Beats News

The first of 2 salvos from the wizards of re-editing - Psychemagik.
Part 1 is a selection of far-flung and undiscovered lysergic renderings of some 'well-known' pop & dance classics.
These aren't your common dime a dozen covers either, these are straight killer, bizarro rearrangements that will have you scratching your head in wonder, and hitting the discotheque dance-floor in equal measure. As always, the Psychemagik boys strive to bring you that heat, reworking from only the prime source material sourced from their regular global jaunts and epic record trades in far-flung places. Welcome to the soundtrack to a funky alternative dimension where things seem somewhat familiar, but perhaps a little off.... in the best way! Pure sonic trips all over this one. Dig it! Answers on a postcard please!

After a standout Ep by Florian Kupfer, London’s Axe Traxx is back with some Electro infused tracks by Italy’s newcomer Clafrica with a remix from Apron’s fresh signees My Girlfriend.
Think MPC, Juno 106 and 808.

…each piece is timeless and genuinely magical" - The Quietus
"Why have we had to wait this long for this excellent sound to be recorded and released?" - Norman Records

Profit Prison is the solo work of Seattle-based Parker Lautenschlager, previously in the hardcore band Marrow, power electronics act Anteinferno, and black metal cult Bhereg. Conceived in 2016, Profit Prison explores lyrical themes of isolation, estrangement, deprivation and paranoia against an aural backdrop of synthpop, post-punk and abstract industrial music. Inspired by Franz Kafka as much as Kraftwerk, Profit Prison achieves a cold minimalism that speaks to the nightmarish dystopia in which it was created. The debut Myra was released on cassette by Dominick Fernow's Hospital Productions in 2017.

On March 29 Avant! will release the 12' vinyl debut Six Strange Passions. Six tracks where Hi-NRG disco beats and 70's throbbing synths melt with trembling, reverberated vocals and dark dungeon synth passages.

Limited edition of 300.

Artwork by Italian Noise legend Matteo Castro (Lettera 22, Kam Hassah, Second Sleep label)

First full EP by Helena Hauff on Return To Disorder. Electro stuff, s alright, nothing more to say really.

DESCRIPTION
Absolute madness unearthed by Paul Ebhart and Florian Stöffelbauer aka Heap for Wiener Brut's third release
Chicago-meets-Vienna-vibes - music way ahead of it's time produced in the 80s by short-lived formation Aktionskunst Gerasdorf aka Athletico Kunst Gerasdorf, a project that is well known for it's contribution to the legendary Viennese sampler ‚Die Tödliche Dosis'.

808-driven beats programmed by René Radikal (R.I.P.) backing Melanie Delval's tender voice, with multiple guest musicians (e.g. Fritz Grohs) rounding things up and adding their spice to the laidback jams alongside stand-out musical heavy hitters. A composition of sound you never heard before.

As well as being a resident at Moscow's Denis Simachev bar, Leonid Lipelis has been slowly making a name for himself as a producer for some time. There's a whole raft of Lipelis remixes for the nu-disco set dating back to 2006, but it feels like the Russian producer has stepped up his game of late. Inbetween some killer edits for 'LIES' and an upcoming Public Possession 12" as TMO, Lipelis dons his Beard In Dust guise for the latest release from the mysterious Bahnsteig 23 label. ... If you were a fan of that aforementioned 'LIES' release or any previous 'BAH 12' it's highly likely you will dig the four cuts here with Lipelis drawing for some obscure sources with eminently danceable results.

