Beats News

Music From Memory's final compilation of 2017 sees the release of the double album 1 by 1', which brings together the works of American experimental musician Geoffrey Landers. During a period spanning from 1979 to 1987, this Denver, Colorado based multi-instrumentalist, composer, record producer and engineer, conceived several solo albums. Only two of these, The Ever Decimal Pulse' and Habitual Features' along with the single Breedlove' were ever released on vinyl.
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Being heavily involved in the local industrial/punk/new wave scene and wanting to create a recording studio available to record artists regardless of their financial circumstances' Landers set up The Packing House Studio' in 1981. This analog 8-track recording facility was located in a former slaughterhouse in the stockyards of Denver and was a place of significant activity for the next three years with the studio releasing recordings from numerous artists most notably Allen Ginsberg.

It was here that Geoffrey Landers also started his own aptly named Cauhaus' label. Indicative of the underground/DIYculture, Cauhaus' was a subsiduary of a label called Local Anaesthetics which was started as an in-store label by independent Denver record store Wax Trax. Typically Cauhaus releases were only pressed up in small quantities and independently distributed, making Lander's music essentially elusive to a wide audience. After relocating in 1984 to an art district of Denver Landers opened the Cauhaus Institute of Recording' studio where he continued to produce music for soundtracks, art and multi media projects for the next three years, after which Landers stepped out of the music industry entirely. He currently creates and exhibits mixed-media glass art.

Throughout the twenty tracks of "1 by 1", of which six previously appeared on CD only, we are submerged into a wide diversity of musical approaches from Geoffrey Landers. From the proto-house track Logarhythms' and the heart breaking New-Wave Boogie/Funk of Say You'll Say So' to the more contemplative pieces such as the oriental insprired Nisei' and the drenched in sunshine dub/reggae track Mack' Landers shies away from musical expectations again and again, searching continually for innovative and new forms of expression.

Gravity Graffiti is reborn from the unknown space with this explosive split EP. Two jazz-influenced gems by Marcello Napoletano and Richeart through the roots of rhythm! On the A side the third chapter of Ra Toth's saga, after Mathematics and Berceuse Heroique, with a diabolic trance dance. Flip side for a killing-edge banger by the emerging producer Richeart, a new definition of Acid Jazz. Let the spirit move you! Supported by Jamal Moss, Funkineven, Soichi Terada, Raybone Jones, John Swing and Robert Crash.

Melissa Guion’s second offering for Kranky retains the glassy gauze of her debut, 2016’s Precious Systems, but shaded starker and darker, framed by mechanical rhythms and humid industrial moods. She speaks of Sour Cherry Bell as something of a reckoning with her tools of creation: “I was curious to see how far I could go with them, even if that meant reaching the ends of their capacity to do what I wanted. But I never exhausted them and they never exhausted me.”

Utilizing her trusted combination of instrumentation, Guion tracked the record between her New Orleans home and rehearsal space, capturing chemistries both intimate and expansive. The songs sway between twilit shoegaze, downer ballads, and gothic pop, mapping a delicate palette of electric melancholies, though in retrospect she cites as her primary muse the notion of power: “lost and found, corporeal and cerebral, harnessed and exploited, of one and many, in this reality and the next.” Sour Cherry Bell reverberates beyond the here and now into scenes unseen, worlds unheard.

'Mallumo' is the introspective and therapeutic works of Nottingham born musician, producer and composer Neil Tolliday.
Known to most simply as Nail, on this his first solo LP under his given name, Tolliday releases four meditative dark ambient pieces recorded between 2010 and 2015 that explore the depths of his psyche.Made as a direct response to a period of clinical depression this self therapy gave birth to soundscapes that branch between hope, tranquility and torment as a man searched for solace through sound and his own creativity resulting in the listener being taken on a heady ride through their own subconscious mind. Limited to 300 copies, this 180 gram double vinyl LP comes with your own Utopia Project incense and a download code for the full hour long versions of each movement.
Cover photography shot and printed by Michael Bradley, Design and curation by Alexander Bradley for Utopia Records, London 2019.

Rian Treanor returns to Planet Mu for his raw and energetic second album "File Under UK Metaplasm". The enigmatic, sweaty energy of Tanzanian singeli and Chicago footwork are juxtaposed with slick, high-def bass weight which sits at the centre of the album. Opening track 'Hypnic Jerks' is the perfect example of this, with crinkled percussive loops cut through by machine-gun kicks and acidic wobbles. Elsewhere, 'Vacuum Angle' takes Sheffield's Warp-ed legacy and brings it crashing into the future, with rhythms collapsing into static and noise but never deconstructing or losing the flow. 'Debouncing' meanwhile folds gliding square synths into rattling dancehall kicks, joining the dots between SND, Equiknoxx and Wiley with a neon Sharpie. "It's using all those formulaic dance structures but just slightly mangled or messed up," he says. "I'm still focused on making dance music for clubs, but how far can you push that before it's just no."

2LP is mastered for Exceptional Sound LTD Edition includes : 2LP + Book + OCard + Clear PVC Sleeve CENIZAS WAS WRITTEN AND PRODUCED BY NICOLAS JAAR BETWEEN 2017-2019. MASTERING BY RASHAD BECKER ART BY MAZIYAR PAHLEVAN MIXING BY NICOLAS JAAR AND PATRICK HIGGINS * In 2019, Patrick Higgins and Nicolas Jaar mixed some of the record in Higgins’ Future- Past studios in Hudson NY and Electric Lady Studios in Manhattan. Additional mixing was done in Figure8 Studios in Brooklyn by Nicola?s. 8/10 Resident Advisor - Cenizas is an LP of significant gravitas from an artist with among the largest and most engaged followings in electronic music 8.0 Pitchfork - Given all the technical ground Cenizas covers, Jarr is an impressively meticulous guide. Every pluck, ping, buzz, scratch, and whistle is intentional, a bump in the tunnel as you slide down the rabbit hole 9/10 Loud & Quiet - Jaar’s music has always been deeply preoccupied with atmosphere, and Cenizas is a deeply atmospheric album. It sounds like a void. As you listen, you feel like you could fall into it and never find your way out. In that way, these 54 minutes feel like a sequel to Jaar’s first hit, Space is Only Noise, set 5,000 years in the future. He told us then. He’s showing us now. NICOLAS JAAR BIOGRAPHY NICOLAS JAAR is a Chilean sound maker born in 1990. He is known in the club world for his various dance 12?? EPs and remixes he put out from 2008 to 2011. Since his first full length (SPACE IS ONLY NOISE, 2011), he has embarked in multiple divergent path. For the last 7 years, he has released a large volume of recordings through his label OTHER PEOPLE (including music by LYDIA LUNCH, WILLIAM BASINSKI, PATRICK HIGGINS, DJ SLUGO, LUCRETIA DALT, PIERRE BASTIEN & TOMAGA, VTGNIKE and others). In 2015, Nicolas scored DHEEPAN by director JACQUES AUDIARD (winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes 2015). In 2016, Jaar launched THE NETWORK, a web of 111 fictional radio sta

