Beats News

This is a journey into sound. A series of journeys across the globe, in-fact. This time with Don Leisure from Darkhouse Family. Let us tell you a story. Firstly, we first need to answer a question. Who is Shaboo

It began in Africa. Nasser Barwani was the son of Shabudin. At the age of 15, Nasser (Don's Uncle) left Kenya and hitch-hiked his way to London. Nasser entered the movie business, occasionally finding himself in front of the camera, acting in Bollywood films. It was then that Nasser changed his surname to adopt a screen name - Shaboo.

According to Don, "Shaboo was the most colourful character in my family. I have fond memories of him playing tabla at family parties. When I was about 17, I was on a journey with my Uncle. Whilst Shaboo drove me around, he was playing the steering wheel as if it were a tabla. It was then I nervously asked "do you think, one day, I'd be able to make music too...". Shaboo was so furious he nearly crashed the car, slamming his hand hard against the wheel. He screamed "OF COURSE YOU WILL!! IT IS IN YOUR BLOOOOOD!!!"...

A week later, inspired by the creative energy of my Uncle, I acquired some music software, and began an all new journey. A journey through the beats..."

Long family car journeys were a constant in Don Leisure's life growing up. "We'd take frequent trips from Wales to London to visit family in the late 80s / early 90s. There I'd mainline into my cousin's record collections, and make full use of the signal radiance to the M4, searching the airwaves for pirate radio stations. However, I wasn't the only one to make use of this. Every trip, my parents would routinely tune their dial into Sunrise Radio - the only Asian radio station around back then.

The soundtrack of these road trips were somewhat unique. Whilst I tried to learn the lyrics to 90s hip hop songs taped off my cousins, my Mum would constantly interrupt, interspersing my boom bap with bonkers Indian radio ads. And here we have the premise of this album. An attempt to recreate this sonic mix, with sounds pulled in from dusty crates and breaks dug from all over the globe."

25 instrumental Hip Hop tracks, linked together in a truly unique style and fashion, this is much more than a beat tape. This is a journey into sound. For real.

Dedicated to Nasser 'Shaboo' Bharwani.

The material collated on this third release from Heavenly Music Corporation was composed specifically for St. Giga in Japan, a satellite broadcast radio station transmitting ethereal audio harmony 24 hours a day. What made this station otherworldly was its programming; motivated by tidal movements, the aquatic ebbs and flows of each day synchronised to the activity and intensity of the music broadcast.

Phonica Records is extremely proud to unveil the next release on its Special Editions imprint; the stunning debut album 'Vuduwave' by Niños Indigo.Niños Indigo is the alias of audiovisual artist Valeria Hernandez. Developed over the course of a month, the album was recorded in Hernandez's home country of Chile and recorded in a single week, resulting in a flowing, organic yet otherwordly listening experience. Valeria explains; 'This record is a compilation of influences that have been inside me a long time... they keep coming back; Afro drums, Hindu instruments, Candombe, Psychedelia in South America. The rhythm of what surrounds me; the lake, the forest near where I live, the calm that surrounds it, the love of my friends and daughter. All of these feelings are what I like to put in my songs, a reminder to value the simple, to seize the resources that I have and to try and free myself of what's on my mind.'Originally released on digital and cassette label Discos Cetaceos in 2014, it's a recording that truly deserves to be given a new lease of life on vinyl.

With a career that spans over two decades Manchester DJ Andy Carthy aka Mr. Scruff needs little introduction. He is regularly cited as a source of inspiration for many of the world's up and coming artists through his eclectic approach to both DJing and creating music. We are proud to say Andy has always been a keen supporter of the output on Gondwana Records, so when we re-issued one of his favourite records The Swimmer by Phil France it seemed an appropriate time to ask for a couple of remixes. The results of which are two wonderfully unique dance floor friendly takes on the track, Joy of Brass.

Another compilation on SVS Records. This time, Cosmos #1.

