Techno News

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VARIÁT is the new experimental metal one-man band of Ukrainian artist Dmytro Fedorenko. Through dissonant noise poetry, corrosive synthesis, and subtle seeds of interiority and folk song, VARIÁT creates a sound world of austere urban psychedelia, invoking themes of primitivism and mysticism within the volatile currents of a contemporary digital era.

Conceived in 2020 as a provocative creative outlet, VARIÁT is founded on ideas of transgression, reinvention, and liberation, the consequence of observing prescribed artistic boundaries and pursuing new depths of aesthetic freedom. The project began as an exploration of new recording techniques: metallic materials used as percussion and channelled through blown amps, toms played with a hammer, drilled cymbals, raw, dimensional textures produced from found objects.

For the project’s debut album ‘I Can See Everything From Here’ a library of recordings rooted in musique concrète initiated countless sessions of seismic, discordant guitar noise and overloaded detonations of low end. Synthesizers calibrated and treated to sound like traditional instrumentation, rhythms of deluge and disarray. Compositions constructed with an intent to preserve their original modality; the chaotic spark of their inception.

The artwork created for ‘I Can See Everything From Here’ is an aquarelle (watercolour) painting, an ink-based projection which mirrors the sound of the album with dense, fragmentary shades of black and extensive tendrils of detail. A microcosmic depiction of the graphic power that defines ‘I Can See Everything From Here’.

Varuna return to amenthia recordings with a fresh batch of their trademark hypno trips. Slow paced syncopated techno energy entangled in their iconic mystical dreaminess.

It’s been a decade since Andy Stott released ‘Passed Me By’, a radical re-imagining of dance music as an expression of “physical and spiritual exhaustion” (Pitchfork). What followed was a process of rapid remodelling: ‘We Stay Together’ (2011 / slow and fucked,
for the club), ‘Luxury Problems’ (2012 / greyscale romance), ‘Faith In Strangers’ (2014 / destroyed love songs), ’Too Many Voices’ (2016 / 4th world Triton shimmers) and ‘It Should Be Us’ (2019 / the club, collapsed) - a run of releases that gradually untangled complex ideas into a singular, chaotic body of work - somewhere between sound-art,
techno and pop.
In early 2020 - with a new album almost done and an offer to produce for a completely mainstream artist on the table - personal upheaval brought everything to a sudden standstill. Months of withdrawal eventually triggered renewed curiosity, a different approach. Stott began to record hours of raw material; slow horns, sibilance, delayed
drums, wondering flutes - whatever, whenever. And although software made it possible to iron out every kink and knot, Stott tirelessly looked for them - in pursuit of a sound that was human in all its awkward asymmetry.
With vocals recorded by Alison Skidmore, the album was finally completed late in the year - taking on a completely different shape. Its songs were desolate, melancholy, defiant, beautiful - often all at once. The sounds echoed music around Stott during those months:
Prince, Gavin Bryars, A.R. Kane, Bohren & der Club of Gore, Robert Turman, Cindy Lee, Leila, Catherine Christer Hennix, Junior Boys, László Hortobágyi, Nídia, Prefab Sprout - the unusual, the familiar.
And echoing that mix of new and old, each of the songs on ’Never The Right Time’ seem woven from the same thread despite following different trajectories; from the lovelorn shimmer of opener ‘Away not gone’, to the clattering linndrum pop of ‘The beginning’, through ‘Answers’ angular club haze, and the city-at-night end-credits ‘Hard to Tell’. These are songs fuelled by nostalgia and soul searching, but all hold true to a vision of music making as a form of renewal and reinvention.
A 10 year cycle, complete.

due.sound introduces the first catalog of the label releasing an EP by NDR including remixes from Neel and Antonio De Angelis.

Repressed!

Nowadays family member Love Letters delivers the next record on Mister Saturday Night records. The Vermont native turned New Yorker delivers a beautiful 5 track release that meanders effortlessly from peak time banger to delicate experimental passages to off kilter poly rhythms. A thoroughly enjoyable listening experience from start to end and the sound of an artist finding their voice and perfecting their craft.

The Oystercatcher is the first collaborative LP from Cucina Povera (Maria Rossi) and ELS (Edward Simpson)

Recorded in London over two days, hours' worth of improvisations have been edited down to form these six tracks.

A fragile interplay is at work between Maria's drifting vocals and the ominous churn of Edward's modular synth. Each sonic element takes a turn at leading the way.

The opening track 'Mantle' is formed from sparse, monolithic electronics, woven gently with a thread of vocals. In the closing track 'Eon' Maria's voice shepherds spontaneous bursts of sounds, almost Rave-like if order were imposed, through 15 minutes of turmoil and resplendent until the end.

Maria's vocals make their own trails amongst the noise, bringing to mind the the exploratory language from Ursula K. Le Guin's album 'Music and Poetry from the Kesh', recalling the same understated mystery.

The overall effect of this collaboration is a completely unique creation albeit within a recognisable lineage of predecessors.

The artwork reflects the vision of these two artists, collaged together. Both images are from a trip to Helsinki. Edward's photograph of Tulips caught after dark are reviled by a flash. Maria's seemingly abstract drawing is a graphite rubbing taken from a granite slab of a pavement somewhere in Kallio. Together the two images represent two different methods for capturing a city's haptic landscape.

