Beats News

Identified Patient & Sophie Du Palais / Randstad / Mitchell Goor / Stevie Whisper.
Amsterdam / London / Rotterdam / Beograd
A untitled tale of feminism, broken hearts and futurism.

Sixth EP on FireScope Records the new sub label of the legendary B12 Records. This release is by B12 Ft Yonii, UK techno fused with wonderful pure and beautiful vocals.

B12 Established early 90's with a multitude of releases appearing on Warp Records UK, B12 Records, Soma Records, Delsin Records, FireScope Records, ART , Buzz, De:Tuned

The EP entitled In Vain is the first EP featuring B12 and the wonderful singer songwriter Yonii. These are real songs, with real meanings and are the the result of a pure and wonderful collaboration. The tracks tell a story, and with open ears and heart they will deliver the message clearly
'Sympathy' A very acoustic sounding drum and percussion arrangement held together with glorious B12 esq Pads is the opener here. The vocals elevate this track to another level, with a dangerous equilibrium of vulnerability and distain.
'Shotgun' Straight in with a heavy synth baseline and lyrics. A menacing track featuring a vocal that floats effortlessly on a downtempo B12 vibe. An exposed interplay of rhythmic melodies and dark imagery.
'Moth' A busy beat and synth driven backdrop provide the platform for Yonii to tell her story of love and pain. Is it all in Vain Why must we gravitate towards the flame that ultimately extinguishes us....
'Sympathy (Beatz)' & 'Moth (Beatz)' Just the Beatz of the main tracks :-)
Finished in glorious white and green splatter vinyl with exclusive full colour artwork by the wonderful Catherine Prendergast AKA Cellar Door

Going Good's 13th release is finally upon us and we are quietly confident that it is indeed a truly special one. This is London duo Weird Weather's second sonic offering and already their stepping left-field sounds are pricking up all the right ears. Contained within are some heavyweight signals transmitted live and direct from the capitol's infamous MAP Studios, giving us a heady blend of Shaka inspired sound-system meditations, early 90's FAX reflections and spirit invoking downtempo meanderings. Weight for the bass.

Beverly Glenn-Copeland is already known amongst collectors and music heads for two sought after albums of folky jazz in the key of Joni.It was this album, originally self-released on cassette in 1986 that caught the label's attention. The album, entirely recorded on DX-7 and TR-707, lies somewhere between digital new-age and (accidentally) early Detroit techno experiments. The inimitable style of BGC here is both peaceful and meditative while simultaneously rhythmic and bass heavy. The album was recorded in the northern Canadian town of Huntsville where BGC was living at the time and is a beautiful fusion of personal vision, technology and place. Issued here for the first time on vinyl, with a full restoration and re-master.

Regener 8! Altern 8 mark the 25th anniversary of their klaxon and samples driven debut as the rave scene's Vick's loving masked marauders with the release of a deluxe remastered edition of their iconic Full On Mask Hysteria album.It comes as a limited edition triple heavyweight release.And in true Altern 8 style there are 2 separate individually numbered editions - 001 to 808 and 001 to 303.Cut super loud to allow DJ support for tracks that were cut too quietly on the original 1992 LP for club plays, the album also features exclusive tracks. MMEMOR-8I'm tellin' ya - sometimes words aren't enough. You had to be there.John McCready,one time legendary Network rabble rouser publicist,sums it up best. Talking about the current lengthy dissertations on how dance music has gone on to conquer the world, he points out: "The writers do not even scrape the surface of understanding just how iconoclastically funny this music and its' intrepid architects could be. A music - some of it over 30 years old now - which has a life of its own, and an inner core still burning long after its creation"
We were in fact very serious about the music, but we never stopped smiling. And Mark Archer and Chris Peat had us grinning more than anyone else.
Network became the UK's best selling independent single label in 1992. PWL were not impressed. The same year, we released the "Full On Mask Hysteria" album which music industry experts pompously told us would not sell, as Altern 8 were by definition a singles only act'. It got to No 3. We were workaholics, it seemed like we were connected to the mains some days, and had lots of success,But to be clear, there was no master plan.Yes ,the emotions were electric. but the direction was often dsyslexic. We were surfing a manic Techno / Acid House/ Rave Generation wave and we were desperate not to fall off and drown. It was time of (to quote McCready again) "deranged plans, impossible schemes and wild conceits" and of course our masked marauders Mark and Chris were slap bang in the centre of it.

The credible thing to say would be that I met Mark on the dancefloor at The Hacienda. In fact it was at a small club, No 7's in Burntwood, near Cannock Chase in Staffordshire. On Thursday nights No 7's was taken over for an Acid House session, where my mate Pat Ward would be joined by Neil Macey on the decks. I lived nearby, and at the time was managing Derrick May, Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, and Inner City ,as well as partnering Dave Barker with the Kool Kat and Network labels. So, when not having the time of my life in Detroit pretending to be a techno version of Brian Epstein,I would rock up at No 7's with my latest collection of one-off acetates of brand new recordings. They would be duly handed over to Macey to be given their first play in Europe. Surreal does not even begin to describe it.

