Beats News

One Million Eyes was born out of a need to start again. As the duo previously known as Tempelhof - where they worked alongside musicians such as Gigi Masin - Luciano Ermondi and Paolo Mazzacani experienced a pivotal and personal moment in their lives which inspired a reset in their approach and the need for a new musical outlet. It would be easy to try and describe such a transition in terms of wanting a new music style or a new ambition, but simply put, they wanted to get back to enjoying making music again. As they explored the instruments amassed in their studio and drew upon their upbringing amongst new-wave and rock, any ties to their previous output were forgotten and inhibitions were lost. Brama, their first album as One Million Eyes, was born. With this newfound freedom of artistic expression clearly evident, Paolo and Luciano created a classic Balearic record, reminiscent of that energy, storied mysticism and longing to return to a place full of good memories. As the sun disappears below the horizon and the final track closes out the afternoon's haze, you're left wondering whether this trip ever happened or was ever quite what it first seemed.

First released by Cazzo Film in 2001, ebo hill’s Bonking Berlin Bastards has long achieved the status of an underground punk porn classic. Like the Cazzo productions of director Bruce LaBruce, hill’s vision was both ahead of its time and a playful distillation of 90s and early-2000s Berlin Zeitgeist: queer, industrial, hypersexual, exhibitionist and fueled by electronic music. The story is told in large part by the soundtrack, to be released for the first time on Ostgut Ton sublabel A-TON. The music follows a group of squatters, punks and drag queens as they fuck, party and stumble their way through an empty city at the turn of the millennium. Approaching these themes more through location than plot, the film’s narrative freedom is also a narrative of freedom; between chance encounters and sex in public, atop the maze of roofs in the city’s former East, bent over bridges and moaning in ecstasy at oncoming traffic, pants down in telephone booths, packed into sex clubs, in the shadows of abandoned factories and techno clubs lost in time. Composed by improvisational techno trio AeoX and noise / industrial producer Rouage aka CNM (respectively), the music spans a broad range of appropriately pounding industrial, weird techno, noise, ultra-stoned ambient, improvised dub and electro. It’s a sonic spectrum that connects Berlin’s queer hardcore techno and squatter party scenes from which AeoX and Rouage emerged, drawing a direct line between the likes of Berghain-forerunner OstGut (a primary meeting point for the film’s cast & crew) to the more industrial, breakcore and noise- oriented independent party collectives and locations who provided multiple settings for the film, including Grüne Hölle and Stellwerk.

*Artists:* CNM / Rouage (Kathinka): Born in 1975 and raised in East Berlin. Co-organization of subcultural events since 1998 in Berlin, Potsdam, Leipzig and Barcelona. Experimental music, collaborations, exhibitions and audiovisual shows since 2000.

AeoX: Active between 2001 and 2007. Originally a quartet, then a trio, the group eventually shrank to two permanent members: Alex.E and Hanno Hinkelbein. The latter founded Null Records, where AeoX released two album and numerous EPs. They also released on Mental.Ind.Records founded by former OstGut resident Cora S. Musically, the group experimented with combining improvisational hardware techno, breaks, traditional instruments (guitar, clarinet, piano) industrial and metal.

Ursprünglich 2001 von Cazzo Film veröffentlicht, hat Bonking Berlin Bastards von ebo hill längst den Status eines Underground-Punk-Pornoklassikers erreicht. Wie die Cazzo- Produktionen von Regisseur Bruce LaBruce, war auch hills Vision seiner Zeit voraus und ein spielerisches Destillat des 90er- und Anfang-2000er Berlin-Zeitgeists: queer, industriell, hypersexuell, exhibitionistisch, angetrieben von elektronischer Musik. Die Geschichte wird größtenteils über den Soundtrack erzählt, der auf Ostgut Tons Sublabel A-TON zum ersten Mal veröffentlicht wird. Die Musik folgt einer Gruppe von Hausbesetzern, Punks und Drags, die ficken, feiern und durch die leere Stadt um die Jahrtausendwende streifen. Bonking Berlin Bastards erzählt diese Themen mehr über die Drehorte als über die Handlung. Die erzählerische Freiheit des filmischen Narrativs ist gleichzeitig eine Erzählung von Freiheit: Von zufälligen Begegnungen bis hin zu Sex in der Öffentlichkeit, auf Dächern im früheren Osten Berlins, sich über die Brüstungen von Straßenbrücken beugen, trotz und wegen des Verkehrs stöhnen, mit heruntergelassenen Hosen in Telefonzellen, in überfüllten Sexclubs, im Schatten aufgegebener Fabriken, zeitverloren in Technoclubs. Der Soundtrack wurde sowohl vom Improvisationstechnotrio AeoX als auch von Noise-/Industrial-Producer Rouage aka CNM komponiert und spannt einen weiten Bogen von explizit pumpendem Industrial, schräg klingendem Techno, Noise, ultra-stoned Ambient, improvisiertem Dub und Electro. Das musikalische Spektrum verbindet Berlins queere Hardcore-, Techno- und Hausbesetzer-Party-Szenen, aus denen AeoX und Rouage selbst hervorgingen und zieht dabei eine direkte Linie zwischen dem Berghain- Vorgängerclub OstGut (ein wichtiger Treffpunkt für die Darsteller und Crew des Films) und den eher Industrial-, Breakcore- und Noise-orientierten Independent-Partykollektiven und -Locations wie Grüne Hölle und Stellwerk, welche mehrfach als Drehort und Kulisse des Films auftauchen.

CNM / Rouage (Kathinka): 1975 geboren nd aufgewachsen in Ost- Berlin. Co-Organisation subkultureller Events seit 1998 in Berlin, Potsdam, Leipzig und Barcelona. Experimentelle Musik, Kollaborationen, Ausstellungen und audiovisuelle Shows seit 2000.