"This release is individually 200 hand-numbered limited edition CASSETTE (100 PINK and 100 SMOKE TRANSPARENT) with a sort of 'greatest hits' of (almost) all Archeo releases (AR001-AR011) + an unreleased bonus track from Roberto Aglieri (Ticino parte 4 - Il merlo), celebrating 3 years of the label, from 2014 to 2017 - selected with love by Manu- Archeo (AR001C).

Archeo Recordings is a reissue record label that regenerates old, lost, obscure and forgotten rare gems of predominantly Italian music but also all over the world of the 70s, 80s and 90s.
All outputs are licensed by the artists and the vintage labels; audio tracks are remastered in their original form; the sleeves and center labels are graphically recreated for today but all based on the original images.
Archeo would like to make the music available to a wider audience of collectors, DJs, music lovers of a forgotten time.
All releases are hand-numbered limited edition vinyl. The first copies of each release are pressed in coloured vinyls."

Belgium's Yves De Mey strikes clean and sharp with four modular rave prongs for Entr'acte leading a jagged dance after his recent 2nd album, Drawn With Shadow Pens for Spectrum Spools.
In De Mey's own words: 'Late-Night Patching is the result of a short test phase with modular software, mimicking traditional synth modules. A very basic 8-step sequencer setup was patched
and used to its full extent for all these tracks. There's something nostalgic about this EP, and not only in its recreation of vintage instruments. All four tracks allude to a rave past, a history of
repetitive and nervous patterns brought together in simple structures. And for some of us, it's the sound of staying home while others roam the streets at night.'
It stalks a fine line down the alleys of your mind, extruding gritted monotone rhythms until they evaporate fizzing metallic contrails, or knotting sticky electro patterns into recursive calligraphy
on the A-side, and running the dancehall/living room red with hunched, bogling grooves in the B-side pair of atonal stings.

"EOD/CN forwarded this super fresh release to WeMe records in 2016 from meggablockx, a long-time friend of his based in miami. A side fresh timeless "IDM", B side electro synth jams" Limited Supplies!!

Alec Storey aka Second Storey präsentiert mit seinem zweiten Houndstooth-Album "Lucid Locations" eine erhabene Kollektion 10 bassgetriebener und akribischer Tracks, perfekt ausbalanciert zwischen Filigranität und Wildheit, irgendwo zwischen Bass, Electro, Techno, Ambient, D&B und psychedelischer IDM. CD und farbiges 180g Doppelvinyl (einmal gelbes, einmal schwarzes Vinyl).

The industrial project of Oliver Ho and Tommy Gillard at its most subversive and evocative, with two preoccupations threaded throughout: Middle-Eastern percussion, most vivid in the chimes of Casting and the driving doumbek rhythms of Burning and The Sands; and the structural iteration of chaos, underlying a collage of wild left-turns, scornful of repetitive hooks and other musical routines. Early birds bag a 7' by Ho's Desert Burials, evoking classic punk/funk hybrids like Cabaret Voltaire.

The seventh EP on FireScope Records, the new sub label of the legendary B12 Records, welcomes Bauri (Martin Abrahamsson) a producer based in Malmö, Sweden. Bauri has been releasing tracks on labels such as Drumcode, Neo Ouija, Sloboda, Random Island and is known to cross various styles of electronic music. The EP entitled Vinkelvolten showcases Bauri's form of techno on a platform that; as promised; will diversify and show consistency. This EP takes us on a journey built around gorgeous sounds and crisp abstract beats to a place calmness and peace. Originally part of Bauri's 2nd album that never got released due to the slow down in the IDM scene; these tracks have matured like a fine wine for 12 years; and now are on a 12' released by B12.
'Warm Fuzzy Feeling' A stunning baseline wraps the listener up into a hypnotic loving hug while strings and beats take us on a journey of peace and calm.'Kirmumxyl' Abstract beats and voice like accompaniments conjure up images of a place of loneliness but calm; inspired by Swedish ambient artist Tupilaq.
'Vinkelvolten I' The title track - its again built around abstract sounding beats with a wonderful every present top line; disjointed in nature but creates a sense of calm that is ever present in this EP.'Amethyst' filled with shimmering melodies, again a soothing track that that creates a sense of green to this dynamic producer.
Finished in glorious green and grey marble vinyl with exclusive full colour artwork by the wonderful Catherine Prendergast AKA Cellar Door,

