Beats News

Ecstatic's stunning split release between Maurizio Bianchi, godfather of the Italian industrial noise scene, and Abul Mogard, the much loved and hyperstitious synthesist, conjures a spellbinding testament to the transcendent and transportive energies of electronic music.
Although appearing to starkly contrast on the surface, both artist's work patently shares a lust for the suggestive abstraction of raw current and its pareidolia-like capacity to generate rich and uncanny emotional responses from the end user.
On the A-side, Maurizio Bianchi serves the obfuscated, coruscating atmosphere of Nervous Hydra, a 17 minute piece of sunken, desiccated harmonic structures and warped greyscale tones rinsed with ET radio signals and distant percussion that recall the sound of embers landing on tinfoil or snow. It evokes the experience of being caught in a quietly raging whiteout with only a dying fire for company, or equally a sense of subaquatic, amniotic serenity prior to being evacuated into a much colder world.
Listeners can trust that the Italian artist's first new work in several years is faithful to his ever-uncompromising oeuvre, but there's also a tantalisingly elusive sense of redemption buried deep in there which marks it out from the rest of his canon and close to the work of his antecedents such as Kevin Drumm and Jim Haynes.In that piece's tempestuous wake, Abul Mogard brings a sense of soothing, glacial calm with All This Has Passed Forever on the B-side.
For 16 blissed minutes, Mogard spells out a nostalgic fantasy in creamy strokes of Farfisa organ and Serge modular recorded at EMS studios, Stockholm, and later combined with field recordings to elicit a wistfully widescreen paean to his days on the workshop floor accompanied by the harmonious drones and cacophony of heavy machinery.
No matter the piece's provenance, though, it's simply a sublime example of Abul Mogard's gift for illusive, suspenseful ambient music which has seen his previous releases sky-rocket in 2nd hand value since their earliest, sold-out editions.
Over 30 minutes of ostensibly contrasting yet subtly, similarly spirited pieces that speak to the mystery and enigma of electronic music's tortured, searching and romantic soul in equal measure.

Ena revisits his Divided series with 2 unique releases compiling highlighted dissections of his live performances, further developed into individual tracks. HOROEX5 - Divided: Mind stretches out Ena's singular vision with 13 introspective slices of developed ambience. Fresh from collaborating with Rashad Becker for the Atonal Tokyo edition, Divided: Mind contains the kind of innovation that allows Ena to adapt perfectly to this electronic improvisation environment.

THE ALBUM IS SOLD NAKED, WITHOUT ANY SLEEVE WHATSOEVER.
180G VINYL.
THE LAST EVER ALBUM FROM L. PIERRE
ALL STORES WILL BE SENT A 12X12 INFO SHEET/ PLACEHOLDER TO RACK OUT IN STORE. THIS EXPLAINS THE RECORD IN DETAIL AND INCLUDES A TRANSCRIPT OF THE LETTER. SRD WILL SEND THIS OUT.
NO DIGITAL DOWNLOAD CARD / NO DIGITAL DISTRIBUTON OF THE MUSIC AT ALL.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES ONLY. NON-RETURNABLE.

n late 2016 L.Pierre (aka Aidan Moffat) posted Melodic this letter below along with a dublate of the his new album '1948 - '

David Cooper
c/o Melodic
43 Express Networks
1 George Leigh Street
Manchester
M4 5DL

Hi Dave,

Surprise! This is a new - and final - L. Pierre album, which I'm hoping you and the Melodic team would like to release. Rather than send you MP3s and emails and all those ones and zeroes, I thought it best to post you a dubplate in exactly the way I'd like to see it released. There's some background to this one, so here you go ...

You'll notice that the record labels state that all the samples I've used are from Nathan Milstein's version of a Mendelssohn concerto - this is what was on the very first 33 1/3rpm long-playing 12' record in 1948. (There was a 33 1/3rpm 10' by Frank Sinatra first, but that was technically a compilation; Milstein's was the first proper 12' album as we came to know it.) These samples from the original 1948 release were all ripped from YouTube, the biggest free music streaming platform in the world.

I want to release the album as you have it right now: a vinyl-only LP, no digital whatsoever - indeed, upon the release date, I want to delete all the digital source files and any online promo streams we might do (we'll have to advertise it in some way, of course). And on top of that, I want to release it with no sleeve. There are a few ideas here. Firstly, I don't want a pristine, digital document that could last forever; I want the music left to the elements, I want it to live and scar, with each record's acquired crackles, pops and scratches making them unique and identifiable to their owners. And while the natural thing to do with a naked record is protect it, I think it could be interesting to see how folk respond when we hand that responsibility over. Also, the sleeveless LP will look like one of those dusty, vulnerable strays you find in charity shops, which is precisely where L. Pierre began.

Another thing I'd like to do is have a locked groove at the end, adding another wee element of interaction - the album won't stop until the listener decides it should (which also works as an analogy for the resilience of vinyl in our digital age). And because the death of the album is proclaimed every few months these days, I wanted it to sound like a sort of ironic requiem. The title's an unfinished tombstone with no date of death: '1948 - .'.

If we do this, it will absolutely, definitely be the last ever record from L. Pierre (there's that requiem echo again). The End.

Anyway, hope you like it, and I do realise that a vinyl-only, self-destructive dialogue on the value of music and its new platforms, culture's cyclical nature, the supposed death of the album - and the seeming immortality and inherent nostalgia of vinyl - doesn't sound like the most lucrative of ventures, but I hope it's an idea that a few folk might connect with. And I think it sounds quite lovely too!

Cheers,
Aidan

Planet Mu are very excited to announce Jlin's long awaited second album Black Origami'. A percussion-led tour de force, it's a creation that seals her reputation as a unique producer with an exceptional ability to make riveting rhythmic music. Black Origami' is driven by a deep creative thirst which she describes as this driving feeling that I wanted to do something different, something that challenged me to my core. Black Origami for me, comes from letting go creatively, creating with no boundaries. The simple definition of origami is the art of folding and constructing paper into a beautiful, yet complex design. Composing music for me is like origami, only I'm replacing paper with sound. I chose to title the album "Black Origami" because like "Dark Energy" I still create from the beauty of darkness and blackness. The willingness to go into the hardest places within myself to create for me means that I can touch the Infinity.' Spirituality and movement are both at the core of Black Origami', inspired largely by her ongoing collaborations with Indian dancer/movement artist Avril Stormy Unger whom she met and collaborated with at her debut performance for the Unsound festival - 'There is a fine line between me entertaining a person and my spirituality. Avril, who collaborates with me by means of dance, feels the exact same way. Movement played a great role in Black Origami. The track "Carbon 7" is very inspired by the way Avril moves and dances. Our rhythms are so in sync at times it kind of scares us. When there is something I can't quite figure out when it comes to my production, it's like she senses it. Her response to me is always "You'll figure it out". Once I figure it out it's like time and space no longer exist.' Similar time shifting/folding/disrupting effects can be heard throughout the record - especially on Holy Child' an unlikely collaboration with minimalist legend William Basinski. She also collaborates again with Holly Herndon on 1%', while Halcyon Veil producer Fawkes' voice is on Calcination and Cape Town rapper Dope Saint Jude provides vocals for Never Created, Never Destroyed . Jlin will be touring extensively this year and is currently lining up appearances including Sonar festival. Later this year she will be collaborating in London with acclaimed UK choreographer Wayne McGregor who played her music recently on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs and described her music as quite rare and so exciting".