AeoX: Aktiv zwischen 2001 und 2007. Ursprünglich ein Quartett, dann ein Trio, dann verkleinerte sich die Gruppe auf zwei permanente Mitglieder: Alex.E und Hanno Hinkelbein. Letzterer gründete Null Records, auf dem AeoX zwei Alben und zahlreiche EPs veröffentlichte. Ebenfalls Veröffentlichungen auf Mental.Ind.Records, welches von der ehemaligen OstGut resident Cora S. gegründet wurde. Musikalisch kombiniert die Gruppe improvisierten Hardware- Techno mit Breaks, traditionellen Instrumenten (Gitarre, Klarinette, Klavier), Industrial und Metal.

The C.A.N.V.A.S label assemble a cast of mutant pop oddities featuring warped takes on Gaelic-language mumblecore cloudrap, modern shoegaze and computer noise from Elvin Brandhi, Lugh, and Olan Monk, Nadah El Shazly, Billy Bultheel (Anne Imhof), Alpha Maid and more.
With ‘Apocope’, the exploratory label interrogate the limits of pop music’s meaning in the age of a slow burning apocalypse, and under the shadow of a rising hyper-pop zeitgeist. The compilation’s title literally means “the omission of the final sound of a word”, as in the way people naturally elide or trim words to fit the flow of speech, and with it, conveys more meaning than the literal words themselves - a sense of style, time, and place that pop music has long been key in shaping. In this context, the artists draw very canny links between the onomatopoeia of shoegaze and mumbecore rap, between lonely bedroom blues strung over nearly a century of amplified woes, but expressing a sound very much for the here and now of the scorchedin-advance 2020s.
As with the label’s super smart 2019 set ‘Cipher’, they live up to their acronymic moniker with a set that metaphorically unpackages far more than is immediately obvious to the eye/ear, unfolding along linguistic, sonic, and philosophic vectors with a penetrating perception of pop music growing under the mainstream.
They embrace onomatopoeia as a profound form of precognition in the likes of Elvin Brandi’s wickedly unintelligible, but palpably fraught, vocal gurns on ‘FRIDGE! Ez virus’ and in the mangled autotune of her ‘Cekik’ cut with Hulubalang, while Olan Monk appears to adapt Irish Gaelic lyrics to mumblecore cloudrap with results that brilliantly follow along a line from A.R. Kane to Spaceghostpurp and Future.
Factor in the diffracted blooz of Alpha Maid; a bombed-out beauty by Billy Bultheel (key player on the soundtrack to Anne Imhof’s award winning ‘Faust’); and the bittersweet flux of Nadah El Shazly’s hyper collage of Egyptian pop and computer noise in ’Fl3ln’; and it’s possible to hear the future collapsing in on itself, but also galvanising listeners to comprehend the present and find hope for what comes next.

«'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things.' 'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master — that's all.'»
Lewis Carroll: Through the Looking-Glass
ɅV (phonetic transcription for ‹of› or ‹off›) is a twelve-inch vinyl record consisting of spoken words, which can be used as a DJ-tool to compose an artificial dialogue.
It makes use of 32 monosyllabic words on each side which were collected from the website of the New York Times (newspaper, formal language, mainstream, liberal) and a subforum of the 4chan messageboard entitled Politically Incorrect (online messageboard, informal language, subculture, reactionary) in winter 2018/19. Recited by two synthetic voices, they mirror two opposing extremes of current online debate in the materiality of a vinyl record.
This work aims to let contrasting positions of political discourse talk to each other, while stripping the language from its context to generate new text.
Mixing two copies of this record in a DJ-setup is recommended to construct unpredictable connections. To multiply the possibilities of meaning, it contains ambiguous and homophonous words only (avoiding hate speech), arranged in lists, text planes, rhythmic compositions plus four locked-grooves on each side. The artwork, designed by Jan Klöthe, features all words in phonetic transcription as well as graphic scores of all ten tracks.
ɅV is at the same time a post-digital take on sound poetry as it is created due to the current landscape of online debates and their ideologies. In the combinatorial filter bubble of this record, looped words become a writing method that may produce fragmentary narratives or arbitrary mantras.
ɅV is released by collective and label Research and Waves as initial part of the collaborative research platform Attune that critically examines digital (re)formations of media, specifically the use of language and the emancipatory possibilities of poetic intervention in current political debates. For the release Research and Waves commissions a series of works and texts that use the record as a tool to (re)situate the speech of the sources through processes and gestures such as remixing, sampling, cutting, mashing, quoting, covering, morphing, or fading.
Both the NYT and the 4chan subforum, which act as examples for a political and cultural divide around identity and class politics, are put on the line for critical discussion. By (re)connecting the missing dots between the words and their sources these fragments of speech can be appropriated for a cross-cultural conversation about forms of oppression such as racism and white supremacy, patriarchism and neoliberalism.
Andreas Bülhoff (sync zine, Library of Artistic Print on Demand, SLU&ERS) and Marc Matter (Institut für Feinmotorik, The Durian Brothers, Salon des Amateurs) first met for a collaborative sound poetry performance at Poesiefestival Berlin in 2018, resulting in an ongoing artistic research of which ɅV is its latest manifestation.

Lullabies For Insomniacs presents 'For Leena', a collection of unreleased pieces composed between 1991 & 1998 by Dino J.A. Deane for the choreography of Colleen Mulvihill. Gatefold Sleeve
.
Dino J. A. Deane began his professional career, at the age of nineteen, as a musical arranger and multi-instrumentalist (trombone, flutes, keyboards, percussion). He worked in funk bands around Los Angeles before moving to San Francisco in the mid 1970's, where as an improvising artist he became involved in the diverse communities of dramatic theatre, modern dance, free jazz and punk rock.

In the early 1980's Mr. Deane pioneered the use of live-electronics, live-looping and live-sampling in three distinct genres that heavily informed his later compositions: As a member of art-punk band 'Indoor Life', touring and recording with fourth world pioneer Jon Hassell and as an electro-acoustic percussionist in the Conduction orchestras of Butch Morris.