‘Evolve’ is the first full length album from composer, music producer and violinist Vito Gatto, a concept album that guides the listener on a one-way journey through the various phases of an imaginary evolutionary process. Gatto graduated in Violin from the Milan Conservatory of Music, his research starts from the unconventional application of a classical background into both making music in the studio, and live performances. For this work, Vito decided to put himself in a restricted composing and technical environment; all the arpeggiated sounds on the album are made from one single violin note that Vito sampled. He transforms the same note throughout the entire album, using the different treatment of this micro sample and the arpeggiator programming as the construction of a mutating and evolving structure. The album is Instinctively executed, almost improvised, and elements like distorted bass lines, hardcore inspired percussions, whistles and alienating string melodies represent unexpected alterations. Vito decided to keep these instinctive additions clean from excessive control as a representation of the beauty of the unpredictable. The album track list is an expression of evolutionary phases. From the minimalistic piano piece ‘Decomposition’ to ‘Quiete’ which expresses the state of calm after a shift has occurred, ‘Nostalgia’ and ‘Stasi’ represent a hazy trance like state. Vito challenges the listener to ask questions like ’am I in the right place? Is this who I set out to become? Do I have to keep evolving, or should I try to regress?’ ‘Evolve’ creates continuous connections between traditional and experimental music, creating dialogue between classical instruments and industrial techno, ambient, noise and de-constructed sounds. The Album will be released in both digital and vinyl formats via NeMu, a fresh new label founded by Vito Gatto himself. The label will focus on experimental projects based on the exchange between acoustic, concrete and electronic sources. The Artwork is part of ‘Jewels’, a series of ceramic sculptures by Benni Bosetto, courtesy of the artist and ADA Project, Rome

Collector is the solo project of Jason Campbell who resides in Newcastle, Australia. Forced Extraction is his first release for Beat Concern following an LP on the Melbourne-based Drawing Heat, and tapes for seminal labels, Night People and Clan Destine Records. Campbell has honed his unique take on experimental techno over the last few years by building compositions with all analogue hardware and modular synthesis. Forced Extraction sees Collector at his most incisive, carving out four pummelling tracks across the 12". Piercing feedback, foreboding synth movements and bass drones are anchored by rigid drum programming with an attention to heavy industrial rhythms. An exciting peek into the coal-face of underground Australian electronics.

With the demise of the group Wire in 1980, founder members Bruce Gilbert and Graham Lewis joined forces to create Dome. With the assistance of engineer Eric Radcliffe and his Blackwing Studio Dome took the ethic of »using the studio as a compositional tool« and recorded and released three Dome albums on their own label in the space of 12 months: »Dome« (July 1980), »Dome 2« (October 1980) and »Dome 3« (October 1981). A final fourth album, »Will You Speak this World: Dome 4« was released on the Norwegian Uniton label in May 1983.

These albums represent some of the most beautifuly stark and above all timeless exercises in studio experimentation from early 1980s alternative music scene.

Some more semi live machine tickling by DSG, this time 6 rough & ready tracks.

When the world slipped into madness last month, the ESP Institute put most releases on the back-burner to await brighter days, but then we thought again; why not approach these odd circumstances the way we do most realities, positively and head-on? We’re committed to a community that builds new worlds — this is fundamental to our creative and spiritual relationship with Osaka-born, cosmos-straggling artist, Ground — and while temporarily we can’t physically congregate to uplift each other, its our responsibility as an institution to maintain a platform for prolific creative pioneers, our cherished cartographers of cognitive escape. 'Wakusei' is wonderfully confusing and disorienting music, a follow-up EP to 2018’s critically acclaimed album 'Sunizm', not created specifically for life under lockdown, but nonetheless aptly suited to help release angst, guide meditation, and assist in making this moment in history more interesting if not transcendental. Whereas 'Sunizm' relied on field recordings gathered from rainforests, percussions learned from imaginary ancient civilizations, and the somehow organic freneticism of a mission control meltdown, the aesthetic of 'Wakusei' reduces this abstract instrumentation one step further to a more base-level array of gurgling synth scraps, accelerating engine friction and static-bound phonetic mistakes, all scrubbed into dust by a Brillo pad of white noise. The cliché of “great art is born out of hard times” is not lost upon us — of course the world will look back to this turmoil and its residual contributions to culture — but we see today's art as an immediate coping mechanism, and artists like Ground helping to unlock and navigate internal utopias. We’re already indoors, let’s delve inside.

Delving deeper into the Oubys universe, beyond known and unknown territory. A true trip from start to finish, and backwards!

ALL TRACKS WRITTEN & PRODUCED BY RENALDO AND THE LOAF

COVER DESIGN & LAYOUT BY NIK VOID

ORIGINAL ALBUM ARTWORK BY GARY PANTER

RE-MASTERED FOR VINYL AND CUT BY RASHAD BECKER AT D&M, BERLIN, NOV 2018

LARVAE RECORDED AT ODD TIMES AT SNEFF'S SURGERY BETWEEN NOV. 1979 & NOV 1980

ORIGINAL MIXED AT ELEPHANT STUDIOS, LONDON NOV 1980

SURGERY SELECTIONS RECORDED DURING 1980 AND 1981

© ROTCOD PRODUCTIONS 1981 & 2013

THIS VINYL REISSUE MANUFACTURED & RELEASED BY EDITIONS MEGO, 2019

A biomedical scientist and an architect form a band in the early 70's with nothing by the way of traditional musical talent or skill but with endless enthusiasm and their own unique musical sensibility.