"Dance" war zum Zeitpunkt der Erstveröffentlichung 1981 Gary Numans fünftes Album. Mit diesem verließ er seine zwar geschätzten, aber künstlerisch dennoch ausgelatschten Synth-Pop-Pfade und öffnete sich für seine Verhältnisse experimentelleren, das heißt dezent jazzigen Einflüssen. Mit von der Partie war bei den Aufnahmen eine prominente Ansammlung internationaler Gaststars: Rob Dean, der Bassist und Saxophonist Mick Karn von Japan, Queen-Drummer Roger Taylor, der Keyboarder Roger Mason von der australischen Band Models sowie Nash the Slash aus Kanada. Ursprünglich erschien "Dance" als einfache Schallplatte, was bei 50 Minuten Laufzeit zu Lasten der Soundqualität ging. Deshalb wurden für die
Wiederveröffentlichung auf violettem Vinyl die neu gemasterten Songs auf zwei LPs verteilt. Abgerundet wird die Gatefold-Edition durch Singles, B-Seiten und noch unveröffentlichte Outtakes.

Dys Functional Electronic Music is a compilation release from Repitch Recordings, celebrating the label's first five years. Its ambivalent title aims to represent the sonic behaviour of its content, often deviating from norms or distancing itself from common club functionalism. For this release, the 3 REPITCH masterminds Ascion, D. Carbone and Shapednoise are joined by a selection of the artists who contributed shaping the Repitch sound throughout the years, along with guests that inspired them in this adventure. During the past 5 years the main focus of the label was to set up a platform for experimentations across the dancefloor canon, establishing a standout musical identity. A spirit that resonates within each artist's personal approach: from Ascion's dark breakbeats to The Exaltics and AnD's acid frontalism, Shapednoise's brooding noise, Sote's fractured rave, D. Carbone and Gaja's intrusions into melody, Pinch and the Zenker Brothers' dub-infused atmospherics, Skudge's love of gloom and Nuel's IDM-ish minimalism.

Conceived as a kind of sequel to 2012's Sleep Games, there's an epic sensibility to Stasis. The haunted concrete caverns of the earlier album give way here, to vast, awe inspiring spaces. The album has a strong narrative flow that can be read either as the soundtrack for an interplanetary voyage under suspended animation, or the exploration of vast inner realms under some other form of technologically enhanced sleep.

Martin Jenkins' unique production sound is unmistakable: Carpenter-esque slow kosmiche disco and ambience, woozy synth melodies and somnambulistic grooves with soft, rich textures.

2 tracks from the post-MA sessions. More music for blind observers.. Limited stamped 10"

Row row row your boat gently up the stream, Nyra back on the oars for Canoe 005, heave-ho.

Like a message in a bottle, carried round by the ocean streams for decades, Henrik Rylander's album 'Fran En Obestamd Plats I Rummet' has floated around in the space of Swedish underground music. Hoga Nord pulls the cork and unfolds the message that is a piece of music that was ahead of its time, sounding 'now' 20 years after its first release in the late nineties. This album is a well-kept secret even for the most initiated music lovers in Sweden! The music, influenced by Flying Saucer Attack and other reverb/distortion drenched acts from the early nineties, Harmonia and some of Kraftwerks earlier works and minimalism, still sounds fresh!

