Beats News

Some believe that the environment in which you make music - from the studio space, to the location itself - has a profound effect on the creative process. Immerse yourself in the world around you, the theory goes, and it will shape the music you make. Listen to Gorthleck, the third album from veteran downtempo alchemists Benjamin Smith and Paul 'Mudd' Murphy, and you can almost visualize the craggy, windswept and breathtakingly beautiful environment in which it was made. Reconvening after a near seven-year hiatus last summer, the duo headed up to the Scottish Highlands to spend a week recording in the surrounds of Gorthleck House, nestled on the shore of Loch Mhor in Inverness-shire. Earlier this year, they returned to the same venue, with its' stunning views of the tranquil loch and rocky, wooded hills rising in the distance, to complete the nine-track set. Certainly, the immersive environment and famously changeable weather seems to have inspired the longtime friends and studio partners. The album's epic centrepiece, the nine-minute Mhor', sounds like an emotional love letter to the body of water they strolled alongside every day. Its' undulating synthesizer line - reminiscent of classic Tangerine Dream and the Orb's A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain' - mimics the slow ebb and flow of water across the loch, while Smith's shimmering guitar lines mimic the glint of sunlight reflecting off the surface. Elsewhere, the audio references are a little more subtle, but no less relevant. The hazy jazz guitars, twinkling pianos, rich grooves and fluttering clarinets of Nether' sound like the perfect accompaniment to a single malt whisky-fuelled sunset session at the water's edge, while the quietly foreboding aural textures, layered guitars and urgent electric violin of Enos' evoke memories of watching storm clouds gathering behind distant Highland mountains. The same could be said of Mr Coats' - a track arranged in steamy Mexico, and blessed with all the humidity you'd expect from such an excursion - while you can hear gale force winds whistling around the rafters on Dogwood'. As for Errogie', it's as bracing as a crystal clear morning in the Highlands, chilly, but hugely life affirming. The duo's previous two albums, 2007's Blue River and its' 2009 follow-up, Le Suivant, were both hugely evocative, but neither captured a distinct a sense of time and place quite like Gorthleck. Listen carefully, and you could almost be there with them, watching the sunrise and sunset.

We are extremely pleased representing ISLAND OF THE GODS - beautiful mind-bending voodoo music recorded and created in the magical islands of Indonesia.

We stood on the edge of forever
One final dream into time
A silent voice in an empty room
The numbers; We never truly knew

Alex Suarez is part of a new breed of producers based out of Brooklyn carving out their own unique sound experimenting in the world of raw primordial electronics. Under the name Cienfuegos, he has prior releases on Brooklyn's Primitive Languages imprint as well as the France's Unknown Precept label-with his new "Lost in God's Country" ep we see him debut on the New York centered Bank Records.

Through the four tracks Cienfuegos harkens back to the time of early industrial music, not far off from the early transmissions of SPK or even hinting at sounds akin to E.g. Oblique Graph. Suarez has a knack for developing textures and tension in his music sewing it all together with plodding rhythms and the occasional creeper vocal. Heavyweight stuff coming most highly recommended.

There won't be any more once these go!

Composer, musician and producer Nils Frahm steers the new edition of Late Night Tales, set for release on 11th September. A hypnotic voyage through modern and classical composition, experimental electronics, jazz, dub techno, soundtracks and soul; Frahm's Late Night Tales haunts and beguiles. It's not mixing, so much as gently layering, like a particularly fluffy goose-down duvet folding in on itself, the folds part of the attraction, the layers part of the overall picture being painted. Many of the tracks have been edited, effected and re-made. The subtly overdubbed parts on Rhythm & Sound's 'Mango Drive' adding to the haunting hypnosis, while choral interruptions aid Miles Davis' 'Générique' on its journey towards the light. Meanwhile, on Boards Of Canada's 'In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country', the tempo is somewhat sluggish, the organs slurred, as Frahm slows it down to a funereal 33rpm that nevertheless fits perfectly. The purring of his girlfriend's cat Cleo transitions playfully between Nina Simone's definitive version of 'Who Knows Where the Time Goes' and unearthing the gentle electronics of Dub Tractor. Eddy Arnold's 'You're The Only Star', a country tune that sounds like its transmitting from a mid-west diner wireless circa 1947, is straight from the soundtrack to an imaginary David Lynch movie, comforting and dismaying all at once. This crackly reality abounds, as on Finnish band Gentleman Losers' 'Honey Bunch', that adds an unsettling texture, with a sound that is modern but as nostalgic. Frahm's own tracks bookend the mix, opening with an inspired "rework" of the infamous silent John Cage piece '4:33' ("I sat at the piano in silence and worked from


there. I listened and took in the atmosphere and this is what came out of it") and ending with a solo piano version of 'Them', taken from his recently released score of the film 'Victoria'. The traditional Late Night Tales spoken word epilogue is voiced by actor Cillian Murphy (Inception, Batman, 28 Days Later), reading a short story by Edna Walsh (Hunger, Disco Pigs).

12th release on the label by Moscow based musicians Vasiliy Stepanov and Vladislav Dobrovolski. All tracks imbued with esoteric trippy vibes for all "another dimension" lovers.

