Beats News

MIC004LP

Alelah records presents the debut album from Polow – ‘In Da Diggalow’, recorded at Hilbert’s Grand Hotel with tracks produced between 2017 and 2019.

Dusty instrumental beats, hazy jazz loops and MPC-styled hip hop treats across two sides of a lovingly created cassette tape. A pure unadulterated listening experience that deserves the time and space that a tape can offer.

Kick back, light up that incense and lose yourself in this one.

St Theodore presents his brand-new EP – Last Dance, which is the second part of “Mortal Strike” EP was released on Land Of Dance Records (Italy). There is a slow, true immersion in cold and even sometimes frightening work. Minimalistic basslines, cold synthesizers, simplicity and accuracy of compositions cause
aesthetic delight. The classical TB-303 sound takes to memories of raves in the buildings of former factories, where you always feel very far from reality. The title track «Last Dance» catches hopeless motives and plunges into a darkness. "Decetiful Idol" sounds like a first-class banger. «Riddles Of September» envelops. Electro version of the track «In The Darkness Again», which original version released on Land Of Dance Records (Italy), sounds as danceable and hot.

*NOTE: On big hole white vinyl*

The Pendletons take a bold step with their first full forthcoming length album, 2 Steps Away, releasing this spring on the Bastard Jazz imprint. Recorded in San Francisco with a rock-solid band consisting of some of the best musicians in the Bay Area, including guitarist Carl Locket (Shalamar, Rick James) and Star Creature recording artist Elive, the duo taps into a classic soul/boogie sound that rides a wave of '70s and early '80s funk with ease but somehow remains true to the excitement of those classic recordings without being overly nostalgic

On this preview 7" the band showcases the uptempo disco/boogie slapper "You Do You" featuring legendary Soul singer Howard Johnson (Nightflyte / Kashif) while on the flip is the sweet soul of "Life To Me" over an irresistible groove.

Tony Benton was the driving force behind the Seattle sound during the late 70s & 80s and formed his group Teleclere, who went on to release their first single in 1982, Fantasy Love / Ultra Groove. Through the success of their independant release, Teleclere followed up a year later with their Affection/Defection album. The group disbanded shortly after and now, 36 years later we have the pleasure to announce the Tony Benton & Teleclere - Fantasy Love EP.

The tracks have been sitting on DAT tapes until early 2018 and this release is the first step to reviving their iconic sound via an initial 5 track steppers EP. 4 tracks are previously unreleased and haven't been heard since they were recorded back in the early 80s.

* The latest EP (S.U.F.O.S. Save Us From Ourselves) from South London based producer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist, Wu-Lu.
* Pressed using 180g clear heavyweight vinyl
* Includes collaborations with long-term friends, Binisa Bonner, Kwake Bass, Nubya Garcia, Eun, Demae Wodu, and Morgan Simpson.
* Recorded at The Room and Abbey Road Studios
* Limited edition of 300

Having worked with the likes of MNDSGN (Stones Throw) and Andrew Ashong on his previous 2015 EP Ginga, Wu-Lu has already secured some strong production credits. These include Ego Ella May, Oscar Jerome and Poppy Ajudah, as well as work alongside Joe Armon-Jones (Ezra Collective) and Kwake Bass (Kate Tempest, Sampha) on a brand new project coming in 2020.

S.U.F.O.S. sees Wu-Lu collaborate with long-term friends Binisa Bonner, Kwake Bass, Nubya Garcia, Eun, Demae Wodu, and Morgan Simpson (drummer from band Black Midi). Thematically, it’s a reflection of where Wu-Lu sees himself and his people in 2019 London. This EP taps into racial injustice in Britain, black empowerment and self-exploration. Spending much of his time working behind the scenes for a range of artists, this EP helps define him as a soloist.

Speaking about S.U.F.O.S. Wu-Lu says, “The EP is about family in every sense of the word: blood family, spiritual family, extended family, your family. It’s the perception of my own experience and the young people who haven’t got a loud enough voice yet”.

Wu-Lu is no stranger to experimentation within his music. He has constantly been experimenting with the various influences on his Brixton doorstep, as well as some of the complex issues that a young, mixed race man living in London may face. It’s the live stage where the impact of Wu-Lu’s passionate retellings really come into their own. Recent standouts include sharing the Field Day main stage with the likes of Erykah Badu and Loyle Carner, Brainchild Festival and a feverish Clash Music LIVE appearance at Metropolis Studios alongside Masego.

Catch Wu-Lu headline The Windmill, Brixton on the 25th April 2019.

The leftfield electro disco gem originally released in 1982 with the rare 7" mix gets an official reissue.

Passport to an OBSCENELY DYNAMIC, contemplative dimension - “The Funnel” is a set of ancient imaginations in a stranglehold of electronics and steel factory atmosfears, originally composed for Radiophrenia by Wojciech Rusin and now gloriously pressed and presented by Glasgow based Akashic Records.

F-Dorm is a collaboration between Connor Camburn of Litüus (AVIAN), and visual artist Conor Ekstrom. Commune follows the first F Dorm cassette on Mazurka and presents the first LP by the project. Songs build upon unexpected repetition, wielding normally aggressive sounds into meditative loops with subtle textural evolutions. Bursts of tape saturation, controlled waves of feedback, and linear drum beats shift and weave together through rhythmic delays. Affected vocals speak low as if coaxing the listener further out into the nether regions of the mind. The strange cumulative mood of the record is difficult to describe: A transcendental state or a foul parallel from which the listener arises stronger or does not arise at all. mummies in civilian clothes -the master of the riddle-a DOLLMIND haunts me in the penitentiary -the puttyman, naked inside -a mind made of cream

Iceland's Dynkur debuts on FALKdisks with four thunderous cuts entitled 'Tschu¨ssi' EP.

