers of depth to their music, emphasizing a more cinematic side of their music: like the soundtrack for a movie, Polybrass is bigger, darker, more dramatic, more intimate. Warm and fuzzy textures float weightlessly above fragile soundscapes and complex sonic fragments. At the same time, the band's signature sound runs distinctly through the entire album: solid percussive grooves, stripped down to the absolute minimum it takes to make your body move. Hypnotic repetition, building tension and suspense up to a point where the energy of the music gets so intense you feel like you can physically touch it with your hands, interlaced with organic patterns of sound, constantly changing and evolving, pulsating and oscillating. Vinyl: heavy sleeves + heavy printed inner sleeves, 180g vinyl with download code.

'Cohesion' is the third full album from Anchorsong - AKA Tokyo-born, London-based electronic artist Masaaki Yoshida. Taking inspiration from Classical Indian Percussion, and '70s and /80s Bollywood film soundtracks

Anchorsong creates a journey of psychedelic, danceable and free-spirited compositions that blur the boundary between rhythm and melody. It was whilst extensively touring his previous album, 'Ceremonial', that Masaaki

became deeply fascinated with percussion, and shifted his attention away from the African drums present on his last record to the music of the Middle East, South East Asia, and then more specifically to the sounds of India. 'The Indian

percussion was the one I was most fascinated with, so I began to dig into that genre deeper, I started with classics like Ravi Shankar, and the more classical Indian musicians. But then I began to explore the world of Bollywood and movie

soundtracks which is another world and the more I listened to composers like Sapan Jagmohan, Rajesh Roshan and Kalyanji Anandji, the more the concept of the new record began to form.

Choosing to work with traditional Indian instruments like the tabla and dholak, Yoshida wanted to use instruments that possessed melodic qualities, and could be tuned to work in the context of electronic music. He found that when Indian

percussions mixed with other instruments they began to sound like a melody that blurred the border between rhythm and melody. The concept of bringing together contrasting elements and cultures is evident from the album's title,

'Cohesion'. Here Anchorsong has brought together musical traditions and sounds from across borders, forging a truly unique body of work. Having reached new heights with 'Ceremonial' through accolades such as BBC 6Music's #5 Album

Of The Year, 'Cohesion' looks to build on such successes through the coupling of a comprehensive European tour kicking off around the release of the album.

Lucrecia Dalt's Anticlines is a volume of bodily and geological substrates within poetic theory and sound. It is a place where skins and minerals dissolve and commingle, where gaseous subterranean leaks inflate lungs, where brain cavities echo interplanetary waves bent from passing through atmospheres.

A former geotechnical engineer from Colombia currently residing in Berlin, Dalt's concern with boundaries and edges shape the lyrics and music of Anticlines, her sixth album. Paying careful attention to pace, breath, and texture, Dalt microtonally shifts the distance between speech and song while using traditional South American rhythms to support her contemporary electronic composition.

Lucrecia arrived at the atmosphere of Anticlines after several months of studying and creating new patches for the Clavia Nord Modular, forming a rhythmic feedback flow with it, a Moogerfooger MuRF, and her voice. The overall effect of cavernous space backdroping Dalt's intimate vocal phrasing rewards contemplation, supported in the physical formats of Anticlines by a lyric booklet documenting Lucrecia's collaboration with Australian artist Henry Andersen.

The album opens with Edge,' bordering on a pathological circlusion of self upon other. The lyrics depart from the Colombian myth of El Boraro, an Amazonian monster who turns its victims insides to pulp before sucking them dry and inflating their bodies like balloons to lifelessly float away. Tar' ponders human dependence on earth at the boundary of the heliopause, where to inhale might be like breathing tar. Dalt's distant and obscured vocals end with, we touched only as atmospheres touch.'

The sonic rise and fall of Analogue Mountains' is inspired by martian traces found in Antarctica embedded by meteorite ALH84001, suggesting that we might well be living in mountains transferred from Mars.' The steadily winding music on Concentric Nothings' descends with the lyrical exercise of dissolution let my touch be indistinct and instinctive.'