The ensuing career and creative output of this ongoing home studio / bedroom band remains one of the most significant song based 'outre' catalogues ever produced in the United Kingdom. This comprehensive 2 LP (+7" for first 300 copies) set contains their first official LP (originally released on The Residents legendary Ralph records label) along with an extra album of different versions and extra tracks which reside here for the first time on vinyl.

The duo Renaldo & The Loaf, originally Portsmouth based, now in Portsmouth and Mid-Wales, remain an enigma whilst amassing an enormous cult following worldwide. Their singular take on music encompasses wit, strange melodic construction and an off kilter

sensibility which successfully rendered them engaging for each emerging generation. The ability of Renaldo & The Loaf to unnerve and entertain in equal measure is what binds these songs to a musical universe outside of all other forms that existed around the time of release. The Residents are obvious spiritual heirs.

Songs For Swinging Larvae is a classic collection of confounding songs which lead the listener into a surreal world of twisted tunes and perverted pop. Songs from the Surgery is made up of improvisations, early/alternative versions of various Larvae tracks and unreleased

pieces from the same period.

The results leave one laughing through a thick veil of unease. As the original Ralph records press release said of Songs For Swinging Larvae: "This is an album of primitive modernism, energetic obnoxious noises, manic high pitched vocals and sweet brilliance





























27. The Hydrophile
| 28. Gone to Gondwana (Original Version)
29. Token Nudity
[~] 30. N2O (Going Under) [Alternative Mix]
[] 31. It Is What It Is (Really)
[€] 32. Father Always Kept His Hand Closed
[] 33. Ldi – 1
[‚] 34. Ldi – 2 + Untitled Voice & Guitar Piece
[ƒ] 35. Ldi – 3
[„] 36. Ldi – 4
[…] 37. Ldi – 5



























[] 27. The Hydrophile
[|] 28. Gone to Gondwana (Original Version)
[] 29. Token Nudity
[~] 30. N2O (Going Under) [Alternative Mix]
[] 31. It Is What It Is (Really)
[€] 32. Father Always Kept His Hand Closed
[] 33. Ldi – 1
[‚] 34. Ldi – 2 + Untitled Voice & Guitar Piece
[ƒ] 35. Ldi – 3
[„] 36. Ldi – 4
[…] 37. Ldi – 5






























[Alternative Mix]

J.Derwort (15/07/1952 - 11/02/2019) left all his flutes, old guitars, strange percussion and some weird found objects at the Chi Factory studio. Hanyo van Oosterom went back to Patmos in April 2019 to visit all the magic places where Chi once started. He recorded the basics for ‘Travel in Peace’. Playing and recording these handmade bamboo flutes without the master himself being there was a lonely and emotional journey. But along the way the magic connection returned and the last Chi Factory album was born. On ‘Santa Fe’ and ‘Last Breath’ samples were used of J.Derwort during his last weeks in Santa Fe, Spain. The Chi circle is now closed. Chi Factory will move on as ‘Sons of Chi’. A new platform for different collabs and new adventures in sound. The legacy will live on, so will we.

Hanyo: As J.Derwort explained by a dream he is now in a wonderful place far away and still so close. The dream came during the recordings when I asked him how he is and where he is. I saw beautiful and ever changing constructions of plants. Nothing else. No words and just a simple explanation: everything is created and connected by intuitive vegetable intelligence. The opening piece ‘Bless You’ is the last track I recorded, it reflects the memory of my dream the most. I almost decided to start all over again, but I did not. Hope you like the last Chi Factory album, thx for all your support, also to my good friend and soul brother J.Derwort this meant a lot. One love!

vtgnike is danil avramov, born in Vladimir,russia. started actively
making music in 2010 after moving to moscow. after releasing couple of
eps under different monikers, got a few vtgnike d.i.y. cds(one of
those probably got into nico's ears in NY) i've got beautifull DUBNA
LP on other people(yes really still think its a great record) and few
month after its release got in jail because of drug charges dated
2009. long story here. im 100% on weed legalization and
decriminalization of other drugs in a logically gentle and mentally
stable sociaty(and the world is not equal, its diversed and i respect
all non violent cultures :-). got free in 2016(THANKS TO EVERYONE
INVOLVED AND NICO) and got another album with a gostzvuk fam.
i am a proud resident of NII club.
in producing i've been switching music genres all my life ) electronic
music that has a flow in it, dosnt need to be glued to any specific
range of bpm, etc.

The Death of Rave is over the moon to present ‘Perfect Oracle’, a staggering debut EP of
hyperpresent dancefloor dread and aerobic-mystic torque by Athenian artist Xyn Cabal.
Years in the works, the 5-track ‘Perfect Oracle’ EP finds Xyn Cabal poetically turning the pressures
of life in Athens and the modern world into diamond-cut but deliquescent future club music.
It’s a cuttingly critical exploration of dance music dramaturgy, crystallising fluid tessellations
of dembow, gqom, weightless grime and kuduro rhythms with emotive, bittersweet melodic
arrangements.
Hailing from Athens, Xyn Cabal’s music is perhaps unavoidably influenced by a timeless and deeply
rooted conception of the syncretic, fractious culture and politics that plays out in his everyday
life in between his studies of mathematical logic - a form of metamathematics closely connected
to theoretical computer science - and the riots which occur on exactly the same city streets
most weeks since the 2008 financial crash. From this heightened yet hyper-normalised state of
mind, Xyn Cabal’s music speaks to feelings of tempered rage and frustration as much as ideas of
reconciliation and transcendence.
With ‘Perfect Oracle’ Xyn Cabal takes the dancefloor as an ideal arena or TAZ for parsing or
modelling this push and pull of physical, noumenal, and virtual forces. On the A-side his 9 minute
blinder ‘E’ traverses a post-apocalyptic playground of brittle but shatterproof dembow drums,
minor key synths and black hole trance breakdowns, before ‘Nowei’ unfurls a grimy cinematic
elegy for the dispossessed. On the B-side, his permutations of Arabic vocals and subbass
loops synch with upended drums in the EP’s titular highlight, while ‘Veil Ordnance’ pushes his
rhythm programming to breathtaking, spiralling im/possibilities begging to be interpreted by
contemporary dance companies, and ‘MSF Venom’ sounds the riot with slow motion Molotov
drops turned into a noisy reggaeton beast.
The results resonate with music from TCF and Æ thru to Total Freedom, Arca and Croww, but
crucially and uniquely, Xyn Cabal’s music strives to consolidate a much broader set of reference
points, navigating mathematically psychedelic, emotive, and remarkably meta routes between
hyperlocal, rhizomatic, and cosmic nodes of the world’s dancefloor.