The album moves with a feeling of transience, which is no surprise given that the idea to collaborate was formed in Helsinki, realised in London and edited together in Rotterdam.

The Oystercatcher tells a fragile tale, one that spins out into the unknown. A cold union of voice and machine, still tentative and probing, learning to co-exist. A kind of fundamental shift whereby shared moments have been turned to sound.

The Oystercatcher is a bird that can freely travel between the earth, sea and sky. The motif is taken from a Tove Jansson short story. A dead bird washes ashore, two different versions of events are presented to how the bird came to die. The album feels like two different stories being presented on top of one another but ultimately coming to the same tragic conclusion.

Cucina Povera is Maria Rossi - Vocals
ELS is Edward Simpson - Synthesisers
Recorded in London across two days during the Summer of 2019
Mastered by Russell Haswell

The Other End Of The Circle by OPICA

The second release on Nikolaj Jakobsen/Sugar's new Perfumery label is a complete departure from the signature Copenhagen fast techno sound, and unequivocal notice of the varied and experimental plans he has for the imprint.

OPICA is Anders Bo Eriksen, a cimbalom-, tuba player, percussionist and producer, who has created an ambitious, diverse and mind warping debut album ranging from soothing acoustic ambient pieces, electronica-esque live-drum cut up tunes, mutant house music, and 180 bpm breakbeat madness.

In this goodiebag there's something for everyone, so don't be shy! In the making of this album OPICA is featuring vocalist Astrid Engberg, drummer Anders Vestergaard, and Sven Dam Meinild on sax and flute, and the album is co-produced and mixed by Nikolaj Jakobsen.

This album is for the late night acid fueled deep listening sessions!

Galcid - Hope and Fear is the long awaited sophomore album of Japanese techno-artist galcid. Although completed in 2019, the release date of the album was delayed by COVID-19. This was due to both practical and artistic reasons—the titles and identity of each composition reflect various ways in which galcid reflected upon the pandemic.

Music is by galcid
Produced by Hisashi Saito

In the 4 years that have passed since galcid’s debut album hertz (2016), galcid worked on various EPs and albums as SAITO. Juxtaposed to the black and white minimalism of hertz, the palate of Hope and Fear is decidedly more colourful, laden with emotional undertones. The depth of the sound created by galcid’s exclusive reliance on analogue machines invites the listener to follow their own journey along the resulting soundscape

Breakthrough release for young South African artist Mbulelo. The EP contains 4 fresh cuts merging techno with African coded rhythms. The title track Robotic People is a banger.

Portico Quartet announce Monument, the electronic driven follow-up to their acclaimed ambient-minimalist suite Terrain, presenting the band at their most direct

It's rare that a band releases two albums within six months of each other, rarer too that while both are so different, they are both as epochal in terms of the band's output as Terrain and Monument are to Portico Quartet. The irony is that Monument, a stripped-back, intentionally direct album, was the album that the band set out to write in May 2020, before the dream like long-form Terrain came into focus. Briefly they were two halves of the same record, but the band ended up developing these two distinct bodies of work concurrently. And although they were written side-by-side and recorded at the same sessions, they are records best understood as distinct from each other, each with opposing ideas and forms.

Monument is one of Portico Quartet's most accessible, direct records to date. If Terrain addressed the darker side of how Duncan Bellamy and Jack Wyllie made sense of the pandemic, then Monument resonates as an ode to better times. If not quite a dance record, it nonetheless pulses with an energy, radiance and a scalpel sharp focus. Jack Wyllie explains: "It's possibly our most direct album to date. It's melodic, structured and there's an economy to it that is very efficient. There's not much searching or wastage within the music itself, it is all finalised ideas, precisely sculpted and presented as a polished artefact."

Bellamy expands "Monument sits somewhere between our albums Portico Quartet and Art in the Age of Automation. It has perhaps a more overtly electronic edge to its sound – there are more synthesisers and electronic elements than we have used before and the music is often streamlined and rhythmic".

After the ethereal, stage-setting of Opening, the album kicks into overdrive with Impressions, a short energetic track that pairs a club influenced groove with hang drum and close, delicate saxophone. It's the balance between these elements that push and pull the track through a selection of melodic and rhythmic re-configurations, contrasting human touch with a machine-like focus. Ultraviolet is a kaleidoscopic, krautrock inspired track with a haunting introduction and an insistent pulse. The wistful Ever Present builds from a simple piano refrain; a nostalgic melody line floats over the top as drums and bass groove insistently underneath, before reaching a euphoric peak. The title track Monument builds around a looping vocal sample, drums and an enigmatic melody, the ending giving way to a gauzy, weaving synth line. The power here is in its economy and luminosity. AOE flips back and forth, like a dial that's been switched. Mining the tension between a pastoral inflected cello and saxophone melody, with an abrupt shift to jilted live drums, wailing delayed saxophone and a flickering synth line. Warm Data comes straight from the same Portico Quartet tradition as older tracks like Current History and Laker-Boo. It's a marriage of instrumental minimalism with drum machines and synths. Finally, the album closes with On The Light, a track that transmits a sense of suspense and freedom, driven by the twitching drums of Bellamy and evocative sax of Wyllie. It offers the perfect bitter-sweet and evocative ending to Portico Quartet's latest Monument.

