Buscar:stal

TOXIC WASTE represents the hardest end of the CRASS milieu. While most anarcho-punk bands of the time sang about a war they’d only seen on TV TOXIC WASTE were being politically active in Belfast during the troubles. They played militant punk with melody and aggression. Borderline hardcore at times with a clear peace-punk message. Angry, intense and in your face. They were involved in the Warzone Collective and shared stages, experiences and activism with bands such as STALAG 17, CONFLICT , ASYLUM and ANTISECT. “Belfast” was originally released in 1987 on Vocalist Roy Wallace’s Belfast Records and has been out of print for 30 years. It was a compilation of previously released tracks and newly recorded versions of old tracks with Dino and Gary from D.I.R.T doing the female vocal parts and guitars. The 12 tracks on “Belfast” are nuggets of raging pissed off DIY anarcho punk with hard hitting lyrics and dual vocals. The recordings are raw and passionate and stand the test of time. The band released an iconic split 12” with STALAG 17 on Mortarhate (1985) - the tracks are included on “Belfast” and then the following year a split LP called We will be Free with STALAG 17 and ASYLUM before calling it a day and becoming a lost piece of the anarcho punk puzzle. This reissue comes with replica sleeve and fold-out lyric insert.

There is a way a voice can cut through the fascia of reality, cleaving through habit into the raw nerve of experience. Nika Roza Danilova, the singer, songwriter, and producer who since 2009 has released music as Zola Jesus, wields a voice that does that. When you hear it, it is like you are being summoned to a place that’s already wrapped inside you but obscured from conscious experience. This place has been buried because it tends to hold pain, but it’s also a gift, because once it’s opened, once you’re inside of it, it can show you the truth. Zola Jesus’s new album, Arkhon, finds new ways of loosing this submerged, stalled pain.

There is a way a voice can cut through the fascia of reality, cleaving through habit into the raw nerve of experience. Nika Roza Danilova, the singer, songwriter, and producer who since 2009 has released music as Zola Jesus, wields a voice that does that. When you hear it, it is like you are being summoned to a place that’s already wrapped inside you but obscured from conscious experience. This place has been buried because it tends to hold pain, but it’s also a gift, because once it’s opened, once you’re inside of it, it can show you the truth. Zola Jesus’s new album, Arkhon, finds new ways of loosing this submerged, stalled pain.

Our next mixtape features a superb, tight blend of some of the very best tracks to fly out of the speakers at the Cherry Moon Club. At the helm we have DJ Ghost, spinning the grooves to take us on a journey through the ages, through the genres, from twisted acid concepts to hypnotic trance and gut busting hardcore. Ghost aka Bjorn Wendelen has been a stalwart for us at Bonzai since the very early days. He’s delivered several cuts for us over the years and has branched out with his own Ghoststyle brand with great success. The famous Cherry Moon was and remains one of the biggest names in Belgian club-life, with 30 years of embracing club culture. Since the start in 1991, they have brought the best techno, hard-trance and house to the scene. During the 90's and early 00's, Cherry Moon was the place to be for clubbers from all over Belgium, France, the Netherlands and even other European countries. Housed on classic K7 tape, this comp features a host of tracks from the likes of DJ Ghost, Insider, Body-Shock, DJ Looney Tune, Jones & Stephenson, Push, Blue Alphabet, Final Analysis, Joyrider, Dreamland and more. So, dust off your vintage cassette machine and prepare to be blown away by the sound of Cherry Moon.

Fortuna reissues an incredible Greek belly dance scorcher by little known artist Koko. Following the Israeli Greek-craze of the '60s and '70s, Moroccan singer Koko learned how to sing in Greek and delivered this tavern-style party masterpiece. Organs seer through hard drums and pounding bass while Koko's deep voice guides through the evocative world of Greek Tsifteteli. For lovers of Aris San and Levitros.

This first-ever vinyl reissue, remastered from the original analog tapes, includes a gatefold jacket and inner sleeve with restored, new, and alternate art and photos by Terry and Jo Harvey Allen; an insert with lyrics, original notes, and Terry’s letter to H.C. Westermann about the songs; and a high-res download code. Deluxe CD edition features a trifold jacket and inner sleeve. Recorded exactly two years after acclaimed visual artist and songwriter Terry Allen’s masterpiece Lubbock (on everything), the feral follow-up Smokin the Dummy is less conceptually focused but more sonically and stylistically unified than its predecessor it’s also rougher and rowdier, wilder and more wired, and altogether more menacingly rock and roll. Following the 1973 Whitney Biennial, in which songwriter and visual artist Terry Allen and fellow iconic artist Horace Clifford “Cliff” Westermann both exhibited, Allen maintained a lively long-distance correspondence and exchange of artworks and music with Westermann, whose singular and highly influential art he admired enormously. In a February 1981 letter to his friend and mentor, written shortly after the late 1980 release of his third album Smokin the Dummy, while he and his family were living in Fresno, California, Terry explains the genesis of the album title: Westermann died shortly after receiving this letter, enclosed with a Smokin the Dummy LP, the minimalist black jacket of which Allen suggested that Cliff fold into a jaunty cardboard hat if he didn’t like the music. That response was unlikely, since Westermann loved Terry’s music, calling his debut record Juarez (1975) “the finest, most honest and heartfelt piece of music I ever heard.” The Panhandle Mystery Band had only recently coalesced during those 1978 Lubbock sessions, Lloyd Maines’s first foray into production. Through 1979, they honed their sound and tightened their arrangements with a series of periodic performances beyond Allen’s regular art-world circuit, including memorable record release concerts in Lubbock, Chicago, L.A., and Kansas City. Terry sought to harness the high-octane power of this now well-oiled collective engine to overdrive his songs into rawer and rockier off-road territory. His first album to share top billing with the Panhandle Mystery Band, Dummy documents a ferocious new band in fully telepathic, tornado-fueled flight, refining its caliber, increasing its range, and never looking down. Alongside the stalwart Maines brothers co-producer, guitarist, and all-rounder Lloyd, bassist Kenny, and drummer Donnie and mainstay Richard Bowden (who here contributes not only fiddle but also mandolin, cello, and “truck noise theory,” the big-rig doppler effect of Lloyd’s steel on “Roll Truck Roll”), new addition Jesse Taylor supplies blistering lead guitar, on loan from Joe Ely (who plays harmonica here). Jesse’s kinetic blues lines and penchant for extreme volume were instrumental in pushing these recordings into brisker tempos and tougher attitudes. Terry was feverish for several studio days, suffering from a bad flu and sweating through his clothes, which partially explains the literally febrile edge to his performances, rendered largely in a perma-growl. (By this point, he was regularly breaking piano pedals with his heavy-booted stomp.) Like the album title itself, the songs on Smokin the Dummy ring various demented bells. The tracks rifle through Terry’s assorted Obsessions especially the potential energy and escape of the open road, elevated here to an ecstatic, prayerful pitch and are populated by a cast of crooked characters: truckers, truck-stop waitresses, convicts, cokeheads, speed freaks, greasers, holy rollers, rodeo riders, dancehall cheaters, and sacrificial prairie dogs, sinners seeking some small reprieve, any fugitive moment of grace. A reigning deity of a certain kind of country music since the mid-70s. – The New York Times // The kind of singular American artist who expresses the fundamental weirdness of his country. – The Wire

