Beats News

Debut EP by Serbian producers and record label Chorbika, taking in a crossover of electro and organic dance music over it's 5 tracks.

The songs are a fusion of Marko's taste in electro style and Jelena's roots in rock music and the material they produce is home-made, a product of their everyday life experimenting with sound.

Not So Much return with a trip inducing two-tracker of electro-tinged, Gaunt workouts.

‘She’s Not Patsy’ opens up the EP with metallic hits, glitching crashes and cartoon styled sound effects interweaving to give a futuristic, constantly morphing state to this formidable track.

On the flip side, out come the cosmic canons for ‘Spacebirds’. Extra-terrestrial blasts, unearthly synths and spinning pulses surge around this far-away galaxy, tied together with a thumping beat and crashing percussion that will burst supernatural waves out across the dancefloor.

Berlin based producer and live artist Ben Böhmer has risen through the Anjunadeep ranks to become a breakout star of the past 18 months, amassing almost 40 million streams, picking up BBC Radio 1 support from Annie Mac and Pete Tong, including an ‘Essential New Tune’, and being featured in Billboard’s ‘Ones To Watch’.

In addition to running his own fledgling label Tön Töpferei, Ben has put out singles on Anjunadeep and acclaimed remixes for Monolink and Jan Blomqvist, both of whom now feature on Ben’s debut LP ‘Breathing’. Opening track ‘In Memoriam’ is an emotive tribute, blending powerful strings with stirring vocal samples. Title track and lead single ‘Breathing’ with collaborators Nils Hoffmann and Malou follows. A long-awaited highlight in Ben’s live shows over the past year, 'Breathing' layers Malou’s delicate voice above swung percussion and hard-hitting synths.

An avid collaborator, Ben is also joined on the album by two further breakout German stars, vocalist Monolink who features on ‘Black Hole’ and multi-instrumentalist Jan Blomqvist who lends his vocals to ‘Decade’. Through the album Ben explores a range of emotions, from the hopeful ‘Hunting’ with Jonah, to energetic instrumental ‘Maelstrom’ through to the hard-hitting ‘Wall Of Strings, which samples The Cinematic Orchestra. Following the release of the album in November, Ben will be taking his live show on an extensive world tour - dates and information to be revealed in the coming months.

Special record produced by Microlith (Rhys Celeste) and Sound Synthesis (Keith Farrugia) some years ago. This EP is a special homage by two friends from Malta to their ambient and electronic influences from the 90s. As with all Fundamental releases, this is a limited release and will not be repressed.

Post lockdown does not mean we need to fall back into the same patterns like we did before. This EP contains a smooth transition to a new reality. ULTRATERRENO is TAGLIABUE`s (@josephtagliabue) newest EP on the Berlin and Zurich based micro Label Lustpoderosa.
The celestial sounds from the italian producer Tagliabue is a healing process of well tempered analog synthesizers. The cure is in the mix of pre dancefoor and ambient tracks inlcuding a slow trancy chug from well known and apreciated selector @AnatolianWeapons.
Tagliabue is not just inspired by the afro cosmic heritage of Beppe Loda and Daniele Baldelli, but also from post-folk, rock, prog and kraut infuences of 70’s and early 80’s, passing through New Wave and Synth Pop ofGaznevada or The Stupid Set and not to forget italians rave culture of the 90s with Franceso Farfa and MarcoDionigi just to mention a few.
This very intimate EP is a meditative and transcendental journey to another world. Literally

For their second release of the year, Josiah Hartley’s Phuture Shock label welcome up-and-coming Manchester producer Szajna to the ranks; armed with his debut solo 12” ‘M41’ EP.

Made up of six tracks but presented as two ~17-minute pieces, the record meanders through warm chordscapes, glistening synths and loose live percussion, weaved together with field recordings and ambience.

The return of our VA series is marked with the new chapter ‘Freaky Friends Volume 1’ featuring the likes of P.Leone, Nasty King Kurl, Sentient State, Ole Mic Odd, Dj Swagger, and Main Phase.