Rylander, a member of legendary acts such as Union Carbide Productions and The Skull Defekts, has been pushing the envelope for electronic music, varying between ambient and noise. Rylander's solo works could be described as sophisticated music and 'Fran En Obestamd Plats I Rummet' combines the sophisticated sides with his band oriented works that holds another kind of tension.

This record is the first release on the sub label 'Hoga Nord Arkiv' on which releases from the past, that hasn't got as much attention they deserve gets re-released in an appropriate context.

Mary Anne Hobbs has been waxing lyrical about this sophomore collaborative set from Arovane and Hior Chronik, and it's easy to see why. The album's genius lies in the duo's atmospheric combination of crackling field recordings, lucid electronic instrumentation, and the melancholic poignancy of classic piano motifs. While they're naturally more at home delivering atmospheric, slowly unfurling ambient pieces - and there are plenty scattered across the album - the production pair's more up-tempo efforts are generally equally as impressive. Tracks such as "Lightbeams", 'Perpetum II" and "Eines Klein Lied", where their beautiful music is underpinned by bustling and bubbly machine percussion, are particularly impressiv

After a first track at the breaknoize frontier comes a Hip Hop instrumental that really brings a solid envy of rap... last tune of the side in more an electronica industrial grinder. B side starts breakbeat electronica : dancefloor distortion ! Next comes The Plongeur and its noisy electro weirdness... The mini album finishes with a dubby electronica irie sound. Killer !

(en) The record will be released in a limited edition of 500 numbered copies. For each 100 copies the silk-screen printed cover will change its colour.
F.S.K. (Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle) is an art school band from Munich that formed in 1980 in the editorial office of the underground magazine Mode & Verzweiflung and issued disturbing slogans of a new dissidence like: Wir sagen Ja zur modernen Welt (we say yes to the modern world) and Heute Disco, morgen Umsturz, u¨bermorgen Landpartie (disco today, coup tomorrow, a country outing the day after). The Italian Futurists' idea to flood Venice was joyfully appealing to them so they made the serious demand to convert theaters into parking garages (Theater zu Parkha¨usern). The futuristic development of so- called noisemakers (a productive modification of the sounds of industrialized cities as well as the completely new war machines of World War I) carried a key moment of deviant pop music into its emerging discourse: clipping, distortion, Bring the Noise.
The hedonistic partisanship of the band F.S.K. particularly affected its eclectic zigzags (from post punk to rhythm & blues, country & western to techno soul) and morphed into yet another new, postmodern shape in the 1980s in England (where John Peel was a prominent promoter of F.S.K.) and in the 1990s in the US, where their music faced the transatlantic feedback of the songs of American occupying forces. Back in Germany their music took on more abstract forms that were described as Cubist with the last album Akt, eine Treppe hinabsteigend (nude descending a staircase): aesthetic lines that move from Luigi Russolo and Iannis Xenakis, Sun Ra and Larry Heard to the glitches of the latest bass music. In the traditional lineup of a rock and roll band, today F.S.K. musically executes all of these threads.
Their piece Ein Haufen Scheiß und ein zertru¨mmertes Klavier (a pile of crap and a shattered piano) developed for Berlin's Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) explores productive axes between destruction and deconstruction (paying tribute to Luigi Russolo).
(de) Die Schallplatte wird in einer limitierten Auflage von 500 nummerierten Exemplaren veröffentlicht. Die Farben des im Siebdruckverfahren hergestellten Covers wechseln alle 100 Exemplare ihre Farbe.
F.S.K. (Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle) ist eine Art School Band aus München, die 1980 in der Redaktion des Underground Magazins Mode & Verzweiflung zusammenkam und verstörende Losungen einer neuen Dissidenz ausgab wie: Wir sagen Ja zur modernen Welt, oder: Heute Disco, morgen Umsturz, übermorgen Landpartie. Die Idee der italienischen Futuristen, Venedig zu fluten, fand bei ihnen fröhlichen Anklang. Und also erhoben sie die seriöse Forderung, Theater zu Parkhäusern umzuwandeln. Die futuristische Entwicklung sogenannter Lärmtöner (in produktiver Abwandlung der Geräusche der industrialisierten Großstädte, aber auch der völlig neuartigen Kriegsmaschinen des Ersten Weltkriegs) trug ein zentrales Moment der abweichenden Popmusik in deren aufkommenden Diskurs: die Übersteuerung, die Verzerrung, Bring the Noise.
Das hedonistische Partisanentum der Band F.S.K. wirkte sich besonders in ihrem eklektischen Hakenschlagen aus (Postpunk to Rhythm & Blues, Country & Western to Techno Soul) und fand in den 1980er Jahren in England ... sowie in den 1990ern in den USA, wo ihre Musik im transatlantischen Feedback der G.I. Songs US-amerikanischer Besatzungssoldaten stand, zu einer abermals neuen, postmodernen Fasson.
Zurück in Deutschland, nahm ihre Musik abstraktere Formen an, die sich mit dem aktuellen Album Akt, eine Treppe hinabsteigend, als kubistisch bezeichnen ließen: Ästhetische Linien, die über Luigi Russolo und Iannis Xenakis, Sun Ra und Larry Heard zu den Glitches aktueller Bass Music führen. In der klassischen Besetzung einer Rock and Roll Band setzen F.S.K. heute all diese Threads musikalisch um.
Die Band besteht nach wie vor aus den vier Gründungsmitgliedern Justin Hoffmann, Thomas Meinecke, Michaela Melián und Wilfried Petzi, Carl Oesterhelt kam 1991 dazu.
Ihr für das Haus der Kulturen der Welt entwickeltes Stück Ein Haufen Scheiß und ein zertrümmertes Klavier lotet dabei (in einer Hommage an Luigi Russolo) produktive Scharniere zwischen Destruktion und Dekonstruktion aus.