One year after the release of Verraco’s debut album, the reinterpretations descend to Insurgentes. For the first time, establishing a bridge between South America and Europe, the colombian imprint presents IDM, Breaks and electronica of the highest order from Chevel, Stenny, Konx-om-Pax and Mari Herzer.

'Burn Slow' is a 10-track album from Chris Liebing with
vocal contributions from a diverse range of artists: Miles
Cooper Seaton (Akron / Family), Mute labelmate Polly
Scattergood (onDeadWaves), Cold Cave, Aleen and, of
course, Gary Numan.
'Burn Slow' is a minimalist electronic epic and the start of
a new chapter for one of techno's leading authorities. It
might not be what you expect for a DJ synonymous with
fast, hard and heavy techno but, according to Chris
Liebing, he's always been something of a slow starter:
'I've wanted to do something like 'Burn Slow' all my life,'
he says.
While retaining the framework of the techno beats that
Chris Liebing has dedicated his life to for the past 25
years, here he also seeks out new harmonic territories,
taking aim at the heart rather than the feet, in order to
tackle some deep themes. The key concept of presence -
the idea that everything is happening in this moment and
that everything in the past is mere memory - form the
thematic backbone of the record. It's something Liebing
got in touch with via philosopher Alan Watts, not to
mention decades of getting entire dancefloors lost in the
present: 'If people would stay in the now, everything in
the world would just have a bit more harmony,' explains
Liebing.
Liebing has teamed up with Ralf Hildenbeutel (a key part
of the long since defunct Eye Q family) for 'Burn Slow' and
it was at his new musical 'enabler' Hildenbeutel's Frankfurt
studio that Liebing began drifting into new territor.

BUILDINGS was born out of a creative merger between Detroit’s 313 Acid Queen (Rebecca Goldberg) and Italian maestro Sickboy (Stefano Piseddu), their 4th and 2nd releases on Detroit Underground respectively. The duo have thoughtfully arranged a half dozen tracks inspired figuratively and literally by the landscape of Detroit. Working 7,000km and multiple time zones apart, having never met in person, their individual expressions intertwine in soundscapes reminiscent of techno’s origin and exist in a way only capable in our present time. Devoted as ever to the roots of Detroit techno, Goldberg and Piseddu have built a magnificent album around the Detroit Map Series theme conceptualized by DU label founder Kero and designed by Neubau Berlin.

Opener GUARDIAN pays homage to Detroit’s Art Deco landmark skyscraper exploring rigid textures and a mosaic of tones reflective of the building’s diverse composition.

STRUCTURE escalates through synth leads and drum breaks ascending into a powerful high-rise track.

MCS carves through an array of percussion and crooning acid as you might imagine the sounds of Detroit’s former train depot, at one time used by thousands of passengers per day traveling to and from Detroit.

FOUNDATION’s original mix and rework get down to the literal with vocal samples calling out the project’s muse. Sickboy’s dynamic hits and 313 Acid Queen’s bubbling acid lines are truly reflective of both producers’ individuality within the collaboration.

RENAISSANCE represents a continued era of rebirth and is more literally named for the group of connected skyscrapers whose central tower stands as Detroit’s tallest building.

5 tracks which do reference to 5 long stories in 5 places. The individual tracks of each original tune are re-used by 5 more artists from Madrid.

Original production masters by Alcarcia.
Remixes mastering by The Hoodlover.

First release from Binary Digit’s new label Postal Code Records! Limited copies..

Eleventh album released by Odin Kaban. An album of electronic listening music, eclectic and with a strong personality. Each of the 7 themes that compose it is a unique journey that invites the listener to get carried away. A mature and creative work, full of brushstrokes of multiple styles and influences that make up a solid whole, that will delight the most demanding ears

Rave Or Die keeps on spreading fire on the dancefloors with another uncompromising split EP decidaced to intransigent clubs. On the A-side, guest and legendary producer Oscar Mulero delivers with "Taste The Rope" a no mercy tune characterized by a dark atmosphere
over huge tension and energy. Massive and coarse claps combined with skittish drums fuse with oppressive bass line and pads.

On side B, ROD host Umwelt showcases his untouchable style with "Creature Obscure", an irrestisitble anthem that sounds like an invasion of
rave stab enhanced by disturbing bass lines and heavy snare drums.

On top of this 10" picture disc, designer Elzo Durt from Belgium offers two different yet crazy artworks in his unique and colorful signature!
This one is for collectors!

The collaboration between Gino Pavan and Guido Frezzato began in 1995, with the creation of the soundtrack of Giancarlo Marinelli's movie "Scano Boa - Dannazione".

Gino Pavan recorded and produced, in his own "Noi Studio", the music of Frezzato, then given to an ensemble of 15 musicians, among them a strings quintet, and the folk ensemble Marmaja, along with the ethnic suggestions of the percussions by African Brothers. In the following two years, their collaboration would lead to the production of two albums for African Brothers: "N'der Tangana" and "Voodoo".