The second album from the transatlantic duo Wilma Vritra is richly orchestrated, replete with references to faith, mythology, and the cosmos, its 11 tracks grapple with themes of self-preservation and refuge from the world, even as they edge their way to a sort of redemption. Grotto is the work of two musicians separated by an ocean but undoubtedly operating on a shared wavelength. One is Will Archer, a Newcastle-born but London-based multi-instrumentalist and composer who today records as Wilma Archer, but who you might also know for his writing and production for artists like Celeste, Nilufer Yanya and Jessie Ware. Wilma Archer’s debut solo album A Western Circular, featured guest spots from the late MF DOOM, Future Islands’ Samuel T Herring, Sudan Archives and Laura Grove. The other is Hal Donell Williams Jr, aka VRITRA - a Los Angeles-based rapper whose tales of graft and grind are often couched in spiritual or cosmic terms. VRITRA has previously collaborated with Matt Martians via The Jet Age of Tomorrow, Pink Siifu and YUNGMORPHEUS. Grotto’s striking cover image is by Swampy, an enigmatic Californian street artist whose itinerant lifestyle – tales of squatting and train-hopping across North America – have made him a demi-mythical figure. A playful image, but it communicates the album’s themes – of a voyage through darkness, and the promise of light at the end of the tunnel.

Verena Zeiner und Wolfgang Schlögl lassen auf ihrem Album 'Magic Wall' das akustische Instrument in einen Dialog mit elektronischer Ästhetik treten.
'Magic Wall' ist das gemeinsame Album von Wolfgang Schlögl alias I-Wolf und der Pianistin und Komponistin Verena Zeiner. Zwischen instrumentaler Virtuosität und technologischem Ansatz entwickelt das Duo Zeiner I-Wolf eine zeitlose Musik, die Jazzreferenzen mit zeitgenössischen Klangstrukturen verbindet. Die Musikstücke des Albums fügen sich wie Szenen eines Films aneinander und erzeugen eine schwebend surreale Spannung.

‘Wax Limousine’ is the third solo album from London’s Wesley Gonzalez. Set for release on 18th March via Moshi Moshi Records, the record is the follow up to last year’s critically acclaimed ‘Appalling Human’ and finds the indie stalwart delivering his most personal album to date, via a collection of 12 irresistible pop songs. The announcement arrives alongside the title track, which received its first play from Marc Riley on 6Music and its accompanying video, the second to be revealed from the record following ‘Greater Expectations’, released earlier this year. In support of the release, Gonzalez heads out on tour this November, headlining Electrowerkz on 25th and supporting Young Knives across the country (full dates below).

With its truly eclectic range of musical influences drawing on Gonzalez’s ever developing sonic palette, the album’s uplifting sound juxtaposes its themes, documenting the end of a long-term relationship and the overwhelming experience of dealing with a family member’s cancer diagnosis and subsequent treatment. ‘Wax Limousine’ navigates these hurdles with a razor-sharp wit and often brutally perceptive self-awareness, nowhere more so than on the new single. Inspired by both 'Faithless' by Scritti Politti and Aretha Franklin, it is Gonzalez’s version of an 80’s gospel song and, as he explains, written at a crucial point over the last 12 months

“This was written right after the breakup and cancer diagnosis. It was that early stage of a breakup where you can't really understand what went wrong for you or for your ex. There was resentment for the extreme change I had suddenly found myself in, and I was asking what it really was I did wrong. The title Wax Limousine came from old phrases like "as useless as an ashtray on a motorbike". I was trying to express how useless I felt within every situation that had just arrived at my doorstep.”

Wesley Gonzalez first made a name for himself as the leader of Let's Wrestle, whose tuneful and eccentric punk earned critical accolades and a devoted audience with three albums, including 2011’s Steve Albini produced ‘Nursing Home’. Gonzalez wasted little time forging his own path and quickly assembled a live band for his solo work, expanding upon the guitar-driven music of his former band, with an interesting concoction of classic 70’s pop, soul, and indie rock. Gonzalez released his debut solo record ‘Excellent Musician’ in 2017, then the follow up ‘Appalling Human’ in June 2020 through Moshi Moshi Records.

In a very special edition of our Basement Tracks series, house legends Alan Fitzpatrick and DJ Deeon team up on a Chicago-inspired house track, later flipped by Shall Not Fade family member, DJOKO.

A figure who needs little introduction, Alan Fitzpatrick has long been electrifying dance floors with his big-room selections and production. This EP sees the tech-house icon collaborate with the equally illustrious DJ Deeon on a track which gleams from the Chicago producer's musical heritage in juke and Ghetto house. "Shake That Thang" cruises along a deep house beat whilst Deeon's unmistakable vocal chops float over the top, offering a blissed-out take on the genre before Cologne's house music stalwart DJOKO who brings the funk on a buoyant flip. Rounding things off, "Learning to Love" sees Fitzpatrick fly solo with a sunshine-doused melody and euphoric drops. This one's sure to be heard on festival stages all across the globe this summer.

