Buscar:solar sides

The new label R.I.T.M.O. launches its journey with a clear statement of intent: VOID RIFT QUANTUM, a six-episode cosmic voyage by WHITE SOLAR DOG, complemented by two premium remixes from UNIVAC and PROMISING YOUNGSTER. The EP opens with “VOID RIFT QUANTUM” a dark, expansive electro exercise where crushing basslines, syncopated rhythms, and a dialogue between vocoders and acid lines evoke an interplanetary landscape. On “I.N.S.I.D.E.” the intensity ramps up through driving percussion, tribal voices, razor-sharp breaks, and an almost ritual force that propels the body into physical and mental trance.

UNIVAC’s reinterpretation of the title track unleashes his full arsenal: a steely remix of relentless energy that pushes the original into a hard-edged industrial realm, stamped with the unmistakable signature of the Catalan producer. “MOVE YOUR BODY” showcases WHITE SOLAR DOG’s most direct side: classic electro with heavy bass, pads, and bright melodies, where the machine calls the dancefloor to action without compromise. The journey reaches its most ethereal point with “SING TO ME” where a female vocal intertwines with broken rhythms, crystalline atmospheres, and fresh acid incursions—cementing WSD’s personal hallmark: equal parts intensity and spirituality. The release closes with Promising Youngster’s remix, which takes the vocal elements of “SING TO ME” and guides them into a hypnotic state, suspended between the dreamlike and the club. With VOID RIFT QUANTUM, R.I.T.M.O. presents its inaugural catalog, distilling the power of contemporary electro and the otherworldly vision of WHITE SOLAR DOG. A debut that clearly establishes its coordinates: impact, exploration, and progressiveness, introduces itself to the world through an inaugural catalogue that distills the present and future of electro: mysticism, power, and precision.

All covers are handmade. They feature a fluorescent strip along the sides for easy identification, and under black light, the Spanish version of the cover is visible. Each disc contains three handmade inserts: a pop-up of R.I.T.M.O., a template, and a paper synthesizer model based on the actual synthesizers used to create the album (a different one on each disc). Each disc comes in a plastic sleeve.

All covers are handmade. They feature a fluorescent strip along the sides for easy identification, and under black light, the Spanish version of the cover is visible. Each disc contains three handmade inserts: a pop-up of R.I.T.M.O., a template, and a paper synthesizer model based on the actual synthesizers used to create the album (a different one on each disc). Each disc comes in a plastic sleeve.

The formative years of Hunter Thompson’s music as Akasha System were seeded and shaped by the shrouded meadows and wet woodlands of the Pacific Northwest: Sea Glass, Shadow Self, Echo Earth, Geomind. But pandemic flux flipped the script, prompting a migration to the monsoon tropics of Tampa. Heliocene ushers in a fresh chapter in the Akashic record, recasting the project’s precision synergy of cellular melody, holographic pads, spiral tribalism, and eco-futurist swing for a new solar age.

The album’s eight songs were recorded across 2023 and 2024, inspired by explorations of the many sanctuaries hidden in Florida’s ragged paradise: singing towers, ancient grottoes, emerald lagoons. From vortex house (“Purity Vector,” “Sun Particle”) to mirage electronica (“Haunted Planet,” “Soma Totem”) to hand drum divination (“Terraform Dream”), the sides flow, glow, and gleam, dialed in but dreaming out, tracing radiant waves of the eternal now.

“This album is a meditation to experience where and when you are, fully and wholly, regardless of where the path leads.”

Original Gravity Records Ignites the Summer with Latin Fever Vol. 4

Available on Limited Edition Vinyl & Digital Platforms

Original Gravity Records turns up the heat once again with the explosive release of Latin Fever Vol. 4 — the highly anticipated fourth instalment in the label’s signature Latin groove series. Packed with sizzling salsa, fiery guajira, and vintage Latin soul, this EP is a globe-spanning collaboration anchored in the UK and powered by musicians from Peru, Cuba, the USA, and Italy.

