Beats News

Germany's gate to the stars of the international electrofunk, bass & breaks scene, Dominance Electricity, is back in effect with the long awaited follow up to releases such as last years interstellar "Astronauten EP" by Dagobert & Kalson, Blastromen's epic "Human Beyond" album, the third installment of the galactic "Global Surveyor" new school electro series or Dynamik Bass System's timeless long player "The Mighty Machine". The new various artist compilation album "ELECTROFUNK RESISTANCE" transports twelve perfectly sexy shaped electrofunk & adult robotpop jams. Carefully selected from three continents, the songs draw a colorful mosaic of different Electro-styles all sharing an extra dose of funk.
For the perfect unity of sound and vision, the accompanying cover-artwork is provided by none other than Japan's legendary sexy robot illustrator Hajime Sorayama.

Principles Of Geometry - Americhael
Datassette - Blue Monday (V4)
Casio Social Club vs XS Night - More Love
Sygaire & Defcon feat. Capitol A - The Latest (Electro Mix)
The Artificial Arm - Get Down (To The Sound)
Fendaheads - Oxygen
Dynamik Bass System - Evolution
Roko Dragonbreath - Planet Europia
DJ Sing feat. Andre Kaman - Let's Do It
Diamondback Kid - Lost Souls
Reggie Blount - Shining Star
Biepang - Neon Parallels

The parameters of musical possibility are vast on Valgeir Sigurðsson's third LP; Architecture of Loss. The music flows from no 'notes' at all to lyrical, folk-like melody, from spare, acoustic sound to dense digital intervention. Originally composed for the same titled ballet by Stephen Petronio. Architecture of Loss is a powerful work in its own right in which Valgeir works from a broad palette of absences.
The performers were handpicked from trusted Bedroom Community regulars: in addition to Valgeir himself and composer/keyboardist Nico Muhly, the album features classical violist Nadia Sirota - her sound is as deeply individual and immediately recognizable as the sound of her speaking voice and takes full possession of the notes on the page—and multi- instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily - a secret weapon of a sideman who excels at exactly the things you can't put down on paper, from solid grooves to scribbles of noise.

Grabbed from Lorn's recent 'Ask The Dust' album 'Weigh Me Down' is a glitchy, bass heavy number that bears more than a little resemblance to 'Gangsta's Paradise', now it's been bundled up with a grab bag of remixesFirst remix out the blocks comes from Illum Sphere, who removes some of the rhythmic relentlessness and focuses on the beauty in the vocal before wobbly bass fucks with your equilibrium. Now based in NYC, Glaswegian Mike Slott laces together a skipping, clever rhythm, pitches up the vocals a little and gives the whole thing a surprising soul-jazz tinge. Sometime fellow Brainfeeder labelmate and LA resident Mono/Poly, meanwhile, goes for rumbling bottom end, pterodactyl cries, bubbling keyboard lines and a psychedelic emphasis on sonic atmospherics. The package is rounded out by a 'no verse' version of the original, where the chorus is left on its own and no more knives have to be watched as they're sharpened!

Wrong is Quentin Dupieux's new movie, the director most known under his musical alias, Mr Oizo. During summer 2011, while he was wrapping the movie, he started as usual to compose its score. He then had the idea to fulfill it with four hands, with David Sztanke aka Tahiti Boy, a French eclectic pop artist recently met on Twitter. Indeed, Mr Oizo, in a typical extravagant generous gesture, offered through the social network three mythic beat machines, including a TR-808 for which Tahiti Boy (among others) showed great interest. Tahiti Boy seemed to be the most suitable to use it with relevance, and the two artists became friends on this occasion. Mr Oizo then had the idea to entrust Tahiti with the completion of Wrong's score. Settled in Quentin's parisian apartment turned into a studio, David resumed the few compositions already directed by Quentin, and finished and completed them with others (on which he sometimes used the famous TR-808).Supervised by Dupieux, who approved or disapproved the proposition in a clear-cut manner, the work progressed fast and fluently.Then, by the end of the year, the two artists reunited to adapt and shape the compositions in an album format, that you now have in your hands.After 'Steak' and 'Rubber", this is the third score from a Quentin Dupieux movie to be released on Ed Banger, and we found the particular atmosphere the first one already had ; in the same time modernist, iconoclast and crossed by winks to the big tradition of Original Soundtracks made in France in the 60s and 70s.

