Beats News

Tempo Dischi's second release is one of electronic music’s seminal albums; 1798 Italian space disco album: Automat by Automat.

A year after the release of Oxygène by Jean Michel Jarre, a milestone for electronic music, “Automat" was released in Italy, a timeless record that has influenced the years to come. Released in 1978 by EMI Italia, the album has been produced by two veteran italian songwriters and composers, Romano Musumarra and Claudio Gizzi after meeting Mario Maggi, one of the major innovators in the manufacturing of electronic instruments in Italy. Maggi invented the first programmable monophonic synthesizer ever made: the MCS70. Its sounds have been the basis for the production of the whole Automat album. That synth was used only for this record and remained a prototype, leaving a halo of mystery behind this record.

The album moves in the furrows of an atypical space disco, with abstract classical arias alternating with more sustained rhythms, which combine electronic experiments, progressive psychedelic journeys with cinematic themes. The A Side, composed by Gizzi is an electronic disco-tinged suite divided into three parts (The Rise, The Advance, The Genius). Ater a brief spatial intro, the insistent arpeggio expands into a soundtrack theme with a sumptuous melody, which slowly fades away to make room for a progressive psychedelic journey. The B Side, composed by Musumarra, is made by three tracks, including ‘Droid‘, one of the most representative songs of the electronic music of the early eighties. A magic sequence between the bassline, the electro drums, and the spatial disco theme with a futuristic and cinematic mood. This is a record that has influenced the music of our days and after 40 years may still sound contemporary.

Artificial Intelligence

On Laughing Gas, the third EP from Wild Nothing, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jack Tatum delves deeper into the territory where he thrives: namely, the synth and sophisti-pop of the 1980's. Working within a more mechanical and synthetic framework than his previous releases, Wild Nothing continues to delicately toe the line between the organic and the unnatural. These are still pop songs, but there’s an underlying sense of uneasiness that threads the music together.

Recorded in Los Angeles, CA and Richmond, VA with the help of Jorge Elbrecht, these five songs were originally imagined alongside last year’s Indigo and were written and tracked simultaneously with the album. When work on the full-length was nearing completion, Tatum set these ideas aside; they seemed to fit better on their own.

In spare moments between tours, Tatum began to look back and piece the songs together at his home studio in Richmond, reconnecting with Elbrecht to mix the EP. With Elbrecht in Denver and Tatum in Richmond, the two went back and forth on the final touches, molding a common thread from the Lô Borges inspired new wave of “Sleight Of Hand” to the propulsive, icy synth funk of “Foyer”.

Often considered a secondary or transitional format, Wild Nothing has always used the EP to further explore new ideas and influences. Laughing Gas is no exception.

Les Adventures de President Bongo: Named and shaped in loving tribute to Tintin, the fabled Belgian journalist who defined what it meant to be an adventurer in the 20th Century.
'Les Adventures de President Bongo' is a unique work that will reveal itself over the next seven years, give or take, in the form of 24 LP's.

SAGA:
There is a transient photo kept by two whale hunters that have been left to oversee equipment and housing. At the world’s coldest nook they share a single memory of mercy and beauty. The portrait of Dolores Del Rios that reaches just below her thin shoulders.

Printed on a label of canned fruits she never gets cold during hibernation at 73° North at Mosquito Bay. The almond shaped eyes and the high cheekbones of the goddess is the last memory from the world her custodians were never to see. The glacier made its demands, it received Dolores the goddess like it acquired everything else with its incessant presumptuousness.

No one got to know of the passions and desires of the custodians of Dolares Del Rios; no one got to know of the childish envy of them who loved the portrait of the goddess and both wanted to keep it to themselves.

Limited vinyl to 300 copies

Coltan Major Harmonics is atwo tracks 7’’ by Manu Louis, which also features in an interactive Installation by Escif at MIMA Brussels.
On track A, Coltan and his catchy bass line features a cocktail of London singer Heidi Heidelberg and Manu’s voice in a groovy and outrageous song about the precious mineral. The music uses only the original material composed by Manu for Escif’s interactive installation.

Newest full LP by Yobkiss who has been active for over a decade now with stunning releases on a multitude of modern labels. Never a dull moment on this well-crafted album. Best described as an emotive journey, YobKiss explores the regions where techno, electro, acid house, and that hard-to-define Dutch sound; all melt into pure analog synth magic. Standout dancefloor burners include "Silence Arriving" (with Yuko Araki on vocals) and "Full Moon Party". Mastered by the legendary Alden Tyrell. Limited Edition.

An active member of the Barcelona scene and frequent John Talabot collaborator, Arnau Obiols debuts his Velmondo project with his first release for Hivern. In 'Moon Gazing' he draws inspiration from early forms of electronic music in the 70's, whether it's dub, krautrock, industrial, ambient or post-punk, to conjure enigmatic atmospheres through raw and primitive sounds. A multi-instrumentalist and music designer who has played in countless bands, his approach to electronic music production has always been unorthodox. These five tracks were created by experimenting with "analog synths, guitars, many pedals and many acoustic instruments" in his studio at Bellaterra, a suburb located in the outskirts of Barcelona. The 12" comes housed in a sleeve by Barcelona-based designer Marc Mir.

Over the past few years, Palms Trax has cemented his place on the Dekmantel roster and become one of the family. His upbeat attitude and knack for selection have made Jay Donaldson one of the scene's most in-demand and warmly regarded selectors. Combining rare, globally-sourced finds with exuberant house anthems, his annual sets at Dekmantel Festival have showed a nearly unmatched capacity for filling floors and creating grooves. Now, the UK producer puts his talents to work on To Paradise, tapping classic Italo, wave and Balearic house for an EP that has summertime written all over it.