A new imprint dedicated to all things reggae/dancehall, Homemade Soundsystem is a much personal homecoming for BFDM mastermind Judaah. Setting a whole new aesthetic agenda for the Marseilles-based groove slinger, revolving around fresh interpretations of classic skanky riddims and further sweat-inducing Caribbean tropes, the label pays a vibrant tribute to Judaah's first love, following straight in the footsteps of the artists who played a crucial role in the birth and development of his taste over the years; from Sizzla to Bounty Killa, via Buju Banton, Augustus Pablo and Lee Scratch Perry. Though mainly born out of a life-affirming teenage love for the aforementioned styles and their bastardized sub-divisions, HSS is also and further crucially intended as a platform for shrewdly executed cross-overs and quaky bass moves zeroeing in on bringing dancefloors to an unchaste, swelteringly sensual boil. Expect mad tides of booties bumpin' and shakin' as HSS ruff drum progs, heliotropic melodies and knee-buckling breaks cut a path of destruction across the clubs, Judaah's your skipper for a helluva wild ride into damp musical tropics.

10 like Maradona... or Luke Vibert. Traditions turns 10, impossible to miss this!

A thread of electro runs further throughout the Zeitnot series on ZEIT006, Quadratschulz’s vibrant and playful melodies dance back and forth across 4 tracks all well-suited for the dancefloor.

Exzakt continues to forge one of the purest totems of classic electro with his Monotone label, and indeed his own output. The latest release is a various artists EP which perfectly sums up everything Monotone is about. The Advent leads the way with the dark, melodic "Eye's Of Envy," produced alongside Zein, before Exzakt himself drops a taut and wiry dancefloor bomb in the shape of "Kreep." 214 fires up the B side with the edgy, minimalist thrust of "Crouch & Turn," before EggFooYoung makes a surprise return to the fray with the more Miami-flavoured stylings of "Bass2Large," a slower, dirtier jam with low end frequencies to get the whole club freaking.

Voltage Festival is releasing a compilation of 4 EP's to celebrate five years of existence. The EP's are dedicated to four sub-genres of techno and represent the versatility in techno of Voltage Festival's line-up.

The series starts off with a classic techno EP called ‘Zener Diode’, followed by a deep techno one called ‘Wiring Harness’, an industrial release with the name ‘Circuit Breaker’ and closing with acid techno called ‘Resistor’. The artists featured on the releases already made their appearance at Voltage Festival, or are playing on this year’s edition.

After inaugurating the label with a tape in 2015, our local friend Richard Brown (AKA Brown Irvin) returns to Motion Ward with an oblique two-track 12" entitled "Run Me That Soul". "Locution" flexes a wobbly equilibrium of dubbed dancefloor energy and amorphous acid while "Overcast" coats the B Side in a smeared gradient of ambient wash and shape-shifting stasis. A persuasive pair of parallel worlds for winding up and winding down.

TIMEDANCE019 see's Air Max '97 join the ranks and introduce his signature unclassified sound to the table. The London based New-Zealander refines his sound here with a emphasis on functionality and groove. Contemporary sonics interact with a FWD>>> attitude for a sound that is rude, tough and different.

Hyboid of Astro Chicken Records returns with another full-length LP fresh from his Berlin-based studio: 14 tunes filled to the brim with vintage-synth-laden space synth-pop goodness. "Strange Signals" is the tale of an interstellar romance gone wrong. Follow our hero through the mists of time and space and watch him return with a fistful of far-out oscillations!

“Requiem” is the name of the new Cold Beats Records release. The reference number 14 of the catalan label is written by L´Avenir, the cold synth side project of veteran electronic musician and sound artist Jason Sloan. Known throughout the space and ambient music scenes for his contemplative electronic soundscape work for close to two decades; Sloan founded L’Avenir in 2012 to explore his long time love of synthnpop and dark minimal wave music created purely from analog and vintage equipment. While still retaining the atmosphere of his solo records, the music of L’Avenir is rooted in the tradition of the minimal, analog, synthesizer music of the late 70′s and 80′s ( Fad Gadget, Depeche, Click Click, Chicago’s Wax Trax Records scene etc…). Growing up through the original scene while it was happening, it’s no suprise that Sloan’s music would eventually move in this direction. While releasing over a dozen solo albums and E.P.’s under his own name, Sloan has played live all over the US, Canada and Europe including the influential Live Constructions radio program at Columbia University, STEIM in Amsterdam and Philadelphia’s The Gatherings concert series, one of the country’s oldest continuing ambient and electronic music series. Sloan is a Professor teaching full-time in the Interactive Arts department along with being the founder and program coordinator for the Sound Art concentration at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland. L’Avenir returns with Requiem, the fourth, full-length album for Barcelona’s Cold Beats Records. Requiem finds L’Avenir visiting themes of postmodernity, alienation and spiritualism while expanding the sonic palette far beyond his minimal synth beginnings. The music of L’Avenir has, at times, been compared to 4AD era Clan of Xymox or mid-period Depeche Mode. But while echoes of the former can be heard, L’Avenir brings a uniquely fresh perspective unheard in other bands of the genre. Requiem features eight new songs and is available on limited edition blood red vinyl. Requiem is L’Avenir’s sixth release was written and recorded between February 2018 and January 2019 in a Minimal Space, (Baltimore). Limited edition of 300 copies lacquered pressed on 140 gr. high quality red vinyl and digital album.