A true italo/new-wave holy grail by the mythological Italian duo Ein-St-Ein. First published on vinyl on the hard to find Columbus Compilation LP from 1985 and now finally on 12' wax. Varsavia tells a poetic story about Warsaw in it's cold days. With the beautiful melancholic vocals of Emanuele Barison and the wonderful dark and heroic synths composition by Paolo Piuzzi this track takes you on a sentimental fairy tale. Comes with a 'tape version' and the track 'Wasraw' taken from the rare Elettricidintorni cassette compilation. On top a bonus track by Sinners, the prog-rock group formed by the members of Ein-St-Ein in the early 80's; previously only available on 7'. Limited edition of 250 copies re-mastered on white vinyl.

William Bennett - founder and sole constant member of Whitehouse - earned considerable acclaim for his reincarnation last year
as Cut Hands and the release of the album Afro Noise Vol.1. His sophomore full-length in this guise, Black Mamba, is due out
on Susan Lawly in Autumn; to herald its arrival, Blackest Ever Black is releasing it's thunderous title track as a 12" maxi single.

On the A-side Africa's deadliest, most beautiful snake breeds with insane, vaudou-obsessive polyrhythms to give birth to
the monstrous, consuming, convulsive 'Black Mamba' - without doubt the most potent manifestation of Cut Hands' malign
energy yet. On the flip: 'Krokodilo Theme', an extraordinarily pensive, heart-rending piece first aired on the soundtrack of
last year's Siberia: Krokodil Tears documentary.

This is a vinyl-only release; first edition of 1000 copies in full picture sleeve with original artwork by Mimsy DeBlois.

Forward-thinking tracks full of sub bass, crisp chimes & claps, w/a soulful, emotional underpinning in a blend of R&B, cumbia, kuduro, & house elements. Label head Kingdom & Total Freedom provide the remixes.

4 Trackers Not 4 Kids Killa Bombs
- There are 2 types of EDM producers.
The ones who aren't instrumentalists in the first place, and the ones who are.
Bone Machine is definitely of the 2nd kind and you can feel it in his tracks:
A totally different level of grooviness,
way more hypnotic than your average electrohouse track.
Danzere is one of his finest works : Progressive structure,
mesmerizing bassline, cutting-edge synths.
-When trying to answer to the question "What comes after dubstep"
Some answer stupid stuff such as "progressive trance will come back"
and some bet on a better horse.
Pzyon definitely invests in the future with his glitch hop track Tomorrowland :
Organic basses, solid drums exploding on impact, and oldschool vocal loops.
-Is it possible to get a coherent result when you use 5 different synths,
each with a dozen of articulations,
and some filtered 70s disco samples on top of it well, apparently.
Troublegum's Too Many Parameters (hence the name)
layers strong pumpy subs with screaming
and growling basses but doesn't forget funkyness.
-filthy hybridation of dubstep and gabber (!!!) memories of rotterdam wakes up the robotic raver
inside you with its ternary rythm, hardcore kicks and aggressive synths.
having ingested all these energy drinks of various fluorescent colors was indeed a good idea.

Very rare obscure, minimal, synth LP, in a similar vein to Klaus Schulze, Richard Wahnfried, Sky Records, etc.15 tracks of arpeggiated synths, pulsing rhythms, with "Pages" standing out with it's Baldelli / 'Cosmic' Proto-Italo-Disco sound. stunning, with lots of other good tracks.Rumours of some Peter Baumann involvment here!
Very highly recommended!

