Suche:subtle mind

An unlikely meeting of two like-minded spirits, »First Man in the Moon« sees the former Swans guitarist and Hallow Ground regular Norman Westberg and the prolific double bass player Jacek Mazurkiewicz collaborate for five evocative tracks. The pair finds common ground beyond the boundaries of atmospheric drone, abstract jazz and experimental music and blurs the lines between the acoustic and the electronic.The two first met when the composer Mazurkiewicz supported Swans with his solo project 3FoNIA on their 2014 European tour. »I really enjoyed his approach,« says Westberg about the Polish musician’s blending of the acoustic qualities of his instrument with electronically generated sounds. A decision to collaborate was made and when the US-American musician returned to Eastern Europe to support Michael Gira on his solo tour in late 2019, Mazurkiewicz reached out to him with the idea of booking some studio time before Gira’s two concerts in Warsaw. »Recording was very fun and easy,« remembers Westberg. »It was just two people enjoying hearing and reacting to what the other is doing.« »First Man in the Moon« is not however a plain document of these improvised sessions, but also shaped by Mazurkiewicz’s approach as a composer. Once the recordings were finished, he selected and edited the recorded material, refining the peculiar dialogue between the guitarist’s meditative drones and bright chords and his own rhythmic yet subtle approach to playing the double bass, sometimes plucking the strings and occasionally using his bow to underscore
Westberg’s fleeting melodies, but also using the instrument in unconventional ways to generate sound. A feeling of weightlessness prevails throughout the aptly-titled »First Man in the Moon.« Even at their most abstract however, these five improvisations-turned-compositions remain tangible, lively, and joyfully explorative. It is a record that you wouldn’t expect from either of these musicians, but
the logical result of two idiosyncratic minds sharing not only space and time, but also their respective visions with each other. Credits:
Recorded at Studio Diamentowy Pies/ Damian Pielka, engineering/Piotr Mazurek, engineering assistance/Jacek Mazurkiewicz, mix/
Lawrence English, mastering/John Fell, photographs.

The first EP from Nottingham’s like-minded music collective, Plates.
Originally established as a record shop and now a record cutting studio and music community, this EP showcases sounds close to its core and original supporters.

A1 is a track salvaged from a box of long-lost cassette tapes dating back to the mid-90s, bursting with raw and uplifting grooves, a soundtrack to moody city nights in Nottingham. Facehugger a long-time friend and supporter of Plates, alongside musical partner, Mark Warden aka DeviantRIP brings a tearing live analogue jam mashed together on a Roland 202, 808, 909 and JD800 - ave it!

A2 offers a completely different take on the typical ‘jungle’ style. Citizen Griot, an already prolific local beatmaker, better known for his hip-hop grooves and collaborations with local rappers, brings moody and enchanting jazz club vibes over subtle but constantly moving breakbeats.

B1 is the first ever ‘finished’ track from Plates founder, DJ Squid who has spent the last 10 years focusing on DJing and wasting precious time. This tune dedicates his love for early 90s jungle, and hardcore with the roots of soul, rare groove, weird library music and the simplicity of hand-picked samples, an MPC 2000XL and a dust-covered Mackie mixing desk.

B2 brings you back down to earth in a smoky spaced-out back room courtesy of long-time crate digger and local hero Mr Wilson. Head-nodding beats cushioned by a soothing bassline and hypnotic chords that surround you and carry you away to another dimension that is neither new or funky.

This record is dedicated in memory of Rita, Philpotts, Pete Woosh, Adam XTC and Harry McCormick.

It is the simple thing that is so hard to do. This is the paradox that musician Lael
Neale has lived within throughout her development as an artist. It is the reason she
became enthralled with poetry. Poems are a distillation. Lael says, “this challenge to
winnow away what is unessential is the most maddening and, ultimately, rewarding
part of writing a song.”
Lael’s new album ‘Acquainted With Night’ is a testament to this poetic devotion.
Stripped of any extraneous word or sound, the songs are lit by Lael’s crystalline
voice which lays on a lush bed of Omnichord. The collection touches on themes that
have been thread into her work for years: isolation, mortality, yearning and reaching
ever toward the transcendent experience.
Lael grew up on a farm in rural Virginia but for nearly 10 years called Los Angeles
home. Those years were spent developing her songwriting and performing in venues
across the city but the right way to record the songs proved more elusive. She says,
“Every time I reached the end of recording, I felt the songs had been stripped of
their vitality in the process of layering drums, bass, guitar, violin, and organ over
them. They felt weighed down.”
In a moment of illumination, the solution presented itself: do the simple thing. In
early 2019, in the midst of major transition, she acquired a new instrument - the
Omnichord - and began recording a deluge of songs. Guy Blakeslee, who had been
an advocate for years, set up a cassette recorder in her bedroom and provided
empathic guidance, subtle yet affecting accompaniment and engineering prowess.
Limited to only 4-tracks and first takes, Lael had to surrender some of her
perfectionism to deliver the songs in their essence.
The first song she recorded was ‘For No One For Now’, which calls to mind the
agitated beat of driving fast on the freeway against the backdrop of the San
Fernando Valley’s bent palms. The song contrasts romantic idealizations with the
banality of folding sheets and toasting bread. It highlights her oft-thwarted attempts
to enjoy the day to day while her mind wanders off toward the dream, the ideal.
While Lael returned to her family farm in April 2020, Los Angeles is a player on this
album and ‘Every Star Shivers in the Dark’ is an ode to the sprawling city, the
outskirts of Eden. One can envision her walking from Dodgers Stadium to downtown,
observing strangers and her own strangeness but determined to find communion
with others. ‘Blue Vein’ is her personal anthem, a Paul Revere piece that gallops
through the town as a strident declamation. It is an amalgam of thoughts, concerns
and lessons as she nearly speaks the words, unmasked by flourishes, ensuring the
meaning cuts through.
Normally a morning person, Lael recorded most of these songs in the darkening of
the early evening, and so became ‘Acquainted With Night’.
CD in gatefold altpack.
LP first pressing on white vinyl.
Cassette with three-panel J-card in clear case.

It is the simple thing that is so hard to do. This is the paradox that musician Lael
Neale has lived within throughout her development as an artist. It is the reason she
became enthralled with poetry. Poems are a distillation. Lael says, “this challenge to
winnow away what is unessential is the most maddening and, ultimately, rewarding
part of writing a song.”
Lael’s new album ‘Acquainted With Night’ is a testament to this poetic devotion.
Stripped of any extraneous word or sound, the songs are lit by Lael’s crystalline
voice which lays on a lush bed of Omnichord. The collection touches on themes that
have been thread into her work for years: isolation, mortality, yearning and reaching
ever toward the transcendent experience.
Lael grew up on a farm in rural Virginia but for nearly 10 years called Los Angeles
home. Those years were spent developing her songwriting and performing in venues
across the city but the right way to record the songs proved more elusive. She says,
“Every time I reached the end of recording, I felt the songs had been stripped of
their vitality in the process of layering drums, bass, guitar, violin, and organ over
them. They felt weighed down.”
In a moment of illumination, the solution presented itself: do the simple thing. In
early 2019, in the midst of major transition, she acquired a new instrument - the
Omnichord - and began recording a deluge of songs. Guy Blakeslee, who had been
an advocate for years, set up a cassette recorder in her bedroom and provided
empathic guidance, subtle yet affecting accompaniment and engineering prowess.
Limited to only 4-tracks and first takes, Lael had to surrender some of her
perfectionism to deliver the songs in their essence.
The first song she recorded was ‘For No One For Now’, which calls to mind the
agitated beat of driving fast on the freeway against the backdrop of the San
Fernando Valley’s bent palms. The song contrasts romantic idealizations with the
banality of folding sheets and toasting bread. It highlights her oft-thwarted attempts
to enjoy the day to day while her mind wanders off toward the dream, the ideal.
While Lael returned to her family farm in April 2020, Los Angeles is a player on this
album and ‘Every Star Shivers in the Dark’ is an ode to the sprawling city, the
outskirts of Eden. One can envision her walking from Dodgers Stadium to downtown,
observing strangers and her own strangeness but determined to find communion
with others. ‘Blue Vein’ is her personal anthem, a Paul Revere piece that gallops
through the town as a strident declamation. It is an amalgam of thoughts, concerns
and lessons as she nearly speaks the words, unmasked by flourishes, ensuring the
meaning cuts through.
Normally a morning person, Lael recorded most of these songs in the darkening of
the early evening, and so became ‘Acquainted With Night’.
CD in gatefold altpack.
LP first pressing on white vinyl.
Cassette with three-panel J-card in clear case.

