Beats Vinyl New Releases - News

The long awaited third album from much loved vintage synth maestros Billy Bainbridge and Mike Johnston, finally finds its home on Ghost Box Records. This is unironically joyful and melodic electronica; informed by library music, music for children’s TV and a deep passion for the history of music technology.

Plone are very much part of Ghost Box’s DNA. They were a central part of the 90s retro-futuristic scene in Birmingham that included Broadcast and Pram and to which the label has always had strong ties through graphic designer and co-manager, Julian House. They are also cited by the label’s other boss, Jim Jupp, as a major influence on his work as Belbury Poly.

The band was formed as a three-piece in the mid-90s and their debut single, Press a Key, was championed by John Peel. The first album, For Beginner Piano, was released on Warp Records in 1999. Their warm, witty and unfunky music stood out from the crowd, almost in defiance of the moody and masculine post-rave electronica of their contemporaries.

A selection of bootlegged demos from the early 00s was rumoured to be the follow up album, but it never materialised. After that Billy went on to tour with Broadcast and later formed Seeland with another former band member Tim Felton (also of Ghost Box’s Hintermass). Meanwhile Mike formed the ZX Spectrum Orchestra, released solo singles as Mike in Mono and was a member of The Modified Toy Orchestra.

Twenty years on and Plone have reconvened as a duo with a third album, Puzzlewood. It’s compiled from material recorded at various points since the “lost album”, right up to the present day.

It’s a dark, moody affair, populated by 17 nuanced neon-noir synth score cues for a film not yet made. There are moments when this album flows like the Cliff Martinez-Makeup and Vanity Set collaboration that never was, and others when ’80s Vangelis shines through. There are other instances that tend to sound like something released on Burning Witches Records or, yes, like the work of John Carpenter. But it’s never derivative of any of those composers, instead somehow blending all their better angels into something rich and rewarding for the listener.

The entire world of Darkly Dreaming – disturbances that shift about like cold specters at night and which sit uncomfortably on our chests like anthropomorphised anxiety - manifests intensely through each haunting synth run, shuddering rhythm, and reverberated guitar part on the album’s 17 engaging, unsettling, and slightly hopeful tracks.

WAYS OF SEEING is a beautifully produced and melodically rich suite of electronic pieces from The Advisory Circle and was inspired by late 70s and early 80s melodic electronic library music.

The Advisory Circle is the work of Jon Brooks, melodic and often melancholic electronic music inspired in part by soundtracks and library music of the 70s and 80s. Brooks is a stalwart of the Ghost Box label and an extraordinarily prolific artist. He has released five albums and four collaborative singles as The Advisory Circle. He also records as The Pattern Forms with Ed Macfarlane and Edd Gibson of Friendly Fires.

He works with vocalist Tim Felton as Hintermass, and along with Ghost Box founder Jim Jupp he is half of The Belbury Circle. Under his own name and several pseudonyms, he has released albums on Clay Pipe Music and his own Café Kaput label. Before joining the Ghost Box family in the early 00s Brooks recorded for Lo Records as King of Woolworths.

As a producer and mastering engineer, Brooks is a contributing presence on most Ghost Box releases. He has years of experience as a commercial and library composer and his mastering and audio restoration skills are much in demand, particularly on re-issue labels such as Trunk Records.

The CD&LP packaging is designed by Julian House. Elegantly simple artwork and typography, reminiscent of 80s photographic manuals and magazines, is rendered on metallic gold foil packaging. The heavyweight vinyl LP includes a free download card.

The Art of Sleeping Alone marks somewhat of a curveball within Burning Witches ever-growing catalogue, and fans of the label's output may wish to look away now. But they'd be wrong to, of course, because nothing is that simple. Nothing!

Oh Baby are Rick Hornby and Jen Devereux - distant cousins, apparently, who met in unexpected circumstances and began creating exquisitely crafted bitter-sweet 80s-sounding pop songs (that in a parallel dimension would be sung by Carly Rae Jepsen and be soundtracking sweaty end-of-summer evenings across the globe).

