Beats News

New from Sucata Tapes (Discrepant), comes a mini album by Gonçalo F Cardoso's most experimental and retro avant-garde moniker, Papillon.

After an LP back in 2013 (S/T) and a 2-part tape (Aqueducts) for Dinzu Artefacts in 2016, the Henri Charrière inspired alter ego hasn't been the most prolific of late. He now returns with 7 mini-vignettes full of mood swings, silly 'ambiances' and made up stories to make you dream and wonder (why). Featuring contributions from Mike Cooper (Guitar) and Yannick Dauby (Field Recs and Modulators).
This mini-album will be the precursor to Papillon's swan song aka final album (Le Banco) to be released on main label Discrepant early 2020. For now recline on your burnt up sofa chair and enter the schizophrenic trip wonderland of Papillon's Cercueill Flottant.
Artwork by the ever talented Evan Crankshaw

'Chuck Johnson's impact on the contemporary guitar
world continues to be felt. His first two solo records signaled
the arrival of a unique player, steeped in various forms
of playing and influence, yet distinctly modern. Johnson
eschews a weathered traditionalism for the wide-scope
expanse of 21st Century Americana.
'On his third album, Blood Moon Boulder, Johnson
reaches a compositional peak in a nod to the picturesque
naturalism of the American landscape. The dynamics of
his range can be felt on this singular record, a soundtracklike
listen that rewards the ear with rich detail.
'His precision and tone recall the heights of Ry Cooder's
Paris, Texas on the extended opening track 'Corvid Tactics.'
Notably, the guitarist duels with a phantom Chinese radio
signal that slips through the silences during the recording
session.
'One can hear the ghostly sounds peek through at moments
as Johnson bends his strings. 'Medicine Map' delivers a
melodic melancholy, with an every-note-perfectly-placed
aesthetic. Rather than ramble or evoke some kind of
outdated nostalgia, Johnson lets his cinematic instincts
take lead.
'Perhaps most evocative of this approach is 'Private
Violence,' a meditative composition with gorgeous pedal
steel played on top of electric six-string, ending in a
sustained tonal minimalism that could easily stretch into
a whole LP of its own. Blood Moon Boulder contains a
lyricism, an exactitude and emotional arc all its own. And
that's worth playing again and again.'
—Steve Lowenthal, author of Dance of Death: The Life
of John Fahey, American Guitarist

'Shays Vacation House' is a work that feels suspended in time - both ancient and modern -- a microcosm that ceases to exist in any particular time or space...exceptional acousmatic sound design animates amorphous creatures and entities, whose movements echo on dripping walls, yet the eerie, mysterious environment remains entirely ambiguous. hovering above the post-apocalyptic landscape of a scorched planet regenerating. Emra Grid's second Opal Tape is a profoundly beautiful work, loaded with emotional weight

The hyper blaze of Jay Mitta's debut LP 'Tatizo Pesa' kicks off a trio of searing Singeli albums from the sound's ground zero - the Sisso Studios of the Mburahati ghetto, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. A breathtaking boost of 180bpm+ rhythms, syncopated loops and nagging hooks, 'Tatizo Pesa' notably introduces 14 year old MC sensation Dogo Janja alongside nine knockout instrumentals that make much western dance musics seem prissy and pedestrian.
Despatched by the acclaimed Nyege Nyege Tapes outta Kampala, Uganda; 'Tatizo Pesa' presents the raw, untrammelled energy of Tanzanian Singeli with immediate effect. Like his peers, Bamba Pana, DJ Balotelli, and DJ Longo, Jay Mitta combines traces of older, local folk melodies with elements of 'Bongo Flava', or up-to-the-minute Swahili rap music, but at breakneck tempos that give the sound its inexorable energy and verve. Their style takes traditional music into orbit of contemporary,
accelerated styles ranging from Grenedan Jab Jab/Soca to Chicago footwork, hardcore UK rave and
French flashcore Jay Mitta's debut offering renders the lushest, variegated spectrum of Singeli since the style emerged in its current form only a few years ago. On the one hand he plays up to pure rave needs with outright steamers such as 'Don Bet', and the ratchet tension of 'Mwakidimba', but they're balanced with hip hop swagger in the standout title tune featuring 13 year old Dogo Janja, and the deep south bounce-esque of 'Masera', while the mercurial quickstep of 'Dura' and 'Mchuma Bet' are bound to snag wider-eared ravers with their so-fast-they're-weightless string and key arrangements.
It's very hard to ignore that with 'Tatizo Pesa' Jay Mitta has produced a new and unmissable high-water mark of the ancient yet up-to-the-second East African music bound to translate directly to all willing bodies.

*Limted to 300 copies worldwide* It all began in summer 2017 when Peter Broderick's former Efterklang bandmate Rasmus Stolberg invited him to perform at his new festival in Denmark, with the specific idea that Peter would play an entire set of Arthur Russell songs. As a long-time lover of Arthur's work, Peter immediately accepted the invitation and began to learn a collection of Russell songs. Stolberg put together a band of Danish musicians to join Broderick on stage, and the festival performance went off without a hitch.

Immediately after, Peter starting receiving invitations from other festivals, asking for the same thing — a full set of Arthur Russell songs. Even Arthur's long-time partner Tom Lee took notice of these performances of Arthur's work, and reached out to Peter personally. It wasn't long before Broderick was invited to examine some of Russell's archival work, and asked to do audio restoration work on the old tapes.

Peter's strong love for Arthur's work grew exponentially as he dove into the psyche of his hero, listening to hours and hours of unreleased material. He discovered that some of his favorite Russell songs have yet to be heard by the masses, and felt inspired to learn some of these tunes himself.

It was inevitable that Peter would record an album of his own renditions of Arthur's songs. And there was no better place to do it than the state of Maine, where most of Arthur's surviving family are based, and where Broderick himself was born back in 1987. With a large cast of friends and family, including Arthur's niece Rachel Henry and nephew Beau Lisy, Peter set out to capture his love for Arthur's music with a diverse collection of 10 songs, two of which have yet to be released in their original versions.

Its cover adorned with an original painting by Tom Lee, 'Peter Broderick & Friends Play Arthur Russell' is a vibrant and joyful tribute to one of Broderick's greatest heroes. Peter extends his deepest gratitude to all of Arthur's family, friends and fans who have so warmly welcomed his own versions of these tunes. It is hoped that these recordings will serve to honor the truly staggering legacy of Arthur Russell.