Amateur Best is the alias of Birmingham-based 'personal pop' musician, songwriter and producer Joe Flory.The result of three years writing and recording, the 10 tracks that make up 'The Gleaners' straddle the fine line between outright ecstasy and muted melancholy. Initially envisioned as a concept album about a charity shop-bought doll's house, it mutated into a full on dance record.With the release of new single 'Marzipan', Flory presents a remix by Ray Mang (DFA, R&S), who twists the track into a shimmering, disco delight

Meda Fury and Emotional Response join to present Sad City's long waited debut LP. After critically acclaimed EPs for Underwater Peoples and Phonica this stunning LP has been in gestation for years but arrives with perfect alacrity.
Northern Irish born, Glasgow based musician Gary Caruth been steadily building a successful ouvere of releases from his 2011 debut Gestures EP to appearing on Emotional Response's 'Schleißen" series last Spring.
Coming together across 10 tracks 'Shapes In Formation' mixes his love of field recording with deep ambient soundscapes. The melancholic sonicsbely patterned tones that transport to that place where music and the silent reality of the world merges.
Beyond his recent ambient explorations, side opener Rain points to something beyond, a swirling meld of vocal loops and rhythmic pulses that promise anew. More follows in Pace (Movements I to IV) and People + Plants, taking the sonic exploration onwards.
We arrive halfway in this journey with the rolling jazz of Steady Jam. A delicate balance of restrained drum fills, hissing hats and gospel vocal bliss to create a tapestry that harks to Parrish's Sound Signature as much to Cluster and Eno. Finally, the cityscape of Smoke, the dream-interlude of Water and a truly elegiacal closer in Again, the album's story is shaped as a truly unique form(ation).

"Step forward André Abel and Joana da Conceição, the Portuguese duo behind the long-running experimental act Tropa Macaca who had a brush with the alt-mainstream a few years ago in the shape of the Ectoplasma single for Daniel Lopatin's Software label. Seemingly absent since their 2013 LP, Praga De Urubu Só Pega Em Cavalo Magro, Abel and da Conceição have been coaxed into appearing on The Trilogy Tapes. Given the tone of Vida, it should come as no surprise that Tropa Macaca are also set to perform at the upcoming Meakusma festival"

Jason Ross, Anjunabeats latest star talent, has been selected to host the 6th Edition of the esteemed Anjunabeats Worldwide mix series. The mix will be released in July, followed immediately by his first solo headlining tour across North America that will run through the fall. Immediately identified by Above & Beyond after his first hit release, 'Burma,' Jason has grown into one of the most promising you talents in dance music. In the past year alone, Above & Beyond, Kaskade and Seven Lions have all been major supporters either through remix collabs or mashups, plus his support list goes far beyond from Tiesto to Paul van Dyk to Anjunabeats stars ilan Bluestone and Andrew Bayer.
'Anjunabeats Worldwide 06' is packed end to end with smash hits, most having never been heard before. In addition to Jason's next big single release, 'Me Tonight,' which features the vocal work of Lauren Ray and will be available on Beatport June 24, the mix chief also has two collab tracks with his friend and labelmateilan Bluestone, 'Amun' and 'Meta.' Jason also has two huge remixes to share, one of Arty's 'Glorious' and the other of Seven Lions' smash 'Creation.'
Other high-profile collabs also abound on this mix, ilan Bluestone and Grum have teamed up for a tune, Andrew Bayer and Arty have created a crusher of their own, while Fatum and Judah have a special versus creation in there as well.

Packaged in special 'Vulnicura' wound die-cut sleeves.
A very special live version of Björk's highlyacclaimed, Grammy Award nominated, eighth studio album, 'Vulnicura'.
Following the success of 'Vulnicura', Björk was honoured with the award for 'Best International Female' at the Brits. This was Björk's firth Brit award.
'Vulnicura Live' is made up of Björk's favourite performances from her 2015 tour, including all songs on from the original release plus some carefully selected favourites from previous works.
The songs were performed live with the Alarm Will Sound & Heritage Orchestras, and critically acclaimed producers The Haxan Cloak and Arca.
The artwork was designed by the iconic design partnership M/M Paris.

