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A record to be enjoyed to its very last second AM Jazz is set to place this songwriter where he just might, finally, receive the recognition he deserves; from unsung hero to a truly worthy candidate for being called up to join the City of Manchester’s ranks of great musical icons. Whether you prefer to know him as Mr. Roberts or simply call him Al, it’s time to become acquainted with the real Jim Noir.

Tossing his bowler onto the hat stand and sliding on his slippers, AM Jazz sees ‘Jim’ putting his feet up whilst Alan Roberts takes the lead. A creative masterpiece for the record player and the mantlepiece, it’s a multi-layered album that features close friends including those dearly departed, and is his truest record to date, by a songwriter painting his own hypnotic Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

“I haven’t 'felt' like Jim Noir for a long time. I’m not sure I ever did; it was a construct of other people’s imaginations,” reveals Al. “AM Jazz is definitely the kind of music I make generally. It harks back to when I started making music years ago and didn’t worry about capturing a particular style. It will be nice to show people more of that.

It's the best album I've written; real hypnotic minimalism, the good stuff!” 15 years since he recorded the first ever 'Jim Noir' EP, AM
Jazz is the record all Noirheads won’t be surprised Al had inside him.

Letting the Beatlesesque stylings of his most recent album Finnish Line be (5 years ago no less), AM Jazz suits the Noir repertoire of his catalogue so far and is another homegrown offering which sees the Daveyhulme composer tinkering in his suburban Manchester studio once more, with the magic of his computer work sorcery, analog and tape recordings.

“For this I went back to the slightly more haphazard way I wrote my first album, Tower Of Love, wherein I’d use things in front of me, or a bit wrong like headphones for a microphone, to make the most Hi-Fi Lo-fi album ever.”

Whilst a brief disappearance of Jim’s online persona may have provoked bleak theories as to his whereabouts, Al had little time for digital distraction. Whilst writing and creating with friends, he has worked on electronic pet project, FAX with former Alfie guitarist, Ian Smith, and the vintage analogue house meets electro sound of his own solo EP Granada Personnel Recovery, as well as producing local band, Shaking Chainsor, and helping long-time musical colleague, Aidan Smith with his long-awaited 'The Planets' project; “I’ve been writing in dribs and drabs when I feel like it,” Al says. “I used to write all day everyday but it’s a lot harder now I’m (feeling) over 100 years old.” Never not sonically exploring or being inspired by the sounds around him, there was even a red-carpet moment when he appeared as a film premier guest after a couple of his songs were selected for the OST of director Jason Wingard’s film Eaten By Lions.

Performing all AM Jazz’s instrumental parts himself but also, at the right moment, bringing in present and past pals along the way, sexy lounge song, ‘Hexagons’ features 'Phil Anderson' and Mark Williamson singing and playing “legendary OTT guitar solo” respectively. Meanwhile the orchestration of ‘Peppergone’ waltzes like a beautifully romantic ode to Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata – a tribute to dearly departed best friend 'Batfinks' who originally wrote the chords in his song 'Peppercorn.' “I hope he doesn’t think it’s shit,” Al jests. Listen closely and you may even find a few unsuspecting celebrity guest appearances as, perhaps, it could be the very first album to feature soundbites of podcasts sneaking onto the recordings. “I will have a podcast on if I’m recording; Adam Buxton, Athletico Mince, Frank Skinner or Richard Herring… I’m sure some mics will have picked them up, like in the old Tower of Love days,” he says referring to his breakout debut.

Culled from around 50 tunes AM Jazz moves like the time of the day, from dawn to night, stirring from the pop of ‘Good Mood’ and ‘Upside Down’s Beta Band groove. “As the album was playing, I imagined this smoky backstreet with all those neon signs outside clubs at about 4am,” Al says. Mellow ‘TOL Circle’ is like Percy Faith’s Theme From A Summer Place synthesized, capturing the style of TV library music or movie soundtrack obscurity that has always stirred Al’s curiosity, and the album plunges into a vast chasm of instrumental exploration with ‘Mystermoods,’ visiting Japan’s funky synth whiz duo Testpattern and Hakabashi Sakamoto. Darkening and deepening in intensity, ‘Eggshell’ is like an undiscovered gem from Angelo Badalamenti’s cutting room floor, the Panda Bear shimmer of ‘Lander’ is where blissful positivity and sadness meet, about another of his friends who left the world too young. “By the album’s close, its nearly time to let go and enter the ether,” he says of the album’s story. “Like one would do when they take their final sigh on this earth.”

When was the last time EDMX served you what you expected? Maybe you drop the needle down in anticipation of some slick boogie-inflected synth pop and get walloped in the face with hellfire techno. Perhaps you were itching for body-popping electro and got cerebrally hijacked by pagan coldwave.

On this latest magnum opus, his first on Queen Nanny. Ed Upton is in the mood to get down low in every sense of the word. On the frequency range, this is a record dripping with lard-fed bass at every turn. The arrangements too are devilishly low in channel count – raw riddims with just a few key ingredients to do the necessary damage. Then there are the tempos, which predominantly set cruise control at 90 BPM and glide.

It’s not hard to tell where EDMX’s inspiration has sparked from on this album – in the spirit of celebrating the compatability of oddball sonics from all corners of the globe, he’s patched his sound into a specific vibe and struck gold with some of the most distinctive riddims you’re likely to hear all year.

'Destiny71z' returns with his second EP for Eglo Records, a further dark and jazzy exploration through an array of analog hardware, focusing on the Buchla music easel and a stacked modular set up. Raw and unpredictable the EP fizzes and pops across 4 tracks, drawing on the influences of House, Techno, 2-Step and Electro, synthesizing it into something much harder to pigeonhole.

The project is the alter-ego of multi instrumentalist, painter and producer Mathew Kirkis, who recently supported Floating Points on his solo UK/EU live tour. These four dance floor meditations express
a talent well beyond the conventions of traditional club music, it's as much music for the mind as it is for the body.

From the stuttering acid fried 2-Step Techno of 'Technique ZSL' and the shimmering space like odyssey of 'Suckmyskin' to the swirling House steppers 'Dimdraft' and 'OmegaTX', the EP surprises at every turn. Essential listening for fans of Legowelt, Floating Points, Pepe Bradock et al.

Legend has it that Brian Eno’s concept of ambient music came to him while laid up in a hospital bed after an automobile ac-cident in the 70's. A friend brought him some records, playing them too low to be properly heard, and Eno couldn’t get out of bed to adjust the volume. While the record spun softly, Eno’s idea for music you could ignore as easily as you could give it your full attention, like a sort of sonic wallpaper, was born. It’s in that spirit of quiet isolation that Ghostly International, in associ-ation with Adult Swim, shares Ghostly Swim 2, our way of giving listeners a space to get away from the manic holiday bustle.

