Beats News

Swiss based artist Androo, who previously released on MFM sub label Second Circle, returns with his debut LP 'Club Salon Theatre'.

Far from an album in traditional form, 'Club Salon Theatre' explores its potential as a musical collage of sound. Recorded during 2021 and the beginning of 2022, it is the result of Androo's desire to draw connections between diverse fragments of music and art.

Originally born out of the Dub sound-system scene in Geneva and with a continued love for the modal music of the likes of John and Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders, Androo has long put improvisation at the center of his practice. His understanding of dub music as an integral part of the experimental music tradition, with ties to the school of Musique Concrète for instance, and with trap music as another vital ingredient, has as much to do with the form as with the method. With the studio as a laboratory for experimentation, Androo utilizes a variety of outboard instruments as well as working in-the-box, but it’s his classic “dub style” technique of mixing at the hardware console that leaves its quintessential mark throughout the whole record.

'Club Salon Theatre' is a rich patchwork of imagined scenes, emotive melodies, flying rhythms, harmonic changes, loose improvisations, with an almost romantic thread running through it. Like a collection of musical poems, gently arranged in what is sometimes sparse musical language. Far from a patchwork of scattered and disjointed inspirations, there is a real unity and singularity at work, resulting in a record which can be enjoyed as a collection of sonic poems, simultaneously nonchalant and earnest, sentimental and playful.

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Remastered deluxe edition of "_Interval" by AUTiSM. The album is rich in methods, approaches, and emotions. Samples, constructed voices, chopped and clear vocals organically get along with each other — it’s easy to forget that this is primarily an instrumental electronic album. Very visual, song-like tracks swing between shade and light, melancholy and determination. Constructed mostly from bits and pieces coming from diverse digital sources, the album sounds amazingly human and emotional. Hardware and software units, field recordings from multiple world locations, found samples, stock sites discoveries, and on-the-go phone experiments weave a web of visions, dreams, and revelations.

Introducing De Mond's debut LP, 'Glow.' Stijn Wybouw (also known as Kramp) and Arno de Bock (who provided drums for Hermann among other projects) throw you into a maelstrom of bold sounds and rhythms. From squiggly synth bursts to kaleidoscopic loops, they push the outer parameters of 21st-century musical art.

To describe an album as "electronic music" has long been an understatement. "Romanticismo siempre" is a good example. Recorded mainly using synthesizers, the album travels a territory that borders on the experimental and the dancefloor, entering at times in both fields.

Andrés Téllez, Delone, states in its title a clear commitment: "an ode to life, to never lose that passion that is the engine that pushes everything, no matter how many obstacles there are along the way, such as love, madness or death". The need to express this is at the origin of the record.

His musical language is rich and varied. Among synthesizers, analog experimentation, drones and psychedelia, many of the subcultures that have shaped what was once called "electronic music" appear. Flashes of trip hop, new age and proto-electronics are amalgamated throughout the album, together with hints of mutant house, breakbeats, IDM and trance. Other genres peripheral to club sounds, such as post-rock or kraut, also appear.

The idea of creating something that could almost be considered a soundtrack is present, but Delone's singularity has taken the album down a different path, using his own musical vocabulary to articulate a narrative that leads him towards his desired destination, keeping experimentation and dance culture, constants in his career, very much in mind.

In 2014 and together with his partner and friend Carlos Trujillo, Andrés created Riverette, a record label that became a record store in the center of Madrid, with his studio in the basement. From there he unleashed his productions as Dos Attack and his first works as Delone. Riverette quickly became a key creative pole in the Spanish electronic underground, and the label has released records by Legowelt, Kornel Kovacs or HAAi.

Throughout the eleven tracks of "Romanticismo siempre", a story materializes in which the protagonism falls on the adrenaline of passion. Through a very personal sound, with a certain introspective vocation, Andrés tells us a wonderful tale with the help of exquisite arrangements and a rich expressiveness.

"Romanticismo siempre" is a polyhedral album that can change with every listen, with every track, and reinterpret itself almost with every playback. It is a complex record, delicate and full of nuances, at the same time charged with a powerful and primitive energy.