In 2000, The Wire wrote of Chartier's work: "it's worth stretching the ears in search of Chartier's sequences of exquisitely sculpted sonic events, as gorgeous detail bodies forth out of the shadows"..., the same holds true today. Formed over the course of 5 years, Removed was a process of removal/erasure. Only trace elements appear from what was. Their interactions merely a ghost of a composition - subtle echoes across the sound spectrum. A glacially paced progression of discreet relational sonic events and flows. Inspired in part by the rigorous line drawings of American visual artist Linn Meyers, whose 2011 untitled drawing graces the cover, Removed draws the listener in to follow patterns. Meyers often creates large scale on-site works that transform a space into durational installations of seemingly endless lines. Seen from a distance these lines appear as almost natural ripples in a wall surface, but deeper, upon closer inspection, the delicate echoes and fluctuations of the artist's hand arise from the density of details. Chartier's precise sound compositions work in a similar manner. Austere and shimmering, the two compositions of Removed beg for careful listening on headphones. Or let these 2 compositions play quietly amplified across your space. Either way, a physically captivating dimensional experience. Removed is a continuing reflection on major aesthetic elements of Chartier's artistic language as it has evolved through the years. This is Chartier's first new solo studio album since 2013's field recording exploration Interior Field and 2012's purely digital Recurrence, both released on LINE, US.
Limited edition of 300 copies with embossed sleeve

This album is just so good, probably the most heavyweight, dread-filled Ambient LP you'll hear this year, exploring post-club dimensions with eight tracks of hazy hooks, engulfing subs and grimy thizz rent in acres of space, something like Arca via Bladerunner. Beneath describes it perfectly as 'uplifting whilst also being dread filled...'

Making up the first album release on Mistry after seven club-hingeing EPs from the likes of Batu, Laksa, Chevel and Webstarr, Kailin's Fracture occupies an introspective middle-distance between perceptions of club and ambient modes of reception by disintegrating dancefloor structures into a near-metaphysical presence with mercurial, vapourising gestures. Like Schrödingers cat in a bassbin, it's neither or, and possibly both at the same time, depending on your perception.

This paradoxical sense of detachment and immersion perhaps stems from the album's production; originally sketched out in a 2 month haze, then left to steep for much longer, before the collection's nuances and conflicting elements began to reveal themselves in remarkable formations such as the OOBE electro flex of Circling or the midnight quantum jazz dynamics of Gimp, or a really big highlight in the teetering, polymetric ambient pop of Respite.

No doubt it's a fascinating and quintessential turn for Mistry, one which lives up to the label's name and its roots in the duppie dread effect of UK soundsystem culture, yet never previously revealed by Beneath's imprint in such absorbing and heady style before now.

Hugely recommended!

At bleedin' last, The Boats' gorgeous debut album Songs By The Sea (2004) turns up on vinyl! Along with first-ever vinyl issues of We Made It For You (2005) and Tomorrow Time (2006), plus a very special side of unreleased, unheard outtakes, Static Clings (2017) - which are all collected in the The Boats Archive boxset, you should snap these limited runs while you can as they're unlikely to appear on wax again.

Scrolling thru the mists of time to 2004, a very different world indeed, and The Boats formed as an outlet for Kraftwerk-addicted composer Andrew Hargreaves and his pal, Craig Tattersall, fresh from a decade spent with cult post-rock group Hood and as half of The Remote Viewer, to pursue the ideas of post-rock, modern classical and lo-fi electronica along more intimate, personalised ginnels of folk and ambient music, with the cherry on their home-baked treats provided by vocals from another close friend, Elaine Reynolds.

Songs By The Sea was their wistful and charmingly humble introduction to the world; ten tracks balancing exquisitely pop-wise songwriting with gently pulsing, elusive electronics and a patina of crackle that became a real signature of their sound long before everyone else cottoned on and starting putting out pale imitations.

At the time, it received heavy rotation in our record shop, Pelicanneck, and was something of a shared secret between fans from Manchester to Japan via their home-town of Burnley, and still owns a certain section of our memory banks to this day that's often triggered by the smell of coffee, waffles and toasted rye bread in the morning just as much as smudged Hulme sunsets in summertime.

We don't want to gush about it too much but, listening to it now, and on a format the album always quietly yearned for, it's just chokingly nostalgic in its own, low-key and endearing style and leaves little doubt in our minds that Songs By The Sea is one of the finest ambient-pop records to emerge from this region.

So, so happy to see this first ever vinyl edition of The Boats' second album, We Made It For You, released in 2005 and vailable here as a super limited standalone release - or collected in a boxset with Songs By The Sea (2004), Tomorrow Time (2006) and Static Clings (2017) - this necessary vinyl edition forms a typically tender and heart-warming follow-up to their much loved and influential debut.

On their second album Andrew and Craig coaxed out a purely instrumental suite, leaving Elaine to her own devices (she would return on Tomorrow Time) while they drifted off into the sweetest reveries knitting passages of frayed, breezy solo piano and electronics nodding to Harold Budd, William Basinski or The Caretaker with the kind of burbling, gently glitching rhythmic tributaries that you'd expect from Isan, SND or Jan Jelinek.

All the tracks inside are named after their mates (hope they still are!), and effectively forms a sort of sketchbook of meditations on each character or group, like the rugged, melancholy Miles, Sean and Bodie is definitely nodding to them Demdikes and their soundbwoy, and you'll just have to imagine the rest.

Compared with other releases of that era, it's dated remarkably well as a record and a sound, which is most likely due to their future-proofing patina of distressed crackle and the electro-acoustic sound sensitivity of their approach to the material, managing to convey a quiet, intimate beauty without ever overstating it.