For those keeping track at home, Ghostly is wrapping up its 15th anniversary as an Ann Arbor/Brooklyn-based indie. 2014 has seen the company soundtracking video games (Playstation’s Hohokum), collaborating with awesome companies like Warby Parker and VOID watches, and clearing 300 releases of for-ward-thinking music with records from Tycho, Com Truise, and HTRK. What better way to end this banner year than to revisit one of our favorite partnerships from the past decade and a half?

Released in 2008, Ghostly Swim was praised for its adventurous survey of exploratory dance and pop music. Our curatorial focus has shifted this time around, moving further inward (spiritually) and outward (as far as our roster goes) to reflect the electron-ic underground in all of its hazy and vibrant experimentalism. Ghostly Swim 2 is a document of textured ambient zone-outs and woozy, granular house and techno that will help you find some downtime away from The Most Wonderful Time of the Year. So sit back, lower the volume, and enjoy our selections.

Having issued a solid number of equally solid releases on the likes of Berceuse Heroique, Versatile, Wisdom Teeth, Peur Bleue and his own finely curated imprint, Banlieue Records, Benoit B steps up for the latest Unthank 10" instalment!

A world populated by eerie synth-pop textures, hypno-industrial oddities, electroid dynamics and hip-hop breaks gone astray. 100% retro-futuristic Bauhausian blends for the DJs and dancers out on a limb.

10" Clear vinyl with 75mm, metallic labels. Two colour screen printed sleeves with artwork by House Of Traps.

Cititrax presents a full length LP by a new duo called Tornische. Julio Tornero and Hanna Chamiarytskaya (aka Anneq) got together in Madrid after having met through mutual friends. Immediately, they bonded and found a musical chemistry between them. They went into the studio and began revisiting Julio's unreleased archives, incorporating what he had already recorded years ago with fresh sounds and Neu Deutsche Welle style duets. The result is a modern, chaotic, take on 80s European new wave, 90s detroit electro, and contemporary indie pop. The energy level is always high, the melodies are catchy and the vocal delivery and lyrics futuristic, subversive, italo-disco / punk, and surreal. A special album, this one is line with Medio Mutante's classic debut EP, 'Inestable' (2008) and not unlike the pioneering sound of Liaisons Dangereuses.

The vinyl will be pressed on 160 gram ultra clear and limited to 500 copies. The record is housed in a PVC printed sleeve, with a neon graphic designed by Peter Miles. The back features an image by Nastya Porukevich along with the track titles and album info.

The hyper talneted Stellar Om Source (NOT NOT FUN, RVNG, NO 'LABEL) blowing up new styles on this one!

"If there is one thing that leaps out from Stellar OM Source’s music, it is the sense of a highly active mind at work. There is an indivisible feeling that a real person is behind this dynamic flurry of tones, waves, vibrations and modulations. On I See Through You, the first full Stellar OM Source release in over four years, the spark that first LP piqued the interest of so many listeners is glowing stronger than ever.

In the 2010's, Christelle Gualdi carved a name as one of the most essential live electronic musicians around, dazzling dancers and home listeners in kind with her bombastic, acidic hardware jams. Circumstances outside her control forced a stop for the Stellar OM Source project. It was touring, including two shows in the summer of 2019 at Dekmantel Festival and Listen! that Gualdi credits as year highlights, which proved to be the integral jump-start to the engine.

Inspiration came rushing back thanks to the human connection of performing. Seeing a younger generation connect with her put fresh charge into the circuitry of her gear. All this accrued into new material on the road, and thus I See Through You was born.

The spirit of 2013’s cult favourite Joy One Mile is alive and well on I See Through You. There is once again immediacy, urgency and lust. But Stellar OM Source stepping into a comparatively more poppy and playful mode on these four tracks could also throw some. Fundamentally she says, it comes from a similar place, and ends with an enmeshed and positive outcome. Gualdi credits both “1995 rave” and “the clarity, bass and breath” of hi-def hip-hop productions as being twin northern stars for her to follow.

The artwork comes from friend and highly respected photographer & director Pierre Debusschere, whose work similarly flits between arresting close-ups and, well, the widescreen luxe of Beyoncé videos. “I’m definitely not a purist anymore,” Gualdi laughs – and with club-ready impact meeting human warmth, this shows in abundance.

“Night Alone” wastes no time in getting the listener up to speed. Is that an LFO sample running through “Night Alone”? Is this a lost Metro Area classic? Is that Stellar OM Source taking a diversion into searching Ibiza-rousing vocal for a moment, or did we imagine that in a heat haze? Where are the kicks? Oh there they are. How many elements are buried and revived within just over five minutes?
It’s hard to tell. Before we know it, “Lost Codes” is up and away, keeping pulses racing. A pitter-patter of baby kicks feel like a pre-tremor before a welting electro-Italo lead crashes into play. With fizzing energy, rasping synths and a frisson of danger, fans of Unit Moebius and The Hacker will be doing somersaults of joy.

“White Echoes” wastes kicks off the flip side with low gurgles descending briefly like a UFO reverse parking into the spot SOS had vacated. Soon, 303s are twisting like Chinese burns while warm chords offer a salve. The mood maintains on “Wild Palms”, the only song on this record not to feature additional mixing work from Peaking Lights’ dub-wise sensei Aaron Coyes.

True to form, the B2 is all Stellar: elements switching up and out, with all the fun and frenzy of capital-L Live action. Kick drums and bassline darting back and forth like a synchronised swimming routine, all elements in concert. The momentum of a runaway mine cart that you can’t help but strap yourself to. I See Through You is one for the dancers who have given Stellar OM Source the motive to move forward once again."

In the mid-80's, an original form of music was discovered on the midi-capable little planet of Austin, Texas. At the age of 32, Charles Ditto would release his first solo album applying cutting edge computers and synthesizers of the era (Roland DX7, Roland MKS-20, Roland MKS-80, Sequential Circuits Profit 2000 along with a Macintosh SE), creating a unique and detailed world that was inspired by Cluster, Eno & The Residents.

In Human Terms bridges the gab between contemporary classical and minimal pop. Rhythmic but melodically abstract. Microtonal and organic. Often described as experimental electronics, tone poems or Cyber-delic-psychotropic-avante-garde.
In Human Terms, remains very emotion, deep and different. Ditto's music imparts a new listening experience that is still somewhat indescribable today, but remains approachable and relatable.

'What makes Ditto's music so strikingly different is his overt use of emotion, very descriptive melodies and deep atmosphere' Audio Magazine - August 1988 // 'If Erik Satie had midi gear' Keyboard Magazine - April 1988 // 'Brian Eno meets Seastones, but with more melody' Relix Magazine - August, 1988 // 'Ditto's choice of Synthesizer tones are at once both organic and unique' Electronic Musician - June 1988.

