Beats News

This young talented songwriter finds inspiration in French tradition, but never falls into revival and obsession.

'Manual for a successful rioting' is the title and the programme of the new Birdy Nam Nam album. But is it a riot or a revolution~ At the very least it is an evolution. A new style. Right from the lead-in track, we are treated to electro hip hop references that used to be the sole reserve of Warp Record artists, acting as a 3-minute transition between past and present working up to a finale of synthesizer notes like a cry of mutation

Specially recorded for this series.An aptly cool song choice, delivered in a twisted dub menace that could well point towards an expanding sound-world for these dark princes ! B1/ Suicide - Radiation Previously unreleased anywhere,1980's live version from Noo Yoik City! B2/ Nik Void - Rocket USA - Nik Void, first ever release in her new persona for ex Kaito frontperson, Nicki Colk. A propulsive 'tronic floor filler for cool alt/art discos every damm place. 1000 repress. cover image Alex Rose

Get ready for Bot.003 by the Automaton from Birmingham, England as we bounce around the globe following our last release Bot.002 from Portland Oregon. This record is a mega sonic example of super high quality produciton of pitched down bleepy, eclectic, scratch/Break excellence.

Spinning Plates is back for another long overdue release, and this time it comes in the form of a split EP featuring returning artist Andy Rantzen and Laccy with two tracks each. The vinyl only release comes with very special screen-printed silkscreen artwork and is pressed on meaty 180g vinyl for an extra warm and deep sound. Andy Rantzen is a Sydney based artist who appeared on this label's superb second release. The '98%' track from it was used by Sonja Moonear in her Cocoon Mix CD shared with Carl Craig, and Andy is also well-known as part of the duo Itch-E and Scratch-E along with Paul Mac. He assumes that alias here for a remix of 'The Dial'. Laccy aka Pascal Sturmer is a young but talented artist who regularly finds himself behind the decks at cult clubs like Berlin's Club de Visionaire and the Spaced parties in London. A friend of label A&R Bruno Schmidt, he just released on Francesco del Garda's label Timeless, is a real underground head with a bottomless well of knowledge when it comes to cult sounds and scenes and is signed to the top Crisalida agency.

Continuously defining his unique composition skills over the years, Gábor Lázár shared a first release with Russell Haswell for his now defunct imprint Last Foundation, quickly followed in 2014 by the album I.L.S. on Lorenzo Senni's Presto! label and EP16 on The Death of Rave, before collaborating last year on a joint album with Mark Fell The Neurobiology of Moral Decision Making, also released on The Death of Rave.
Mostly pieced together in 2015, but utilising material made as early as 2011, Crisis Of Representation forms a direct continuation of Lázár's increasingly incisive composition techniques, offering 7 pieces (+1 bonus on CD) which unknot the same nasal drip motif in myriad permutations of possibility. With that in mind, it's not difficult to draw an economically short line from his to Mark Fell's music, but where Fell's Linn grammar and SoYo accentuation tends to clip itself, Lázár's compositions ribbon off into unnaturally fluid flights of mercurial, polychromatic acrobatics.
We could imagine that this deeply abstract yet soberly conceived techno sound is antithesis to causal listening. But, if you're game enough to follow Gábor into the wormhole, and have the head for incredibly intense, elusive sonics, then you'll be embraced by a unquantifiably psychedelic experience quite unlike any other, where notions of "proper" musical convention are upended and rhythm, pitch and tone become fused by your head into scintillating psychoacoustic formations of perpetual tension and amorphous resolution.
If you're into sound design or the rave reductions of Lorenzo Senni, this one comes highly recommended

