quête:go dark

Reissue of this long lost funky Afrobeat/Reggae classic from 1978
For fans of Fela Kuti, Peter Tosh, Bob Marley, Segun Bucknor

The year is 1978 and one hot thing from the musical underground is Reggae music from Jamaica, the USA or the UK, where most of the acts had musicians of Caribbean descent. Reggae had the groove, the rebel spirit, and the relaxed attitude all in one, to enchant a big part of the world’s inhabitants. And while at least Jamaica as a relatively poor and so-called "Third World“ country proved to spawn Reggae acts of the highest quality, literally nobody dared to look further and dig deeper into the underground except of a few maniacs who were not satisfied with spinning Marley over and over again. And maybe they stumbled over the 1970s Afro Beat sound from countries like Zambia or Nigeria and then got interested. What did they find in the simmering metropolises of this still mysterious continent? Somewhere in Nigeria, they would have certainly caught a glimpse of mind-blowing performances of The Sea Lions, a six-piece group mixing the then hip Reggae and Afro Beat styles to generate fresh and furious music with a hypnotizing atmosphere.



Polyrhythmic beat patterns build the foundation, the utterly fruitful soil for the heartwarming melodies wailed out by the guitars and the commanding vocals with their conjuring charm. Great organ work builds the link between the groove section and the melody instruments. You can imagine what a pleasant experience this band might have been live back in 1978 when their sole album "Free The People“ got released. And this album, of which copies in only good conditions already fetch prices of $450, while nice clean pieces might go up to $1200, lives up to the expectations one might have from watching a live show by the Sea Lions. The sound is vivid, transparent, powerful, and clean enough to make the music a real pleasure listening to, but earthy enough to present nothing but the band going wild here. The songs all have a similar pace, not too fast, but swinging and pulsating to spread their energy to and among the listeners. The melodies are simple but come from the depth of the heart. This feels typical for African 70s music and despite being kind of reduced, these melodies keep haunting you still even hours after the record been taken off the turntable and put back into its sleeve. They bring images of an ever pulsating city by night, warm climate, palm trees, people at the bar, a witches cauldron of sounds, smells, voice, and pictures. And you feel the magic floating through the air while this groove will not let you go so easily.

You can either dance your soul out to this ultimate reissue or you can sit down, listen and let the music tell you a story of the dark corners of the big city, the narrow alleys that lead you into a boiling labyrinth of mystical dreams. And in songs like "You Can Make It If You Try“ you will find the whole magic of the African world, a world so fascinating for us Europeans but still so unapproachable in some ways and dangerous for the weak. Do not try to resist, this is your pleasure. Grab a copy and the Sea Lions will carry you off to their place. I haven’t heard such a killer Afro Beat and Reggae album with songs this exciting and wild in a long time. If you equally love Peter Tosh, Bob Marley, Segun Bucknor, and Fela Kuti, look no further. Here is the spiritual essence of all these great artists merged into one giant act.

Timeless periods of industrial rhythm: Diarmaid O Meara and Kucera collaborate to release ‘Shadowmen’ vinyl on Gobsmacked Records

Nightclubs around Europe are shut. Even in Berlin, the clubbing capital of the world, nightlife has been reduced to a simmer. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t have a good time and connect via timeless periods of electrifying and industrial rhythms”, said Irish producer and DJ Diarmaid O Meara. Together with long-time Gobsmacked techno stalwart Kucera, the two have dropped their latest vinyl ‘Shadowmen’.

The collaboration has derived from long sessions in the Gobsmacked cavern studios in Berlin. The result: A 12” that is laid out in the style of the perfect rave – with a breakbeat electronica entry that promotes procrastination, freakish, and intensely introverted thoughts created through pulsating rhythms and ghostly frequencies, industrial rave sounds for those moments of release.

Partying is a huge part of Berlin’s identity

By listening to the vinyl featuring a dark rhythm, it becomes obvious that the duo has been heavily influenced by underground techno nights in Berlin, and also regularly sharing the stage together at international events. With the pandemic-mandated closure of clubs stretching through the summer, however, playing gigs and festivals is no longer an option. Hence, illegal parties have sprung up to fill the gap and infuriated some public health officials and politicians, also in Berlin.

“Partying is still a huge part of the city’s identity”, continued Diarmaid O Meara who has been living in Berlin for over a decade and also organising parties all over the city. “Raves are a much-needed way to blow off steam after a period of isolation but we have to consider a more proactive approach, for instance district authorities making public spaces available to party organisers under conditions that ensure hygiene measures are maintained.”

Although there has been no shortage of digital music events either since the pandemic began, clubbing is more than just watching a DJ set. “Rather it’s about the unique space that’s created by artists and the crowd that are pulled together by music”, said Kucera who has been destroying dance floors across Europe with his live sets since 2004. “In times when people are still feeling more isolated than ever, our latest vinyl with the accompanying music video aims to bring a sense of connectedness and community during the lockdown.” The video imagery has been recorded live using Kuceras machine pattern triggering whilst performing the tracks live.

Unwavering dedication to the culture of counter-culture

The name ‘Shadowmen’ reflects the work both artists have contributed constantly and consistently to the scene over the past two decades with unwavering dedication to the culture of counter-culture. The artwork, in classic Gobsmacked style, comes with a tip of the cap to the global elite who have been successfully driving humanity off a cliff. “We’ve thrown a little apparent illuminati symbol in there for those who’ve been confined too long at home and on YouTube for the past 6 months”, said Diarmaid O Meara.

Both artists are working on a multitude of new tracks and events for the post-Covid era. Of particular interest is Kuceras live visual show for Gobsmacked, with visuals triggered from his machine live-set patterns. This is something he has been wanting to experiment with for a long time now and it started to take shape in the form of visual hallucinations of industrial areas and trains he had been filming while traveling across Europe before the world stopped functioning properly due to Covid-19. Diarmaid O Meara has quite a few tricks up his sleeve, including a new politically inspired alias, where both artists will take centre stage in some wacky antics.

Listening to Linja’s debut LP makes one think of Polish director Yuri Norstein’s gloomy melancholic (yet playful) movies, or perhaps just of a rainy day, or Chopin.

