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'Mercury Rising' is the third studio album to be released by Rae & Christian. The duo weave together exceptional musicianship paired with a British song writing sensibility and the finest elements of studio production. 'Mercury Rising' was created at producer/musician Steve Christian's studio in Yorkshire with additional recording at songwriter/vocalist/DJ Mark Rae's London base. In London a song writing bond was formed with Ed Harcourt and Gita Langley who make excellent contributions with vocals, songs, strings and keys. Sam Genders of Diagrams threads a story of redemption lost on the Ubahn on '1975', Kate Rogers is on imperious form and rising star Jake Emlyn unravels a whole new level of microphone skills on 'Favourite Game'.
The international guests include the one-and-only Jazzy Jeff and Australia's Agent 86 dealing out world class scratch treatments on 'Check The Technique' (Tony D's vocals taken from a session recorded at the birth of Grand Central Records), Brooklyn rapper Masta Ace and Mark Foster of Foster The People, a collaboration born from Mark's L.A. excursion.

'Mercury Rising' is the first new material in many years from R&C. Their 1998 Mercury Music Prize nominated debut 'Northern Sulphuric Soul' ("Vitally fresh and timelessly classic...deserving a place alongside Massive Attack's Blue Lines' Uncut) and 2002's 'Sleepwalking' ("Another triumph, brimming with soulful, languid grooves, deft samples and well-chosen guest singers' Q Magazine) were both released on their Grand Central Records label (Aim, Riton, Boca 45, Only Child), a defining imprint of the late 90s soul/funk/hip-hop/beats scene. Guest vocalists over the two albums included Bobby Womack, Texas, The Congos, The Pharcyde, The Jungle Brothes and Jeru The Damaja.

With over 40 musicians across 28 tracks, Essentials Spring 2023 might be our most treasured one yet. Featuring a who's who of some of our favorite musicians in the community, we present a 2xLP to keep everyone vibrant and alive as the seasons change and days start to warm. Essentials Spring 2023 features recent Chillhop beat tape alumni like El Train, Evil Needle, illiterate, and Mr. Slipz, while also showcasing songs from familiars like Oatmello, SwuM, Toonorth, Blue Wednesday, HM Surf, The Doppelgangaz, and dozens of others.

This album features over 70 minutes of chillhop, jazzhop, lofi hip-hop, downtempo R&B, lounge jazz, soulful beats, boom bap, old school. However you might like to classify this. Study beats? Sure. Beats to go on a road trip to? Absolutely. Gaming beats, coding beats, beats to daydream to? You betcha. The essentials return for 2023, adding to the ever growing collection of limited edition seasonal releases on vinyl!

An empty page is before us.
Inner silence takes over our mind. A silence louder than our anticipation of what's coming.
With each of our cells, we just do one thing: wait.
Then, we hear the whispers of the page turning. The next chapter is about to start.
----
Introducing Gnork's new album: Inner Ride. Influenced by the cosmic and psychedelic sound of the 70's, from Pink Floyd to Herbie Hancock, with a twist of the synths of the Berlin school.
The tracks were made between 2017, and 2022, though it's are not a collection of random jams. Inner ride is a conceptual, full-length musical work with 10 songs. A classic album that was designed to put on to your record player and to get lost in it.

An empty page is before us.
Inner silence takes over our mind. A silence louder than our anticipation of what's coming.
With each of our cells, we just do one thing: wait.
Then, we hear the whispers of the page turning. The next chapter is about to start.
----
Introducing Gnork's new album: Inner Ride. Influenced by the cosmic and psychedelic sound of the 70's, from Pink Floyd to Herbie Hancock, with a twist of the synths of the Berlin school.
The tracks were made between 2017, and 2022, though it's are not a collection of random jams. Inner ride is a conceptual, full-length musical work with 10 songs. A classic album that was designed to put on to your record player and to get lost in it.

ddwy the duo from London is back on Public Possession. Naomi and Ronan aka Nangi and Inner Totality continue to impress with their blend of organic, rhythmic dance music. Mystic vocals intertwine with layers of cosmic melodies. This record is a must for Balearic D.J.s, but will likely also be played out in sleazy dark basements or Pubs in the British countryside. You’ll place it, people will embrace it. That’s a guarantee!