Interspersed with the lyrical pieces of Anticlines are instrumental interstitials that demonstrate preceding concepts — as if to say, this is what antiforms sound like, and this is what the universe's indifference sounds like.' Dalt's ongoing experiments with visual artist Regina de Miguel support these ideas, their practice allowing the objects of their attention to slip in and out of being.

Mystic of matter, Lucrecia Dalt has previously performed and worked with Julia Holter and Gudrun Gut, her slippery spoken word and performative nature recalling the work of Laurie Anderson, Robert Ashley, Asmus Tietchens, or Lena Platonos. While touching stones, The Thing by Dylan Trigg, Cascade Experiment by Alice Fulton, and Wretched of the Screen by Hito Steyerl are but a few formative scripts that support Dalt's exploration of the betwixt and between.

In preparing a live set for Anticlines, Dalt plans to stage an uninterrupted configuration, like a kind of alienated lecture, aiming for gestures that create tensions with non-existent objects.' Dalt intends to provide meaning and a place for the listener to meditate or relate to the concerns and ideas' she presents.

- Lucrecia Dalt is a Colombian recording artist, songwriter, and producer.
- After studying civil engineering in Colombia, Dalt worked at a geo-technical company for two years and has since lived in Barcelona and Berlin, where she currently resides.
- She has released five solo albums and has collaborated with musicians Julia Holter, Laurel Halo and Rashad Becker, to name a few.
- Dalt has composed for sound design installations and performance pieces for institutions such as the Santa Monica Art Centre, Reina Sofia Museum and the Maisterravalbuena gallery of Madrid, in collaboration with visual artist Regina de Miguel.
- Anticlines is Dalt's sixth solo record, and her first on RVNG Intl., following the release of 2015's Ou.
- Anticlines explores the boundaries and limitations of human consciousness. The album's poetic lyrics were written collaboratively between Dalt and Henry Andersen during a weekend in Brussels, Belgium.

incl. download card]
There is something to be majestic about stalwarts of a certain flock coming together to be creative. The harder side of Drum & Bass didn't have it's own power formation until today. It's as of this day that Czech producer Forbidden Society, formed an alliance with two of his most respected peers to create 3RDKND. Donny, Katharsys and FS all have a strong lean to rhythmic textures, tough drum cuts and experimental FX works. Just in time for the European festival season, the thunderous first effort has arrived; and it's going to turn some heads.

Purge EP is a work of experience, seeking for the outer bounderies of whats sonically possible. The title track is an electronic behemoth which revolves around boundary pushing drum programming and pure unfiltered energy. 'The Artifact' is a straight up dancefloor anthem which uses an ominous vocal of cinematic proportions to build up to the halftime body of heavy hitting drums. 'Fire And Blood' is an experimental work of the rhythmic endurance. The final track is a 3RDKND remix of an original track by Donny and FS. This is the final showcasing of the trinity's sonical excellence. 'Purge EP' will be released through Forbidden Society's self titled label

Bangers and Ash is back. The rough & ready series of records that spawned the wider Styles Upon Styles imprint has always challenged artists (Clay Wilson, Certain Creatures, Best Available Technology to name a few) to work their sonics for both the club (Bangers) and the clouds (Ash), now welcoming Contakt to the family in 2018. A native of Michigan and a long-time resident of Brooklyn, Contakt cofounded the boundary-pushing club night TURRBOTAXr with previous releases on Argot, Icee Hot and "Second Shift" and "Detritus" feature on the Ash side with a spacious wash of atmospheric analog synth constructs, while "Shut Off Notice" and "NDO" are Bangers that divebomb deep into classic Detroit techno. Each record has been screen-printed, stamped and stickered by Contakt and SUS, with mixing by Phil Moffa and mastering by Josh Bonati."