Anyway, Mark and I bumped into each there, and he seemed most impressed that Derrick and Kevin had both actually been to Burntwood. We arranged for a meeting with him, and his Nexus 21 partner Chris Peat, at Network's Tudor building HQ in Sparkbrook, Birmingham,and soon after they were duly signed to recording and publishing contracts. The plan was to make perfect Techno records with not an air horn in sight. Mark and Chris were both inquisitive and bright, and they fitted well together because they were polar opposites. Mark the dance music fanatic contrasting with Chris the ace musican. I liked them a lot. Nowadays Mark gets the recognition because of all the other things he has done since Altern 8, and is still very active as a DJ and producer, but Chris was a vital component in what became the Altern 8 success story.

Kevin came up with a corker when we sent him the parts of Nexus 21's "Still Life (Keeps Moving)' to remix, supplying astonishing remoulds not just from himself, but also by then unknowns MK and Carl Craig. Soon after, the awesome new Nexus 21 recordings "Self Hypnosis" and "Bio-Rhythms" proved just how on top of their game Mark and Chris were, and led to Network financing a trip to Detroit where they had the time of their lives making music and talking Techno at Kevin's KMS Studio with MK, Anthony Shakir, and Jay Denham, plus vocalist Donna Black. The results had us flying back over the Atlantic thinking we had cracked it. Nexus 21 were about to become Techno Royalty.

Then it went... insane. A month before, purely as a sideline, the always inventive pair had come up with eight tracks of demented helium rave pastiches: all air horns, speaker destroying bass blasts, and naggingly catchy samples. We didn't quite know what to do with them.We agreed, as it was an alternative to Nexus 21,to release all the tracks on one 12" (the kind of things our pals at Nu Groove In New York were doing) and call the project Altern 8, rather than a proposed suggestion of Alternate.That (accidental) eureka moment let the genie out of the bottle. Nexus 21 was shelved, as the value for money vinyl 8 track 12" was released and sold, and sold and would not stop selling. It was swiftly followed by a proper single, the crackling energy rammed Infiltrate 202" which charted... Network's first Top 40 hit. The next single Activ-8 went to number 3. The follow up Frequency could, in the zeitgeist of the moment, have gone to No 1 if we had not (for some quixotic reason) limited the release to 9009 copies.

Mark and Chris took to turning up at Network having driven down the M6 motorway from Stafford to Brum in their dayglo dust masks and nuclear warfare suits, revving up their mini and doing wheelies,outside our office and revelling in the craziness. Now fully fledged pop stars, they gleefully joined in with the plots for our (budget and less pretentious) take on KLF type activities. As fast as they came up with new tracks,John and myself would compete with each other to conjure up more and more scams to a very gullible Dance Music and Red Top tabloid press: Hot air balloons flying over Stafford dropping disco-biscuit Christmas cakes to grateful pensioners, purchasing rave tanks, setting up an Altern 8 chip shop in Ann Arbor, Michigan, picking up a stranded Elton John on the motorway...Mark and Chris happily picked up the baton on all of them, with photos of the duo looking like deranged Budgies in the hazmat suits appearing here, there and everywhere. The hype was well and truly on.Dave Barker kept things ticking over for the label while we indulged ourselves.

Later on Chris stood for election to Parliament in the General Election against Tory grandee Bill Cash on a Rave ticket. If I remember correctly he did not finish last, proving that there were some people around even less in touch reality than we were. My 5 year-old daughter was turned into MC Crazy Clair intoning "Top One, Nice One, Get Sorted" on Activ 8. Maybe someone should have notified Esther Rantzen...but if they had, no doubt Mark and Chris (not ones to miss a trick) would have simply have sampled her outrage on the next single.

Some of the stuff became legendary. The film of mad-eyed young ravers dancing on top of the cars in Shelley's Car Park, at an impromptu open-air gig (we needed shots for a video) after the club closed is now iconic. We had no permission to do it, and I had a very irate club owner after my blood.

Yes, we were contriving events, , but to be candid nobody with an iota of common sense believed the nonsense they were printing. It was all a game, and in reality a kind of innocence surrounded the whole Altern 8 adventure. Back then,The Sun would run front page headlines about Evil Acid House barons destroying the country. However, Archer and Peat, the duo who personified this alleged threat to the nation's youth, would be more likely to be having a refreshing cup of tea at home in Stafford, than recognise,never mind get involved in,any E's Are Good activities. Their modus operandi was more like The Chuckle Brothers than some of The Kray Twins type characters controlling the less wholesome parts of Rave Culture at the time.

It's easy now, for the cynical, to sneer and characterise Altern 8 as simply cartoon rave, and claim they were not as "vital" as some enigmatic myth maker who never smiled (and only sold a few records, mainly because they weren't that good anyway). But just step back and listen to this album: It's anthemic and iconic, and as John put it, - has an inner core still burning long after it was created.
.
You ask about credibility One Saturday night, I went with Mike Banks of Underground Resistance, the Techno god who was legendary for his hatred of the commerce that had become part of dance music's landscape, to a huge Rave somewhere in London, and Mike spent ages taking photos of Altern 8 on stage, basically ignoring everything else going on. I asked him why he was interested in our hit makers,surely they stood for everything he detested . "Are you kidding. I love those guys!" Mike replied...

Like I said you had to be there.