RIYL - Soulection, Brainfeeder, HW&W, Astral Black, Team Supreme, Gergaz, Soom T, Southside Deluxe. Konchis aka Jetsam is the most promising producer Scotland has ever produced. - Mark McGhee (Girobabies) Just sat for the last hour listening to the new album from Konchis from his Jetsam alias, albums called Yugen and its just blew me away with its originality, its complexity and its beauty, so make sure you cop it when it drops.... big ups to Soom T as well for recognising talent. - Steg G (Power-cut Productions / Sunny Govan Radio) I've been fortunate enough to check the test pressing......what a beautiful album this is. Get involved. - Mistah Bohze (Southside Deluxe / II Tone Committee) - "Yugen is said to mean a profound, mysterious sense of the beauty of the universe... and the sad beauty of human suffering'. Yugen suggests that beyond what can be said but is not an allusion to another world. It is about this world, this experience." The Renegades are extremely ecstatic to bring you the long awaited juggernaut of sound that is the 'Yugen' LP - by Jetsam (A.K.A Konchis) the consistent DJ and producer of quality and sheer originality with a proven track record for his excessive skill and talent - with a highly generous 10 tracks ready to show your sound-system what it has been missing all these years. The journey begins at 'Crystal Oblivion' a fitting intro with a gentle ambience exposing a slow but steady stream of colliding strings harmoniously weaving underwater, lo-fi sounds together with an underlying, deceptively subtle yet consciously apt beat which carries this heart warmer to it's melody driven conclusion leading us almost without warning into 'Ephemeral' which keeps us snorkeling underwater, gently churning out deep melodies and tugging heartstrings as it drops singular notes to create unexpected crescendos which collide a vast array of sounds together - seemingly discordantly - whilst knotting beautifully into this stunning soundscape. 'Cathedrals' perfects the off-beat rhythm in a dubstep movement forging it's own stream of consciousness which fits the dance-floor as it pulses the body into a steady trance-like state whilst maintaining a firm grip on the atmosphere of the LP without repeating itself. 'Celestial Mechanics' sounds like the alien chant from a group of lost children discarded on a planet long ravaged by time with it's repetitive call intro which appears sporadically as if fighting not to be forgotten. Meshing layers of string melodies to rising wind sheets over schizophrenic sporadic keys breaks us down into a warble bass concluding the song and re-introducing you to the planet you thought you had escaped. Lucky for us then that 'End Of Stars' delivers just the follow up we want as it casts us deeper in an ambient, HD soundscape of pure meditation. Its rhythm, key changes and layers of subtle, indiscernible yet perfectly tuned sounds take you to a place you want to remain in a lot longer than the few minutes you are given. However, our journey must continue and this time we enter a world of glass sounds with hints of digital, offbeat subtleties and pondering piano notes which reverberate in 'USHDKNW'. 'Mermaids' gives us a 2 sided delivery of industrial sounds and eerie echoing coupled with a hopeful melody which forms the crucible of this whole journey as it portrays a strange, off the beaten track break from the sweetness heard so far. 'Under The Lake (Cure me)' is a stunner carrying on from its predecessor building up a trance-like haven of echo chambers before leading this sea worthy juggernaut back to 'Shore', its hopeful meadow of sound complete with birds chirping throwing us down into some wonky off beat claps in a song reminiscent of 'Herbie Hancock' style ponderings and bringing us nearer to the end in a gentle lull of strings. 'Yugen' brings the album to a close in a whirlwind of snowy, oriental soundscapes and delicate percussion. This whole LP is an ambient bass journey perfect for long roads and one you will rewind as I did several times today alone.

Leyden Jars curdled sound palette is the product of shredding time-lapse ones, twos & in some cases threes out of a Hackney penthouse basement...ground flaw...a wall of Havana circuitry as a foil to voltage-controlled Oyster cards...half-Glass Isle, half-unknown quantity...the sound of untended vessels spewing o'er in coils of electro-acoustic froth...IBM

Disco-Phantasien, dunkles Kabarett, die Klänge des klassischen House und der Elektronica, die Freude und das Leid des puren Pop: Der Titel des Albums stammt von einem irischen Volkslied, das durch The Dubliners populär gemacht und von ihrem Vater gesungen wurde. "It's me and my rhythm. It's very simple, really - but very complicated."Die aktuelle musikalische Reinkarnation Murphys startete 2014 mit der Veröffentlichung der "Mi Senti" EP. Ein Jahr später folgte das von Kritikern bejubelte und für den Mercury Preis nominierte Album "Hairless Toys". Während die "Mi Senti" EP noch als ein Liebesbrief an Murphys kreatives Leben verstanden wurde, folgte mit den Aufnahmen zu "Hairless Toys" und "Take Her Up To Monto" eine ausgewachsene Sinfonie. Fünf intensive Wochen im Studio neben Eddie Stevens führten zu genügend Material für gleich zwei Alben. "Hairless Toys" half Murphy in der neuen Phase ihrer Karriere das Publikum abzuholen, "Take Her Up To Monto" wird es ein weiteres Mal begeistern.

Keysound Recordings are proud to present an unapologetic grime banger from legendary grime producer Terror Danjah and former Roll Deep member Jamakabi. The first bars 'Call it how you mean... we tell them to f**k off, how you mean'. Alongside the instrumental, the 12' features a deadly grime remix from Logos and a rollage mix from label co-owner Blackdown.

U has always displayed an unironic conformity to his own absolutely genuine / occasionally challenging ideal as to what a release should entail. After a series of predominantly, and (in the most loving sense) maybe begrudgingly, dance floor oriented EPs, 'Vienna Orchestra' is a long overdue insight into his core fascination as a musician, making complex and intriguing experimental pieces that belie the humble mode of their creation - recording from vinyl records and manipulating the audio on old school samplers. This LP is an insight into scores of hours of twiddling with loops and sequences to create music far removed from its source material (dusty classical records acquired on a trip to Vienna). This is a dense, blunted world, which holds the sound of a musician indulging their own ear's obsessions and insatiable curiosity.

The record's opening is reminiscent of Walter Schumann's 'Night of the Hunter' soundtrack in its deeply unsettling, creeping feel. The droning high strings in the background prick your ears while, in the foreground, oddly syncopated staccato stabs provide the loping, lurching feel. You could be forgiven for momentarily comparing this to some kind of oddball, Deep Puddle Dynamics-esque excursion... but then the fun begins. Throughout the record, the most consistently striking element is U's masterful ability to, with the use of relatively simple EQs, filters and basic effects, turn familiar and fairly orthodox sounds into futuristic and daring electronic experimentalism. Forceful strings become ethereal and strange in their timbre, long, drawn-out notes are oscillated to create warped riffs or motifs and the imperfections of the physical format are treated as an essential aspect of the soundscapes he creates (more on this later). His isolation of contemporary rhythms in the source material displays an impeccable musical ear. Moments of the album sound like beatless grime or techno - not in a YO kidz, Shakespeare was the original rapper!' kind of way - but in the startling, often illuminating fashion they summon connections between styles of the past and present. It's also fascinating and joyful to hear, in this context, the early rave producers' technique of pitching one chord or note across several pads / keys to create increments of the scale that shouldn't really exist. No doubt this would discombobulate a classical purist to the point of distraction but it is a constant delight to hear this fairly un-musical production technique applied within a tuneful, meticulous and unfamiliar paradigm.

