Beats News

Patricia Kokett's sound is shrouded in a veil of mysticism. The brainchild of Lithuanian Gediminas Jakubka, Diabel's metallic heartbeat underlies a magical superstructure that evokes some kind of DMT infused trip. Or possibly even some kind of ancient ritual, where one is intoxicated by serpents blood. Guided by repetitive drum patterns, it creates a slow joint dance that opens the path towards transcendence.

Low Jack & Equiknoxx join Dominick Fernow's Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement on a new double vinyl expansion of 'Red Ants Genesis'.Recorded in winter 2017, 'Red Ants Genesis' finds the Hospital Productions boss discovering strength in collaboration following the triumph of his 'Ambient Black Magic' classic, which was conjured with the crucial assistance of Juan Mendez a.k.a. Silent Servant. Here, he works with Phillippe Hallais aka Low Jack and of Editions Gravats, who also tags in his pals Gavsborg and Time Cow from Jamaican digidub futurists Equiknoxx for a killer new version of the title track.
On the tape's original four tracks, Low Jack transmogrifies Fernow's high volume microphone recordings of synthetic field ecologies with masterful sleight of hand in-the-edit, resulting in a
hyperreal detachment and realignment of spatial proprioceptions executed with exquisite textural tactility. It's far more oblique and desiccated than the relatively lush 'Ambient Black Magic' outing,
rendering the stark durational immersion of their 30 minute 'Red Ants (Mics)' split over the first disc, while Low Jack's percussive edits really come into play on the utterly gutted 'Shields Ferns /
Brown Pine Magic' and the slow, febrile push of 'Papua Land (Live Edit).
No doubt one of the biggest attractions here is the curveball of an Equiknoxx remix of 'Red Ants Genesis'. Surely one of the first meetings of Jamaican dancehall and dark ambient in existence,
it's a spellbinding piece of dub physics that demonstrates the endless, mutable imagination of Gavsborg and Time Cow in haunting and deeply mystic effect.Unmissable.

"Where Were We" is the fourth solo release by Anthone for The Weevil Neighbourhood featuring three excursions somewhere in between abstract breaks and wonky techno.

Black vinyl in brown discobag. Center label design by Anthone. Mastering and Cut by LXC.

Michele Mercure often dreams of music, and in her waking life, reclaims fragments of these fleeting, floating melodies in her compositions and sound art. Beside Herself, an anthology of Mercure's self-produced and distributed cassettes released between 1983 and 1990, collects these dreamlike passages and lo-fi nocturnes, preserving the qualities of discovery and intimacy surrounding their genesis.

Mercure's sound is a porous electronic art that overlaps ambient, abstract, and industrial sensibilities - its spaciousness reveals an artist attuned cinematically rather than for radio play or public performance. She approached the latter theatrically, and rarely, disdaining most live shows as too serious, and bringing her music to bare on her audiences in playful, immersive contexts. On recordings, Mercure's night lit synth music evokes non-confined environments, at once expressionistic and minimal and always aware of its surroundings.

Mercure was a busy collaborator during the years surveyed by Beside Herself, making music for theater, performance, film, and TV animation, yet it was through her self-released cassettes that she established her music among like-minded artists abroad. Circulated through tape-trading networks assisted by insightful reviews in Eurock, a seminal music magazine covering progressive rock and electronic music scenes, these album-length releases included Rogue and Mint (1983), A Cast of Shadows (1984), Dreams Without Dreamers (1985), and Dreamplay (1990). Though unvarnished in fidelity (and now scarcely seen), these tapes showcased Mercure's transportive aptitude within and beyond the limited sound recording medium.

Sunun has a luring command of dials and limbs and drum skins that's as grounded as it's mystical - these machines have ghosts in them. BetweenOoid's modulated insect noises and crushed cymbals there are stories of when & why things were recorded that adds an aching humanity to the 5 machine dub pulses on her first official release. People who've seen her live have witnessed Sunun's forest of wires and microphones and harps all feeding her 20 channel desk. She dubs it old-world style, but the results are always forward - making a 22nd century chorus from thousands of years of human feedback. The Sunun ecosystem is perfectly synthesised in Max Kelan's unsettling VHS body-shot for 'Dark Just', filmed on location in Western Super Mare (mostly Pier 2).