Her polyrhythmic compositions integrate a wide array of musical genres, including Afrofuturistic electro and techno, classical solo piano and Detroit legacy house; all memorable journeys into deep, abstracted sound.
Hosting a monthly radio show on the renowned NTS, Afrodeutsche entrances listeners with her idiosyncratic combinations of dark electro, breaks, footwork, ghetto tech and jacking house.
Forever evolving a fully live hardware show, Afrodeutsche has already appeared alongside celebrated producers Dopplereffekt and Carl Craig, with many more to come.
Her remix of Montreal producer Marie Davidson’s ‘Day Dreaming’ was released earlier this year on Ninja Tune. 2019 sees her releasing genre-defying new material and touring across Europe, with appearances confirmed at Dekmantel (Amsterdam), SONAR (Barcelona), and Dimensions (Croatia).
Praised by the Guardian for enacting a new wave of club music, named by Dummy Mag as one of 2019’s most exciting artists, Afrodeutsche’s spectacular debut album ‘Break before Make’ will be released on all formats in the Autumn of 2019 on the legendary Skam label.

Mlin Patz is a solo project of Chillera band member Polina Matskevych (electric guitar), an outlet for her experiments with sound collages, field recordings and dub sound — all accompanied by a warm southern guitar sound.

Sunlimit — exotic electronic dub with electric guitar and tape hiss, can be used for both — for listening rooms or dancefloors.

Inspired by well-known dub pioneers and recent RAMZi, Jan Shulte and DON’T DJ.

Perfectly comes together with Chillera - Pro Fun 10” on the same release date 6 September 2019!

We have been working on this reissue since we began the label 10 years ago, and finally its ready to share with the world. Velodrome need no introduction to most, but for the uninitiated, they are the duo of Krishna Goineau (Electronics + Vocals) and Jordi Guber (Electronics + Programming). At age 15, Jordi played guitar in Barcelona punk band Ultimo Resorte, and formed Líneas Aereas with Frank Palomo after becoming interested in electronics. Krishna had been performing with Chrislo Haas and Beate Bartel in Liaisons Dangereuses. Krishna and Jordi met in 1979 through Jordi’s brother Raul, who was in the no wave group Xeerox. The idea of collaborating came when Krishna paid a visit to the rehearsal studio that Xeerox shared with Líneas Aereas. After dissolving Liaisons Dangereuses in 1983, Krishna, who was impressed by Jordi's synthesizer skills, decided they should move to Brussels. There they formed the short lived Metropakt, releasing two songs on various compilations in 1985. Not long after, they re-named their project Velodrome and began to rehearse with greater discipline. Experimenting with the latest Roland machines, which were equipped with MIDI, was an exciting challenge for the duo. In November 1987 they recorded three songs, “Au Velodrome 141”, “Glassfabrik” and “Capataz” at ICP Studios in Brussels, with additional vocals from Annemie Gers. They found a home on German label Animalized, and the songs were released in 1988 as the ‘На Велодроме 141’ EP. The record is striking, dynamic, challenging yet accessible, with Krishna's frenzied vocals sharply contrasting with the cool, angular production. In more recent years, the release has become much sought after by fans of techno, electro, minimal synth, and avant-garde music. Each song has been remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios. The vinyl comes with a postcard and features the original jacket art with a photo of the rings of Saturn, echoing Krishna’s words, "we slide very well through the velodrome, there are no limits, only ice."

