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»Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often characterized by a repetitive four on the floor beat.«

Well, that's what Wikipedia says about »techno« - but can Laura BCR's music simply be called »techno«? We say it's much more than that. The French DJ and On Board Music label founder who took her name from the much-loved and now closed, Berlin record store, Bass Cadet Records, started to produce her very own music in 2020. Music which could easily fit in her transportive, deep techno and dubby ambient DJ sets. Sets that have brought her to some of Europe’s finest venues.

After her releases on SoHaSo, Semantica, Paloma, RDV Music, Technologia Organica or Sublunar we're happy to present to you her latest work for Live At Robert Johnson: »Human Behavior«.

The four tracks all share a deepness which is typical for a lot of her productions so far. This is repetitive music, yes - but also very atmospheric music. Whether it's the helicopter sound in first track »Farewell« which Laura put on top of layers of whirring synths sounds or the swelling and decaying sounds of »Long Wait«. Sounds which swallow you deep into their core and make you forget about the here and now. Yes, Laura's music is hypnotizing - and it has a certain psychedelic quality attached to it as well. This aspect of her music can be heard quite good in »Post Dynamic« with its electronic blowing wind sounds galore. Or in »Human Behavior«, the title track of Laura BCR's LARJ debut. Yet Laura never forgets the importance (and the power) of the bass drum and its four on the floor beat.

A beat that is the heartbeat of techno. And a beat that defines Laura BCR as well.

Now all hail the bass drum and all hail Laura BCR!

Entirely remastered from the original analogue tapes and featuring brand new artwork designed by Luke Insect, this Four Flies reissue finally brings back to life one of the most surprising albums from the strange phenomenon that was the Italian library music of the Seventies.

Gianni Safred's Electronic Designs was released in 1977 on the Milanese label Jump, in their "Music Scene" series, simply as a collection of musical pieces intended for use in television programmes. However, hidden behind a nondescript cover were twelve electronic music tracks revealing a recognizable style of composition; twelve little gems masterly combining experimentation, catchiness and practical functionality thanks to a unified and unique style. Each through a specific mood, these tracks give expression to Safred's distinctive sound, where irresistible mechanical grooves are over-layered with melodic lines perfectly played on a Polymoog or ARP Odyssey.

A native of Trieste, Safred started out with little swing bands soon after WW2, before eventually playing with great soloists like Django Rheinhardt. Ultimately, it is his background as a jazz pianist that makes Electronic Designs so special. As with other Italian jazzmen who got into synthesizers (above all, Piero Umiliani), Safred's blend of complex harmonies and (quasi-) bebop virtuoso flourishes, with its obsessive repetitions and refined tone colours, gives a retro-futuristic quality to this library album, whose electronic music islight-years ahead ofthe 'pop' electronic music of the time and, in many ways, anticipates the best stylistic features of early-Nineties dance music.

Safred best expresses his experimental verve – and does a great job in creating the 'electronic designs' of the title – in "Mystification", "City Problems", "Trapdoor", "Planetarium" and "Poe's Clock", all of which unfold through hypnotic beats and sinusoid or square wave explosions. In other tracks, however, the compositional style is less unconventional, with relaxed yet not banal atmospheres ("Spheres", "Elastic Points", "Sacred Interlude"), as well as flashes of irresistible groove inspired by Herbie Hancock's more pop-oriented work ("Automation Age", "Jazz Motion Study", "Bottom Up"). The album's masterpiece is arguably "Hasty Chant", a detective-funk ride with an unforgettable theme, which manages to pull all of the album's various strands into a cohesive whole – as a side note, the allusive and apt description of the song on the back cover reads: "Things are happening".

Summer Forever And Ever succeeds Blue Gene Stew, 2019’s debut by the Wolfmanhattan Project, a collective unit co-starring three musicians familiar to In The Red listeners: singer-guitarist Mick Collins, front man of the seminal Detroit-bred garage units the Dirtbombs and the Gories, singer-guitarist Kid Congo Powers who played in such legendary bands as the Gun Club, the Cramps, and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and drummer-vocalist Bob Bert, whose skin work has distinguished albums by Sonic Youth, Pussy Galore, Lydia Lunch’s Retrovirus, and Jon Spencer and the HITmakers. The group was founded as a studio project by three musicians who are kept busy by their primary bands. Blue Gene Stew was written and recorded quickly. Powers says, “I think that the new record was much more a group effort. I think there’s more of a group kind of sound, as eclectic as it is. I feel like we all played together, as opposed to playing on each other’s songs.” Bert notes that the band’s music is grounded in spontaneity: “Me and Mick went in and had a couple of rehearsals, and I would come up with a beat, he would come up with a riff. I still have a cassette Walkman, believe it or not, and we’d put it down on that. It wasn’t even a full song. We’d just put down a bunch of ideas. When it came to recording we’d lay down the basic tracks and work out different things, and a lot of it was made up on the spot. It really is a great collaboration.” Recorded and engineered by Mark C. of Live Skull at his studio, Summer Forever And Ever finds Powers playing piano and the Kaoss touch-pad effects unit and Collins playing synthesizer, in addition to their usual instruments. The album reflects the same eclectic mix of musical styles heard on the debut. References and sometimes even direct quotes from sources as diverse as the Andrea True Connection, Captain Beefheart, the Count Five, and Eurythmics leap out of the speakers.

Russell and Craig have collaborated on several site specific projects over the years (Cotton Goods & Wist), notably sharing a graphic score concept for the production of their Atlantic Cable release. The album Diagenesis represents a change in their working process through which the materiality of field recordings is somewhat privileged over musicality. This work was created through a process of exchange - passing tracks back and forth, each layer of sound buried a little deeper beneath the next.

Diagenesis: The watery interactions, microbial activities, alterations, compactions, and chemical transformations of sediments slowly converting to rock.

Russell Burden (Being) is a sound and visual artist living on the south coast of the UK. His practice develops work that explores qualities of ambient perception, most often through the lens of hydrological, geological or biological processes. He has delivered gallery exhibits in various mediums including live cymatic feed, and dark space installation. Russell was also a member of The Humble Bee & Players and last year as artist in residence for a site specific project produced a set of drone works on his own imprint, riverwork press.

Craig Tattersall (The Humble Bee) works across music and visual art with an interest in their intersection, and often works collaboratively producing art objects and sound works which have been released on numerous labels. His main focus is with environment(s) and his own interactions within. He has curated a number of micro-labels including cotton goods, mobeer:: | moteer::, our small ideas and now co-curates umbrella publishing.

I was dancing when I was out, I was dancing when I was in. Is it strange to dance so late? Is it strange to dance so soon? Cosmic dancers always ball. Dancing with themselves, dancing space away. Right into the smallest hole a human brain can create: the inner cosmos, a psychedelic region, where time gets space and space turns to haze.

Berlin based producer TM Solver is such a kind of cosmic dancer. He has danced late. And so soon. Since 2008 he released yearly one, sometimes two albums via the German Berlin School dedicated label Syngate and its experimental subdivision Luna. Intensely meandering synthesizer journey music, that is pirouetting on inner universes, genuinely crafted in the tradition of Berlin School and Krautrock. You can catch the unearthly nuances of Can and the spaciously swinging psychedelic corners of Amon Dül, Embryo, Tangerine Dream, or Klaus Schulze. As TM Solver has been a lover of analog synthesizers for almost 30 years, all pulsates on analogue sound orbs under the zigzagging guidance of machines like Moog Prodegy, Korg MS20 and GRP A4, as well as state-of-the-art systems as ASM Hydrasynth and Korg Wavestate. When he got in touch with the Berlin club scene and all its propelling grooves in 2006, a new rhythmic universe joined his vast musical space of sound latitudes. “Tinkering around with sound structures is my thing. Leading the listener into a combination of music and sound spaces.“ he reveals on his emotive musical art. How affecting it works, is now displayed with four epic compositions for R.i.O., Berlin Wedding’s label of novel ways for caved rhythmic patterns. Grooving between 90 to 240 BPM, they offer a vast variety of emotional landscapes, slowing down, rolling up, drifting into genuinely layered tonality magic. Headspace music for vigilant wanderers. Utterly psychedelic and yet so clear. His R.i.O. debut “Subtraktiv Additiv“ comes with five additional remixes, fashioned by R.i.O. conspirator Benedikt Frey, Amsterdam based DJ and producer Mayo, “Die Orakel” magician O-Wells from Frankfurt, Siamese Twin Records co-runner Sunju Hargun, and the versatile club and beyond production duo Red Axes. They all respect TM Solver’s analogue zones and pitch them into the 115 to 130 BPM districts, while transcending his absorbing synth compositions into the world of nervous acid-laden ambient, slow-mo techno, industrial bass, post-trance, and all that hallucinogenic echo house. Nine subtle energy vibrations, epic and full of countless facets, shaped to turn on, tune in, and drop out.