Voluptuous and catchy, Bronswick creates hauntingly electro songs and realistic sound fiction, with hints of both pastel and charcoal. Together, immersed in a creative connection revealed by their first EP Errances (Lisbon Lux Records), Catherine Coutu and Bertrand Pouyet are creating timeless pop sounds, between new-wave urban electro and synth-pop.

“Lugar Alto presents their very first release: the incredibly rare and absolutely stunning “Homenagem”, by Leonardo V. Boccia. This is a forgotten gem from the eighties that examines traditional Brazilian themes such as choro, northeastern folk, and capoeira with touches of eighties electronics and new age.

Leonardo Boccia is a musician, multi-instrumentalist, composer, researcher and university professor of Culture and Society at the Federal University of Bahia, whose interests include sound studies, manipulation of sound media, audiosphere and aesthetics, musical theatre, audio culture and neuromusic.

Born in Italy, this respected academic studied music in Berlin, moved to Rio de Janeiro and established himself in Salvador where he was invited to research the northeastern music of Bahia. There he created the experimental group Macchina Naturale, an eclectic combo that performed regularly during his stay. In November 1980, Boccia participated in the first Instrumental Music Festival of Bahia as a soloist where he performed works of his own.

But it was in 1983 that Professor Boccia composed, directed and produced the LP Homenagem. With photos by renowned photographer and artist Mario Cravo Neto for the front and back cover of the booklet, the album presents new and original compositions for instrumental ensembles, such as: Choro Fantasia – for guitar and berimbau -, Canção para Iracema, Homenagem and Lenda do Sertão. The LP was originally released on January 3rd, 1984, with a live performance in the main hall of the Castro Alves Theatre under the title Tribute to Brazilian Music, with the participation of vocalist Sueli Sodré, who contributes to the album, instrumentalists Zeno Millet and Onias Camardelli, accompanied by choreography and visuals.

Much of Homenagem examines the genre of Brazilian music known as Choro, or Chorinho, a genre which appeared in Rio de Janeiro in the 19th century. Choro is regarded as the first typically Brazilian urban music and, over the years, it has come to be considered one of the most prestigious genres of national popular music. Stylistically, it originates from Lundu, a percussion-based rhythm of African inspiration but also influenced by European genres. The instrumental composition of choro was based on the trinca flute, guitar and cavaquinho. Over time, other wind and string instruments were incorporated.

Here, in Homenagem, Professor Boccia deliberately mixes the old and the new, the traditional and the innovative; the album is the environment of Chorinho reconsidered and recontextualized, and its melodies and harmonies still capable of surprises. Just listen to “Terra e Povo” – it has an almost proto-acid-house quality to it, while the synth washes on “Mãe Natureza” with the ethereal vocal stylings of Sueli Sodré ushering in the progressive quality of the album.

Too long out of print, new label Lugar Alto now offers you the chance to reappraise this fascinating reissue of yet another forgotten chapter in Brazilian music.”

‘Wild Slide’ is the debut album from techno supergroup, Better Lost Than Stupid, aka 3 of the world’s finest producers and DJs - Martin Buttrich, Davide Squillace, and Matthias Tanzmann.

Released on 13 September by Skint/BMG, the 11 track album follows a slew of singles - ‘Back From The Desert’, ‘The Sky Is Too Low’, and ‘Inside’ – which have won praise from the likes of Mixmag, Dancing Astronaut, RA, Radio 1 (Pete Tong and Danny Howard), Marco Carola, Dubfire, Nicole Moudaber, Kolsch, Joris Voorn, Claptone, Eats Everything, Adam Beyer, and many more.

Electronic music underpins ‘Wild Slide’, but Better Lost’ look beyond it with a varied collection of song ‘Wild Slide’ is the debut album from techno supergroup, Better Lost Than Stupid, aka 3 of the world’s finest producers and DJs - Martin Buttrich, Davide Squillace, and Matthias Tanzmann.

Released on 13 September by Skint/BMG, the 11 track album follows a slew of singles - ‘Back From The Desert’, ‘The Sky Is Too Low’, and ‘Inside’ – which have won praise from the likes of Mixmag, Dancing Astronaut, RA, Radio 1 (Pete Tong and Danny Howard), Marco Carola, Dubfire, Nicole Moudaber, Kolsch, Joris Voorn, Claptone, Eats Everything, Adam Beyer, and many more.

Electronic music underpins ‘Wild Slide’, but Better Lost’ look beyond it with a varied collection of songs that combine synth-pop (‘Inside’, ‘Wild Slide’), electronica (‘Boys & Girls’, ‘Harder Than Gold’), indie rock (‘Back From The Desert’), and downtempo (‘Without The Feeling’, ‘Bender’), with the kind of euphoric techno moments they’re individually known for (‘Inside’, ‘Right Now’).

‘Wild Slide’ shows that the comparisons made between Better Lost’ and stadium techno acts like The Chemical Brothers, and Underworld, stand up. The production quality is every bit as good as you’d expect from Buttrich and co, and the songs have been crafted and written by three people who’ve spent their lives making music and then playing it to hundreds of thousands of people.

Beyond Space And Time is the new record label from Japanese music festival, Rainbow Disco Club (RDC). RDC has been welcoming music loving people to Japan for over a decade. Throughout the festival's history, RDC have been fortunate to constantly encounter performers and DJs who've collaborated with them in establishing a beautiful dance floor year in, year out. These relationships have lead RDC to start their own label, and now gives them the opportunity to reveal one of the best-kept secrets: What is in a DJ's record bag?

This time around, festival regular DJ Nobu kindly opens up his collection and shares the music he loves with us all. On visual duty we welcome Senekt - his representational yet contemporary drawing illustrates the emotion we feel from DJ Nobu.
We have much more music to come in future from artists that we trust and respect.

▼ DJ Nobu describes 10 tracks this way ▼

A1. Laurent Garnier - Water Planet
Highly respected French DJ/Producer Laurent Garnier has been releasing tracks for decades capturing the very essence of Detroit Techno and Breakbeat. He always manages to create something truly emotional. This is not his biggest hit, but it's my favorite.

A2. Mono Junk - Beyond The Darkness
This track represents the very early days of Techno with it's ravey atmosphere. It has a primitive feel, and the obscure mixdown sounds almost unbalanced. That said, this one really stands out when DJing. Very cool.

B1. Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia - The Valley
It was always my intention to include this track in a compilation if were I ever to do one. It has a fat underlying groove, with some indigenous spices thrown in. The whole thing is put together beautifully. No complaints!

B2. Melody Boy 2000 - Plenty Of Love
I wanted to include a track that had Jacking feel to it - that is my definition of dance music. This track mixes well in both Techno and House DJ sets.

C1. Drax Ltd. II - Amphetamine
This is my all time favorite track by Thomas P Heckman. It asks questions and strikes down all the boring 'wanna be cool' techno tracks. It is obviously a well known tune already, but I include it here because I'm often asked for it's track ID from new kids in the game. This is a classic that should be passed down.