The band cite influences ranging from Grace Jones, A Certain Ratio and Kraftwerk, to John Carpenter, The Police and Fun Boy Three, but I'm going to chuck HAIM in there too for a more modern reference point to what some of this music reminds me of, certainly on the fabulous 'Part of the 80's' anyway.

After releasing her sophomore album Inner Song in the midst of the pandemic, Kelly Lee Owens was faced with the sudden realisation that her world tour could no longer go ahead. Keen to make use of this untapped creative energy, she made the spontaneous decision to go to Oslo instead. There was no overarching plan, it was simply a change of scenery and a chance for some undisturbed studio time. It just so happened that her flight from London was the last before borders were closed once again. The blank page project was underway.

Arriving to snowglobe conditions and sub-zero temperatures, she began spending time in the studio with Lasse Marhaug. An esteemed avant-noise artist, Marhaug envisioned making music that would fall loosely in line with Throbbing Gristle. Kelly, on the other hand, had planned to create something inspired by Enya, an artist who has had an enduring impact on her creative being. They met each other halfway, pairing tough, industrial sounds with ethereal Celtic mysticism, and creating music that ebbs and flows between tension and release.

One month later, Kelly called her label to tell them she had created something of an outlier, her ‘eighth album’.

After releasing her sophomore album Inner Song in the midst of the pandemic, Kelly Lee Owens was faced with the sudden realisation that her world tour could no longer go ahead. Keen to make use of this untapped creative energy, she made the spontaneous decision to go to Oslo instead. There was no overarching plan, it was simply a change of scenery and a chance for some undisturbed studio time. It just so happened that her flight from London was the last before borders were closed once again. The blank page project was underway.

Arriving to snowglobe conditions and sub-zero temperatures, she began spending time in the studio with Lasse Marhaug. An esteemed avant-noise artist, Marhaug envisioned making music that would fall loosely in line with Throbbing Gristle. Kelly, on the other hand, had planned to create something inspired by Enya, an artist who has had an enduring impact on her creative being. They met each other halfway, pairing tough, industrial sounds with ethereal Celtic mysticism, and creating music that ebbs and flows between tension and release.

One month later, Kelly called her label to tell them she had created something of an outlier, her ‘eighth album’.

New World Science's Osmos (Movements) is a sincere foray into forth-world fantasy, where disparate synthesizer styles are tied together by harmonized saxophone musings. Comprised of four recordings/jams between Francis Latreille (Priori-mastermind behind the project), Adam Feingold (Ex-Terrestrial), and Emmanuel Thibau, and featuring appearances by Phoebe Guillemot (Ramzi) and Richard Wenger (R Weng), these multi-stream compositions float in the uncertain spaces between electronic and acoustic, improvisation and production, old and new. Beautiful, subtle, and entrancing compositions suited to suborbital meditations.

New World Science's Osmos (Movements) is a sincere foray into forth-world fantasy, where disparate synthesizer styles are tied together by harmonized saxophone musings. Comprised of four recordings/jams between Francis Latreille (Priori-mastermind behind the project), Adam Feingold (Ex-Terrestrial), and Emmanuel Thibau, and featuring appearances by Phoebe Guillemot (Ramzi) and Richard Wenger (R Weng), these multi-stream compositions float in the uncertain spaces between electronic and acoustic, improvisation and production, old and new. Beautiful, subtle, and entrancing compositions suited to suborbital meditations.

Lunar Disko is delighted to present a new release from cult soundtrack producer, Heinrich Dressel.

Five tracks of synthesizer beauty from a master of the modern Giallo electronic sound.

Perfection...for your late-night promenade excursion.

"Re-Calibrate", the companion piece to Donoso's 2018 acclaimed album "Calibrate" continues to obfuscate any clear definition of genre or style and continues to push his music into stranger, more complex and extreme territories. Equal parts tender and twisted, cynical and honest, beautiful and obnoxious, ‘Re_Calibrate’ shines through as a major point in the composer’s discography – and provides a glimpse into the new directions being taken. ‘Re_Calibrate’ is a challenging listen; void of any trendy tropes or appeal for consumers of watered down, homogenized and dogmatic electronic music.