A multi-platform production that explores the overlap between the digital and the organic through field recordings of Inuit throat singing may sound, on surface level, to be something that is a rather niche. However, Zoe Mc Pherson's exploration of this world on String Figures is a deeply rhythmic, immersive and forward-thinking piece of electronic- leaning music that remains just as danceable as it does experimental.
The album is fundamentally one of duality, exploring the traditional and the contemporary, organic and electronic, audio and visual, history and the future. Rooted in this duality is also a core theme around string being one of the most ancient and playful art forms and the seemingly infinite possibilities it offers in terms of shapes, structures and figures lines up with this as a trans-global art project. One that over time will involve video art, choreography, 3D motion design, macro film, instrumental and electronic sound. Although for now is being presented through an AV performance, films and a record with Mc Pherson collaborating with director Alessandra Leone.!
Over the seven tracks (which are laid out as chapters) the record explores glitchy electronics, dub-tinged grooves, polyrhythms, and a huge array of instruments that takes in quiet blasts of atonal sax alongside wonky synths. This of course cross-pollinates with the throat singing and experimental field recordings to create an utterly inimitable sonic sphere. For Mc Pherson it's about mixing worlds, histories and timeframes and she uses a 1991 quote from Laurie Spiegel to hit home how she has elaborated upon this original thought of history and future overlapping. 'Folk music is considered anonymous common property in a culture and that's what a lot of computer music and other kinds of music data may end up becoming.' However, there's also a purer reason for the exploration of these worlds and colliding them together. 'Basically I thought that electronic music that is only digital is a bit boring and as I'm connected to jazz music for many reasons, I wanted it to sound organic: real instrumentation, field recordings.'

Chicagoan Brian Case is returning to Hands in the Dark with his fourth release under his own name, Parallel Voices.

In a sense, the album is elliptical: Whilst, musically speaking, the American artist comes back to the start of his solo work by producing a fully instrumental album, he also delivers a story which informs the landscape Case lives in now, and always imbibes it with a sense of tension and dark undercurrents. You might think at first that the voice he uses is abstract, however the work leads us to realise that music is the language itself, delivering a concrete narrative through the album. The message flows freely, with a palpable friction bubbling at the surface all the way through, mirroring the tense and disturbing atmosphere that has settled across the globe over the last few months.

Brian Case takes us in a new artistic direction with his most personal album to date, in the form of an urgent and poignant testimony.

The title of Miki Yui’s seventh solo album Aperio! is derived from the latin origin of April, "aperire" meaning “to open” or “to reveal”. Hinting at the way her music unveils another reality which is hidden beneath the surface. The title also reflects the aperiodic character of the music, its irregularity. Like a magic word to reveal the mysterious cosmos, each song opens up another intimate world of wonders.

„All my work emerges from my physical experience, the inspiration often comes much later though, after the experience is digested and almost forgotten, then it crystallises and becomes a source for my music.“

It is indeed no accident that the first track of Aperio! is entitled „Listening (oneness)“: it vibrates for ten full minutes with and within
us. It reflects the art of Miki Yui coming into existence. The Düsseldorf based Japanese artist approaches the world around her from a sensual perspective rather than in an analytic-logical way, still both paradigms of art production manifest their influence on the process. Miki Yui says: „In my music, I play the game of turning the abstract into concrete and vice versa.“

This is obvious in all of the compositions on Aperio!. Her music combines otherworldly and dream world experiences, creating environments of multiple atmospheres, both warm and inviting but at times irritatingly cold and airless. They stimulate all kinds of feelings in us: astonishment, sadness, yearning, wondering, and hope. For her it does not matter where the elements of her cobweb originate: from field recordings to abstract and artificial creations to electroacoustic sounds. She remarks, “revealing the source would only limit the imagination of the listeners. My sounds exist to trigger their own imagination“
Miki Yui is born in Tokyo, based in Düsseldorf. Crossing the boundary of music and fine art, she is known for her unique minimalistic and organic approach towards music since 1999 exploring the grey zone of our perception and imagination. Since 2008, parallel to her own work, she is in charge of the Klaus Dinger Archive, who was her partner.

Maybe these titles, torn as they are from cinema screens and the pages of literature and philosophy, give a feeling of romantic or sexual love or some dark pool of nostalgia but that’s not it, or it could be if you want it for yourself but not for me, not now; for me it’s about the teeming proliferation of complex events in the world, their vivid, hyperreal intensity as this human life steps closer to its end and their sense of fading, like a mist that thins out to leave not a clear bright day but almost nothing of substance as all that beauty is crushed, burned, dug up, wiped out, to be replaced by banality, so it’s about a language of love and desire in which we speak openly to all the unknowns, the speculative, the ancestral, the forgotten, the different, the extinct, the unimaginably distant and vast, the incomprehensibly small and intimately close, the fast or the slow, as if as we spoke we were becalmed in a wooden galleon off the coast of Java, sleeping microscopically in soil of a thousand years hence, hearing the voice of a dead person from the rim of a vibrating cup, gliding backwards and weightless through the alleyways of a city unrecognisable yet heartbreaking in its poverty, speaking in conference with winged and amphibious beings, crouching in a cavern whose opening only reveals the spectre of many wonders now apprehended as memories of the skin, heard through cheekbones, nostrils, the crepitation as a neck turns, pains of the knee and thumb and some not yet fully understood sensation within the throat which suggests a way of comprehending that which is being lost of this magical place. All I desire is what already exists or once existed, now falling asleep outside the world.

