Search:the rhythm

Finnish producer Sasu Ripatti has been torching the fringes of electronic music since the mid 1990s, a process that's found him melting a wide spectrum of musical innovation into his cult brand of experimental minimalism. From the skeletal jazz deconstructions of his 1997 Vladislav Delay debut "The Kind of Blue EP" to the blurred dub techno variations of 2000's "Multila" and 2012's "Kuopio", Ripatti has betrayed a restless, voracious passion for sound. "Fun is Not A Straight Line" builds on this impressive legacy, retaining his sonic signature and adding a playfulness that harks back to his beloved deep house smash, Luomo's "Vocalcity". After becoming frustrated by the inflexibility of the 4/4 house idiom, Ripatti found solace in rap and bass music's rhythmic complexity and anarchic structures. "I bought Nas's 'Illmatic' when it came out in '94 and have more or less been listening to rap since," he explains. "I'm not really sure why now, but that rap influence wanted to come through." Chopped rap vocals, booming subs and gritty, neck-snapping beats are the primary colors of "Fun is Not A Straight Line", painted into the foreground and blended into an immediately recognizable rhythmic palette. The tracks cross into the same continuum as Chicago footwork, with stuttering samples that build thick walls of bass and flurries of wordless rhymes amid a narcotic haze of beats. On 'monolith', Ripatti's love of New York rap is in full focus as he obscures chipmunked vocals with tight, crackling percussion that disintegrates into rolling kicks; 'speedmemories' is even more upfront, channeling the raw sunshine energy of So So Def electro into rhythms that are powerfully skeletal. Elsewhere, syrupy Southern-fried TR-808 bass womps are tangled with molasses-slow vocals on 'videophonekitty', fuzzed into textured, dissociated ambience. Since the beginning, Ripatti has tried to find a balance between his experimental urges and drive to create more universal music. As his more recent albums have traveled into darker, more extreme realms, he has craved something different for balance. By drawing a crooked line between DJ Premier, DJ Screw and DJ Rashad, Sasu Ripatti has emerged with the most accessible and unashamedly enjoyable album he's produced in years.

Tonnon produced the album with longtime collaborator, and The Beths’ guitarist and producer, Jonathan Pearce. Tonnon wrote the bulk of the songs during an extensive period of touring after the release of Successor - a period where Tonnon performed with Nadia Reid in Europe, The Veils in the USA, and The Chills, The Phoenix Foundation and Don McGlashan in New Zealand. The pair workshopped songs between tours, often recording new parts as the live versions developed.

Tonnon and Pearce recorded between 2017 and 2020, and in that time, Tonnon’s practise evolved heavily. He incorporated new technology into his set, including the Wellington-designed Synthstrom Deluge, which allowed him to adapt his set for new performance environments;Art Galleries, Museums, even New Zealand Fashion Week. He took that technology further when he collaborated with the Otago Museum on the immersive show for Planetariums, A Synthesized Universe, which travelled to Arts Festivals around New Zealand in 2019.

Creating a music video for ‘Old Images,’ which explored a lost passenger train network, Tonnon came to the idea for a new experience-based show called Rail Land. It took audiences on railways to reach distant community halls around Aotearoa. The show saw Tonnon combine historical research and spoken word narrative, with the immersive lighting and musical technology he developed for A Synthesized Universe. In March, Rail Land finished a three-night run at Auckland Arts Festival, cementing Tonnon’s move to the concept show.

Over time, Tonnon and Pearce’s production moved further from the traditional rhythm sections that powered songs like Successor’s ‘Water Underground.’ In their place came off kilter electronic rhythms, like the beat in ‘Two Free Hands,’ and textures that blur lines between organic and synthesized sound. Guitars are set against synthesizers, and drums against drum machines in ‘Entertainment’ and ‘Peacetime Orders,’ which Tonnon also used in his soundtrack for RNZ’s 80s spy-themed podcast The Service. In ‘Leave Love Out Of This,’ a ballad starts with a piano and a string quartet, but ends in a wall of electronic sound.

The constant has been Tonnon’s lyrics. Whether singing about evolution and the future of work in ‘Two Free Hands,’ the television industry in ‘Entertainment,’ or environmental disaster and regulatory failure in ‘Mataura Paper Mill,’ Tonnon has followed a distinct approach to subject matter, description and phrasing that have seen him longlisted for the APRA Silver Scroll three times.

Tonnon’s explorations of local government and civic infrastructure in his work - an unusual preoccupation for a songwriter, have taken new meaning in his adopted home of Whanganui, where last year, he was elected by councillors as Whanganui District Council’s representative for public transport.

After Tonnon moved to Whanganui, and Pearce toured almost constantly after the success of The Beths’ first album, the pair conducted their collaboration over distance, but with key sessions at Pearce’s Karangahape Road studio, including drums and bass with long time band members Stuart Harwood and David Flyger, a string quartet led by Charmian Keay and arranged by Matthew Bodman, and additional drums with The Beths’ Tristan Deck.

As Leave Love Out Of This is released, Tonnon and Pearce find themselves in very different places to where they started, working on Auckland’s Karangahape Road, close to the venues like Wine Cellar and Whammy Bar where they regularly performed. Back in New Zealand since Covid, Pearce has had to adjust to being in one of Aotearoa’s best-known bands, while Tonnon, when not working on conceptual shows, wrestles with how to restore civic infrastructure to a post industrial city in the regions.

Created over a life-altering period of, Leave Love Out Of This is the culmination of years of experimentation and development - with new technology, new sounds, and new ways of creating, and performing music.

Schmer brought these two together to battle it out for Schmer019: Snazelle vs Loveland : Get this special 6 track maxi EP of pure techno and YOU will be the winner.




Brooklyn based techno producer and Snazzy Fx boss. Much of the hardware Dan uses in his productions and live sets was designed and built by him. His focus as an artist is on electronic music as a vehicle for achieving transcendent states. This comes out in his sets as a respect for both the funky and hypnotic aspects of dance music. As a DJ and live act, Dan has performed throughout Europe and is a regular fixture in NYC.

2018 saw Dan release the "Exposure to a Steady Stream Ep" on Jacktone records. Fact Magazine included the track " Broken Saucers" in their best of September round-up.

In early 2019 Nina Kraviz and Dan released their collaboration "u ludei est pravo"on the trip compilation "Happy New Year! We Wish You Happiness".

In August, Schmer released his newest EP, "Swarm Draze".


Jasen Loveland is a mercurial force about whom little is known with any certainty. Much of Loveland’s life and exploits are shrouded in an opaque and often contradictory mythology that includes many other characters who may or may not be Loveland himself. Born sometime around 1950, Loveland seems to have been operational within the dance music community for decades, allegedly interning for Giorgio Moroder in Munich after finishing a medical degree in the 1970s. It is rumored he was the individual who did the actual synth programming on “I Feel Love”, however this was never confirmed. Documentation of Loveland’s past was further obscured by a “studio fire” while operating out of Chicago in the mid-1990s that destroyed all of Loveland’s memorabilia from the past, except for a handful of lo-resolution, poorly-scanned photographs Loveland (an early user of Hyperreal.org and the #mw.raves listserv) had emailed to a friend. Fortunately, Loveland was able to save his two favorite synthesizers, a battered Roland TB-303 and it’s demented sibbling, the MC-202, but the rest of Loveland’s equipment, and the documentation of his past, was lost in the blaze, leaving Loveland homeless for several months. Regardless of the veracity of his tales, Loveland’s music speaks for itself; the intense, maniacial vibes that pervade the ouvre are undeniably suited for the most far-out, dancefloor head trips, thus making it only a matter of time before he joined the Interdimensional Transmissions family.



