Beats News

For over four decades, Reiko Omura and Tori Kudo have endlessly woven themselves throughout the avant-garde and underground scene of Japan. While internationally appreciated in countless incarnations and contexts (Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Guys & Dolls), if one were to seek out an early moment in which the two artists created something truly awe inspiring, 1980’s Tenno (天皇) would be it.

As Noise, the duo experimented with the juxtaposition of Kudo’s extended organ based dirges (be they eerie and/or harmonious) and fragile, meditative harmonies found in Omura’s voice and more abstract moments of minimal trumpet, sparse drum and atonal guitar. Simultaneously tense and beautiful, echoes of Tenno can be found resonating in the work of their contemporaries and countless others spanning the past 40 years and an infinite amount more to come.

The LP was originally released by ALM and subsequently reissued in 1997 on CD (Pataphysique) and LP (Org), and on CD again in 2005 (Alchemy). Just past it’s 40 year anniversary, Moone Records is elated to announce the first edition of Tenno released outside of Japan as a LP in a limited run of 500 copies – bringing the monumental release back into print on vinyl for the first time in 23 years.

Hold The Sun is a talented electronic music act based in Sweden. New to the scene and making quite an impact, while the artist wants to stay as anonymous as possible, her otherworldly electro and colorful appearance on stage are creating a stir that's got people talking.

For her debut longplayer, Hold The Sun has put together a mixture of deep electro beats, thick analogue basslines and a rich retro feel to the production and synthwork. Wrapped in the hypnotizing format of melodic minimalism over a variety of tempos and vibes. This stylistic edge is combined with a flair for deep storytelling in some tracks, John Carpenter-esque melancholic synth work and even a meditative ambience on occasion. It is this breadth of sound which truly showcases her talent.

An LP that feels like a ceremony of hypnotic sounds and retro-tropical electro beats. Begin the spiritual journey - Join the dance!

Medical return to Italy to present the newest full-length album by Filippo Diana (alter ego of Joe Drive). Where as Joe Drive's outpt is in the vein of techno, electro and house, Filippo Diana veers more in the direction of mutated library/soundtrack nu-disco. After just delivering a burner on Slow Motion, Joe is at it again. Consisting of eight tracks expertly mastered by Marco Spaventi, join us on a journey as equally suited for progressive dance floors or the soundtrack to the deep recesses of the mind. Presented on high-quality 180gm black vinyl.

After a brilliant response to Pedro Vian’s debut Album “Beautiful Things You Left Us For Memories” towards the end of 2016, we shared “BTYLUFM Remixed,” an EP that showcases five remixes from Eric Copeland, a frequent collaborator of Animal Collective; the Swedish producer Peder Mannerfelt; two from the exceptional musician and DJ Tevo Howard and Escapismo, an anonymous project of which we cannot detail any information.

"Cosmic Shift" by Swiss-based DJ and Producer 'Lexx', with real name 'Alex Storrer'. He's a smartly crafted blend of styles from start
to finish. Soulful sounds of the inner city meet distinct melodies with a longing for an island in the sun.

The Album encompasses Neo Soul, Dub, Pop and hints traces of the Producers twenties as a Hip Hop addict in the golden era of the genre.
Collaborators include the Los Angeles based Woolfy and Harriet Brown, Ella Thompson from Melbourne, Jonnny Spencer of Chicken Lips fame and up and coming songstress Asé from Zurich.

After a long list of official remixes for many renown labels; occasional singles, Lexx ultimately felt the urge to tell his own story. It’s intimate, the sound of dawn, of twilight. Right before the night falls...

After the heaviest of years, it should be time to take a little weight off with the playful sounds of The Person. Mapping its own Bermuda Triangle between dub-pop, sugary synthwave and Balearic boogie, ‘Tide Life’ transports Compass Point to Soggy Bottom, providing maximum fun, sun and bitmap escapism.

The eagle-eared may recognise The Person from the aspirational Italo-rockers Steaming Jeans, whose chalet-ready romp on Bordello A Parigi scored a Winter Olympic gold back in early 2020. Now left to her own devices, Minna Wight swaps the slopes for a jet ski and takes a Wave Race from Summer Bay to Monkey Island across 11 cuts of vintage oddball pop.