With his new instrumental album Ventas Rumba, the French composer (and singer) returns to his signature instrument, the piano, blending it with warm synth tones. This album represents a "return to his roots ", allowing Ezéchiel Pailhès to reinvent himself in a seamless way while still exploring ballads and ritornellos, halfway between light-heartedness and melancholy. Ezéchiel Pailhès has been meaning to write a solo piano album for as long as he can remember. Hardly surprising, of course, for this academically-trained pianist, brought up on classical music and then studied jazz. Yet, since his 2001 debut with the electro-pop duo Nôze, and his subsequent four albums, the artist had constantly postponed this project that was so close to his heart. Then in 2022, just as he was getting ready to start producing an album of new songs, this long-standing aim finally materialized.
The melodies he wrote seemed to stand on their own naturally, spurring him on to compose this series of fourteen tracks, recorded in sessions split between France and Latvia.
A new piano: the Una Corda
Ezéchiel wanted this project dedicated to the piano to begin a new narrative, to explore new instrumental terrain and new tones, something far removed from the familiar piano he has been playing all his life. He opted for the Una Corda piano, designed by David Klavins, a groundbreaking instrument builder renowned for his distinctive pianos with vertical shapes and frames.

The Una Corda, created in 2014, is an upright piano with a single string per note (unlike three strings on traditional pianos). Enticed by the "crystalline and unique" tones of this instrument, which is hard to find in France, Ezéchiel travelled to Kuldiga, Latvia (where David Klavins set up his workshops and studios), to record the first part of the album. Although the title of the album may initially conjure up images of a distant, sensual dance, the reality is quite different. Ventas Rumba indeed refers to the waterfall and rapids (in Latvian: rumba) of the river Ventas, which runs near this small village in the western part of the country. Ezéchiel chose to blur the lines, as the sound and musicality of the title likely evoke both his short stay in the Baltic country, and also a form of distant exotic imagery perfectly in tune with his own mischievous wit. Tracks as short stories

Back in France, Ezéchiel enhanced the first tracks recorded in Kuldiga with subtle synth tone layers, and added other tracks composed and recorded at his Montreuil studio. The album reflects a deliberate and sensitive orchestration of piano, synth keyboards and digital effects, as he puts it: "playing to erase the differences between the tones of the various instruments", as if each instrument's texture echoed the others. According to Ezéchiel, you can listen to Ventas Rumba as you would leaf through "a collection of short stories", through compositions that rarely exceed three minutes and evoke figures of movement, lightness, curves or modulation, such as "La ligne", "La valse des singes" or "Fly Finger". Others more seriously relate to a kind of spirituality, which quietly infuses such different tracks as "Ferveur", "Éclair" and "Louanges". Ezéchiel adds: “I’m by no means religious, but I like what God has managed to get musicians to achieve (laughs)". "Louanges", for instance, despite its electronic edge, "refers to Olivier Messiaen, a very devout composer who I greatly admire". Other tracks are directly inspired by the classical music he listens to on a daily basis. For example, Chopin's “8th Nocturne” formed the backdrop of “Pianovado”. Likewise, the harmonic structure of Beethoven's “Waldstein Sonata No. 21” inspired “Opus 53”. Aside from these multiple references and inspirations, which quickly recede behind a style that is uniquely his, Ezéchiel Pailhès keeps exploring ideas already found on his first solo albums, this time in an instrumental format, undoubtedly purer, fostering an imaginary world that evokes the shapes and themes of ballads, ritornellos, light-heartedness, passing time, reverie or a universal subdued melancholy.

2024 Repress

Pilot is one of the many labels in the orbit of the unstoppable production force that is Burnski aka garage innovator Instinct. It deals in proper club tackle from a wide range of artists and here it is Hatori Hanso that offers up the brilliance.

'Hardcore' opens with old school ragga vocals and crispy breakbeats that bring the rave, new school style. 'Cherry On The Cake' is a lively house cut littered with James Brown samples and screwy synths that keep the pressure on. 'Don't Know Why?' is a more cool and breezy tech house cut with sci-fi designs then 'See You On The Other Side' shuts down on a deeper tip.

