Beats News

* 'Veiling Reflections' is a one-hour dark ambient-jam that is to equal parts narcotic and haunting. The brand new piece by Robert Turman is an outgrowth of zweikommasieben's Surreal Sleep — an event series featuring audio and visual material by different artists exploring the realm of sleep.

* 'Veiling Reflections' was composed for an edition of Surreal Sleep during the RBMA Weekender Zurich in late 2016.

* Robert Turman is an American experimental and noise musician based in Oberlin, Ohio. In the seventies he rose to prominence as part of NON, collaborating with Boyd Rice, before leaving to pursue his own more expansive solo vision during the eighties. After years of silence, Robert started to release music again in 2008 — together with noise artist Aaron Dilloway and on his own.
* Präsens Editionen is happy to release this ambient soundscapes by Industrial-pioneer Turman as a limited edition of 100 professionally dubbed cassette tapes.

When Tresor founder Dimitri Hegemann stumbled into a former bank vault in East Berlin on March 13th 1991, he had little idea that the space he had unlocked would fast become one of Berlin's most influential and enduring techno clubs. "We didn't know what would happen 10 months later," he says. "We signed a lease for a year. Which eventually got renewed for another three months, and another three months.."

As Tresor celebrates its 25th anniversary with this work of artists from the US, Germany, China, France, Austria, Italy and the UK, it is worth dwelling on how the cultural conditions that birthed Detroit techno - economic neglect and broken industry - were mirrored by the disused bunkers and impromptu parties of post-unification East Berlin, where techno found new, vigorous expression.

Today, though the boom and bust of globalised capitalism has filled the void that followed the Berlin Wall, and techno has become a worldwide industry, we face a new political chapter, one defined by populism, nationalism and mistrust. Contemporary creatives should take inspiration from Tresor's story, an extraordinary experiment born from improvisation, resourcefulness and social neglect that uplifted the spirits of inner city communities for a quarter-century.

This record marks the spirit of those 25 years of creativity, a paean to the psychedelic music of Dimitri's youth. From the signature magnetic soundscapes of Vainqueur to the dark textures of upcoming Beijing producer Shao; from Jon Hassell's slow epicurean volutes, to the ritual auras of Marcelus and Claudia Anderson's contributions; from the dub-infused pioneering programming of Juan Atkins and Moritz von Oswald, to Mønic's enthralling cadences, it represents some of the old and new names that continually epitomise Tresor's perennial spirit of ingenuity. "We were space pioneers," says Dimitri.

The East Berlin of 1991 may have disappeared to gentrification, with Tresor's lonely vanguard joined by an army of venues catering to an international array of clubbers benefiting from low cost travel, many of whom settle in the city for good. Berlin is Europe's economic engine, headquarters to global industry and sole traders alike, where Polish, Kurdish and English are as likely to be spoken as German. That range of influences is felt in all areas of life, not least in the city's music.

"Without Tresor, Berlin would not be what it is today," concludes Dimitri. "Even though it sounds a bit pretentious, it is true. Tresor was the prototype for an extraordinary club. It was only possible as a combination of the right time, the right place, the right content and determined people."
Excerpt of liner notes, by Rob Sharp - November 2016.

Two all new Kiyoko tracks taken from 'The Horo Files' - a collection of Kiyoko releases for Samurai Horo.

At bleedin' last, The Boats' gorgeous debut album Songs By The Sea (2004) turns up on vinyl! Along with first-ever vinyl issues of We Made It For You (2005) and Tomorrow Time (2006), plus a very special side of unreleased, unheard outtakes, Static Clings (2017) - which are all collected in the The Boats Archive boxset, you should snap these limited runs while you can as they're unlikely to appear on wax again.

Scrolling thru the mists of time to 2004, a very different world indeed, and The Boats formed as an outlet for Kraftwerk-addicted composer Andrew Hargreaves and his pal, Craig Tattersall, fresh from a decade spent with cult post-rock group Hood and as half of The Remote Viewer, to pursue the ideas of post-rock, modern classical and lo-fi electronica along more intimate, personalised ginnels of folk and ambient music, with the cherry on their home-baked treats provided by vocals from another close friend, Elaine Reynolds.

Songs By The Sea was their wistful and charmingly humble introduction to the world; ten tracks balancing exquisitely pop-wise songwriting with gently pulsing, elusive electronics and a patina of crackle that became a real signature of their sound long before everyone else cottoned on and starting putting out pale imitations.

At the time, it received heavy rotation in our record shop, Pelicanneck, and was something of a shared secret between fans from Manchester to Japan via their home-town of Burnley, and still owns a certain section of our memory banks to this day that's often triggered by the smell of coffee, waffles and toasted rye bread in the morning just as much as smudged Hulme sunsets in summertime.

We don't want to gush about it too much but, listening to it now, and on a format the album always quietly yearned for, it's just chokingly nostalgic in its own, low-key and endearing style and leaves little doubt in our minds that Songs By The Sea is one of the finest ambient-pop records to emerge from this region.

So, so happy to see this first ever vinyl edition of The Boats' second album, We Made It For You, released in 2005 and vailable here as a super limited standalone release - or collected in a boxset with Songs By The Sea (2004), Tomorrow Time (2006) and Static Clings (2017) - this necessary vinyl edition forms a typically tender and heart-warming follow-up to their much loved and influential debut.

On their second album Andrew and Craig coaxed out a purely instrumental suite, leaving Elaine to her own devices (she would return on Tomorrow Time) while they drifted off into the sweetest reveries knitting passages of frayed, breezy solo piano and electronics nodding to Harold Budd, William Basinski or The Caretaker with the kind of burbling, gently glitching rhythmic tributaries that you'd expect from Isan, SND or Jan Jelinek.