First ever repress since 2017!

The second release from MIC comes from Ladies As Pimps - LAPS for short - an anarchic Glasgow duo formed by Lady Two Collars of Golden Teacher and Sue Zuki from Organs Of Love.

Their duets take centre stage on Who Me: the vocal performances range from the stretched, soulful projections of Ode To Daughter to the lawless, clipped, sweet & sour, spat-not-spoken word of Edges.

Spirited percussion scatters in all directions and bass is smothered in tape delay, as the duo beat their way through dub, r'n'b, house, and way beyond, circling around acts like Madam X, The Bug, Stuart Argabright and Francois K, mashing absurdity with dread.

Recorded at Green Door studios in Glasgow (where the two met) and layered with the analogue production techniques learned on the first youth unemployment programme there, the energy and charisma of these recordings promise a pretty unique live show when they support Princess Nokia later this year.

Supported by Ben UFO, DJ Moxie, Pitchfork.

“Dancing Around Fire” is the new album by LA-based drummer and composer Tommaso Cappellato in partnership with Pavimento Fertile, the Italian break dance collective founded by Paolo “Frigo” Montesi. Inspired by the energy of dance and improvisation, this album serves up a dynamic fusion of experimental soul and timeless grooves that command the body to move. This unique collaboration between dancer and musician was born out of Cappellato’s live performance at the Pavimento Fertile dance jam in 2021.

Seeing how Cappellato’s rhythms brought out new layers in the dancers’ movements inspired Montesi to commission an album of original music that celebrates the culture of drum breaks and sampling which fuel freestyle dance. The album’s seven tracks, composed by Cappellato in as many days, take the listener straight to the dance floor.

Cappellato weaves the soulful vocals of Lalin St. Juste (on “Made of Golden Light”) and Cameron Kinghorn (on “Heart to Mend”) alongside percussive electronic tracks (like “Battle Moves”) that emphasize the importance of the drum in unleashing the power of human expression.

Over the course of a 19-year career, Marshall Watson has released all manner of musical treats for a similarly wide array of labels, yet it’s the effortless beauty of his downtempo works – and particularly his ambient and Balearic excursions – that have often left a lasting impression.

It certainly caught the attention of NuNorthern Soul founder Phil Cooper, who brought the West Coast producer to the label in the summer of 2021. That EP, Sunsets on Larkin Parts 1 & 2, was undeniably special. The same can be said about his belated return to the label, Foothills, an EP packed to the rafters with slow-burn melodies, sustained chords, becalmed textures and gently unwinding grooves.

Watson’s distinctive take on Balearic naturally comes to the fore on EP opener ‘High Desert’, a soft-focus delight where languid electric guitars, starry electric piano lines, echoing chords and gently pulsing electronics stretch out across a shuffling groove. While tailor-made for watching the sun set off his beloved Pacific Coast – and over the Mediterranean Sea – ‘High Desert’ offers a dose of hazy sonic sunshine that can brighten up even the greyest of days.

Fittingly, the accompanying remix comes from long-time friends of the label Seahawks, whose textured, layered and atmospheric productions similarly blur boundaries between Balearic, ambient, pitched-down dancefloor grooves and glassy-eyed psychedelia. Employing opaque, shape-shifting pads, effects-laden guitars, subtle spoken word snippets and yearning, almost melancholic chords – all atop a crunchy, head-nodding beat and toasty bassline – the duo deliver a remix that’s as emotive and sonically stunning as Watson’s original mix.

The EP’s three other tracks amply demonstrate the subtle variety within Watson’s downtempo output. Vocalist Julie Childe makes her mark on ‘Sweet Sounds’, a brilliant blend of warming deep house and laidback Balearic nu-disco that sports subtle hints to his work as one half of synthwave duo Causeway, while ‘Open Sky’ brilliantly wraps undulating TB-303 acid lines and echoing Spanish guitars around a hypnotic, locked-in dancefloor groove.

Then there’s ‘The Landscape’, a deliciously saucer-eyed slab of breakbeat-powered, TB-303-sporting genius that evokes the immersive, early morning waviness of the ambient house era, the beach party psychedelia of San Francisco’s free party movement, and the bleeping wonder of turn-of-the-90s UK dance music. Like the rest of the EP, it’s an enveloping, head-soothing and mind-expanding treat.





e B2 High Desert Seahawks High Sky Remix

Swedish drone alchemist Mats Erlandsson is sitting in a fictional room on ‘Gyttjans Topografi’, imagining a virtual chamber orchestra using zithers, tapes, double bass, harmonium, organ, and various synthesisers to draft a treatise on alternative tuning and non-normative harmonic structures. Transcendent material.

“The music on this recording is performed by a kind of fictitious chamber ensemble situated in an imaginary room outlined by textures that alternate between gestural foreground and passive landscape. The three pieces contained within this release are tied together by sharing similar harmonic material and instrumentation and could ideally be perceived as parts of one long performance stretching through the two sides of the record. The textural room in which this musical performance operates is unreliable, unstable, constantly shifting in size and activity from sparse and open to dense and claustrophobic. Inside this non-euclidean performance space a chamber ensemble made up of zithers expanded through analog tape transposition, harmonium and organ, double bass, digital FM, feedback-convolution and Serge modular synthesizer perform a music made from justly tuned intervals arranged in a way that blurs the distinction between traditional minor and major tonal harmony in favour of harmonic progression within an essentially modal framework.

‘Oxidationstabell för Hytta A’ unfolds the harmonic material slowly in three sections where individual lines move independently initiated by the attack of the zither while the textural properties of the room shifts and shimmers. ‘Törnar’ forms a dense harmonic counterpoint where lines built from the same intervallic relationships gradually shift the balance from one spectral focal point to the next while the textural-spatial elements move under pressure and permeate the harmonic layers. The double bass heard on this piece was performed by Yair Elazar Glotman.

The whole of Side B is made up of one piece - ‘Sänka’, using a series of chords made from harmonic inversions of a single set of intervals as an anchor, or synchronisation point, for voices gliding towards, or away, from their designated goal as parts of the harmonic structure of the piece. In addition to the harmonic and textural layers previously present, a third percussive voice is present here whose rhythmic material is intimately tied to the intervallic relationships present throughout the record.

The material used to make these pieces included non-harmonic sounds and contaminated field-recordings that have gone through a sort of feedback process between digital and analog, or acoustic, processing where the recordings were edited, processed and re-amplified and recorded again in acoustic spaces to shape their character and imprint acoustic identities on the recordings. The tonal instruments were treated in a process analogous to this - harmonic material built from recordings and digitally generated synthesis recorded, transcribed, rearranged and overdubbed again with additional electronic or acoustic instruments to form a composite electroacoustic instrumental sound.

Mats Erlandsson is a composer and musician, part of the vibrantly reemerging field of drone music in Stockholm, Sweden, associated with practices characterised by the extensive use of sustained sound. Erlandsson presents his work both as a solo artist and in collaborations, most notably together with Yair Elazar Glotman and Maria W Horn.

The first ever cut on the seminal and stellar German record label Acid Orange, owned by Beroshima himself, aka Frank Muller. An absolute masterpiece of intelligent dance music that with its over thirty total minutes opens up wide spaces of pure listening and lays the foundations for the development of what will soon be recognized as minimal techno. But above all it is a political record that frames delicate social issues and carries a clear message of how music and art in general stands against all forms of occupation and repression. The reissue comes courtesy directly by the author, great artist and true ambassador of good vibes, and we are proud to contribute to the spread of the "Untitled" manifesto.

Roy Orbison was always noted for his impassioned singing style, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. Roy Orbison released his 21st studio album Laminar Flow in 1979. It features guest performances by Steppenwolf- guitarist Larry Byrom and singer-songwriter Mac McAnally. The album includes the track “Hound Dog Man”, which is a tribute to Elvis Presley.

Laminar Flow is available as a limited edition of 750 individually numbered copies on “bloody mary” coloured vinyl and includes an insert.