Whether she’s borrowing Brenda’s Beach Balls for the dubby daydream of ‘Snail Cafe’ and ‘The Place’, serving lost library cues to SNES club scenes on ‘Barry R Reef’ and ‘Elastic Shoes’ or spinning high school slow jams into synth soul ballads like ‘Nice Feeling’, Minna disguises serious musicianship behind a naive aesthetic. Disarmed by charm, we’re powerless to resist her tidal pull.
Patrick Ryder

Earlier this year, Tom Trago established the DIY label Jong Nederlands as a vehicle for the improvised, straight-to-tape tracks he records every day at his home studio in Bergen, a sleepy town on the Netherlands’ North West coast. His intention was to surprise and inspire in equal measure, delivering emotive musical material crafted with a small selection of electronic instruments, drumcomputers and effects units.

It's down to this ethos that no two label releases follow the same direction – as listeners will discover when they tune in to this speedy sequel to JNL001, which hit stores early in the year. Opener “From Above” is poignant and melancholic, with bittersweet synth-strings, spacey motifs and bubbly lead lines riding a lo-fi drum machine groove, while the track that follows, “Young Janet”, offers warmth in morning-fresh musical sunshine via rich Rhodes motifs, chunky drums and sparkling synthesizer riffs.

Darkness, and late-night intensity is provided by title-track “You Deserve Better”, a mind-mangling, acid-fired excursion where trippy, razor-sharp TB-303 lines rise above tough but dusty drums and a suitably weighty bassline. Trago’s basement-bothering intent can also be heard loud and clear on the EP’s final excursion, “Passenger Seat”. Here he readies an imaginary starship for take-off, reaching for flighty, Italo-disco style lead lines, increasingly forthright motifs and the kind of crunchy electronic drums that have long been a feature of futuristic and far-sighted machine music.

The sleeves are all hand stamped by Pieter Bijwaard

Emika & Paul Frick collaborate and make magical music from pianos, a vibraphone robot and synths that play themselves

* Their music feels like rainbow drops, raining colour, light bouncing from crystal gemstones. Reminiscent of Erik Satie, Laruie Anderson, with a melodic glitchy nod to Aphex Twin.

* This is music that channels some seriously beautiful light. It’s a great record to both wake up to and reflect under the moonlight.

* CNCPT brings the Berlin experimental Techno vibes, turning them into what they perhaps should have always been (if Emika & Paul Frick weren’t so in love with sound art minimalism). A perfect match for the flipside.

* A very satisfying A & B realisation on the vinyl. Vinyl release includes sticker with the digital download + score book + synth midi files

* An experimental Berlin trio at it’s finest.

Pressed at Duophonic Germany, minimal wait times, amazing sounding TPs, family run, buying from us supports them also.

Crazy 12 Track Library Music Style Album On This Ace Italian Label. All Based Around Bumping Live Rhythms Triggering An Obscure Japanese Drum Synth Module..recorded In 2017.
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It Was November 2017 When I Received A Call From An Old Friend, "hi Fabrizio, I Found A Rare Japanese Drum Machine, You Should Come And See It Before I Put This On Ebay." I Went To Check It Out And Immediately Realized It Had More Potential Than Just Drum Sounds Generation, It Was Able To Produce Quirky And Creepy Sounds If Triggered By Any Sound Source. So I Bought It And Brought In The Studio, Where Me And Alex Were Laying Down New Beats And Ideas. It Took Just Three Days Of Jams To Get The Skeleton Of This Record Done: I Programmed The Module To Receive Alex's Drum Hits And The Device Started Creating Synth Lines, Almost As It Was Speaking Its Own Language.i've Found A Soul In This Machine, And I Wanted To Bring It To Life In These Tracks, A Mix Of Arranged Compositions And Improvised Jams. No Root Keys, No Grids, No Clicks, Everything Came Out In An Instinctive And Natural Way

As Far As We Know It's The First Time This Synthesizer/drum Machine Is Been Used In This "improper" And New Way.

Left Ear are re-introducing another ten lost tracks from Nicholas Georgieff and Virgil Work, St Louis' basement electronics duo Workdub.
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The release spans material from 1989-95 and includes recordings from their sole LP and both cassette albums. Workdub's music hardly fits into a vacuum and some might even say it's otherworldly. Tracks like Reach for the Stars' and Lunar Module' reflect dreams of space-age exploration, all the while their investigation into drum machines, synthesizers, samples and digital fx's matched with their organic live instrumentation work to create a unique atmospheric dubbed out sound.

12" + 7"

Montreal’s based KINDEST CUTS is without any kind of doubt one of the actual world's leading synthwave/synthpop acts. Perfect pop structures and outstandingly captive musical progressions in perefct combination with classical genre male deep lead voice, following the trace of early Depeche Mode or Camouflage. KINDEST CUTS "Keeping Distance" Ltd. Edition 12" EP + bonus 7" (vinyl edition) comes presented in a ONE-OFF truly limited edition of 200 copies lacquered pressed on 180 gr. high quality solid BLACK vinyl. All tracks have been specially remastered for LONG CUT vinyl by Daniel Hallhuber at Young and Cold Studios (Germany).