'Turquoise', that is Turkuvaz, is a French-origin word inspired by the color of the Mediterranean, located within the borders of Turkey. Meaning; blue is the color that plays the green. At the same time it is relative. Because both colors are in it, if you love blue you will see blue, if you love green you will see it green. It means heaven and earth. The eternity is turquoise... The eternity is infinite. At the same time; the boundary between the earth and the sky. Some will find love in it , some will find serenity, some will remember the loneliness and find sadness, embracing some with zeal and reminiscent of the return to the nest, the power of holding hands tightly with two hands.And according to my opinion, the concept of life, the mortal world, is how we see these lands curtained until the last breath of life that we have been living on for centuries.There are billions of beings in our sky and on Earth that do not attract our attention, We can not see, can not hear, can only feel, there are enough lights to count and never disappear in the stage. This EP that you hold in your hand is a reflection of it.
Music was the easiest way to reach you. In doing so, the motto was 'never disappearing at the stage'. I know, because if nobody hears me, God, the real dominion of light the true owner of all the darkness will hear me.

Each sound I created, I filled it with a light and I added a little more sand to the clock. Sounds I created is to show you your own technique of finding your way to light, to make you understand that you are not alone, and that there is someplace really there for you. Without much effort, resting and reviving.

I believe that every one of us who lives on earth has a specific, holy purpose. The important thing is to find and catch it. Our inner journey is to be able to complete our enlightenment as spiritually as possible. And I still believe that we always need music to do that. Because the sounds; they will never disappear.

Turquoise, which is the work of this enlightenment period, which I have lived and found to be my self, will be a source of light for you and help you find God who lives in you.

Nubian Quadrant EP sees Dutch producer Philou reaching for that sweet spot between Afro and Electro to produce three pulsing new tracks for Byrd Out. As Philou says, "All good music ultimately comes from Africa", and true to his African roots, the EP was part recorded in Malawi. With his tracks being picked up by the likes of Erol Alkan and Eats Everything, this EP is sure to provide the rhythmic backdrop to the summer. If you imagine the driving force of Fela Kuti matched with the acid sqwelch of Phuture, you're part of the way there. It's dancefloor sunshine on vinyl. Mastered by the legendary Noel Summerville, artwork by G.S-L Studio.



Biog: Philou Louzolo, a vibrant human being showcasing a diverse sound: born and raised in between the forests and the salty ocean breeze of Southern Zeeland (The Netherlands). Blessed with deeply rooted ties to the townships of Sierra Leone, the jungle surrounding the Congo river and Nigeria - where the birth of Fela Kuti's Afrobeat took place - his music sounds like Pan-African propaganda packed with sounds from urbanized cities, the Sahara and Africa's many jungles. He's been making waves with a Mixtape for the Feel My Bicep guys (it's #84), and getting airtime on BBC Radio 6 with Erol Alkan, and on BBC Radio 1 with Eats Everything, and playing Resident Advisor's GAIN stage at DGTL in Amsterdam in March, and playing at Morocco's boundary-pushing Altas Electronic festival later this year.

The latest release on Francis Harris' Scissor & Thread label out of Brooklyn is another exercise in deep and meditative atmospheres. The label, comprised of a tight knit collective of multi-faceted composers, vocalists and instrumentalists, always strives to develop new projects based on a shared aesthetic, and this five track EP is both boundary pushing and fully synchronized with the label's approach. With Melquíades' 'Blue Caves' Melbourne based Composer and Sound Designer Alexander Albrecht presents his solo debut EP following on from the 'Tidal River' album he released as part of the Albrecht La'Brooy duo. The title track 'Blue Caves' is a skittering, weightless exploration of space, seemingly built around lush field recordings and fragments of melody developing out of the ether. 'Avlemonas' flows from a similar source, but crystallizes around an off kilter rhythm and occasional subby bass, balanced against swooping pads and piano motifs. 'Morning Breeze' seems to revel in the evocative nature of its title, with hand played percussion backing more wistful, emotive piano sketches and wandering bass notes, before the track settles into a hypnotic groove. Label head Francis Harris provides another take on the track for his Re-form version, a more dancefloor aimed excursion that draws deeply from the classic deep house of the New York and Detroit masters. Ending the relases is 'Patio', which drifts back towards the ambient territories of the opening tracks, with exquisite, understated instrumentation and a melancholic yet elated vibe.