The first release from Organic Signs, a hybrid platform and record label that operates from Barcelona and Madrid, with Jan Swam as Label Manager.

This is a reissue originally released in 1998, by an artist who knew how to go beyond the sounds of the golden age of rave, to reach a unique style. Kaya Project, Shakta, Somaton or Hibernation are some of the akas that Seb Taylor has used throughout his career to leave us an unprecedented musical legacy.

Four tracks that go from trance, DnB, trip-hop and breakbeat. Telepresence has a controlled rolling bass, excellent use of breakbeats and chugging flanged riffs. Pure psychedelic trance vibes. Continues with the drop in bpms of The Improvable Voyage, along with an original trip hop sounds with flanged riffs (again).

We turn to side B1 to meet Soma Junkie, a track with a psychedelic breakbeatness lines with very creative drum fills; and we finish with Dr Sembei, a mix between psychedelia and drum and bass, to leave a good taste in your mouth.

Reissue! Ein exklusives Album zur damaligen (2019) Feier des 15-jährigen Bestehens des CMR-Labels, das von Chinese Man, Baja Frequencia und der Scratch Bandits Crew zusammengestellt wurde! Mit einer Mischung aus Scratch-Musik, Trip-Hop, Dub und tropischen Rhythmen zeigt The Groove Sessions Vol.5 die künstlerische Spontaneität und die stets sprudelnde Kreativität der Künstler des Labels. Im Februar 2019 verbrachten die drei Bands eine gemeinsame Woche in den Bergen. Die Idee war es, Stile und Inspirationen zu mischen, die Spontaneität der Produktionen stand im Fokus. In sechs Tagen entstanden 18 Demos. Sechs Monate später wurden schließlich 15 Songs für das Album fertiggestellt und veröffentlicht. Der Downbeat von Chinese Man vermischt sich mit den dub-tropischen Klängen des Baja Frequencia-Duos, welche von dem unglaublichen Hip Hop-Know-How der Scratch Bandits Crew ergänzt werden. A true banger! Klassisch schwarzes Doppel-Vinyl mit Poster & Downloadcode!

Reissue! Ein exklusives Album zur damaligen (2019) Feier des 15-jährigen Bestehens des CMR-Labels, das von Chinese Man, Baja Frequencia und der Scratch Bandits Crew zusammengestellt wurde! Mit einer Mischung aus Scratch-Musik, Trip-Hop, Dub und tropischen Rhythmen zeigt The Groove Sessions Vol.5 die künstlerische Spontaneität und die stets sprudelnde Kreativität der Künstler des Labels. Im Februar 2019 verbrachten die drei Bands eine gemeinsame Woche in den Bergen. Die Idee war es, Stile und Inspirationen zu mischen, die Spontaneität der Produktionen stand im Fokus. In sechs Tagen entstanden 18 Demos. Sechs Monate später wurden schließlich 15 Songs für das Album fertiggestellt und veröffentlicht. Der Downbeat von Chinese Man vermischt sich mit den dub-tropischen Klängen des Baja Frequencia-Duos, welche von dem unglaublichen Hip Hop-Know-How der Scratch Bandits Crew ergänzt werden. A true banger! Klassisch schwarzes Doppel-Vinyl mit Downloadcode!

When writing his album Fusion, Len Faki never quite knew where the creative process would take him. Eventually it transported his sound into an all new realm, where he could show 360 degrees his talents and styles. Finally finding completion as a mighty double LP, the Figure x37 EP takes four of the album's new cuts to be presented in this special format ahead of the official release of Fusion.

An important corner stone of the album, the Halide tracks were made in remembrance of Faki's late mother, who passed away during the last production stage of the LP. These delicate tracks, which both feature the voice of Halide, capture the intense sadness Faki was feeling at the time and helped him to process his grief and eventually finish off the album. Part 1 is a softly mourning, melancholic breakbeat ballad, musically reminiscent of the chillout rooms Faki found himself spending a lot of time at going out to clubs throughout the 90s. The much darker second part,
echoing the hopeless bleeps of a heart rate monitor, will only be released on the full album.

