Pop & Rock 

blue + red marbled vinyl

"He spoke to the sand. It explained to him that the wind could take him and carry him across the desert and then he could become a stream again. He asked if he would then remain the same as before? The sand answered him that this was not possible, because his essence would be carried away and would again form a stream. He would be called what he is even today, because he did not know which part in him was the essential one."
- Lazarus

"Into The Abyss", the new album by Joel Holmes (former band leader of Carl Craig's synthesizer ensemble and member of Grammy-nominated cult band Roy Hargrove) is a perfect capturing of Berlin's new jazz and electronic scene.

"Soutien Gorge" make a much welcome return to release their latest album "Tarskapcsolatodban" on "Touched Music". I'm not as familiar with their backcatalogue as I would like to be but intend to remedy that ASAP! The double CD compilation "Meseerdö" on Touched Music is a great place to do that... Soutien Gorge are two guys from Hungary who make interesting experimental electro-acoustic music. Their first release was around 2002, making this release their 20th anniversary release ! This latest release Tarskapcsolatodban by Soutien Gorge makes me think fondly of a lot artists on labels like City Centre Offices, Morr Music, and some outlyers on Warp Records. Musically coming in somewhere between, ISAN, B. Fleischmann, and Plone. The melodies have simple, often nursery rhyme like appeal. Arrangement wise there are acoustic and electronic instruments, with some field recording elements, and and sampling of speech in to me what is just a foreign language and difficult to understand. Good use of guitars to create additional layers at times remind ne of Duo-505, the B. Fleischmann side project. The field recordings and reserved electronics reminds me of the 2018 "Wanderwelle" album "Gathering Of The Ancient Spirits" on "Silent Season (Canada)".

»Italia Synthetica 1981-1985« represents the musical mutation that occurred after the post-punk hangover gave way to more frigid emotional shores, in-line with the synth-wave moment that was sweeping Europe and the white cliffs of Albion. This scene flourished in Italy between 1981-1985, and the musicians that came out of it are still revered today (particularly in the US).

Robotic rhythms and intuitions that, besides sharing common ground with the electronic movements that had come before, also knew how to fill up the dancefloor. Featuring four previously unreleased tracks by Der Blaue Reiter, along with tracks by Modo, Actor's Studio, and La Maison, as well as the still fresh sounding contributions by true pioneers of the genre Neon and Naif Orchestra. Also features Ein-st-ein, Scortilla, Eurotunes, Oh Oh Art, and 2+2=5 featuring Paolo Mauri.

Mark Hawkins readies ‘Venn Diagram’ album for Aus Music this May.
Mark Hawkins’ early releases on labels such as Djax Up Beats and Ugly Funk lit flares in the world of
underground techno, with a sense of humour and tougher-than-thou sonic palette enforced via his jacking live
sets. Across the following decades, Mark has delivered razor sharp cuts that encompass pretty much
anything that has an electronic heart - leaving his own unique trail for others to follow via his work for labels
as diverse as Dixon Avenue Basement Jams, Sonic Mind, Mistress Recordings, Houndstooth and Aus.

With his latest album, it feels like Mark has pushed ahead with a change of direction he started with 2021’s
‘The New Normal’. ‘Venn Diagram’ carries on this journey into uncharted lands; molten, distorted drum
assaults weave around glistening melodies, kitchen sink soul glides below fractured sound pools. Opener
‘Verblex Oscillos’ immediately demands your attention grabbing, with a so-happy-it’s-sad melody spiralling
around a cascade of tough-as-fuck dance floor destroying beats, along with ‘Isolated’s urgent combination of
strings, acid and chicago-tough electro beats.

Other cuts on the album share a similar approach, ‘Maladayfun Friction’s restless energy derives from a fusion
of skittering drums and deranged synths and ‘Still Have Time’s dreamy super saw pads and plaintive vocal
espouse a kind of wasted elegance, roaming the city nightlife in a Gucci dress and Doc Martin boots.
‘Nlasckhdsjk’ and ‘Frederikalstublieft’ propel forward with such a sleek and effervescent aesthetic, recalling
fast drives along picturesque European highways or heady take-offs to unknown urban territories. The
aesthetic becomes more elegant on the album’s centrepoint tracks ‘Rebula Conundrum’ and ‘Nlasckhdsjk’,
where optimistic bleeps, bass and 707 drums underpin jazzy chords and soaring leads.

Other tracks show the arc of Mark’s direction of travel, with soulful vocals that share a well of deep-rooted
optimism that was so evident on his breakthrough 2016 Social Housing album. ‘L.O.V.E.’ breaks into
post-Sophie territory with a catchy modulated vocal joyfully two-stepping across to the nightclub bar and
‘How Do I Know’ providing a heart rending torch song for 6am kicking-out-time refugees to help them find
their way back home.