Followed by the soundtrack of "Alla ricerca dell’uno” (Searching for the One) with the musicians of the Compagnia dei Popoli, and the music for the dance-theatre performance of Belgian dancer Thierry Parmentier. Also worth mentioning, the album by Luca Xodo & Frezzato "Didjeridu", later to be used as a soundtrack for the movie "Case" (Homes) by Rodolfo Bisatti (Ipotesi Cinema). After twenty years spent piling up autonomous musical experiences, Pavan offered Frezzato to try their hands at a musical project that sees them, for the first time, composing music together.

The result is the "NOT LINEAR" project, a musical dialogue between electronics (Pavan) and acoustic instruments (Frezzato), using an "online" form of composition.

Recorded in separate locations, between December 2017 and February 2018 and subsequently mixed at "New Frontiers” studio by Ugo Bolzoni, "NOT LINEAR" collects, within these first 6 tracks, the fruit of this artistic collaboration.

"NOT LINEAR" is enriched by the collaboration of Pavan and Frezzato with two internationally-acknowledged, exceptional artists such as Giulio Aldinucci and Eraldo Bernocchi, each one interpreting a track of their choice out of all those initially selected out of the studio sessions, in a furrow of continuity of the "non-linear" concept that inspires this work. NOT LINEAR design has been curated by renowned visual artist Petulia Mattioli.

The second release on Club Qu Records is a pure sheller of an EP from two longtime friends with a mutual love for UK future sounds. Anthea, ancient greek for ,,blossom" is referring to Thrived as a concept of mutual growth. Cconsisting of four tracks threaded together by rolling percussive sounds and breaks. The two present a clear tendency towards modern UK Club sound, yet carrying a bit of past reminiscent Berlin Techno aesthetics. The artwork is created by the ClubQu community.

Second volume of the ambient anthology edited by No Way Records: Haunting Memories Vol. II is composed of tracks made by ten artists, some of whom already present in the label's stable. From the metaphysical liturgy of Amarcord to the industrial of Traversable Message, from the sci-fi excursions of TVS, Dj Datch, Lius & Light Spheres and Mark Strain to the analogue sequences of Atypikal and Matteo Di Cosmo, from the syncopated rhythms of WTTM to the IDM of Mokship, Haunting Memories is a collection that offers a heterogeneous overview of the world of the most cerebral and meditative electronic music.

"Décalé. and Bongo Joe Records present an all new compilation placing the spotlight on the Swiss experimental and electronic scene of the ‘80s and the early ‘90s. The compilation Intenta assembles under-appreciated gems, sought-after titles and newly mixed versions. It places leftfield synth-pop next to otherworldly jazz, and joins the dots between lyrical post-punk excursions and proto-house experimentation.

The compilation covers a period of transition: When songs mutated into sounds. When synthesizers and samplers became the règle du jeu in DIY music-making. When a politicized youth movement slowly gave way to the hedonistic embrace of techno culture in Switzerland. Intenta mines the outer fringes of a scene yet to be. Many of these experimenters were pretty much on their own. Often the only way you would get in touch was at the local synth dealer.

A spirit of bold improvisation inhabited studios between Geneva and St. Gallen: these artists were articulating pop sensibilities (Air Project, Sky Bird, D-Sire, Peter Philippe Weiss), entering computer worlds (Claudine Chirac, Olivier Rogg, Carlos Perón), exploring exotic shores (Andreas Hofer, Bells of Kyoto, Fizzè), building future discothèques (Aborted at Line 6, Carol Rich, UnknownmiX) or finding glacial bliss (Dressed Up Animals, Elephant Château, I Suonatori).

The compilation was put together by Matthias Orsett and Maxi Fischer. Intenta unfolds as a sonic story that is laid-back yet energetic, sultry yet daring. The two crate diggers set out to meet with many of the artists arrayed here. Memories were shared, wine bottles opened. There were moments of sadness: Karl Lienert Löwenherz (Dressed Up Animals) and Claudius Scholer (Sky Bird) passed away during the making of this project. What remains of this journey into the backrooms of Swiss popular culture, is Intenta. If you listen closely, it will reveal a nation on the move. Beyond the Matterhorn, there is sweetness and light."

Fractal City, the latest Cubenx album is a collection of terrestrial jams and arachnean ambient ballads that are particularly apt for urban listening. If its predecessors cracked the musical codes in force and shone by the versatility of their references, this new opus offers its listener an intense and symbolic sound environment.


The raw material of Fractal City was first conceived as a series of sound patches, designed to run in parallel with Canadian digital artist Maotik's installation. Broadcasted in real-time by generative patches reacting to various external and non-human data, those musical excerpts have been rendered in hundreds of nuances and extended over infinite durations. This unusual approach confers to the recording of the finished album's outstanding immersive strength.

Recorded live on a single track over a short period of a few weeks, the nine compositions of Fractal City capture the obsessions of its author for postmodern urban landscapes, and the revelation of new perspectives on the city of Paris.

The opening piece `Ssarg´ seems to hide the figure of the Mexican ambient producer Jorge Reyes. Cubenx built a cocoon of energetic layers, a new home of the mystical kind harmoniously integrated in a flourishing rainforest ecosystem.