Dynkur is the creative alias of Thordur Arnarson who's been working with sound for over twenty years through DJing, engineering and instrument creation. Dynkur represents the rough side of Thordur's sound with exploration and improvisation being an intricate part of his process. Arnarson experiments by morphing beats and textures together which can be heard not only in his recordings but also in his live shows with an appearance at Sonar in his hometown of Reykjavi´k coming up later in 2019. Dynkur's 'Tshu¨ssi' EP sees him join FALKdisks, the sub-label of FALK (Fuck Art Let's Kill) following the likes Asmus Odsat and Jo´nbjo¨rn, as well as AAIIEENN and Lord Pusswhip on the main label.

'Trk01' begins with resonating kicks, acid synth zaps and undulating, angelic pads before 'Errrare' maintains the gritty sound design delivering sharp modulations, pacey drums and eccentric, wavering tones. Raw elements layered with pitched down, distorted percussion and shrilling oscillations make way for 'Arecibo' until 'Ocean of Sound' finishes things off with haunting synth keys, esoteric vocal samples and machine-like pulsations thudding in and out of focus.

Dynkur 'Tschu¨ssi' EP drops on FALKdisks on 12th April 2019.

Minimal Wave presents an LP of tracks by Belgian synthwave luminaries The Misz, entitled The Lonely Crowd. The Misz formed in Gent in 1983 by Jan Van den Broeke and Dries Dekocker at a time when they had both just relocated from the country. They lived on the same street and collaborated freely with the limited equipment they had, which always centered around the Fostex 250 4-track tape recorder. They used an unknown monophonic synthesizer, casio synths, roland drum machines, hand drums and guitars through effects pedals, improvising with their voices and often and included friends for additional voices and sounds. They captured these sonic experiments and sometimes released them on cassette in editions of 100-200. They were also included on numerous cassette compilations throughout the 1980s on labels like Mad In Belgium, The Cassette Factory, 3RIO Tapes, Minimart production, Fraction Studio, Cauchy Productions, Home Product, R.R. products, ZNS Tapes, and Body Records.

The Misz described themselves as young, immature and bit strange yet totally bold and fearless. They sang about what surrounded them from world politics and environmental catastrophes to love and lust. The songs on The Lonely Crowd span from various cassette releases and have been remastered from their original reel to reel tapes.

The LP is pressed on 180 gram vinyl as a limited edition of 600 copies, the first 100 are in white and the remaining 500 in black. The cover and inner sleeve are printed on matte heavy card stock featuring photographic collages, typography and design by Peter Miles.

Beacon Sound presents a first-time collaboration between Thomas Meluch (aka Benoit Pioulard) and Sean Curtis Patrick, entitled Avocationals. Over the course of nine songs the two use synthesizers, reel-to-reel tape machines, field recordings, guitar, and processed voice to conjure the ghosts of 20th century Great Lakes shipwrecks. From the muffled thumping of "Stonefax", which might bring to mind the cracking and bowing of a ship on its way to the lake bottom, to the pulsating vocal drone that guides "Sunek", evoking peril and loss, each of these songs brings to mind the final moments of doomed seafarers and their cargo-laden ships, the disintegration of hubris, the fraying of memory. By the time "Cabot" rolls around, like a lonely fog horn crossing the waves on a stormy night, the effect is of watching a decaying film loop that is somehow not only representative of a distant past but also of what perhaps lies ahead.

Wintery, yet humming throughout with a narcotic warmth, Avocationals will pull you underwater and submerge you in the murky depths of a lost world. As the artists themselves write, "An avocational is an amateur diver who assists in rescue, investigation and salvage relating to watercraft disasters. Dozens of freighters and small sank during the mid-20th century golden age of shipping on the Great Lakes; this album is about nine of them."

Sean Curtis Patrick is a visual artist, photographer, adventurer, and musician. He has created art, design, and music videos for artists like Alessandro Cortini, Benoit Pioulard, Bana Haffar, Richard Devine, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Rafael Anton lrisarri, and many others. ln 2018, Sean directed and sound tracked a documentary about the devastation of the island of Puerto Rico after the hurricanes of 2017. He is an alumnus of the Banff Centre Musicians in Residence program and debuted new solo material on a Japanese tour in late 2018. Sean has released albums on Day Dot, Beacon Sound, and Muzan Editions. He lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Benoit Pioulard weaves natural sounds and textures of decay into his vague-pop songs, colored with the lushness and unpredictability of field recordings. His numerous albums for Kranky, Beacon Sound, and Morr Music document an evolving relationship with guitar, voice, and frayed layers of fidelity, alternately melodic, muted, and diffuse. He resides in Seattle, Washington.

Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll.

PYRAMID TRANSMISSIONS presents the 2nd solo release on the label from PT creator ADJ.

STREET LIFE Part 2 continues the theme of Part 1 with another 4 tracks of bass driven future electro music from one of the longest standing members of the scene.

STREET LIFE Part 2 is more pure Future Bboy music with punching kick drums, Alien melodies and crunchy glitches for that unmistakable ADJ sound aimed at making you dance while getting in your head simultaneously. ADJ always looks to the future but with nods to his past of 808 electro music.