Lots of the above bits are (inevitably) sampled from McCready, a lesson learnt from Altern 8. Dedicated to Mark and Chris, Dave Barker and John McCready - watch yer bass bins, I'm telling ya!

Neil Rushton

If you want to know what Gabe Gurnsey's debut album
'Physical' sounds like, the first thing you should do is forget all
about Factory Floor, the group he co-founded 13 years ago.
Gone are the cold, lengthy, stripped back deconstructions of no
wave electronica and industrial techno, abandoned in favour of
something altogether warmer, torrid and succinct.
'It's a real departure from Factory Floor,' he explains. 'Yeah,
that was the intention. There's only one track over six minutes
long! There's only one crossover point on the song 'Night
Track', which is 6'33' - that's probably as close to Factory Floor
as it gets. What I wanted to get into with 'Physical' had more to
do with exploring songwriting and structure. The album is very
escapist in one sense even though I don't want to escape from
Factory Floor but what I do on my own has to be separate and
it has to explore new avenues.' Gurnsey started writing tracks in his downtime from the group early 2017 and by the start of that Summer he had 30 demos ready for work. He admits he worked very quickly initially but then gave the tracks 12 months to develop fully into a new sound.
And that new sound - a 21st Century take on muscular electro,
Balearic synth pop, EBM, proto-Hacienda militant funk, early
Chicago house and minimal, Neptunes-referencing beats - can
be experienced in full on 'Physical' the album released on Erol
Alkan's Phantasy label. The album features additional production from Erol Alkan, who also mixed the record.
Double LP format includes printed inner sleeves and digital
download code. Press - Reviews in Q, Loud & Quiet, The Quietus, Record Collector, Uncut.
Features in Loud & Quiet, Electronic Sound, Q, Clash, The Quietus, Gigwise, Silver Soundz.








[]I C2 | I Get
[]J C3 | Version

The second release from Antimatter, a new project by Bule and F-on dedicated to Slow drone techno with field recordings and other 4x4 experiments. Thumping low end smothered in grinding drones and tape hiss.

Gliptolito sees Frigio return to its beginnings whilst making a bold statement of future intent. This time in collaboration with Seti Recordings for a split release by the heads of both labels. Juanpablo shares the platter with ArD2, the team of Ekis and Penélope Martín (of NSRB-11 and Zwischenwelt.) Label boss Juanpablo opens with his ever evolving sound. Rasping beats and subtle key changes are warmed by basslines in the cerebral 'Ica'. 'There is a Silence' comes from a similarly esoteric place, gentle chords shimmering against glitchy undercurrents and clean drums. ArD2 follow up their 2010 appearance on Frigio with two tracks of complex machine funk. Sidelined is their trademark electro sound as the pair lean towards electronica and broken percussion for 'Winter.' Colder tones arrive with 'Utopia', sublime string work warming them through to bring 'Gliptolito' to a close.

BAKK extends it's mind-altering quest with Plafond 2 with two tracks averaging 17 minutes. From Antwerp's depths Milan W. brings a stunning track (consisting of three parts) of ambient exotica. The flipside carries synth wizzard Ekolali, who resides on a barn in Sweden, with a rhythmic jam to sink into. Comes again in a special screen printed outer sleeve and tasteful Obi strip made by the BAKK Deep Dream Department.

Paradise Valley's debut 'Deep Probe' EP could well be a case study on how to make an unforgettable electronic music record. Take an incredible, psychedelic collection of ideas that have been drenched in emotional content and heart ache and then infused with optimism and inspirational, healing emotions, shake it with visions of outer space, and the production level 99, put that into a track that will be the defining moment of any dj set: you just got 'Deep Probe'.

Broken TV techno and panorama noise compilation that looks to expand people's perceptions of what can open up a dimly lit space.

Enduring ambient and soundtrack specialist John Beltran has finished another full length album for Delsin Records. Entitled Espais, it lands in summer 2015 and features 17 beautiful tracks that range from dreamy and heavenly to more meaning and moving. Emotional from start to finish, it once again finds Beltran using moderns tools and techniques with classical musical values. Part synthetic and machine made, part organic and natural, it is another fine opus from the Michigan man. Barcode: 8718754951111.

Five tracks of darkside slither from somewhere under London. Sidereal downers for all hardcore ravers. The dread energy of grime and bleep techno distilled into pungent electro-acoustic ooze. Paranoid street music meets the cosmic disturbances of musique concrete, the spine-freeze of isolationism and England's Hidden Reverse. Staccato string stabs, murmured voices, black holes of reverb and pulverising, body-numbing bass. Drums optional. Unwanted side-effects include nosebleeds, earaches, stomach cramps, and nausea. Just say naaahhh.

It was Vladimir Ivkovic who introduced me to the world of Rex Ilusivii. A world where the spirit of a genius holds sway. I remember spending an entire night at Vladimir's house in Germany, listening to all those recovered pieces, and feeling like I had entered another space-time.

Mitar tragically left us, one November night in 1999 in Brazil, leaving behind an extensive body of work consisting of more than 500 pieces, for the most part never released. Being submerged in such a unique universe, so singular, brought me happiness. It also filled me with hope, because I tell myself that today there must be many other outstanding musicians who produce in the shadow of the traditional circuit, just for the pleasure of making music.