Terra Magica Rec. first 7’’ release „Chiqui Tan“ by the label heads Hektisch Sprengen DJs will be limited to 250 copies. The A-side hits the listener with some 1980s early Electronic-Downtempo-Cumbia-Colombian-Venezuelan-Tablemountain-Dub-Grooves. This reminiscence is leading to an extra full blown up 21st century Bass-Queen alert. And these HSDJ dials hit you into a stripped naked sample of Nigerian-Swedish DJ-dentist-mainstream-star Dr. Alban and his Eurotrash-90s-Pophouse-anthem “No Hash Hash, No Cocaine”. This is for sure no “Ottonormal”-90s-revival thing!

On the flip side Hektisch’s haptic wood razzle move covers the classic 1994-Liquid-Deep-Netherlands-Trance-House-Track “Paper Moon” by 51 Days which back then sampled the rare 1972-MPB-Funk-Cover-Version of Carol Kings “Corazón”. Guess what! It drops like a late 1990s-Ed-DMX-London-classic gone Electroboogie-Miamibass-Break with a SH101-baseline and Sprengen’s take on Spanish-90s-Trance-Vocals. Watch out 4 TERRAMs “Asi me gusta” title caps series as well! Trigger warning: That hidden Sequential Circuit Sixtrack loves you like a windy horse on Acid. Loads to experience on this little innocent wax disc!

Many people consider the Tbilisi scene (thanks to the artists that turns around Khidi club) as one of the most advanced and influential in the entire world. Giorgi Kolbaia (aka Downwell) & Giorgi Kharanauli are a good example of those talented georgian artists. They have made partnership as Initial Light to present a more relaxed work in relation to their solo acts stuff, “40 Degrees In The Air” is a blend of Italo, breaks, synthwave and modern ebm / new beat keeping a common pleasant industrial taste in the 6 tracks included in their vinyl debut.

Belgian artist Jennifur is a bit of an enigma in today’s contemporary music climate. While most bend over backwards to satisfy the algorithm’s constant need for content, Jennifur (real name Hector Devriendt) has been quietly crafting spell-binding music that stands the test of both time and decreasing attention spans, blurring genre and emotion seamlessly through a sonic DNA that is diverse and colourful.

Having locked himself in his basement for eighteen months in order to produce the soundtrack for PS5 and XBOX ONE snowboarding game Shredders – which was later released by Jennifur himself under the title Nowhere, Now Here – the Ghent based artist is preparing the release of his next full length; Things Don’t Change Until They Do on Supreems’ new label Sweet Sun.

Tears-on-the-dancefloor aesthetics meet with polyphonic, nostalgia-inducing patterns, coming-of-age breakbeats and heart-string tugging classical ambient on an album that sounds completely unlike anything else you will hear this year.

ONE-OFF truly limited edition of 300 copies lacquered pressed on 180 gr. high quality solid BLUE vinyl. All tracks have been specially remastered for LONG CUT vinyl by Daniel Hallhuber at Young and Cold Studios (Germany)

Finnish Recue debuts on Analogical Force with 'Paramnesia EP', where Riku Annala explores the murkier side of electronic soundscapes with distorted and gritty undertones. With impeccable production, Recue guides us through this expedition in his highly distinctive style that blurs boundaries between bass music, idm and reflective electro-nix. 'Paramnesia EP' takes you on a cinematic journey through post apocalyptic soundscapes full of deep bass, textures and nuances. Some of Paramnesia's tracks have accompanied Recue in his live sets, acting as a counterbalance for the most nolanesque moments, when the music starts driving the listener forward in full speed. Some have started as reworks of other material, gradually morphing into something completely different, leaving only a memory of something that never came to be. The release is the result of a dialogue and curation together with AF, and the end result is something that sits comfortably in the sound that is Recue and undertone that's Analogical Force. You know what to do!

2024 Repress

Steve Rachmad's richly melodic strain of techno has resulted in a huge body of work he has been growing since the early 90s. His sound is the perfect distillation of machine soul - dubby atmospherics and crisp, danceable dynamics balanced in perfect unison. Amsterdam's Delsin Records gathers together some of the Dutch techno figurehead's most important, sought-after works in a new EP series, all remastered from the original DAT tapes from Steve's archives. His flagship Sterac project is present - most notably the Asphyx EP, with a long-standing titling mistake now rectified on the iconic 'X-Tracks' comes first. Four absolute classic Sterac works dating from 1995. The Delsin Sterac series will focus on long-awaited represses and hard-to-find deep cuts from the Rachmad archives. Adding to the weight of this series, the accompanying artwork is being created by Boris Tellegen, aka legendary graffiti artist Delta who first began designing sleeves with Secret Life Of Machines. Since then he created many works for labels including Delsin.