The mercurial, industrial pop fetishism of 'Raging Tender' forms the 3rd and most impressive EP from producer Jan Grebenstein and vocalist Christine Seefried for Karl O'Connor/Regis' Downwards label
Stepping on from 2016's 'Strong Proud Stupid and Superior' LP, rebenstein's sound is now tauter, more spacious and seductively strung out, finding a sublime tension between quicksilver slow/fast drum programming and deadpan gothic delivery. Their means of production is still bare-bones minimal in an economical Berlin style that has served the duo very well thus far, from their self-titled debut for Downwards in 2014 thru to more
recent outings on experimental D&B labels Horo and Osiris Music UK.
Title cut 'Raging Tender' zips up fanged arps and needle-toothed hi-hats under Christine's close mic'd vocal with hypnotic poise and force, before 'Breathe' diffuses and unlocks that anaerobic tension with tantric 808 rhythms. After lulling listeners into a false sense of security, 'Arab Icon' raises the heart rate again with jarringly atonal electronics and an unyielding rhythmic grip, while the title and feel of 'Body Electric' speak to the duo's most
prurient desires, with Christine's opiated, any-hole's-a-goal mantra of 'I Sing The Body Electric' set to knackered, bummed-out pads and oozing bass.These are uncompromising, virulent songs about sex, death, and dancing that will surely resonate with knowing connoisseurs of the contemporary darkside.

'Futuro' is Not Waving's sublime synth/ambient soundtrack to one of the world's most intense art/theatre experiences: Sean Rogg's radical immersive artwork 'The Waldorf Project' - fusing choreography, spatial design, music and performance into a cohesive experience.
Drawn from more than 20 hours of material made for the project between 2013-2018, 'Futuro' finds Alessio Natalizia exploring a style of tonal and spatial minimalism that works as a fine palette cleanser from much of what you've heard from him in the past. While not a new solo album, per se, the long form, Eno-like results of 'Futuro' demonstrate the full wingspan of Not Waving's obsessive knowledge and emotive feel for electronic composition, making it in some senses one of the more substantial and unusual releases in his catalogue to date.
Natalizia's site-specific work ranges from highly emotive synth meditations thru to bittersweet Kosmische intuitions, and milky, Eno-esque beauties. But if any part sums up the widescreen scope of Not Waving's music in 'Futuro', it's the final side's 17 minutes of awning, gently curdled synth pads - originally used in a performance to 4000 people in Thailand laid in pitch black, with bodies formed in triangles while dancers caressed their faces. It ends the album with such memorable effect as to make it something of a modern day environmental/ambient classic - and perhaps our favourite Not Waving release in an already enviably deep catalogue.

Meg Duffy grew up in a small town in Upstate New York and they cut their teeth as a session guitarist and touring member of Kevin Morby's band. The Hand Habits project emerged after Meg moved to Los Angeles; it started as a private songwriting outlet but soon evolved into a fully-fledged band with Meg at the helm. Hand Habits' debut album, Wildly Idle (Humble Before The Void), was released by Woodsist Records in 2017. The LP was entirely self-produced and recorded in Meg's home during spare moments when they weren't touring. Wildly Idle (Humble Before The Void) is a lush, homespun collection of folk songs that found Meg in an exploratory state as an artist moving out on their own for the first time. Two years later, Hand Habits has returned with their sophomore album, placeholder. To make this album, Meg chose to work in a studio and bring in collaborators, entrusting them with what had previously been a very personal creative process. Over the course of 12 tracks, Meg emerges with new confidence as both a bandleader and singer. This album is as tender and immediate as anything Meg's ever written, but it's also intensely focused and refined, the work of a meticulous musician ready to share their singular vision with the world.

The name placeholder stems from Meg's fascination with the undefinable. Their songs serve as openings -- carved-out spaces waiting to be endowed with meaning. As a lyricist, Meg is drawn to the in-between, and the songs on this new album primarily confront the ways in which certain experiences can serve as a stepping stone on the road to self-discovery. 'A big aspect of my songwriting and the way I move through the world depends on my relationships with people. The songs on placeholder are about accountability and forgiveness,' Meg says. 'These are all real stories. I don't fictionalize much.'

Meg describes these songs as their most direct to date, crafted with clear intention, and unlike Wildly Humble (Idle Before The Void), placeholder doesn't meander. 'It's less of a submerged landscape and more a concise series of thoughts,' Meg explains. Instrumentally, placeholder can be situated alongside some of Meg's folk-adjacent contemporaries like Angel Olsen or Big Thief, and the guitar work on this album proves that Meg continues to be one of the finest young musicians working today. placeholder is another entry in the Hand Habits songbook, but it's also a valuable testament of our time. While placeholder inspires a sense of ease, simple questions rarely beget easy answers and Meg honors the indescribable joy and profound sorrow that comes with figuring things out, one step at a time.





[E] 5. yr heart [reprise]

Mehmet Aslan returns to his own Fleeting Wax imprint, in order to deliver the first in a series of releases as part of a new project, ghost station, including a collaboration with fellow Turkish singer, songwriter and vocal producer, Idil Mese.


Efsun, translating to enchantment in Farsi, is the sound of Idil Mese transforming an understated, somewhat folksy instrumental of Aslan's into a bewitching and subtle musical spell. Initially tense,
Idil Mese's vocal spell wraps beautifully around a brittle guitar motif, inches above a sea of atmospheric ambience. In it's second half, synthesis and sitar unite, taking efsun into more revelatory territory, employing a playful melody and warm, cosmic textures.

Meanwhile, on 'ghost station', from which the project takes its name, layers of meaning and recording slowly unravel, revealing a compelling soundscape. Recorded in one take, and completed across one night, 'ghost station' began with Aslan and his sampler surfing the busy radio waves of Berlin, eventually settling on a beautiful score broadcast on one of the city's classical stations. Just as soon as Aslan had the frequency on lockdown, the signal disappeared unable to be retrieved quickly enough, if ever. Loosely inspired by the work of Swiss visual artist and musician Pipilotti Rist, the track instead unfolds woozily like a dream, undulating through offbeat bleeps, ghostly voices and improvised swells of noise, while still maintaining it's own quietly propulsive groove.