“Quicksilver frequencies, gravelly formants and shimmering, mirage-like washes of tone. Sometimes his sounds feel like signals picked up by a radio telescope, or pure electricity poured through a sieve” Pitchfork

With its saturated sounds, clipped beats and spacey pads, Walk Again opens a portal to a place full of mystery and promise.

Across 11 tracks, John Lord Fonda confirms that he is not only capable of writing techno bombs like We Can’t Breathe and Race For Nothing, but also breakbeat-tinged gems like Little Jazz.

The soaring melodies of Antarctica and Creme bring a dreamlike intensity to the project, while new-wave wannabee Together Again (featuring vocals by Gabriel Afathi of The George Kaplan Conspiracy) enlarges the musical horizon, planting its flag as an evolved piece of techno not afraid to mix genres.

Calmer moments such as Walk Again and A Descent Melody continue our journey into the richest of techno landscapes, where intriguing, fascinating tracks like They Will Fight For You.

Dazzling and cold, brutal and soft, the album marries a fluid, coherent mix of cerebral techno and poetic melodies, both calm and calming.

Walk Again, dance again, live again.

Premium solo material from Jordan CGZ (Magic Mountain High, Juju & Jordash). An unbounded trip around the producers musical universe. Sounds ranging from icy futuristic soundscapes to crunchy melodica techno workouts, Other-wordly Jazz explorations to hazy Rhodes washed Deep house memories.

“I feel that Jordan’s album is an innovative masterpiece that will stand the test of time” Terrence Dixon

Pressed In Detroit, MI , Artwork by Karl -Otto von Oertzen

Tony Rolando's debut »Breakin' Is A Memory« could be your soundtrack. This worldbuilding album of electronic music leaves room for the listener to make big personal connections through subtly complex music resembling a sonic mobile which, as it spins, reveals new forms and colors. This is a collection of very human music with a deceptive simplicity and relaxed intensity. RIYL early OPN, Alessandro Cortini, Caterina Barbieri, Tangerine Dream.

These is cleverly assembled music that you want to flip over and play again, like Rolando's recent cassette on Imprec's Cassauna label. As with all Imprec vinyl releases, great care has been taken to ensure that this is a high quality pressing with low noise floor and loads of sonic detail.

On "Breakin' is a Memory" Tony Rolando invites the listener on tiny adventures questing insignificant treasures. Minimal percussion only suggests rhythm, allowing your mind to wander the crystalline lattices Tony weaves from handfuls of simple arpeggios. Soft analog bass frequencies make your travels more comfortable and the Strega instrument, a recurring recognizable character, is there to lead when you are too lost. The pace of "Breakin' is a Memory" oscillates from restless roadway motion to meditative exploration. The record closes with a celebratory decimation of the graphic memories of these tiny adventures. Play it again to rekindle them.

For more than a decade, Tony Rolando has composed electricity into musical instruments at Make Noise. When he collaborated with Alessandro Cortini in 2019 to create the Strega instrument, the experience rekindled Tony's love of composing and recording music. In 2021 he released "Old Cool Echoes" with IMPORTANT Records/ Cassauna. A third release of music composed entirely for the Shared System instrument he designed will follow later this year.

Bliue Vinyl

Yamila reveals her most intimate catharsis in Visions, an album that brings together and provokes the hallucinatory powers of music. Like an ancient herald, she announces the profound feminine mystique while crossing epic melodies full of pleasure and pain. This album is a journey that prodigiously unites baroque accents, Spanish folklore – such as flamenco – and contemporary electronic music.

Her voice and music – sometimes torn and others buoyant – could resemble the score for a biblical passage (ie. visions of the Apocalypse), for they are overflowing with physical ecstasy and sounds that one can touch. Visions is composed of different forms and rhythms. Pieces like "Visions V" evolve intensely with sharp and systematized hits –– powerful layers that bring us closer to Alessando Cortini's Forse era. "Visions II", for its part, shares intensity and power with flamenco ritual patterns, as if it were an old Andalusian scene dripping with oscillations and electric shocks. Yet there are luminous vocal pieces such as "Visions I" (featuring Rafael Anton Irisarri), inspired by Manuel de Falla's Suite Española composed in 1922. Here, an aural chiaroscuro with beautiful voices and choirs is deeply fused with daring drones. And it is in the ensemble of moments of Visions where Yamila's conceptual axis is rendered solid. Pain and glory, lacerating religiosity, feminism cauterized by power, and hallucinations as a source (or pretext/tool) to be heard.