Supreems music has been circling the globe for a few years now, slowly but surely culminating in support from renowned electronic artists such as Bicep, Four Tet and Ross From Friends, just to name a few. His releases have generated very real excitement for his next moves, as he appears to be seeking personal connection through his sound, more intimate than many of his contemporaries. Nachtschone,
Supreems debut album, is a prime example of that. The LP is his most personal and complete body of work to date.

Exploring styles and aesthetics previously unattached to the hazy-house and melodic breakbeats traditionally known for the artist. Nachtschone sees Supreems connecting the dots between new and old, delivered in his unmistakable cinematic style.

Another Terra Magica release is coming! The new ‚Axisdance‘ - Various Artists (TERRAM003) double-vinyl 12″ compilation coming out this summer August/September on Terra Magica Rec.

With artists from all over the world such as Poly Chain, Mogwaa, Jacques Satre, Jai, DJ Normal 4, Imogen Soundsystem – Ilija Rudman and Antonio Zuza, Gee Dee, Rambal Cochet, Listensport, Johnmon and Hektisch Sprengen DJs.

Every track has its own spirit, in a kind of a 90s journey way. The compilation is a fascinating mixture of weird cosmic and slow goa vibes to more emotional places with powerful bassdriven downtempo techno and slightly trance influenced anthems as well as distinctive tribal acid easiness with epic melodies. Furthermore it involves faster loaded minimal hypnotic synth sounds and dark UK-House with a big-beat touch to it. Raw liquid floating old skool breaks melts into rave stompers which are inhabited by sensitive living microbes vibrating jungle atmospheres.

Open Air Jungle Dub. Pure Old School Breakz.

Timeless minimalist approach to composition braced by repetition and playfulness.Alberto’s music reflects calm, focus and intimacy. Ethereal and atmospheric, his pieces operate within the digital as well as the analogue realm in equal measures. Sampling, Midi sequencing and field recordings are the instrumentation used in these 15 songs recorded on a four track reel to reel tape. Highest possible recommendation for fans of Suso Saiz,Jon Hassel, Eno or Harold Budd

“Haizetxe” which stands for wind house, is the first ever record consisting of unreleased material recorded between mid 80’s and 90’s by musicianAlberto Lizarralde in Zaldibia, Basque Country.

One of the founders of the first school of Improvisational jazz and contemporary music (Jazzle) established in San Sebastián to In the early 1990s,Alberto is a well-known figure among Basque musicians but not so much among the general public. In his professional curriculum we find the direction of the Plaza Festival, the Zirrara record company, his work as a producer, editor (editions 3e argitalpenak), the direction of the audiovisual installation JAArtzeren Unibertsoa, the arrangements and composition for the Iparraguirre 7 project, etc...And even so, he has managed to stay away from the spotlight.

In all this time he was composing and recording music, but the right circumstances never arose for its release.Thus, it has remained stored in a drawer all these years. Finally the music of Alberto Lizarralde sees the light on Hegoa label in a limited run of 300 LPs.

The next release on Phase Group is a truly singular and original album from Rotterdam-based producer Ayaz.

With ‘Unpinned’ Ayaz presents a window into a uniquely crafted and highly personal sonic environment, where intercepted radio broadcasts tune in and out of focus, modulating drones echo through cavernous space and the sound of experimental synth explorations are layered over heady dub-laden beat work, deep bass lines and expertly programmed traditional sampled artefacts from the music of his native Azerbaijan.

This is an uncanny and evocative sound universe both cinematic and driving, music that would work equally scoring science fiction cinema as in the most avant-garde club environments. Mind-bending and visionary music for those that explore.

From a Balkan basement comes an EP so filthy that we had to cover the record with a color photo. KRI records first installment oscillates between EBM and electro, ready for sweaty dancefloors and those extra long afterhours needing some “warm leatherette”. A well crafted five tracker journey is a debut collab by two veterans, Christian Kroupa discovering his darker shades coming off of an LP on Natural Sciences under his Alleged Witches moniker, while Le Chocolat Noir is no stranger either with seals of approval on Return to Disorder and L.I.E.S among others. Get ready for plenty of melodies, massive chords and menacing vocals spiced with an epic acid remix by the Mannequin boss Alessandro Adriani.