C2. Dan Curtin - 3rd From The Sun
Curtin's refined synth grooves and bass lines make this a true timeless classic. It do not get tired of listening to his rhythms and melodies - he always gets it just right.

C3. Front 242 - U-Men.
The originator of Electric Body Music. Their husky vocals, hard rhythms and strong synth basslines made the group very popular at the time, and they are still to this present day. To me, this track represents what the Belgian New Beat scene is all about.

D1. The Prince Of Dance Music - E3 E6 Roll On
This is the track I played the most up until around 2006. It is a genuine house track that cuts through trends in music. A hidden floor killer.

D2. Pan Sonic - Lähetys / Transmission
Electronic music has existed for decades, and if you are to choose some of the best from all scattered & hidden places, Pan Sonic's 'Lähetys / Transmission' must be considered. The track emerges beautifully - breaking structures and transcending the past. Every layer of the piece is produced with such delicacy and care, that as a whole it magically drags you into the world of the unknown.

D3. Burial - Archangel
This track merges melancholic emotions with technological prowess at the highest level, and deeply impacted the dance music scene on it's release. I recently played this track at the end of my set at the forward thinking Terraforma Festival in Milan. It faded out to huge applause from the open minded crowd. A moment to be remembered.

Since forming in 2006 post-punk experimentalists Sebastian Melmoth have been on a thoughtful and adventurous musical journey. In a constant state of aural evolution, the London-based four-piece has a delivered a string of albums and EPs that variously touch on everything from garage-rock, grunge and lo-fi pop, to electro, new wave, dark ambient and music concrete, all the while drawing on a myriad of literary and artistic influences.

The band’s first release for Artificial Dance digs deep into their admirable and eye-opening catalogue and draws together some of the Amsterdam-based label’s favourites from the more electronic end of the band’s output. Entitled “The Dynamics of Vanity” – a comment on Western culture’s obsession with rehashing the past and the band’s own in-built distrust of artistic naval-gazing – the set is not a ‘best of’ retrospective but rather a ‘sort of’ selection of stylistically interconnected cuts that gives a very specific snapshot of the band’s work.

Check for example “Icarus”, a drowsy, hypnotic and sample-laden soundscape that effortlessly joins the dots between post-rock, pitched-down electronica and early morning ambient, or the slowly unfurling throb of thought-provoking opener “The Engineering of Consent”, a swelling, melancholic post-jazz meditation on propaganda and governmental mind control featuring spoken word samples from William S Burroughs in conversation with Brion Gysin, Timothy Leary, Les Levine and Robert Anton Wilson.

The showcased songs are typically hard-to-pin-down, too, with the re-imagined gothic horror break-up cut “Prosopagnosia’ and slow-burn audio addition of “Waiting For Godot” being joined by the wide-eyed morning dream-pop hallucinations of “Seeds (Descent Into Decadence)”. It all adds up to a collection that expertly showcases one engaging thread – of many – running through Sebastian Melmoth’s esoteric body of work.

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

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

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

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

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

I remember the first time I read W.E.B. DuBois eclectic masterpiece The Souls of Black Folk. The way in which this Weberian scholar flowed from personal account to prose to sociological analysis to music and even political intervention has had a lasting impact on my own work as a cultural anthropologist. It made me understand that as scholars we must use different means in order to give expression to the totality of the lived experience: There is only so much in an academic text.

The experience of alienation has always been at the heart of my scholarly and artistic practice. I have used academic writing, lecturing, theatre performance and electronic improvisation to understand and represent it as a theoretical concept, postcolonial condition and lived experience. I believe, some issues need to be told like a story, some analyzed in most abstract terms and others need to be sung like a gospel. The medium changes the message.

In this sense, I guess, I’m a singing cultural anthropologist.

For some time now I have been engaged in the use of dystopian themes and sounds to paint a sonic picture of structural racism and whiteness of our present. But recently I have grown weary of this Ballardian idea of Future Now and the resulting phantasmagorian aesthetics myself and others have been invested in. The widespread availability of Digital Audio Workstations, sequencers, loopers and delay pedals has lead us into a futuristic cul de sac best described by Mark Fisher as the very absence of future.

Likewise, I am most skeptical of the “naturalist” countermovement, the return of folk. Especially in Germany, I am convinced there is no such thing as an innocent or progressive folk musical expression as it is always connected to the idea of the homeland (“Heimat”) which in turn produces the colony. It seems to me, the current zeitgeist is stuck between a “museum of a dystopian future” and a “museum of an idealized past”, but I wanted to sing about the present.

So, I involuntarily returned to pop music in its two-folded meaning of something popular and addressing not an essentialist notion of “Volk” or its woke cousin “communities”, but society as a whole.

I entered the studio just with a few lo-fi sounding melodies and rhythms from my circuit bent CASIO synthesizer. I had no clue what the finished product would sound like. But as soon as Markus started drumming, in a way strangely reminding me of CAN’s Ethnographic Forgery Series, my uptight sounds were suddenly embedded within a warmer global sound spectrum. The alien at home and abroad and the strange overlapped: We were seeing one and the same sound differently but were gently held together by Tobias’ producing.

Making music is about building coalitions. It’s about suggesting an articulation of styles, sounds and people, that hasn’t materialized, yet, but may help us in the current crisis: I wanted Amon Düül II to send their drug induced archangel thunderbird to rescue the refugees, that had tried to escape the police by climbing up a tree in Munich in 2016. I wanted Sun Ra to taunt far-right protesters in Chemnitz in 2018. And I wanted to mourn the loss of a former kebab shop cum discotheque that served as proof that there is such a thing as a minoritarian universalism.

SCHLAND IS THE PLACE FOR ME is a pop album featuring songs of alienation, not only as a tragic experience, but as a pop-cultural promise. Maybe Bill Callahan sung it best, “I am Star Wars today, I am no longer English grey”. I want those who suffer from alienation to stand in alliance with those who seek alienation, and vice-versa. A coalition, that tolerates the possibility that we are moved by the same groove for contrary reasons.

Fehler Kuti
Munich, Autumn 2019

Music by Julian Warner, Markus Acher & Tobias Siegert
Saxophone on RINDERMARKT by Franz Brunner
Trombone on RINDERMARKT and IL by Matthias Götz
Recorded and mixed by Tobias Siegert in Munich.
SONTAGSFAVORIT mixed by Dario Albiez in Dusseldorf.
Mastered by Duphonic in Augsburg.
Artwork by Atelier Grande, Munich.

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

Fresh from the release of their third album ‘Autonomy’ earlier this summer, comes Autonomy Variations: four brand new perspectives from four exciting, innovative kindred spirits of the avant-pop duo.

