Beats News

This circular item is the OAKS 04 by Prostitutes. Musica Techno Para Discoteca VOL.1 its title.
If you drop the needle on this side (A) Mighty Arms and A Glancing Kiss will play. If you flip it side (B) Albion Remains and Churns Up Into Stone will do the same. Eleven times three revolutions per minute.
Recommended for Dj use.

"Musica Techno Para Discoteca is the new series from OAKS. In it I'll showcase the Techno music that inspires me, the Techno music that I love to play, the Techno music that in my opinion should get a decent exposure due it's originality and honesty. Without paying attention to the market demand or industry standards."

Darren Cunningham's eagerly~awaited new album is an adventurous, ultramodern, thoroughly British affair, rummaging about in the inner lives of house and techno, and brilliantly elaborating the accomplishments of his debut, Hazyville.
Determinedly off~the~map and resistant to pigeonholing, Cunningham is an enigmatic and playful figure, citing Francis Bacon and Monet as inspirations longside Theo Parrish, Anthony 'Shake' Shakir, Daft Punk, 'binary codes and numeral systems', and The Avengers. He's a hard man to pin down - somehow a key player in the post~dubstep diaspora and yet not there at all - but everything comes across in his shape~shifting, richly textured music.
The South Londoner's acclaimed debut lived up to its name: a series of dreamlike sketches and ideas. For Splazsh the fog has lifted, the sounds are less submerged than before, but still sticky and close - a signature combination of exuberance and introversion, luminescence and puzzlement. Unconstrained by the formal cliches of the dance music he loves, Actress' melodies and arrangements are enthralled by their own genies. Worlds of disturbance and melancholy revolve giddyingly inside the insidious funk of tracks like Get Ohn and Lost. A range of musical influences is redrawn, from speed garage (Always Human) to grime (Wrong Potion), with none crowned king. There is a reflectiveness - the ambient drift of Futureproofing, the radiophonic judder of
Supreme Cunnilingus - in amongst the industrial, synth~wave flavours of Casanova, and the stirring, stately Maze.
Actress has quickly and justly become one of the most respected names in the UK's new dance music underground. His own label, Werk Discs, has proven itself one of the most formidable and taste~making UK independents of recent times, bringing the world extraordinary albums from Zomby, Lukid, Lone and Actress himself. In love with the mysteries of groove and repetition, Splazsh is both a culmination and a new beginning for Actress, a substantial and eccentric work from a brave and coolly individual artist.
With international press interest gathering - photo features in Dazed And Confused, and Fader in the US, and a session with Wolfgang Tillmans for the cover of the German magazine Groove - the stage is set for Actress.

Ltd. edition of 500 numbered copies on clear vinylGnashing, thrashing and teeming with enchanting microtones - Machine Guitars is the definitive recorded work of Remko Scha, although the late Dutch artist didn't play a single note himself. Rather, Scha arranged a motorized, rotating wire brush and saber saw in front of suspended electric guitars and let these metallic torrents flow.Scha was a linguist and generative artist, enamored of computers' capacity for algorithmic creativity. A leading researcher at the University of Amsterdam, he also cofounded the famed arts-space Het Apollohuis in a former cigar-factory in 1980. This haven for intellectuals and underground autodidacts served as the recording studio for most of Machine Guitars (as well as Ellen Fullman's brilliant The Long String Instrument), which originally appeared in 1982 on the small Dutch label Kremlin. Machine Guitars, as the critic Byron Coley has noted, ranks among the best of the era's minimalist-inspired, avant-garde guitar statements by Glenn Branca and Rhys Chatham. The semiautonomous sound-making sculptures also evoke contemporaneous work by Christian Marclay. Scha's work falls somewhere between conceptual art and avant-garde music - a total revelation for minimalists and No Wave fans alike.First-time vinyl reissue. Limited edition of 500 numbered copies on clear vinyl.

Aymaran genre-bending producer Elysia Crampton returns with a much anticipated second album, Elysia Crampton. Exploring themes around the experience of pushing boundaries between cultures and identities, it draws

motifs from the ephemeral presences which create a sense of comfort and belonging in displaced peoples. Taking place against a backdrop inspired equally by science fiction and

discourses of radical queernees, the music on Elysia Crampton is a melting pot of fringe musical histories that tie together past and future. House music begets trap which begets musique concrete which begets New Age, which turns

into a DJ-tagged rap mixtape from 2006. Crampton's widely celebrated debut album from last year, Elysia Crampton Presents Demon City, was met with rave reviews and feature coverage from Pitchfork, SPIN, NPR, The Financial Times,

The Guardian, The 405, Crack Magazine, Tiny Mixtapes, and Vogue.

For the first time Nicolas Repac's album Swing-Swing, originally out in 2004, is released on vinyl LP!

He has a reputation as a musician's musician, a talented Jack-of-all-Trades as much at ease playing the guitar alongside his old accomplice, French songwriter Arthur H, as he is when tinkering with all kinds of machines by instinct, and creating made-to-measure contexts for instrumentalists like Michel Portal. Everyone knew he had a secret garden, the song' world of a composer and performer who was difficult to categorize, a world not only lyrical but also dark and full of tender melancholy, not to mention easily surrealist (his first record of songs, La vile', which was released on the Indigo label in 1997, has a sequel in preparation in the form of a new opus, Lovni'.) But, once again,
Nicolas Repac had a surprise in store, because he has turned up where no one was expecting him: Swing Swing is a record as magnificent as it is difficult to place, with electro ramblings around jazz (its subjects and virtues, its spirit and memory), wanderings that are playful, light, fluid in gesture and crammed with ideas, discoveries and intuition, they are at once naive and instinctive (Repac is an erudite amateur, the Ferdinand Cheval of the already-established world of electronic music), and extremely elaborate in their crushed samples, hallucinatory, rhythmic whirls and sensual, dreamlike atmospheres.