There is wonderful conflict within this LP's running time as well. On 'Resurrexit' a sudden refrain of vaguely Reich-ian optimism - a loop that bears echoes of that somewhat wide-eyed brand of 21st century American minimalist composition - is suddenly quashed by a cataclysmic stab that sounds like the cannons-and-all climax of the 1812 overture repeated with alarming, gleeful insistency. The closing track has a nightmarish quality reminiscent of Can's 'Aumgn', where the listener is truly set adrift on the choppy tides of a perhaps inscrutable musical vision, leaving one clinging to reference points where possible, but without the comfort of orienting landmarks you must simply submit to the experience and land where it may take you. These stretches are few and far between though - for the most part 'Vienna Orchestra' is a focused and concise release, restlessly flitting between cohesive vignettes. Some of the tracks sound simply like beautiful, vocal-less songs and offer themselves in nakedly tender opposition to the less easy-going moments. One may find, in places, the securing anchor of the sound can be the reverberating record crackles. This familiar tone is beautifully employed, reminding you of the physical process of the recordings, creating a vivid aural landscape around the music and frequently comforting the ear, creating a feeling akin to settling into a comfortable position and really listening intently to some interesting weather. U would surely be pleased to have his work viewed in such elemental terms - like the cacophony of nature and the mysterious celestial tones of the stars.

A very limited edition 5 LP album-style 12x12 book set from one of the most influential exponents of electronic and ambient music, the original frontman of Ultravox, and a solo artist for over thirty years. John Foxx is name-checked by many of today's top acts as a big influence, and was a major contributor to BBC4's documentary Synth Britannia'. - Now, for the first time on vinyl in one package, this fabulous hardback album book setcontains all three of Foxx's ambient classics Cathedral Oceans I' (1997), Cathedral Oceans II' (2003) and Cathedral Oceans III' (2005) on five LPs. - Limited to 750 copies only, the book contains dozens of Foxx's beautiful images (several previously unseen) along with passages from his book The Quiet Man'. Also included is a 12x12 framable print of one of the images.

"Charlie Janiaut opens up a third way between physical energy and experiments on sound textures. The producer originally from Franche Comté has dusted his fingers on battle scratch and his playing with computer is totally instinct driven. Playing techno from the viewpoint of rap music, qoso's music is entirely based on samples and feeds on mistakes, frequency translation and a piling up of effects leaving space to randomness. The tracks on Printemps Ete were composed all at once and speak more to the body than the head - they're rhythm tracks as stated by Emotional, which opens the record where most electronic albums like to put a nice ambient track."

Originally released in 1977, Tapesongs makes use of early electronics, and multi-tracked tape techniques to manipulate La Barbara's signature extended vocal techniques. In 1977, La Barbara was living in NYC, playing concerts internationally and performing regularly with John Cage, who she described as a mentor. 'I began working with John Cage in 1976 and we had done several performances of his "Solo for Voice 45" from Song Books in concert,' says Joan. 'Cage determined the 13-minute version for this version, overlaying all 18-pages of the score so that one hears the entire work in layers. Hearing it again after all these years is wonderful and brings back many memories.'

LEMME KNO = MAX D (aka your boy/"my dude"/Future Times crew) + DJ ISLE O' MAN (aka MB/Morgan Buckley/Wino Boys crew).
Breakbeat experiments, shplittin' atoms and 90s jeep beats.
- Debut EP collabo from Max D & Morgan Buckley
- Strictly limited vinyl
- Silkscreened 2 colour artwork by House Of Traps
- Clear 10" Vinyl!

Vinyl 7" edition of 150 housed in uv printed sleeve.

The album is the result of a double consideration travelling on a parallel path.

On one hand the sensation evoked by dissonant organic sounds merged into patterns and chaotic structures,on the other hand its connection with the exploration of the concept of propaganda, with its adaptive and unstable nature, its relationship with the concept of privacy and its application in everyday life in the digital era.

The two tracks, non sono un criminale and non ho niente da nascondere, are composed by a loop structure in order to emphasise the sensation of anxiety and confusion, the melodic changes are introduced by the use of pronounced reverberations, especially in non sono un criminale.

Dubwise anomalies Seekersinternational are a mysterious collective from British Columbia (via Manila). The've traced a singular path through the outer regions of dub with much lauded releases on Digitalis, Bristol's No Corner and Portland's Boomarm Nation. On the horizon, they have an unannounced remix project with 90s sound system legends the Bush Chemists (forthcoming Bokeh Versions, inc. Ossia remix) and a dub-jungle dancefloor 12" forthcoming on Disktopia (also unannounced).