During this period Mr. Deane also worked as a sound designer for the theatre, with directors Sam Shepard, Julie Hebert and Christoph Marthaler. He also maintained a presence in the world ofmodern dance, creating and performing compositions for former Olympic gymnast Colleen Mulvihill.

The couple met in San Francisco in 1979 through his good friend Bruce Ackley, whom was commissioned to compose a score for one of her solo pieces. Colleen, was than a member of the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company and was planning to move to New York City to set out on her own as a dancer and choreographer. Their paths crossed again in 1980 when Dino moved to NYC with Indoor Life, during this time they began a long term relationship both on and off the stage, which continues to this day.

I Conceived 'darkly' In 2015 As A Piano Album. I Was Fascinated By This Instrument And Couldn't Think About Electronic Music At All. I Spent A Lot Of Time In Front Of The Instrument Before My Fingers Could Play What Was Needed. And At Some Point, I Got A Few Solo Piano Tracks, But They Sounded Very Raw And Unfinished. Almost At The Same Time, I Was Getting Back Into Experiments With Electronic Music And Focussed More On Recording Piano In An Electronic Context. Paying More Attention To Different Textures And Multilayeredness. I Was Working On Soundtracks For Films By Noir Films And This Helped Me Finish Two Compositions, Which Later Determined One Of The Directions Of The Album And Served As A Bridge Between The Solo Piano Compositions I Recorded At The Beginning, And The New Electronic Tracks. At The Beginning Of 2018, I Got Back To The First Solo Piano Tracks To Give Them A Finished Form, Adding The Missing Elements That I Could Not Hear Three Years Earlier. I Wanted To Make A Piano Album, But I Got The Album Which Was Formed By Itself And Became A Result Of My Experiences, Worries, And Events Of My Life That Occurred During These Few Years. I Dedicate This Work To A Human, Which Shares This Life With Me, Supports Me And Believes In Me Like Nobody Else! I Dedicate It To My Wife.

"darkly" Comes Out On Limited, Double, Grey Vinyl (including Download Code)

This is the first ever vinyl release of the now defunct Parisian formation None, whom have left very few traces of their recordings apart from a furtive tape appearance; keeping true to their name by favoring the intensity of their live performances to conventional sound fixations. Although only one single recording remained following the band’s dissolution back in 2019, the oddly titled Khneï Khneï Thnacapata Thnacapata is a compelling demonstration in self-restraint as well as one of the very few relics left to cherish of the short lived group. Arranged as a forty minute long movement, the posthumous album swallows us through free improvisation, jazz and post-punk in a composed mayhem that echoes their equally intense live conduct where steadfast drums and far out cassette manipulation meet head-on with troubled saxophone blows, lonesome crippled guitar action and unintelligible vocals in which to lose one’s mind.

Parasian fellow Stephane Laporte joins the Antinote crew with a very introspective and dreamy full length record. kraftwerk gone ambient will be the best discription..TIP

Dalibor Cruz's debut LP traces his families bloodline to the mountain town of Siguatepeque and the native people of Honduras, teaming these ancient rhythms inside the framework of the midwest's noise scene. The artwork is an original piece by Gabrielle K. Brown and limited to 250 copies worldwide.

Dread technicians Pact Infernal debut on their own Altar Label with 4 all new haunted constructions

2020 has been a terrible year for everyone. However, it has also been the year in which some projects have had time to develop. This is the case of Tactil, responsible for the fourth Antimatter refelease. This new tandem is born from the collaboration between the artists from Madrid, Kawn and F-on. Deeply influenced by projects from 90´s like Porter Ricks, Jetone, Gas or Thomas Köner, "1-4" means the first ep from this duo. Drones, wrinkled textures and field recording meet long and progressive rhythmical sequences, complex delays, long reverbs and LFO modulations to shape their distinctive sound.

Cabaret Voltaire is Richard H. Kirk and ‘Shadow of
Fear’ was the band’s first studio album in 26 years
and was released in 2020 to critical acclaim.
The single ‘Shadow of Funk’ delves deeper into
Cabaret Voltaire’s arsenal of “vocal samples, harsh
rhythms and threatening detonations” (Classic Pop).
Three brand new tracks released on Curacao coloured vinyl with digital download code included.

Inhabited Shadows” is the new album by pioneering, Berlin-based techno artist Headless Horseman. This is his most daring and emotional release to date: the culmination of live performance, studio experimentation, and global exploration.

A total sonic experience, “Inhabited Shadows” takes listeners on a deeply personal journey through Headless Horseman’s creative brain. Dark industrial synths and broken beats form the spinal chord. A spirit of lightness and compassion guides the way forward.

From its opening, the album sets hard edges and metallic surfaces against dense and delicate textures. A-tonal figures and percussive attacks merge with melodic flights and soulful rhythms. Classical counterpoint and cinematic soundscapes conspire together. The result is discordant joy.

Headless Horseman’s vitality comes from his determination to remain open and vulnerable as an artist. “Inhabited Shadows”, recorded over eight months in 2019, reflects a period of intensive growth. Each of its nine tracks ventures into uncharted territory, embracing many moods, changing climates, old ghosts, and new risks.

“Over years of trials and tribulations, music has been the antidote”, says Headless Horseman. “I’ve learned to live in shadows and darkness. Now I’m chipping off pieces of my shell and portraying directly how I feel without compromise. I still inhabit shadows, but I can move back and forth between darkness and light.”

Most of the songs were recorded in my flat on cassette or digital four track recorders, although a couple were done in my much-lamented studio above a morgue in The Anatomy Rooms.

*Repress*

With comparisons being made to Psykick Warriors Of Gaia, Cyclobe and Insanlar's Kime Ne' this one's definitely making waves amongst fans of.....well....whatever sort of music this is.