All the tracks inside are named after their mates (hope they still are!), and effectively forms a sort of sketchbook of meditations on each character or group, like the rugged, melancholy Miles, Sean and Bodie is definitely nodding to them Demdikes and their soundbwoy, and you'll just have to imagine the rest.

Compared with other releases of that era, it's dated remarkably well as a record and a sound, which is most likely due to their future-proofing patina of distressed crackle and the electro-acoustic sound sensitivity of their approach to the material, managing to convey a quiet, intimate beauty without ever overstating it.

Gorgeous music.

Next in The Boats' vital vinyl reissue series, their 3rd album Tomorrow Time (2006) finds Andrew Hargreaves and Craig Tattersall embracing a host of collaborators on a fuzzy, downbeat blend of ambient and indie-pop themes, wrapping fragile vocals from Elaine Reynolds and Chris Stewart (Need More Sources) to a patented framework of prepared piano, strings and elusive electronics in the wake of their instrumental duo session, We Made It For You (2005). It's the first time it's ever been on vinyl...!

With the benefit of hindsight,Tomorrow Time takes on a curiously prescient nature; arriving a year prior to the biggest financial collapse for generations, at a time when the 'authenticity' of folk music was fetishised by posh people as Wyrd Folk (or smth) and the other main cultural points of reference were either retro-indie guitar bands, IDM or boisterous grime and dubstep.

However, The Boats' combination of lower case pop with rustling electro and acoustic textures quietly stuck out like a sore toe, and when combined the aggressive title tracks points towards a quiet but growing dissatisfaction with perceived excess in music, culture, or at least the same old same old.

In that sense, the group's roots in avant garde minimalism and myriad other non-commercial and pop styles really come thru on Tomorrow Time, but carefully distilled into an absorbing, subtly detailed sounds they can claim as their own, and quite unlike anything before or since - although many have tried to imitate it!

OK this one's really special: technically Static Clings is the last record by The Boats; presenting material from their tour-only Typewriter (2006) CD and the Sleepy Insect Music (2010) compilation on vinyl for the first time, along with a great haul of unreleased outtakes and even a megamix of The Boats by Modern Love's Miles Whittaker (Demdike Stare) and Gaz Howell (G.H.) in their lesser spotted Pendle Coven guise.

It's essentially all outtakes c. 2004-2006 from their early releases for Moteer plus the aforementioned rarities, clutching 13 cuts which have been left to mature over the last decade or so, and now provide a slightly more scattered but ever-enduring overview of Andrew Hargreaves (Tape Loop Orchestra, The Mistys) and Craig Tattersall's (The Remote Viewer, Hood) cherished time together in this vessel.

We absolutely have to highlight the sublime History Of Tape Hisses for what sounds like Instrumentals-era Arthur Russell jamming with Jan Jelinek, and likewise Why You Wanna Do This, and Shlom, Sonia and Conor, cos, well, aww w ww ww, but also the ghostly vignette Danny Norbury, dedicated to the cellist and another key member of their fold, and also for the salty kiss of their distorted hymn May Our Enemies Never Find Happiness (Version), the wobbly oddity of You Didn't Expect Me To Care, and lastly the perfectly opaque pop of Pendle Coven's remix, which uncannily recalls Uwe Schmidt's Pop Artificielle output as LB.

Sad to say they might now have to decommission Craig's crackle-box (actually an old B&H packet full of trapped woodlice, the evil b*stard) but it's dead lovely to have this new slab of (old) material in our mitts and finally complete our full fleet of The Boats' catalogue.

Ta ta! X

High Plains is the duo of Scott Morgan and Mark Bridges.

Morgan, based in the Canadian Pacific Northwest, is predominantly known for his drifting, textured soundscapes released under the pseudonym LOSCIL.

Bridges is an accomplished, classically-trained cellist residing in Madison, Wisconsin.

The two met in Banff, Alberta while they were simultaneously there on residencies at the Banff Centre for the Arts in 2014. They first collaborated when Bridges contributed cello parts to Morgan's generative music app ADRIFT, recorded in Seattle in 2015.

In early 2016, the duo embarked on a collaborative set of compositions in the oxygen thin air of Wyoming, spending two weeks holed up in a refurbished school house in the town of Saratoga, where this album was recorded.

Inspired by Schubert's Die Winterreiseand the rolling landscapes of
their surroundings, the collaboration culminated in a collection of recordings that evoke a shadowy, introspective and dizzying winter journey.

Cinderland takes cues from classical, electronic and cinematic
musical traditions but is mostly a product of the rugged, mythic landscape; vast and sprawling with a wild, uncertain edge.

The recording was made with a portable studio and all sounds were sourced on site, most notably from Bridges' cello, the resident Steinway D piano, and field recordings collected from the local soundscape.

The results are a site specific, wide scope view of thehigh valley terrain the duo worked in, a mix of analog and digital, neoclassical and modern electronic sounds, a complemental series of tracks to become absorbed in, a truly deep listening experience.

The cover art forCinderland was created by London-based artist, Peter Liversidge.

'I could go on and on about the insane virtuosity, about the rare analog wind synth that almost no one in the world plays anymore, about the most unique intervallic melodies and harmonies, but it's all secondary to the simple beauty that Justin Walter is able to conjure up with his solo music.' Colin Stetson

Michigan trumpeter Justin Walter's solo work centers on evocative, intuitive explorations of the EVI (Electronic Valve Instrument), a rare wind-controlled analog synthesizer from the 1970's.

Its unique, smeared tonality allows for an expressive range of glassy, jazz-like textures, which Walter loops and layers with hushed electronics and twilit trumpet, painting opaque landscapes of resonant beauty.