`Transect ´refers to the urban development model of the same name, which is based on a division of the city into autonomous "fractal" zones. It also echoes the concept of "metro polarities" which considers the city as a mosaic of social groups. "By cycling in the evening with a friend, we could get away from the city centre to the suburbs of Paris. The contrasts are striking. You move from chic districts to bedroom communities, from industrial zones to improvised caravan camps. But there is a kind of energy in this heterogeneity that pushes you to always pedal further."

A few miles away, it would look like Art and urbanism have tried to level the cultural and social discrepancies of the outskirts of Paris. "Architectural sites like the Arcades of Bofill are splendid. There are completely extravagant projects, which seem to emerge from nowhere."
These buildings with ambitious aesthetics off the beaten tourist track, deteriorate over time and often remain far from the expectations of the local population. A feeling of nostalgic beauty is particularly perceptible on the slowest and most introspective ballads of the album as 'Urban Decay', 'Hagel' or 'Axe Majeur'. The producer leaves nonetheless no room for melancholic emptiness. "Every time, I have the impression that urban culture is taking its rights back and that young people appropriate the places in one way or another."

Just like `Transect', ` Quantified' and `Fractal City' present themselves as mirrors of a daily urban life in constant motion. All three are empowered by an overheated factory, which dispatches hypnotic beats and burst of analogue compressors with a clinical precision and direct them straight away to the reptilian areas of their listener's brains.

The sequencing leaves however space and time to take breath and makes way for aerial sonic excursions of spiritual and enlightened nature. On `Human Dilemma', Cubenx shows some concerns to opening the Pandora's box of transhumanist theories. While a long cosmic wave gives the listener a feeling of perfect fullness, a dizzying guitar distortion cast doubts on long term outlooks. `Smash Other' on the other way alternates gentle dissonances over an ocean of white noise and concludes the album on ethereal note.

With ´Fractal City", Cubenx eludes his irreconcilable love for shoegaze pop song and techno to concentrate exclusively on the production of mutant experimental materials. The result is an uncanny musical object, rich in image and sensation. Cubenx give us a guiding framework, enthralling enough to engage the listener to a tour of town. But he leaves it to the sole listeners to design their own projection of the city.

Second release for the Decouple Series, a project that aims to showcase artists working, in their own ways, at the bold fringes of electronic composition, experimenting around the topics of increasing complexity, dependencies and miscommunication in a media-saturated digital era.

British producers Dale Cornish and Sim Hutchins join the project, the former playing with an anti-sober, almost eccentric euphoria, the latter with nostalgic and slighty eerie ambient feel. The thinness of reality is made of transparent things and refractions - external and internal points of view of the same subject.

Croydon's prodigy Dale Cornish joyously plays here with a terse, oblique, abstract, almost candid, almost brutal TR- 909's 'floor friendly pattern. Not immune to unpredictable subtle fractures, the witty nine minutes of percussive repetition stretches out beyond its physical form, hinting at moments of climax but never overwhelming its voyeuristic nature. Saturated handclaps and hi-hat pan-pots widen top-end frequencies while classic 909 claves incursions, cowbells and tambourines counterpoint. What sounds like a recording of Dale's own voice lasciviously recurs so to become the track's title itself - 'California'! Playfully pointillist explorations, pulse and percussive deconstructed gestures place this track into the elusive territory between dance-floor and experimental.

'The product of a bleak winter night, cold fingers gripped tightly on restraint/release controls. Red wine sipped from a mug in lieu of adequate central heating. Stifled sense of euphoria inferred by subtle melodies not brave enough to visibly cross frozen pads, instead opting to lurk in the chill of closed hats and hollow bandpasses. Though unable to procure the resources required to stoke the internal flames of creative thought, I powered through instead and struck tipsily at chords, and at the red-skied February dawn 'Druk Pak' was the end result'. No better words than Sim Hutchins' own to describe a tune of potential somnambulism, obscure awarness and future nostalgia for the present-day. Another time his vision, sounds and impulses set markers of contemporaneity.

All cover pictures for the Decouple Series are taken from Alice Bonfanti's 'Transparent Things' courtesy of the artist.

This release is part of special double vinyl pack, sold separately.
Drone slow techno and 4x4 experiments by the owners of the label, F-on and Urtzi.

The new album 'Aesthesis' from Shapednoise aka Sicilian artist Nino Pedone is out in November 2019 on Numbers.
Over the nine tracks and thirty seven minutes, there’s a controlled collision of noise and metal with rave and hardcore. Pedone’s penchant for the peak energies of gritty techno and modern rap/trap bleed through, with earth-shattering blocks of bass and beats conveyed within his practice of sonic sculpture. ‘Aesthesis’ melts these sounds down, evolving them into something new of his own - a complex, hybrid being designed to be played loud. The first listen, CRx Aureal, is one of the most arresting cuts from the record: a nightmarish thrill embracing a sense of constant movement, with intense shards of sound ricocheting and morphing, forged together through a series of metallic refrains. This flirtation with the extremes of sound has engulfed Shapednoise’s entire creative output and lifestyle - from his albums and EPs over the last decade, to his two labels Cosmo Rhythmatic and REPITCH, having recently dropped critically acclaimed releases by King Midas Sound, Shackleton & VTSS. Pedone describes ‘Aesthesis’ as “informed by a set of key elements that intwine all the tracks together, like steps in a long research process. It is intended as a sensory experience where the senses act as an interface, sound as space.” His experimentation with unorthodox rhythmic structures and radical cinematic design reveals actions grounded in direct experience, but “inspired by a kind of speculative realism”. In seeking to master the wild heights of noise and the weight of subsonic frequencies, Shapednoise aims to “generate a sense of unreal-yet-tangible space and time, where the physicality of the music builds up a place that exists between people and objects, rather than the other way around.”