uon is the project of an artist operating between Chicago and Berlin. The producer also has released music under the aliases Caveman LSD, DJ Paradise, and uses the pseudonym 'special guest DJ' for all mix / DJ related outings.

-Early support from Bill Kouligas, Huerco S., and PLO Man-

Hailing from Chicago, Beau Wanzer has carved out a singular voice in electronic music since debuting on the L.I.E.S. label in 2013. Wanzer’s music is not industrial, wave, electro, or techno - it’s a unique and twisted amalgamation of all that, and more. Crazy as it sounds, we at Suction Records have been sitting on this Beau Wanzer material since 2003. Back then Beau was working at Weekend Records And Soap — a Chicago hub for the city’s exploding electro scene — when Solvent and Lowfish rolled into town to perform at an Ersatz Audio label showcase. We met Beau at the shop and he gave us a 21-track CDR. We were instant fans, fast friends, and went on to the share the stage with him several times, well before he released his first records. That CDR contains these 6 tracks now released on 10”-vinyl as the “Do The Spider Shimmy” EP. This is suction049.

Had that CDR not been held onto, and recently-unearthed by Solvent, this music would have disappeared into digital oblivion; Beau had long forgotten them and didn’t even have a copy of these CDR tracks. Beau Wanzer’s trademark sound — raw, minimal electronics and effected-beyond-recognition vocals — were already in full-effect circa 2003, but what makes this material different from his contemporary output is the dry, drumbox-funk influence of Detroit’s Ersatz Audio label (Le Car, ADULT.), which is also heard loud and clear across the EP.

Mecanica Popular is back 9 years after their LP “Neguentropia” and 4 years after Dead Cert reissued their first LP “”Que Sucede Con El Tiempo”

Mecánica Popular is ’s an experimental and industrial band formed in the late 70s by Luis Delgado (Finis Africae, Ishinohana...) and Eugenio Muñoz (Randomize), who rapidly gained cult status between the genre fans. The band experienced a renovated international success after their record "Que Sucede Con El Tiempo" (1984) was repressed in 2015 in Andy Votel and Demdike Stare's Dead Cert imprint.

Arriving 9 years after “Neguentropia”, “Estridentismo” is the group’s fourth record and the product of new material that was developed over the last 3 years.

“Estridentismo” is based on the avant-garde movement of the same name that was born in Mexico during the early 1920s (known as Stridentism in English). Each track uses this lens to explore a different thematic concept, from “Jouer Avec Schaeffer,” based on musical pioneer Pierre Schaefer, to “Mikado,” which draws inspiration from the sounds of Mikado steam locomotives.

Following the sound of their previous releases while also introducing elements that reflect their continued evolution, “Estridentismo” is a record that owes as much to the Industrial movement as it does to the work of early electronic pioneers.

Mecánica’s inventive style, and their blending of older techniques like tape manipulation with newer digital technology, allows the record to incorporate Industrial and experimental aesthetics to create a sound that plays with categories and ultimately creates its own.

The record has received praise from the press and artist alike, and it has been played by the likes of JASSS, Demdike Stare, Cera Khin and Ossia.

“Estridentismo” comes in a luxury vinyl edition with a printed inner sleeve full of text and pictures.

Nao Katafuchi is a Japanese artist who makes electronic music with a guitar & a semi vintage synth box, creates his own world of cold romantic wave. Stahlgrau is his 2nd longplayer.

Deriving from the acclaimed performance and exhibition—staged by Anne Imhof at the 57th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia and awarded the Golden Lion for Best National Participation— the album Faust is part documentation and part elaboration, the sonic capture and extrapolation of the gestures, intensities, and durations of the live event.