Komodo Kolektif is a loose collective of veteran multi-instrumentalists based not in Indonesia as one might expect with such a name, but Glasgow, Scotland, their name being a reference to the Indonesian gamelan instruments featured in their compositions. The instruments used (saron, gender, kempul) belong to local gamelan ensemble Gamelan Naga Mas of which two of the musicians have been full-time members for around a decade while the other members are also loosely affiliated and have appeared as 'guest' musicians on various one-off performances and who are themselves well-known musicians in their own rights.

Combined with an arsenal of vintage synthesizers, FX-laden guitar and traditional hand percussion the resulting concoction is a magical, mystical brew indeed.

Two of the pieces, the epic Djakarta 3001' and Binaural Bintaro' were recorded live in 2014 and 2015, respectively, with edits/overdubs in late 2016/early 2017. Binaural Bintaro' was originally composed for Gamelan Naga Mas and was performed live at their Gamelan Untethered' multimedia project at Glasgow's Royal Conservatoire in Sept 2015.


Limited to 300 copies only


This is awesome........10/10' (JD Twitch / Optimo)

Amazing stuff!' (House Of Traps / Firecracker / Unthank / Sacred Summits)

This Vinyl Is A Tribute To Esplendor Geometrico, One Of The Greatest Industrial Music Icons In Spain And Abroad.
Each One Of These Remixes Has Been Produced By Local Artists From Madrid, Homecity Of The Band, As Their Particular Homage And Acknowledgement Of The Crucial Role That The Group Has Been Playing As An Example And A Catalyst For The Most Avant-garde Electronic Music Scene. Thanks!...
Special Thanks To Our Friend And Fellow Andre´s Noarbe, The Man Behind Geometrik Records And Rotor Discos. This Project Wouldn't Have Been Possible Without Him. The Original Tracks From Esplendor Geometrico Selected For This Release Are Included In Their Last Lp 'fluida Mekaniko' Published On Geometrik Records.

‘Le Jeune’ - the group’s debut release on new imprint S76 - feels at once classic and innovative." - DIY mag

Last December, French outfit QuinzeQuinze unveiled ‘Le Jeune’, their intoxicating first EP on S76. The ‘climatic’ release is a perfect testimony to the band’s musical virtuosity and owned them a spot on the Shazam Prediction 2021 playlist, gaining support from the likes of Clash Magazine and Colors Studios Berlin as “one of the most inventive and original acts around”. The extraterrestrial EP combines futuristic electronic productions with ancestral orero and traditional percussive instrument to tell epic short stories, full of strange surrealism and extravagant science fiction

TGR 012 plus empty box plus poster and booklet

Tape / Cassette

A true mid-decade classic, Mica Levi’s ‘Feeling Romantic Feeling Tropical Feeling Ill’ is available once again in this new edition featuring Matt Colton’s re-master and new artwork, for optimal absorption in its lush aetheric flux.
Issued somewhere between Mica Levi’s emergence in 2008, and their recent gush of solo and band releases with Curl and Good Sad Happy Bad, Mica wrote and recorded ‘Feeling Romantic Feeling Tropical Feeling Ill’ around about the time they were receiving award-nominations and resounding acclaim for their soundtrack to Jonathan Glazer film, ‘Under The Skin.’ Naturally it shares some of that OST’s tones and moods, but the results are far more febrile, lush rather than dark and tense, stitching together a tapestry like mixtape-cumproduction showreel of curdled chamber pieces, shrugged hip hop, ambient flights of fancy and gorgeous snatches of strings recalling the intervals of Carl Craig and Derrick May’s seminal ‘Relics’ set going into what sound like early sketches for what would become Tirzah’s ‘Devotion’ album a few years later.
Replete with new, minimalist artwork symbolic of the album’s enigmatic nature, the record’s second wind is arguably ideally timed for the world’s current state of torpor and tentative anticipation, with 60 minutes of figurative, quietly perplexing, evocative melodies that work by inference as opposed to ever beating you around the head with a message. It’s peppered with some exquisite, often unexpected moments that arrive and recede into its matrix with uncanny logic that perhaps comes as close as you’ll get to living inside Mica’s iridescent, endlessly intriguing mind.

Zoom is Thessa Torsing's first full-length album as upsammy. Since 2017, she has developed a signature style in front of listeners eyes and ears: hers is a mesh of airy tones, tender melodies and highly technical drum patterns which wrap around the body of the song like colourful thread around a metallic spindle. Zoom, a refinement of her sound and an expansion of its ambition, is evidently electronic yet seems to float some way off beyond the glow of a screen. Zoom is upsammy's most comprehensive release to date, something she remarks is "a closer and truer look into my work right now"

Across the 11 tracks on Zoom, which has early support from Ben UFO, Lena Willikens, and Call Super, are moments that sharpen your focus then throw you off guard. On "It Drips," a chunky beat conjures the image of a stomping machine. Not so – within seconds a gentle frosting of notes begins to emerge atop the song before a lead melody yawns into view. This technique recurs on "In A Shade", where buzzy static around the margins of the track and a robust low-end are merely the sediment for the song to grow into another form altogether. Using only an Analog Rytm drum machine, Ableton, some modular kit and field recordings to achieve such a wide palette of sounds, the album reflects the excitement of its maker throughout the production process.

The title is an invocation for people to look a little closer at their surroundings and replenish their stock of wonder: "People can be consumed by really big or 'fantastical' things in life, but don't see the small things that have great emotional, artistic or even spiritual value." The packaging of the release contains reminders of the everyday – from associated imagery, a poster, text and videos, all compiled, photographed, and executed by upsammy, to a limited clear vinyl pressing as part of Dekmantel's physical release.

Ljudverket’s 11th release is a four-tracker from a man of many sounds and personas, Vesa-Matti Kivioja. Here, operating under his given name, he delivers four tracks of experimental dub and electronica, taking the listener from his/her living room all the way to a dimly lit dance floor in an alien planet, with a sound system capable of producing frequencies way below human hearing and a smoke machine filled with unknown substances.