For the third label’s release, Clouzer returns to Distant Gaze with “Call of the Abyss,” a six-track EP featuring three originals alongside three remixes from acclaimed artists Damon Jee, Zakmina, and Berlin’s emerging talent, Zee Mon.

At the helm of the EP is Clouzer’s captivating journey, “Voices from the Abyss,” extraterrestrial echoes and pulsating broken beats, embarking on an exploration into the depths of the unknown. The EP’s second track emerges as a powerful stage presence, guided by the haunting vocals of Valentin Henning. Blurred and delayed textures immersing the listener in a mind-altering experience. Pulsating rave energy of “Perpetual” fuses cosmic elements, broken beats, and dark disco bassline, embodying Clouzer’s distinctive sonic identity.

Adding to the EP’s allure are three remixes, each offering a unique interpretation. Zee Mon’s rendition of “Perpetual” channels darkwave energy, infusing the track with an irresistible pulse, a primetime banger on vibing dance-floor. Damon Jee’s remix of “Stalactites” delivers his trademark full-throttle dance-floor oriented dark disco, elevating the EP to the next level of intensity. Finally, Zakmina’s broken beat journey serves as a beautiful sublime culmination of the EP, evoking the feeling of a perfect closing track for an enchanting morning DJ set.

2024 repress.

Five years ago, back in September 2016, Stefano Gentile published a photographic book entitled IL SILENZIO DEI TUOI PASSI (The Silence of Your Steps), which collected a series of 56 pictures, both in b/w and colour, dedicated to the nights in Venice. The book was a journey through the most remote "calli" and "campi" (streets, alleys and squares, as they're called in Venice) in search of the true 'breath' of the city, far away from the hordes of tourists who 'attack' it every day during daylight hours.

On such occasion, renowned musician Gigi Masin composed a 30 minutes epic ambient track entitled VENEZIA 2016 which was the perfectsoundtrack to the images included in the book. The track was published on CD and released bounded with the book itself in a limited edition of 480 copies only, and has been unavailable for years now.In 2021 Gigi Masin returned to that great piece of music and to its timeless sounds. Finally, Silentes can now offer PLAYS VENEZIA, Masin's latest work contanining a re-edited version of that 'pearl', accompanied by two unreleased tracks composed and recorded in the same period.

Once again inspired by the city, Masin created an enduring and wonderful ambient masterpiece, a sort of return to the origins, to his home. Adding to the intrinsic quality of the originals, the tracks were beautifully mastered by Brandenburg Mastering in Amsterdam. PLAYS VENEZIA is simply an unmissable release and one of Masin's greatest accomplishment in a long carrier that never ceases to amaze us.

* CASSETTE VERSION **
Five years ago, back in September 2016, Stefano Gentile published a photographic book entitled IL SILENZIO DEI TUOI PASSI (The Silence of Your Steps), which collected a series of 56 pictures, both in b/w and colour, dedicated to the nights in Venice. The book was a journey through the most remote "calli" and "campi" (streets, alleys and squares, as they're called in Venice) in search of the true 'breath' of the city, far away from the hordes of tourists who 'attack' it every day during daylight hours.

On such occasion, renowned musician Gigi Masin composed a 30 minutes epic ambient track entitled VENEZIA 2016 which was the perfect soundtrack to the images included in the book. The track was published on CD and released bounded with the book itself in a limited edition of 480 copies only, and has been unavailable for years now.In 2021 Gigi Masin returned to that great piece of music and to its timeless sounds. Finally, Silentes can now offer PLAYS VENEZIA, Masin's latest work contanining a re-edited version of that 'pearl', accompanied by two unreleased tracks composed and recorded in the same period.

Once again inspired by the city, Masin created an enduring and wonderful ambient masterpiece, a sort of return to the origins, to his home. Adding to the intrinsic quality of the originals, the tracks were beautifully mastered by Brandenburg Mastering in Amsterdam. PLAYS VENEZIA is simply an unmissable release and one of Masin's greatest accomplishment in a long carrier that never ceases to amaze us.

Four warehouse breaks, bleeps and bass bangers.