Walter's 2013 debut, Lullabies & Nightmares, included a handful of collaborations with percussionist Quin Kirchner but Unseen Forces finds him fully solo, refining the project to its essence: shape-shifting watercolors of pastel haze, lit by the soft synthetic glow of electric breath. It's a sound both modern and timeless, fusing emotion and technology, gauze and melody, force and fragility.

From Justin Walter: Unseen Forces is a collection of recordings that document the use of improvisation as a means to create sounds that can either function on their own or serve as the foundation of, or source material for, additional improvisation. There was a definite process used to create this music but at no point was any music ever written or composed.
When putting this music together I was often aware of feelings related to density, spacing,
silence, and the sense of time pulling back on itself, like trying to stretch a scene and pull on it in ways that distort it ever so slightly. This is a record of melodies, alone and in complex relation. This music is a reflection of both feeling, and thought, as much construction as composition. The recordings of the EVI, as well as the sequencing done using samples of those recordings, are mostly the result of exploring melody through intuition. Harmonically simple, but with a complex pallet of texture.

Reissue for the 40th anniversary
Clear vinyl
Limited 500 copies world wide
New liner notes

ince its original release in 1977, Ragnar Grippe's seminal debut album entitled 'Sand' has been adorned with immense praise and influenced a myriad of ambient musicians and minimalist composers. Grippe's unique approach of bonding post-modern classical composition into the tape techniques of musique concre`te allowed him to be one of the leading experimental electronic musicians of the late 20th century.

Originally trained as a classical cellist, Grippe had relocated to Paris in the early 70's to study at the famous Groupe de Recherches Musicales (more commonly known as GRM) founded by musique concre`te pioneers Pierre Schaeffer, Pierre Henry and Jacques Poullin. Around the same time, Grippe had struck up a close friendship with French avant-garde minimalist Luc Ferrari. It was under Ferrari's direction and guidance that the young Grippe started to build a shared experimental music studio, aptly named l'Atelier de la Libe´ration Musicale (ALM), in which Ferrari shared his knowledge and instrumental supplies, thus forging Grippe's implementation of harmonic tone within the confines of musique concrete.
After a brief stint of electronic music study at McGill University in Montreal, Grippe returned to Paris in 1976 to compose with Ferrari at the now fully-realized ALM studio. One of the visiting artists passing through the creative epicenter of the Cite´ Internationale des Arts during this time was the painter Viswanadhan Velu. Velu's recent works consisted of various Sand paintings which were to be exhibited at the Galerie Shandar, the avant-garde art gallery and home to the Shandar record label which was the home to minimalist composers Terry Riley, La Monte Young, Cecil Taylor and Charlemagne Palestine.
Grippe was asked to compose a composition that was to be played during the Sand painting exhibition and was then to be released on the Shandar imprint in 1977. This release would be the first official album that would start Grippe's career as a modern avant-garde composer and electronic musician. After a celebrated release, 'Sand' has since been out-of-print on its original vinyl format for four decades and original copies fetch high prices amongst minimalist listeners and collectors.
Dais Records proudly reissues 'Sand' by Ragnar Grippe on vinyl for the 40th anniversary of its original release in a limited edition 500 copy pressing on clear vinyl featuring new liner notes by the artist on April 7th 2017.

This unmixed collection of 24 Tracks and 4 Digital Bonus features new, original music from Spacetime Continuum, Move D., Fred P. from Soul People Music, i:Cube from Paris based Versatile Records, Detroit heroes Claude Young and Patrice Scott, a beautiful piano distortion piece in collaboration from Terre Thaemlitz, Deepblak boss AYBEE, Sandwell District founder Rrose, Dekmantel's Juju & Jordash, Rush Hour's Hunee under his Anto alias, Future Times' founder and Beautiful Swimmers' Max D, Donato Dozzy, and a stunning new bookend from Gigi Masin.

Debut album by Phil Struck. Limited Edition of 100 pro-dubbed chrome tapes with on body printed labels. Download included.
Recorded, more or less spontaneously, between June and December 2016 at home.
Based on sampling from odd sound sources, random data streams and the usage of microphones and various synthesizers.
For fans of Lee Gamble, Jan Jelinek, Rashad Becker, Meakusma, Hidden Hawaii

180 gr) Barrott adjusts his focus for 2017 and brings a wider context to the sound, embodying elements of world music and a more poignant mood.

The Guardian "Expands the limits of what the Balearic sound can be"

The Fader "Essential listening for anyone looking to clear some headspace."

NPR "Barrott distills an entire planet of sound into a local spirit"

Mark Barrott is a figurehead, a pioneer, and a truly free spirit that has dared to produce music that nourishes the soul. After a number of years invigorating the Balearic music scene from his Ibiza base through both his International Feel label and weekly sunset residency at La Torre, Barrott adjusts his focus for 2017 and brings a wider context to the sound, embodying elements of world music and a more poignant mood."As the madness of the summer and the cumulative effects of a busy year started to slip away, I noticed the mood change at La Torre, as the post sunset nocturne started to get longer and longer. It made me realise that this was a different kind of music, more intimate and reflective. What I call 'positive pathos' and it was a feeling I was very keen to explore once September finished and I headed back into the studio.

''A different feeling to the sunset haze of long drawn-out summer days, one inspired by the golden colours of Autumn and the neon city-scapes of Tokyo and Osaka at night. Walking with no purpose, dew filled gravel crunching underfoot, pensive, yet focused on the moment, not projecting into a distant future yet to be imagined, simply noticing the space in-between each breath and becoming aware that that is all there is and all there ever needs to be."