Velvet Noise is a collection of 7 experimental pieces made by Linja sometime around 2016-2017, using drum ma- chines and a lot of modular synthesisers. The album is woven with Simple melodies that crack through the squeaks and the bleeps, eery pads that fill the voids all sorts of FX. The atmosphere becomes filled with tension when it is playing in the room, as if something is clearly about to happen. Linja’s album is not so easy to describe, and yet due to its coherence and storytelling it has a certain feel and per- sonality of a good book rather than just a record. “It transcends its existence as a record”.

Melissa Guion’s second offering for Kranky retains the glassy gauze of her debut, 2016’s Precious Systems, but shaded starker and darker, framed by mechanical rhythms and humid industrial moods. She speaks of Sour Cherry Bell as something of a reckoning with her tools of creation: “I was curious to see how far I could go with them, even if that meant reaching the ends of their capacity to do what I wanted. But I never exhausted them and they never exhausted me.”

Utilizing her trusted combination of instrumentation, Guion tracked the record between her New Orleans home and rehearsal space, capturing chemistries both intimate and expansive. The songs sway between twilit shoegaze, downer ballads, and gothic pop, mapping a delicate palette of electric melancholies, though in retrospect she cites as her primary muse the notion of power: “lost and found, corporeal and cerebral, harnessed and exploited, of one and many, in this reality and the next.” Sour Cherry Bell reverberates beyond the here and now into scenes unseen, worlds unheard.

From their early singles and their 1993 Mercury Music Prize winning debut album to their break up in 2003 , Suede were a fixture in the single and album charts , and in the music press too . They scored twenty hit singles and five hit albums (three of which debuted at # 1), and a double album of B sides even charted at # 9.

The band reformed for a one off charity concert in 2010 and decided to make it permanent they have released three new studio albums since 2013 .

Compiled by the band , this comprehensive six LP set features the huge 90s hits like “Metal Mickey”, “Animal Nitrate”, “Stay Together”, “Trash, “Filmstar”, “Lazy”, “Beautiful Ones”, “Saturday Night”, “Electricity”, “She’s In Fashion”, “Everything Will Flow” and “Can’t Get Enough”Enough”, along with favourite B sides like “To The Birds”, “My Insatiable One” and “Killing Of A Flashboy”Flashboy”. Also featured are classic album tracks like “The Asphalt World” and “He’s Gone”. The collection brings the story up to date with sixteen tracks from the three recent albums , including “Life Is Golden”, “It Starts And Ends With You” and “ Outsiders”.

The six LPs are pressed on 180 gram white vinyl and are housed in inner sleeves featuring all the lyrics as well as photos of dozens and dozens of items of Suede memorabilia and promotional items , all lent by fans.

Trouble, the aptly named new album on Goner Records, is a confident and joy-filled statement delivering the good-news gospel message unapologetically through music influenced by Ray Charles, Junior Kimbrough, Bill Withers and of course, his father.

Recorded at legendary Royal Studios in Memphis by Lawrence “Boo” Mitchell (Al Green, Solomon Burke, John Mayer, Buddy Guy, Mark Ronson & Bruno Mars, North Mississippi Allstars), Trouble is the culmination of everything in Rev. Wilkins’s remarkable life, his regional history, his family music history. And in a world once again riven with discord and division, like the Memphis of Wilkins’ youth in the 1960’s, Trouble delivers passionate and confident musical performances with a message of hope that meets our present moment equal to the best music from that earlier era.

To call the Reverend John Wilkins a national treasure would not be an overstatement.  He is the son of pre-war blues/folk-revival legend Reverend Robert Wilkins and he leads one of the most exciting and uplifting musical acts on the blues and gospel circuit today. His multiracial, multi-generational band blends soul, southern gospel and hill country rhythm, into a sound that has the infectious drive of hill country blues with the emotional heights of a summer tent revival.

Following in the footsteps of his famous father Rev. Robert Wilkins, a blues-singer turned preacher who went from the juke joint to the pulpit, the life of Rev. John Wilkins took a similar path, echoing the story of the elder Wilkins’ most famous song, “Prodigal Son.”

But in 2020 John Wilkins’ life has been closer to a different iconic bible character, Lazarus, as he has miraculously risen after surviving a month-long stay in intensive care battling Covid19 in a Memphis hospital. As Rev. Wilkins sings on the closing track of his forthcoming album, “I’ve come through the storm and rain, I’ve come through the storm and rain, and I made it!”

And there is much to celebrate with this resurrection.

yellow & clear green marbled vinyl

For the inaugural EP, FOLD resident Gareth Wild presents "Common Assault". With metallic tubular synthesis, cut-throat percussion and rolling rhythms, this EP is an effective and essential piece of material demonstrating all angles of Techno, immersive to peak-time.

The release features three original tracks and two locked grooves from Gareth with stripped back, dark-side remix work from Madrid's very own Roll Dan.

Featuring bespoke, full colour cover art by designer Lion Sauterleute and pressed up on coloured neon wax the release lands 25th September at all good outlets.

In the meantime, check out the snippets on our Soundcloud. The movement continues!

Jacques Bon used to have a lovely record store in Paris called Smallville. It was there that Superpitcher hosted his 12 Sun-Oh-Bration release parties of his Golden Ravedays album in 2017. They were intimate gatherings, so legendary that the same furious old man from across the street complained at each one of them at exactly 9:47pm. Inspired, Jacques, a lover of the lyrics and music of Brigitte Fontaine and Jacno, produced the two reworks for this beautiful record. It has a brighter side with « Ah Que La Vie Est Belle » and a darker one with « Si Je Te Quitte » No complaints!

Blocaus series is back with it's 8th release, "Gods & Robots" EP by rising French artist Ruhbarb for his debut EP on the label. Involved with labels such as Materia and Odd Oven, Ruhbarb's sound is a mixture between techno, dub and ambient, nurturing a tone that is driving, groovy and dark, but always loaded with great emotional depth. Part of a promising new generation of French producers and DJ's, Ruhbarb delivers 4 fantastic cuts in his own personal style including on the B side two killer remixes from Answer Code Request and Antigone.