The duo WILDES from the south of Germany, consisting of Jana Pantha and Jenny Tulipa, presents a musical mix of electro-synth-pop, post-punk and dark disco influences. After the release of their first EP “RAWWR” in 2021, their debut album entitled “KLISCHEE” will be released on 3 February 2023. Released via the Kommando 84 label, the album features 11 songs and a musical re-interpretation of German-language Neue Deutsche Welle sounds. The songs combine spoken word passages in which the singers combine a certain irony with word-playful rhymes. In addition to world-political, social issues, the songs revolve around the complexity of the new romance in love - between cosmos and stereo. The strong and experimentally avant-garde lyrics accompany the danceable pulse of the drum computer, melodic synth waves and the shimmering solos of the lead guitar.

The album “Klischee” begins with an electro-pop track that combines consistent grooves with atmo- spheric sound arrangements and a lead guitar that accompanies our journey to the moon. With the chorus’ high-pitched words, „Konsum - leg mich auf den Moon“ (“Consumption - put me on the Moon”), WILDES dryly yet humorously allude to a society that couldn’t fly “higher”.

The following cheeky song Leger in Schwarz combines impeccable post punk with influences from the NNDW scene. A short love story led by the electronic beat of the synthesizer makes the hearts of the night beat faster. With casual reduction, a guitar riff leads through the song. The guitar solo finally rounds off the plea about the longing for a good flirt.

Italo disco shimmers and pulsates on the driving song Capri. With lyrics like “Pack the boats - Vai a bordo”, Capri is a homage to the tried and tested Italo feeling with a cappucino on the terrazza, or indeed on the yacht with a view of the rocky walls of the island. An electric charge of sequencers and synth tracks acts here as a lightness of being in contrast to the porosity of the rock.

An electrifying electric guitar solo kicks off the fourth track with a mysterious invitation to Steig ein translated, get in. Hypnotised by the lights of the road, dazzled in the side mirror, a clearly repeating rhythm leads into the chorus and through the coming verses. English spoken-word lyrics add to the stoicism of the German language. The song’s great power ends with the line Lost in the dark, holding open the finale of the “Night Drive” encounter.

Digital and stereo on all channels, the distinctly tight and robust rhythm sounds in the song Apparat. A clear and simple synth melody is heard as a contrast and the electric bass gives the balance of the machine at points. Hiddenly, WILDES points here to the superior power that can control human action beyond all limits. A piece as a laudation to all the science fiction novels that play with the switching of the individual parts.

Side One of the vinyl is finalised by a song called La Grande Bellezza that motivates to dance and sing along. The punky pop craft lives through the recurring beat of the rhythm guitar. Here the focus is on the woman in all her facets. The great beauty, una donna, who can do everything as well as wanting everything and nothing...a strong woman who, however, also staggers and wants to jump off the cliff. Clearly and distinctly, the musical accompaniment of the drum machine and the accompanying synth melody reflect hidden parallel worlds and the ambiguity of character - of life? We get a desire for more and turn the round record.

The B side starts with a powerful guitar riff, complemented by a catchy and strong bassline that runs through the song. In this work, WILDES provocatively describes the West’s lust for the much-cov- eted Schwarzes Gold black gold. The song is reminiscent of the works of the band D.A.F. and thus ties in with the electronic punk sound spate.

The driving guitar riff joins in with the reduced synth bass sequence - the electro-pop song with the title Hitze (Heat) came onto the digital music market as the first single from the LP in the summer of 2022. Pulsatingly, the drum computer lets the beats vibrate to the rhythm of heated air. The duo po- etically describes heat with supercooled voices, a clarity in the sky that makes everything flow, that makes the breath dry. The work ends with a melodic synth solo.

Ich lad dich ein, I invite you - we have all said or heard this sentence before. A chance meeting of two people later leads to the altar in love. A far-reaching question that more or less arises in many love relationships at some point “Do you dare?” positions itself in lyrical contrast to the simple ques- tion in the refrain “Do you need sugar?”. WILDES plays with laconic poetry and, full of irony, makes the listeners think about living together. Krautrock contours are skilfully used in this piece. Reduced to the essentials, the chorus immediately sticks in the ear. A cheerful mix of steel drums and infec- tious solo.

Toccami - touch me! We sit on padded leather chairs - “you’re a rocket! Peng Puff Peng” - this song by the band WILDES joins experimental art-punk-pop, electronically with flowing synth waves we take off immediately. Melodically sung, lyrical layers of lyrics dance loosely light and gracefully in the ears of the viewer. The rhythmic beat visualises the feeling of floating in a spaceship. It’s love in the universe - “I love you, my darling” sounds tipsy in the beat-heavy disco refrain.

Hypnotically, WILDES launches into the final song of the entire LP. The title Zone takes us on a journey through time. Inspired by the film Stalker, we find ourselves in a science fiction setting that couldn’t be more present in today’s European events. The musicality of the electric guitar riffs ac- companied by simple new wave drums drives the listener into unknown realms.

Repetition and electronic synth sounds play a compositional role alongside rocking guitar riffs like their forerunners in the NDW scene. Lyrically, each song varies between pop-romantic and politically critical passages. Listeners start pondering about hedonistic life and its consequences. Sometimes it feels like listening to a Tarantino soundtrack in German, other times it feels like listening to an 80s track by a James Bond. Science fiction fantasies and reality add up in dadaistic theatricality to spir- ited synthpunk of the New German Wave from the South. Discoid beats and driving drums in digital are included.

Matt Duncan is one of the biggest artists you have not heard of yet. This particular album, "Soft Times" has almost 20 MILLION STREAMS on Spotify alone. You might not know Matt Duncan, but you have definitely heard his music. His music has been on "The Vampire Diaries," "Private Practice," and HBO's "Bored To Death." Most recently Matt was a featured performer in the Tony Award winning Broadway musical, "Hedwig and The Angry Inch." The album art was created by Robert Beatty, who has recently done art for Tame Impala, Flaming Lips, and more! Matt Duncan creates music that would have fit in perfectly on your Dad's AM Radio in the 1970's. Touches of Blue Eyed Soul await you on this LP. This album showcases the strength of Matt's arranging. Strings, horns, layered vocals all make this perfect mix of Motown and Bacharach. There is a track for any ear on this LP.

Also available from Matt Duncan: Beacon LP. Album has 20M Streams on Spotify. Artist was part of Tony Award Winning Cast of Hedwig & The Angry Inch. Artist has tracks featured on HBO, Showtime, ABC, and MTV networks.

Mahti are a Finnish four-piece group presenting a unique mixture of ambient-rock, electronic music and traditional Finnish-Karelian music.

Lengthy semi-improvisational pieces are built on top of complex, hypnotic grooves which are layered with opaque guitars and strangely soothing noise elements. In the heart of it all there's kantele, an ancient Finnish string instrument played by Hannu Saha, who has studied Finnish folk music in theory and practice for nearly five decades.

Dauw presents 'babel', the debut album from Belgian duo ZONDERWERK. The duo’s name means ‘’without work’’, but it also comes from “bijzonder werk”, where bijzonder is particular, special, unique. They like to work with images/paintings that are “bijzondere werken”, odd works.

babel is an ambitious exercise in translating images into sound. babel was initially created for the eponymous theatre piece by architect and artist Steve Salembier. Inspired by the biblical legend, Salembier envisions the legendary city as an abstract, sprawling modern metropolis in continuous flux. Its steel and glass skeleton is a representation of both an accumulation of overlapping contemporary cityscapes and a metaphor for the anonymous repetitiveness of our daily routines mirrored by the architecture. Subway lines, sky scrapers and whirling highways converge into a megalopolis of monstrous proportions. Despite the composition’s initial context as soundtrack for a theatre play, for the band this album is seen as a standalone work, whose complex sonic material can be appreciated without having seen the piece.

Their score focuses on fleshing out the imposing imaginary universe both in terms of scale and meaning. One of their biggest inspirations were Michael Woolf’s photographs, which served as the basis for the original theatre piece. His use of grey and repetition is translated into looped harmonies and fine-grained drones that progressively open up like blooming ice flowers.

With sounds of bells and metal as their primary materials, Carrijn and Sanders build soundscapes that are at once seductive and unsettling. The atmosphere on tracks like “DreamArp4Kort4” make for majestic, mysterious synths conjuring otherworldly visions, while the angelic glockenspiel set against subtle explosions in “VuurFeest” suggest a serene yet potentially dangerous place. Other tracks like “RoomCarousselTapeLoop5” create multi- layered textured drones through the process of tape decay, a commentary on the cannibalistic nature of the city.