2024 Repress

"Communication", das erste, wirkliche Soloalbum des Ex-Kraftwerkers Karl Bartos, kam 2003 in die Läden und damit 13 Jahre nach Bartos" Ausstieg bei den Düsseldorfer Elektronikern. 2016, und damit wiederum 13 Jahre später, erscheint das Album, komplett remastert und mit dem Bonustrack "Camera Obscura", erneut. "Communication" ist jedoch keine bloße Wiederveröffentlichung. Es ist der Reload eines Pop-Klassikers, der heute thematisch aktueller ist denn je. ""Communication" handelt davon, wie Bilder unsere Sicht auf die Welt bestimmen und wie sich durch elektronische Medien die Inhalte unserer Kultur verändern", so Bartos anlässlich der Veröffentlichung im Jahr 2003. 2016 hat dieses Thema an Dringlichkeit und Wahrhaftigkeit nichts eingebüßt. Ganz im Gegenteil. Heute ist die Medienwelt, die das Album beschreibt, so alltäglich geworden, dass ihre Wirkmächtigkeit gar nicht mehr wahrgenommen wird. Spannend: Obwohl zehn Jahre früher erschienen, kann "Communication" energetisch nahtlos an Bartos" gefeiertes letztes Album "Off The Record" (2013) anschließen.

On 1984's Chomolhari, new age pioneer Karma Moffett eschews the arsenal of Tibetan bells and resonant singing bowls, which he usually uses to conjure his healing ambient works. Instead, he opts for the shimmering arpeggiation and gentle glissando of the Moog synthesizer. With this aural palette, he soundtracks a rich inner voyage of peace and reflection. Bookended by the calming drone of the Tibetan longhorn, the trip to Chomolhari and back is one worth taking again and again.

Karma Moffett reminisces: “Chomolhari. Bhutan’s deeply venerated guardian peak. While living in San Francisco, I wandered into the first Tibet Shop in the city. I met Dorje Lama, the creator.He became my good friend and guide, and introduced me to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa, the venerable Kalu Rinpoche, and Tai Situ Rinpoche. He opened the door to the path of an inspired and enlightened journey for me. After reading ‘Seven Years in Tibet’, I created ‘Chomolhari’ as a mystical journey to the higher planes of the majestic mountains. Dorje would say: ‘The wildest dreams of the Americas are the facts of Tibet.

An overview of Laraaji's earliest works, "Glimpses of Infinity" gathers selections from his 1978 debut "Celestial Vibration" and six additional studio sessions from the era. Full of discovery and wonderment, "Glimpses of Infinity" is a miraculous chronicle of new age's most fabled artist.






d KALIMBA 1 (GLIMPSE)




d KALIMBA 1 (GLIMPSE)

Mathis Kolkoz (Blind Delon’s alma mater) joins forces with Pablo Bozzi (renowned for his previous works as Imperial Black Unit and Soft Crash) and with Abu Nein’s voice Erica Li Lundqvist to release one of the most amazing synth-pop works listened in recent time. In between low beat electro, soft ebm and even modern new beat, LOST HIGHWAY sounds harsh but romantic with great rhythm patterns that make it impossible to stop dancing.

This debut EP comes with three original tracks plus one blasting remix by our partner in crime CURSES, a plastic bomb ready to fire up any darky dance floor. Comes presented in a one-off truly limited edition of 300 copies lacquered pressed on 180gr. high quality solid black vinyl.

All tracks have been specially remastered for long cut vinyl by Daniel Hallhuber at Young and Cold Studios.

A year on since the collaborative Mystic AM project in 2022, Rod Modell returns solo to Astral Industries with AI-35. The album - entitled ‘Ghost Lights’ - comes as a gatefold 2x vinyl LP, showcasing the latest epoch of Modell’s signature soundscapes. Spread across four parts, ‘Ghost Lights’ draws out a wide, cinematic sound - with long arching contours, rippling textures and cavernous sound design.

Woven with layer upon layer of hidden fragments and supernal transmissions, each chapter takes the listener successively deeper into the twilight zone. Harking to dramatic off-world topographies and interstellar spaces, the work glistens with opulent sound treatment and monumental grandeur. Dense pulsations move with oceanic force, marked by washes of celestial light and subterranean drones. Exercising another side to Rod Modell's typically atmospheric productions, this album comes with an ambitious framework and a more assertive sound. Featuring some of Modell’s most epic storytelling to date, ‘Ghost Lights’ delivers a powerful immersive experience.