Storming into 2022 with a flurry of high-octane remixed from a stellar array of artists, Anfisa Letyago continues to solidify her position as one of techno's most talked about names. An intrepid selector with a positive attitude regarding all things art and dancefloor related, she's been making seismic waves within the industry for a few years. Letyago launched her own imprint - N:S:DA last year, originally a celebration of her own dark-brooding style of techno, the label has entered a metamorphosis of sorts, welcoming in a host of established producers to remix the labels first two remix EP's.

Kompakt head-honcho and German techno extraordinaire Michael Mayer opens up the floodgates of this remix project with an alluring interpretation of "Nisida". Decades of industry experience have finely tuned Mayer's taste making to an impeccable standard, his extensive knowledge of dancefloors and deep cuts serves as an excellent explanation for his undeniable ability in the studio. Ethereal vocal snapshots from the original mix are weaved intricately amongst the machine-orchestra of arpeggiated synths and stalwart drum loops. "My aim for this remix was to crystallize this yearning sentiment in Anfisa's whispers by adding more warmth and drama to the track" adds Michael.

The Italian-born, multi-faceted DJ Tennis steps into the arena with his unique take on the original mix of "Nisida". Elegant pads flourish through the mix, carrying listeners weightlessly into warping basslines and razor-sharp drum work. The droning synths seem to induce hypnosis, circling and swaying around the driving kick and scattered hi-hats. A production powerhouse since the early nineties, DJ Tennis continues to juggle event promotion, running a label and booking agency. A hugely talented all-rounder.

1979 draws the EP to a close with a swirling techno edit of "Orizzonte", tastefully minimal and precisely crafted with compelling sound design from the analog synth wizard. Classically trained with a deep penchant for attending illegal raves in his youth, 1979 has been making waves with a flurry of breakout hits in recent years. The arrangement climbs through cycles of high-pitched tones and rolling mid-range bass, taking listeners on a sonic journey steeped in warmth with classic drum machine hits. "'Orizzonte' caught me in many ways, and I decided to use the beautiful space-arpeggios and the shoegaze pads made by Anfisa to create my own version of the track" he adds. The perfect track for highway driving and rocking dancefloors.

First volume – though the 2nd never happened – of this ongoing collaboration between post-punk stalwarts Cherry Red and home of the western dub On U Sound. Adrian Sherwood obviously sitting behind the desk and a cast of marvelous artist leading the way for a reggae renaissance. Stolen and contaminated songs, we may take this as a reference point for 12 unreleased tracks showing the best of the UK underground rhythms. A further development of the Jamaican heritage, with handmade electronics and a forward thinking production. Mothmen ‘Afghani Dub’ is one of the leading track here, with future members of Durutti Column and Simply Red on board, this is a mystical post-industrial trip through upbeat rhythms. Along the way you’ll find the over the top vocal performance of Judy Nylon – more akin to certain no wave expressionism – futuristic vibes from Sun Of Arqa, contribution from New age Steppers supergroup and Creation Rebel teaming up with the so-called Jamaican ‘Voice of Thunder’ Prince Far I. All in all a (natural) mystic experience.

Following her highly praised "An Antworten EP" on TAL, Tentenko releases “The Soft Cave” on Couldn’t Care More. The Tokyo Wonder Girl further expands her unique universe of electronic music with four stunning tracks between oddly beguiling iridescence ("The Wave") and deliberately raw technoid clanging ("Stalactite"), developing a twisted yet very playful version of Experimental Techno, Breakbeats or whatever it is ("The Fish Stone"). Exciting stuff for Warp / Modern Love / Sähkö aficionados and everyone who dares.

Clear Vinyl

Written and conceived by Stephan Crasneanscki, ‘LOVOTIC’ is a concept album by Soundwalk Collective, composed in collaboration with lauded actress and singer/songwriter Charlotte Gainsbourg. Featuring veteran techno stalwart AtomTM, rising singer/composer/performance artist Lyra Pramuk, celebrated actor Willem Dafoe, and writer/philosopher Paul B. Preciado, the album is released by the new Berlin-based Analogue Foundation.

Inspired by a relatively new field of research that seeks to explore and develop the possibilities of sexual and emotional relationships – and even love – between humans and robots, ‘LOVOTIC’ interrogates the impulses, ideas, and needs underlying this phenomenon. The project ventures into a future where sex, intimacy and desire are reformulated through the connection of humans, robotics, and artificial intelligence.

In an age of such hybrid entanglement with the machine, human identity requires the construction of new forms of intimacy, gender, and sexuality. At present, however, such technologies are primarily used to produce programs of limited sexual iterations that do not question the preformatted categories of gender and sexual orientation. In contrast, on ‘LOVOTIC’, Soundwalk Collective ask whether the future of sex and sexuality could instead be an exponentially expanding kaleidoscope. Where does the impulse of preference come from? What sets of words from our vocabulary can be communicated to the AI mind to generate a new identity for desire? Could the machine be another technology that brings us closer together?

Sonically ‘LOVOTIC’ is unidentifiable, artificial, and genuinely futuristic, occupying an amorphous androgynous netherworld at the borderlands between biotic and android. Traditional musical signposts are virtually non-existent, instead offering a mercurial, formless sound which mirrors the flourishing of gender fluidity it suggests could be on the horizon.

The production tangibly evokes the odd, rubbery textures of faux flesh, the slick virtual glide or glitchy mishaps of software, and the sleek shine of hardware. Gleaming sound design creates shard-like surfaces redolent of Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto’s ‘Glass’, the slippery stretched sonics Gabor Lazar, and the unsettling dark ambience of TOWERS and Hallmark ‘87.

At turns intimate and inviting, with whispering-in-your-ears ASMR vocals evoking blissful, heightened sexual states, within ‘LOVOTIC’ there’s optimism, but also unease; As well as the positive, it implies the negative ramifications of technology. At points a synthetic siren’s call appears to lure the listener to a darker place, with audio malfunctions suggesting dystopian science. Voices morph from gentle to distorted – a glitch in the system causing the mask to slip, like virtual lizards – ‘They Live’ or ‘V’ (?), for the metaverse age.

Here, Charlotte Gainsbourg invokes a being of unknown identity – an artificial eve, the oracle and the portal – speaking from an unspecified time in the future. The voices of AtomTM, Lyra Pramuk and Willem Dafoe weave in and out of Charlotte’s, often overlapping, merging into one another, expressing the entity of a being that’s ephemeral and in constant flux, oscillating between the natural and artificial. The record’s other bonafide singer, Lyra Pramuk’s delivery alternates between spoken word, operatics and partially- unintelligible language.