”These are recycled patterns forming sounds which describe minerals and stones. The use of stone has had a huge impact on the cultural and technological development of the human race. Often composed of grains of minerals, in nature, more than one substitution may be found in the same mineral. It can be made of one element or more elements combined together. A hard, solid, non-metallic, naturally occurring inorganic substance. It is found in a wide variety of geological locations. It’s not made by humans.”

Hailing from Los Angeles, Jimmy Tamborello has been a key figure in refining what today is considered electronica for over 20 years. "The Seas Trees See" is the first of two Dntel albums to be released in 2021 by Morr Music in collaboration with Les Albums Claus: a free-floating and rather loose stroke of musical genius, giving ambience a whole new meaningful context. It combines crackles and hiss with deep, yet modest, synths and poignant, yet elegant, vocals and lyrics. "Away", its counterpart album, will follow later in 2021. It will showcase Dntel’s unapologetic love for pop music from a long-gone era, presenting yet another aspect of his multi-faceted personality. Dntel has always covered many musical grounds – from the pop-infused hits on "Life Is Full Of Possibilities" (Plug Research, 2001) to his much more abstract works on "Aimlessness" (Pampa Records, 2012), "Human Voice” (Leaving Records, 2014), and his electronics for The Postal Service (Sub Pop). Whatever his style – Tamborello has retained his very own musical voice.

When it comes to producing music, it can be a good idea to get away from the studio and find a more relaxed environment. Inspiration does not necessarily require huge bass bins. Fewer pieces of gear make it easier to really focus on ideas first and let them be. After recording "Hate In My Heart" – his most recent album, released in 2018 – this way, Tamborello continued working in that fashion, mainly jamming and getting ideas together for upcoming live shows. One of the first results of this creative process was the opening track of "The Seas Trees See" – a cover version of "The Lilac and the Apple", originally recorded by Californian folk singer Kate Wolf in 1977. Tamborello turns the acapella song into a vocoder-like extravaganza. Working with the original recording, the track perfectly sets the tone for what "The Seas Trees See" turns out to be – a quiet yet mesmerizing journey through sound and emotion, bringing together his very own sound design, disguised samples and an incredible feel for moods and atmospheres.

"I thought a lot about making an album that you would find in a thrift store", Tamborello remembers. Something "like a mysterious collection of sketches that leaves a lot unanswered. It doesn’t beg for attention or have any big moments." Despite its perfect and gentle flow, it is worth digging deeper, to surrender oneself to all the painstakingly placed details. Whether the beautiful and haunting piano work on "Movie Tears" or the almost sidechained-sounding "Yoga App" – every aspect of this album has been beautifully crafted, often bringing one of life’s biggest questions to the table: What if? What would have happened if Tamborello would have done this on that track or that on this track? It is good that he did not. Small things add up to something great, diverse and riveting.

The subtlety of his latest endeavor is fascinating. It opens up a new world, in which small musical sketches mean at least as much as perfectly produced pop anthems – if not more.

From somewhere in Tennessee. Actually, Knoxville Tennessee. Raw Electro and Breakbeats out of the swamps. Techno and Tennessee are not normally thought of together, but here they are. Bumping.

"Minor Planets completes a trilogy of cosmically themed electro-acoustic albums by UK and Berlin based trio Twinkle3, 15 years in the making. This third installment is once again all about the unique synergies the group discover in combining free group improvisation with studio and musique-concrete techniques. The group's combined love of everything from Lee Perry to Noh Theatre via Karlheinz Stockhausen and King Sunny Ade lead them to respond musically to create a single universe where they all coexist and interact. Aleatoric analogue sequencing, chamber-like acoustic improvisation and dub treatments become distilled into a distinct and emotive narrative that takes us on an exhilarating hyperspace cruise to the outer reaches.

Clive Bell is a virtuoso of the Shakuhachi. His aesthetic takes us on a timbral journey between noise and pitch, expressed and phrased rhythmically by the contour of human breath. This creates a perfect context and focus for a music that moves seamlessly between rhythm, suspension, time modulated analogue states, dissonance and melody. Richard Scott and David Ross share a background in acoustic free improvisation and have pioneered new approaches to rhythm using self-designed analogue systems. On Minor Planets these seemingly paradoxical orthodoxies cross-pollinate in a spirit of wonder and optimism to produce original and experimental music that is both life affirming and uplifting.

Album artwork by Benjmain Kilchhofer captures the feeling of peering through the vacuum of space and catching a rare glimpse of the mysterious alien biomes, fossils, and silhouettes cast by dwarf planets, asteroids, Kuiper belt, and other trans-Neptunian objects."

"Minor Planets completes a trilogy of cosmically themed electro-acoustic albums by UK and Berlin based trio Twinkle3, 15 years in the making. This third installment is once again all about the unique synergies the group discover in combining free group improvisation with studio and musique-concrete techniques. The group's combined love of everything from Lee Perry to Noh Theatre via Karlheinz Stockhausen and King Sunny Ade lead them to respond musically to create a single universe where they all coexist and interact. Aleatoric analogue sequencing, chamber-like acoustic improvisation and dub treatments become distilled into a distinct and emotive narrative that takes us on an exhilarating hyperspace cruise to the outer reaches.

Clive Bell is a virtuoso of the Shakuhachi. His aesthetic takes us on a timbral journey between noise and pitch, expressed and phrased rhythmically by the contour of human breath. This creates a perfect context and focus for a music that moves seamlessly between rhythm, suspension, time modulated analogue states, dissonance and melody. Richard Scott and David Ross share a background in acoustic free improvisation and have pioneered new approaches to rhythm using self-designed analogue systems. On Minor Planets these seemingly paradoxical orthodoxies cross-pollinate in a spirit of wonder and optimism to produce original and experimental music that is both life affirming and uplifting.