Sounding more like himself than ever on his own Fleeting Wax outlet and incorporating an impressive range of musical techniques over just two tracks, 'ghost station' further establishes Mehmet Aslan as a restlessly inventive musical talent. -Text by John Thorp

In support of their forthcoming documentary 'Subotnick - Portrait of an Electronic Music Pioneer', Waveshaper Media — the same team behind the wildly-popular, acclaimed modular synthesizer documentary 'I Dream Of Wires' — presents a special reissue: a deluxe, 50th-anniversary-edition vinyl LP of Morton Subotnick's landmark 1967 debut electronic release, "Silver Apples of the Moon." Here are some of the features that make this 50th-anniversary-edition vinyl LP special:

All-new, full-colour gatefold jacket.
Vinyl edition is strictly limited to 1,000 copies.

Audio has been REMASTERED from the original, pre-mastered digital tape transfers. Unlike previous reissues of this LP (both vinyl and CD), remastered for Wergo's 1994 CD edition and narrowing the recording's stereo field, our reissue has been remastered maintaining the full stereo field of the original recording.
Brand new liner notes by Morton Subotnick.

The original, iconic liquid-light cover artwork by Tony Martin has been re-scanned for full-resolution clarity.
Featuring rarely-seen, newly-scanned photos of Morton Subotnick in his Bleecker Street studio where "Silver Apples..." was recorded.

Also includes a scan of the LP's original Nonesuch-edition liner notes

In support of their forthcoming documentary 'Subotnick - Portrait of an Electronic Music Pioneer', Waveshaper Media — the same team behind the wildly-popular, acclaimed modular synthesizer documentary 'I Dream Of Wires' — presents a special reissue: a deluxe, 50th-anniversary-edition cassette tape of Morton Subotnick's landmark 1967 debut electronic LP, "Silver Apples of the Moon." Here are some of the features that make this 50th-anniversary-edition cassette special:

First-ever cassette tape reissue, and first new cassette edition since the LP's original 1967 release!
Cassette edition is strictly limited to 300 copies.

Audio has been REMASTERED from the original, pre-mastered digital tape transfers. Unlike previous reissues of this LP (both vinyl and CD), remastered for Wergo's 1994 CD edition and narrowing the recording's stereo field, our reissue has been remastered maintaining the full stereo field of the original recording.

Brand new liner notes by Morton Subotnick.

The original, iconic liquid-light cover artwork by Tony Martin has been re-scanned for full-resolution clarity.

All-new, full-colour J-card artwork, + slick silver tape shell.

Neville Watson returns to DBA with The Midnight Orchard, his first full-length in five years. Watson is a key figure on the electronic music scene at large and has made regular appearances on Don't Be Afraid, as well as on celebrated imprints such as Crème Organization, Clone and Rush Hour, where he released some of his best-known work alongside Kink.

In a crowded landscape of factory-line jack trax and synthesis for the sake-of-it, it's little surprise that Watson's physical, arresting takes on house and techno have been such a staple in the record bags of the world's leading DJs for the past twenty years. Throughout The Midnight Orchard, Watson seamlessly bridges his futurist leanings gleaned from a lifelong commitment to electronic music with the anarchic spirit of his acid-house heritage.

The record still finds catharsis in the relentless pulse that has defined Watson's life since his early residencies where he peddled ecstatic escapism to towns on the commuter belts of London, notably via his involvement in seminal Reading party Checkpoint Charlie. However, there's a more somber, arguably introspective and perhaps even somewhat wistful tone at play throughout. This might surprise those who've invested their feet and hearts in tracks with titles like Night Of The Inflatable Muscleheads and Everything I Know About House (I Learned on Facebook).

In a move away from his previous musical leanings, The Midnight Orchard embraces a distinctly more UK sound, unapologetically chronicling the paranoia that can be found skirting the euphoria of rave. And while Watson has avoided the eyebrow-arching pitfalls of the self-serious DJ full-length, it must be noted that the rhythms here are more skittering, the atmosphere less jubilant and the signature lo-fi hiss, fully popularised and bastardised since Watson's last album, has taken on a more fore-boding tone.

Meanwhile, the atmosphere elsewhere harks to a more idealistic world, particularly on the cascading and subdued Eine Kleine Emusik, and the euphoric We Own The Night. Twin Tub and Reet Dux provide dubby, sensual moments of escapism. There's uncompromising, hard-nosed rhythms on Dee Sides, and cosmic electro throughout 4am in the Trees. The album then concludes in a bold fashion with Displays of Brotherly Love and the resolutely hopeful atmosphere of Phosphorescent.

Reflecting decades of immersion in club culture and taking inspiration from wider-found sounds, The Midnight Orchard is loaded with thrilling parallels and a sense of genuine unpredictability. Tracks like Come On In and Anarcho Midnight are layered with unease, utilising pitch dark arpeggios and skittish, growling electronics to devastating effect.

Having dedicated the last eighteen months of his life to the studio, Watson has rec-orded what is undeniably the most unexpected music of his career. Amid the dark-ness, The Midnight Orchard has borne fruit.

'A Thousand Strands' is the debut long-player from The Dandelion Set, a new collaboration between Glyn 'Bigga' Bush (Lightning Head, Rockers Hi Fi) and PK Chown (James Beige, Mr Liquorice). The album travels back to their formative years in the mid 1970s, with sleevenotes, lyrics and vocals by cult writer Alan Moore (V For Vendetta, Watchmen) and passes through a cavalcade of musical landmarks en route to the present day.

After 'Cobraxine', 'Boogie Throb', and the Ana Ott released 'Molochville', Brecht Ameel (Razen/Ameel Brecht) gives us his new album under the Br'lâaB moniker 'Other People's Crimes'; a high-on-paranoia, pre-crime-surveillance narrative, constructed after hours in the studio from a combination of Ameel's own recordings on a widely varied set of instruments, library music, flea-market broken vinyls and old cassettes. Part blind-overdub palimpsest-collage, part straightforward composition, the 10' contains both Br'lâaB's loop constructions and tracks performed by the found audio phantom band called the Acid Boogie Quartet. Bearing more gritty layers of both sound and subtext than ever, the 'Other People's Crimes' EP stands as an artefact of wild paranoia and spy-thriller sonics, weaving vignettes of surveillance gone wrong, doublethink and confessional echolalia.