This rare piece of ex-yu socialist electronica was considered lost. Composed by famed Croatian artist Tomislav Simovic for the 1981 sci-fi extravaganza Visitors from the Galaxy which included men with breasts, beautiful alien heroine and Jan Svankmajer monster on killing spree, it is now found and published by Fox & His Friends label team. This gatefold limited LP release on 180g vinyl includes soundtrack cut from the original master tapes restored by Paul Alexander from Cedar Audio Ltd., extensive liner notes in English by Zeljko Luketic and Irena Paulus, new artwork insert spread with film set photographs and colour poster starring alien heroine Andra. Fox & His Friends is run by Leri Ahel (worldwide syndicated Mutant Disco Radio Show) and Zeljko Luketic (Electronic Jugoton, Ex Yu Electronica III, Borderline Music). We release music without genre boundaries, discover rare, obscure and forgotten stuff, the sounds that have timeless value, both contemporary and vintage.

Asymmetrical code is the evolution of what is known as techno today. The "Code" or song, takes you on a journey to the future of the past where you can find an alternate "you" through contemporary realities and soundwaves.
Starting in 2013 as an underground label with no public releases, the main goal of Fragmento & Tracy (Owners) was to find and collect the perfect sound, ambients, and grooves to carry you to the musical meaning of Asymmetrical Code. On this journey the listener is also accompanied by visual stimulants created by the Label, to influence or facilitate the mind to wander and build a new creativity within you.
In this opportunity we have the pleasure to introduce in the A.C.R.002.V. artists such as ENDLEC - Fragmento - Ryuji Takeuchi - Tracy&MTD.
Stay tuned for the A.C.r. 003 .V.

We are happy to have pan/tone for our fourth Pfand release. Sheldon Thompson, aka Sid Le Rock, serves up three melodic pieces which catapult you into a deep dreamy trip, complete with floating hypnotic grooves and melodies. Rhodes Avenue comes with tropical bells, 70's-style rhodes piano with 80's-synth flavour. Animal Parade convinces with cinematic soundscapes and a memorable hymn which brings us to another level. Inyourendo surprises with electronic soundscapes which fit excellently for intros, interludes or ending of a set. And finally, the Pfand team, Hali and Yapacc as "The Cabin" adds a rework of Animal Parade with a percussive techno groove supported by a groovy bassline with deep drones that move directly into your brain.

Dutch live-act and DJ duo Artefakt release their atmospheric debut album on renowned techno imprint Delsin. Known separately as Robin Koek and Nick Lapien, the pair first appeared on Field Records before follow up releases on Prologue, Delsin and Konstrukt. Kinship portrays a compelling narrative in a body of work that will undoubtedly keep listeners engaged from start to finish.

DJ Feedback:

Kangding Ray (raster-noton): "excellent !"

Dj Deep (Deeply Rooted House): "nice vibes and sounds"

Stephen Brown (Realtime): "some really nice textures here"

Italo Johnson (ItaloJohson): "loving it!"

Eric Cloutier (The Bunker NY): "well god damn, boys! this is fucking amazing!! "fernweh" is maybe my top choice, but, as usual, i love it all."

Luke Hess (DeepLabs): "excellent work."
Neville Watson: "Along with Ambivalent, Artefakt are up there as my favourite producers right now. Returning techno to it's atmospheric roots. Great album, will support to the fullest."
Mark Forshaw (Mathematics): "Amazing productions as expected from Artefakt. Great album. Thanks!"
Neel (Spazio Disponibile): "very nice thanks"
Markus Suckut (SCKT): "all over an amazing release!"
Daniel Avery (Phantasy): "YES!"
Zadig (Construct Re-Form): "Artefakt ... Superb !!"
Karim Sahraoui (Transmat): "Amazing album..like the drama in it."
Dan Curtin (Metamorphic): "great album, into the whole thing"
Trevor Deep Jr (HPTY Recordings): "Love Artefakt! Another big release!!"
IORI (Field): "I've been waiting for this. Full support!!!!! Thanks."
Pangaea (Hessle Audio): "quality stuff here, many thanks"
John Osborn (Tanstaafl Records): "fuck yes. this is badman"
Alex.Do (Dystopian): "Great work. Been already a fan of their previous productions. Thanks."
Svreca (Semantica): "Nice package. Feeling specially "Tapestry". Support."
Dustin Zahn (Enemy Records): "#lovely #classy #deep #intimate #captivating #hypnotic #trippy #great #techno #detroit #peyote"
ASOK (Lobster Theremin): "i like all of this album, every track, but tapeloop 1 and return to reason really jump out."
John Heckle (MOS Recordings): "great this, start to finish, full support"
Inland (Infrastructure NY): "love artefakt - grabbing on sight! thanks"

Blue Vinyl

EARTH is the third opus of FOUDRE! - a telluric drone quartet composed of Frédéric D. Oberland (Oiseaux-Tempête, The Rustle Of The Stars, FareWell Poetry), Romain Barbot (Saåad, I Pilot Dæmon), Grégory Buffier (Saåad, Autrenoir), Paul Régimbeau (Mondkopf, Extreme Precautions, Autrenoir), featuring electric chimeras by Christine Ott on ondes martenot.
Commissioned by Silke Schmickl from Lowave for the festival 'Singapour Mon Amour' in Paris, this album was recorded in the 16th century gothic church of Saint-Merry in June 2015 as a live soundtrack performance for EARTH - an experimental film directed by one of the most important Singaporean contemporary artists, Ho Tzu Nyen. Acclaimed by art and film critics worldwide and presented at some of the most prestigious international film festivals (Cannes, Venice, Rotterdam..), EARTH is inspired by the works of classical European painters such as Caravaggio, Rembrandt and Delacroix. The film unfolds dramatically as the camera moves across a theatrically choreographed scene involving 50 actors, as the details of a post-apocalyptic landscape are revealed frame by frame.
Ho Tzu Nyen on EARTH:
"We see the site of an unknown disaster, the debris of history that constitutes the story of Earth. Upon the site, lay fifty 50 humans oscillating between consciousness and unconsciousness, life and death. Sometimes, one of them emerges into the foreground - clutching a fist, batting an eyelid, or weeping for his neighbor. At other times, these figures recede from the light, losing their individual shapes to form a gigantic organism, breathing in unison, pulsating like a jellyfish, though their journey across Earth."