Gorgeous music.

Next in The Boats' vital vinyl reissue series, their 3rd album Tomorrow Time (2006) finds Andrew Hargreaves and Craig Tattersall embracing a host of collaborators on a fuzzy, downbeat blend of ambient and indie-pop themes, wrapping fragile vocals from Elaine Reynolds and Chris Stewart (Need More Sources) to a patented framework of prepared piano, strings and elusive electronics in the wake of their instrumental duo session, We Made It For You (2005). It's the first time it's ever been on vinyl...!

With the benefit of hindsight,Tomorrow Time takes on a curiously prescient nature; arriving a year prior to the biggest financial collapse for generations, at a time when the 'authenticity' of folk music was fetishised by posh people as Wyrd Folk (or smth) and the other main cultural points of reference were either retro-indie guitar bands, IDM or boisterous grime and dubstep.

However, The Boats' combination of lower case pop with rustling electro and acoustic textures quietly stuck out like a sore toe, and when combined the aggressive title tracks points towards a quiet but growing dissatisfaction with perceived excess in music, culture, or at least the same old same old.

In that sense, the group's roots in avant garde minimalism and myriad other non-commercial and pop styles really come thru on Tomorrow Time, but carefully distilled into an absorbing, subtly detailed sounds they can claim as their own, and quite unlike anything before or since - although many have tried to imitate it!

OK this one's really special: technically Static Clings is the last record by The Boats; presenting material from their tour-only Typewriter (2006) CD and the Sleepy Insect Music (2010) compilation on vinyl for the first time, along with a great haul of unreleased outtakes and even a megamix of The Boats by Modern Love's Miles Whittaker (Demdike Stare) and Gaz Howell (G.H.) in their lesser spotted Pendle Coven guise.

It's essentially all outtakes c. 2004-2006 from their early releases for Moteer plus the aforementioned rarities, clutching 13 cuts which have been left to mature over the last decade or so, and now provide a slightly more scattered but ever-enduring overview of Andrew Hargreaves (Tape Loop Orchestra, The Mistys) and Craig Tattersall's (The Remote Viewer, Hood) cherished time together in this vessel.

We absolutely have to highlight the sublime History Of Tape Hisses for what sounds like Instrumentals-era Arthur Russell jamming with Jan Jelinek, and likewise Why You Wanna Do This, and Shlom, Sonia and Conor, cos, well, aww w ww ww, but also the ghostly vignette Danny Norbury, dedicated to the cellist and another key member of their fold, and also for the salty kiss of their distorted hymn May Our Enemies Never Find Happiness (Version), the wobbly oddity of You Didn't Expect Me To Care, and lastly the perfectly opaque pop of Pendle Coven's remix, which uncannily recalls Uwe Schmidt's Pop Artificielle output as LB.

Sad to say they might now have to decommission Craig's crackle-box (actually an old B&H packet full of trapped woodlice, the evil b*stard) but it's dead lovely to have this new slab of (old) material in our mitts and finally complete our full fleet of The Boats' catalogue.

Ta ta! X

Early pioneers of the German New Wave music scene, Din A Testbild were formed in 1978 by Mark Eins and Gudrun Gut (former member of Einstürzende Neubauten, Mania D. and Malaria!). Din A Testbild played a significant role in defining the avant-garde music of Berlin. Legendary is their partecipation at the Festival Genialer Dilletanten" in 1981.
'Programm 4' is their fourth album. Mixed and auto-produced by Mark Eins near the Wall in West/Berlin in 1983, the album was rejected at the time by Innovative Communication, considered too much synth/punk/techno', while the new label managers were looking more into new age stuff. In fact Schulze eventually sold the label in 1983, which started to release a plethora of acts loosely grouped around the NAM genre.

Early pioneers of the German New Wave music scene, Din A Testbild were formed in 1978 by Mark Eins and Gudrun Gut (former member of Einstürzende Neubauten, Mania D. and Malaria!). Din A Testbild played a significant role in defining the avant-garde music of Berlin. Legendary is their partecipation at the Festival Genialer Dilletanten" in 1981.
'Programm 3' is their third album. Mixed and auto-produced by Mark Eins with help of Ziggy Schöning, it was released on Klaus Schulze's record label Innovative Communication in 1983.

Samurai Horo starts 2016 with the second part of Pact Infernal's concept release 'The Descent'. Split into 2 sections, both releases are collectively themed around the infamous 'Inferno' section of Dante Alighieri's 'Divine Comedy' poem from the 14th century. 'Inferno' is an allegory telling of the journey of Dante through Hell, guided by the Roman poet Virgil In the poem, Hell is depicted as nine circles of suffering located within the Earth. Allegorically, the Divine Comedy represents the journey of the soul toward God, with the Inferno describing the recognition and rejection of sin.

This dramatic setting is the perfect canvas for the music in 'The Descent' (Chapter II).Subtle ghostly echoes hang ominously over the entire release. Cruelly menacing with a perfected subtle brood dominating the overall atmosphere, Pact Infernal use percussion and mutated chants to massage their driving rhythms.

Preferring to stay anonymous has given Pact Infernal the ability to create an other worldly musical environment devoid of pre conceptions and human imagery attachments. Their sound has attracted people like Lucy from Stroboscopic Artefacts (who remixed The Descent Chapter I) and Samuel Kerridge. We predict many more converts to the Pact Infernal sound with the release of Chapter II into the world.

Support from: Ancient Methods, Bill Kouligas, Logos, AnD, Cassegrain, Marco Shuttle, Cio D'Or, Lakker, Inigo Kennedy, Manni De, Francois X, Edit Select, Ntogn, Pfirter and more
"Absolutely amazing and stunning. Genius work." - Lucy.

Espen Beranek Holm is a Norwegian musician and comedian, born 1960 and began his music career as a clarinetist. Inspired by early synthesizer bands Kraftwerk and The Residents, he began making experimental pop music. His debut single Dra te' hælvete' was released in 1981 and was immediately banned by national TV/radio channel NRK due to explicit lyrics. This gave the young artist tons of publicity, helping the single spend almost 6 months on the national charts.

Beranek returned to the Starholm Studios in Oslo from June - September 1981 to record nine new compositions. His debut album, Sound of Danger', was released on Mind Expanding Records in November 1981. Nowhere near as accessible as the previous single, the album fared poorly commercially. Withdrawing from the single's fun, kitsch pop, the album is cool and static, driven by thin rhythm boxes, cold synths, and glacial guitars. Taking heavy cues from David Bowie, all of the songs are sung in a nasally English accent, a rare occurrence in Norway at the time. The lyrics are melancholic, but tinged with paranoia. There are also upbeat tracks that evoke a prog or glam sensibility a la King Crimson, Alan Parsons, or Roxy Music.

