Beats News

The fight continues in Wood Oak City. After the events of Streets of Rage 4, our heroes wanted to prepare themselves for future threats. Axel, Blaze and their mates will start a very special deranged training with the help of Dr. Zan, who built an AI program from the remnants of Mister X’s brain that simulates every kind of danger they could be facing.

The "Mr. X Nightmare" soundtrack was composed by acclaimed video game musician Tee Lopes. The vinyl soundtrack includes a 12inch record with 12 riveting tracks, a download code for digital tracks, and an insert with artwork and liner notes by Lopes.

Selections from 100 Models of Hegikan Roku is the second in an ongoing series of archival records of the unheard music of Swedish composer, philosopher, poet, mathematician, and visual artist Catherine Christer Hennix, co-released by Blank Forms Editions and Empty Editions. It follows last year’s Selected Early Keyboard Works and coincides with Blank Forms’ publication of Poësy Matters and Other Matters, a two-volume collection of Hennix’s writing.

Upon her return to Sweden from New York in 1971, Hennix sought to form a large ensemble inspired by her encounters with La Monte Young and recordings by the Theatre of Eternal Music. She enlisted her brother Peter Hennix, Hans Isgren, and a dozen Swedish jazz musicians she had previously worked with, naming the group and its pieces of music after the time and days of the week according to the Angus Maclise calendar (e.g. “The Pointed Time Bus”). Frustrated with the jazz musicians’ inability to comprehend and play the intervals of just intonation, she pared the group down to the trio of herself, her brother, and Isgren and christened the live-electronic ensemble The Deontic Miracle.

In 1976 The Deontic Miracle performed Hennix’s original compositions, alongside works by La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Terry Jennings, as part of Brouwer’s Lattice at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. With Hennix on amplified Renaissance oboe, live electronics, and sine wave generators, her brother on amplified Renaissance oboe, and Isgren on amplified sarangi, the recordings presented here of the group’s first and only public concert see them channeling late period John Coltrane and the sopranino and soprano saxophone playing of La Monte Young and Terry Jennings in the Theatre of Eternal Music. With titles taken from Japanese Gagaku, “Music of Auspi- cious Clouds” and “Waves of the Blue Sea” are expansive drone improvisations, breathing with the pulsating lull of cicadas’ organic sonic latticework. Now accessible for the first time, these recordings by what Hennix has called “the most rejected band ever formed in Sweden” continue to fill gaps of silence from a figure whose work has until re- cently remained flickering at the margins of some of the most enduring cultural developments of the 20th century.

Catherine Christer Hennix (b. 1948) started her creative career playing drums with her older brother Peter grow- ing up in Sweden where she saw jazz luminaries such as John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, Dexter Gordon, Archie Shepp, and Cecil Taylor perform at the Golden Circle. Directly after high school, Hennix went to work at Stockholm’s pi- oneering Elektronmusikstudion (EMS), where she helped develop early synthesizer and tape music. After traveling to New York In 1968, she met Fluxus artists Dick Higgins and Alison Knowles and developed fruitful collaborative relationships with many composers in the burgeoning American avant-garde, including, most significantly, Henry Flynt and La Monte Young. Young introduced Hennix to Hindustani raga master Pandit Pran Nath, and she would later study intensively under him. While Hennix continued to make music performing alongside Arthur Russell, Marc Johnson, Henry Flynt, and Arthur Rhames, she also served as a professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at SUNY New Paltz and as a visiting Professor of Logic (at Marvin Minsky’s invitation) at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. In recent years Hennix has led the just-intonation ensemble the Chora(s)san Time-Court Mirage. She currently resides in Berlin, Germany, where she is active as a composer and writer.

Demon Records presents the first ever vinyl pressing of The Durutti Column’s 2001 studio album ‘Rebellion’.

Formed in Manchester in 1978, The Durutti Column were one of the first acts signed to the iconic Factory Records by Tony Wilson. Primarily the project of guitarist and vocalist Vini Reilly, the group have a cult following with notable fans including Brian Eno and John Frusciante.

Highlights on ‘Rebellion’ include a take on the Irish folk standard "The Fields of Athenry” (featuring a mesmerising vocal performance by Vick A. Wood), and “Overlord Part 1” which adds a contemporary edge to the unmistakable Durutti Column sound with breakbeats and rapping from Bic.

Pressed on 140g blue vinyl, housed in a printed inner sleeve.

Dauw welcome the Helsinki based band The Gentleman Losers to the label for a vinyl issue of “Make We Here Our Camp of Winter” which was initially released late 2018 on Sound in Silence.