Next to this very personal track are more examples of Faki's versatility as an artist, who has seen it all and now uses the album format to work without any constraints or expectations.

A gentle yet gritty electro homage, Make Me Scream is a take on the classic breakbeat from days long gone, with hollow drums and a mysteriously sweet vocal lurking underneath the track's soothing pads and lively synth riffs.

On Tor 8 Faki combines his driving techno and strong melodic elements, subdued chords rising to create an atmosphere of euphoria, while a classic bleep keeps things on track.

Astra (taken from Fusion's more straight-laced disc one) is the most punchy outing of the record, but it still comes with a myriad of detailed sounds to explore amongst its tight-knit rhythmic corset. Twinkly synths slowly rise to make the track bloom into its full, exuberantly colourful form.

With x37 readied, it's only a few weeks until the final release of the Fusion double-album. Here at Figure we can't wait to let you explore the full range of the singular sound that Len Faki has created.

The reference of this double EP is well known to hip hop fans: it's 1985 - Dougy Fresh and Slick Rick released the track "La Di da Di", which became a classic of the genre and one of the most sampled tracks in its history. The track, which sounds like a catchphrase, is a perfect description of the singer's rhythmic and melodic flow, which effortlessly flows over Mr Cole's warm, organic beats. The symbiosis is almost perfect. Tinged with heady refrains, the EP can be listened to without moderation. The mix is based on the remix of the track "It's a boy" by the Large Professor released in 1994. Slick Rick's nonchalant and calm tone inspires the duo to mix the vocals lightly - a desire to harmonise all the elements of the EP for a fluid and almost uninterrupted listening experience from start to finish. The duo seduces with its rhythmic and melodic poetry, soft to the ear, which can be listened to over and over.

Urbanatribù was an extremely interesting project based in Alessandria, deep North-Italian province. Formed by bassist Flavio Gemma and cyber wizard Massimiliano Bocchio, the outfit had a distinctive way to interpretate electronic and dance music.
Gemma founded some key Italian 80's wave groups like Viridanse and C.O.D.E.X. with some late digressions in the punk scene with Peggio Punx. Bocchio had its debut on the seminal imprint Minus Habens Records in 1994 under the moniker Klange, reflecting the unique and radical sound of the label.
Inspired by John Carpenter movies, rough basslines and british ghost stories, Urbanatribù records camed out against any order.

‘Gentle Confrontation’, Loraine James's third Hyperdub album, opens a new chapter of her real and sonic life in which she examines her past and present. It's a positively languid, enjoyably disjointed set made while listening to her teenage favourites; math rock and emo-electronic such as DNTEL, Lusine and Telefon Tel Aviv. The album also features an ever more diverse set of peers, placing them in her unusual musical settings and drawing out sensitive and reflexive performances. At other times the album stretches out into a drifting ambience as if seeking a sense of bliss in the everyday. ‘Gentle Confrontation’ is about relationships (especially familial), understanding, and giving back a little grace and care, while the tone of the record criss-crosses watery ambience with denatured rhythm and asmr beats. These 16 tracks are Loraine's best work yet, and a personal and musical leap forward, delivering a totally unique vision of electronic pop music.

For his twelfth studio album, Pianissimo, Matthias Vogt (re:jazz, Motorcitysoul) makes a clear political statement in symbiosis with his well-placed notes and the stylishly experimental and pronouncedly eclectic electro-jazz sound. Pianissimo does not only mean playing very softly but also playing very intensively. It is definitely not an album to skip through.

Matthias Vogt combines great music with current socio-political attitudes and issues for this new album. He conducted interviews on topics like “climate change” with people from his circle of friends and acquaintances - creatives, artists, activists and musicians who tick similarly to himself and with whose voices he could give expression and form to his own thoughts. With this material, he created this hybrid piece of music and socio-political reflexion.

His companions are Demian Kappenstein (ÄTNA & Massa) on drums & guitarist Daniel Stelter (Sing mein Song, TV-Total Heavytones). Vinyl incl. the outer packaging will be produced on a completely recycled basis by INFRACom! which starts its 30 years celebration with this release.