Following critical acclaim for last year's 'No Pasa Nada EP', Bristol based musician/producer and member of the Old Apparatus collective, LTO releases his debut album 'The Number From Which All Things Come' via Sullen Tone. Although not a concept album per-se, the title refers to the numerology of the number 10. The ancient Roman occult writer Agrippa attributed the number to a sense of totality and end achievement. 10 was described by Agrippa as a complete figure marking the full course of life. This 'life' is what LTO has been growing unhurriedly for the past decade - a prolonged period of development and care that's clearly audible in its depth and advanced level of craft. 'The Number From Which All Things Come' contains some tracks that were started in the recent past whilst early sketches of others began a decade back, at points utilising ideas initially developed with Old Apparatus.Sounding depilated yet futuristic, natural yet otherworldly, this sonically masterful album shines with a subterranean, baroque beauty. Unlike lots of electronic music, you don't hear the grid-based basicness of a sequencer or workstation, the album sounds grown and alive or 3D like a bricolage sculpture made of disparate materials, yet aesthetically stunning and coherent. Signposts are within, from euphoric trance, 90s IDM, jungle, to grime but are grown over, partially obscured and entangled within LTO's creation, which glistens, rumbles, clanks and creaks in all the right places. Utilising hardware, software, real instruments and found sounds, just a few elements included are the sound of an old MIDI controller's sliding faders, the Berlin subway, degraded modular synths, a trampoline, a traditional Celtic Bodhran, the 2012 Olympics construction site, a trumpet, the strings of a dilapidated piano and an 808 beat augmented with crumpling paper. Also noteworthy are LTO's unique and heavily-treated vocals, which range from chanting robotic voices to chopped up syllables and give certain tracks a Radiohead-like quality. At times dissonant but never distressing, these various textures either fuse or jar in a way that's turbulent whilst oddly also harmonious and pleasing to the ear. But the intricate contents and combinations always work, maintaining a beautifully-mixed clarity.

The View From Nowhere is a record of experimental electronic music that explores possible relationships between voice and modular synthesis. Composed and recorded by Matt Carlson at
Worksound in Portland, OR, the record develops and expands ideas discernible in his early solo works or as one-half of the duo Golden Retriever.
.Although melody and a good dose of Matt's unusual sense of humor shape the record, another key emphasis in the composition is his specific approach to rhythm and sequencing. Rhythmic
patterns are used but the music is somehow never fully on or off the grid. Carlson opts to use Nancarrow-esque overlapping meters and tempos to keep the music out of any kind of predictable
patterns of electronic music.
The View From Nowhere is thematically centered around ideas of confusion, panic, misunderstanding, and bad faith' communication. It's interested in the process of how something
moves from being an abstract' sound into becoming a signifier of specific meaning, and the interstitial space in between.
The felt attempt to communicate meaning lay behind the artwork as well, standing as a visual representation of the way the music approaches language. The text-based imagery strives to exist
between sense and nonsense, the meaningful and the meaningless. Individual syntactical units point' to one another but don't necessarily cohere into comprehensible statements. Relationality is implied and seems to emerge merely by placing signifiers against one another.
Taking influence from text-sound composers such as Charles Amirkhanian, the early voice synthesis work of Charles Dodge, and Robert Ashley's more speech-heavy work, The View From
Nowhere might be Matt Carlson's most challenging and refined record to date. It's like being near a million tiny entities all trying to communicate with you simultaneously, or being in a crowded
place hearing the rhythms and cadences of communication but not quite being able to parse it.

Kaspi & Stride is a new project from Justin Tripp, best known as one half of the Georgia equation. Leanings has its origins in rigorous yet laid back studio sessions, dual personal practice sensibilities that seem to get at Tripp’s creative ethos as well as any descriptors might. The material here was born out of collaborative studio sessions with multi-instrumentalist Jimy Seitang (Conga Square/Stygian Stride) - the “Stride” of K&S. The music from these sessions has been reworked and recontextualized by Tripp to form the eight tracks found on the record. These compositions are heady and diverse, anchored by infectious drum patterns and intricate electronics, capably occupying a somewhat hard to define space between “club ready” and “home listening.”

“Vishing” throbs with a wide-eyed intensity, infused with the type of deceptively rudimentary synth stabs and bass swells that wouldn’t be out of place on an early Hype Williams record. With contributions from Mary Lattimore and Jon Leland, “Kaptoxa” charts a more ethereal, if no less dizzying, course. Indeed, this is an album that navigates dense, tactile passages and airy, celestial planes with aplomb, making a case for Tripp’s prowess as both composer and arranger with equal priority. The most important thing is to keep moving.

Motoko & Myers is the collaborative project of Bay Area-based duo Wonja Fairbrother and Daniel Letson. “Colocate” follows their 2018 debut release on the Open Hands Real Flames imprint (Bass Clef), further developing their distinctive style which combines melodic, pop song structures with live improvisation and odd or no-meter approaches to rhythm and timing. It is a collection of bright, addictive listening, full of tracks that manage to feel at once hooky and aleatory, naive and rigorously arranged.

Recorded and assembled sporadically over a period of several years, the album’s idiosyncratic palette was achieved through much technical and methodological eccentricity: “4-handed” collaborative keyboard playing; 12-bit sampling and archaic presets; field recordings of cicadas in Louisville, Kentucky and church bells in Freiburg im Breisgau. The album’s nine tracks exude a homespun quality that is rare to find in contemporary electronic music – hazy, warm, and disarmingly organic.