Most recently, Loveland has been presenting DJ-style musical performances under the name “Loveland & Friends”, which has become an umbrella term for all projects related to his work, including JL-303, DJ Curtis Chipp, Chip Curtis, MIDI Master, Remote Perception, The Limit, Acid Musik Department, The Gaze, Ace of Fades, East German Chemistry, The Universal Vision, Clonus, Gamma Polaris, R.O.M. and DJ Kline, and Da House Band. Many of these, such as the DJ Kline project (with Prof. Dr. Alice B. Kline, a self-described “unremarkable scientist” and researcher at CERN), seem to be collaborations or ghost productions, although even this is not clear. In fact, the only confirmed Loveland collaborations are LW Productions (with Clay Wilson) and Pervocet (with Patrick Russell), the latter presented as a 12” by Interdimensional Transmissions, Detroit.

A deep dive into the one of most collectable jazz catalogues in the world, a selection of some of the rarest and most sought-after recordings from the 60s and 70s, a time when British jazz began to find its own identity. Drawn from the iconic labels of Decca, Deram, Argo, EMI Columbia/Lansdowne Series, Fontana, Mercury, & Philips. A figure in British modern jazz for over half a century, Don Rendell was both active protagonist and key witness to the main developments in the music from its rise out of tiny clubs and back rooms on up to the most prestigious national stages. From his earliest performances in London’s West End and his work of the 50s and 60s — most not ably with the Don Rendell-Ian Carr Quintet — to the lower profile work of the 70s and 80s, his quite assurance and consistent performance marked him out as a highly respected figure among his peers. He is one of a handful of British artists to feature on Blue Note Records and appeared on some of the most distinctive and characterful British jazz albums by the likes of Michael Garrick, Stan Tracey, Amancio D’Silva, and Neil Ardley. Even though Rendell eschewed much of the free and electric fusion styles that came to the fore in the late 60s, in the main sticking to an acoustic sound with melody and rhythm at its heart, he similarly bridled at any notion that he was merely a ‘bopper’, a description he positively hated. In many ways, Space Walk was as much a valedictory as transitionary album for Rendell. It was his last for Denis Preston, the fabled producer behind Lansdowne Studios, described by Neil Ardley as a ‘rare Diaghilev like figure’ who steered many of the key figures of the British jazz scene into the studio when nobody else would record them. It was also Rendell’s final project for EMI Columbia and his last as a leader for a major record label. After Space Walk, Rendell would record for smaller, independent labels like Spotlite. But as much as the album is a farewell to one chapter, it also marked the way forward to the next..

TROJAN JAMAICA / BMG is proud to announce the release of U-ROY’s final full-length, SOLID GOLD U-ROY. The album was originally set to come out in 2020 with plans for a worldwide tour in support, but unfortunately, the pandemic delayed the release. Now, with the heartbreaking loss of U-ROY on February 17, the album has become a celebration of one of the most profoundly influential reggae stars of his generation. An originator of the chatty rhythmic vocal style known as toasting — a key foundational element in the development of rap in its nascent stages in the 1970s — U-ROY left behind an unmatched legacy which is clearly on display on SOLID GOLD U-ROY, with its guest appearances including ZIGGY MARLEY, SHAGGY, MICK JONES of THE CLASH, SANTIGOLD, SLY & ROBBIE, DAVID HINDS of STEEL PULSE, and more. The album arrives on
July 16, 2021.

SOLID GOLD U-ROY is being heralded today by the release of “MAN NEXT DOOR” (Feat. SANTIGOLD). One of the great reggae songs of all time, the track features an indelible guest appearance by the incomparable Santigold. “Man Next Door” is a beloved reggae standard written by John Holt and released in 1968 by his group The Paragons. U-ROY sampled the song in 1982 for “Peace and Love in the Ghetto” on his Original DJ album. Pre-orders of SOLID GOLD U-ROY will come with an instant grat download of “MAN NEXT DOOR”

Limited Edition Classic LPs - 180g Virgin Vinyl -Audiophile Pressing Gerry Mulligan, Baritone Sax; Thelonious Monk, Piano; Wilbur Ware, Bass; Shadow Wilson, drums. New York, August 1957. Produced by Orrin Keepnews. Thelonious Monk was a creator in the true sense of the word. The current LP includes one of his rare albums that could fit within the standard formula of “jazz star 1 meets jazz star 2”. The pianist seldom shared the bill with other stars or accepted playing second fiddle to anyone. Two rare exceptions include his two 1950 sides backing singer Frankie Passions (“Especially to You” and “Nobody Knows”), and his 1950 studio session backing Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. But Monk is the leader on most of his recordings, and in a way, he was also the leading voice on this meeting with Gerry Mulligan. Most of the tunes played here are compositions by Monk, with the exception of the standard “Sweet and Lovely” - a favourite of Monk’s, who recorded it dozens of times - and Charlie Shavers’ “Undecided”, which could well have been Gerry’s only call for the evening. Although it remains clearly recognizable, the latter tune was slightly modified here, retitled “Decidedly” and attributed to Mulligan himself. No other recording of “Undecided” by Monk is known to exist. “’Round Midnight” was a Mulligan request for the session, as he wanted to record the song with its composer. It is clearly one of the best tracks of the whole album. However, the fact that no new compositions by Monk were recorded on this date seems to indicate that Monk always preferred to make his own albums and didn’t dedicate too much time to such experiments as Mulligan Meets Monk, which he may have regarded as a “commercial” venture. 4.5 Stars - Down Beat “The minutes of this meeting are very interesting indeed. They begin with a lyrical “’Round Midnight” and continue through Monk’s brittle “I Mean You”. In between, there are stretches of good to excellent Mulligan, brilliant Ware, and good to excellent Monk.” (Dom Cerulli)







g b4 | Straight, No Chaser [Alternate Version]

COS might not be the first genre defying progressive music group you’ve heard who share both wordless onomatopoeic vocals and a snappy three letter title (complete with philosophical leanings and alchemic penchants) but on listening to this first ever custom Cos compendium you might have just discovered a new favourite!

Perhaps it’s no coincidence that COS share close spiritual, stylistic or social connections to the aforementioned bands, as one of the few long-withstanding single-syllable ensembles to remain utterly idiosyncratic and incomparable within their hyper-focussed and impenetrable creative bubble. But as a 1970s group that effortlessly MIX head-nod prog, synth-driven jazz, cinematic sound-designs, dislocated disco, arkestral operatics and high-brow conceptual anti-pop grooves, it’s easier to remember the name COS than thumb the vast amount of genre-dividers in your local record shop which COS COULD occupy. With the crème de la crème of Belgian jazz/prog/psych/funk within their ranks, their combined idea-to-ability ratio litters the Cos-ography with concepts that aficionados, future fans, collaborators and critics still haven’t began to unravel.

With their earliest roots in the compact jazz group Brussels Art Quintet the group spent their sapling years creating art-school prog under the name Classroom, this flourishing collective, cultivated by multi-instrumentalist mainstay Daniel Schell, would soon shed its leaves, dropping band-members and typographics reducing its moniker to simply COS (a multi-purpose, globally recognised word, with links to Alchemy and philosophy, with a hard phonetic delivery to suit the groups heavier rhythmic approach). In it’s new skin COS also shed all forms of orthodox language to find its true exclusive voice. Fronted, in the conventional sense, by the daughter of author and part-time jazz player Jean De Trazegnies, the bands wordless singer changed her name to Pascale SON, to accentuate the French word for “sound”. Drawing comparisons with sound poets like Polish jazz legend Urszula Dudziak or Hungarian Katalin Ladik, but retaining the crystalline femininity (and funk) of Flora Purim, while effectively sharing an imaginary lyric book of non-words with Damo Suzuki, Magma or a future Liz Fraser... To use the word “unique” would, by COS academic standards, be lazy journalism.