A multi-media project, ‘LOVOTIC’ also features the work of writer, philosopher and curator Paul B. Preciado – a leading thinker in the study of gender and body politics. Paul contributes a post-apocalyptic, quasi scientific and fictional text, which adds further fantasy, artistic and intellectual depth, augmenting the listener’s experience. Like all the best Sci Fi, his words seem prescient, describing what could become a likely reality in the future. Paul performs his written texts on the opening and closing tracks of the album; ‘The Age Of Mutation’ (in Spanish) and ‘Primate Love’ (in English).

Soundwalk Collective is an experimental sound collective helmed by Stephan Crasneanscki in collaboration with Simone Merli, which operates in a continuously rotating constellation of sound artists and musicians. The Collective’s approach to composition combines anthropology, ethnography, non-linear narrative, psycho- geography, the observation of nature, and explorations in recording and synthesis.

AUDREY Horne liefern skandinavischen Hard Rock der Extraklasse!
AUDREY HORNE sind zurück – mit unstillbarem Hunger und destilliertem Rock’n’Roll in den Venen! 2002 geründet erspielten sich die Norweger um Ausnahmesänger Toschie und Enslaved Gitaristen Ice Dale schnell den Status als eine der besten Live Bands in der Szene. Sie gehörten zu den ersten, die den Radio Rock der 70er und 80er Jahre wiederbelebten und die Tradition von Frank Stallone, Toto und Billy Joel fortführten, lange bevor das zum Trend wurde. Vier Jahre nach Blackout sind die Norweger mit ihrem siebten Album zurück! Devil’s Bell erscheint am 22. April 2022 und ist ein grandioses Rock’n’Roll-Album voller Ohrwürmer!

Devil’s Bell kommt mit 9 mitreißenden Songs daher, die Konzerthallen auf der ganzen Welt zum Beben bringen werden. Man spürt in jeder Sekunde, dass das Album die stickige Luft eines schweißgebadeten
Konzertabends atmet.

Toschie beweist einmal mehr, dass er eine der charismatischsten und energetischsten Stimmen im Hard Rock hat. Die herausragende Gitarrenarbeit von Ice Dale (Enslaved) und Thomas Tofthagen (ex-Sahg) unterstreicht den bemerkenswerten Mix aus 70er und 80er Rock mit NWOBHM. Wie bei jedem AUDREY HORNE Album gehen die Songs nahtlos ineinander über und bleiben schon beim ersten Hören hängen – ein modernes Hard Rock-Album der Extraklasse!

New York-based Synthwave/Italo disco duo, Bunny X, will release their highly anticipated first full-length album, ‘Young & In Love’, on October 5, 2021 through Aztec Records.

Taking inspiration directly from 1980s John Hughes classics such as The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles, Bunny X (Abigail Gordon and Mary Hanley) created ‘Young & In Love’ as a concept record oozing with nostalgic and youthful themes such as young love, first crushes, teen angst and anxiety.

“We wanted to take our listeners back to a time when music connected with us in a passionate and relatable way,” says Abigail. “These tracks pay tribute to what made 80s music so special — the fact that it was delivered in an earnest and unironic way.”

The Retrowave 10-track list of “Young & In Love” brings Bunny X together with Synthwave stalwarts Sellorekt/LA Dreams and Don Dellpiero, NYC-based producer Gosteffects and GRAMMY Award-winning engineer, Tony Lake.

Bunny X has been electrifying stages with their live performances in NYC and beyond for nearly a decade. The duo have released Italo disco and 80s-inspired music throughout their career, including two EPs and numerous singles. This is their first LP-length collection.

Dimensions Recordings present an all-new dancefloor-ready remix package of tracks from Charles Webster's 'Decision Time' LP.

The release of Charles Webster's highly-acclaimed 'Decision Time' in late 2020 marked his first album project in almost 20 years.

An undeniable master of his craft, Webster delivered a body of work that was well worthy of the wait and saw support from the likes of Mary Anne Hobbs, Gilles Peterson, Joe Muggs and Tom Ravenscroft. With collaborators ranging from Shara Nelson (formerly of Massive Attack), to Ingrid Chavez (Prince muse & Madonna songwriter) and of course the infamous Burial, the British DJ/producer demonstrated that his ability to draw the right partners to exactly the right projects and execute them perfectly, has only improved with time.

In this vinyl remix package, Webster once more demonstrates his draw, drafting in an impressive cast of remixers to deliver a varied set of fresh takes on his original works.

Tokyo duo Dazzle Drums, South Africa's Jazzuelle, UK stalwart Mark E and the global trotting DJ Luciano present their unique takes on three cuts from Webster's incredible full length release.

Another essential piece of wax for your crates, this one drops on vinyl & digital via Dimensions Recordings on April 1st 2022.

Stalactite is a collaborative recording project by renown Japanese artist and multi-instrumentalist Susumu Mukai AKA Zongamin and producer Drew Brown, whose discography ranges from his own group Off World to a variety of integral productions for artists such as Blonde Redhead and Beck. Their self-titled debut for the ESP Institute is a grand gesture, a broad stroke that illustrates both singular focus and vast complexity, which is no easy feat considering the almost oppressive immediacy and availability of tools at the disposal of contemporary artists. There’s a level of creative confidence and discipline needed to work so fundamentally, and whether or not the listener has an appetite refined enough to process the tasteful subtleties throughout this production, these same subtleties accumulate regardless and land that listener in a highly considered and developed space. The deceptively naive melodic approach consistent across these nine tracks can feel transparent, familiar to a point the listener can anticipate its path, but when listening with acute focus we find a variable range of texture, temperature, depth and negative space. As alumni of the Minimal, Cold Wave, Synth Pop era, Susumu and Drew successfully personify a motley crew of synthesizers to work in concert, reduced to their core personalities and presented as their most honest selves — austere, shy, cinematic, percolating, bulbous, glistening, cantankerous, rubberized, clumsy and animated. Each masterfully paired with complimentary counterparts, these players assemble into a sound-stage we typically find in live recordings, enveloping and inviting us to the center of an acoustic cavern to wade through sonic impressions of monolithic stalactites.

Repress

Dividing the Catch EP is already the 107th 12'' in the main PRRUK series and also a VA release of outstanding quality.