* Still Circles announce the release of their debut album, 27:36, available March 30th via Killtone Records.

* Currently at 7 in the chart on the Josh Hannen show Amazing Radio

* Session for Alan Raw BBC Introducing on Sat March 3rd 2018

* Comprised of Natalie Kolowiecki and Jack Donnison, the Bradford based duo bridge the worlds of trip-hop and ambient music: splicing slo-mo beats, grainy atmospherics, haunting melodies and soft-wax drones. Their first single, 'Only Noise' is testament to this - with its manipulated vocals, heavy bass line and lurching percussion, the track's stark surrealism evokes the thrum of their northern English town.

* Upon the surface, 27:36 has the indelible markings of the band's influences: Brian Eno, Poliça, Adrian Sherwood (to name a few) - but the duo never settle into pure pastiche. Instead, they contort the sounds of these artists into something all their own. 27:36 is an alien vision of what pop music could be.

A very intensive LP... Mixing the breakcore to the Ambient to the Hip Hop to the Noises....One of the hard to Find DHR's !

Shouting Heavy downtempo Breakcore to Speed Break Hardcore Indus... Legendary LP !

One of the very first breakcore records so far... Maeltin speed breaks to Scratch and Mc's... Intense Dancefloor !

Another excellent DHR Limited... Dancefloor matter !

Raga Abhogi
1) Alap
2) Jod
3) Jhala

Raga Vardhani
4) Alap
5) Jod
6) Jhala

Zia Mohiuddin Dagar : rudra veena
Annie Penta : tanpura

Concert recorded at the home of Shantha and Niranjan B. Benegal, Seattle, Washington 9 March 1986.
Recorded by Niranjan Benegal. Files obtained from Jeff Lewis.
Mastered & Cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering 1117 & 0318.

Liner notes by Renaud Brizard, edited by Stephen O'Malley & Ian Christe.
Front and back cover photos by unknown.
Interior photography by Niranjan B. Benegal, Dan Neuman & unknown, Seattle 1978-1980. .

Around ten years ago, deep into a cozy and hazy night following a concert with my sound brothers Daniel O'Sullivan and Kristoffer Rygg in London (as Æthenor), they graciously introduced me to a recording of rudra veena (a kind of noble deeper bass relative to the sitar, in a way) as performed by dhrupad master Zia Mohiuddin Dagar.

Dhrupad, for those who do not know, is a branch of Hindustani classical music said to "show the raga in its clearest and purest form". It's pacing concentrates heavily on the slow, contemplative alap section and works with specific microtonal gestures and deep characteristics of resonance ... in short I was hooked on this new (to me) and ancient form of music from the first listen, and feel that a more or less continual listening & reviewing of Zia Mohiuddin Dagar's recordings in the years that followed have influenced my own approach to music quite heavily (if, albeit, indirectly).

In early 2015 I was able to make contact with Zia Mohiuddin Dagar's son Bahauddin and some of his American students/disciples, primarily Jeff Lewis. Over time we developed a friendly and educational exchange, access a massive archive of recordings and developed these two paired titles for my label. It's been a long path to arrive at actually releasing them but also probably in many ways one of the most significant releases I've worked on. And I'm proud to be able to reveal these to date unreleased archival recordings of one of the masters of dhrupad, Z. M. Dagar, to the public for the first time.

Zia Mohiuddin Dagar was the nineteenth generation in a family tradition known as Dagar gharana, a rich lineage which continued and performed the musical form of dhrupad (Bahauddin Dagar continues the lineage as a master rudra veena dhrupad player of note today). Initially, dhrupad was a rigorous, austere, devotional genre that was sung in Hindu temples. But between the 16th and the 18th centuries, it became the preeminent genre in royal courts in North and Central India, and the Dagar gharana developed and continued publicly following the eventual loss of court patronage for dhrupad in the 19th century. The French ethnomusicologist Renaud Brizard covers the story of Zia Mohiuddin Dagar's life and teaching (a long story also in Seattle, my hometown!), the Dagar family and gharana, the rudra veena and more topics in an extensive set of liner notes in this release.

Ragas Abhogi & Vardhani were recorded in a private house concert in Seattle at the home of the Benegals in March 1986 (the week before the accompanying release SOMA029 Raga Yaman was recorded). The Benegals were friends (& Shantha Benegal was also a student) of Dagarsahib who sometimes hosted Hindustani music concerts in their home. It's a rare glimpse of a more intimate, personal and perhaps different kind of performance considering the form of dhrupad.

-Stephen O'Malley, March 2018, Paris, France

Stephen O'Malley would like to especially thank Bahauddin Dagar, Jeff Lewis & Jody Stecher for their enthusiasm, cooperation, patience, insight & advice toward developing these editions. Thank you also to Laurel Sercombe & John Vallier from the University of Washington Ethnomusicology Archives, Shantha Benegal, Philippe Bruguière, Dan Neuman, Ira Landgarten, Renaud Brizard, Ian Christe, Peter Rehberg, Rashad Becker, Daniel O'Sullivan & Kristoffer Rygg, all for their direct or indirect cooperation, assistance & patience.

Raga Yaman
1) Alap
2) Jod
3) Jhala
4) Gat (Composition in Chautal)

Zia Mohiuddin Dagar : rudra veena
Manik Munde : pakhawaj
Gayathri Rajapur & Annie Penta : tanpuras

Recorded by unknown at the University of Washington, HUB Auditorium, Seattle, Washington 15 March 1986 , concert co-sponsored by the UW Ethnomusicology Division and Ragamala.
Original digitally processed audio recording made with Panasonic PV-9000 VCR, Sony PCM-F1, PZM mics. Mastered & Cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering 1117 & 0318.