'Make We Here Our Camp of Winter' is The Gentleman Losers’ fourth full-length album, featuring eight new compositions, most part of which was written during the summer of 2018 at a cabin by a lake in southern Finland. All in all, this is a much more spontaneous record than their earlier ones. After being stuck with the previous album for many years, the Kuukka brothers wanted to make a simple, quiet album this time around. It was all much unplanned, but as the songs were nearing completion, it was clear that there was a coherent whole there, a feeling. They felt that this album has a sense of introversion to it, a feeling of winter approaching, and of holing up to wait for the seasons to change. Make We Here Our Camp Of Winter is a sublime album that intelligently mixes elements of ambient, lo-fi, electronica and post-rock. Recorded using both vintage analogue equipment and modern production techniques and with a sound palette that blends layers of haunting guitar melodies, slowly picked lap steel guitar, warm analogue synths, subtle bass lines, minimal beats and spoken word, it’s an emotive album that showcases the trademark sound of The Gentleman Losers at its best.

The Gentleman Losers is the experimental musical group of brothers Samu and Ville Kuukka, based in Helsinki, Finland. Since their formation in 2004, they have released three albums and one EP on labels such as Büro, City Centre Offices, Grainy Records and Standard Form. All their releases have gained high worldwide praises and placements on several year-end lists. They have contributed their music to various compilations, including an original track for Duskscape Not Seen compilation on Nothings66 label, along with the likes of Helios and Stafrænn Hákon, amongst many others and a feature on Nils Frahm’s LateNightTales compilation album. They have also written some commissioned music, including a film score, done remixes for the likes of Bibio, Epic45, Will Samson and others, and released an EP with their synth pop side-project Lessons, along with singer Patrick Sudarski, on Sinnbus label.

New collaborative album from electronic duo The Grid (aka Richard Norris & Dave Ball) and Robert Fripp
Combining Fripp Soundscapes with synth, drums, programming and effects by The Grid

The follow up to 2018’s wonderful “Secret Rites” LP and “Barsham Faire” 45 by the mighty Heartwood Institute.

Jonathan Sharp’s HI project continues it’s fascination with the world of 70’s counter-culture: hippies, bikers, occultists, idealists and activists. From Amanda Feilding and her self-trepanation drilling a hole in your skull, in case you didn't know, the Albion Fairs and the Pop Festivals, the rural idyll of Findhorn to the fragmenting Ballardian cities choked with uncollected rubbish.

As Jonathan himself urges “Come with us on a search for alternative ways of living with Tomorrow’s People!”

Another wonderful record of often otherworldly, earthy, organic electronic music interspersed with sampled narrative passages. Always fascinating and to these ears, occasional forays into horror soundtrack world-reassuring for fans of previous HI output I’m sure….

Like “Secret Rites”, the new record features another superb Nick Taylor sleeve design; inside and out jacket print, in top loading reverse board sleeves. Released in an edition of 300, sure to sell out immediately….

“Ghosted with a darkly beautiful aura that is simultaneously distanced and locked in a forgotten 70’s” -The Sunday Experience.

"Circus has always had some kind of presence in my life. My grandmother grew up within a travelling circus in Denmark many years ago and a cousin of mine reputedly ran away with another travelling circus in Ibiza for a while in the 80s. Some years ago my mother sent me a few faded black and white photos of my grandmother dressed up for performance and they are amazing. There are apparently many more photos but they've been handed to a circus museum in Denmark. Perhaps some day, if I dare to, I'll go and visit... In the meantime, I give you The Circus Hunter: The soundtrack to an 80s horror circus flick that perhaps could have been. I hope you will enjoy its breezy upbeat fun as well as its dark sides." Martin Jensen (The Home Current). Martin Jensen is a Danish born, Luxembourg dwelling electronic musician. He has several previous releases across several labels including Castles In Space, Polytechnic Youth, Woodford Halse

The LaFontaines fuse the guitar swagger of Kasabian with the no nonsense delivery of The Streets. Their songs pull from the same rock foundation as Twenty One Pilots but with a working class bravado and punk angst added to the mix. Their live shows are akin to the likes of The Beastie Boys setting off fireworks after a Scottish Cup Final. There is no band in the world quite like The LaFontaines.

Fresh off tour with label-mates Deaf Havana, which followed a coveted support slot with Don Broco in 2018 and a very successful UK and Europe headline tour - the band are about to release their third studio album, ‘Junior’ on June 14th. Album launch shows will be next up before the band take their dynamic set to Reading & Leeds, This is Tomorrow, HOME Festival and many more ahead of a headline UK/Europe & Asia tour to round off the year. 

Signed to SO Records, one thing The LaFontaines don’t have a problem with is selling records. Their debut album Class hit the Top Ten in Scotland and sophomore effort Common Problem followed hot on its heels. The band have an army of fans across the UK and Europe which continues to grow, daily.

The LaFontaines fuse the guitar swagger of Kasabian with the no nonsense delivery of The Streets. Their songs pull from the same rock foundation as Twenty One Pilots but with a working class bravado and punk angst added to the mix. Their live shows are akin to the likes of The Beastie Boys setting off fireworks after a Scottish Cup Final. There is no band in the world quite like The LaFontaines.

Fresh off tour with label-mates Deaf Havana, which followed a coveted support slot with Don Broco in 2018 and a very successful UK and Europe headline tour - the band are about to release their third studio album, ‘Junior’ on June 14th. Album launch shows will be next up before the band take their dynamic set to Reading & Leeds, This is Tomorrow, HOME Festival and many more ahead of a headline UK/Europe & Asia tour to round off the year. 