Flanger is back! After 10 years, Atom™ and Burnt Friedman have composed and produced their fifth long player:

Kickin' In', an epic 12-minute journey through disco, that Patrick Cowley recorded in 1978. The song encapsulates the Hi-NRG dance music that Patrick became known for. It was an 'up' sound for the gay disco scene, music that would compliment and sometimes enhance all night dancing. On the flip are two earlier songs produced between 1975-77 featuring basslines by college classmate and studio mate Maurice Tani. Both songs feature Patrick narrating erotic gay sex fantasies inspired by San Francisco's leather bars, back rooms and bathhouses. These songs show the sleazy side of Cowley's slow burning, oozing electronic creations.

As a truly indispensable bookend to any listeners with the slightest interest in experimental music, French culture or the foundations of mechanical songwriting this inaugural release by these Parisian musical revolutionaries not only predicts the future sound of modern composition by almost 60 years but detangles the deepest roots of European popular culture celebrating an important historical family unison in the process. Combining the infant steps of Magma, the sonic blueprint of 1970's TV theme Picture Box and the sculptural creations of Polly Maggoo this important and groundbreaking 3 track 7' EP takes us back to the very first aural glimpse of the future of pregressive Europe at the hands of physical sound sculptures glaring in the face of premature technology. This EP and its varied three-pronged assault is the first step in the legacy of the Lasry Baschet unison uniting the husband and wife team of Jacques and Yvonne Lasry plus their son Teddy (who would later create Magma with Christian Vander) and hard material sculptors François and Bernard Baschet (who would later work with William Klein). It was this creative unison between visual art and experimental music, witnessing the Lasry family exchange their orthodox music skills in favour of crystal rods, balloons, wet bows and metal sheets, that would potentially change the course of European music which was already on the extreme verge of electrocution with the rise of tape music and embryonic synthesised instrumentation. Promoting the phrase Instruments Non-électroniques (as celebrated on the sleeve of the Cacophonic full-length release 11CACKLP) the Lasry-Baschet collective's humanistic music (an attitude upheld by composers like Michel Magne) would later spark the imagination of Jean Cocteau leading to installations at the Museum Of Modern Art leading to a huge shift in the way people approached experimental melodic music alongside the efforts of Harry Partch and other music machine makers. The appropriation of their music in art, theatre, ballet, film and television came closest to UK shores when their composition Manège was used as the long running theme for the children's TV compendium Picture Box spanning three decades (rivalling both The Moomins and The Booktower for the most indelible and nostalgic spooky theme tunes in the history of British TV) by which time Teddy Lasry had independently become one of France's most creative instrumental composers of all time