It's been four years since Sweatbox Dynasty, the fourth solo LP from Pennsylvanian experimentalist TOBACCO. In that time, Tom Fec's project has toured with Nine Inch Nails, provided the theme song to HBO series Silicon Valley, and teamed with Aesop Rock for a collaborative album as Malibu Ken. He now returns to Ghostly International for Hot Wet & Sassy, a full-length album oozing with his most playful and approachable songs to date, which, conversely, express notions of antilove, self-hate, and disappointment in others. Pop impulses have always surged beneath the surface of his sound - blown-out bass, analog synths, drum machines, and Fec's unmistakable analog gurgle and hiss - here they've bubbled to the top. "I feel like it's the most I've been able to refine what I'm doing," says Fec. "For the past decade I've had this motherfxcker on my shoulder that makes me pick away at structure and melody. Purposely covering up moments because I can. That really came to a peak on Sweatbox. So I wanted the opposite this time. Write the songs without ripping them in half. I went from 'what would the Butthole Surfers do?' to 'what would Cyndi Lauper do?'" And what would Trent Reznor do? Fec found his answer straight from the source. Their collaborative track, "Babysitter," fuses their voices into one deranged presence: "I'm the new babysitter," they alert, before pivoting into a menacingly saccharine bridge. The track tumbles on a tom fill, then a punishing synth line rips into a cacophony of drums and feedback like a lawnmower gnawing through the living room carpet. "This was new for me, but I wanted to write a song that was everything I am and have been, and then like one notch further. Trent was the notch further," adds Fec. The collaboration is a work of alchemy seamlessly blending TOBACCO's trademarks with Reznor's industrial rust and sonic gore. Downcast, sincere, woozy, "Jinmenken" might be the closest Fec has come to a ballad. "Maybe you can find me down the line," his vocoded delivery bounces along the beat. "It's me trying to write a Jets song," says Fec. Album opener "Centaur Skin" presents the stylistic concoction that has been the TOBACCO MO from the beginning, crossing dreamy melodic shimmer with the sinister tones and slime. This has become easier to digest, but also far more potent. A motorik beat steadies the track's galloping arpeggio, acting as a springboard for Fec's dark ruminations as well as an uncharacteristically crystalline synth solo. "It's my feel good self hate anthem. Don't worry, I'm good. It was fun to write." TOBACCO hasn't been reinvented, but it has been refined and distilled. Brighter, sharper, and far more dangerous because of it. Hot Wet & Sassy is practically staring at the sun without shades and feeling those corneas roast. Everything looks good as your vision fades. The pop-forward structures exert their undeniable hooks with baneful precision, pulling listeners into their clutches; once there, sugary melody rewards submission.

Voiron debuts on Analogical Force with 'Drill'n'Voiron EP'. 5x Tracks where the 'fake Parisian' continues to blur the lines between genres through his own interpretation. Expect braindance blah blah blah inspired cuts so turn on those smoke machine and welcome to Voironland.

Fresh from hot releases on HAVEN & Rave Selekts Dublin’s Tommy Holohan debuts on Dance Trax with 2 breakbeat-tek-crunch anthems - all systems go!

Composed, produced, and arranged by Eartheater alone, Phoenix: Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin draws a path back to the primordial lava lake from which she first emerged, as it also testifies to the reincarnating resurrections the project has undergone over its first full decade of existence. While the album renews her focus on guitar performance and legible structure, Eartheater balances the unabashed prettiness of acoustic harmonic songs with the dissonant gestural embroidery of oblique instrumentals. Having fallen back in love with the idioms that first captivated her, she worked to crack open the techniques that had fossilized inside of her, while still seeking to apply the electro-alchemical knowledge she picked up along her journey. The result of a laborious revival in fire, Phoenix recontextualizes Eartheater’s combinatorial approach to production within her most confident abstractions, adjacent to some of her most direct songs to date.

Eartheater composed and workshopped most of Phoenix over a ten-week artist residency (FUGA) in Zaragoza, Spain, housed in a sprawling, cubic glass facility that looked out over wildflower-flecked mountains. Following an intensive period of recording and touring, the residency provided her with an unprecedented period of solitude in the small Spanish town. Her newfound sense of isolation ultimately became liberating, leading her to sidestep the crutches and steady grids inherent to electronic music, and to conceive pieces rooted in her guitar and her desire to perform with other players live.