In times where fantasy worlds seem in danger of extinction, Saturns Drive created his own. ‘Next Stop Nebula’ combines oceanic slide guitars, early synth digitalism and 90s-inspired inspired rhythms to get any sailors ship sailing. The result is a fearless space where machines and guitars come together in a psychedelic pop meltdown.
Saturns Drive is a Berlin-based music project created by Elfy, a producer and DJ from New Zealand who draws inspiration from early sci-fi, exotica and library music, cosmic disco synthesizers, italo grooves and arpy electronics. He has recently been featured on the track "Parallel Panorama" by Saeko Killy and performs regularly along with other artists of the Berlin music scene.

Mesmerising debut release of Soft Traffic, a new family member of the ever classic Sushitech Records.

Meltem is a studio collaboration EP with dub vocalist Prince Morella. Super limited hand-stamped vinyl release!

Since releasing on Reinforced at the age of 16, Dominic Stanton has always remained one of most influential producers in the west London broken beat scene. Those early adventures via numerous successful aliases laid the foundations for Dom's sound, eventually leading to the launch of 'Sonar's Ghost' in 2013.

Welcoming Sonar's Ghost to Metalheadz is now long overdue, so it's a pleasure to be showcasing 'The Fall and Rise Of...' as part of the Metalheadz Platinum series this July. Consisting of 5 collabs, 4 of them making the vinyl cut, the release draws inspiration from the rich heritage of jungle and breakbeat, effortlessly weaveing together intricate rhythms and immersive textures. Outrage & Scale feature on 2 tracks each, whilst Acid_Lab also gets in on the virtual collaboration bringing together a complimentary selection of styles.

Let's celebrate 20 years of WeMe records!

YUKI is the debut solo record by Basel-based multidisciplinary artist Yanik Soland. Inspired by film scores and sound design, YUKI is a 40 minute audio-piece in 11 chapters. Musical characters, each assigned a specific sound (such as a sampled quarter tone cembalo or synth voices) reappear across the chapters. With a background playing bass in bands, Soland utilises various collaborative modes on YUKI: his partner Marianna Angel appears on overdubbed iPhone-recorded piano, Stefan Tcherepnin plays guitar over one chapter, and a rehearsal recording with Gleb Glonti forms the canvas for another. YUKI--the name Soland's parents had planned to give him, if he were a girl--is Japanese for snow, snow-princess or luck, and is here used as an alter ego within Soland's practice. YUKI's touchstones include Laurie Spiegel, Mark Fisher, Ruins, Dean Blunt, Maryanne Amacher, Tyler The Creator, Heather Leigh and Gyorgi Ligeti.

Nestled beside the sea and a cluster of palm trees, La Malvarrosa, the neighborhood in Valencia where Cooper resides, derives its name from a fusion of "Malva," meaning mauve, and "Rosa," meaning pink. Here, La Malvarrosa serves as the primary backdrop for the recordings, symbolizing two distinct colors and artistic approaches.

These hues become the emblematic colors of a fictitious flag from an imagined island located on a forgotten expanse of ocean. From this ethereal site, melodies emerge, seeking to unravel the essence of certain insular music while intertwining with Cooper's post-everything sensibilities and Kòlar's minimalist electronics. "Mauve/Pink" navigates the delicate balance between playfulness, intricacy, and simplicity, blurring boundaries between tradition and innovation, reality and imagination, change and repetition.

The album serves as a showcase for contrasting methodologies and viewpoints, acting as a sonic document of an ongoing conversation between generations, where Cooper and Kòlar's efforts illuminate a boundless creative process and timeless aesthetics.

»Música para 10m2 de Relva Sintética« (Music for 10 square meters of synthetic grass) includes a live recording of the Niagara performing at MAAT museum in Lisbon on 9th April, 2020. The recording is taken directly from the concert, without any additional production or mixing.

The set begins with strong nods to US minimalism before evolving into a quirky new age affair. Later, vocal experiments and some dreamy synth excursions set the tone. The gentle sound of water splashing is almost constant, for where there is grass, there must be watering.