11 lo-fi minimal wave smasher with German vocals.

Originally self-released as a tape under the artist name Pest(e), this 1996 collection of IDM and analog electronics is in fact the debut Lowfish album. Intended as a demo, it caught the attention of infamous UK label Skam —but after months of fruitless phone tag with the label, it was time for Gregory De Rocher to strike out on his own. Dropping his Pest(e) moniker in favour of Lowfish, in 1997 De Rocher co-founded Suction Records with like-minded producer Jason Amm, aka Solvent. While that Test(e) tape wasn’t technically a Suction Records release, it served as the impetus for starting the label, and we’ve always referred to it as catalog # suction000.

Fans of mid/late-90s Artificial Intelligence classics from Autechre, Locust, Aphex Twin, u-Ziq, and Bola will recognize those hallmark sounds here, alongside traces of formative influence from Skinny Puppy, OMD, and Tangerine Dream. Recorded live to DAT with a bedroom full of analog classics (Roland Jupiter 6, TR-808, TR-606, Arp Odyssey, Korg MS-20), a sampler, and an arsenal of cheap FX units, the melodies here are lush and addictive, with layers of warm, lo-fi-ish (get it?) grit - often intentional, sometimes just a product of the process. Although largely on the armchair techno tip, the dense drum programming also nods to the burgeoning drum and bass movement, which De Rocher was firmly (but only briefly) obsessed with.

For the first time on vinyl and rightfully re-branded as a Lowfish release, we’re thrilled to have Test(e) officially join the Suction Records catalog

Lydmor's new album 'Capacity' is a musical maze full of alluring mysteries. At the same time, it is part of a process of liberation, which is about opening oneself up and discovering one's capacity. For her previous album, Lydmor travelled to Shanghai. But on her new album, Lydmor has mostly travelled deep into herself. 'Capacity' is a contrasting musical work where fiction and reality merge into a multifaceted sound universe. It is the electronic pop artist's most personal, complex and conceptual album to date. There is almost a David Lynch'ish cut about 'Capacity'. The album is like a winding maze where it is difficult to decipher what is real and what is an illusion. Like a book with countless narratives. Without conclusions. Ambiguous. Full of alluring mysteries, dreams, reflections and messages about gender, identity, love, guilt and liberation. Rich in contrasts: Black/white. Silence/noise. Weakness/strength. Fiction/reality. Labyrinth/compass.
Multiple media has compared the quirky voice to the likes of Grimes, Kate Bush or Björk but inevitably the comparisons fall short. (Kaltblut Magazine) - With brutal honesty, unbelievable vulnerability and yet dreamy, she sings the soul out in her pulsating electronic pop songs. The soft, bright voice is deceptive. Denmark's "hidden gem" is a must-listen. (Flux FM) - She is every bit as innovative as Madonna ever was when she started out. Lydmor ticks all the boxes; the girl has everything. For my money she’s the most ground-breaking, inventive artist in Europe right now, possibly in the world. (God Is In The TV, UK) - A unique artist who somehow manages to combine sophisticated and subtle balladry with strident electronic pop, I’ve declared previously that I believe she is only one step away from becoming a big name. Perhaps the feelings are supposed to be mutually inclusive, as the song swings musically from simply cold to complexly hot. It is one that does try to combine both sides of her song writing persona, the introverted balladry and the more elaborate, extrovert electro-pop. (Nordic Music Review) - Revolting pop pathos, primed with pumped up beats. (Negative White, Switzerland)

Seattle’s Profit Prison is back with a new 6-track EP.

The solo work of Parker Lautenschlager, previously in local hardcore and black metal bands as well as power electronics acts, was debuted by Dominick Fernow’s Hospital Productions in 2017 and his first full EP Six Strange Passions was released by Avant! approximately one year ago. Inspired by Franz Kafka as much as Kraftwerk, Profit Prison achieves a cold minimalism that speaks to the nightmarish dystopia in which it was created, even more so in the light of the political events that shook the US and Parker’s very hometown recently.

His new Dreams of a Dark Building continues on the dark path of its predecessor, mixing catchy synth melodies and gloomy atmospheres, all strengthened by 70’s disco-like Hi-NRG electronic beats for the perfect dungeon synth pop outcome.
The opener Cleric sports a riff that could have been written by the evil twin of Gershon Kingsley, A Premonition sounds like Ken Laszlo had joined the dark side. 120 Days is the main single of the EP and it’s just melancholically addictive, In This Hour Of Loss has got synths that would make Moroder proud. We could go on but we bet you got the score by now. If you’re in for the best umbriferous synth music, look no further.
Artwork by London-based talented young artist Hila Angelica.