Album artwork by Benjmain Kilchhofer captures the feeling of peering through the vacuum of space and catching a rare glimpse of the mysterious alien biomes, fossils, and silhouettes cast by dwarf planets, asteroids, Kuiper belt, and other trans-Neptunian objects."

If conceivable, imagine a collaboration between Brian Eno and Aphex Twin, both in their ambient periods, recording stock music for an Italian Library music label. If so, then behold Psycorama!, a collection of experimental music used to soundtrack a series of films and documentaries produced by the Italian filmmaker Roberto Rossellini. Composed by Mario Nascimbene, a name synonymous with the golden age of Italian film music, a composer whose grandiose scores of the 1950s and 60s defined the very essence of Cinecitta. While the widespread influence of these soundtracks is undeniable, it is beyond the commercial domain of the major studios where this compendium takes focus, revealing a deeper, darker and more complex composer. Forged on the 'Mixerama', a unique homemade sampling instrument, Nascimbene employed visionary techniques to deconstruct and render sound, sculpting pre-existing recordings into intense and evocative other-worldly soundscapes (most notably used for the 1971 existential TV drama Socrates and the 1969 Egyptian modernist film Al-Mummia (The Night Of Counting The Years). Previously unpublished except for a lone and mysterious Library music LP, the soundtrack cues are collected here for their first commercial release. Psycorama is a fascinating document of electro-acoustic music comparable to the beautifully dark music of fellow colleague Egisto Macchi. Including liner notes and rare photos.

Reissue of a rare Italian experimental Library LP.
Music used to soundtrack Roberto Rossellini films.
Pioneering sampling techniques and tape manipulation.
Brian Eno's Music For Airports meets Aphex Twin's Ambient Works II!

Luca Yupanqui was not yet born when she recorded her debut album. The music on the aptly titled Sounds of the Unborn is the expression of life in its cosmic state _ pre-mind, pre-speculation, pre-influence, and pre-human. It is the first album created by a person while they were still inside the womb, the expression of a soul that hasn't yet seen the light of day nor taken a single breath of air. It is a message that comes from a different realm, a sublayer of our existence. Sounds of the Unborn was made with biosonic MIDI technology, which translated Luca's in utero movements into sound. With the help of her parents, Psychic Ills bassist Elizabeth Hart and Lee Scratch Perry collaborator Iván Diaz Mathé, Luca's prenatal essence was captured in audio. They designed a ritual, a kind of joint meditation for the three of them, with the MIDI devices hooked to Elizabeth's stomach, transcribing its vibrations into Iván's synthesizers. They let the free-form meditations flow without much interference, just falling deeper into trance and feeling the unity. After five hour-long sessions, the shape of an album began to emerge. Elizabeth and Iván then edited and mixed the results of the sessions, respecting the sounds as they were produced, trying to intervene as little as possible, allowing Luca's message to exist in its raw form. This cosmic soul summoning created new sounds, striking into uncharted territory for Elizabeth and Iván as musicians. A new language was being created, a new form of communication. It was a music without intellect or intentionality behind it, with no preconception or attempt to create any specific sound or melody. Every note on Sounds of the Unborn occurred naturally. It is human nature to wonder what life is like inside another human being's consciousness. How does it feel? What does it sound like? All these questions became stronger and more important to Elizabeth and Iván while they were waiting for Luca to come into the world. At a certain point the questions turned into, What would she say if she could speak? How would she react to the outer world? And ultimately, What kind of music would she play if she was able to? This album is an attempt to answer those questions. RIYL: Brian Eno, Mort Garson, Kaitlyn Aurelia-Smith

pink vinyl limited to 500
Insides’s music shimmers and tingles with the tantalising promise of a different direction that UK pop could’ve gone: future-facing and fresh, rather than nostalgic regurgitation.” Simon Reynolds, author and music critic, writing in  Euphoria re-issue liner-notes in 2019

“A sound still as dew fresh, dawn dazzled and shot through with luscious darkness as it was nigh on three decades ago.” Neil Kulkarni, The Wire, 2019

Insides are Julian Tardo and Kirsty Yates. They first recorded together in the early 90s as Earwig, and released an album, 'Under My Skin I am Laughing', which brought them to the attention of 4AD. Earwig morphed into Insides and  two further albums were released on 4AD’s Guernica imprint: ‘Euphoria' (1993) and 'Clear Skin' (1994). In 2019 ‘Euphoria' was reissued for US Record Store Day by Beacon Sound, and was hailed as a lost treasure by discerning outlets. 

'Soft Bonds' is Insides’ first release for 20 years. It’s the sound of heart-stopping slow motion, blood rushes, fingers digging into bruised flesh, and sleeping with clenched fists.

“We found some things that were recorded a long time ago. We added some things that have been haunting us for for years and recorded some other ideas that we’d just thought of. Recording started at home in 2012, and continued every now and then in our studio, on trains, in the Greek island of Naxos and while wandering around Cissbury Ring, Chanctonbury Ring and Devil’s Dyke in the South Downs. We finally walked away from the recordings in late 2019 and decided to release a small run of CDs and LPs on our own Further Distractions label.

'Soft Bonds' is about the past haunting the present, and gripping onto your crumbling sense of self. It’s informed by the spirit of This Heat/This Is Not This Heat, Patty Waters, Annette Peacock, Eartheater, Mhysa, Hailu Mergia, Scott Walker and Arca.”

The first track to be released, 'Ghost Music', was also the first to be finished and came about by scrapping the original structure, leaving only the trace elements. Working in the negative space that’s left behind, where rhythms are pulses and heartbeats and melodies are memories, it’s insistent, staring, but not shouting. Almost absent, or heard from another room. The video uses footage of Kirsty and Julian filmed and used in live shows in 1993 and cut with more recent footage from 2016. The past haunts the present.