The third chapter in the vinyl installments on Gaze ill's Danish Cue Line Records is written by Belgian artist Zygos, Georgio Roumans. An unforgettable piece formed by 3 distinct original tracks plus an outstanding remix by Italy's most wanted, DPRTNDRP (D- Operation Drop).

The EP opens with the toxic symphony of 'Laicism'. By chest pressuring hits right from the beginning, we're pushed into another world where everything is moving though it feels like time stands still for a moment. Mellow melodies formed in layers of feedback alike sounds and endless reverberated stabs generate a persistent tension held tight by the static, marching drums. The title track 'Sudd' forms part 2 of the journey through Georgio Roumans' explorative universe. To think everything can move this fast yet keeping a minimal expression is beyond reality. From 8th to 16th to 24th notes - variations through the bass, percussion, and melody sections - a discreetly conducted progression is reached throughout the track. Accompanied by weird background soundscapes the sub bass takes the lead on the tight Halfstep- package of 'Tapered'. The drums are simple and hard, which is just what's needed to tame and control the strong movements from the sub. Super minimal for the sound system. Italian DPRTNDRP brings new life to 'Sudd', which awakens in a completely different light than the tempo- filled original. Strange sounds and rhythms, raw and dirty. DPRTNDRP makes the remix a must hear.

The vibe is intense from start to end, and the EP hits perfection due to Georgio's naturally alive style, and the clever remix from the ever boundary pushing DPRTNDRP. Signature sound, deluxe on 180 grams heavyweight vinyl!

The Passage EP brings together two of the chief champions of far reaching sounds in AYBEE, and Lars Bartkuhn. Bartkuhn best known for his work with his iconic (NEEDS) imprint, and AYBEE for his boundary pushing ethos at (Deepblak). A project spawned of mutual love, and respect the two met at an impromptu jam performance at the Xjazz Fest where the seeds were planted for further collaboration. Committed to stretching out beyond tight parameters they sought to capture the spirit of the dance. As "The Astral Walkers" they set out to combine the fearless freedom of the Jazzfunk era with the endless possibilities within electronic music.

On the Corner's DJ tool and eclectic favourite, Versus is back for a second instalment. There are some familiar faces occupying this tasty wax and some new comers pushing the needle further-out On the Corner.
As 2015's Versus sold-out we'd already acquired some fresh production talents and sent stems over to new and old friends alike.
Get your atlases out as we criss-cross the globe introducing you to artists from afar-afield as Nairobi, Manchester, Pune, Iringa, Detroit, and South London.
We kick off with Jinku, self-proclaimed space monkey hitting OtC wax for the first time. The producer is one-fifth of the East African Wave, a collective of young DJ Producers who are revolutionising the East African arts scene. As a 'sponge' of different influences, Jinku lays down a balearic reworking of fellow Nairobian, Makadem's 'Nyako'.
Of the returning artists none is quite as mysterious as the elusive and incomparable Black Classical - discordant-Ra-like organ meets Brazilian poly-rhythmic percussions bludgeoned with a heady slab of rave breaks make for 'Jeje': already a firm fave of Gilles Peterson.
Boundary pushing Contours brings a new swing to the 'Agama' groove, following the underground smash from Al Dobson Jr back where it all started with the release of Tamar Collocutor's first album in 2014.
Wonky psychedelic perambulations through the Traab al-Beidaan (Sahara) from Sam Jones who adds another construct to his mantle. Group as Salaam have a cassette release forthcoming and this construct comes from field recording sessions conducted during a feast out in the shadow of Africa's largest Windfarm by label head Pete OntheCorner. Vibes!
On the B-side, sprightly producer Daisho from the Indian hotbed of Pune brings a layered percussive heater hanging in the atmosphere with ominous synth b-lines and rightly tipped to be in the realms of and early Four Tet mover.
The release enters into a deeper shamanic dance territory in the final third: the beathead's elixir, M.I.X.G. and their massive xylophone (Embaire) are back and gets a heavy acid rerub as South London's FYI Chris appear OntheCorner wax again with
'Drop the beat'.
Peter Croce, head of Detroit's Rocksteady Disco brings it deep into the early hours for this euphoric 4am fix of OntheCorner's
afro-latin-electronic party experimentalists, Penya.