Signed to SO Records, one thing The LaFontaines don’t have a problem with is selling records. Their debut album Class hit the Top Ten in Scotland and sophomore effort Common Problem followed hot on its heels. The band have an army of fans across the UK and Europe which continues to grow, daily.

A masterclass in nuance, interpretation and the purifying power of the human voice, Standards Vol. V represents another captivating chapter in the career of a singular figure in contemporary music.

For his fifth album as the mischievously named National Jazz Trio Of Scotland, the prolific jazz outsider Bill Wells posits yet another collaborator in the diffuse light cast by his tender chord shifts and understated arrangements. Where Standards Vol. IV spun around the vocal talents of Kate Sugden with contributions from Gerard Black and Aby Vulliamy, the voice on Standards Vol. V is that of Black, whose other musical activities include the band Babe, François And The Atlas Mountains, Rozi Plain and Charlotte Gainsbourg.

For much of Standards Vol. V, Black’s unstained tenor is the paint with which Wells fills the canvas on songs including four originals – among them the beatific wordless chorale Gradual Inclination and the contrasting So Much Power, an energetic stomp propelled by keyboard brass and drum machine – and versions of songs from the musical Fiddler On The Roof and George and Ira Gershwin’s Of Thee I Sing (Sunrise, Sunset and Of Thee I Sing respectively).

As ever with Wells’ work, whether under the NJTOS monicker or his own name (which typically appears alongside those of collaborators including Yo La Tengo, Jim O’Rourke and Annette Peacock), the melodic and lyrical elements are embellished with jazz-accented piano, samples and keyboards, with minimal rhythmic accompaniment other than electronic percussion.

Adding to the intrigue on Standards Vol. V are a new arrangement of the Scots/Irish ballad I Know Where I’m Going (from which Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger took the title of their 1945 film of the same name), an entirely new musical interpretation of Sigh No More Ladies from Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and the album’s appropriately named finale, A Quiet Goodbye, with words by Aidan Moffat, Wells’ partner on Everything’s Getting Older (2011) – winner of the inaugural Scottish Album Of The Year award – and follow-up The Most Important Place In The World (2015).

Signed since the late 2000's on record labels like Jazzman Records and Now-Again, Miles Newbold a.k.a. The Natural Yogurt Band records brooding, beat-heavy library jazz, taking inspiration from Galt MacDermot, David Axelrod and Ennio Morricone.

The enigmatic act is back with a new instrumental 2-tracker, following up his previous 7-inch releases on BMM: Spectral Flux and 13 Moons of Neptune. We find again his very own imprint of esoteric jazzy hip-hop, with cosmic drum breaks and an electronic twist.

We've always done things our own way and without any outside pressure,” says Paul Isherwood of The Soundcarriers. “Making music like this keeps things fresh, you always lose something and gain something as you go along but I think of it as just another chapter.”

There have been many chapters in the life of the band to date and each one is defined by the singular approach and style of the group. Since forming in 2007 the band - comprised of Isherwood, Adam Cann, Dorian Conway and Leonore Wheatley - have released three albums that position them as a distinct and unique force in British music. Eschewing fads and trends that come and go, they have instead focused on honing their own sonic world that glides between woozy psychedelia, immersive grooves, subtle pop and rich, enveloping soundscapes. They’ve consistently moved at their own pace and on their own terms and on their fourth album, Wilds, they return after seven years since their last. “The sessions started in a cottage in the wilds so there's a literal meaning,” Isherwood says of the title. “But figuratively we've pretty much been in the wild for the last few years as far as a lot of people are concerned.”

The recording was staggered over a few different locations, from cottages to primary schools, before finishing in an art gallery. “The beauty of recording in non-studio studios is you have the time for the unexpected to happen,” says Isherwood. “Which is really what keeps you coming back for more.” As a result of the timeframe of the album, it’s one that has changed and grown a lot over the years. “The record has been through a lot of stages,” says Isherwood. “It's almost been circular. We started off wanting to do an album of more shorter, concise tracks and then sort of sidestepped into some more spacey ambient ideas so in a way the album is kind of a synthesis of the two phases, overall carrying on with many of the themes and influences of the first three but with a more focused approach.”

The opening ‘Waves’ leaps out the gate with an infectious hook kissed by a touch of French pop before leaping into a devilishly catchy chorus and into a mini prog-like flute breakdown. It sets the tone for an album that is rich in adventure and unpredictability that manages to balance experimentation with accessibility. ‘At The Time’ is almost unrelenting in its grinding charge, managing to create a groove that cracks and pulses at the same time, ‘Wilds’ is a gorgeously floating piece of music that skips along with strutting bass as Wheatley’s vocals merge melody with texture magically. The closing ‘Happens Too Soon gently stirs to life with an almost pastoral folk air to it, as it slowly builds into swirling psych pop rich in texture before reaching a rousing crescendo. “I feel this album sums up a lot of our influences,” says Isherwood. “There’s a strong folk influence in the sense of the actual songwriting but musically we wanted to create songs that were like those rare oddities you find on a bizarre charity shop record. A collection of "one offs" capturing a moment rather than trying to make a hit song.”