Over the years Scott Fraser has recorded and remixed for Emissions Audio Output, Black Nation, Wave Tech, Relish, Rush Hour and World Unknown to name but a few. His latest home is Bird Scarer for whom he has recorded 9 minutes of low slung Machine Funk loveliness (as featured on Mr Weatherall's recent "Masterpiece" mix set).
The B side comes courtesy of a remix by Mr Fairplay who more than reaches the high quality control he always sets himself.

Hot release by Neil Landstrumm & Mat Consume, who did a first Shit & Cheap release on Scandinavia in 2001, and 2012 seems a good year to tear it down with a totally unexpected raw & raving electro banger for the Dutch Shipwrec label. Inspired by 60s surf & garage and later punk & wave, the drum machines are set to give us the essential kicks, claps and hihats we need for that oldschool electro vibe. This release comes in a sick designed three colour silkscreen printed sleeve, limited to 300 copies including a download code.

Absent from this side of the Channel for far too long, London/Paris/Brighton-based collective ARCHIVE return with the epic and beautiful With Us Until You're Dead. The album, produced by longtime collaborator Jerome Devoise, will be released on the band's own Dangervisit Records via Cooperative Music on 27th August 2012.
Part-orchestral, part-electronic, part-soulful, part-progressive and wholly emotion-soaked and cinematic, the album touches tangents with Massive Attack, Radiohead, The Aloof, UNKLE and Secret Machines, with four dynamic singers fronting a restlessly inventive landscape constructed by Archive's long-standing core of Darius Keeler and Danny Griffiths.
Archive's dark and dramatic 1996 debut Londinium was a recognised trip-hop classic but the band's fortunes over the last 15 years have taken a strange turn. Third album You All Look The Same To Me and 2004's Noise made them superstars across Europe when Warner France signed them. But while Archive would routinely sell out venues such as Paris' Zenith Arena (tantamount to selling out Alexandra Palace here), contractual problems meant none of these albums received a UK release, and Archive remained a hidden treasure in their own backyard.
Until now. With a new record deal, With Us Until You're Dead has a UK release and the band couldn't be happier. 'It's great to be a big band all over Europe and we don't take it for granted, but we're a UK act, and we want to be successful here too,' says Keeler. This Autumn will see Archive embark on an extensive European tour that includes two nights at the Zenith in Paris on 16/17th November before ending in Prague in early December. A London headline show will be announced soon.
First taster from the album comes in the form of the 'Wiped Out / Violently EP' released on July 2nd. Featuring remixes from the likes of Man Without Country, Sei A and Rosko John, the EP will be released on 12" and download formats. 'Violently' comes with a suitably dark promo video directed by legendary graphic designer Brian Cannon who created album covers for Oasis and The Verve.

Almost twenty years later, Eyeless In Gaza are ready to release their first record on Downwards, one which will doubtless
reinforce their cult status and help introduce their remarkable body of work to a new generation. Butterfly Attitude is described
as a 'specially-commissioned sister work' to the band's other new full-length album, Everyone
Feels Like A Stranger

Blackest Ever Black is releasing the first ever vinyl edition of Gareth Williams and Mary Currie's Flaming Tunes.
This remarkable album was recorded at DDM and Cold Storage in London after Williams had left This Heat and returned from the
first of several trips to India. It was officially released on cassette in 1985, before being bootlegged on CD more than a decade later.
The bootleg in question, the Japan-issued After The Heat, described the Flaming Tunes pieces as "This Heat's final demo
recordings", much to Gareth's understandable dismay - after all, the album marked a conscious attempt to create a music
with a different mood and texture to that of This Heat, one which would allow the full expression of his eclectic
and distinctive tastes.

shimmering VHS haze from NYC's Torn Hawk .. we can't work out if it's samples or live or what.... a we love it! TIP!

finally repressed! LIMITED COPIES

South Londoner Jessie Ware has already cemented herself as one of the freshest talents to emerge from the UK underground. The last couple of years have seen Jessie collaborating with some of the most respected producers on the electronic spectrum.