Following up the IfUWantMe single, the debut 7" on Bokeh Versions, Seekersinternational provides a full length of warped lovers rock interpolations. Dam Funk meets Dennis Bovell on 13 tracks that take in heart-wrenching strings, sampledelic chops, boogie synths and dub ambience. The debut LP for Bokeh Versions follows 3 sold out tape releases and a mix for the esteemed Blowing Up the Workshop series. With the help of their monthly NTS slot, Bokeh Versions is exploring new directions in dub and beyond.

Airplay and DJ Support comes from: Throwing Shade, Debonair, Beatrice Dillon, Tasker, Charles Drakeford (Boiler Room), Steve Barker (On The Wire).

A bold, eclectic fusion of hip hop and electronica, MUZI's hard-hitting sonic approach remains deeply inspired by his upbringing, a tale of striving through adversity in the South African township of Empangeni, north east of Durban: 'Violence definitely played a major role in my life. Things happen in the townships like mine. There isn't any community watch or anything remotely close to something like that. That's why I had to stay indoors most of the time and that gave me time to work on my music. As for the social healing bit, I hope it does one day. Privileged kids grow up being told they can be and do anything they want. We never had that, my family has always been in survival mode and I hope that one day, my achievements inspire other kids with similar backgrounds.

Marc Nguyen Tan is a man outside of time. He is both an avant-garde pioneer and a modern classic. Colder, the electronic project he's helmed since 2003, inhabits a sonic world that drives into the future as much as it gazes into the past. His is a unique sound of noir-drenched highways of propulsive electronic cold wave, krautrock and post-punk, touched by everything from the Chromatics' bleary-eyed romanticism to the Horrors' atmospheric groove, via the teutonic precision of NEU! and Can.

Hot on the heels of Colder's third album Many Colours released late last year and Some Lost Tapes, a Record Store Day exclusive EP, June 24th sees the release of two new Colder albums: The Rain and Goodbye, themselves lost in time. A combination of new and reworked unreleased material from Colder's years at Trevor Jackson's now defunct Output label, Bataille Records is proud to unleash two new parts to the Colder story: Goodbye, a swaggering groove-laden album of synthesised jagged guitars and dynamic electronica, and The Rain, a more experimental record of glacial ambience and New Wave expressionism.

A testament to just how ahead of the curve Colder is, the two albums beguile and intrigue with their explorations of Gallic darkwave cool, a sound which would go on to influence everyone from LCD Soundsystem to Liars. Tan has always been a master of using his consummate understanding of music past to create music of the future. The time capsule opens, and Colder still sounds like the future.

In marked contrast, Colder explores a more introspective sound on The Rain, which is a record of evocative, cinematic electronica. 'Pass And Go (Demo Version)' highlights this beautifully with it's gentle, Lynchian sound of skittering slow motion jazz drums and ice-cold monotone bass, juxtaposed with a glistening Rhodes piano and subdued guitar. The Rain oozes melancholia, conjuring late night car journeys in long deserted post-apocalyptic towns. 'Market Day', 'RE 501 Friday Night' and 'Holy Night' evoke wonderfully intoxicating dark hues tinged with monochrome bleakness, yet feel strangely at home next to more upbeat tracks like the jerky hypnotic shuffle of 'All Along The Way'. Other delights include 'Mango Coconut', a great, big, rollicking rock tune that The Black Angels might have included on their Vietnam War-infused debut Passover, if only they had written it.

The two dialoguing records will be released simultaneously, seeing Colder expand on his triptych of studio albums, which culminated in 2015's critically lauded Many Colours. Not one to slow down, he is also currently working on a series of diverse collaborations including SAVE! - a project with Craig Higgins Jr from the acclaimed acid house revivalists Paranoid London, and an untitled dancefloor oriented project with revered Danish producer Kasper Bjørke.

REPRESSED !!

Presenting Cuckoo Live Life Like Cuckoo, the eighth album from the London/Somerset eight-piece, Hey Colossus. Now in their 10th year, the band have been gathering plaudits and accumulating new fans with every release, and after playing to thousands at Supersonic Festival, things are accelerating at an even faster pace. As with each album release, Hey Colossus continue to mutate and for their eighth album they have enlisted the support of a new drummer, Part Chimp guitar/vox man, Tim Cedar, who has undoubtedly brought a whole new kind of energy that has reinvigorated the band. When the rhythm section takes a shot to the bow it's only natural for the game to change. But long-term supporters need not worry, they're still heavy, still got the same vibe, only now they are focused in a fresh way. Cuckoo Live Life Like Cuckoo was recorded live to tape throughout 2012 in Dropout Studios, South London, by Mr. Westminster Brown, mastered by James Plotkin. For this recording, Hey Colossus opt for a hefty hi-fi sound when previously they were drenched in lo-fi fuzz. Now there is room to breathe, when before they were utterly unrelenting. Tape loops and walls of noise created by bass and drum, rhythmic klang, dual vocals, and three guitars are supplemented by a variety of instruments including the baglama saz, turntables and synths -- adding a whole new dynamic to their sound. These are signs of a band who are playing with their ears open and it's all systems go.

The second of May's brace of new Polytechnic Youth 45s represents a visit to some previously long lost recordings from Berlin, early 1980s. From the KEHRSCHLIEFE estate:

''Kehrschleife' was Wolfgang Tilner-Barlow (1949 - 1984).