Yamila exhibits a profuse aesthetic with her music that calls for a look at the far-past with romanticism and nostalgia. Visions is radiant, intense. A unique album.

All songs written and performed by Yamila Ríos (Spain), except “Visions I”, which features Rafael Anton Irisarri. Recorded between the Swedish winter and the Belgian countryside. Additional musicians: Simbad guitar on V-IV and V-I, Vera Cavallin harp on VIV. Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studio. NY. Photos by Virginia Rota in Madrid. Design by Daniel Castrejón in Mexico City.

Daniele Ippolito compose songs of Ambient, Synthwave, New Age, Dark-wave, Progressive and Soundtrack styles. He dislike to define himself under a specific style cause his influences goes from Italo-Disco to classic music and from SoundTracks to Dark-Wave. He already collaborated for some artists of Pop and Techno music. But his foundations will stay on the 80’s style sound called also 80s revival, one of his phylosophy is to work with only vintage synthesizers hardwares who will give to his songs a warm and unique.

Sweet chilling wave sounds... Lyrical and poetik style !

Often when music is constructed with synths and other electronically generated sound makers, their level of exactitude and control is such that the vocalist will either wittingly or otherwise seek to emulate the relative artifice of the soundscape. This is often done to great effect, think Kraftwerk. But what if there was a unit whose music was synth-generated but the vocals were coming from a hot-blooded, singing-for-the-cheap-seats approach? If done well, it’s a case of two great tastes that taste great together, which brings me to System Exclusive.

Their multi genre / time period collision is like a car accident where all parties walk away not only unscathed but sure they had a great time, like two different recording sessions sharing the same space and making it work. Vocalist Ari Blaisdell (previously of Lower Self, The Beat Offs) co-exists excellently amidst the driving beats and synth waves and her guitar further helps to jailbreak the tunes from the often sterile entrapments that synths provide. Matt Jones (previously of Male Gaze, Blasted Canyons, and continuing Castle Face behind-the-scenesman)’s smart use of live drums bring great juxtaposition against the machines. Ari’s irony-free sincere delivery is the perfect closer on this very cool record, recorded ably by Enrique Tena Padilla (Osees, Wand, Beach House) in their backyard studio mid-pandemic and adorned with original artwork by Miles Wintner (L.A. Takedown, Mr. Elevator, Devon Williams). If you don’t get this slab of goodness, well, that act of non-compliance will confirm you as the pain-in-the-ass that many have described you to be in great detail during Zoom chats. How dare they! Prove them wrong! Reduce their snark to mere pseudo-intellectual piffle! Your lifeline arrives in March. Grab it. — Henry Rollins

During the 1980s, the Züri brännt riots were violent protests against exorbitant cultural subsidies enforced by the city, which had also dismantled cultural programs for Zurich’s youth. Platzspitz park was since known for its gorgeous gardens and Baroque architecture until it started to become a gathering point for heroin users, subsequently being referred to as Needle Park. Authorities permitted illegal drug use and sales at the park to try to solve the issue, but the lack of regulations meant that drug dealers and users arrived from all over Europe and crime and overdoses became rampant. Zurich became reduced to a mess of violence and anger, mud and used needles. From this atmosphere rose the genesis of the music within this album. Originally released on Calypso Now in 1986, Squares and Crossings was supposed to be part of a series called The Guild, a collection of music written by Swiss music critics. Mario Scherrer was the only one responding to this invitation, thus making him the sole contributor for this project. These productions are coated in punk varnish, simultaneously blending elements of new wave, pop, musique concrète, improvisation, poetry and ambient, which would only make sense coming from the same city as the home of the Cabaret Voltaire, the birthplace of the Dada movement. This album is not only an artistic diary, but also has an environmental affinity with this snapshot of Swiss history.