The deeply biographical nature of the recordings is further heightened by the fact that his music has drawn its inspiration directly from his surroundings. If Increases documented his journey from Newcastle to London, Increases II is record of Archer having found a new home in Brixton - from the slow burning ebb and flow of cinematic opener 'Three Years, to the desolate urban balladry of Bruised (courtesy of guest vocalist Tamara Quaddoumi), to the sublime, horn-led beauty of taster track Lean Over (which you can stream now) - the six track EP reflects and refracts the rhythms of the city he now calls home.

Hollands FAH aka Robin de Bekker enters the scene with this heavy, braindance inspired five tracker. Opener 'Fine Space' is spooky and upbeat with false melodies fighting the tracks ground level acid bubbles. 'Bonus Orbits' starts off as a fast electronic harpsichord cut for a smart dance floor before turning into a hectic swamp of challenging harmonies. 'Sixears' is a shorter track holding the middle ground between a moody Elecktroids tune and hectic, Vibert-like acid. The EPs title track and centerpiece then, is characterized by rewinds, whistles, haunting melodies and a total lack of repetition; its a 9 minute long excursion into the most unreal part of Bekkers mind. FAH finally says goodbye with an eerie cut that sounds like a humming predator with no food to eat. FAHs first one for 030303 comes with appropriate, occultist artwork.

Nicholas Bussmann has shed his skin once again, now transforming into Nicholas Desamory to release "like you" - a House album of such warmth and rough elegance, it will leave the scene all excited. House has always been an open genre, allowing to sample, adapt and incorporate other styles.

New release by Datassette! Proper contemporary electro tracks with a bit of that early nineties emotional yet funky Rephlex/electronica feel. One of the hottest releases of the already hot Shipwrec catalogue so far... With free download including a bonus track and a remix by Ilkae which are only included here. Tip!

Some excellent electro dub instrumental tracks!

on 7" blue vinyl !!

VOLFE is full of warped and pulsing pan-global club music; a signature marriage of tropical riddims, dubbed out soundscapes, and modern R&B minimalism. Striking the perfect balance of booming bass and tricky rhythms, our first taste from the upcoming EP "Gore Text" makes for some serious sideways heat.

***LIMITED TO 200 COPIES***
Limited edition vinyl featuring Matthew Herbert's incredible 3.30 'radio edit', in which he renders his entire radio edit in a genius medley. The B-side is taken from Micachu's remix EP of One Pig and was the opening track in her much-praised recent BoilerRoom DJ set.

Frustrated Funks Limited Vinyl Series drops another crazy slice of experimental electro wax. Gary Kempston, brother of Clatterbox, and co-owner of the Z-Bop label has been on Frustrated Funks to-do list for a long time.We have been running his music though the Frustrated Funk quality control for some years and now the time is right to drop this amazing collection of tracks. Goliath has his own fresh and unique sound palette and his music is miles away from anything else.All nicely packed,highly limited hand stamped and numbered colored vinyl. Grab one before its gone!

Unreleased live session from '72 from prolific co-founder of Tangerine Dream & Kluster. Although very much from the "experimental" side of things, he has had a wide ranging influence on musicians of many different slants. Screen print gatefold sleeve.

Duke Slammer keeps the freak flag flying high with his fifth 7" release on bonus7 records.
'Pachinko Wizard' is a stripped back electro-boogie roller, raw moog basslines combine with tr808 drums and splashy
spring reverbs give this track a real old school flava. Field recordings taken in a Tokyo Pachinko arcade give the track
a nostalgic atmosphere. Flip for 'Watch Betsy Boogie', featuring Duke himself on the vocoder this one is for the b-boys
and girls, pop-locking 808 beats and old school electro synths bring the funk for real !