Resulting from an arduous improvisational processusingold samplers with elements such as the Beam harp, a self-made metal instrument with piano strings, reel to reel tape recorders, field recordings and violin, babel perfectly captures the oxymoron of the man-made concrete jungle that is at once inhospitable yet endlessly awe-inducing.

ZONDERWERK is a duo consisting of Linde Carrijn and Dijf Sanders who started this project during the pandemic as a way of exploring their relationship as creative partners. Carrijn has a background in acting but recently came more to the fore as composer/performer with original scores for theatre and her other band Brik Tu-Tok founded with multi-disciplinary artist Maxim Storms. Sanders is a composer and gear enthusiast, more well-known for his eclectic works that draw from a wide-array of non-Western music. His milestone-album Moonlit Planetarium paved to way to a broader audience and recognition from major press in Belgium. In 2021, his work as a producer was recognized with a nomination at the Music Industry Awards.

Since its beginnings, Hypnótica Colectiva has always shown a special interest in the music recorded and released in the city of Detroit.

A place with which we have both a blood and spiritual bond because of what occurred there socially and artistically during the 20th century.

This love led us to become ambassadors of what was happening there on a musical level, holding cultural events to screen documentaries translated into Spanish, as well as a number of themed sets at our events, dedicated motor city sections in our record shop or recently lectures on the history of the city and its music at the Museum of Illustration and Contemporary Art of Valencia (Muvim).

The time has now come to bring all this history, this musical influence, to the editorial section of our label HC records.

Detroit Legacy was born from the idea of capturing these influences on vinyl. Seeking artists from all over the world who share this passion that inspires them to create their music, what we can define as the universal Neo-Detroit.

For this first edition or first volume, the collective has enlisted in its ranks creators affiliated to the label who have shown us in their careers, this influence and this feeling.

Paul Cignol opens the record with Distance. From Dublin he offers us a track of warm sequences inspired by Deep Techno, with deep pads responding to organ keys and a subtle touch of 303.

Mallorcan LLuis Barcelo Sureda is responsible for the second track Funk Station. With a Techno Soul character that we might hear from Detroitish labels like Acacia or producers like Blake Baxter.

A real eminence in Techno is the Catalan Don Alex Martín, who already released in the mid-90s on Monssieur Garnier's label (France Communications). The Barcelona native brings his wealth of experience and wisdom through Megatech, which transports us to the spectrum of Derrick May’s Transmat who, in his day, was nicknamed "The Innovator". This track provides agile sequences of complex syncopated rhythms, combining with a dreamy Michigan style synth.

The anthem of the album comes from Ghent. The sublime Belgian creator, Mariska Neerman, once again makes our hairs stand on end and our hearts melt with a heavenly composition entitled Stellium.

No one interprets Neo-Detroit quite like Mariska, whom we baptise as a sovereign heiress of the genre in the world. If we have to think of an influence for this piece, we go straight to the genius of Detroit, the one and only Jeff Mills, in his most symphonic and harmonic facet of tracks released on his label Axis Records such as "The March", A Universal Voice That Speaks To All That Will Listen or A New Found Sense Of Being.

Some of these songs have been re-interpreted by world class philharmonic orchestras such as the Montpellier Philharmonic Orchestra at the 2005 Blue Potential (Pont Du Garde). Mariska's score in this song fuses organ keys with harmonic layers and violin - favourite instruments of the Detroitian extraterrestrial - with a harmonic result of strength and hope. An authentic anthem of classic emotional Techno.

Old School electro takes centre stage with the Master from Terrassa Ivan Arnau a.k.a. Dark Vektor. In the influence of Juan Atkins (the creator) as Cybotron or Model 500 and later creators who developed this sound like Aux 88. Metaverso Frik is a great recital of a urban poetry created and interpreted by Ivan, to completely devastating effect.

Croatian Bojan Jascur a.k.a. N-TER, closes the vinyl with We Will Emerge, in a exercise of vindication, a common weapon in the context of Detroit music. Raging, trippy electro in the purest style of Cosmic Force or Dynarec.

This first tribute to 8 Mile doesn't end with the vinyl, as 2 digital bonus tracks are included in the release.

We return to Barcelona with Pastin Futon in another sequence of consecutive oscillated rhythms oscillated much like Kevin Saunderson (The Elevator) in his day and the Techno Groove that we know today.

The most robotic touch of the release is the closer with this synthetic jigsaw puzzle of a track with echoes of the 1967 Detroit Riot, the Detroit Rebellion. Again produced by another Barcelona native, The Bandit (Dj Spy / Util Records). The sequences are very reminiscent of Arpanet and Drexciya.

The idea for the cover comes from Motor City itself by Jon Yowell, first cousin of HC records founder and head of HC records David Verdeguer.

Born, raised and a lifelong resident of Detroit, Jon is an enormously talented musician capable of writing lyrics, performing them on the mic and manipulating a number of stringed instruments as well as the drums, where he is a true master.

The cover is a tribute to the formative backgrounds of many of the city's musicians in every sonic trend. Wayne State University in the capital of Michigan.

Founded in 1868, it has offered didactic teaching to many of the city's musicians.

Not all of Detroit's creators went to university, and even less so when talking about Techno, many artists are self-taught or learned in a non-academic way, but it seems to us a good base to begin to highlight the origins of the city's music in a historic building, where those who have the opportunity to learn about music have been and continue to be educated.

The adapted designs are the work of our image manager Dani Requeni.

Mastering by Steve Voidloss at Black Monolith Studios in London (UK).

Beautiful, soulful jazz record by Jimetta Rose and The Voices of Creation, a Los Angeles-based community choir, a mainstay of the local scene. Highly recommended!!

The Voices of Creation are a community-based choir led by vocalist, songwriter, arranger, producer and mainstay of the Los Angeles scene Jimetta Rose. Made up of a multigenerational group of mainly non-professional singers backed by some of the city’s finest musicians,their music marries hip strains of gospel with layers of jazz, soul and funk. While aspects of their music might recall Kamasi Washington, The Staple Singers or Sly Stone, Jimetta’s unique vision has resulted in new spiritually-charged forms of music whose whole-hearted embrace of love, joy and peace act as sonic healing balms for the soul.

For Jimetta - whose resume includes collaborations with Miguel Atwood Ferguson, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Sa-Ra Creative Partners, Angel Bat Dawid, Shafiq Husayn, MED and Blu - the very act of creation was part of a healing process: “I was very low at the time and I wrote most of the songs going through hardship. But I found comfort in the songs and a way to adjust my mindset to where things got better. So I thought ‘if this music works for me, maybe it will work for other people’ I believe that every person has their own voice and their own note and that we can use our voices to heal ourselves. That’s the intention behind creating the project.”

After putting out a call on social media for people interested in joining her choir she was met with a sea of replies. Members were chosen in less-than conventional fashion: “I recruited people based on their interest in healing themselves and others, not necessarily on their musical experience or being seasoned performers” she says. Among those accepted into the ever-evolving collective, which was begun initially as a community choir, were the likes of Sly Stone’s daughter Novena Carmel, better known as a radio DJ for KCRW’s flagship breakfast show. Jimetta’s upbringing in the Pentecostal church, where she was a youth choir director, fed into her otherwise intuitive teachings of her songs and arrangements to the inexperienced members with help from the group’s seasoned organ player/co-musical director Jack Maeby.

Produced by Mario Caldato Jr. (Beastie Boys, Seu Jorge) and his wife Samantha Caldato the results show the incredible sense of togetherness and communal spirit that the group had built up over time in the rehearsal sessions. The six tracks of their debut album, a mixture of originals and rearranged covers, are performed in a wide-eyed mix of styles that reflect Jimetta’s vision for borderless music: “It’s new black classical music,” she explains. “It’s all the hodgepodge of being an African American but also with creativity and vision for the future. It has a taste of what is to come and what we can do. What we have gone through and who we are now.”

The group’s propensity for warm and buoyant sonics finds representation on album opener Let The Sunshine In, a sparkling rework of the Sons and Daughters of Lite’s deep jazz classic. Their version finds the group’s dynamic group harmonies offset with Allakoi Peete’s nimble afro-percussive touches and plenty of soul- drenched keys courtesy of pianist Quran Shaheed and organ player Jack Maeby. A similarly uplifting take on Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s choral jazz classic Spirits Up Above follows, with Maeby’s groove-laden organ lines inspiring some gorgeous group harmonies as well as prime solo turns from the likes of Kellye Hawkins, Zavier Wise, Tamara Blue, and Khalila Gardner.