Serving as the dramatic backbone of a several-hour long performance seen by thousands over the course of the Biennial, the soundtrack was a product of the collective and its individuals, animating and organising the performers while immersing the audience in the potent images of power and paradise. The music for Faust was written in a band-like process by Imhof and her close collaborators Billy Bultheel, Eliza Douglas, and Franziska Aigner during the months leading up to
its premiere at the opening of the German Pavilion in Venice.

From the chaos of the performative, the album is constructed out of live recordings and original arrangements, teasing out the most potent strands and weaving them into a new composition of brutal feeling and baroque intricacy, each track a testament to the energy that brought it into being.

Faust is anchored around three pieces—Medusa’s Song, O.W.E.N., and Queen Song—written and sung by performers Eliza Douglas and Franziska Aigner, whose sonorous and elegiac voices imbue the work as a whole with their crushing depths and dolorous moods. Between these urgent vocal interventions march and twist the winding fugues and electronic abstractions of Billy Bultheel, who has dismantled and reassembled the sonic landscapes of the pavilion, crafting new
arrangements that couple the forcefulness of the physical encounter with the artifice of the studio Throughout the album and culminating in it's closing act — the brutal chorus of Douglas’ Faust’s Last
Song, a pulsing canon of looped and layered voice pierced by black metal screams.

Faust is the record of a lost event and the promise of a new creation. The release of Faust illustrates the centrality of music to Imhof’s artistic practice. Her musical collaborations with Bultheel began
in 2013, and this generative constellation expanded to include the contributions of Douglas and Aigner, together scoring Imhof’s Angst (2016) and recently her performance trilogy Sex (2019).

Experimental Music Program 02/95 is the second mixtape of the “Experimental Music Program” series. Recorded at the Sound Music Room club in 1995 by Beppe Loda. Reissued by Protofuture in its own “Typhoon Tapes” series, comes with original cover and hand-stamped with the original stamp from 1995.

Raised in the multicultural and mind-broadening London borough of Enfield, Loraine James grew up hearing everything from steel pan music to Metallica, from jazz and electronica to drill and grime, and the results of this exposure can be heard on ‘For You And I’. In part the album explores the complexities of being in a queer relationship in London - “I’m in love and wanted to share that in some way … to make songs that reflect layers of my relationship.” – and as a whole ‘For You and I’ is rhythmically free flowing and sprawling, with melodies that evolve into rippling keys, feeling like a live jam session with a jazz mentality, contrasting the delicate and abrasive. Opener ‘Glitch Bitch’ is a warm ear-worm, brandishing swirling textures with undulating keys and compressed percussion, with an introspective theme revisited soon after on third track ‘So Scared’, whose glitched percussion and syncopated dub bassline build to a frantic meltdown melody. On ‘London Ting // Dark As Fuck’, inspired by Dizzee Rascals's ‘Boy In Da Corner', James explores the darker side of her production with her frequent collaborator Le3 BLACK laying verses over the skeletal track. ‘Hand Drops’ is an instrumental, about public displays of affection in a queer relationship. ‘Sensual’ reflects on intimacy with vocals by UK singer Theo, who's lyrics capture love and gentleness over a soft, minimal production of ethereal keys and scattered glitches. The albums’ title track is also the most colourful, it’s ecstatic and effusive chaos driven by fervent synths expressing elation and the joyful side of her relationship, while ‘My Future’ is a more reflective moment, where warping synths wash in and out with compressed kicks, as the artist considers the dangers that may come with her relationship : “I wanna tie the knot / But the rope is dangerous”. ‘For You And I’ is a deeply intimate and personal offering, expressing happiness, anxiety, joy, sensuality and fear through a vivid sound palette and an experimental sense of rhythm.

Limited compilation disco 12"
300 COPIES ONLY!!