With names like Berlin techno stalwart Sleeparchive, Planet Rhythm usual YYYY, Marco Effe and Kaiser, ''Dividing The Catch EP'' is a versatile and club oriented slab of high end techno for connaisseurs and dj's alike.

Carpenter Brut bezieht seine Einflüsse aus 80er-Jahre-Fernsehshows und B-Filmen, die mit Synthesizern bestückt sind. Der geheimnisvolle und diskrete Mann hinter dem Fünfeck - oder, wie seine Fans es nennen würden, das Brutagram - erinnert an eine Begegnung zwischen Justice Beats und dem Universum von John Carpenter. Wenn man jedoch die von ihm selbst produzierten EPs hört, würde man einen Hintergrund aus Beton und Metall erkennen, der für Dario Argento und die religiöse Erziehung mit Gewalt steht. Das erklärt seine Vorliebe für den Okkultismus, seine Leidenschaft für Kitschsounds und seine Vorliebe für alle Arten von Genuss.

Nach der Veröffentlichung seines ersten Studioalbums „Leather Teeth“ im Jahr 2018 und einer Reihe von Konzerten in ganz Europa und Nordamerika kehrt Carpenter Brut mit seinem zweiten Album zurück.

Hot Creations prepares to welcome in a milestone release this March, as Riton’s Gucci Soundsystem project makes its debut on the label with Fuck Me Right feat. DJ Funk & Vula. Made up of Grammy Award winning producer Riton and long-term friend Ben Rymer, the single features legendary Chicago house veteran DJ Funk and esteemed Basement Jaxx vocalist Vula.

The single begins with Vula’s enchanting vocals, the likes of which open into rapid kick-hat combos. A funky, guitar-like bassline swiftly complements proceedings, as 4x4 drum patterns march on to create that four-to-the-floor feel. It’s an outright party anthem - as to be expected from Jamie Jones’ flagship imprint - but one that retains a soulful underlying groove courtesy of DJ Funk and Vula’s signature contributions.

Riton is a globally-recognised artist in today’s music world. Crossing the bridge between contemporary pop and underground electronic music, the renowned British producer received a Grammy nomination in 2017 for one of the year’s biggest singles: Rinse & Repeat. He followed this up by winning a Grammy Award in 2019, for his production work on Silk City (Mark Ronson & Diplo) and Dua Lipa’s Electricity. Since then, Riton has continued to work with some of the industry’s most iconic talents, including Kylie Minogue, The Chemical Brothers and Gorgon City to name a few.

Ben Rymer has been a stalwart of London’s club scene for decades. One half of Gucci Soundsystem and formerly a part of The Fat Truckers, the likes of whom toured with Jarvis Cocker’s rock band Pulp, Ben’s club history boasts performances across some of the scene’s most respected night time venues, including Fabric, London and Space, Ibiza.

The band describe themselves as a spaced out, instrumental loungerock outfit, with added vibes of folk music, jazzy surf, psychedelia, free improvised chill-out, jangly post-rock and travelling bass. Not much for us to add here, apart from possibly a pinch of krautrock. "Tellus" is the quartet's fourth album, and their debut on Rune Grammofon. Being something of an allstar team from the fertile psychedelic spacedrone scene in Haugesund on the westcoast of Norway, the members also pay their dues in bands like Electric Eye, Lumen Drones (ECM), Undergrünnen and The Low Frequency in Stereo, whose album "Futuro" we released back in 2009. On "Tellus" they are joined by Sigbjorn Apeland, a much esteemed musician largely operating in a landscape of folk music, church music and improvisation. He is a member of Nils Okland band (ECM and Hubro) and has collaborated with him for 30 years, also appearing on his two albums for Rune Grammofon; Straum (2000) and Bris (2004). Also appearing on "Tellus" is Ståle Liavik Solberg, a central force on Oslo's thriving improvised music scene. He has performed worldwide with numerous Norwegian and international musicians and curates the excellent Blow Out! festival. With "Tellus" ATS heads into the Hardangervidda (the big plains connecting the eastern and western parts of southern Norway) terrain of wide open spaces, spare vegetation and unruly weather conditions, especially during the winter. The album was recorded in a small studio in Haugesund during two days of heavy rain showers and stormy winds rumbling outside the windows. Per Steinar Lie - Lap-steel and electric guitar Oystein Braut - Guitar, organ and Mellotron Julius Lind - Double bass Orjan Haaland<

After half a decade of not releasing new music Orange Countys most notorious melodic hardcore force IGNITE are ready to get back to work with their new vocalist Eli Santana up front and a new album in hand. “It’s a new chapter for IGNITE,” reaffirms Brett. “But there’s a lot of looking back to some of our earliest records like Call on My Brothers and having the same feeling writing these songs with a new singer.” In these Southern California stalwarts’ minds, the more things change, the more they stay the same. “This is what we love doing – as it was in 1993 and as it is now.”

2022 Reissue !

For more than a decade now, Fleck E.S.C. has marked himself out as one of the most playful and prolific producers in the electro game. Across dozens of releases for labels including Bass Agenda and Science Cult, the France-born, Japan-based artist has made his name through a production style which balances limber beats with exploratory textural work.

Fleck E.S.C. debuted on Central Processing Unit in 2018 with the Discrete Opinion EP. Now, after stopping by the Sheffield label last year on a Silicon Scally remix job, Fleck E.S.C. delivers his second EP for CPU in the form of Rough Silk. The record's intriguing title proves an apt introduction to this four-track affair. These cuts are at once sleek and abrasive, anchored by robotechnic machine-funk grooves yet also full of strange, shifting shapes.

The opening title-track expertly sets out Rough Silk's stall. Heralded by gurgling synths and all manner of whirring percussive tones, 'Rough Silk' blossoms around the minute mark with the introduction of a wickedly buoyant lead synth. This is music at once visceral and full of mystery, the sound of wending through the back alleys, and the feeling carries through to the following cut 'Hat in the Cat' - as the synth pads spool out overhead, the machine-funk snap of the beat has an almost aquatic quality that links it back to Drexciya.