Another Sons and Daughters of Lite cover follows as Jimetta leads the choir in the groove-drenched ode to self-affirmation Operation Feed Yourself. Written as a series of mantras for everyday living, the Jimetta-penned composition How Good It Is harnesses the full transformative power of music to generate a stirring and joyful ode to positivity - it’s chanted declarations bringing out some of the group’s most deeply-felt and affecting vocal performances over some superlative piano and organ accompaniment with a surprise feature vocal from Novena Carmel.

Jimetta’s talent for re-imagining songs in her own light is highlighted in Answer The Call, her vivid re-telling of Funkadelic’s Cosmic Slop: “When I listened to the original song, the Mom in the story was really going through it. I thought of how I could turn this into a song that can encompass the glorification of all mothers and I thought of the Egyptian cosmic goddess Nut. To that mother we’re all the seeds planted in the garden. Answering the call in your life is literally that. Finding out exactly what you’re here for through your heart.”

The album finishes with the standout original gospel number Ain’t Life Grand. Over swaying organs and clapped percussion Jimetta’s lyrical mantras serve to emphasise the good feelings that come to those with a grateful heart. Good feeling is an apt descriptor for the mood of the album as a whole. Its shining positivity provides a welcome ray of light in an increasingly dark world. “It’s a shortcut if you will to the better feelings” Jimetta says. “The hope that we need to keep pressing forward. We are saturated and inundated with images of chaos and destruction, death and hatred. There’s so much we can witness. So, I want to make sure that there is a representation sonically of the other parts that are still there to witness so that we can continue to build those things. So that the systems we support actually reflect what we want to experience. So it’s like: “Don’t give up and Let The Sunshine Into You” and then find out what your purpose is and answer the call.”

An intergenerational meeting of minds, Galaxy is the first collaborative EP from Meanjin, Brisbane musicians Sam Poggioli aka Sampology and Charlie Hill. Equal parts brain dance and body music, Galaxy’s seven tracks represent a vivid intermingling of 70s jazz-funk, fusion, machine-funk, Latin house and broken beat, accented by flourishes of minimalist composition. Considered as a whole, it evokes the possibility and potential of a space-age future where technology and nature exist in simpatico.

One of the most in-demand young jazz drummers in the Meanjin (Brisbane) music scene, Charlie started producing electronic music on his laptop three years ago. It was a vibe shift that hit him after several months spent immersing himself in Europe’s jazz and electronica scenes on the eve of the global coronavirus pandemic. After returning home, he approached Sam about recording some music together.

Sam, a well-travelled Australian DJ, producer and Worldwide FM radio host, was cautious about starting a new side project. However, when he heard his demos, he realised Charlie was blending rhythmic fundamentals he’d learned while completing a music degree with a beautifully wide-eyed approach to jazz-tinged electronica.

With Charlie on drums and Sam on MPC, they set about recording the songs on Galaxy, along the way discovering Sam’s mother taught Charlie visual art as a child. They also learned that Charlie’s mother plays with Sam’s father in the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, synchronicities which made their collaboration feel like it was meant to be.

As part of the Galaxy sessions, Sam and Charlie collaborated with fellow Australian vocalists Tiana Khasi and Merinda Dias-Jayasinha. On ‘Constant Call’, Tiana threads neo-soul/modern soul melodies through a backdrop that sounds like Burial on a future jazz tip. ‘Merinda’, on the other hand, sees Merinda laying a repeated Steve Riech-style vocal refrain over a man/machine instrumental accented by stargazed synths.

At the same time as they were creating Galaxy, Charlie was also busy recording his debut solo EP Yore, both of which are due for release in August 2023, respectively, through Middle Name Records.

Argentinian producer Joel Pulso has been serving up searing techno for many years and has plenty more to come on the likes of Key Vinyl and Temporal Variation, but this EP on Kimochi marks his first outing on vinyl. The solo wax debut finds him laying down his signature mix of rhythm, texture, and atmosphere. Across various experimental and tonal tunes he brings plenty of raw emotion and deep musical adventures for the dancefloor of the sort that fans of greats like Donato Dozzy, Mika Vainio and Mike Parker will all likely enjoy. The 12" comes with a nice hand-sprayed sleeve, too.

When Leon Michels and El Michels Affair released their fi­rst record, Sounding Out The City, in 2005, it was hard to guess what was next for Michels and his then-introduced, now-patented “cinematic soul” sound. Now, four EMA studio albums and scores of tribute and remix projects later all while producing for some of the biggest names in the industry Michels has trademarked his sound, with each project taking audiences somewhere new and pushing the boundaries of what he is known for. The man is a river, not a lake and this time he takes his golden touch into the realm of hip-hop laying down a musical bed for one of the greatest to ever rhyme into a microphone: Black Thought of The Roots crew.

Releasing on Big Crown Records, the LP is called Glorious Game and it is a remarkable debut partnership in more ways than one. Michels provides his bottom-heavy, soul-tinged production for Black Thought who gives us some of the more personal and transparent verses we've ever heard from him. Michels and Black Thought have been in each other's orbit for a while now. The two fi­rst met in the 2000s when Thought was fi­rst getting familiar with the contemporary soul scene. "Out of that whole world, Menahan Street Band was probably my favorite," recalling the funk and soul group Michels was a founding member of back in 2007. Fast forward a few years and musicians from that collective Dave Guy on trumpet and Ian Hendrickson-Smith on sax are now full time players with The Roots. This connection eventually led Leon and Thought to doing a few fundraising events around NYC and Philly together. "Before long, Black Thought was coming around the studio and would jam with us from time to time," Michels explains. "Then, fast forward to 2020 and COVID lockdowns, he just hit me up out of the blue, wanting me to send him stuff to write to. We both were looking to stay busy."

Being that Black Thought is the co-founder and emcee for, hands down, the best live-band group in hip-hop. Michels took a decidedly different approach to this project and instead of sending recorded tracks of live compositions, he pulled out the sampler and sampled himself and some records from his collection. "I'm a big fan of soul music," as if Michels has to remind us. "And part of hip-hop's appeal to me has always been the sample-based production".

For Glorious Game, Michels would make wholly composed and recorded soul songs in his studio, sample himself, then chop and/or loop up his sounds and create instrumentals for Black Thought. On some tracks he took a more traditional hip-hop approach, starting from samples of other people’s music but then adding live instrumentation on top. But for the most part, it's him reinterpreting his own compositions into something new.

The result is an organic feel of loop-based tracks that breathe and fluctuate enough for Black Thought to ‑ex on. "What I write about is determined by the equation of the producer's energy and my energy," Black Thought says. "It's about where we meet." So armed with Michels sampled and re-sampled soul cinematics, Black Thought rhymes through personal memories and distinctive.

Beloved Rio de Janeiro veteran producer and live act, Fabio Santanna, brings his heady take on the tropical flavors of modern Brazil on Onda Boa’s second release, a pulsating double-sider that serves as a loving tribute to two giants of Brazilian boogie, Marcos Valle and Lincoln Olivetti. “Ao Som De Marcos Valle" kicks things off with a mix of organic elements layered alongside synths and Rhodes that Master Marcos himself would approve of, with lyrics that slyly reference some of Valle’s most iconic moments from his 80s boogie period. Razor N Tape’s Jkriv turns up the heat even further on his remix, bringing a touch of that NYC fire to the already sultry beaches of Rio.

“Chega Mais Lincoln” on the flip applies the lessons learned from “O Mago do Pop”, Lincoln Olivetti, utilizing sophisticated synth arrangements over a delicious mid-tempo groove and a vocoder calling out in praise… "Lincoln!”. Joutro Mundo’s remix takes things into dubbyer territory with his trademark approach to dance music that carefully balances tropical bliss with swirling, synth-thetic psychedelia, capping off an epic sophomore 12” for the label that manages to occupy the spaces in-between cosmic disco, tropical balearica and modern boogie… and always with that unmistakable Brazilian swing.

Artesian Sounds welcomes Cicada Ensemble to the label with his debut EP 'Murmuration Clip', featuring a remix from London-based producer Otik.

The title track is light and nimble, swelling with shimmering arps, weighty subs and no kick drum in sight. 'Kepler' layers intricate sound design with head-spinning breaks and an aggressive bassline. 'Buchla & C7' is a five minute epic, patiently building to its climax for almost half of the runtime - a true exercise in tension and restraint. Last but not least, Otik's remix of Kepler slows the original, combining dub infused atmosphere with driving percussion.