Europa is the new EP from Diplo, the internationally acclaimed club, pop and hip-hop innovator who’s constantly driven by a hunger for the unknown. “I’ve always been fascinated by creating something brand new: a new type of party, a new rhythm, introducing people to new things, catching a new vibe,” says the Grammy winner, real name Thomas Wesley Pentz. “My mission from day one has been, how can I be different from all those other guys? “

Laced Records have teamed up with 65daysofstatic and Hello Games to bring you No Man’s Sky: Music for an Infinite Universe across digital, CD and vinyl formats. After the track ‘Debutante’ accompanied the first reveal of No Man’s Sky in 2013, the band spent over a year composing original music for the game’s soundtrack. No Man’s Sky’s procedurally generated universe is unlike anything yet seen in the gaming world, and 65daysofstatic’s sonic assault is equally ambitious. The release itself comprises 10 tracks of original music, plus a second collection of 6 soundscapes and sound design, an all-encompassing journey of almost two hours. The 6 additional soundscapes are exclusive to the Laced Records release.

Following March’s 9696 Dream mixtape and July’s Flex Time EP, this new album sees 96 Back shine the spotlight on his own vocals for the first time, at points (such as on lead single ‘9 To Find 6’) operating fully in the realms of experimental pop. At other times, such as on ‘Teach Me Tenderness’ and ‘Feel Hard’, 96 Back stretches and processes his vocals to almost breaking point, while album closer ‘Melt You’ sees him duet with past collaborator Iceboy Violet, ending Love Letters on a sombre but romantic note. That’s not to say Love Letters is fully removed from the dancefloor, however: tracks like ‘Don’t Die’ and ‘Love Compact’ are precision-tooled for the club, while the likes of ‘Felzin’ and ‘Vibrant Colours’ continue to explore the intricate but emotive electronics that 96 Back has been so successful with in the past. More varied and vivid than any of 96 Back’s releases to date, Love Letters feels like a coming of age moment. It casts its net incredibly wide at points, and it’s an album full of ambition, but it meets every challenge it sets itself — as affecting in its quieter, tender moments as during its dramatic peaks. In 96 Back’s words: “This is a record I feel like I’ve been trying to write for years, it feels like the most accurate body of work to match the ideas in my mind. Trying to project a lot of the records I hold very dear to me through this lens, interpreting how they sound to me and merging them with ideas of finding the drama and excitement in the full spectrum of emotions on the tip of my tongue, that’s what ended up being Love Letters, Nine Through Six.”

9T Antiope have made a name for themselves in the vibrant experimental music scene of Iran over the past years. Now based in Paris, Sara Bigdeli Shamloo and Nima Aghiani are expanding their stylistic scope and team up with long-time friend Siavash Amini for their debut release on Hallow Ground. After 2017’s »TAR« and »FORAS« the year after 2018, »Harmistice« is Amini’s third LP for Hallow Ground and his first in collaboration with other artists. Recorded in Paris and Tehran, the four tracks are the result of »all the long hours of speaking online, being kilometres away, it is a love child of those short times we actually got to be physically in one place.« Vocalist and lyricist Shamloo enters a dialogue with Aghiani and Amini’s sound art, which is from restrained but interlocks voice and noise with striking subtlety. »Harmistice« seamlessly blends the visceral with the sublime, the abstract with the oh-too-real.

From the very first second of »Blue as in Bleeding«, »Harmistice« evokes a sense of suspended terror. Shrill frequencies and aleatoric bursts of feedback give way to a hard-hitting bass drum until Shamloo’s voice arises from the chaos with an uneasy clarity. It’s the perfect opening for a record that is built upon stark contrasts like this one. Amini and Aghiani bring together synthetic sounds with acoustic instruments, creating a tangible tension on which Shamloo’s sometimes sensitive, sometimes emotionally detached delivery thrives. »It’s all based on a dream, a nightmare about war,« she says in regards to her lyrics that move between poetic abstraction and first person prose, blurring the lines between lived experience and sinister premonition. »Harmistice« takes inventory after the oneiric damagehas been dealt in real life.

As a whole, »Harmistice« is thus as ambiguous as its title suggests. As an all-too-lucid dream about unspeakable things that are being lent a voice it overwhelms the senses with an unheard-of volume. Drawn from the depths of the subconscious, »Harmistice« may just be the most challenging album in either 9T Antiope or Amini’s discography.