For Another Michael, it all boils down to trust. In mid-2017, the critically acclaimed indie three-piece packed their bags and collectively relocated from Albany, NY to a shared house in West Philadelphia. This move signaled not only the start of a new chapter for the trio, but also a deepening of the bonds that would come to define their captivating debut LP, `New Music and Big Pop.' "It's hard for a group of people to get closer than living together," says bassist and producer Nick Sebastiano. "The stronger our connection grew, the more it shaped the music we found ourselves making." It should come as little surprise, then, that `New Music and Big Pop' is Another Michael's most collaborative work yet. Recorded in a small A-frame house-turned-makeshift studio outside Ferndale, NY, the record finds the trio pushing their sound in a dreamier, more folk-influenced direction, building songs around vulnerable, intimate performances using an ethereal palette of breezy guitars, subtle keyboards, and layered harmonies. As on the band's early EPs, singer and songwriter Michael Doherty's mesmerizing voice is front and center here, calling to mind Robin Pecknold or Ben Bridwell in its reedy, crystalline timbre, but it feels more at home than ever before amidst the album's lush, Technicolor landscape, which the band partnered with producer and fellow housemate Scoops Dardaris to create. The result is a masterfully understated record that belies its status as a full-length debut, a thoughtful, poetic, collection all about growth and change, hope and faith, endings and beginnings, delivered by a band that's only just begun to scratch the surface of their story.

Children Of Tomorrow will celebrate soon its 10 years anniversary. The label was created by Emmanuel Ternois back in the day and being joined by Arnaud Le Texier in 2011. Since then they focused on Techno producing amazing artists, to name few: Terrence Dixon, Zadig, Tensal, Antigone, Oscar Mulero, Jonas Kopp, Samuli Kemppi etc... Children Of Tomorrow is now presenting the first album from Arnaud Le Texier. After almost 30 years Dj-ing around the world and almost 20 years producing. Signing many releases over the years and always busy delivering dance floor releases, it's been a long wait to finally get an album from ArnaudOn his first album we can feel that he wanted to tell a story and to express something deeper with his production experience. There is a different variety of Techno that stretches from ambient / broken beat / hypnotic / raw Techno along with subtles grooves, wondrous atmospheres & sonic textures. On A side the album opens with Dusk, an ambient atmospheric mid-tempo track with sonic sounds that is a perfect intro.Pattern 2 starts with drones and blip sounds and a broken beat groove follows with a pad that sounds like a voice coming from the space. The track ends with some modular click sounds that make the whole track clever. Followed by the album title Granular Therapy, a deep techno track with modular bass line and melancholic pad. A perfect track to play in after or to warm up a party.The B Side is more dedicated to the dance floor with Black Nympheas that is a proper dark modern techno with a grinding bass line and magic drones. A simple beat makes the track evolve in a nice way. Blade Pass frequency is 4/4 effective Techno with a 909 kick, a syncope acid bass line and a pad that sends you to another dimension. It is a powerful track but with a sense of deepness and sensibility that Arnaud can achieve sometimes. This side closes with Binary Sun Dawn which is an ambient track with melody that has a jazz feeling mixed with dark atmospheres, sonic drones and water drops. The C side opens with Mono Driver, a minimal track with a little synth that stays until the end repetitively until it makes you travel and lose your mind. Deep and dance floor at the same time.

Then Snapper is a more percussive track with some shinning bells and a grinding modular bass line.

The last track Virgo Consortium is a cosmic broken beat with dark atmospheric drone, simple bass and phasing efx. The D Side starts with Midi overdub which is a beauty. A mix between ambient and broken beat. The pad has the deepness that transports you somewhere else with an angel choir on top. The beat is spacial and groovy at the same time with smart high hats. This reminds Arnaud's past ambient production but with a modern approach. Surely a special track of the album.

Hideous Engine is more dance floor with metallic bass line and 4'4 beat going towards a sonic pad that closes the track.The last track Dawn is ambient with drones and blip sounds and an acid bass line modulate. A perfect end of the album.This album is an accomplished journey that makes you dance and travel from dusk till dawn. Arnaud Le Texier shows a coherent vision and illustrates his vast diversity in the techno world. Hopefully we won't have to wait 20 years to get another one.

Eyolf Dale is a Jazz pianist and composer of exceptional beauty and poise. Rooted in Jazz he employs a classical approach yet has never studied classical. If Chopin was a Jazz pianist he would sound like Eyolf Dale. Hisphrasing is nuanced, his touch is precise and his music is deeply emotive. Being, his first album in a piano trio format, is profound, beautiful, and lyrical, bound together with a subtle groove.

*repress*

Justin Cudmore returns to the Phonica White shelves with four new tracks, and his long-awaited first full EP since 2017's "Forget It" for The Bunker New York. With the dancefloor seeming far outside our reach right now, 'Train Dance' transports us back to a simpler time lost in the mix.

Across the disc, Cudmore reflects on the sounds and scenes closest to his heart and record bag, flexing his knack for crafting catchy hooks and the kind of ear-worm melodies that helped cement his status as one of house & techno's fast-rising stars. A1 "Train Dance" is his ode to the urban symphony of train cars whirling past his apartment in Brooklyn, with eight minutes of swingy, jacking house built for a sunny afternoon set across the pond at Panorama Bar.

"Club Fetish" shifts to a more introspective, heads-down vibe crafted instead with a dark and sweaty basement in mind. A touch of psych à la classic John Tejada, Cudmore's subtle, squelchy synths rub shoulders with cerebral drums and floating basslines.

The B-side nods to Cudmore's acclaimed acid sound for two deep slow rollers. "Expectation Game" and its no-nonsense 303s chug through a couple of understated breakdowns, while "Realize" was written with a Detroit outdoor patio in mind, with a sleazy acid bassline and cut up vocal groans sounding like Cudmore riffing on a late-night Moodymann jam.

Recorded during a productive time of new beginnings and positive headspace, ‘Train Dance’ comes out during a strange and unclear present for Cudmore and many of his contemporaries in the scene. However given it all, Justin remains excited to share new music and sounds, and hopes to return to the dance floor with everyone again as soon as safely possible.

Artwork as always is supplied by the talented Pedro Carvalho de Almeida

Germany’s Jacob Groening is one of those hard to pin down artists working within the space of organic dance music. As a live performer and hybrid DJ, Jacob somehow manages to infuse everything from gypsy to jazz, blues to soul, with distinctly electronic elements. Never one to settle for anything less than unique, his gentle touch and international influences create music that is both sweet and powerful. This sound has already been felt across the likes of Bar 25, teyoyoke, Delicieuse Musique, and his own Kamai Music imprint, and now Jacob
provides the 4th instalment on Amsterdam’s The Gardens of Babylon eponymous label. Jacob’s Leslie Ep is a three-track excursion, Inspired by travels yet constructed in quarantine. It is a testament to the connective power of music through uncertain times, where some dancefloors may be empty, but hearts and minds remain full. Until we meet again, let Jacob’s playful and pulsating Ep satisfy those Communal urges with a journey through sound and culture. Starting this journey, its title track gently swells throughout with subtle chants and hypnotic percussion. Kabir then kicks things up a notch, Bouncing between its own pulsating rhythm and powerful chord progressions. Finally, Iguazu draws direct inspiration from Jacob’s travels through India during times before the world changed. With field audio and local musicians interjected throughout its explorative atmosphere, Iguazu is the perfect representation of Jacob’s distinct style: gentle, shifting, and cultural. If you know The Gardens of Babylon, you know Jacob Groening. His sets from The Dunes of Babylon and ADE’s The Seekers of Light have placed him firmly within family status. Now, with Leslie Ep Jacob Groening joins Geju with his own solo release on the label.

In these dark times of Covid we still have our music. We have the sounds to soothe us, distract and take our minds away from the chaos and uncertainty.
We can't dance like we used to but we can hear and feel. Our release must be found in another way, we must look within. We find solace and grant ourselves space and time in the music.

Sam McQueen (Indio co-producer with John Beltran, Indigo Aera, Delsin Records, Furthur Electronix) presents his debut album Dreams In Sepia for Mojuba sub label a.r.t.less and hits us with a real time soundscape of the moment, an epic-like document of these times. The rhythms are subtle, sometimes broken, the time structures often complex, this is not primarily dance floor orientated music. These sounds are way more cerebral, for the heads. They reflect perfectly the complexities of life we are experiencing in 2020.