French techno titan Madben unveils his much anticipated ‘Troisième Sens’ LP on Maceo Plex’s Ellum Audio.

Madben started absorbing the techno of Jeff Mills, Dave Clarke and Speedy J in the 90s, growing up in Lille in northern France. He retains a passion for DIY culture and warehouse parties thanks to youthful raving at Brussels' Fuse, Gent's Kozzmozz or in abandoned factories in Courtrai. All this has shone through in his music, including a debut album on Astropolis in 2018 that featured a collaboration with Laurent Garnier and a recent EP for Garnier and Scan X’s label.

Over the last decade, he has become a European club and festival favourite playing places like Berghain and Awakenings. His studio boasts a fine array of machines utilised to full effect on this latest opus. ‘Troisième Sens’ perfectly reflects what the artist has always loved, listened to and played, keeping one eye on the dance floor but never at the expense of musical narrative. It’s a genuinely progressive, multi-genre body of work that allows listeners to fully immerse themselves in the seemingly limitless depths of the Frenchman’s sonic capabilities.

He says, “Over the years, I learned to have more fun with the gear in my studio, and this has been the result. The album took three years to finish; I started in an underground basement studio in Paris before moving to Nantes. Therefore, it may surprise listeners with such a diverse selection of moods. It's dark in places but happy in others.”

'Departure' kicks off with uplifting synth work and broken techno beats that have a celebratory feel. 'Addicted' is a lithe cut with steamy vocals and a more fulsome combo of drums and bass, while 'Circuit Breaker' cuts loose in the cosmos. Acid wobbles, smeared synths and metallic percussion all make for a bouncy cut before 'Fade In Fade Out' continues the cosmic trip with vastly oversized synth patterns that will light up a dark space with overwhelming euphoria.

The brilliant 'It's 1 am In A Rave' is a dark, heads-down banger with 'Lost Memories' then layering up melancholic synths and Plastikman-style drum loops into something full of deep thought. There is no let up with the superb acid techno gymnastics of 'No fear', and 'The March' is a turbulent mix of sheet metal synths that whip about over steel-plated drums. 'You Dance Like A Robot' is end-of-the-world electro with a menacing robot vocal, and the electro tip continues with expert drum programming and menacing leads on 'Deep In The Jungle'. 'Meta' is a flailing rhythmic workout that sounds like the machines are in meltdown, and 'I Made A Dream During This Nightmare' is a serene techno soundscape for ruminating about the future of the human race.

Intelligent yet immediate, impactful but emotional, ‘Troisième Sens’ is another standout techno record from Madben.

Harlem & Irving label partner Brian Kelly assumes his Supplement alias here for a new and limited edition 12" that features two of his tasteful and challenging sounds. Kelly is always out to disrupt and subvert and does so with aplomb here as the a-side title track starts with a whisper but soon grows with layers of found sound, piano, percussion, and ethereal voices. It then collapses before reemerging with melodic and tonal guitars and pulses. On the flip, the same tune comes 'Revisioned' but is much more cold and distorted, edgy and urgent. This record also comes with s the published essay, Revision: Composing an Aesthetics of Performance Pedagogy (Kelly & Wooda, 2016).

When Leon Michels and El Michels Affair released their rst record, Sounding Out The City, in 2005, it was hard to guess what was next for Michels and his then-introduced, now-patented "cinematic soul" sound. Now, four EMA studio albums and scores of tribute and remix projects later - all while producing for some of the biggest names in the industry - Michels has trademarked his sound, with each project taking audiences somewhere new and pushing the boundaries of what he is known for. The man is a river, not a lake and this time he takes his golden touch into the realm of hip-hop laying down a musical bed for one of the greatest to ever rhyme into a microphone: Black Thought of The Roots crew. Releasing on Big Crown Records, the LP is called Glorious Game and it is a remarkable debut partnership in more ways than one. Michels provides his bottom-heavy, soul-tinged production for Black Thought who gives us some of the more personal and transparent verses we've ever heard from him. Michels and Black Thought have been in each other's orbit for a while now. The two first met in the 2000s when Thought was first getting familiar with the contemporary soul scene. "Out of that whole world, Menahan Street Band was probably my favorite," recalling the funk and soul group Michels was a founding member of back in 2007. Fast forward a few years and musicians from that collective - Dave Guy on trumpet and Ian Hendrickson-Smith on sax - are now full time players with The Roots. This connection eventually led Leon and Thought to doing a few fundraising events around NYC and Philly together. "Before long, Black Thought was coming around the studio and would jam with us from time to time," Michels explains. "Then, fast forward to 2020 and COVID lockdowns, he just hit me up out of the blue, wanting me to send him stuff to write to. We both were looking to stay busy" Being that Black Thought is the co-founder and emcee for, hands down, the best live-band group in hip-hop. Michels took a decidedly different approach to this project and instead of sending recorded tracks of live compositions, he pulled out the sampler and sampled himself and some records from his collection. "I'm a big fan of soul music," as if Michels has to remind us. "And part of hip-hop's appeal to me has always been the sample-based production" For Glorious Game, Michels would make wholly composed and recorded soul songs in his studio, sample himself, then chop and/or loop up his sounds and create instrumentals for Black Thought. On some tracks he took a more traditional hip-hop approach, starting from samples of other people's music but then adding live instrumentation on top. But for the most part, it's him reinterpreting his own compositions into something new. The result is an organic feel of loop-based tracks that breathe and uctuate enough for Black Thought to ex on. "What I write about is determined by the equation of the producer's energy and my energy," Black Thought says. "It's about where we meet." So armed with Michels sampled and re-sampled soul cinematics, Black Thought rhymes through personal memories.

SKY HIGH BLUE COLOURED VINYL

When Leon Michels and El Michels Affair released their rst record, Sounding Out The City, in 2005, it was hard to guess what was next for Michels and his then-introduced, now-patented "cinematic soul" sound. Now, four EMA studio albums and scores of tribute and remix projects later - all while producing for some of the biggest names in the industry - Michels has trademarked his sound, with each project taking audiences somewhere new and pushing the boundaries of what he is known for. The man is a river, not a lake and this time he takes his golden touch into the realm of hip-hop laying down a musical bed for one of the greatest to ever rhyme into a microphone: Black Thought of The Roots crew. Releasing on Big Crown Records, the LP is called Glorious Game and it is a remarkable debut partnership in more ways than one. Michels provides his bottom-heavy, soul-tinged production for Black Thought who gives us some of the more personal and transparent verses we've ever heard from him. Michels and Black Thought have been in each other's orbit for a while now. The two first met in the 2000s when Thought was first getting familiar with the contemporary soul scene. "Out of that whole world, Menahan Street Band was probably my favorite," recalling the funk and soul group Michels was a founding member of back in 2007. Fast forward a few years and musicians from that collective - Dave Guy on trumpet and Ian Hendrickson-Smith on sax - are now full time players with The Roots. This connection eventually led Leon and Thought to doing a few fundraising events around NYC and Philly together. "Before long, Black Thought was coming around the studio and would jam with us from time to time," Michels explains. "Then, fast forward to 2020 and COVID lockdowns, he just hit me up out of the blue, wanting me to send him stuff to write to. We both were looking to stay busy" Being that Black Thought is the co-founder and emcee for, hands down, the best live-band group in hip-hop. Michels took a decidedly different approach to this project and instead of sending recorded tracks of live compositions, he pulled out the sampler and sampled himself and some records from his collection. "I'm a big fan of soul music," as if Michels has to remind us. "And part of hip-hop's appeal to me has always been the sample-based production" For Glorious Game, Michels would make wholly composed and recorded soul songs in his studio, sample himself, then chop and/or loop up his sounds and create instrumentals for Black Thought. On some tracks he took a more traditional hip-hop approach, starting from samples of other people's music but then adding live instrumentation on top. But for the most part, it's him reinterpreting his own compositions into something new. The result is an organic feel of loop-based tracks that breathe and uctuate enough for Black Thought to ex on. "What I write about is determined by the equation of the producer's energy and my energy," Black Thought says. "It's about where we meet." So armed with Michels sampled and re-sampled soul cinematics, Black Thought rhymes through personal memories.