A voice in the ether. A calm, clement drone. A gentle, pulsing throb. Like the ghost of a forgotten future as imagined by the distant past, Certain Creatures' sophomore LP Nasadiya Sukta is a study in timelessness - crystalline, heartfelt ambient music designed to push light through shadow. Nasadiya Sukta is the debut release on Mysteries of the Deep, a record label dedicated to total sensory immersion. Mysteries (as it's known colloquially and affectionately) launched in 2011 after a particularly fruitful late-night mixing session, first as a cult podcast series dedicated to narcotic music of all kinds, subsequently expanding into a series of seasonal events. Now, with the release of Nasadiya Sukta, Mysteries of the Deep becomes a full-fledged outlet for music to play in the dark. Certain Creatures is the alias of Brooklyn-based artist Oliver Chapoy, and Nasadiya Sukta was crafted especially for Mysteries of the Deep. Its genesis came when Grant Aaron, Mysteries' proprietor, tapped Chapoy to perform at Mysteries' Halloween event in 2015. His performance was the night's axis point, bridging earlier subdued sounds with late-night upbeat moods. Two years later, reworked and reconfigured, this performance is reborn as Nasadiya Sukta. Although divided into six tracks, Nasadiya coheres into a single extra-terrestrial mass, its beautiful understated elegance encouraging repeat listens. Simultaneously harking back to ambient classics from the '90s (you know who they are) while cementing Chapoy as a visionary artist with his own unique voice, Nasadiya Sukta is one for the space travellers indeed. Releases on Styles Upon Styles, Medical Records Label Promo + Tour

The Mothership has come! It has arrived in the form of the strictly limited collection box “Music Is The Healing Force Of The Universe”, containing all singles released on the label between 2019 and 2021. The Höga Nord – galaxy resounds of all good between strict electro and loose jams, fluffy krautrock and moist world music to underwater techno and space funk. Although, what it is that defines the Höga Nord sound is not genres, instead it is, to cite Mathias Nilsson, founder of and boss for the label, music “strongly connected to fantasy, to the creative world.” Creativity over profit!

The collection is an overview on Gothenburg’s underground music and on an international scene that breathes similar air as the local Swedish acts that Höga Nord Rekords has chosen to highlight. The kinship between Jesse’s 80’s varnish sports car-electro and Purple Desert Rain God’s more traditional mountain sound can appear distant but the artists come together in their free spirited approach to their own productions – what all acts on this collection has in common is that they move toward something new, something beyond the genre they are in.

“Music Is The Healing Force Of The Universe ” mark the closer for Höga Nords first run. The 2010s are over and the 2020s lies open for further investigation of the cream of the Swedish and international of underground scenes!

Title paraphrase of the legendary British film the crying game, track titles that refer to stories of Philip dick or William Gibson, melancholic pads a la Derrick May and jazzy melodies compose a hybrid of acid and drum and bass that brings to mind the braindance and breakcore sound of the UK . Αthens Computer Underground's The Crying Came is a sophisticated soundtrack of hardware electronica.

V.I.V.E.K announces his second release on the self-named VIVEK label. Known for his cult label, SYSTEM MUSIC, this label focuses more on eclectic 140 bpm outside the realm of the dance floor.

The 4 track EP explores broken beat, ambience, melody and rhythm at 140, something that has been missing over the last few years within the genre. Colours is not only the EP title, but a reflection of the diversity of the tracks. Musicality sits at the heart of this with a nod to easy listening.

“The main focus of this release was to take me out of my musical comfort zone. I wanted to work with other musicians as well as push myself to inhabit new creative ideas.” - V.I.V.E.K

Whether it’s as an artist, label owner, a deep-drawing world-touring selector or system-building soundman behind some of London’s most important dances, V.I.V.E.K has an inherent drive to push things forward and contribute to the craft of music with serious attention to detail. A life-long frequency student dedicated to soundsystem culture, he has total respect for the heritage, value and rich variety of true music, an ability to totally arrest your full attention and imagination with his music... And has done so since he emerged in the early 2000s.

Musically pressed and blessed on key imprints such as his own System Music, Deep Medi, Tectonic and iconic reggae imprint Greensleeves, V.I.V.E.K’s creations are a crucial brew of bass styles encompassing everything from heavyweight bass hypnosis to flighty, steppy garage hybrids via sweet dub soul and all-out low-end pressure. His self-built custom soundsystem, SYSTEM, meanwhile, is a unique force of nature in UK bass music culture; the most prominent modern system to be established this decade, it’s a whole new chapter in the UK’s longstanding and illustrious history of barrier-breaking soundsystem communities. As such, it attracts committed fans from around the globe and selectors from across the system spectrum.

His label System Music has the same treasured, trusted status; not only as a source of legit never-to-be-repressed artefacts that prize the real value of music, but also as a key platform for encouraging forward-thinking, powerful system music from across the OG – freshmen continuum. Karma to Kromestar, Sleeper to SP:MC, LAS to Egoless: System Music’s celebration of bass music’s sonic scope and nurturing of talent and craft ensures its consistent buy-on-sight ranking.