Liner notes by Renaud Brizard, Stephen O'Malley & Ian Christe.
Front and back cover photos by Niranjan B. Benegal, Seattle Center Folklife Festival 1979. Elizabeth Reeke & Annie Penta on tanpuras.
Inner gatefold photography by Niranjan B. Benegal & Ira Landgarten.

Around ten years ago, deep into a cozy and hazy night following a concert with my sound brothers Daniel O'Sullivan and Kristoffer Rygg in London (as Æthenor), they graciously introduced me to a recording of rudra veena (a kind of noble deeper bass relative to the sitar, in a way) as performed by dhrupad master Zia Mohiuddin Dagar.

Dhrupad, for those who do not know, is a branch of Hindustani classical music said to "show the raga in its clearest and purest form". It's pacing concentrates heavily on the slow, contemplative alap section and works with specific microtonal gestures and deep characteristics of resonance ... in short I was hooked on this new (to me) and ancient form of music from the first listen, and feel that a more or less continual listening & reviewing of Zia Mohiuddin Dagar's recordings in the years that followed have influenced my own approach to music quite heavily (if, albeit, indirectly).

In early 2015 I was able to make contact with Zia Mohiuddin Dagar's son Bahauddin and some of his American students/disciples, primarily Jeff Lewis. Over time we developed a friendly and educational exchange, access a massive archive of recordings and developed these two paired titles for my label. It's been a long path to arrive at actually releasing them but also probably in many ways one of the most significant releases I've worked on. And I'm proud to be able to reveal these to date unreleased archival recordings of one of the masters of dhrupad, Z. M. Dagar, to the public for the first time.

Zia Mohiuddin Dagar was the nineteenth generation in a family tradition known as Dagar gharana, a rich lineage which continued and performed the musical form of dhrupad (Bahauddin Dagar continues the lineage as a master rudra veena dhrupad player of note today). Initially, dhrupad was a rigorous, austere, devotional genre that was sung in Hindu temples. But between the 16th and the 18th centuries, it became the preeminent genre in royal courts in North and Central India, and the Dagar gharana developed and continued publicly following the eventual loss of court patronage for dhrupad in the 19th century. The French ethnomusicologist Renaud Brizard covers the story of Zia Mohiuddin Dagar's life and teaching (a long story also in Seattle, my hometown!), the Dagar family and gharana, the rudra veena and more topics in an extensive set of liner notes in this release.

Raga Yaman was recorded at a public concert in Seattle at the HUB Ballroom at the University of Washington in March 1986 (the week after the accompanying release SOMA028 Ragas Abhogi & Vardhani was recorded) at the end of his last tour of the United States. Yaman was a special raga for Zia Mohiuddin Dagar, one of his signature raags. For centuries, Yaman has been considered as one of the most fundamental ragas in Hindustani music and is one of the first ragas which is taught to students. A deep knowledge of Yaman gives a key for understanding many other ragas. It's filled with tranquility, contemplation, pathos and spiritual yearning. .

-Stephen O'Malley, March 2018, Paris, France

* In his first release for Milan's Haunter Record, Berlin-based producer Broshuda generates simple yet complex emotional vignettes. Evading all definitions, he makes use of an an array of tools and techniques akin to those of classic dub and contemporary sound design on obscure/ random equipment, drawing from a limited pool of sound sources while paying a lot of attention to detail in the construction of sound. His post-rave power ambient poems, coalescing with a pronounced melodic element, give the release a profoundly introspective and earthy character. Blurring and masquerading different layers of sound into new forms and shapes.

Fünf Jahre nach seinem Debütalbum "Ilp" meldet sich Kwes. mit einer neuen 6-Track EP zurück. In der Zwischenzeit arbeitete er mit Künstlern wie Bobby Womack, Solange, NAO oder Loyle Carner zusammen und mischte Kelelas Meisterwerk "Take Me Apart" ab. Die "Songs For Midi" handeln von aufregenden Entdeckungen und Erfahrungen in der Kindheit, und entsprechend fragil und sinnlich klingen die Sounddesigns dieser 6 Tracks. 12" Vinyl mit Download-Code.

As one-third of Yellow Magic Orchestra and an Academy Award-winning composer for his work on the soundtrack for The Last Emperor, synth pop innovator Ryuichi Sakamoto is among the most groundbreaking artists to have emerged since the late 70s. A musician's musician, Ryuichi Sakamoto
has created intriguing musical unions with artists such as David Sylvian, Iggy Pop, Tony Williams, Bootsy Collins, Jacques Morelenbaum and many others.

What kind of sounds/music' do I want to listen to'

async is the answer to this question Ryuichi has asked himself for the past several years. This is the album he is the most proud of which synthesizes all of his musical and sound interests. This is a journey through analog synth, the sounds of things and of places, an imaginary soundtrack to an
Andrei Tarkovsky film and many others musical surprises.

Emotional Rescue delves deep in to the past with the release of the first ever recordings by UK post-industrial, ambient pioneers O Yuki Conjugate (OYC). Recorded in Nottingham in 1983, the EP's four tracks showcase OYC's early sound: a beat-driven, lo-fi that places them alongside the early British electronic pioneers.
OYC, celebrating their 35th anniversary this year, are known for their "dirty ambient" sound - but it wasn't always thus. In their earliest incarnation OYC explored a more industrial approach characterised by tortured analogue drum machines, one-finger synth lines, played bass, tape loops and even flute. This naive sound template lasted until their debut album 'Scene in Mirage' (1984) before being jettisoned in favour of more ambient explorations.The story behind these recordings is one of brotherly love between bands. OYC swapped time in their rehearsal space for a day's use of a four-track cassette portastudio owned by their associates, Metamorphosis. Three of the tracks included were recorded on May 1st 1983 at The End Room (literally a studio at the back of one of OYC's parents houses) with the remaining track (live favourite "The Clattering Song") being produced a couple of months later.
To date OYC have remained largely unknown in the UK due to their wilfully obscure approach. They have released a series of very well regarded studio albums and innumerable spin-off and side projects that has recently seen a revival of interest in their early years, including appearances on Cherry Red's compilation of formative UK electronic scene 'Close to the Noise Floor' and Optimo's compilation of Fourth World-style music 'Miracle Steps'.
Accepting their fate as musical outsiders, OYC continue to make music with little reference to the wider world. This EP makes a fine addition to that body of work.