From the opening tumbao of El Tumbao Del Solar by Abramo & Néstor, to the irresistible charisma of Chévere Girl by Luchito & Néstor, this record is a celebration of rhythm, culture, and cross-continental energy. Flip the wax, and you’ll find La Vieja Escuela serving up Vacilar Mi Guajira — a classic throwback dancefloor gem — before Néstor Álvarez brings the party home with the brass-heavy burner La Fiesta Se Va.

With drums, bass, and production led by OG’s own Neil Anderson and a tight brass section along with standout soloists from both sides of the Atlantic, Latin Fever Vol. 4 is pure analog fire — recorded with heart, soul, and serious groove.

Whether you're a crate digger, DJ, or just a lover of Latin rhythms, this is one for the shelf and the stereo.

Get it while it's hot. This is Latin Fever — and it's contagious.

Following the arrival of their debut album ‘Alterazione’, LF58 (F.Scorcucchi and G.Tillieci) are back on Astral Industries with a special trove of outer-space explorations. Recorded one evening back in April 2019 as a live performance at Rome’s Brancaleone, the eponymously titled album offers a sprawling journey across the pan-dimensional ether. Spread across six sides of vinyl, the performance includes fully improvised material as well as choice selections from Simone Giudice, Jonas Kopp, Nuel, Birds of Prey, Rapoon, Steve Roach and Adham Shaikh. There is no doubt that the unique energy and circumstances of the evening contribute to a certain atmosphere present in the music.

With seemingly no beginning nor end, the session emerges in suspension; an electric ocean of infinite deepness. Gleaming across the patter of galaxies on a wide black backdrop, its myriad vistas are projected like transitioning scenes of an unending story. The gentle tide brings with it specks of cosmic debris and mysterious signals. Soon, quiet drones are overtaken by ripples of solar flare and percussive clamours. Forms melt like liquid, a ball of amorphous plasma pulsating with ecstatic radiance. Prying open universe within universe, ‘Live at Brancaleone’ has a vastness that cannot really be contained.

Cult musician Paddy Hanna announces his forthcoming album Oylegate with the release of his new song ‘Oylegate Station’, out Wednesday, 29th January via Strange Brew Records.

In celebration of Oylegate, which arrives on Friday, 11th April, Hanna plays Whelans on Thursday, 17th April. Tickets are €21.95 + fees and can be purchased here.

After his fourth album, Imagine I’m Hoping, arrived to critical acclaim but not the mainstream success needed for him to continue on as a musician, Hanna found himself at a personal and artistic low point. However, thanks to support from the Arts Council and the encouragement of his family, ‘Oylegate Station’ sees Hanna returning as the intrepid captain of his own ship; he may not know the destination, but he’ll see us along the journey with his graceful pop sensibilities.

Speaking about the new track, Hanna’s cryptic explanation could be confused for a missive from a lonely cosmonaut: “Low rent fuel, caffeine of all shapes, the midpoint of hope and despair, engine still running at Oylegate Station.”
Elation and exhaustion. Love and terror. The weight of responsibility and the strange, disorienting beauty of watching life unfold before your eyes. OLYEGATE, the latest album from Paddy Hanna, is a journey through the euphoric highs and crushing lows of parenthood, delivered with his signature blend of melancholic wit and lush, off-kilter charm.

Determined to sidestep the usual sentimental trappings of writing about having a child, Hanna found an unlikely creative companion in grim Soviet-era cinema. As he wrote, films like Solaris flickered in the background—bleak, meditative landscapes that mirrored the depths of sleep deprivation and the existential wonder of bringing a new life into the world. This contrast of warmth and detachment, of intimate revelation and surreal detour, courses through the album’s DNA.

Despite its moments of cold introspection, OLYEGATE is sonically rich and enveloping—an effect captured in a single request to producer Daniel Fox: "sweet, sweet caramel." Hanna wanted the music to feel like satin lining the listener’s ears, wrapping them in warmth even when the themes tilt towards darkness.

True to form, OLYEGATE marks yet another creative leap for an artist who refuses to be boxed in. "One advantage of being an ‘artist’s artist’ is that you never have to worry about being creatively different between albums. There's real freedom in doing whatever you want and not being judged for it. And even if you are judged, who gives a shit?"