Eartheater’s voice glows brighter than ever at the center of Phoenix’s arrangements — her familiar operatic highs are grounded by newly expanded velvety lows, leaping lucidly up and down octaves. Her intricate guitar work flits across baroque fingerpicked passages and latches into cyclical figures that meet her voice in lush harmonic progressions. From her own guitar parts, to the orchestral string arrangements she wrote for the Spanish conservatory group Ensemble de Camara, to the harp and violin lines performed by her close friends and collaborators Marilu Donovan and Adam Markiewicz of LEYA, Eartheater’s applications of acoustic instruments bring an extraordinary emotional emphasis to her compositions. Phoenix prepares for a future where electronic sound — or even electricity itself — isn’t guaranteed, but where her music could still come to life with a group of hands dexterously winding across instruments against the light of the fire. Eartheater drew inspiration for Phoenix from geological imagery, whose turbulence and potential for genesis mirror the trajectory of her own life and relationships. The album’s instrumental pieces directly reference these moments of upheaval, colliding audio of volcano and lightning storms with resplendent string and vocal arrangements. “Volcano” looks out over the album from its peak at the center, its tectonic plates colliding in towering melodies and layers of vocal harmonies, as piano accents crest and cascade down the mountainside. When Eartheater sings, “I’m still building mountains underground,” she is trying to reconcile the pinnacles of her ambition with the comforts of a simple existence buried beneath the surface. “Diamond in the Bedrock” finds her admiring the gemstone forming under intense pressure inside her, but rejecting the romantic promise that the diamond signifies, choosing instead to escape a relationship that has come to stifle her.

With the album’s subtitle, Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin, Eartheater imagines being tempered to a state of perfect equilibrium, suspended between melting and freezing, where fire could streak across her body and appear as a crystalline blush. This image captures the tension at the heart of the Eartheater project, as she decides how best to distill her passion and render it cool to the touch; to find beauty in simple pleasure, while keeping one eye fixed on the peaks that loom in the horizon. The album is mixed by Kiri Stensby and mastered by Heba Kadry, featuring photography by Daniel Sannwald.

The man in the crowd is a wonderer with relaxed habits. In him the course of things and movement of the city is reproduced. The Düsseldorfer Detlef Weinrich is such a man in the crows. Some one who is constantly listening to future winds through rushes of the past. He loves the night for its free will. And his music tells stories about it. You might know him as a member of the band Kreidler. As a solo artist he goes under the name Tolouse Low Trax. And he's already got three Eps and two albums under his belt. His first solo album „Mask Talk“ thrives on a feathery beat frequency and cool new-wave-strength. His recently released piece „Corridor Plateau“, which appeared as a limited edition to accompany the exhibition „Corridor Plateau“ contains percussive electronics and Industrial sounding like its from the second industrial revolution. His third album „Jeidem Fall“, is also not from here. It sounds like music brought down to earth from the heavens. But its a dark cosmos in which there are only fleeting glimpses of light. All eight tracks were composed in a short space of time over the period of just a few months and fit together perfectly atmospherically. With a musical expressiveness that undoubtedly twists your emotions, „Jeidem Fall“ attacks the subconscious and clouds the mind. The drums have more movement that on „Mask Talk“. Along with the constant tapping of drumsticks goes melodical arpeggios dancing dark and dirty. At times longing vocals drift abstractly through the room, as on „Sa Seline“ or „Geo Scan“, without telling any obvious story.

To sound like stylistic cross references from the present and past is all just speculation for nothing on „Jeidem Fall“ really sounds like anything that has gone before. You could compare the dark minimal timbre of the drum computer aesthetic with Craig Leon's first reductive album „Nommos“. There is also a hint of the minimallist industrial of the Spanish band Esplendor Geometrico in the bubbly textures. But Tolouse Low Trax is still looking from the present into the future and filter and filters all his personal preferences through his MPC and his small synth setup to make them come alive here and now in a new way. Again Tolouse Low Trax has created a truly mysteriously vibrating drum computer music which offers hypnotic magic for the shadowy dance floor. Only a little light should illuminate the whole thing and the bodies that move above them should have no fear from threatening percussion which are displaced into a misty trance. A dark swaying shadowy mass, ideal for a journey at the end of the night and all those non-places where longing sleeps and the last romantics dance while getting drunk.