Hallelujah Mystic Garden Part Two contains a new deep-pocket groove disco version of fan favorite "Pink Lady Lemonade". Side two is a slick kosmiche-electro-disco number that unfurls over a period of 20 minutes and is periodically punctuated by Makoto Kawabata's unruly soloing. Recorded at Acid Mothers Temple, June 2016-March 2017; produced and mixed by Kawabata Makoto.

Personnel: Cotton Casino - voice, astral mama; Kawabata Makoto - guitar, fretless bass, bouzouki, organ, rhythm machine, electronics, tapes, speed guru; Higashi Hiroshi - synthesizer, noodle king; Mitsuko Tabata - guitar, guitar-synthesizer, voice, kisses and hugs; Satoshima Nani -drums, another dimension; S/T "Wolf" - bass, tapes, space and time.

If there is one track that perfectly embodies the explosive transion between the late '80s and the
dawn of early '90s rave culture, it’s "Just Get Up And Dance." Today, this immortal anthem returns
to the decks in an exclusive visual form: a limited edi.on Picture Disc that serves as a true visual
and sonic tribute to the legend of Afrika Bambaataa.
Originally released in 1991, the track is a killer mix of Hip-House, techno-tribal rhythms, and that
unmistakable charisma that only the founder of the Zulu Na.on could provide. That vocal
command — "Just get up and dance!" — remains one of the most powerful calls to acon ever
heard on a dancefloor.
Forget the standard black vinyl. This Picture Disc version transforms the record into a work of art.
The meculous graphic detail makes it perfect not only for a DJ set but also for framing and
displaying as a genuine piece of dance music history.

Das Pariser Duo Agar Agar, Clara Cappagli & Armand Bultheel, meldet sich mit seinem neuen Album zurück, das gleichzeitig Soundtrack eines von Jonathan Coryn entwickelten Videospiels ist, einer immersiven visuellen und klanglichen Erfahrung namens 'Player Non Player'. Claras hingebungsvolle Stimme schwebt über makellose, dunstige Slow-Disco-Instrumentals, auf denen sich Melancholie und Nostalgie mit einem Pop-Futurismus paaren, der sich thematisch um virtuelle Realität, Simulationen des Lebens und die Liebe dreht.

Akhira Sano was born in 1992 in Niigata, Japan. Focusing on the imperfections and irregularities of form and sound, he creates, observes, records, and extends them secondarily through drawing, graphics, installation, videography, and music composition.
His major works include "Penetrating, For Filtration" (Important Records, 2019), "Particle Dialogue - Observation and Recording" (The Trilogy Tapes, Inc. 2022), and major solo exhibitions include "Perspectives of Possibility" (FAITH, 2021) and "mē on - Seeing the Absent" (TOH, 2022).

Banzaï Lab is proud to present 'Rogue Monsters 2', the new album from Al'Tarba x Senbeï.

Al'Tarba, the architect of sonic shadows, and Senbeï, the master of electronic textures, join forces once again on an opus that's off the beaten track.

A fusion work inspired by skate subculture, Rogue Monsters 2 transcends convention, blending heady rhythms and ethereal harmonies.

Retro samples blend with contemporary electronic melodies, recalling the fusion of styles and the abo- lition of musical chapels specific to the sound universe of 90's/early 00's skate culture. We're naturally reminded of the soundtracks to Larry Clark films (Bully, Kids), skate documentaries (Fully Flared, Video Days...) and video games (Extreme Games, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater...).

This second joint opus is much more than a simple album, it's a unique and timeless experience, fusing hip-hop, punk and electronic music.

Rogue Monsters 2 stands out in today's musical landscape, offering a bold vision of what defines an album, one that will appeal to those nostalgic for the Golden Era of the 90s as much as to those exploring new sounds.

"The Concert" is the first discographic collaboration between percussionist Alexandre Babel and visual artist Latifa Echakhch. The record is intimately linked to the eponymous exhibition presented at the Swiss Pavilion during the 59th Venice Art Bienniale.

For her exhibition in the Swiss Pavilion, Latifa Echakhch created an orchestrated and enveloping experience, a rhythmic and spatial proposal that allowed the visitor a complete perception of time and of his own body. What is the origin of rhythm? How does the body perceive time? How does the mind rearrange it? Can we substitute one perception for another, the visual for the sound? Can fragments of memory go back in time and recreate a different story?