Don’t ask me about genre or consistency. Who cares? Half the world is drowning; the other half is in flames. Each story is an animal, a plant, something you drink, a surface you touch, a faint line, some memory emanating from a cardboard box. “’Things’ in themselves are only events that for a while are monotonous,” wrote Carlo Rovelli in The Order of Time. Maybe sounds are melting ‘things’, tired of the monotonous real.

Apparition painting is the term used to describe a certain type of ancient Chinese painting of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In these works, often associated with Chan (Zen) teachings, the ink used to depict the subject was exceptionally pale, the background lacking in any detail. As Yukio Lippit has written: “This combination results in remarkably self-dissembling images that somehow compromise their own visibility. Apparition painting appears to capture its subjects in mid-fade, as if managing to preserve only a dimly translucent afterimage of a bygone entity.”

– David Toop

Hotspring presents the LP ‘Obit For Sunshade’ on Mood Hut Records.

Obit For Sunshade is digital technology half buried in the soil, transparent emotion in the intertidal zone; ferns growing by night out of a 4x4 flatbed. Brought to you by Scott Gailey.

East London record shop World of Echo debuts on the other side of the counter with a reissue of Two Wishes, the solitary 12" by Anglo-German collective, Mutabor!. Seemingly lost to time, Mutabor! were first brought to World of Echo's attention when drummer/singer, Gary Asquith, played at the shop's first birthday celebrations while promoting one of his other bands, Rema Rema. And so the story goes...

Mutabor! emerged wraith-like from the monochromatic grit of Berlin's art punk underground late in 1981 when Asquith left London to set up temporary residence in the city following a chance meeting with Malaria's Bettina Koster backstage at a Birthday Party gig at the Lyceum earlier that year. Beguiled by the possibilities of collaboration, musical and otherwise, he was soon to make his own contributions to what was an already fecund scene. Partnering with Koster, and Gudrun Gut and Manon Duursma also of Malaria!, Mutabor! were publicly birthed via an impromptu performance at punk rock polestar the Risiko. Asquith found himself playing percussion in what would be a first, while the rest of the band ossified in front of him in typically idealistic post-punk democracy. Little documentation of the performance survives beyond that which exists in the memories of those playing - that itself shaky enough - though there was clearly sufficient encouragement for them to commit to a recording session.

Later that winter, the four booked time at Music Lab, the studio operated by Harris Johns, for what would ultimately be their only studio visit. Two songs were laid to tape, and soon after a photoshoot was to take place at Koster's flat, resulting in a handful of images that, along with the music, comprise the sum total evidence of the band's existence. 1001 Nights and Treats both found their way to Peter Kent, a co-founder of 4AD who had recently left the label with the ambition of starting his own imprint. Entitled Two Wishes, the two track 12" was to be the first and only release on Loaded. It seems that Mutabor! were to represent a series of firsts and lasts, a trend that continues now as they open the World of Echo imprint.

It's fitting to think of Mutabor! in these prescient terms given how they sounded. Berlin at that time shared a spiritual axis with New York, the conceptual & aesthetic discordance of no wave and a nascent off-beat dance culture underpinning much of the respective creative activity. There are shared signifiers, but even in that context, Two Wishes sounds oddly out of step, moving to its own unusual rhythm. 1001 Nights stutters along on a tribal beat that seems to run independent of skronking sax, spidery guitar lines and deadpan vocal incantations, the ghosts of two songs meeting in some kind of incompatible voodoo union. On the reverse, Treats slows down and dims the lights further, as Asquith sardonically recites desirous threats as an increasingly malevolent sax and guitar grinds behind him. No surprise the darkness within the music given the parent bands and the backdrop of a crepuscular early 80s Berlin, though there remains a complex compositional element to these songs that suggests a broader spectrum of emotion - desire, romance, and ultimately, infinite possibility.

Recut and mastered, Two Wishes is now presented with the original front cover artwork alongside additional imagery, including a 16 page booklet, all culled from Asquith's own archive. A brief bolt of energy at a crucial juncture in music history, Mutabor!'s story is emblematic of the mutli-verse of post-punk and the creativity its ideology necessitated.

Plastic Ivy, who has made a name for herself in the underground spheres of analog synth experimentation, has released her first full length for Kraftjerkz, entitled “Spots of Time.” The album is as much a lyrical treasure as it is an analog synth dream, brought to life through abundant melodies and arpeggiations, alluring vocals, and a somber emotional tone that courses through the veins of the album.

Plastic Ivy’s influences are wide ranging; sonically, the nod to cold wave, the new romantics, and early indie is clear. Lyrically, the album draws influence from William Wordsworth to historian Timothy Snyder to jazz composer Billy Strayhorn. “Spots of Time” should be listened to with an ear held close to the lyrics, which are earnest yet detached, cooly crooned, and above all else—poetic. Standout tracks like “Images,” and “New Eyes” are entirely dance-worthy. Plastic Ivy casts a range of emotions in these new pieces: from vulnerable, lonely, and contemplative to nostalgic, romantic and transcendent. Overall, “Spots of Time” is an exquisite example of experimental synth pop.

Plastic Ivy, who has made a name for herself in the underground spheres of analog synth experimentation, has released her first full length for Kraftjerkz, entitled “Spots of Time.” The album is as much a lyrical treasure as it is an analog synth dream, brought to life through abundant melodies and arpeggiations, alluring vocals, and a somber emotional tone that courses through the veins of the album.