Watching Shackleton’s music morph from dislocated bass experimentation into psychedelic electro-jazz fusion has been a joy. This latest is his most cosmic set to date, following last year’s heady Tunes Of Negation LP “Reach The Endless Sea” with an undulating trio of organic/electronic collaborations with Polish clarinet virtuoso and multi-instrumentalist Wacław Zimpel.
In a world seemingly hellbent on tearing itself apart, it makes perfect sense for two musicians from such disparate backgrounds and disciplines to come together to create a new musical vernacular. Sam Shackleton, returning on Cosmo Rhythmatic after his previous outing on the label as Tunes of Negation, and Polish clarinetist/multi-instrumentalist Wacław Zimpel have joined forces. Their offering is a new album for the label: three long tracks of spiritual introspection and ascensional energy. A work of unison and solidarity.
Both boasting a track record of successful collaborative projects, the two artists have united after being introduced by mutual friends, in wake of a shared interest in minimalism and a broad set of influences rooted in different musical traditions. Joining Zimpel’s demanding multi-layered experience in Avant-garde jazz with Shackleton’s mathematical, esoteric lyricism, the pair have used all the tools at their disposal, aiming at a new form of ritual trance music. This fierce fusion of styles brings out the very best in each other, showing unique clarity and force.

In 1986-87, years before their 1993 debut record, guitarist Øystein Aarseth (aka Euronymous) took a musical pilgrimage to Germany to solicit collaboration with one of his musical heroes. Øystein, who tragically was destined to be murder by former member Varg Vikernes in 1993, bought an Interrail ticket and travelled from Norway to Germany to seek out experimental musician Conrad Schnitzler. Conrad was the founder of West German Krautock incubating club the Zodiac Free Arts Lab in West Berlin in 1968 and a former member of Tangerine Dream and Kluster (key experimental groups in the development of industrial music and Kosmiche electronic music).

Punk icons Crass have announced details of their latest EP, ‘Normal Never Was’. Featuring two new remixes of tracks from their seminal 1978 album, ‘The Feeding of The Five Thousand’, with the profits going to charity Refuge.

Heading up the remixes are Richard Russell, head honcho of XL records (under the guise of rLr), and synth-pop artist Glasser. Each of them tackling tracks, ‘They’ve Got Bomb’ and, ‘Do They Owe Us A Living?’ respectively.

Limited red vinyl 12". Edition of 1000 copies.

'Prole Art Threat' is producer Anthoney Hart's second LP for Planet Mu under his East Man alias, after 2018's well received debut 'Red White & Zero'. It brings together a set of MCs from all over London, Darkos and Eklipse from East London and Lyrical Strally from near Feltham who were on the first album, Ny Ny and Mic Ty also from East London, Streema and 'Vision Crew' member Whack Eye from Lewisham plus Fernando Kep, an MC from the burgeoning Brazil grime scene. They work across a cohesive set of tight riddims forged from thoughtful amalgams of grime, dancehall and drum & bass. The album takes its name from a Fall song/mission statement of the same title, the band being self-consciously working class and led by a brilliant autodidact in Mark E Smith. East Man relates that the title is to be taken as “a reflection of working-class creativity and how the establishment marginalise us and (perhaps on a subconscious level) see us as a threat.” Les Back, author of 'The Art of Listening' and 'Out of Whiteness: Color, Politics and Culture (with Vron Ware)' contributes liner notes to the record: East Man understands the force and the democracy of the mic. Listening to Prole Art Threat is like being at a dance. As the mic is passed between each of the MCs, a different tale is ‘elevated... off the map’ as Ny Ny puts it. We hear instalmentsfrom Forest Gate, Lee, Lewisham and Manor Park as these ‘lyrical gaffers’ and ’top boys and girls’ tell tough stories of life under the scrutiny of the ‘Feds’ in a brutal and divided city. The bars and rhymes document what it means to live here; from the double standards applied to the sexuality of young girls and boys to the corrosive violence of everyday life. All this is dissected without compromise. This is not just aLondon story though, the inclusion of Fernando Kep from the burgeoning Grime scene in Brazil is evidence of the outernational reach of the music. The tracks on East Man’s album explode the wilful ignorance of those who see ‘the working class’ in contemporary London as code for whiteness. This is the sound of a proletarian urban multiculture, made from Caribbean and African influences, sound system culture, pirate radio and the inexorable rhythms of Grime, Drum & Bass, Techno and Dancehall. It is the stirring of the "white" & "black" working classes who are living together and coming together on their own terms in sound. ‘Making music because you love it... what the fuck else could you do?’ as East Man says. The tracks and voices you are holding in your hands are, as a result urgent, vital, as hard nails and twice as sharp.