Her proposal entered a dialogue with the building around it, designed by Bruno Giacometti. The artist revisited its architectural programme as well as the prototypical progression of these exhibition spaces, originally defined for the display of classical art. She appropriated the entirety of the spaces, simultaneously exploring continuity, movement and sequence. Their relationship to light, and the different sounds that emerge from them. Yet the exhibition was entirely silent and the musical composition "The Concert" functions as its sound rendering, by following a similar path.

This one-sided vinyl is a complementary and inseparable partner piece to the exhibition and its eponymous catalogue, the latter having been published in April 2022 by Sternberg Press. The music features field recordings made at the Swiss Pavilion itself as well as pre-recorded percussion sounds and significant contributions by the Berlin-based musicians Jon Heilbronn, Rebecca Lenton, Theo Nabicht, Nikolaus Schlierf.

The record, available only after the closing of Latifa Echakhch’s exhibition offers a concluding phase to the project. The resonance of its sensory score. It reactivates the experience of the physical journey of the installation, without imposing itself as a transcription or an illustration. Through texture, temporality and its totality, the record stands as a resonance of the rhythms that have structured the pavilion, the harmonies that have composed it and the sounds that have inhabited it.

Latifa Echakhch Lives and works in Vevey, Switzerland. She graduated from the École nationale supérieure d’arts in Cergy-Pontoise and the École nationale des beaux-arts in Lyon. Galleries representing her include kamel mennour (Paris and London), kaufmann repetto (Milan and New York), Dvir Gallery (Tel Aviv/Brussels) and Pace (New York). She took part in the main exhibition of the Venice Biennale Arte in 2011 and was awarded the prix Marcel-Duchamp in 2013 and the Zurich Art Prize in 2015. Through her interdisciplinary installations, Latifa Echakhch is recognized for the fine balance between forcefulness and fragility of her visual language, inserting surrealist and conceptual elements, and her use of symbols that–in her own words–are both "political and poetic".

Alexandre Babel Lives and works in Berlin. He is a drummer, composer, and curator. His projects redefine the boundaries of musical convention, confounding listener expectations in the conquest of new contexts. Babel has been the artistic director of the contemporary percussion group Eklekto 2013–2022. In 2020, the monographic Festival Les Amplitudes in La Chaux-de-Fonds focused on Babel’s compositional and curatorial work. He is a laureate of the Swiss Music Prize from the Federal Office of Culture 2021.

In November 2021, Portland-born rapper Aminé released his latest project, TWOPOINTFIVE. The twelve-track release finds Aminé using the project to explore new sonic territory. This exploration is best evidenced by the project’s lead single "Charmander,” the video for which was lauded by GQ as the "Most Menswear-y Music Video of 2021" for its incredible styling and featured by Pitchfork as one of the best music videos of October 2021. After six months of anticipation, Aminé has prepared a vinyl offering for fans of the project to add to their collection for the very first time. Since its release, the album has amassed over 100 million streams and garnered praise from Billboard, Complex and Highsnobiety, in addition to the aforementioned support from Pitchfork and GQ. The vinyl will be sold online this summer and in-store with select retail partners. Speaking on the project, Aminé shares: "The POINTFIVE projects are the breaks in between albums where I give myself the freedom to make music without expectations, focusing instead of spontaneity and the best of what comes from stream of conscious creation, which is why they arrive unexpectedly without a long rollout. It’s an opportunity to create for my day one fans the way I used to in my bedroom. Thanks for listening." TWOPOINTFIVE takes inspiration from various strains of club and dance music, synthesized in a way that feels distinct to Aminé and his brand of clever lyricism. TWOPOINTFIVE acts as the second act to his 2018 project ONEPOINTFIVE, which is also lead with an introduction from Rickey Thompson and arrived in between Aminé's debut album Good For You and sophomore album Limbo. ONEPOINTFIVE solidified Aminé's status as a hitmaker in the modern hip-hop landscape with tracks like "REEL IT IN" and "BLACKJACK." Listen to TWOPOINTFIVE above and stay tuned for more from Aminé coming soon. Full Press Report PDF - Artist Bio - PR Report

Aside from being one of Anamanaguchi’s most streamed songs, “Miku,” featuring the vocaloid pop star Hatsune Miku, is an anthem for a new type of musical icon, one that doesn’t need to be attached to a physical human body. Miku, which was officially released in 2013, is a Vocaloid software voicebank developed by Crypton Future Media. Her voice is based around Japanese actress Saki Fujita and uses Yamaha Corporation's Vocaloid 2, Vocaloid 3, and Vocaloid 4 singing synthesizing technologies. Anamanaguchi wrote “Miku” with the virtual musician and were the first band to perform live alongside the Hatsune Miku hologram on the Miku Expo tour in 2016. Since then, the song has been streamed tens of millions of times around the globe and given way to several viral TikTok moments with 20K+ unique videos, signature dance moves, and millions of views.