After spreading several music videos and EPs all year long, Jumo starts the decade with a first much anticipated album. More than a compilation of his past works, “Et le vent?” extends the artist’s experiments and add new colors to his palette.
Featuring Léonie Pernet, Pénélope Antena, Hyacinthe.
Staying on the line traced by the previous tracks, “Et le vent?” perpetuates Jumo’s taste for narration with all its forms.
Six years ago Clément Leveau gave birth to Jumo a musical avatar with whom he asserted a singular identity characterized by a sophisticated production of heady melodies and a cinematographic atmosphere allowing him to give free rein to his passion for the image. The release of the Radio Nova hit 'Aléa' marked the beginning of a fruitful collaboration with the Parisian label Nowadays Records (Fakear, La Fine Equipe, Clément Bazin, Leska). As a graphic designer Clément makes Jumo a true transdisciplinary project in which sound and video feed off each other, putting his collective Cela at the service of a dark and arty visual universe that perfectly matches the contours of his music.
After spreading several music videos and EPs all year long, Jumo starts the decade with a first much anticipated album. More than a compilation of his past works, “Et le vent?” extends the artist’s experiments and add new colors to his palette.
Staying on the line traced by the previous tracks, “Et le vent?” perpetuates Jumo’s taste for narration with all its forms. “L’exode”, first single of the album, is a perfect example. It gives the album’s tone and also dives us into Jumo’s powerful aesthetic thanks to the music video.
“Steve (Ft. Léonie Pernet), is a tribute to Steve Maia Caniçot, young man who dramatically died during a police charge on Nantes docks on June 21st, 2019. A track on which Jumo confronts with Léonie Pernet’s grunge intonations, an unexpected collaboration sounding like an evidence.
Another main track of the album is “Une Belle Personne (Ft. Oré)” where the producer’s synths converse with the French singer and offer us an original and efficient pop song.
The great Awir Leon, the French rapper Hyacinthe, Hier Soir (Jumo’s side project) and Penelope Antena complete the cast of an album that goes from the calm contemplation of the world to the underground clubs filled with energy.

It's been three years since the last vinyl by Ntogn was unveiled and now we're glad to share with you the result of his venture through the recent winter.

'Smedjan' is inspired by the dwarven craftsmanship of Norse mythology. It is made completely with organic sounds gathered from, and recorded in, the forests of Bålsta which is rich with northern heritage. Everything you hear is either processed textures of birch wood blocks, layers of a custom made Ukrainian artisan mouth harp or the artist's own voice.

There is no synthesis in this record. The kick drums are made by hitting these pieces of wood against each other with contact microphones. Bass layers are extracted from bark scraping against bark. Hi hats are crafted by recorded fire of the same wood logs burning and ambiance is built from the forests where the trees grew and from the woodshed where the artist chopped the wood during winter to keep his cabin warm. The rhythms and sounds in this shed is what inspired the making of this record.

By shaping these sounds of wood and metal Ntogn strives to create a sonic experience that connects the listener to the old Norse stories of the dwarven craftsmanship of Svartalfheim. It is they who made the famous trinkets and weapons that empower the gods of Asgård through stories of trickery and despair which has later inspired tales and literature for over a thousand years.

The record has been distilled from material that was meant to become a two-hour live set specifically made for Mo:dem festival which was unfortunately cancelled due to the corona pandemic. It was also the foundation of the artist's thesis at the university of sound design where he made a study of the effects of organic sound on an electronic expression such as techno music.

It will be released digitally and as a 200 copy limited edition black vinyl adorned with an artwork drawn by the artist's partner Gabriella Holmström using the ashes of the same birch wood blocks that was used to make the sonic content.

The record has received early support from Francois X, Takaaki Itoh, Abstract Division, BLNDR and Rambadu to name a few.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

Ntogn en'togg-n is a conceptual electro-acoustic project developed by Hypnus Records' founder and sound design graduate Michel Iseneld (b. 1988, Sweden). It aims to breath life into a fascination for magic with the use of contemporary and classic sound design techniques. This has resulted in what Resident Advisor's William Lynch describes as 'fierce, artistic techno that sounds like little else out there' and a discography ranging from earth-shattering techno to dark, throbbing ambient excursions.

After spending nearly three years in isolation, deeply lost in literature on history, philosophy, occultism and epic fairy-tales; Michel developed an inner world which eventually found an outlet through the means of music in 2013. By the use of field recordings and various samplings of his voice and surroundings, something peculiar sprouted as his inner images started to manifest and mature into an organic sound inspired by the emerging hypnotic deep techno scene.

Today, all music is released on his own imprint Tome in order to preserve the projects' artistic freedom and originality. After two years of sound design studies at the university and a new-found passion for modular synthesis; there's plenty of music in store aimed to satiate the curious minds.

"Lugar Alto's newest project is the idiosyncratic album MUMIA (portuguese for MUMMY). Never released before, it is a work that was originally recorded on cassette and combines elements of post-punk, industrial and ambient music.

Kodiak Bachine and Celso Alves formed the ephemeral and eponymous duo in 1988. The partnership resulted in a single recording derived from improvised sessions using minimal amounts of electronic equipment at Celso's country house, located in the interior of São Paulo.

Bachine was an important figure in the São Paulo underground. His most renowned project was the band Agentss from 1981, which also consisted of Miguel Barella, Eduardo Amarante, Elias Glik and Lyses Pupo (later replaced by Thomas Susemihl). In its brief duration, the band released only two seven inches that were considered seminal artifacts in the Brazilian post-punk scene: “Agentes / Angra” from 1982 and “Professor Digital / Cidade Industrial” from 1983. These two rare records are highly sought after by collectors and DJs from around the world for their inventiveness and originality.

Similar to Agentss, MUMIA brings with it extreme authenticity, managing to extrapolate the barriers of more traditional Brazilian music and interact with unorthodox elements. The lyrics are a mixture of Portuguese and English and it is still possible to identify picturesque fragments of Spanish, French and German. In addition, sonically, the record portrays aesthetics from the eighties and dialogues with themes relating to LSD. Another notable feature is the fixation on Egyptian post-mortem themes, providing a cinematic and lysergic experience of the desert landscapes from the African country.