Haunting, ethereal, sublime. This already beautiful composition gets the Roque treatment. No digital, no repress.

The artist has chosen to donate proceeds from this release to Black Girls Code, who aim to empower girls of color ages 7 to 17 to become innovators in STEM fields, leaders in their communities, and builders of their own futures through exposure to computer science and technology.

Pamela Records is the new sister label to Moton Records Inc - the London imprint headed up by Dave Jarvis & Darren House, who have carved a name for themselves in quality and very collectable edits over the last two decades.

The legendary Andrew Weatherall had produced and written Pamela’s first EP alongside studio partner Nina Walsh before his devastating and untimely passing. The tracks were written by Andrew in a studio laboratory inside of the Woodleigh Research Facility with Nina Walsh sharing the writing credits in part and also contributing samples from her extensive arsenal of weapons.

When asked about these tracks, Andrew said “The great thing about not being signed to a major a label is that it’s liberating. No deadlines, no restraints, no pressures. The result - the creative process is completely free. There’s a blank canvas in the studio, you can pretty much go anywhere you want.”

Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks was written, produced and performed by Brian Eno together with his brother Roger and Daniel Lanois. The music was originally recorded in 1983 for a landmark feature-length documentary, For All Mankind, directed by American journalist, film director and screenwriter, Al Reinert. The film featured 35mm footage of the Apollo moon landing with real-time commentary as well as the Apollo astronauts sharing their recollections of the momentous events surrounding it.

A remastered, extended edition of the album will be released on July 19 in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. This very special anniversary edition – Apollo: Soundtracks & Atmospheres Extended Edition features the original album remastered by Abbey Road’s Miles Showell as well as an accompanying album comprising of 11 new instrumental compositions reimagining the soundtrack to For All Mankind.

The music from the original album is highly recognisable and tracks from it have been streamed in excess of 300 million times. Since its release many of the songs from Apollo have found a life of their own, making their way into any number of films, television shows and commercials, most notably Trainspotting, Traffic, 28 Days Later, Drive and Love. “An Ending (Ascent)” was also used in the 2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremony.

Brian Eno & Daniel Lanois produced the original Apollo album which was recorded at Daniel and his brother Bob’s studio in Hamilton, Ontario. Lanois also collaborated with Eno on several other projects, most famously producing several albums for U2 including the multi-platinum The Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby and No Line On The Horizon. Apollo was the first recording experience for Roger Eno who also went on to collaborate on a number of other films with and without his brother and was the springboard to a long solo career of his own. The 11 new tracks on Apollo Extended Edition find Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois and Roger Eno working collectively for the first time since the original album in 1983. Lanois contributed 3 compositions – Capsule, Last Step From The Surface and Fine-grained while Roger Eno’s are Waking Up, Under The Moon and Strange Quiet.

After More Than A Decade Turning Knobs Around Colombia, Gladkazuka Delivers His First Solo 12": Mucha Pimienta. Across Four Tracks, The Medellín Producer Displays The Lose, Genuine, Take On Machine-driven Funk And Electro That Earned Him The Reputation As An Essential Artist Of The South American Circuit. A Collection That Speaks Loudly For An Otherwise Reclusive Artist, This Record Provides Rare Insight Into One Of Colombia's Most Lauded Performers.

Following on from the critically acclaimed The Road: Part I, James Lavelle's UNKLE returns with the follow up The Road: Part II / Lost Highway, split across two parts with 22 tracks, James described this journey as having "more of a mixtape aesthetic being the ultimate road trip".

Triple 180g black vinyl package housed in a triple gatefold sleeve, with 16 page booklet; containing artworks by John Stark and photography by Warren Du Preez and Nick Thornton Jones.

For the second installment of Trésor D’argent, simply called “LP2”, Arjen Schat returns to the original format for Berlin-school. Two 20-minute electronic explorations, guided by a myriad of increasingly complex sequential patterns. “LP2” is pressed on black 140g vinyl, with full-colour sleeve and labels, and white poly-lined inner sleeve. Limited to 100 copies worldwide.