After four years finally a new full length. Masterworks of minimalism and glacial beauty. With Birds of Passage, New Zealand based Alicia Merz presents us with an endearing invitation into her fragile world, a captivating journey through the landscapes of her emotional euphoria and agony, a further commitment to musical experimentation.

The cold minimalist-drones, distorted field recordings, and sparse instrumentation, illustrate an icy, desolate and dark world. With allusions to dark-pop and classic broken-folk, the reverb drenched instrumentation, metaphorical fairytale lyrics, and anti-climactic compositions remind us that Alicia Merz is a singer songwriter for people who don't like singer songwriters. After four years of silence, Merz returns with the fourth full length 'The Death of Our Invention'.

"Birds of Passage is humble and heartbroken. Her warm words are crimson berries that bear fruit in the cold depths of winter, hanging over crooked, bare branches where nothing else survives. Her dove-like vocals soar, but her introverted lyrics blossom with the fondness of love." (Fluid Radio)

"Alicia presents us with an endearing invitation into her fragile world, a captivating journey through the landscapes of her emotional euphoria and agony, a further commitment to musical experimentation... The cold minimalist-drones, distorted field recordings, and sparse instrumentation, illustrate an icy, desolate and dark world. It's as if we are listening to the sound of winter itself, an audio exposure to the unforgiving elements of winter." (Headphone Commute)

Reissue of the second Birds Of Passage album from 2011. A masterwork of minimalism, "Winter Lady" - Alicia Merz's sophomore solo effort as BIRDS OF PASSAGE sees a return to the desolate and melancholic soundcscapes of her highly acclaimed debut, "Without The World". With "Winter Lady", Alicia presents us with an endearing invitation into her fragile world, a captivating through the landscapes of her emotional euphoria and agony, a further commitment to musical experimentation, a worthy addition to the oeuvre of BIRDS OF PASSAGE.

The cold minimalist-drones, distorted field recordings, and sparse instrumentation, illustrate an icy, desolate and dark. It's as if we are listening to the sound of winter itself, an audio exposure to the unforgiving elements of winter. With allusions to dark-pop and classic broken-folk, the reverb drenched instrumentation, metaphorical fairytale lyrics, and anti-climactic compositions remind us that Alicia Merz is a singer songwriter for people who don't like singer songwriters.

With "Winter Lady", Alicia re-establishes herself as a true musical maverick - who is able to capture the imaginations of audiences as diverse as those of Sigur Ros, Grouper or Zola Jesus. In short, Birds Of Passage's "Winter Lady" is an album of authentic experimentation, masterful minimalism, immense tragedy, and glacial beauty. It is not surprising that already after the first album Nils Frahm & Peter Broderick belonged to the fanbase of Birds Of Passage.

Mastered and mixed by Nils Frahm.

Reissue of the Birds Of Passage collaboration record with Leonardo Rosado from 2011. A minimalistic, cinematic, experimental dark pop trip.

After the highly respected debut full length Without the World' and her first european tour in 2011 BIRDS OF PASSAGE ( the new rising star of experimental minimalistic dark pop') from New Zealand has released her second act in fall 2011 - a cinematic concept album she has recorded together with LEONARDO ROSADO from Portugal.

DEAR AND UNFAMILIAR is a technicolor soundtrack that traces a vivid path through darkened desolate dunes. Stories of forgotten tragedies and unrequited love liberate the journeyman from reveries of misery and guide the wanderer through contrasting landscapes of dysphoria and ecstasy.'

Mastered by NILS FRAHM the album equally should please fans of Cocteau Twins, Portishead or Zola Jesus.

This iconic LP was originally released by Incus in 1974. Recorded at a private house in West London, the side-long title track is a masterwork: a twenty-two-minute, starkly personal, freely expressive, itchily searching re-casting of orders of rhythm and sound into a new, quicksilver kind of affective and musical polyphony. Never mind the guitarist's championing of 'non-idiomatic improvisation', the poet Peter Riley gets the ball rolling in his identification of the various hauntings of Bailey's playing at this time: 'mandolins & balalaikas strumming in the distance, George Forby's banjo, Leadbelly's steel 12-string, koto, lute, classical guitar... and others quite outside the field of the plucked string.'The five pieces on side two were recorded back home in Hackney around the same time — with the exception of Improvisation 104(b), from the year before (and issued by Incus in its TAPS series of mini reel-to-reel tapes) — opening with ventriloquised guitar feedback, and taking in some cod banter about colleagues like Mervyn Parker, Siegfried Brotzmann and Harry Bentink. Crucial.

From Rebirth and a four track recorder in the year 1999 to broken tape machines, untuned guitars/synths and extreme signal processing an eternity later, Terminal Sound System has remained the primary musical outlet for musician/producer Skye Klein.

It is about stories. There is a narrative, albeit disjointed. Tends to come in threes, like dramatic characters, introduction, exploration, disintegration. It's about stories, creating a world with sound and words and exploring that until it (inevitably) folds back on itself and starts to self-reference, decay, but also sprout appendages, potentialities.