Title track "To Paradise" kicks things off with an infectious, melodic chorus that spirals into a pulsing rhythm. It's full of those 'hand-in-the-air' type moments, and topped with blissful vibes. "Love In Space" follows with a throbbing bassline melded with rich atmospheres. It's more Adriatic than Balearic, careening with an anthemic affection and destined for festival season. "Heron" veers away from the Italo vibes and standard structures that hold regular dance tracks together. A departure into more experimental electronics, the dynamics are controlled through rhythms and the synthesised melodies create forlorn narratives across machine-driven sequences. It's a dynamic finish to this considered and perfectly timed trio of offerings.

Supremely hungover, red-eyed-and-can't-quite-be-arsed but utterly life-affirming bedroom/loner-pop masterpiece from the Itchy Bugger. Songs that somehow combine punk concision and psychedelic whimsy… lusher and more intricately arranged than on the first LP, even as they double down on the DIY, drug-scrambled weirdness, and that unmistakeably private, nocturnal, kitchen-creeping, don't-wake-the-flatmates vibe... oh yeah and still with that same sadsack fucking drum-machine beat on every song.

The careening bonehead riffage your man contributes to Heavy Metal and Diät is here repurposed into something more textured and introspective and jangling and DAZED, making us think of The Moles, Pip Proud, subtly out early 90s Flying Nun gems like David Kilgour’s Here Comes The Cars or John Kelcher’s Personal Disorganiser, as well as things like Razorcuts, Afflicted Man, Solid Space, Beauty Contest, Television Personalities...

p.s. comes with download code for the dogs!

Here's some good news: the second salvo from nascent label Nuances de Nuit is every bit as alluring as its predecessor. It follows a similar blueprint, too, offering up a quartet of cuts from emerging artists. Politics of Dancing get the ball rolling via "When The Morning Comes", a picturesque peak-time throb-job that layers twinkling piano motifs and starry synth stabs atop non-stop beats and thrusting synth-bass. Akyra offers up a dreamy, ear-pleasing fusion of rolling tech-house and spacey deep house (the excellent "Rizla"), while Karaba's "Floating Mind" is a tough but drowsy deep house bumper built around sturdy beats and squelchy electronic bass. Last -but by no means least - is Cosmic JD and Jenta's pleasingly wonky "Spencer Landoff", where off-kilter electronics, jaunty bass and inter-dimensional melodies ricochet off hip-swinging deep-tech drums.

With a third album, ‘Return To Telepathic Heights’, released this year on Gerd Janson’s Running Back label, techno outlaw A Sagittariun returns to themes of a space western nature with a closing epilogue, ‘A Fistful of Bitcoins’.
An extended player that traverses Tucumcari, Vietnam’s Black River, and the ultimate, and final leg, of the journey; to Devils Tower in Wyoming.


Vital Sales Points:
- full picture sleeve, designed by Jonny O (Rocket Recordings/Goat)
- global PR and marketing campaign from Hype Filter
- last A Sagittairun album for Gerd Janson’s Running Back label received excellent reviews in Mixmag, DJ Mag, The Wire & more…


Selected DJ feedback:
Robag Whrume – Good one!
Shanti Celeste – love this!
Nick Höppner – Sounding great
Brendon Moeller – Dope AF!
Johanna Knutsson – Beautiful stuff
Ed Davenport – Some heavy stuff here, Road To Devils Tower is a special cut!
Bruce (Livity Sound) – Real digging the slow bits, proper gear!
John Osborn – The Sacred Chao is heaven!
Interstellar Funk – Really like ‘A Fistful Of Bitcoins’
Neil Barnes (Leftfield) – very nice and imaginative EP
Fabrice Lig – Really nice EP, love it
DJ Octopus – Great one!
Vincent Neumann – Ooh, so nice!
Ell Weston (Banoffe Pies) – Superb selection
Cormac – Black River is super nice
Cooper Saver – wow, love these
Bill Brewster – lot’s of nice gear on here, good work
96 Back (CPU) – wonderfully bleepy and dubby
Tensnake – lovely release
Kirsti (Null & Void) – So consistent, another great release from A Sagittariun

N is one of the most profiled German drone / ambient artists - being active since the early 1990s he has released more than 50 records - on this new album he cooperates with Ricky Graham (Signals Under Test). Disrupt/Construct is a long-form music release featuring two compositions: Disrupt and Construct. Graham collected musical responses to a series of his own guitar improvisations from Neidhardt over the period of a year. Graham then crafted this album at the Elektronmusikstudion EMS in Stockholm, Sweden. Disrupt is a series of buckling themes that function as self-contained, shorter musical compositions. Construct presents a semi-improvised stream-of-consciousness piece that stands in contrast to the disruptive nature of its counterpart and divides into three self-contained musical movements. Limited to only 100 pieces w/ handprinted sleeves.