For more than five decades, John McLaughlin has deployed his peerless guitar technique, compositional gifts, and imagination in service of a deeply personal higher calling, forging a vast legacy unmatched in improvised music. Now as the world reels from the toll of the ongoing viral-induced global lockdown, McLaughlin reflects on both the perils and potential of this challenging moment with ‘Liberation Time’. Characterised by both joy and reflection, ‘Liberation Time’ finds McLaughlin harnessing his frustrations and redirecting that energy. “The result,” he explains in a candid liner note, “was an explosion of music in my mind.”. Unusual for McLaughlin’s recent projects, ‘Liberation Time’ is not the work of one fixed ensemble. With physical proximity no longer a prerequisite, McLaughlin drew upon decades of experience as a bandleader to select musicians best suited to each composition. “That is a choice that can only be made correctly if you know how the musicians play,” he explains. “Not just how well they play technically, but how they play intuitively. Only then can you make the right decisions.” “As the Spirit Sings” introduces the album by contrasting churning rhythmic tension (stoked by drummer Vinnie Colaiuta and bassist Sam Burgess) with McLaughlin’s soaring guitar figure - all underpinned by Gary Husband’s subtle,expansive piano. Knotty post-bop figures form the basis of “Right Here, Right Now, Right On,” one of the most jazz-inflected performances McLaughlin has laid down in some time, featuring Nicolas Viccaro (drums), Jerome Regard (bass), Julian Siegel (tenor saxophone), and Oz Ezzeldin (piano). It is impossible to ignore the profound brotherhood that exists between the members of 4th Dimension - McLaughlin’s current ensemble, which includes Husband along with Etienne Mbappe (bass) and Ranjit Barot (drums). They are featured on the soulful “Lockdown Blues,” a playful refraction examination of blues tropes first released last summer to benefit the Jazz Foundation of America.

Synth legend Suzanne Ciani, Demdike Stare’s Sean Canty & Finders Keepers’ Andy Votel come together on this killer hour-long 2014 synapse popper of a collaboration pooling the occasional group’s esoteric collage-based approach into a remarkably foreboding session pregnant with a dread that’s never quite resolved. Think Vladimir Ussachevsky, Todd Dockstader, Spectre and Company Flow melted thru the Deutsch-Italo industrial DIY tape era and funneled thru an almost impenetrable fog of Ann Arbor basement noizze.

Hustling some of Neotantrik’s most amorphous gestures, ’241014’ is a four-segment movement of reduced Buchla treatments, destroyed vinyl loops and scraping foley suspense; like a cosmic dream diary layered into a collage of drones and clatters. Little in Ciani’s extensive catalogue has hinted at what’s on display here; the joyful lullaby-pop of “Seven Waves” or metallic alien soundscraping of “Flowers of Evil” are only hinted at. She instead paints new sonic vistas, allowing space for her collaborators to make themselves known; Votel’s chiming toy autoharp and Bubul Tarang (a Punjab string instrument) add a distinctive flavor, while Canty’s grimy drones and noise-soaked textures drizzle pitch-black molasses into the cracks and crevices. Together, the effect is a bit like hearing Philip Jeck improvising over Popol Vuh’s peerless Moog-led debut “Affenstunde” or Demdike Stare knocking out impromptu reworks of Tangerine Dream’s abstrakt early run.

Perhaps unusually, the trio have still never set foot in a studio together, exclusively maintaining their practice in-the-moment and on stage when schedules intersect. So it’s all the more remarkable that their improvisations naturally find a democracy of role and such a heightened level of intuition, beautifully converging their thoughts to mutual, open-ended conclusions that leaves billowing room for interpretation. In a most classic sense, it’s like the sensation of sleep paralysis or dream/nightmare ambiguity, with a level of suggestiveness that’s disorienting from end to end.

For the first time the recordings are now available in high fidelity (there was a tape version a couple of years back) - now remastered by Rashad Becker to better represent the otherworldly scope of their actions on stage, from the NWW-like queues and drone of ‘Scanned Accents’ and keening silhouette of ‘Second Action,’ to new sections of subaquatic Porter Ricks-like murk in ‘Anti-Contraction’ and the levitating webs of synth and tactile, sampled textures in ‘Last Canción.’ Tape music and synth music have long shared a passionate embrace, and here turntablism coolly slides in on the action. Canty and Votel’s background in beat tape assembly and crate digging pays off: they’re keenly experimental creators but bring an unfussy sense of rhythm and performance that’s miles beyond any facile repetition of a nostalgia for vintage glory. Combined with Ciani’s delicate Buchla work - it’s a unique proposition.

Contains new specially prepared liner notes by Penguin Guide To Jazz’s writer Brian Morton and by Paris’ prestigious Jazz Magazine.
6 bonus tracks (Green Vinyl) “The question of whether Etta James became a pop singer, a jazz singer, or a blues singer needn’t detain you long. She was all of those, as At Last bears out, and more besides. James touched on gospel, doo-wop and rhythm’n’blues
with equal facility. “Dance With Me, Henry” was a hit, but renamed “The Wallflower” and covered by Georgia Gibbs. Because James had a composition credit, it made her some money, but she didn’t like to be bested. She made sure that the next time it would be her name on the label.“ Penguin Guide to Jazz “At Last!, her debut LP, made for the celebrated Chicago label Chess, certainly is one of her most memorable. It’s impossible to not be moved by the power of her voice, beginning with the opening notes of “Anything to Say You’re Mine”.
Every phrase, every word is attacked with an energy that commands respect. But beware, this young woman (she was only 22 at the time) could also take on the sweetest forms of a melancholy ballad, such as “Stormy Weather”, and manage to achieve tenderness. At Last! is one of the key soul music albums of the early 1960’s.” Jazz Magazine ETTA JAMES, lead vocals; The Riley Hampton Orchestra. Arranged and conducted by Riley Hampton. Recorded in Chicago, Illinois, 1960 and 1961. Original sessions produced by Phil and Leonard Chess.

Born in Naples, educated in New York and now residing in Paris, drummer Francesco Ciniglio combines spotless drumming facility with substantial compositional flair, and has the capacity to move, reflect and express through his music. An in-demand sideman, Ciniglio has collaborated with Wynton Marsalis, Shai Maestro, Aaron Parks, Dayna Stephens, Seamus Blake and Tony Tixier. Following his debut solo release (‘Wood’, with Parks and Joe Sanders), Ciniglio returns as leader for his Whirlwind debut, ‘The Locomotive Suite’, a set of compositions for sextet that combine a personal metaphor of resilience with snapshots of his formative familial influences. Barcelona-based Raynald Colom (trumpet), fellow Paris emigr e Matt Chalk (alto) and Matteo Pastorino (bass clarinet) take the frontline duties, with Frenchman Alexis Valet on vibraphone and rising star Felix Moseholm on double bass. The suite is a collection of substantial, knotty harmonies, rhythmic shifts and spacious textures. But it also experiments internally, with chordal horn textures giving bass and vibraphone more melodic freedom. The unusual scoring is inspired by the soundworlds of Pat Metheny and Ben van Gelder, bridging the gap between music for large ensemble and harmonically focused trio music. Or, as Ciniglio puts it, it’s all about “finding an ensemble that’s not too big or small.” “This album is all about movement - getting a train here, marching there,” summarises Ciniglio. But it also reflects on people and places, and on the personal growth that helps make ‘The Locomotive’ Suite a significant compositional statement.

Sam Prekop's eponymously titled LP is a study in pop nuances. Simultaneously transporting the listener from mild climes and swinging palms to darkened skies and wind blown steppes, the record will be easily recognized by fans of The Sea and Cake. Known to many as the singer and main songwriter for said group, Mr. Prekop is assisted on this release by Chad Taylor (Chicago Underground Duo), Josh Abrams (ex-Roots, Town and Country), Jim O'Rourke (Gastr del Sol) and Archer Prewitt (The Sea and Cake). Those expecting to find more of the computer beats and trickery found on The Fawn and Two Gentlemen are in for a surprise. Whilst prevalent on "Faces and People" - (a lucious groove overlayed by cornet and guitar), the computer takes a back seat to real strings, drums, piano, electric piano and organ as well as electric and acoustic bass. The subtle grooves, a trademark of The Sea and Cake records, are still present here as Sam and his band blend West African rhythms with a bit of soul, jazz and pop. The resulting record is something wholly original, elegant and earthy. A cauldren, if you will, of sweet smelling and enlightening stew. So line up, grab a spoon, and dig in. All the ingredients and intoxicating aromas necessary for an auditory feast are contained within.