This sense of it being an album of unique songs is clearly apparent throughout but it also maintains a natural flow and cohesion. This is something that stems from the band’s approach to songwriting for the record. “A lot of the tracks started with a feel or groove,” says Isherwood. “Then building it into a more concise arranged piece. We were conscious that we didn't want the recording to sound too over-polished so although a lot of the tracks were quite painstaking in how they evolved we wanted the actual recording to be quite raw and not be reliant on cutting things up or overly editing things. We wanted it to sound natural rather than perfect.”

Bristol's Twelve Hour Foundation return to Castles in Space with their first new LP since 2018's long sold out "tree little mile egg book...and other non sequiturs". Their blend of musique concrète, treated field recordings, library music, early electronic pop and the Radiophonic work of John Baker and Paddy Kingsland has never sounded better.

The initial inspiration for the album is a journey - regularly taken by Jez Butler (Yamaha CS-10, flute, vocals, field recordings) until the end of the 70s, from Cleethorpes to Hull, by diesel multiple train and British Rail paddle steamer, hence track titles like "Lincoln Castle Engine Room", "New Holland Pier" and "Chalk Factory" - a reference to a small production plant viewed from the train window that rendered the neighbouring landscape white. The ferries and pier were scrapped following the opening of the Humber bridge.
As with the previous album, the idea behind most of the music is to draw on abstract childhood emotions and their associated memories. It's an incredibly warm and evocative listening experience.

The majority of tracks are expertly underpinned by a musique concrète backing, drawing on the band's recordings of houshold objects. In most cases, the bass was derived from a length of ribbed plastic tubing, the cymbals from a metal kitchen draining rack, and the pads/chords from the filtered sound of an electric hair clipper. This is overlayed with vintage analogue synthesizers, treated field recordings and - on a couple of tracks - the odd vocal or flute line. The track "Polivoks" takes it's title from the Soviet analogue synthesizer of the same name which was manufactured throughout the 1980's.

The album's sleeve was designed in keeping with the scholastic nature of much of the music, incorporating Polly Hulse's (Moog Rogue, Korg Volca Keys, concrète sequences) photos from the University of Bristol's School of Chemistry.

The album's title, "Six Twenty Negative" refers to the film used in the Kodak Brownie Box camera. Famous for producing slightly wooly prints from large individual negatives.

The record itself is pressed on heavyweight brown vinyl. The high gloss sleeve has authentic foldback tabs making for a wonderfully tactile and alluring package.

First released by Rough Trade in 1980 with the apt subtitle Entertainment Through Pain, it's an unbeatable summary of crucial material from Gen, Chris, Cosey and Sleazy's first three albums (Second Annual Report, DoA: The Third and Final Report and 20 Jazz Funk Greats)

"When You And Your Goat Find Bread" is a thing of it’s own beauty. On her first solo outing, the German-Filipino composer, musician, actress, film and music producer, painter, performance artist and author Tintin Patrone presents seven carefully crafted and emotively played neo-classical compositions for trombone and electronics.

"A goat is a domestic animal kept to be sacrificed to giants. It is a metaphor for a state of peacefulness. When your goat is with you, you are calm and collected. In early horse racing days, goats were kept with nervous race horses to keep them calm before the race. When your goat is stolen, you become angry and upset. You feel so intoxicated that you end up blacking out for several hours, and wake up not knowing what has happened, possibly in your own puke. Then you should eat some bread."