Most importantly it’s as a selector that V.I.V.E.K’s position is the most vital. The selective tailor of rich, immersive and eclectic sessions, few DJs dig as deep, join the dots or draw for dubs quite like this West London operator. Accentuating his influence as a producer, engineer, dubsmith, label curator and system builder; his creative excursions as a DJ, both on the dancefloor and the airwaves as a broadcaster on the likes of Rinse FM, galvanise his status as one of the most respected, influential and singular artists who is driven by nothing but craftsmanship, unity and the sense of culture that UK bass music needs to thrive and inspire.

The making of a maiden album can be a capricious process. One moment of outright musical flow paired with another period of sustained creative struggle are feats experienced by seasoned producers the world over. So when Miraclis was forced to hole away in his makeshift studio - in the midst of a global pandemic - the stage was set for something magical. Now it will see the light of day for the very first time.

Having released two singles on Secret Teachings to critical acclaim already this year, Chilean talent Miraclis will accomplish a milestone achievement in July with the release of his debut album: Origin Of Truth.

Difficult experiences were fundamental to the creation of such work, as were Miraclis’ inherent musical interests. He explains: “Origin Of Truth had its birth during the pandemic. I created it as a way of communicating to myself the sensations and feelings that were spinning around my head at the time. I've always been inspired by Bristol trip hop, as well as classical rock, and these genres definitely contributed to the making of these melancholic tracks. In a way I wanted to fuse all the musical influences that were part of my childhood, up until this point now, so this album really means a lot to me. It was my way of communicating, when there was a lack of social contact and communication itself was hard to come by.”

It's this meditative quality that initially drew Damian Lazarus to the project. “It’s a record that has its roots in electronic music, but it’s a very alternative, very deep, melancholic album. I find it both soothing and stirring at the same time, and that’s a quite interesting juxtaposition in that it feels edgy but delicious at the same time,” says Lazarus. “The fact that this was written in this place surrounded by the most incredible desert landscapes makes this a very important piece of work to me. It doesn’t sit in any particular genre, which is why it feels right for a Secret Teachings release. It hints at so many genres that I as a DJ am quite into, and it feels like a first as it’s unique and unclassifiable. That mystical, esoteric, edgy feel makes this a perfect release for the label.”

Sonnet opens proceedings, with ghostly vocals residing next to raw instrumental elements throughout. Miraclis’ signature guitar riffs soon converge on saddened keys, paving the way for Scienter. It takes the form of an instrument-based, electronic-inspired cut, building slowly before reaching a crescendo midway through via an enrapturing acoustic solo.

Floating Child comes next, brimming with a darker intensity courtesy of broody synth pulses and rhythmic hi-hats, as Shiver arrives next. There’s a rock-leaning sensibility to the piece that gives way to earnest lyrical offerings, opening swiftly into the breakbeat-esque world of Perceptions. Hard-hitting drums act as the focal point, with electric chords adding depth and intrigue, whilst Bright continues in a similarly heartfelt vein.

Introspective pads leave us feeling pensive, ahead of Interstellar taking us on a celestial journey through warped bass tones. Acting as the LP’s penultimate number, it’s a four-and-a-half minute showcase of guitar-based musical goodness and one that perfectly sets the stage for Trapped, a closing saga of suitably emotive proportions.

Miraclis earned his stripes as a DJ under the name Max Clementi in his native Chile, as well as Spain after a stint at the Barcelona SAE Institute. Playing and writing music since his parents gave him his first guitar at age twelve, he found himself inspired by synth wave, electronic pop, trip hop, and psychedelic rock of the ‘80s and ‘90s, drenching himself in music by the likes of Massive Attack, Tricky, Depeche Mode, and Nine Inch Nails. However, it wasn’t until he had to move back to Pucón to take care of his father during the pandemic that he began working on what would become Origin Of Truth.

Serendipity seems to play a large part in Crosstown Rebels’ new label Secret Teachings. Just look at the story of how Damian met Miraclis in the first place. It involved a chance midnight encounter in Pucón, Chile at a woodland campfire after the DJ was locked out of his hotel room. This meeting of minds was the start of a remarkable friendship, where Miraclis invited Lazarus to stay at his house and break bread with his family. The two kept in touch, exchanging music and ideas as a result.

The first album in 7 years from seminal electronic music pioneers and twice Mercury Prize Nominated, Leftfield. Currently reaching a new audience through Idris Elba’s Gucci ad, this will be their 4th album in their 28 year history. The new single will be featured in the soon to launched eFootball by Konami (previously PES).

Their last tour (in 2017) featured 7 sold out UK shows (including 2 X Brixton Academies), a sold out world tour and various festival headlines.