South London’s Medlar breaks the seal. Following a series of incredible live collaborations with Dele Sosimi (Fela Kuti), he’s has turned ‘Autonomy’ into a minimal, percolating house track. Swapping the acid spikes for analog bleeps, Medlar’s signature can be felt every step through this vivid energetic stomper.

Fabric resident Anna Wall follows with another beautiful subversion as ‘New Politik’ is given a smouldering take. Moody, intimate, downtempo; there’s some serious late night HTRK-esque vibes to Anna’s twist.

Further into the remix trip we glide to find Dischi Autunno, Ombra International affiliate Curses pulling ‘Electric Light’ into the fringes. Taking the upbeat, crystalline pop of Penelope and Stephen’s original and flipping it into a stark postpunk Bauhaus-inspired take, Curses’ live bass and driving new wave beat shine a whole new light on the original and write it a whole new chapter.

Finally, brand new act, Isolating have the honour of closing the EP with industrial modular apocalyptic take on ‘Infinity’. A vast playground of contrasts, at points it’s dirty and pounding. At others it’s quiet and menacing. File under ‘Dystopian Techno.’

Four extensions on one of the most interesting electronic albums released this year, if you haven’t treated yourself to ‘Autonomy’ yet, you’d be wise to. DJ Mag stated it’s The Golden Filter’s best work yet while Clash called a it a bruising return. These remixes follow with complete forward-thinking consistency. Enjoy…

Matthias Vogt is back on Polytone with two strong original tracks, plus legendary producer Carl Finlow is adding his remix magic. The title track "Imaginary Friend" is an ode to Electro, with a hint of Pop and both: taking us back to the sound of the 80s, yet still sounding fresh and crisp. Carl Finlow's transforming Imaginary Friend into a sci-fi-something - it's out of this world. The B-Side is all about "Crevasse", a timeless beauty - we are in love with this Matthias Vogt trademark sound.

All Music Written & Recorded by David Drucker at The Skinny Apartment in Ridgewood, Queens, 2017
Featuring Mike Green (Mezzanine Swimmers) on guitars on "I Took Too Much Acid in 7th Grade," Cop Funeral on
electronics on "Seafood Special," Chris “Mr Transylvania” Shields on background vocals on "Massachusetts Is a Magical
Place," Eva “Nighttime” Goodman on violin & backing vocals on "The Ridgewood Ripper"
Painted Faces is the long (strange/trip) running voyage of weirdo David Drucker, began in Florida in 2009 and decamped
to NYC in 2011. It has sometimes been a loose band in the past with a revolving lineup of outsiders and interlopers
(known as The Freak Band), but is usually a solo endeavor, and the bulk of the recordings have been done as such. PF
has always been a home recording solo project, one-man-band style heavy on psychOdelic/outsider
folk/noise/experimental vibes. He started self releasing CD-Rs in the early days and quickly jumped to tapes on a variety
of labels including Already Dead, Lava Church, J&C, Null Zone, Tall Tapes. A "legendary" CD compilation on Gulcher
Records and an LP from Already Dead and Almost Halloween Time in Italy brings us to the here and now. Tales from the
Skinny Apartment is somewhere around the 20th or so Painted Faces release...he has long lost count.
Drucker runs/curates gigs (and records at) the Skinny Apartment, his dwelling place in Ridgewood Queens,
which some folks have called the "realest DIY zone in NYC." He also rips in Dead River Company, Big Hiatus, Shecky,
Canyon River Blues and countless other unknown subterranean improv zoner outfits. "Ripping" involves keeping it
freaky and weird and ripping sets wherever/whenever, i.e. always being down to perform whether in a kitchen or a
packed ballroom....no diva bullshit, just plugging in (or going sans electricity) and playing...always giving it your
all...Ridgewood Rippers are the crew of artists that populate Ridgewood and the loose "scene" around the Skinny
Apartment...much of it is in jest, a self-inflated mythology of nonsense which is pervasive in all rock and roll "scene"
histories. As a student of rock/pop history, Drucker is fascinated by the loose associations that connect folks from
various zones together...i.e. Miles Davis and The Grateful Dead...it's all the same though, the labels and genre
distinctions are completely arbitrary. We're all in this together, now more than ever...to be a "ripper" is simply to
"rip"...no nonsense!
Painted Faces has toured all over the USA and Canada numerous times, spreading the ripper gospels, and is
gearing up for their second European tour. He is known for falling apart on "stage," with performances heavy on humor,
horror, stoned digressions, and cathartic bouts of therapy, part performance art/part standup comedy, eradicating the
lines between performer, performance, and audience one show at a time

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

With absolute devotion Shook has created an exceptional listening experience in which timeless influences of Hiroshi Yoshimura, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Steve Reich and Erik Satie are honored and thoughtfully integrated in his modern, energetic sound. Shook merges Japanese ambient and Indonesian gamelan with an uplifting mixture of electronic pop, jazz and funk. Inspired by city pop, techno pop and ambient Music for City and Nature spreads a new light on the contrasting balance between what we make and what we are. Shook: “In my 5th album I tried to document my emotional and mental state at this point in my career. It is inspired by the conflict between the energetic and busy city life and the calm, warmth and peace that nature gives. It isn’t a city ‘versus’ nature album though, it is about daily life existing in a gray area in between. I try to find a balance by connecting both sides. We can build a future in the city, but we must not forget that nature is our future.”

Stroboscopic Artefacts releases ‘X – Ten Years Of Artefacts’, a 13-track album curated by Lucy, the nom de techno of Luca Mortellaro. It celebrates ten years of his label by boldly confirming its raison d’être: a continual redefinition of modern techno.

‘X – Ten Years Of Artefacts’ is a various artists album in which the label’s key artists respond to its tenth anniversary with fresh compositions. Artists with divergent perspectives and MOs are equally at home expressing themselves. These tracks’ timbres, tempos and moods differ greatly yet—somewhat improbably—they seem together, ideologically unified.

The album will be later complemented by a special remixes EP, with four new reworks of pivotal back catalogue material from the label (Donato Dozzy, Caterina Barbieri, Xhin and Klock). And from fall 2019, Lucy and an incredible cast of Stroboscopic Artefacts artists will begin an extended club tour to mark the anniversary.

On ‘X – Ten Years Of Artefacts’, Mortellaro features solo as Lucy, in collaboration with Rrose as Lotus Eater and together with Speedy J as Zeitgeber. (Rrose also appears alone with “The Myth of Purity.”) Shifted, Efdemin, L.B. Dub Corp (Luke Slater), James Ruskin, Denise Rabe, Adriana Lopez, Chevel, Alessandro Adriani and Serena Butler each feature, representing a group of singular artists whose relationships with the label range from years to months—Stroboscopic Artefacts’ past, present and future must exist simultaneously.