Listening to the music of Mitar Subotic makes you part of his world. He did not stop producing from 1983 to 1999, in different styles, but with an instantly recognizable touch.His music also marries the evolution of recording techniques with new instruments that have appeared over this time, from the TR808 to the digital samplers. It took me more than two years to select the music for this record, as each time I listened to the material it revealed other details and other possibilities.

I am extremely happy and honored to present this record to you, in which I try to do justice to the different, "versatile" facets of Suba.

Repress from space-disco LP from 1983/1984 by Argentinian group led by keyboardist Bruno Carlos Musso.

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Carefully remastered by Fabrizio Martina (Jolly Mare), who also produced the bonus track (a disco-club oriented remix).

Skinny Pelembe has corralled together a cast of talented friends for his new EP. It's the second release from the Doncaster-raised, multi-talented producer-cum-bandleader since signing to Gilles Peterson's Brownswood label in February. This one's a group effort, with each of its tracks featuring a different artist, each of them an act he's met through music or through linking with Brownswood's talent development programme Future Bubblers two years ago.

The EP touches on hip-hop, psych-rock and jazz-influenced sounds, continuing in the gloriously magpie-like approach of his earlier releases. Each of its songs started as a rough idea which was then fleshed out and re-imagined with his collaborators. He says that the title of the EP comes from some advice which he left for himself on an old notebook. The singer-guitarist-producer, born in Johannesburg and raised in Doncaster, signed to Brownswood earlier this year and debuted with the 'Spit / Swallow' single in March. It's seen support from Dazed, The Quietus and Huck. He's been invited as a guest onto Jamz Supernova on Radio 1xtra, as well as Tom Ravenscroft and Lauren Laverne on 6 Music. He recently featured as one of the guests chosen for 6 Music's showcase at The Great Escape. The single release will be followed by Skinny's first UK Tour in September.

For the second release on null+void Recordings I'm extremely happy to present four tracks from L-R, a collaborative project between Keith Tenniswood (Radioactive Man), Simon Lynch (London Modular Alliance) and Johnny Oakley (Monoak / Freerotation). Three friends and artists whose music I've enjoyed and admired for many years.

The group have been working together regularly in the beautifully equipped Curvepusher Studio (with the addition of Simon's modular elements) over the last 18 months and over these sessions worked up a sound that brings in a striking combination of elements from each producer's own distinct pallets. At times brutal and others sublime, this EP works out at the higher end of BPM covering electro and techno territories.

The California EP pays homage to Diplo's first full-length release, Florida, where he spent much of his youth. The sonics on California share a similar tone: slow, vibey, & melancholic, a bit of a departure from the sound he has been known for in recent years. The EP is much more than just a handful of tracks, it's an introspective body of work.

Following on from Angophora's beautiful long player, Ken Oath is back with another full length LP from Low Flung. Friends of the label will note that this is his third release for Ken Oath, and it's a fittingly mature and expansive statement for a debut LP. Perhaps mature is the wrong word here, as all his brilliant ideas are backed up by a sense of whimsy that betrays his playful side. The music strikes a balance between styles and spaces that could perfectly soundtrack moments at home, in the club, and in the liminal spaces between.

Danny's efforts at writing dance music still contain the idiosyncratic approaches of his ambient works: The deadly deep subs and endless echo spirals on "Rising Damp" sounds like someone trying to piece together a Drum & Bass track after an off-hand conversation about the genre. He's transmuted the propulsive energy of jungle into something no less dynamic, full of stops and starts and sonic pressure but flush with space. "Tarp Climber" is at heart a rollicking digi-dub.

The more ambient moments of the LP are equally captivating - the glassy tones of "Frozen Coat" sound like a space-age ensemble soundtracking a floating lounge on a suite of glass instruments, while "Ocean Grove" blends field recordings and dreamy synthesizer melodies to create an uncanny sense of place that unroots you from wherever you're listening.

There's a heavy emphasis on Danny's collaborators as well - the Cold Emotion duo is reprised on the spacey 'Hills Hoist'. Closer "Bacchus Marsh" is a collaboration with Prophets, a cross-state ensemble that defy any easy categorisation. The music here flirts with jazz and minimalism but with a dubwise production aesthetic to produce something that recalls Khan Jamal's visionary "Drum Dance to the Motherland" in spirit and practice, but this whole album sounds as otherworldly and one-of-a-kind as the aforementioned LP.

Following the release of critically acclaimed LP Wake in Fright, which had two songs featured in the new season of David Lynch's Twin Peaks, it was time for Uniform vocalist Michael Berdan and instrumentalist Ben Greenberg to return to the studio. The duo decided to up the ante and add a third member to help perfect their vicious post-industrial dystopian cyber-punk. After some deliberation, Greenberg called upon drummer Greg Fox (Liturgy, Zs) to help round out the sound they were looking for. Using a mix of triggered samples and real drums along with layered synths and good old electric guitar, the trio arrived at what would become The Long Walk after only a few short days in the studio. 

From the opening whirr of the title track, it's clear that the band is onto something special. Recorded in Strange Weather studios in the first part of 2018, The Long Walk is eight new tracks by the duo of Greenberg and Berdan, incorporating Fox's skills behind the drum kit to add an entirely new dimension to the signature Uniform sound. Ditching sequenced tracks, Greenberg opted for single takes to highlight the Frankenstein-like guitar-bass-synth hybrid that oozes throughout the recording. Meanwhile, crushing guitar thunder is punched up by Fox's masterful drumming while Berdan's cries from the nether feel more desperate and morose than ever.