Founded in 2014, Amnesia Scanner's approach is informed by a unique perspective on technology and the way it mediates contemporary experience. System vulnerabilities,
information overload and sensory excess inform their work, which has found a home in both clubs and galleries.
Building on their mixtape 'AS Live' Amnesia Scanner's critically acclaimed audio play 'Angels Rig Hook' (2015) laced a potpourri of dancefloor tactics with a machinic narrator.
Their dual EPs for Young Turks, 'AS' and 'AS Truth' (2016), distilled this immersive environment into an abrasive collection of cryptorave tools. The most striking detail of 'Another Life' is Amnesia Scanner's use of both human and inhuman voices.
The latter is provided by the latest addition to the production unit, a disembodied voice called Oracle, which represents the sentience that has emerged from Amnesia Scanner.
Oracle's vocal performance ranges from exuberant mania to anxious dread and beyond. Coupled with the pop song structures that Amnesia Scanner employs for the first time, the avant-EDM productions of 'Another Life' evocatively explore a schizophrenic present marked by narratives of a slow apocalypse or salvation via technology.
Indeed, the lullaby of 'AS Another Life' swings between trill hope and casual threat, lending a precarious gait to the song's staggering rhythm. The album's first single, 'AS Chaos', is its most powerfully direct track, with Pan Daijing's English and Mandarin vocals taking over for Oracle. At its peak intensity,

Japanese experimental duo group A formed in 2012, comprising Tommi Tokyo (synthesizers, drum machines and vocals) and Sayaka Botanic (violin, sampler and cassette tapes). Their early shows came as a shock to most spectators, non-stop waves of avant-garde noise, poetry, and performance art, such as semi-nude live painting. They have self-produced/released 3 albums and a remix single by Tom Furse from The Horrors - their third album was later released on Mecanica Records) - and an EP last year on Mannequin. They played their first full European tour including TodaysArt, Soy Festival and RIAM in the autumn of 2015. Since early 2016, the duo has been based in Berlin where they are further developing their musical and visual materials. They have performed at the CTM Festival, Krake Festival as well as many other European Festivals such as OFF Festival, Donaufestival, Roskilde and Le Guess Who
"Disobeyed Flute", a pipe tone from a twilight valley, a summon to an unknown fate. "Circulation" is a damaged dalek, to a hobbled Moondogian tempo. "Float", ghostly keys emanate from the bottom of a well, seeps into some plucked strings and asian drum. "The Devil to Pay" invokes some hellish tableau, an eery chant, to the sharpening of some instrument of gore, backed by an oscillating helicopter synth. Consumer rocks along with a consistent rhythm, like a slowed down YMO, with whimsical klaxons in tow.

Slathering at the heels of Low Jack's much sought-after Riddims du Lieu-dit and Clara!s reggaeton bomb Meneo, Antinote's Iueke moonlights with a body-gurning batch of mangled technoid bombs for Low Jack and co's killer Les disques de la Bretagne series.
The last we heard from the Antinote co-founder was on a series of archival 12's for his label issued between 2012 and 2015, as well as on a pair of completely unclassifiable mixtapes for Demdike
Stare's DDS label released over the last couple of years, but Champion features his first new recordings in perhaps over a decade and, true to form, they're not at all what we were expecting.Champion (Version) deploys a a super rugged swing and recursive digital noise coming off like T++ and Gescom programming daggering robots, while Zonck brilliantly recalls Autechre's remix of Lexis' Hypnotise - all achromatic, dense, percussive madness that again brings to mind T++, or
more specifically his Dynamo gear.Dem A Burning is more glacial and spacious, swilling the dance with caustic acid noise and
sloshing subbass in deadly, futurist style recalling Timeblind's much overlooked but completely ageless Rastabomba session, before Polxat expends his restless energy in a properly Autechrian
madness.
Pure fiyah.

Almost in time for the third anniversary of Japan Blues' show on NTS radio - a monthly Japanese musical nabemono, occasionally straying into other Asian territories.

The self-released album's six tracks form an atmospheric Nipponese travelogue, with some underbelly tourist spots taken in on the way. The track-listing is printed on a lovely hand-made paper insert, to confound the download card fetishists.

Orders may be rationed, as stocks are limited.

Second release by Japanese artist Kosei Fukuda from his own platform. Great atmospheric sound scape with Japanese precision. Minimalistic Experimental IDM Techno. Including one Digital Bonus.

Les Editions Japonais, is a new label to showcase Japanese artists new and old, the first release is by Tokyo based band Kufuki.

Kufuki, was formed in 2010 by Ryuichiro Konno (electronics), Motomasa Saito (electronics), Tosimasa Matsumoto (vocals), and Yudai Nobunaga Kogawa (vocals,VJ, electronics), hailing from various musical genres, ranging from techno, rock, blues and hip-hop. Tired of formulaic club music, they set out to create their own electronic ethnic music, firstly taking influences from places they had travelled, but more recently concentrating on electrifying minyo, or traditional Japanese folk music.

MInyo has an ageless tradition in Japanese culture, mainly work songs - for example, sung by field workers and fishermen - and regional tributes. Passed down over the centuries by performance at seasonal festivals, they are often accompanied by dance. These traditions prevail, and many songs are familiar to a large proportion of Japan's population, young and old.