Consistently engaging their audience in both the real world and the virtual internet-sphere, Anamanaguchi has had TV performances on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and Adult Swim’s Fish Center, multiple appearances at Porter Robinson’s Secret Sky Fest, and co-curated one of the first major live stream events for indie musicians with the Nether Meant Festival, which was featured in the New

York Times and The Washington Post. The band has also continued to stay true to a uniquely cohesive collaborative spirit, sharing tracks with artists such as HANA, Planet 1999, Flux Pavilion, Porter Robinson, Dorian Electra, Pussy Riot, Village People, and POCHI.

For 2022, Polyvinyl is proud to announce the release of Miku on vinyl for the first time. The release will feature the original composition as well as 8 bonus versions of the song including remixes from LLLL, Carpainter, Ben Aqua, Mino Mino, Lazerdisk, as well as an NES version, a Japanese version, and an instrumental version.

Unrestrained by notions of style or genre, there is a distinct air of freedom that permeates Picture Music, the new project from André Bratten. On what is his fifth album, the electronic visionary didn't enter the studio with the notion of making a particular type of record. Conversely, it was viewed as an opportunity to simply create - to let the music take over and guide the journey. Bringing together sparse strings, meditative synths, lingering piano chords and fleeting field recordings, the result is a collection of captivating sonic vignettes - deftly assembled into something profound and endearing. Eschewing the darker, more abrasive elements of most recent LP Silvester, Picture Music features some of Bratten's most accessible and melodic music to date - a shift in outlook no doubt expedited by the isolation of multiple Covid-19 lockdowns. These minimalist compositions ruminate on how the past two years have forced people to reconsider the concept of "normal life", as well as the birth of Bratten's second child - an experience he describes as "like death in reverse". The album title is taken from a compilation on the legendary Sky Records, a label that has been an enduring source of inspiration for Bratten along with that of Klaus Schultze's Innovative Communication. But rather than mimicking the work of these electronic luminaries,Picture Music sees him forge his own path: one that uncovers beauty in the simplicities of everyday life. Norwegian electronic artist André Bratten released his debut album Be A Man You Ant on Prins Thomas' Full Pupp label in 2013. He has since released three albums on Smalltown Supersound, and more recently produced Cracks, the acclaimed project from avant-garde saxophonist Benedik Giske. On June 10th Bratten returns with fifth studio album Picture Music.

This edition documented a collaboration of three international composers working with found objects and mundane artifacts. The trio of Anne-F Jacques (CA), Ryoko Akama (JP/GB) and Takamitsu Ohta (JP) created slow intensifications using installations of modified devices and movements. An investigation of intermingling whirs and clangs, sometimes soft and tiny, raised from glass bottles, rocks, newspaper, pvc pipes, matches, electronics or dried leaves, begging the listeners to decipher and keep guessing what provoked every incidents. It is a showcase of motions, a narration on process, a phenomena through forces, an ode to Kosugi.

Locked On Records is undeniably one of the most iconic platforms for UK dance music, home to records that created cultural movements including The Streets - Original Pirate Material. Over 20 years on, and as the UK experiences a full blown garage, 2-step, jungle and hardcore revival, Locked On now gearing up to relaunch with two energetic, forward-thinking remixes of a stone-cold classic, Antonio’s Hyperfunk.

These fresh reworks embody the sound of the new-gen garage movement while also capturing the spirit of the original, old skool 2-step vibe; the lead remix comes courtesy of rising star Bklava. Bklava is an incredibly exciting multifaceted talent. Carving out a unique space for herself in the UK scene; her infectious productions and intricate live PA/DJ set incorporating her own vocals fuse an addictive and unique blend of sugar-sweet pop melodies, wobbling basslines and bouncy four to the floor beats. Her futuristic, inimitable take on the genre is an incredible match for the relaunch of Locked On Records.

Although Isa Fdez. Reviriego defends in one of the songs of her last album that “doing nothing” is a sublime pleasure, the truth is that Isabel herself nds it very dif cult to stay still.
It is not because she thinks there’s something wrong “doing nothing”. Introspection is, according to her vision of the world, a highly productive and ef cient activity for the individual. But Isa doesn’t just love to talk about “doing nothing” – she loves to do. In the last year, she soundtracked the Playstation video game Melbits World and a short lm for Stella McCartney. She provided singing voices for the Spanish-language version of Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time, and has remixed several other artists.