From a basement in New Jersey, Tommy Falcone remade himself into a DIY Phil Spector. From 1962 to 1970, he founded and ran Cleopatra Records, discovered and mentored young Garden State talent, wrote songs and produced wild studio effects, and quit his day job to promote it all himself. Trained as an accordionist, Falcone had a whirlwind imagination and an omnivorous approach to genre, expressed through acts like the Centuries, the Tabbys, Johnny Silvio, the Inmates, Bernadette Carroll, the Hallmarks, Vickie & the Van Dykes, the Shandillons, Eugene Viscione, the Shoestring, and more. Cleopatra became a time-capsule of every 1960s pop style imaginable—garage rock, psychedelia, surf, girl groups, soul, novelties, exotica, even a crooner—a kaleidoscope of sound in search of the ever-elusive hit record.

Ekin Fil continues her quietly complex dream-pop oeuvre on Maps. For many years now, this Istanbul musician has been writing mysterious and haunting songs, rich in heavy-reverb effects and an introspective torpor. With each successive album, her songwriting has blossomed through broader instrumentation and more intricate melodic phrasing, though the somber atmospherics and ghostly manifestations remain a judicious constant. Minor-key, tear-stained notes of piano, organ, and guitar veer along elliptical orbits as a soft-whisper lilt of Ekin's voice narrates more by emotive decree than by literary couplet.

Maps addresses the distance and dislocation of the self from the bustling center of Istanbul, where Ekin FIl (neé Ekin Üzeltüzenci) had once called her home. Having spent her first winter on a relatively quiet island in the Sea of Marmara (while still in the greater metropolitan umbrella of Istanbul), Maps is lonely, different, kind of isolated,' according to Ekin, who also noted that the island had 'too much silence around. There is no other choice but to concentrate, I guess.' Her poetics of silence on her previous recordings had been noted as an antidote or a dream capsule of sound in response to Istanbul's cauldron of politics, culture, and philosophy that has been boiling almost since the beginning of civilization. Maps bends that maritime silence into wind-swept smudges that complement her already spacious compositions.

The saddest songs of The Durutti Column excised of rhythm and those few plunges into sorrow by Harold Budd make for apt comparisons to Maps, in addition to the drone-on classics of Grouper, Slowdive, and Sarah Davachi.

Sub Rosa present a collection of Pauline Oliveros' early material, aptly titled Early Electronic Works 1959-66, released as a part of the label's Early Electronic series. Released in 2008 in CD, now finally on vinyl!

Oliveros was an important American composer, born in Houston, Texas on May 30, 1932; the music she produced in the latter part of her life is akin to the breath of life, notably, through her pieces for accordion (particularly those which she herself performed). In addition to her performances, she also made an impact in the world of contemporary composition through the creation of the Deep Listening Center, her approach to improvisation, and her numerous and varied collaborations including those with John Cage, Morton Subotnick, Terry Riley, Sonic Youth, Erold, and Andrew Deutsch. The music presented here is her early and definitive contribution to the tape and electronic music of the late 1950s and 1960s through her systematic exploration of electronic sounds, which was fundamental during this period.

"My work with electronic music began in 1959. My first tape piece was an ambitious four channel work called Time Perspectives (1959). The piece was made by recording small sounds from objects resonated on a wooden wall and changing the tape speed. I used cardboard tubes as filters by inserting the microphone into the tube and recording sources through the tubes. I used my bath tub as a reverberation chamber." - Pauline Oliveros

When a band calls itself Rhein it is a brave move. The superstructure is weighty and demands a dedication to art. Although the musicians Jürgen Krause, Johannes Rix and Peter Michael Witt claim to have chosen the name because of their residential locations in Cologne and Düsseldorf. This may be so simple, but it is perhaps only the obvious part of the story. Are not the kilometers of current between the cathedral city of Cologne and the Rhine metropolis Düsseldorf the Mississippi delta of electronic music That culturally fertile section of the river that first gave birth to Krautrock and then to the very music that was shaped into today's Techno and House in Detroit and Chicago Rhine is the primordial soup of electronic music.

The German name Rhein - the pun is permitted to the author of these lines - always resonates with the word "rein" (which means pure or clear). Audibly, the band Rhein cultivates the original, the primordial state. Their two "takes" are snapshots of music in statu nascendi: pure sound. There is no evoking of Schnitzler, nor Rother, nor Hütter/ Schneider. No melodies or rhythms that would give hints for an interpretation. When the layers, the pulsation of the synths in search of synergic elements and harmonies meet on guitar fragments, Rhein is in the flow: This trilogy oscillates from a flat rivulet to a profound, unbridled torrent. Like its name giver, Rhein is unpredictable. Rhein rises from the bed of digital listening behavior, giving sound the space it deserves, and astonishes the astute listener with a psychedelic experience of music. Rhein is beauty.

CAIN is back with a BANG this summer! The smile inducing Eshu probably one of the biggest tracks he's made to date and one we've sat on for too long now..As always, the other two tracks are equally as varied and great - Phoenix makes for a great opener and Hoji is a current Lena Willikens hit.