It is a recording with comic passages which provokes an unpretentious reaction from the listener. However, it still has more ethereal and atmospheric moments, such as the opening song “Ave do Deserto”. In the final two tracks, it is possible to enjoy a darker MUMIA, which with “Massacre da Serra Elétrica I” and “Massacre da Serra Elétrica II”, provide a sound experience capable of accompanying intense scenes from the macabre productions by Tobe Hooper and George Romero.

The striking new artwork was created by the Sometimes Always studio, a partner of Lugar Alto and responsible for diverse graphic collaborations with artists, venues and parties in Brazil. The album, mastered by the prolific Arthur Joly, also has a booklet containing Kodiak’s texts in Portuguese and English, in addition to the lyrics, which serve as a logical exercise for further understanding of the album.

MUMIA was unearthed by the renowned Brazilian DJ Millos Kaiser, who in addition to kindly curating this album, put together the compilation “Onda de Amor: Synthesized Brazilian Hits That Never Were (1984-94)”, released by Soundway Records.

Now, after 32 years in its tomb, the MUMIA has risen and thanks to Lugar Alto it can finally be celebrated and appreciated."

"I am sitting in a garden, I haven't left the property in weeks, someone is dropping off food once a week. I haven't seen a human being in ages, I feel like a reverse Schroedinger cat - do I exist when nobody sees me? I must be somewhere in France but I don't remember. I have lost my consciousness again. When I wake up I hear a broken record looping somewhere in the mansion. A washed-out opera. Behind the trees I see the dilapidated hermaphrodite sculpture in a field of verdant nettles and fern. I hear gunshots far afield, aeroplanes in the sky, sirens on the main road.
When unconscious I dreamt of sitting on the Concorde observing the scarab blue ocean and iridescent clouds from above, an erstwhile receding memory. Sometimes I hear the organ of the nearby Renaissance Cathedral merging with the Russian Church bells.
I am hallucinating again. Someone's humming in the kitchen? Singing? A Radio? I overhear two young women talking about art galleries in the neighbour's garden. Bees attack, again…..again and again. The hairspray finally intoxicates them. An amphoric japanese voice is whispering in my head saying I will die soon. Someone (something?) bangs on the vases. The fountain's water turns dark red.
Fleur calls and says mum died. The funeral will be televised on tuesday. We opt for the synthetic choir for the service. The call is suddenly interrupted. Mold is slowly taking over the house.
I go back inside."

Une Fille Pétrifiée is the debut album of new Black To Comm related entity Mouchoir Ètanche (after one recent 12" on Richter's own Dekorder label). Combining real and fake acoustic instrumentation, sampling, field recordings and excessive yet inaudible post production this is another sublime and ethereal statement. Influences are ranging from (French) Classical & Opera to the anecdotical compositions of Luc Ferrari, Chinese Opera, Chanson, Sacred Music / Church Music, JG Ballard and Surrealism.

Marc Richter records as Black To Comm for Thrill Jockey, Type and Dekorder and as Jemh Circs for his own Cellule 75 imprint. He also produces soundtracks and acousmatic multichannel installations for institutions such as INA GRM Paris, ZKM Karlsruhe and Kunstverein Hamburg.

The album title pays homage to Alfred Hitchcock with Eminem tweeting the below following the album release.

Barcelona to Brooklyn via UK: following two very special releases from Beartrax, for their third release (and second of 2020) hot new NYC label Melodize welcome one of Spain’s most consistent electronic ambassadors, Factor City co-boss Undo, and Cin Cin bossman Fort Romeau for remix duties.

Hot on the heels of his stunning ‘Dark Woods’ EP earlier this summer, Undo comes packing some stunning electronic tackle. Sitting somewhere between Border Community and Underworld, both cuts are lavishly layered as myriad synths bubble and ripple away in their own little co-existing worlds.

Baggy, charming and just nicely off-grid, both sides of the coin can be flipped; those looking for a darker jam will be all over ‘Sixty Days’, a powerful cut where the basses melt into swaggering loose kicks. Need things even darker? Then jump on Fort Romeau’s remix where the kicks are cemented into place with a stark acidic twist.

Meanwhile those of us hungrier for more of a cosmic head trip will find serious pots of gold at the end of the rainbow that is ‘Just One Day’. A twinkling, shimmering odyssey, tracks like these don’t come round all that often. Melodize realise total bliss once again.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tectonic is very proud to welcome Lamont to the team!

Bristol’s bendy-beats whizz kid is mainly known for dropping jaws with his releases on Swamp 81 and it’s various offshoots. This time, he’s been chipping away at 4 fine-cut gem, especially for Tectonic - bringing some darkside vibrations in addition to his usual bounce.

‘Hold Dat’ runs at 135bpm, sitting in-between grime, dubstep and housey/techno/whatever that thing Lamont usually does! Charged with a disgusting, totally greasy bassline, this one drops hard and keeps going - quality moves for (now, mostly imaginary) dancefloors.

‘Push’ takes it down a notch, to 130 for a more heads-y work out, laden with crackling, fizzing sonics - and heavily punctuated by sub bass hits. The energy levels step back a touch, while building intensity.

‘Brain’ sees Lamont working more familiar territories - sending a pounding 4/4 kick drum out to hold together a series of collapsing percussive hits and warping melodies - as a ‘brain’ sample, simply haunts your brain.

The EP closes off with ‘Open Letter’, taking things into a dread-space; dub wise, deep and dangerous. The lurching bass hits take charge and push you through layers of echo’ed hits and micro-melodramas, to round off this great EP in fine style.

Oops, sorry, Ghost Wavvves broke the Internet: Here is “Internet Club” his debut full-length album. Part of Monster Jinx since 2015, Red Bull Music Academy in 2016, Ghost Wavvves is now revealing all the secrets of clear and deep web in this work. With features from Tokyo Wanderer, Simpig, No Future and Mike El Nite, “Internet Club” comes up with an exclusive and specially prepared vinyl edition.