This is the definitive reissue of the long out of print first album from Italian experimental-rock band La 1919. Originally released in 1987 by ADN, the Italian Recommended Records branch, Ars srA was an early example of a long distance collaboration album as result of a virtuosic exchange of tapes between the Milan based duo and the legendary American guitarist Henry Kaiser and Canadian maverick sound artist John Oswald. The resulting music sounds like a perfect blend of '70s Art-Rock elements and '80s electronics. An eclectic mix of "Frith" oriented guitars, cold synthetic sounds and programmed drum machine beats. Some sort of sonic no-man's land where elements from the Post-Rock in Opposition aesthetic meet the experimental side of New Wave. The album includes a declared tribute to the Frith-Laswell-Maher seminal coalition, via a metronomic version of "Killing Time", the title track from Massacre's first album. The LP comes with updated graphics and contents including unpublished pictures and various memorabilia + CD with extra tracks.

Beautiful and highly collectible item: 2xLP, Booklet, Double Gatefold. Official license with SEGA.

Contains 'PERFECT CHAOS' Illustrations, 2 full color inner sleeves with exclusive outlined Sonic Character design, comprehensive Full-Color Booklet featuring: Liner Notes by John Linneman of Digital Foundry Reflective, Interview with head of Sonic Team Takashi Iizuka and Jun Senoue, Song Lyrics, Character Art, Bandcamp Download Code for digital tracks

Brave Wave is proud to announce that it is collaborating with SEGA to bring the legendary soundtracks for both SONIC ADVENTURE and SONIC ADVENTURE 2 to vinyl for the first time! Both albums will each contain two LP records and will feature a selection of the games' best tracks remastered especially for vinyl and handpicked by Sonic Adventure series Lead Composer and Sound Director Jun Senoue and the team.

For the first release in Feeding Tube’s Unknown Province series — a run of records dedicated to exploring little known nooks of the Canadian underground, curated by Alex Moskos — we are delighted to bring you the first vinyl reissue of the 1968 zoner masterpiece by poet Bill Bissett and his fellow Vancouver freaks.

We have always been shocked this LP was not included on the NWW list, but Canadian releases often seem to exist in their own universe, so we suppose that’s the “explanation.” Because, in a list of any free-form freakouts, Awake in th’ Red Desert would surely have a high place. Bissett was a sound/concrete poet of high repute when this was recorded, and he was also something akin to the king of the Vancouver underground scene. The original album was issued by Jim Brown’s See/Hear label, which Brown founded as an adjunct to his Talon Books imprint.

Backed by a band of interesting musicians (a few of whom went on to straighter afterlives), Bissett created an insane mass of sound, comparable to what Mayo Thompson’s Red Crayola was doing in Texas around the same time, laced with heavy Fugs overtones. Pure freaked sonics, created while stoned, for an audience that was similarly blasted, and was willing to decode what was going on using the very best acid logic available.

Hard for me to describe how much I love this album. And I will attest that this version sounds better than any other available version ever has or could. It is jacked.

Nice detailed liner notes by Alex Moskos set the scene as well as anyone ever will, and if you don’t feel your teeth wiggling while this plays, I suggest you may never feel that particular feeling. In your life.

Bill Bissett is still going today, and we heartily suggest that anyone who digs this album runs out and tries to nail down one or another of his wonderful books before the sun sets.

–Byron Coley, 2019

All Your Sisters was conceived in 2011 in Reno, NV by Jordan Morrison as an outlet to process the suffering that Morrison witnessed while working graveyard shifts as a paramedic. The primal state of debased humanity certainly left a blistering mark that can be heard in the project’s third full-length, Trust Ruins. Morrison also mines themes from his fundamentalist Christian upbringing as well as a series of paramount life events—both devastating and blissful—that preceded the album’s inception.

In the final two months of 2016, then residing in San Francisco, Morrison experienced the elation of becoming engaged in tandem with the fatal drug overdose of his brother-in-law, as well as the Ghost Ship warehouse fire in Oakland that claimed the lives of many in the Bay Area music scene. Compounded with the recent presidential election, a sense of inescapable doom and dystopia lingered, forcing Morrison to re-examine the direction of his life. He explains, “This record is about making hard life choices, living with those decisions, and the struggle to live life on life’s terms. If I die tomorrow, I don’t want to have any regrets.”

Engineered by Jack Shirley (Deafheaven, Oathbreaker, Bosse-de-Nage), Trust Ruins is the score to a series of de-indoctrinating sermons, armed with marching protest beats. Drawing on the energetic industrial and post-punk influences of the previous Uncomfortable Skin (The Flenser, 2016) and Modern Failures (2014) albums, this latest is a dark, dynamic assortment of songs that pushes far past nostalgia to create something new. Punchy electronic drums provide a foundation for layers of dreamy piano, howling guitars, brooding synths, and Morrison’s commanding croon that often unravels into a yell. While Trust Ruins may seem hopelessly bleak, it is anything but with its moments of beauty and raw emotion that offer a sense of hope in a crumbling world.

”Let us unfold the animal outward: the bronchia will become a thick foliage, keeping its respiratory function, but in reverse, naturally (CO2 absorption), reversed also concerning color, from the tint of calves’ lungs to its complementary cabbage green. The digestive system will become roots, maintaining its role of drawing in nourishment from the outside environment. […] for each animal form there exists a corresponding vegetal form. The man who would find his vegetal negative and unite with it would restore the integrity of the cosmos.”