Really strong, multi-layered new album from Olan Monk, released on the C.A.N.V.A.S. label/collective of which he is a co-founder and featuring vocals from Maria Somerville and James K, plus additional mixing by Xao.
Highly recommended if yr into John Maus, The Normal, Actress, Eartheater, Suicide.
In possession of its own unusual pace and styling, Love/Dead is a weird and brilliantly addictive gothic pop experiment that takes The Human League’s ‘Being Boiled’ as its starting point and builds from there in an asymmetric formation that feeds in elements from Suicide, Nine Inch Nails and John Maus, slows it all down and spits it back out covered in heaving subs, doom metal dynamics and distorted, angular electronics.
For goth credentials, Monk recorded the album between the west coast of Ireland and a coroner’s court and mortuary in south London, and if that seems a bit heavy handed - the music is anything but. Monk writes hooky, layered and memorable songs, something that’s so often missing from electronic music producers who mature (in the worst sense of the word) into working with vocalists as a mark of some dubious respectability.
Monk’s background isn’t in electronic music though, and so his imagination extends further out into the aether - guided by the three singular artists with whom he has already collaborated - Actress, Ashley Paul and Elvin Brandhi, with Actress in particular introducing Monk to electronic music “as its own process of creation, beyond production”. So although it’s the electronic treatments that startle, it’s Monk’s songs that hook and poke, making ‘Love/Dead’ a singular and strong addition to the C.A.N.V.A.S. label’s small but already beautifully formed catalogue of releases.

The LP edition will contain 2x180gr-vinyl Navigate between dreamlike electronica, hypnotic ambient and melodic techno. No doubt this is one of key electronic albums of 2012. Despite the many years still ahead of him, Rone has already come a long way, being one of the most acclaimed young French musicians on the electronic scene.

His videos have spread all over the World Wide Web with the speed
of light and his powerful liveset has been appreciated from Sonar Festival to Panorama Bar. Three years have passed since the release of 'Spanish Breakfast' and now his next album, 'Tohu-Bohu' (hurly-burly), is coming out 5th November 2012 via InFiné.

Rozzma ist eine fiktionale Figur, die nur auf der Bühne, in Videos und im Weltall existiert. Sie ist vor 7000 Jahren in Raum und Zeit verloren gegangen und kehrt jetzt auf die Erde zurück - nur um zu erleben, dass Tutanchamuns Totenmaske zu einem Ein-Pfund-Stück entwertet wurde und die ägyptische Münze kaum noch Wert besitzt. Als Rozzma das letzte Mal auf der Erde war, war Ägypten die am höchsten entwickelte Zivilisation auf dem Planeten. Eine schwer zu verstehende Situation für den Zeitreisenden, der auf der Suche nach den Ursprüngen die Tutanchamun-Maske von der Pfundmünze entfernt, um zu beweisen, dass es eine Ära gab, der die moderne Wissenschaft, Technologie und Technik ihre Existenz verdankt. Rozzmas
Geschichte nennt sich "Donya Fakka". "Donya" steht für "Welt" und "Fakka" sowohl für Kleingeld als auch lose bzw. demontiert. Mit anderen Worten dreht sich die 6-Track-EP um den Versuch, durch Zerstörung Entwicklungen zu markieren. Die EP ist die erste Veröffentlichung von Acid Arab Records, einer Kooperation
der Pariser Electro-Crew Acid Arab und des belgischen Labels Crammed. Auf diesem wollen sie die nächste Generation an Elektronikmusikern aus arabischen Ländern vorstellen.

SYNTAX Electronix (Valencia, Spain) continues with its second release based on Electro tunes.

Drummer/producer Teppo Mäkynen presents a new album by his lauded trio ensemble 3TM in 2019. Before the second 3TM album "Lake" comes "Abyss", a collection of 10 ambient pieces laying the groundwork for the upcoming album. This prelude album is a full-bodied work in itself, a glorious and somewhat mysterious LP which brings forth yet another shade of multifaceted Mäkynen's musical vision. The 10 compositions on "Abyss" feel like the discovery of life and movement in deep waters, where only the rare shades of light breaking through indicate that another world exists above the surface.

"Abyss" will be available as a clear vinyl edition, on tape and digitally, and both as a standalone album and as a bundle with the upcoming 3TM trio album "Lake".