In 2011, Isa discovered a melodic, kaleidoscopic, punk and unpredictable universe inside her head – one in which Brian Wilson’s melodies and Leon Tolstoi’s law-breaking nal messages – could happily dance hand in hand to electronic rhythms. She called this personal project Aries, after her zodiac sign. Her fourth and latest album, Juramento Mantarraya, released by Spanish label La Castanya and K Records, is a collection of beautiful melodies —seemingly convoluted yet simple— a combination of violins, utes, industrial sounds, and chest-rattling bass.

Across Juramento Mantarraya, Isa and co-producer Jose Vázquez creates an orchestra
– an exciting mixture of soul and free-jazz rhythms, melodies from the girl groups of the 60s, sunshine pop, spanish folk and experimental electronics. Combining samplers, synths, guitars, her precious voice and the sounds of the Galician Coast, where she creates, she speaks of friendship, love, and the beauty of error.

Isa tells us that the right to doubt is as relevant as the need to know that making mistakes and meditating are two legitimate activities – just like triumph and work. She shows that imperfection and experience make us human – and that building the path is much more important than the arrival itself. She analyzes ferocious, time-devouring capitalism and the egomaniac society, celebrates experimentation, and invites you to rethink everything you’ve ever learned.

In her 2015 book Un Rayo Ultravioleta (An Ultraviolet Ray) (Chelsea Ediciones), Isa explains: “When I make music, time stops, nothing else worries me and I am happy. During those moments, I feel true pleasure and fullness. I can concentrate for hours and get excited with an arrangement or a sound and vibrate with the harmonies. They are what Lord Byron called ‘the dazzling intervals,’” and Juramento Mantarraya is precisely that: a collection of dazzling intervals created by someone who knows that only those who are as excited taking a walk as composing melodies can reach people’s hearts.

The third album, In No Sense? Nonsense!, by the English avant-garde synth- pop band Art Of Noise is an experimental record. The instrumental power is besides the traditional band sounds (electric guitars, drums, and synthesizers) made up by orchestral and choral music. Art Of Noise created a piece where everything fits together in the sound as a whole. The perfect production is an advance to these wonderful and versatile songs. Some of the songs were included in Hollywood movies like Dragnet (which won Art of Noise a second Grammy nomination), Spies Like Us (with Paul McCartney), and Earth Girls are Easy.



A discussion on the making of the album recorded at Spiritland is available to stream here:

Woof Woof has existed somewhere for a long time, throbbing underneath the surface and masquerading as anything other than the pure energy it is, waiting to be extracted and molded into a form that can be consumed by you and me. With Woof Woof, ARTHUR beams pure-pop-liminality straight into the world, full of contradictions and twists, confusion and magic. This is an album that thrives in the in-betweens it creates then slips itself into. Decisions that may seem off-kilter or strange to other artists seem effortless to ARTHUR, pulled from another world, a world hidden to the average listener, hidden maybe for good reason. Woof Woof leaves you wondering from what dimension ARTHUR crossed over and how you can get there as soon as possible. There is a valley between sound and music that Woof Woof fills in with objects seemingly grabbed at random, from voicemails to dog barks, an uneasy path is created to bridge the divide. There is a maze in ARTHUR's debut LP and he doesn't care if you make it out in one piece.

Astral Colonels are Anthony Pateras and Valerio Tricoli and this is their second album: On side A (The Difference Of Similarity) the formidable use of a sound arsenal based primarly on prepared piano and tapes and a bright use of echo and repetition create winding tensions grafted into harmonics, irregular spiral-shaped non-progressions intertwining costantly on the ridge between the familiar and the unknown, a recurring alternation of stasis and fibrillation that delivers listeners to a thrilling, eventful audio experience. Side B (The Similarity Of Difference) is more focused on the piano that here sounds just like an elegantly lame carillon able to take us in a charming journey dappled by only apparently discreet electroacustic whiz and burst.