Kufuki have already released two albums, the self-released "Fukamidori" (2010), and "Kufuki', on the Wonderyou label (2012). Favourable reviews appeared in Japanese, American and European web magazines: Bad Alchemy Magazin (Germany), Loop (Chile), Sound & Recording Magazine (Japan), Hemisferia (Colombia) and more. They toured South Korea in 2013 and Europe in 2014, taking in Germany, Portugal and the UK. This year they are planning another European tour.

The band's singular sound is a rollicking rendition of minyo, using the driving work-song rhythms as a background to their call and response vocals, and phalanx of decaying synthesizers, all in a pentatonic key.

Torobayashi is a 20th century folk song, originally released in the early 60s by Masao Suzuki, as part of the original wave of popularised minyo. Akusejima is much older, named after the tiny remote volcanic island in Kagoshima. And, tucked away on the B side is a cheeky dancehall-tinged re-work of Torobayashi by Japan Blues.

The 4 track 12' comes in black disco bag, with label artwork by Motomasa Saito, and with a washi (Japanese paper) New Minyo sticker.

Since So Many European Labels Have Been Reissuing Lost And Obscure 1980s Japanese Ambient Albums Of Late, It Was Probably Inevitable That At Least One Label Would Put Together A Compilation Paying Tribute To The Sound. It Turns Out That Jazzy Couscous Has Won The Race With Kumo No Moko, A Superb Double Album That Does A Terrific Job In Putting Japan's '80s Ambient Scene In Context. As You'd Expect, The Majority Of The Tracks Feature Either Dreamy Electronic Sounds Or A Mixture Of Acoustic And Electronic Instrumentation, With Nods To Jazz Coming Thick And Fast. There Are Naturally A Couple Of Fairly Well-known Names On Show, But For The Most Part The Compilers Have Done A Terrific Job In Highlight Lesser-known Tracks From Unsung Heroes.

Osaka based producer 7FO. Having previously released a cassette on RVNG International, and a 7'' single on Bokeh Versions in 2017, this is the Japanese producer's debut full length vinyl release. The tracks, recorded between 2012 and 2017, have been tweaked, remastered and recorded to vinyl for the first time.
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The mysterious figure recorded the tracks at home, processing guitar sounds, using a sampler, synthesizer and junk equipment. Following in the footsteps of the ambient giants of his native lands, 7FO's music continues this illustrious heritage whilst offering something fresh, modern and beautifully rendered. He describes his own sound as 'gorgeous sustained tones and dreamlike oscillations that drift through the inorganic/electronic world reverberating through our subconscious creating sonic fables in our minds'.

The 12'' comes with artwork designed by label head & visual artist Jack Hardwicke. To accompany the release Greek filmmaker George Kountouras, who also collaborated on the artwork, has directed a gorgeous video for the title track 'Moment'.

Peter Fonda is a New York based producer, DJ and promoter most notably known for his Drum Machine Circle and Keep Away From Children parties on his home turf amongst a track on a Lives Through Magic double cassette compilation alongside Daphni, JD Twitch, Pantha Du Prince and Patricia. Here we see him make his debut on New York's Parka following on from the first two EP's courtesy of Abu Ashley and Milo McBride.

Minimal multi-instrumentalist weirdo zone brilliance on another obscure uncovering from the excellent Growing Bin...big tip!
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"If you've kept a keen ear to the underground, you may have noticed a trance revival creeping into the dance floors and darkrooms of late, a post ironic return to the 64 bar breakdowns and peak time key changes of your serotonin drenched youth.....

So what's this then Has Growing Bin gone from groundbreaker to copycat Dig a little deeper folks, for the Trance is question is Jürgen Petersen, a forgotten cosmic kingpin in tune with true electronic excellence. When Danielle Baldelli wanted to show off his eclectic tastes, which record did he reach for Petersen's 1980 LP, 'Here And Now' of course. And when John Schaefer put together his essential exploration of New Sounds, who did he describe as Germany's answer to Eno Trance, damn right! After blessing the world with a trio of essential electronic LPs between 1979 and 1983, Petersen moved out of the limelight and lived off the grid, collecting his mind expanding music on a series of self-recorded, self-released cassettes, known only to the inner circle of elite European diggers. The sounds found within were unusual, experimental and ecstatic.

Fusing the organic tones of piano, 12 string guitar and sitar with soothing sine waves and hypnotic synthesis, Petersen harnessed the healing frequencies out there in the cosmos and transfixed the
listener with pure otherworldly beauty - ambient music for a new age... Unravelling these rare cassettes for music lovers everywhere, Growing Bin treats us to 'Tapes', a five track vision quest for the
horizontal travellers and fourth world nomads. Sven can keep his cocoon, we're off in search of the butterflies..."