Stacks is the Belgian duo of Jan and Sis Matthé. These Antwerp residents build and undress different timbres and textures into vocal-hooked songs, flouting the rules of pop in the process. We at Knekelhuis appreciate this immensely and are delighted to work with them. ‘Love and Language’ is a romantic, moody pop-not-pop record in which everything falls perfectly into place.

Bézier returns to Dark Entries with Valencia, a six track rumination on memory, geography, and transmutation. Multi-instrumentalist Robert Yang’s Bézier project has appeared on Dark Entries many times over the last decade, most recently with the 2018 LP Parler Musique. Says Yang, “What started as a project to investigate the love of the sound and scenery while living in San Francisco quickly developed into a passionate search for interlocking melodies and driving rhythms.”
On Valencia, Bézier invokes twinned places. The Valencia Street of San Francisco is channeled, which was the center of the city’s vibrant new wave scene in the 1980s.

But also echoed is Valencia, Spain, and La Ruta del Bakalao aka La Ruta Destroy, the Spanish clubbing scene throughout the 80s and 90s famed for its aggressive and synthetic sounds. Valencia is a darker record for Yang, exploring themes of submission and catharsis with nods to SF’s gay leather bars of the 70s and 80s. The high BPM salvos of “Valencia” and “Scrupulous” capture the frantic energy of Bakalao and Valencian wave acts like Última Emoción. Elsewhere Yang mines the dreamy space disco and Hi-NRG sounds they’re known for, like on the brooding “Past the Marshes” or the anthemic “Reservoir”, which features their partner Len.Leo on vocals. Bézier deftly navigates past and present, light and dark, pain and pleasure, the stasis of memory and the flux of time.

Valencia was mastered by Alex Michalski, with EQ for vinyl done by George Horn. Gwenaël Rattke designed the sleeve, which features an 80’s punk zine-esque geometric grid pattern mirroring San Francisco street maps. Also included is a 5x7 postcard with notes.

After meeting and working with Janko Nilovic - the extraordinary French library maestro - on a new album, while traveling and performing together around the world for almost 10 years, Igor Zhukovsky & Romeo Miussky - the multi-instrumentalist production duo, and rhythm core of The Soul Surfers - were inspired to make a record of free, spiritual, esoteric sounds which blended together on tape and made Sound Excitement happen.

Drawing on their experience as soundtrack composers and using heavyweight Soviet analog equipment, including a few vintage personal instruments belonging to some legends of the Soviet leftfield music scene, Igor & Romeo started experimenting with genre-blending music. The outcome of their recordings are a mixed bag of different moods and genres.

“It's something similar to a library record or more like a compilation of many different library records on one LP for a good decade if you know what I mean? It's the work which we're really excited about and excited to share with you! ...oh that's hell of a wordplay!"- I. Zhukovsky

Much is made of Detroit techno progenitors proximity to the auto plants. Similarly, overlooked electronic pioneer Jeff Phelps was raised just blocks from a Western Pennsylvania steel mill—close enough to smell the sulphur and hear the roaring blast furnace. When Tascam released their ground breaking Portastudio in 1984— allowing multi tracking on the far more financially inclusive cassette tape—Phelps purchased one immediately, and quickly added a Roland SH-101 monophonic synthesizer, Fender Rhodes suitcase piano, Roland drum machine, and a basic Radio Shack stereo mic. Those basic tools were employed on his first commercial productions for his own Engineered For Sound label: 1985’s Magnetic Eyes LP and Antoinette’s “Now You’re Gone” 45. These DIY sketches generated few profits, and Phelps kept his day job in the energy business.

This is the first release from our new label, Kniteforce Prime, a label that is focusing on the very early days of rave, 1990-91. With more people returning to the roots of hardcore rave music, and that sound being the inspiration since the inception of Kniteforce Records, we felt it was time to start this new label. The 1990/91 era is full of bleeps, bass, pianos and breaks, and so Kniteforce Prime is heavily influenced by the Belgium techno, Italian Piano House, and UK old school sound of that time. So when it came to an opening artist for the label there was only one person to choose, Innercore. He has been making this style, along with others, for many years, and with this huge EP he didn’t disappoint. The tracks are as varied as the sound was back in those days. Piano’s, hoovers and synths are all here across the EP, from light to dark and everything in the middle.

