Beats News

The turn of the millennium ushered in an apex visionary phase for English esoteric duo Coil. Relocating from the city to the coastal quiet of Westonsuper-Mare freed them to follow even more fringe obsessions, fully untethered from peer influence. During a single six-month stretch in 2000 they released the devious underworld sequel to Music To Play In The Dark, arcane drone summit Queens Of The Circulating Library, and a malevolent hour-long synthesizer exorcism prophetically titled Constant Shallowness Leads To Evil. This latter work remains one of the group’s most miasmic and mind-expanding creations, on par with Time Machines – a sustained divination of shuddering, psychoactive noise, rippling with the motion sickness of an all-seeing eye.

Thighpaulsandra characterizes the album as “an exercise in brutality,” born from a thorny patch of his Serge modular unit that Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson found entrancing. Processing this sliver of electronics into a ravaged labyrinth was a trial and error process, aided by Christopherson’s visual sense of sound, stretching and manipulating it for maximum spatial disorientating. Frequencies nauseously crawl across the stereo field, burrowing into the ear like a sinister brainwashing experiment. An outlier / centerpiece is the 13-minute alien tribalist sea shanty, “I Am The Green Child,” guided by John Balance’s sung-spoken free verse concerning vengeance, oblivion, and insanity, culminating in the memorable refrain, “We're swimming in a sea of occidental vomit.” But the rest of the record seethes in unhinged instrumental chaos, divided into 18 micro-movements of a composition called “Tunnel Of Goats.” Intended to scramble the functionality of a CD player’s shuffle mode, the piece throbs, thrashes, and flatlines in compressed frenzies of twisted synthesis, at the threshold of some bottomless purgatory, forbidding and unknown.

A few years have passed since their last album for DAIS, but Los Angeles-based Cold Showers steadily returns to the label’s roster with their third album, Motionless, wielding a more developed pop sound that is familiar to followers, yet more sophisticated and evolved than their previous works. Having traversed the realm of synth-laced post punk expertly for close to a decade, their return with the new album Motionless is a process-based album that reaches into the band’s collective quiver, melding their familiar anthem infused postpunk and lush, grand pop influences.

Motionless is Cold Showers looking inward and taking control of their creative process, while retaining all of their unique songwriting signatures. Recorded in their own studio in Los Angeles with band member Chris King at the production helm, each selection on Motionless sounds like a line drawing that quickly becomes a technicolor collage of crashing shoegazed reverberation.

A few years have passed since their last album for DAIS, but Los Angeles-based Cold Showers steadily returns to the label’s roster with their third album, Motionless, wielding a more developed pop sound that is familiar to followers, yet more sophisticated and evolved than their previous works. Having traversed the realm of synth-laced post punk expertly for close to a decade, their return with the new album Motionless is a process-based album that reaches into the band’s collective quiver, melding their familiar anthem infused postpunk and lush, grand pop influences.

Motionless is Cold Showers looking inward and taking control of their creative process, while retaining all of their unique songwriting signatures. Recorded in their own studio in Los Angeles with band member Chris King at the production helm, each selection on Motionless sounds like a line drawing that quickly becomes a technicolor collage of crashing shoegazed reverberation.

"Breaking a 6-year-long discographical silence, my fourth album after 2007's Les Ondes Silencieuses, and the first one I made in my newly- adopted town of San Sebastián, Spain, during the epically rainy winter of 2012! My first time singing, playing percussion, and introducing the treble viola da gamba that became the key instrument on Captain of None! Also featured are my bass viola da gamba, classical guitar, clarinet, toy gamelan and piano. The track I produced last, "Breaking Up the Earth", paved the way for Captain of None in terms of production." - Colleen

DKA presents the new 12" EP from Collin Gorman Weiland, "In My Shattered Vase." Having previously released some of our favorite music on labels like Downwards and Jealous God, Weiland's new offering features 3 originals from the Minneapolis native + 2 edits from Germany's Mick Wills and a remix by DKA co-founders Pyramid Club, this is a journey through textured murk, melancholic musings and deranged rhythmic euphoria, distorted drums clash against harsh tones to create an environment both familiar and completely alien, grounded by Collin's deep, dead pan spoken word. For the b-side, Mick Wills revisits Collin's track from our previously released Strategies Against The Body vol. II LP compilation. an amazing yet utterly un-DJ-friendly track Mick has wrestled with and wrangled into an extended late night dance floor slayer. This is followed by Pyramid Club's reinterpretation of "Ballet Of Pose" from the A-side, stripping it back to it's most percussive elements and propelling it forward with a steadily snowballing momentum.