Universal Eyes Ist Eine Experimentelle Noise-supergroup Der Detroiter Formationen Wolf Eyes Und Universal Indians, Bestehend Aus Nate Young, John 'inzane' Olson, Aaron Dilloway (pan, The Trilogy Tapes, Dais) Und Gretchen Gonzales Davidson (ex-slumber Party-mitglied/kill Rock Stars). "four Variations On Artificial Society" Ist Das Ergebnis Ihrer Reunion, Aufgenommen Und Produziert An Einem Wochenende Mit Der Detroiter Underground-legende Warren Defever (his Name Is Alive/4ad) Und Gepresst In Superlimitierten Auflagen. Cd Im Jewelcase, Lp Auf Farbigem Doppelvinyl Mit Download-code & Poster. Die Lp-erstauflage Erscheint Auf Weißem & Colaflaschen-klarem Vinyl, Eine Spätere Auflage Mit Roten Und Violetten Farbspritzern.

guerrer@ represents the revolution that must occur (and keep occurring) within oneself, so that it may also occur outside oneself. of looking backwards and forwards, simultaneously and always. of accounting for present and potential material makeup. of accounting for the contemporary abhorrent and luminous actions of the flesh. a pledge towards infinitely malleating--and, thus, the necessary deliberate reconfiguration of--identity. the necessary deliberateness of movement and becoming. the possibility of convalescence. insomanywords: faith, hope, affliction and anger, daggered at oppression, wherever it may be found.

Rólant av Reyni is an electronic producer from the Faroe Islands. Under his moniker, Hús, Rólant's productions are at times hazy, melancholic instrumentals that would fit a Sofia Coppola dream sequence and at times dark and bleak tinted by London's Deptford where his debut long player Nevember was written. Peering out from underneath saturated beats, Hús forges soundscapes with the harmonic sensibility and grace of Niels Frahm and Boards of Canada and the desolate undercurrent of Burial.

Dirk P. Haubrich's peculiar sound first caught Quanta Records' attention in 2016 during a night dedicated to Jirí Kylián, the Czech former dancer and contemporary dance choreographer, at the Opera Garnier in Paris. A few weeks later, the first steps were taken to set up collaboration between the artist and the label. The process was organic and lead to the release of Dirk's first official record: Robinson Out Of Context. This seminal work is made of two pieces: 'Robinson Out Of Context' and '7 to 8'. These compositions are meant to accompany choreographies respectively by Bruno Listopad and Shen Wei.

With a career spanning over twenty years, Dirk P. Haubrich has built an impressive discography and a characteristic auditory identity. His quest for deeper and more diverse arrangements has been an inner drive and a defining process for him. Among the myriad of tracks that Quanta Records had the pleasure of discovering, two were selected after an intensive formatting to adapt them to the 45rpm standard.

This record is challenging and requires a lot of attention from the listener since the composition, rhythms, atmospheres and textures have been minutely fine-tuned. As the record unveils itself to its audience, the listeners will discover a smooth and perfectly mastered composition that develops into a journey through its two separate pieces. The German artist's diverse soundscape intertwines long drone and ambient sequences with percussions and broken beats that offer an ideal opportunity for reflection and contemplation. The details incorporated in this rich and intriguing work are an invitation to get lost in the sound and to escape.

The creative process behind this record, from the composition in Berlin to the mastering session with Rashad Becker, allows for Dirk's art to be transposed from ballet stages to different spaces for a wider audience to discover and appreciate sounds that bridge gaps between experimental, ambient and electro-acoustic.

NO MORE DREAMS NO MORE DREAMS NO MORE DREAMS NO MORE DREAMS NO MORE DREAMS NO MORE DREAMS...

* Breaking into a new century, following last months 100th release on the label, Ishan Sound collaborates on 2 killer tracks with Bristol-based Hodge and Alex Hughes aka Muttley.

* 'C5' refers to cold explosives and makes for a perfect title for this stark, cold rhythm. A circling melodic synth line sets a moody context before the floor drops out and an industrial strength sub drives things forward at 130bpm. Deep, hard, dark, original. Exceptional quality from Ishan Sound and Hodge.

* Flip for a 140bpm excursion from Ishan Sound & Muttley, melding elements of trap, grime and dubstep meticulously to form an engaging sonic that is both fuel for the dancefloor as well as providing introspective qualities for bass weight meditation. 'Still Smoking' sums it up appropriately.

Mickey Pearce is back in business with 'One Hundred Smiles', a new album of swaggering UK club music experimentations, and a new label Box Of Toys.

His first album, 'Michael' (2016), saw him exploring new territory; crafting a strange and melancholic landscape of beatless textures and leftfield house and techno. Approached with a fresh perspective, 'One Hundred Smiles' slows the tempo and ups the collaboration.

'The last record was a reflection of my situation around that time. This one is like stepping out from under a cloud. It's about the joy of collaboration; meeting and working with new people. It's also about the ambiguity of smiles, and the complicated relationships we form.'

The album features appearances from rising UK talent Poté, Taiwanese vocalist Meuko Meuko and Greek electronic pioneer Lena Platonos.