Tape

When Leon Michels and El Michels Affair released their rst record, Sounding Out The City, in 2005, it was hard to guess what was next for Michels and his then-introduced, now-patented "cinematic soul" sound. Now, four EMA studio albums and scores of tribute and remix projects later - all while producing for some of the biggest names in the industry - Michels has trademarked his sound, with each project taking audiences somewhere new and pushing the boundaries of what he is known for. The man is a river, not a lake and this time he takes his golden touch into the realm of hip-hop laying down a musical bed for one of the greatest to ever rhyme into a microphone: Black Thought of The Roots crew. Releasing on Big Crown Records, the LP is called Glorious Game and it is a remarkable debut partnership in more ways than one. Michels provides his bottom-heavy, soul-tinged production for Black Thought who gives us some of the more personal and transparent verses we've ever heard from him. Michels and Black Thought have been in each other's orbit for a while now. The two first met in the 2000s when Thought was first getting familiar with the contemporary soul scene. "Out of that whole world, Menahan Street Band was probably my favorite," recalling the funk and soul group Michels was a founding member of back in 2007. Fast forward a few years and musicians from that collective - Dave Guy on trumpet and Ian Hendrickson-Smith on sax - are now full time players with The Roots. This connection eventually led Leon and Thought to doing a few fundraising events around NYC and Philly together. "Before long, Black Thought was coming around the studio and would jam with us from time to time," Michels explains. "Then, fast forward to 2020 and COVID lockdowns, he just hit me up out of the blue, wanting me to send him stuff to write to. We both were looking to stay busy" Being that Black Thought is the co-founder and emcee for, hands down, the best live-band group in hip-hop. Michels took a decidedly different approach to this project and instead of sending recorded tracks of live compositions, he pulled out the sampler and sampled himself and some records from his collection. "I'm a big fan of soul music," as if Michels has to remind us. "And part of hip-hop's appeal to me has always been the sample-based production" For Glorious Game, Michels would make wholly composed and recorded soul songs in his studio, sample himself, then chop and/or loop up his sounds and create instrumentals for Black Thought. On some tracks he took a more traditional hip-hop approach, starting from samples of other people's music but then adding live instrumentation on top. But for the most part, it's him reinterpreting his own compositions into something new. The result is an organic feel of loop-based tracks that breathe and uctuate enough for Black Thought to ex on. "What I write about is determined by the equation of the producer's energy and my energy," Black Thought says. "It's about where we meet." So armed with Michels sampled and re-sampled soul cinematics, Black Thought rhymes through personal memories.

Eric D. Johnson rarely lingers at one location too long. As a kid growing up in the Midwest, Johnson's family moved around a lot, but it wasn't until he became a touring musician years later that motion became a central part of his identity. That transient lifestyle stoked an enduring reverence for the world he watched pass by through a van window. A sense of place is a unifying theme he's revisited with Fruit Bats throughout its many lives. From the project's origins in the late '90s as a vehicle for Johnson's lo-fi tinkering to the more sonically ambitious work of recent years, Fruit Bats has often showcased love songs where people and locations meld into one. It's a loose song structure that navigates what he calls "the geography of the heart." "The songs exist in a world that you can sort of travel from one to another," says Johnson. "There are roads and rivers between these songs." Those pathways extend straight through the newest Fruit Bats album, aptly titled A River Running to Your Heart . Self-produced by Johnson_a first for Fruit Bats_with Jeremy Harris at Panoramic House just north of San Francisco, it's Fruit Bats' tenth full-length release and one that finds the project in the middle of a creative resurgence. After two decades of making music, hard-earned emotional maturity has seeped into Johnson's songs, resulting in a more complex sound that's connected with audiences like no other previous version of Fruit Bats. A River Running to Your Heart represents the fullest realization of that creative vision to date. It's a sonically diverse effort that largely explores the importance of what it means to be home, both physically and spiritually. And while that might seem like a peculiar focus for an artist who's constantly in motion, for Fruit Bats, home can take many forms_from the obvious to the obscure. Lead single "Rushin' River Valley" is a self-propelled love song written about Johnson's wife that clings to the borrowed imagery of the place where she grew up in northern California. Then, there's the gentle and unfussy acoustic ballad "We Used to Live Here," which looks back to a time of youthful promise and cheap rent. But the wistful "It All Comes Back" is perhaps the most stunning and surprising track on the album, Johnson's production skills on full display. Built upon intricate layers of synths, keyboards, and guitars, it's a pitch-perfect blend of tone and lyricism that taps into our shared apprehensions and hopes for a post-pandemic life. "We lost some time / But we can make it back / Let's take it easy on ourselves, okay?" sings a world-weary but ultimately reassuring Johnson in the song's opening lines. It's the kind of performance that makes you hope Fruit Bats stays in this one place, at least for a little while longer.

BLUE & BONE VINYL

Eric D. Johnson rarely lingers at one location too long. As a kid growing up in the Midwest, Johnson's family moved around a lot, but it wasn't until he became a touring musician years later that motion became a central part of his identity. That transient lifestyle stoked an enduring reverence for the world he watched pass by through a van window. A sense of place is a unifying theme he's revisited with Fruit Bats throughout its many lives. From the project's origins in the late '90s as a vehicle for Johnson's lo-fi tinkering to the more sonically ambitious work of recent years, Fruit Bats has often showcased love songs where people and locations meld into one. It's a loose song structure that navigates what he calls "the geography of the heart." "The songs exist in a world that you can sort of travel from one to another," says Johnson. "There are roads and rivers between these songs." Those pathways extend straight through the newest Fruit Bats album, aptly titled A River Running to Your Heart . Self-produced by Johnson_a first for Fruit Bats_with Jeremy Harris at Panoramic House just north of San Francisco, it's Fruit Bats' tenth full-length release and one that finds the project in the middle of a creative resurgence. After two decades of making music, hard-earned emotional maturity has seeped into Johnson's songs, resulting in a more complex sound that's connected with audiences like no other previous version of Fruit Bats. A River Running to Your Heart represents the fullest realization of that creative vision to date. It's a sonically diverse effort that largely explores the importance of what it means to be home, both physically and spiritually. And while that might seem like a peculiar focus for an artist who's constantly in motion, for Fruit Bats, home can take many forms_from the obvious to the obscure. Lead single "Rushin' River Valley" is a self-propelled love song written about Johnson's wife that clings to the borrowed imagery of the place where she grew up in northern California. Then, there's the gentle and unfussy acoustic ballad "We Used to Live Here," which looks back to a time of youthful promise and cheap rent. But the wistful "It All Comes Back" is perhaps the most stunning and surprising track on the album, Johnson's production skills on full display. Built upon intricate layers of synths, keyboards, and guitars, it's a pitch-perfect blend of tone and lyricism that taps into our shared apprehensions and hopes for a post-pandemic life. "We lost some time / But we can make it back / Let's take it easy on ourselves, okay?" sings a world-weary but ultimately reassuring Johnson in the song's opening lines. It's the kind of performance that makes you hope Fruit Bats stays in this one place, at least for a little while longer.

For the 7th installment of their split-series, Dalmata Daniel welcomes both Roberto Auser for his sophomore contribution to the label, as well as a fresh addition to the catalogue: Cestrian, aka. Ali Renault, the tireless Margate-based DJ and producer, well known for his frantic, dazzling and rough releases at labels like Bunker, Cyber Dance Records or Mechatronica.

Massive, thumping kickdrums and hypnotic whispers introduce the first tunes of side A, that is 'Awakening' - Auser's take on slow, EBM-esque industrial vibrations as an eerie, industrial waltz. 'Selvage' drives effortlessly to disco- and retrofuturistic territories, arriving at the closing track of Auser's side, 'Long Night' This third cut is his longest one, steadily building up harmonic layers of dark, intertwining melodies with the devoted beats of a minimalistic drum machine, full of echoes and shimmering high-ends.

Side B starts with the energetic, rolling bassline of 'Satan'. Ideal title for such a fiery, blazing electro hit: if you ever find yourself in any sort of Inferno-situation trying to Shazam that heated banger you hear, it is likely that it's one of Cestrian's intense tracks from this 12". 'Zoltan' delivers a gentle rumbling of a dusty bass-synth. An atmospheric, chill sequence dominates the split's penultimate track, with dreamy chords and smooth twists on a chaotic noise-source. Finishing off the split, Cestrian hits us with 'Lids' - an excited and raw vision of electro, full of hazy sparks and detuned, tense oscillations. The bass cuts into our minds like blades from a giallo-opus, leaving behind nothing but the unsolved mystery of ineffable horrors.