New project from RVNG Intl. founder Matt Werth and the dudes (Brian Close and Justin Tripp) behind the multi-media duo Georgia.

The collective minds of Digital Release make deep-psychic-technology sounds. Its music that moves and travels in spheres and projections with an understanding of global tunings, improvisational space, and vast futurisms. Its a tripped mind with peyote rhythms!

Each LP is pressed on 180-grm vinyl and housed in a full colour wide-span matte jacket (with download) and includes a 22x22' foldout full color poster and full colour inner sleeve.

Five hundred and seventy-three moons ago (give or take), Thunder Tillman and his personal shaman emerged from the ESP Institute with an epic debut EP of baked psychedelics entitled Jaguar Mirror. We now bare witness to the duo's glorious follow-up as they initiate us into the Night School Of Universal Wisdom. These two cosmic jokers possess a vibrant and fearless sense of exploration that knows no boundaries, as if their dreams translate directly into song and their bodies exist merely to channel music they've tapped into from another world, one where influences are uncharted and any instrument imaginable is available at their fingertips. As with Jaguar Mirror, their grasp of all things analogue begins with guitar laying the slightly imperfect foundation for four harmonious narratives, a journey that begins with a fast paced gallop across vast landscapes in search of the Incan god of thunder, Catequil, and gently concludes with us lying horizontally to absorb sporadic beams of healing light. The discourse throughout Night School Of Universal Wisdom is as charming as it is exquisite, orienting the listener with a bouquet of warm tones whilst layering plies of musical dialogue so subtle they require repeated study. Thunder Tillman manage to weave the past into future without diverting to pastiche, successfully merging their characterized production with melodic mastery and a sense of humor, a creative achievement that accredits them as two of our most esteemed scholars.

Breakcore electro-noize from Patric Catani V.I.P. Aka Patric Catani, and some other good kickers like The House Of Fic Feat Circa (F.I.X. Records England) and some new commers as Colonel Midi (with a Trach Noise remix of NTM...) Enjoy !

4 tracks from Lukid on the first Glum release in 5 years. For the adventurous DJ's DJ.

From Connecticut now based in Brooklyn, Lars Probert aka Color Plus makes his debut on Vanity Press Records. After a string of digital and tape releases he dropped his first vinyl release recently on Cazeria Cazador. This record features 5 tracks with a features from AceMo, and introducing vocalist VXO who will be dropping a full length next year on Vanity Press, produced by Color Plus.

Little Movies are Morgan "buckled" Buckley and Ben "soft-shoe" Donohue. Dueling hot analog swords over snowy modular fjords... Improvised CV chitchat. Pre-Post Boiled Egg Heads & Soldering Irons. Recorded on Irish pastures in a single day, stitched together somewhere between Kimmage and Galway-very-west. Live score to a silent 1920s Lawn Mower Man. Mastered by The Bastard. Limited as a mthfkka..

Red Axes have come a long way since the 2014's Ballad Of The Ice. Tel-Aviv, now a scene and sound that the duo were instrumental in putting on the map, has burst onto the world stage armed with limitless electronic bravado and the city's strong guitar music heritage. Now, the much loved duo return, sophomore album in tow on their own label Garzen Records.