RIYL: Kraftwerk, Experimental Products, Das Ding, Autumn, Fata Morgana.

THE ONLY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ONE AND NONE IS N TRANS HUMAN OBJECT (THO) //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// THE SUPERIOR FUNCTION ************************************************ X1N SAYS: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// IN THE VAST SURFACE OF ALL MATHEMATICAL EQUATIONS, ONE CAN SENSE EVENTS WHICH SEEM TO COME FROM OTHER DIMENSIONS - RIPPLES AND PATTERNS. THE ZERO POINT NINE INFINITE NUMBER LINE NEVER REACHES ONE, YET IS ONE, NONETHELESS. 0.9999... READ THAT SEQUENCE LIKE A MANTRA. A MANTRA OF DEATH. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// “I TALK IN ALPHA NUMERALS” ************************************************ ### denotes “end”. No more messages to follow.

“It’s not easy to transform a jam into a proper tune that haunts forever. The two Glaswegian friends MR TC and Lo Kindre are in possession of that special skill that can transform spontaneous tuned-in music into something significant without losing the gut feeling along the way.

As solo artists they have released on labels like Optimo Music, 12th Isle and Against Fascism Trax, and together released 'The Storm EP' in late 2018 on Vienna's Neubau. Now they continue their collaborative work on PHASE001 – an EP that also marks the launch of their own label that listens to the same name. The start-up brings four analogue tracks that courageously link cold waving synth-shocks, neon-light nonchalance and haunted spoken words; deep hypnotic musical witchcraft that peels itself out of the history of dark electronic music with a pulsating and haunting atmosphere.”

- Words by ML

Zombies are undead by nature and these ones seem to be not only not dead, but very much alive and active:
ZOMBIES IN MIAMI is a project created by Canibal & Jenouise and despite the name they are not crawling around Miami, but shining out their light from Mexico. The couple became one of the most prominent members of Mexico‘s vital electronic scene over the last decade. You can call their sound a rhythmic and synth-driven house and techno hybrid, with a disco and balearic twist, which is held together by the oh so sweet Italo Drama.
As the living dead always seemed to be a big inspiration for Italian filmmakers, the love seems mutual and the movie scores rubbed off on the other end as well. After highly acclaimed EPs and tracks for such diverse labels as Gerd Janson's Running Back, Jennifer Cardini's Correspondant, Prins Thomas's Internasjonal as well as Hippie Dance or Bordello A Parigi, now it’s time for the great couple’s first album: "2712" on Permanent Vacation. The vast experience of Zombies in Miami as a long lasting music production team, as well as
performing live acts around the world (which brought them to the some of the best clubs and festivals on this planet) culminates in 8 tracks that perfect their futuristic retro sound. An ideal match for Permanent Vacation! You probably won't find a better combination of Italo arpeggio lines, house pianos, disco drums as well as sun kissed and mythical soundscapes for your summer soundtrack.

Mothball Record in association with Bordello A Parigi is proud to present one of the strangest and most mysterious recordings from the whole Italo-Disco era. Sitting somewhere between goth, italo and new wave, “Space Melody” is a dedication to ancient Egypt and outer space.
The original EP was almost totally lost to the sands of time, until recently the original mastertape was unearthed by the artist and later painstakingly transferred by Rude 66.

The record is completed by new instrumental versions from the Danish Italo king Flemming Dalum and the Spanish italo duo Futuro.

Thinktank return to Stepback Records with another colony of underground styles. Hive Mind Mentality further expands on the diverse, unique in your face club tracks that Thinktank have made a signature of their sound.

First up on the A side is Them. Budding entomologists Vinnie and The Leph aka Thinktank have unearthed what some might say as Sci-Fi Classic Techno of The Atomic Age. Underpinned by a Sheffield style Bass crawl coupled with Bleeps that will crush any dancefloor. This is the electronic sound of nature running amok.

Burrowing further on the B side STW serves you Techno in it's most creative form - synth led with a sick groove and huge drum rhythms.

Last but not least - Waaaassps DG is a classic Thinktank track with a sting in it's tail. Snapping, clapping, alive and kicking. You will be buzzing when the break-beat drops.