Om Unit's acclaimed album "Self" gets remixes from dBridge, SKRS (aka Seekers International), Sorrow & O$VMV$M (aka Neek & Jabu (Young Echo)

A real deal remix package. Genuine expansions and redirections from likeminded producers, selected by Om Unit. True experiments on Self's flexible styles & vulnerabilities.

4 Tracks Carefully Selected From Ernst Thoma 80's Private Catalogue, Including "winterspiel" (projectos & Progestos Coimbra), A 1981 Portugal Performance In Collaboration With Peter Trachsel . Mr. Thoma Having Fun With Commodore Sx 64, C-lab Sequenzer, Oberheim Xpander, Tms Synthesizer & Polyphon And Serge Modular Music System.

Peripheral Minimal Is Proud To Present, 'v/a Prophecy + Progress: Uk Electronics 1978 - 1990 Lp', A Thirteen-track Compilation That Represents The Burgeoning Electronic Music Scene In The Uk.

This Isn't Simply Another Synthpop Compilation, Or Some Nostalgic Frippery, But An Eclectic Mix Of Acts That Were Experimenting With Newly Available Technology At A Time When The Punk Scene Had Imploded And The Music Press Was Busy Coining New Genres As An Attempt To Continue Its Legacy (although Synth-pop In Part Arose From Punk Rock, It Abandoned Punk's Emphasis On Authenticity And Often Pursued A Deliberate Artificiality, Drawing On The Critically Derided Forms Such As Disco And Glam Rock. Although Electronic Experimentation Had Been Explored In The Decades Before, It Was Still Considered 'alien', "eerie, Sterile, And Vaguely Menacing", And Even Downright, 'austere And Fascisistic'. It May Have Taken The Likes Of Gary Numan Or Depeche Mode Et Al To Switch The Record Buying Public To Synthesizer Music, But Bubbling Underground Were A Myriad Of Experimenters Recording In Relative Secrecy In Industrial Cities Like Sheffield Or Post-war London, At A Time When The Tories Came Back Into Power And Utterly Altered The Political Landscape, And Produced A Generation Of, 'thatcher's Children' (selfish, Arrogant And Materialistic). The Antidote Seemed To Be Quiet Rebellion In The Shape Of Dark And Alienating Soundscapes By Acts That Are Now Considered 'pioneers', Or Achieving Cult Status, In A New Era Of Throwaway Pop And Trite 'new Wave' Impersonators.

Many Of The Acts Herein Will Be Familiar With Followers Of Synth Or Industrial Music, Some Perhaps Lesser Known. We've Also Included Slightly 'later' Works By Artists That Were Already Firmly Established In The Early 80s As A Comparison, And For The Pure Arrogance Of It. It's An Attempt To Rekindle Those Heady Days Of Experimentation And To Encourage New Generations To Rebel And Forgo The Fashionable Posturing That Comes With Anything Vaguely 'interesting'.

Limited To 500 Copies With Printed Inner-sleeve.

For the third instalment of the Plafond series, BAKK presents a mind bending record that brings together two contemporary innovators. Dont DJ and Bear Bones Lay Low have both earned their stripes when it comes to heavy trance inducing electronics. On the A side Bear Bones Lay Low delivers earthly rhythms in heavenly fashion with a 15 minute piece. Dont DJ calls upon the spirits with a soothing yet satanic 17 minute narrative on the flip. Comes in a hand printed sleeve with spell casting obi strip made by the BAKK Ancestral Archipelago.

Job Sifre is one of the guys bringing new blood into the Amsterdam scene. This is the follow-up to his recently released debut on the new Artifical Space label, where he continues his path of solid EBM fueled electronix. The record ends with the gorgeous 'At Least We Try', showing of his more tripping, rhythmic side. Beautiful complementary artwork by Stefan Unkovic.

By now, the story of how Jlin went from working in a steel factory in Gary, Indiana to being one of the most widely appreciated electronic musicians is well known. 'Black Origami' was one of the most reviewed and lauded albums last year. Seriously prolific and seriously hard-working, she has toured constantly since its May 2017 release and despite being involved in a wide range of projects, still manages to find a balance and 'do some personal healing and growing.'

Here we are over a year later with 'Autobiography,' the score for her collaboration with renowned British choreographer Wayne McGregor arranged by Unsound. This isn't technically her third album (that's due to arrive in 2019 or 2020), but the soundtrack stands up on its own with all the emotional peaks and troughs of a well-sequenced longplayer.

For Jlin, making music for dance is the fulfillment of one of her lifelong dreams - and remarkably, Company Wayne McGregor's performance was the first show she'd ever seen. She describes the process of working with Wayne: 'We first met face to face in October 2016 in a downtown Chicago hotel, talking for about a solid two hours. Immediately, I saw Wayne was very friendly and energetic. He's brilliant, witty, and knows exactly what he wants; an absolute gem to work with. Before I even started composing for Autobiography, Wayne told me so gently that he trusts me completely with my direction of creating the score. That was the best feeling in the world. I would wake up at two in the morning and work until six in the evening until I completed all the pieces. We were both very happy with the outcome. Creating the score for an impeccable piece of work such as Autobiography changed my life as an artist.'