The edges are rounded with occasional strolling bass lines and comfy chords. Slabs of keys and spaced out female vocals like a psychedelic journey that scares you at first yet comforts you soon after. Sam McQueen's mediatory sounds give an overwhelming sense of the moment. The music makes you take time out and listen. Its purposeful manner suggests there are more hours in the day, like time slowing down a pause, like the sun slithering slowly behind the horizon. These are sunset sounds for dark back-rooms.

Daytime or night, it works. This is the soundtrack for the other room, the deeper sounds not designed to make you dance. This music doesn't get in your face, it creeps up and smacks you on the ass. There are elements of early nineties UK Techno, a warmth and delicateness that pervades a distinct lack of four four dance floor in the beat structures, a softer tone throughout than the harder Detroit techno sounds of the same era but still nods and acknowledgements to the D in the layout and way the sounds present themselves. Think John Beltran, Symbols and Instruments, Black Dog or Kirk DeGiorgio, mid 90s Berlin sounds from Basic Channel / Rhythm & Sound, but in lockdown. Music for today's modern lacking landscape. The sounds often familiar, analogue, the drums, hi hats and snares, shimmer, jazz style. They accentuate and push the rest of the elements around them.
?In a bygone era this would be crudely classed as Chill Out music. In 2020 Covid era its about how it makes you feel as you relax and really listen to it. It is about emotion and empathy, a oneness, a new unknown and a deeper train of thought for the listener. Much like 2020, Sam McQueen lays the pieces round the edge of the jigsaw and lets you fill in the rest.

Favorite Recordings presents an exclusive collaboration between French producer Bruno ‘Patchworks’ Hovart (Voilaaa, Mr President, Taggy Matcher, …) and Australian NYC-based rapper and poet Nelson Dialect. The two artists met two years ago after Nelson’s gig in Lyon and, of course, they discussed and seriously planned to collaborate one day, both having an everliving love for early nineties hip hop. Then came the quarantine and Covid-19 with Patchworks locked in Lyon, Nelson Dialect in NYC: it seemed to be the right time to do it. A few months later and they finally drop Blue Benz, the result of their long distance collaboration, coming as a beautiful 7inch filled with proper Jazz & Soul Hip Hop vibes.
On A side, « Blue Benz » reminds indeed the best feelings of the nineties hip-hop with its infectious slapped bass rhythm and subtle Rhodes chords, all fiiting perfectly with Nelson Dialect’s serious flow!
On B Side, « Jazzy Blue Benz » offers an alternate take on the same groove, focusing more on the electric guitar gentle slides with a more percussive beat and horns arrangements with a proper NYC jazz
feeling.
From Adelaide, Australia, Nelson Dialect now lives in New York working with Bronx label Red Apples 45 started by AG of DITC and Ray West. Making music since he was 16, he has received critical acclaim for his work with producer Must Volkoff and their most recent album Magnetism. Before moving to New York, Nelson toured extensively in Australia supporting some of the biggest international Hip Hop acts including Mobb Deep, Lupe Fiasco, Ghostface Killah, GZA, RZA, Pharoahe Monch and DJ Premier among many more. He just released a new album Opal Mind with French producer NuTone.

Society is shaped by its history, stories that have evolved over time and held to be true. Stories of the imagination, stories from the ill-informed, stories conjured by favored subjects, but all loosely wrapped in the truth. Systems such as morals, religion, politics, and a culture are powerful enough to influence the mind of one and the minds of many and therefore direct the evolution of the species. Unseen Forces is a conceptual work that dissects this idea. A collection of four songs cause the listener to re-examine not only what they believed to be real and true but also why. Side A dives head first into testing your belief system by introducing the first stage of influence - Disruption and Experimentation. Introducing a simple question into the belief system that cannot be answered and observing the result. The Disruptor - subtle but powerful making its point with eerie, off center synth lines, and synthesized drums. Driving a wedge between the listener and the comfort of familiarity. Dr. Blowfin's Experiment - a long time and highly revered classic previously released on SID, continues to re-evaluate beliefs with modifications to the original. The question of why is still unanswered. Beliefs are broken and chaos ensues. Side B begins to take direct the chaos with another classic - Crossphaze - injecting live funk and modulated filters with this flexible floor mover previously released on Accelerate. Crossing into another realm unfamiliar to the listener as new beliefs are formed. Deconstructing the Immortals - leaves the listener with no other choice but to eagerly leave their old world behind and everything they know in ruins. This offbeat and mesmerizing anthem makes the question of why unimportant, because the answer is what now.

RICO PUESTEL debuts on his TIME IN THE SPECIAL PRACTICE OF RELATIVITY label with a mind-boggling journey of 41 minutes — split in two parts to fit on vinyl! HEPTAKAIDEKA is what it won't be and will be what it never was: Something from in-between worlds, a place beyond far beyond, where time dissolves into relativity...

Every modern electronic music presenter should be able to find joyful, elevated, convulsing or simply useful moments within the extent of this track that is designed to have its inherent connecting factors and starting points in place for every DJ set — letting it be just a few minutes, well-placed groove looping or bigger amounts of its entirety for diving into a long night, bringing it to an end or making it standing out in-between.

Starting off with a hazy half-grasp hint of what's to come, a mysteriously pervasive bionic loop emerges, slowly coalescing with a bone-dry groove on the rise. Taking up a first quadrant of the track, already gnawing into the long-term memory, it manages to gradually establish itself along the pathway while the "rhythmatics" endure some subtle layer-shifting with occult-like strings come sliding in from somewhere unknown like an admonitory subtext.

Being halfway through (and all the way in), everything smoothly crumbles down to its basic framework, still shaking off its own reminiscences while foregone vestiges almost perilously try to reassemble themselves. All of that leading to a clearly unforeseen yet fortunate drift into a 1980's-like synth peak time section after about 27 minutes being in that track, finally cherishing an evolving emotional felicity and the climax of its own being that tends to feel like an overarching salvation.

As everything being eventually finite, the track starts to bring to mind where it came from by assuredly falling back into a story told before with the well-established bionic loop that once used to run free, sounding somehow different and more tamed now. Ending with dignity, the consistently resurfaced admonitory strings lead the way to its conclusion and possibly new beginnings, solely leaving behind the heartbeat-like booming that carried it all, now fading away...

Coming into existence during a series of multiple productions of exuberant proportions with Rico making the studio his citadel-like stronghold, this is an extensive story of desires, instincts, pride, fall, mirth, solicitude, tension, détente and basically life itself while subtly yet versatilely entertaining on a dodgy yet accessible level throughout the wingspread of Techno, House, Minimal, Dub, Electronica and Ambient influences.

The CD version not only brings you the title track in the guise of its non-split completeness but eminently churns out the extra drumming dub treat DEKAEPTA for a pleasurable groove-delight as well as the trippy bonus beauty VOSEM' that transits as a precious component of infinity.

ATA's newest release comes from The Yorkshire Film & Television Orchestra and features the vocal talents of Bugalu Foundation & Mind On Fire vocalist Martin Connor. This cover of the Georgie Fame classic "Somebody Stole My Thunder" features a powerhouse vocal performance from Martin Connor alongside the heavyweight big band brass sound of the Yorkshire Film & Television Orchestra's 10 piece horn section. This 7" single is backed with Rachel Modest's debut recording for the label, her intense vocal rendition of the Ben E King classic "I Who Have Nothing". Both tracks feature the trademark elements of the ATA sound: Big brass arrangements sit alongside the propulsive rhythm section, perfectly supporting both singers incredible performances.

Originally appearing as part of ATA Records free download series "Hard Work, No Pay" these 2 tracks have been sought after on vinyl for some time after garnering radio play and positive responses from BBC6 Music's Craig Charles Funk & Soul Show and the Huey Morgan show.

The Yorkshire Film And Television Orchestra is the brainchild of ATA founders Neil Innes & Pete Williams and multi-instrumentalist/arranger Steve Parry, who was approached by Neil & Pete in 2014 to provide the horn arrangements and brass performances for a then untitled British library style track intended for release as a 45. That track went on to become the track "Hawkshaw Philly" and features on the compilation "Early Works: Funk, Soul & Afro Rarities From The Archives" released earlier this year. Their shared love of huge big band arrangements and British library music ensured future collaborations, notably on this year's "ATA Records: The Library Archive Vol. 1".

Martin Connor is a well known face to anyone familiar with the Mancherster music scene and has spent 10 years as part of the Manchester collective "Mind On Fire" before providing vocals for the Latin-Funk band Bugalu Foundation (Legere Recordings).