The Kehrschleife recordings originated from the Mauer park fleamarket in Berlin about 3 years ago, (bought by Allan Murphy of Midwich Youth Club, and cleaned up from the original cassettes by him), they appear to be back-ups of the original Kehrschleife studio master tapes. The tapes are labelled (in German) NDR TV/SFB TV/Radio Bremen themes and Idents and in each cassette case is an A4 sheet detailing the track title/recording date/intended broadcast recipient, with a Kehrschleife/Wolfgang Tilner-Barlow Logo letterhead.

According to the stall holder, the tapes were bought as part of a job lot of 1970's studio equipment from in the Uhlenhorst area, in the 1980's and passed on to him by a relative of the original job lot buyer. Little is known about Tilner-Barlow although the stall owner remembered the name 'Kehrschleife' as being a band from the late 70's Hamburg Neu Deutsche Welle scene. Murphy's research has turned up scant information such as Tilner-Barlow's name on the end credits of a few different 1970's German TV shows and a Rest in Peace notice at the end of an 'Arbeit Heute' show from 1984 on YouTube as well as the music appearing on a home video recording of Berlin in the 1970's (with apparently numbers stations recordings embedded)"

A fabulous 8 track EP, playing at 45rpm in Polytechnic Youth house bags and sure to fly out super quick. The label may revisit these tapes for a further EP later in the year.

Kuba Kapsa is a Polish pianist and composer being the leader of the avant-jazz combo Contemporary Noise Sextet (2006-2014). Beyond that he is a renowned composer for film and theater plays. His latest venture is the first of a sophisticated series of projects of modern classical music bearing the common title "Vantdraught".

The first part of the "Vantdraught" series was called "Vantdraught 10 · Vol. 1" and featured ten classical instruments - 4 violins, 2 violas, cello, vibraphone, marimba and piano. The now appearing second part is "Vantdraught 4", a quartet album written for violin, clarinet/bass clarinet, trombone and piano. The minimalistic style of Vantdraught 10 is preserved although the music is less repetitive and much more intimate. Instinct and intuition is the main force behind the writing process, usually avoiding typical chord progressions and the classical cadential technique. In contrast to "Vantdraught 10 · Vol. 1", the rhythm domain is also less important, thus allowing the melody and harmony to come to the fore. The pieces of "Vantdraught 4" are mainly tonal music but Kapsa also makes use of atonal and polytonal harmonies which requires the listener to put more effort into listening to these parts. The unusual set of instruments is what makes this quartet album unique and fresh sounding. "Vantdraught 4" is certainly linked to classical and minimal music in general but one can find other influences such as jazz and "new music".

Much like its predecessor, "Vantdraught 4" features an astonishing artwork based on "The Reluctant Conscript" by the seminal artist duo Kahn & Selesnick.

Nach Releases auf Kompakt, Glasgow Underground und Distance und Beiträgen für Kultserien wie "Café Del Mar" und "Buddha Bar" erscheint das neue Album des griechischen Produzenten und Neu-Berliners Mikael Delta auf Inner Ear. "Life Is Now" ist eine neuromantische Klanglandlandschaft aus minimalem Piano, klassisch-schönen String-Arrangements und soften Synthesizerbeats. Dreamy Electronic Listening für die Herbst-/Wintersaison.

Much has been made of the nesting compulsion that overtakes expecting parents. It's fair to suggest that this album owes its name to the fact that Asheville NC residents Tashi Dorji and Shane Parish were both looking forward to parenthood when they made it, and not much of a stretch to say that it expresses something that they both had to say before the babies arrived.

That message is one of two guys bonding over shared understandings. They've been known each other for over a decade, during which time they've played both as a duo and as parts of larger ensembles. Both play guitar, and while their discographies map quite disparate interests, they share a devotion to the guitar as a vehicle for improvisation. The eight improvisations that make up Expecting grow out of a dynamic of sharing — one fellow shows up with a tuning and maybe a string preparation, the other works out a response, and out of that comes not only a piece of music but a renewal and confirmation of a relationship in which two humans share what they love.

Expecting parents tend to be anxious ones. Titles like 'Dust Of Dust,' 'Storm Sinks Boat,' and 'Break Up' give the impression that Dorji and Parish weren't free from trepidation when they made Expecting, and the record's discordant moments back it up. Nowadays writers are quick to lay the term experimental music on anything dissonant. But while one could say that this music actually earns that much-abused term because it comes out of a process of proposal and problem solving, an emotionally truer term would be experiential music. It came out of Parish and Dorji's real time communion, and it is informed by their shared history. For them, making the music was an experience; playing the record imparts a different experience, one of receiving rather than making, but it still expresses a dynamic of exchange.

Brian Case (Disappears, Bambi Kino Duo, Acteurs) is releasing his debut solo album, Tense Nature, which sees him focus his work on space, minimalism and repetition. The songs are all built around the idea of tape loops or lock grooves, working with snippets and phrases of sound. Brian sampled guitar or small drum loops before cutting them randomly. The sequences and their imperfect nature were then reworked into a sort of momentum, built using Case's own perception of the new fragments. The result of his experiment is 12 primarily electronic, abstract, visceral, ambient tracks. They depict a dark environment, an uncanny landscape with its own contained world. Ltd 500 copies