Manchester’s multifarious sound organiser Andrew Hargreaves (Tape Loop Orchestra, The Boats, Beppu) channels key touchstones of Glenn Branca’s microtonal minimalism, the paranormal, and DIY amateur broadcasting with some of his most enigmatic, intuitive recordings to date.

‘Drones In The Air’ finds Hargreaves deep in a new phase of vibrational investigation where the sentimentality of prior eras gives way to more abstract conceptual processes. Utilising a bunch of oscillators and the Lyra-8, an “organismic analog synthesiser”, plus pedals, Hargreaves works within just intonation tuning systems - or more precisely “intuitive intonation” - to just-about harness a microtonal flux of clashing, beating frequencies, but the project is more about ceding a certain amount of freedom to the machines and allowing aural alchemy to occur, prompting a spectrum of harmonic colours and rich timbral overtones distinguished from previous tape loop-based works.

Comparative to “Glenn Branca’s micro-tonal workouts if he had worked with oscillators instead of guitars”, the result also variously evoke mysteries of The Conet Project, the oceanic feel of Éliane Radigue compositions, and early ambient works by Terre Thaemlitz in their sound sensitivity and scope. In ‘The Sun is Afraid’ he mesmerises with glistening microtones that develop a coarser traction, interrupted by shortwave radio comms and resolving into phantasmic noise gauze that speaks to his long-standing fascinations with entropic decay and the sounds between sounds. ‘Your Hands Are Shaking’ follows with a stealthier approach to coaxing a hallucinatory drone mass inflated by ether voices and thickening up into a sinister gloam redolent of NWW’s ’Soliloquy for Lilith’.

Composed by Jim O’Rourke and pieced together by Jim together with longtime collaborator and trumpeter Eivind Lønning at Jim and Eiko Ishibashi’s home in the Japanese mountains, this engrossing new album blows brass wails and tense fanfares across O'Rourke's manipulated Kyma tapestries for a deep, captivating trip into the aether.

Eivind Lønning has been sharing ideas with O'Rourke for several years: the duo collaborated on music for the Whitney's 'Calder: Hypermobility' exhibition, and Lønning played trumpet on O'Rourke's brilliant 2020 album 'Shutting Down Here'. For this new work, Lønning headed to O'Rourke and EIko Ishibashi's home studio in the Japanese mountains, where he teased unfamiliar, alien textures from his trumpet to open the labyrinthine three-part composition. O'Rourke took the material and subsequently funnelled it through his Kyma system, transforming it into a swirl of sound that hums alongside Lønning's original takes. The album was composed, mixed and mastered by O'Rourke, with everything's based on Lønning's virtuosic performance.

The album begins by cautiously introducing us to its sonic palette: wavering, bird-like horn wails that O'Rourke contorts around quiet synth oscillations and computerised swarms. Lønning's spittle-drenched blasts are given the spotlight, but O'Rourke's manipulations - often gentle and illusory, and sometimes utterly lacerating - lift the sounds into completely new territory. When Lønning begins to turn rhythmic cycles using the trumpet keys, popping with his mouth to compliment its leathery timbre, O'Rourke replies with dense, hallucinatory drones, juxtaposing unstable electronics with Lønning's breathy, sustained notes. All these sounds coalesce into a dizzy vortex, but O'Rourke is careful not to overwhelm the senses, dropping to near silence as the first act transitions into the second. O'Rourke pelts Lønning's vertiginous wails, steadily mutating them into Xenakis-like stabs until they sound like cybernetic strings and icy tones that extract the tension from Lønning's brassy harmonics.

The third act is more screwed, with O'Rourke allowing Lønning's improvisations wail into cathedral-strength reverb, accompanying the sound with glassy penetrations and throbbing subs. Here, Lønning sounds as if he's heralding the arrival of a celestial being, piercing the atmosphere with bright, sustained tones and muted, jazzy flourishes. O'Rourke hangs back, carefully spinning the notes into naturalistic fibres and orchestral drapery, before he allows the electronics to subside completely and the trumpet to echo into the imposing negative space.

'Most, but Potentially All' is a dumbfounding piece that shifts the dial on contemporary experimental music; dizzyingly complex but never showy, it's the kind of record you can spin repeatedly and hear something different each time. As an exploration of the trumpet, it's a unique expression, and as a progression of electro-acoustic compositional techniques, it draws a deep trench in the sand, setting a new standard.