“Pop loving the sound of itself to death. And hating the fact that it can’t stop loving.” Rob Young, The Wire, 1993

“...they seemed to be creating an entirely new version of pop. Their hooks were unmistakable, in that they triggered movement like perpetual-motion clockwork. Their grooves were sparse and spectral and nagged at you like breakbeats but made your heart and hair-follicles dance more than your feet. Their music was amniotic, ebbing and alive with iridescent melodic detail and lyrics that turned the turmoils and trauma of love into the sweetest searing honesty you’d been privy to since you first heard the Supremes.” Neil Kulkarni, The Quietus, 2011

Dark, psychosexual electronics lurk between the teeth of Ester Kärkkäinen, the Las Vegas based artist also known as Himukalt. For the past six years, she has tirelessly pursued an avenue of bleak industrial productions that parallel the extremist works of Genocide Organ and Atrax Morgue. She has built a considerable reputation for uncompromising, full-frontal noise, releasing albums on Total Black, Malignant Records, Found Remains, and Foul Prey, amongst others. Between My Teeth was originally a cassette which came out in 2018 as a tiny edition on the Greek imprint Several Minor Promises and sold out immediately upon release. Himukalt returns to The Helen Scarsdale Agency with the necessary reissue of Between My Teeth as a vinyl edition with expanded artwork.

The album is a maelstrom of ill-tempered noise and blackened frequencies, sutured to a foundation of primitive, raw rhythms. Kärkkäinen cuts up her own voice with the digital equivalent of a rusted razor blade through her proclamations of misery, rage, and desire. The albums' opening track "Cataclysm" a turgid industrial production with Kärkkäinen adopting two distinct voices that, while they remain mostly indecipherable in content, the context presumes an inevitable, catastrophic and emotionally violent collapse in the relationship between two people. A tense rhythm clicks below the full spectrum bursts of harsh noise on "She Went Mad" followed by the smoldering power electronic moves of "I No Longer Belong" and "Not Proper." And the death disco groove of "Mine" is far more hellish than danceable through its scalded distortion and Kärkkäinen's vocal mantras about bodily self-loathing.

Another bold, declarative album in the ever impressive Himukalt discography. Remastered by James Plotkin and features a 12 page booklet of Kärkkäinen's signature collaged xerography.

*Repress*

Compuma, a.k.a. Koichi Matsunaga, reaches back through time to 1970s Hawaii to perform a mind meld, his old-school Roland drum machines and present-era compumagic vulcanizing and reshaping Haku's original home-grown analog synth madness. Not merely a remix, this a synergistic reconstruction, a transformation at the molecular level in which Haku's source-code DNA is reborn in 2015.

Since 2005, Swedish sound artist Dag Rosenqvist has released 30 albums, EP’s and cassette tapes in different constellations, the main one being Jasper TX that was put to rest 2012. Other constellations include From The Mouth of The Sun, de la Mancha and The Silence Set. He has also collaborated with Machinefabriek, Mike Weis, Aaron Martin and Simon Scott and released albums on Miasmah, Fang Bomb, Experimedia and Kning Disk.

To start a second year, Laaps is glad to have his new album on board, a new turn on the Dag Rosenqvist's works, it could be a soundtrack and it should be. Between "Blade Runner", "Stranger Things", and "Dark", Dag Rosenqvist has made his own chapter.

In collaboration with Brooklyn-based artist RDO/ATK, Sophia Saze makes her long-awaited return to her Dusk & Haze imprint with four slamming cuts on a release entitled ‘Stalker’.

Born in Tbilisi and now residing in Philadelphia after years living a nomadic lifestyle, Sophia Saze began her creative journey in her formative years with classical music and dance training. With a solid and natural musical foundation, Sophia became engulfed by electronic music leading to the launch of her Dusk & Haze imprint in 2017, before dropping a remix of Heathered Pearls on Ghostly International and the release of her much lauded debut album on Kingdoms. ‘Stalker’ sees her team up with old friend RDO/ATK who has been soaking up the dancefloor since the early 90s. With much of his influence stemming from the early east coast rave and club scene, his sound maintains a homage to the past without getting stuck in it. A sucker for a dirty 303, a breakneck amen, or a crushed 909, RDO/ATK’s style spans across genres from jungle to acid to broken beat and everything in-between.

The EP kicks off with a dynamic, jungle roller entitled ‘Stalker’ featuring old-school, amen breaks, stirring yet intriguing synths and hefty bass shatters balancing styles of glitch and funk together with pure class whilst ‘Fucking Crazy B’ lays focus on cold, syncopated grooves, chopped up shrieks and screams from a video of a traumatic personal incident and shimmering pads moving into ominous territories.

On the flip, ‘Talk To You In Your Brain’ delivers relentless kicks and spiralling acid squelches peppered with chilling vocal samples and frazzled fx that pulsates strikingly throughout until ‘Acid B’ rounds off proceedings with an effervescent, warehouse techno cut as the electrifying modulations bounce gracefully off the menacing percussion and slashing, 303 tones.

mex is a non-profit-organization for intermedia and experimental music projects, located in Dortmund, Germany. Since 1992 more than 650 musicians and media artists from around the world presented their subtle, noisy, improvised or conceptual works. mex’s traditional venue for those projects of concerts in combination with performance, video and intermedia, is the mexKeller at the Künstlerhaus with it’s special acoustic and atmosphere. Jens Brand began inviting artists and later Maija Julius went on until Achim Zepezauer took over in 2015. mex is a member of Medienwerk NRW. Kindly supported by: Department of cultural affairs of the City of Dortmund, Pro Jazz e.V. and Künstlerhaus Dortmund.

The artists featured on this sampler were guests within the curation of Achim Zepezauer and performed live for the mex audience between 2013 & 2019. Due to global pandemic conditions mex was unable to host any concerts in 2020 and therefore decided to release this special compilation in cooperation with the label Ana Ott.