Cryovac Recordings recognizes and recruits artists with individualism and creativity to add to its list of collaborators. Cryovac has evolved into a project that is brought to life by craftsmen, musicians and visual artists that give their time and effort for a common cause. Cryovac aims to weave a thread between the varying sonic approaches that describe a direction techno must go. A. García tends the cryovac from conception to press; combining with Mike Kretsch to create a unique minimal sound. Mr. Joshooa has the tools and know how to describe his personality as his work. He swims the Detroit techno-sphere wearing many hats, and is always pushing techno forward by any means necessary. Cryovac is a vehicle for the rebel spirit; we hope you listen to it.
The Cat Lover E.P. starts with Mr. Joshooa taking his time weaving a slow funky grind. “Horse Hockey’ is the name of this 4/4 two step that gallops and bangs its way through cinematic synth rises, heroic harmony, and crunchy to smooth samples. Mr. Joshooa's mischievousness is on full display with his second jam “fuck around”. Tumbling samples form a bop that is maneuvered playfully through a hectic arrangement. Side 2 is a. garcia and Mike Kretsch’s domain. Their first effort minimally clicks and rings into a soulful melody; popping rhythm holds your body to terra firma so your mind can “spacetravel”. B2 ,”meerkat”, opens with a raw kick on top of marmic synth evolving into a dramatic techno drive turning and shaking along a desolate road

‘Code of Conduct EP’ the second instalment from Obia Records takes the labels sound through a darker path. Sinful acid spirits are summoned to drive out the past period of solitary confinement in which we all linger. ‘Discharge’ the records main cut is built by a solid acid line and crispy clear drums that highlight the slow tempo. ‘Code of Conduct’ continues on a similar pattern but with adverse drum programming that shapes the feeling of inner conflict. ‘Ethic of Reciprocity’ completes the cycle of healing with a more rhythmic and uplifting vibe and warm pad. All tracks were made with an original Roland TB-303.

With his debut release for Peckham club and label institution Rhythm Section International, Hackney-raised Jerome Thomas is declaring the dawning of a new age for British soul music.

Jerome’s school was a home filled with non-stop music; whether that was bootleg CDs of Rare Groove from East London’s Sunday markets to late 90s R&B on The Box or family favourites; Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, Al Green, Chico DeBarge, Jill Scott. He learnt his prodigious vocal craft of ad-libs and harmonies by listening to Brandy’s ‘98 LP ‘Never Say Never’ on repeat.

Working with a live 6 piece band of assorted ages and musical backgrounds from rock to classical jazz, Jerome’s sound is a 180 degree turn from the direction of travel of UK R&B which has trended towards producers tracks made inside the computer. Jerome composes the pieces, then allows space for interaction with his long term musical collaborators. The ‘organic decisions’ open up the scope of his music as they jam and record. The result is a sound that could been made in the 70s, the 90s or the 00s. He’s the new blood of the sophisticated British sound that traces back to artists like Mica Paris, Soul II Soul and Omar.

For Jerome, music has literally been a life saving vessel for self expression. Like 1% of the population, he has a stutter, which disrupts the fluent flow of his speech. The stutter disappears when he sings, freeing his voice as it’s transformed into an instrument. As an introverted, intuitive Pisces, the songwriting process lets him explore and express his internal cosmos; “a lot of my songs are like diary entries addressed to people I haven’t been able to talk to or speaking about desires I am too embarrassed to talk about”. Jerome describes his sound using the acronym FOE, standing for “Freedom of Expression” and “Fusion Of Everything”. His music is a space for him to dissolve boundaries and binaries.

“As soul beings we are all a mixture of masculine and feminine; a mixture of our Mum and our Dad”. His fine falsetto explores a register that can read as masculine or feminine. The romantic story that runs across the two vinyl sides of “That Secret Sauce” is told without specifying a gender point of view. As Jerome says “we all experience the same thing with romantic situations, so I didn’t want to pin it to one side”. Like many of the great soul records, a close listen to “That Secret Sauce” reveals its romantic narrative; from first meeting to sexual infatuation to the dissolution of the affair, the breaking up and the moving forward - keeping your energy clear. It’s a tale as old as time, retold.

Repress

Not too speed and not too hard and very mental and thin, precise swing. A superb release from the Erredeka Sound System !

LTD. COLORED VINYL

As one half of Red Axes, Dori Sadovnik could perhaps already stake a claim as one of the most prolific men in electronic music. A natural artist, Sadovnik is the sort of musician who never stops recording, a creator ahead of a consumer, well-adapted to a frenetic lifestyle.

This particular impulse has been funneled into a project known as Kapitan, an already expansive collection of tracks clocking in anywhere between 130 and 150 beats-per-minute.

As for a home, it just so happened that DJ Tennis, friend, collaborator and founder of Life and Death, was processing similar instincts, borne out of his love and association with the nineties heyday of IDM, pioneered by labels such as Warp and Rephlex.

“I don't really know what led me there but I had a feeling that I needed to be in the mountains”, explains Sadnovik. “I'm not a nature guy, nor do I feel particularly spiritual, but I was always struck by the harmony of it all. Everything is in the mix.”

This all-encompassing, blissful philosophy is deeply felt throughout this journey, a fluid blend of analogue and digital sounds rendered as organic as the landscape that inspires the album. Interlocking rhythms evolve into unexpected chamber pieces and bubbling acid lines blossom into rave psychedelia on opening tracks such as ‘Weird Day’ and ‘Flowers’, progressing to the sound of ‘Takak’, which inspires meditations on enormous bass weight, as mantras creep in from the surrounding forest of sound.

In the album’s second-half, this sincere sense of awe expands further still. Centrepiece tracks ‘In The Valley’ inspires a true sense of wonder and transcendence, complex rhythms blending with wide-eyed reverence. ‘Smile’ is trippy and innocent while ‘Elleven’ crackles with whispering energy over whiplash breakbeats. Concluding with ‘Heart’, Sadnovik reduces the pace to a stepping, heavy rhythm, commanding a deep sense of respect for the untamed wilderness that has served as such a unique muse.

Released in 2020, Rheinzand’s self-titled debut LP heralded an authentic vibe of retro-futuristic disco-pop, distinguishing themselves in the current climate of dance music. The album was met with acclaim, picked by Piccadilly Records as their nr. 1 album of the year.
Since, the material on that album have proven fertile ground for practitioners in the art of the remix. On this EP, we release a selection of those efforts.

On the first slot, we have Running Back label owner and longstanding DJ heavyweight Gerd Janson polishing off his house music fluency with a gleaming take on ‘Blind’. The swerving vocals of Charlotte Caluwaerts’ reverberate through space ray arpeggiators and burnished drum gates. Belgian compatriot Blitzzega, the neon-drenched moniker of composer Bjorn Eriksson, features with a dizzyingly switched-on version of ‘Mi Mundo’, sporting gnawing synths and hijacked funk licks.

Next, dub-pop wizards Peaking Lights serve up a heady brew of plugged-up melodies braided around Reinhard and Charlotte’s shuffling vocals. This remix blends the magenta glow of synthwave with the deep grooves of maybe late Theo Parrish.

We round off the EP with a treat form Dennis ‘Citizen’ Kane, the iconic dance music figure who emerged in mid-90s NYC downtown scene. A veteran DJ and disco-head, Kane applies a luminous hand to Rheinzand’s ’14 Again’, deepening the vibe of kittenish mystery through carefully layered work of phasing drones, wandering synths, and mushrooming rhythm section (think T-Connection).

His sixth EP on the Figure label catalogue, Brain Mechanix, finds the Stockholm producer UBX127 once again in top form.
Enhancing the proven formula, UBX127 combines outer-space atmospherics with heavy slabs of techno that will shake up any soundsystem. Revolving around a dusky vocal, opener Freek sets a hazy mood with chugging rhythms and some massive bass. Bastun then builds its eerie character on steady drums and squelching tones, before a hypnotic synth finally takes over.
A perfect example of finely trimmed minimalism, soothing B1 Likstroem carries itself by the presence of its rising and falling dub chords alone. Marking the culmination of the vinyl release, Teleport Into Space combines all of UBX127’ core qualities into a lengthy, albeit deeply rewarding ride throughout the stratosphere.