Mumdance & Logos cut deep into the uncanny valley between grime, noise and ambient musics with the shockingly diverse Weightless Volume. 2, volleying five tracks from label fammo FiS, Shapednoise, Inkke, Sharp Veins and Yamaneko, plus the duo's own, frankly massive Cafe Del Mar zinger.
With the label still hot from the Mumdance & Logos Presents Different Circles mix CD, this EP touches base with five new artists whose individual sounds have been crucial to the make-up of Different Circles' club sets and on Mumdance and Logos' respective Rinse FM shows ever since their label's inception.
You couldn't ask for a stronger indictment of where Mumdance and Logos are right now than Cafe Del Mar; an outstanding piece of work stacking lush modular synth pads to the rafters and socked with cavernous, inverted kicks, forming the closest you'll ever get to a weightless sunset anthem from these two original nuttahs.
Trust their bandmate in The Sprawl, Shapednoise, to twyst hard away from that sound with the invasive contortion of Deep Core Consciousness, which feels like the first efforts of communication from a neural network of heavy machinery, and is proceeded by the impeccably smooth contours and thizzing glassy licks of Yamaneko's Shadow Temple.
On the B-side, Kiwi producer FiS follows his exclusive contribution to Mumdance's Fabriclive 80 mix with a deviant diffusion of the elements in Angels Of The Water Table, while Glasgow's Inkke shoots from the hip with the blinding hi-wire hooks of Pioneer on a boisterous, beatless grime flex, and Alabama, USA's Sharp Veins holds a bittersweet suspense to the edge with his dizzying mini string symphony, Already Bones.

PoleGroup presents the fourth opus of his CD mix series Unknown Landscapes Vol. IV: a compilation of unreleased tracks, mixed and compiled by a member of the PoleGroup platform.

To make up the fourth volume, Juan Rico, has selected 22 previously unreleased tracks. Besides tracks by Reeko, Exium, Kwartz, Jonas Kopp, Pfirter and Oscar Mulero, the tracklist includes works by many new faces at the label, such as Reggy van Oers, DJ Hyperactive, Unbalance and Kangding Ray.
With this fourth volume, PoleGroup invites you to discover a powerful selection of unreleased tracks from high-quality techno producers, all mixed by Reeko in an 74 minutes long compilation.

This limited available CD has a special new packaging, including a poster.

Forging it's own peculiar musical language, told through disjointed exotic rhythms and adventurous wordless vocal explorations, 'Deal' is FAY's boldest work yet moving further away from the pop signifiers of previous exploits. Unified in it's determined minimalism and palette of drum sounds, 'Deal' flexes and shapes these elements to their maximum potential through vast spacial movements that twist and tumble down unknown paths. An almost conversational interplay between drum and voice is at the center highlighting the human element, a primal urgency, guiding these compelling unorthodox electronic compositions.
Freewheeling, off-kilter grooves anchor complex choral arrangements as vocal snippets develop into more coherent musical phrases with each measure like dots gradually coming together into a line that you can "see". This singular vocal approach curiously splices innovative digital production with an undeniably human touch resulting in a range of hybrid beauty that reveals itself in unexpected ways. 'Deal' never tips it's hand too far in any one stylistic direction, as deftly busted rhythm patterns tease out loose, playful interpretations of broken boogie ("Touch"), skeletal polyrhythmic dancehall ("Rake"), unhinged hip-hop drum tracks ("Bluff" "Set"), doomed-out dub ( "Call"), and harder to pin down styles - these exhilaratingly restless beat excursions highly reward close and repeated listening.
"each broken beat brings the listener's mind with it - fractured in a million directions" - Boston Hassle
"Shockingly ace art-pop LP fusing the funk of classic Timbaland with the compositional strategies of John Cage in a shining pop mind." - Boomkat
"Pure creativity laid to tape" - Amoeba Records

Electronic Emergencies' first release in 2017 is Histoire d'une Ame by Peine Perdue, the acclaimed synthpop/minimal wave duo from Paris and Berlin. The EP, which is divided into four tableaux, tells a story that was inspired by 80s cult movie Therese, directed by Alain Cavalier, about the mystical suffering of a nun who becomes a saint. Expect nebulous acid wave chansons with mysterious French lyrics.

* New from In Paradisum also the home of Low Jack and December. This album is the most straight-forward and cohesive Mondkopf album to date due to his switch to analog synthetisers. «They Fall...» has been recorded live in his room in Paris at night on the sadly memorable month of November 2016.
* The record has something familiar with Mondkopf's previous output with the raw textures and half-light atmospheres, but the rest is a radical change for him. The synth pads of "They Fall... "are neither retro nor futuristic. In addition to Paul's fragile vocals, they exhale a distinct feeling of just being there. The tracks follow their own path by being focused and vital. "They Fall But You Don't" is the singular manifesto of a relationship to electronic music that leaves out the ideas of innovation and genre and more resembles the language of a new folk music; deeply
evocative, powerful and free.