Vegetal Negatives is a game of sonic mutations, mimicry, inversions, and association inspired by a text called "On pataphotograms", by the French writer René Daumal – a quasi-metaphysical essay that toys with breaking the conceived separateness of natural forms through poetic imagination.

Marja Ahti (b. 1981) is a Swedish-born artist living and working in Turku, Finland. She has been an active part of the Finnish experimental music scene for more than ten years. Now arriving at her debut LP under her own name, Ahti explores a new formal language and sonic palette that ventures far from the path of her earlier work.

The four electroacoustic compositions on the album combine and arrange field recordings, electronic feedback, Buchla and ARP synthesizers, bowl gong and harmonium, textures of detailed acoustic sound, and sustained tones with gentle microtonal beating into a precise musical narrative. She juxtaposes recordings of rooms and empty vessels, natural and artificial climates, spontaneous and staged events. Ahti draws upon Annea Lockwood's ideas about associative movements between sounds based on shared characteristics and sonic energy. Her approach to field recordings is neither diaristic, documentaristic, nor purely acousmatic, but rather it starts out from somewhere in between these notions: the sounds hover between abstraction and the deeply familiar, moving into a realm of poetic metaphor where they are set in relation to each other, fleetingly mirroring or shadow-dancing. Acoustic environments mutate into synthetically derived shadow forms.

The opening track, "Coastal Inversion”, moves from a seemingly familiar seascape into an ocean of wavelike synthetic staccato patterns, turning itself inside-out on the shore, before diving back into a sea of resonance. ”Rooftop gardens” arranges a series of largely unprocessed field recordings into a dream-logic sequence of upward movement towards the clouds. On the other side, ”Symbiogenesis” brews a slow evolution of wet, airy and earthy sounds and resonant friction. The closing track, ”Chora”, imagines a meditative space of breath: filter resonance posing as organ pipes against a backdrop of breezy industrial hoovers merges halfway with a harmonium improvisation that foregrounds the frictions of the wooden instrument itself, just before filtering out into resonant harmony.

Marja Ahti: composition, production, field recording, Buchla 200 and ARP 2600 Recorded at EMS, Stockholm, WORM, Rotterdam, and on locations in Greece, Alaska, Finland and Sweden. Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi Designed by Ruth Stofer

The second volume of Water and Rock Music by British guitarist Jon Collin is another solid gambol in the outdoors. For much of this it sounds almost as though Mr. Collin is wearing a pair of hip waders and is up to his ass in a stream, casting for notes the way Hemingway casted for trout. His string bending recalls Loren Connors at points, but he has a manual approach to filigree Loren has never displayed. Notes bend and hovers, but they also flutter, and the combination of sounds is not quite like anything that’s preceded it.

Some listeners have noted that the environmental sounds put them in mind of New Age string pluckers, but Collin’s compositions do not fall into the trap of needing to resolve melodic quandaries, or making gestures that chase after standard forms of beauty. Jon’s music works as a series of comments on sound and questions about the physical space in which it’s created, but like any good philosopher he knows when to leave a sense of mystery hanging in the air.

There is plenty of sweetness to the playing here, whether he’s strolling through a playground, standing in the middle of a busy street, or sitting the the flight path of an airport. The music never seems dictated by the background sounds, so much as it encourages us to consider every part of the sonic construction to be heard as music (in the Cage-ian sense). The elements become a part of the greater whole in a seamless way. And the closer you listen the more that becomes clear.

I am still most struck by (at least what sounds like) the “stream” sequences. But that’s just because I really like the visuals it conjures up. You may find different personal sweet spots. But find them you will.

Water and Rock Music Volume II is a truly ear-opening spin.

-Byron Coley, 2019

Magazzini Criminali can be considered one of the most important experiences in Italian Post-Avant-garde theatre of the '70s and the '80s. Back in 1980 the group gave birth to one their widely acclaimed and most representative works. Crollo Nervoso was a real Post Modern Opera, a complex and multi layered work based on the transfer between different Art languages and aesthetics. A deep mixture of Avant Rock, Burroughs's Cut Up, science fiction, body art, glamour and a hint of porno. On stage actors move obsessively and creating some highly repetitive sequences that show a clear "Rock" approach. Musically we are in front of a great hybrid where electronics, tribal funk, ambient and Blues interact with actors excited voices and "stolen" fragments from the musical works of Eno, Fripp, Jon Hassell, Miles Davis and others. More than a Pre-Plunderphonics kind of work, Crollo Nervoso is a definitive re-invention of the soundtrack concept in relation with text and drama. Originally released in 1980 (on black or white vinyl) by Italian Records, Crollo Nervoso stands as a unique sound-art object that finally sees the light again in all its multi-sensory eclecticism.

Originally released on Illuminated Records in 1983, "Viral Shedding" is surely one of the most important references for the industrial/funk dance music.

Between pure noise and electronic beats, 'Viral Shedding' is creating a twisted and percussive rhythmic urge, a funky disco sound permeated by digital industrial beats. Nigel Ayers and Caroline K take their inaccessible best and thrown it into the melting pot with a set of pumping rhythms. The result is the frustrated son of mutant disco, swimming in the same waters of Cabaret Voltaire, 23 Skidoo, Tackhead, Meat Beat Manifesto and Hula.