* Emika releases a remix EP of her 6th studio album ‘Falling In Love With Sadness’, (Originally released on World Mental Health Day Oct 2018)
* The remix EP explores 4 sound worlds in electronic music today. Experimental bass music, hypnotic & dark techno, and electro.
About the remixers:
* Pinch, a pioneer of UK bass-driven music, is considered to be one of the most groundbreaking, explorative producers to emerge from the UK dubstep scene.
* Rising techno star Julia Govor is an artist doing things differently, paving her own way with her own label, receiving recognition from the global dance music scene.
* Rebekah needs no introduction, pioneering her own intense sound, now entering her 20th year in the business, she is a serious artist with some seriously heavy vibes.
* Underground Berlin talent Headless Horseman, all though shrouded in mystery, is in high demand world-wide to perform his unique live sets at some of the biggest clubs and festivals.
* Emika produced original album material with cult electro icon The Exaltics.
* Solid remixes from solid underground artists.
About the remixes:
* Pinch creates a seductive environment for a scene from which could have been from David Fincher's Fight Club, one which threatens to overload at any given time, but retains tension until the end.
* Julia’s mix transports us into the next part of our journey, beyond conflict and tension, she gives us the chance to breathe, open up, be free and to dance.
* Rebekah's remix brings us hurtling back down to Earth at a tremendous pace, with crystal clear drums that wake up the soul and synths that energize the mind, this version is more than a dark techno track, it has the spirit of a self-confident grown woman running through it.
* Headless Horseman brings Emika’s original into a beautiful new song space, revoicing the harmony and finding completely fresh chords and backing.

* The artwork hits the mark with a message important for Emika: Equality. With 3 female artists and 3 male artists all featured on the cover, this is a way in which Emika highlights her love for collaboration and sharing of the spot-light.
* Green coloured vinyl (1st edition) 500 copies pressed..

‘’We are moving into a new century where collaboration is going to bring music forwards and exclusivity is going to become a thing of the past.’’ - Emika

Dubbed out disco edits made with love, drenched in summer spice and slapped straight on the grill to waft out across the hazy breeze!

From the Latin infused sax power of ‘Doin’ It’, to the Italo tinged synth pop nugget, ‘Pop Lock’ and back round to the sensual boogie gem ‘Right Now’, it’s another must have set of edits from the Labor of Love crew.

Oraculo Records is proud to welcome and present the new side project of our beloved Blind Delon featuring and a special remix of Antoni Maiovvi of Giallo Disco Records. Dark Italo or minimal synthpop could perfectly define what FRUST is; hypnotic glacial synths and mesmerizing cavernous sad voices for darkwave lovers. All tracks have been specially remastered for long cut vinyl by Eric Van Wonterghem at Prodam Berlin.

Emotional Rescue returns to the music of British "pop" band Furniture, with an EP of the band's own extended versions, remixes and unreleased takes of their particular output.

Taken from three 12"s that followed When The Boom Was On (ERC072), the songs included cast a light on their development from 3 to 5 piece, adding Sally Still (bass) and Maya Gilder (keyboards) and the new male/female frontline. The subsequent broadening of their line-up and sound meant they could start to address the kind of pop music they wanted to play.

After the early releases garneered radio play and reviews, Furniture were launched into the melee of '80s pop. An anomaly, the band found they attracted a specific kind of "intense" follower, who were often beguiled by Furniture's freaky normality. This was addressed on the 1984 release, 'I Can't Crack'. A more urgent version of the sound Furniture had debuted with 'Why Are We In Love', the track, sung by Tim, was based around a sequencer-like rhythm played live by drummer Hamilton Lee, and a clarinet part played by Tim's brother, Larry Whelan. A mix of bleakness and euphoria, the song was and is a favourite of the band and considered one of their best self-productions, as well as becoming a latter day club play.

This is followed by the studio experiment 'Throw Away The Script', where the band wrestled with sequencers and synth-pop, but then countered it with a free-jazz sax solo. Found on the flip of the double A -side of 'Love Your Shoes' 12", this instrumental version too became an underground club hit, including a cult play at Fran Lenaer's influential Valencia club, Spook Factory. Played loud, the studio mastery, trickery and oft-accidental discoveries come to the fore, with tissue-damaging frequencies giving extra sound system shaking bottom end.

The B-side continues the band's love of making extended mixes with 'Dancing The Hard Bargain'. Co-produced with Tim Parry (formerly of Blue Zoo), they threw everything at these 12" versions. Able to relax and focus on the sounds they really liked, rather than the ones thought more commercial, this can be clearly heard on this compelling, percussive mix, a stop-start breakdown becoming a band hallmark.
To close this collection is the mammoth 'Bullet'. Again sung by Whelan, an edited version of which debuted on the 1986 Survival compilation of Furniture tracks called 'The Lovemongers', here this previously unreleased original take is centred on a mesmeric tape loop, live drums and a guest appearance by violinist Helena Bjorelius.

Mount Liberation Unlimited are Tom and Niklas, two Swedes from space who have spent the last 5 years

carving out a particularly vivid niche in contemporary electronic music. Their previous work has seen them

connect with an impressive list of global dance powerhouses: New York's Beats In Space, Melbourne's

Superconscious and Munich's Permanent Vacation have all released 12'' heat from the duo, while their

hometown buddies at Studio Barnhus provided an outlet for what has been perhaps their biggest and boldest

release yet, 2017's double smash single Double Dance Lover. Their live shows are fervent, fast-paced and very

multi-instrumental affairs, performed non-stop at an increasingly prestigious list of clubs and festivals, serving

as prime examples of the MLU boys' core obsession: the interaction of human rhythm and electronic pulse.

They have their own great little radio show on Gilles Peterson's Worldwide FM! Australia loves them! They

got their artist friend Tom-Hadar Elde to sculpt their heads for their debut album cover!

That self-titled debut, to be released May 31 on Studio Barnhus, has been in progress since the very formation

of the MLU project in 2014. It contains some of their earliest work and of course their very latest – all perfected

at the Neve desk of legendary Gothenburg studio Svenska Grammofonstudion, in cahoots with mix engineer

Christoffer Berg (Depeche Mode, Robyn, Fever Ray).