Repress

Tricky returns with his 13th album, Ununiform, out in September on his own label False Idols via !K7 Music. It's a delicate, storming, intricate album that sees Tricky take perhaps his most radical step yet - a journey into happiness and contentment. It's a record that shows the legendary British producer confront his legacy, history, family - even death itself. And in all of this, he finds the strangest, least familiar thing - peace. Full world tour to support release.Appearance in FKA Twigs recent Nike campaign. Features first track with Maxinquaye famed singer Martina Topley-Bird since 1995.

The new label kicks off with a tribute by the late EDO8. Four tracks that get the label started.

Exzellente Werkschau von DJ Cam, Mitinitiator des French Touch, auf pinkfarbenem Vinyl. 11 fein selektierte Tracks aus seiner über 20-jährigen Karriere zwischen French House, Jazz, Hip-Hop, Trip-Hop.

Parallel zu seinem neuen Album 'Sound Vagabond' veröffentlicht Thievery Corporation-Mitbegründer Eric Hilton drei 7inch-Singles auf farbigem Vinyl mit je einem Albumtrack plus je einem unveröffentlichten und exklusiven Track auf der B-Seite, der sich nicht auf dem Album befindet.

As the summer season approaches, here comes Kito Jempere and Hard Ton with a perfect summer jam! Taken from upcoming fifth Kito Jempere album, ''The Sound of Love'' is a classic early nineties balearic beat ballad - 96 beats per minute of morning bliss, mellow
pads, enigma-esque drums and beautiful vocal drama by one and only Hard Ton.
Besides the title track and a new club driven remix from man-of-the-hour Eden Burns, vinyl is packed with an array of old and new goodies. Much requested Andras remix from 2020 previously available digitally only. Live version of previous Hard Ton collaboration, ''Your
Ghost in Me'', played by 8-piece Kito Jempere Live Band. Plus another two massive and previously ''digital only'' remixes from Eden Burns for all your dance-club needs. And all this comes with a beautiful sleeve from Berlin based photographer Alexey Kiselev.

Public Possession welcoming „ddwy“ to the label, after a first appearance on this years Chill Pill compilation with the balearic dance beauty „Orchard“ the duo now delivers their first Mini LP titled „Sprig Songs“. ddwy that is DJs „Inner Totality“ and „Nangi“ introduce their special style of tripped out dubby dance tunes, slow paced, dreamy & proggy all flavoured with Nangis chants. They are sure to cast a spell on you

System 108 resident Lipelis teams up with Carrot Green from Rio de Janeiro to create a dreamy, summer vibed EP simply dedicated to them both: Leo & Caito, with naming and artwork playfully inspired by Sertanejo genre standards.The duo emerged in early 2020 on the streets of Rio and started to jam same night in the studio of Carlos, who is affiliated with all cool gangs of the Brazilian dance scene. Just like on Lipelis's critically acclaimed Function As A Meaning EP (a System 108 instant classic by now!), things took off by themselves: intuitive sampling of chords taken from Brazilian gospel found some unexpected modular synth tweaking. For good!"Rolando Nascer do Sol" is THE track, that the duo is particularly proud of. In the words of Lipelis, who has once spinned it at Gop Tun carnival party, in a b2b set w/ Millos Kaiser - 'it produced an unforgettable euphoric effect".Having witnessed how all the tracks work on the dancefloors not only in Brazil, we are uber-excited to finally release this 4-track EP!

Tape

Rico Friebe (otherwise known as Rico Puestel) enters the stage, carrying the weight of his peerless debut album "Jenni". Based on completely unanticipated events from personal matters, the album quickly emerged during a state of deeper challenges, worries and depression, subversively operating as reprocessing and self-reflective counselling in a state of uncertainty. A fusion of electronic and organic origins, combining sensitive production work and vintage songwriting, tells an incisive story within a widespread stilistic diversity from the realms of Ambient, Trip Hop and beyond. An album of esteem and acknowledgement with a deeply personal tiding. A salute, a tribute, a reminder.