Portland’s act DANCING PLAGUE is well known for synth wave and minimal synth addicts, having already been included two times on past Oráculo Records VA series. This EP mini album is conformed from a selection of his last two self- releases; “Bleak Moments” and “Songs of Others”. As usual on him, we could expect torn poetic messages wrapped by classical, minimal and sentimental pop structures.

With "Broken Land" Daniel Nitsch presents the first album of his latest project "Hounah" - and thus grants a deep look into his feelings and thoughts. Pieces like "Sorrow", "Fairbanks" or "Norton Bay", which invite you trace inside, are accompanied by those that present Daniel's personal views on very political and generally relevant issues, presented in songs like "Revolution", "Guilty State" or "Cash For Your Home". They cover topics like racism and gentrification, deal with the burden that imperialism places on us. Ask for what a future could look like - and how it could successfully happen at all. Thus, Hounah is not a feel-good project, "Broken Land", the title suggests it, a profound, here and there even painful inventory, which wants to stimulate reflection and further thinking. Very diverse, thematically as well as musically – and created with great attention to detail. Listening closely allows light bulb effects in terms of content, but also in terms of sound, lets us walk in the footsteps of downbeat, hip-hop, trip-hop, ambient, electronica and jazz. Hounah quickly reveals here that they are not afraid of breaks, but are also capable of soulful fusions in sound collages. The circle of friends behind Hounah, consisting of producer Daniel Nitsch, pianist Johann Blanchard, singer Lena Schmidt and guitarist Marten Pankow, came together for the album "Broken Land" in order to immediately try out further alliances: two of the songs on the album were created in creative cooperation with A-F-R-O, the internationally known rapper from Los Angeles. And so it is little surprise that each song creates a new world of sounds and thoughts – and one suspects already after the first tracks that there is more waiting for us, that "Broken Land" will not remain Hounah’s last work.

First physical solo release of singer/songwriter & multi instrumentalist Aiden Ayers comes in the form of a 7” showing two sides to his work. “Off My Mind” highly spiritual, almost psychedelic guitar pop & “Surface Tension” slightly more heavy downbeat instrumental vibes, both equally mesmerizing these tracks give small hints to what is still to come in 2022.

Very sought after early Cignol productions which were only previously released on CD. TIP!

New Swiss label Rababoo is proud to present his first release: Marcel de Sie! Oscillating between melodic industrial and shaky psychedelic music, Mr. de Sie overcomes his first 3 tracks with a static approach of electronic low drifts – in that sense, we decided to call it a soundtrack “to schuss'', in dedication to all our skiing friends from here and there. The First 2 tracks, “Filter Seq'' and “Mezzo FM'' pitch the tone of the EP and are built as explorations of dance floor narratives, with the purpose to generate a wave state of mind through a real sound experience. While the first track is a relentless technoïd filter-driven smasher which immediately bleeps your mind and floods it with sound, the second track unleashes a cascade of sounds that bring any lost hiker and drive him into a shamanic waltz in the mountain.

The Title track “Poetic Frame” is a direct response to these soundscapes, where howling disturbing synths are at times chimera that fractures the pattern and calls you back into reality.

For his 1st release, Marcel de Sie is joined by Greek producer Anatolian Weapons (Dark Entries) and Belgian’s Victor de Roo (Stroom) for the remixes. Each one delivers a proper interpretation of the 3rd track of the EP « Poetic Frame ». While Anatolian Weapons explore a tribal trance sonic journey that can drive a dervish dancer crazy, De Roo makes use of his distinguishable style and creates the most abstracted version of this track. Not scared to apply kind of a trap snare ratcheting, he brings us to a space urban take.

Put your seatbelt on, seasons are not existing for long anymore.

»C'est Disco« was the first studio album by the Italian band Rats. It was released in 1981 by Italian Records and is a record strongly inspired by the wave and dark scene of that period. The band's line-up featured vocalist Claudia Lloyd on vocals, and on guitar the only member present in the more famous version active in the late '80s and '90s, Wilko Zanni, who in the next album would take Claudia Lloyd's place on vocals.