Unique moments and significant experiences gleaned over the course of an exceptionally intense year left Dori Sadovnik and Niv Arzi with depths of inspiration for their new record. Throughout December 2016, the Axes worked in their Tel-Aviv studio, surrounded by their extended Garzen family - Abrão, Eylonzo Crotch, Gabriel Broid, Adi Bronicki, Thomass Jacksonn & Iñigo Vontier all feature - giving life to a new psychedelic cosmic adventure. The outcome, a 12 track album which invites listeners to The Beach Goths world.

Red Axes snake their way through genres and periods, clearing an unorthodox highway through conventions, nodding to the past, eyes on the future. Live drums, jangling guitars, fuzzed out synths and an all pervasive psychedelia emerge as the backbone of The Beach Goths. Opener Ride The Sus leads in with a nonchalant blues indebted bluster; Tarzan Blues and Relaxation (For Your Mind And Body) call halftime with a bow down to Dead Kennedys and Cramps era proto punk and rockabilly. While the Axes are quick to jam out exotic post-punk numbers, the land of The Beach Goths is a land of contrasts. The clubs are never far and the drum machines come out on prime time club ready chuggers Piper Work, Shir 1 and the album's first choice excerpt Tantram Power.
Dori and Niv's vocal chops feature heavily, standing out on the youthful, kaleidoscopic ballad Loosen and hippy trippy song What Is In Your Head.
Closing the album with a warm embrace, helped by Deaf Chonky's lead singer Adi Bronicki, on psychedelic ballad Into Your Arms.

The land of The Beach Goths is a land of contrasts.

The 2nd release on Youth comes from London artist Shamos. With Lyster having met Shamos through NTS it wasn't long before they were DJ'ing together around parties in London and Shamos began sharing music with him. Shamos, who last released on Funkinevens Apron label, comes with a heavy 4 tracker bringing the punkier dregs of new wave, dreamy abstract house and tripped out hardware jams, on limited red vinyl.

winter, or a time which represents that season, in a metropole that appears to be moscow. the visitor is taking metro no. 6 at leninsky prospect as he is on his way to the ballroom close to gorky park. the air is icy, the sky is grey. a cat, previously hidden among the dirty snow, is crossing his way. the closer he gets to his destination, the clearer he can hear music, music that reminds him of future days.
the dimly lit room is only sparsely filled. on stage a graceful singer, capturing the room with her presence. captive voices merge with chords played on yet unknown instruments - machine rhythms cycle in 3/4 time. the vigorous peasant dancers, following an instinctive knowledge of the weight of fall, utilize their surplus energy to press all their strength into the proper beat of the measure, thus intensifying their personal enjoyment in dancing. here, in the transhuman ballroom, time stands still and values are being dissolved by numeric progressions. spiritually allied, the visitor, the singer and the peasant dancers short-circuit the present moment while the last falling snow slowly turns into rain.
with »walzerzyklus«, atomTM returns to raster to complete his series that has once begun with »liedgut« and continued with »winterreise«. the 7 tracks, created in collaboration with russian singer lisokot, are subdivided into 3 pieces of 2 minutes each and 4 pieces of 3 minutes each, intentionally reflecting the 3/4 time of a classic waltz.
throughout the release, lisokot's delicate vocals are put into different relations to atomTM's rather cool machine music, either complementing or contrasting each other. in the same line, the 3 shorter 'leitmotifs' provide the main theme that is taken up repeatedly in the course of the release.
»walzerzyklus« will be released on CD and as special, laser-engraved vinyl edition limited to 300 copies.

Few artists can claim to have their own distinctive 'musical voice': a style of composition and production that listeners instantly recognize. For starters, it takes years of experimentation to perfect, and most people simply don't have the patience, talent or skills to pull it off.

Ali Kuru is one of those rare producers whose music sounds like nothing else around. The Istanbul-based artist has spent the best part of a decade honing his trademark style - a fragrant and intoxicating aural brew that combines a myriad of influences with atmospheric field recordings and snaking, mind-altering Middle Eastern instrumentation - via releases for the likes of Luxa Flex, Kalisah, Sound Architecture and, most recently, Leng.