Previous album released on Dead Oceans. Previous album was a collaboration with Brian Eno. Past press coverage from Pitchfork, SPIN, The Guardian, Drowned in Sound, Dusted, The Quietus, and many more. Since the release of his last album 2017’s Finding Shore, a collaboration with Brian Eno pianist and singer-songwriter Tom Rogerson’s life has undergone a number of dramatic transformations. While writing his new album Retreat to Bliss, Rogerson had a child, lost a parent, and received his own diagnosis of a rare form of blood cancer. The new decade brought him from Berlin to the Suffolk of his childhood, composing profound pieces of minimal songwriting in the church next to his parents’ home. Rogerson studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music under mentors like Harrison Birtwistle, and he made his live debut as an improvising pianist in 2002, before releasing an improvised record with Reid Anderson (Bad Plus) and Mike Lewis (Happy Apple, Bon Iver) in 2004. He formed the band Three Trapped Tigers in 2007, expertly blending elements of electronic, jazz and noise rock into a cohesive whole. The band earned a reputation for innovative live shows and went on to perform and collaborate with artists like Brian Eno, Deftones, and the Dillinger Escape Plan. It was working with Eno, another Suffolk native, that eventually led Rogerson back to his roots and back to a place where he could write Retreat to Bliss, his solo debut album. “All my life, the piano has been my constant companion, my confessor, my best friend, and my worst enemy,” Rogerson explains. “I’ve always written music on and for the piano, but it felt too personal, too private to release.” Indeed, listening to Retreat to Bliss feels almost like eavesdropping, as though you’re crouched in the belfry of a Suffolk church, bearing witness to a form of musical bloodletting. For the first time in his noteworthy career, Rogerson has combined masterful piano playing and subtle electronics with the texture of his own voice, an attempt to express deeply private emotions that were difficult to articulate using instrumental music alone. “The last few years have brought some struggle, some joy, and a lot of change. My response has been to retreat to what I trust the most: the piano, my voice, and the landscape I grew up in. That’s how the album got its title, and how I came to be ready finally to release a solo record.” The eleven tracks that make up Retreat to Bliss were recorded by Leo Abrahams (Brian Eno, David Byrne, Grace Jones) over the course of just a few days, a process that emphasized spontaneity and the artist’s own commitment to improvisation. Secular yet devotional, intensely personal yet profound, the experience of listening to Retreat to Bliss seems to evade characterization. It’s physical and emotional, a glimpse into the mind of an artist who has chosen exposure over withdrawal, who uses his command of the piano to chart an unflinching path forward, never looking back. UK press campaign by Someone Great. Press Quotes "A meeting of minds that is full of rewarding surprises, challenging and surprising one another, and their listeners, with music that feels alive and wondrous…” Pitchfork // "Both mournful and dazzlingly optimistic, a taste of the conflict found so ofen in nature and reflected so elegantly across the course of the record.” The Line of Best Fit // "Many avant-garde instrumental albums exist to craf a mood; Rogerson and Eno merge these moods, sounds and themes together efortlessly and radiantly on Finding Shore” Exclaim // Track List 01 Descent 02 Oath 03 Buried Deep 04 Toumani 05 Drone Finder part 2 06 Chant 07 Rapture 1 08 Open Out Span Wide View 09 A Clearing 10 Retreat To 11 Coda

Upstate New York artist Tor Lundvall's music often evokes a sense of soft-focus autumnal melancholia but nowhere is this atmosphere more explicit and evocative than his self-released 2006 holiday album, Yule, newly reissued by Dais Records. Inspired by childhood memories of “cold, dark evenings” waiting for his mother outside shops and supermarkets while seasonal songs drifted faintly on the frozen air, the collection feels appropriately hushed and hypnagogic, half-remembered melodies heard through falling snow.

Steady muted rhythmic pulses wind through wintry landscapes of icy synthetic textures, glass bells, and distant metallic echoes, occasionally framed by Lundvall'ssoft, dazed vocals, narrating scenes of “slushy, illuminated train stations” and “the lonely trees of January, still entangled with blue lights long after the season has ended.” It's a music of barren branches, crescent moons, and willowy figures shuffling and shivering on their way somewhere, viewed from a fogged window passing by, or high above.

As with Lundvall's signature oil paintings, Yule's sonic vignettes are works of observation, poetic glimpses rendered in gradients of color and quiet. He has referred to his music in the past as “ghost ambient” and, although his songwriting here skews more foreground than background, the phrase aptly captures the haunted, half-light quality of these fragile tracks. 10 miniatures of wreathed streets and silent woods, of twinkling store windows seen from a distance, the sensation of being outside of life looking in –the sentiments that seeded Lundvall's vision remain undimmed: “There was a special melancholic beauty about these moments that has never left me.”

Time – and its passing – is our only certainty. As we sleep time dissolves and during the R.E.M.-phase of sleep we enter a time warp. In this classy 7-tracks release, we combine solid electro-driven brain computations to downtempo ambience. This is our attempt at a 4D R.E.M. in which we discover and study what happens during the last hours of this phase of sleep: the R.E.M.-phase. The parallelism between the emotions felt during sleep and those experienced in real life is often unseen and untouchable, as everything that has value in our lives. Sleep scientists might call what we accomplish as a highly effective, potentially dangerous man-made artefact. Train To Eltanin deliver the first release for KER, new label run by Jonathan Tegelaars and Herve Atsè Corti (aka Herva).

Bristol's 'Plaque' label follow up killer tapes & recs from the likes of Employee, Broshuda, Best Available Technology and J. Tripp, with this unhinged techno 12" from Új Bála - Edition of 100. Artwork by Kin40k.

Sheffield based producer Utah? debuts on Coyote Records with new four-track EP, ‘Bronze’ — the label’s first musical output of 2019 following the release of their first annual zine in February. A producer with a distinct flair for hi-def, monochrome synth work and bright, pulsing textures, Utah? is a natural fit amongst a Coyote roster that already includes widescreen, cinematic producers like Silk Road Assassins, E.M.M.A. and Last Japan. New EP ‘Bronze’ is a testament to his ever-broadening scope and vision too, which first started to unfurl across two standout EPs for Kastle’s Symbols imprint in 2015 (‘Oxygen’) and 2017 (‘Nitrogen’). Although rooted in the club, ‘Bronze’ opens with the twisted, Neo-noir ripple of mind-blurring cut, ‘Tilt’, before drawing on the pulsing synths of ‘Signal’, the raw dub-weight of the booming title-track and the rich, ear-worm melodies and insatiable club swing of emphatic final jam, ‘Polymer’.