Back in September 2009, Lucy released “Why Don’t You Change/Dub Man Walking,” the first record from Stroboscopic Artefacts, which began a discography that, ten years later, is almost unparalleled in its ambition and vision. Put simply, Mortellaro wanted to create something that didn’t exist. Stroboscopic Artefacts would be respectful of, and indebted to, the great techno and electronic music artists of the past but would develop new paths forward for the label and the genre. The label refused to perpetuate the established dichotomies of electronic music — between the dance floor and home listening, between club music and experimental music, between the past and the future. It took risks knowing it wouldn’t always work. But within a year or so of the label’s inception, it was obvious Stroboscopic Artefacts’ approach had captured imaginations far beyond its Berlin base, showing us that the boundaries of techno are often constructs of limited imagination.

The label pursued constantly evolving methods of releasing music. It created concept-driven series like Monad, Stellate and Totem, establishing frameworks that would give freedom in limitation. Standout albums by Lucy, Xhin, Dadub, Zeitgeber, Chevel, Kangding Ray, Lotus Eater and Alessandro Adriani were deeply considered longform presentations.

With this new album, remix EP and tour, now is the moment for Stroboscopic Artefacts to look fondly at its past while drawing breath, reenergised, and hinting at new chapters.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Editions Mego is proud to present the latest addition to the compelling discography of Thomas Brinkmann. Throughout his career Brinkmann has focussed on the human operating amongst industry alongside rhythms that manifest as a result of technological advancement. With this new release Brinkmann makes a u-turn, looking back to the early industrial age. Comprised of recordings of various looms, Raupenbahn investigates the sonic properties and consequences of the first automatic loom as constructed by Jacques de Vaucanson in 1745. Thomas Brinkmann once again adheres to his tendency for clarity and simplicity whilst further investigating not only the sound and rhythms of the machines (looms) but also what role they serve in society and what consequences they have on the environment. Raupenbahn presents 21 tracks in total, 11 feature on the vinyl, the remaining 10 as digital bonus tracks. The majority of recordings were undertaken by Brinkmann in 2017 with a Neumann KM 184 stereo set. Additional recordings were sourced with permission from Monika W. recs. from 2014 Central Museum of Textiles Łódź, Poland. Each piece presents a diversity of material which borders on the breathtaking and beautiful in richness and complexity. The various looms unravel rhythms and patterns unexpected from machines of the early industrial age.

The loom holds a significant role in shaping our world being the catalyst for Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine which, alongside the subsequent work of Byron's daughter Ada Lovelace, paved the way for modern computing. There is a linage of the loom that fits succinctly in Brinkmann's overall argument. Here we encounter a parallel between machine driven economies and the music that rose from such places, consider the Sheffield steel industries, the Manchester weaving industry or the Rhineland / Düsseldorf loom and machine industry. Is it a coincidence that the practice of such machines in the environment gave rise to today's predilection for electronic dance music, in pop, soundtracks, etc.

Raupenbahn features no treatment or processing and explicitly displays varying tempo and timbres which ascertain a wide range of acoustic structures. The artwork features Ingrid Wiener, Rosemarie Trockel and Alexandra Bircken, three different generations who would with ideas of fabric weaving, loming and the like. This exceptional release works on a number of levels alongside it's striking sonic palette.


i 9 Günne (Irmscher) BO Möhnesee / D

Blaue Blume are a Danish alternative art pop band with a deep connection to the romanticism of the early 80s UK scene. Referencing artists such as Talk Talk, The Smiths and Cocteau Twins, it's clear their influences are with the more sensitive, magical aspects of music - and the eternal questions of love, life and death. Following two singles (Lovable and Vanilla) the album Bell of Wool is finally with us. It’s suitably enchanting from start to finish. Two themes dominate Blaue Blume’s new album Bell Of Wool, darkness and adventure. With the record mostly made before singer Jonas Smith slipped into a depressive episode, the album’s lyrics and moods draw pictures of the darkness, anxiety and tension that would mark Smith’s depression. Sonically, the album sounds a distance away from anything they’ve done before. Indie and electro pop and rock are out, and instead the album is crafted from soft, glowing synthscapes, dawns and skies transformed into sounds. Even on hints of their older work, like on the acoustics of “Rain Rain”, the synthwork comes into the picture and swells the song into something bigger and more majestic. Opener “Swimmer” introduces the listener to the softness and subtlety of the new sound, whereas songs like “Morgensol” and “Bombard” show it at its biggest and more grand.

Auf ihreneuen Album "Plexus" präsentieren die französischen Electro-Popper Hypnolove eine gekonnte Mixtur aus Eurodance, Italo, Space Disco und Boogie-Funk mit vielen 1980er Anleihen.

After several apparitions of the modern electronic scene, Warzou strikes again, here on the Lyon based Mystery Booms Records for a détour dub called "J'irai dormir chez Mouss"! Tripping to a digi-dub exercice with two silent and ritual songs, from aerian flutes to pop arrangements composed with cheap instruments, including an MPC 2000, keyboard Casio VZ-1, Digital Delay and Mother Reverb. Tribute to the old way with this futil contemporary feeling! Expected red eyes' soundboys tunes to play them loud on your system!

Red eyes sound boys from Lyon strike again with this second record from Warzou. After several apparitions on the modern electronic scene, the local producer plays a digi-dub exercice for a detour dub called "J'irai dormir chez Mouss ». Tripping on two quiet and ritual songs, composed with MPC 2000, keyboard Casio VZ-1, digital delay and spring reverb, as the tradition! To play loud on your system!

Ok, this one is different from the usual standard of re-edits releases on GAMM.

Swedish duo Pomona Dream from Gothenburg is no re-edit outfit but an official artist. The main track 'Blame It On the Groove' is a vocal rare groove jam which is based on Aged In Harmony's highly sought after 'You're A Melody'.

Together with catchy soul/pop vocals from Pomona Dream and tasteful additional production this simply just works...yup it's that good.

To make the case even stronger Pomona Dream got an extra treat on the B-side. 'San Francisco' got an uptempo electronic / hip hop feel that is very modern yet very timeless with its simplistic vocals and synth(ish) melodies.

It's basically a solid song with an edgy production. All in all, this a real nice 7" inch with lots of character. Check check!

Electronic pioneers Rick Smith and Karl Hyde announce the conclusion of their groundbreaking fifty-two week DRIFT series: a new single, a new album and their biggest ever live headline shows

Released on October 25th 2019, the new album DRIFT SONGS marks the conclusion of their hugely ambitious 52-week DRIFT Series. During that period, music, film and text pieces are created and published every Thursday as part of the band’s on-going, very public recording process; a unique and visionary space Smith and Hyde have created for themselves to exist within. By the end of the DRIFT series, more new music and film will have been released by Underworld in its one-year duration than in the last fifteen years.