In fact, this “club” brings together the best and the worst of the Internet: bots, spam, popup ads, soft(ware)gore, and everything you didn’t even know you could find in the depths of the World Wide Web.
Please check your connection. You are now part of the “Internet Club”. And you already know: what goes to the Internet...stays on the Internet

Reactivated is the label’s fifth vinyl reference. For this work, ART21 has the participation of six artists: Hd Substance (Spain), Filip Xavi (Servia), Romain Richard (France), Pedro Pina (Spain), Kalter Ende (Spain), and dietriangle (Italy). Reactivated is a dancefloor focused dark mental techno LP that features hypnotic sounds created with both modular and analog synthesizers giving it the right warmth of sound. It is a work that invites us to reflect on the current pandemic we are going through and invites us to continue fighting and enjoying life. «As I didn’t worry about being born, I didn’t worry about dying» . – Federico García Lorca

At the forefront of the Irish electronic music scene, Sligo-born Berlin-based duo Brame & Hamo, aka Tiarnan McMorrow and Conor Hamilton, announce their hotly anticipated fourth EP, 'Celebrity Impersonator' out on the 29th October 2018 via their own imprint, Brame & Hamo.

The title reflects the duos personality and playful energy, nodding to their love of celebrity impersonators whilst growing up. 'We have a bit of a soft spot for impersonators as it is a pretty ridiculous way to earn a living. A bit like DJing! Our favs were those of Tom Cruise, Bill Gates, Gordon Ramsay and Johnny Depp'.

Opening with 'Midnight Express', the rolling melodics nod to the early sounds of prog house and Italo, acting as a transitional opener to their signature trance via techno scores. On the B-Side, title track 'Celebrity Impersonator', is a moody four four that edges into the darker realms with their love of breakbeat shimmering through, resulting in a club ready anthem. Melting down into a rolling trance groove with a late night heady feel, 'Request Rhythm' closes the EP.

With an impressive discography of EP's behind them on their own imprint - Trants, Club Orange and the DJ favourite, Limewire, as well as bookings worldwide the Irish pair are set to propel onwards from Sligo to Berlin and beyond.

Vox Populi!'s cult and highly sought after debut LP is finally reissued here after 30 years. Recorded after their first single - Ectoplasmies (1983) - between 1984 and 1985, the original band of Mitra and her (then) 14 year old brother Arash and Axel Kyrou, evolved from 2 early cassettes and the 7"s' rudimentary, idiosyncratic and improvisational structures to more cohesive edges. Living together, but with no formal music education, the nature of the disparate elements led to a sparseness of the recordings. Influenced by his mother, the concrete music pioneer, Mireille Kyrou and her work at GRM (State Institute for Musical Research), Axel challenged his creativity by utilising their Vox Man studio as an instrument. Building on minimal synth, rhythm box, hand percussion and Persian poetry, they experimented with tape manipulation - layering the music with forward, backward and echo simultaneously - creating a leap in the band's development. The dark nature Myscitismes was reflected in their increasing interest in industrial and ethnic music, with a great fascination for the religious traditional music of Tibet. Ceremonial, gothic, drone-folk, the progression is apparent; onward perceptions.

Despite experiencing moments of some uncertainty across the planet, the Gladio Operations label nevertheless takes a gamble and launches its third EP titled “The Dark Phase Experience”, once again opting for an EP by several renowned artists.

Latvian artist Dmitry Distant opens the EP with “Latvian Electronics” an excellent and intriguing cut of dark atmospheres, based on a very well moulded line of acid.

The renowned French producer Fleck E.S.C who has releases on labels such as Central Processing Unity or Electrix Records among others, gifts us “Mocboss”, an extremely enigmatic track with powerful bass, which clearly breaks away from the traditional electro sound.

The British electro producer Scape One returns to Gladio with “Click Click Drone” a fantastic track where the sequences especially stand out, and which inevitably resonates with the mythical German group Kraftwerk.

The talented duo from Madrid Telephasycs!, and label owners of Rator Mute, close the EP with “Head Rush” a powerful and dark dance floor-oriented cut, beautifully infused with mysterious and captivating harmonies.

Lina & Gwen Wayne have become notorious for their techno sets throughout Germany and Europe, maneuvering from insider to headliner depending on the premises. We are pleased to announce their first EP "Genug gelabert" will be released on 4th September 2020 via Hold Your Ground on 12" vinyl and digitally.

Worm & brutal, like falling face first onto the concrete floor on a warm summer night, is the first track "Palaber" by Lina & Gwen Wayne. For six minutes, the ground feels like the sky, lying feels like falling, dancing feels like breathing and beyond your immediate surrounding there is nothing. This is techno and for the moment these two producers from Hamburg and Berlin are your new horizon.

The two DJs started producing together in late 2019, with their no frills & dark, but fun style translating effortlessly into their own productions. "Genug gelabert" ist the title of their first EP, meaning Enough said, and we are gonna keep it at that. Come marvel at the beautiful brutalism. Incl. Remixes by Moog Conspiracy and Innacircle & Metatext.

Vital Sales Points:
DJ promo by Cutthenoize, German print & online by Audiolith Inhouse, UK/international online

clocolan is Emlyn Ellis Addison, a South African artist now living in Providence, Rhode Island. Exploring themes of ontology and psychedelia, his is a music of imaginary futures—of neglected hinterlands and unconquered vastness lost in the background noise of human endeavor.

Addison’s 2017 album, Nothing Left To Abandon, examined the experience of memory while his new album, It’s Not Too Early For Each Other, examines a more pressing experience: the ecosystemic collapse. clocolan dotes once more on dusty melancholy and electronic psychedelia in his new album, pressing into darker territory and more visceral textures.

It’s Not Too Early For Each Other examines the looming inevitability of a future shaped by mankind's destruction of natural ecosystems—and its seeming inability to alter that course. This music is dedicated to the pariahs: the messengers who confront the murder of the ecosystem.

Emlyn was introduced to Colin Morrison at Castles in Space by Strictly Kev AKA DJ Food. It's proving to be an incredibly fruitful collaboration and a third clocolan long player is already delivered and undergoing mastering for future release on Castles in Space.