The result is a sonically fascinating, endlessly generous and straight up FUN record that takes the listener on a

joyride through bittersweet stoner disco, frenzied scando-kraut jams and some of the sweetest dance pop to

come out of Sweden this side of Super Trouper.

The record is preceded by a limited 10'' release of album track Climb Me Up, complete with an exclusive club

mix of the song.

Legendary Italian house/deep house DJ and producer Don Carlos based in Varese, North Italy. Active since the late 70s. His productions have mixing house rhythms with afro-american jazz sounds, verging sometime towards disco, sometime towards deep house or electronic soul. There's a similarly warm and hazy feel to second cut "Analog Express", where a nagging bassline and chillin' beats come wrapped in sunrise-ready electronics, toasty chords and more cut-up old school jazzy house. Throw in some refreshingly positive synthesizer flourishes of the kind once found in Italo-house records and you've got another tried-and-tested winner. Elegant, well produced classic deep house with sensual jazzy and smooth synth elements that sound really good on any equipment. All of the tracks on this EP are quality for anyone into deep house and quality club music in general.

Antony Ryan and Robin Saville – the inventors of electronica – are returning with their ninth studio album. Three years in the making, “The Lamenting Machine” will go down in history as the deepest and most satisfying chapter yet in the ongoing musical conversation between these brilliant musicians. Subtle yet mesmerizing melodies evoking long forgotten memories, calmly throbbing bass figurines pulsing gently along – all paying tribute to free-floating rhythms and their eternal noises. ISAN has always been an intimate and personal take on electronic music.

Produced both in Denmark and the UK in their respective studios, each of the eight tracks symbolises a sea of blossom carefully crafted and tended to, bringing color and hope to today’s fragile and volatile world. And while there is definitely a lot worth lamenting about, ISAN’s machine of the same name is an explorational celebration of their own musical past, once more bringing to the surface the project’s essence of aural delight.

Listening to ISAN requires time, but it is time well invested. While sounding exquisitely lighthearted from the outside, a closer inspection reveals a richly orchestrated and multi-layered musical riddle, mimicking a hedge maze of gargantuan scale and complexity, with each tone and each rhythmic pattern to be dissected, analysed and understood individually in order to find the way out. Getting lost in the moment while doing so never felt better. ISAN’s music has always had this quality, yet reflecting on their own past more consciously, the music on the new album redefines this approach in a more precise and gratifying way than ever before. While wholeheartedly shimmering and drenched in beauty, in order to fully appreciate the whole scale of ISAN, it is key to bravely engage with the underlying vagueness and fuzziness lingering in the tracks.

Human beings are not perfect. Neither are the means with which they produce music. This very realization has always played an integral role defining, carving and polishing the project’s musical identity. Letting each piece of gear be true to itself, accepting its flaws as part of its unique personality, and turning these frailties into a starting point of inter-circuitry communication, ISAN has been at the forefront of humanising technology and eliminating the dystopian men machine debate, clearing the table for a better future. This approach actually requires time in the studio as well: circuits need time to warm up, get to know each other, understand the energy flowing through the cables connecting them, figuring out what to do and what they really want. This process is not so much about giving up control, but rather to moderate a constant exchange of ideas. Having perfected this technique over the last two decades, ISAN are finally ready to share their very own approach with the rest of the world. With newly set-up channels on both Instagram and YouTube, Ryan and Saville opened the windows into their studios, offering a glimpse into how their most magical album yet came into being. There really is no lamenting to be done. Not at all.

Previously released on CD accompanied by “Gone, Gone Beyond”, “The Mirror” is the
dreamy soundtrack of an a/v project from collage artist extraordinaire Vicki Bennett aka
People Like Us.

With ‘’The Mirror’’ Bennett continues her eternal disassembling of popular music by
exploring how the narrative of familiar sounds/songs can change dramatically under a
new context, with that context always changing, in a never-ending flow.

Each song is singular. And each song is a collage of and undefined number of other
songs from other artists. It sounds familiar because that has been the modus operandi of
People Like Us since the early 1990s. But “The Mirror” plays with the notion of familiar,
driving around a collection of famous pop songs/artists, messing around with the memory
of the listener and, of course, his unique comprehension of those specific songs applied
in a new context.

Because of the use of familiar pop sounds, “The Mirror” is often grandiose. Like an epic
film only with highs, never letting the listener down or letting him doubt the power of pop.
Even, of course, when the coordinates are twisted, mixed, over or underrepresented.
Each moment feels like something that could only happen in a parallel universe.

Although that may sound naïve, it’s just a lost thought of reaction to the beautiful collages
of People Like Us in “The Mirror”. This mirror doesn’t reflect an image of ourselves or an
image of pop. But an image on the way memories drift and are being constant rebuilt. An
unfinished collage.

Mastered by Mark Gergis
Vinyl Cut by Rashad Becker

Time is Local is a project by Danish collective We like We and sound artist Jacob Kirkegaard built around a 12-hour live sound installation and performance at Thorvaldsen Museum in Copenhagen.

The piece was initiated and performed by the artists during the G((o))ng Tomorrow Festival in 2017. As they slowly wandered the halls and rooms of the museum for a whole day, they performed extended sound compositions for a visiting audience at each of the 12 chambers for a longer session - a haunting experience as the outside world disappeared and the focus was on quiet sonic moments unfolding in midst of the grand, reverberous space. For this album they have collected 12 fragments revolving around the chambers in the museum. Each chamber is being represented by its own handful of tones, instruments and voice. The statues within, depicted by neo-classicist sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen get their own soundtrack of quiet emanating gusts. Barely heard frequencies reflect through the walls. The marble carved busts of Greek gods that line the museum hallways gaze eternally with a blank stare as decades pass and new audience arrives.