As Nigel Ayers recalls, "Popular music picked up on what we were doing 1983-1984, which helps explain why records such as -Viral Shedding- sound clubbier today than they did at the time, but the technology of music making locked in a seat of aesthetics in those days that shaped pop as a whole more than industrial music itself did. Whether by synthesizer manufacturers' musical design or through engineering limitations, the more automated a band allowed their music to become, the dancer it was likely to be."

Features the classics 'Suffering Stinks', 'Going Under' and 'No Separation'.

Reissue of a true avantgarde-rock classic: Skeleton Crew were the maverick duo of Ex-Henry Cow guitarist Fred Frith and the great late cellist Tom Cora. Formed during one of Frith's early American residencies, Skeleton Crew was a legendary two man crew who somehow - in real time, managed to play all their instruments, cello, bass, electric guitar, violin, vocals - as well as, drum parts dislocated between the two of them. No one sounded like Skeleton Crew, ever. An unprecedented and tight duo coalition that produced some of the best music of the decade. Originally released in 1984, Learn to Talk consists of a highly integrated mixture of art-rock, punk energy, tape manipulation and re imagined folk elements. A catalogue of invention that remains breathtaking today. Fully re-mastered and including a printed inner sleeve with previously unpublished text by Fred Frith in memory of Tom Cora on the 20th anniversary of his premature passing.

Mariusz Luniewski is the man behind UNDERTHESKIN, one of the most respected european post- punk project nowadays. He strike back with his second studio album, his very best work to date, no doubt on this sentence. Harsh guitars, lead synths and cavernous voices flows in perfect harmony on the 6 tracks included. This new album it's more than a must have for any modern dark sound lover. All tracks have been specially mastered for LONG CUT vinyl by Eric Van Wonterghem at Prodam Berlin.

However far back you trace its triumph, we seem to still be living in Poptimism’s world. It is unclear, however, what kind of world that is. It has always been a self-referential optimism: Pop was promised to deliver the pleasures of Pop; nothing less or more. We were never given an impression of what a Pop utopianism might look like.

Utopia is no-place; utopianism is concerned with the invisible potentials that sleep in the interstices of our world. Fenster’s Lucas Ufo, who records as WORLD BRAIN, is preoccupied with the aethers that surrounds us – he lists among his inspirations for Peer 2 Peer, sitting at the windows and “watching WiFi enter the room.” Perhaps this is the core of the utopian imagination – staring intently at those parts of the world which we cannot see but which we know must be shaping the rest.

As the album’s title suggests, this Pop Utopianism is often concerned with the romantic potentials of digital technology, and its central image, the network - while the music often invokes the studios of the 1980s, the themes are more suggestive of the Web-positivity of the 90s and early 00s. Following his windowsill observation sessions, ‘Network’ is a three minute guitar solo impersonating those WiFi signals. “Hyptertext” call the links that weave our experience of the internet one of ‘the true modern things.’ “<3beat” imagines two computers falling in love, discussing the things that matter to them – ‘networks reflected in the sky.’ The digital paramours are concerned above all with the legibility and maintenance of connection, but are also poignantly aware of the accelerated impermanence of technology: the singer wants to share his heart – ‘until the next update.’

The utopian spirit that pervades Peer 2 Peer is not limited to a nostalgia for the dream of an open internet or the production aesthetics of a past era. Opener “The Pangean Anthem,” by its name (after the no-place that was every-place of the first supercontinent) and infectious cheer, is a wordless declaration of intent for what follows. Lead single “Made U Cry,” which made a splash in early 2018, is addressed to Satan, the original utopian, possessed of the prettiest smile. “Everybody Dies,” featuring ubercrooner and frequent Mansions and Millions guest Sean Nicholas Savage, is a kind of thanato-utopianism, a blissful, mellow meditation on the grand egalitarianism of mortality. “It’s All True,” driven by a maddeningly infectious riff emphasized with a Windows 95 system ‘ding’, simply lists well-known and common phenomena, lost in wondrous awe at the simple fact of existence. In a similar mood, the appropriately bubbly “Bubble Tea” asks ‘isn’t it sweet to live on this sphere, isn’t it wonderful?’ Even the album’s most melancholy moment, “Besides,” takes a cosmic perspective, dwelling on the parallels between the proverbial grain of sand and the grains in a lonesome bowl of rice, meditating on the holographic quality of mood.

Both sweet and silly, wistful and whimsical, Peer 2 Peer is always affirmative. Where others might mine the past as a cheap source of irony or nostalgia, WORLD BRAIN has a made a clearing equidistant between then and now, a no-place in which to build a Pop Utopia in miniature.

The “Elder Statesmen of Neo-Krautrock”: Electro-duo Klangwart was thought-provokingly labelled as such by an inventive music journalist when presenting their previous album “Transit” (named, among others, Record of the Year in the “Avant-Rock” section of The Wire’s 2016 Critics Poll). The tag responds to an understandable attempt at finding a category for one of the most singular phenomena of the electronic music scene.

It might be more passing to call tahem the “Under-Statesmen”, as minimalism and understatement are key elements of the Klangwart project, founded more than 20 years ago by musician and author Timo Reuber and DJ and Staubgold label manager Markus Detmer.