1st time on vinyl.A unit of colored music by Atsushi Fujimoto and Ichiko Hashimoto, which has received great attention overseas as Japanese-made balearic / cosmic jazz. Under the supervision of the members, the unannounced sound source which was produced at the same time as the unreleased second album scheduled to be announced as a cassette book is reorganized and released.

Consumer Electronics return with a double album of all new studio recordings produced by Russell Haswell. Some wondered how the songwriting team of Philip Best and Sarah Froelich would fare after the leaving their London home to take up residency in the United States. Well, here’s the answer.
Recorded in San Francisco, CE deliver “Airless Space”, a state-of-the-union address that does for our American cousins what the band’s earlier “Estuary English” album did for a British audience poised upon the coming madness of Brexit. Unusually for CE, “Airless Space” clocks in at 60 minutes, a hexed induction for a country labouring under a presidency, that like Brexit itself, few saw coming or contemplated having to endure. Soundwise, CE have maybe mellowed the tone a touch, allowing their electronics to stretch out and breathe, whereas the frenzied and anxious vocals of Best and Froelich remain as snatched and breathless as ever. Stunningly produced by Russell Haswell and gorgeously mastered by award-winning cutting engineer Matt Colton, “Airless Space” by Consumer Electronics is their most complete and rounded statement yet.

Active from the late 1980s through to the present day Contrastate have released several critically acclaimed albums. Their early experiments in music were heavily influenced by the industrial and experimental music and art scene of the 70’s and 80’s. Contrastate’s idiosyncratic take on challenging, industrial tinged music has certainly changed and evolved through the years. Their current sound insinuates itself inside the dark ritual ambience of the electronic avant-garde shot through with a vein of experimental noise and stentorian vocals that are strewn amongst touches of industrial surrealism and sonic soundtracks. “Contrastate achieve an amazing equilibrium between organic sound and brooding electronics.” – Heathen Harvest “Contrastate covers a bit of everything in their sound, and that black humor component…makes for a project that I can never predict what they will sound like next, but I know it will be fascinating no matter what” – Brainwashed

Cristopher Cichocki is an interdisciplinary artist from the Coachella Valley, with an extensive body of work that examines transmorphic cycles of decay and renewal. His multi-faceted practice addresses environmental and socio-political disintegration above and beneath the surface of everyday perception.

Cichocki is as accomplished in maximalist, immersive composition as he is with painting, sculpture, photography, video, installation and Land art interventions. Desert Drone Cycle returns from the Southern California desert and Salton Sea, a region which has long been a subject of his work as well as an integral source for his materials. Water recordings and windstorms are amplified and dilated into thrumming movements of ominous frequencies and hypnotic echo. Cichocki girds such sounds around a somatic rhythm akin to a heartbeat and frames the notion of the ‘drone’ both as the trance-inducing, keening sound, but also as the unnamed aircraft conducting infrared surveillance.

On one level, Cichocki’s sound research and experimental applications highlight the complexities around land use management when humanity encroaches upon sensitive environments. And on another, it stands as a harrowing document of isolationist composition paralleling that of Thomas Köner, Deathprod, Alan Lamb, and BJ Nilsen.

'The World' is the debut album by Croatian Amor, following a long row of limited tapes on Posh Isolation. 'The World' utilizes the same method of collaged melodies and real sounds, as the project has done up until now, but on the debut LP the pieces feel more thought out. The album runs like a soundtrack on which the actors' voices were never cut from the score, field recordings and synth blends together in a beautiful yet nauseating audio pool. Transit, plastic interior, insomnia, pornography and being alone. Being alone in large groups of people, being alone in thousands of years of civilisation, being alone in a lover's bed copulating. Euro magic, bubble-gum industrial, 1989.

Following the first two documentaries Woza & Yenkyi focused respectively on Gqom in Durban, and Afrobass in Accra, visual collective Crudo Volta, which documents contemporary African urban music, has produced a new chapter titled Taxi Waves. The miniserie