Although We like We should need no introduction to followers of the Sonic Pieces label, the Danish all female sound quartet consists of Katrine Grarup Elbo (violin), Josefine Opsahl (cello), Sara Nigard Rosendal (percussion) and Katinka Fogh Vindelev (voice). Together they have forged a dynamic and intuitional sound beyond genres through the last decade. Only two years ago they released the nordic neo-classical opus Next to the entire All. This time they emerge in collaboration with sound artist Jacob Kirkegaard. Jacob’s works are sonic reflections on complex aspects of the human civilisation, treating themes such as radioactivity, melting ice, border walls and tones emitted by the ears. Through the last decades he has released records and sound documents through labels such as Touch, Important Records and more. As a document of their 12h performance, Time is Local is a beautiful sonic evocation that shines as a bright line of sun through the cracks of a tomb.

Sol Oosel presents an album with a complex mixture of tones and structures, striking a close relation between a sort of devotional music and a trancelike state. Beyond his own specific exploration of the possibilities of electronic modular synthesis, Sol Oosel searches for hacks in different states of consciousness by way of sound.

En allégeance à l'inconnaissable - Une étude en chorégraphie pour le flux d'énergie is meant as a musical aid for visualizing the ability to dance with and manipulate attainable flows of energy. Largely produced using modular synthesizers and the Roland SH-09, Sol Oosel stretches beyond the fields of ambient music, adding a special sense of drama to this psychoactive journey. Each song is built around solid structures and infused with a mystical atmosphere. Harmonically, this album is close to Hans-Joachim Roedelius' early works; it is emotionally positive, informed by pop nuances that are rarely found in this type of ambient music. Sol Oosel also owes to the works of Klaus Schulze; however, while Schulze was concerned with space and made music of the unknown but conceivable cosmos in his mind, Sol Oosel is more interested in Earth and the force that weighs us down in this complex physical reality. His music speculates on the relationships between inner and outer worlds. En allégeance à l'inconnaissable... is a soundscape and a choreographic exercise for relaxation, intentionally disrupted by "Here (Au Bord De L'Univers)", a deconstructive piece covered in multiple layers of repetition, progressive beats and kosmische pulsation which detours from the flow. In a way, it represents the bridge between all these cosmic and earthly energies.

This is Sol Oosel’s debut on Umor Rex. He previously self-released the album Janus, and was member of several bands and projects before focusing in Sol Oosel. He lives in the rural village of Tepoztlán, México, where he works as an artist, performer, sculptor, sonic landscaper, and dancer.

The digital version of this album includes a remixed version of "Temple Of Names" by Umor Rex longtime friend and collaborator James Place.

Bristol–based composer Ryan Teague presents Recursive Iterations, a suite of seven extended compositions that incorporate cinematic arrangements and cutting edge sound design within an algorithmic framework to striking effect. The resulting pieces combine elements of neo-classical, post–rave, and soundtrack music, to create an utterly compelling contemporary soundscape balanced by a calculated, almost architectural use of space and restraint.

The musical structure is derived from a custom–written algorithmic system that sequences harmonic and rhythmic events in ever–shifting patterns. Hyperreal electro-acoustic phrases and digitally synthesised fragments come and go in continual rotation, re-framed and re-contextualised by their proximity to other events in the sequence as the compositions evolve. The effect evokes a minimalist bricolage, hypnotic and kaleidoscopic in nature, and calls to mind artists such as Oneohtrix Point Never, The Haxan Cloak and Ital Tek.

At the same time, a core theme running throughout the record is a masterly use of absence and inertia influenced by the Japanese concepts of ma (間 - negative space) and the enso (円相 - circle), which serve to complement and counterbalance the diverse sound palette. By integrating these qualities, tension is built and resolved in equal measure, creating a dramatic sonic impression where fragmented rhythms, dynamic textures, subsonic basses, and delicate ambience all coexist. Recursive Iterations is a bold, powerful, and unique work that pushes sonic boundaries whilst revealing more with each listen.

Pinchy Don, the disc-jockeying purveyor of all things off-kilter, esoteric, eccentric, and left-field has been wobbling around the world with his singular sensibilities and releasing DJ's-DJ mixes for years, and now he's finally channeling the accumulated energy and color into a series of vinyl-only releases under the aptly named P&F RECORDINGS.

There couldn't be a more perfect, fitting starting point for the endeavor than AMARINGO (a mysterious alias of synth extraordinaire JOHN CAROLL KIRBY) which is an homage to the deceased Peruvan Ayahuaska painter Pablo Amaringo, who's art is featured on the cover.

Just like Kirby himself, a purveyor of left field exotica (who's list of collaborators includes Sebastian Tellier, Solange, and Blood Orange - to name just a few), the release is simply too slippery and menacing to fit into any one genre bucket - as it rubberbands between blocky, percussive tribal stompers and lazy new age synth jams.

The opening tune, 'Manto de Fuego (Clock of Fire),' is a heavy, plodding, party-starter that, accompanied by smatterings of reverberant, brassy horns, marches along on the one. Following it is a jazzier number, 'Supai Rana (Spirit Frog),' all aqueous, rich bass figurations contrasted with bright, spongy synth cascades.