Plastic Ivy’s influences are wide ranging; sonically, the nod to cold wave, the new romantics, and early indie is clear. Lyrically, the album draws influence from William Wordsworth to historian Timothy Snyder to jazz composer Billy Strayhorn. “Spots of Time” should be listened to with an ear held close to the lyrics, which are earnest yet detached, cooly crooned, and above all else—poetic. Standout tracks like “Images,” and “New Eyes” are entirely dance-worthy. Plastic Ivy casts a range of emotions in these new pieces: from vulnerable, lonely, and contemplative to nostalgic, romantic and transcendent. Overall, “Spots of Time” is an exquisite example of experimental synth pop.

Zero makes his debut in Faith Discipline with an electronic album composed of wonderful landscapes with some ethnic influences. Great discovery

Lueur is the new full-length release from Icelandic composer / sound artist Bjarni Gunnarsson. The record consists of four electroacoustic compositions; the product of unfolding and unpredictable generative processes, spread across 38 minutes. This is music that follows its own logic, challenging and confounding the expectations of the listener.

An exploration of process as much as tone and texture, Gunnarsson guides the record through a series of ever-changing movements, interweaving dense low passages and abrupt changes of atmosphere and sound. It is a record that rewards close and repeated listening.

Mastered by Erik Nystrom, the record is housed in a custom sleeve, screenprinted in two-colours with procedurally-generated artwork by Luke Twyman. Variations of each layer are combined to make 16 unique sleeve designs, with a further screenprint on the inner sleeve/record. The record is released in an edition of 200.

Bjarni Gunnarsson has previously released the solo works Safn 2006-2009 (2010), Processes & Potentials (2013) and Paths (2016). He is currently based in The Hague, teaching algorithmic composition and computer based music at the Institute of Sonology.

In the words of Gunnarsson "the music is derived from generative processes that often appear directly entangled, that are set in motion and activated while maintaining their own degree of autonomy. It takes a certain time for a process to manifest itself. To express its time-varying qualities.

How it unfolds resembles a certain kind of evolution, a becoming that does not have a clear goal but that is based on a constant renewal and recreation. The title refers to faint, quiet but unsteady light sources. Brightness that disperses and refracts at different angles and unfolds through a series of connected developments. Processes that continuously produce output implying a 'tending towards' characteristic where certain elements endure while others fade away.

The idea is to uncover details, to introduce something very specific that expands and develops through two important layers of temporal experience, a very direct action-oriented perception and the slower experience of a past that folds into the present."

Vanish is Julia Reidy’s yearning, fat debut for Editions Mego. Since 2019, Julia’s bubbling 12-string guitar work - sighing streams of crystal plucks drawn closer or echoing on - has moored a tactile, ever-lusher sound. On ‘Guitar’, the Australian, Berlin-based musician melts down sharp synths; electric fuzz and flex; uncanny found sounds; and autotuned voice and harmonica in a heady, overpowering potion.

Reidy’s music sweeps you up. It’s restless, always travelling on. Lonesome tones into machine chorales into hesitant hum. The LP’s side-long cuts sway between scenes but are always rooted: Julia’s guitar and vocal lines seem mapped to the natural ebb and flow of breath and thought, they lull you as they push through vast and secret spaces.

Vanish completes a trio of releases begun with last year’s ‘brace, brace’ (Slip) and ‘In Real Life’ (Black Truffle). The delicious unease, the anxious burning of the preceding volumes has settled, becoming more wide-eyed and resolute. For all its poise, the album’s sense of build - electric licks rasping into glistening synths, punctured by distant kicks - feels freshest. When 'Oh Boy'’s smudged whistle comes, it has fought its way out of the thickets, and hits like heartbreak.

* Mirae Arts presents Hush Residence. We are joined by old friends and new comrades from the Kantō underground.

* C-Kay is co-founder of the Tokyo-based collective Space Baghdad and resident DJ of Constant Value. C-Kay is typically busy shaking dance floors with her hypnotic DJ sets, but also producing music for experimental labels such as Subsist Records and Constant Value Records.

* Saraam is a Tokyo-based sound artist, performer, and DJ under the Constant Value banner. Saraam is also a resident of the yearly Tokyo Festival of Modular.

* Katsunori Sawa and Damaskin return to Mirae Arts in their usual noisy disguises.

* Hush Residence is a compilation featuring four experimental techno tracks from Katsunori Sawa, C-Kay, Damaskin, and Saraam. Mastered by James Plotkin.

* Artwork illustration is done by Sydney based architect, Patti Bai.

* Vinyl pressed at the highly reputable Gotta Groove Records, Cleveland, Ohio.

* Comes with polybag packaging

A Blade Runner feeling of anxiety blends with playful basses or haunting flanger sounds. Hope flashes from time to time and strong piano events moderate the energetic Hyper Jazz, released in two parts on Lockertmatik as the first. Recommended!!

For the second release on the Galaxiid imprint, a label of electronic music archeology and quality, we are transported to the strange sonic world of an elusive 90s pioneer. Solar X's 1997 album X-Rated will be released for the first time on vinyl, as well as reissued digitally, with new artwork by the Japanese artist Keiichi Tanaami. Two worlds connecting sonically, visually and culturally.

Solar X enjoyed a burgeoning career in post-Perestroika Moscow making playful, low-tech electronica from Soviet analogue instruments, which he masterfully configured to forge animated compositions and dancefloor rarities. Fascinated by chaos and complexity, his music explores the ways in which our minds can be manipulated by structure - an endeavour quite plausibly linked to his other career as a lecturer and researcher of AI, information theory and cognitive science, his interest in which was in turn triggered by his young experiments in computer music.

Solar X gained international attention at a time when Russia was (quite unfairly) seen as a vacuum for electronic music, but was exploding in the period of piracy, poverty and freedom following the collapse of the USSR. Young Russians had benefited from the soviet education system and there was a strong DIY computer programming and music scene, fuelled by hackers, gear freaks and party animals. Viewed from today, the album is reborn at a time of further political and social strife, which many see as fuelling the huge creativity and radical thinking of modern Russia's young creatives.