Marcos Díaz has been part of Buenos Aires underground for many years, being in projects like Bosques and making solo music under the pseudonym Entidad Animada (animated entity). Under this project, Marcos has explored sounds that involve a mix of feedback/distortion through synthesizers, guitars and drum machines that hint at the influence of Stereolab, Spacemen 3, and mid-nineties shoegaze. However, there are also ambient soundscapes with a slight rubbed of the ritualistic psychedelia of the Popol Vuh. The display of colours in his music comes together in the midst of a playful, relaxed and optimistic environment that is simultaneously melancholic. Because of the nature of those pieces, but also because in Entidad Animada there is also space for collage sounds that blend randomly with textures of a primitive analog sound, which inevitably causes a paradox between what is alive and what is inert. And it is because Entidad Animada is precisely that, a spectrum or a vision, a ghost. And these sounds are proof of his existence.

Pruebas de existencia (proofs of existence) is a collection of recordings that Marcos has made in recent years and that we have selected for this album, his first work on Umor Rex. A couple of these pieces were only released digitally, while the others have been on ltd cassette editions through Fuego Amigo Discos in Argentina. Pruebas de existencia is an Umor Rex compilation and remastered edition.

Guitar, sampler, synthesizer, organ, bass, drums & electronic beats, vocals, recording and mixing by Entidad Animada in Buenos Aires. Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studio, NY. Cover photography Natch Tablescape (1979) by Langdon Clay. Layout by Daniel Castrejón, Mexico City.

Brazilian experimental multi-instrumentalist Carla Boregas follows plates for Bokeh Versions and Hive Mind with a ghostly set of deep listening electronics that plays like a symphony for an imagined woodwind orchestra.

Carla Boregas is best known from her tenure in São Paulo's genre-bending experimental post-punk scene, playing in long-running outfit Rakta as well as other related offshoots. Her solo material has been knottier to unpick, here developing ideas from a collection of unfinished fragments and notebook scribbles exploring the possibility of finding a wind instrument that could be played collectively by several musicians. Coinciding with the pandemic, however, she soon realised the inherent risks involved with sharing breath and so the concept took a different direction, with added resonance.

Boregas developed a synthetic alternative, layering vocals and environmental recordings to suggest wind instrumentation without attempting to mimic it. The sounds here are airy, but rarely diegetic - on the title track, Boregas uses analog arpeggios and plucked, sustained tones to approximate the kosmische world of Ash Ra Tempel or more recently Emeralds, as if trapped in a wind tunnel, moved forward by an unseen force.

There's a whisper of the ancient past that harmonises with Wojciech Rusin's speculative medieval gasps, and Bloedneus & de Snuitkever's severely underheard ‘Milli Mille’, an examination of the ancient Greek aulos. On ’Grafia Do Invisível' the sound is completely different again, but the concept remains, using precise analog drones and minuscule timbral shifts to imitate the character of a wind instrument and simultaneously harmonise with the deep listening meditations of Éliane Radigue and Kali Malone.

A voice enters the frame on 'Sopro’, chopped into deviated gulps and syllables, creating a language that's unfamiliar and percussive. The use of breath is subtle, and vocalisations criss-cross between synths and faint whistles, forming an expression that's different from its predecessors but intrinsically interlinked. This is where ‘Pena Ao Mar’ excels, by viewing breath and its application in electronic music from multiple angles simultaneously. Fans of Lucy Duncombe, Lucrecia Dalt, or Sarah Davachi - don't miss this one.

Hell Yeah heads to Brazil and the cultured sounds of Pedro Bertho for a hot new 12" that features Mariana Gehring and remixes from Romain FX and My Friend Dario. The digital version includes two bonus cuts while the vinyl is the first to have all-new artwork by FJD.

Now based in France, inclusive party promoter Pedro Bertho’s music is a melting pot of sound that draws on his own personal heritage and a life spent digging for records. That means that afro rhythms, Italo melodies, rolling reggae, deep house, and plenty more all get mixed up into something new.

They have come on the likes of Cracki Records and always search out innovative ways to bring euphoria to the dance floor.

For the first tune, he works with Mariana Gehring, a Sao Paulo-based singer and composer influenced by new MPB and other signature Brazilian sounds like Forro, Maracatu and Samba.

Their excellent 'Tornei' is a mix of full-fat bass and sensuous vocals. Fizzing synths, percussion and FX bring the energy while Gehring arrives in the breakdowns to bring the spine-tingling soul. Romain FX is a scene mainstay, label head at fauve, boiler room veteran and has released on the likes of Kalahari oyster cult and many more.

His version is a retro workout with lush cosmic melodies and slinky grown-up grooves sure to get the floor full.

Next is 'Elephants au 5eme', a busy mix of analogue drums and hits, wild elephant trumpets and fleshy synths that bring unusual tropical heat to any party. The same track is remixed by label regular and new school Balearic boss my Friend Dario.

He plays with the vocals, layers in shimmering chords, and keeps things dubby to make for another of his signature grooves.

Hawkins wurde für ihr Platin-ausgezeichnetes Debütalbum ”Tongues and Tails” und dessen kultige Leadsingle ”Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover” für einen Grammy nominiert. Ihr Erfolgshit ”As I Lay Me Down”
brach alle Rekorde der amerikanischen Musikgeschichte als am längsten gelistete Hit-Single in den BillboardCharts. Sophies siebtes Album ”Free Myself” ist geprägt von Hawkins’ rauen und doch poetischen Texten und ihrer unverwechselbaren, fesselnden Stimme.

Das zweite Album der Londoner Art-Punk-Band HMLTD wurde mit Gospelchor und 16-köpfigem Streichorchester aufgenommen und hebt Klangexperimente aus dissonanten Free-Jazz-Riffs, Vintage-Soul, englischen Folk-Fusionen und Rockoper auf eine neue Ebene. Angesiedelt als verwirrend-anachronistische Version des mittelalterlichen Englands, durchdrungen von dystopischer Sci-Fi-Fantasie und altenglischer Mythologie, ist es ein Gesamtkunstwerk aus politischer Polemik und einem tief bewegenden, psychologischen Trip.

Das zweite Album der Londoner Art-Punk-Band HMLTD wurde mit Gospelchor und 16-köpfigem Streichorchester aufgenommen und hebt Klangexperimente aus dissonanten Free-Jazz-Riffs, Vintage-Soul, englischen Folk-Fusionen und Rockoper auf eine neue Ebene. Angesiedelt als verwirrend-anachronistische Version des mittelalterlichen Englands, durchdrungen von dystopischer Sci-Fi-Fantasie und altenglischer Mythologie, ist es ein Gesamtkunstwerk aus politischer Polemik und einem tief bewegenden, psychologischen Trip.

Pressing Info: 180g translucent pink vinyl, limited to 250 copies, download card included. Five years on from their 2018 debut album 'Great Vowel Shift', Lviv, Ukraine-based krautrock outfit Sherpa The Tiger are now returning with their second album, 'Ithkuil, via Fuzz Club Records - with 100% of the profits from the release going to the band to help support them during the war. Where their previous work was centred around vintage synths, minimal ambient and neon-lit kraut-disco grooves, 'Ithkuil' sees Sherpa The Tiger explore more expansive and layered structures and compositions - incorporating intricate guitars, flute, arpeggiators and jazzy piano references, alongside an array of other elements that originate from a broad spectrum of past and present music genres. "This album bears the name of 'Ithkuil' for a reason", the band state: "Like the language we borrowed the title from, the sound of the record has a lot of levels, layers, and orchestral nuances. We consider this album and its pieces a single journey. Every track of the LP works as a mandatory stop for contemplation and reflection that happens on the route of the listener." Sherpa The Tiger began working on the new material in 2019 during their EU live shows in support of 'Great Vowel Shift' and chalk the more textured and cinematic results down to a more collaborative approach. "We wanted to rethink the Krautrock heritage explored on our last album and made a clear stylistic shift that was determined by a totally different approach to our music-making. The tunes on 'Great Vowel Shift' were cooked in a sort of live-looping mode with two musicians jamming. This time, with 'Ithkuil', the process of creation was shared among 4 musicians, and that approach had a great impact on the final result." Several years in the making and now released against a backdrop of war and invasion in their home country, 'Sherpa The Tiger' say that 'Ithkuil' acts as a snapshot of pre-war times: "Since the war caught us in the middle of planning the release as opposed to creating the music itself, the album can be perceived as a wistful reminder of the pre-war life that doesn't seem to be coming back. The life we actually experienced but lost any recollection of and which we are desperately trying to bring back through the music created by the other us now dwelling in an absolutely different reality."