Quote from Neil Barnes: "I wanted ‘Pulse’ to be the first statement from the new album. It felt strong. Dance floor. Human. Positive. And I love the bass. It’s Leftfield."

Full pitch notes with bio to come

CULTURE

Leftfield (originally comprised of Neil Barnes and Paul Daley), have been at the cutting edge of dance music since the 1990s, releasing albums that have become some of the most influential electronic records of all time around the world with their debut LP 'Leftism' being widely regarded as one of the most boundary-pushing electronic LPs ever released.

In 2010, Neil Barnes reignited the Leftfield name, and went on to release an acclaimed new album (Alternative Light Source) touring the world with the full live band. Neil has also been cementing his reputation as a top-tier DJ and record collector unleashing modern dance floor weapons, selling out venues, headlining festivals and creating some amazing nights with his sets.

The word datasal paints inner pictures for most people growing up in Sweden during the 1990’s. The datasal (a classroom for computers) was an ordinary classroom with few changes to fit the school’s 10 newly leased computers. The room represented the change of times in Sweden during this period: the fixed institutions and the awaiting digital flood wave.

The music of Datasal sounds captures the feeling of printing a downloaded picture of your favorite hockey player or music artist or the expectations building up as you wait for the modem to log in to interact with the thousands of users of the internet in 1995. The two tracks on this release manifests the excitement but also the bit of fright you felt connecting to the world in the mid 90’s - a time when the internet still was fun.

The sound is built around repetitive sequencer loops and programmed beats where electric bass, electric guitar and flute improvise around a theme, creating a sound that is best described as cosmic flute house. Datasal is an harmonic reminder of a time where digital progress seemed less harmful than today.

Mogwai return with their 9th studio album which was recorded with renowned producer Dave Fridmann (Mercury Rev, The Flaming Lip's, Mogwai's Come On Die Young and ROCK ACTION) at his Tarbox Road Studios in New York State.

Every Country's Sun named after a friends lack of knowledge in how the universe works, takes two decades of Mogwai's signature, contrasting sounds and distills it, beautifully, into 56 concise minutes of gracious elegance, hymnal trance-rock, and transcendental euphoria. It will definitely appeal to fans of the band and will gain many new ones along the way.

Jay-Jay Johanson extends his new single “Labyrinth” to a 8 tracks LP including unreleased tracks & remixes. “Labyrinth” is also the new singe coming from his “Portfolio” best of, dedicated to the second part of his career.

White Vinyl

Der angesehene DJ und Producer Daniel Avery veröffentlicht sein bis dato ehrgeizigstes Studioalbum 'Ultra Truth' auf Erol Alkans Label Phantasy Sound. 'Ultra Truth' bietet ein völlig anderes Hörerlebnis als Averys frühere Alben, für das er mit der Hilfe einiger Freunde (u.a. HAAi, Kelly Lee Owens und Ghost Culture) in seinem Studio direkt an der Themse eine ganz eigene Klangwelt entwickelt hat.

Following Notte Infinita's 'I Lost All My Data' release on INDEX:Records, the Berlin-based artist mediates the balance between dub-laced frequencies, introspective melodies and atmosphere on the next Oscilla Sound release. His propulsive Atmosfera three-tracker focuses on digital signal processing and embraces the shimmery, hyper-realistic synthetic quality of FFT manipulation. Notte Infinita explores emotional narratives through sonic gestures and textures, taking inspiration from spaces, dreams and the experience of manipulating digital artefacts.

Heavenly Recording’s final long player release of 2022 is set to close the year on the dancefloor at home or in the clubs. More classic Heavenly remixes on wax and CD formats for your collection. Artwork by Luke Insect.

Released on Friday November 25th, these compilations follow Heavenly Remixes Volume 1 & 2 and Heavenly Remixes Volumes 3 & 4 (Andrew Weatherall Remixes).

Since the first Heavenly recording, there have been striking remixes that reframe the original track. These remakes offer a parallel reading of the last four decades of releases; they take the music to places where genres can be pulled inside out before being reassembled for different dancefloors, or for a different state of mind.

It’s a selection of those secret sounds that make up the latest in this series of flawless compilations. Each presents a parallel reading of the Heavenly Recordings story, a version that’s best heard as the light fades and the furniture gets shoved to one side of the room in decent work places the world over.

Strut present a new repress of the influential first volume of 'Disco Not Disco' compiled by Joey Negro and Sean P as part of the label's 20th Anniversary.

'Disco Not Disco' was a perfectly timed compilation back in 2000. Released when interest in the myths, history and playlists of original New York clubs like Paradise Garage and The Loft was at its peak, the album drew on the outer limits of leftfield disco championed by Levan and Mancuso, bringing together unlikely dancefloor anthems by rock acts like Yoko Ono and Ian Dury, obscurities from cottage labels like BC and Splash and selected oddities from the unique mind of avant-garde hero, Arthur Russell.