Sheffield born,Rachel Modest developed her unique vocal ability within the churches and gospel choirs of her local community. Now based in Leeds she has developed a powerful and soulful vocal style that takes inspiration from artists such as Madeleine Bell, Dee Dee Warwick, and Dusty Springfield. Her debut for the label was this cover of the Ben E King classic "I, Who Have Nothing", which was later followed by an appearance on the debut 45 by The Magnificent Tape Band "Patterns in My Mind"and her own solo 45 "I Try/Forbidden Love", as well as collaborating with The Magnificent Tape Band on their debut LP "The Subtle Art Of Distraction" all of which received radio support from the likes of Gilles Peterson (BBC6 Music), Huey Morgan (BBC6 Music/Radio 2) and Lauren Laverne (BBC6 Music).

The next single on All Nations Records is a tremendous stepper riddim of French dubmaker Higher Meditation now based in Leicester UK. Veteran UK singer Kulture D from the local underground scene rides this rough riddim smoothly, calling out the almighty one to set everyone free. His prayer is still resonating deep in mind when entering the dub version of this track with the help of a subtle melodica line.

The Drumcode founder is measured when it comes to signing music to his own imprint, biding his time till the stars align. His last individual outing was 2015’s ‘Stone Flower’ EP, which included the thrilling label favorite ‘What You Need’.

A succession of classy collaborations followed, linking with DC’s most vital artists highlighted by ‘Your Mind’ with Bart Skils, proclaimed one of the best tracks of the last decade by Mixmag.

An EP that gives a nod to uncertain times, while remaining resolutely positive, ‘No Defeat No Retreat’ was written during Beyer’s fruitful production sessions during lock down. The opening track, ‘Park People’ sets the pace with an energetic, 80’s nu wave creating the track’s spine. Its hypnotic energy stems from a powerful synth riff and vocal sample culminating in a skillfully balanced track that neatly combines the old with the new.

The title track is a study in contrasts, deftly crafting a muted, nagging vocal hook and infectious bass line into a slice of forward-facing, edgy techno.

With its subtle, undulating layers of melody building in the background, it ushers in an understated sense of euphoria, making it a perfect end-of-set mood-maker.

A thrilling return!

2x12"

since long, chilean/swiss producer and dj luciano is a prominent figure in the global electron-ic club music circle. already from a young age on he was exposed to music profoundly, as his father worked as a jukebox repairman and possessed a large record collection.

when he was twelve, his mother gifted him a guitar, that turned luciano shortly into a mem-ber of a school punk rock band. soon after, his passion for electronic music rose. infected by detroit techno and engaged by close friends like producer dandy jack, he started to play rec-ords in local santiago de chile dance clubs and became involved in the minimal techno scene around friends like ricardo villalobos.

when luciano moved back from chile to switzerland in 2000, he established a residency at weetamix club in geneva, started releasing his own productions on labels like mental groove and joining the cocoon team in ibiza to play at the famous monday night at club amnesia.

since then he is a regular on the balearic island, holding residencies at clubs like dc10 or, with his “vagabundos” serial, at ushuaïa. besides playing around the globe with the likes of carl craig, richie hawtin or loco dice, he is releasing groundbreaking minimal techno and house on his label cadenza since 2003, featuring music by artists like nsi, ricardo villalobos, pikaya, reboot, maayan nidam and himself.

his very own music, so far issued on three albums and countless eps, was always ambiguous. there is his club leaning creativity that can dance slightly into pop spheres while never for-getting the power of precise sliced rhythms and subtle bass sensations.

and then there is a calmer luciano, that displays his love for “music to listen at home, done for a spiritual travel, an inner universe and a moment paralyzed in ether”, as he describes it.

on his first ever mule musiq album release “luci neu house”, luciano now delivers meditative journey music full of repetitive patterns that slowly playing tricks on the listeners subcon-sciousness. “i love music that has a dimension more than music designed for the radio or tv format. mu-sic, that is designed to bring you a higher level of energy and creativity.

so, there is no pretentious things in it ... more just sounds and dimension that will lead your head into the fall of jupiter” he reveals about the one-hour long composition “luci neu house”, whose esoteric deepness reminds on the intensely meditative class of his older pro-ductions like “behind my soul” from 2010.

an epic tune cut on vinyl into four 15-minute long pieces, who shift slowly, almost unper-ceived, whilst absorbing the mind of close observers into a micro-sliced world of moving gen-tleness.

maelstrom magnetism against the gravity of time, that also can be found on the additional mule musiq 257 12inch, which functions as a soothing footnote to luciano’s album.

the almost 13 minutes long trip “flags of himalaya” opens with restful percussions that unhur-riedly start to dance with soft string, piano and horn melodies. on the opposite, the nine-minute long “the evasion of the spiritual soldier” grooves laidback with jazzy rhythms and italo leaning melodies.

a perfect tune for slow dance sensations and endless sunset seaside drives. at a total length of almost 90 minutes, all new mule musiq music composed by luciano distributes a mesmer-izing healing spirit, that grounds organically, even if it is totally rooted in the digital, soft-ware driven world of composing music. “check your buddha” tunes, that somehow sound novel during each new listening circle.

Dom (and his Roland s760 sampler) was once described by seminal magazine NME as the “Ridley Scott” of drum and bass. His epic early records helped form the blueprint of the scene today.

Originally releasing on No-U-Turn in 1994 and credited as one of architects of “Tech-step”. Dom was signed by the legendary Moving Shadow label in 1996 where he released 3 solo albums and a plethora of singles becoming their most prolific and influential artist in the history of the label.

Well known for his early alliances with school friends “Optical” and “Matrix”, Dom started his own label DRP (Dom & Roland Productions) in 2006 to collaborate with like-minded artists. Now 15 years in with an enviable roster from “Noisia” to “Amon Tobin” it is now the main home of Dom’s work.

Lost in the Moment is Doms 7th Album. In his own words “I wanted to make an album that gets back to the core of the elements I love about drum and bass. The timelessness of simple tracks! A sense of being lost in the subtlety of evolving soundscapes, rhythms and loops which hint at more complex detail and emotions. These are the things I find harder to find in this era of instant gratification and easily consumable music.”

Dom’s previous album Last refuge of a Scoundrel was signed to Metalheadz in 2016. It sold out on its first day. Mixmag gave it 10/10 and named it album of the year. It was runner up in DJ Magazines “Best of British” category across all genres.

Substance, the second album by producer Moisture, sets out to deliver an immersive tech-noir fantasy of emotional and physical deconstruction. Inspired in part by William S. Burroughs 1959 novel Naked Lunch, the conceptual narrative of the album follows a humanoid subject through an urban landscape and the exploration of its depravations.

Sampling and filtering sounds from other music, movies and own field recordings, the tapestry of Substance is a three-dimensional world of hard industrial spaces and fluid organic matter. While it's conception is rooted equally in literature and film as well as music, one can draw comparisons in particular to Barry Adamsons 1989 album Moss Side Story, in that it also works as a chronological narrative; the tracks aligning to make a world of its own.

And while Adamson was aiming to create an imaginary soundscape of his native Manchester, the geography of Substance is based on the city of Malmö. Using field recordings from it's city streets, the album paints a rain soaked, neon-clad portrait of the city's hedonistic nightlife.

On the opening "The Marketplace" we are teleported to Bergsgatan at night (the track title a subtle nod towards Eden Ahbez 1960 song of the same name).

This introduction is similar in line with the experience Burroughs once had in 1957 upon entering Malmö for the first and only time, which he details briefly in Naked Lunch: "averted eyes and the cemetery in the middle of town (every town in Sweden seems to be built around a cemetery), and nothing to do in the afternoon (...)"

This image of Malmö portrayed with dread and loathing holds a longstanding narrative tradition over the cultural geography of the town. Yet it is often paired with an image of great promise and bohemian splendor, seemingly a paradox but often perversely intertwined. This duality has always been a vital mindset in the underground music scene of the town and its illegal after hours clubs. Substance is a work steeped in the grayscale prism of techno and its post-industrial fetischism. Yet in picking it apart, one can find elements of everything from post-punk, drum & bass, trip hop and new age.

The theme of depravation that soaks through Burroughs Naked Lunch seems oddly befitting to this side of Malmö (one wonders what the author would have made of it had he stayed longer) Through rhythmic excursions and the exploration of repetition, the tracks of Substance are arranged to convey this self-destructive longing for depravity. Michel Foucault's ideas on limit experiences serves as context for this peculiar form of endeavour, as he puts it: "the point of life which lies as close as possible to the impossibility of living, which lies at the limit or the extreme."

ISAN’s Robin Saville reveals an ambient album, which merges the Electronica aesthetics of his main project with field recordings, drones and acoustic instrumentation.