The flip is a more drawn-out affair, with 'Yacurunas (Water People)' stretching past a ten-minute runtime and being a study in hypnosis through earthy hand-drum loops, marimba and pan flute flourishes. It starts bright but turns on its head as it morphs into another meditative dance floor stomper.

We finish the ride and tumble back into the station with 'Angleles Avatares (Angel Avatars),' a tranquil, slo-mo twist on lo-fi tropicalia.

Half of the dark synthwave duo THE HUNT ,Herbert West is a French electronic producer heavily influenced by 70’s and 80’s horror soundtracks. This artist tends to use vintage, analog and modular synths and It ́s important to point out that he has released with the Hunt two albums through the well-known labels Giallo Disco (2014) and Bordello a Parigi (2018).

Vortice Mortale is his new project in which he mixes space disco and dark synth music.It is clear as water that Herbert West loves Italian horror movies and French disco music of the past decade considering that this work “Memento Mori” is perhaps a perfect combination of powerful beats, enigmatic passages and wicked catchy melodies.

Profit Prison is the solo work of Seattle-based Parker Lautenschlager, previously in the hardcore band Marrow, power electronics act Anteinferno, and black metal cult Bhereg. Conceived in 2016, Profit Prison explores lyrical themes of isolation, estrangement, deprivation and paranoia against an aural backdrop of synthpop, post-punk and abstract industrial music. 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. The debut Myra was released on cassette by Dominick Fernow's Hospital Productions in 2017.

On March 29 Avant! will release the 12' vinyl debut Six Strange Passions. Six tracks where Hi-NRG disco beats and 70's throbbing synths melt with trembling, reverberated vocals and dark dungeon synth passages.

Limited edition of 300.

Artwork by Italian Noise legend Matteo Castro (Lettera 22, Kam Hassah, Second Sleep label)

DESCRIPTION
Absolute madness unearthed by Paul Ebhart and Florian Stöffelbauer aka Heap for Wiener Brut's third release
Chicago-meets-Vienna-vibes - music way ahead of it's time produced in the 80s by short-lived formation Aktionskunst Gerasdorf aka Athletico Kunst Gerasdorf, a project that is well known for it's contribution to the legendary Viennese sampler ‚Die Tödliche Dosis'.

808-driven beats programmed by René Radikal (R.I.P.) backing Melanie Delval's tender voice, with multiple guest musicians (e.g. Fritz Grohs) rounding things up and adding their spice to the laidback jams alongside stand-out musical heavy hitters. A composition of sound you never heard before.

lack Truffle present In Real Life, the latest in a flurry of releases from Berlin-based guitarist and composer Julia Reidy. Having drawn acclaim for solo performances on 12-string acoustic guitar that bridge microtonality, ‘American primitive’ stylings and classic minimalism, Reidy’s recent releases have utilised an increasingly broad sonic palette, fleshing out guitar-based composition with electronics, field recordings, and – most strikingly – heavily auto-tuned vocals. On In Real Life, Reidy pushes one step further, crafting an epic LP-length suite that moves from abstracted song to lush electronics and explorations in contemporary musique concrète. Beginning with a passage of eerie electronics and creaking percussive interjections, Reidy’s heavily auto-tuned voice quickly takes centre stage. Surrounded by explosions of electric guitar and synthesised arpeggios, the auto-tuned voice delivers a melancholic ode, bringing together poetic images to reflect on the instability of experience and mutability of identity in a contemporary world saturated by digital technology. This concern with the unsettled relationship between the physical and digital is reflected musically by the constantly shifts in emphasis between Reidy’s physically demanding guitar-picking and the various forms of synthesis deployed. Similarly, the dynamic imagery of cutting, shattering, and ‘racing streams’ present in Reidy’s lyrics also serves to characterise the structure of In Real Life, which ceaselessly shifts between distinct episodes. The song-based opening, long sequences of frenetic 12-string guitar shadowed and eventually overtaken by synth tones, passages of delicate chiming harmonics, electro-acoustic cut-ups – each flows seamlessly into the next, often recurring throughout the record’s duration, which lingers over interstitial moments between these episodes.

Mixed and mastered by Joe Talia at Good Mixture, Tokyo. Vinyl cut at 45rpm for maximum fidelity by Rashad Becker at D&M, Berlin. Artwork by Suze Whaites. LP desgn by Lasse Marhaug.

Emerging slowly from understated beginnings, 'Running Into The Sun' sees Komodo deliver the kind of expansive tones that easily establish a vibe on the dancefloor, nodding to progressive house's fundamentals while borrowing plenty from earthier, more organic-sounding ends of the four-four scene.

Eric Duncan does the business on the remix, taking it into tougher territory and throwing in a cacophony of drummy intersections that help build the atmosphere, placing the whole arrangement on a knife-edge. 'Slow Burning' does what it says on the tin, growing and grooving its way through spiralling synths and acidic inflections, adding some gentle chords to bring in some welcome melody.

Latrec evidently has a different understanding of the phrase given his remix, cutting back to throbbing kick drums while allowing just enough of the harmony to enter earshot, with trance-like results.

"Second 12" in a series of forgotten FM radio hits for a parallel universe or some other dumb text to promote this amazing Belgian "synth-pop" 12". This one contains the sleazy grim "Venetian Blinds" from '84 and the underwater weirdness from "Mais Qu'est-ce Que Tu Fumes" from '90"

Dutch powerhouses Parrish Smith and Interstellar Funk team up for their debut collaboration on L.I.E.S. with a new four track ep. Striking up the perfect balance of both their signature styles, this record hits the sweet spot between metallic synthwave, slow beat industrial, and clanging EBM hybrids. The duo effortlessly weave together a sonic narrative with nods to the past but unmistakable emphasis on their ever expanding foward thinking future sound. Recommended!