A series of artistic collaborations are heard throughout the album - from the caustic R&B of album opener 'Intriguing (In The End)' which features vocals from multimedia artist E. Jane's alter ego MHYSA (of NON & Halcyon Veil), to Justin K Broadrick (founding member of Godflesh and ZONAL) on 'Blaze', and album closer 'Moby Dick'; a collaboration with Scottish legend Drew McDowall (ex-Coil and Psychic TV member), and Rabit (founder of Halcyon Veil).

From their native St. Petersburg, Square Fauna evoke a score for imaginary protoplasmic oceans, surreal, sepia-tinged space operas and Russian sci-fi folk tales; lush, green landscapes littered with the burned out husks of automobiles, military vehicles, and askew telephone poles no longer in use though marked by pools of water in which can be found the debris of modern society. Primitive kosmische electronics and vintage spacescapes cascade around complex polyrhythmic percussion. Ethereal mists of gaseous reverb are scattered by windswept synths and white-noise striations.

‘Meet The Fauna’ is as much of a cheeky nod to The Residents and Coil (or even Haroumi Hosono and John Hassell) as it is to the likes of B12, Black Dog, Richard H Kirk.

A completely singular, modern sci-fi soundtrack for the discerning sofanaut.

Produced by Dices & Flaty.
Artwork by Al White aka Crud.

"QUINZE" -"fifteen" in Catalan- is the title of the new release from Barcelona’s Lapsus Records. Lapsus celebrates its fifteenth anniversary with the launch of a new compilation comprised of today’s most compelling, experimental and ground-breaking electronic music. Fifteen unreleased songs from artists that best define the Lapsus sound: Attraktta, Chevel, Gábor Lázár, Gacha Bakradze, Johanna Knutsson, Karen Gwyer, Leif, Machine Woman, Patricia, Pye Corner Audio, RRUCCULLA, Steve Hauschildt, Telefon Tel Aviv, The Belgium and Ylia. "QUINZE" will be released in late February and two different versions will be available: A standard double LP edition; and a collector's edition LP packaged inside a bespoke cement case of which only fifteen units will be manufactured.

The Empire Line unleash their demons on 'BAS009'.
When Jonas Rönnberg (aka Varg), Christian Stadsgaard
(part of the Danish duo Damien Dubrovnik, co-founder of Posh Isolation) and noise artist Isak Hansen combine their musical vision, the result is sure to be radical.

Claiming that „the nature of your oppression is the aesthetic of our anger“ right away in the title, the four-track EP sounds like it was recorded straight from a sweaty basement.

Combining cascading rave tropes with noise, anger and punk, this release merges different underground currents. The result is a flamboyant, nevertheless harsh sound collage.

Shaw Cuts Is Happy To Welcome A New Face To The Label Squad: Lazarus, A Young Producer From Nuremberg, Yields The Perfect Soundtrack For ‚the Magic Blade' With His Debut Record.
The Story Begins With Another Clash Between Arch-rivals Fu Hung Hsueh And Yen-nan Fei, Two Of The Country's Most Skilled Swordsmen, Both On A Quest To Number One. ‚rhea' Sets The Perfect Tempo For The Duel With Its Heavyweight Drums, Revolving Percussion And Energetic Pads.
Clanking Swords Are Interrupted By The Arrival Of Shady Company - Followers Of The Mysterious Underworld Swayer Sent By Master Yu Who Wants Yen-nan Fei's Head. Fu Hung Hsueh And Yen-nan Fei Join Forces, Slaying The Villains In Seconds. ‚reverof Nema' Rolls In, Its Commanding Rhythm And Moody Chords Giving The Swordsmen New Force And Vitality.
Yu Wants To Eliminate The Swordsmen So That They Never Gain Possession Of The Peacock-dart, An Indestructible Weapon With Thanatophoric Effects And The Object Of Yu's Desires. But Fu Hung Hsueh And Yen-nan Fei Have Already Picked Up The Scent. Bloody Battles Follow Against More Of Yu's Entourage. The Race Against Time Is Led By The Energetic Synth Delirium And Savage Drums Of ‚casio Flex', Leading Hsueh And Fei Safely To The Sublime Weapon.
The Duo Journey On, Defending The Peacock-dart Until They Reach Yu's Temple. The Final Showdown. ‚overcome' And Its Warped Groove, Warm Synths And Thundering Drums Bring Master Yu To His Knees And The Netherworld. But Who Was Master Yu Was It You The Myth Lives On...

Welcome to the strange musical world of Tolley & Dara, an experimental duo whose incredible music held a marginal yet vital position on the fringe of the Australian music industry during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Consisting of jazz bassist and synthesist David Tolley and percussionist Dure Dara, their union was a relationship of romance and intense creativity, a deep spiritual bond consecrated amidst banks of modular synthesizers and racks of exotic percussion instruments.