Rico Friebe (sonstig umtriebig als Rico Puestel) betritt die Bühne, die Last seines vergleichlosen Debüt-Albums "Jenni" tragend. Auf gänzlich unabsehbaren Geschehnissen persönlicher Natur basierend, entstand das Album in einer sehr kurzen, dennoch hochgradig intensiven Zeit tiefgehender Herausforderungen, Sorgen und Depressionen und fungierte daraufhin zugleich als Methode der Aufarbeitung und Therapie im Status der Ungewissheit. Die Fusion elektronischer und organischer Ursprünge, die einer Vereinung feinfühliger Produktion und klassischen Songwritings zugewandt ist, eröffnet die Erzählungen zu einer einschneidenden Geschichte mit dem Sprachrohr breitgefächerter, stilistischer Strömungen aus den Sphären von Ambient, Trip Hop und darüber hinaus. Ein Album voller Wertschätzung und Anerkennung mit einer zutiefst persönlichen Botschaft. Ein Salut, eine Widmung und Mahnung zugleich.

Repress!

Melody A.M. is the debut studio album by Norwegian electronic music duo Röyksopp, released on 13 September 2001 by Wall of Sound. The album reached number one in the Norwegian Albums chart. In the UK, it reached number nine in the country's Album chart, and topped both the Dance Albums and the Independent Albums charts. As of 2005, the album had sold 750,000 copies worldwide,1 with 454,271 sold in the United Kingdom alone.

Petr Ullmann, the only member of the DWP (Down And Up) project, is a classically trained musician, composer and producer from Prague, Czech Republic. Despite his strong background and roots in the local synth-pop and EBM scene of the 90’s, he is coming with his solo debut “Spirography”, a 4-track EP only now, in 2022.

After a 10-year break from making any music. Now more subtle and soundscape-oriented, but still on dancey side, also influenced by Drum & Bass, Trip Hop or IDM. By collecting and using a diverse range of natural samples, he creates his moody melodies, always playing with a various atmospheres.
A pile of trippy and bassy synths, happy highs, deepy lows with bright lights, hidden and late rooms, all ending in one big madness. “Life is hard and full of polygons which someone has to pilot.”

From Night Slugs’ Bok Bok comes the new label AP Life with their first physical release by seasoned London grime producer Kid D.

“Timing” 12” features 4 essential cuts of cutting-edge beats fusing drill, R&G and grime. From the squarewave bass pressure of Bar 4 Bar to the high emotion of The Eyes, Kid D applies his signature melodic touch to combine the sweet with the sour with devastating results.

Mastered & cut by Sam John @ Precise

White Marbled Vinyl

Rico Friebe (otherwise known as Rico Puestel) enters the stage, carrying the weight of his peerless debut album "Jenni". Based on completely unanticipated events from personal matters, the album quickly emerged during a state of deeper challenges, worries and depression, subversively operating as reprocessing and self-reflective counselling in a state of uncertainty. A fusion of electronic and organic origins, combining sensitive production work and vintage songwriting, tells an incisive story within a widespread stilistic diversity from the realms of Ambient, Trip Hop and beyond. An album of esteem and acknowledgement with a deeply personal tiding. A salute, a tribute, a reminder.

Rico Friebe (sonstig umtriebig als Rico Puestel) betritt die Bühne, die Last seines vergleichlosen Debüt-Albums "Jenni" tragend. Auf gänzlich unabsehbaren Geschehnissen persönlicher Natur basierend, entstand das Album in einer sehr kurzen, dennoch hochgradig intensiven Zeit tiefgehender Herausforderungen, Sorgen und Depressionen und fungierte daraufhin zugleich als Methode der Aufarbeitung und Therapie im Status der Ungewissheit. Die Fusion elektronischer und organischer Ursprünge, die einer Vereinung feinfühliger Produktion und klassischen Songwritings zugewandt ist, eröffnet die Erzählungen zu einer einschneidenden Geschichte mit dem Sprachrohr breitgefächerter, stilistischer Strömungen aus den Sphären von Ambient, Trip Hop und darüber hinaus. Ein Album voller Wertschätzung und Anerkennung mit einer zutiefst persönlichen Botschaft. Ein Salut, eine Widmung und Mahnung zugleich.