That spirit of fearless exploration—of finding joy in the unknown, the absurd, and the deeply personal—defines OLYEGATE. An odyssey of tenderness and turbulence, it’s the sound of an artist embracing life’s messiest, most beautiful contradictions.

Wax’o Paradiso Recordings continues their exploration of antipodean downtempo sounds with WPR005 - The Perfect Harmony EP. Enlisting Guy contact and Solar Suite, who individually are known for more powerful club fodder across the progressive and trance adjacent sides of the genre spectrum, here we see them trading a few BPMs for a spacious, textural sound across four tracks recorded in 2023 in a shared studio in Naarm/Melbourne.

Written and Produced by Callum Chute & Benjamin Stendell

Mastered by Joseph Buchan

Artwork by Beautiful Shrubs

Reclaim Your Cities next frequency-jammer comes in the form of a heavyweight split 4-tracker, courtesy of two true techno pioneering figures: Mike Parker and Steve Bicknell.

The continued influence of these two artists on both our early raving days and now as a team working on providing you the most exciting, boundary-pushing tech wares is second to none. As you'll experience from the four jams constitutive of this unparalleled mindtrip of an EP, 'In The Years Ahead' is the living evidence the steadfastness of Parker and Bicknell's vision remains absolutely untouched. Zeroed in on taking ravers on an entrancing ride across pulsating corridors of whirring machine funk, sizzling acid and shape-shifting waves of sound, both sides of this EP share the best lot of both producers' uniquely innovative approach to rhythm and production.

Parker's opening cut, 'Solar Limb' is a textbook example of his complex, and heavily layered sound-design. An unflinching swing keeping time, brutal kicks punching holes in your head like giant steel hammers, the track may evolve slowly, repeating its post-industrial mantra over and over again, its flame doesn't flicker one iota. Switching onto red-level dance floor menace, 'Badlands' pulls out the heavy artillery: an overkill bombardment of puncturing 909 drums, vortical winds blowing in the back like some solar storm of sorts, and this ebb-and-flow of FX-drenched synth ripples branded on your cortex like odd signs of cult belonging. Bicknell's takeover starts with the rugged and wild 'Chaotic World', whose title is definitely not usurped. Enter a blazing maelstrom of frantic synth assault knocked askew, intense bass tectonic movements and smashing arpeggios on the path of war. The track develops a massive momentum, swelling from primordial raw matter into weirdly arranged modular constructions, like that of Kubrick's monolith emerging with ominous presence. 'In The Years Ahead' serves up a much distinctively elegant, glossy type of textural experience, synths playing pong in a hall of mirrors, interlacing and distorting as the percussive line unfolds its linear train-like groove. It dashes across landscapes of hypermodern glass and concrete with unrelenting horsepower, from techno's early sanctuary right up onto tomorrow's temple of unmapped potentialities.

This much special release, so dear to our heart, comes clad in a beautiful piece of design, and will be pressed to 180g audiophile quality vinyl for an enhanced listening experience.

This is a truly wonderful Jazz double offer you a look into an expression of Jazz. Both sides are heavenly spiritual and should be embraced

This is a must have reissue release

Aerials live, dials tuned, Transmission Towers broadcasting. On either side of the river Mersey, transcendental communications are traded back and forth. Two late-night revellers, one firing messages filled with music, the other returning them laced with lyrics. The result, a dopamine hit of oddball machine soul, melded with a highlife, Afrofuturist touch. Wonky and murky yet deeply emotional, Transmission One, is a debut album that also marks the first release on Luke Una’s É Soul Cultura label, encompassing expertly the off-kilter atmosphere the label sets to orbit.

A synthesised landscape with a Northern charm, Transmission Towers marry the musical worlds of two artists that last collaborated over a decade ago. 10 years have passed, lives have been led, but a gravitational pull has placed Mark Kyriacou and Eleanor Mante back in each other’s spheres on opposite sides of the city of Liverpool. Energised with a newfound desire to strip it all back to the sounds that influenced their formative years in the late ‘80s and ‘90s - astral travelling, intoxicated on Motor City techno, Black Dog IDM and mystical Sun Ra.