'Autobiography' is a highlight in an evolving and growing career. During the last year, Jlin has also become an in-demand remixer, securing her place among a roster of music heavyweights. Unsurprisingly, given her positive and outgoing nature, she also developed friendships with the artists she has remixed such as Björk, Max Richter and Ben Frost.

Jlin will be touring with Company Wayne McGregor performing 'Autobiography' this year in addition to completing a commission for the Kronos Quartet titled 'Little Black Book.' She still approaches every performance 'with the same attitude of doing my best to execute a good show, no more, no less. Doing my best is what's most important to me.' She also still lives in Gary, Indiana, which keeps her grounded. She notes with her typical humility, 'The local community is a little more knowledgeable of me now. But I don't mind my community taking its time.'

LNS' self-released six tracker mixes excellent electro impulses with sturdy leftfield. Imagine a PCB board soldered with a crafted hand, finely shaped metallic, solidly sequenced connections where every single element has a saying for its entirety. Compositions are tight, filled with two types of rhythms - snappy & booming as well as deeply induced. Comes with an E-GZR remix & mixdown.

Coming out in late July from the man who brought you E Ruscha V's "Who Are You" to great acclaim earlier this year is Secret Circuit's 2nd EP for Invisible Inc, the cryptically titled "Out Of Body Interiors".Featuring four exclusive new tracks of the acid drenched, dubbed out, tropical disco variety Mr Ruscha, as always, delivers a sonic palette you won't find on many other imprints: from the turbo-charged homage to early 90s bleep meets indie rave euphoria of Stomping Ground, through the chugging, motorik groove of Crazy Ways which sounds like it's blasting out full volume from a smoke-filled Space Patrol hovercar gone rogue then flipping over to side B and waking up in Mali, Andromeda in a haze of syncopated percussion, other-worldly guitar licks and a billion new synthetically generated sounds that you may strongly suspect you just imagined.....to finally The Feather Drop which brings entirely new meaning to the word deep and which fires technicolour sounds of profoundly immense variety at the synapses at a rate of knots not many other producers can keep up with as all the while the bass holds court and keeps things deep rooted and dub heavy. Secret Circuit (aka Eddie Ruscha V) has had a plethora of releases on an equally expansive plethora of labels under such names as The Parels (Lal Lal Lal), Blasé (ESP Institute), Food Of The Gods/Laughing Light Of Plenty (Whatever We Want), Odd Numbers ('No' Label), Shadow Kids (El Diablo's Social Club) and of course as Secret Circuit (Beats In Space, Emotional Response and Invisible, Inc.)

The thrid an final installment of archive material, selected by Antinote. A killer suite if you ask us. TIP!
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You can trail away with it. It is easy to enter, but hard to drop out. Tolouse Low Trax just needs an MPC, a small Synthesizer set up and some effects to create subliminal hypnotic music trips, driven by dark synthlines and drunken shuffled patterns. The primitiveness in my music is linked to something simple, and that don't have to be obligatory minimal. For me it is enough to dance rough around the core. Music you don't shape till the end contains of a moment of beauty. A veil of secrecy. I work very simply. I rather reduce my possibilities in ompass. Limitations offer lots of liberties.' He reveals about his work ethic. Even if his music sounds darker then any ever experienced night, he mostly produces it in the morning in his highly inspirational studio home. During the dark times of the day Tolouse Low Trax mostly performs live around the globe. Or hangs out in his second home: the Salon Des Amateurs club bar in Dusseldorf, which he once founded and where he held until today two weekly DJ residencies. The moments and atmospheres he inhales during these lightless moments are mirrored in his shadowy music, about which he also confesses: My art is more a cinematic, literally idea of a large to explore Megacity. This is one of the pictures I would link to my music.' On ' part one he now offers five sounding visions about that Megacity'. They listen to mysterious names like Hidden Flat' or Studies in Drama'. They are nervous. They have ephemeral pieces of dub, Industrial, wave or Italian library music. And at times strangealienated voice samples dance within his highly addictive arrangements. Words can't express their magic. But one thing is fore sure: his hypnotic dance-not-dance tracks do not only illuminate so-called freaks!