It was essentially a celebration of the sonic melting pot in New York during the early '80s, an era when punk had burnt itself out and disco had become commercial and saccharine; in its place, the post-punk movement threw up brilliant oddities which tore up the accepted rulebook.

The album features full original artwork and Kris Needs' sleeve notes and is remastered and cut by The Carvery.

Robohands, aka Andy Baxter, joins the Bastard Jazz family with a new EP titled "Giallo." Partly inspired by Italian Giallo (meaning "yellow") film soundtracks of the late 70s and 80s, as well as the experimental sounds of pioneering krautrock bands like Tangerine Dream and NEU! Armed with an old Juno 60 synthesizer, Andy wrote, recorded, and mixed all the parts himself, including the live drums, adding in multiple layers of effects.

Spread across 8 tracks, "Giallo" spans atmospheric meditations ("Giallo;" "Claws;" "Relax") to jazzy improvisational explorations ("Fear"), interwoven with brief solo instrumental tapestries ("Horror;" "Float By Like Clouds;" "For the Different"). There is an elegant cinematic quality to the EP, further refined by Robohands' production prowess and technical chops. "Giallo" builds on the Robohands sound, taking it in an exciting, more experimental direction.

Personal Passage is an imaginary journey that starts from a station and goes to a place that is not well defined, but is elsewhere.

The sounds of the record pass through calm and timeless places at frantic and often anxious moments. It crosses the moods of which it seeks to change, and often has to face light and dark.

Enthusiasm and fears mix and merge in a long time space, like a train journey, which sooner or later arrives at its destination.

repress

"The haunting ambience of Beat fit somewhat with the then-popular Massive Attack and Portishead, but the album's subsonic drone made it more of a minimal mood piece than a collection of songs." MAGNET

The second in a trio of albums released by the core duo of Lawrence Chandler and Martha Schwendener, Beat is without doubt their definitive artistic statement.

Coming 20 years to the day of its original release, this is the first time this album has been available on vinyl in almost two decades, and the first ever U.S. vinyl release. (Was released here on Beggars Banquet, original copies very hard to find..)

The second album from New York City's Bowery Electric was released in late 1996, less than 15 months after their self-titled debut, but it found them having traveled light years musically in the interim, the group having seemingly decided to see how far they could take the guitar/ bass/ drums/ vocal setup into the atmosphere.

Every aspect of their approach had been refined and focused: squalling, distorted guitars had been transformed into hazy, sensual sheets; the live drums transmuted to sampled rhythms more in debt to the blossoming downtempo sound of the day; bass lines reduced to their most basic diagrams; vocals submerged to become one with the narcotized fog of the instruments; even the lyrics were reduced to a few minimal lines used sparingly so as not to overshadow the dynamic.

Beat is a lush and dense mantra of shadowy percussion, barely-there vocals and immersive drones that envelops the listener in an opiated blanket of sound.

quotes:

"Bowery Electric have made something utterly astonishing here. So deep, so wide, and somehow as intimate as a train crash. The first six tracks are just the most crushingly beautiful thing I've heard in 1997; the last five are even better. Good god, THIS IS IT." Melody Maker

"While cymbals shower down over the songs like a torrent of shattered glass, their austere beauty is never static. Ambience has rarely sounded so messy." Exclaim

A near-perfect mix of shifting dance beats, menacing electronic drones, analogue bleeps,
syncopated rhythms and ethereal vocals." Now UK

A year on from the highly-acclaimed album 'It's A World Before You', Kaidi Tatham brings more new music to First Word Records - a continuation of his previous EP's for the label (2017's 'Changing Times' & 'Hard Times'), here we enter 'Serious Times'.

Kaidi Tatham is one of the most revered multi-instrumentalists in the game. Dubbed by Radio 1's Benji B last year as "the UK's Herbie Hancock", his versatility as a musician is actually more akin to Prince in the sense that he can play most instruments, and play them well. His contributions as a musician, composer & producer have included work with Bugz In The Attic, Amy Winehouse, Slum Village, Mulatu Astatke, Soul II Soul, Moonchild, Leroy Burgess, Amp Fiddler and loads more over the years, additionally to being a key player on Jazzy Jeff's PLAYlist album 'Chasing Goosebumps' along with Masego, Stro Elliot, 14KT, Tall Black Guy, Rich Medina and the like, and various projects alongside Dego (2000 Black) and First Word label-mates Eric Lau, Darkhouse Family & Children of Zeus.

'Serious Times' is another 4-track set comprised of Kaidi's unmistakable style, encompassing broken beat, jazz, boogie and hip hop. The EP starts off with the hype jazz-funk bruk of 'Cost of Living', maintaining the tempo into 'Don't Cry Now' which leads with a sweet latin-tinged piano riff. Onto the flipside, and we're treated to the slinky synth-boogie of 'Sugar' before dropping the tempo down & closing the selection with a warped but jazzy instrumental boom bap piece entitled 'Zallom'.