Athens of the North is very pleased to introduce part two of our nod to the world of library. This time round Greg Foat journeys into the world of synthesis with good friend James Thorpe. This new LP was recorded in the old Bees Studio on the Isle of Wight earlier this year,a special, different piece of work which I was delighted to receive on ¼ inch tape without warning. Greg's output continues to be prolific without ever tiring, he never plays it safe and is always looking forward whilst having an ear for our musical heritage.

All 8 of the Mad Professor remixes included here are previously unreleased and include his dub mixes of 2 tracks not originally featured on Mezzanine but from the same period – Metal Banshee – a dub version of Superpredators which was a cover of Siouxie and the Banshee’s Metal Postcard – and Wire, a track they recorded for the soundtrack of the film Welcome to Sarajevo.

Sarah Benabdallah and Alexis Lebon are a very 21st century musical coupling, absorbing their metropolitan surroundings while tapping into a rich cultural heritage, not unlike fellow countrymen PNL or the Dutch band Altin Gün. A Paris-based duo set for greatness they might be, but it’s fair to say Mauvais Oeil are operating under a misnomer: while their name means “evil eye” in French, you’ll only experience enlightenment when you lay eyes (and ears) upon them. Mauvais Oeil are set to release their debut EP Nuits de velours, a magical melting pot of musical shibboleths and contemporary grooves. On opener “Mes nuits de velours”, we’re transported in the land of 1001 Arabian Nights, with the music every bit as smooth and alluring as the subject matter. “Afrita” is a trance-inflected musical acclamation evoking all
the madness and gayety of a midsummer souk. Sung entirely in Arabic with delightful blasts of strings, it’s a North African-influenced banger with a delicate wistfulness. “Asha” meanwhile is in a reference to Asha Vahishta, the middle-eastern concept of truth
according to the ancient religion of Zoroastrianism. Sung again in Arabic, it features catchy Phrygian guitar manoeuvres played over ambient analogue keyboard strokes. The E.P. is completed by “Constantine”, a song of longing, dedicated to the home of Sarah’s forebears. Having met in the arty northern faubourgs of Paris, Sarah and Alexis soon developed a musical telepathy and a shared sonic agenda, mining their own histories for the profound
cultural roots that underscore Mauvais Oeil, while absorbing the ubiquitous sounds of the suburbs, where Turkish, Armenian and Ethiopian music ring out. The band’s moving and melancholic chansons are delivered with a delightful French pop sensibility, making Mauvais Oeil one of the most exciting and musically diverse prospects in 2019.

Stockholm-based audiophile bar Hosoi launches label with a rare release from Sweden’s HNNY.

Debuting on Studio Barnhus in 2011, HNNY aka Johan Cederberg quickly became one of house music’s most talked about artists with a signature sample driven style, making appearances on labels like Let’s Play House, Local Talk, Omena and his own label Puss (co-founded alongside Kornél Kovács). However, 2016 saw HNNY beginning a hiatus from touring as well as releasing music. Now Cederberg helps launch Hosoi Recordings.

Based in Stockholm, Hosoi is a listening bar with a focus on sound quality boasting custom-built KRS speakers, a hand built Condesa mixer and high-end Technics turntables. Many influential artists have passed through Hosoi —including Dip In The Pool, John Talabot, Young Marco, Kate NV and Wolf Muller & Niklas Wandt —both to share their music and to be part of such a vibrant space. It is the only venue where HNNY has continued mixing music regularly as a sole resident, curating the ‘Music For Listening’ series - a Sunday hangout for Stockholm’s discerning music lovers.

Releasing music created with its room in mind, Hosoi will put out live recordings and compilations from the bar’s favourites and it only made sense that close friend HNNY kick starts proceedings. ‘By’ nostalgically suspends the listener in time with looped female vocals, gentle guitar melodies and patterned hip hop beats.

Meanwhile on the flip, ‘Hosoi’ is coloured with twinkling keys which delightfully run over the top of lush chords sitting atop a bed of jazz percussion. Vinyl crackling throughout evokes the sound of spinning wax heard at the stylish venue.