Recorded over a series of live performances in the spring of 1979, the music featured on Cutheart was edited and assembled from eight improvised pieces recorded at the Universal Theatre Melbourne. Comprised of analogue synthesizers and a vast array of tuned and non-tuned percussion, Tolley and Dara sculpted a cluster of electronic abstractions and organic splashes of Gamelan-influenced percussion; a dense otherworldly soundscape coloured with trance-like vocal scatting and deranged muttering.

Known for his bass playing on the classic Australian jazz-rock album Carlton Streets by The Brian Brown Quintet and also as a member of EX-, (the collaborative project with Daevid Allen from Soft Machine/Gong), Cutheart sees Tolley explore the outer realms of heady improvised electronic music.
While the music of Tolley & Dara exists in a sonic universe all of it's own, similarities could easily be drawn to another likeminded musical partnership, the American husband and wife duo Annette Peacock and Paul Bley. Cutheart is a pioneering recording of extended synthesiser and percussion technique from the Australian experimental underground.

Repress

A year has passed since Cyan85 first graced the VOITAX catalogue with his successful summer debut EP - "Bay Of Sampieri". His dreamy pads, avant-garde take on retro arpeggios and slamming 808 beats have been continuously conquering our ears ever since, making him a young talent to watch within the electro circuit. He now returns to the imprint with his very first album - "Lucid Intervals", demonstrating his knack for crafting ambitious pieces to establish himself as a respected producer. The LP aims to explore a variety of dystopian atmospheres and energies throughout nine infectious and carefully crafted tracks that build on electro's rich heritage without failing to infuse it with Cyan85's very own remarkable, dreamy electronic signature.

bassae is back, three years after what was our first release. It’s still a struggle to find the words to describe his mad and beautiful world, but this record is as special to us as the man himself. Here’s to many more.

3x12" Repress


Some serious hot tracks on this fourth instalment of the Scandinavian Swords series. It breaks with its predecessors' forms. Deviating from the austere brevity that marks Northern Electronics out, Scandinavian Swords IIII: Atlas of Visions completes a survey of the label's confidants and components in the same breath as it introduces a swarm of new artists and genre-collisions. With the swell of the last 12 months behind them, Anthony Linell and Jonas Ronnberg have forged the compilation with a paradoxical formula: Atlas of Visions stakes itself as a milestone release that retains the sure-footed programming of its proprietors yet cuts a new silhouette for what the platform of a Northern Electronics release consists of. Presented across two volumes, Atlas of Visions courses through the hyper-pigmented and infectious fallout zone between club-focused works and the abstract territories of experimental modes. The release compiles egression and intensification into a pandemoniac whole, a refracting design for fractured times. Recommended!!!

The Album was the fourth LP released for Rephlex and was the first and only time that Grant Wilson label Claridge and Richard James's label released in a digital format only, "The Album" contains 13 tracks amongs the best rhythmic and melodic experiments of the Italian duo DArcangelo on Rephlex, from the musical planetary thoughts of 'Memento' to the brazen "Wild and Loose" walk and the 'Naara' frantic minimal due.. the marked rhythm of 'Circuit Deevel' while or 'Coal Garden' moments of various broken style. Now thanks to WEME records 'The Album' is printed on vinyl for all those who love the idea of having a tangible listening and tactile possession of this release. Listen, take it, collect it.

DJ Sotofett and LNS have teamed up with Tresor Records for Sputters. The double-vinyl album with 15 cuts spans a hybrid of warped electro and psychedelic hypnosis, all the while remaining fixed in an unmistakable dance release. Recorded between 2017 – 2020, and bookmarked throughout by intros and interludes dug out from archival material, it's a deconstructed yet classic compound of techno-sonics.

LNS from Calgary, Canada, is rooted in braindance, electro and acid. Releasing 12inches on both her self-titled imprint LNS and Sotofett’s Wania - LNS, whilst in the studio, has often pointed out “the lacking blend of dub and electro in dance music”.
DJ Sotofett, hailing from Moss, Norway, is among a myriad of things commonly known for the extended work of his Sex Tags Mania and Wania labels, without forgetting his afro, dub and jazz releases on Honest Jon's London.
Together both artists give space to a guest appearance by E-GZR, a fellow Wania artist, to open the Sputters journey. The sinus bending drum stutter of K.O. by E-GZR collisions flanging basses and chronic-inducing synth pads to blueprint the technoid atmosphere to come. LNS & DJ Sotofett take control with El Dubbing, evoking an effect-heavy demeanour, typical of the Sex Tags Mania soundworld that DJ Sotofett is responsible for, this time rubbing up against solid electrified rhythms. The hypnotic moods carry over to Dúnn Dubbing's deep delays, freely running over a surprisingly minimal skeleton retaining a solid direction. Crafting a warmly emotive end of Side-A with sparse rhythms to perfection.
A meaner turn introduces Side-B. Hints of electro are scattered everywhere, fat basslines, ricocheting drums and synths that mourn and drift in and out of harmony. Vitri-Oil exposes a tumbling sound design, fog-lit chords of material fragility and nosedives - with an alive mix that wallows and grows in equal measures. The side closes with Shim, a classic drift between house and techno releasing sensual euphoria with the albums first big surprise – grand strings.