»Obsessions« is clearly a cult single of the era and one of their Neon's personal highlights. The band recorded the 4 track live in April 1982 and then reprocessed the take at Kindergarten Studio. The twelve inch was then released on the highly influential indie label Materiali Sonori. Neon is still considered as a legend of the Italian new-wave scene, one of the leading figure of the Florence underground movement that spread between the late '70s and the early' 80s.

25 years of perpetual, subtle and occasionally lunatic compositional, recording- and production-wise workouts finally result in the first and withal last album „Asphalt“ from the realms of Rico Puestel's childhood pseudonymous getaway „Tetzlaff“.

„Asphalt“ tells genuine stories of mobility and industrialisation, freedom and boundaries, the reciprocity of humanity and technology within the tension of past, present and future. Beneath its overall nostalgic and somehow timeless electronic retro charme it has been inspired by different currents, questions and approaches from philosophy to diverging sciences that shaped this long-haul monument of creation.

Following numerous artistic and technical ordeals, the consistently analogue production went through an emotional roller coaster ride while growing up, defined by the diverging poles of magic momentums and withering setbacks and combined with a fear of never finishing what once has been initiated, wanting to become reality some day.

Years and years of striving and searching for the right gear and recording setups to make this miniature album sound the way it should, never left out the central aspect of one perceptible and pure storytelling. Each song, as intimate, neat and almost predictable it might appear, has been elaborately designed moment by moment, second by second, byte by byte, revised hundreds of times, scrapped and recreated, dismantled and reconstructed.

„Asphalt“ enters and exists stage as a conceptual and musical unicum of its own that claims its self-fulfilling destiny by an endless circularity of endings and new beginnings...

RECOMMENDED
As the title suggests, this is the third instalment in the Err Rec Library series. Following on from Urban Spaces (Vol.1), and Science & Technology (Vol.2), part three is themed around wildlife and nature, although that might lead some down the wrong garden path. Less bird noises and gentle wind noises floating on an ambient dreamscape, more arpeggiation saturated in an air of mystery. Half the arrangements here could have soundtracked an episode of The Twilight Zone, but crucially all sound human, or at least of this world, rather than some other.

As per the other outings in this series, all arrangements are original, and call on some esteemed and experienced composers to realise grandiose ideas. Production involves analogue synthesisers, electric instruments and acoustic alike, with the overall result being a captivating oddity that can't help but inspire you to consider the wonders of this strange, beguiling life.

”Gateway” The opening track leads you through a universe of cosmic melodies and imagination into a new atmosphere. Deep kicks ride along bubbled bass lines, rave-y stabs, and sinister Detroit strings.*

"LIGHT SPAN" * Huge drum work and clever percussion take us further into the void covered with gorgeous arps & snappy snares. Definitely a sound of the time as well as the future, taking the listeners back to the 90's rave era with its massive bass stabs. Enjoyable journey music.

* "NEBULA 7" *A fine taste of Detroit techno string work and arrangement, the EP's ending track pushes the ear to the final elements of the journey. Haunting voices, funky space bass and futuristic cool. Well chilled and served perfectly as a completion of the EP, this track rounds out the 'Trilogy Wave' series concept of the group in this 1995 popular recording reissue.

Do you believe in ghosts ? Those things that cannot be explained which lurk where we fear to tread once that last light goes dark ? Paranormal Sounds of the Synthesizer, was written and conceived as a library record for just that. Electronic music composers Repeated Viewing and Timothy Fife have created a record to take you into the world of the paranormal, the unexplained, and what happens when the light goes out
Paranormal Sounds of the Synthesizer is a “split” LP. Repeated Viewing covers side A, while Timothy Fife handles side B. Repeated Viewing’s mood is of dread and darkness. They build a musical world of haunted parlors, candles flickering, and incantations spoken in whispered tongues. Timothy Fife, by contrast, takes us into the world which lies between here and there. Electrical pulses and droning currents make contact with the other side, giving static charge and access to afterlife conversations with those long from this earth.