A native of Poznan, the multi-instrumentalist composer/producer Waclaw Zimpel has steadily been gaining recognition as one of the most singular and original talents to have emerged from Poland in contemporary times. His second solo album 'Massive Oscillations' is set for release on January 31st, and is his first for the Amsterdam-based label Ongehoord. At various points Waclaw deploys bass clarinet, alto clarinet, electronics, prepared upright piano and Yuri Landman guitar object. Wojciech Traczyk adds double bass and Holly Hock provides vocals to 'Release', whist all tracks were mixed by James Holden, who according to Zimpel "added his magic touch". 'Massive Oscillations' is Zimpel's most accomplished album to date - a hypnotic and beguiling work given to moments of subtle euphoria. Gently rhythmic, repetetive but morphing grooves are decorated with elegant musical flourishes. An exquisite vertical listening experience, tracks rev like ignition on a motor. They swell, undulate and breathe in a non linear motion, hovering more than moving, or steadily levitating heavenwards. 'Massive Oscillations' is the result of a nine-day residency at the Willem Twee studio in Den Bosch, Netherlands. The longplayer is not only a consolidation of Zimpel's previous experiments, but is also driven by his curiosity and desire to explore new avenues and possibilities, striving to create an innovative musical vernacular. Inspired as much by jazz as electronics, minimalism and roots music from across the world, he doesn't so much blur boundaries as eradicate them altogether. "I was looking for new kinds of sounds and had an idea of where I wanted 'Massive Oscillations' to go," says Zimpel, "but that all changed the moment I started playing with the studio's collection of vintage synthesizers and electronic equipment." In keeping with his restless improvisational spirit, Zimpel jettisoned previous ideas and set about using the studio's array of oscillators, generators, sequencers, tape recorders and filters (alongside his beloved clarinet) to capitalize on opportunities the facility offered him. Subliminal factors were also at play: Having tuned the oscillators by ear for 'Sine Tapes' and title track 'Massive Oscillations', whilst attempting to work out melodies on his clarinet, Zimpel found he'd inadvertently arrived at a lower frequency than intended. By a happy accident, he realized he'd subconsciously been tuning in to the bells of St Jan's Cathedral, which is located close to the studio. "It was this kind of magical coincidence that really helped shape the recording", he recalls.

COSMOS is of the collaboration between two breakbeat lovers : GEORGE DINOSAUR and VENTURI.
All aboard the spaceship and be prepared for a wonderful analog synth journey. These four groovy, out of time, refreshing and dreamy tracks will bring you beyond the unknown frontier of dusty old synths landscapes. For sure, you will get the smile for the day .

Japanese 3 piece electronic band “D.A.N.”’s world wide debut single on mule musiq’s sister label “studio mule”. D.A.N. is a probably most successful japanese band in a electronic music scene at the mo-ment, they’ve performed with james blake, the xx, bonobo and name a few in japan. “Sundance” is a first single cut from their 2nd album (it’s released in only japan). It’s a electric boogie track which some people bring “the xx” to mind.

Mushrooming into Red Laser Corp's continuing & stringent program of providing the best modern Manctalo (TM) and related flavours, Luca Dell'Orso follows up his taster session on Red Laser EP9 (RL28) with a fully realised solo EP.

Based in Holland and obviously taking in the might of European dance influences that surround him, 'A New Paradigm' spawns a new natural genome, between Italo disco, Belgium new beat and our own, homegrown synth jizz that we've championed from the start. In short, rickety old drum boxes jostle with that favoured analogue machinery that powers all the big bombs from our infamous discotheque!

Hammered to death off Pharaoh Brunson's battered stix, the tracks here were snowballing on dancefloors so much before lockdown, the .wav was actually starting to see some binary wear and tear, so we chivvied along the pressing plants to get it on wax pronto; and despite much of our beloved industry suffering setbacks and turmoil at the moment, we've managed to beam it down to your decks just in the nick of time. Get in!

A wild obsession with big gated drums, jagged arps and darkly vocodered vox characterizes the EP; with moods veering from all-out, popper-huffing nihilism into star-gazing wanderlust with spontaneous combustions of nearby neutron stars thrown in for good measure.
Four tracks that epitomise our label's musical agenda: rugged and rumbly, charged and electric. Kinetic and mad functional, nocturnal body music with a head full of nitrates and a coital throb down under.
It should find perfect habitat at any late nite dance n drug den once we're allowed to get up close, sweaty and start reaching for the red lasers again...

Melbourne producer Adam McCoy, aka Citizen Maze, returns to Analogue Attic after his widely acclaimed 'Serenity in the Woods' from 2018.