It's to the latter label that the publicity-shy producer returns with his most ambitious release to date, Egzotik. 15 tracks and 70 minutes deep, it's not so much a debut album as a statement of intent. From start to finish, it feels like a humid, sweat-soaked saunter through the winding streets of Istanbul in the company of a musician who draws more inspiration than most from his immediate surroundings.

Those surroundings come to the fore on opener 'Bazaar', where tipsy horns and gently strummed electric guitar passages slowly rise above the sound of a harbourside market.

They're present, too, within the souk rhythms and cascading pianos of 'Zorba The Greek', beneath the gentle throb of 'Lost Bedouin', inside the spaced-out, stargazing pulse of 'Hiyar', and around the chiming melodies and mournful strings of hushed ambient closer 'Adios'.

Kuru's genius lies in his ability to take familiar musical tropes and twist them into unique, Ottoman-inspired shapes. So, while 'Tangerine Dream' doffs a cap to the stretched-out hypnotism of the legendary krautrock band of the same name, its reliance on backwards drum hits, locked-in grooves and psychedelic sample loops is a far more contemporary proposition.

Some may hear the influence of Detroit beatdown in the slow and dubby house grooves of 'Le Voyage De Space', while others could describe the drowsy 'Ashoka' as being Weatherall-esque. Yet none of these tracks, layered as they are with traditional Balkan, Persian and Arabic instrumentation, sound like anything other than Ali Kuru productions.

The result is an album that surprises and enthralls in equal measure. Highlights come thick and fast, from the bubbling, dub-house psychedelia of 'Mount Damavand' and haunting deep techno humidity of 'Sacred Vallley', to the Augustus Pablo-in-Ankara shuffle of 'Jungle Flower' and potent hookah hit of 'Return to Paradise', where sampled voices rise above a typically tactile groove.

Bad Penny from NYC with her magnificent debut. Bright melody lines undercut by harsh and heavy bass analog synths and minimal rhythms. Low vocal timbre with punk-influenced growls. Lyrics fueled by the anxiety and harshness of American city life.

Laurel Halo returns to Hyperdub for her third LP with a fresh approach and a new sound. Routed out of the electronic abstraction of 2015's In Situ - but with clear reference to 2012's sleeper-hit Quarantine - Dust is an album revolving around loose and languid songs; warped, sun-filled, melted and at times, heavy-hearted and obscure. Recorded over a period of two years, the writing process began at EMPAC in upstate New York in January 2015. With access to microphones, percussion, keys and a wide range of routings, Laurel spent days alone in the cavernous space, later inviting musicians Eli Keszler and Lafawndah to join her there. Those sessions would eventually become this album: a collection of breezy, broken songs, based on woody instrumentation, sub bass and restless, intricate electronics. Earnest songwriting meets with modal cut-up strategies, improvisational playing with higrade digital dust. Tactile and fibrous throughout the record, the vocals and percussion coalesce and breathe life into each other. Swung grooves eddy and collapse; acoustic drums are warped into sensual, febrile melodies. The lyrics are themselves bricolage, without a specific narrator or place in time. They slip in and out of view, something that is visualised in the album's inner panel. Extending the influence, the album opener 'Sun To Solar' is an adaptation of 'Servidão de Passagem' by Brazilian concrete poet Haroldo de Campos. In line with the album's sound, Dust is 'Laurel Halo' as a flexible cast of characters. Filled with dialogue, the album helms an interchangeable ensemble of vocalists and musicians, featuring vocals from Klein, Lafawndah, and Michael Salu, as well as musicians such as Eli Keszler, Craig Clouse ($hit and $hine), Julia Holter, Max D, Michael Beharie and Diamond Terrifier. Laurel's omnivorous influences play out in mutated fashion - coalesced, unfettered and inclusive - a broad musical palette free from entrenched modes, catalysed by digital production that could only happen in 2017.