Josh Hughes (Cub\cub) returns for his second album of a long hot summer, Radiant Crush. Following the glimmering enchantments of his previous outing, Nothing New Under The Sun, this latest chapter brings things to a dizzying climax. While Josh's palette champions the lo-fi, it's his ability to unveil rich melody, seemingly spilling through ever shifting sliding doors, that leads the listener on a merry dance of intangible delights. As Radiant Crush continues to build, we increasingly discern hazy voices coming through the divide: Through a Narrow Window resonates like a lost gem from This Mortal Coil; until Drift finally breaks through with Louisa Osborn's blissful vocal performance, pulling everything into focus to stand as the album's glorious centre piece. While Radiant Crush is very capable of speaking for itself, when pressed Josh describes his work as "music for an incurably ambiguous world", and we can see how nothing is quite what it seems when he goes on to describe this latest album in similarly evasive terms: "Radiant crush is a series of nebulous concepts designed to make the listener think about the way in which we as human beings can idealise a past that never existed. The album focuses on the fragility of the human brain and the power emotions have over recollection through tracks that leave you with a feeling of longing, for something you can’t quite put your finger on. I think more than any other work I’ve made, this album feels the most human. Vocals feature quite prominently throughout the record, most of them are distorted, veiled or fragmented in keeping with the theme of a loss of connection and meaning. Drift is the only track on the album with intelligible vocals, this was intentional as it honestly and tenderly deals with the theme of living in an incurably ambiguous world." Radiant Crush will be released on 2nd September, via digital platforms and limited edition pressed vinyl. Genre: Electronic / Ambient

Cults are back with Offering B Sides & Remixes - a companion release to their 2017 LP Offering.

Upon returning from tour in 2018, Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion - the duo force behind Cults - went back into the studio with a handful of instrumental recordings left over from the Offering sessions. They emerged with 3 brand new B sides, each buzzing with Cults’ signature electricity and shimmering melodies.

This limited edition 12” collects these three new B sides as well as three fantastic Offering remixes from Mike Simonetti, Etienne de Crecy, and John Fryer.

• Hometown: New York, New York
• Exclusive pressing limited to 750 copies worldwide Housed in double-sided jacket and pressed on white and clear swirled vinyl

"As long as you come to my garden", the sixth release in the cherished Die Schachtel’s series “Decay Music” as well as the debut of the duo Damāvand (Gianluca Ceccarini and Alessandro CIccarelli) on the prestigious Italian label, is a tribute to the Armenian troubadour Sayat Nova, through his lyrics and freely inspired by the cult movie about his life The Color of the Pomegranates (Nřan guynə, 1968, USSR) directed by Sergei Parajanov. The feature film tells the life of the poet, who lived in the 17th Century, from childhood in the royal court, to retirement until his death in the monastery of Haghpat, through a series of episodes, static like paintings that do not tell but show, evoke, they suggest through metaphors, analogies, surrealist flair, dreamlike landscapes, liturgical pauses.

The six tracks are inspired by the dreamlike imagery contained in the movie, weaving sound textures ranging from ambient to noise, to references to the musical tradition of the Middle East.

Gianluca Ceccarini and Alessandro Ciccarelli alternate, without fixed roles, with analog synths, drones, amplified common objects, generative music, audio samples from the film and acoustic instruments such as the tar - a stringed instrument of Persian origin, the trombone and the cornet. In addition, two of the songs on the album contain Sayat Nova’s poems recited in Persian by Nahid Rezashateri.

The sound materials are revealed gradually like episodes, evoking the visual suggestions staged by Parajanov in the movie. As long as you come to my garden is intended as an imaginative journey to distant spaces and indefinite archaic times.

DAMĀVAND is a musical project by Gianluca Ceccarini (electronics, electroacoustic objects, tar) and Alessandro Ciccarelli (electronics, electroacoustic objects, trombone, cornet)

Gianluca Ceccarini, guitarist, electroacoustic experimenter, luthier specialized in the restoration and construction of plucked musical instruments for early music. In 2021 his first album Starving Night was released for the netlabel Laverna and in 2022 the Sarab Label published a CD version. He also works in photographic research, video-art, graphics and independent publishing with the Sarab collective.

Alessandro Ciccarelli is an author who ranges between different languages: photography, video, sound. He is involved in several collective research projects in the musical and theatrical fields. His solo records are released under the nom de plume Elnath Project. The latest work, after six years of silence, from Italian berlin-based composer, performer and publisher (Black Letter Press) Claudio Rocchetti, and a welcomed return on the Die Schachtel imprint after the brilliant Another Piece of teenage wildlife (2008), Labirinto verticale (Vertical Maze) takes its origin from the four years long collaboration of Rocchetti with the Parma-based Fondazione Lenz, a contemporary theatre research collective/organization.