2024 Repress
First vinyl pressing of Baroque by Japanese composer and multi-instrumentalist Susumu Yokota. The full length album was originally released by United Sounds Of Blue in 2014, a subdivision of Frogman Records in CD format. Now it is being re-released by Barcelona-based record label Modern Obscure Music as a double LP and in digital format. Baroque is one of the most significant albums of Susumu signed under his original name, and this is the first time the album will be pressed on a double LP 12". Yokota, was an eclectic, highly prolific electronic musician and composer from Japan who died in 2015 at 54. "There is always fear, rage, and ugliness existing behind beauty. I have been trying to express ki-do-ai-raku (the four emotions: joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness) through music. I would like to express even one's hidden emotion with reality. It's my eternal goal." Baroque is a clear example of this, thought the deep listeing of the album you can experiment all of that feelings in just one record and feel how his music infulenced the next generation of producers during the two next decades till today. The Tokyo-based artist devoted his time and creative energy to achieving this goal, and the result is a vast discography that begins with banging early acid house tracks in the 1990s, moves across the next two decades to include deep house and Detroit-influenced techno, a stunning run of ambient electronic albums and, in his last decade, a glorious confluence that wove his various skills into a series of borderless electronic records. Modern Obscure Music team is really excited to bring this gem to the light, Baroque is remastered and distributed in two 12" to be played in clubs and home sound-system bringing the best quality of sound to have the best experience. Susumu Yokota (?? ? Yokota Susumu, or ???·??? Susumu Yokota (April 22,1960 - March 27, 2015) Also known by the pseudonyms Stevia and Ebi, among other.

Seasons come and go, so does the moods and modal alternations on Klofink's debut album that we humbly present to the world through this dear label of ours.

Pastoral soundscapes pierce through post-industrial dub riddims on this highly distinctive artefact recorded by Jämtland born and Malmö based producer and musician Linus Jönsson.

The profound and, albeit paradoxically, decorative sounds on this album consists of a minimal-maximal approach; few, well-leveled elements produces an almost ancient sounding sonic signature of sorts, perfect to immerse ourselves in over the many years to come.

Denver producer and visual artist John T. Hastings aka RUMTUM returns to Bastard Jazz for his second album on the label, "Arcadian Daze". The album is a contemplative drive down a nostalgic highway, reflecting on a period of his late adolescence growing up in Ohio, spending time at Arcadia Beach on Lake Erie and discovering the likes DJ Shadow, Madlib, Fila Brazilla, early Four Tet, the original Ninja Tune roster and more. Revisiting these coming of age memories, John purchased an older MPC 2000XL and set out to musically capture the excitement of putting his first nascent loops together, inspired by this pivotal era of electronic music that has since birthed movements like such as Lo-Fi/Chillhop, Vaporwave, LA's mid-2000s Beat Scene / Low End Theory, etc.

The end result of "Arcadian Daze" is indeed filled with that nostalgic spirit paying homage to those aforementioned sounds, but also presents a forward thinking musical palate that's very much grounded in RUMTUM's sensibilities as a producer and time spent learning to program new & vintage outboard gear. The album moves away from the warm, dreamy sounds of last year's "Isles in Indigo" LP, and touches more into a mystical, pensive vibe with elements of darkness and light.

Markus Suckut returns with his second EP on 'made of Concrete'. Named after the Ruhr area, one of the densest regions in Germany, 'Ruhr' shows off the mesmerizing skillset and versatility of the producer. His hometown Düsseldorf is one of the three major cities on the Ruhr map and has brought up its very own Düsseldorf-sound within German electronic music, with local heroes Kraftwerk paving the way in the 1970s. The twists and turns of the Ruhr river and the musical paths that electronic music has taken all come together in this EP, which steers from techno to electronica with ease.

While 'Tunnel' is a rather straightforward minimal techno banger, the title track 'Ruhr' is almost melancholic. 'At The Park With Friends' ventures into the realms of ambient. The 5-tracker is accompanied by a technoid remix of 'Smoke' by Markus Suckut's longtime friend Thomas Hessler.