Greek electronic composer Vangelis created his piece Albedo 0.39 while influenced by blues and jazz music. The concept album is themed around space physics. The title is based on a planet’s albedo; the proportion of the light it receives that is reflected back into space.

Albedo 0.39 features tracks “Pulstar” and “Alpha” and became his first album that reached #18 of the UK Album Charts. Vangelis played every instrument on the record, which resulted in effective and versatile synthesizer passages. Critics describe the tracks as mesmerizing trips of assorted rhythms that include elements of jazz and mild rock.

The multiple-award winning composer of electronic, progressive, orchestral and jazz music Vangelis started his career working on numerous successful projects, such as Aphrodite’s Child, a collaboration with Yes lead singer Jon Anderson and award winning soundtracks for Missing (1982), Chariots of Fire (1981), Blade Runner (1982) and 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992). He composed over 50 albums and is still creative in developing new concepts.

Including remixes by Thom Yorke (Radiohead), Tim Exile (Warp), Murcof and Gabriel Prokofiev. Over the last 3 decades, the Remix has become a central form in the world of electronic music. In the beginning it was a simple way to release a 'disco' version of a popular song but it has now developed, in some areas, into highly sophisticated re-imaginings ('re-compositions' even) of electronic tracks and has indeed developed into an art-form. Since their inaugural release in 2004 the Remix has become an essential element of the Nonclassical record. Ranging from edgy hip-hop to sublime ambience this EP brings together a selection of the most creative remixes released on the Nonclassical label over the last 10 years, all of which are based on contemporary classical recordings, twisted, cut-up and re-worked into a range of remarkable genre-defying pieces of music. The Nonclassical 'house rule' for remixers: "All the sounds used in every remix must be created exclusively from the master recordings of the original - No imported beats or samples". Imposing this strict policy on the remixers forces them to adopt a resourceful yet open-minded approach and ensures that future remixes will carry on engaging and surprising every listener. This constant invention and innovation from album to album will ensure The Art of Remix EP series continues to break new ground whilst simultaneously maintaining Nonclassical's pioneering spirit.





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The stark, rattling percussion and morbid howls into the ether of ‘Theme 7’ signal not just the return of NAAAHHH but kick start Alter’s fiftieth release with suspense. ALERT dredges the depths of grimy UK bedroom studios, old computer hard-drives and budget lager-soaked gallery sonics in search of presenting a unifying vision of a particular brand of the here and now. Label associates Chain of Flowers take us deep into hypnotic motorik territory, whilst similarly driving new work from Teresa Winter shows a more frantic side to her productions than last year’s LP for Death of Rave. The underground sound of puddle country shines through with contributions from anarcho sample-mulch legends Cru Servers and Night School mastermind Apostille. Fellow Glasgow-based Helena Celle delivers an old-school jack trax style rhythm work out alongside The Modern Institute trying their hand at deranged happy hardcore and the finest Mancunian ambient you’ll hear all year from Space Afrika. One of the most enthralling moments comes from Raime side project Moin, a claustrophobic, tempo-disregarding marriage of sound that makes us feel like we’re lost at sea and seconds away from drowning. Positively unholy.

Each piece on ALERT is bound by a distinctly punk attitude, a form of experimentalism that skirts across genre markers and forces you to sit up and pay attention. Zero coffee house easy listening or functionality here - there’s metallic clanging, skittering drums and screeches, tough as nails gabber compression (check the Acolytes track ‘Feelings’) and dirgey guitar feedback all fighting for space in a surprisingly coherent manner. Sound artist and broadcaster Mark Vernon’s ‘The Object Invoked…’ lulls us into quintessentially British, nightmare-inducing radiophonic territories with terrifying fragmented media chatter, making for one of the highlights of the compilation. If anything, we can agree on the fact that this double LP stands to highlight the fringes of carefree, convention defying abstract electronics that currently permeate our little island in an illuminating and necessary way.

To mark their 20th anniversary, Moshi Moshi Records announce the release of “Twenty Years Of Moshi Moshi”. The compilation, which celebrates two decades of music released through the label, will be released on Friday 7th June, 2019 on limited 12” triple vinyl.

Moshi Moshi Records was originally set up in 1998 as a hobby by three friends (Stephen Bass, Michael McClatchey and Adrian Pike) to enable them to work with the artists that they loved but didn’t fit in with the agenda of their major-label day-jobs. To start with all the releases were one-off 7” singles and for the first 5 years it was a low-key affair, and very much a hobby. Then in 2003 things changed with a single from Bloc Party and Hot Chip’s first E.P. It was time to get serious and to bid farewell to the day-job. Unshackled from the responsibilities of the 9-to-5 and with a burgeoning reputation the label took off and started to spread its net wider with an album from NYC-based synth trio Au Revoir Simone and Australian indie-art-pop 8-piece Architecture In Helsinki. Then came artists such as Hot Club De Paris, The Rakes, Slow Club and The Drums.