Second in a series of three records of Library Music
miniatures from composer and multi-instrumentalist Daniel
O’Sullivan (Æthenor, Ulver, This Is Not This Heat,
etc) following 2020’s Electric Māyā. For heads, the term
“Library Music” in 2021 might evoke dodgy Italian gray
market LPs and crate-diggers hunting for “funky breaks”—
but London’s venerable KPM Music is working with
groundbreakers like O’Sullivan to open up new avenues
for composers to experiment with. Fourth Density’s fifteen
tracks include several beguiling instrumental beauties,
including the Ashra-like “Astral Survivor” and the drifty
“Faster Than Light.” Mixed in with the instrumental are
almost-pop gems like the hypnotic “Orgone Attenuation”
and “Head In The Belfry,” both with guest vocals from
Astrud Steeholder. Like the other volumes, this is in a
beautiful jacket designed by O’Sullivan and Turner Prizenominee
Mark Titchner and pressed on aesthetically
complimentary blue vinyl.

Sony Classical release.OST to the upcoming American computer animated superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Miles Morales / Spider-Man, produced by Columbia Pictures. Score comes from English Ivor Novello Award winning, Golden Globe Award and multi BAFTA Award nominated composer Daniel Pemberton. Pemberton has scored the music to many critically acclaimed projects including 'Steve Jobs' and 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E' Standard LP and CD formats. Specialist and co op promo/marketing activity across all media outlets. Film opens nationwide on December 14th.

New record from Darksmith years away from the previous ... well, it is not easy to talk about the records of Tom, even if this difficulty, on the borders with the impossibility, validates the complete success of his work. We are not dealing with an abstract thing, reality is omnipresent in these furrows ... yet it manages to escape any attempt at semantic classification and makes even impossible the definition of an emotional tonality; rather the listening leads back to places of the familiar insignificance in which life is immersed. The two sides are both tripartite, perhaps less messed up than usual, with the usual limping of difficultly identifiable sounds, phantom appearances of music, deteriorated, elsewhere. (Francesco Tignola)

Lovely Music present a reissue of David Behrman's On the Other Ocean, originally issued as one of Lovely Music's first six releases in 1978. This newly-mastered LP is a must-have for Behrman aficionados or a perfect introduction to his work.

"I've been engaged for many years in an exploration of ways to make music and intermedia installations in which software and electronic devices interact with human performers. I've wanted to make works that have personalities, which remain distinct and recognizable, yet are open to surprising changes that can come about when they are performed or exhibited." --David Behrman

"Remarkable achievements on a purely technological level. Behrman's carefully programmed Kim-I system listens to tones played by the live performers, instantly analyzes the situation, and responds by playing back electronic tones of its own. This is undoubtedly the first time that humans and electronic sound equipment have communicated with one another with high degrees of spontaneity and intelligence on both ends of the wire. But the music that results is perhaps even more remarkable. Subtle, sustained, serene, sophisticated, super." --Tom Johnson, The Village Voice, Dec. 18, 1978

Recorded at the Center for Contemporary Music, Mills College, Oakland, California, Sept. 18, 1977, and at the Electronic Music Studio, State University of New York at Albany, June 9, 1977. Personnel: On the Other Ocean: David Behrman - electronics; Maggi Payne - flute; Arthur Stidfole - bassoon Figure in a Clearing: David Behrman - electronics; David Gibson - cello. 180 gram vinyl, Stoughton Old Style sleeve.

David Boulter is a founding member of Tindersticks, he has made over 20 studio albums and film soundtracks with the band. Nottingham born, but based in Prague since 1998, under his own name he has worked on music for many films. These include an eight-part serial Pustina/Wasteland for HBO Europe, the American movie Five Nights In Maine and recently two documentaries with Turkish/Belgian director Volkan Uce. Yarmouth is his first solo LP.

The inspiration for Yarmouth came when David, arrived a day early for a show at the Arts Centre in Norwich, and made an impromptu visit by train to the seaside town where had spent his childhood holidays.

In a year when most of us have been unable to travel, Yarmouth offers an escape to summers past. It recalls the saturated colours of a John Hinde postcard in musical form. With a sound palette based around an old 1970’s Lowrey organ, flutes, violin, vintage tape echo and a Premiere vibraphone, it captures a dreamy side of Yarmouth. Sun- drenched childhood memories, long shadows on the sand, the sound of seagulls and waves breaking on the shore. The magic of the fair - the entrance guarded by a huge mechanical giant, club in hand, while the roller coaster rattles overhead on a backboard of painted mountains peaks. As the sun goes down, noise drifts out from the amusement arcades, and neon flickers on Marine Parade, lighting up the fountains in candy floss colours.