'Poté is a crazy talent. We've done a bunch of sessions and made a load of tracks, two of which ended up here and one of which is going on his next record.

Meuko Meuko is an artist from Taiwan. We communicate entirely via Instagram. She'd send me translations of the lyrics in Instagram messages, but I'm still not sure if I've chopped them into any sort of sense. The instrumental was called 'Slime', and she misread that intentionally or unintentionally to mean 'smile' and sent me all these crazy lines about 'your lovely smile' and it was just perfect. I love her.

Lena Platonos is a legend, and someone I was honoured to work with. The day she told me she had been playing and enjoying the record around her friends was a good day.'

'One Hundred Smiles' is the first release on his own label Box Of Toys. The label is named the same as his 2017-2018 radio show series, which featured the album's guests as well as Randomer, Machine Woman, Airhead, The Maghreban and Object Blue.

'One Hundred Smiles' is released on LP and digital via Box Of Toys on 2nd November 2018.

The act of escaping that which is predestined. / A hustle. Reto A Ichi is a sonic tabula rasa for Guillermo Herren AKA Prefuse 73. There are identifiable elements of the artist you already know - an uncanny sense for rhythm, an ability to shape samples and frequencies like clay, an affinity for the subtle changes of repetition - yet this is first and foremost music born from the need for silence. There is no easy entrance point or index for the listener.

The first album, The Lapse of Exchange, is the sound of life as heard from a small Chinatown window in downtown Manhattan, the thunder of populism on the horizon. The album opens with music that reflects the inherent tension between the life of the artist - the self-doubt, the late nights, the aspirations - and the world outside - the hustle and bustle of a city that never sleeps, the wars abroad, the politicians at home. It's a tension felt in the repeating, circling keys of "Let The Pianos Freeze", the pulsating rhythms of "No Juntos", or the call and response of pitched vocal samples in "A Sword In The Rain". Ultimately it all becomes too much for our unwitting hero: the car horns outside the window, the 24 hour news cycle, the early stages of an election that tears down any remaining semblance of normality. Reto A'ichi can no longer grasp his humanity or connect to that of people around him.

With the walls closing in, he packs his small life and escapes.

By the time Twin Peaks' second season had aired and Fire Walk With Me had just begun principle production, Thought Gang had been born. The esoteric jazz side-project of David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti evolved from the seeds of Twin Peaks' trademark slow cool jazz and blossomed into more experimental pastures: horizonless vistas of acid-soaked free-jazz, laced with spoken word narratives and sprawling noisescapes. Fire Walk With Me's soundtrack would ultimately showcase two preliminary tracks ('A Real Indication' and 'The Black Dog Runs at Night') from a full-length album that wouldn't see release for two-and-ahalf decades. Beginning in May 1992 and continuing throughout 1993, the bulk of the remaining material for the album was recorded in pieces, and dove-tailed into a string of contracted sessions for other Lynch-Badalamenti projects.

In the years following, fragments and working versions of Thought Gang material would make appearances in everything from a Lynch-helmed Adidas commercial to scenes in Hotel Room, Mulholland Dr., Inland Empire, deleted scenes from Fire Walk With Me, and most expansively utilized in Showtime's third season of Twin Peaks.

By the time Twin Peaks' second season had aired and Fire Walk With Me had just begun principle production, Thought Gang had been born. The esoteric jazz side-project of David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti evolved from the seeds of Twin Peaks' trademark slow cool jazz and blossomed into more experimental pastures: horizonless vistas of acid-soaked free-jazz, laced with spoken word narratives and sprawling noisescapes. Fire Walk With Me's soundtrack would ultimately showcase two preliminary tracks ('A Real Indication' and 'The Black Dog Runs at Night') from a full-length album that wouldn't see release for two-and-ahalf decades. Beginning in May 1992 and continuing throughout 1993, the bulk of the remaining material for the album was recorded in pieces, and dove-tailed into a string of contracted sessions for other Lynch-Badalamenti projects.

In the years following, fragments and working versions of Thought Gang material would make appearances in everything from a Lynch-helmed Adidas commercial to scenes in Hotel Room, Mulholland Dr., Inland Empire, deleted scenes from Fire Walk With Me, and most expansively utilized in Showtime's third season of Twin Peaks.