The signature depth and versatility of McCoy's productions is again at the forefront in 'Northern Angelique', with 5 musically rich compositions that lend themselves to a broad range of listening occasions.
The first 3 tracks are contemplative and psychedelic, before the record takes on a deeper and darker tone for the remaining 2. Each track feels connected through a sense of simultaneous intensity and gentleness.
McCoy says it was the angelic nature of a vox synth, reflections from long beach walks in solitude and the thought of a flight to central Australia that inspired the release. Field recordings from coastal Southeast Asia feature throughout.
Hamish Mackay features on guitar..

On his debut album producer and Squama co-founder Martin Brugger hovers through Ambient, (upbeat) Downbeat and unfulfilled build-ups.
Conceptualized as a blank soundtrack, the music was sent to fellow artists who shared their visual and verbal associations which became the source for the artwork and tracktitles, effectively making the album a collective effort.
Evident in all of his recent projects is Brugger's passion for working and thriving within closely set limits.
The only audio sources in the process of making the album were his record player and a Dave Smith Prophet 08 synthesizer. In an antithesis to most sample-based music, Brugger takes the more ephemeral moments of recorded music and uses pitching tools as a magnifying glass to dive deeper into the sound and bare layers that normally remain unheard.

The Magic Movement welcomes Anatta to the family with her Fields Of Play EP.

Following her debut Album on Random Collective, her new EP comes as a four-track package:

In the original mix, Anatta invites us to discover a sonic world between pitched down UK House and future-primitive downbeat.
Rough Drumbeats, quirky synths, and catchy vocal chops guide us through a sophisticated arrangement with unforeseen twists and turns.

Salon des Amateurs resident Tolouse Low Trax delivers the 'Knights & Wheels Remix' in his signature style: While a hypnotic vocal loop hooks you up from the very beginning, minimalistic and dreamy synths slowly submerge the listener into a jam of stripped-down Lo-Fi funk.

The 'Beat Mix' by Rio de Janeiro's sound wizard Carrot Green and long time family member of the label, speeds up the tempo, and puts together a groove of classic electro boogie vibes with a P-Funky bassline that sounds like a futuristic liaison between Afrika Bambaataa and George Clinton.

Increasing the UK house vibe with strong drums and a wobbly bassline, Noema's 'Acid Ghetto Style Remix' works the mysterious vocals of Anatta into a delicious hook and creates a highly animating and fun dancefloor monster.

And now, let's get weird!!!

Minimal Wave present the reissue of a rare self-released record by Plugpoint Music called ‘Last Chance’. Plugpoint Music was the minimal synth project of Reiner Ossmann, who recorded the 12 songs on this album in his home studio in Germany in 1987 and released them as an edition of 200 copies. This gem of a record was never properly distributed and so essentially disappeared until it began circulating amongst various collectors during the last 15 years. The sound has been compared to the likes of Mort Garson and Cluster. It’s a true minimal synth classic in all of its eccentricity and lack of self-consciousness. The record has been remastered and is pressed on 180-gram black vinyl as an edition of 500 copies along with a lyric insert sheet.

It's been six years since Starion's incredible "Mind Bender EP" (RL09) circulated our orbit - a masterpiece seemingly beamed from a utopic late nite discotheque on a far-away star cluster, and one that immediately promoted the then Manctalo rookie up the ranks of the Red Laser hierarchy.
Subsequently dropping primo synth sizzlers with Tron-like precision via the label's V/A EPs, the producer returns with four more particle-splitting bangers for our nocturnal delectation.

Quintessentially Manctalo, 'Altered States' captures the producer's Streford-based, garage-cum-studio humming with activity. Encircled with everlasting chord progressions, excitable drum patterns and a plethora of star-studded synthesizers, the tracks glide through Starion's humble quadrant with a deep, guided desire to touch our hearts and power positive interactions.

'Mind Funk', with its spark plug percussion and intense squelch washes euphoric, gated vox through its shadowy, amorphous, electro-charged circuitry; leading us with trepidation into the vast unknown. Key title track 'Altered States' ionizes its surroundings with a charged and uplifting synth array containing a whole multitude of messages and motifs to decipher in the dance.

In one inspired moment Starion explores the archetypal realms of electronic disco through a colossally robotic rendition of 'Spacer Woman' before 'Condo Cruise' finally, ensures that Red Laser devotees have a brand new, radium-studded dancefloor gem to digest when the discotheques are open once more, its heart-tickling sequences and end-of-era majesty showing us a positive path thru the New Normal...

Housed in a limited risograph sleeve designed by Manchester artist, DJ and musician Glen Cutwerk it's another carefully mined nugget of Manctalo heritage humans and their AI-upgraded incarnations will enjoy for many millennia to come.

For fans of Four Tet / Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith / Floating Points /Orlando Weeks.