X-Rated treats tempo and form as fluid concepts, administering sudden changes to its sonic landscape with disorienting effect, underlain with a subtle dose of humour and experimentation. Downtempo trip-hop sits alongside frenetic IDM and blistering electro, all bound together by peculiar melodic inflections and lively distortions. Warm, trippy harmonies and robotic synths are offset with angular drums, shifting erratically through moods and genres with cunning intent. Much like his contemporaries from the era, it's his ability to breathe life into a humble production setup that makes his music so compelling some twenty one years later.

The track titles are from a book of call girl cards in London phone booths, that reached the artist in Moscow in 1995. "I liked the titles from these cards, which were self-promoting and offering pleasure (e.g. "Mistress awaits you"). So, I thought since my tracks also offered some kind of pleasure, they might as well advertise this through their titles.'

Label head Nina Kraviz was introduced to the work of the 83 year old sensei Keiichi Tanaami by Ukawa Naoshiro, founder of Dommune in Tokyo, one of the brightest figureheads for the arts in Japan, responsible for the graphic design of the cover. In September 2017 Nina played for the opening of Tanaami-san's first exhibition in Moscow at Gary Tatintsian Gallery. Nina performed a live sound palette, to accompany the looping 7 minute animation, of experimental music from the Soviet Union, Russian pioneers of electronic music like Species Of Fishes and SolarX, Soviet-time pioneer Lev Termen, Kuryochin, avant-guard rock mixed with some Stockhausen and just pure abstract sounds, as well as treasured artists like Biogen.

Tanaami's illustrative work has strong sexual elements, so out of the five art pieces Nina selected and commissioned for Galaxiid, the first fits perfectly for 'X-rated'. The vertical line of text on the left is the traditional form for Japanese covers of foreign releases. The cover, together with the accompanying poster and sticker, are printed in Japan to ensure the highest print quality and purity of the colours.

From Mille Plateaux to Leaf, Staubgold and Raster-Noton, ~scape, or on his own label Ripatti, the Finnish artist Sasu Ripatti aka Vladislav Delay has been exploring various iterations of the dub culture vs. electronica, since 1997. His sonic crafts and unique signature sound has been sought after by an eclectic range of bands and artists, ranging from Massive Attack, Hauschka, Black Dice, Autopoieses, Animal Collective or AGF.

Somewhere between the old-school electronica culture, the soundscaping, the experimental paths of Lee Perry and Adrian Sherwood, ghostly clubbing anthems, minimalism, pop, jazz, without being, influenced, Vladislav Delay is building a drifting and coherent sound enigma.

Vladislav Delay met Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare (the most prolific Jamaican rhythm section and production duo) thanks to a series of jam sessions. Trumpet player Nils-Petter Molvaer had been asked by the Jamaicans to join them and he invited Delay alongside guitar player Eivind Aarset to tag along, which eventually turned into the Nordub project.

The result of these jam sessions turned into an album, mixed and mostly produced by Vladislav Delay, released on the label Okeh. It was also followed by an extensive series of live dates. This one-shot reunion was the beginning of another story: a trio composed by Delay, Dunbar and Shakespeare.

In January 2019, Vladislav Delay went to Kingston and spent some days at The Anchor studios, to record drums and bass with S&R, some voice takes and a series of atmospheric field recordings. Back to Finland, Delay started to experiment with this precious material, mixing and overdubbing, in the comfort and quiet of his studio, based on the island of Hailuoto, Baltic Sea, Northern Finland, giving another feeling to the Jamaican trip.

This became a tribute to the 'dub spirit', but in a very personal way, far beyond any influence or "the obvious". 500-PUSH-UP is two worlds collapsing, merging, also showing some intriguing approach of the Jamaican groove, used as a filigree, like the echo or the ghost of reggae, converging and conversing with a post-industrial and experimental approach. To file beside experiments - for instance - such as Lee Perry's 'Scientist Rids The World Of The Evil Curse Of The Vampires' or the On U-Sound productions.

Written in Toronto and Montreal between 2017-2018, this debut LP from ex-terrestrial is in part the residue of long drives through Belgian countryside listening to shadow music. Gamma Infolded is a reflection of the fractured self, a culmination of distractions erected into intricate edifices. Dense foundations of dissonance support quirky, smile-inducing melodies in curious and odd states of being.
All that can break is broken and all that is amplified is nullified.

"Imagine the opposite of a snake shedding its skin: a body slithering among the debris of 21st-century music; a porous, viscid body, its skin an adhesive, lodging onto itself bits and pieces along the way. Some are scraps, rusted, discarded parts. Some are the jewels of crowns, unglued and fallen from grace, now re-attached on this makeshift contraption. Where does a body end? Does it end where these prostheses begin?

Jay Glass Dubs’ Soma (“body” in Greek) is a palimpsest. Look closely and you can find all sorts of DNA microarrays on the body’s skin – Bristol voices, Detroit electro hums, the amen break, the all-encompassing dub haze – but, as with all palimpsests, they are simultaneously one and a multitude. The body lives, its prostheses live.

The body moves."

On Pedro Vian's second album, the now Amsterdam-based artist opens up a new sonic chapter of his life, running through depths of emotions and feelings, traversing moments of euphoria, fury, serenity, hope and love. Recorded between 2014 and 2018, the self titled LP opens with a melodic flourish, drops down through mournful vocal driven pieces and lands on fast moving synths across a set of 12 deeply personal tracks.

A follow up to Vian's 2016 acclaimed debut album 'Beautiful Things You Left Us For Memories' - supported by Pitchfork, RA, XLR8R, Ransom Note, The Quietus, NTS - this sophomore LP shows the breadth and maturity of Vian's sound, falling in between the cracks of downtempo electronica, ambient and post rock. Pedro discloses: 'I have tried to be sincere, transparent and pure. During the recording process I have avoided artificiality. I do not like the overproduction of music. I like to feel the naturalness and the essence of the beat of the instruments. I like to look inside until I find something real with which to communicate'.