Every few years, seemingly coming out of nowhere, the duo release a consistently critically acclaimed Klangwart album, give a couple of concerts, and disappear once again. This might sound of harakiri, as it contradicts all common rules of the music market. But behind it lies a profound longing for veracious expression on the border between avant-garde and entertainment. In 2014, Klangwart travelled to the Colombian capital in order to record the material for “Bogotá” with protagonists of the local music scene: Damián Ponce (drums), César Quevedo (bass) and Eblis Álvarez (violoncello), members of The Meridian Brothers, and singers Juanita and Valentina Áñez Rothmann a.k.a. Las Áñez. The result is Klangwart’s trademark sound permeated by a Latin American pulse and pitch.

Collectively improvised and recorded in a matter of days, the raw material was later edited and mixed by Reuber at the Inkiek-Studio in Cologne. Joseph Suchy added guitar overdubs and mastered the album.

At all times unpredictable, exciting and surprising, “Bogotá” is the latest milestone in Klangwart’s ongoing musical journey. Recorded in Bogotá featuring members of the Meridian Brothers and Las Áñez.

Low Distance is Deaf Center´s third full-length studio album and perhaps the most focused effort by the Norwegian duo to date. After their last record Owl Splinters (2011) was quite an eclectic endeavor, Erik K Skodvin & Otto A Totland draw their sound back into something more quiet and minimal.

The record starts with a piece of sweeping analougue electronics. It´s a spacious, yet dynamic opener that leads directly into the static tones and piano motivs of Entity Voice, which balances a new sense of abstractation with the classic Deaf Center sound. It´s warm and close while sounding like it´s set in the outer horizon. Overall Low Distance feels both alien and familiar with its atonal synths, close pianos and drowned out noises.

After meeting in studio for the first time since 2011, the recordings came out of a 3 day session in 2017. It was then mixed at both EMS Stockholm and at Erik´s home studio over a longer period to create a blend of deeply layered as well as stripped down pieces. Both Erik & Otto have been active individually since their last meeting as Deaf Center: Otto released 2 solo piano albums, while Erik has furthered his descent into musical abstractation both under his own name and as Svarte Greiner. It´s long overdue to hear them connect their personalities into something new. Low Distance is a welcome return replete with beauty, mystery and uncertainty.

Nyege Nyege Tapes deliver another volley of breathless Singeli from Tanzania, this time the vinyl debut of Duke showcasing the sound of Pamoja Records, following multiple zingers from the scene’s core Sisso Studios

Yet again making practically everything else seem pedestrian and tepid by contrast, Duke’s take on Dar Es Salaam’s Singeli style is ruthlessly fast and rugged, crammed with colourful samples and, quite crucially, loaded with a pair of blistering vocal tracks starring MCZO & Don Tach, and Dogo Lizzi, respectively.

In ‘Uingizaji Hewa’ the tempos thrillingly tilt over the 200bpm mark, but they’re held in check with a clutch of slower instrumentals written in Duke’s newer Hip Hop Singeli style. When he goes fast, dancers will know about it in the likes of ’Naona Laaah’ featuring machine gun rapid rhythms somehow matched for pace by MCZO & Don Tach, and again in the pedal-to-the-meckle recklessness of ‘M Lap’ starring Dogo Lizzi switching up from dancehall bark to fasssst-chat styles that put Daddy Freddy to bed.

But those hi-NRG bombs are only half the story. The rest of the LP shows off Duke’s wicked way with a hook and the diversity of his drum programming in highlights ranging from the PC Music- compatible bounce of ‘Sing4444444’, to the cascading chromatic licks and slow/fast suss of ‘Duke 4’, the joyful dervish of ‘Duke Bit Puyo’, and two dizzying pieces with spiralling, Bollywood-style vocal samples that close the record with a blinding flourish.

Gregorio Gomez aka Gladkazuka is a mythical figure from Medelli´n's underground nightlife, contributing since pre - smartphone ages with energetic live sets to the celebration of life in the convulsive surrounding of the Colombian city. After playing and touring alongside Matias Aguayo with 'The Desdemonas' and contributing with the club smash hits 'Ihr Euer' and 'Futuro Chaos' to the 'Solidarity Forever' series on Co´meme - Gladkazuka is back with a full EP in which highly emotive and sensual electro dance fantasies culminate to 'The Drop'. Gomez' creations are nocturnal and lush, utopian and melancholic - underground dance pop that would be mainstream in a better world.

However these songs were created in a place where an unseen destruction of nature is taking place, and - in mids of times of supposed peace agreements - social leaders are being assassinated under the eyes of a new right wing government. Meanwhile the societies are fragmented towards a growing individualism and competition, exchanging dignity for an ideal of consumerism.
In this chaos, music becomes the celebration of life.

'Naturalia', the first track of the EP reflects this with its lushness and its jungle - like humid warmth, 'Flancing' with its happy flying fishes and 'El Coral' with its jittering electric eels.

'The Drop' is decontextualized Electro and New Wave - echoes of The Cure and The Other People Place dissolving into utopian dreaming, longing for better times, like vampire bats, hanging in their caves, waiting for the night to come.

The long-awaited, first-ever vinyl release from the Osaka-based band goat. The five tracks being compiled from their debut CD New Games' (2013) and their second album Rhythm & Sound' (2015). The titles of those releases provide a hint: a sense of joyful play within defined structures, and an emphasis on propulsive pulse and a prioritizing of pure percussive sound over melodic content. With guitar, bass, drums and saxophone, goat create music which is unlike any rock band, utilizing harmonics outside standard tonality, as well as clever muting, to craft the intricate, driven, forceful compositions of Koshiro Hino, aka YPY.

goat is currently going through a period of new development and further exploration of intertwining patterns of rhythmic repetition, this compilation is the bedrock. Superbly recorded and mixed by Bunsho Nishikawa, mastered and cut by Rashad Becker, cover art by Tomoo Gokita, this release will be a revelation for your turntable.

goat's is a singular sound, improvised frenetic rhythms, reined in by weeks of rehearsal, until a monstrous battery emerges. See them live in Europe this summer and prepare to be absolutely blown away.'