Mark half Irish, half Greek Cypriot, Eleanor half Nigerian, half Ghanian, the music contained within is an alchemy of those roots and the pivotal acts that buried deep into their minds. A cosmic contrast, part machine-made, part distinctly human. Take the opener ‘UP’, an ESG-channelling, sci-fi punk beatdown or the polychromatic hyperspace anthem ‘Roller Skater 23’.

Transportive throughout, you ride the solar waves, pace and emotion ebbing and flowing. Tracks like ‘Go Slow Heart’ and ‘Cosmic Trigger’ step to a slower beat but hit with a punch. The former, a slo-mo blast of celestial tenderness, the latter an otherworldly, chugged-out lunar excursion, micro-dosing on whacked-out Wah Wah and Eleanor’s ethereal vocals. Beaming love letters to space and back, ‘Sparse’ marries the organic with the artificial, pianos and percussion circling around synth pads and broadcasting bleeps.

Elsewhere, vibrations move faster. ‘Mega’ strikes, fusing sonic tribalism with psychedelic swirls, as ‘Everything’ sweeps you up in its extra-terrestrial new wave grip. Synth stabs and basslines fizzing from every angle.

Demos of Transmission Towers music surfaced on Luke Una’s radar, making him stop in his tracks. Something magical was emerging, perfectly aligned with the E Soul guardian’s tastes. Guidance followed, quickly turning into conversations about Transmission One becoming the first release on Luke’s own label.

Escapist and futurist yet grounded and relatable. Transmission One is synthesis meets sentiment with a deep, spine-tingling soul at its core.

With both sides as vibrant and colourful as a hot and sweaty street party, this latest 45 is the perfect afrobeat soundtrack to end your summer.

A side, Blue G. opens explosively and delivers all that it promises in the opening bars: beautifully orchestrated twists and turn that chug along instrumentally for half the track. South African singer Nongoma unexpectedly adds a vocal spin in English and Xhosa, and with the catchy lyrics of "all the children need love, peace and harmony", it's a delight to be swept up in this swirling, festive, solar energy.

The B side, That Good Thing, follows on at exactly the same tempo, weaving horns, guitars, keys and numerous percussions in and out of an equally infectious groove. A highly polished track, full of rises and falls in all the right places.

The Konkolo Orchestra is, for now, a Zürich studio project led by multi-instrumentalist Alexis Malefakis, but let's hope that changes soon because it feels rather criminal not to have these rich sounds live and in your face. Dexterous musicianship meets fine production and execution.

With both sides as vibrant and colourful as a hot and sweaty street party, this latest 45 is the perfect afrobeat soundtrack to end your summer.

A side, Blue G. opens explosively and delivers all that it promises in the opening bars: beautifully orchestrated twists and turn that chug along instrumentally for half the track. South African singer Nongoma unexpectedly adds a vocal spin in English and Xhosa, and with the catchy lyrics of "all the children need love, peace and harmony", it's a delight to be swept up in this swirling, festive, solar energy.

The B side, That Good Thing, follows on at exactly the same tempo, weaving horns, guitars, keys and numerous percussions in and out of an equally infectious groove. A highly polished track, full of rises and falls in all the right places.

The Konkolo Orchestra is, for now, a Zürich studio project led by multi-instrumentalist Alexis Malefakis, but let's hope that changes soon because it feels rather criminal not to have these rich sounds live and in your face. Dexterous musicianship meets fine production and execution.

Black Truffle is pleased to announce the first-ever vinyl reissue of Remko Scha’s Guitar Mural 1 featuring The Machines, originally published as a rare cassette edition by Taal Beeld Geluid in 1982. A computational linguist by profession, Scha played an important role in the development of sound, installation, and digital art in the Netherlands from the late 1970s onward, co-founding the performance and exhibition space Het Appolohuis in Eindhoven in 1980. Alongside Paul Panhuysen and Jan Van Riet, Scha was a founding member of the radical improvisation group The Maciunas Ensemble, though he is best known for his work with mechanised electric guitars, documented on the legendary 1982 LP Machine Guitars.