- Legendäre experimentelle Jazz-Aufnahmen von David Lynch und Angelo Badalamenti von Anfang der 90er Jahre. - die Musik wurde versatzweise in David Lynchs Film- und Fernseharbeiten verwendet, ist aber nie als richtige Veröffentlichung erschienen. Thought Gang wurde nach der Ausstrahlung der zweiten Staffel von ,Twin Peaks" geboren, als die Hauptproduktion des Kinofilms ,Fire Walk With Me" gerade erst begonnen hatte. Das esoterische Jazz-Side-Projekt von David Lynch und Angelo Badalamenti entwickelte sich ursprünglich aus dem Slow Cool Jazz, der die ,Twin Peaks" TV Serie mitgeprägt hatte. Thought Gang erblühte zu einem experimentelleren Sound: horizontlose Aussichten auf LSD-getränkten Freejazz, geschnürt mit gesprochenen Wortnarrativen und ausgedehnten Geräuschkulissen. Der Soundtrack zu ,Fire Walk With Me" präsentierte zwei vorläufige Tracks ("A Real Indication" und "The Black Dog Runs at Night") von einem Album, das von Mai 1992 bis 1993 stückweise aufgenommen und zweieinhalb Jahrzehnte lang nicht veröffentlicht wurde. In den folgenden Jahren tauchten Fragmente und Arbeitsversionen von Thought Gang-Material immer wieder auf: in einem von Lynch geführten Adidas-Werbespot; in Szenen in ,Hotel Room", ,Mulholland Drive" und ,Inland Empire"; in gelöschten Szenen von ,Fire Walk With Me" und am meisten in Showtimes dritter Staffel von ,Twin Peaks". "Frank 2000" und "Summer Night Noise" sowie ein alternativer Instrumental-Mix von "Logic and Common Sense" unterlegen Szenen der dritten Staffel und helfen, den ausgesprochen experimentellen, rauschhaften Soundtrack der Serie zu definieren. David Lynch über Thought Gang: "It's sort of like jet-fueled jazz in a weird way, but it's all based on stories. It's Modern Music."

Known for a broad swath of genre-obliterating club tracks on crucial labels including Critical, Exit, and 50Weapons, Sam Binga approached us earlier this year with a radically different kind of project, a collaboration with Welfare, true junglist and label boss at D&B bastion Rua Sound. The result of their team-up is Conamara Fieldworks. Its unique inspiration and patient process are best described by the duo themselves:

"In early November 2016, we set off through the bleakness of an Irish November into the wilderness that is Conamara, County Galway, Ireland, with about half an idea of what we wanted to do. Our friend Laney had been kind enough to allow us the use of a 300 year old cottage overlooking the sea, itself belonging to her family through generations which she was bit by bit restoring to its former glory. The isolation was perfect - very little in the way of creature comforts, no network coverage, but plenty of turf for the stove and Guinness for the belly.

Our routine for the next few days consisted of trudging the length of the rugged coastline in search of interesting sounds we could potentially process into usable elements for some kind of dub/dub techno-inspired composition...This took us inside tidal caves and abandoned ruins, across sheep fields, up and down mountains and winding country lanes, in and out of the odd pub, under upturned boats and (carefully) across huge washes of seaweed-covered shoreline. Using our handheld recorder (shouts Danny Scrilla for the lend) we assembled a palette of varied noises, constantly battling with the peaking and distortion created by the incessant Atlantic gusts.

Each evening, following some intense huddling around the stove and vital Irish home cuisine and stout, we'd examine and dissect what we had collected that day, sometimes discovering the most interesting material firmly planted in the background of the soundscapes. A certain amount of (but not too much) processing later we had the bones of a few short loops of each sound which made some kind of musical sense when played alongside each other.

Binga suggested staying true to the craft and keeping the rawness to the foreground by attempting to develop the loops into full compositions via live desk mixing, arrangement and effects. We said our goodbyes to Conamara and a month or two later said our hellos to the Dubkasm shedio. Following a crash course from the dynamic duo, we set to work for the day, learning as we went along and enjoying to the full the unpredictability, intuition and sheer vibes a dubbing session can bring, particularly in a studio kitted out with some fine analogue gear which undoubtedly helped us to keep that damp, saturated feeling that Conamara had sown."

The resulting collection of music speaks for itself, and does so in its own language. It is meditative, deeply textural, and richly saturated, with awesome sound design, generous bass weight, and dubwise finesse. Referencing ambient, concrete, and dub techno while never letting any genre dictate its path, Conamara Fieldworks is a deeply rewarding and intensely involving listen. A restrained yet transporting remix from the one Ossia completes the set.

Edition Telemark presents the ninth album by this long-running improvisational noise & electro-acoustic project, founded in 1999 and originally called Angel, recently renamed as die ANGEL. It is the duo of German musician Dirk Dresselhaus alias Schneider TM, who has been active in electric and electronic music since the late 80s in various bands and projects ranging from rock music to electro-acoustic improvisation, and Ilpo Väisänen, well-known for his work in Finnish electronic duo Pan Sonic beginning in 1993, as well as, more recently, in a number of solo projects.

die ANGEL's music inhabitates the no man's land between improvised noise and electro-acoustic music, with tracks incorporating processed electronic sounds, instruments, and field recordings. Yön Magneetti Sine is their most stripped-down album to date, completely recorded in July 2017 in Väisänen's cottage near Karttula, Finland. It contains five improvised tracks featuring only processed acoustic signals from two self-built one-string resonance instruments, a spring, and an acoustic guitar. Both one-stringed instruments were built by Väisänen from parts of a weaving loom, a bench, and two barbecue bowls.