'Pedro Vian' arrives on Vian's own Modern Obscure Music imprint, home to like-minded artists such as Jamal Moss, Gavin Russom, Tevo Howard, Ivy Barkakati, Eterna and Sau Poler. Vian initially cut his teeth in the Barcelona scene, first as part of the duo Aster with JMII on Hivern Discs and Jamal Moss' Mathematics then as a solo producer on his own Modern Obscure Music, MM Discos and Spring Theory.

We are very proud to present THIS IS TECHNO JAZZ. VOL 1, a genre defining collection of music from artists coming from the jazz and techno scenes like Distant Echoes, TUN, Tensal, Mattia Prete, VSK, Fabrizio Rat, Gianluca Petrella, Flat Maze, Luigi Ranghino, Wrong Assessment, Irakli, Key Clef and more. Together, these contemporary innovators perfectly define the label's vision for jazz and techno fusions.

This label is all about drawing on the rich heritage of two of the most visionary and experimental genes in music: jazz and techno. Taking inspiration from the freeform creative nature of those two musical worlds, artists on the label mix tradition with modernity, improvisation with experimentation, and create a new sound known as techno-jazz. THIS IS TECHNO JAZZ. VOL I will showcase these ideas across 11 tracks (10 tracks in vinyl limited edition to be released in September).

Dystopian label associate and Out-er co-owner Distant Echoes opens up with 'Faction 200' featuring Gianni Denitto on sax. It is a cosmic adventure with freeform sax lines driving above rippling synths and broken beats. Milan based Wrong Assessment has built up a fine discography over the last five years, releasing his moody techno on the likes of Planet Rhythm and Dynamic Reflection. His deeply hypnotic sounds here feature the experimental jazz quartet Gamapawa, with swirling pads drifting about to make a mysterious atmosphere as distant trumpets bleed in and out of the mix and walking bass recalls the atmosphere of 70's jazz fusion. Heavy and industrial sound designer and audio engineer VSK then remixes the Torino Unlimited Noise trio's 'Jason' into a loopy, glitchy, unresolved bit of deep techno with thoughtful jazz chords and plenty of dubby bass weight.

Tensal is next and links with Torino Unlimited Noise for 'Devourer of Senses', a straight-ahead slice of linear techno that is powerful but also intriguing thanks to the off-grid keys, increasingly intense synths and dark sax motifs. Lecce's techno dreamer and forward thinking DJ, promoter and producer Mattia Prete offers 'Burning Man' Ft. Israeli pianist Uri Gincel and Berlin based experimental guitar player Daniel Calvi. It's a cavernous and absorbing track with freeform jazz drums and heavy drones that zones you out. Dreamy and abstract techno man Chevel can make all forms of techno, and here remixes Antares Mates's 'Movimento 2' into an experimental track with bright synths, sharp sax phrases and melodic rain over a jittery beat that suspends you in the cosmos. Producer and piano player Fabrizio Rat and brilliant trombone player Gianluca Petrella are another accomplished Italian pair and their 'Turn' is an elastic deep techno track designed to melt your mind with its dancing hi hats and increasingly manic trombone hits.





Irakli & Daniel Calvi's contribution is a dark and menacing piece with sci-fi synths that make for a turbulent intergalactic soundtrack, and 'Petardo Boy' by producer Stefano Mori and pianist Uri Gincel aka Flat Maze (who released their Dick Dunker EP on this label last year) is a tender and intimate techno cut with gentle keys and a sense of playfulness in the wonky chords. Last of all, synth magician Key Clef and piano legend Luigi Ranghino are label regulars who close things out with 'Piano Movimento 1', which layers up intricate phrases of jazz piano, evolving echos of drum machines and surging bass. It's poetic, intense, and thrilling.

The digital edition of the release includes also a bonus tracks by Finnish duo Aki Himanen on trumpet and electronics, and Aleksi Kinnunen on drums. “Dystopian morning jam” is an hypnotic progression of tight drum textures and dreamy trumpet phrases which slowly build up to a powerful final musical catharsis.

This is a collection of avant-garde music that breathes new life into both jazz, and techno, with fantastic results.

Colombian label Insurgentes welcomes back one of its own masterminds to present his eagerly awaited debut album, ‘Grial’. Verraco resurfaces as a self-reliant playmaker, willing to display a braindance articulation pulled from the south.

DJ Sotofett's double 7" album "Noldus" is a peculiar twist and travel. During 13 tracks & 27 min. it's compact and generous, short yet long, with a playback format that doesn't invite space of attentiveness to be left. Featuring Jaakko Eino Kalevi on drums, Tuomas Toivonen on synth & DJ Sotofett on vocals its recorded in a Helsinki Sauna, on a Swiss train and in Narrabeen Australia. The narration and music is beautiful, frenetic, with synthetic and organic elements battling as the King of Leftfield against sonic mice stuck in between two realities.

Founded by SHERELLE and NAINA, the highly anticipated label Hooversound has been making a lot of noise this year. Following on from their debut release from Hyroglifics and Sinistarr, they followed up in June with an another explosive EP from London’s Deft. They’re back to mark the third release on the imprint, this time with UK producer HØST delivering two moody bass driven tracks, with an official remix from Bristol legend, Om Unit.

HØST has experimented across a wide variety of genres, all laced with his uniquely dark sound. The two tracks on the EP are no doubtably the slowest BPM we’ve seen Hooversound explore, both spanning from 135-145, which shows the versatility and depth of the label whilst reflecting the broad sounds within the exciting UK bass scene.

Whilst HØST delivers the deep technical production, Hooversound brings in one of the most influential artists in electronic music, Om Unit, on the official remix of ‘Survive’. Om Unit brings the tempo up with his signature sound, flipping ‘Survive’ into a fierce 80bpm record, giving the EP an extra dose of energy.

HØST began experimenting with production around the age of 13. He went on to learn piano, trumpet and guitar which sparked his passion for electronic music production which leads to his sound today. Having had releases across Noisia’s imprints, Saturate Records and Aufect Recordings, HØST is a producer that experiments with twisted bass and melodic melancholy pads which is perfectly executed in HOO03.

Hooversound founders, NAINA and SHERELLE are excited to finally announce the official release date and tracklist for HOO03, that was teased in their recent DJ Mag mix.