The Italian producer Daniele Serraino aka D/n, label boss of Spazio Magnetico, publishes his EP entitled Phase Transitions, a title connected to the concept of the album which is magnetism, paying homage to the label's name.

There are three tracks produced by D/n, "Anomaly" and "Dipolar" characterized by hypnotic sequencers, tunnels, with dance flore rhythms. With "Polarity" D/n explores abstract, floating settings with broken rhythms.

Thanks to the dotdat remix of track Anomaly, powerful dance floor track.

“Montreal’s genre-defying post-rock combo BIG|BRAVE could very well be the most noteworthy recent heavy curiosity to come out of the city in recent years.” - NOISEY

“…combines elements of Björk, Neurosis and Sunn O))) into a cohesive whole; but this whole is an ever evolving and challenging sonic mass.
- THE QUIETUS

Minimalism and instinct, structure/freedom and meticulous timing form the cornerstones of their precise, rhythmical sound.
Lyrically, the album explores the weight of race and gender, endurance and navigating other people’s behaviours, observation and protest. The band further comment “this album involves what it means navigating the outside world in a racialized body and what it does to the psyche as a whole while finding individual worth within this reality.”
This time featuring the core trio Robin Wattie, Mathieu Ball and Tasy Hudson, for their most collaborative record they’ve made so far. The band elaborate “having cut our teeth in very different musical backgrounds respectively, our intuitions vary, which has an interesting effect on our individual approaches and ears.”
For this record, BIG | BRAVE once again made the trek down to Rhode Island to record with Seth Manchester at Machines with Magnets. They remark “we fully trust his instinct as an engineer and his creative output, getting to experiment with textures, concepts, layers, and with pretty much every single recorded sound, the process of making records with Seth is an absolute journey and pleasure.”
With the initial seeds planted in 2012, with no other goal than simply experimenting with the instruments in their possession, Robin Wattie and Mathieu Ball started writing subtle ambient/minimalistic folk songs together. When long time friend Louis Alexandre Beauregard joined on drums, the goal still remained to play as tranquil as possible. After an incident where Wattie’s acoustic guitar broke, and having borrowed a friend’s electric as a replacement, larger amps that Ball had in storage from previous bands started to get incorporated to the outfit. Now with amplitude as a compositional tool, BB never lost interest in the power of minimalism and fragility. It became clear that loud volume would become just as effective as the lowest possible ones and the juxtaposition of both would become something BB still uses as their main MO to this day.
After self-releasing Feral Verdure in 2014, the band had the opportunity to open for Thee Silver Mt Zion in Montreal QC. After which, Efrim Manuel Menuck found something meaningful in the members and the band and invited them to open on future shows with Mt Zion and with Godspeed! You Black Emperor.
In 2015, the band entered the studio with Menuck and recorded “Au De La”. With no home for the record, they decided to take a chance in writing to Southern Lord. As luck would have it, Greg Anderson happened upon their email among hundreds and responded. Since then, the band has had a home with Southern Lord Records. (Along with Au De La, Southern Lord has released Ardor in 2017, A Gaze Among Them in 2019 and VITAL in 2021).
After Beauregard’s departure in 2018, the band traveled down to Rhode Island with Loel Campbell on drums to make a first record with Seth Manchester at Machines with Magnets. After the album’s release, with Campbell unable to tour, Tasy Hudson joined the ranks and the band spent most of the year touring their 2019 album “A Gaze Among Them”.
In 2020, the core trio of Ball, Wattie and Hudson once again made the trek down to Machines with Magnets to record their 5th LP “VITAL”.
Since their inception, the band has had many honours and privileges of touring a number of times in North America and Europe with bands such as Sunn O))), MY DISCO, The Body, Thou, Primitive Man and Thee Silver Mt Zion.

Binding a deep social and political conscious with rigorous musical experimentation, the Brussels based, Italian pianist, performer, composer, Giovanni Di Domenico, delivers Downtown Ethnic Music, the 4th instalment of Die Schachtel’s Decay Music series, focused on inspired contemporary experimental efforts in the ambient, ethereal, and emotively abstract music.

Over the last decade or so, Giovanni Di Domenico has carved a deep path through a diverse number of discrete fields within experimental music, working in various ensembles - Abschattungen, AufHeben, Bonjintan, Cement Shoes, Delivery Health, Going, etc. - as well as producing a discography of critically heralded solo efforts, and intimate collaborations with Jim O'Rourke, Tatsuhisa Yamamoto, Akira Sakata, Arve Henriksen, Tatsuhisa Yamamoto, Alexandra Grimal, Nate Wooley, Chris Corsano, and others.

Downtown Ethnic Music encounters Di Domenico reimagining the future of urban music, pluming the mysterious and emotive depths of self, to arrive at vision of sonorous utopia, radically divergent from those of the past. Hybridizing numerous forms of musical practice, while making a conceptual nod to Jon Hassell’s notion of the "fourth world”, as well as the cross-temporal transnationalism of Roberto Musci, Aktuala, Futuro Antico, and the Third Ear Band, Di Domenico’s vision of democracy - rendered through the creative metaphors of sound - is a true to life, bristling conflict, as open-ended as it is ordered, and as dramatic and tense as it is beautiful, playful, and refined.

A colorful tapestry of ideas, experiences, histories, and reference points, woven from a pallet of electronics, synthesis, and various acoustic sources - the intervening rhythms of drummer João Lobo, vocals by Pak Yan Lau and Patshiva CIE women choir, the horns of Ananta Roosens and Jordi Grognard etc. - across the length of Downtown Ethnic Music, the boundaries between idiom, expressive concept, collective, and individual blur, giving way to a visionary, forward-thinking rendering of electroacoustic music, that subtly reminds us of the social and political potential of art.

Seamlessly incorporating bubbling electronic abstraction, sprawling ambience and long tones, throbbing kosmische, acoustic free improvisation, and the human voice, Giovanni Di Domenico’s Downtown Ethnic Music represents a high-water mark in an already astounding career. Issued by Die Schachtel in a one-time edition of 250 copies, pressed to 180g marble vinyl and housed in a pro-printed inner sleeve and jacket, contained in a silk-screen PVC sleeve.

Traditional village music transformed into fiery and frenetic underground Hip Hop. Emerging from the digital cultural renaissance of the early 2000s, where DIY studios sprung up throughout West Africa, "Patriote" is a shining example of localized global music. Hypnotic and driving rhythms built from sampled percussion and chopped-up instruments combine with syncopated staccato "ragga" inspired flow into infectious hammering tracks that sound like nothing before. Mamaki Boys was formed in 2002 by Aziz Tony, Bachou Issouf, and Salif André, when a local Hip Hop movement was exploding in the capital of Niger. "Patriote" was recorded to address a trend in the scene they perceived as too derivative. Produced at Studio BAT, one of the first studios in Niamey, Mamaki Boys sought to merge modern Hip Hop with traditional music. They invited elder musicians into the studio to play Nigerien instruments like duma and kalango, which were sampled and looped over their compositions. "We wanted to put tradition in the rap, ancestral dances, the things that our grandparents did in the village," Aziz explains. "Our mission was to re-value the culture, put it into Hip Hop, and to show all the colors of our country." Self-describing their music as "tradi-moderne", a Nigerien movement of folk revitalization, their cultural manifesto presents through every aspect of their work. Each track relies heavily on traditional instruments, and each rhythm is based on a dance from Niger. Their mission extends to the urgency of their lyrics: Takai challenges the population to preserve their culture, Kagani Kagani is a demand to take back mineral, oil, and uranium rights from their colonizers, while Komando uses war cries to inspire artists to keep speaking out. A strong entry in 21st-century global music, Mamaki Boys "Patriote" takes back the tools of globalization, repurposing them in the fight for cultural identity. Originally self-released in 2009 on limited edition CDR in Niger.