All tracks were recorded live without overdubs and, according to Dresselhaus and Väisänen, relate directly to the surrounding landscape and the special atmosphere of the white nights that occur in central and northern Finland during summer. To them, the music heard here is to be called blues, albeit with non-standard instrumentation and structure. Thus, their working title for this album was "The Electro-Acoustic Blues Album". Edition of 300 on blue vinyl in full-colour sleeve with various photos of the recording process and the surroundings.

In the first part of a two-volume release, Eric Copeland (Black Dice) delivers Trogg Modal Vol. 1. It has been one year since releasing Goofballs and Eric has doubled down on his unique approach to crafting dance music, pushing a sort of 'Freakbeat 4/4' agenda even further than before. Where Goofballs was the first album recorded in its entirety in Eric's current home of Palma de Mallorca, Spain, and the result of countless hours spent working in the studio, Trogg Modal Vol. 1 is a bit less serious and more carefree, with tracks that are propelled forward by a singular, frenzied energy.

Chunky percussive layers, hard steady kicks, and tweaked loopy vocals create a playful vibe that is best described as a tropical-industrial hybrid. The final product comes together via seven succinct, self-described 'rippers,' music created both deliberately and accidentally, and always with a sense of humor that bubbles over and out through the speakers. With Trogg Modal Vol. 2 out in early 2019, this two-part release pulls into focus a vivid and unfamiliar new direction for Eric Copeland.

The Maciunas Ensemble was founded in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, in 1968 as a free improvisational music group that set out to realize the score "Music for Everyman" by Fluxus initiator George Maciunas, which they interpreted as allowing total freedom in the sounds being produced. In the mid-80s, after a number of personnel changes, the group settled on the line-up of artists Paul Panhuysen and Mario van Horrik, musician Jan van Riet, and scientist Leon van Noorden, which remained stable until Panhuysen's death in 2015. The group met and played together on a regular basis, usually improvising on instruments that were at hand and recording every session. Before playing the next session, the previous recording was listened to and discussed. In 1980, the Eindhoven art Initiative Het Apollohuis, also the home of Panhuysen and his family,became their home base, a place that subsequently gained fame for being one of the first and longest-running venues for sound art and experimental music in Europe.

In the recent years, the Maciunas Ensemble has begun to go through its vast archive of recordings and select material for publication that remained unreleased so far. The first bundle of archival recordings, dating from 1968 to 1980, was released on an 11-CD set on Apollo Records in 2012. For their 50th anniversary in 2018, the second part of archival recordings is to be published, its first instalment being this LP on Edition Telemark comprising unreleased tracks recorded between 1982 and 2012. More archival material will be released in digital format by the ensemble.

This LP allows a glimpse into the musical directions the Maciunas Ensemble has been undergoing during those 30 years. Side A features two repetitive, thundering tracks from the early 80s on guitar, piano, and cello, heavily inspired by minimalist rock and post-punk music. Side B contains four shorter tracks, with "Russolution" (1985) played on self-built aluminium monochords, "Stamples" (2002) employing sampled voices, and the other two, from 2009 and 2012, respectively, being improvised tracks on vocals and a number of instruments.

Regular edition of 250 in brown Kraftpak sleeve with printed inner sleeve containing various photos of the ensemble and liner notes by Mark van de Voort and Werner Durand.

Emotional Rescue returns to the music of "dark ambient" pioneers O Yuki Conjugate (OYC) with the reissue of their debut album, 'Scene in Mirage'. Released in 1984, it's post-industrial; cold wave overtures mixed with an ambient oeuvre created a compelling album that has gained cult status.

Recorded in a four-track basement studio in Leeds it showcases two very different sides to their sound. Side E follows the earlier recordings of their debut cassette release "Untitled" (ERC051), with use of analogue drum machines, synthesizers, bass an the ingenious use of tape loops made from audio cassettes stolen from local public libraries.

Side O however, points to the future development of the band with experimental sound collages. Built from percussion, voice, flute and drones created using a home made digital delay with a 1.6 second sampling feature for instant soundscapes. At the touch of a button this was DIY at its core when at the time most samplers cost more than a four-bedroom house in Knightsbridge.
Quickly selling out in its original pressing, inexplicably their record label decided not to re-press, so an expanded cassette version called 'Scene In Mirage/Soundtracks' was re-released on the band's own Final Image label with an accompanying video. Here, Emotional Rescue's re-issue combines the best of both versions in a lovingly recreated sleeve taken from the original design templates.Based around original members Roger Horberry and Andrew Hulme, OYC is now returning in its fourth incarnation with live shows and hopefully, new music to come. Watch the horizon.