“As I stepped off the train, the weight of time passed hit me. I was overwhelmed by a sense of sadness and loss. As I walked along the streets, looking for Trudy’s, I didn’t expect her, but I did find the house. Slowly, as I recognised buildings, streets, memories. I began to smile. I hadn’t lost anything. Great Yarmouth had changed. So had I. But the warmth of those sunny childhood summers was still there.” David Boulter 2020

Former Orange Juice member David McClymont may have been less
noticeable than some of his former band mates over the years but that
doesn't mean he hasn't been busy - He has self-released a number of
albums and eps from his new home in Melbourne
Some months ago Stephen (The Pastels) and Ian (LNFG) were discussing how
good it would be to pull the music together on vinyl and we are delighted to
announce that David agreed. He has been working closely with Stephen to curate
a double album's worth of music and Past Night From Glasgow will be releasing
this album in early 2022.

CHAPTER 2

WE TOOK PELHAM

HARDER THAN CHIBA, QUICKER THAN BRUCE, LOOK OUT BABY, DEADLY AVENGER’S EARLY WORKS FROM 1995-2208 ARE ON THE LOOSE!!!!!!

From the spine tingling opening of the 47 Piece Hungarian orchestra ‘We Took Pelham’ to the blend of arpeggiated vintage keys and shuffling electro rhythms of ‘Blade’, the lo-fi sp1200 sampling vibes of ‘Brooklyn Scraps’ to the 70s car chase inspired ‘Charlie Don’t Surf’ our collection encapsulates the early the deadly sound.

People have described his work as intensely atmospheric pieces of film noir music, low-tempo scene setters of evocative and spatial beauty…although like our man Deadly says…..”I like to think of it as simple shit, done well."

The album is presented in a spectacular red/silver pressing with beautiful cover/inner sleeve artwork from Nick Taylor.

Unlike much you have heard before, Dean Honer and Supreme Vagabond Craftsman build a creepily paranoid world of ‘objects’, which is believable and strange… and strangely affecting.

“Set in a bleak corner of the Peak District, it’s perhaps our only opportunity to hear a one-time mainstay of Pulp and a former cast member of The Tomorrow People acting together in earnest. For that reason alone, surely it must be cherished. Submerged by analogue bleeps and beats, Russell Senior and Richard Speight throw themselves into two narrated suites of glorious post apocalyptic oddness.” - Bob Fischer, Electronic Sound

Dean Honer:
In 2015 I edited various pieces of music I had written on an EMS Synthi and a tape echo, into one hour long piece. I didn't know what to do with it. I knew Will (Goddard) from his Supreme Vagabond Craftsman records. I liked his writing style, always a bit twisted. I also knew that he wouldn't be put off by my atonal discordant Synthi burblings. So I asked him to write a sci-fi story to put over the music.

He came up with Frogman. I loved that it was set locally to Sheffield in the Peak District, a place that I am very familiar with. That gentle yet dramatic landscape was perfect for an alien/viral incursion. It had the bleak English atmosphere of classics such as Quartermass and Threads.

The idea developed into a play voiced by various characters rather than a solo narrator. Therefore we adapted and created new music to reflect the characters and the narrative. But much of the original Synthi score is still present.

The Frogman became unnervingly prescient with the outbreak of the Covid pandemic. The splits in society, anti vax Vs pro vax, leave Vs remain, and the fragility of a "civilised " society.

Will Goddard / Supreme Vagabond Craftsman:
Staying in a B&B on the south coast about 15 years ago, I was given a map which the owner had hand drawn and photocopied for guests to find local chippies and nice pubs. The map featured a bizarre symbol among the spaghetti of wiggly lines depicting local streets: a sort of series of circles encasing triangles within a flaming star shape. It looked faintly occult. I went to the spot indicated by the symbol hoping to find some kind of spiritual inundation. It was a lorry park.

I started to wonder what would happen if large objects appeared all over the world and seemed to draw people to them in a sort of religious pilgrimage; people walking from one to another and entering a state of ecstasy when they arrived. I liked the cosy catastrophe novels of the '60s, John Christopher and John Wyndham, and the 'slipstream' weirdness of M John Harrison. I particularly liked Christopher Priest's novel 'Fugue for a Darkening Island' and decided to rip off its fragmentary structure. I seem to remember buying a copy of Sam Delaney's 'Dahlgren' on the same trip. I liked the idea that a certain proportion of the world's population would be drawn into these religious pilgrimages and become a sort of shifting population of maligned devotees with an incomprehensible clicking language. This idea kicked around for a few years but I'm no good at writing fiction. When Dean mentioned a science fiction story with a sort of electronic score it seemed it could finally come to life.

Philosophy of Beyond, the second volume in Sound Supervisor Dean Hurley’s Anthology Resource series, continues Hurley’s experimental soundscape work into more ethereal and celestial territory. 12 tracks weave together a rich sonic tapestry built in part from comb-filtering experiments, tape loops, and sampled field excursions into unique acoustical environments. A bulk of the LP is assembled from Hurley’s sonic contributions to the recent feature film Perfect (2018, director Eddie Alcazar) as well as material made in residency for Art Gallery of New South Wales’ event Masters of Modern Sound...all of which are threaded together into a singular, cohesive dissertation on the afterlife.