Police and thieves are in the streets, running wild with nosebleeds and ill will ids. Dial v for victim as the night horizon broods a neon luminol glow. Howling at the vortex, buried under blindfolds, vigilantes take to crime with fear and ketamines.

The first 4 Dictaphone albums now available as a very limited boxset with a wonderful new timeless artwork.

Already formed in the late nineties in Berlin, Dictaphone was born by Brussels-bred multi-instrumentalist Oliver Doerell. In 2000 Oliver Doerell found a partner in Berlin's Roger Döring, who shares Doerell's love for the Brussels-based music of the eighties. In the following years the duo and several guest musicians (e.g. Stephan Wöhrmann (SWOD) , Malka Spigel (Minimal Compact) & more) released the critically highly acclaimed "m.= addiction" (2002), the "Nacht" EP (2004) and "Vertigo II" (2006) via the City Centres Offices label of Thaddeus Herrmann and Shlom Sviri (Boomkat, Modern Love). In 2009 the violin player Alex Stolze joined the band. During their two decades of existence Dictaphone played shows in more than 20 countries with festival appearances at Mutek, Transmediale, Unsound, Benicassim & more. Their latest release "Poems from a rooftop" from 2012 came as a very limited edition through the Berlin-based boutique label Sonic Pieces. In 2017 the band released the long awaited third album "APR 70" on denovali. The label now also offers a reissue of the trio's past repertoire.

Dictaphone never make music for the sake of it, they always want to create something which was missing before. And they did.

Praise for Dictaphone:

"minimalistic and subliminal elegancy" (ARTE)

"Dictaphones gives warmth to the concept, your thoughts a body and atmosphere to the music" (Spex)

"This is the music to fall in love with over many evenings, each subsequent rotation capturing another moment of time to be recalled in the future. Highly recommended" (Headphone Commute)

"When played from a rooftop, this music may be as quiet as a poem, but it carries the power of a manifesto." (A Closer Listen)

Two new longform recordings by Felix Kubin.

A - Max Brand Studie IV Composition for 8 loudspeakers, arranged in a circle. All sounds: Max Brand synthesizer (two mother oscillators with 4 subharmonic oscillations each and B-oscillator). Recorded in the former premises of the Institute for Media Archaeology, Hainburg a.d. Donau, November 2013. Premiere of the original version: Audible Festival, Paris, September 2016. Revised stereo version: April 2018. "As I experimented with different settings and sounds, the apparatus began to develop a life of its own. Its monophonic, swaying tonal registers conjured a ghostly presence in the vaulted space. Here I sat with the egocentric and stubborn Max Brand, we sat together on a long thin wire and listened to a distant war that was not our own." - Felix Kubin, 2013

B - T O P I A Composition for a 3-channel video installation by Josephin Bo¨ttger. All sounds: Rob Hordijk modular system and sounds of the port of Hamburg. Recorded at Hammerbrooklyn Studio, Hamburg, September 2016. Premiere of the original version: Oberhafenquartier Halle 4, Hamburg, September 2016. Revised stereo version: March 2018. "...an indeterminate figure climbing from hill to hill - mounds of earth, remains of excavation work on building sites, the negative form of the office towers collapsed and turned outwards, superfluous material. With yardsticks, tubes and fold-out plans, the figure struggles to measure the land that no longer seems to obey (...) the scene - of an absurd fable of growth - in an endless loop." - Nina Lucia Groß, 2016

This killer Italian library album by Luciano 'Arawak' Simoncini was only ever released on the elusive Orrery Records label, and is now very hard to find. Still very much under the radar, Explosive reveals itself as a swift tangled web of beats for the discerning DJ. Tracks includes the driving cosmic funk Hardware with sharp hip-hop breaks and spaced-out abstract synth keys.

Kangoroo Court is an even better alternative version dubbed with underwater and weird'ish train effects. More electric piano madness on the insane Oil Spot. Also includes the two superb Fender Rhodes & environmental FX tracks Shotgun (First compiled on Vroommm funk cinematique and recently sampled by Tomppabeats) and the intriguing track Warhorse. Classic Arawak moods not to be missed!

Fully remastered and licensed reissue, limited to just 350 copies on black wax.

After their highly acclaimed debut album »Decadent yet Depraved«, Berlin and LA-based producers Belief Defect invited a variety of artists to join their »Remixed« project. The following 12' EP is a first four-track release of this project. The original tracks of the album are only an approximate starting point for »Remixed«. In contrast to »Decadent yet Depraved«, largely conceived in song structures, this EP is about transferring the pieces back into abstract space, and each remixer does it in his very own way. Alessandro Cortini's one-take live recording is a lesson in classical ambient music. Telefon Tel Aviv's remix is timelessly modern and extremely delicate sound design. Rather opposite concepts are coming from Surachai's brutal pattern design and Kangding Ray's expressive and analogously saturated repetitions for the dance floor.

Once more the Netherlands proves to be fertile ground for adventurous sonic explorations defiantly untainted from outside influences. The Levende Opjekten Sjooo (L.O.S.) was developed by Artist Hans Frisch, who had made a name for himself as a painter by dripping black car paint on white formica panels, calling this: Clean Art. His next project involved a set with moving statues and music. The statues were actually naked dancers hidden between layers of linnen and plastics. As soon as the music started they would erupt from their disguise and start dancing naked on stage to a rather organic & compulsive music that discarded melody in favour of strange sounds and rhytmic patterns. Through a series of fortunate events, the L.O.S. was invited to make a record, which they did in a short 4-hour session with the use of Flutes, percussions and a Philicorda Organ.The result was a true testimony to what the L.O.S sounded like to the few thousand people who were lucky enough to experience them live. Some pictures of some of the shows survived as well as a handful of original copies of this record. Most copies were confiscated by the police and the rest dissapeared. Luckily we were able to unearth an original copy from which the music was then remastered, with kind authorization by two of L.O.S. band members. We hereby present a restored and remastered version of an utterly rare document of Dutch Psychedelia lost for decades.

Audrey Chen - Voice
Julien Desprez - Guitar
Lukas König - Drums, Synthesizers
Accelerated Frames Of Reference Is The Blistering Debut Album By Mopcut. Lukas König (koenigleopold / Kœnig / Kompost 3) On Synthesizers And Drums, Julien Desprez On Electric Guitar And Vocalist Audrey Chen On Analog Synthesizers. Three Artists Have Joined Forces To Create Songs Beyond Language And Gravity At The Interface Of Sound Architecture And Performance-ritual.
Minimal And Maximal Improvisation, Noise And Electronics Overlayed By Audrey Chen´s Ecstatic Vocal.