Levon Vincent

Compared by many people to Boy Harsher, the duo formed by Ana Schmidt and Kevin Czarnik is the new sensation in the californian synthwave scene; their unique soundscapes, their mesmerizing voice treatments and their punchy analog rhythms promises only but great sensations on the obscure dance temples. 4 tracks that has been selected from their recently released ABSENCE album + a remix by Synths Versus Me will be featured on their very awaited vinyl debut. All tracks have been specially remastered for LONG CUT vinyl by Eric Van Wonterghem at Prodam Berlin.

This spring, acclaimed abstract hip-hop producer and cofounder of Anticon Records, Odd Nosdam, will release MIRRORS - a new LP via Alien Transistor. Composed entirely of found sounds, most of them sourced from rare and private press vinyl, MIRRORS’s instrumental beats and sound collages pulse with a sense of exploration and rediscovery that has been Nosdam’s calling card since the turn of this past century. Its every track presents a treasure trove of unique aural gems, each nestled in atmospheric textures that swirl like a cloud of dust just blown off of some once-overlooked heirloom.

Designed specifically for vinyl, the record’s A and B sides play out like a pair of cohesive psychedelic dreams. Yet even a skilled psychoanalyst would struggle to categorize these reveries as either pure seraphic bliss or full-on nightmare. By sneaking strategic bursts of beauty into MIRROR’s more sinister beats (“MIRRORS I”) and by lacing its largely angelic compositions with foreboding tones (“THE BURN”), Odd Nosdam has crafted a record that is not only engrossingly nuanced, but that captures a highly specified, often hypnogogic, mental state with breathtaking accuracy: cognitive dissonance.

The sensation of experiencing an emotion that runs in direct opposition to one’s circumstantial narrative - a sense of melancholy when things are ostensibly fine, a smile as the world seems to crumble - may once have been predominately the stuff of dreams. But in our current age of ebullient social media fac¸ades, and at a sociopolitical moment when joy feels like an aberrant blip in an up-scrolling sea of horror, MIRRORS provides an unsettlingly apt soundtrack to the waking experience of the modern era.

Oneric interpretations aside, at its core MIRRORS is simply a stunning and dynamic beat tape. As he has for two decades - whether in crafting instrumentals for avant-rap legends cLOUDDEAD and art-rapper Serengeti, soundtracking skate videos for Element Skateboards, or adding to his prolific catalog of solo recordings - Odd Nosdam uses his special knack for marrying monolithic, lumbering drum arrangements with novel melodic flourishes to create a breed of experimental hip-hop music entirely his own. An evocative record that seamlessly blends transcendence with menace, MIRRORS is a captivating addition to the producer’s body of work and one that will continue to leave listeners awed by his creativity, versatility, and his singular vision.

6 YEARS // ANNIVERSARY // 24 HOURS // FRIDAY - SATURDAY // TECHNO // STAUB

6 RECORDS // 6 UNKNOWN ARTISTS // 6 UNTITLED TRACKS no actually it's only one record and five tracks. Unknown artist might not be that much into numerology, but it is still incredible to celebrate 6 years of this project. We really want to thank everyone that has supported us, visited our parties, and played our records... Unknown artist starts this fourth instalment with a murky ambient track on A1 before delving into trippy xylophonic techno on A2 and finally going full out mental on A3.

B1 starts with a more restrained cut - but that's just a ruse, you are in the eye of the storm - because B2 with its frantic pace picks it up for a fitting brutal final of a well rounded, versatile techno record.
A bit like a STAUB.

Berlin techno collective STAUB is about to celebrate six years of existence. STAUB runs monthly daytime events at Berlin's ://about blank club. Line-up stays secret, and main focus is on the music. During these years, STAUB travelled to Detroit, Bogota, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Milan and more.

Fourth release of STAUB will be out on Irakli's new label Intergalactic Research Institute for Sound, and will be available at the event STAUB 6 Years Anniversary on February 22-23.

Springing up from the Osaka underground club music scene in 2006, Hino is a rhythm master, intimately examining and extending pulses and grooves in his various projects. YPY is Hino's long-running rhythmic solo DNA lab, in which he investigates impulsion and propulsion, using drum machines and synthesizers in an organic and vital manner to create living and evolving percussive biosystems which are more than electronic music etudes.
With a strong sense of structure and space, development and dynamics, these pieces have an infectious warmth and humor. YPY utilizes and transcends the technical limitations of his chosen recording medium of cassette tape, and the quirks of relatively primitive drum machines and synthesizers, turning weakness into strength. The seven pieces here were recorded over a number of years and chosen, from a library of over seventy works, in collaboration with renowned Yosuke Yukimatsu. Available on CD and double 12-inch 45 RPM vinyl. With the title punningly referring to the slippery fragmentation of the music, "Zurhyrethm" is an enjoyable and intriguing debut.

Australia based Brit Jamie Blanco serves up Kilsha's superb second EP and capitalises once more on a fine recent run of form.