S-Type returns with his first full EP project in three years with the expansive “S-Type-Beat”: dedicated to the art of hip hop production for its own sake.

The sound of S-Type has been defined by producing massive, melodic instrumental hip hop played out in clubs as dance music - but this was always a side effect of growing up far away from the rappers he sought to collaborate with. His track ‘Billboard’, released alongside the first TNGHT and Baauer music was seminal in the genre that some American festivals mistakenly termed “trap”. But the reality has always been that S-Type’s primary inspiration is hip hop. For the online subculture of DIY producers dating back to early ‘00s Louis Den beat battles to his own releases to his co-writing, S-Type is a leader of the beat scene.

The recent term “type beat” refers to the scene of uploading your instrumentals replicating the sound of your favourite production on commercial releases, tagging the original artist in the title of the upload in the hope your track gets exposed to the fans of the original ie. “Drake-Type-Beat”. On this new S-Type ep he celebrates the booming scene of producers and affirms himself as one of the best doing it: your favourite producers favourite producer.

The first album on Numbers from Complete Walkthru aka US producer Max McFerren, titled Scrolls, is out on 20th September 2019.

Scolls plays around with themes of privacy, disillusionment and personal development over eleven tracks, representing a transitional time in McFerren’s life. Through Scrolls’ early stages he moved from New York, where he was holding down a residency at Brooklyn’s Bossa Nova Civic Club and playing regularly in downtown Manhattan at the iconic China Chalet and the now much missed Santos Party House, to the open, rural setting of South Carolina.

The albums personality, and the thematic preoccupations underlying it, reflect the impact of this contrast. It’s sound textures cast widely into what McFerren describes as “the ephemera of the saturated digital realm” while moving through arcane rhythms, chiming melodies and expansive, metallically tinged ambient passages. First single Lean In, streaming in full now, is a dusty breaks-tight miasma of fragmented cyber-consciousness. There are playful, hyperactive refrains on Getting Ridiculous. Leavin’ Church Early is an expansive beat free meditation, while NYC’s dynamic momentum is a cityscape of bad-faith corporate aspiration.

McFerren refers to his motivations with Scrolls as being “anti-nihilism”, as reacting against a dark emptiness he perceives in certain forms of techno. Ultimately with the record, he is seeking the potential of centring joy in the present moment, in a conscious awareness of now.

The runic inscriptions of the ARP 2600's circuit boards foretold the coming of "three explorers" who will reveal the ancient truths that lie within the pulsations of its ever-shifting squarewaves. The result of weeks of intense exploratory sessions in an NYC celestial echo chamber, this record documents the efforts of Tim Wheeler, David Kitt, and Conor Creaney to fathom and harness the sounds emitted by the ARP, Minimoog, CS60, and Jupiter 4 in a strictly live fashion. No overdubs or editing took place, just the sound that filled the room as the jams emerged. The results are two extended, hypnotic synth odysseys that unfurl organically as their melodic layers reveal themselves over time.

Side A 'Locked In' opens with tranquil, sparkling synth chimes that give way to a pulsating (but largely beatless) Krautrock-meets-dub groove, anchored by an insistent bassline a
nd interlocking layers of synth lines that unfurl over its 15 minutes. Side B ‘Locked Out’ takes us to the outer reaches of the cosmos with its quavering, otherworldly arpeggios and tempestuous asteroidal outbursts.