A lot of things have been written about what happens to the mind when the body starts moving. Instead of reciting poems of the inevitable self-help books, let’s get straight to the point: For many, taking walks on a regular basis is both liberating and empowering. It is not necessarily so much about the exercise, but rather finding one’s own rhythm in life. Robin Saville – of ISAN fame – is such an ambler His walks inspired him to base his third solo album – his first one for Morr Music – on the out of the way places he came to see and experience while being out and about.

Clocking in at just under 40 minutes in total, "Build A Diorama" is both a subtle culmination and a poignant antipode to what Saville has achieved together with Antony Ryan as ISAN. While the aesthetics might seem similar in places, Saville opts for a decisively different pace when it comes to writing and producing. Progress is steady, and change, however, is slow – like looking at a diorama for a long period of time in the ever so slightly changing light or as a flaneur focussing on one particular spot, a found object so-to-speak, waiting for the mind to orchestrate it appropriately, giving it sense and meaning.

Built around quiet field recordings, Saville’s six compositions transform this highly personal and, therefore, difficult-to-convey experience into a comprehensible exploration of beauty. Where ISAN almost exclusively uses electronics, Saville deliberately expands this well-established palette with acoustic instruments like bass guitar, chimes and glockenspiel, aiming for an even more suitable musical manifestation of what the walker sees and feels once he fully engages in his passion. Ranging from blissfully pulsing pads allowing for complete associative freedom ("The Deepdale Halophyte Economy") to the playful minimalism of an orchestra dominated by busy bells ("Bosky"), Saville’s "Build A Diorama" is not just a valuable addition to his musical output, but an essential audio guide for those striving to explore, learn and understand.

RX-101 has quietly been making waves in the IDM/electronic music underground for the past few years, through a series of archival releases — material recorded in the late-90s, but previously unreleased until Suction Records began compiling and releasing these records in 2016. What’s truly mind-boggling about RX-101’s output is the sheer quantity of stunning, top-drawer material that Dutch producer Erik Jong recorded over the period of just 3 years, 1997-1999. Many have suggested that the whole thing is a publicity stunt — some insisting that this is all new material masquerading as vintage, while others have proposed that the material may in fact be a secret alias for Aphex Twin to release gems from his own legendary ’90s audio archive. RX-101 has absolutely nailed the sound, and quality, of early-90s AFX/Rephlex, that much is true. “Serenity,” this latest full-length RX-101 release, is no exception.

Just as RX-101’s last album, 2019’s Dopamine, concentrated on one hallmark of Aphex Twin’s sound — the smooth melodic techno of his Selected Ambient Works 1985-1992 LP — so too does Serenity reference another classic early-Aphex era, but this time it’s a completely different beast. Don't let the title fool you - Suction Records' latest dive into RX-101's 1997-1999 tape archives is not all lush, serene melodies. On Serenity, scorched, crunchy jackhammer beats combine with emotional, plaintive pads, delivering a classic set of vintage-Rephlex-style bliss, à la AFX, Caustic Window, and Cylob. It was Cylob who coined the term Industrial Folk Songs for his classic 1995 LP, and that release is clearly a blueprint for RX-101’s latest collection.

Standout cut Hearts Utd., featuring a stunning music video by Aidan Fantinatto and I Dream Of Wires’ director Robert Fantinatto, not only nails the magic of AFX’s trademark, irresistible jackhammer-beats-meets-plaintive-melody device, it arguably rivals the master at his own sound. As a whole, what could be a harsh and monotonous collection is lifted by RX-101’s subtle diversity and skill, particularly in his ability to create eerie, evocative moods, with gorgeous melodies that speak volumes of emotion.

As electronic musician Lorenz Brunner sketched his vision for the first Recondite full-length on Ghostly in five years he took a step back to assess who and where he was as an artist. 2013’s Hinterland accelerated a progression — he’s since been touring around the world and releasing music with labels such as Hotflush and his own Plangent Records — yet, for him, the album cast a shadow of pressure that widened over time. As with most art forms, perhaps especially music, there is an expectation to change, to creatively pivot elsewhere with each project. After careful consideration, Brunner rejects this notion with his new work, opting alternately to use the icy Hinterland as an aesthetic and tonal template for a like-minded map of evocative compositions aptly titled after the German word “stillstand,” now presented as Dwell.

“I am coherent with what I do, even if I’m not reinventing myself,” Brunner says contentedly. In regards to the album title, he adds, “It’s like when you’re on a hike and you stop and look at the scenery; you may know which path you want to go next but right now you are dwelling.” The title also doubles as a reference to everyday domestic life, a restorative haven for Brunner between tours. Like Hinterland, he incorporates a subtle range of field recordings to intensify the textural atmosphere. While he worked at home on “Mirror Games,” Brunner noticed the buzz coming from across the room, where his wife was using an electric toothbrush, naturally harmonized with the track. He decided to push that frequency further and record the device directly, syncing vibrations for added urgency across the propulsive piece as well as parts of the ambient “Interlude 2.”

Windswept, moody, and melodic, moments on Dwell linger with emotional resonance. The title track sends an eerie synth loop through a field of techno kicks. The beats recede for a breather four minutes in as if to survey the surroundings. If Brunner pivots anywhere — possibly just a new perspective afforded by being confidently stationary in his craft — it’s by leaning more into hip-hop structures. He’s an avid rap fan and his love for those production techniques is notably present on “Nobilia,” a queasy shuffler (titled in reference to the Super Nintendo game Secret of Evermore), “Interlude 1,” which skitters in lockstep with contemplative synth chords, and “Surface,” an isolatory, ruminative sequence. The closer “Moon Pearl” soothes and shimmers like its namesake, a cherished gem in The Legend of Zelda series that allows carriers of the gem to retain their shape and essence in the Dark World.

In an era where constant reinvention and highly self-reflexive brand awareness reigns supreme in the music industry, Brunner as Recondite does something many artists try to avoid, he dwells in his own established identity, one that has garnered him a devoted fanbase. His murky electronic productions, built around mirage-like pads and clipped drum programming, have proven to be highly functional and spectrally enveloping; Dwell is not a return to form, it is a further study of the shapes, it is the modes, and the structures Brunner has trademarked.

As electronic musician Lorenz Brunner sketched his vision for the first Recondite full-length on Ghostly in five years he took a step back to assess who and where he was as an artist. 2013’s Hinterland accelerated a progression — he’s since been touring around the world and releasing music with labels such as Hotflush and his own Plangent Records — yet, for him, the album cast a shadow of pressure that widened over time. As with most art forms, perhaps especially music, there is an expectation to change, to creatively pivot elsewhere with each project. After careful consideration, Brunner rejects this notion with his new work, opting alternately to use the icy Hinterland as an aesthetic and tonal template for a like-minded map of evocative compositions aptly titled after the German word “stillstand,” now presented as Dwell.

“I am coherent with what I do, even if I’m not reinventing myself,” Brunner says contentedly. In regards to the album title, he adds, “It’s like when you’re on a hike and you stop and look at the scenery; you may know which path you want to go next but right now you are dwelling.” The title also doubles as a reference to everyday domestic life, a restorative haven for Brunner between tours. Like Hinterland, he incorporates a subtle range of field recordings to intensify the textural atmosphere. While he worked at home on “Mirror Games,” Brunner noticed the buzz coming from across the room, where his wife was using an electric toothbrush, naturally harmonized with the track. He decided to push that frequency further and record the device directly, syncing vibrations for added urgency across the propulsive piece as well as parts of the ambient “Interlude 2.”

Windswept, moody, and melodic, moments on Dwell linger with emotional resonance. The title track sends an eerie synth loop through a field of techno kicks. The beats recede for a breather four minutes in as if to survey the surroundings. If Brunner pivots anywhere — possibly just a new perspective afforded by being confidently stationary in his craft — it’s by leaning more into hip-hop structures. He’s an avid rap fan and his love for those production techniques is notably present on “Nobilia,” a queasy shuffler (titled in reference to the Super Nintendo game Secret of Evermore), “Interlude 1,” which skitters in lockstep with contemplative synth chords, and “Surface,” an isolatory, ruminative sequence. The closer “Moon Pearl” soothes and shimmers like its namesake, a cherished gem in The Legend of Zelda series that allows carriers of the gem to retain their shape and essence in the Dark World.

In an era where constant reinvention and highly self-reflexive brand awareness reigns supreme in the music industry, Brunner as Recondite does something many artists try to avoid, he dwells in his own established identity, one that has garnered him a devoted fanbase. His murky electronic productions, built around mirage-like pads and clipped drum programming, have proven to be highly functional and spectrally enveloping; Dwell is not a return to form, it is a further study of the shapes, it is the modes, and the structures Brunner has trademarked.