DRIFT SONGS expands and enhances a selection of the recordings the duo have released since they began their audio/visual experiment in November 2018. The album will be released as a single CD, double vinyl and crucially an all-encompassing box-set featuring the music, visuals and text pieces released throughout the entire 52-week DRIFT.

DRIFT SONGS is Underworld’s first album release since 2016’s Barbara, Barbara we face a shining future (“an album full of heart, soul and brilliant noise” The Observer ) and the first physically released music since 2018’s Q award winning collaboration with Iggy Pop, Teatime Dub Encounters (“Born of the friction from a restless need to create… others of their standing may choose the wallowing legacy of safety. These guys do not.” NME ).

Underworld are Rick Smith and Karl Hyde. The press say they are: “Electronic heroes” The Observer “Hugely ambitious and unimaginably relentless” Q “True mavericks” Prog “Thrillingly relevant” The Times “(Underworld) boast a breadth and attack largely lacking in contemporary laptop electronica ” The Guardian
“The Drift experience is one of a torrent of ideas, with its own internal logic… (where) instinct, experience and chance lead to a strange kind of harmony” Mojo

ehind Dosage there is Sayoko, a Japanese woman living in Paris, who works with a rich, organic, yet destabilized musical style, but with a pulsating life that makes her pieces fascinating.

His songs - since they are songs here - on the edge of pop music, are made for re-listening; each passage revealing new secrets hidden in the complex mechanics of his compositions. Evidence is never at the rendezvous, and yet the pleasure of listening, the joy of being carried away by texts that border the surreal without ever complacent, grooves that always seem on the verge of "collapse without ever poking the nose, this pleasure and this joy, unique, do not leave us from one end to the other of this theory of the pink, UFO album, for those who seek this, and to surprise the others too.

Sayoko: voice, piano, bass, electronics;
Buz: battery; Franca Mai: poems;
Dirty_Pink: guitar;
Gaspar Claus: cello;
Vincent Epplay: electronics;
Nicolas Laffererie: guitar;
BN Würtz: electronics, bass, composition;
Simon Takahashi: electronics, composition

Emotional Rescue again delves in the world of private pressings, with a reissue of British electronic pop meets proto-House duo 4AM. With copies of their self titled album now highly sought after, this timely reissue presents two of their songs as a stand alone 7".

Consisting of multi-instrumentalist Steve Kirby - piano, guitar, bass, programming - and vocalist Kevin Finch, 4AM came together after youths filled with a love of music. Following a string of band attempts, Steve dived in to the world of midi, allowing him to build a studio set up and play solo. A meeting with new work colleague Kevin quickly developed to joining forces to expand on his early demos.

Their melodic, dance-influenced pop draws on a love of Japan, OMD and The The, but also ECM jazz and a touch of "white boy soul". The TR-808 drum and hi-hats, string stabs and random acid squelches - although no TR-303 was used - highlights the influence the nascent House sounds emanating from the "second summer of love" of 1988 / 89 had in their music melting pot.

Over this, personal lyrics flow, full of honest emotions and a touch of youthful naivety thrown in - of relationships, love, sex and passions. Intended as a personal artifact, the original album was released in 1990 with no promotion or live shows and has taken until now, some 30 years, to find a cult audience. I want you with a Passion.

We love pop music. You’ve probably noticed. Witness our vinyl love-ins with Kylie, Róisín and Cassie if this has somehow passed you by. So when Lou Hayter (London-based musician, style-DJ to the stars, one of our besties) asked us to put her sumptuous funk-lite hit “Cherry On Top” on vinyl it felt like a neat fit. But this isn’t just any old Be With record. We decided such a monumental track would make the perfect inaugural release on Be Pop, our new, most likely sporadically active, side-label.

For those not paying attention in 2005, Lou Hayter was the keyboardist in Mercury nominated electro-pop outfit New Young Pony Club (who were a really good band, beyond the hype, and arguably a little ahead of their time) and she is currently one half of electronic duo Tomorrow’s World, a project with Air’s Jean-Benoît Dunckel. Her comeback single “Cherry On Top” originally appeared in late October 2018, but as a digital only concern. Unsurprisingly it caused a blog stir (Gorilla vs Bear correctly gushed) and what seemed like 6 Music’s entire roster of DJs had it on repeat.

But it’s not a proper single unless you can buy it in a record shop. So accordingly we’ve issued it as a full picture sleeve 12", pressed on white vinyl. And just to make certain, the instrumental and a cappella are on the flip. This is our homage to the classic dance/pop 12" singles of the late 80s and early 90s.

Riding an infectious sample of Marc Jordan’s yacht-rock classic “Generalities”, it’s a glistening, sun-soaked daydreamy jam, perfect for convertibles, pool parties, and roller-discos. It’s quite delicious. Whilst it’s pop without question, it wouldn’t be a Lou Hayter track without ice-cool nods to other magical genres; with Italo flecks and dream-pop vocals, this is cherry coloured funk indeed.

“Cherry On Top” screams “Mighty Summer Pop Radio Anthem”. We might have just missed the end of Summer 2019, but this 12" comes out just in time for every summer from now until the end of time.

NO MORE don't need much of an introduction - the legendary Kiel-based (No)Wave / PostPunk band project took the worlds dancefloors by storm with the release of their seminal single "Suicide Commando" in 1981 which was later re-introduced to the Techno / Electro youth of the world, when Munich's DJ Hell famously reinterpreted the tune in 1998.

Still actively touring and releasing on a regular NO MORE are now making their debut on the freshly launched Intrauterin Recordings-offshoot EL CABALLO SEMENTAL..

The labels cat.no. 001 is a first time on vinyl release taken off NO MORE's "The Return Of The German Angst" digital mixtape and sees one of the bands hit tunes being reworked in a unique, highly captivating manner, pressed exclusively as a limited to 200 copies whitelabel edition on purple / violet vinyl.

"123456789 (baze.djunkiii + Herr Brandt Dream A Nudream Remix)" exceeds the bands natural musical realm by far and transfers the song into MoombahGoth / DubWave territories previously unheard of, not only for a classic band like NO MORE.. The rework picks up latest developments from the urban and bass music world whilst keeping the haunted vibe of the original songs chorus intact, slighty references NuBeat / PostPunk and Dub, adds lush, dreamy Cosmic guitar textures and even winks to the underground whistle and rave posse with a sweet as candy piano breakdown.