Roughly a dozen releases have tracked the evolution of Terminal Sound System from post-techno dub experiment to post-everything world-building/destroying. The Endless Sea is the third part of a trinity that began with 2013's 'A Sun Spinning Backwards'. Worlds fell, necessary actions were taken. What happens after exodus, when all is left behind and you get a blank slate Do we replay the past Recreate or reimagine

2015's 'Dust Songs' and 'The Endless Sea' bleed into one another, drawing to conclusion this particular arc. The wave curls back on itself, corrosion amplified. There are more questions here than answers, far more uncertainties than truths. Post-industrial folk stories from a barren earth. Scorched and infinite.

Snapshots of an abandoned city. Fragments of song drifting out of basements and across alleyways, muffled conversations. Scrutinized, the "music" disappears - maybe paracusia Brass Orchids, Anne Guthrie's second full-length album for Students of Decay, is an entrancing collage of new and old sounds drawn from a variety of beguiling sources. Posthumous contributions from the artist's grandfather, a jazz pianist, obsolete media palimpsests (some vanity, some necessity), tap dancing on a peeling floor... An unsettling and strangely beautiful album - akin to something on the tip of your tongue, which, before you can name it, slips away into forgetting.

Anne Guthrie is a French horn player, field recording and audio installation artist born in 1983 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She studied composition with Amelia Kaplan, David Karl Gompper, Lawrence Fritts and Michael Young. She is currently the Managing Director of the S.E.M. Ensemble in Brooklyn.

In summer of 2015 Seattle's doom fixtures Bell Witch released Four Phantoms' on Profound Lore Records, the highly anticipated doomed follow up to the band's now classic debut full-length Longing' (2012). But Longing' was not the band's first effort. Bell Witch first appeared in 2011 with a well-received demo that was simply titled Demo 2011.' At 37 minutes this recording was a massive statement of purpose which far-eclipsed the "demo" status implied by the name. It was recorded by Brandon Fitzsimons (Wormwood), the same engineer that worked on the band's debut Longing.' Demo 2011 showcased Bell Witch's minimalist depressing sound that has proven to be timeless, relevant, and undeniably sad. The band is heavy. The Flenser is proud to unleash this new pressing of a classic moment in contemporary US doom history. Artwork by the band's own Adrian Guerra (RIP) presented with an updated layout and in a more sustainable package than the initial pressing.

In summer of 2015 Seattle's doom fixtures Bell Witch released Four Phantoms' on Profound Lore Records, the highly anticipated doomed follow up to the band's now classic debut full-length Longing' (2012). But Longing' was not the band's first effort. Bell Witch first appeared in 2011 with a well-received demo that was simply titled Demo 2011.' At 37 minutes this recording was a massive statement of purpose which far-eclipsed the "demo" status implied by the name. It was recorded by Brandon Fitzsimons (Wormwood), the same engineer that worked on the band's debut Longing.' Demo 2011 showcased Bell Witch's minimalist depressing sound that has proven to be timeless, relevant, and undeniably sad. The band is heavy. The Flenser is proud to unleash this new pressing of a classic moment in contemporary US doom history. Artwork by the band's own Adrian Guerra (RIP) presented with an updated layout and in a more sustainable package than the initial pressing.

Ltd. to 120 numbered copies inside recycled stock cardboard box, incl. mp3

Byron Westbrook is an artist and musician based in Brooklyn, NY. His work focuses on dynamics of perception using sound, lighting and video to interact with architecture and landscape, often pursuing routes that involve social engagement. Confluence Patterns is an eclectic collection of recordings, containing both the sharpest and most pastoral material Westbrook has released. The pieces range from the textured drones of "Vanishing Action" to the Tony-Conrad-plays-Black-Sabbath riffing of "Perception Depth" to the Maggie Payne-influenced "Fractal Shift II'. Westbrook is interested in how sharp contrast can shape the perception of a sound. Working with texture and frequency in relation to listening duration, he considers sonic analogies as to how an afterimage affects the experience of sight. For example, the pillowy "Drifting Well" has a particular softness after experiencing the fatiguing frequencies and activity of "A Continuous Slip", and the density and detail of "Glorious Mess" plays in a particular way after the static textures of "Vanishing Action". Westbrook considers these sequential contrasts as integral elements of the work and has performed this sequence as a live set numerous times in recent years. Confluence Patterns is his third music release - after previous works for Root Strata and Hands In The Dark - and his first one for Umor Rex.

Recorded and mixed 2014-2017 in Brooklyn, NY + Los Angeles, CA, by Byron Westbrook (electronics, tape and software manipulation). Mastered by Felix-Florian Tödtloff at Ætherweight in Berlin. Design & photo by Daniel Castrejón.

Ltd. to 500 , incl. 20-page color insert, incl. mp3
Recital presents the first vinyl LP by composer/event-maker Charlie Morrow. Toot! Too culls performance recordings from 1970 to 2014. It focuses on his Wave Music series, which are compositions based around swarms of like-instruments, i.e. sixty clarinets, conch choruses, and army of drums and bugle horns, etc. A personal favorite is the 1978 piece, 100 Musicians With Lights,' which was performed at dusk in Central Park. One hundred players (brass, reeds, percussion) congregate and march in spiral formations, playing their instrument with penlights attached to them. The piece dissipates and ends as each player marches through the park to their respective homes. The sound is fascinating, a tape recording made by an audience member swirling and dancing through the performance.Charlie is an organizer: one of instruments, with the pieces that landed on this LP and dozens more, one of events, through decades of public Solstice celebrations across the world, one of publications, including New Wilderness Audiographics and EAR Magazine, and, one of friendships as Charlie has kindly introduced me to many fascinating players in this quirky game of ours. He views networking as an art form, always connecting friends with other friends, building a larger web for us to dance throughout.