Electric Guest is a Los Angeles based rock band formed in 2010. Their music is a melding of R&B, funk,
pop, and classic rock. With meditative lyrics, catchy choruses, and dance inspiring rhythms the band brings
a feel-good experience direct to the eardrums.
Side A:

Glitterbug's albums, releases and remixes (on respected labels such as Mule, Nowtown, Ghostly, Ki Records and many more) have long placed him in a musical and artistic category of his own. He is a timeless, skillful and daring
producer, immune to hypes and seasonal sub-genre fashions. He has developed his own particular musical language that spans seamlessly between deep techno and abstract intimate compositions, always poignant with score-like textures.
His 3rd studio album, Cancerboy, is another milestone conjoining powerful musical expression with heavy content. Cancerboy is an intimate autobiographical journey investigating one of the major experiences that shaped his life, his childhood struggle with cancer. Cancerboy is a personal, private chronicle of battles won and struggles lost, a sound-log suspended in an in-between world.

Cancerboy is an album on the edge of consciousness. Faraway reverbs and analog roughness gain presence, and forward strides an unreserved sound; candid, direct and near. It's music that allows itself to be angry and
desperate, to battle and depart, to challenge and gall. Yet within all its
darkness are driving, hopeful moments that shine bright - celebrating a deep
love of life.

Iron Curtis - Soft Wide Waist Band (Text: Gerd Janson) As we all know, there is a first time for everything. In this case, it's even a debut for both: the Tensnake co-run label Mirau and Iron Curtis. 'Soft Wide Waist Band' is Curtis' entrance into the world of long players and the first of its kind for the Hamburg imprint that fittingly put the producer on the map with his 'Solgerhood EP' in 2009. Three years and a string of releases on Retreat, Kolour, Mule Electronic, remixes for Jacob Korn, Ripperton or Mano Le Tough and a move to Berlin later, Johannes Paluka alias Iron Curtis has matured enough as a producer to take on the heavy burden of a 'house music' album - if you want to call it like that at all.

'Aura Go' rises, opens, rouses not unlike a soft light growing to illumination, a day slowly revealing itself. Synths whisper and ring out - like bells marking an early hour - at the start, followed by a succession of other awakenings: a palpitating beat, vocalizations that repeat like undulations, percussive poundings and ringings. It all leads to full on, acid-infused, dance floor hypnosis, with producer Dennis 'DJ' McNany pushing polyrhythmic, almost tribal beats to the very front. With the addition of husky vocals from collaborator Jee Young Sim - imagine Siouxsie Sioux crossed with Planningtorock - the sound becomes something altogether, and altogether unexpectedly, gorgeous.

Run Roc's Whisper Dub is a more intense revision of the Jee Day original. While the first version of the track achieves its enthralling propulsion through the melding of so many disparate sounds, Roc's version achieves greater alarm with the addition of elements in a higher register. The effect is a song that feels both tauter and slightly more dense than in its first incarnation. Despite the hushed singing that leads off the track, the fiery feel of the music makes the 'Whisper' in the title seem nominally deceptive.

Over the past couple of years, Manchester-based producer Lone (a.k.a. Matt Cutler) has become a fully fledged reinvention of his former self. Leaving behind the hip-hop seasoned abstraction and hazy beatscapes of his notable Ecstasy & Friends and Lemurian albums for a quicker-paced sound that draws on a much heavier Chicago house / Detroit Techno and early 90's London rave/hardcore sound. With his last album proper Emerald Fantasy Tracks & last year's R&S debut Coreshine Voodoo, we saw a honing of these styles.  Continuing his ethereal journey through space and time where these previous two outings left off, new album Galaxy Garden - that you will hopefully have in your ears right now - is without doubt his most complete body of work to date. 

1st vinyl release for Belgian producer,full of heavy Electro Bass beats, deranged sequences, captivating & sometimes suspenful synth lines; all produced with uncanny precision. Remix by Morphogenetic, & rework by MicroControlUnit himself. 5 tracks