In 2006, the two remaining Moshi Moshi founders – Stephen and Michael – decided they wanted to get back to their one-off 7” release roots and the Moshi Moshi Singles Club was born. Some 40+ releases later the singles club’s roster makes an impressive list – Late of The Pier, Friendly Fires, Lykke Li, Florence and The Machine, Kindness and Disclosure.

8 years, 20 artists and 43 releases, the Parisian label La Belle Records has quickly established itself by its unique style; trailblazer of electronic candies across the world and whose graphic direction's singularity is as sublime as undeniable. Today, they present the One Night Stands series.

Not an umpteenth compilation but a unique collection of unreleased tracks, dug and selected with all the experience and the appetite of Antoine Harispuru (Golden Bug), co-founder of the label.

From London to Tel Aviv via Madrid and Paris, One Night Stands mixes well-established projects such as Golden Bug, In Fields, In Flagranti, Akkan and DESTIINO (Yuksek's side project), as well as new promises in the making such as Sebastopol, Youkounkoun, Ozzy and many others.

After last year saw the launch of the Stages of Grief series on Vaknar via its maiden release Convalescence, the second volume presented here will focus on the theme of consolation and is thus aptly titled Solace.

Once more a variety of artists were selected to respond to the theme. Solace begins with an uplifting chorus of synth laden resonances, bellowing throughout the duration of ‘Lonely Cloud’ by Danish native Rune Bagge, who made waves via his debut LP which was released on Northern Electronics last year.
Previous Vaknar collaborators White Stains (Belgium), Appropriate Savagery (France) and Amethyst (Germany) further divulge in a certain sonic spectrum and mood that encompasses the entire A side of the release.

The B side is inhabited by two contrasting compositions, starting with a piece by American composer J. Carter titled The Collapse of the Cheekbone is the Death of the Comité de salut public. Here the listener is presented with a solemn gust of layered keys which steadily develop in dramatic fashion before bursting into a hurl of feedback that over-tones the proclamations of a muffled voice. J. Carter’s piece presents itself as the peak of a turmoiltulous phase of grievance and thus the following and final composition on the release ends on an contrastingly tranquil note, presented by Swedish composer Isorinne, who shares a nine minute long composition of pure, virtuous serenity that commemorates the arrival of a new stage, (which will be further explored throughout the third and final instalment in the series next year).

Each cassette comes housed in a unique, hand cut J-Card, derived from a variation of B&W screen prints specifically created for the Stages of Grief Series at an Edition of 50.

Ten incredible albums culled from the deepest, weirdest co-op of record enthusiasts ever gathered under one banner. We’ve spared no expense packaging these, pairing the idea of the Art of Compilation with living and breathing art, creating little fortune cookies baked in a factory of forgotten dreams. Video games, pyramids, trading cards, matchbooks, mazes, lottery tickets, film canisters, yearbooks, and various other exercises in design absurdity.

The previously unissued soundtrack to the 1964 western noir, discovered after 55 years in the Wayne Louis Moody archive. Sixteen languid guitar instrumentals, femme fatale dirges, and cinematic country crooners score the loneliest night of one man’s life. Packaged in a replica of the original octagonal film canister, with 36” x 27” fold out movie poster.

2-piece octagonal box with embossing, high gloss UV and rust varnish
Film reel inner sleeve
36” x 27” movie poster on uncoated paper

For two decades, Ghostly International has functioned at the joints of genre, distinctly connecting many, demarcated by none. Among the more curious throughlines in the label's stylistic architecture is its use of the tag SMM. Launched discreetly in 2003, the undefined acronym has designated calm, slow-moving music that straddles the synthetic/organic divide in surprising ways. 2011 compilation SMM: Context pieced together landscapes imagined by the likes of Leyland Kirby and Christina Vantzou. 2013 follow-up SMM: Opiate proposed the evocative possibilities of sound with artists such as Noveller and A Winged Victory for the Sullen. In 2019, alongside the label's 20-year milestone, Ghostly extends Thousands of Eyes in the Dark, a collection celebrating international talent with an outward gaze. Ten original works of contemporary melodic and incidental electronics — fragments, moods, vignettes — sequenced as one continuous suite, a pairing of personal expression with wide angle vision.

Submissions stretch far beyond Ghostly’s roster and roots. Tracing the tracklist on a map, we begin in the Netherlands with Suzanne Kraft operating under his SK U Kno alias. Stabs of guitar mingle with washes of restless sound design on “Cut and Faze,” a gripping, asymmetric opener. Pan over to Los Angeles next, where emerging modular synth practitioner Emily Sprague patches “Mesa,” lightly coiling the tonal hymn skyward. The third track, “This Was Us,” belongs to Berlin-based Dutch-Italian composer Aimée Portioli aka Grand River. She says the tender, strolling piece references the dissolution of a relationship and was improvised on a Yamaha DX7 following a night with friends; “I just sat with the instrument and started to play. I kind of needed a moment to myself.” Back in Ann Arbor, Ghostly’s first home, label mainstay Tadd Mullinix renders an oscillating study of sensations titled as a nod to the film Woman in the Dunes. Closing side A is Canadian composer Sarah Davachi, who drafted her cathedral-filling drone for Mellotron and Hammond organ.