In working on this LP over the past years, Charlie Morrow and I have become close. It has been a joy to have him in my life. At the age of 73, he is determined and creative and as positive as ever. Each time we speak, new projects arise - like a mysterious soup boiling up fresh aromas. One of my favorite memories with Charlie was us staying up 'til the wee small hours of the morning drinking a bottle of sweet potato shochu, me listening to him tell funny and poignant remembrances. I am happy to share these lovely recordings, just a pinky toe in his artistic footprint, but wow, such a gorgeous toe! (First Edition of 500 LPs on black wax including a 20-page color insert with program notes, artwork, & scores.)

Born in Burlington, Vermont, and conservatory-trained in the US, the cellist Tristan Honsinger moved from Montreal to Amsterdam in 1974, quickly linking with Han Bennink and Misha Mengelberg, and opening a long and fruitful musical relationship with Derek Bailey. Recorded in 1976, Duo displays a performative musical approach already characterised by the lack of inhibition which would later endear him to The Pop Group: he is knockabout, exclamatory, explosively rhythmic; burping Bach and folk melodies with spasmodic lyricism, in amongst the garrulous textures and accents of his scraping, bowing and plucking, and gibbering like a monkey; throwing out his arms and stamping the floor, grappling with his instrument like an expert clown, always on the lookout for new ways to trip himself up. You can hear Bailey revelling in the company, as he ranges between scrabbling solidarity and an askance skewering of his partner's antics, on prepared (nineteen-string) and standard electric guitars — and a Waisvisz Crackle-box, for the garbled, quizzical, cross-species natter which closes The Shadow. Throughout, the spirited interplay between laconic, analytic wit and guttural, sometimes slapstick physicality is consistently droll, often laugh-out-loud funny; vigorously alert, alive and gripping.

35 years after the release of their critically acclaimed album Vibrant Stapler Obscures Characteristic Growth, Hastings Of Malawi have released a new album - an epic sound poem entitled Visceral Underskinnings. It is a 40 minuate film without light that reflects on the human conditioan, on modern society, on the nature of telephony and electricity and an attempt to make sense of the world in which we live that provides no answers. Another musique concrète jewel created with the same peculiar, disjointed, uncommercial and totally original aesthetic.

It is a sound collage of diverse elements including the voices of George Washington Johnson ('the whistling coon' 1846-1914) and Dr Hastings Banda - the first president of Malawi. It includes randomly generated computer music, voice synthesis, recordings of cold war number stations, American military sound weaponry and recordings of the some of the many sound sculptures produced by Hastings Of Malawi over the last three decades and they produced sounds that sit in that grey area where sound art and music meet but they reject both labels and cannot be comfortably placed in either camp. This is not an easy album to listen to but persevere and you may or may not be able to decipher its meaning.

Ltd. edition of 500 numbered copies on clear vinyl

The legendary French painter and sculptor Jean Dubuffet exalted naivety and spontaneity in visual art, and his brazenly experimental recordings on Musical Experiences evince the same spirit through sound. He once reflected, "Certain unexpected windfalls ... come of improvising on an instrument one doesn't really know how to use."

Dubuffet, who famously founded the art brut (or outsider art) movement, began making music in the early 1960s with avant-garde figure Asger Jorn. With no training, they played a range of instruments: saxophone, bassoon, detuned piano, hurdy-gurdy, cabrette, bombarde and so on. Soon, Dubuffet reserved a room in his home for making music and bought two tape-recorders in order to manually edit the results. He wrote fondly of the recordings' crudeness and the sense that they "had no beginning and no end but were simply extracts taken haphazardly from a ceaseless and ever-flowing score."

Dubuffet's discography begins in 1961 with the release Expériences Musicales, a six 10-inch record set produced in an edition of fifty with original artwork and lithographed sleeves. Musical Experiences, compiled by composer Ilhan Mimaroglu and released in 1973 on his Finnadar imprint, collects eight of the twenty pieces on the much sought-after Expériences Musicales.

First-time vinyl reissue. Limited edition of 500 numbered copies on clear vinyl.

Ltd. edition of 500 numbered copies on clear vinyl

The inter-disciplinary maverick John Duncan emerged in 1970s Los Angeles as a confrontational performance artist and, as the decade progressed, aligned himself with the experimental-music collective Los Angeles Free Music Society. His sound art appeared on various self-released cassettes and alongside artists such as Jim Pomeroy and Yoshi Wada on the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art's influential compilation Sound.

Duncan's debut album, Organic, released in a tiny edition on the artist's own AQM imprint in 1979 and distributed through LAFMS, collects some of his earliest and most absorbing noise experiments. Recorded live, Organic is composed of two sidelong pieces: "Broken Promise," a patient, murky dirge featuring Duncan on tape and percussion, plus Michael Le Donne-Bhennet on bassoon, and "Gala," a kinetic, durational percussion piece featuring Duncan alone. The meditations on texture and unpredictability, realized with unconventional and found sounds, anticipate his later work with shortwave radio.

First-time standalone reissue. Limited edition of 500 numbered copies on clear vinyl.

Ltd. to 120 numbered copies inside recycled stock cardboard box, incl. mp3

Kohl is the dub-based project of New York City artist and musician Nathaniel Young. With Kohl, Nathaniel focuses on enveloping melodies and sounds that are often contrasted with subtle and evolving minimal textures and the rhythmic patterns generated from them. The resulting music is contemplative and warm, invoking reflection while maintaining a sense of motion/evolution. The Kohl project is an outlet for personal transformation, it is Young rewiring his understanding of morality and ethics. Interpretations of 'right' and 'wrong', 'good' and 'evil'. Musically, Learned Ethics / Imposed Ethics is a fine collection of ultra-textural ambient pieces with minimal changes like "The Possibility Of The Infinite", slow tempo tracks like "Moral Supposition", the dance-floor focused "Resolution (Empathy)", and "The Inquisition", which displays Kohl's signature dub-techno style.