Ellen Allien Keeps It Raw with the Third Release from Her UFO Label Ellen Allien returns with the third release from her label UFO. Focused on a raw aesthetic, UFO serves as a space for artists to explore the dark, rugged side of the music. On this third installment from the label we get three deliciously dark productions... First out of the block is 'La Musica Es Dios' (Music Is God), which comes in two mixes. The first works from the deep tremor of its juddering bassline, subtle beats tease this cut along with a contagious rhythm. As a master of vocal hooks, Ellen skillfully introduces a distorted clip that repeats over and over as the drama unfolds. Wistful pads and a sombre riff keep it melancholy. On the second mix the mood is a little more upbeat with brighter frequencies and skipping beats. Though, once the main body of the track comes in, a menacing swathe of analogue growls and snarls at you with aplomb. A breakdown tinged with 8-bit leads us into a rousing section of the track before another slight break ushers in more menace in the low end. Finally, 'Junge' penetrates our minds with its punchy drums and snares. The pace is quicker and more energi- sed with a pervading sense of dread emanating from the background. This cut is downright nasty, with a snee- ring riff and shadowy atmospherics. Rough, rugged and raw analogue technoid funk from an unknown future.

‘Rain, spit, ice, neon, plants, steam, mercury and soil. This is dream music categorised by a language of senses; visual, poetic, and abstract sound that draws on techno and dub ambient.

‘Somewhere between pastoral impressionism and cyber-noir, its surface evokes the tensions of a fluctuating, fizzing atmosphere, pictures emerging and dissolving in the mind’s eye. Thick layers of field recording flood tracks fabricated from erratic, oddly distanced rhythm.

‘The sensation whilst listening is not unlike hearing the world from a place within the body; swimming in the bloodstream, cutting through the turbulent landscape secure in a metal tube.

‘Or being over-exposed to lushly textured environments with the anatomy far receded; an out-of-body experience where subtler senses are heightened and the landscape begins to take on surreal qualities.’

rRoxymore's long-anticipated debut album, Face To Phase, was born of her annual creative hibernation practice. Whereas her previous appearances for Don't Be Afraid - Thoughts Of An Introvert, Parts 1 & 2 - revealed inner worlds of saturated colour and natural expressiveness, she retreated into her studio at the turn of winter 2018 occupied with the idea of dismantling the dancefloor-centric pressure paradigm.


The resulting album, Face to Phase, finds rRoxymore methodically and mindfully stripping back to fundamentals: rumbling minimalist dub, sparse polymetric drums, boldy unpredictable melodic narratives and subtleties which hover out-of-reach or disappear into vapour. Forged by the spirit of club music cultures, Face To Phase favours deep listening; resisting the temptation to reflect on the past or project towards the future, it's an album that is firmly rooted in the contemporary.


Sparked by her own archive of field recordings, and produced primarily but not exclusively in the box, Face To Phase adds several facets to rRoxymore's already wide repertoire. The pensive and beatless opener "Home Is Where The Music Is" was inspired by her longtime friend Planningtorock, while "Forward Flamingo" is a spiraling dream-state of house music dissociation; elsewhere "Energy Points" remains anchored to the ocean floor, radiating heavy dub waves, "Passages" is a ghoulish skeleton of UK break beats, "What's The Plan" closes the album in a blissfully blunted fashion, while twisting, shape-shifting rhythms push and pulse "PPS21" into series of ever-evolving shapes and forms.


Through and in between the eight songs of Face To Phase, rRoxymore fortifies her status as a seasoned artist, grounded by over a decade of live performance and touring, collaboration, composition and experimentation. With a new live performance collaboration with a percussionist set to debut the LP at Atonal on 1st September, rRoxymore is primed to expand her reputation even further as one of the most vital and distinctive artists on the fringes of contemporary club culture.

Swedish composer and multimedia artist Marcus Fjellström's debut Miasmah release follows two critically acclaimed full length albums on Lampse (2006's 'Gebrauchsmusik' and 2005's 'Exercises In Estrangement'). In addition Marcus has had several commissioned works requested, leading to him working with, among others, the Swedish Royal Ballet, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, numerous ensembles, soloists and filmmakers including 'Salad Fingers' creator David Firth. Currently based in Berlin, Fjellström's compositions often combine aspects of modern classical composition and arrangement and more avant forms of music, be that acoustic or electronic.

'Schattenspieler' (which translates as 'Shadowplayer') takes the form of eleven compositions which explore ambience and melody, texture and silence. Haunting synth and orchestral instrument-based audio constructions, flowing from one moment to the next - the fleeting ghosts of Fjellström's melodies rise, only to be buried under a claustrophobic clutter of percussion and creaking background noise. These pieces do indeed feel like you're listening to something more implied than obviously stated, as if Fjellström wants only to expose us to the shadow of the music - the implication being perhaps a more terrifying experience than to be confronted outright…listen to 'Schattenspieler' and you may find your mind starts to play tricks on you…

The undeniably Angelo Badalamenti-esque descending synth strings of opening track 'The Disjointed', lay the foundations for Fjellström's 'Schattenspieler' album; music resting somewhere between the unsettling horror soundtracks of Jerry Goldsmith, the elevating melodies of Cliff Martinez, and the subtle audio constructions of Miasmah label mates Kreng and Jacaszek. Marcus' wide ranging abilities in composition and his willingness to let go of accepted form and function makes 'Schattenspieler' a perfect choice of release for the Miasmah label. The suspense laden 'Antichrist Architechture Management', with its harrowing and tense undertones, weaving synth lines and a wash of static hiss and flicker, is a particular standout track. Despite it's a strangely oppressive sound, shafts of light grace 'Schattenspieler'; pieces such as 'Untitled 090616' find gorgeous melodies are boxed in by unsettling arrangements and sparse background ambience. There is a coldness to many of these compositions - not without emotion, but somehow remorseless. 'Schattenspieler' is, for the main part, a defiantly bleak journey.

Vinyl edition ltd. to 300 copies, purple vinyl, incl. 8-page 12" booklet with drawings by Marcus Fjellström.

Sometimes you know it’s coming, sometimes it’s unexpected, but the time to hang your boots will always come. It’s better when you have total control, even better if you end up on a high (or on a low). After seven years of sonic interferences, calibrating the soundscape of field recordings and helping to recreate the old sounds of today, Gonzo is retiring from music. It’s a goodbye, yeah, and a well-crafted one.
But “Ruído(s)” doesn’t sound like an intentional one. You won’t listen to it on any of the thirteen tracks that scavenge for a solution in the space between ambient music and field recordings. You won’t feel it in the intense connection between human and natural sounds and how sometimes everything oscillates in opposite states of mind. You won’t even read it in the intense, but subtle, humor present in some of the pieces. You won’t, because it’s not an intentional goodbye. You only know it is, because you’re reading this.
What is it then? It’s a celebration of random sound. How can you experience something scholastic and, simultaneously, deeply hilarious? Just think about the amazing triad formed by “A Fuga dos Grilos”, “Degredado(s)” and “Cantiga Parva”. First, you’re blessed with six minutes that build up on the idea that sound can be an intense religious experience, echoes going back and forth to create a fantastic Boiler Room feeling (one populated with raving Gonzos doing dabs in front of the camera) that eventually ends up with a cinematic touch: someone saying the title of the song out loud. One second after we are into the Flying Lizards world, with two songs that shake any pretentious seriousness of the previous track.
Is it serious or not? It is. But it doesn’t have to be. In “Ruído(s)” Gonzo recounts pop/electronic history through field recordings and weird-soft beats. More than compiling his seven-year history, Gonzo is more worried to understand where he’s leaving his ideas, Caretaker style. Speaking of Caretaker, Leyland Kirby should think about reviving Caretaker and do a whole album around “Brilhante Cortejo”: it’s haunted ballroom in a ‘cracked’ nutshell.
As the album progresses and the need to revisit it grows, it becomes clearer(?) that “Ruído(s)” is more than an artist self-indulging on his work – in a very good manner. It’s also a condensed catalog of Portuguese music and its sounds, a circular trip down the memory lane of a forgotten country and its landscape. “Ruído(s)” is a goodbye to a country and its traditions. It does it without sulking but with the most respectful loud laugh - the Gonzo way.

Following 2018’s full-length, Dominance, Deep’a & Biri reemerge on their Black Crow imprint for Black Crow 012, presenting three immediate yet sophisticated cuts traversing techno and electro, brimming with character and detail.