Kaidi is a national treasure quite frankly, and this EP is another mere taster of this man's endless talents and unique vibes. Some grown folk music, perfect for these 'Serious Times'…

Vinyl & digital released on Friday 19th July 2019 on First Word Records (Worldwide Awards 'Label of the Year 2019').

Limited edition white vinyl w/pink haze + download card.

n5MD and Gimmik team up yet again! This time, to bring you an updated and remastered version of Gimmik's digitally reclaimed and once previously unreleased cuts compilation News From The Past for the first time on vinyl.

The original compilation was released digitally by Gimmik's Toytronic imprint in 2005, originally comprised of six tracks recorded between 1994 and 2000. The reimagined vinyl collection combines ten tracks–plus an additional five included on the download card–spanning 1994 to 2021.
News From The Past is an excellent snapshot of Gimmik's musical output thus far and a testament to Martin Haidinger's winding path as one of experimental electronica's most unparalleled producers.

For whatever reason, the new Detroit label Choose Better Friends is dropping three brand-new and red-hot EPs all at the same time. We're fine with that because this trio of 12"s is quality US house direct from the source. Gino is behind this one and serves up four tunes for heady dance floors. There is a sense of intrigue to the scurrying toms and muted chords of 'Rawhide'. They unfurl over pinging kicks and clouds of sub-bass to great effect. 'Gitteshouse' is more romantic, with jazzy motifs drifting up top over a slick deep house beat that pings back and forth, and 'Truffaut' then picks up the pace for an edgy mix of unique synth sounds and chunky drum funk. 'Frontandback' gets raw and to close down with rock-solid kicks set to rattle walls.

On the cusp of their 30th year with British indie Warp Records, Plaid return with a joyous new studio album, Feorm Falorx. From their playful early releases in the late 80's until now, they have explored diverse musical styles and embraced new methods of synthesis whilst maintaining a musical thread that spins back through the early Hip Hop scene of their youth and beyond to the sounds of the late 60s and 70s that inspired it.

Plaid have toured extensively and collaborated widely over the years, writing for and performing with sonic researchers, percussion groups, solo artists and orchestras, most recently for the BBC Concert Orchestra. They have written for computer games and scored several feature films, one of which, Tekkon Kinkreet, was awarded the Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year.

This eleventh studio album finds our duo, Ed Handley and Andy Turner, recreating a recent performance at the Feorm Festival, an intergalactic festival held on the planet Falorx. In order to survive the Falorxian atmosphere they were converted into light so the traditional recording devices they'd taken on 'The Campbell' were not functional. Fortunately, having consulted Earth's Space Agency, it was deemed safe to recreate the performance back in their London studio. Extensive testing of the resulting recordings have established a level of thought contamination deemed, “perfectly acceptable.”

Feorm Falorx will be released Universally on 11-11-22

There was a time when a person would pick up an instrument to compose yet another song for a loved one. A sad figure humming into a microphone, pronouncing the most basic words and forms to convey quantity, quality, fact, statistics and similar sounds describing pain, loss and sorrow. The human brain would perceive the melody sad and perhaps within herself feel a sense of melancholia.

In another parallel world a new composition would then appear. But not one composed on a wooden built instrument, no, sounds made into structures and tables that would assists the listener into providing an additional context and meaning through digital synthesis and quantised harmonies. But who could really tell if these sounds were real? Or where they just sounds impersonating an idea of something?

Rhyme nor reason is as abstract in its shapes and ideas as it is concrete and elegant in its narratives. A carefully crafted wooden cabinet with an over-whelming amount of different drawers and hidden compartments. Each box storing blissful arrangement; a fluorescent stone, a paper note saying something about lunch, some collectible objects, a forgotten token or perhaps an autograph, all so very vibrant and joyful for its possessor.

Deleted files stored on rapidly rotating platters coated with magnetic material. Small, easy to loose SSD memory cards of recorded corrupt files and digital artefacts. Software engineered compositions trying to grasp the shared belief of an upcoming future, vivid and uncertain; birds, waters and long lost recollections. A release unconcerned with the literal depiction of things from the visible world. At least not for now.

“This is my 1st solo rocket.
Tracks presented here were matured at the museum for few years and actually some of them came to
me at my very first attempt on solo music, being myself only involved with bands till then.
Everything was recorded at home exposed to machines i didn't know, using older and newer gear. At
some point midi samples were also used, taking advantage of my computer promises #anythingoes.
Turns out that cold meat lights no fire so attached to this music are ghosts of my life transcribing their
emotions into techno. First half of this rocket is more on a negative tip, the second half is more
positive, like we all should take it. Either way you should listen to both sides cause they complement
each other, so try to relax and enjoy the ride, or get off your ass and jam…"
Tiago’s (LUX/DFA) seminal solo album.

Limited edition milky clear with blue and purple splatter + HQ download.