All songs have been remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. Housed in the original jacket featuring red, black, and white lines that evoke a visualized Richter Scale designed by Monica Moltzau. Each copy includes a 2-sided 8x11' insert with lyrics and an autographed press photo of Beranek.

Nocturnal soundscapes, brooding electronics, ambient layers and occasional hooks: "" compiles rare and early recordings of Seoul's Byul.org, an influential creative collective known for its multidisciplinary/one-stop shop approach & post-punk-inspired DIY aesthetics. Carefully compiled by the collective's director TaeSang Cho and The Notwist's Markus Acher, the album is out via Alien Transistor.What started out in 2000 as a group of friends who'd meet for drinks (and for sharing the occasional poem), has long established itself as a shape-shifting key player of Seoul's thriving scene: With a huge amount of both commercial and non-commercial projects under their collective belt, Byul.org's members -TaeSang Cho, Yu Hur, Jowall, YunYi Yi, and SuhnJoo YI - went from publishing to recording, from releasing tunes to doing art shows, offering everything from branding to consulting and art direction, from naming and design to software development along the way. Although their list of clients includes Atelier Hermès and the Venice Biennale (they did the Korean Pavilion twice), the group still remains a drinking circle of close friends at its core: Buddies who love to create music and document their daily lives via recordings and performances... indeed: Sometimes all it takes is the right crew.Accordingly, for Byul.org's members, music has always been one outlet among many, one mode of expression to accompany and soundtrack others: Most of the songs on "" were originally released on CDs that came with the collective's own Monthly Vampire, A Magazine, while others were self-published via the group's own label Club Bidanbaem. Featuring sonic diary entries recorded between 2000 and 2007, the album is a nod to personal favorites such as Eno and Aphex Twin, Joy Division and Kraftwerk, personal hero Robert Smith, as well as Korean stalwarts such as Jae Ha Yoo, and Min Ki Kim - and yet there's hardly any daylight around, to be precise - hence the title: "Traditionally in Korea a 'BamDokkebi' is a kind of ghost or monster of the night, but it has also come to mean people who spend their nights out instead of sleeping. We've always been a group of 'BamDokkebi' - drinking, DJing, doing stupid things. These recordings document our night life in different ways, and we wanted to share them with other 'BamDokkebis' (Nacht Dämonen) like us."Far from polished and often sparse, the 13 tracks all share a rather dark and haunting vibe that's partly inspired by "drug culture, dance floor scenes, the LGBT scene, and the hippie culture in Korea". Ranging from fairly straightforward synth/electro tracks (e.g. "Friday Night") to hazy hymns/understated pop tunes (e.g. "20th Century Of Me And You"), from more experimental textures (e.g. album opener "Job") to minimalist bangers ("A Customer") and haunting vocal tracks ("City Made Of Lights"), it's difficult to escape the soothing, cinematic pull of this nocturnal "Secret Show".The Korean music scene has always been somewhat elusive on the global stage - even world-class acts such as Sanulim and Shin Jung Hyeon remain a bit of a mystery abroad - but this shouldn't be confused with mere insularity. These 13 tracks offer a peak into a hidden but vibrant scene, a glimpse of what takes place while the rest of us are sleeping.

At long last: Here come the demons of night, Seoul's original Nacht Dämonen.

Following the critical success of their three remarkable EPs, Moxa, Cloud City and Catapelt, the union of Welsh 'Super Producer' Llion Robertson and classically-trained composer Seb Goldfinch as pioneering musical duo, Cotton Wolf bears the fruit of their debut, full length release. Their nine-track album, Life In Analogue, is released on 28th April by Bubblewrap Collective both digitally and on vinyl.

Occupied by the growth in connectivity, yet lack of meaningful connection between people in an age of real-time digital communication and high-speed travel, Cotton Wolf's work exploits the constant tensions between man and machine. Actively resisting the threat of digital post-production techniques that risk deleting human presence from music entirely, Life In Analogue seeks to outlive modern trends by setting warm, human hands upon the cold levers of contemporary, electronic music. As Cotton Wolf's first release on vinyl, their choice of format is itself an extension of an artistic process that manages these exhilarating, contemporary conflicts.

These dichotomies have been confronted, interpreted and now presented as the evolution of Cotton Wolf's sound as Life In Analogue melds influences and boldly takes the baton from kindred musical spirits. Where there are traces of A Guy Called Gerald, there are hints of Massive Attack and where there is kinship with Hans Zimmer or Hans Richter there are traces of 808 State and New Order. It is all underpinned by unified elements - as effective in affecting the human heart today as they ever were - of epic classical strings, synthesised sounds and the sparing use of evocative vocals. It's an album born equally in Cardiff as Singapore and Barcelona, with the pair responding to experiences in the streets, clubs and studios of international cities to document modern ways of living, all as uncertain as they are thrilling.



Life In Analogue follows the eight tracks released via their two early EPs, the first being their 2013 debut, Catapelt, which crept into European consciousness through the support of Berlin-based electronic enthusiasts. The follow up, 2014's 'Cloud City' saw the pair garner remix commissions from Gulp ('Vast Space') and Trwbador ('Several Wolves'), before arriving in 2015 at their most successful release to date, the 'Moxa' EP.

Ltd. to 300 copies,

NYC based artist Evan Caminiti breathes life into the Dust Editions imprint with the release of Toxic City Music. Caminiti has explored electro-acoustic music since the mid 2000's, the latest transmission being 2015's Meridian. While that album was Caminiti's first to omit electric guitar, he has now returned to the instrument. Here it is buried it in an electronic mist and melted down, it's sonic fabric reshaped.

Toxic City Music was inspired by the psychic and physical toxicity of life in late capitalism. Conceived throughout 2015 and 2016, Caminiti captured the sounds of NYC's machinery and voices before weaving them into his studio experiments. This collection of song mutations unravels in hazy plumes and serrated edges, concrète sounds mesh with disembodied strings and corrosive electronics on "Joaquin", drones ripple under stuttering rhythms and crude synth detritus throughout "NYC Ego". On "Toxic Tape (Love Canal)", layers of digital degradation smear guitar clusters, dissolving into a dubby devotional-ambient space.

The album was mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M and features contributions from Jefre Cantu Ledesma and Rafael Anton Irisarri.