NYL's 1976 sole release is curiously still very much under the radar despite it being one of the most intriguing French psychedelic/prog albums from the 70's. The music is highly creative and energetic with a definite space-rock feel in the style of Hawkwind, but also a clear krautrock edge reminiscent of Amon Dull II and Agitation free. Michel Peteau's guitar is the driving force around which all other elements create a whirlwind of sonic psychedelic infusion veering between loud psychedelia and irreverent pulsating rock groove a la' Gong. Features Ariel Kalma (flute and sax), as well as Janick Top (From Magma) and Bernard Lavialle (from Ame Son). Originally released on Richard Pinhas "Urus Records", this fully licensed album is released in high quality heavy paste-on gatefold cover, limited to 500 copies in black vinyl

Founded In Wendelstein Near Nuremberg In 1970, Their Sole Lp Saw A Release Only In 1978 On The Collectable Brutkasten Label. Long Before The Band "kiss" Became Famous In Europe, These Guys Were Delivering Quite Unique Live Shows With Pyrotechnics, Burning Torches And Fog In A Sinister Decor With Their Faces Painted Very Much Like Kiss Did. The Music Is Leaning Between A Progressive And Mystical Edge Close To Pink Floyd And The Harder Raw And Darker Side Of Black Sabbath And Paternoster, Fully Sung In English. Here's A Fully Licensed Official Release, Faithful To The Rare Original Lp. For Fans Of Black Sabbath, Paternoster, Lava, Ufo.

Ryan James Ford's Productions Are Rarely Anything Other Than Inspired. Through Regular Releases On Marcel Dettmann Records, Answer Code Request And His Own Shut Imprint, Ford Has Proved To Be An Exciting Producer, Capable Of Mangling Sounds And Styles To Fit His Wide-ranging Musical Vision.

The Berlin-based Canadian Arrives On Happy Skull With A Label Debut That Dramatically Emphasizes The Point. For Example, Ep Opener "ormst Kaban", Whose Wild, Crashing, Off-grid Breakbeats And Twisted, Foreboding Electronics Aggressively Spar With Glacial Chords And Icy Textures. The 16 Bit Arpeggio Lines Of 'hobrv Kegdit' Are Underpinned By Powerful Sub-bass Tones And Industrial Drum-breaks That Merge To Create A Densely Sprawling Mass Of Dance Floor Melancholia.

This Pattern Continues Throughout The Ep, With "slown Ridel" And "nos Ummi" Balancing Skittish, Noise-seeped Percussion With The Dreamy, Glassy-eyed Swell Of Classic Ambient And Pioneering Early '90s Idm.

Tony Buck: drums, percussion, vibraphone
Massimo Pupillo: bass, electronics

Italian composer and bassplayer Massimo Pupillo (ZU) and Australian drummer Tony Buck (The Necks) colloborate in a beautifully haunting, absorbing ambient set, taking in electronic abstraction and free improvisation. Pupillo & Buck are well known for their work with their long-running bands, as well as for their collaborations with musicians of the current international avantgarde scene - Pupillo released f.i. with Cindytalk, FM Einheit, Ambarchi, Corsano; Buck with Fennesz, Branford Marsalis and Magda Mayas.In TIME BEING / UNSEEN we experience floating uncanny percussion sounds underlined with heaving subs, sealed in deep and noisy atmospheres
Recorded with Boris Wilsdorf in 2017 at andereBaustelle Tonstudio Berlin.
Each format comes with a different artwork/titel and tracklist.

As a first listen it was 2 am, 46° in a village Portugal, in a Convent, after a good night out. That moment stroke me from being magic, the energy was perfect, we were laughing and relaxing amongst friends. That listen was pushing the magic further because of the surprises it has all along the journey. A first groaning A simple rhythm Soft realms Noisy Round sounds Type machine sounds, of a sampled hi hat that never reveals, cut cut cut cut. Just because it's fun to not reveal it. And put that fist cut part of the upcoming timber that is not 'yet' one. It's like if the drum pack was used the wrong way, which is a great way. Flipping. (=to flip something) Belp has this ability to bring the most horrible samples in front, and turn over your mind to enjoy what first sounds like 'horrible'. Facade. 'Crocodile' is flipping it over. Rhythmically vibrating, ears are wide open, full attention. I'm into the non-repetition. Track 'Crocodile's call reminds me of the call in 'Klabb' by Deena Abdelwahed as well as within its playful change of tempo, of notes. Who cares The album is like a randomly composed pack. It is not random. It's flipping something, and I like that disturbance, it's what I want to hear. It is alive, through composition, arrangements, falsely randomised, non-arranged, it is a trick; it is the drunk clown playing 'endless preparations for a ceremony' and 'catch'. Not bothering about anything reveals a deep understanding of music and of arts, a crafted album in details. It is years of listening, it is years of challenging ones ears, and putting it all together in this piece.

Tarawangsawelas are a musical duo from Bandung, mainly performing a contemporary version of Tarawangsa, the sacred music from Sundanese West Java. Here they are joined by their teacher and maestro, Pak Pupung Supena, together with, Pak Jaja, on Sekalipon. Wanci is a minimalist, cosmic album composed with a careful modern interpretation of one of the most mystical and spiritual genres in Indonesia. A gorgeous and infectious six track album. TIP!
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Producer Rabih Beaini says "Last year, Europalia Festival commissioned me to work on a musical project with local musicians from Indonesia and develop a performance to tour during Europalia 2017. I chose to work with Tarawangsa, the sacred music from Sundanese West Java. Tarawangsa is played on two string instruments: a rababa-like two-stringed bowed instrument itself called Tarawangsa, and the Jentreng, a seven-stringed kecapi-like instrument. Typically from Rancakalong village in Sumedang, West Java, Tarawangsa is played as part of a ritual consisting of almost eight hours of music and dance, complete with offerings and prayers. During a performance, a selection from the forty two known Tarawangsa pieces slowly build up from a cosmic slow groove to more repetitive and hypnotic rhythms, inevitably bringing the listener and dancer to a trance state. During the residency I had the great honor to be able to develop new structures and pieces together with Tarawangsawelas, recording them in Bandung, and ultimately having them joined by their teacher and Tarawangsa maestro Pak Pupung Supena together with Pak Jaja on jentreng. This album is a modern description for one of the local Indonesian music scene, but mainly it is an offering for the Tarawangsa ritual, like the food and incense and the prayers, and the messages of the ancestors to the people of Rancakalong."