"For the final part of SchleiBen 5 - 8, Emotional Response welcomes two Scottish based artists to close out the series. In Jon Keliehor you have a world and music traveler with history from psychedelic rock to fourth world exposure, alongside one of the best electronic producers of the last decade, Lord Of The Isles. As the drummer of West Coast folk rock / psychedelic band The Daily Flash, Keleihor spent much of the mid-60 based in and out of Seattle and Los Angles, playing alongside the likes of Jefferson Airplane, Cream and The Doors, before an increasing interest in meditation and philosophies outside of the 'rock' realm led him to England in the early 70s where he become involved in dance theatre. Teaching Advanced Rhythmic Music Studies at the London Contemporary Dance School, his music composition style became influenced by his studies of world music. Finally settling in Glasgow for over 20 years, while running the Luminous Music label and Gamelan Naga Mas, his earlier recordings for labels like Indipop, Touch and Bruton have seen a recent revival, with music appearing recently on contemporaries Optimo Music and Invisible Inc. The wonderful recordings included here span over 3 decades, from sessions at the Luminous Studio at The Diorama Theatre, London in the early 80s, through to recent field-work based recordings in the Cairngorms. Reconfigured and updated, a common thread appears through the pieces - a sense of longing and appreciation - as Jon's knowledge of outer-national instrumentation alongside equally extensive travels around the globe gives the recordings a seamless blend of organic craft. The tonal consonances within unlikely combinations of instruments, with tuned glasses (tarang), tabla, jaw harps, clay flutes and ocarinas, Chinese instruments that include Xiao-Bo and Xiao-Ping, large Noah bells, small and larges gongs all employed, the recordings have been reconstructed, edited and updated via sampling and digital processing. Featuring the playing of John "Jhalib" Millar - the extraordinarily gifted musician and tabla player - who has appeared with an EP on sister label, Emotional Rescue (ERC029), sadly recently deceased, the contribution acts as a tribute and more. To close, the music of Lord Of The Isles is an excellent companion to Jon's work. Neil McDonald's list of club-based releases on labels CockTail D'Amor, Ene, Firecracker, Permanent Vacation, ESP Institute and Phonica is comprehensive and exemplary, however within his productions has often been an other-worldly element, a space between the beats and occasional fully ambient pieces. Approached originally for series one of SchleiBen, the 7 pieces included were worth the wait, a journey in themselves and the perfect completion. Spanning almost 5 years, the majority were written during an extended exile in the Cairngorms. The lifting, ethereal, but melodic nature of the music fits that aesthetic. Blue skies, snow, long walks, space to think, but with a longing and appreciation of family and friends. The solitary nature found in SchleiBen 8 and the geographical incidence of both artist's recordings including sessions in the Scottish Highlands fits the series ideals and is a nice closure. Enjoy and listen. "

n5MD is proud to bring you All That Was Lost, The 3rd album from cinematic ambient composer Stray Theories. A treat for for fans of Hammock, Eluvium & the more soothing works of Sigur Ros...
Australian born and current New Zealand resident Micah Templeton-Wolfe is the sole force behind Stray Theories, and this album finds him following-up 2014s We Never Left EP with his first new long-form Stray Theories material, not to mention, his first album to be pressed to vinyl.
Templeton-Wolfe's time away has not been for naught. Composing for films, collaborations with like-minded artists and a plethora of remix projects, all while creating a sample pack for the Noiiz sample app under new project Ocean Lost. So it's been a busy time for Templeton-Wolfe.
While he has seemingly been focusing his efforts else- where, Templeton-Wolfe has been quietly composing for All That Was Lost, an album which is imbued in spades with Stray Theories' signature mood-altering sound- scapes.
Muted electronics have always played a part in the Stray Theories pallet, and some of Templeton-Wolfe's extracurricular work might have something to do with those textures now being brought a bit more to the fore. In Templeton-Wolfe's hand, these fit in perfectly within the personally subjective nature his music has always suggested. All That Was Lost is a cinematic ambient gem brought into the world at a time when we need it most.

Bergsonist is the moniker of Moroccon born and NYC based Selwa Abd. 'Solyaris' follows the self-released '' and a prolific slew of releases for labels such as Styles upon Styles, Borft, and Angoisse amongst others. For Selwa her uncompromising & otherworldly, hypno technoid creations aim to capture a given moment in time, contextualising her often direct, hugely affective, & unpolished approach to production.

Selwa describes 'Solyaris' as 'an ode to the present broken education system that allowed me to sustain my dreams in NewYork', explaining, 'As an immigrant from Morrocco, I felt always fearful of the future, pressured to succeed at school. The only way I was able to channel all that anxiety was through music'.

There's a undeniable physicality to Bergsonist's work, and the idea of expunging anxiousness into her music is felt from the oft as 'Solyaris' strides into vision with it's quickening roaring pulse and scrambled explorative electronic probes. This sense of anxiety eases as layers of rhythm build - heads begin to turn down and lush minimalist swathes eventually envelope bodies in calm unity, Anxiety diverted.

'Conflict in Yeman' opens with a gambit of off-kilter percussive experiments & electronics, conveying a sense of determined urgency. Things grow more & more intricate & immediate as we progress - layers of disruption weave around a reoccurring 140BPM shuffle, anchoring Selwa's constant explorative concrete diversions.

'Former Alien who has been naturalized by a U.S Citizen' brings things down a notch - skittering drums linger below a truly haunting whispered melody, occasionally broken down by collapsed rewinds and thunderously raw in the red beat grit - to dizzying effect. Whereas previously 'Solyaris' had taken its cues from Drexciyan Detroit Electro 'Former Alien...' stands closer to a Fantastic Damage era EL-P instrumental rather than anything aimed at the floor.

The EP rolls out with 'Fidel Gastro', a structured & focused piece of Machine Funk & end of days drop cues, conjuring an effective mix of both euphoria & imminent dread.

Bergsonist cuts a unique figure for electronic music in 2018 as someone explicitly exploring the relationship between head & body music. Although undeniably more than oft aimed at the dancefloor, Selwa's work also holds an equal respect and understanding of the head & heart. From her politically loaded Track titles, to her ideologically aligned guise of 'Bergsonist', to most significantly - her music's ability to elicit a spectrum of finely tuned emotional responses within the confines of each track