Haraam (Arabic for forbidden, the opposite of halal) is Copenhagen-based noise artist Martin Schacke solo project. Going on since 2014, he has released a handful of tapes on underground labels as Fallow Field and Cønjuntø Vacíø as well as on his own Moral Defeat.

Largely inspired by the refugee crisis and changes in the political environment in northern Europe, these six tracks are a perfect blend of bass heavy rhythmic noise, lo-fi industrial techno with a great focus on atmosphere, droning noise and concrete soundscapes from the Middle-East.

Heatsick and Bass Clef partner up and deliver five transparent blue tracks for Angela Bulloch's ABCDLP, which apparently were born out of a live performance of the two (or three) at Art Genève earlier this year. Both calm and frenetic. Poetry infused and few inches off the ground pop music.

Cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin, October 2016 Digital Transfer: Jonathan Fitoussi

Translations: Valerie Vivancos Layout: Stephen O'Malley
b
Coordination GRM: Daniel Teruggi & François Bonnet Executive Production: Peter Rehberg

Heterozygote (1963-1964), 26'19

Composed between December 1963 and March 1964

In the field of biology Heterozygous (Heterozygote) means: a plant whose heredity is mixed. It implies that this composition is an attempt to engineer a language located both on the musical and on the dramatic plane. You could call this music "Anecdotal Music" for if the organisation of events is purely musical, their choice suggests situations justified at two levels: the music and the anecdote. However, the anecdote is hardly formulated and is open to plural interpretations. The listener is then asked to imagine their own story by rejecting - if necessary - the one suggested by the author. More specifically, the author suggests an anecdotal complex, potentially bearing several meanings. The work preceded by an opening is made of eight scenes, separated (or not) by interludes. And if we wished to push the paradox further, we could say that the titles of the scenes are optional and the interludes are also scenes, etc.

Petite symphonie intuitive pour un paysage de printemps (1973-1974), 25'09

"This electroacoustic music is part of a series that could be called "imaginary soundscape". Unlike 'Presque rien ou le lever du jour au bord de la mer (almost nothing or daybreak by the seaside)', where the landscape narrates itself, here a traveller discovers a landscape which he tries to convey as a musical landscape. Brunhild and I were in the Gorges du Tarn area. We chose to take a small path that was going up a rocky mountain for about ten kilometres.

After a last turn, a totally unexpected landscape opened before my eyes. It was sunset. Before us, a vast plateau spread open with soft curves up to the horizon, up to the sun. The colours ranged from dry grass yellow to purple, in the distance, with the darkness of a few small groves punctuating the space. The almost bare nature was presenting itself to the eye, free from any obstacle. We could see everything. Later, when I Photo © Laszlo Ruszka, 1963 recollected this place and the sensations I had experienced there, I tried to compose a music that could revive this memory. The "Causse Mejean" is a high plateau, about 1000 m high, in the Massif Central mountain range. It is dotted by scattered farms. A few people bring their flocks of sheep home. I thought about evoking this solitary and hazy human presence by including snippets of conversations I had had with some of the shepherds. Human language is woven into the musical texture, the sound of the voice says more than its actually meaning. Once, a shepherd told me "... I am never bored. I listen to the landscape. Sometimes I play my flute and then I listen to the echo responding..." Thinking of him, I used the flute and its echo in my music." Luc Ferrari. October 18, 2002

Written and produced by Mark Clifford and Scott Gordon. Cut and mastered at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin by Rashad Becker

Artworks by Joseph Haesche

Editions Mego is proud to present the first full length self titled release from Oto Hiax. Comprised of Mark Clifford (Seefeel) and Scott Gordon (Loops Haunt) it follows on from last years acclaimed EP 'One'. Embracing a series of sonic opposites 'title' employs electronic and concrete sound to construct a labyrinth of moods sliding from basic repetition to complex audio suites. The mood is such that the listener is advised to embrace the unexpected as unusual elements gently drift across the audio plane. Exquisitely executed, this is no foray into generic sound design but a rich and complex ruse whereby seemingly jarring sonic elements play out a subtle and harmonious bridge between a variety of musical styles and genres. Insh carries the kind of hallowed kraut comfort that only seasoned professionals can harness whereas Eses Mitre disorientates in the most enticing fashion. Oto Hiax have produced an album of exquisite detail and beauty. Now is their time.

Ideologic Organ is proud to present the brand-new recordings from The Necks, the legendary Australian trio who excel in bypassing musical cliche whilst exploring and extending the practices embedded within improvisation, jazz, post rock, ambient, minimal, and textural, 'sound based' music.

The latest document from this long-running ensemble, Unfold, presents itself as a double LP, with four side-length tracks. A deliberate absence of numbered sides hands a substantial swatch of participation over to the listener, allowing her to navigate his own path through the soundscape at hand. The shorter length of the vinyl format, far from being a constraint upon the members of the ensemble, instead offers them a more compact horizon to contemplate, wherein the distance travelled is recalibrated to more immediate and dynamic textural concerns.

The immediacy of Rise confirms this new path, as the mournful tones of Lloyd Swanton's bass swirl around Chris Abrahams' crystalline piano motif, with Tony Buck's percussion steering proceedings into enlightening free-jazz territories. Blue Mountain cuts a swathe through the sonic undergrowth, with soul organ, rattling percussion, whistles, and loping sound-waves all vying for the foreground. Overheard retains a sublime melancholic aura as the percussion and keyboards simultaneously embrace and fall apart, whilst Timepiece skips along as a gentle gesture of further possibilities.

Exactly how The Necks conjure their particular magic - as deceptively simple as it seems - whilst always moving forward, is anyone's guess, but Unfold proves yet again that rules and schools are to be broken and re-formed into patterns and frameworks unlike those we know.

ASHXXX001 sees the return of Ash Walker with this underground banger, strictly for the heads!

A-side 'Train Wreck' is a low-slung, sultry and bass-driven track. It combines swung high hats and trumpet stabs with moody vocals and guitar chords - all underpinned by a powerful walking bassline. B-side 'Trees' is more indebted to hip hop, and carries with it the influence of classic Ninja Tune, DJ Shadow and The Herbaliser. Again, a deep bassline is used, which proves to be the driving force behind the track's boom bap drums and glassy, reverberant keys.

In the hands of the right DJ, these versatile tracks could sound great in a variety of settings - from jazz clubs, to soul and funk nights, to bass-orientated club nights.

Ash Walker has recently gained some really impressive support from across the scene, from DJs such as Gideon Coe and Gilles Peterson at BBC Radio 6 Music, Dom Servini at Wah Wah 45s and Rob Louie at Tru Thoughts.