Guitar Mural 1 documents an installation of Scha’s mechanical guitar ensemble The Machines held at a Groningen gallery space in 1982. Five electric guitars hang from the wall, their strings sounded by rotating rubber strings and a sabre saw controlled by a mechanical apparatus, as well as four ropes criss-crossing the five instruments on the wall. Once the mechanism was set up, Scha’s only intervention was to vary the speed at which it operated. Where Machine Guitars presents short excerpts clearly distinguished by rhythmic and timbral variation, here we are confronted with four enormous side-long slabs of percussive string attack and the resulting clouds of harmonics. Variation is minimal across the duration of each side, making for a sculptural listening experience, as if we are patiently examining each facet of a static object. But significant variety exists between the four sides, each of which shows off a different facet of what The Machines were capable of. The first two excerpts feature open strings sounded at rapid tempos, dissolving the percussive attack into a continuous stream of sound reminiscent of Charlemagne Palestine’s ‘strumming’ technique. On the third side, the strings are partly muted and the tempo slightly lowered, resulting in layers of relentlessly chugging rhythm somewhere between an ensemble of hand drums and an early Velvet Underground bootleg. On the fourth side, havoc breaks loose in percussive waves of asynchronous repetition that bring Scha’s sound world close to that of another pioneer experiment in musical mechanisation, the Solar Music of Joe Jones.

Presented as a limited edition 2LP set in a deluxe gatefold sleeve accompanied by stunning visual documentation of the original installation, remastered audio and new liner notes from Alan Licht and Van Lagestein, Guitar Mural 1 is an exhilarating document occupying a unique space between kinetic sculpture, hardcore minimalism and rock & roll.

The first two EPs of rising French-Algerian singer-producer-songwriter Sabrina Bellaouel on InFiné are now available on a single 12" vinyl edition for the first time. At the crossroads of modern electronic production, alternative RnB & North African beats, Sabrina Bellaouel offers her listeners an unprecedented mix of grand emotion of the Pop stage and the cutting-edge underground flair of buzzing nightclubs

Textextext - (add your write up)

2020 saw Sabrina Bellaouel step out of her cocoon a fully formed artist. First, there was "We Don't Need To Be Enemies", a powerful and brave record - directing the limelight away from her talent as a singer and focusing on her honed, meticulous production skill and ingenuity in making demanding, forward thinking music. Bellaouel managed to tell stories of her identity and place in the world almost without a single vocal.

Then, there was "Libra" - fusing her own production with that gorgeous voice - showcasing a fully formed, trailblazing, independent artist. Sabrina jumps effortlessly between empowering trap on "Arab Liquor" to luscious RnB on "Float" and ends the record with "She Don't Care", a peak time house curveball that you can picture heating up the festival dance floors around Europe. The diverse and powerful EP united different sides of the press in its critical acclaim, receiving accolades from Resident Advisor, Mixmag, The Quietus, Metal Magazine and Pan African Music - just to name a few.

Both of these records then, represent a side of the coin - and are now available as a 12" Vinyl combining them to a singular listening experience. And when the clubs slowly open up again, you will surely see this secret weapon make it's way some well assorted DJ bags.

Along with its sister imprint Fluid Electronics - dedicated to all things more muscularly 4x4 oriented, from house to techno via ambient, Fluid Funk will offer a platform of choice for creators and lovers of soulful house, hip-hop, jazz, funk, disco et al. The goal of the label is to bring a community of like-minded people together, cleared from the complexities that sometimes hamper the good course of the label-artist relationship.

First to grace Fluid Funk's dance floor-ready grooves is Rotterdam-based emerging talent Beau Zwart. Fresh off a choice inaugural sortie on INI Movements that hit the streets a few weeks ago, Beau steps in with his debut 12", "Beyond Two Souls" - an infectiously smooth and solarpowered six-track platter featuring Dutch duo Fouk on remix duty.

Expect lavishly orchestrated cascades of ankle-twisting breaks, prismatic synthwork and summer-flavoured melodies to wrap your ears around as your feet and body give in to the power of that funky bass. Brewing elements of fuzzy pop, pixelated soul and tropicalised rhythms, Beau Zwarts sound takes us on a wildly enjoyable ride across luxuriantly flowered scapes and fluttering cosmic house horizons. Interlaced with sugary Rhodes stabs and 8-bit harmonics a la "Floating Points", Sykes' warm vox intonations shows us the way into a pulsating heart of wonky, bop-infused boogie.