Teppo "Teddy Rok" Mäkynen is a drummer/producer from Helsinki, who works at the centre of the lively jazz scene in Finland. His work includes projects such as 3TM, The Stance Brothers, Teddy Rok Seven and the new duo with sax player Timo Lassy. Mäkynen also plays drums in several highly-regarded ensembles such as Timo Lassy Band, Aki Rissanen Trio, Jukka Eskola Soul Trio, Verneri Pohjola Quartet, Nicola Conte Jazz Combo, plus many more. As a producer, his work has been highly regarded in projects such as 3TM, The Stance Brothers, and the albums of Timo Lassy and Jukka Eskola.

Winner of the 2018 BASCA British Composer Award for Solo or Duo

"Bloody hell that was good" Tim McKinney, BBC Radio 3

Dominic Murcott – The Harmonic Canon

A music project featuring a specifically design half-tonne double bell, an array of rare percussion and two highly virtuosic percussionists.

Dominic Murcott is a composer, percussionist, curator and educator based in London. Much of his work combines acoustic instruments with computers, film and other media. He has a continuing interest in work that is personalised for specific performers and has created acoustic/electronic pieces for trumpeter Noel Langley, percussionist Joby Burgess, clarinetist Joan Enric Lluna, harpist Sioned Williams and the Elysian String Quartet among many others. He has taken an unusual path to his current position, starting out as a self taught musician, his early career included playing drums with no-wave pioneers 'Blurt' and composing for the highly successful V-Tol Dance Company throughout their ten-year history. Changing from drums to vibraphone he became a member of art-pop band The High Llamas and has played on records by many influential artists including Stereolab and Pavement.

Created in collaboration with sculptor Marcus Vergette, The Harmonic Canon is both the name of the piece and the double bell that was custom-made for it. Comprising of two bells tuned a semitone apart, the bell was created using Finite Element Analysis, a type of structural analysis that determines the vibration patterns of the bell, manipulating its harmonic series to create a complex series of frequencies that make up a note. Part One is made up of rapid, high energy, virtuosic passages, articulated with the ominous striking of the bell while the second part contrasts with a single resonant tone that evolves and shifts over time. This is part of nonclassical's 21 Minutes series, a new project commissioning 21-minute pieces.

The piece won the BASCA British Composer Award for Solo or Duo. Premiered in 2018, the piece has had radio play on BBC Radio 3, broadcast from Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.

Griffé is a new label curated by Chat Noir that focuses on dark and powerfull sounds. Between Electro, Rave, Techno and Acid, this release is a blend of very effective dancefloor weapons.

Paris based, Corsican producer Charlou takes control of the A-side with Mercenary and the complicity of Steve Marie on the track X-Station. The OPAQ Records co-founders deliver two tracks that brings immediatly the heat & madness of a rave anywhere it’s played !
The B-Side welcome Botwin, a very talented new comer based in Lyon for his first vinyl release.

... Through 3 tracks he showcases his production skills with a powerfull vibe and infectious grooves that can remind the golden « rave era » of the 90’s.

In this third chapter of the BROT series, we wrap up the trilogy from the Reykjavík based producer Felix Leifur, who has genuinely showcased his incredible set of production skills throughout the year.

These last five BROT tracks move the sound to another spectrum where Felix plays around with his traditional sound. But this time the tempo is high, and the strong influences from old school breakbeat and jungle shine through. Felix's BROT 03 ties up the first BROT series with flair and this one will surely not be the last one. Stay tuned for more BROT action in 2020.

Repress!

Faitiche presents the release of a new album by Masayoshi Fujita & Jan Jelinek (faitiche13). Since their debut (Bird, Lake, Objects, faitiche03, 2010) they have played improvised concerts around the world. Japanese vibraphonist Masayoshi Fujita prepares his instrument with various percussion elements as well as metal objects and toys, while Jan Jelinek layers loops made using small-scale electronic devices. Schaum (German for froth, foam) is the duo's second album.

"The river, forcing its way through veins between the outposts of the forest, was a great heart. Placidly as it flowed, gently as its descent beat against its vague banks, it brought and gathered sustenance for the busily mediating humus that swelled sunwards in the strangest cell configurations, trees, plants, animals. The silence all round was uncanny and stuck on the ear. Spasmodic squelches, a gurgling in the muddy hollows of the bank beneath overhanging shagginess, the slurping of ominous cavities, that shot out now and again between the long-spun threads of time, like something detonating, testified to the steady monotony of the process. From the forest itself came a crackling rhythm. There the mighty Pan could still be heard to rumble." - from the novel Tropics by Robert Müller (translated by N. Grindell)

*****

Dear Masayoshi Fujita,
many thanks for the audio files. Your additional vibraphone recordings go wonderfully with the material we have already. Preparing the vibraphone with more percussion instruments was the right decision. Combined with my tightly woven synthesizer and sample loops, the result is a fragmented sense of space. I have taken the liberty of manipulating certain recordings. One might now say that our joint recordings are both a basis for further processing and new pieces in their own right.