This is the 1973 solo album by Ghanaian percussionist Anthony Kwaku Bah, who was given the nickname „Reebop“ by American
jazz legend Dizzie Gillespie. He passed away early at the age of 39 in Stockholm in 1983, but before made himself a name for his
works with UK 70s rock heroes TRAFFIC and German Krautrockers CAN, amongst others. If you might expect here the prototypical
Afro Beat and Afro Rock you mostly know from British bands, you will be surprised that this is only one part of the deal. Yes, there
are African elements to be found, buried somewhere in this boiling cauldron where polyrhythmic grooves are the base for jazz
improvisations by the brass section, that range from naughty swing and bebop, to freaked out free jazz and enchanting soul jazz
the way it was popular in the late 60s. The arrangements are utterly lush with so much going on here in every aspect that you
would get lost if there was no trace of melody to be discovered, but there they are and they tell you fantastic stories of exotic
places that only exist in your wildest dreams. Kwaku Bah’s rhythm patterns grab you by the horns and pull you into a world of
their own. Hypnotical, irresistible, hot and vivid. The tunes combine jazz, soul, funk and each one is constructed like a self –
contained story. One could imagine these tunes being used as library music for 70s movies from action to romance. All pieces
though are characterized by the constantly pulsating rhythm. To avoid drifting into the field of insubstantial disco dance music,
the performances witnessed here were executed with the highest possible emotional intensity and dedication. Lay back, close
your eyes and float away on a raft of sound upon the wild river of grooves and melodies. Some haunting Exotica jazz passages
with a typical „jungle“ feel get thrown in for the good measure. There are even vocals in an African language hard to identify,
which create and even more mysterious atmosphere. This is just an introduction part of another powerful speed funk groover but
the vocals stay and make this a clear standout track. Saxophone and guitars seem to have a duel here. You will not sit still while
having this tune „Iphonohimine“ coming down on you like a thunderstorm. Blues, Afro Beat, Psychedelic Rock, Funk, it can all be
found in here and the band goes wild into an everlasting improvisation that deprives you of your breath. Can this record get even better? Do not ask, just enjoy what comes next. If you think that some melodies by the giant brass section sound a bit too catchy
just reach out beyond these harmony lines and find yourself in a thicket of grooves, pulsations, bits and pieces of melody with a
dense, sultry atmosphere. Some smaller parts might make you think of cruise ship big bands and white suits, but everybody will
soon drop these and dance in their underwear for the hot blooded power funk base of the tune called „Africa“, which will take
over one’s soul and set it on fire. So clean, so nice and so filthy and dangerous at the same time, this album is a masterpiece of it’s
style. The exciting and very sensual funk rock of „Lovin‘ you baby“ with crazy fuzz guitars and a dark and haunting approach is
another reason to kneel down when you put this record onto your turntable. Great clean lead guitars give it a latin garage rock
edge Carlos Santana would commit serious crimes for. If you love bands like OSIBISA, Eric Burden & WAR, GINGER BAKER
AIRFORCE, SANTANA, Miles Davis, all around 1969 to 1973, this is what you always wanted to listen to. Grab your copy now.

THE KILIMANJARO DARKJAZZ ENSEMBLE are a project which has always been tied to films. Films are luxurious because they dispose of all these boring, unimportant, and trivial parts of our lives. This allows them to fully control our sensations, to put us in a very specific mood. Joy and sadness are occasionally OK, endless joy or endless sadness are clinical. But there is one sensation which can be persistent and unconditionally bearable at the same time. In the absence of a better alternative, let's call it "the mood". The mood is what TKDE are aiming at. The mood.

The mood is infinite and illimitable, but not uniform and unique. On "From The Stairwell", TKDE deliver eight new incarnations of the mood. Stairwells have always been intriguing. They appear to unavoidably lead you to your destination, but they only disclose the path bit by bit. What lies far ahead of you and far beyond you is hidden in the shadows. The stairwell could just as well be infinite. You climb up this murky stairwell, passing by many doors. Every door contains a variation of the mood, a short film, a song. You open the first one, "All Is One". The evaporating mist discloses a large and empty room with a barstool in the middle. On the barstool, a chanteuse from the roaring twenties. Her voice starts to trigger vibrations of the ground, the walls start spiralling around her, but she remains untouched in the eye of the storm. Second room, "Giallo". Sly guy, telling smile, nice suit. Walking down the streets in the dusk. The ambience starts to get out of phase, the guy stumbles in horror while blending with the surrounding to a brown soup. Fourth room. "Cocaine". Naked people with pig heads crawl on the floor, on the walls, on the ceiling. They try to hopelessly suck up the white dust which covers every single piece of this room and is constantly spit out by tubes coming out of the walls. Dissonant sounds accompany the work of this desperate hive. As the people manage to counteract the tubes, fragile melodies start to overpower the dissonances. Sixth room, "Cotard Delusion". Baby morphing into a black fluid morphing into an old man which turns his eyes inwards and finds his inside to be completely empty. The journey up the stairwell, down the stairwell, continues. The pictures fill your head and make you forget where you wanted to go in the first place.

"From The Stairwell" is a surprise and a logical step at the same time. It is a surprise because the songs are far less beat-driven in comparison to TKDE's earlier works, and even contain a few hopeful tints here and there. It is a logical step because in the end each song turns to have a very diverse dramaturgic flow. This could raise the conjecture that TKDE, initially started out to make music for existing and non-existing films, wanted to incorporate the audiovisual impression completely into songs, making the films superfluous. At times, "From The Stairwell" makes you think of 60's soundtracks, but the organic feeling of those is always interwoven with mechanical elements. Altogether, every single of the numerous details present in TKDE's new songs feels to be at the right place and you can either just dive into the mood or pick one of the many aspects and enjoy it on its own - be it Gideon Kiers' beats & fx, Jason Köhnen's bass & piano, Hilary Jeffery's trombone, Charlotte Cegarra's voice & piano, Eelco Bosman's guitar, Nina Hitz' cello, Sarah Anderson's violin, or - appearing as guest musicians - Eiríkur Óli Ólafsson's trumpet and Coen Kaldeway's saxophone & bass clarinet.

Presenting a collection of stone-cold classic breakbeats and b-boy jams from the sunkissed vaults of Miami's legendary TK Disco label!

NYC in the late 70's and early 80's saw a nascent street subculture fully evolve, a movement with it's own language, art, aesthetics, dances, fashion and way of living.