A beautifully composed and masterfully produced album spanning deep alternative electronica, modern classical and concrète ambiance. An essential debut release from the collaborative duo featuring  contemporary instrumentation and a guest vocal performance from Orlando Weeks. Packaged in unique artwork by Diana Gradinaru.

Sami El-Enany & Dampé - Opix 
Sami and Joe (Dampé (Rinse FM) have been friends since college and collaborated on music and sound projects growing up. For the past few years they have drifted in and out of touch in London, catching glimpses of the other's work from afar. It took worldwide lockdown for the idea of the Opix LP to form. 
The sharing of a nostalgic photograph led to the idea of a new multiplayer online RPG campaign to pass the time and distract from cycles of bleak headlines, Instagram and jobs boards. That quickly transformed into remote music making and collaboration, bouncing material and reactions back and forth across the internet.  Early lockdown for them will be defined by these songs. Celebratory and escapist, a way of protecting themselves from the panic of the moment.
Sami’s focus has always been composition, working closely with directors, writers and artists to create bespoke scores and sound for film, TV, games radio, theatre and installations. Joe works in dance music, running venues, presenting a monthly show on Rinse FM and has released a series of club-focused Dampé records on Berlin’s Dirt Crew and London’s WotNot Recordings. You can hear the two contexts collide across the record to make a dreamy electronica with influences from the concert hall to the club via gaming and film. 
The music was made in two home studios with skyped-in recording sessions with incredible instrumentalists including jazz drummer Luca Caruso, Double Bassist Nina Harries, trumpeter Wilfred Petherbridge and songwriter and vocalist Orlando Weeks.
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Sami El-Enany is a British Egyptian composer and producer whose work negotiates the fringes of modern classical, electronica and field recording. Alongside his own productions, he works closely with directors, writers and artists to create bespoke scores and sound for film, TV, games, radio, theatre and installations. Recent works include Tongue Tied, produced for BBC Radio 4, Deadly Structures, a sound-only first-person exploration game produced by the ICA and the BBC and to be released on Mac and PC this year, and the film score for Walking With Shadows, the first LGBTQ+ Nollywood feature film ever made, also to have a worldwide release this year.
Dampé is a studio project from South East London. On moving to the city he has been intimately involved in its club culture from running warehouse spaces and booking venues to hosting a monthly show on Rinse FM plus DJing and performing in groups across the city and Europe. Currently based out the Rhythm Section Studio and a home (boat) studio he’s working on a series of records following 2019’s debuts drops on Berlin’s Dirt Crew and London’s WotNot recordings.

INFLUENCED FROM BANDS SUCH AS SUICIDE, D.A.F AND THE EARLY UK ELECTRONIC SCENE, ABSOLUTE BODY CONTROL WAS FORMED IN BELGIUM BACK IN 1980, INFLUENCING AND INVENTING GENRES EVER SINCE AND ACHIEVING AN UNDERGROUND CULT FOLLOWING THAT STRONGLY RESISTS NOWADAYS.

AFTER RELEASING A 7 INCHES, SEVERAL TAPES AND CONTRIBUTE TO MANY COMPILATIONS WORLDWIDE, THE BAND MEMBERS WENT SEPARATE WAYS, WITH DIRK IVENS AND ERIC VAN WONTERGHEM FINDING SUCCESSES IN OTHER INFLUENTIAL ACTS SUCH AS THE KLINIK, DIVE, BLOCK 57, S/HE, MOTOR!K, SONAR, MONOLITH, AND INSEKT. AFTER A VERY LONG BREAK RE-FORMED AGAIN AND RELEASED "LOST & FOUND", "TAPES 81-89" AND "WINDREWIND", WHICH CONTAINS NEWLY RECORDED VERSIONS OF THEIR BEST TRACKS. FOLLOWING THESE RELEASES, THEY HAVE RETURNED IN 2010 WITH THE ALBUMS "SHATTERED ILLUSION" AND "MINDLESS INTRUSION", A WHOLE NEW SET OF CLASSIC TRACKS BUT FEATURING MODERN SOUND RECORDING TECHNIQUES. IN 2016 "FORBIDDEN GAMES" HAS BEEN RELEASED, A SELECTION OF COMPILATION TRACKS THAT POINTS TO THE EARLY ROOTS OF ELECTRONIC POP AND INDUSTRIAL. IN 2020, 16 ARTISTS FROM AROUND THE GLOBE PAYS THIS DESERVED TRIBUTE.

TO ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL MINIMAL SYNTH BANDS OF ALL TIME.