Expanding to further out-there, club-optimised bravura, Fouk's take on the title-track is the kind of track that'll make an impact in the sweatbox as well as in a more cabaret-like setting. Pulling out the weirdo harmonics and left-of-centre jazz aerobatics, "Ixodus" lets its free spirited sense of playfulness take over completely. Flip sides and here's "Marble Book" unbolts the spacious pads and whirling alien riffs as a sturdy sub-bass and gut-churning kicks beat time onto further estranged
dimensions.

A slightly more muscular but thoroughly sensuous workout, "Bustin Out" fuses classical two-step-indebted breaks with lascivious "P-Funk" tropes into one compelling club heater, before the EP's sluggish closer "Illustrate My Way" sends us into orbit for good with its slowed down romanticism and otherworldly piano fantasy.

As Ociya, hardware freaks Tin Man (Johannes Auvinen) and Patricia (Max Ravitz), come together in unholy acid matrimony on a EP (here) and definitive double-album, Powers Of Ten (coming up on april 27).

We know both sides well. Over a prolific run of records for Acid Test and his own Global A, Auvinen has expounded upon the promise of "Nonneo" (recently named one of Resident Advisor's 2010-19: Tracks Of The Decade), unearthing new, emotional vistas from the Roland TB-303. Ravitz, meanwhile, matches Tin Man in studio ethic, establishing himself as one of North America's hardware masters on records for Ghostly and Opal Tapes.

The album was recorded live to 2 track in Patricia’s studio in New York, no edits.
This 12-inch simply called Acid Test 15, ill be released before the album and also features remixes from Plasmic Eddy

Pale Bloom finds Sarah Davachi coming full circle. After abandoning the piano studies of her youth for a series of albums utilizing everything from pipe and reed organs to analog synthesizers, this prolific Los Angeles-based composer returns to her first instrument for a radiant work of quiet minimalism and poetic rumination.

Recorded at Berkeley, California's famed Fantasy Studios, Pale Bloom is comprised of two delicately-arranged sides. The first – a three-part suite where Davachi's piano acts as conjurer, beckoning Hammond organ and stirring countertenor into a patiently unfolding congress – recalls Eduard Artemiev's majestic soundtrack for Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris. "Perfumes I-III" employs the harmonically rich music of Bach as a springboard for abstract, solemn pieces that sound as haunted as they are dreamlike.

While the first half of Pale Bloom showcases Davachi's latent Romanticism, the sidelong "If It Pleased Me To Appear To You Wrapped In This Drapery" reveals the Mills College graduate's affinity for the work of avant-garde composers La Monte Young and Eliane Radigue. Softly vibrating strings rise and fall like complementary exhalations of breath. As the fluctuating pitches create overtones that pitter and pulse, the piece slowly and subtly evolves – suggesting a well-tempered stillness, yet without stasis.

Pale Bloom finds Sarah Davachi coming full circle. After abandoning the piano studies of her youth for a series of albums utilizing everything from pipe and reed organs to analog synthesizers, this prolific Los Angeles-based composer returns to her first instrument for a radiant work of quiet minimalism and poetic rumination.

Recorded at Berkeley, California's famed Fantasy Studios, Pale Bloom is comprised of two delicately-arranged sides. The first – a three-part suite where Davachi's piano acts as conjurer, beckoning Hammond organ and stirring countertenor into a patiently unfolding congress – recalls Eduard Artemiev's majestic soundtrack for Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris. "Perfumes I-III" employs the harmonically rich music of Bach as a springboard for abstract, solemn pieces that sound as haunted as they are dreamlike.

While the first half of Pale Bloom showcases Davachi's latent Romanticism, the sidelong "If It Pleased Me To Appear To You Wrapped In This Drapery" reveals the Mills College graduate's affinity for the work of avant-garde composers La Monte Young and Eliane Radigue. Softly vibrating strings rise and fall like complementary exhalations of breath. As the fluctuating pitches create overtones that pitter and pulse, the piece slowly and subtly evolves – suggesting a well-tempered stillness, yet without stasis.