Much like 'Rough Silk', the record's first B-side 'Faking Sweet' also shifts gears. The opening strains of the track seem to be preparing for another insistent, expansive broken-beat pulse, but it stiffens its neck around ninety seconds in. Programmed drums whirr around a jittery machine-gun bass while discordant synths pull at the edges of the track, all of which brings a strong dystopian energy that increases further as the percussion sounds become increasingly bug-eyed.

After so much excitement, 'Digger Play' closes out the EP with a softer touch. There's still plenty of low-slung bounce to the beat, but the track runs a little slower, and there's a warm wistfulness in the synths which gives 'Digger Play' a painterly, almost poetic feel. However, while it may take its foot off the gas, the production here is as deft as it is everywhere else on Rough Silk.

With new EP Rough Silk, electro whizz Fleck E.S.C. brings the sort of casual mastery to proceedings that has characterised his career to date.

RIYL: Silicon Scally, Jensen Interceptor, Annie Hall

A transcendental journey that takes in meditative musical mantras, sprawling tenor sax improvisation and mesmeric percussion, the new album byWork Money Death(the group that backed ATA artist Tony Burkill on his 2017 debut record of the same name) seeks to reinterpret the sound of artists such as Pharoah Sanders & Alice Coltrane over two tracks: the brooding tension of A-Side"Dusk"and the sanguine & uplifting"Dawn"on the B-Side.Titled "The Space In Which The Uncontrollable Unknown Resides Can Be The Place From Which Creation Arises", this new LP was conceived and recorded by Tony Burkill and Bassist Neil Innes during the spring/summer of 2020.

A stalwart of the Leeds music scene for the best part of 3 decades, Tony Burkill had maintained a low profile nationally, choosing to favour continued study and development on the instrument over attainment of success or recognition within the music industry. With his debut release on ATA in 2017 he impressed audiences with his powerful and gutsy approach to improvisation. Also featuring on the record are Drummer Sam Hobbs (The Electric Doctor M and Producer of Matthew Bourne's Moogmemory), Bassist Neil Innes (The Sorcerers, The Lewis Express), Pianist Adam Fairhall (Nat Birchall) and Percussionist Pete Williams (The Sorcerers, The Lewis Express).

Originally conceived as a large scale group performance of a single extended piece "The space in which the uncontrollable unknown resides, can be the place from which creation arises"was written by Tony and Neil through a series of extended improvisations similar to the extended meditation sessions that both musicians practice. These sessions enabled a state of flow through which Tony's compositional approach to improvisation yielded meaningful melodic fragments that would be returned to and developed in a way similar to someone returning to the mantra.

High Roller Records, reissue 2022, purple/ blue splatter vinyl, ltd 200, gatefold cover

High Roller Records, reissue 2022, purple/ blue splatter vinyl, ltd 200, gatefold cover

UK techno legend Mark Broom returns to Rekids ahead of new album with ‘100% Juice Album Sampler’.

Following the acclaimed ‘Funfzig LP’ on Rekids in 2021 as well as his ‘Mutated Battle Breaks’ series on the techno focussed sub-label Rekids Special Projects, UK stalwart Mark Broom returns to Radio Slave’s Rekids with ‘100% Juice Album Sampler’, a four-track taster for his next album titled ‘100% Juice’, scheduled to be released in April.

Leading the A-side is ‘100% Juice (Sampler Mix)’, a jacked-up take on the album’s title track, with chunky kicks, off-kilter stabs, and crunching claps kickstarting the record. ‘Contigo’ follows, with trippy synths providing a dose of silliness alongside razor-sharp drums. On the flip, ‘Nod To The D’ pays homage to classic Detroit sounds, as light arpeggios and bright synths weave their way through silky pads before closer.

‘Spiked’ sees a funk-laden groove take charge as unruly leads flutter atop the jacking groove.
Releasing on labels such as Rekids, M-Plant, and Blueprint, the wildly prolific Broom has consistently been at the forefront of the techno scene for decades with his gritty, groove-based output while, away from the dancefloor, his The Fear Ratio project with James Ruskin continues to win critical acclaim.

Veteran Jamaican singer Robert Dallas joins accaliamed UK reggae saxman Leroy Horns on this contemprary rub-a-dub styled rhythm track from stalwart dubwise producer Manasseh.

Ransom Note stalwart Bawrut presents his debut album "In The Middle", featuring vocalists Liberato, GlitterU¥U¥, Cosmo and Chico Blanco. The LP is a striking eleven-track journey through sunset pop, electronic melancholia and delusive migrations taking place around the Mediterranean.

Straight from the fertile imagination of Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs guitarist Sam Grant comes Rubber Oh - a place where an irreverent magpie spirit has its way with the eternal psych-pop continuum. ‘Little Demon’ is the first sample of this fresh foray - a bass-driven, blissed out mantra that sets out its stall where the travails of the everyday fade into the transcendental realm of the astral plane. A whole new box of sonic delights from a curious and artful talent, this track maps out a refreshing new landscape on which shameless melodic suss and wayward aural eccentricity lock horns. Some may be reminded of the likes of Air’s ‘10000Hz Legend’ and Super Furry Animals ‘Radiator’ by the montage of 60s-tinged mind-melt and sleek futurism here, but the truth is that Rubber Oh is a manifestation of a very personal vision. Alchemically assembled in his own Blank studios in Newcastle, ‘Little Demon’ - in all its thundering, earcandy glory, and accompanied by a Faustian, abstraction-embracing remix by friends and cohorts Richard Dawson and Circle’s Jussi Lehtisalo - is merely a first step into the unknown. “It’s a reference to when you’re lying in bed and your thoughts sabotage you” reasons Grant of ‘Little Demon’ - “It’s all meant to be this fixed loop - the lyrics, the riff, the drums - a constant repetition that keeps going round, maybe like a fever dream. The little demons that when you’re in bed suddenly start in your psyche, opening a door that just leads to another door” Wherever this door leads, ‘Little Demon’ is a psychic journey to be returned to on repeat.A. Little Demon B. Little Demon (Richard Dawson’s Haunted Wine-Cellar Version – Feat: Jussi Lehtisalo

Ransom Note stalwart Bawrut presents his debut album "In The Middle", featuring vocalists Liberato, GlitterU¥U¥, Cosmo and Chico Blanco. The LP is a striking eleven-track journey through sunset pop, electronic melancholia and delusive migrations taking place around the Mediterranean.