Blanco has previously released on Felix Dickinson's Cynic as well as Futureboogie and more recently on Pelvis & Tone Dropout. He is one half of Ess O Ess as well as a solo artist making waves with his wonderfully off kilter sounds, and has played all over the planet in the last couple of years. Eclectic in taste and inspired by Balearic beats as much as driving percussion and acid, he is all set for a busy 2019.

Right from the off, 'Unit of Pleasure' gets in your affections with its mix of original live recorded percussion, aircraft noise and hypnotic bass. It's a wilfully diverse mix of sounds and scenes that is utterly compelling. The excellent 'Progressive View' then dips into broken beat and classic electro territory, with raw synths and cavernous hits driving things forward over a rhythmic b-line.

Keeping up the unpredictable mood of the EP, 'Grapefruit Agenda' is a tripped-out piece of left of centre house music, with paranoid melodies and circling pads amping up the energy and taking you on a real journey. The superb 'XOX18' closes things out with downtempo electro moods that are futuristic and dystopian, all with an effective analogue edge.

These four tracks confirm Blanco is a fascinating artist with a fresh take on dance music and provide another superb instalment for the supremely promising Kilsha Music.

Second Lp From French Electronic Talent Thylacine
Regardless Of Whether Or Not The Thylacine, A Species Of Marsupial With A Tiger-striped Back, Still Lives
In Tasmania Or Not, It Is In Argentina That This Young Star Of The French Electro Scene Decided To
Record His Second Album. To Create A Follow Up To Transsiberian, His Brilliant First Album That He
Recorded In 2015 Aboard The Train That Links Moscow To Vladivostok, William Rezé, Aka Thylacine,
Bought A 1972 Trailer, One Of The Famous All-aluminum Airstreams.
After Painstakingly Transforming The Trailer Into A Recording Studio, He Put His Beautiful American On
A Freighter Across The Atlantic And Got It Back A Month Later In Buenos Aires.
He Was Drawn To South America By The Pull Of The Unknown, The Absolute Absence Of Reference. He
Wanted To Immerse Himself In Desert And Lunar Landscapes, Explore Multicolored Canyons, Sand
Dunes, Giant Cacti Forests, Snow-capped Peaks... And Write, Alone, In The Intimacy Of His Nomadic
Studio.
After Making Stops In The Middle Of Nowhere, He Returned With Ten Tracks That Marvelously Combine
Moderat's Aerial Melodies, The Solar Touch Of Nicola Cruz, And The Techno Power Of Paul Kalkbrenner.
His Electronica Is Often Laden With Saxophonehis Instrument Of Choice, Which He Started Playing At
The Age Of 6 At A Conservatoryand Features Vocals From Julia Minkin (of Kid Francescoli), Clara
Trucco (a Member Of The Trio Femina), And Juana Molina, "considered The Argentinian Björk," Says
Thylacine.
Mission Accomplished: The Young Angevin's Vaporous Layers Are Tinged With Charango, A Local
Instrument, And Melodies Inspired By Traditional Argentinian Songs. "i Wanted To Go Back To A Music
With A More Acoustic Sound."
And The Tracks Follow One Another, Telling The Story Of His Extraordinary Odyssey: The Hypnotizing the
Road Expresses The Miles Of Road Traveled; The Captivating Tale Of santa Barbara Evokes The Close
Ties Between Inhabitants Of A Tiny Village In The Andes; And The Rhythm Of 4500 M, Cut By The Flow Of
The American Rapper J. Medeiros, Recalls The High Desert Where Thylacine Once Had To Sleep, Forced To
Stop For The Night By Storms Of A Rare Intensity.
Three Months And Ten Thousand Kilometers Later, This "concept Album" Is Ready; It's Called Roads Vol.
1, And Its The First Installment Of A Collection That The 26-year-old Thylacine Expects To Add To As He
Continues His Travels. His Itinerant Studio, Ingeniously Equipped With Solar Panels, Will Take Him,
Hopefully, Very Far.

Cut Off is the result of a dialog between the photographer Dmitri Markov and the composer / musician Aries Mond initiated by IIKKI, between October 2017 and December 2018. The complete project works in two separate physical imprints: a book and a disc (vinyl or cd).

After his first works based on field recording, Aries Mond has started to work with music instruments in 2012. Mostly focused on piano. His first album has been released on eilean rec. in 2018 and Cut Off is his second album. Aries Mond also composes music for contemporary theatre. He lives in southern of France, in the Pyrénées.

Dmitri Markov is a russian documental photographer, social worker, volunteer and journalist from Pskov. His only camera is an iPhone, with a sharp eye he documents life in the ex-URSS without any artifice. His works are simply some everyday life’s scenes with a particular sense of beauty and a wonderful talent. He has been laureate from many international competitions. Cut Off is his second book.

"I like traveling around the country and taking pictures of ordinary lives of ordinary people. It is sad to hear people say that I capture the seamy side. I don’t see anything horrible in these pictures of mine. They are not just 'social photography', as many people see them, they are my personal encounters and scenes. Every added picture is like another chapter in my own history. And when I get asked why I go after 'life’s unpleasant side', I reply: 'Because I’m part of it.'"

Fine Art Book, Ltd. to 500 copies: Hardcover book printed on Munken Print White main 1.8 115g/m2 // 96 pages, 24cm x 22cm, 54 photos // Logo, slot and circle embossed // Matt laminate soft touch finish + selective varnish // Hand-numbered, hand-stamped