What would become what is now globally known as 'hip-hop' was in its infancy, with it's own legends and history being forged on an almost daily basis across the city's Black and Hispanic neighbourhoods. Music was central to hip-hop, the DJ was king and at the hands of people like Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash, Grandmaster Flowers, Mean Gene, Jazzy Jay, Afrika Bambaataa, Charlie Chase and numerous other groundbreaking DJ's of the era, music took on a whole new meaning that would reverberate through popular culture for the rest of time.

The breaks - minute sections or breakdowns of a record where we get to the unadulterated groove and the band on the record cut loose - is what it was all about! Unlike the discotheque DJ's who favoured the long mixes and blends in their club scenarios, hip-hop DJ's were amassing huge collections of records that had these magical sections on them, often x 2 copies of each, so that they could elongate the best part of the record ad infinitum by cutting them up live - all killer no filler! These special on the fly mixes and edits were then unleashed in the local parks of their neighbourhoods, on gargantuan DIY sound systems for all of their friends and neighbours to party on down until the wee small hours. These breakbeat segments also gave the MC's space to address the gathered masses without their voices colliding with lavish string arrangements or vocals underneath. A clear, concise, stripped back slab of funk on which to put forth their ideas, feelings and rhymes for all to enjoy.

Collected here are some of those most infamous breakbeats, all from the TK vaults. These records were studied by these young DJ's, coveted, covered up, hunted down, whispered about in darkened corners by those who needed and obsessed over the freshest of beats. There's a good chance you will have heard these records in some form or another as they have been covered, sampled, recreated and spun in clubs across the galaxy for over 4 decades. These are the very building blocks upon which popular culture and club music have been built, and here they are all in one place for your listening enjoyment!

Released with love and respect by: Above Board and TK Disco, Miami FL. 2020.

Pascal Terstappen a.k.a. Applescal has released his new artist album, ‘Diamond Skies’ on Atomnation. The nine-tracker is a collection of expertly-produced, instrumental melodic house with lush, ambient soundscapes and a nod to the analog sounds of the 90’s. The album has received heavy support from key names in underground electronic music community and is Applescal’s sixth studio album to date.

Terstappen has been running Atomnation full-time since his early twenties and has shaped it into one of The Netherlands’ leading independent labels and a home for an eclectic mix of electronic music including signed artists such as Gidge, Polynation, Tunnelvisions and Sam Goku. ‘Diamond Skies’ exemplifies the vibrant sound of Atomnation, a lush, colourful album which journeys through melody, ambience and emotion while offering an occasional surprise to the senses. The album was written and produced through 2019 and completed in the early days of March 2020 when dark skies were looming.

‘Diamond Skies’ represents a creative optimism and brings a sense of something to look forward to. Applescal has created a musical dreamworld for a listener to step into as an antidote to troubled times. ‘Diamond Skies’ is an album which feels uplifting and effortless, a confluence of melodic house, occasional breakbeat and ambient energy; the sound of a producer at the height of his powers.

Society of Silence is a duo that became involved in the French electronic scene for a few years. They are already known for the wide range of style explored on several French labels and the power and spontaneity of their lives. Too Many Daddies is the ninth release in Activities Record's catalogue, following some previous releases by The Acid Mercenaries, Silicon Vallée, LL321 and two VA's. It is also the eleventh EP of Society of Silence.

Too Many Daddies is a like-minded electronic space saga with strong emotional textures, between hard key sweeps and dark harmony. This record kicks of with A1 Hormone Database, which is a strong funky electro track with a powerful ongoing groove. A2 Iron Penis is a hard hitting acid and hypnotic driven techno track. Undoubtedly another dance floor friendly stomper. B1 Octomom is at the edge between electro and techno. This track sounds paranoid in a very good way. A great nasty dark track with some of freaky vocals in the background. B2 Baby Cluster is a true electro track which demonstrate SOS's penchant for experimentations or No Future, or both...

Too Many Daddies is the evidence that the French duo adeptly understands the language of the machines.

2020 Re-issue of Keith Kenniff's debut under his Goldmund moniker. Originally only released on CD in 2005 via John Twells' Type Recordings, this album of rare and unusual minimalist beauty is now presented as a vinyl edition for the first time.

Multi-instrumentalist Keith Kenniff is a busy man. He has appeared as Helios on a number of acclaimed releases, including Deaf Center’s ‘Neon City EP’, and released a debut album ‘Unomia’ on Merck records which has appeared on many best of 2004 lists. All this while studying at the prestigious Berklee College of Music, and playing drums, guitar or contributing production to a host of amazing musicians. Kenniff lives and breathes music, something that is very obvious when hearing tracks under any of his pseudonyms.

As Goldmund, Kenniff has disregarded the electronic elements of his music almost entirely in favour of just a piano, a microphone and occasionally a guitar. ‘Corduroy Road’ is thirteen tracks of pure recording, the sound of the piano being opened and the feet on the pedals, the sound of fingers pressing lovingly onto the keys. This is a record of rare and unusual beauty, so shocking and yet unpretentious in its simplicity. When the guitar does emerge from beside the delicately touched piano, it serves as a balancing point for the record. Weaving in and out of the melodies, it adds another layer to what is already incredibly moving music.

‘Corduroy Road’ is rooted in Kenniff’s love of folk music from the American Civil War. We can hear this directly from his rendition of Civil War era classic ‘Marching Through Georgia’, but the influence carries throughout the record. There is an unheard voice which propels each track through history, maybe the ghosts of dying soldiers whispering in a long forgotten bar. Every haunting note drifts deep into the psyche and is lost in the ether of nostalgia. In this way it is a concept recording of sorts, it certainly has a narrative and has to be listened to in sequence. The story has clear themes; loss, history, friendship, camaraderie, forgiveness and hope, all clearly marked out by musical segments. It is no surprise that Kenniff’s passion for cinema shines through so strongly.

It would be hard to draw comparisons to music so rooted in folk traditions, but the music evokes traces of Ryuichi Sakamoto, Mark Hollis, Keith Jarret or even Eno’s more piano based compositions. Yet influence seems unimportant when listening to this deeply personal work. Just let it sink in and drift into the psyche.

Wrapping up the single release series from Carlton Jumel Smith's album "1634 Lexington Ave.", comes the deep beat ballad "Help Me (Save Me From Myself)". Progressing from moody minor keys towards the bittersweet hopefulness of the chorus, the track sounds like fell from Menahan Street Band's debut sessions with Charles Bradley and flew across the pond to soggy Helsinki, where Cold Diamond & Mink nurtured it to it's current glory.