Outlining a landscape beyond physical reality, the record serves as a soundtrack to the mysterious and immortal voyage of the soul into depths beyond the known and back again. What lies beyond physical reality? Beyond intellect and the system of the five senses? What do accounts of near death experiences, alien encounters, psychedelic drugs, astral projection, even strokes all have to do with this and why do each seem to share a core architecture of description?

 With their duo debut, Dean Spunt and John Wiese invite you to experience
the frenzy of percussive space and discreet sound found inside ‘The Echoing
Shell’.
 This is the first official collaboration between the two veteran music-makers,
though their connection goes back to 1999. As John recalls, “Dean was in a
high school arts program at CalArts. A friend and I were recording the first
Sissy Spacek demo in the design studios there, and taking a tape to my car
over and over again to check the mix. Dean was walking through the parking
lot with a Locust shirt on, we said hello, and he immediately got into a car
with two strangers to ‘listen to a tape’.”
 The tape-listening ended well, apparently. Dean and John became friends
and fellow travellers in LA circles and beyond: in 2005, John did a remix for
Dean’s first band, Wives; in 2007, Dean played percussion with Sissy
Spacek’s 13-Tet Los Angeles; John toured with No Age several times and
collaborated live with them in 2010.
 Under the Sissy Spacek name as well as his own, John’s recordings for his
own Helicopter label and many others kicked things off for him around the
end of the century; since then, he’s been constantly engaged in solos and
collaborations on record, performances, and installations around the world.
 In addition to Dean’s ever-growing discography with No Age, he curates his
own label, Post Present Medium. In 2018, Radical Documents released
Dean’s solo debut ‘EE Head’, which explored concrète and experimental
techniques in a four-part, album length piece.
 ‘The Echoing Shell’ is born of Dean and John’s shared understanding, using
John’s process common to Sissy Spacek: elaborate sound-collage works
using source material originating from punk, hardcore and improvised music.
A series of impositions, tape manipulation and edits recompose the material,
cracking open the crust of the source, freeing its implied guts to steam forth
in gushes of extreme noise. On ‘The Echoing Shell’, this is as often noise as
it is extreme intimacy, seeming at times to be sourced from within Dean’s
drumkit, at other times appearing to emanate from the capsules of
microphones and the circuits of the signal path itself.
 One may read these collaged sounds as abstraction, but there is a unique
language conveyed in their assembly, forming something like word-shapes
and meaning. And intention: the two side-long pieces, comprised of many
short sections, form a linear whole, creating alternately ripping and
discriminating music - and meaning - in the process.
 ‘The Echoing Shell’ is a fantastic conception in contemporary musique
concrète, combining incendiary post-rock power, dry humour and astonishing
depth of field. Whether projecting the sound through headphones, ear buds,
bookshelf speakers or your own personal amp stack, crank up ‘The Echoing
Shell’.

"Los Angeles-born music producer, artist, and DJ DF Tram is thrilled to announce the release of his highly anticipated new album, Bittersweet Afternoon on Orbscure Records. Orbscure Records, founded by Alex Paterson of the legendary electronic act The Orb, continues its tradition of championing innovative and boundary-pushing artists with this remarkable release. About DF Tram DF Tram is a leading figure in the global downtempo electronic scene, celebrated for his meticulously crafted audio-visual performances and immersive storytelling through sound. His work seamlessly blends ambient, sampling, spoken word, vocals, and psychedelia into genre-defying sonic journeys, offering listeners a unique and transformative experience. Bittersweet Afternoon Written and recorded between DF Tram’s Zagreb and Vienna studios during the pandemic and finished last year. Bittersweet Afternoon represents the next chapter in his storied career. The album surprises listeners with his vocals, bittersweet lullabies, and signature collage and spoken word style. Featuring atmospheric soundscapes and cinematic influences, the project reflects the spirit and playfulness of Alex Paterson and Orbscure’s commitment to fostering experimental, forward-thinking music. Adding to the album’s rich tapestry are collaborations with Alex Paterson himself on two tracks, as well as contributions from multi-talented contemporary classical violinist Violeta Vicci on another pair of songs. The first single and video, "The Librarian," offers an immersive glimpse into the world of DF Tram and “Bittersweet Afternoon”. Available on a limited edition transparent blue vinyl, card gatefold CD.