Clear Vinyl

Finland-based Samuel van Dijk is an electronic music producer, sound designer and media artist, having released electronic music under a variety of projects, namely, Mohlao and VC-118A. Following on from 2015's highly praised album quadrailogy, Multicast Dynamics releases his new "Continental Ruins" LP on Denovali Records. Inspired by decayed infrastructure, Samuel van Dijk reveals his sound documentary about sunken cities and continents, landslides and islands. A study on storytelling with sound, where electronic music acts as a verb, moved by images and narratives.

- Continental Ruins LP is a journey through washed out, blurred particles, gliding across the ungraspable seafog of the atlantic, transforming the visible into sound. The murky and desolated atmosphere throughout the tracks reflects an forgotten utopia of places that were once populated. Unfolding fallen structures, immersing into the elusive, submerged land, searching for signs of life in the lost memories of faded civilizations, Multicast Dynamics explores ultrasonic underwater communication, decodes messages and browses through the archive of the past.

Written and produced with analogue synthesizers, arcane effect units and manipulated field-recordings, finally sequenced with the computer and mixed using temperamental analogue mixers. "Continental Ruins" LP is a slow horizontal panning, gliding through frames of sounds, creating textures and layers with unobtrusive rhythms. Samuel van Dijk delivers a calm and organic sound journey, resting on gloomy swirls and hidden artefacts. Artwork by T. van Dijk.

Oblique, intense and spirit-gnawing electro-acoustic exercises from The Skull Defekts founder / Ideal head honcho Joachim Nordwall, presenting a brilliantly stark album of direct and gnarly Machine energy that comes highly recommended if you're into anything from Pan Sonic to Alessandro Cortini, Deathprod or Emptyset.
Working with a bunch of tone generators fed thru a massive wall of amps at Elementstudion in Gothenburg, Nordwall isolates and fearlessly homes in on the recording space's resonant frequencies until you can physically feel the room grinding, whining and shuddering in the kind of spasms that arch the spine and set your back teeth on edge. And he does it relentlessly for the whole record.
The only steady variable in this elemental organism is the sense of rhythm, a metric, pulsing heave that keeps each piece's tangibly immense weight pushing forward from the crack'd slap of a drum that pins The Ideal Black into place, to the quasi-step lurch of Great Mind of Fire, thru the Alessandro Cortini-Like impulse of Extreme Solution for a Simple Problem to the palsied, cogground rattle of System For Psychic Expansion and Black Out at its nether limits.
In the rarest way, thanks to Joachim's direct approach, the mixing of Linus Andersson, and Heba Kadry's master at Timeless Mastering, Bushwick, The Ideal Black is about as close as you'll hear to a 1-to-1 representation of pure, crushing tonal terror. A character-building exercise strongly tipped if you like the biting point sounds of: Kevin Drumm, Alessandro Cortini, Emptyset, Gottfried Michael Koenig

Richard von der Schulenburg (known for his classy House tracks as RDVS) drops a beatless EP for V I S. Using analogue gear and exposing the patina of it's sounds, ‚Wanderungen durch Wald und Flur' (a title that might refer to the ‚Wanderlust', a phenomena which emerged in german romanticism) takes you to a place far from the dancefloor. Instead there is an overall krauty feel in these five pieces, which are sparse and calm, but at the same time vitalistic.

'Enter The Spiral' - the title of the opening track by the first collaborative work between Sebastian Mullaert and Eitan Reiter is not just a random name. It is a title which anticipates what can happen if you let yourself go alongside their nine epic musical trips.

They all emerged out of a free flowing improvised communication between the DJs and producers from Sweden and Israel. They both first deeply met on a festival in Tulum, Mexico where they played together at the end of the Maya calendar.

During their Yucatan days they connected intensely and subsequently stayed in touch. Finally Eitan proposed the idea to visit Sebastian in his dropout studio in the Swedish woods in the north of Malmö. Sebastian instantly said yes and added without knowing in February 2014 another chapter to a vibrant artistic year, in which he started to focus on his solo work and took a hiatus from his famed project Minilogue, after playing, producing, and performing with his close friend Marcus Henriksson for more than 16 years. 

Warmly welcomed in a little Swedish village right at the entrance of a big National Park, Eitan, who produces and releases genre-crossing electronic and electro-acoustic music solo or in projects like Loud since the mid of the noughties, found himself right in the centre of Sebastian's family.

Their days been shaped by daily life and they took care of the children, cooked, practiced yoga, meditated and made long walks with out words in the nearby forest. Absorbed by the sense of oneness with their daily existence they started to communicate in the studio to build aimless an intersection between the outer and the inner world.

It turned out to be a celestial dynamic voyage of unconscious emotions in time that made them produce a unique journey in sound. They drift on ambient territories, they let their heartbeats out via knocking techno beats, go deeply into moments of trance and drop some sparkling acid arpeggios while waving into all sorts of electronic musical expressions.

You cannot put their collaboration into one stylistic corner - you can only say that all their music distributes the feeling of an unvarnished musical trip. If you like you can call 'Reflections Of Nothingness' a Roland album, as it is largely made on a Roland TB303, TR808, SH101 and Juno 60.

But there is also Sebastian's Fender Rhodes audible on almost any track. In addition they used strange vocal samples, Eitan sings, cymbals howl, a sounding children's book has been used as an instrument as well as tons of external effects.
In a free-spirited teamwork the sonority can absorb the listener deeply - just like Eitan and Sebastian have been absorbed by their days in the nature.

'To reach the place where everything is perfect as it is, having the feeling that nothing more needs to be done, and then "act" or create from that place, without a specific intention.' was what Sebastian had in mind before Eitans arrival.