Harpist Mary Lattimore and guitar / synthesizer player Jeff Zeigler present their score to French director Philippe Garrel's 1968 silent film 'Le Révélateur'. The duo blend ancient classical traditions with modern improvisation and electronic performance. Lattimore and Zeigler's score powerfully conveys isolation, despair and awakening, amplifying sentiments portrayed in the film. Le révélateur - the processor of images - in the film is a small boy who is given voice through the rhythmic and inventive harp performance and through emotive melodica lines, eerie synth and guitar. Together, the duo create a soundscape that perfectly matches the film's progression as it follows the boy's journey from a family's dysfunctional home life into a godless post-apocalyptic landscape. The LP only release is pressed on virgin vinyl with a printed inner sleeve and free download card. (Initial copies pressed on white vinyl.) The album artwork features stills from the film (used with the permission of the director). The score has also been approved by Garrel. Lattimore and Zeigler have performed their score to 'Le Révélateur' in front of sold out crowds at Ballroom Marfa, Constellation Chicago and The Getty Museum in Los Angeles. They will continue to perform the score with the film throughout 2016 and 2017. Lattimore has recorded and performed previously with Kurt Vile, Thurston Moore, Meg Baird, Jarvis Cocker, Wrekmeister Harmonies, Steve Gunn and Sharon Van Etten. Zeigler has recorded albums by Kurt Vile, War On Drugs, Nothing and Purling Hiss and has played with members of Chris Forsyth's Solar Motel Band, War On Drugs and A Sunny Day In Glasgow in his group Arc In Round.

Walter Bachauer has been an active part of Berlin's but all in all Germany's electronic and progressive music scene as long as he lived with his greatest achievements being the META MUSIC festivals in Berlin in 1974, 1976 and 1978 while he worked as a line producer at RIAS Berlin, the city's biggest radio station. In the early to mid 80s he got back to compose and play music under the pseudonym CLARA MONDSHINE and this is his second out of three albums from 1983 'Memorymetropolis'. So let me take you on a little journey into the cosmic mind of late Mr. Bachauer for you may be rewarded with enlightenment. Easy listening melodies come in smaller doses here despite his fondness for the pop oriented side of the so called 'Berlin School' electronics and the overall time in which he operated this project. CLARA MONDSHINE was spaced out electronics far from the average radio sound with a clear progressive edge reaching into the avant-garde territory here and there. Cool harmonies appear and commit themselves to body heating polyrhythmic grooves. But right with the next tune this album takes a turn towards the darker sectors where it strides the mystical gates with picturesque lines of sparkling synthesizer notes or cold and majestic tunes. You will feel your blood freeze while listening to these songs. Strange flashes of sound unite with rather soft chord progressions that come as a layer of chimes with the expression of angelic voices. Still you as the listener will feel the disturbance and be aware of what might wait for you beneath the beautiful surface. And as we drift further through this record we will experience many different moods that all lead us back to the classic 1970s cosmic and electronic music of TANGERINE DREAM, Klaus Schulze or KRAFTWERK and CLUSTER. CLARA MONDSHINE builds a bridge between the scenes in Berlin and Düsseldorf which adds much depth and refreshes the spirit of the style already old fashioned back in 1983. Even more than forty years after the initial wave and thirty years after its release this is still a fascinating album, just as its predecessor 'Luna Africana'. Electronic Music Freaks, come and get your copy today.

A musical foray deep inside the Noyzelab mainframe. Emotive, sample-heavy textures reflecting today's society with pertinent commentary on first world problems. Sometimes brutal, always captivating, David has built an album which evokes memories of honest labour, B&W films and heavy-duty woollen suits.

According to one reviewer of David's previous musical output he "gleefully disrupts just about every standard convention of musical form you could think of, including those of so-called experimental musics." Other reviewers have written that: "His music is a bizarre, yet compelling journey investigating the outer realms of music generated on ancient & contemporary machines." "It's strikingly original audio that doesn't really sound like anything else I can think of." "Utterly sublime. So there you go, a life-affirming slab of mind-altering sound to reawaken you to the terrifying possibilities of creation."

"absolutely wreaks havoc" wrote Keith Fullerton Whitman on reviewing David's T. H. Cycle cassette on Important Records/Cassauna.

Vakula has been a Dekmantel label member ever since the very early days. The Ukraine based producer now drops his album Cyclicality Between Procyon And Gomeisa on the label.
'This album is about cycles, repetition and interaction', says Vakula, whose Cyclicality between Procyon and Gomeisa is the third of a series of albums and reflects a dashing experimental record that evokes the endless and captivating potential of electronic music. It creates a mesmerizing journey through various music genres, exhibiting a singular sonic experience, whilst he works through a process of improvisation and refinement.
Once again the mastermind proves to be capable of creating complex, yet diverse musical pieces beyond genres and trends. The result: an audio adaptation of his fascinating mind. 'There are two parallel processes that come together in my work: me writing music and working on the sound I want to achieve, and the energy from outside that flows and transforms into thoughts, correlations, and actions.'
The track titles relate to the source of Vakula's inspiration and connect the dots between his obsession for the vastness of our universe and electronic music. ''To wonder about the universe and to dig into mythology and scientific research discovering at least some of its secrets is what keeps me endlessly motivated as a producer.''

Sote is the moniker of Tehran-based producer Ata Ebtekar, who in the past twenty years has released productions for various labels including Warp, Sub Rosa and Rabih Beani's Morphine label.

* His Ge-stell EP titled Hyper-urban 20 30 aligns hardcore techno with computer music tropes, displacing form and convention while reimagining the in-between spaces between East and West, present and future.