Totally bonkers German synth punk!
"JPGRR (JOHN, PAUL, GEORGE, RINGO & RICHARD) is nobody but East-Germany’s neo-punk squeaker RICALETTO of PISSE with his second solo-record EASY LISTENING carved into this vinyl’s side A. On the flip-side you'll find central-Israel’s VICTOR, a guy named GUY and his second little big musical statement after releasing an infamous cassette w/ Lumpy Records."

NYC Synth master Steve Moore makes a welcome return to L.I.E.S. with his first ep on the label since 2012. Through these four tracks Moore creates a world with simplistic stripped down beauty, often using one synth and a drum machine to effectively construct alternate realities, as heard on the opener Broken Kills. This continues on the b-side opener Eigengrau, while Future 86 and Future 99 take a more dramatic komische influenced soaring arpeggiated approach. Unmissable.

Her polyrhythmic compositions integrate a wide array of musical genres, including Afrofuturistic electro and techno, classical solo piano and Detroit legacy house; all memorable journeys into deep, abstracted sound.
Hosting a monthly radio show on the renowned NTS, Afrodeutsche entrances listeners with her idiosyncratic combinations of dark electro, breaks, footwork, ghetto tech and jacking house.
Forever evolving a fully live hardware show, Afrodeutsche has already appeared alongside celebrated producers Dopplereffekt and Carl Craig, with many more to come.
Her remix of Montreal producer Marie Davidson’s ‘Day Dreaming’ was released earlier this year on Ninja Tune. 2019 sees her releasing genre-defying new material and touring across Europe, with appearances confirmed at Dekmantel (Amsterdam), SONAR (Barcelona), and Dimensions (Croatia).
Praised by the Guardian for enacting a new wave of club music, named by Dummy Mag as one of 2019’s most exciting artists, Afrodeutsche’s spectacular debut album ‘Break before Make’ will be released on all formats in the Autumn of 2019 on the legendary Skam label.

THROUGH GODS OWN EYES
MusicForSunrises&SunsetsDarkCornersOfTheDanceFloorDarkCornersOfTheMind.
FastDeepSlowRaveInspiringInspirtational&CosmicUpliftingWildPitchedHeartMelting&HeartPoundingSexMusic

Conceived in Bali as a club event to allow Phil Cooper and Indonesian DJ, Dea Barandana a chance to flex their rave potential and dig out those obscure, heavy dance floor cuts it has been hosting sporadic parties for the last 3 years, with no specific musical boundaries, it is about the late night, early morning dance floor experiences, heads down and lost in music!

A label was also planned, but when that would happen was always unclear, however a chance meeting in Croatia at Love International Festival 2018 between Phil and Carlo Bragagnini AKA La Mano has led to the inaugural release, TGOE001 La Mano 'Tana del Lupo' EP

Side A - Sirena, inspired by the classic Italo stable, a deep and driving intro that builds with a rolling, solid bass line, shimmering effects, gun fire handclaps and siren sounds before the piano line eases in to take it to a euphoric crescendo of soaring synths for maximum hands in the air vibes...

To add weight to the release, remixer options were discussed and both agreed on Man Power, and his rework has taken it to a much different place, adding a solid breakbeat to it, dirtying up the piano and extending the mix to 9+ minutes, this is HEAVY for the floor...

Side B - La Mano, the ying to the yang of Sirena, this is a much more progressive track, subtle in the arpeggio build up and layered to create a big sound culminating in a swirling series of dreamy chords and synth lines.
The Ambiente mix takes away the kick and percussion to allow the full dream like state to take effect, one for sunrises and sunsets across the globe...

Faitiche welcomes two young artists from Canada: Jonathan Scherk and Daniel Majer hail from the post-rock and experimental scene in Vancouver, where they shared a studio for several years. In artistic terms, too, there is a surprising coherence: on 'It's Counterpart', their solo work naturally blends to create a joint album, making it hard to distinguish between their contributions. Majer describes his part as a shadow-like reflection to Scherk’s brightly meandering collages. The album’s title refers to this: 'It's Counterpart' presents two solo artists who have met their match in one another.

Scherk and Majer produce contemporary sound collages on samplers, laptops etc. using raw material drawn from YouTube videos, field recordings, cassettes, and LPs from the dollar bin – the kind of rightly forgotten obscurities that have long since lost their audience, if they ever had one. In the hands of Scherk and Majer, they become abstract sound objects. The two artists don't concern themselves with the material's original context – the sound's character is most important. This sets them apart from other collage artists. Their work might be called a contemporary upgrade of the classic tape collage: here, channelling a wealth of information is the main focus. So are these collages that trigger neither associations nor contexts? Au contraire! 'It's Counterpart' is like an overheated centrifuge whose spinning extracts and joins together all of the harmonies ever pressed on vinyl. Melodies run amok.

Deriving from the acclaimed performance and exhibition—staged by Anne Imhof at the 57th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia and awarded the Golden Lion for Best National Participation— the album Faust is part documentation and part elaboration, the sonic capture and extrapolation of the gestures, intensities, and durations of the live event.

Serving as the dramatic backbone of a several-hour long performance seen by thousands over the course of the Biennial, the soundtrack was a product of the collective and its individuals, animating and organising the performers while immersing the audience in the potent images of power and paradise. The music for Faust was written in a band-like process by Imhof and her close collaborators Billy Bultheel, Eliza Douglas, and Franziska Aigner during the months leading up to
its premiere at the opening of the German Pavilion in Venice.