'I felt its something that just has to happen. I was really trying to find musicians that I could get along with and just flow.' Eitan says about his prospects while travelling to Sweden. Without intention, with no expectations and almost without any postproduction they created a synergism of sound that does nothing else then reflect their present in time and space with a gently played texture of their very own musical communication.

Both don't know if there was a guardian angel around. They are just sure that the nature gave them unknowingly a lot of creativity with its complex and powerful presence around Sebastian's studio.

'I really feel that the album has a very special feeling of harmony and balance; something I feel in the nature around my studio. I truly believe that you are always part of where you are or where you are is part of you ... if you are in the nature, it affects you ... you can't escape.' he confesses and accidental anticipates what can happen if you get deeply involved with the nine jams of 'Reflections Of Nothingness'.

Rhodes Island. Bathed in sun, the Aegean's sun, a spring of life and inspiration. Surrounded by it's waters. A wall and a path at the same moment. Where the West meets the East. Where worlds become one and civilizations blend. An island that acts like a witch, that captures your soul forever, that makes you always look for it, crave for it, always want to go back. Beauty, history, culture. Rhodes 'Journey To The Light'. A compilation inspired by Rhodes island and it's nomination for 'European Culture Capital City 2021'



The multi awarded dj, radio producer and compiler Tasos Giasiranis signs the island's 6th compilation. A journey into the magical world of electronic music in a unique combination with the 12 breathtaking postal cards included. 12 pictures by the hands of Stelios Kalisperis, Fillip Fillipou and Harris Zambetoulas. The only thing you need to have while leaving the island.

Memories in a box. The Knight island in a luxurious package. A life's goal, promoting Rhodes in every corner of the planet. Tasos Giasiranis keeps on making a dream come true once again. Rhodes 'Journey To The Light'

10"

The return of Andy Votel's most elusive alter-ego with a new album of delirious and darkened collage pieces brought to you by his own Pre-Cert Home Entertainment label, run alongside longtime spar, Sean Demdike.
Hiding behind Cowardly Pseudonyms' inspired by the incognito exploits of Jean-Pierre Massiera and a long list of Italian library musicians, Applehead is the twice-removed alter-alter-alter ego project of Dead-Cert, Finders Keepers, Cacophonic, Pre-Cert label boss and designer Andy Votel aka Anworth Kirk aka Xian Orphic aka Tandy Love aka Tony Deval aka Neotantrik and the list goes on.
This hang-dried and un-cured collection of low-brow electronics, oblique movie-tones, cold-funk, ready-made poetry and domestic plunderism spans five years since the debut Applehead LP on the Pre-Cert label, collectively mis-managed by Sean Demdike Canty and Votel himself.
Cut and pasted from a pool of overnight rare synth-lends, some obscure foreign-pop fix-ups and a stash of emotive tonal sketches and tape-edits (prepared when touring Milan and Rome with Suzanne Ciani and Northern Italy with the blink-missable Stanza Nera punk-funk project) these multifarious, Crepaxian comic-book compositions have clearly absorbed a strong Italian DIY muse With respectful nods to Daniela Casa, Raskovich, Frizzi and AR Luciani, Applehead also combines surrealist shlock with Letterist informed random Roman female spoken word and occasional back-handed salutes to Throbbing Gristle and NWW projects.
This self-motivated, naturalistic response to the broad vista that has informed 20 years of Votel's unwaning multi-dis adventures offers an infrequent opportunity to hear his personal problematic-pop and scalpel-happy art in the comfort of his own creative confides complete with square-pegs and sandpaper. Did we mention the apple fixation

Notes on Cruel Optimism from Lawrence English, October 2016...
Cruel Optimism is a record that considers power (present and absent). It meditates on how power consumes, augments and ultimately shapes two subsequent human conditions: obsession and fragility. This pyramid is an affective ecology of the (ever)present moment.
This edition owes its title and its origins to the wonderful text of the same name by American theorist Lauren Berlant. I had the fortune to come across her writing almost a half-decade ago. In Cruel Optimism, I found a number of critical readings around the issues that have fuelled so much of the music I have been making recently. Beyond her keen analysis of the relations of attachment as they pertain to conditions of possibility in the everyday, it was particularly her writing around trauma I found deeply affecting. It was a jumping off point from which a plague of unsettling impressions of suffering, intolerance and ignorance could be unpacked and utilised as fuel over and above pointless frustration.
When I made Wilderness Of Mirrors, clouds of unease were overhead. As I have worked through Cruel Optimism, what seemed an unimaginable future just a few years prior, began to present as actual. Over the course of creating the record, we collectively bore witness to a new wave of humanitarian and refugee crisis (captured so succinctly in the photograph of Alan Kurdi's tiny body motionless on the shore), the black lives matter movement, the widespread use of sonic weapons on civilians, increased drone strikes in Waziristan, Syria and elsewhere, and record low numbers of voting around Brexit and the US election cycle, suggesting a wider sense of disillusionment and powerlessness. Acutely for me and other Australians, we've faced dire intolerance concerning race and continued inequalities related to gender and sexuality. The storm has broken and feels utterly visceral.
Cruel Optimism is a meditation on these challenges and an encouragement to press forward towards more profound futures.

Ambient power duo Anjou's sophomore statement continues in the vein of their 2014 debut, unfurling a full hour of mesmeric synthetic drift and veiled melodic undertow.

Comprised of Mark Nelson (of pioneering post-rock experimentalists Labradford and Pan·American) and Robert Donne (of Labradford, Aix Em Klemm, Cristal) , the group work largely in long-form suites of sound, alternately spacious and dense.