FFO: Arthur Russell, Stealing Sheep, Neu!, Agar Agar, Galaxians
Holodrum are a new disco-infused synth-pop group, who feature members of Hookworms, Yard Act, Cowtown, Virginia Wing, Drahla and more.

Maybe Holodrum were destined to start at this point. This might be the first time they’ve all officially worked together, but between Emily Garner (vocals), Matthew Benn (synth/bass/production), Jonathan Nash (drums), Jonathan Wilkinson (guitar), Sam Shjipstone (guitar/vocals), Christopher Duffin (sax/synth) and Steve Nuttall (percussion) they’ve shared bands, mixed each other’s records, promoted live shows and made music videos together in and around Leeds. As Holodrum, this is the 7 piece’s debut album, but the interlocking grooves and hot headiness of their repeato-rock-via-CBGBs dopamine hits have in one way or other been fermenting for years.

“When it comes to doing music most bands fall between two extremes of doing it for some goal or as an end to itself” says Shjipstone. “I think Holodrum is about the joy and complexity of living, and I just hope to god everyone gets to have a good time doing it.”

Ultimately the core of the group comes from Shjipstone and his former Hookworms bandmates Benn, Nash and Wilkinson. After their abrupt dissolution in late 2018, the four of them spent six months apart; Benn still had Xam Duo, his ongoing project with Virginia Wing and some-time James Holden & The Animal Spirits live member Duffin, Nash remains vocalist and guitarist of long-running DIY rockers Cowtown and helms his solo project Game_Program; and Shjipstone plays guitar with Yard Act. However, the four of them missed the sixth sense synergy they’d built-up playing together over a decade and soon enough demos were being swapped and new ideas were discussed.

The vision of a large live electronic ensemble formed quickly. Friends were added: Duffin and Nuttall – who was keen to resurrect the double percussion interplay that he and Nash had been exploring as part of motorik trio Nope joined first. Then animator and VIDE0 singer Garner crystallised the line-up by joining on vocals.

“Apart from Emily, all of us had actually played together before in a covers band at a New Year’s Eve party at the Brudenell Social Club a couple of years ago, so we knew we could have fun together” says Benn. “So we set up to be a live party band early on. We wanted lots of people on stage having fun, playing for people that also wanted to have fun. It makes sense we take inspiration from bands like Tom Tom Club and Liquid Liquid; they were trying to help people to party at a point when New York was quite a scary and dangerous place we’re doing the same, albeit in the face of a decaying world and a global pandemic.”

Covid-19 hasn’t given them much opportunity to do that yet, with two fledgling shows in late 2019 to their name before festival appearances at the likes of Bluedot, Sounds From The Other City and Gold Sounds were scuppered last year. However, the 6 tracks on Holodrum crackle with the energy of the dancefloor. Opening cut 'Lemon Chic' described by Garner as her “workout track” starts out sparsely, with tight drum claps and burbling synths holding a teetering suspense before the whole thing’s prised open, allowing beaming saxophone skronk to shine in. Garner’s vocals bob and weave around the syncopations of the track’s building cacophony.

It sets the stall for an album heavy on euphoria, built atop crisp interplaying percussion and acid-flecked grooves. At times Shjipstone provides a raw counterpoint on vocals, while elsewhere - like on the strutting, swirling disco of 'Free Advice' and 'Low Light'’s late night ping pong synths - the pair indulge in playful call and response as the instrumentation builds and contorts around them. 'Stage Echo' provides a respite of sorts halfway through, a swirling, fever dream of a track that peaks with big squelchy frequencies and cavernous reverb, before the album returns to its repetitious exercises in body-moving catharsis underpinned at all times by a relentlessly propulsive rhythm section.

Megastructure_ proudly presents Unhuman + Surit’s RADIATION SICKNESS, their second collaborative EP, and their first for Megastructure_. Liber Null boss Unhuman and Surit of Spanish techno stalwarts NX1 team up for 4 tracks of grinding and tense industrial techno primed and ready to satiate the appetites of those looking for the heavier side effects of life.

C-L-A-S-S-I-C library breaks and beats set of super-heavyweight espionage-funk.

One of two Be With forays into the archives of revered British library institution Conroy, we present one of our favourites on the label - the super in-demand Background Action from Sammy Burdson, originally released in 1975. Rare and sought-after for many years now, this is one of those cult library LPs that rarely turns up on even the deepest dig.

Sammy Burdson was one of the many, many aliases of the mighty Austrian composer, arranger and conductor, Gerhard Narholz. Founder of adored library label Sonoton in 1965, and a classically trained composer, his work runs from easy listening through pop, jazz and electronic, to avant-garde.

Background Action’s first side is all Blaxploitation wah-wah, funky clav and heavy, heavy drums. It’s top-quality takes on the sort of hard-knocking psychedelic sleuth-funk that the library labels gave us in spades. However, we think the real killers are over on side B. Styles upon styles upon styles is what we have. The trio of swish “Water Pollution” variations are pure gold. The two-part mid-tempo b-boy drumathon “News Background” is nothing short of epic whilst the sensational “Kabul Trip A” and “Kabul Trip B” are two different takes on some tough funk, street jazz style with some dope organ, bass and drum sounds. In short, this is a must for both DJs and producers.

The British library label with those instantly recognisable “orangey-red” sleeves, Conroy began releasing production music in 1965. A sub-label of Berry Music Co, its catalogue typified the library industry’s strange mixture of tradition and experimentation from the start. Conroy’s early releases included work by big band stalwarts like Eddie Warner as well as early electronic recordings by the likes of Belgian experimental pioneer Arséne Souffriau. With Berry Music Co working as a distribution partner to the German library label Sonoton, it was through the Conroy that a great deal of German library music found its way into the UK market.

Conroy stopped putting out new music in the 1980s, but its history and its catalogue offer an excellent window into the trends and eccentricities of a highly unique industry at the height of its international appeal.

This re-issue of Background Action has been mastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis from audio from the original tapes. Richard Robinson has handled reproducing the iconic, hypnotic original Conroy sleeve. Essential.

C-L-A-S-S-I-C library breaks and beats set of heavy drums and louche funk.

One of two Be With forays into the archives of revered British library institution Conroy, we present one of our favourites on the label - the super in-demand Dramatic Tempi / Larry Robbins Background Rhythms, originally released in 1975. Rare and sought-after for many years now, this is one of those cult library LPs that rarely turns up on even the deepest dig.