Tolouse Low Trax, Sacha Mambo, General Purpose and newcomer Berkay Mate get on the remix of Ex Ponto’s ‚ Neka Neka' LP. Neka Neka is a nod to ex-Yugoslavian experimentalists of the 80s (Rex Ilusivii, Kozmetika, Miha Kralj etc) and the thriving, late-night hedonism of Belgrade's Club 20/44

Tolouse Low Trax provides a remix to Middle Path that is experimental, deep and pulsating. The track is obscure, but has a pulse that you can feel in your chest and ears listening to be beautiful spoken words which will leave you in a trance.

Sacha Mambo reworks 20-40 into a vivid melodic trip that goes into the explorations of the cosmos. The movement of this track is groovy and uplifting, it will keep you on the move. The eclecticism and craziness of Sacha Mambo are definitely heard in this remix.

General Purpose remix Ex Ponto into psychedelic drug chug. This mid-tempo acid banger will keep your body moving, melt your mind and the break down will set you off. Close your eyes and immerse yourself in the vivid journey.

Berkay Mete serves up a remix of intoxicating Eastern sounds. This track is ideal for a sun soaked dancefloor or in the darkness of the nightclubs. Wherever it is played it will, the rhythm will grab you and keep you.

Montreal duo Mathieu Charbonneau (Avec Pas d'Casque, Organ Mood) and Pietro
Amato (Bell Orchestre, The Luyas) put melody and mood front and centre on this
second volume of luxuriant, immersive synth music. Like a humanist balm amidst
the ongoing wave of conceptronica, the pieces that comprise Synth Works Vol 2
were captured organically, live off the floor, on the eve of the pandemic. Recalling
elements of 70s kosmische and environmental musics, the collection finds the
longtime collaborators roving uncharted territory, ever mindful of their fellow
passengers.

Reissue of this obscure cassette from 1987, a really interesting rarity by Carl Matthews under the CAM moniker. Sturdy synth basslines sculpt solid rhythm patterns that bring to mind the innovations of the moment in electro and dance records. Having in mind that Matthews was a white ambient composer, it´s very curious to find him dropping these groovy bombs that sound like a primitive detroit electro or hip hop beats, mixed with sampled voices that recall Art of Noise influences. Also to mention the conceptual work: Quid Rides is inspired in Roman Civilization, as the name of both the album and tracks point (all of them in latin). Experimental-roman-electro seems to be a pretty weird label, but works fine here... Mutant-futuristic-proto-electro for roman statues would work too.

Bringing together therapeutic frequencies, forest bathing
(shinrin-yoku) and binaural sound, Hinako Omori's ‘a journey...’
combines inner healing and natural landscapes into in an
immersive cartography of the mind in ambient electronics. The
album progresses not track by track but as a continuous
journey, a stream of consciousness tracing hills and valleys with
the warmth of analogue synthesis and Omori’s voice always
close at hand. Omori detuned oscillators to create binaural
beats, syncing to the Hz of our brainwaves so that listeners
might further find themselves calmed by and immersed in these
soundscapes
 ‘a journey...’ was recorded at Omori’s home studio and Real
World Studios, when Omori was an invited to perform at the
immersive online festival WOMAD At Home. Spatial 3D
recordings are woven throughout the album, and situate each
track in different environments, from waterways to forests in and
around the Mendip Hills.
 It is Hinako’s work in sound engineering that provides the
bedrock of skills that manifest her vision for ‘a journey...’,
articulating a whole world in binaural field recordings, analogue
synthesisers, and augmented vocals.
 The album sits within a rich lineage of electronic musicians who
have looked to music for its healing properties, from
Venezuelan musician Miguel Noya to Pauline Anna Strom’s
ambient soundscapes; Pauline Oliveros’ deep listening
meditations and the augmented field recordings of Irv Teibel’s
‘Environments’ series.
 Mastered and cut by Matt Colton at Metropolis.
 LP pressed on white vinyl.

As for N2MU’s 7th reference Delayscape has drafted the most mature album of his career: 8 heterogeneous landscapes made of Electro, Synth and Acid to pay homage to the futuristic aesthetic of the scifi series of the 70’s.