While listening through our improvisations, I noticed a tendency towards atmospheric sounds. I am almost tempted to call them tropical. This has strengthened my resolve to work with dense background textures - among others, I'm using material produced in connection with my radio pieces Kennen Sie Otahiti (Do you know Otahiti SWR2, 2012) and Dialoge zur Anthropologie (Dialogs on Anthropology, SWR2, 2013): artificial field recordings, jungle and rain forest settings that do not hide their staged, fictional character. They are synthetic and speculative. As you know, I have long been obsessed with the tropics. This obsession involves a mental image of a specific quality of landscape: deliriously extravagant unstructuredness, hostile to life but also excessively productive. I am fascinated by the idea of installing clear minimalist forms amid such luxuriant tropical growth. Perhaps my image of the city of Brasilia is a good example: the utopia of elegant and ascetic modernism, surrounded by rampant vegetation.

Corresponding to this, I would like to expand our liner notes to include a quotation from Robert Müller's novel Tropics - an expressionist travelogue published in Germany in 1915. It goes without saying that this work cannot be wholeheartedly embraced: its imperialistic fantasies of omnipotence and its 'master race' posturing, characteristic of that time and place, are, of course, intolerable. Please excuse my casually dismissing this, but it is not what I am interested in here. Tropics is fascinating as a nervous jungle phantasm that openly indulges in exoticism at the same time as deconstructing it. In this way, the main character's adventure becomes a journey into the subjective. It resembles a feverish inner delirium, exposing exoticism as a simulated, utopian perspective. What it boils down to is insubstantial, nothing but foam and froth.

This new and grainy Sbire release sees La Chaux-de-Fonds electronic craftman Gaspard de La Montagne work as per usual with Nathan Baumann. The two of them share a long history of forward thinking music projects, including EPs, videos, movie soundtracks and so on. Things have changed on this one though as Baumann co-signs the record, instead of an usual credit mention. Both artists describe these 7 tracks as a small album which average format of tunes leans towards pop music. A thoughtful and progressive tracklist bounds all titles together as a whole journey, landmarked by Baumann's ethereal vocals and minimalistic french lyrics. This new approach makes Auras a moving and bittersweet journey that will see you wander from a crowded club to your lonely bed.

A collection of contemporary reggae, dub and electronica, which marks a broadening of musical horizons for the label beyond reissues of lost African guitar dance music. The LP covers a range of Jamaican inspired sounds, including roots reggae, dancehall, dub and jungle, which may act as a taster for potential future releases.

Due for release in July 2019. Interest for airplay from Tom Ravenscroft and Gideon Coe from BBC 6 Music. Steve Barker plans to review for The Wire magazine

Star of the show is Slovenian electro legend Zeta Reticula aka Umek.

Italian dark electronics aficionados Alessandro Adriani and Cosimo Damiano come together for a debut collaborative EP on Pinkman. Belonging to different generations but both deeply influenced on one side by "the Sound of Rome", with pioneers like Gabriele Rizzo, Leo Anibaldi and Lory D, and on the other side by the raw electro Dutch legacy of Bunker Records, the two strike a golden middle of their styles with a clanging, raw and packed to the brim with coarseness electro-techno hybrid. Inspired by the cyber dystopia narratives, 'Neurodreamers' reflect on the hi-tech surveillance and the promise of AI which unfolds itself into the prospect of dehumanization. Taking the listener through turmoil and anger, the brutish 4-tracker weave the elements of grubby baselines, coarse synths and erratic percussions with the brain-melting hints of acid and Alessandro Adriani's own recorded vocals. A living warning to us all.

sample alchemy presented by Dip Friso aka Grim Lusk aka Sunny Balm aka ½ Pussy Mothers. Flipping quickly between dubbed out samplescapes, wah-warbled chords, reversed drums, cut up vocal samples and a somehow relaxing sounding argument, the tracks are tripping over themselves to the front of the queue.

Available cassette tape and digital download, limited run of 70 copies.