ASHXXX001 will be released as a limited edition white label 7" ONLY

"Good, bad, love, hate and pleasure, pain, For ever linked go, I dream of pleasure with pain, It never, never came, No one but me to blame." The second vinyl release on Algebra of Need sees French artist Hanchi with a 4 track EP of Low speed, modernised techno teaming unsteady, tense atmospherics with slow burning percussion and resonant synthetic loops, shadowed by the sentiment of a love letter to the paramours of the past echoed in the poem above.
Housed in a full colour sleeve with a picture card insert designed by artist Marie De Cuir Mastered and cut by Lewis Hopkin of Stardelta Mastering.

Debut album by Phil Struck. Limited Edition of 100 pro-dubbed chrome tapes with on body printed labels. Download included.
Recorded, more or less spontaneously, between June and December 2016 at home.
Based on sampling from odd sound sources, random data streams and the usage of microphones and various synthesizers.
For fans of Lee Gamble, Jan Jelinek, Rashad Becker, Meakusma, Hidden Hawaii

Black Truffle presents People Pleaser, the new LP from Nantes-based drummer and percussionist Will Guthrie. Initially rising to prominence in Australia as a drummer in the fields of jazz and improvised music, Guthrie later turned increasingly toward electronics and amplified percussion, developing an idiosyncratic style of electro-acoustic performance characterized by shimmering metallic textures, rapid-fire textural transformations and aggressively high volume. Recent years have seen a return to the drum kit in both solo and collaborative work, in performances where Guthrie uses duration and endurance to push at the limits of his formidable technical abilities as a player in the free jazz tradition, working variations on short rhythmic units into an endless flow of non-metered pulse.
Although drawing on many aspects of Guthrie's past work, People Pleaser stands alone in the catalogue of his recorded work. Working fast and intuitively over a period of three weeks, Guthrie has crafted a suite of song-length pieces that combine his drumming with electronics, field recordings, and sampled detritus. Inspired by rough and ready sampling style of producers like RZA, J Dilla and Knxwledge, and by the endless possibilities of musique concrète, People Pleaser uses a highly divergent array of sound sources, building pieces from drum and percussion tracks left over from other projects, audio ripped from skate videos, noise electronics, fragments of a police interrogation, and anything else ready to hand. Guthrie's unique rhythmic sensibility is the thread drawing all these elements together, his drum performances propulsively rhythmic yet insistently irregular in a way that sometimes brings to mind the uniquely open rhythmic space carved out in the early Weather Report and other classic fusion. Drawing together a manifold of influences in an entirely sui generis way, People Pleaser is a raw, exciting, and surprisingly accessible peak into the laboratory of a unique sensibility.

London's avant prism-pusher Dale Cornish debuts for Rabit's Halcyon Veil imprint with an acute distillation of pointillist rhythms, stark noise and contemporary politics in the barbed bouquet of Cut Sleeve, following a multi-pronged attack on 2016 which saw him issue singles with Where To Now and The Wormhole, plus a remix of Billie Ray Martin and a guest vocal on Powell's Sport album.

Stripped to the barest truth of biting drums and his own vocals rent within acres of negative space, when compared with his run of solo aces for Entr'acte and The Wormhole, the six tracks of Cut Sleeve conversely amount to some of the most corporeal works in Cornish's solo catalogue whilst serving to neatly intersect the Halcyon Veil aesthetic from both mutual and personally developed perspectives.

Dale wears his politics explicitly and suggestively on Cut Sleeve. Starting with the nagging reminder that 'in 2016 it is illegal to be gay in approximately 75 nations and regions around the world' delivered in acrid noise and a slurred tone that makes sure the message rings out slowly and uncomfortably, the session presents in reductionist take on UK and US club music in brittle, certain, and uniquely, drily f*nked-up terms, taking on skeletal steppers templates in Cut and chasmic darkness on LW or Vauxhall, before feeding his own, bestial vocals back into the mix with a blend of glossolalic deviance, cryptic poetry and stoic funk in Emperor Ai.

'Bedouin sent me samples of music from the Arab and Islamic worlds to use as source material for an EP. I was so inspired by the material I wrote over thirty tracks. My intention was to be true to its sonic qualities and resonances, but bring it stylistically into my own world of contemporary electronic music. I approached this in the spirit of cultural exchange, conscious of my privileges as a white western male able to work in this way — only scratching the surface of another culture — and wary of the implications of this kind of appropriation. But this was a project born of love and deep respect for the source material, the traditions, the religions, the art and the music of this part of the world.
'Bedouin Trax reflects all this. Unity. Togetherness. Exploring the darkness and light in humanity to find our similarities, to find a way to connect with all people, from all diffent cultures and backgrounds. Salem from Bedouin said that some of the Sufi songs he had sent were songs about love — 'towards an entity of oneness'. This phrase informed the entire project.'

Cat s Squirrel presents a live recording of Masami Akita and Oren Ambarchi s performance in Campbelltown, Australia in May 2012. Although Akita and Ambarchi have known one another since 1993 and performed together as part of larger ensembles, this was their first performance as a duo. Together they create a massive wall of sound that moves from the cavernous to the blisteringly psychedelic, laying down shifting low-end structures over which pointillist details ricochet across the stereo field. Akita and Ambarchi s voices blend together into a sonic morass, Ambarchi s set-up expanded to include extra electronics and a spring reverb unit in addition to his signature guitar textures, and Akita utilizing both analogue and digital sound sources. Moving through a number of episodes, from deluges of reverberated metal screeches to rapid-fire iterations of visceral electronic tones, the record reaches a high point mid way through the second side, (where Akita s electronics gradually thin out into a stream of skipping chirps and screeches while around him Ambarchi builds up a dense mass of phasing low end guitar tones, the duo patiently developing an impenetrable wall of ecstatic, psychedelic noise. (Francis Plagne, Jan 2013 Limited to 500 units


Cat's Squirrel

Cat's Squirrel
Merzbow & Oren Ambarchi // Black Truffle
Cat s Squirrel presents a live recording of Masami Akita and Oren Ambarchi s performance in Campbelltown, Australia in May 2012. Although Akita and Ambarchi have known one another since 1993 and performed together as part of larger ensembles, this was their first performance as a duo. Together they create a massive wall of sound that moves from the cavernous to the blisteringly psychedelic, laying down shifting low-end structures over which pointillist details ricochet across the stereo field. Akita and Ambarchi s voices blend together into a sonic morass, Ambarchi s set-up expanded to include extra electronics and a spring reverb unit in addition to his signature guitar textures, and Akita utilizing both analogue and digital sound sources. Moving through a number of episodes, from deluges of reverberated metal screeches to rapid-fire iterations of visceral electronic tones, the record reaches a high point mid way through the second side, (where Akita s electronics gradually thin out into a stream of skipping chirps and screeches while around him Ambarchi builds up a dense mass of phasing low end guitar tones, the duo patiently developing an impenetrable wall of ecstatic, psychedelic noise.