From the chaos of the performative, the album is constructed out of live recordings and original arrangements, teasing out the most potent strands and weaving them into a new composition of brutal feeling and baroque intricacy, each track a testament to the energy that brought it into being.

Faust is anchored around three pieces—Medusa’s Song, O.W.E.N., and Queen Song—written and sung by performers Eliza Douglas and Franziska Aigner, whose sonorous and elegiac voices imbue the work as a whole with their crushing depths and dolorous moods. Between these urgent vocal interventions march and twist the winding fugues and electronic abstractions of Billy Bultheel, who has dismantled and reassembled the sonic landscapes of the pavilion, crafting new
arrangements that couple the forcefulness of the physical encounter with the artifice of the studio Throughout the album and culminating in it's closing act — the brutal chorus of Douglas’ Faust’s Last
Song, a pulsing canon of looped and layered voice pierced by black metal screams.

Faust is the record of a lost event and the promise of a new creation. The release of Faust illustrates the centrality of music to Imhof’s artistic practice. Her musical collaborations with Bultheel began
in 2013, and this generative constellation expanded to include the contributions of Douglas and Aigner, together scoring Imhof’s Angst (2016) and recently her performance trilogy Sex (2019).

Oráculo Records proudly presents “OMBRA FESTIVAL Unusual Sounds Gathering Volume 1”, a vinyl compilation created to celebrate the very upcoming second edition of OMBRA FESTIVAL, that will take place next november 29th and 30th in different spots of Barcelona. Released in a one-off limited edition of 300 copies it includes unreleased material by some of the artists that joined OMBRA FESTIVAL project and that majorly will be part of the scheduled OMBRA FESTIVAL live shows. Featuring new music by THE PRESENT MOMENT, CELLDÖD, PSYCHE, RNXRX and WE ARE NOT BROTHERS. All tracks has been specially remastered by Eric Van Wonterghem at Prodam Berlin.

A mind-bending blend of modular synth performance, Anthony Baldino’s dynamic Twelve Twenty Two LP is a treat for all ears. Baldino’s transcendent album is available both digitally and on vinyl on Thursday, October 24 via MethLab Recordings.

“The record focuses heavily on the modular synth as a composition tool and instrument. I originally approached this as a collection of tracks that were recorded straight out of the machine with little to no editing. The work flow of generating a complex patch and then figuring out the overall arch and performance of the piece was really exciting. The Tip Top Audio Circadian Rhythms was a key compositional tool in this process and was used to organize the overall structure of these pieces. It wasn’t until I stumbled upon a patch, the opening synths in ‘Fading Quickly Now,’ that I went back to how I used to write and shifted to harvesting sounds and rhythms from the modular and arranging and editing them in the box. That patch was originally created for a different track on the album, which I’ll let you find, but IH ad accidentally changed the clock rate before tearing the patch down. Hearing it in that new way triggered a whole new thought process and emotional reaction for me.” - Anthony Baldino

Originally approached as a collection of tracks recorded straight out of Baldino’s machine with little editing, Twelve Twenty Two is a complex piece of thoughtful modular work. A truly stunning display of masterful sound design, Baldino’s sound resonates with listeners from first note to last. Existing in a unique space where ambient sounds meet vivacious bass, Baldino seemingly exists in an impressive league of his own, with Twelve Twenty Two standing apart powerfully from the masses. With an already powerful arsenal of artists and releases, MethLab Recordings adds a brilliant 10-track addition to their already wild playbook.

“From the beginning, it was important for me to keep this record musical and emotional and not just an exercise in technicality, so using both the modular and the computer to arrange felt really good both emotionally and sonically and created a different balance to the record that I really liked. Switching the process up a bit halfway through kept things interesting and I think the body of work really benefits from it. This record is split in half with performance based/straight out of the machine tracks and the other half organized in the box. But when listening back, the two approaches overlap so much that it’s hard to tell where one approach ends and the other begins.” - Anthony Baldino


About Anthony Baldino:
Born and raised in New York, Anthony Baldino is an LA-based composer and sound designer whose work spans an enormous range of production avenues. The likelihood that you haven’t heard his world is nearly impossible, with music and sound design in too many trailer campaigns to list, including Prometheus, Interstellar, Ex-Machina, Star Wars: Rogue One, and Avengers: Infinity War and End Game just to name a few. From there, his work ventures to the opposite pole of production with custom sound design based compositions for Dolby Labs mixed in Atmos, beautifully glitched out remixes, and continues on to mind-bending modular synthesizer performances.

With his debut artist release, he delivers a devastatingly beautiful album grounded in IDM that focuses on modular synthesizers/ While a vast amount of modular synth music is currently being released, this album goes far beyond the typical beeps and boops that one may expect when they hear “modular IDM record.” This record is as technical as it is emotive. Tasteful and incredibly detailed, Twelve Twenty Two bridges the gap between sound-design laden beats and cinematic motifs and ambiences. This record does not disappoint and is sure to become a favorite of electronic music fans.

The album opens up with a slowly unfolding melody that seems to be within grasp, but never actually repeats itself. Incredibly tasteful glitchy sound design leads us into a build that one would only expect to be in a movie, and then drops into a full-on sonic assault of impeccable drums and rich synths. From there, the record traverses a wide array of texture, time and technique. Closing with a track that makes you feel like you could actually reach out and touch the sound and float in its space, the sonic landscape created in Twelve Twenty Two is a true treat for ears.