The new LP's six pieces embrace flux and ambiguity: drones swell and shudder, hushed currents of noise glitch and dissolve, atmospheres congeal and liquify. As with the participants' prior projects, Anjou evoke a shadowed, mysterious mood, variously melancholy and transcendent.

The album is an accumulation of craftsmanship and experience, blurred forms traced in light and fog.

As fans since 2014, we're very excited to be releasing the debut vinyl from Danish multi-disciplinary artist øjeRum.

Titled 'when birds fly, the eyes of heaven can rest', the LP features two extended tracks of aetherial, haunting and otherworldly beauty.

The cover art is a hand-cut collage, part of an ever growing body of incredible work from this talented Dane. The artwork expresses the audio perfectly. A floating, drifting haze of light, subtly shifting, organic. This is a world to lose yourself in.

The LP is housed in a reverse board sleeve. Pressed on clear vinyl, cut at The Carvery. Limited to 300 copies.

The fourth album of Driftmachine is not an album in the classical context, it´s a collection of new studio music, remixes by Shackleton and The Sight Below, and material previously available only in digital formats.

The album starts off with the surprising Shackleton remix of Radiations, a little gem gleaming with all the spacious percussions you can expect from the British producer. Stretching vibrations over tense atmospheres and post-techno broken beats, Shackleton (who generously offered to contribute this track on his own initiative) delivers a fine feat of rhythmic acrobatics, deconstructing Driftmachine's modular synthesis. The album features Driftmachine's latest studio track, Vermiform Burrows, a swinging composition very much in line with the duo's recent rhythm-oriented work. The Sight Below's remix of Vermiform Burrows offers a very different perspective and interpretation of their music: minutely detailed and nebulous, an expansive ambient-techno track that de-accelerates the original's beat. Other surprise in store, is Call Mr. Moriba, which was originally offered as a digital-only bonus-track on the debut album Nocturnes (2014), Driftmachine's critically acclaimed first LP, and is now available in vinyl format for the first time. Also included is the original LP version of Radiations, first published in the Colliding Contours (2015) album. Driftmachine's Radiations is an excellent showcase of Andreas Gerth and Florian Zimmer's sound: obsessive, symmetrical, multilayered, a deep and elegant language based on the shaky, unpredictable foundations of modular synthesis.

LP limited edition of 350 copies pressed on purple colored vinyl, includes a post card with original artwork and free download coupon.

Julian Stetter might be best known as 'one half of the electronic pop duo VIMES', but he is no stranger to the Cologne club scene. His debut EP 'Insides' stems from a long history of djing and organising underground parties across the city. A resident DJ and collaborator at Cologne's famed JackWho club, it was these surroundings that drove Stetter to dive deep into producing. His first solo project is now set to be released on the label PNN. It features three tracks plus a remix by Beyou. Stetter's sound is polished and the precise production of each three tracks make this EP feel far from debut. 'Emily' is the first track set to be released this Friday. It draws you in on shimmering waves that rise and break into a deeper and spacier sound. Warm beats are interjected with random snippets of whale song. Listening to Emily feels like receiving a welcome hug at an after party.

Experimental LP inspired on the streets of the big city, listening to the sounds from different angles and perspective of the city. Created just for listening, not for the dancefloor.

As a formal conclusion to 2016, Youngbloods' 13th release is the sophomore album from Dutch producer and vocalist Kratos Himself, 'Stay True'—on Powder Blue 12' vinyl. As a stunning follow up to 2015s Loon Garden and its exploration of the zeal behind new love, Stay True soundtracks the producer's iliadic journey from betrayal to the forging of new independence and self love. Opening to a quick descent, Kratos Himself (real name Jethro Hopmans) carefully narrates his transformative ascension, playfully winding through footpaths lined with warm Rhodes piano chords and off-kilter percussive rudiments. In telling his story, Hopmans finds himself the humble servant to a beast larger than himself, and in doing so puts his musical aptitude on display while illuminating the woodland caricatures of contemporaries Caribou, Bonobo, and Shigeto. As if leaving a watermark on a tale bound to outlive him, Stay True sees the introduction of Hopmans own voice, most prominently featured on Heartless' and woven throughout the rest of the album. Stay True also sees the return of London's Bev Lee Harling and Hopmans' first collaboration with Toronto Hip-Hop artist and singer Copasetic. Loose synths and gently swaying rhythms comprise each of the ambient, jazz-infused tunes...pulling at your heartstrings with unwavering persistence. Quivering melodies, Four Tet style percussive loops, and delicate accents fluttering in the background mark...the LP as easy listening, awe-inspiring headphone music.' - NESTHQ Building ever so gradually in the beginning, Kratos slowly introduces gentle splashes of colour and melody before a relaxed beat takes the lead, guiding us through a series of fragile, interweaving melodies.' - Complex UK

Aware is the alias of Alexander Glück, born 1983, who studied philosophy and physics in Vienna, where he currently lives. Apart from music, he writes monographs in the field of philosophy, which revolve around Christian mysticism, Buddhism and the poetics of modern cosmology, recently Poesie des Kosmos (2016). He wants to believe that someday, out of nowhere, a human, animal, or extraterrestrial being will accidentally produce the right sounds in the right order, and suddenly, everyone will be saved, forever.

Simone Weil believed that only downward motions are real. In contrast, the will to ascension always constitutes an illusion. She noticed the strange feeling of sadness mixed with joy,

naturally occurring when hearing sounds that gently move from higher to lower notes, from

greater to lower expression, from intensity to stillness. Feelings of joy rely on the reassurance that no one has to conquer the world. Sadly enough, music is only a small glimpse of a pacified universe. The Book of Wind is a collection of short essays which never reach their goal, but vanish into nothing, to which they belong.