Following on from last December’s sold out “Scarred For Life Volume One” CD and the subsequent clamour for a vinyl version, here we bring you a second volume of TV themes for the shows that might have been, or actually never were. An unashamedly hauntological deep dive into an alternative 70s/80’s where our viewing reality was slightly warped. Gauzy memories of our early interactions with the TV, long buried, but remaining in the periphery of our childhood memories...
The SFL Volume One team has been reassembled, with some significant new additions to the line-up.

September 2021 marks the 10th anniversary of Dome of Doom. Collecting 30 tracks spanning from 2011-2021, label founder Wylie Cable put together Decade of Doom as a reflection of the first pillar in a long and continuing story—and the many phases the label has experienced thus far. Decade of Doom comprehensively serves as a homage to many of the artists, people and experiences that tell the label’s story, splintering outward toward an abundance of communities that continue to nourish one another. These tentacles all leading back to the hand-selection of releases Cable has diligently been at the heart of since the first vinyl and cassettes were pressed.



[c] A3 Kenny Segal – Worlds To Run [VIP Dub]






















[z] D26 QRTR – And Still [Interlude]

Born out of an underground Buenos Aires party and first launched in 2008, ZZK Records has spent more than a decade at the forefront of Latin American music, carving out space for artists putting a futuristic (and often electronic) spin on classic rhythms and folklore traditions. Along the way, the label spread across the globe and helped launch a few stars-Nicola Cruz, Chancha Vía Circuito, La Yegros and Son Rompe Pera among them-but ZZK's search for new artists, sounds and perspectives is never complete. ZZK Sound Vol. 4 brings together a fresh crop of talent from across Latin America, along with a pair of choice selections from veteran acts Maga Bo (Brazil) and Tremor (Argentina). Compiled by ZZK co-founder DJ Nim-the label's original A&R (and Chancha Vía Circuito's older brother), he'd actually taken a five-year hiatus from the project prior to 2020-the compilation's origins can be traced back to the early days of the pandemic. As the world went into lockdown, he put out a call for submissions, and within three months, he'd received more than 1000 tracks. Nim literally listened to them all, whittling the pile down to his 11 favorites, and after hearing his selections, Grant C. Dull-another ZZK co-founder, who runs the label's day-to-day operations-couldn't believe his ears. Nim had done it again. There were no notes, and no changes to the tracklist. ZZK Sound Vol. 4 was quickly put into production. At this point, few music fans need to be sold on the appeal of Latin music, but ZZK, which has been operating in this sphere long before the genre became the "next big thing," is dedicated to the idea that the potency of these sounds extends well beyond the pop charts. Hopping between continents and recontextualizing rhythmic lineages that date back centuries, ZZK Sound Vol. 4 is both an arresting snapshot of Latin America's electronic avant garde and a thrilling preview of its next wave.

Following the success of Field Guide I, which Bandcampdescribed as
'collecting some of the world's best House,Techno, and UKG,' Maison
Fauna continues the traditionwith Field Guide II
The compilation represents the nextchapter in the evolution of Maison Fauna's sound, and giveslisteners an insight into what the burgeoning label plans todebut in 2022. Featuring an eclectic arrangement of House,Techno, UK Garage, and Drum and Bass from 8 talentedproducers ' each one pushing the boundaries of theirrespective genre in their own right ' Field Guide II weavesa compelling sonic narrative. The assemblage ofunderground electronic artists are sourced from ageography as expansive as the sounds they represent,ranging from Durham to Berlin and Bristol.

When is a Dreadzone album not a Dreadzone album? When it’s Dubwiser Volume 1, on which The Dread collective bring their own individual talents and skills to the Dubwiser label, with a record that steps back to explore Dreadzone’s very own DNA while stepping forward to expand the label. The cast includes Earl 16, Bazil, Sub Mantra (Marlon & Greg Roberts), Louchie Lou & Michie One, Professor Skank and of course Dreadzone. Sonically Professor Skank and Bazil show us the way ahead as the masters of the mix on a release that springs from Dread Central . As you will hear the Dreadzone family tree has grown new branches, with artists bearing new fruit that demand further exploration.

When is a Dreadzone album not a Dreadzone album? When it’s Dubwiser Volume 1, on which The Dread collective bring their own individual talents and skills to the Dubwiser label, with a record that steps back to explore Dreadzone’s very own DNA while stepping forward to expand the label. The cast includes Earl 16, Bazil, Sub Mantra (Marlon & Greg Roberts), Louchie Lou & Michie One, Professor Skank and of course Dreadzone. Sonically Professor Skank and Bazil show us the way ahead as the masters of the mix on a release that springs from Dread Central . As you will hear the Dreadzone family tree has grown new branches, with artists bearing new fruit that demand further exploration.