"Bones of a Dying World” is an hour long journey full of melody, melancholy, and cinematic post-metal. Hailing from Akron, Ohio, If These Trees Could Talk takes advantage of deep, layered sound full of reverberation and crisp guitar passages weaving in and out of the intense rhythm underneath. Overall, the album has a steady moderate pace with the majority of the songs maintaining catchy, melodic, clean guitar passages. The album also introduces a welcomed amount of distorted and heavy riffs built on top of the clean compositions, something only attainable with their trio of guitars. The group seems to stick to utilizing delay effects with long feedback trails; however, the band delivers a higher understanding of complexity by letting the effects organically enhance the amazing compositions." - The Sludge Lord

Back in print ! Spittle Records present an expanded reissue of Massacre's Killing Time, originally released in 1981. Following the breakup of Cambridge's avant-rock legends, Henry Cow, guitarist Fred Frith moved to NYC in 1979, and soon found himself deep in the heart of the city's robust post-punk and free-jazz scenes. He performed with Bill Laswell and Fred Maher, from the group Material, as a power trio of sorts under the moniker of Massacre. The group quickly garnered a reputation around town, and around the world for that matter, as a heavy and heady band that experimented greatly with rhythm, time signatures, and tone. As Frith himself put it, "the group was a direct response to New York. It was a very aggressive group, kind of my reaction to the whole New York rock club scene." Massacre released one album, Killing Time, before disbanding for nearly 20 years. Their first wave as a group crashed fast and furiously and this one album, recorded in part live in Paris, and in part at Brooklyn's OAO Studio, is a perfect encapsulation of early '80s NYC. In addition to the original album, first released on Celluloid in 1981, this deluxe three-sided double LP includes eight bonus tracks recorded live between '80 and '81 at The Stone in San Francisco, and Inroads and CBGB in NYC. Avant-jazz-post-punk-noise of the highest order from several legends and one of the most important projects Frith and Laswell were ever involved in.

The album features a notable line-up of musician such as: Sami Yaffa (New York Dolls/Joan Jett), Dave Richmond (Serge Gainsbourg/Elton John), Christophe Deschamps (Jean-Michel Jarre), Kath Guifford (Stereolab), Will Crewdson (Adam & The Ants/The Selecters), Danny Ray (Bo Diddley/Brian Setzer)...Mastered at the legendary Abbey Road Studios and cut to vinyl across a 180g LP in a gatefold sleeve with booklet. L'homme de l'ombre immerses you from start to finish in a sonic and lyrical journey that rewards your mind and emotions. Here you will find the glamorous rock attitude of Marc O's musicianship colliding brilliantly with the wise and witty writing of french philosopher Bruno Pons Levy. The result is not so much a double identity, but an intangible and powerful third element, much like the mathematical equation described in the song The triangle squared (Le triangle au carré). This song is emblematic of Marc O's persona: a musician of style and vision, crossing cultures and decades to collaborate with a remarkable team and create this, his most personal album. Press quotes: Ten well realised, vintage aesthetic fantasies ****" MOJO "Singular debut set that lurches from glam-punk to Air-meets-Gainsbourg purr, infectiously Pulp-ish electro-rock and gauche, Bowie-esque panther strut. Formidable! 8/10" UNCUT "Never less than fascinating, this is an important and hugely enjoyable work ****" RECORD COLLECTOR "Propelled by his core rhythm section and lyricist collaborator, they address some weighty subjects with passion ****" SHINDIG! "Blends aggressive and powerful textures and melancholic soundscapes to break down language barriers and deliver a powerful, evocative and stunning album" LOUDER THAN WAR "The music is as strong as Pons Levy's lyrics, mingling melodic rock with chanson in the grand tradition ****" RNR

Following on from the success of 2020's 'Inside' EP on Livity Sound and previous releases on UK labels Cong Burn and Blank Mind, Manchester's Lack returns to Livity Sound with a brand new EP of hybridised and dubbed techno cuts.
“I wanted to try and create a sense of space or calm within the tracks, even if only subtle. I suppose it was a reflection on the crazy state of the world and needing to find space within myself to stay grounded and get through it”
From the deep bass and irresistible skank of Grapefruit to the rapid yet ice cool propulsion of Microshift and the spacious yet energised rhythms of Make It Circular and Constant, this new record further explores Lack's fractured techno aesthetic, skilfully joining the dots between broken dub techno and vintage dubstep.

Livity Sound is a label set up by Peverelist in 2011 as a vehicle for a raw and exploratory strain of UK techno, rooted in the heritage of UK dance music and sound system culture. It has since become one of the UK's foremost protagonists for cutting edge underground electronic music.

At the time of its release, in early 1978 Chinese Restaurant' showed a certain impact. It was recorded between London and Milano, during the second half of 1977. The results were not really punk rock, but post punk' or even some sort of proto post punk' would be adequate. It is something more in the direction of bands such as Ultravox!, Stranglers and Suicide rather than Sex Pistols and Ramones, due to the use of electronic keyboards, obsessive rhythms, tense harmonies, and scratching vocals emerging from generally dark sound textures. Chinese Restaurant' was definitely ahead of its time, especially in terms of Italian rock. Chrisma had their own authentic glory and the minimum we can do is to celebrate it with a beautiful sacred vinyl' reissue.

“May Kun Bass” is a play on the Arabic expression ما يكون باس which, affectionately, means “may you come to no harm.”

Newcomer OACEM bends homemade sounds into jagged industrial rhythms that pop, lock, jiggle and stomp. Nodding to dub, electro, minimal, glitch and techno palettes, forged into saturated, twisted chunks of super-heated noise, May Kun Bass exudes a special energy that rewards the active listener. On remix duty: Technique Nado with a downtempo modular dub interpretation (also her first work on wax) and Vertigo Inc on the B3.

limited to 100 copies, 12 inch vinyl in matte white jackets with unique hand-stamped artwork.

Following up on their debut release of Herron’s ‘Lowflow’ EP, New York’s Club Night Club are back. For their second release as a label they have teamed up with mysterious Parisian producer Design Default to present a formidable club-centric four tracker. The ‘P.H.A.N.E.S’ EP represents the producer’s first official foray into club productions and does not disappoint. Consisting of three jagged peak time club joints plus a remix on the flip, the record is characterized by its playful balance of synthetic, futurist sound design alongside fierce percussive rhythms. The fusion results in a frenetic and at times punishing batch of club steamers. Across the three original tracks, the listener is delicately maneuvered through segments of pure textural chaos, masterfully teased out by the music’s creator. To round things off label co-founder Significant Other pulls out a sleazy remix for the B2. An 8pm, breakbeat riddled chugger which closes out the record in true CNC style

HET returns with a Various Artists EP.

Featuring tracks from talented Berlin-based artists, this release offers a wide range of sounds, that fit different dancefloor situations perfectly.

With ‘’Sleeping Paralysis’’ Tigerhead is delivering a driving and dynamic sound. Her uncompromising track reaches the future post-pandemic floor at peak time.

Justine Perry’s ‘’All of a Sudden’’ is her very first solo track release.Through a deep bassline and intense rhythmicexplores a more hypnotic side of the Techno genre.

Jay Quentin returns after his highly anticipated track ‘’Information Superhighway’’ for the :// about blank004 EP. Here, his track ‘’Fatal Accident in Suicide Forest’’ takes ravers and listeners on a deep musical journey.

Fantas is the epic opening track on Caterina Barbieri’s acclaimed 2019 release Ecstatic Computation. The original Fantas laid out a magical path of patterns leading the listener on a journey into the sound itself. Fantas Variations maps out eight new potentials sprung from this initial path as constructed by a diverse mix of artists lending to a wide spectrum of new works extrapolated from the original work. For this project Barbieri invited friends and long time collaborators from a variety of musical backgrounds to create a more sustainable and inclusive landscape in terms of stylistic, geographical, gender and generational balance. The results are a diverse array of approaches and instrumentation which blur the boundaries between the acoustic and electronic.