Appearing for the first time on Instagram in 2014, POORGRRRL is the culmination of the Miami based artist Tara Long's worst dreams and best nightmares. As an online identity or IRL, POORGRRRL challenges viewers and listeners with convoluted lyrics and a lo-fi "fuck it" demeanor. She presents an alternative personality to pop culture, appropriating it where she must. She is on a quest to save Miami, her birthplace and home, from it's own reputation, before it goes underwater.
In October 2015, shortly after her premier performance at iii Points Music Festival, she released "Triptic," an 11-minute music video, ending with the single "we Trashy." It ignited a debate amongst YouTube and Reddit users over the artistic validity of the work. The critics such as, Go Fu ck Yourself, pointed out the obvious, describing it as "garbage," while defenders used hash tags such as #hatersdontgetit and #futureofmusic to describe the video.
During Art Basel 2015 in Miami (December), after appearing on the cover of the Miami New Times Art Basel edition, she installed audio/visual work at the "Littlest Sisters Art Fair" (Spinello Projects), and performed alongside Shamir at The New Contemporary Art Museum (ICA). In 2016, she has performed at the International Noise Conference in Miami, Okeechobee Music Festival and alongside Le1f.
Her debut EP, "PITIPARTI", is a collection of her work so far, preceding a full-length set for release in the near future.

Welcoming back our early label recrute Maoupa Mazzocchetti delivering the long-awaited follow-up to both his debut releases on Unknown Precept. Emerging back in 2014 to then become an esteemed music maker in the inner-circles of the underground community, the Brussels' based sound artisan quickly established himself as a complete artist made of a peculiar and inexhaustible surge of inspiration — always making sure to stay off the beaten paths while exploring the nooks and crannies of his disturbed and facetious mindset throughout his latest productions. Infinite Glance Court is a condensation of this diverse inventiveness, an intimate and minimalist journey borrowing as much from John Bender as the European dance tradition of the late 1980s. It shows the French producer asserting once again the essence of what makes his brazen style thanks to the dancing jokes and corroded ballads which he alone holds the secret of.

Mumdance & Logos cut deep into the uncanny valley between grime, noise and ambient musics with the shockingly diverse Weightless Volume. 2, volleying five tracks from label fammo FiS, Shapednoise, Inkke, Sharp Veins and Yamaneko, plus the duo's own, frankly massive Cafe Del Mar zinger.
With the label still hot from the Mumdance & Logos Presents Different Circles mix CD, this EP touches base with five new artists whose individual sounds have been crucial to the make-up of Different Circles' club sets and on Mumdance and Logos' respective Rinse FM shows ever since their label's inception.
You couldn't ask for a stronger indictment of where Mumdance and Logos are right now than Cafe Del Mar; an outstanding piece of work stacking lush modular synth pads to the rafters and socked with cavernous, inverted kicks, forming the closest you'll ever get to a weightless sunset anthem from these two original nuttahs.
Trust their bandmate in The Sprawl, Shapednoise, to twyst hard away from that sound with the invasive contortion of Deep Core Consciousness, which feels like the first efforts of communication from a neural network of heavy machinery, and is proceeded by the impeccably smooth contours and thizzing glassy licks of Yamaneko's Shadow Temple.
On the B-side, Kiwi producer FiS follows his exclusive contribution to Mumdance's Fabriclive 80 mix with a deviant diffusion of the elements in Angels Of The Water Table, while Glasgow's Inkke shoots from the hip with the blinding hi-wire hooks of Pioneer on a boisterous, beatless grime flex, and Alabama, USA's Sharp Veins holds a bittersweet suspense to the edge with his dizzying mini string symphony, Already Bones.

Forging it's own peculiar musical language, told through disjointed exotic rhythms and adventurous wordless vocal explorations, 'Deal' is FAY's boldest work yet moving further away from the pop signifiers of previous exploits. Unified in it's determined minimalism and palette of drum sounds, 'Deal' flexes and shapes these elements to their maximum potential through vast spacial movements that twist and tumble down unknown paths. An almost conversational interplay between drum and voice is at the center highlighting the human element, a primal urgency, guiding these compelling unorthodox electronic compositions.
Freewheeling, off-kilter grooves anchor complex choral arrangements as vocal snippets develop into more coherent musical phrases with each measure like dots gradually coming together into a line that you can "see". This singular vocal approach curiously splices innovative digital production with an undeniably human touch resulting in a range of hybrid beauty that reveals itself in unexpected ways. 'Deal' never tips it's hand too far in any one stylistic direction, as deftly busted rhythm patterns tease out loose, playful interpretations of broken boogie ("Touch"), skeletal polyrhythmic dancehall ("Rake"), unhinged hip-hop drum tracks ("Bluff" "Set"), doomed-out dub ( "Call"), and harder to pin down styles - these exhilaratingly restless beat excursions highly reward close and repeated listening.
"each broken beat brings the listener's mind with it - fractured in a million directions" - Boston Hassle
"Shockingly ace art-pop LP fusing the funk of classic Timbaland with the compositional strategies of John Cage in a shining pop mind." - Boomkat
"Pure creativity laid to tape" - Amoeba Records

This is the stunning debut album from Laraaji. 'Celestial Vibration' was originally released in 1978 under the name Edward Larry Gordon, and then first issued by Soul Jazz Records/Universal Sound in 2010. Soul Jazz Records are now issuing this hypnotic piece newly re-mastered album once again in a very limited vinyl edition of 1000 and new CD as a full Laraaji release. 'Celestial Vibration' is a cosmic journey sounding unlike anything else when it was first released in 1978. Laraaji's album was first issued in New York as a private-pressing record with only very minimal distribution. His distinctive use of the harp-like open-stringed
zither and kalimba creates a hypnotic trance like musical landscape. Laraaji first came to fame in the 1980s as a worldwide ambient artist working with Brian Eno on EG Records. At this time Laraaji worked with a wide range of experimental musicians - Jon Hassell, Harold Budd, Michael Brook, Bill Nelson, Roger Eno, Nana Vasconcelos and Bill Laswell. Since Soul Jazz Records/Universal Sound first released 'Celestial Vibration' seven years ago (now long deleted), Laraaji's career has had a renaissance, releasing a string of new albums including a fascinating collaboration with Blues Control for the FRKYWS label, as well as reissues of earlier albums including a three-
album cassette only release last year.
Today Gordon continues his unique musical and spiritual path - performing his music mainly for meditation at yoga global retreats. He runs his own 'Therapeutic Laughter Workshop' where he coaches people in the mindful use of laughing for its health benefits. The album is issued as a limited-edition deluxe vinyl and CD edition (previously released as Edward Larry Gordon 'Celestial Vibration').