Composed and performed by Teguh Permana, Wisnu Ridwana and Rabih Beaini, except Sekalipun (traditional) performed by Pupung Supena, Jaja Rohmat, Teguh Permana & Wisnu Ridwana.
Recorded in Bandung, march 2017
Produced, mixed and arranged by Rabih Beaini.
Mastered by Neel at Enisslab.
Cover design by George Sowden, curated by M-L-XL,

Long before Howard Williams crawled out of Honest Jon's basement to kick out his jams as Japan Blues on NTS, and record, he had been running a micro label, Ethbo. Possibly the slowest label in the world, clocking up 10 releases in over 20 years. But, when they happen to be the first 12' by Mike Cooper (2000); Tokyo bass, drum and vocal outfit Femini Flyers; Electronic Rock Non Music maven Kadmon; and, when most tragic hipsters thought Japan was just sushi and manga, Killing Melody, a killer selection of Japanese gangster soundtrack funk (2010). Not to mention 60s garage rockabilly Dean Carter. To name a few.

For light relief, last year he also co-started JWM Records, with a compilation of 20s to 50s Yiddish jazz from London's East End. Not satisfied with that, he has once again revived the Ethbo mini-monolith. Ramping up the speed a little, with four releases in the pipeline for the first half of 2019. The first, Leipzig unit, EEL.

Ever tried to grab an eel If so, maybe you'll have an inkling how difficult it would be to pin down the sounds you're about to deal with on this EP. Think you've got it nailed down Nah, suddenly, it's slithered out your hand and is lithely hurtling off into the water.

'HDD is EEL's first bundle of rendered audio. Soldered textures wrapped in duct tape embracing recycled aesthetics on four tracks. Yelling snapshots that went down the data bus to result in de-culturalized patchworks. Not from a sphere but from all of them. EEL are Philipp Matalla and Robert Schulze.'

Philipp has released a small, perfectly formed collection of 12' over the last few years, on Prins Thomas' Internasjonal Spesial, Doumen Records, Kann Records (collaborating with MM/KM) and Kashual Plastik - his sound is playful, and impossible to categorise. Robert has joined forces, expect the unexpurgated.

HDD 1 A flock of birds trapped in a shirt folding machine, hurtle down Elon Musk's neon tunnel, disintegrating and constantly re-forming into obtuse consumer objects looking for a market.

HDD2 Memories of a summer festival no one has ever seen, a celestial organ makes formless arpeggios, impossible to recall, lysergic crystals constantly multiply skywards celebrating a spirit's ascent to an illusive enlightenment.

HDD3 Every video game ever created in a last pitch battle to the death. We deserved this.

HDD4 An army of wooden ants, the queen below ground on bass, marching through the tundra to a rendezvous with nirvana.

Released on CD by Aurora Borealis back in 2010, we're overjoyed to finally see this on vinyl.
- limited edition of 300 copies - 180g black vinyl - reverse board heavyweight sleeve - includes download code and printed insert - mastered for vinyl by James Plotkin - cut at The Carvery, London
An ode to the Lovecraftian lore of Shub Niggurath, 'Black Goat of the Woods' was conceived as "the soundtrack from some lost low budget horror movie, rediscovered on an old and faded VHS cassette found mouldering in a deserted house in the depths of the woods".
The one man project of J.R Moore, Black Mountain Transmitter has released several albums, all to great critical acclaim, and the quality of his work speaks volumes. The original AB 'Black Goat of The Woods' CD version was the first official release and a reissue of the long sold out and much sought after limited CDr.
On describing the recording, Moore said: "The music was certainly very much influenced by that certain breed of 70s horror films. Things like the soundtrack to the original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", Giuliano Sorgini's atmospheres in "Living Dead At The Manchester Morgue"; Carl Zittrer's soundscapes in "Deranged", "Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things" and "Dead Of Night", and of course people like Fabio Frizzi in Italian horror and the BBCs Radiophonic Workshop's electronic sounds in something like "The Stone Tape" and countless creepy old TV productions..."
An excellent, macabre and psychedelic release that spans electronica, soundtracks and experimental genres in its 40 minute playing time, 'Black Goat of the Woods' pays perfect homage to the dark denizen of the nocturnal glades, and is a true paean to backwoods horror.

Mazy Fly, the second full-length by the Bay Area artist SPELLLING, explores the tension between the thrill of exploring the unknown and the terror of imminent destruction. Chrystia Cabral spent the summer of 2018 in her Berkeley studio reflecting on the thresholds of human progress and longing for a new and better tomorrow. She was struck by the way the same technologies that have given humans the ability to achieve utopian dreams of discovery have also brought the world to the precipice of dystopic global devastation. Despite the darkness of this reality, Mazy Fly is defiantly optimistic. It is a celestial voyage into the unknown, piloted by Cabral.

Each song on Mazy Fly enshrines distinct sentiments within this imagined voyage, from the deeply personal ('Hard to Please Reprise') to the cosmic (aliens travel to Earth to hear music on 'Real Fun'). 'Haunted Water' is an intensely heavy song about the memories of colonial violence that haunt the historical slave ship routes of the Middle Passage. 'Under the Sun' is a cosmic prayer for good

Mazy Fly, the second full-length by the Bay Area artist SPELLLING, explores the tension between the thrill of exploring the unknown and the terror of imminent destruction. Chrystia Cabral spent the summer of 2018 in her Berkeley studio reflecting on the thresholds of human progress and longing for a new and better tomorrow. She was struck by the way the same technologies that have given humans the ability to achieve utopian dreams of discovery have also brought the world to the precipice of dystopic global devastation. Despite the darkness of this reality, Mazy Fly is defiantly optimistic. It is a celestial voyage into the unknown, piloted by Cabral.