The first trees trembled with constant little oscillations, junctions -disjunctions. A red light started blinking, half-buried in the snow. Deep in the Siberian forest, in the middle of the night, a girl with a Morse key, was running a shortwave transmitter off a diesel generator, sending messages toward the ionosphere.

Her hands moved closer together, without touching. The pulsations became almost innumerable, incredibly elongated, hollowed out in the middle, like little pinnacles, but she knew that someone, thousands of miles away, would decipher her message. In a dimly lit hotel room, in a subterranean vault, he would build the bridges, channel the frequencies. Forming, unforming, and re-forming the lines, the waves, and the words."

First release on the freshly launched label Anomalies comes from one of its co-founders Ramon Babot aka La Màquina Corrupta. Lead track “Dilluns Blau” – which stands for Blue Monday in Catalan – is a techno track not specifically built for the dancefloor but that can also work on it. A rather moody pad appearing at mid-length of the track reminds us that our serotonin will not last forever and that Monday might come soon. Second track “Gent de Poble”, which means “Village People”, features a relentless bassline that can be as intense as some of those people who live in a small town. On the B side, “Concepte Innecessari” provides the perfect soundtrack for self-introspection in the form of a not so conventional groove. The last track on this EP is “Consells de Mare”, a beautiful electronic lullaby that your mother would sing for you if she were a synthesizer.

Classically trained experimentalist Aarp releases his compositionally expansive and pointedly political debut album via InFiné. ‘Propaganda’ is an album that rewards repeat listens and inspires research, pushing listeners to look for the truth beyond the headlines. The title ‘Propaganda’ is inspired in part by the death of a young man in Nantes who drowned following a police altercation at “Fête de la Musique” in 2019. Despite the fact that he was only dancing and there was clear evidence of negligence, the media campaign that followed cleared all involved and disinformation spread, distorting the truth and allowing French authorities to evade any consequence. This blatant and very recent example of press propaganda lead Aarp to explore a multitude of moments in history, each one informing a single track from his new record. Each song title is a direct quote taken from different examples of these moments, from George W. Bush to Margret Thatcher and French philosopher Gilles Deleuze to the infamous Oxycontin commercial by Purdue Pharma.

"Following two singles, two albums, and a bunch of compilation tracks, we are proud to present Miaux’s third LP.
Mia Prce, originally from Sarajevo and a Belgian resident since 1989, was reared on a psychedelic diet of Krautrock and similarly serpentine music by her artist parents who were part of the Antwerp-based (and over fifty years old) Ercola collective. Beautiful songs that break hearts without using a sharp object! More tears for the creatures of the night." Winner!

Time for something a little different from Cosmic Pint Glass' secret weapon Dom IV. Nothing Happens is a strangley poignant DIY/pop song, with two versions of the title track. Its the first in a series of 7 from CPG. Ltd to 200 with painted sleeves by Liam Buckley.

Reymour is a psycho-romantic adventure of a duo sharing both life, and stage, a lovely cluster that originated in Fribourg-en-Uthonie, and found a new home in Brussels, the pulsing heart of Europe.

“Sarabande à Deux” is a delicious arrangement of autumn flavor and forgotten vegetables cooked with love and understanding in a synth-wave sauce. It's the fifth release of 'CAF?', ridding on sonorities of the 80’s, running between synthetic balads, romantic dances and bucolic sceneries in an alcoolic fashion.

Strangelove is proud to present the first ever reissue of 'Syguira Lady', an eerie and absorbing ride through the rich imagination of enigmatic Osaka group Viola Renea. While riding the current interest in Japanese music, the album remains an anomaly to much of the local music of the time. Juxtaposing ancient/modern sources of sonic inspiration, North England's new musical movements collide with Eastern European folk rhythms, while oriental scales slide amongst wavey-electronic instrumentation. The resultant musical dreamscapes sought to conjure themes of noir & seduction, recurrent in the period's techno-pop. Kuki Imamura described the album as the sound of unknown memories with aural visions & strange musical loves coalescing around a femme fatale; 'Syguirian Lady'

With signature acoustic drums, synthwork, breakbeats, and soundscapes, Polynation offers a highly spirited electronic EP with hints of trance, electronica, and krautrock. Arrangements are key - opening track Wildeburg is an 8-minute piece that moves in all directions, yet it feels like one cohesive work: a melancholic homage to the festival fields. Coral, the b-side of the release, is split into two parts. The first version continues where Wildeburg left off, eventually concluding with a beautiful synth-led anticlimax. The second part of Coral is a modest, alternative take of the original mix. The track Wildeburg is named after the Dutch festival Wildeburg where Polynation played one of their most memorable shows last year. We send our love to the crew, founders, and everyone else involved.