‘Approaching Skopje’ is a tunnelling slice of techno, landing with enough bass weight to drive a wormhole through any heaving rave, coupled with layers of trippy electronic textures that blend inherent heaviness with sheer hypnosis.

On the contrary, ‘Quantum Hypnosis’ sees an instantaneous swung-groove gradually blossom into a weightless electronic lullaby, wrapped in fluttering modulations and a sense of shimmering intrigue.

Finally, ‘Roots‘ builds a bridge between both tracks and bodies and minds beside; a loose breakbeat flirts a circling analogue signal, demonstrating the duo’s subtle craftsmanship at it’s most psychedelic and soaring.

Yeketelale is the third album from Franco-Ethiopian group uKanDanz, combining a heady brew of rock energy, saxophone zigzags and Ethiopian melodies, all fronted by veteran singer Asnake Gebreyes grooving harder than ever.

In Ethiopia, sons follow fathers and, together, their names tell a story. Some discographies are the same way. After Yechelal (''It's Possible''), Awo (''Yes!''),here's Yeketelale (''It Continues''), the third album from Ukandanz.
The adventure that links Damien Cluzel (guitars) and Lionel Martin (tenor sax), the two founders of the group, with the Ethiopian singer Asnake Guebreyes continues and, with this album, takes on new colors and a new dimension. It is a polished synthesis that keeps the rock energy of their first recordings and gives even more space to the subtle vocal ornamentations that mark great Ethiopian singers. Add to that a groove that is more danceable than ever, carried by Adrien Spirti's synth bass and Yann Lemeunier's drums, and you have the magic formula of Yeketelale.

This came about slowly over the course of a dialogue that began in the early 2000s when Damien Cluzel, arriving with a circus in Ethiopia, met up with the occupant of the next room in their hotel. A stroke of luck: this was Francis Falceto, high priest of the Ethiopiques collection (Buda, 30 volumes to date) which had introduced to the West the treasures of swinging Addis, the capital that vibrates to the sound of big brass orchestras. With him, he dives into the capital's nightlife and meets a galaxy of musicians. The singer Asnake Guebreyes is among them.

Recruited by the famous Police Orchestra at the tender age of 16, he already had all the power, energy and class of his role model, Tlahoun Guessessé ''the Ethiopian James Brown''. He began his solo career at the beginning of the 1990s with several major successes, most famously an explosive duo with the singer Fekker Addis.

This experience made a big impact on the French guitarist. Having learned how to blend in with a uniquely Ethiopian groove, he was now ready to take it to other places and in other directions. In his old friend Lionel Martin, he found an ideal partner to engage in such experiences. But they needed a singer. The idea of Asnake Guebreyes was mentioned. Then Francis Falceto called and suggested going to see him at the Addis Music Festival. Ukandanz, a rock version of Ethiopian groove, was born.

Some pieces, like the disturbing Yene Hassab, call to mind Herbie Hancock's experiments in the seventies, as well as the Juju guitars of the Gulf of Guinea. Others, like the dark Fetsum Deng Ledj Nesh, allow Asnake's voice to soar above the synthetic waves, like a siren song for a freighter in distress. Dance and trance are not left out, with inspiration from the inexhaustible Ethiopian traditional repertoire. In a nod towards Asnaké's first album (Ahadu, also reissued by Buda) Ukandanz returns to its track Ajiré, transfigured by the guitar, claps and synthetic bass and takes us back to the glory days of breakdancing. Listening to the two versions gives the key to understanding the unique touch of Ukandanz and of the rich musical colours of Yeketelale (''It Goes On''), a fusion musical journey that brings the electric spark of the Frendj (Westerners) to Ethiopian lyricism.

Long time underground innovator Illja Rudman returns with "Sagittarii", a fourth fantastic studio album and his second on Bearfunk.

As boss of both Red Music and Imogen Recordings, as well as being a skilled DJ and diverse producer, Rudman has been an integral part of dance music for years. The Croatian effortlessly veers from electro to disco to house with his own colourful sense of melody and club-ready grooves and has done so on more than 70 releases on labels like Classic, Rong, Electric Minds and Is It Balearic Recordings. This superb new album lands just a year after

his last, "Paradigma", and is another subtle evolution in his style but one that continues to deal in authentic analogue textures with flashes of throwback funk and disco gold and a slick sense of boogie.

Things open up with the glistening future-retro chords of "Dreamscape Planet" a quick,upbeat cut that is ready made for dancing in the sun with its majestic strings and nimble basslines. "Cosmia (Regal Mix)" is another bit of engagingly urgent disco funk with clipped drums racing along beneath heart melting chords. The stylish "If I Keep My Eyes Closed (Mezzanine Mix)" slows things down, with a snaking bassline and wallowing chords making for more cosy and intimate listening while "Synthia 2000" is a more playful cut with wiggling bass and withering chords that bend space and time as you get down and boogie.

The gorgeous glossiness continues with another tight bit of disco-funk lushness on "6th Floor Entrance (Guardians Gate Mix)" and "S.O.S. Flight Theme" serves up some rugged bass lines and mad xylophone patterns on top of corrugated drums that will get any club in a spin this summer. Closing things down in the tropical tinged exotica of "Techniques & Tactics (Nocturnal Mix)" with its long legged drums, blissful Balearic vibes and superb sunset stylings.

This is an album that brims with cosmic disco energy, emotion and excellence from start to finish.

In a landscape increasingly dominated by surface-level sonics and a lack of true organic – man-made-machine-driven - sound, the newly found and London-based Gaia Tones project rises with an unforgiving grasp over the science of improvisation and mystery. Like a gust of wind from Mother Nature herself, the duo comprised of John Swing and David Soleil-Mon breathe a new, highly perceptible form of life into the UK’s long ‘dub and ‘bass’ dynasty.

Contrary to the consumer plastics found across much of the ‘digital’ musical spectrum, the two artists impose their own vision and aesthetic to a framework of sound that has somehow always existed but never fully explored before. Heady, stoned-out and surely emanating from physical matter, their two debut tracks are set to redefine the standards going into the next decade.

The A-side “Lychees”, stutters its own brand of dread paranoia over a sea of complex, morphing percussion that together create a whole new palette of exploratory sound, loosely tied up into a hazy, nomadic groove. On the flip, “Wonkadonk” feels like its natural extension, evolving that familiarly off-kilter assembly of drums to work around a devotedly dystopian swell of bass that pushes further and further out into the ether.

In the end, the universe tends to unfold as it should.

Label artwork by Egidio Sterpa

A cryptical presence hiding behind many different aliases spread across a range of underground labels: co-owner of LiveJam Records alongside EMG, John Swing begins producing with a live and spontaneous approach that pushes the boundaries and general conceptions of club music while digging deeper into the techniques of the past.

The production process through ananlog equipment that John Swing so strongly supports with an uncompromising attitude is the key to his underground success and esteem.
With a back catalogue of over seventy releases including collaborations with established artists such as Mr. G and Ben Sims, the London based talent has been receiving recognition by established artists including Floating Points, Gerd Janson, Levon Vincent, Theo Parrish and many others.

Inspired by London's Plastic People and it's bonding vibes, through a well refined spectrum of musical knowledge John Swing engages with the dance floor in a physical yet emotional way: the strength and power of pure house is blended with black soul music in a constant crossover between underground aesthetics and cherry-picked funk and disco. His subtle understanding of the dance floor guarantees a deep-rooted experience for the mind, body and soul.

Borneo’s eighth release brings a sweet little five track compilation of eccentric and exotic electronica. All music is lovingly composed and constructed by the label’s family and close friends.

Ultrastation is the lovechild project of Cosmic Force and Nuno Dos Santos. Their Eau De Voodoo kicks this EP off with a fire starter made out of driving afro rhythms combined with mesmerizing vocal samples.

Phones On Fail Jah by Fader sees a quirky digital take on digidub. Centered around filtered chords, a deftly curated selection of melody and percussion is put through its paces.

The enigmatic Fizzy Veins poured his hart out on the song Handbrake. Guitar play over a subtle synth line, all sprinkled with fragile vocals that are almost drowning in the sea of echoes that lies underneath.

Rotterdam’s Nous’Klaer mainstay Mattheis has contributed V21. A stealthy weapon with synth driven melodies and electronic rhythms that are slowly morphing in and out of each other. This will hypnotize any dance floor.

Samo DJ closes the excursion with a remix. He handpicked OVFiets from the Borneo vaults, an unreleased techno work out by party crew Marck. Samo’s version brings the original in a more airy, wholesome and percussive state of mind.