“LNS wanted to sell her TR-606, while my reply was for us to make a track with the 606 sounding so fresh that she'd never even think about selling it again” Sotofett states. Side-C proves the artists to be some of the most singular producers around with album centrepiece The 606. Clocking in over 10 minutes, it kicks off as a driving techno banger, chugging bass and big chords. Midway through everything falls away, and out of the void enter scattered drums and improv piano lines emerge, while twisted dubs lead us back in an enduringly warm groove.

Side-D sets the clock back to the original electroid foundation of the album, casting fires with alien vibrations. Synchronic Bass Blort is a hard-hitting electro track, steaming sonics and thrills, its melodic hook diving in subterranean motions. On Sputtering the duo raspily beams into outer space, with fizzy motives that disfigure and dazzle while the harmonies of the closing track is for yourself to experience.
DJ Sotofett and LNS deliver an album inhabiting a world full of sci-fi sonics and fierce groove. Their sound is free and live, simultaneously wondrous and sharp.

For immediate release: Undiscouraged...Undialectical...Undisciplined. A bit like Charles II and the woodman or the Raising Hand Appreciation Society... All for one and every man for himself... A sunflower in a sunflowers field... Abstraction is often one floor above you. Sometimes, all you need to do is completely make an ass of yourself and laugh it off to realise that life isn't so bad after all. But memories WE used to share is no longer coherent to what we've done.. Chapters assembled and programmed between then and now. WE are Undiagnosed Connect...Resume...Listen

The second chapter in the Family Matters serie marks the 10th release on the Belgian record label 9300 Records. Via electro, through house and breakbeat, all the way to New Beat, established members offer you their view on the different aspects in the spectrum of electronical music. It's a nostalgic reference to the past, through the eyes of the present. Alessandro Parisi makes his first contribution to the label with an ominous New Beat influenced track, while Betonkust joins him on the dark B-side with his well known non compromising electro. A-side consists of dance-floor approved electro/house tracks of both Intimacy & Innershades and a sober, yet sophisticated anthem by the hand of Robert D.

IT’S RAINING TRACKS : After three successful collaborative releases on Mama Told Ya over the past few months, Anetha quenches our unquenchable thirst with MTY-EAU, a brand new compilation: 4 vinyls, 16 tracks, 18 artists - one madly diluvian project featuring Varg and Croatian Amor, UFO95, Anetha, Tommy Holohan, X-Coast , EMMA DJ, Less Distress, Sugar, ABSL, Quest?Onmarc , Ryan James Ford, ISAbella Le Dom, FAKETHIAS, Rhys Jelson, Jardin and Certain Smith

Entitled "L’eau repousse les feux agressifs", it will be the first of a series around the four elements. Source of inspiration, Water teaches us acceptance. It completely flows in this first opus, as into the spirits - in "quarantine" at that time - of the guest artists.

No sluices, zero dams and a lot of free time, the opportunity to dare more... experimental streams. Mama Told Ya is therefore innovating, although there is some for all tastes in each and every vinyl: torrent of fast disjoncted techno, cloudburst of acid, trance and hyper-saturation, downpour of experimental or even electronic-rap vocoder…. RAIN. ON. ME.! To be savoured chilled at home or boiling, in a club.

The artwork has this time been entrusted to visual artist Karin Kimel, who delivers a version of the world through an aquatic 3D prism in which only the fragments of a boiling underwater volcano remain.

With a profoundly dramatic intro, « Bully » immediately immerses us in the icy Scandinavian waters, on the verge of hydrocution. An epic, almost mystical opening, heralding the impending flood. Water then, in all its temperaments, under all its temperatures, spreads everywhere, throughout the listening, sometimes soothing, sometimes thundering. Under pressure in « EXTREMELY URGENT », it even becomes irrepressible. Next follows a demented race set to submerge everything. Open valves and sinks, overflowing swimming pools, flash floods, storms and tsunamis, endless monsoons, melting ice and glaciers… It is ultimately a liquid world, entirely drowned under water that we find in « 5th generation », outro of a new genre which invites to reinvent the future, and why not Mama Told Ya’s future.

It’s hard not to hear in this aquatic odyssey an ecological warning, a call (back) to Nature.

The Portuguese scfi maker Nørbak is back home after his "Faktor EP" from January 2019. These non clubbing days look like the perfect scenario for listening to long distance works, so here you have this brand new album to enjoy at your private soundsystem.

"Flesh to Ashes" will be released both physically and digitally, with an extra track on the downloadable version.

Nørbak is well known for his precision and deepness, always pushing forward production wise, focusing on the details and sound design aspects.

The album gravitates between beatless cuts, broken beats, profound exercises and virtual dancefloor weapons.

"Intro" and "Camera" (the extra digital track) belong to the first category, "The third morality" is the broken cut, "Flesh to ashes" and "Land of sin" explore the deepest side of techno and the rest of the tracklist is about peak time tracks.

The overall feeling while listening to this album is travelling out there where no gravity is the mood, swinging among stars and constellations, landing on undiscovered planets... a landscape with no viruses or facemasks or repression.

A collection of a-temporal tracks that will surely pass the test of time and be ready to be playable whenever this nightmare ends.

Grey Marbled Vinyl