Fantas Variations embraces a platform for mutual exchange and support between like-minded artists, where active and collective re-imagination is prioritised over the traditional model of remixes, which is often strategic, functional and more passive.

Longtime friend and collaborator Kali Malone rearranged Fantas to a slowed-down, austere and eerie version for two Organs. Evelyn Saylor created a piece for a vocal ensemble consisting of her, Lyra Pramuk, Stine Janvin and Annie Garlid, joining forces to express the choral, psychedelic and vitalistic nature of the piece. Barbieri’s former guitar professor at the Conservatory in Bologna, Walter Zanetti, composes Fantas for electric guitar, by translating every single gesture of the original electronic piece into a personal, nuanced and detailed interpretation. Bendik Giske’s reinterpretation for Saxophone and Voice captures the atmospheric essence of Fantas and its psychic meteorology. Longtime collaborator and along with Barbieri the other half of the outfit Punctum, Carlo Maria, resynthesizes Fantas for TR808 and MC202, bringing a more club-oriented dimension of the piece to life whilst unveiling the sonic continuum between rhythm and pitch through a sensitive timbral approach. Jay Mitta’s Singeli reinterpretation of Fantas transpires with pitched-up percussion and turbo-fast polyrhythmic patterns unleashing the frenetic, shifting, transformative matter within the piece to a higher plain of euphoric dance. Baseck’s variation is a rave fantasia, where the prismatic trance of the original is channeled into fierce, uncompromising hardcore, whilst Kara-Lis Coverdale’s take is a phantasmagoria for piano that gently, yet inexorably, captures the relentlessness chimerical qualities of the original, unveiling its spectral backbone.

Evelyn Saylor (feat. Lyra Pramuk, Annie Garlid & Stine Janvin) - Fantas Variation for Voices (7’38’’)
Composed by Evelyn Saylor. Performed by Evelyn Saylor, Lyra Pramuk, Stine Janvin and Annie Garlid. Recording, mix and additional production by Bridget Ferrill at Real Surreal Studio, Berlin 2021.

Bendik Giske - Fantas for Saxophone and Voice (7'31'')
Adapted and performed by Bendik Giske. Recorded, mixed, and produced by Bendik Giske in Funkhaus, Berlin 2020.

Kali Malone - Fantas for two Organs (10'21'')
Arranged for The Utopa Baroque Organ, The Sauer Organ and tuned sine waves. Recorded by Benny Nilsen at Orgelpark, Amsterdam 2020.

Walter Zanetti - Fantas for Electric Guitar (7'27'')
Recorded by Walter Zanetti, Bologna 2020.

Jay Mitta - Singeli Fantas (12'03'')
Recorded by Jay Mitta in Sisso Studios, Dar Es Salaam 2020.

Baseck - Fantas Hardcore (4'44'')
Mixed by Anthony Baldino, Los Angeles 2020.

Carlo Maria - Fantas resynthesized for 808 and 202 (4'29'')
Recorded by Carlo Maria, Milano 2020.

Kara-Lis Coverdale - Fantas Morbida (3'04'')
Performed, recorded and mixed at The Shop in Valens, Ontario by Kara-Lis Coverdale, January 2021. Engineering assistance from Robert Coverdale and Adam Feingold.

Eamon Harkin, 1/2 of Mister Saturday Night Records and Nowadays in NYC, brings us a balmy 4 track EP, simultaneously full of longing, bliss, and hope. Adeptly oscillating between techno and house, these ear-worm, tastefully catchy tracks will find themselves perfectly at home both on reopened, outdoor summer dance floors as well as on bedroom stereo systems. If you do find yourself on a reopened dance floor, you may end up shedding a joyful tear to one of these.

Limited edition of 300 copies on black vinyl. Mastered by Dietrich Schoenemann. Design by Nick Owen. Photography by Frank Harkin.

Analog Africa Presents Edo Funk Explosion Vol. 1, available on
2xLP/Gatefold LP with 20-page booklet / CD with 36-page booklet. It was
in Benin City, in the heart of Nigeria, that a new hybrid of intoxicating
highlife music known as Edo Funk was born.
It first emerged in the late 1970s when a group of musicians began to experiment with different ways of integrating elements from their native Edo culture
and fusing them with new sound effects coming from West Africa s night-clubs.
Unlike the rather polished 1980 s Nigerian disco productions coming out of the
international metropolis of Lagos Edo Funk was raw and reduced to its bare
minimum.
Someone was needed to channel this energy into a distinctive sound and Sir
Victor Uwaifo appeared like a mad professor with his Joromi studio. Uwaifo
took the skeletal structure of Edo music and relentless began fusing them with
synthesizers, electric guitars and 80 s effect racks which resulted in some of the
most outstanding Edo recordings ever made. An explosive spiced up brew with
an odd psychedelic note known as Edo Funk.
That’s the sound you’ll be discovering in the first volume of the Edo Funk Explosion series which focusses on the genre’s greatest originators; Osayomore
Joseph, Akaba Man, and Sir Victor Uwaifo: Osayomore Joseph was one of the
first musicians to bring the sound of the flute into the horn-dominated world
of highlife, and his skills as a performer made him a fixture on the Lagos scene.
When he returned to settle in Benin City in the mid 1970s - at the invitation of
the royal family - he devoted himself to the modernisation and electrification
of Edo music, using funk and Afro-beat as the building blocks for songs that
weren’t afraid to call out government corruption or confront the dark legacy of
Nigeria’s colonial past.
Akaba Man was the philosopher king of Edo funk. Less overtly political than Osayomore Joseph and less psychedelic than Victor Uwaifo, he found the perfect
medium for his message in the trance-like grooves of Edo funk. With pulsating
rhythms awash in cosmic synth-fields and lyrics that express a deep personal
vision, he found great success at the dawn of the 1980s as one of Benin City’s
most persuasive ambassadors of funky highlife.
Victor Uwaifo was already a star in Nigeria when he built the legendary Joromi
studios in his hometown of Benin City in 1978. Using his unique guitar style as
the mediating force between West-African highlife and the traditional rhythms
and melodies of Edo music, he had scored several hits in the early seventies,
but once he had his own sixteen-track facility he was able to pursue his obsession with the synesthetic possibilities of pure sound, adding squelchy synths,
swirling organs and studio effects to hypnotic basslines and raw grooves. Between his own records and his production for other musicians, he quickly established himself as the godfather of Edo funk.
What unites these diverse musicians is their ability to strip funk down to its
primal essence and use it as the foundation for their own excursions inward to
the heart of Edo culture and outward to the furthest limits of sonic alchemy.
The twelve tracks on Edo Funk Explosion Volume 1 pulse with raw inspiration,
mixing highlife horns, driving rhythms, day-glo keyboards and tripped-out guitars into a funk experience unlike any other.

Snapped Ankles return to the forest, but it's not as they left it. Trees planted in neat rows. A well-ordered monoculture with access roads and heavy machinery. The smell of greenwashed money in the air. There's no sign of the ancient woodland they emerged from on debut album, Come Play The Trees. And it's far cry from the gentrified East London they found themselves hawking on Stunning Luxury. All is not well in the face of progress. Welcome to the Forest Of Your Problems. Even among the famously close-knit woodwose community there are factions forming. Meet The Business Imp, The Cornucopian, The Nemophile and The Protester. Each with their own motivations and belief systems. Their own sense of injustice: contradictions, anxieties and guilt. There are woodwose who have risen to the top in the boom and bust world of real estate and hedge funds. Grab what you can before the next crash. Others find euphoria in the absolute conviction that wealth and technology will see us through this. There are those with their recycling in order, who are well-versed in the prospect of imminent ecological and economic collapse, burying themselves in vegan cookery and extensive international holiday itineraries. And there's an increasing number angry at the state of the world, ready to take to the streets and the trees in an attempt to force real change. Forest Of Your Problems runs the gamut of modern woodwose emotions. In this neat human approximation of the forest, it's an increasingly knotted affair. Despite all of this, Snapped Ankles haven't lost their innate ability to make you want to move your feet - their Teutonic forest rhythms are still shot through with post-punk lightning. Whether they're exploring those opportunities which might arise when a Nigerian prince emails out of the blue on 'The Evidence', or referencing the crooked woodwose attempting to go straight on 'Rhythm Is Our Business', this is music to lose your inhibitions to. The moments of pure elation on 'Shifting Basslines Of The Cornucopians' are worth the admission price alone - "It's a great time to be alive!" ...apparently. Snapped Ankles outsider status has always allowed them to hold a mirror up to society. Now the boundaries are not so clear. In the four years since Come Play The Trees was released, their cult has flourished. Previous album Stunning Luxury saw the band invited to play the BBC 6 Music Festival and a KEXP session on the back of a sold-out UK tour which culminated with two nights at Village Underground in London. As those who have witnessed the shamanic ritual of their live shows will attest, they are a truly unique, communal experience. Forest Of Your Problems will see the woodwose bring their ancient forest rhythms and high-wire, multi-media live act to ever bigger stages - including Camden's iconic Roundhouse in October.