On June 30, 1986, the same day that Diamanda Galás"s The Divine Punishment was released, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Georgia"s so-called sodomy law in Bowers v. Hardwick, criminalizing consensual sex between men. At the time, about 15,000 people were known to have died of AIDS in the U.S. alone, with little government acknowledgement besides suggestions to quarantine homosexuals on island colonies. By the end of 2021, the number of AIDS deaths globally would exceed 36 million. The first album in her Masque of the Red Death trilogy, The Divine Punishment is one of the most jarring works of art produced in response to the AIDS epidemic, and a milestone in Diamanda Galás"s artistry and activism. Galás uses her famous voice both as an orational instrument and as well as a physical representation of AIDS and those it afflicts.

In his long career Dick Hyman has covered a great variety of music fields, from Broadway through music for film and television to jazz, classical, pop, and electronic music.

"The Age of Electronicus" originally released in 1969 is one of his Electronic Pop jewels. A breathtaking sequence of reworked hits of the day including outstanding electro-versions of Lennon McCartney's classics such as "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La- Da" and "Blackbird" and Bacharach's "Alfie" A whole feast of analog Moog sounds, primitive drums machines, repetitive bass lines and lots of robotic beats. All packaged in a memorable, colourful album cover.

A very limited vinyl reissue of Vertigo II - the second album of Dictaphone from 2006 - with a wonderful new timeless artwork.

Already formed in the late nineties in Berlin, Dictaphone was born by Brussels-bred multi-instrumentalist Oliver Doerell. In 2000 Oliver Doerell found a partner in Berlin's Roger Döring, who shares Doerell's love for the Brussels-based music of the eighties. In the following years the duo and several guest musicians (e.g. Stephan Wöhrmann (SWOD) , Malka Spigel (Minimal Compact) & more) released the critically highly acclaimed "m.= addiction" (2002), the "Nacht" EP (2004) and "Vertigo II" (2006) via the City Centres Offices label of Thaddeus Herrmann and Shlom Sviri (Boomkat, Modern Love). In 2009 the violin player Alex Stolze joined the band. During their two decades of existence Dictaphone played shows in more than 20 countries with festival appearances at Mutek, Transmediale, Unsound, Benicassim & more. Their latest release "Poems from a rooftop" from 2012 came as a very limited edition through the Berlin-based boutique label Sonic Pieces. In 2017 the band released the long awaited third album "APR 70" on denovali. The label now also offers a reissue of the trio's past repertoire.

Dictaphone never make music for the sake of it, they always want to create something which was missing before. And they did.

Die Tödliche Doris are back! In the sound spectrum of 31 contemporary dildos and vibrators, we are residing in 2019 with a resurrection of The Deadly Doris. She now appears to us as a performer, musician and instrument in one. Doris has never been that close to us. Tabea Blumenschein, a band member of the first hour, made illustrations of all 31 dildos and vibrators. In the Neuköllner recording studio of Frieder Butzmann cultural scientist Katrin Kämpf put the devices into operational and receptive readiness. Her reviews from the magazine L_Mag can be found in the original German version and translated by Anne Gaschütz on the backs of the corresponding portraits.

Wolfgang Müller wonders: What exactly was that, the typical thing? A female breast, an oddly shaped phallus or clitoris? Was it a dildo design? Or just a normal penis with supporting spines inside?

This limited LP box includes a record with 31 sound recordings of dildos and vibrators, a noble, stamped and numbered cardboard binder with 31 illustrations by Tabea Blumenschein and 31 reviews by Katrin Kämpf on natural paper. Liner notes by Wolfgang Müller in German and English.



























[{] B11. Motorhead Overkill
[|] B12. Phoenix Magma Toy
[}] B13. Iris
[~] B14. Partner Plus
[] B15. Womanizer 2Go

DIEMAJIN is the duo of Berlin-based producer DJ DIE SOON (Daisuke Imamura) and Tokyo-based vocalist MA. Their self-titled debut is equal parts scrambled hip-hop, simmering noise and spectral Tokusatsu soundtrack. A set of cursed beats and possessed raps inspired by Japanese sci-fi and supernatural-horror films from the 1960s.
The pair, both originally from Japan, first collaborated live at an event in Berlin organised by Morphine Records in 2019. But the eleven tracks on their self-titled debut were made by swapping beats, sounds and acapellas across the internet. Editing, arranging and degrading them into the collection presented here.

Originally released in 1991 of "dip in the pool".1st time on vinyl.

Released in 1994 on his own label, the first record of Laurent Daumail aka DJ Cam brings a French response to the hip hop experimentations that are beginning to spread around the world.