Debut collaboration between these like-minded English underground titans, perfectly mixing the long-form pop eccentricities of Grumbling Fur with the free electric sound of Astral Social Club to produce four epic and memorable tracks. The music is dense and layered, with hidden hooks, haunting vocals, unidentifiable electronic shuddering, delicate ambience, etc. Challenging but completely accessible and beautiful stuff. After a brief vocal declaration of purpose, “Back To The Egg” rides a motorik pulse ala Harmonia or Kraftwerk for ten hypnotic minutes. “Three Years Apart” pulses gently in a burbling cloud, reminding that along with crafting song gems, Grumbling Fur has collaborated with noted avant-composer / performer Charlemagne Palestine. “Ozone Antifreeze Intelligence” layers electronics over a haunting piano and vocal melody, framed by subliminal fuzz guitar. “Toejam Boxdrum” closes the album with an uproarious polyrhythm hidden by more layers of soft-focus electro-fizz, gradually giving way to thick bass riffs and tremelo’d interjections.

Morgan Geist and Kelley Polar present their debut album as Au Suisse which features contributions from Dan Snaith (a.k.a. Caribou / Daphni). A streamlined mixture of funk, synthpop and disco for fans of Hot Chip.

Born from the collective mind of producer Morgan Geist (Storm Queen, Metro Area) and songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Kelley Polar, AU SUISSE is a new project that promises to stake a milestone in both its members' already storied careers. Crafting immersive soundscapes using a patchwork of electro, synthpop, funk and disco, AU SUISSE's self-titled debut album evokes both a post-rave comedown on a tropical beach and a weekend alone icy chalet, ruminating on life and love. Guest players include friends and labelmates Dan Snaith (Caribou) and Jeremy Greenspan (Junior Boys).

Having met in college in the early '90s and continued to forge a close friendship throughout the years, AU SUISSE is the first time Geist and Polar have set out to gel their creative relationship into its own musical project. But this is no bashed-together collection of random tunes — this is a band, through and through, and Geist and Polar's shared expertise give the album its own indelible identity.

Ltd weiße 140G Vinyl mit bedruckter Innenhülle und Artwork/Design von Trevor JacksonMorgan Geist and Kelley Polar present their debut album as Au Suisse which features contributions from Dan Snaith (a.k.a. Caribou / Daphni). A streamlined mixture of funk, synthpop and disco for fans of Hot Chip.



Born from the collective mind of producer Morgan Geist (Storm Queen, Metro Area) and songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Kelley Polar, AU SUISSE is a new project that promises to stake a milestone in both its members' already storied careers. Crafting immersive soundscapes using a patchwork of electro, synthpop, funk and disco, AU SUISSE's self-titled debut album evokes both a post-rave comedown on a tropical beach and a weekend alone icy chalet, ruminating on life and love. Guest players include friends and labelmates Dan Snaith (Caribou) and Jeremy Greenspan (Junior Boys).



Having met in college in the early '90s and continued to forge a close friendship throughout the years, AU SUISSE is the first time Geist and Polar have set out to gel their creative relationship into its own musical project. But this is no bashed-together collection of random tunes — this is a band, through and through, and Geist and Polar's shared expertise give the album its own indelible identity.

Aukai is a Hawaiian word meaning ‘seafarer’ or ‘traveller’. It’s also used as a proper name, and people who are called Aukai tend to have a mystical, philosophical, introspective nature. All of which makes Aukai the perfect name for the new album and project by multi-instrumentalist and composer Markus Sieber.
It’s a collection of ambient acoustic soundscapes that take the listener on an inward journey to a place of peaceful stillness and tranquil beauty. “This album has a lot to do with memories from travel,” says Sieber, “but also memories from childhood and nature. How did the river smell in summer? I wanted to create a sonic space where music guides the listener into some imaginative inner world.”

Branches Of Sun by Wyndham Wallace Like every musician, Markus Sieber is used to going the extra mile to make the music he hears in his head and feels in his heart. There aren’t many, however, who would – or indeed, could – get to work in the mornings by strolling across a frozen lake before settling in a small cabin high up in the mountains located close to the Old Spanish Trail in Colorado where he had set up a home studio. For most of an entire month, though, he’d begin his day by pressing “Record’, and end it by pressing ‘Stop’. The world outside barely existed. Sieber’s no stranger to solitude and frugal living. Born near Leipzig, East Germany, 15 years before the Wall fell, his parents moved to a remote village outside Dresden when he was six, spending his free time in the summer fishing or swimming in the nearby Zschopau and Mulde rivers and, in the winter, ice skating, sledging and skiing. It’s no surprise, then, that with a background like this, and in locations such as those in which he now works and lives, Aukai’s work is imbued with a sense of peace. Even if the album took another half-year to complete, this was done in an unhurried fashion: after a month, he returned to the cabin to “shape, carve and edit” the material, inviting others to contribute along the way..