Following the 70s Peruvian cumbia compilation by Ranil last year, Analog Africa returns to Latin America to highlight the work of one of Perú’s undisputed masters of the electric guitar: Manzanita. This 13th release in the Limited Dance Edition Series includes 14 mostly instrumental compositions of electrifying Peruvian cumbia and guaracha. Manzanita's unique guitar lines rest on confident foundations that shifts gears effortlessly. Limited Edition LP in Gatefold Cover pressed on 180g high quality virgin vinyl

"I was in Lima, hanging out with collector-extraordinaire Victor Zela, who had spent the previous few years pouring his passion for Peruvian Cumbia into the blog „la cumbia de mis viejos“, a trove of incredible music. But after the birth of his first child, his priorities shifted and he decided to part with some of his rarest LPs. I was one of the lucky few given an early chance to examine his treasures, and when I picked up the album Manzaneando com Manzanita, Victor said: “Take it! its one of the best LPs ever recorded in Perú … easily in the top five”. That was all the encouragement I needed … two years later many of the songs from that masterpiece have made it onto Manzanita y su Conjunto, a compilation of electrifying Cumbia sides from Manzanita’s golden era.

Berardo Hernández – better known as Manzanita – first surfaced during the psychedelic Cumbia craze. At the head of the scene were the magnificent Los Destellos, whose leader, Enrique Delgado, was such a six-string wizard that other guitarists found it impossible to escape his shadow. But when Manzanita arrived, his electric criollo style sent shockwaves through Lima’s music scene and posed a serious threat to Delgado’s dominance as king of the Peruvian guitar.

Manzanita had come to Lima from the coastal city of Trujillo, five hundred miles up the coast – a place where Spanish, African and indigenous populations had been living and making music together for centuries – and came of age at a time when the first wave of psychedelic rock from the US and UK was starting to sweep the airwaves. But the sounds of Cream and Hendrix disappeared from the radio just as quickly in 1968 when Juan Velasco seized control of the country in a military coup. The new regime, which favoured local traditions over cultural ‘imports’ from the north, was a blessing in disguise for the Peruvian music scene.

Record labels flourished as new bands, raised on a hybrid diet of electric guitars and Cuban rhythms, rushed in to fill the vacuum created by the lack of imported rock. A new genre, known as Peruvian cumbia, was born and Manzanita quickly became one of its most original voices.

Starting in 1969, Manzanita y su Conjunto released a steady stream of singles that used Cuban guaracha rhythms as the foundation for dazzling electric guitar lines. After countless 45s and several years on the touring circuit, the band signed to Virrey, an important Peruvian label, and recorded two LPs acknowledged as masterpieces among aficionados of tropical music. Most of the songs on Analog Africa’s new compilation Manzanita y su Conjunto are drawn from those legendary sessions of 1973 and 74.

Although he scored a few more hits in the later 70s, his dissatisfaction with the music industry caused him to withdraw from the scene for several years; and when he finally retired for good, the golden age of Peruvian cumbia was a distant memory. But when Manzanita was at the top of his game he had few equals. Victor Zela was right: this is some of the best music ever recorded in Perú."

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

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

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

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

Clear Vinyl

DDS catch enduringly absorbing sonic alchemist Jim O’Rourke at his knottiest and most ingenious in a wormholing suite of amorphous rhythm and psychedelic electronics - a massive RIYL Autechre, Roland Kayn, Bernard Parmegiani, NYZ, Keith Fullerton Whitman.
Playing up to and into DDS’ freeform aesthetics, O’Rourke renders 40 minutes shearing hyaline synth tones and ruptured rhythm generated at his Steamroom facilities in Tokyo, a modular outzone trawling that harks back to his iconic Mego releases and some of the more recent Steamroom experiments. It’s an ideal addition to the ever expanding DDS cosmos, following Demdike’s recent ‘Drum Machine’ expo with a slice of purist and screwed modular magick that transcends early
electronics and modern styles in pursuit of musical sensations that defy stylistic brackets.
‘Too Compliment’ was assembled using a bespoke Hordijk modular system, a rare West Coast-style setup hand made by Dutch engineer Rob Hordijk. O’Rourke focuses on the frequency shifter here, using it to coax out fluxing tone thickets, haphazard frequencies and elongated drone corridors.
It’s transportive stuff, harking back to the early days of private press academic synth music but also sitting on edge alongside Autechre’s recent long-form work, as well as O’Rourke’s classic “I’m Happy, And I’m Singing, And A 1, 2, 3, 4” In O’Rourke’s hands, the mass of electronics takes on throbbing, organic dimensions, congealing
grey matter and purplish veins of fluid in viscous transitions that glisten and spark with invention as they form new tissue. What comes out is as unearthly as the earliest electronic music, but also
blessed with a psychedelc spirit in a way that’s long kept O’Rourke right out on his own, teetering between paradigms yet never settling into any single style. If you’ve always been keen on finding a way into that sprawling soundworld, ‘Too Compliment’ is a perfect entry point into a highly rewarding creative macrocosm.

Andrés Vargas Pinedo is a prominent composer of Amazonian popular music from Peru. He is blind and has excelled as a player of the quena and the violin. He was born in the city of Yurimaguas but he developed as an artist in Lima, for thirty years he has worked as a traveling musician on a street in the San Isidro district of Lima. Throughout his career, he has formed and joined various popular music groups. This compilation presents fifteen songs of his authorship, belonging to his first two groups: Conjunto típico Corazón de la Selva and Los Pihuichos de la selva, active between 1965 and 1974, and which helped define the sound of Amazonian popular music.

These years saw the emergence of an Amazonian popular music movement led by Vargas Pinedo as well as groups such as Los Solteritos, Flor del Oriente or Selva Alegre. These artists based their music on the rhythms of the Amazonian folklore (pandilla, sitaracuy, movido, cajada, chimayche) and were nourished by influences from the coast and the highlands of Peru, as well as by the tropical rhythms of Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador, achieving a musical synthesis that is an invitation to collective celebration and endless dance. A sound that is defined by a constant and hypnotic rhythmic base of kick and snare drums, upon which the quena and violin develop imaginative melodic lines. Sometimes there is a singing voice, sometimes the voices playfully appear as sounds that identify Amazonian popular speech or that emulate jungle animals.

The fifteen tracks gathered in 'El fabuloso sonido de Andrés Vargas Pinedo: Una colección de música popular amazónica' (1966-1974) / 'The fabulous sound of Andrés Vargas Pinedo: A collection of Amazonian popular music' (1966-1974) are a good introduction to the work of an essential creator of Peruvian music, whose sound expresses the spirit of the Amazonian people and summarizes the transition from tradition to the popular in the context of the emergence of a record industry of Amazonian music. Andrés Vargas constitutes a fundamental basis for the music of the Amazon, as his work synthesizes diverse influences, having that original root as its main motive.

This compilation is presented in vinyl format and includes a brochure with extensive information and photos. The audio has been remastered directly from the original tapes. Edition of 300 copies. Art by Jordy García (Blumoo Posters).