At the time, trip-hop was spreading even though nobody really knew what it really covered. And, in this case, here preferred to refer to his work as abstract hip-hop, meaning that he played a lot more with textures and climates than words to bring his message. In that spirit, DJ Cam mixed in his passion for jazz music, inherited from his father.

In his test tube, Cam tries to fit in the length and melancholia of jazz music plated on rough samples and reinforced by various moving beats and scratches.

More than any of his future works, Underground Vibes is characterized by its melodic unity which makes the whole record perfectly homogenous but never monotonous.

With “Fascisms Intimacy”, Dora Bleu delivers an artistic ceremony to the new world to hear and experience. The album is a darkly gorgeous

experimental expression of guitar and voice and features the talented Marc Ribot.

Since the 2015 release of Drab Majesty’s debut “Careless”, and the release of the acclaimed sophomore album “The Demonstration” the following year, artist Deb Demure and collaborator Mona D. have firmly established themselves amongst the pantheon of dark synth-pop greats, establishing a devoted fan base worldwide with their singular hypnotic sound and mysterious, constantly-evolving presence.

Following intense and extensive touring in support of the first two albums, Drab Majesty escaped to the inspirational landscapes of Athens, Greece to channel the songs for their most ambitious album creation yet: Modern Mirror.

Blowing the dust off the antiquarian myth of Ovid’s “Narcissus”, Drab Majesty uses its premise as groundwork for a modern reinterpretation. Each song tells a piece of the story, in which the listener’s own selfidentity has become warped and dissociated through rapidly expanding technology, losing touch with the origins of their own personalities. Setting the stage as a romantic saga of antiquity, “A Dialogue” asks the listener if they are truly in love amid a building wash of guitars and reverb. Elements of classic tragedy weigh heavily in the reflection of Modern Mirror in songs like “The Other Side”, possessing a fundamental sound that is energetic, luminous and hopeful. Fusing the sonic aesthetics of predecessors like New Order and The Cure within the cautious instruction of Greek mythology and modern science fiction, Drab Majesty has birthed a hybrid of dreamy malaise, captured for a future moment.

The first single, “Ellipsis”, romantically plays up the distorted concept of courting through modern technology in a world that has yet

Since the 2015 release of Drab Majesty’s debut “Careless”, and the release of the acclaimed sophomore album “The Demonstration” the following year, artist Deb Demure and collaborator Mona D. have firmly established themselves amongst the pantheon of dark synth-pop greats, establishing a devoted fan base worldwide with their singular hypnotic sound and mysterious, constantly-evolving presence.

Following intense and extensive touring in support of the first two albums, Drab Majesty escaped to the inspirational landscapes of Athens, Greece to channel the songs for their most ambitious album creation yet: Modern Mirror.

Blowing the dust off the antiquarian myth of Ovid’s “Narcissus”, Drab Majesty uses its premise as groundwork for a modern reinterpretation. Each song tells a piece of the story, in which the listener’s own selfidentity has become warped and dissociated through rapidly expanding technology, losing touch with the origins of their own personalities. Setting the stage as a romantic saga of antiquity, “A Dialogue” asks the listener if they are truly in love amid a building wash of guitars and reverb. Elements of classic tragedy weigh heavily in the reflection of Modern Mirror in songs like “The Other Side”, possessing a fundamental sound that is energetic, luminous and hopeful. Fusing the sonic aesthetics of predecessors like New Order and The Cure within the cautious instruction of Greek mythology and modern science fiction, Drab Majesty has birthed a hybrid of dreamy malaise, captured for a future moment.

The first single, “Ellipsis”, romantically plays up the distorted concept of courting through modern technology in a world that has yet

Danish textile texturalist Jonas Frederiksen’s solo endeavor Dreamers Cloth materialized late last decade in response to “a new-old type of sound” then ascendant among the international innerspace cassette community, characterized by bleached drift, miasmic memory, and inexpensive keyboards. Working from a wire-strewn Copenhagen apartment studio alcove, he quickly amassed a tapestry of tapes exploring parallel pathways of coastal fantasia and interstellar hallucination, issued via his own Relax With Nature imprint as well as various esteemed European esoterica outposts like Ikuisuus and Stenze Quo Musik. Frederiken speaks of seeking a sound evocative of daily suburban life while still cloaked in layers of “cosmic radiation, astral projections, crystal caves, shakra energy, dolphin communication, and extra-terrestrial presence.” Vitrospection 2008-2009 distills his dense but concise discography into a patchwork voyager’s hour of highlights, reflections, and reveries, ripped from the original spools for optimal aughts intra-sensory simulacrum. Mastered by Alex Nagle. Design by Britt Brown.