Following the recent reissue of Vox Populi!s Aither album, Emotional Rescue further explores the more discerning, esoteric sounds of the French 80s avant-garde scene in coute Visual artist, sound designer, musician, label founder and emotional tree consultant Ramuntcho Matta is a man of shifting, relentless talents. Diagnosed with autism at a young age. Therapy based on yoga and music set him on a path, leading to learn from the likes of composter Cuarteto Cedrn. Discovering avant-music at an early age, he moved to New York to study in the "Third Street School of Music", meeting John Cage and going on to work on projects with Laurie Anderson, Brion Gysin and Don Cherry. His architectural concepts applied to composition were explored on his 3 solo LPs from the 1980s. The middle of these, coute, is possibly his most cohesive, exploring the use of extra-European musicians, especially African and Brazilian percussion, jazz horn playing, as well as Uruguayan singer Elie Meideros. Mexicos Cacau de Queirozs performance on saxophone and flute is stunning, former Gipsy Kings member, Jorge Negrito Trasante attributes much of the LPs Brazilian percussive flavour, while Magmas bassist Jannick Top brings gravitas, including performing a water claps duet alongside Matta on the exquisite O Clapo. As one piece, coute endlessly avoids standard musical formulas, seeking textures of far-flung elements; alchemy against a background of freedom to experiment that would be the theme throughout Mattas career, whether setting up SSR records under the alias Michael Pope or in his more recent output, teaching methodology of doubt

The first legendary Pink fairies album: a real must for all psychedelia and garage fans. Contains 'Do It', 'Heavenly Man' and the manifest-track of the band: 'Uncle Harry's Last Freakout", 10 long minutes of anarchist rock, rich of feedback and acid guitars.

This really was 'proto-punk'!

The packaging is just like the original one, with an external artwork on plastic sleeve.

The first legendary Pink fairies album: a real must for all psychedelia and garage fans. Contains 'Do It', 'Heavenly Man' and the manifest-track of the band: 'Uncle Harry's Last Freakout", 10 long minutes of anarchist rock, rich of feedback and acid guitars.

This really was 'proto-punk'!

The packaging is just like the original one, with an external artwork on plastic sleeve

The first legendary Pink fairies album: a real must for all psychedelia and garage fans. Contains 'Do It', 'Heavenly Man' and the manifest-track of the band: 'Uncle Harry's Last Freakout", 10 long minutes of anarchist rock, rich of feedback and acid guitars.

This really was 'proto-punk'!

The packaging is just like the original one, with an external artwork on plastic sleeve.

Emotional Rescue and Woo once again come together, this time to reissue their masterpiece, the previously cassette-only album Into The Heart Of Love. A joyous, uplifting ode to love in all it's forms, the trials and tribulations and
ultimately the triumphs are all encapsulted in Woo's unique soundscapes. Of all the myriad of released and unreleased Woo recordings, Into The Heart Of Love is without
a doubt their most complete and cohesive body of work. Full of Woo's quirky analogue dub electronics, there is also a very English sense of folk. With more vocals then their other albums,
the structure and softness of mood quintessentially comes from the Mother Isle. Mark's guitar craft is at its most expressive, entwined with subtle bass, a breadth of clarinet
and touches of piano. This is all mixed and merged beautifully with Clive's now recognisable desk and synthesiser mastery. As individual as anything you'd hear coming from the Black Ark.
More peaceful and uplifting than Whichever Way You Are Going, You Are Going Wrong and encompassing than It's Cosy Inside, the album presented as Into The Heart Of Love is exactly
that. Drawing you into it's swirls and layers upon layers, slowly wrapping you in it's own special, spectral soundcape.
It is love indeed that permeates throughout. Again and again the titles lead the way, but it's more than that. The lilting hopes, joy, optimism and peace expressed in songs like When Your
Find Your Love, Sarah and The Heart Of Love show Woo in all their glory. Of all Woo's songs and craft, their best is all included. The simplicity but detailed interplay between the two brothers is as telepathic as imagined. Pushing and pulling together to
represent a wondrous album. Of course, it had to be. It's Love.

Belgium's Kontrast is releasing a third Ep. This time your mind will be set into trance by the futuristic sounds of Les Points, the Swiss crew that consists of Audino, Barbir, Louh and Nicola Kazimir. Six beautiful tracks containing the typical Les Points electro-techno rave sound are pressed on black gold for your sonic pleasure.

The most exciting techno records are those not afraid to break a few rules, and that's exactly what's on offer on this latest slab from Pittsburgh-based imprint DETOUR. It comes courtesy of SEER, a new Brooklyn-based project from Maroje T and M Parent. Maroje's previous handiwork includes streamlined acid techno on boutique label Chem Club and down 'n dirty electro for Dutch weirdos Pinkman, meanwhile, M Parent's first 12', also on Chem Club, is dubby, driving, and psychedelic. Together as SEER, they've threaded a needle in between their respective styles and sounds, coming up with something altogether different.