*straight up foul and very essential gear from a galaxxy unknown... sleep on this at your peril!*

TPPM and AtB aka Mr fLooDs are turning on the research machine taking the listener on a extraordinary tripped out ecstatic journey through timespace where spirits of Liaisons Dangereuses Radio and the legendary Boccaccio are summoned with inspiration in order to find a New Beat Soul for the 21st Century.

What was born and initially exploded in 1987, went supernova (in Belgium) in 1988, declared dead in 1989, was slow and initially all about atmosphere with industrial strength beats - the main form of rhythmic propulsion being the pounding kick and heavy snare. The sound was mainly instrumental and when there was lyrical content, it often became more about slogans and giving commands. On „Decadent Skies“ An Anomaly bring back the atmosphere, beats, the essence off the beaten commercial track, and combine it with the knowledge of tomorrow.

Enjoy the ride!

A maelstrom, the chaos, a vortex, a turmoil. These are appropriate words to describe the hard work of the prolific French producer.

With a cryptic history incorporating nearly two decades of aliases and side projects born out of free parties in warehouses, fields and basements, it is under this moniker that the artist has truly come into his own.

His skill and vision spanning from 135 bpm wave powerful to a pensive and subtle ambient track, Maelstrom's sonic universe is both precise and limitless, described better by feeling ('approaching storm over river/horse with the bit in its teeth/sliver of moon') than genre. Maelstrom cofounded the label RAAR in 2015 with frequent collaborator Louisahhh where he released his debut album «Her Empty Eyes» in 2017. Throughout the next 2 years, he has delivered exciting collaborations with cutting edge electro imprints such as CPU and Cultivated Electronics in the UK, Private Persons in Moscow, or Mechatronica in Berlin, while playing an all electro live set in clubs and raves, from Paris to London or Tokyo.

2021 will see the release of his second album, Rhizome, with a focus on the concepts of interdependence and creative ecosystems

One Hundred Billion Sparks sees Cooper further refining his widescreen style of techno, ambient and experimental music. The UK artist says he conceptualized it during a month spent in isolation in a remote Welsh cottage.

Abstrakce presents one of the most rare, interesting and difficult to find of Carl Matthews' cassettes on vinyl for the first time and remastered by Colin Potter. Composed and recorded at his own home studio in1991 and influenced by Harmonia and Cluster, Matthews developes a really personal project. A very delicate usage of rhythm machines, samplers, sequencers, e-bowed guitars that show up briefly hinting at a lo-fi Innovative Communication feeling... The capricious nature of these experiments opens many different doors of wonder to the curious heads, easing deep listening away from clichéd Berlin School, New Age or Krautrock -the most obvious reference points here-, into a foreverland of non academic modernism, where to take shelter and briefly vanish. Quiet but not static, mellow but not too new agey and trippin' but not too trancey, this music finds its own space and character in the world of home recorded electronica. A true jewel of the european electronic underground.

Printed on recycled paper made with corn waste.

‘In This Lingering Twilight Sparkle’ finds Mark Leckey stitching together a fantasy travelogue made up of found sounds, spoken word and dismantled tunes like some hallucinogenic mixtape; part audio diary, part YouTube session taking in fairytale folk musics, iMessage notifications and gothic horror that will make you question... stuff. “In the Age before These Times I’d been reading lots of folklore about Fairies, and Changelings and the like. At the same time I’d watch all these shows with my young daughter which revolved around magic and myth: enchanted realms, unicorns, mermaids, trolls etc. That I could instantaneously conjure up these shows on various devices made them appear even more magical. In my head these two worlds began to converge; the contemporary magic of consumerism, embodied within a rainbow unicorn, and an older mindset that could transact between the mundane and the supernatural. When the lockdown began this sense of the modern and medieval co-existing grew and grew, along with the belief that all the streaming sevices served as a protective magic from the encroaching dark age. Come the pestilence I had the kids, online magic and a hard drive full of stuff I’d collected for O Magic Power of Bleakness, things that I wanted to emulate, that sonically suggested the sensations I was looking for, sounds and music that evoked Childhood and Consumerism, Fairies and Trauma, Hauntings and Concrete. More than these concepts though what I really I wanted was it to sound like someone totally lost and confused with the ongoing mystification of reality. An actuality where a Great Worm could reasonably appear on my news feed app as the Moon turns to Iron. We draw the magic cap down over eyes and ears as a make-believe there are no monsters. KARL MARX”

Mark Leckey, May 2020

Baby Buddha is the experimental new wave duo of Charles Hornaday (vocals, guitar, electronics, drums) and David Javelosa (vocals, electronics, clarinet). Born from late night improvisations of San Francisco synth-punks Los Microwaves with a rotating cast of musicians. Live shows would include music, projections, dance and performance art in both clubs and gallery spaces. In 1980, Howie Klein's 415 Records released their first single of Tammy Wynette's 'Stand By Your Man'. In 1981, 'Music For Teenage Sex' was their first full length album released via Poshboy Records. It featured Los Microwaves' Meg Brazill, Poshboy boss Robbie Fields, and Kathy Peck as "Tammy Why-not", who later went on to found H.E.A.R (Hearing Education and Awareness for Rockers). In January 1983 Kathy, Charles and David went into the studio with a couple of Kathy's original 'country' songs and began working on a sophomore album. They also incorporated songs from a live multi-track recording of a concert at the Graffiti Club on June 6th 1984. The album titled 'Everyone Is My Age' sat unreleased until 1987 due to relocation to Los Angeles and eventually found a home on David's Hyperspace Communications, the original label for the first Los Microwaves singles. For this first time reissue we've added a previously unreleased bonus song 'What's Going On,' a Kathy Peck original. All songs have been remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. The vinyl comes housed in the original jacket featuring a collage by David Javelosa and includes an insert with lyrics, photos and liner notes. Alternative.