Zur Feier des 25-jährigen Jubiläums der Veröffentlichung des Genreklassikers, „Permutation“ von Amon Tobin, wird es eine spezielle Jubiläums-Neuauflage mit neuem Cover-Design auf Vinyl geben, die am 31. Mai 2024 via Ninja Tune erscheint.
Die Neuauflage erscheint in einer gestanzten Hülle mit glänzenden Spotlack-Details, außerdem zeigen die Innenhüllen des Sleeves ein erweitertes Original-Artwork des legendären Kevin Foakes AKA Open Mind.

Format: Schwarzes 140g-Doppelvinyl in glänzender, punktlackierter und gestanzter Hülle (Fenster mit Innenhüllen mit erweitertem Artwork von Openmind). Download-Code enthalten.

The first release from Organic Signs, a hybrid platform and record label that operates from Barcelona and Madrid, with Jan Swam as Label Manager.

This is a reissue originally released in 1998, by an artist who knew how to go beyond the sounds of the golden age of rave, to reach a unique style. Kaya Project, Shakta, Somaton or Hibernation are some of the akas that Seb Taylor has used throughout his career to leave us an unprecedented musical legacy.

Four tracks that go from trance, DnB, trip-hop and breakbeat. Telepresence has a controlled rolling bass, excellent use of breakbeats and chugging flanged riffs. Pure psychedelic trance vibes. Continues with the drop in bpms of The Improvable Voyage, along with an original trip hop sounds with flanged riffs (again).

We turn to side B1 to meet Soma Junkie, a track with a psychedelic breakbeatness lines with very creative drum fills; and we finish with Dr Sembei, a mix between psychedelia and drum and bass, to leave a good taste in your mouth.

When all you want to do is be the fire part of fire… say it to yourself and then say it again. Repeat it like a mantra. It’s what UTO did.

Anyone familiar with the UTO’s lauded 2022 debut Touch The Lock, which Pitchfork praised for its “prismatic synth pop”, will be aware of the variegated nature of what they do. This album is just as colourful, with Neysa’s vocalwork sparking similarities to Kim Gordon’s off-kilter vocals, which they both ceremoniously jets through a post-electronica blender mixing stylized indie sleaze productions with 90s breakbeats.

While they might appear as a singular entity to others, UTO wrote large sections of this album apart, converging by the fireside to discuss the day’s work before coming together to hone and finish the songs. 2023 was, by their own admission, a difficult year, and that’s reflected in the Dantean themes expressed in songs such as the lead single ‘Zombie’, which arrived at the end of November as a taster for the new record; the latter’s dark heart is belied by the skittering beats, glitchy electronics and pummeling sequencers that elevate it from the void.

From fire, early man’s discovery, to AI, humanity’s next great adventure - with all of the wonders and complexities of human relationships in between - When all you want to do is be the fire part of fire really is about life, the universe and everything. Just remember, be the flame, not the moth.

When all you want to do is be the fire part of fire… say it to yourself and then say it again. Repeat it like a mantra. It’s what UTO did.

Anyone familiar with the UTO’s lauded 2022 debut Touch The Lock, which Pitchfork praised for its “prismatic synth pop”, will be aware of the variegated nature of what they do. This album is just as colourful, with Neysa’s vocalwork sparking similarities to Kim Gordon’s off-kilter vocals, which they both ceremoniously jets through a post-electronica blender mixing stylized indie sleaze productions with 90s breakbeats.

While they might appear as a singular entity to others, UTO wrote large sections of this album apart, converging by the fireside to discuss the day’s work before coming together to hone and finish the songs. 2023 was, by their own admission, a difficult year, and that’s reflected in the Dantean themes expressed in songs such as the lead single ‘Zombie’, which arrived at the end of November as a taster for the new record; the latter’s dark heart is belied by the skittering beats, glitchy electronics and pummeling sequencers that elevate it from the void.

From fire, early man’s discovery, to AI, humanity’s next great adventure - with all of the wonders and complexities of human relationships in between - When all you want to do is be the fire part of fire really is about life, the universe and everything. Just remember, be the flame, not the moth.