Each song on Mazy Fly enshrines distinct sentiments within this imagined voyage, from the deeply personal ('Hard to Please Reprise') to the cosmic (aliens travel to Earth to hear music on 'Real Fun'). 'Haunted Water' is an intensely heavy song about the memories of colonial violence that haunt the historical slave ship routes of the Middle Passage. 'Under the Sun' is a cosmic prayer for good

An ethereal, unresolved presence fading into the stereo field, Hilja breathes into life with a haunted synth line and self-sampling vocal hook that instantly creates an enchanted space. Hilja is the debut album by Glasgow-based musician Maria Rossi aka Cucina Povera. Named after a style of southern Italian traditional cooking associated with precarity and making-do, a philosophy of simplicity and stoicism that applies perfectly to the spare but beautiful music Rossi experiments with. Hilja's marriage of minimal synth, field recordings and the hymnal dexterity of Rossi's vocal performances creates a new language, sometimes literally, to be spoken in some mythological Fourth World we've yet to create.

Originally from Finland, Rossi brings an acute sense of space, surroundings, and practicality to her working practice, with each composition often relying on a limited sound palette to create deeply affecting messages which transcend language. Cucina Povera's power is to communicate purely, often down to the solo-choir nature of Rossi's multi-layered voice, an achingly beautiful instrument which has seems to have an innate spirituality in its grain. The tension between the means and the end is at the heart of Cucina Povera, the invocation of a kind of secular spirituality at times using nothing but Rossi's voice. Indeed there's almost a Dogme-like purity to the arrangements: Elektra is a soothing song based around the lapping waves of Rossi's wordless backing vocals and a simple field recording of stones knocked together. Kehoitus is completely a cappella, a haunted fairytale told in glossolalia, evoking a quasi-religious experience with very little.

For music often minimal and simple there's a boldness that belies Hilja's status as a debut. Rossi allows each word, each sound and rhythm to exist in its own space, finding its own relationship with its surroundings. Mesika¨mmenen Veisu is perhaps the most ecclesiastical sounding composition here; burbling water trickles below a virtuoso vocal, with incredible arrangements in several registers undulating above. A meditation to relieve hunger and restriction, it's a perfect summing up of Hilja, a music ambient but completely earthed, finding enchantment in what you have to hand, the realism of magic, the magic of realism.

Mit ZEBRE präsentiert der in Graz lebende Künstler Nick Acorne am 8. Februar 2019 sein Debütalbum. Die elf Songs zeigen ein vielschichtiges Elektro Jazz Album mit Hang zum Experimentellen. Klassische Pianokompositionen verweben sich mit groovelastigen Drumpartien und geheimnisvollen Vocalsamples. Gekonnt werden dabei anspruchsvolle Arrangements versteckt und Genregrenzen spielerisch ausgelotet. Thematisch verfolgt die Platte - auch aufgrund ihrer verschiendsprachiger Texte - nicht immer einfach auszumachende Motive, wohl aber grundlegende Fragen des künstlerischen Schaffens, deren Wichtigkeit und Absurdität. ZEBRE ist ein ausgereiftes und eklektisches Erstlingswerk auf hohem kompositorischen Level. Der Anspruch Acornes nach emotionalem Ausdruck und Freiheit durch musikalisches Schaffen spiegelt sich auf ZEBRE in traumhaften, surrealistischen Klangbildern wieder.

Arrow is a piano album - the sound of Hebden Bridge on a Saturday afternoon, embellished with wisps of Glasgow. Recorded especially for Preserved Sound in Hebden Bridge, "Arrow" is sound of Richard Youngs alone at the piano, embellished with light drums and an old organ. This collection of solo improvisations is all about capturing the moment - that piano and that afternoon in Hebden Bridge.

'I sat down at the piano and just played,' says Richard. 'No preconceptions, nothing worked out. I wasn't trying to achieve anything other than to enjoy playing the piano.There was also an organ in the room, so there are touches of that. I then took these back to Glasgow and knocked it into shape - a few overdubs, nothing drastic.'

Richard Youngs - organ, percussion, piano, synth, tape, voice

Robin Hayward (b. 1969 in Brighton, England) is a tuba player and composer based in Berlin. Since the 1990s, he has been concerning himself with experimental and radical playing techniques on brass instruments, initially through the discovery of the "noise-valve", later through development of the first fully microtonal tuba in 2009. In 2012, he invented the Hayward Tuning Vine as an interface for exploring the harmonic space implicit within the instrument, which exists both as a software version and as a physical prototype. Hayward's microtonal tuba and, on some occasions, the tuning vine have appeared on numerous recordings with various ensembles, e.g. Tonaliens - who have released a double LP on Edition Telemark in 2017 -, Chora(s)san Time-Court Mirage, and Microtub.

"Words of Paradise" is a 2016 recording performed by Zinc & Copper, Hayward's long-running brass chamber ensemble, featuring himself on tuba and tuning vine, Hilary Jeffery on trombone, and Elena Kakaliagou on horn. The piece was inspired by the ideas of 16th-century Dutch linguist Johannes Goropius Becanus, who thought he had shown the Flemish dialect Brabantic to be the original language spoken in Paradise. Observing Brabantic to have a higher proportion of single-syllable words compared to other languages, he reasoned that as the first language must have been the simplest, all languages must be derived from it. The composition draws on the sound of 13 single-syllable words that Becanus used to support his theories. Using half-valve and muting techniques, the inflections of speech and vowel sounds are imitated on the brass instruments, to which the Hayward Tuning Vine is played as a harmonic reference.

LP Picture Disc replicating the multi-coloured circular scores of the horn and trombone parts of "Words of Paradise", housed in a black die-cut sleeve with liner notes on the rear side.

Tresor Records is fortunate enough to be sitting on a catalogue of past releases that no other label in electronic music would turn down. Three of the finest in this collection were albums contributed by Surgeon, Basictonalvocabulary', Balance' and Force + Form' all originally came out on the Berlin institution between 1997 and 1999.

Surgeon's inimitable combination of Detroit techno and post-industrial sounds emanating from his British homeland found its fullest expression in these masterful trio of releases on Tresor.

The Balance Remakes 12' accompanied Surgeon's second Tresor album in 1998, with additional Versions as well as a remix by long-time Birmingham collaborator Mick Harris.

Zinging, absolutey deadly 7 Track EP from Mica Levi on her return to DDS, featuring three tracks with Tirzah (including the much sought-after Go), plus a Demdike Stare Edit.

DDS render a precious haul of Tirzah / Mica Levi zingersl, ramped up by Demdike Stare's dextrous edit of I Dare You to chase up 2014's acclaimed Feeling Romantic Feeling Tropical Feeling Ill LP for mutant dancefloors and sun-kissed headphone journeys.