As a single LP, Dramatic Tempi / Larry Robbins Background Rhythms is two distinctly different collections of music. The first side, Dramatic Tempi, is made up of four tracks each from Sammy Burdson and Klaus Weiss.

Sammy Burdson was one of the many, many aliases of the mighty Austrian composer, arranger and conductor, Gerhard Narholz. Founder of adored library label Sonoton in 1965, and a classically trained composer, his work runs from easy listening through pop, jazz and electronic, to avant-garde.

About as cult as it gets when it comes to library music legends (German or otherwise) Klaus Weiss produced essential records on German library labels Coloursound, Selected Sound and Sonoton, as well as making two essential entries in the Conroy catalogue. Having started his career at the age of 16 as a jazz drummer, the Klaus Weiss trademark electronic sound is unsurprisingly built on top of sometimes funky, sometimes frenetic, but always hard-hitting drums.

The second side is both titled and also credited to Larry Robbins Background Rhythms. We have to admit to being stumped as to who Larry was, but we don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to assume it might well be yet another incarnation of Gerhard Narholz’s.

First up from Dramatic Tempi are the phased, gargantuan hip-hop beats of Sammy Burdson’s impeccable “Pop Waves”. This is otherworldly funk on a whole new level. Hearing is believing. The magnificently titled “Cyclodrom” is up next, a beast of booming bass and wah wah guitars over frenetic funk drums. “Devils Drive” is dramatic, blaxploitation street funk with rolling, pounding drums. “Crime Ways” is an acid-squelch, slow-pace neck-snapper.

Klaus Weiss starts by askings us “Is It Hip” and we can only answer “yes it is!” to the clean, skipping drums, booming bass and proto-hip-hop bells, layered beneath laconic and melodic guitar shredding. This is just horizontal soul perfection. “The Camp”, propelled by jazzy guitar à la Joe Pass over fast drum and conga breaks, gives way to the dark guitars and cymbal crashes of “Tomorrow”. It sounds like an early New Order jam session. Closing out a pretty startling side of library greatness, “Rhythm Trip” presents early stuttering funk before easin' on in to a jazzy, soulful groove; all breezy guitar and warm keys. Lush.

Larry Robbins Background Rhythms is a lighter, poppier affair, but it’s not without its drum-heavy bangers. “Vox Pop” and “Pop Phase” each have clean, open-ish drum breaks, ripe for sampling or more daring DJ sets. “Pop Twang” is a short and sweet beat-heavy number that gives way to the fantastically out-there “Canned Pop”. We‘d love to know if this was ever actually licensed for something! The final seven tracks are a set of 1-to-2 minute “Percussion Takes”. All compelling, and all equally useful for any number of production needs. Get sampling.

The British library label with those instantly recognisable “orangey-red” sleeves, Conroy began releasing production music in 1965. A sub-label of Berry Music Co, its catalogue typified the library industry’s strange mixture of tradition and experimentation from the start. Conroy’s early releases included work by big band stalwarts like Eddie Warner as well as early electronic recordings by the likes of Belgian experimental pioneer Arséne Souffriau. With Berry Music Co working as a distribution partner to the German library label Sonoton, it was through the Conroy that a great deal of German library music found its way into the UK market.

Conroy stopped putting out new music in the 1980s, but its history and its catalogue offer an excellent window into the trends and eccentricities of a highly unique industry at the height of its international appeal.

This re-issue of Dramatic Tempi / Larry Robbins Background Rhythms has been mastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis from audio from the original tapes. Richard Robinson has handled reproducing the iconic, hypnotic original Conroy sleeve. Essential.

Retro-futurist cinematic synth-fest from Supersilent keyboardist and composer. Just as radio drama is said to provide the best pictures, so some music can make for a perfect film soundtrack without the need for a film to exist at all. ’The Haze of Sleeplessness’ is a case in point: as the album starts to play, the listener’s imagination kicks in and does the rest, supplying the necessary plot, character and setting until a full-scale narrative unspools behind one’s eyes. A suite of seven movements whose common musical material is continuously recycled into new shapes and sounds, while recurring leitmotifs create a connecting thread of continuity, ’The Haze of Sleeplessness’ operates on several levels simultaneously. Most obviously, perhaps, it’s an unapologetic synth-fest; a love poem to old-school electronica and analogue sound whose squelches, bleeps and blurts can’t help but recall the heroic era of Wendy Carlos, Vangelis and Tangerine Dream. It’s also a remarkably original and successful attempt at using by now antique instruments to form a true orchestral palette, building a symphony of sound through combining monophonic sources and their new digital variants into a densely populated audio landscape that is captured with astonishing sonic fidelity. The super-saturated surface of the music fairly crackles with raw electricity, as if the over-amped distortion was about to short-circuit itself, with a wobbly jack plug connection flickering dangerously before finally cutting out. That many of these sounds and their treatment can’t help but suggest the retro-futurist setting of a dystopian sci-fi thriller might make the cinematic analogy inevitable, but it doesn’t lessen the music’s power or cheapen its effect.

"A split-screen maelstrom of Fela Kuti, Led Zep, Morricone, psych and dub" The Budos Band - MOJO - Rising - August 2019

Celebrating 15 years from the release of their debut album, Daptone's Royal Court from Staten Island delivers a truly epic collection of new material that finds the group further bridging the gap between the farfisa-fueled Ethio-Funk stylings of their early recordings, with the psychedelic, Sabbath-inspired hellfire of late.

“In some ways, itʼs reminiscent of our first two albums The Budos Band and Budos II,” says Tom Brenneck. “We branched off on Burnt Offering and Budos V. Now, weʼre still moving forward. You can play these songs on the dance-floor. We knew the horns had to stand out too. Thinking about hip-hop allowed us to put the bounce back into The Budos.”

This is evident from needle drop to final rotation. Heavy drum breaks, reminiscent of the B-Boy approved grooves of their early output reign supreme, setting the stage for the pulsating, hallucinatory wall of organ, menacing horns, and rugged guitar riffs to permeate your soul - leaving the listener in a rhythmic wash of Budonian rapture.

Long in the Tooth represents the culmination of a 15-year journey by a band that has consistently carved its own distinct path through the grooves of history.