“Bandiera Di Carta” represents the ongoing collaboration between instrument builder and composer Pierre Bastien and the
London based experimental duo Tomaga (Valentina Magaletti and Tom Relleen).
Bastien has been called a “mad musical scientist with a celebrity following” by The Guardian (UK) having collaborated with the
likes of filmmaker Pierrick Sorin, fashion designer Issey Miyake, singer and composer Robert Wyatt as well as Aphex Twin,
who released three of his albums on his label Rephlex.
Tomaga have made more than a dozen records since forming in 2014, pursuing a path of fearless experimentation and sonic
brinksmanship that has won them fans and plaudits from far and wide, including Thurston Moore, with whom they collaborated
on the CAN Project with Malcolm Mooney, Deb Goodge and others in 2017, as well as Wire, Silver Apples and Stereolab, with
whom they toured extensively in summer 2019.
The artistic collaboration between Pierre and Tomaga began with two commissions: from Fructose Festival in Dunkirk and the
revered underground festival Supersonic in Birmingham UK. Recording initially at a studio in the industrial port of Dunkirk, the
uneasy bond between borders and states seems to have been a theoretical motor to the collaborative sessions, as well as the
bleak landscape of the seaport frontier. This inspiration found further manifestation in the cover image for ‘Bandiera Di Carta’.
Resembling a white paper flag, it is, in fact, a photograph of Bastien’s paper and air sound machine installed on stage at
Teatro Carignano in Turin as part of the trio’s performance there. This charged, ambivalent image of a blank flag evokes the
transcendence of the national, a prescient visual motif that meditates on the contemporary uncertainty around notions of
national identity and borders but perhaps also a ‘carte blanche’ for the artists involved, in which they can deviate from the
confines of their usual practice into new and strange territories.
For each piece, Bastien’s unique sonic style: by turns his kinetic mechanoid motors, capriciously arrhythmic pipes, or the
peculiar susurrus of paper, creates a world in which Tomaga introduce their musical palette. Magaletti’s percussion anchors
these sometimes chaotic forces into beguiling syncopations, with Relleen’s synthesizer and organ work creating harmonic
counterpoints and interruptive provocations, to which Bastien responds with lyrical turns on prepared trumpet, rubber band, tin
foil and bass ocarina.
The results are curiously evocative of free jazz by the likes of Sun Ra or Art Ensemble of Chicago paired with the percussive
sound worlds of artists like Francis Bebey or Muslimgauze along with unique and sometimes bizarrely exotic tonal landscapes
of composers like Catherine Christer Hennix, Carl Stone, or Egisto Macchi. All three musicians seem to find space to bloom in
ways that are markedly different from their individual work and the resulting album is a strikingly original and powerfully bold
affirmation of what can happen when venturing beyond the normal in pursuit of the other.All tracks written & produced by Tomaga (Tom Relleen & Valentina Magaletti) & Pierre Bastien.
Mixed and mastered by Rashad Becker.

The Voice of Love is the second album by American singer Julee Cruise, known for her collaborations with composer Angelo Badalamenti (Twin Peaks, Lost Highway) and film director David Lynch (Twin Peaks, Mulholland Drive). It’s the voice of love we hear all over the record, even when the lyrics getting darker and darker. The lyrics are written by David Lynch, while Angelo Badalamenti is the musical creator. The pulsing drums are a little more upfront compared to her earlier work. Julee’s voice is amazing and she has no problem with creating different moods on the album. It’s a beautiful follow-up of her first record Floating Into the Night.

While it may have been Sea Bee's release, key to the album's success was the magic touch of Spokes H, who composed, produced and arranged all the tracks. Sea Bee would soon disappear off the radar, while Spokes remained an influential and popular figure in SA until his untimely death in 2013.

The latest release on DJ Okapi's Afrosynth Records removes two tracks from the original six-track album, keeping four of the choicest downtempo dancefloor bombs - 'Home Boy', 'I Wanda Why', 'Thiba' and 'Stoppa - all heavy on the bass, with uplifting vocals and unique lyrics guaranteed to not let any discerning (or aspiring) DJ down - ever!

For Blip Discs’ eighth instalment, label head Tom Blip presents two bass-loaded, grimy workouts recorded with local Ugandan MC, Swordman Kitala. Spoken in a hybrid of Luganda and English, Swordman’s lyrical lines fittingly compliment the skippy 808-driven instrumentals laid down by Tom Blip, gaining early support from Auntie Flo, Call Super, Ploy, Roska and even UK funky legend, Donae’o.