Recorded and produced in summer 2016, NYC by Nathaniel Young. Vocal portions on tracks 3-4 contains dialogue between Nathaniel Young and Warren Mark Way. Mastered by Dino Spiluttini in Vienna. Design & photo by Daniel Castrejón.

Ltd. to 120 numbered copies inside recycled stock cardboard box, incl. mp3

Leslie García and Paloma López (Mexico City) have been working for several years around the intersection of music, art-installation and science, with sound being the primary objective of their analysis, acting their roles as composers/creators and observers of the physical phenomenon. Their work ranges from experiments with bioelectrical sounds created by living organisms like bacteria and plants, to the use of custom-made sets of hardware they call ontological machines. They usually operate within their own platform Interspecifics, and FRGL is their second release under the moniker: LogarDecay. The sounds contained in FRGL might be their more musical work to date. It is not far from sound art, yet the bright accidents coming out of their improvisations seem to exist in the limits between harmony, rhythm and pure noise as a construction. Its tension sometimes soothes, sometimes mutates into a state between drone, ambient and abstract techno. FRGL is an exercise in transparency that does not seek to hide their errors but to maximize them and turn them into an aesthetic statement.

Recorded and produced during 2017 and early 2018 between Santiago de Chile, Madrid and Mexico City. Using processes ranging from analog synthesis with DIY synthesizers, programming of rhythms with Supercollider, programming of digital drones in PureData and other virtual tools. Composition instruments and mix by LogarDecay. Mastered by Dino Spiluttini in Vienna. Design & photo by Daniel Castrejón.

Lies of omission and appropriations. The story of a magnetic tape that contained a trade secret.

Four decades after its release (on Orh, 1975), Inventions for Electric Guitar, the solo debut by Ash Ra Temple guitarist Manuel Göttsching, is now a classic, an undisputed worldwide reference. This album was made using only an electric guitar and a simple 4-track tape recorder. So was the challenge, and so was its impact. Göttsching recorded it in July-August 1974 in Berlin, after a sudden technical revelation. The original LP sleeve had the following printed on its back: Manuel Göttsching (guitars only). Manuel played his guitar and used a 4 track TEAC A3340, Revox A77 for echoes, WahWah pedal, volume pedal, Sola Sound Fuzz, Schaller Rotosound and Hawaiian steel bar. The reaction was unanimous: this was a significant innovation, in terms of both technique and creativity.

However, there are little-known facts to this case. In early 1974, Göttsching's label received a tape sent by M.A.L. - same design, same configuration, almost the same tracks. This is known by only a handful of experimental musicians from the Charleroi area. M.A.L. aka Daniel Malempré is the actual inventor of this technique, which Göttsching reproduced a few months later. Given the above, I suggest that we listen to both albums. As doubts are removed, the truth sets in, forty years later. Here's hoping that this will ease the deep disgust that made M.A.L. leave his guitar untouched for so long.

Seattle experimentalists NEWAXEYES play with tension and contradictions. Merging dark electronics, crystalline guitar melodies, pummeling beats and samples to refract the volatility, paranoia, and catharsis of the post-Information Age, the band spins carefully orchestrated and recklessly warped instrumentals into something entirely their own.

Their debut album, BLACK FAX, recorded live to tape over the course of two days and produced by Randall Dunn (Sunn O))), Earth, Wolves In The Throne Room), is a testament to the band's genre-agnostic approach to music. A quartet of skilled multi-instrumentalists, Jordan Rundle (Bass/Synths/Sampler), Bret Gardin (Electronic drums/Synths), Tyler Coray (Guitar/Sampler), and William Hayes (Guitar/Synths), draw inspiration from a wide variety of places and seamlessly merge them into songs that are as abrasive as they are cinematic.

Opening song False Flag' samples vocals from dozens of conspiracy theory videos, unrecognizable as they are seamlessly woven through soaring guitars and a glitchy drum machine. Aleph Null' is an example of the way the band is adept at mixing textures, moods, and instruments to create something that nods at the band's eclectic list of references while being simultaneously unique. Parts of Dennis' could easily be used as a thumping beat-driven background to a hip-hop song while others are downright ambient, blending post-rock sensibilities and a strumming guitar line. At Blood's' serves as a slow meditation between the punching percussion that drives the rest of the album. With guest vocals from composer/vocalist Hanna Benn recorded in a cavernous gutted stairwell and distorted over a droning synthesizer, there's a hint at the dynamic abilities the band is able to pull from.

Since forming in 2013, NEWAXEYES has pursued a diverse range of projects within and beyond a traditional band structure. Versatile performers with backgrounds in modern composition, sound design, film and visual art, their wide-angle vision has encompassed various multimedia projects, art collaborations, and large-scale works - including 2015's The 8th Passenger, a 2-hour-long live rescoring of Ridley Scott's 1979 sci-fi horror classic 'Alien', performed to a sold-out theater.

NEWAXEYES guitarist William Hayes recently played on Jóhann Jóhannson's score to Panos Cosmatos' (Beyond the Black Rainbow) Nicolas Cage-starring film Mandy (2018), the latest Myrkur album Mareridt (2017, Relapse Records), and toured as live keyboardist of Wolves in the Throne Room in 2016. Bret Gardi´n contributed electronic drums to post-punk pioneers Sort Sol's Stor Langsom Stjerne (2017, Sony).

Difficult times call for difficult measures.

What is the point of an artist in dark moral times Is art an impotent affectation or can artists use their work to reflect and magnify bigger concerns for the scrutiny of an audience
Over two sides of tape, two artists take very different approaches to how to respond to a fluid, uncertain time. Not political, but motivated instead by an existential moral absence at the heart of events, one reaches introspectively, the other at the broader canvas.