In their conjunctional remix work we see Intrauterin Recordings-founder baze.djunkiii, quality electronic music activist and prolific DJ for more than 20 years, and Herr Brandt, founding member of the classic German Wave / Indie / Alternative outfit The Convent as well as of the praised underground Synth Pop / Minimal Wave band Sonnenbrandt, effortlessly merge the best of two musical worlds to create something new and captivating, like they used to do on the decks with their former BETA-ZERFALL parties which were the main and initial reason the two of them and NO MORE came together in the first place.

a A- 123456789 BAZE.DJUNKIII + HERR BRANDT DREAM A NUDREAM REMIX

Very few albums manage to unveil their roots so honestly and at the same time succeed in creating something utterly distinct. "Of All The Things" from Jazzanova is one of these albums.
Originally released in 2008 on Universal, it now gets a luxurious reissue on Sonar Kollektiv as a 3LP with pop-up gatefold cover including previously unreleased instrumentals.
This format corresponds perfectly with the elegant opulence of the music that shines even brighter eleven years after its initial release. At no time is it unclear that this album is a deep bow to soul from the 1960s and 70s as well as genres like jazz, brazil and pop music in the vein of the early Beatles.
Along these lines, "Of All The Things" is meant to be perceived as a tribute to the music that Jazzanova has been honoring affectionately in their DJ sets and which has always had a decisive influence on their own productions.
At the same time, the Jazzanova guys have been successful in casually creating elaborate musical pieces which convey a deeply contemporary vibe - not least because of the multifarious references to electronic productions.
The path to this sophomore long player, which features the contribution of over 50 studio musicians, had been laid out beginning with Jazzanova's first album "In Between" from 2002.

Kraak & Smaak's 6th studio album - 'Pleasure Centre' is the culmination of two years hard work since their critically acclaimed 'Juicy Fruit' LP and their first Kraak & Smaak LP released on their own label – Boogie Angst. As expected it's a glorious record packed with future classics, flitting between funky dancefloor focused jams and more relaxed downtempo affairs.

The album has a definite US West Coast vibe to it and sees them fuse classic 70's and 80's yacht rock, dream pop, and indie influences in with their signature electronic funk sound. And this result is no mere accident or emulation… Working on the demos in their own studio before travelling to LA for a month last year to meet and work with featured artists, they stayed in Echo Park and recorded in local studios and sometimes even in the homes or backyards garages of their collaborators.

Hand- picking the best of the local talent: dance diva - Gavin Turek, indie upstarts - The Palms and dream pop dealer – Satchmode all contribute their talents to the cause.

The Dutchmen have earned a deserved reputation in particular for the A&R side of the industry, with both the discovery and collaboration of new rising acts high on their agenda. Previous successes include working with Parcels, Alxndr London (championed by Annie Mac) Eric Biddines (6Music playlisted) and Cleopold (signed to Nick Murphy fka Chet Faker's own label). And they continue to uncover hidden gems outside of LA on this record too...

Moon Boots collaborator – Nic Hanson, Jalapeno Records' gospel/soul powerhouse - Izo FitzRoy and soul man Wolfgang Valbrun (Ephemerals/Kungs), New Zealand's imugi and previous collaborator and soul songstress - Sanguita are accompanied by regular members of the Kraak & Smaak live band - IVAR and Berenice Van Leer across 15 fantastic new tracks.

'Pleasure Centre' is everything you'd want in an album and everything we've come to expect from these dance stalwarts – innovative, relevant, and modern tracks with great production and exciting guest features that are guaranteed to fire up your own pleasure centre!











k 11 Sweet Time (feat. Izo FitzRoy) clip

Moon Diagrams is the solo recording project of Deerhunter co-founder and drummer Moses John Archuleta. Two years after his acclaimed debut album Lifetime Of Love, Archuleta returns with Trappy Bats, a mini-LP that interweaves three brilliant new Moon Diagrams tracks with radiant reworks from Shigeto, Angel Deradoorian and Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. Trappy Bats was largely recorded in a single night as a means to process the intense intersection of Archuleta’s social, political and personal hysteria. Having been arrested for an unremembered missed court date, Archuleta spent 24 hours in a holding cell, offering ample time to reflect on his life, the current state of the nation (the jail televisions were showing a constant feed of the then-active Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville) and the other inmates. Upon being released the next day, Archuleta found himself suffering from a bout of insomnia and feeling the need to process everything through music. Here, Archuleta is in his freest and most grateful state, channelling the turmoil and confusion he was experiencing into an unencumbered fit of creativity. It’s pure, unadulterated escapism with an even more callous palette of sounds than before, clearly split between two moods. On what you might call the ‘up’ side, the title track could be the sonic spawn of Not Waving and Terrence Dixon: a snarling mix of percussive clatter and washes of orchestral tones coalesce into a pulsating groove across its almost 12-minute runtime, the underlying ’80s aesthetic making it feel like a turbo-charged Shep Pettibone remix of New Order, looped to infinity. Detroit electronica don Shigeto goes even further and implodes the track into a kaleidoscope of bone-jarring, viscerally giddy dance music. Over on the ‘down’ side, ‘Wipeout’ is a slow-motion waltz of dusty piano and clattering percussion loops that coolly stumble along with the woozy, nocturnal flare of The Caretaker or Philip Jeck. The haunted reverie ventures even deeper with a beatifically electrified ambient re-imagination by Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. Daisychain’ goes almost completely off the grid, offering up a sweetly submerged slab of constantly evolving murkiness in the vein of Demdike Stare or a dosed Andy Stott. The sweet shuffle levitates even higher with a celestial re-interpretation by sonic visionary Angel Deradoorian, formerly of the Dirty Projectors. The end result is an extended traipse through Saturday evening fever-dream techno, Sunday morning cigarette jazz-pop and every blank thought in between.

"In his solo work and as a member of Nine Inch Nails, Alessandro Cortini's music casts the listener into an intricately rendered vortex of emotive dynamics,where he expertly maximises the boundaries of contemporary electronic music. His new album, 'Volume Massimo,' combines his fondness for melody with the rigour of experimental practice. Follows on from 2017's universally acclaimed album ‘Avanti. 8 tracks of deftly arranged synthesizers saturated with sonic artefacts and luscious pop sensibilities.
+ Includes download code."

Von Brüchen und Kämpfen: Das Berliner Electro/Pop-Duo Yeah But No kündigt sein zweites Langspielalbum "Demons" an.
Yeah But No sind Douglas Greed und Fabian Kuss. Elektronische Musik mit klassischen Songstrukturen zu einem klugen und mitreißenden Hörgenuss verschmelzen, ist schon immer das Anliegen der beiden. Die Stücke des neuen Albums "Demons" kreisen um innere und äußere Konflikte und Gegensätze und zeigen die Band von einer dunkleren und detailreicher ausgearbeiteten Seite als auf ihren vorherigen Veröffentlichungen, und erweitern das breite Spektrum der Band von elegantem Deep House über friemelige Electronica bis hin zu hypnotischem Techno und großartiger Popmusik.
- LP: schwarzes Vinyl, Gatefold-Cover, 4c-Innersleeve mit Lyrics, Downlode-Code liegt bei

Zweites Album des irischen Produzenten Daithí aka Pual Noonan mit zehn kleinen Vocal-Pop-Hits auf House- und ambienten Electro-Rhythmen.