The track starts up in classic hip hop soul style, with open drums and cinematic Rocky horns. But after the intro, when the ghost-like piano notes hit, is when the song really gets going. Carlton delivers one of his best dark-end-of-the-street vocals, matching his Timmion debut "I Can't Love You Any More". Tuomo "Pratt" Prättälä's haunting background vocals seal the deal, lifting the chorus to seventh group soul heaven.

Whether you're completing your Carlton single series with this gem or just getting your first whiff of this contemporary soul master, we salute you.

The man in the crowd is a wonderer with relaxed habits. In him the course of things and movement of the city is reproduced. The Düsseldorfer Detlef Weinrich is such a man in the crows. Some one who is constantly listening to future winds through rushes of the past. He loves the night for its free will. And his music tells stories about it. You might know him as a member of the band Kreidler. As a solo artist he goes under the name Tolouse Low Trax. And he's already got three Eps and two albums under his belt. His first solo album „Mask Talk“ thrives on a feathery beat frequency and cool new-wave-strength. His recently released piece „Corridor Plateau“, which appeared as a limited edition to accompany the exhibition „Corridor Plateau“ contains percussive electronics and Industrial sounding like its from the second industrial revolution. His third album „Jeidem Fall“, is also not from here. It sounds like music brought down to earth from the heavens. But its a dark cosmos in which there are only fleeting glimpses of light. All eight tracks were composed in a short space of time over the period of just a few months and fit together perfectly atmospherically. With a musical expressiveness that undoubtedly twists your emotions, „Jeidem Fall“ attacks the subconscious and clouds the mind. The drums have more movement that on „Mask Talk“. Along with the constant tapping of drumsticks goes melodical arpeggios dancing dark and dirty. At times longing vocals drift abstractly through the room, as on „Sa Seline“ or „Geo Scan“, without telling any obvious story.

To sound like stylistic cross references from the present and past is all just speculation for nothing on „Jeidem Fall“ really sounds like anything that has gone before. You could compare the dark minimal timbre of the drum computer aesthetic with Craig Leon's first reductive album „Nommos“. There is also a hint of the minimallist industrial of the Spanish band Esplendor Geometrico in the bubbly textures. But Tolouse Low Trax is still looking from the present into the future and filter and filters all his personal preferences through his MPC and his small synth setup to make them come alive here and now in a new way. Again Tolouse Low Trax has created a truly mysteriously vibrating drum computer music which offers hypnotic magic for the shadowy dance floor. Only a little light should illuminate the whole thing and the bodies that move above them should have no fear from threatening percussion which are displaced into a misty trance. A dark swaying shadowy mass, ideal for a journey at the end of the night and all those non-places where longing sleeps and the last romantics dance while getting drunk.

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After collaborating on a number of award winning vinyl albums, box sets and singles totalling over 80 songs together. They are back once again with this special, limited edition Vinyl Dub album.
Taking the original multi-track recordings of their co-produced 2016 sell out Roots Album for Max Romeo, ‘Horror Zone’. Lee & Daniel have created a new analogue Dub journey from those multi-tracks.
The original album was recorded live, using vintage Black Ark equipment to recreate Lee’s famous Lo-Fi Drum sound. With veteran Upsetter and Bob Marley and the Wailers musicians –
Glen Da Costa, Vin Gordon and Robbie Lynn, alongside Daniels Rolling Lion All Stars session band.
It has now been Deconstructed and Dub mixed live on Rolling Lion Studios SSL mixing console, using entirely vintage analogue equipment including the same pieces from Lee’s original Black Ark Studio. Driven by the idea to merge Lo-Fi and Hi-Fi. Merging the absolute best in class Analogue equipment available on the planet, with the very best Vintage equipment from the 1950’s-1970’s They have Dubbed these Bass heavy Lo-Fi recordings live, using space, depth and width. Paired with Phasers, Filters and Delays, resulting in a deep meditative, cinematic, psychedelic Dub journey into the stars.
Bought to you on super rare Glow in the Dark Vinyl, with a hand painted cover by Ellen G, the result sees the pair jumping into Lee’s Dub Starship to drive it straight through the Horror Zone!

"“Als das Kind Kind war, wusste es nicht dass es Kind war” the opening words of “Himmel über Berlin (Wings of Desire)” by Wim Wenders are so incredibly simple and innocent that they strike you down like the most murderous thunderbolt: “When the child was a child, it didn’t realize it was a child”. Are these words the fantasies of an adult or are these words the adult cogitations of a child’s brain?

If you are passionate about local music scenes as much as we are you might already know about the current brood of great bands going on in Cardiff, Wales.
Chain Of Flowers were the first to hail from the Welsh capital, followed by related side projects such as Night Thoughts, more recently came Private World of which the two boys we’re about to introduce are also live members of.
A new wave/synth act from the same city called Plastic Estate is emerging this year.

The duo composed by Nicholas James and Stanley Fouracres have released a few digital singles in 2019 as they’ve opened for The Murder Capital at Sŵn Festival and played alongside the likes of M!R!M, Josiah Konder and The Love Coffin. This Place is their first physical release and it’s due on 7-inch vinyl and digital on June 19.

On the two songs that compose the single, Plastic Estate clearly draw influence from the best UK new wave and pop artists such as Dave Gahan, Paddy McAloon, Roddy Frame and yet there is a sophisticated casualness and an innate freshness in their songwriting that makes them not sounding dated at all.
Amazing composition skills for such a young band and a perfect balance between electronic dance elements and acoustic instruments allow them to pay homage to the above-mentioned masters and to be a perfectly contemporary group at once.

Although it’s possible to pick out some darker lyrics, the overall feel is up-beat and breezy. It’s a contrast that runs through a lot of their music – like a dichotomy between dark, melancholia and happier, brighter feelings.
Whether it’s a happy pop synth riff mixed with sombre lyrics or vice versa, the young Welsh duo is delivering the best 80’s-inspired modern pop craft.
RIYL: Echo & The Bunnymen, Prefab Sprout, Depeche Mode, Orange Juice, Wild Nothing.