The follow-up to last year's return-to-form collection, Cloudwalker. Sonic Poetry is a refined group of works showcasing Gimmik's adeptness at fusing experimental electronic music minutia with overarching melodicism.
Those that have followed Gimmik's carrier–and subsequent return–will take pleasure in Sonic Poetry's veracity and bolstered production. Leftfield/IDM, Breaks, Downtempo, Electro, and Ambient get dissected and reformed to create a truly authentic album in which it is evident that there is no coincidence in that the opening track is named "Here I am."

South-east Turkey born DJ, sound artist and producer Banu uses music as a political tool. For her, the strong message carried through sound is a vehicle to express emotions as well as a means of fighting against oppression. Using participation, social design, ecology, feminist and queer theory to create multimedia installations with sound as a main element, Banu‘s practice is closer to contemporary art and activist spaces than the club realm.

Banu‘s debut album TransSoundScapes is an exercise in female solidarity between her as a migrant woman and her sisters from the trans community, where an artist from one marginalised group is showing support towards her trans sisters, using her platform to help them amplify their voices and building a bridge towards a mutual understanding of femininity.

Conceptually, TransSoundScapes comes in continuation of Banu‘s previous research-based work, using music as a positive tool for change while working with various marginalised communities. The album originated from the very real experience of being confronted with verbal harassment in Berlin on a daily basis, particularly aimed at her transfeminine friends and companions. As a queer woman of Turkish and Kurdish origin, Banu did not only observe the verbal aggression directed at her friends, but also understood most of the insults shouted in languages such as Arabic. Seeing how she got signifi cantly more verbal violence directed at them when in company of trans people made a lasting impression on her, so she wanted to try and use her relative privilege to amplify transfeminine voices through her music.

Coming from a very conservative family, making music has been her lifelong dream. It was the moment she had the opportunity to work with the iconic Arp 2600 synthesiser (a younger sibling to Eliane Radigue‘s infamous 2500 machine) that all her disparate interests came into place to create an empowering soundscape with the aid of analogue drum machines. TransSoundScapes has a very full, porous sound, where every element that comes into play sounds soft yet clear. Across the 7 tracks, Banu conjures pounding subterraneous bassy techno („Surgery“), slithering tentacular EBM („First Time“) and pulsating cavernous soundscapes („Harem“), where oversized dancefl oor elements are woven with poetic spoken word passages, resulting in sensusous yet political anthems. Banu artfully merges loosely related genres such as techno, electro, dub and sound poems into a sound that is at once deeply personal and extremely compelling.

All of the tracks are collaborative efforts, Banu seeing the process as an exchange of care and shared experiences, while integrating research into her writing process. The lyrics in „Transition (part 1+2)‘‘ are an adaptation of Sara Ahmed’s “Living a Feminist Life”, while „Surgery“ was born out of series of interviews with trans people, channeling the metallic sounds of a surgery room to refer to society‘s perception of transness as a medical condition. Tracks like „First Time feat. Patricia“, „Harem feat. Prince Emrah“ or „We feat. Aérea Negrot“ document her encounters with various trans women, centering their life experiences while also developing a deep dialogue through the process of making music together.

The darkest and perhaps the most emblematic track is ‚‘Bianka (In Memory Of)‘‘, dedicated to the late Bianka Shigurova, a 22-year old Georgian actress found dead in her apartment. It was her Tbilisi photographer friend George Nebriedze who told her Bianka‘s tragic story, whose death is suspected to be an assasination due to transphobia. Banu chose one of Nebriedze‘s analogue photos of Bianka as the album‘s cover art.

Limited to 300 physical copies

Our label is back and it’s back with a bang! For the first time ever featuring 6 tracks on one release, we’re delighted to present Azemad’s “Afriki“ EP. Showcasing his broad scope of influences and massive talent for melodic arrangements, the Berlin-based Egyptian producer and vocalist offers a record that is as wide ranging in style as it is evocative and emotionally intelligent.

Festive tribal drums meet moody rap verses, fat bouncy bass lines and dubbed out chords on this wonderful musical melting pot on wax. Whether you’re in a Mahragan or Mawal spirit, Azemad caters for all needs and occasions, last but not least with the friendly help and assistance of J.Wiltshire’s beautiful, aquatic bubbler of a remix on the flip.

AWK004 intends to surface on September 16th 2022, so keep your eyes and ears peeled. Thanks and much luv for the support as always!

Los Angeles' Zen 2000 returns with its third release, the third and final chapter in its kick-off string of 7-inches. For this episode, we once again dip into the deep and diverse well of local talent for a single from Tim Jones, a.k.a. Ex.Pontoon.