Smitten by the hugely addictive, brilliantly slippery 2-step twister on Go (there's been a video online for this track since 2011) Demdike suggested the cut for release on DDS, and were subsequently privileged to peruse the unique space-time folds and dance/pop sampledelia of Mica's archive. As they also found out whilst compiling her last solo LP; it's a deeply rewarding experience to explore the Mica's output: immersing themselves in her peerless world of refractive colours, sawn-off textures and teasing arrangements.

They've emerged with a joyously unhinged party-ready EP, traversing the mercurial 2-step viscosity of Mica & Tirzah's Go, to their addictively sticky ohrwurm, Dare You, and the free cosmic pop whorl of trip6love, before taking in the clanking ragga jag of More Red with Brother May, a.k.a. the London-based MC who voiced Mica's Fact Mix 444 in 2014.

The cherry on top is a crucial Demdike edit of I Dare You, an extended serve of the original. Jus so good...

William Engelen (born 1964 in Weert, The Netherlands) is a sound and visual artist living and working in Berlin. After having studied visual arts, his focus shifted over time from solely visual to multi-disciplinary works that oscillate between sound and visual arts, between exhibition and performance, and incorporate installational, sculptural and compositional elements. He now considers himself a conceptual artist who works with sound. Many of his works are site-specific and have been presented and performed in museums, galleries, concert halls, private apartments, parks, urban spaces, a.o. Unlike other sound artists, Engelen does not primarily try to make a space sound, but rather to develop works that resonate and reflect the specific surroundings where they are presented.

"Today, the organ has played beautifully again" (2018) is Engelen's second LP release after "Partitur Belval" in 2016. The piece was written for his solo exhibition "Heute hat die Orgel wieder schön gespielt" at Kunsthalle Osnabrück in Lower Saxony, Germany. The Kunsthalle building was once a Dominican monastery which, in 1713, became home to a pipe organ made by the famous Klausing workshop in Herford. In 1819, after the monastery had been secularized, the organ was moved to St. Matthäus church in Melle where it continues to be played to the present day. For the exhibition, Engelen decided to virtually bring back the organ to its original place. The piece was performed first for an audience at St. Mätthaus church on October 14th, 2018, then turned into an 8-channel sound installation for the Kunsthalle exhibition from November 2018 to January 2019. During the rehearsals and the concert, video recordings were made that were compiled into a 2-channel work. The fourth iteration of the piece is this double LP album, recorded in the night of October 18th, 2018, and presented in a full-colour gatefold sleeve with printed inner sleeves. Co-released by Kunsthalle Osnabrück and Edition Telemark.

"The air supply for this historic instrument can either be pumped by a motor or by sheer force, literally by stepping or pressing on the large bellows. Together with Stephan Lutermann, the church's regular organist, I explored and pushed the sonic boundaries and possibilities of the Klausing organ - from the barely audible to the astonishingly raucous. While Stephan played the console, I served as the so-called calcant, or bellows blower, and in this role could decide the length and force of the air supply. Only four of the twelve parts are played with the help of the motor." - William Engelen

Merzbow, Nyantora and Duenn's 3 Rensa trio churn up Grade A+ improvisations for Entr'acte with the first vinyl edition of their 'Redrum' recordings.

Leading on from Nyantora & Duenn's collaboration on the '086-087 Area' CD for Entr'acte in 2017, on 'Redrum' introduces Merzbow as a vital, variable catalyst in their next venture for Antwerp's finest. Recorded at Red BullStudios in Tokyo on 3rd August 2017 over the course of three hours, the results are edited for length in six parts to reveal a deeply uncanny intuition and amorphous nature to the trio's music.

It's maybe not what you might come to expect from a record involving Merzbow. Tempered by his collaborators' leanings towards sound art and electronics, they triangulate a steady but swirling mid ground where free jazz notions collapse into noise and industrial musicks. We're not entirely sure why each track bears one of their names after the title, i.e. 'Redrum Session 1.1 Merzbow' or 'Redrum Session 2.1 Duenn', as we were under the impression each track is a collaboration. But never mind, as the results each smudge space-time in fascinating new ways, from the oxidised electro-acoustic fulminations of the first, thru the spheric ceramic roil of the 2nd, to arcing space rock-outs in the 3rd and 4th, thru to abyssal black hole sonics in the 5th, and an exhilarating transition from pummelling percussion and noise squall to vaporised conclusions of the 6th.

Never released before: on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the GRM, the composer François Bayle introduces us to some of his unpublished archives:
"Electrucs !" (1974) composed on a 1970's Synthi AKS synthesizer like an imaginary oundtrack

Kreidler Feiert Das 10-jährige Jubiläum Ihres Wegweisenden 2009er Albums "mosaik 2014" (platte Der Ausgabe Spex #322/2009) Mit Einer Neu Gemasterten Wiederveröffentlichung. Die Neuauflage Der Platte Enthält Eine Aktualisierte Trackliste Und Wird Auf 140g Weißes Vinyl Gepresst.

Mosaik 2014 - So Soll Es Klingen. Arrangements, Die Sich Richtig Anfühlen - Ohne Dass Ich Sie Nachzeichnen Könnte, Weil Alle Linien Doch Zu Sehr Ineinander Verwoben Sind, Weil Das Album Zur Hauptsache In Einer Woche Live Aufgenommen Wurde. Diese Platte Hat Von Allem Mehr. Mehr Rhythmus, Schlagzeug, Perkussion. Mehr Keyboards, Besser Noch: Synthesizer - Sounds, Die Sofort Da Sind, Sich Nicht Abweisen Lassen, Etwas Von Einem Wollen, Und Doch Ein Großes Geheimnis Bewahren. Mehr Seltsame Loops, Mehr Elektronikgewitter. Aber Alles Der Einen Idee Untergeordnet: Die Beste Kreidler Platte Aller Kreidler Platten Zu Werden. In Einer Direktheit Zum Punktkommen Und Doch Freiräume Lassen. Sehnsüchte, Trost Und Erfüllung: Große Gefühle Eben.

Mosaik 2014 - Musik, Die Das 21. Jahrhundert Außen Vorlässt, Musik, Die Schnörkellos Vom 20. Zum 22. Jahrhundert Hinübergleitet. Musik Im Hier Und Jetzt. Und Für Morgen.