SPR's helplessness and frustration at reality being bent to the will of those with their hands on the controls of perception pushes outwards as an overwhelming, out-of-control amalgam of tiny layers, the truth being the sum of many untrue parts, a congruence of facets each being seen by others as a dark reflection of their own prejudices, a mirrored facade reflecting self-evident truths and withheld bias erupting in a tumult of uncertainty, lancing the boil of the unreliable narrators. And on the flip, TVO literally tries to spin gold from the basest raw materials possible, in this case, a week's worth of output from the alt-right news website of Breitbart, with all the constituent parts of his piece emanating in one form or another from the site, be it the raw code, image files, hidden audio files or the text itself. Can something so irretrievably riddled with venom and falsehood be alchemically redeemed, and in doing so shine a penetrating light on the existence of such widely consumed falsehood

Whether dark mirror or golden light, to say nothing is to passively accept everything, to say something - to reflect something - is to be a voice, however small, in defiance)

Next to the entire All is an astonishing work by Danish experimental sound quartet We like We, consisting of Katrine Grarup Elbo (violin), Josefine Opsahl (cello), Sara Nigard Rosendal (percussion) and Katinka Fogh Vindelev (voice).

Although classically trained, all four share a desire for exploring, experimenting and shaping a sound of their own, something which is truly present on this album. Both instrumentation and composition feel glued together with an abundant sense of playfulness and vision. The record starts with the beautiful I'm not for More which sets the tone for the 10 pieces, hurling you back and forth in a whirlwind of sound and musical intuitivity.

Genre bending as the record can be, it can be seen as somewhat of a contrasting work - as much of northern folk traditions as of an avant-classical work in the spirit of György Ligeti and Meredith Monk. Forest Sketches, as an example, starts with minimal woodblocks and percussive rattling while slow building violins, cello and vocals pull themselves in through the unknown before bursting into a Pagan sounding wormhole of screams and looped cellos. The piece ends with minimal vocal sound scapes fading away into almost pure silence. It could be mirrored with a merger of both the opening and closing scene of Kubrick's classic movie 2001 - creating the sense of beginning of humanity versus the far future, with abstractation and the unknown.

Next to the entire All is both a mind bending and grounded piece of work fitting naturally next to other Sonic Pieces releases such as Hauschka & Hildur Gudnadottir's Pan Tone or Christoph Berg's Conversations, while adding a northern minimalism. A record as hard to shake off as it is to describe.

GILA steps out of the shadows with a huge release.
Two massive,cold metallic techno drillers from the trench, with acidic nuances and big room bravado attached.
106 Slipper is the A-Side, a weighty, slow tempo,morphing banger. Driven by punishing percussion,this is a polyrhythmic take on techno from the trenches. Receiving love from Mary Anne Hobbs, OPTIMO & Hudson Mohawke. Trench Cadence, the B-Side, is a drum line procession sent through a meat grinder, picking up erratic IDM aesthetics, and a Villalobos' who gives a fuck'mentality.
Hard and built for the club.

The welcome and wondrous return of Lyon musician Baptiste Martin's aerial ambient identity, Les Halles, following a year's sabbatical from recording, Zephyr takes its name from a light westerly wind, which aptly evokes the warm, weightless, whispering spirit of these beguiling ambient designs. Working entirely with a computer for the first time, Martin's sample bank swelled in both depth and detail, giving his compositions a crisper focus and finer grain. Slovakian fujara flutes shudder and shimmer, offset with rippling PVC panpipes, chimes, and gentle webs of delay.

The tracks are titled according to their sample source, designated with one of three words that are same in French and English: horizon, mirage, and distance. Martin speaks of these pieces as conjuring 'landscapes with almost no human traces,' and his criterion for completion is simple: 'When I feel like I'm losing the perception of time while listening.' Nine new divinations by one of today's most attuned waking dreamers.

Dutch artist Mokona returns to Templar Sound for his third release on the label with 'Love in Restricted Areas', described as being set in a private laboratory complex deep inside a forest, recorded during the summer after long nights of medical research.

* 'Love in Restricted Areas' continues the lush and serene soundscapes explored on 2015's 'Breathless' EP, while mixing more club friendly tracks like 'Perfumed Steel' and 'A.N.G.E.L. Guard System' with the meditative as found in 'Heart Sync' and 'Natalie's Aquarium Lab'. With a strong cinematic feel permeating throughout, and having taken his name from a character of the manga xxxHOLiC, which explores Japanese mythology and culture, it makes perfect sense that a track like 'Cupid's Bow' feels like it could have been lifted from a Studio Ghibli soundtrack.

* Though hard to pin down to a single genre, Mokona has produced a beautifully layered record that is just as fitting for head phone listening as the chill out room.

Clear Vinyl

The new record of TERRITOIRE presents the story of the slave Alix from his birth as a submissive being until the encounter with his first owners. Produced with techno veteran Oscar Mulero, it spits out 7 tracks made of flesh, heat and metal, that press and shake the limits between a sensorial electronica and industrial techno.

Project from the french producer and composer Olivier Arson, TERRITOIRE has published three different records with each other: Mandorle (2012), for which they played at Sónar Barcelona, Mandorle - Versions (2014), with remixes from artists like Aidan Baker and Father Murphy, and Confess (2016), an experiment from a sound installation based on the confession ritual.

In constant motion and without a stable form, TERRITOIRE opens news tensions between electronic processes, experimental instrumentation and narrative fragments. It sculpts an experimental techno that expands across oppressive and cathartic rhythms, folds into physical drones, and explodes with mutant screams. An existential drift towards a broken horizon that hides his beauty and discovers, at last, on this latent limit, a disturbing and unknown light.