French psych duo The Limiñanas today released their new single 'Istanbul Is Sleepy' through Because Music. Featuring Anton Newcombe (The Brian Jonestown Massacre) and produced at his Berlin studio, the single is taken from their 'Istanbul Is Sleepy' EP out 17th November. The band, who are set to release a new album early next year, will play their debut London show at Oslo on 5th October. Directed by Jean Luc Moly, the moody, Sixties-inspired video to 'Istanbul Is Sleepy' premiered on Brooklyn Vegan: link here

Reflecting on the single and their collaboration with Newcombe, Lionel explained, "'Istanbul Is Sleepy' is like the classic dream where you become the hero, the Captain Blood or Midnight Sultan(). The one who rescues and seduces Maureen O'Hara or Ava Gardner. Anton is singing and playing guitar on the track. He was inspired, in particular, by The Cult during their 'Rain' period. Last year, Mojo magazine asked us to record a cover for a special Kinks tribute. We chose 'Two Sisters'. Marie and I were thinking for the vocal part it would be great to approach Anton Newcombe, having opened for The Brian Jonestown Massacre at Le Trianon in Paris. The work began like that. We had an album to record and we decided to finish it with him. During the Christmas week we took our demos, flew to Berlin and recorded at Anton's studio. Six days later we had a finished album".

One of France's most beloved treasures, The Limiñanas are Marie (drums/vocals) and Lionel (guitar, bass, keyboards and vocals). Hailing from Perpignan, the duo straddles the boundary between psych, shoegaze, and yé-yé. With hazy, reverb-laden hooks, combined at times with noisy distortion, and fronted by effortlessly cool vocals, reminiscent of Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot, the band is at once timeless and quintessentially French.

Under the moniker Shed, Pawlowitz published three highly ambitious albums in which he defined his work more and more as his own way of musical narration. 'The Final Experiment' is definitely the temporary highlight of this evolution. As musical work it does establish Shed conclusively as one of the most interesting and substantial electronic music artists of our time. It carries a vibe, that links Shed to other boundary breaking artists such as Ryuichi Nakamoto, Brian Eno and Carsten Nicolai. However, Shed found a way to develop a highly individual way of communicating electronic music, that is self-sufficient. 'The Last Experiment' is a mostly homogeneous piece of work, a meditation, where the stylistic confusion seems less important than then musical statement that it represents.

Yellow Vinyl

Elektro Guzzi combine club music and live performance to a unique, energetic mixture. They overcome the rigid boundary of analog versus digital, unifying the human being with his machines in an unprecedented way and surprising the listener with their innovative productions. Sónar, Roskilde, Melt!, C/O Pop or Mutek are just a few stations among others, where Elektro Guzzi fascinated with their dynamic live show, without the use of computers or loops.

With their new EP - Parade , the first release on German label Denovali, Elektro Guzzi broaden their trinity of drums, bass and e-guitar. With implementing trombones as extra oscillators, dissociating them from their conventional use, the trombones become part of the human-machine-universe and are used as an additional sound source in order to modulate and explore its variety live on the stage.

The four tracks emerged from commissioned work for the Artacts Festival for Jazz and Improvised Music. They move along familiar paths, but also show some new, unusual dimensions of Elektro Guzzi. Opener - Element starts gently, bringing the trombones slowly into appearance, culminating in that driving groove, which whips the melancholic sound of the track. Title track - Parade reveals the new source of inspiration of the Vienna-based trio. From Haitian Rara music, through New Orleans brass bands to Basic Channel dub, Elektro Guzzi create rhythms beyond four-to-floor, with that special, warm vibe, which remains in the ear of the listener.

Recording, mixing and sound design results from a collaboration with sound enthusiast Nik Hummer. The - Parade -EP hypnotizes the listener with its diversity of sounds, with floating and dubby rhythms, situated in a stunning sound aesthetic, in which the feeling of its live performance is conserved.

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

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

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

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

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