A special SKRS and Boomarm dedication to all the ladies, the international Gyal Dem! 10 tracks of potent, crackling dub abstraction and sound system meditations from the elusive dub xperimentalists known as SEEKERSINTERNATIONAL.

Raised in the 80s and 90s mobile DJ culture of the Philippines and currently based in Richmond, British Columbia, SEEKERSINTERNATIONAL (aka SKRS) have been actively shaping their unique, left-of-center roots inspired minimalist dub since the late 90s. With releases on Digitalis, Bristol's No Corner, and their own ICS Library Records, SKRS holds true to dub music's original spirit of exploration and transformation as both a metaphor for and a reflection of one's inner search: from slowed breaths to quickened senses, looped invocations and false starts, shifting realities and eroded beliefs, refracted egos and the all-echoing Oneness - all subjects of their (re)search - all part of The Dance.

Housed in an incredible gold, black, & white printed sleeve designed by SKRS in-house visual wing, MYSTERYFORMS.

LIMITED REPRESS WITH NEW PANTONE COVER + TWO ADDITIONAL TRACKS ON THE DOWNLOAD CARD !!
The Sound of Durban Vol.1' represents the first full length compilation collecting the sound of the suburbs and townships of Durban, South Africa known as gqom'. The album unites many of the local young producers of this fresh genre over 15 tracks on double LP and digital (with four bonus tracks) released via the Gqom Oh! label. The result of Rome-based DJ and musician Nan Kolè teaming up with South Africa-based Lerato Phiri, the Gqom Oh! label was set up to highlight the music and artists of Durban, the often overlooked cradle of the new South African sound. Speaking to The FADER in October this year, Kolè says of Phiri Thanks to her work the artists I was interested in had greater trust in a stranger who contacted them from Italy to promote a kind of music that even South African promoters don't want to promote or to enter the club.'Derived from an onomatopoeic Zulu word signifying a drum, gqom' - in the local slang - iz da sound u get wen u drop a rock on tiles'. This extraordinary, apocalyptic bass music encompasses many influences. Each polyrhythmic track draws on the darker side of electronic music, hip hop, soundsystem culture, kwaito, UK funky and deep tribal African vibrations. As Kolè puts it: You can feel the troubled history of South Africa. It's riot music." Tied to a specific dance called bhenga, gqom happens in a DIY-oriented universe, grafting organic and homemade samples on sourced software to create this wholly unique sound. The label's greater aim is to invest in much needed technology to help build a local creative infrastructure. 'The Sound of Durban Vol.1' features a host of local talent including Julz Da DeeJay, Cruel Boyz, Citizen Boy and Formation Boyz. This compilation was preceded by a 12 ' EP release in summer 2015 described by Hyponik as thunderous prime time music' and Complex said it surely won't be long until clubs across the UK are shaken by this new South African sound'. Resident Advisor's review mentioned these three tracks muster up a hulking sound out of very few elements, and they do it without coming off macho or alienating — an achievement on its own'. South Africa is a unique case in the African continent, a place of the soul that has no equal: so strongly western and so deeply African at the same time. With its mix of ethnic tradition and urban tension it has been a cradle of cultural phenomena. In its own way it is a country of great wealth, particularly rich of contradictions, yet 20 years after the end of apartheid little appears to have changed for the millions of black people that live in its notorious townships. It is from this background that innovations are continually being injected into the living body of the local music culture. The heartbeat of Durban is gqom.

Presenting Elko B.'s debut on Ekster: 'I Bambini Di Basilisco'. 12 tracks pressed on 180g vinyl with pantone printed inner- & outer sleeves and silk screened plastic over-sleeve. Includeds Download Code. Special again from the Ekster crew.. TIP!
Considering Elko Blijweert's been active in the Belgian music scene for about fifteen years now, it comes as quite a surprise that "I Bambini Di Basilisco"is only his first ever solo album. Known mainly for his virtuoso yet ever idiosyncratic guitar playing, Elko B. treats the listener to much more than just that. With the exception of the heavily guitar-driven western pastiche "Cochon Torrero", the emphasis here seems to lie on dark Carpenteresque synthesizer sounds as well as jolly child-friendly melodies, blips and beeps. The twelve pleasantly concise songs, mainly based on compositions Blijweert made as soundtrack material for contemporary dance theatre and children's puppet theatre, beautifully blend together into a whole as the listener is presented with a unique glimpse inside the wide-ranging imagery that is Elko B.'s ever-expanding musical world.

Following the reissue of the entire recorded output of South London-based experimental act This Heat and its successor, Camberwell Now, Modern Classics Recordings holds the lens up to a special split album created by one of the driving forces behind those groups - drummer Charles Hayward - in collaboration with Italian musician Gigi Masin, whose looping, rhythmic, electronic compositions have seen his cult following grow in his four decades as a recording artist. TIP!!Originally released on Belgium's Sub Rosa label in 1989, Les Nouvelles Musiques De Chambre Volume 2 is a split LP on which Masin's eight tracks occupy side A and Charles Hayward's long-form piece (at 21 minutes long), "Thames Water Authority', occupies side B. Geography may have separated the two artists, who each recorded their pieces in isolation from the other, but there's a commonality to their approach. Previously, Masin had released the inspired 1986 album Wind, while Hayward's music had long been influenced by the landscape and society of London and the UK.For this album, the label challenged the two musicians to write about the waterways of their respective cities, Venice and London. For Masin, that meant describing the human interactions related to the Italian city's famous landmarks. 'Places, faces, memories... that's what most of the people love to find when they travel to Venice - some kind of magic that's deep in the city,' he writes in the new liner notes accompanying this new re-release.
For Hayward, it meant describing the physicality of water, the 'densities and energies' as he puts it, and the politics of it too. Writes Hayward: 'Water was being privatized at the time, the profit margin had been factored in, cost-cutting was implicit, people were being poisoned. Water was a political thing; it still is.