“Coming Back” is a slinky, off-kilter slow burn, a slinky vocal groove snaking through SoCal G-funk refashioned into a crackly reggae dub wobble. The other side is a delirious and psychedelic trip into the desert, the fiery sun scorching the earth below. Icy guitars and a cavernous arrangement turn the sonic horizon into a shimmering mirage. For the digital bonus, an instrumental version of the B-side, further revealing the nuanced and delicate composition of the piece.

Cawd Slaydaz is a clear shift for Frigio Records. Yet, this debutant also marks a return of sorts. The album brings together Hugo de Naranja, co-founder of former Red Light Radio, and Max Abysmal. The link that connects the two? Their love for Colombia and the rich musical melting pot of this diverse nation. Nothing is stable on this eleven track LP, recorded in Bogotá Colombia with 10 different local guest artists. Rhythms are cross pollinated, cold and stark city thump collides with rich and lively organic flows. The style pursued is anything but singular, like the messages. Social exclusion and brutality in the poetic Perreo “Dejen Bailar” is mirrored in the Cumbia food ode “Potato Trip”. Dark Electronics, Experimental Bass & Trap are the genre tags that most will attempt to label this record with. This ignores the Leftfield Funk of “El Gorila Del Desierto”, the Stoner Ambient of “Uffff” or the Synth-Punk rage of “Razones”. An audio snapshot of a country: TOTÁL.

AM006 is by Berlin's ML, titled 'Life always breaks your heart'. Two 30-minute pieces were written, constructed, collaged and fixed together by himself. It's an important story, so there's a copy from ML below and also ours was written by Bokeh Version Industrial to do it justice.

Hallucinated Brazilian poetry read by text to voice engines, supernatural thrillers ripped from Youtube, the clang of cutlery and distant canteen conversation, that noise wire fencing makes when you rake it with a stick, crickets chirping over odd dance emotions, a sample you think your recognise but can’t name…..

The trivial is cosmically important, the cosmically important is trivial. ‘It’s about the product’ - all of life’s a sample. You contain universes.

Alice in Wonderland, late night sessions with kosmische guitar legends, ethnographic chants from an unknown land, “There’s no monopoly of knowledge / there’s no monopoly of power”: forecasts from global political trends, China will be important they say, someone’s whistling a tune that doesn’t exist, I’m thinking of times long before I was born . . .

Growing naturally like a beautiful montage from his field recordings (a rich library of personal psychoacoustic details) and his 150 Session on NTS, ML's Life Always Breaks Your Heart is mixtape-concrète:

Gamelan of the soul, Bio-Curry-Wurst in Kreuzberg, zither overlays the booms of the squatter’s homegrade grenades…

Mark Leckey vs. Alvin Curran, Gustav Flaubert vs Cabaret Voltaire, free association flashbacks with the timestamps mixed up, with added bass guitar, OP-1, Ableton, distinguishing the ‘real’ instruments becomes unimportant….they’re absorbed by memory foam….

No country, no flag – outernational without a cause!

There is no purpose, there is only reverie.

ML -

"A useless ruin, things are falling apart, even in our deepest, we long for harmony. A hypothetical path, for obscure reasons, fades into transparency. The mediocrity of Western culture, sicken by P.R., life offers a chance, a place for enthusiasm. The texture of the world, them can read it in your eyes. In the heart of schizo-culture, distance, suddenly shortened, forms characters as symbols. Deafen by mass media, embittered by unsettled chemistry, the willing body, forever in transition. The pre-invented existence, owned by language, creates a passage towards chaos. Paragraphs of currents, amplify the feelings, while silence leaks into the new luxury of time. Gentrification of sentiments, beneath our palms, all these memoirs. A modern consciousness, stretching over years in narcissistic differentiation. In touch with another human spirit, blowing backwards, beneath dark waters. We put our hands on your body, onto a new landscape, employed by metaphysical mutations. At the edge of the cosmos, prairies and mountains hide the truth in tactical silence. Apparently so, a number of months ago, above our head, a landscape of journals. Mystical content, statistically insignificant. A new patio, them crawled through the walls."

The Institute is happy to present a newcomer in its ranks: Lasha Chkhaidze, one of the 13 members of collective "If Strangers." Georgia is home to melancholia and many exciting musicians, something we have shown in many of our previous releases. Lasha’s first album is part of this theme.

These six tracks gently pull you into a subtle and immersive journey. Listen and soon you find yourself pulled into the beauty of sadness - surrounded by these carefully crafted soundscapes which offer a perfect opportunity for a moment of introspection. The young Georgian delivers ambient and piano at its finest on this first LP.

As the legend says, Agartha is a lost kingdom, located in the earth’s core.
Only the bravest found courage to go to the journey to find it.
As you go deeper, the road gets darker, scarier… The journey to Agartha symbolizes the journey to the untraveled parts of human consciousness, which often frightens us, but as we observe and heal our dark parts we no longer need to compress and hide them. Facing our main fears will make our road mor adventurous, and one day the whole journey will become a tale. Tale of a man who found the lost kingdom of Agartha.