His pieces in Hyper-urban 20 30 are sonic tales which synchronously decode and regenerate customary patterns of thought - electroacoustic designs of crisis and harmony orchestrating an artificial saga.

Global cultural exposure through transmigration is a significant stimulant for his aesthetics. For Hyper-urban 20 30, rules and formulas are deconstructed - synthetic soundscapes appear fresh and futuristic, lively and vivacious.

* Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, Berlin

Zwei Tracks aus dem anstehenden Debütalbum des Wahlberliner DJs/Produzenten JR Seaton (aka Call Super) auf einer streng limitierten 7" Vinyl mit breitem Mittelloch (Dinked Vinyl). Düster-knarzende Techno-Electronica der Berliner Berghain-Schule.

Had the titular contest in Guy Maddin's The Saddest Music In The World not been rigged from the onset, Turkey could have delivered an impeccable contestant in Ekin Fil. For many years now, her spectral dream-pop deconstructions hold a thousand-yard stare of an unconsolable melancholy; and she's drawn the highly favorable comparisons to Grouper and lovesliecrushing thanks to her understated yet beloved catalogue of releases on Root Strata, Students Of Decay, No Kings, and Sacred Phrases. Helen Scarsdale has long been a fan of Ekin Fil's work, and we are delighted to have her in our constellation of artists here at The Agency.

Born Ekin Üzeltüzenci and based in her native Istanbul, she cites the shoegazing classics (Cocteau Twins, Cranes, Slowdive, etc.) as her earliest influence, seeking out worn issues of Melody Maker or NME from second hand shops and trading cassettes with friends and fellow enthusiasts. This Proustian obsession with rainsoaked melodies from the British Isles blossomed into a foundation for her own art. Being Near stands as the pinnacle in her luminous career, with achingly beautiful and elegantly simple arrangements for guitar and electronics saturated in cavernous amounts of reverb, whose semi-mystical blur extends well into the vocal melodies. Ekin Fil's songs emote a timelessness of human desire and longing, albeit constrained to this plane of existence. For Üzeltüzenci, her music is not an escape valve from the patriarchal hammer of the dominant culture in Turkey, but a reflection through her own condition, in her own context, from her own body that may have actualized what Helene Cixous theorized as "écriture féminine" but through sound and not language.

You might not have come across Melbourne's Kane Ikin before, but he's far from a newcomer. A member of experimental duo Solo Andata, Ikin also released material on Taylor Deupree's influential 12k imprint, working with a variety of different sounds and elements over the last decade.

Modern Pressure is a milestone for Ikin, written at a trying time that was the producer's hardest financially but most creative musically. Selling equipment to pay the rent, Ikin wrote track after track in quick succession to hone his skills, using the process as both a form of escapism and reflection.

The resulting album is a mirror of this struggle, a collision of stomach-churning bass and searing percussion that overwhelms your senses, staying with you long after the music has subsided. Ikin manages to harness a variety of influences, folding the sound of early 80s industrial tapes and no wave with the relentless pulse of house and techno, the intense low-end of hardcore and the eerie mood of John Carpenter's most menacing soundtracks.

It's an album with a defined narrative that looks to the past without ever losing sight of the future. Dark, shimmering and textured, Modern Pressure is an album for our era - damaged, but not without hope.

Liberation is the latest evolution by David West, a dedicated underground dweller and traveler with his groups Rat Columns and Rank/Xerox and previously spotted in Lace Curtain and Total Control. Many familiar elements of West's songwriting creep out from the speakers this time around, albeit in a sonically more adventurous and personal manner. Swathed in analogue and FM synths, pinned down by near-funk drum machines, and with a vision expanded into the past and future. While in previous incarnations, West's alienated and fragile vocal has battled with jangling guitars and distortion, Liberation sets free his woes and ruminations into space. Taking inspiration from the heyday of Mute Records, the beginnings of electronic dance music's rudimentary sampling, broken and sound art, Liberation's debut LP is 10 songs of the road, about the nameless ghosts on the highway, accidental lovers, the alienation of the stranger in a strange land, the unbearable weight of freedom.
Beginning with a curveball, Liberation's first vocal sets out the position of the forever-cuckold, the sad lover hanging on: Looking For A Lover combines a Roland 707's loping mid-tempo with creeped-out synth lines as West intones his intentions close to the ear. Continuing in a more baroque manner, Move Me makes astounding use of string samples and space, with esteemed engineer Mikey Young's (Total Control / Eddy Current Suppression Ring) production prowess making for a distilled yet inviting loneliness. Forget is the night-drive centerpiece of the album, a 7 minute that erupts into a nihilistic sub-disco darkness. A constant theme of Liberation is the friction between West's characters: a frustrated love in victim-status paired with a menacing intent. The adorable, fragile stalker in the moonlight, illuminated by Whatever You Want, a
subjugated protagonist offering they have while the city burns. The brightest pop moment of the album has this in abundance: Cold And Blue, a classic synth pop jam to be played on repeat til the end of time, like New Order played by one man in his bedroom, with no drugs for a cushion, coming down the stairs, she looks like a perfect fear and Im a monument to your existence. But West has moments of touching sincerity that speak direct to the listener, as in album highlight Leaves Falling; a sparse string arrangement frames his vocal, "why do I keep falling for you I must just really like to be alone." Liberation is the freedom from attachments, about how sometimes they're what you want most.