Independent record label YGAM presents "Les Bergers du Galetas", Magnétisme Animal's debut EP, in which they share their intimate view of society. 

Formed by brg and Catartsis, the French duo invites the listeners to dive into a journey through the density of the modern metropolis. In a time of materialistic fetishism, where superficial occurrences and capitalism rule, the 4-track EP acts in opposition to these current matters. However, rather than trying to create a contrasting sonic landscape, Magnétisme Animal use sounds recorded in their environment to elaborate pieces that bear the heavy and frenetic industrial atmosphere of our urban sceneries. All sorts of clanging metal, steam discharge, electromagnetic static noise, train rails frictions, sirens and distant traffic, are combined with breathing, footsteps and vocal humming to create an oddly industrial as much as organic soundscape. The EP starts with a noise track that recalls some of the compositional processes of musique concrète, to then slowly drifts towards rhythmically oriented pieces. "Être c’est être coincé", with its ponderous bass and distortion work, appears as a peculiar blending of noise and techno, while "L’Enthousiasme des statues" displays a more traditional and dance floor approach to rhythm and drums, but still leaves space for an uncanny sound decor to unfold. The project ends with "La Toute-Toute", a repetitive ambient track filled with subtle sounds, where one can wander as spoken words underline a sense of melancholy. "Les Bergers du Galetas" is an unsettling industrial tapestry, a strange study of noises, that depicts the contemporary frenzy of the artists’ environments they referred to as the urban jungle. A landscape where one is a witness of the disparity of human conditions, where mind and body coexist with difficulty, where one is subject to conformism, where one is lost in the smog while carried by the masses through the cemented maze.

For the second release on the Galaxiid imprint, a label of electronic music archeology and quality, we are transported to the strange sonic world of an elusive 90s pioneer. Solar X's 1997 album X-Rated will be released for the first time on vinyl, as well as reissued digitally, with new artwork by the Japanese artist Keiichi Tanaami. Two worlds connecting sonically, visually and culturally.

Solar X enjoyed a burgeoning career in post-Perestroika Moscow making playful, low-tech electronica from Soviet analogue instruments, which he masterfully configured to forge animated compositions and dancefloor rarities. Fascinated by chaos and complexity, his music explores the ways in which our minds can be manipulated by structure - an endeavour quite plausibly linked to his other career as a lecturer and researcher of AI, information theory and cognitive science, his interest in which was in turn triggered by his young experiments in computer music.

Solar X gained international attention at a time when Russia was (quite unfairly) seen as a vacuum for electronic music, but was exploding in the period of piracy, poverty and freedom following the collapse of the USSR. Young Russians had benefited from the soviet education system and there was a strong DIY computer programming and music scene, fuelled by hackers, gear freaks and party animals. Viewed from today, the album is reborn at a time of further political and social strife, which many see as fuelling the huge creativity and radical thinking of modern Russia's young creatives.

X-Rated treats tempo and form as fluid concepts, administering sudden changes to its sonic landscape with disorienting effect, underlain with a subtle dose of humour and experimentation. Downtempo trip-hop sits alongside frenetic IDM and blistering electro, all bound together by peculiar melodic inflections and lively distortions. Warm, trippy harmonies and robotic synths are offset with angular drums, shifting erratically through moods and genres with cunning intent. Much like his contemporaries from the era, it's his ability to breathe life into a humble production setup that makes his music so compelling some twenty one years later.

The track titles are from a book of call girl cards in London phone booths, that reached the artist in Moscow in 1995. "I liked the titles from these cards, which were self-promoting and offering pleasure (e.g. "Mistress awaits you"). So, I thought since my tracks also offered some kind of pleasure, they might as well advertise this through their titles.'

Label head Nina Kraviz was introduced to the work of the 83 year old sensei Keiichi Tanaami by Ukawa Naoshiro, founder of Dommune in Tokyo, one of the brightest figureheads for the arts in Japan, responsible for the graphic design of the cover. In September 2017 Nina played for the opening of Tanaami-san's first exhibition in Moscow at Gary Tatintsian Gallery. Nina performed a live sound palette, to accompany the looping 7 minute animation, of experimental music from the Soviet Union, Russian pioneers of electronic music like Species Of Fishes and SolarX, Soviet-time pioneer Lev Termen, Kuryochin, avant-guard rock mixed with some Stockhausen and just pure abstract sounds, as well as treasured artists like Biogen.

Tanaami's illustrative work has strong sexual elements, so out of the five art pieces Nina selected and commissioned for Galaxiid, the first fits perfectly for 'X-rated'. The vertical line of text on the left is the traditional form for Japanese covers of foreign releases. The cover, together with the accompanying poster and sticker, are printed in Japan to ensure the highest print quality and purity of the colours.

French producer Erell Ranson's affinity for the deeper shades of Detroit sound is well known, but his ability to absorb those influences and create beautiful music with his own signature is the reason we're so excited to welcome him into our family. Having previously released on labels such as Kalahari Oyster Cult, aDepth audio, Nice & Nasty Records and his own MySelf Recordings, amongst others, Erell's became quite skilled in crafting sophisticated and emotional tracks which still seem to feel perfectly at home in a crowded 3 AM club situation. EP for Barba, titled "Dreams Of Nila", is a 4-tracker consisting of "Dreams Of Nila", "Reminiscence 0f The Past", and "Far Away Of Your Side", with the latter receiving an additional remix treatment by a Rotterdam-based project Duplex. "Dreams Of Nila" is a somewhat more leaning towards Chicago-ish side of things, with its huge bassline enveloped by shuffling 707 drums. Soft-sounding synth pad sequences work as an emotion injection and appear perfectly timed, without removing the edge of this, essentially, club track. "Reminiscence Of The Past" is the most direct of the bunch. Syncopated bass drum, forward-leaning groove and those classic techno snare roll fills make this track hard to ignore as it is, without mentioning complex interaction of synth lines, chords and beautiful detroit-reminiscent string stabs. Wonderfully executed counterpoint of hard edge and soft touch is what makes this cut a truly special one. Techno in its fullest form. "Far Away Of Your Side" is somewhat closer to the energy level of "Dreams Of Nila", and is a well-paced deep cut perfect for later moments in the night when subtle approach is everything. Slow synth pads give your mind some time to relax while the groove keeps your body occupied. Duplex remix of "Far Away Of Your Side" takes the track another notch down but in a more sideways manner. Broken electro groove is what keeps the foundation of the track while Chris Aarse & John Matze (aka Duplex) masterfully work their synths and pads to keep the tension for the whole duration of the track. Melancholy mood is tangible here, and at its best, ready for the dancefloor.

F-Dorm is a collaboration between Connor Camburn of Litüus (AVIAN), and visual artist Conor Ekstrom. Commune follows the first F Dorm cassette on Mazurka and presents the first LP by the project. Songs build upon unexpected repetition, wielding normally aggressive sounds into meditative loops with subtle textural evolutions. Bursts of tape saturation, controlled waves of feedback, and linear drum beats shift and weave together through rhythmic delays. Affected vocals speak low as if coaxing the listener further out into the nether regions of the mind. The strange cumulative mood of the record is difficult to describe: A transcendental state or a foul parallel from which the listener arises stronger or does not arise at all. mummies in civilian clothes -the master of the riddle-a DOLLMIND haunts me in the penitentiary -the puttyman, naked inside -a mind made of cream

Joe Hart and Scott Fraser's Body Hammer, London's legendary jack party has been capturing the hearts, minds and feet of Londoners for 11 years strong. Having kicked off in 2008 at the Korsan Bar, and now comprising only of residents Scott & Joe, it takes place in various venues every month. Their open minded music policy commands a friendly, spirited, diverse and fiercely loyal crowd making it consistently one of the best nights out in the city, hands down. More recently, taking the party out of London they have been touring at clubs and festivals from New York to Berlin in and everything in between. They now have their own label and its 100% Body Hammer dancefloor certified.

The first release, of course, features two banging club tracks written and produced by Fraser and Hart at Fraser's East London basement studio, mastered and cut by Keith Tenniswood at Curve Pusher.

The A side, 'Spit from the Sun' is a peak-time jacking acid number which will set any dancefloor on fire. Its rattling drums and pulsing bass stabs capture all the intensity of the convict poet on the vocal telling his story and lamenting the waste of his life behind bars.

Over on Side B, 'Igniter' strikes a more subtle tone with its gently rising strings and breathy vocal. But don't let the subtlety deceive you as those kicking drums and thumping bassline come through to get the dancers screaming for more as it hits its crescendo.